diff --git "a/raw_data/LongLaMP/v9/LongLaMP_topic_writing_random_test.jsonl" "b/raw_data/LongLaMP/v9/LongLaMP_topic_writing_random_test.jsonl"
new file mode 100644--- /dev/null
+++ "b/raw_data/LongLaMP/v9/LongLaMP_topic_writing_random_test.jsonl"
@@ -0,0 +1,200 @@
+{"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post True Conservatives are much more reasonable and they are also fed up with the Republican party.", "output": "The strange thing is that a majority of the Republican party, doesn't support the Republican party. A lot of people I know are debating registering as Independents from now on, but at the same time if they do that they can't vote in the primaries. The party has left it's ideals behind, but if people would actually listen to a lot of what the Conservatives want, the real Conservatives not what the media talks about, they Support Civil Unions, Government Aid for those who need it, a streamlined Immigration System that provides Green cards for day labors, and a slew of other things that are actually pretty moderate. The only problem is that the fringe groups tend to pervade peoples minds because of the fact that they are far more sensational."}], "user_id": "longlamp_5322", "history": [{"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "content": "That is true and makes the information coming from Iron Bull kinda suspect, but it also proves my point that there seems to be some whitewashing going on in the game. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but to me it seems that there is some kind of ideology that BW is trying to push. All stories do this, so it isn't that surprising, but what BW seems to be intent on pushing is too cleanly presented in my opinion. \n Lets look at Dorian for example, there is very little \"wrong\" with his character. Even when he's being a pompous ass, he's so suave about it we tend to give him a pass. His flaws are superficial at worst and he doesn't seem to go that much deeper than the whole \"daddy issue guy.\" (He does grow a little, but his personal quest just felt like justification for his sexuality. If he wasn't gay it would have been pointless.) Is this really the best they could have done for their first gay character? Considering the fact that they had Blackwall end up being a murder who decides to give himself up to save those who were just following orders, I would say that they could have done loads better. Surely they could have played up the Venatori more and made Dorian have some kind of actual personal connection that went beyond the fact that they were Tevinter just like him. \n There is nothing wrong with using video games as a medium to help affect social acceptance, but it seems that Dorians sexuality is more tokenism than actual acceptance. DA2 was much worse on this aspect, even though the characters were written better, but in my opinion it still feels like BW is just checking off boxes rather than writing fully fleshed out characters.", "id": "cou6tom", "summary": "I think that Dorian's sexuality is portrayed as tokenism, and that BW can do better."}, {"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "content": "Tolkien lore has always been about how those who quest for power are ultimately corrupted and destroyed by it. We see this in Denathor, Boromir, even Sauron himself. The game feels like the story is unfinished, because they obviously want to make sequels. However it does not subvert this element of Tolkien lore, and in fact, strengthens it. There are many things that I thought gave the game a very Tolkien feel that were not thrown in just for the sake of fan-service. \n Be aware that game spoilers will be following. \n It is revealed that Celebrimbor was successful in retrieving the Ring from Sauron, but even with the One Ring Celebrimbor was unable to defeat him.  We then see him as a Wraith (I'll address this in a moment) and attached to the now resurrected Talion (this too). The two go on a quest to take down Sauron and at the end of the game are not entirely successful. They then give the whole \"This is just the beginning\" speech and prepare to forge a new ring. \n Because this story is incomplete we don't see the end result of their quest, yet, but it is pretty safe to assume that they will fail and it will be up to Frodo to destroy the Ring. \n Now I would like to address the idea that magic in the Tolkien universe is subtle. This is, in my opinion, a silly notion. Sure the group who has access to this magic is much smaller than traditional Fantasy works, but there is nothing subtle about it. We have creatures of flame and shadow, and an undead army for crying out loud. The fact that people are tossing around spells left and right merely shows just how powerful those who use magic are. \n Now on to Celebrimbor and Talion. First the Hand of Sauron, does not appear to be the same as the other two servants, beyond the fact that he is their leader. It has been postulated that the Hand is a manifestation of Sauron him self, ala the Necromancer. If this is the case he should poses an immense amount of power. Even in his heyday I could not see Sauron resurrecting someone. However the binding of a spirt, even that of an elf, would not surprise me. \n Then we have Celebrimbor. A creature of emotions who, in the game, had his family killed in front of him by one he thought he could trust. This is enough to send most people into a blind rage and I don't see why Celebrimbor wouldn't want some kind of revenge. We also don't see him making all the rings, they're just kind of lying on the table, so it is likely he had help in forging them, and he had nothing to do with the actual forging of the One. Sauron does this in secret, but has Celebrimbor make a few tweaks that gave the Ring it's \"Will,\" which is admittedly teetering on the edge of lore breaking. \n Next despite what the developers may have said, in the game Talion is in fact dead. The only thing keeping him \"alive\" is the wraith attached to him. This is something I believe Sauron would have the power to do. I can't justify Gollum, the Blue Wizards or the other elements you mentioned for various reasons ranging from lack of info on my part, and lack of info, or possible misinformation in the game. \n If you reached this point I thank you, but if not:", "id": "cn9jzm8", "summary": "Shadows of Mordor breaks the lore in a few places, but keeps the Tolkien motif of \"Those who seek power shall ultimately be corrupted by it, and destroyed.\""}, {"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "content": "You know it's interesting because when you compare the Republicans in Congress to the people who elected them, there are people who are far more qualified and have a better grasp of the economic principles they want passed. I haven't heard one good argument from an elected Republican, only wishi-washy stalling tactics. Unfortunately almost none of those that I know who would be great in public office want to run because they don't want to be part of the government system. Democrats and liberals on the other hand support a larger government and therefore I don't think there is such a dilemma when choosing to run for office.", "id": "c7agbp7", "summary": "Qualified Republicans don't serve because they don't want to be part of the system. Dems want a large system and have no qualms about serving."}, {"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "content": "The public isn't well armed though. The guns that are considered \"Assault Rifles\" are semi-automatic guns that are the exact same as a standard hunting rifle, usually they are even of a lower caliber. The only real difference is that they look like a military rifle. Most of these guns are used by former military and gun collectors, read \"Gun Nuts.\" The ones that we would need to actually worry about are those with mental conditions and criminals. This is why more effective background checks and making sure that people ain't purchasing guns for other people, is more effective than restricting magazine size or prohibition. \n The guns are not the primary source for handling distrust in the government. It's supposed to be the media and other politicians. They are supposed to call out the corrupt so that when election time rolls around we can vote them out of office, or if the case is severe enough the judicial branches are supposed take action and remove them from office. What are we supposed to do when neither is functioning properly? The slant in the media is ridiculous and while both sides call for compromise when one side gives, the other will not hold up their end of the bargain. \n The People don't want to revolt, they want the government to do it's job and let them live their lives. \n \"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.\" - Thomas Paine", "id": "c8oy88r", "summary": "The Military and Police have better guns, and revolt is a last resort."}, {"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "content": "Well in JLA 1000000 he didn't have the ability to take down his counterpart from the 853rd Century. In the Injustice comics he doesn't have the ability to immediately restore his communication privileges. In the Nightfall storyline he actually gets taken out by Bane. These are all instances where he didn't have a gadget on hand, but he probably had something back at the Bat-cave that would have helped. \n If you compare Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, I don't remember having to \"earn\" a gadget in AC that you got through the course of AA. It shows that Batman was in fact more prepared for the events of AC, but there were still situations that he didn't account for.", "id": "c9cg65d", "summary": "While Batman is the one greatest tacticians and strategist, he is still human and can't account for everything."}, {"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "content": "The phrase actually has more to do with financial planning, than the relationship between lender and borrower, but it's disguised as the later. If you aren't expecting to get the money back, you're much less likely to lend to someone when it would put you in a position where you would need to borrow money. However that sounds a bit selfish, and most people want to help out their friends, so whoever came up with this advice either figured out a way to subtly trick people into making a better financial decision without jeopardizing their own position, or it's just a happy coincidence.", "id": "ckmqo53", "summary": "Guy who came up with the idea that lenders should expect their money to be gone forever was a manipulative little bugger."}, {"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "content": "You're very right in that game pricing tends to be odd. Let's try to look at it using the six pack analogy. When you purchase a six pack you're paying for the fancy packaging of the bottles and the case, but you're also paying for the hard work that was put into creating that initial recipe and the tweaking over the years, that eventually led to the final product you see on the self. \n Now how would you feel if a beer developer came up to you and said that they just brewed a batch of beer and for a small price you could get a six pack from them. Now when I say just brewed, I mean he finished it just a few weeks ago. The brewmaster may know what he's doing, but he tells you that this batch isn't going to taste quite right. It may have some off flavors, but unless the flavor makes it undrinkable, he doesn't want to change the recipe. \n Everyone has different tastes in beers, but usually there's a pretty strong consensus as to what a decent beer should taste like. People who have a strong opinion of what they think tastes good, won't understand why people would even think to purchase something that doesn't deliver consistently, and sometimes tastes like liquid death. The price may not be as much as their usual six pack, but at least with the six they have a pretty good idea of what they are going to get.", "id": "cgfh9ll", "summary": "If Goat Simulator were a beer, then it would probably be fresh batch of someone's quickly made IPA."}, {"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "content": "For some people well written books, or styles that they enjoy, can transplant them directly into the world. At that point length doesn't actually matter. The world around the reader ceases to exist and they “experience\" everything, and literally live within the book. To those readers the books create a sort of “lucid dream\" that is controlled by the author. That's why if you interrupt a reader, they sometimes need a moment to get their bearings. \n It is a truly magnificent feeling to “see\" the words dissolve as you fall into the world of a book, and I truly feel for those who are unable to experience that sensation.", "id": "cadchff", "summary": "Some readers live the lives within the books they read, and therefore length has no meaning."}, {"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "content": "Honestly? I wrack up the courage to tell the person how I feel. I was friends with this girl for years and then we fell out of touch. Eventually we met up again and started to hang out, but at the time she was dating someone. Then came my window of opportunity. She and her boyfriend broke up and I was there lending support, but while I provided support and did things I thought showed her how much I cared, things didn't go anywhere. I thought that it was because she didn't feel the same way about me. This went on for a while, I'm talking at least six months, and she ended up getting accepted to a doctorate program halfway across the country. Seeing my last chance to say something I just outright told her how I felt. \n She pretty much slapped me because the whole tome I thought my feelings were one sided, she was crushing on me. Sadly things couldn't really go anywhere because of her moving away. \n Putting myself out there was one of the hardest, and scariest, things I've ever done, but in the end that meant more than any little gesture I had made.", "id": "chdn2b4", "summary": "Always carry at least tree-fidty."}, {"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "content": "You are exactly right, but using the Starcraft reference, you need to take into account the skill level of the players. First I want to apologize for the wall of text. \n First let's look at the \"rich\" player: \n 1.) In the real world someone who has such a distinct advantage doesn't know what it's like to live without it  (The player has only played against opponents of a lower skill level than himself.) \n 2.) While they will often have the benefit of schooling, it is often the case that they receive a well rounded education, but drive and motivation play a major factor. The mentality of \"Money will solve all my problems,\" can often be a hinderance because it provides an easy out.  (The player is only required to play one race,  even though he has access to all races and units from the get go.) \n 3.) Expanding on \"Money will solve all my problems,\" even when things would go badly for the person of advantage usually someone would be there to bail them out if things took a turn for the worse. This could be to prevent a scandal, or their parents don't want schnoocums to fail. (If the game starts to go badly the player has an \"advisor\" who can take over.) \n Now lets look at the \"poor\" player: \n 1.) Often times someone who doesn't have money has much tougher situations to deal with.  (The player only faces off against opponents who have a much higher skill level, and may even be more \"advantaged\" than they are.) \n 2.) People in disadvantaged situations will often have subpar schooling, so a person has to deal with what has been provided. Again motivation is a factor here. However there is the extra incentive of not only struggling to help oneself, but of being able to provide a substantial improvement for the standard of one's offspring or current family.  (The player is only provided one race from the start, but as they improve more units and races are unlocked.) \n 3.) Because people in a disadvantage situation have to rely on themselves for improving their situation, if anything goes bad they must figure out how to fix it. This may result in unorthodox solutions, and often multiple attempts and failures, but in the end they must figure out what works and what doesn't.  (The player has to devise their own strategies with what they have available. Every battle is essentially a trial by fire.) \n Eventually both have to strike out on their own and in a situation where they are in direct competition, the one with the \"rich\" player does have a distinct advantage over the \"poor.\" But the \"poor\" person also has the advantage being able to provide a different take on the situation, and that could very well provide him an edge that gives him more than just a fighting chance.", "id": "cd5u4ms", "summary": "The skill that one develops because they have little, or nothing, can prove to be more effective in the long term than those developed by someone who comes from wealth. \n FNM(Facts not mentioned): Personal motivation is a huge factor, and as a result the above is a huge oversimplification of a vastly complex one."}, {"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "content": "It's not anti-imigration, it's anti-illegal immigration. Majority of people at these want the immigration system reformed, but want to make it clear that those who are here illegally shouldn't get preferential treatment and be pushed to the front of the line. Many are for some kind of \"right now reform\" that would make those here illegally temporary citizens, unless they are deportation nut jobs who want the impossible. One idea I heard about is a law that makes it to where those who are acknowledged as being illegal, get some kind of halfway status for 15 years or so. This would give them plenty of time to get into the immigration system and become full fledged citizens of the united states. \n During this halfway time those who are \"Non-Criminal Illegals\" would get many of the benefits that citizens get, except for the right to vote. I'm not sure how schools and insurance would be handled, but they would not be denied care and there would no longer be a fear of deportation if they have to go to the hospital or report a crime. \n That's on the human side, but on the political side it's something much darker. \n Neither party is currently willing to push for this kind of reform because it would cause a huge uproar. If Democrats were to suggest this they would be seen as caving to republican demands, and on the other side Republicans would be seen as supporting \"Amnesty.\" This would cause major ripples in the extreme elements of both parties. The result of which would be catastrophic to the political system that they have built, thus allowing for the potential of a third party to come in and wrest their control away.", "id": "c8btf9r", "summary": "People who use their heads don't want law breakers to benefit for breaking the law, but it's politically dangerous to suggest reform that could actually work."}, {"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "content": "Combat advantage has almost nothing to do with the cross guard, or the instability of the blade. A Sith feeds off the negative emotions of their opponents, fear being one of the most powerful. That first moment when the fight begins is where they have the greatest advantage. \n Imagine for a moment you're in a world where only a few known Jedi still exist, one confirmed and possibly the only surviving princess of the royal family of a destroyed world. Even then for all you know they are just Rebel propaganda to give the movement more validity, a righteous cause you might say. Now you've heard the stories, but they don't mean much to you and you join up with some military company to traverse the stars. One night you're out on patrol and you get this nagging feeling that something is wrong. There's something out there in the frozen woods, and it's watching you. All of a sudden your commander is lifted off the ground and thrown into a tree. The cracking sound and the fact he doesn't get back up confirms he's already dead. \n You hear the crunch of snow and just as you can barely make out a shadowy figure, a red blade just appears out of nowhere. That fear you felt grows exponentially, almost unnaturally. You've trained for combat, but for there's something in the air that's stifling your breath. It's making the cold air around you somehow colder. You only have a second to be mesmerized by the realization that maybe the stories about the Jedi weren't exaggerated, before two smaller blades appear. \n For some reason those blades push you over the edge. It's over. You're frozen in place and there is nothing you can do as the figure stalks towards you. Someone fires a blaster, and it snaps you back to reality, giving you the chance to fire too, but it doesn't change anything. The shots are reflected back, killing the rest of your squad. Only you remain as you fall to your knees. The last thing you see are those glowing yellow eyes, gorging themselves on your final moments.", "id": "cmh15uy", "summary": "Darth Mauls Double bladed saber is more terrifying than it is effective, which is a Sith's primary weapon."}, {"author": "PeacefulKnightmare", "content": "I still disagree with you, and I will use Mass Effect as an example. \n Act I: We are introduced to Commander Shepard. S/he is described as what ever the player makes her background and then defined by how they choose their dialogue. The Inciting Incident in Act I is the attack on Eden Prime by Saren. The first Turning Point is when Commander Shepard eventually convinces the council to send he/r after Saren and bring him to justice. This ends Act I. \n Act II: (Here is where things start to get tricky) If you ignore the large majority of the side missions, the Rising Action in Act II are the three missions to Therum, Feros, and Noveria. The knowledge gleaned in the briefings after all three have been completed is the Second Turning point. This ends Act II. \n Act III: The climax of the story occurs on Vermire with the loss of your crew mate, and the destruction of the cloning facility. The Falling action is the \"re-discovery\" of Ilos, up to learning the truth about the Conduit. Finally we have our resolution which is the final confrontation with Sovereign and Saren, and the vow by Commander Shepard to stop the Reapers. \n However you did hit on a very important aspect of video games that makes them fundamentally different from movies, gameplay. People don't play video games to watch and interactive movie. Why should they? Uwe Boll is right, direct adaptations are difficult, if not impossible. \n I can however point to one very recent film adaptation that I thought was quite good, Forward Unto Dawn. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it took the core of the Halo universe and told us a story set within that universe. Expanding on a video game's source material is what video game adaptations should do. They should retread the paths that gamers have already walked, especially if they have the ability to make choices in game. \n I know that creating something purely for the fans, with information that only they would know, is a bad idea, but aren't they the target audience? \n The problem I have with a majority of Uwe Boll's films aren't that they are poor adaptations, it's that they're bad movies. The characters feel flat and even though they inhabit a world that is much like the games, the essence of the source material is only skin deep.", "id": "c9ichcz", "summary": "Even though video games are interactive and movies are passive, the core of the story in games, usually, still follows the basic three act structure. \n Now there are exceptions to the Three Act Structure in video games, and movies, because lets face it... In filmmaking, and game design, every rule is meant to be broken."}]}
+{"author": "nihiltres", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Met Stierch, not mad, just  disappointed . In the long-term, might shift Wikipedia's paid-editing policy arguments slightly. :/", "output": "Well, shit. I've met Stierch in person, she's not a bad person, but damn it, she should know better. \n The kicker with this is that she's sullying the good name of some of the few Wikipedians who have been paid in a very legitimate way, as community organizers for GLAMs (galleries, libraries, archives, museums, etc.) as a \"Wikipedian in Residence\" (WiR)—she's been one. WiRs don't necessarily get paid, but if the GLAM is willing, it makes the process significantly easier for the WiR, as it can be more or less a full-time job. \n Messing with the reputation of WiRs could change the longer-term outcome of the paid editing debate: it strengthens the argument for Jimmy Wales' (not community-adopted) \"Bright Line Rule\" that paid editors and other advocates never edit articles directly. Under this bright-line rule, paid \"editors\" would restrict themselves to requesting edits for others to implement. \n I think that while the Bright Line Rule is elegantly simple and effective at preventing conflicts of interest, it strongly risks being ignored and is too restrictive. Wikipedia needs an open, ethical way for paid editors to do their thing, because otherwise they'll just try to slip under the radar, as with scummy Wiki-PR. If they're editing out in the open, it's more likely they'll follow Wikipedia's rules, including neutrality and sourcing, and it's easier to police if they don't. Paid editing isn't necessarily bad in and of itself,* so if advocacy and spam can be prevented … why not. \n ^(*Paid editing does risk social problems; otherwise passionate volunteers writing about history or science or something, not seeing a dime, might be miffed that someone else gets paid to write about [insert corporation here].)"}], "user_id": "longlamp_13104", "history": [{"author": "nihiltres", "content": "First, you make alternative block models. For a lot of cases, you can just specify the default block model as the \"parent\" model and specify a custom texture file. Since my flowered-lilypad model is custom, I made a generic version that includes the model, and then two really short ones that specify the generic one as parent and change the textures used. \n Once you have alternative block models, you can make a block variant list. You can then specify different models for items in that list, with the option to rotate existing models. \n You can specify an integer \"weight\" for each: higher numbers will appear more often. I have a value of 40 for each of the four flowerless variants, a value of 8 for each of the pink-flowered ones, and a value of 2 for each of the white-flowered ones, which should mean that 20% of lilypads will have flowers and 20% of flowers will be white. \n For the exact details, I recommend [this Minecraft Wiki page]( and looking at the source of the WIP pack I linked to elsewhere here.", "id": "cir4ali", "summary": "Block-state list specifies models, rotations, and how often variants appear; models specify shape and textures (including custom files that don't appear in the base game)."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "While your comment is entirely true, its divergence from my original point makes it irrelevant. I'm making a joke conflating the high-tech future of graphene with the relatively ancient use of marking paper as a component of pencil lead. \n If I were worried about technical wording, I could call pencil lead a \"graphene composite material\" or some such… I nearly did with my original wording \"graphene-based\".", "id": "ce0ekfi", "summary": "The distinction is irrelevant and pedantic here."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "The movie was incredibly disappointing to me. The pacing is all wrong. In particular, there's a huge amount of time devoted to the ending, when that's mostly glossed-over in the book so that they can get to the big reveal. The emotional content is prioritized over the Hollywood action. \n For that matter, the movie completely omits the side-story of Peter and Valentine, which is a huge travesty. There's so much more depth to each of Peter and Valentine when you understand the implications of Valentine writing as Demosthenes and Peter as Locke, or the reconciliation of the siblings when Peter's an old man.", "id": "cjl5fvs", "summary": "Go and read the damn book."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "Wikipedia admin here ( proof  going around, a lot of it floats in a grey area. The Wikipedia community has repeatedly proposed, and failed to enact, a ban on paid editing. \n The obstacle is that Wikipedia's policies are utilitarian: they look at results, and it's entirely plausible that a paid editor could write an article that was otherwise quite good. Instead of blocking and/or banning based on the principle that paid editing is editing in bad faith, it generally—though not always—is about the behaviour observed, since motivation isn't exactly measurable. Most editors don't  like  paid editing—even if they don't think it's grounds for a block/ban. \n The real issue, in my humble opinion, isn't the money or even the ethics, it's the social implications of some editors getting paid for what they do. The editors who  aren't  getting paid to write questionable little articles on Companies X and Y are volunteers. There'd be an element of feeling shortchanged for  not  getting paid for the valuable work you're doing on more legitimate articles, were open paid editing allowed. \n Even if you  could  pay  all  the editors, it would change the motivations, because suddenly it would feel in their minds more like a \"job\" and less like a \"hobby\", let alone a \"hobby that benefits the world\". I could go on about this, but I've", "id": "cco6z8u", "summary": "d it. \n That being said, it's impractical to attempt to block every case of paid editing happening, as the article from the OP shows. The long-term solution would probably be to require some sort of code of ethics; David King has and continues to advocate for this, and you can read some of his stuff at [ethicalwiki.org]( I'm not sure if it can work, but it's interesting as an approach."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "While I'm sympathetic to the idea that Google can make a product too, there are two issues that get in the way of agreement: \n \n Google is too fucking big. While they're good  most of the time , they are still ultimately a big corporation with big corporate interests. As it stands, they have an inordinate amount of power over the internet through search, video (YouTube; WebM), mobile (Android),  email (Gmail), a major browser (Chrome) et cetera. Sure, they're more honest than Facebook, but I can't justify concentrating yet more power in one spot… it's just asking for trouble. \n \n Google+ is just another social network. It doesn't solve the underlying problem of social networks, which is that all your friends have to be active on a given social network for the social network have to be valuable to you. Thus there's a strong trend of centralization in one big social network. It used to be Myspace, now it's Facebook. The obvious way to destabilize this trend is federation: if you're on social network 1, you should be able to seamlessly friend people on social network 2. Google+ doesn't contribute to this, so it's not a  real  alternative to Facebook—just a would-be replacement. \n \n \n Edit: Since I seem to be getting downvoted by the G+ hivemind, let me simplify my arguments to a", "id": "cdfaqrf", "summary": "Monopolies are bad, don't hand Google  another  Internet monopoly\" and \"Google+ doesn't solve the problems that make Facebook shitty\"."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "I'm not sure what you mean by \"Pathfinder/3.5\", so everything I'll say is strictly 3.5. \n Duskblade is a bit of a trap. Sure, the full BAB and two good saves are nice, you cast in increasingly heavy armour for free… \n …but you completely tank your spellcasting. \n Next time, start with Battle Sorcerer. It's a Sorcerer alternate class feature that gives it some martial ability. You get the (3/4) BAB of the Cleric, proficiency (and no ACF) with light armour, proficiency with a \"light or one-handed martial weapon\" of your choice, and you switch out Bluff for Intimidate. The catch is that you know one fewer spell at every spell level (minimum 1) and you get one fewer spell per day at each spell level (minimum 0). There's a feat somewhere that'll let you extend the light armour casting up to medium, which lets you run around in mithral full plate while casting spells. \n After 4 levels of Battle Sorcerer, take a level of Fighter, then progress Spellsword for at least 4 levels, and you'll get a spell-channeling ability not unlike the duskblade one. It's limited-use (3/day at Spellsword 4) but you can channel any spell into it, not just touch spells. At that point, switch to Abjurant Champion for the next 5 levels.  You already have armour, but you can have a super-powered  shield  spell for awesome AC. As a bonus, the 5th-level Abjurant Champion ability will increase your caster level by two, since you've only lost 1 point of BAB thus far. At this point you're level 14—fill out the rest as you will … but note that you're already starting 5th-level spells (duskblade gets them at 17) and you're not restricted to the duskblade's spell list.", "id": "ckrxqrb", "summary": "multiclassing can make a better duskblade than the duskblade."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "By putting a watermark on it, 9gag implicitly both lays claim to the content and suggests that the content originated at 9gag, which makes ignorant people think that 9gag is cleverer and more original than it actually is. \n Reddit, at least, avoids making the implication, and people go to great lengths to point out when content is recycled, in part because of the social implications of said sharing.", "id": "cah9tb3", "summary": "Watermarking implies ownership and/or origination, which is generally dishonest in 9gag's case. \n P.S.: Kitten wanted to add \"1111111eeeeeeeeeeeeeeddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddw\" to this post."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "I'm no lawyer, but based on my limited understanding, some facts: \n \n Wikipedia text uses the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License]( \n \n Commercial use is explicitly allowed by this license. \n \n The license requires attribution, which can be done by linking back to Wikipedia (slightly questionable) or listing every contributor to the article (safer). I don't know what they're doing for this. \n \n The license requires that derivative works be licensed under the same license. There might be some quirks here, but it's probably easy enough for the book to indicate the license somewhere unobtrusive to satisfy the requirement. \n \n If images are included, they might present license problems as they likely need more attribution, often have different licenses (following the GFDL to the letter would be a bit of a pain), et cetera. They also might even be non-free images used on Wikipedia under U.S. fair use law—in which case copyright violation could be argued more easily since Wikipedia's non-commercial context helps bolster the claim of fair use.", "id": "c3enyjf", "summary": "It's probably legal, but there are a few tricky points that I'd like to hear an expert opine on. \n It's definitely uncool either way to sell free Wikipedia articles at the prices of those books, but at least they've inserted a disclaimer into the Amazon descriptions now."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "Sanger inflating his own importance is mainly an image thing: it sounds just slightly more credible when he frames himself as important than when he's the guy who was there at the beginning but hasn't really been important for oh, a decade. \n He's been making noise on the \"porn\" front for a while now. If you're interested in not", "id": "c66otj2", "summary": "ing (seriously, walls of text), there's always [one of Sanger's blog posts on the subject]( and [a conversation I had with him in that post's comments]( His position still feels mildly inconsistent to me—he recognizes descriptive neutrality but still calls for special treatment for sexual, etc. topics."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "See [this FAQ point]( on the Wikimedia Foundation website regarding Bitcoin donations. The official line from that: \n >The Wikimedia Foundation, as a donor-driven organization, has a fiduciary duty to be responsible and prudent with its money. This has been interpreted to mean that we do not accept \"artificial\" currencies – that is, those not backed by the full faith and credit of an issuing government. We do, however, strive to provide as many methods of donating as possible and continue to monitor Bitcoin with interest and may revisit this position should circumstances change.", "id": "cd44xdj", "summary": "with some reading between the lines: Bitcoin isn't stable enough, legally or in value, and dealing with it could be complicated, so they'd rather not take the risk. \n People can always trade in their bitcoins for cash, then donate that cash, after all."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "I started N7 Mastery a bit late in my completion of challenges, so I've been playing around with my strategy for promotions. \n \n As soon as Arsenal Packs came out, I had been buying them almost exclusively, so on most characters I only have one appearance card. This means that I can be given a very good shot at getting two 250k cards, and perhaps a bonus 62.5k one, if I buy a Reserves Pack. \n \n I don't want to play solely for the sake of promotions, because I get sick of playing as a level 1. Playing as even a level 8 is far more satisfying, because I like the wrinkle that a few skills add beyond basic running & gunning. \n \n I've got a number of waves-completed-as-class challenges left to do, so having a higher-level character is worthwhile. \n \n \n My ultimate strategy is not about getting the challenge faster, but about managing the grinding that it encourages so that the game remains fun for me. \n My current plan is to get everything back up to 20, play enough rounds to hoard a million credits or so, and then dump 6 promotions at once followed by a recharge with 10 Reserves packs. \n This means that I rarely have to play as a level 1 character: chances are I'll be starting somewhere around level 8. While levelling up, I can get myself Arsenal Packs to pad my weapons (a bunch are at IX now!) and I still get to play at level 20 some of the time. It won't be the fastest N7 Mastery run, but it'll be  tolerable .", "id": "c8ox84w", "summary": "Doing N7 Mastery in intermittent   cycles   so that it's more fun."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "I've been using this [Turian Havoc build]( for a little while now, and have been quite enjoying it. \n Most of it is highly similar to RepublicanShredder's [Vulture build]( I was amused to find upon checking the BBloB that we had independently built it almost exactly the same way. Both spec for weapon damage while taking advantage of the Havoc's Cryo Blast and Stim. Packs. \n Unlike RepublicanShredder, I  am not allergic to Vanguards  decided that it would be useful to take some few points (3 ranks) in  Havoc Strike  for the sake of having it. While Havoc Strike won't recharge your shields, it does allow you to jump across the map so long as you have line-of-sight to an enemy, and gives you invulnerability frames while doing so. I sacrifice the last rank in Fitness for it; this is somewhat unfortunate but I prefer the  flexibility over pure tankiness . That's why I'm naming this build the Chickadee: it's a lighter bird, but that little tit is far more agile than a vulture. (Or perhaps I simply find it ironic to call a bad-ass turian the  Chickadee . You decide.) In my last game, I soloed most of the extraction wave (lone partner was Banshee'd), only to find a pair of Brutes blocking my paths to the LZ: a Cannibal following behind let me jump out of the way. It's also a detonator for Cryo and Fire Explosions, if you're willing to use it that way. It's often not too dangerous to use as a detonator if you follow up the Havoc Strike with an immediate backwards jetpack-dodge. \n As with the Vulture, this build uses  Cryo Blast  for both debuffing heavies and disabling troopers/captains. The Rank 4 Radius evolution means that if possible, aiming for one of a group of close troopers will remove more from action than otherwise. I tend to use a strategy for crowd control of freezing one or more of the enemies while focusing fire on an unfrozen enemy: disable some while killing the others. The evolutions on Rank 5 & 6 act simply to further the debuffing bonuses, which is the key use of the power. The focus on weapon damage elsewhere means that your time is best spent taking down heavies instead of working on crowd control, when you have a choice. Consider freezing a trooper, stripping the shields from a captain, and then freezing the captain by detonating the trooper with Havoc Strike. \n Stim. Packs  follows the standard survivability build: that's what they're there for. You want capacity, and you want shielding. They'll give you the extra few seconds you need to either escape a bad situation or kill whatever's created it—especially  in combination with Havoc Strike ; you can escape, pop a stim. pack, and then establish your new position without much trouble. I'm also fairly happy with the alternate Rank 6 weapon damage evolution, but that dilutes their purpose too much for my taste. \n You'll want to use this build with an assault rifle or shotgun and Warfighter or Shock Trooper  gear  respectively; weapon damage plus extra stimpacks is too good to pass up. I personally take my Typhoon or Crusader, but you may have other preferences.", "id": "t3_19nb9d", "summary": "WOT: Max Cryo Blast and Stim. Packs for area debuffing and survivability, max Armiger Legion for weapon damage, pass on Rank 6 of Fitness for 3 ranks of Havoc Strike. Use Havoc Strike to reposition yourself, to be momentarily invulnerable, and to detonate fire/cryo explosions."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "I've been trying out the 1.8 pre-release on my Mac (OSX 10.6.5). I played for a while with virtually no crashes, and then later noticed that the game was crashing every few minutes, often for things I hadn't had a problem with earlier. \n I messed around for a while, opening Console to read the error messages, restarting, etc., and then I realized the one significant settings change I had made in Minecraft before it became crashy: I turned my music setting from \"OFF\" to 40%. I immediately turned the music back off, opened iTunes to play Minecraft music manually, and haven't had nearly as many issues since.", "id": "t3_kbcjw", "summary": "turn off your music until 1.8 proper comes out!"}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "We couldn't stop laughing for quite a while, so I figure this is worth sharing. \n The party's heading over to a swamp, searching for something that'll let us weaken the BBEG. \n Walking by the river, we spot a pair of ogres trying to fish. One's brownish and the other's greyish. They're not having much luck, mostly because their method of fishing involves  hurling large rocks  at the fish. There's lots of splashing. \n The ogres don't notice the party immediately, so the bard tries to put them to sleep so that the rather clanky paladin and cleric don't alert them to our presence. One of the two sits down and nods off, but the other one's still roaring in its frustration at not hitting any fish. \n My [Spellwarp Sniper]( gets an idea. Backtracking a bit along the river to avoid being seen, he casts Mage Hand and manages to pull a trout magically out of the river. It flops in his hands. \n Cue question to the DM:  \"What's the range increment of a fish?\" * \n (*Improvised weapons have a range increment of 10 feet.) \n Sneaking up behind a tree, he readies an action to throw the fish between the ogres right when one of the ogre-rocks splashes… \n … natural 1 . He manages to  hit himself  with the trout for 2 points of nonlethal damage, stunning himself for a round, and drops the flopping fish to the ground. Whoops. We're tearing up from the laughter. \n The ogres don't notice, so he gets himself together, picks up the fish, and tries again. In the words of the DM, \"the trout arcs through the air, glittering in the morning sunlight. It clips the brownish ogre on the shoulder as it goes past and lands between the two of them\", where I had aimed. \n The brownish ogre  starts  to turn around, but discovers the fish and is delighted. \n The party then proceeds to make terrible Move Silently rolls, but successfully sneaks off given the distraction. The DM awards full XP for the encounter.", "id": "t3_2h06xq", "summary": "Fed an ogre for a day."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "One of these days I'll be DM'ing a campaign. I've got a bunch of the story down, and I've talked a bit with a couple of people who'd be playing. I'm planning to start the campaign at level 10. One thing I'll be asking players to do is to have slightly \"oddball\" characters that do unusual things. For example, one player is thinking about a halfling barbarian with a normal-sized scythe. \n One in particular wants to play a character inspired by the Librarian from the Discworld universe. If you haven't read Discworld, the Librarian is a wizard who happens to get irreversibly transformed into an orangutan. In the player's adaptation, the mage (wizard or sorcerer) has talked about focusing on grappling and possibly throwing the halfling into combat, so as a DM I'd like to support that. \n I'd like to spec. the transformation out as a homebrew prestige class, in part because that'll avoid mucking about too much with races or other stuff. I was hoping to get some critique and suggestions from /r/DnD to improve what I have so far, so I've written most of it out as notes: \n \n The class lasts for 1 level so far, but I'm considering extending it to 3 or even 5 to either spread out its benefits or give the character the option of \"specializing\" into the role. Is this a good idea? \n The class has the special entry requirement of being transformed into an orangutan by powerful random magic, i.e. DM permission. \n The class requires the ability to cast second-level arcane spells. This is both because it's intended as an arcane-caster class and the player-suggested fluff that the transformation was somehow the result of (drunkenly) \"trying to gain druid powers\". I'm going to suggest that the character take Druidic as a bonus language even though that's normally not allowed for non-druids. \n The class prevents the character from speaking normally, instead making simian grunts and \"Ook!\" noises and such. There's already a Nonverbal Spell feat that the character can take to offset the spellcasting issue, but I'm not sure about other communication. I'm currently thinking that this'll somehow be an \"empathic\" thing to get across basic ideas with orangutan sounds, but I haven't settled on a mechanic for it—any good ideas? I'm currently thinking about some sort of cooperative \"opposed check\" with the speaker using CHA or Perform (i.e. charades!) and the listener INT, WIS, or Sense Motive… but I don't want to make it too hard lest it hurt roleplaying. \n I'd like to grant some ability boosts, namely Strength and Dexterity, to reflect the physical traits of the orangutan. I'm thinking that +6 Strength, +2 Dexterity would be reasonable, but I'm not sure. \n The class will have good Reflex saves; I'm thinking about whether it should have good Fortitude saves as well. \n The class tentatively progresses spellcasting, but I'm thinking that if the class feels too powerful I can remove that progression from one or more levels, maybe? \n I'd like to hand out some free relevant feats. I'm thinking that the class should hand out  Brachiation . These don't seem too crazy (the first two are relatively unhelpful most of the time), but free feats are free feats. \n I'm thinking that the character should be immune to polymorph and polymorph-like effects, even helpful ones, so that they can't just transform into a humanoid when they run into a roadblock, and I'm considering making a few other spells (e.g.  tongues ) fail to enforce the drawbacks of being an orangutan. \n The class will almost certainly grant a climb speed, and thus bonuses to Climb checks, taking 10 on Climb, +8 racial bonus… but will probably reduce land speed (e.g. 30 ft → 20 ft or something). \n I have no plan on how to handle the ally-tossing thing. Some existing feats exist, but they're mostly intended for Large or bigger characters and have pretty heavy requirements. \n \n So I'm looking for a few things: \n \n Balance issues. Is this too strong so far? Is the non-speaking restriction too harsh? Are there other big advantages or disadvantages I haven't mentioned? I'm aiming to hand out some neat bonuses while adding a unique challenge, but I feel like I might be giving too much away. \n Ideas. Can I make this more interesting somehow? Can I integrate the \"throw the halfling into battle\" directly? How can I work the nonverbal communication without resorting to cheap tricks? \n Criticism. Am I doing this horribly wrong? How ought I to do it right?", "id": "t3_2jx0sx", "summary": "Give me tips on how to let a player be a grappling, ally-tossing orangutan mage in a balanced way."}, {"author": "nihiltres", "content": "I've been thinking a bit about a character for an urban campaign set in Waterdeep. It starts at level 6, it's roguey but not exclusively so, and we get generous base abilities to balance a tough campaign. Characters may not be lawful, and chaotic evil is frowned on for all the usual reasons. \n One of my current ideas is a CN  tiefling  who takes  Fiendish Blood . Because of the tiefling +1 LA, I'd actually start the campaign at level 5, taking a 3000 XP penalty at level 3 to buy myself down to +0 using the  buyoff rules variant  and getting my wings fairly early during the campaign. I've been considering rooftop ninja-like characters, but why stop at the roofs if you can go above them? \n The catch is that this would make my character … very obvious, because you generally notice the guy with the  huge batlike wings  sprouting from his back, even if he doesn't have obvious tiefling horns to go along with them. I've joked with the DM that I should theme the character somehow as an upper-class orphan so that I can troll other players into slowly but surely realizing that I'm \"Batman\". \n Anyway, being obvious is a bad thing in a roguey campaign, so my first thought is to buy a Hat of Disguise (1800 gp) and wear it all the time. Because the Hat of Disguise mechanics seem a bit ambiguous, the DM has said she'd consider letting me buy a similar but custom item that would be more specific to my character, which would offer a single persistent disguise (as opposed to the Hat's flexibility). \n Of course, the Hat is just a CL 1  disguise self  spell, so that or a similar item comes with a lot of tradeoffs, particularly people potentially seeing through the disguise. I might be able to pull a  Sir Bearington  for Knowledge (architecture and engineering) since everyone will get Knowledge (local) for free. I'll definitely swap out wilderness skills for roguey skills wherever possible, maybe dropping Ride, Survival, and Swim for Bluff, Disguise, and Open Lock. \n I'm rambling … I'm looking for second opinions and ideas.", "id": "t3_2j87t1", "summary": "How ought I to get around my \"obvious wings\" problem?"}]}
+{"author": "Lupawolf", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Stop being a dick and just accept it's cool that Obama thinks Reddit is influential enough to make time during a campaign to come here. \nWhen else are you gonna get the chance to be a grammar nazi to the pres?", "output": "What you mean is he didn't feel he had to explain his every difficult decision he's had to make as president? If you could do the job and make the type of decisions that had to be made to protect his country, YOU would be president and we would be picking apart you're every move. \nThe fact that he stands by what he has done, and doesn't crumple into a rambling excuse about why he did what he did, that makes him a leader. Anything else is a puppet of public opinion. He did not deny anything that was asked about, he simply declined to argue a point in an endless circle-jerk. \nWould anyone be happy with ANY answer he had to the tough questions? No. If he said he was wrong, people would bitch. If he said he was right, people would bitch. If he explained, people would call bullshit. If he tried to steer away from a point, everyone would jump on it. It would be like Woody's AMA. Obama didn't come to Reddit to promote one thing or make us do something. He didn't winge that he came here to promote his campaign for the future, not justify his past. He came to connect to people, and answer any answers that he could. \nPeople have a problem with if only being a 1/2 hr? They schedule interviews so that they can remain in control of the situation. It would be like a police chief having a open ended discussion with the public on an open case. This are going to be misconstrued, sometimes purposely, just to create a good sound bite. Think about it, in 10 questions, I'm still sure the Republicans will find something said to use against him. This thread is a fact. What he DIDN'T say is being used. \nAny presidential candidate, politician, or just anyone in charge would be beyond insane to subject themselves to complete interrogation by people. \nYou have the vote. That doesn't make you right, capable, or in anyway rightfully in charge of anything. \n That was longer than I meant it to be."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4185", "history": [{"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "It really makes me wonder about fate when something like this happens. When someone, just out of the blue; decides to mend fences, say things that have been unsaid for far too long, does something unusual that shows how much they love you that means so much more afterwards. \nMy cousin died far too young. He had been driving really late on a summer night. The body was too decomposed to test for alcohol, but we think he may have had a beer or two that evening. By the looks of it, he started to get real drowsy at the wheel and decided to pull over. It was on a side road, only about a 10 minute drive from his mother's. It was the kind of summer day where it's a scorcher during the day and chilly at night. He reclined his seat, windows shut to keep the bugs out, and tucked in for a short nap. \nThe cool of the night turned into heat in the morning. With the windows up, he didn't wake as the car turned into an over. \nHe was missing 4 days before his car was discovered. They had my aunt identify him by his tattoos. The coroner refused to release his body to his wife unless we had him cremated. He refused to let any family are the condition his body was in, where the only recognizable parts were the bloated and stretched tattoos. \nThat morning he had left a little love not for his wife before leaving. He told her again how much he loved her and how happy he was. How he misses her every time he leaves the house, and how he can't wait to see her when he comes home. \nI wonder what condition that little piece of paper is in, because I know for a fact she still carries it with her, and can't even imagine how many times she would have reread it in those days and weeks after his death.", "id": "cb54tbe", "summary": "It's gotta be more than coincidence when this stuff happens. It really makes me believe in fate. \n And a moral \n Always call home! If you've had a couple, you're not drunk, just drowsy, out late, WHATEVER, call home. Do not just pull over to sleep it off. No matter what time, what circumstance. Your parents, girlfriend/boyfriend, bestie, ANYONE, would rather be woken up to come get you than to go through what we did. He was a phone call and a 10 minute drive from his Mom's. He must have decided not to bother her, he'd just sleep it off. My family lost a cousin, a son, a brother. His wife and 3 kids lost a father. I watched as they wrote letters to Daddy and released them on balloons so it would go to Daddy in heaven. Ya, he didn't disturb anyone that night. We'd trade a million good sleeps for those 4 terrifying days of him missing, and then finding him, another week in horror waiting to find what happened. Murder? Pain? Heart attack? How long till he died? Then some relief to be told he likely went to sleep and didn't wake, no pain, just gone. And then the guilt, the what ifs. 10 minutes from his Mom's, his brother's. 1/2 hour from his home. A simple phone call away from any of us. \n I didn't mean to type this much."}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "The dog has just started to associate \"They're coming\" as a phrase to mean its play time. My dog would grab the leash when he wanted me to run with him. We also had a game when I told him to roll over. He would bark, do a tough dog growl, trying to get the treat by only half rolling over. It got to the point where I just had to say his name a certain way, no need to say or do anything else, and that initiated it. \nTone of voice is just one of the many ways a dog can decipher what you're feeling. Unless OP is such an incredible actor that she can increase her heart rate, stress sweat, and increase her own anxiety, the dog is smart enough to know the difference. \nFor example: When we are playing, or I'm initiating play, I can say \" gasp  What's that?!\" He'll jump up, and I'll say, \" gasp  * Where is he?!!!\" He'll then leap from the bed, tear across the apartment, jump up on my husband and look  so  proud. \nBut if I'm home alone and hear a noise that concerns me, all I'd say is, \"What was that?!\" He'd get real attentive, and then slowly trot off to investigate. If someone was there, he's do a warning bark. If not, he'd come back wagging his talk like it was an all clear sign. \nYou're right. A dog can't understand English. They know commands, and the emotions of their human. I'm positive OP doesn't get freaked out when she says \"They're coming\". I'm positive she is highly amused. It's a game. Some people teach their dogs to balance on a goddamn ball. OP has trained her dog a command to be adorable and pull a leash. Look at one of the links about about a dog's reaction to child porn. The dog does not associate that phrase with anything bad, because when the guy says it,  he's* not associating it with something bad. \n You're suggesting the dog be treated like a child, but without the intelligence of one. You can make a game of \"They're coming!\" which involves hiding and running, pretending there's zombies or pirates or dinosaurs chasing you. Until you say that phrase with complete seriousness and fear, the kid isn't going to associate it as a threat or warning. \nHell, when a kid falls and scrapes a knee, I get their mind off it while patching it up by looking at it closely and saying \"Yup, it's broken. I gotta cut it off.\" And motion with my hand like a saw. They giggle and laugh, until it ends with me being something like a dino, saying we gotta chop it off, and then chasing them growling like I'm gonna get them. Seamlessly turns an ouch into a game. Now in a serious situation, if their parents say the doctors say they have to do something like cut off the leg at the knee, the kid isn't going to associate that with the monster game. \n And I'm sorry if I'm rambling. I'm very tired.", "id": "cal8q4c", "summary": "Dogs aren't stupid. They judge by emotion and body language, not by words. You can't trick a dog unless you're a sociopath. You're not a sociopath, are you OP?"}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "I cannot find the story, so fine, believe what I told you is bullshit. \nBut here is a link about cruelty to livestock during transport \n And here is a page describing different ways livestock is mistreated while being raised and then transported \n So in other words, my entire point was simply that livestock is not treated near as well as pets when it comes to animal welfare, and even pets don't receive anywhere near the amount of justice that they deserve.", "id": "c68p85w", "summary": "People need to take care of ALL animals, pets who share our homes, and especially the animals that feed us. \nIt doesn't matter if you choose not to believe a story. \nI'd hate to meet you in real life if you demand citation and proof whenever anyone adds anything to a conversation."}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "I completely understand why they don't want Anon in their classrooms talking to their kids. But they should take this offer as inspiration for a program that could do a lot of good. They should have professionals who  are  experts in sexual assault cases come in and teach a class on how to recognize the difference between consent and inability to consent. What to do if you see such actions at parties (or wherever). How and when to report to the authorities, and work to remove the taboo on \"snitching\" on you're peers.", "id": "ca857tl", "summary": "Pretty much, everything Anon offered should be done in schools, but by professionals"}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "I never understood the people who took \"stranger danger\" to mean \"fear every other human being that is not family, especially if they have a penis, at ALL times\"\nI grew up with the whole stranger danger thing. But we weren't taught to avoid all human contact outside your circle. If I was with my parents, or friends, or in a store, wherever, you were taught to be polite. You can greet people. Basically chit chat. But you didn't stop and have a conversation with someone you don't know. You don't tell them your name, where you live, where you're going, if you're alone. But \"hi how are you\" isn't gonna get you kidnapped. You never went with anyone you didn't know, even if they say someone sent them. \nWe had a code. Even family members (outside of members of my household) would have a code word to let me know my parents know and actually sent them. Not because they thought my brother in law would run off with me, or that my sister would grab me from school, but so my parents knew where I was at all times. There would be no mistakes or misunderstandings back in the time before cell phones. \nWe were taught caution, not fear. Now parents are teaching their kids that all strangers, especially men, are out to get them. Anyone outside your inner circle is the enemy. How can this kids co-exist as adults if they grow up thinking we're all at war? Men against children. Whites against black. Rich against poor. Cops against innocents. \nIt's almost like because religion is starting to lose it's grip, satan isn't the standard boogie man anymore. It's anyone other than Us who is the shadow waiting to grab us. \nI'd rather teach my future child caution and give them the ability to see the certain people who would be a danger to them. I don't want them seeing any man and seeing a rapist, a kidnapper. There are a great many amazing men then they will encounter in their lives. I don't want the one that intends to harm them to hide in with all those good men because I put a monster mask on anyone with a dick. I don't want them looking at a black youth and seeing danger. I want them to be able to look at any human being and having the ability to gauge whether they can trust them. I don't want them to grow up to be like some men on the police force, who have become blind to anything but their own sense of right and wrong. Stereotypes that are getting people killed, both civilian and police officers. \n Sorry about wall do text.", "id": "cknqri7", "summary": "people confuse me and piss me off"}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "The only good thing about a tragedy like this is that it doesn't matter who you are, stranger or lifelong friend, people band together. The good people at your airline who choose to provide help far beyond your regular call of duty, the people offering their homes, rides, air miles, even the people who are far from Boston but who were watching this unfold and the terror and horror felt for each victim as if their were our family's and not strangers on tv.\nI don't know if I just made any sense. I just woke up after a night of gruesome dreams. I wanted to acknowledge and thank the do-gooders (I think I made that word up?), people like you and your co-workers. After watching such senseless violence, seeing people's children, grandparents, friends, everyone bloodied and in shock on a day that should have ended in celebration, it does my heart good to know that good people are there to help.", "id": "c9g9ck8", "summary": "Emotional babble about being scared by yesterday's events, even here in Canada watching the horror on tv, seeing all that blood and thinking \"that little boy died there. Some of that is his blood\" I wanted to say kudos to you, your co-workers, and everyone who is helping."}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "Flirting starts small. You go little steps and gauge reactions as you go. You can't honestly believe that EVERY guy you think you might possibly like would feel the same. So you can't take it to heart if they don't respond the way you hope. They aren't going to spaz and humiliate you because you had the nerve to be interested, so don't be afraid. \n If there's someone you take a liking to, just be friendly. If he happens to look at you, smile. Say hi when you pass him. If you have the opportunity to talk about a mutual interest, talk about it. Show an interest in him. If you find out about his family (in a non-stalker way, use conversation instead) ask about his sister, his mom, his dog. Just a simple \"How is your little sister doing? Does she like school?\" \n Every relationship, intimate or just friendship, they all start the same. He will either respond in a friendly manner, begin to act interested himself (seeking you out to talk, smiling when you glance at him, even how his body language and responses are when you're talking), or he may blow you off. I'm sure every girl you tried to talk to didn't turn into the perfect friend. He may be clueless, he may just not be interested, he may be an asshole. Every person you encounter will be different. \n But don't view flirting as a scary experience. You don't need to flash your goods and declare your intentions as you throw yourself at him. You can flirt harmlessly without intention. Smile at the cute guy at the store. If someone obviously has the same interest as you, bring it up (for example, I love animals. I'll talk to anyone about animals. If I'm approached while walking my dog, I can have a conversation about her and dogs in general. If I'm on my own, I have difficulty with my shyness. You need to find an opening) \n The biggest thing to make sure you don't expect every time you flirt to turn into a relationship. Flirting is (or should be) subtly making an interest known. I can appreciate a fine male specimen. I can make that appreciation known. That's it. Unless you think that any person who called you cute or pretty needed to fear a humiliating rejection because you might think they aren't in your league, you have nothing to fear. Even if they aren't interested in that way, so long as you're not acting in a way to make them uncomfortable, they will likely be flattered. It's nice to know someone thinks of you that way. If you meet a guy who will only have a conversation with someone they don't intend to sleep with because it would be seen as rude to blow them off, stay away from that guy, he's an ass. \n I'm rambling, sorry.", "id": "ckomktv", "summary": "don't be afraid. Just talk to the guys. They're human too"}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "There are many reasons for abortions. \n \n Rape \n Incest \n Something is seriously wrong with the child (i.e. no brain) \n Going full term will kill mother & child \n Traumatic live changing even, such as sudden death of father, unexpected loss of job resulting in loss of home & severe financial crisis. No money for medical bills during pregnancy, deliver, raising the child... \n receiving positive test result for genetic diseases, or other serious health issues  \n Any  reason why a baby  cannot  go full term and there is a failure of birth control \n idiotic girls getting pregnant 11-16. The girl is not developed sufficiently enough to house the baby safely for 9 months, or the girl is an addict or lives a high risk lifestyle. Why should an infant suffer for the failure of a stupid teenager.  \n if there is already a special needs child in the house and 150% of attention, money, time, and resources go to this child and even that's not enough. Bringing another child into the home isn't fair to anyone, including the baby \n The woman has been proven to be unable to carry a child full term and there is no way that she won't miscarry \n Something such as an accident happens to the mother, and her body isn't able to handle the stress of a growing fetus while her own body is struggling to heal itself.   \n \n No one has the right to tell anyone what to do with their bodies. That would be like you breaking your leg while rock climbing, so I decide you're unable to seek medical attention and have it  set, because it's you're fault it broke, you should take responsibility. \nAn underdeveloped fetus is in no way more important than the life of the mother. She is not an incubator whose sole purpose is to carry the child and hold it full term. \nIt would be cruel torture to  force  a woman to remain pregnant if the experience is slowly killing her, or she knows that at anytime, her body is going to reject the fetus, or it would be cruel torture to the infant to spend 9 months being pumped with drugs and alcohol that its junkie mother consumes, plus any diseases or viruses she may be carrying. \n If you're male, imagine your wife, or your sister, or even your mother becoming pregnant, and then finding out she has cancer, but she cannot begin the treatment that will save her life because it will harm the baby. So you have to sit there and watch her die a slow, painful death, because someone in government decided we shouldn't care about her, that the child, that is nothing more than a life-sucking tumour, deserves the right to live. So your mom, your wife, your sister, your friend  must  die, because she has a 7 week old fetus growing inside her. A 7 week old, ^1/2 inch long speck the size of a chickpea, has more right to live than the woman whose life is draining from her. \n They want to make it a felony if a woman  loses  a baby. If there is something so wrong with the fetus that the body itself rejects it, they want her up on murder charges. Same for still-births. The same people who want to throw grieving women in prison are the same ones trying to decide that the woman has no rights when it comes to pregnancy and that it's her place to forfeit her life if its necessary, for an infant to be born, even if there is 0 chance that mother or child will survive the pregnancy. \n That was a rant. I'm sorry.", "id": "caqum31", "summary": "Government has no fucking right telling a woman what to do when it comes to her body during a pregnancy. Government is not God. They need to stop fucking around with medical situations. Doctor's are paid good money for that"}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "If you remove the fact that the sister has her diagnosis, this is just a child who has simply regressed and is sticking to what works. I have a niece who needed a liver transplant at birth. Because of all necessary treatment, she was essentially 2 years behind her age. At 5-6 years old, she refused to be potty trained. She had her diapers, and that was what she wanted. Her mother got to the point where she just stopped buying them and told her that's it. It was still 1-2 years before she was completely using the washroom on her own. She was capable of changing her own diaper, but if we let her, she would have continued for years. She was tiny, and people treated her as a baby. So that was how she acted. There was no need or want on her part to be a \"big girl\". Understandably, with everything that kid went through, and what I know now she went through before the age of 13, I'd want life to continue as the simple life as an baby. \nWe went through absolute hell for a good 2 years, but eventually, she began to act closer to her age. She would be interested in her big sister's homework, so we would talk about school and how when she's a big girl she can go. You find creative ways to get her to eat her dinner rather than hold out until she's given a bottle. You don't condone the tantrums, essentially, you have to ignore them. \nBig girls don't act like that, so when you're all done, then I'll come back, but right now, you stay here and finish. \nIf you treat the child like they have something mentally wrong with them, and they don't have to do things like use the potty, or eat like a big boy, or do what he's told, what would you do? \nHis big sister has a mental disease, and look at all the attention she gets, good or bad. It is natural that he is going to do anything possible, even regress back to an infant stage, to get the attention of his family. And the mother is going batshit crazy out of fear. It's the whole \"if all you have is a hammer\" thing. \n She  needs psychiatric help to deal with everything. Probably the whole family needs counselling.  But doping up a child because you are afraid, how is this going to help. I didn't watch the whole video, I caught  I think 5 different conditions she mentioned, flipping at the guy for giving reasons why a certain condition doesn't fit. She kept going on about the tantrums, throwing things, pulling hair. There IS such a thing as terrible two's, a stage where completely normal children throw violent tantrums when they don't get what they want. Seeing as there is obviously a history of mental issues, there is a high likelihood that the boy does have issues. But that does not mean the mother should play doctor. Some of the meds she mentioned, I am 24 with severe chronic depression, some type of social-anxiety disorder, chronic headaches, and chronic insomnia. I am on some of those meds, and even then, my doctor is VERY cautious about the dosage and how long I am on certain medications. I could not comprehend giving, what appears to be a toddler, ANY of these meds, let alone all she mentioned. And if she keeps getting an answer she doesn't like, is she going to attempt to play pharmacist as well? If she tries giving him some of his sister's medication in the hopes of proving the doctors wrong, that child is in more danger than shitting his pants. And his \"hallucinations\"? I had a little boy go into vivid detail about a dragon who attacked him in the backyard, and it roared at him, and spit fire, and then he (the boy) died. I can remember going through a forest with my cousin, and us both being completely convinced we say a coyote following us. Not that strange right? No, we through something like Wile E Coyote was following us, standing on two legs and hiding behind trees. Kids make stuff up. They tell stories to each other, and they feed off of each other and it's amazing what they can come up with. \nThis kid is getting one hell of a reaction from his mother by saying he saw a frickin rainbow. \nAnd I agree, she's lost it. And she needs time away from the kids. She needs, pretty much a vacation. No offence to the children or the family, you need some time away from the crazy to be able to see the normal. I know this for a fact. I want nothing more than to stay alone in my dark room, curled in bed. The more I do that, the worse my condition is. I sometimes fight tooth and nail when someone tries to make me get some air, some light, some food. But once I do, it improves. But I have a deadly fear before, almost something physical stopping me. I'd say that's what's wrong with both the boy and the mother. In an environment with a 10 year old suffering from schizophrenia, all the medications, all the doctors, living the terrifying life of not knowing what is going to happen, it's going to affect them all. \nThis was just disturbing.", "id": "c9olwwo", "summary": "If it's too much text, don't bother.  Can't fit all my concerns in a few sentences"}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "If it was  your  son, brother, friend who was murdered, and the reason for the murder was the killer had too many rules at home, would you want him to get a slap on the wrist and be \"rehabilitated\"?\nYa, that sounds good. Your son, brother, will never grow up. Never fall in love. Never have children. Never live out his dreams. His life was worthless, ab-so-fucking-lutely nothing to this little prick. He was only a means to not have to obey Mommy. He figures he'll be cool in juvey. So, ok, we're gonna keep him in juvey until he's served 7 years. Taxpayers will be footing the bill for his education, room and board. When he gets parole, we'll have to make sure the boy gets a good education! Find him a cushy job, set him up some place to live. Because he's \"special\" and worth so much more than the boy he carelessly chose to strangle to death. Now, you might be dealing with psych problems. Maybe your parents won't recover. Maybe your mom falls into depression. Falls hard and decides to join her son. Now you have a brother and mother dead because of this \"special\" boy. You might not be able to go away to college, develop anxiety disorders. You can't get an education to get a good job. Your dad is struggling to support himself and doing his very best to give you the best start in life he can offer. But this \"special\" little killer who destroyed your family, he has a paid college education, gets his degree, gets set up to start a new life, and we all keep our fingers crossed that he won't do this again? He slipped a belt over a boy's head, and then lived a cushy 7 years with everything handed to him. What happens when he has to pay rent, he has to listen to his boss, has to deal with  consequences ?! Well, due to past experience, he'll be able to take out the nearest guy and go back to jail, which is \"free room and board\". \nThis sounds like a great idea!\nBecause, we'd hate for something as simple as  killing someone  ruin his life", "id": "cak8w6a", "summary": "Shut the fuck up. You're blowing air out your ass. I hope you're not one of those sick fucks who can't understand why people can't forgive serial rapists and murderers"}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "I was talking about the MMR vaccine for measles and the effects of measles, not whether or not to think all medicine should be boycotted because of big pharma. So you would avoid a vaccine on principle, specifically the MMR vaccine that would specifically keep my family members safe to a threat we are facing NOW. It's not hypothetical to me. If 2 people in my family are exposed, their lives are in severe danger. You're concerned about long term effects of big pharma and the fact that they are unethical and making money. \n I agree that the big pharmaceutical companies, specially in the states, are horrible. The fact that there is no free health care should be a national embarrassment. They should not put money before their patients. \n That doesn't mean I'll risk lives by refusing a proven vaccine. It's not even the public I'm concerned about, I have family who will at the very least be hospitalized. There is a 17 year old girl who might not be able to finish highschool because there are unvaccinated kids there and cases of measles nearby. That's not worth it to me. It's selfish? Fuck ya. Life is selfish. The chances of you having a bad reaction TO THIS SPECIFIC VACCINE is low. The rate of the virus' decline after the vaccine was invented was great. The chance I will lose people I love because of people who think like you is high. We're both being selfish, but I'm protecting lives, you're risking them. \n From the MEASLES VACCINE which is what we wrote talking about, what dangers are there to you and your (potential, current?) children to get their shot? Now what are the chances those dangers will come to pass?\nThe family that's at risk for me? Due to other medical conditions, they need to visit doctors and hospitals often. That's exactly where you'll be going for treatment if you catch it. If measles come to either of their towns, they WILL be exposed. If everyone that could be vaccinated would, the chances of them being exposed is minuscule. So I'm asking you, personally, can you give me a reason for avoiding the MMR vaccine, which is the one that is in the news now because measles is spreading. It's like avoiding every restaurant because you for sick at one in town, it doesn't make sense. \nMeasles is spreading. We have a vaccine. It doesn't make sense not to use it, unless there is something horrible in the MMR vaccine I didn't think was that bad. They removed the mercury. So even tho I received it with mercury, children today would not be exposed to it. But they have a greater risk of being exposed to measles at places they should be safe. \n If you're going to just talk about all vaccines in general, then let's just stop here tho. If you have something specifically about the MMR vaccine, I am interested in. In fact, I will be going to be revaccinated because I live on a small island and deal with tourists. \nI don't want to waste both our time going in circles. If that's the case, thanks for the links and I'll look at them at some point. It just wasn't exactly the topic I was on.", "id": "colnv8g", "summary": "can we talk about MMR and measles specially, because that's what I'm talking about. If not, thanks for the chat and I'll look at those links."}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "Hang in there. I'm in the same place you are. \nWhat dose was your Wellbutrin? I was on Venlafaxine and Trazadon, which were helping with some of the depression, but still had no ability to get up, do things. I still had anxiety, no energy; stuff like that. Doc put me on 300mg Wellbutrin, and my pharmacist told me to take it in the morning because it does give sort of an energy push that would keep you up. \nIf you have issues sleeping, try asking your doc about Trazadon. I thank God and whatever doctor created it for Trazadone. Without it, I don't sleep until somewhere around 6-7am and wake 2 hours later. On no meds, I've been up around 36-40 hours, not willingly. But the Effexor and the Trazadon help me sleep, and Wellbutrin helps me get out of bed. \nIt took 7 years for them to settle on this combination. They will be able to find what suits you. \nDon't give up. Talk. Ask for help if it gets really bad. Go to the hospital if you need to. \n If you want someone to talk to, about anything, PM me, or visit some of the depression subs. \nYou don't have to talk about your issues. Sometimes the best thing to do is talk about nothing. I have plenty of stories about my jackass dog and ferret that will at least get a little smile out of you. When nothing is going right, nothing is working and you just keep sinking lower and lower, the best thing to do is find something,  anything  to distract you. Be it a book, video game, a pet, a movie. I'd settle on one movie and it would be on content repeat. Have it completely memorized and it melts into the background. It's almost like it keeps the part of my mind that settles on dark thoughts occupied, so I can focus on something else. \n Distraction is the best thing for you, the problem is it's so hard to focus with our condition. So find something that draws you in. Oh! Art. Painting, drawing. If you have anger, issues you can't confront, write it down. I had issues with my dad at one point. I wrote down what I felt and by the end I was writing so hard, so big, so fast, I was tearing the page. But I got the anger out, and, my god, the relief. \n Did I mention its hard to focus. \nBack to what I was saying. \nFind something or someone to distract you. Find an outlet and something that will bring you back to reality if you sink too deep. \n (I apologize if my post is scatterbrained. Tired and already took my meds so thinking is fuzzy. I'm not quite as :S as I probably sound here.)", "id": "cames1k", "summary": "Don't give up. Eventually docs will find the right combo of meds that will work. Try to find a distraction. Seek help if it gets too bad. It is never as bad as it feels, but I've been there, I'm still there. \nIf you want a chat buddy to share depression war stories, or to talk about everyday meaningless things, I've got tons of experience with the crappyness of life, and I have alot of odd useless facts, and goofy animal stories rattling around. \n -I will most likely check this post tomorrow and edit some of the ribble-ramble out of it- \n There can only be a rainbow after the storm. I hope you have a Rainbow Day"}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "She has a bad memory. \nSo many kids, so many things to do, nervous about being around the muggles, her baby, Ron, is going away, she's already worrying about the letters she'll get regarding the twins, Arthur's stressed at work and couldn't be there...\nThere's only so much a witch can take on a day bustling 4 kids to school while arguing with Ginny about why she can't go. \n All that, and probably it would look weird if all the strange people made a beeline for platform 9 3/4, so acting slightly confused helps. Molly just gets  a lot  of help being confused.", "id": "ca1nc1i", "summary": "already high strung woman really stressed out \n I loved Mrs. Weasley and the Burrow rocked :)"}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "I have no idea if I worded the title correctly. Pretty much, I'm asking in what ways are women unconsciously and unintentionally being insensitive towards your gender.\nA little while ago I was talking to one man on here who felt targeted because a woman who was being angrily confronted by a large man, she seemed to expect him to step in and help her, possibly risking his life, simply because he was male. We argued quite a bit because he felt that I too assumed that the simple fact that he had a penis meant that he had to help, and I took his tone and attitude to mean that he felt he didn't need to step in because he is MAN and he shouldn't have to bother with a mere woman. We said our peace, conceded on some points, and agreed to disagree on others. My argument was that it wasn't sexism to me because if I were in that situation, I would look to any stranger for help, especially a stranger who was larger than I, regardless of gender, simply because its natural to want to band together with fellow humans if we feel threatened. It's the same thing that would make you grasp hands with a stranger during an emergency landing in a plane. I did not see it as targeting a male specifically for his gender.\nIn what other ways do some of you feel that you may be unintentionally be targeted for any reason simply because you are male?\nAnd, any (non-hostile i.e. extreme feminist) women who happen to read this, are there any small things that make you feel the same way that men probably don't intend. For example, in a book I'm reading, a cop says to a civilian expert who is female \"You would have made one hell of a man.\" She understood that it was sincerely meant as a compliment, and took it as such. The character who said it wouldn't have understood why she may take offense to it. \nAnd, if there are any situations where you don't really know why someone took it the wrong way, and would maybe want the friendly opinion of the opposite sex to explain their side, ask away. I get that alot from guy friends who maybe can't understand why their girl is pissed over something said or done.", "id": "t3_10qsdy", "summary": "How can we all improve gender equality, and how can both genders be more sensitive to the opposite sex."}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "Hello r/trees. \nI just recently started trees to see if it would help my medical issues. I'm royally pissed because I didn't smoke anything until now. I'm 25 and dropped out of hs in grade 10 because of chronic pain, anxiety, depression, extreme anxiety attacks/ pure  fear  if there's more than 2 people around me. I dropped out at 14/15, went my teen years with no friends, no milestones like sweet 16 or prom. All of this, and now, a decade later I discover that if I had accepted that joint offered to me, my life would have been 150% different, better than all the pain I went through. \n So ya, hi r/trees. I've been smoking trees for 2 weeks and the first time in 15 years the pain is gone, and I'm happy.", "id": "t3_1kcsjl", "summary": "Sorry for boring you. \nHi, new to trees and r/trees. Pain free first time in 15 years. Happy Yay!"}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "A mother's instinct will keep her aware of her sleeping baby. I've read repeatedly about nursing back to sleep while co-sleeping. It's completely reasonable. There aren't millions of baby animals being crushed to death by their mothers. Nature helps. \nBut it's dangerous if you've been drinking, or taking medications that make you drowsy or impaired. What about when you are so bone-dead exhausted from caring for the baby. I imagine when you ladies get the chance, you can collapse and be dead to the world in 3 seconds. Is it dangerous to have the baby with you? Or will you be aware of the child even in that state, unless something else is introduced to your system?", "id": "t3_30s7o4", "summary": "can you be so physically exhausted that it's dangerous to co-sleep with your infant. I would use a co-sleeper in the bed, but I'm thinking of the breast-feeding and if I were to fall asleep. This is all for future knowledge :)"}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "I can understand if you are in a debate and someone makes a point, ya, bring proof of stfu. But I get the impression that if I told you that the neighbor got a new kitten, I'd be bombarded with dozens of demands for photo evidence to back me up and belittling accusations that I made it up and that I made it up purely to gain karma. \n I just read a post where a girl posted that she had been raped, taking care of the retarded rule \"pics or it didn't happen\" by showing horrific bruises to her face and body. SHE WAS ACCUSED OF FAKING IT! And, someone came to this conclusion because at one point the girl wore a zombie costume. Because everyone knows if you can do Halloween make up, you can't be raped and you must be lying to us all. The girl finally posted a video of her trying to wash off her \"fake\" injuries. \n I can understand if someone is stating something in a conversation that they should be able to back it up. But why does everyone have to be so suspicious of everyone? \n One of the biggest things I hate is being accused of karma whoring. Especially if the post is telling of a loved one or pet dying. \n I had my dog for 16 years. My life was hell, but I always had him. When he died I was devastated. If I had been on reddit at that time, I would have posted a pic or him as a pup and an adult, and write about what kind of a dog he was and everything he meant to me. Karma would be the last fucking thing on my mind. Shared joy is increased, shares sorrow is lessened. \n I would want people to think about Bud, if only for the few minutes looking at my post. If I had a friend who was killed, I'd want his story out there, because nothing dies on the Internet. The poor girl who was raped, she's too afraid to go to the cops right yet. I imagine that means she won't contact friends or family yet either. She posted on reddit to tell SOMEONE. To have them sympathize, reassure her that it's not her fault, talk to her about what she should do, about what would happen, and the reasons why she should report it. No woman picks herself up after being raped and says \"Wow I'm gonna get SO much karma for this!\" \n We are Redditors. We are people. We are nobodies. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever why you should have to justify and prove yourself to me. And there is nothing making me have to justify myself to you. \n Why can't Reddit just read a post? Why does OP automatically owe them something? If you believe what OP is saying is fake, downvote and don't read anymore. If you have something to add to the conversation that isn't degrading, belittling, cruel, or obnoxious, then comment. If you have a question that I really bothering you about the validity, PM the OP. in the case of the girl who was raped, one person called bullshit because he looked for a report warning that a sexual assault took place where she said it happened. She hasn't been able to make herself go to the cops yet. Instead of accusing her of faking and karma whoring, he/she could have sent a PM saying \"I live in that area, but there hasn't been any postings of an assault being reported. Have you gone to the police?\"", "id": "t3_100jnf", "summary": "Who died and made you God \n EDIT: 2 things. I did not mean to imply that all people on reddit do this, and I am not referring to AMAs where it is completely rational to want proof that the person you're talking to is who they say they are \n Another EDIT: it's something like 6am and I haven't slept. I'm gonna go, but I'll be back to see how many downvotes I get later on\nGood night mortals"}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "Ok I've posted on r/trees recently, so you may have already read my case\nIf not\nI'm not on medical but am self medicating. Treating depression, anxiety, social phobias, insomnia, extreme chronic pain, panic attacks, etc etc\nLost my late childhood and teens, had 0 friends or social events (prom, dating, parties, hobbies), had to drop out of school (did 1st half of grade 9, stopped, did 2 months of grade 10, quit). I've been in hospital, considered suicide, lost everything and am on disability. \n Started trees for the first time about a month ago and OMG wonder drug. I'm 25. All this started at age 11 and have had 0 relief until last month. \nOh oh! As a direct result of trees giving me the ability to have a life... I'M MOVING TO FUCKIN BELIZE TO START A RESTAURANT WITH MY HUSBAND AND FORMER BOSS TURNED THICKER THAN THIEVES FRIEND! I found out 30 minutes ago that we got the place!!! OMG!!!!!! \n Back to topic. \nDad went to extended family who has past experience growing trees. Got a plant and seeds. \n I have no idea what I'm doing. I've been doing research, and I just found a picture guide about the different stages of the buds. One part had when the tricomes are half clear/cloudy and it being a more energetic high, more a boost than a veg-inducer. That's what I need during the day. Pretty much I need a mood booster, energy inducing, anxiety depleting, painkilling upper during the day, and a calming, painkilling downer at night that will help with chaotic over thinking (this is the dangerous part because that's when my suicide plans start to form when I'm in a deep depression pit). \n The question/", "id": "t3_1lpqug", "summary": "Can you harvest parts on one plant at different times to get 2 harvests with different potency/effects? So take half when the tricomes are half clear half cloudy and then the rest at top potency? The plant is indica. \n Thanks for any help :)"}, {"author": "Lupawolf", "content": "Hey everybody\nI'm just feeling kind of crappy lately, thinking about stuff, and I thought I'd ask you guys about how you grew up. I'm hoping you had a better childhood than I did, but I'm also curious about the bad stuff that I might not have experienced. \n My family does not have a great medical record. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 1. She was actually told it had spread to the point there was little to no chance she'd live. She said she can't die, she has a baby. She had a mastectomy, chemo, and radiation. All this brought on menopause 10-15 years early. It's heartbreaking, because she's aged faster than she should have, so she sees people who are 10-15 years older than her, and they look so muh younger. \nMy father also had cancer. I believe it was kidney. He had it removed, but he spent a lot of time in the hospital. \nIn between the ages of 6-9 I lost my 3 grandparents. My Nana and Papa lived next door, and my Grandma lived with us. Nana had a stroke and went into the hospital for a long time. She eventually had several strokes, the last one put her in hospital for weeks, and eventually she passed. But not before Papa was diagnosed with brain cancer. He put in a long fight. I remember when the nurse called us in, saying his breathing was getting shallow, and that we should be there to say goodbye. I was 6 at the time. We all stood around his bed, and Nana was leaning over him, stroking his head, singing through her tears, \"Oh my Pa Pa, to me you are so beautiful\". And then he was gone. \nNana had another minor stroke later that year, and my Grandma became sick with something, we don't know what exactly because my uncles didn't want an autopsy. We kept her at home, set up a room on the ground floor as a hospital room. It was Halloween, and I was excited because my school was having a dance marathon and I had gotten people to sponsor me. My mom came and woke me up, she told me I wasn't going to school. Grandma had gotten worse over night. The doctor came, and he suggested that my mom call her brothers. She passed close to 3am. I don't remember anything else from that day, except that my uncles gave me pledge money so I might still win the basketball I wanted at school. \nNana had another major stroke when I was 9. She ended up in hospital and never went home. It was again Halloween. My cousin Josh had gone trick r treating with me. When we got home and my uncle came to pick him up, my mom sat me down and told me that Nana had passed away. My dad had been with her. \nAfter my Grandma passed when I was 8, my mom decided that she couldn't stay in that house, so we sold it and moved. From then on we moved on average ever 1 1/2 to 2 years. I gave up trying to maintain friendships, I never felt at home. \nWhen I was 11, i developed a sort of medical condition. They can't pinpoint exactly, but the symptoms are near constant severe headaches, insomnia because of the pain, depression because fml, inability to eat much, even when starving, and balance issues. For the first 2 years I had to walk with a cane. The room would tilt severely. I trained myself to be able to tell where the ground was by holding on to something, either the cane or a wall. One treatment I had seemed to help the balance issue, but nothing else. I don't need a cane and I don't fall all the time, it just comes in small spells. \nI missed the majority of grade 7 & 8 because of all this. I actually dropped out in grade 9 because I just couldn't do it, and where we lived, there was no way to get homework back and forth, and we had no car. I tried again in grade 10, but didn't last 2 months. By 15 I had lost all my friends, been forced to drop out of school, lived in constant pain, and was pretty much completely isolated where we lived in the country. \nAnd, while I was having fun dealing with school, my sister went through a rough patch and couldn't care for her 2 kids, so they came to live with us. I became a parent at the age of 12. And the kids had serious issues because both their parents were screwed up, and they had severe abandonment issues. \nI grew up poor, in constant pain, taking care of someone else's kids, living in a mobile home isolated in the country with no phone or Internet, and there was a running joke that we have 2 family reunions a year: the wedding and the funeral, and there hadn't been a wedding in a long time. \nI did not get to experience a crush, or go on a first date with a boy, or party with friends, or just have fun. I didn't try alcohol or any sort of drug because I was being forced to live with the results of my sisters partying. My sweet 16 was only family. I had no friends to invite. In my opinion, I started losing my childhood the day we moved out of our first house. I was supposed to be a child, yet I had very adult problems and responsibilities thrown at me. Especially when for the majority of my life before the age of 18, at least one of my parents was unemployed and we barely and money for food. A splurge was scrounging up enough money to get a cheeseburger from McDonald's \n What's your story", "id": "t3_zym08", "summary": "fml I was forced to grow up at the age of 8, and lost my childhood completely at age 13"}]}
+{"author": "LupusetVulpus", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Story, graphics, gameplay were good. Just wanted it darker but that may have led to the game being worse.", "output": "Ok, so I finally finish The Last of Us, aside from multiple glitches I found the game to be good. A solid 9/10 in my books. I just think it was a little overhyped for what it was. I'll admit when it was first announced at e3 2012, I did not care for it, but when I heard lots of the press discussing the depths of the human depravity and evilness of their nature, I was intrigued. \nI enjoyed the fact that as society declined, nature flourished. Like the old saying that when humanity abandons something, nature will reclaim it. I also like the soul searching and growth of the characters throughout the journey. How you actually felt closer to Ellie, wanting to protect her not just because you had but that you wanted to. Sure, I though she was a snotty little shit at the beginning but I learnt the like her attitude. I will say however I hated Joel, sure he was bitter and dead inside from the loss of his daughter, and the ending for me was nothing more than him having some sense of guilt that he couldn't save his daughter/repressed her memory that he felt he had to make up for it with Ellie. Other than that the only other problem I had with the characters was David and how he preformed a 180 to batshits-ville, I thought was a little stupid.\nOther than that I like the story and the gameplay, albeit at times it was a little repetitive. I just wished the story was darker. I'm not sure how it could have been, but when I was promised human depravity I had hoped for something shocking. Sure there was implied cannibalism and a possibly statutory rape attempt but there never seemed a real danger. Ironically if the game wished to focus on this more, then the fungus would've become redundant and the game would lose it's uniqueness. \n I guess personally its hard to take a game of societal collapse as a gritty drama when there are constant reflections of the beautiful scenery (the graphics, I absolutely adored). Perhaps if there were more feral humans, or less of things being implied I could like it better but it is entirely my opinion, and with the addition of these things the game may be construed as being cliched."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4188", "history": [{"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "Copy + pasted from when I told the tale a while back. \n In my Primary school years I was nearly suspended due to racist comments towards a black kid. I was a bastard as a kid. Probably down to coming from a rich family that became a broken, welfare needing home in the matter of months. Acting out you know. \n As I got older I got drawn into the whole racist view because of my grandparents. Farm folk from a village in Kent, England with about 15 inhabitants. Nice people seriously, just hated blacks, Jews, Chinese, Arabs etc. Ironically my Grandfather was born in Guernsey, the Channel Islands so wasn't actually English. \n Anyway I'm not saying I was a full blown skin head (I kept my hair) but the Neo-Nazi idea I could relate to. I used to walk around with military boots and trousers, biker jacket and bandanna. I'd listen to really abusive racial music, have a general disgust for the 'cancer' on this Earth as I used to see it as. I admired how the Nazis had become such a powerful government through racist policies. This somewhat supported my ideals.\nWhere I lived at that time was surrounded by Indian students, studying for medicine at University.I used to have a go at the groups of them, push them around. Some would cross the road to avoid me. Like a group of 10 avoiding just me. I was 6 foot and 260lbs back then. \n Now this is the twist, throughout the neo-nazi esque years I had been into watching a lot of gay porn secretly. But I was homophobic as fuck. When I eventually worked out I was being a dick because I was projecting the hatred of myself outwards. I changed. I came out to my parents and grandparents who all supported me surprisingly, just aslong as I didn't flaunt it. \n Ending: I'm engaged to a half Irish Half Algerian gorgeous man who has been with me for the most wonderful three years of my life.", "id": "chaizpl", "summary": "Used to fucking hate foreigners and dress like a neo Nazi. Now openly gay and going to marry a mixed race man."}, {"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "When I was at uni, my room mate was dating this Korean girl. \n First of all even though she had been in UK for 14 years, her English was very substandard. (Not a pet peeve, we worked round it). The thing was we discovered that Koreans have no word for Vegetarian. Like it's a foreign concept to them. You either have a dish with meat in, or just a side of vegetables, or at least this is how it was explained. \n My boyfriend and I are veggies, not like the up tight fucks who bitch at others eating or cooking meat near them, but anyway we kept being offered Korean dumplings, which were full of pork. To our protests, her only response was, \"Is ok, Vegetarian.\" \"...but it has meat...\" \"Yes, pork and vegetarian.\" \n The amount of times I nearly strangled her.", "id": "cn62zpt", "summary": "If you know people don't eat meat, DON'T FUCKING OFFER THEM ANY."}, {"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "Woman near my house was caught for credit card fraud. The numbers being used were like 0000 0000 0000 0001, 0000 0000 0000 0002, etc. (Was in paper because of the utter stupidity.) \n She was like 30 weeks pregnant, because it is a small neighbourhood, we know everyone's business. On her first day of court, she didn't come home until a couple of weeks later. There was no bump, and no new child. \n We later found out that between her arrest and her court hearing she had gotten pregnant because being an idiot she thought she'd get off because of that. First day of court, judge tells her that doesn't matter, she aborted her baby after the legal 24 weeks in the UK. \n A pox of firey herpes of that bitch.", "id": "cgjihd3", "summary": "Stupid bitch gets arrested for credit card fraud, gets pregnant to get off and then has post-legal limit abortion when that isn't a get-out-of-jail free card."}, {"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "Completely agree with you. This was one of the reasons they got rid of the swamp thing level. Four guys pitched together to beat him. Now it wasnt just buffing, and dps. You had to protect scientists until they had a formulae then mark the five points on the map with the formula then throw a barrel of formula on swamp thing, to knock out his immunity to damage. ALL WHILE HE FREELY ATTACKED YOU. \n You had lvl 5s chipping away doing 1 dph, and the lvl 30s who grinded the story and didnt work their loadouts correctly doing the same. \n It was us smart guys who realised what needed to be done. Still took well over an hour to bring that bastard down, and what did we get? Shitty xp and Exobytes which were shite unless you had a fuck ton of them as in micro transaction amount of them. \n Still it's more friendly to noobs who just want to get the lvl 30, even if your character is like a piss covered paper bag in the wind with his build.", "id": "cglyouv", "summary": "Players were the problem not the game, now the game supports these arseholes that can't set up a loadout."}, {"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "Ok first of all a normal human with the theoretical super human abilty of speed, would most likely kill them after around 600-700mp/h (I'm guessing) due to extreme G-force and resulting whiplash. \n Secondly when you run fast as in IRL things around you are not slower, as your mind is set to concetrating on what is happening in front of you. Applied to super human speed, this means that people around you would be a blur. \n Also time is fixed so there is no change, again run fast your time 'feel'\nand the time that has past are the same. \n The answer is B through practical application of scaling up able experimentation.", "id": "cc864j2", "summary": "If you run fast then you get somewhere quicker and time is fixed. You can't interact with people because they are no the point of focus. \n Addendum: Before you got up to a fast enough speed you'd hit something so you'd need faster reaction time too. \n Hope this helps."}, {"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "I answered this before. \n In my Primary school years I was nearly suspended due to racist comments towards a black kid. I was a bastard as a kid. Probably down to coming from a rich family that became a broken, welfare needing home in the matter of months. Acting out you know. \n As I got older I got drawn into the whole racist view because of my grandparents. Farm folk from a village in England with about 15 inhabitants. Nice people seriously, just hated blacks, Jews, Chinese, Arabs etc. Ironically my Grandfather was born in the Channel Islands so wasn't actually English.\nAnyway I'm not saying I was a full blown skin head (I kept my hair) but the Neo-Nazi idea I could relate to. I used to walk around with military boots and trousers, biker jacket and bandanna. I'd listen to really abusive racial music, have a general disgust for the 'cancer' on this Earth as I used to see it as. I admired how the Nazis had become such a powerful government through racist policies. This somewhat supported my ideals.\nWhere I lived at that time was surrounded by Indian students, studying for medicine at University.I used to have a go at the groups of them, push them around. Some would cross the road to avoid me. Like a group of 10 avoiding just me. I was 6 foot and 260lbs back then. \n Now this is the twist, throughout the neo-nazi esque years I had been into watching a lot of gay porn secretly. But I was homophobic as fuck. When I eventually worked out I was being a dick because I was projecting the hatred of myself outwards. I changed. I came out to my parents and grandparents who all supported me surprisingly, just aslong as I didn't flaunt it. \n Ending: I'm engaged to a half Irish Half Algerian gorgeous man who has been with me for the most wonderful three years of my life.", "id": "cihvvq1", "summary": "Used to fucking hate foreigners and dress like a neo Nazi. Now openly gay and going to marry a mixed race man."}, {"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "We had a room mate that was nice to begin with...until she became 'THE PSCHOBITCH OF ROOM 3.' \n First Month - Typical students greeting each other being friendly and what not. Everything is fine. \n Second Month - One house mate brings twenty people to 'sweat box' in our kitchen. Group sit down and discussion, Everything is still fine. \n Third Month - One Housemate self harms with a carving knife, to be psycho helps him out. Others are worried. Another room mate takes a fancy to her. Everything is fine. \n Fourth Month - Room 3 stops coming out of room despite invitations, not just to parties and clubs but to hang out in communal areas. Things are getting weird. \n Five Month - Her now boyfriend has become her underling, ferrying messages to each of us, haven't seen her in two months. Credibly believing in vampire spawn now. Things getting weirder. \n Sixth Month - We are informed that we cannot go into the kitchen at certain times for that is her cooking time. Some accept this because possible axiety, others laugh. But it is respected. \n Seventh Month - Housemate's birthday, we invite room 3 but no answer we have only ever seen her entering room never exiting. Almost like quote from Willy Wonka. We were informed her and boyfriend are going out for evening. We have party to much drunken revelry. Food fight is started with handfuls of two foot chocolate cock cake thrown at people. Residential Assistants called plus security. They are told there are fights and threats and all kinds of shit. Myself nearly gets told off for weed. (A cigar is not weed, not does it smell the same). Room 3 stands there in the kitchen screaming at everyone while we clear up. (Students that clear up after party INSANITY RIGHT?) Every name under the sun is uttered, and we are the defilers of her life. \n Eight Month: Her Boyfriend begins throwing food in communal fridge and freezer all other the kitchen. \"She has nowhere to put anything\" is the excuse. Perishables splatted over kitchen, apparently chicken nuggets and chips take up a lot of room. Another room mate comes in to complain about this has loaf of frozen bread thrown at her face. Police called, he is now wanted on possible assault. She appears with security and RAs again while police are here. Room 3 acts like everything fine, polite, courteous and acknowledging. The fuck is this sorcery?\nRAs move her and boyfriend to private rooms in accommodation block. We get new Qatari guy. \n Ninth month - Former room 3 quits university to move back North without underling. The spell is broken perhaps? We all live quietly for the next month enjoying our peaceful lives. Room 6 quits univeristy too to start cupcake business, about as unusual as it gets.", "id": "cjaj0rq", "summary": "Nice girl turns nuts in less than a year."}, {"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "In my Primary school years I was nearly suspended due to racist comments towards a black kid. I was a bastard as a kid. Probably down to coming from a rich family that became a broken, welfare needing home in the matter of months. Acting out you know. \n As I got older I got drawn into the whole racist view because of my grandparents. Farm folk from a village in Kent, England with about 15 inhabitants. Nice people seriously, just hated blacks, Jews, Chinese, Arabs etc. Ironically my Grandfather was born in Guernsey, the Channel Islands so wasn't actually English. \n Anyway I'm not saying I was a full blown skin head (I kept my hair) but the Neo-Nazi idea I could relate to. I used to walk around with military boots and trousers, biker jacket and bandanna. I'd listen to really abusive racial music, have a general disgust for the 'cancer' on this Earth as I used to see it as. I admired how the Nazis had become such a powerful government through racist policies. This somewhat supported my ideals. \n Where I lived at that time was surrounded by Indian students, studying for medicine at University.I used to have a go at the groups of them, push them around. Some would cross the road to avoid me. Like a group of 10 avoiding just me. I was 6 foot and 260lbs back then. \n Now this is the twist, throughout the neo-nazi esque years I had been into watching a lot of gay porn secretly. But I was homophobic as fuck.\nWhen I eventually worked out I was being a dick because I was projecting the hatred of myself outwards. I changed. I came out to my parents and grandparents who all supported me surprisingly, just aslong as I didn't flaunt it. \n Ending: I'm engaged to a half Irish Half Algerian gorgeous man who has been with me for the most wonderful three years of my life.", "id": "ccyplrn", "summary": "Used to fucking hate foreigners and dress like a neo Nazi. Now openly gay and going to marry a mixed race man. \n Edit: Did not realise my tale would touch so many people. Thank you ever so much to the kind person who gave me gold."}, {"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "First guy I gilded. \n First guy. Pretended to be a Vietnam Vet who went to war and lost the love of his life against the love of his country. I was moved. 6 months later he's posting he's about the graduate high school. SUMBITCH! \n I've gilded since but the guy I have called me an idiot for 'taking Reddit too seriously'.", "id": "cl182um", "summary": "I gilded the wrong people."}, {"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "British Guy here. \n Aside from being entered into a British Stand-off (Two People wanting to get on the bus but too polite to go first) and the bus eventually driving off without us. By god did we moan until the next bus where we never said a word again other than a nod as I got off the bus first. \n I'd have to go with the story of the Polish guy last week. So this guy from Poland (I'll explain how I knew he was polish in a minute) saw the train conductor and tried to pretend to be asleep. The fact he put his head down as the conductor was one seat away was hilarious enough. So he is asked for his ticket, or to buy one if you haven't got one and the guy ignores him. The conductor determined pokes him repeatedly until he moves and again asks for his ticket. The Polish guy lazily sits up reaches into his pocket and flops out his passport. Declaring in semi-legible English, \"I no pay!\" \n Conductor is like, \"Erm...Sir, I need your ticket.\" Polish guy picks up his passport slaps it down and repeats, \"I no pay\" then goes to put his head down again. Meanwhile people are gingerly peering from their seats to the abnormal drone of the day. \n \"Sir, I need your ticket or you have to get off the train.\" The Polish guy spins round and calmly says \"Not English, So no pay\" or something along those lines. The conductor started getting annoyed and as we pulled into the next station told the Polish man to get off. \n We were there for 15 mins waiting while this conductor kept asking the man to either pay or leave the train, but the excuses were still the same. Eventually when the word police was mentioned, the man stood up and protested that he would pay but had no money. I can't exactly remember how he said it but that was the idea. \n The hilarious part as he stood up he dropped a £20 note on the floor which must have been in his jacket. \n So he pays after realising the game is up. The punchline of this story, he was getting off at the main connection point in my county (Kent) so would have needed a ticket to get through the barriers. (Most of the platforms are country stations so don't have offices or ticket machines.)", "id": "cfmxe3i", "summary": "Polish guy claims he doesn't have to pay because he is Polish, then claims he can't pay even though he drops a Twenty pound note."}, {"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "There was this new kid who came to my school back in the day. Now whenever we got new people they were usually designated a 'buddy'. Depending on classroom politics it would either be the nerds or the football players, Jocks I suppose would be the appropriate term. So this new kid joins the football team group, and they are basically chavs. He becomes the biggest shit ever in a matter of two years. \n Anyway a guy I grew up with, tackled him in football one day, he just played but wasnt one of the cliq. The new guy got up, went over to his bag and pulled out a kitchen knife and started waving it at this guy. \n EXPELLEDINAFUCKINGINSTANT! Not sure if he went to a young offender's or not. Probably not. My hometown keeps everything quiet apart from amongst its citizens. The guy threatened had to be escorted to and from school and everywhere he went by his dad for the next 3 years, he was 16 at the time.", "id": "cfaipbb", "summary": "New kid falls in with bad crowd, pulls kitchen knife out during football game, kid threaten is fucking mess after."}, {"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "I had a teacher who had a fucking grudge against me. \n It all started when I wrote a horror story in English class, mine was a werewolf story and I was quite explicit with the gory details and the fact that the protagonist 'lost his bodily functions'. \n Due to the graphicness I was called out in front of the class for plagarism with another kid, the other kid ripped off Alien (1979) like characters, setting, story and everything. I asked her to prove I had copied my story by naming a single werewolf film with a similar setting (modern day office block), she couldn't and got shown up for it. \n For the next year I had her, she dropped me to remedial class for poor grades, in England we have 'sets' for kids of different levels of learning, I was in top set at the time, she dropped me three levels. I spent one day there before the remedial teacher sent me back laughing at her pettiness. Seriously they spent the day watching Simpsons and writing up what was funny -_-. \n Long story short loads of other petty stuff, like always picking on me for the answers, or sporadically blaming me for talking when I didn't or something was missing etc. Apparently she'd done this a lot over her tenure. Last I heard she got booted to Drama teacher, which was my school's way of putting shit teachers out to pasture.", "id": "cndnht1", "summary": "I showed up teacher, she started a shitstorm of pettiness including dropping me to remedial class. In the end she got shunted to Drama job used as last call before a teacher packs it in."}, {"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "Alas our glorious liege has died. May he rest in the safety of Mictlantecuhtli's reach. He may not have been the best leader, (He lost Famagusta while gaining the lesser Limisol and lost the Duchy of Cyprus.) yet he had spirit to stand against the heathens and his liege the Byzantium Emperor. \n Enter Calpixqui Fancy Man, Titanius' Eldest son and heir, the first thing the new count does? Eradicates his father's belief in the Aztec gods, praise be to the Orthodox religion. His next action? To dethrone the emperor who had oppressed his father with a favorable Princess who much of the realm supported. His third act? Conquer Famagusta and control Cyprus, he then renamed the land 'Cornwood', something his father possibly wanted. \n We were beating the Emperor, had him on 45% warscore, and then...he came back with a vengeance. With the king of Greece we were defeated in 2 short years, Fancy Man was imprisoned for his treasonous crimes. \n While in prison inside two nephews, Prince Snake Eater and Butts were born, alas Fancy Man would miss the first steps of their young lives with his prison sentence, hoping each day not to be executed. \n After six years in prison, with a raggety beard and shaven head Fancy Man was no longer the young playboy he once seemed. Hope was a distant memory, until one day the guards came for... \n The night became day, yet Fancy Man could never experience the sensation ever again, he was free to enjoy the wonderful sights of freedom...or rather lack there of, the ransom of his eyes was another prison sentence in and of itself and on Christmas day too. This all happen as his niece, Toyota Blackadder was born. \n In a whim of nothing to lose, Fancy man demanded the Duchy of Cyprus, his family's title to be gifted to him. He was a blind traitor recently released and he had the gall to demand a title? Before the war the Emperor had told him to wait and now this criminal thought the wait was over? Titanius Anglesmit must have been looking down that day, for the title was granted. Four short years later, Fancy Man Blackadder was dead. \n Long live Doux Reddakcalb Blackadder, his heir Trevor the Shrubber Blackadder and his children Lord Percy Blackadder and Queenie Blackadder.", "id": "t3_2106ba", "summary": "Titanius = Dead \n Fancy Man (his son) = Imprisoned, Blinded and Dead \n Reigning Duke of Cyprus = Reddakcalb Blackadder. \n AS USUAL I NEED MORE NAMES, SILLY OR SERIOUS AS YOU LIKE!"}, {"author": "LupusetVulpus", "content": "Started because of interest from \n Background: \n In my Primary school years I was nearly suspended due to racist comments towards a black kid. I was a bastard as a kid. Probably down to coming from a rich family that became a broken, welfare needing home in the matter of months. Acting out you know.\nAs I got older I got drawn into the whole racist view because of my grandparents. Farm folk from a village in Kent, England with about 15 inhabitants. Nice people seriously, just hated blacks, Jews, Chinese, Arabs etc. Ironically my Grandfather was born in Guernsey, the Channel Islands so wasn't actually English.\nAnyway I'm not saying I was a full blown skin head (I kept my hair) but the Neo-Nazi idea I could relate to. I used to walk around with military boots and trousers, biker jacket and bandanna. I'd listen to really abusive racial music, have a general disgust for the 'cancer' on this Earth as I used to see it as. I admired how the Nazis had become such a powerful government through racist policies. This somewhat supported my ideals.\nWhere I lived at that time was surrounded by Indian students, studying for medicine at University.I used to have a go at the groups of them, push them around. Some would cross the road to avoid me. Like a group of 10 avoiding just me. I was 6 foot and 260lbs back then. \n Now this is the twist, throughout the neo-nazi esque years I had been into watching a lot of gay porn secretly. But I was homophobic as fuck. When I eventually worked out I was being a dick because I was projecting the hatred of myself outwards. I changed. I came out to my parents and grandparents who all supported me surprisingly, just aslong as I didn't flaunt it. \n Ending: I'm engaged to a half Irish Half Algerian gorgeous man who has been with me for the most wonderful three years of my life.", "id": "t3_1p92rk", "summary": "Used to fucking hate foreigners and dress like a neo Nazi. Now openly gay and going to marry a mixed race man. \n [Here is us]("}]}
+{"author": "TheMightyAnon", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The change is stupid but it addresses one of the oldest design flaws in tf2 by changing the role of soldiers and demomen.", "output": "I think it shuts them down, it just prevents the odd huntsman arrow from headshotting a heavy that peaks through a choke. \n Now, pyro does counter soldiers, demomen, and spam, but it only does so softly. Between a soldier and pyro of equal skill, the soldier will generally win - especially if it's multiple soldiers against multiple pyros. Similarly, a demoman can sticky spam a pyro, which is very dfficult to airblast, and even impossible to do so at certain ranges. \n The short circuit becomes a hard counter to soldier and demomen, which turns the demoman into a support class instead of the damage dealer, and soldiers from being generalists. Soldiers must now stay on their highground and be more reliant on ambushes to deal with teams, and extremely good soldiers will be hard countered such that they cannot pubstomp. When kritzed, these classes cannot completely wipe a team (as easily). \n Is this fair? I'm not really sure. It's a bit harsh to forcibly make all the skill and teamwork of a team irrelevant. But at the same time, I really hate it when I can't do anything because the teams are class imbalanced. With the change though, I can clear out spam so my 5 snipers can push out of spawn, regardless of how much they suck."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The demoman is meant to initiate fights and clear crowds, allowing him to easily top-frag.", "output": "Demoman is \"strongest\" because he's  supposed  to be. \n Most classes function as a form of \"area control\" (aka camping). Sentries are the best example, as a sentry gun symbolizes that a location belongs to a given team. \n Demoman is special though. His sticky bombs  create  areas. The reason he gets so freaking many kills in pubs is simply because most players don't know when to back out. If a demoman is in position and supported by his team, then you need to give up. \n Sniper performs a similar task, but controls larger areas by forcing specific players out of position."}], "user_id": "longlamp_7127", "history": [{"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "In pubs maybe, but pyro is countered by every single class and competence. Even spies counter pyros if they use their revolver. \n Soldiers can outsmart the airblast, and fighting another pyro will leave you dangerously low on health. \n In higher levels of play, the pyro must be very defensive, because the class simply doesn't function offensively against intelligent players. In low levels pubs, you can \"clean up\" all the lower tier players, and catch good players in ambushes. \n Pyro certainly requires much less skill than other classes, but tf2 is based off of quake, not normal FPS games. Instead, pyro emphasizes gamesense, which I find a lot more enjoyable. Against superior skill, numbers, and firepower, the pyro has tools to not die - provided you know how. I enjoy the brains over fingers playstyle. \n As for the phlog... well... it's the phlog. Only the baby face blaster  competes in terms of going on 30 person kill streaks.", "id": "ceuv1h1", "summary": "Being a great pyro means knowing when to say \"no\". Playing medic is a great way to improve pyro for this reason."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "To be fair, regular sentries are very stressful because one of 2 things happen: \n \n It fails completely because the team does absolutely nothing to support the sentry. Just yesterday I was on upward and a scout stole my tele, then proceeded to ignore the spy that was sapping my sentry on the other side. \n \n It does work (often winning the game), but then the entire enemy team dedicates themselves to screwing the engy, even if it means ignoring the objective. I actually win harvest all the time by building a sentry at my spawn, and spies/direct hit soldiers come in droves until the enemy can't hold the point anymore. People are so hateful after seeing one level 3.", "id": "cfmv4g5", "summary": "Wrangled minis are going to be spammed by engies who are constantly abused or shut down. I don't blame them at all - that's why the gunslinger was added in the first place."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "I actually believe that the rocket launcher is extremely overpowered, in contrast with the rod. \n With the rod, you can teleport to a formation of ore, but you must still mine it. If you want life fruit with the rod, you must still light up caverns and explore. If you want to kill plantera a bunch of times, you can teleport from cavern to cavern to find her, and then fight her in the cramped caverns while teleporting around. \n However, with the rocket launcher, you can mindlessly explode lanes. Life fruit and the axe were the two major items that I still needed to get, but with the rocekt launcher, I was able to get them  very  quickly by blowing up lanes in the jungle. \n It's not that it replaces an item, it's that it replaces an activity - that's what bothers me. The rocket launcher means an incredibly easy supply of all kinds of materials at very low cost (the rocket launcher itself is easier to get), whereas with the rod you at least still had to  work  for them. \n The rod offers convenience, but the launcher is just sort of... cheesy.", "id": "cd46dwa", "summary": "The utility of the rod is almost entirely convenience. \n \n The utility of the rocket launcher is easiness. \n \n The difference: One removes  accelerates  work, the other  removes  it. \n \n \n Also, thanks to you as well. Normally in nerf-related discussions, people get grandiose and say stuff like \"are you insane???\"."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "In my experience, the vaccinator is better for hammering into an area than quickfix. \n It is limited though, but the ability to keep your entire team alive while slowly screwing over the enemy makes it quite impressive. Most notably, it cannot be stopped so easily by stickies. \n Additionally, you will effectively have uber advantage 24/7, so counter pushes and counter ubers will be helpless.", "id": "ceoae18", "summary": "With coordination, it's better than quickfix, but still stalematey as hell. I made a foundry pub go on for 10 minutes while the teams were stacked because I constantly denied the point. Someone got pissed off and airblasted me away at the end."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "I worry about this too, as beggar's bazooka has been my favorite weapon for a long time. When someone pulls out area denial like an aware heavy, a minisentry, a pyro, etc, I tend to go on tilt. \n The best thing for me has been to just swallow my pride. You're better than you think you are, but you have to stop throwing yourself at a wall when your risks go unrewarded. \n I've been \"giving up\" and changing to classes my team needs, or being methodical about how I play with and defend my own team.", "id": "creff2f", "summary": "Patience is a virtue; after that, everything falls into place."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "Because a lot of people really don't have much else in their lives other than terraria. It's a sad thought and a lot of people make fun of them for it, but all too often someone will be alone and stuck in a bad situation with nothing to do other than play one game all day.", "id": "cd4g5ru", "summary": "There are depressed people, for whom Terraria  is  their life. Doesn't excuse saying horrible things to the devs, but it does explain why they'd be upset."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "It takes profit to make profit. \n At the bottom, you have to earn .5 scrap at a time. Later, that increases to around rec and stays there unless you look for really good deals. You might be able to earn a few ref to a key on pricier stuff and modified items (parts, paints, names). \n Once you have a bud, you can earn a lot more with stuff like unusual trading, buying and selling buds, and the ability to afford multiple tours. \n Once you have a lot of disposable wealth, you can take advantage of opportunities like low craft numbers, new crates, mvm loot, investing in news of impending updates that affect the economy, and crazy unboxing sprees. \n All of these can be accelerated by gambling, being a cheapskate, spending real money, and obtaining market access, but be careful if you're going to use those methods.", "id": "cgj9gwh", "summary": "luck, research, planning, and dedication -  so be an opportunist."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "Whether or not something is a crutch has nothing to do with whether or not people complain about it. \n \n Yes, mini sentry is annoying on \"fun mode\" maps and servers. Don't hop on a valve hightower and expect all the trolldiers, demoknights, and FaN scouts to like your guts. \n \n Don't worry, you can use them anyways. \n \n No, the mini sentry is not a crutch, because it is a very different playstyle. It offers and sacrifices a wide variety of things. It is very commonly seen in competitive highlander. \n \n HOWEVER, running level 3s is a whole 'nother ballgame, requiring many split hairs and a lot of experience. Using nothing but minis will deny you that experience. In my case, my first 80 hours on engineer were nothing but minis. When I decided to  main  engineer and master level 3s, I was blown away by how completely lost I was.", "id": "ciqepsi", "summary": "It's a legitimate choice, but make sure you can effectively use level 3s, the rescue ranger, wrangler, and everything in the engineer's toolbox."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "Go to backpack.tf if you want to buy an item. \n The overpriced sellers on outpost mean you have less competition if you want to sell for a legitimate price. \n For example, if you want an affordable ap-sap, you could just buy from one of the sellers in the classifieds here: \n If you do a search on outpost though, you have to sift through a boatload of trades to find what you want.", "id": "cc9m17j", "summary": "Outpost: Selling \n Backpack: Buying"}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "Axtinguisher's advantages are as follows: \n \n Kill heavies and get surprise picks on medics \n \n Counter vaccinator and quickfix \n \n Quickly put down dangerous targets \n \n Kill deadringer spies more quickly \n \n Piss people off on 2fort \n \n \n Powerjack's pluses are: \n \n Get to the front lines quickly, and retreat quickly. \n \n Make subtle jumps to cross gaps \n \n Rush to the aid of teammates \n \n Free health in case of emergency \n \n Can be used with other flamethrowers \n \n \n \n Thus, the axtinguisher is for roaming pyros and maps that encourage flanks, whereas the powerjack is for hanging with your team. \n My beef with the axtinguisher though, is that it's a high risk vs. reward item, similar to spy or even the caber. Any situation that calls for it is probably going to require the pyro to overextend. \n The powerjack provides an almost passive benefit, and does not require quickswitch (you can \"hop\" with it, like the GRUs before they were changed). You can use it with any flamethrower, and it will ALWAYS benefit you, whereas the axtinguisher MIGHT benefit you (ubersaw vs. vitasaw debacle right here).", "id": "cdtvqi2", "summary": "use the axtinguisher when you have a specific reason, otherwise use the powerjack."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "Fair enough. Perhaps I should clarify. \n I believe the additional skill obtained from each hour of practice reduces over time. For example, someone who plays scout for the first time would reap significant improvements very quickly as they get the hang of it. Over time, however, the benefits slow down. \n If you imagine a curve for each class, I want to reach a plateau on every class, giving me the most bang for my buck. This is helpful because being a good pyro makes a better spy, etc. Ultimately, the reward is better gamesense.", "id": "cda3699", "summary": "Rather than aiming to be a jack of all trades, I want to reach a comfort level with every class so I can abandon all of them for one class later."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "Mini sentries aren't supposed to be offensive. Rather, their strength is that they work on offense. \n The goal of a minisentry is to prevent aggression from single players, and to act as your very own personal competitive player who calls out flanks for you. \n As much as I hate to admit it, mini sentries do something important. Without mini sentries, I can  easily  phlog an entire team to death, or massacre all 12 players who are on point with the beggar's bazooka (I've done it more than a few times; it's always a laugh). \n 1 mini sentry and all of a sudden I can't single handedly shut down the entire blu team. Now it will take more than just me, all in my lonesome, to blow up everyone on point.", "id": "chq4dbx", "summary": "Mini sentries counter mindless agression, forcing a team to stick together instead of suicidally charging in one at a time. \n A nerf to knockback, health, or the hitbox would allow it to do all of those things, while being easy to remove and much less annoying."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "I think what OP is saying is that they'd be slightly better off if they had  originally  practiced at a different sensitivity. If you're already experienced with a given sensitivity, switching to a different one for a small payoff would be really stupid. \n However, if someone has never improved their aim, deciding on a comfortable sensitivity and sticking with it might not be a bad idea. \n A sensitivity so low that you need to pick up your mouse and drag it several times to do a 180 would be silly. Similarly, a sensitivity so high that the shakes from drinking coffee make you completely incapable of functioning would be a problem. Surely there must be an \"optimal\" middle ground somewhere. \n Lower sensitivity: Restricts turning, making it difficult to track, rocket jump, and catch spies. \n High sensitivity: Becomes more difficult to master and increasingly unreliable. \n Thus, I think the optimal sensitivity is as low as possible without preventing 180's. If you can comfortably turn 200 degrees from the center of your mousepad without running out of room, that seems roughly right. \n Of course, the rule of thumb I just made up still leaves a hell of a lot of room for things like \"how big is your mousepad\", \"how far do you reach to get your mouse\", and \"did you play 3000 hours of quake before tf2 existed\".", "id": "cg4ka4z", "summary": "Lower is probably better, but yea preference. \n Edit: words."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "It's TOO viable in competitive, but \"meh\" in pubs. \n In competitive, you have a team that needs to squeeze every last drop of uber out of you. \n In a public setting, your uber might be great, it might not, and you will have plenty of opportunities to uber-saw random wanderers. If you have a good pocket, however, and have to carry the team, vita-saw can be precious.", "id": "cc6f750", "summary": "Use the vita saw when you have a superb pocket."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "The vast majority of weapons that seem to be receiving ire tend to be: \n \n Very anti-aggression. Things like minisentries and natascha hard counter soldiers/pyros/whatever that like charging in on a cart and getting 9 kills. Being aggressive is fun. If I have to worry about a mini or an ubersaw, I'm forced to play with my team. That's an admirable design choice (TEAM fortress), but also an annoying way to enforce it. \n \n Kill very quickly. Phlog, FaN, loch, direct hit, ambassador, BFB, huntsman and so on. All of them kill you very quickly/instantly, often without contest if in capable hands. \n \n \n Both of these seem less about rock-paper-scissors, and more about the overall design. \n In  both  cases, I think the complaint is the same: we feel like there's nothing we could have done differently. Mini sentry on the cart? Oh well, guess I\"m not engaging. Dead ringer? Oh well, I guess I have to ignore the spy. Loch n load kills you with splash by hitting a nearby dispenser? Well ok, I guess. \n Since these weapons are essentially a core feature of the game now, learning how to nudge your \"luck\" in the right direction has become a necessary skill. For example, I never ever cut corners, knowing that rounding corners is a great way to die \"randomly\". I also tend to let allies round corners and die for my benefit, just so I can get wiggle room for myself.", "id": "chznf7m", "summary": "TF2 is a game about knowing when to \"nope\" things."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "I main spy in mvm, and I've never had problems with votekicks. \n Be kind, be courteous, and don't experiment on mann up servers. If that isn't enough, find 3 friends to join you and will never be votekicked. \n Also, I get the feeling that people are being a little bit xenophobic - communicating with someone who apologizes for their English inspires stress in a lot of people. Just make it clear that you understand them and play along.", "id": "cfcj9wr", "summary": "Pretend you are in a job interview; strive to prove your competence."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "I generally find airblast un-helpful against knights, primarily because of unreliable hit registration (I can't count the times where I've airblasted a demo but they are still technically in range for melee on their client). \n It's so much easier to play around props and staircases. Even against scripting demoknights I can just jump on and off of stairs and it throws them off for some reason. Staircases are especially important if they switch to their primary and give up on melee. \n As an added bonus, if the knight misses his crit, I'll rapidly build enough mmmph to get the temporary damage resistance and full health before they are capable of putting out sufficient damage. \n Granted, I base all this on the fact that between gamesense, aim, and dodging ability, I've always been very reliant on being as hard to hit as possible. Makes it easy to kill soldiers, sticky spamming demos, whatever... but only if they put up with my hooplah.", "id": "cgciu2q", "summary": "I've put way more thought and practice into ruining fun for silly classes and mastering the phlog than I probably should. Which is probably why I main engineer."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "Valve balances for pubs, where if you see a problem, you should be able to do something about it. \n I play on a server with lots of very good snipers who run razorback and stick near sentries. On maps with really crazy sightlines (i.e. frontier), the problem isn't that I'm not aware of the sniper - I know exactly where he is - the problem is that I can't actually get to him or avoid him. \n One sniper in the right place can get 5+ kills on an entire team before they even get to him, unless the team, you know, teamworks - but you won't find that in pubs very often. \n Additionally, snipers CAN deal with the vaccinator, and very easily. A fully charged body shot will seriously hurt a vac medic, unless they have a bullet uber popped. In spite of this, nobody really knows what the hell the vac does, which leads to pro-snipers trying to quickscope anyways.", "id": "cgqojhy", "summary": "the vaccinator counters pubstompers and fixes various map flaws where normal ubers don't last long enough (it's amazing on 2fort with a fists of steel heavy). \n I just like being able to do things alone. The vac lets me get away with that."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "Go for hit scan. Literally. \n There is a hack called a trigger bot, which clicks when your crosshair passes over a target. You can aim in the same way as a human, by \"scanning\" back and forth then timing your clicks. \n At worst, you'll repeatedly ping them for 20 damage.", "id": "cf03q3h", "summary": "strafe and time instead of aiming."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "I've been trying to figure this one out for a while. Ever since the latest big weapon update, TF2 has been stressing my computer to an enormous degree. Even after using every single fps booster I can find, (frames config, surfaceproperties.txt, launch options, new commands not in the configs, etc.) My frames are very unstable. \n So I finally lowered my res. Absolutely no improvement. Only explanation I can think of is all the changes to particles. As such, I'd like to hear all kinds of methods to handle this, as I now have to be careful which  direction  I face, and huo-long heavies can kill me... just by existing.", "id": "t3_1ive6a", "summary": "the damned changes to particles are bringing my laptop to its knees. \n EDIT: My specs aren't necessarily relevant, although I can say that my gpu, hdd, etc are all fine, but both my cpu's are bottlenecking at 100% and getting VERY hot."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "I play a lot of toplane, and love making some early contributions to ensure that more than my lane wins. One of my favorite ways to do this is to control the enemy jungle (ty rito for buffing the yellow trinket upgrade). \n Unfortunately, it would take a long time to learn them all, making it harder to know if I can jump out of a bush and give them a heart attack. \n What junglers are forced to do blu? Which ones have to back early and which ones can gank? Which junglers will almost certainly be within an inch of their lives? \n I am aware of a number of lists that tell how much hp a given jungler has after a specific route, but I don't really trust these, as players dedicated to their champion will find a way survive the jungle.", "id": "t3_2u5p5y", "summary": "I want a nice bulletpointed list of each jungler, and whether or not I can casually walk into their turf and murder/zone them. \n Thank you all in advance~"}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "Even when midlaning, I tend to end games with maybe a couple kills, and an absolutely absurd number of assists (usually 20+). \n Generally, this is because everyone is able to get away. When laning as a support, I have trouble setting up plays, and usually need the enemy laners to attempt a play so I can counter it.", "id": "t3_2ayflj", "summary": "How do I set up plays for my adc without the enemy support making a counter play against me, and how do I secure kills as midlaner?"}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "I've pubbed for an extended period as every class, and would like to make a concentrated effort to improve overall instead of doing whatever I feel like. \n Since I don't really main anything, I'm wondering where I should start. I know that some classes lend themselves to others (soldier and demo for example), which could be a good way to organize things. However, you could also make the argument that going from most to least important or vice-versa would make more sense.", "id": "t3_1q6w3b", "summary": "I want to be the best I can be, but don't know where to start. \n Thoughts? \n Edit: \"Master\" is a tad grandiose. I want to temporarily main each class for 20 - 30 hours, not 1000 hours."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "I'm being pessimistic and assuming worst case scenario (as is usually the case in pubs). \n On many occasions, I'll set up a nice sentry nest, but my team will do nothing with it. For example, I set up on steel A... but not a single teamate was there. Naturally, I didn't last long. \n Later, a spy was shooting at a tele at spawn on barnblitz. I stood there repairing it, as 20+ allies took the tele and completely ignored the spy that was still shooting in plain sight. \n On another occasion, a spy repeatedly sapped, rung, ran away, and did this over and over. I killed him proper many times, but he always made a beeline for my buildings until I was shut down completely. \n A few select soldier and demo mains have also taken to scouting me out/bombing me over the medics, snipers, etc. \n Finally, I've been encountering spies who do nothing but cloak and dagger for minutes at a time, then sap as soon as a push happens. Gets me every time unless I manage to body block. \n How do I handle all this abuse? It's getting quite stressful and I'd like some strategies to deal with being focused constantly. Should I just give up and run a wrangled mini on defense?", "id": "t3_1y4q9a", "summary": "suicidal spies who don't bother stabbing and people pecking at me with rockets."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "Just to preface this, this isn't a complaint. I only care about having fun and being a better player; smurfs/afks/trolls/whatever don't really bother me. \n So earlier, I was playing a ranked game at silver IV, when a karma stated she was platinum. I was skeptical, but said nothing and forgot about her. \n She completely stomped lane, got incredible cs, and annihilated the enemy team. As much as I appreciated the win, I couldn't help but feel bad for the enemy lux, and wondered what the enemy team could have possibly done. \n Then I had a thought. The enemy team has 5 strangers, and yours has 4. Doesn't this mean that the enemy team is  more  likely to have a smurf with a very high winrate? The sort of person who can carry afks and losing lanes? Sure they are more likely to have bad players, but I believe smurfs are much higher impact. This could indeed create downward pressure, making climbing slower than it appears. \n But it also means something else. By being able to damage control against superior players, wouldn't this lift that downward pressure and make winning easier? \n Thus, I ask some specific questions related to this: \n \n Which champions are best for killing that one fed platinum tristana/darius/whatever, and how are they played? \n \n If the smurf is warding and commanding their team around, what sort of calls should I be making to my team, and when? I highly doubt that I\"m going to outplay/outsmart them, but I'm sure there are reliable strategies that I need to learn. \n \n How do I better manage teamfights to make it more likely that they ace instead of us? Teamfights seem like a big gamechanger.", "id": "t3_2fbc2i", "summary": "I want to learn  damage control . When the enemy wukong goes 5/0 for example, I want to minimize his impact as much as possible."}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "I'm making an appeal here, in hopes of saving the Rod from a 10 second cooldown or something similar. I'd be  ok  with a one second cooldown to balance it for pvp, but the following should be taken into account: \n \n It  does  break the game... if you get it early. If it required the eye of the golem, ectoplasm, souls of sight, etc, then it would only be obtained at the end of the game. \n \n If you obtain it at the end of the game, there isn't anything to truly break. After farming the destroyer, I can have an unlimited amount of dynamite with which to get any material I want, and can craft a million spelunker potions. \n \n It makes combat more dynamic, and provides an alternative to face tanking. This game encourages face tanking too much. All of the best builds inherently focus on nonsense like life steal or turtling... but the rod changes it! Instead of standing in one spot, I can use armor with low defense again, and focus on high risk-reward dodging. WAY more fun! \n \n It increases the longevity of the game. Obstacles are placed in games to provide a fun challenge, but have a serious flaw - once you pass them, you can't properly enjoy them again. The rod of discord allows you to shift from enjoying challenges to enjoying open ended creativity, by offering transportation and making construction smoother. (you don't have to break a hole in your wall to get from one side to the other) \n \n It doesn't ruin teleporters. Teleporters are  cool . I can flip a switch to get all the way to my temple farm, or to a skyland, or to hell. It's instant and mindless, which is so much better than spamming one's mouse. \n \n \n As happy as I am with those points, I have one additional argument: the  rocket launcher . once you get it and buy 2 stacks of Rocket IVs, the following apply: \n \n Want a bunch of life fruit? Blow open a horizontal tunnel and pave it with mud, you'll get 10+ life fruit a sprint if it's long enough. \n \n Want lots of plantera's to kill easily? See the above. \n \n Want mushrooms? Clentaminate the above. \n \n Want souls of night and rotten chunks? Blow open a giant cavern. \n \n Want to purge the corruption? Blow open a diagonal path and clentaminate it. \n \n Want to make Terraria flat? It even gets rid of the background walls! \n \n Want more iron for boss farming? One rocket and the ore is vein is yours. \n \n Want explosion-proof hardmode ores? Quaff a spelunker and blow a path to it. The rod of discord can't teleport you into walls, now can it? \n \n Want any block? Blow it up. \n \n Want ice mimics? Blow up a tunnel in the ice biome. \n \n Want to reach hell or get to a cave? Blowing a path to them is actually much easier than the rod.", "id": "t3_1p9fpf", "summary": "The rod of discord is a fun endgame utility that improves gameplay. Keep it at the end and it's perfectly fine. The rocket launcher, on the other hand... \n If you have a reason to downvote, please post it to stimulate discussion, etc. (:"}, {"author": "TheMightyAnon", "content": "I've been in a horrible mental state since I found this sub last night, and I really need to get it off my chest. \n When I found this sub in a random post, I had no idea what it was, so I linked it to my friend. She said I was in for a huge treat and was overjoyed. She had me listen to bob ross but I felt nothing positive - in fact, I felt extremely uncomfortable, to the point of being ill. \n I suffer from really bad depression and suicidal thoughts, etc, and was really excited at feeling something new and wonderful. Instead, I feel devastated, left out, and disappointed at something I can't have. I'm tempted to even try drugs or something. Even worse, I made a discovery, which is the reason I'm posting here. \n The story people seem to tell is that they had no idea asmr was a thing, and that they had experienced it before. I had no such experiences, but I finally realized something else: \n the common triggers, like whispers, crisp sounds contrasted with silence, and a few other oddly specific things, make me wince, feel sick, and cause my skin to crawl. I never thought of it before, but this has been a problem for me for a long time, and I don't know what to do about it. \n Does anyone else have an \"anti\" feel good reaction to this stuff? I just don't know what to think about all this, and since you guys seem to have a wonderful community, I was hoping someone here could help or relate.", "id": "t3_31vx9d", "summary": "I feel devastated and left out that it not only doesn't work for me, but makes me feel upset, paranoid, quickens my heartbeat, makes me sweat, and other nasty things."}]}
+{"author": "AsABlackMan", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post white guys in TV tried to take a black man's words and make money off them without the black man's permission. Courts didn't let that happen.", "output": "That's because CBS tried to make money off the  I have a dream  speech. King sued and he and CBS settled out of court. [Wiki article here]( \n So it was either CBS make millions (or some other media company that uses King's legacy) or the heirs and successors of the man himself. \n And the reason I linked the case above is to show that I'm not presenting a false dilemma. That's legitimately how it went down, and that's why King's words and works are under copyright protection and not in the public domain."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Obama is right. Legalization won't hurt the cartels, it'll just keep Americans from going to jail on pointless charges. This is a good thing  but only half the story . Legalization would still keep the cartels around, and they will continue to expand into other areas of crime as well as oppress the people they control. Legalization  must  be accompanied with a concerted effort to destroy the cartels and corruption.", "output": "Unpopular opinion on legalization here. After multiple edits, I've broken it into sections. \n Obama is right - legalization won't solve the cartel issue because the cartels don't depend on the legal status of the drug, simply its demand. To survive, the cartels will just change their business model. \n Legalization makes it cheaper for the cartels to operate \n Think about it - legalization erases a huge part of a cartel's operational costs. They don't have to pay drug mules or as many armed goons, or pay off officials and law enforcement. They can use that money to fatten up their bottom line, lower prices to the end consumer, expand production and distribution, or all of the above. This is especially true if the government decides against levying import duties/regulations on incoming drugs. \n Should the government levy tariffs or regulations that the cartels find too onerous, the cartels will go right back to smuggling the goods the old fashioned way. Or just comply with the law as the cost of doing business since it's cheaper than evading law enforcement. Or just set up domestic operations here, or buy out competitors, or find friendlier markets, or all of the above. The cartels can adjust their models fairly easily since legalization will take a huge amount of pressure off their operating costs. \n A free market alternative to the cartels will take time and money to develop \n Unlike the distillers and brewers who could restart production at the end of Prohibition, there are no such parallels with manufacturing drugs. The cartels are the ones in the best position to supply the immense demand once legalization comes. \n Any company that tries to compete with the cartels will have to compete with pretty big organizations that have vast resources and distribution ability. It costs money to start a business, and it's even harder when challenging an established player. The cartels can out-produce and out-distribute practically any of their incoming competition, especially small or individual growers who can't compete on volume or price. It's a little like going up against Wal-Mart - it's tough to compete on quality alone. This all assumes that the cartels are run efficiently, and seeing as they tend to make money hand over fist it's fair to assume they know what they're doing. \n Won't the pharma companies want in? Probably not. Big pharma makes its money by owning patents on the drugs it makes. If it can't get a patent on a product, big pharma is probably not interested in developing the product. If big pharma does patent a process for making a drug more potent/safer then it's going to jack up the price for the life of the patent to \"recoup\" its R&D costs. These costs are passed on to you in the form of high drug costs. \n The generic makers aren't in the business of making drugs safe - they don't have the ability or will to engage in potentially expensive R&D. Generic makers will stick to their safe and reliable bread and butter products. Why risk selling a potentially unsafe product? Or worse, a product that has limited profit potential because the alternative on the market is of reasonable quality and at a low price? The cartels have a history and ability of creating a reliable product with minimal R&D costs (or so it seems). It's going to be difficult to beat that. \n Edit to add : Won't the cigarette/soft drink companies jump into the market? They have production and distribution ability don't they? Possibly they will. But it will be hard for them to compete with an established player, and their participation would pretty much gut the market for local growers as the cigarette/beverage companies buy up tracts of land to grow raw materials for their products. It'll take time for them to acquire and process their products. After that they'll just join the race to the bottom price. \n The most likely outcome is that the cartels will simply sell their raw material directly to the cigarette/beverage companies  as well  as sell directly to consumers. This way the cigarette/beverage companies don't have to worry about buying and storing raw materials and spending money taking super special care of their plants. The cartels gain a new customer, and consumers gain the illusion of choice. \n So long as quality and price remains competitive with anything big pharma/big soda/big tobacco can make, the cartels will be in business. This assumes big pharma/big soda/big tobacco even bother to enter the market at all. \n Moreover, enforcing costly safety standards will just drive out individual growers or drive them underground. And we're back where we started. In sum, the cartels by virtue of being very big and very rich, can survive (and thrive) after legalization by a few tweaks of their business model. \n The cartels are about preserving an oligarchy. Legalization allows them to preserve the status quo \n Legalization will not solve the cartel problem because it doesn't attack the main reason why cartels exist. The cartels represent the interests of a corrupt and wealthy elite. The cartels have less to do with legalization and more to do with corruption at the highest levels of society and government, a lack of economic development, and a lack of employment opportunities. \n Legalization will make it easier for the cartels to generate legitimate profits, which will then line the pockets of organized crime syndicates, corrupt politicians, and shady government officials. This just allows the cartels to perpetuate an oppressive system leading to the stagnation of civil, political, and economic institutions in the regions dominated by the cartels. \n And though legalization will probably lower narcotic prices, the cartels are in the best position to survive that. Small growers will have a much harder time surviving low prices. Ironically, the people hardest hit by legalization will probably be the poor growers under the thumb of the cartels who must work harder than ever before to make a livable wage. \n An analogy can be made to human trafficking. Legalizing prostitution in many parts of Europe allowed for better working conditions for sex workers. Yet countries  like Holland are major destinations for human traffickers . \n What legalization of prostitution  did  do is stop punishing sex workers and their clients in otherwise harmless transactions and gave sex workers a voice, access to health/protective services, and at least a measure of dignity and legitimacy. These are  good  things - sunshine is a fantastic disinfectant and it no doubt made a dangerous line of work much safer. \n However even after legalization the infrastructure for human trafficking remained untouched and very profitable regardless of the legal status of prostitution. There is a market for cheap human flesh that the legal market just can't provide. \n Legalization isn't a bad idea, but it requires a very comprehensive approach \n Legalization of drugs will get rid of disproportionate punishments for minor non-violent drug offenses. It's a bad idea to send someone to jail for ten years because they had $500 of product on them. \n But the cartels' infrastructure for producing and delivering lots of product at a low price will survive legalization. If anything, legalization will allow this infrastructure to expand by removing pressure from law enforcement. In the long term legalization will actually  help  the cartels because the cartels are smart (that's how they make money) and they'll just change their business model to cope with legalization. \n The solution is to dismantle the cartels before legalization - gut their ability to produce and distribute while replacing them with a different source. At a lower price if possible. \n Edit to add : There's good reasons to legalize and regulate drugs - among them the disproportionate punishment drug offenses entail. But ending the cartels is not one of these reasons. \n Final edit on violence : A lot of people think that legalization will make the cartels \"legitimate\" and less violent organizations. [This is far from the truth]( Legalization gives the cartels more profit by reducing their operating costs, and that allows them to pursue other more profitable/less risky ventures as well as to interface with organized crime across national borders. \n >Federal, State, and local law enforcement officials are witnessing a growing nexus \nbetween the Mexican drug cartels, illegal alien smuggling rings, and U.S. based gangs. (p.14) \n >According to U.S. law enforcement officials, tremendous incentive exists for drug cartels \nto diversify their criminal enterprises to include the human smuggling trade. Human \nsmuggling can be more lucrative than the illicit drug trade and the benefits far outweigh \nthe risks for the cartels."}], "user_id": "longlamp_557", "history": [{"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "The correct answer is that race is a social construction. Blackness has no value beyond what our culture has given it. Which, ideally, shouldn't be very much. But the comments you've gotten in this thread already show you that your skin color matters a lot. \n So what is blackness? \n Whatever white people say it is. \n No, I'm serious. \n If race is a social construction we should look at who makes up the rules for a society (i.e. who does the constructing). And this society (in my context American society) was made by white people. And for a long time, those white people tried to keep non-whites down and out. The rules of this society reflected a white supremacist racial preference for a really long time and we're still living with its effects. \n This racial agenda was carried out in lots of subtle and non-subtle ways. Non-subtle ways include out and out discrimination. Subtle ways include appropriating aspects of \"black culture\" and repackaging/whitewashing them in order to claim that discrimination doesn't happen or isn't as bad we think it is. The cliche appropriation example is rock music, but the best example is Booker T. Washington. Or really pretty much any successful black person who \"pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.\" Their hard work and determination shows that discrimination doesn't affect us anymore!  If they can do it, so can you! \n Blackness is often defined as thug life, gangsta rap, fed by nihilism, poverty, drug addiction, and crime. And the ghetto. Though you rarely hear anyone discuss why inner city ghettos exist (because whites didn't want blacks living in the whites-only suburbs) and why poverty is a problem (because it's one of the latent effects of segregation and discrimination). \n What is acting black? \n I don't know. Blackness is an identity largely created specifically to keep you oppressed. This is done by dehumanizing people with dark skin and denying that you, or anyone with dark skin, is fully human. Superficial example - when black people are compared unfavorably to monkeys. Or really every negative stereotype you've heard of black people being lazy - which is ironic in the American context because blacks were imported as slaves because they knew how to do important things very well. Like grow rice (which is very intensive work). \n Now Black Consciousness philosophies (advocated by people like Stephen Biko) argue that a real black identity would build up a sense of humanity within black people, BUT without reference to the white man, his history, his accomplishments, his religion, or any aspect of his way of life. \n Some people think this is just black sepratism - but given that whites kept blacks out of white society for centuries, the counterargument is \"so what if it is?\" White society was premised on separation of races - when the apartheid government criticized people like Biko (in America it was Marcus Garvey) for advocating racial separation (when at least Biko actually wasn't doing so but that's another story) was a little like the pot calling the kettle black. \n There's one comment in this thread I should respond directly to: \n >Or you can be a human being and just do whatever you want to do. \n When people tell you that they don't see race, they're saying a few things by implication. \n \n I choose not to see you for who you are but what  I  decide you are. \n \n I choose not to accept that there are consequences to having dark skin that I, as a person who isn't of color, will never have to deal with \n \n I get to decide what you are to me - as a result, we are never going to be equals. \n \n \n This just tells you that when someone decides you're acting a certain way, they've already decided you're not they're equal. What I would do is call them out on their ignorance. \"I don't see race\" is just willful ignorance. They're ignoring that race has consequences even today, and those consequences have nothing to do with how they see you. Call them on it.", "id": "c44p8t8", "summary": "Blackness is culturally constructed to oppress, and I'm not sure a positive black identity can ever be created successfully. \n And before the white people jump in saying \"well,  my  people were oppressed/characterized as imperialists/rapists/oppressors,\" I would like to point out that: \n \n I'm not denying white people were oppressed too. \n \n It's not a \"characterization\" if imperialism and oppression actually happened. \n \n \n By the way, did you know that for a long time only Anglo-Saxons were considered white? Everyone else only became white over a process of acceptance. True story. So yeah, \"acting white\" doesn't mean anything other than \"you have now been accepted into the socially dominant group in this society.\" \n That won't happen for black people, I don't think. \n \n SOURCES: \n I write ad nauseum about this stuff so [here's a comment post with sources on the history of housing discrimination in the 1940s and how it created lots of the problems we have today]( - specifically within education, thug culture, and crime. \n [Here's a book about how immigrant groups earned whiteness]( \n [Slaves taught slave owners how to grow rice]( \n [How the Irish became white]( \n [A dramatization of Stephen Biko's beliefs]("}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "I'm not calling anything out. I'm just talking off the top of my head. There's a fetish, and there's discrimination. There's a blurry line somewhere in there where America's racial issues feed the jungle fever thing. But I'm hesitant to label it as discrimination because, well, it's a fetish. By definition it's irrational, but pleasurable. Fetishes don't make sense to anyone other than other people who share them. Fetishes are about the individual's desires, not society's rules about what belongs where. \n It's pretty different from the posts that say \"white guys only plz.\" Sure you can fetishize white guys (see [/r/ladyboners]( But most of the time you see someone express a preference for white dudes, they're just acting on a latent prejudice against people of color.  I don't really see that happening here; as in, I don't see a latent prejudice against non-black guys.", "id": "c50po4v", "summary": "I don't think this is \"reverse racism.\" Just a harmless fetish that's too rich for my blood :)"}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "They aren't a minority, but for most of human history have suffered quite a lot of discrimination. Which is insane considering it's about half the human race. \n You don't have to be a minority to get legal protected status, but you do have to be oppressed. \n A key point about \"protected status.\" That designation only exists because the majority (read: white men) denied basic civil, social, and human rights to certain groups people for arbitrary reasons for centuries. There's no easy way to undo several lifetimes of damage to how our societies function. \n A lot of countries have decided to affirmatively protect certain groups and women - partly because the discrimination against them was so rampant. \n And protected status seems to get the job done. In the past women couldn't vote and minorities and their communities lived in constant fear of pogroms, violence, and lynch mobs. With legal avenues open to them and governments committed to prosecuting perpetrators of discriminatory violence, I have a hard time thinking these laws are a \"bad thing\" or somehow ineffective. It's also pretty clear that absent these laws, discrimination would still be as bad as it was a century ago. \n The \"protected status\" designation is not arbitrary - not in the same way that, let's say, racial or gender discrimination was. Protected status (or suspect classifications if you're American) came about  because  of discrimination. These groups were so underprivileged that governments decided to get involved. \n Now some people would characterize that as per se discrimination, or reverse racism. And to them I would point out that the alternative seems to be returning to the status quo ante. If the majority groups in power had no incentive to protect women or minorities a hundred years ago absent these laws, why would it be any different now? \n It also isn't clear that affirmative action actually hurts the people it purports to hurt. If so-called reverse racism is the new norm, [we aren't seeing it play out in empirical observation]( If anything, racism now is just better hidden [behind a veneer of civility or kept at bay by the pressure the law + society puts on us not to exhibit our discriminatory behavior in public]( \n So we should resist the temptation to believe we're past racial discrimination or that affirmative action laws somehow systematically disadvantage white people. It's just not empirically true. \n *", "id": "c2p5dsz", "summary": "rocks fall, everybody dies."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Well, Congress authorized the War on Terror as far as I remember. \n It all goes back to whether you have faith in the representatives you've elected and the constitution in which we base our laws. The constitution gives explicit enumerated powers - if the President or Congress acts beyond them then there's been a clear violation. We have the option of voting these people out. \n What strikes me as odd is that to some people, some actions of the government are clearly-cut unconstitutional. Some people think TSA searches are unconstitutional for example, never mind that they're really administrative searches (like building or health inspections). \n That, I think, is what's going on with the NDAA. People don't understand how due process works, so they get easily reeled into believing that a statute can change constitutional protections. Some people (like Glen Greenwald)  definitely  know this, so I don't know how he can reach the conclusions he does. Probably because controversy draws page views? \n >just because the constitution (due process) says the president cannot do something that means that he will not do it. \n This much is true, and I never contest it. But the problem is if the President or Congress, or the courts overstep their constitutionally enumerated powers, it's a clear-cut violation. The thing is though - NDAA isn't one of those times. \n More to the point, whenever people talk about [certain executive actions as clear-cut violations]( they aren't so clear cut at all. Troublesome, yes. But clear constitutional violations? It's not so clear - at least to me. \n So it's one thing for some issues or government actions to be constitutionally vague, or hard to analyze, or just ambiguous and that's why some governmental actions are troublesome. It's another thing to say that the same governmental actions are designed to kill off our constitutional protections in the name of the War on Terror. As far as I can tell the only reason anyone believes that is because they don't really understand how American law is structured.", "id": "c3csxmj", "summary": "This legal stuff is hard to analyze sometimes, so be wary of people who give you black and white answers (me included) without giving you the necessary framework as to why those answers are the right ones. I try my best to do that, at least."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Law school is expensive and there are more cost effective ways of saving the world. You only need a law degree to be an attorney. In many places, you don't need it to be a lobbyist, or a judge (no, really), or work in criminal rehabilitation. \n My advice to anyone considering law school is figure out how to pay it off in a set amount of time and be willing to stick with that plan. Going in on a wing and a prayer has hurt a lot of my friends - even the ones pulling in six figures in biglaw. Because the biggest influence in your career plan outside of family and loved ones will be that debt.", "id": "clylx8h", "summary": "If you can't figure out how to finance or legally procure about $100,000 (price will vary) don't go to law school. This advice does not apply if you get into Harvard, Yale, or maybe Stanford. Or if you get a 40 percent (or higher) scholarship to any law school in the top 25."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "IRV potentially raises constitutional issues with One Man, One Vote, but several courts have found no problem with IRV in local levels. The argument has some traction though, so it helps to pay attention to it. \n IRV reminds me of Borda, and the problem with Borda is transitivity. If the public's preferences go: \n A > B > C > A. \n (candidate A is preferred to candidate B, who is preferred to candidate C, who is preferred to candidate A). \n Then how can IRV provide a winner? Which candidate would be eliminated? The public's intransitive preferences make it impossible to eliminate a candidate since there is always a candidate the voters like more than another. \n The only solution I see is in pairwise round robin elections.  Let's keep the intransitive preferences above and have a pairwise round robin tournament. This is just one way to play it out but: \n A vs. B. \n Since the public likes A more than B, B is eliminated and A would win and move on to the next round where it would be \n A vs. C. \n Since the public likes C more than A, C would win the election outright. \n You don't have to structure it like that, but that's just one way to get around the transitivity problem. Some of you may notice that B could beat C (but not beat A). But the point is, I see no other way to avoid transitivity problems other than restricting the domain (the choices the voters have).", "id": "c2dhdyy", "summary": "It's impossible to have a completely fair election. IRV has issues too."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "A properly designed experiment would have the black and the white guy in exactly the same location, wearing exactly the same clothes, at exactly the same time of day, with the exact same car. Make sure everything is constant except the races of the individuals. \n Is this what it will take to prove that racism still exists in our society? \n Edit : We will  always  be able to point out confounding variables in an experiment like this one (i.e. time of day, foot traffic, vehicle traffic, police presence variation over the time of day). These variables would be impossible to replicate even in a \"properly designed experiment.\" \n My question is - how do any of you know that these variables (like location) would have changed the outcome of the experiment? Don't just assume they would because the experiment looks flawed. Explain how and why. I'm asking this because reddit tends not to tolerate any debate when even the slightest margin of error exists in any experiment that explores the nature of racism (among other topics) but is far more open to ambivalence on any other topic. \n Edit #2 :  If you really care about location here's an experiment that keeps that variable constant  how would these variables change the experiment and; (2) how do you know?", "id": "cfijet2", "summary": "Don't use the flaw in the experiment to conclude that racism doesn't exist."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Sigh. \n The good thing is that I've dealt with so much of reddit's implicit racism that I can pretty much copy paste my responses. \n >Detroit, Mich. 82.7% black Jackson, Miss. 79.4% black Birmingham, Ala. 73.4% black Baltimore, Md. 63.7% black Memphis, Tenn. 63.3% black New Orleans, La. 60.2% black \n Know why these cities are black? One word: segregation. The reason there are massive ethnic enclaves are because [of official and private discrimination]( Yes I'm citing my own comment, but it's sourced so it's all good. I'll cover a little of what I wrote there in here though. \n >African immigrants from Kenya are some of the most hardest working people I know, and they say they're ashamed of the african-american culture in the U.S. \n Here's a fun thing about immigrants - they're the ones who have the means to come here. Chances are if you know any African immigrants, they're upper-middle class to upper class where they come from. The same applies to Asian immigrants. That's where [myth of the model minority comes from]( \n >you say anything against black people on reddit and every single Liberal comes and swarms on you with pathetic excuses like \"they were born in an awful environment!\" or \"they're poverty stricken and have no other way out of the ghetto!\", which is just simply pathetic. \n You have to answer, though, who defines black culture and why does it get to be you? \n The nihilism prevalent in hip-hop culture has an origin, especially in the inner cities. It's tied to  housing discrimination  and served by poor segregated schools ([which has a generational effect on students]( these people were trapped in a cycle of poverty. All of this doesn't even take into account the ambient level of discrimination in society. \n The cycle goes like this. They couldn't get good jobs because they had crappy education (or because they were the wrong skin color - often both). They had a crappy education because they lived in segregated neighborhoods under-served schools in the projects. And they lived in the projects because (1) they couldn't afford housing in the suburbs (which whites only got because  their suburban home loans were subsidized by the government  or (2) if they could afford a nice house in the suburbs, their white neighbors wouldn't sell because of [restrictive covenants]( That cycle has an effect to this day [even if you claw your way out of the projects]( \n These kids watched their parents and grandparents come back from serving their country, or from a hard day's work in a society that treated them like garbage. All that personal responsibility and effort never paid off for them because they lived in a society that was prejudiced against their skin color. They lived in a society that told them they weren't human simply because they are black. The sane response to a society that denies your very humanity is to reject that society's values. That's where the nihilism comes from.", "id": "c4aujoj", "summary": "Reddit's weekly Stormfront thread strikes again!"}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Sigh. \n This is actually a hate crime, and as other posters have pointed out, it's in the public media. There's really no double standard at work here. \n But I have to respond to this \"black culture\" thing. The good thing is that I've dealt with so much of reddit's implicit racism that I can pretty much copy paste my responses. \n The nihilism prevalent in hip-hop culture has an origin, especially in the inner cities. It's tied to  housing discrimination  and served by poor segregated schools ([which has a generational effect on students]( these people were trapped in a cycle of poverty. All of this doesn't even take into account the ambient level of discrimination in society. \n The cycle goes like this. They couldn't get good jobs because they had crappy education (or because they were the wrong skin color - often both). They had a crappy education because they lived in segregated neighborhoods with poorly served schools in the projects. And they lived in the projects because (1) they couldn't afford housing in the suburbs (which whites only got because  their suburban home loans were subsidized by the government  or (2) if they could afford a nice house in the suburbs, their white neighbors wouldn't sell because of [restrictive covenants]( \n That cycle has an effect to this day [even if you claw your way out of the projects]( \n These kids watched their parents and grandparents come back from serving their country, or from a hard day's work in a society that treated them like garbage. All that personal responsibility and effort never paid off for them because they lived in a society that was prejudiced against their skin color. They lived in a society that told them they weren't human simply because they are black. The sane response to a society that denies your very humanity is to reject that society's values. That's where the nihilism comes from.", "id": "c4aurlv", "summary": "Reddit's weekly Stormfront thread strikes again!"}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "I can't help but feel that you're missing the point here. Full disclosure, I'm a pretty militant atheist. \n What you're suggesting is that we can take what people believe God is like at face value. That is, we can trust what religious texts say about the stuff God allegedly did. Like the parting of the Red Sea, water into wine, or the burning bush. And by disproving these events we therefore disprove God's existence. \n But disproving water into wine only disproves a certain manifestation of God; namely the one that interacts directly with the world in the way it says in the Bible or other religious texts. It says nothing about other conceptions of God. \n We can (logically) construct a conception of God that is immanent, omnipotent, and probably omniscient too. Such a being would be beyond human comprehension because it would not exist as you and I do. \n How would that work? The dumbed-down version of this is that you and I and objects in the world exist because we have defined edges. We are physically finite - no matter how fat I become, eventually I \"stop\" and another being/object begins. Everything in the natural world is defined by being separate from other things. \n It is possible that God is a being of infinite \"size\" - he would not exist as you and I and dinner tables do. I'm not talking about God being the sum of all creation either. I mean an infinite being that cannot be conceptualized or measured by minds accustomed to things that have defined beginnings and ends. Our very way of analyzing the world would not work on such a being. \n And also since this being is omnipotent, he could logically contradict himself. It sounds intuitively weird, but it's true. An all-powerful being would not be constrained by things like reason or physical laws - so how could we even hope to understand its actions, if it even \"acts\" at all? \n And since it would be an infinite being it would be pointless to ask how it came into being. An infinite being would just always ... be. \n The problem with omniscience is whether such a being could actually be conscious as we understand it. This is the one thing omnipotence might not help with - but Carl Jung psychoanalyzed God in  Answer to Job . For fun compare God in the Book of Job to Lord Krishna in the  Bhagavad Gita . God in Job is a jerk, but Krishna is a pretty cool guy. It isn't clear to me that an infinite and omnipotent being could be conscious. This is a whole other tangent though. \n Lots of religious people will concede that God has no physical manifestations. What we consider miracles may just be really uncommon occurrences of explainable phenomena. Faith does not draw its justification from the natural world.", "id": "c6bddah", "summary": "Disproving stuff in the Bible only disproves that specific conception of God. Those conceptions of God are actually pretty bad/shallow. You can logically construct a conception of God that defies our ability to analyze it without ever invoking the natural world. Can such a being exist? Yes. Does it? I don't think so - but I could be wrong."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Each extradition request must be handled on an individual basis, and it must process through the courts before the government has the ability to exercise a veto. \n This isn't strictly right. \n Extradition treaties aren't vague or general. Either the principle of dual criminality applies (the crimes are parallel in both jurisdictions), or there's a list of extraditable crimes in the treaty which are parallel in both jurisdictions. \n All crimes are territorial, with the exceptions of piracy (the ocean kind not the copyright kind), slavery, and crimes against peace/humanity. Territoriality means that crimes can only be prosecuted in the country they were committed. \n Here in the US, the government cannot request extradition absent a treaty. The government also cannot extradite a US citizen to a foreign jurisdiction unless a treaty provides for it. \n Then there's the political offense exception, which is read into every extradition treaty. The political offense exception basically says that a country will not extradite someone for political offenses against the requesting country - i.e. sedition (speaking against the government) or treason (trying to overthrow the government). \n Countries can also always consent to extradite on request, but that's not what's going on here because Sweden itself has extradition rules of its own: \n As far as anyone has shown me, American authorities have not charged or expressed interest in charging Julian Assange with a single thing. All I've ever seen are conspiracy theories that the Americans are out to get him when it isn't also clear that Assange has broken any American laws. If someone could point me to a federal statute Assange broke, I'd love to see it. \n This is what Sweden requires [for extradition]( \n > ... [extradition requires an offence punishable under the law of both countries (\"dual criminality\") that, in principle, is of a certain degree of seriousness.]  Extradition is permitted, provided that the act for which extradition is requested is equivalent to a crime that is punishable under Swedish law by imprisonment for at least one year . If sentence has been passed in the state applying for extradition, the penalty must be imprisonment for at least four months or other institutional detention for an equivalent period. \n Unpopular as it is to say this, Assange is milking the public's misunderstanding of extradition law for sympathy points and to distract the public of the sexual assault charge against him in Sweden. \n Think about it - he was in the United Kingdom for months. If  anyone  was going to extradite him to the United States, it would be Her Majesty's Government. \n But the UK didn't extradite him. Because the Americans didn't ask them to. If the Americans wanted Assange, they'd have asked for him while he was in British hands.", "id": "cak5xga", "summary": "Assange isn't afraid of being extradited to the US. He's afraid of the sexual assault charge in Sweden. \n \n Source/further reading: [Extradition law]("}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "I have to pay more under the Affordable Care Act and that's a bummer for me. I'd rather not get into the details of where I work and my insurance premiums BUT I'm still a fan of the ACA because: \n \n Even with my higher premiums, my coverage can't be canceled. In the old days an insurance company could basically just take your money and then cancel your coverage \n \n I can now buy insurance without worrying about pre-existing conditions making me ineligible \n \n More of my premium dollars are actually going to the cost of care, and not to a company's profit margin \n \n I don't really mind subsidizing other people's health - since if they're healthy, they're more likely to be productive. \n \n \n So sure I'm paying more (quite a bit more) for the same kind of plan I had before. Then I look at the benefits and I think it comes out about even. \n But I'm a young guy unlikely to need a lot of health services for the near to mid-term future. So I figure I can drop down a level of coverage or two (lower premium but higher co-pays and deductibles). \n What I plan to do is take the chunk of money that would otherwise be going to my higher-cost insurance plan and put it in a  Health Savings Account . I'll use that to cover my deductibles and co-pays until the insurance kicks in to cover the rest. \n If you're young (26 to 35 I'd say) and reasonably healthy consider the HSA route. Get a cheap plan that covers catastrophic care and a few doctor visits. Save the money you'd pay for the pricier plan in a HSA to cover your co-pays and deductibles. \n I guess I'll have worse insurance coverage now because of the ACA (and that's bad), but to be fair, I won't be paying for something I'm not really using either (which is good?). Some people really like the security of a comprehensive plan. I don't really feel I need something so comprehensive while I'm young and healthy. \n It's all in the balance of risk yo, and how tolerant you are to risk.", "id": "cczlahx", "summary": "ACA raised my premiums, but it made me re-evaluate my choices as a health services consumer. Opted for a higher deductible plan with a [HSA]( backup. Feel okay with it. \n Edit:  I'm also pretty sure you can use HSA funds to pay your insurance premiums. This has some tax advantages, but I'm not a tax professional."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Edit 1:  So this post kind of got out of control reddit. I love that. I added some more links, clarification, and did some punctuation edits. \n EDIT 2:  Also, since Asians are coming up a lot, I ought to link to some literature on [the myth of the model minority]( Read that before saying Asians had it rough too and black people are just whiny. \n \n As a black man, I am going to call shenanigans on this. OP is clearly trolling. \n But in case he isn't, I just want to say his (white) privilege is showing. \n OP doesn't understand why poor kids don't do well in school because he doesn't understand the history of social, political, educational, and legal discrimination in this country. The fact that it was legally ended by a series of court decisions and the civil rights act does not undo centuries of discrimination. \n I will explain by giving an example. \n After the end of World War II, American G.I.s came home to the Bill - they got access to subsidized loans for houses in the suburbs, and access to college educations. Provided they were white. Colored G.I.s didn't get these benefits. They were, for the most part, shunted aside into menial job training programs or denied benefits altogether. \n So while white Americans got to go to college, got good jobs and bought homes in the suburbs (on government-subsidized loans) to build equity and wealth, the government took a different approach with minorities. The government retained segregated schools, trained minorities to do menial jobs, denied subsidized FHA loans,  but  built project housing in the inner cities. This was done to provide cheap and affordable housing for minorities. \n So instead of using that money to subsidize loans for minorities (like it did for white people), the government built project housing in the inner cities for minorities. Instead of pressing for equal employment opportunities for all, or for equal education opportunities, the government decided the benefits given to white Americans would not be available for minorities - especially blacks. \n But back to housing. \n These housing projects, by the way, could not be bought or sold by their occupants. The renters could never build equity, and could not build wealth. These inner-city communities were also served by sub-par segregated schools that failed to prepare the next generation for any sort of future in a country that was virulently racist. \n This was all done, not unconsciously either,  just to keep minorities out of white suburbia . \n Even if you could bootstrap yourself out of the projects and afford a house in the suburbs, most white Americans practiced private discrimination in the form of [restrictive covenants]( Put simply, even if you could afford a house in the white suburbs, good luck finding someone who would sell it to you if you were the wrong ethnicity. \n So if you were black you were stuck in sub-par housing, sub-par schools, in a discriminatory society served by a government that practiced official discrimination. You could not escape even if you saved enough to move. You probably couldn't save enough to move because of rampant employment discrimination. And because of educational discrimination, even if you were smart enough to get away you never got that chance either. \n Put simply,  you were stuck . It didn't matter how hard you worked, or how smart you were, or if you were the most personally responsible person in the world. If you weren't white, you were denied access to decent housing, employment, and education. Without those, you're practically doomed to poverty. This hasn't even taken into account the ambient level of discrimination in broader society. \n The worst part is the cycle continued into the next generation. A generation of kids who grew up poor because of institutional discrimination pass it on to  their  own kids. The effect of discrimination was so deep that it's felt even two or three generations after the official end of racial discrimination: \n >> Even when black and white parents have the same test scores, educational attainment, income, wealth and number of children, black parents are more likely to have grown up in less-advantaged households.  So part of the explanation for the gap [in test scores] may lay in the widespread discrimination in housing, education and employment that African American children's grandparents faced . ([Source]( \n OP is right - more funding for schools in the inner cities won't solve the problem.  It's too late for that . The solution was to stop racial discrimination back in 1945 and stamp it out as hard and as fast as possible. We didn't do that. Instead our society fell back on its prejudices and acted on them. \n We are now paying the price for the laziness and prejudices of our forebears. We are living with their mistakes and the fact that OP doesn't see those mistakes, or chooses to characterize them as failures in personal responsibility on the part of the students/parents, shows just how sheltered his privilege has kept him. \n This is  not  the same as saying that personal responsibility has no role. Like I pointed out earlier, no matter how smart/hard-working/personally responsible you were in this country, if you were the wrong skin color, every door to advancement was shut to you. To pretend that isn't the case, or to pretend that it doesn't happen anymore, is to whitewash the history of discrimination. \n These kids have no incentive to play the game - cooperation with the system, working hard, and personal responsibility didn't work for their parents. Why should it work for them? Why should they listen to the white man who designed a system that has, for generations, screwed them so elegantly? If this is to change, we have to attack the nihilism that institutional discrimination created.", "id": "c331cir", "summary": "OP hasn't become more racist, he's just realized how racist he really is. \n \n Sources: \n How the GI Bill Shunted Blacks Into Vocational Training \n The Persistence of Discrimination in Mortgage Lending \n Home Ownership Trends and Racial Inequality \n Further reading: \n [When Affirmative Action Was White]( - Ira Katznelson. \n The Test Score Gap"}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Stormfront anti-affirmative action copypasta from AEI? Really? I thought they were better than that. Anyway. \n Misleading statistic is misleading. All you need is to apply some critical thinking and math. \n Consider first, the overall applicant pool: \n \n There were [49,480 applicants to medical school]( in 2014.  \n Of those, [20,343 enrolled](  \n That's about a 41 percent enrollment rate. \n \n The black pool: \n \n Of those 49,480 candidates [only 3,990 were  black]( That's about eight percent of the pool \n And out of that 3,390 applicants, only 1,412 enrolled.  \n That's about a 35 percent enrollment rate. \n \n This means that: \n \n Black applicants make up about 8 percent of the 49,480 pool. (3,990 divided into 49,480) \n \n It also means that black applicants make up only 7 percent of the 20,343 applicants who actually enroll. (1,412 divided into 20,343). \n \n It also means that  over 65 percent of black applicants to medical school didn't get in.  (1,412 divided into 3990). \n \n \n So why is the black acceptance rate so high compared to other groups? \n Think of it this way. \n Five black applicants apply to a medical school. Three get in. That's a 60 percent acceptance rate. \n Compare this to twenty Asian American applicants who apply. If ten get in, there's a 50 percent acceptance rate. \n In this hypothetical there would be three black candidates and ten Asian ones (i.e. over twice as many). \n The acceptance rates don't tell you anything about an individual candidate's chances of acceptance, even if you know the total number of candidates. It suggests that either a group has a huge admission advantage, or that their number of applicants is so small that their admission rate looks much higher than everyone else's. \n Edit :  Let's use a more concrete example: \n \n So yeah black candidates with a 3.4 GPA and 27 MCAT have an 81 percent acceptance rate. In the hypothetical class of 100 med students, about 7 of them would be black (blacks are about 7 percent of enrollees). \n \n Let's say there were eight black applicants and only seven got in - that's about an 88 percent acceptance rate for blacks right there. \n \n That still means 93 percent of the students aren't black. It also means that there's at least a 50 percent chace that there are at least seven other people in that class who are \n \n Not black and; \n \n have even lower scores than the black candidates. \n \n \n Remember that the acceptance rate for all the other ethnic groups  is never zero . Even for the lowest scores. \n \n So if there were 60 white applicants with those scores (whites are about 60 percent of the population so go with it here), around 20 would get in (30-ish percent acceptance rate). This means that there are more than  twice as many white students  (20) as black students (7), even though the acceptance rate for whites seems low by comparison - 30 percent for whites to 88 percent for blacks.  \n \n See how this statistic is a lie, a damned lie? \n You can't use acceptance rates to extrapolate on qualifications of any individual candidate or the group as a whole  or  the likelihood you'll get into med school. That's just bad statistics.", "id": "cqj1qqj", "summary": "Lies, damned lies, and statistics. Affirmative action didn't help black applicants here. The vast majority of black applicants didn't get into medical school. Black acceptance rates (at 35 percent) are still lower than the overall acceptance rate (~40 percent). Sources are included."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Stormfront anti-affirmative action copypasta from AEI? Really? I thought they were better than that. Anyway. \n Misleading statistic is misleading. All you need is to apply some critical thinking and math. \n Consider first, the overall applicant pool: \n \n There were [49,480 applicants to medical school]( in 2014.  \n Of those, [20,343 enrolled](  \n That's about a 41 percent enrollment rate. \n \n The black pool: \n \n Of those 49,480 candidates [only 3,990 were  black]( That's about eight percent of the pool \n And out of that 3,390 applicants, only 1,412 enrolled.  \n That's about a 35 percent enrollment rate. \n \n This means that: \n \n Black applicants make up about 8 percent of the 49,480 pool. (3,990 divided into 49,480) \n \n It also means that black applicants make up only 7 percent of the 20,343 applicants who actually enroll. (1,412 divided into 20,343). \n \n It also means that  over 65 percent of black applicants to medical school didn't get in.  (1,412 divided into 3990). \n \n \n So why is the black acceptance rate so high compared to other groups? \n Think of it this way. \n Five black applicants apply to a medical school. Three get in. That's a 60 percent acceptance rate. \n Compare this to twenty Asian American applicants who apply. If ten get in, there's a 50 percent acceptance rate. \n In this hypothetical there would be three black candidates and ten Asian ones (i.e. over twice as many). \n The acceptance rates don't tell you anything about an individual candidate's chances of acceptance, even if you know the total number of candidates. It suggests that either a group has a huge admission advantage, or that their number of applicants is so small compared to the rest of the pool, their admission rate looks much higher than everyone else's. Even though that doesn't bear out in absolute (or even relative) numbers. \n And the latter is what happened here.", "id": "cqj1zw4", "summary": "Affirmative action didn't help black applicants here. The vast majority of black applicants didn't get into medical school. Black acceptance rates (at 35 percent) are still lower than the overall acceptance rate (~40 percent). Sources are included if you doubt the black guy."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "The military is most definitely required to detain covered persons according to this legislation. 1022(b)(1) specifies that the requirement to detain (i.e. \"shall hold\") referred to in 1022(a)(1) does not apply to US citizens. Plainly then the  option  exists. \n So this is why you're wrong, but before I start I should point out that if the military captures a citizen abroad, then of course it gets to hold them. That's just a natural consequence of capturing someone. But this doesn't mean the military has jurisdiction to prosecute, or gets to ignore due process especially under the NDAA. The military has to turn citizens over for civilian prosecution in these cases. This is how that works. \n So here's 1022(a)(1) \n > the Armed Forces of the United States shall hold a person described  in paragraph (2) who is captured in the course of hostilities  authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force in military custody  pending disposition under the law of war . \n On its face it seems that the military can hold anyone it captures \"in the course of hostilities.\" But before we jump to that conclusion we have to: \n \n Read paragraph 2 to figure out who can be held \n \n Figure out what \"disposition under the law  of war\" means. \n \n \n So first, we look at paragraph 2 and see where that takes us. \n >The requirement in paragraph (1) shall apply to any person whose detention is authorized  under section 1021  ... \n So now we look at 1021 and see whose detention is authorized. Now, the important question to ask - are citizens detainable under any provision in 1021? Or is there a provision in 1021 that tells us that excludes them from military detention? \n And we find one provision that tells us citizens are excluded: 1021(e) \n >> Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities relating to the detention of United States citizens  ... \n How would this work? Here we pause and we identify \n \n The existing law or authorities on the detention of citizens. This is a body of law called due process law. \n \n How much of it, if any, allows for the indefinite detention of citizens. \n \n How much of it, if any, has been affected by 1021. \n \n \n We can immediately identify existing law that prohibits the indefinite detention of citizens: namely the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Also Supreme Court cases like  [Hamdi]( the use of military tribunals on citizens  [Ex Parte Milligan]( and *[Boumedienne]( which ruled that even enemy combatants have habeas rights while in American custody. \n 1021(e) explicitly tells us that all of this law is included intact. Citizens cannot be held indefinitely, cannot be tried by the military, and cannot be put beyond the reach of the courts. \n You actually don't need to read past this point, because since 1021 doesn't authorize the detention of citizens (in fact existing law forbids it -  [Hamdi]( the military doesn't have the option of holding them indefinitely  even if they're captured abroad.  It doesn't matter what the military labels them either ( [Boumedienne]( \n The rest is disposition under the law of war for non-citizens and why the military isn't actually required to hold anyone at all. \n \n 1022 still leaves us with a problem. What do we do with non-citizens when they're captured? \n >The requirement in paragraph (1) shall apply to any person whose detention is authorized under section 1021  who is determined -- \n \n to be a member of, or part of, al-Qaeda or an associated force ... and \n \n to have participated in the course of planning or carrying out an attack or attempted attack against the United States ... \n \n \n Now the question is: who gets to do the determining? \n This is where  disposition under the law of war  comes in. That tells us how non-citizens are going to be handled. All of that is in 1021(c). \n >Disposition Under Law of War- The disposition of a person under the law of war as described in subsection (a)  may include the following : \n \n Detention under the law of war without trial until the end of the hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force. (The POW rule - a sovereign country always has the right to deny its foreign enemies personnel and materiel). \n \n Trial under chapter 47A of title 10, United States Code (as amended by the Military Commissions Act of 2009 (title XVIII of Public Law 111-84)). \n \n Transfer for trial by an alternative court or competent tribunal having lawful jurisdiction. \n \n Transfer to the custody or control of the person's country of origin, any other foreign country, or any other foreign entity. \n \n \n The military isn't required to hold anyone at all - it can do any one of four things to captured fighters. \n But 1021(c)(1) is troubling (the POW rule). It seems the military can hold someone for a long time without charge on the basis of an accusation, but how does it figure out who to hold? Isn't there any kind of oversight? \n That question is resolved in 1024 - specifically 1024(b)(1). And these procedures are  required . \n >The  procedures required by this section  shall provide for the following  in the case of any unprivileged enemy belligerent who will be held in long-term detention ... \n \n A military judge shall preside at proceedings  for the determination of status  of an unprivileged enemy belligerent. \n \n An unprivileged enemy belligerent may, at the election of the belligerent, be represented by military counsel at proceedings for the determination of status of the belligerent. \n \n \n So unlike what you say \n >it would appear that this status will likely be determined on the so-called battlefield \"in the course of hostilities\" or shortly after capture, which is essentially saying the CinC or delegated authority determines whether one is covered. \n Congress has established a military tribunal to determine the status of  unprivileged enemy belligerents . And using this court isn't even mandatory if we use the other disposition options in 1021. \n And since  Ex Parte Milligan  doesn't allow the use of military courts on citizens (via 1021(e) as existing law on detention of citizens) we know the 1024 tribunal doesn't apply to citizens. Citizens are automatically moved to the civilian courts. \n Also,  Boumedienne  requires the government to give all detainees the ability to challenge their detention - which is also included by 1021(e). \n While the government has done unconstitutional things in the past, that doesn't make  this  legislation unconstitutional. It just makes you skeptical - and that's okay.", "id": "c3dkxdj", "summary": "1021 excludes citizens (and others) from military detention."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "He's actually pretty much spot on. Greenwald gets his reading of 1032 of the NDAA wrong. In fact, the NDAA specifically states (in 1032(e)) that existing due process law is unaffected by the NDAA. \n Background on due process law: Court cases from Boumedienne, Hamdi, and Hamdan: The Supreme Court ruled that due process cannot be taken away. \n \n If you're a citizen captured anywhere in the world (based Fourth Amendment due process protection) or \n \n If you're a foreigner captured in an American jurisdiction (based on the Fourteenth Amendment). \n \n \n 1032(e) says that the NDAA does not modify existing due process law. What law is this? Boumedienne, Hamdi, and Hamdan. These cases mandate due process for any American citizen, even when captured abroad. Due process is also mandated for non-citizens if they're captured on American soil (or an American jurisdiction). \n 1032 also only applies to two kinds of people \n \n A person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored those responsible for those attacks. \n \n A person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. \n \n \n If you think \"substantially supported\" or \"associated forces\" is too broad, keep in mind that these parties  also  have to be engaged in hostilities against the United States. So this exempts people who innocently/unwittingly associate with al-Qaeda or the Taliban and support them materially. \n And even if you  did  associate with them, if you're an American citizen your due process rights are never suspended. Ever. Not even under the NDAA. The government still has to prove you're guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and if it can't you walk. You can also always challenge your detention in court, and the NDAA does not take this right away from you since it does not suspend habeas corpus. More to the point, due process is a constitutional right that cannot be suspended by statute. 1032(e) makes it clear that the NDAA does not affect existing due process law. \n Also, believe it or not, you don't lose your citizenship by being  accused  of supporting al-Qaeda. The government will have to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt before citizenship is stripped or any other punishment is imposed. \n Edit to add : The indefinite detention power in the NDAA only applies to foreign fighters captured during hostilities. How is this justified? Under the laws of war, a sovereign nation has the right to deprive its enemies of personnel and materiel for the duration of hostilities. It's the same rationale that allows countries to hold prisoners of war without trying them. (It wouldn't make sense to try an enemy soldier for following the lawful orders of his superiors). \n The problem here is that al-Qaeda and the Taliban aren't sovereign nations, and it isn't clear whether their fighters are following lawful orders. This is a gray area - and the NDAA deals with it by giving the military the option of turning over captured fighters to their home nations for prosecution under their criminal systems. They can also be brought here to America and tried as well. Or they can be held as prisoners of war and treated accordingly until hostilities end. \n The other problem is the number of detainees at Gitmo that the United States cannot/will not release because (1) the detainees will probably go back to terrorism, but we cannot try them after the Bush administration tortured information out of them (2) they don't want to go back because they fear torture or reprisal (3) no one will take them in. This issue is complicated, but outside the scope of the NDAA itself. \n Third problem: when will hostilities end? Easy answer is \"when Congress says so.\" But that doesn't really solve the problem I stated above. It's also beyond the scope of the NDAA as well.", "id": "c3brn31", "summary": "NDAA doesn't take away your due process rights, nor does it allow for indefinite detention. How do I know? As a black man, I make it my business to know when/how the government does its arresting. I also read the fucking bill."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "This is copypasta. \n So there's a lot of misconceptions about the NDAA - long and short of it is that it does  not  authorize the indefinite detention of American citizens. And no, I don't care what Glenn Greenwald says. His reading of the statute has some massive holes in it - and it only works if you ignore 1021(e) in relation to the rest of the bill. 1021(e) doesn't magically go away simply because we move to another section. \n The NDAA specifically states (in 1021(e)) that existing due process law is unaffected by the NDAA. \n Background on due process law: Court cases from Boumedienne, Hamdi, and Hamdan: The Supreme Court ruled that due process cannot be taken away if: \n \n You're a citizen captured anywhere in the world . This is based on Fourth and Fifth Amendment due process protection. Or \n \n You're a foreigner captured in an American jurisdiction . \n \n \n So 1021(e) says that the NDAA does not modify existing law on the detention of US citizens. Which law is this? Due process law. More specifically, Boumedienne, Hamdi, and Hamdan (and to a great extent  Ex Parte Milligan ). These cases mandate due process for any American citizen, even when captured abroad. Due process is also mandated for non-citizens if they're captured on American soil (or an American jurisdiction).  Ex Parte Milligan  also precludes the use of military tribunals on citizens if civilian courts are open. \n Boumedienne makes it clear that habeas is available to anyone held in American custody, and that if habeas is suspended, there needs to be a workable alternative to allow detainees to challenge their custody. \n Habeas is related to, but distinct from, due process. Habeas is the right an  individual  has to challenge her detention. Due process is the burden the  government  must bear to impose detention or punishment. Habeas can be suspended because of a national emergency, but the NDAA, the Patriot Act, and the AUMF have not done so. So habeas is untouched and available to anyone in American custody. But back to due process. \n 1021 also only applies to two kinds of people \n \n A person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored those responsible for those attacks. \n \n A person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. \n \n \n If you think \"substantially supported\" or \"associated forces\" is too broad, keep in mind that these groups  also  have to be engaged in hostilities against the United States. So this exempts people who innocently/unwittingly associate with al-Qaeda or Taliban members (the support isn't substantial enough). It also exempts people who support groups that  aren't  engaged in hostilities against the US, or didn't help with/plan 9/11. \n And even if you  did  associate with them, if you're an American citizen your due process rights are never suspended. Ever. Not even under the NDAA. Because 1021(e) makes it clear that due process law still applies, the government has to produce enough evidence to convict you beyond a reasonable doubt, otherwise you go free. \n Also, you can always challenge your detention in court since the NDAA does not suspend habeas corpus. Remember that due process is a constitutional right that cannot be suspended by statute. 1021(e) makes it clear that the NDAA does not affect existing due process law. \n Also, believe it or not, you don't lose your citizenship by being  accused  of supporting al-Qaeda or deemed a terrorist. The government will have to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt before citizenship is stripped or any other punishment is imposed.  Edit to add : someone pointed out to me in the comments that the Eighth Amendment (through *[Trop v. Dulles]( doesn't allow natural-born citizens to be stripped of citizenship as punishment. \n The indefinite detention power in the NDAA only applies to foreign fighters captured during hostilities. How is this justified? Under the laws of war, a sovereign nation has the right to deprive its enemies of personnel and materiel for the duration of hostilities. It's the same rationale that allows countries to hold prisoners of war without trying them. (It wouldn't make sense to try an enemy soldier for following the lawful orders of his superiors). \n The problem here is that al-Qaeda and the Taliban aren't sovereign nations, and it isn't clear whether their fighters are following lawful orders. This is a gray area - and the NDAA deals with it by giving the military the option of turning over captured fighters to their home nations for prosecution under their criminal systems. They can also be brought here to America and tried as well. Or they can be held as prisoners of war and treated accordingly until hostilities end. \n The other problem is the number of detainees at Gitmo that the United States cannot/will not release because (1) the detainees will probably go back to terrorism, but we cannot try them after the Bush administration tortured information out of them (2) they don't want to go back because they fear torture or reprisal (3) no one will take them in. This issue is complicated, but outside the scope of the NDAA itself. \n Third problem: when will hostilities end? Easy answer is \"when Congress says so.\" But that doesn't really solve the problem I stated above. It's also beyond the scope of the NDAA as well.", "id": "c3brs66", "summary": "NDAA doesn't take away your due process rights, nor does it allow for indefinite detention of citizens without due process. How do I know?  As a black man, I make it my business to know when/how the government does its arresting . Due process is a constitutional right, and cannot be abrogated or changed by statute. I also read the fucking bill."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Whoa, so much of this isn't really right but there's enough good stuff so I wouldn't trash this entirely. I will rewrite it in three parts. \n >The UN develops, votes on, and implements international law. For example, I've seen it on Reddit many times as a TIL post. The Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. Which bans any military use of celestial bodies, including weapon testing or as military bases. This is international law passed by the United Nations in an attempt to create peace before belligerence occurs. \n Strictly speaking, this isn't right because the UN doesn't develop, vote, or implement international law. True the example given, the Moon Treaty, was brokered by the UN. However treaties have been used in international law since time immemorial. Plenty of treaties have nothing to do with the UN. \n Examples include the Maastricht Treaty, NAFTA, NATO, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Countries make treaties/agreements with each other all the time. From Ramses' treaty with the Hittites to the Good Friday Agreement - this is all valid and controlling international law. And it has nothing to do with the UN or the Security Council's enforcement powers (more on this later). \n Part I: International law has three sources: \n \n Treaties/conventions that countries recognize as controlling. \n \n Norms or  jus cogens  - stuff that has always been done this way \n \n The ever nebulous \"general principles of law recognized by civilized nations.\" \n \n \n If this sounds like vague sorcery to you, it kind of is. But it's also a fairly well-developed area of law. Unlike domestic law which is enforced by the coercive power of the state, international law is based on the idea that a predictable system of international rules makes everyone's lives easier. Basically a lot of international law grew out of the need for uniform trade rules that everyone could follow. \n Part II: There aren't that many international crimes \n You'd be surprised to find out that there aren't really that many international crimes though. It is not against any general principle of law, a norm, or a treaty for a country to defend itself from outside aggression. This is up to - and including - blockading a country's ports and imposing harsh economic sanctions on it. \n That said, there are basically two international crimes in international law that come from old treaties and norms. They are: \n \n Trading slaves (this started out with treaties and became a norm) \n \n Piracy - (taking over ships and planes in international waters) - piracy was  always  a crime since before our species can remember \n \n \n These are probably the clearest examples of international crimes we have. These crimes are so illegal that anyone caught by any country anywhere  trafficking slaves or hijacking ships/planes can be tried anywhere in the world. These are crimes of \"universal jurisdiction.\" The theory is they hurt us all collectively, so anyone can prosecute them. \n Next there's the [Geneva Convention]( These don't define international crimes per se, but they do define the duties warring states have to each other. Namely, don't torture or kill soldiers who have surrendered, or harm civilians who aren't fighting. There's a lot of conventions out there, like the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. But yeah, these are so ingrained that they're basically tradition now. \n Then there's the more recent ones that developed after the Second World War. There's a lot of overlap in this group and my examples are non-exclusive. \n \n Crimes against peace - best example: [aggression]( \n \n Crimes against humanity - best example: genocide, apartheid \n \n War crimes - best example: killing prisoners of war. \n \n \n Part III: Anyone can enforce international law \n Earlier I mentioned that crimes like trading slaves and piracy can be prosecuted by any country that catches the slavers/pirates. This is called \"universal jurisdiction.\" This is why, for example, the US could try the Somali pirates in its federal courts. If the French caught the pirates the French could try them. Or the Iranians. Or anyone. Most of the really serious international law violations you often think of - like genocide - are crimes of universal jurisdiction. \n Lots of international tribunals have been set up under the aegis of the UN. The Rwandan and former Yugoslavian tribunals are examples of this. The best non-directly UN example is the [International Criminal Court]( \n The ICC is nominally outside the UN's control, however the Security Council can refer cases there. The ICC can also only listen to cases that came after 2002, and only from countries that have signed the ICC's establishing treaty (the Rome Statute)  and  only if that country says it can't handle the case on its own. So you don't  have  to use the ICC if your national courts can handle a case. But it's a good stopgap if your country's court system has a problem with accountability. \n > Fun fact - the United States has not signed the Rome Statute. In 2002 the US also passed a law that authorized the President to use any appropriate means to get back a soldier who was put on trial at an international tribunal like ICC. The [Hague Invasion Clause]( hasn't ever been invoked though. BUT if you're an American soldier, accused of some war crime where do you really want to be? At the ICC where there's no death penalty? Or the federal courts where the gods cannot help you? \n So", "id": "cqyojkv", "summary": "There are three sources of international law - treaties, norms, and \"general principles of international law.\" \n \n International crimes aren't that many. There's two clear ones, slave trading and piracy. The others overlap very often with domestic law which is why; \n \n International law, especially crimes of universal jurisdiction, can often be enforced anywhere. You don't have to haul a war criminal to the Hague; you \ncan try them from the comfort of your own criminal justice system. \n \n \n Sources: am lawyer, I did this for a living for a while."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Man this is going to turn into a wall o' text but I DON'T CARE ANGRY BLACK MAN IS ROUSED. \n \n First this is not a constructive or even historically accurate way of thinking about slavery. Slavery is not simply something white people \"did\" to black people. Freedom is not something white people \"gave\" to black people. \n \n Second, it  heavily downplays  (if not completely ignores) the role of actual slaves and free blacks in their own liberation. \n \n \n Slavery was complicated, wrong, and you don't get brownie points for trying to end it \n \n Limbaugh's statement it's based on the false belief that slavery was a one-way transaction (white people stealing Africans from their homes) when the reality was Africans sold other Africans to the slavers for money and goods. The Africans who sold these slaves benefited from the slave trade, no doubt. \n \n That doesn't change the fact that the biggest beneficiaries of the Atlantic slave trade were the owners of big sugar, tobacco, and cotton plantations (i.e. primarily white slave owners). So  even if it's true  (and I don't know that it is) that white people have done the most to end slavery, the plantation owners were ones who drove it to its height in the first place, and the ones who got the most out of it before it was abolished. \n \n If we all agree slavery was inhuman and wrong, the people who benefit the most from it don't get brownie points for trying to undo the damage of their actions. \n \n But as I've pointed out earlier, thinking of this as a one-way transaction  is simplistic. Africans benefited from selling slaves to the New World as well. Simply put, slavery was  wrong  no matter who did it. You don't get brownie points for doing the right thing (i.e. opposing slavery) - you're just  supposed  to do the right thing. \n \n \n Who gets to decide who \"gave the most\" and why does it get to be Rush Limbaugh? \n \n Limbaugh's statement also  heavily downplays  (if not outright ignores ) the role of slaves and freedmen [in their own liberation](  \n \n >Enslaved African Americans protested the burdensome demands of continuous forced labor by committing various day-to-day acts of resistance. These ranged from breaking, hiding or stealing tools to burning crops and structures, running away, feigning illness, killing domestic animals and deliberate work slowdowns. \n \n Now you can say that work stoppages and slowdowns aren't \"really\" resistance at the level of the American Civil War.  But you have to realize that even the slightest resistance from a slave often meant punishment, sale, or death for themselves and their loved ones. Make no mistake,  slaves fought back whenever they could  and they had fewer resources on hand plus a  lot  more at stake than their abolitionist friends. \n \n And when it came down to it all, slaves  revolted  against their masters  repeatedly . In one instance they even managed to start a country called Haiti. Here in the United States, slave owners were so afraid of revolts that they wrote a fugitive slave clause *[into the Constitution itself]( \n \n Side note: [The Haitian slaves were fined for their successful revolution]( and forced to compensate France for the loss of the sugar colonies. Which is ironic because France was all about liberty, equality, and brotherhood after the French Revolution. \n \n \n \n So can you really measure these sacrifices and say who had it hardest or did the most? Is it the white abolitionists who risked their lives and fortunes for the freedom of unknown strangers? Is it the slaves in the field who risked punishment and death at even the slightest sign of disobedience?  \n \n Why are we asking who gave more? What does that tell us about  anything ? \n \n Really. Someone tell me. Because all it tells me is that someone is somehow really proud of themselves for doing something  they're supposed to do in the first place  (i.e. oppose slavery at all costs, in all places, by any means necessary).  \n \n And really, don't start with the Arabic slave trade or slavery today because we know that's not what he was talking about. And even if it was, see previous question.", "id": "cb87wl1", "summary": "Dumb sentence is dumb analysis of complex issue that doesn't actually say anything, solve a problem, or grant any insight. Plus it's almost completely wrong anyway. You shouldn't feel  proud  to oppose slavery, or get brownie points for opposing slavery, you just  should  categorically oppose slavery. End of story. Don't feed the trollbaugh. \n See also  related dumb oversimplification argument: [Slavery wasn't so bad in the first place]("}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Okay, so now follow this: \n The \"past racial discrimination\" that caused this attitude involved things like: \n \n Housing discrimination \n \n Sub-par schools \n \n Discrimination from law enforcement \n \n Employment discrimination. \n \n \n Now  all  of those things and more fit under the banner of past racial discrimination right? \n So when you say \"past racial discrimination caused the negative attitude\" - we can fairly replace any of the things I've listed as one of the many kinds of racial discrimination. \n For simplicity's sake, we'll choose #2 (sub-par schools) and reformulate your position into this: \n >The fact that the value system was created is the fault of past racism (like putting blacks in sub-par schools). \n So the reason blacks under-perform in school is because of an attitude caused by racial discrimination. Racial discrimination like putting them in bad schools. So you really shouldn't be surprised that people don't do so well when they're in bad schools. [Let's not forget that a bad education has generational effects]( \n Ogbu's point is far more subtle than you're giving him credit for. Understanding the effects of racial discrimination across generations can't be reduced to just victim blaming. \n Now this is your second point. \n > The fact that it [the negative value system] remains is the fault of everyone ascribing to those values. \n You're assuming two things. Either \n \n that the kinds of racial discrimination that  caused  this attitude no longer exist to perpetuate this attitude. \n \n Alternatively you're assuming that racial discrimination is not needed to perpetuate this attitude. And that the  only  other way this attitude continues to exist is because its victims perpetuate it. \n \n \n But none of your assumptions are empirically true. The kinds of racial discrimination that caused this attitude still exist. Unless you're willing to argue that racial discrimination doesn't happen anymore. \n Also your alternative assumption that racial discrimination is not needed to perpetuate it cannot be confirmed in a system that  still  has racial discrimination. But this is your assumption, so you'll have to back it up with data. You'll have to show why racial discrimination is no longer needed to perpetuate the \"shitty attitude.\" \n *", "id": "c8ajpll", "summary": "If racial discrimination was the cause of the \"shitty attitude\" at the beginning, and if racial discrimination still exists today, when did racial discrimination stop being the cause of the \"shitty attitude\"?"}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Oh hey look, more armchair constitutional law scholaring. \n Look everyone; if the intelligence agencies either purposefully or negligently captured private conversations by American citizens, they are  required by law  to look at that data to sort out which communications are covered by the Fourth Amendment and which ones aren't. \n Remember that a lot of this data is captured by automation. Computers can't decide whether a communication is covered by the Fourth Amendment or not. That's what analysts and lawyers are for - they look at the data they've gathered to see whether any of it useful. \n This is the  second paragraph  of the story by the way: \n >These searches were authorized by a secret surveillance court in 2011, but it was unclear until Tuesday whether any such searches on Americans had been conducted. \n Let's parse this out: \n \n Secret surveillance court means the FISA court. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act creates a court that's tasked with approving or denying warrants for covert operation surveillance. The members of this court are chosen from the federal judiciary by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, not the President or Congress. The judges also rotate. \n \n If the FISA court approved the bulk data gathering,  then there was a warrant . \n \n Which in turn means that the bulk automated collection of information was done legally. \n \n It doesn't make sense to get  another  warrant to look at data you've acquired legally. Especially if you're going to look for data that may be covered by the Fourth Amendment. \n \n The \"warrantless searching\" then seems to be what the intelligence agencies did after getting the bulk data legally. They looked for data from American citizens that was protected by the Fourth Amendment. They're  supposed  to do that. How else can you tell whether the information is privileged or not? \n \n Here in the US we have the exclusionary rule. Any evidence gathered in violation of the Fourth Amendment can't be used against you. \n \n \n By the way, this isn't a defense of government surveillance so I don't want to hear any \"BUT THE CONSTITUTION\" or any of that. I'm saying the story is poorly written and doesn't explain anything very well.", "id": "cgi96k0", "summary": "Automated bulk surveillance authorized by FISA court either intentionally, accidentally, or negligently captured data from US citizens. NSA later went through the data to find if US citizen data was captured. NSA did this without a warrant but that's okay.  They're supposed to analyze the data they collect . That's how you make sure you're using information covered by the scope of the warrant."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Hijacking this because this misinformation/armchair con law scholarship hurts me in the duodenum. \n \n Here in the United States of America, your Fourth Amendment rights only apply when you have a reasonable expectation of privacy. This has been established law since a case called  Katz v. United States  in 1967. \n \n This right to privacy (if you want to call it that) is surprisingly limited. It applies when your expectation is subjectively  and  objectively reasonable. Generally it applies to your person, your residence, and a few other places. \n \n Surprisingly though, your Fourth Amendment rights aren't directly relevant here. In the 1980s and 1990s Congress passed a series of statutes that protected your communications from warrantless surveillance  regardless of your expectation of privacy . \n \n These statutes are [The Wiretap Act]( and the Stored Communications Act. \n \n \n With that background consider the second paragraph in the story itself: \n > These searches were authorized by [a secret surveillance court]( in 2011 , but it was unclear until Tuesday whether any such searches on Americans had been conducted (emphasis added) \n \n The FISA court (the secret surveillance court) [authorized the mass surveillance program.]( The searches were  not  warrantless. It says so in the story itself. \n \n The NSA's bulk data gathering program was conducted with judicial oversight as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The data were legally gathered, of that there is no doubt. \n \n But because the program was focused on bulk data and largely automated there was every chance it would gather information protected by the Fourth Amendment and/or the Wiretap Act. This data would go beyond the scope of the NSA's FISA warrant. \n \n But the only way for NSA to know for sure whether the data it gathered was within the scope of the warrant was to look through the data it gathered manually. That's how they figured out data from citizens was captured. It's also the only way they could figure out which information was covered by the Fourth Amendment and the Wiretap Act and what wasn't. \n \n This last data sanitization step (if you want to call it that) is the issue. The NSA  did  collect information covered by the Fourth Amendment/Wiretap Act either knowingly or negligently with its automated process. \n \n But to know which data is covered, the NSA  has to look at what they gathered  to identify it. This is the so-called warrantless search. The NSA is not required to get a warrant to analyze data it already gathered. Especially when in analyzing this data the NSA is trying to comply with the law and remain in the scope of the FISA warrant. \n \n \n You might be wondering why the presumption isn't against the NSA. The answer is that it already is. Any information gathered in violation of the Fourth Amendment is [inadmissible]( on the issue of culpability. \n I am not denying that the NSA probably overreached its FISA warrrant and gathered data protected by the Fourth Amendment and the Wiretap Act. But it's important to remember  THE NSA HAD WARRANTS!! .  The NSA admits that bulk collection captured protected information.  They're basically  telling you  that this information is not in the scope of their FISA warrant. They claim that the gathering process was untargeted and any violations were unintentional but I'll let the folks with the tinfoil hats sort that one out. \n That said,  the process of separating protected information from the rest is not warrantless surveillance . The NSA is supposed to filter out any protected information and put it aside. The data is useless to them anyway because of the exclusionary rule.", "id": "cgidsyw", "summary": "NSA may have overstepped their FISA warrant either negligently or intentionally, but they didn't bug everyone's phones like this article seems to suggest."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "The simple answer is - only white people get to do what you propose. \n Minorities, partly because they are minorities, are already isolated. Their property rights could hinge on the whims of a very fickle majority. White people can exclude with impunity. Minorities do so at their own peril. \n Here's the real answer to your question. \n Ron Paul is kind of misleading you about property rights. It's not a simple dichotomy of \"have them or you don't.\" You have them because the state protects your ability to own property. You have title backed by the state. If someone comes along and tries to take it from you, the state makes sure you get to keep your property. \n In fact, at least in America, the state can't even take your property unless it has a really good reason. And when it does take your property, it has to compensate you. \n Property rights are dependent on the state. \n Your own right to associate with whoever you like is not dependent on the state. \n See back in the day, segregation was legally enforced by the state. Paul seems to imply that there were no anti-discrimination laws back then. He's half right. The truth is, the law itself was discriminatory. The state (the police) would arrest people and throw them in jail because owners didn't want to serve blacks. The state was allowed to engage in private discrimination and enforce your right to associate with only white people. \n The laws on the books today don't allow that anymore. If you want to remove someone from your property on the basis of race, the state cannot intervene (since the state cannot discriminate on the basis of race). That's just the logical conclusion of having equal protection. \n So if you don't want black people in your store, you can't call the police and have them throw the guy out simply because he's black. The state cannot discriminate on race. \n You  can  have the person removed as a trespasser. Since trespassing is a violation of your property rights. Those the state can protect.", "id": "c2d7iib", "summary": "the state is actually the source/protector of your property rights. If you accept the premise of equal protection, you have to accept the conclusion that the state cannot enforce your own discriminatory behavior."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "EDIT: A couple of people seem confused so let's clear another thing up here.  I'm not pointing out  why  ethnic balkanization happened in America (that's a big complex issue only partially explained by housing discrimination) I'm pointing out  how ethnic balkanization makes integration difficult. \n Housing discrimination provides a lens on how this happens. It's not just that people  wanted  to stay with their own. For years they  didn't really have a choice . Integration was made difficult for them by barriers like housing discrimination, and these barriers were created  on purpose . There were other barriers, but I like housing discrimination. It's easier to quantify. \n Those barriers still exist and affect us today. They affect modern immigrants who come into these enclaves, and they affect how we see people who live in these enclaves. If we forget how they got there to begin with, we'll never understand how to integrate them into our societies in a constructive manner. \n \n But then you have to ask yourself why these ethnic enclaves exist? Is it because people naturally gravitate to others who are like themselves? \n Or is it because that (at least in America) for a long time you  couldn't  settle outside \"your\" ethnic enclave because of rampant discrimination like  racially restrictive covenants . \n In America, the reason we have ethnic neighborhoods is because white people didn't let Jews, the Irish, blacks, Catholics, Hispanics, or [etc] live near them in the suburbs. So these groups had to live somewhere else - usually carving out ethnic enclaves in cities. And there they stayed for the most part - because leaving is costly, risky, and sometimes not worth it. If you have a strong supportive community around you, and maybe a stable job and decent housing, why move? \n Over time people began to see these ethnic neighborhoods as the natural course of things; today most people just assume these neighborhoods are a product of some natural human predisposition for the familiar. When really they're not. They were produced by  housing discrimination . \n The reason why lots of people move to ethnic enclaves was at first because they had no choice. They were safe havens from a society that was pretty much discriminatory. Today people may not have a choice because (1) they don't speak the language and (2) that's where their strongest support networks are. \n So when people today move to new countries they go where they are likely to get the resources they need to survive. Sometimes this means they never get to learn the language of the culture around them if the ethnic neighborhood is entrenched enough. \n Sometimes they don't have the time or resources to do so. If you're working 10-14 hour days and sending money back home, English/German/French lessons aren't really a priority.", "id": "c73gycp", "summary": "They're not refusing to learn, it's just hard for them to do so."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "The Wiretap Act doesn't apply to saved communications kept on a server \n Sure, that's what the Stored Communications Act is for. Moreover \n >the Stored Communications Act actually makes it pretty clear that its provisions don't cover a variety of requests made under other authorization laws and, even beyond that, doesn't apply to communications stored more than 180 days. \n This isn't true at all. I'll start with the [180 day thing]( It's in 18 US 2703. \n > [the government] may require the disclosure by a provider of electronic communications services of the contents of a wire or electronic communication that has been in electronic storage in an electronic communications system for more than one hundred and eighty days  by the means available under subsection (b)  of this section. \n So we look at subsection (b) to tell us which means are available and what they can be used for. Subsection (b) tells us there are two kinds of requests. Without notice, and with notice. \n \n without required notice to the subscriber or customer,  if the governmental entity obtains a warrant  ... (requires a warrant) \n \n with prior notice from the governmental entity to the subscriber or customer if the governmental entity \n \n \n >>* (1) uses an administrative subpoena authorized by a Federal or State statute or a Federal or State grand jury or trial subpoena; or \n >>* (2) obtains a court order for such disclosure under subsection (d) of this section;\n(delayed notice may be given pursuant to section 2705) \n For good measure we look at subsection (d) for court order requirements. \n > A court order for disclosure ... may be issued by any court that is a court of competent jurisdiction and shall issue only if the governmental entity offers specific and articulable facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the contents of a wire or electronic communication, or the records or other information sought, are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation. \n By the way this is pretty much the federal standard for a search warrant. This basically pushes law enforcement to use search warrants rather than subpoenas or court orders. In state court the warrant requirement may be higher so there may be more variation in state courts.", "id": "cbnsxdd", "summary": "Even after 180 days, the government needs a warrant (if they don't give you notice) or a court order (if they give you notice). \n As for this \n >[The Act's] provisions don't cover a variety of requests made under other authorization laws \n You'd have to tell me which authorization laws you mean."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Look, I'm citing actual case law, statutory provisions, and established legal precedent. \n Am I wrong in claiming that constitutional rights cannot be defeated by a statute? Is due process a constitutional right? If it is,  how can it possibly be abrogated by a statute ? How is this a contortion of any kind? This is just how American law works: if it's inconsistent with the constitution, it is nullified. \n >Congressional legislation can never be self-contradictory, can never exist in violation of the Constitution, and can never be abused by its interpreters! \n First of all, you're horribly mischaracterizing my argument. My position is that the legislation is unconstitutional on its face. I never said that it wouldn't pass - in fact I point out that our lawmakers may not actually know how American law works, so this bill could pass (and be enforced) out of pure ignorance. \n Nor do I even tell anyone to \"sit back and relax\" - engaged,  informed  discussion is my platform. This is why I'm citing statutes, legal precedents, and established law. I'm not making anything up here - and if I am, please show me where. \n >And doesn't it seem just a little odd that they are so vigorously and vocally defending something which \"changes nothing\"? Shouldn't they just not care if that's really the case? \n No, I am fighting misinformation about our rights and about how American law actually works. One of the greatest threats to our Republic is misinformation about our legal rights and obligations (something Glen Greenwald is being completely unhelpful about in his analysis of the NDAA). I point out the holes in his reasoning multiple times [beginning right here](  If there's any mistakes in my analysis on how American law works, or in my critique of Greenwald's interpretation, please point them out to me for correction. \n Otherwise, you're criticizing me for positions I'm not taking. \n Edit: fixed link.", "id": "c3cz4nu", "summary": "Show me where I'm wrong about American law and Greenwald, I guess."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "No, I simply pointed out that the bill was unconstitutional on its face, but the representative sponsoring the bill probably doesn't know it. I never said it would or would not pass. In fact, I even pointed out that the guy who's introducing it probably doesn't know what he's doing, and there's no reason to assume other lawmakers do either. \n So you're the one who took that and ran with it. You used my words to claim that I'm saying that we have nothing to worry about  when I actually pointed out something to worry about  - namely, ignorant Congresshumans passing laws.", "id": "c3czdr1", "summary": "This is what happened. \n \n Me: That law is probably unconstitutional, and the guy doesn't know it. \n \n You: You're saying that we have nothing to worry about! \n \n Me: ...."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "This is lunacy! j/k \n Although, I have a feeling that Amon will be citing Aang in some way. \n Aang took Ozai's firebending away because Ozai was misusing his bending. In my gut I have a feeling that Amon's inspiration comes from Aang's own actions against Ozai. I also have a feeling that Aang took other people's bending away for abuse and misuse since he wasn't the killing type. Amon might have even figured out a way to do the same thing using technology. Hell, maybe even non-benders can bend another's energy and he knows how. \n So Amon sees himself as carrying on Aang's mission of keeping balance in the world by parting the corrupt from their bending. Except Amon got carried away and decided that all bending was destructive. He decides to rid the world of bending for good since the balance has been irreparably broken in his view. The new Avatar only reinforces his convictions - she uses her bending for the amusement of the masses, not for helping people. \n Edit to add : what if it was Aang who taught Amon (or taught someone else who later taught Amon) how to bend another's energy? What if Aang founded what would become the Equalists? Aang may have done it to make sure the technique was available as a last resort - it takes time to train a new Avatar. A lot can happen in that time.", "id": "c44shpo", "summary": "Amon is a lionturtle. What a twist!"}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Socrates did hit people in the head with a stick. Socrates was an [accomplished warrior]( \n >Whilst he was very young, Alcibiades was a soldier in the expedition against Potidaea, where Socrates lodged in the same tent with him, and stood next to him in battle. Once there happened a sharp skirmish, in which they both behaved with signal bravery; but Alcibiades receiving a wound, Socrates threw himself before him to defend him, and beyond any question saved him and his arms from the enemy, and so in all justice might have challenged the prize of valor. \n Socrates served at Potidea, Delium, and Amphipolis [with distinction]( \n >In the  Symposium  Alcibiades describes Socrates' valour in the battles of Potidaea and Delium, recounting how Socrates saved his life in the former battle (219e-221b). Socrates' exceptional service at Delium is also mentioned in the  Laches  by the general after whom the dialogue is named (181b). In the Apology, Socrates compares his military service to his courtroom troubles, and says anyone on the jury who thinks he ought to retreat from philosophy must also think soldiers should retreat when it seems likely that they will be killed in battle.", "id": "c6kyr6o", "summary": "Socrates would hit you with a stick fairly effectively."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "As a black man ... no, I don't agree. Mostly because it's pandering to some really awful (read: ignorant) racial attitudes. You can do better, reddit. \n Why the downvotes?  Sure I'm all for freedom of speech, but free speech doesn't justify ignorance. If this account reflects reddit's attitude on black people then man ... that's just depressing. \n Edit : one last thing. You are free to say whatever you want. You are free to believe whatever you want. But if what you say or believe is ignorant then don't whine when someone calls you out on it. BECAUSE THAT'S HOW FREE SPEECH WORKS! \n Nobody is censoring you. Nobody is being self-righteous or humorless or over-sensitive or a stick in the mud. The problem is  you .  You  are the one being ignorant and  you're  being called on it. The solution is simple:  stop being ignorant .", "id": "c3dmljp", "summary": "You are free to be ignorant - but don't be offended when others call you on it. \n ON THE OTHER HAND: \n If this account wins, it helps show that reddit tends to deny a lot of things about race and culture. And that's a discussion we all really need to have. That being said, I still think [reaction_on_my_nub]( should win because she exemplifies all that's great about reddit - intelligence, creativity, and adaptability. They're not even in the same category. \n So I propose we give [Gradual_Nigger]( the first ever Reddit [Elder Award]( - for being [an] embarrassment to black people specifically and reddit in general."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Whoa, so I'll start breaking your fallacies in the order they come. \n > say they did have equal coaching. say that all leagues were co-ed (from child aged to professional) and that women were giving the same coaching as men all througout their lives. this would be true equality in sports. \n It would be equality, but this doesn't say a thing about \"natural\" abilities. Which is what you were claiming - that men are naturally stronger than women, which is, according to you, why they're naturally better athletes. \n Moreover, it might actually take  harsher  training to make women \"as good\" as men. And if women can take such punishing training, who is naturally stronger? \n >. whoever was the best would make it to the professional leagues. \n This doesn't even happen in male sports and let's not pretend it does. \n >if women were equally athletically gifted to men, there would be an equal number of men and women in professional leagues. \n This assumes that there's no other sexist barriers that exist. The real reasons leagues don't care about women is because they're run by men who don't think women will ever be as good as sports. They don't even try to test this belief, they just go with it and decide not to fund women's leagues. \n >. however this wouldn't be the case because men and women aren't equally athletically gifted by nature. \n Here's the weak point of the \"nature\" agreement. Men are naturally stronger, but you don't win soccer games by kicking the ball the hardest. You win soccer games because of practice,  practice ,    practice.    Practice isn't a \"natural gift\". Anyone can practice, even women. And if women can practice harder, or need to, there goes your \"natural gift\" theory.", "id": "c28julf", "summary": "Equivocation between two definitions of equality (qualitative and quantitative). Also ignoring your main argument. \n Just not true (the best don't always make it). \n Failure to consider alternative explanations. \n Conflating \"natural attributes\" with \"athletic attributes\" when all athletic attributes are gained through practice."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "The end of prohibition actually  didn't  doom the illegal alcohol industry. That industry was always very regional, and it still exists today. In Virginia, for example, [the moonshiners are back]( and their reach is growing. More to the point, the heyday of illegal liquor wasn't during Prohibition, but during the 1950s and 1960s when people in urban areas wanted cheap hooch. \n The market for drugs is different in a few respects. \n There's no pre-existing legal manufacturer for drugs. Before Prohibition there were breweries, distilleries, and distributors that could restart production and distribution without too much trouble. And they were pretty much guaranteed a market because people were sick of bathtub gin. \n Drugs aren't like that. When legalization comes, there won't be anyone better positioned than the cartels to produce legal weed at a massive level. It'll take years for anyone else to catch up, and people have been buying from the cartels for years - the cartels make good product - with the cost of production and delivery down (no more worrying about the feds) the cartels can distribute more product, spend more money on producing better quality stuff, and drive down competition by producing lots of product at a low price.", "id": "c4cqibc", "summary": "the reason consumers won't go to other sellers is because there really aren't any. No one can feasibly compete with the reach and volume of the cartels. The cartels will just drive out individual growers or small owners. It's like Walmart all over again."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "So what's institutional racism/discrimination then? \n When racial discrimination began ending in the 1950s and 1960s, it left behind a bunch of institutions that were created during the era of discrimination. I don't mean just government institutions: whole professions, schools, industries, trades, neighborhoods, and even [towns]( had been closed to minorities. \n When the Civil Rights Act passed, minorities didn't magically turn up at work the next day as pilots, doctors, and teachers. Nor did they get new choice office/union jobs. Many were still stuck in the crappy jobs, housing and education systems that city and state segregation-era policies forced them into. [Many of them are still there]( because breaking the cycle of poverty is really hard. The police officers that turned dogs on civil rights protesters were still on the beat. Official discrimination was over, but its products, its enforcers, and its effects still remained. \n That, in a nutshell, is institutional discrimination. It's what's left of that era. \n The important thing to remember is that  institutional discrimination says nothing about your own racial ideas . It isn't caused by your (yes, you) intent. Institutional discrimination talks about how the discriminatory policies of the  past  still affect all of us  today . \n That doesn't mean intentional discrimination is gone now - it's still alive and well, but it's much better hidden now. Instead of overt racial discrimination, intentional discrimination became veiled behind neutral words and conduct. For example, white employers would hire people of color, but then withhold the tools and information necessary for them to do their jobs. Then they would fire the people of color for being \"incompetent.\" Instead of using blatant racial epithets, they would use racial code words. See [ Aman v. Cort Furniture Rental Corp ]( \n Why do you think all of that still matters today? Wasn't it a long time ago? \n If you watched that whole debacle about Barack Obama's birth certificate/secret Muslim Kenyan, you'll see that it still matters. \n See again [ Aman v. Cort Furniture Rental Corp ]( or one of my favorites [ Mack v. ST Mobile Aerospace ]( These cases aren't exactly old. By the way, the plaintiffs in  Mack  lost at trial. \n >Plaintiff Wayne witnessed yet another noose hanging from a work station in\nHangar 8 in November 2002.  As he approached the noose, Wayne heard Lead\nQuinn Holbrook, a white male, say “that’s for them ... the niggers.” \n Or [Rick Santorum's thing with  black  blah people]( \n Or [Rick Perry's unfortunately named hunting ranch]( \n Or how [race/ethnic background are the best indicators of who gets into medical school]( - and this is in  Britain . \n I can keep going, but it really does still matter. \n Now what does any of that have to do with white privilege? \n I've been told that phrase \"white privilege\" turns people off and I'll probably lose a couple of you because of sheer indignation. That's fine with me. My job is to make my argument. Being annoyed at it doesn't mean I'm wrong. \n [Peggy McIntosh wrote an article called \"Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack\"]( in which she lists and explores some of the daily effects of white privilege. Some of them may not apply to you, and you might actually think some of them aren't privileges at all. The one thing that almost all of them have in common is that  they're not your fault . For example. \n >I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race. \n You didn't cause this to happen, it was the discrimination that happened long before you were born. That's the reason a person of color who is hired gets the affirmative action hire label  no matter how qualified they are . \n At the same time though, a white person who is hired doesn't have to deal with this attitude  for the same reason the person of color does have to deal with it.  The only thing that can be done about white privilege, really, is to recognize where and how it works. \n White privilege is often incredibly counterintuitive, and this is mostly because you don't have to do a thing (most of the time) to benefit from it. The subject is really broad and I can't give it a fair treatment here, but [here's a video of white privilege denial at work]( It's an incarnation of Jane Elliot's [blue-eye/brown-eye \"experiment\" from 1968]( \n But I'm white, I'm broke, and I grew up poor, and I don't have power. Where can I cash in on this privilege? \n This is where it's important to remember the distinction I made earlier between institutional racism and intentional racism. White privilege is a product of  institutional  racism. It's not your fault you have it. \n Nevertheless, while white privilege may be a product of institutional racism, it is perpetuated by individuals who either (1) intentionally discriminate or (2) refuse to recognize its existence. I'm not sure it's important which is morally worse, or that they're even separate at all, so you guys have at it I suppose. \n The key distinction to make is that white privilege is necessarily comparative. It isn't that whites have carefree lives or that minorities are stuck in the salt mines. The heart of the idea is that in almost any given interaction between races, whites have a decided social, political, and sometimes economic leg up over any other race. And that leg-up came from all those years of discrimination that we began ending in 1964. \n A weird way of phrasing privilege is this - [People of color can't just walk away from racial discrimination]( White people can. \n But what about Asians? \n [You mean the myth of the model minority?]( You can't compare an ethnic group that could afford to come here with a group that was essentially forced to come here. \n But what about affirmative action/reverse racism? \n What about it? \n >Some individuals, however, perceive [affirmative action's]\ncosts to be large, which is what makes the policy so \ncontroversial and also may threaten its effectiveness. \nOne concern that has been raised is that it creates defacto quotas. But work by  Jonathan Leonard  shows \nthat federal contractors tend to fall short of their employment goals for women and minorities, suggesting \nthat they are indeed goals and not quotas. The more \nfrequently raised concern, however, is that affirmative \naction encourages reverse discrimination—deliberately excluding white men to provide more opportunities for women and minorities. Such concerns may \nparticularly arise when the economy is in a downturn \nand jobs are scarce. However, Holzer and Neumark’s \nevidence suggests that the likelihood of more productive men or whites being passed over in favor of less \nproductive women or minorities is probably low. And \nthe fact that women and minorities still earn less than \nmen and whites, all else equal, also indicates that \nreverse discrimination is not the norm. \n [Affirmative action hasn't worked as much as you might think it has](", "id": "c3u37d4", "summary": "Racism is complicated, and pretty much everything you believed about it or thought about it is probably wrong. \n \n Further reading: \n Video: \n[Scientific Racism - the Eugenics of Social Darwinism]( \n [The Angry Eye]( - Jane Elliot's experiment with live racism. \n [When Affirmative Action Was White]( - Ira Katznelson."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "This criticism is a lot more subtle than it appears. The criticism isn't fully about Mandela, and more about Western media's consistent inability to engage African stories or geopolitics with any level of sophistication. \n Referring to Mandela as the first black president of South Africa subtly suggests that the \"normal\" thing would be to have white presidents. Blackness being the exception rather than the rule. But the criticism is much deeper than a racial one. \n Describing him as the first democratically elected president does two things. First it better contrasts post-apartheid South Africa with the apartheid regime. In the apartheid regime, there was never a democratically elected president. Which is a huge deal, since it basically means that a lot of democracy-loving countries like the US backed what was essentially a racist dictatorship. (What does that say about Western values?) \n And no, \"South Africa had a functioning democracy for whites\" doesn't count as democracy. This kind of attitude - that it's democracy so long as white folks are protected - is horribly disingenuous. It also excuses apartheid's disenfranchisement of the  majority  of South Africans. That's not democracy - not even a little bit. \n Second, it gets away from the idea that blackness is Mandela's defining characteristic or the defining characteristic of his presidency. Labeling him as the first black president of South Africa is true - but it's an oversimplification as well. \n You may ask what's wrong with simplifying - but in Mandela's case (and Africa's case),  everything . The stories told about Africans and Africa even today are heavily oversimplified for Western audiences to digest. [See KONY 2012]( \n And if we oversimplify something, we aren't doing a good job of trying to fully understand its consequences. Some things  are  complex - like the dismantling of the apartheid regime. It's so much more than the institution of majority rule. Whole democratic institutions have to be created where they didn't really exist. Undemocratic ones have to be removed. \n Like I said earlier, the criticism isn't fully about Mandela but more about Western media's consistent inability to engage African stories or geopolitics with any level of sophistication. Sometimes it comes out in small little headlines (so hey, no harm done). Sometimes it's in big and glitzy media campaigns. \n So the sooner we start fully analyzing not only what goes on in Africa, but  how  we talk about it, the better informed we will all be. That is what the media is for after all, right?", "id": "catj4ph", "summary": "Describing Mandela as the first black president of South Africa is true, but it doesn't say very much about Mandela or South Africa. It's a pretty lazy analysis, and part of how Western media oversimplifies African geopolitics. Remember KONY 2012? And Live Aid? Yeah. We should probably stop doing that kind of oversimplification. It starts in small innocuous places but snowballs."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "Sure you can say some names don't originate in your own culture. And that's a fair observation. \n What also happens in the US is that \"weird\" names are a proxy for discrimination by the majority. Which is why: \n >It is most certainly not a racially prejudiced culture to ask somebody, without judgement, why they do something. \n Misses and misconstrues the point. The reason the names sound weird to the majority is because they're from a different culture. In that different culture those names are  normal . The \"weirdness\" here is being imposed by the majority culture which doesn't understand that different people do things differently. \n Or put another way - the reason different names sound weird is because the majority isn't culturally aware/exposed. Or just culturally ignorant. Or just casually prejudiced. Or all of the above.", "id": "cc67s8o", "summary": "Basically asking \"why do your names sound weird  to me and my culture ?\" exposes just how culturally ignorant you are ;)"}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "It's premised awfully - you can't overcome constitutional protections with an act of congress . For example, Equal Protection cannot be limited by a statute since it's in the Fourteenth Amendment. Nor can the constitutionally mandated jurisdiction of the federal courts be altered by statute.  Article III clearly rests the judicial power in the courts . This jurisdiction extends to controversies that arise under the constitution. Equal protection (for example) is a constitutional issue - this cannot be kept from the courts by statute, only by constitutional amendment. \n \n It would be ironic to use an act of federal power to limit federal power's reach. \n \n The act would be redundant re: impeachment. Article III already provides for judicial impeachment (judges only serve during good behavior). This can be elaborated by statute, but a proper exercise of the judicial power (like ruling on a case) cannot be, by definition, an impeachable offense", "id": "c3arl18", "summary": "Ron Paul fundamentally misunderstands how separation of powers in a constitutional system works, especially the importance of an independent judiciary."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "I guess I'll hijack this for the soapbox effect. Ahem. \n Racial profiling is not about the profiler, but the profiled. \n The reason that Trayvon Martin looked suspicious was NOT because Zimmerman is or might be a racist. But because he was a black guy, with a hoodie, in a nice neighborhood. There's a subtle distinction at work here. \n Reducing the issue to whether Zimmerman is or isn't racist misses the point completely. The issue is  Martin . Why did Martin look suspicious? Because he was a black guy seemingly out of place. Did Zimmerman think that because he was a racist? Probably not. He probably thought that way because that's how our culture works. And our culture is kind of prejudiced against black people. \n The way the racial paradigm usually works in this country is that people of color generally look out of place in certain settings. Outside of areas where we expect them, black men are \"scary.\" \n All this means is that you don't have to be a racist (or even white) to profile. You just have to absorb this cultural thing we have about where people of color do or do not look natural. \n This isn't to say Zimmerman's fear was reasonable (it wasn't - Martin was unarmed and on an errand and going the other way). There's nothing about being a black guy walking down a public street in a hoodie that's really all that suspicious. Why not? Because people walk down the street all the time. It's only suspicious if it's a black guy, in a hoodie, in a nice neighborhood. \n In sum, whether or not Zimmerman is a racist isn't the point. The point is he very clearly profiled someone for looking suspicious because of how he dressed and the color of his skin. This doesn't mean Zimmerman is a racist. It just means he profiled. And he profiled according to how our culture tends to profile. We do still live in a culture that's pretty prejudiced against black people you know.", "id": "c493a18", "summary": "Zimmerman clearly profiled, it doesn't mean he's racist, but he's acting in accordance with how our culture tends to profile black guys. Doesn't mean he's racist, only means he profiled. Our culture is pretty racist though."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "As a black man, I think you're missing the point. \n The point isn't, by the way, that all holidays are made up. The point is that Africans who were brought here as slaves were stripped of their original cultural identities and given new subservient roles. This process of cultural erasure was magnified over the following generations. \n Kwanzaa is a product of that cultural erasure. Blacks in America don't really know what they lost because of slavery, and African culture has shifted significantly in the last 200 years anyway (so there's really no going back in many cases). Kwanzaa isn't really about connecting to African roots - blacks do that by virtue of being  African  Americans. It's about bridging the gap between cultural erasure and their new lives in the New World. \n So while \"traditional holidays\"  seem  more real - that \"seem\" is completely illusory. At least, it doesn't make any holiday any more real than Kwanzaa. \n Or you can think of it this way: Kwanzaa is a way of mourning what was lost because of cultural erasure while also celebrating the victories of blacks in the New World. This erasure isn't made up - or at least, it's far less made up than baby Jesus ever was. This erasure is being remembered, not celebrated. If anything, Kwanzaa celebrates what African Americans have been able to make after being robbed of their cultural heritage.", "id": "c3axej9", "summary": "Kwanzaa is a product of African culture being erased in the New World by slavery/discrimination. The holiday is made up, but the erasure isn't. And if baby Jesus (who was probably made up) can be remembered, we can try and remember cultural erasure that  actually happened ."}, {"author": "AsABlackMan", "content": "The answer is really simple too - [systematic error]( \n Typically large groups of people make the \"right\" decision. When you have a whole lot of people guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar, the median guess will be pretty close (if not spot on). That's because in this instance the errors are  random  - the bad guesses are ameliorated by the good ones. \n But when our biases affect what kind of errors we make. They become systematic errors. When we have biases about how the world works, it tends to impact how we interpret what we see. Our errors are no longer random, so the wisdom of the crowd/miracle of aggregation no longer applies. \n Typically we don't have strong biases about jellybeans and jars, so our errors are usually random. But when it comes to things like crime, terrorism, and nationalism we're prey to a whole lot of biases that affect how we see and interpret data. \n The fact that reddit focused on a [brown-skinned guy]( with an Indian name as the prime suspect is probably the most telling thing. It might imply that there's a definite bias on who redditors expected to be capable of perpetrating this crime. Either that, or there just wasn't enough data or analytical ability to make a solid determination. Note the awful quality of the .gif for example. \n No online community can be immune from systematic error because we're all subject to biases that we're not even aware of. This is especially true when it comes to important issues like what happened in Boston. \n What users and moderators can do is fact-check. Confirmation bias is a subtle beast and it's a tough thing to beat. In fact I'm willing to bet that some of you will look at  this gif  are. \n But the best thing to do is to discourage this sort of crowdsourced investigation for deeply emotional issues. Biases rise to the surface and that makes a reddit  witch hunt  investigation problematic at best, and [dangerous at worst](", "id": "t3_1coowx", "summary": "We all have deeply ingrained biases that surface when something deeply emotional happens. These biases affect how we interpret the world and can lead us to the wrong conclusions. That's what happened with /r/findbostonbombers. The Miracle of Aggregation broke down because people's errors weren't random, they were caused by their biases - i.e their errors were systematic"}]}
+{"author": "phoenix25", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post everyone should take a first aid course. In the meantime if someone goes down, just do compressions. You can't hurt them any worse. \n Source: paramedic in training", "output": "This is great advice, but OP did the right thing. Since he has no training, simple compressions was a great move. Unless he gets formal training, he is likely to misread a pulse and perform the head tilt chin lift incorrectly, making giving rescue breaths futile. It's better to do compressions when they aren't needed than to not do compressions when they are."}], "user_id": "longlamp_13567", "history": [{"author": "phoenix25", "content": "I would say just the working conditions for me. \n I used to work at a Great Wolf Lodge. In the summer it would get to well over 110 degrees in the waterpark, not counting humidity. The majority of the slides went outside the park then came back inside. A lot of the slides were a dark colour, so the water was superheated by the sun. You literally could not cool down. The water was a good 95 degrees, so you couldn't even jump in. Many staff have passed out on the hottest days, especially the slide attendants at the top of the slide towers where it is a good ten degrees hotter. We did not receive any extra breaks during the hottest days, and the AC in the guard room was terrible. My supervisor went around with a watergun full of ice water are would spray the guards with it. \n The chlorine levels were very high, and with all the sprayers and the slides going all the water went up into the air for us to breathe in. We all had respiratory issues, nickednamed the \"great wolf cough\". Many of us also had rashes. The chlorine levels were also doubled temporarily whenever there was a fouling, but we still had to guard the pools (to make sure guests didn't jump in). The chlorine was literally so high you wold just be standing near the pool and your eyes would begin burning. But the pay was the highest in the area, so many people needed to work full time hours in order to get by. I am very happy I don't have to work there anymore. My breathing is exponentially easier and my cough is gone. \n From what I hear, most GWLs have similar problems. Mine was the one in Niagara Falls.", "id": "ca2dqvl", "summary": "if you are going to work at a great wolf lodge, do it only part time not in the summer."}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "Dude, I know a bit how you feel. I've always been a bigger girl, but lately things have gotten out of control. I lost 50 lbs in grade 10, and now in my first year of college I've gained that back plus an extra 25. \n I'm on scholarship for rowing, which I know seems ridiculous considering my size. But my team is amazingly supportive, and know that this is a temporary result of a lot of things. \n My parents have always been huge on appearance, and between my weight and the fact I have short hair (shaved my head for a cancer fundraiser) its safe to say that they are ashamed of me, to the point where just me visiting stresses them out and causes them to be brutally hurtful with the things that they say, in an effort to shame me into losing weight. I know that my mother does actually love me and that she just has no clue on how else to approach this, but it doesn't make it easy. My dad I just have know fucking clue, he's a dick to begin with. \n Don't be ashamed of who you are. Also don't be fooled by the media-you don't have to be skinny to be considered normal. A lot of people are bigger to begin with, and with the added stress of trying to fit in, or a constant hunger, or even a food addiction things can escalate very quickly. Its not your fault, so don't hate yourself every bite that you take. Even so, you express a desire to change yourself. That desire needs to be stronger than the desire to give into your temptations. Don't just focus on the end goal, its the little victories that make losing weight possible. When you make a good decision for lunch or dinner, be proud of that decision and be happy that you made it. If you make a bad decision, don't be depressed about it and give up. Just vow to make a better decision next time. \n Don't listen to the haters dude. Just because you are big that doesn't make you any less of a person, especially a person that can change the world for the better. You have a constant hunger, this isn't your fault. People need to understand that something like that is just as crippling as chronic pain, and is something that people need to admire you for living with. Don't give up, never give up. Message me if you want my email so we can talk.", "id": "c3fxdta", "summary": "I'm big too, and have to live with my parents shame of me. Never be ashamed, its the little victories that count, and never give up."}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "Going through the US border by car was always very simple (Canadian here btw), every time I would just show my passport and student visa and be on my way, and every once in a while the guard would actually be very nice/funny. \n Going through by greyhound though... that was a different story. I've never been treated like such a terrorist before, even getting through TSA at the airport was easier. First they made us take everything off the bus and lined us up to have a drug dog sniff us out, warning that the dog will bite us if we touch it. They they took us into the little station there and played 20 questions with us, trying to find a hole in my story. They asked me everything, including why I had decided to go to an american college (he wasn't just making conversation, I was being drilled). Then we had to go outside and submit all our stuff to be searched. Nothing is more humiliating than being an 18 year old girl travelling alone and having some boarder guard pick through my underwear like there was a bomb inside. \n I told my parents I would never take the greyhound to get back to school again. They now drive 5 hours each way to drive me off.", "id": "c41tfqs", "summary": "never go into the US by greyhound, even if you are a Canadian citizen. And God forbid you are of any other nationality"}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "This actually happened at the waterpark that I work at. A boy couldn't hold it in while waiting in line for a slide, and crapped on the stairs. Before staff noticed, a little girl (2 or 3 years old) came by and ate it. Her mother discovered chunks of poo after the girl started vomiting shortly after. She tried complaining and getting mad that her daughter ate it, but all we could do is shrug and say \"You are the one who let her eat it.\"", "id": "c7ck9lp", "summary": "shit happens."}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "I've been waiting for an opportunity to share this story. \n I work in an indoor waterpark, and had a coworker who was just an absolutely terrible lifeguard. He would never watch his water, to the point that other lifeguards would spot drowning kids in his zone, point it out to him by whistling frantically, and the guy would jump in and take the credit for the rescue. \n Obviously this wasn't exactly safe, so he was soon taken off the pool and sent to work the slides, where inattention wouldn't kill somebody. \n One day my boss walked to the parking garage, and found the guy smoking a blunt in his car. Turns out he had been high pretty much the entire time he had been there. So he was sent home instantly, and fired the next time he came in for his shift. \n He was given to option to return his uniform, or pay a fine which would be taken out of his paycheck. He didn't have any spare clothes with him, and he decided that he wasn't about to come back. So the guy strips down to his underwear (tighty whities for those interested), and begins running around the waterpark in his underwear swearing his head off at guests and his supervisors. He was eventually escorted out by a 7 foot tall security guard.", "id": "c5ur9mo", "summary": "Tighty-whities"}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "I've had Burger King twice in my life, and regretted both times fully. \n The first time, it was on a road trip to a rowing competition. I ate my burger and enjoyed it, but when I arrived at the site my stomach was brewing a category 8 shitstorm. There were no toilets, only well used porta-potties. \n After I was done awkwardly crouching over the pile of shit that was in a mountain formation higher than the toilet seat, I turned back to discover the horror. My shit was crawling with little white worms. They weren't in the rest of the shit, just mine. The only thing I had eaten out of the ordinary was the burger king. It was the only culprit. \n The second time was about a year ago. I was hungry while on campus, and the only place open was Burger King. The worm incident as fresh in my mind, but I figured it was probably an isolated incident caused by bad meat. Or something. So I went for a baconater. \n I was sitting in my dorm a few hours later, and was gassy as all hell. Except for one issue, I couldn't pass the gas. I could feel it bubbling and filling up my stomach. I tried shitting, I tried burping. Nothing helped. My stomach got so full of gas that I was in immense pain. I staggered out my dorm to ask nightwatch if there was anywhere nearby that I could buy pepto bismol or something similar. He took one look at me and volunteered his friend to walk me over to the convieniece store on campus. After taking both pepto bismol and tums, I wasn't feeling any better. Then suddenly, I felt the urge to puke. I ran to my dorm bathroom, and let loose this tremendous roar of gas through my mouth. The burp honestly lasted a good 30 seconds. Then the gas gave way to puke. \n As soon as I was done, I felt much better. But I made a vow to never, EVER have Burger King again.", "id": "c65q64n", "summary": "shit worms and 30 second burps"}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "Oh, yes. This is a long story, be warned. \n I've always been a heavier girl, always. My first diet was in grade 4. By grade 9 I weighed 250lb. But I started rowing, and it was hell. But I stuck through the school season, despite shitty crewmates and team drama. I found my home at St. Catharines Rowing Club in the summer, and completely fell in love with the sport. I didn't even mind the 4:30am wakeups (too much). \n Go on to grade 10. Still stuck with the same shitty girls, except because of rowing in both the summer and fall season I was now the second fastest on the team. The girl who was faster than me had her own coach and single, and was the fastest girl her age in Canada. So all through the school year I would see her living my dream while I was stuck in a horrible eight with girls who would complain if we did two 500m sprints. But I worked hard, erging in the morning and getting the most out of practice that I could. I lost 50 pounds that year. Fast forwards to CSSRAs, the fast girls coach approches me and asks if I want to race a double with her so she could have a second race. I had never sculled before, but agreed. I learned how to scull in about a week, then raced the biggest race of the season. We came last in the finals, and I was proud to make it that far. \n Summer and fall that year were my two most successful seasons. I made it into the top boats, won Canadian Henley, and came twelfth at Head of the Charles. I had Olympic dreams. \n Then... grade 11. The coach was the father of our coxie, and it was her best friends who rowed. I was the fastest girl in the group, always coming first in every erg workout we did. I gave it everything I had. The other girls were more interested in partying. But when on the water came, I was shoved into a double with a novice while the rest of the girls made a semi-fast eight. I begged the coach to give me a chance, whether it was through seat racing or any other way. But he refused, saying that it was because my 190lbs was too heavy and would slow down the boat. \n I was crushed. He refused to give me a chance, saying I was too fat even after I lost 60lbs for the sport. Frustrated, I made myself go through the season, thinking I would be back on top in the summer. But, I had stopped caring. I stopped being able to push myself the way I did before, and stopped eating healthy. Why should I? It would just be another day of trying to teach the novice how not to rush and maybe doing one 4k piece. So I ballooned up 20lbs. \n Summer came... and went. Same with fall. I missed out on the top boat in the summer by one second, and was crushed even more. I was angry that my school coach had screwed me over. I just kept losing touch, getting further and further behind. My weight steadily climbed as I buried my depression with fast food. \n I didn't row grade twelve, because what was the point. It was the same coach and the same girls. But when I showed up to SCRC that summer, I was told I was too fat to row. So I went to the rival club South Niagara, but SCRC was pissed and pulled strings behind the scenes to make me ineligible to race. They accused South Niagara of recruiting me, and refused to acknowledge Rowing Canada's decision that I was allowed to race. I was barred from Canadian Henley (hosted at SCRC). \n I attempted a year at Eastern Michigan university. It was all paid for through academic and a rowing scholarship. But I was out of shape, depressed, not sure what to do. But my teammates and coaches were fantastic people, and helped me to figure out that I needed to pursue a career being a paramedic instead of a teacher like I had originally planned. I made the tough decision to drop out after that year, moved back home. I am now working full time for a year, trying to get my weight down from 300lb, and trying to get in shape enough to pass a fitness exam this February.", "id": "c6evydw", "summary": "I lost everything when my coach told me I wasn't good enough, and believed him."}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "I'm a lifeguard at a waterpark. Yesterday I heard our emergency whistle while walking to another position so I responded, running as fast as I could to where the sound came from. I wasn't too worried, it was always either from a vigilance awareness test (they throw a doll in and time how long it takes you to notice) or just a guard jumped in for a simple rescue. \n Except I got there, and there is a woman on the ground and one other guard there. Turns out her pacemaker had to give her a jolt to keep her heart beating so she was having severe chest pains. We couldn't do much except to call EMS and give her oxygen, but there is no bigger 'Oh holy fuck' moment than when you get there and realize that it is a real emergancy.", "id": "c7kcc8q", "summary": "had a real emergency at the waterpark yesterday"}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "I'm a lifeguard, and at my pool we have inner tubes for guests to use. \n Do you know how many adults I have to fish out of the deep end because they can't swim? If you can't swim, don't go in the fucking deep end. \n Worse is when they push their kids into the deep end (who also can't swim) and just leave them there. They look at us like \"Well? Aren't you going to get him?\"", "id": "c5r6x0g", "summary": "if you can't swim, don't go into the deep end."}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "I'm ashamed to say that my best friends boyfriend cheated on her with me. She doesn't know, and they are still together. \n Us three were best friends, so I had no problem going to his house to hang out when she wasn't around. I noticed him getting clingy and acting different, and at first I thought it was my imagination. He slowly began to hit on me more and more, wanting to snuggle during movies, etc. I knew it was wrong, but it was nice. No boy had ever taken interest of me before. I told myself as long as it went no further it was okay. \n Then one night.... we got drunk. Apparently I kissed him first, I don't remember though. We didn't go all the way, but we did do oral. We told ourselves that it was a one time thing and that it wouldn't happen again, and we would go back to acting like everything was normal. But it did happen again. Multiple times. I hated myself so much, but the thrill of being intimate with someone was too much. Eventually I came to my senses and cut it off, and I refuse to hang around him anymore. My friend just thinks we had a falling out. \n Was it my fault? He was the one who slowly got closer and closer, manipulating my feelings, making me feel special. But I was still the one who went along with it when I shouldn't have. Its my single greatest regret in life, and I hate myself everyday for it. If you are thinking about doing it, don't. It is so not worth it. \n The worst part is that he has cheated on her before too, at least twice that I know of. But I can't tell her, for obvious reasons. He is a loser and going nowhere in life, and now has a criminal record. At this point I think it is best for me not to tell her and hope that they break up on their own, because I am her closest friend and she has been having a rough time, it would kill her to lose her boyfriend and best friend. But if he ever proposes to her I'm going to come clean. Because it's for the best.", "id": "c3zl5t3", "summary": "my best friends boyfriend cheated on her with me. I regret it so much, and she doesn't know."}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "My passion is the sport of rowing, always has been. My dream is to one day win gold for canada in the olympics... but I've forced myself to give up on this dream because it might ruin my life, or at the very least set me back 20ish years from starting it. Rowing is one of the sports canada pays for the least, compared to other athletes. Most rowers on the payroll aren't given enough to get by, and often have to work second jobs. Now consider the 3 2hour workouts a day... its a little difficult. Not to mention I would be constantly moving back and forth between BC and ON, with little compensation for that. I can't afford this lifestyle, neither can my family. So I gave up my dream and settled for rowing on scholarship in the US, and being a teacher one day.", "id": "c3kpdtj", "summary": "had an olympic dream, but no way I could possibly afford it"}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "Girl here. \n Sleeping on the first date is a big no-no. Some girls are whores and will try to initiate sex, but you should be a gentleman and decline. If I forgot myself (or was testing you, which I wouldn't because that is fucking retarded) I would be very impressed by that. If she makes a big deal out of it, then she is only looking for sex and is not worth your time. Unless of course you like FWB or one night stands - then you just hit the jackpot.", "id": "c4w5l0y", "summary": "decline sex on the first date. Personally I would wait a long time before taking that step, but I am a virgin and have higher standards than most other girls. I would say avoid sex for the first three dates to assure your gentleman status. Then go wild."}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "Lifeguard here. \n This is a great description. I work in a waterpark and jump in for kids at least once a week when it's busy. Just to add my $0.02. \n The first stage of drowning is surprise. Their eyes will be huge, it's the biggest tell of when someone is drowning. They give you the look of full blown panic. Their arms often will be down by the sides, instinctively pushing down on the water in a futile effort to push their face out of the water. The last thing is small movements. When they are panicking, they aren't able to kick and move their arms like an attempt to swim. Their arms and legs will move and shake, maybe moving a couple inches but that's it. It's very fast movement, and is the easiest way to tell with they are facing away from you. \n When they are in the surprise stage, you have about ten seconds before they begin inhaling water. It doesn't matter if they aren't your kid, or that you don't want to get involved. Even if there are lifeguards around, constantly look for the signs of drowning anyways. Not every lifeguard is actually good at their job. Even if they are good, we can't always get there in time. If you hear a loud whistle, look to see where the lifeguard is looking or jumping towards. If it's towards you, there might be a drowning kid nearby that you can get to first. Seconds mean everything.", "id": "c62wgk5", "summary": "giant eyes, very small movements. Now that you know, always watch. A second can make the difference between life and death. \n If anyone wants info on some easy cpr steps they can perform without training, reply to this asking me. I don't even know if anyone will read this."}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "Believe it or not, I am actually using weed as a diet aid. I usually am super hungry at night, enough that I could eat a full meal and still go to bed hungry. \n My solution is to smoke weed. It distracts me from the hunger (some studies actually suggest it suppresses hunger). It lets me sleep, and I've lost 30 lb so far. \n When the munchies do kick in, it's not because I'm actually hungry. Its more because I'm dehydrated, and want flavour in my mouth. I drink lots of water, chew on a piece of gum (gum when high is AMAZING), and smoke more weed haha.", "id": "c8e8gqx", "summary": "water, gum, and more weed"}, {"author": "phoenix25", "content": "Mine was tonight. I work in a waterpark and we usually close at 9pm. But tonight we had a group of 500 religiously conservative females book the waterpark from 9:30 until 11:30pm, because they couldn't be seen in their swimsuits by men. Only female staff were working. \n I tend to look fairly sexually ambiguous, being an overweight girl with small boobs and short hair. So naturally every girl who saw me gave me horrified looks, assuming I am either a guy or at the very least a lesbian. My coworkers were approached multiple times asking if I was a man or a woman. \n In addition to this, these girls were the messiest guests that we've had. Everywhere they went they left a path of tubes, towels and clothing. We were constantly cleaning up after them, to the point that we kicked them out 15 minutes early so the staff could clean up the mess before we were scheduled to go home at 11:30pm. \n And when it was time for them to leave, none of them wanted to. We could whistle and wave our arms all we wanted, but they would ignore us, or leave that attraction and run up the stairs to the slides, or run outside to the outdoor pool, etc. It didn't matter if we put staff there to guard the way or close the way with signs and ropes. It ended up taking 20 minutes just to get them to leave, which they then all went into the restaurant area to order food. The restaurant was closing too. \n I only just got home now (12pm), and am scheduled to work at 9:30 am tomorrow.", "id": "t3_wonnh", "summary": "large group of messy religious nuts stormed the waterpark, hated me for my looks, and refused to leave."}]}
+{"author": "jaymzx0", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Adjust your tax withholding, see moar money every month instead of a big refund. \n [IRS Withholding calculator](", "output": "I'm not sure how payroll taxes work in the UK, but in The States employers will withhold money from your paycheck to pay for taxes. The money is sent to the gov't and you never see it. Many people file their taxes and get a big tax refund check in which they will use to buy stupid crap, pay on their consumer debt or save away. \n There is a way to modify the amount your payroll dept withholds and that is via the 'W4' form that you are required to complete when beginning employment. By claiming 'dependents', you can decrease the amount withheld. The theory is that you receive a tax credit for dependents (children) so less money is withheld. This means if you typically see a $2,000 tax refund annually, and you adjust your withholding correctly, you can potentially see another $160 per month in your bank account. You won't see much of a refund, and if you don't do the math right, end up owing taxes, but I'd rather put the money into my budget as opposed to the non-interest-bearing gov't coffers."}], "user_id": "longlamp_11520", "history": [{"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "Wife went through ICU delirium twice last year. The first time was sheer terror for her (thought she was in a Nazi concentration camp and they were experimenting on she and I) and the second time was more regressive. She was 'dancing' to some background music during extubation and started mouthing the words as soon as the tube was out. Haldol fixed the first event but gave her a temporary dyskinesia, so that's now on her allergy list. The second time was seroquil but didn't work nearly as quickly. At any rate, we discovered her delirium symptoms and confusion would wax and wane based on timing of Versed/Ativan or other benzos and morphine. Dilaudid, not so much, but IV Ativan and IV morphine would make for a sleepless night.", "id": "cgkllwn", "summary": "benzos and opiates in combination can push those with a propensity for ICU delirium over the edge."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "I happened across a guy standing by his car in a ditch. It was after 3am and he asked if he could use my phone to call his girlfriend to pick him up. I figured it was strange as unless his girlfriend drove a tow truck, his new BMW would remain in the ditch. \n I came closer to speak with him and immediately smelled booze. I lied and said I was 'out of minutes' but I could call 911 and make sure he was alright. He objected but I said he was unsteady and should sit down until the ambulance arrives. \n Someone else showed up and he asked to use his phone and the gentlemen obliged. \n His girlfriend showed up and started yelling at him, telling him it was the 'last time she was going to bail him out', etc. A minute or two later the State Patrol and the fire department arrived. I told the state patrolman about the booze and what I saw, etc.. \n I know I could have just let him use my phone, he could have called his girlfriend and got picked up, leaving the car there to be handled by the police in the morning after he was sober and could come up with a good story. But I didn't. I can't stand drunk drivers and feel that if they put themselves in that position, they should reap the consequences. Wrecking his car on that curve may have saved someone's life that morning.", "id": "cdquiij", "summary": "I called in a drunk driver who wrecked his car instead of letting him flee the scene."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "Depends on the bar. A small gay dive bar may have a tightly-knit social circle and you will be noticed. If you have to continually tell people that you are straight, they may wonder why you are there in the first place, or you may get hassled. \n A larger bar or club will probably have a large number of straight guys there, already. There will probably be a large number of straight girls there, too. They tend to head to gay bars to dance and avoid being grinded on by random guys on the dance floor, or to avoid 'triggers' if they have emotional instabilities/traumatic history around hetero men. \n Above all, just go and have a good time. Keep an open mind and don't be offended by the odd pickup line from other men. Just be sure to be upfront with them if the conversation turns sexual or it appears that they want more than conversation. Personally, I don't mention that I'm straight unless the conversation goes there. No need to wear it on your sleeve (and the gay guys can usually tell, anyway).", "id": "ckp4mh1", "summary": "just go and have fun."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "Yup. Started dating when I was 15. Still together 17-1/2 years later. She's such an amazingly awesome woman and we have seen it all, thick and thin, better and worse. I couldn't pick a better person to spend the better half of my life with. \n We don't fight very often but that doesn't mean we lack passion, either. At some point you are no longer two separate people. You really see the other person as a part of you. \n No kids. Just chihuahuas. No kids planned, either. We can't stand being in the same room with children. Not married, either. We aren't religious and as mentioned, don't plan on having kids, so we don't see the need. We would just get a bunch of presents we don't need or have room for. \n Before the common-law marriage point is brought up, our state doesn't create common-law marriages. It does recognize them from other states, however.", "id": "c9php4y", "summary": "Yes. Couldn't be happier almost 20 years later."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "Ah, I remember that book. Back around 1997, I worked telemarketing, and one of the contracts I worked on was AOL. AOL would track what you did on their service and if you hung out in the 'help' system for a bit, I would call, interrupt your dinner and try and sell you a 'how to use AOL' book. If you spent a lot of time in the 'Internet' feature, I would offer the Internet Yellow Pages. Games? A game book, etc. \n The problem is, AOL just went to their 'unlimited' time for $20/mo and didn't augment their dialup capacity (they used to charge by the hour). People would camp out for hours and hours and everyone else would get a 'busy' signal. So, here I am, calling during peak Internet time when you can't log in, and trying to sell you a book about using a service you can't access. I became AOL's 'whipping boy' all evening, every evening. I used to be pretty smarmy on the phone back then, so I still sold a shit load of books, so that was nice. Sadly, they never gave me one, but the one office copy we had was pretty good.", "id": "cgffhtr", "summary": "I used to sell that book to enraged AOL customers."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "I have discovered SO many new artists though Pandora. Lately it's been stuck in a loop with the same songs on my fav stations (and the 'suggested' songs they throw on your station are WAY left field), so I've been listening to more Last.fm. That's even more off-the-beaten-path as far as music suggestions, but since I scrobble everything they are relevant and entertaining.", "id": "c8b97o3", "summary": "I buy way more music and go to many more shows and buy more merch because of internet radio."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "Oh man. Here comes a big fucking post. \n Well, I started using the internet around 1993. I used my 2400 baud modem, or about 2KBps. For comparison, my 100Mbit cable modem connection is about 50,000x faster. No shit. A one megabyte file would take about an hour to download. Your average 640x480 256 color 'VGA' picture file was about 200K or so, which meant that you were hanging around for about 10 minutes just to look at a single full-screen graphic. My current connection will download at an average of 10-12 mega bytes  per second, or about 50-60 of these pictures in one second. \n Before the internet, there were BBSs, or Bulletin Board Systems. These were the basically a single web site you would connect to over your phone. A given BBS would have a topic, whether it be chat, text files with info on any given subject, porn (usually sexy stories since images were such a pain in the ass on old slow dialup) or things like boards dedicated to UFOs or hacking. The thing is, if this BBS wasn't local to you, it was a long-distance phone call (people used to pay per minute for phone calls > 30 or so miles away, too). If you were downloading one of those shitty 200KB pictures from a BBS in Michigan when you are in San Diego, it could cost you a buck or two in long-distance charges. Then, if something goes wrong with the connection, (usually someone picks up a phone in your house or a noisy long-distance connection) the connection would drop and you would be shit outta luck. You would need to call back, pay the 'first minute' long distance fee (50 cents or so) and then another 10 minutes at, oh, 15 cents a minute. 2 bucks. And then your find out that chick in the pic has a dick. Then you tape a piece of paper over the dick and jack off to tits, because those tits just cost you 3 bucks. Good times. \n When the internet became available to the masses, it wasn't the graphical experience we know now. There was no Internet Explorer or even Firefox. You had a text screen. You used tools like Gopher to look at files on remote servers before the World Wide Web became a thing.  Gopher would list a page and it was a menu-based system. You would use a service called Archie to search for files, and then download them with FTP. You used an app called 'Pine' for email (the successor to 'Elm', from ELectronic Mail. Nerds gots jokes) and when the WWW became a thing, 'Lynx' was the browser. It was still text based, but the web was revolutionary because it used HyperText (the 'ht' in ' or HyperText Transfer Protocol). HyperText was HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and was great because you could link to related documents on other servers. This paved the way for search engines, dedicated topical web sites, etc. It also allowed for rudimentary text formatting like bold and italics. \n My first exposure to the internet was through a 'gateway' on my local BBS. You would dial up, go through the menu system to get to the gateway, then enter the internet. Many BBSs that provided this service would charge a monthly fee or per-minute credits. My friends and I would either find a hack to bypass the charges (like hitting CTRL+Z when going to the gateway to break into a shell) or use credit card number generator apps to add credits (until the chargeback came in). Some places offered 'free' internet through community partnerships or university affiliation. One I used was Seattle Community Network (scn.org). \n Graphics came to the internet not long afterward. It required a special dialup account called a SLIP or PPP account. The text-based accounts were called 'shell' accounts (as in Unix Shell) and were cheaper than a SLIP/PPP account. $10 for shell, $20 for PPP, etc. The difference was that instead of interacting with the internet via text, your computer actually became a node on the internet, itself (like today). You got an IP address and you could use any app on your computer to interact with the internet. You managed the dialup connection (in Windows) with an application called Winsock, or WINdows (network) SOCKets. This app was the bane of many users' existence because sometimes it would just become corrupted or otherwise shit the bed. It would interface with the rudimentary networking facilities in Windows (3.1, 95 or 98) at the time, which was pretty sketchy until Windows 2000, (which was based on the business flavor of Windows, called Windows NT). From here, things like AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ and mIRC chat clients became popular. \n Anyways, graphics. The web came alive with graphics when the first graphical browser came out, called NCSA Mosaic. NCSA was the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Mosaic went on to become Netscape Navigator. Microsoft was super sketch back in the early 90s and they put out Internet Explorer, which came to eventually displace Netscape. Well, Netscape crapped out and became Mozilla Firefox right before AOL bought their remains. I remember when I saw the graphics crawl onto the screen in Mosaic and thought, \"this will never catch on\". Luckily I was only 13 and wasn't an investor. \n 1994-98 saw enormous growth of the internet since browsers made it so accessible. It was a driving force to increase modem speeds from 2400 to 9600, 14.4kbps, 28.8, 33.6 and eventually 56K. As a side note, 56K was actually a big heap of branding because while 56K was 'theoretically' possible, the max practical speed was about 53K. I eventually went on to work for a small ISP around 1998, and I never saw a 56K connection. We rarely saw anything above 48K because of limitations of the dialup phone system (and because our company did some sketchy things to get around long-distance charges from dialup numbers in other cities). I eventually went to work at a startup doing helpdesk type things and onto systems administration where I am now. \n Told you it was long. I have more, too.", "id": "cpzrght", "summary": "Heaps of technological change driven by consumer and business demand. It wasn't always pretty or graphical or fast, and it was the Wild West for awhile. It was a lot of fun even then."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "When I first started going to Rudy's, it was a crapshoot. Bellevue was just plain rude and Greenwood gave me some bad haircuts (lots of 'corners' left over, too long, too short, too thick, etc). \n Then I found Caroline. She works in the Greenwood location and she has been cutting my hair for the past 7 or so years. Perfect and consistent. She has been a barber (not just a cosmetologist, but barber school trained) for over 25 years. She's also one of a few Rudy's barbers in the country that are licensed to shave with a strait razor. She was the person who suggested to management that such a service be offered. I'd like to think I planted that bug in her ear, but I digress. I haven't had the pleasure (it's quite expensive) but if I do, I trust her not to fsck it up :-).", "id": "cei0lg8", "summary": "Rudy's on Greenwood. Ask for Caroline."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "Not sure why you were downvoted. I bought a 5000 series Sleep Number bed about 10 years ago for $2K. Damn comfortable bed until it starts to wear out. I'm a big guy, so I put more wear and tear on surfaces than most, but as you know, the bed structure is foam rubber. After a couple years, the foam distends and bows out on the sides. This puts stress on the fabric envelope that holds it all together, which ends up tearing the thin fabric on the bottom. The top part of the bed has a weird thin fabric on the inside that wears away as well. The 'comfort pad' foam rubber pad on the inside is wearing away and disintegrating. It split down the middle between the two air bladders. \n I usually take the foam side rails and rotate them between the two sides every few months to keep them reasonably straight. The insides and bottom of the mattress are covered in Gorilla Tape and I have to fix that up on occasion. \n On the plus side, the bed is still reasonably comfortable-just not like the first couple years.  The pump I guess has a habit of failing but mine is going strong (I adjust it maybe once every few months...set and forget). The bottom pedestal/box spring replacement is sturdy as hell. The fabric top attracts stains like a magnet, even with the expensive Teflon treatment. I have small dogs so this is an issue. I just keep a mattress cover and sheets on it..who cares. \n Warranty. Well, it's like a car battery warranty. They claim 20 years, but anything after 5 (IIRC) is pro-rated. I need to call and order new parts and I know it's going to be expensive. After 10 years of use I think I'll be liable for about half of the cost. I need to dig out the paperwork and check.", "id": "cbpe3d0", "summary": "Select Comfort beds are NOT BIFL items"}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "At concerts, we do the opposite. She's my 'wedge' in the crowd. \n One time we were stuck in a corridor at an overcrowded venue. She started having a panic attack and 'the wedge' tactic wasn't working. That's when the loud 'bouncer voice' and \"Make a hole! Let's go! Move move move move!\" worked. People got the hell out of the way - fast. It helps that I'm a big guy and 6'1\" and wearing black, but so was every other guy there.", "id": "cr3qyds", "summary": "Don't be afraid to yell at people, if necessary."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "For my home lab, I try and get as much oomph as possible as I may be running multiple instances of Server for things like AD domain controllers, an IIS box, Vyatta router, and a couple Win7/8 workstations. The limitation is always memory, but 32GB is 'okay'. Gelding the VMs at 4GB or so usually creates some swapfile activity, so I keep the VM's OS system drive with its swapfile on SSD and use a 'D drive' for data, which is stored on a spinning drive.", "id": "cqza4y7", "summary": "I keep the VM's OS system drive with its swapfile on SSD and use a 'D drive' for data, which is stored on a spinning drive."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "Sorta off-topic but I took a couple of the first ones and put them in the lid of a small cooler and put two 12Ah AGM batteries in there. I thought it was pretty clever since it's a promotional cooler that looks like a Sears Die Hard car battery. I even put the panel mounts where the terminals would go. Used them for quite awhile until I discovered the hard way that SLAs are subject to thermal runaway when charging. One of the batteries 'vented' by blowing the seam between the top and bottom of the battery case, flooding the cooler with acid (since the battery was fully charged, it was very acidy acid) and billowing steam that smelled like brimstone and burning plastic bags. I took it outside and dumped ice water and baking soda in the cooler and let it billow away out in the yard for awhile. Good times. These weren't cheap batteries, BTW. They were PowerSonic 12120s.", "id": "cdo00ls", "summary": "PowerPole panel mount linked above rocks. Don't charge your SLA batteries in a beer cooler."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "Unless the street cars are on a track. When we're on-course we keep a bottle of nitrogen in the pit because it's convenient and we don't need to deal with a compressor. As the track and tires heat up and cool down the air inside expands and contracts, changing the size of the contact patch. Every time the car pits we check the temperature along the tread and pressure. We either add or subtract pressure as needed. One or two PSI can spell the difference between a second or two on the track and over the course of a 24-hour race, inconsistency can cost you the race. \n But yea for street-only tires/cars? Who cares. Most people don't even maintain their suspension and alignment well enough to maintain an ideal contact patch...they don't even maintain the right tire pressure to begin with.", "id": "c87nu50", "summary": "Who cares unless you track the car."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "Like the title says, what is the most awesome badass thing you have ever seen or been party to? My story is long but here goes. \n Back in the day, a buddy and I owned these boy racer Neons and we would go up to the local Honda hangout and pretty much just relax and talk cars with the ricer kids until the police made us leave. En route on the freeway, I saw two pair of headlights coming up behind pretty quickly. I slowed down to make space around the other cars so they could pass and gtfo. The two cars involved were an old Bronco and an older Camry. The Bronco stayed in the left lane and kept going. The Camry came up behind the car ahead and to the left of me. Not willing to just call it off and concede, he cut me off and decided to pass the car ahead of me on the right hard shoulder. The back end got loose once it hit the edge of the asphalt roadway and shot the car across three lanes toward the center jersey barrier. The driver over-corrected and slung the car the opposite way and off the side of the roadway. At around 90. Over a drainage basin around 10ft below. The car did half a barrel roll and landed upside down in the ditch with about a foot of water in it. It all appeared in slow-motion and was awesome as hell, in retrospect. I stopped on the side of the road with my friend stopping behind me. I jumped out, saw it was pitch dark and ran back to the car to get my flashlight. About 10 secs later, I was down in the ditch and my buddy and I were pulling teenagers out by their collars through the broken windows. There were 5 kids in the car, all OK, a little bloody from the glass. \n We had to then break up the ensuing brawl since the 4 passengers were trying to kick the driver's ass. The driver of the car ahead of us turned around at the next exit and came back to help. At this point my buddy is trying to stop one passenger from pushing the driver into the freeway traffic while I'm on the phone with 911. Once separated, the driver started going pale and shocky from the excitement/fear and we had to wrap him up in a blanket. Shortly after calling, we saw about six State Patrol cars going the opposite way toward the turnaround where they came back and stopped by us. Soon a couple fire engines showed up and about three ambulances. 3 out of 4 lanes were shut down at this point. \n State Patrolman asked what happened after taking the kids' statements. We both mentioned that the kids were racing a Bronco. The cop said \"Oh, really! That's the first we heard that. Care to write a statement?\" I guess the concensus among the kids' statement was  'another car cut them off and they lost control'. My friend and I just laughed and said we absolutely would like to write a statement. \n We left the scene after turning in the statements and stopped at a gas station for coffee. After a few minutes of silence, my friend asked, \"Did that shit just really happen?\" We were both in disbelief. We were never called to court or anything, so I suspect things just worked themselves out and I hope someone caught a parental ass beating.", "id": "t3_1bubc2", "summary": "Witnessed a car do a barrel roll flying off the freeway, helped save some kids from drowning and stopped an attempted murder"}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "I've had this car since it rolled off the truck in 2003, and like most Neons, it doesn't exactly have the most robust electrical system. This car is using a Mopar Stage 2 ECU (factory flashed stock ECU) and the stock 160-Amp alternator. \n My current battery is about one year old. The previous two batteries lasted quite awhile, but they both had some 'venting' and fuzz on the terminals, even though they were maintenance-free batteries. I suspected the charging voltage may have been too high, but never really measured it. \n I was checking the voltages around the car today (troubleshooting a blown accessory socket fuse) and noted the battery was sitting at 12.3V (at the terminals) even though the car had only been turned off for about 18 hours. The Scangauge (OBD-II 'gauge') reported the voltage at the ECU to be 12.2V. No phantom draws that I can detect using my meter at the underhood fuse box. \n When the car is running, the Scangauge reports 13.4-13.7V at idle. The voltage at the 20A fuel pump fuse (feeds the ECU) is 13.9V and the terminal voltage is a whopping 14.2V. The engine is cold at this point, so I'm not sure if the ECU drops the voltage as the engine/battery warms (I should check later after a drive). \n I can understand the voltage drop throughout the system on the way to the ECU due to the anemic wiring harness and thin fusebox buss, but this seems a little excessive. My theory is that the voltage reported at the ECU is causing it to run the (internal) voltage regulator too hot and over-charging the battery. \n Thoughts? Does this seem typical? I'm considering re-seating the ECU connectors, thinking maybe the connectors have some corrosion and are causing voltage drop. Everything else seems fine.", "id": "t3_3lm96e", "summary": "Is 14.2V charging voltage too high given that lead-acid batteries prefer around 13.8V to charge? If so, is there anything I can do about it?"}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "Hey Makers. Like most folks here I'm a music consumer. I've been though some audio engineering courses back in college and some music theory and music business classes, but that was back in the late 90's and we all know the landscape has changed since then. \n My musical tastes have turned more toward indie and international bands (international to the US). Typically these are metal bands (symphonic, goth, industrial, thrash, etc). Since many of the acts are international, it requires a lot of money for them to tour the US. Luckily, Seattle is usually on the tour list since we have a bit of history in music. I know some of the acts have large labels at home or in the US that help finance things and that the cash flow situation is even more convoluted with overseas promoters and labels than it is already. I like to catch the (usually) local openers that tour with the headliners because many times the niche genres (dark cabaret, etc) won't draw enough of a crowd to make the tour worth it, and would normally just stay home and play the local bars and clubs. I consider it a privilege to see these bands, and consider the usual $15-$25 ticket price to be an absolute bargain. \n Here are some things that I remember or have picked up over the years. Please educate me if they are incorrect, and please expand on them if they are true! \n \n Bands on major labels usually see a fraction of album sales and airplay revenue due to the number of middlemen and bureaucracies between the band and the consumer. \n \n Touring is much more profitable than other streams since there is merch involved and ticket per-head revenue is higher than album/single sale prices. I've also heard that some labels will 'sell' some merch and tickets to the artists so that the artists can collect a higher per-unit profit. Is that true? \n \n Internet radio stations are no way to make a living \n \n \n Since I want to support the little guys who make the awesome music as much as possible so they will continue to feel it's worthwhile, and I want to help out the big guys who feel they are getting bent-over by their labels, I want to know how to make sure as much of my fan money goes to the band, without going through some channel that just rips them off. \n Here's what I typically do: \n \n Buy the new album at the show, if possible. (How does this affect income for the band when they are touring if, say, they release their album a month before touring?) \n \n Buy physical albums. This is mostly for me, since I really enjoy liner notes and other physical things, plus it's something to have autographed! Are there higher margins with physical vs downloads? \n \n If I do buy music, it's usually through Amazon. Are they pretty fair? What do you guys think of the new 'AutoRip' service? If I'm buying some music that is download-only, are you better off if I go to say, SoundCloud? How about physical albums-through the band site or through a retailer? \n \n I usually listen to music at work and in the car. Even though I own the albums, I usually stream through Pandora and Last.fm. I figure the bands will see a few hundredths of a cent more than if I just played it locally, plus I get to discover new music. \n \n \n I have several friends who are in bands. They are mostly in it for the music and haven't even considered touring or monetizing. If they play a commercial venue, it's usually a club with a $10 cover and they see beer money :). I have to hand it to you guys since as I lack any musical talent, I'm happy there are others out there who are willing to take risks just to entertain others.", "id": "t3_183kof", "summary": "How can I make sure as much of the money I spend gets to you as possible? \n Thanks!"}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "My SO and I are contemplating a trip from Seattle to Germany to attend a music festival (Wacken) and the thing is, she has a congenital heart defect. It's not a common occurrence, but she has been hospitalized a couple times right before a trip and it has required cancellation. Murphy's Law dictates I should find some sort of coverage for such an expensive trip. \n I've used a Citi trip protection benefit before as the reason for her admission wasn't directly related to her pre-existing condition. Expedia also offers such an insurance with the same benefit, but neither cover expenses other than change or cancellation fees from common carriers. They don't cover hotel cancellation fees or concert ticket costs. \n Of course, this would be even better if the trip costs are paid with rewards points. I'm considering a Sapphire Preferred card, however, does the card offer this type of travel protection? I see hotel fees are covered, but is it onerous or extremely limited? \n I currently have an Amazon Rewards card with Chase, a long banking history (WaMu days), excellent checking account history and I carry a minimal balance as it's my day-to-day card. Would this impact eligibility? Do you think they would prefer to split the credit limits between the cards? CR around 800.", "id": "t3_2lshx6", "summary": "What rewards card offers comprehensive travel insurance and a large signup offer? \n Thanks in advance."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "Hi, all. My boy Buster is about 15 and has congestive heart failure. When his meds are right, he's in good shape. He has always been a voracious eater and until the doctor advised canned food for his kidneys, he has eaten kibble his entire life twice a day, and would finish the bowl so quickly we had to get him a slow-feeding bowl. He's a 'big' chihuahua with a healthy weight of around 12 lbs.\nHe has been on canned food for about six months. He used to get First Mate chicken grain-free food, and he liked it, but it would give him 'the trots' frequently, seemingly for no reason. I used to feed him Hill's I/D digestive formula when he had the poops to clear him up, but now I just give it to him all the time. Right now, he's eating Royal Canin digestive high-energy, because he's a little underweight now (~10 lbs). \n With that, he has developed a 'thing' where he will eat maybe half of the food and then get weird about it. He will stare at the half-empty bowl from a few feet away and whine, walk around excitedly like he's hungry and come and give me 'the look' that he wants to be fed. He'll occasionally go back to the bowl, maybe take a few bites and do his routine again. Over the course of a few hours, he'll finish the bowl. Sometimes he will eat it all in one sitting. \n I have a couple theories. Either he doesn't like the food, but is still hungry, or he is 'full' but wants to eat more and can't. I've mixed some dehydrated raw food in before for extra calories, which he is nuts over on its own (why do they always have expensive taste?) but he doesn't treat the mixed food any differently.", "id": "t3_2p1tj3", "summary": "Dog eats only half of his food and then acts hungry for more \n What do you guys think?"}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "Back in December I had a frozen fire sprinkler pipe explode and flooded half of my condo. Insurance is taking care of it and I'm living in a hotel. The good news is that I don't have any drywall up in the living room, so I'm throwing a bunch of behind-the-wall upgrades (CAT6 data, recessed lighting, rockwool insulation) at it and one thing I'm definitely taking care of is the AV wiring. \n I have a Samsung LCD that is above the fireplace. The electrician running the upgrades and replacing the wet wiring doesn't know a thing about AV wiring. I asked if he could run the wiring through the load-bearing framework to a spill box about 3ft to the right and below the adjacent window and I was assured 'It's not a problem' and 'they do it all the time'. Option two is to fur out the wall. I was wondering how they were going to do this given my request (3-4 HDMI cables, TOSlink, L+R+F speaker channels) while not swiss-cheesing the studs but hey they're the experts. \n I was talking to the electrician today and going over the line items. I asked if he was going to run smurf tube and he replies, \"Oh yea 1/2\" smurf tube\". I told him that wasn't going to work. He asked, \"What is this HDMI wiring you speak of, anyway? If you can crimp the ends, it'll fit!\" Ugh. He thought I was just running some CAT-6. \n I have a request in to the project manager to quote furring out the wall with 2x2's. I need to source the cabling before work begins (next Monday. Amazon Prime!). Good thing since I don't trust this guy to do it. \n My question is, for such a small job (running tubing) should I hire an experienced (and expensive) AV installer or should I just let Sparky the subbed electrician handle it? Once the wall is furred out it should just be a matter of bonding the tubing/conduit to the framework and I'll fish the wires, right?", "id": "t3_1vtwxv", "summary": "Should I hire an AV installer to just run some flex conduit or let the non-AV savvy electrician handle it?"}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "Our chihuahuas have always eaten dry kibble and seemed to enjoy it. One of the chis is an old guy at 15 years and has heart failure. The doc has him on diuretics, which can beat up on the kidneys a bit and cause dehydration. Doc suggested moving to a canned or raw food diet to help keep him hydrated. \n Now, he has always been a voracious eater. We have to use 'no-choke' bowls with him or else he will inhale his kibble and promptly regurgitate it onto the couch whole since he eats so quickly. I place his bowl down and make him 'wait' and calm down before allowing him to eat (also reinforcing that it's  my  food and he is allowed to eat it). Typically, he will eat, realize the bowl is empty and go about his normal doggie business for the day until dinnertime. \n Since changing to canned food, he has developed an obsession with food. He can't get enough. Doc says he should get 2/3-1 cup of food per day. I usually feed him 1/2 cup per meal as he has always been fed 2x per day, and his weight is stable (maybe gaining a few tenths, but he is 'old man skinny' anyway and can use it). \n As soon as he wolfs down the food, he is frantically begging for more. This goes on for hours. If you stand up for any reason, he's right there, hoping you're going to feed him. He ignores commands to go lay down, 'leave it', etc, will go after the other dog's food if you leave the room, and will always sneak into the kitchen for a sniff even though he knows he's not allowed in there, and refuses to stay out, even when disciplined with the water bottle and firmer commands. It's like he has lost his damn mind. \n I'm coming to my wits end with the constant following, whimpering and bad behavior. Has anyone else seen this? Does anyone have any suggestions to curb his behavior?", "id": "t3_2gqsya", "summary": "Changed dog to canned food, dog is now obsessed with eating and no longer obeys food-related commands."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "I've been running an APRS igate for awhile just to tinker. It was a 2-way igate, with an APRS-IS filter of 6km since it was running on an old 5W Kenwood HT. It runs on a Raspberry PI and uses a TNC-Pi for a radio interface. It worked pretty well indoors, considering I'm on the bottom floor of a condo and it was a roll-up J-pole thumbtacked to the wall. \n After a remodel, I had an electrician install an outlet on the patio and have since bought a deck box to put all of our flower pots and other porch crap in. Being next to the outlet, it was a perfect place to put the igate. The RPi used wifi and I used a little 2A wall wart (no RFI to speak of from it) to power the whole thing. In true ham spirit, I put it all in a Rubbermaid food container (but I did care enough to use bulkhead connectors!). \n The receiver did even better out there and while it didn't pick up stations at greater distances, it picked up  more  stations, which leads me to believe it was picking up more low-power trackers and mobile stations. Makes sense since it's outside now and there is less attenuation from the walls. \n But  something happened . I unplugged the whole thing when I went on vacation (the gap in the chart). Before \n I bought a Baofeng UV-B6 for $30 on Amazon and to my surprise, nothing. I checked with my other HT and damn near nothing, even after plugging into the igate's antenna. \n I figured there was some new local noise source obliterating everything, so I started poking around with my HT in AM mode at 144.39. I found a bunch of local noise sources (holy crap my Seagate external hard drive and LCD TV while in standby) but nothing serious once a few feet away. I didn't add or fire anything up on the 22nd, but maybe a neighbor did. No noteworthy noise coming from upstairs. Even out on the porch where the igate was, I'm seeing S1 white noise with either radio, but no packets, or ones that are there are buried in the noise, unable to be decoded. \n Then I step 10ft off the porch and signals come booming in, loud and with full quieting. What the hell? I didn't notice a new invisible Faraday cage installed, so I'm kind of at a loss, here. I'm trying to figure out a solution (like how I can sneak the antenna into the tree line) but would rather fix the vanishing signal issue.", "id": "t3_3646rx", "summary": "APRS packets just vanished, no interfering noise to speak of, re-appear 10 feet away. \n Thoughts? \n Edit: After more poking around, it doesn't appear that the TNC-Pi is decoding all too well, even with strong signals. I can stand near the setup while outside and successfully decode packets with my TH-D72A and its rubber duck vs the igate with its J-pole attached. I'm going to try Dire Wolf TNC and see if that has better results."}, {"author": "jaymzx0", "content": "OK, so as I mentioned in [this thread]( my APRS igate just stopped decoding, and all of the stations on the air just 'vanished' unless you were 10ft from my home. Things are working again! \n Further analysis: \n \n More RFI snooping and toroids on all the things \n More experimenting with antenna placement \n More experimenting with the TNC \n \n I noted that if I 'exploded' the setup, by separating the radio/TNC/Pi/power supply as far as possible, packets would decode. If I moved the TNC closer to the Pi, the TNC would flash the receive LED but nothing would make it to the Pi. I figured there was some RFI issue with the ribbon cable. I twisted it two turns and things worked much better. I also experimented with covering various things in foil to find the RFI source, but it was definitely the ribbon cable mucking things up. \n Figuring the guys at [Coastal Chipworks]( are smarter than I am, and that the TNC-Pi has a pretty good ground plane on the back of the board, I replaced the ribbon cable header back to a 'stackable' header and put it back on top of the Pi. Now it doesn't work at all :(. I can only figure that my desoldering sucker just sucked out one of the through-hole sleeves and associated PCB trace somewhere, or I zapped the modem IC with static somehow. Further investigation later. \n I decided to experiment with [Dire Wolf]( as a soundcard TNC. Initial tests with a cheap soundcard 'dongle' I had kicking around showed RFI that was S9 across the band once the dongle initializes. No dice. \n I took down the Signalink I had on the shelf and plugged the radio into the SPEAKER input (didn't feel like making a cable for a quick experiment) and it worked great. Decode is  much  better than the TNC-Pi on a good day. With that in-mind, I didn't feel like tying up the Signalink with an igate out on the porch, so I bought a 'better' [sound dongle from Plugable]( Metal case, good reviews, cheap. Should be worth the experiment. And it works great! It's small and barely crowds the wifi adapter on the other USB port. I didn't have any 2.5mm --> 3.5mm cables made up to connect the Kenwood or Baofeng to the sound card, so I'm using my Yaesu VX-6r HT. It only took some fiddling with the input levels but it decodes like a champ now. It will be swapped out as I don't want a $300 HT just hanging out on the porch. \n But now we're back to the signal issue (or lack thereof). When the j-pole was free and in the clear with  nothing  within 3 feet, it worked great. If you moved it near a wall (drywall/wood, no wires or metal) it would just detune down by about 20 MHz. Signals would disappear and SWR would be 4-6+. With the attached RG-174, it was just turning into a black hole. I knew the little roll-up j-poles were fickle, but holy carp. \n I dug out a PVC pipe and car antenna dipole I made some time ago, and wow, it works so much better and is much more forgiving of nearby objects. It also matches 1.1:1 SWR only six inches from a 8X8 wooden deck support. Noise is down and signals are booming in. I moved the antenna center from three feet above ground to six feet and it nearly doubled the performance. Now I wish I lived upstairs! \n So, there it is as of this morning. I plan to make a PTT circuit and cables for the Kenwood/Baofeng today so it can be a low-power digi again. Once the cables are all sorted and shortened, it's going into a Pelican case so it can be brought places (like Field Day) and not look like an experiment. \n I may also make a dipole out of some fine wire and a PCB so it can be hidden in the building siding again, much like [this]( the [Byonics Micro Trak VHF Antenna V6]( The current dipole and its associated 'mast' stuck out like a sore thumb, so I [found a use]( for that novelty 'digital camo' duct tape. It seems to [work]( [rather well.]( \n [Before and after]( \n [Before and after (detailed)](", "id": "t3_378jyx", "summary": "Raspberry Pi igate wasn't receiving/decoding packets. Switched out hardware TNC for soundcard TNC, switched roll-up J-pole for vertical dipole. Much success."}]}
+{"author": "lookalive07", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post people can't just change everything they've been doing right away.  They can complain that they don't have great results at first, but if they keep doing it and start eliminating bad food, results will come.  It might take time, but complaining about the complainers is just as bad as the complainers complaining about no results.", "output": "Congrats.  You have self control.  Some people (most people) do not.  If you expect people to just drop everything they've been doing for years in a heartbeat and just start eating healthy, you're on the exact opposite side of this hypocrisy. \n While I agree with you, it isn't just a simple task to stop eating poorly and drinking on weekends (or every night if that's who you are) to just say \"oh, I better never do that shit ever again\". In a perfect world, sure, a momentary decision to change a person's life might get them a couple of days in, but that burger sounds pretty damn good about halfway through week 1. \n I personally, live in a college town and find it incredibly easy to drink on weekends because I like drinking and having fun with friends.  If I had enough self control, sure, I could say \"hey I'm trying to diet and lose weight with P90X so I don't want to go out\" but it's the social aspect that leads me (and a lot of people) to go out and drink (even though we don't have to), because we want to be sociable an have fun.  Is it ideal? No.  Is it still really fun? Yes. \n The bottom line is that it takes time and maybe a cycle of P90X or two to really get results.  It all depends on how willing you are to stick with it.  I personally have not gotten through a full 90 day cycle of the program but I fully intend to starting Monday because I want to better my life.  I don't expect amazing results but if I stick with it, I know I'm going to be happier than I am now.  That's what needs to be taken away from the program.  If you stick with it, you will feel better.  The full transformation takes time.  Maybe a cycle or two until you get there."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post use a GPS at night in non-downtown Detroit, or you're gonna have a bad time.", "output": "Thank you for adding the second paragraph.  People will go on and on and joke about how Detroit is literally hell on earth, but there are quite a few spots in Detroit that are awesome, and I really hope that the next few years will allow the city to grow and begin to prosper. \n But you're right.  Most cities, I could be in a pretty sketchy area, and I would still feel relatively safe walking into a gas station and grabbing a snack, or pumping gas, etc. \n In some parts of Detroit, if you don't know where you are, I'd say that it's perfectly acceptable to blow right through stop signs.  I got lost trying to find I-96 once and due to some road closure, I ended up somewhere I wouldn't wish upon anyone.  There weren't any street lights.  I turned the radio down to make sure I was focused.  I'm pretty sure I heard some gunshots.  I booked it the fuck out of there as fast as I could. \n I didn't have a GPS because this was before smartphones and standalone GPS's were common.  I ended up heading back to the venue where I just watched a band play and parked my car right next to the venue where the tour buses were, pulled out my map (yes, a paper map), and figured out where the highway was.  I noticed that the way I originally went was the quickest way to the highway, but as I said, the road was closed.  So I took the long way to get to a non-closed entry to the highway, and drove my scared shitless ass home."}], "user_id": "longlamp_12297", "history": [{"author": "lookalive07", "content": "It was considered stupid at the time (and fun), but looking back it's a rather funny story IMO, but here goes: \n My friend came over on his moped when we were around 15, and I had taken up skateboarding a year or so earlier.  Never was too daring on it, but that day I decided it might be fun to skitch (hold on to his moped while he pulls me on my board) all over the neighborhood. \n We did it for hours, going to see our friends, hanging out, etc.  Finally dinner time comes around and he says \"alright, one more run and I gotta go,\" to which I agree.  He tells me hes going to go as fast as he can, and we're going to do it on the longest straightaway in the neighborhood. \n Skateboarders know how amazingly annoying rocks even as small as a pea can be on pavement. \n I hit a piece of gravel, and flew face first into the street, pushing my upper lip into my braces, tearing a hole that required 12 stitches inside my mouth, and covered my upper body in really bad scrapes/road rash that killed for weeks. \n My braces saved probably all of my teeth, and my friend was mortified to be there when my parents got back, so he bailed.  I didn't see him for months.", "id": "c8xeob9", "summary": "let my friend drag me behind his moped on my skateboard, hit a stone and nearly cracked my head open/lost all my teeth.  Friend thought my dad was going to crucify him."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "I like to think karma is a real thing, so I'll give this one a shot. \n So a few years ago, I lived in Ohio for grad school, and during their Afterman Ascension tour, the closest they were going to be was in Fort Wayne, IN at Piere's. I decided to buy two tickets after talking with my friend who lived in Michigan and we agreed we'd meet down there for the show. \n Fast forward to the week of the show and my buddy says he probably can't go. So I try other friends to see if they can make it, and none can take his ticket. So I ask him to try to free up the night and go. He ends up admitting it was about the money to get there. So holding out hope, I told him that he can pay me back whenever for it, and that I just want to go to this show with him. He says he'll try his best. \n So, day of the show, I drive to Fort Wayne. I got there early to make sure I wasn't going to miss the acoustic pre-show. If you know anything about Piere's, though you know they are kind of notorious for having a problem with dealing with lines and will call, etc.  I managed to get in line, and as it turned out I was in the line for people who already had tickets, and I had to get in a different line to pick up my tickets. So the two lines for purchasing tickets and picking up tickets converge into one, and I miss the acoustic performance. \n However, I wasn't bummed about that, more so because my friend very last minute told me he definitely wasn't making it. So I had an extra ticket. Knowing that there were people who still wanted to buy tickets, I decided to throw someone a bone who had been waiting in two lines like I had to and I asked \"hey, is anyone waiting to actually buy a ticket?\" There was a few confused looks, but one guy spoke up and said, \"yeah I am, do you have an extra to sell?\" \n I replied \"no, but I have an extra to give. Have a great night.\" Handed him the ticket and he shook my hand and probably had an awesome night. I know I did.", "id": "cmv87fu", "summary": "gave a fan a free ticket because my friend backed out."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "Possible Spoilers below... \n The timeline  here .  This would mean he died wielding the Master Sword, and something is then done with it between then and A Link to the Past, thus ending up in the Lost Woods. \n From my understanding after completing Skyward Sword, the sword is placed in a pedestal in the Sealed Temple, and due to the events that led to where Link and Zelda end up at the end of the game, it would lead me to believe that the creation of Hyrule caused the Temple of Time as we know it in Ocarina of Time was created out of the remains of the Sealed Temple.  Either that, or it was moved when Ocarina's kingdom was created, sealing the sword away. \n Note that these events have been said by the creators of the games to have taken place often times with hundreds of years in between, and that the characters in each game are often not the same exact character, but descendents of them.", "id": "c3lw3fm", "summary": "they built the Temple of Time around the Master Sword, or they moved it in between Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "This.  They're going to do the classic \"see? we show that Ted meets the mother at Barney's wedding...BUT WAIT! We're not going to show her face!\" \n My theory on the finale is that Barney and his bride get married (obvious), as they are going outside to get into the limo and ride to the reception together, they're going to get caught in the rain again, Ted's going to notice the yellow umbrella and then the season is going to end. \n Then, season 8 starts with Ted saying something along the lines of \"So kids, I met your mother at Barney's wedding.  But how exactly did that occur? Well, we have to go back to (insert some time over this summer).\"  Then season 8 is going to include the following major storylines: \n \n Barney figuring out his shit with Quinn.  Obviously he cares about her, but a lot of us think that they're moving too quickly to have him  propose  (this is a key word.  Notice I didn't say marry, because that likely won't happen for some time...I'll get to that), so that's why revealing Robin as Barney's bride (or literally anyone else besides Quinn) would be more appropriate, IMO, because they would need to explain why it wasn't Quinn. \n \n Whoever the bride is (even if it is Quinn), how he proposes to her.  I assume this is going to take an episode or two.  Unless it's Robin, then it's going to take 3 or 4. \n \n The planning of the Barney's wedding along with the above two points.  We can relate this to season 2 in the way that The first few episodes might deal with the first two topics, then the rest of the season is Barney finding his bride, and then a bunch of secondary story arcs (see Season 2's Slap Bet) that don't have anything to do with planning the wedding, but you know that it's coming eventually.  Marshall and Lily's wedding was essentially planned for 13 episodes, since they got back together in \"Swarley\", and then season 2 ended of course with the wedding episode, and the reception episode.  Expect this to happen for the series finale. \n \n \n As I said above, Barney wouldn't really have time to propose and have a wedding in three episodes (considering the show is primarily shot in the present day, real time), so you can  AND SHOULD EXPECT  that his wedding doesn't actually take place this season, but rather  MOST LIKELY IN THE SPRING OF NEXT YEAR .  This has been confirmed.", "id": "c4h0yl8", "summary": "Expect my bullets above to happen next season, right after a sneak peek of Ted's wife at the end of this season.  We probably will see the yellow umbrella, but no face."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "I have several, but I'll pick my favorite from each season, along with my favorite quote from each: \n S1E8 - The Duel \n \n \"I'm sorry, is this a discussion of the  degree  to which you stabbed me?\" \n \n S2E9 - Slap Bet \n \n \"You're right, she does have the fake orgasm noises down.\" \n \"Hey!\"  \n \"What? The walls are thin..\"  \n \"That's not what I'm 'hey'ing you about.\" \n \n S3E3 - Third Wheel \n \n \"You take too long to get ready.\"  \n \"What're you talking about? I've got the low maintenance 'just rolled outta bed look'!\"  \n \"Yeah which takes an hour and a half of waxing tugging and teasing to achieve.\"  \n \"And then he starts on his hair.\" \n \n S4E24: Three Days of Snow \n \n \"All I need is Arizona Tech, which is crazy.  In league play that would normally be designated a free space.\" \n \"So how many people are in on this 'Party School Bingo' thing? \n \"Oh it's just me.\" \n \"So what's the point then?\" \n \"The point is to get 5 in a row.\" \n \"And what do you get when you get 5 in a row?\" \n \"...I get  Bingo . ...\" \n \n S5E1: Definitions \n \n \"NOT GOOD ENOUGH!\" \n \n S6E14 - Last Words \n \n Insert entire scene where Marshall listens to the voicemail. \n \n And since season 7 isn't complete yet, I won't insert my entry yet.  However, I like S7E1 - The Best Man, and the scene where Robin asks Ted if architects make good money, to which he replies with \"Aggressively medium money.\"", "id": "c4gqip3", "summary": "It's hard to choose just one."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "Whatever you feel works the best is likely a viable substitute, but I wouldn't give up on Kenpo just yet if you can help it. \n Personally, I hated it the first couple of times I did it, but when I stopped my phase due to me moving away for the summer, I still brought my discs with me and I am just filling in days I can get a workout in with whatever I feel like.  For a couple of weeks, I had a routine that did two or three strength workouts and two or three cardio workouts. \n When I popped in the Kenpo disc, I followed some advice I read on this reddit and that was \"engage your abs like you are bracing yourself for a counter punch/kick and just work on proper form\".  I found my abs (as well as the other muscles in my body that tense up in this process) felt it when I was done with the disc.  After a few times using this advice, I felt that not only was I getting a good cardio workout, but that I was able to utilize good form and add some speed into each exercise to intensify the entire workout.  I found I sweated a lot more but was able to bring it for the entire disc and it felt great when I was done.", "id": "c5ft4zb", "summary": "don't give up on it.  Work on form and coordination and engage your abs for every punch/kick and you'll feel it more with each rep."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "TED'S A SONOFABITCH!\" \n You'll get it eventually. :D \n In a more justified response, and you can take this for what it's worth: Ted is probably my least favorite character if I had to pick one.  Like gun to my head, had to pick one.  However, Ted has some hilarious moments in later seasons, and he is definitely less interesting in Season 1.  I think it might be primarily because the creators didn't know if the show was going to be as successful as it ended up being, so they wanted to have Ted find his wife at the end of Season 1 if they didn't get renewed, if nothing else but for a complete story.", "id": "c4h6x0w", "summary": "He gets better over time and has had some hilarious moments."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "In all honesty, most of this post is a viewpoint that much of the NHL not on the Pittsburgh Penguins will disagree with.  Players have been quoted saying how he will hit, slash, hook, and the like (however clean or dirty they may be) and then when it happens to him, he acts like he isn't allowed to be touched. \n The other day when the Flyers played the Penguins and the line brawl broke out, minutes before, you can see Crosby get crosschecked by Schenn in  this video . \n All this said, I would repsect Crosby a whole hell of a lot more if he played with some more class.  Every hockey player slashes, chirps, etc., but from two straight Stanley Cup finals against him in 2008 and 2009, I began to strongly dislike him, and my dislike was only solidified even more with [this incident](  Now, I'm not saying a scrum in frustration isn't warranted, but the way it started was unnecessary, considering how he essentially attacked Zetterberg for no other reason but the fact that if you watched that game, Zetterberg was shutting him down all night.  Bottom line, you just raised the Stanley Cup no more than a year before in this building - a building that no visiting team has ever raised the Cup in.  You lost a regular season game.  Act like you have an ounce of class in your body and take the loss like most of the NHL would.", "id": "c4a8m11", "summary": "the Crosby hate isn't pointless and undeserved because the way he acts is pointless and the NHL doesn't deserve him as the face of the league.  I'll take Steven Stamkos any day of the week."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "Probably going to get buried, but here goes: \n I was 15 and pretty bad at doing any tricks on a skateboard except for a few basic tricks.  So I rode around on it a lot to get places, but never really tried too many dangerous tricks my other friends were doing.  One day, my friend came over on his moped and we decided to go over to another friend's house in the neighborhood.  To avoid the \"two dudes on a moped\" look, I decided it would be super easy for him to just pull me while I stood on my board. \n Skitching worked perfectly for the entire day, to the point where we didn't have anywhere to be, we just decided to ride around with me trailing his moped with no problems whatsoever. \n ...Until we called \"last run\".  I hit a stone (and every skateboarder knows what a tiny stone can do to you), and flew forward, basically still attached to his moped, and landed upper body first on the pavement, sustaining scars all up both my arms and shoulders, as well as a nice tear of my inner lip where my braces went through.  I wasn't wearing a helmet or any pads, and really the only thing that saved my teeth were the braces.  Otherwise I would have a lot less real teeth, no doubt in my mind. \n I spent the entire next week on vacation in my bed immobilized by pain from all the open wounds, had to get 12 stitches inside my lip, and my two front teeth were repositioned because they had been pushed backwards from the impact.", "id": "cfnl91b", "summary": "Skitched on my skateboard behind a moped, fucked my shit up bad.  Don't call last run."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "Let me start this post to say that I am not going to deny that I think that we're all spoiled for all the success we've had in the past 20ish seasons and with 4 Stanley Cups since '97, and that we  really  shouldn't complain at what has happened down this stretch, but as the title suggests, something has got to give. \n We rolled through the middle of the season posting 23 straight home wins, breaking an NHL record and making everyone in Hockeytown really elated up until the streak got broken. \n We go into the trade deadline making only one trade, for Kyle Quincey, and we miss on a few trades due to the deals not being right and wanting to keep the lineup like we have because we saw success for a majority of the season. \n Meanwhile, Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Bertuzzi, etc. all get injured and we suddenly start looking like a team that has completely forgotten to play a full 60 minute hockey game, and it's not even our third or fourth line players.  It's players that should be putting up points regularly, players that should be going hard to the net, and players that should be battling hard. \n But they're not.  Our Abdelkaders and our Helms are playing those roles, skating hard every night, going in and sacrificing the body to make plays.  Meanwhile, Franzen has the most game winning goals and the most overall goals on the team, but hasn't done really anything completely meaningful in however long.  Cleary used to battle hard like Helm does nightly, but now he's nearly invisible, or when he's actually trying to do something, he's getting pushed around like a nerd during an elementary school recess. \n So this is what I think needs to happen: \n \n Holmstrom needs to retire.  He's working hard but he doesn't get anything done anymore. \n Cleary, Hudler, and possibly even Franzen need to be traded.  Don't get me wrong, I love what Franzen can do, and I know people are going to say \"just wait until the playoffs\" and all that, but it takes hard regular season play to get a good enough seed to make a deep run, and he just seems apathetic on a nightly basis recently. \n We need to spend our cap on a player that can pick his spots and play a passionate, 60 minute game. \n Stuart is likely to leave us, so we need to go after Ryan Suter. \n I know he's injured, but Ericsson is a waste of salary and really doesn't bring anything to the team that a $3.25M cap hit player should. \n Holland really needs to take a good look at our play right now and make some adjustments.  I don't really know how long it's going to take for him to realize that loyalty to players and the reciprocation as such doesn't always equal success.  Dead weight players need to go. \n \n Now all that said, Holland already has a lot of players under contract and the only real viable way to dump them without getting rid of them for nothing but cap room is to make trades, but at this point, I don't see too many people wanting Cleary.  Hudler had trade value at the deadline and they didn't want to mess with the chemistry of the Fillpula/Zetterberg/Hudler line, so he stays. \n As I said, I will admit like most Red Wings fans, we are spoiled with our success, but I see a team that is not cohesive right now.  They aren't hungry and they don't seem to care nearly as much as they should.  Maybe the entitlement goes all the way to the locker room.  Maybe not.  I'd really like to hope that they will get their shit together when the playoffs arrive, but after the last few games, I'm skeptical.", "id": "t3_qxchn", "summary": "They really need to play like they want to win or this is going to happen in the playoffs and we will not be happy.  And Holland really needs to make moves in the offseason because the team we're looking at is not Stanley Cup material. \n Also, forgive my wall of text. I hope someone takes the time to read it."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "I'm writing this self-post because I've seen a lot of people posting comments and whatnot about not wanting a new arena for the Red Wings for various reasons.  While some of those reasons are valid, the new arena is necessary not only for the Red Wings, but for the city of Detroit as a whole, and I'm going to tell you why. \n I'm going to start by saying that I am a 100% JLA supporter.  I have been going to games at the Joe since the first time at age 8 (25 years old now) with my dad.  We played the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and lost in a 1-0 overtime.  I didn't even get to hear the famous goal horn.  I went to plenty of games between now and then, and my nostalgia for the place is still there.  I have so many fond memories of the arena and I will be sad to see it go. \n However, if you've stepped into nearly any other NHL arena in the last five years (or even seen one on TV) and then compared it to JLA, you might notice a few things.  Our arena is severely outdated.  Our only concourse is cramped, our seating is worn down, our scoreboard is still using light-bulb arrays for the scores and penalties, and our bathrooms are a nightmare.  Aside from the obvious glaring flaws, it's been documented that on a yearly basis, just to keep the place running for another season, it costs the Illitches millions in renovations and restoration fees.  That kind of stuff adds up when all you're trying to do is prolong the inevitable while you scout possible locations for a new arena. \n Aside from the issues with the arena itself, another reason why it's absolutely necessary to replace the old arena with a new one is because of the economy of the city of Detroit.  The city is in such a financial hole right now, and the unemployment rate is so high, that this project can pull both numbers closer to where they should be just by starting it.  With the creation of a reported 8,500+ jobs (construction-based, presumably), as well as the notable profits that can be made simply by revitalizing the barren wasteland of an area just opposite I-75 from the Fox and Fillmore Theatres.  More businesses will sprout, the three Detroit City-based sports teams will all be in the same area, and more parking (again, more generated revenue) will be centralized in a location that is perfect for restarting the economic upturn for the city. \n All in all, there is no reason to fight this change.  It's happening now more certainly than ever, and we need to embrace the change and hope that the companies hired to create our new arena will utilize some (hopefully most) of the history of the Red Wings, and maintain some of the nostalgia that made the Joe such an amazing place to watch our favorite team whoop some ass.", "id": "t3_1gqh5v", "summary": "I trust my arena to  Dr. Rahmani  Illitch Holdings, you should too."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "Let me preface this by saying that I enjoy playing this game for what it is, and I don't expect anything to change, especially considering the game is very heavily RNG-based, but there are a few things that could be refined if given a little consideration. \n Consider the current situation: Bungie has designed the game from the very start to be an XP-based leveling system to level 20 (year 1) and then you're dependent on gear with light level to drop for you to get to level 26-28ish. Then you're expected to do the Vault of Glass to get drops with higher light level to get a full set of gear that brings you to 30. This went on with each level cap to 34 as Year 1 came to a close. \n Then XP leveling was brought back into it and a new Light Level system was introduced. We got to 40 to unlock the ability to wield certain weapons and wear certain gear, but overall our Light Level was what mattered. The same thing essentially applied as Year 1: get up to 290ish Light Level, then do the raid to get drops. \n The problem here is we used to have 4 slots of armor that count towards Light. Now we have 10. We are relying on RNG in this new raid so much to the point that we can't expect to get anywhere near 300 on our first runs. Which is fine, but considering we can only run it once a week, we're essentially being artificially slowed down from natural progression. What's worse, is the \"smart RNG\" that claims to be in place doesn't work nearly as well as it should, as I've seen plenty of gear drop for me twice and I've only done 5 total raid runs. Half the time the second time I've gotten something, it's at lower Light level than my existing piece. \n What would make the Raid feel worth it (besides the satisfaction of finishing it, which IMO Bungie did a great job with the level of difficulty), would be a natural progression. For example, if you have a 301 gauntlets, 303 chest, 302 boots, and a 304 cape, any one of those repeat drops shouldn't be lower light level than what you already have. If a gauntlets drop, it should be at the very least a 302. That way we can feel like we're actually progressing, even just a little bit. \n I say this because after spending 3 hours with a raid group, I walked away with 3 new pieces of gear, all of which were either at the same level or worse than my existing pieces, and I even spent 20 moldering shards to \"double my chances\". I wasted 3 hours to not progress. And while I had fun doing it, I can't help but feel like it was a little bit of a waste. And the other rewards suck too. At least give us a 3 of Coins or two per raid so we can feel like we have a  chance  at an exotic. Even if it will decrypt to 290.", "id": "t3_3rqfxm", "summary": "Light Level is a good concept but we need more of a natural progression, even by just a little bit, if we're doing end game content. Otherwise, if there's less chance to get gear that's better that what we already have, we're potentially playing the end game content for very little reason. Case and point: raid shotgun, boots, and rocket launcher I already had all dropped at the same light or less than what I already had. Moldering shards and wormspore suck as rewards for doing end game content."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "Someone recently posted a very NSFW (and fucking weird) fanfiction involving some of the Red Wings players earlier that I have since removed.  The user has also received a warning, which thanks to RES, I have tagged that user for myself to remind them they have a warning for their content. \n So, thanks to that user, I have decided to implement a warning system.  I read a lot of the content on this subreddit from you all as users, and some of it gets a little out of hand at times, whether it be heated for a loss, or because a particular player isn't playing well, or just meaningless content that has no reason to be posted.  From now on, I (and the fellow mod team as they see fit) will be issuing warnings to those of you who find it necessary to post that kind of stuff here. \n I haven't found it necessary to post a rules section on the sidebar because I feel like the behavior required for normal human interaction should be simple enough for all of you to achieve, as most of you have demonstrated on a daily basis.  I feel that we have a very devoted, very classy fan base, and I know that we can all show that on this subreddit. \n For those of you who have shown that they can be civil and demonstrate good behavior, please keep it up, and keep bringing meaningful discussion to the table.  For those of you who have a habit of bitching and moaning and posting meaningless crap to the subreddit, think of this as your pre-warning. \n This subreddit doesn't have to be PG or family friendly 24/7, but let's keep good discussion going and make a decent example of ourselves for the rest of the hockey world. \n Also, please upvote this post for visibility, as I receive no karma for it.", "id": "t3_1a271n", "summary": "post stupid shit and you get warned.  Do it again, and you're gone."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "So I've been noticing a lot of negativity lately (brought to my attention by some pretty faithful subscribers to this thread leaving as a result), so I'd like to point out a few things to let everyone know why they shouldn't abandon ship  just yet . \n Let's look at some statistics to start: \n \n Our record right now is 9-5-5 for 23 points in the more competitive of the two divisions in the East. \n \n We're currently 4th place in the Atlantic (1st place in the Atlantic Wild Card), and 1st place in the Wild Card overall standings.  We're currently 13th in the entire NHL. \n \n We've gotten 3 points in losses the last 3 games by taking the games at least to OT.  It's better than 0 points. \n \n We have two top 20 scorers on our team with an injured lineup (Zetterberg: 10th in the league with 21 pts, Datsyuk: 14th in the league with 20 pts, league leader: Alexander Steen with 24 pts.) \n \n We have gone 1-1 against Boston (2nd in Atlantic, 25 pts.) thus far, took 1 point against San Jose (2nd in Pacific, 29 pts.), took 1 point against Dallas (5th in Central, 22 pts.), took 1 point against Tampa Bay (1st in Atlantic, 28 pts.), and beat Vancouver (5th in Pacific, 25 pts.).  All of those teams aside from Dallas are ahead of us in overall standings if you look at the entire NHL. \n \n If you delve deeper into the last point, we have 10 points from teams below us in the standings right now, and 13 from teams above us in the standings. \n \n Looking at our upcoming schedule, we theoretically should be able to win 7 of the next 8 if you want to go simply by comparing our current standings.  Every team except from Boston is below us.  We'll probably drop one or two, maybe three of those next 8 games, but 5 of those next 8 are at home, and I expect our losing streak at home to end. \n \n \n Let's face it, our team needs a little bit of work to get out of the \"hole\" we all perceive it's in, but it honestly could be a lot worse.  We're contending, and we're getting points we might very well need at the end of the year that could get us either in the playoffs or in a better spot.  I honestly feel like Tampa Bay is going to start to fall off after the adrenaline from Stamkos' injury wears off, and the Leafs will start to look more like the Leafs of recent.  The Bruins will probably contend for the top spot unless they start having issues.", "id": "t3_1qp2gn", "summary": "It could be  a lot  worse.  Let's keep the negativity to a minimum and have some faith.  It's been fucking depressing in here lately."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "So for the last 7 years, it's been a tradition between my good friend and I (as well as a few other friends who have come and gone throughout) that after Thanksgiving dinner with our respective families, we get together and do a Power Hour, and dubbed it the \"Annual Turkey Day Power Hour\".  For those of you who don't know, it's a shot of beer every 60 seconds for a full hour, equal to around 6 or 7 beers. \n The reason I explained that is because that usually kicks off the festivities for the rest of the weekend.  In years past, we've done things ranging from all-night Call of Duty/Rock Band binges, to even staying up for the early Black Friday shopping, and so on. \n This year, we've decided to play one or more Zelda titles, and we're going to leave it up to the masses here at /r/zelda to choose which title we play.  In addition to this, we'll be taking suggestions of viable points in the game of choice to drink to, whether it be a shot, or sips of beer/mixed drink.  So far, we have: \n For the person currently playing \n \n 1 shot at the start of the current dungeon \n \n 1 shot for new equipment \n \n 1 shot for learning a new song \n \n 1 big drink (beer/mixed drink) for dying/using a fairy \n \n \n For the person spectating \n \n 1 shot after the player beats the boss \n \n 1 sip each time the player loses one full heart \n \n 1 shot for learning a new song \n \n \n etc. \n So any suggestions beyond that would be considered (although much more might be too much), and your choice of game is what we'll play.  We're going to see if there's a way to sync up the TV to the computer for a live stream, and if that works, we'll make sure to broadcast our drunk asses for all of you to see.  We'll probably do donations for charity as well, as that's very popular among live streams. \n So:", "id": "t3_1qk2y5", "summary": "Two idiots are going to get drunk playing the Zelda title of your choice and hopefully live stream it all for charity. Go! \n Edit:  I should have said we're ruling out Ocarina of Time, considering we've beaten that game dozens of times going for vanilla speed runs, but if enough people want it, we might have to do it.  Maybe we'll run two games simultaneously!  Or maybe Master Quest??? \n Edit 2:  I forgot to mention that these are the games we have at our disposal: \n \n Ocarina of Time \n \n Wind Waker \n \n Twilight Princess \n \n Skyward Sword \n \n Anything on the Wii Store"}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "Last week I was with my wife in her hometown visiting her parents and we decided to all take a trip over to a new brewery for a beer tasting. Everything they brewed was great, which is rare in my experience because usually a flight of beer that you don't get to choose has one or two samples I'm not a huge fan of. \n So we were all having small talk with the owner when my wife's dad asks her if she and her husband have any children. To which she replies, \"nope, no children. Just this. This is my child,\" referring to the beer and the brewery. \n Not thinking at all ahead of time, I utter the phrase \"you have a very tasty child.\" \n I couldn't tell if anyone else was mortified by what I just said because I kind of just stared at my beer glass for the next five minutes and didn't say anything else. The rest of the day I was plagued with the thought: \"what the hell. Why would I ever say something like that?\"", "id": "t3_3oe13w", "summary": "didn't think before I spoke, came across like a pedophile."}, {"author": "lookalive07", "content": "I'm positive I can't be the first person to try this, but if you haven't already, I highly recommend trying MMX (or even the original Kenpo X) with a punching bag. \n My office has a gym attached to it, with a studio used during lunch hour to teach classes, that goes otherwise unused, so I have turned it into my personal P90X3 space in the mornings before I start work.  It's been very useful for Triometrics, Agility X, Accelerator, etc. but I've never tried using it for MMX, because it always fell on a Saturday, so I'd do it at home. \n Until Phase 3.  I've been swapping workouts here and there, and did MMX today for the first time in the studio, and decided to use the punching bag they had in the room, something along [these lines]( \n Life. Changing. \n Some of the moves weren't too successful, probably because I didn't know how to strike the bag using an uppercut or a hook as well as a jab or a cross, and the combos of knees with punches or kicks with punches were a little more difficult, but I used it when I could, and it felt amazing.  I should have worn my fitbit, because I would be interested to see how many calories I burned. \n Anyway,", "id": "t3_4gorq4", "summary": "if you haven't tried it and have access to a punching bag, try it.  It was awesome."}]}
+{"author": "Gnomish8", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post you're making this in to a way bigger issue with way bigger impacts than it really has...", "output": "or its one of the many other problems that having the same physical device would help out with.. \n TBH, 95+% of my tickets aren't one of those issues. Looking at my tickets, none of them are any of those. I've got a printer issue, Insight issue, Outlook issue, corrupt user profile, and a projector bulb I need to replace, so it isn't \"every time they have to work a ticket.\" In addition, if you learn your hardware families, you'll know what you need. Example, the D series Dell laptops have a button, the Latitude's have a switch, the Lenovo's we have don't have either, the couple Chromebook's we have don't have one, etc... \n >Or the techs just naturally end up learning the hardware everyone uses because everyone uses the same hardware! I don't want help desk googling every make and model of laptop every time they have to work a ticket.... \n If you're really lost, Googling a picture takes a couple seconds. Just timed myself, it took me less than 10 seconds to find [this picture]( clearly showing where the wireless switch is on the e5430. Less than 10 seconds. \n It's really simple, my job is to support my users. Part of that is making sure they have the best equipment they can in order to actually do their job. I'm not going to be giving my video production team e5430's. I'm also not going to be giving my teacher's who routinely need to take work home with them an Optiplex."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post time is crucial. Taking time to aim at a tiny target with such low likelihood of success is going to get good people killed. Shooting isn't like what you see in Hollywood. Getting shot isn't like what you see in movies. Take some time, go shoot a handgun. Try to hit a target with a .45 at 10 yards, see how accurate you are.", "output": "Ricochets are worse than direct hits? \n Ricochets are just as lethal, sometimes more so (depending on how the bullet deformed on initial impact, can increase surface area), as a \"fresh\" round. \n Look, I get your point, but you're missing a lot of information. If a gun is pulled, the situation has already escalated pasted the 4 S's (Shout, Show, Shove, Shoot). The officer has already warned them, shown their gun, and attempted to non lethally resolve the situation. By the time the gun is fired, it's go time. Firing a handgun isn't easy. Firing a gun at a 2-4 inch wide target that's likely moving, while you're moving, and while you're jacked on adrenaline (you get stronger/more resistant to pain, at the expense of fine motor control), you shoot for what you can hit. It doesn't matter how well trained you are, shooting for center mass already has a lower success rate than we'd like, and that's a decent sized target. Introducing projectiles that can cause the loss of life of innocents and damage property is a no-go. You shoot for what you have the best chance of hitting. And that's COM (center of mass). \n I gave a story in another thread here about how easy it is to, in the moment, ignore you've been shot. A leg shot isn't debilitating, and if you take the time to put a round in the leg, even if you hit, you've wasted valuable moments. Often times, an officer has time to put 1 to 2 rounds downrange before his life is in danger. And those have to count. You miss? You're dead. You hit but they powered through it? You're dead. \n Rule 1: Protect yourself. You can't help other people if you're another victim. \n [Here's an example]( of when an officer exchanged gunfire. He had 1 shot before he was hit and just fired to empty his magazine. If he had even  tried  to aim for the leg, he would be dead. \n In addition, in the heat of the moment, you fall back on your training. If you don't have time to aim for a leg, but you do so anyways, you're dead. There are plenty of examples of this out there where police training was changed because of incidents. A couple that come to mind: \n 1) Disarming. Officers and Military are taught some hand to hand, including close range disarming techniques. In training, they used to successfully disarm, then give the weapon back to the trainer for the next person/to go again. \n Until an officer had to use this training, fell back on it, and instinctively gave the suspect the weapon back. He was killed. \n 2) Officers were taught to police their brass (clean it up, keep it organized, don't lose it, account for everything you shot) at the range. Until they found an officer at a shoot out was, after every magazine, taking the time to police his brass."}], "user_id": "longlamp_2753", "history": [{"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "anonymous \nThat out of the way, I tend to oppose the modern feminist movement (hold your downvotes, sillies, and read). The primary reason is, in my locale, feminism is more anti-man-ism. And that idea seems to be catching in many places. Ideas of an intentionally repressive patriarchy, that all men are inherently rapists, that men should feel bad because they're men. But don't worry, they're gunning for \"gender equality.\" Too often when attempting to discuss this, I'm met with altruistic responses and attempts to convince me that I, too, am a feminist. I feel we've reached a spot where one side doesn't need to better its cause. Masculinism and Feminism are both silly. Both can claim to be for \"gender equality\", but the connotation of the name alone, and the acts of the groups speak differently. We've reached a point where both sides need \"tuning.\" There are things that need \"fixed\" for both genders.  I feel we've reached a point where bettering only one side will no longer stride us forward.  That's why I'll identify as an egalitarian. It isn't about making men's lives better, or women's, it's about making sure that everyone is treated like the human they are. Here's an anecdote: \nMan is being abused by his wife. He is one of the few that decides to report it (seriously, domestic violence is a severely under-reported crime). Thanks to VAWA, most states, including mine, have mandatory arrest laws. The problem? Due to stereotyping and propaganda, most don't see the woman as the abuser. As happened in this case, the abusee was arrested and got to spend the night in jail, while the abuser was left alone and referred to battered women's shelters while the abusee was told he was the abuser and referred to \"support groups\" for abusers. This story isn't one pulled from some depths of somewhere. It happened to one of my best friends. If you feel it's wrong, you should consider identifying as I do, an egalitarian, as feminism put those laws on the books. \n To take your post on bit by bit: \n>There's a lot of misogynists on the internet, and they tend to come out of the woodwork when they're completely anonimous [sic] \n The same can be said about pretty much any extreme group. Anonymity allows one to express opinions generally not accepted by society without fear of the backlash they would get should they express it elsewhere. This really doesn't show anything. \n >They always come off as very resentful toward women, like they haven't been able to make it work with a woman themselves and instead of improving themselves, they'd rather blame 'feminism'. \n I feel this is pointed more towards those that oppose the modern feminist movement. I've stated why I oppose it above. If that's not valid to you, fine, but note that I have: \nBeen able to make it work with a woman (marriage planning has commenced) and that I constantly strive for self-improvement. Be it professionally or personally. Your ad hominem attacks don't really better your stance or the conversation to be had on the subject. \n >Also, thanks to a lot of right-wing crap on talk radio, tv and bullshit things like PUA's and MRA's, a lot of confused young men are being told lies about feminism, e.g. that feminists are man-haters etc. \n I don't listen to right-wing crap on talk radio, TV, or bullshit things like PUA's and MRA's. It isn't because of those that feminism gets labeled the way it does. It's the vocal one's that preach things like [sex-selective abortions to reduce the male population.]( Many feminists aren't extreme. Many believe in equality. But those actually partaking in the modern movement seem to be growing more extreme in their beliefs. \n >Really ugly stereotypes, usually coming from men who can't handle independent-thinking women. Oh and I am a guy. \n Dude, my fiancée is the most \"independent-thinking\" woman I know. I wouldn't be marrying her otherwise. Again, your ad hominem attacks are useless.", "id": "coo9di8", "summary": "why support only one half of the population when you can support humanity as a whole? Egalitarianism > feminism or masculism. \n Downvote brigade, commence."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "You're right, I did it on a 110hp (at the wheel) bike. I've ridden ABS bikes before, and I don't really understand the significance. If you feel your rear tire start to slide, you're doing it wrong. If you're having a hard time maintaining balance, you're doing it wrong. If you find yourself in a position where you actually crashed because of it you: \n \n Did it wrong \n \n Failed to interpret your bikes warning signs \n \n Failed to act on your bikes warning signs \n \n Put yourself in a position outside of your ability", "id": "clno6mc", "summary": "ABS is nice, but you don't have to use it like a crutch."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "Had something similar happen to my bike about a year ago. The ignition was easy to replace, it was a modular system with a couple bolts under the triple tree that had to be pulled. Granted, that was a Kawasaki, so YMMV. \n What got me was, when they tried to hotwire it, they blew the ECU. Again, this is my experience, so YMMV, but my bike's ignition has a resistor in it designed to change the incoming voltage from 12v to 6v, then send it to the ECU. The ECU does a check, if not ~6V, then it'll crank for forever, but it won't actually spark. When hotwiring, it takes the 12v in and sends 12v out to the ECU. The increased voltage, however, overpowered it and blew it out so even when I put the new ignition in, it wouldn't start.", "id": "clnnl9x", "summary": "same thing happened to me. I had to replace the ignition, some wiring, and the ECU."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "Met a girl through a friend. We stayed in touch for a while, and were pretty good friends. A couple years back, I had a scare with cancer (found shit that could have been cancerous, had a lovely colonoscopy to show that, gladly, it wasn't). I'm pretty young, so it kinda kicked my ass into gear. Before, I had seen the future as this far off thing, I thought that I could take my time arriving at whatever future I wanted. Then I realized that I couldn't. So, I kept the cancer thing to myself and immediate family (mom and sister), and just lived for a bit. Part of that \"living\" was telling the girl that I liked her. Not even asking her out, just letting her know that I really, really liked her. She let me know that we were just friends, and should stay that way. At least then I knew. \n Fast forward a few months when the whole cancer ordeal is over, my sister tells some of her friends what had been going on. Her friends talk to mutual friends. One of our mutual friends organizes a \"wooooo not cancer\" party. Person that organized it? Roomates with girl I liked. We all get hammered, I stay the night, we kiss. Fast forward a couple years, now we're engaged. After talking about what was going on, find out that she's liked me for a while, but after her last relationship (didn't end well...), she didn't  want  to like someone that way, so she repressed it and decided not to date. My not-cancer that kicked me into gear also kicked her into gear. Life's worth living, not hiding from.", "id": "cq4gvix", "summary": "Cancer tells me to live while I can, tell girl I like her, she shoots me down. Find out it's not cancer, party, alcohol works its magic, we kiss, end up together, cue happily ever after."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "I went through the same thing with my '03 Kawi ZX7R. I don't know what you ride, so I'm not sure if it's relevant, but here's what I had to do: \n Replace the ignition. I had it locked. Apparently a hammer + screwdriver breaks that lock... So, I ordered a new ignition. To get mine out, I had to remove a few bolts from under the triple tree (a PITA, btw). My ignition is modular, but the wires were cut, so I had to remove my tank, remove my airbox, and get around the carbs to get to the connector. Disconnected it. Put in a new ignition (connect the wires, run them around the frame/through the frame cutout, bolt it in). \n Even with a new ignition, though, it still didn't work. Here's what I found out. My bike has a 1OHM resistor in the ignition designed to change the voltage from 12v -> 6v to prevent hotwires. When its hotwired, it takes 12v in and pushes 12v out. This overloaded my ECU, so I had to replace it and a few fuses as well. \n Charge up your battery, try a new ignition. If that doesn't work, put in a new ECU. Your electricals should be (", "id": "cmbpp5x", "summary": "version of it, if you want more details, get a service manual): \n battery (12v) -> ignition (converts to 6v) -> ECU -> starter & plugs. \n If you've replaced all that, you've got a good battery, and you're still not getting it to start, check to see if your spark plugs are getting spark (take one out, hold it against something metal, watch to see if a spark jumps the gap when you try to start it). If it does, your issue isn't electrical, but probably fuel. If it doesn't, check everything again with a voltmeter & replace your plugs (dime a dozen). \n If I could be of more help, PM me."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "I think this is more to CYA than anything. Being obviously aggressive, threatening, and menacing is covered by a whole host of other laws. Often times, it's the responding officers discretion as to what you get cited for. For example, say you're taking a left turn and cause a wreck. You could be cited for something as simple as an unsafe left turn,  or  you could be arrested for vehicular negligence. I think this is just giving officers the leeway they need to properly do their job. Oh, you opened your door without checking your mirrors and traffic had to brake? Okay, traffic violation. You opened your door and caused traffic to plow through your door seriously injuring someone? Okay, something more severe. \n I mean, technically most traffic infractions can lead to death or serious injury. Running a red? Very easily causes injuries, still a ticket. Unless someone gets hurt.", "id": "cp6den7", "summary": "traffic infractions are usually something that could cause injury, but unless they do, they tend to remain only traffic infractions, but cops have the ability to \"upsell\" if someone does get hurt."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "Same copy-pasta I use with my religious friends who don't take the time to read their books... \n Shame that the majority of anti-abortionist are against it because of \"the bible\" yet they don't know that god is pro abortion!\nAnd what kind of debater would I be if I didn't leave some evidence?\nGod's law sometimes requires the execution (by burning to death) of pregnant women:\nTamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt. -- Genesis 38:24 \n God sometimes kills newborn babies to punish their parents:\nBecause by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. -- 2 Samuel 12:14 \n God sometimes approves of killing fetuses: \nAnd Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? ... Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. -- Numbers 31:15-17 \n(Some of the non-virgin women must have been pregnant. They would have been killed along with their unborn fetuses.) \nGive them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. -- Hosea 9:14 \nYea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb. -- Hosea 9:16 \nSamaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. -- Hosea 13:16 \n Awesome website that covers it in MUCH more depth than I have the time or desire to: \n And, to counter the inevitable, \"but that's the old testament, Gnomish8! That's useless now!\"\n1) “For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:18-19 RSV) Clearly the Old Testament is to be abided by until the end of human existence itself. None other then Jesus said so. \n 2) All of the vicious Old Testament laws will be binding forever. \"It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for the smallest part of the letter of the law to become invalid.\" (Luke 16:17 NAB) \n 3) Jesus strongly approves of the law and the prophets. He hasn’t the slightest objection to the cruelties of the Old Testament. \"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest part or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.\" (Matthew 5:17 NAB) \n 3b) \"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness...\" (2 Timothy 3:16 NAB) \n 3c) \"Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God.\" (2 Peter 20-21 NAB) \n 4) Jesus criticizes the Jews for not killing their disobedient children according to Old Testament law. Mark.7:9-13 \"Whoever curses father or mother shall die\" (Mark 7:10 NAB) \n 5) Jesus is criticized by the Pharisees for not washing his hands before eating. He defends himself by attacking them for not killing disobedient children according to the commandment: “He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.” (Matthew 15:4-7) \n 6) Jesus has a punishment even worse than his father concerning adultery: God said the act of adultery was punishable by death. Jesus says looking with lust is the same thing and you should gouge your eye out, better a part, than the whole. The punishment under Jesus is an eternity in Hell. (Matthew 5:27) \n 7) Peter says that all slaves should “be subject to [their] masters with all fear,” to the bad and cruel as well as the “good and gentle.” This is merely an echo of the same slavery commands in the Old Testament. 1 Peter 2:18 \n 8) “Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law\" (John7:19) and “For the law was given by Moses,...\" (John 1:17). \n 9) “...the scripture cannot be broken.” --Jesus Christ, John 10:35 \n Most people argue abortion is akin to murder, as following the 6th commandment, however, one verse may shed some intriguing light on precisely when fetuses—or rather, infants—become persons, and which ones aren't even worth counting, according to God himself. When Moses conducts a census, God instructs him to count: \n \"...all the first-born males of the people of Israel, from a month old and upward...\" (Numbers 3:40) \n God also tells Moses how to calculate the value of persons being offered to God: \n \"If the person is from a month old up to five years old, your valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver.\" (Leviticus 27:6) \n Mercifully, we've learned not to put price tags on peoples' heads anymore—no thanks to God. But the fact that God assigns no value whatsoever to newborn infants or fetuses means that \"God-fearing\" anti-choicers are openly defying their God!", "id": "cog70ed", "summary": "Christians have their Christian duty to support abortion, especially since it was a church sanctioned act! By actually reading the Bible, we find that God actually mandates abortion when the fetus is a product of adultery (Numbers 5). A jealous and suspicious husband should bring his wife to the local priest, who forces the woman to drink a poisonous \"water of bitterness\" to bring on God's \"curse\". If she experiences \"bitter pain,\" if her \"belly swells\" and her \"thigh rots,\" she fails the test and becomes an outcast. Virtually all Biblical scholars agree that this voodoo ritual and its cloaked euphemisms refer to an induced (not to mention unsafe) abortion. \n Cheers!"}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "You're asking the wrong question. In the computer field, you've gotta find something that you're actually interested in or you'll burn out quick. In IT, the jobs tend to be demanding, high hours/on call, decent amount of stress, etc... If you don't like what you're doing and are just skating by for the paycheck, it's going to show. [This is what tends to happen then.]( Personally, I'm big into fixing things, working with networks, and having limited $user interaction, so I went the Sysadmin role. If you're into making things, working in teams, almost no interaction with $user, then Devops might be the route for you. \n Research the fields in CompSci, find something that interests  you , and go from there. Pretty much in all fields of CompSci, you can get certs and work your way from the bottom up. If you're going into a more competitive/higher field (engineering level things), getting an Associates will usually get your foot in the door at lower levels, then with the experience, you can work your way up. \n As an FYI, nowhere in IT is it cushy, \"make it rain on strippers\", long nights sleep, work. [This video really sums up working with $users](", "id": "cmbo8ih", "summary": "research CompSci, find something that interests you, go for it. Working just for the paycheck doesn't work in this field. \n -A Sysadmin."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "Could be mechanical, could be road debris, could be rider error. I had my front wheel lock on me. I had replaced the brake levers, taken it for a short ride to ensure they were functioning/safe, and everything checked out. Took it for a slightly longer ride, felt some pressure up front that felt almost like a low PSI tire, so I started to pull off, and BAM, brakes locked. The new levers had kept the brake just BARELY engaged. That caused the system to heat up. The heat caused the brake fluid to boil in the lines, the boiling added pressure deploying the brakes. Nearly highsided. \n So, to answer your question in", "id": "clyjkb0", "summary": "it could be mechanical, it could be a piece of road debris getting where it shouldn't, or it could have been rider error. Make sure you know you as a rider and your bike and keep up on maintenance, and that's about all you can do. \n Doing a bit of digging, it looks like this one was either mechanical or road debris based on how S. Dakota Highway Patrol is reporting it/investigating it, but it doesn't look like anyone knows for sure in this instance. \n RIP Airman."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "Want my honest assessment? \n Grow up. I'm not saying it to be rude, demeaning, demonizing, any other negative connotation, but rather stating that what you're going through? It's common. I went through the same phase. Then I graduated high school, realized that most of what I was doing was superficial/a facade, got a job, moved out, etc... And somewhere in all that, I realized that I didn't feel that way anymore. I wish I could give you something more specific like, \"Eat a whole egg, shell and all, pull out a clump of chest hair, then squirt lemon juice in your eye, and everything will be better!\" But it doesn't work like that. If you keep doing the same thing over and over, you're going to get the same result, something has to change. Somewhere in my changing around my life (including restructuring friends, from the \"hundreds\" I had in HS to the dozenish I have now), it worked.", "id": "clhnq0k", "summary": "definition of insanity."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "not only that, but android phones do not come rooted - you're still locked out of administrating your phone without \"hacking\" it, much like an ios jailbreak \n In iOS, you're basically set up as a \"power user.\" Jailbreaking gives you admin access. \n In Android, you're set up as an administrator. Still locked out of some things, but able to manipulate mostly anything. Rooting an Android device gives you, well, root access (super user, chmod 777, RWX).", "id": "cq73o7t", "summary": "user>power user>admin>super user, iOS = power user/admin, Android = admin/super user."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "I remember my first time... \n Riding home from work down I-5, I was cruising past most traffic at about 80 (the speed limit here is about 65). Had someone in a nice BMW Z4 cruising at 70 in the fast lane, so I twisted the \"super-speed mode engage\" twister, and braaaped around them. Didn't think much of it. About 10 minutes later, I pass a motorcycle cop. He accelerates up, and I'm thinking, \"aww shit, I'm going to get pulled over. Well, at least it's only 80...\" He proceeds to ask if I'm okay with riding 2 abreast (pulled up right next to me, pointed at the ground next to me quizzically). I motioned for him to come on over because hell, having a cop ride next to you is a WAY better than getting pulled over. We rode 2 abreast through traffic for another 5 minutes-ish, when I see the Z4 coming up behind me. Still didn't think much of it. He jumps into the middle lane, comes up next to  us , and pretends to swerve into us (throws the wheel to rock the car, then counters it to stay in lane). He then proceeded to cut both of us off. \n Cop waved at me, threw on his lights, and I lol'd.", "id": "clngu2z", "summary": "asshole tries to hit both motorcycle cop and me. Gets pulled over. No muffins though. :'("}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "I finally get to share my story but it's probably too late. Oh well, here goes... \n I once hooked up with a chick who was apparently in a relationship with a guy we'll call Joe, who just came out of nowhere into my life but ended up being a major part of it. Now, this chick was once my girlfriend and believe it or not, also my fiancé. However, about a month before our wedding I found out she was sleeping with Joe. So naturally I called it off and left her knowing I did the right thing for both of us. \n Skip forward three years and she's calling me. She's crying and saying that Joe left her and she really needed someone to talk to. At this point her and I were on decent terms I guess and had stayed in contact. We had both moved on from the wedding and she really didn't know anyone else, so being the guy I am, I went to aid her. I show up and she's just on the couch crying. I went to comfort her and it lead to some touching and then we started to remove clothing. By the time she was completely naked and I was in my boxers, I hear a door open. \"oh shit.\" I heard her whisper. \n Its fucking Joe. \n Joe walks into the house and sees us on the couch together making out. Me, harder than trigonometry, and her butt naked looking at Joe in absolute shock. Joe then proceeded to yell at me and beat me. I retaliated by fighting back and trying to explain this all to him. I then punched his eye pretty fucking hard and as he started to bleed he calmed down. \n I got him a ball of cotton for his eye to help absorb the blood and clean up the wound. As we both say across the room cleaning ourselves up we talked it out. I told him that she's the problem, not us. She's screwed us both over and lied to both of us. We bonded a bit that night and once we were both pretty calm he stood up and took a deep breath. He then agreed with me about what I said about her and with tears in his eyes and blood in the ball of cotton, he left the house to God knows where. \n I never saw him after that, and I can't help but think every now and then if it hadn't been for cotton eyed joe, I'd been married a long time ago. Where did you come from? Where did you go? Where did you come from cotton eye Joe?", "id": "cr2wd1p", "summary": "Lying people are the worst and can destroy the lives of multiple good people."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "I believe he's hinting at the fact that the vocal portion of the current wave of feminism is attempting to reach \"equality\" by dragging men through the mud. I don't believe /u/entropiczy is suggesting that we disagree with \"true\" feminist ideals (equality), but rather he is suggesting that the methods the modern feminist movement are using are counter to our movement and often clash.", "id": "cqc7us7", "summary": "he's not saying feminism is bad, he's saying modern feminist are doing it wrong."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "The break started last night, and it was a mutual agreement. It's not too late to go back, so I'm trying to figure out if I should go back or not. \n My experience with my long term gf at that age? When we went on \"break\", it took about 25 minutes (driving time from my place to his) before she was riding someone else. I thought it was \"mutual\", but she brought it up and convinced me we should. A few of my friends had the same thing happen. Within 24 hours, their gfs were on someone else. \"Break\", I've learned, is code for one of two things: \n1) We've been at this relationship for a while, you're boring, and Jim over there is hawt and likes me. He's exciting. I'm going to have fun there, then come back to where it's \"safe.\" \n2) I'm too scared to actually break up with you, so let's say it's a break, but it's really gg no re. \n My advice? Treat it like a break up. You're done. Even if you do get together, you're going to have a million and one \"what-ifs\" and shit like that. If nothing else, trust me on this: You can get back together, but your relationship will never be what it once was. It's now disposable. If either of you want something outside of the relationship, a \"break\" is acceptable/expected. You won't have what you once did.", "id": "cq7xpxe", "summary": "get over her."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "IT - Jr. Sysadmin. In HS, I went through a program that allowed students to basically \"intern\" with the districts IT staff. After HS, I used that to get my foot in the door with Apple. Got my CCNA and a few other certs while I was there, then returned to the school district as a Jr. Sysadmin using my experience and certs, as well as the tech staff remembering me, to get the position.", "id": "cm5bpvn", "summary": "IT for K12 district, Jr. Sysadmin. Experience, certifications, and knowing the right people."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "I actually got ticketed for the same thing a couple years back. 3AM, nobody on the road, minutes go by, and I go through. This was a part of my daily routine at this point. I had already contacted ODOT, a few times, to report that the light wouldn't pick up motorcycles. They didn't care. But, on this morning, a cop was a little ways down the road, lights off, just waiting. $180 ticket + fines and huge up in insurance. \n Hired a traffic attorney. He basically argued that, as the signal wasn't picking up traffic, it was not functioning as intended. I treated it like I should treat a malfunctioning traffic signal, by stopping and going when safe,  AND  that I had already reported it to the state who failed to do anything about it. He then went on a spiel about how the state was attempting to fine me for their broken equipment blahblahblahblahblah,", "id": "cohg44t", "summary": "got the ticket dropped."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "You can nail all of the questions, but if you're unprofessional or have a bad attitude, good luck. \n Especially in IT. Having been around the block, most places are looking for technical aptitude with soft skills. When getting hired on where I'm at right now, I was changing from desktop support to network support/sysadmin (Jr.). At the end of the interview, I was literally told, \"Don't worry too much about the technical stuff, you've shown you can learn that. This was more about gauging your people skills. We can't teach people that.\"", "id": "cqfk6eo", "summary": "in IT, generally, soft skills > technical knowledge. This lady didn't have any soft skills."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "Someone looking into law enforcement as a career here: \n One of the biggest reasons: I and my siblings were pretty heavily abused when we were younger. The abuse was reported and my grandparents fought tooth and nail to get it investigated. But it fell on deaf ears, even with hospital reports. It wasn't until the sheriffs office found out that my grandfather was a cop that it was looked at. \"Oh, wow, I'm sorry, didn't realize you were a police officer! blahblahblahblahblah.\" \n That's not the way it should be, and I'd like to one day be able to help people in a similar situation. It took 2 days before SCF (now DHS) got involved. The abuser was never charged despite mountains of evidence of sexual assault, rape, assault, abuse, neglect, etc... \n Second: It's a steady job that I can find work at pretty much anywhere. I was looking at aeronautical engineering. Started school for it and everything. Until I realized that I would pretty much be forced to move to California, Washington, Texas, or Florida in hopes of securing a job with one of a handful of companies in a market so cyclic that, yeah, the pays good, but you have to save for the times the market & defense spending goes down. \n Third: I don't care what people think of me. Love or hate me, doesn't matter. I've been on the receiving end of traffic tickets, they didn't ruin my day. I deserved them. \n Fourth: A sense of duty, I guess. Don't know how else to explain it.", "id": "cm8f9x3", "summary": "to make a difference and have a job."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "sighs \n Alright. Saying \"hello\" is inherently low-risk in causing any damage. Although risk matrices can be assessed by the person receiving the hello (they looks like a creep, I get a bad vibe, I shouldn't talk to them, etc...), it is unlikely to cause any sort of damage. \n Comparing a \"hello\" to rape and theft trivializes the significance of those crimes. Rape dehumanizes and can cause significant mental damages (PTSD, etc...) in much higher rates than that of a \"hello.\" By making the argument that saying \"hi\" is as bad as \"rape\", you trivialize the effects. \n The same can be said for theft. Granted, someone  can  decide you need the money more, but you are still much more likely to cause a hardship, financial or psychological, from theft than by saying \"hello.\"", "id": "clokqp8", "summary": "Attributing \"hi\" to violent crime trivializes the importance of those crimes."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "You're still comparing two totally different things. I'd bet there are still species of god-knows-what out in space we haven't discovered either. Our knowledge of space is still infantile at best. We know our solar system fairly well, but space? Not much. We're using very similar tools to gain our knowledge of the depths of the ocean as we are space. We've got a pretty good  map of the ocean .", "id": "cqm55fe", "summary": "Just because there's fish we don't know about doesn't mean the ocean is less explored/more a mystery."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "Short story time... \n I work in K12, and this summer has been incredibly chaotic for us. We're closing down one of our schools and moving teachers to other buildings. As such, we're playing a lot of Musical Chairs. We're trying to keep teacher's with their laptops, but projectors, SMART Boards, doc cams, etc..., we have to keep in the rooms. So, getting these teachers set up on new equipment has been a pain, and will continue being major time-drain probably for the rest of the summer. It's mindless, boring work. Unplug, plug, plug, unplug, crap, that's input, not output, unplug plug, rinse wash repeat. Most of our users (teachers) check out for the summer and don't really care what happens, just so long as they're set up and ready to teach come September. \n Most. \n One of our users has taken the initiative to move their stuff and has tried hooking it up themselves. They ran into some issues (our A/V is interesting in most of our schools...) and asked for help. I arrive, get everything squared away, and as I'm preparing to leave, I spot [this.]( \n It's a small gesture, but it's really nice knowing that some users really do appreciate the monotonous work that we do in the summers. The grind is real, but this little gesture just made my day, and I thought I'd share.", "id": "t3_3cpsta", "summary": "User finds out how to score brownie points with tech team."}, {"author": "Gnomish8", "content": "To many on this sub, what I'm about to share isn't a big deal. But for us? It's huge. Tonight, our small group took down its first capitals. \n It started as one of our normal roams. Lately, we haven't had a lot of success. We either get dunked, or find nobody that wants to fight. Not much in between... We had another group we were going to team with, and so we were on our way out to meet up with them, and we ran into a Cynabal. And lucky us, he aggressed!! [We killed him]( and continued on our way. A jump later, we ran into a the same pilot in a Machariel! [As we're taking him down]( he lights a cyno and in comes 2 carriers. This week, though, we were done getting dunked by capitals, and we had some of our own on standby. Their carriers were coming on to field, and our cyno went up. In a combat setting, for the very first time, we got to hear, \"Capitals jump, capitals jump, capitals jump.\" And in come the dreads and a carrier. We had just escalated our first capital fight. Adrenaline was running high from everyone. Comms were eerily silent as we were hanging on to our FC's every word. Working on getting neuts where they were needed, reps out, smartbombs here and there, etc... So here we were, a small, podunk pirate group just trying to carve out our corner of space. Here we were, dropping capitals into combat for the first time. \n And we won. \n [Kill 1]( \n[Kill 2]( \n Again, I realize that it's not really a big deal for most people any more. But for our little group? It's huge, and we wanted to share.", "id": "t3_3p71zg", "summary": "capitals fight. we won despite being noobs."}]}
+{"author": "civilward", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post tips for transitioning between salt and fresh water fishing.", "output": "hey everyone, i'm pretty new at fishing and i've been living on the coast of north carolina for about 4 years now and have been fishing ever since. i'm going away to school this fall and was thinking of joining the bass fishing club but i'm not sure of the differences between salt and fresh water fishing. is it about the same, other than needing a new licence? do the fish taste very different from salt water ones? any tips i need for the transition? \n thanks"}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post by acknowledging what supports do in the game, more people will play them.", "output": "Like most people here I love this game but there are a few quality of life changes I think would help out supports and get more people to play them. I'm not a pro by any means, I just have 30 hours under my belt so if there are other suggestions, please say so. \n The brilliance of this game to me is the ability to switch to different characters to counter what the other team is throwing at you. This doesn't really work for supports. Once you're locked into that role, you're going to either be playing Lucio or Mercy. I think this can be alleviated when more supports are added but there will always be the \"best\" support and that doesn't seem to change for the situation at hand as much as it does for other roles in the game. I'm not going to be switching supports depending on what the team is doing and that takes a lot of fun away from the character switching aspect. \n Also, the heals in this game are so strong that if someone isn't doing it, the whole balance falls apart, whereas it's possible to win without a tank etc. Playing a support almost becomes a chore because it feels like you have to do it and no one else will and once you're in that role you're locked in for the entire game. \n In a lot of ways supports are in the shadows in this game. In tf2 when a medic/heavy combo kill someone, the name of both the heavy and the medic are shown. When I'm pocket healing a Pharah and she unloads, it'd be nice to have my portrait next to hers on the kill feed. A lot of times supports aren't appreciated by their team because they don't see all that we do, so it'd be nice if the game gave us a pat on the back instead. \n I think everyone agrees that POTGs need work and having them be more support friendly would be extremely welcome. After 30 hours I was getting frustrated never seeing any of my plays and it made me want to switch just so I could have a few POTGs."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post surrender option because people troll", "output": "i know this has been brought up before but i am fed up. this has happened to me at least 3x in the past month. in this case, our team was ahead at the 15 minute mark. we had a lion that started to rage and then for the next 32 minutes he would go afk, come back, feed, buy chickens. there was nothing we could do except wait for the other team to finish. we tried to fight them off a few times but eventually saw how stupid it was to even try. people like this make me sick. there needs to be an option to surrender so i don't have to sit around because of idiots like that."}], "user_id": "longlamp_9351", "history": [{"author": "civilward", "content": "for me half the fun of playing these games is getting the character you want and having him look the way you want. apparently they wear able to wear hoods before but there was an issue with that and they stopped. coupled with the robe ass issue, it tells me that they don't care about these problems and until they do, i don't want to give them anymore money.", "id": "c48il2k", "summary": "basically, i want my character to look like a bad ass sith and he can't without a hood."}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "i agree for the most part with what you're saying and as someone who enjoys storytelling, there were parts in diablo 3 that pained me and came off as laughable. BUT the one thing that i think they did do extremely well, were the side stories. what do i mean by that? the stories that deal with your companions, all the little interactions between the townsfolk and the lore books that drop. all the little details that pop up and help to paint a larger world. i loved those and i think they were done near perfect. \n with that said, the main plot was awful. it almost seemed like two different writing teams worked on the game and unfortunately, this has happened a lot with blizzard games. i would love to see them clear house on the main writing department or whomever is handling these god awful plots. i think another problem was the delivery of the voice actors as well. there was little to no effort done on leah's voice. it didn't sound believable at all and that cemented her as not being a believable character. adriah (sp?) as well. Bad lines and also bad delivery. \n i actually didn't mind the whole thing with tyreal. i thought it was interesting that the falling star was him and didn't really think too much on his reasons for becoming human. it seemed to me that he just got fed up with the angels doing nothing and putting him on trial and he wanted to rid himself of him by becoming human to warn us. why not just come down in angel form and warn us? i don't know. maybe he'd been around us for so long that he wanted to be us. \n also, a lot of the writing done in the conversations you have with the characters was done really well. except leah, basically, anything with her is just awful. \n yea, i don't really know where i'm going with this anymore. it's late here but i just thought i'd toss in my 2 cents regarding your write up. it's a shame because i could have bought into leah if she was done right. if it wasn't for the storytelling done on the side of the game, i wouldn't have any hope for the expansion. i just wish they would fire whomever the hell is coming up with these stories for their games. they ignore established lore (ie sc2) but really, when you make a sequel after 10+ years, it's hard to keep the story straight. or maybe it's not and im just making excuses for poor storytelling.", "id": "cbo4r7n", "summary": "main plot is shit but the stories revolving around it and the lore that's in the game, side characters, companions etc etc was amazing to me."}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "my friends talked me into playing again on repub and the jedi consular always seemed like a fun class to me. the only problem is that i'm having a hard time deciding between sage or shadow. i enjoy healing and tanking equally, so thats not so much an issue. i get bored with these types of games unless the class is a \"jack of all trades\" kind of class. i hate to use this example, but the death knight in wow is probably my favorite class of all time. aoe damage and just all around fun. im just looking for peoples experiences that have played both sage and shadow and what they think about them.", "id": "t3_r6uv7", "summary": "sage or shadow?"}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "I was thinking of picking up The Secret World but just found out that not only is there a 15$ month fee, after you buy a 50$ game but they also have an ingame store where you have to buy clothing to make your character look cool. Why do we put up with this shit? Maybe I'm just getting old but companies didn't hold back content to try and squeeze out extra money from their consumers in my day.", "id": "t3_ws2in", "summary": "just sick at all the greed in games these days with their DLC and ingame transactions."}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "i usually play a support role and just got done playing keeper of the light and have fallen madly in love. i've looked around and it seems like most people get his illuminate and chakra first. my question is, why don't people get the chakra to babysit and also the mana leak, saving illuminate for later in the game. i'm fairly new with him, so i miss with my illuminate a lot and i just think mana leak is so annoying and fun with its stun.", "id": "t3_xmupe", "summary": "why not chakra/mana leak over illuminate/chakra"}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "I'm sure this has been asked before but I was afraid to look for it as I don't want any of the story ruined for me. I've been playing the Dawnguard quest chain and Serena just offered to turn me into a vampire lord. If I accept it, will I still be able to finish the other Dawnguard quests? Will they react differently to me?", "id": "t3_xn629", "summary": "If Serena makes me a vampire lord, am I still able to complete the quests for the Dawnguard?"}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "i'm having a really hard time leveling. i'm going through the story and doing the events when they pop up and it feels so much slower than what my friends seem to level at. when i ask them, they tell me to just keep doing what i'm doing, which isn't much help at all. any suggestions?", "id": "t3_zpwe9", "summary": "how are you supposed to level in gw2?"}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "i tried doing a search but didn't see anything. i was just wondering how hard hard mode was compared to normal? i was going to save ranger modes until after i beat the game for the first time. i like a challenge in games but not a challenge that just has me reloading like an idiot.", "id": "t3_zxk5k", "summary": "what difficulty mode do you recommend?"}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "the one thing which really bothers me is there really isn't a way to see the card backs that we unlock during the game. we can barely see our own and even see more of our opponents. i was wondering if there has ever been talk about having your deck flat on the table so that you can at least see the card back that you've picked for the deck.", "id": "t3_3brx72", "summary": "better option to see the card backs on our cards."}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "you just cant go around saying diablo3 will be coming out in less than a month and then take that away from someone. the follow up phone call, target saying early feb too. that moment when i thought it was real and it was coming so soon.. i was a kid again.", "id": "t3_oaktr", "summary": "i hate you best buy for making me feel old"}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "awhile back, i saw a screen shot of warlock having a new pet, similar to how furion got new trees. the creature resembled a dog and walked around on 4 legs and seemed pretty cool. this was a few months ago i think and was just wondering if anyone remembers this or knows what happened to it because i thought it was a cool idea.", "id": "t3_10k6on", "summary": "what happened to warlocks new pet?"}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "so this has been happening a lot to me lately. my team will get dominated in the first half of the game and by the 30 min mark, the other team is already in our base. the problem is that, as a team, we decide to sit in the fountain, but the other team won't finish. they just sit outside our fountain and try to kill us. this can go on for 15 - 20 mins and its just getting silly imo. i understand people hate the surrender button, but is there some other option? as a team we decide to give up and as a team, we have to sit there for an extra 15 - 20 mins while the other team won't push to win, just camp us.", "id": "t3_16eo6z", "summary": "if you don't have a surrender button, is there another option for the other team fountain camping?"}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "im just curious to know if i'm the only one getting tired of seeing all these shitty dota2 comics and shitty dota2 animie inspired art. this isn't deviant art, i don't come here to help peoples budding art egos. \n granted, there have been some cool pictures posted every once in a while but lately, this place just seems flooded with people who can't draw, just trying to get confidence. \n if i'm the only one who feels like this, then fuck me. but if i'm not, can we please stop upvoting it?", "id": "t3_1804cf", "summary": "please stop upvoting bad art and bad comics"}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "so i bought shogun 2 when it first came out but i didn't get the chance to play it much. i have a lot more time now and i'm looking to get back into it and with the sale going on, i was thinking about buying some dlc for it and/or the expansion. any advice on what to get for a fuller game?", "id": "t3_10qhv6", "summary": "should i get some dlc or the expansion?"}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "i've had a hankering for a good strategy game and i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions? i was thinking of checking out crusader kings II but is there any others? i love trade and the idea of buying and selling and as odd as this sounds, i loved the buying and selling system of grand theft auto chinatown. running around, grabbing whats hot at the moment and selling it high. any games like that?", "id": "t3_1acjur", "summary": "good strategy game with a solid buy and sell trade system."}, {"author": "civilward", "content": "ok, sorry if this has been breached before. i did a search but didn't see anything. \nso anyway, i'm loving the game so far but i find that the magic familiars that i have are never really used because i just save my mana for my characters spells, which seem to be more powerful atm. it just seems better to have my sword guy just attack the other creatures and rarely use my mana. which would be fine, except that it gets kind of boring and would love to use some of my less physical familairs. so my question is, does mana become more readily available down the road? will i have enough to actually cast spells in a fight without having to worry about it so much for the next fight?", "id": "t3_17ecrn", "summary": "does magic become viable down the road and actually useable?"}]}
+{"author": "iBeenie", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post VOIP, but it wasn't.", "output": "Not defending her in any way (because I know she was using a phone), but I can make calls from my computer and it comes up as a +000000000 or something like that and there's no way for people to call me (don't have any number). I know Skype used to (don't know if they still do) have Skype In/Skype Out and you can choose to pay to make calls but not receive them. \n Again... totally not trying to make any point other than I was compelled to bring that up because there are a few rare cases where you could be calling someone and have no phone."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post If you weave in and out of traffic like that you are bound to piss people off.", "output": "Not the most aggressive I've witnessed, no, but then again the driver may have noticed this and just felt like they should take it on themselves to slow you down. I know when I'm driving it really bugs me when I see people weaving in and out of traffic to try and get ahead, and I'm sure other people get annoyed enough to actually try to do something about it."}], "user_id": "longlamp_11187", "history": [{"author": "iBeenie", "content": "As a cashier (who also works on store recovery, i.e. putting things away and straightening everything up), I have to admit that I  used  to get really annoyed by this kind of crap. However, as time goes by I realize that people are just frickin' lazy and I honestly don't think they even stop to realize they're making a mess. \n What never ceases to annoy me, however, is when they are in the checkout line and I watch them shove product into the candy and gum on the impulse section above the register instead of handing it to me. You would think people do this because they are too embarrassed to tell me they changed their mind on something, but I can tell you with absolute certainty this is  not  the case. Firstly, they know I'm watching them do it and sometimes will tell me \"Oh I don't want this\" while they shove it with the Snicker's bars. Secondly, people will do  anything  to avoid putting crap back where it belongs. For example, if they take a can of beans off the shelf, they will rarely put it back with the cans of beans but instead will set it nearby but not where it goes. They also love leaving their carts in front of other customers in the checkout line and walking around them when leaving, or just slamming them perpendicular to the other carts instead of actually putting them away.", "id": "c3gzmbm", "summary": "People almost naturally avoid putting shit back where it belongs, and likely don't even realize they're making a mess. After working in retail, you get used to it."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "You're missing the point... \n If someone approaches him and offers to trade sex for something else, he should just say \"no\" or else he is breaking the law. It doesn't matter if it's a cop or a 50 year old 2-bit whore who asks him... the fact is he agreed to engage in illegal activities. It is  not  illegal for a cop to ask you to engage in illegal activities and it is  not  entrapment... it's the responsibility of each person to control their own actions and all he had to do was say \"no\" and he would have been fine. \n An individual who agrees to have sex with a prostitute and thus agrees to commit a crime  should  get into trouble... that's why the officers are there, to find out if there are people out there looking to engage in illegal activities. It's the same thing if the officers offer you cocaine or something... you just have to say \"no\". It's not entrapment that they're offering it to you, because if you're not someone who would buy cocaine, you're not going to! If you are someone who would buy it, then they just caught you fair-and-square.", "id": "ci5yi54", "summary": "Don't do illegal things and you won't get in trouble for doing illegal things..."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Too bad you're a guy and as we know: all guys are the same. They're stupid in the head and only listen to what their dick has to say. They're also dirty and disorganized and have absolutely no real passion for anything other than sex and comparing dick sizes with each other. \n Oh wait, that's right: people are fucking  individuals  and differ in almost every way imaginable making it incredibly difficult to construe a reasonable generalization.", "id": "ckc9k7s", "summary": "sexists are scum"}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Hah! This reminded me of one time I paid inside and went to pump gas, and  nothing  would come out. It kept making a hissing noise (like a \"you can-hear-the-gas-coming\" noise) but nothing would happen. I tried putting it back a couple times, pressed the button over and over, nothing. I was out of ideas of how to get it to work. So I went inside to tell the cashier, and I have never been so offended. She acted like I didn't know how to pump gas, rolling her eyes at me as I told her that I think it's broken because I couldn't get it do anything. She asked \"do you want some help?\" in a kind of patronizing tone, and I just told her \"no, I just want my money back\" which she gave me and I left. \n A few days later I was driving by and noticed that pump was wrapped in yellow plastic.  SO WHO'S STUPID NOW??  I thought to myself... /rant", "id": "ck1m3aw", "summary": "Lady told me I didn't know how to pump gas... I know how to I swear!"}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I wish you weren't being downvoted to oblivion. I have taken a fair amount of psych. classes, and I have researched everything this guy has said. It sounds very likely that the vitamins are nothing but a healthy supplement (i.e. not a direct treatment for his Tourette syndrome). I understand that a lot of people are taking offense to this guy, but reread his posts: the worst thing he said was that homeopathy is fraud, but if you do just the slightest amount of research he has a lot of support.", "id": "c2wi745", "summary": "redenti is not a troll and is actually quite informative with plenty of evidence to back what he writes. On a side note: possibly saving OP money?"}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I did this so much (especially when I started playing open-world RPGs) that now I just tell everyone I'm a \"collector\". I actually tend to sell most weapons and armor I don't think I'll use but I tend to collect useless shit for no reason. For example, in Oblivion I collect all the crumpled pieces of paper I find and place them in a basket. Everyone once and a while I come across a brick on the ground that I can pick up... I save those too and play with them like Legos when I'm really bored.", "id": "c1l1y8x", "summary": "I'm a virtual hoarder."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I worked at a doggy daycare center. One of the employees picked up a dog (a boxer to be specific) and slammed it onto a concrete floor because he was irritated with it. I didn't witness the slamming, but I heard the noise (I was only 20ft away around a corner) followed by the dog whimpering. My fiance worked at the same facility and was standing right there when it happened. He said the employee laughed about it like it wasn't a big deal, even though the dog was clearly hurt. \n I don't know what's worse.. the fact that he so nonchalantly abused dogs (this wasn't the only occasion) or the fact that the owner knew about it and refused to fire him while also refusing to take the dog to the vet to be checked out. He eventually did get fired, but for other reasons not related to dog abuse. It was sickening and it was events like these that led me to quit despite enjoying [most of] my job and getting decent paychecks.", "id": "c3h0s14", "summary": "Employee picked up a dog and slammed it against concrete hard enough to make a horrible crack (likely a broken rib or two) and the dog whimper."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I work in retail and during Mother's Day weekend (of this year) my manager purchased about 20 or so single roses for cashiers to give to customers who we felt deserved/needed one. I gave a couple away (one to a mother who bought a bunch of fake flowers to put on her daughter's grave... very depressing) but for the most part I didn't offer them to too many customers. A man approached me an inquired about the roses. Seeing as I hadn't given many away, I told him I could give him one, but that was it. \n He kept pushing me to give him more roses and eventually he rounded up two or three other individuals (presumably family members) and told them about the roses. They all started taking their pick; I am not a very confrontational person and although this really pissed me off (I was thinking about that mother who really  deserved  that rose) I couldn't bring myself to say anything but mumbles. \n After they left the area my manager approached me. He had witnessed part of what happened and I explained the rest. He found where the customers were in the store (they were still shopping and left the roses in the cart) and he took them out of the basket and explained to them how they took advantage of the situation and that the roses were for people who actually needed/deserved/couldn't afford them.", "id": "c1ym3kb", "summary": "My manager bought free roses to give out during Mother's Day weekend and I was told to give them to people who seemed like they needed them. Some asshole got his family together and took a bunch of roses. My manager stepped in, took the roses from their cart, and scolded them on taking advantage."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Not much of a prankster but one I am most proud of: \n I was nice to my sister  all day . I had to work up for it and build her trust. Fast forward a couple hours and my sister is finally used to the fact that I am being really nice/happy/friendly to her all day. I offer her some chocolate pudding to which she accepts. I go to get one from the fridge but before I take it back to her I mix in a decent amount of Orajel (oral numbing gel). I panic a little because it kind of turned the chocolate pudding a little bit of a lighter brown so I mix it a little bit with a spoon and hope she won't notice. \n I head back upstairs and hand her the pudding. She asks why it was opened and I say something like \"Oh, sorry. Did you want me to get you another one?\" She said no it's ok. I'm in the clear! I run back to my room and wait. It's not longer than a minute before I hear her screaming... but I can't understand what she was saying. She ended up running downstairs to cry to my mom, and 99% of the time my mom would side with her right away (I was usually the bully). My sister sounded so ridiculous my mom just started laughing, trying to cover her mouth with her hand. I didn't get into too much trouble. It was worth it.", "id": "cdwrpw7", "summary": "Put Orajel in my sister's pudding."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Response to your edit: I took almost all AP in high school, but I could barely make it through a semester of AP World History (and I was a year ahead of most the kids in the class at the time too). It was ridiculously hard, lots of reading, tonnes of writing. A lot of my friends said the same when comparing AP history to the other fast paced courses.", "id": "c81zkc7", "summary": "I don't think you're a moron, because I don't think I am."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "About a year ago I experienced some major issues with auto-renewal turning itself on without my knowledge. At one point you were able to turn the auto-renewal off at their website, but I still had to call every couple days to have it turned off again. Apparently my account was \"glitched,\" or so I was told by XBL support. \n Two weeks after I put my debit information on my account I tried to remove it as I obviously couldn't trust auto-renewal, but the website wouldn't let me and instructed me to call support. Support told me that my card was \"attached\" to my subscription, despite the fact that I purchased the subscription before I put my card on the account and I hadn't even  used  my debit on the account. They told me that the only way to take my debit card off was to remove the subscription and credit it to me. Unfortunately, they failed to tell me that generating the keys to give me the 3 months of Gold I had left would take approximately 2 weeks! \n It was a mere month before I had my Gold account up again, and during that time I was calling every couple days which caused them to open multiple tickets. I ended up getting two extra keys sent to me, totaling to 6 extra months of Gold. I will  never  give them my debit information again, however, I am very happy with the extra Gold time (albeit, in the end it wasn't worth the headache). \n Fin.", "id": "c258ner", "summary": "Had to cancel my subscription to take my debit card off of my account, but it took a month to get my XBL Gold back. However, I got 6 extra months of Gold for free by mistake."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I'll be the first to admit that it  really, really sucks  that there are so many individuals in this world who would much rather blatantly copy something popular than come up with something on their own. However, we must keep in mind that the \"reward\" for this kind of behavior is  karma , something that in reality is truly valueless until  we, the community  attribute value to it. \n Furthermore, anyone who recognizes that it is a repost would likely downvote it. Subsequently, anyone who didn't see it the first time will upvote it. Upvotes and downvotes guide posts to and from the front page. If more people upvote a post than those who downvote it, that simply means that many people found it amusing or entertaining. Personal entertainment is the true driving force behind Reddit and to deny that is to say that you visit Reddit to be bored. \n Again, it  does suck  that people with no creativity decide to repost shit for their own imaginary benefit. However, reposts do serve to entertain those who aren't aware that they are reposts. I would suggest to 1) stop giving a shit about karma and other people's karma... it doesn't mean anything and 2) ignore posts you've already seen and let those who havne't seen it enjoy it. The primary reason reposts tend to piss people off is because they generate karma which many feel should only be awarded to creative efforts. If we look at karma as more of a system to  organize  posts on Reddit, karma whores are no longer a threat but instead they're like all those old fat guys who dress and act like Elvis to get tips at casinos.", "id": "c2f9x1p", "summary": "Karma means  nothing  unless you give it value. Reposts are going to happen so just ignore them. Some are innocent, some are asshole attempts at karma whoring. Who cares if we don't attribute value to karma?"}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I knew a guy who was in a wreck rather recently (in the last few months) and  almost died . He claimed he was tired, but I'm 99% sure he was drunk, high, or both. He apparently fell asleep at the wheel and slumped over in his seat, driving straight into a tree. Everyone is claiming that he is so lucky he survived because the fact that however he was slumped over in his chair \"saved his life\". I have heard other claims from other similar cases \"if his/her body wasn't limp, they would have died!\" and every time I think the same thing. \n How about this one: if they didn't fucking  drink and drive  they wouldn't have almost died. If people made the decision to  not drive  when they are intoxicated, too tired, to incapable for any reason then they wouldn't have to worry about slouching over a certain way to \"save their life\" because they wouldn't be in that accident! \n Really pisses me off to be around all those people always saying how that saved his life, because I can't really say anything bad. I mean they guy did almost die. So I'm just stuck there quietly seething that someone gets away with reckless endangerment and everyone feels sorry for them. Edit: I fucked up some words", "id": "clcrt3v", "summary": "Guy almost dies in car accident (very likely intoxicated). Everyone around him is gushing over the fact that his slouched-over body \"saved him\"."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I couldn't agree with you more. \n One of the best moments I can remember from when I worked in retail was when a boy (toddler) was playing with some deflated balloons that were in some bags on clipstrips near the register. The father had just finished paying when his son pulled a little too hard and ripped the bag open and all the balloons fell out onto the floor. I immediately told him it was alright and I would get it (which it honestly wasn't a big deal, the bag of balloons was a dollar) but the father stopped me and said something along the lines of \"no, he has to learn.\" He then proceeded to pick up the balloons with his son while singing the clean-up song (I think from Barney, IIRC). It was one of the most heart-warming moments I ever witnessed and the father was so kind and considerate, it really stood out to me after all these years.", "id": "cfi139k", "summary": "Some parents are still doing it right."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "As a woman, if what you say is true and some bitch walked up to you and ripped your clothes for no good reason, I don't see anything wrong with slapping her. You don't know her and she put her hands on you first, causing material damage. I've never really understood the whole \"never hurt a woman, no exceptions\" when American society denied the rights of all women from 1776 until 1920. It wasn't a big deal to hit a woman back then (hell it wasn't a big deal to prevent them from participating in politics or getting an education) but now we're up in arms over a fucking slap to the face when that bitch deserves it. \n I'm not implying that it's OK to slap women because we did so for so long. However, you can't tell me that gender means you  should never  get slapped when for over 140 years gender meant that you  will  get slapped.", "id": "c2pnf7i", "summary": "America can't decide what to do with women."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I think my comment was completely mistaken. I don't have a problem with service dogs, I was just saying from the restaraunt's perspective there are reasons they wouldn't want dogs around... not that I agree with those reasons because I don't. If I thought dogs were dirty I wouldn't let mine sleep in my bed every time.", "id": "cfo21va", "summary": "There are two sides to a story and just because I bring one side up doesn't mean I agree with it. It's called discussion."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Wow, you  really  need a history lesson. The majority of the German public had absolutely no clue that millions of people were being sent to their death. From their perspective, Hitler was bringing them protection and progress... the unemployment rate at that time was almost 0 while the United States was struggling through the depression. Hitler was an amazing, wonderful man in their eyes and I'm absolutely certain that the majority of those individuals, had they known what he was truly up to, wouldn't have supported him. \n For those German individuals who were aware, apart from the completely sadistic bastards (yes, there were some but they didn't make up the majority), they were threatened with death if they did not follow orders. It wasn't a matter of \"if you don't help us round up the Jews we'll kill you\" but more of a \"if you don't support your nation we will kill you and your entire family.\" Even children were encouraged to turn in their parents for any anti-nationalistic behavior and were rewarded for doing so.", "id": "c29i8iq", "summary": "Germans were  not  assholes. They were being run by one, and most of them were completely unaware that Hitler was an asshole."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I work at a dog boarding facility. There is a chihuahua who comes in quite often named Tanner. He is one of those dogs that is  always  carried by his parents and has absolutely no training. \n One time I picked him up when other dogs were picking on him. He had been begging to be held my entire shift but I gave in when I felt that he had a legitimate reason (being the other dogs scaring him). Shortly after picking him up I turned my head and he bit my nose, drawing blood in three places. I was more surprised than anything as he hadn't growled, but I later learned he was showing dominance.  He  wants to be picked up and  he  wants to be held a certain way and I invaded  his  personal space and  he  felt that the proper response was to bite me. \n There's no way in hell a little chihuahua is going to pwn me again. I give him dirty looks.", "id": "c0ur295", "summary": "I got pwned by a chihuahua and I agree with you."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Well, I don't know if this qualifies but here it is anyway: \n Recently a popular grocery store (that used to be located right next to the store I worked at) moved down the road to a brand new location. The building next door is completely barren and practically every customer that comes in to my store asks what is going to be there next. The lease in the building isn't up yet (not until April) so no one really knows what is going to be there, but everyone is hypothesizing. \n I was thinking yesterday that it would be really funny (and incredibly mean) if I told everyone that I heard it was going to be a Krispie Creme. I live in a small city (3 square miles small) and the grocery store alone was big news. If the city thinks there is going to be a Krispie Creme they would freak (especially since the next nearest location is about 20 miles away). Plus, I'm secretly hoping that that building will turn into a Krispie Creme anyway, so if spreading a rumor can make that happen...", "id": "c2ik35q", "summary": "I want to start telling people that the empty store next to the store I work at is going to turn into a Krispie Creme."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I can't tell you how many conversations that I've heard in languages I don't understand that I completely misinterpreted because their tones and way of speaking are so different. You can not just take what you know about English and apply it to other languages expecting to get an accurate picture of what they're talking about. Sometimes you'll think they're angry when really they're all celebrating. Even facial expressions and body language can alter slightly from culture to culture.", "id": "chsp5il", "summary": "That's a horrible suggestion."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "You can't just point at an entire culture and say \"that's  unreasonable \" because their  reasoning  differs vastly from ours. Unfortunately, their reasoning took a terrible turn, but it is still their reasoning and within their culture, it is perfectly reasonable to commit such a crime and be defended for it. \n It is so ingrained into their culture that it is widely considered a  reasonable  act performed by a  reasonable  person. It can be a hard thing to consider when in most cultures it is so obviously a wrong and despicable act. Many societies have collectively believed in many fucked up things, but it doesn't deem their entire culture to be \"unreasonable\". It's just how things turned out, but it just sounds too fucked up to say it so bluntly like that because we're dealing with such horrific things. It's really amazing how different our world views can become. Horrible sometimes, but still amazing.", "id": "c7r9c51", "summary": "Take social sciences"}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Well, I'm not really a lucky person, but I had a great moment in Modern Warfare 2 shortly after I began sniping. I zoomed in on an enemy's head and right as I pulled the trigger another enemy ran in front of him giving me a double headshot and my very first two kills with one bullet.", "id": "c1ph900", "summary": "Double headshot... which is great luck for me."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "New dreads are always frizzy and it might even get worse before it gets better. Just know that's totally normal and the sooner you stop worrying about the frizziness, the sooner you'll notice it start to go away. \n As your dreads mature and lock up the hairs will start to get sucked in and lay flat against the dread. I'm at 3 months and my dreads are still fairly frizzy and go up and down in frizziness, but they have already gotten a lot better. Try to avoid using product in your hair like wax or locking gel, because although it gets rid of the frizzies temporarily, that stuff is really hard to get out and doesn't let your dreads tighten naturally, so it can even slow down the process.", "id": "cgirldx", "summary": "Just let it be, frizziness is totally normal and it eventually tones down. \n (edit: BTW I was also twist and rip method)"}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "This is a long one, but I absolutely despise this guy. Wish I would have read his RateMyProfessor profile before taking his course (he's rated ridiculously low). \n My first English course as a college freshmen was a nightmare. The entire course was centered on immigration meaning everything we read and wrote about was directly related to immigration across the Mexico/US border. The only \"break\" we got from immigration was when the teacher read his own conference essays in front of the class which were about Shakespeare (none of the funny or tragic stuff... all about the Henrys). It was a research class (we had x MLA-style research papers to write) and his reading of his own essays didn't do anything but confuse and bore the class. He feigned modesty and would say crap like \"oh everyone else says this is wonderful, but I really don't like how it turned out, blah, blah, blah.\" \n The worst part of his class were his grading practices. English is among my strongest subjects and I was consistently failing every paper because of tiny mistakes. I had 50% deducted from one paper because of a misplaced period in the works cited - everything else was fine, I suppose that was the only mistake he could find (it was a shorter paper) so where ever he can he takes points. When I confronted him he told me that I had potential which is why his class might seem challenging, but then reassured me he grades everyone the same. I was holding small study groups in the library for the class and was much more familiar with MLA and writing research papers in general than a lot of the class. The fact that I was helping the students when the teacher wouldn't was one thing, but I was helping students achieve grades much higher than my own (I had an F or D the entire semester before I dropped, yet students I tutored were getting As and Bs) and that is what really pissed me off. Dropped the class and soon after about half of the rest of the class dropped. Students who stuck it out tell me that there were about 5-6 people remaining in his class by the end (which started with over 40, it's a required course). \n Since that experience, I drop any teacher I feel I'll have trouble getting along with. My education is important and it took me a while to realize that teachers are NOT infallible and there are many great teachers and many shitty ones out there. I will no longer waste my time with shitty teachers. I actually  want  to learn and that all begins with finding someone suitable to teach me. To clarify, I did not drop his class because he was giving me bad grades, and I don't feel that's a good reason alone to drop classes. I dropped because it was obvious to me that he had no fucking clue what he was doing. He was astonished to find out that the class had been coming to me when he refused to help them, and a lot of the students I tutored had been greatly improving. I have never failed a class in my life, but when I do it's not going to be an English course that I tutor for.", "id": "c3q16zu", "summary": "Teacher was completely full of himself, didn't give a rat's ass about his students, and gave completely inconsistent grades. Utterly impossible to work with, despite being a good student."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "To the contrary, I was the asshole. It's natural for them to play dead, but he actually never just went into that position unless I actually put him like that.  Here is a video \n I never \"scared\" him into the position, I would just hold him upside down and let him down slowly head first. Sometimes he wouldn't play dead right away and I had to coax him.", "id": "cbscuqt", "summary": "LINCOLN WAS NOT AN ASSHOLE!! Lincoln was awesome and I miss him /sniffle"}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Honestly I'm pretty sure she is just trying to block out the light. Lots of animals sleep like that. I have a few rats and they all sleep with their heads in corners or [even against the floor]( They tend to sleep like that when it's bright out still. \n When it's a neurological issue, pets tend to press their heads into walls regularly and not just to sleep. They won't always lay or even sit down when they press their head into a wall or surface. It actually appears that something is bothering them, like they are trying to get comfortable but can't. You would probably be alarmed because your pet isn't acting normal.", "id": "cor1jzm", "summary": "I'm pretty sure she is just tired and blocking out the light, especially if it's something she has been doing for years."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Exactly. I live in SoCal and I have plenty of options for edibles.. both homemade and lab-tested. I really like Kiva bars and the triple strength bars are tested at 180mg. I eat half of that for a really nice high, the whole thing if I want to struggle to stay awake. 3/4ths is perfect, but then I only have a quarter left lol. \n Anyway, there is another brand I see a lot called \"Casa Luna\" and they are lab-tested at \"250mg\" and I say that in quotes because the 180mg Kiva bar will knock me on my ass, but I can eat the  entire  \"250mg\" Casa Luna bar and get absolutely nothing. It was really disappointed when I tried my first Casa Luna. It was Cookies and Cream and the \"cream\" part was very, very green. The whole thing tasted like I was eating a brick of weed, which I don't mind because I like the taste of weed, but you would expect it to have  some  sort of effect, right? I didn't even get a buzz! I don't know if I tried a bad batch and they destroyed all the cannabinoids or something but I couldn't believe how much it tasted like weed and yet had no effect.", "id": "clfu1eo", "summary": "Edibles are pretty much a hit and miss, even many of the lab-tested ones."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I had a girl in one of my classes who would repeat everything the teacher said in question form (this was in an ethical philosophy class). It was weird because she always tried to act like a know-it-all but she would repeat verbatim what the teacher just told us, as if she was giving us new information but she was really more-or-less clarifying what the teacher said. For example: \n Teacher : Much of Nietzsche's philosophy centered around the idea of the Übermensch [continues on about theory] \n Dumb bitch :  raises hand  Didn't Nietzsche center a lot of his philosophy on this idea of the Übermensch? \n Teacher :  looks confused  ... Yes. Exactly. \n Dumb bitch :  smiles, reveling in her \"intelligence\" \n It was really obnoxious, but the best part was when she got it all completely wrong. I can't think of a specific example, but there were a few times she fought with the teacher over what he said. She really talked about ideas/theories as if they were her own and if she misinterpreted them, she spoke about it as if it was something she learned elsewhere and the teacher didn't know what he was talking about. \n The most annoying aspect of all of this, however, was the fact that a few nearby students thought she was truly an intelligent person and hung on her every word. They would come to her defense when the teacher corrected her.", "id": "c3hi354", "summary": "Girl repeats everything the teacher says in question form, and acts as if it is information she learned elsewhere."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I think it varies drastically from person to person. We don't all feel the same, some people even sincerely believe that animals should have more rights than humans. \n Basically, we're human so we look out for other humans. I'm sure almost every species favors its own kind over any other. We wouldn't eat other species if we felt the same way about them as we do ourselves. Everyone thinks about animals differently, some are horrified at the thought of eating even a chicken or a fish. Some people don't believe any animal deserves any \"special treatment\" at all. \n In the end it all gets very complicated. You might feel fine eating that chicken, but you would feel much differently if it was a dog or cat... or even a  pet  chicken. Everyone feels differently about these things but what I feel it basically boils down to is your connection or understanding of another creature's sentience. Larger animals like horses, dogs, and elephants have larger brains and we tend to see behavioral patterns in them that remind us of ourselves. When we see ourselves in an animal, that's when it becomes more difficult to make decisions about its well-being. There is no other creature on the planet that we are meant to be more connected to than other humans, so the end result is that we are going to feel very differently about other humans.", "id": "cgwlqk9", "summary": "We all have different perspectives so it's impossible to answer the question for everybody."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I work as a cashier at a dollar store and this lady was buying two packages of cookies (1 dollar each, no tax) and a box of ibuprofen (1 dollar, 8 cents tax). She asked me if there is any tax (she knew there was, she's done this to other cashiers as I later learned) and I told her yes, on the ibuprofen. She looked quizzically at her selections and sighed, saying something like \"I really need the ibuprofen and I only have 3 bucks\". \n At first she started asking me if she could \"owe\" me the 8 cents on \"Thursday\" (few days later) and that she really, really needed the ibuprofen. I kept thinking in my head (why the fuck won't she just put one of the cookies back?) but after she insisted she would pay me back for about a minute and a half she started shouting at people in the store asking if anyone had any change. \n Luckily (I guess) there was a cashier I know from another store on her break. The woman approached her and asked for the change and she gave it to her with a smile (she's a really nice person, but she did talk to me afterwards about how often she does that at the grocery store she works at, along with some other things she does). I couldn't believe that someone would go to those lengths for 8 cents, and by \"those lengths\" I mean shamelessly shouting and chasing people around the front of a store for 8 fucking cents.", "id": "c2wj8hx", "summary": "Woman comes into store and doesn't have 8 cents for tax. Firsts starts begging me to pay me back and then chases customers down for change until one of them gave in. Does this regularly."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I'm a college student and practically broke. I rarely invest in games but every once and a while I splurge and buy a game that I'm truly excited for. Medal of Honor was one of those games. I actually met my current fiance on MoH:AA Breakthrough, so I've always had a soft spot for the series (or at least the original titles in the series). He wasn't really interested in the new MoH at all, and I'm so glad he wasn't. \n I purchased Medal of Honor and I have been beating myself up over it since its release. I barely have enough money to buy food and I feel like an idiot for spending so much on a game where its multiplayer is utterly and completely  UNPLAYABLE . We lived off of 23 USD for a week, eating almost nothing but Macaroni and Cheese during that time all because I just  had  to buy that fucking game.", "id": "c12y8hf", "summary": "Broke college student; bought MoH and am severely disappointed. There goes my splurging for the rest of the fucking year."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "It is very popular, and despite all the hate some people do use it successfully but those people who use it well don't use much. \n All in all, wax is just unnecessary. Anything that wax can do, patience can do better. It is makes dreads lay down flatter and look more tidy early on, but it can prevent dreads from moving enough if you use too much. And no matter how much wax you use, you have to consider how it will affect your dreads by locking in moisture and attracting more lint/fuzz. \n In the end, it's up to you. /r/dreadlocks tends to be fairly anti-wax, and I myself have never and will never use it on my dreads. However, I do feel that wax isn't the devil and if you use a small amount it isn't the end of your dreads. However, if you  do  decide to put wax in your hair, no matter how small of an amount, you can't wash it out with water (it won't dissolve in water) so if you want to really ever get rid of it you have to melt it out of your hair.", "id": "cfut92b", "summary": "I wouldn't recommend wax, but it has been used by many successfully. Know the risks/benefits of using wax vs. never using wax."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I agree with what you say, but I still dislike Steam. Reason being I absolutely hate having to open a third party program to play a game. Funny thing, I have a pretty updated computer with a quad core CPU (AMD Phenom II X4 3.0GHz) that can handle running ~a billion programs at once, but just the sheer thought of something running in the background annoys me. \n I'm one of those people who closes browser tabs before I need to.", "id": "c0osap3", "summary": "Steam isn't compatible with my OCD"}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I'm from the midwest and deer are considered pests out there. Even went so far as to extend deer hunting season to all year long. Deer outnumber humans out there. Deer also like to eat all the saplings (baby trees) which is like deer crack, so there is a huge growth gap in trees. Especially in Iowa, there was like 30 years or something where no new trees were growing because the deer got so bad. \n One time we had deer in our yard on Christmas.  Christmas!  It was awesome as a little kid to see 6-8 deer prancing around your neighborhood. This was in the city too.", "id": "ckpjuyq", "summary": "Deer are very, very common in some places which makes this not so unbelievable."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I see what you're saying, but if someone is  habitually  late, and I mean every god damned time you can guarantee that they will be either ridiculously late or not show at all, then it's obvious you need to change what you're doing because you're wasting time. I have a couple friends that are like this, and I just have to understand that I'll be waiting a long time if I want to do anything with them. I arrange for this extra time beforehand, so instead of inviting them over and getting upset when they are late, I anticipated their being late. \n If I have anything that requires me to be somewhere at a certain time, I don't invite the friends that have poor time-management skills. So yes, they're going to miss out on stuff, but it's an adjustment I had to make for their poor habits.", "id": "ccgkuaw", "summary": "Either way I look at it, they are still being the \"rude\" ones, whether it is just a bad habit or they just don't give a shit. If you agree to a certain time and you don't meet it, not because of any crazy circumstances but because you aren't motivated enough to get ready in time, then it is a  flaw  that others will have to either deal with or avoid."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "True, but there is something especially disgusting, at least to me, about stealing bikes. People who ride bikes are putting themselves more at risk every time they ride, it takes them longer to get places, and it takes physical effort to do so. Some bike because it is the healthier choice, others can't afford another vehicle. When you steal a bike, you're stealing something* from someone who is probably in one of those positions.", "id": "cccrij7", "summary": "Stealing bikes, IMHO, is an especially asshole-ish move."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "When I adopted my dog about 4 years ago I started clipping his nails and grooming him myself. If you start at a young age, they can become very used to it and don't even care about what you're doing. Fast forward 2 years, I cut his quick once and he's always been a bit more scared and tends to retract his legs a lot when I'm trying to clip them. Aside from that, he's great and doesn't wiggle around. However, all it took was that one tiny clip and he's forever afraid of the clippers. =(", "id": "cdqdild", "summary": "Have a well-trained dog that didn't care about clipping his nails; accidentally clip the quick once and he's forever scared."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I  love  smoking weed recreationally and medically, but I can't imagine a single reason where I would be compelled to pack a bowl and drive at the same time. I don't even like smoking in vehicles at all (parked or otherwise) but especially driving. \n I understand some people think they can drive while they're high, well a lot of people think they can drive really well when they're drunk too. That's why we have laws against driving while being intoxicated. Driving under the influence of anything is just not a good idea, but especially if we want to get this stuff legalized. We need to be responsible and show we can follow laws and not get into trouble. \n Plus, it's not like weed is anything like crack/heroin/and other drugs that actually make you go through withdrawal without them.", "id": "cfbz64v", "summary": "There's really no reason one can't wait to smoke a bowl until a more appropriate time and place."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "This was ultimately the reason I returned my Charge to Best Buy...  twice . The first time I owned the Charge it hadn't been officially released yet (my Best Buy accidentally sold one to me) and I was having constant problems with connecting. I was constantly rebooting the phone (3-6 times a day) and it didn't seem to matter if I enabled or disabled 4G connectivity. I switched to the Thunderbolt until the Charge was officially released and then I got it again. Same issues but even  worse . It ran through battery ridiculous fast and refused to connect to 3G or 4G at all for the majority of the time. Even Wi-Fi had some issues. It would make a loud beeping noise occasionally when it lost connection and the only way to stop it was to rip the battery out of the phone. It was really unfortunate because it was an awesome phone... the camera was great and the touch screen was absolutely beautiful. What a shame. \n (I am now the proud owner of the Droid X2. Definitely my favorite thus far.)", "id": "c2lx034", "summary": "I had the Charge twice (once before official release and once after) and I was lucky if I could so much as call someone when I wanted."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I work at a small retail store. We tell people to apply online, that we no longer carry physical applications in the store (we do, but they are still saran wrapped) and that our hiring process is all online now (it technically is). The twist is that we only hire people from physical applications handed in to the store. We never look at the online applications (I'm sure there is a way to do it) and only read from paper applications and resumes. It is possible to print out your application after applying online, but most people don't bother. However, if they handed in the application without applying online, we still need them to go back and apply online and make an account, etc.", "id": "c86sb5a", "summary": "Make people apply online, only looks at applications handed into the store (but they still need to make an online account).~~ \n Edit: NVM I didn't read the title correctly. =("}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I wish the community, as a whole, could at least make an attempt at being more receptive to opposing opinions. I have to admit, I am very passionate about some issues, but I  enjoy  hearing other's thoughts. In fact, I have adopted many ideals that were completely opposite to what I had previously felt simply because I decided to hear someone out on this very site and learn from their experience. \n I have been absolutely shocked by some of the things I've learned over the past year of browsing Reddit. I sincerely feel that being more receptive of other's opinions can only  help  you make an even more informed decision as it will do one of three things: give you a better understanding of opposing views (or even lead to adopting them), reinforce your current views, or not affect you at all really. Where's the harm? \n As humans, we are all basically ignorant. Our individual understanding of the world is so insignificant to the whole base of human knowledge, that it is inconceivable. Beyond that, humans, as a whole, know very little in comparison to what there is to know (this is a major understatement, as we know close to nothing on the larger scale of what can be learned). Even further beyond that, the human mind is very, very limited so we can only comprehend a very, very minuscule amount of the universe(s) as it is. \n In short, we  need  to rely on others for knowledge. Granted, there is a plethora of misinformation out there, but that is no excuse to shut the world out and hold a death grip around your views and opinions. It is important that we all take an effort to learn from each other. Whether or not you're willing to change your views, at least give others the courtesy of respecting theirs. It can be difficult, at first, to accept or even acknowledge the merit in opposing opinions, but once you start you'll realize just how much you're missing out on by closing off the rest of the world.", "id": "c15ibj5", "summary": "Everyone needs to chill the fuck out and try, for just a minute, to understand why someone thinks the way they do. You might discover something new and enlightening."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "As someone from the midwest, honeycrisps are more expensive for many reasons. Some have been mentioned: they are harder to grow and can only grow in certain climates/soils. Also, they taste so good because they contain a lot more sugar than other apples. This makes them not only more desirable for everything from raw consumption to cooking, but they also have a considerably shorter shelf life and bruise a heck of a lot easier than any other apple.", "id": "cdghzvz", "summary": "The cost of honeycrisps is a combination of demand and difficulty of production/transportation."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I used to be a stocking manager. My employees would stock things that were dirty/empty occasionally, or just throw them somewhere for me to find and deal with later. Usually they just screwed me over by constantly stocking things that were wrapped together but meant to be separated (boxes even came with a note saying to separate from plastic, and it's fairly obvious it's 6 units or whatever plastic-wrapped together). I would get angry customers all the time trying to buy these for the price of one.", "id": "cc5jyi1", "summary": "Some minimum wage employees just don't GAF."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Recently Chase bank representatives have been flooding the local grocery store chain. It's annoying enough to get solicited when entering and leaving the store, but these guys actually tracked us (my fiance and I) down several times in the store to tell us how awesome Chase bank is. My fiance got a bit annoyed and told the guy how he doesn't like to pay to let them hold onto his money (we go through a wonderful local credit union that has virtually no fees). The guy backed up with a shocked look on his face and he said \"don't attack me bro!\" We were pretty peeved when  he  was the one who approached us (out of an army of representatives we already had to fight through).", "id": "c2j0ftt", "summary": "Chase bank reps. have been bombarding my local grocery stores. They even stop you while you shop."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I was always baffled at how soon retailers brought out the Christmas crap (before I started work at a store). Working as a cashier, for every customer that complains/makes fun of the seasonal stuff there is a customer who is  ecstatic . \"Finally! I've been waiting for wrapping paper since July!\" I'm assuming many Redditors don't go all out for the holidays so early, but I can assure you there are a  hell of a lot  of people who spend months preparing for Christmas.", "id": "c2rc46a", "summary": "Retailers bring out the Christmas crap early because it starts selling early."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I worked at a dog boarding facility for a couple years, eventually aspiring to supervisor. It was the best and worst job at the same time: I loved working with dogs and I was really close to most of my coworkers... I was able to get raises here and there, get plenty of hours, and I could even smoke bud on the job. It was a lot of fun but also a lot of hard work. The owner, however, was absolutely bat shit insane and the top manager (second in command, if you will) was a narcissistic ass-kisser. \n I have enough stories to fill books, but to give an example of how difficult the owner was to work with, as a supervisor I would get up at about 5am to feed all the dogs and give meds to the ones who needed them. The owner just happened to be there one morning and as I begin to do the feeding, she walks down the hallway and sees me reading the feeding list posted on the wall. She scolds me and tells me that I should be reading the kennel cards which have more updated feeding instructions (which are posted on all the kennels). \n Not 10 minutes later, she finds me in front of the big dog kennels feeding and reading off of the kennel cards. She again scolds me and tells me that I should be reading off of the feeding list out in the hall. It wasn't unusual for her to so blatantly contradict herself like this, but there's nothing you can do or say without pissing her off. Soon I learned to just put my tail between my legs and make drastic changes to my behavior as I constantly try to follow her ever-changing wishes. I was driven to quit as her actions resulted in my having to work up to 12 hours without a break (frequently), never having a clear end to my shift (she would keep giving me more errands, such as bathing her own dogs), and always lacking the proper and often essential equipment to do my job. \n I was also expected to perform outrageously demanding lists of tasks. A typical day started at 5 and after feeding and medicating anywhere from 60 to 200 dogs, I would have to help the other employees put the dogs into play yards. When the kennels were clear, I'd clean them - all of them. On my hands and knees with a towel for the smaller ones. I'd have to fully disinfect the kennels of any dogs that were leaving. Laundry, dishes, bathes (sometimes 5 or more during my shift), setting up new kennels, and evaluating new dogs were just a handful of my duties that were my everyday routine. The owner, however, would spontaneously want the koi pond cleaned or both parking lots swept, etc. There was rarely a \"typical\" day where I didn't have some outrageous story about the owner's attitude and expectations. \n I learned something important: it is not worth it to work hard for people who are hostile and/or mentally unstable. I felt like shit every single fucking day after I was promoted to supervisor. I was making good money and I would even make some extra cash under the table for things like website work. Making a lot of money doesn't mean anything when you have to face someone you detest so intensely like that for 5+ days a week.", "id": "c3wo1ff", "summary": "Worked for a highly unstable woman at a pet resort. Loved everything about the job except for her. In the end, it wasn't worth it to be miserable, despite making decent money, under her employment."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Wow, you are really wound up about this, aren't you? \n > The point is not that I got downvotes (admittedly I probably shouldn't have even brought them up) \n Then why did you keep bringing up the downvotes? It seems that you were using that as a gauge of whether or not people agreed with or understood your comment. Downvotes don't necessarily mean that, in fact, downvotes don't really mean anything because a) they are imaginary points that you can't use for anything, b) there are upvote/downvote bots, c) downvote/upvote trends (i.e. see a vote, add another in the same direction). \n > the point is that people are stupid enough to think that I was genuinely complaining about the lane changer when I clearly point out that \"some people actually think like this\" \n Do people really think that, or are you just using the downvotes to tell you that people disagreed with you? Because again, downvotes don't necessarily say anything about the content of your post or how much people did or didn't agree with you. Maybe people just didn't  like  you so they downvoted you, but not the message you were giving. \n > when I clearly point out that \"some people actually think like this\". It was clearly not intended to be a joke [...] \n You keep saying \"clearly\" but don't you understand that there is a huge difference between text on a screen and talking to someone face to face? Even using italics it can be difficult to convey things like sarcasm and humor without the aid of vocal emphasis. It's always risky being sarcastic, even in real life, because you are bound to be misunderstood  even if you try to clear things up afterwards . But again, this might not even be the case, as downvotes don't necessarily mean that people didn't understand your sarcasm. \n You know what could have happened? One person downvoted you, another saw you at 0 and added a downvote, and the trend picked up when you started bitching about downvotes. You really need to stop paying so much attention to all the upvotes and downvotes. If you think you were misunderstood, add clarity to your post, but if you're going to be all like \"oh my god, I just can't believe you stupid people actually believe... blah blah\" yeah, you're going to get downvoted.", "id": "cf1lka6", "summary": "You suck at sarcasm."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "About a month ago my parents visited my fiancé and I and we had a short hiatus from smoking (as we were traveling around California). To keep a short story short, when we got back home my favorite bowl (a clear glass, tri-hole that burns evenly) was stuck in the down-stem of my favorite bong (KLIR GonG). So there wasn't really a problem with the bong, but that's the only downstem I have. \n I tried everything from heating it, cooling it, rubbing it with butter and soap, etc. I know a glass blower but was reluctant to take it to him (he's kind of far away). \n Just today I was so finished with smoking out of pipes so I soaked the bowl and downstem in extremely soapy water, wrapped one paper towel around the bowl and another around the stem, pulled and twisted and BAM it came out. The only issue is that it appears some of the frosted glass at the base of the bowl was smoothed and I fear it could get stuck again (so I keep it in an ashtray when I'm done). \n Anyway, I had searched tons of forums and it seems that this doesn't happen too terribly often, but when it does there's not much information on how to fix it. So hopefully my story will help a fellow ent in need. Also, if you go on vacation it would be wise to remove the bowl from the downstem, just in case.", "id": "t3_fdo5m", "summary": "Bowl got stuck in downstem. Fixed by soaking it in soapy water, wrapping it in paper towels, and pulled and twisted the thing out."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "and I can occasionally make a really nice looking joint, but it's  so damn difficult  for me. I'm particularly having trouble with \"tucking\" the paper in when I start actually rolling it. \n I load the paper roach at one end and spread the bud, rub the paper together to even everything out, but when I try to wrap the paper around everything it either gets wrinkled because of the end of the paper that I tuck under gets in the way or I start rolling it way too loose. \n I've tried rolling without paper roaches, but there isn't much a difference in the finished product, plus I just prefer to have one. Does anyone have any tips on how to work with the paper when I begin wrapping or just on rolling joints in general?", "id": "t3_fg7r9", "summary": "Tips on rolling joints; I'm having trouble with \"tucking\" the paper in when I start rolling it. \n FYI - I'm using primarily Juicy Jays and Bob Marley Pure Hemp papers (80mm). I hand-make the roaches with card stock. \n [3]"}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Backstory: \n I heard a little bit about hemp wick in the past, and I picked up some BeeLine at a local smoke shop. I  loved  the stuff and the only thing I use a lighter on now is my VaporGenie. I heard (perhaps through Reddit) that Wholly Hemp was offering free samples. I grabbed a sample (of medium gauge) for the hell of it, not expecting to ever buy from them. \n I had no clue there could be such a big difference between hemp wicks. The first thing I noticed was the smell and this stuff smells amazing (exactly like honeycomb if you've ever chewed it). It also lights easier and burns much, much slower. Plus, the sample included 10' of wick so I've been using it for a good two weeks and I've still got a couple feet left. \n I ended up buying a 200' spool of heavy gauge wick (yes, this stuff is  that  much better than BeeLine in my opinion). I just got the package today and to my surprise they threw in a few extras. Not only did I get the spool, but I got three more 10' packs (one of each gauge), a lighter with some more wick around it, a sticker (yay!), and a little note on the invoice reading \"Spread the love =)\" and \"Thank you!\" I took a [picture]( \n I'm not trying to advertise Wholly Hemp, just sharing my experience. However I would highly recommend at least trying a sample. If you've never used hemp wick before, this is a perfect way to try it and even if you have you might like this stuff better.", "id": "t3_g6uh9", "summary": "I've been using BeeLine but got a free sample of Wholly Hemp wicks. Fell in love with it, bought a 200' spool of heavy gauge and they gave me a bunch of extra stuff. \n [Pic]( \n Even if you're not interested in hemp wick (or use a different brand like I-Tal or BeeLine) I highly recommend getting a free sample from [their website]("}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "make me laugh? \n I am one of those people (assuming there are others like my out there) who has the hardest time finding laughable material. It's not that I don't find anything funny, I simply find that very few things cause me to genuinely laugh out loud. \n Unfortunately, I have no prize to give (aside from my laughter which you cannot hear) to any Redditor that can make me laugh via a joke, picture, video, what-have-you. To give a bit of insight into what does make me laugh: [here is an example]( I have no clue why I laugh every time I see that picture... it must be a combination of the absurd picture with the clever tag. I prefer light humor, but I don't have any strict guidelines on what I find enjoyable or funny. \n In the meantime: is anyone in the same boat as I? How many of you actually laugh out loud when you see something funny when no one else is around to hear you?", "id": "t3_cdbe6", "summary": "Can you make me laugh? \n and \n Do you laugh when you're alone?"}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "I ask: why I should be upset about some Gold members receiving access to the website? At a time when giving everyone full access was impossible, Reddit decided to allow a smaller subset of Reddit (a few who  pay with real money ) full access until everything behind the scenes was worked out. \n Maybe I'm blind, but I fail to understand the issue at hand. There are a few benefits to being a paying member and that was one of them. Now as much as I hate contributing to the Gold vs. non-Gold debate and the focus on the \"Reddit Apocalypse\" in its entirety, I have to admit I'm astounded at how many fellow Redditors are legitimately bothered by their decision to give a few Gold members access.", "id": "t3_gvedz", "summary": "Cry me a river and read the damn thing. Then cry me another river right next to that one so I can make a moat for my karmaless castle and fill it with depressed Redditors."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "So recently I started smoking leaf for two reasons: 1) I'm dirt poor and 2) I have a virtually limitless (and free) supply of leaf. My mother and father-in-law started growing in their backyard (both have medical cards, completely legit... except for me) and my mother-in-law actually prefers leaf because it gives her a nicer, more mellow high and she openly admits that she is a lightweight. \n I tried it out and was surprised that I actually  felt  something from it. Ever since I've been using it to get a nice mellow mood but until last night I wasn't even sure if I could actually get  baked  off of the stuff. Well, as it turns out if I smoke enough then I can get completely baked when alternating between my dugout and homemade bong. \n So are there any other leaf smokers out there? I heard a lot of people get headaches from it and it has such a ridiculously low THC content that I realize for many it's not a viable alternative. However, I've really been enjoying it and although I prefer bud, it will definitely help me out while I'm financially strained. \n Note: I would highly recommend making a bong specifically for smoking leaf because leaf STINKS and it sticks to everything kind of like tobacco smoke. I made the mistake of smoking it in my room (I smoke plenty of bud in there and the aroma never lingers for long) and I ended up having to wash my bedding, all the clothes that were hanging and outside of drawers, as well as vacuum and Fabreze the carpet to get the stench out. It also did a number on my bong (nothing that a little salt and isopropyl couldn't fix) and the smell made me want to gag.", "id": "t3_iy47e", "summary": "Been smoking leaf a lot lately, love the stuff (apart from the taste). Completely different high but it makes everything smell awful. \n So have you tried it? Did you get a high from it? Do you enjoy smoking leaf or is it just too awful that it's not even worth it?"}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Back story \n I have always been a huge MoH fan... in fact, I met my fiance on MoH:AA Breakthrough. With that said, I haven't played many of the recent games in the series but was convinced that the newest Medal of Honor would take the cake. \n The first day was amazing. I loved the  feel  of the multiplayer and the campaign is awesome. However now, a mere 2 days after its release, I am left utterly speechless. \n With the campaign aside (which I am still enjoying, albeit it's incredibly easy), the multiplayer sucks. The actual man on man combat is awesome and I love the ranks, kill streaks, unlocks, etc. but I have issues with everything else. The spawn points are horrible and one team is always getting camped (in fact, in a couple maps I oftentimes get sniped in the first few seconds of the game), there is no way to mute anyone or back out of a game before it starts, and I feel there is a general lack of sustainable coordination in whatever team I join mostly due to the cruddy spawn points. \n I have addressed my concerns to other players, a few of which have informed me that, because EA oftentimes rushes releases, they are expecting updates to fix many of the issues I encounter and incorporate the menu functions (namely mute and exit) that are blatantly missing. \n What are the chances that these issues will be fixed through an update? I am reluctant to trade in this game, as there are some things that I really enjoy (for example, I feel that the kill streaks aren't overpowered as they are in MW2 and probably will be in Black Ops) but if it comes down to it, how much should I expect to trade this game in for at GameStop (I'd probably trade it for Black Ops, despite the fact that I decided on MoH to avoid all those blasted kill streaks).", "id": "t3_dr1da", "summary": "I am very disappointed in Medal of Honor. Should I expect updates to fix some issues such as crappy spawn points and the inability to mute people or what could I get for a trade in at GameStop (with the 30% I get from my Edge card)."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "Background Info. \n It was (up until a couple hours ago) my birthday. To celebrate my fiance and I had a day planned of iHop, Gamestop, and Best Buy. I was planning to get a nice new headset for my XBOX 360 (as I have been using the crappy wired one that came with the console). To say the very least - my day didn't go as planned. I got a dreadful food poisoning at iHop (but they were nice enough to give me a discount of a whole dollar to satisfy my inconvenience of puking my brains out). Gamestop didn't have any headsets (as usual) so we went over to Best Buy. I had purchased a 23\" Acer LCD Monitor which had a few stuck pixels and we took it in for an exchange. At the same time we purchased a 60 USD Turtle Beach EarForce X1 headset. After taking the headset home I was horrified to find out that the headset was not compatible with my chatpad and I would be forced to buy a special cord. I was a little put off by this, but I figured I'd make the best of it and continued to set it up. After reading the manual I was a bit confused as to how to get it working with my XBOX. As it turns out, I must purchase a converter to actually hook the headset into my XBOX... a converter which costs 50 USD at Best Buy. I just spent 60 USD on the headset and now I have to pay an addition 50 USD on a converter and if I want it to work with my chatpad I have to drop another 5 USD (plus shipping) on a special cord?? All of a sudden this 60 USD microphone was going to cost me over 120 USD!! \n I immediately returned the headset to Best Buy. Unfortunately, the only other microphone they had was a Tritton AX 720 priced at a whopping 130 USD. We spoke on the issue and even asked a Best Buy employee how it hooks into the XBOX. We figured we should go for the more expensive microphone - after all, it would be a mere 10 USD more and is far more superior. When we were checking out we were informed that the warranty on this expensive headset was 1 year... this was quite discouraging but if it was as high quality as advertised it should last for a long time. After we brought it home we again found out that it needed to same converter. Oh I do love how these little surprises sneak up on you. We searched online and found that we could purchase a \"dongle\" or something like that for around 10 USD on Amazon, which we did. Despite not having the converter, I was still able to chat with people. I played several rounds of MW2 and was very astonished at the sound quality and comfort of the headset and was very happy. \n During my third round of Team Deathmatch, I stopped hearing voices but was still seeing the indicator that teammates were speaking. I tried adjusting the microphone, settings, turning it on and off, etc. but nothing worked. I plugged my old headset in and viola it works. Knowing that people were indeed talking I tried the Tritton again to no avail. It simply quit working altogether without any warning or rough handling and within a mere hour of purchase. So Reddit, I turn to you. I am taking this microphone back tomorrow (or should I say - later today) and I need some help! I would consider returning to the EarForce X1, but I would really prefer a headset that allows me to use my chatpad. I have already purchased a dongle so that won't be an issue.", "id": "t3_axy4a", "summary": "I am looking for a headset for my XBOX 360. It must have the following qualities: \n \n Wired \n \n Two earpieces \n \n Plays both in-game sound and XBL chat \n \n Compatibility with chatpad \n \n Under 80 USD \n \n \n Best Buy has a very limited selection of in-store headsets. I will definitely order a headset online from sites such as NewEgg, Amazon, and TigerDirect. If you can link me directly to an online deal I would be very appreciative, but any input really helps."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "First and foremost : I am not interested in wireless - wires don't bother me and I hate always having to charge things and buy batteries. \n Secondly : I need a headset that will play ALL the game sounds as well as let me communicate with XBL users. \n I was looking into a [Turtle Beach Ear Force X1]( which is a cheaper wired headset. I am looking for comments and suggestions on this headset and others that fit my two criteria. \n Thank you to anyone who takes the time to write a reply. I am very familiar with PC headsets, but my XBOX 360 is a mere 2 months old and I'm hoping that a few of you will have some helpful insight to aid my purchasing decision.", "id": "t3_ar8fh", "summary": "I need recommendations on a headset for my XBOX 360 that is wired and plays all the game's sounds."}, {"author": "iBeenie", "content": "EDIT: Thank you for all your responses! I will keep playing in AOD. It sounds like they are a great bunch of people with admins who actually care. I wont let this one experience sour my perception of AOD as a whole, so again I really appreciate everyone's responses and support! \n Original Irrelevant Rant: \n I used to love this AOD stomping grounds servers. Thought I finally found a nice clan with a good map rotation. Well, after playing on their server for the past month or so, I've found that not only is the matchmaking gone completely out of whack (it was always sort of unbalanced anyway because all the AOD members would want to play together) but now their clan members are acting like complete dicks. At least from what I have experienced, the server is supposed to be noob friendly, yet they were complaining about people not doing well enough or dying too often. The last straw for me was the start of a round when I jumped into a transport vehicle (passenger's seat) with two other squad members. AOD guy was driving immediately started saying \"GET OUT!\" which I did immediately. I also told them goodbye, and got out of the server forever. \n Maybe I'm missing something here. I'm kind of a newer battlefield player, but I assumed riding with a squad member at the beginning of a round to the nearest capture point would be acceptable, if anything the point of the game. Whatever, I'm just stressed out with school and it's frustrating when the one outlet I use to relax ends up making me feel unwelcome. I'm probably overreacting, but when it's the clan member of the server you are playing that is acting controlling and upset with people for not being good enough then I just stop having fun and loose interest. I was just about to start using my mic on their server too, and I  never  use my mic anymore in FPS games although I would like to feel like I could.", "id": "t3_49g9ju", "summary": "Clan member of a server I play in was kind of dick to other people (telling them they're not good enough) and later told me to get out of their vehicle for some unknown reason. And I'm a bitch with thin skin who wants to rant about it on reddit."}]}
+{"author": "zXster", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post You got this homie. Work harder. Get better.", "output": "You're always at fault.  Now this doesn't mean you can do about the 20/2/16 Yasuo, that your top lane single handedly OOBER-Fed...and proceeded to drop 5 towers, and 3v1 any of your team.  There are tons of games like this we've played, multiple lanes loosing. (We dropped an enemy nexus in 17 mins last night, and the next game was a 45 min slugfest we never had a shot in.)  \n \n BUT there are always things you/I can do better.  There are tons of things I miss every game, bad plays, over dives, crappy farm, chasing that last hit, or team fighting with no objective/point to it.  Learn from it, and do better. \n \n There is WAY more pressure right now. Like so many others you want out of Bronze, and the immature bs that happens, AFK's at 3 deaths, etc. But even my friends in Gold+ says how people there are still immature, dumb... so the same. The difference is the players there are mechanically better, and will make you pay MORE for those dumb mistakes. \n \n Keep trying. Keep getting better. If you are better you will carry out. I am still doing my placements, and will prob be in B2-3 again. But I was climbing SLOWLY, but steadily up. I hard carried some games, and just helped fed people others.  I match against silvers a lot, as my team ranges from B3-G3, and don't have much trouble laning against them.  I know I can and will climb up... it just takes time and work."}], "user_id": "longlamp_16229", "history": [{"author": "zXster", "content": "Jungle main here, and really like Tri Force on most of my main Junglers. (Vi, Udyr, and Voli)  Like some posts said, you don't buy it every time, especially when behind, but it's an item I REALLY like for a few reasons. \n While a lot of people complain about how expensive it is, it's also an item that gives you stats comparable with some other 2 items.  It also gives you silly damage in just 1 item.  Voli and Udyr can build it and go all tank after.  No other item really does that, and just building 1 other dmg item doesn't usually allow this kind of diversity. \n As for not enough gold. I'm still not sure how people say this. As a jungler I feel like I'm up with laners on EXP and gold, and don't have much trouble staying in there farming. \n On Udyr I go stalkers boots then Tri, then finish Juggernaut. (sometimes finish it first.) On Voli I go Cinderhulk, boots, then Tri.  All tank after on both, usually always.", "id": "cqu8d3r", "summary": "There are a lot of ways to play, just build what fits your style and the game. Don't get trapped into the you never build it, or always mentality."}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "It's the growth of the game, and really understanding it.  Most, or at least a lot, of Bronze players have yet to realize the game is about objectives.  And teamfights should actually serve some kind of purpose. \n They are no thinking about warding as part of the flow of lanes and objective pushing, or sweeping to set up for objective control or pre-ganks, it's all reaction. Many bronze players can snowball, maybe have decent mechanics, but they are not thinking strategy. \n They get zoned, and chase. This is why you will see 5 mins of jungle play, without a single objective taken. I get teams raging at me, as I main jungle, and will watch my team do this crazy 1, then 3, then 2 chase into the jungle with the other team... while I take a buff, and push an entire lane into or drop a tower. I've seen entire nexus' dropped by a good split, as the other 9 players fight over blue buff. It's awesome... and maddening.", "id": "co8w3ct", "summary": "People are rarely asking \"why are we doing this fight, why am I pushing this lane.  Think about kills strategically and with objectives in mind... not blindly."}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "Yeah, I think you hit the answer in your second half of that reply.  It's a lot more about early pressure at that point.  That early in the game, I have stopped over pushing as much, but more pushing an extra wave or two, along with warding. (Also they have a huge advantage in that they are good, played together a TON, and are all communicating clearly.) \n I'm also trying more to be in the right spots WHILE I jungle farm. So if there is a fight going bot, I may still be pushing mid or grabbing farm before I rush down there. (Ex. is when my bot lane is fighting with the bot lane right in front of their tower. It does me no good to dive.) \n Another example is to push a wave to tower, and then take some of the enemy jungle, as he may be pressuring or showing bot side. Always use the grid of what objectives are you taking, what are you getting out of the fight. If your team fight is going to say win you dragon, then it's definitely worth it. \n *I think that last point is basically what I said. Gank when you can pressure. A win isn't always a kill, and like you said the threat can be just as important, like burning a flash or forcing a back.", "id": "co90vgu", "summary": "It's always about objectives and map control. So if you start to ask: \"why am I doing this/what do I get out of this\"? I find that I make a LOT better decisions."}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "Then you are starting to get it, hopefully sooner then most.  People who even have high skill sets on their champs, getting lots of kills, often (as we see posted all the time on here) have no idea how to push objectives. \n The point is to move and rotate with purpose. Pushing mid is great if you can get something out of it.  Few in lower ELO have any idea how to play safe, and let someone split push. Half the time a smart stall mid, while your jungler/TOP can get towers and inhibs in most of Bronze Ranked. \n The point and key is:  Group when it gets you an objective, and ignore when it doesn't.  Sometimes your team may need saving or help, and you know they'll loose. Others they can stall for days (thanks Ziggs, lux, Morgana) and you can split push like a mad man getting wave presssure or towers. (Thanks Udyr, Vi, and Rek'Sai.) \n This kind of reading of the game takes time, it's something I'm still bad at. But work on it and you'll be way ahead of most Bronze and newer players.  Ignore bad fights, ignore chasing with no vision, running in the jungle and team fights over nothing.", "id": "crgn9vs", "summary": "Push objectives = control the game. Don't let it or bad plays control you."}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "Diana main here. I really haven't liked the RoA first on her. It is more of a bruiser build, which is fine on her, but it means you get a MUCH later power spike. (I think the Ryla's + IBG bruiser style is better suited for top matchups, where I am experimenting with rushing IBG + boots.)  The point is you miss out on a lot of AP burst, and remember that her kit gets MORE tanky with more AP, since her W shield is scaling off your total AP. \n As a mid main her I've narrowed my build down, after some experimenting and debating on here.  It is:\nStart: Dorans + pots (occassionally Flask if I know it will be heavy poke lane = Heimer, Malz, Ziggs).  First back is almost ALWAYS 2nd Dorans Ring plus boots. \n In an AP lane I go right into Abyssal, with MR from Neg Cloak first so I can take damage and get in to trade/dive. \n In AD lane Zonya's. Sometimes taking only seekers armgaurd if I'm just stomping them and haven't worried about dying. Will often finish boots, get sheen, then finish whole Zonya's. \n Full sorc boots is always right after whichever of those 2 I built. Then Sheen, it's just 2 strong on her. Finishing Zonya's here usually.  She hits a HUGE power spike when you have just: Sorc boots, Sheen, Abyssal.  Insta-Melting by lvl 8ish. \n After that is usually into Rabadons, then finishing Lich bane.  Last Item depends a lot on the situation, usually Void staff. \n Sometimes Zephyr or Nashors if I'm split pushing a lot or need Tenacity - though this is rare. A few other items I like, but don't always go are Ryla's last, it makes her stick well with it's slow and makes her more tanky.  Any of the lifesteal items, I havne't really liked. But Bruiser atk speed diana, specifically in the Jungle can be pretty silly when played right. She's more of a late game monster, instead of the early lvl 6-8 all in dive type.", "id": "cp59aro", "summary": "You're core will likely be, like a lot Diana mid players decide after time: \nSorc boots, Zonyas, Abyssal, Rabadons, Lich Bane - Last optional, usually Void Staff, Ryla's, or Morello (vs tanks or lifesteal comps)."}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "So much of depends on the type of jungler, team comps, who is fed and how you're doing.  For example, Vi, my main jungler. I usually go Stalker>Warrior, Tri Force, Gauntlet, Spir Visage/B-Veil, and last item optional - Randuins, sunfire, Zephyr, BotrK - if I'm way ahead. \n Some games I may be doing poorly, and go right into Fr. Heart.  For me this is huge on Vi as she NEEDS the CDR and mana early, and needs early sustain as she is so dive heavy. \n The key point is to maximize what they need, and how they play with how you build tanky.  For example health scaling, or lifesteal tanks really benefit from having Spirit Visage early - Nasus and Voli build this early because they benefit so much from health regen, CDR, and it's life-steal passive boost. \n Where as Rek'Sai (my #2-3 jungler) utilizes CDR, but not mana. So  on her I go Warrior, Mobis, Sunfire (since you're usually trading and diving) and again Spirit Visage because the life-steal and regen is TOO strong on her passive. I go Tiamat, again boosting life steal, and lastly some kind of tanky with slow - Randuins is often my route.  While tanky items like: Fr. Heart, Ice Born Gauntlet, Tri Force (arguable on this one)... are all wasted on her since she doesn't use mana, or take advantage of AP really.", "id": "cpczqqo", "summary": "Learn to build tanky items off of: \n \n What Stats that max well with your champ and how you're doing in game. \n How their team is doing (is the ADC fed-go armor, is the AP mid fed- go MR+health). \n Consider what your team needs. (Do you have 2+ tanky initiators, and your carries are not fed while you are = build damage.)"}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "It's fine if you want to last or late pick him against at top you can counter. And having a main with a high win rate is great, and I'd say essential to climbing. \n However to insta-lock Teemo top is not paying attention to team comp. Your team my need a tank, Teemo is hard  countered, he brings silly split pressure but little in team fights if not ahead and shredding with shrooms. \n To pick Teemo in the jungle just shows you are only considering your play and not the team comp.  Jungle right now is more of a support styled role, where you help get lanes fed, soak damage and control objectives.  Teemo does little for this.  Will you gank with a shroom? Just Q them?", "id": "cqydby6", "summary": "You won't climb picking based on just what you want to play. You have to start considering team comps and roles a champ plays, based on what your team needs."}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "I would have to go with Fizz, Akali and Kat for mid. They are so frustrating for all the reasons mentioned below.  BUT they are extra annoying because you can shut them down in lane and they can get a double in another lane and just steam roll your team. \n I've had this happen with all 3, and recently had a Fizz with some 15 farm... who went bot lane after about 10 mins, double killed bot and the game was basically over.  Same happened with Akali last night.", "id": "cnmmzzd", "summary": "Ban them."}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "Roam pressure is big.  I think TP will be very situational, but the more times you can push your lane to your enemy laners tower and roam a bit (even if it's just putting a deep ward in the enemy jungle, or taking the river crab for vision) you can make the top and mid wonder where you went.  Or if you have a good opening, say you just pressed a full wave to their tower, and their mid is pushing, roam mid quickly and apply pressure. You may not get a kill, but it makes their team respond to you and react. \n The other option, and what can be hard to do if the jungler and top just focus you (but that still helps your team a ton) is to drop that tower, get a pink + stealth ward in the enemy top side jungle, and keep pressing top lane. As a jungler this is extremely frustrating as you have to choose to help top, and give up a ton of bot + drag pressure.  This is such a powerfull tool, especially if you push hard but can TP back bot for a drag fight. \n As a jungler I try to push first tier towers down, before doing much pressing to 2nd tiers, as you can end up on an island. So if you stick with this rule, and have dropped your top tower and pressed the farm past that point, I'd rotate mid and start pinging the tower. If you get that mid to back, and the jungler doesn't respond. It should be an easy tower.", "id": "cp58v5h", "summary": "Keep pressure. Always.  There are multiple ways to do it, just keep the other team reacting."}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "Lesson 1 listen to people on here. Don't always have to do it, but at least see WHY they are saying it and what you can learn from it.  You asked for help, people are trying.  We've learned from time and practice and having people tell us how we suck. \n I know everyone else is saying this, but stop taking TP as a jungler. Only a few get away with this (Hec, Voli, Udyr) because they have insane movement in their kit and often build more M-Speed and tenacity... and even then it's VERY situational.  You don't need to split as a jungler all the time... especially if your team needs a tank. Like Amumu.  I have 100 games on Vi and Udyr, and I never take TP on them. \n Also your builds... are pretty rough. Check out MobaFire and pro builds and see what people are saying you should build, the more you get to know champs the better you will be on them as you find the best builds. \n Examples: Amumu can go RoA or Haunting guise, then full tank.  Vi is a bruiser, she goes 2 damage items then tank. Riven is not a jungler. \n Lastly learn how to lane and farm before getting into jungle. You have to understand ALL lanes before trying to affect them from the jungle.  There is so much to know in: champs, timers skills, buffs, warding locations, your own champs peaks, and ON and ON.", "id": "cpoe4xa", "summary": "I'm not even that great and I see some major gaps in game knowledge that will help you improve a LOT. Listen, read builds and strategy, learn and practice."}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "Yeah, I don't really notice much a of a drop or difference between Silver-Bronze games. I group with a mix of Gold 5 to Bronze 5's, and rarely see a silver who I can just say was WAY better then me. (As a lowly B3, who just got B5 placed. :D ) \n However, I've had my ass kicked by a gold laner who just straight out played me.  And I see our low plat MMR, gold 1 ADC just wreck games like I rarely do.", "id": "co5s26w", "summary": "I know my place. LoL"}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "I'm at about 100 games on her this season.  My preferred set-up is as follows. \n Runes & Masteries: Standard 21/9 AD jungle masteries. Runes are Atk speed Reds, AD Quints, 3 MR & 6 CDR blues. \n Items: First buy is almost always chilling smite, with base boots. \n Rush warrior, then start into Tri. Usually phage, then finish boots - swifties or Merc Treads usually. (Lots of debate here on Tri, but I think it and Warrior are too strong and give you all the damage you need, and let you go full tank after.) \n Mid-Late: Finish Tri.  Frozen Heart and then Spir Visage/B-Veil.  Locket is a decent substitute as well VS lots of AP.   Then into Randuins typically last. (Sunfire cape can be swapped vs all AD, as well as taking Ninja Tabi.) \n Situational: Zephyrs for split push, BotrK for trading if you have tanks. Wits end and Maw in a few settings where they have heavy AP and you want damage.", "id": "cqv4p6c", "summary": "Stalkers>warrior, Tri Force, Mercs/Swifties, Frozen Heart, Spir Visage/Banshees, Randuins/Sunfire."}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "So I've been playing LoL for about a year now, and know my game has vastly improved.  I've spent quite a bit of time on Summoner School, Pro Builds, Moba Fire, Solo Q and duoing ranked with a number of players, and reqularly doing Queues with my friends, several higher elo then me. \n Last season I was B4, and probably deserved it. First year playing the game, and was still learning a lot. Since this winter I have honed into 2 roles (maining mid and Jungle) and have it down to 2 champs in each lane, and a few back ups for either if needed. \n I was way up at about an 85% win rate on my OP.GG a few weeks back, and was at the top of B2 and ready to promo. Then I hit a HARD slide... and have been loosing, now at 35% win out of my last 20.  I don't think I've changed much in my play (not gotten my pref Vi jung as often is one regular), but I have had just AWFUL rofl-stomps. With my team feeding in at least 2 lanes, and being squashed by 20 mins. \n My OP.GG is the same as my name here, so feel free to look me up.  But it seems no matter what I do, have owned my lane, gone even, gotten quite fed a few times and my teams still manage to just get shredded come team fight or completely feed, never giving me a chance. \n I know this turned into a rant, but really, what do I do? I can't seem to carry out of these games, but if my teams just play mediocre and let me carry out of jungle or Mid I can, and will if they will just not feed... but they usually have been lately.", "id": "t3_2xtlib", "summary": "Been on a hard slide down, and can't seem to get my teams to stop being awful. Odds say it should come back up, but what do I do?"}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "So I've been prepping for Season 5, and feel like my game has been getting much better over the last few months.  I've narrowed my Season 5 plan down to main-ing jungle and mid and have played mostly jungle this month. \n In that I'm focusing on Udyr and Vi (over 50 games with both through last season) and feel good with them in the new jungle. \n I'm also going to main Diana and Ziggs mid, as they are 2 very different champs that give me a good variety to counter or matchup in lane. Still not sure if I should have a third laner, or one that can influence the game more... maybe Morgana as I play her sup a lot. \n THE CHALLENGE: I feel like it's much easier to carry a game from Jungle as you can influence all lanes, and same with a mid like Diana where I can roam. \n HOWEVER, I'm noticing that I seem to do quite well when I support.  I main Karma and Morgana support (occasionally Braum) and think I have a decent understanding of warding, deep/jungle wards, and awareness of how to lane pressure and help my ADC farm easier.  This is all very rare at lower levels, and I know  that this can impact a game in a big way... especially with a supports ability to \"control\" the new dragon buffs.", "id": "t3_2rv9xf", "summary": "All this said, it is VERY hard to carry from the support position.  With the new season coming up, I'm trying trying to decide if I should change my plan and try to carry as a fairly strong support."}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "I have noticed recently, as most of us in Bronze do, that there are a lot of bad choices and poor strategy in early (really all phases) of the game that can tip games very early.  When pointing this out, sometimes due to my own tilting and poor rage, people seem to tilt right away or rage and argue rather then doing better. \n How do I use language that gets through to people, when even phrases like \"top you're two down, play safe\" or \"bot pls ward dragon\" tend to often get arguments and childish responses? \n Ex.- Bot lane decides not to ward red, it gets stolen. The jungler gets timer, and comes for it again, jungler pings for help but laners refuse to help and get another death. \n Next phase of game, support isn't warding or using their sweeper. Top keeps fighting into their fed laner, and won't wait for a gank to trade.", "id": "t3_3022iq", "summary": "How do you address these kinds of bad plays or poor decision making without it turning into an instant argument?"}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "I started my first season (last year) in League playing primarily a lot of Mid and support.  Later in the season I swapped to jungle and have been playing a TON of that, with a few mid games still.  Early last season I was primarily playing Morgan and Karma support, emphasizing heavy poke during laning phase, along with mobility, key stuns/catches and common warding. \n This season I really have been trying to get to know all roles better, and have a deeper understanding of lane styles and play and growing my ability in those.  While  I feel pretty strong on those 2 supports mentioned above,  I would really like to learn more about How to Play Leona and Thresh.   Specifically like tips in lane, and then keys to their late game/team fight success. \n What are their styles of play in lane (besides just all in dive Leona or lucky hooks), and what are their keys to making their ADC successful?  How do they pair against other supports and how do you prefer to build the two of them? \n *Warding and shot call strats welcome, but I feel fairly confident on the basics of this, timers, etc.", "id": "t3_35amgt", "summary": "Looking for deeper info on Leo and Thresh as support: Itemizing, lane strategy and team fight styles or keys."}, {"author": "zXster", "content": "I have recently been working on improving my top (specifically focusing on CS, positioning and smart trades) and could use a few pointers. \n I've mainly played jungle, so being stuck on an island I feel like my first inclination is to go tank and just play super safe.  I've been playing Nasus and Voli (I jung him, so this is natural) and like their mix of damage and tank. \n Yet, I struggle to know when to go tank and when to do dps. With Nasus it's usually Frozen Heart + Spir Visage (whichever first based on lane opponent), boots then Tri Force, full tank after. \n With Voli the matchups really vary. If I'm behind I just go sunfire or Visage, tank and maybe Tri or BotrK if I need some damage. \n However when I get up early (I.e. recently being 30 farm and 1 kill up on a Cho top) I feel like I often still go tank and end up not getting off the damage I'd like to really capitalize and push top to keep map pressure and then let me roam.", "id": "t3_34abeq", "summary": "Any thoughts on how to capitalize on being ahead top, and when to just go tank and scale for team fights? (Specifically on Tankier tops, who still do DPS - Voli, Nasus, & Darius.)"}]}
+{"author": "Ingey", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post there is no solution, you're fucked until it gets so bad that you openly revolt from the gradual oppression or the US becomes the world's first corporate run state like in those sci fi movies.", "output": "Honestly? We're never gonna snap out of this of our own volition - we take our freedom for granted. North Americans are one of the only peoples that have never had to struggle in their history for freedom. Americans have fought for their independence before, long ago, and that's what makes up their founding values. \n But now everyone has forgotten the lessons of the past and we are doomed to repeat them. Americans have never had their freedoms completely revoked or tampered with like in Aristocratic France, or Fascist Germany, or Feudal Japan. Mind you, those cases were severe and abrupt, here, we're having our freedoms taken away slowly, very gradually so that you won't rise up all at once. We're becoming sheep because we don't encounter any wolves. \n Hasn't anyone noticed that nothing has really been done in the USA for the people? You waged one war that really didn't do anything, you're waging one now where the outcome is tenuous at best. You just got universal medicare but are now faced with the threat of repealing it. Your national debt is so massive that interest payments are the third LARGEST expenditure on your budget. All the while, all you are concerned about is making sure that the evil Republicans or the foolish Democrats don't get into office next. You think you're making a difference with an illusion of choice when in fact, nothing ever gets done save for the richest of your country get wealthier. Has no one noticed this happen? \n My apologies, I'm rambling, the answer to your question? Nothing will remedy this situation. Americans are already under the mass opiate of the illusion of freedom and choice. Neither if which they truly have. As Jared Diamond pointed out in his lecture about his book \"Collapse\", one of the major contributing factors of a society that crumbles and fails are governments that are insulated from the troubles of their people. You have terrible education standards, terrible universal health care, and terrible social security programs. Yet, you have Ivy League schools, private hospitals that are some of the worlds best, and you have some of the richest people whose children have trust funds. Here's the kicker: Americans think that actually HELPS a country. The argument is that it creates competition, that those who are without will strive harder to become those with. And that the lazy are left with the bare minimum while those that work hard shall be rewarded. \n So let me say again, the richest of your people are becoming wealthier, yet the number of people falling from the middle class to below the poverty line is increasing, do you think it's working? \n And second, Democrat or Republican, do you really think the government can relate and care about you when they know that their children are going to private schools and have private doctors? The American government is the most self serving organization I've seen, and not surprisingly, is modeled much like the corporations that they so generally support, and rightly so, because it is business that are the only ones benefitting in the USA. \n End rant."}], "user_id": "longlamp_3310", "history": [{"author": "Ingey", "content": "they're hit and miss. For selection, customer service, and price they're pretty good. Having said that though, I've heard stories from a friend that involved a bait and switch on a sale price with the T2i. So long as you're getting the gear you want at the price you agreed upon, you're fine. \n I will also say this - Vistek has a really strict return policy. If you're returning something, it's gotta be in new condition. Lenses, bodies, all cannot be used if you're returning it otherwise they charge you a restocking fee. The reasoning is that once it's used, even a few times, they have to sell it as refurbished or demo model and the \"restocking fee\" is the amount of discount you see when someone else buys it. I was miffed by this at first, then it made sense - when I bought my gear there, and I'm paying for it at new price, I don't want something that's got some wear on it already. \n In any case, now they make you sign something that basically says you understand their return policy...", "id": "c3565me", "summary": "they're good when you want something from them and for customer service 90% of the time, but be wary of things like your friend described - price mismatches and bait and switches."}, {"author": "Ingey", "content": "I was never really all that upset with the ending. I was a little let down after I thought about it some (awwww, I wanted to see Elcor living tanks and Krogans and Turians beating down Husks side by side!) but I immensely enjoyed the game. I decided ME2 was my favourite of the series, though only by a little bit. \n I've recently finished a second playthrough of ME2 (I can't bring myself to play ME1 again with all the annoyances of omni-gel, frogger mini games, and constantly having to update everyone's damn armor). I'm planning on importing the second guy into ME3 for another go-around,a nd then some more ME3 MP goodness. \n While I'm not an EA fanboy, I feel as though the knee-jerk circlejerk reaction of EA ruined the Mass Effect series and BioWare was quite off-base.", "id": "c4ljhzq", "summary": "loved 3, loved 2 more (by a bit), ending was a bit disappointing, looking forward to DLC."}, {"author": "Ingey", "content": "Be Attractive \n Don't be unattractive \n Repeat until you become \"Amazing at Life\" \n \n On a more serious note, I found working out is hard to get started but once I did, my energy levels skyrocketed. Also, take a solid self evaluation of yourself as you are now, and where you want to be. \n What do you define as being \"amazing at life\"? \n For me, I always had trouble with women and weight. I worked out, completely redefined my wardrobe and style to what I wanted, and then just started going after what I wanted.", "id": "c110a9v", "summary": "Evaluate. Establish. Execute."}, {"author": "Ingey", "content": "I get the sense that this sort of thing happens a lot, and a lot of it may have to do with lack of confidence. Here's the thing - if you asked her out, what's the absolute, most devastating thing that would happen? Would she outright laugh in your face, splash her drink on your shirt, and walk away? Doubt it, most people are just as awkward as you think you are yourself. So if you can handle the worst and most awkward rejection, and live, then continue, otherwise, stop reading here. \n I see this happening to a LOT of people - they think and think and think and don't DO. In the course of all their thinking, they come up with all sorts of reasons why to avoid taking action. Stuff like this: \n >She also goes on about Neal from White Collar and I look NOTHING even remotely similar to him. \n Really? You think that if, and only if you DID look like Neal from White Collar that you would have a shot with her? Well, I guess that strikes out half of the damn population on Earth. \n So no. Don't be a creeper, but don't be a passive-aggressive fool either. Be assertive. Ask once and be done with it, but when you do ask, be firm. Talk a bit, chat, and then: \n \"Hey, we never get a chance to really talk hey? Wanna go grab a bite together after class next week?\" \n This invitation is made up of a few critical pieces: \n \n \"we never get a chance to really talk\" - reason and transition \n \"wanna go grab a bite\" - keep it casual, you're not asking her to marry you \n \"after class next week\" - no need to nerd it up, go with the flow, but set a firm timeline so as to not let her give you a vague \"yeah...sure...one of these days....\" answer", "id": "c2bsp1a", "summary": "stop giving yourself reasons why it wouldn't work out to save yourself from doing what you want to do. And when you do, ask decisively. Don't beat around the bush, come with confidence, come with a plan, and if she still says no - you've got your answer, and you can move on."}, {"author": "Ingey", "content": "Basically, BioWare has stated earlier this month that a new DLC (free of charge) will be available that will contain further cutscenes and explanation of the ending. Without giving it away, people (including myself) felt that the ending left something to be desired. \n But if you read Reddit, it sounds like the ending was a downright catastrophe, and everyone is entitled to their opinion. Personally, I felt like the ending could have been a little meatier, with more emphasis on stuff you did in game, but I still felt a great elation in the ending, and with a great sense of awe and accomplishment from what happened in ME3. \n While I know that people are just upset b/c they love the ME Universe, I don't feel BioWare deserves as much scorn as you may believe just by reading posts/comments.", "id": "c4ekype", "summary": "ME3 is still a great game, worthy of much praise. Glad they're putting together an Extended Cut DLC for more ending goodness, and don't listen to reviewers, blogs, or Reddit, play the game, judge for yourself, and form your own opinion. Enjoy the game, and let me know some time what you thought! \n Edit: [found the source on the DLC, straight from BioWare]("}, {"author": "Ingey", "content": "I always thought only Asians did that, and as an Asian I make the following case for shoes off in the house \n \n Cleanliness - no matter how much you wipe your shoes on the rug before you come in, it won't be as free of dirt and whatnot as y'know, your feet. \n \n -> Leads to: Decreased carpet cleaning expenses\n-> Driving mentality: Asians are cheap \n -> Leads to: Less dirt/grime/foreign material from \"the outside\"\n-> Driving mentality: Asians are afraid of everything from \"the outside\" \n \n Reduced wear and tear on carpet/hardwood from feet vs. shoes \n \n -> Reduced carpet/hardwood floor repair costs\n-> Driving mentality: Asians are cheap", "id": "c18b37u", "summary": "I always thought it was an Asian thing because all of the reasoning has to do with Asians being cheap and germaphobes."}, {"author": "Ingey", "content": "when my parents and I came to Canada, we didn't have a lot of money, but my parents knew that staying in our home country wouldn't give us much of a chance at a good education or job prospects. \n That being said, we needed furniture, so my parents seeing all the ads for The Brick (furniture store in Canada) decided to try their luck there. My parents' grasp of the English language wasn't the greatest and at the time my Sister was 7 and I was 4, so neither were we really in any shape to help. Well, where we're from (and most of the world I figure) - haggling is a commonly accepted practice. So when my Mom tried to haggle the guy down some on some furniture he outright waved us off and said, \"if you want a deal, go to 'Discount Jim's' (a rival furniture store, though I'm not sure if they're still open)\" as an insult that we were just poor immigrants and not worth the time at his store. \n To this day with my Sister having gotten married, and moved out, with a Master's Degree in tow, she refused to buy any furniture from them. And similarly, as a Mechanical Engineer now looking to move out, I'd rather pay more than ever go back to that fucking store that discriminated my parents.", "id": "c1xgv1j", "summary": "bastard furniture salesman lost my entire family's business."}, {"author": "Ingey", "content": "It's not as simple as religion, or a two party system. \n Like so many religions, their teachings and values can be misappropriated by the ignorant to justify their own actions. \n As for a two party system, the one thing that always confuses me about the USA (I'm up in Canada) is the constant state of conflict it's in. Not as to say that's not the case elsewhere, but it seems like the US thrives on conflict. There's no room for moderation in the public eye, you're either a Republican or a Democrat, a Liberal hippie or a Republican nutjob. In that way, it seems when the US Government doesn't have a mutual enemy to fight like communism or fascism, it prefers to duke it out amongst themselves, but always fighting. And I think it's this attitude that leads to the very polarizing and conflict-driven environment that seeps down from petty government officials right down to the way the kids are brought up in schools. I should clarify, I think that the US has great capacity for wisdom, generosity, and reason, but it also shows it has great capacity for the opposite: ignorance, selfishness, and blind zealotry. I suppose every country is similar, it just seems so prominent in the US. \n The only difference? As kids, none of us were as emotionally, mentally, or socially as self assured as we are as adults. We don't know enough about ourselves, the pressure externally beyond our capabilities.", "id": "c12aaj8", "summary": "It's not just religion or a two party system, the US just has an environment of polarizing conflicts which affects everyone, and adolescents have a harder time dealing with it."}, {"author": "Ingey", "content": "One thing that I always wish we'd see, given how beautiful EVE is how the fitting screen needs some love. Imagine how awesome it would be that instead of your typical fitting screen pop up that it took you into a separate screen altogether - kind of like when you switch from Hangar View to Captain's Quarters. In this new screen, you'd be shown your current ship, the ships in your hangar on one side, and inventory of modules, with breakouts for high, mid, low, rigs, ammo (+scripts), and drones. It would be a specialized inventory available only when you're in your fitting window, and better yet - flexible, filter-able, and context sensitive (this is the most important part). \n Let's say I was fitting a Drake as my active ship, seeing railguns and other turrets isn't it going to help, so the inventory grays them out (or doesn't show them, based on your user settings). Switch to my Naga, the HMLs gray out, and the 425mm railguns show bright. Of course, switching to the ammo tab would be based on the context of what is currently fitted. \n Now you're thinking - well that sounds pretty snazzy! Now imagine how much space that would save on your screen, how about the graphical interface? How about something like that Starcraft II Announcement Trailer where we saw a Terran Marine being put together? Now imagine - your Drake, with all these automated robotic arms that as you select \"Heavy Missile Launcher II\" for your first high slot, it attaches to the hull and begins bolting it in place on the hardpoint with sparks flying from the welding process. Maybe you'd like some Scourge Fury Missiles, watch as an automated loader comes by with a stack of missiles and loads it into your inventory. Drones, rigs, other mid and low slot modules with a revamped PG and CPU interface in the form of something like the car tuning UI from [Gran Turismo 5](  or other similar racing games. \n One thing that these games does so well is really making you feel like you're really customizing your ride, there's an aspect of pride...ownership, and it's something that I feel we should have about our spaceships in Eve, even more so than any other game because if we lose it, we don't get to \"Restart Race\" or \"Respawn at Spawn Beacon\", we wake up in a capsule or worse yet, in station, we don't get it back. So why shouldn't we feel like badass tuners/customizers of our incredibly powerful ships....IN SPACE!", "id": "c5bzakb", "summary": "We're flying friggin badass spaceships in a beautiful (and dangerous) galaxy, why don't we have a fitting screen worthy of such an awesome sci fi environment?"}, {"author": "Ingey", "content": "the CFC has already co-operated with SOLAR on an individual basis before with the mutual interest of destroying dotbros. And just because -A- is backing SOLAR doesn't mean that the CFC would suddenly blue -A-. \n What is more likely is that the CFC will continue to push East against the dotbros, and will make strategic temporary pacts (think non-aggression pacts that last only 24 hours while they put dotbros in a pincer maneuver) with SOLAR if it benefits their mutual goal of destroying dotbros. \n Similarly, BL. is just being hired by SOLAR to fight on their side, nothing says that they're in bed together. BL. is more or less a highly skilled mercenary. \n Finally, while PL is actually blue with NC., TEST vs. Goonswarm Federation will likely never happen (note that I did not use the coalition names).", "id": "c6tv2jt", "summary": "My prediction is that things will continue as they are."}, {"author": "Ingey", "content": "I've been feeling the EXACT same way. The truth of the matter is that these days it's really more about finding the right type of people to play with you. It's no one's responsibility to help you find people to play with (if you want to that is). \n Personally that's why while my RL group of gamer friends play Guild Wars 2 in tournament PvP and are all Level 80 running dungeons and I'm Level 32 and just doing the dynamic events and quests. This is also why I tend to play EVE Online as I find the corp members I have there much easier to relate to as they all have fiancees, day jobs, and stresses related to home ownership. \n That's not as to say that I don't enjoy being on Mumble with my RL gamer friends, but in the end, when I've had an exhausting day of dealing with contractors and architects at work, come home and deal with builders, I really don't have the energy or desire to get into \"elite PvP\" and all the theory crafting required to get \"leet\". I just wanna relax, play a bit, have some fun, and unwind.", "id": "c6awjua", "summary": "you could argue that it's the way games are designed, but I think it depends more on your social circumstances (i.e. you're a high schooler with plenty of free time vs. you're a 20 something with a day job with stuff on the go)."}, {"author": "Ingey", "content": "Back when Command and Conquer Red Alert was new - a friend and I played multiplayer. However, those were the days of dial up and well, my parents wouldn't fork out the money for a second line. After trying numerous times, the only way we found that we could connect to one another's games would be to synchronize the EXACT time that we both hit \"create game\" and \"join game\" \n So what we had to do was call each other up and say \"ok, 10 seconds ready?\" hang up, I'd run to the phone jack, disconnect the home phone, and then plug in my modem's phone line, then run back, and hit connect just as he hit create.", "id": "c1w2dnf", "summary": "fuck the days of dialup."}, {"author": "Ingey", "content": "Spot on comment. A lot of people are attacking the optics of the project being late and overbudget without much knowledge of what it takes to execute a project like this. This isn't like renovating a house, or just building a new office tower. Heritage buildings such as these require careful analysis and design prior to construction, and with buildings of such age, as-built drawings are sometimes hard to come by requiring extensive site investigation prior to design. And even having said all that, sometimes you think you know everything about a building and then you open up a wall and go \"uh oh. That wasn't on the construction plan.\"", "id": "cfyznd8", "summary": "Renovation projects are difficult and expensive. Renovation projects done in Heritage sites are even more difficult and expensive."}, {"author": "Ingey", "content": "Dentistry/Pharmacy - decommissioned for upcoming renewal. \n NINT - A NRCan/U of A Joint project, but not a U of A building. NRCan has moved into the first two floors last time I was there, with the U of A  leasing  the top 2 floors. The middle 2 floors have yet to be moved into by NRCan, but that was also 6 years ago. \n Biological Sciences - if there are \"tons\" of rooms empty, it is likely due to decanting of space now that CCIS Phase 2 is complete. During the time between V-Wing, Newton, and the Physics buildings were demolished, lots of researchers/offices/labs were moved into Tory and Bio Sci until CCIS II was complete. Now that it is, they can start to re-distribute. So this is a temporary situation. \n As for the new engineering building, I assume you mean ICE and the CMEB Renovation, both of which are still in construction.", "id": "cmr6gqj", "summary": "the University is a big place with big space planning pressures. As buildings age and go, or get built, space is needed to allow for this flexibility so we don't fire everyone in a building just because we need to renovate."}]}
+{"author": "kitsy", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post There should be a points per dollar rating.", "output": "Late to the party, but part of the reason behind this (IMO) is price.  I won't spend $50 on an average game.  Fifty bucks is a decent amount of money and I'm not spending it on a game that I might not like. \nIf a game is on sale, or if it's sold for $10, then, yeah, I'm pay that amount for an average game."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post balls explode \n edit: [Enjoy this SFW recreation]( & [mirror](", "output": "My g/f is an ER doctor: \n This guy comes in with very swollen testicles, swollen like a ballon.  He had abdominal surgery the day before.  Dr. g/f discovers that during the surgery one of the surgeons must have clipped an artery and that artery was now bleeding and the blood was all draining down in to the patient's scrotum. \n The ER is not equipped to handle something like this that requires surgery.  Dr. g/f tries calling surgeons, urologists, & etc. to come drain this poor mans giant, swollen scrotum, but no one will - no one wants the liability for someone who's not \"their\" patient (Plus most other doctors get paid more than ER doctors, go figure.  Shits all fucked, but that's a discussion for a different day). \n Finally, she gets an urologist to agree come down and drain this taut, blood filled scrotum, but he's not quick enough.  The man's scrotum detonates, like in a horror movie.  Pop!  Blood everywhere, on people, walls, tables.  The guy was actually really calm about all this and not freaking out."}], "user_id": "longlamp_11973", "history": [{"author": "kitsy", "content": "I saw them play that in concert before Washing Machine came out, but I don't remember much of the concert.  I do remember staring a Lee Renaldo's guitar from across the field, tunnel-vision'd & magnified.  All I heard was a wall of sonic noise for minutes and minutes (Which I found out in retrospect was The Diamond Sea).  I remember them playing [Bone]( because of Kim going \"Oooo\" over and over.  But those are the only two thing I remember from the show...", "id": "c2jka99", "summary": "Sonic Youth is why I don't do drugs anymore."}, {"author": "kitsy", "content": "I realize the FB group was created to do what you want to do, but please don't assume that is what everyone else wants to do.  Don't tell others how to use reddit/facebook/meetup/etc, it's terribly rude and I find it offensive. \n I'm glad that you have a process that works for you, but it doesn't work for me (and others by the look of it).  The fact that you spent years honing it doesn't matter to me.  Pushing your habits onto others totally makes you appear as some guy \"trying to break in on someone's territory here\" (whether you meant to or not). \n Elsewhere in this thread you mention that you  are  the appointed leader of hosting and coordinating, that totally reinforces my view of you as \"that guy.\"  IMO, if you want to be viewed with any sort of leadership status in this community you need to lead by example instead of leading by command.  If you want people to use the facebook group, ask others permission to crosspost, then promote the facebook link.  Do not say, \"You  must  use facebook.\"", "id": "c15yra5", "summary": "You're not the boss of me! :P"}, {"author": "kitsy", "content": "How does that even work? \nThere's no eyeball, just a shiny eye looking...  thing ?  Its shape betrays function. \nAnd that hand, how do the muscles work?  Those claws... there's no structural integrity and, if there is, there's no muscle to move them in anyway.  Which I guess he doesn't need to do, movement from the elbow (Where's the elbow!) or shoulder (How does it rotate?) should be enough to smack/paw at people, I guess. \nShoulder stump?  Um, what?  I guess if there really is no eyeball, then it's attached to the arm.  So, I guess my point is:", "id": "c2rip2j", "summary": "Why is there a representation of an eye?"}, {"author": "kitsy", "content": "Has anyone read The Court In The Air and it follow up The Kingdom Beyond The Waves? \n I stumbled across the latter in a truck stop in Illinios this weekend.  I didn't buy it, but it looked really fascinating (and, at first glance, has decent reviews at Amazon).  The first seems to have more mixed reviews there...  (edit: there's a third one too)", "id": "c0s7jyr", "summary": "Any thoughts on Stephen Hunt?"}, {"author": "kitsy", "content": "That headline is not backed up with the article (and it's not OP's fault). \n Nothing is said how much the Milwaukee model costs. The closest the article come to anything is stating the cost per bicycle is X dollars cheaper up north. \n With the models so different (non-profit vs ... contracted? -whatever Divvy is), it's hard to accurately make the price per bicycle comparison reflective of anything...", "id": "ck0uqal", "summary": "More info needed."}, {"author": "kitsy", "content": "Slippery slope]( \n Businesses can factor in the cost of processing CCs to users, but adding a direct fee is something I think is a bad idea.  I think it hurts the consumer and the bank. \nBy businesses factoring in the cost across all orders (CC, cash, or otherwise), then the impact of that processing fee will be smaller across the board, and largely a non-issue. (IMO, of course) \nThe processing fee hurts the consumer because it greatly burdens consumer in certain situations (redbox, parking meters, ATMs) where the fee will become a significant cost of the product, and in these situations the consumer usually has little option aside from CC usage.  Further banks would disagree with this as well, as it disincentivize ppl from using their CCs. \nSure, you could change the game and introduce processing fee in place of factored in fees, and that would ruin businesse like redbox and Chicago parking meters, but then you have another slippery slope where it would be ok for businesses to tack on fees of any and everything (a la ticketmaster).  A bag for you groceries, that's a fee.  Delivery pizza packaging, that's a fee.  Etc.", "id": "c3abdh3", "summary": "I think fees are teh sucks."}, {"author": "kitsy", "content": "My take on it: \n In the 90s, when moshing &c. became cool, people who don't normally mosh (or whatevs) decided to join in.  These frat boys did it with a disregard for the safety and enjoyment of others.  Thusly, it was more dangerous; those people are assholes. \n A \"real\" mosh pit would be tamer because those involved care about the safety and enjoyment of those in the pit.  The pit becomes, for a fleeting & upside-down moment, a community where its ok to freak-out and flail.  The players in this scene wouldn't want some asshole to come in, fuck someone up, and thusly end the pit and the fun everyone was having. \n When a popular song came out in the late 90's when \"everyone was doing it\" (moshing), those that knew how to behave got over taken by fucktards that would rather punch a kid in the face than dance to music.", "id": "c18jwde", "summary": "Popularity ruins things."}, {"author": "kitsy", "content": "Sorry, let me rephrase. \n Cassette's are, say, 90 minutes long.  Even if you only use 70 minutes, there's going to be 20 minutes of dead air somewhere on the tape.  that's just how they're made.  Choosing to put that 20 minutes between tracks 9 & 10, makes #10 a hidden track (sorta, right?). \n With CDs there's no requirement to fill all 80 minutes.  If you only use 60 minutes, there's no required 10 minutes of dead air. \n Records technically are like CDs.  There's no dead air for part of the record that isn't used.  However, you can visibly tell that part of the record is not used, hence the incentive to hide/add tracks.", "id": "c2x1w96", "summary": "When I say 'artificial' I mean 'not due to a physical rational'"}, {"author": "kitsy", "content": "This is where I got the \"no charging more than taxis\" in amendment 1's summary. \n>  Prohibits pricing in excess of the highest per-mile rate charged by taxi cabs within the unit of local government where the commercial ridesharing arrangement is conducted. \n This is where I got no airports from in amendment 1's summary.\n>  Provides that commercial ridesharing arrangements may not pick up or discharge a passenger at any airport that serves as a base for commercial flights open to the general public, to any convention center, or to any designated taxicab stands, queues, or loading zones. \n I then removed that due to the following from amendment 3's summary.\n> Replaces the prohibition on commercial ridesharing arrangements picking up or dropping off passengers at an airport or convention center with a requirement that commercial ridesharing arrangements obey local government restrictions on location. \n \n I tried to make my", "id": "chj6xj7", "summary": "impartial and only used the summaries from OP's link.  I did not read the full amendments' texts.  I'm glad to change it if I'm misinterpreting these parts, but I couldn't ctrl+f your quotes in the summaries or the full text from amendment 1 or 3.  Am I looking in the wrong place?"}, {"author": "kitsy", "content": "The apostrophe is used to show possession. For example, \"Joes dive\" refers the act of diving by multiple people named Joe, but \"Joe's dive\" refers to the dive Joe took.  Ok? \n If your headline left out the apostrophe, you would be talking about \"5 Heroines\" worthy of asking.  As it stands you are talking about Heroine's Worth, in other words \"the worth belonging to Heroines.\"", "id": "c0kgsqg", "summary": "I'm just being silly and obnoxious"}, {"author": "kitsy", "content": "I've removed many comments here that were political in nature. \nThe crossposting in /r/WorldNews is probably a better place for those comments. \nI've left conversations that didn't devolve into namecalling, but trimmed top level comments that are one line long and do not add to a discussion about books. \n > * (8) No inflammatory or politically charged posts. Novelty accounts which do not add to discussions will be banned. \n> \nThis subreddit is a place for discussion, so the quality of the subreddit depends on the quality of the discussion. Politics and inflammatory comments detract from the quality of the discussion and, in effect, the quality of the subreddit. The same goes for novelty accounts.", "id": "ceib2qz", "summary": "books, not politics!"}, {"author": "kitsy", "content": "What ever happened to \"there's no such things a stupid question, only stupid answers.\" \n Maybe the last part is still true? \n Either you know lot about the subject and you're immediately dismissing the question (in which case, why not help a guy out?) or you know nothing about the subject and you're immediately dismissing the question (in which case... well, why would you do that?)", "id": "c186loo", "summary": "don't be so grumpy!"}, {"author": "kitsy", "content": "I read that article when it came out and I wasn't really sympathetic to LSK.  It really did sound like they zoned the property wrong.  While the confusion surrounding the issue sucks, if you have to rezone and pay extra to have parking spots, them's the breaks.  Complaining that the city just doesn't \"get it\" isn't very convincing. \n This blog post just continues/reaffirms my feelings on the subject. \nThat \"document\"? A PDF you made does not a document make. \nViolation #16 - Why do you have mold? Why do you need instructions on how to correct it?  (Hint: remove the mold) \n#33 - A refrigerator from another business?  Why are you using it? \n#34 - If light can get in, bugs can get in.  There should not be a hole where bugs can get in.", "id": "c2elf54", "summary": "first world problems"}]}
+{"author": "onegaminus", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I am simply paraphrasing what Allah already has said in Islam about people who do this kind of thing, not making the claim myself.", "output": "No, not at all. Earlier I said that I was paraphrasing the words of Allah. To my understanding, Allah says that when people act this way they are choosing to be without Him in their hearts. A person can have the best intentions but do the wrong thing. Allah doesn't accept this kind of persecution toward His creation from His creation. People have basic rights that He lays down, and this kind of thing infringes on those rights. Doing these kinds of things, essentially, causes a person to further themselves from Allah, and Allah says this, iirc. Now of course, damnation is, at its core, essentially not having Allah with you, but that is something that Allah decides after death."}], "user_id": "longlamp_13321", "history": [{"author": "onegaminus", "content": "If this was a video of Jimmy Carr, or Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, would we be up in arms? Would we give a shit? I really think not. \n I feel like people read the title and then felt \"Hey yeah, you can't insult someone! Ever! Even if it's your thing! Even if it made you successful!\" \n Anyway, Joan is one of the greatest insult comics EVER, and she was just doing her bread and butter. And since Adele is someone so many people admire, listen to, and respect, I think that makes the fact she insulted her SO much better, and gives her joke more weight. Nothing wrong with that. \n Finally, even if she is insulting, it was still funny in at least one way, a shocking way - which is a staple of comedy in general. I can't really fault Joan for doing that. Also, I think she's truly at her best when she insults herself, so I hope no one's jumping to the conclusion that she thinks she's better than other people.", "id": "c8od1pu", "summary": "Get over it Reddit."}, {"author": "onegaminus", "content": "I just want to say, even though it's not likely that you will read this, that: \n a) I am very proud of you for coming out of that situation, and then posting it on reddit because you feel like you could share something with someone that would help, and fuck it if people don't want to agree. The fact that you are considering making these people pay shows that you are going to take charge of something that would overwhelm most, even in the tiniest way. It starts with you and you are awesome for doing that! \n b) I am hoping to work in a position where I can help others in the social atmosphere; I am hoping to be a social psychologist/counselor/social worker/superperson (I hope). Being aware of the fact that things like this  do  happen, even though I can't imagine it happening to anyone I know, gives me so much more drive to pursue this. You ought to be helped because you are human, and I ought to help you if I have the tools to do it. \n c) I have a friend who is like a younger sister to me. I feel like we were separated at birth. I love her a bunch and have for almost six years now. I have always unconditionally supported her and she has had plenty of baggage in her life, and over the last few years she is finally growing away from it. It has been a slow and hard transition, but the person she is turning into now is a much more trusting, kind, loving, centered, driven and successful person that I had ever seen. I want to tell you that most people would have thrown in the towel on her. I may have, even, if fate or whatever hadn't caused me to take interest. But I will say that the positive change that she has had in her life, she has partially attributed to me standing by her as a friend and confidante. If you feel you can do this, please do this, please believe that you will find someone who will love you without condition or judgment. \n d) Know that I have never met you, but I love you for being human, a part of that human brother/sisterhood, and I would help you as much as I could if you told me this story. If not through deed, then through speech. Also know that I am not alone, that there are millions and millions of people just like me, and thousands and thousands of them (at the least) are on here, and many more are out there in the real world, and we care about you and are looking out to help you, and we want to help you, because you deserve it, you are human, you have borne a burden that no one person should ever know, and  we are going to help you, damn it.  You are wonderful as you are and you should preserve it, hold onto it, nurture it until the end of time, and hopefully nurture the wonderful things in others. That is the truest fact of all.", "id": "c1hnwiq", "summary": "Your bravery is amazing, you inspire me to help others, having someone on your side  unconditionally will be a tremendous help, and there are many who want to help you because you deserve it, just by being you."}, {"author": "onegaminus", "content": "Now you see, I have been annoyed by most of the jokes that call people straight up fat, because well, that's incredibly childish (and hypocritical). \n But you sir, you put a compliment and then a joke. And even though this might be at her expense, you weren't straight up a douche, you were just a guy who reminded those who read that getting married is what matters, but also here's some lulz.", "id": "c37e5cg", "summary": "I gave you an upvote b/c this is a joke with tact."}, {"author": "onegaminus", "content": "Hey man, good on you. \n Not sure anyone will see this comment(more than likely, it'll get very buried), but the thing that annoys me about reddit the most is the fact that I could say \"nigger\", \"faggot\", \"chink\", \"spic\", \"nazi\", and all kinds of other derogatory terms, and reddit would not, on the whole, support me. However, suddenly when someone is obese, it's okay to talk about how she is fat... over, and over, and over again. \n This is the thing that annoys me about reddit the most. I will take the shitty memes, I will take the barely-related stuff, I will take the threads that post stuff that is no way OC over and over again, I will take a billion \"arrow-to-the-knee\" jokes. But this hypocrisy just saddens me. This website was not like this the many months ago I joined it. I am mad because reddit usually has integrity about shit, but about this, I'm just really fucking disappointed.", "id": "c37e7i4", "summary": "people are fat reddit, get the fuck over it. you are shitty in a way you can't/don't want to change, too."}, {"author": "onegaminus", "content": "Lol, thanks for giving me a smile. \n Anyway, no I'd never spit in anyone's food unless they were the absolute Hitler of customers. You'd have to, like, get really personal for me to feel that was justified. I'd also never, EVER want someone to spit in my food and if I were to do something like that I'd be a hypocrite... and I don't roll that way. \n I'd just feel it was an incredibly dick move when someone tells you \"yeah 15 items is our limit\" only because they are about to close... and you ordered twice that number anyway. \n The other big thing is, if you are at a resteraunt with head managers that actually care, having someone come in very late at night and hitting you with a huge order, WHILE you have a lack of prepped food can be very time-consuming, and if they had a slow night they could have easily gone above their target for that part of the day with the amount of time it'd take to do that... and then you can get in all sorts of trouble with the head manager. \n Anyway, the part I disapproved of was you knowing that the employees were basically asking you not to order more than a certain amount, and you basically said \"fuck that\"... even though that may not have been your intention. \n If you read all of this, thanks for listening and have a great day :)", "id": "c3f2l1a", "summary": "I just thought you were really insensitive, and no I wouldn't spit in your food (or anyone else's)"}, {"author": "onegaminus", "content": "This is fine and all... but that lawyer the government provides is usually the worst kind you are going to get. It's not their fault, they are almost primarily overworked because people can't afford good lawyers. You are also still going to have to pay a good amount of money for them. \n Honestly having a court-appointed lawyer is not preferable, at all. If you can seek out and afford an attorney who can solely focus on your case, this is obviously better. \n Same with a doctor. If you could see any doctor that has to take the burden of whatever patients feel like going through the system to see him, and you are just one in a line of patients changing daily, who has no real time to concentrate on your illness, you are not going to be near as well off as you'd be with the one you seek to pay to concentrate on you specifically.", "id": "c7nrc1d", "summary": "Court appointed is a last resort, not a preference."}, {"author": "onegaminus", "content": "I'd have to disagree. I think using such a doctrine and saying to people, \"hey, shit that was said in this book was used to convince the willfully ignorant/easily led/psycopathic into doing truly terrible things\" would make them necessarily aware of what blindly believing in something can cause. The Bible itself has some pretty shitty things, and pretty good thigns, but if you look at it as just a book, it's pretty innocuous. The amount of influence people exert over others while using the book as a basis, that is the real danger IMO. I think it's incredibly important to help people understand that you can look at the source and say \"what's the big deal, it's just words on paper\" but then also show what can come of using such words to influence others. \n You wouldn't even need to stop with the Bible, there are plenty of times people have done abhorrent things by presenting ideas in a way that others would find digestible; an argument like the \"war on drugs\" is one example of this, and of course there are PLENTY of others.", "id": "c3lsgum", "summary": "it's super important to have a discussion on how ideas, no matter how seemingly innocuous, can be incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands; Bible's a fine jumping-off point for this."}, {"author": "onegaminus", "content": "I am reading comments by people who feel they ought not to raise kids. And I want to say THANK YOU for understanding this and doing the right thing. For thinking about how important it is to fully accept the responsibility of a person. For reminding yourself that this is a commitment that you have to take on for YEARS. For the REST OF A LIFETIME. Really really  big  thanks for understanding this. There are many out there, it would seem, who think that their money, or their ego, or their power, or their talent, will make them able to raise a child. And it doesn't. However, people with money and talent can obviously do a good job. \n Think of Brad and Angelina. I was convinced they would not be able to do a good job, at all. But it really seems like they are going to be raising well-adjusted members that will contribute to our society and not embarass us. \n Or look at Obama's family. They have managed not to be infamous for stupidity. \n Now look at a family like the Bush family. Those daughters are a disgrace and it's really, really something. \n However, there is also something I've been thinking about; the Sheen son and father relationship. I wonder if Charlie was cared for by Martin and Martin just hung his kid out to dry, and that's why Charlie is like this. I'm not sure about the background but it really seems Charlie is screwed up, but of his own choice, not anyone else's. \n Anyay, I got off topic. Thank you.", "id": "c1hab60", "summary": "Thank you to parents who recognize the responsibility of raising a child and the lifetime job it will be, and are courageous enough and humble enough to admit that they ought not to do this, no matter what society says."}, {"author": "onegaminus", "content": "Well, now that you use the word \"culturally\" I am inclined to agree with you. What the culture is for people of Saudi nationality, or how perverse it may be, in no way defines how I think of women. \n I see women as sentient beings. My best friend is a woman and I will never forget that or downplay how intelligent or helpful she has been to my growth as a person. \n Lastly, if I did have sisters, I'd allow them to express their sexuality however they wanted. I may not agree with it from the standpoint of a Muslim and I would certainly not agree doing whatever they wish with their sexuality is something that is an action of a Muslim.", "id": "c39afoi", "summary": "just because I am a practicing Muslim does not mean I am misogynistic as an individual. I never have been."}, {"author": "onegaminus", "content": "Well, I'm assuming that \"religion\" in your question is an organization that many members are a part of that hold similar beliefs. \n I would say that no, not at all, is the internet strangling religion. In fact, I think the internet is doing more for increasing awareness of faith and providing answers for people who want to know more about their faith than ever before. I would say people are also, more often than not, finding more personal versions of their faith faster than ever because of the internet. I think people are able to argue and reaffirm their faith more than ever, because of so many having conversations about their faith, and by having their beliefs challenged, by the internet. \n Religion is not inherently something that precludes answers. It's something that is used as a lens to give answers to the many, many questions we have. The internet, giving access to information, can more often than not provide good answers to those seeking them through their faith. I have had questions answered for me because of access to the Internet much more readily and easily than I could have before it. I can also learn about the community of my faith around the world, and see how it works in different cultures and societies. \n I think that this idea that just because someone can find facts means they can't be religious is really absolute and kind of juvenile. I think that if we're to believe in something, we have to work to understand the factual world we live in with the spiritual one we want to be connected to. We have to take the context of the answers and the knowledge those answers give us to better appreciate the incredible world we live in, and thereby better appreciate its wonderful creator. \n I think, more than anything, the internet is giving those who are ignorant or lazy with learning about their faith an easy out. I think it gives for many of those who could care less about what they believe an access to resources and ways of thinking that they'd prefer. I think it's easier to just jump ship on your faith of choice and say \"the scientific answers are the only ones I want\" rather than work to understand your faith and what the world around it reflects within that faith.", "id": "col25jx", "summary": "The internet doesn't erode faith, it just gives those who don't wish to be religious more resources to make that choice with. At the same time, it gives those who do wish to be more resources to reinforce their beliefs."}, {"author": "onegaminus", "content": "Unfortunately faith and the  is not something that stays in the culture it comes from, so this argument doesn't apply. There are plenty of people from the Middle East who understand that they will have to go to the movies and mix with the different sexes; that's integration already. Faith, however, is not up to the believer to decide whether or not there's a choice to follow it; faith is, in itself, a subjugation to something greater than oneself.", "id": "c2j93nn", "summary": "religion doesn't change from culture to culture"}, {"author": "onegaminus", "content": "I know this seems oversimplified, but I found myself, in my gut, agreeing with it. \n Is it really that odd to think that our government only cares about itself, and is willing to lie to keep the public from knowing that? How many times do politicians have to tell us bold-faced lies before we think to ourselves \"hey, they are doing what they want, not what we want, at the end of the day\"? \n I don't think our government has the little guy in mind. It started out that way but a huge divide has been created, and the government is the only resource I can see that can conceivably close that gap.", "id": "c1k5xrq", "summary": "people in government haven't given a shit about you in a long time. They are willing to cater to themselves first, because they are selfish; it's an inherent part of how they got elected."}, {"author": "onegaminus", "content": "So there is a girl I know from my job. She has been there longer than I have, but we recently started working around the same time. She laughs at most everything I say (even the  corniest  stuff), compliments me when there is a chance, tries to get me involved with whatever music she wants to play on her phone, and will initiate physical contact without trying to look desperate. So I'm thinking she is likely into me. I feel like I just KNOW there is something here. \n So I ask her on Monday of last week if she'd like to hang out on Friday. She agrees, with a big smile on her face. I'm thinking \"YEESSS.\" Over the course of the week, I let her know I'd like to finalize when we are going to be seeing each other, and that I will have a place in mind to go. I ask her if there are any particular foods she isn't fond of. She takes this well, she giggles a lot. The last time I see her at work, before date day, is Wednesday. We chat as much as we can, we are close and comfortable, she is laying the compliments on heavily, and she lets me know her hand is cold. I hold it for a few seconds, but we're at work so I don't want to be SO OBVIOUS, but things seem good. \n Thursday I am texting her, asking how things are going. I mention I have to work Thursday night as she asks me what I'm up to. She says it sucks that I have to work. I let her know that it is a bummer but I gotta pay the bills right? Then I say \"I am glad I am not working tomorrow though\". I figure she will see I am a bit excited about doing something with her, probably not a bad idea. \n Well, this was several hours before I had to work. I go to work, get no response from her. I tease her a bit by saying \"I guess I'm the only one, lol\". She responds with \"?\" I respond that I was just giving her a hard time. Go home send her another text (maybe this was the issue?) saying \"I am off work, commence rejoicing.\" But I figure I'll call her on Friday, and will hash out the plan. Should be great, right? \n Friday comes along. I call her twice and leave two voicemails, three hours apart. No response. Wait til 7 pm, send her an fb message saying \"I remember you mentioning you often miss calls while at home. If you'd still like to do something, let me know ASAP.\" At this point I've given up on seeing her. Feeling pretty crappy. I go out with my dad and his gf (definitely a downgrade for the night), and I get the flakiest response, by text, from her an hour later. That she is sorry, she is so tired tonight, she has been sleeping. I am told to ask if she'd still be up for something. So I say \"I understand! Are you still up for getting dinner?\" No response. \n I have work the next day, on Saturday. I work at a fast food joint. I pull up to work, and I see her in there at the front counter, chatting with some coworkers. She usually stops by before she goes out with a lady friend on Saturday nights, to the bars or whatever. She turns and notices me sitting in my car. I look down to check my phone, look back up, and I see she is now gone. I guess she decided to bolt instead of exchange a pleasantry(I wasn't about to make a scene at my job, before a shift started). \n Later that night, girl she was with comes through. They will do this when they are leaving the bar and are drunk. I don't see the \"spurner\" but I chat a little with \"spurner's\" friend. I am very cordial and joking. This is the last time I've even been in her vicinity. \n Tomorrow, I go back to work. She will be there when I arrive. I am wondering, should I try to discuss the situation with her? Should I just have her bring it up? Also, can any of you provide ANY insight as to why a lady would do this? It's beyond my ability to understand. All help is greatly appreciated. Also, sorry it is QUITE long, but I figured the more details the better.", "id": "t3_11i8fo", "summary": "Girl seems to like me. I make plans with girl. Am blown off. Feel like rug's been pulled out from under me, and quite a fool. Wondering why she did this, and where to go from here."}]}
+{"author": "craaackle", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post tough love or end the relationship.", "output": "You need a less needy girlfriend or you need to be more clear and assertive. I think it's a bit of both. \n You do not need to give her any reasons of why you're going out, she's not your mother and you're not 10. \"Ok, bye [girlfriend] I'm going out for a walk be back in [time]\" that's all you should say. Giving her reasons or justifying your actions to her will just make her feel like she has the power to veto your decisions. \n I saw that you said when you do this, she is angry/upset when you come home. That's not  your  problem. At all. Either she gets over it or you realise how emotionally manipulative she can be. I also saw you plan on leaving without being noticed, DO NOT DO THIS. It's humiliating and weird to have to run away to do what you want to do. You need to be very direct and clear with her about your needs. Doing this (sneaking out) will also make her suspicious and even more clingy. \n You should not need to beg or ask for time alone. My fiance sometimes \"asks\" me but only because he knows I'm never going to say no. You should not ask your girlfriend because she WILL say no."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post do not go with Chatr they suck way more than my experiences with Solo and Rogers", "output": "I was trying to get fb mobile text messages to work on my new Chatr phone and I ran into a problem - it wouldnt let me send an SMS to a short code. \n Me: \n Do short codes work on Chatr? I've tried it with fb mobile and it doesn't seem to work. If it doesn't work, I wish I was informed in advance. Thank you. \n Them: \n Unfortunately, facebook mobile runs through a data fubnction, and until we offer data (date to be determined) facebook mobile will not work, sorry! \n obviously missing the fact I mentioned short codes, which from my experience do not run on any data \"fubnction\" \n Me: \n Facebook mobile WEB runs through a data function. I, however, was referring to Facebook mobile TEXT MESSAGES, which does not require a data plan of any sort. I know this because I had no data plan on my old cellphone with Rogers and it worked just fine. These alerts run through text messages and do not require a data connection. I clearly mentioned \"short codes\" do not work. If you are unaware what short codes are, you can read about them here:  This is facebook mobile WEB:  and this is Facebook mobile TEXT:  I look forward to an informed reply. \n  today  \n Chatr: \n Chatr customers can receive messages from Facebook on their phones however, updating a status for Facebook using your phone is not a feature that is supported by chatr. \n Me: \n Yes, but HOW do I do that if text messages don't send to short codes? This is getting extremely ridiculous. \n Prior to this I was given shitty instructions on how to activate my phone, and when I ran into some problems the phone rep told me I had burnt my SIM card. The next day I go to the mall to get this stuff straightened out and she tells me my SIM card is fine. I wasted a few hours, in the rain, on a busy day when phone support should have done a more thorough job. They also said I did not have an account, when I told them I was currently logged in to my Chatr account."}], "user_id": "longlamp_9510", "history": [{"author": "craaackle", "content": "When someone asks for space, you should always 100% give it to them. This means no texts, no calls, no random deliveries of flowers. It comes off as desperate and creepy. Your intentions may have been good, but your actions showed you didn't respect her wishes. Leave her alone, the relationship is probably done. That's ok...learn from it and move on. When anyone says \"no\" it means \"no\". \n \n cough   cough  just a reminder about the subreddit rules \n >", "id": "caafpt4", "summary": "Put a brief summary at the end of your post. No \"See title\""}, {"author": "craaackle", "content": "Start dating each other. It may not be your culture to do this, but hey you're married. Go out to a restaurant and talk, go to a movie, go to a coffee shop, go for a picnic. Get out of the house, away from distractions and start talking to each other. When my boyfriend and I were first dating, I definitely had some misgivings about him (and him about me)...we talked through it (though I guess we could've just cut our losses and moved on) and we figured out how wonderful we are for each other.", "id": "c7t1oh0", "summary": "give dating a try"}, {"author": "craaackle", "content": "Jud Fry! I remember having to go see Oklahoma! at Stratford (Ontario) and I totally understood Jud. I didn't know he was the villain until everyone booed him during the closing of the show...the part where the actors bow. \n \n Misunderstood Jud asks the lady he likes to go to the dance together. The lady accepts (he doesn't know she's doing it out of spite...who's the villain again?) Apparently this lady is afraid of him...yet accepts his invitation to a dance. Alright. \n \n She tells the other dude she's trying to spite she doesn't love him. Angry/upset, other guy goes to tell Jud to - get this - HANG HIMSELF. Who's the villain again? Of course this bolsters Jud's resolve to win the lady over. BECAUSE WHY WOULD HE WANT HER TO BE WITH A GUY WHO'S SO CALLOUS? \n \n Lady has a dream from doing drugs or whatever and is scared by dream-Jud. Not real Jud, dream-Jud. \n \n Jud makes some terrible decisions like trying to kill the other guy and wasting all his money on trying to bid on the lady's basket. \n \n Jud's finally has had enough and demands to know if lady likes him or not. She doesn't. He gets mad and threatens her AND THEN LEAVES. \n \n Lady sicks her new boyfriend on Jud. \n \n Jud gets wasted and crashes the wedding. He falls on his own knife and dies. For some reason they hold a trial and acquit the now married other guy.", "id": "c76uhyn", "summary": "People in Oklahoma! are stupid and Jud isn't a bad guy."}, {"author": "craaackle", "content": "reposted my deleted comment with the offending words removed. \n thank you to whoever gave me gold! \n nsfw \n Really? Brigading is against the rules but what you did for \"fun\" isn't? Why are you still a mod? \n > I personally handpicked the mods of r/neopets as the subreddit was developing I believe that an apology should be considered to my fellow moderators as they do the best they can to promote a positive experience here. \n Okay, how about you apologize to them then? You picked them for a position that puts them in the public eye to be ridiculed and criticized. That's your own damn fault and theirs for accepting. \n edit: and to add to that you besmirched /u/diceroll123 [+2] when you signed their name to the message. You are a dick. You need to reconsider what an apology is and apologize to the true mods in a new post.\nWhat the fuck does content have to do with anything about apologizing to us? \n edit:", "id": "cc74d9s", "summary": "removed"}, {"author": "craaackle", "content": "I got on a bus with my dad when I was younger and he paid my fare (ticket) and his fare metropass. A guy came on behind us and realised he didn't have any money or fare on him like he forget it at home. He asked the bus driver if he could please get on and he'd put in 2 on his way back, he was going to meet his friend or something. Anyway, the driver says no and my dad went to go put a token in for this guy because he looked really upset/stressed. As my dad was doing that the bus driver said \"no don't pay for him, he's obviously scamming you\". My dad told the bus driver he could do whatever he wanted with his money and paid for him. We saw the guy later in the week and he tried to pay my dad the token back, which my dad refused.", "id": "c94z47b", "summary": "if you put the fare in the box for them at the very least you lost $3 at most you help someone out."}, {"author": "craaackle", "content": "Not so much bridezilla as inconsiderate wedding party. My boyfriend and I flew from Canada to Colorado to attend his friend's wedding. We never got an invitation, she said she had sent it out. We never got any information on hotel rooms, she said she would've rented a floor or something out for the out-of-towners. In fact, nobody knew when the hell the wedding was that one family from Norway came all the way to CO and MISSED THE WEDDING because they left the day after they thought the wedding was supposed to be on. \n Skip to the wedding. Everyone is there and dressed to the nines. The groom is a local person (as is the bride, I guess) and nobody informs us a hybrid SUV won't make it UP TO THE WEDDING SITE. We, in heels and good clothes, had to get out and push an SUV/hike a mountain. Meanwhile, the grooms family is making trips up and down for just their family. Well weren't we overdressed when we got up there. Grooms' side was an utter mess. \n Bride was a few hours late! We got bitten by insects. Food was cold and disgusting by the time we got down to the reception. Bride barely acknowledged her out of town family (including her immediate family). There was no music.", "id": "c5twte5", "summary": "don't get married if you're still a child"}, {"author": "craaackle", "content": "It's not  particularly  useful for most situations but they do sort of put your mind at ease. I used a similar service in Colorado when I had severe food poisoning and after way too many \"are you pregnant?\" questions the nurse told me how to get some liquids in without throwing it up (ice chips). \n When I used it in Toronto they told me to go to the hospital if my hand didn't stop hurting (second degree burns) in a few hours.", "id": "chl73kt", "summary": "Not really useful but puts your mind at ease better than Google."}, {"author": "craaackle", "content": "And obviously to her, whether it's \"right\" or not, it's obviously something she feels she's grown out of and needs to be buried. That's her issue and she's welcome to own or disown her past as much as she wants to regardless of what other people think of the normalcy of her actions. \n By the way, that advice was on this post. And I do admit that \"airing your dirty laundry\" was a bad choice of phrasing. I just meant that in life, you can't just expect someone to forgive you or for things to go back to the way they were because you apologized or comforted them. She obviously feels she told him too much (she says this in her", "id": "c8v1oq7", "summary": "that's the \"dirty laundry\" I was referring to. Wrong choice of words, that's all. My advice still stands, you can't have something go back to the way it was because you decided it was a mistake and now you're willing to make amends."}, {"author": "craaackle", "content": "If there are things that don't make sense, let me know. \n I had posted last month about my narcissistic mother. I deleted the post because I couldn't deal. I know it's all true. If you want I can give countless examples. I'm posting on my main so if you want you can go look back at the times I've referenced my parents. \n Last night (8 days out from my wedding) my mom had a complete breakdown. I don't live with my parents so I got a call from my dad (who works nights) who told me my mom was calling him hysterical. I dropped everything and my fiance and I went over. I calmed her down and pretty much went from sad to the angriest I've ever been. I kept it in and dealt with the situation at hand. \n My parents marriage is shit. For 31 years they've pretended to be in love and together. They had a chance to call off the wedding but they didn't so I guess they're pretty fucking stupid for 1. not trying to make it work and 2. staying together even after everyone is made miserable. Last night my mom told me how they stayed together for us. I told her that was her selfish reasoning and that all they did was ruin my childhood. I would've loved to say they ruined my brother's childhood too but I can't speak for him. She told me she won't divorce because it's not in our culture. This is the shit reasoning my parents and brother use when they don't want to deal with their problems. There is nothing in my culture (Indian/Roman Catholic) that says people can't divorce and that people can't go to therapy. We're not even that cultural to be honest. \n My relationship with them isn't actually that bad. But it's moments like this where I have to walk away. I need advice on how to cut them out. I'm tired of pretending we have a family. We don't. My grandma (mom's mom) told me how she almost miscarried my mom and I found myself wishing that was the case. Tell me that's not fucked up. \n As an adult I'm suffering from major depression (recently diagnosed) and will begin treatment and therapy after the wedding when I'm on my husband's insurance. I need these people out of my life. How do I cut them out? \n \n My dad wants to gift my partner and I some money to eventually buy a house. I'll be declining this now. \n \n I asked my dad to walk me down the aisle. I don't want him to anymore. \n \n \n That's as far as I've gotten for the immediate future. I don't want them at the wedding but I also feel like if I don't have them there I'll regret it. If they start any shit, I can ask security to escort them out. \n What do I do after? I'm not even upset anymore, I'm just angry. Tell me what to do and it's done.", "id": "t3_2cgrf5", "summary": "How do I cut my dysfunctional parents out of my life?"}, {"author": "craaackle", "content": "Original Post]( \n So a lot has happened, but not really. \n I stopped keeping quiet about my family problems. I finally reached out to a few of my parents' friends and surprise, surprise, they all suggested \"counselling\". The thing that is apparently against our culture. \n My dad kept calling and texting me on the day of my bachelorette party (I'm pretty sure he knew it was that day, but I can't be sure) to tell me how my mom was planning on doing something against him in public. Then again to say he wasn't. My mom called to apologize. I didn't hear any of these messages until the next day. I texted my dad and told him in no uncertain terms I didn't want anything from either of them and he wasn't walking me down the aisle, stop contacting me. He texted back \"I AM SORRY\". Too little, too late. I didn't respond. \n My mom doesn't have a cell so I sent both of them an email reiterating everything. I told them to get help. My mom emailed me back and said thank you for giving her the opportunity to apologize again (since I wasn't answering any calls). I didn't hear back from my dad, but only because he responded to the text and the message was about the same. \n A few days later, my grandma's sister died. It put a lot of things into perspective but also put their issues on hold and everything I think calmed down considerably at their home. I went from being angry and upset to being so, so disappointed. \n Today my mom called me to \"see how I was\" but the conversation fell heavily towards asking me to reconsider having my dad walk me down the aisle. It breaks my heart that I had to do that, but I told her I was already on the fence about my dad walking me down the aisle to begin with. My parents still have a role in the wedding. Nobody will be walking me down the aisle, the way I had always imagined. I only asked my dad in an attempt to extend an olive branch to him after all he's done to try in some small ways to repair our relationship. Still I feel bad for hurting me. My mom had the nerve to say I should have never asked him. How was I supposed to know? \n I feel so guilty and sad. I feel heartbroken that they put me in this position. My mom was begging me to sit down with them and talk to them. I had literally just gotten over this last night and now I'm just so sad again. Why are they doing this to me? I told them they needed to fix their own marriage. They had our help and support for so many years but this is my breaking point and I can't do anything for them. My mom insists that I sit down and talk to them. I won't be. I'm so done. I'm so sad. \n We have a family dinner on Friday night to meet my brother's girlfriend and her kids before the wedding. My grandma is hosting it at a restaurant and I want to go but I don't want to go. I'm going to end up bawling my eyes out. We have a big family so I think I will just plan on arriving later and asking my cousin to save us a seat away from my parents. \n I don't know what else to do. I don't think I'll be answering any calls from my parents since they only seem to make me feel guilty and sad for something I didn't do. \n I need to know I'm doing the right thing and I won't regret anything. My fiance is so supportive and told me to do what I want, what will make me happy. But nothing will. If my dad walks me down the aisle it'll be a pretense, it'll show we have a relationship we don't have and that he has respect for his family, which he doesn't. If I continue to deny him, he will have missed his chance to walk his only daughter down the aisle. But he made that decision, not me...right? \n \n edit: \n My fiance is at work but still taking the time to talk me down from being so upset. He's making a lot of good points about why I should let my dad walk me down the aisle based on my own feelings, not his (my dad's). If I let him walk me down the aisle, it'll be me extending his another chance (maybe a last chance) a real, tangible chance. If I say no, I'm drawing a line in the sand and saying this is the end. I don't want that. I want them to get help, I want them to help themselves and I want to have a good relationship with them somewhere down the line. \n I'm really scared I'll look back and have made the wrong decision. Though I think both choices are going to hurt me in the future. \n \n edit 2: \n Sent my dad an email that he could walk me down the aisle. That I want him and my mom to get help. I told him I didn't do it out of guilt or to help his feelings. I did it for me. I think I put in a few hurtful comments but I'm feeling so relieved to tell them how it is at last. I've kept this all in for so long.", "id": "t3_2cwc9h", "summary": "Just an update. Stewing over whether I made the right decision or not in regards to my dad walking me down the aisle."}, {"author": "craaackle", "content": "Original]( \n [Update]( \n I didn't get a lot of response on my past threads but I thought I'd give whoever was kind enough to give me advice and send me some really nice PMs an update. Things have been so busy I had to actually refresh my memory of the problems I posted about, lol. \n I cut my parents out, but they don't know it yet. I started being reminded of little things they (mostly my mom) had tried to do to get me to be angry but I didn't realise it in the moment. For example, she wanted to invite a lot of family I never see and a lot of  her  friends to the wedding. I said no so she offered to host an engagement party for us. She cancelled it because it was \"too much work\", before any of these problems started. I think she offered and rescinded to get a rise out of me but I literally did not care about it that she didn't get the reaction she wanted, lol. \n We were over at my parents a few days before the wedding to meet my brother's girlfriend and her kids. My mom started ordering me around to help her in the kitchen. I told her \"no thank you\" and went back to my conversation she had interrupted. It was fresh of her to ask me to help when I was the guest and she practically begged me to come over after we ate dinner out and then treat me like I was her servant daughter. Her face looked so pissed but she couldn't say anything without looking like a bitch. \n At the wedding I lost a bracelet my parents had gifted me a few months back, walking about to take pictures. I sent a few people out to look for it and they all came back and said they couldn't find it but my mom had to sit beside me and tell me a story about all she had to go through to find it. I told her thank you for looking but if she didn't find it, I didn't need to hear all the steps she took and that I was trying to enjoy my meal. \n I also noticed she had a bruise on her upper arm. So it's back to physical abuse with my parents. \n We never got a card or gift from them, which is fine, we didn't want one but they had said we would get one because \"donating to your cause isn't something we do\". We had requested our guests, if able, to donate to mental health research in our area. So I see how selfish they are now. I hope they changed their mind and donated to the mental health research, just so I can see that they can be compassionate human beings in some small way. But I guess if there's nobody to see their \"generosity\" they don't give two fucks. \n My brother's eyes are also opening to how my parents  really  are and not just how he remembers them. They are picking on his girlfriend's kids in a \"funny\" way, wtf. I told him he has to protect them from that because it's his job now. \n \n I'm getting to know my husband's extended family a lot this week and it's been great. I confided in my new aunt (met her many times before) about my depression (we were talking about Robin Williams) and she was so supportive. It was incredible. I have never received support like this from a parental figure before. \n \n Everyone enjoyed the wedding :) Nobody asked about why my dad didn't walk me down the aisle.", "id": "t3_2dg1qj", "summary": "done with my parents. I cannot give them anymore of myself. I'm enjoying matrimony and my new extended family."}, {"author": "craaackle", "content": "Original Post]( \n So a lot has happened, but not really. \n I stopped keeping quiet about my family problems. I finally reached out to a few of my parents' friends and surprise, surprise, they all suggested \"counselling\". The thing that is apparently against our culture. \n My dad kept calling and texting me on the day of my bachelorette party (I'm pretty sure he knew it was that day, but I can't be sure) to tell me how my mom was planning on doing something against him in public. Then again to say he wasn't. My mom called to apologize. I didn't hear any of these messages until the next day. I texted my dad and told him in no uncertain terms I didn't want anything from either of them and he wasn't walking me down the aisle, stop contacting me. He texted back \"I AM SORRY\". Too little, too late. I didn't respond. \n My mom doesn't have a cell so I sent both of them an email reiterating everything. I told them to get help. My mom emailed me back and said thank you for giving her the opportunity to apologize again (since I wasn't answering any calls). I didn't hear back from my dad, but only because he responded to the text and the message was about the same. \n A few days later, my grandma's sister died. It put a lot of things into perspective but also put their issues on hold and everything I think calmed down considerably at their home. I went from being angry and upset to being so, so disappointed. \n Today my mom called me to \"see how I was\" but the conversation fell heavily towards asking me to reconsider having my dad walk me down the aisle. It breaks my heart that I had to do that, but I told her I was already on the fence about my dad walking me down the aisle to begin with. My parents still have a role in the wedding. Nobody will be walking me down the aisle, the way I had always imagined. I only asked my dad in an attempt to extend an olive branch to him after all he's done to try in some small ways to repair our relationship. Still I feel bad for hurting me. My mom had the nerve to say I should have never asked him. How was I supposed to know? \n I feel so guilty and sad. I feel heartbroken that they put me in this position. My mom was begging me to sit down with them and talk to them. I had literally just gotten over this last night and now I'm just so sad again. Why are they doing this to me? I told them they needed to fix their own marriage. They had our help and support for so many years but this is my breaking point and I can't do anything for them. My mom insists that I sit down and talk to them. I won't be. I'm so done. I'm so sad. \n We have a family dinner on Friday night to meet my brother's girlfriend and her kids before the wedding. My grandma is hosting it at a restaurant and I want to go but I don't want to go. I'm going to end up bawling my eyes out. We have a big family so I think I will just plan on arriving later and asking my cousin to save us a seat away from my parents. \n I don't know what else to do. I don't think I'll be answering any calls from my parents since they only seem to make me feel guilty and sad for something I didn't do. \n I need to know I'm doing the right thing and I won't regret anything. My fiance is so supportive and told me to do what I want, what will make me happy. But nothing will. If my dad walks me down the aisle it'll be a pretense, it'll show we have a relationship we don't have and that he has respect for his family, which he doesn't. If I continue to deny him, he will have missed his chance to walk his only daughter down the aisle. But he made that decision, not me...right? \n \n edit: \n My fiance is at work but still taking the time to talk me down from being so upset. He's making a lot of good points about why I should let my dad walk me down the aisle based on my own feelings, not his (my dad's). If I let him walk me down the aisle, it'll be me extending his another chance (maybe a last chance) a real, tangible chance. If I say no, I'm drawing a line in the sand and saying this is the end. I don't want that. I want them to get help, I want them to help themselves and I want to have a good relationship with them somewhere down the line. \n I'm really scared I'll look back and have made the wrong decision. Though I think both choices are going to hurt me in the future. \n \n edit 2: \n Sent my dad an email that he could walk me down the aisle. That I want him and my mom to get help. I told him I didn't do it out of guilt or to help his feelings. I did it for me. I think I put in a few hurtful comments but I'm feeling so relieved to tell them how it is at last. I've kept this all in for so long. \n \n edit 3: \n Received a very cold email back. He's not walking me down the aisle. Relieved and upset. This is the end of our relationship I think for realsies.", "id": "t3_2cxd0h", "summary": "Just an update. Stewing over whether I made the right decision or not in regards to my dad walking me down the aisle."}, {"author": "craaackle", "content": "EDIT  Ugh I'm 23...I forgot again. \n My boss at my new job was showing me how to make drinks on their espresso machine and showed me the most disgusting way to make drinks. She wants me to steam a PITCHER of milk, top it up with cold milk and resteam it for the next drink. In the meantime it's in the fridge or out on the counter in the danger zone (not the Archer kind). \n It's embarrassing and a potential health hazard to our customers. \n It's not hard to pour milk and steam to order with minimal waste. \n Should I bother telling her that it's a health hazard? She has her Health and Safety Certificate proudly displayed but money > health and safety apparently. \n If she needs I can show people how to eyeball the proper amount. \n edit: I didn't mean to imply she was my new owner as per the title :P", "id": "t3_23sl76", "summary": "I don't know how to approach my boss at my new job about a dangerous health hazard."}]}
+{"author": "Super_Bad_64", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post There's no risk; bootmii is completely safe.", "output": "I'm not that much into technical details, but basically the Wii boots in two stages: boot1 and boot2. On older Wiis it's possible to install bootmii in the boot2 sequence, which gives the absolute best brick protection you can dream of. On newer Wiis, like the red or black ones, that isn't possible, so bootmii is installed in what is called an IOS (and has nothing to do with Apple). While it does give brick protection, it's nowhere near as effective as having bootmii in boot2."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Find a better name and try to get people to adopt it; odds are you'll fail because PCMR as a name is basically here to stay. No one will stop you from trying though.", "output": "Church of the PC\" doesn't have that ring to it. We're not like your average church where you just walk in one sunday a year and call it quits. \n We're like a kung-fu monastery high up in the tibetan mountains. The journey is long and arduous, the training is grueling, but once you get enlightened, you get  motherfucking  enlightened, and at the very top of the world, the Dalai-Gaben will instruct you to pass down his teachings. \n And then because now you're a monk of the PC, you stay in the monastery, because that's what monks do. Big-ass monastery if you ask me."}], "user_id": "longlamp_6772", "history": [{"author": "Super_Bad_64", "content": "There is nowhere in the world where that's how copyright infringement laws work. \n It's not really a copyright infringement ground though. Here in France it would fall into digital piracy, which is actually not the same thing. \n Basically, the law states  somewhere  (It's late and I really don't want to comb the texts to find the exact reference, ctrl+f or not) that as long as you own a paid copy of something (like a game), you can have a digital backup. IIRC it's only applicable to  one  backup, though. So on paper, you should be safe from any and all piracy charges, but in truth it's more complicated due to secondhand markets and such. \n As far as copyright goes, hosting a tourney is an infringement to begin with (something about private vs public, aka it's okay to play with friends at home, it's not at a public gathering, mostly) if you don't pay diffusion rights to whoever may be concerned. For music it's the SACEM (think the RIAA, but less lawsuit happy), for movies it's the CNC (no one really knows what they do besides financing some movies), but there are no authorities of the sort for video games, so the powers that be pretty much ignore that particular infraction (although I doubt someone ever complained because people were hosting a tourney of their game).", "id": "cmh52an", "summary": "The copyright law doesn't work like that ofc; the digital piracy one, however, does, and was the one I was talking about. Sorry for the confusion !"}, {"author": "Super_Bad_64", "content": "Yeah, I can see where that doesn't make sense. This advertises a first-person shooter, but upon downloading it, you end up with Barbie Doll Simulator, and a demo version of The Economy F**king Hates You which you have to buy an item in the in-game store to unlock in full. \n Oh and, so that people won't say \"lol satire\"; there  is  a first person shooter minigame, but it's broken as fuck, and it's not very interesting at all. Basically there are like six gamemodes,  one  of which is played, the rest while perfectly playable is simply mostly ignored by the playerbase for being too confusing. \n Gameplay wise, you must go through a meatgrinder (if you're blue), or prevent the other team from going through said meatgrinder (if you're red). There are like 20+ official reskins of the one map to give the illusion of content depth, while it's really just cosmetic. There are no alternate routes of any sort; you  must  go this way,  and this way only , and apparently both the developer and the playerbase agree that anything beyond that is too complicated (see the Snowplowgate). \n You have nine classes to chose from, of which one doesn't even need to be played (Engineer), one does pretty much everything the other classes can do but better (Soldier) (except being invisible, though that depends on your GPU, mostly), one that is completely useless (Pyro), and a Sniper. There's a few others, but frankly they're too gimmicky and generally useless compared to a floor-hating maniac with a rocket launcher. \n There is, in fact, a healer class, the Medic, which has the power to turn the tide of the game... in theory. Actually, very few people usually bother playing Medic because  everyone on their team doesn't care about them .", "id": "cn45rbl", "summary": "There is zero map diversity, the game is an unbalanced mess with severe performance issues, and about half the playerbase just straight up ignore the core of the game (the FPS) to focus on a fashion/economy/both simulator of sorts. Free to play is still too expensive for that \"game\". \n To be entirely fair, the competitive side of the game, while severly underdeveloped (mostly because Valve acts as if it doesn't exist at all), is extremely fun, if a bit restrictive. \n Source: 3300+ hours spent on this game, quit because my one-year old laptop can no longer display 1394 hats (and their stupid particle effets) without the game turning into a slideshow. (And also because I'm fed up with how Valve handles game balance)"}, {"author": "Super_Bad_64", "content": "The way I see it, it could be like a ten-feet car, because you need to stand at least ten feet away to just say it's good. Once you get up close and personal, the paint job is flaky, the engine is coughing like an old smoker, and the magic tree hanging from the mirror doesn't even smell like what it's claiming to. \n The keyword here is  could . \n I'm not denying Fox is great or anything; I'm just saying, while Fox's meta is basically set in stone right now, it's not the case for everyone else. For all you know, it's entirely possible someone's new toys can absolutely wreck Fox, something like 80-20, I dunno.", "id": "cnv4dnc", "summary": "You can have a great character, like Fox is, but if he has one flaw, and there happens to be one character on the roster capable of exploiting it to wreck your ass, he's not  that  great then."}, {"author": "Super_Bad_64", "content": "Like what ? Ultra Broken Fighter IV ? With its diverse and super viable cast of six characters because the gap between tiers is just that huge ? \n Killer Instinct is many things that SFIV isn't, and that (sadly) includes: \n \n Being actually tested beyond the title screen (I'm sorry, but if a character's  entire goddamn movelist  is trumped by another character's  jab , the game wasn't tested, plain and simple) \n Having a much closer balance gap between the worst and best possible fighters; I'm looking at Brawl, Melee, sm4sh, or again, USFIV, as major offenders. \n Having actually good netcode; KI is butter smooth. USFIV is jittery as fuck. Sm4sh is okay, though. \n Really diverse cast: It's nowhere near ARC System Works, sure. It's still a whole lot better than ten billion shotoclones, and the rest just plain isn't even viable due to crippling MU issues. (Though you  may  make a case of that in the Glacius vs Kan-Ra MU; Kan-Ra is basically Glacius on steroids. That is gonna get addressed, though)", "id": "cnzeotg", "summary": "KI is just plain mechanically superior to some other mainstays like Street Fighter IV. Heck, as a testament,  everything  we saw so far from Street Fighter V has been  directly copied  from KI: Stage ultras, lighting effects, Instinct mode, even variable super meter length (though there was some of that in Street Fighter 3, but it was super art based instead of purely character based)"}, {"author": "Super_Bad_64", "content": "As much as Dolphin is CPU intensive, I doubt simply beefing it without a dedicated graphics solution will get it to run properly. As I said above, there is usually a GPU hidden under the \"HD Graphics\" name on laptops, even if it's not usually a terribly efficient one. \n Besides, unless I'm dead wrong, Dolphin can't even use multicore processors properly, much less hyperthreaded ones. Odds are given similar frequency, Dolphin simply won't be able to tell the difference between an i5 and an i7. (Someone may want to double check that, because I can't seem to find proof that Dolphin actually lacks hyperthreading; only  lack  of proofs that Dolphin has hyperthreading.)", "id": "crd3jk0", "summary": "Check if you actually have a GPU besides the chipset. Your processor doesn't really matter for Dolphin as long as you have decent single-core performance."}, {"author": "Super_Bad_64", "content": "I don't think posting pictures of your holidays should be allowed on /r/earthporn. \n I just want to browse this subreddit without people constantly  bragging  about going to Tibet, or their lovely trip to rural Hokkaido. It's clogging up /r/earthporn's front page, and it's boring. About 90% of us have our own photo albums, we don't want to see yours. I'd allow exceptions for things like natural catastrophes, or exceptional winter like that snowstorm on front page recently.", "id": "coed6sx", "summary": "Different people, different opinions. You don't want to see other battlestations, that's fine. You don't want  anyone  to see other battlestations, you're knee-deep in the wrong. Some people like me love seeing battlestations pics. You gotta have shit for everyone."}, {"author": "Super_Bad_64", "content": "Alright, so as the title says, I'm building a brand new shiny machine for christmas. It's not really a matter of specs - I kinda know my way around PC hardware, I know what I want to put in, I know I'm going  way  overboard for what I'm going to use it for, and I know cramming as much Corsair and/or MSI hardware as I can in it is only good for the hell of it. \n Now that's out of the way, I ran into a problem that I can't seem to solve on my own. I'm getting a new monitor as well ( that thing. , and a couple GTX 970s, with the firm intent of hooking them up together, so I can, you know, see stuff. \n My former machine actually predated HDMI technology a fair bit, and I'm not up to date with just what the hell it is. My understanding is that the 970s can handle HDMI 2.0 (aka HDMI with Ethernet, and I still have no clue what use could Ethernet have there), but that screen... Doesn't seem to. At least I can't find any kind of info on it. \n So aside from the obvious \"Just hook it up with DVI, duh\", what in the blazes am I supposed to use, cable-wise ? Will using a HDMI 2.0 cable fry my monitor ? Will using a standard HDMI cable do nasty things to my CGs ? How do I even hook up a monitor to a SLI setup ? (Yes I should have asked these questions to myself a while ago, but the monitor situation only came up today after I realized my old display was no longer working) \n And, well, I can post specs if you want 'em. I mean I know I'm going to get flak, because I'm getting flak from myself for it, but that's going to be the last machine I build before moving across the great pond (in six years... sigh), so I'm basically going all out on it, the idea being that it should survive until at least early 2020.", "id": "t3_2pd8aq", "summary": "Last PC I built was using an ATI card. I have no idea how HDMI works. I have a dual GTX 970s, and some kind of HDMI 1080p monitor, and those things should hook up, but I don't know how. Help appreciated !"}, {"author": "Super_Bad_64", "content": "So as the schoolyear dawns here in France, I'm only starting in november, which given the circumstances is a good thing. As you may infer from the title, I need a laptop. \n The problem is, I don't need  any  laptop. \n For all intents and purposes I'll be spending a lot of time playing around with VM, which means I need at least 8 gigs of RAM (or so I've been told at least), and one of my teachers recommended me to get at least an i5. \n Problem is, damn near all laptops that qualify for me have a  dual core  i5. I didn't even know that was a thing, but I figured I'd ask for your advice. I figure a VM is really taxing (obviously), but I wonder if it's taxing enough to warrant going to a quad core i7. \n Also, further adding to the problems, I have to get the thing through my father (being poor sucks, begging sucks, relying on my parents sucks, but it's either that or spending a year doing a whole lot of nothing. Plus it was his idea to begin with.), who's a major technophobe when it comes to ordering stuff on the internet. What I mean is, feel free to post Amazon links (or whatever website you want anyway), but if your laptop doesn't exist [here]( I can't buy it.", "id": "t3_3je7ks", "summary": "Need laptop. Must have at least an i5, 8Go RAM, SSD preferred but optional, must exist on [this French website]( Help pls. \n Right now I'm thinking about the MSI GS60 Ghost 2PL (a model that's not even listed on MSI's website anymore). i5 4200H, 8 gigs of ram, comes with a 128Go SSD in addition to a regular 1Tb HDD, and a 850M which doesn't matter a lot since I won't be gaming a lot on said machine. \n So, yeah. Help appreciated. Thanks !"}, {"author": "Super_Bad_64", "content": "I hesitated for a while before doing this post, but I figured that if I had to ask any community, it might as well be the one I'm part of. \n Short background story: Since approximately november 2015, I've bunked with an association of Sm4sh players (henceforth refered to as Smash Unleashed or SU) for my weeklies. Even though they have no space for a proper CRT + Wii setup, they were still nice enough to welcome me, and later the community I built around said weeklies. \n The venue is a (so-called) e-sports bar called the Meltdown. It's actually a franchise that spans several countries, mostly centered around the love triangle regarding friendly competition, alcoholic beverages, and VIDYA GAEMZ. \n Earlier this week, the head of Smash Unleashed, Hedgeon messaged me, visibly down and frustrated. (You might wonder how I can deduce that from a facebook message that roughly says \"Are you here ?\", but bear with me) \nHe brought me the news that the owner of the local Meltdown more or less asked SU to leave, in order to make way for another Sm4sh association. According to Hedgeon, the owner said he no longer wanted competitive tourneys, instead focusing on a more casual atmosphere. This coming from the owner of an \" e-sports \" bar. \n The thing is, neither I nor my crew are affiliated with SU proper, so  technically  this ban doesn't concern us. However, without the Smash Unleashed around, I'll be losing more than half of my playerbase. On the other hand, if the owner wants more casual tourneys, then I guess Project M is straight out of the window. Not in the \"HURR PM IS SRS BSNS\" sense, but unless I start running Type 3 Stamina tourneys, I fail to see how PM would fit his criteria. \n Plus, to be honest, I know the other association, and I'm pretty damn sure they will offer to host me. I really don't want to take up their offer for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that for all intents and purposes, I worked with Smash Unleashed, and I don't feel like jumping boats just to keep my weekly (especially when it comes with such a high player cost). \n But the main issue is that Sm4sh is ubiquitous. If they lose a venue, there's a safe bet they can always find another scene. On a local scale, mine is the only PM/Melee scene from the region. I have nowhere else to relocate to. (Technically there is a Melee scene somewhere, it's just run by the other association) \n I'm kind of at a loss about what to do, and frankly my scene doesn't know yet or hasn't reacted yet. So if any of you ever dealt with that kind of situation I'd appreciate the advice.", "id": "t3_4b33qn", "summary": "Venue wants to kick out the association I'm working with to set up casual tourneys. I'm not directly concerned. Either I succumb to the Dark Side and betray Smash Unleashed to prolong my weeklies with a noticeably smaller playerbase, or I stick to the Light Side and my principles, and begin frantically sacrificing goats to find a new venue."}, {"author": "Super_Bad_64", "content": "So... I guess the title said a lot already, but just in case, here's the slightly more developped version: \n I want to make a simple, 2D (or 2.5D, eventually later down the line) game engine. I am a complete noob when it comes to OpenGL, but figured it wouldn't hurt to try learning some stuff (even as Vulkan dawns on the world). Problem is, I can't seem to figure out how texturing a flat square works, much less defining a slightly smaller square as a hitbox of sorts. \n I found a couple of tutorials here and there -- mostly for 3D stuff, for starters, and most using C/C++. (And let's just say that Code::Blocks has been quite a bit less than unhelpful when it came to install even SDL2, so I'm kind of expecting my computer to spontaneously combust at the idea of installing OpenGL for C::B) \nAnd, naturally, most of said tutorials fail to explain how texture mapping even works. One I found outright provides a library for that, which I obviously can't use with Python for starters, but also cannot make heads or tails of it given my limited C experience.", "id": "t3_4t5bee", "summary": "Newbie lost at sea trying to use OpenGL for a 2D game. All ships signaled so far speak a language where \"Please help\" appears to translate to \"Go f$#! yourself with a coconut tree\". Texture mapping looks very much like black magic. Any help appreciated. Thanks !"}, {"author": "Super_Bad_64", "content": "So here's the rundown: In a week, I will attend my first PM tourney. Turns out that after scouting the competition, the three biggest threats are two Falco players and a Fox/Wolf. (Why am I not surprised) \n Now I usually main Zard, and he  usually  has a pretty decent MU against spacies, but I struggle a lot defending against shine, and figured I would try a secondary character just in case. \n My secondary is usually Marth, but after playing one of said Falcos, it's pretty clear my Marth is nowhere near on point enough. At this point I figured that I might as well try someone else. And then it hit me: ROB. \n Problem is, I don't know ROB's typical gameplan at all, neither do I know his MU against spacies. So I'm turning to you for help.", "id": "t3_3q0plu", "summary": "How do I ROB in general & How do I ROB against spacies plzkthx"}, {"author": "Super_Bad_64", "content": "So for the past year or so I've been looking for the absolute cheapest microphone solution that doesn't sound like noise-engulfed garbage to eventually stream once in a while. Where everyone and their mother urged me to pick a Blue Yeti or Snowball, both of which being a little outside of my price range (I'll explain why later), there have also been some who recommended me a ModMic. \n While, obviously, the Yeti should be a better microphone, it's a little on the expensive side because of my current battlestation. See, I've got a K70 with blue switches, and my desk is very prone to vibrations, which rules out any tabletop stands and would require me to buy a floor stand (or maybe an arm, but given the vibration thing I'm not sure that'll work) \n Anyway. I've been wondering about the modmic, and every review I found didn't include any sort of  in situ  test, where you click everywhere, and your fingers hammer the keyboard, and all. So I was wondering how the trusty ModMic handles noisy keyboards/controllers !", "id": "t3_43k799", "summary": "I'm a cheapskate. How does the ModMic handle noisy peripherals ?"}, {"author": "Super_Bad_64", "content": "So long story short, I have an assignement with a fast approaching deadline. Not going to bother you with the details, but someone pointed out to me that in order to display a map bigger than the window, I need to make the  map  move instead of the player. \n Which means I need to rewrite basically half my game engine. \n Problem is, I went for a tileset approach (mod support gives bonus points), and used to display the map thusly: \n     for i in range(basemap.width):\n        for j in range(basemap.height):\n            window.surface.blit(basemap.grid[j][i].sprite, (i*75, j*75))    \n \n But due to my newfound need to blit the map another way, I ran into a bit of a snag in that I don't know how to blit it relative to its center, nor do I know how to patch it together and stick it to a surface. \n It's probably a bad idea, but every cell of basemap.grid[][] contains a class (a Tile object), which itself contains its sprite, hitbox data (well it  will  contain hitbox data if I ever get those working), and for those lucky few that have one, text to display. All of those will be editable through a level editor once I figure how to make TkInter and Pygame coexist in peace. (But that's not really  my  job in the group)", "id": "t3_4kyxqk", "summary": "I am piecing the map together from a grid. I need to draw it with its center coordinates relative to the window's center coordinates, so as to move the map instead of the player to create a \"scrolling\" effect. I have no idea how to do this. \n If you need any other piece of code that I may have not deemed useful, just go ahead and ask, looks like I'll be here for a while. Thanks !"}]}
+{"author": "cp5184", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post You should hire a fixed fee financial adviser/planner to invest your money in a diverse way.  That or you could just choose several diverse stocks and other investments that are regarded as stable.", "output": "You don't really think of it from the perspective of \"increase what I have\", but more, keep pace with the current. \n Water in rivers always flows in one direction.  If you have a life jacket on, and you jump in the river, you'll float down river unless you can push against the flow enough to either keep stationary, or move upstream. \n With money, the water flowing \"downriver\" is inflation.  You can read up on it, but inflation is a constant because the groups with the most influence over currency have a vested interest in inflation, and panic in the event of the opposite of inflation, deflation. \n A rule of thumb for inflation is about 4% a year.  If you go to your bank and put all your money in the savings account they offer with the highest interest, they'll be paying you 1%, maybe 1.5%. \n Because of the 4% inflation, getting only 1% interest will be losing you money. \n Now, the banks can pay you that 1% interest for the money in your savings account, because they're lending your money to other people who will pay the bank 7%.  But that's not the real driver of growth.  If you want to keep up with inflation, or beat inflation, you have to take risks.  Risks on things like stock, commodities, and things like that. \n But when you do that, you have to make sure that you're protecting yourself by insuring that you will always be making more than that 1% that you could get from that savings account. \n The risk is that the commodities could lower in price, or the stock price could go down. \n So you need to \"diversify your investments\"."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post everything people say about guns on the internets couldn't be more wrong.", "output": "Guns aren't the end all be all of self-defense.  Some people even say they're worse than other self defense weapons because of the whole \"killing\" thing, and how actually pulling the trigger on another person doesn't feel all that good, and there are a lot of scenarios where a gun's the wrong tool. \n On top of that, target shooting doesn't teach you any self defense at all. \n Self defense is about avoiding danger, and managing danger.  Self defense is not about going rambo on the world and shooting everything."}], "user_id": "longlamp_9498", "history": [{"author": "cp5184", "content": "So, for instance, if you quote directly from a reliable source about something in an active project, whoever has watchlisted it flashes the batsignal, calling other project members and tame admins, the properly cited direct quote from a reliable source will win over territorial meatpuppeting backed by admins in that project?  It won't then get taken to the dispute resolution noticeboard to be ignored for a few days before someone from the same project that was participating in the dispute purges the dispute from the dispute resolution noticeboard?  And when you bring all this up to admins the admins won't automatically assume that you're in the wrong, and, will confront you with actionable behavioral infractions and when you show them that what you were doing was saying \"same to you\" to the project members, what elicited a \"you broke all these rules\" to me, when admins find out that the instigator is in the \"in crowd\" suddenly breaking the rules gets a pass from the admins?", "id": "cf4o4n9", "summary": "forget it jake, it's chinatown."}, {"author": "cp5184", "content": "This is my theory.  I have tested this theory through the scientific method, and my findings mostly sustain the hypothesis. \n If you have a genuine class 3 fetish for something like barney the dinosaur, then barney the dinosaur is an absolute requirement for you to become pysiologically aroused. \n Outside that, people that say things like \"my ex and I had a great sex life, we both put a lot of thought and effort into it, we developed this amazing intimacy and trust over months or years, but it wasn't the thought, trust, intimacy, or the effort that made the sex good, it was the widgets, and the costumes, and the language we used, and the things, with the stuff.\" \n The implication being, that you both put huge effort into your sex lives, and somehow, the effort paid off. \n Then you make the logical leap that it wasn't because of the thought, or the effort, or even the sex, or the intimacy, or anything like that.  It was the costumes. \n It was the costumes.  It was the setting.  It was the theme.  It's because we had that palm-reader/client relationship.  THAT'S what made the collossal effort we put into it sexy. \n It was the props.  All that spoiled food we mashed together to make the mattress on which we sexed.  THAT'S what made all out intimacy and sex fantastic, not all the effort we put into the intimacy, and the sex.", "id": "c2iwvk6", "summary": "I could be the most vanilla lay you could possibly imagine.  I could think that penis in vagina was weird and wouldn't do it, but if you put the effort you put into whatever kinky stuff you did with the last guy that you put into your relationship with some guy that wouldn't even dick you, you'd still get some pretty good intimacy, and have some pretty good sex."}, {"author": "cp5184", "content": "So before Mosaddeggh (can't pin down his name, lotta variations), was PM Razmara, a reformer who, iirc was implementing rural education reforms among other things.  But before HIM, things in Iran were pretty crazy.  In '46, for instance, front page ads in the Mard-e Emruz offered a bounty for the assassination of PM Qavam.  Cabinets were short lived and I'm not 100% sure, but iirc there had been 3 recent assassinations of prime ministers in recent years. \n So Razmara supported the supplemental oil agreement with the anglo-iranian/persian oil company which raised the profit sharing to 50/50 and gave Iranians more participation in the company. \n Mosaddeggh was a member of the national front that mostly seems to have been concerned with promoting businesses and their views.  They were anti-monarch, and anti-imperial, and they opposed the split and supported oil nationalization, including the nationalization of the largest oil refinery in the world. \n Razmara is assassinated by a member of the feda'iyan, followers of the teachings and books of ayatollah kohmeini.  He's caught at the scene.  A day later over 8,000 members of the national front and the marxist tudeh party protest, threatening further assassinations if the assassin isn't freed, and if oil isn't nationalized. \n Oil is nationalized, and mosaddeggh is made prime minister.  Soon after, he requests that the shah give him control of the military.  The shah refuses.  Mosaddeggh resigns, and members of the national front and tudeh party take to the streets threatening to assassinate the shah.  The shah gives in.  Mosaddeggh fires the officers loyal to the shah and replaces them with officers personally loyal to him, taking personal control of the military. \n So iran is a glimmering jewel, a model democracy.  Living proof that a secular (maybe even western style) democracy is the one true  religion  government...  Nothing could possibly go wrong. \n It was a disaster.  They had seized the largest oil refinery in the world, but they didn't have anyone that could operate it.  When they tried to hire european skilled workers they were turned down by everyone but the italians iirc, but the british blocked the italian workers, and iran's oil sector fell idle.  Things would continually worsen for mosaddeggh.  He took 6 months of \"emergency powers\", and when that expired he took 12 more. \n Mosaddeggh's closest political ally, his heir apparent, a man who physically took part in the seizure of the largest oil refinery in the world was at his throat, not only that, the powerful islamists, particularly ayatollah kohmeini, who participated at the behest of his disciple, ayatollah kashani turned against him, as did increasingly large parts of parliament.  Mosaddeggh had even turned the marxist tudeh party against himself by refusing to renew fishing concessions to the soviet union in the caspian. \n To stem the tide that was turning against him in parliament, mosaddeggh took permanent dictatorial power and dismissed parliament. \n The shah responded by exercising his constitutional authority to dismiss mosaddeggh.  Mosaddeggh started a coup d'etat, had the head of the shah's guards seized, forcing the shah to flee the country. \n At the same time the feda'iyan, the same people that had assassinated mosaddeggh's predecessor were threatening the new pm's assassination, demanding he pass a law forcing women to wear the veil, the firing of any female government employees and a ban on government hiring of females, a ban on alcohol, and that the government mandate muslim prayer.  The detention of one of their leaders incensed them. \n Mosaddeggh fled, and barricaded himself in his house. \n Now, admittedly, the CIA and british intelligence did play a role.  They played an important role in the shah's return, and they certainly funded demonstrations and probably most of mosaddeggh's opponents...  basically everyone at this point. \n But it was ayatollahs kashani and kohmeini that were leading the anti-mosaddeggh protests as mosaddeggh was trapped in his house. \n In the iranian military, for instance, the CIA had only managed to turn one person, zaheidi, who had also probably previously been turned by british intelligence, and zaheidi didn't have a single supporter in the army.  Not a single private. \n But large parts of the military too had turned against mosaddeggh. \n The \"evil americans overthrew an honest iranian democracy\" narrative is weirdly flattering to american hubris.  It has a sort of planet of the apes thing going for it where they accepted a western jeffersonian democracy, and then the all powerful cia destroyed it.  And it has certainly, I believe, been promoted by kohmeini and his followers to scapegoat the US. \n People talk about the marxist tudeh party, and some people are eager to defend mosaddeggh as being against the communists, and that seems to be true.  As PM mosaddeggh seems to have tried to woo tudeh members with sort of compromise policies trying to buy them with concessions. \n Now, specifically, the religious groups, which were an important force, seem to have been divided into 3 groups.  There were traditionalists, and kashani and kohmeini represented a more radical group.  So while kohmeini didn't control the entire religious bloc he controlled an important part of it, and certainly had significant influence in the events, and personally led the protests that were instrumental in the downfall of mosaddeggh.  Now, as I've said, the CIA did play a small role.  They probably funded kashania, who it seems had marxist leanings, and they seem to have basically bought crowds of protesters, which was probably fairly standard practice in iranian politics.  And they did play a big role in bringing the shah back to iran.  But the whole CIA coup myth is, well,  A: factually totally wrong.  The shah and mosaddeggh had been jockying for position since the day mosaddeggh was elected, and the shah legitimately (as far as I can tell) dismissed mosaddeggh.  And there's a solid case to be made that kohmeini's role has been grossly downplayed, while the role of the CIA has been grossly overstated.  Particularly to kohmeini's benefit. \n And that, children, is the story of the great satan, and the good witch of the east, ayatollah kohmeini.", "id": "cqklhx0", "summary": "the iranian \"coup\" was not carried out  BY  the shah, it was carried out  AGAINST  the shah, and the americans and the world just watched planet of the apes too many times."}, {"author": "cp5184", "content": "No, they don't. A quick reddit search easily disproves this.\n>>I'm disappointed that discussion surrounding this incident is falling into the same trap of discussing systems and hardware instead of what really matters: people and training. A competent JTAC and a competent BONE aircrew would have prevented this. An inept JTAC working with inept A-10s could have made the same mistake. The platform matters a bit, but the main reason the A-10 is so valuable is that it is NOT good for anything but CAS...so CAS is where training focus is invested. USMC Harrier and Hornet squadrons provide CAS on par with or better than A-10s. (Opinion source: I'm a JTAC-E/patch who has controlled all three, extensively).", "id": "cm8nzh8", "summary": "It's not the platform. It's the people. Humans are more important than hardware. \n Finding a good comparison isn't easy, but it looks like a harrier has roughly half the loitering time, 300 rounds 25mm, and 6 hard points, some probably taken up by external fuel tanks. \n Warthogs have 1,000 rounds of 30mm, and 11 hard points, twice the loiter time, they almost certainly have less need of external fuel stores. \n They don't sound very comparable."}, {"author": "cp5184", "content": "Means, standard deviations and sex difference tests are shown in Table 1. Compared with\nwomen, men scored higher on Dark Triad traits, as well as, short-term mating behaviours\nand attitudes. Men did not show a significantly ( p¼.77) higher preference for seeking\nlong-term mates (M¼3.20, SD¼2.27) than women (M¼3.70, SD¼2.18). \n >Whereas personality psychology has been primarily concerned with documenting traitlevel individual differences among people (e.g. McCrae & Costa, 1997), evolutionary\npsychology has typically been concerned with identifying adaptive, species-typical traits\nand commonalities among peoples (e.g. Buss, 1995). In recent years, these two approaches\nhave been integrated to yield powerful explanations of individual differences (e.g. Buss,\n1991a, 1999; Buss & Greiling, 1999; Figueredo, Sefcek, Vasquez, Brumbach, King, &\nJacobs, 2005). It is via this adaptive individual difference perspective that we will interpret\nour results. \n >Our study indicates a connection between the Dark Triad and more positive attitudes\ntowards casual sex and more casual sex behaviours. To the extent that lifetime number of\nsexual partners is a modern-day marker of reproductive success (Kanazawa, 2003; Nettle,\n2005), and given that the Dark Triad traits are heritable (Vernon, Villani, Vickers, & Harris,\n2008) and exist in different cultures (e.g. Foster et al., 2003), we speculate that these traits\nmay represent one end of a set of individual differences that reflects an evolutionarily stable\nsolution to the adaptive problem of reproduction.", "id": "c1fmmhm", "summary": "no."}, {"author": "cp5184", "content": "In government class I learned that in the US, government isn't the same in every state.  In, for instance the east coast where I am, pretty much the only ballot initiative is a school bond. \n In the north west however, they have hundreds of ballot initiatives.  This provides much more direct representation. \n In the south though, it's just a bill each year raising the minimum sizes of belt buckles, cowboy hats, and increasing the fines for people not playing dressup as faux cowboys. \n no I'm not kidding. \n really \n it's not a joke \n why don't you believe me \n that hurts you know, really hurts", "id": "c0p8l7w", "summary": "move your whiney emo asses to the pacific northwest and stop crying in your microbrew that tastes like shit."}, {"author": "cp5184", "content": "I've been shadowbanned from just /r/creepypms because I commented that someone had posted a very tame pm they'd gotten on a VERY risque site asking about a particular less respected fetish.  So I said, gee, that's a pretty risque site and that's a VERY tame PM, I'm sure you got...  you know...  real creepypms you could post in this subreddit /r/creepypms because that's what this subreddit is about, but you seem to just be making fun of this guy for being polite but going a little off the beaten path.  That comment was deleted because anything that doesn't agree with the poster is banned from the subreddit, and an admin told me that comments like mine could lead to death threats... \n So I make a post about some creep that pm'd me with the subject \"Fetishes I don't share are silly and people that have them are creepy\" saying that someone (me) pm'd me with that subject, with the body saying: \"I just got this pm by someone with some fetish I don't share. I think I'll post it on /r/creepypms and mock people with fetishes I don't share and call him out as a creeper\".  It got shadowbanned in minutes. \n Also /r/whyitsnotcreepy is run by the same admins that run /r/creepypms, it's dead, but they ban anyone that posts why it's not creepy in /r/whyitsnotcreepy.", "id": "cbrpeap", "summary": "mods can shadowban you from a subreddit, and if you join a very risque website you shouldn't look down your nose at other members of that very risque website because they're into different stuff than you are, and you really shouldn't slut shame them in /r/creepypms because they're into different stuff than you are when the creepypms you get from people that share the stuff you're into are...  you know...  actually creepy, and the mods of creepypms are hypocrites. \n *Edit it might just be that they were stalking me and removing every comment I made and every post I made"}, {"author": "cp5184", "content": "Thinking about it more, the way society has structured dating it works out best for sexy looking women. \n It works out pretty good for the guys sexy looking women say yes to. \n It doesn't work out so well for guys like me. \n It works out if anything even worse for girls that don't have bodies like that.", "id": "c0shv1y", "summary": "life's not fair."}, {"author": "cp5184", "content": "Windows has already done this. \n Sort of. \n Oddly enough, Windows NT from '93 was available for many platforms.  MIPS R3000/R4000, and Alpha, with PowerPC, Itanium, AMD64 and ARM. \n These were all basically worthless because no precompiled software was available for any platform other than x86. \n Then microsoft ported windows \"dotNet\" to PowerPC...  The platform Apple used before they switched to intel. \n When microsoft ported many windows components to the powerPC xbox360, they used .net managed code. \n Microsoft's been heavily promoting .net managed code for years and been heavy handedly pushing it on people programming for the windows platform.  For years they've basically been saying that all programming languages for the windows platform (which microsoft controls) that aren't dotnet have been defacto deprecated...  Microsoft totally owns basically every aspect of dotnet. \n So a lot of dot net code has been coming on the market in the last few years. \n So an ARM based windows platform today would have a much better footing than when Microsoft released non x86 windows in '93. \n That said it would still be very difficult. \n As for the performance of ARM, the Arm 9 cortex is supposed to have pretty good performance, but it would probably be pretty noticeable.  They're maybe 50% faster than today's top arm powered mobile devices, and roughly as powerful as Intel's Atom...  which is about as powerful as CPUs that came out in '03.", "id": "c1sywps", "summary": "outlook hazy, try again later."}, {"author": "cp5184", "content": "When scientists attached probes to detect how engorged people's sexual organs got (for women it was blood flow to their genital regions) they showed men and women male female pornography, and all other permutations.  Women as a general population were aroused watching all permutations of porn.  Men as a general population only became aroused when watching male/female porn.", "id": "c1lx14c", "summary": "it's normal as people of her gender haven't been conditioned by society to reject homosexuality."}, {"author": "cp5184", "content": "The best teacher I've ever had was my 7th grade math teacher who stuck set notation, sequences and series and integration into 7th grade math.  That said, I think in the US math classes don't teach students how to do math, but how to be math teachers.  Great mathematicians aren't the ones that can ace tests, they're the one that understand math the best, and great math students aren't ones that can ace tests,they're the ones that can best apply math to practical situations, or even abstract situations. \n Every year when one national newspaper includes an article about education in the paper, my old teacher is quoted saying basically the same thing, that courses are being watered down so that todays students can be turned into calculators.  But the drive is not to deliver a better education to students, but to turn them into better test takers.", "id": "c1hibh0", "summary": "I think the way math is taught in the US is fundamentally wrong, and grading in all subjects could be improved."}, {"author": "cp5184", "content": "I watched a few minutes of it.  Other then the guy taking about Uncle Tom's Cabin, pretty much all I saw were black people saying that Obama wasn't distancing himself enough from George W. Bush. \n I notice this was posted in the Libertarian reddit, and again I'm going to have to tell you to READ YOUR FUCKING CONSTITUTIONS. \n I promise you it's not", "id": "c0oh1xg", "summary": "Really."}, {"author": "cp5184", "content": "Bienvenue a mont magic\n>>Now go home! \n >Democracy is non negotiable \n >Death is a preferable alternative to communism \n >Tactical assessment: Red Chinese victory; Impossible \n >Embrace democracy or you will be eradicated \n Guybrush: I’m looking for 30 dead guys and one woman.\nCannibal: I don’t think I want to hear any more about it. \n\nElaine Marley: Let’s face it, LeChuck. You are an evil, foul-smelling, vile, codependent villain and that’s just not what I’m looking for in a romantic relationship right now.\nLeChuck: Darn yer riddles, ya saucy female! What d’ya mean? \n\nCortana: Sleep well?\nMaster Chief: No thanks to your driving, yes.\nCortana: So you did miss me.\n\nCortana: Now would be a VERY good time to leave! \n\n343 Guilty Spark: Odd. That wasn't supposed to happen.\nCortana: Oh, Really?\nMaster Chief: Cortana!\nCortana: I spent the last 12 hours cooped up in here, watching you toady-about helping that Thing get set to slit our throats.\nMaster Chief: Hold on now, he's a friend.\nCortana: Oh, I didn't realize! He's your pal, is he? Your chum? Do you have any idea what that bastard almost made you do!?\nMaster Chief: Yes, activate Halo's defenses and destroy the Flood, which is why we brought the Index to the control center.\nCortana: You mean this?\n343 Guilty Spark: A construct? In the core? That is absolutely unacceptable!\nCortana: Sod off!\n343 Guilty Spark: What impertinence- I shall purge you at once!\nCortana: You sure that's a good idea?\n343 Guilty Spark: How- How dare you! i'll-\nCortana: Do what!? I have the Index. You can just float and sputter!\nMaster Chief: Enough! The Flood is spreading, if we activate Halo's defenses, we can wipe them out.\nCortana: You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the Forunners built it? Halo doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever! We are all equally edible. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death, and that's exactly what Halo is designed to do, wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life! You don't believe me? Ask him!\nMaster Chief: Is it true?\n343 Guilty Spark: More or less. Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective radius of 25,000 light years, but once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or at least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the Flood. But, you already knew that. I mean, how couldn't you?\nCortana: Left out that little detail, did he?\n343 Guilty Spark: We have followed outbreak containment procedure to the letter. You were with me each step of the way as we managed this crisis.\nCortana: Chief, I'm picking up movement.\n343 Guilty Spark: Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done?\nCortana: We need to go, right now!\n343 Guilty Spark: Last time, you asked me, if it were my choice, would I do it? Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed. There is no choice. We must activate the ring.\nCortana: Get us out of here.\n343 Guilty Spark: If you are unwilling to help, I will simply find another. Still, I must have the Index. Give your construct to me, or I will be forced to take it from you.\nMaster Chief: That's not going to happen!\n343 Guilty Spark: So be it. [To the Sentinels] Save his head; dispose of the rest.", "id": "c1mh2sx", "summary": "Float and sputter\" \n Master Chief: You told me there wouldn't be any cameras.\nSergeant Johnson: And you told me you were going to wear something nice! Folks need heroes, Chief; they give 'em hope. So smile, would'ya? While we still got somethin' to smile about! \n\nCortana: You look nice.\nMaster Chief & Sergeant Johnson (simultaneously): *Thanks*\n\nCortana: I know what you're thinking, and it's crazy.\nMaster Chief: So... stay here.\nCortana: Unfortunately for us both... I like crazy. \n\nCortana: The message just repeats. Regret, regret, regret.\nCommander Keyes: Catchy. Any idea what it means?\nSergeant Johnson: \"Dear humanity, we regret being alien bastards. We regret coming to Earth. And we most definitely regret that the Corps just blew up our raggedy ass fleet!\"\nMarines (simultaneously): HOORAH!\n\nCortana: Thanks for the tank. He [Master Chief] never gets me anything.\n\nSergeant Johnson: Oh, I know what the ladies like!\n\nTitle: **Ladies like superior firepower**"}, {"author": "cp5184", "content": "Spent a few hours getting past the archers, thought I might pass on some stuff I learned. \n This is mostly about the part with the two archers and the batwings but also some other stuff. \n You can run right up to the archer on the right. \n Some tips on that strategy: \n I used the zweihander to stagger the silver knight.  Oh, general advice, get the two smith boxes before you go to anor londo.  So I tried the zweihander, it was doing about 1/3rd the damage my club was doing, but then I reinforced it to +5 and it was OK.  So use a +5 or more zweihander. \n Another tip is that when you're running up the narrow parts, serpentine.  The batwings have this gold bolt ranged attack.  They can't hit you if you zig zag, going left and right as you run down the buttresses. \n Now some more general advice. \n If you're fighting the bat wings, use the crystal shield, or just use some new game +20 end game uber boss shield with good lightning resistance. \n An easy way to single out one of the huge shield door guards is to run past them and then right through the door to the right to that side platform between the guards and the bat wings.  One guard will follow you there.  If you stay on that platform but keep your distance from the guard the guard ignores you I think, but the closer you get to the guard the more likely he is to pursue you. \n When you're on the roof with the silver knights, there are parts where the left archer can shoot you in the back.  You want to be running on the roof, and your best bet is to roll .  Their bow draw takes a while, so you have a lot of time, don't roll too early. \n Oh, a good strategy I found for the bat wings.  There's the one on the center.  Take him last.  He's easy for melee because he jumps back a lot, and he's right by the edge.  So just block his attacks and hit him a few times and he'll suicide backwards off the ledge. \n So do him last. \n You can get the other two with ranged attacks, or just go by the bannister near them and approach them slowly and they'll activate one at a time. \n The strategy for the two on the sides was to get them up to the top of the stars, then get them to go another step or two, then circle them counter clockwise and box them into the corner at the top of the stairs and then just wail on them.", "id": "t3_4kbe0r", "summary": "fuck that whole thing with a rusty lightning spike"}]}
+{"author": "lastresort09", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Purposely living in ignorance and then being surprised at how we have lost our liberties as a country is just upsetting.", "output": "See I am not telling you that you should have paid more attention. It is true, you should have and so should have everyone else. However, what I dislike are people that go around saying you are nut case when you try to tell them these things and people who just ignore what you say, and then show surprise when these things topics become more popular. \n A lot of people just avoid the topic because they have other things to do. They just don't care or live in ignorance. I mean look at how things are right now. Almost anyone who even pays the slightest attention, will learn about what NSA is doing. Yet who is doing anything about it? People mostly all say... \"hey I have other things to do\" or generally don't care to know about it. This is the same attitude of living in ignorance that creates these problems. \n People are choosing to live in ignorance because they feel like they can just ignore it and it won't effect them. People think politics isn't a topic that they are interested in and so should be able to just not talk about it. These people are living in ignorance and don't care about what's going on around them. And what do I see these people doing instead? Posting stuff about tv shows, movies, and partying. Really? Choosing ignorance is a completely different thing from unfortunately missing out on something. \n Also when people constantly post things about how certain people's liberties are being taken away, most people don't care because it is not them. These kind of selfish ways of thinking is what makes us ignore all the devious things that our country does behind our back. Most Americans know absolutely nothing about our foreign policy or any of the crazy stuff our government does. \n It's your duty to vote by informing yourself but these people go and vote without educating themselves about all of these topics. They vote based on superficial topics and that's what got us here."}], "user_id": "longlamp_12122", "history": [{"author": "lastresort09", "content": "I've always noticed a dualism in that, society matters but the individual matters as well. Society is made up of individuals and with no individuals, there's no society. \n I have left room for that already in my sub. Society has to accept and support individuality, because individual brings new ideas, new ways of thinking, and creativity in the society, i.e. led by their curiosity, which could translate into jobs and better things for the society. So yes I do focus on society and cooperation, but I also focus on the importance of supporting individuality and allowing people the freedom to form their opinions and experience what it is be human in their own ways. \n >Yet Sometimes the entity must compete with other entities for resources. It's not one or the other but combinations of the two. \n That is also acknowledged by my sub. I am only against competition against other individuals, but I am fully supportive of competition between businesses, because they undeniably create better products. \n If you have any other scenarios of where I have missed something, let me know. It is harder for me to discuss this in great detail without writing a lot about it, and so I often explain the simple form of it, and answer questions when people raise them. Although do tell me if you see other areas that I have missed, and so I will be better able to learn what issues such a system would face in reality. \n >I just can't ignore the fact that we still harbor a brain the evolved in the animal world. And simply flipping the switch isn't an easy task. \n LIke I said before, we have evolutionarily taken the step towards flipping the switch. However, our education system and culture don't realize this about our history and don't realize that this is one of the strong reasons why we are better than animals. So if we focus too much on survival of the fittest mindset, then we will in fact be de-evolving. We have learned the importance of working together and our world is a result of this, and yet we continue to hold on to outdated ways of thinking based on what we perceive animals to be doing. We shouldn't be learning from animals but learning from our own history. If you do believe there are reasons to compete with other individuals, do share those cases. People like Einstein, Tesla, Da Vinci, Newton, etc all worked on their own without competition (led by their own curiosity) and didn't work to profit from it. \n > I simply define village as a smaller entity, rather than the entire world. I do not assume the entire world holds the same values as my family does, therefore I will no include their world view in raising my Daughter. \n You should check out this [article](", "id": "cgmk2bu", "summary": "Bigger brains correlate with bigger social groups. Monkeys have ability to form groups as big as 50, and bigger brains like us human beings, have the ability to form groups as big as 150. It seems predictable that if we are to progress further, it is important to start thinking of bigger groups, than smaller ones. \n > It's gonna be real hard to foster cooperation between a moderate American like myself and an Islamist extremist because we hold radically different values. \n I understand that, and that's why there are some ground rules that must be set in order to build a society such as this - don't impose one's own will onto others. The reason we have all these conflicts is mainly because we wish others to live in ways that we perceive is best for them, and that can only result in more wars and acts of aggression, just so you can force it on them."}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "I think this is a great idea... however: \n >Then, each subreddit mods (I want to work with everyone on this, since I help in both) should not discourage any mentions of the other subreddit, and embrace the existence of each other for what they are. \n How exactly are you going to enforce this when the EPS constantly downvotes users who mention /r/Paul to the people who seem to be frustrated with the trolls at /r/ronpaul ? They have already claimed that we are \"spamming\" by suggesting this subreddit to other Ron Paul supporters. \n These are a bunch of people who downvote anything that would empower the movement and what makes you think they won't limit people from moving over? \n Considering the fact that /r/ronpaul has most of the Ron Paul supporters and subscribers that are on Reddit than /r/paul ... it is clear that we should be able to advertise to those that wish to be in a more well moderated subreddit. \n Subscribers are really important to keep this movement going, and considering we only have about 3% of subscribers when compared to /r/ronpaul (829/24,130), this is an issue. \n It is almost like we are starting from scratch after making a successful subreddit just because the mod there is not doing his job. If anything, they should be the ones starting from scratch and we should be able to keep the subreddit with the most subscribers... however, that clearly isn't going to happen. \n Now if anything... all this does is give EPS the upperhand as we can no longer go to that subreddit to discuss issues about Ron Paul (considering the fact that most Ron Paul supporters are there and we would be getting the largest response from supporters there than the 1-2 comments here because of the much smaller audience).", "id": "c6cv84d", "summary": "So in short, this isn't much of a solution. We would still have to go there to spread Ron Paul's ideas and advertise this subreddit... and this new change is going to make EPS just downvote us even more and troll harder since now if we just show up in /r/ronpaul it also means that we are inviting discussions from them... which is not always true since we could just be posting there for the much larger audience. \n We are told to start from scratch without actually having a strong reason behind it than not being able to control EPS from ruining that subreddit. I know this is hard for you find a solution but frankly we should be at least be able to advertise /r/Paul there without being downvoted heavily and no, just advertising it in the sidebar does not work at all. Many of us don't even look there."}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "X post from /r/paul so the mods actually see this. \n I think this is a great idea... however: \n >Then, each subreddit mods (I want to work with everyone on this, since I help in both) should not discourage any mentions of the other subreddit, and embrace the existence of each other for what they are. \n How exactly are you going to enforce this when the EPS constantly downvotes users who mention /r/Paul to the people who seem to be frustrated with the trolls at /r/ronpaul ? They have already claimed that we are \"spamming\" by suggesting this subreddit to other Ron Paul supporters. \n These are a bunch of people who downvote anything that would empower the movement and what makes you think they won't limit people from moving over? \n Considering the fact that /r/ronpaul has most of the Ron Paul supporters and subscribers that are on Reddit than /r/paul ... it is clear that we should be able to advertise to those that wish to be in a more well moderated subreddit. \n Subscribers are really important to keep this movement going, and considering we only have about 3% of subscribers when compared to /r/ronpaul (829/24,130), this is an issue. \n It is almost like we are starting from scratch after making a successful subreddit just because the mod there is not doing his job. If anything, they should be the ones starting from scratch and we should be able to keep the subreddit with the most subscribers... however, that clearly isn't going to happen. \n Now if anything... all this does is give EPS the upperhand as we can no longer go to that subreddit to discuss issues about Ron Paul (considering the fact that most Ron Paul supporters are there and we would be getting the largest response from supporters there than the 1-2 comments here because of the much smaller audience).", "id": "c6cwfwf", "summary": "So in short, this isn't much of a solution. We would still have to go there to spread Ron Paul's ideas and advertise this subreddit... and this new change is going to make EPS just downvote us even more and troll harder since now if we just show up in /r/ronpaul it also means that we are inviting discussions from them... which is not always true since we could just be posting there for the much larger audience. \n We are told to start from scratch without actually having a strong reason behind it than not being able to control EPS from ruining that subreddit. I know this is hard for you find a solution but frankly we should be at least be able to advertise /r/Paul there without being downvoted heavily and no, just advertising it in the sidebar does not work at all. Many of us don't even look there."}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "They don't really have any power over that. \n Seriously, people are getting mad at mods like mods are gods or something. They have very limited data to go on, and very limited power over this. There is no way of knowing what specific accounts are downvoting or upvoting. If this was possible, then that's something they could work with. \n So all we know is that downvotes are happening and there is nothing we can do to prevent it because we can't connect it to any accounts. The only thing they can do is make sure that those trolls don't screw up the comments, and tell people to go to /new/ and upvote posts that are getting heavily downvoted. \n What else do you want them to do? If you have no other suggestions but you are just taking your anger out on mods, then I don't know what good that will do here at all. \n Want to make another reddit? I am 100% on board with this. If not, this is the fucked up situation, and we have to solve this the only way we can - by browsing /new/.", "id": "cgits87", "summary": "Let's seriously stop getting on the mods asses for this. They have no control over it."}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "I have actually had some success there but it is definitely not easy when almost everyone is against you. There are still some Paul supporters there and I hope there are other people who do upvote such posts about Ron Paul without being a fan. \n Some of it is our fault. There are random posts made by Paul fans that just state \"Ron Paul 2012\" and those never really help. But, of course most of the downvotes come from Obama fans that are still in denial or just from strong democrats. \n They also tend to hate people who say \"/r/ronpaul\" anywhere in the post, so avoid that. Regardless, not many Paul supporters go there sadly and so even though I see many Paul supporters saying the right thing and getting downvoted - all I can do is give them a single upvote. \n Sadly we don't have much hope there because of the downvotes... even though that's a good place to spread his message. I believe there are a lot of Paul supporters and so if we were all subscribed there then we could in fact fight it... but it is going to take us all to make a change.", "id": "c46w3ed", "summary": "I support this."}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "There is chance that people who are predisposed to schizophrenia might not get that particular trigger in their lives. Environment plays a huge role and what you are claiming seems more like \"damned if you do, damned if you don't\" because it is bound to happen as it is in your genes and it underestimates the environment's role. \n Ref: \n There is a good chance that you might not get the trigger for schizophrenia if you are smart about it and so you shouldn't just take environment out of the equation by claiming that \"it seem extremely likely to have it triggered by something at some point in their lives.\" You can prevent it if you avoid particular environmental triggers and that is something that is important to understand. \n That's a bit pessimistic, especially since a lot of people depend on that hope of avoiding enviromental trigger. I know people are pro-pot but that doesn't mean we should let our opinions stop us from making scientifically accurate statements and conclusions.", "id": "c2yr84v", "summary": "The glass is not half empty."}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "Yes, but for good reason. First of all, it is important to understand that Ron Paul holds certain beliefs, but he is sane enough to understand that there are priorities like Ending the Fed, lowering our Debts, bringing troops back, etc that need to be done right away. His plan in office would be to get these tasks completed and his views such as separation of Church and state only come second to all these main issues. \n That being said, as you may know, Ron Paul places personal liberty high above everything else. The role of the Federal government under Ron Paul is to help defend these liberties and definitely not to restrict our rights. So therefore, they cannot enforce a separation of Church as that would be interfering with the people's right to express their religions. \n However, [he himself as stated that his religion will not influence his decisions.]( \n So what does this all mean? He doesn't want one person's beliefs restrict the choices of another or influence the laws that are being passed... which is what separation of Church and State was supposed to do. So in that respect, he still seems to believe in separation of Church and State. \n However, there are other things under the separation of Church and state that are restricting the people's liberties. For example, a couple of years back... a christmas tree in a state office was taken down because an atheist said it violated the separation of Church and state. A Christmas tree in an office isn't going to affect the laws but the separation of Church and State was used to restrict the expression of religion in state offices... which wasn't what it was initially meant to do.  Similarily, a Christian sign on a state road was taken down using the separation of Church and State. Separation of Church and state was only meant to keep religion out of law making but now it has expanded to restrict freedom of religion in government offices. \n Also, getting rid of this will change a lot of things. In history, church played a big role in providing education, shelters, healthcare for people, \nand by getting rid of the separation - there will be a lot more of this. People who don't want any thing to do with the Church can also create other alternative education centers, shelters, etc and are not forced to use the Church's resources.", "id": "c3twwxd", "summary": "Ron Paul is against separation of Church and State because it restricts the freedom of the people... but he still believes that his beliefs of religion shouldn't influence the decisions he makes in office - which is what separation of Church and State was actually meant to do."}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "Some of the things that you mention are not actually his views but I am glad you mentioned so now I can actually tell you the truth. I will try to do this in the order that you wrote them. \n He is not an isolationist but a non-interventionist. There is a big difference between the two. He wants to completely get out of all those things because it is mainly unconstitutional. He is not against aid, or military presence in foreign countries but only against it because right now what we did is illegal. He wants to basically get out of everywhere and cut the aid, so that he can start from scratch. He wants to do it all according to the constitution and declare war before going into foreign countries. This is the sane thing to do. You make a good point that we must be a global society and help others since we are super power but Ron Paul wants to first reduce our 14 trillion debt before we do things like that. Currently, we have a welfare system, foreign aid and high military spending... but where is all this money coming from? If we have to reduce our debt - we have to decrease spending and these are the areas were we spend the most. You cannot both be a welfare state with military bases all around the world, and still have a sound economy. So it is important to choose which one is more important to you. Would you rather see the downfall of USA as it won't be able to pay back its debts or reduce the debt by stopping this unnecessary aid and military spending so that the future generation will still have a stable economy? Also, Ron Paul wants to stop the fight with Cuba and start trading with them and talking to them - that is more of the global society you are talking about and that is definitely not isolationism. I personally believe that we should declare wars constitutionally whenever a country is trying to take over other countries (like with Germany during WWII) but not intervene in the issues within a country. Remember that all this thing with Iran started when we kicked out a \"democratically\" elected leader in Iran and placed a puppet that agreed with us... this is story behind why Iran hates us - their country is in chaos since that time in history and it is because of us. \n He is not pro-regulation for people. Yes, he doesn't believe in abortion but it doesn't matter. Why? He wants states rights. This means his views on abortion or gays (federal) has nothing to do with your personal rights and will not affect it one bit. He even stated that he is not running for President to control more things in your life but to limit his own power. State rights is much better because your voice is more likely heard at state level more than at federal level. So gay right legalization can happen in those states that want it to happen and Ron Paul is not planning to restrict any of that. He is only against tax credits to gay couples because he wants to get rid of the idea of tax credits all together even from married couples - so that is him being consistent with his views. \n He is not against immigration... only against illegal immigration. As a legal immigrant myself, this issue is certainly important to me. I had to wait roughly 10 years+ to get into this country and when people just jump borders - it definitely seems unfair and even angers to me. Ron Paul only wants to restrict illegal immigration and he even wants to make legal immigration easier so that people like me can come over with less effort. The American Dream still holds for people like me and people like Ron Paul makes sure that legal immigrants are fairly treated. \n I understand what you mean about welfare and I personally had issues with this too. However, I realize that you cannot both reduce debt and keep handing out money either. The money for the welfare comes from the income tax of people and inflation... and therefore it is unfair to the people that work hard to earn the money. Also, it is important to realize that without a welfare system people would be more willing to help the poor than what we see these days. Now all the work is on the government because they took up that job. Churches and wealthy people use to help out the poor but now that the government took over theat role, and they no longer have to help out. Also the welfare system is really corrupted with people taking advantage of it. [Medicaid and SS are also terrible things]( \n Now about unions... I will just quote someone as a response:\n>The truth is that Ron Paul is not against labor unions. Clearly he personally has a distaste for labor unions, but he has made it clear that he politically opposes federal government regulation and control with labor unions, which has monkey'd with the system. Instead of allowing the open and free competition between businesses, employees and states, the federal government has made it so that unions are monopolized by their leaders. Not to mention, most labor unions are self defeating and the workers don't get the same representation or benefits they wanted when they signed up in the first place. \n >Ron Paul's main stance on labor unions, which follows in line with nearly everything else, is that it should be regulated and organized by the states. The constitution never enumerated that the federal government should have any power over labor unions, and not even the commerce clause can make it so. Paul believes that the states and the people should have the ultimate power over unions.\" \n Ron Paul is unwillinging to compromise only because he hasn't heard better ideas from either side... which is definitely true. He has build his ideas over many years and they are sound - that is why more and more republican candidates are accepting his ideas as their own. \n He wants to get rid of the bipartisan system all together because he doesn't want people to stick to either extreme. He wants more individual voters who aren't just sticking to their parties and actually choosing what is good for the country. So if anything, you idea of taking ideas from both sides is only done by Ron Paul. All the republicans speak ill about Obama and democrats all the time and Ron Paul doesn't do that. He is against war (democrat), and a conservative (republican), so if anything he is the one that fits your picture of \"making a better deal by combining the two\". The republicans don't want him because he isn't really a republican but a liberterian. He doesn't belong in either of the groups and that's a great thing about him. He does what is good for our country and not just according to his political party.", "id": "c3txypg", "summary": "His ideas are not exactly what you think it might be."}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "Ok even though I agree with this guy on the most part... it is not entirely true. \n I am a guy and I have tons of asian friends who are girls... for some reason I keep making friends with them. Also, I am not at all interested in asian girls for some reason... and I guess that is partially the reason I don't feel intimidated to be friends with them. \n Also to add, I wouldn't even have sex or make out if I had the chance because I really am not interested.", "id": "c36fwfr", "summary": "Yes, you can be friends with them if they are not your type."}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "Sure many times. I think it is one of the oldest ideas. In fact, I believe that human societies were built on this very idea and wouldn't have been possible without it. The reason you don't see animal societies of the scale that we have now with human beings, is partly due to the fact that they haven't cared enough to work with groups that they are not directly related through blood ([Source]( \n So I believe that we took a step towards working together and cooperating with one another evolutionarily, and that's what helped us reach greater heights than what we could have managed to do in one life time. People took care of the job of providing the basic necessities of life, which allowed others to pursue greater and better things. Even now you see the same concept as our food, clothes, cars, etc are made by others, and that allows us to focus on other areas of innovation. We are different and better than animals, because we learned to work globally (also we have higher intelligence, opposable thumbs, etc). \n This is all backed by science too. I can go into much more detail about how this kind of mindset played a huge role in our development, and how it directly ties to why we formed societies in the beginning. However, I won't bore you with the science behind it if you don't want me to. \n Needless to say, it didn't end there. The idea was reintroduced again and again. Why? Because people kept forgetting it. Our quest for money made us selfish and made us believe that we don't really actually need to work with one another. Money was a tool to get us working together, but even if we didn't invent money, this is a concept is so important that we should have taken the time to understand. I mean it helped us get to explore into space, and create some wonderful things - sadly it was done in the name of money and not by understanding that we need to work together to make these things happen. \n I know it is already long so I will cut it short: There are others that revolutionized our minds with these ideas through time - for example, religion. Jesus Christ taught us the same message, and later Buddha taught us the same message. Help one another and cooperate because that is the only way forward. The reason why I feel the need to bring it up again? Because we have forgotten about it, and we are wasting away our resources and damaging the world, and not to mention killing off each other. We will either destroy the world while we pursue our selfish interests, or we will end up in a nuclear warfare, just so we can get more money in our pocket.", "id": "cgdwrx2", "summary": "Yes it has been tried many times and it is the only thing that keeps allowing us to move forward."}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "Here is the basic story of how we helped create Al Qaeda from Hillary Clinton itself]( If that isn't clear, the basic idea is that we armed and aided the growth of Al Qaeda as a means to attack Soviet Union. Soviet Union collapsed, and then Al Qaeda turned against us.... using the same guns that we gave them. \n In Syria we support the Free Syrian Army. The FSA has been tied to Al Qaeda and that's mainly the reason why US has only been providing non-military aid so far to the Syrian rebels, because they want to avoid the rebels from turning against the US after all this is done. The FSA is still a little better than the Al-Nusra Front, which is an Al Qaeda affliated terrorist group in Syria. However, FSA is constantly losing members to Al-Nusra Front. \n [Source.](", "id": "cay3qp0", "summary": "Here is another source that explains the entire story, [a video made by one of the last good journalists - Ben Swann]( \n However, the CIA has been secretly providing them arms without letting the US citizens know, as a lot of people who know about this, would object to this entire idea. [Source]( \n President Assad is mainly bad because the US doesn't want him, but in reality the FSA that is planning to take over is actually worse. FSA constantly tortures regular citizens and there are plenty of their videos all over the internet. This was similar to the situation that happened in Libya too. The Libyan Rebel Army had [a similar story]( as we were also funding and helping Al Qaeda there. \n I hope it is clear now... if you need more info on something, let me know."}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "He represents our founding fathers and stands with the constitution all the way. Everything he talks about is from the constitution but people still disagree with it. \n If you don't want to vote him for his beliefs, consider this. There is basically Mitt or Ron Paul who is going to win the primary. If Mitt wins the primary, he won't win against Obama. He has republican votes but democrats will not support him when they have Obama. Mitt's history is seriously bad and all the bad campaigning that is going on will make it easy for Obama to target those. Mitt considers corporations as people, lost lots of jobs, flip-flops, etc. So if Mitt wins, Obama wins the election guaranteed. \n On the other hand if it is Ron Paul, he already has the votes of independents and democrats. Democrats don't feel like they are giving up their values by voting for Ron Paul and can see him as a better alternative to Obama.", "id": "c3hoecd", "summary": "Imagine Mitt debating with Obama. Now picture Ron Paul debating with Obama... who do you think is going to get the most votes of republicans, democrats, independents, undecided, etc against Obama?"}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "Actually you are wrong there. It's alright because most Americans believe this doesn't happen anymore but it's far from the truth. \n For example, in Syria we support the Free Syrian Army. The FSA has been tied to Al Qaeda and that's mainly the reason why US has only been providing non-military aid so far to the Syrian rebels, because they want to avoid the rebels from turning against the US after all this is done. The FSA is still a little better than the Al-Nusra Front, which is an Al Qaeda terrorist group. However, FSA is constantly losing members to Al-Nusra Front. \n [Source.]( \n Here is another source that explains the entire story, [a video made by one of the last good journalists - Ben Swann]( \n However, the CIA has been secretly providing them arms without letting the US citizens know, as a lot of people who know about this, would object to this entire idea. [Source]( \n Assad is mainly bad because the US doesn't want him, but in reality the FSA that is planning to take over is actually worse. This was similar to the situation that happened in Libya too. The Libyan Rebel Army had [a similar story]( as we were also funding and helping Al Qaeda there.", "id": "cay0iyj", "summary": "We still continue to support Al Qaeda and the lady is definitely right. However, she is wrong about implying we do that in Egypt, because it doesn't seem like we are... but she is right about US funding terrorists."}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "Think about it this way... democracy = majority rules. The smaller the crowd, the more likely that your voice will be heard. \n Federal Laws-> for the entire country\nState Laws -> for the state \n Look at what the government is doing right now- NDAA, ACTA, etc. So if you are going to say that the local government is bad... you should at least compare it to the other choices you have. Federal government is much worse and so giving the power to the fed is not helping our situation - it is making it much worse. \n That's like saying you can't smoke weed legally in US and so you are moving to middle east. That's making it worse, not better.", "id": "c3mxiix", "summary": "You are more likely to be heard on state level than federal and if you wife thinks it is bad now with the state government, then she needs to check out how it is much worse under federal government."}, {"author": "lastresort09", "content": "Important that the author of  this post  read this. \n Sadly what the author of this thread stated is not true and I wish I had seen that thread earlier. You can check my previous posts and see that I am a Ron Paul supporter... so I am not an EPS troll.  I hope the people who read this thread will read this before debating with others.  It is important to fact check, or our original argument might otherwise seem flawed to others. I am making a thread instead of replying in that thread because I wanted to make sure you guys saw this. \n I am mainly disagreeing with this statement :\n>...a \"not present\" vote is the same exact thing as a \"nay\" vote. There is no difference. Only the \"yeas\" are counted. Use this knowledge to quickly destroy such threads/truth-bomb minds. \n This is why that is wrong:\n> Both houses require a QUORUM (majority) of its members to be present for a vote. PASSAGE OF A BILL generally requires a majority vote by the members present. \n ref: \n This is the same rule that is followed in both houses when they are attempting to override a President's veto:\n>Congressional procedure and tradition, not the Constitution, have determined that\na vote of two-thirds of either or both houses of Congress means a vote of two-thirds of\nthose Members present and voting (provided there is a quorum) and not, as is the practice\nin some states, two-thirds of those elected. \n ref:", "id": "t3_swzvi", "summary": "It would have been better if Ron Paul had voted Nay instead of not voting."}]}
+{"author": "moosemoomintoog", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post took acid, kinda freaked, called 911 \n EDIT: for clarity", "output": "In 1980-something I took acid and then an hour later took more because it wasn't working... coff... and I thought my roommate was going to be around but he ended up going out so I was alone in the apartment tripping balls and I panicked and called 911.  Ended up in the hospital for 6 hours sleeping it off and they let me go.  Was no biggie.  As it turns out (and unknown to me at the time) the police won't arrest you for being on drugs, just having them.  And the cop was really nice about it.. told me to walk in to the hospital myself and that it would be better for me if he didn't have to take me in.  To this day I don't know why but he was a good cop."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post the machine is an improvement over traditional methods.", "output": "It's a good idea... guarantees the sample won't be contaminated.  Having been through this, I would have happily fucked the machine.  I had to bring a sample so I had it in the screwcap plastic vial they gave me and a baggie.  The cap came off and so I had this baggie filled with jizz there at the doctors.  Nice.  Then they sent me to the room, and that sucked, because I felt pressured to be quick, and I'm not a quick person.  So like 30 minutes later... anyway, just let me fuck the machine.  Oh... it didn't work."}], "user_id": "longlamp_12792", "history": [{"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "I worked for a company in Hanover Square, about 4 blocks from Ground Zero.  Found out about the first plane literally minutes after it happened.  It was a beautiful day, so my first thought was \"this is no accident.\"  I called my wife and told her I was ok, I was already at work.  I lived in NJ at the time, and commuted through the WTC, but I was already in the office.  I also found out that nobody was able to call into the city at that time.  When the second plane hit, there was no longer any doubt about what was going on.  Those of us in the office already decided that we were going to stick together until we figured out what to do.  We headed outside, you could see the smoke and we were downwind, so we had to use wet paper towels to breathe.  We didn't want to stay outside long.  Emergency services were moving people to Brooklyn, but we decided to head back to the office.  Brooklyn was in the wrong direction.  We already had heard about the people jumping out of windows when the first tower fell.  The ground literally shook.  We thought there was an explosion.  Even 23 stories up, we could hear screaming.  We saw the cloud of smoke and debris weaving between the buildings as it headed for us, and then it was black out for a while.  When it cleared, it was snowing what was probably asbestos.  It was a fine mist.  After the second tower fell, we were done.  It was time to leave the city.  We started calling around again and finally someone said they were running the Staten Island Ferry.  We headed there and someone gave us proper dust masks as we made our way.  I'll never forget the smell, nor could I ever describe it.  When we got to Battery Park, there were tug boats lined up around the Island.  NYC was prepared for this.  They were able to evacuate us to different ports on the Jersey side depending on where we needed to go.  I went to Jersey City with one other co-worker.  When we got there, they hosed us off, gave us water, and people were cheering.  It was really fucked up.  They had busses ready to take us to the train station, and everything was free.  I got home about 3 hours later.  The parking lot was still full... I was one of the first out.", "id": "c5yy7mb", "summary": "I was near Ground Zero on 9/11"}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "I buy a lot of computer equipment and my experiences with DELL have been horrible.  While their computers are generally pretty solid, there are several huge issues I have with them. \n First, 9 out of 10 times if I order someone a DELL, they're going to miss the promised delivery date.  If you order a custom-built server, be prepared to wait up to 3 months for it. \n Second, when you order recovery disks because a client never made disks and their hard drive failed, not only do you have to jump through hoops with technical support to get to the point where they agree to send disks, but again 9 or 10 times they end up sending the disks to the person who originally registered the computer--and charging them.   Obviously the orders get cancelled, but I don't find out about this until a delivery date is missed.  Never have these problems with other hardware manufacturers.", "id": "c89rl6t", "summary": "DELL is awful for the reasons listed above and I hope they can fix it now that they're private."}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "There used to be this game called Sim Earth which was along the lines of Sim City but on a planetary scale.  You would essentially play \"god\" by interfering in ways that either promoted evolution or stasis.  Anyway, you could evolve a species and ultimately they'd leave the planet on space ships.  One time I allowed a civilization to progress to the point of nearly being able to leave the planet and then I sent the asteroids at them.", "id": "cd5zk18", "summary": "I exterminated an entire planet."}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "Yea, I've experienced some confusion with Skydrive as well, but overall It's pretty solid and sharing between PC's on the same account is seamless.  (OT for a sec about that: I think that's one of the things MS did right with Win 8...I can log into my MS account on any machine and many of my settings come with me) \n The Metro app takes some getting used to and it doesn't have all the features that you have in Windows Explorer on the desktop so hopefully that will be built up at some point.  I think the biggest issue that developers have when adapting apps for Win 8 Metro is that you have a limited number of ways that you can touch a screen, whereas with the mouse you have 2 buttons; double, triple and quadruple clicking, plus drag and drop with 2 buttons.  Using a finger you have the same clicking capabilities, but only one virtual mouse button unless you start to introduce multi-finger gestures.", "id": "cd0qtwy", "summary": "It's a user interface issue."}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "As a hiring manager, it was always the questions the candidates asked me that got more of my attention.  It's a window into how they think, how hard of a worker they're going to be, etc.  If a candidate doesn't have a question, that's it for them.  If they ask something along the lines of, \"What can I do in the first 90 days to have the most impact on the organization\" ... well... that's a keeper.", "id": "cey45de", "summary": "Ask good questions.  Now read it, it's not that long."}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "First of many to come because San Berdoo isn't the only city givin' it away.  I'm glad they're not screwing over the people they promised those pensions to because that would be even more wrong than giving someone who works for a few years a fully vested, 100% salary retirement in the first place. But really, talk about your incentive to stay healthy! \n The city I'm in pays 2/3rd of their annual police/fire budget to pensions.  Because, hey, after 20 years on the force you're entitled to full salary for life plus health.  Right?  Nobody seems to care if it's not sustainable.  We just won't put out any more fires or stop the criminals.  Actually it's been both good and bad for me because I can do pretty much any speed I want on the local streets and there are never any cops.  And boy howdy do I drive like an asshole sometimes.  However, unfortunately, my mailbox has been baseball-batted 3 times in the last year and my home broken into once.  But I got me a shotgun now.  So I'm good.  True story.", "id": "c9dybkq", "summary": "It's not so bad."}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "I buy a good amount of electronics and I love refurbished.  Refurbished generally means a customer bought it, opened the box, didn't like it or couldn't get it to work, and returned it.  It could have been broken or not.  So the goods are returned to the manufacturer, and off to Quality Assurance (QA).  Now, in manufacturing, there's generally two QA steps.  Everything gets a once-over.  Then they pull every X number of items, like every 6th one for example, and give those units a more comprehensive QA.  Refurbished equipment always goes through this second type of QA.  If it works, it's reboxed and sold as \"refurbished\".", "id": "c67e0z7", "summary": "refurbished electronics are usually better than new."}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "I'm pushing 50 and the realization that the next decade or so will really suck.  My pets are getting old and dying.   My wife just lost her dad.  My folks are old and will likely lose one this decade.  Friends getting older too...watching them struggle with illness and figuring out how they can possibly retire having seen their savings evaporate.", "id": "c6q3pj3", "summary": "getting old sucks"}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "I'm a lazy man who wants to do the minimum possible to get by.  Unfortunately, I'm also spoiled and like nice things and don't want to have to worry about money.  So I started my own business, which is a lot of hard work but it's also extremely satisfying.  My only regret is having wasted so many years working a corporate job (although I did learn everything I needed to know about running a successful business on the job).", "id": "cbc28zw", "summary": "You can't avoid hard work if you want success.  But that doesn't mean you have to hate working. \n EDIT: I want to add that the definition \"success\" is very subjective, so your mileage may vary."}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "This.  Let's look at where the technology really is:  The cars have trouble with off ramps, snow, rain, and anything else that changes the way a road looks on video.  The current technology uses a combination of sensors (video camera, GPS, and I think IR) to navigate.  You know how those Google cars have been driving around taking pictures of everything?  That was part of this.  The cars use those pictures to see where the road is.  Any changes indicate oncoming cars, pedestrians, road debris, etc.  That's how it works.  So it's not a panacea where you just punch a button, nod off, and arrive at your destination.  You have to take the wheel from time to time. \n edit:", "id": "c9j2d4e", "summary": "driverless cars are more like cruise control on steroids."}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "When I was in my mid-20s I used to hang with this religious singles group.  I totally wasn't religious, but they were nice.  Anyway, the father of one of the guys was a famous cardiologist and had a huge mansion.  The place had an entire floor for servants quarters.  So we were at his house, and nobody was there but us, so we played hide-and-seek.  Two of the guys found a panel in the ceiling on the upper floor and hid up in the attic, we spent 45 minutes looking for them.", "id": "c84fqk1", "summary": "played hide-and-seek in a 20,000 sq.ft. mansion and friends climbed up into ceiling to hide in attic."}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "Back in the 90s, one of my customers was a mortician.  After setting him up, he asked if I wanted to watch him embalm a 90-something year old woman.  Can't pass that up.  So he has her on this metal table, and he was explaining how he had to match the fluid color to her skin pigment so she'd look natural.  He wired her jaw shut, put these blanks under her eyelids, and a few other things I don't remember specifically.  Then the gore of slitting her neck, both jugular and carotid, and pumping in the fluid.  All the coagulated blood and such came out and into a drain at the end of the steel table.  He was also running water down it.  I think she was naked, but her privates were covered.  It was very respectfully done.  There was no joking around or anything.  Anyway, I didn't see him use any plug, but I couldn't stay for the entire process as my girlfriend had a weak stomach.", "id": "c6f3tpp", "summary": "Saw someone embalmed but gf wanted to bail before anything got plugged."}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "Congratulations.  I remember when I got my first \"real\" job, programming for a big chemical company, and how awesome it was to be taking home over $400/wk and only having to pay $125/mo in rent.  Well, I decided that I needed to move out of the ghetto and closer to work so I got a 2 bedroom with a guy I roomed with in college.  Rent was $250 now, but I could still easily afford it.  Needed a new car....$450/mo.  It only took me about 5 years to find myself in debt and living check to check. \n So be careful with the money.  Watch the monthly payments.  Anything with a monthly payment, you don't want it.  You're better off paying thousands once than to have a monthly payment for years.", "id": "cb1lk2h", "summary": "watch your monthly expenses and stay out of debt. \n EDIT:  This was in the late 1980s.  I think I started at $26K programming, but I got to play with bleeding edge technology (voice recognition, AI, UNIX, Windows programming in the early 90s, etc.)"}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "the patterns of consensus on emerging topics would not typically change all that much. We are social creatures after all, and if the majority of our peers are making an interpretation - one that is logical and aligns with our principals - we will tend to subscribe & support those interpretations as well.", "id": "c9j9qog", "summary": "If you don't have the same principles as the author, you're wrong."}, {"author": "moosemoomintoog", "content": "We have a 8ish year old domestic short-hair.  She's always had a sensitive stomach, we've had her since kittenhood.  She eats, but almost always vomits up most of the food she eats.  It's been going on for years, and she's been to several vets and none have been able to find a reason for it--she's normal in every other way it seems.  We've tried feeding her food for cats with sensitive stomachs, high quality food, canned, and even home-prepared.  Nothing stays down.  So today I noticed that the vomit wasn't well chewed and am wondering if she has a tooth problem.  Is that making sense and if not any other ideas?", "id": "t3_1oqcy6", "summary": "Cat throws up all the time, vets stumped.  Any ideas?"}]}
+{"author": "Dragon536", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post It has nothing to do with \"LOLOL So bad this Tyr\" No. It's the teleport. You can do a ton of damage, or take alot of damage, retreat and teleport back every 60 seconds.  Making it near impossible to get a kill without help.", "output": "xD The Solo lane is boring Early game, period.  Mid to late game it gets interesting.  But literally for solo lane, all it is, is farming till like level 7-10. THEN they can gank, but at the same time, risk losing their tower if they use the TP to get to a ward and gank. And if they walk away, the other could potentially follow or just try and take the tower.  Rarely can you ever kill the other in solo lane unless they make a huge mistake (Push out too far to get ganked, ect.ect.) \n So you can say they could use the active for ganking, but right now kills aren't worth much, and a tower is worth more then a kill, so would you really teleport to a ward to get one kill or would you rather defend your tower? \n The meta with teleport has made the solo lane boring. Period. The only time it isn't boring is when the other makes alot of mistakes and you get fed so you can kill him and then rotate. But against high players, that won't happen, it'll usually be a stalemate up until a gank comes in. Which is why (My self as a jungler) Do my best to gank solo so that there is a roamer."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Masteries practically means more experience and understanding of a god. At least is should.", "output": "Masteries means that you simply play the god \n Not entirely true. Chances are if you have 48 Masteries, you SHOULD know the kit of every god/goddess in the game. Because that means you have tried every god, played them and got them leveled (Although I say should this can be counter argued with people just being bad and losing all their games with said god. But I have yet to see anyone with 48 Masteries that CONTINUOUSLY  does bad)"}], "user_id": "longlamp_2009", "history": [{"author": "Dragon536", "content": "Honestly I'm pushing to potentially be a pro player. I'm an asshole. Not necessarily a BM-er. But I am 150% asshole. xD  So I personally think that a professional player can act how they please so long as they understand that some people don't like it. \n Otherwise, why complain about it? It's their personality and I'm sure they would want to change because some people on the internet don't like him, even if it's part of what they do.", "id": "cgphr13", "summary": "They're skill doesn't get effected by their personality. Therefore if they change, it's for fans, otherwise they don't  need  to care."}, {"author": "Dragon536", "content": "Bro, I completely agree, though I'm also on the side of people needing to grow a thicker skin in the sense. \n If someone calls you shit at a game, don't care. I've been through depression for three years now and have had suicidal contemplation and not once has someone BM'ing me caused me to think \"Well gee..Maybe I should just kill mah self cause this random guy told me to.\"  I mean sure it bugs me, but it shouldn't effect anyone because at the end of the day, some idiot blamed you for something that was probably their own fault, so they'll just never increase in sill because they'll always think it's someone else rather than themselves. \n Overall, yeah, it sucks to get BM'd. But to be honest, there is nothing to worry about. Just ignore them because they're assholes who won't improve. Just worry about yourself and push forward and hope you don't see that asshole again. \n Also it could be the cause of one bad game that is pissing them off and trying to take it out on random bad player. \n Not trying to justify BM but I just don't think people should get riled up over \"OMG U SUQZ\"  I mean if they tell you to kill yourself or to get cancer or some serious shit like that, take screenshots, report them directly to Hi-Rez with the screen shots and just get them permabanned. If they're playing League I promise you nothing will anger them more than that because they will lose everything, including the privilege to play League for a very long time (Until they grind all the way to 30 again) And hopefully they will have learned their lesson.", "id": "chea2sa", "summary": "People shouldn't let the opinion of others bother them so much because why should you care about what others online think of you? Though at the same time, don't let them cross the line, if they say something truly hateful Example: \"Go kill yourself fgt\" Take a screen shot and report it to hi-rez they will get banned for hatefulness like this. \n Sorry if this post seemed \"Pro\" BM but I just never understood why it's that big of a deal in my opinion."}, {"author": "Dragon536", "content": "Still think jungler over tank early game. The tank sure does roam, but he can't accomplish what a jungler can damage wise. Plus, a fed jungler means that the jungler on the other team can get underleveled AND he can camp a lane so that is two roles out, in comparison the tank well..He gets an early game kill that the other tank can get from clearing midcamps or something.  I mean, yes it makes sense but I would still put the main ganker at the head of the board since if the jungler gets fed he can keep the other jungler down and that means people will only have to worry about the roaming tank, which can also be shut down by the jungler since he would be fed and the tank would be by himself in the jungle rotating", "id": "cgfq7p1", "summary": "A fed jungler is much more useful than a fed tank due to the fact that he/she can keep people down with his damage, while on the otherhand the tank will only be able to take damage and not deal as much as a fed jungler would."}, {"author": "Dragon536", "content": "I seriously mean no offence when I say this, It's the internet.  # Of people=^ # Of trolls/bad players. That is how the internet works, the more people there are, the more trolls/badplayers are. Sadly you can't do anything about it. Also I put BM'ers in the same category as \"Bad players\" Just because they're attitude is bad.  It's F2P so it has a higher chance of getting more people/trolls/etc.  Your only way to deal with it is to tell the person to calm down and if it's a troll well report him. Can't do much about them though, because most trolls don't care about their accounts so if it gets banned, they'll make a new one. If it gets IP banned. It isn't hard to change your IP manually.  Overall, reports may help with BM'ers. Not so much with trolls. Eventually the Smite community is going to be like LoL's because it's going to get popular. Smite is 1 of a kind by being a 3rd person MOBA.", "id": "cf5tj9z", "summary": "Since it's free to play and popular. The more people that play it, the more trolls it'll attract, and potential bad players. As for the BM'ers, all you can do is tell them to chill, usually that works. Otherwise, BM'ers just rage if you keep arguing, and if you did do a misplay, just apologize and say you fucked up, chances are, he won't say anything afterwards cause it was unexpected."}, {"author": "Dragon536", "content": "So since this seems to be the top \"4v4/5v5 siege\" discussion, then I'll just go ahead and try to explain why some people like 4V4 better. \n Alright, so I see many people ( MANY MANY PEOPLE) say that 5V5 was chaotic and fun.  Now, I feel like one person put this and everyone else just copied their words because to me, that sounds stupid. No one is using their own words as to why 5V5 was better other than \"Chaotic and fun\" Chaotic part? Maybe. Fun?   That is a matter of opinion.  Now, I DM, I know about Juice, I don't watch them, I don't care for them.   This  is strictly my opinion and how I feel about 4v4 \n Now, The change from 5V5 to 4V4 I thought \"Welp, that's gunna fix a lot of problems\" Well, how would it fix said problems Dragon? It sounds like your pulling bullshit out of your ass Dragon. WELL Think about it. 5V5 matchmaking is slightly harder because it's 5 people. Now with 4V4 it's slightly easier to match people up with a good team if you're solo que. Now I have played quite a bit of this game solo que.  It's extremely fun, when I played 5V5 I would get bored  because there would always be 1 person who would feed or just not know what they were doing, in this I feel it is MUCH easier to assist one person messing up. \n To continue, 4V4 has something that no other game type really has. It's 4V4.  Oh shit. MindBlown amirite?  There are a lot of people who ask, beg, and plea for a 4V4 game mode.  Why? Because Conquest you can't, and some people don't like Arena so they're left with assault which is RNG based, so fuck that.  In other words 4V4 is the way for them to get that nice feel of conquest with some fun. \n I feel like people are bashing 4V4 just because some guy said it should be that way. FUCK what that guy said and try it yourself.  5V5 felt too boring because a 4q could report, abuse, and fuck with the solo que. \n The dark truth is, if Siege gets turned back into 5V5. Say goodbye to 4 ques. It's what they did to Conquest. They'll do it for Siege too. So at least give 4V4 a lot of tries, with friends, by yourself, etc.  It isn't that bad, and it's a new option that people can enjoy.  If you read all this, awesome, thanks, this seems kinda lengthy, if you just downvoted, awesome, thanks, this seems kinda lengthy ;D", "id": "chvyqlm", "summary": "Try out 4V4 more. If not they'll give it the conquest treatment and not allow 4Ques."}, {"author": "Dragon536", "content": "It depends on the person you go against in lane. So  TECHNICALLY  he is better in jungle since you can't always predict who you'll be laning against. If Loki gets put against a bruiser who can burst him down whilst building defense, then Loki will be shut down and thus be put down and be forced to be carried until late game where he can TRY and help. While in the jungle, he has little worry since he can farm, gank with ease, and usually outbox the other jungler throughout the whole game, especially if you have teammates who pay attention.", "id": "cfp3hyb", "summary": "He's a great laner if you KNOW who you're going against, otherwise it's practically high risk, high reward."}, {"author": "Dragon536", "content": "Sadly to say our webdesigner (Yes only one person working on it) had lack of power so thus, he could not work on the project. Note:He isn't getting paid for this so it's not like we would (Or would want to) scold him for that. Everything we do, we do not get paid to do it, so of course there will be problems and delays due to this. We have high ambitions and it's hard to follow up with everything with no money to work with. So we apologize as a group that we have no been able to do this for people. people ask me consistently when the website will be up to find a team/make a team, so it hurts to say it isn't ready yet, but it is out of our control. All we can do is hope it will be done soon.", "id": "cfknoex", "summary": "we are an un-funded project, so things are bound to go wrong, thus we can't give an exact date for anything. We can only give when we assume it'll be done and hope it works out. Sorry for making everyone wait."}, {"author": "Dragon536", "content": "My thoughts on Nu Wa? \n It could be arguable that she is good in the right hands, sure. But the fact that other god/goddess can be played easier makes her fail almost every time. When I see a Nu Wa I think \"Welp, I'm gunna feed off her\" Why? Because it's easy to counter her. \"Oh look she used her Fog, now she is visible, easy to catch and fresh for pickings.\"  Or \"Look, she just used her stun, nothing to protect her now >:3\" Or maybe even \"HA...One hitting her minons...\"  It's too easy to counter her.  I find it silly that her Fog doesn't disable stealth when someone is ontop of her (Arachne/Loki/Merc) But other then her fog, she has little to nothing and gets face stomped everywhere. Her most powerful role is either support or jungle, and at best she is at a low tier for those roles. (Yes, I tried her Mid/solo/ jungle and had my good friend try her our support simply because I'm not that good of one.)  All of those roles ARE possible, but she gets out matched by a SUpport: Sobek, Athena, Ymir, Hell even Vulcan.  Jungle?: Any. Solo?: Any and Mid?: Any. To be honest, she is one of the lowest tiers on any role simply because you risk dying if you miss your ability and waste your fog.", "id": "ce07awz", "summary": "She's decent, but compared to other gods/goddesses she falls short."}, {"author": "Dragon536", "content": "I see Asi on her being overpowered when you get caught out and her Ulti is up, especially if you have decent LS at level 20 with your 2 getting an extra 25% plus Asi activating it's nearly 100% LS + 5 seconds of immunity, if you're lucky your target is there and you can win a 1V3-5 fight.", "id": "cdzu1cr", "summary": "Although Asi isn't recommended, it could save her in certain situations and even turn around a fight.  But this is just my opinion."}, {"author": "Dragon536", "content": "Accept* \nYou don't \"except\" the first dibs rule? Too bad. That is how it works, and before saying someones \"idiocy\" isn't suited for this subreddit, you should probably learn to spell \"accept\" first. \n Like I said, it's a team based game, because of the limited roles, whoever calls it first, should get the role, and if you want to, ask them for it. Instantly locking in the role just because you \"Want to\" makes you look like a child. Simple as that, if you accept it or not, it won't change unless Hi-Rez implements a system, which is won't because it would make match making times THAT much longer.", "id": "ce6clky", "summary": "You don't have to accept it to do it, and by not doing it, you look like an ass. Though you've already given that impression by your meaningless insults."}, {"author": "Dragon536", "content": "Actually, the points people are making are saying it ISN'T experience, when in every sense of the word it is. \n That isn't an opinion, it's fact.  It's fact because when you do something you gain some experience. Does that mean they're good as the god? No. But it means they have experience with the god at least three or four times. \n So, I'm not stating any opinion, it's literally a fact that masteries ARE experience. Even if it's slight, it is still experience.  Saying it isn't is just stupid because that's saying the person literally did nothing, not move, not attack, nothing throughout all the games he played the god, which I highly doubt is probable.   That is literally the only way it wouldn't be experience. If they did nothing. \n Yeah, Mastery level 1 is easy to get, but it STILL gives some experience. \n Plus saying that just \"Looking:\" at a god will make you understand them won't really work too well.  And researching? Really? People would find it easier to try out the god than actually research so throw that point out the window. \n You cannot learn to counter a god that you haven't looked into/ haven't played. Though most people aren't going to look into a gods abilities and whatnot until after they've played them.", "id": "chezzul", "summary": "It is technically experience, therefore people saying that it isn't experience are not stating opinions, but showing ignorance in the matter of understanding what experience is."}, {"author": "Dragon536", "content": "Personally I just feel he's way too safe, a perfect nerf for him would be to lower the range of his 1.  Not by too much, but enough for him to not be AS safe as he is. He would still keep the zone he still has, the difference being is he may have to step a couple feet out into the open rather than him having Agni dash range on his 1.", "id": "t3_3d0zqk", "summary": "Ah Puch's damage, CC, etc. is all fine, but how safe he is, is not. \n EDIT: I want people to know that any replies I make are simply meant to explain, not to insult. (Mostly to discuss, we can explain to each other how we feel about the whole thing without people insulting..Hopefully)"}, {"author": "Dragon536", "content": "Ever wanted to take a step up from an amateur team to a more professional team? Ever wanted to be a shoutcaster? Having trouble finding scrim partners? We’re here to help you find your place! We’re looking for all types of characters who could help improve the scene, whether it be by playing, by shoutcasting, or by supporting amateur teams by watching them play. At the moment, we are looking for shoutcasters and amateur or professional teams who are willing to be a part of our opening on  Thursday, January 9th (5-7pm EST) . We want to provide an opportunity for amateur teams to gain experience by playing and scrimming against other amateur- and possibly professional teams, as well as gain exposure. \n What we are going to be is a Twitch channel where amateur teams can come in, scrim, and get shoutcasted to get that feel of being streamed. The basic idea is for the amateur scene to grow and develop over time and we want to be a part of improving the amateur scene. So, this channel is being created for those amateur teams and even casual players to better themselves, to practice, and overall make a name for themselves.  We are also in the process of developing a website where finding individual players who are looking for a team is easy (this is for those teams who are searching for that stray ADC, Support, etc.). We are working hard to make the website as easy to use as possible, as well as simplify the creation of new amateur teams to take part in the weekly tourneys. \n We have many ideas for prizes for these amateur teams (Gems, skins, etc.). We also hope to get professional players or players from the winning team to give advice in post-game interviews.", "id": "t3_1uhcw2", "summary": "Scrim channel opening on Thursday. Overall, this is a place where amateur teams and players can grow, improve, and prepare themselves for any tourney they wish to take part of. Once the website is up, amateur players/teams will be able to easily find teammates or scrim partners. We will make another post on Thursday as a reminder as well as give more details about who will be involved on opening day. Once the website goes live, we will make an announcement as well. \n \n Application Requirements: \n Age 18+ (Exceptions CAN be made) \n Free after 5PM EST \n Vast knowledge of Smite \n Exciting, fun, energetic. (Entertaining) \n Work well with others (With Partner) \n Keep conversation going (With Partner) \n Non-bias \n *If you have your own partner, feel free to apply for both of you. \n Application Form: \n Age: \n Availability: \n How long have you been playing Smite? \n Have you ever had any Shoutcasting experience? \n Are you willing to learn more? \n EU/NA?: \n \n Application responses will be delivered through Reddit Personal Messages. \n \n Contact Us: \n /u/Dragon536 \n /u/TenaciousDeez \n /u/abdomari \n *If you want updates on how things are working out, follow me on twitter"}, {"author": "Dragon536", "content": "Hello, I had to remake this post because I broke a rule ( Completely my fault, sorry ;-;)  Anyways, let me explain what Exitium Gaming is all about. \n First of all, I am Dragon Team captain, and due to a few issues with EU we decided to make an Exitium EU in which AlabasterMatt will be captain of.  The reason we exists? When a mommy and daddy love each other very much...Wait...I mean,   We want to be a team that can compete in the Hi-Rez weekly tourny and eventually  be able to keep up with the top teams. \n A few people have said \" Lol...Okey..Suuurrreee\" And to those I say \"Brah, y u front'in dawg.\"   Main point is, my team will work hard, won't give up, and will do our best to make it to the top.  Right now, I would say we are roughly around above average and the reason for this post is mainly to inform people that we exist and hopefully rise the hype for us,  let us feel dah love <3 \n If you would like to comment feel free to, also some other info if people are interested more on the team and would like to ask questions; \n IGN:HellDragonX68 \n Twitch: Twitch.tv/Dragon536 Twitch.tv/Smiteboards (EU Captain: Twitch.tv/Alabastermatt ) \n Any questions and whatnot will be answered since I am paying full attention to this post for the next hour or so. \n                                                      Love, Exitium Gaming-&lt;3 Dragon", "id": "t3_1rukcg", "summary": "We like pie. Support us."}]}
+{"author": "Kchortu", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Kid in Gif drops a weak two stories onto dirt, Foucan drops a bit over 2 decks of the battleship tower (which are at least as large as those stories, I'd bet larger) onto metal. \n The shots are just much differnt perspectives and the video clip never shows the whole thing from the side which is frustrating", "output": "Look at the window of the house in the gif. It's on the second floor, he's jumping off from a 2 story roof to the ground, but honestly the first floor doesn't look full size, could just be me, let's say 2 stories. \n Pausing the video at  9:06  that he's dropping two decks of a ship, and the following shot at [9:17]( shows that his landing was on an artillery piece which was just under the level of the bottom of the deck behind it, which unless they cut out an even larger chunk of the drop, was the story we could only see half of at 9:06."}], "user_id": "longlamp_3749", "history": [{"author": "Kchortu", "content": "Suspension of disbelief is the crux of what \"feels like bullshit\" and what you let slide in any movie. \n You are trusting the storyteller to weave a good tale, and are willing to suspend judgement about how unlikely or out of character something is to the story to let this tale happen. This goes along with movies or books where the writer \"pulls a plot point out of his ass\" (e.g. deus ex machina). \n I read a ton of fantasy, and good fantasy (imo) doesn't make magic feel like... magic, they make it feel like another tool in a world (the Kingkiller chronicles does this very well) or the setting that the whole story takes place in (A Song of Ice and Fire sets the stage with some crazy magic stuff and then it  disappears  unmentioned for books). \n In Raiders of the lost Ark, Indy is struggling with his father and his faith, questioning his dad's motivations throughout the first half of the movie. Indy's expressions throughout the movie are heavy on eye-rolling and solving complex problems with simple solutions (fists, guns, and machismo)(cutting through bullshit with the \"realistic\" solution). \n The ark opening is the culmination of an entire journey of self-questioning and ultimately catharsis. Compare Indy's reaction to them opening the Ark with his opinion of his father's book early on, I think he directly calls it a fairytale at one point. \n You comparing the Ark to that fridge is one of the most inane comments about movies I've ever seen. Movies don't have to be believable, they need to not knock you out of your reverie. If you're watching a movie and something happens and you remember you're watching a film, the moviemaker seriously fucked up.", "id": "ci12pv4", "summary": "There's a huge goddamn difference between the Ark being magical and the effect it has and hiding from physics in a random fridge. \n The fridge wasn't a clever solution or plot point, it has a \"I wrote myself into a corner and REALLY wanna use this bomb budget\" feel"}, {"author": "Kchortu", "content": "The full quote:\n>In a letter to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, DHS wrote that they have \"been actively investigating the emerging threat and criminal exploitation of virtual currency systems that further transnational criminal operations.\" \n ... \n >\"The anonymity of cyberspace affords a unique opportunity for criminal organizations to launder huge sums of money undetected,\" they wrote. \"With the advent of virtual currencies and the ease with which financial transactions can be exploited by criminal organizations, DHS has recognized the need for an aggressive posture toward this evolving trend.\" \n There is a scary quote about targeting the financial platforms themselves, but in context it also makes much more sense:\n>This effort includes targeting the underground black markets on the Internet that are operated by transnational criminal networks. The multi-prong strategy employed by DHS also  targets the virtual currency platforms and the network of virtual currency exchange makers.  The strategic plan to combat this criminal activity relies heavily on building upon new and existing interagency partnerships as well as  educating  financial institutions, specifically their  Anti-Money Laundering Departments , on this criminal methodology \n So they want to educate financial institutions about the potential to launder money through these financial tools and then look into ways to mitigate the risk. After they look into, read up on, and draft a proposal. \n This title is misleading.", "id": "cdho1fy", "summary": "This is a completely reasonable letter talking about real issues and not a totalitarian dick-slapdown"}, {"author": "Kchortu", "content": "No, I'm not even supporting this food stamp cut, I just think it's juvenile to attack a cost-cutting policy without mentioning the financial component as a central tenant of your stance. \n And I don't think people fully appreciate just  how much  we are going to need to reduce the budget by. \n The [current U.S. debt]( is 17.14 TRILLION dollars. There are ~ 314 million Americans. So if we wanted to pay off the debt today it would be $54,000 per American. Including children. And retirees. And minimum wage workers. \n Are you beginning to follow me? \n Ok this is unrealistic, who would pay this off all at once? Let's do it over ten years. But now we gotta include the budget deficit of 665 BILLION a year (2.2k per American). This means in ten years we are all paying ~10 grand more. \n Now lets get back to the original issue. This highly debated bill in Congress has been shown in other comments to save  thirteen cents  per citizen. \n You think you're mad over a 13 cent cut? What area of our government do you think we can cut a hundred dollars per citizen from? Do you think there are 600 of those? \n Everyone in this thread was emotional, finger pointy, and in general unhelpful to discussion.", "id": "cdcww76", "summary": "Hopefully you can see where I'm coming from, there is no good place to cut spending as much as we need to."}, {"author": "Kchortu", "content": "From an idealistic standpoint, of course we'd rather not have it and every time I see it in practice it feels unfair. \n But... it's like being in a marathon and finally (FINALLY) admitting that the American runners have been shooting the french runners in the legs with harpoons. We ban such harpoon shooting regardless of nationality of the target. \n If we simply continue the race, all the french runners still have gaping wounds in their legs and the Americans are still healthy as ever. We have to help the wounds heal (even if that means some of the Frenchmen get driven to the next aid station).", "id": "chr9k9f", "summary": "you can't just ignore the difference in wealth that is a holdover from olde-times. Now how long we continue the practice for is a great question."}, {"author": "Kchortu", "content": "Can we just post the link to the actual webcomic instead of this imgur link crap? \n A lot of webcomic artists have money issues and this kind of traffic (which can trigger huge webpage views if a lot of people start reading all their posts) can really help them. Plus Kate Beaton is too funny for people to not read.", "id": "c79gkc1", "summary": "Click this and give Kate Beaton your sexy free internet money points]("}, {"author": "Kchortu", "content": "The [demon core]( \n This is a metal orb resting in four metal blocks underneath it. It sits, innocuous, as you encase it in the rest of the blocks that clearly make up its container until suddenly it flashes a bright blue light. \n Then whoever was closest becomes terribly sick and dies within days. Anyone else too close may eventually fall sick, but only he who dared encase the foul object is thus cursed. \n If anything, a thousand years from now, is going to match a fantasy novel: it's finding such a thing in a bunker.", "id": "clzfdgy", "summary": "A space cowboy rolled the die too many times and lost his soul to a devil in the desert"}, {"author": "Kchortu", "content": "So lemme just remind you that I'm agnostic before I say this. \n 'Proclaiming atheism' and being atheistic are two different things, by connotation. Atheists argue that the scientific method should be applied to god, and due to lack of evidence, he doesn't exist. In the same way that magic purple flowers that cure all diseases, due to lack of evidence, don't exist. \n Being atheistic is not dogmatic in it's own right, but people do seem to be treating it that way more and more. They support each other like a religion does. They serve the community together the way good religion does. They hate 'other' religions and sometimes have to calm themselves down and remind themselves of those other religions' good sides. \n Identifying as an atheist makes far more sense in our current cultural setting. It relies on the scientific method and Ockham's Razor which are prevalent ideas in our consciousness. \n Agnosticism is treating the idea of spiritualism with some form of acceptance in that we don't dismiss the idea outright, yet we don't adhere to any particular religion or even the possibility of one. This is a sorta really weird stance when you think about it. \"Sure I think magic purple flowers  could  exist and cure diseases, but they might not too. I don't really have a definite feeling about it.\" \n In my mind I think we use the... significance of the question of religion and the pressing need for an answer to bring greater weight to it. As if by virtue of us being, the question calls for an answer. An answer is expected, and thus normal rules of logic that treat the question as something normal don't quite fit. \n So basically atheism pulls on concepts core to our culture, while agnosticism is a weird branch of thought some individuals gravitate towards. \n And, according to the rules of logic, they do not need evidence against something to deny it. You can't actually think this is how logic works, think of the flying spaghetti monster joke/idea. Any hypothesis must be  PROVEN  to be considered true, not proven false to be discarded.", "id": "c5ly647", "summary": "atheism is not dogmatic, but some people treat it that way, and agnosticism is a sorta fucked up way of thinking, but then again we're all pretty fucked up"}, {"author": "Kchortu", "content": "I don't know if you're still looking for input, or if this is even answering your question, but it's my thoughts on the matter that seem to be a different perspective (in line with /u/ademnus's response) \n 1.  If there was a god / divine being, and it said that impaling every other child on stakes was the proper way to worship it, would you feel like it was right? \n It seems to me that morality exists outside of any god, and in any case I can be nothing other than what I am, ultimately. If I search myself and find that I truly believe in one set of morals that contradicts another I should follow it. \n With this reasoning in mind, I should simply live my life as I believe someone should and face whatever consequences come in the (possibly nonexistent) afterlife. I can only be true to myself, as I can trust no other source to be unbiased (or even real). \n 2.  Any god is either benevolent or not. If the god is benevolent, then it will understand how Ghandi and Mother Theresa were both good people working from their own cultures. If that idea seems right to you, then it immediately follows that maybe your specific view of religion is  entirely  unimportant: just be agood person (see point 1 for definition of good) \n If the god isn't benevolent, then you have no moral obligation to appease it. At that point you're acting a certain way out of fear of punishment. This is close to pride, but I think acting in such a way that says \"humans deserve no respect\" compared to their maker is cruel. The best analogy I can draw is our future invention of true AI. If we can make a being which actually thinks / feels, they do not become our servants they become our children. \n 3.  If there is no god then none of these arguments matter and you should still be true to your morals anyway", "id": "chul64y", "summary": "After much thought, my opinion is one of the least important questions anyone can ever ask is \"is there a god\". Be good for goodness sake and let's explore death when we get there. \n P.S.  Let's say the bible was the literal word of God when it was written / compiled. Since then it has been translated by  men  across many languages. All the modern splinters of christianity are  men's  interpretation of that \"probably not literal anymore\" word. \n This is the nail in the coffin for why any organized religion doesn't make sense as a source of truth. No matter the source material you are asking me to trust what some  dudes  have said about the  world."}, {"author": "Kchortu", "content": "I'd love to see the source of that. \n The papers I've read point towards simple heuristics matching the data from experiments. A baseball player can catch a ball by simplistically moving toward where the ball is in his visual field, and through experience associating the rate of change in ball size with the speed of approach. \n A very good amount of evidence points towards humans and animals doing absolutely no innate calculation, and instead using simplistic models or rules to gauge distance from the self. \n A really excellent experiment which I cannot find or remember enough to locate looked at diving birds and the point at which they choose to fold in their wings (so they can dive and not slam into the water). Using a newtonian model of motion gave one prediction for when the birds would expect to hit the water, while using a simple \"based on the rate at which the water expands in my visual field, I will hit it in __ seconds\" gave another. \n Ultimately studying video of the birds, it was found that they don't take acceleration into account or something along those lines. It's a very simple \"I'm going this fast now, so I'll hit it in __\" prediction which matched with the heuristic model and not the calculus one.", "id": "cizhc30", "summary": "Cognitive Science is super badass"}, {"author": "Kchortu", "content": "Right but what I'm saying is that companies violate contracts all the time. You put down a materials deposit with a contractor? Well if you find a better deal that saves you more than the deposit you can very much decide it makes sense to violate that contract. \n Apply this logic to the movie theater scenario, and smuggling in food becomes a breach of contract with a mild penalty that I don't really care about (throwing away the food) and a possible kickout (which is very unlikely because it'd look bad for them). \n It's one thing if a local movie theater makes me like them enough to want to give them business, but in a location I feel no attachment to, that I'm even annoyed at some aspects of, I have no desire to go out of my way to give them more business. This is not a \"save money thing\" this is a \"I wouldn't buy these items anyways at that price\" and independently I want a soda.", "id": "cehjrpw", "summary": "They have no penalty I care about and that's how contracts work."}, {"author": "Kchortu", "content": "Hahaha, one time I was working on starting from a sitting position with my legs dangling off of a ledge I was sitting and rolling sideways such that I smoothly ended up back in the same position but two feet away (It's really cool when you do that in the middle of a sit-turn [or italian job depending on your name for it]). I was just in a park alone and there was a lady there with her son who had been politely sharing the space with me. \n I thought of working on it after taking a water break and went for it, only to very very slowly drop onto my head and awkwardly flop onto the ground.", "id": "c7vrayp", "summary": "you will fall and look stupid doing stupid things that don't even look difficult."}, {"author": "Kchortu", "content": "I've been playing ranked a bit more recently, making it into gold V last week and having a promo today. \n Currently I play all roles. The only role I shy away from at this point is support because I don't own zyra / thresh / lulu / nami / leona and I don't really enjoy sona or janna (but annie support has been real fun recently). \n Until now this has been fine, but more and more I'm feeling the lack of experience in different matchups really hurt. I find myself looking up matchup %'s before games just to get an idea of how it's gonna go. \n It seems like I just find champions that I get in the mood for every week or two and I go to a role that suits how I want to play them. When I join a match I tend to wait for everyone else to call roles and then call the missing one.", "id": "t3_1odni4", "summary": "Do you have any tips for choosing the role that you're going to enjoy the most / suits you best?"}, {"author": "Kchortu", "content": "Context: I'm currently in gold 2 \n It seems to me that she has no weaknesses I can take advantage of in lane. She doesn't have as strong of a midgame as some other tops (if she doesn't get kills or something) but she becomes a poke god in the late game. \n From my perspective she: \n \n Can't be ganked easily \n \n Has high burst that is not mana dependent \n \n Has sustain (though it IS mana dependent) \n \n Has split damage so you can't build a certain defense against her and easily deal with her damage \n \n \n So basically: what am I missing? She must be weak somehow \n At the moment it feels like the best choice is to sit under turret and farm and go for midgame which is really... boring. And then late game she's still big.", "id": "t3_2iienj", "summary": "Laning vs. Nidalee, how do?"}]}
+{"author": "gravshift", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post its a pipe dream until the tech allows another phase change, and we dont fuck it up.", "output": "I agree with the premise, but there is an elephant in the room on this issue. \n Free  migration of people around the world, with no caveats for education, skill, and security concerns  will not be possible until world personal income gets to around the same average,  Where the average wage in Kansas is roughly the same when currency adjusted to that in the equivalent farming and plains area in China or Africa.  Another example is the income for somebody in a major city like NYC is roughly the same for same for somebody in London,  ,Shanghai, or Lagos.  That means global GDP would have to multiply by at least three times.  Americans and Europeans would fight in the streets before allowing their wages to drop to stretch existing GDP equally across the world. \n With current western consumption preferences, there is no way to support the world with that consumption level, at current population levels and current technological levels. World Population would have to drop to below 2 billion to support that, and short of a nuclear war or asteroid impact, that is not happening. \n The only way I could see that happening is with room Temperature superconductors, quantumly near perfect solar panels, super dense batteries, Molecular Nanoassemblers, and compact fusion energy.  And all of these would have to be comparitively cheap.  Everything else like food, shelter, and medical care would be vastly cheaper with the energy and capabilities made by those technologies. \n But we would need whole new economic and political systems to avoid a scenario where the rich live like gods, immortal and in vast palaces and everyone else lives in uneducated poverty ala the diamond age."}], "user_id": "longlamp_10871", "history": [{"author": "gravshift", "content": "I'm just talking about a community program for atheists to be able to actually have a voice in a community.  Atheism means not having a god, there is nothing about it that says you can't have a overriding values structure that you share with others.  Also, more people may be willing to come out as atheist if they could have a safe place to do so, instead of now when they get thrown to the wolves. \n Also, atheist families could have access to secular organizations for things like youth sports and after school programs.", "id": "cbi3rbt", "summary": "churches are more then pulpits.  Atheists may need a place for comfort and to know they are not alone."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Most folks I have met have had pretty much anything not work or family related beaten out of them by life.  Think the person that works at a job they dont like but dont dislike, come home, do any chores they need to like cook dinner, do laundry, or do stuff with the kids like bath time, and then go to bed.  Their primary goal is to make enough money to retire and then think about doing something interesting then(spoilers, alot dont.  They spend their remaining days glued to a television, until their brains turn into mush.  That is if cancer doesnt kill them before they get to their goal.) \n Hobbies are for folks who dont waste their free time and do something they enjoy, instead of killing time. A geek still holds on to their inner child, the one that says \"this is neat.  I want to know more about this.  Lets do this\".  That and life is too short not to do interesting things.  Mind you this is very American oriented so everybody else please chime in.", "id": "cnj7qam", "summary": "not everyone, just interesting people."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "When Hernando De Soto found the river and made first contact,  There was a large agricultural civilization called the Mississipi there.  The capital city was close to Parkin, Arkansas and had a complex canal system, crop rotation, and was the hub a vast trade network spanning the continent. \n After he left though, smallpox ravaged It's holdings.  This left them vulnerable to other tribes, which then proceeded to raze their cities and wipe them out as a people. \n Survey maps kept the name of the tribe, and when the Mississippi Territory was founded after the Revolution, it took it's name from the river. \n Minesota, since it was founded much after the Louisiana purchase, would probably have used the name if Mississipi If it had not already been taken.", "id": "ce3tw42", "summary": "river named after Indian Tribe, state named after river, Mississippi was founded before Minnesota."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Lasers cause explosions by igniting the fuel, warhead, or messing up the airflow on the wings causing it to break apart..  That and hitting an incoming target with its own Ewar and antimissile systems (which are not hard to build at all nowadays) change the equation on missiles. \n Also, Current anticarrier tactics call for either hundreds of missiles fired at once saturating the defence network and running them out of interceptor missiles, or hitting them with a ballistic conventional missile, where the missile's sheer speed makes intercepting almost impossible without lightspeed weaponry. lasers can protect in these scenarios.  Also, an interceptor missile still costs tens of thousands of dollars.an enemy could build twenty inertial guidance missiles for the cost of one interceptor.  Lasers are much less expensive to operate per shot.", "id": "cncih03", "summary": "they did the math and the war games, there is no reason for us armchair generals to debate it."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Also, all fed dollars are counted. \n Mississippi (my state) has a third of the population on Medicare and social security.  Most of the folks here are either poor or old. \n The rest is due to Camp Shelby, the Pascagoula Military Shipyard, and Stennis Space Center.  This makes the federal government the biggest employer in Ms by q huge margin. \n So", "id": "cn026fd", "summary": "this is usually due to pork and fed jobs being most of the job pool."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "I think that is one of the reasons why your early career always has one of these people. They pay crap so they only get screwups and young folks. They also terrorize their employees so people leave as soon as they can. \n There is a logic though ( a fucked up kind of logic) that by paying less and getting less experience, they can undercut on bids. Also, they think they are doing the employee a favor by using drill sergeant techniques to toughen them up so they are unphased to customer abuse. \n These tactics though mean you have a less valuable product and the next guy that is that employee's boss will have to repair this poor sap, as they will react in the new workplace like an abused dog.", "id": "cao0o3p", "summary": "there is a shitty logic to this, but it hurts the employer and employee long term."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Several ways that hurts actually (autopilot cars go with this as well) \n Less crime means less work for the police to do.  That means less hiring, which means less dues coming in.  Also, they only have as much power as they have members.  Less members=less power.  Their pension fund and insurance also relies on having lots of young healthy members, which would be long term devastating. \n And then there is the boogyman of privatisation.  In many little cities, there isn't enough tax base for even a few officers.  If it wasn't for fines and forfeiture,  they couldn't even afford a sheriff.  Even larger towns and cities are feeling the hurt.  The argument for privatizing is that they could share infrastructure like NCIC, Forensics, HR, Dispatch, IT, Quartermaster, and other support sections nationwide.  Then in local areas share investigations, bomb Squad, search and rescue, SWAT and other expensive specialists.\nThis would devestate the unions, so they fight it with all they have.", "id": "ckvcamn", "summary": "legalization threatens the long term prosperity of the union and gives an argument for privatization, which would kill the union."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Naw, its a case of laziness. I just need to sit down and look at the api. The problem is that I need to get a new virtual host and vpn to actually host it. I write php and shell all day, last thing I want to do when I get home is write more shell.  This weekend though I may be able to cobble something together as I have a 4 day vacation starting tomorrow.", "id": "cav4s8p", "summary": "perfectly capable and got the cash,  just lazy. I'll do it this weekend."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Austin is currently the poster child of development in the US and the East Texas development zone will probably be as big as the eastern seaboard or SoCal in 30 years.  A bit of a drive to Colorado to Ski, but you could do it twice a year easy. \n Schoolwise, Several very good schools there both private and state run, and you wont be hard for choice when looking for internships near the end of school. \n Climate wise you will feel right at home. Things to do wise you definitely wont be bored in Austin or Houston. \n Politics wise, nationally they are conservative but in those cities it is very liberal.  Houston has the first openly lesbian mayor.  Very big LGBT community in Austin (maybe the biggest outside NYC and San Francisco) \n Oil industry taking a battering makes me a bit concerned but by the time you graduate, you should be fine.", "id": "cqodx9e", "summary": "Go to Austin or Houston, its awesome."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "That is the beauty of matchmakers and such. \n In a metro area of say a million people, there may be 60 thousand  singles of your gender and age criteria (wild ass number) \n 5% of 60K is 3000 potential candidates (this number is probably bumbkis, but I cant find good data for these points).  Say you want an atheist girl (and for the sake of this argument, that this percentage follows national trends) then your yield drops to roughly 300 candidates.  Say you want somebody with an IQ over 130 (again lets do the spherical cow thing and run the numbers) that takes your dating pool to 6.  Now hopefully out of that 6 they are using a matchmaker service before you start playing decisions. \n Take all this with a grain of salt as this may self select as folks who are active lifestyle are more likely to be richer and have higher IQs and such.  Also having a High IQ doesnt necessarily mean they are a smart person. \n So", "id": "cr6seat", "summary": "its a numbers game and some criteria are self selecting."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "I have seen similar scenarios.  When you start slowly killing yourself with grief and not listening to doctors, something has gone horribly wrong.  If the breakup hadn't been used as a catalyst to jumpstart them, they would have slowly slid down the road to commiting suicide. \n There are no right solutions in this scenario. Caring for them isn't working and may be making things worse. Hospitalization and Suicide Watch, though effective, leads to bad blood and will probably lead to break up. Letting them continue to grief themselves to death is horribly unethical.  Attempting to help her himself has a high chance of backfiring as he is not a counselor.  Breaking up with them is unethical but may be the only solution if you can't afford the Heavy Hospital Approach or live in a country with strong mental health programs, it may snap them out of the funk, or driving them to go ahead and suicide. \n All choices have a high chance of failure (death), have a very high cost to you in time energy and money, and no matter what will lead to you not having a girlfriend.", "id": "cb1t7v5", "summary": "extreme depression is a bitch on everybody, and every solution you pick as the SO will make you the bad guy. \n Source, me who has had suicide prevention training because I Was an RA in college."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "A tradeship If configured properly can be very difficult to stop.  Too many people here are top busy minmaxing to notice that they are sitting ducks. \n Drop seeker mines, have a big ass engine and shield, use chaff and point defense. dont dawdle, and sweet jesus submit if it looks like you wont win tug of war (that way you can boost out, lay some party favors, and buy some time for your frameshift to cool down. Bonus points if the pirate is dumb and cant tell mines from canisters). \n Also,  if you see player on grid, do evasive frameshift maneuvers.  If he cant get on your six, he can't interdict.  This isnt eve where RNGesus says die.  Everybody has a chance to escape. \n Even a type 6 with mines can be a pain in the ass to a pirate.  There is basically no excuse if you are using something bigger with enough minelayer capability to make following suicide. (Cost of doing business, sorry about your profit margin)", "id": "cnnm19a", "summary": "dont be a lamb to the slaughter.  A full grown ram can fuck a lone wolf up."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "If you havent caught on, Asuna's mom is from the school of thought that the virtual world is a waste of time and from the books and tablet and such at the dinner table, is the type of person that doesnt do any sort of leisure activities or any sort of activity. \n Also, from the sounds of Asuna's cutting remark, her mom has a bit of a complex about social standing, and would rather Asuna marry into money, instead of being with someone who has a goal and the drive to maybe become wealthy one day . \n Also, she wants to distance herself from BCI tech in general, as it nearly took her daughter away twice and near ruined her family.", "id": "cm3pk8c", "summary": "mom has her heart in the right place, but her head is far up her ass with her own complexes and fears to see what Asuna wants. \n As in other Anime: Where is the God Damn Psychiatric Help ?!(other then the rule of plot demands no shrinks)"}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "I find purpose from what I make and am always looking for something new. I take great satisfaction from looking at something and saying \"I made this\".  I myself would find that lifestyle of blazing and folk music dreadfully boring. \n I identify greatly with the community action and individualism parts of the Hippy movement.  I also agree with the cultural concepts of pacifism, free love,  and not being obsessed with money.  The corporate folks I know always have this sound in their voice of being defeated.  I dont want to stay in that world and am working to get out of it.  I refuse to be one of those poor automatons dosed up on Antidepressants. \n I cannot accept the nihilism of \"every thing sucks, lets get high\".  To me that is a waste of potential.  The folks from the old hippy era I respect the most were the commune folks.  They didnt sit around, complain, and get high.  They built orchards, grew their own food and made their own things.  They sang and got high at the end of the day , but I have no problem with that.", "id": "cmuyw6b", "summary": "I like positive hippies who make the world a better place.  Not negative hippies that just complain.    They arent any better then the 9 to 5 Xanax people."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "I know this will be an unpopular opinion around here, but the viper is not good for a newb. \n For the price of that viper's hull alone, you could pimp an eagle out with upgraded reactor, shields, and a gimballed multicannon with credits to spare for insurance and a bunch of other goodies.  A stock viper will get pwned by a pimp eagle. \n I usually dont upship until I have nearly maximized my existing ship. I have spent nearly a million and a half credits on my cobra and I am not even close to my next goal.", "id": "cnrm7o9", "summary": "walk before you can run, use an eagle."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "At the same time, we are becoming increasingly more resistant to memetic attacks.  We also have become more sympathetic to others on the other side of the world.  Nationalism is becoming a quaint concept now that I can have a conversation and find common ground with somebody on the other side of the world. \n The current generation has effectively had to raise itself, since the parents were for the most part unable or unwilling to take part in these new communities. No wonder there is no concept of the pain that can be caused to others by some people.  Awful stuff like doxing and Swatting. Like seeing somebody get their head cut off and gurgling to death.  Stuff that would cause previous generations to lose their minds. \n At the same time, it is also a blessing.  A person can invent and reinvent themselves with little but a handle.  Broadcast their thoughts to the world and have somebody at least care, while at home people just smile and nod.  I have done 2 am EVE roams with folks from Eastern Europe and Japan having a ball and talking about life while taking the piss with a Latin America group that ganked us hard. I have talked down in a kid in an anime forum from going suicidal.  I have learned so much knowledge and skills that I would otherwise not know exist.   I even learned how to make salient arguments (and also the meaning of the word salient). \n The world would be a much duller place without the internet.  Dull, alot less advanced, poorer, and more divided. \n The internet is all the good and bad of the human race, with all of the facades and bullshit torn down.  And it is fantastic. \n Its almost midnight and I am a wee bit drunk.  How all great philosophy has been explained.  Neopuritanical bullshit is the one thing that burns me up.  It is more productive to remove the root causes of bullying and callousness rather then covering them up with manners and punishments.", "id": "cn6d1vy", "summary": "Internet is neither good nor bad.  Its people and they are fascinating.   Im still drunk."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Reddit assumes everything is corporatist conspiracy and that the Illurmenarti (purposefully misspelled) control everything. \n The amount of damage Sony has taken stock wise, reputation wise, and through having to rebuild their shitty Infosec will make the box office return peanuts. \n Also, they would have the state department and homeland security so far up their ass they couldnt dart without a senate oversight committee meeting. \n Also, once you get to a certain size,  trying to pull a Springtime for Hitler has absolutely no logical reason to happen.  It would show up in shareholder docs and you would at best get sued.  At worst get sued and sent to prison.", "id": "cn8a4wv", "summary": "conspiracy nerds need to go outside.   They have turned into an echo chamber."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "I think the corruption argument is done as the higher your caste, the more that is expected of you.  The highest echelons of that society would effectively be slaves, as they have many things asked of them.  The lowest class is effectively free as nothing is expected of them. \n However, this social theory only works for ants and robots, as the higher levels will take advantage of the lower, and in turn use their privilege to do whatever they want. \n Democracy is about as good as we are going to get for humans, everything else relies on overlooking our weaknesses such as greed and corruption. With Democracy, we at least have a mechanism to remove from power those who take advantage of it to the detriment of others, without having to resort to heads on pikes.  Motivated self interest is the name of the game in democracy. \n Again perfect world scenario. This doesn't happen in real life and huge books have been written on this subject.", "id": "cgha2s1", "summary": "democracy maybe bad, but everything else relies on humans not acting like humans and is much worse in the long run."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Please dont cater to carebears frontier. \n Nonconsensual pvp puts pirates on their toes.  Even mr pimped out ride in a Cobra will shit bricks when they pick a fight with a pimped out type 9 (deploys beam lasers and mine launchers.  God damn suicide to try attacking from a rear profile).  The only folks who have to worry are the ones who have neglected their combat training, weapon loadout, and insurance.  All you have to do is either last long enough for system security to pop in, have enough daka to take him out, or pimped your engine out to GTFO (mines are also effective here) \n Also, I have found many a pilot in the warzone that dont know what they are doing and are leaving themselves wide open for a human to blapp them (sitting still, trying to use flight assist off and not watching where they are going, etc)", "id": "clcv9p3", "summary": "nonconsensual pvp keeps MMOs from turning into robot grinders.  Want to survive? Use your head."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "My perspective came from living in the sticks for a long time in the south.  Some of these places look like they are frozen in 1965. And their social attitudes are the same. \n Since you live in a blue state, it must be different from the rural south.  Here, the manufacturing jobs cluster in the cities, and there aint jack outside of them.  Taking the I55 corridor from Memphis to Jackson, there is a 100 mile stretch where it is just tree farms and hopefully a gas station.  Same for the road going to New Orleans or Mobile from Jackson.  There are some towns and industry on the highway 49 corridor, but that is due to Camp Shelby.  If the military wasn't here, there would be no jobs in that region.  The coast is pretty nice though.  Most of the high tech jobs and oil stuff is there. \n To also put it in perspective,  there are 3 million people that live in Mississippi.   Most live in Jackson,  the coast, Meridian, Hattiesburg, and the northern border near memphis.  They tend to be purple, except Jackson which always has the Dem Representative.  But the vast swaths of rural land dominate the vote. \n Folks dont move back to the country in this region.  They stay in the suburbs and city and only go back to see the old folks.  The schools in the rural parts literally are the worst in the country.  Enough they are having to consolidate and bus kids across a whole county to go to school. \n If it sounds negative and anti rural, its more from my experience and because fuck rednecks.  They are the reason why this part of the country sucks.", "id": "co2e92t", "summary": "the rural south sucks.  The rural north and west doesnt sound too bad."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Housing prices in my city are pretty cheap.   Knowing the sort of house an end stage alcoholic living alone would have and the dimensions and design I can see (75k to 90k), and knowing just how much a short sale (cut 30 percent out of what you would get from equity) and how much a full reno would cost (approximately 20k unless I did all the work myself), the math starts getting to me only making about 30k (at the 75k) with the whole exercise.  Since the house is still under mortgage, then that means I need to spend that cash to pay off the mortgage, which it may not even do.  In a low cost of living city, it would not make any sense for me to do this from a financial point of view. \n The only way it would make sense would be if the house was in a higher value market like California or the Northeast, then the math would look more amenable to selling it(still depends on the neighborhood and how underwater the house was). \n And you are made of stronger psychological stuff then I am if you can go into a room of someone you loved self destructed in and think \"hardwood floors and open floor plan would really open this space up\".", "id": "cc7iyrv", "summary": "With Mississippi housing prices? No fucking way am I dealing with this clusterfuck."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "In Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor, you have to fight Balder as he is the first major boss (goes by Beldr in that game to match the boss naming scheme). \n He is invulnerable the first time you fight him.  The charachters use the remaining power on a laptop to do a wikipedia search and find out about the Mistletoe.   The only thing they can find with mistletoe is a single Cellphone strap.  The only thing that will damage Beldr is physical attacks from main charachter with the strap. \n The joke amongst the playerbase is that he uses it like a knuckle duster, and starts beating a low level god in the face, while he complains that this is a cheap trick and it hurts.", "id": "ce97bux", "summary": "Baldr is in a game, and you beat him down with a mistletoe fasion accessory."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Its not an OS issue with latency or some driver issue, its a problem with the actual components not being fast enough. \n Up until Oculus started experimenting with 1ghz accelerometers, the only market for them were in guidance systems for missiles,aircraft, and spacecraft. Those parts are also built to take 100 plus Gs of acceleration and are usually radiation hardened as well, so not cheap.  I think they may even be ITAR restricted , so I dont think we will have cheap high frequency accelerometers be hitting the market for at least a year, and no cheap HMDs coming from China until non milspec parts can be used. \n Optical head tracking is low hanging fruit, and will make you sick as your vestibular system runs much faster then 33ms.  Samsung makes camera modules that can do VGA at 240 fps, but usually only dslrs will use this chip,  as consumers are more interested in total megapixels and light capture capability, that and you need a decent lens to use the thing.  Oculus is probably using one of those Samsung modules for its secondary system.  Then you need a cpu and bus design that can take the crazy amount of data this thing is pushing, and in a lightweight and passively cooled package (this means custom ASICs).  The fact he did this for a devkit that is 300 bucks with only a few thousand units is freaking amazing.  Should be alot cheaper when he can start mass producing. \n Lucky Palmer isn't messing around with this.  Now that he has facebook money to put down some serious coin on supply chain management and procurement, he can afford to go top shelf on components. \n This isn't stuff you just order off Digikey for peanuts.  This is value added stuff that you are Ordering from WPG or Arrow in lots of 10,000.  Stuff with alot of paper work and auditing to go through. \n Not to mention the government licenses you have to get to make sure you are not trying to build SAMs with the parts (and if you are, you got the right DOD auditing chain in place)", "id": "civha6n", "summary": "Oculus uses special parts, some milspec, to fight latency.  Some hacked together system using a cellphone is going to be mediocre at best. \n Source: I work in the electronics industry in logistics.  Procurement is serious business."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Forgot Radioactive decay \n Any planet rich in natural radioisotopes like Earth will have those radioisotopes start to decay, which will start to build up in sealed natural rock voids, such as you find  in natural gas pockets.  You seperate the helium from the natgas and store it in massive salt domes where it can sit for decades without too much outgassing. \n Problem we have is that up until the end of the Second World War, the government controlled all the domestic helium supply to use for airships.  After airships fell out of favor, they decided to start selling at bargain basement prices to try to get rid of the massive stockpile.  It was so cheap that capture companies couldnt compete and were driven out of business.  Even foreign gas capture groups couldn't compete. \nOnly now are we starting to deplete the supply, and it will take alot of time for gas capture companies to step in again.", "id": "ck2ee3b", "summary": "there isnt a helium reserve crises, there is a helium economic crises."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "I live in the type of area that elects asshats like Cruz and where NOAA has more clout then NASA.  And I see them as the biggest threat to this country since the CSA. \n Progressives doing the movement of climate science to NOAA at least ensures that consolidation happens on our terms, instead of the Tea Party getting to control the Narrative.  It also allows barriers to defunding and mission changes to be put up so even if the Tea Party does get funding control, they can't slash it without hurting one of their sacred cows.  Also, it allows climate research to not be spread against multiple agencies,  where they consolidate their political clout so any of these \"climate skeptic\" jerkwads appointed by Tea Partiers to directorships can't suffocate it from the inside. \n We have to use defense in depth if we want to fight these guys.  Guys like Cruz arent stupid.  Calling them stupid is underestimating them and is what they want.  Conniving, vindictive,  devious, and manipulative are better descriptions.", "id": "cpfqbc5", "summary": "the Tea Party scares the hell out of me and consolidation in an essential department would make it harder for them to fuck things up."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "NOAA having to deal with the interagency politics of having one of their satellites in NASA's hands, NOAA being limited by NASA's launch rules, and NOAA having more resources available like scientists and ocean going ships to do the research. \n That and politically, NOAA doesn't have the sort of problem getting funding to do weather related research (which is trivial to retasking to do climate research).  I want the research done, and having NOAA do it is less likely to have jackasses interfere with it.  That way NASA can avoid having to spend funding and time defending the climate research.  NASA shifting it to NOAA would free up resources, as NOAA has to fight these guys constantly anyway and have more potential political power to avoid cuts (try explaining to farmer john why you cut the weather forecasting and storm tracking because that data is also used for climate change research).  And southern states and agricultural concerns are the ones that rely on that data the most. \n So", "id": "cpfp6lf", "summary": "politics is why we can't have nice things.  I want the research to be able to be done ith maximum effenciency and be in a position where it cannot be cut without hurting guys like Cruz."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Millennial who sails here. \n If I didnt have a significant portion of my income going to pay off loans, I would upboat.  Right now, I make do with sailing really small boats. \n 2008 hit Millennials the hardest, throwing many of us 2 to 4 years off forecasted income growth.  I think that is why there has been a takeoff on affordable watercraft.  get an old boat that I can't maintain properly ,has a bit of a fat ass , and I will have to redo the running rigging and all the electrics (why the hell do all pre 2000 boats all have such awful electrical systems)? Or get a smaller brand new boat with bells and whistles and can go fast while being comfortable?  I dont need wood and leather and granite and all that other luxury stuff. \n The part about trailerboats is a very salient point, as Marina space is expensive and costs as much as an apartment in most large cities.  That and trailer boats can fit many of the toys and features big boats used to only have, like showers and  comfy berths.  All this while still being seaworthy.", "id": "cpnvvft", "summary": "Millenials dont have money.  Sailing is an expensive pastime.  Boat manufacturers are starting to take notice and move away from OMG luxury in the smaller part of the market.)"}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Multios compatibility for one.  You can integrate 7z into any application as well, making it more developer friendly.\nIt also better utilizes modern hardware as well. \n There is also the issue of licensing.  I dont like running shareware and stuff licensed for noncommercial use in facilities I am responsible for.  All it takes then is one audit to fuck your day up.  And why would I waste budget on a tool when there is a perfectly useable open source tool, especially when it isnt something big and sexy like Microsoft office?", "id": "cqt43i9", "summary": "I am a professional, and using 15 year old Warez when there is a much better Open Source alternative available just makes no sense."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "The dwemer did things for a reason, and things wouldn't have gotten that bad if the Nords didnt insist on extermination being the name of the day. \n Also, the falmer are slowly getting smarter again.  It is only a matter of time until they are smart enough to make contact with the other Mer and restore themselves.  What undamaged Snow Elf enclaves there are (like the knight dude worships Auri-el), would be able to shepherd them until they were no longer feral.  Makes me wonder if a Daedra isn't involved in this mess \n That may be the only reason the Falmer survived into the Fourth Era.  The Nords are dicks in that regard, if they had a chance they would have finished the job. \n Though really, Tamriel should really belong to the Orcs and Kajiit, as they are the native races that developed there.  At least they have Orsenium and Elsewyr.", "id": "cmtmyx4", "summary": "The Dwemer did nothing wrong.  Will be neat if we ever find out where they went and why,  and if they will ever return."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Shinji Ikari is a bit of a whiny bitch but he is a 14 year old with abandonment issues thrown into being a child soldier.  The world is not kind to him. \n Now Shinji Matou, from Fate/Stay Night, is a Cowardly Scumbag that abuses women, is untrustworthy, and generally someone you want to strangle with your bare hands.", "id": "cn3zcir", "summary": "Shinji ain't even the worse shinji."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Microtransactions from pay to glam keep tf2 going. \n Regular expansions will probably be a thing, but a maybe next year sort of thing.  They have constant development this year adding features like wings and story missions and such as it is.  And FPS module and planetary stuff uses outsider tech so that would probably be a different development team anyway. \n Us explorer corps guys have found alot of neat easter eggs deep out in the black, like systems that require permits a thousand light years from Sol and obvious stuff like Polaris being locked off (in lore that is the Thargoid homeworld)", "id": "cngfix5", "summary": "hold tight.  This launch has been alot smoother then other games I have been part of."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Farm raised is best.  Lots of work happening for non fish based feed for salmon.  Also work being done for tuna.  Dont know if grouper is possible. \n Supposedly some cultivars of carp are okay for replacing cod in processed fish based foods.  Catfish and tilapia are all farm raised. \n Oysters are almost all farm raised, as well as most molluscs except squid and octopus (dont know of their aquaculture).  Work going on for shrimp and other crustaceans, prawns and crayfish have been done aquaculture for a while. \n Also, fishing as a profession is falling by the wayside as there is more money in working in a factory then going to see.   Its now more of a last choice job for youngest child sort of thing.  And the big industrial fishing ships won't have enough stock to cost effectively operate soon.  Asia will be forced to buy american aquaculture products and build their own as their fisheries collapse.", "id": "cnapa6n", "summary": "fisheries are collapsing and aquaculture is taking over.  People arent going to not eat fish."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Pro tip: popular media is allowed to be quoted and turned into high culture approximately 200 years after it was written.  Shakespeare was considered bawdy garbage for commoners, mozart was destroying the virtue of maidens, and opera was full of groupies and debauchery. \n Come 2200, Dragonball may be studied as an interpretation of Journey to the West in dry academic circles and Tupac Shakur will be played as chamber music.", "id": "cbdeju0", "summary": "pop culture eventually becomes fine culture."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "I am ok with the change, but please add a lore reason other then \"LOL gameplay\". \n Maybe something involving the frameshift drive core cant be just shut off, and applies drag when going over a certain speed for each ship.  The pips to the engine help mitigate some of the drag.  A ship without a frameshift drive would be a sitting duck to the frameshift one and be woefully uneconomical to use.  Also, it is cheaper to equip with frameshift vs old style S", "id": "ckzj96g", "summary": "ives. \n Will be neat if we ever ran into an old style ship in a scanner scenario  or even one of Casimir equipped STL generation ships."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "This is mitigated by integrated stretch sensors and position feedback. Adjust your pressure from your valve bank accordingly (sweet jesus servovalves are expensive) As for the resonance problem, nature already solved this problem. Antagonist pairs with elastomer cables acting as tendons, and sensors to detect any jerking in the frame.  Muscle tension will snap it to the right position and not waggle about even if it has something push in on it.  Try to do that with electrics without a similar setup (the bungee tendons on your cable drive) and you will break something or burn your motor out.  Mind you this is complicated and complete overkill for anything that isn't BIG.  But laying bricks without being jerky is something where inertia is a bitch. \n Major reason I have seen to use servomotor approaches is that it is alot easier to design, program, and debug.  Also, no need to deal with gas pressure, compressors, and all the other baggage that comes with fluid systems. Fluidics are a bigger is better thing, and are overcomplicated nonsense at the small scale. Also, cable drives are much easier to fabricate \n but you cant beat fluid systems for sheer power , power effenciency, and relative lightness.  Not without getting into future tech like Electroactive Polymers and such.  Also, alot of robotics guys I have met have a hard on for \"EVERYTHING MUST BE ELECTRIC!\" Even when using both fluid control and electrics would give the best of both worlds. \n If this arm was working with cinder blocks, dollars to donuts it would be using pneumatics. \n (I just so happened to be browsing the Festo catalog trying to find an rs232 valve bank when you sent this. Also, I have no beef with electrics, my next project is using some real torquey little bastards.)", "id": "cn3pa8m", "summary": "there is a time and place for different control systems.  Electrics have their place has well as fluidics.  Saying one type of control is inherently terrible for all machines is just daft."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "I am just saying that they look like stuff I could have hit the sensor catalog on Amazon and slapped some python together to build the hard part. \n The strawberry ripeness thing sounds like a Hue calculation then an algorithm trained to look at a strawberry and say \"does this look like a strawberry\".  The one about cow pee Is literally an Ammonia sensor you can buy for 12$. \n The pruning bots though, those are amazing.  That does stuff I didnt think was possible right now.  Everything else was a \"neat engineering but it isn't really anything new\".  Building them into standard implements for tractors and combine harvesters would be a good idea (modern harvesters could run as a drone right now and have had autopilots for years now) \n The greenhouse bots are neat in that I could see an immediate market and look like those companies will make bank.", "id": "coaup24", "summary": "give me three weeks, a lawn tractor, and fast shipping and everything but the pruner and greenhouse gear I could build."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "First thing you do when you are not in a place with law enforcement is scan the target.  If they are not clean and you dont want to fight, GTFO. \n This ain't EVE.  Even a Hauler can fuck someone's day up if you are clever (lay a minefield and rabbit as soon as a hostile pops in).  Also, there are no webs or scrams,  so any ship can run if it is too hot for them.  Put max blips to engines, rest on shields, and always make sure your thrusters are the best you can afford so you can run. \n Once rep is deeper, station camping will be suicide.  Most they can do is wait outside until you jump, and then tailgate your signature to interdict.  If you are smart, you should be able to fake them out. \n I dont random PK, but fighting pkers is fun.  Plus, it acts as lever to get people to at least think about their fit and rustle metagamer jimmies .  I have seen many Sideys shieldless and gunless to max out their profitability for trading and just trundling around at low speed with a full hold of gold, counting on Frontier antigriefing measures to save them. That's like walking around with a big sign on your back saying \"I'm a loot pinata, please shoot me\". \n Antigriefing should be restricted to getting on pilot federation and insurance shitlist, and make life for a PKer way more interesting (like not able to go into a law abiding system, not getting good prices for survey data, etc).  No word on high banhammer.  Maybe even add a faction penalty if they were in high standing and not hostile.", "id": "clao634", "summary": "risk vs reward, and PK rustles metagamer jimmies.  Stick to mechanics, not dev fiat."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Gamers can be giant babies about things but they have a valid point. \n What will probably happen is this:\nBraben will get an ugly phone call from his investors and wonder what the hell is going on.  Refunds start hitting Zaonce and they panic, saying that this was all a mistake and the release is getting held back to get the function shoe horned (maybe only the seeded systems are available offline and the economy has hard values so no dynamic economy.  ) \n This hits Kotaku and the other big gaming blogs in the morning and it becomes a clusterfuck (as the gaming media has a thing going on with big games shipping in only a partially working state). \n This also kicks Braben in the ass and gets the lead out for the multiplayer features we asked for as well.  These half baked changes turn into a beta 4 and we test out the various problems so that when gamma actually hits, everybody is happy (well as happy as gamers usually are, which is more like grumpy acceptance)", "id": "cm4mz9k", "summary": "folks get upset, it causes devs to change when the upset is critical.  Remember that launch is (probably was) a month away and shit happens in gave development all the time."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "If I remeber for the case of england, many classes of drugs cost 5k to offset development costs and testing.  For drugs developed in those countries, the country paid for development of the drug and integrated testing into development,and licenses the formula to companies to make, who in turn sell to those governments.  No advertising, no need to deal with the army of lawyers to interface with the regulating board (because the regulating board developed it in the first place), No army of Lawyers to deal with when the poorly tested private drug testing fails, no payolla for doctors, no bribes, no patent warchests, no nothing.  Money for pills. No corruption and drugs and new medical techniques take a lot less time to hit the market. \n This is all recollation from college though, so it may be completely wrong", "id": "ccjuwd2", "summary": "corruption is expensive. Public private clusterfucks like the FDA and pharma doubly So."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "A EEE series, which are actually not bad for physical intrusion and warwalking, due to lightness and long battery life.  It was my main rig in college (I had a desktop for heavy lifting, but you can't haul a desktop everywhere easily) \n I still have fond memories of Wireshark in the lab, writing full java programs in NetBeans, Accessing my big damn VM for GIS crunching (students could request VMs if they had professor approval for a project) ,and  developing full lamp stack apps in a drunken hackathon.  Thing had an awesome keyboard, a six cell battery (massive for a netbook) , 2 gigs of ram i upgraded, made vey little heat, wireless N and bluetooth in 2008, and a good sized hdd for the time. \n They dont make pcs like the 1000he anymore :(.  Tough, reliable, versatile, insane battery life, and inexpensive (I spent 400 bucks on mine).", "id": "ckas911", "summary": "Asus EEEs were a hacker's delight."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "And as stated in other media, being stuck in another body you are not comfortable with is damaging.  There are probably a whole lot of players it was a blessing, and others it is a shitty situation. With the acting out, Tetra is probably the former. \n Mark my words, when direct neural VR is a thing (very much a within 20 years thing), there will be whole lot of trans people of various varieties come out as they will have an easy way to try out the body of their choice and see if they were just coping.  Couple that with advanced plastic surgery, cybernetics, bioprinting, and artificial birth technology,  there will no way to tell trans from cis even in IRL without doing genetic testing (and if uploading and full body transplants become a thing in the far future, it would be kind of moot ). \n This would be an end game of Sexuality and Transhumanism.  The ability to define yourself, unbound from societal pressure or a stroke of biological chance, and to do so in a way that doesnt require years of pain and despair.  I could write a thesis on this subject.", "id": "cn698iw", "summary": "its just meat.  And going forward folks can have their outside match their inside."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Direct Neural VR relies on having input and Output non surgically.  This has already been accomplished. \n And with this technology, building an ultrasonic inferometer to quickly send input and output to the brain without multi million dollar equipment will also be a thing.  If the power consumption is low enough,  BCIs could even be wearable things for prosthetics and augmented reality. \n As for safety, physical security will be paramount.  Think consumer devices only allowing a base API and relying on a regular device for all the non interface computational stuff. Firmware is kept on read only removable media that is cryptographically signed to the manufacturer, and strenuous testing is done like all equipment that interfaces with the human body.  It would be extremely difficult to use something like this to hurt somebody if the right precautions are taken. \n Software wise, this won't happen until after the human connectome project is done and 90fps 8K with all the other sensory goodies Has also become a thing in computing.  Would need alot of procedural stuff and physical modelling ro make an environment to keep the brain from thinking something is wrong and going into defense mode. \n As for the medical industry and hacker groups, they dont have the liability problem so they can go whole hog. \n This is not like flying cars, as there is no breakthrough in technology needed to do it, and the base requirements to do it has already been done.  What is needed now is, mature hardware,  software, and a way to make it consumer friendly.", "id": "cn6l1oi", "summary": "Base tech is here.the software to know what to read and target is being worked on.  Liability is a problem but can be addressed we with a security first mindset."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "We may very well get there if we can figure out Room Temperature Superconductors.  Then you can use SQUID based FMRI to do input, and phased Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for output. \n The human connectome project is already underway, so knowing which neurons to scan and stimulate is already underway. \n Accel World's scenario might even be possible by stimulating the part of the brain responsible for time sense and overclocking the Neocortex. \n The major thing that made me call bullshit tech wise was lag.  SAO games are client Server, and human nerve speeds for muscles and haptic touch (SAO doesn't do pain I think, those signals go sub milisecond) is 70 miliseconds.  Getting all of the data necessary for a VR environment and the nerve data in under 70 miliseconds is a tall order for even 10 years from now networking.  Doable but tall order.  It would only be possible for small geographic servers at any rate due to lag issues. \n Now take Accel World and its 1000 to 1 compression ratio and network traffic speed has to work at nanosecond level in order to keep up.  Signals would have to be going faster then light to avoid crippling lag for Brain Burst (light travels 1 foot a nanosecond). The only way to do that would be through some sort of quantum nonlocal communication system.", "id": "centnxk", "summary": "Technology may make this possible.  The network infrastructure needed would be nuts and even more scifi."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Lets say molecular nanotechnology is developed and is self replicating.  The cost of a nanoreplicator within 10 years drops to the point every household has at least one and it is capable of even producing complex organic compounds easily and cheaply.  So cheaply that food, clothing, pharmaceuticals, and all sorts of other goods get made at home. \n At the same time, nanotechnology has made mining and recycling as we know it obsolete, so that feedstock has dramatically dropped in price.  Think how water is treated in places where there isnt a drought. \n The economy in this situation collapses as there is no point in farming, mining, manufacturing, or servicing at large levels and not everybody is smart enough to invent and create.  Folks we thought who were on top of the world no longer have assets to manage and are let go as well.  Lets say in this scenario only 10% of the population can work,  but those 10% are INCREDIBLY productive.  So much so that taxing them can support the rest of the population easily. \n Now you mention \"what about lawyers, doctors and other professionals?\" That is where AI comes in.  The ugly truth is that in a world with surgical robots, expert systems, servitor bots, and nanotech , doctors outside of research dont have much to do.  Also, with the massive unemployment, private and insurance backed healthcare would no longer be possible. \n As for lawyers and others similar like accountants and brokers and such, expert systems replace them as well.  Even police, firefighters, and EMS become obsolete from servitors and AI both in buildings and mobile platforms allow coverage and response times far above today's. \n We have no political system that is designed for that scenario.  Especially if wide swaths of government also becomes automated.", "id": "cqxx1oa", "summary": "future tech makes the whole concept of work and scarcity as we know it obsolete, and a welfare state would have to kick in to avoid a vast majority of the human race being told to go die in a ditch."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Taiwan would be the definition of a flashpoint.  So many things would happen that not engaging would be just as bad as engaging. \n 1) Their GDP is 500 billion a year, and have significant ties with the economies in the US, Japan, Australia,  South Korea, and others.  No Taiwan= economic pandemonium. The knock on effect would be literally trillions.  Say goodbye to companies like Asus.  Japan and the Others would be forced to start sanctions and the world economy would get scared and go all recession. \n 2) diplomatically it would be retarded to cut them lose.  There are treaties in place much like South Korea and Japan that ignoring it would sour US relations horribly.  It would pretty much make Asia turn their backs as we couldnt be relied on to follow our word. \n 3) militarily.  Ignoring Taiwan would signal to the rest of the world the US is not willing to defend it's interests against similarly equipped actors.  NATO would get antsy as they could no longer count on the US to follow through with obligations in the event of Russia intervening in the Baltics, making Europe start putting much more significant resources into defense.  The other Asian countries would start gearing up for war as well now that they couldnt count on the US to defend them if China went on the warpath with them.  Also, say goodbye to the Nuclear non proliferation treaties.  The whole world will end up as one big powder keg waiting to go off. \n Politically) it would be political suicide to ignore that.  It would make Ukraine look like a sandbox squabble.  Whatever president that is in office then would be roasted in the media for being the 2016st century Neville Chamberlain, and you can bet bottom dollar the Hawks in Congress would force the issue.  And if it happened during an Election Year? Oh boy would the blood run on the air waves.", "id": "crghq8h", "summary": "the US not getting involved in that scenario would be the end of the US as a world superpower.  What good is having all that economic, diplomatic, and military power if you dont use it when it counts? Especially on what would be a scenario where it would be China vs the world."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "I would include an Anticheat method by making boss fights lock your inventory until you get out.  Also, it looks like they use a bag of holding style system with an equipped item system, so make potions and gems an equipable item, with Aincrad's healer Given a fuck ton of equipable items but limited in offensive equipment.", "id": "clxexsh", "summary": "game balance is hard."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Depends on the network device. \n If it is already in the kernel with no   firmware bullshit (RTlink, Atheros, Intel) then it takes care of everything and will work automagically. \n If it is broadcom and is not one of the new 802.11ac types (this may have changed in the last year), then hooking the pc up to ethernet and letting the restricted extras helper (which comes up automatically on install) kick in and let Canonical take the wheel.  The only ones where windows was easier are a bunch of XP Era garbage that won't even work in modern windows anyway. \n When I installed windows 8.1, the fucker didnt detect my wireless at all and I had to go find the drivers from the manufacturer on ethernet.  Then I had to download the NVIDIA drivers manually, when in ubuntu the restricted driver for that was automagic as well. \n My day job is windows admin so of course I know how to do this, and alot of us on this sub cut our teeth on windows, but Windows driver setup can be utterly obtuse if you aren't using an install disk tailored for that exact hardware or have spent years immersed in the damn thing.", "id": "cmp3ozh", "summary": "Yes, for a majority of hardware it is. Mainly because it is a very rare thing to install windows with no aid from OEM mods unless you are a tech and ponied up for the full license."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "I know a similar scenario from Arkansas.   This one family owns most of the land in the county, and all of the elected officials are patsys for the family.  Expect a big Antebellum home and all the trappings of pre civil war Aristocracy. \nThey won't sell any property to anybody or any company that may lessen their political power.  These counties tend to only have 10k or so people and agriculture and basic manufacturing are the economic drivers. \n The family likes having their little feifdom and don't want it to get bigger then they control.", "id": "cchfg3i", "summary": "the south is crawling with aristocrats controlling vast amounts of poverty."}, {"author": "gravshift", "content": "Deer ticks live on more then just deer. \n I'm sad though because we used to have a healthy sized near my grandfather's property, as well as a good size flock of turkeys and several hawks. The fishing hole was also a catfish and bass spawning ground.  They neighborhood took great care to only engage in culls and never full hunts. \n Then this family of hardcore rednecks moved in 200 yards away from my grandfather and proceeded to kill every single creature larger then a squirrel that passed remotely near their property.  Besides being an incredibly stupid thing to do, it is illegal to use rifles for hunting on your property if you have less then ten acres, and these guys only had 2 tops (we have 6 so handguns are legal on ours, trying to buy another 6).\nThey also wiped out the spawning ground with gill hooks (which are also illegal). \n We tried to get the police involved but nothing would stick.  Never shoot deer in a rural resedential area.  It pisses off your neighbors.", "id": "ceeh59s", "summary": "never shoot deer in your yard.  Its probably illegal, its ecologically destructive, and it will make your neighbors hate you."}]}
+{"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post where do you buy your blank knives, pins, etc\n...", "output": "Started getting more into wood working lately. \n I made one knife on a whim, and I just love it.  A lot of fun.  I can't smith or smelt or anything, but using a blank blade, i did the scales. It's nothing fancy, and i'm not very good, but I really enjoy it.  It occurred to me that all of my siblings and most of my in-laws would really like to get a custom knife for christmas, and seeing how I am typically broke, I can't usually afford to get them anything that cool.  So I figure, why no, I'll make some knives and sharpen my skill at the same time. \n Long and short, can anyone steer me towards an online site that sells pins and bolsters as well as blank knives?  I don't know very much about knives, their qualities and appropriate costs, so just wondering if some people can share some online resources."}], "user_id": "longlamp_15385", "history": [{"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "I'd heard of people doing the shocking thing, and the fire thing, by having a battery strapped to them and channeling the electricity, which is impressive of itself.  But a fair number of people are mostly immune to tasers and the like, so it's not as impressive as you may think.", "id": "c5557d0", "summary": "agreed.  not chi."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "I always had a rule when I was single.  If I was seeing  more then one girl, they had to know about each other, because that drama shit is boring and I just don't think I was smart enough o successfully juggle two or more girls at once.  At my peak I was seeing three girls at once, but I don't think I ever slept with three on the same day.  My favorite moment was I was dating these two women who were very different, like ebony and ivory.  I was in bed after a romp with one when the girl b called up.  \"Where are you?\"  After a awkward second I told her where I was and she asked if I fucked and i told her yes.  She waits a minute and tells me to take a shower and come over.  I thought that was awesome already.  girl a, asked me where I was going, am I going to fuck her and i answer honestly.  She asks me when I'm going to leave the girl b, and I thought about it. \nI wasn't really into the girl b that much and i really liked girl a (it ended up being exclusive for a long time) so i answered, honestly, \"probably in a week or so.\"  girl a smiles and says, \"no, I mean tonight\".", "id": "c21n3am", "summary": "Girls know about each other.  I slept with a and then b and then a again."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "I suppose I see what you're saying but to me, that's a competition between you and yourself, to try and improve doesn't mean hitting the other person more or getting hit less.  One of the first things I tell new beginner's in my school, i instruct part time, is that the only person you are competing with is yourself.  I firmly believe the Hagakure quote is right :  \"Even if it seems certain that you will lose, retaliate. Neither wisdom nor technique has a place in this. A real man does not think of victory or defeat. He plunges recklessly towards an irrational death.\"  Whenever I get on the mat, or get in the ring, I try not to think about winning or losing because that is not the point of being there.  It's improving and if you win and have not gained anything from it, it's empty.", "id": "c1icy43", "summary": "I politely disagree."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "So, BJJ is one of my newer arts.  I've done everything I can get my hands on.  Boxing, MT, bando, some karate (didn't like it), shai jiao and judo and most recently BJJ (six years or so of it).  I did over a decade of kung-fu/san sho, including teaching kids classes.  now kf is all but synonymous with bullshido due to really poor quality control and the fact that KF is a non-term that doesn't describe much in terms of martial arts, save that it's chinese.  I mean, there are 700 types of \"gong fu\".  Not even to mention that \"kung fu\" doesn't mean anything about martial arts in chinese or in china. \n So, I have taught kids classes, professionally for the last 5 years or so, and I am currently teaching a striking class for kids out of an mma gym. \n The belt system in almost any martial art is broken as fuck.  The only one I have really seen where it holds it's water is in bjj. A belt is just a advertisement for the work you've put in.  It don't mean shit on it's own for sure.  It means a lot to kids, though.  A lot of the time, they don't grasp that abstract notion of what a belt actually is, or if they do, they still feel a compulsion to get some physical indicator of their ability.  It's an eagle feather.  It's a point of pride.  What often happens is that in an effort to either boost a kids confidence or profit, belts are given out/sold constantly and gets unbalanced.  In the KF school that I taught (great technique, used to be a lot of contact sparring and tournaments, not so much anymore) they have a separate belt system for both kids, so if a say, 14 year old, gets to a black belt, he would be expected to begin attending adult classes with maybe a brown or something else, and have to test off the adults' requirement.  I don't think there is much wrong with that, as long as he is being taught decent technique and being forced to utilize it in sparring.  Getting kids to spar, striking, is a nightmare and from my limitied experience with getting kids to roll and getting kids to spar, getting them to roll is a ton easier as a sell.  I mean the first arm bar compared to the first bloody nose, parents tend to go batshit over the blood, but the armbar can be walked off.  Again, my very limited understanding. \n So, I know that I am rambling a bit. Sorry.", "id": "ck3gnk3", "summary": "version is this.  Belts are pointless.  I get to see top level bjj guys roll and I don't need a colored flag to tell me who's worth listening to when they talk.  All belts are just advertisements of skill, including bjj belts.  The more stringently they're doled out the better, but being upset because someone thinks they're better at something then you are, regardless of the truth of the statement is petty.  And not all kung fu is shit.  Just 99% of it."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "It's just a weird topic.  It's worth about the same as living in shitty circumstances as it is to hire an attorney.  They will both set us back financially.  There is no money for a lawyer to gain in this sort of case so they will not take it.  I spoke to an excellent lawyer, who is a work-friend, as is a friendly lawyer for the company I where I also work.  He's very good and assures me that we have a very strong case.  No online, anonymous advice will supersede his, but I'm hoping someone in, or having been in, a similar situation might offer some advice.", "id": "c23fuy5", "summary": "not looking for professional legal counsel, looking for anecdotal advice."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "Plain facts.  (I have been doing martial arts for over a decade including MT and BJJ, along with a bunch of other stuff.) MT works so well in mma, not because the system is stylistically suited for fighting but because if you train in MT you are almost certainly expected to actually spar.  In karate, or KF, most schools will not expect you to ever even hit someone else.  It's just not the way they're marketed.  This doesn't make the systems bad, this makes the schools bad.  Same in TKD or many other arts, is the sparring has huge holes in it that don't adequately train people to be in an mma fight.  Let me tell you, you punch a TKD guy in the face, they're whole game falls apart.  But because of the heavy culture of competition that runs through MT, BJJ and boxing, you can punch and kick those guys silly, kick them, knee them and choke them and they are expecting it and are prepared for it.", "id": "chcqeio", "summary": "boxing MT and BJJ gyms hit and choke each other. so they're better at hitting and getting hit."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "The older I get the more these two seem the same to me.  When I was growing up, Marvel felt  younger  to me and DC felt more traditional.  As I get older, I see a lot better character development in DC than in marvel and a lot more willingness to take risks.  I think a big part of it was i started in the 90s, when superman had a mullet, both batman and superman \"died\" and wolverine got his skeleton ripped out.  now, marvel can't keep bodies in the ground (not that DC is much better) and takes less risks.  I mean, DR Light raped a hero's wife.  That's some risky villain shit.  marvel just seems to stick to the usual world domination/terrorism lines nowadays.  Which is not saying that there haven't been awesome marvel arcs.  I loved civil war (too bad nothing actually changed) and world war hulk (again,nothing actually changed afterwards).  I just wish marvel would drop something heavy and not take it back like nothing ever happened.", "id": "cfl0tru", "summary": "marvel because vertigo. \n edit:  downvotes for opions on comics?  for shame."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "Evidence is anything that might lead someone to believe something.\" \nVs.\n\"The available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.\" \n These are not the same things at all.  Some folk look at the sky and think, \"Surely this is proof of a benevolent God.\", which according to the first definition you threw out there, means the sky is evidence of god. \n The second definition calls for an indication of truth, as in a reflection of an non-subjective reality. \n If anything about my original statement, which was more tongue in cheek than serious, (I'm dry humored even outside of text only conversation.) I'm playing a bit on the semantics and linguistics of the OP, which would be that \"extraordinary\" evidence makes the evidence, hilariously, seem unbelievable.  Thus, it wouldn't work as evidence because it would prove itself to be too in credible , a synonym of extraordinary.  Hence, we would have to rely on standard evidence to prove something extraordinary like aliens.", "id": "c32z2hs", "summary": "jokes aren't funny to anyone when you have to explain them and also, woosh."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "I downvote memes.  But besides that, I understand the mockery behind it and agree.  I was a shit-bird at best but even then knew that the stupidity surrounding my actions would not let me mention it to other people let alone brag about it.  a stupid and dangerous thing to do from a kid who just wanted to hurt people.", "id": "c5n3xw8", "summary": "I'm  not  proud of that one."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "but true martial arts are not about winning or \"loosing\"... \n MMA isn't \"a\" martial art, it is a mix of martial arts.  It has not yet standardized, like JKD got to be, and I hope that doesn't happen because that slows down the growth of possible techniques incorporated and therefore the evolution of the techniques incorporated.", "id": "cjos9jx", "summary": "article is silly bullshit."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "Start with one art and get decent with it.  Mix them later with mma.  A lot of people think that they can learn mma quickly but to actually be decent at it you'll need to learn three martial arts at least, or at least in three ranges.  Long distance striking, close game/mid-range, striking and throws and grappling.  I see a lot of shitty fighters who think they can tackle all this at once and they just get a great big muddy mess of crap.  Their boxing sucks, their throws are sloppy and their grappling is weak, but they're in great condition.", "id": "c2u1yo8", "summary": "walk before you run."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "Let's not forget that Cub Swanson is fought this under Greg Jackson and his game plan was knock the fuck out of the the other guy.  I feel like everytime anyone uses their fucking head in this sport and doesn't just run in windmilling, people have nothing but shit to say about it.  Sometimes a fucking game plan doesn't work and sometimes the team is wrong.  Jackso doesn't do well unless his fighters do well in the long run and he clearly fucked up by pressing a strategy on a fighter who was unfamiliar to it and unable to make it happen.", "id": "c55fevb", "summary": "how about we stop being anti-strategy and get over the fact that some fights are boring? \n Edit:  And I'm not saying that clay put up a good fight, but I am saying that the constant act of blaming greg jackson for boring fights is bullshit."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "It's about timing.  The idea is to catch them after they've committed to your front leg and then by switching to another deep front leg stance, they are aiming too deep on your body and there's a chance they'll almost bounce off of you.  That hammer fist is like a hook where it's all in the weight and the body.  The arm doesn't move too much.  There's a lot of power in it.", "id": "c1xkuzc", "summary": "if he times that well, it would be devastating.  If not, probably a bit of a scramble."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "I'm not thrilled about what I see in the mirror, but I'm not going to let it ruin my day.\" \n I get what you're saying but, whether you like it or not, coming from a pretty girl it comes off as more pandering than anything else.  I mean talking about how you feel inadequate when you look in the mirror, while being a pretty decent looking chick, just indicates to people who are under you on  the 1-10 scale think that where ever you are on the scale, above them, still isn't good enough. \n but yeah, you're pretty.  And I guess sexy although, honestly, listening to what you said sort of makes me find you less appealing (go ahead and downvote, I know).  I mean, you're one of the hundreds of pretty girls who want people to tell them they're pretty because they think they aren't, and I am endlessly inspired by confidence and ability not by needing validation. \n try /r/firstimpression if you want someone to not just be like \"yur, I'd totally hit that. 6/10.\"", "id": "cn09ic1", "summary": "you're very pretty."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "Why would i feel any worse about his death than I would about anyone who drinks and drives?  Because he was famous?  Shit happens everyday and I've got too many real life friends to spend time mourning an actor who was an idiot for a living and died an idiot's death.  Not saying someone out there shouldn't mourn him but if you genuinely feel bad that someone really rich and really famous died, you must spend huge amounts of time weeping for every sorry soul that starves to death, gets slaughtered needlessly or contracts fatal illnesses.  If you don't than I've got fucking nothing further to say to you on this topic.", "id": "c53epj6", "summary": "If compassion means that much to you go get some of your own, I have as much as I can stand."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "That doesn't seem to actually be a citation.  I get you're referencing a textbook, but shouldn't you know how to cite something by the time you're reading that particular textbook? \n And the other thing is that there is this assumed quality in what you quoted that indicates this is the sole reason for kissing babies and that it is a fact.  Really, there are many many supposed reasons we kiss babies, everything from establishing pheromone ID, to salva swappingas a means of boosting a new immune system, and even the old wives tale of we used to chew up food and spit in the babies mouth. \n Now, granted, I haven't dug a lot into this, but the little digging I have done has every article talking about this (there aren't many) either citing the book you cited, which isn't the information's source, and therefore not really worthy as a citation, or a bunch of dead end links. \n A citation should be done on a study, at least in support of a claimed scientific breakthrough, preferably numerous studies.  I mean, I could find you college text books that claim creationism has scientific backing, and they'd at least cite a study, which would  not  come from peer reviewed material, but at least we'd know where it came from.  Something being in a text book doesn't mean shit. \n And I'm not saying the claim is entirely impossible.  If it were true, and not being a immunologist, it very well  could be true  as far as I fucking know, but there doesn't actually seem to be any support in what you've written.  Now I can't access the story, because the site's crashed or something, and I wanted answers and I see you provided a 'citation'.  Surely you can imagine my disappointment when the citation you provided is shit.", "id": "cnqiwh3", "summary": "I want a citation and you gave a quote."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "my wife and I are hella tight.  less real fights than I have fingers, and the two biggest have been about the curtains.  We're very very different but we compliment each other.  I tend to be reckless and she's over-protective.  We blend very well.  Little country, little rock and roll, you know? \n Three kids, ages 2-8 months. Married 5 years, together 8. \n Here' what having kids has taught me:  You spend a great deal of time working into a comfortable dynamic with your partner.  You establish a balance.  Having a kid  does not  contribute to a balance.  You have to rewrite the whole thing.  You don't just modify your relationship, you change the whole thing.  Sure, you can keep aspects of it, but those need to be resized and replaced and sometimes removed.  For example, I like my alone time.  Guess ho much alone time I actually get.   So whatever give and take you had before, is gone and you need to COMMUNICATE CONSTANTLY to re-establish pattern/comfort/balance.  You also will have to sacrifice way more than you did before. ( You like alone time?  Fuck you. No alone time.  Everyone wants alone time, but I/You worked all day and we're tired, the kid's tired, the dog is tired and I'm not leaving the room to fart anymore.) \n Sometimes my wife does nags me, or says shitty things, or ignores me, or fails to put her empty soda can in the trash despite the fact that it's only three feet away.  How do I react?  I remind myself, first of all, that she is probably as tired, if not more, as me, and as overworked, if not more, as me and that I do plenty of shitty things myself, and hey, isn't that my old paper plate, ten feet from the trash right now?  Then I call her on it.  But not in an \"Oh fuck you didn't roll your eyes at me woman!\" Sort of way but more along the lines of, \"Why did you just roll your eyes at me?\" sort of way.  And usually, she'll say, \"Sorry, I have no clue and I was being a bitch.\"  And when I do something, like ignore her in favor of reddit, or snap at her for re-reiterating, I call myself on it.  The moment I realize I fucked up, and you know that moment, I resist the urge to defend my actions to salvage my pride and I bite that mouthful of crow and say \"Sorry.  That was shitty.  I was being a dick.\"    And almost always happy feels are shared and balance is restored and I get to keep hitting that, which is just.... just really great.  You're hardly talking?  That ain't going to work.  Talk more, even if you don't want to.  say it all.  can't be honest with yourself and your wife?  you ain't being honest with anyone, probably. \n I think, actually, that we got a little bit lucky having so many kids so quick.  We had to be cohesive.  we had to be on a team and communicate (not that ever had much issue with that) because we were so quickly outnumbered.", "id": "cm4nhzn", "summary": "Communicate, don't let pride get in the way, be honest, and remember, it' you and her vs the damned hordes of children."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "I like Rua.  But I don't think he's anything different or special.  He does what a lot of fighters do but just a little better.  Jones has been walking through his last fights.  I'm not sure if I can recall him getting any solid hits or being in any real danger in any of them.  And Rua dominated Machida, who was a sort of gimmick fighter, in the regards that his spacing and timing were different from most other fighters.  Rua won their first fight in my opinion, but he sure didn't walk through him.  The second time he did.  But how many people has Rua just  owned  recently?  Jones has been destroying all the other competitors and the Rua of 2002-2006 is gone.  We have Rua of 2011.  Its not an easy to predict fight.", "id": "c1fsf0a", "summary": "don't rule out jones so easily."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "I think you meant this to be a reply to many people and not just me, but here's my stance: \n I got my MA in psych.  I think of psych as a hard science.  My brother is a well respected psych with a private practice.  I'm all for the hard scrutiny of \"psychologists/therapists/doctors\" by the actual psych. community.  It's a very very complex science which means that people don't understand it very well which means it gets misrepresented quite a bit more than, say, physics.  While that same scrutiny doesn't allow me to have an independent practice in my homestate and my attitude doesn't allow me to work well with others, I still highly value the restrictions placed on psychologists.  However, loose use of terms by the general public breed a shit ton of misinformation which causes situations like this.", "id": "c22vie8", "summary": "I agree with everything you said.  We need better education for the public and strict strict observation of \"experts\".  MA in psych.  Brother is full time private psychologist."}, {"author": "thesnakeinthegarden", "content": "I try only to fight when I need to, as in, no other viable solutions that won't cause me or mine harm.  Buy them a beer, here take my wallet, sorry, etc... but I do so without acting afraid because I don't want them to think that they are in a safe position.  i want them uncomfortable with my comfort.  That's worked really well for me.  I've had a gun pointed at my face, someone began to mug me but freaked out a bit when I reacted calmly and ran off.  Some lighter stuff too. \n When push comes to shove and I feel that there is a genuine danger and I can't run, I'm not going to throw a punch, or a kick.  I'm going to use whatever i can to damage them to the point where they pose no threat.  Knife, rock, whatever.  Whatever depths of \"cheap\" I can sink to, I will, regardless of their well-being. \n In highschool, I had a bit of a reputation for being tough, not because I won a lot of fights but because I never backed down from a fight even when the guy had about 70 lbs on me.  (That was a bad one...).  A friend was in a pissy mood and started to tell me he could whoop my ass and I ignored him until he started throwing punches.  I hit him back slammed him against the wall and asked him if he was done.  He reached down and through my slacks, grabbed my junk and squeezed.  he won, hands down.", "id": "c2id0re", "summary": "Only fight when you have to.  When you have to fight, most damage fastest wins every time."}]}
+{"author": "nanowerx", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Fuck Rand Paul.", "output": "Maybe I would be on your side if it was only \"just an endorsement of the nominee.\" Rand was asked if he would actively campaign and go out on the road to support Mitt Romney....without hesitating he proclaimed that he would. Now that is doing more than saying a good word to get some establishment support, that is completely going off the deep end to secure that establishment support. \n Sorry, I know I am supposed to feel bad now at how I reacted to Rand, but I refuse to retract my initial outrage or current, more\nMenacing outrage. Granted, his voting record is still top notch, but this movement is growing and one of our founding principals is being principled and not bowing for the sake of party lines or furthering political careers. Rand bent right over for the same guy that happily said he would have signed NDAA with the American detention clause still there, the very scum Rand has been working to overthrow and he just puts on a fake smile and hands him something far greater than \"just an endorsement.\""}], "user_id": "longlamp_12996", "history": [{"author": "nanowerx", "content": "29, my wife is 26...we had our share of great times in the shower, but both agree that we would much rather have sex on dry land. I am not very active, but I am fit, and am pretty much the weight I should be for my height, if not slightly underweight...and she is very fit, active and flexible (she is into dance and yoga...though, not a stripper!). Standing is just uncomfortable for long periods and the slipperiness has us sliding all over the place when we get rough, which is how we usually like things.", "id": "c6krw26", "summary": "Sex standing for long periods simply sucks, especially with rough sex."}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "It is only lethal to pets in high doses. But if you are one who is paranoid, simply hole them up in a specific room for a week. Technically, with Boric Acid, you shouldn't even be putting down enough that would harm a pet. Think about this: if you were walking and all of a sudden there was a huge pile of sand in your way, you would probably just go around instead of going through it. That's exactly what roaches do with big piles of Boric Acid...they go around it and don't get the chemicals on them. \n When it does get on them, it will shred up their exoskeleton, also they ingest it when cleaning themselves; which shuts down their digestive system while dehydrating them. It takes a couple of weeks (to take out current bugs and eggs that may hatch), but it does work and it works wonders! Source: I had a severe roach infestation recently and I spent hundreds of dollars on pesticides and Pest Control companies that did very little and they kept coming back. I did research and spent $5 on a bottle of Boric Acid and within 2 weeks they were almost all gone.", "id": "c6ys6o5", "summary": "Only harmful to people/pets in high doses, just like salt. A few puffs around any cracks, corners and such in your home, barely even visible, is the best bet to ensure Boric Acid works on roaches...and it will."}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "Got a 4GB HDD back in 1997, the guy at Best buy told me I would never need more space than that. Then we went there a year later to upgrade to a bigger HDD because he was (obviously) wrong, somebody else at Best Buy told me that you couldn't do that...you would have to buy a whole new computer.", "id": "c38dtx7", "summary": "Don't goto Best buy for anything computer related, they are retarded."}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "Thats the point. If a company is so hardassed to not provide something for whatever political reason they have for not supporting WP, somebody will always come up with a solution. They can squash Rudys efforts, but something else will pop up that people will consume. If the company doesn't want that potential profit, then their loss. \n A smart company would see this whole situation and go \"there is a demand for our product over here, lets embrace that,\" you know, instead of spending potential development money on their lawyers to send C&D notices. Thing is, they obviously aren't a smart company and like all of the many fad apps before them, the masses will move on to something else and they will be left with no Plan B.", "id": "cqfz995", "summary": "fuck snapchat."}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "I have lived in Georgia for 29 years and was very much following the 2002 senate election; voter fraud or not, he shot himself in the foot before the election and his opponent pounced. Whether he lost extra votes or not is negotiable, but it was no secret that towards the end of the election, he wasn't as well liked as he was in elections prior. The race was neck and neck and his opponent put out some damning ads that killed Clelands campaign. This was 2002, right after 9/11, but before the Iraq war, and everybody was on edge about terrorism. Basically the ads showed how he was voting and it made Cleland look soft on terror and the masses booted him. Had the same election happened in 2012 it might have been a different story, but in 2002, I think a majority of Americans weren't sure how to act and took any opposition to fighting terrorists as a negative.", "id": "c6ww010", "summary": "Negative ads from his opponent coupled with his perceived lax attitude on fighting terrorism in a post-9/11 world cost Cleland his position, not voter fraud."}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "I know this thread is old, but just in case you didn't know yet: the upgrade is availible to download now. I also got the $15 deal and decided to check out my account on the Microsoft site...sure enough, the final points to registration and payment were available. After I filled everything out, it got me to download the Compatibility app and then download from there.", "id": "c6rmq0s", "summary": "Windows 8 upgrade is now out for people who signed up for the $15 deal."}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "They should be, you need to get educated. You are spreading rumors guised as fact. The maximum effects of THC are achieved by holding in the smoke or vapor for 3 seconds. Any more is futile. \n Plus cigarettes have over 100 ingredients, 30 of which are carcinogens. While smoking anything is harmful to lungs, Marijuana has no carcinogenic properties. Don't throw out anecdotes as 'fact.'", "id": "c7axqbl", "summary": "vaporize or eat your weed for extra safety, but it is a farce to compare 10 years of weed smoking with 10 years of cigarette smoking."}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "You are going to love your Credit Union. I joined one about 8-9 years ago after Wachovia bought out my little bank, South Trust. As soon as they took over, it went from hometown banking to \"how are we going to screw you out of money today?\" After the 15th extra \"fee\" that I was charged for every little menial thing I did with my account, I decided \"fuck it, I'm out,\" then drained my account and got them to close it. Or so I thought... \n The funny thing is, the fuckers charged me a $29 fee for having no money in my account, which led to another $29 fee and another, and so on. Ended up getting to about $300 in fees for having no money in the account I had told them to close. Shit should be illegal, why isn't it?! \n Sure as hell, they instantly reported me to the Credit Agencies and then sold my debt to a collector. I never paid it out of principal and 7 years after, it finally came off my Credit Report.", "id": "c2yimb8", "summary": "Fuck big banks. Everybody go Credit Union!"}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "The disc is only a means of verification that you own the game. As the PS3 showed us last generation, it is very difficult to stream data fast enough to play a game completely off the disc. BluRay is much slower than DVD and holds/processes a ton more data. \n Therefore to eliminate excessive in-game lag and extremely long load times, they just took out the guesswork and required every disc-based game be installed just like a downloaded title.", "id": "cfqgr8l", "summary": "Disc has to be in to verify ownership of game, but the BluRay drive itself is too slow to load data efficiently."}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "I miss SouthTrust. That was actually a good non credit-union bank before Wachovia bought them out and then vomited all over my customer service. Even though I emptied my account but didn't close it right off. \n I left a zero balance and the charged some new account fee and put me in the negative and started imposing fees right off the bat. Expecting me to pay $29 \"fees\" for each one. Ended up with over a $400 bill before they closed the account. It was on my credit report for like 8 years and I refused to pay. Finally gone as of this year. Feels good man, feels good.", "id": "c2p75w4", "summary": "Fuck Wachovia"}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "It is sad to say, but you are right. I spent some time in Georgia politics and I saw so many politicians with good ideas that wouldn't use them because they felt their constituents would be against those ideas and they wanted to ensure reelection. Hell, in GA specifically, a decade back, our governor was voted out of office in record numbers. The reason? He supported removing the confederate flag from the GA state flag. Granted, he wasn't a very good governer anyway, in fact quite shit, but he kept getting reelected regardless. His ultimate undoing was fucking with the state flag, something utterly meaningless in the grand scheme of things. \n It is all about keeping a job to too many in politics, the idea of making change or actually doing something that matters is thrown out the door because the political leaders are scared of losing their jobs.", "id": "cn7tfnd", "summary": "voters are retarded and politicians want to keep their jobs. This is why the political climate in the US sucks."}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "I just finished my first batch today from a Mr. Beer kit I got for Christmas and it turned out surprisingly fantastic. I have been reading since I first started my batch on this sub about how horrible it will be and how everybody hates Mr. Beer with a passion; I fully expected a disgusting, harsh brew. Turns out it is genuinely good beer I made. Granted, it isn't something that is going to be taken to any beer brewing competitions, but it blows any cheap beer on the shelves and stuff like Bud Light and Coors Light out of the water. Was very smooth and extremely flavorful. \n I do want to get fully into better equipment and more advanced brewing processes when I have the funds to do so, but for a starter kit, I made some beer that impressed myself and even a couple of my 'beer snob' friends. If done right, you can produce good beer from those kits, plus the training-wheels method of brewing makes it great for people like me who have wanted to get into homebrew for years, but got overwhelmed with all of the hardware and ingredients needed to get going.", "id": "c80q2e0", "summary": "I wouldn't be pushing people away from the easiest method to get started with homebrew, especially when I can fully confirm that Mr. Beer can produce decent beer."}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "I can confirm this. I have a shared 4Gb plan with my wife and I use the AT&T app to monitor my usage. This months data use was at 3.7Gb the day before the end of the billing month. I turned off data for both phones to make sure we wouldn't go over our limit. Sure enough, got my bill and my data use was now at 4.1Gb and AT&T gladly charged me another $15 and added an extra gig to my account.", "id": "ce5zh2u", "summary": "AT&T are assholes."}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "Nope, simply not true. \n I always use the Walmart \"Equate\" brand just because I am cheap and it costs the least, but I have gotten 2 free samples of BioTrue and it is much, much better than Equate and every other solution I have tried in the past (I even started paying the higher price just to buy it exclusively now)...they aren't even in the same ballpark. It really is like dumping natural tears onto your contacts; I even use it as eyedrops when my eyes get dry.", "id": "caxmujf", "summary": "This stuff is the best contact solution on the market, and in no way is the Walmart brand comparable."}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "I obviously can't speak for anybody else, but as somebody that still has his copy of Duke 3D: Atomic Edition and logged more hours in that games' multiplayer than any other game ever, Duke Forever is fun. \n If people would stop comparing it to Call of Duty we might not be in the middle of this shitstorm. If you enjoyed 90's FPS, you will like the game. It's not going to blow you away, but you will have fun, which is the reason we play video games. I keep hearing the words, \"outdated graphics,\" \"two weapon limit,\" \"regenerating health,\" like they are going out of style, which makes me think that people are literally trying to NOT like this game. \n Yesterday I was sitting at my house, pissed that I didn't cancel my preorder and spent $60 on a turd that the UPS driver was dropping off. Then I started playing and all that went out the window. This whole debacle reminds me that even in 2011, we cannot wholly trust professional reviews. Everyone needs to find a reviewer they generally agree with and listen to them. Jim Sterling @ Destructoid gave it a 2/10, which is ridiculous and seems to only be pandering to the \"OH SHIT THIS SUCKS\" crowd than actually reviewing the game on its own merits. Luckily I hardly ever agree with him on his reviews and hoped it was bull. If I had listened to the vocal naysayers, I would have missed out on a pretty good game that finally puts the development of DNF to rest after 14 years. I don't care that the game looks like a 360 launch game, the bottom line is that the gameplay is utmost enjoyable, you shoot things, duke cracks a one liner, you kill a rat in a microwave, you move on. I think I spent way too much time interacting with stuff all over every level, literally  everything  can be interacted with. Kinda reminded me how bad modern games are at easter eggs and interactive environments...nobody seems to be doing these things enough anymore. \n Considering what Gearbox had to work with, I think it turned out just fine. It doesn't live up to 14 years of hype, but its not trying to either, its simply trying to be a sequel to Duke 3D and I think it does a good job of that: 7.5/10", "id": "c1zx02t", "summary": "Duke Forever is fun, feels like an old school shooter, haters gonna hate."}, {"author": "nanowerx", "content": "Little background: I have been smoking since I was 17 and am now 28 years old. I have a steady and good-paying job, but for the most part, my transition into adult life has still revolved around getting stoned after work and the older I get...the stronger that \"not wanting to do shit\" feeling gets when I get high. \n I am about to get married and my Fiancee has a 3 year old, so I have long already been taking on fatherly/family duties, so that aspect of my life has been bothering me. Me and my girl both smoke, so herbs aren't the problem. I read a comment from Conrad141 earlier and I think they put it in a closer perspective: \n >\"For me, vaping took away the one bad effect of weed: apathy\" \n -Conrad141 \n That is what got me to make this post. I still want to sit around and couch melt while I play Xbox every so often, but as a family man, I cannot do that everyday anymore. I have noticed it happening where I could be doing some fun activity with my step-daughter, but end up lost on Reddit instead with no ambition to want to do jack, after smoking. I don't get this way if not smoking, actually very active. \n So the main question I am posing through all this wall of text is trying to get an idea from vaporizer users in general. Does vaping give you more incentive to get out and do stuff? Are you more active now? Or do you still get the lazy, slacker feeling every time you get high? My LB comes in the mail Saturday and honestly this was one of my major factors in my decision to switch to vaping (along with the saving of bud). \n Sorry this is so long, I'm a Ramblin' Man.", "id": "t3_qxnpp", "summary": "Trying to get a general consensus on how vaping effects your mood, motivation and will to actually want to do things instead of stare at a wall for 20 minutes."}]}
+{"author": "gosabres", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Guy crashes into my car parked outside, I get a ticket for the car I wasn't driving having insurance but no current proof of it, waste time and go to court to get it dismissed after 3 hours of jerkin' the gerkin in my Sunday best.", "output": "My car was parked on the side of the road and some guy was coming through way too quickly and slammed into it.  Basically same story as yours except in snow and ice.  Went outside, maintained calm over my totaled auto, helped the guy, flagged a cop because our wrecked cars were now blocking the road. \n My proof of insurance was expired by a week or two, cop wrote me a ticket saying \"I can see that your insurance is up to date with the DMV, but you need to have possession of current/valid proof of insurance while driving.\"  I was like \"don't I have to be actually driving the vehicle to get a ticket for this\" and in his best Chuck Testa he was like \"NOOOOPE\". \n Got a ticket for an accident I wasn't responsible for plus my car was totaled.  Had to take a rental car to court, and time off of work, with a piece of paper showing I was insured when the accident happened (despite the cop knowing this), was dismissed after about 3 hours of sitting in my job interview suit.  sadface.jpg"}], "user_id": "longlamp_10853", "history": [{"author": "gosabres", "content": "Gillette isn't that bad.  Unfortunately its because we've been such a non-factor for its entire existence.  Last year a buddy of mine went to Week 10.  Despite the Bills driving to a possibly-game-winning touchdown (which ended with a Fitz INT), the attitude was more \"Holy shit, we're so terrible, we're going to lose to the Bills\" rather than \"This is bullshit, let's take it out on some Bills fans.\" \n I can't imagine you would be in any \"danger\" or suffer from very much harassment.  They'll be watching the out of town scoreboard more than anything else.  By the end of the game, the Pats could wind up anywhere from 1st to 4th... \n 1st Seed: Broncos loss (or tie; also a 4:25pm game) and Pats win, Pats get #1 with 12-4 record and the Pats win over Broncos in Week 11.  (Broncos are probably not going to lose/tie the Raiders though.) \n 2nd Seed: Broncos win, Pats win. OR Pats loss (tie) with Bengals (1pm) and Colts (1pm) losses. \n 3rd Seed: Pats lose (tie), Bengals or Colts win. \n 4th Seed: Pats lose (tie), Bengals and Colts win.", "id": "cea1ai2", "summary": "You should be alright except for a late-game Pats comeback with a simultaneous Oakland comeback.  If NE got 1st in that fashion and I was there to see it, I'd hang myself from a goal post."}, {"author": "gosabres", "content": "I work with acoustic releases attached to moorings at deep ocean locations.  We have tried to ping acoustic releases in 4000m of water and had no return signal.  We knew the exact location where we dropped our mooring (via ship GPS) the previous year, returned the next year to that exact location to pick it up only to have no response signal.  I originally hypothesized that the stronger thermocline \"blocked\" the acoustic signal (either from the pinger or from the release).  We returned during the winter (when there's a weaker thermocline) and with a stronger pinger, which was able to communicate with and activate the release.  What the U.S. Pacific Command has is probably better than what we had and they only have to worry about \"listening\" rather than 2-way communication, but keep in mind... \n A) We have no idea where the wreckage would have settled and B) the Flight Data Recorder will stop pinging in 6-12 days (FDR only pings for 24-30 days). \n I wouldn't hold out hope we're going to be able to find this wreckage until we do repeated surveys with side-scan sonar and AUVs as they did with [Air France Flight 447]( in the area.  Also note: with Air France 447, there were bodies and debris found 5 days after the crash, narrowing the search area considerably.  As far as I know at the moment, we haven't found anything.  That said, IMO the likelihood of finding this aircraft  ever  is very, very small.", "id": "cganggh", "summary": "Even with a towed pinger locator, it will be very difficult to find this plane ever. \n Source: Physical oceanographer with experience in deep-ocean acoustic instruments and pingers over multiple NSF research cruises."}, {"author": "gosabres", "content": "NBC doesn't show the game live... \n There is a tape delay as advertisers pay more for time between faceoffs than they do between periods.  As a result, the actual intermission is shorter to match up.  Also, at the end of the game, the radio is well-ahead of NBC.  My twitter feed had the Final score while i was watching 3:30 to go.  Radio was close to twitter.", "id": "ccyet9b", "summary": "NBC turns a 150 minute game into a 160 minute one.  Guess where the extra 10 minutes goes..."}, {"author": "gosabres", "content": "At intersection to busy road in Raleigh, NC.  Trying to make right turn, person behind me is angry because he thinks I should have gone in a few very short spaces between oncoming traffic.  I'm in no hurry to waste gas, so I sit there waiting for a decent space.  No space for a while and the light finally turns, giving me space to turn in.  Person behind me is laying on the horn, makes the right turn wide to try and get into the far left lane of the street we were both turning onto.  I need to be in that lane to make an immediate left turn at the next intersection.  Angry person takes this as me trying to eff with him some more, although I was just trying to turn into a plaza. \n Guy jumps to right lane, guns it, turns in front of me, slams his brakes - I see this coming a mile away and evade by going into the right lane (missing my turn).  Guy pulls up alongside me, is visibly angry and is yelling obscenities at me - like vein-popping angry.  So I give the most obnoxious smile and wave I can muster while the guy is yelling at me \"OH YOU THINK YOU'RE FUNNY?!?\"  Guy jerks his car to the right to try to hit me, I tap my brakes so that he runs into my lane ahead of me again.  Meanwhile, person in a minivan behind me sees all this going down, guns his engine, pulls into left lane, chases the angry fella down, and runs him off the road.  I turn around to make the left I missed and get chicken wings and a beer while watching these 2 guys have a fistfight.", "id": "cawgj2m", "summary": "I couldn't make a right turn in traffic, someone took offense tries to run me off the road several times.  Person watching whole thing runs him off the road and proceeds to kick his ass.  I get chicken wings and beer."}, {"author": "gosabres", "content": "Captain of a beer league team.  I don't score, I don't catch passes well, and I'm not fast. \n First off, have fun.  Don't let your frustration get in the way of that.  The guys on your team, and even the other teams sound like they've got their heads in the right places.  We have a few \"pylons\" out there for us as well (I'm definitely on that list), but when they make a solid play, I let them know it. \n The one thing that I can't stand are people that hog ice time.  I find that the less-skilled guys occasionally take some extra time, go out for a faceoff when they should be heading to the bench, etc.  I get it, more ice = better play, but if you aren't very skilled AND you're out there beyond your fair share, that is a problem.  Not accusing you of this, just saying its something that drives me up the wall.  The other side is also true, the skilled players shouldn't be putting themselves first in ice time - they put in the same $$$ as you.  I don't tolerate either on my team. \n I hear ya on how expensive ice time is, but you don't have to be on the ice all of the time in order to get better.  Getting in better shape might help you overall, and you can do that anywhere!  Legs and core.  \"The legs feed the wolf\" (Kurt Russell, Miracle)  If you're bored and the weather is nice, go for a bike ride and try to keep it in the higher gears to get more effort going up hills, your thighs will get stronger.  As for the core, a really cheap way to strengthen that is with  kettlebell  and minimal experience will do much better playing the sport than someone who sits on the couch and goes to the rink several times a week for $85 lessons. \n Best of luck and enjoy yourself, this is a recreational activity!", "id": "ch20var", "summary": "Have fun, don't hog ice time, get some (cheap) exercise away from the rink."}, {"author": "gosabres", "content": "Living in a mid-sized city with a scooter isn't all that bad.  I ride on the right side of the road, allowing people to pass safely.  I park next to my building behind a bunch of picnic tables and walk a few extra paces to be courteous.  If I take it downtown, I park close to trees planted near the side of the road, its not like a pedestrian would be able to get through the tree anyways. \n Meanwhile... I drive a car frequently enough to know that getting stuck behind a scooter going 30-35MPH in the middle of the lane is aggravating.  I will bike to work on cooler days and know that having a scooter in the rack would take up about half the spaces.  And walking around downtown, I recognize how annoying it would be to have to walk around scoots every 10 feet. \n When you look at things from another person's point of view, it should teach you how to be less of an asshat.", "id": "caykily", "summary": "The person that this note was addressed to is an asshole.  Follow the \"Golden Rule\" and it shouldn't matter if you walk/ride/scoot/drive/get-fired-out-of-a-cannon in order to get to where you need to go."}, {"author": "gosabres", "content": "Went to Charlotte for a Tenacious D concert with friends.  Concert was at The Fillmore, in an area where a lot of concerts are (NC Music Factory).  After the show, we hit a diner around the corner, apparently there was another concert - something rap or hip hop.  A bunch of teens get out of the show, form a circle of at least 30-40.  In the middle of the circle, 2 teen girls are fighting each other (I say fighting loosely, they were mostly grabbing and clawing and yelling).  The crowd ring moves as the two girls are clawing at each other, moves like a tornado consuming everything in its path, approaches the patio where we're eating.  The people crush the fence on the patio, girls fighting each other, ring of people knocking over tables, running into patrons.  The girls in the middle still fighting, people on the patio eventually just give up and head for shelter in the diner.  Diner doesn't comp ruined meals, etc.  Get into cab, head to Center City, everything is closed except for some overpriced bar.  Get a few drinks, no cabs around, stumble 3 miles back to hotel, pee on some stuff.", "id": "cbm4nx8", "summary": "Went to see a show in Charlotte, a nearby show started a small riot which ruined dinner, found an overpriced bar, no cabs after 2am."}, {"author": "gosabres", "content": "Finishing up my PhD at a university.  Got my PPL last year on my stipend.  I went the same route you're considering: $65/mo club, $70/hr 152 rental, $25/hr instructor. \n My advice: If you're serious about this, stockpile a bunch of cash first.  I thought $5k was enough... it wasn't.  I had to take a break from serious flying (originally 2 or 3x a week) for a while, flew a couple of times per month which is not nearly enough (while still paying $65/mo for club dues, mind you).  Ended up extending my total time: 2 years and 105 hours (65 dual).  If I had about $1k more when I needed it, I would have finished up in 6 months and about 60 hours. \n Other than that, I strongly recommend it.  I am very happy I did it, just wish I had gone about it a bit differently!  Getting it done in grad school is great because you've got a pretty flexible schedule and decades which you will be able to use it!", "id": "cfu9rja", "summary": "DO IT, but get a bunch of cash and time up front to do so.  If you fly regularly you can probably get it done in 40-60 hours and 6 months.  I ran out of money/time, took me 105 hours and 2 years."}, {"author": "gosabres", "content": "Was a firefighter/rescue squad member that covered the campus mutual aid.  Whenever the campus EMT squad would get overwhelmed, we would move up to cover their territory. \n Got a call to the Library on campus for an electrocution.  Arrived to find a 18 y/o girl with a  thick  long island accent (wearing Ugg boots, of course) sitting in a chair.  She said that her cell phone shocked her while she was talking on it.  I tried to explain that it was probably static electricity or possibly she tweaked a nerve or muscle jolt/spasm.  We always refuse to advise the patient whether or not they should go to the hospital (with that said, we were more-or-less telling her to STFU and go home).  She demanded to be transported to the trauma center, so we obliged.", "id": "c4sutn4", "summary": "Long Island girl at university gets shock from static electricity, demands to go to trauma center ER and we took her."}, {"author": "gosabres", "content": "Busted my original checkride about 3 weeks ago.](  Felt awful for a day or two.  Went up twice with my instructor, and a bunch solo.  Got in another 7 or 8 hours, practiced the busted maneuvers.  Drilled myself hard on Go-Arounds. \n Flew to the examiner, we were both early.  Answered some stuff from the oral that she wanted me to look up (only took a couple minutes).  Signed into IACRA.  Checked out the plane.  Briefed.  Took off, headed south, set up for cruise.  Cleared the area.  First maneuver: slow flight, nailed it.  Cleared the area.  Second maneuver: power-off stall, nailed it.  Cleared the area.  Third maneuver: steep turns, nailed it.  Examiner decided to throw a bit of a wrench in there, cut my engine and wanted me to execute a forced off-airport landing.  Found a field, lined up, was about 200ft AGL when she told me to go around.  Made no mistake: power in, flaps from 30º->20º, climb, retract remaining flaps.  Headed back to the airport knowing if I didn't screw up the landing, I'd be flying home with my PPL.  She threw in another small wrench, \"I want to see a soft field landing\".  No matter, lined up and executed a soft field landing that even I smiled at. \n Taxied back to the FBO, she signed my logbook, printed out my certificate, and I flew home a licensed Private Pilot. \n Many, many thanks to all the words of encouragement after I botched my first attempt!", "id": "caezza6", "summary": "Busted checkride 3 weeks ago, answered a few quick questions from the oral, went flying, did slow flight, stalls, steep turns, and go-arounds.  Returned a freshly licensed Private Pilot."}, {"author": "gosabres", "content": "In addition, here's someone that won a contest to present the award with someone that was more famous as a duo with Danger Mouse (Gnarles Barkley). \n Milestone (what?) award presented by a corporate shill but physically presented by someone that was randomly selected in a lottery paired with half-a-duo where the recipient was booed by an audience that was probably staged to increase popularity in an award show that I never heard of 3 minutes ago.", "id": "ca28gd0", "summary": "Who gives a shit?"}, {"author": "gosabres", "content": "Inverse of this: go to movie/date with girl in high school, she's going on-and-on about the flavor of her lip gloss, get into movie, offer her buffer seat (yes, really), get to parking lot after... [bullshit-bullshit-bullshit]( in the middle of a lake-effect snowstorm, she finally asks \"You wanna get this over with or what?\"  Smooch.", "id": "ca28ip2", "summary": "If it wasn't for her, I'd probably still be a neckbeard."}, {"author": "gosabres", "content": "Purchased my iPhone 5S in Nov 2013, haven't had any problems until mid-December.  Made the jump from iOS 7.? to iOS 8.1.2.  Afterwards, I started noticing that when I would plug the phone into any cable that it wouldn't sense a charge, would need to remove and re-seat.  Phone started thinking Apple cables were uncertified, things like that.  No big deal, I would just unplug and re-plug a few times until it recognized the cable was legit.  Note: I own several Apple and Apple-certified cables, it didn't matter which cable I used, this issue persisted across all of them. \n Forward a few weeks after the update, I wake up one morning and start using my phone and it freezes.  Few seconds later, the screen goes blue, several striped lines dissolve in an out between blue/gold/black/silver/white.  Press home+sleep button and restart the phone, normal boot for a few seconds until it kernel panics again.  Repeat about 5 times until the phone actually starts.  I have my MacBook Pro, plug it in, make several attempts to backup until it works (with several kernel panics in between).  Restore iPhone from backup.  Issue persists.  Assume backup is corrupt.  Restore phone to factory settings (sacrificing all data, but I just want a working phone at this point).  Issue persists.  Holidays over, get back to my home. \n Make appointment at Apple Store, tech takes a look at it.  Notes no physical damage, no water damage.  Pulls up diagnostics, everything looks good.  Finds dozens of kernel panics logged, blames hardware based on the diagnostics.  Tech notes that my phone is \"2 months\" (more like 5 weeks) out of warranty, no AppleCare, tells me they can't do a warranty replacement.  Phone needs to be replaced, offers $269 for a replacement 5S.  Mention the phone was working fine before the update.  Tech says that sometimes the updates will cause a phone with failing hardware to finally fail (paraphrasing).  Can't afford the $269, ask about upgrade eligibility.  Tech passes me off to a salesperson who says I'm not eligible until November.  Could sign up for AT&T Next, which as I understand splits the cost of a new phone over a year (additional ~$50/mo for a new phone?).  Getting married at the end of the year, so money is tight. \n Take phone to work yesterday, delete all of my apps from my phone.  Plug phone into computer at work (never synced to this machine).  Tell machine to do a factory reset, assume that it will be the \"cleanest\" sync since the app data isn't on this machine.  Phone works great... for 18 hours.  Wake up this morning, load up Find Friends, freezes and BSODs. \n So, looking for any options outside of having to pay $269 for a new phone.  Soapbox... Owned Apple stuff all my life: Apple IIe, Mac 2C, Performa 575, PowerMac 6500, iMac, iMac DV, G4, MacBook Pro (LED), MacBook Pro (retina), gen-1 iPod, iPod classic, iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPhone 5S.  I've given the company a lot of money over my life.  Rarely have I turned to them for repairs and this is the first time they've spurned me weeks outside of warranty coverage.  Considering this entire thing started with an update they pushed to my phone, I'm pretty disappointed with them right now.", "id": "t3_2rqzy6", "summary": "iPhone 5S kernel panics and blue-screens frequently (~dozen times a day) after iOS 8.1.2 update.  Few weeks out of warranty, so Apple store told me I can pay them $269 for a refurb, otherwise not helpful.  Not eligible for upgrade until November.  No physical damage (water or otherwise).  Tried to restore from backup, issues persisted.  Deleted all of my apps, tried factory restore, issues persist.  Any further options? \n UPDATE (13-Jan 2015): Took my phone do a different AppleStore and had an appointment with a Genius.  The Genius hinted that I should call AppleCare (1-800-APL-CARE) and tell them my story.  He said that it was not possible for him to do it, but that by escalating the problem to AppleCare that they may help.  I was on the phone with a rep and his supervisor for about an hour before they told the Genius to replace my phone as a one-time out-of-warranty replacement.  They stated that because the phone was working fine before the update, and showed no damage, that they would grant my request.  Yay Apple for making this right!"}, {"author": "gosabres", "content": "Purchased my iPhone 5S in Nov 2013, haven't had any problems until mid-December. Made the jump from iOS 7.? to iOS 8.1.2. Afterwards, I started noticing that when I would plug the phone into any cable that it wouldn't sense a charge, would need to remove and re-seat. Phone started thinking Apple cables were uncertified, things like that. No big deal, I would just unplug and re-plug a few times until it recognized the cable was legit. Note: I own several Apple and Apple-certified cables, it didn't matter which cable I used, this issue persisted across all of them.\nForward a few weeks after the update, I wake up one morning and start using my phone and it freezes. Few seconds later, the screen goes blue, several striped lines dissolve in an out between blue/gold/black/silver/white. Press home+sleep button and restart the phone, normal boot for a few seconds until it kernel panics again. Repeat about 5 times until the phone actually starts. I have my MacBook Pro, plug it in, make several attempts to backup until it works (with several kernel panics in between). Restore iPhone from backup. Issue persists. Assume backup is corrupt. Restore phone to factory settings (sacrificing all data, but I just want a working phone at this point). Issue persists. Holidays over, get back to my home. \n Make appointment at Apple Store, tech takes a look at it. Notes no physical damage, no water damage. Pulls up diagnostics, everything looks good. Finds dozens of kernel panics logged, blames hardware based on the diagnostics. Tech notes that my phone is \"2 months\" (more like 5 weeks) out of warranty, no AppleCare, tells me they can't do a warranty replacement. Phone needs to be replaced, offers $269 for a replacement 5S. Mention the phone was working fine before the update. Tech says that sometimes the updates will cause a phone with failing hardware to finally fail (paraphrasing). Can't afford the $269, ask about upgrade eligibility. Tech passes me off to a salesperson who says I'm not eligible until November. Could sign up for AT&T Next, which as I understand splits the cost of a new phone over a year (additional ~$50/mo for a new phone?). Getting married at the end of the year, so money is tight. \n Take phone to work yesterday, delete all of my apps from my phone. Plug phone into computer at work (never synced to this machine). Tell machine to do a factory reset, assume that it will be the \"cleanest\" sync since the app data isn't on this machine. Phone works great... for 18 hours. Wake up this morning, load up Find Friends, freezes and BSODs. \n So, looking for any options outside of having to pay $269 for a new phone. Soapbox... Owned Apple stuff all my life: Apple IIe, Mac 2C, Performa 575, PowerMac 6500, iMac, iMac DV, G4, MacBook Pro (LED), MacBook Pro (retina), gen-1 iPod, iPod classic, iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPhone 5S. I've given the company a lot of money over my life. Rarely have I turned to them for repairs and this is the first time they've spurned me weeks outside of warranty coverage. Considering this entire thing started with an update they pushed to my phone, I'm pretty disappointed with them right now.", "id": "t3_2rr1yz", "summary": "iPhone 5S kernel panics and blue-screens frequently (~dozen times a day) after iOS 8.1.2 update. Few weeks out of warranty, so Apple store told me I can pay them $269 for a refurb, otherwise not helpful. Not eligible for upgrade until November. No physical damage (water or otherwise). Tried to restore from backup, issues persisted. Deleted all of my apps, tried factory restore, issues persist. Any further options? \n UPDATE (13-Jan 2015): Took my phone do a different AppleStore and had an appointment with a Genius.  The Genius hinted that I should call AppleCare (1-800-APL-CARE) and tell them my story.  He said that it was not possible for him to do it, but that by escalating the problem to AppleCare that they may help.  I was on the phone with a rep and his supervisor for about an hour before they told the Genius to replace my phone as a one-time out-of-warranty replacement.  They stated that because the phone was working fine before the update, and showed no damage, that they would grant my request.  Yay Apple for making this right!"}]}
+{"author": "FOTBWN", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post If they want to get in, they'll get in. At least with one particular alternative you aren't left with no loot and a heavily damaged base. Just no loot and an open door.", "output": "Now before there are calls of \"off with his head!\" for even suggesting such a thing, hear me out. \n If such an item were available in game would it really be any different to C4/rockets and just plain blowing a hole in a wall? If you've got multiple doors then depending how many of a 'shorting item' they had would depend how far they get into the base just with the difference that the person who owns said base wouldn't have to waste as many resources patching a hole in the wall or abandoning the base altogether because they can't rebuild in certain spots due to stability issues. Also would provide an alternative high risk avenue of attack for those that don't have C4/rockets yet. \n So, if it were a crafted item with difficulty on par with or higher than crafting C4/rockets with a high failure rate on use with one of the components being say... a battery (do they still drop?). \n So take the following scenarios: \nSo you could have someone carrying three, hoping that they could get into one particular base... but coming up against the first door the first two shorts fail and they only manage to open the first door just to be met with another and no keypad shorts left, they give up and try craft more. In the meantime the owner of the base has logged back in and sees the front door open and the keypad blinking 'yellow'. Closes and relocks the door, undoing the previous keypad tomfoolery and now aware that someone at least attempted. \n Fresh newman spawns, bashes a barrell and finds a keypad short item. Comes across an armored cube base with a single door and gets lucky, the first and only door opens off of his/her only keypad short. Free gear for fresh newman, sucks for the base owner but at least his base isn't destroyed, only the door is open. \n Clan decides to take the opportunity to take a rival base, they've got the C4, the rockets and the keypad shorts.  They try for the easy way in first and use the keypad shorts on the doors but need to get through at least three plus any boxes they might come across. They're able to use the entire stack of keypad shorts and gain access to the base, strip it bare of anything worthwhile taking and left with the option of either leaving with goods or pouring salt on the wounds and blowing holes in the walls 'just cause'. Or alternatively the keypad shorts only work against two doors and they're left with blowing the final door using c4 or rockets anyway."}], "user_id": "longlamp_2313", "history": [{"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "Lets see, I need to take some money out of the ATM. Let me check... oops wrong pin. Let me try that again, wait.. I think this is the wrong card let me try my other card. Hold on, I don't know the pin for this one and I'm sure it was the first card. Lets put that one in again, hrmm not my usual pin; let me think about this for a moment. Oh it should be this pin, ahh wait this account doesn't have enough in it. I'll try that other card with that pin. Oh shit, where is it? I had it just a second ago... oh here it is. Ahh silly me, putting it in upside down. Let me just throw in the pin ahh wait not my usual one, let me try that again. Damn I don't have enough in this account either but hang on, if I take some out of this account and the other account I might have enough. I'll take $20 from this one... oh hang on, i'll get a fee if I take it out of this ATM with this card so I better use it in a different ATM and take $20 from the other card. Let me just cancel all that and put the first card in and take $20 out here and I'll go to that other ATM without the fee so I can get that $20 out on the second card.", "id": "cpaz36d", "summary": "One card, one go at an ATM. Don't be bringing a wallet of 20 cards to go through taking half an hour."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "It was never a bluff, it was a negotiating tactic. Just like their republican counterparts in the US; they put the bar as high as they can possibly get away with and when it looks like the deadline is going to pass, they put their position down to what they really want so it looks like they're backing down from their original position and appear more conciliatory.", "id": "cpga6do", "summary": "he's played the public and crossbenchers for mugs."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "To put it in perspective. If you were offered a job (whatever job you're qualified or interested in) that pays $5000 a week and be flown out and back for free with accommodation thrown in for a six month contract. Would you do it even hearing the rumours of what goes on? Would you think you could nut it out for six months and then be set not for life but placing you in a very good position? Well yeah, most people would. \n The problem is that they're praying on the people in the SE Asian and African countries and offering money that would be the equivalent to them of that $5000 a week. They think they can tough it out but they turn up, have their passport taken away and indebted for the flight and accommodation that they have to pay back whilst living on shitty pay even by their home country's standard. Most of the oil rich ME countries are guilty of it.", "id": "cii3ngd", "summary": "Empty promises, poor people and a culture that sees no issue in fucking over non-citizens."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "She's not really sorry at all. If anything, she's sorry she got caught. The repertoire that she delivered doesn't come out of nowhere, its an attitude grown and fostered over a long period. \n The whole \"I got scammed for 100k and my ex-husband in a nursing home has a horrible asian nurse\" is a child like way of explaining it away and attempting to avoid the issue she's got in trouble for. \"I did wrong but look at this stuff over here!\"", "id": "cio2n5d", "summary": "She's just a cunt. \n Edit: Also seems she used a fake name. Quite a piece of work."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "The scar on my face? A drug deal gone bad, had to fight for my life with nothing more than a knife and a solid determination to kill all those who stood in my way. No man left standing, no witnesses. I look at the scar each morning and I'm reminded of the struggle and raw violence that took place on that cold detroit night back in '83.", "id": "cb3k90p", "summary": "Got a tiny scar above my lip when my dad gave me a horsey ride and bucked me into the corner of a wall."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "I got asked to be a bodyguard for the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd. I was doing IT support for the function he was attending and they didn't have enough security for the media and protesters so they asked a couple of us IT guys to get people to keep back while he went past and into his car.", "id": "cbf9acl", "summary": "was a bodyguard for the leader of Australia for 10 minutes."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "Guy who used to hang with us in highschool, his name was uh lets say \"buzz\". Buzz had terrible terrible acne, to the point of barely a square inch of his face wasn't covered in white pus. So of course it wasn't a hit with the ladies. This didn't stop Buzz however, he had problem with inappropriate comments and touching chicks. This ended up with him basically molesting a girl in the school library which landed in court. \n Now, we didn't know the specifics but we all pretty much suspected it was true because Buzz was one dirty fucker. Calling out to chicks during lunchtime \"hey baby, wanna sit on my hotrod!\" was a favourite of his. \n It went through the courts but nothing came of it (he didn't move school either). \n Around a year later he ended up with a girlfriend about 10 years his senior. He was about 16 and would frequently brag about fisting her and nailing her in various ways. We saw his girlfriend a couple of times and even for horny schoolboys she was in the \"I'd rather cut off my own dick than stick it into that pit of despair\" category of attractiveness. \n Skipping ahead a bit, out of highschool I end up hearing a few years later that Buzz ended up in prison for raping his cousin.", "id": "cbnij5a", "summary": "Guy in highschool who was in our group was a sex fiend."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "Setting aside the bullshit answers youre getting ill give you an actual answer. During the cultural revolution the high and middle class educated were either killed wholesale or forced to work on farms where they had no fucking clue and died anyway. So what was the group that was largely left? Thats right. The pesants. The uncultured, uncivilized and mostly uneducated. \n Thats a very brief explanation behind why they have poor manners and poor just about everything else. So just think what our society would be like if we killed 99% of people with an education higher than primary school.", "id": "copm3pw", "summary": "cultural revolution"}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "Sorry if I offend you, but you need to hear this. You sound dumb as fuck. A+ cert and 'a year of technical schooling' is something that would get you barely minimum wage if an IT job at all. Certifications mean shit in a lot of situations. Most people won't even touch a MCSE certified individual because of the reputation (well earned i might add) that they have for being shit. \n Kid needs to be realistic, A+ is good for working in the computer shop down the alley way but it won't get you much further than that.", "id": "cj23c2j", "summary": "stfu."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "Got close to a chick through a sometimes friend, went out, flirted. Got close and got invited for dinner at her house. She had a kid. I put on the charm and pretended I was interested in her shitty paintings and other artwork. \n After dinner and after the kid was in bed, we were messing around on the couch and it was going well. She invited me to her room for some sexy times but I hadn't come up with a alibi for not coming home to my wife and kids. So I played it off as \"I don't sleep with someone the first date\". Next day I get told that work is sending me to another city for a few days, this is perfect so I arrange to have another dinner at the chick's house and tell my wife that I was leaving a day earlier than I was so I could stay over for the night without suspicions. \n I end up staying the night, laying on the charm yet again and playing nice with her kid. After dinner, we watch TV for a bit and then I get invited to the room for some sexy times. This time I take her up on the offer and pound her into the mattress. \n Wake up the next morning, we say our goodbyes and give the impression that we're on our way to a relationship. I drive to work in preparation for going on my trip but before I do I message the chick and say that it wasn't going to work and I don't deal with kids well. \n I end up back at home, no one any the wiser. With no consequences.", "id": "ca25bdd", "summary": "Cheated on wife, banged a single mom who was after a new dad and gave her the flick after she let me bang her. Got away with it."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "So...the 90's? \n Well not really. The first series was from 89 - 90 and that by no stretch of the imagination was good due to it focusing primarily on Bart rather than Homer as it did after season 2. Most of the 'classics' are within the bounds of half way through season 2 up to around season 9. Which would take it from 91 -> 97.", "id": "ci4i083", "summary": "Most of the 90s but not all of it."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "The end game. \n While 'surviving' is a big part of the game, there is a point where you have little more to do apart from hunting down other people or continuing to hoard things. Is there something in the works for people to aspire to? Something like 'If you want to go to this island, you have to survive x days' or another survival based benefit? (even small achievements) \n I'm looking it from the perspective of longevity rather than having the game degrade into a FPS with cities, zombies and flares.", "id": "c7xldwt", "summary": "I'm geared up rocket, Do I go out shooting people dfens style endlessly or live in the forest like a hermit? Is there something more to aspire to?"}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "I have a scar on my top lip. I was 25, having been dis-honorably discharged from the army. I had no job and nowhere to live. I started shoplifting to survive but that quickly led to using knives to hold up prostitutes and obvious tourists for money. One night, I picked the wrong guy to hold up with a knife. He quickly disarmed me, slashed my face and started kicking the shit out of me while screaming.", "id": "c857kwx", "summary": "Fell off my dad's back getting a piggyback ride when I was 4 and fell into a corner of a wall."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "I broke the newly repaired VCR when I put in my dad's porno tape to watch while they were at the video store. It got stuck when I went to eject and I had to take it apart to get it out, didn't put all the screws in right so there were some left on the carpet. \n I got it done in the nick of time and stuffed the porno tape into my school bag that I later threw into a lagoon on the way to school.", "id": "cgnrw3y", "summary": "Fapped, panicked and the perfect crime."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "Prime minister Palmer in a minority government with leader of the opposition Ludlam. \n Ludlam is in the senate nor is the leader of the greens. That said, they'd have to have solid numbers to fight off the constant no confidence votes. \n But Greens and Palmer? Both have their sensible policies and policies that aren't quite mainstream. They'd most likely balance each other out and arrive in the middle. Although Palmer seems like he'd be too volatile a partner unless it was a straight 50/50 affair with the greens. \n I'd dare say if these parties were placed in government there'd be a degree of restraint and sanity. Why would they go for broke and really piss everyone off on their once in a lifetime shot when they could do a decent job and show that they really are viable alternatives to get elected again? \n Edit: but I'd have my doubts that PuP could hold it together. The party only sprung into existence recently and isn't populated by people that have put a significant part of their life into it. The party loyalties would be shaky at best. Also actually being in government? Greens would be okay with the parliamentary culture and requirements but PuP members? I'm not so sure unless they got a few turncoats from the other main parties once they saw which way the wind was blowing which would boost their experience up a bit.", "id": "chj47ev", "summary": "It'd be a messy affair but not from a policy standpoint."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "My wife's friend gave me her computer to fix. She's pretty hot and I'd bang her in a heartbeat so of course when I fix her machine I'm going to be scouring that thing for any pictures or movies. \n I was not disappointed. Got a few pictures and a couple of bad quality phone recorded fuck movies. My thoughts when I saw them: \n 'hrmm yeah I figured she did have those big nipples' \n'she does shave, not bad.' \n'five fingers? that's alright.' \n'geez, she'd have to be careful spreading like that with those nails.' \n I fixed the computer and gave it back, didn't say anything about finding the pictures (of course) but afterwards there was always this weird vibe I got from her. Like she knew I had seen and took a copy of those pictures but there was no way she could prove it, so I got a cold and distant treatment.", "id": "cbqif17", "summary": "Saw up wife's friends guts."}, {"author": "FOTBWN", "content": "They're not going to curb stomp it straight away. Notice how they've been announcing a lot of these type of things recently? They're testing the waters, seeing what the voter reaction is. \n The way they operate is not by going for the throat of the healthcare system but taking bits and pieces away over a period of time. So the average voter says \"oh. they're not going to get rid of the universal healthcare system, they're only taking this little bit here. That's not so bad. I can live with that.\" Rinse and repeat until they've reached their goal of dismantling or restricting the system to the point where it may as well be gone.", "id": "ch6urjo", "summary": "The coalition are highballing what they want and putting through a lesser version which is what they really want so it is more palatable."}]}
+{"author": "thebardingreen", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I'm wiping and reinstalling a Domain Controller. I'm a competent Linux tech, but I've never done this before. What do I need to know?", "output": "I'm more of a Unix guy, but right now, work is work and a paycheck's a paycheck. Some folks who know me and trust me wanted me to deal with some weird issues they were having with the SBS 2003 server at their small business. Due to the economy, they've been running without an IT guy for about a year and a half. The applications guy does the best he can, but he's not a systems admin by a long shot. Long story short, the thing has compromised security software and is a nest of trojans. It's been utterly pwned for who knows how long. It's sending spam e-mails USING the exchange server, has been running an FTP server that has incoming connections from all over the world and over 200 Gigs of encrypted archives (who knows what they are), has been sending SSH requests to hosts in China, Russia and the Ukrain and who knows what else. \n I'm nuking the OS and reinstalling, but I've NEVER done this with a Domain controller before. This business has 8 employees, all with AD, their Exchange runs through this thing, it's hosting their VPN, an Access database which they're using as a ticket/tracking system, their Filemaker database which is their CRM and it has a network share full of important medical images and documents who's control is regulated by the FDA. \n What do I ~NEED~ to know before I do this that I ~DON'T~ know. I have a decade of experience as a Linux admin, and I've used Windows for gaming and been on Windows domains at jobs before and I've even done a tiny amount of Exchange troubleshooting. I figured out how to get Linux to TALK to Active Directory a few years back. But other than that, I have no experience with Domain Controllers. \n What am I going to fuck up? What pitfalls will greet me at 3:00 AM when I just want to be done and go home and sleep? \n EDIT - Also what security software/additional precautions would folk here recommend to make sure this doesn't happen again.  Bare in mind I'm a consultant and the owners are going to keep rolling the dice with no permanent in house IT or dedicated outsourced company no matter WHAT I try to tell them."}], "user_id": "longlamp_15268", "history": [{"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "I've enjoyed playing with unusual twists on Death as well. \n I've run a Plane Scape/Forgotten Realms campaign that starts with the players being sacrificed by Drow (along with a random four orcs and an ogre).  The ritual summons this Yugoloth Demigod thing called the Oorian that's the son of Loviatar the goddess of pain and some Yugoloth prince. . . never mind. \n The characters (along with these orcs and the ogre) end up in the city of Sigil and the orcs and ogre run off into the city.  The characters quickly discover that: \n 1) They are bound to the Oorian and He can randomly suck their hitpoints (inflicting random wounds on them) to heal His manifestation on the Prime Material Plane. \n 2) They were all SUPPOSED to end up chained up in a cell on a plane of Tartarus being guarded by Yugoloths so that the Oorian could safely suck their hit points as much as He needed to during his rampages on Toril.  But something went wrong and they went to Sigil instead.  HOWEVER, if one of them DIES, that soul get's sucked to Tartarus and drags the rest along.  So if anyone dies EVERYONE goes to Tartarus.  That INCLUDES the orcs and the ogre.  Who are now lost.  In Sigil, the City of Doors. \n 3) If they can get everyone together, they can reverse the ritual, reincarnate on the Prime Material Plane, battle the Oorian and return to their lives.  So the campaign is a hunt across the planes for four random orcs and an ogre. \n Because of these powerful teamwork motivators, the last time I ran this game I had a player playing a Centaur Paladin of Lathandar the Morning Lord in the same party with a Lawful Evil Githzarai Samurai who worshiped Dispater and dedicated all of his kills to him.  They managed to work together, although they kept promising to fight to the death as soon as the situation was resolved.   Both the players in question were really good role players, so this actually ended up being some very poignant and memorable role play.  It was a great game. \n Story Two: \n In a GURPS modern conspiracies game, we had a Discordian hermetic wizard who kept having all the REALLY weird shit happen to him.  It was basically a road trip game where the players drove in a 1964 VW Eurovan from New York to San Francisco, one step ahead of the FBI (who wanted them for kidnapping) and a brutal bounty hunter who worked for some Illuminauti organization (who had framed them) along with a gifted Wonderkind psychic little Catholic school girl (who they had \"kidnapped\" because the Illuminauti wanted her for something bad).  Anyway, this guy spent the night in a haunted house (got haunted as fuck, but he had no proof), got abducted by aliens and anally probed (no proof), threatened by the Men in Black (no proof), chased by black helicopters, communicated telepathically with a pilot whale (no proof, they had to take his word for it), saw a manifestation of the Virgin of Guadalupe who revealed she was the goddess Isis and handed him the answer to a big problem (the rest of the party thought, correctly, that he'd just done acid). \n Anyways (on to death), in an encounter with a BBEG, he gets shot in the chest.  When you take a certain amount of damage, GURPS has you roll a health check and if you fail you die.  He failed (and I killed him). \n His player was BUMMED, had been playing this character for months and everyone was having such a good time.  I thought my friend was going to cry!  But I actually just let him sulk for a bit while I kept running other characters.  Meanwhile, his body had been locked up in a closet with the Catholic Priest (who was alternating between praying and giving him CPR). \n I got back to him and was like \"You walk down a dark tunnel with a bright light at the end of it.  You see your life flashing before your eyes.  There's a being there to meet you, beautiful and glowing and one with the Universe.  It smiles and takes your hand and tells you \"It's not yet your time, child, you have so much to do!\"  Aaaand. . . he wakes up in the closet with one hit point and the priest giving him CPR.  It was the most glorious \"Raise Dead\" of a PC evar!", "id": "ckx99p7", "summary": "Tied a parties life energy together karmically and watched the glorious antics ensue/Raise Deaded a conspiracy nut character in a modern conspiracy game and it was epic."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "Back when I just subscribed to /r/gonewild, I actually found myself very frustrated with it.  That particular subreddit has a definite preference for the same body type as Maxxim readers and isn't afraid to be completely douchey about it. \n While there are definately normal women having very positive experiences with their bodies on that sub, my personal experience with it got so bad, I actually unsubscribed from it for a while.  The comments would often piss me off and many of the top models seemed to be cam girls/panty sellers promoting their business (and I have no problem with that, it's just kind of a turn off for me personally), not normal women getting off on sharing their bodies with the community which is what I really wanted. \n Then I discovered /r/swingersgw, /r/gonewildcurvy, /r/gwnerdy, /r/gwcouples, /r/goneinsane, etc.  These subs I found much more diverse and to my liking.  What's more, after being subscribed to them for a while, I found I had a much higher tolerance for the BS on gw and resubscribed to it. \n However, I sort of feel the opposite to you about reddit's community based porn.  When looking at commercial porn, I'm completely uninterested in meeting/fucking anyone I see in it.  On reddit, I see naked pictures of girls and comments of them interacting with the community and I'm like \"wow, this girl actually seems like a real human being.  I would actually probably love to meet this girl IRL and get to know her.\" \n One of my lovers actually posts on /r/gwnerdy and /r/gonewildcurvy.  She tried posting on /r/gonewild a year or so ago and actually found that to be kind of a disempowering experience because of the \"douche bags who just want to see Maxxim cover girls and say so with their up/down votes\" factor.  Sometimes I enjoy that sub, but I wouldn't call it a \"sex positive\" sub at  all .  Some of it's spin off subs though are really pretty decent. \n I think /r/gwnerdy is probably my favorite.", "id": "ccqch5u", "summary": "I get off  more  on authenticity then on staged bs and therefore am much more likely to lust after/wish I could meet/hook up with girls I see on reddit then girls I see on actual porn sites."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "Thank you.  On review, it owes a little bit to Mazerunner, a little to Greg Bear's book Aeon, a bit to Castle Falkenstien and probably a little something to Scoobie Doo: Mystery Incorporated.  I dreamed it up last night in the middle of running IT for a very busy film festival and kept coming back and revising it over the course of about two hours.", "id": "cldzb7h", "summary": "I want to RUN this now. . ."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "I think that, like the transgendered community, we are surrounded by messages, culture and support systems telling us our choices are wrong.  We have to push, just to stay sane.  Sometimes we push too hard.  But overall, I think we're a pretty accepting community. \n I've heard from monofolk that they feel like their lifestyles are ridiculed and attacked by polyfolk, but I think polyfolk think they're defending their own choices.  I think, overall, polyfolk are very understanding and accepting people who support everybody getting to decide their own relationship styles in peace and free of harassment.", "id": "c418z5n", "summary": "Sometimes we push too hard because we constantly feel pushed."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "Right, but as a random voice on the internet, I have no particular vested interest in discarding my feelings of hostility.  I've got better things to do, and I'm emotionally invested in my narrative that the original trillogy was an important and special part of my childhood  and I had the experience that Lucas beat the crap out of a cherished, special thing like it was a pinata full of money.  Your prequal apologist logics aren't going to take that experience away from me. \n Likewise, I just watched J.J. crash the Star Trek Universe in an explosion of lense flairs.  Between that and my bitterness about the prequals, I have very low expectations for the upcomming film.  And watching Peter Jackson's mangling of the Hobbit has given me yet more practice in watching beloved childhood stories  turned into gaudy, vapid CGI shitpiles. Don't even get me started on Transformers 4 and Michael Bay Ninja Turtles. \n Ultimately here's the point: \n All episode 7 has to do to pleasently surprise me is be moderately entertaining. \n And I WANT to keep my cynical outlook.  It's a desperate defense mechanism developed after repeated and sustained letdown and disappointment.  I don't  want  to get my hopes up because I've had them  dashed  so many times.  I don't  want   to get excited about a new Star Wars movie, because I've been there and it hurt. \n You can love the prequals all you want.  I don't care about stopping you.  Some people get off on getting pissed on.  I find it gross and disturbing, but if they want to get off on it, fine, whatever. \n But if I want to hate the prequals, I'll fricken hate the prequals.  And I have damn good reasons for hating them, even if those reasons are  emotional  not  logical .    And that doesn't make them not good.  Likewise, I'm going to choose to remain cynical and skeptical about a J.J. Star Wars movie that discards the EU canon.  Maybe I'll be pleasently surprised.  But if I'm not, at least it wasn't a let down.  And I don't particularly want to be talked out of my viewpoint.", "id": "clasyi0", "summary": "Curse you and you Vulcan logic!"}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "This is interesting.  I've had enough M/s people explain how great it is for them and I just couldn't get it and couldn't get it and finally just a few years ago, I realized I DO have kink (of a sort), it's just my fetishes run the exact opposite direction.  I figured this out after hanging around sex positive scenes for over a decade. \n My fetish is freedom. . . as played up and amplified as M/s / D/s relationships tend to be.  The only rope play I'd want to do is the untieing bit, and then tell a lover she can take me or not as she chooses, or have a lover tell me I can have what ever I want because she's giving it freely. \n When I realized what a huge turn on this was for me and what a rush it gave me even just in day to day life, the whole thing made sense to me all of a sudden.  And with this realization went all my hope of hooking up with any of the BDSM folks I know and find attractive.  Oh well. \n Now I go to poly parties and get kicked out of the BDSM rooms for my utter failure to take it seriously.    Crack. Crack  \"Wait!  Who's that sniggering in the corner and laughing like Beavis and Butthead and head pinching the dominatrix over his beer bottle.  OK, who let the drunk bard down here?\"  So, it's weird.", "id": "c3ihdkf", "summary": "I found a way to understand BDSM and ever since then, I respond to it the way normal people respond to Monty Python.  I'm sorry.  Please don't hate me. \n EDIT: YES, I KNOW people think this is an expression of Freedom.  I'm happy for them.  I'm sorry I find it comical to the point of farce.  I know people in the scene who would sometimes rather I just preached against it."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "An interesting curiosity emerges from this line of speculation.  The timing of the battle of Wolf 359 was connected, in large part, to the earlier meddling by Q. \n What relationship might exist between the Prophets and the Continuum?  Surely, beings like the Prophets would not be as easily manipulated by the Q as humans and bajorans.  And what is the Prophet's connection to and interest in Bajor and the bajoran people anyway? \n Here's some idle speculation.  A high level \"war game\" if you will: \n The Q and the Prophets both are locked into some sort of \"Cold War.\"  It's likely that the Q would prevail in a full scale conflict, but such a thing would do immense damage to time and space.  It's effectively a nuclear deterrent. \n Both sides are interested in the Federation, because as Q has said, one day Humanity (and presumably, by association the rest of the Federation) will be ready to stand side by side with the Q.  Perhaps the future Federation is effectively already a piece in this struggle, since if you exist outside of time and space it doesn't matter \"when\" your allies transcend physical/temporal existence, it just matters that they do at all. \n All of Q's shenanigans with Picard are to set the stage for a certain attitude or kind of transcendent Federation, one that will be sympathetic to the currently unfathomable goals of a struggle between Q and the Prophets (and perhaps other players).  Q's games with Janeway (including that BS with his son) are meant in a different light.  They are to leave the Federation with a more understandable impression of the Q.  One that will leave the transcendent humans of the future feeling like \"Hey, these guys aren't that different from us.\" (yeah, suck it Rick Berman, we can even rationalize your crappy storytelling) \n The Prophets on the other hand, choose to court a  different  Federation race.  The bajorans.  Perhaps, the spiritual and contemplative bajorans will even help guide the Federation toward their eventual transcendence.  Perhaps in the future, the bajorans will be one of the most influential Federation races. \n NOW: Let's put a WACKY twist on this. \n Q speeds up the confrontation between the Federation and the Borg.  This advances the Federation toward the Q camp, effectively creating an altered future timeline.  It leaves the present day Federation weakened for their coming confrontation with the Dominion.  And while the Federation still prevails in the end, in this timeline the Dominion ends up laying waste to Bajor, perhaps even mostly wiping the bajorans out.  Which is a massive gain for the Q.  Perhaps in the original time line, Picard was even the one who defended Bajor from the cardassians and brought the planet into the Federation.  Maybe that's even why Q picked him to pick on.  Post Locutus Picard was so diverted from his original path that this never happened. \n So the Prophets reach back to before this unfavorable timeline is created and  make. . . Benjamin Sisko . \n THAT'S RIGHT!  I'M SUGGESTING THAT PRIOR TO THE BATTLE OF WOLF 359 BENJAMIN SISKO DID NOT EXIST AT ALL UNTIL A TIMELINE WAS CREATED IN WHICH HE DID! \n Now the Dominion loses the war, a stregthened Bajor joins the Federation and woah!  suddenly we're back to a timeline favoring the Prophets preferred outcome: that the bajorans be an influential Federation race when the Federation \"transcends time and space\" and starts playing on the level of the Q/the Prophets. \n Perhaps the appearance of Q in season 1 DS9 is actually Q feeling out this new \"Sisko\" thing the Prophets have made.  Testing him with a potentially station destroying crisis.  Because in this scenario from Q's perspective \"the Sisko\"  is  new.  \"You hit me!  Picard never hit me!\"", "id": "cfs7yxk", "summary": "Benjamin Sisko did not even exist until after the battle of Wolf 359 because Q v. Prophets.  Discuss."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "Well. . . in 2005, I (M) lived with my best friend (F2M trans) and our girlfriend in a cabin in the mountains.  I was the only one who even tried to do chores. \n One night, we were out partying, I came home and passed out drunk, while they had sex in every room in the house.  The next day, the dog looked guilty as hell and there were these big pieces of chewed up black rubber everywhere.  I didn't know what they were, and ended up cleaning them up.", "id": "clj5paf", "summary": "My best (F2M) friend and our mutual girlfriend used a strapon while I was passed out drunk, the dog ate it, and I cleaned it up.  True story."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "I've been the \"head hired programmer guy.\"  It was hell and I swore to never do it again. \n Here's the what happened: \n 1) The client's expectations were, regardless of what cautionary things I said, far higher than what could realistically be created, in the amount of time they expected us to work by the number of programmers they had budgeted for. \n 2) They kept revising things.  There was a lot of: \"This looks great, but put this over here instead of where it is.\" So much of it that I was tasking more and more of the team with revisions while the deadline to launch grew closer and closer.  My attempts to explain this fell on deaf ears. \n 3) They told me to \"do what ever it took to get it done in time\" so I hired a couple more guys and started going over budget.  As soon as it happened, they started screaming about being over budget. \n 4) They NEVER grasped the concept of debugging, even though I kept bringing it up and they just refused to allocate time and resources for it.  I was even told that \"programmers should be debugging while they worked, right?\" \n 5) When it was obvious we were really far behind, the client turned to legal threats instead of working with us on what was realistic. \n Something that had made me really nervous at the beginning ended up working in my favor, which was that the client never had us sign a contract.  They kept saying they were going to write up a formal contract with all of their requirements for me to sign, but they never did.  At the beginning, I'd offered to write one, but they had a  \"legal team\" who \"would do that any day now.\"  They were a reasonably large and affluent organization so I thought that was probably the case.  When I sent them an invoice they paid it, so with every invoice I sent them a reminder about the contract that never materialized. \n In the end when they were making legal threats, I looked through our paper work and all we had was a signed letter of intent and an old, outdated (because of their revisions) initialed requirement list.  So when they started threatening to sue if it wasn't done, me and my team just turned over our code and packed up and bailed. \n They ended up hiring somebody else to do it.  That somebody ended up being given our code and told to finish it.  I know that they tried to \"improve and move on\" on their end by giving that someone a \"much more strict budget and direct oversight.\" I do know that a year later, they and that somebody were in litigation and they were still using the crappy product we'd been hired to replace.  I don't know the specifics of that. \n I blamed myself and felt like a failure for a long time, but everyone on my team kept telling me it wasn't my fault and I eventually started to believe them and realized they were right.  It really helped what happened to the next guy and me and my head developer were sipping scotch talking about it one night and I realized \"bullet dodged!\" \n The guys that were directly supervising me were an MCSE with years of linux sys-admin experience and a former professional web-developer turned upper management.  They REALLY should have known better.", "id": "c6fz9iw", "summary": "Large organization that has never employed programmers hires me to run programming team, disaster ensues.  Both sides come out bitter and angry."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "So, I'd like to counterbalance some of what's been said here.  I DISLIKE the terms primary and secondary, especially in situations like yours, because they imply a hierarchy of rank and worthyness that can damage fledgeling relationship badly if the secondary isn't really getting their needs met.  Also, if one of the primaries is feeling called to make the secondary more \"primary\" it can bring a lot of stress onto the existing relationship. \n I REALLY think poly is about letting relationships run the course they are naturally inclined to take, but trying to maintain emotional safety at the same time.  This is difficult and requires MAD communication skills and MAD powers of forgiveness and acceptance.  If you and your partner don't really have them, develop them fast.  It's the only thing that's going to keep your relationship alive. \n You say (about your friend) that you're BOTH trying to be his primary relationship.  That sets off all kinds of warning bells for me.  It means (at least from what I'm hearing) that she WANTS to be his primary relationship.  So while you're easing into poly, she may be feeling all kinds of frustrated with her second fiddle status.  Which leads to a scenario in which one day you've worked through your stuff and are comfortable taking it deeper, but in the mean time she's built up a whole reaction (of one kind or another) to her secondary status that is AS MUCH of a pain in the butt FOR ALL OF YOU as your current feelings of betrayal. \n Now there ARE some people out there who WANT to be secondary relationships.  One of my lovers isn't personally poly, she's sort of a mostly mono loner who likes to date poly people because they don't have time to demand a lot of her time.  And she doesn't want a relationship where a significant other is dependent on her for ANY commitment of quality time, because she wants the freedom to disappear for days and weeks at a time, with no explanation, and then resurface, breeze back in and have everything be exactly the way it was before she disapeared, no questions asked.  Poly people are uniquely suited to meeting the needs of someone like her. \n A partner like that would probably be much better suited to your current emotional state, but we DON'T really get to pick the lovers our lovers manifest for themselves.  In my opinion, we just have to do our best to live with the ones that they do manifest.  For me that's easy.  For some folk, it's almost insurmountable and those are the ones I tend to think aren't really that suited to be happy in the poly life style.  I'm all for them staying mono.  It makes it easier for everybody. \n So, my challenge to you is this.  Ask yourself if the concepts of \"primary\" and \"secondary\" are REALLY that important to you.  To me, they're sort of a \"worst of both worlds\" comprimise between mono and poly lifestyles.  Instead, ask yourself if YOU love the folk involved enough to let their relationship be what ever it wants to be (and let THEM figure out what that is) while figuring out what YOUR relationship needs to be with your husband.  You are free to ask, or even DEMAND that your desires for that relationship get met. . . but I think we're tredding on very dangerous ground when we try to rank our lovers relationships and demand that they alter them for us.  We might feel safer in the moment, but in my experience, we often end up looking back and regretfully asking ourselves \"I SAW how this wanted to flow.  Why couldn't I just let it be what it wanted to be??\" \n One of the GREATEST expressions of love is to let go of our attachment to outcomes and allow those we choose to love to persue their own paths, regardless of where it takes them.  I let my lovers know what I want, but I also let them know that it's their choice weather they try to give me those things or not.  This is an excellent self test of weather I really love them as much as I think I do.  It's also an excellent test of weather or not they want to keep choosing to be with me.  I want to be loved for who I am, not for what I'm willing or unwilling to accept, give or do.  I'm also willing to COMMIT to my lovers by loving them regardless of how they choose to express their love for me.", "id": "c0ry0b8", "summary": "Be careful of putting unwelcome restrictions on your lovers relationships.  Unintended consequences are the rule, not the exception."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "To follow up with this, at least in Colorado, you can plead the fifth and refuse a breathalyzer test.  They CAN and might arrest you (but I have a friend who used this and didn't get arrested, though she was a cute girl).  If they arrest you, they have to take you down to the station and do paperwork to get a blood test done.  If you aren't that drunk, by the time you get there your test can be significantly lower, which is part of why they don't always arrest people who aren't obviously drunk.", "id": "c3zh96j", "summary": "at least in CO, you can refuse breathalyzer, but might get arrested.  There are some circumstances where this outcome could be the better option."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "Um, yes I think you're wrong.  Your opinion is based on a number of flawed conclusions drawn from what MUST be limited observations, because they don't line up with my own observations. \n 1) When you add a third (or more) it becomes about sex. \n Since when?  Why?  And also. . . what?  As a poly person who actually doesn't have a lot of casual sex, I think this statement can be and is true of many people.  But DAMN IT it's not true of me and many folk I know, so please restate yourself. \n 2) Negative emotions. \n Everyone makes a big deal about negative emotions.  Jealousy this, anger this, resentment this.  NO.  Sometimes sure.  But there ARE some of us out there who have the opposite of this experience.  I'm personally a  compersion  but it's not the same thing.  There are also lots of polyfolk who have GREATLY grown and as individuals as a result of having to confront their jealousy, anger and insecurity.  You can find hundreds of personal accounts over on /r/polyamory. \n 3) Sex without a long term relationship isn't healthy. \n OK, here I take MAJOR issue with your opinion.  What subreddit are you on mr judgy pants?  This isn't [scientifically accurate]( it isn't [sex positive]( and it's kind of [offensive](  If you disagree that you're being slut shamey, realize that placing this kind of blanket judgement on a lifestyle, a judgement backed up by opinion and personal anecdotes, but not by empirical evidence, is actually the worst and most insidious kind of slut shaming. . . because it's so gentle and well meaning.  It's a lot easier to laugh off a bunch of bigotted creeps and be yourself then it is to deal with someone who's misinformed and well meaning telling you your lifestyle choices are unhealthy and wrong. \n In fairness to you, it's spoken like someone who was kind of slutty, found that unhealthy and disempowering and then found a lot of strength and validation in monogamy.  If so, more power to you bro.  But don't project that shit onto me.  I had exactly the opposite experience, thank you and I'd appreciate people who call themselves \"sex positive\" supporting me in that.  I mean really. \n 4) I've never met a three cornered (are you trying to say \"triad\"?) or four cornered (are you trying to say \"quad?\") group of lovers. . . \n Most of my social circle is poly to the point that monofolk who show up to stir friday or game night can feel a little overwhelmed and outnumbered.  Now I don't know what kind of polyfolk you've known, but I know a polyfidelitous quad that's been together since the 70s and produced children.  I know a number of poly couples who've been together for literally decades.  I know a poly couple in their mid twenties who started dating when they were fifteen.  They just got married last year, and they're still poly.  She has a cool new boyfriend, he's been casually playing off and on with the same girl since highschool.  That girl was his best man.  I've been dating  the same person for four years and a number of other people too.  Just two weekends ago, I had a very sweet and healing encounter with someone I first had sex with in 1999.  Her husband knew.  And her boyfriend.  Oh, her boyfriend is the same dude she was dating in 1999 BTW.  But that being said, I'm not that good at building long term relationships. News flash: TONS of monofolk are also bad at this.  We call them serial monogamists and even cheaters and they're EVERYWHERE.  Monogamy is NO defense whatsoever against this. So I'm a bad case study for your \"ideal, healthy relationship.\"  But I can find you some good case studies.  I can think of five or six examples just off the top of my head.  Heck, I can introduce you to third generation non-monogamists if you want. \n In conclusion: \n Your opinion seems to be just \"mono is better/healthier/happier than nonmono because my subjective experiences tell me so?\"  Fine.  You can have that opinion.  It's wrong, but you can keep it.  My subjective experiences tell me so.  My conclusion from that is: Some relationship styles work better for some people and require different types of agreements and communication skills.  Sex positivity is all about letting people figure out for themselves what it is they need, acknowledging that society and accepted ways of doing things don't have their answers and pushing back against cultures and institutions that try to put people in boxes.  Except, your definition isn't.  Kindly rethink this. \n The only reason I take issue with your opinion is that you clearly think it applies to relationships in general, outside of your own and are prepared to be preachy about it, on a subreddit dedicated to a movement about being non-judgemental and open minded and positive about sex.  This bothers me.", "id": "cjqsyxs", "summary": "Your opinion is not empirical, is based on a limited data set, is not correct AND I THINK I CAN PROVE IT.  Also, Jesus, I hate it when people are wrong on the internet.  It takes SO much energy."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "And if this dude is (as is currently so often the case) rich and a major local employer?  This is a prepackaged libertarian answer, ideologically sound from a libertarian perspective, but I doubt very much you could convince me that this is going to be an easier fight with a weaker central government.  Because it's not going to be.  But I don't consider any system where this ISN'T doable to be just, so I can't look to libertarians to bring me justice.  Sorry. \n EDIT for", "id": "c2yr96w", "summary": "No system which does not limit the ability of those who possess greater than average social or economic power to perpetrate injustice can be considered just and the ideologies that fail to meet this criteria should be discarded."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "Guitar playing polyamorous guy in my early 30s here.  Dude, you are me 12 years ago and I envy you the awesome discovery experience you get to set out on! \n I challenge you this: Think of her body as a new instrument you are learning to play.  You can play this instrument with your mouth, with your fingers, with your whole body.  Have you ever played a piece of music and moved yourself emotionally so much that you couldn't keep playing?  That's not unlike cumming too soon and you can learn to lose your heart in the experience without losing your skill. \n The biggest part of being a better performing musician is practice and pushing yourself and sometimes that means you lock yourself away to learn more about what you're working with.  If your own body and responses are what's tripping you up, learn more about it.  Masturbate and observe the sensations in your own body just like you're listening to a tough guitar piece and trying to learn it by ear.  Imagine that sex and foreplay are like jamming and you don't want to rush that crescendo out too fast.  Knowing the meanings of legato and staccato and allegro will serve you as well in the bedroom as in the recording studio.  Get into the rhythm of the act and don't end the song until it's over. \n This may sound like a bunch of useless poetic analogy, but I assure you, I'm deadly and practically serious.  If music awakens passion, then observe and practice sex the same way you listen to and practice music.  Treat her like a music coach, someone who has something to teach you. . . and like a director.  Her body will give you subtle but obvious little cues about what she wants.  The way she moves can tell you weather to wail or grind or just play rhythm while she leads for a while. \n I had a lover I met at a polyhouse in California last year who, after I went down on her, asked me what on earth I was doing to her and would I teach her to do that.  I said, it's like trilling on a flute, but still following the orchestra, not just knowing how to flutter your tongue like that (although it's almost the exact same idea) but also following the rhythm of what everybody else is doing, in this case the way her body is moving, how her hands grip the sheets, how her breath comes in little, rhythmic gasps.  After that, she asked if she was a flute in bed.  I told her she was a celtic handdrum, her beat was so easy to follow. \n You're learning a new skill, but it's REALLY related to a skill you already know and are naturally good at.  You'll do fine.", "id": "c31om5z", "summary": "Play her like you would play a REALLY nice Fender.  Bring that psychology and attitude to bed with you.  She'll love it, and so will you."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "r/relationships.  Seeing good advice get downvoted and bad advice get upvoted and seeing comments get downvotes for politely advocating for alternative viewpoints (like bisexuality or polyamory) just angers me to the point I can't stand to read it anymore.  As a subscriber to /r/polyamory, I'm always seeing links back to /r/relationships for \"Look what (shitty advice) these morons are giving to people in a potential poly situation.\"  And then it becomes /r/polyamory versus the general population of /r/relationships and /r/relationships does a collective WTF, clicks the downvote button and goes back to upvoting \"Send her pics of you raping her dog, that'll teach her to cheat on you.\" BS.", "id": "c3d6znt", "summary": "r/spacedicks gives better relationship advice then /r/relationships."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "I'm actually polyamerous and get really turned on by hearing about my partner's current extracurricular adventures. \n How do you convince her to share though?  You have multiple layers of inhibitions at work here. \n 1) Sex can be hard and awkward to talk about and getting past that takes practice and a feeling of safety. \n 2) You're asking her to talk about things that in the past she tried to keep secret from you.  That could be pretty uncomfortable. \n 3) She may still feel very guilty about cheating on you.  That can make talking uncomfortable too. \n In a poly or swinger (those are different, btw) or other open relationship model, these things might be less of an issue, simply because it's normal and expected to talk about sex, because nothing was ever kept secret in the first place and a framework exisists to reassure people about any guilt they might feel (I've never felt particularly guilty about adventuring myself).  There are some ways to apply this to a monogamaous relationship and they all begin and end with making her feel safe and comfortable. \n Do you have lingering trust issues with her?  Those won't help.\nDoes she have self judgement that you could asuage with reassurance? Can you be consistent in that reassurance. \n Often, emotional issues have to be delt with outside the bedroom before you can reap the bedroom rewarda of having delt with them.", "id": "c3y4n6y", "summary": "Talk to her.  Help her feel safe.  It's your only hope."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "Manufacturer's scream. . \n I agree with them.   I'm a small business consultant and every single one of my clients is resisting 8.  Many are asking me to source Win 7 machines on NewEgg.  At least one is using the new OS as an excuse to try to switch to an all Mac environment (limited success thus far).  I have people begging me for start buttins, even if it means potentially buggy 3rd party apps. \n Older people left to fend for themselves are nearly universally sent into frustrated rage by metro.  Some folks who were planning on upgradung with the new OS release are now determined to stick it out in hopes of 9 being more comfortable.", "id": "c8se2i5", "summary": "non-early adopter hipster IT people don't want 8 because it changes their experience too much without really improving it"}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "What works best is that you may remove an item of clothing to counter target spell or prevent target loss of life.  If you die, you have to do whatever the other player says.  We roleplayed it, once my girlfriend killed me with a fire elemental and we played that it dragged me back to her mage tower in chains so she could have her way with me.", "id": "clw28nx", "summary": "Nerdsex"}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "Losing in a magic-off with Luthien Tenuviel is sort of like losing at Kung Fu to Bruce Lee.  Just having the opportunity to step into the ring makes you mighty.  Also, I note the Nightengale is dead  where as the Lord of the Dark Tower reigns immortal in Mordor.  Clearly, he's doing something right.", "id": "cni9fry", "summary": "Sauron is Chuck Norris."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "She could be telling you a giant white lie that started out little.  I recently talked to a friend who confessed she spent a whole 18 month relationship with a guy she wasn't attracted to at all because she really liked him as a person.  And the sex quickly went from OK for her and great for him to horrible to the point that she couldn't get off and was violently sexually frustrated all the time.  But she was good enough at faking it that he still thought their sex life was great and she didn't communicate about it so he had no idea and it tore him to pieces when she finally left him.", "id": "c1fw1zy", "summary": "I DON'T want to tell you she's lieing, she really may not be.  But it happens."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "I'm more of a Unix guy, but right now, work is work and a paycheck's a paycheck.  Some folks who know me and trust me wanted me to deal with some weird issues they were having with the SBS 2003 server at their small business.  Due to the economy, they've been running without an IT guy for about a year and a half.  The applications guy does the best he can, but he's not a systems admin by a long shot.  Long story short,  the thing has compromised security software and is a nest of trojans.  It's been utterly pwned for who knows how long.  It's sending spam e-mails USING the exchange server, has been running an FTP server that has incoming connections from all over the world and over 200 Gigs of encrypted archives (who knows what they are), has been sending SSH requests to hosts in China, Russia and the Ukrain and who knows what else. \n I'm nuking the OS and reinstalling, but I've NEVER done this with a Domain controller before.  This business has 8 employees, all with AD, their Exchange runs through this thing, it's hosting their VPN, an Access database which they're using as a ticket/tracking system, their Filemaker database which is their CRM and it has a network share full of important medical images and documents who's control is regulated by the FDA. \n What do I ~NEED~ to know before I do this that I ~DON'T~ know.  I have a decade of experience as a Linux admin, and I've used Windows for gaming and been on Windows domains at jobs before and I've even done a tiny amount of Exchange troubleshooting.  I figured out how to get Linux to TALK to Active Directory a few years back.  But other than that, I have no experience with Domain Controllers. \n What am I going to fuck up?  What pitfalls will greet me at 3:00 AM when I just want to be done and go home and sleep?", "id": "t3_f0k9g", "summary": "I'm wiping and reinstalling a Domain Controller.  I'm a competent Linux tech, but I've never done this before.  What do I need to know?"}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "So, a couple years ago, at the same time I was breaking up with my now ex-wife, I came out as poly to my family.  They had various different reactions (my brother and sister were kind of like \"yeah, what ever\").  My dad banished my lifestyle from his house and did a bunch of research on \"curing people.\" \n But this story is about my mother. \n I live in a certain small city in Colorado that is world famous for it's \"alternative spirituality\" and \"new age woohoo\" scene and my mother fits RIGHT in. \n When she heard I was poly, my mother just said \"Of course you are dear, I've known that for years.\"  And left it at that.  A few weeks later though, she called me up and asked me to come over saying that she had something \"very important\" to tell me. \n <Oh, this isn't just the story of me coming out.  This is also the story of how I realized my mother is absolutely insane.> \n So I went up there.  I figured it had something to do with my grandmother.  Her health is terrible, she causes lots of drama and she and I are very close, so sometimes I'm the only one in the family that can talk to her.  My mom takes me out on the back porch and gets out her pendulum.  Then I knew I was going to woohoo land. \n My mothers pendulum is made of amathyst and gold, on a little silver chain.  For several years, she's been using it more and more frequently to communicate with various \"spiritual entities.\"  I knew she was part of some club of aging hippies who are using pendulums to do some kind of \"work.\"  Until this day, I thought it was just another of my mom's crazy spiritual phases. \n \"It makes sense to me that you're polyamorous, Bard.\" She says to me.  \"I've been thinking a lot about it and it's because of your soul mate.\" \n \"OK,\" I say, ready to hear some mystical mumbo jumbo.  Because I know how my mom is.  But then \n <wtf notmakingthisup> \n \"You and your soulmate came here five thousand years ago from the planet Hutron, in order to learn about Crystal Magic from the ancient Atlanteans.  You both became very good at it and were great Wizards but then Atlantis was attacked by aliens from a dark world who used an orbital space laser to attack the continent.  With the help of an army of Angels lead by the Archangel Michael, the Atlantean wizards raised a magical crystal energy shield to block the space laser.  But the laser was fed by dark energy from the core of the galaxy and was too powerful.  The shield was failing.  So to raise more power, a number of Atlantean wizards, including your soulmate, became desperate and turned to human sacrifice.  However, when this was discovered, it angered the angelic host and they abandoned Atlantis. \n The crystal shield fell and Atlantis was destroyed by the space laser.  The physical incarnations of you and your soulmate and everyone on Atlantis (including many peaceful aliens who were there to learn about magic) were killed. \n The angels rounded up the souls of all of the dark wizards who had turned to sacrificing people and imprisoned them in a dark mansion on the astral plane.  Every thousand years, they would give all the dark wizards a chance to repent their actions and many did and were allowed to return and reincarnate on Earth.  However, your soulmate refused and kept saying she would do the same thing again if she had to. \n Finally, in August of 1998, on the 5,000th anniversary of the destruction of Atlantis, the Archangel Michael destroyed the souls of all those dark wizards who had refused to repent and purged them from reality.  Including your soulmate, so now you are all alone. \n But you shouldn't worry.  The angels notified the Central Command of your home planet of Hutron that they had executed one of it's citizens and Hutron has sent you another soulmate.  She's here in spirit, watching you and she'll be ready to incarnate with you in your next life, so you'll never have to be alone again. \n So it makes sense that you're polyamerous, because you have no soulmate and you just have to do the best you can to find happiness in this lifetime.  In your next lifetime, the perfect partner will be there for you.\" \n </wtf> \n I love my mother.  Really.  But for the past year, I have known she's out of her goddamn mind. \n When I told this story to a good friend of mine, he laughed and asked me when the movie is coming out.  I told him it's gonna be a bad anime.", "id": "t3_o4wcd", "summary": "My mom could write for a bad Japanese cartoon studio.  Unfortunately, SHE THINKS IT'S ALL REAL!"}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "Today I got called out to a daycare center with a really slow computer that had a virus.  I booted into safemode and ran Malware Bytes, then booted into safemode w/ networking and ran Spybot S&D.  So, you know, I mostly sat there and got paid to watch virus scanners do their thing for two and a half hours. \n DURING WHICH TIME \n the six cute girls that worked at the daycare took their breaks, hung out in the computer room and were very friendly and mildly flirtatious with me.", "id": "t3_of3b6", "summary": "Got paid to flirt with cute girls.  Today was awesome."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "I'm about to start running a GURPS game in a hard sci-fi universe and I need a way to cleanly kill an entire planetary population (of humans) in the course of a few minutes while: \n a) Leaving their entire technological infrastructure intact and also leaving their planetary internet/computer infrastructure intact. \n b) Allowing a few survivors who happened to be in deep caves/random old fallout shelters/other appropriate protection alive and well. \n c) Triggered from orbit by a small group of terrorists with access to what ever resources they need. \n d) Leaves behind little or no hazardous residue that would pose a threat to say, a small party of Player Characters arriving on the planet a few hours after the holocaust. \n The weapon can kill local plant and animal life too, or not, it doesn't really matter to my plot line, but food on store shelves/in cans/etc should still be edible. \n And because it's a hard sci-fi setting it needs to be at least marginally plausible, i.e. No \"inverse flux of tetrion particles\" or \"mutara nebulas\" or homicidal energy based life forms.", "id": "t3_mwgxm", "summary": "Need a quick, clean, at least somewhat plausible way to wipe out a planetary population of humans in a few minutes, leaving infrastructure intact and the surface safe for PC heroes and NPC villains to duke it out on a few hours later. \n FINAL UPDATE: turns out some of my players are reading this thread.  XD Jokes on me for asking reddit this question with my real account.  I'm removing all the updates because the ones I talked to hadn't seen my updates yet (supposedly)."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "Confused, I looked through the system and discovered all kinds of activity from the user, just like they would generate if they were doing their normal job.  I found no record of my deletion, nor of the confirmation email I sent to the HR director to confirm they had been locked out of the system, nor of the initial email I got from the HR director asking me to lock them out of the system. \n Now I was panicking.  This database is full of sensitive information of the sort a disgruntled ex-employee could sell to identity thieves for tens of thousands of dollars.  I sent a worried email to the HR director, informing her I may have screwed up and \"Adam\" was never deleted out of the system. \n I got a worried email back from her, even though it was late at night.  \"Why would Adam be deleted out of the system?  He needs it to do his job!\" \n But I could have sworn. . . no I KNOW. . . maybe I meant a different employee and just got confused.  Maybe it was Andrew, not Adam I deleted and I got their names mixed up in my head. \n Perplexed, I start digging through my own database history.  There's no record of me locking out ANYONE.  Search through email again, thinking maybe it wasn't email, it was text messages.  Search through my messages.  Search through my Skype conversations.  No account lock requests, no confirmations of lockout. \n So I email the director of HR.  \"If you didn't fire Adam last month, who the heck was it you fired that I was supposed to lock out?\"  I get a perplexed, early morning email back from her.  \"We haven't fired anyone since we let Nancy and Tim go in March.  You locked them out, right?\" \n I had.  That was a really long time ago. \n It can't be a prank, me and one other person know how to access the database backend and she doesn't know how to do anything other than hand the keys to whoever they hire to replace me in the event I get hit by a bus. \n I'm so confused right now.", "id": "t3_3hkqsc", "summary": "Fired employee was not actually fired, I apparently never did the things I remember doing to the database to lock him out after his non-existant termination."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "So if I have a table like logs \n   | id | userid    |        log     | time   |\n  | 1  |  2        | Went to market | 10:20  |\n  | 2  |  2        | Stayed home    | 11:10  | \n  | 3  |  3        | Stayed home    | 11:30  |\n  | 4  |  2        | Had roast beef | 12:10  |\n \n Can I do something like SELECT id, userid FROM log WHERE (most recent) log=\"Stayed home\" LIMIT 1; \n And have it return 3, 3 but NOT 2, 2 . . . since 2,2 would be excluded by the more recent row id=4, since now \"Had roast beef\" is the most recent entry for uid 2. \n Can this be done?", "id": "t3_3evdwp", "summary": "Can a query be written that will return all the userids where the most recent log is \"Stayed home\" but if a user has a more recent log that matches some other string it won't be returned, even if there is a log that matches \"Stayed home\"? \n EDIT: The answer is: SELECT * FROM (SELECT logs.uid, logs.log, logs.time FROM logs ORDER BY logs.time) AS changes WHERE changes.log=\"Stayed home.\" GROUP BY changes.uid;"}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "And I made my parents (who've never believed in ADHD and believe in spirit healing and NOT in vaccines) understand that things like spending an afternoon cleaning up after the mess my six year old and I made in their kitchen and yet forgetting to pick my shoes up from the bathroom floor and not remembering to put the shop vac away are not some kind of irritating, thoughtless negligence they can somehow correct but are part of WHO I AM.  Given that they believe that if I tried harder (and connected to my spirit source or whatever it is this week) that I'd be able to \"overcome these kinds of challenges\" they've made it clear that as long as I'm \"refusing to grow in this way\" and \"arrogantly not dealing with these easy things I could just deal with if I try harder\", that I'm not welcome in their house.  They insist that doesn't mean  I'm  not welcome here and they just can't see how saying \"You're welcome here but your ADHD (that we don't really believe in) isn't\" isn't the same as saying \"You're just not welcome here.\" \n It really is about little things too (isn't it always?).  \"You didn't clean the lint trap after you used the dryer.\"  \"You didn't put my drill back in the charging socket.\"  \"You didn't park in the space I asked you to park in.\" \n I kind of blew my lid at my dad over the last one and said some unkind things I really wish I hadn't.  He was kind of taken aback about how strong a reaction he got just from telling me off about where I parked my car. \n After a long and tearful discussion, I'm leaving this last visit to the house I grew up in to, for the foreseeable future, never have a lengthy visit or stay for more than a few hours again and not spend my visitation time with my son here anymore.   I'm feeling totally heart broken, especially because my son (and his grandparents) are reaping this price. \n But my parent's don't consider this \"asking me to change\" they consider it \"a simple demand that when I'm here I pay attention to small details and don't cause chaos in their orderly lives\"  (not causing chaos in his order were almost my dad's exact words).  They're considering my insistance that this is REALLY hard and I can't live up to what they're asking to be \"arrogant and disrespectful.\"  My mom left the room in a huff when I tried to explain that I have a handycap.  My dad practically plugged his ears when I started talking about meds (and why they don't really work for me). \n They've known me my whole life!! How do they not get it!?! \n I'm not actually asking for help.  I'm just sort of venting frustration and heartbreak on the internet.  I'm not sure there is any help to be had.   Anyway, thank you /r/adhd.  You've been a wonderful help in my life these past few years.  <3", "id": "t3_3kvjms", "summary": "Parents don't believe in ADHD, even after knowing me my entire life, basically told me I'm not allowed to be ADHD in their house, don't think they're being unreasonable."}, {"author": "thebardingreen", "content": "The sore throat abated late Thursday night and I thought I was just down to clearing out the mucus.  I allowed myself to celebrate and relax.  I'd been taking it easy since Monday, willing this demon to GTFO before Saturday night.  I let myself think I'd won.  For a whole 12 hours. \n Then I went to see the Hobbit with some friends and in the middle of the fricken movie my body decides now is the time to have chest rattling, uncontrollable coughing fits.  They have continued, along with that annoying scratchy throat feeling that's always there when you have a cough, driving you mad. \n In 14 hours, I'll be at an annual event where I'm always the main attraction.  I'm supposed to play guitar, sing, toast people and make up toasts about them.  I will be expected to drink toasts and then make up more, including singing into cell phones to toast people's out of state friends I've never even met.  And in the midst of that, they will request all my regular songs and random Christmas songs and holiday ballads.  This is my favoritist thing I do musically every year.  It's almost a spiritual calling.  And yet. . . \n I can feel the virusy, mucsy mixture lurking in my sinuses, gumming up my throat and the rattly cough fairies dancing their devil jig in the upper reaches of my lungs.  The unholy alliance has already taken my upper register and has explained to me in unconditional terms that it will give me 20-30 minutes of singing max before it claims my voice entirely and reduces me to a low range croak that won't even be heard outside a five foot radius. \n I'm desperate!  Help!  I must exercise any and all options to hold the beast at bay. \n EDIT: [", "id": "t3_1sv2bs", "summary": "EDIT 2: Thanks for all the suggestions.  I'm gonna mix them up and see how it goes.  Hopefully, I don't over do it."}]}
+{"author": "rhino369", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post kids are often stupid.", "output": "You can teach kids about sex, but you can't make sure they learned it right. I had a good education about sex, and some kids still thought that you piss in a girl to get her pregnant. \n It's the same reason you can teach kids fractions once a year and nobody can fucking do fractions."}], "user_id": "longlamp_14082", "history": [{"author": "rhino369", "content": "This is even more hilarious because you assume that only people from the USA consider themselves \"Americans\". In reality anyone from North/South America is an American. \n In English communication American almost always means person who lives or originated from the United States. Every English dictionary will define it that way, though they may have other definitions of it too. \n I hear it may be different in Spanish. \n You need to use context to pick out what the person means. In this situation it isn't ambiguous.", "id": "c1hwbws", "summary": "Homonyms, learn about them."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "I want to see atheist ads just as much as I want to see christian ones. \n >Just why? oh why? do people need to push their beliefs on others? \n Advertisements aren't \"pushing\" our beliefs on people. Advertisements are excepted in America, you seem to find them aggressive. Pushing our views would be telling children they better believe as we do or they burn forever. \n And it doesn't matter what you want anyway. Christians are going to advertise no matter what you say. I'd want to see a US military campaign as much as a Nazi military campaign, but as long as the Nazi's had one going the US needed one too.", "id": "c09ocoq", "summary": "This guy is a concern troll"}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "The objective risk of the loans is irrelevant. What is relevant is difference between the real risk and the assumed risked. Banks incorrectly bet that these loans wouldn't be bad. Even that isn't a huge deal. \n The deal was betting their entire bank that their losses wouldn't be more than 5-10% by leveraging 10-20/1. \n Even if the government was giving out shitty loans the government didn't force the banks to over leverage them (and the data just doesn't back it up, the banks were writing these shitty loans of their own volition). \n Blaming the crash on bad loans is like blaming WWI on the assignation of that Archduke. It wasn't the cause it was the trigger.", "id": "c14u3wk", "summary": "banks bet that the housing market wouldn't crash and it did."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "Probably because you had actual socialists calling themselves that. Nobody ever called themselves a socialist in the US, at least nobody mainstream. So the only groups American's know who called themselves socialists were Nazis and Communists. \n Also a difference is that Americans were never peasants or feudalism. (Well we had a type of it in the South but only blacks were forced to live under it). \n Land in the United States was cheap or free until the beginning of the 20th century. If you were poor you could go west and try your hand at farming or whatever. While Europe's lower class fought for freedom, the US never needed a large scale social change. \n Free land was our socialism. Well that ran out, but because of it social warfare is a fairly recent thing the US.", "id": "c1m09n5", "summary": "When socialism started Americans didn't really need it that badly."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "There isn't actually a federal election. Nov. 6 Americans go elect - in statewide elections - Electors who then vote for the Presidency in December. \n The states can choose to have their election however they want. Some state's do whoever wins the state, get's all the electors. Some do Congressional District wide elections, like Nebraska and Maine. Back when the country was founded, many states didn't even have elections. Their state legislatures decided on electors.", "id": "c6phifh", "summary": "America doesn't have federal elections."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "No. First of all Russia and China value Iran for the trade value. They both trade much more with NATO countries. The US and China do ~500 billion a year in trade. \n Neither Russia or China have an ability to fight the United States outside their borders and shores. Their navies are much much worse than the United States. The United States has a lethal navy, and has air base in the middle east. \n Russia and China would do a good job defending against American attacks to their homeland. But neither have the ability to fight a war so far from their nations. Especially since in the event of war the US would own all shipping lanes worldwide.", "id": "c3shdzd", "summary": "Neither have expeditionary forces."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "It was my conclusion, my reasoning is the next sentence. They knew, or should have known Bin Laden was at war with the united states. They helped his conduct by allowing him to have bases in their nation. They Recklessly risked him launching an attack from their nation. If this was a model penal code state you could convict on that.", "id": "c1s467w", "summary": "law students are insufferable pricks during finals."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "I've only got 5 minutes til my filter blocks Reddit so I actually do some work so I'll be quick. \n But I think a major theme in BSG was the colonials dealing with survivors guilt, and wether their civilization even deserves to survive. I think Adama even questioned it early on. \n After fight, and betrayal after betrayal the colonials committed a cultural suicide. They hated themselves. It's why they were so prepared to commit suicide to rescue the little girl from the Cylon home station in the last episode. They were committing suicide. When it worked, they just did it in a new way.", "id": "c15mjxk", "summary": "they questioned whether they should survive and decided that the answer was no."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "Because most of us get vacation, maternity leave, health care from our employers without it being mandated. \n The vast majority of Americans are middle class and live a European or better lifestyle. However about 20% of us get massively fucked over. \n It's hard to make a political movement out of 20% of people, especially when most are young and/or ignorant. \n Also the republican party has become adept at getting poor people to vote against their interests because of social issues. Factory workers in the south vote against union labor because the party of jesus doesn't like it.", "id": "c1d8xdd", "summary": "we make the poor fend for themselves."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "It won't take even that long. In several states that don't get a lot of immigration, the most common ancestry is American. Which really just means a British, Dutch, German, Scandinavian, Irish mutt. \n I think it will be bad if we ever just think of ourselves as Americans, because it will hurt the spirit of immigration in this country. \n Right now American is a state of mind. Want to be an American? You can be. If we associate American with some weird, partially brown/white mutt, we might stop allowing immigration.", "id": "c1p8r1w", "summary": "thinking that you are an American of Irish ancestry, makes you able to accept an American of Afghan ancestry."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "It's a bunch of bullshit. If they really needed extra workers they'd pay more and bus people in. \n What they mean is that there are a shortage of workers who will work for illeagal immigrant wages. Because illegal immigration and migrant workers aren't coming as often beacuse of the economy being bad and immigration crack downs. \n Often times there is a local shortage in labor. But instead of paying more to draw workers they bitch. Yea no kidding, getting workers in NoWhere, Podunk is hard. So pay for them to come. Farmers aren't entitled to cheap labor.", "id": "c5f2wwf", "summary": "farmers are mad as fuck Americans aren't going to come work for a month a year on their farm for like 10 bucks an hour. Because it's not worth the travel and housing problems."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "If the company finds out that you and your transplants do all the work, they'd probably just fire all of the slackers and hire nobody else. \n So while you are getting unfairly the only thing you can do is punish them. \n Instead of complaining to the manager subtly make it known that you'll cover for her, if she's got your back. Let her know you don't care what she does, as long as she stays off your back.", "id": "c0cj83i", "summary": "play nice but engage in some mild blackmail."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "They are nationally recognized as the best schools. For example, UT Austin is ranked 15 or 16, but its really only good for Texas law firms. Same thing with Minnesota, or any of the other schools. In normal years most people from a t14 get hired by a large firm (if they want it), and maybe 30% get hired from a T15-t40. \n In this economy its more like 50% at a T14, and 10% at T15-40, and 0-1% below T40.", "id": "c0gp7q7", "summary": "Prestige whoring."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "I'm a guy who was an electrical engineer and will be lawyer. I give out computer advice and help all the time, but I'd never give legal advice. Why? Because I can tell someone what components they should buy in their laptop with a few questions, give a pretty accurate answer, and worst case they get a laptop with a graphics card that's a little over/under (IB4 no such thing as overpower graphics card). \n With law, you gotta know all the facts of the situation. Then you gotta know the law of the jurisdiction, or really the law of all the potential jurisdictions if there is possibly more than one. There is a reason legal advice costs more than geek squad.", "id": "c34e312", "summary": "legal advice is more like asking a CS dood to write you a kernel than reforming your pc cause you got porn viruses."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "You're only partially correct. Yes, to lose weight you must burn more calories than you consume. But if you are eating more often (in smaller healthier portions) and working out more you WILL lose weight. In fact, you'll lose weight faster than if you starve yourself.\\ \n People vastly overestimate how effective it is. If you eat the same total amount of calories, but in more meals, it will have an effect on your metabolism, but not to the degree you imply. \n >If you work out regularly and don't eat enough you will  PUT ON WEIGHT . I cannot stress this enough. Your body will behave as if it's starving, meaning it'll break down things that consume the most energy first; meaning your muscles. \n Not physically possible. Do you not understand basic biology and chemistry? Your body runs on sugars. Fat is a method for your body to turn sugars into something it can store long term. Fat's purpose is for energy when you are starving. That is the reason it exists. \n If you stop eating, yes your body will be damaged, but not because it eats your muscles first, but because you use protein in maintaining your body. Also calling eating less starving yourself is silly. Most fat people need to be eating much less, not to lose weight, but just to maintain a good weight. \n You will never, and this is important, never lose weight unless you are eating less calories than you burn. Exercising definitely burns more, but if you work out hard 4 days a week, we are talking like 1000 calories for the entire weeks. That's a big mac and fries. If you talking about the average fat american, they eat a lot worse than one big mac and fries a week. \n >If you exercise regularly you must consume more calories in your diet. That is the ONLY way to lose weight in a healthy, natural manner. \n This is silly advice, and I can tell you are just reporting fitness myths you hear from other people.", "id": "c0anuuk", "summary": "Calories are calories, eat less or burn more. Eating less is much more manageable. Cut out the big mac and the bowl of ice cream, and thats worth 2-3 days of working out."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "It is going to differ state by state, adn court by court based on their caselaw. \n But generally the standard is whether the defendant was reasonable in their actions to avoid the injury. That is subjective as hell, so often times a more objective test is applied to see if it is reasonable. If the cost of the injury is more than the cost of preventing the injury multiplied by the probability of injury, it is negligent. \n It's unreasonable to ask for a shop to check every aisle constantly. It is reasonable to ask for a shop to put down a rug when it is pouring rain.", "id": "c33npzb", "summary": "Gray area is where litigators make their money."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "I majored in electrical engineering. This isn't quite the same thing as entry level office jobs requiring a BA in anything to let you in the door. \n You need to know the basics (and by basics I mean extremely complicated math and science that 90% of the population isn't smart enough to ever understand), and you need to prove you can learn the specifics when you need to. A simple test like the OP wants would never be able to test the later, and would only barely (and probably not at all) test the former.", "id": "c09p64n", "summary": "Don't blame academia for you majoring in something useless."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "Half Asian Half white is always good. \n I don't particularly like Asian females, but half asian is gold. \n Also half Asian half somewhat bulkier women, like Germans or Russians, turns out extremely well. They mix genes, and the petite asian mixes with large eastern European. And you get really good size and facial features. \n Dear god I'm talking like humans like a dog breeder.", "id": "c0e7rv9", "summary": "We should have take the defeated axis powers and mixed them all up."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "It is extremely difficult to start from zero and compete with anything that is already in operation. \n Did you ever stop to think the copyright system allows for the creation of better products? \n This Kim guy is merely taking those products without paying, and distributing them for free. \n There is no unlaw barrier to new distriubtion models. Netflix already has one original show, and several more in the pipeline. \n Copyright only prevents you from falsely taking credit for other peoples hard work. \n Also the idea that the distribution model is outdated is pretty retarded in the age of netflix, amazon instant video, and Itunes. You can have most videos in your house in 30 sections. Fast than megaupload. \n People just don't want to have to pay for it.", "id": "c3wrgwm", "summary": "The existance of a copyrighted entertainment doesn't prevent you from doing open source entertainment."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "My brother and his friends got into a car accident about 400 miles away from our hometown. The accident was horrific. All the police could say was it was on a rural road (in an area I knew forest so I correctly assume they hit a tree). \n First I had to call the mother of one of the other crash victims because the police didn't know who he was. It was so awkward to try to explain it to her. I was scared, she was, and we didn't know each other. \n Then since they were all taken to hospitals 400 miles away, one of the other guys father's asked to share a ride. So my family and this man drive in the middle of the night, 30 minutes after finding out. Everyone is panicked. We have no info. The car right will take about 7 hours. \n The father of the other passenger gets a phone call from the hospital. They tell him his son will die within the next few hours. It was a horrid mixture of sadness, shock and terror that my brother would be next. \n He just sat there, took it seemingly well. That car right was the worst night of my life. \n Luckily my brother survived, but he was paralyzed. Both of the other passengers died.", "id": "c33nli6", "summary": "drunk driving is terrible, don't do it, you could kill your friends."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "And here's the kicker. In her last email she asked me directly how do I find her. How her looks compare to how I have seen her in my imagination. I have no idea how to handle that. I know that she won't buy any lie, and I don't want to lie to her - we were totally honest with each other until now. I don't want to loose her as a friend or hurt her feelings. \n >Could you recommend how to proceed? I don't want to hurt her, and I don't want to lie, we are to close for such dishonesty. Please help. \n You lie your ass off. She knows she is ugly, but is fishing for acceptance, give it to her. Tell her she looks cute. \n Do not under any circumstance tell her she is a but-her-face. \n The more concerning issue is that she seems to want to be more than friends. Try not to lead her on later if she seems to get too attached.", "id": "c0cnf8e", "summary": "Compliment her, its the polite thing to do."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "The taste of new pussy works even better. Trick is women hate a heartbroken guy. It's like throwing sawdust in their panties. \n So you use alcohol to get a new girl. \n Or just force yourself to stop thinking about the old one. If you discipline yourself you get through it a lot faster.", "id": "c32ywli", "summary": "get drunk adn fuck a fat chick"}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "Congrats on a self-righteous dismissal. \n I'm confident I'm right because I'm fucking right. \n >The administration now \"temporarily\" owns the company and is dictating that dealerships need to close, obviously on a basis other than on the financial viability of a dealership as this letter shows. \n Your evidence is what? Right wing radio. Thats the only place I see that being said. \n >Take off your \"I <3 Obama\" glasses and realize he is as corrupt and power hungry as Bush before him. \n I didn't vote for Obama for exactly that reason. I'm not an Obama fan. I am a fan of the truth. You are blaming Obama and government for what the market is doing. Chrysler is doing this, and no the government doesn't own Chrysler. This is the fucking free market the republicans are cheering on. Republicans spend the last few months demanding the domestic autos go bankrupt and when two of them do, they blame Obama and claim its the government's fault when the dealerships get closed. I'm not angry because you are attacking Obama, I'm angry because people like you are spreading falsehoods so we won't learn a fucking thing about what happened. Democrats are going to blame Bush, and Republicans are going to blame Obama, and we are back to square one with legions of dedicated ignorant pigs fighting over political theater.", "id": "c09ptup", "summary": "I'm you are ignoring reality and pretending your ideology is reality. You don't really care what happened, your mind is already made up. You and most others reject empiricism."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "There is no such thing as a \"digital broadcast signal.\" They modulate the digital signal onto an analog signal. In America they use 8bit vestigial sideband modulation. They do it on the same frequency range as the old TV broadcast. The rabbit ears work perfectly for it. \n Cable companies also use analog too even when they have a digital picture. They use QAM modulation. Which is pretty similar to vestigial sideband modulation.", "id": "c3tsb09", "summary": "Any broadcating is analog because of transmission line properties."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "The way HFCS are subsidized actually increases the cost of sugar in America. HFCS is subsidized by putting a large tariff on cane sugar, so that cane sugar is more expensive than HFCS. \n If we stopped, cane sugar would be cheaper than HFCS is now. Food is just so incredibly cheap in America that it doesn't matter. It is a drop in the bucket. Coke and Pepsi only care because they buy the shit by the train full.", "id": "craiix9", "summary": "America makes sugar more expensive, but its still so cheap we can still eat a ton of it."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "I'd support a draft in case of a war big enough. \n But why the hell do we need to register for the draft anyway? I mean the government sent me a card do it. Clearly they knew who I was, they even knew where I lived. So what fucking purpose is it to sign up for some list? \n We can't just create a draft list during a war? Registering for the draft is a waste of time, effort and money.", "id": "c82i1z0", "summary": "not against a draft, but against registering for a nonexistent one."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "I think in many cases supply causes demand because prices drop. \n The problem is the method of creating supply by cutting taxes doesn't really work. You can give business more money, but they aren't going to \"create\" a job unless they think it will create profit. \n Credit is so fucking cheap right now, if businesses thought that by hiring someone, they'd make money, they'd borrow the money and do it.", "id": "c1uuxdi", "summary": "businesses don't make jobs because they have money, they make jobs to make more money."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "Its hard to properly balance and vegan diet, which why attempting it sometimes kills children. Attempting to do so is a calculated risk, that some will fail at. \n >In fact, I'd like to see a case where it hasn't made the person healthier. \n I know of no study that shows veganism makes anyone healthier. \n >In the world we're living in, where all kinds of nutritious food is readily available to anyone willing to walk to the store and buy it, there's a much stronger case for animal products being unnecessary in a human diet than there was, say, 100 years ago, when we had access to such a diverse collection of nutrients only when we ate other animals. \n And part of that healthy food includes animal products. A vegan diet would require supplements to make up for vitamins you can't get without meat products. \n >The reason that you've heard about some babies having died is not because their diets happened to be vegan--it's because their diets happened to be unbalanced and insufficient in both calories and nutrients. \n And attempting a Vegan diet increases the likelihood of that occurring. \n >My running performance went through the roof, and I didn't lose a single gram of body weight. \n While maybe it worked for you, that isn't the case for the average person. Look at the highest performing athletes around the world, and they aren't all Vegans. \n I have no problem with Vegans (at least the ones who don't try to push it on me), and if it makes you feel better, I'm happy. But attempting to feed a growing child a vegan diet is unnecessarily dangerous. Its taking a calculated risk in exchange for no readily apparent benefits. \n Part of the problem with vegan diets for children is that adults who grew up eating meat products have different dietary needs than children. People actually store a lot of B12, which is why some vegans who don't properly plan their diet, can get away with it, but when they feed their children the same diet the kid will have a deficiency.", "id": "c0ax2g6", "summary": "Veganism for children is all risk no reward."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "Why the fuck would I pay for a $6 21oz soda when I can just stuff a bottle in my girlfriends purse that I bought at 7-11 for a dollar? \n Even if 80% of people do it your way, they'll still make more than if they charged you a dollar. \n Ten people watch a movie: \n Your way, they make 10 bucks and have to serve 10 drinks \n Their way, they make 12 bucks and only have to serve 2.", "id": "c3iid7o", "summary": "you don't make money on value for impulse buys."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "Its not a negative connotation. Like every other nation we have ethnic minorities and when discussing them we need a term. What do you call Americans who are ethnically Mexican? Mexican-Americans. Its to show they are a subgroup, yet still Americans. \n Americans are every American, including Africa-Americans. \n The reason euro-American or white-American isn't used is because there is no white subculture in the United States. White Americans don't share anything unique. We do use the terms Irish-American and Italian-American because they do have subcultures.", "id": "c0fvq63", "summary": "to describe subcultures."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "Because under common law (which the US inherited from Great Britain) rape was defined as a penetrating a woman, who isn't your wife, forcibly. Back them gay rape was dealt with via sodomy law, and nobody reported male on male rape. \n Also nobody thought a woman, would, or could rape a man. Hell poll reddit, and they still think this in 2011. \n Times changed, and the state's replaced common law with new laws. The problem is they called it sexual assault. It carried the same penalties. \n The FBI just collected the data from the two crimes separately.", "id": "c3erncu", "summary": "Archaic distinction"}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "I go to a school where most of the women will work at a firm like that. Some of them do talk that way. \n The bigger flame part is that a female lawyer would date a barista in the first place. A girl here ditched her fiance who worked in a sandwich shop because he was poor. \n Also, I doubt they'd go make fun of the guy to his face. Lawyers are beta pussies. They'd never do that.", "id": "c1gjh5b", "summary": "lawyers are pussies and scumbags."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "The original inhabitants of the US were oppressed. And they almost don't exist any more. \n The colonialists were originally British settlements.  It was a totally different type of colonialism than say British colonialism in India. US colonialists considered themselves British for quite a long time, until they grew apart. The 13 colonies were mostly democratic, and were mostly self autonomous.", "id": "c1fi788", "summary": "Americans are the cultural children of the oppressors, not the oppressed."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "To be fair, most news organizations run under an ethical journalistic standard (at least when it suits them). They have to try to confirm their news so they aren't reporting bullshit. \n It's why places with no journalistic integrity often break stories, places like reddit, drudge, blogs, etc etc. But it's also why you hear so many bullshit fake stories on reddit, drudge and blogs.", "id": "c2t5uz6", "summary": "media tries to keep a good signal to noise ratio, and the internet only values being first."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "Like the poster g27 said, there is some indication that a British office considered using the tactic. There is no indication he did. Either way by the French and Indian wars, the small pox pandemic already devastated the native population. \n Small pox came over on one of the first Spanish expeditions to the Americas. It was unavoidable, and not intentional. The minute the two populations started interacting all the diseases would flow. \n In fact diseases were so bad that they traveled faster than the Europeans did.  Tribes who never even saw white people were infected. \n That depopulation was actually the reason that the British and then Americans and Canadians had such an easy time invading North America. Their populations were crush even before they colonialists moved in. \n There was very little mass murder of natives. A lot of non lethal ethnic cleansing by relocation, or by settling in their territory. Because most of the Northern indians were nomadic", "id": "c25p0k3", "summary": "the population decline was caused by an unintentional wave of European disease."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "I don't think inequality in in all facets of life is realizable or even preferable. All humans are not equal. People are smart and dumb, lazy and hardworking. You could give all the dumbest people a million dollars and in ten years they'd be broke. \n But I'm a very big believer in equal opportunity. There are many smart and hardworking people who don't get educated. They never get a chance to prove themselves. \n Of course I think the poor should be promised at least the basics to survive. But that lawyer making 200K, works 70 hours a week and invested 200K in debt to get there. The crack addict shouldn't expect and equal outcome.", "id": "c09rtxi", "summary": "I don't really care if there are poor people, just that children of the poor shouldn't be screwed for life because of their parents mistakes."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "About 20-30 years ago they stopped negociating one contract for all their members. They fought hard for current members (in the 80's) but allowed the contracts to be really terrible for future hires. Well 30 years later new workers will never make over 10 dollars an hour. But if you worked there since the 80's you make a lot more. \n When I was a member I made less than a Walmart employee until I eventually worked my up to a dollar more than an entry level walmart employee's level. But some dumb old lady who did my job much worse than me got paid 3 times more than me. And worse, more than I could ever get paid there even if I worked there for 30 years.", "id": "c5fmjdu", "summary": "baby boomers sold out future generations to keep their high pay. What else is new."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "What right does the Government have to make medical decisions for people? \n It says it does and people with guns agree with it? \n >This specific situation aside, what is next? Grandma is too old, Government says she has to be euthanised. \n That is the exact opposite of what is going on. Its like saying what business does government have preventing child rape? Whats next forcing people to fuck kids?!?!?!?!?", "id": "c09psrl", "summary": "you are retarded."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "A huge portion of TV watching sci-fi fans don't like drama and instead want action/adventure. They want good vs evil, characters with easily identifiable, unchanging characteristics. \n That's not HBO's MO. HBO would do something like Battlestar Galactica, but there really isn't a market for that. BSG's ratings fell the less it was about space battle and the more it was about characters and themes. Caprica, other HBO-esq, show did even worse. \n You see it even on reddit. Any Scifi show that has realistic characters get's called a \"soap opera.\"", "id": "c1h0l95", "summary": "sci fi fans are aspies who would rather learn facts about fictional spacecraft than have a three dimensional character."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "No they just talk a big game. Marines have their glory in battle like Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. But the Army was at Okinawa too. And the army made the amphibious landings at Normandy, and fought across Europe. \n IMO the army has done a lot more, but its also larger and fills a larger roll.", "id": "c09tpfh", "summary": "Marines are better at bragging."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "Law schools let in black people with significantly lower LSAT scores. As a group black people with 160's do as well in law school as white people with 160's. But Law schools that take white people with 167's take black people with 160's, so black kids get pwn'd since law school is on a curve. \n The alternate problem is that if there wasn't affirmative action, there would be very few blacks and hispanics in the very top schools because there aren't that many top scores.", "id": "c151vdf", "summary": "black applicants who were as smart as you got into better schools."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "I'm in the inverse position. I don't know who does the IT hiring at the company I work for, but they are retarded. They took my computer will all my work files on it without warning, and without backing it up and said I got a virus from Youtube, which is fucking ridiculous. This happened suspiciously close to when a worm infected our network and they had no idea what to do. \n Oh they also just formatted my computer and I got it back a week later.", "id": "c0esd9c", "summary": "come teach the IT at my company."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "I was home for a weekend from college and my long distance girlfriend (at the time) came over when nobody was home. \n We are both super horny, so we go to the bedroom. We start off normal, then we get to part where I'd normally go down on her, and instead she says no I'm on my period. Then turns over ass in the air, I assume she wants me to do it doggy style. \n But she said not that \"I want you to go down on me\". I then thought, shit she wants me to go down on her with her period, yuck, but I'll man up and it do it since the blood is inside not on the clitoris. Then she said \"Not there, my ass\", and I didn't know what to do, so I did it. \n It didn't taste like anything, and she got really wet in her normal area. The crazy part is I think she might have orgasmed, but it could have been fake. \n After that we had sex, and after, I asked what that was about. She said she figured since I wanted anal sex (which I had asked about in the past and got shot down before), and she wanted oral but couldn't that she'd compromise. \n After that she denied it ever happened.", "id": "c0cp3x5", "summary": "girls with daddy issues are craaazy"}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "IMMORAL does not become moral by being effective. Torture IS immoral, HAS been immoral, and WILL remain immoral. \n To me it does, as long as effective is accurately defined and calculated. \n I really don't care if you rip the testicles off of a would be mass murderer if it saved just one innocent life. I have no respect for the humanity of animals like Islamic extremists who wish to subjugate the middle east, and a billion people to their backwards, repressive theology. \n However torture is not effective, and its not even close to being effective. \n There are three kinds of torture; punitive, confession seeking, and information seeking. \n Punitive torture is barbaric and serves no ration purpose, just revenge and sadism. \n Confession seeking is also barbaric, and it unreliable. Everyone breaks, so what good is a confession made by torture. \n Information seeking is the only one that could theoretically be useful. Of course it could be justified under the ticking time bomb/Jack Bauer scenario. However this scenario is almost purely fictional, and to my knowledge has never arisen. However torture for information that doesn't stop an imminent attack is unreliable. The torture victim will make up information to stop the torture. \n So there is at best one tiny, mostly fictional scenario where torture works. Compared to the very real, and certain negative consequences of having a torture policy. We lose international respect, and we give barbaric nations the excuse to torture their citizens, and possibly even our soldiers in the future. \n Some will say our enemies will be evil no matter what, but that isn't true in all cases. Of course the Islamic fundies will behead troops anyway. However future enemies and rivals aren't like that. During WWII, Germany treated Russian troops like animals, because Russia and Germany had a history of treating prisoners terribly. However Germany treated non Soviet Allied POWs much better, since the Allies treated the Germans well. There was a sense of decency even while the nations were annihilating each other. \n And the most damaging consequence would the risk of introducing torture as a tool in the American justice system. Terrorists ->\"Narco Terrorists\" ->drug dealers->murderers->rapists->theivers->etc etc. Before you know it Tennessee is torturing people to get confessions for watching Shemale pron. \n </great wall of text>", "id": "c092v1y", "summary": "Downsides outweigh minor upside."}, {"author": "rhino369", "content": "This is bullshit. Basically what happened is the Verizon oversubscribed their network and now they're paying the price (capacity). They're making us pay the price (financial) to pay for the upgrades. \n Just who else do you think is going to pay for upgrades? Costs of doing business are passed onto consumers. \n So the choice is either everyone pays or they attempt to proportion cost increases on those who cause them. \n Theoretically, there is nothing at all wrong with charging people for using a lot of data. It does cost money, and not just in bandwidth cost. It clogs up their local network which then requires upgrades. Someone downloading 1080p pron torrents constantly from 4pm-10pm, maxing their connection, is using a significant portion of the shared network. It's totally fair game to charge them accordingly. \n HOWEVER: in practice a lot of these companies aren't fairly charging. They just cap  and throttling. Or they have outrageous extra fees which are meant to force you into stop using your connection so much. That is bullshit. \n The high usage fees should reflect the cost of upgrades to keep the network going plus some profit. It shouldn't be a penalty designed to stop you. This way, the networks can be upgraded and it gives the ISP an incentive to give you a fast connection. The more you are able to use it, the more money they make. \n A pure unlimited, flat fee system incentives the ISP to discourage your use. Paying for high usage will make them want you to use it more. \n So even the highest users should only be paying an extra 15-20 bucks a month. It should not be treated like going over your minutes on a cellphone plan where you rack up 500 dollar bills. That is insane. \n And of course, they shouldn't be able to call it unlimited unless it is. \n And to address the obvious argument people will make against this \"I pay for 50mbit, I should be able to use 50mbit all month long!\" No, you aren't paying for a 50mbit dedicated connection. You are paying for a shared connection that is limited to 50mbit at max. You cannot afford a 50 mbit dedicated line. It's extremely expensive.", "id": "cfnt3m2", "summary": "paying extra for high use could be good, as long as it's not treated a draconian penalty."}]}
+{"author": "4ScienceandReason", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Wouldn't it simply be more fun and interesting fighting openly around these areas than inevitably shutting them down? \n EDIT:", "output": "Obligatory: I'm 400+ hours in a pvp Official server. \n The common response to critiques about cave-blocking/owning tends to be,  \"Hey, it's a PvP server! You can blow the doors up!\"  And while that's certainly true.... \n I'd argue that the ability to own caves is actually harmful to PvP servers, detracts from the PvP experience, and removes a great and necessary equalizer from the game. \n Simply:  Caves and other resource-heavy zones should be engaging open battlegrounds worth fighting for...not houses, not exploit havens, and content available to anyone daring enough to venture inside. \n The more I play this game, the more I see the lack of equalizers: The 'rich get richer and the poor get poorer.' \n Our server has swung from balanced groups of tribes with frequent trade, war, and interaction to the extreme of massive, unchallenged, super-power tribes. This is partly due to a lack of alliance implementation, and is a scenario that is incredibly boring to those within the superpowers--often leading to cruelty and griefing--and pure futility and frustration for everyone else... and it's caused both sides to stop playing. \n Interesting and resource-heavy zones, like caves and mountain tops, are potential equalizers, which,  can  allow for people to gain on resources important for higher tier items. They're engaging, interesting, and should be risky, rewarding, and worth fighting over. \n Ownership of these areas often removes this possibility from the game, and requires that the less-powerful expend far more resources to even access them relative to what the super-powers expend to simply reclaim them...door, after door, after foundation etc... And building deep enough in these areas prevents any re-spawns, which is a really disappointing waste of content and combat."}], "user_id": "longlamp_105", "history": [{"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "This is not unlike that \"Scumbag Christian\" meme that was floating around, referencing the way in which people accept evolution as fact, and then say, \"Isn't God wonderful?\" - I'm not calling Christians scumbags, but understand that that's typically the catholic viewpoint on evolution. \n Terminology is an issue here. The first thing that irks me is the phrasing, \"belief in science.\" It's not about belief and science doesn't assert claims about anything, it's a method. Atheism is simply a rejection of claims, and most of the claims regarding Yahweh and other gods are disprovable. \n What the others are saying here is clear; \"Science doesn't disprove God.\" Sure, I can't prove that there isn't a flying teapot in orbit around Pluto. But once you have defined God (made a claim), facts about the universe as revealed by science can and have easily disproved most religious claims. Genesis is a great example; Science demonstrates how genetics works, the age of the universe, the history of biology and the diversity of species on the planet, etc... and that factual information disproves the claims in Genesis. \n You're probably not getting anywhere with your dad on this issue. He has a strong emotional bond to his beliefs, he's going with emotions, not rationality. What he's basically said is, \"no matter what information or refutation you present to me, I will simply accept it, because I can just regress to a point in which God started it all, but I'm not giving up what I've dedicated so much to.\" As Neil deGrasse Tyson says,  \"God is a pocket of scientific ignorance, that gets smaller and smaller and smaller as time moves on.\"  For some people, reason doesn't matter, nor does the diminishing size of their God's probability. \n Try to remember that it's all about practical knowledge. Absolute certainties are not the issue. Truth and getting as close to the truth as possible so that you can live your life as informed and freely as possible, is what it's all about. What you can't state to your father is, \"God does not exist!\" What you can state to your father is \"that the probability of a God is so small, that it's not good enough for you to dedicate your time, money, emotional security, educational standards, etc.. to.\" \n At least your father respects science. That's hugely preferable to the droves of people out there trying to get science out of classrooms and misinform kids about how the world works. :)", "id": "c5u4gpg", "summary": "Science doesn't make claims about anything. Factual information about the universe as revealed by the scientific method demonstrates that for the universe to exist as it does, a God isn't necessary."}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "I honestly don't care what you believe in, as long as it stays personal and doesn't harm anyone (which includes that you accept your children for who they want to be). \n I have plenty of friends that are into things like astrology or ghost hunting. I find all of that to be just as silly. But until they start demanding that astrology be taught in schools, or that gay people are haunted, I have no problem with their silliness. \n Ideology can be dangerous, be it political, religious, etc... Historically, the most concerning forms tend to be the ideologies espoused by authoritarian systems: Churches, oppressive governments/regimes, etc... In that context, certain religious organizations are extremely concerning. \n > I’m a Christian, I believe in God, I believe science... \n If you understand and respect science and still believe in a god, that sounds like you're possibly deist, which some well respected scientists and historical figures have been. The well-known founding fathers were deists, in that they talked about a creator but sincerely disliked Christianity, notions of faith, or the paranormal. \n Finally, to answer your question, If someone says they believe in a god/creator/prime-mover is very different situation than if they claim to know that God tells people what to do, how to live, etc... That can be seriously problematic and comes with all kinds of ethical and philosophical implications--and this is the problem many of us have with religion. \n To put it another way, many Catholics are good people. The catholic church, on the other hand, has done tremendous social harm.  Tremendous.  As have many other organizations. I don't even have to mention things like the crusades, the promotion of slavery, etc... An authoritarian system, standing on the shoulders of the faithful, gullible, or desperate, is  bound to result in the kinds of craziness and social dysfunction read about every day in the media.", "id": "c7ucfgi", "summary": "Believe in a god or not, just please, think for yourself. Remember that   \"morality is doing what's right, regardless of what you're told. Obedience is doing what you're told, regardless of what is right.\"   More often than not, religions demand or thrive on a culture of obedience."}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "American here - Probably always have been. While none of us come into the world with a belief in gods, being born into a family without religion was something I always took for granted until adulthood. \n I remember in high school, hearing my very serious girlfriend talk about attending church when she was having a hard time (she wasn't religious either). In my apathy I thought, \"good for her!\" Contrast to a year later we both started really questioning the nature of reality, and science, the progress of reason, atheism (though we weren't really aware of the term yet) became interesting. \n Finally, at 22 (now 28), my great friend throughout childhood and I moved in as roommates. We went to see some movie together and the preview for \"The Da Vinci Code\" came on. He literally snickered in his chair. Knowing that the book was popular and hearing a positive review from my parents, I said to him, \"didn't like the book?\" With wide eyes and a tone I've never heard in his voice he said, \"It's ANTI-CHRISTIAN!\" \n That moment solidified something in my mind. This kid, with whom I have played COUNTLESS hours of violent video games, loved sci-fi films, who owns every Harry Potter book and almost never attends church, suddenly had a fire up his ass so hot that he was visibly agitated in his theater chair over a fucking movie preview. \n Trying to make lite of the moment, I said, \"oh... it's just a story! What about Star Wars and all the other shit we love? That's not exactly gospel either?\" Because of whatever his family had preached to him about that book, our relationship was changed forever and it got increasingly worse over that year. I couldn't have girls over without him scolding me about premarital sex, he became consumed with security and strangers. One morning he came out of his room to see me say goodbye to someone who had stayed the night with me. He literally (still can't believe this) goes, \"I hope you get 3 STDs....\" 0_0 \n Our lease ended, I went on to study psychology and sociology and became, not bitter or angry (im a very positive guy), but extremely consumed with how our upbringings had all of a sudden become the divide between us. - This is clearly anecdotal and not all Christians act like he did, but it sparked a new desire for education within me. A new awareness for psychology and politics solidified my suspicions about systems of control, superstition, bigotry, and divisiveness and I fell in love with individuals like Hitchens, Harris, Russell, etc.. :)", "id": "c5trfbk", "summary": "A fundy friend whined about The Da Vinci Code being 'Anti-Christian,' became increasingly fundy, and it made me want to become as educated as possible."}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "It might interest you to Youtube [Derren Brown.]( He's a master mentalist and completely demonstrates and debunks how mediums work. Understanding that kind of psychology is half the battle. The other half is realizing the amount of assumption and ignorance at play: \n \n There's a lot of purely anecdotal \"evidence\" (first hand accounts are not reliable) \n Talking to dead relatives is such a ridiculous idea...  \n \n That raises so many questions and unknowns, and is based on the pure supposition that when people die, they not only have a soul, and not only is that soul separate from the body, but even though the brain is destroyed at death, they somehow retain all their memories, language, habits, secrets, etc... I'm not saying  I know  it to be impossible, but everything we know about neurology and psychology demonstrates this to be impossible based on the way the brain is compartmentalized and how structure can determine attitude, emotion, memory, personality... combined with a complete lack of evidence for a soul... etc. \n \n What are his motives? Does he make a ton of money?  \n \n If you Youtube the amazing James Randi, he has made a living (as an ex-magician) successfully debunking the world's best-known psychics. [Here's just one example.]( \n \n There are countless psychics/mediums that have been debunked and exposed and they ALL claim to be able to do the same things, in the same way (talk to the dead etc... ). Why do you think that's a popular ability? Could it have anything to do with gullibility, generalized information, and suggestibility? Aren't people who've lost loved ones typically overcome with emotion and desperate for hope? \n \n The James Randi foundation has been offering over a million dollars to any human being/psychic/magic person who can demonstrate their powers with very few specifications.  No one  has ever been able to claim that prize. It doesn't exist. \n \n \n The reality is that, while you can learn about this stuff and possibly even come up with a compelling case for why you think these people are false (shouldn't be too hard), your mother is probably coming from an emotional place and not rational--Not going to be swayed by argument. That's typically what people who believe in this stuff want anyway, some emotional awe and satisfaction.", "id": "c8dscb1", "summary": "Research cold reading, Derren Brown, James Randi, and Randi's million dollar challenge to any person with \"psychic abilities.\" In all, argument is probably not what your mom will respond to."}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "Whenever I hear people talk about death, I'm instantly brought back to existential psychology and  \"Yalom's 4 crises.\"  Essentially, they state that every human being has to endure the fact that: \n 1)We're going to die.\n2)We're alone.\n3)We have to make choices.\n4)Life is meaningless. \n For me, recognizing these crises helped me to focus my thinking towards accepting them and assigning meaning to each one. For example, the fact that \"we're all alone\" as individual human beings motivates us to create social meaning in life, to bind and share with others. With \"life is meaningless,\" to create your own meaning in life, explore your passions etc. Which brings us to the point here... \"We're going to die.\" \n Everyone will tackle this individually, but my own peace with death originated out of an argument with my very self-conscious friend about a \"God\" keeping score of \"good vs. bad\" behaviors. I argued that, with the complexity of human behavior and cognition, there just isn't a 'clean' way to keep score. \"One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist.\" Once I really thought deeply about that fact, I began to accept the universe with all of its complexity and let go of emotional associations. The more complexly I could see the universe, the more at peace I became. The knowledge that matter really is flowing from place to place, momentarily aligning to 'make me,' was an extremely freeing fact. \n Also... I began to write about my \"ideal heaven.\" I didn't get through 1 page before realizing that, existing forever is an extremely unpleasant idea. Non-existence is a gift compared to worshiping a \"god\" for eternity, or even being happy for eternity, or existing for eternity. The more I learned about the complexity of everything and the silliness of the brain, the more interesting, abstract, and easier it became to accept the nature of it. \n Once you're aware of the universal crises, you can instantly see how religions originate, as they act to to answer each one of these without even an awareness of them. The fact that you're able to 'let go' of the false promise of an afterlife speaks volumes about your resilience, especially in the face of good genes and a brain evolved to keep you extremely fearful about death and obsessed with food and sex. (hope this is interesting)", "id": "c4nfvf5", "summary": "The more educated you become and the more complexly you see the universe, the easier it is to let go."}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "That I'm going blind at 29. \n There are plenty of things in life to fear, just as there are things to be grateful for. In the last couple years, my life has become consumed by the pain and fear of dealing with going blind. \n For some reason, the jelly inside my eyes is not consistent and is causing retinal tearing. At 26, after a life of perfect vision, I woke up one morning with half of my vision gone in one eye due to a giant retinal tear. The last three years since have been an endless cycle of surgery (including replacing the entire interior of my eye), laser treatments, cataract surgery, and endless pain and appointments. \n I've been depressed, dropped out of school, dealt with chronic pain every day, my pupil no longer functions, I have significant \"holes\" in my vision (including my focal point), a snow-globe of floaters, and my other eye's vision is significantly deteriorating. \n I live in limbo: I have no idea when the other eye will go, but it is coming sooner than later. It would be one thing to have lost an eye in combat or an accident, but this is something we know is eventual for both. Surgeons (Baffled, and I've seen a few) don't have a preventative measure because they don't want to \"ruin my vision unnecessarily\", and it \"will probably tear regardless.\" \n I have to accept this is happening... but my life crumbles in the mean time. I struggle with tasks otherwise normal to my life (like school work or writing this), driving, watching movies, etc.. \n I don't feel stable enough to work, nor like I would be a confident hire for any employer. My direction in life has completely detoured. I don't know how I'll make a living, if I should still finish school, if I'll qualify for sone kind of assistance (or if I'm too prideful), if I'll be lovable... I live in pain, fear, shame, and hopelessness. Every morning, for three straight years, I wake up in panic, checking to see if \"it has happened\" to the other eye. \n I have to accept it and I don't think I can until it actually happens and I go through the entire process all over again.", "id": "cbox3ak", "summary": "I'm going blind to random retinal tearing. Woe is me. Hard to invest in life."}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "Buddhism is arguably an atheistic religion. That doesn't make it the default answer to your question, but it does make you think about how people think when every answer isn't \"God did it.\" As a psychologist, there's some things I really respect about it. \n I totally agree with other posters that, there isn't anything gained from religion that can't be gained elsewhere, but as long as we're looking at the intellectual or informational value of different religions, Buddhism is interesting because of the focus on introspection. It also doesn't hurt that the religion is basically founded on peace and empathy. \n As a psychologist, the study of mindfulness and mindfulness practice on the brain and body is quite amazing. The research done on the benefits of things like meditation and yoga practices is really interesting and they teach us about how the brain works. We have extremely busy and occupied minds in the west. It's often said that, \"no one in the western world knows the value of sitting still.\" This makes sense, after studying meditation and mindfulness and the health and intellectual benefits that come from meditation practices. \n In a nut shell, Buddhism happened upon a practice of centering one's thought (sometimes argued to be a similar beneficial effect of prayer), which calms the mind and body, can aid in healing and regenerative processes, can lower one's blood pressure, can stabilize one's moods, and the most amazing thing of all, can actually strengthen the frontal lobes while reducing the activity of the amygdala. Pro-tip: as a human being, you want the strongest frontal lobes possible. \n In fact, since frontal lobes are responsible for higher-order thinking, impulse control, intuitive reasoning, etc... and the amygdala is essentially the pumping-heart of the fear and emotional center, I've often regarded a major difference between heavy religious conservatism and open mindedness to be a difference in the function of those 2 regions of the brain. In other words, those driven by fear (the amygdala) are far more likely to be religious, and overly trusting of authority, while individuals with stronger frontal lobes are much more likely to be rational, questioning, and inquisitive. Just food for thought.", "id": "c5wdtgn", "summary": "I agree that religions don't gain anything that the non-religious can't elsewhere, but I have a deep respect for aspects of Buddhism because of the practice of peace and empathy and the psychological benefits of meditation and yoga. \n Edit - grammar"}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "I want to preface this reply by saying that I teach psychology and that I was completely excited by the concept of ghosts and haunted houses, etc.. while growing up, and I understand that you feel frustrated by the replies asserting that you are \"religious.\" \n Put simply, you  can  technically be an atheist and lack religion and still 'believe' in the supernatural, but to do so is to basically undermine your reasoning for being an atheist in the first place. To believe in gods is to believe in the supernatural because the supernatural is based on 'magical thinking.' Like many others, you have created a mental separation for what the term \"supernatural\" applies to. If you value science, reason and logic, why do you somehow hold a double standard for other things that are vague, undefined, and have no supporting scientific evidence? :) It makes me think of the people who claim to have evidence that disproves the theory of evolution by natural selection. The best reply is, \"Congrats! Now go write a paper and get a Nobel prize!\" \n If someone were to prove ghosts exist, it would become the science of ghosts. It's just not real. The media capitalize on the minds of the gullible and TV shows about demon hunters and psychics rake in money, but there's just nothing there other than psychology and showmanship. Realize that The James Randi foundation has made an offer to anyone claiming to have psychic powers, that if they can prove it, they will be given millions of dollars and NOT 1 person has ever taken the challenge... why? \n Exorcisms: total and complete, dangerous, garbage.  Your suspicion about abnormal psychology is correct here. Understand that the practice of psychology is fairly new in human history. However, the practice of shamanism and voodoo and other ritualistic attempts to heal people is as old as humanity itself (you can think of it as humanity's first attempts at science and medicine). \n Exorcisms do nothing for patients while risking a great degree of harm and in most cases, it's the active practice of neglect.  It usually has to do with people who suffer from schizophrenia or epilepsy; things that overtly affect a person's subjective experiences (hearing voices/hallucinations) or behaviors (seizures or tumor related symptoms). Exorcisms are such a deplorable practice, that in the history of psychology, people who've been given exorcisms instead of medication or medical treatment are almost always accepted as victims of maltreatment, murder, or neglect. A popular example is the recent Virginia Tech campus shooter, who for years suffered from schizophrenia (a disease of the brain - something the Aurora CO shooter has as well). His parents took him from church to church to find exorcisms, instead of seeing a psychiatrist. Obviously, that didn't go so well.", "id": "c5tpzbn", "summary": "You need to ask yourself why you are an atheist in the first place, what you value about science and reason, and you definitely need to watch  [James Randi.]("}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "It sounds like (forgive me) the rantings of a closed and frustrated mind. The chances that you deconvert him in some way are pretty nil. I think you may just have to make peace with that. \n However...  There are ways you can deal with these statements that might catch him off guard. \n [I wrote this recently which is about the evolution vs creation arguement.]( It was addressed to someone who challenged me with similar remarks. It's got some great links in it and talks about how to handle the argument itself. \n You have to realize too, that your father isn't  just  uneducated about this stuff, he doesn't care to be educated most likely.  [The psychological origins of religion]( demonstrate that, in order for him to open his mind to actual logic and evidence, he'll need to be open to other emotional alternatives to some of the core issues all humans deal with psychologically. \n >  \"There's proof of God everywhere. Science can't create babies or create scabs.\" \n Not true... we can clone animals, fertilize eggs, etc... What proof of God? There's only proof of stuff everywhere. What evidence for creationism is there? (This is mostly an emotional rant anyway) \n >  \"Science can't put a soul in a human, GOD did it.\" \n Good luck here. I mean, if he can't define \"God,\" chances are he can't define \"a soul\" or the criteria for the evidence of one. \n >  \"I don't understand how people believe in Evolution, I see no proof in it.\" \"If Evolution exists... how come all monkeys are not like us humans?\" \n Remind him that it's not believe in evolution, it's accept evolution. The pope accepts evolution, basically all of the scientifically advanced world accepts evolution. It's provable, testable, retrodicatable.. If you watch Jerry Coyne's video from my link above, you will find  a TON of reasons why it's been an accepted fact for 150 years as it basically informs all of biology, including embryology, bio-geography, genetics and the phylogenetic tree, geology, neurology etc... \n Does he realize that evolution is not a ladder system with humans at the top? Does he realize that we are primates? Does he realize that the other monkeys are just as evolved as we are to their habitats? Does he realize that there were over 9 different species of humans that went extinct? etc.... \n >  \"Atheist organizations everywhere are always trying to take down churches and groups because they believe in a god.\" \n No... because  certain  churches and organizations do evil shit, like trample separation of church and state, and impose religion on public schools etc... \n >  \"Abortion is murder and unjustified.\" \"They suck the babies out of women sometimes 22 weeks into their pregnancy!\" \n Purely opinion. No one likes abortion. No one. But most of us believe in women's rights to own their own bodies. Extreme cases would only be either unsafe abortions in 3rd world nations or because of serious complications. \n >  \"Babies are better off being adopted than killed. They can't fend for themselves inside the womb. It's murder.\" \n Again, no one loves abortions. It's a very complicated thing. That's what is wrong with dogmatic and doctrinal thinking... it's black and white and easy for people who can't think through the complicated. OR You can go the route of, \"Okay.. so when it's born are you going to support it with your tax dollars?\" I mean, there are so many hypocritical things about \"Pro-life.\" \n Finally, try to think about the simplicity of what he says and catch him on it. For instance, when someone references God, say, \"Which God?\" The biblical God is known as Yahweh... Once people admit to this idea, they're often left feeling a bit weird about it, [especially considering Yahweh's history]( \n GL man - Try not to push it too far. He's clearly defensive and emotionally attached, and being confrontational will probably push him back 100 yards.", "id": "c6319dh", "summary": "I realize this is long. At the very least, look at the links. :)"}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "With fence-sitters, there's a few things I consider: \n \n Is it really worth my/their time to discuss this in the first place?  \n What is actually motivating their beliefs: emotion? Peer pressure? fear? belonging? Indoctrination? \n Can I, in fact, harm our relationship or push them to the other side of the fence by actually bringing this up? -- The common answer is yes and you have to be surgical about not 'attacking', pressuring, or raising their wall. \n It's incredibly easy to push people over to the other side of the fence. A much better strategy is inviting them to your side through modeling and positivity: making them feel comfortable with you. \n \n I think you're right that many believers  want  to believe, and are therefor not swayed by evidence or very often logical argument. \n I have a good friend who was raised Christian in an otherwise less-religious area of the U.S. (he's the only real nominal Christian I knew growing up). He's the kind of person who isn't capable of much depth and is easily swayed by authority. His parents are both sweet and very conservative. From his point of view, Mom and Dad and big bro are probably right, as they have been about many things in his life. \n We ended up living together at one point, and the consequences of his indoctrination started showing: he would be paranoid about many things, told me once that he 'hoped I got an STD' for having different girls stay with me over the year, said that being gay was wrong (to which I snapped, \"Wtf are you talking about?\"). The kinds of things I otherwise never expected out of his mouth--as he never actually read the bible or attended church after high-school. \n I'm a confrontational person. I believe in the power of communication and honesty. But the first mistake I made was confronting it head-on without a sense of how emotional and unprepared he was to be open or actually think critically about it. When I quickly realized how uncomfortable he was and that his walls were up almost immediately, I backed off and we didn't talk about it for a long time--I was quickly proving myself the bad guy and 'one of those' people. I simply said, \"Okay man, we don't have to talk about it. You've just been saying some things that I think are beneath you and I really love you as a friend.\" \n My personal belief is that this action ultimately saved our friendship. From that point on, I just tried to be a model of what a good non-religious person looked like and made sure that he felt safe with me and not challenged. Now, a few years later, he has several openly gay friends, would never say the shit he used to, and has even opened up to me about how off-putting holiday church can be. \n For me, the lesson was really being empathetic to his feelings instead of challenging him. I made sure to allow him to come to his own conclusions without shaming him, by modeling what a completely nice and decent, non-believing good friend could be like. If he ever brought it up, I would be completely fair to him, never cynical, and just shrug things off like \"yeah.. I can see why someone would think that way, but I'm not sure I see the good it does.\" \n Over time he saw what was actually important was our friendship and getting along with people. He came to his own conclusions that his knee-jerk reactions and beliefs weren't really important or substantive. He doesn't identify as an \"atheist\" or anything else, but as Hitchens might say, 'his behavior is so different it's almost as if he's non-religious.'", "id": "cldzghz", "summary": "Had a friend who was nominally Christian but sort of on the fence. I learned to model decency and question the sillyness of things when appropriate but never challenge or make him feel uncomfortable, further entrenching his knee-jerk beliefs."}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "In high school, my buddy had a small dog that was extremely sexually attracted to this old blanket. A couple of us were hanging out one night when another friend, unaware of the dog's libido, got down on all fours to search for his contact lens. Like the champion I was back in those days, I instantly grabbed the blanket, draped it over my friends back, and called for the dog. \n The dog comes running in, sees the (now animate) sex partner moving around, and begins furiously humping the shit out of my unsuspecting friend who has a hard enough time seeing in the first place. As we're laughing uncontrollably, I grab my camcorder (a decent late-90s camera that we took out every weekend pranking neighbors) and begin filming the whole seen. \n One friend (the victim), is now moaning in frustration and screaming, \"WTF it's so hot!\" (from the blanket presumably) while my other friend (dog owner and partner in crime) is standing over the 'beastial coitus,' laughing uncontrollably saying, \"take that dog dick!\" \n Fast forward 3 months later, my same friend has a Christmas party with tons of family and I'm invited. As we finish dinner, everyone begins to congregate downstairs to watch some old childhood video of my friend's brother. Said friend and I wait till everyone's out of the room and downstairs to sneak a little booze. \n For a few minutes, there's a buzz of laughter and talking coming from downstairs and it all goes instantly quiet. I shit you not, we felt a disturbance in the force. My buddy and I look at each other, realize that MY camcorder is downstairs, run the hell down as fast as we can right into a room of at least 20 people, jaws dropped, watching our amateur soft-core beastiality on big screen surround sound home theater. \"Take that dog dick!\" \"woo!!\" \"take it!\" .....  His grandmother starts crying and he runs over to the TV, gives me the camera, I leave the party. \n We became pretty distant friends after that night.", "id": "c5ugnuw", "summary": "filmed my friend's horny dog hump our other friend and the video gets shown at a huge family Xmas party. Dreams are crushed. Heros are made. \n Edit  - Clarity on a couple things. I realize this situation doesn't involve my parents. This family was like a second family to me, so it had a similar impact. I realize that in the telling of the story, no heros were made. However, the event became well known throughout our school which became (I still don't know why) an amazing way to meet girls and meant a VIP pass to every shitty party. \n Also, the video (now lost - I know.... VERY sorry about that) was copied and I'm told, became a cult classic for parties etc for a little while. The dog's name was (ironically) \"Lucky.\" After that night, it wasn't uncommon for my friend who was dog-raped, to hear the occasional, \"Hey! Getting Lucky tonight?!\" from random students.\nOther than that, my friends didn't really care at all. No one was hurt, save for his senile ultra conservative grandmother, and both of my friends had no problem with it. \n Finally, I didn't set this up. We just accidentally left the camera next to the TV, as we usually would watch and share pranks and video's that we had filmed to our friends etc... The fact that they plugged in MY camera as opposed to theirs AND that THAT footage happened to be what came on during the party is utter coincidence. I hope you've enjoyed sharing in my friend's pain and my rise to bullshit fame. It's one of the best (of many) stories we have from our crazy nights in high school. Feel free to AMA"}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "Recently, I made a post outlining the psychological origins of religion. It garnered several requests to be put on the FAQ (which is currently out of my ability) and upon contacting jij, requested that I submit it here. :) \n [Found here](  <--- \n Both the subject of  \"the purpose of religion,\"  as well as the question,  \"Is there purpose to life?\"  keep coming up and I figured I might give some psychological perspective: \n From the outside in, it's fairly obvious that contemporary religion is an opiate for some and used as a tool for power and control for others. Religion's roots, however, originate in our earliest ancestry and many don't understand why. \n In [existential therapy,]( we often talk about a man named [Victor Frankle]( Surviving the holocaust, Frankle took his life experience into the world of psychology and become a renowned psychiatrist and neurologist, eventually writing the best selling book, [\"Man's search for meaning.\"]( In his book, Frankle discusses his \"time of imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years, and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live.\" \n Frankle essentially believed that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose, and his ideas become a foundation for the world of existential psychology. In 1980, building off of Frankle's ideas,  Irvin Yalom  expanded on these idea and coined what are known in the therapeutic world as,  \"Yalom's 4 crises of meaning.\" \n Yalom separated the breadth of existential theory into four major themes:  Death, Freedom (& Responsibility), Isolation, and Meaninglessness.  \"According to Yalom, these four existential realities are the root of most psychological problems and have no ultimate answers... it is generally agreed that these four issues are central to the human experience.\" \n \n We are going to die \n We are alone \n We have to make choices \n Life is meaningless \n \n An awareness of these 4 crises empowers one to understand that at the core, all humans essentially share the same existential concerns, and they create a framework for one to go about creating meaning in life: \n \n We are going to die  ( Seize the day. Live life to the fullest. Death is a natural and inescapable part of life and it's largely out of our control (how did you feel before you existed, etc) ) \n We are alone  ( Create social meaning in life. Start a family, appreciate the company of friends, become an active member of society ) \n We have to make choices  ( This one is odd for many - Making decisions and being responsible is sometimes a hugely complex and terrifying thing. Go to college? Quit my job? - The idea is to be grateful that you can make decisions, and own that fact. Think ahead. Which decision will bring me the most happiness and meaning? ) \n Life is meaningless  ( Not true. Life is what we make of it - We can more often than not, chose to be happy or sad, chose to take action apply your own meaning. ) \n \n When you consider the universality of human experience in this way, you can see how religion became an adaptation to unconsciously answering all of Yalom's crises: \n \n We are going to die  ( No you're not - You have eternal life! ) \n We are alone  ( Church community... God/Jesus/Allah always with me! ) \n We have to make choices  ( No matter what happens, I can always turn to God - everything is in His hands ) \n Life is meaningless  ( Black and white morality, right and wrong, - God has a purpose for me ) \n \n Yalom went on to say that these major crises are [\"the mother of all religions,\"]( and you can see how simple and straight forward they are to the human experience. You can imagine early humans, struggling to answer questions about existence and how applied beliefs about the natural world would have slowly tied to rituals that would have been a benefit to evolution, such as burial rituals; discarding the dead in a safe way that would have protected them from harmful bacteria and disease while serving a purpose... etc.", "id": "t3_z8mz7", "summary": "An awareness of existential psychology empowers one to understand the search for meaning and the origin of religion. I sincerely hope this helps some of you in better understanding living without faith, and how religion came to be. \n Edit  - This is in part, why people are so emotionally attached to their beliefs and so easily let go of reason. For some, losing the \"answers\" they've attached to these questions means whole new ideas about meaning and purpose, on top of potential ostracism, etc..."}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "Disclaimer:  I play on an official server with over 400 hours played. \n I've played many sandbox games as well as survival games. I consider myself an open-minded person-- who strongly enjoys and believes in the value of diversity and playing with players from other nations.  At the same time, I'm incredibly disheartened by non-regional servers in this game. \n Our server, its play, trade, and politics is now completely dominated by the surge of one (possibly more) Chinese tribe. \n It wasn't always this way. In the short time of this alpha, we've had rich relationships, rivalries, wars, flourishing trade and alliances. It's the first game in a long, long time, that I've gathered as many steam IDs and built out-of-game relationships. \n In the last couple weeks, our server experience has devolved to a global chat filled with foreign language, anger and racism, a consistently full server population, long-held relations with large tribes diminished due to loss of players and extortion, and the guarantee that, when we log off for the night in North America, their prime-time play/raid time has just begun. \n Moreover, throughout our server's history, their tribe is the only known to openly exploit both duping and especially base building within and under the world via glitch areas. \n \"Futility\" is the word on everyone's lips. For many reasons, it's not worth building or trading any longer with allies or even old rivals. We can't chat easily(or at all) with non-English speakers or even see our conversations through so much foreign language. Their names are often complete numerical oddities with broken characters and their individual behavior is impossible to differentiate from one-another. \n In an amazingly rich, extremely social game, our world has become anti-social, angry, and a ruin of what it once was. It's not to say that this kind of experience cannot happen by other means, but it seems to me obvious why it happens as often with non-regional servers. \n From what I can tell, this experience is not  that  uncommon among official servers, and it's ruining the experience of this incredible game for many of us. Believe me, our community has spent weeks trying  many  different workarounds.", "id": "t3_3bob8g", "summary": "A surging Chinese population has dominated our server population, our global chat with non-English languages, anger and racism, extortion, and forced many players to leave. Our prime-play times are different, we cannot communicate or trade with each other, are unable to differentiate their players due to their odd numerical names, and our rich and vibrant social server has died. \n A request: consider the harmful circumstances brought about by non-regional servers."}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "Hi all! \n I've played through a couple wipes now and have started to get a better understanding of the map. After the latest wipe, friends and I argued over where to settle our first base, and the arguments for location seemed to follow these incentives: (Note: we play on medium-pop) \n \n Action (Proximity to other players or popular areas) \n Distance to Resources (wood, water, material, weapons) \n Security/Privacy (including distance from Z's) \n Vision/Visibility (Peeks vs valleys)  \n \n I've come to feel that areas surrounding  Pleasant Valley  are the only really desirable location for us thus far because of its proximity to other areas (Housing, Dam, PD/FD, Scrap yards), popularity, and because it's not   that  far off from center-map. Our only other thought has been around Cranberry, but we're not sure it's really as rewarding as PV. \n After doing some scouting today on the 'outer' zones (Governor's Retreat, Ranchito, Villa's, Pines, Wake hills) there are indeed some interesting locations, but it feels like settlement in 'fringe areas' almost requires vehicle access, and--at this stage in development--I'm not a huge fan of vehicles. \n What major locations on the map have you loved being close to and why? \n Thanks!", "id": "t3_37kagh", "summary": "I'm Starting to feel like Pleasant Valley is our only and best 'settlement' area, and I'd like to be convinced otherwise!"}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "It's the same every year... Happily married parents, retired, at the age of 60, whom have everything and never ask for anything. \n I'm not a great artist and making something feels like a pass. They're always on their phones/pads and they love simple games like \"WELDER\" and Plants VS Zombies. They're super open minded and never ask for anything! \n I've gotten 12 texts this morning from panicked family without a clue.", "id": "t3_15aeb8", "summary": "I feel like my parents have everything. What are you getting yours?"}, {"author": "4ScienceandReason", "content": "Hi all -- Apologies if these ideas have been brought up a thousand times already. As some of you might have, my friends and I spent our entire weekend consuming this game and loved so much of it, but wanted to share a few of our frustrations. \n \n The penalty for dying as a Rogue feels way too huge.   \n \n Losing a TON of DZ XP (among other things) for dying as a rogue doesn't make sense to me. I want incentives to play against other people. The only incentive we had was to troll people--and that kind of sucks. And becoming flagged is just so easy: Accidentally shooting someone who walks into your crossfire,  being flagged due to a turret bug, or a mistake your group member made... And the resulting death shouldn't mean your dropping loot, keys, and 1/4th of a level (shocking to drop from 12 to 11 because of a group member's accidental tag). \n \n We need more incentives in the DZ. \n \n There's just so much potential! But constantly running, looking for NPCs and/or rogues is tedious.  I understand we're in the beta,  but just imagine the possibilities from things like \"rift\" events, timed events, rivalries, factions... There's a free-form feel to the DZ which is great, but fighting others is just so disincentivized, it ultimately left a lot of us yawning at times: \"whelp...where to?...don't really want to go rogue.\" \n Again, imagine being able to declare rivalries with certain players, or join factions... It just seems like there are so many other options. If someone triggers a manhunt or is consistently trolling others and going rogue, shouldn't we be able to get revenge without flagging ourselves? There have to be better options than just following someone and baiting them or hoping to catch them in the act. \n \n The extraction/stash mechanic is interesting!... but also tedious.   \n \n This is largely a quality of life complaint, but In the beta, our stash fills and we're forced to exit, after a huge run, and THEN we can fast travel to the base and clear the stash. Again, this seems like something limited to the beta, but how about fast travel from safe houses? How about fast travel to the DZ entrances from the base/stash? \n Also, the 6 item limit really broke up our play flow. We could finally get together, find something to do, clear a landmark or spawn, and then immediately have to run back to an extraction area. Rinse repeat... Not much time possibility for further organic play, or breaking to chase rogues. \n We put so many hours into this game and had a tremendous time this weekend. Thank you, Ubisoft, for the open beta access and an incredibly fun shooter/rpg! Beyond all the bugs and quality of life frustrations, these we're the most common disappointments experienced throughout the weekend, and were the main reasons for our ending play.", "id": "t3_4703yg", "summary": "We've only just seen Beta, and there's a huge potential in this game and a lot of fun to be had in the Dark Zone, but the penalty for going rogue and lack of incentives to fight against other players, on top of tedious mechanics ultimately ended our enjoyment of the DZ experience. A few simple changes would make a tremendous difference. Can't wait for release!"}]}
+{"author": "sidewalkchalked", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Those who sympathize with Occupy should look into the Bundy Ranch situation with an open mind.", "output": "TL:DW;\nSenator Harry Reid made a deal involving a Chinese company to build a solar project in Nevada.  The project required an environmental mitigation zone.  That means a piece of clean land to offset the damage by the project. \n The land chosen was Cliven Bundy's grazing land.  The video lays out evidence that the whole thing with the Nevada ranch was Harry Reid's scheme to make money getting paid off by a Chinese business. Not about unpaid fees, not about turtles.  These were stories intended to demonize Bundy, and the speaker claims they were misdirection from the real reason the land was being taken. \n Force was used to disperse the ranchers, and force was going to be used to remove them from the land. The risk of this persists.  An ongoing fight is happening to maintain their first amendment rights, with Nevada's govern and a number of national politicians already weighing in. \n Speaker argues that progressive should stand up for the constitutional rights of those involved just as they wished Americans would have stood by Occupy."}], "user_id": "longlamp_14531", "history": [{"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Can I give my two cents?  I live in Egypt, and that's where I first learned about this tactic of encircling and slowly closing in upon protesters.   Here, just about anytime a protest hits too close to home, there are 10x more police than protestors, and they get encircled almost even before the shouting starts. \n The idea is not to punish individuals, and if it was, as you suggest, they would close in very fast.  No, the message here is to everyone who might be thinking about protesting and that message is \"Don't.  We will catch you, and there will be no way to escape.\"  They want to demonstrate that anyone who protests will be punished, ultimately to discourage people from protesting. \n For the most part it works.  I would never go to a protest here, because I know exactly what teh consequence would be.  It keeps a lot of causal observers and wishy-washy people out of the equation. \n But it certainly is miles away from free speech or freedom of assembly.", "id": "c0tjbx8", "summary": "Its a police state tactic to deter people from protesting at all."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Yes but that's why the anti-religion stuff is annoying.  The dangerous part of religion isn't the belief (no matter how ridiculous it seems) it's the grouping together. \n When people group together they develop hatred of the other, a worldview that sees threats to them, and the desire to stick together to avoid the threat. \n Regardless of which defining set of beliefs this is based around, it always ends up being awful.  Look at fascist governments.  They group in the same way religions do, and with serious consequences. \n So if your aim is to stop violence (against terrorism victims, abused kids, whoever) your target shouldn't be the  beliefs , because that will just make those in the group feel threatened and group harder. \n Your target should be the grouping itself, and explain to them how much you have in common and show them you aren't a threat.  Then the group dissolves and it goes from being a huge problem to a set of beliefs that are as irrelevant as we all think they should be.", "id": "c103gvs", "summary": "Stay on target: Religion is a problem  mostly  because of grouping.  Don't let yourselves fall into the same trap."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "My god I just had the weirdest flashback.  I was living in Kandy, Sri Lanka.  Long story short, a girl and I were out on a date walking around a lake (there's not much to do in Kandy).  We were successfully dodging pissed off monkeys, massive shitting birds, crazed beggars, when all of a sudden, this guy with only a torso comes rocketing out from behind a tree.  No joke.  He was just a torso and a head.  Like the guy in the video.  And the weirdest part was he was moving really fast.  I still have no fucking idea how.  And he's charging at us, and he's shouting.  And keep in mind not too many people there speak English.  And he's shouting \"MERRY CHRISTMAS!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!  MERRY CHRISSSSSTTTTTMAAASSSS!!!!\" \n I don't really know how a story like that can have an ending, except that the girl who I was walking with just broke out laughing, and couldn't stop for about 15 minutes.  Obviously, I was pretty impressed.", "id": "c0fbc0b", "summary": "THIS IS REAL!  I saw a dude like this."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "In my mind, non-duality bearing duality (and thus creation) isn't really speculation so much as it is a truism.  It's more philosophy than religion, and you can argue it logically.  Most Indian traditions emerge from this single philosophical insight, that the many come from one, and will return to one. \n \"One\"  doesn't mean \"God.\"  As the text says, the Gods emerge from the Oneness just like we do, and everything else.  Totality is just that: everything.  Everything in pieces comes from everything together, that is all it is saying. \n The  point  of \"religion,\" then, is to remember this simple simple fact in daily life.  Everything is everything.  That's it.  Everything is \"one.\"  Not in a hippy la-la sense but in a logical sense, I suppose, or an emotional one.  It doesn't mean there was no big bang, no evolution, or God throwing lightning bolts at a bunch of shepherds.  To me, none of that is required to be religious. \n I would submit, however, that almost every religion finds at its heart a strain of two ideas: Unity and Love. \n Unity is the state the universe was in before creation, or before you were born.  Love is the state it is in when it is created, or when you are alive.  Love is required of creation.  As the poem states, when the two parts are made seperate, they immediately yearn to be back together again.  That's what love is.  Love is longing to be unified with something that you are separate from.  In the eyes of religion, we are not only made of molecules forged in stars, we are also held together by love. \n long response to your comment, sorry, but i studied this shit in college and very rarely mention it on reddit.  So many people here hate on religion but it really is beautiful and non-divisive if you look at what it is saying at a deep level rather than listening to partisans.", "id": "c189l3i", "summary": "It isn't really speculation, it is poetry.  Poetry is  always  true in some sense.  It isn't written for engineers, but it is always true."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "My point isn't one about debate or rhetoric.  If it was, you would all be absolutely correct, the onus is on him to prove his statement. \n However, this is the internet, and debate is worthless here (let's face it). \n When I read your comments, my goal isn't to win a debate.  If it was, I would waste a lot more time on here than I do already.  Rather, my goal is to learn. \n Sometimes, learning comes after a vigorous debate (as in this case) where two people argue from a shared set of assumptions, understandings, and information to arrive at a conclusion (or at the very least, explain their viewpoints). \n If however, the \"debate\" is between a person with information, and a person without information, it isn't actually a debate.  What the OP did was hint to the respondent that there existed information in a certain vein (ie. that oil companies fucked over Venezuela).  If the respondent is interested in this fact (as he hinted he was) his next step should  not  be to challenge the OP, since the respondent has no factual basis on which to challenge him.  His next step should be to look into the topic, since it is clearly already of interest to him. \n I mean let's face it, chances are a random poster on reddit isn't even going to give you good sources in a case like this, but that shouldn't stop you from researching a topic you previously knew nothing about. \n Calling it a \"debate\" and insisting that the burden of proof lays on the claimant is fine so long as you're in a debate.  In real life, you only know what you bother to find out.  Thus, my original response.", "id": "c0svp0d", "summary": "Life isn't a debate. You don't win by winning an argument with an idiot.  You win by learning."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "This is not a very solid argument.  Simply citing \"shaira\" as evidence that we should have a stake other peoples' beliefs is not entirely convincing.  Indeed, it only reasserts the fact that you prefer your own cultural biases over all others, and believe that the superiority of your own view is self-evident. \n The whole point of scientific engagement with the world, I thought, was that NO idea is self evident.  So when someone asks you a question, you respond with evidence. \n As to sharia, which you have called \"interesting.\" It is interesting to me that a method of life which comprises guidelines regarding personal life, politics, economics, cooking, health, death, and, indeed, religion, and which has been formed over centuries and centuries of jurisprudence, poetry, art, compassion, and indeed, war, can be tossed aside without critical engagement because of a very recent obsession certain Western powers seem to have with \"Islamic fundamentalism.\" \n I find it interesting that you use this system, which has shaped a huge cultural and geographic swath of land ranging from Morocco to the Philippines for over a millennium as evidence that YOU, a modern person who has been investigating the world for no more than 70 years (if averages are to be trusted) has the right to inject your ideas into the heads of other thinking people who, though they disagree with you, no doubt have valid reasons for believing what they believe. \n You have demonstrated why it is essential that people have freedom of belief and expression: if we did not, the biases of one culture, which are demonstrably easy to manipulate and prone to emotional influence, would shortly overcome the texture, solidity, and depth that is brought on only by time and experience.", "id": "c09hlml", "summary": "I disagree."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Iran is a large, complicated place, with a long and complicated history, and I think that most people stateside (please correct me if I am wrong) have no idea about the context of the Iranian revolution or subsequent developments. \n Egypt is also a large, complicated place, with its own context, and I don't really see how a comparison can boil down to anything aside from Islamophobia, which I think I already demonstrated isn't useful. \n The current discussion in the US is based on this assumption that anything bad that happens in the Mid East is caused by \"Islam,\" and it totally discounts standard politics and economics, which are often have far more impact than religion.  In fact, religious rhetoric is used in this part of the world to mobilize the masses into political/economic fights.  A similar thing happens in America but generally people aren't very introspective.", "id": "c4az4k4", "summary": "I don't think it is useful to compare two wildly different scenarios based solely on the fact that both involved Islam, especially considering that it isn't even the same type of Islam or discussed in the same language or the same context.  I think it is easy for ignorant people to assume they understand the world by eliminating all but one convenient comparison from their analysis."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I used to live in Cairo, and on a certain day they slaughter enough sheep to literally make the streets run red (yes there are pics.  I posted an article about it when it happened.) \n I familiarized myself with not only what sharia calls for, but why.  Basically, the provisions of sharia are there to respect the animal.  According to the ideal, The animal is taken out of site of other animals before it is killed.  Then it is given a bit of water and a bit of food.  Then a prayer is said. \n For atheists: think of the prayer as a meditation on the fact that you are taking a life for the sustenance of your own physical being, and the fact that your body will one day serve that purpose for other creatures. The prayer is for the human who is committing violence, not the animal. \n Then the throat is slit.  The animal never sees the blade if the ritual is done correctly (and yes it is a ritual.) The legs are lifted up, the animal bleeds out, and is dead in about 20 seconds.  I bet it hurts.  But that's life. \n Meanwhile, I grew up in Minnesota, and I have also seen the SPAM slaughterhouse.  I have seen chicken slaughterhouses too.  These are machines set up to maximize profit.  Maybe they kill them with shocks, but they live like they aren't even alive. \n To me, the two methods and the reasons behind them, aren't even comparable.  Halal (and kosher) killing is in place to help human beings understand what it means to live, kill, and die.  It is in place to ensure that they pause to respect that process, which we certainly do not do in factory farms.", "id": "c0ekdhr", "summary": "It's bullshit. \n Edit: Rather than responding to each individual critique: I'm not claiming that this is a perfect method or even the best method.  I'm only saying that the ritual is in place to teach people to respect life and the fact that you take it to live.  Really the most important part is that you are meant to do it yourself.  In Islam, in is sunna to slaughter the sheep yourself for the holiday I described. Does everyone do it?  No.  But if you are going to eat meat then you should be ok with killing it, and the fact that that process results in suffering for the animal.  That's simply  a fact.  If animals are killed with pillows and hugs, but you never kill it yourself, you are still so far removed from the  process that it is not healthy. Halal is meant to be simple, relatively humane, and above all a populist method, available to everyone, not just to slaughterhouses with stun guns."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "No, in the States it is very difficult to opt out, and you have to pay a huge lump sum of taxes to get out.  That is IF you have another citizenship.  Practically speaking, none of us has an easy choice not to participate, so we aren't agreeing to live under the government, we are coerced to do so by circumstance. \n That's especially crucial given that these days having US citizenship sucks more than European citizenship for a lot of purposes, especially if you're an expat.  None of my European friends pay taxes while abroad, but i still do if I top $80,000.  Only two countries do that, USA and North fucking Korea. \n So yeah, fuck that technicality bullshit, and let the pot heads out of prison.  They aren't hurting anyone, they are costing us shit tons of money, and they are only there because the prison industry is huge. \n All the arguments about \"social contract\" are bullshit academic points that don't actually hold water when you're talking about real people and real costs.", "id": "c0ykekk", "summary": "Cut the bullshit. \n Start downvoting me, but its true."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Can I just clarify something here? \n The situation on the border between Gaza and Egypt is really fucked up.  99% of Egyptians really feel for Palestinians and support them, and last year the gate came down and a lot of Palestinians came in to do business and made it easily as far as Cairo. \n What you have now though is a situation where the Gazan side of the border looks like a construction site.  There are maybe 1000 holes going into the ground dug by machines; all tunnels to help the Gazans smuggle things back.  Food, water, cigs, and yes, weapons. \n The problem is that Egypt gets a lot of money from the US because it made peace with Israel, and I have to imagine that this situation puts their privileged position in some danger.  Also, Israel has been making noise lately about the Sinai, and likely leaning on Egypt to get Rafat under control.  So they shut it down.  They knew they needed to collapse some tunnels, so they put tear gas down first to get people that can't hear their warnings out of the tunnels, then they blow them up. \n The Egyptians see themselves much more as brothers with the Palestinians and don't want to kill them, the Israel/Palestine issue is a well known very emotional issue for many Arabs. \n If you look at WHY this situation exists, its because Israel made Gaza into an open air prison and is letting people starve and get no education.  Israeli aggression is the root cause of this problem, so the OPs comparison is flawed, in my view.  No prison conditions > no tunnels > no tear gas. \n But tear gas != white phosphorous.  Let's be clear on that point.", "id": "c0p5k6y", "summary": "As usual, this is still Israel's fault.  Sorry to be blunt, but it's true."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Top Ten Reasons Cracked.com Sucks Major Retard Boobs Tits Faggot Fuck \n Number 10.  Everything is in lists.  Lists are for retards.  This is not sarcastic.   Lists are for people who literally have Down's Syndrome. The authors of Cracked.com are attention and money seeking whores.  They can burn in a pile of lists.  Fuck lists. \n Number 9. Calling everything retarded is not funny.  I get it.  Some people are mentally handicapped, and you use that as a synonym for stupid.  Ha?  No. \n Number 8.  Their diction in general is retarded.  Who says dong?  Seriously?  That just proves that you don't have anything real to say. If you are reading cracked.com and your laugh sounds like \"Heeeyuk\" then you know that you are their target audience.  I mean seriously.  When I read \"dong\" I died a little. \n Number 7.  Why can't you fit all 6 ESSENTIAL LIST ITEMS onto one page?  Oh yeah, its because your content is utter garbage and you know it, so you use cheap tricks to get me to click through.  Fuck you. \n Number 6.  This one is just for you BEP.  Just for you.  They used the word \"genocide\" to refer to the killing of tigers.  \"Genocide\" has a meaning, and that is not it.  Fuck me, but it is thanks to retards like this that there is a genocide of proper writing in print and online.  HOW DO YOU PEOPLE TOLERATE THIS TRASH?  Seriously.  I want to know how. \n Number 5. Examples of retardation. \n >In Africa, they seem to have precious little in the way of noteworthy natural resources, aside from diamonds, emeralds and rain forests, so the people in nations that have mountain gorillas have taken to killing and dismembering them to sell their heads and hands as trinkets for tourists. \n \"Africans\" are clearly rolling in it, as their continent, which, by the way, is massive and diverse, is NOT a country, is known to have \"resources.\"  Clearly they have forgone the lucrative and simple diamond trade because they are \"fucking assholes\" and \"retards,\" and not because the Congo, which is the country in question, is thousands of miles away from where diamonds are actually mined. Clearly they do this primarily because they are spear-chucking savages and not because of, you know, economics.  But thanks, cracked.com, for the spot on fucking analysis. I'm going to go chuck the Economist in the trash because thinking is for retards. \n >China doesn't really play nice with most animals \n >China has its own set of rules that takes even this shaky logic and views it through a kaleidoscope, while using hallucinogens. \n >over one billion fucking Chinese people \n Yes.  I get it.  They are Chinks and retards who don't get your \"modern ways.\"  If only everyone was more liek the sages at cracked.com. Then the world would be full of people who knew when shit was sweet or retarded we'd be all set. Hey did someone fart? HAHAHAHAHAHA that's humor at its finest. \n Number 5.  The entire point of the article is fucking retarded. \n Obviously the number one value that all humanity should share is to forgo their own material comfort for the sake of fluffy animals.  That's what we did in the \"West!\"  Shit, fuck your native culture and traditions that go back 1,000 years!  Fuck your starving family!  I like the IDEA that there are animals in the world even though I will never leave my mother's basement to go see them because my idea of fun is being ignorant on a website. I would bet that none of these idiots would ever go and look at a fucking gorilla anyway, so why does it matter that \"Africans\" hunt them to support themselves?  Is that a \"Western\" value?  Yeah?  Tell that to the fucking bison. \n Numbers 4-1 You have to CLICK THROUGH TO SEE THE FUCKING REST FUCK YOU I AM AN IDIOT AND I TYPE   CLICK HERE THERE ARE BOOBS BOOBS BOOBS TITS RETARDS SHIT DONG FUCK!         LFIH:OIF:OEWBNOIF \n In all honesty, I love racism as much as the next guy, but if you can't see how ignorant this article is you seriously need to take a long look in the mirror. I know that most people find ignorance comforting but we have to draw the line at some point.  I am not going to sit idly by and watch my fellow redditors debase themselves with this slop.  Especially you, BritishEnglishPolice.  Today is a sad day, and I shed a tear for the IQ of the hivemind. \n Edit:  Your downvotes only make me stronger.  I absorb your downvotes like a ranting godzilla.", "id": "c0auxj0", "summary": "Cracked.com is, like, retarded and shit."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I wanna explain to you one thing about Egypt.  Street fighting was not super uncommon here even before Mubarak fell.  Guys gather with knives, pipes, molotov, whatever, and just fight each other.  Worst thing that can happen is called \"the sign\" which is a cut on the face that leaves a scar. \n Guns can enter these fights but they are seen as not very honorable and not very fair since the police are using them, and the police are not an honorable street gang. \n It isn't usually about drugs or anything, it is just battling out of some boredom or to prove that you are the stronger man or team. \n Now after the revolution everything is messed up in this scenario because guns are now used a lot more and the teams are bigger because of all this politics, so its gets bad. \n Also many of these guys are probably on drugs.  Same drugs used for cancer pains.  Here we call them tramadol, it stops you being afraid of anything, makes you love your own pain and your own death.  Give syou courage, but in the drug way.  This drug is very cheap but bad for you it is a muscle relaxer but it also relaxes the fear. \n Sometimes a man can fight without this drug, but usually a thug will take it to give him more courage.", "id": "c4i98vc", "summary": "There are rules to street fighting in Egypt it isn't just random mobs.  There is a decorum and a law to it.  This guy broke the law with a gun and with aiming for the face, and now he's probably fucked because he thinks he's hard."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I do college admissions, and I think he's full of crap.  It is not simply a matter of rich parents having good genes, though I can't speak as to whether this is a factor.  In fact, that analysis pisses me off. Wealth plays a direct role in success on the SAT. \n Richer kids will be in better schools that teach to the SAT, and that lack the violence,  dismal facilities, and disruptive environment of inner-city or poor rural schools.  Rich families are also able to afford private tuition and private counseling that is out of reach to poorer families.  If two kids of equal IQ take the SAT, but one has done 200 practice tests and been taught the test for two years by a professional, whereas the other doesn't even know what SAT stands for, who is going to get the higher score? \n Naturally, home environment also plays a large role in education.  Richer families would have extra resources to spend on a child's training from a young age. \n In addition, the SAT has its issues, and these have been known for some time.  Does the graph correct for race?  You'd also see a correlation there.  In fact, the Chronicle of Higher Education put out an article just last week that showed that African Americans scored lowest of all ethnic groups on the SAT.  Why?  Is this because people of color are stupid?  Or are there other factors that influence the development of a child that are correlated to race? \n Finally, the SAT is not an \"intelligence test\" on par with something like an IQ test (which IMO is also flawed).  It is a predictive test that is meant to measure the predicted success of a student during the first year of college.  So the conclusion here is not \"poor people are stupid,\" but rather \"poor people are statistically more likely to struggle with their first year of higher education.\"  That is true, and that is why good schools have academic advising in place for lower income and first-generation students. \n Again, I think we as a society need to ask why this is and what to do about it rather than patting rich kids on the back for being so clever.  Hell, upper-income high schools are basically colleges anyway in many areas.  I know because I visit them.  Simply saying that rich people are smarter is an absurd statement.  I do not doubt that IQ is a factor in wealth, but doing the work I do, I can also tell you that the traits that lead to success (in college and after) are LEARNED not INHERITED.  I have often met with students that have no flipping idea what college is about, and their applications are therefore terrible, but if you put them up against rich kids with professional prep, they'd knock their pants off in any test of practical intelligence you could throw at them.", "id": "c0ck2v7", "summary": "article is elitist bullshit."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I tried quitting about 6 times.  I was on this sub using a different name a few of those times.  I have Alan Carr's book memorized.  I kept smoking, and actually accelerated. \n A few months ago I got an ecig.  I haven't smoked a burning cig since. \n I still take in nicotine, but I have stepped down from the initial level I was at until now there's hardly any nicotine in the vapor that I am \"smoking.\" \n That step-down was relaively easy and actually it was enjoyable. \n I never felt very bad withdrawals. I had a few of the symptoms quitters get, including coughing shit up, some weird feelings in my chest region as things cleared out, and so on, but I never had the intense cravings and self-hating I did when I tired to quit cold turkey, or on the 3-4 times I read through Alan Carr's book (bless him though, I like that guy). \n I would say that if you want to try it, go over to /r/electronic_cigarette and just start absorbing/looking around.  It seems REALLY complex at first, just chill and try to figure out a few of the basics. \n If you are ready to go, post a thread on there asking about starter kits, or look at the FAQs, or just PM me.  People will help you get a good one that will make it fun/enjoyable to start doing that instead of smoking. \n Anyway I was a 6 year smoking guy of about 1 pack per day. \n The only bad part about it is that it makes you into a douche who recommends it to everyone.  That's the major side effect: douchism.  But enh, it's worth it for me, because at least now when I go to bed at night I'm not freaking out anxious about cancer.  I'm freaking out anxious about other more mundane topics.", "id": "ceqxqwd", "summary": "Try cold turkey.  Try Alan Carr.  Try Alan Carr again.  If you're failing and getting hopeless, get an ecig, because if I can do it you can, I'm the worst quitter ever."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Yeah probably. \n You know there are two sides to the whole tuition bubble fiasco.  On the one side you have the students, who may one day realize en masse that they can't/won't pay back these loans.  That's bubble # 1. \n Bubble #2 is with the colleges themselves.  Where I worked, I was taught that there were 10 major indicators for the financial health of a college.  We failed 8 of these.  The indicators were things like rate of alumni giving, size of endowments, rate of change in class size, etc. \n So we failed 8, and we had many emergency meetings talking about funding cuts, lay offs, and so forth.  The crazy thing was that we were not alone, and I know from talking to other councillors at college fairs (heh) that their schools were in financial trouble too. \n The problem is that there are way too many colleges that are all competing in the same spaces.  They have high operating costs because student experience matters more than actual learning.  That's what sells the whole thing.  Everything from class size to food in the cafeteria.  So everything is very expensive, and the colleges ride razor thin margins. \n Since competition is so fierce, they can't cut back on services, or they wouldn't reach enrollment.  If you don't reach enrollment, you have to take more, or shittier students.  That ruins your rankings, and then you risk not reaching enrollment again next year.", "id": "c4mh779", "summary": "Basically I think a lot of schools are bound to either a) Fail or b) Do as you outlined."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "On point 5: \n You also see men with sticks and rods, as well as many with their faces covered.  The face covering is probably a defense against tear gas, though it won't play well in American suburbia (they look like terrorists). \n The stick holding and appearance of weak fighting might be the provocation the Israelis are referring to.  This is the norm for them, answering thrown rocks with tank shells. \n To me, that's the most likely scenario, and the reason why this will be swept under the rug.", "id": "c0r433g", "summary": "The victims are brown and Arab, and didn't start crying and go fetal when attacked.  Therefore: terrorists."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I had a similar problem.  My girlfriend is of Arab descent, and started telling me that wiping my ass with toilet paper is disgusting.  I took umbrage, as I didn't want to date someone who literally did not think I could wipe my own ass. \n She also had a thing with pissing standing up.  Here's what I did.  I gave it some thought.  If your partner tells you to do something, it is probably for a reason.  Try to be objective, and ask yourself: does she have a point? \n In my case, I realized that using water to clean your ass actually  is  more sanitary.  It's not a huge difference, but I saw her point and I learned something new. In terms of pissing, the root cause of the debate was not how I pissed, but the state of the seat.  I could agree that it was my responsibility to ensure that the seat was sanitary after I used it.  How that sanitation took place, however, was up to me. \n She had a legitimate problem if there was piss on the seat, but once that was taken care of, she had no case whatsoever.  If your fiancee keeps pushing it after you explain this, then it is just about control.  Don't give her control for arbitrary reasons.  Just like in anything else, you're meant to be a team that works for the best common living situation.  Bossing each other around for no reason isn't healthy.", "id": "c0ctb9o", "summary": "Seek Truth, not Victory"}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I think it also comes down to the sex act itself, and how we define aroused.  If she gets wet, but he's holding her down and fucking her, that's rapey. \n If he initiates by kissing her and touching her, then she reciprocates by touching him, kissing him, etc, then the arousal becomes active arousal based on actions.  In that case I think it is disingenuous to claim rape after the fact because you were an active participant in a sex act. \n Since none of us know what the actual act entailed, I don't see how we can judge this.  If it really is a case of \"He held her down and fucked her,\" then it seems open and shut that he fucked up, but if they  had sex , as in they enjoying sex together after her initial reservations, then she is to blame for making a false claim. \n I don't buy that a girl could  seem  to enjoy it and still be raped.  If you can move around and have sex without being forced to, then I think you can also get up and leave the room, or simply say \"I don't feel good about this, let's stop.\"", "id": "c48rgkn", "summary": "If we don't treat people like adults, then we can actually have the situation where two people have sex, wake up the next morning, and both declare themselves raped, then we'd have a mutual rape.  That's called having bad sex."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I like that yu approached it in this way so I will try to engage with your examples. \n Example 1)- You are responsible.  You are an idiot for doing business deals when drunk.  The market value of the car is determined by what you are willing to sell it for, and no court in the country will hold me responsible for accepting a dumb decision on your part.  This however does not apply to sex because I am not touching your body and no physical force is involved.  If I shook you down for hte money or intimidated you, then sure, I'm a thief.  But if you were just drunk and later regretful, you can cry me a river, because you fucked up, and you ate the burritos. It isn't my job to make sure you don't make dumb decisions. \n Since I'm doing the deal, I would have had you sign the deed over to me when I gave you the money, so yes, I legally own the car, and you are shit out of luck and will learn a good lesson about being an alcoholic. \n 2) No, you were kidnapped.  You can't step out of a plane, and in theory you're being held by force.  I am in the wrong, because I am kidnapping and enslaving you.  However, I don't think you'd be sitting there eating popcorn watching a movie.  you'd be cowering in the corner, or crying, or panicing, most likely.  Regardless, you're right, you are still being kidnapped. \n However, sex is not kidnapping.  It is an interaction between two people.  I hate to get graphic, but we're discussing adult issues so let's be adults. \n Lets say a guy initiates sex in the manner involved.  There are two scenarios. \n One: The guy holds her down and has sex with her and she doesn't move but takes it.  I agree that's rape. \n Two: the guy initiates, the girl gets into it, and starts kissing him and fucking him.  They both preform oral sex, and cuddle afterwards, and part on amiable, if somewhat awkward terms. \n Scenario one is rapey, because it was clearly an act involving physical force, power coercion, and no mutual engagement.  Scenario two is not rape because physical force was exerted by both parties, was not overwhelming, and both parties were mutually engaged in the continuation and completion of the act. \n The fact that the girl wishes afterwards that she hadn't done it is irrelevant.  If she doesn't want to hook up with guys, and does anyway, the moral failing is HERs, because she wasn't forced, and the guy can't be expected to know that she'll regret it in the morning.  I'd rather treat women like adults with their own agency rather than as delicate flowers not in control of their own sexuality. \n I also think that classifying such cases as rape belittles cases that actually are physical rapes involving violence and heavy coercion, as in the case where the girl is held down or otherwise physically prevented from leaving the situation.  These examples include when people are passed out drunk, but I do find it morally odious that there are beverages you can drink which absolve you of any responsibility. Where sex is involved it is obviously more complex since it is a physical act, however \n in Your burrito example, I maintain that you are a drunken idiot, and the car is mine.  What's the other outcome?  We trade back?  Now I'm paying for it because I just gave you a 500$ loan, which you spent on burritos, and then I got zero interest on it.  In addition, the entire transaction was approved by you, and you put yourself in that situation.  I just feel no sympathy in the burrito example.", "id": "c48s595", "summary": "I think the analogies aren't particularly apt however I do think that drinking alcohol doesn't magically absolve you of any responsibility.  I think that's incredibly childish and unrealistic.  It just isn't how life works, and shouldn't be how the law works."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "He takes good music and ruins it by adding useless noise over it.  People with no taste think it is edgy, but he is actually abusing the music.  Take his remix of \"Promises\" by Nero.  Listen to the original, then listen to the trash skrillex made.  The original is fucking dope.  Nero's whole album has an idea, goes with it, and builds from track to track.  skrillex just added a bunch of screeching over it while keeping the chorus vocals, which is the only part of his shitty remix that actually required any skill. Then he mixed it with other tracks by other artists that he abused in a similar manner.  The ONLY song I heard of his that is listenable is that hey sexy lady one, but even that is ruined for me by the shit show that is his entire \"career.\" \n If he only ruined shitty lady gaga music I wouldn't be mad, but he takes the work of talented artists, layers his crappy rhlkehrlkejlkrjelkrje noises over it, and people think its cool.  It's a fad to like dubstep, but the majority of people are too lazy to look into less well known artists and instead think skrillex is the only one to have ever thought to use a computer to make music.  Its very annoying because it is taking music in a retarded direction and praise is being heaped on it because he's got a weird haircut and is therefore marketable.  I hope he gets eaten by a shark, so that when he is in its intestines he can know what it feels like to listen to a good track ruined by his shitty taste.", "id": "c4oco1g", "summary": "If you think you might want to listen to good electronic music, download Nero-Welcome Reality, and stop listening to trash.  You will soon also hate skrillex.  I guarantee it."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I loved your version (man i feel like I'm being obsequious in this thread). \n But yeah, I  felt  your version. Yeah it was sad, but the song is heartbreakingly sad in itself. \n Here's a guy who has been cheated on, and left by his girlfriend that he still loves.  It may have been a few years, it may have been a few days.  We don't know. \n He's sitting here, and I picture him alone.  Probably drinking, maybe at a bar.  And he's thinking in his mind about this girl that he loved.  And he keeps picturing everything about her.  Her eyes, her hair.  But the thing is, every time he does that, and remembers his love for her, he feels this terrible pain.  I picture him wincing, I picture him taking a fucking drink of his beer. Its horrible, nostalgia mixed with regret. \n But just as he downs that sip of beer, he thinks, \"No, goddamnit.  No. I don't regret that.\"  Because shit, we've all been there. That's what life is.  Life is nostalgia mixed with regret mixed with hope.  You have these wonderful memories that you can't think about without being miserable.  But hell, that was the best time you ever had in your life, and god damn it if it makes you cry to think about the memory, you'll think about it anyway, because that's. what. life. is. \n And to me it is just heartwrenching, and your version captured that anguish very well I thought.", "id": "c0o1xhb", "summary": "Sad music can be good. \n Edit: Also to the guy whose gparents wrote this:  Coming from a writer, your grandpa was a damn fine poet. \n Edit: Especially the line, \"When we parted that day, there was still much to say, and I know now it will be left that way.\"  Come on how can you not see the sadness in that line.  And then he follows it up with \"But I'll never regret it.\"  That's wonderful poetry, and a very good portrait of part of human existence.  Poetry."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "The most important thing in working with clients is to manage expectations.  This starts with education.  If you have a big client who has no knowledge, you give them the knowledge and information they need to understand what's happening. Part of the budget and the time it takes to do a project is helping the client understand what is going on, why decisions are made a certain way, and how it will impact the outcome. \n I wasn't trying to suggest that all people with money are experts.  I am however suggesting that if it is anything but a low-budget friend-job, you ought to take the time to explain yourself to the client in a way that they understand.  It is part of the service.  You ought to set manageable objectives, explain what it will take to get there, and delineate where your expertise can best serve them. \n If you do this with every client, they will trust you, and they will recommend you, generally in a way that benefits you.  Its a huge advantage. \n The difference between Person A and Person B is that Person A can do what I described, and Person B can't.  It is the difference between honest work and good reputation, and being a hack. \n All I wanted to get across is that I don't understand why people fear hacks so much.  If hacks are out-competing you, you have a weakness you are overlooking.  It is either in the work itself or in how you deal with the client, because if you are a master of your field, you ought to be better in every way than a hack or a con man.", "id": "c4nhcdh", "summary": "If you are getting confused for a half-wit, you have ignored an entire skill set, which is client servicing.  Either hire someone to do it for you or get better at it because it probably shouldn't be happening if you are a bad ass at what you do."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "It's the sort of thing that would be handled with physical punishment in a traditional society.  Basically if something like that happens to you and you don't depend on the state to sort it for you, you call whoever you need to call, and you get that kid beat up badly.  THen you go to him and take your dignity back by cursing him publicly or whatever.  THEN he apologize to you.  That's street justice, and I actually think it is more fair in this case. \n Should he be marked for life?  No.  Should he never have a job? That's also not fair. \n Should the victims have the chance to take back their standing among the other kids and have justice?  Yes. \n Since we've decided as a society that such justice is not really justice we end up in situations like this, where we impose a lifetime of shame rather than a one time beating. \n I honestly think the beating would do more good against the bully and might actually put him in his place and reform him rather than this lifelong torment. \n (I realize that this might be controversial and I do recognize that violence doesn't necessarily solve past violence, but I would still be interested on other people's take on the sort of \"frontier justice\" solution I laid out.)", "id": "c279gl4", "summary": "The reason we're at this impasse is because we've agreed as a society that corporal, local punishment isn't an acceptable solution to childhood fights.  In my mind, there's a possibility that such an outcome might be more humane for everyone involved.  Violence isn't necessarily bad if the alternative is lifetime shaming.  Bruises heal and teach a good lesson but marking someone like this just makes him bitter and alone and more likely to develop into a predator."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "While I sympathize with the Poles (and others) who count this as a major loss, I will simply state a reminder that this is the Internet, and those who wish to mourn in a peaceful and respectful atmosphere should do so off line. \n The anonymity of this web site makes it far to easy to mock these situations, and while it could be seen as a weakness of the community, the sort of \"nothing is sacred\" attitude also provides the intellectual and creative ferment that makes the internet great. \n There are several redditors who have lost close friends, posted about it online, and been mocked, teased, and harassed by other members of this community.  Myself among those who have experienced it, I found in my time of mournign a certain strange comfort in the teasing.", "id": "c0nuz86", "summary": "I hope you don't take teasing personally, because humor is sometimes how the Internet deals with tragedy."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "It isn't easy at all. I live in Egypt and I am interested in this so I talk to a lot of women about why they wear what they wear. \n I know a lot of professional, capable, women that want to be veiled.  Some are married with kids, some are single. \n You could say \"society forces them to veil,\" but it is not that simple.  That's like saying that hipsters in Williamsburg are forced by society to wear skinny jeans.  Where's the line between fashion and coercion? \n There's also the fact that Muslim societies are very traditional, which means that family stuff is very private and difficult to parse.  In any marriage, some amount of pressure goes back and forth.  It can be about when a spouse goes out, what a spouse wears, or even simple sharing of household chores. That is mixed in with the societal stuff and the fashion stuff. \n Then there's this whole idea in Islam about what it is to be a woman or a man, and what is expected, and so forth.  Some of this is in the text of Islam, some of it is tradition, some of it is just regional.  People as a whole here are very religious, so some women veil because they think GOD likes it.  To understand that you have to untangle all of the myriad ways that women receive and understand information about \"God\" and their educations as a whole. \n It's almost impossible to understand, and there's no way to flip a switch that says \"Ok, all women can not wear 'what they want'.\"  What is want?  Why do you want what you want?  Do you want what expresses yourself, or what makes life easiest, or what's comfortable, or what will help you fit in?  How is everyone collectively supposed to change at once? \n I think Western people see Muslim clothes and get uncomfortable because it is so different and presents such different definitions of what a person is or what a woman is, and how value should emerge from that definition.  In this thread somewhere, people blame men for seeing women as \"baby machines\" in the Arab world.  Well guess what?  Women here fucking love having babies.  There are some, I am sure, that don't want anymore babies and are forced to, but by and large, the BEST thing you can do if you are a woman is to start having kids.  It's seen as fulfilling, it grows your family unit (which is hugely important) and it is what you are raised to look forward to. \n The path the West took away from this viewpoint was long, bumpy, and it isn't really clear if anyone is \"better off\" from my point of view.  I think that getting obsessed with how women look in the Muslim world, and insisting that in order to be free they wear Western clothes is just as oppressive to them as when people insist that in order to be righteous they must wear Muslim clothes.", "id": "c6fyg1l", "summary": "It is way more complicated that \"letting them wear what they want\" and framing it in that way makes Muslim women into pawns in a culture war.  I don't think that women's bodies should be a battleground like that because everyone has their own agenda (which is not the welfare of the women) and this battle can only hurt the women involved rather than help them."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I was taking a cab to work in Cairo, Egypt.  The cabbies there are awesome but generally not rich, as you might expect.  As we pulled onto the corniche, a nice jet black bmw pulls onto the road next to us, being driven by a rich lady on her cell phone.  The cabbie sort of laughed about and made mocking motions. \n Then, we spotted it.  On the back of the bmw, a cleaning rag, and new. Apparently this lady's servant forgot it back there. \n The cabbie guns it, and we are heading through traffic at 40-50 kph trying to catch the bmw.  If you know Cairo traffic you know what I mean.  We were weaving through cars to catch her.  Finally get up next to her, and he motions for me to grab the rag.  So I roll down the window, lean out, he grabs my leg to steady me, and i snatch the rag off the back of her car without her noticing. \n I climb back in and he's clapping (we nearly crashed at this point).  He pulled out his OWN rag (a pitiful old dirty cloth) and goes \"PFFF!\" and throws it out the window laughing. \n As a Cairo commute, I'd say it was about average.", "id": "c0fv5ll", "summary": "High speed chase to nick a cleaning rag \n Edit: Oh, and one I forgot about.  I was stopped once on my way to school in Sri Lanka (we commuted in trishaws) by a steaming lake of elephant diarrhea.  No joke."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Well it happened a few times and I am not sure if my response was right. When people call things to my wife, I stop, walk right up into their face and shout to demand if there is a problem.  I ask if there is ANYTHING they want to say about me, or my wife.  I ask them if they want me to say anything about their mother or their sister. \n Normally at this point they act dumb and say I misheard them, to which I reply that I didn't, and that they can act like men from now on. \n Once a guy actually came into my house and grabbed my sister.  That demanded a friend to help me and a bit bigger response.  I had to make sure that didn't happen again.  He wasn't beat up but he really thought he was going to be.  In my mind that was better because if I had given him to the cops he DEFINITELY would have gotten his ass kicked. \n Anyway, the sad thing is that brutes who harass women only respect men.  The key for me to getting it to stop is to let them know that I am a crazy man who will never tolerate his wife to be harassed. \n I also yell at men for harassing women I don't know, if I see it or hear it on the street.  It's not right it makes Egypt look terrible.", "id": "c102xu5", "summary": "I yell at them."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Enh, I dunno.  I'm generally against the Israeli state, but I was in that area of Tel Aviv about a year ago visiting a friend, and generally, most people are very nice, welcoming, and kind.  The most common attitude I heard was that they don't like violence, and try not to let it change their habits.  Seems reasonable. \n What really struck me was not the attitudes of the people (people are people) but rather the stark contrast between Israel and Palestine.  Tel Aviv, as you can see in the video is like Southern California.  Hell, I even saw people riding Segways around and jumping around on jet skis.  I ate in nice restaurants that served high quality meat, I ate pastries, I went shopping.  I walked on clean streets lined with plants that were watered by automatic sprinklers. \n In Palestine (I was in the West Bank) it is a hell hole.  Fenced in, tons of security.  Lower quality everything, from food to clean water to general cleanliness.  I heard many stories of people that needed medical care but could not get it, and the evidence of rampant RAMPANT unemployment is clear.  As you come through the gates of the wall, you are met by 20-30 taxi drivers who haven't given anyone a ride all day.  When you get in they will offer to drive you for free if you stop by their uncles shop, who hasn't sold anything all day.  It is heartbreaking.", "id": "c0b39qr", "summary": "Make no mistake.  Racism is a problem, but the Israel/Palestine divide is systematic and economic, and that's the real source of the problem."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I studied Religion.  Don't hate me.  I'm an atheist, I'm just interested in religion and how it works and  effects the world. \n What you've just described is echoed at the core of most world religions.  Almost every one of them has a way to articulate what you just said using mystical language that sounds like bullshit to an untrained audience. \n I'm going to go through and simplify how they look at it.  It will be way over simplified, just an illustration. \n Buddhism: There's a concept called \"emptiness\" which is well known in Buddhist thought, but that was debated for centuries in early Buddhist civilization.  They had massive, generations long debates about just how far this emptiness goes.  They basically arrived at this idea that we exist as part of this weird never ending fractal illusion built on an idea of causse and effect, which was itself an illusion created by the existence of the fractal. \n Hinduism: There's a basic concept of Brahman and Atman.  Brahman is \"everything that exists.\"  Atman is \"the soul.\"  They had logical ways to arrive at this shit so don't freak out that \"soul\" is an illogical starting point.  It's just a conceptual thing, like \"x\" is in mathematics.  Anyway, using these two ideas, and over generations, they also arrived at the idea that all of the universe is a collapsing and expanding series of fractals, and that theoretically in order for there to be such a thing as \"totality\",  it HAD to be true that there were infinite universes, existing in relationship to one another, and that all of them were connected in a \"microcosm/macrocosm\" or fractal relationship. \n Islam: Sufis posit the idea that everything is \"God\" through exegesis of the Qur'an.  Again, generations were needed to arrive at this.  Read Ibn Arabi, or even a poet like Rumi for an intro into this line of thinking. God is the word for the totality of existence, expanding out infinitely in every conceivable dimension, all, again, inter-related and \"generated\" by the summation of all the other parts.  Such thinkers also agreed with you that ultimately the ENTIRE REASON for this to exist was simply to bring LOVE into existence. This is a bit more of a complicated part of it, but basically I think your last paragraph, especially \"we live to show love for out alternate selves\" is EXACTLY the core belief of mystical Islam.", "id": "c6auly1", "summary": "Cool post.  You've managed to connect and integrate thousands of years of esoteric religious thought into a modern metaphor that works very well and would be easily understood without learning dead languages. \n Whether or not it is \"true\" is another question, but people have argued going back millennia that human logic, if pushed to it's outer limits, eventually results in the conclusions you've reached. \n Historically, such people are killed by their ignorant neighbors, though, so you might want to be careful."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I got mugged in the US during a visit from Egypt in 2008. \n Two guys pulled a gun, stole my backpack and my girlfriend's wallet and purse. \n In my backpack: my new digital camera which I had just saved up for. \n The police took a report but never did anything. \n 4 years later, my gf (now wife) gets an email with a picture of her that she's never seen before.  It is from her friend. \n It was sent to them by this detective, who looked at the photos on my camera, and somehow determined where I worked in Egypt.  He was able to zoom in on a diploma in an office picture and figure out the name of the guy whose office it was. Then he managed to go to the website of the place I worked and find the guy's email. Then, he mailed out the picture to see if the man on the degree knew me.  He didn't know me personally, but his wife knew my wife, so they contacted us. \n Apparently the police caught the thieves a few hours after we got mugged, because the thieves stole a car and were driving like maniacs into a rich person area. \n Anyway we got the info for the detective and called him up, and he arranged to mail the camera to my wife when she was next in the US.  It even had it's original case which I borrowed from my parents. There was a note attached saying sorry we got robbed and hopefully it won't impact our view on the US. \n Pretty good police.  Must have taken some real CSI shit to find us half a world away but he managed it in a very clever way.  I was impressed that he bothered since he could have just ignored the camera but he was nice and helped me get it back.", "id": "c4ypz3p", "summary": "Police man tracks me all the way to Egypt using only the photos on my camera in order to return stolen property and write me a note apologizing that I got mugged."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I can PM you the book if you want.  It's in PDF for now. \n Basically I live in Egypt with my wife.  When the revolution broke out, a photographer came to stay with us.  He knew my wife's sister.  Before I knew it I was hiding in my flat with between 4 and 6 photojournalists who kept sneaking in and out to take photos of the violence downstairs.  You would definitely have seen their work, as they were shooting for some major magazines/newspapers.  Someone got shot down the street from my house, our phones got tapped, and some of the guys got beaten, arrested, teargassed, or held at gunpoint. \n We spent some of the time laughing (and I heard them \"talking shop\" about photographing Haiti and the Congo and other weird situations) and the other time chain smoking and being nervous and paranoid.  There were secret police around a lot and food was starting to run out in the stores and tons of rumors were flying about water being cut off, or about looters or thugs breaking in to homes to rape and steal.  We had to gather weapons and things (from golf clubs to big sticks) in case looters came or in case thugs came. \n Anyway I was scared because I had never been through anything like this before, and so I passed my time doing drawings of everyone and the situation around me to stay calm.  I took a lot of notes too about how I was feeling and keeping track of certain images or whatever else I could remember.  Afterwords I did some paintings for the book and wrote it all out.  Sometimes it was really peaceful.  I was talking to my dad on the night the camels charged into Tahrir square, and there were two little girls playing on my street by a fire the vigilantes built.  They were playing old Egyptian music on the radio and the girls were just playing with sticks and the city was  silent  even though the image on the TV was of medieval violence and my house guests were running around getting rocks thrown at their heads. \n I think it was pretty interesting (most interesting thing to happen to me, anyway) which was lucky because as I said it was one of my life's main goals to complete a book. I don't have money to print it now but I am happy it is done.  I really intend to share it with reddit at some point but I am really hoping to find a way to get a publisher for it or  something  because I took 3 months off work to make it and I feel bad for my wife that I didn't earn during this period. \n The hardness of it was that I had to quit my job to make the book even though we're just starting out and I'm quiet sure it won't be a source of income. \n It was a dream, though, so I decided to do it, and despite everything I'm really happy that I managed to complete it.", "id": "c1ztkgl", "summary": "If you have a dream you should do it because you'll feel good when you are done.  It is worth it, I think."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "You seem very logical, and you're talking some sense so I feel we can discuss this and maybe come to an understanding. \n Here's my problem with what you said: \n When you say this:\n>They may be wrong, but they aren't barbaric. It's advanced technological warfare and nation building. \n I think of [this]( \n I can't really see the difference between that scene and the one in Libya.  The soldiers suffered in war and are humiliating their enemies.  So are the Libyans in the video.  I am defending it?  No!  It's horrible.  But you know what, it is a result of war. \n My problem with Americans isn't that they are ignorant, because most are quite well informed.  They just don't understand what war is.  The biggest problem in America is that there hasn't been a war (a REAL war) on that soil in SO long.  Obviously no one wishes that on them, and they are very blessed.  That's why so many people want to go to America.  It is peaceful and prosperous. \n As a result though, Americans sort of lost touch with this basic fact of humanity, which is that war is fucking evil, and terrible terrible things happen as a result.  Libya was a war.  I had friends that died in that war, and friends who may never walk again (journalists).  I think that calling it \"primativism\" is really disingenuous when it is really just a human reaction.  Look at the soldiers in Abu Gharib, or the ones pissing ont he dead Taliban in Afghanistan.  They aren't primitive.  According to your argument they come from a very civilized and reason place.  They are human beings though, and in war, REAL war, human beings are nasty primitive creatures. \n You've allowed your media to make you think war is clean and civilized.  This is the great evil of the American perception.  You believe there is such a thing as \"advanced technological warfare and nation building.\"  Sorry, that's some serious Orweillian doublespeak there, and I live in a country famous for propaganda.  Saying that about WAR, and with some weird hint of pride in it just proves to me you've never seen a war.  There's nothing advanced about it.  It's the most base thing in the world.  And nation building?  Please.  Do you know how LOUD bombs are?  How loud gunshots are?  Bombs don't build shit. \n You would also know that you're better off in a cage with a flag in your mouth than having your head blown off. At least those dudes seem like they'll live to tell the tale. Humiliation is humiliation.  Dying is dying.", "id": "c3x9m8j", "summary": "War is the problem, not barbarism.  Don't hate the player hate the game."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Collapse\" is good, though like most PO activists, Ruppert is a bit of a basket case and a bit washed up. \n Same with that guy Matt who wrote the L.A.T.O.C..net thing you posted.  They are all a bit...off.  I used to be really into it and would even go to the forums but then none of their predictions for short term changes came true and I realized they weren't voices in the wilderness so but as they were just kind of in the wilderness. \n What I read now is theoildrum.com, and the Arch Druid Report.  I read Oil Drum because they are fairly even handed and while they focus on Peak Oil they don't have a strong agenda (at least as much as anyone else).  I read the Arch Druid Report because he is interesting and talks about possible solutions and ways to prepare oneself mentally. \n The problem I have in general though is that everyone who is good at talking about Peak Oil becomes a bit famous and then tries to cash in and thus becomes lame as hell.  I don't blame them, but I also don't trust what they say as much as say, a salaried academic.", "id": "c1dgq1f", "summary": "Check theoildrum.com"}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Right, except that monasteries were the only islands of civilization for good chunks of the last 2000 years.  Religion paid for or otherwise supported and inspired much of the great literature, art, music, and yes, philosophy. \n That, coupled with the fact that if it hadn't been Christianity, it would have been some other equally destructive social order, and you come off as ignorant. \n Yeah, you don't believe in God.  Cool.  It doesn't make you intellectual, especially when it completely clouds the way you view history.  It's not about the beliefs, even.  Religion is a means of social organization, and it played its role, for good or ill.  I don't think anyone with any sense would try to posit a vision of the last 2000 years without it, especially since religion has been around as long as people.", "id": "c11wptb", "summary": "wrong. \n edit: chunks not chinks"}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "This is kind of a common sense PR problem. \n Here's what you do.  You take the contact info that this guy \"confirmed\" with, and you make an email list.  Your friend composes an email that says it has come to his attention that a private video has come into the possession of this man.  He can say that he is not sure how, but that the man is now threatening to blackmail him. \n The man is also outside of the country, making the interference of law enforcement impossible.  Then just say look: you guys are my friends and my family.  I fucked up here, btu what this guy is doing is way out of line.  Do me a favor and delete any email you get that looks suspicious, and for God's sake don't look at any video links you get in the next few weeks, because you might see my dick.  Neither of us wants that. \n Then you email the fucker back, and tell him to shove his entire head back up his ass. \n Then slap your friend for being a complete fucking retard.", "id": "c18a8ja", "summary": "Not the end of the world. It's ALWAYS better to be the one controlling the bad news.  The guy warned you, which was dumb.  Play the victim, be mature, tell the family what happened.  Get teased, end of story."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Its circumstantial evidence.  They fit the profile for CIA in the Middle East.  Young, experienced in the region, fluent in the language. \n Then there's the fact that they just happened to be hiking along the border with Iran.  Highly unusual behavior, especially for people who know the region.  If they were there, either they purposefully didn't tell the US government, or they had their blessing. \n So there are two conflicting plotlines.  On the one hand, we have evidence that the hikers were savvy, experienced, and knew what they were doing.  On the other, we have evidence that they made every mistake in the book if you want to avoid ruining your \"casual hiking trip.\" \n For me then, rather than entertaining serious cognitive dissonance regarding their situation, it makes more sense to say \"Hey, maybe they weren't just out camping,\" because that clears up the inconsistencies.", "id": "c0vuf7z", "summary": "They could have been spies."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "sidewalkchalked feels it's OK to accuse us all of oversimplifications and crude prejudice with his edit \"Whatever. Muslims are animals etc.\". If that's his approach to the debates that take place here, maybe he's at the wrong place. \n I don't think I'm in the wrong place.  I live in Egypt.  Shit like this is thrown around all the time, and I actually have the knowledge of how news is put out in Egypt to point out that it is (so far) likely bullshit.  My comment was in reaction to many top-voted statements either \n1) sarcastic about common defenses of Islam \"I guess now we'll hear those weren't real Muslims\" \nor \n2) stating that Egypt's revolution was clearly a bad idea because now those crazy Muslims have been set loose. \n I am skeptical that any of the people making these comments have ever spent significant time here or even gotten to know any Egyptians.  It is a complex society, and the comments were extremely one dimensional and frankly, racist.  The revolution, primarily fought in the larger cities, has little bearing on this, and in fact, the politics of Upper Egypt have always been very local, somewhat tribal, and split along vague and complex lines.  You don't know any of this, and yet you feel free to comment like you're a fucking expert on the article. \n And by the way, the article is likely bullshit, so you're talking nonsense about something that isn't even true. \n I don't think I overstated my case, though I was sarcastic.  Sometimes I lose patience with the stupidity all around me.  I long to come into a thread about Egypt and learn something new or have something intelligent said, but so far it rarely if ever happens.  All I see are idiots with no knowledge talking out their asses and having an attitude that they're experts and enlightened because they once watched Al Jazeera online. \n And don't even get me started on the misconceptions about how religion works, in this region or anywhre for that matter.", "id": "c43rys1", "summary": "I don't think it is right to use fabricated stories to legitimize your prejudices.  It's confirmation bias and it is factually incorrect as well as borderline bigoted."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I find it hilarious that the example you use to prove how Palestinians are treated well is a lawsuit brought claiming that the Apartheid Wall that Israel erected is in violation of the Geneva Convention. Luckily the Israelis found that their wall was just fine and would be staying, thank you very much.  So that, I presume, is the \"load of bullshit\" you referred to regarding the Israeli courts. \n It is easy if you go inside Palestine to find stories of people who couldn't get medical treatment, or who were refused life-saving surgeries because they were on the wrong side of the wall. Holding this case up as an example of great international justice is just.....wow.", "id": "c60ehe5", "summary": "The Israelis let Palestinians sue like the Americans let Guantanamo detainees sue. \n Also you completely ignored the other points I was making because you're trying to support a racist government and you need to obfuscate and cherry pick facts to make that work."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "It has been said time and again on Reddit and basically ignored, but here it is again on the front page so I'll give it one last try. This bill is funded by a group called \"The Family.\"  It is a secretive political organization that (obviously) has global reach, but is centered in the US. \n They give a great deal of money and resources to congresspeople, senators, and state reps.  Two senators live in a house owned by the Family known as the C street residence. Senators Coburn and Ensign, specifically, have lived in this residence, free of charge, and also get funding for travel and other \"goodies\" from the Family. \n Among other things, the Family are the people who brought us the rabid pro-life movement and a lot of the current anti-gay marriage agenda.  They are also big proponents of mixing Christianity with free-market unregulated capitalism (Jesus loved this) and empire building (Christ loved Him some Empire building too.) \n So where's the link between these very well connected American nut-jobs and the Uganda thing? \n A writer called Jeff Sharlet  lived with members of the Family and learned a lot about them, and he followed the Uganda thing from the start.  He said, on NPR, \"[The Ugandan case is] really kind of a perfect case study in the export of a lot of American, largely evangelical ideas about homosexuality exported to Uganda, which then takes them to their logical end.\" \n David Bahati, the \"legislator\" who dreamed up this bullshit in Uganda, is a member of the Family and heavily funded by the same people who give housing to two US senators.  Put that on your boyfriend's cock and smoke it. Or don't because if you're from Uganda, dick smoking could get you killed. \n The interview is  here  that this is happening and B) that no one in America gives a shit.", "id": "c0go7yo", "summary": "This whole thing is the work of a secretive organization of Christian fascists in the US.  Wake up sheeple, etc. \n To paraphrase Dawkins: \"The information above is interesting, and if you don't agree, you can fuck off.\""}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Come onnnn.  The guy is a dick, no question, and OP should tell him to go fuck himself.  But you know who is also guilty?  The parents! \n The coercion comes in because the parents are fundies and don't accept their own kid.  This is what happens: it fucks the kid up because they can't accept themselves and behavior that they are morally OK with. In essence, OP sold her vagina to her parents, and this entire situation comes from the fucked-up nature of that contract. \n OP ought to work to free herself from the yoke of this oppression so that she can reclaim the power over her own junk. \n The dude is a prick but OP needs to woman up, because the root cause of all the bullshit is the parents being idiots. \n That said, there is a difference if there is a gun to your head.  If you've had a gun to your head you will understand this difference.", "id": "c62awxj", "summary": "OP Sold her sexuality to her parents, and she is now paying the price.  The lesson: if you don't want to be coerced sexually, don't sell your sexuality to a fucking fundamentalist."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I actually think that's a fair point adn I don't see why you're getting downvoted.  There are plenty of musicians and DJs, as the article poitns out, that do this \"sampling\" well and make a good living off of it.  What they DON\"T do, however, is to claim they wrote it all. \n That's where I think this girl crosses the line.  If she came out and said \"this is a mash-up of XY and Z books,\" then she would have had a new concept adn a potentially great work of literature and a cultural statement.  As it is, she's just a thief, because she didn't give credit where credit is due. \n That's the whole point of creative commons: Remixing with  attribution .", "id": "c0kie5q", "summary": "She's principled up until the point where she didn't attribute her samples."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Study showing four homeopathic remedies effective at delaying cancer growth.](  Take that for what it is worth.... \n More importantly, in my experience it is less the remedy itself that is important in homeopathy, but the way it is practiced. \n I think if there is an effect to this style of medicine it is much more closely tied to the way doctors treat patients.  Each consultation is at least one hour long.  Even if the ailment is physical and acute, the two will discuss many aspects of the patients life, trying to determine if physical pain might be tied to stress, an emotional problem, or psychological imbalance. \n In other words, they don't just fill you full of medicine. \n This is a good thing in the case of people, for example who have \"ADD\" children.  Sometimes if a calm person talks through the situation with mother and child, they can learn how to deal with a \"hyperactive\" child without pumping the kid full of a lifetime of adderall.  Whether or not the homeopathic remedy \"cures\" ADD is not the point, the point is that the child was seen in a new light and potentially damaging treatments were avoided.", "id": "c0l18lh", "summary": "Homeopathic remedies shouldn't be seen in isolation.  There is a philosophy to it that makes some salient points, motherfucker."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Ok, a few big points to at least situate my argument.  I won't claim to be 'knowledgable\" about Egypt because most high level journalists here are baffled by this \"transition\" if it is even correctly called that now, and are still trying to figure out what the correct names are to describe all of the factions that are starting to emerge.  My major point here is going to be: IT IS COMPLICATED. \n This list not correlated to my original list. \n 1) 13 candidates were fielded for president. For the first time, candidates outside of the MB and the old NDP did decently.  These candidates were primarily revolutionary and got combined about 60% of the vote. \n That 60% block is still in disarray, but it will eventually coalesce into some kind of political force to be reckoned with.  These are secular people, educated, favoring a democratic civil state with left-leaning values in an Islamic context. \n Thus, to say that because Egypt is \"Muslim\" they elected the Muslim Brothers is simplifying beyond all reason.  The country, while about 90% Muslim, is very very diverse politically.  This has not been an issue for 30 years, so it is all just happening now. \n 2) The major point about the second round was that it was Shafiq who opposed Morsi.  Shafiq literally represented the old regime. Thus, despite the fact that Morsi got around 20% in the first round, he took just over half.  That means that the Egyptians BARELY favor the Muslim Brothers over Mubarak, which is saying something.   Again, this is not Iran 1979, so far as I can see. \n 3)  The Muslim Brothers were not the worst group to have done this.  They won not because of Islam but because they spent the last 30 years feeding and assisting the people, and thus building up patronage networks.  Egyptian voting happens this way: if the patriarch of a village says Morsi, you and all your brothers get in a mini bus and go vote Morsi.  If he says Shafiq, you go vote Shafiq.  This is the case because in Arab politics it is more about what the network gets you than what the policy is. \n The Brotherhood, since they were the big men on the block for 30 years at the risk of torture, jail, or death, were able to win the day over the formidable NDP machine.  I doubt any other candidate would have managed this. \n 4)  The Brotherhood's organization also gave them the ability to independently tabulate the votes.  They did so with an error of just over .06%.  In other words, they kept the NDP machine honest for the first time EVER. \n That is, in large part, why people are celebrating, because everyone here assumed (with good reason) that the army would rig it for Shafiq, and there would be a ton of violence.  Decrying the MB victory because you don't like Islam is not right.  Had they not won, Mubarak's regime would have come back to some extent, and many more people would have died. \n 5)  The army is almost completely in control.  Before elections, they dissolved parliament and gave themselves legislative power.  They also said they'd help themselves to writing the constitution, and controlling defense and the police.  The joke here is that Morsi just won a seat in the break room and 100 free copies a month at the SCAF copying machine. \n 6)  Morsi also just won a trap.  Egypt is fucked economically which is why many observers are happy that the MB will take the fall for it.  People here do NOT care about jihad, they care about bread.  When the lack of foreign reserves bites Egypt in the ass, Morsi will pay for it, and pay for it at the polls.  The fact that the word \"polls\" can now be used in relation to Egypt is something NO ONE saw coming this time 3 years ago.  It is amazing and worth celebrating. \n 7) There are already protests planned against the MB.  This is a pluralistic society.  Most people are happy it is not Shafiq, but angry that it is Morsi.  It was the devil's choice and honestly we got the better side.  We got a \"fair\" election, and we won't have thousands killed by police in the immediate future.   That's good news.  I value the lives of my neighbors. \n 8)  There is a very long ongoing struggle ahead, but you need to look at it less in terms of \"Oh shit, Islamists, there goes the neighborhood\" and more as \"one step at a time.\" \n We got decently fair counting of votes this time round.  Good.  Maybe next time it will be less rigged at the polls.  Maybe people won't be bribed so much, or eventually not at all. This is what Egypt is trying to work on, slowly slowly over time.  This is a huge country and it has NEVER had democracy before.  It has been a year and half, and this is Egypt.  Nothing happens on schedule. \n I heard it claimed that the cost of a vote in Egypt is 4 le.  That's less than a dollar. There's a lot of work to do. \n 9) After the constitution is written there will likely be another presidential election.  That is in 6-9 months. We won't have time to march to Jerusalem by then or even to start stoning women. It takes at least 10 months to get up the courage to start stoning people. \n 10) All I ask is that you consider that Egypt is a huge country in a dramatic and somewhat new situation.  This could turn out any number of ways, and it is foolhardy to make predictions.  If you talk to anyone who claims they know what will happen tomorrow in Egypt, take it with a huge grain of salt.  Until the moment results were announced, most people honestly thought it was Shafiq and many bought food and supplies in preparation for a war. \n EDIT: A few more points \n 11) It is weird to quote something Morsi supposedly said as evidence that Egypt is on a one way ticket to burka-ville.  Yes, he is a member Ikhwan, the MB.  But do you know his nickname in Egypt?  He is called the \"spare tyre,\" because he wasn't even the first choice of the Brothers.  He is not some sort of crazy demagogue.  He may  become  one, but he isn't now.  Right now, he's an ex-professor, US educated guy from a humble background who just got the worst job on the planet, and I think honestly he's probably shitting bricks. \n 12) There is a court case currently under consideration (delayed till Sept 4) to dissolve the Muslim Brotherhoods FJP (Freedom and Justice Party).  Given that the military still basically controls the courts, this is actually a remote possibility.  There are some forces in Egypt that are more scared of the MB than even Americans and Israelis.  We call them the felool.", "id": "c55ayff", "summary": "The following logic is flawed: \n Egypt has muslims > \"Muslims gonna Muslim\" > Morsi wins > burkas > WW3 \n The correct logic is as follows: \n Egypt is a clusterfuck > ? > ? > Huge amount of uncertainty > Many factors > more clusterfuck > Morsi Wins > ? \n [for more info]( \n [or here]("}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "Hm, I dunno.  I mean, of course no one should be forced to have sex, and I guess it's rape, but doesn't calling everything rape actually end up watering down more violent cases where weapons and physical struggle are present? \n Granted, I would NEVER do anything with a woman if I had even the slightest hint she wasn't into it.  That's pure dirtbag behavior and is totally wrong.  In my mind, however, there's a continuum between \"rape\" and \"RAPE,\" if you know what I mean. \n I think its terrible, but it also sounds that with a bit more self-assertion from OP, the encounter might have ended.  Granted, she is 100% the victim here and I'm not blaming her, but I can't necessarily say that the correct action to take now is to lock the guy up for 50 years away from his kids. \n Human interactions, especially sexual ones, are very complex and very dependent on context.  It's rarely black and white, and I think that's why its so traumatic.", "id": "c0y26lz", "summary": "Rape is not rape.  In my mind its pretty obvious its more complicated than that, despite the fact that coercive sex is  always  wrong."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I would like to say a few things. \n I was always into prepping, but I am young and I don't have a lot of money.  I am also an American living in Egypt, so I guess from that you can infer that I'm not TOO serious about prepping, because I live in one of the worst environments in the world for staying alive if and when tshtf. \n I was always \"ready\" for an uprising in Egypt, I made loose plans for how I would get out, what I would do, and so forth, to keep myself and my wife safe.  When the revolution came, I was caught completely off guard, I had a few extra bags of rice, went out and got a few more, filled buckets with water, and stuck it out. \n Then the economy got bad.  It's touch and go for me. The Egyptian pound is in a slow crash, prices go up day by day.  Canister of gas used to be 5 le, now it is 40 le.  Bag of tomatos used to be 2 le, now it is 8 le.  Don't even ask about meat. Meat is out of reach now, and it is drifting further and further away. \n I had some safety net contacts.  No longer.  Revolution changed everything.  People fled the country, took care of their own, and so forth.  You can't prepare like that. \n If you have a place to live in the country, and you think you can survive on it long term, I would say go there and test it for a season. Test yourself.  Don't test it under stress.  You won't manage. \n Never try to predict anything.  You'll get it wrong. \n Try to have a group you can trust around you.  4-5 people that would die for you and who you would die for.  It is the best and only defense, physically, mentally, and spiritually. \n Don't discount your mental strength.  I crack mentally before I do physically.  Had to sort that out.  Still working on it.  Conquer fear.  Learn how to think straight under stress.  You can't prepare that.  Either you have the experience or you don't.  Don't picture yourself unrealistically.  If you've never been in violence or lack of food situation, you WILL crack.  Be ready for it.  Prepare for that.  Think of how you'll get out of it, rather than how to avoid it.  Keep an anchor close.  Religion, family, simple goals, someone to care for.  Make sure that you are not the most important thing in your life.  If that's the case, you'll crack like I did.", "id": "c4e338b", "summary": "Mental preparation is very important.  So is social preparation.  5 good friends and a strong mind is better than a pile of rice and bullets."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "OP I name businesses as part of my job.  I've named art galleries, bakeries, health centers, party businesses, websites and design boutiques; all of them upscale. \n This is the best option.  You can render it any way you choose.  It doesn't have to be stuck up or old fashioned. It has the perfect open quality while still sounding great on the tongue and making you feel cool for saying it.  That's honestly the most important thing in a name.  Make people feel GOOD saying it.  It helps tremendously with word of mouth.  The other options are funny, but ultimately no one wants to where a clever joke on their face.  They want to feel sexy and sophisticated.", "id": "c3gs1hu", "summary": "this name is dope."}, {"author": "sidewalkchalked", "content": "I have seen numerous commenters in /r/Libertarian suggesting that OWS is a movement for socialism, or for more state control. \n Without a doubt, some protestors could be found to agree with that, but you could probably also find many protestors who are libertarians. \n I think that harping on the point that these people \"want to use the power of the state against their enemies as leftist revolutions always do\" is a massive fallacy.  OWS does not yet have stated goals, and if it does, they are roughly as follows: \n 1) Eliminate undue influence of large corporate interests in politics: The insight is that most politicians are bought and paid for, and the goal is to somehow fix this situation and bring in a congress that represents the people rather than the large corporations. \n 2) The banking system needs to be cleaned up: I get that this might mean some more regulation, but I think the basic things on the table now are putting Glass-Steagall back and cleaning up the SEC and potentially trying to end revolving door type conflicts of interest. \n The BASIC point is that OWS does not want a bought Congress.  Nothing can move forward for ANYONE while the situation remains as it is. \n I find it extremely hypocritical to  sit back and smirk  sit on the fence as your countrymen are beaten and shot at for exercising their constitutional rights.  By doing so, for whatever reason, you are basically saying \"Government, please clean these dirty hippies off my lawn.\" \n You have become what you hated because you think it suits you, and that repulses me. \n If you have a problem with the message of OWS, go out and change it.  Start a blog.  Organize yourself with like minded people.  Call for a repeal of the Patriot Act.  Call for whatever the hell you want. What's happening now is a massive experiment, and if you sit on the sidelines bitching, you'll only have yourself to blame when your voice isn't heard. \n Finally, reddiquette has gotten raped into submission in the past few weeks.  I can hardly wade through all the downvotes given to otherwise well thought out comments.  Are we really so pissed off that we can't discuss this civilly anymore?  If so we are bound to lose.", "id": "t3_lqshk", "summary": "I say this as one of you: You have all become a bunch of useless whiners and you are cheering on the state in trampling on people's rights because of a straw man argument that they are \"Socialists.\"  Get your shit together and find a better course through this. \n Now, please: rip me a new one and show how wrong I am."}]}
+{"author": "SiFixD", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post AD's don't even work for some people, let people discover what works for them and stop making blanket statements on how cannabis won't or will help - it quite literally effects everyone slightly differently. \n Also take breaks often. Anyone can get stuck in a rut of just smoking for the sake of smoking, thinking it's helping when you could really just do with a night out with the lads, or a day in the sun. It does help, certainly. but it's not this magic thing that if you consume in large quantities will cure you of your ailments, it's a \"I can get through today because if anything bad happens i won't care in 6 hours when i'm sat at home smoking before tea\" kind of deal not a \"I'll be so high, all the time i won't even know i'm suffering\" type thing xD", "output": "I have Drug Resistant Depression. I've taken every available prescription medication that the UK has to offer and i receive no benefits, but unfortunately still have to go through the gut wrenching effects of withdrawal every time. \n Took me years to realize that i could literally just smoke a plant that grows naturally and no longer be permanently crushed under the weight of my own sub-conscious. \n Weed effects everyone differently, and depending on what you do in life living intoxicated is far better than the alternative. For me it's quite literally hospitalization or electroshock therapy - both of which didn't work in the past. \n Also MY (key word is my) medicating insomnia with cannabis vs prescription medications; Cannabis makes me sleep for a few hours every few days, which is great. Prescription medications will allow me to sleep every night, but each day i'll be more and more fatigued because it's not really sleeping, you're fucking unconscious and i wake up knackered from what i guess is my body trying to keep me awake enough that i won't die if the house burst into flames. \n edit: Read a few more of the comments and in my personal experience i haven't taken a single AD/ Anti anxiety, etc that hasn't given me at least some negative side effects - even my DR told me they would all have some side effects and it's about finding the ones that i could live with. \n Anti-depressants also don't cure the symptoms, my dad went on them for most of his adolescents / adult life and the moment he came off them (after months of withdrawal, as you do when you come off them after months / years) he became deeply depressed again. If you're going to mask shit like this i'd argue you're better off doing it naturally than synthetically. \n edit2: For some people depression is a life long struggle - who are you to tell someone over the internet how to live their life :D my QOL without cannabis is so fucking atrocious that suicidal ideation has me hospitalized on a regular basis, i work hard, i'm proud of my prospects, i have a very loving and supportive family but it's got fuck all to do with that - it's not about weaknesses, or validating anything, you just get it and when you do it controls everything. Low mood is not depression. \n Ultimately you don't need a reason to smoke cannabis, i feel it called out to me at some stage in my life and that from that moment on it was my choice of poison, i don't drink and haven't in years - the public opinions on the matter don't bother me, what would bother me would be the reactions of my family but they're ProGreen since my dad knows the benefits of a joint when struggling with depression. All things in moderation, especially something that modifies brain chemistry when you're already imbalanced, depression is manageable without medications, even in the worst cases (like mine) by finding that thing that works for you, mines a treadmill and i'd probably die without it."}], "user_id": "longlamp_6353", "history": [{"author": "SiFixD", "content": "No they're not. \n They represent 2% of all active arena / RBG players @100 above 1.8k. Most FOTM speccs represent double that. You probably mean \"They're the top tier 3v3 class at 2.2k and above\", which is nothing new. They're perfectly desgined for it in terms of multidotting and utility that even when they're abysmal in pve they're a viable choice in 3s. \n That's literally only 3s, drop it to 2s and they're just above tanks in terms of representation, go up to 5s and it's the same. Drop the rating requirement to 1.8k they fall off the board, coming in at 11th in 3s and literally the bottom 3 slots (for the 3 lock speccs) in 2s. \n If there was a way to show it i'd argue the locks at the top of 3s are the same locks that are always at the top of 3s, not like you can roll an affliction lock and get 2.4k like you could with arms in s5, etc.", "id": "cncers4", "summary": "locks aren't under-represented/over-represented, but above 2.2k in 3s, and literally just 3s - they're top. That doesn't mean they're the most played, it means that a healthy amount of people that are playing afflic locks in 3s are top tier players."}, {"author": "SiFixD", "content": "Whilst we're on the issue of smoking in pools, i regularly smoke in my hot tub and to do that i hold the joint outside the hot tub and when i want to toke i lean entirely out of it to avoid the jets spray / little bits of water bouncing out from touching the joint. \n Is this safe? :D I've been doing it like once a week for a few years now. My main concern has always been that there's lots of chrlorinated water dropplets that form like a very fine mist slightly above the water so if i was to not lean out the joint would very likely get misted with chlorine.", "id": "cnd7j5n", "summary": "Can i smoke safely in my hot tub by holding the joint outside and leaning out to smoke? Or can i even skip doing that and not worry? :D:D [4]"}, {"author": "SiFixD", "content": "Just guestimate, it's pretty personal anyway due to the fact that i've eaten like 16 brownies in a day before and that was my [10], whilst people who have just smoked their first blunts will be the highest theyve ever been an attribute it to \"being a 10\". \n Ultimately though it's fairly common for people to only use 10's in past tenses, because if you say \"Omg im at a 10\" most people will ask how you're capable of typing let alone comprehending your level of high xD", "id": "cfcrxxc", "summary": "Just guess, 10 being too high to even be on reddit, 0 being sober, 5 being pretty fucking high, 7 being really high might even be tripping, 8/9 and you're in the danger zone - just don't burn the house down whilst cooking because you're too busy spending AGES typing somethign like this out  [7]"}, {"author": "SiFixD", "content": "I commented this one the other one, but i'll comment it agian; in the UK, especially the part i'm in at one stage had an issue with Synthetic Cannabis being sold as Cannabis due to the fact that head shops were selling ounces of it for £120. \n Synthetic Cannabis is pretty effing dangerous, i made the mistake of smoking it once and i skipped out all the fun effects and went straight into panic attack mode, fully body hot and cold sweats, shakiness, difficulty breathing, the usual - when it wore off i found a strong sensation to resmoke but luckily i had green around and just flushed the synth. \n It's chemically addictive aswell, which means that the dealers who were selling it were more likely to be visited again by the same people - especially with the stories of people smoking synth once and then weed having no effect on them.", "id": "cf8iulz", "summary": "That coroner seems to have an issue and i doubt they were smoking cannabis."}, {"author": "SiFixD", "content": "I love the \"Fat was a sign of wealth\" argument, it was indeed a sign of wealth, it showed people you could afford to stuff your face whilst everyone around you starved, not just abroad like today but literally outside your own fucking house children would starve. \n If you think that is the world you want to live in, i don't even know what to say. \n I remember reading a book about societies standards and how they change over time and in it it mentioned that there was a long period where pail skin was attractive as it symbolized you not needing to work, whereas tanned skin meant you likely worked manual labor outside, and were therefore poor. \n Then later industry changed and more people were working inside, so suddenly tanned skin became fashionable because rich people would get tanned on their tropical holidays so it symbolized wealth and again, not needing to work.", "id": "crmghez", "summary": "It's all fairly interesting but it seemed to boil down to; people are attracted to people who seem like they are well off, because they can provide. When people around you starve, being fat is in, when food is overabundant and everyone is overweight it becomes less attractive as it's no longer something bought, it's just a sign of a lack of self control, which is entirely unattractive."}, {"author": "SiFixD", "content": "You considered making one? Me and 7 friends from School / Uni / A few met in apprenticeships or at work run a guild. \n We went through god knows how many guilds until we found one that stuck, and today i still talk to most of the people i met through it on skype or teamspeak and whilst we play other games together they no longer play WoW (30+ of age and 7 or so years of gametime simply meant they were done with it for whatever reason.) \n When that fell apart we wound up just joining seperate guilds filling various open raid spots, and whilst some were nice and friendly we'd already been in a guild where we'd had a few meetings and knew everyone as people and not character names, so going backwards was just weird. \n In the end we wound up just making one, started it out as a social recruiting like minded people looking for a friendly guild that's willing to help people out, now we're planning our first guild meeting in Wales, UK. It's a fair amount of work (raid leading, guild leading, recruiting, etc) so i suggest getting people you trust and splitting tasks.", "id": "cly59pk", "summary": "Could always make the guild of your dreams."}, {"author": "SiFixD", "content": "UK Ent here; I've had 2 cases thrown out in court due to the police failing to do their job, I've been assaulted whilst arrested and handcuffed by an officer in uniform (when i was 17, so a good 6 years ago), I've been illegally detained on multiple occasions THIS year alone, I've been illegally searched a few times this year, i've also been arrested, cuffed and then \"Unarrested\" when they failed to find anything via their illegal search. \n My dad was arrested and held for 18 hours earlier this year, they failed to feed him more than once in that period and they didn't speak to him at the 12hour mark to tell him he was being detained further, went all the way to court before the court said \"Thats....not a crime?\" and dropped everything. \n They're useless here, the moment you are stopped you're required to ask one question, wait for them to ask you your name and say \"Am i legally obligated to answer that question?\" and when they say \"Yes\", which they do, every time, then just drop the usual \"Am i under arrest of am i free to go\", a fair amount of the time they'll make something up on the spot about detaining you but not arresting you, if you walk away they rarely try to stop you since they know they don't have a legal leg to stand on. \n ohhh yes, and there's a local cop in my area who was on the news a few months back for attemping to swing at a pedestrian literally out of nowhere, for no reason. Whole thing caught on someones phone, the cop pushes the civilian and swings before then yelling \"You're lucky i don't knock you out you fucking prick\" at the guy who's filming it all. That went through all the propper channels and he got suspension with pay. WITH PAY.", "id": "chlmi0d", "summary": "Fuck the police. Sure they're doing their job, and that it's right that they should enforce the law, not pick and choose which is acceptable to break - however, here especially, it attracts dicks. Ordinary people don't seem to want to become policemen, here thugs do."}, {"author": "SiFixD", "content": "Just a heads up, be respectful to your neighbors. A few years ago before the people next door moved out i had a serious problem with them, rather than then coming round and telling me they didn't like me smoking weed in my own garden they decided they'd install these 3 super strong, super bright high powered halogen spot lights aimed at my garden that trigger when i go into after 9pm(I only smoke at home after 9, due to local children and stuff), so bright you need sunglasses. \n I popped round to talk to them and they were SUPER disrespectful, they had a couple of fair arguments about why i shouldn't smoke in my own garden but they just went out of there way to be childish about the whole ordeal, rather than speaking to me they simply found ways to make my life a little worse each day and would threaten me with physical violence (Arguably the worst approach to take with me). \n I also made the mistake of telling them that their wood burning stove thing that they use outside gives me migraines, not because of the wood but due to whatever accelerant they drown it in, so for about a year or so after that they would leave it running like 8 or 9 hours a day effectively making my garden unusable for me unless i wanted to be unable to look at a monitor / TV screen for 24hours.", "id": "cieui9a", "summary": "People should just communicate, come to an understanding and go about living their lives, this guy is just trying to communicate and come to that understanding, though in an apartment building i'd probably just ignore it D: especially if you were away for the weekend. \n They've moved now anyway, pretty sure they got tired of all of their neighbors refusing to even wave at them simply because they were terrible people. \n Edit: Omg the replies are pure gold, thanks guys :D i'm definitely saving this to re-read after i've eaten and smoked, to all those saying \"should have gotten revenge or started a prank war\", i did. We went through a process of literally 2 years worth of random shit just to make each others lives a tiny bit worse, wasted so much fucking effort on it it's unreal and now i'm pretty ashamed, but also kind of proud because they were dicks."}, {"author": "SiFixD", "content": "I've done 3 heroics since as destro and just swapped to demo mainspecc, singletarget rotation feels a bit smoother but it's taking me WAY to long to pool embers to be enjoyable for me after so long as the specc. \n Right now i can only stay in 2nd or 3rd DPS with a 2nd target alive for most of the fight to double my chaos bolt damage. \n Been destro for 2 straight years (so i'm kind of happy to change) but i was amazed i'm doing similar DPS as demonology without much understanding into what i'm doing, i'm quite excited for how much i can do once i'm above sub-optimal rotation levels.", "id": "cmdhxq4", "summary": "i'm a tad unhappy since my favourite specc is no longer my favourite, but after 2 years of one build (minus affliction for 3s / bgs rarely) i'm somewhat glad i'm using another."}, {"author": "SiFixD", "content": "I was 17 and had been to a house party, it was probably 4am at this point so i was expecting to be able to come home and raid my fridge, sit down in the front room and just eat till i passed out. \n I got to the fridge and grabbed literally everything i could carry, then piled some stuff on top and even had things piled up to my neck being steadied by my chin... I walked into the front room to find my parents had waited up for me, they both looked at me as if to say \"what the literal fuck?\" but we didn't say anything, like 45seconds - a minute passed and i was abit panicky about the fact it was SUPER awkward so i figured i could just say anything and it'd make the situation better. \n I chose, god knows why, to simply say \"I'm just soooo fucking hungry\" in the slowest, highest way bloody possible. To which my dad instantly replied \"No fucking shit, you look incredibly high\". \n At that point i figured it was game set and match, so i just sat down and ate. Years on i still live at home, can vape in my room, smoke in the garden / shed / garage and have friends over to chill and smoke even when my rents (parents) are about.", "id": "ce990ec", "summary": "too high, too much food, got caught, can't lie for shit high, now its fine."}, {"author": "SiFixD", "content": "I found her early wave clear to be pretty terrible when played versus other mages in mid, late game it becomes beast but by then that Ao Kuang thats mid (in 90% of games i play) is a good 2k gold ahead of you from planting E and hiding behind his tower. \n I imagine she'll probably wind up being used as a sort of beefcake support after the initial \"wtf is that skill\" effect wheres off and people know her kit better. \n I found that the ring that provides 40magic damage on hit was especially good with her since it appears that when he fire gem is up it'll also splash that procc between all targets, doesn't sound like a great deal but 40 damage per AA on your main target and 20 extra splash is nice for wave clears. \n I also liked attack speed but i'm terrible with item names :D it's the one that has magic power and attack speed, then it has a stacking effect reducing their protection for x seconds. Found that with those 2 items i was able to  3 stun people, walk upto them, place my minions behind them so they can't backpedal away after, then AA a few times, if they're low enough ult with them ideally in the middle of it, pop 1 just to go naga and then land like 2 or 3 autos to finish them off. \n I've had much better success supporting as her however, since her kit just feels like as a support, her damage isn't great unless she's snowballing (versus other mids she's fairly weak due to the AoE potential i guess) but she's pretty good at getting multiple people low / dead in team fights quickly, whilst also locking them down.", "id": "cduoeqr", "summary": "Magic Power, Move Speed, Attack Speed, Win Games."}, {"author": "SiFixD", "content": "Figured i'd let you know a bit about my best friend who's currently in what i'd describe as a shit situation similar to yours; \n So my friend was doing a 3 year apprenticeship in the UK, he loved what he did and was always very happy and excited to go to work and through the apprenticeship he met a lot of his best friends, since you also attend college for one day a week with other apprentices from all other companies in the same field locally. \n During the first year he regularly talked to me about not feeling like they were utilizing him, how they wouldn't entrust any role to him and that he was basically just an office lacky; just sorting out components into boxes rather than building boards. This lasted all year until eventually he went to talk to someone about it and they described it as chronic stress induced depression. \n He continued to work there until literally last week (2 additional years) and his health was slowly deteriorating till eventually he'd had enough, we haven't had the full conversation as to how he came about quitting; but he's certainly much happier for the time being. He's not an at home kind of guy so i doubt he'll be out of work very long, he's set on getting a job ASAP so he can move out anyway.", "id": "cbs6wsd", "summary": "Working in an environment that just instinctively causes you aggro is unhealthy, whilst employment is employment, mental health is more important."}, {"author": "SiFixD", "content": "I suggest everyone spend some time in /r/skyrimmods to get an understanding of what the state of the community is actually like right now, people are finding their work uploaded and being charged for, their assets in other peoples charged mods, dependencies becoming pay for use, etc. People are gutting the steamwork and in some cases nexus of their work in an attempt to just hide from the current shitstorm. \n This is a hobby, it's something i and a lot of others do in our spare time for fun, to exercise our creative minds, i could have become  developer at any point since i started in UDK but it's something i do in my spare time that isn't my job. \n We're now seeing popups put into free versions, you're literally looking at advertisements in a game youve purchased, not to mention the clusterfuck that is getting several mods to run that aren't compatible, and things like script extenders potentially going behind paywalls. \n It just isn't necessary, people already donate, it may not be the vast majority and it may not be much but it's enough to keep myself motivated, and others i'm sure. This isn't my job, it's a hobby i've spent years on and not something i'm happy to see monetized, there'll be a definite division in the community going forward.", "id": "cqo82zg", "summary": "modding has always been an open collaborative community about expanding upon a game to extend it's longevity, now it'll be sales driven, mobile games style cloning of whats popular and isolated. \n edit: A [link]( to the discussion over there, including the statements about a lot of the major mod developers and people who develop the dependencies we use."}, {"author": "SiFixD", "content": "I'm sure this isn't something that will affect the vast majority of players, but i like to collect things in my house and put them on shelves and stuff. \n In previous Bethesda games (Fallout 3, NV, Oblivion and Skyrim) if you dropped an item on the floor, zoned out of the area, then zoned back in and moved it, it would then stay in it's new location for ever, whereas if you just dropped and place it any time you zoned it'd go back to where you dropped it. \n I've tried everything i can think of in this version, including using the workshop to place things, i've spent hours trying to figure it out and looking online but anytime i reload or zone in my objects all fall through the shelves / counters, etc and wind up on the floor below and items on the ground floor just straight up vanish.", "id": "t3_3tbm6e", "summary": "Can't decorate my house without objects falling through the floor anytime i zone in, anyone fixed it yet?"}]}
+{"author": "Lionflower13", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post No matter how much we prepare, we are still going to mess up on occasion. Forgive yourself and move on.", "output": "As someone who has been dealing with ADHD for the 45 years I have lived, you would think that I would be more adapted to it by now. \n Well, I am, really. But it just goes to show that even with discipline and practice, there are going to be times when we just can't get it together. \n I know it's not my fault. \n It's really not. \n I have had a lot going on in my personal life and at work, and I have been very, very distracted and living in my head lately. \n \n I burned the crap out of the palm of my left hand by not making sure that the hot pad covered the entire area I intended to use to pull a hot rack out of the oven. \n \n Embarrassing, yes. But, I can deal. It's almost healed. \n \n This morning was the icing on the cake, though. I had a doc appointment yesterday and need to make up a few hours I missed at work. \n \n So, I got up early, ditched the make-up routine, and got to work 45 minutes before scheduled. \n Only to find out that I forgot my badge. \n Luckily, I live 10 minutes away. \n But, I had to stop and get gas.  Damn. \n So, I get gas and nearly run over a guy trying to get back into his car. I give him prayerful hands of forgiveness and apologize, and he smiles and waves me on. Phew! \n Then I got home and go to my Puka of Daily Things, and my badge  ISN'T IN THE PUKA OF DAILY THINGS! \n Now, I'm hosed. I can't get into the building without it. \n I look around the area where I change clothes. I look around my office. Nothing. \n I went back outside and looked in my work bag in the car. THERE IT IS, rolled up at the bottom of my bag. It was IN THE CAR the entire time! I came home for nothing!!! \n AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!! \n So, instead of letting myself wallow in self-pity ... and to try to get over the feelings of being a complete failure monkey ... I decided to take a few minutes and share this with you. \n Because, it's not your fault when you mess up. \n It's not my fault that I messed up today. \n There are times when no matter what we do to prevent such mistakes, they are going to happen anyway - once in a while. \n All we can do is try to minimize their occurrences. \n So, my ilk, try not to get discouraged. Keep trying. But, most importantly ... \n FORGIVE YOURSELF when you mess up. \n Because, it's not your fault. You are trying. And, you're not always going to succeed. \n And, that's OK. \n I love you guys."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4090", "history": [{"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "I just went through a nightmare with this company myself. \n I got a phone call from them telling me that I could not get my Rx for Concerta filled locally anymore or they would charge me full price. I was instructed to get a 90-day refill from my doc. \n So, I got one from my very nice doc. I was nearly out of pills, so I called Express Scripts to see if I could fax it in or whatever. They said, just get it filled at the local pharma. It wasn't considered a \"Maintenance Medication\" after all. Just have the pharma break it into 3 refills of 30 days each. \n So, I went to the local pharma, and they said they could only refill 30 days and I would lose the other 60 days on the Rx. And, they couldn't break it up into 3 refills of 30 days. Only the doc could because it's a controlled substance. \n So, I called Express Scripts and chewed them out. \n Then I went back to my doc, turned in the 90-day, and got three 30-day Rx so I could have the stuff filled locally. \n ARGH!", "id": "c91j99v", "summary": "Express Scripts has their collective head up their collective ass."}, {"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "Grrrrrl. I know how you feel. For the first like 8 months after I found out (I was 43) I felt like I constantly had to apologize for my behavior. \n The super-confident, charismatic, no fucks given person I was took an emotional slapdown after my diagnosis. It shattered my self-confidence and some of my feelings of self-worth for a while. \n I'm happy to say that I am a more measured and cautious version of my old self - and I am able to get closer to people as a result of awareness and medication. \n And I walked around Target today with a big dinosaur hat on and left it on through the Jack in the Box drive-thru.", "id": "cbb2n9j", "summary": "It will get better. I promise."}, {"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "I keep one list for everything.  What you saw on the fridge was just part of the master list. They were the things I wanted to focus on that weekend. One list is easier to keep track of than multiple lists. This is why I love Evernote - because it synchs across all devices. \n The fact is,  when we are stressed or tired, no amount of green tea, meditation, or medication is going to abate our symptoms. \n Even when I start the day serene and fully medicated, I can still have off days if things suddenly get stressful or I haven't had enough sleep. \n I've had to make a  conscious effort to reduce stress  and take command of what causes my stress. I make myself go to bed on time on weeknights so that I can get 7+ hours of sleep. it sucks, but I'm always glad I did it. \n Also, as far as mixing things up:  Use the same spots every time,  just change the information that is there occasionally. \n For example,  swap the location of your do-list with your calendar. \n Or, print out your do-list in a  different font,  or on a  different color paper,  or  highlight parts  of it with colorful pens. \n I'm sure others have great tips, too, for this. I would love to hear them as well.", "id": "ckd0y8i", "summary": "Keep one list, get enough sleep, take control of what stresses you, keep the same locations for reminders, swap out and change up the appearance of calendars and lists."}, {"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "Hello. I don't know why all the down votes. I wasn't diagnosed until late in life, and I have to say, I agree with you. \n I have never been bored. \n When all of the other parents were observing from the sidelines, I was the one pushing everyone on the swings, swinging myself and then jumping out yelling \"Geronimo!\", jumping in the bounce house (I still do that), painting with finger paints, etc. \n Yes, I have had my challenges, but I overcame them. Some were quite terrible. But, I learned and grew from it. \n And, post-diagnosis, I learned how to forgive myself for things I've done in the past that I can see now were part of the disorder.", "id": "c91w5rd", "summary": "I feel ya."}, {"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "Hi. I'm on Concerta and Celexa for anxiety and I function just fine.  For the first few weeks, I would get occasional palpatations, but not now. \n I still have anxiety attacks in crowded stores, but I am able to leave the house, socialize, go to the gym, etc, without feeling like my life is in danger.", "id": "c98iurb", "summary": "My anxiety has actually lessened as a result of taking ADD meds."}, {"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "I have been a technical writer for over 13 years.  It's challenging and interesting work and there is a lot of task variety.  You have to research stuff, study engineering drawings and data, and then make it all make sense to someone who isn't technical.  It requires a great deal of organization and planning, which is surprisingly easy to do when you have a deadline breathing down your neck. \n The problem for me came when I got promoted to project manager.  Suddenly, I was in big important meetings with big important people and when you don't have a filter between thought and mouth, you can get into trouble.  (this occurred before I knew I was ADD and unmedicated) \n Still, the more I learned about how management works and the political bullshit that goes on at that level made me realize that I do not have what it takes to live in that world.  (Saying, \"That fuckin sucks.' to a VP is not looked upon kindly.)  So, I've elected to stay a tech writer, who actually does work and actually makes a product.", "id": "c74w8wd", "summary": "Technical writer is a great challenging career, but the cautious requirements of management are not for me. \n Edit: Spelling."}, {"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "Hello, my favorite support group. \n Husband had a kidney transplant on Sunday. Everything went well, so my stress and exhaustion come from a good event, not a disaster. \n That said, stress is stress, and no matter where it comes from, and no matter whether you've taken your meds that day,  ADD symptoms get worse when you are stressed. \n Case in point: I locked my medicated self out of the house for the first time, yesterday, because of my scatterbrainedness. So, the neighbors got to see my magnificent (as in big) ass squeezing through the kitchen window. Not the funnest way to end a day, but at least I didn't have to call a locksmith! \n (Goal for Win Wednesday: Put the damn hide-a-key back in the yard!) \n My meds have helped me maintain emotional balance through this ordeal, but because I'm not at my best, my symptoms are worse. \n So, if you think your meds aren't working for you anymore, consider taking a look at what's going on in your life before rushing to your doc and demanding a new prescription. \n It could be that you need to do a little more self-care.", "id": "t3_1ii5m8", "summary": "Your ADD symptoms tend to increase when you are stressed whether you're on meds or not."}, {"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "I wrap a thought around my finger. \n By time I get to the next room, I've often forgotten why I was going in there in the first place. \n So now, before I start walking, I stick out the index finger of my left hand and assign it meaning, like, \"Get husband's sweat pants.\" \n I also use this technique when talking to people so that I don't forget the important things that come to mind while they are speaking. \n When I think of something I really want to say, I stick out the finger again and wrap my idea around it. \n This is especially helpful when the thing I thought of is unrelated to the conversation at hand. For example, my husband was talking about Elizabeth Warren's attempt to reinstate regulations on banks. \n While we was talking, my mind birdwalked:  Elizabeth Warren -> female politician -> I wonder if husband will vote for Hillary in 2016. \n Rather than ask him this when he takes a breath, I mentally wrap my question around my finger and can hold it there until it's appropriate to change the subject. \n The beauty of all of this is you have 10 fingers. I've been able to hold up to 3 thoughts using this finger trick.", "id": "t3_1in25v", "summary": "When you have a thought in the middle of a conversation, stick out your index finger and associate it with the thought so you remember."}, {"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "Yep. I'm stupid and impulsive. \n I didn't have the brokerage take out enough taxes. \n I needed money to live on because my temporary disability checks were late getting to me because of state backlog. \n So, in addition to living, I paid off credit cards, went on a week-long vacation, and got a big maintenance done on my car. \n I only rolled over about 1/3 of what I took out. \n So, am I fucked, or is there a way of out paying a bunch of taxes on it?", "id": "t3_1arisa", "summary": "I spent 1/3 of my 401k on living expenses because my disability checks were late. I blew the other 1/3 on paying off credit cards, etc."}, {"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "Six months ago I got so overwhelmed with the incredible amount of major life stressors in my life that I could no longer function. \n I'm 43, have a husband with major medical issues for which I sometimes have to be caretaker, and at the time, I had just lost my house, had to move, and had a extremely challenging job that suddenly required a lot of unplanned business travel. \n I spent almost six weeks on the couch unable to do anything. I was depressed. After the docs figured out I have ADD, and have been medicated, things have become much better. \n But, I realized that the job I had was going to kill me. So, on my therapist's recommendation, I quit. Looking back, it was for the best. \n So, I have decided that I have a renewal on life. I can now pursue what I want to instead of doing what I think I have to. I'm starting business with a life-long friend and I am writing my fingers off. \n Everything was going along just fine until this week. I'm not sure what happened. I had three solid months of productivity and energy and suddenly ... whamo!  I haven't accomplished a thing - business-wise - all week! \n Is it normal to get stuck and unstuck in cycles like this?", "id": "t3_1atpem", "summary": "I am really productive for a few months and then suddenly unproductive for a week or more at a time.  Is this typical?"}, {"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "I was diagnosed late in life with ADHD, so I have had plenty of time to grow behavioral patterns - not all of them good. \n Since I have been taking Concerta 27, I have noticed some significant changes in my reactions to things - for the better. \n Here are a couple of examples. \n No more frenzied searches for things that increase my stress level. \nI ordered 2 books of stamps from the USPS to be delivered so I didn't have to schlep to the post office. They arrived a week ago. Today, I couldn't find them. \n \n Response before meds:  Run around the house, throwing stuff around, making bigger messes, and stressing out until I found them. \n \n Response after meds: Realizing they are probably under something I recently put down, I take the time to straighten up the office - until I find them. Find the stamps. No stress. All is well. And, my office is a little tidier to boot. \n \n \n \n I want accounting software and I want it now! \nI have decided that I need to use accounting software for my business. I have some from 2008 but it's Windows and I now have a Mac. \n I don't want to virtualize my Mac to run the software, so I called up customer service to see if they could convert my license to a Mac license and let me download and install the software. \n The guy did the best he could,  but said I would need to talk to customer service on Monday because he couldn't figure out how to make this work for me since the software is no longer supported. \n \n Response before meds: Get irritated at the guy for asking me a ton of questions I believe to be irrelevant.  \n \n After discovering he couldn't help me, I would have obsessed with getting accounting software TODAY using money I don't have, even if it meant buying new software. \n \n Response after meds: I thanked him for doing his best and took down the customer service number he gave me. I will call them Monday to see if they can convert my license for me, and not worry about anything until I know for sure whether they can help me or not.", "id": "t3_1fhhct", "summary": "ADHD medication has helped me respond more appropriately to situations that used to make me batshit crazy."}, {"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "If ever I was hating my ADD, it is  right now. \n Of course, I was last minute scrambling around, building a battery pack for my telescope so I could view the comet tonight. \n Got it done, fed the cats, and let the little one out. Grabbed my gear and headed out, all excited like a little kid for comet viewing ... And forgot to close the cat door. This was at 6:30 pm. \n Grabbed some chow on the way home and rolled in around 9:00 pm ... No kitty greeting me at the door. No kitty asleep on my office chair. Then I find the cat door open. \n I walked the neighborhood for 45 minutes. No sign. I feel sick to my stomach. I'm hating on myself pretty bad right now. It's 11:30 pm and I'm going to go walk around some more.", "id": "t3_1a7ams", "summary": "cat had surgery on his leg and has to wear a cone so he doesn't lick the stitches. I left the cat door open when I let the other cat out. \n UPDATE   He came home around 3:30 this morning, cat-casually, expecting to be fed. After taking off his cone and cuddling him a moment he kind of squirmed to get away and was all like, \"What?!\" \n Big thank you  to everyone for your sympathy. I have had non-ADD people lecture me about letting my cats out at a time like this, which only makes me feel worse. I love you guys!"}, {"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "Hello, Community. \n Two years ago, at age 43, I was diagnosed with ADHD. I will  not  revisit the process of grief and acceptance here. Nope. \n This post is all about  success ! \n As a cake day offering, I wanted to share the 5 things I use every single day to keep me from failing - most of the time. \n     ** The Checklist of Surety **\n \n This is the last thing I see as I'm walking out the door in the morning on my way to work.  I have to change up the colors and fonts sometimes to make sure that I keep paying attention to it. Otherwise, it fades into the background like things sometimes do for us - like the mountain of cardboard boxes we have been meaning to break down for recycling for the last two weeks, or the suitcase on the bedroom floor still packed from a business trip from two weeks ago. Yeah. \n    ** The Carabiner of Finding **\n \n I have my car key and a couple of scanny tags I use regularly attached to the carabiner.  I keep it simple so that I can clip it onto a belt loop if I'm  clubbing  or  hiking.  I clip it on the inside or the handle of my bag so that I always know where my  car keys  are. Well, most of the time. \n    ** The Puka of Daily Things **\n \n This is where I place the Caribiner of Finding, my  work badge,  and other things I  need to have every day.  No, I'm not 100% effective on putting stuff here, but most of the time, I can find my car keys before leaving for work. \n    ** The Calendar of Accountability **\n \n This is two months' worth of  appointments, obligations, and reminders  - like changing the fish filter and refilling prescriptions. \n     ** The Do List of Doing **\n \n These are  things that I want to get accomplished on the weekend.  I make sure to X them out with great aplomb so that I get that satisfying feeling of accomplishing something. \n     **  When I Start Messing Up Again **\n \n The key, for me, to continued success is  changing around the locations or appearance of my checklists and calendar.  Same spots are used, but instead of the calendar being on the left side of the fridge, I'll put it on the right side. It helps me to start paying attention again.", "id": "t3_2fq446", "summary": "Pictures of things I use every day to stay on track."}, {"author": "Lionflower13", "content": "I am a responsible, mature adult, and I cannot find my shoes. They are not in any of the usual places. \n They are not by the cat tree. They are not by the screen door. They are not by the front door, or by the towel closet near the garage door. They are not in any of the usual places. \n But, I have checked those usual places at least three times, because where else could my shoes be? After my fourth trip around the house, I decide to look in unusual places. \n They are not in the bathroom. They are not in my office. They are not in my husband's office or in the family room. If I had not taken my Concerta this morning, I would probably be throwing things around by now in frustration, because I cannot find my shoes. \n A new idea occurs to me; do a perimeter search. So, I start by the front door and look along the walls and walk the inside perimeter of my house. The family room, the kitchen, the living room, my husband's office, the hallway, the bedroom ... \n ... and there they are, next to a laundry basket full of clean clothes I folded a week ago but have not put away, yet. They are under a bathrobe that is draping over the edge of the basket and onto the floor, hiding my shoes. \n This was 30 minutes of my life that I will never get back. I will tack it on to other 30 minute increments (or more) that I have wasted in similar efforts, like finding my car keys, finding my coat, or, yes, finding my shoes. \n I do not wish to add up all of those increments, because it might make me sad to think of how much life I have wasted because of this disorder. Instead, I think I will be happy that I found my shoes.", "id": "t3_1p4re5", "summary": "A humorous essay about my ADD."}]}
+{"author": "TardisTechnologist", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post because they are a successful band but haven't done anything special. There are thousands of other bands like this but for some reason people picked Nickelback as the cool thing to hate.", "output": "The only correct answer in this thread. \n Their music is somewhat bland and generic. One day people just decided that they were too popular and started the hate circlejerk which has been perpetuated by many, including 98% of the responses in this thread. \n So what if their music is bland and samey? There are other much shittier \"musicians\" out there whose music is genuinely insulting to the ears."}], "user_id": "longlamp_6898", "history": [{"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "All depends on how you look at it, the last two years of a British-style high school system, called A-levels, (having been in both British and North American) is close to the first two years of university in terms of academics in North America. A typical British undergraduate program therefore starts at a higher level and is only 3 years long as opposed to the North American 4 year degrees. \n So, take someone entering med school in Britain versus in North America; in Britain they will have 2 years worth of A-levels, let's call that 1 year of undergrad (I've done one year of A-levels in Britain and am currently taking undergrad in Canada, it's around the same level academically). So they have done first year, then they take 6 years of training in a direct medical field before interning/becoming qualified. \n In North America, Med School students have 8 years (4 undergrad, 4 postgrad) of direct schooling as opposed to the British 6 years, but 4 of those years were probably spent learning Chemistry, Biology, Neuroscience.. whatever their undergrad was. So they only have 4 years of Medical schooling before internship etc, and a very specialised knowledge in a certain area which is related to their field but not applicable every day to being a doctor. Brits have 6 years of specific Medical schooling, which is more, but lack the specialised already-have-an-undergrad aspect; although I'd say they have at least 1 years worth of undergrad from the high school system.", "id": "c7uu8bv", "summary": "From my view of both systems, even if North American doctors train twice as long, a lot of it is less discipline-specific because they have a whole 4 years of undergrad first. Hence why as soon as you have Dr. in front of your name, it doens't matter where you got the letters, every country wants to offer you a job. \n edit: put in bullets because I'm a reddit noob and I can't get my formatting to be legible otherwise"}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "I see your point, and I think \"legacy\" was possibly the wrong word for what I meant. It's not about doing what your parents want, or being your parents; it's just about leaving SOMETHING behind. It doesn't have to be genetic material, but it is (imo) most easily achieved so. \n My Dad died of a heart attack 2 years ago when I was 17 and what really keeps him alive is my mom, my brother, and my sister - our memories of him and the traits, habits, sense of humour, the nature that he passed on to us. I guess in this sense it's not so much important to have kids, just to have a family, close friends, people who will outlast you so that you don't just die forever. \n Liked the", "id": "c9064ev", "summary": "sums it up pretty good, lol"}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "It's default bound to the ` key. (Above tab) \n Whilst holding it, you may click on minions to move to where they are, without attacking them. It's useful for switching monster aggro when you are ranged but you want to take aggro instead of somebody who is melee; you can walk right up to baron, for example. Also useful for jumping over double golem wall from golem side as Nidalee, or placing the ward at red buff over that wall as a support without taking golem aggro by accident. \n Another trick to use when Thresh's lantern is hard to click is to just click slightly up the chain from the lantern, it will still zip you back.", "id": "cd7jfba", "summary": "it doesn't impair clicking on minions at all, unless you are holding the bound key whilst trying to CS (which you wouldn't ever)"}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "As a landlord, I'd say 7 months is a stretch but it's entirely possible. I've had to evict tenants before and when you get into the process you discover landlords have virtually no rights,  the rights are ALL with the tenant. It's good in a way because it protects tenants from assholes landlords, but at the same time it means tenants can get away with murder. \n I've had the police banging on the door of a tenant with a violent criminal record (unknown to me on signing) who was to be evicted (overdue rent and stealing from another resident) and the cops basically told me if he doesn't unlock the door of his own accord there's nothing I can do, even having warned him formally in writing as per the lease, I'd still be illegally entering (in my own house) if I went into his room to dump his stuff on the curb and lock him out. Luckily for me he up and left the following day because it turned out he was on parole conditions - didn't want to get in any more tangles with the law. He left his room full of piss jugs, rotting food, and dirty clothes, but at that point I was just glad he was gone.", "id": "coumyof", "summary": "landlords have fuck all rights, they are ALL with the tenant, so it's entirely plausible albeit unlikely."}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "I'm split on it. I used to have the most basic and cheap phone available, because I figured $30/mo got me pretty much all I needed; calling and texting. However, a few months ago after my cheap phone finally died, I decided to invest in a good phone that would last me longer and serve me in many more ways. I bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 4, which is one of the best and therefore most expensive phones on the market right now. However, I still managed to get it relatively frugally - by paying $550 up-front I was able to stay on a cheap $35/mo plan which still gives me everything I need, and that initial cost plus the cheap plan will cost me $1000+ LESS over the 2-4 years I will have this phone than a $0 down payment $80/mo plan that the company would normally try to sell me. \n As well as that, this phone has replaced both my old phone and my dying laptop and is a hell of a lot more portable than a laptop whilst offering almost identical functionality.", "id": "cpgxtio", "summary": "IMO most of the time smartphones are a waste of money. However if you pay upfront and get a cheap plan, you can get a far cheaper deal. You can also replace multiple gadgets with a large smartphone (phone, tablet, laptop, GPS, etc. can be amalgamated into a smartphone). Therefore if you're smart about it you can declutter/downscale by investing in a good smartphone."}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "Sense of entitlement really gets me. \n I had this one friend from my first year at uni, fun to be around but typical overly-liberal and opinionated college girl. Political views, whatever, doesn't bother me. She's a good laugh. I always had a feeling she was spoiled though, one of those girls who had a rich Daddy that was disappointed to pay for her degree in Gender Studies but hoped she might end up in law school or something, and couldn't argue with his princess anyway. This story reinforced that thought. \n Come second year, her and I both have the same landlord (not housemates, but our landlord owns a few properties scattered across the student area of the city). Long story short she moves out without paying her last month's rent, which in my books is stealing. It's around $600, minus the half months rent in deposit which she will have paid at the start of the lease. They own a few properties, but that doesn't make them rich. They have mortgages and bills to pay. Either way, stealing is stealing regardless of who it's from. \n The landlord asks me if I know her number and I lie and say no, not knowing what it was about. I ask her and her response was something like this: \n \"Wow, she asked you for my number? Ugh, she's such a creepy bitch. We moved out because there was  mice , and now she's stalking me. She keeps hounding me for the last month's rent, which I can't pay anyway. Please don't give her my details, she is harassing me.\"", "id": "ce4feha", "summary": "we're not friends any more."}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "The point is they pivot so that you can choose to either block light out completely (useful) OR angle them so they filter some light in in slits (not useful imo). If you wanted to block light out completely, a conventional blind would suffice, without the frustration these ones provide. Having a conventional blind 3/4 of the way down lets some light in but blocks the light from shining on screens or at eye level, which is really everything you could ever need from a blind besides blocking all the light out. I rarely see anyone use those blinds for their intended purpose (letting light in through slits), in fact right now I'm in a room with these blinds, 3/4 of the way down, but with the slits closed.", "id": "coezfgs", "summary": "they don't do anything better than a regular blind would, but they add a massive amount of potential frustration to the equation!"}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "Riot having multiple servers ( fact ) and people experiencing different ping per game ( fact ) does  NOT  mean  different server per game is the only consistent feature that varies between games therefore it is riot's fault because they are changing the server every game to a laggy one undeniable truth omg. \n Riot's servers, despite being numerous, are highly unlikely to have any differences between them in terms of connection, performance, etc.", "id": "c9cenc8", "summary": "it's 1000% more likely that inconsistencies are at your end rather than Riot's."}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "Agreed. She doesn't have any hard \"caught-out\" cc like Thresh or Leona so people don't see her as such a threat in lane, but where she IS a threat is in an engage the enemy thinks they can win. Bait, shield, disrupt, and press the panic button R if it all goes wrong (which it rarely does :P )", "id": "cb2uk42", "summary": "Janna is my baby"}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "Her body. Her choice. \n This is the argument I've always found ridiculous when it comes to abortion. Not that I am against abortion, just that this particular \"her body her choice\" thing comes up a lot and IMO it should have very little weighting in the argument. The dilemma should NOT surround the 9 months of discomfort involved in bringing a baby into this world (not to minimise the extent of how uncomfortable pregnancy is, I know it sucks). The dilemma is about the baby itself, the new life in question. Now whether a foetus is \"alive\" is a whole other debate, but I really think the whole \"her body\" thing holds too much weight. If you want kids or don't want kids, the pregnancy itself is generally NOT the deciding factor, and it shouldn't be with an abortion either. \n My comparison is people saying they don't want tattoos because they hurt. That's an awful reason not to want a tattoo. The fact that it's in your skin for the rest of your life and you don't want that committment; THAT'S a good reason not to get one. Nobdoy with a tattoo regrets it just because it hurt. \n Now I understand there are certain long-term effects on the body, such as increased risk of breast cancer if having a child at an old age. However, the population in question is generally young women who suffer negligible long-term changes following a pregnancy; the only relevant long-term effect is that you get a baby out of it.", "id": "ckhzccl", "summary": "having an abortion because you don't want to be pregnant is stupid. Having an abortion because you don't want a child should be the actual reason, thus \"Her body, her choice\" should not bear weight in an argument. \n I will 100% get downvoted because of this opinion but I felt the need to share; it would be nice to hear some genuine refutations and discission on the way down :)"}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "The easiest way to cut down on cell phone use without removing it from your life (impractical for me as I have no home phone) is to get a phone which you don't enjoy using. I have a HTC One V, it's a cheap phone which is complete garbage. I used to have an iPhone which I spent a lot of time on. \n I guess I'm harder to get ahold of now, as I won't reply to texts unless absolutely necessary, but I'll always pick up a call or have it on me to make a call if necessary, and that's all I need.", "id": "ch56ly5", "summary": "get a slow, crappy phone which can make calls and you'll find that's all you use it for."}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "The key distinction which kinda makes this comparison redundant is that Lux does all of this from a significantly safer distance. Sure, Lissandra can scale better but if you are going for the same all-damage build you would probably go for on Lux, you're likely to get focused and blown up much easier.", "id": "c9qb64e", "summary": "don't dis my beloved babygirl Lux"}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "You're talking about \"winning the lane\" being difficult due to lack of kill potential, I'm saying you don't need kills to win lane. I guess I should have been more clear. \n Shoving down the tower and denying the enemy AP is what Galio does to win lane. He is more of a tank/utility champ in teamfights and can put out nice damage with his Q and R wherever possible but the fact that he's not a \"kill potential\" champion doesn't mean it's hard to win lane/the game.", "id": "cbjwq3a", "summary": "Lack of kill potential isn't a problem on a heavy utility tank/bruiser."}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "To elaborate on the c-spine thing, just 'cos you seem to like learning. The top 7 vertebrae of your spine make up your cervical spine (c-spine), cervical meaning neck (the cervix is the \"neck\" of the uterus). The next 12, which each articulate with a rib on each side, make up your thoracic spine (t-spine). The lower 5 (some people have 6) are the biggest, and make up your lumbar spine (L-spine). Then after that, there's your sacrum and coccyx.", "id": "ce53r0h", "summary": "top 7 are c-spine, next 12 are t-spine, lower 5 are L-spine, in descending order of position and increasing order of size. \n To work it out for yourself, put your hand on the back of your neck; the largest, pointiest one you can feel at the base of your neck is C7."}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "I love how I can scroll to nearly the bottom of the page and still no helpful answer has been provided. \n Brush in the English language can mean several things; a paint/hair/broom type of brush, brush as in an outcrop of grass/foliage/bushes, or the verb  to brush , as in \"Draven brushed his hair today. And his moustache.\" \n Bush means foliage/grass/shrubbery. \n In general, brush is a  collection  of bushes.", "id": "c97ymop", "summary": "Brush or bush are both acceptable , \"Brush\" is pronounced \"Br-uh-sh\", \"Bush\" is pronounced more like \"B-oo-sh\"."}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "I think Vogel, whilst never having killed anyone, may be a puppet master serial killer by manipulation; she \"created\" Dexter, I would be unsurprised if she has encouraged others to kill. (Spoiler) in S08E03 she suggested that Dexter should have killed Deb, and the spoilers for next episode hint to me that she will attempt to persuade or trick Deb in to suicide. Her past patients, at least a few of them, are confirmed to still be killers, and she wants to manipulate Dexter in to killing the Brain Surgeon.", "id": "t3_1ihukh", "summary": "Vogel is a psychopath, a serial killer by manipulation, and will end up on Dexter's table (or maybe under Deb's gun)"}, {"author": "TardisTechnologist", "content": "I started in the new system at Silver V. Since then I have faced 5 promotion series and haven't won any of them to make it up to Silver IV. Pretty frustrating but I know I'll always end up where I belong, there is no such thing as ELO hell, and so on. \n What I DON'T understand is how, in my last ranked game, despite having over 200 ranked games this season, I was matched (for promotion series) with [one player]( who has a total of 5 ranked games and [another]( who has a total of 3. \n In my opinion, the fact that you get such a diverse range of abilities at ~1200 ELO is the number one cause of ranked rage and what people call \"ELO hell\". 1200 ELO is a real bitch, not because \"omg I always get scrubs and cant carry this\" but because the ability range is so broad, it seems like there is really no ranking system at all.", "id": "t3_18ukne", "summary": "I'm happy sitting at my 1200 ELO ranking but I'd love it if Riot incorporated number of games played in to the calculation, and if they do, they seriously need to fix it so that it's stricter. Being matched for my 3rd promotion game of a series with unranked players who have less than 5 games and only 1 win when I've played over 200 is not fun."}]}
+{"author": "Vengeance164", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I wouldn't say one engine is definitively better than the other, just that they shine in different areas.", "output": "Watching the footage again, I think The Witcher 3's crispness and colour vibrance make it more visually appealing than The Division. But while I would give Witcher 3 the advantage in terms of environment, the effects like the steam from the sewer vent, and the reflection in the water on the street in The Division was very, very impressive. \n I think their respective engines shine over the other in those areas. Witcher 3 has a more visually appealing environment (a large part of which is probably just because of the setting) but the Division's particle effects, and really small, but noticeable details really makes their engine shine."}], "user_id": "longlamp_7627", "history": [{"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "Oh my God. This is exactly why I couldn't get into Skyrim. I know they're completely different games, but after I played Dark Souls, the combat in Skyrim was just ...  boring . Dark Souls has definitely spoiled me with its combat system. It's not fancy, it just works. I still enjoyed Witcher 2 a lot, but I definitely know what you mean about the combat. I need to be able to block an attack, stagger the enemy, and finish them off with a heavy attack. I loved the level of strategy you could employ in Dark Souls, and I found it to be much more difficult in Witcher 2, especially since there is no in-combat healing other than potions pre-fight. \n I still like the Witcher 2, but for the story. The combat is good, but it could have been better. I never could quite figure out how to keep myself safe in combat other than roll in, attack, roll out. Which is similar to how I play in Dark Souls, but I feel like Dark Souls' combat is a little more responsive and... I don't want to say easier, but something about it feels better than Witcher 2.", "id": "c8sqqzf", "summary": "I agree. Damn you, Dark Souls."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "I was in the same boat for the longest time. I used to just say \"Clippers side and back, scissors on top.\" Any further information the person wanted, I usually just made ambiguous motions and suggestions. \n The best thing I've ever done is to forgo the clippers (shears/the electric thing) and just use scissors all over, and ask for the top to be \"textured.\" I usually just throw some hair goo in and roll. By not using the clippers, I think my appearance improved tenfold. It looks much  more natural when they use scissors as opposed to the clippers, and I think it comes out with a cleaner blend.", "id": "c4nrv6m", "summary": "ask them to only use scissors on the sides and back, and only use clippers for sideburn equalization"}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "The other day I was helping my friend level on Belsavis (I'm level 50 with all my Columi gear) and he afk'd, so I went looking for something fun to do. First I started farming some mobs for bio mats, and then I spotted a Rep! So my first reaction was \"GANK HIS FACE OFF!\" but I hesitated. I was level 50, he was 44. I was fully geared, and probably had twice as many stats in everything as him. Hell, my companion alone could have kicked his ass. \n So I decided to have a bit of fun. I started chasing him on my speeder, yelling in the \"say\" channel, \"Get back here! You think I'm going to let you fuck my wife and get away with it?!\" \n I followed him on my speeder as if it were a car chase (since I have a car-like mount) and I would \"slide\" around turns and occasionally bump into him. Eventually, he took a sharp turn and I \"crashed\" into a fence. I then used my BH Death from Above ability to simulate the explosion of a car crash. \n Later on, I found a different Rep, and again decided to fuck with him. So I followed him. He kept trying to outrun me, but to no avail. He finally got to his questing area, and starting killing whatever it was he needed to kill. So I helped him. This went on for about 15 minutes. I didn't say a word to him. Just went around, let him grab the agro, and then killed the mob for him.", "id": "c3scopm", "summary": "lvl 50 BH chased around some ~lvl44 Reps and fucked with them"}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "But you have to realize, Dragon Age was in development before they were bought by EA. Since then, I think BioWare's work has steadily declined. As far as their morality in games go, just look at Mass Effect 2 and 3. You had Good Answer/Neutral Answer/Massive Douche Answer. There weren't really any hard choices in those games, not to mention \"Do you want the green magic space bubble, the blue one, or the red one?\" that was Mass Effect 3's ending. \n Their games have only become more constrictive in player choice over the past few years. BioWare just doesn't do hard choices well. Not a lot of games do. They talk about them all the time, but it largely just boils down to \"Do you let the puppies and kittens burn down in an orphanage, or douse the fire?\" \n But that's why I'm out of my mind excited for Witcher 3. CDP can write a story like a motherfucker. And Geralt's choices are  hard . In most BioWare games, the ramifications of your actions don't usually go any farther than getting points in \"good guy\" or \"bad guy\" and maybe different exp. But in the Witcher universe, every action has a consequence.", "id": "cbrqjwa", "summary": "I'm not terribly interested in the new Dragon Age as I think present day BioWare is a watered down version of what they once were. \n Edit:  And to further address the above point of the Dragon Age vs. Mass Effect teams, the lead designer for DA:O left the company during the development of DA2. DA2 also started development  after  BioWare's acquisition by EA. So if you really want a good picture of what DA3 will be, ME2-3 and DA2 are the games you should be looking at. And at least for me, I was not a huge fan of any of those games. Especially DA2. The first Dragon Age was pretty good, in my opinion. But DA2 was a watered down experience with laughable dialogue, recycled maps, and boring/repetitive gameplay. I just don't think DA3 is going to offer much more, though I would love to be wrong."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "I think he brings up some good points, however I take issue with how \"either/or\" the video is. Either games need to be open to political criticism , or they don't. Either GTA V needs to have commercials that present it as a technical feat, or it needs to be treated as art. \n My issue is that he doesn't address game vs narrative. It's silly to criticize a game because the commercials focus on technical feats. He's ignoring the dichotomy between the artistic aspects of a game, and the technical features. Games should advertise technical elements, because that's a major selling point for them. \n His car/video game analogy was completely ridiculous. Cars don't have a narrative. There aren't story elements to it. There isn't a goal, other than utilizing it as mode of transportation. He's criticizing the whole, while only focusing on a part. It's like saying your entire dinner is bad because you didn't care for the peas. \n Games shouldn't be immune from criticism, but they should focus on the parts that merit it. Game reviews should consider games as a product like toothpaste or underwear. Because if the framerate sucks and the controls are awful, that's something consumers should know. \n Lets use a recent example: Dragon's Crown. The criticism that the artwork is sexist is totally valid. They gave a fucking mermaid an ass. And I can understand people taking issue with that. But the  game  aspect shouldn't be criticized unless the gameplay is lacking. Game reviews are largely to inform the public about a product. But let the player decide whether the artwork ruins the game. Or write a separate review about the story elements. I found the game quite enjoyable, even though I found the hyper-sexualization completely ridiculous. \n [This Kotaku review]( is the kind of thing I'm talking about. The author of the review criticizes the game because it assumes that all women have vaginas, and is therefore somehow discriminating against transgender people. It's absurd. As far as I know, the app didn't call them out. It simply didn't include them. Being upset that it didn't include transgender women is like being upset because a pair of women's underwear doesn't have a penis-flap. Not every product is suited for or aimed towards every demographic. \n So many of his examples are complete non-examples. Sim City focuses on skyscraper cities because managing a farming town would just be pretty boring. There are other games that fill that niche. He just complained about what games  didn't  have. Not every game can include every demographic and provide elements for every genre. Civ V has \"American\"-like victory conditions, because they imply an ending of some kind. If you conquer everyone else, there aren't any enemies left. If you win via diplomacy with the UN, it's because there's no more warring. \n Sorry for the rant, but while I agree with his overall sentiment his reasoning is the exact kind of reason why \"gamers\" get upset about political criticism. I think it's unfair to throw the baby out with the bath water.", "id": "ccr5vuk", "summary": "I agree with his premise, but his examples are almost entirely ridiculous and irrelevant."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "I would say you'll be hard pressed to find anything that works. Boxcutters are designed for, well, boxcutting. DE razors are super flimsy, and would most likely end up being more dangerous than helpful. Boxcutter blades are much thicker, and made so that on the bend-------shatter scale, they are on the shatter side. DE blades are pretty much as close to bendy as you can get in a metal.", "id": "c9zstne", "summary": "Probably not a good idea."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "PROTIP: For the \"Station\" missions, use the Proton Torpedoes to destroy that cluster of nodes underneath them. BUT, make SURE that for all the missions like the in the first picture you UN-equip the Proton Torpedos, because even though you'll be able to destroy that command bridge thing, the shield generators on the ship will also be targetable by the Protons. The reason this is a problem is because you only have 3 protons, and there are 4 shield generators + the command bridge. You will be unable to fire ANY regular missiles at the shield generators or the command bridge, because the protons take priority of certain targets, even if you're out of protons. It will just keep attempting to get a target lock.", "id": "c3q511n", "summary": "Don't use Proton Torpedos for missions where you have to blow up the shield generators on those huge capital ships"}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "Welcome aboard. As I'm sure others will chime in with, murdering your face is mostly due to improper angle/pressure. Blades can make a difference, but mostly if a blade disagrees with your face it will just tug and give you some mild razor burn. You really just need to watch your angle. To do that, an easy way is to start with the razor at a complete 90 degree angle from your face. So you put the rounded head of the razor against your cheek, then slowly start angling downward until you feel the blade. Then try letting it slide down your face. Don't use any pressure, just let the weight of the razor do all the work. Make sure you have outside noise to a minimum, because you want to hear the satisfying \"sfffft\" of hairs being cut. \n If it feels uncomfortable, or tugs, trying angling slightly up or down. And double check that you aren't pressing it against your face. Really, you're just there to hold the razor in place. Gravity and the blade will do all the work. \n Razor sample packs are good. I started with an Astra blade, and it was sort of mediocre. About on the level of cartridge razors for me. So then I tried a Feather, and it was a complete night-and-day difference. Yet, Astras are the most popular DE brand on Amazon. So what works for me may not work for you. Try to find a pack with a good variety of some of the more popular brands, but don't try to go for like 30. 5-10 different types is plenty. \n I keep a Google Drive Excel chart for keeping up with what blades I like. When I try a new one, I just add it to the list, and then what my experience(s) are underneath. [West Coast Shaving]( has a pretty good sample selection. The only one I feel like they are missing that should be in there is a Personna Med Prep. \n I don't use a pre-shave glycerin soap, I just shower/use a face scrub before hand. And I don't know what kind of shave soap/cream you use, but there are a lot of very nice artisanal soaps that work well with sensitive skin. Personally, I'm using an Earl Grey Tea soap from [Barrister & Mann]( and loving it. They're currently running a Father's Day sale, and the guy who runs it is a redditor. \n But there are plenty of others out there that are also very good. Mitchell's Wool Fat soap seems to be pretty popular. \n As for the razor itself, the Edwin Jagger DE8X series is the most popular recommendation.", "id": "ca7bq6r", "summary": "check your angle and pressure, don't drown yourself in different blades, and take a look at some artisanal soaps, as good prep is vitally important."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "This kind of attitude makes no sense to me. A large portion of the content on reddit is either an established meme, or the birth of a new one. It's essentially the backbone of reddit as well as 4chan. I understand if what you mean is people who ONLY speak in memes. That's just weird. But injecting them into conversations where appropriate shouldn't be met with \"FUCKING NERDS.\" \n Memes are pretty fascinating, and a lot could be discussed about the nature of them, why certain ones stick and others don't. They're also something people can easily gather around as a topic. I'd say a very large portion of people who use the internet have encountered one meme or another. And a lot of fucking people use the internet.", "id": "c9cn189", "summary": "It's not a big deal in moderation."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "Maybe if you were trained with a katana, and knew how to sever a spinal cord in one clean swipe. But if not, then the falcata is the better option for just biting into the skull and fucking up the brain. Katanas may be cool, but in a zombie situation, they wouldn't be practical. I'm no swordsman, so for me, I'd go with the falcata. Smash the skull a bit, maybe hack at the neck once or twice. But I have swung a katana before. You have to know what you're doing to obtain leverage. The falcata has natural weight due to the curve of the blade.", "id": "c5sc58c", "summary": "katanas are only practical for a samurai. Or a ninja."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "If you ever find yourself truly needing help, just check out a wiki, or [this guy's]( videos. Both will give you some strategies as well as where to find items, what they do, etc... But as for the online aspect, the signs and things are kind of nice, as is help with bosses, but I've gone through the game 4 times now, and only once did I use the online features regularly, and that was just so I could co-op as much of the game as I could with my friend.", "id": "c8ynwgq", "summary": "If you need help, check youtube or wikis, otherwise you're not missing anything offline."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "I posted pretty much exactly what you said about the Kinect in /r/gaming the other day, and every response I made was downvoted like mad. All I said was that I didn't want it, and that was keeping me from getting an Xbox One, and people started jumping all over me for \"hating change\" and \"hating the Kinect.\" I don't hate it. I just don't want it. \n I really hope that developers use the Kinect and PS4 equivalent to do some really cool stuff. But unless they do something so mind-bogglingly fantastic with them, I just don't care. I hope they sell as many of them as they want to, and people who enjoy them I have no issues with. I just don't want it. With the XB1, it's a superfluous piece of hardware that takes up space. I get  why  both companies are doing what they're doing, but I'll be going with the one that gives me the ability to opt-out. \n And one thing I don't quite understand is that people keep saying the PS4 is essentially the same price as the XB1 because you now have to pay for PS+. That, plus a game makes it a $499 console. But what nobody seems to be saying is the exact same thing applies to the XB1, effectively making it a $599 console. \n This whole circle-jerk vs. anti-circle-jerk thing is reaching critical mass. Nobody can say anything positive about either company at this point without being called out for being part of the circle-jerk, or breaking away from it. It's silly.", "id": "caquwkz", "summary": "I don't want a Kinect either."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "I used to be completely unable to shave ATG with a cartridge. Like, it would hurt, tug, and leave my face itchy all day, then I'd end up with ingrowns for the next week. It was awful. \n After I started wetshaving with a DE, I decided to attempt ATG. It was  okay . But I've finally figured it out. My water is pretty hard, and even though my Barrister and Mann soap lathers beautifully with it, when I rinse my face I lose a  lot  of lubrication. /u/Leisureguy suggested I try a distilled water shave, and it was the best ATG shave I've had in my life. \n But I've only discovered over the past 2 days the perfect technique for my face: I do one WTG pass, one XTG pass, then instead of going completely against the grain, I do an inverted j-hook motion. No tugging, no razor burn. It's not  quite  as close as if I went exactly ATG, but it's pretty darn smooth. \n My point in all this is that it depends on a lot of things. Some people simply can't shave ATG. Their faces just don't like it. I can't go ATG under my chin, for example. I don't know why, but if I do it hurts like a bitch when I put alum on. But the rest of my face is fine. \n You are much less likely to get ingrowns with DE razors when shaving ATG, at least in my experience, and I've seen a lot of others attest to the same. But I've not had any negative consequences from shaving ATG with a DE other than occasional razor burn.", "id": "caxu7jy", "summary": "If your face tolerates it, then I don't see a reason to stop shaving ATG."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "I don't have any experience in shaving with a straight razor, but I do have quite a bit of experience in sharpening knives. I would do as Leisureguy suggests and start with a DE razor now. I recently did, and it's so much better than a cartridge razor. Before it was a tedious chore, but now it's something I look forward to. \n But anyway, my point about sharpening knives. You don't want to start shaving with a blade until you can be certain of its sharpness. The knowledge of how much to strop your blade, and at what angle will come with time. Find yourself a cheap SR and a cheap strop. Just practice stropping it in your spare time. Try the  Hanging Hair Test . If it's not cutting, you're either stropping at too steep an angle, or you're focusing on one side too much. And you will not enjoy shaving with a blade that isn't properly sharp. \n You won't dull it, unless you do something outrageously incorrect, so you don't have to really worry about getting it resharpened (different than honing/stropping). You just need to check your angle, and make sure you're never flipping the blade over on its edge. So, when you're drawing the blade with the spine towards you, when you reach the edge, you want to flip it so the edge is upward, and then back towards you. If you flip it forward for the next stroke, you could undo everything you just did. \n Sorry for the wall of text. Sharpening knives is a bit of a hobby of mine.", "id": "c9yae6x", "summary": "use a DE for now, but get a cheap SR and strop and start practicing."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "Really, the only thing I think they should have explained a little better were the memory wipes they had to go through \"for security.\" But I agree with mrahh. It was a damn good homage to many films. Including Moon, but it wasn't a ripoff. I felt like it was simply trying to honor some really great Sci-Fi movies, while giving spectacular visuals. I loved the set design and filming locations. I also thought it had great attention to detail, like Cruise actually being jostled around when he was in the cockpit of the heli-jet thing. \n In all, I loved the movie. I had a pretty good idea where the film was heading from the get-go, but I didn't feel like any of it was ripping off, so much as it was just paying respect to some great films. \n I'd probably give it a 4/5. I mean, hell, it's probably the best Sci-Fi movies I've seen in a few years. The only other one I can think of that was actually big-budget was Prometheus, and it was absolutely awful. Pretty, but awful.", "id": "c9o35bl", "summary": "I liked Oblivion."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "I hate that I had to scroll so far for someone to say this. Google doesn't give a shit about what's in my emails unless it's going to personalize an ad for me. I am much less concerned with what little data Google collects about me than I am what the NSA does. Google can't label me a terrorist. At best they can suggest that I might like to buy the Anarchist's Cookbook. \n Google isn't looking to single anyone out. It doesn't care who you are, or what you look up. It just wants to give you better ads and search results, because it's mutually beneficial. \n The NSA  does  want to single people out, and  is  interested in specific people. \n To put it another way, the NSA is looking for a needle in a haystack. Google is looking for hay in a haystack. My information is no more or less relevant than anyone else's, and they really couldn't give a fuck what porn I search for, because they just want to help me find it easier.", "id": "catfevy", "summary": "What Google does and what the NSA does are  very  different things."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "I dislike the \"Dialogue Wheel.\" I hated it in Mass Effect, and in every game since. I loved the way they did KotOR, there were like 5-6 choices every time, and you never really knew which one was \"good\" or \"bad\" Some conversation options would even net you both. I loved that system. This one just makes it so fucking black-and-white, and I  loathe  it. Top option for \"I like rainbows and unicorns\" Middle option for what I call \"Ambivalent Asshole\" and the bottom option is always something like \"I will rape you, your sister, and every single member of your family, and then shit on their graves.\" \n Though every once in a while they change it up, and you'll choose something like \"I like kittens.\" And then your character is like \"I ENJOY FEASTING UPON THE ENTRAILS OF SMALL FELINES!\" and you're like \"THATS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO WHAT I FUCKING CHOSE. GODDAMMIT\"", "id": "c3fp49x", "summary": "KotOR's dialogue system was in every way superior to this namby-pamby dialogue wheel horseshit."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "I got to play around with it for a bit, too, and my sentiments mirror Jeff's. It's a very  okay  game. Worth buying? No. But it's not awful. It's just not very good. Controlling Spidey feels more irritating than satisfying. \n You never feel like you have tight control and full access to Spidey's agility. Instead, it just controls awkwardly. Frequently I'd slam into a building, and sometimes he'd stick to it, other times he wouldn't. It's just very clunky and frankly not very fun. It's a step in the right direction from the last game, but it's not Spider-Man 2 by a long shot. \n What gets me the most, though, is that web-swinging is completely obsolete due to the Spidey-launch-and-land system thing they have. Web-swinging is super clunky and slow, but spamming RB is by far the fastest/easiest way to get around. Swinging on webs is totally inferior to it in every way. There's 0 advantage to swinging over spamming the shit out of that RB system, and nothing stops you from doing it. \n It really is a disappointing game. It had so much potential, but everything just feels completely unpolished. Like someone just walked into the room and said \"Fuck it, it's good enough.\" The web-swinging is completely unsatisfying, not to mention completely outclassed by the launch-and-land system they have, the combat is  so  repetitive and boring, and everything about the city just feels so fake. \n I just want Spider-Man 2 again. Fuck, just release an HD version on the PC. Or even a non-HD version. I just want that pendulum-like momentum again and the feeling like you really are Spidey. Not the canned animation and awkward movement that you get from this game.", "id": "ch83v2q", "summary": "It's not a horrible game, but it's not worth $40, let alone the $60 they're asking for on consoles."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "I think the complaint that they mishandled their general response to the dickwolves panel is valid. I thought it was pretty funny, and I don't really see how someone can say being \"raped by dickwolves\" is somehow a rape joke. It's so fucking absurd. That's like making a murder joke about \"being shot to death by a chainsaw gun.\" \n I think people who were initially offended were being a little silly. But I also think PA probably handled that poorly. I understand wanting to defend your work and everything, but they could have had a little more tact. I also get they got a  lot  of hate about it, which baffles me, but PA could have taken the higher road and chose not to respond in kind. \n But to claim that they were saying \"screw you\" to rape victims? I think people are  looking  for things to be offended by. If you find something offensive, what the fuck is the use in saying \"I'M OFFENDED BY THAT!\"? Did it injure you physically? Are you now incapable of living your life as you otherwise would have been? \n Honestly I think everyone in this situation is being an asshole. PA is being an asshole by continuing to press the issue, and the moral crusaders are being assholes by being so hyperbolic. I really doubt anyone at PA thinks  actual  rape is funny. I don't think any of them would witness someone being raped and go \"AHHAHAHA OH MAN THIS WOULD MAKE A GREAT COMIC!\" \n God. Is the comic insensitive? Maybe. You have the right to be offended by whatever you like. But you don't have to tell the whole fucking world about it. If you really think that PA is  for  rape, then certainly you should say or do something. But it's a fucking comic. The whole comic's point was to be outlandish. No one has ever been raped by a dickwolf, and no one ever will be. It wasn't even the point of the goddamn joke. They could have used any other outlandish torture and it still would have worked.", "id": "cc2btt3", "summary": "PA are being a bit assholeish about this, but so are the moral crusaders. I certainly don't think any non-sociopathic human being finds actual rape humorous, so chill the fuck out."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "Certain items have state triggers. So let's say you get hit by a zombie and you get infected (I have no idea what the rate of infection is, as it's never happened to me). Once you are infected, you'll get the sick message. Once you use the alcohol tincture, it takes you from a \"sick\" state, to a \"recovery\" state, but you still have the status \"Sick\" on the inventory screen. \n But the alcohol tincture isn't reliant upon having an infected wound. It's an automatic jump to the \"recovery\" state, regardless of previous state of infection. \n So when you use the alcohol tincture when it is unnecessary to do so, you'll still get the \"My wounds are feeling better...\" message, but it isn't doing anything at all. It's just a trigger for that \"recovery\" state. \n The same goes for charcoal tabs as well. They're for food poisoning, but if you eat them without actually having food poisoning it will say you're sick, but again you're in the \"recovery\" state. However, it is useful to note that in the \"recovery\" state, you are immune to whatever you were attempting to cure for the duration of the recovery state. So if you eat a charcoal tab without having food poisoning, you'll be unable to  get  food poisoning until the recovery state ends.", "id": "cetkaxc", "summary": "Items that fix a certain status ailment aren't reliant upon having said ailment, they just automatically trigger a \"recovery\" state which just shows up as \"Sick\""}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "If OP had been arsed to actually look through the comments, he would see that Gamespot just quote-mined the fucking thing. Same shit happened with that bint who went on a date with the Magic dude. There were like 5 posts the next day like \"Waaah. People were sexist and shit.\" It had nothing to do with her gender. She was a cunt  on the internet, TO the internet  and got called out for it. Given the fact that one can post with relative anonymity, it would have been weirder if there weren't sexist comments and references to rape. \n Plus, the whole rape and reference to Hitler thing is more of a meta-joke to see who can be the most offensive. Like over Christmas, some 15-year old girl posed with a new copy of The God Delusion or something. She was mildly attractive, so someone said \"Brace for compliments\" to which she replied \"Bracin' mah anus.\" People then went for the \"Who can post the most offensive comment\" trophy. It has very little to do with the actual people, and more with trying to break societal norms. If you don't like it, stop reading the fucking comments.", "id": "c3u4u1g", "summary": "OP is a faggot, and should be raped by Hitler"}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "Just completed the game. Took me around 8 hours, but I had it running during snack breaks and bathroom, so it may be closer to 6-7 actual playing time. \n Absolutely worth the 15 bucks. I look forward to replaying this game again. There is no goddamn way I'll remember where everything is the first time around. \n And, without giving away any spoilers, the end of the game was visually fantastic. I love the minimalistic art style, and the little cartoon/tips along the way. As I was playing, certain parts would give me a creepy sense of solitude, but then I'd make it to the next area to be greeted by the cheery cartoons. It's a nice touch that I enjoyed very much. \n I do believe there are a handful of rooms/puzzles I didn't solve, though, based on my mural of collected cartoons. But by God they were either puzzles that I didn't know were puzzles, or just really bloody well hidden.", "id": "c87frl4", "summary": "Great atmosphere, mesmerizing gameplay, and wholly unique. If you're at all on the fence about getting it, do it."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "It certainly could be the blades, or the angle, or pressure, or a combination of them. To feel the angle, make sure all other noises are at a minimum (i.e, turn off the fan, any music, etc...). Then lather up and take your razor, and hold it at about a 30 degree angle from your face. Without any pressure, just let the weight of the head do all the work, go downward. If you hear the satisfying \"sfft\" of hairs being cut, congrats, you've got the right angle. If it's just sliding, or you don't see hairs coming off when you rinse, try again either angling more up or down. \n The most important thing is to not apply pressure yourself. Have a firm grasp on the razor, but just let it sort of \"fall\" against your face. I use quotes because to let it fall would likely end in you cutting your face. Just let gravity do it's thing. All you want to do is hold it in place. \n Most shaving sites also have blade sample packs, including Amazon. There really is a big difference between blades, and what works for me might not work for you. I was skeptical about that, but after going from the #1 seller on Amazon, the Astra blades which tugged and nicked me, to Feathers, it was a major difference.", "id": "c9zr6gy", "summary": "work on your angle, try a blade sample pack, and let the razor do the work, you just want to support it."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "I'm making some assumptions here, but I think everyone in this thread is getting a little crazy. I highly doubt this \"ruse\" is going to last into the kid's 20's or something. He will probably catch on quickly, if not the parents just getting tired of the charade if they even go through with it in the first place. \n As for the chest, I don't see how that would change anything, either. If I found a chest with a bunch of cool shit about my parents, I'd be totally stoked. Because then I could have something to talk to my parents about. But maybe I'm a little biased because I have absolutely nothing to say to my parents when I do talk to them. \n I think this is a mostly harmless joke. I really doubt he's going to grow up knowing a facade of his parents. It's pretty fucking difficult to suppress your personality for very long. He'll probably find the chest, think \"holy fuck my parents were awesome!\" talk to them about it, and they'll explain that they wanted to talk to him about who they were at a time that he would be old enough to understand. \n I certainly know that I wasn't ready to talk about who my parents were other than knowing them as \"Mom\" and \"Dad\" until I was like 19.", "id": "c9feov9", "summary": "The kid's probably going to end up fine, and if he's fucked up, it's probably going to be for a completely different reason."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "A friend of mine works at a GameStop and he let me play around with one. I should note that I just mean I took it out of a box and pushed buttons, I didn't play any games with it. \n But, having been a massive fan of all the iterations of the Xbox controller and absolutely loathing the DualShock in all its forms, the PS4 controller feels like a sort of hybrid between the 360 and PS3 controller. The analogue sticks are now concave(ish), and they offer considerably more resistance than the DS3, though perhaps not as much as the 360. \n The surface area of the analogue sticks is also significantly reduced. I found that I didn't like them quite as much as the 360 controller, but that could just be bias on my part. I was a huge fan of the original mammoth Xbox controller, as I have fairly large hands. With that said, the PS4 controller feels smaller than the 360, but not uncomfortably so. I was able to hit all the buttons without difficulty, and overall I rather enjoyed it. \n But as I said, I haven't played any games with it and my near decade of using the Xbox controller means I am massively biased. I'd like to play an FPS with it, as that was my main gripe with the PS3, because I couldn't aim for shit due to the looseness of the sticks. I think I'll be sitting this console generation out. At least for a while. But if I were going to get a console, it would almost certainly be the PS4.", "id": "cdj3yy3", "summary": "The PS4 controller has smaller analogue sticks that offer more resistance and an overall more Xbox-like feel. \n Edit: I'd also like to note that Sony (unlike MSoft) allows third-party companies to make wireless controllers, so I see no reason why someone wouldn't come out with a controller that's basically identical to the Xbox One/360 for the PS4."}, {"author": "Vengeance164", "content": "I've only recently learned of Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and since then, I've been eating up scientific videos, lectures, etc... Mostly I find astrophysics/quantum mechanics the most fascinating. I was wondering if  /r/atheism  had some good suggestions for reading material in these subjects? Realize that I barely grasp quantum physics and whatnot, and am thus looking to increase my knowledge base on it. I don't think I want to major in any of these fields (about to finish my 2nd year of undergrad) but I would like to be able to discuss them intelligently.", "id": "t3_nw1r6", "summary": "I'd like some science book suggestions (specifically regarding astrophysics/quantum mechanics) that don't get too technical for a non-science major, if such a thing exists."}]}
+{"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Thankfully, this is the worst I've ever seen. Y'all are unfortunate bastards!", "output": "I took a hard hit racquetball to the nuts a few years back. Normally, when you get hit with a racquetball, it leaves a doughnut shaped bruise from the pucker of the ball. Well, when it hits the testicle square on, the nut just takes all of that force. \n The tragi-comedy of the situation was the hollywood like reaction that I had. Screaming agony and rolling around on the ground while my opponent looked on. Sadly (for me), my wife was watching the game and couldn't help herself from laughing heartily, too."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I need a good online resource that I can use to improve my form and I'm really tall, so I often need one or two bits of extra advice to really nail the form.", "output": "I'm 6'6\" (~2m) and I find that a lot of my mechanics are a little different from shorter crossfitters. For example, because the bar is a fixed height above the ground, I engage different muscles than shorter people during deadlifts, at the very outset of the lift. \n At my last box, there were coaches who had degrees in kinesiology and certs in power and olympic lifting. Now, I'm in a little bit of a desert, as far as really good knowledge on lifting goes. My current box is more of convenience than preference."}], "user_id": "longlamp_3036", "history": [{"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "As an investment, I'm not enthusiastic about Etsy. As a platform, they really only appeal to western Markets. The selling point of Etsy is that they offer a marketplace of exclusively hand-made (hypothetically seller-made) goods (and vintage/upcycled items). This  is irrelevant to the developing world because it's a developed world phenomenon to care about buying goods from the artist/maker directly and not actually having access to a robust marketplace containing maker sold items. \n So, where will etsy expand with it's IPO that it is not already? I have a friend with an Etsy shop. She keeps a map with push pins from all of the locations that she has shipped to. Incidentally, that map is basically a map of all of the places that rich white people live. \n Additionally, they already have a second product line for wholesalers that seems to be growing just fine without an infusion of capital. \n They have a great business model as a niche online marketplace and I'm sure that they're nicely profitable as they only have to provide the platform for transactions in order to take a cut. This leads me to wonder whether they're just trying to turn some of their equity into cash so that the main investors can either exit or enjoy some of their wealth.  In which case, that seems like a recipe for stagnant or declining value. \n Alternatively, Etsy could be planning to abandon its maker-seller model and turn into an online marketplace for everything, but then they would dilute their brand, lose a lot of their sellers, and end up competing directly against Amazon, Ali-Baba, and ebay without any real competitive advantage. That's a disastrous move. Even if they try to use that capital to build a separate marketplace to compete with those platforms, they will probably lose.", "id": "cpy3k2k", "summary": "What are they going to use their IPO cash for that they don't already do well, organically? I think they're mature."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "Yep, it's smart to strategically default. Your banker would strategically default in a heartbeat rather than continue throwing good money after bad (which is exactly why you can't get a cheap loan after bankruptcy, etc...). So, fuck 'em. It doesn't matter if you can pay. If your wealth generating machine is broken, review the terms of your contract and your state laws, evaluate the risk to you if you default vs. the damage if you don't. If A < B, walk the fuck away. (Actually, just stop paying and force them to remove you. You can get away with living rent free for a while while you save up a nest egg for your next place while you remove and sell any valuable upgrades you made to the house).", "id": "c7bqtw7", "summary": "The banks knew what they were getting into far better than any home buyer did. If they suffer because they signed a contract, boo fucking hoo."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "First, continuity planning. It looks like they moved a service from one vendor to another. Whenever you do a push like that that's going to affect a large network, having a failover plan in place is a good practice. In which case, they could have rolled back to their current vendor while the new vendor fixed its issues without crashing the network. That's just good business. In a competitive market, a multi-day outage would be a real threat to their viability but because our alternatives are very limited, there's not much we can do. That we've experienced a sustained outage implies that they didn't give a fuck and just figured they'd fix the problems in production. \n Second, communicate. For many people, internet access is required for them to earn their living. I needed to have it to remote access the work I was doing and the latency was killing my ability to get shit done. I didn't know what was going on and, worse, I didn't know when I was going to be able to get anything done. Send out an email/text to your affected customers to say, \"your internet may be out, we're working to get it back up. Our target for having it fixed is X o'clock.\" Then, send updates as it is fixed or is delayed longer. \n Internet outages are serious. It's not just people not being able to watch Orange is the New Black. Internet connectivity now plays a role in people's careers and earnings. Cox needs to recognize that people don't just rely on them for entertainment but also for mission critical connectivity. It's infuriating to have a company that thinks of themselves as being an entertainment provider and above their customers so much that it's neither a big deal when access goes down and that they don't need to help others mitigate the impact that their failure has on their businesses or lives.", "id": "cluzfbm", "summary": "Don't fuck up in the first place. And, if you do, tell us about it."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "This statement is syntactically ambiguous and your clever thoughts about it are kind of wrong. For example, bell curves are typically charted on two dimensional axes. Respective to the viewer there is no real \"up\" or \"down\" and therefore, no \"top\". So the listener is left to interpret your statement as they see fit. \n For example, it is customary to graph frequency on the y-axis and your metric on the x-axis. In this case, you might consider that the \"top\" of the bell curve is the median, average, and modal point (assuming a normal distribution, which intelligence approximates, with the exception that that there is a real floor to the distribution but no real cieling). In this case, your statement can be interpreted as the following: \n \"You have the most commonly found intelligence.\" \n\"Your intelligence is the best single point estimate for that of any randomly selected individual.\"\n\"Exactly the same number of people in the world have a lower intelligence than you do as have a higher intelligence than you.\" \n None of which are particularly insulting except that most of us believe that we're above average. \n However, a simple reordering of how a frequency chart is graphed (i.e. switching the x and y axes, which is of nominal importance, any way, because we're operating in an environment where up and down are entirely contextual, anyway) clearly places the top of the IQ chart at infinite IQ, which is a pretty cool compliment sans context. It can be reasonably interpreted as follows: \n \"You have an infinitely high IQ!\" \n You can turn this into a clever insult, though, by adding something like, \"but [x] is what you choose to do with your life and time.\"", "id": "c8rhvfv", "summary": "You think you are clever and, okay, you are clever. But not really."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "There are no close US allies bordering China. Also, North Korea has a lot of real estate. If I were China and worried about the US projecting it's power into my back yard, the US controlling NK would feel a lot like the soviet alliance with Cuba did to the US. I would find this especially because America and its friends and allies are currently ramping up their military presence in the Pacific and allowing the disagreement over the Senkaku islands to escalate. \n Also, NK is a bit of an irritant to the West. As a result, China escapes some scrutiny due to the attention that NK draws away from it. I imagine that China would rather not have the US breathing down its back, with several hundred miles of coastline no more than a few hundred miles from it's most populous territories. While this already exists in South Korea, imagine the existential terror that losing the buffer that NK provides might excite in China. \n The US would be interested in the prize of NK because it would be a politically expedient opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities of its naval and military forces. Would give it an opportunity to place a substantive ground force near China, and would give it a very good reason to have one or more aircraft carriers deep in the Yellow Sea. Having a US naval strike team in Korea Bay would put them VERY close to Beijing. Now, imagine if China had very good and justifiable reasons to park a naval fleet 300 miles off the coast of Washington DC!", "id": "c8a4vl6", "summary": "North Korea is a nice buffer for the Chinese and it would dramatically increase the US's strength whenever it needed to negotiate with China. China wouldn't want the US to have even more power than it already does. North Korea would a be a shitty acquisition as far as humanitarian situations go, but it could be a very valuable strategic asset."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "I haven't seen it in a little while but ASU used to have a billboard on the I-10 in Phoenix that read, \"33% of ASU students were in the top 10% of their high school class.\" \n When one stops to think that just about 1/3 of Americans have a bachelors degree ([source]( this becomes an incredibly stupid brag. \n If 1/3 of Americans have a bachelor's degree, it makes sense to predict that those students will represent the top 1/3 of high school students. Well, the top 33 percentile would be everyone from the 67th percentile up, including the top 10%, who would make up approximately 1/3 of that population. Basically, ASU is bragging that they are an average university.", "id": "c8uw8uz", "summary": "ASU thinks that it's awesome to be academically average. \n Afterthought: For the nation's largest community college, perhaps this is an actual achievement worth bragging about."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "Yep. This is a substantial turning point where crossfit differs from very technical lifting sports like olympic lifting and weightlifting. These other sports care very much about how the movement is done and with good reason, everyone is looking not only for a PR but, at least in their dreams, a world record on their 1 rep max. In crossfit, many of our movements have been adopted from these other sports but the purpose is different. The goal is to move a weight from point A to point B. In the case of pull ups, getting the chin over the bar. In the case of chest to bar pull ups, touching the bar with your chest. \n There is a fair amount of complaint from outsiders about how doing reps for volume will degrade form. They are technically correct, but they are missing the point of crossfit. The point, again, is to complete the movement. There are standards for determining whether or not a rep is valid in a crossfit competition but they are more lax. The reason for this is that you're making an effort for volume. There may be a point where you're tired and exhausted where you use a fresher muscle to complete the rep. In oly and power lifting, if you tried to power out of a squat by leaning forward and using your calves, you'd get crushed by being unbalanced under the bar. It's dangerous, especially at a competitive level. However, the squats that crossfitters are doing in a competition, while potentially dangerous, are generally for volume, so it's going to be a weight they can shrug off and get away from without serious risk, so some sloppiness in form is tolerated. \n Getting back to pull ups, if you're looking at the pull up and you think, what is more important, the ability to demonstrate that someone can do a powerful lat pull or that they can get above the bar? A pullup is meant to be a bodyweight exercise, not a 1RM type work. Otherwise, put someone in a harnessed lat machine and stack plats on it until you get their 1RM. That's not this sport. Here, the goal is, how many times can you get your body from a dead hang to chin above the bar (or, how fast can you?)? At which point, go forth and figure it out! \n However, simply because judges have less rigorous applications of  form does not mean that form is not important in crossfit. On the contrary, if you ever do a volume workout that involves power cleans, deadlifts, or snatches, you'll immediately know the importance that practicing your form makes. Watch some of our competitions and check out the difference at moderate weights between the really good athletes and the not so good ones. The less effective athletes might even be stronger, have more energy and endurance than the better athletes. The better athletes always have better form. Once you start doing a movement for volume, bad form really tears down your performance. As a shitty athlete, I am poignantly and painfully aware of this.", "id": "cb0bl8c", "summary": "The point of a pullup is to get your body up. If you want to show that you have strong lats, find your 1RM on a machine designed to do so."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "There was this old lady that lived at the end of my street, alone, in a giant house with an enormous yard. She kind of looked like an old Dolly Parton without the boobs. \n Every year she handed out Zero bars. EVERY FUCKING YEAR. \n I have eaten them because, well, they're candy and I was a kid. But Polar Bear turd is the best description I've ever heard of them.", "id": "c7xgvq0", "summary": "An old lady used to give them out at Halloween. I have eaten them."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "When I was a kid, I went to a camp with kids who came from all over the US. One of my regular camp friends was a guy named Noah who was a serious percussionist. I lived in Ohio and he lived in Tennessee and the only time we saw one another was at this camp. We've lost touch, but I think he's the drummer in a couple of moderately popular bands (or he's in a band that supports soloists kind of thing). \n Anyway, I was living in Gambia, doing volunteer work when I met a man from Ghana. He came to Gambia because he had been hired to teach drafting at a local trade school. He says to me, \"I know America is a big place, but do you know a guy by the name of Noah?\" \n Turns out that Noah had gone to Ghana and traveled with a drum circle for a few months. To prove it, he pulled out a picture of the drum circle.  There are maybe 15-20 guys, holding their drums and smiling. One of them happens to be a pasty white guy who looks exactly like Noah, only a few years older than when I last saw him.", "id": "cc0c8sr", "summary": "I had to travel to Gambia to meet a man from Ghana who knew a man that I knew from the US but lived 500 miles away from me."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "I bought a house without thinking it through; it was entirely on an emotional whim. \n Quantitative Easing floated the price so much that in about 13 months I've earned 300% return on my initial investment. It's enough that I could sell, pay the closing costs, pay tax on the profit, pay off all of my school loans and keep 10% of the cost of the home to save up for another 20% downpayment on a similarly priced home.", "id": "cd1kthf", "summary": "I accidentally timed the housing recovery nearly perfectly."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "I lost my mom a few years ago. My wife and I were watching \"The Time Traveler's Wife\" and the scene where he bumps into his mom on the train wrecked me. We paused the movie and I bawled like an infant for an hour. \n Best. Cry. Of. My. Life.", "id": "c6rn3sz", "summary": "I like to cry."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "I graduated in 2012 and took out loans to pay for it, as did everyone else in my cohort (we all were enrolled in the full time program). The decision is, of course, situational. \n Prior to enrolling, I worked as a mental health professional, working with children and families to address kids' emotional and behavioral problems. While it was rewarding work, I earned very little money doing it. I evaluated medical school (having most of the pre-requisites out of the way with excellent grades) and a business degree. The business degree promised me less income across my life but did promise me increased earnings as soon as two years away (where medicine was likely 7-8 years away from decent income), so I chose long run lower earnings for a better next decade and lower up front investment. \n I attended a state institution where I applied for in-state tuition. I then took a teaching assistantship to help defray the cost (but I still had to take out loans for school). I took most of the loans available to me because they were cheap money but I was pretty conservative in my expenses (other b-school studentss were taking trips, etc...), so my total amount of loans is a little wonky, but I came out with about 35K in debt but paid something less than that for my degree. \n I could not have gotten an employer to pay for my degree because it wasn't relevant to my field and I would have had to have worked my way up to get to a point where it was. So it made sense. \n My degree enabled me to get a job that pays me ~200% more than I was earning, previously, so I was slated to break even after 12 months, anyway. Since I had a chunk of cash left over from my school loans and I could easily afford the monthly installments on them, rather than retiring my debt, I put it towards a mortgage. I live in a city that was hard hit by the financial crisis and has been recovering rapidly. The increase in property value on my home has been so rapid that my ROI was over 200% in the first 12 months (which helped me break even in 6 months). \n In summary, I'm definitely a unique case but because I was in such an impoverished field and I was a very good student the MBA was really worth it. Add to that that I accidentally timed the housing market about as perfectly as could be done and it turns out that paying for my MBA was the best financial decision I've ever made. \n If you already have a business related degree or are well paid, then you should probably get an employer to pay for an evening program. If you want a really good MBA education or are switching careers, going to a full time program makes a lot of sense. If you're a superstar, you might go to a full time MBA program somewhere like Harvard or Wharton so that you can spend that time really deeply networking with your peers so you can build business relationships coming out.", "id": "cdvgwv8", "summary": "I played the game right and got lucky and now I'm middle class with a positive net worth."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "As a man with a friend who probably qualifies as a bromance (my wife refers to him as my boyfriend, on occasion, but she also refers to any rough sports I play as my abusive boyfriend, so, maybe not) I have maintained a strong friendship even though we live across the country from one another. Nevertheless, we're still very close friends. We call each other for advice. We share information and help regarding finances. We call one another about our wives. We've had small spats but for the most part really deeply trust one another. \n Our (unspoken) rules are pretty simple. \n \n Romance is important, give each other space to pursue romance. \n1.a. Always wingman when a/the lady is present (unless you're both single... I've never been in this situation, but have a code for who moves first).\n1.b. It is okay to disapprove of a girlfriend. However, you may only say this once, unsolicited. \n1.c. It is never okay to disapprove of the wife. Ever. (Even if they divorce, do not bad mouth her (don't even join him in it) but you don't have to try to stop it.) \n Family is important, give each other space to participate in family events.  \n Get together when you can but not to the detriment of any of the aforementioned relationships. \n \n If you follow this simple bro code, you can avoid a lot of drama in a bromance and find that you have a rewarding confidant who has a different perspective on life and your priorities than does your wife (S.O., spouse, partner, whatever you want to call him or her).", "id": "c6uwvnh", "summary": "if one follows a few rules of decency you can have an awesome friendship with someone of the same sex that is super rewarding \n [Edit: I accidentally a word]"}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "You're correct that the bottom two fifths are especially vulnerable. This is why the Cost Share Reduction exists. Basically, the CSR upgrades the silver plan (that has a federally capped maximum out of pocket of ~$12,500 for a family) to a gold or platinum plan. The reason for this is that the subsidy that folks get is not just for their premiums but also for copays and coinsurance towards the deductible and maximum out of pocket. So, for Americans who qualify for the 94% CSR, they only pay 6% of the coinsurance and have an individual MOOP of $2,250 and a family MOOP of $4,500. Yes, those are still troubling numbers for poorer folks. However, getting assistance on the premium, copays, and out of pocket maximums improves the quality of a silver to the quality of a gold or platinum plan, at a price closer to that of a bronze plan. \n SO, we are talking, especially for poor people, well less than $20,000 per year. Thanks Obama! \n The real problem with the healthcare law is that it does not have an opt in for people who qualify for medicaid. As such, the healthcare plan that I consult for has to tell people who qualify for Medicaid that they do not qualify for a Cost Share Reduction (CSR) or a premium tax credit (APTC). Since they may not be able to get Medicaid (Thanks Republican governors!) this is a real and very unjust gap due to policy errors on the part of Democrats (Thanks Obama...). That the two sides can't stomach one another sufficiently to resolve this points less to a failure in the parties in power than it does to a general failure of America's system of government. We could use a refresh that mandates that the federal government actually solve problems, other nations have already blazed the way.", "id": "ceiw187", "summary": "This website]( has a handy breakdown in how the CSR schedules work. The short answer is, if you're poor and qualify for a CSR, buy a silver plan through your state's exchange. And, if you're poor enough to get medicaid by federal but not state standards. Sorry, you are SOL."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "I was at a board game convention where I met a high level state department analyst. He was telling me how he briefs congress all the time and, even though he sees and converses with these famous politicians on a weekly basis, he still thinks, \"Holy shit, there's Senator X, I brief that guy!\" when he sees them on T.V. \n So, a few weeks before the con, he's briefing a House committee. Frequently, many of the committee seats are empty because the congresspeople can't be buggered to attend the briefings, themselves. So, there's an empty seat and then behind it/elsewhere in the room, there are aids that are taking notes. \n Anyhow, he's briefing the committee. They're asking him questions, and out of the corner of his eye, he sees a provocatively clad woman milling about. He dismissed it, thinking, \"Really? Which congressman has a such a trashy secretary so blatantly walking around capitol hill, these days? That's like a walking controversy?\" \n Then, she starts to approach one of the representatives and he really starts to wonder which of the reps she's going to bring coffee or some notes. Which of course doesn't happen. She takes her seat in the chair reserved for Bachmann. At this point he realizes A. it's really her and B. she had never before attended a single one of his briefings. He's been briefing Congress for more than the past six years (she was first elected in 2007).", "id": "c904dnv", "summary": "Bachmann doesn't attend her committee meetings and, in person, she looks like a slutty secretary."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "God, who gives a fuck? Primes are fascinating! I once spent an evening just imagining how to write an efficient program to brute force test whether or not a large number is prime because, shit, primes are fascinating. \n Note: I am not even remotely a mathematician and am pretty sure I created a shitty method.", "id": "cbs2j71", "summary": "anyone who thinks pure math and science isn't valuable because it isn't practical is an asshat."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "Alternatively, enlisting a buddy, get a cap gun/fake knife and some decent fake blood. Buy a pack of white undershirts. Decorate the house in a banal traditional way with stupid kitchy Halloween festive decorations. \n When kids come to the door to get candy, come out all saccharine and smarmy, \"Oh, and what are YOU supposed to be!?\" \n Your buddy runs up with said gun/knife and proceeds to rob you in front of the kids. You act like you're genuinely getting robbed. Buddy proceeds to stab/shoot you, with blood going every where. Make a production of it, maybe a wrestle over the knife getting eased into your chest saving private ryan style, blood everywhere before your friend howls and runs off into the dark. \n Rinse and repeat with a new shirt. \n [Edit]", "id": "c6r6xv8", "summary": "Stage your own brutal murder in front of four year olds."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "So, it's common practice in eastern europe to lend CHF to homeowners for mortgages. My comment wasn't aimed at institutions holding Swiss debt (they should be happy, since Swiss debt will be repaid in CHF). Instead, this is about people owning debt in CHF (my ambiguity). This means that there are a lot of people who borrowed money that they have to repay in CHF that now have to repay 20% more than what they thought they'd borrowed. This will definitely put a number of people under water and will raise their mortgage rates (since servicing their debt is pegged to CHF) substantially more expensive. Those are the people at risk of defaulting, the homeowners.", "id": "cnr6xnx", "summary": "I should have said, people who own debt that must be repaid in CHF by foreign borrowers (e.g., Romanian home owners) have more assets on their books but their borrowers are more likely to default now due to the sudden 20% jump in their monthly mortgage payments."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "There's a scene in the Time Traveler's Wife where the protagonist zaps back in time as a grown man and is on what looks like the L in Chicago. He encounters his mother. \n Keep in mind that his mother has been dead for the vast majority of his timeline. Here he is, a grown man, face to face with a mother whom he never knew. There is so much that must go unspoken because there is simply no way for him to tell her who he is. They are together but their circumstance requires them to be quite alone. \n Anyway, every day that goes by, I wish I could call my mom. See her one last time. This scene destroys me.", "id": "cbn6qc5", "summary": "Call your mom."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "I understand the frustration and outrage at Grover Beach. What I think everyone on r/crossfit that is bashing Golden doesn't get is that it isn't about whether or not Golden actually did the workout as prescribed that is upsetting the box. It's the lack of procedural justice. \n What I mean by this is that there isn't a clear precedent for eliminating athletes or their box during the Open. Since the video wasn't a formally submitted performance, there is no reason for CFHQ to have assumed that this was the performance in question or that it was even within their purview for review. \n The way I understand it, athletes who want to \"win the Open\" have to submit a formal video validating their reps (and have the reps in the video be within 5 of what is actually reported by the affiliate). Under this premise, Golden could be disqualified if he was attempting to compete to win the Open. However, if he just wanted to qualify for regionals, then having his reps be validated by the affiliate is sufficient for meeting the standard of the Open. \n In this case, CFHQ has formally stated that it has standards for the movements but, by requiring only video submissions from those who are presenting themselves as candidates to win the Open, they are tacitly stating that validation by a registered affiliate is the minimum acceptable threshold of performance. Meaning: if your registered box doesn't give a shit how reps are counted, then it does not matter how reps are counted. CFHQ has delegated rep approval authority to boxes. \n In this case, as a governing body, it has effectively said, \"nope, if you or someone else post an informal video of your Open workout, we can review that workout and modify the count (or reject it altogether) of the registered affiliate.\" This is fine, if they add this into their language. Then it's nothing anybody shouldn't expect, however, in this case, CFHQ has contradicted its own rules. Which turns the whole Open into a big game of \"Whose Line Is It, Anyway?\" workouts. \n In order for Crossfit as a competitive sport to be taken seriously athletes need to be held to a standard. But, the governing body itself needs to merit respect. It can do this by establishing clearer guidelines or, in this case, swallowing the pill that is its own badly written rules. In this case, Golden has injured Crossfit by doing shitty reps and CFHQ has undermined Crossfit by not adhering to their own standards, thereby communicating a willingness on its own part to \"break the rules.\"", "id": "c8zul11", "summary": "Crossfit HQ is being inconsistent with itself which calls into question the validity of the entire Open. Golden's bad reps don't help, but they're a smaller concern."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "The proximal cause is that I am a consultant and was placed at a client site about an hour's drive away from me. So, the commute made it impossible for me to make it to my preferred class times (in the evenings). Then, I started working with developers in India, so I have teleconferences that generally don't start until 8-9PM, ruling out the 5:30 class with any consistency. \n The Ultimate cause, though, is that I injured my Levator Scapulae (left side) practicing olympic lifts three times this year, with the third time being a bad enough strain that I rested it for a month before trying to ease back in to Crossfit, only to realize that A. my coach is not attentive enough to his athletes (me, in particular) to trust that he can help me avoid ongoing reinjury, B. injury makes the cost per workout skyrocket, C. and we don't do enough strength training in a concerted fashion at my box to safely rebuild the strength in my neck without risking reinjury. \n At the globo (which is 24 hours), I can do rehabilitative lifts that focus on specific muscle groups using machines. It's funny, we crossfitters tend to bash muscle isolation as a practice, but it has some very practical applications, rehabilitation and strength balancing among them. \n I miss crossfit, but I only just recently was able to admit to myself that it isn't for me, right now.  Once I get the health and strength back in my neck, I'm going to go looking for a better box.", "id": "ce4y5yp", "summary": "My schedule sucks and I screwed up my neck."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "My wife and I waited as much as two people in modern times can wait (some oral, etc...) and we're each others only partner. My sex life is great but I wouldn't term it \"adventurous\". Rather, like the rest of my life it is stable, consistent, and most importantly, happy. \n We've been married for seven years, have sex once to twice a week (it's more frequent when she's not on birth control or if we go on a vacation where we have proper privacy). We kink it up, here and there, but mostly, we've found the few positions that we both really like and we're both very good at getting each other off. \n Sex right after marriage was what I imagine it is like for other new couples, a period of intense communication, only maybe with a little more fumbling at the start. \n Now, if we compare my level of happiness to my best friend who has had more partners than he has fingers and toes (he still has all of each), he just got married and is very unhappy. But, I attribute that to the people not to his experiences. On the flip side, my brother, much older and much much much more experienced (and kinky) also recently got married and is having a ball.", "id": "c7ecghl", "summary": "A great sex life is about matching desire and expectations with your partner."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "I built a report in excel. It had 25 or so columns, the first half of which I populated with information from an export from a separate piece of software. It had people's names and our system generated unique identifier (a number). I asked a gentlemen to populate the remaining half of the columns with data from the physical contracts that the customers had signed. When I saved the file, the view was on the blank columns, so the file did not display columns A-I. \n He comes back to me and says, \"You know, this would be a lot easier if I could look up names instead of the Unique ID\" (which is pretty stupid, in itself, but, I'll let it slide. If you don't work with data all the time, the semantic information contained in a name is more comforting than the a sterile number.). \n I say to him. The customer's name is in the file. To which he says, \"No, it's only got an expiration date and the unique Id!\" The reason he thought there was no other information in the document was because he did not know that you could scroll an excel sheet from left to right.", "id": "ceam9ug", "summary": "A man did not know how to scroll left in Excel. \n [EDIT: This was in 2013, in a major metropolitan city, from a man who ostensibly is an IT resource. It's not like he's never seen a computer before.]"}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "Last week, we did a shitload of back extensions in one of the WoDs. Since I'm stupidly tall, I decided to use a band instead of the GHD machine, because that way I could save time not having to readjust the machine. Well, it turns out that I probably picked a band that was a little too hard (because I'm stupidly tall, the back extensions are harder for me than for shorter folks because the resistance of the band goes up). Without realizing it, I must have started bending my knees to get a little hamstring assist. \n Short story long, I tried going for a run two days later. Legs still won't work. It wasn't worse, as far as pain is concerned, but I still haven't completely recovered flexibility or all of my strength.", "id": "c9q2c6y", "summary": "Friends don't let friends skip the run two days after leg days."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "All this advice about girls is fun. Don't worry if you don't figure out the dating scene. When you get older it actually gets easier. \n Do: Find an affordable and reputable college to go to. Either single major in something that will pay well (business/engineering) or double major, with one of them being business or engineering.", "id": "c7ux8vc", "summary": "You can always masturbate and cry into your beer. Starving after college sucks."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "The best cops I've ever interacted with have had social work and public health training. They do a much better job when they and their employers see them as contributing to public health and safety and not just arresting and citing law breakers. \n It's the difference between a cop that arrests a vagrant for public intoxication or being in a public park after dark and one who finds out the person's name, finds out what shelters he/she has been staying in, where he or she has been kicked out of, etc... finds them a shelter for the night, gives them a ride, and only offers to confiscate (and not charge) for any drugs and paraphernalia they're carrying so long as they give up freely (I've seen all of this). \n It's the difference between arresting a woman for solicitation and asking her who her pimp is, if he's hurting her, if he's sharing fairly, and whether she's on drugs or not. Then helping her find a battered women's shelter where she can feel safe. Or, it's the difference between arresting her for solicitation and booking her before she even can request a doctor and driving her to the hospital to have a rape kit administered by a sexual assault nurse examiner before asking her to file a police report and helping her call a friend or find a safe place to stay for the night. (I've seen all of this). \n It's the difference between crashing into a social security office and handcuffing two middle aged, burned out, impoverished mentally ill adults and their well-meaning 22 year old case worker because, when the social security employee was scheduling the appointment she overheard one of the clients whisper that she should just blow up social security and so she called the cops, and immediately identifying that those people are not a threat whatsoever. It's the difference between forcing handcuffed people to lie on the ground and spread their legs to be frisked (including the social worker) and quietly advising them that it is inadvisable to A. say such things and B. not address it in the phone call. (I've seen this, in this case, the local cops showed up and were cool as hell. Then the FBI swarmed the place. also, the social security worker was totally in the right, the FBI were the dicks, esp because the local police were already all over it and clearly had it under control).", "id": "c93iqge", "summary": "Cops with the right training, the right social services they can refer to, and the right attitude can make a huge difference and have way more power than arresting and writing tickets."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "As a consultant in the healthcare strategy and IT space, CMS's ruling to push back ICD 10 by a year means we'll probably get another big client that will feed half of us for a year. \n The PPACA is just coming into effect and the first round of ACOs have been formed. We'll probably see some business on the HIE side as ACOs realize that they formed prior to having a sufficiently mature data infrastructure to manage all of their reporting criteria. This has certainly proved to be true with regard to Meaningful Use. \n As far as asking practitioners, I'd be cautious. First, many practitioners operate in the dark ages. They may be excellent physicians but they are frequently in the dark with regard to revenue cycle and supply chain management. Also, more than a few physicians I know have accidentally lumped the ICD 10 transition and Meaningful Use into the PPACA legislation. \n It is worth noting that a component of PPACA (Obamacare, btw) is the necessary upgrading of patient information systems. Consider this, it is 2012. Yet, if you want a complete picture of all of the health care you've ever received, you probably cannot get it. Many records exist only in paper form. Users have an ID for their insurer but no national record exists and because of the stupid and obnoxious idea of \"preexisting conditions\" intelligent healthcare recipients (i.e. all of us) should be afraid of some sort of national health database. However, such a database would dramatically improve public health efforts.", "id": "c6y1nrg", "summary": "many practitioners don't really have insight into the relevance of healthcare reform on a higher level because they only deal with individual patients and managing the business."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "You don't have to throw up. I've pushed myself pretty hard but never so hard that I threw up. Part of the reason is that I'm never going to be a professional athlete, I don't have any need to find a fast and hard limit. \n Know why you're going to crossfit and you'll be able to set your limits so that they're appropriate for you.", "id": "cfvgfs1", "summary": "You'll find plenty of limits in crossfit, your gag reflex doesn't have to be one of them."}, {"author": "Hideyoshi_Toyotomi", "content": "I was travelling in the middle lane of a highway when I saw a flash in front of me. It took me the length of time for the man running across the lane to realize that it was a person, dashing into 60 mph traffic. As the horror filled me, the car in the left lane (and just a little bit ahead of me) careened into him at full force. \n I've (blissfully) forgotten the exact noise, but the sound of an early 90's metal volvo crushing and tearing human flesh is horrible. It was as though the hood and fender were crying out in agony. \n The man slammed first into the hood of the car, smashed in the windshield, and rolled on to the top of the car. The driver didn't even have time to hit the brakes before he'd hit the man. When he did, the man he'd hit was thrown into the road, where he rolled a few times before coming to an awkward halt, his body slumped awkwardly on the ground, a pool of blood forming slowly around his head. \n I parked my car and waited by the side of the road to give a statement to the police. I saw the man lying still and imagined that he was dying and was horrified. My 17 year old mind couldn't tolerate the horror. To this day, I regret not sitting with him, holding his hand until the ambulance came. Not even shitbags like him deserve to die alone. \n The people that hit him... Those poor people, were a young family. They had a son, maybe 8 years old, who had been in the back of the car and must have seen the whole thing. They were in a state of shock. They were just trying to get home when some asshole decided that they were going to be, literally, the vehicle for his suicide. Not only did he total their car, but he traumatized them. I had flashbacks and triggers for years, I can only imagine how they feel about driving, about having been directly involved in the death of a man. \n The police officer that took my statement was very helpful. He called me a few days after he took my statement to tell me that the man had been addicted to drugs since he was twelve, that he'd been in and out of institutions his whole life, and that his family had decided to take him off of life support. \n Take this as a lesson. If you're contemplating suicide, do it in such a way that you don't involve someone else. Actually, someone has to find you, so if you're contemplating suicide, don't do it and fuck you, the person who finds you will suffer all sorts of trauma and be at immensely elevated risk, themselves. Also, getting hit by a car going 60 may not actually kill you.", "id": "c899088", "summary": "a shitbag jumped in front of a car going 60 mph to kill himself. Succeeded in traumatizing me and the entire family in that car."}]}
+{"author": "Ihmhi", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post murican sheep FUCK YEAH](", "output": "I'm a big guy and I have Size 14 feet. These are the only socks that last longer than a couple months. Even the sheep the wool comes from is 'murican! \n >We support wool producers in this country by sourcing our wool almost exclusively from American yarn spinners who buy from American wool growers. And we support domestic yarn spinners whenever possible and work with them to get the best quality natural and manmade fibers and yarn for all of our products."}], "user_id": "longlamp_3226", "history": [{"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "My friend lent me a box of condoms when I got my first girlfriend. They didn't fit, so we just awkwardly 69'd my \"first time\". \n I immediately went out and bought new condoms (and I called my friend \"midget dick\" for a week). After an actual go at it, I actually lasted a fair while - because I couldn't feel anything. My girlfriend switched to being on top of me, and I guess it was the weight of her or something but something activated Two-Pump Chump mode. \n I couldn't feel anything through a condom (and never did) and pretty much had a shitty time all around. \n On the upside, I found out my friend's girlfriend bought those small-ish condoms for him. They didn't fit him, so he gave them to me. I gave him hell for a  month  thanks to that shit.", "id": "c75q7cx", "summary": "been there, bro."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "For those that don't get it, that's a Stag (i.e. a male in a deer or deer-like species). It seems to be in the middle of a call ( Here's . I'm not an animal expert but it looks like it might be a [Red Deer]( \n Stags roar to call does to them initially - the loudest and most frequent roars attract more does. They then use them to keep their harem of does near them at all times. \n Stags are fiercely protective of their lady deers and will get into fights over them.", "id": "c75xjtg", "summary": "OP was all like, \"*Roar*, come at me bro, I'll headbutt you with some plants.\""}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "but they don't really need a xbox360 each \n They don't get \"an xbox 360 each\". \n From their FAQ: \n > How will these toys be used? \n >Items like the video game systems and games will be given to the hospitals and a child will essentially be able to check it out and have it placed in their room. Obviously the more systems and copies of each game they have the better. Other toys though will be given to individual children as presents. Something they can keep and take with them when they leave. To read about the effect of these donations, check out the testimonials. \n &nbsp; \n >Even cheaper systems like getting old ds-es with pokemon and such would be enough to brighten their day and you would spend a fraction of the price. \n Can't do that either. Hospitals can't accept used things due to risk of contamination. Again, from their F.A.Q.: \n > Can I send you my used games or console? \n >We cannot accept used items. If you or someone you know would like to donate used games or game equipment, please consider an alternate game charity: \n >* GameSchool (\nContact: Jarrod Wolkowitz (gameschool@starinc.org) \n \n DonateGames (\nContact: support@DonateGames.org \n Vinny’s Kids (\nContact: Vinny Cherry vinnyskids@gmail.com", "id": "c63s8zv", "summary": "Consoles and big-ticket items stay in the hospitals, kids get smaller things like toys or books depending on the hospital's policy."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "You get better rates on savings accounts at credit unions, for instance. A bank might give you 3% but a credit union could give you 6%. They're also usually nonprofit and local, so they're less likely to do something stupid with your money and fuck you over in an effort to make more money for shareholders (which typically don't exist - I'm not even sure if there are any credit unions on the stock market). \n Also usually easier to get loans and work through the bureaucracy if needed.", "id": "c4ym972", "summary": "they're banks, but for responsible adults."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "This]( is what the inside of your keyboard looks like, roughly, It goes thusly: \n &nbsp; \n Key\nRubber Nipple Dealie\nCircuit Board Contact\n \n &nbsp; \n Pushing down on the key presses down on the rubber nipple which makes contact with the circuit board and sends the signal to a computer. \n Game controllers use the same wonderful rubber nipple technology [as seen here.]( \n Mechanical keyboards have an advantage in that each individual key is a switch. Keyboards use a sort of switch system so that you can only press so many keys at a time. Mechanical keyboards are set up so that literally every single key is a mechanical switch. You could smash your face into the keyboard and every key you hit simultaneously would produce a character on the device it's hooked up to. The same would not be true for a non-mechanical keyboard.", "id": "cj8uh1d", "summary": "Nipples."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Suppose that an evil clan of evil ninjas got the drop on your daughter and kidnapped her. Which movie-star approach would you take to rescuing her? \n a) [Arnold Schwarzeneggar in  Commando ]( \n b) [Charles Bronson in  Death Wish 2 ]( \n c) [Denzel Washingon in  Man on Fire ]( \n d) [Liam Neeson in  Taken ]( \n e) All of the above. \n =", "id": "c7eysmu", "summary": "Your daughter has been kidnapped by ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue your daughter?]("}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "We could insist that cops wear cop uniforms and train them, as cops. This SWAT, para-miltary crap just makes them think we are stupid and worthless. \n I disagree that we should get rid of their military-grade equipment. I  do  agree that they need to use it way less often and the number of no-knocks definitely needs to go way down. \n There's a  reason  cops have this kind of stuff whereas they didn't before. There was this little shootout in LA where the police were severely outmatched in firepower. There needs to be armaments of that caliber for situations such as that. \n SWAT is also important for the same reasons - sometimes you're going to need more than your average officer. \n They use it way too readily. I'm all for stopping them from using it as frequently as they do, but taking the lot of it away is not a good solution either. \n Keep in mind situations like Hurricane Katrina. It took  5 days  for the National Guard to be deployed, and thanks to  posse comitatus  the standard military can't just engage in police actions on home soil.", "id": "c5tetxl", "summary": "The police have a genuine need for the equipment but I agree that they use it way too often, and no-knock warrants need to be greatly reduced."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I don't imagine very many people have seen it, but it's a  jidai geki  (Japanese period piece, basically a samurai movie) called  Sword of Desperation . I wrote the [TV Tropes page for it.]( \n &nbsp; \n The TV Tropes page and this post are pretty spoiler-heavy. If you want a good story, take some time and watch it. If you enjoy samurai stories and/or understand Japanese culture,  definitely  watch it. \n &nbsp; \n The movie is an interesting drama and period piece. It opens with a Feudal Lord (basically like a Duke or Lord) watching a Kabuki play with some of his samurai and ladies. After the play ends, one of his samurai (the main character, Sanzaemon)   . \n &nbsp; \n Sword of Desperation  makes heavy use of flashbacks showing how they got to that point at the start of the film. It shows how the Lord's fiefdom ended up the way it did as well as the kind of influence the Lord's Mistress has had on the fief as a whole. \n &nbsp; \n At the end of the movie,  Sanzaemon  \n &nbsp; \n What follows is an incredibly epic and unfair fight. The main character kicks ass left and right.  \n &nbsp; \n It seems like a decent drama just from what I describe, but when you factor in Japanese culture and politics it makes it  way  more interesting. Here's the short summary: \n &nbsp; \n \n &nbsp; \n \n &nbsp; \n \n &nbsp;", "id": "cawulwr", "summary": "Watch  Sword of Desperation , it's a fucking amazing samurai drama. Don't read these spoilers if you don't want it ruined. If you fail to understand what exactly happened after watching it, come back here or go to the TV Tropes page and you'll see the plot explained very well."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Not Best Western, but... \n I went to Otakon for 5 years running. Being a 3 day anime con (and we usually stayed extra days), it necessitated staying at a hotel. \n The first couple of years we stayed at a Holiday Inn and ended up paying about $1200-$1300 for the room for the entire time. Then we decided to mix things up and stay at the Marriot. \n The Marriot was more like $800, but there were fees up the  ass . The Internet alone nearly cost us $100 (which was free at the Holiday Inn). Only a little complimentary coffee (whereas the Holiday Inn had a box behind the check-in desk and they'd just give you more). \n The Marriot had a manager who inspected our room because it had 6 people in a 4 bedroom room. The Holiday Inn had a manager who said he didn't give a fuck, told me he loved \"those weirdos in the chinese armor costumes\", and then bummed a cigarette off of me.", "id": "c766jau", "summary": "budget hotels are awesome."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Our water system. \n Bear in mind my information may not be the most up-to-date or accurate. \n Basically, Newark has a shortage of money (as many U.S. cities and states do nowadays). Their solution for this was to basically sell our water system to a private company. \n The price they were selling it for was the amount of money we'd get in only 3 years of operation, which is insane in its own right. \n Moreover, certain places have amazing sweetheart deals or haven't really paid their bill at all. Newark Airport - the largest airport in the area by far (and, I may be wrong, but I think it's America's biggest international airport on the East Coast) owes tens of millions of dollars in water bills. Those fine folks who make Budweiser, Anheuser-Busch, only pay about $3 million a year for water and they use  way  more than that. \n If we collected the Newark Airport's outstanding bill in its entirety, it would completely shore up our budget shortfall. \n We also need hundreds of millions to repair our aging sewer and water system. \n Long story short, the money is there, and the politicians are trying to get us to sell off our honest-to-goodness money-making assets to make some short term cash. Jesus Christ, it won't even solve the problem in the short term! \n That aside, take a look at NYC. There's so many jobs in New York City that they bring in something like 4,000,000 people from other places every day. Newark, meanwhile, has loads of people who can't find work without traveling at least a half hour away from the city. Something is very, very wrong at Newark's core and it needs to be fixed.", "id": "c6yfhvr", "summary": "I think Booker is doing a decent job, the city council is shit, and while things could be better they are certainly improving overall."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I picked up a habit in Fallout 3 - I'd sort types of items into different containers. Food and drugs went into the fridge downstairs, one of each weapon and armor went into the desk upstairs, and everything else went into the filing cabinet next to the desk. (I stayed the fuck away from the lockers on the first floor, because apparently they can bug out and eat your items and I ain't havin' none of that shit.) \n So when Skyrim comes around, I find out you can buy a house. Not just  a  house, but like 10 of the damned things. I research them and I figure out which one is the best one for me (Hjerim, clearly, for all the storage space and  fuck yeah secret room ), but I can't buy Hjerim just yet. I have to do some quests firsts, but in the meantime I need to store stuff  somewhere . \n So I'm working my way through a bottle of vodka. I'm just kinda zoning out and listening to some dubsteppish kinda music, and I think \"Hey, I'm too drunk to do a quest, but not too drunk to productively earn some Septim!\" \n I just kinda drunkenly stare at the screen and chop wood for 2 hours so I can buy and kit out the house in Whiterun (6,800 Gold, I believe, total). I store everything up in there and I'm good, and I start working on Hjerim. \n Finally I get Hjerim, and I gotta move all my stuff. A quick mental calculation tells me that I'll need to do like 8 trips of sorting out all of my equipment to get it all over there. Fuck that, I'll just take it all in one go. That's what the Whirlwind shout and power attacks are for - running when you're overencumbered. \n I grab all of my stuff out of Whiterun, close up the house, and Wuld/power attack my way to the Whiterun stables. There's the guy I'm looking for - the carriage. I say \"Hey, take me to Windhelm\", hop on, and... nothing. The fucker doesn't move. \n I consult the wiki. By all accounts the carriage  should  be moving. Shit, by sheer fucking  logic  the carriage should be moving. Okay I get  I'm  not fast carrying a thousand pounds of shit, but this is a carriage that can seat at  least  four people. Ride 'em cowboy, move the fuck out already! But this motherfucker don't wanna go. \n Rather than let him finish writing down whatever fucking extra charges he's gonna give me for 1,000 pounds of carry-on luggage (and honestly, I would have paid him a thousand gold right there if he would have  just fucking got moving ), I decide on Option B. \n Option B isn't bad, but Option C is manually walking from Whiterun to Windhelm while overencumbered. Option B had better fucking work. \n Option B is to hop on a horse at the stables and roll out. Now these same wiki fuckers that say the carriage should work while you're overencumbered also say that you can Fast Travel while on a horse even while overencumbered. But the horse that usually follows me around isn't there. \n Crossing my fingers and hoping these milk-drinking Thalmor-fondlers aren't wrong twice, I decide to say \"fuck it\" and steal a goddamned horse from the stables. I get fucking arrested, so I have to reload and try to be stealthy while carrying half a ton of shit. Savior of the fucking world, but apparently my credit rating is shit. \n Second time around, I manage to get away without anyone seeing me (by the by, the person who saw me and sold my ass out was the carriage driver - I guess the fucker was mad about losing out on sweet carry-on fees) and fast travel to the Palace of the Kings. A Fast Travel, a couple of Whirlwinds and power attacks, and I'm home. \n Now while I'm usually quite delighted at decorating my home, I decide that  I  want to decorate my home. So while I'm slow-walking my way through the place, I'm picking up everything that isn't nailed down and putting things in their proper places. \n Boom, done. Everything's stored away. The house looks a little bland, but I wanna smash some skulls so I take a break from decorating and sorting my items. \n After clearing out a couple of caves, I figure I'll get my interior designer on, and I figure I'll do things little by little. I figure out the dining room table is for four, so I'll set up a nice feast for four people. I set the plates, I put goblets down (matching, of course), and a Flagon for myself 'cause that's how the goddamned hero of Skyrim rolls. \n I figure I probably have to save the state of the home or something, so I quicksave, walk outside, walk back in, and my shit's all over the floor. Now I haven't adopted any kids yet, so I'm trying to figure out what the fuck is going on. I reset things, leave, come back, and half the shit is on the floor again. \n I google it and find out that if two physics objects (that weren't placed there by the game makers) are even barely touching - we're talking two fucking atoms are close enough to wave hello, even the slightest bit of contact - they'll spazz the fuck out the next time you load the room. \n This is a AAA title with all sorts of nice little details. The dialogue is rich and varied. The world feels very  alive . And yet these chucklefucks didn't anticipate that maybe someone wants to meticulously decorate their home and, hey,  shit exploding everywhere  is probably detrimental to their inner fucking peace. \n Armed with newfound knowledge of Skyrim's \"It's gay if the plates are touching\" No Homo physics, I carefully place a few plates, bowls, jugs,  and goblets on tables in the main hall of Hjerim. I close the door, turn around, and hope I don't stroke out from the rage when things get all fucked up. \n Get back inside, and everything is... fine. Perfectly fine. Close enough to where I left it that I'm fine with it. I'm getting pissed at decorating and I wanna take my rage out some human beings without getting fucking arrested by some retired arrow-up-my-ass city guard, so I figure I'll just place some apples in a bowl and call it a day. \n I meticulously and carefully pick up and place red and green apples into their own distinct bowls. They form a perfect little sort of lopsided apple pyramid. You can paint a picture of this shit and hang it up in the Louvre, it's motherfuckin'  picturesque . I go outside, come back in, and there's an apple... on... the... floor. \n *twitch* \n Trying this shit again, I decide rather than try to pick up and place the apples into the bowl, I'll just drop them in and hope that works. I try to figure out exactly where the hell the apple is floating (and I now understand how lack of depth perception in games can affect gameplay), and drop it in. Four or five apples to a bowl. Not a work of art, but you can draw this shit in crayon and slap it on the fridge at least. \n Walk outside, back in, no apples on the floor. You're goddamn right. \n I take a moment and turn around to look at the mostly-empty house. I imagine where I'm going to want to place certain things to make it  my  home. A skull on that shelf, maybe a mammoth tusk on top of that cabinet. A warhammer leaning against the wall by the door. \n And then I think about what I'll have to do to achieve that kind of setup. Carefully drop each item into place, cross my fingers, and hope my wife, housecarl. and/or my two little newly adopted girls won't run around like idiots and fuck my shit up. (Incidentally, can you send kids back to the orphanage? 'cause if they touch my goddamn bowl of apples I'm sending them packing.) \n I've been gaming for 24 years. I've had a controller in my hand since I was three. I have summited Turtle Rock countless times. I have made Top 3 in countless FPS matches in countless games. I have made it past the hoverbike level of Battletoads (admittedly, only the one time). \n And here I am - two decades of gaming experience on nearly a dozen platforms - thwarted by apples.", "id": "c89lw4x", "summary": "Get your shit together, Bethesda."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "But really, our 2nd amendment does not grant the right to keep and bear firearms. Therefore guns are not a thing we have a right to. \n Sorry, I'm afraid your wrong. The Supreme Court already ruled on this in  DC v. Heller . Here's the details: \n &nbsp; \n >The Supreme Court held:[43] \n >(1) The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home. Pp. 2–53. \n >... \n >&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(a) The Amendment’s prefatory clause announces a purpose, but does not limit or expand the scope of the second part, the operative clause. The operative clause’s text and history demonstrate that it connotes an individual right to keep and bear arms. Pp. 2–22. \n >... \n >(f) None of the Court’s precedents forecloses the Court’s interpretation. Neither United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542 , nor Presser v. Illinois, 116 U. S. 252 , refutes the individual-rights interpretation. United States v. Miller, 307 U. S. 174 , does not limit the right to keep and bear arms to militia purposes, but rather limits the type of weapon to which the right applies to those used by the militia, i.e.,  those in common use for lawful purposes. \n >... \n >(2) Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose: For example, concealed weapons prohibitions have been upheld under the Amendment or state analogues. The Court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.  Miller’s holding that the sorts of weapons protected are those “in common use at the time” finds support in the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons. Pp. 54–56. \n &nbsp;", "id": "cab5w72", "summary": "The Second Amendment protects the individual right to keep and bear arms outside of the context of being \"in a militia\". Arms are defined as \"weapons in common use at the time\"."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Quick side question, is there a particular reason that some of your paragraphs in your posts here use code breaks (four spaces at the front)? I'm not sure if you're aware but it makes things a bit of a mess to read. It puts the entire paragraph on one line. \n Basically it looks like this: \n &nbsp; \n >     Sadly in these situations you're always going to get idiots acting as if 1 side or the other is 100% right and the other is evil incarnate... \n I looked at the source of one of your comments and it looks like you're trying to indent for a paragraph. To do it in Markdown without engaging the buggy code, you could put a few  &amp;nbsp;  at the start of the line, like this: \n &nbsp; \n > &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Sadly in these situations you're always going to get idiots acting as if 1 side or the other is 100% right and the other is evil incarnate... \n which results in this: \n &nbsp; \n >&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sadly in these situations you're always going to get idiots acting as if 1 side or the other is 100% right and the other is evil incarnate... \n &nbsp;", "id": "cm535vg", "summary": "Four or more spaces at the start of the line puts the entire paragraph as one line in Reddit."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I was watching  Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood , or more specifically my parents were flipping through the channels and they were checking it out. It was towards the end of the episode, and he was singing \"It's a such a good feeling\". The tears just started  flowing . I'm a 26 year old guy.", "id": "c63t5ee", "summary": "I miss Mr. Rogers. ;_;"}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "nbsp; \n ^(Although admittedly, you probably have me on the \"makes it transparent\" part. One could debate whether or not the transparency is as a result of the sun. Of course, we can get technical on the whole thing and state that since observing the transparency requires visible light - which is being provided by the sun - it still technically counts.) \n ^(", "id": "c713tt8", "summary": "Enjoy the pretty Asian girl with the sun dress and bikini.)"}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "This was posted earlier today without a timestamp and I removed it because I skimmed through the podcast and couldn't find the specific part where they talk about TB. \n I checked it out myself and they do talk about TB and Internet comments for a fair few minutes at the timestamp listed in the title. I asked the OP to make a new post to clarify that it wasn't just somebody posting the RT Podcast for some unknown reason and that it's actually related to TB.", "id": "cfjmlkg", "summary": "Kid tested, mod approved."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I remember when I was in Cub Scouts, my Scout leader asked us to do a drawing about something we recently learned. So I drew up some stuff about plate tectonics. When he asked me about it, I said I learned it from the super awesome dude Bill Nye. \n I don't know if he was just humoring me or if he genuinely didn't know, but he said he didn't know the specifics of that stuff.", "id": "c7m8rgh", "summary": "BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL"}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "The logical part of my brain knows that planes are pretty safe, but there's always a little bit of fear there. \n \"The only thing holding this thing in the air are these two wings sticking out. Also, they're filled with highly flammable fuel.\" \n I'm a bit more comforted at seeing the increasing prevalance of [ballistic parachutes.](", "id": "cdqays1", "summary": "Explosive charge blows open a hatch and deploys a parachute large enough to let the plane land safely if something goes really wrong in the air. The engineering behind them is really cool."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I trust my friends. \n Computer fixer-upper here. \n Do you trust  every single one  of your friends: \n \n to not let their computer be stolen? \n to not let a virus on their computer (which could scrape personal information)? \n to not let their Facebook be compromised in one way or another? \n \n If the answer to any of those is \"no\" (and really, unless you have a tiny handful of friends on Facebook the answer to  all  of those would probably be \"no\"), then you should still be careful with what you share. \n Also consider everyone who might have access to thier computer. Maybe Uncle Jimbob is out of jail and couch-surfing at their place, and your friend's mom leaves Facebook on all the time. Well, Uncle Jimbob needs a heroin fix and sees that you're out on vacation...", "id": "cqy9aj6", "summary": "Anything you put on the Internet that isn't 100% private to you (i.e. personal e-mail) should be treated as information that can be used against you somehow. Actually, treat  everything  you do online like this, full stop."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I would say yes. You can get a level in around an hour or less depending on boosts, distance, transport, and what world events are spawning. While you can use good gear for a few levels, you can also buy it on the market or find it as drops. \n Here's my logic: \n Crafting whites will let you get basic whites every few levels so at least you have  something  level appropriate. (You need to do it to get to the Level 40 stuff anyway.) \n While you  could  research the \"branches\" of the tree, you have to spent Research Points and (more importantly) Crystite to do it. \n You can only get Crystite through salvaging, refining, or missions. You can get Credits through all of the ways you can get Crystite as well as selling drops on the market and selling Red Beans for Credits (sorta). Credits are a more readily available resource. \n There's also the issue of cost. It can cost thousands of Crystite to research something and thousands more to make it. \n Now let's say you want to make an epic weapon. It costs 10,000 Crystite to research it and 1,000 Crystite to make it. That's a total of 440 Credits. \n 440 Credits will only buy you one decent weapon (maybe) depending on the level, quality, and the market. So Credits seem like a dumb choice, right? \n But if you salvage a single weapon, you'll get a handful of Crystite out of it. Maybe a couple hundred for most mid-tier stuff. \n If you sell a single weapon, you can get at least 20 Credits out of it. That's 500 Crystite, and that is a  garbage  price. \n So if you're gonna bother with crafting at all (it's not necessarily worth it), go across the top row to get the whites and work your way down for the epics. \n I would say, though, that it would be a more worthwhile investment to research Thumpers. Thumpers don't drop, you can only buy them on the market or craft them. They're less available and you can probably craft a Thumper for less than it sells on the market, and you could always use more. \n Sorry this was a bit ranty, I just woke up a few hours ago and this was the best I could explain it. I hope it's helpful. \n &nbsp;", "id": "cjg5swt", "summary": "Crystite is harder to earn than Credits. Better to spend Credits buying stuff on the market than spending Crystite researching and building weapons that you won't even know what stats they'll have."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Get out of here you white motherfucker\". \n My transgression was walking along a public street. \n I live in Newark, NJ. I was coming home from a concert/party down by University Heights (the college area) with one of my best friends. We were both dressed to the nines in goth/rocker stuff - trenchcoats, chains, band shirts, etc. \n We walk past Broad & Market (pretty much the city center) and this line rolls out of the barely functional mouth of a gangsta-looking black man with a 40 oz. in a brown paper bag. My pace slowed for about half a second and then I kept moving along. \n See, I really wanted to confront the guy. I'm a pretty big dude, and while my friend is short he's got training in ninjitsu and other arts. Neither of us would have been all that worried in a physical confrontation. The issue is that if I went and started something with a black guy in an area surrounded with loads of black people, I'd get mobbed and start a race riot or something. Our city didn't do so well at the last race riot, so yeah.", "id": "c7iucq6", "summary": "Black people can't be racist."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Notice the following country-relevant info! \n \n I have very little money as I spent it on a high-capacity assault rifle and a 6 round grenade launcher. \n The European Union is, of course, completely broke. \n The only thing Russian manages to get right is geographical location (ping). \n Sweden has a lot of money, but it doesn't count for much ^(filthy socialist bastards). \n France is playing a Sharpshooter (Sniper), ensuring he can stay as far away from actual combat as possible. \n I am playing a Commando (Assault Rifles) with a grenade launcher, that basically makes me Arnold Schwarzeneggar in  Commando  and even though he's from another country there ain't anything more 'Murrican than full-auto assault rifles and explosives.", "id": "c8xzzct", "summary": "MURICA FUCK YEAH"}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Okay, well, let me give you an example. \n Say an unattractive woman started hitting on you at a party. Now, you have the option to go all SAP on them and try to let them down nicely, but you could also say \"You're not as pretty as you think you are. Please go away.\" \n As fucked up as the latter might be, if Louis C.K. were to say it (\"This 300 pound woman tried to hit on me at a party. I told her, 'Hey, you're not as pretty as you think you are, so how about you walk away?'\") it would be funny. \n I think \"asshole\" can be defined as someone who acts in a socially unacceptable manner, usually to the extreme. Louis C.K. excels at that, but he's honest about it. He's honest when he knows he's being shitty, but he shows positively  no  remorse which adds another layer of honest. (\"So my wife was gonna give me a handjob, but she didn't want to do it in the living room where we have all kinds of nice stuff. So we go up to my daughter's room\"  audience reacts with boos and laughter  \"Hey, fuck you! I pay her rent! I'll shit on her bed if I want to!\")", "id": "c4xjz5r", "summary": "he says the things that we would say but we don't because it's socially improper to do so."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "And it's subsequently used derisively by hardcore gamers for people who don't put as much effort into the hobby. \n Honestly though? I can understand. Let's take the terminology away from gaming for just a moment. \n Suppose that you were a model train collector. Now you didn't just collect model trains - you were one of those people with hundreds of Lionel cars and hundreds of feet of meticulously-laid track. Each and every one of the little models and trees and people on your creations were meticulously painted and placed by hand. You've invested thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours into the hobby. \n Now someone comes along, buys a couple Toys 'R' Us trainsets, and says they're a train enthusiast as well. \n Couldn't you understand someone in that position being a  little  bit miffed? \n Now, to turn it around, you've got people who play Bejeweled and say they're a gamer. Fair enough, I suppose, but there's a world of difference between someone playing something like Peggle and someone who's so far into Quake 3 that they have custom textures & models and they run through rocketjump maps for fun. Thus the terms \"Casual gamer\" and \"Hardcore gamer\" cropped up.", "id": "c77j7j6", "summary": "Train Simulator 2013"}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I don't know. I'm only 26 and it's hard for me to imagine changing my views. \n \n I believe very much in gun rights - both owning guns and open/concealed carry. I believe everyone should have the power to defend themselves. The police are more often a reactive force than a proactive force, and they can't be everywhere at all times. \n I believe in reproductive rights on both ends. Women should have the right to choose to abort a pregnancy (and, of course, give a child up for adoption). Men should have the right for \"financial abortion\", as its the only real way where there can be equality in reproductive rights in that sense. \n I believe that with all of our technology and intelligence as a species, it's appalling that we as a first world nation can't ensure that everyone is fed, clothed, and cared for. Our social safety net is sorely lacking. \n I believe workers need more protections in place from companies and that the existing protections in place aren't being enforced enough. \n I believe in a strong military, but strictly for defensive purposes. I think we should get rid of a few hundred of our nearly 1,000 military bases around the world and keep our troops in our own backyard. I believe we need to stop messing around with other countries. \n I believe we need to focus on renewable and cleaner power with an immediate emphasis on nuclear as its known to work and is practical. \n I believe \"deregulation of businesses\" doesn't work and leads to disaster. I'm against insane overregulation, but I think it's nutty to believe that if you deregulate businesses they won't screw their workers, the environment, and the economy over at every opportunity to raise their profit margins a little bit higher.  \n \n I could go on but I won't. I think this paints a pretty basic picture of some of my beliefs. Every time I vote, I have to figure out which of my beliefs I'm going to be voting against. It's certainly not fun, and I've often not voted for a candidate at election time because they go against one of these that I consider really important. \n On the upside, each successive generation seems to be more progressive than the next. I suppose a lot of the stuff I believe falls under a sort of idealism. The only belief of mine that I feel is under real threat from more progressive people is the right to keep and bear arms, and I honestly believe that is because they do not understand the realities of the world.", "id": "c70o48p", "summary": "voting is hard, bro."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "There's other alternative meats that are supposedly quite good. \n Ted Turner is fond of American Bison (he has loads of them on his massive ranch), and he apparently is campaigning to get Bison meat preferred over Cow Meat - namely because Bison don't fart nearly as much methane into the air.", "id": "c73fhm2", "summary": "Bison have pre-installed fart silencers."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Sure. Our entire \"health care\" system is fucked. There's all sorts of government kickbacks and incentives to private insurance companies, and this does provide people who have jobs with healthcare. But you have places like the UK which get the same level of care at something like 25% of the cost  and  without turning anyone away. \n Nationalized healthcare would make things more efficient and easier overall. The only people who would lose out is private insurance companies, and frankly I couldn't give a fuck about some businesses' profit margin compared to my fellow man.", "id": "c881qji", "summary": "people are dying in the streets from treatable illnesses because private health insurance companies have the government by the balls."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Imagine, if you will, ladies... \n You come home, and you think, \"Oh man, I could really go for some red velvet cake after such a hard day at work.\" And you get to the door, and you can almost smell it, but the effort is just too much after dealing with your cunt of a boss and that bitch Susan in accounts receivable. \n And when you step through the threshold, you realize you really  are  smelling red velvet cake. There's your man in the kitchen, icing a freshly-baked red velvet cake. He's wearing his \"Blow the cook\" apron with the pink frills and he's putting the finishing touches on, writing \"Susan is a worthless trollop\" in beautiful cursive script with icing. \n \"Hey honey, I know you had a hard day, so I baked you a cake.\" \n Now on the guy's side, how many brownie points did he just score?", "id": "c9gef1i", "summary": "Susan in accounts receivable is a thundercunt."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Is the donation information acceptable when put at the bottom where it isn't taking priority over the important things like Rules and Other Helpful Reddits? \n I don't think the issue people had was with the placement of the BTC link insomuch as the existence of the BTC link itself. \n &nbsp; \n >* Does it need to be removed entirely? Why or why not? \n No. Moderating a subreddit is a lot of work, especially when you have a small crew. \n If it were another subreddit, I might feel a bit differently about the link, but this  is  /r/beermoney. \n Also, something people may not understand - if the mods don't enforce the rules here (no leaking of personal information, stuff like that), the subreddit can be  shut down  by the admins. Active mods are an absolute necessity. \n &nbsp;", "id": "caoqtmh", "summary": "Fuck bitches, get beer money."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Let me elaborate. \n There wasn't a cat in residence for 10 Downing Street for a good period during 2011, at which point rats were spotted running about. That showed to certain people in the government that the mouser was indeed very necessary, and thus they were a pro-cat faction advocating for a swift appointment of a new mouser.", "id": "c7enhcz", "summary": "Cats are serious business in British government."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I'm going to reply here so it's clearly seen: all of these comments are removed because a goodly chunk of them violated the second half of Rule #5: \n &nbsp; \n > 5)  If you act like an ass, we'll just ban you. Asinine submissions and comments will be summarily deleted. \n &nbsp; \n One person being a bit of an idiot isn't all that uncommon anywhere. At a certain point it would be best if more sensible persons stopped responding. \n &nbsp;", "id": "cdzwc38", "summary": "Comments nuked, abandon hope all ye who enter here, don't feed the trolls."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "In the early 2000s (and as far as we know, continuing to this day), Eric Bauman (a.k.a. ebaum) started up ebaum's world. \n It's a lot like those websites full of amusing games and contents. Newgrounds, Kongregate, etc. \n The issue is that ebaum's world  blatantly steals . They don't just copy content to their site (which, in the Internet age is rather commonplace) - they remove or replace the watermarks and claim the content as their own. He also gets very lawyer-heavy.", "id": "c73fg34", "summary": "the owner (and the website as a result) is a huge thief who steals content and credit for that content."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "When I was a young'un, my best friend and I went to get some Pepsi from his pantry and found the bottle was somehow 3 months old. \n So we did the only logical thing: we took it outside to the street and rolled it out underneath the first passing car. \n Amazingly it went right under the tire and we heard a huge *KABOOM*. This is probably my younger imagination acting up, but I'd swear the front of the car popped up in the air like a foot. \n The car stopped, and we were hiding behind a parked car concealed behind the tires. Nobody got out - they just slowly drove away. I guess they thought they blew a tire and figured everything was okay when they started driving. \n It was pretty fucking awesome and pretty fucking stupid at the same time. \n &nbsp;", "id": "c9h1wdd", "summary": "3rd grade is a helluva drug."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Nope. Think about the countries that have a pacific coast. How many of them do you think have a significant naval presence? And how many of those do you really trust to control the pacific? \n I don't know. Why should we concern ourselves with defending the waters of other sovereign nations? Are our allies paying the wages for the troops and the maintenance of our ships? If they are (through direct money or preferential treatment), then that makes a nation full of mercenaries IMO. \n >Not only that, but our presence deters military action between nations. \n So do alliances like NATO and the EU. Bonus, they don't concentrate the power behind a single country, which is bad in my opinion. (See: Vietnam, Iran-Contra, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq 2: The Iragening, and possibly Iran in the future considering the effort the media is going to to vilify them). \n >The threat of immediate American retribution is all that keeps the Arab nations from making another attempt at sweeping Israel into the sea. \n Israel is our ally, something I view as morally reprehensible. Regardless, if something happened we would, what, render aid in less than a day instead of a couple of hours? Israel has a well-trained and seasoned military. They can hold out for a day. \n >If we no longer had the means to react, Israel would be gone within ten years, I can almost guarantee it. \n I'd be fine with that. Supporting Israel and how they treat the Palestinians is no different than supporting South Africa during apartheid IMO. \n >Not just the state, but the entire people would be scattered and decimated. \n That'd be unfortunate, because as much as I dislike the actions of Israel the country I don't wish harm upon the Israeli people. But even so, if all of our military bases were only in U.S. territory, the worst that would happen is that it would take us a little while longer to get planes in the air to assist. Israel can hold their own, and if they're nuked, well - we couldn't have done shit anyway and whatever country that was stupid enough to let a nuke off the chain is going to get glassed. \n >If every nation had a proportionally appropriate navy, there would be no significant deterrent for open war between a lot of nations that have strained relations. Treaties will be signed, assuring one nation that, if it attacks, the other nation's allies will attack. That's how world war 1 got started, a series of cascading defense treaties that left what should have been a dispute between Austro-hungary and Serbia into a war that killed an entire generation of young men. \n Valid point on that, but don't we have that already? If a NATO member nation is attacked, the other [NATO nations are obliged to defend the attacked member nation]( You know there's a shitload of those exact same treaties and plans [already in place]( The EU, the Arab League, South American Defense Council, etc. \n >Since you clearly have a very \"America's business\" view, I want you to carefully consider the ramifications of handing over the reins to, say, China. \n What \"reins\"? We already have international maritime law to handle how ships from other nations handle one another on the open sea. We don't need to patrol the waters of the entire world. \n >During world war II, Japan was much the same as China is now. The entire point of the attack on pearl harbor was to do just that: remove the American presence in the Pacific so that they could act with impunity. \n A modern war would be very different, and while I think it's foolish to disregard the past I also don't think it applies in the same way. If they fuck with another nation (or another nation's territories or ships), that nation and her allies will handle it. Or not, whatever - it's their prerogative. \n >Can you imagine what China would do with that power? \n What power? Having boats on the ocean like they do now? Is there anything really stopping them from sailing on the open sea right now? \n >Do you think it would be healthy for America or her allies? \n Yes, I think if we stopped running around the world trying to  spread democracy  score reconstruction contracts for Halliburton and Blackwater the world might just hate us a little less. \n >I think a Chinese pacific would end up being very unhealthy, unless the country makes some major uncomfortable changes very soon. \n How would it be any different than from how their territorial waters are  now ? We can't fuck around in their sovereign maritime space, the same as they can't screw with ours. If they pull some shit on open waters, that'll be handled diplomatically through international courts and alliances. \n >The simplest solution is for America to refrain from offensive action and act solely as a deterrent force and a defensive force. \n I 100% agree, except I think we should only concern ourselves with defending  our  territories and those of our allies who request it. \n >Most of our military spending in the last ten years went, predictably, to Iraq and Afghanistan. \n Yeah, and we had Iraq before than, and Vietnam before that, and Korea before that... only Korea was remotely justifiably necessary, and that's because it had the support of the U.N. for a decent cause. It wasn't on some vague threat of WMDs so private companies could make billions rebuilding the shit we blew up. \n >Yes, the defense budget is out of control, and yes, America has lost sight of its ideals and overstepped its boundaries quite a few times in the last fifty years \n Absolutely 100% agreed. \n >, but we still have a responsibility to the world, a duty that our grandparents and great-grandparents took on and the world can't afford to have us back out on. \n Why? Why do we have \"a responsibility to the world\"? We are not the police of the world. \n >", "id": "c60bmyw", "summary": "Someone HAS to do it, and we are the only ones who can be trusted to. It can't fall to individual nations, because that's how world wars get started. \n Okay, so if I get this right, we should police the entire fucking planet because other countries can't be trusted not to blow each other to smithereens? \n I did not in any way say we should reduce or troop levels, retire planes/armor, or decommission any ships. I just think we should pull them the hell out of places that we have absolutely no business being in."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "nbsp; \n >David Miranda, who lives with Glenn Greenwald, was returning from a trip to Berlin when he was stopped by officers at 8.05am and informed that he was to be questioned under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The controversial law, which applies only at airports, ports and border areas, allows officers to stop, search, question and detain individuals. \n >The 28-year-old was held for nine hours, the maximum the law allows before officers must release or formally arrest the individual. According to official figures, most examinations under schedule 7 – over 97% – last less than an hour, and only one in 2,000 people detained are kept for more than six hours. \n &nbsp;", "id": "cc1lo65", "summary": "David Miranda is the partner of Green Greenwald, a Brazilian journalist who works for the Guardian and who is one of the people releasing Edward Snowden's documents. The UK used a really broad anti-terrorism law to detain Greenwald's partner - his spouse, not the journalist himself - for 9 hours which is viewed by many as an attempt at intimidation."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Contents of the post follows. (Ctrl+F: mirror, blocked, butternut squash) \n &nbsp; \n = \n &nbsp; \n What the hell just happened? \n So I initially got a tweet from someone asking me about my opinion on the \"Zoey Quinn scandal\". I had no idea what they were talking about, I hadn't heard anything about it. I have the parents here this week and stuff with the oncologist so I'm kind of disconnected aside from occasional DOTA. The person tried to outline it over tweets, which never works out well since you can't fit in enough information and I kind of dismissed it as another piece of pointless drama. After some rather inflammatory replies with a few accusations and people using maymay arrows, as was the custom at the time, I looked a bit further and found all manner of insanity, with many people spamming outlets and personalities asking for opinions. It looks like a fairly organized campaign and the missus let me know about it, she'd been getting info too and had read up. \n The long and short of it is that Zoey Quinn the developer of Depression Quest is being accused of exploiting the nepotism that tends to plague this industry by getting a bunch of favorable coverage from people she has supposedly slept with. In addition to this, videos supposedly critical of these actions have been taken down from Youtube with copyright claims, including a video by a smaller channel called MundaneMatt. It's difficult to tell what is true and what is not. 4chan is all up in arms over it which means that alongside any truth there's always going to be ridiculous stories and trolling attempts. 4chan is a blunderbuss. It's a giant cannon filled with fuckin screws, nails, bodyparts, shit and waifu. When it fires, maybe 1% of it hits and the other 99% just goes everywhere and makes a mess. Added into this whole drama shitstorm is a cadre of SJW types and whoever it is that is opposed to that, MRAs? I don't even know the terminology at this point and frankly I don't fucking care. The kind of places posting information about this whole thing are also places I'd take with a pinch of salt or who already have a clearly outlined agenda. Internetaristocrat did the main video on this, a channel mostly dedicated to debunking SJW topics and complaining about how prevalent they are in todays media. A fair cause for the most part, though it's a fine line to walk at the best of times. Honestly that whole debate is something I try and stay the hell away from because the people involved in it are fucking terrifying. \n What is clear however are two things. \n 1) Using the DMCA to take down criticism of your product is a terrible idea and is unethical if not in many cases flat-out illegal. Don't ever fucking do this. The Streisand effect is real and even if it isn't, you don't get to run around using copyright law to censor people. My understanding is that Zoe Quinn is accused of taking down one of Mundanematts videos because it used a picture of her game \"without permission\". With the insane shitstorm currently in the air it's impossible to know if that's actually true or not. If it is, it's bullshit. You do not do this, it is disgusting behavior and previous incidents such as Garrys Incident and Guise of the Wolf that resulted in the public obliteration of the developers reputation should be reason enough not to. \n However. It is entirely possible that she did not issue this claim and that it's someone impersonating her. It's easier than it should be to do this on Youtube because Youtubes system is terrible. That's always worth bearing in mind, even though the evidence I've seen up to this point seems to indicate that she is responsible. Again, you can't see very far in a shitstorm. \n 2) Games journalism as a whole has a massive nepotism problem, encouraged by the publishers and developers and actively partaken in by many outlets. There are plenty who don't, whether they be independent Youtube channels or important websites like Giantbomb, who made the decision not to review Bastion due to their connections with Greg Kasavin. Maintaining your independence or at the very least being completely honest about your relationship with the developer is paramount to maintaining the trust of your audience. So much shit goes on behind the scenes, more than you could ever possibly know about. I personally find things like industry parties thrown by devs and attended by the media, enthusiast press or otherwise to be a waste of money and time but more importantly an element that horribly muddies the waters in our line of work. It's one thing to be more willing to provide coverage because you happen to know a developer, it's quite another to not disclose that and then create a favorable review of a product, whether it be the final product or repeated pushes to the greenlight page. Transparency in all things is important. People are going to have friends in the industry, that's natural. They are also going to try and help them when they can, they just need to be straight up about it and be very careful about keeping their bias in check. \n If these allegations are true I'm certainly disappointed in the outlets responsible. Depression Quest is not a good videogame, but I tweeted about it because even though it wasn't a good game it did a good job of conveying a message about depression which is a very real thing that's touched those around me. It's a horrible condition that is misunderstood and any effort to raise awareness and understanding about it is positive in my opinion. Doesn't make DQ a good game, it's basically a choose your own adventure novel and should be treated as such. Whether it should have been greenlit is something that's not really worth discussing at this point. A ton of absolute horseshit has been greenlit, the process is clearly busted in every way, might I remind you that the 1st ever wave of Greenlit titles which contained many worthwhile games (whereas these days good luck finding a game you can even recognize in a list), also contained Yogventures, a game that didnt exist at the time and doesn't exist now either, purely on the basis that Yogscast were popular. The process has been broken from the very start and I've pretty much given up on the idea that it will ever be fixed or that Valve really cares about content curation at all right now. But the quality of the game really isn't up for discussion, nor is its place on Steam, what is up for discussion is whether or not outlets went beyond the realm of \"personal favour\" into obvious bias, whether they disclosed it and, the thing which really makes my bloodboil, whether efforts are being made to abuse the DMCA system to censor criticism of the developer. If that is the case, I thoroughly condemn it in every respect. \n The problem is this. Even after reading a ton of info on this, I still have no idea how much of it is true, how much of the controversy is genuine concern about the state of the industry and how much is just rabble-rousing for the sake of it. Misogyny is very real in the games industry, it's pretty disgusting, but it's also a problem that is not confined to our industry and most of what is being said about it is repetitive noise. Any right-thinking individual knows that hating women is bad, we don't need libraries worth of articles to tell us that. We know that some people that play videogames are also horrible pieces of shit. Problem is some of those people are in on this discussion, it was obvious the moment I started getting Twitter replies about it. Some people make their agendas really obvious from the outside. Stuff like this is a good reason to NOPE the fuck out of most of these discussions. I don't want to be involved in them. Here are the 2 things I'm interested in talking about. \n 1) Game mechanics\n2) Industry bullshit \n This falls into the second category but it also has an unhealthy dash of \n 3) SJW/Tumblr/4chan/arguments/whatthefuckisevengoingon \n Last time I got involved in anything like that I ended up with all manner of unpleasant shit thrown at me from both sides, which is maybe also why a lot of those with the loud voices get very quiet when things like this happen. You are throwing yourself in front of the blunderbuss and hoping it doesn't hit you. It's often just not worth the aggro. I got enough real life cancer to fight without having to deal with the fake internet stuff. Chemo gives me less headaches than this stuff.", "id": "cjuf7g0", "summary": "If Zoey Quinn did engage in censorship via the abuse of the DMCA on Youtube then I thoroughly condemn her actions as being both fucking stupid and unethical. If outlets did provide her favourable coverage because she had intimate relations with some of the writers, they're goddamn idiots for doing it, why the hell would you compromise the trust of your readers for that? The shitstorm is too insane right now to make a huge amount of sense of and I have no idea what is true and what isn't. Cooler heads prevail, heard of that phrase? Calm the fuck down and things might become clearer. Also please stop shouting at me, thanks."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Here's the original post by /u/MSG_ME_DAT_ASS_GIRLS: \n >Hey guys, \n >I know yall want to help TB and write him long passages about how you're going through something similar. That's wonderful, it really is, but TB has said time and time again he prides himself on professionalism and action rather than on words. \n >So can we all stop upvoting the \"let's encourage TB!\" posts and upvote the actual relevant content? \n >If you want to say something nice, go to TB's post, hit reply, say something there, and don't make any more threads about it. All we're doing is feeding the a-holes at SubredditDrama by making this bigger, and NOTHING good will come of that. \n >", "id": "cfejjbg", "summary": "Don't feed SRD."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "And why does the US reserve that exclusive right to make those decisions? \n Because might makes right. \n Let me be clear - I don't think that because we have the most powerful military in the world that it somehow makes our actions moral or justifiable. Every military of every country since the beginning of the idea of an \"army\" has done morally reprehensible things. \n The thing is, we're an economic and military superpower. Say we blow up a building in Pakistan or Afghanistan with a predator missile. What's Pakistan gonna do? Stop trading with us? Shoot down one of our drones, and risk the full wrath of our armed forces coming down on their heads? \n The scary thing (to them, at least) is that with our superior technology we could level the military of most countries that aren't our allies without ever putting boots on the ground. \n The people stupid enough to fuck with us aren't powerful enough to matter, and the people powerful enough to matter aren't someone that we care to fuck with.", "id": "c79jp2r", "summary": "Diplomacy."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "And...? I mean, didn't we steal the Industrial Revolution piecemeal from Britain? \n *Edit: Ya'll motherfuckers don't know about [Samuel Slater]( \n >Slater was well-trained by Strutt, and by age 21 had gained a thorough knowledge of the organisation and practice of cotton spinning. Hearing of the American interest in developing similar machines, and  aware of British laws against exporting the designs, he memorized as much as he could and departed for New York in 1789.", "id": "c8ii2mm", "summary": "He illegally \"stole\" British designs of textile machinery by memorizing it and recreating it in America. Principally it's not all that different to the kind of shit Chinese do all the time. Some of it is out-and-out peeking in computer systems, and some of it is Chinese people working at these companies and then bringing the designs back home one way or another."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "My headphones, Logitech H800. \n In addition to randomly rattling like Michael J. Fox holding a dozen maracas, the power switch is all wrong. \n The headphones are capable of wireless and bluetooth signals, so I have it hooked up to my PC and my phone. The power switch is like this: \n \n WIRELESS \n BLUETOOTH \n OFF \n \n Which is stupid, because if you need to quickly switch from wireless to Bluetooth - perhaps to answer, say, a  ringing phone  - you have to tick it down one space. But don't go too far, or you'll turn the goddamn things off! \n They could have just done this instead: \n \n WIRELESS \n OFF \n BLUETOOTH \n \n Don't even get me started on their keyboards and mice... I bought midrange and trusted the name and that was a mistake. It didn't used to be this way but now it seems the only good Logitech stuff is the expensive stuff and the rest is garbage.", "id": "cc1m5pc", "summary": "Stay away from Logitech's midrange stuff because apparently it's designed and assembled by monkeys."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I read up on how to tell if someone is following you. I taught this knowledge to a friend, and I probably saved him from getting mugged or beaten up. (Not that I'm all that worried about him, he's a very capable fighter with great technical skills, but it's still best to avoid conflict whenever possible.) \n This can be applied to walking or driving. \n Say you're moving along and you suspect someone is following you. The basic of the trick is to make three turns in the same direction, i.e. three rights or three lefts. \n So, as an example, say you notice a red car is in your rear view. You've seen that thing for a while and you've made a few turns, so you wonder if it's coincidence that they're following you or if they're actually following you. Make a right turn, then another, and then another. At that point, make the fourth to continue back on the road in the same direction you were going. If at that point they're still with you, they're following you. \n My friend applied it to walking. He was walking down a street that runs parallel with my city's main drag. There was a guy probably about a hundred feet behind him. My friend had made some zig-zaggy turns to get on that street and he realized the guy was with him the entire time. He turned the corner to the right once. He kept walking, turned again (now heading in the opposite direction) and the guy was still following him. After turning the third corner, the guy was still with him. \n On the fourth corner, my buddy turned and quickly moved up ahead a little bit and got behind a car. He then saw (from his concealed vantage point) the guy come around the corner, stop, and look very puzzled. He crept past him in the street and moved quickly and quietly back in the opposite direction and lost him. \n There is a caveat, of course, and that's if multiple people are following you working as teams. (You can see this in action in the movie  The Recruit  with Colin Farrel and Al Pacino.) You've got individuals or teams of people assigned to follow one person. \n So say you want to follow a particular man for whatever reason. The first person chasing him follows him and keeps his distance. A few blocks up ahead is a few other people who you \"hand him off\" to. When the first person following him knows they're near a partner (and they have audio or visual confirmation that the second follower has eyes on the target), they'll divert themselves and stop following him. Maybe they'll duck into a shop, or stop and look at a storefront window. \n \"Whew\", thinks the target, \"I thought that guy in the trenchcoat was following me, but clearly I'm just being paranoid.\" \n Of course, he doesn't notice the businessman a hundred feet behind him on the other side of the street. He's still being followed, but now it's by someone different. \n A few blocks later, he'll be followed by someone else. It might be the same guy that followed him the first time, but now he's wearing a different outfit. \n You can do the same exact things with vehicles and very few people would be any wiser about it unless they knew to look for it. \n More likely than not, unless you're on some government watch list you're going to have one person following you, probably in an effort to case out your home or place of business (to later rob it) or to try to assault or rob your person in some fashion. Use the first methodology to figure them out and react approrpriately. \n Situational awareness is key. If you keep your eyes and ears open and pay attention to your surroundings, you'll have the initiative and you won't be caught off guard.  You  can make the first move.", "id": "c8bjjym", "summary": "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!]("}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Oh man. This is gonna be a bit spoilery so skip past my post if you don't want to see any results. \n &nbsp; \n &nbsp; \n = \n &nbsp; \n &nbsp; \n Shoutcraft America was the first Starcraft tourney I watched through and through. When I saw Masa coming up I was really rooting for someone so young to do well but he unfortunately lost 0-4. (His matches from SCA: [Kane v. Masa]( & [Masa v. Suppy]( \n So when Masa stepped up to the plate for the second Bo5 and he got beaten pretty badly by Major I felt like we were gonna see a repeat of SCA. IdrA built up Major to be this excellent TvT player and it definitely showed in the first match between Masa and Major. \n But then the second match happens and Masa has a hell of a comeback. And Masa wins. And then the third match comes and Masa demonstrates pretty damn good Banshee micro. He only put out a handful of Banshees but he made them count and he made them count for a  lot. \n Masa wins again, and the Bo5 is sitting at 2-1 in favor of Masa. And Major  forfeits  the rest of the series due to \"lag\". IdrA then jumps in to say that Major (who is not on a team) is known for being \"difficult to work with\". \n Let that sink in. IdrA, King of Ragequitting, called this guy  difficult to work with.  Damn. \n Good on Masa for pulling off a solid win. I can't predict how he'll do in the rest of the tournament but he definitely is playing better than SCA. He's also pretty young (I think 16, maybe 18) and seems to be getting better and better so I hope we see a lot of good play from him in the future. \n &nbsp; \n &nbsp; \n = \n &nbsp; \n &nbsp; \n Spoilers over.", "id": "cdw7a0u", "summary": "SCW's first day was pretty good and the returning players have put on a good show."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "My grandparents had a little decorative wall that was no more than 2 feet high seperating the dirt/garden area and the patio area of their backyard. My earliest memory is in the warm summer sun. I dug up slightly wet dirt and let it dry on the wall. Mom threw a shit-fit, gramps laughed his ass of. Gramma was probably drunk in the house or something.", "id": "c4y5jqz", "summary": "I was playing IRL Minecraft before it was cool."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I have an Irish friend. Him and three sisters, one of whom has that name. He introduced me to all sorts of cool stuff such as Celtic Games which are similar to more popular sports but  way  more hardcore. \n [Hurling]( for example, is a lot like field hockey with some changes. The sticks are shorter and curved in such a way that you can get the very tiny and very hard ball flying at speeds comparable to a baseball pitch. It's damn near impossible to see when it's up to speed. Also, no one wears any padding usually.", "id": "ckawn92", "summary": "The Irish are crazy, awesome, and crazy awesome."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "If it makes you feel better (spoilers: it won't), it's entirely possible to shit out of your mouth. It's called [fecal vomiting:]( \n > Fecal vomiting  (aka  stercoraceous  vomiting) is a kind of vomiting, or emesis, in which partially or fully digested matter is expelled from the intestines into the stomach, by a combination of liquid and gas pressure and spasmodic contractions of the gastric muscles, and then subsequently forcefully expelled from the stomach up into the esophagus and out through the mouth and sometimes nasal passages. Though it is not usually fecal matter that is expelled, it smells noxious. Alternative medical terms for fecal vomiting are  copremesis  and  stercoraceous vomiting . Copremesis like all emesis may lead to aspiration. However, if contents of the large intestine are aspirated, severe or even fatal aspiration pneumonia results, secondary to the massive number of bacteria normally present distal to the ileocecal valve. \n If you didn't catch that last bit, \"aspiration\" means stuff going into your lungs. So not only do you vomit your own shit, but it can end up in your lungs. Medical scientists believe that shit in your lungs is not a good thing and may lead to death. \n &nbsp;", "id": "capxbzr", "summary": "Eat your goddamned fiber."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Aside from the drops and technical issues, I think the show is fine for the most part. \n I have a bit of a contradictory opinion. I like pretty much every segment, but I don't like seeing them cut for time. What I don't understand is why things are cut for time at all. \n I mean, this is the Internet. TB doesn't have to fit a WTF Is...? into a neat 23 minute window. If it runs short, it runs short. If it runs long, it runs long. \n I guess the most important thing to me is that the show runs through all of the segments regardless of length. \n If that were impractical and something had to be cut, well... I'd rather see host topics than I would see trailers. Host topics have been consistently more interesting to me than trailers have. \n Oh, and for the YouTube VODs? I'm not sure if you guys can choose when advertisements happen or if advertisements happen automatically, but if it's the former than there have been some truly stupid points at which an ad comes up. We're talking like in the middle of a sentence here. \n &nbsp;", "id": "caabhf4", "summary": "Reduce drops and stuff plz. (I feel TB getting a T3 will remedy this so I'm looking forward to it.) \n Let the show run however long it takes (within reason) to get all the segments covered. \n If the former is impractical, drop trailers. I'd rather see host topics than trailers. \n If you can decide where advertisements are placed on YouTube, the middle of a sentence is probably not the greatest place."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Because when she was growing up there were stories of kids having toy guns and getting shot by cops because they thought they were real ones. How real these stories are is highly debatable. I heard the same stuff from my parents growing up, although I still had my cap and NERF guns.", "id": "c54g1h0", "summary": "NERF, fuck yeah."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Part of the devilry in this is a habit called  co-signing . \n You've probably heard the term, where someone co-signs on a loan or something. Say you have bad credit. Someone with good credit will co-sign on a loan, and they're just as responsible as you if you fuck up. \n The co-signing system in Japan extends to a hell of a lot more stuff - like apartments, for instance. \n There's also the [Koseki (Family Registry)]( which has some of its own problems: \n >A koseki (戸籍?) is a Japanese family registry. Japanese law requires all Japanese households (ie) to report births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, disruptions of adoptions, deaths, marriages and divorces of Japanese citizens to their local authority, which compiles such records encompassing all Japanese citizens within their jurisdiction. Marriages, adoptions and acknowledgements of paternity become legally effective only when such events are recorded in the koseki. Births and deaths became legally effective as they happen, but such events must be filed by family members. \n > ... \n >Only Japanese citizens may be registered in a koseki, because koseki serve as certificates of citizenship. Non-Japanese may be noted where required, such as being the spouse of a Japanese citizen[7] or the parent of a Japanese offspring, however they are not listed in the same fashion as Japanese spouses or parents.[8]", "id": "c705frg", "summary": "it's hard to become a legitimate citizen in Japan if you aren't Japanese and native-born due to this system."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I have three stories, all poop-related. \n = \n The first is one I [posted on Reddit before]( which I'll repeat here: \n >When I was about 12-13, I was in a porta potty and three girl scouts opened the door that I failed to lock. Commence them seein' me poopin', screaming, and slamming the door. \n >I locked the door and crypooped, and now I check every porta potty and stall door lock three times before I disrobe in any fashion. \n = \n The second: \n I was on antibiotics about three months ago. A warning from my dentist indicated that it could alter my poop on the long term, and diarrhea was a possibility in the short term. I crapped my bed twie in the first month. \n After that, no more insane diarrhea or shitting my pants in my sleep... but now my farts can be dangerous. I think I put out as much methane in a day as a cow does in a week. I can't be out of the house any longer than a little while because I will be farting all day and get a severe case of swamp ass. I have found myself getting up to go to the bathroom just to wipe my ass. \n Thankfully it's getting better but I still occasionally fear a negligent discharge. \n = \n The third: \n I was at a weeklong cub scout camp. I had to take a shit, and I really didn't want to because, well, the \"toilets\" were really latrines and the \"seats\" were really splintery-as-fuck plywood with holes cut in them. I tried to hover in a fashion (a technique men rarely have to use), but the laser designator in my anus must have been off that day because I accidentally dropped some of my payload right into my pants around my ankles. \n I stayed in the bathroom for 20 minutes and my dad finally came to check on me. There was a line of people outside the latrine for... some reason (it's not as if they couldn't just go in there, loads of space). He was too lazy to try to find me clean underwear and pants so he was going to make me do the walk of shame back to my tent. Granted it was night, but my t-shirt would just barely cover my junk. He finally gave in and got me new skivvies and pants. \n =", "id": "c74a9ng", "summary": "My anus has something against me."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I wonder, just spitballing here, how much of the above mentioned \"anti-piracy\" measures are our fault? Our fault for fostering a community where piracy is encouraged? \n If the vast amount of the gaming community pirated everything, there wouldn't be a gaming community. Damn near every gaming forum I've been on has a rule just like the one /r/gaming has on the sidebar over there: \n > Submissions that enable or have the intent to enable piracy or online gambling are not permitted and may result in a ban \n I'd say a lot of gamers (probably the majority) have pirated a game, but I don't think the majority of them exclusively pirate. Some do it because they don't want shitty DRM fucking up their system. Some do it because a game just flat-out  doesn't exist  anymore or is otherwise impossible to get legally. Some do it to preview a game before they buy it. And, of course, some do it just because they can and they have no intention of paying for it. \n >In other words, speaking of online single player games specifically, how would you prevent people from using it unless they bought it? \n You can't. You absolutely can't. \n There will always be the small percentage of people who will never, ever buy something. All the technology in the world won't stop this. \n You wanna see how well \"anti-piracy\" stuff works? Look at the other side of the coin. Look at [Good Ol' Games]( Absolutely zero DRM on their end and they do  loads  of stuff that goes against the mainstream publisher and retailer logic, and yet they're not bankrupt. If you own part of a bundle already, they'll  discount you on the price of the bundle  so you don't buy a game twice. You could, theoretically, download a game and spread it around easily enough. This  should  bankrupt them according to the gaming industry, and yet here they are. \n Valve said it best, I think. It's a service issue. \n I also think it's a bit of a pricing issue as well in some countries. How is it fair that Australians have to pay 40-50% more for the same game we get when they buy it  digitally ? There's no additional costs other than compliance with local laws and setting up licensing for the IP. There's surely not $40-50 worth of additional costs. And while we in the U.S. pay $50-60 for a game, Aussies are paying $90-110 for no good reason other than that's the price they can get, and they wonder why shit like piracy exists? (And, if you're wondering, the Australian Dollar is  pretty much equal \n I'd be lying if I said I didn't pirate games. I do, on occasion. (I honestly have more stuff to play than time in the day, so it's rare that I go out and do it anymore.) You know what's a really  great  feeling? Say I pirate Dawn of War 2. Then I decide, hey, I like this a lot. I go and buy it, download it, set it up. Start the game up, and I have to be  logged into Games For Windows Live  to play the  single-player campaign . Why? Why does this exist at all? It actually makes me regret my purchase. I tend to stay away from games that have GFWL built-in nowadays because I just don't want to deal with that shit. \n That brings us down to the last bit - pirates often offer the superior version. Players want feature X, but feature X isn't in the game or the game includes absolutely unnecessary feature Y. I want the game but not all of the extra unnecessary shit that comes with it. If you're an ethical person, you won't purchase it, but there's loads of people who have no problem saying \"Fuck 'em\" and pirating it anyway. \n And there is, of course, people who hit the middle ground - something else I've done. Take a look at Rollercoaster Tycoon. Rollercoaster Tycoon released a \"Deluxe\" version (the only version you can really find in stores nowadays, barring digital downloads) that packaged all the games together on one disk. Sweet deal, right? Except it disabled a fan patch that allowed the creation of custom scenarios and custom parks. Chris Sawyer (the creator) said he \"didn't want people playing his game any other way than he made it\" - no sandbox or custom content or anything like that. I bought the game years ago, I paid for it, and I've pirated it to play it the way  I  want to.", "id": "c84400d", "summary": "Don't fuck over the customer, don't saddle the customer with unnecessary bullshit, and make good games and you'll be fine. Piracy is a non-issue."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Yeah but it is going to be a long time before any other nation or group of nations is going to be able to match our power on anything. \n In areas where we're outnumbered or seemingly evenly matched (such as North Korea's \"army of millions\"), we often have better training and better equipment on the individual level. We also have more (and better) force multipliers such as drones, tanks, etc. \n Then there's the matter of our considerable sea and air power. One Carrier on its own has more firepower than most air forces of an entire  country,  and that doesn't even factor in the multitude of support ships that ride along with the carrier. \n For someone to catch up to us we would have to massively draw down our forces and equipment and they would have to ramp up their budgets, production, and training. \n Oh, and in a war situations? We have stuff like the like [Davis-Monthan AFB, a.k.a. The Boneyard.]( It's a place out in the desert where we have hundreds of planes sitting around because we're not using them. \n Some of the aircraft are in poor shape, but a lot of them are just there because they've been decommissioned (that is, they're outdated or not being used for some other reason). In a war situation we could get a lot of these birds in the air if we needed to although it would take some time to get them put in working order again. (It would nonetheless be faster than manufacturing new planes quickly.) \n That's just one of our major strategic reserves we have, and that's on top of one of the most well-armed groups of private citizens in the world. Even if you blew up every piece of equipment we have and killed every soldier you'd still be in for a shitstorm.", "id": "cjyvghd", "summary": "murica, fuck yeah."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "Once when I was reading in bed and about to go to sleep, I noticed something moving in my peripheral vision. I looked up and saw a spider descending on a web very slowly towards my face. \n Noped the fuck out of bed, grabbed a nearby book, and falcon punched that little fucker.", "id": "ca0piqa", "summary": "I know spiders can be bros but bros don't sit on your face when you're trying to sleep."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I showed my 63 year old mom the Lonely Island [Jack Sparrow]( video and she loved it. She flipped her shit at the Erin Brockovich part. She's not a huge Michael Bolton fan but she loved it. \n I explained to her how I had more respect for artists and musicians who were willing to be silly like that and she immediately understood. \n Inspired by the [38-year-old dad who recently discovered memes]( \n Update:  I showed my mom [Sexy And I Know It]( as she happened to be passing by while I was watching it and she said \"That's it? That's a waste of good airspace\". I guess she didn't know that I noticed she genuinely giggled at a few parts.", "id": "t3_uhlq9", "summary": "parents are awesome."}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I do freelance computer servicing and I had a customer come to me with an interesting problem. \n I don't want to go into all of the details, but he very nearly bought an ancient toughbook filled with bootleg software for a ludicrous price. He ended up stopping the deal (thankfully). \n My customer has a small fleet of trucks in his business including Macks, Peterbuilts, and Kenworths. He can do most of the maintenance in-house, but certain things require specialized software that he doesn't have. \n He's not amazingly computer literate and I'm trying to narrow down a list of the programs he would actually need to handle maintenance on big rigs. So far the only things I've found that he might need is Meritor WABCO PC (and to quote him, \"those bastards have had a monopoly on brakes for over a decade) and possibly Cummins INSITE. \n So that said... \n &nbsp;", "id": "t3_25uv1x", "summary": "What PC software is needed to properly maintain Macks, Peterbuilt, and Kenworth trucks?"}, {"author": "Ihmhi", "content": "I do freelance computer servicing and I had a customer come to me with an interesting problem. \n I don't want to go into all of the details, but he very nearly bought an ancient toughbook filled with bootleg software for a ludicrous price. He ended up stopping the deal (thankfully). \n My customer has a small fleet of trucks in his business including Macks, Peterbuilts, and Kenworths. He can do most of the maintenance in-house, but certain things require specialized software that he doesn't have. \n He's not amazingly computer literate and I'm trying to narrow down a list of the programs he would actually need to handle maintenance on big rigs. So far the only things I've found that he might need is Meritor WABCO PC (and to quote him, \"those bastards have had a monopoly on brakes for over a decade) and possibly Cummins INSITE. \n So that said... \n &nbsp;", "id": "t3_25uw75", "summary": "What PC software is needed to properly maintain Macks, Peterbuilt, and Kenworth trucks?"}]}
+{"author": "Chronos91", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Try joining or starting a bible study with friends. Doing it with people you like will make it much easier and more enjoyable.", "output": "It could help to find (or just get together) a few Christian friends and start with just a weekly bible study or something. The two problems you mentioned were with the people and the number of people, both of which can be controlled if you start something with a few friends. I wound up doing this the other way, sort of. I'm a college student and a couple of my friends introduced me to a bible study. I liked it from the beginning but as I got to know everyone more I got more comfortable contributing to the discussion and found the whole thing (particularly the beginning where we eat dinner together and are generally social) more enjoyable."}], "user_id": "longlamp_1358", "history": [{"author": "Chronos91", "content": "Well, I know more about which natures I want to use. [Here]( is a chart on those btw. My Mewtwo is rash, which raises special attack and lowers special defense. \n If you want a sweeper (something that hits hard and is often fast) you're going to want to raise its best attack stat. If the sweeper is all special or all physical then the best stat to lower is the attack stat that isn't used. If you want it to be fast, then use a nature that doesn't lower speed. If it's already really slow and not going to move first, it's best to lower speed so it can take a hit. \n If you want something to tank or wall, then you'd probably want a nature that raises a defense stat. If you need the pokemon to be fast (maybe to set up a defensive stat raise or heal when necessary), then don't lower the speed stat. If you need it to still hit hard, then lower speed or whichever attack stat isn't being used. \n This just leaves the situation where you may want to raise speed. As is the case for some sweepers, (Dragonite, Chandelure, and Haxorus for example) the attack stat may be so high that it's more important to get the speed higher to get off the first strike. \n I don't know much about shinies though. I think it's slightly \"easier\" to breed them when both parents are from different language games. Still just 1/1366 though. That's [here](", "id": "c4hsbq8", "summary": "It depends on what role you want the pokemon to fill. And breed pokemon from different language games. \n Also, I'm kinda new to competitive battling, so if anyone else sees this and has anything to add or change, please comment."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "Are there any music stores nearby? You might want to check them. You said you wanted to buy offline, do you have a problem with using Craigslist? I've actually had good experiences with that since I can still try the sax out first. \n No matter what though, play it (or take an experienced friend along to play it) before you buy it and go ahead and try a few if possible. Do you have a specific budget? Last May I bought an R.S. Berkeley soprano new for about $1100 and I've really liked it. I'm sure for a good new sax you won't get much cheaper than that but you could probably find some good used saxes from more familiar brands (Yamaha, Selmer, etc) for similar prices.", "id": "cgjaa1r", "summary": "Look around in stores or on Craigslist, try out a few to see what you like, and give us something more specific in the way of a budget."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "I used it in my analysis because he can live three times (allowing for simply multiplying the odds of each survival) but he cannot die three times. However, if you wanted to find the probability that he'd die on, say the third shot you could do two survivals and a death, which is 5/6   5/6   1/6 or about 11.6%.", "id": "c7adr3v", "summary": "It makes calculations simpler and really easy to demonstrate."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "I'll mostly agree with berychance and say that while they are very potent offensively (originally the only way to take down dragons without using other dragons, also good against grass, flying, and ground), defensively they have significant problems. Fighting and rock moves are all over the place, steel pokemon seem to be on most teams, and fire is actually pretty common. \n Not only that, but many of the ice pokemon themselves have lackluster stats so it isn't worth it to have the pokemon and get the STAB boost, usually you just have an ice move or two and call it good. There are some like Glaceon that are really potent offensively (base 130 special attack) but are much too frail considering their weaknesses, and some that just don't really have good stats (like Glalie). Mamoswine and Cloyster are the only ice types I actually see used in VGC, and even then neither are all that common. Regice is in an odd spot for me. It is actually bulky enough to survive all but the most extreme attacks and it has good special attack (base 100) but it isn't quite offensive enough for me to justify using it on any team I'm really competetive with.", "id": "cd3k78c", "summary": "Ice type moves are great, because they take down dragons and a few other types but ice type pokemon have problems because of their extremely common weaknesses and their often poor stat distributions. I only know of two ice type pokemon that get used, Mamoswine and Cloyster."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "When I started clarinet we used the 2000 edition of a book called \"Essential Elements Comprehensive Band Method\" published by Hal Leonard. They've probably made another edition in the last 13 years. I lost that old book and now that I have a clarinet again I'm looking at one called \"Standard of Excellence Enhanced Comprehensive Band Method\" by Bruce Pearson (published by Neil A. Kjos Music Company). Either one should be able to get you started. They each start off with instructions and pictures on embouchure, assembly, cleaning, etc and then go to showing you how to play a note, showing exercises that use that note and any previously learned ones, etc. In the end of the books there are some songs and a fingering chart as well. Hopefully something like that can get you started. Good luck!", "id": "ccht6to", "summary": "Essential Elements Comprehensive Band Method\" published by Hal Leonard \n \"Standard of Excellence Enhanced Comprehensive Band Method\" by Bruce Pearson (published by Neil A. Kjos Music Company)"}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "If the prescribed phase and ejection angles aren't doing the trick then you should probably look at your inclination. If you don't correct for the different inclination of your target body you could end up missing by quite a bit. Also important to note is the fact that the orbits are ellipses and I think this screws up the intercept sometimes too. Usually when I'm going for another planet I'll wind up having to correct with an inclination change burn and a burn that's normal or antinormal to prograde to adjust where along the target planets orbit I'll intercept and make sure I'm orbiting in the correct direction.", "id": "cbdmw49", "summary": "When you're outside of Kerbin's SOI try messing with the inclination and see if that get's you your results. Not mentioned in the post, also try to make the change at the ascending or descending node. I think making it elsewhere will have unintended changes on your orbit."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "LeoPanthera is correct in saying microwaves only penetrate food to about an inch. If you microwaved a food until its surface was say 125 degrees F, and compared it's cooling to that same food cooked until it was 125 degrees F throughout, you would find the microwaved food seems to cool faster. Because it isn't heated all the way through, the surface can lose heat both to the surroundings and the inside of the food. Initially, they both lose heat to the surroundings at the same rate but there is also a heat flux to the inside of the food to consider as well.", "id": "c469bbi", "summary": "The food isn't heated all of the way through, so the surface 'heat' goes to the inside of the food as well, cooling the surface faster."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "Umm...what? You defined pressure as force/area (which would be psi, pascals, bar, atm, whatever) and then immediately went to describing a pressure in pounds. Did you mean 250-350 pounds per square inch to crack it? Then the division you did doesn't mean anything and its already questionable because you described an impact area in inches. 250-350 pounds of force distributed over any area to crack it? That would suggest that you can apply ridiculously high pressures as long as the area was small and your division of 30 psi by .05 something doesn't mean anything because the resulting answer has units that have no meaning in this discussion.", "id": "ca60dt1", "summary": "I'm not sure what I just read."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "On prince the AI is on equal footing with you I think (but is still only about as smart as your average potato). I'm probably ready to move to King but unless one of the other countries starts sprawling I'm usually far enough ahead in tech to get any wonder I want, though I choose not to get them all because there are often better things to do in-game than get every single wonder.", "id": "c9pgq02", "summary": "I'm sure you could do this on prince as well, if you tried."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "PurpleSharkShit mentioned some good starting places to look (Selmer, Yamaha, Yanigasawa, Cannonball, Buescher, Conn, and Keilwerth). I'd also like to emphasize the importance of playing them (or getting someone more experienced to) before you buy but I'll have to disagree with him/her on one point. I don't think a horn will necessarily be bad because, for instance, it's a Bundy. Take this with a grain of salt because I'm a sample of one and not the best or most experienced sax player but one of my Tenor saxes is a Bundy (don't know what model, just that the serial number dates to the early '70s) and my only problem with it is that the palm key notes play pretty flat (but that's only if I'm not voicing them). My marching alto in high school was also a Bundy and sounded pretty good once I got it fixed.", "id": "cc92j84", "summary": "They should play the saxophone before buying it to make sure it's good and that they like it. The main brands are good but so are some other saxophones too."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "The water is in hydrates. You have to heat them to release the water because it is chemically bonded to the rock. I don't know if you need to heat it all the way to 800 degrees C, perhaps some of that was for releasing other compounds in the rock but it will probably require 200-300 degrees for just letting off the water. There is an activation energy to break the bonds. \n As for rechargeable fuel cells, you have to recharge it with something. With rovers that's typically solar but could potentially be a nuclear generator like what the voyager probes use. \n As for the math, if I didn't feel qualified I wouldn't have given the estimate. Let me show show the work this time to make sure I didn't make a mistake and convince you I'm not trolling. \n The density of cold water is about 62.4 lb/ft^3 and a pint is .0167 ft^3 so with multiplication we get 1.04 lb/pint (I rounded to 1 lb in my earlier comment). You mentioned stripping water into oxygen and hydrogen for fuel and you need a lot of rocket fuel to get back to Earth. I decided to see how much soil you would need to go through for 1 ton of hydrogen and the stoichiometric balance of oxygen (2 H2+ O2 -> 2H2O). I am fairly confident that this is far less fuel than what you would require to return any size rover back to Earth from Mars. From the article each cubic foot of soil has 2 pints of liquid water (or about 2 lb water/ft^3 of soil). Since we know a ton is 2000 lbs and a pint of water is about 1 lb then it will take about 1000 ft^3 of soil to make one ton of water (2000 lb water / 2 lb water/ft^3 = 1000 ft^3 ). I specified that we wanted to make one ton of hydrogen and the balance of oxygen though. A water molecule is only 11.2% hydrogen by weight (2 hydrogen molecules with molecular weight 1.01 g/mol and one oxygen molecule with molecular weight 16 g/mol so the mass ratio of hydrogen is 2.02/18.02 or about 11.2%). Divide the quantity of soil necessary to extract one ton of water by .112 (1000 ft^3 /.112= 8930 ft^3 . 8930 ft^3 was rounded to 9000 ft^3 . If I made a mistake let me know but keep in mind 2 lb of water per cubic foot of soil isn't very much.", "id": "ccgwym0", "summary": "2 lb of water per cubic foot of soil isn't very much and to show more significant figures it was 8930 ft^3 to yield one ton of hydrogen for rocket fuel."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "You had a 'good friend' threaten to punch you in the face after you admitted you were an atheist and a coworker simply told you that you were going to hell after you confirmed that you were an atheist? I wouldn't even think of doing any of that to someone after they told me that and I don't think any of the other Christians I know would either. I hope that's just a vocal minority thing.", "id": "c771x37", "summary": "I'm sorry about how some Christians have treated you, but don't think we're all prepared to ignore the love your neighbor command when our neighbors have different beliefs."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "As I understand it, there are three main reasons you don't see asparagus staging in real life. \n \n Added complexity and cost. Pumping the quantities of fuel that go into rocket engines takes enormous amounts of energy. Adding the turbopumps, piping, and related equipment would be very expensive and difficult. \n \n Conservation of angular momentum. If you get past the basic linear asparagus design with a central engine and one on either side then you get into designs that are pumping fuel in a circle around the rocket. This will induce a rotation, and a nasty one at that since such a large proportion of a rocket's mass is fuel. \n \n It doesn't help in real life nearly as much as KSP. Asparagus staging is great because you're dumping away mass as quickly as possible. Run all your engines but drop the tanks as they empty. However, in real life, the dry mass of fuel tanks is much lower (I think 3-5% of the fueled mass) than in KSP (11%).", "id": "cepofj8", "summary": "In real life, this can add complexity and cost, make the rocket unstable, and doesn't even increase the delta v of the rocket in the first place."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "Yes and no. \n Two of the four mods I use (Kerbal Engineer and Protractor) are solely for giving me information and the former helped me learn most of what I know about rocket building, one of them (B9) is for adding parts, and one (FAR) give me an incentive to build more realistic looking rockets. One thing you should know is that mods aren't strictly for making the game easier. Actually, the ship with the most delta V that I've built and used doesn't contain any modded parts (besides the Kerbal engineer piece that tells me info about the rocket and the protractor that tells me phase angles). I think most of what the popular mods are for is simply adding functionality (and aesthetics) to the game. My biggest use of B9, for example is space planes. Not only do many of the parts look pretty, there's more variety. If I want to make a big plane, I don't have to make some unrealistic looking thing with wings all over the place, I can just use a bigger wing (and reduce part calculation requirements as well). \n That isn't to say the vanilla game isn't great, it is. It's fun, and you can go anywhere and come back without modded parts or anything like that and I logged a couple hundred hours on the game before even getting Kerbal Engineer. All I'm saying is that in my experience mods don't detract from the challenge or fun of the game", "id": "ccxes14", "summary": "The vanilla game is great but I don't think the mods detract from the challenge or fun of the game, they can actually improve it."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "Sure, but it's not like that makes Fahrenheit inferior. Both are still pretty easy to use even for children and neither are actual thermodynamic scales and so neither of them are useful for calculations meriting absolute temperature (though their not being thermodynamic scales makes them easier to use in everyday human life). The only merit I've seen anyone raise for celsius is that 0 and 100 relate to water and that's a very minor point.", "id": "c7t99iv", "summary": "That's not a very big deal. Even children can easily use either one and neither are useful for thermodynamic calculations in general so why does anyone care?"}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "The enthalpy of vaporization of water is about 40.7 kJ/mol. If you divide by 4.184 kcal/kJ and then divide by 0.018 kg/mol you get that it takes 540 kcal to vaporize 1 kg of water that's already at its boiling point. This means 8.8 kcal would only vaporize about 16 g (or mL) of water. That's just over half an ounce, and it has to already be at the boiling point.", "id": "ci72nwi", "summary": "It isn't actually that much energy."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "I usually say something like \"would you like to go on a date with me [insert time frame here]\". Then they either say \n \n Sure \n \n No \n \n Yes but I'm not available then. \n \n \n When I'm inviting a female friend to dinner I usually just say something like \"Do you want to get dinner later?\" and they say yes unless they already ate or are already busy.", "id": "c4ma1b5", "summary": "It wasn't that long, but just make sure you actually use the word date and don't precede with \"not a\" or anything similar."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "Well, let's look at the cost of the material part. Going off of the cited cost from Musk ($650 million) and $2.5/lb of steel if you assume the entire thing is just the cost of steel (no labor or whatever) then you can get 260,000,000 lb of steel or 118,000,000 kg. With a density of 8,050 kg/m^3 that corresponds to about 14,681 m^3 of steel. Then with a tube length of 770 km, you get a cross section of 29.55 in^2 (about the size of my hand) for the tube itself. \n This feels low since we excluded the cost of labor, moving the materials, and actually shaping it, and I'm not sure that would be thick enough to withstand nearly an atmosphere of pressure for however big this tube is. However, I'm now wondering how gingerkid came up with his estimate for needing 5.5 billion m^3 of steel. The Musk cost estimate feels low to me (probably the right order of magnitude though), but gingerkid's feels absurd.", "id": "clp6r64", "summary": "The Musk estimate feels a little low (but is reasonable) to me based on math you can see there, gingerkid's feels crazy high."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "Yeah, there isn't a computational barrier to doing n-body and having time warp. However, having n-body would make it somewhat harder to have satellites around Kerbin while going on several year long missions, making game play not so convenient. Mun's orbit lasts less than two days so I could see it greatly perturbing and even endangering satellites in higher orbits around Kerbin over time scales you'd see during a mission to Jool or Eeloo. And I don't even want to think about what would happen to a satellite I left around Jool.", "id": "cgu6wn1", "summary": "There's no computational barrier, but maybe the design choice was for player convenience."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "The goo canisters being so high up are probably what makes it unstable. The SAS + possible engine gimbal can handle it to an extent but eventually it was too high. I'd lower them to the bottom of the next stage down (just remember to remove the science from them before you dump that stage) and/or make sure you still have the fins on the rocket longer since it looks the center of drag is too high.", "id": "cj9r198", "summary": "You may have turned just a little too fast for your speed and altitude, but I'd look at keeping the fins longer and lowering the goo canisters."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "I'm assuming you want an alto? If you want a decent horn in that range you're probably going to want to try to find something used that's still in good condition. Looking on ebay I'm seeing a few YAS-23s as well as a YAS-61 and a YAS-62 that's just outside the range. Also, if there's a music store nearby see if they have anything. Also, make sure it's tested, either by you or a more experienced player you know. Brand is important if you want to resell it at some point but don't get too hung up on it if you find something you like the sound of. \n My results possibly weren't typical but when I bought my tenor sax I saw a Bundy in the local music store that I could get for $300. A much more experienced player than I (he's a pro and I'd describe myself as intermediate) played it and suggested some stuff that should be done (mostly pad related) before I bought it. The owner of the shop got it taken care of and then I played it. There were a couple of minor leaks from the new pads being shaped slightly differently but we took care of them before I bought the horn. Now it plays great and I love it and if there's a problem I can take it back for more work under a warranty.", "id": "c9zsijt", "summary": "It will probably have to be a good condition used one. If you get it from a store, have it tested and see if you can get any kinks worked out before buying it. Also, try to see if you can take it back to get it fixed if anything else comes up. Good luck!"}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "A few redditors suggested some books to try and I'm looking into those, particularly \"Top Tones for the saxophone\" found here \n I'm still working on voicing and the overtones and actually started working on the front E and F fingerings, getting them to come out faster and such. In the process I wound up messing around and made a couple of fingerings for F#3, G3, and G#3. Any player that is capable of sounding front F and has a high F# key should be able to use any of these with ease. I'll post the picture I took of the fingerings (I made diagrams on paper) when I find the cord that will let me plug in my phone to the computer via USB. The F# is in better tune than the fingering I used before but the G and G# are a little flat. \n I also noticed that I could make more overtones on my tenor sax (I have sounded each of the lowest four overtones of low Bb on the tenor, and am working on controlling them better while on my alto I can only get out the second overtone consistently and sometimes the first).", "id": "t3_1ecb8a", "summary": "Sometime later today I'll post some alternate fingerings for high F# and altissimo G and G#. The alternate altissimo fingerings are much easier to sound than any fingerings I've found but are a little flat and require a high F# key. I've also found I'm able to more easily do overtone stuff on a tenor saxophone."}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "I have [a Bundy tenor sax]( that I haven't played much since I prefer the sound and intonation of my YTS-23. Yesterday I realized that I have the capability to electroplate things now since I have a DC power supply and a bunch of wire. Putting those together, today I got the idea to remove the keys, sand down the sax and silver plate it. I think I can use silver nitrate for the electrolyte and I'll just figure out the cheapest metal I can use for the anode. \n My actual question is if you guys can think of any playability problems that might come up if I do this (like the rods not fitting back in or something). Also, if you have any suggestions for how much silver nitrate I might need that would be great too. Right now I'm looking at getting 150 grams (which would mean up to 95 grams of silver could wind up on the saxophone).", "id": "t3_1qfjvr", "summary": "I want to silver plate my least used tenor saxophone at home. Can you guys think of any playability problems that might arise from doing this or give suggestions for how much silver nitrate I need? \n Edit:  I just realize that it would be cheaper to try on a mouthpiece.  These  and save about $70. Does plating a mouthpiece sound more doable?"}, {"author": "Chronos91", "content": "Today I thought I was going to conquer Eve with a single launch and return mission. I designed a (reasonably sized?) lander that had the delta v to get off of Eve and even return if I found a really good landing spot. Once I started building the lifter though things got hairy. My margins for the Eve transfer got too tight (didn't include anything for plane change or radial adjustments to get an aerobraking/aerocapture approach) and I wound up having to use lander fuel to adjust. Then I landed in the middle of the ocean. Jeb made a valiant effort, but wound up not even making orbit. Anyone have advice for how to lift this monstrosity in one launch? Also, any advice for what my launch profile off of Eve should look like? [Here is my craft]( so far.", "id": "t3_1vb0ou", "summary": "Here is my craft]( does anyone have advice for how I should modify the lift stage so I can use minimal fuel on arrival and what my launch profile from Eve should look like."}]}
+{"author": "UGotFrohned", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Having a wonderful clan experience currently. Clans work real well when members have a good community and common interest in gaming. I love bagels too.", "output": "I've been apart of a CS:S clan for about 5 year now. We've had many servers in the past and had populated servers, regulars who would pile in everywhere we could manage and now were slowing down. We've prided ourselves on our lastability as a clan because our community of members and non-members meshed well. \n That's what I see as a gaming clan, a group of people who play well together and have fun because they all share a similar interest in playing games. \n My clan was all about support, having fun, and making sure everyone felt welcome (even if we do like to trash talk every once in a while). We kept our servers swear-free and found it made for a generally friendlier atmosphere. If everyone is around to enjoy the same thing or work towards the same goal and can play as regularly as they can, that is what should make a clan. \n Been in many clans and by far the one I'm currently in trumps all of the others. It's good to see people band together to play games as games are much more fun when played with others. It pains me though when people form clans  for the wrong reasons such as to have power or exploit the use of clan donations (left a clan over that)."}], "user_id": "longlamp_7480", "history": [{"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "I posted this before in another thread but reposting it here as it seems relevant to the conversation. \n WARNING: MASSIVE WALL OF TEXT INCOMING! \n I know this is probably a late post but as a Baratheon Main, here are my 2 cents. \n \n Intro \n As you probably know, the strongest starting moves for Baratheon are either Mustering turn one on Dragonstone with 2 boats into Shipbreaker Bay, Moving your starting boats into Blackwater Bay, and CP on Kingswood, OR , move 1 boat into Blackwater, support on Kingswood, then +1 March to Kings Landing from Dragonstone, OR (Lesser known strat I realize), Split move the units from Dragonstone to Crackclaw Point, CP or march on Kingswood, and +1 March on boats(for north or south but recommended south only) \n \n How to Start \n Starting with an aggressive play though should usually involve both boats and doing a All-in on Martell with all 3 units and both boats to establish an early dominance in the south. Either use your boats to support an attack on the south on either Storms End or Sunspear to wipe out the southern forces early. +1 March on Kingswood is required for this. 1st play Martell will make is most likely playing Red Viper for the following reasons: \n \n Using Doran only Buffs Baratheon since it makes Stannis become a 5 \n \n Using Arianne makes Martell extremely vunerable against all attacks from either Tyrell and Baratheon on territories closer to Sunspear \n \n Areo is mostly useless against Baratheon since they have 2 1-sword cards(unless you play with Tides of Battle cards) \n \n \n \n Cards: What to Play and What Might be Played \n So expected cards cards are either Red Viper, Obara Sand, or Nymeria Sand, or Darkstar. Basically you have to worry about a 4, 2 2-cards, and a 1-card. If you aren't sure whether the player will lead with Red Viper on the first turn, expect it and play Renly, not Stannis. Your strength will be 5 to his 1-3 unless he turn 1 supports (not likely). Since you're ahead, you can more than likely play Renly to essentially get a free mustered Knight, or you can play Brienne of Tarth to kill the unit on the board(unless it's Nymeria or Areo). \n If you attack Sunspear directly, expect a Red Viper since you'd be doing a deep territory invasion which is more of a threat to Martell. Don't fight for Starfall because that opens you to Turn 2 or 3 attacks from Tyrell. Move 1 boat into the East Summer Sea if you are going for a Deep Territory invasion rather than a Storms End invasion, Move 2 boats if you are going for Storms end to move on the Sea of Dorne Turn 2 or if Martell moves their boat into East Summer Sea. Alternatively, You can place a support on your boats Turn 2 to go straight for Sunspear if you want since Martell will expect you to go straight for their boats for the control of the sea. \n \n Westeros Card Phase \n In the Storms end situation, if you get a mustering, place 1 boat in the storms end dock, 1 boat in Shipbreaker from Dragonstone, and muster a foot man on Dragonstone for defending your base. If it's supply, you'll be hurting for a turn unless you placed a token on Kingswood but since you always have a barrel from Dragonstone, your army strength should be un-touched since you have a 3-army and a 2-boat. It shouldn't matter if you have a 1 & 1 boat instead. If you get Betting, don't bet on Throne. Bet only on Raven if other players invested a lot on Throne or Sword but only bet 1. Bet 3-4 on Sword but not 5 because you will want 1 extra token in case of a Wildling Attack. If it's GoT, then you only get 1-2 tokens but it shouldn't matter much unless someone is trying to CP a lot. If it's Last Days of Summer, you should be really happy because you are set up in a position to cripple Martell turn 2 and eliminate them Turn 3. \n However, for restrictions, if there's no Defense, then you essentially have taken the south as long as Martell didn't get the sword or Muster a knight on Sunspear. \n If there's no March +1, you may have to play a Raid on your Boats and Defense on your units unless you are confident enough to push onto his boats or Sunspear. If there's no Raids, play a support on your boats to assault Sunspear unless martell is ahead of you on the Iron Throne track because then Martell will most likely counter-attack your fleet. Defense is recommended but it's up to your discretion to use support/march. \n If it's no CP, then it has no effect since you won't need a CP until Turn 3 anyways. \n \n Post Invasion \n You shouldn't return North after eliminating Martell unless you have had an ability to muster a lot near Dragonstone and Shipbreaker because you want to put as much room between you and Stark so you only have Tyrell to worry about. \n Dealing with Tyrell depends on their strategy. If they don't go South at all, then turtle South and slowly retake North on the East Coast. (Kingswood, Kings Landing,  and Crackclaw.) If you managed to hold Dragonstone and Stark didn't go for Shipbreaker and Dragonstone, then taking Kings Landing and Crackclaw should net you a win with Dragonstone, Sunspear, Starfall, Storms End, Yronwood, Kings Landing,  Crackclaw. \n \n Don't Fight Stark \n I personally wouldn't go north and fight Stark early for the following reasons: \n \n If you lose at getting the Shivering Sea, you lose your entire strategy and possibly your boats making you an easy target to pressure and attack. \n \n If you try to invade White Harbor, the forces on Winterfell and Moat Cailin can counter-attack quickly with strength \n \n If you try to invade from Widow's Watch, you force your troops to get stuck while Stark positions to fight you. \n \n If you invade Moat Cailin, you have to worry about both Greyjoy and Stark on either side of you, and Greyjoy is extremely strong early game and can destroy your entire army with the sword. \n \n Stark cards are more defensive in nature making it naturally difficult to cripple them early since they can negate most unit kills and reset their hand if needed.", "id": "ce1h7eg", "summary": "Play Order \n ---Turn 1--- \n -> Go for Martell with an all-in by doing this \n -> March -1 on Dragonstone \n -> March 0 on Shipbreaker \n -> March +1 on Kingswood \n -> Move all units to Kingswood \n -> Move 1 Boat South for Sunspear or Saltshore/Move 2 Boats for Storms End or if Martell moves into East Summer Sea  (If so play Patchface and get rid of Red Viper or Arianne) \n -> Move All Land units to Sunspear or Salt Shore  (Play Renly or Stannis, Play Stannis if you fought Martell's boats and Patchfaced Arianne or Red Viper) /Move all units to Storms End  (Play Renly or Brienne,  NOT STANNIS ) \n ---Turn 2--- \n -> Hope for Mustering/Bid on Sword/Save one for Wildlings \n -> Support from Shipbreaker, March 0 on Single Boat  (Play Salladhor Saan) /March 0 on 2-Boats  (Play Melissandre or Brienne) \n -> March +1 on Land Units \n -> Attack Sunspear if you went for Storm's End first  (Play Stannis) \n -> Reset Deck and Defend Territories from Tyrell, Forget about Dragonstone if there was no Mustering in 1st Card Phase, Cards remaining should be  (Sunspear First: Patchface, Melisandre, Brienne,  Davos/Storm's End First: Patchface, Melissandre, Sallahdor Saan, Davos)"}, {"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "There are a few problems with this map for standard LoL play.  Main Points  will be in  Bold  while  Sub Points  will be in  Italics . \n If you have a rebuttal or another point, feel free to let me know. \n \n 1. Lack of Minions extends game time/introduces a possibility for there to be no way for the game to end itself. \n A. This introduces the possibility for players to farm IP and XP without actually playing. \n B. This also prolongs the game since there won't be minions pushing lanes at all times. Instead, teams will stay near their jungle creeps and farm to max level/to late-game gear. \n \n 2. Excluding Champions, Wards, and Champion-Spawned minions, having Jungle Creeps only to gain EXP/Gold from keeps the entire team from progressing at the same rate. \n A. Jungle Creeps with any respawn timer longer than 1 minute, especially weak creeps denies teammates gold and experience that they could otherwise need in order for their team to gain an upper hand against their opponent. \n B. Having shared experience with some jungle creeps would end up reducing the overall EXP that the team would receive, effectively slowing their progress as a team. \n C. Having shared experience for all jungle creeps would increase the overall amount of experience a team could accrue at the cost of denying teammates gold, though less so than if only a few creeps had shared EXP. \n \n 3. Characters with high-move speeds/stealth would become over-powered in this. \n A. The stealth would allow for simple infiltration, ward placement, and creep stealing. \n B. High-Move speeds would allow for easy creep stealing and early ward placing, possibly enabling fast moving champions to counter jungle in early game. \n C. Abilities that allow for vision from either being in an area such as Teemo's mushrooms, or reveal on-hit such as Caitlin's Yordle Snap Traps, while performing like they were designed to, would be much more effective if the entire map(minus Baron and spawns) was affected by Fog of War.", "id": "c5nehr8", "summary": "In bold. Just read the  Main Points . :P \n Notice:  I'm not saying this map could NEVER be viable. I'm simply saying that this map wouldn't be viable in standard LoL. Also, there are other points which I left out since I saw them in the comments beforehand. \n *Edited for easier read. :D"}, {"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "I loved most of it, I thought the multiplayer was tons of fun too, definitly a nice change from the typical FPS mp gametypes. \n The thing is, the story is...short and dull. Since this is mostly a single-player game, it has to ride on that a lot to make it good. It's basically a story where, you are a complete stranger entrusted by basically everyone to take down this huge powerhouse in the wasteland, the \"Authority\". The worst thing is when you're not outside of town directly trying to fight the Authority, they don't attack or recognize you for being the guy who routinely screws up their shit. \n A lot in the game broke the immersion for me, though there's much that was done right with mechanics, weapons, enemies, and especially graphics, the game just didn't live up to it's potential because of the lack of a compelling and immersive experience. \n It's hard for me to enjoy a game that is supposed to be mostly a single-player story game fails to deliver a story itself. It made it seem that the game was only made in order to show off the Id Tech 5 engine's capabilities.", "id": "c5h575h", "summary": "Good game with great mechanics and enjoyable MP but fails at delivering it's story in length and quality as a SP story FPS."}, {"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "The thing about this change is that it would require certain resources to be put in the game to change the in-game UI to add a feature that would be scarcely used. While, perhaps, it would be a nice feature to be used by a few people in the game, it would go largely unnoticed and would not be worth Hi-Rez's time to implement. This feature would have to be tested and checked to make sure that it doesn't cause any large or small bugs with the UI or even crash the game. \n At best, this idea can be implemented in a similar fashion for the spectator/replay mode to rearrange players in the player list for the teams.", "id": "c91srfp", "summary": "The problem with this idea is that it would require much more work then is needed for the game right now and the change would be so small that not many players would realize it or utilize it."}, {"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "Not entirely, Supports can carry a game and control teamfights if they use their abilities correctly. Tanky Supports can get in the middle of fights and CC carries to allow carries to wreck teams without lifting a finger. And the gold earned from Assists is DEFINITELY \"your\" gold. You earn that as does any other champion, and since you don't necessarily get kills, you get WAY more assists than any other champ in the game. \n Support isn't an easy role either since there's always a need to be placing wards to control key areas like Objectives, Bushes, and Unsighted-areas infights over walls. Also, Support Items are made for controling fights. Shurelyas is used for disengaging or catching a team off guard during a siege. Locket is a great AOE shield that defends against all damage. Aegis/Bulwark provides great passive defensive stats for nearby teammates. Ohmwrecker is a (now) great Siege item, especially paired with Shurelyas. Last Shadow is a great anti-chase/escape item and still provides GP/10. Twin Shadows is a good way to find people out in bushes or in hidden areas while providing AP, MR, and Movespeed. Mikail's is AMAZING. It's an AP support item that heals for a %, and acts as a full cleanse. Lastly, Sight Stone is basically the new Heart of Gold. The money that you would otherwise spend on wards anyways is auto refreshed so you keep getting wards throughout the game. It pays for itself faster than any GP item in the game. \n Supports are in the meta for a reason and with all the new items added for S3 and the buffs to Gold, playing Support now is easier than ever. There should NEVER be an excuse to not play a support role.", "id": "c8m7n7m", "summary": "Support is a great role in S3, theres no reason not to play it."}, {"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "While I'm not Monte(obviously) and not as good as he is when it comes to analyzing games, I'll interject with what I think they did wrong(and I'm totally allowed to be wrong). \n C9 had faults against underestimating Fnatic's strategy of map control and aggressive warding. Fnatic was able to catch C9 multiple times int eh jungle because C9 had no awareness to Fnatic's location during rotations. \n Another fault was with \"disrespecting\" xPeke's Kassadin , allowing him to pick one of his stronger mid laners for 2/3 games while banning out most of the other mid laners, limiting Hai's picking pool for mid. While Hai did play pretty decently on Gragas, Gragas isn't a champ that Hai plays often and against xPeke on Kassadin, which is one of his favorite picks since it fits so well with Fnatic's cross map control strategy, wasn't a good match-up for Hai. \n The last problem(which I can think of at least) is that C9's strategy works well when the pre-laning early game is even or in their favor since this allows Meteos to PvE the jungle for massive amounts of gold and experience and get an advantage on levels and items on the enemy jungler. This doesn't work if they get behind early, especially when giving kills up to the enemy jungler because this means that: \n 1: The enemy jungler starts with gold/xp lead already making a PvE farm climb harder. \n 2: The lead in items means that it's easier for the enemy jungler to gank early, helping the other lanes faster than normal. \n 3:Since the other lanes get early assistance, this puts the lanes behind due to extra pressure from a stronger jungler. \n If Meteos only farms during this time, this means that the enemy jungler gets a \"free\" gank without worry of a counter gank since Meteos would be farming in a game of catch up. What (propbably) should have happened is that the lanes should have bought extra wards on 1st back, played safe, with meteos playing more of a gank/ counter jungle strategy rather than a PvE farming strategy making him easier to predict in the jungle to get ganked.", "id": "ccmw00p", "summary": "Lack of knowledge of fog of war and Fnatic's awareness(warding mostly), Bad Picks/bans, and inability to recover from early deaths led to their loss in the Quarterfinals, I believe."}, {"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "I could care less about the general consensus for people who thought ODST wasn't good because of how different it was from your typical Halo game. The thing though with Reach, even if the format was changed from the H3 format a bit with loadouts and a change in weapon balancing, the multiplayer wasn't bad and still allowed for the same type of game play as H3, they just had to be slightly more careful about aiming at range. Perhaps even armor abilities changed the flow but everything was viable top use and counterable when against it. These weren't even a problem in competitive playlists since Sprint was the only ability available and that's if it was even included. \n I just can't understand why these games are considered bad because they have a well written story, well developed characters, solid gameplay in single player and multiplayer(even if you disagree about it being competitive, the gameplay was still solid), it allowed for more customization than previous games, and, in my most personal opinion, Invasion was one of the most fun multiplayer modes in Halo, even if out did only have 3 maps. \n People can say that they didn't want to make those games and to done extent, they may be correct. That didn't keep them from making them with the same quality and care they put in the games they made prior, it just meant they were ready to move on and start working on other games that they wanted to make rather than shove out a cash cow every so often.", "id": "cf8rul4", "summary": "Different=/=Bad, games are exceptionally made all around imo, \"competitiveness\" in multiplayer shouldn't determine game quality."}, {"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "My take on why horror is just plain boring and predictable is that it is not scary as much as it is startling. For horror to be effective, it needs to reach the person who will be reacting on a psychological level using some technique that makes them actually feel fear themselves and not jsut anticipation for a jump-scare. \n There isn't enough reason to be scared in Slender for example because the only thing that is there to psychologically instill fear is the dark setting. Once that is removed, the game loses any horror value and turns into a \"pop up startle timer\". \n Most games fail at instilling a level of psychological horror because that requires the developer to make you feel the horrifying event/idea before the action of the scare occurs. It's much simpler to make an event that can be passed as scary by using something, usually deformed, coming out of the darkness, than to make someone fear for their own well being by getting them caught up in a story or event that seems believable to the person playing/reacting. \n Good horror will usually make you think about an event or idea in a way that will make you disgusted (mentally or physically), and though it might involve surprise moments, the focus is more on the event/idea that is driven to instill fear. \n For example, in Amnesia: Dark Descent, in my own opinion, the chases and monsters wandering around is not nearly as frightening as the story of the castle, the player, and the abominations themselves in the setting of the story. The sheer knowledge that you had some part in some terrible, disgusting experiment, so much so that you would force yourself to forget everything you've done to involve yourself in some events makes me fear for the character for the person he was in the past for assisting with such a thing, the present of him re-learning everything that had happened, and the future for what more there is to uncover. The game uses the elements of light and dark to persuade you that you can save yourself mentally when you have a source of light but as soon as that disappears, you fall mentally because of a past event that you forced yourself to forget. \n That is true horror in my opinion.", "id": "c9yfm3s", "summary": "Horror should be more than Jumpscares in the dark and rather a psychological trip leading to a morally/mentally horrifying end."}, {"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "My favorite part of that is them getting angry over us calling them hyper-callous and toxic while defending Riot because of their toxicity towards Riot and, especially, IronStylus. \n All this hate being generated over, what? The preconception that Riot doesn't care about the player/fan base what-so-ever? If that was the case, why would they pour so much money into LCS/Worlds, create entirely new content FOR FREE for EVERY SINGLE PLAYER, introduce new servers worldwide so everyone doesn't have to play with over-bearing lag, and continue to support community and exposition events by sending developers out to meet and talk to fans about LoL among other things? \n It's as if this mob is just raising pitchforks and torches up because they have been spoiled by Riot and aren't getting patches/champions/game-types/whatever fast enough. They don't seem to understand that game development is some of the hardest, most expensive work a company can pursue. Between deadlines for content, paying each highly skilled developer for their work(which can get up to almost 100k/year depending on the developer), following the balance of the game to re-adjust accordingly, and promote it in a way that will hold the interest of the players as well as get new players to start playing as well. This is just one handful of the things game development studios do in order to keep a successful game going. \n All of this toxicity is just unnecessary on so many levels though. Even if there are players that are dissatisfied with the game and development of it, there's nothing that says they can't stop playing all together and play a competitor's game instead. If they were really concerned with the continuing development of LoL, they would/should understand in order to help the game you have to help the developers. If IronStylus says that the best way to process feedback and find what people need/want from the game that they should post elsewhere then they should say \"Yes, sure, I'll do just that\". Instead it's come to this and this mob just seems to be drawing targets on whatever comes in front of them saying \"THIS ISN'T WHAT WE WANT! BURN IT DOWN!\" \n Quite frankly, it's all just ridiculous.", "id": "cfivfj1", "summary": "Lol, they mad. They don't like the game/Riot? They should stop playing."}, {"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "The thing is, the original plan for SMITE was to release 30 gods and then have the game launch on the 30th god. That changed when they decided they wanted to try to add different mechanics to the game (at a bad point IMO) to differentiate SMITE from other MOBAs/ARTS games, gameplay-wise. \n That along with the complete graphical redesign and continued attempt to \"perfect the game\"(A nearly impossible feat of any game, it would make a game less fun to play if it was completely balanced. No challenge or feeling of being \"overpowered\" makes games boring fast) caused the devs to have to push the launch back to 40 gods. \n This seems more of an apology in my opinion since most players were expecting the game to already be out and have the focus changed to balancing rather than new features or \"meta-testing\". \n You can see it how ever you want I suppose, it doesn't really affect me but in terms of a cash-grab, if enough people really believe that this is the case, I'm sure they'll put a cap on it. \n ---", "id": "c8nob71", "summary": "The game's beta was extended to I believe this is more of an apology to people who were anxious for release during beta-testing. If players really do see this as a cash grab attempt, they'll cap it."}, {"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "But that doesn't mean that they know what's best for the franchise, in terms of competitive multiplayer. Bungie created a failure with Reach, but would you say that they didn't \"love\" Halo as well? \n While I don't think Reach was as big of a failure as people say it was, I would not doubt that Bungie loved/love/\"had a more than positive opinion\" towards Halo. Does that mean they or anyone else really \"knows best\" for what the franchise should do/become? No, nobody can know for certain, it's all a collaboration of ideas from many different people with different ideas for different parts of the game. The fact that they loved/love/\"had a more than positive opinion\" about halo means that they will be legitimatly passionate about attempting to make a good Halo game rather than \"Spacey Shooter 2012: Halo Edition\". \n >  But this hurts the game in the long run. Look at Reach- it introduced many new game-changing elements, yet was ultimately a failure (dropped by MLG, and lesser relative populace than Halo 3, its predecessor).\nIntroducing new, game-breaking elements to increase initial sales does nothing but hurt the game later on in its lifespan. \n Again, I can't fully agree that Reach was a complete failure. Many games are rejected by MLG, though Reach might have been one of them, that doesn't mean that is is an Inferior game to H3, that just means that Reach either didn't have a certain competitive edge they might have been looking for or it could just mean that they didn't want another Halo game in their Professional Circuit. I'll predict now that CS:GO will most likely do the same since both CS 1.6 and CS:S are played. The same goes for LoL, HoN, and every other MOBA out there but I digress. \n If it were true that new features in games hurt them in the long run then, developers wouldn't add new features to games in fear that people would stop playing them. That would also mean that H3 would have been a failure around the time Reach came out because of their \"Equipment\" system which was new when H3 released. The elements they added were to serve purpose and, yes, I do believe they should be re-balanced. I could write a whole article on how they could be re-balanced in a similar way that Lemon did. But were they game breaking? No, game-breaking would have been if the different elements rendered the game completely unplayable. \n Cut-out a long unnecessary text here, if you read it, comment about it if you'd like, If you missed it, I'd be more than happy to type it out separately. Short note: It involved SMNC balancing and specifically, the Gunner, in comparison to Reach's AA balancing. They both involve \"classes\". Whatever it was too long :P \n >  Without having seen the game, I can already reach the conclusion that it won't be balanced competitively. \n I still don't believe any of us but the players who have gotten to play the game can truly say that, and even then, is it that the game won't be balanced competitively at all? Or that it just won't feel like a classic Halo competitiveness that we'll see? And I will always fully agree on the second because Halo, along with most other franchises, change as they continue. CoD is an exception because of it's massive popularity, more so than Halo(mostly because it's multiplatform), and Activision is bent on milking the hell out of it. \n So again, while I don't believe we can truly judge the game YET, I do believe that H4 WILL have a competitive edge, but it will feel different from Halo that we were used to in H2 and H3 and that may leave long-time fans of Halo a bit sour to say the least.", "id": "c55xbge", "summary": "Editing entire comment for shortening/reading purposes. \n \n They do love Halo so they must be passionate about at least trying to make it a good game. \n \n The elements in Reach weren't really game-breaking, they need a few tweaks. Also, just because a game is rejected my MLG doesn't mean it isn't competititve. \n \n We still can't truly judge H4 yet. Also, H4 will most likely be competitive, just a non-formal-to-previous-Halo-games competitive. \n \n Just a smiley face :)"}, {"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "Why Anhur isn't seen more of a Support and not an AD Carry is beyond me. 3 of his 4 skills have some form of CC and can allow you to feed the living Hel (see what I did there?) out of your actual Carry. Here I'm going to explain why an Anhur Support can actually be an extremely viable build and how to build him. \n ---Game Start and Item Build--- \n ---1.---  As Support Anhur, you will start with Meditation or HoG depending on whether or not you want to go for the jungle buffs. Also, purchase Reinforced Boots 1 with potions for maximum effectiveness. \n ---2.--- Once Boots are complete, you will purchase Hymn of Valor for the Protection, Mana that you need in order to cast your CC, and CDR in order to cast them often. \n ---3.---  Then, you will focus on buying Frostbound Hammer since the 15% Movement slow will allow your teammates to get kills when you land even 1 auto-attack on an enemy. \n ---4.--- Next, depending on your opponents' team composition, you will build Magi's Blessing to counter any hard, initiator CCs, or you will build Stone of Gaia to counter any High-damage spells or champions. \n ---5. & 6.---  Lastly, Since Health and Damage are necessities, building an Ankh of the Golem with any health item, such as Gauntlet of Thebes, will allow you to further tank for your team whilst also dealing damage. \n ---Optional---  Buying an item to fit your teams composition or to counter the enemy's composition is up to you. Hide of Leviathan allows for all around tankiness, Hide of the Nemean Lion can inflict damage on ay AD Carries or Melee Attackers who want to attack you, and Stone of Gaia can increase your lane sustain while allowing you to take damage from multiple AP Carries. Most any Utility/Defensive item can be useful given the situation so that can be up to you. \n ---Skill Order(By Level)--- \n Building items is one thing but setting your skills in the right order can be tricky. \n ---Level 1.---  Starting with Shifting Sands can increase your lane's chances of First Blood since the slow and pillar can allow for easy ganks, especially when the Sand area buffs Anhur's Attack Damage from 4%-20%. \n ---Level 2.---  Getting Impale next is key because that allows you to initiate fights by pinning enemies to walls and immediatly throwing your pillar in front of them for an almost guaranteed kill. It also allows you to save you teammates when being chased and increase farm capability for your lane since Impale will pass through all minion mobs. Combo-ing Impale with Pillar by pinning Gods to your pillar is also an effective way to initiate. \n ---Level 3.---  Next, you get your Disperse as it makes chasing much much easier as well as giving you a short airborne stun-throw. It also allows for easy escapes into, and out of, the jungle in case you are being chased. \n ---Level 5.---  Getting the Ultimate, Desert Fury, whenever it is available is key since you will be needing it as a main source of damage. It is usually to use this in a typical situation whenever an enemy is weak or pinned or CC'd . \n ---Levels 4,6-20.---  When putting points into skills, Max Impale out first to maximize damage output to enemies. Next max Shifting Sands in order to increase your slow effectiveness and your damage potential. Then, max out Disperse since using disperse is mostly useful as a throwing/escaping utility rather than a damaging skill. Lastly, (of course) max your Ultimate and you will have a fully capable Support Anhur. \n Feel free to discuss this build and try it out in game. Also, pertaining to skills feel free to use the points in any order as long as you max the skills in that order since that is what I've found to be most effective. Best 3 abilities for Anhur are Meditation, HoG, and Purification Beads. Also, wards wards wards wards. Ward everywhere.", "id": "t3_10fvw2", "summary": "Anhur is the Best Support. Build Tanky, get Mana, Throw Bitches, Recieve Win. Try it, Love it, then Never Ever Use Anything Else. \n EDIT:  For anyone confused, the main point of this build guide is to introduce something new in terms of a God Build that is different form the usual meta. Not to say that Anhur as an AD carry is bad, though, personally the other AD carries are better than he is as an AD Carry."}, {"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "So I've seen a lot of posts over the course of me playing Terraria and beiong a member of this sub-reddit about finding tons and tons of heart crystals after they've already reached max hp with a similar problem with the use of mana crystals at max mana. \n Seeing this, shouldn't there be a use for heart/mana crystals in hard-mode and after you've reached max health other than just to sell? I feel as if with the amount of Heart Crystals are spawned in the world to the number actually used, they are currently under-utilized as an item in the game. \n So, if we could convince the dev's to create an incentive to keep collecting and using heart/mana crystals, what do you think it should be? \n Here are a couple of my ideas: \n 1:  Create a recipe with Heart and mana crystals as a material for a potion for hard mode that could craft with a hardmode material to make a Tier 3 Rejuvenation potion. \n 2:  Heart Crystals could be used on NPC's up to a certain amount in order to make them more resilient in invasions. \n 3:  There could be a recipe which required 10 combined heart crystals, 10 mana crystals, and 20 souls of sight(or other soul) with the star cannon in order to make a Hard-Mode \"Super-Star Cannon\" that Shot fallen stars, Mana crystals (more damage than stars), and Heart Crystals(most damage). It could do around 90-110 ranged damage depending on whats balanced with ranged damage scaling and ammo costs. \n ---3a.  Or, the Stars and Heart/Mana crystals could have different functions when shot such as, stars damage and illuminate the enemy, Mana crystals fire through walls but are slightly weaker, and heart crystals could refund 1-5% health for damage given and are slightly stronger.", "id": "t3_1o7hcl", "summary": "Heart/Mana crystals should have a use later in the game, what do you think it should be?"}, {"author": "UGotFrohned", "content": "Hi, I'm Frohned, a high plat-low diamond level player who's played since December 2014. I've played in and commentated lots of tournaments and events and also made a \"weekly\" Brawlhalla news show as well (I want to bring it back but have been sort of turned off from doing it). I've seen everything change in this game  more times than I can count but tonight I'm salty and I'm here to share a piece of my mind...again. \n While I get salty on occasion, normally I'd never consider doing this but I'm at my limit. I can't freaking deal with this run-away, unpunishable attack nonsense. I'm so tilted from this I'm considering just quitting but I can't because otherwise I'd be forfeiting my voice towards discussion toward fixing these problems. \n \n My Issues Currently \n \n I said it earlier but the biggest problem with the game is the the fact that unpunishable attacks combined with running away/constant dodging/parrying exist and have existed for a while, especially in high tiers. The game just isn't fun at all, and is in fact the opposite in my case where pretty much every game is against someone I have to chase down to attempt to hit but can't because they dodge ->parry whenever I make any sort of attempt. My other options include doing the same to them but then nothing would ever happen and it wouldn't even be playing the game. \n Alternatively, I could be spaced off by an opponent who just presses light attacks in my direction in order to keep me away and I'm stuck trying to find a way in. I could attempt throwing my weapon to try and disrupt but they'd just dodge away and continue attacking the air. I could try timing frame perfect dodges and moving past otherwise large hitboxes (certain moves, not all are like this) to punish but as soon I approach and I'm not hit by one of their attacks, they get a dodge off and counter my attack. \n No matter what, playing defensively just seems way too good and while I'm okay with people playing different playstyles to win, spending every game chasing someone down or trying to just find a way to hit my opponent through massive never ending hitboxes while trying to get them between a dodge timer that lasts seemingly less than a second as well is just insane. \n Personally I think solving these problems would require changing the dodge/making it a much, much longer cooldown between uses and making attacks on miss have longer recovery times on a few moves (see sword nlight, lance nlight, lance dair to name a few). I could probably go much deeper into this but it's late, i'm tired, extremely tilted, and just want to go to bed. \n \n Before anyone says it, yes I've looked at replays, gone into training mode, played those characters and everything. I've watched tournaments and played some top tier players. It's not the losing that tilts me, it's losing to nonsense like what I've described above. I don't mind getting my shit pushed in by a better player if it means that they spent their time engaging on me like I attempt engaging on them. I don't even mind when my opponent just out-reads me, throw/combo strings me flawlessly to the point where trying is hopeless because those games make me feel like \"Damn, that was sick. That player is in an entire league above me.\" However, that's almost 1 out of every 20 games or so since a majority of players around my level just seem to play the exact same un-punishable patterns. \n Even high-tier tournaments don't escape these styles of play which have led to a lot of tournament games I've watched to be rather boring since most of the time both players aren't attempting to engage each other but rather bait the opponent into engaging first to that they can parry and punish their attacks. For this reason I've been sort of turned off from wanting to commentate or even watch tournaments. \n \n Anyway, I've typed more than I thought I would and now I'm gonna go to sleep. Feel free to respond or share your own opinions. Hopefully this is a constructively written post since that is what I was aiming for. I tried. ¯_(ツ)_/¯", "id": "t3_47bg4o", "summary": "I'M SALTY"}]}
+{"author": "FisherKing22", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The problem, as I see it, is that small, local universities are expanding beyond the scope of their mission statements to fill a demand for prestigious universities. Very few schools need to be major research institutions with multi-million dollar facilities. The other colleges would be better served by acknowledging that their role is simply to provide a quality secondary education to the masses. They're not not going to work out the secrets of the Universe at Local State Tech University, but they can improve the lives of everyone by providing their students with a quality, no-frills education that doesn't cripple them financially.", "output": "I agree with that. I had this discussion with a state school board member recently, and we both agreed that there's an issue with every university trying to become a large research institution. In order to do that, they need funding. Funding largely comes from tuition and donations. They can increase both of those by becoming a more prestigious university. The top private schools can charge huge amounts for tuition, because the demand for a degree from a university like Harvard or MIT is extremely high because students expect a large return on their investment. The issue is when smaller public schools try to emulate large research institutions. It sounds harsh, but the reality is that most universities aren't going to produce the \"best and brightest,\" and it's a pointless endeavor for them to attempt to become a major research institution. Their mission statements should be simplified to \"provide an adequate secondary education.\" But that's not sexy, and won't attract new students. \n Budgets are a function of enrollment, so universities have a strong incentive to attract more students. They can do this by making the university seem more prestigious. This will attract better students, which creates a positive feedback loop. The problem is that the ROI isn't immediate and is rarely a 1:1 exchange. \n A good example of this is the college in my hometown. It's a small, public 4-year institution with lax admission requirements. They recently spent tens of millions on a new football stadium. They are a not a D1 school, but their hope was that it would bring in more revenue through ticket sales. They were wrong because they overreached and tried to emulate the \"brand name\" universities. That should not be their mission statement. The students choosing a small local school over a prestigious university are almost always those that either didn't want to go to a major university or couldn't get into one. We are wasting money by trying to provide these students with a top50 university experience, when they would be much better served by a no-frills quality education. \n It's a tricky subject especially when you start talking about public universities. It involves acknowledging that all universities are not created equal, and that we don't need 100 research institutions. What makes it trickier is that this acknowledgement would require interstate agreements. In my case, for instance, I wanted to go to a major research institution, but my state didn't have one. So, I payed out of state tuition to attend a good school. I was willing to leave the state and pay a premium, but for those who are not, they are lobbying legislatures to improve local universities beyond what they were intended to be. We need, in my opinion, no more than 10 major flagship public universities, but this would require agreements between states."}], "user_id": "longlamp_2428", "history": [{"author": "FisherKing22", "content": "I will tell you the story of the worst rushee I've ever seen, and we'll see if we can all learn from his mistakes. Let's call him Carl. \n Carl rushed in the fall as a freshman. He didn't really come around to that many events, but from all accounts, was a pretty cool guy who could hold a conversation. But because we didn't really know anything about him, he didn't get a bid, but was encouraged to come around again the spring. \n Let's flash forward to the spring. I hadn't met this Carl character yet, but was encouraged to at our next event. From what I heard, Carl was a funny person, and more importantly, Carl was also fat. Ive wanted a fat funny pledge since I became a brother. \n So when I set out to meet this Carl character at the next event, I saw this supposedly fat and funny guy wearing new loafers, a gingham vineyard vines shirt, khakis, and croakies on whatever sunglasses he had. The event was at night, and he had clearly just showered and dressed. Fuck your croakies, Carl. They belong around your neck during the day or if you haven't had a chance to go home or to your car once it got dark. Carl had traded in his jeans and t-shirts to try to become what he thought we wanted to see. \n Anyway, enough about this insufferable chode's appearances. The event was just supposed to be some rushees coming over to drink and watch a basketball game. I was with my girlfriend and hanging out with my brothers when Carl showed up about an hour before anybody else. Carl proceeded to act like he already knew every brother and like he already had a bid. This chucklefuck started asking us for liquor and beer like he was entitled to it. No, Carl. You'll drink the Busch Light like the rest of the rushees will when they get here in 50 minutes. \n Carl is upset about not getting any booze, but is just thrilled to be around his future brothers. That cocky fuck. It's after the first 5 minutes of talking to Carl that I want to castrate the brother who said he's a good conversationalist. All Carl wanted to talk about was that time that he got so wasted he puked! Hilarious anecdote, Carl. Or that one time he drank so much that he was hungover the next day in class. Another sidesplitter from Carl. \n We're now about 45 minutes away from the other rushees arriving and Carl has run out of things to say, so he turns the conversation to all of that sweet sweet strange he gets. (Sidenote: I don't want to be presumptuous, but I think Carl's lying about how much sweet sweet strange he gets.) After listening to his explicit stories that sound like he's splicing together American Pie movies and 80's pornography, I'm praying for blunt force trauma to the head to end this misery. \n To move this story along, I'll skip the next 45 minutes and get to the part where Carl starts drinking. According to Carl, he's a real champ when it comes to all things alcohol. Carl gets his hands on the PJ that we had for the ladies in attendance. Carl is not a lady. Carl starts chugging to show how cool he is. He starts to look almost worried when he sees that we are not impressed, so he keeps chugging. The alcohol has been out for maybe 20 minutes when Carl loses pretty much all motor function and verbal filters. He's chatting up the other rushees talking about how he's pretty much assured a bid because of how cool we think he is. He is wrong. At one point he told a brother that he wanted to do tequila shots with him. Carl then decided that he should walk up behind said brother every 15 minutes or so, put his hands on his shoulders, and shout, \"TEQUILLLLLAAAA SHOOOTTTSSSS!!\" \n Carl was the loudest person at this event that later turned into a party. After creeping out most of the girls by proposing that they practice making babies (I don't know if this is the pickup line he used, but it seems fitting), he decided to chat with my girlfriend. After being told numerous times that she was not interested because she had a boyfriend (good girl), Carl walked away and told another rushee that he basically, \"had it in the bag with the brunette.\" Because Carl is a loud, fat, unfunny turtle fucker, another brother overheard him, and informed Carl that she had a boyfriend. He apologized, but I suspect it was not genuine. \n As the night was winding down, Carl managed to make it to the second floor where he passed out on a couch in a brother's room. We were unable to move him, so a couple of brothers watched him to make sure that he didn't die. In an unfortunate turn of events, Carl survived the night. At some point in the night, he managed to piss his pants- an act which he denied in the morning. \n That's pretty much it for Carl. This is basically the story of how a guy went from alright on first impression to the worst rushee I've ever had the displeasure of knowing. Carl kept coming to events until they became invite only. We whiteflagged him, meaning that we emailed other fraternities he was rushing to let them know what ole Carl had done. Needless to say, he did not get a bid.", "id": "c7v3ujw", "summary": "Fuck you, Carl. Fuck you so much."}, {"author": "FisherKing22", "content": "I've made this argument several times. The US has made huge strides in cutting down on drunk driving fatalities by changing the public opinion on drunk driving. I wasn't alive for it, but most people in their 40's or 50's remember a time where if you were pulled over by an officer and were drunk, he might say, \"Can you make it home?\" or if you were really bad off, he might have you sleep it off either in jail or in your car. \n The public opinion has changed dramatically since then. I was talking with my dad about my city's dedicated alcohol law enforcement division exists largely to counter underage drinkers (it's a college town). He said how stupid it was to waste money on something kids are going to do anyway, but went on to say, \"but if they get behind the wheel, throw them under the jail.\" That's a huge change of opinion from just 30 years ago. \n The issue wasn't solved (I use the term loosely) by banning cars- granted, that's a week analogy. It was fixed by organizations like Mother Against Drunk Driving fighting and lobbying for stricter laws, but more importantly, by a very successful ad campaign that preached the dangers of drunk driving. They, along with other organizations, did something that politicians aren't talking about for guns- they changed the public consciousness. \n So why aren't politicians talking about this? I think the answer is complicated, but it boils down to the fact that it's not an easy thing to do. It's much more abstract than instituting an arbitrary ban. A politicians can promise to fund billboards and commercials that teach proper firearm use, the dangers of firearms, etc, but that is unlikely to win many votes because many will see it as an empty gesture, whereas a ban is a much tangible piece of legislation. When running for reelection, it will look much better for anti-gun voters if a politician can say, \"I helped implement a ban on assault weapons and handguns, and gun violence has gone down x amount.\" than to say, \"I've helped start a gun-education campaign, and we hope to see gun violence go down in the next 30 years as the populace becomes more educated.\" People want results and, unfortunately this usually requires short sided legislation. \n With that being said, I do think that tougher laws on  criminals  are a must. In the same way that the government implemented draconian laws for drunk driving, I think the same should be done for criminals using firearms. If someone commits any violent crime, felony, robbery, etc and has a firearm on him or her, the penalty should be severe enough to serve as an example to others. There needs to be a huge disincentive towards using firearms to commit a crime. I want that criminal to think long and hard before he decides to bring a handgun with him to rob that liquor store. He needs to be thinking, \"is the chance of 25 years in prison worth the $500 from the register, or should I just stay in.\" IIRC, California implemented draconian sentences like these and have seen a steady decline in crime involving firearms since. On a similar note, I think the penalty should be higher if the firearm was purchased illegally, and that being in possession of an illegally acquired firearm should carry a draconian sentence as well.", "id": "c9m1ovp", "summary": "We need a paradigm shift in this country the same as we had with drunk driving. I think it can be accomplished in the long run with a well funded and well implemented ad campaign as well as draconian penalties for any crime committed with a firearm on the criminal's person, rather or not it was used to commit the crime."}, {"author": "FisherKing22", "content": "I had a similar thing happen to me. What I've found is that you need to attack it head on in the interview- assuming you're able to get one. You need to explain what happened, and point out that your bad semester was an outlier. The most important thing when this happens is getting your first job in the field you want to work in. Once you're in, you can prove yourself in the workforce, and your GPA becomes secondary. \n As an example, I was talking with my dad a good bit about this last night. Without giving many specifics, he's the president of a pretty successful small business- ~300 employees in an international market. We were talking about my GPA in college, which went from a 3.1 to a 2.2 in one semester. I had pretty severe depression and had mono during finals and ended up failing all of my classes. It's my senior year now, and I'm starting to interview for jobs, and my GPA has been a hindrance for getting in the door. The reason I bring up my dad is that he talked about their hiring process a good bit. They have an in-major GPA requirement for engineers and managers of 3.5 to even get an interview. This somewhat negates the notion that you can explain your GPA in an interview. However, he said, the requirement drops to a 3.1 if you have work experience. So they have turned people away, but recommended them for other jobs with a lower requirement to give them a chance to prove themselves in the workplace. \n The good news is that you have work and life experience. There's no doubt that you're a different person now than the person who ended college with the low GPA. Address this in your cover letter on your resume. You need to be willing to accept an entry level job with the promise that you'll work your way up the ranks. \n Another option for you is to apply for a retroactive withdrawal from the classes you failed in college. I'm in the process of doing this now, and if it's approved, it will raise my GPA substantially. Most universities offer this if you can prove that something outside of the classroom (depression in your case) caused you to fail. Obviously, because you received zero credit hours for the classes you failed, it won't affect your degree. It would have been good to do this sooner, but I doubt it's impossible. To give an example, I went to my advisor the other day, and a woman who had flunked out of school 13 years ago was talking to her before I went in. She was retroactively withdrawing from one of the semesters that she had failed, and was going back to school to finish her degree. Her argument was that she is a completely different person now. The semester will likely be dropped if she does well in the first semester that she is back.", "id": "c9cfbdb", "summary": "There's always hope, and you have a million options at your disposal. A good GPA is just a way to get in the door. For many companies, work experience and recommendations are more important than GPA. As far as grad school goes, it depends on how prestigious of a university you want to attend. Without significant work experience, I would say that's out of the question for the time being, but, depending on the field, many companies have connections to graduate programs and can get you into them if you need a masters or higher degree to continue moving up. Case in point, many banks will get employees into MBA programs and pay for their tuition once they have proven themselves."}, {"author": "FisherKing22", "content": "Leveling cities with bombs had become a major strategy in WW2. Leading up to the dropping of the atomic bombs, both sides were dropping thousands of bombs on cities claiming they were attacking military targets. However, because the bombs were so inaccurate this quickly turned into carpet bombing cities. Once that became acceptable, the idea of morale bombing started. That is, both sides would drop huge amounts of high explosives followed by incendiaries on cities in order to crush the morale of the enemy. \n You have to understand the context of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The rules of war changed with the advent of bombers.  When the atomic bomb became an option, it wasn't as much an issue of morality as it was an issue of economics. We were going to level cities and then burn the remains to the ground because this had become acceptable as part of the war. The atomic bombs just gave us a way of doing it more efficiently. \n Don't get me wrong, what happened in Japan was horrible by modern standards. But you have to understand the context. WW2 was unlike anything the world had ever seen and the rules of war for bombers were still being worked out in a tit for tat manner. When one side dropped bombs on a city, the other side would escalate and drop more. As a final word, I'd like to point out that the fire bombings in London by Germany and in Tokyo by the US were significantly more destructive than the atomic bombs.", "id": "c4z2jbr", "summary": "you can't talk about the atomic bombs without talking about the context leading up it it."}, {"author": "FisherKing22", "content": "Short anecdote. Freshman year of college I had a C- going into my Calc2 final. The final was on Monday and I didn't start really studying until Saturday night. I woke up early Sunday morning and started cramming. I took a 20mg xr and then took 20mg IRs throughout the day to maintain my high. I ended up studying through the night. I went into my exam and crushed it. This would all well and good, but I forgot that I had a 15 page final research paper due the next day that I hadn't started. Long story short, I essentially got back to my room after the calc final, had an \"oh shit\" moment, and went back to the library. I worked on the paper from about 4 in the afternoon until 2pm the next day when it was due, taking adderall the entire time. By this time it was Tuesday, and I had been up since 8am on Sunday. I think I made an A on the paper.", "id": "c3kwbsk", "summary": "Took adderall to study. Stayed awake for 54+ straight hours."}, {"author": "FisherKing22", "content": "Best Buy, for example, is a publicly traded company. They are not beholden to the wishes of the executives as much as they are to the desires of shareholders. The board of directors makes the decision to pay huge sums of money to  quality  executives based on what they think having those executives is worth to the shareholders. Executives are paid so much because a good one can dramatically improve a company. This is why shareholders are ok with huge compensation packages. It's not like they are just paying some rich guy money to make him richer. They are paying him (or her) because that executive has proven that he is worth that much to the company. It's a moot point to discuss rather this is right or wrong (in my opinion at least) because it's not a decision based on morality. It's purely a financial decision based on what's best for the company, and in turn, the shareholders. \n Let's look at Best Buy again. It's not a great example, because they recently had to pay their new CEO Hubert Joly enough to convince him to leave his executive position at CWT. Because of that, Best Buy's 2013 executive compensation numbers are inflated at 63.66M. But for 2014, the total is 34.37M spread across all executives, with the most going to Joly. For the sake of painting a better picture of typical Best Buy operations, I'll say that executive compensation for 2013 was actually 43M after taking out the 20M paid by Best Buy to buy Joly out of his contract at CWT. I realize this seems like cherry picking, but I feel that it's justified given that attracting a new CEO is an extraordinary event. \n Best Buy's total labor expense in 2013 was 520M. BBY had 180,000 employees in 2013. (Warning, I know the following number is a leap). Let's assume an average annual employee compensation is between $10,000 and $18,000. The actual figure can be found by going through their financial statements if you're interested. To be fair, I chose a low range that is well below the average US annual income in 2013. 180,000 employees x $10,000 is 1.8B, and at the upper end the total is 3.24B. \n If Best Buy were to divide that 43M among all employees, the total annual pay increase would be an extra $230 per employee or an extra 11 cents an hour. \n I would point out, that in all likelihood, that addition 43M would probably be used to expand elsewhere instead of going to employees. If somebody is willing to work for $10, Best Buy has no incentive to raise wages. \n However, like I said earlier, the point of high executive compensation isn't to help the rich get richer. It's because these people have proven that they are worth this much. Best Buy is struggling, so they brought in somebody who they thought could help. Joly demonstrated his worth at another company. He's not going to leave that position unless he is being compensated equally well. The board of directors made a decision based on Joly's perceived potential value to the company. If he turns Best Buy around, then he is absolutely worth it. One of main reasons executives are paid in stock options is so that they have skin in the game. If the company goes down, their personal worth goes down with it. \n This is a larger topic, but executives are also compensated so highly because they are taking on the most responsibility. If sales manager who is offered a promotion to general manager, there's no reason to take the job unless it is paying more. You would be taking on more work and responsibility at no benefit to yourself. The same is true in the upper ranks of large corporations.", "id": "cjwr6ph", "summary": "If Best Buy executives were paid $10 an hour, that would translate to an addition $.11 per hour for all employees. Executives are paid so much because they bring real tangible value to a company, and oftentimes, a large compensation package is the only way to lure them away from another job. \n Also, in response to the \"they take all the money to the top\" statement. If by \"to the top\" you mean to the investors, then yes they do. Investors wouldn't put up with huge compensation packages unless they expected a larger return on it. That's how business works. You don't pay someone just to pay them. You pay them because you expect them to provide more value than what it costs to employ them."}, {"author": "FisherKing22", "content": "I'd like to point out that the original post was hyperbole. I got into a top 25 school because I busted my ass in high school and am a decently smart person. I get my work done and do well in college, but it is harder than high school ever was. I also do my fair share of partying. Balancing the two is what makes it hard. Sorry for the banality, but I believe that less than half of what you learn in college is learned in the classroom. I'm going to enjoy my 4 years of undergrad, because I won't have another time in my life where I can partake in the same type of destructive behavior and still be considered a \"responsible adult.\" \n In other words, don't tell me that I don't belong in college or that I'm contributing to the downfall of America's youth.", "id": "c22jeg6", "summary": "Get off your fucking high horse."}, {"author": "FisherKing22", "content": "I used to play outside midfielder for a high level travel team when I was in middle and high school. Each practice started and ended with conditioning that was usually around 3-4 miles for the warm up and then some type of sprinting conditioning at the end of practice. \n One of my least favorite exercises we did involved breaking the field into 6 lines: the two goal lines, and then the sidelines were broken into two segments- from flag to midfield and midfield to flag. The idea was you would sprint one segment and then jog the next five, then sprint 2 and jog the next 4, and so on until the final lap for that set which was a sprint around the field. The whole idea was to simulate the pace of a soccer game where you're jogging into position and then sprinting when you're attacking or recovering on defense. This would usually be done as the warm up. \n A favorite end of practice sprinting exercise of one of my coaches was \"waterfalls.\" For those unfamiliar, the team forms a line at the goal line and then one player sprints 30 yards or so and back at which point the next player in line sprints with him. When they return, they pick up a third player, and so on until the entire team is sprinting. When the last player finishes his first sprint, the player who started drops off and is done. Most teams I played with had 20-25 players at practice (not everyone travelled). This was a good exercise because it allowed the players not sprinting initially to be working on ball skills while waiting to go, and because it allowed different groups (midfielders, defenders, goalies, etc.) to join at different times once they finished with their respective coach. \n As an outside midfielder, I was pretty much constantly moving. It's one of the most commonly substituted positions (at the level I played at least). \n To give you an idea of how much off the ball sprinting and movement there is, imagine this situation. Your team wins the ball at midfield so you may make a run down the sideline. If the ball doesn't come to you, you need to recover back onside and try to open yourself up for a pass or to make another run to move a defender out of the play. You will rarely see a player receive a pass who hasn't just made a run to open him or herself up. \n But to continue with the example, imagine that you make a run down the right side of the field, and your center midfielder plays it down the left side of the field to the other outside midfielder who also made a sideline run. You're attacking now and need to sprint to the top of the 18 yard box in anticipation of a cross if you're counter attacking.  Let's say the cross comes in to the goal, so you sprint the 10-18 yards to try to connect with the ball and score, but the goalkeeper picks the ball out of the air and throws it to their outside midfielder on the opposite side of you to counter attack. \n Because you've just made a run to the goal, you should have gotten past their defender. Now there are two potential  attackers on your side that you need to recover to defend. So the ball is moving quickly up the left side of the field, and you're sprinting to cover the opponents outside midfielder on your side because the defense will have shifted to cover the ball side. If you don't haul ass for 100 yards back down the field to cover him, your opponent will have an open attacker on the backside of your goal who will have an easy header or shot if the ball is crossed across the face of the goal. No other defender can cover him, because they have changed their shape to pick up attackers in the middle and on the left side of the field. This is one of the reasons the goal of a defender is to slow the ball down and not necessarily to steal it (the main reason is that attempting to steal the ball is one of the surest ways to be beaten if the attacker has any ball skill at all). \n And once you've recovered and your defense has slowed the attack, you can take a short rest by jogging to keep the attacker in front of you assuming he doesn't make a sprinting run to open himself for a through ball- a pass that splits two defenders and is moving up the field. And once your team regains possession, you need to leave this attacker and sprint to be even with the ball. Because the ball moves quickly, you're going to be sprinting for most vertical passes. If the ball is on the opposite side of the field, it's generally ok to jog and try to stretch the field by pushing to the sideline. Once it goes to the center, you need to be making runs to open yourself for a pass again or to pull a defender away. If you jog here, you won't create enough separation to open yourself for a pass, and if you jog to pull a defender away, it's unlikely that he'll bite, because he knows that it wasn't a real attempt to get open. \n Now imagine that this scenario which took 1 minute or so is happening constantly for 90 minutes, and you can start to see how the mileage adds up. Granted this is an extreme example that would only happen against certain types of teams- typically teams with a flat defense who like to counter attack quickly. But even in a slower paced game where you are trying to win by out-possessing your opponent by methodically moving the ball from player to player, the runs to and off the ball are still sprints, and the recovery and initial counter attack runs are at full pace. Generally speaking, the only times that you should be moving slowly or standing as a winger are when you have the ball (assuming it's not a one on one situation to the goal, in which case, I would generally try to beat the sender on the dribble and by moving with pace) or when the ball is out of play. Then you can catch your breath and get ready to do it again.", "id": "c98kgm5", "summary": "Soccer players, outside midfielders in particular, run a whole hell of a lot because they have two big responsibilities- to recover from an attack to defend the backside of the goal and to move forward to be apart of the attack when the ball is won. \n Edit: sorry for the length of the post, but I got excited thinking about playing soccer again. I may be time to sew my cleats back together and get after it again."}, {"author": "FisherKing22", "content": "My best friend (Hubert for the same of this story)had invited one of his high school friends to stay with us for our university's football game against her's. She had asked to bring a friend, let's call her Kate. Before they arrived, Hubert said, \"I call dibs on her friend if she's hot.\" They got there on Friday night, and much to everyone's pleasure, Kate was indeed hot. That night we all went to bed early. We woke up the next morning to tailgate. By the time the game was over we were all smashed. I had been talking with Kate a good bit throughout the day, and long story short, we ended up back in my room doing the no-pants dance. As things started to get hot and heavy, I heard a knock on my door. Given the circumstances, I chose to ignore it. Five minutes passed, and they're was another knock on the door. I decided that it must be important, so I put on my boxers to vaguely concealed my erection. As I was opening the door, Hubert's fist was simultaneously coming in straight at my face. I'm now standing there in boxers with a half chub and blood dripping down my face, all the while there is a naked girl lying in my bed behind me. I was so confused that all I could manage to say was \"Duuude.... the fuck?\" over and over. To this, Hubert replied with a blackout, glazed over look on his face, \"I cawwled dibbs.\"", "id": "c3w1icf", "summary": "Got punched in the face because I hooked up with the girl that my friend called dibs on."}, {"author": "FisherKing22", "content": "I'm going to get down voted to Hell (pun intended) for this rant, but I've already taken a decent Karma hit, so a little more won't hurt. \n I don't want to attack you personally by saying this, but it's going to come across like that. Think of it as an attack on the anti-theist mindset. With that said, your response is the perfect example of why I stopped identifying with the atheist movement. It shows why I no longer frequent r/atheism and other atheist forums. It's the hypocrisy that nearly all atheists are blind to. We are sure of our position. But so are religious people. We can claim that we have rational thought on our side, but that means little to nothing to any christian with a strongly held belief. \n Atheists are notoriously naive about the way normal people think. You stand on your pedestal and preach about the tenets of rational thought, but that's not going to convince anyone who is unwilling to listen. You further shut out religious people by insulting them when they refuse to listen to you. But why would they listen when you insist on mocking their most sacred of beliefs? This makes them cling to their beliefs even more, because they've seen what arrogant douche bags people become when they've \"lost faith.\" \n I grew up in the Bible Belt and still live below the Mason Dixon line. I am surrounded by religious people who remind me on a day to day basis how strongly they hold their belief. God is everything to these people, and I'm not going to change their mind by scoffing at their beliefs. I can however gently suggest the importance of rationality. But if they're unreceptive, I'm not going to leave a bad taste in their mouth. I will back down and allow them to believe what they want. \n How does it feel for you when you mention that you're an atheist to a Christian and they say something like, \"Oh! Really? I thought you were a good person.\" This used to happen to me on a regular basis. I was vocal about my atheism in my high school. Now, long after graduation, I still have teachers and parents send me books and CDs about faith, hoping to change my mind because they're worried about my \"dangerous beliefs,\" just as they would worry if I was an advocate of \"harmful dogmas such as Stalinism (or) Nazism.\" \n I used to get angry at them for trying to change my mind on an issue that I was quite certain about. But I realize now that I was doing the same type of thing, but i didn't notice it because I was blinded by my self righteous sense of intelligence. I talked to Christians because I felt their beliefs were childish. Do you know where that got me? Absolutely nowhere. They shut down or changed the subject. I would remind them how their beliefs had no place in the 21st century, but it did not matter. \n On a similar note, your post clearly highlights one of my biggest pet peeves in the atheist movement. It's this pseudo-intellectual spouting of bullshit plagiarized from one author or another. It's the way phrases like \"permissive doublethink\" catch on and become staples in the atheist lexicon that truly irks me. I am honestly repulsed with myself to think that I used to do the same thing, and the more I type the angrier I become with myself. \n To think that Dawkins is doing anything constructive for the atheist movement is to be ignorant of human nature. Nobody wants to be told their wrong, but that's exactly what Dawkins does. Why should we tell them that we're right? You are no better than the Christian missionary's who beat their Bibles and promise damnation to those who don't accept  Jesus as their savior. And worst of all, you don't realize it. You're so caught up in your own ideological bullshit that you don't take in what you're doing. \n I'll also point out the important fact that we're in the minority in most parts of the world. Like it or not, in a society built around the tenets of democracy, the majority opinion tends to feel security in numbers. They tend to beg the question \"how could so many people be wrong?\" Minorities have to be loud to be heard, but being vocal doesn't mean making an ass of yourself by insulting people. \n Richard Dawkins has given credence to the extremist atheist point of view as a means of countering the extremist religious position. He is the modern day Malcolm X (though with less of an inclination towards violence). He can rally atheists, but he will never win over the minds of christians because they are completely unwilling to listen to him. Try this: get a staunchly religious friend of yours and ask him to watch a Richard Dawkins video and tell you what he thinks. Now do the same thing with a Sam Harris video. I will almost guarantee that they will turn off the Dawkins video but listen to the one by Sam Harris. \n I will say that I agree with you in principle. I also think that religion is a dangerous superstition. However, you can't be so naive as to think that everyone is willing or even capable of seeing it in the same light as you. It is idealistic to the point of insanity to think that religious people can be won over by beating them over the head with rational thought. You have to be gentle and tactful. These are two qualities that Dawkins seriously lacks. \n Finally, please understand where I'm coming from. I felt the same way as you for several years, but that type of thinking doesn't translate into the real world- at least among the people in my region of the country. I'm pessimistic, but only because I was naively optimistic for so long. Religion may disappear from the face of the Earth, but it's not going to happen in our generation. Unlike your examples of Nazism and Stalinism, Christianity is not a product of the modern era. It has proven to have staying power for a number of reasons. Most importantly (IMO), it makes people feel like they're living for something and that their lives have meaning. Despite all the reasons that we think religion is dangerous and unbecoming of a modern society, they're are thousands of good reasons to believe in God. We only have a handful of reasons not to, the most important of which being that the evidence points to the likely fact that there is no god. Argue about it all you want, but know that unless you can absolutely convince religious people that certainty based on rational thought is better than certainty based on faith, you're never going to win over people who feel they have so much to lose by denying their faith.", "id": "c22q3zy", "summary": "We're just as sure that we're right about our non-belief as christians are about their belief. We will never be able to change their opinions by brute force no matter how sure we are about the importance of rational thought. \n Edit 1: Grammar \n Edit 2: Remember reddiquette. Don't downvote because you disagree."}, {"author": "FisherKing22", "content": "This is apparently pretty tame compared to everyone else, but I'll give it a go anyway. \n The background: I was kicked out of my dorm freshman year and was forced to live in the office room of a house with a few of my friends. I had set up my temporary room with my clothes hanging wherever I could find space and a few blankets on a small couch and the rest of my belongings either in the car or anywhere I could find space. \n The Betrayal: One night after some serious binge drinking my best friend came back to the house with a wonderful, morally sound woman he met that night. Being too drunk to make it to his room, the two began engaging in what I can only imagine to have been a passionate session of romantic fornication that ended with him showing his affection for her by blowing his load on her face. Despite being drunk and tired, the two decided to return to party that was picking up momentum at the house.  Knowing that the recipient of his affection couldn't be seen looking like a Jackson Pollock painting, he handed her the closest piece of fabric he could find, my favorite dress shirt, which she used to clean his little soldiers from her face. \n The aftermath: The next day, my friend gloated to me about what he had done. I was furious and demanded that he buy me a new shirt. He refused. So, I decided to settle for having him dry clean it, knowing that I would still get some sort of mild revenge. Again, he refused. So now I'm living in a cramped office, sleeping on a broken futon, and my favorite shirt is covered in my friend's semen. I'm not the happiest person in the world at this point. \n The revenge: About a month after this happened, I went into his bedroom when he was gone and cranked one out his hanging clothes. Not being satisfied with that, I went for something more personal and jerked it onto his pillow. I told him about it after he had been sleeping in my cum for a few weeks. The best part was thinking that I glimpsed a bit of my spluge in his hair the next morning. Justice is... Sticky?", "id": "c1u5m89", "summary": "friend used my shirt as a cum rag, I jerked off on his pillow."}, {"author": "FisherKing22", "content": "This incredibly scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was left out by some screenwriter. I'm crestfallen. I couldn't find a link, so I opened my copy of Deathly Hallows to the dogeared page of chapter 30 \"The Sacking of Severus Snape,\" to make sure I got it right. Here it is in its original form... \n Pages 591-593, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. \n There was a rap on the common room door and every Ravenclaw froze. From the other side, Harry heard the soft, musical voice that issued from the eagle door knocker: “Where do Vanished objects go?” \n “I dunno, do I? Shut it!” snarled an uncouth voice that Harry knew was that of the Carrow brother, Amycus, “Alecto? Alecto? Are you there? Have you got him? Open the door!” \n The Ravenclaws were whispering amongst themselves, terrified. Then without warning, there came a series of loud bangs, as though somebody was firing a gun into the door. \n \"ALECTO! If he comes, and we haven't got Potter- d'you want to go the same way as the Malfoys? ANSWER ME!\" Amycus bellowed, shaking the door for all he was worth, but still it did not open. The Ravenclaws were all backing away, and some of the most frightened began scampering back up the staircase to their beds. Then, just as Harry was wondering whether he ought not to blast open the door and Stun Amycus before the Death Eater could do anything else, a second, most familiar voice rang out beyond the door. \n “May I ask what you are doing, Professor Carrow?” \n “Trying—to get-- through this damned-- door!” shouted Amycus. “Go and get Flitwick! Get him to open it, now!” \n “But isn't your sister in there” asked Professor McGonagall. “Didn't Professor Flitwick let her in earlier this evening, at your urgent request? Perhaps she could open the door for you? Then you needn't wake up half the castle.” \n \"She ain't answering, you old besom! You open it! Garn! Do it, now!\" \n \"Certainly, if you wish it,\" said Professor McGonagall, with awful coldness. There was a genteel tap of the knocker and the musical voice asked again, \n \"Where do Vanished objects go?\" \n \"Into nonbeing, which is to say, everything,\" replied Professor MCGonagall. \n \"Nicely phrased,\" replied the eagle door knocker, and the door swung open. \n The few Ravenclaws who had remained behind sprinted for the stairs as Amycus burst over the threshold, brandishing his wand. Hunched like his sister, he had a pallid, doughy face and tiny eyes, which fell at once on Alecto, sprawled motionless on the floor. He let out a yell of fury and fear. \n \"What've they done, the little whelps?,\" he screamed. \"I'll Cruciate the lot of 'em till they tell me who did it- and what's the Dark Lord going to say?\" he shrieked, standing over his sister and smacking himself on the forehead with his first. \"We haven't got him, and they've gorn and killed her!\" \n “She's only Stunned,” said Professor McGonagall impatiently, who had stooped down to examine Alecto. “She'll be perfectly all right.” \n “No she bludgering well won't!” bellowed Amycus. “Not after the Dark Lord gets hold of her! She's gone and sent for him, I felt me Mark burn, and he thinks we've got Potter!” \n “'Got Potter'?” said Professor McGonagall sharply, “What do you mean, 'got Potter'?” \n “He told us Potter might try and get inside Ravenclaw Tower, and to send for him if we caught him!” \n “Why would Harry Potter try to get inside Ravenclaw Tower! Potter belongs in my House!” \n Beneath the disbelief and anger, Harry heard a little strain of pride in her voice, and affection for Minerva McGonagall gushed up inside him. \n \"We was told he might come in here!\" said Carrow. \"I dunno why, do I?\" \n Professor McGonagall stood up and her beady eyes swept the room. Twice they passed right over where Harry and Luna stood. \n “We can push it off on the kids,” said Amycus, his pig like face suddenly crafty. “Yeah, that's what we'll do. We'll say Alecto was ambushed by the kids, them kids up there” -- he looked up at the starry ceiling toward the dormitories -- “ and we'll say they forced her to pres her Mark, and that's why he got a false alarm.... He can punish them. Couple of kids more or less, what's the difference?” \n “Only the difference between truth and lies, courage and cowardice,” said Professor McGonagall, who had turned pale, “a difference, in short, which you and your sister seem unable to appreciate. But let me make one thing very clear. You are not going to pass off your many ineptitudes on the students of Hogwarts. I shall not permit it.” \n “Excuse me?” \n Amycus moved forward until he was offensively close to Professor McGonagall, his face within inches of hers. She refused to back away, but looked down at him as if he were something disgusting she had found stuck to the lavatory seat. \n “It's not a case of what you'll permit, Minerva McGonagall. Your time's over. It's us what's in charge here now, and you'll back me up or you'll pay the price.”\nAnd he spat in her face. \n Harry pulled the Cloak off himself, raised his wand, and said, “You shouldn't have done that.” \n As Amycus spun around, Harry shouted, “Crucio!” \n The Death Eater was lifted off his feet. He writhed through the air like a drowning man, thrashing and howling in pain, and then, with a crunch and a shattering of glass, he smashed into the front of a bookcase and crumpled, insensible, to the floor. “I see what Bellatrix meant,” said Harry, the blood thundering through his brain, “you need to really mean it.” \n “Potter!” whispered Professor McGonagall, clutching her heart. “Potter--- you're here! What---? How---?” She struggled to pull herself together. “Potter, that was foolish!”\n“He spat at you,” said Harry. \n “Potter, I --- that was very --- gallant of you --- but don't you realize --?” \n “Yeah, I do,” Harry assured her. Somehow her panic steadied him. “Professor McGonagall, Voldemort's on the way.” \n P.S.  While we're on the subject, what scenes were you looking forward to that were left out?", "id": "t3_j1smo", "summary": "See bold text for the main part if you must. \n Edit: spacing."}, {"author": "FisherKing22", "content": "Ted Cruz has mentioned that he wants [to return to the gold standard.]( \n I was thinking about this the other day, and I think it says a lot about the state of modern politics. \n To start, it's pretty universally accepted by economists that the gold standard is a terrible idea for a number of reasons. This deserves its own post, but for now, suffice it to say that the gold standard is bad for the world economy. \n Ted Cruz knows this. He is highly educated, and by most accounts, brilliant. He studied public policy at Princeton, where he almost certainly would have studied the Great Depression. He can't not understand the problems with the gold standard. \n I think he is advocating it because he knows it sounds good and will resonate with his voters. Instead of being an educated voice of reason, he is saying what the voters want to hear. \n Politics aside, this is disgusting to me. I didn't notice this until my mom, an Econ professor, pointed it out to me. \n To me, it's just indicative of a larger problem. We've completely moved away from voting for people we can trust to make important informed decisions to voting for people who echo our own opinions. I'd much rather have a representative who made informed decisions, even if I disagreed initially, than one who echoes my own beliefs to get my vote. \n Anyways, I thought it was worth discussing. Anybody have any thoughts?", "id": "t3_44jebw", "summary": "Ted Cruz is campaigning on implementing the gold standard despite the fact that he is educated and informed enough to know that experts almost unanimously agree that it's a disastrous idea."}]}
+{"author": "caeloequos", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Sex with softcups or sponges. How is it? Is one better than the other?", "output": "Hi 2X, \n So my LD boyfriend is coming to visit me at the end of the month. I moved away from home for a job in December, so this will be the first time seeing him since then. And of course, my stupid, useless, stupid period is supposed to show up the night he flies in. I'm not opposed to period sex, but we'll be in a hotel so I want to keep the mess minimal, plus I'd rather not have him down there on the first day or two since my flow is heavier and I just think it's gross. \n I did a bunch of reading and it seems that they make \"soft cups\" which are like mooncups but disposable and sit higher so you can have sex with them in. I've also heard about sea sponge type things that also sit higher making sex possible. Just looking for input on one or the other from anyone whose had sex with them in. Can you/your partner feel them? Is leakage an issue? Ever get them stuck? \n Thanks ladies! (or guys that happen to weigh in)!"}], "user_id": "longlamp_9099", "history": [{"author": "caeloequos", "content": "I think it really depends on the situation. Personally, I don't mind if someone whistles or calls out when I'm walking across campus or around downtown, even if I'm alone. It actually makes me feel pretty good, especially downtown when I've actually put effort into my appearance. \n I do think that some women tend to overreact. I don't want to make light of anyone's history or feelings, but to say that \"You look nice in that\" or similar things is intrusive, then I think you might be a little bit too touchy. There's a huge difference between that and \"AYO GIRL! LOVE DAT BOOTY.\" (actual quote). But either one should just be something to brush off or if you actually like the compliment, remember it. I really don't think it should be the huge deal that some people make it out to be.", "id": "c4rn321", "summary": "situation matters, difference between catcalling and complimenting, just let it go."}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "I used to drive a minivan. It was a '98, no a/c, windows didn't work too well and the gas gauge was totally messed up (I had to write down the mileage to know when to fill up). But it got me from A to B and hauled a ton of beekeeping equipment, which is what I needed. I drove that thing like a champ though, so I hope if you came across me, I didn't piss you off :( \n Point being/", "id": "c5yo9ml", "summary": "sometimes CF people have to drive minivans."}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "That's not how that works. That's not how any of it works. \n So let's start at the beginning: \n >     males just stay in the hive and eat. \n Not totally true. Yes, they don't do the work of worker bees, but they do fly out of the hive to \"drone congregation areas\" during the summer to mate with queens from other hives. This is how genetics are spread. The drones can only mate once, then they die. \n >     have sex with a female to produce a new queen \n Alright, no. The female bees are not capable of storing sperm. They can lay eggs, if the queen dies, but those eggs will be haploid and produce drones. Queens are made by feeding young larvae \"royal jelly\" produced from glands in the nurse bees. Larvae can only be converted to queens at a very young stage (I believe a few days, but dqm), so if the queen suddenly dies, about 20 young larvae will be fed this royal jelly to make a replacement queen. No queen, no hive. \n > you're actually supposed to kill them as not to overwork the females. \n No. This is a stupid waste of time. When I'm in a hive, my goal is to get in and out as quickly as possible and to not kill off my bees. Besides, the drones are fun. They don't have stingers, so it's cool to pick up a few and let them roam. Back on topic: bees will manage their population. Did you know that drones are only produced during certain times of the year? Because they are. During the summer, the queen bee will lay drone eggs, and then cease to do that during the fall. Towards winter, when the hive starts getting ready to overwinter, the worker bees will actually kick the drones out. This event is actually called \"the fall drone massacre\". Did you know that? Did you, you stupid child? No, you didn't. Or else you'd be all crazy about that. Anyways. \n >  men are worthless in the bee community \n Well, no. They spread genetics. Without that, there wouldn't be nearly as many bees. Some genetics are good, such as the \"hygienic bees\". These bees are much better about cleaning out the hive and can police diseases like foulbrood and in some cases can get rid of light hive beetle infestations. We want that. \n Bees are actually super cool creatures. Here's some fun facts about them for extra knowledge: \n Bees that are overwintering actually live longer than their summer counterparts. Summer bees may only live about 30 day, winter bees can live up to 3 months. A queen lives about 2 years. \n There can be more than one queen in a hive. If a queen is getting old, the bees may make another one, and there can be chance of two queens while the young one starts taking over. \n Worker bees actually perform multiple tasks in their lifetime. When they are first born, they clean their cell, then become nurse bees. As the get older they will go where the hive needs, as wax builders, entrance guards, undertaker bees, members of the queen's court, or pollen/honey managers. Generally the last job they take on is as a field working, collecting pollen and nectar and bringing it back. Each one of these jobs can require different glands, and bees can \"age backwards\" if the hive needs it. \n Bees are altruistic. They work for the good of the hive.", "id": "coa5qqu", "summary": "Tumblr doesn't understand bees. Plus some real fun facts.  [And a picture of me and bees]( \n Edit: I'm trying to reply to everyone's questions! Thanks for all the interest in bees!"}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "Raise a hand and ask him to back up a slide. I know it can be mildly terrifying to do this in a college classroom (I'm assuming this is like a larger lecture hall), but you're probably not the only one with this problem. I've asked profs to spell stuff, or repeat a problem or go back a slide, because, damn it, my school is expensive and I'm gonna learn (in theory. The senioritis is kicking in pretty hard now.) But if you ask, unless he's a total nut, he should oblige. \n Also, work on your short hand for note taking. I use a lot of abbreviations and shortenings (most that I make up specific to the class - right now, my abbreviation for \"aquatic\" in one of my classes is \"qt\"), and that way it takes me less time to write down notes. \n You may also want to drop by office hours with all the problems you have trouble with and work through them with him. Some professors come off distant and uninterested in lectures, but in office hours they're really funny and caring and happy to work through problem after problem with you.", "id": "c87l8gp", "summary": "Ask him to stop, work on notetaking skills, go to office hours. Good luck."}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "Slightly ranty, but it pissed me off. \n I took my little hyperactive terrier on a walk today. He's usually really well behaved around other dogs, if I see them early and tell him \"no bark\" as we get close/walk by. But today there was a dog tied out front to a porch with some kids playing in the yard. I missed seeing the dog due to a tree kind shielding the area, so my dog started barking at this other dog. As dogs are wont to do, the other dog started barking back. I told my little guy to quiet down, and he did, but the kids in the yard just started yelling at their dog. And kept yelling, even after the poor dog had stopped. For the rest of the way down the street (this was a corner house), all I heard was \"bad dog!\" \"very bad dog!\" and sn obviously ineffective \"sit! Sit! sit!\". They has also moved in and were crowding the dog while yelling all these things. I wanted to go over and lecture them on proper dog training techniques, but that probably would have been a bad idea, so I just kept walking. It just makes me really sad how kids are terrible at interacting with animals (I've seen some terrible stuff around horses as well), and its just another reason I will never have any. I love my animals and plan to continue building my furry family when I have the room and money, and I can't see ever trying to teach kids how to be appropriate around animals.", "id": "t3_13l08o", "summary": "My dog barked, a dog barked back, dog that barked back got mobbed by kids and yelled at. Sad and angry feelings were felt."}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "So, I was doing the college of winterhold quest, being awesome until I had to go into those stupid dwarven ruins. Now, Skyrim is the FIRST video game I've ever played, so don't judge. But the quest got really difficult at this point, so I left for awhile and derped around doing a bunch of other quests and leveling up like a boss (for me, anyways). I decided to come back to this quest and reach the Oculatory. I fought my way through everything, then got to the door of  the Oculatry...and it won't unlock. Says I need a key. I have the key. Sooo....now what? I've pretty much just give up on this quest, so if there's no way around it, I'll live.", "id": "t3_ssvz7", "summary": "The door to the Oculatry in Mzulft won't open even though I have the key. Fixable?"}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "Hey everyone, \n I just started wearing more than just mascara and I'm running into some issues with my foundation. I bought it in the spring and it matched my skin tone then, but since then I've gotten a lot tanner (spent the summer working outside, so I never wore it), and I was wondering if there's a way to make it look darker/match my now tan skin. Additionally, in the winter I'll probably be too pale for the color. So my question to all of you is: Do I have to buy different colors of foundation for different times of year, or are there any tricks to getting one color to work all year?", "id": "t3_yt7gh", "summary": "The last sentence."}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "So I finally decided to be serious about running - stretching before/after, doing a warm up and actually running every day, etc. It sucks, but it's happening. However, it dawned on me today that I don't have a clue how to eat to make my running better. An average day is usually an egg on toast and coffee for breakfast, some form of sandwich for lunch and then whatever I can make for dinner. It varies widely day to day, sometimes I make entire meals other times I eat ramen while standing over the sink. Other days I'll skip lunch or dinner or both. \n Obviously, this isn't really that conducive to running. I realized that when I went for a run today and felt like I was dying halfway through. Granted, part of the problem could be that I usually run at night, but since I've been working night shift lately, I've switched to afternoon, and then sun is killer. But I think the main reason is my crap eating habits. Any tips or quick healthy meals you can recommend? I'm on a tight budget of both time and money. \n I also have a problem with drinking enough water during the day. I'm dehydrated when I run and usually come back absolutely parched and chug a few glasses of water. I know I should drink more during the day, but I just never remember. Carrying around a water bottle doesn't seem to work for me, I usually leave it somewhere or just carry it around and never drink from it. Any ideas for fixing this?", "id": "t3_uivue", "summary": "I have awful eating habits and drink barely any water, and have finally accepted that this affects my runs. I'm on a tight budget (time & money), but need help fixing this problem. What do better runners than me recommend?"}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "Hey 2X, \n I'm hoping you girls (and guys, maybe) can help me out with some dry skin issues: \n I'm in my early 20s and up until this point, I've never really cared about how moisturized my skin has been. However, I've been working a physically demanding outdoor job and while I love it, its been leading to some problems. My hands are now cracked and dry and bleed sometimes, and my feet are really calloused and rough. In addition, the windburn on my face is making it feel super tight and dry, especially after I use my face wash in the shower. The rest of my body just feels dry and looks \"ashy\", especially my elbows, legs and knees. I'm not sure how much of this is being caused by the cold and wind or how much of it is just me getting a little older and having dryer skin. In any case, I need some advice on what lotions/moisturizers work best for you and if there's anything I can do to protect my hands/face from the cold and wind while at work. Also, this may be a really stupid question, but is there really a difference in face or body lotions? Like, will I screw up my face if I use body lotion on it? I really have no idea.", "id": "t3_15vezw", "summary": "I need a good lotion or moisturizer for my face and/or skin. Also want to know if there's any good way to help my skin through the cold, windy winter."}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "Hey 2X, \n I just started the pill (ortho try-cyclen) on Sunday. I take it at night between 10:50 and 11:10. So what happens with the time change? I know the doctor said I had a 3 hour period to take it in, but should I change the time I'm taking it, or does it just not matter? Since I'm pretty new to it, will that make my body more or less likely to care if the time changes? \n Also, about the side effects: I'm not seeing any. Not that I'm upset about that, but will they be coming up, or I am just lucky and not really affected by the hormones (aside from the hopefully suppressed ovulation)? \n Thanks to anyone that answers, hope this doesn't get buried by all the IFF posts.", "id": "t3_12li4g", "summary": "does the time change matter for the pill? And are side effects coming my way, or am I just not going to see any?"}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "I'm in my 20's and I still get pimples/blackheads. The blackheads are all over my nose (have been ever since I was in my young teens) and I get random pimples on my cheeks, forehead, and chin. I though this shit was supposed to end in high school/college. There's really no pattern to when I break out, it's all over the place; high stress, low stress, early, mid or late cycle. I started BC pills almost four months ago, and those didn't seem to make it better or worse. I've tried many face washes, cleansers, lotions, etc. I'm not really looking for advice, I just want to have clear skin before I'm 30. Someone tell me this will happen.", "id": "t3_16gya2", "summary": "When will my skin leave high school? Give me some hope."}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "Hey everyone, \n I have a 3 year old fox terrier who is very smart and a quick learner, but he only responds to treats. He won't pay attention unless someone is holding a treat, and after doing what they ask, he expects a treat. If he doesn't get one, he just loses interest and wanders off. Occasionally he gets far too excited about the prospect of a treat and will trip all over himself trying to do everything at once, just to get a treat. It doesn't matter what the treat is, he'll eat anything. Most other dogs I've had were satisfied with a verbal \"good\" and a scratch, so I have no idea how to work with this dog. Any advice for me? If there's a better place for this, let me know and I'll move. Thanks!", "id": "t3_1b6op2", "summary": "my dog only wants treats. Is there a way to move him away from this fixation?"}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "Hi everyone, \n So I'm new to betta owning and have a question about snails in the tank. When I first got my betta, I bought him some live free-floating plants because I wanted him to be happy. I found a snail in the tank a few days later, but I figured it just got in with the plant and maybe it would help keep the tank clean (it's a 2gal tank with an undergravel filter), so I left it alone. Today (about 3 weeks later), there are a ton of these itty bitty little snails all over the place. What do I do about them? I don't think my tank can handle like 800 snails...", "id": "t3_1w8wic", "summary": "So many itty bitty snails. What do I do?"}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "No, seriously. I got a new cat from a shelter awhile back and he's horrific at eating. Kibble and wet food everywhere. He also makes a mess when he drinks. \n My cats eat on a ledge (like a half wall?) behind the couch, because otherwise my dog will vacuum their food. So now I've got kibble all over my couch (I mean, I do clean it up on the daily), and occasionally he'll dump an entire bowl over the side of the ledge into the next room. I've tried those drawer liner things for traction, but it didn't really help. Debating cutting some holes in cardboard boxes and recessing the bowls into the box, and moving the bowls to the ground, but I'm not sure of all the logistics on that. \n Getting super tired of your shit, cat. Any suggestion from fellow cat owner ladies? Sorry for the ramble, it's almost midnight and I'm super tired but yet not ready for bed.", "id": "t3_3q033s", "summary": "wtf, messy cat? Suggestions for keeping the kitty dining area clean?"}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "I finally decided to get my reproductive life in order, so I scheduled an appointment at the local PP. I've never had a pap smear or anything, and aside from a short spell on the pill in college, I've used a combination of pulling out, the calendar method, condoms and prayer to avoid pregnancy. I realize how stupid that is (I work in reproduction - my job is to get animals pregnant), but it was working. But I finally decided to get over myself and take better precautions. I also figured I should probably get tested for STIs, since that's never happened, and better safe than sorry, right? \n I've heard some negative things about gynos and PP, so I was a little unsure of what to expect, especially given my history of sleeping with several different people without protection. However, everyone I interacted with was fantastic and welcoming and completely non-judgmental. The ladies that checked me in were really nice and complete in helping me figure out insurance, and the next lady I talked to after being taken to the back was SO nice about everything. I told her I knew I was being risky and I wanted an IUD, and she didn't say anything about how awful I was being or anything, just let me know that they couldn't do an IUD during the appointment because I'd had unprotected sex since my last period, but she told me when I could schedule the appointment for one. And finally, the nurse practitioner that did my pap smear and general exam was awesome. She didn't make it uncomfortable, and explained everything that she was doing. \n Overall it was a great experience and I am so excited to get an IUD and stop having periods and stop worrying about pregnancy! Just wanted to post something positive from my life, thanks for reading!", "id": "t3_2he31n", "summary": "awesome people at Planned Parenthood and I'm getting an IUD after wanting one for years! Yay positive life experiences!"}, {"author": "caeloequos", "content": "Hi, \n So my family had dogs the whole time I was growing up and I did a brief stint as a trainer (horses, dogs, owls, sheep, and goats) a few years back. Since then I've moved across the country and ended up with a cat and a job that has me working 9 hours/6 days a week. I wanted a dog though, and I thought long and hard about it. I knew I couldn't get a puppy or a young dog that required lots of time and energy that I couldn't devote to it, since that wouldn't be fair to the dog. I decided if I could find an older dog that was housebroken and just needed a daily walk + yard time before/after work and on my days off, I could handle that. Enter Rosco, the 8 year old Lhasa Apso dumped at the shelter when his owners had a baby. \n I took Rosco home under the impression (and written paperwork) that he was housetrained and \"loved to eat\". I have found neither thing to be true. \n Rosco has gone potty in my house every day since I've had him (4 days). I got a crate for him (big enough for him to turn around, lay down, sit, etc), and crated him two nights ago. He woke me up at 1am, 2:15am, 3:30am, 4:45am and then 6:15 when my alarm went off. My boss was unimpressed with my performance that day. Last night I crated him, and about 5 minutes after I turned out the lights, Rosco started whining. And whining. And whining. Nothing helped. I broke my own rule and let him out of the crate, optimistic because I'd let gotten him to potty outside about 30 minutes prior. I woke up to another accident this morning, as well as being woken at 1am again. \n During the day is not really much better. I came home from work to his accidents the first few days I had him. Two days ago, I crated him, and when I got the back, the crate was a mess. I had to hose it out and ran the bedding twice through the wash with hot water and nature's miracle. Today, I'm optimistic that the crate is clean (I don't smell anything in there!), so maybe the day part is almost all better. But still. I'd like to let him have the run of the house during the day. \n What kind of baffles me about the frequency of his goings is that he also is not eating well for me. I've tried 4 different kinds of kibble, and haven't gotten him to eat more than a few pieces. I've bought him canned food, and he'll eat a few mouthfuls and then walk away, but only of the chicken flavor. He won't touch my cat's kibbles or canned food. The most I've gotten him to eat is a chicken breast that I baked (plain, no skin) and shredded for him. He'll also eat scrambled eggs, but I can't keep him on a diet of chicken and eggs forever. \n I'm starting to get worried about the little guy. We've been to the vet once for a \"just adopted\" check up the second day I had him, but I'm starting to wonder if I should take him again or if this is all just behavioral. He's just so different than any other dog I've ever interacted with. But I need to get him sorted out soon, because I can't keep him if this is going to be how it is. If he needs a different family that maybe is home more, I'd like to give him that. But I've gotten rather attached and I'd like to let him live out his last years with me. I have about three more weeks with the shelter's grace period for dog returns, but it makes me tear up just thinking about having to make that drive. \n Questions, comments, thoughts all welcome.", "id": "t3_32zl86", "summary": "8 year old dog, having issues with getting him to eat, and having problems getting him housebroken again."}]}
+{"author": "ttoasty", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Liberals by no means have a monopoly on thought policing or taking offense over words/beliefs. Yet the term \"political correctness\" is only applied to liberal thought policing or offense taking. We aren't getting more politically correct as a society, we've just made a shift as to what's politically incorrect and a lot of people are upset that their beliefs are now considered offensive.", "output": "I think it's just shifts in what we see as offensive and politically correct. There's  always  something that can be said to piss people off. My brother is a redneck who will talk about \"niggers\" without a second thought, but he'll pick a fight with a guy for being overly friendly with his girlfriend. He's no less politically correct than I am, he just has a different concept of what's offensive. \n To my liberal friends, calling someone a nigger is a serious offense. It'll get you blackballed with the group, for good reason. But if you hit on their SOs, they won't react with physical violence. They probably won't react with much offense at all, as long as you aren't being aggressive. Not that it won't upset them, but they're much more likely to trust that the SO can handle it themselves, male or female. \n And you may think that liberals have somehow taken PC too far. You can't say certain words or even get close to certain implications without sparking offense. But I've never encountered thought police as extreme as my religious, conservative family members and acquaintances. Many of who also cry about how PC the world is today. For example, my aunt wouldn't let my cousins watch Rugrats because the family's doctor is named Lipschitz. They also weren't allowed to read or watch Harry Potter. I know a pastor who won't let his teenage daughter watch Supernatural because they fight demons on the show. These people think there's a war on Christianity because they can't put a nativity on the court house lawn during Christmas. Anything critical of Christianity, however mild, is met with immediate offense. Cursing is offensive, and saying \"God damn\" could possibly lead to physical confrontation. My religious grandparents get upset that my sister posts pregnancy pictures on Facebook, because she isn't married (even though she's in a serious relationship with the father). \n I don't mean to rail on Christians or anything, it's just bizarre to me that they take so much moral offense to even trivial things, yet that's not ever considered political correctness. It's only considered political correctness when the push comes from progressive ideology outside of social norms. These are folks that talk about LGBT people as an evil destroying our country, and believe they should be free of repercussions for expressing that belief, but will ostracize you or even physically confront/harm you for saying God doesn't exist."}], "user_id": "longlamp_15613", "history": [{"author": "ttoasty", "content": "I used to feel similarly. \"That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger.\" I've been through lots of shit in my life that could have ruined a lot of people. In fact, I've  seen  how it can ruin people because I've seen how much worse some of my siblings have turned out. \n However, I've realized that this view isn't entirely on the same page as reality. I have a harder time with relationships, I struggle with depression, relating to people can be difficult at times, etc. I have a lot of mental and emotional baggage that effects most aspects of my life. \n I would guess you do, too. In fact, the very action of posting this is an indicator of that. Viewing the people around you as vapid and disgusting is not normal and will only serve to hinder your forward progress socially (which has a bigger impact on your life than you might realize). \n The only thing you've proven, though, is that you're able to survive and, perhaps, that you're strong willed. That doesn't automatically make you better. It particularly doesn't make you a better person if your criteria for \"better\" involves some kind of ability to conform to societal norms, which is what most other people will judge you by. You admit in your post that you're failing on this front when you say that people tend to refer to you as arrogant. \n You've even deluded yourself so much to this way of thinking that you blame their supposed shortcomings for  your  inability to relate to them. Honestly, a lot of how you describe your feelings about your coworkers makes you come off as a sociopath. \n The painful truth that I came to realize, and that'd you'd be better off to realize, is that most people will never face the hardship you've faced and that's just part of life. The hardest part of their lives will be breakups and the deaths of their parents, and judging them on how they might handle hardships much more difficult than that is pointless. Instead, their survival and success will be based on this like getting along with their boss, finding good friends and partners, and having some material possessions that satisfy some want. That's what will provide them with financial security and growth, happiness, and contentedness within the norms that typical people have impressed on them by society over time.", "id": "cd5y4os", "summary": "One of the most basic ways that society will judge your worth as a person (thus whether you are better or worse than the average), involves how well you conform to societal norms and relate to the people around you. You're failing so badly at this that you come across in this post as a sociopath. You're not in your old, dangerous life anymore and evaluating yourself and those around you based on criteria that help you survive is pointless. \n Edit: Glanced through your comments and saw that you frequent /r/theredpill and hold some pretty fucked up and sexist views. I'm doubling down on my view that you're a sociopath. You're not better than everyone around you, you just need therapy to get over the bucket load of issues you took with you when you escaped your childhood neighborhood."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "I suggest reading up on Roe v. Wade and the reasons why the judges made their decision.  So often, the argument is about the life of the fetus.  When does life begin, when can the fetus feel pain, etc.  That's not really the basis for Roe v. Wade, though.  The fetus is a side question to the topic of should abortions be legal / are they morally acceptable.  It's important to remember that no one is pro- abortion , they're pro-choice.  That's not just semantics, there's a good reason for the distinction. \n The argument over abortion is really about a woman's right to agency over her own body.  Pregnancy is something that happens to a woman's body, and she has no real control over it (ignoring birth control and abstinence.  A woman can't just decide not to let her eggs move into her fallopian tubes.  So a woman has no control over whether another living thing takes up residency in her uterus and grows their for 9 months.  Abortion is a way for women to gain that agency. \n That's the core of the argument presented in roe v. wade, and is also the core belief of pro-choicers.  Women have a right to agency over their own body, and banning abortion is a violation of that right.  The Supreme Court agreed, though with some stipulations. \n That's where the life of the fetus comes in.  Obviously, like you've said, some line has to be drawn in regards to where life begins and where it ends, and that line is going to be blurry as hell.  Roe v. Wade doesn't really address it that way.  The argument isn't about where life begins or when a fetus can feel pain.  Instead, you sort of assign rights to both parties (mother and fetus).  A woman has a right to agency over her body, but a fetus also has some kind of right to life.  I mean, if someone murders a pregnant woman, they're charged with two counts of murder, so it's not like we don't already acknowledge that fetuses have some sort of rights. \n So rather than frame it as a question of the beginning of life, it's framed as a balancing of rights.  The mother's agency over her own body to the right to life of the fetus.  There's still a line that has to be drawn, but we've removed the need to draw it at some imaginary line where humanity magically enters the fetus.  SCOTUS decided that line was the point where the fetus could survive outside the mother's womb.  At that point, the mother's right to agency over her body no longer trumps the rights of the fetus because a third (theoretical) option of removing the fetus from the mother has then appeared. \n IIRC, that point is somewhere around 12 weeks, or the end of the first trimester.  That's when the fetus has lungs that are developed enough to  theoretically  allow it to survive outside of the womb (theoretical is an important distinction in practice, since not many babies would survive being born that young, but it makes for a nice cut-off point in a legal decision because it's not a very blurry line).", "id": "cgxj8xi", "summary": "The argument isn't very soundly framed in terms of when a fetus should be considered a living being with the rights of a living being.  The better way to frame it is the right of the mother to agency over her body vs. the right of life of the fetus.  This allows for a more objective, less blurry line to be drawn as to when the mother no longer has a right to an abortion.  Roe v. Wade places this line at the point where the fetus is developed enough to theoretically survive outside of the womb (~12 weeks)."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Yes, though not as shown here.  It's far more likely someone would wear just the pink blazer, not the whole ensemble.  They may pair it with some grey trousers or something.  Consider also that the blazer was made in more palatable colors, like charcoal and grey, that probably sold in much greater numbers. \n Here .  Notice how the trousers and sleeves are a little short, and the cardigan is a little too tight?  This is how Thom Browne intends for his clothes to be worn.  It's already a long ways away from the picture you referenced, but it's still rather fashion forward.  You wouldn't want to wear it to work if you had a strict dress code. \n I would wager, though, that most of Thom Browne's sales come from businessmen who buy those same suits in slightly more conservative cuts that have proper length and chest sizes.  A conservative take on a Thom Browne suit, though, will still look very modern and slim cut in comparison to the typical American suit.", "id": "cc48ff0", "summary": "There's a huge difference in Thom Browne's suiting on the runway and Thom Browne's suiting in the board room.  It's still the same clothing, with all the same design elements, it's just playing to different audiences.  On the runway, it's trying to create a spectacle and portray a cohesive theme throughout a collection.  In the board room, it's trying to look modern but not out of place."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "I'd guess \"African American\" probably grew in popularity as terms like \"negro\" and \"colored\" moved from being socially acceptable descriptors to racial slurs.  Nationality identifiers are as common or even more common than ethnic identifiers in the US.  A lot of time, those nationality based labels aren't even accurate.  Hispanics are very commonly lumped together as Mexicans, and Asians are often lumped together as Chinese or maybe something like \"Japanese or whatever.\"  So I think \"African American\" is just a sort of continuation of that. \n Weirdly, the use of \"African American\" is, in many ways, an attempt to give black Americans a group identity based around something other than their skin color.  But the term doesn't make much sense, as you pointed out, and kind of others black Americans.  So typically black Americans refer to themselves as black Americans, not African American.  White people refer to them as African American, because they think that's the politically correct term.  It leads to weird situations, like American Olympic commentators calling black people from other countries \"African American\" instead of black.", "id": "cqtms61", "summary": "White people didn't know what to call black Americans when \"negro\" became offensive, so they fell back on the nomenclature they use for immigrant populations."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Disclaimer: Lots of generalization. \n It's my understanding that we go about dating differently than much of Europe.  A date may be your very first substantial encounter with someone here.  You might chat someone up in public or at a party or something, get their number, then have your first date.  Or get set up on a date by friends with someone you've literally never met before. \n From what I've been told of dating in many European countries, people socialize in friends groups and eventually sort of pair off or something.  You end up dating someone you've known for quite a while.  The only time I've really seen this happen regularly in the US is in college.  It makes a lot of sense, because you're dating someone you already know and have determined your compatibility with. \n Dating within your friends group like that isn't super common in the US, probably because of the way we culturally approach dating.  For one, there's a lot of awkwardness after a breakup.  You have the same friends group, so you end up being around each other a lot.  Or, your ex starts dating another one of your friends, which is a big no-no in the US.  Breakups quite often split friend groups here, so dating within your friend group is seen as kind of incestuous. \n We also aren't super comfortable turning a friendship into a relationship. Because it's not really expected, there's a lot of awkwardness to asking out a friend.  So, generally, it's considered smart dating practice to ask someone on a date early on, before they start to consider you a friend instead of a potential romantic partner.", "id": "cr81moq", "summary": "Americans typically date people they barely know, instead of people they've been friends with for a length of time. It means we go on a bunch of 1st - 3rd dates with only a few of those turning into relationships."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Marriage equality, cap-and-trade solution to emissions, and the use of smart power in foreign policy. \n There's things I more generally agree with her, too, such as her support of liberal immigration reform, and the way I expect she'll conduct her foreign policy. \n But I don't really support Hillary Clinton because of her position on specific issues.  I supported Obama because of his position on specific issues, and he hasn't lived up to my expectations, for the most part.  I know that I'll mostly agree with her platform.  She's a Democrat, and I'm a Democrat, so we're mostly going to agree. \n I support Clinton because of her pragmatic approach to politics.  I think she'll be able to handle our hyper-partisan Congress better than any of the other candidates, Republican or Democrat.  I think she'll be able to give some direction to our foreign policy.  And I think she'll be able to reinvigorate the Democratic Party, which has largely let conservatives dominate political rhetoric over the past few years.  Clinton is totally unapologetic in every decision she makes, and I don't think we've seen a Democrat President like that since Johnson. \n I fully expect her to sell me out on some issues if it gains her ground on others.  But I also think that's how politics should work.  I don't care about Benghazi or deleted emails any more than I do Cookiegate or Whitewater.  The Clinton's shadiness has been cultivated by their detractors since before the family hit the national scene (read about the Arkansas Project).  Some of it is probably warranted, but it's overwhelmingly been boy crying wolf situations.", "id": "cqbqf1a", "summary": "Clinton could be found standing over a dead body with a bloody knife, and I'd still probably vote for her.  She's a good politician, and that's what I value."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "As I'm reading through, I've noticed you provide positive justification for just about every job that someone draws a comparison to while only providing negative justifications about porn stars / escorts. I mean, that makes sense given the nature of this post, but I think you contradict yourself at times. \n \"It requires no skills and most don't like their job.\"\nThe same could be said for people who work data entry jobs.\n\"Well people that work data entry jobs still have schedules and self discipline.\"\n(As though porn stars aren't expected to show up at work on time) \n \"Pornstars sell out their comfort for loads of money.\"\nOil rig workers operate outside their comfort zone doing risky jobs for lucrative pay and flexible schedules.\n\"Yeah, but that requires discipline and maybe skill.\" \n \"People work minimum wage jobs at walmart because they can't afford to do what they really want, but that isn't the case with porn stars.\" \n \"Escorts are arrogant for charging more than some people make in a week.\"\nWould you say the same about an IT consultant or mechanic that charges twice as much as a competitor for the same work? What if they're still successful at their higher price point? That sounds like good business and basic supply/demand to me. \n \"It's different than a garbage man or flipping patties because that's a job not a career.\" \n I hope you're getting my point. Your just continually making excuses. It really makes me think that your actual hangup is the exchange of money for sex, not any of the rest of the stuff you're arguing. \n The truth is, porn stars/escorts have a lot of job qualities that most people would kill for. Flexible hours, high pay, the ability to set their own pay, the ability to refuse \"job duties\" they don't want to do, etc. \n I think it also requires more skill than you might think. Could you have sex with multiple people over multiple hours in one day and still be enthusiastic and seductive enough to get repeat business? Could you take a 10 inch dick in the ass and still look attractive enough for it to be filmed? What about when you consider having various people standing around watching and a camera in your face? Not to mention the same kinds of skills any actor needs (ability to communicate with a director, taking cues, being on set when needed, etc.). \n Sure, these aren't skills associated with most jobs but they're still skills necessary to the trade and they're the reason some porn stars and escorts make big bucks and others make shit. \n Also, a lot of porn stars  do  enjoy the work. Listen to interviews with Sasha Grey or Stoya or James Deen. They like their jobs (or in the case of Sasha Grey, their former jobs) and have found creative expression within the confines of their jobs. \n And finally, it comes down to opportunity costs, of sorts. If you could make $300,000 a year as an escort and you're OK with the implications of that, why instead choose to work for less?", "id": "cecd98j", "summary": "I think your problem here really is a moral hangup and you're trying to justify it with weak excuses that, in my opinion, don't hold up."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Dude, you've yet to make a fact-based argument, either.  In fact, you seem to be making an ideological based argument, which is rooted in rationality about as much as any emotional appeal. \n So far, the only \"facts\" you've produced are numbers showing poverty levels have plateaued.  You've  completely  taken them out of context, uninterested in any of the reasons and (actual) facts surrounding those statistics, and you've been refusing the idea that welfare programs and the War on Poverty today don't intend to reduce poverty so much as reduce the negative affects of poverty on the poor. \n Even starting with your title, you have a clear agenda and bias, and you don't seem so interested in having a discussion as you do pushing that agenda.", "id": "ceo7a45", "summary": "If you're going to call people out for not having fact-based arguments, you should probably be making fact-based arguments."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Have you considered that there's different levels of radicalism within the fat acceptance community? It's like with any social movement. Take feminism, for instance, which ranges from a Beyonce style feminism-lite that's more about basic female empowerment all the way to SJWs or lesbians who form communes to live completely outside the patriarchy. \n The FA community is no different. On one end, you have the sort of populist movement that has been watered down for the masses. Reappropriating \"curvy\" to mean overweight or fat, for instance. On the other end, you have the crazy SJW types who think their doctors are fat shaming when the doctor expresses concern that their weight will cause health issues. \n The crazy, radical side of things is not and never will be mainstream. Just look at feminism. We're, what, 40-50 years past the beginning of 2nd Wave feminism and  Beyonce  is a feminist icon, not the man hating lesbian who lives on a lesbian commune. It will never be accepted in the mainstream that morbid obesity can be caused by genetics alone. It'll never be accepted in the mainstream that a doctor is prejudice or hostile because he suggests seeing a nutritionist or starting an exercise routine. The concept of \"thin privilege\" will never be mainstream. \n What will end up on the mainstream end of things is that it's OK not to hate yourself or your body because you're overweight. While I understand this may lead to complacency, low self esteem is certainly not going to solve anything. This, in my opinion, is what the \"All About that Bass\" song is about. \n It may end up as mainstream that fat people are actually people and dehumanizing them is not okay. Fat people might be the largest demographic that it's still socially acceptable to openly or publicly mock. People might think you're an asshole, but you won't face the kind of social retribution that comes with mocking and bullying a gay or black person today. \n It's also important to realize that the entire fat acceptance movement mostly involves young people, at least in my observations. While being overweight surely effects the self esteem even of adults, people seem less concerned with such things once they're married and have children, which is the time in life that a lot of people end up overweight. \n Younger people, though, have more fragile self images in general, and can find their social lives heavily impacted by being overweight. It seems pretty common for overweight women to talk about how invisible they feel. Men don't talk to them or befriend them, let alone date them. \n Young people have more to gain through the fat acceptance movement than older people. This itself limits the possibility for the movement to impact the mainstream in a widespread way. \n And last, if your concern is that the FA movement will normalize obesity, it's too late. That happened long before fat acceptance was really a thing. You know those older fat people I mentioned? The ones that go out to all you can eat buffets and don't exercise while using their kids as an excuse? They normalized it a while ago. We don't even blink when we see fat people use the mobility scooter things at Walmart that are meant for handicap people.", "id": "cn891de", "summary": "The fat acceptance movement ranges from the moderate and benign to the radical and harmful. It's unlikely the harmful elements of the radical side will make it into the mainstream. It's more likely that you see \"you're beautiful; love yourself\" type messages come out of the movement, which is probably an important thing to hear for the young demographic that fat acceptance largely appeals to. And there's no reason to fear that the movement will cause the normalization of obesity in society, because that's already happened. \n Edit:  To clarify/be more concise, the populist side of the fat acceptance movement is almost entirely about body image and anti-bullying, from my observations. Any message more politicized than that tends to come from the more radicalized side of the movement, whether that's anger towards thin people (via the concept of thin privilege or via intentional thin shaming), anti-health/anti-doctor rhetoric and pseudo science, or something else. \n \"Middle America\" fat people are a much bigger problem when it comes to American obesity, however. These folks typically aren't as self aware about their obesity. Not that they aren't aware of their obesity, but they don't talk about it in the terms you see in the fat acceptance movement. They aren't taking corrective measures, they aren't concerned about future health problems, they aren't even really making excuses for themselves. They see it as normal. Imagine Honey Boo Boo's mom talking about fat acceptance while funneling Mountain Dew and chicken nuggets down her kids' throats. Ain't gonna happen."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Sure.  In order for you to even have the chance to be infected, you have to have behaviors that would allow you to be infected (having unprotected sex, needle sharing, etc.). \n The gay community in the 80s and into the early 90s had social and cultural behaviors regarding sex that caused them to be particularly susceptible to HIV.  Unprotected sex was common because you didn't have to worry about pregnancy, as was casual sex as a whole.  So you have a whole community that's at risk because they had relatively little to worry about in the past when it came to living a sexually liberated lifestyle.  They had no protections in place. \n Once the gay community realized that HIV was a thing, they responded to it rather quickly.  Unprotected sex became much less common.  Unfortunately, a large portion of a generation of gay men died from HIV/AIDS before antiretroviral therapies were developed.  There's actually been a rise in HIV prevalence among young gay men in recent years because they're so far removed from the HIV epidemic of the 80s and 90s that they're not being cautious enough when it comes to protection. \n Think about it like this, why is the prevalence rate in many African countries substantially higher than in the US?  The overwhelming majority of people in both countries are heterosexual, and it's not like you can blame a 25% prevalence rate in Botswana on men having anal sex with women all the time.  The difference comes down to socioeconomic factors, medical factors external to HIV/AIDS, and social and cultural behaviors.  For example, in a fantastic book on HIV/AIDS called  The Invisible Cure , Helen Epstein talks about the sexual networks in many African countries and how they contribute to the spread of HIV.  Basically, it's very common in countries like South Africa to have multiple long term sexual partners.  This creates a web that allows HIV to propagate very quickly because if one person gets HIV, everyone else in the network is at risk.", "id": "cbv3mfl", "summary": "The transmission rates of HIV are irrelevant if you're not having unprotected sex in a way that allows HIV to spread in the first place. \n Source:  Politics class solely about HIV/AIDS that also happened to be taught by a gay man."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "In my opinion, fiction and fantasy almost always predictable. Not that there aren't twists and turns and surprises, but it has to follow a structure. A beginning, a middle, a climax, a resolution. The cookie cutter tropes. Star Wars, Lord Of the Rings, Harry Potter, the Sword of Truth, and countless others all follow the same structure of the naive unlikely hero forced to same the world from pure evil under the tutelage of the wise old wizard.  Reality doesn't have that. There is no individual hero, evil is never purely evil, and most of the time the world will continue regardless of who prevails. People are flawed, the world is flawed, and the story of real life is flawed. And that's what makes it interesting. Fiction can only mimic that. \n Take ASOIaF, for instance. It avoids the Tolkien-esque tropes, it gives us flawed characters, and it gives us a history, expansiveness, and complexity so great it actually seems real (in a way that, say, Star Wars or Tolkien has never accomplished, in my opinion). Yet, it's all taken from real life. Well, maybe not  all , but there's plenty of resources out there that delve into the historical events that influence ASOIaF.  We're talking about events so similar, that if history were itself fiction, George R.R. Martin would be accused of plagiarism. \n I think, perhaps, part of your problem is that you haven't been exposed to history or current events in a way that you can connect with. More specifically, you haven't been exposed to the world as a narrative, which is the format that virtually all of fictions exists in. But history and current events can be presented as a narrative and there are plenty of books and such out there that attempt to do so. \n A great example is  Diplomacy  by Henry Kissinger. He starts from the beginning of the modern international system in the 1600s and goes through the the Cold War. He details historical figures like Cardinal Richelieu, Metternich, and Napoleon III who've shaped the world we live in today. He delves into their motives and tactics and personalities. And he presents this history as a flowing narrative where one action or decision or person leads to the next. \n I think too often we're presented history as just facts. This happened, then this happened, then this happened. Dates and people and events, but the causality is lacking. There's no narrative. And that makes fiction appealing, because causality is necessary to narrative, so all fiction contains it. Like Benedict, for instance, the infamous Revolutionary War traitor. We all had to learn his name and the fact that he double crossed America, but why should we care when we're reading that in a textbook.  Yet, when you actually read about Bennedict and why he did what he did, it's brilliant and intriguing and complex in a way that fiction could not easily replicate. \n And I know you say in your post that you feel more interesting and exciting this happened in the past than present, but it only seems this way because of the lack of narrative in the presentation of current events. Much like history, it's usually just facts. This happened today, and this happened today, and this happened today. \n But you take a living figure, like Putin, and give him a narrative instead of just a bunch of news articles, and it's incredible. Follow him from his days in the KGB, watch him navigate the end of the Cold War, and become president. You see him handle Chechnya, you see him return Russia to a relevant and rising world power, both economic and political. You get to see him maneuver situations like the conflict in Ukraine that's happening. No Lannister is as cunning, manipulative, or politically adept as Putin is. \n Another thing is that history is in the details as much as the big picture. You talk about grandiose wars and the like, but that's not always where it's most interesting. \n For an example, take Holbrooke's  To End a War , written about the Dayton Accords. The book is hundreds of pages long about a single set of negotiations. It took months just to find a suitable location for the talks. There's all these little factors that had to be considered, some that seem pretty silly, just to ensure all sides would sit down at the table.  And that was less than 15 years ago. \n In fiction, there's not nearly as much small detail. That's because it slows down the story. And crafting it is not easy, either. Some stories have more then others, like ASoIaF, but it still pales in comparison to real life. There are many, many events throughout history and even modern times that could have hundreds of pages written about them,  plus  biographies of everyone involved. Take the Civil War, for instance. Or as a more modern example, the War in Iraq. Not only is there loads of story to the War itself, there are biographies of Bush, Rumsfeld, Saddam, etc., out there. The amount of context you could find on any given event overshadows the entire lore and history of ASoIaF. \n And my last point is that real life is a lot different than fiction. In  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead , there's a great scene when they're talking to the play actors. One of the actors is telling them that they once convinced a town government to let them hang a condemned man on stage. Turn his execution into a part of the play. When they did, everyone booed. In real life, people don't die \"realistically\". Meaning they don't die they way people expect. It's a great bit of dialogue that really jabs at the relationship between fiction and its audience. We're so used to the theatrics of fiction that real life seems underwhelming or even unrealistic. \n I mean, I found it incredible that you used the word \"graceful\" to describe the wars of the past.  No war has ever been  graceful . No war will ever  be  graceful. War is dirty, and messy, and clumsy, and tragic. And maybe that's why you like fantasy over real life, because things in fantasy are clean. Sure, people die, but they don't come back from war missing two limbs and half their face, then wonder how they're going to pay bills for the next 50 years. In fantasy, your hand gets cut off and you just learn to sword fight with your off hand. In real life, you undergo countless surgeries, months and years of rehabilitation, and struggle to find a semblance of normalcy in your life. Jamie Lannister is a pussy compared to the modern soldier caught in an IED. \n But if you spend time retraining your expectations, if you stop looking for heroics and honor and  grace  in something like war, and instead start to understand the human experience it offers, then you open yourself up to far more meaningful experiences than you'll ever find in fantasy.  Take  All Quiet On the Western Front , for example.  While fiction, it explores the toll of war on humans and humanity itself. It forces upon you visceral experiences like watching friends die of mustard gas or the screams of wounded soldiers who can't be retrieved and take hours to die. It makes you understand the loneliness and hollowness that comes with returning to the civilian war. No fantasy novel could ever capture these things, at least not without stealing them reality.", "id": "cjsy452", "summary": "Fantasy is shallow and only similar to reality when it takes from reality. Most of the time, this results in a more pleasant experience because it seems bigger and more grandiose, but it's hollow. It's like day dreaming about how you'd beat up a mugger when in real life you'd be scared shitless.  The only reason fantasy is more appealing is because years of narrative and theatrics and artistic liberties have trained you to see it as more \"real\" and more interesting than real life. If you find history presented in a narrative, which makes it more engrossing, and train yourself to appreciate the experiences offered in reality and history over the excitement and theatrics offered in fantasy/fiction, you'll learn that it's far more complex, interesting, and rewarding than even the best of Tolkien or Martin."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Well, there's a lot of nuances to the issue, first off.  An acquaintance from college is very involved in the social issues of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities, and posts a lot about it on Facebook.  I've become relatively informed on the topic because of her. \n One of the biggest issues with the negative impact of affirmative action on API is that many of the members of the community are very disadvantaged, socioeconomically, and affirmative action only worsens it.  There's a lot of factors in this, like nation of origin, how recently the family immigrated, etc.  We stereotype Asians as being super smart, disciplined, and motivated, but there's a big difference between, say, refugees from Burma and 2nd generation middle class immigrants from China.  Yet they get lumped together under the same demographics check box. \n This is true of  any  ethnic group, but the negative impact of affirmative action for API, compared to the (arguably) neutral impact for white men or positive impact for black Americans, makes it particularly troubling. \n Something else to point out is that the impact is not nearly as great if you look at the difference in scores needed between Asians and white people, the \"norm\" so to speak, which is only 140 points on the SAT.  It's still a sizable difference, but much smaller than the 450 points between Asians and the most disadvantaged group, black Americans. \n Another thing to consider is that Asian Americans tend to be severely over represented.  The article says 40% of students at Caltech are Asian, while Asians only make up 13% of the population of California (and that's probably the highest percentage in the nation).  Even Harvard, at ~20%, is still disproportional.  To me, those numbers make it a little more understandable that affirmative action negatively impacts Asians. \n As another example, the largest state university in my state is 2.5% Asian and 5% black (not including the demographics that make up the 5.8% international population, whose ethnicities are lumped together as \"foreign\" for some reason), while our state is 1.2% Asian and 15% black.  That's not as over represented as Caltech, but is still two times the state population. \n I would agree, though, that heavier emphasis on socioeconomic status would be ideal.  I've never understood why this isn't already the case, except perhaps that it doesn't make much financial sense for a school.  However, another possible solution is to give Asian students the same \"neutral\" standing as white students.  While this would still leave Asian students overrepresented, it would at least give them equal footing a majority of most college applicants. \n As a side note, I'm curious how much international students might kinda skew these statistics.  If you've ever spent much time on a college campus, you've probably seen the very large number of Asian international students.  International students are cash cows for colleges, because they pay higher rates.  Couple that with being able to get the best and brightest of a few billion Asians, and it seems like they could skew statistics in a way that further harms  Asian Americans.  A page on Caltech's demographic stats says only 6% of students are international, though, so most of the 40% of their students that are Asians would have to be immigrants.", "id": "crbselr", "summary": "Asians are very over represented in US colleges, which is why they're negatively impacted by affirmative action.  Unfortunately, the emphasis on race really misses the nuances of Asian American socioeconomics by lumping very different communities together.  This serves to keep disadvantaged Asian American communities disadvantaged, instead of providing them with the same opportunity boosts given to black Americans, Latinos, etc.  The best way to solve this is probably by changing affirmative action policies to emphasize socioeconomics instead of race."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "The party of the President will always have a difficult time finding solid candidates at the end of the president's term.  Mostly because of the way media attention works.  Antagonists in the opposition party get a lot of media attention, so they're known nationwide.  Tea Party politicians in recent years have been particularly good at this.  Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio are all freshmen senators, but they've been given a lot of chances to make a name for themselves. \n On the national scene, the only people who make a name for themselves within the incumbent party are the VP and a few senators that are less moderate than the President.  People like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, for example.  They may do okay in a primary, although Democratic primaries tend to shy away from the more liberal candidates, they'd do poorly in the general election. \n You end up seeing a lot of governors run for President in the incumbent party, because they don't need as much national recognition to gain momentum. \n Some other examples are 2000, when Al Gore swept his only competitor, a governor, during the primary.  And 2012, where the go to Republican candidate was John McCain, a career politician who had run for president before.  His two biggest opponents, Romney and Huckabee, were governors. \n So Hillary's expected win isn't that out of the ordinary.  She's a moderate candidate, she's run for President before, and she's incredibly well known.  And the potential competitor I keep hearing the most about, Martin O'Malley, is a governor.", "id": "cqbjj5d", "summary": "Incumbent party almost always play it safe when it comes to their Presidential candidate.  It's someone very well known, like a VP or someone who has run for President before, and their most serious competition is usually a governor."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "While I agree with most of what you said, I think foreign policy wise he will be remembered for more than drone strikes. I think he'll go down in US history for the first post Cold War foreign policy that makes sense. Clinton fumbled around a lot, trying to figure out how to use our power and authority once we no longer had to point all our guns at Russia. Bush tested the limits of hard power in a world where no one can contest you. \n Obama's foreign policy falls somewhere between the two, while also learning from their mistakes. The neocon ideology (aggressive spreading of democracy) can still be seen, but missing is Bush's love of invasions and occupations. Instead, there's heavier emphasis on humanitarian/human rights action and self-determination. We'll assist ME countries in overthrowing their governments, but we won't do it for them. \n On top of that, the Obama administration has refined and expanded Bush era security efforts (whether you agree with his direction or not), and I think that will have a lasting impact. \n And finally, Obama has made a far bigger push for multilateral action, something that was sorely missing during the Bush administration. I think this will be very important going forward  as the US further figures out its role in the international system as the predominant world power. \n I don't think Obama's foreign policy will ever be codified as a doctrine, but I think it will be seen as the most important since Reagan or perhaps even Truman. There's other minor aspects that I think play into this, such as his geopolitics (particularly regarding China) and his international economics policies, but I think they are more circumstantial and in some cases just continuations of previous policies that have found relevance during his time in office.", "id": "cbmq8xx", "summary": "US foreign policy has seen refinement and more clear sighted direction under the Obama Administration that will likely have a lasting effect and precedence."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Being in the opposition party gives you a lot of chances for name recognition.  Filibuster a major policy supported by the President, and you'll get your name and face on national news.  Work across party lines and support a bill the President supports, and you'll get your name and face on national news.  Force a government shutdown, and you'll get your name and face on national news. \n This means you have more potential candidates starting from  somewhere  in public opinion instead of nowhere. \n The opposition party, from what I've found, typically seems to put up more candidates in the primary, perhaps partly for this reason. \n I think there's also some factors relevant to current politics that have seen so many Republicans running.  For one, a lot of the new Tea Party candidates aren't very keen on \"waiting their turn.\" Rubio, Cruz, Paul, and Walker all have relatively little political experience.  All were elected in 2010 or later, and all have made names for themselves.  Walker is governor, so it's understandable, but the other three have definitely ignored the tradition of seniority in Congress and made a name for themselves very quickly. \n This is more speculative, because there's a lot of evidence to the contrary, but it seems like governors have a tougher time gaining traction in primaries these days.  Romney had to run a second time before he had a chance, while George W. Bush and Jeb Bush can rely on their name for recognition.  Governors like Christie and Walker became household names because they've both had controversies (Christie's photo op with the President after Hurricane Sandy and later Bridgegate, and Walker's fierce opposition to teacher's unions).  A governor that does his job well but without much controversy just won't get the kind of national media attention necessary to boost a campaign in the early days.  Look at George Pataki in comparison. \n In my opinion, this gives Congressmen a leg up in the primaries.  They don't have to make a practice run, then wait 4 years before having a shot, they have the recognition to be taken seriously their first time running.  Like I said, though, this is pretty speculative. \n Another factor is the Republicans' strong dislike of \"Washington insiders.\" I've heard many conservatives treat the lack of government experience of candidates like Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina as a positive thing, which probably encourages these candidates to run.  We saw it in 2012, too, with Herman Cain and Donald Trump.", "id": "crp1m2s", "summary": "Name recognition is a big factor, in my opinion.  The opposition has a better chance of standing out and getting national media attention, and we've seen a lot of those high profile names announce they're running.  It also seems like we're seeing more and more Republican candidates that don't have a political background, and the better those candidates do, the more similar candidates are encouraged."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "To address one point, part of the problem is definitely how it's displayed, as you've pointed out.  If I could play a youtube video taken in portrait mode in fullscreen portrait on my phone, I would have a lot less problems with it.  The article you've linked to gets at that. \n Youtube will take a video that's, say, 1920 X 1080 portrait and convert it down to 1920 X 1080 (if you're lucky.  Most portrait videos seem to be 480p or less)  landscape , so you get the black bars on the sides.  This sucks for viewing because you lose like most of your pixels and if the person recording had taken 5 steps back and turned the phone sideways, they would capture the same image  plus  not have the bigass black bars taking up 2/3 of the screen. \n Like I said, if the video was stored in its native resolution and orientation, this wouldn't really be a problem on my phone or a tablet, because I can just turn it to portrait and it would fill the screen. \n However  this would still be an issue on basically every other viewing device (monitor, tv, laptop screen, etc.).  Yes, there are vertical screens, but most people, particularly virtually every person who's primary use for their computer is consumption,  don't use vertical monitors or tvs.  So basically any time you're watching one of these videos on a non-mobile device, you're still going to be stuck with 2/3 of the screen being taken up by black bars.  Even if the video is stored at its native resolution and orientation.", "id": "cihz7ww", "summary": "If videos were ideally stored by sites like Youtube, there would be instances where vertical video is better than horizontal video, but only on mobile devices.  Unless you're part of the <1% of the population that has a vertical screen hooked up to your computer, vertical video would still use less of the available screen real estate than horizontal video on non-mobile devices.  In our not-so-ideal world, basically all video shot vertically is worse than its horizontal counterpart would be, because only like 2 popular sites store video in a way uses the full screen for vertical video (Facebook and maybe Vimeo are the only two I can think of)."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "I'm liking this topic, but I really don't know what you're getting at.  I've never seen muffins marketed as cupcakes or vice versa. I've been in plenty of coffee shops and bakeries and have never seen this occur. \n Also, I think you're underestimating the ability of Americans to discern muffins from cupcakes.  I think we're pretty good at it.  Like you said, muffins tend to be breakfast foods, and cupcakes are seen as a sort of desert or party food.  We grow up with this distinction.  My parents never let me eat cupcakes for breakfast. I'd imagine this is true for most people, so we learn at a young age what constitutes a muffin and what constitutes a cupcake. \n There's also the fact that  typically  cupcakes have icing and muffins do not.  This makes it easy to tell them apart at a glance, though I'm sure there's some places that sell cupcakes without icing (sounds awful, though), and I've seen muffins with glazing. \n Size can also be a way to tell them apart, too.  This doesn't always hold true, but when I imagine muffins I think of them in two sizes: small and bite sized, and very big muffins that are almost too big to eat at once. Cupcakes, though, typically come in a medium size, where they are big enough to have one and be done, but not so big that a single cupcake can be a meal.  Obviously, there's a lot of exceptions to this, since there's no universal size standards for cupcakes or muffins, but this holds true enough that size can help quickly discern the two.", "id": "cfr4z7i", "summary": "Presence of icing and size can both be used to discern cupcakes and muffins, and most people know this."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Hey, I make $35k a year and don't have a degree, either, so maybe I can provide some insight. Disclaimer beforehand, I work an office job, so some of what I'm about to say may differ from the path you're trying to make for yourself. I also live in a pretty cheap place to live, which may skew my experience some. \n First, $35k becomes way less before you even get your paycheck. I bring home about $26k a year, after taxes (~$2200 a month). That's already way less than it originally seems. \n Thankfully, the company I work for provides excellent insurance for really cheap. I pay 12% or the monthly cost, which is about $37. But if you don't get insurance, like you probably wouldn't with hourly manual labor, that gets expensive quick. If I had to pay for my insurance completely out of pocket, it would be my second largest monthly expense after rent. Of course, there's plenty of insurance plans out there that don't cost $400 a month, but you have higher deductibles, copays, etc. \n Vacation time is another one. I get 3 weeks of paid vacation, but hourly manual laborers typically don't get any paid vacation. Wanna go to the beach over the summer? Not only are you out the cost of the trip, you're out the $600 you would have made that week. \n Then there's housing. Before this job, I was making $10/hr. I lived in an apartment that wasn't terrible but was by no means great. With the extra income, I decided to move into a nicer place. It's more expensive, but much more enjoyable. I always thought the same way, that I just want a roof over my head, but the loud neighbors, crappy appliances, and cramped living spaces got really old after a while. \n Food is another one. I like to cook, but there's not much point when it's just me. I have a roommate, but our schedules are so different that cooking together isn't feasible. So I eat out a lot. I assume this is pretty common with single guys. If you eat out twice a day and don't just eat McDonald's McDoubles for every meal, it gets expensive. $15-20 a day. \n Transportation. I live 20 miles from work. Gas eats up a couple hundred dollars a week. I love my car, but it has 180k miles on it and needs a suspension overhaul. Used cars are cheap, but constant repairs and constant worries that it will break down get expensive and mentally taxing. I'd much rather spend $10k or $15k on a car that I have to worry about much less. \n Which leads me to saving money. As you can tell, there's definitely some excessive spending going on on my part. I spend way too much on food, I spend quite a bit of money to go see family and long distance friends, I go out to the bar typically once a week, and I have some not so cheap hobbies. Right now, I can make it through the month without being worried about running out of money. I can mindlessly purchase whatever I want, check my bank account at the end of the month, and have some money left over. I couldn't do that at my last job making $10/hr. But it isn't much money, and there are things that I would like to buy. \n I'd like a new camera ($2000 or so), I'd like to go to Africa for a few weeks next summer ($3000), I'd like to put a down payment on a new(er) car ($2-4k + ~$200/month). Plus, I need a better emergency fund ($2500). That's a lot of savings, and it's totally possible, but it would require my immediate quality of life to go down. I'd have to devote time to making dinner when I got home, stop spending money on random bullshit, stop making so many trips to see my family and friends, etc. I think if I really tried, I could save about half my take home pay without many problems. But I don't want to have to cut back that much on my expenses. \n And that's where the problem comes in. $35k  seems  like a lot, but it's really not that much, once you've been making that kind of money for a few months. I could do so much more with $45k a year. I could do so much more that I probably couldn't realistically imagine what I'd do with like $65k. But I bet if I was already making like $50k, I could think of all sorts of ways to use the extra money.", "id": "cji0f77", "summary": "35k may seem like a lot, but once certain improvements to the baseline quality of your life become available, you're much more likely to want to take advantage of them. Nicer apartment, more reliable car, better food, etc. These add up quick and really cut into your savings potential. \n When I was working for $10/hr, all I wanted was a job making $35k. Now that I have it, I think that $65k is that sweet spot where I can afford a decent house, car, hobby, vacation, etc. and still save money. And I suspect the guy making 65k probably feels that way about $100k. \n Edit: I may make $30k a year, I can't remember right now. But I bring home around $26k a year."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "My way of addressing this every time it comes up is, why don't people have the same kind of emotional response about other kinds of government welfare that they do poverty assistance? \n Do you get outraged when you hear that Exxon bought a new jet, even though they receive billions in government subsidies? If you heard the CEO of GM has a corporate bought laptop  and iPad  do you judge him the same way as a poor person using their food stamps and buying cigarettes? If you heard Goldman Sachs bought booze for a company party would you? If a agricultural conglomerate bought two trucks for two workers that could have otherwise carpooled in one? Should the government have been able to stop banks from giving out bonuses the same year they were bailed out? \n We've been conditioned to look down on poor people who receive welfare. We judge their every action and feel the government should have the right to invade their privacy and infringe upon their freedoms.  We accept and perpetuate bullshit sensationalism like \"welfare queens\" that was originally created from virtually nothing in order to discredit and delegitimize welfare programs. \n But for some reason, our society doesn't turn that same level of scrutiny towards wealthy people that take advantage of government welfare to make themselves wealthier. Tax subsidies and accounting that takes advantage of every possible loophole are perfectly acceptable but not food stamps and unemployment. \n Our government subsidizes some of the grossest, most wreckless, self centered people and corporations in the world. We subsidize the exploitation of other countries, the destruction of our environment, the tanking of our economy, and even large scale murder/negligent death. And I'm not talking about our military or the CIA or anything, just American multinational corporations. Yet a poor guy buying some beer gets both more media coverage and judgement from you and millions of other Americans.", "id": "cf0tkyj", "summary": "Take some time to consider the classist and contradictory views you probably unwittingly have on government welfare."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "I understand what you're saying and address some of it in a top level comment [(see here)](  Basically, spirituality/religion is a social construct and is thus inseparably intertwined in our societal structure.  It completely informs how we act, even if we don't practice the prevailing religion/spiritual practices.  Look at how the US treats nudity, for an example. \n Here's some other thoughts, though.  What you're pondering in your original post is basically the foundational question of existentialism.  Kierkegaard, who is regarded as the founder of existentialist thought, described it as the struggle between the aesthete and the ethical, or chasing after what makes you feel good vs. conforming to societal expectations.  Kierkegaard uses \"despair\" to describe what you're calling depression (although despair is more encompassing.  You don't actually have to be depressed to be in despair, you just have to worry about who you are vs. who you want to be or where you are in the struggle between aesthete and ethical).  To Kierkegaard, the ethical is the correct path, because it basically requires accepting your humanity and yourself, where the aesthete runs from these things. \n God is a necessary aspect of Kierkegaard's writings.  We are defined in relation to God, because God is not confined by the human inability to actually see our future.  Kierkegaard is presumably talking about the Christian God, but a God figure of any belief is not actually necessary, just an abstract concept of God, a being who can see both their past and present and exist outside of humanity. \n Later existentialist thinkers, though, do not rely on the necessity of a God, replacing the concept with other concepts.  By the time you reach Sartre's  Being and Nothingness  in the 1940s, not only does God not exist, but his lack of existence is the fundamental and necessary antagonism of the human condition.  We can't be fulfilled or complete or \"happy\" because their is no God.  To be complete would make us God, so we can never achieve fulfillment.  Sartre says we're basically left to live out the struggle between the aesthete and the ethical.  This may sound kinda like nihilism, but it's not really (I don't have a good explanation on the differences; it's been to long since I've studied the subject).  To Sartre, we're doomed to struggle between our desire to live free and embrace our nothingness (similar to the aesthete), or chase some kind of meaning, typically by becoming a part of something (similar to the ethical).  Unlike Kierkegaard, Sartre doesn't really prescribe one of these as being the better choice than the other. \n In either case, it is the struggle between these two roles that causes us despair or anguish or depression, not so much  which we choose .  You attribute depression to basically the aesthetic, chasing pleasures that diminish over time.  But your solution is the ethical, the acceptance of ones place in life and the attempt to place yourself in something bigger than the individual.  Existentialism (well, at least Kierkegaard and Sartre) would posit that being presented with this dichotomous choice is the actual cause of depression. \n So, to tie this back into your original post, Sartre would claim that your religion or spirituality is a delusion caused by your desire to find a fulfillment or greater meaning that doesn't, and can't, actually exist.  Further, pursuing religion or spirituality doesn't actually have any more capability to make you happy than banging hookers or participating in the rat race so that you can get a bigger boat than your neighbor.   However , the existence of religion and spirituality and how intertwined they are in our society, serves as an institutional reminder that society expects us to find a greater purpose than ourselves.  It perpetuates a lie, created by society itself, and its mere existence and inescapable place in our society causes despair for people who do not pursue it, thus causes depression.", "id": "cii7t59", "summary": "Religion and spirituality are a social construct and are no better at, or rather are just as futile at, attaining fulfillment than the pursuit of pleasures.  However, their existence and the lie told by society that we  should  pursue religion/spirituality (or any greater meaning or \"ethical\") cause the kind of existential despair that causes depression. \n Disclaimer:  I took a class on existentialism in college about 3 years ago.  I didn't pay a whole lot of attention, nor completed all the readings, so if some philosophy major/enthusiast roles through here and notices I'm incorrect about my recallings of Kierkegaard/Sartre/existentialism, please understand that I'm not claiming to be 100% accurate (or even like 70% accurate) and be nice in your response correcting me."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Your idea that the former presidents would have undue influence bothers me, because it strips the relatives of their agency.  Is it possible that this \"loophole\" could be used to create a dynasty or political machine, where the candidates are just puppets, but it hasn't happened yet and is unlikely to happen in the future. \n I mean, look at the people you're specifically mentioning as examples.  Michelle Obama has a law degree, just like her husband.  After 8 years as the First Lady, she'll certainly be qualified for Congress, which is all she's speculated to possibly be running for.  Hillary Clinton has time as both the First Lady of Arkansas and the First lady of the US.  She's been a Senator and the Secretary of State, too.  She's possibly one of the most qualified people for the position of President (Biden, McCain, and Kerry being the only ones I can think of that may have her beat on qualifications).  Jeb Bush has more time under his belt as governor than Bush did when he won the 2000 election (a full 8 vs. 6). \n So in my opinion, it's almost offensive to these people to imply that they could be puppets to their relatives.  Each one has proven themselves qualified for the positions they're seeking, and have distinguished themselves from their more prominent relative (less so Michelle Obama, but that's the point of running for Congress). \n Furthermore, what makes you think these former presidents  want  to have any serious influence over their relative running for office?  Do you know how Bush spends his time?  Painting crappy, awkward portraits of himself and world leaders.  Clinton?  He does quite a bit of humanitarian work, has a shitload of surgeries, and gives a shitload of speeches.  Obama will find his own thing, too.  These people don't really want to keep running the free world.  It gives them grey hair, heart problems, and puts a big ole' \"shit on me\" sign on their backs for the rest of their lives.  Would they still give advice, etc.? Of course.  But it's not like they're some kind of Hanna-Barbara villain controlling puppets from the shadows. \n Realize that part of being president is synthesizing advice and information from a boatload of choices.  If Hillary Clinton does become president, you know where Bill's advice would end up?  Right next to her National Security Adviser's, Secretary of Treasure's, VP's, Chief of Staff's, etc., etc.  And you know what that advice probably would be in most cases?  Listen to your National Security Advisor, VP, etc., etc. \n Because we're not talking about children or adults that can be easily swayed, we're talking about grown ass adults.  Any real influence Bill Clinton might have had on Hillary's political positions and decision making processes was exerted long ago.  It's not like he's gonna somehow convince her 30 something years into their marriage to change her view on an opinion he's held since they were married or since he was in the White House. \n His advice, or any of the advice from past presidents, then, is not likely to be specific to situations.  She has people for that, and they're more qualified than him.  It's more likely to be on how to navigate the political system (ever see the episode of the Simpsons were Krusty runs for Congress, then seeks advice from the janitor about how to do his job?).  I really don't like Bush as a president, for example, but if I were to be president, I'd definitely seek his advice on how to get something through an opposition controlled Congress.  This kind of wisdom is far more important to  any  sitting president than advice on abortion or something.", "id": "cia3o6a", "summary": "You're overestimating how much anyone involved would really care about influence/advice from the former presidents.  The candidates themselves are presumably qualified for the office they seek, there's more qualified people than the former presidents to give situation specific advice, and most former presidents just want to play golf and recover from nearly a decade in the most stressful job in the world."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Do you use only generic brands whenever possible?  Generic cereal, generic household meds (think aspirin), generic shampoo and toothpaste? If not, do you have a rational reason, even a subjective one, for not using the generics?  If you can't answer yes to either of these questions, you are in some way a \"slave\" to brand. \n I really think aspirin is a good example of this.  I'm not sure there's a legitimate, objective reason to choose name brand aspirin over the generic brand, yet people clearly do. \n Still, even if you do only use generics for almost any reason other than cost, you're a \"slave\" to brand.  For example, if you choose Colossal Crunch over Cap'n Crunch out of an objection to name brand items, you're a \"slave\" to brand, in that you're allowing brand to dictate your purchases. \n Do you avoid brands for irrational reasons?  Do you have brand loyalty towards anything without objectively considering the alternatives?  Would you buy knockoffs, even if they were just as well made as the real deal? \n I could go on, but hopefully you see my point.  Maybe you're somehow above brand, but you'd be in a small percentile in the Western world.  People don't make purchases in a rational, objective way.  That's like the near absolute rule, not the exception.  I suspect that if you examine your own life, you'll find you do the same, even if it's something small (like aspirin). \n It can also get really hard to tell rational from irrational, as there can be completely subjective yet rational reasons for your choices.  Some things can't even objectively be determined, like who makes the best OCBD.  So maybe you only buy name brand items completely for rational reasons, or maybe there's a lot of irrational, emotion based reasons for it that you don't even realize. \n This is starting to get convoluted, so I'm not going to continue rambling. \n I do want to make the point, though, that it is not a bad thing to be a \"slave\" to a brand.  Someone may choose to only drive Toyotas because that's what their first car was and it ran fine.  They don't really care what car they drive, so it's  way  easier to go down to the Toyota dealership, buy the newest model midsized and continue on without giving it much thought, because they're too busy dealing with their job and kids to invest time and effort into finding the best car for the price they're willing to pay.  Being a \"slave\" to a brand is a really easy and relatively harmless way of paring down choices in life to make your own existence easier.  It keeps us sane.  This, coincidentally, is why people buy name brand aspirin.  The difference in price between the name brand and generic is not worth the investment to determine which is objectively better, thus emotion overrides and the name brand is chosen.", "id": "c99kq6l", "summary": "Unless you make all your purchases in a 100% objective way, devoid of any emotional input (though perhaps not subjectivity), you are very very likely to be a \"slave\" to some brand or another.  This isn't a bad thing, and it's not something to get all upset about.  It's just a part of life in a society where consumption is so far past the point of utility and necessity.  All of this is completely irrelevant to the point I was making above, in my opinion."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "The kind of thinking you're doing here could lead to some bad results if you drill down to the core point you're making.  You're basically calling for some kind of \"objective\" ranking of causes and prioritizing the charitable contributions they receive.  I know that's not how you may see it and it's not how you're presenting it, but the bottom line of what you're sayings is that Make A Wish Foundation is a less worthy charity than others (with the implication that the charities you give your time and money to are better, I might add).  If you extrapolate that idea out, that some charities are more worthy, why should you stop at MAWF vs. everyone else? \n Which is more important, cancer or HIV research?  Should we give our money to starving kids in Africa or starving kids in Asia?  Why should we give money to homeless shelters here in the US when there's countries where a substantially higher percentage of the population is homeless or has substandard housing (i.e. slums)? \n What ends up at the top of the list, and what ends up to those at the bottom of the list? \n We studied this some in a class I took on the politics of HIV/AIDS.  There's a lot of concern that \"celebrity\" causes, like HIV or breast cancer, take money and awareness away from less appealing causes like dysentery or clean water supplies.  There's no real right answer, though, and at the end of the day you just have to be happy that people are giving money. \n Basically, as long as the charity in question isn't harming people, there's no such thing as bad charitable giving (the exception might be giving money to, say, the Susan G. Komen foundation instead of a foundation with the same cause that doesn't spend so much money on administrative costs, but that's a different discussion).  Someone is still being helped in some way, and that's better than the alternative of no one being helped. \n Along a similar vein, charitable giving isn't necessarily a zero sum game.  There's not some giant pot of charitable giving with a set amount of money in it that gets divvied out to charities.  Instead, people will give money to charities they identify with.  An example would be the massive donations that fund various arts programs in the U.S.  People give money to Save the Music or to art museums because they identify with those causes.  Maybe they're musicians or art buffs, so they donate a bunch of money to those causes.  That doesn't necessarily mean they would donate that money to fight Malaria if Save the Music or art museums didn't exist.  They may instead spend that money on the new PS4 or a new Porsche (for the big spenders), because they don't identify with other causes.", "id": "cdfxscy", "summary": "You've created a kind of false dichotomy.  It's not MAWF vs. Oxfam, so much as it is charitable giving vs. no charitable giving.  As long as people are giving to positive causes, they're already doing more than they are obligated or expected to do, and that should be praised not criticized as a \"waste of money.\""}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Something to keep in mind, is that Catholics keep Jesus on the cross.  If you go into any Catholic church, they have a big ass cross front and center with an effigy of Jesus on it.  They still use pendants and staffs and stuff with a cross without Jesus on it, but that's more for simplicity's sake, I imagine. \n This goes along with the teachings of Paul (\"we preach Christ crucified\" 1Cor1:23). \n Protestants typically depict the cross without Jesus.  I was raised Baptists, and the justification I always heard for this is that Jesus didn't stay on the cross, so why continue to depict him on the cross? \n I think there's kinda two reason for why the cross was chosen.  Christians would naturally want to distinguish themselves from Jews.  Jews killed Jesus, and Judaism and Christianity have fundamental differences.  So Christians wouldn't want to use Jewish symbolism to represent themselves.  No Star of David, for instance. \n But what, then, do they represent themselves with?  If you're throwing away Jewish symbols and dogma, what do you have left?  You basically have like 3 years of the life of Jesus that are the foundation of your religion, so what symbols can be pulled from those three years?  The two that we see are the Ichthys (Jesus fish) and the cross.  Doves have also been used, but they don't have as much foundation in the life and teachings of Christ. \n The Ichthys was used quite a bit as a sort of secret symbol by early Christians when persecution was a big problem.  Fish appear often in the gospels, and Jesus refers to his Apostles as \"fishers of men.\"  But the symbolism there doesn't really represent Christianity very well.  It doesn't reference the biggest difference between Christianity and Judaism, which is the death and resurrection of Jesus. \n That's where the cross comes in.  It's the only other symbol that could really be used to represent Christianity.  The cross is the catalyst of Christianity.  If Jesus had not been killed and had not resurrected, there would be no fundamental differences between Judaism and Christianity.  Or rather, Christianity would likely not exist. \n In Judaism, animal sacrifice and the upholding of Covenants with God are how you make it to heaven.  The death and resurrection of Jesus changes all this.  Jesus gave himself up as the ultimate sacrifice, dying for the sins of everyone.  He basically takes the place of animal sacrifice.  You no longer have to make an offering to God to please him when you \"sin\" or break the Covenant, because Jesus has already offered himself as sacrifice. \n So the cross is symbolic of that sacrifice, and the sacrifice is the fundamental aspect of Christianity that can't be removed.  The cross is also a symbolic alter of sorts.  It is the location where Jesus died, just like an animal would be sacrificed on an alter for God.  In churches, (at least the churches I was raised in) kneeling before the \"alter\" at the church (usually just the stage or podium at the front of the church) is symbolic of laying yourself at the feet of Christ and recognizing the sacrifice he made to forever absolve you of your sins. \n This goes so far in the roots of the church that recognizing and acknowledging that Jesus died on the cross for our sins is a necessary step in becoming a Christian.  If you don't make that pronouncement or you don't  believe  that pronouncement, you aren't a Christian (at least in Baptist teachings.  They're pretty hardcore about the whole salvation thing, so it may be different in other denominations).  So in that way, the cross also serves as a reminder of the very belief that makes you a Christian. \n That ties back into the Ichthys vs. the cross thing.  The Ichthys doesn't represent those things.  It's not symbolic of the death and resurrection of Jesus, only his teachings.  The Ichthys is more representative of the Christian than Christianity.  Christians are the fish pulled from the \"ocean\" into the salvation of Christ.", "id": "cgwk2ja", "summary": "There's only two or three possible symbols to be pulled from the life and teachings of Jesus, and the cross is the best at representing the fundamental aspect of Christianity that gives it a reason to exist: the death and resurrection of Jesus."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "When you look back at history, loads of societal institutions have been intertwined with religion.  Governments, education, judicial systems, and marriage, among others, have all been hand in hand with religion throughout history or at times during history.  Yet, we've been able to separate those out. \n No one, for instance, is claiming that murder being a crime in the US is a violation of church and state, because we have separated our judicial system from its religious roots. \n I'm no historian/anthropologist, but I'd wager that contracts similar to marriage predate even religion or even language.  I imagine neanderthals had some sort of social contract similar to marriage where sexual partners formed some kind of obligation to one another.  Perhaps, even more, there was some understanding that, say, the woman leaves her family to join the man's family. \n You're right, though, that for the past few millennia marriage has largely been associated with religion, at least to my knowledge.  Priests or some other holy figures perform a marriage ceremony that ties you to a partner before some sort of deity or higher power. \n The problem is, there was no real concept of separate realms of society.  Government, economy, religion, and civil society were all much more related and intertwined with each other.  I'm mostly speaking of Western society here, but for a long time religion was the government, or at the least the leader of the government was \"chosen by God\", and the economy didn't exist outside of the government (think feudalism). People were also basically property of the government (think serfs). \n It's not until the 1500s or so that you start to see these realms of society start to separate out.  Feudalism gives way to capitalism, the Holy Roman Empire falls, the Protestant Reformation occurs.  Eventually Enlightenment hits and ideas like democracy and separation of church and state gain steam. \n So, basically, since the 1500s we've been separating these aspects of society into their own realms.  Government, economy, civil society, and religion all exist separate from one another, though they interact to varying degrees.  This is sort of the modern concept of society, and it's only been around in full form since the 1700s or so. \n But in separating out those aspects into realms, decision have to be made as to what goes in which realm.  To use my earlier example of courts, we decided courts should be a government entity, rather than a religious one.  No one in American is getting stoned for sex outside of marriage.  Our courts also have a hint of civil society, given the whole \"jury of your peers\" thing. \n Marriage is the same.  In modern society, marriage has been reclaimed from religion by the government.  Like court, there's hints of other realms of society, though.  If people choose, their marriage can be officiated by a religious leader.  It can just as easily be officiated by a judge or a boat captain, or the town drunk (assuming he's licensed).  Marriage in the US is also not constrained by religious definitions of marriage.  We allow interracial marriage, interreligious marriage, and, in many states, gay marriage.  There's the civil society aspect of marriage in the US.  We allow it to change over time with the changing views of society, rather than keep it in line with a strict religious definition.", "id": "cfr944y", "summary": "No, it's not a violation of church and state.  While marriage was once a religious institution, so was government, economy, education, judicial systems, etc.  Until the 1500s, all of these things existed in the same space and thought.  Between the 1500s and the 1700s, the modern concept of societal divisions developed and that meant stripping certain institutions of their religious past.  Marriage is one such institution."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "You're not wrong, but I get the feeling that you don't know much about fashion and how people interested in it incorporate it into their lives.\nPeople that aren't very aware of or interested in fashion tend to view clothing in a very utilitarian way. The best example would be the arguments over cargo shorts that pop up on reddit from time to time. One side says they look bad, the other says they need/like all the pockets. In contrast, the people that stay up to date on fashion and chase trends view fashion as a hobby or part of their lifestyle. \n So consider this. Why do people pay to go to a sports game when they could watch it on their TV? Why do some people pay thousands of dollars for a high end gaming pc when they could play the same games on a console that costs a few hundred dollars? Why do people buy fast and expensive cars when all they need is something to get them from A to B? I could go on. \n I'll admit, these analogies have some flaws, but these scenarios are not much different. In the case of sports games, consoles, cars, fashion, and many others, people gain something- or at least perceive to gain something- by spending time and money developing these interests. As someone that has spent both $2000 building my own computer and $200 on a shirt, there's an incredible thrill involved with buying, receiving and using both items. \n There's also something to be said about the way we use clothes as a way to gain credibility with social groups. Whether it's a $5,000 suit worn by a Wall Street banker to an interview or a $30 pair of Vans worn by a teenager at the local skate part, clothes play a much bigger role in group acceptance and group identity than people seem to realize. I'm not going to spend much time expanding upon this unless you ask, because somewhere in my comment history is a long and involved discussion about the role that clothes play in group settings. \n While you're right that it's concerning how much good clothing gets thrown away or goes to waste, I think your view of fashion trends is a bit overblown. They don't really drastically change overnight, but ebb and flow over time. For instance, in men's fashion, workwear has been popular for 3 or 4 years now, replacing the American prep style that came before it. Women's fashion definitely moves quicker, but still not so quick that you're forced to update your wardrobe every year. In my experience, the most egregious offenders of very short term fashion trends tend to be junior high and high school girls. They aren't fully to blame, though, given that virtually every children's show in the past 15 or 20 years has depicted fashion trends in this way. \n I planned on typing out more, but I'm falling asleep at my keyboard.", "id": "cck3wap", "summary": "People interested in fashion view it as a hobby, not just something to cover themselves up with."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "The biggest flaw with your argument is that Bill Gates (or any other super rich person) doesn't just have billions of dollars sitting around in a swimming pool somewhere Scrooge McDuck style. He has stocks and bonds and real estate and other assets that tie up probably 99.9% of his wealth. He also can't just sell off $20 billion in Microsoft stock because it's very unlikely there's demand for it. Not to mention that if evey rich person followed your plan, everyone would be trying to sell off their assets but no one would be attempting to purchase them. \n Instead, Bill Gates gives parts of his assets to his foundation which uses them as an endowment. Every year, stocks will give them dividends, bonds will mature and be cashed in, and some of the stocks may be sold off. When you have a $36 billion endowment as his foundation does, you can spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year, if not a few billion, and still come out ahead of inflation. This potentially means a hundred plus years of money, rather than however long it takes to build a luxury submarine. There are dozens of libraries, orchestras, and other institutions that were established by Carnegie and still running, for example. \n You're also forgetting that we currently have an institution that basically does exactly what you're talking about: our government. It spends a couple trillion dollars a year to stay up and running, spends billions on things like submarines, and provides millions of jobs. Keep in mind, though, that it spends more in one year than probably all American billionaires combined are  worth  (some quick googling shows that all the billionaires in the world are worth $5.4 trillion, which wouldn't fund the U.S. government for 2 full years).", "id": "cd3fgzt", "summary": "Basically, your plan would negatively impact the stock market by causing supply to skyrocket relative to demand, stunt capital investment from some of the richest people in the world, end nonprofits that could function and do good for decades, and still infuse less money into our economy than our government does in a single year. All on the hopes that it will boost the economy somehow."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "So why do you feel that discomfort is a good reason for this kind of restriction, but not the other two examples I gave (other than the fact that our constitution currently allows it)? \n It's not so much that I think it's a good reason or justification so much that it's worthy of consideration. Especially when coupled with other factors, such as public health or the way it complicates sexual harassment laws. \n And again, for like the 3rd time, discomfort is totally irrelevant for the other two examples.  I'm not saying it's not a good reason for banning the other two, I'm saying that consideration of discomfort should never enter the equation for those two examples because any consideration of banning your examples ends at the constitutionality.  Period.  The end. \n >To clarify, I am saying that there should be either a constitutional protection for public nudity \n Which is wildly ridiculous.  Unless you can find a justification within the Constitution as it stands, which you won't, the option is amending the Constitution to explicitly include a right to public nudity.  The Constitution just shouldn't be used that way.  The only time we've seen it used in a similar way, being used to legislate such a specific issue, is prohibition, and we've seen how that turned out. \n Barring Constitutional protection, you haven't really made a good case for why public nudity should be legalized.  Your post boils down to 1) Discomfort shouldn't matter because it's subjective, and 2) Public nudity isn't sexual assault, which isn't a positive argument so much as a counter argument to people who would call public nudity sexual assault. \n So you essentially have one argument, that discomfort caused by public nudity shouldn't be considered.  You justify it with an example of olives, and how they shouldn't be banned just because of the discomfort they bother you.  But I could list countless examples of illegal things where the law is justified partially or wholly on considerations of discomfort.  Public urination or public intoxication, both of which are illegal for the discomfort it causes the public as well as health and safety concerns, much like public nudity. \n So ultimately, your argument boils down to the subjective nature of discomfort making it an invalid consideration when crafting laws.  But no one denies the subjective nature of discomfort, and many, many court decisions revolve around trying to create objective criteria for subjective factors in lawmaking like discomfort. \n For example, SCOTUS has ruled there are some limitations on our 1st Amendment rights.  The most obvious (yelling fire in a crowded building) are related to health and safety concerns.  But there's many others that are far more subjective and mostly boil down to discomfort and/or morality.  For instance, vulgarity laws that prohibit the use of certain curse words on radio or broadcast TV have been upheld by the court.  SCOTUS has also ruled that certain restrictions on pornographic content are constitutional.  Both of these relate to the court's interpretation that obscenity is not a legitimate expression of speech, thus not protected by the 1st Amendment. That's very related to concerns of discomfort and morality (which is a source of discomfort).  There's a very subjective nature to what's considered obscene (\"I know it when I see it,\" made famous by Justice Stewart in the obscenity case  Jacobellis v. Ohio ), but the court has done a lot to create objective standards for what is and isn't obscene (previously the Roth Test and more recently the Miller Test).", "id": "cqtojdg", "summary": "Sorry, that ended up a lot longer than I expected.  Your argument is essentially that the subjective nature of discomfort should disqualify it from being a consideration when restricting freedoms.  But subjectivity in and of itself is not an issue if we work to create objective standards around it.  Not recognizing the difference between banning olives and banning public nudity is willfully ignorant, in my opinion."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Sally's response to Danny's toast in the last (or 12th?) episode kinda implies he intended to stir up shit from the get go.  How would she get the impression that he hated her without it calling her and Robert out? \n The show is also doesn't give very good indicators of the passing of time, but it seems like Danny expects his family to forgive him very quickly.  It's only like a week or two between when he returns home and when Robert has the stroke, and even by that point he expects everyone to be ok with him.  I don't recall anything being said about the length of time between Robert's stroke and his death, but that can't be long, either.  By that point, isn't Danny already working with O'Bannen?  It didn't take him long at all to begin the very kind of activity that made his sibling skeptical of.  He also didn't receive the tapes until Robert's funeral, so he hadn't yet began his revenge death spiral. \n Also, the only person dead set on not forgiving Danny is his father.  By Robert's funeral, we see all three of Danny's siblings get closer with him and reconcile in some way.  Meg hesitates to file the paperwork removing Danny from the will, Kevin helps Danny with the truck, and John invites Danny to dinners, sporting events, etc. with his family.  After Robert's death, all three are even willing, if reluctant, to give Danny his share of the inn. \n The biggest hesitation you see from them is that they want to give it more time.  To me, the show seemed to cover only a few months at most from the time Danny returned to when he was killed.  For someone notorious for disappearing and not seeing things out (half a semester at cooking school), I don't think it's unreasonable to ask him to wait a little longer before giving him his share. \n After Danny gets the tapes, I don't think anyone can be blamed but himself (and Robert, who is the only one with absolutely no desire to reconcile with Danny and is the source of his childhood trauma).  It's his manipulation of his siblings that lead them to end reconciliation.  Meg seemed willing to look past his first threat of revealing her affair, but as it continued she changed her mind about cutting him back in.  Danny's aggression towards Kevin over sleeping with Chelsea is what makes Kevin take a step back, even before he learns that Danny ordered the attack.  And John supports Danny even after it causes a rift between him and his wife, only changing his mind as he uncovers Danny's illegal activity. \n And, even after Danny has burned bridges with all of them, they continue to give him outs.  Think about the last 3 or 4 episodes and consider how many times John gives Danny an opportunity to cut and run or even cooperate with the DEA.  Instead, Danny tips off Lawry even after learning he murdered a boat full of people he was trafficking.", "id": "cq1fw9i", "summary": "The only Rayburn that refused to forgive Danny was Robert.  The others were hesitant but willing, up until Danny went crazy and started plotting against them."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "I have a thing for crime detective shows that aren't CSI or Law & Order, so I've seen every episode of the show.  Here's some personal thoughts on how Caffrey dresses and why (mostly involving characterization). \n Caffrey is all about living a high class life that he hasn't really earned.  He has fantastic taste that he's developed over his years as a con-man (art, food, wine, women, clothes, etc.), but it's all a bit showy.  He's a Gatsby.  This shows a lot with his suits.  Excellent brands, high quality, perfectly tailored, colors match well.  All of these things are a little too perfect, though.  He's showing off, and it's obvious.  It also helps with his job, which is conning rich people for either the FBI or for himself.  The slick suits help him fit in, whether it's at an art museum or with sleezy illegal gambling ringleaders.  A more conservative suit wouldn't work as well in most of the plots. \n The suits also help to distinguish him from the FBI guys (often called \"Brooks Brothers\" as an insult by Caffrey's conmen friends) that he has such a love/hate relationship with. \n As for the fedoras, they're also just a part of Caffrey's characterization, as well as a tool the character uses to charm and con.  The fedoras allow him to both stand out and hide his identity, depending on the situation.  It certainly doesn't look as right as Don Draper wearing a fedora, but it doesn't look nearly as bad as people in this thread would have you believe.", "id": "c9u5jcc", "summary": "Caffrey is an arrogant, sweet talking con man who dreams of a life of high class leisure.  His clothes reflect this, and you probably shouldn't try to imitate him. \n As a side note, Mozzie has a much more interesting wardrobe.  While he often wears eclectic clothes to poor effect, he gets it right occasionally.  In recent seasons, he often wears a grey unstructured blazer from Woolrich Woolen Mills that's pretty wicked."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "There's not necessarily a correct answer to this, since people respond to grief differently.  In the past couple years, I've lost a brother and a friend to suicide, as well as my father in a car accident (not suicide, but a close death that was very sudden and unexpected), so maybe I have some worthwhile insight. \n The first couple days are a total shitshow.  He'll likely experience a few different types of grief.  When my father died, I would go back and forth between numbness and uncontrollable sobbing with almost no notice.  When my brother died, it was numbness and guilt.  He'll most likely be very emotionally volatile.  He may seem like a completely different person every time you talk to him.  This is really, really confusing and really, really stressful. \n On top of that, you're constantly surrounded by other people.  His parents, other family, family friends, church members, neighbors, and who knows who else will be in and out of his house offering condolences and dropping off food.  The constant flow of people telling you how sorry they are for you loss can cause some weird emotions.  I got angry, all these people were \"pretending\" to understand what I was going through.  It was very irrational on my part.  For plenty of people, though, it's helpful.  It's impossible to escape, can be very overbearing, and it will last for days. \n The worst, though, really comes after the funeral.  The people are gone, the food trays are gone, the volatile emotions are gone, and all of a sudden there's way, way, way too much time to sit there and drown in grief and sorrow. \n As for what you can do to help him and be there for him, that's tough to say.  I don't know him like you know him, and there's physical distance between you two.  So keep in mind that any advice I give you needs to be tailored to him and how he responds to the situation.  It could all be totally wrong for the situation.  To start, do your best to not be overbearing.  There's plenty of people already being overbearing to him.  You mostly want to make sure he understands you're there if he feels he needs you.  That can be tough because literally everyone who sees him over the next few days will tell him that they're there if he needs them.  It starts to sound like a nicety, which it is from most of the people saying it to him, and that could make him hesitate to reach out. \n Call him once or twice a day when you think there might be down time (at night, in the morning, etc.).  Text him some throughout the day.  He may not respond.  If he needs to cry or vent, provide that outlet for him.  If needs to escape, do that.  You may call him up and all he wants to do is fuss about something totally inconsequential, like his fantasy football lineup or something.  Just talk to him about it.  If you think he'll respond well, making him laugh.  After my father died, my sister was sitting in a car crying and I licked a dusty car window to just to get her to laugh.  Even just smiling can relieve a huge amount of stress.  That's really the most you can do via phone, but it can help way more than you might think. \n If you're not able to make it to the the funeral, send flowers or something.  His family will receive and excessive number of houseplants (sooooo many houseplants), but it's nice and doesn't go unnotice. \n Like I said earlier, after the funeral is the toughest part.  It lasts weeks, months, possibly longer, but the first couple weeks will be the most crucial.  Same as above, give him someone to talk to and try to make him laugh.  Don't force it on him, though.  Not many people will be calling him or showing up at his house anymore, so it can seem incredibly lonely.  It's like when you break a bone or something and you don't really feel it at first, only for it to become excruciatingly painful when you sit down and grab your breath.  Help him transition from grief back to a \"normal\" life.", "id": "cjmynid", "summary": "Be there for him as you think is best, but don't be overbearing.  For the next week he'll be constantly surrounded by people, have a lot of very confusing emotions, and may or may not have the time or emotion to reach out to you.  Just make sure he knows you're sincere about being someone he can turn to for support.  Also, don't forget about him after funeral. \n Also, if you hear anyone tell him or his family that it's all part of God's plan or something, smother that person to death in their sleep.  Your friend will appreciate it."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "I'd guess there's a lot of factors, such as age, geography, historical context, family politics, etc. \n For example, there's a lot of socially conservative Democrats in the South.  Not as many as there were 20 years ago, but they still exist.  In Arkansas, my home state, even Democrats are often pro-life, pro-gun, and oppose gay marriage.  Especially our elected Democrat politicians.  You also have the opposite, Republicans that are socially liberal.  I imagine a lot of Republicans in bigger cities, for example, might be socially liberal. \n This is where age, historical context, and family politics come into play.  In Arkansas, for example, Democrats dominated state politics from the end of Reconstruction until about 2010.  People have just always been Democrats, because their parents were, for generations.  It goes back all the way back to the resentment the South held for Republicans after the Civil War and Reconstruction.  Our Democrats have always been conservative because of this.  They just aren't conservative enough these days, and have become associated with a President that is wildly unpopular in the state. \n The same is likely true for Republicans, where Republican politics have been part of the family since before the rise of the Christian Right. \n Age is an important factor, too.  Most of the socially conservative Democrats in Arkansas, that I know anyways, tend to be older.  Younger Democrats here are typically socially liberal, and younger social conservatives are more likely to identify with Republicans.  This has to do with changing party politics.  My grandmother is a registered Democrat (don't know that she's ever voted for a Democrat), but she's socially conservative.  When she was growing up, though, and first registered with a party, Democrats weren't nearly as socially liberal.  And I don't see how a young person who's socially conservative could possibly identify with the Democratic party of today. \n On the Republican side, younger people tend to be more socially liberal.  Among young Republicans I know, most of them are apathetic or even supportive of gay marriage.  The only social issue they're likely to have a strong opinion about is abortion. \n I also think it's interesting how many people say they're \"moderate.\"  Moderate is pretty ambiguous.  It's pretty easy to understand what people mean when they say they're conservative and liberal, and the meaning of those terms change quite slowly.  I mean, even liberals probably wouldn't have supported gay marriage 20 or 30 years ago, but things like their support for social safety nets and pro-choice stance have been consistent for decades.  But moderate can mean a lot of things.  A Republican who says they're moderate on social issues may support gay marriage and legalizing weed but also be pro-life.  And as politics become more partisan, with both parties moving away from the center, the spectrum of what can be considered moderate grows.  A moderate today could have been a liberal or conservative 30 years ago, but they haven't followed the party on newer wedge issues.", "id": "crlxjkf", "summary": "This got way longer than I expected.  Basically, there's a lot of factors at play.  Geography.  Democrats in the South are more likely to be conservative, for example.  Age.  Older Democrats are probably likelier to be conservative, and younger Republicans are probably more likely to be liberal.  Family politics and historical context.  Some people will identify with a party that doesn't best represent their ideology because that's how their family identifies.  Sometimes, this happens for generations, finding foundation in past party shifts or party politics."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "I'm not sure I entirely understand your question, so let me know If I don't give you a good answer. \n First, you have to look at the different levels of party affiliation.  You have citizens, local and state politicians, national politicians, and party entities at both the state/local level and national level.  All of them have different levels of diversity and different levels of representing constituent's ideology. \n For the most part, constituents have very diverse political ideologies.  Politicians at local and state levels will better represent those constituents' ideologies, just because they're representing a smaller number of people.  So, for example, people in the liberal part of my state are better represented by their local government and representatives than they are by the governor, because the state is overall conservative.  There's also a lot of diversity among national politicians, since they're getting elected from all over the country.  Congress isn't elected at the national level, only the state or district level, so there's a lot of diversity in ideology. \n However, most of that diversity gets smoothed out in practice.  It's uncommon, although not unheard of, for politicians to vote against party lines on big issues. \n But that doesn't mean that the parties don't respond to changes in constituent ideology.  The best example is the rise of the Tea Party.  Even before Tea Party Republicans began getting elected, the party responded by shifting to the right and making fiscal responsibility a bigger issue in the party.  Now that so many Tea Party Republicans have gotten elected, it's  really  become a part of the party.", "id": "crm25rc", "summary": "So basically, the two party system really works on averages.  The diverse political ideologies of constituents and politicians gets averaged out to a party platform that most politicians don't diverge from.  That party platform responds, though, to changes in the constituency.  The results from this are honestly not much different than having many more parties, then having them duke it out until they compromise.  The parties compromise internally, then the parties compromise with each other (ideally).  At the end of the day, a compromise is reached between all of those different factions."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Disneyland is like Disney World Lite, which is what makes it great, in my opinion.  First off, as a disclaimer, I've never been to Disney World, but my parents take my little siblings almost every year. \n They go for a  week .  They stay in the park, they visit different areas each day, eat at restaurants inside the park, etc.  Disney World  is  the vacation, not part of the vacation. \n Disney Land, though, I have been to.  I went for one day a few years ago back in high school.  While there, I got to see and ride pretty much everything I wanted to in both Disney Land and California Adventure.  The smaller size is actually way better if you're only going for a short amount of time.  I could grab a fast pass (or whatever it's called) for a ride I wanted to go on, walk all the way across the park to ride a different ride, then make it back for my fast pass time without any problems.  I spent far less time just walking than I would have at Disney World.  I also presume the lines are shorter, since there's less people, but I could be wrong about that. \n The other nice thing is that Disneyland still has all the stereotypical Disney stuff.  I rode the Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Tower of Terror, etc.  Disneyland even has a house of the future thing.  I'm sure Disney World has even cooler rides or stores or something that I missed out on, but the child deep down inside me only really cared about seeing an animatronic Jack Sparrow. \n The other nice part about Disneyland is that it was just one aspect, one day, of my trip.  While out in California, I also went to the beach, took a lame tour of LA, and did a bunch of other stuff (it was a school trip, so the \"other stuff\" was mostly boring school stuff). \n I liken it to Six Flags or Silver Dollar City.  If you're nearby, you can hit it up on a Saturday every few months.  If you're further away, you can make it part of a bigger vacation to the city/area (yes, people go to Branson, MO for vacation).  If you tried to do that with Disney World, you'd probably only end up going to one or two of the 4 parks, anyways.  When my parents take my siblings, for example, they probably spend 4 days out of a week vacation just in the parks, yet they only ever fully explore Magic Kingdom and small chunks of EPCOT and maybe Animal Kingdom.", "id": "ci9aod6", "summary": "Disneyland is a different experience almost entirely, where the park can be part of the vacation instead of the entire vacation.  It's like 6 flags or various other smaller parks, but with most of the Disney rides you've always heard of or remember from childhood."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "I've avoided most of the drama.  I've educated myself on GamerGate, but haven't really picked a \"side\", insomuch as I have no interest in involving myself much in GG.  However, I believe the gaming industry and community to be rather sexist, which colors my view on the whole thing. \n For me, though, in choosing which side is less shit than the other, I go back to the beginning of it all.  That's the only thing you can do, in my opinion, because both sides have doxxed, harassed, threatened, and shit slung in general. \n At the beginning, you had a game journalist give a lot of coverage to a mediocre, barely-a-game indie game with noble intentions.  He may or may not have slept with the developer.  The gaming community takes this on as an unacceptable action of journalistic corruption.  That's mostly the part that I'm concerned about. \n First, is Zoe Quinn sleeping with Nathan Grayson.  It's such a shocker that two people in the same industry, who know each other and have some kind of at least friendly relationship (Grayson is listed in the credits of Depression Quest) might sleep with each other.  Gee.  Here, though, is where GG takes things to an extreme that I feel is sexist and absurd.  It's impossible for them to consider that a female developer might have sex with a game journalist without expecting something in return.  Quinn was immediately given this motive of manipulation through sex.  That's bullshit, in my opinion, and is almost enough by itself for me to take a stance against GamerGate.  The sexist aspect aside, I also find it kinda juvenile.  They're both adults, they're more than capable of separating their work from their personal lives.  But maybe I'm just naive. \n Then, we'll assume that Zoe Quinn did trade sex with Nathan Grayson for favorable publicity.  If I make that assumption, I have to consider why  this  was the example of journalistic corruption that the gaming community decided to rally around.  And indie gamer gets some minor publicity for her game and people are still bickering about it like 6 months later.  Why was that more important to the community than GameSpot's firing of a journalist over a bad review?  That was a controversy for about 30 seconds before people stopped giving a shit.  GameSpot lost all credibility, but it didn't spawn an entire movement, nor a movement retaliating against that community.  Was anyone doxxed over \"GertsmannGate\"?  I'm doubtful. \n I can't help but return to sexism in the gaming community for why Zoe Quinn became the catalyst for all of this.  As far as I know, no sex was exchanged between GameSpot and whoever published Kane and Lynch.  GamerGate started, in my opinion, because a woman developer was at the heart of the controversy. \n Assuming, though, that intentions were pure, and sexism had nothing to do with it, why fixate on positive publicity over an indie game?  Why not address the perverse relationship between AAA game publishers and the journalistic community that relies on their advertising for survival? It just seems very petty, which again makes me dislike GamerGate.", "id": "cotvkvu", "summary": "For me, whether it's sexism or not at the root of GamerGate, it's incredibly overblown.  It just shouldn't have happened, not over Depression Quest, at least.  It's like our government jailing people for possessing weed while letting bankers responsible for the 2009 recession get off scott free."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "My mother acted very similarly when my step-father died.  They split and later divorced about 4 years before he died.  She was mostly at fault, but they reconciled enough to be on good terms.  She'd just started dating her current boyfriend around the time of my step-dad's death, which was about 4 years ago. \n My mom still posts about him on Facebook occasionally, a couple years ago she and my sister both got matching tattoos of my step-dad's handwriting basically saying \"I'll love you forever\" (taken from his love letters to her, no less).  She's made quilts for her kids and grand kids using his shirts.  She has trinkets and maybe even a picture of him in her house.  Sometimes she still cries over his death. (I'll mention that my mother suffers from some mental health issues, which are definitely a factor here) \n Her boyfriend is nothing but supportive.  It doesn't bother him, he'll console her when she's crying, and he doesn't get upset when we all sit around talking about how wonderful my step-dad was.  You might say he's a pushover or that he's crazy for not leaving her, but I don't think that's true at all.  I think he's old enough and mature enough to understand and respect her grieving. \n The important thing to understand is that the girlfriend's grieving has nothing to do with her current relationship with your friend.  It's not a judgement of that relationship.  It's not her saying she'd rather be with her ex or that she loves him more than your friend.  It's her mourning the loss of someone she was close to.  I think that's difficult to understand and swallow, especially for someone that's only in their early 20s, especially if your friend has never dealt with the sudden death of a younger person they were close with. \n I also think it's important for your friend to understand that if he's not capable to come to terms with this, he's not a bad person for ending the relationship.  That's much better than the alternative of him trying to cut her grieving short.  He should either let her grieve and accept it or end the relationship. He  shouldn't  shame her into hiding her grief or otherwise make her feel like she's a bad SO for grieving over an ex (from what you said, he's not doing this anyways).", "id": "cr7pv0x", "summary": "Her grief shouldn't be seen as a reflection on their relationship.  If your friend can't accept that, he should end the relationship.  That doesn't make him a bad person."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Can we better define what we're talking about here? There's other options than just citizenship that are on the table here, like permanent residency. Most if the discussion about undocumented immigrants seems to center more around whether we should even let them stay than whether we should give them citizenship. Are you opposed just to them receiving citizenship or do you think they should be deported? Adding to the confusion for me is that I'm not aware of quotas or anything that would have legal immigrants competing with undocumented immigrants if amnesty was given. The quotas are on immigration and permanent residency, to my understanding, and those likely would not be effected by an amnesty program. \n You seem to think that undocumented immigrants have harmed you and other legal immigrants and have harmed the country. Which may be true, but you aren't considering the benefits they've brought to the US. They fill a role that Americans are unwilling to fill. They work for less than minimum wage in many cases, work jobs like migrant farm work that others are unwilling to work, etc. There's a reason why undocumented immigrants are stereotyped as working in construction, on farms, and in restaurant kitchens. It's work that citizens aren't willing to do for what they're being paid. There's a bit of an egg-chicken situation because many of those jobs pay so little because there's a large supply of undocumented immigrants, but citizens are just as capable of working under the table for below minimum wage as anyone else. The blame there, in my opinion, is on employers. And the fact that undocumented workers are easily exploited because they have no legal recourse. \n Many undocumented immigrants aren't working under the table, though. A lot of them are paying taxes, social security, etc.  They aren't the drain on our country that they're often portrayed to be. \n It's also expensive to deport them. The process of catching, detaining, processing, and transporting illegal immigrants is not at all cheap, nor logistically simple. The US government already budgets for something like 400,000 deportations a year, which are costly and prioritize criminals. \n There's also considerations like splitting up families. It's highly unethical, in my opinion, to deport undocumented immigrants with children who are citizens. The children have a right to be here, and can't be deported, so deporting their parents leaves them as wards of the state. \n So, in my opinion, there's a solid case to be made that we shouldn't just be deporting undocumented immigrants. But if we don't, it's also not in our interest to just leave them undocumented. A whole mess of problems stem from having such a large undocumented population (problems better solved by amnesty than deportation). \n But amnesty doesn't mean citizenship is necessary. Like I said above, residency is enough to solve many of the problems surrounding undocumented immigrants. Although, I don't know why you wouldn't give former undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship if it didn't effect other immigrants seeking citizenship.", "id": "cncjnx8", "summary": "Of more concern than citizenship is permanent residency. This would give undocumented immigrants legal status and solve many of the problems surrounding undocumented workers. There's many reasons not to deport undocumented workers, including their positive impact on our economy and that deportation is expensive and complex."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "This boils down to a question of sovereignty.  Sovereignty can come from a lot of places, but in the US we derive our sovereignty from the will of the people.  And our ability to maintain that sovereignty (military power).  Sovereignty only matters as long as it can be kept, and thus defending/maintaining sovereignty is always a source from which sovereignty is derived (a bit circular in logic, I suppose). \n The Indians had no sovereignty.  Most of them didn't really have a concept of sovereignty beyond, I imagine, some sort of tribal territorial authority.  Even if they did, they lost the root of their sovereignty by losing the land to the Europeans. \n Now, of course you're going to say, \"But doesn't that give Mexicans the right to come and take their place in the US by force?\" No.  It doesn't.  Because since the Europeans landed in the Americas, international norms have changed, we formed this thing called the United Nations, we created lots of treaties with each other, and aggressive annexation is now against a lot of international \"laws\".  If Mexico tried to take back Texas, claiming that the US did it to the Indians first, the US and NATO, and basically anyone else who wanted to join in would have the authority and even legal obligation to wreck Mexico's shit. \n Back to sovereignty, the US actually has an obligation to  stop  illegal immigrants and limit legal immigrants, because it's sovereignty is primarily derived from we the people.  The flood of illegal immigrants harms our border security, job market, economy, domestic security, etc., which is counter to the will and interests of we the people and thus diminishes US sovereignty.  Since the US has a sort of implicit mandate from the people to defend US sovereignty, it must act against illegal immigrants.", "id": "cia4mxv", "summary": "Mexicans have no right to come to the US because they have no sovereign claim to the US.  US sovereignty and claims to US territory (the 50 states, at least), is legitimate because they were not acting against international norms at the time of conquering the US from the Indians.  International norms have changes, so any attempt to do to the US what the US did to the Indians would be a violation of international norms and a declaration of war with most 1st world countries.  The US has an obligation to its citizens to limit immigration and root out illegal immigrants, because they pose a threat to US sovereignty."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "The fact that \"queer\" doesn't have a scientific backing doesn't make it any more of a choice, it just means there hasn't been scientific research that backs it.  I mean, has their been peer reviewed scientific research that shows that \"queer\" is  not  the result of the same kinds of hormone imbalances and genetic predispositions that result in homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgenderism (is that the word I'm looking for?)? \n I don't have the greatest understanding of LGBT history and theory, so please correct me if I'm wrong in what I'm about to say.  It's my understanding that the concept of sexuality being a spectrum rather than set categories (keep in mind, I'm not talking about something like the Kinsey scale, which is similar but not quite the same as a sexuality spectrum). \n It's also my understanding that \"queer\" is typically used to describe sexualities that exist somewhere on the spectrum outside of categories like bisexual, homosexual, and transgendered.  It's like a collect all term for what's in between.  If that's the case, and it's also true that the view of sexuality as a spectrum is also relatively new, it seems like the lack of research and theory in regards to \"queer\" may be a result of the newness of it. \n Now, again with limited understanding and as an outsider of sorts, I've always seen the LGBTQ community as kind of a collective movement/support group/etc. for people that fall outside of heternormative classifications for sexuality (I.E. people who are not cis-hetero).  If that's the case, I don't see why queer people should be excluded.  They identify with a sexuality that falls outside social norms and face not only personal struggles but potentially also violence and hatred because of it. \n Further, why the fuck does it matter if their gender/sexuality identity is a choice or not? I've always maintained that it shouldn't matter whether it's a choice to go against heternormativity.  Even if someone hypothetically chose to be gay or transgendered, it doesn't make them any less moral, human, or deserving of the right to identify how they please.  In my opinion, saying that queer people don't deserve to be part of the LGBTQ community because they chose their gender/sexual identity only serves to help homophobic bigots who argue that gay and transgendered people choose to be so and are thus subhuman.  You literally hold the same views towards queer people that Jim Bo from Alabama holds towards bisexuals like yourself. \n Honestly, it sounds like your problems is not really with queer people or the existence of queer as a descriptor of sexual identity, but rather with people who you view as having infiltrated a group you identify with (LGBTQ groups on campus or out in the world) while not actually belonging in that group.  \"Fake\" gay people who use queer to define their sexuality to hide the fact that they're actually just cis-hets who are a little too enthusiastic about the \"Ally\" part of their local GSA.  I've seen it a lot at college.  The GSA at the college in the town where I live is rather overrun by people who consider themselves to be otherkins and demisexual and other such gender/sexual identities.  They're all one part delusional and one part insecure introverts trying to find somewhere to fit in.  Unfortunately, they can outnumber people who have faced actual hardships and struggles in life because of actual gender/sexual identities that aren't just a phase and aren't just experimenting and aren't just attempts to fit in.  It can lead to actual LGBTQ people feeling excluded from a group that exists primarily as a way for them to get support and not feel excluded from other people that have similar struggles and experiences. \n That doesn't mean you can just discount people like /u/FallingSnowAngel who seems to legitimately identify as queer and face hardships because it.  I mean, I could probably make very similar to the one you've made here in this post but about bisexuals.  \"They're just experimenting\", \"It's just a phase\", \"They're just too scared to come out as gay\".  Even some rather extreme members of the gay rights movement don't think bisexuality is legitimate, as I've found IRL and on the internets, and there's more than a few people with such views.  I even have a couple friends who came to college identifying themselves as bisexual because it made them seem open-minded and liberal at their new liberal school, only to run the other direction the first time another guy made a pass at them.  None of them still identify as bisexual.  Despite that, though, I view bisexuality just as legitimate as any other gender identity.  I don't just judge the group as a whole based on people who assumed an identity in the process of figuring themselves out.", "id": "cdkv8aw", "summary": "Who gives a fuck if it's a choice?  People should be free to assume whatever gender/sexuality identity they're most comfortable with, regardless of whether it's innate or a choice.  To say otherwise, and to say that queer is illegitimate along these lines only serves to help homophobic bigots.  It sounds like the real root of your animosity towards queer people is that you've experienced a lot of people assume that identity to try to fit in to the LGBTQ community when it's not really where they belong."}, {"author": "ttoasty", "content": "Hillary Clinton has a realpolitik approach to politics.  In my opinion, that's her greatest strength and her greatest weakness. \n She'll never really take a stance on many issues.  She may champion liberal causes, such as support for the working and middle class, but she's also been on the board of Wal-mart and is generally regarded as more friendly to Wall Street than your typical Democrat.  I wouldn't expect anything but for her to sell out on lesser causes if it gives her a leg up on more important issues.  That's seen as a weakness, but in the past decade we've seen what steadfast ideological stances gives us in politics.  It could more generously be considered a willingness to compromise. \n You can also see this from her time as SoS.  She never really came out and said, \"Here's my bucket list for this job.\"  Compare that to Kerry, who very early on said he'd like to oversee a two state solution for Israel, and generally executes foreign policy like it's a bunch of personal pet projects (Iran, for example). \n That's not to say she's not willing to take a stance.  I'm not sure I'd want to oppose Hillary, whether it's within the party or from across the aisle.  One thing I'd hope to see from her administration if she became president is more engagement with Congress.  Obama doesn't like politicking.  He's not willing to keep his own party in line, a great example being the Democrats internal compromises over Obamacare, and has really only gone toe to toe with Republicans since the government shutdown.  I don't think we'd see the same thing from Clinton. \n She also won't be a very transparent president.  Obama has said he wants to be a transparent president, and he's succeeded at that in some areas and failed in others. I doubt Clinton would even pay lip service to the idea, though.  Her scandals are a good indicator of that.  Regardless of opinions on their severity, I personally don't find her recent scandals very scandalous, she survives them by shrugging them off.  I expect many controversies during a Clinton presidency would get the same treatment. \n In my opinion, Clinton is a more oldschool type politician.  She's less concerned about fairly representing the will of the people and more concerned about executing what she believes is in their best interest.  That's become unfashionable lately, but it's the way American politicians have operated since our founding.  Pragmatic and opaque.", "id": "cpxes9a", "summary": "Clinton is like Frank Underwood, except she's (probably) never personally killed anyone.  You don't go to Yale without learning to keep your hands clean."}]}
+{"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Last season was hardly the most we ever spent in a transfer window. 2010/11 beats it in terms of total spending and net spending. \n edit: I also just reread your question one more time, I noticed this bit: \n > you are on your way to 100m this summer. \n This brings back the net spending argument: We sold David Luiz, Ba, and Lukaku for 82.7m. In turn we signed Cesc, Costa, Luis, and Drogba for 77.8m.  That means our total spending has been 77.8m, and our net spending is at -4.9m . That means we're going to have to do something absolutely drastic to really break a record for spending.", "output": "the most Chelsea has ever spent was last season. \n I don't know how credible that is, TBQH. \n Schurrle and Willian were 48.7m. Marco Van Ginkel was our most high brow signing at 8m,(sum:  56.7m ). Schwartzer was free, we signed him because we needed a backup keeper to replace Turnbull, and he was cost efficient. Eto'o was 2m. (sum:  58.7m  for 5 first team players), The Chelsea of old (aka; 03-08Chelsea), would've dropped over 20m for a top backup striker (a la Torres, Anelka, Sturridge, or Drogba), but we chose the most cost efficient option. Atsu and Cuevas cost 5.2m together, but knowing Emenalo, we'll probably get 10m off them at one point. ( sum: 63.9m ). Then in January, our spending went way up, when we got Matic, Salah, and Zouma for 44.5m. That's for 3 first team players, (final sum:  108.4m ). Now you're scoffing, but the problem is, we signed Matic, Salah, and Zouma for 44.5m AFTER we sold Juan Mata and KDB for 53.6m. That puts the  net spending for 13/14 at 54.8m . \n Comapre this to the 12/13 season when we released 11 players (including Drogba, Bosingwa, Mitrovic, and Kalou for free. And let Sturridge and Miereles go for 20m. Who did we sign in turn? We spent  86.6  on Hazard, Oscar, Ba, Thorgan, Wallace, Marin, Moses, Cesar, and Christensen. That's a net spending of  66.6m.  (more net spending than last season) \n 10/11 Season? We spent  97m  on Luiz, Ramires, and Torres alone (!!!), Benayoun, Kalas, and Delac added 10.8m, adding the sum to  108.7m  (more than last season). But in turn, we got 16m off of Sinclair, Stoch, Di Santo, and Carvalho. But released Belletti, Ballack, Cole, and Deco for free. ( Net Spending: 92.7 ) \n I'm not going to bother mentioning the amount of money Reineri and Mourinho spent during the beginning of \"the Roman Empire\". \n Basically, (and"}], "user_id": "longlamp_3151", "history": [{"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Arsenal fans are guilty of it too \n Exactly. It's called banter, and /r/gunners takes it way too seriously. \n For every post we make that insults an Arsenal player, there are at least 5 posts calling each of us out. I can go on /r/gunners right now and I  will  have my feelings hurt. But will I get all wound up and comment on your posts? no. because I understand banter.", "id": "cea2s68", "summary": "for both my comments on this subthread), don't take banter so seriously, there are never any winners or losers."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Most of those assists came up against smaller teams. He got like 3 assists in his debut, and 4/5 in 3 games when everyone is in form. In that same time frame, Ramsey and Giroud were both ahead of Ozil in assists too, so that just further clarifies my point. In contrast, Rooney has accumulated his league leading 8 assists (for the second season in a row) through a consistent assist-per-game ratio. Same goes for Gerrard and Zabaleta - except they're behind Ozil right now.", "id": "ce9f5k4", "summary": "Assists don't mean much when you're talking about a player's overall ability"}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "I hate to play Devil's advocate, but this is a pet peeve of mine that I surely need to address. \n Pardew is often cricized for his shit tactics, but people often don't address it unless they lose by 3 or 4 goals. It's always either \"wow Pep is a fucking genius, who would've thought playing Muller as a lone striker would pay off so well?\" or \"Wow Rafa is such an idiot, why would he ever play Wesley Sneijder as a striker alongside Milito?!\" \n Mourinho has also fell victim to this in his first season at Chelsea, when he played Essien as a right back to accommodate Makele. And Di Matteo was praised for daring to hand Bertrand a debut in the Champions League final on the left flank as a winger. \n My point is, this isn't FIFA 14. Formations and positions aren't set in stone. If Gouffran is excelling as a goalscorer and Cisse isn't doing much as a lone striker, then why not play a second striker? It's Gouffran's regular role, just more in the center. Dummett on the other hand, has always been a left back IIRC. if your concern is that he's inexperienced and shouldn't be playing in the business end of the season, then that's Pardew's risk to take.", "id": "cgwjmh5", "summary": "Ease off, formations and positions are meant to be changed"}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "All things considered, I'd still go with Spain. Busquets-Iniesta-Koke is fantastic. If the bench was to fill in, it would Javi-Isco-Fabregas. Germany won the World Cup because every player in the squad complemented each other, and subsequently covered each other's weaknesses. Not to mention the matter of the midfield being changed completely in the knockout stage. Argentina's midfield was also incredible, but lets be honest, that was 90% Mascherano, and the other two midfielders just serviced Messi. Netherlands' midfield was not too shabby, but I dont know about how they compare. Brazil's strength was on the wings, and their defense (bar the 7-1), Fernandinho-Gustavo-Oscar only looks good on paper, truth be told. Only reason why I'm not discussing the current team is because Dunga's still trying to build a solid system, but I'm pleased to see how good the results have been. Belgium's midfield 3 was solid as ever, there was a point in the knockout rounds where I genuinely believed they will reach the final (technically, they could've, if they beat Argentina and held on against Netherlands), but I still think that midfield is a work in progress. In my brutally unpopular opinion, the only midfield 3 that can compare to Spain's, is France's. Matuidi-Pogba-Cabaye. That's effective.", "id": "cm2f3k7", "summary": "My answer is Spain"}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Have you been to a New York City precinct, or saw one firsthand? Not every institution has its own delegated parking lot like in, say, Atlanta or Oakland. If you''re heading to your church in downtown Atlanta, you'll be able to park your car in one of its colossal high rise parking lots. In New York City the only places that get their own parking lots are a select few fast food chains in the surrounding boroughs, or a select few medical buildings that can afford it. The city doesn't delegate a parking lot to every precinct, and the precincts that do get one are probably in the middle of nowhere (Crown Heights/Forest Hills), or in Staten Island (which is essentially a suburb). \n Now here's the problem: every precinct is delegated around 20-30 squad cars (rough estimation). Some of them even get those heavy duty vehicles. If they have a driveway or a one-car lot, where are they going to hold their cars? I'll tell you where, outside their precinct. There's an actual long standing NYC law that lets NYPD drivers park diagonally on an adjacent sidewalk. If you look at OP's picture, you'll see the diagonal lines indicating that the parking space is adjacent to the bike lane. And I can only assume the precinct is there, because there's no other reason so many squad cars would take up all that space in one concentrated area unless there's a funeral, but I think they use limos for that circumstance. \n There's a sidewalk there because there's sidewalks everywhere. It's New York City. It would be a disaster if so many cops used a car parking space that's not delegated to them, because then there would be a gridlock of people trying to find a closer parking space, assuming the intersection is busy. And those cars in the picture aren't parked in a car lane. \n Basically,", "id": "cjr7coq", "summary": "There's nothing wrong in this picture. move along."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Arteta isn't a traditional defensive midfielder. His method of defense is to keep possession and rely on Kosc-Mertesacker to clean up after him, I've heard people call him a \"pivot player\", but I hate that word so I won't use it. I'm not saying he often gets caught out, but he was the butt of all criticism at a point last season. Him being in that deep role takes away his ability to provide the final ball as often as he truly can, and Ramsey, who is one of the most talented box-to-box players in the PL, often gets called in to do a defensive shift when Arteta is in trouble. Wilshere and Flamini are other players who usually play in that role next to Arteta. And they have a bad disciplinary record. Why? It's because they're the \"last-ditch defenders\" in that midfield, in case Arteta isn't there to cover the counter attack in fast-paced games. Ozil in the other hand, plays in that advanced role in the hole behind the striker and is free to do whatever he wants, as long as he goes up with the ball and provides that final ball. Ramsey played in Ozil's place today, and scored. Wilshere and Flamini did their shifts beside Arteta. Good for them for containing Toure and co. \n Now throw in Diaby. He isn't a player known for going up. He's not known for providing that final ball. He's just known for his well timed last-ditch tackles. The strength and height he boasts, and his surprising speed and instinct to contain a rushing attacker (not to mention his infamous match fitness). He's not going to take part in the counter attack or the buildup play. He's going to stay posted around the box, maintaining that high line and covering for any of the center backs in case they go up. This will give Ramsey and Ozil the freedom to roam, and not have to rely on defensive duties as much. The only problem with this setup is that Diaby will likely be stretchered off and replaced by Flamini or Arteta. Thus pushing Ramsey/Wilshere back into that deep midfield. This is likely why Sami Khedira and William Carvalho have been on Arsenal's radar. Because they fit Diaby's description, and they aren't as injury prone.", "id": "cjmirkt", "summary": "With Arteta, one of Ramsey/Wilshere will have to cover for him. With Diaby, Ramsey/Wilshere will have the freedom to roam."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "just because Ramires was playing as winger, doesn't mean that  wasn't going to be defensive minded considering what his natural play style is \n (sorry, paraphrasing) \n I don't think you ever watched Ramires play. He's always the fastest player on the pitch, running from box to box and into the 6 yard line challenging defender after defender. He's also trigger happy, so even when he's the only player in the pivot, he'll still be out in Lampard's position taking a long shot. He's a catalyst for attack \n It's like that god awful \"David Luiz is a defensive substitution, even if he's playing Box-to-Box, because he  usually  plays defense. Newsflash, if a defender is given the striker role, he's a striker. If Eto'o is given the fullback role for whatever reason, he's a defender. Michael Carrick has played many games in defense, is that considered an offense minded change?", "id": "cfh19hp", "summary": "if Ramires plays as a winger, he's a winger not a fullback/DM"}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Bale single handedly carried Tottenham for the last few seasons at the then-age of 23, more so than then-28 year old RVP carried Arsenal. By the time Robin Van Persie joined Manchester United for a 20something-million euro fee at the age of 29, it was clear that the bar for fees have been raised. More and more unexplainable transfer fees soon followed, Falcao, Ibrahimovich, Fernandinho, Willian, etc... the bar for transfer fees at that point rose  WAY UP . \n Now go back on topic to Tottenham. A team literally built around this 23 year old super star. PFA player of the year, PFA young player of the year, single handedly carried Spurs through their first champions league campaign, single handedly carried them through the Europa League, single handedly carried them through the EPL. He even helped sustain and improve the careers of everyone around him - Modric, VDV, Lennon, Adebayor, etc.. He was a young player with a lot of potential. Still regarded a U23 player at the time - which raises his price in the market, he was still a domestic/homegrown player at the time - which raises his price in the market. And he was considered a huge asset to his team - which raises his price in the market. \n Now focus on Bale. He's this U23, homegrown, marquee player, in the English Premier League - arguably the toughest league in the world. When Ronaldo left the Premier League at the age of 24, he went for ~80million euros - a world record at the time. Without Ronaldo, Manchester United had to rebuild, granted with SAF in charge, it didn't take long at all. Tottenham on the other hand, would have to rebuild completely from losing out on Bale, so it was their top priority to keep him at the club. \n Now we're on the subject of negotiations. What happens when you have two smart businessmen, arguing over a valuable player? Negotiation talks. You have Levy&co. on one side, desperately trying to hold on to Bale, who is arguably their Maradona/Pele (whatever have you). Then you have all of Spain on the other side, trying to bring the wonder kid to Madrid. Tottenham aren't budging, why do they have to sell him? they're not obligated to, right? Update:  Barcelona sign Neymar , well there you have it, Madrid  need  Bale. yada yada yada, negotiations go down, a month and a half into the biggest transfer war since Barca-Fabregas, and we've reached a verdict,  Bale costs 80million euros . \n Now here you are, wondering why/how he cost so much? Is he worth that much? Well two hat tricks, a brace or two, and a debut goal later, and you be the judge of that. Real Madrid went a month without Ronaldo, and still recorded some of the best results they could in ages, and that's just a testament to why Bale is worth way more than 45million euros, regardless of his actual final price, which is just as justified.", "id": "ced1rpp", "summary": "Bale is completely worth more than 45million euros, and his final price of 92million was inevitable \n edit: and oh yeah, Hazard is obviously worth his transfer fee, anyone who disagrees is stupid"}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "I'm sorry but it's not that hard to pull off. At all. When you're a kid your dad tries to teach you how to kill the ball in mid air with a single touch. That's also the method to learning how to juggle the ball efficiently and shoot on target with a full volley from a cross field pass or a \"switch\". If you tried to switch the play towards me I would go for the ball the same way OX did and tried to kill the ball with my first ouch by lowering my right foot along win the ball as To add traction and have it roll forward as I continue my run. I wouldn't get it every time because I'm not a professional footballer like him, but I play every day so I can compete in regional tournaments. What he did wrong (and it's not his fault), he caught the ball awkwardly, and it continued bouncing before he jerked his body out of balance to try to connect the second touch. In this moment, the ball was no longer rolling and thus far too close to his body as he landed from the jump, this means to take off for the run, he had to readjust his body one last time and bring the ball with him, albeit with an efficient little trick. So in this entire moment, which lasted what? 30 seconds, he had to adjust his body three times to accommodate the ball, he had to make 3 touches on it, and he was almost in danger of doing in his knee based on how he was about to land before he adjusted his body. \n So a", "id": "cjc5v3a", "summary": "I was trained to catch the ball and run with one touch,chamberlain needed 3 touches. He's a professional athlete, I'm just a Sunday league player."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "My point wasn't that he's a flop. I'm not sure I would call Ozil a flop, I would say the whole transfer and decision of buying Ozil was a disaster. A striker should've been bought in January or August. Ozil is a luxury player, but he'll never win you the title. So basically, in short, Arsenal is the flop. But can you seriously call Arsenal a flop? It'll blow up as the most ridiculous headline of all time. So the next best thing is to pick scapegoats. Is it Arsene Wenger's fault he signed Ozil and followed it up with Kallstrom, as if its okay? Yes. But Arsene has been scrutinized for the last 9 years. So what does the media do when the headline is overdone? They pick the next scapegoat. The media darling of the last few years, Ozil. Now people have been giving shit sites like the Sun and Daily Mail traffic for the alst few years and Neil Ashton made a name for himself. Ozil has become a hot topic, and they won.", "id": "cg127en", "summary": "Just let this whole thing blow over. The media is winning right now."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Welbeck was brought in at the last minute because of an unexpected Giroud injury. Many could/should/may consider it a panic buy. That's 16 million euros for a young English striker who was supposed to not only fill in the shoes for Giroud, but also hold the fort while he's away, with the potential of being the first choice striker for the next 3-4 years. However, by the time Giroud came in, he was relegated back to the winger position he was deemed \"too good for\", and he's now considered a failed experiment, with 4 goals in 17 games. His wage isn't ludicrous, but it will only get bigger and bigger. Whether or not he's a failed experiment is irrelevant, he's yours, and you can't get rid of him, and you can't get any new strikers. You're stuck with him, hopefully he'll find his mark before he's 27. \n Falcao was brought in as a loan, to be a very very sufficient third choice striker, in a club where money is neither an issue nor a thing. He's a short term experiment that didn't go exactly as planned. If they spent the whole 50m on him, he'd be considered a flop of epic proportions, but he's just a player brought in  just in case  RVP or Rooney go out of form or get injured. Sure the wage is awful, but since Welbeck's departure, United were able to bring in James Wilson, who has shown some kind of signs of potential.  United essentially spent 6m on a third choice striker and got a good enough return all things considered. Now, while Welbeck is a long term investment, Falcao is short term - an experiment, aimed to push United into the top 4. Falcao didn't serve his purpose? oh well, he can go now.", "id": "cp9minu", "summary": "we're comparing a third choice striker to a second choice striker. Your second choice striker cost 16m and he's here to stay. their third choice striker cost 6m and he's just here for a season. They both got the same tally this season."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "When you compare two teams you have to compare each part of the squad to the other. Strikers to strikers, midfielders to midfielders, defenders to defenders, and Goalkeepers to goalkeepers. \n First things first, there's a psychological idea that teams where most of the players play together, generally do better. So we immediately concede that the Bayern/Arsenal contingency at Germany put them in a good position in that respect, but same can be said for England and their Liverpool/United/Chelsea contingency. \n Now that we have that out of the way, look at the actual depth factor. Germany's  strikers  ? Klose: their top scorer. England's strikers? Daniel Sturridge, EPL's second highest goal scorer, Rickie Lambert with 3 goals in 6 games. Danny Welbeck who is still reliable as a 4th choice. And Rooney, who brings a lot to the table as a number 10 or as a number 9. Given Klose's age, he won't be able to play 90 minutes of every game so a squad rotation will need to be implemented, putting any one of Schurrle, Podolski, Muller, and Goetze in that false 9 position. It's effective, but is it reliable? debatable. \n Now the  midfield . Germany's claim to the title of \"best midfield\" mostly goes down to the fact that their entire team is basically one huge midfield selection pool...honestly speaking. Gotze, Khedira, Kroos, Ozil, Muller, and Schurrle? Class. Podolski and Schweinsteigger bring a lot of experience and skill to the table. Then there are other midfielders who I cba to mention. Let's take a look at England. Barkley, Sterling, Lallana, and Henderson are inexperienced in the senior level but two of them played a big role in Liverpool's title race, while Lallana and Barkley have been PL standouts this season for good reason. Gerrard and Lampard bring a lot of experience to the side and have proved to be able to hold their own. Then there's Milner, Ox, and Wilshere who are not only very versatile but have proven to have good performances in big games for club and country. And 2/3 of them are likely to sit out (Wilshere and Milner). I would say the German midfield only slightly edges out the Englsih because its \"stacked\"...and its German. But too many attacking midfielders is never a good thing. Especially when Lahm is called to play as a midfielder. \n This is the only genuinely controversial part of my argument: England's  defense i s far superior to Germany's. Why? Few Reasons: Cahill was probably the best defender in the PL this season while Jones and Jagielka have shown they can hold their own in big games. Smalling and Johnson are the biggest liabilities but all teams have them. The left is - for a lack of better words - \"Stacked\". Leighton Baines has shown great chemistry with Jagielka as they're teammates so he'll do well there. Luke Shaw is a fantastic backup, and now that he may join United, he'll be working hard to prove himself to Van Gaal and his other potential employers. Germany on the other hand have big names in the back but there's no certainty any of them will start. Per Mertesacker may have been in league with Gary Cahill this season if not better. Jerome Boateng has generally been shaky at best as a defender, and his chemistry with the other center back will be put to the test..at the wrong time. Hummels and Howedes add more competition to the CB role because they're well established, but that many egos can have negative effects on the team, and I predict it will. Mustafi, Durm, Groskruetz, and Ginter may be brilliant for their clubs, but they seemed to have been thrown into the squad randomly. They have a total of 9 appearances between them. That's not good for the squad at all if they get called upon. I mentioned Lahm before, and he's great don't get me wrong. But what happens when he's inevitably thrown in as a DM? one of the new boys will be called upon, or Boateng will have to play a new role...again. But again, this all goes down to speculation, so you have the right to disagree. \n Goalkeepers . Neuer could be the keeper of the tournament. Then there's Zieler and Weidenfeller who have 6 apeparances between them. Like the defense, their chemistry may be put to the test if Neuer goes down, and that will truly harm the team. Plus Neuer isn't perfect, are we sure he can bail Germany out in case the 2012 Italy vs Germany \nhappens all over again? England have Hart, Foster, and Forster. Okay okay, so my argument about appearances comes back to haunt me. Let's look at Foster and Forster who have 9 caps between them. Forster is well known and praised for his keeping performances for Celtic (who play in CL), and Foster has years of top football under his belt for many clubs including Manchester United. Zieler doesn't play in the CL or Europa League. Weindenfeller was phenomenal last season for Dortmund but again, and he's more experienced overall than Hart so fair enough. But can you trust him in the system? \n Also, I'm not even putting into account the fact that the whole team has played lethargically in warm ups and a lot of the players have been out of form for the latter part of the season (Ozil mostly).", "id": "ci4k1b0", "summary": "There's a lot of uncertainty, lack of experience, and a shocking lack of depth in the Germany squad."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Gerrard is on his testimonial season, Lampard's career has seen him go from a villain at West Ham, to a Chelsea legend, to a City/NYCFC enigma. Scholes on the other hand, has never been really been controversial, kept it all on the pitch, and never got a chance to piss of any fans.", "id": "crb44b7", "summary": "Gerrard Farewell Tour Hype\" - /u/Galgenfrist"}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "There's a fun chant that happens at every Red Bull game. It goes \"where in New York is Harrison! Where in New York is Harrison!\". It's kind spirited and its funny, just as much as its relevant. Fact of the matter is, the New York Red Bulls aren't a New York team. When they have a special event, it will be held in one of three places: The SoHo Adidas store, Hoboken, or the Red Bull Arena. Only one of those is in NYC. Hoboken and Harrison are easy to get to, don't get me wrong. When I'm in the states visiting my parents in Brooklyn, I can get there in an hour via transit. A drive takes 30 minutes through Staten Island. But Red Bull Arena is by no means a New York venue. Henry talks about how much he loves New York and how much he's living his dream, but he never spends a day there. Tim Cahill rents a home near my buddy in South Jersey. Agudelo, Altidore, Howard, and all the RBNY/Metrostar legends are from Jersey. Even their press releases and press conferences are in Hoboken. It doesn't sound like much of a big deal, but it is. Imagine your favorite London Club is in Surrey. It's not that hard to get there, but its neither London, nor do the locals want to be considered Londoners. I would've made the comparison of having your favorite Argentine team in Uruguay, but I don't know much about those politics. \n Now take a look at NYCFC. They're owned by the Yankees. Everyone in New York loves the yankees (well, not really, most of Queens and Brooklyn loves the Mets, but let's go with what I said).  Its easy to get to, as the home games are in Yankee Stadium. If you ever lived in New York City, you know how easy it is to get to Yankee Stadium. Every train line will take you there. Everyone who lives around there is a proud New Yorker. You won't go there and see proud Jersey boys, memorials commemorating New Jersey, and other stuff. It's all New York. Hell, two weeks ago NYCFC had a press conference at my local pitch, the one I used to play at all the time during the school year (Pier 5), and I got to meet Frank Lampard. The other day my friend met David Villa at a random pop-up event. NYCFC has a fucking office in New York City. Do you know where RBNY's office is? IIRC, Hoboken. Or is it Harrison/Newark? God knows, its not much of a New York team, that's what I'm saying.", "id": "cjkvhxn", "summary": "Red Bulls aren't a New York team. Any native New Yorker who wants to turn to NYCFC should be free to do so."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Look at it this way: \n Ferguson spent the last season or two building a team that can win the title one last time before he retires. He bought 29 year old Robin Van Persie, brought back 35 year old Scholes and committed to building the team around Giggs and Carrick, with a back line of Evra, Rio and Vidic (...and Rafael). Yeah, he brought in some top prospects from the academy (including Welbeck), but he didn't leave much for his successor to work with. Moyes had to tame the backroom and work with a generally average team that won with a master stroke. \n Now take a look at Wenger's team. He's been building for the future for the last 10 years. Only recently he's been breaking bank for top players, and the current team can realistically stay the same for the next 5 years, (albeit, injuries will keep coming until its addressed). If, say, David Moyes came in next summer. He'll probably do just fine. Will Arsenal play uglier? maybe, that's entirely subjective. Will they win silverware consistently?  Maybe..why not? But see, David Moyes wouldn't be the direct replacement..it'd be someone in league with Klopp, Guardiola and Laurent Blanc - if any of them took over Arsenal, we're looking at a potential Champions League finalist", "id": "cpfap3x", "summary": "no, Wenger's retirement will not be as detrimental as SAF's"}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "He has a smug attitude and is far too opinionated for a celebrity. \n While his CNN news program was very credible and very interesting, he often used it to kind of advocate and endorse his views upon people, even if some of the views were rather accurate (ie: Gun laws) \n Arsenal fans just hate him because he's always the first to condemn the squad and the manager, but I don't see the point in that hate given they end up doing the same thing.", "id": "cgnjoy3", "summary": "He's a high-profile arrogant keyboard warrior with a huge audience."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "it all matters because Pellegrini took a very very strong team that regularly competed for the title (1st and 2nd place every season for the last 3-4), and signed even bigger players. When he got the team, the strike force was Tevez, Dzeko, Aguero, and Roque Santa Cruz. He realized they need to push for the title this season, so they sold Tevez and Santa Cruz and got 12m for it, before spending 42m on Negredo and Jovetic. He then figured the midfield he had wasn't up to par with the next big team, so he spent 45m on Fernandinho and Navas. If that wasn't enough, he figured it wouldn't hurt to just pick up Demichellis for 5m. (smart decision in hindsight). I'm not going to dare get up and say that's why they won the title. They were a strong side before the season started, but Pellegrini made it 10x stronger by signing depth players. To understand my point, you just have to acknowledge the fact that Jovetic and Negredo both missed half a season but their absence made no difference. That's called depth. Now Mangala and Fernando came in this summer, and they loaned in Lampard just because. With a little bit of spending, they built two teams worthy of winning the Premier League. \n Compare this to Chelsea. (Pay attention, this is where the net spending argument matters). Our strike force was abysmal. Ba and Torres were both inefficient. No top team can go into the season touting either of them and seriously competing for the title. So we picked up Eto'o for petty cash. Picked up Schwarzer for free because we needed to replace Turnbull while Courtois was in Madrid. Willian was on the market  and Mourinho craved him, we needed to offer a lot to lure him from Spurs, so we did: 30m. Andre Schurrle came in for 19m, because we were lacking in the goals department, as aforementioned, and as evident by our record this season. That's petty cash considering he went on to win the World Cup. That was all of our first-team signings in the summer. We addressed our problems and came in with a new string of problems. The CM partnership of Lampard/Mikel and Ramires wans't working and Mata/KDB weren't helping the squad: basically, Mourinho felt the team he inherited was imbalanced. So he sold KDB and Mata for around 50m. With that cash he addressed our problem in the center of midfield with Matic (who is a key player now), and he fixed the goals problem with Salah, who went on to score 2 or 3. I'm sure we could've reached the champions League final if Matic and Salah weren't cup-tied, but that's a debate for another time.", "id": "cjrelgg", "summary": "Pellegrini inherited a strong team and made it stronger. Mourinho inherited a ...not so strong team, and addressed its problems."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Don't forget that he's only 21 \n That doesn't mean anything any more. The bar has been raised and when players like Hazard, Neymar, Götze, Oscar, James, and Isco are tapping into their potential at the age of 22, 21 isn't all that young anymore. The fact of the matter is, Lukaku isn't improving that much, it just looks like he's trying to live on the form he had two seasons ago. And with the likes of Sterling, Kane, and even Berahino breaking into the scene early, the standard for improvement is being raised even further. I mean, Ross Barkley is only 21 and I don't hear a lot of people saying he's still one to watch, or that he'l improve drastically.  Remember Jozy Atlidore? He was also young once - now he has exhausted everyone's patience. Jack Wilshere is the poster child of my point; no matter how much you try to say \"he's only 23, fuck off\", he's been in the senior team for nearly 8 years, probably the most senior-most player in the squad, missed a season or three to injury, showed signs of improvement as recently as a month ago, but really isn't young anymore, by any sense of the word - his timeline for vast improvement is nearly over.", "id": "cokcdiz", "summary": "Being 21 doesn't excuse the fact that he's not improving"}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "I don't see how this solves anything. City and PSG have spent well beyond their means but they still aren't any better or worse financially than the likes of Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Arsenal, and United.Heck, next season when Liverpool and Roma get their CL wage boosts, they're probably going to spend 100-200million too. \n I understand that Arsene's standpoint is from a morality perspective, and he's suggesting teams should be punished for breaking the law and not so much punished for breaking bank for an unfair advantage, but the reality is, if PSG and City get banned from the CL, who will come in their place? Everton and Lille/St-Etienne? Those teams would get thrashed by another financial powerhouse, sent into the Europa League, and their season would go down the drain. \n I personally think City and PSG should face this fine, face their sanction, leave with some kind of warning, get a bigger punishment if they keep crossing the line, and simply not lose their well-deserved spot in the Champions League because of a first-strike. Arsene Wenger on the other hand, should get with the times and face the harsh reality that it's not 2004 anymore and money rules everything. \n I said it earlier in this post, and i'll say it again, next season when Liverpool, Chelsea, City, and United each spend around 150million on squad adjustments and Arsene settles for a 30million pound marquee player it'll be the same old song and dance and the financial injustice rants will keep on coming. I for one, really don't care for them.", "id": "chdfusp", "summary": "City and PSG should stay in the CL because they actually deserve it, despite their spending. Arsene Wenger should accept the financial aspect of the game, because it actually works."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "It's not any one person's fault. It's a terrible transition period and this was inevitable. Moyes inherited an absolutely pathetic aging squad, and it doesn't help that this squad has been haunted by injury and egos. \n De Gea, Smalling, and Cleverly are three long term players that SAF committed to. Moyes is too stubborn to get rid of them, and it has already back fired. Everytime they fail, he recieves scrutiny, every time he loks for ways t replace them, via using Giggs or Jones in the deep role, he receives scrutiny. I'm impressed he didn't resign yet, considering the pressure he's facing. \n Then there's the aging squad problem. Moyes constantly gets criticized for using Rio in his starting XI, but does he have any other options? Carrick, Ferdinand, Evra, Vidic, RVP, and especially Giggs are over 30. Sure RVP and Evra ae still fantastic players, but you would think Moyes would at least take strides to replace them? Nope, Chicharito and Welbeck can rarely catch a break, and Buttner is completely M.I.A. \n Also, SAF is still technical director, and Giggs refuses to retire. How the fuck is Moyes supposed to move on, if he has the SAF philosophy still alive in the club? And Rooney, he's pulling all the strings too. Moyes has no control, and I think that's just temporary. \n I feel like next season, they'll be back in contentin", "id": "cfoua5p", "summary": "The problem is that SAF is still breathing down Moyes' neck, and the squad is way too old and egotistical. Moyes has no control"}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "a penalty isn't a fair challenge in the case where a player like Robben is inside the box and Szcezny recklessly takes him down. Robben's touch wasn't good at all, but Szczesny showed absolutely no signs of getting the ball. If he stayed on, he would go for that challenge again in the next game, then the game after that, and the game after that. Alaba didn't score the penalty, while Robben would've easily scored on that chance if he succeeded with his touch. If Szczesny stayed on and Alaba subsequently missed his penalty, then the game would go down into mass controversy because Szczesny denied Robben's goal scoring chance, and thus forced a penalty which missed. More goalkeepers would see that, know that a penalty doesn't mean a goal, and that their challenge won't be punished with a red, so they would do it more often. \n Suarez blocked Ghana's shot, got sent off because its a handball and stopped a goal scoring chance, and was the last man, penalty, didn't go in. If he stayed on, which he would never stay on, and that penalty would've missed, Uruguay would go on to win, Suarez would b free to do it in the next round against Netherlands \n [Let's look at Poland's opening game at the Euros, against Greece]( Showed no signs of getting the ball with his late challenge, was sent off, subsequent penalty was immediately missed. What would happen if Szczesny stayed on and the penalty wasn't converted? The game would go down in history as the time Szczesny cheated to deny Greece a goal, and he would be the butt of all controversy. \n [Let's look at the time Torres beat DDG and went through on goal to eventually miss]( De Gea did show signs of getting the ball, but he barely missed contact on grabbing Torres' leg. What would happen if he did succeed in pulling down Torres, thus stopping him from getting the ball. The penalty would be awarded, granted, in this situation, we don't know if it would be missed or converted, but if De Gea stayed on and just got a yellow, he would be free to make this challenge again in the next game. Fernando Torres would probably never score a goal again on a 1v1, because keepers would know that they have the power to pull a player down. \n To add to that, 1v1s would be futile. Breakaways wouold be futile. Counter Attacks would be futile. Red Cards would be futile. Strikers would be futile. All offensive strategy ill be void. And the last man's job would just be to go in for a rugby tackle, because hey, The worst that can happen is a penalty.", "id": "cfmlr72", "summary": "A penalty isn't much of a punishment, because it doesn't necessarily get converted. A yellow card isn't a punishment at all because it leaves the door open for many more of these challenges \n edit: You can down vote me all you want, but it just comes off childish if you're not willing to make an argument"}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Upon joining New York he made a deal that would give him the captain's armband from that point forward. Since then, he took that captain role a little too far and became a psuedo player-coach, ultimately having the hand in the ex-coach's firing. While the press he has gotten since joining the MLs has been outstanding because of that one documentary about it, most of the headlines he made revolved around the red cards he got for mouthing off at the referee (plus the crazy goals he scores!). \n I remember once watching an MLS playoff just to see him play, and he spent the entirety of the second half (or extra time) doing a \"time wasting\" gesture, because the other team was taking their time. While such a gesture is understandable, he was doing it for 30-45 minutes and lecturing teammates for taking on defenders and not passing the ball", "id": "cgucq1r", "summary": "Too much mouthing off at refs. Control Freak at New York."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "It's a sensitive topic because fan base is flexible. Look at it this way (hypothetical way). So Barcelona is banned from the competition, United hasn't made it to the UCL for the first time in decades, and Liverpool is finally back in the competition. \n Barcelona fans won't just drop everything and stop watching it. IF anything it would  increase  viewership from Barca fans. why? Because usually barcelona fans would  only  tune in for their team's game. But now that they don't have a specific team to support, they may pull towards someone else for now, and thus start watching more games now that they're not inclined to only one team in the competition itself. \n Then it will be the story of how Liverpool would fair, and how open the competition is without United and Barca, and what other teams can rise to the occasion.  You'd be surprised by how many stories and dramas the media can make out of a lackluster season. \n Barcelona was thrashed 7-0 last season (or something) by Bayern, and it was still one of the most watched finals ever. Plus, now that Pep Guardiola is at Bayern, Barca fans would be able to pull for them, out of interest. And then the final unspeakable factor...glory hunters, you know they're there, and you know they won't feel burdened by Barca's disqualification", "id": "cflsiwo", "summary": "UEFA can profit from Barca being suspended, since many Cinderella stories and speculations can happen."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "I thoroughly disagree with anyone who tries to tell me that the inflated market and big sending is ruining the market, it's not. Yeah, RM/Barca monopoly on Spanish talent is turning La Liga into a two horse race and Bayern's monopoly on German talent already ruined the Bundesliga, but what's a league without a Cinderella story or a star studded derby?\nPeople are acting like talent is an endangered species and all of them are going to one place. Fact of the matter is there will always be more and more talent and Chelsea/Bayern/Madrid/Barca/City/Juventus/Monaco/PSG will never sign them all. Wolfsburg and Tottenham have assembled a brilliant squad despite being poached continuously (the latter had a bad season but whatever) Arsene Wenger has always talked out against this new era of football but he has arguably benefited the most out of it, when he signed Cazorla, Ozil, and Alexis when they were all deemed surplus to their teams. Yes, that's what happens when the market is poached by rich teams,  more top talent becomes available. Atletico,  Liverpool, Roma, Napoli, and Dortmund are teams that get the pick of the litter because they earned it. Milan, United,and even Celtic are teams that aren't exactly at all what they used to be, but they can still nab that one highly rated player if they want (yeah Celtic sticks out like a sore thumb in that comparison, but players still know what it is). Teams like Southampton, Everton and Valencia will always be prone to being poached, but its their job to hold onto their signings, and history has shown that the right owners and the right management will keep their assets in tact. \n So", "id": "ciup1ch", "summary": "There's nothing wrong with modern football, it grew. Bottom feeder teams still have room to grow while top teams still have room to do what they will. Every team in the middle still gets the pick of the litter."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "He was played as a forward. In some games he was played in the Right Wing, and as the tournament progressed he was moved to the left wing so Muller can play his natural position. Kroos was the central creative player and he really prospered in that role. But here's the thing, the way the German system works, every player shifts into space and has a free role in the midfield. So any excuse that Ozil didn't perform well because he played out wide is bobbins, he spent 40 mins per game in the middle and Muller, Klose and Kroos were always there in space waiting for the final ball. \n Here's why I would say he did not perform..Ozil's game is a few short passes that open up space and then a final ball to the striker. He did it for Arsenal many times this season, and he even scored because he gave his all for the club. Here comes the World Cup and he's become limited to pass-and-move which thus created chances. IIRC, Ozil completed the most passes in the tournament and the most in the final third. Well, any pass to Muller is a chance. If I was to have space on the right wing, and I passed back to Muller and he did one of his trademark runs, It would go down as a chance created. Hell, I don't need to make you believe me. Take a look at the graphic. Muller and Ozil played the exact same role for their team and they created the exact same amount of chances. Its not because either of them are the best playmakers in the tournament. Its because they did what Low instructed them to do. \n Now, lets talk about goals and assists. That thing we all hate to talk about when we're defending a player. Ozil had at least two 1v1s in this tournament. One of them led to a Brazilian goal that should never have been. The other was just harsh on Ozil. In the 2010 World Cup, the 2012 Euros, or for Arsenal, Ozil would've buried each chance. But alas, he wasn't playing his best/most confident football. He was lethargic throughout the group stage, and I guess once victory became imminent, he really stepped up and played with a little more grace. But then, when you look back at it. He was silent for 90 minutes against Algeria before he finally got his goal (I won't even comment on the circumstance behind that goal). He then put in a quiet performance against France, which didn't play their best game, and really opened up for Muller, Ozil, and Kroos. But that game was lacking chances from the Germans, and that goes down to the playmakers. Look at the Brazil game. Brazil was wide open and any lack of goals would've been disgraceful. Good thing Ozil delivered. Albeit, with an assist. Albeit, he could've taken the shot if he was more confident, but alas, he was not. \n Against Argentina, Ozil lucked out, Khedira and Kramer got taken out so Schuerrle came on, which pushed Kroos back and put Ozil in the center. Checkmate right? Not quite. Ozil had a phenomenal game, beating a few defenders at a time, and creating chances for Schurrle and Muller. However, here's the thing, most of Ozil's chances came from the right wing. Freaky right? The guy who his apologists said is misperforming because he's not central is creating chances from the right wing....its because of tactics. Do you remember Kroos' chance? When Ozil slipped the ball inward and Kroos took a shot at goal? That was just according to plan. You'll get what I mean when you see the highlights and see Muller did the same thing for Schurrle twice. Muller beat a few defenders, slipped the ball into Schurrle's path, and Schurrle took the shot at goal. Towards the end, you see Schurrle and Muller beating a few tired defenders at a time with a run and Ozil having space to himself to do whatever he wants. But why didn't Klose any have chances at goal? Because Ozil didn't deliver hima final ball.  Chance creation is all well and good, but unless you can deliver the final ball Muller delivered against Ghana, Schurrle delivered against Argentina, or Kroos delivered against France or Portugal, its a worthless stat.", "id": "ciy26af", "summary": "Ozil played well enough to earn his spot, but not well enough to prove the critics wrong. It has nothing to do with the position he played. Its all about his input in the final third, which he lacked."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "I just did a bit of research Real Madrid boasts the top 4 World Transfer records (Zidane, Kaka, Ronaldo, Bale), Chelsea's only transfer record is Torres being the highest purchased player by an English club. They only held that distintion when they signed Shevchenko...but Robinho to City soon overtook that. \n The squad Mourinho won his first PL title with cost 294m euros, which was ridiculous at the time, but SAF dropped almost that much in the same time period (on Rio, Ronaldo, Saha, and Rooney..to name a few). But that figure often has people disregard all of the success Chelsea had before Abramovich came in. In the 90s Chelsea were a top team and a regular contender in the FA cup final and PL title race (always in United's shadow though - as was everyone). They already qualified for the champions League before Roman injected a bigger payroll in, so some people could suggest that a title wasn't actually far fetched. Then people went as far as to suggest that the squad we won our first premier league title with was purely run on money...but many would suggest Frank Lampard helped drive that team (of course Drogba, Duff, and Makele played a humongous role). \n What makes the team we won the Premier League so...unmoral...so...overpowered? What makes  that  team so much stronger than the team that had Dennis Wise, Zola, Di Matteo, and Vialli? I'll tell you one thing: It's not the money...It's the philosophy. My point is...(", "id": "ch6o29o", "summary": "say what you will about Roman having a huge affect on Chelsea and turning them into champions, but it was Mourinho who turned Chelsea into champions. It was his philosophy that won us the Champions League, and his philosophy that took us to Moscow in 08."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Ivanovic hasn't been on his best form in weeks. \n Fabregas has 13 assists at this stage in the season. He may be at the peak of his career - a career where he's been on this list at least twice with Arsenal. He's one half of the best CM partnership in England along with Matic. but only one of them made it to the Team of the Season. (or whatever list MNF is calling this).  Schneiderlin may be fantastic, but Fabregas is leading the league in assists and scored a couple too. Standout player in Chelsea's team (along with Hazard and Matic), all three of them should be here IMO. \n Sigurdsson has been carrying Swansea for months. 4 goals and 8 assists at this stage is insane. Standout performer outside of the top 4 this season, along with Sanchez. Should not be excluded. No matter how naturally talented some of his rivals may be, Sigurdsson has been better in the scope of this English Premier League season. But that's my brutally unpopular opinion. A case can be made for Eriksen too ofc. \n Aguero has been injured a lot this season. He's top of the league in goals but he can credit most of them to one really really hot streak. Yes, he can't choose what teams he scores against. And no, he hasn't actually hit a prevalent goal drought.  But if we're talking about a team of the year at this stage of the season, I don't know how he can be in there. 14 goals in 14 games is amazing, Diego Costa's 13 goals in 15 games is fantastic too. But how about Charlie Austin's 12 goals in 16 games carrying QPR? Or Wayne Rooney scoring and carrying United? Aguero carried City for a couple of games but he wasn't there the whole season. My point of comparing them to Austin and Rooney as that the Englishme are consistent while Costa and Aguero are simply not. Costa scored most of his goals in a span of like 3-4 games, and then continued scoring once every 2/3 games because he's Diego Fucking Costa. Aguero scored 4 goals against Spurs, 2 against some another team or two, and then a few before getting injured because Sergio Fucking Aguero. Rooney deserves credit for keeping United in top 4 and possibly contending for the title. Sanchez is a forward and deserves credit for keeping Arsenal in top 4 contention too, and he's just been amazing as an individual. \n My team \n De Gea \n Clyne Fonte Terry Azpilicueta \n Sigurdsson Fabregas Matic Hazard \n Rooney Sanchez", "id": "cn8vq42", "summary": "Aguero and Costa haven't been consistent, Clyne > Ivanovic, Fabregas > Schneiderlin, Sigurdsson is amazing"}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Before we signed him, he was the star player for Brazil in the U20 World Cup, where he had the free role and wore the number 10 shirt (the role Neymar holds now for the senior team). He would find himself getting the most touches on the ball, making the most penetrating runs of the team, and just scoring. When he arrived he was given that exact role under Rafa Benitez, with Mata on the right and Hazard on the left. His position wasn't under pressure because KDB was out on loan and while Mata did eventually slip into the CF/#10 role, Oscar was still given the freedom to roam. He ended the season with the most appearances in the team IIRC, and he only showed signs of fatigue towards the very very end. He was -dare I say- perfect. He played this role for Brazil in the Olympics, and he even played it in the Confederation Cup. He and Neymar were a beautiful pair. Paulinho even strived in that tournament because Oscar was also a CM. \n Here comes Mourinho, with a less pragmatic mindset, sees Oscar for what he is...not only a 'old school number 10', but a midfield engine. Gives him the CAM role (in the hole right behind the striker). But guess what? Oscar isn't effective there. He'll give you that one great pass every once in a while, or that one wonder strike that forces a save from the keeper, but he won't be able to do what he (used to) try to do - win games by himself. Now Mourinho has him tracking all the way back to the penalty box (which is admirable, but not  always  necessary for a player like him). It comes to a point where he defends more than he attacks, and he's used for his short passes rather than his unreal long balls/diagonal crosses.  I guess Scolari was impressed by this? And he he gave him that role.  in other words, its like having an Iniesta, and playing him as a Xavi  He'll still win you games, but he's not going to be able to leave much of an impression. \n You can see Oscar's potential as the prominent number 10, and thus understand what I mean, in two different cases: \n 1: His Champions League debut against Juventus. He starts in the center, right behind the striker. Juventus are an aggressive well-organised team, so no playmaker/CAM wants to have the responsibility of chasing fullbacks or midfielders. Luckily for Oscar, Di Matteo didn't give him that job. Oscar eventually scored two stunning goals because he was given the freedom to find space, and Juventus ended up equalizing in the end. Of Course, that wasn't a good result (we ended up crashing out of the group stage). Mourinho would never let that happen. In fact, we would've definitely parked the bus after the second goal, but then again, Oscar would never have been in that position to score because his job would be to mark Pirlo or Vidal. \n 2: This is recent. The World Cup opener. Neymar scored two goals in the first half and Oscar was used in that winger role where he continually tracked back. But when Neymar was taken off? Oscar got that freedom again. Eventually he kept doing those penetrating runs and scored. (the goalkeeper should've done better, but Oscar would've never made that run if he was still trying to mark Syrna)", "id": "ciou161", "summary": "Mourinho and Scolari play him in a cautious/defensive role where he has to chase fullbacks. Oscar doesn't like that role."}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Well, United were in a whole nother predicament than Arsenal are now. Look at it this way: \n For the last couple of years, after VdV retired and Ronaldo left, SAF took United into a transition phase and bought strong depth players (RVP, Kagawa, Buttneretc..) to adress any holes in the system while the young prospects have time to develop (Cleverly, Jones, Smalling Powell, etc..). SAF won trophies because he's Sir Alex Ferguson. Moyes took over and he used these relatively undeveloped young prospects in prominent roles, even immediatley turning his attention to Januzaj, before turning him into the key player. I didn't expect him to succeed, but at least he got Mata. So United may bounce back sooner rather than later. \n Arsenal on the other hand...Arsene built a well oiled machine with Ozil, Cazorla, Wilshere, Ramsey, Giroud (lol), Gnabry, AOC, Walcott, etc.. but Arsene lost his touch, and you can really tell. Arsene however, likely won't fire his medical staff, as he's stuck with them for a decade now. So any changes now won't be that hard. The next manager's job will be to build on top of Wenger's already incredible squad. The new manager may also bring a more progressive philosophy, a better medical staff, and a different approach to transfers. Arsenal  need  that. United didn't Moyes to be progressive, but if Arsenal got Moyes, I'm sure it wouldn't have been  that  bad.", "id": "cfx6hge", "summary": "United wasn't ready for another manager, Arsenal is"}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "I got fed up with my EPL team, so I sold it all and looked for alternatives...My EPl team had the likes of Rooney, Kompany, Vidic, Dembele, Fellaini, Kagawa, Lamela, etc.. I figured the biggest problem was I couldn't balance out the possession aspect of the game, with the pace and strength aspect. So I naturally sold them all and started from scratch. With the fraction of the coins I accumulated, I built a perfect Italian team, stronger than my old one. Quagriella, G. Rossi, Diaminte, Marchisio, De Sanctis, Ogbonna, etc.. for an average price of 1500 coins. (Fellaini alone was 11,000). It felt like a dream.", "id": "t3_1sksu9", "summary": "Sold my EPL team for ~120,000. Built a stronger Serie A team with ~25,000 coins"}, {"author": "IHadaFishOnce", "content": "Think back to the beginning of the season, what did we see? Darhk prancing around in a government office, discussing politics with a bunch of city officials and the newly appointed police chief: Quentin Lance. \n Fast forward a bit, through some shady meetings and dangerous dialogue between Lance and the big bad (Darhk), and we learn that Laurel's life is at stake, and her father is forced to cooperate. At this point, Arrow has jumped into the rescue and they've established some kind of partnership. \n At this point, Lance is a member of Team Arrow. He comes to every team meeting, has the keys to the lair, met (remet?) Malcolm Merlyn, stood witness as his daughter was brought back from the dead, got himself a new girlfriend, finally moved on from all the melodrama of season 1-3, and took the stand against Darhk before being stripped of his role as captain. Last we saw him, he stood posted at Arrow's headquarters watching over Mr Terrific as they helped the squad beat the Bug Eyed Bandit. \n Now, throughout the season, we've embraced a lot as fans of this series: we've seen Oliver live a quiet life with Felicity, get thrown back into the ring with evil, try to take on HIVE, take on magic, take on politics, take on wedding planning, and etc.. But all the while, we all had the same thought in our head: \"Where's this story even going?\" Well. I think I know the answer. \n Olicity isn't the main plot line in the story, its barely even a subplot. Oliver's road to redemption successfully finished at the end of season 3, and his origin story essentially finished the moment he revealed his new name \"The Green Arrow.\" Likewise, Felicity's little origin story finished the moment she took over Palmer Tech. Laurel, Diggle, and Thea too have concluded their origin stories. We've established team arrow, we know them, there's no room left for any of them to grow. Just Lance. \n Lance is the main focus of Season 4. He's the main character. The plot-line is Lance v. Darhk, and the Green Arrow is just there to even the playing field. Every time you complain about Donna showing up in every conflict, you're disregarding the fact that her relationship with Quentin Lance is escalating. Every time you complain about how Laurel's death is unnecessary, you're completely disregarding the fact that it could drive Quentin to the point of vigilantism. Every time you complain about how the Arrow writers have barely scratched the surface on any character development or plot development this season, you're disregarding the fact that Lance has developed rapidly as a character. And most of all, every time you complain about how the whole Olicity situation has gone out of hand, you're disregarding the fact that Lance's character has stood to profit from all of it (Donna being pulled in, Oliver needing to rely on Lance, etc..)", "id": "t3_4d75sv", "summary": "Quentin Lance is the main character of season 4. The whole Olicity drama is a subplot that has provided a platform for Quentin Lance to improve."}]}
+{"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Can you recommend anime in a militaristic/politic/otherwise interesting setting, where the story is more focused on certain parties (either represented by one or multiple persons) trying to achieve a certain goal, rather than some typical anime-heroes going on a great adventure?", "output": "I love Anime that has topics like betrayal (not in the romantic sense), trickery, plotting, governments fighting against each other, etc. \n A really good example for this are animes like Code Geass or The irregular at magic highschool, where the story (even if partially about the characters) does a lot to focus on the universe where the setting is taking place. \n But here is the problem: For some reason many of these topics only appear in mecha/mech-animes, and I just can't enjoy them. If I want to have a (more or less) serious topic, then gigantic robots will not help to make the universe become believable. Those things simply are financially a bad investment (tanks cost less, do the same damage, are far more durable, need less research, work better in most environments, etc.), use retarded fighthing techniques (sure, you could equip a robot with a 250kg sword and let him cut other robots with it with a velocity of 100km/h, which equals 0.98 megajoules of energy. Or, you know, you could simply use a normal 120mm tankshell with 6.5 megajoule explosive payload, and that doesn't even include the kinetic energy of the projectile) and most of all look hideous and misplaced in a military setting in 99% of the cases."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The discussion about violence in games right now is like a discussion about gender equality held between a feminist and a redpiller, a lot of accusations and nothing earned in the process.", "output": "Edit: And there comes the downvote-train. Please read the whole thing before voting, including all answers, and use the upvote and downvote buttons for what they are intended: Whether my post is relevant to the discussion or not, not if you agree with me or not. Thank you.) \n While I am a fan of gaming, I am actually one of those people who think that violent games DO have influence on us, and maybe even more than we would like to admit. \n The problem is that I have not seen a single study on this subject yet which isn't extremely biased on either of the sides: Either conducted by people who obviously play and enjoy games themselves, and want to prove this theory wrong, or studies conducted by people who want to use video games as the scapegoat for all of life's problems. \n The gaming community is also no help in this matter: whenever a study is released that might show that there is a link, or if someone even just suggests that there might be a possibility, they get loud, complain, and behave exactly in a way, that is not helpful to support the idea of gamers being peaceful. \n Games reward you for acting violent in many (not all) cases, why is it so far-fetched to say that this might subconsciously affect us? We have known for years that advertisement affects us subconsciously to choose brands we have heard about before in a situation where I have to choose between those and others.\nAnd that is exactly what I think is happening in video games: It might make us consider violent options first, in situations where violence IS ALREADY AN OPTION, it does NOT mean that we suddenly start running off to become violent, but exactly this is something that the gaming community seems to think that they are accused of (and the other side might even think that). \n This is not helpful for either sides, we have to explore the possibilities of a link existing in a professional manner, and we will have to accept the result, whether we like it or not. \n Then we will have to compare if this link is stronger, weaker or equal to the links between violent movies/songs/books/etc. and behaviour in real life, have to check if it has any significant impact on our lives, or if the measurable effect is so low, that the effects through differences in education and social upbringing are so much higher, that it can be dismissed. \n Because everyone who thinks that video games have absolutely no effect at all, has never seen a thirteen year old boy who got his hands on Call of Duty too early (And don't come with 'that's what age restrictions are for', the research about it affecting our behaviour IS NOT about whether we should introduce stronger controls on who can buy this stuff, it is just about whether the effect exists or not.)"}], "user_id": "longlamp_2551", "history": [{"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "content": "Final votecount: \n Is The Planet Earthlike? \n \n Yes- 32 \n No- 2 \n \n As there is no chance that the 'no'-party wins this vote, I declare \"the planet is earthlike\" as the first canon decision! \n How Many Ages Exist? \n There was confusion about the need for preset ages. The Problem is the following: Some people might prefer writing about the scifi-aspect of our universe rather than the ancient tales, so we need a very vague timeline, which makes sure that people can already write about the future, witout differing too much from the other people. \n Yes, we still want ages to develop naturally, but we can already forsee certain things, e.g. at some point the species in our universe will develop space-travel, so there will be an 'age of space-travel'. We won't have a certain date for it (e.g. 81,000 years after event X), but we can make a few distinctions. \n Does the Planet Have Rings? \n \n Yes- 15 \n No- 15 \n \n Well, that is awkward... \n Does the Planet Have Moons? \n \n Yes, one- 8 \n Yes, two- 23 \n Yes, more than two- 2 \n \n (I ignored all \"if x then y\"-responses and just counted them in both categories. Guys, the rings-thingy was a different thing to vote on, please respond to it on the right comment.) \n And with that: our second canon entry, our planet has two moons! \n Does Magic Exist? \n \n Yes, but limited- 32 \n No / Yes, unlimited / Other answers- 5 \n \n So it's decided, our universe has a magic-like force, which is limited by some laws of nature \n Is Evolution the source of all life? \n \n No- 16 \n Yes- 11 \n Intelligent design + evolution afterwards- 8 \n \n Some of the answers were worded really weirdly, some started with \"yes\", some with \"no\", but in the end said the same thing, so I'm actually not quite sure how to count this, so I'll not decide whether if it's canon or not at this point, I think we might need to re-vote on that, but with more exact worded answers to choose from. \n Naming seems to get sorted out already, and I agree, the voting was a bit of a clusterfuck, I'll skip it for now. \n Does the moon have rings? \n \n Yes- 19 \n No- 16 \n \n This doesn't mean 'yes' won, there were many answers which weren't yes/no, so they are a bit hard to count. I suggest a revote, this time with \"how many of the moons have rings? [0/1/2]\" - also we might need to sort out whether the planet has rings or not at the same time, since many seem to base their answer on this information, in incredibly difficult to count \"if x then y\" answers. \n How many Continents? \n \n Nine- 20 \n Seven- 5 \n Six- 5 \n Five- 3 \n Four- 2 \n Eight- 2 \n Thirteen- 1 \n \n 9 continents is now canon \n (How) Do Gods Exist? \n \n Abstract concept/unknown- 14 \n Yes, Ancient Aliens- 7 \n Yes, manifestation of elements- 2 \n No- 4 \n \n I'm not sure if I counted this correctly, I think people have different ideas what 'abstract' means, maybe we need to revote, this time where we make clear what 'abstract' is supposed to mean in this case?", "id": "coq85q8", "summary": "Canon: \n \n Two moons \n Earthlike planet \n Nine continents \n Magic as force, limited by laws (like physics) \n \n Revoting on/rephrasing of: \n \n Does the planet have rings? \n How many of the moons have rings? \n Is evolution the source of all life? \n How do gods exist in our universe? \n Naming"}, {"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "content": "Making people I dislike feel extremely uncomfortable, (e.g. mothers who allow their children everything, and don't feel like it's their duty to teach them about what's socially acceptable in public and what's not) by pointing out EVERYTHING they could've possibly done wrong in this particular situation, and then comparing it to what they actually did. Everything I suggest though is so over-the-top, that everyone who is listening in is 100% aware that the outrageous things I compliment for not happening (e.g. \"at least you didn't accidentally strangle your child with a dog-leash\") would never happen, so they judge the person I'm talking to for what they did, making this particular day they had the misfortune to stumble into my path the most awkward in their entire life.", "id": "cne7zfv", "summary": "I politely help people to realize how to become a better person."}, {"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "content": "I think there is a good middleground somewhere. As an example I'll use a recent prompt of mine, which turned out to be rather popular: \n >[WP] During a flight you accidentally damage a window and find out that they aren't actually windows, but monitors. \n What the \"I dislike short prompts\"-people would complain about would be, if I had posted the prompt like this: \n >[WP] Something happens during a flight \n While possible, it's too broad, and like many other people, I like to compare my own stories with others, so it needs to me a bit more specific \n >[WP] During a flight you accidentally damage a window \n This prompt would already be specific enough to warrant some stories, but the problem is, that there is no twist to it. Something similar has already been posted (probably), so I don't feel particularly inspired by this prompt. In this case, making it longer will increase how interesting the prompt is, not decrease it. \n But at some point it simply stops giving the writers interesting ideas, and instead limits them, e.g. if I added another thing to the end of the prompt: \n >[WP] During a flight you accidentally damage a window and find out that they aren't actually windows, but monitors. You are actually trapped in the matrix. \n Bam, I just removed 95% of all possible answers to my prompt, and turned it into an unnecessarily complex version of an \"you notice you are in the matrix\"-prompt.", "id": "cod2zg2", "summary": "There are no prompts that are too long or too short, there are simply prompts that are either too limiting or not limiting enough. Complexity isn't always limitation."}, {"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "content": "I was in the closed beta, and quit playing during the beta. Not because the game was bad, it was quite fun actually, but because of the huge clusterfuck the marketing and financial model was.\nThe beta started out with this weird system, where some sites had thousands of beta-invites, and thousands of people wanted to play, but for some reason those two parties never really met - whenever you took a look into the forums, for some reason you had an equal amount of threads with titles like \"I need invites for me and my ten friends, I can't find any beta invites, please help!\" and \"I still have 800 invites lying around, please take as many as you want!\", all with almost no replies.\nI have no idea what exactly caused that to happen, but it did, and it didn't help the community.\nThen they introduced the points, which could be bought with real money, to purchase cards with, and they were quite expensive. And they started selling those cards during the beta, without informing people, that they had planned to wipe all progress of the accounts, once the game left the beta.\nIt was then that I decided to quit, because I could already see, that EA would destroy it's own franchise yet again by becoming too greedy, and pushing people away.\nFrom what I heard it continued in this fashion, with suddenly wanting to sell the game, but still retaining the points, then actually selling it, then quickly afterwards going free2play, and so on.\nEA is highly specialized in the arts of pissing off every single potential paying customer, and ensuring that they never want to touch any of their products again.\nOther than that, I also would have never heard about the game, if I hadn't actively searched for promising betas during that time, because I think I stumbled over exactly one article about the game during the beta, and have not seen a single ad for it either.", "id": "cn5ozd0", "summary": "it wasn't the content that killed it, it was the packaging"}, {"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "content": "Kill off all feelings, hopes and dreams you ever had, as sad as it is, they'll only hinder your path to becoming a functioning member of society. \n Alternatively you could realize that even the closest people you have (parents, friends, etc.) still have secrets from you, just like you keep secrets from them, and most of those are the reason why you see them as well-adjusted, and yourself not: You know your own secrets already, but not theirs.", "id": "cn35zuq", "summary": "People are only mature as long as anybody is watching, and immature people only haven't learned to seperate outside and inside yet."}, {"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "content": "Not speaking for anyone but myself here, because I doubt many have the same reason, but for me it's this: \n I'm incredibly romantic, which is something that is not really frowned upon, but it gets you some weird looks when you mention it. So I keep it for myself. Anyway, the theme of 'forbidden love' as portraid in fiction is still a strong one, and resonates deeply. Arranged marriage and similar stuff doesn't happen in most first world countries anymore, or simply isn't believable enough anymore, so it's not a struggle I could imagine. \n But discrimination against homosexuals? It's still real, it's getting better, but it is still there, and homosexuals have a lot harder time finding a partner. So when they finally do and get happy, my heart melts. \n And since I'm not into guys, it's a lot easier to identify with a girl in a girl-girl relationship in these fantasies.", "id": "cnf3lsq", "summary": "I'm emotionally getting off on the misery of minorities, or rather the fact that some of them somehow manage to still find happiness even though so many people are giving them a hard time. \n Sue me."}, {"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "content": "In my opinion it's multiple things, so I'll write this like a quick-guide on how to get started with being witty: \n First, you have to understand that there are no categories. This is something I've learned from a great teacher of mine, whom I really hated while still in school: He taught four classes at my school (German, History, Ethics and Social studies), and always asked people about all of these classes, no matter what the current class actually was. Of course we as students complained, because it's 'unfair' to ask about things from a different class, which you don't have on this day. \n He then told me that he wants us to let go of this idea that categories exist. Why only use your knowlegde of history in history class, maybe you learned an interesting bit of trivia in English class, or you can explain why a war was thought this way because you know a bit about the landscape from Geography class. \n Basically, stop looking for stuff from your 'witty' category, but instead use your whole pool of information. Think of how you could continue this thread of conversation into an interesting direction, maybe into a direction that is a bit unusual and outside the current category of conversation. \n Humor is simply unexpected answers and situations, you will never achieve a humorous and/or witty result if you only provide answers from a pool of answers which are expected. \n Okay, that was a bit of analysis, but maybe not actually helpful. So how can you train to become witty? \n I have no idea, for me having witty answers comes natural, but I can imagine stuff like this: \n \n read books/watch movies/play games. Basically what you are doing already. You are always shaped by what you consume, so you want to consume things you want to be like/you find interesting. \n now do the same with things you normally would avoid. If you only do step 1, then you will always stay in the 'my answers are to be expected'-category, as your friends probably enjoy similar things, and can think of similar answers themselves. This kills the chance for being quick-witted. \n Watch improv comedy and read how it works. You don't need to learn it completely to gather interesting insights in how conversation advances. \n Speak more. You know how you sometimes think 'I could've thought of that.'? Well, guess what: Most other people do the same, what differs between you and them is that they open their mouth and say it. Don't overthink what you are saying next, just say it. People didn't get it? Who cares! People are forgiving, they will forget about it, but the funny things they will remember. Most of the people you see as witty are only perceived that way, because you forget all the average stuff they are saying anyway. The non-witty people do not speak up, which leaves nothing witty inbetween to be picked up and remembered. \n You want to train but not speak to people? Start a youtube-channel! Maybe let's plays, there you won't even have to show your face, and noone will recognize your voice anyway. Best case: You become witty through training and people like your videos, you get subscribers and rich. Worst case: Noone gives a fuck, you learn anyway by talking to yourself in a socially acceptable environment and your view-counter stays at 0. \n Don't censor yourself. People have this weird idea that people will judge them if they say something they truly think. Ask yourself: Is there a single person around you who you really despise? Who you do not want to listen to anymore? No? Then go for it. Yes? Then look at him/her and see what about his/her speech makes you want to avoid that person, and then don't say that. Problem solved. \n \n Wit is like a second language. You don't start it fluently, you need to train it, and you will fail. Some of your attempts will get you nowhere, but some of them will work, and the longer and more frequently you do it (speaking instead of overthinking that is), the better you will become at it.", "id": "cqie3fz", "summary": "quick-witted people are slow-witted people who learned to speak faster."}, {"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "content": "Like I said, google wants to put pressure on GEMA, so if youtube's content ID-system recognized that the video contains music, it will block it (regardless of it the music is owned by GEMA or not). It does not block ALL music, but it definitely blocks more than they have to, to make GEMA look like the bad guy who hates entertainment. \n Gema actually has a FAQ-page regarding the conflict with youtube, and it reads like this: 2007 Gema was the first company to make a contract with youtube that managed in which way copyright-protected material was allowed to be used on youtube. 2009 the contract ended, and the negotiations over a renewal failed. \n Gema wants that the creators of the content get paid for their efforts, while youtube provides access to this content without paying, which is illegal. Since the negotiations went nowhere, they stopped them in 2010, formed a partnership with some other companies and sued youtube to take down 75 songs from the German youtube page (10 of which belong to GEMA and the rest to their international partners). \n Gema then sent a cease-and-desist letter to youtube, which they didn't follow, so they went to court. \n The first time in court they lost because of an unnamed formality, the second time they won, and the court ruled that youtube is responsible for the content they make available, and that they have to provide the means necessary to block copyright-protected content (this was about 12 songs at that point). \n Both youtube and gema appealed since they wanted to be sure just how far the other party had to go, and both started negotiations again (outside the court). They negotiated until 2013, again no result, so they stopped negotiations again. \n Gema then went to an arbitrational tribunal to check (exemparily for 1000 different songs that belonged to them) whether youtube had to pay compensation or not (and if yes: how much). \n About then (2013) youtube decided to influence the public to favor them, so they started blocking every single gema-owned song as well as other songs in Germany and displayed the infamous 'we can't show this content because Gema...'-blocking image. \n Gema sent a cease-and-desist, youtube didn't comply, Gema sued, court ruled that youtube was influencing the reality surrounding the lawsuit between them and that they had to take down these notes, youtube appealed, it's fucking 2015 and we still can't watch content, while Gema and youtube discuss in one court whether youtube is allowed to basically lie about GEMA to damage their reputation and whether they have to pay compensation for damages in another. \n Negotiations about how much youtube would have to pay to show the content in Germany have not been running since two years.", "id": "cqm4kmd", "summary": "Youtube is the bad guy, and Gema is the douchebag fighting him, and most people basically root for youtube simply because they (rightfully) dislike Gema."}, {"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "content": "As a German, I also don't have a problem with the NSA spying on Merkel, while paranoid, it's still kind of understandable. \n What I have a problem with is them spying on millions of people for no reason whatsoever. \n Remember when the US gave Germany shit for them being 'hypocritical' for spying on Turkey, only weeks after we found out the US was spying on us? Well, there is a difference between spying on a government which is openly limiting freedom of speech and which has an intelligence agency, which is directly involved in helping terrorists in the area, and spying on the whole population of a country which is currently ranked as the [highest respected country in the world]( \n What's concerning about this firmware-based spyware is not that it's used on military and government hardware, because that's the job of an intelligence agency, but that the agency distributing it is known for infecting civilian hardware.", "id": "coo376i", "summary": "If they only spied on governments, not many people would care about this article."}, {"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "content": "The CIA would, if they wanted to disprove it, have to release the real documents, which they might not even have anymore (having blacked out everything or having destroyed them 'accidentally'). People will believe you, because, let's face it, you are the fucking president, and there isn't any real obvious reason (on first glance) for you to make up a story like that. \n Then use the incredible support you are getting from all parties (since you are defending the freedom of the USA against enemies from within, something that pleases conspiracy thelrists, normal people, veterans, democrats, republicans, etc.) to decrease military budget and start an investigation against all members of CIA, NSA, FBI and every agency that is even remotely possible of having to do something with the topic, remove military equipment from police forces, accuse the former presidents of war crimes (because if 9/11 was a false flag attack, then all following wars were unjustified, and since the presidents before you were either part of the conspiracy or were also briefed on the fact, but didn't tell the public) and imprison all lobbyists from weapon companies for treason. \n This will fix many problems at once, your ratings will be incredibly high, since you look like the first president who is actually genuinly concerned about his country, going as far as risking his own life by making powerful enemies, lobbyists won't block every of your following decisions, as they notice that they have to be careful, the opposing party won't put up much resistence against the military budget cuts, as they would immediately appear as if they sided with the people responsible for 9/11, which would ensure that they never get elected again, some might even openly support you, because they want a slice of your soaring approval ratings, the immediate stop to troop-deployment in the middle east will make Europe like you, the decreased budget can be spent on more useful things like creating jobs, improving education or helping the poor, etc. \n You fix many of the problems of the country, everyone loves you, those who don't won't openly oppose you, and all mistakes you eventually make can be excused as being aftermath from the actions of some traitors. \n Also hammering the fact that those wars were unjustified into the heads of people and writing down that the USA killed hundreds of thousands of innocents, commiting horrendous war crimes in the process, will maybe even change the mentality of the American people, to closer resemble the mentality of the Germans after WWII, so that it'll change from \"USA #1\" to being a bit ashamed of your country, so that people will open their eyes a bit more to what a horrible shape this country is in, and can't hide behind empty phrases about how free and awesome their country is anymore.", "id": "t3_2ucmh3", "summary": "guilt-trip a whole nation into bettering itself"}, {"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "content": "I've been watching a lot of standup comedy lately, checking out a lot of videos from newcomers and beginners, and I have noticed a huge problem: \n structure. \n I've seen posts by beginners or people claiming to be beginners collecting upvotes with no end, and I see people complimenting them for how good their performance is, how good their jokes are, etc. \n But no one seems to ever comment on the structure, or the way the comedian connects his/her jokes.\nI've seen performances, both by beginners and seasoned comedians, with great jokes, good timing and unexpected punchlines, which were absolutely destroyed by the feeling of the comedian only reciting the lines from his notebook which he deemed 'funny', without actually taking the time to plan his performance. \n The great thing about standup is that you have the chance to deliver your jokes in a way that a joke-book can't, by telling a story, which would be tedious to read as text, by connecting your jokes, where a reader might get bored reading. \n But instead I get to watch 15 minutes of unrelated jokes and one-liners, without theme, without story, without context. \n Oh, something funny happened to you on the parking lot? Cool. Then why is the next joke suddenly about how your coworkers complain about you being vegan? And the next one about you being kicked out of church? And then suddenly about how hard it is to raise kids? \n Take the time to connect your story, please don't give me a performance with 50 'you guys know when X' or 'recently I've been doing Y'. Write down your last performance, and whenever you see those things, just  strike  them and replace them with something else.\nOh, you recently went to buy toys for your children? And something funny happend on the parking lot of the toystore? And when you came home your kids complained, not about the toys, but about your vegan food? And suddenly your pastor storms into your kitchen, because your religious neighbour called him, because she didn't want your children to go to hell for having  fun playing with their toys  fallen to the temptations of satan? And then he kicked you out of church? \n People keep asking why they feel awkward when performing their sets, well, here is why: \n Because telling me a list of jokes is awkward. \n Quantity vs. Quality debates are useless if you have 50 brilliant jokes, but your audience is cringing from you reading comedy bucket-list to them.", "id": "t3_308mpb", "summary": "After you have written your jokes, please make an effort to connect them, to combine them to a story with a direction, not only will it make your performance a whole lot more natural, it'll also naturally create more jokes/funny moments, because connecting two unrelated scenes will make you think of unlikely scenarios of how they somehow belong together. \n Thoughts?"}, {"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "content": "Okay, I originally wrote this as a post for /r/TIFU, but sadly the mods deleted it. Bullshit I say, but what are you gonna do. \n I hope people here will appreciate it more, even though it's not strictly about the events of the campaign itself, but more about the meta-events surrounding it. \n Anyway, here I go: \n \n Okay, a few things first, because I'm sure I'll get yelled at about those: \n \n This TIFU didn't happen today. The forwarding of my notes actually happened about a year ago, but the consequences of my mistake only started to unfold today, so I'll take the artistic freedom of still labeling this as \"Today I fucked up\". \n DnD (Dungeons & Dragons) is used synonymously to 'tabletop RPG' in this context. I do this because people have a vague idea what Dungeons and Dragons is (from references in pop culture, etc.), but not necessarily what a tabletop-game is. I'll explain the finer details a bit further down, just wanted to point this out. \n I don't have many friends who share my interest in make-believe games and roleplaying. I won't accept people making fun of them in any way with your 'witty' remarks like \"lel, more like TIFU by being an adult playing children-games\". Sorry, I said it first, now you're not original anymore, so why not just shut the fuck up? \n \n Anyway, to the actual story. As I said, I play tabletop and pen&paper games. It started when I was younger, and I played some games of DnD and Das Schwarze Auge (german p&p game), and expanded when I got my first PC (because my campaigns were always longterm anyway, so it didn't make much difference whether you played it with friends or online via forum posts. Yes, such systems do exist). \n In many ways the adventuring wasn't what interested me though, it was the worldbuilding. Writing two pages of backstory for your character? Boring, try creating a family-tree with unique backstory for each family member and trying to deduce how their personal philosophies and stances on important topics would influence the personal believes held by their children. Indirect character-creation is what I called it. \n Obviously, the less detailed of a world you started out with, the more you could create on your own. However some things got old pretty fast. There are only so many ways you can arrange landmass, there are only so many religions one can create before they start to resemble one another, etc. etc. \n So, to get rid of my boredom, I tried something new: Collaborative worldbuilding. (One of my more recent attempts actually can be found here on reddit, so quick shoutout to /r/conglomera) \nHere, instead of doing everything on my own, I would allow other people to lay the groundworks, and then just roll with it, add details whereever it seemed to fit and when it was fun to do so. \n However this quickly became too tedious for me (I don't really have great moderating abilities I'm afraid), and I ended up wasting much of the time I actually wanted to spend on being creative on managing the contributions of other people. So with that, this particular chapter ended. \n But here's where I learned a lesson, which will have disastrous consequences later. \n I noticed how much fun it was to roll with existing groundwork and simply expand on certain things. I could simply leave certain topics which don't particularly interest me (e.g. races, religions, science), and instead focus on topics which I held great interest in (e.g. politics, economics, military). \n So, how does one gather information to base your campaign on? Well, you could simply steal the worlds written by other people. Great idea in theory, but more often than not they have some really big plotholes, which make making logical storytelling hard. So I instead copied an idea from alternative history books: I simply took a 'screenshot' of the real world at a random date, and then developed the story further based on the data given at that time. \n And for this particular campaign I selected the modern world, to be more precise, the 2010's. \n I took the real world and started my singleplayer-campaign (because no matter how forgiving some of my friends are, a purely economy and politics based campaign was too nerdy even for them), and started having a go at it. I controlled my character, a small banker, and started earning money left and right. I influenced markets, traded with insider-information and did many questionable things, which not always worked out (but sometimes I natural 20'd it). \n Soon I started to introduce more characters to keep me occupied, and to generate more ideas. I created fictional characters, I entered really existing people and gave them 'NPC' status, and everything got increasingly complicated. \n To keep track of my own story, I started to document everything in digital form (the mountains of paper quickly becoming unmanagable, so PDFs and so on were the only choice I had). I wrote biographies for every character, filled out alignement sheets, clarified relationships between characters by writing short stories of conversations between them, I made up fictional paperwork for companies managed by my characters (at this point I should mention that I study informatics, obviously I automated lot of the paperwork creation even I'm not crazy enough to write the entire tax history of several dozen individuals. Think of it like markov chains for tax-work. All I had to do was read over them and correct a few things to make them look reasonable enough for my purposes). \n Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and so I told a few friends about it. Most found it cool too (not that they wanted to join, but reading the stories I made up was still interesting), only one of my friends who goes by the nickname 'SubZero' asked whether he could join in. \n Now, while I loved economics and politics aswell as roleplaying, SubZero was on a whole different calliber when it came to roleplaying. The topics didn't matter to him, as long as he could enter the role of a person. His most recent craze was ARGs (alternate reality games, in case that wasn't obvious), like those used to promote videogames like Portal in viral marketing attempts. ARGs often made a huge effort to blur the lines between what's real and what is fake, and SubZ breathed this pseudo reality. \n So when I invited him, he went a step further and started to expand our campaign individuals into the 'real world'. Facebook-accounts for NPCs, twitter-accounts for the marketing-departments of the companies of our world, email-adresses for every person part of my (I still think of it as 'my') campaign. And then he posted as these people, sent mails as these people, wrote tweets as those people. \n SubZero, like me, studies informatics (which is actually how I know him, we share some lectures), and so he too automated some of those things, to increase the amount of information he could push through these channels. He wrote chatbots using the twitter-API, created bots posting things for him on facebook, bots that automated email-traffic and so on. Often he did it by modelling characters after really existing people and simply making a bot copy their posts, replace the name of the person, and then repost it. \n Anyway, for a campaign only run by two people, the amount of worldbuilding we were doing was ludicrous. I'm talking about thousands of character-sheets, hundreds of thousands of automatically generated tweets and status updates, etc. \n And that's where the TIFU happened. \n My harddrives were slowly reaching full capacity from all the bullshit we were producing, and I was worried that my very unwise practice of never keeping backups would soon backfire, and so I set up a small homeserver, loaded a backup of all my campaign files and personal notes onto it, and then sent the login-data for the server to SubZero, so he could also store his data on the server. \n SubZero. Keyboard-shortcut in my messaging-software: SZ. \n Only that on that particular day I apparently had highlighted not the searchbar for my friendlist, but the general searchbar, and so the message didn't reach SubZero, but instead the first result you get when searching for SZ in Germany: \n The Süddeutsche Zeitung. \n I never noticed what happened until yesterday evening. Suddenly I read about this big leak, those 'panama papers', with 2.6 Terrabyte of data. \n I'm intrigued, so I check it out, and that's when I go into shock: \n There, on the frontpage of several big international newspapers are the details my DnD campaign. \n I don't know what to do. This is beyond fucked up, I feel like I destroyed the lives of an uncountable amount of people, just because of a small fuckup on my part. \n I don't know how to fix this, how to stop this. It looks so beyond repair, but I guess I have to try. God, I just hope I can stop all of this before they release the alignement sheets on Dick Cheney and the Bush family, the 9/11 involvement-accusations look like childplay compared to what I thought up.", "id": "t3_4dbtle", "summary": "I fucked up by sending login-data to personal campaign-information to the wrong person, because of a similiar abbreviation of the username."}, {"author": "FriendsCallMeAsshole", "content": "I originally posted this as an answer on /r/gaming to  this post : \n While I am a fan of gaming, I am actually one of those people who think that violent games DO have influence on us, and maybe even more than we would like to admit. \n The problem is that I have not seen a single study on this subject yet which isn't extremely biased on either of the sides: Either conducted by people who obviously play and enjoy games themselves, and want to prove this theory wrong, or studies conducted by people who want to use video games as the scapegoat for all of life's problems. \n The gaming community is also no help in this matter: whenever a study is released that might show that there is a link, or if someone even just suggests that there might be a possibility, they get loud, complain, and behave exactly in a way, that is not helpful to support the idea of gamers being peaceful. \n Games reward you for acting violent in many (not all) cases, why is it so far-fetched to say that this might subconsciously affect us? We have known for years that advertisement affects us subconsciously to choose brands we have heard about before in a situation where I have to choose between those and others.\nAnd that is exactly what I think is happening in video games: It might make us consider violent options first, in situations where violence IS ALREADY AN OPTION, it does NOT mean that we suddenly start running off to become violent, but exactly this is something that the gaming community seems to think that they are accused of (and the other side might even think that). \n This is not helpful for either sides, we have to explore the possibilities of a link existing in a professional manner, and we will have to accept the result, whether we like it or not. \n Then we will have to compare if this link is stronger, weaker or equal to the links between violent movies/songs/books/etc. and behaviour in real life, have to check if it has any significant impact on our lives, or if the measurable effect is so low, that the effects through differences in education and social upbringing are so much higher, that it can be dismissed. \n Because everyone who thinks that video games have absolutely no effect at all, has never seen a thirteen year old boy who got his hands on Call of Duty too early (And don't come with 'that's what age restrictions are for', the research about it affecting our behaviour IS NOT about whether we should introduce stronger controls on who can buy this stuff, it is just about whether the effect exists or not.)", "id": "t3_2uznzo", "summary": "The discussion about violence in games right now is like a discussion about gender equality held between a feminist and a redpiller, a lot of accusations and nothing earned in the process. \n What is your stance on this topic? Do you think that a link exists or not? Do you think that the discussion about it could be improved, or do you think that no discussion is necessary, because there is only a right and a wrong side?"}]}
+{"author": "zgggg", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The WD TV Live Hub shows promise but is Windows Only.", "output": "The WD TV Live Hub looks like it could be a contender against the Apple TV/ iTunes combo. Looking at the Cinema Now, it says Windows Only, which is a no go for me (Mac). \n Same with Blockbuster.com . Although I may have an Archos 605. I will have to go check."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post If you have 1 TV and are just getting started, build a HTPC. Don't complain about storage and jet engine sounds.  You will get there, eventually. (Right about when you hit 4 independent platters). If you have multiple TVs, pick a STB or two and a server. They all have their Pluses and minuses.", "output": "The problem with hooking a $200 netbook to your TV is, well, it is a $200 netbook. \n STBs. We really need a FAQ for this. A STB is designed to sling a large media collection around the house when you have more than one TV. If you do not have more than one TV, the use case for a STB becomes more marginal for the reasons that have been touched. There is the argument that the dedicated device has a better fit for the job, but the HTPC has a variety of functionality to it that is not matched directly on the STBs. \n Alright, yes a STB can stream Netflix, Hulu Plus and a variety of streaming services also. But you need that iTunes, Google Play or Amazon account if you are going to watch current release movies.  Don't get me started on Crackle. Most network shows (not sports) can be had off the respective network sites and sports are generally pay for play (as they should be. grumble). \n STBs have a few advantages. Centralization of storage, rapid and easy deployment, a simple remote (Not Google TV; a Keyboard ? Really, Google!), SAF, and a simple interface for services. Downside is you have to setup a server and have some understanding of what you are doing. \n I am streaming all major networks (Well, as much as there is on the web)  to my Roku,2 AppleTV 2s, Apple TV (original) and PS3. I could also stream to my Wii if I wanted to. However, I also have a dedicated server to feed these devices that runs both Plex and iTunes. It also has storage hung off of it."}], "user_id": "longlamp_16290", "history": [{"author": "zgggg", "content": "Okay, from personal experience. \n My wife has a 17\" MBP (8GB, 128 GB SSD, Dual Core i7), I had a 11\" MBA (C2D, 4GB, 128GB SSD) from early 2011. I sold the MBA due to my disappointment with it. \n I bought the Air with the thought that it would be a light weight laptop. Initially I though that the Air would make a great lightweight server as the power envelope would eventually make up the difference in price (I pay $.25/kw). If that did not work, it was slightly less powerful than the mini I was using (c2d 1.6 versus a 1.8, not that much of a performance difference, right ?) for my personal use. Some gaming, coding and word processing. I bought the 2010 Air due to the GPU being a Nvidia 320m and thinking that was what I had on my mini. (I strongly dislike the Intel Integrated Video as they are not competitive yet. The 4000 may change my mind as I have been watching benchmarks. But we are not there, yet.) \n Boy was I wrong. \n Let me get going on what I was impressed with:\nBoot times, Application load times. \n Neutral:\nDisk Space. I am big believer is small, fast client side storage with big spindles residing elsewhere. \n Things I was not impressed with:\nGraphical issues. Compile times, especially when in BootCamp and utilizing Microsoft Visual Studio. (Now MSVS hammers on the GPU to help with the graphical compilations. And why not, you got a vector processor sitting there, lets use it.) \n 6) Until the MBA get a decent GPU, I would spend my pennies on a 15\" MBP if  you think you will be pushing the graphical limits at any point. And make sure that you get one with a AMD graphics card. \n In all honesty, the apps you describe (music, word processing, YouTubing, fb and reddit) all sound webby based, especially if you do spotify or Google Play. This would be no problem for the MBA and you would be very pleased. \n As far as Logic Pro goes, and I do not know. Although Apples' site seems to indicate that it Pro version of Garage Band. My though would be to try and do what you want in Garage Band (within the limits of Garage Band) at your local Apple store and see how that reacts on the Air. If the response is acceptable to the level that you can make Garage Band respond, then I suspect that Logic Pro would be similar. But if the performance of Garage Band is sub par for what it can do, then my suspicion is that you will be disappointed with Logic Pro performance.", "id": "c4v0ra0", "summary": "Baring Logic Pro, you will be pleased with a MBA. Use Garage Band as a low end gross filter to check out how Logic Pro might perform on a MBA, as Garage Band is supposedly included on every new Mac. \n (I get comparing Logic Pro to Garage Band is like comparing Aperture to iPhoto. But if you can stress out the MBA with iPhoto with what you are trying to do, Aperture is definitely going to suck on that MBA. Been there, done that.)"}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "Some of the things that I am going to say may get me down voted, but here is my experience. \n For a moderate complexity you have basically three choices.\nThe G-Box Midnight advertised on the side bar, running XBMC.\nAn AppleTV with a system running iTunes (For some reason, this subreddit hates this suggestion. I suspect down votes are incoming).\nA Roku running the Plex Client with a Plex Media Server on another system. \n Your basic problem boils down to the fact, regardless of which solution you choose, there is going to be complexity. My recommendation on the G-Box comes from my experience with XBMC and you may be better off building a cheap HTPC versus buying this. And I only recommend XBMC if you are going to have a single TV that you are going to play to. If you are going to have multiple TVs then you want to look at Plex or iTunes as your server. \n XBMC   (Many devices but reddit is endorsing the G-Box or an HTPC) \n Pros : \n If the box has the horses to decode, gonna handle what ever you throw at it. \n Great at utilizing multiple sources. \n Very customizable. \n Has plugins for many things. \n Has a plethora of clients. \n Cons: \n No Store. Gotta get media elsewhere. \n Not setup to handle multiple clients very well. \n Plex  (Many devices/Android stick/Roku/HTPC & a server) \n Pros: \n XBMC fork. \n Designed to take some of the pain out of library management. \n Welcome to Server management. \n Has clients for almost every OS out there and then some. \n Cons: \n Welcome to Server management. \n The client is not the focus. \n Better have horses on that server if you are using server side plugins (Netflix,Hulu, etc) \n No Store gotta get content elsewhere \n AppleTV \n Pros: \n Has a store so you can buy content. \n Must make all video MP4. \n Natively compatible with iOS devices. \n Client is the simplest between the three suggestions. \n Cons: \n Most limited in compatibility with devices. \n Apple Gear. \n Must have a server running iTunes, welcome to server management. \n. \n . \n . \n If you have questions about why I am suggesting what I am, feel free to ask me. \n Note: I am using server in the more generic Unix sense, I probably should say server service, not in the Windows vein. A server offers a service(s) and is not necessarily a high-end dedicated piece of hardware. Ex: Most home routers are a server in the simple fact that DHCP runs on them.", "id": "can6vla", "summary": "XBMC/G-Box or HTPC if you have 1 TV, otherwise look into Plex/Roku or iTunes/AppleTV for multiple. Read the above for why."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "Plex. \n Errr...ugh.  Using Plex to Chrome Cast from an Android device is actually your best bet. You can shut down your Android device a few minutes after your video starts playing on ChromeCast. (and this provides the best user experience). \n On iOS devices, you can do the same thing although I get some funky errors where the Casting to the Chrome Cast from Plex will fail 1 out of 5 times. Makes me go back to my AppleTV and AirPlay for a better overall experience under iOS. \n On a Computer (a Surface Pro 3 or a rMBP late 2013) you have to use the Web edition of the Plex Client and you must have the device up to retain the cast, so you are essentially playing the video in two places with the secondary screen lagging (Chrome Cast). \n I have not tried Chrome under Bluestacks to see if the Android runtime would allow me to cast and then shut down the Android machine.", "id": "ckrfwdb", "summary": "If you are having issues with a Cast, get an Android device to cast from. Go figure."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "Did that for years. Still fix other peoples screw up on their PCs. After awhile, I do not want to be down at the hardware trying to eek out a little more performance with my system, chasing the ever further away optimal graphics performance/cpu / thermal envelope balance. Then the electrical bill on a killowatt system. Meh. Been there, have the t-shirt. \n Now I want to come home and use my system for something productive. Like coding, writing or not fixing an issue. So I pay the Apple premium (although it is not as much as I though it would be, I was surprised.) and have blackbox system that just works. \n Well, okay, perhaps I am just being an old man and carping because I can. I did strip my two minis down and replace all the parts (HDD, RAM and CPUs). \n I do agree that everyone should build a PC at least once, just so they have an understanding of how one goes together and that a RAM upgrade is simple. Or a HDD swap is not difficult, the hard part is pulling back all the information from the old drive if it is screwed up.", "id": "c1p1k5i", "summary": "Get Off My Lawn!"}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "I have a friend who went to work for Google in the past year. His observations on the coding stations that they use were : \n The initial Google station that you received was a remix of Ubuntu utilizing their own internal hacks to get Google services onboard. After that it is a mixture of Linux and Apple notebooks, 3/4 Linux , 1/4 Apple. With Windows being an extreme minority. You get to choose your environment. (This is a single data point, do remember that.) \n All of your apps appear to be totally cross platform. So that is not a defining characteristic (which is unusual). \n My experience with Linux, Windows and OS X stability is dependent on hardware and what you install on your system. If you keep your install lean and buy decent hardware, you should have no issue. \n This means look at the Lenovo T series, W series or X series laptops for a Linux or Windows systems. Apple already has tighter QA than most vendors, so you should not have as many issues. But do buy AppleCare. It then really boils down to familiarity, bias, and price point that you can afford.", "id": "cl21qml", "summary": "With gaming out of the picture, it appears that you are totally cross platform (Aptana is my only question). It does not matter from an OS perspective and I can't tell you that OS X is going to hit your bias any better than Ubuntu or Windows."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "The other difference is that the Apple iPad was designed from the start as a non-paradigm user interface. The Windows XP Tablet Edition still had the traditional windows interface (Keyboard/Mouse) paradigm which just did not translate to a mobility interface. \n The other issue with Window XP Tablet Edition was the lack of consistency of the Pen interface. OneNote finally got it right, but that was a single application. Microsoft needed to take that concept across the tablet, not at a single application. The iPad has a fairly consistent interface and metaphor for getting things done. \n I wished that I had saved the hotlink, but there was an article about the infighting at Microsoft and how the Office Group and the OS Group were fighting over the integration of the Pen API and that is why we got the little box for entry.", "id": "c1lohia", "summary": "Microsoft OneNote could have been a killer interface metaphor. iPad got the consistency issue down cold."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "IF, I said IF. Some one has obviously accused you of being a gamer. \n I was leaving an opening so that when you do choose, you can choose correctly. \n Now I am going to be blunter. \n I have been burned too many times by people saying little/casual gaming that I now say \"nVidia card or it hurts\". Causal/little/odd in my vocab does not mean you are installing the latest Elder Scrolls, Call of Duty, FarCry, (insert Triple A title)  but playing solitaire or web based flashy games. The Intel Cards just do not have the horse power to keep up with the polygon count and fps that modern games demand without utterly destroying the visuals that you bought the game for (and even then it may not run/ get the desired fps to be playable) , even if played \"casually\" (which I disagree with the terminology, you are a gamer and need the nVidia card to play these games).", "id": "ckl2la8", "summary": "Thou doest takest too much offense, you maybe a gamer.  Get the nVidia based rMBP, you will be happier."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "Dang man, those are some steep requirements. \n Okay, Plex as a media server can do most of what you want. Although as a media server, you had better have a beefy box. I actually suggest an AMD build as this is the only area where AMD systems trump Intel, Transcoding. \n Plex has the concepts of channels which will play ABC, NBC and CBS plus others. I think there are 150 channels that it will play. Granted a lot of them are Xtian broadcasts, but hey what do you want. The Plex Server will transcode the websites to your playback device. And you can add network mapped drives as libraries to the Plex server through the media manager. Now, this is not the playback portion, but the Server portion. \n Installing the Plex Media Client on the server may allow you to integrate this setup into a single system. However, you may want to investigate a Roku 2 XS as your playback client with the Plex Channel installed. \n You will need to install the Plex Media Client somewhere to manage the channels on the Plex server. \n The only thing Plex does not do is Amazon VOD. Although it is Unsupported. The Roku does have a Amozon VOD channel. \n I run this on a 3 MBps connection. I do not how slow your connection is compared to mine, and I watch Hulu while my kids stream Netflix.", "id": "c5fgiy9", "summary": "Roku 2 XS as a client, Plex server in the closet. Plex channel on Roku. Plex Media Client on a system to manage the channels on the server. Could colocate on the server. Roku app on iPhone and Android."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "To move to a NAS style solution is going to cost more money than you want to spend. If your drives are already detachable, you can plug them into your laptop and utilize Plex when you want it and shut it down when you don't. Another option to look at that will allow you the flexibility of moving your storage around is iTunes & an AppleTV. You can point iTunes to an external drive (and Plex for that matter) so your library is not on your ssd. When you are not using iTunes, you shut it down and be done with it. \n If you prefer the Xbox to the PS3 (My preference is the other ways for a number of reasons, among them that the PS3 is still among the best blue ray player out there and has a host of additional functionality . I get it that the Xbox has the greater mind share.) you may want to look at Windows Media Center on Windows 7. No one does Microsoft like Microsoft. \n As flippant as you may think I was being, the PS3 Media server is a no cost solution along with Handbrake which supports batch transcoding means you spend $0.00 on extending your setup and utilize your existing hardware. Handbrake will encode both AVIs and MKV to MP4s which the PS3 understands and you can stream.", "id": "c5svcs7", "summary": "Plex streams to PS3 when files are properly encoded; ps3 media server is a DLNA server; Handbrake transcodes AVI and MKVs to MP4s that can be streamed. Use Vudu or Amazon to rent and buy movies on the PS3. No additional cost solution to you. Peace. Out."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "A Quad Core 2 Duo is good enough for light Plex duty. If you need transcoding, the newer the better. \n A lot of this depends on what capabilities your endpoints have, what you are going to do with your server, and how much storage you need. \n If all of your media is MP4/M4U and your end points can handle the decode, then you should be good to go as long as your computer can put enough bits on the wire. There is no computational capability needed. \n However, if your friend hits your Plex server with an endpoint that can't handle your file, Plex will transcode on the fly. Now you want the capability to do calculations on the fly. Faster here is usually better. Currently the price/dollar goes to AMD in this case (AMD trounces Intel on Video transcode, but that is the only benchmark where I would recommend an AMD CPU. All other benchmarks are in Intels favor). \n If you look at a NAS like Synology or QNAP which have Plex built in, you can pretty quickly run into the CPU wall if you end up doing transcodes on the CPU.", "id": "c9ypan7", "summary": "Are the endpoints capable of native decodes of files ? Yes, you are good to go as long as you meet Plex requirements. No, get the biggest AMD or Intel CPU you can."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "You did not go wrong by buying the Time Capsule. I look at the Time Capsule as a dedicated router and backup storage for time machine. \n As far as why not two minis ? \n 1) $100 for the AppleTV vs $600 for the low end mini\n2) the mini no longer has a dedicated apple solution for an HTPC, which means no direct integration with iTunes or native integration with iOS devices. Front Row was removed.\n3) You are right, the mini is more of a general computation device, but my read was that you buying for was a playback device.\n4) You can jailbreak the AppleTV (firecore) and get either the plex client or xbmc client on board (generation 2 of the Apple TV, I do not know about generation 3, but the firecore site may say)\n5) the AppleTV is a dedicated playback device.", "id": "c4fwlrz", "summary": "If you want a generalize computer, buy the mini. If you want a device that integrates into your home theatre as a minimal playback device, get an AppleTV. I went down the mini path first, it is more of a hassle than the AppleTV route. Over-scanning on the mini can be an annoyance. My mini is now my sever. \n The AppleTV has an N band card and will play with your Time Capsule just fine."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "Honestly, $500 is not going to get you anything near current in the Apple realm. All of the suggestions here are at least 4 years old or older running the Core 2 era of CPUs. \n Are some links that just reinforce my issue. You might get lucky on Craigslist and find something for about $500 that is within the last two years. I would strongly suggest upping your limit to $680-$750 and grabbing a MBA from the refurb store that may last an iteration or two of OS X (to which I note , some of these MBA are already 2 years old.)", "id": "cj06ob9", "summary": "Apple does not do cheap notebooks/ultrabooks. If you want near modern, you will have to pay a little more."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "AppleTV user here. (Former Roku user). \n The Roku is indeed WIFI capable and will do what you want with the inclusion of Plex or some other server. Which makes the decision between a Roku or AppleTV really moot. \n The other issue that needs to play into your decision is your device ecosystem. If you are already embedded in the Apple ecosystem, the AppleTV is a huge value add. If you are embedded in Windows, the WD Live becomes a larger value add (although the Apple TV is still viable) as it is a Windows Media Extender. The thing with the Roku is there is no real ecosystem it belongs to (This is neither a positive or minus). \n With Amazon slated to release a streaming box, the only ecosystem the Roku really extended is going to go away. Okay, I know that there are a ton of channels on the Roku and even more if you Google. The problem is that a lot of them are , well, out of copyright and low budget movies, religious or cooking shows that you may or may not watch anyways. \n Because you torrent, the WD is a better choice. It has a huge selection of onboard codecs that neither the AppleTV (MP4 only) nor the Roku (MP4/MKV only) can match. If you go the Roku or AppleTV route you will need a system that has decent CPU cycles to do transcoding either on the fly with Plex or before hand with Handbrake.", "id": "cfzxnr8", "summary": "WD Live is a better fit for you."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "My current setup : Mac Mini, Drobo hung off my server via USB (4TBs I need to upgrade my drives as I am at 90% capacity), 3 Apple TVs (2 Gen 2, 1 Gen 1), Roku 2 XS, 2 iPads, 4 iPhones, PS3, Wii. Other systems in the house that can stream but don't 3 Minis, 1 MBP, 3 thinkpads. Network is an Airport Extreme with an Airport Express as an Extender. The Mini that is acting as my my server is wired to the Airport Extreme. The PS 3 is wired to the Airport Express. Everything else is wireless. I have had 4 HD streams running at once and got an occasional chop. 3 streams run without an issue. \n Since you are embedded in the Apple ecosystem, the issue you will have is not what type of hardware you are running on, but what you are using as a Media server. I am in the conversion process going from iTunes to Plex as my main server and am finding that not all is rosy over in Plexland either. But I digress. \n Since you are running iTunes as your primary source of video services you know that you will have to keep a copy of iTunes open and running at all times. Here is the kicker, it does not matter what system you are running it on as far as the OS is concerned. iTunes will function just the same. I would look at one of the inexpensive Zotacs, Acer Reevos or Asus EEEPCs ($200-$300 per system) if you want to get your toes wet and not spend the money for a Mac Mini. If you want to maintain the clean Apple systems then you are looking at a Mini and I would suggest anything that is Intel and see if you can find a used Mini to do just this. \n Since you know iTunes, I will not talk about it unless asked. \n Plex. Plex is a little more complex to setup, you must jailbreak your AppleTVs (I used FireCore which uses Seas0nPass and automagically installs the plex client, otherwise this is a manual process) and is more flexible than iTunes. Downsides, you need to get your media elsewhere as Plex does not have a built in store. (Killer feature would be for Apple to throw in the towel and write a Plex plugin for their DRMed content allowing you to buy, rent and play content from Apple...Yeah, right. This is going to happen.) To move your current media from iTunes to Plex you will need to invest in a Wndows VM (at the very least, I reccomend Virtual Box because it is free), requiem and iTunes 10.5.x . And not all of your media will make it across (I lost three books, but no movies or TV Shows) \n Plex is composed of 3 main parts that you will have to install if you go this route. The Plex Media Server (Resides on your server), the Plex Media Manager (This is where you match your media and make libraries) and the Plex Media Client (You will need to install this on your AppleTVs and on a Computer somewhere to manage Channels. You will want these.) \n The documentation for getting the Channels up and running is non-obvious, but once you do it, it is simple. You add channels from computer running the Plex Client to the server. This allows you to add things for free like Hulu, Netflix, South Park, The Daily Show, etc. \n Plex Media Server is really interesting in the way it handles data the clients do not understand. It transcodes the formats in real time for the clients. Make sure you have a beefy server (I recommend the AMD FX8150 series as it beats the i7s in transcoding hands down, but I do not recommend this CPU for anything else. Baring the AMD CPU, make sure you have at least an i5 but the i7 is preferred). \n With either Media server, Handbrake (www.handbrake.fr) is your friend. Since Handbrake needs VLC you will also be installing that. I would also suggest getting MakeMKV and using that to feed Handbrake MKVs. With Handbrake, the more cpu cores the better. \n Finally, if you go with iTunes and start adding your own content, be sure to get subler or MetaX. iTunes does not metatag your content. Plex will do this for you although occasionally you will have to go through and tell Plex through the Media Manager that it got it wrong. Not a big deal. \n Ask me if you have questions. I will answer them to the best I can.", "id": "c5fdrzx", "summary": "Read it anyways."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "If you want to stay legal: \n A lot of those shows can be had on Hulu for $8/month. SYTYCD , The Voice and DWTS are all there. AGT, I don't know (Lord, help me! My wife and your wife have similar tastes in shows). \n Those that can't be had on Hulu can be bought from iTunes / Amazon. The Walking Dead, Falling Skies, The Last Ship. (Budget $30 - $40 per show. ) \n Kids shows, I would suggest a Netflix account and use the profiles. Again, $8 month which would get you a whole plethora of kids shows including Dora. (Been there, my kids have aged out of these now. Now they are into cooler shows like Batman, The Avengers, and TerraSlugs (I think). \n To get sports you are going to have to sign up for the streaming option and they run from $60 / year to $150 / year. Or you can do an antenna and deal with the local blackouts. \n Also having an Apple setup, I have found that Elgato EyeTV3 (software) and a Silicon Dust Homerun provided the path of least resistance to push local broadcast to my AppleTVs for my wife. It also allows me to DVR shows which I export into iTunes once a week. She is happy, I'm happy. (This will run you about $250 once. $105 for the software and iOS app and $150 for the Silicon Dust plus you will need an antenna.) \n I started with a Mac Mini as my iTunes server, progressed to the point where I ran out of disk space, bought a DAS (Direct Attach Storage) and Disks (4TB) - $1200 at the time, updated mac mini (went from Core Duo to i5) , ran out of disk space again,upgraded disks again (16 TB) - $600 recently , and am now trying to figure out how to backup said disk volume.   This is over about 10 years. \n The other things that you should get is Handbrake (Although I am recommending iVI these days instead - Mac Only), MakeMKV, Noteburner and possibly an external Blu Ray drive. ($160). This allows you to convert formats from one device to another. MakeMKV is one of the fastest ripping programs I have seen (when you encounter physical media). iVI does a tremendous job converting MKV files to MP4 (universal format), tagging the file, and dumping them into iTunes. Noteburner allows for the movement of files from iTunes to other devices and negates the need for mothership check ins. Panasonic makes an external  Blu-Ray drive that is Mac compliant, but I do not know if this is an issue for you.", "id": "cj0zwmz", "summary": "Suggestions for living in an Apple ecosystem. I made an assumption based on the AppleTV mentioned. Apologies for the wall o'text."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "Take her out of the daycare NOW! You are not over reacting, you are protecting your child. Remember that. \n Let me relate a story to you from experience. My older child was in a new daycare when he was about 8 months old (Reasons are another story for another time). He started to shake when we were getting ready to take him to the daycare and fight us when we would arrive after three days of going there. We started to notice that he was really listless after a day of being there. (Two days after he started fighting us.) We thought nothing of it. On the following Tuesday, we noticed his urine was awfully concentrated, he was beginning to develop sores and his diaper was the same one we sent him with. We had thought that his diaper was not changed on Monday, but we were not sure at the time as we used a common generic disposable diaper. This one we pen marked with a sharpie to be sure. We immediately withdrew him from the daycare. No questions, no reason given. When I went back to collect our property (Bottles, wipes, formula, Onesies, birth certificate, insurance information) the daycare provider gave me a hard time about returning our stuff. \n I warned the daycare provider not to give me a hard time, about it as I had come to settle our account and move on, but they did. Once I was clear of the facility/house I called child protective services and reported what my child had experienced. \n I eventually found a new daycare provider through CPS. Interestingly enough the new daycare provider was friends with his old one and I found out that after a two week investigation the old daycare was shut down permanently due to the investigation and the irregularities in child care practices.", "id": "c1iv4jv", "summary": "Protect YOUR KID! YOU are the RESPONSIBLE party. Call Child Protective Services or who ever is the party for licensing daycares."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "In most cases I would advocate going with the dumb TV do to the lack of demonstrated OEM non-support of the \"Smart\" clients. (you buy the set and maybe one update later, the OEM decides the TV is \"Smart\" enough and moves on to the next model). \n In your case, where the price difference is negligible, go for which ever version suits your fancy. I saw one redditor complaining about the \"Smart\" of the smart TV interfering with their console response time, but I have only seen this complaint once. I would say that this is a minor complain limited to that set and that user.", "id": "ceotqzg", "summary": "No."}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "You do not state what your intended use case is to be, which would help quite a bit in determining what system suits your your particular use case. \n The iPad is more of a consumption device with light creation tools. If you are going to take notes with a stylus/on screen keyboard/case keyboard/what ever and dump them to iCloud/Dropbox/Google Docs then edit them on your desktop the iPad is the device. It has a longer battery life than my MBA, doubles as an eReader, allows me to watch movies in places a laptop is awkward. (I have \"the iPad\". 1st generation. No camera.) \n I don't have printing issues from the iPad as I bought a printer on the iPad compatibility list, so do your homework. It is more restrictive than the general Apple printer list, but not exclusively so. It does require that AirPrint be implemented printer side. [Here is a link]( to compatible printers. \n The screen on the iPad is going to blow you away. It has more resolution than any of the Apple Notebooks. At 2048 x 1536, you just cannot get that on a MBA or MBP with the internal display. \n The MBA and the MBP are both \"classical\" computation devices, with the standard paradigm of user interaction and applications. You can't go wrong being conservative. As far as I am concerned the $999 new MBA does not exist. As the Memory on board the MBA is non-upgradeable, the 2 GB model is a non-recommendation. \n Apple did a great job in dropping the prices on their notebooks to be non-competitive and non-comparable with each other except on the $1199 price point. Everything else is spread to different increments. The largest thing that I can say about the Pro versus Air debate is that you sacrifice capability for mobility. \n The Pro has more flat out capability than the Air. A discrete video card (intel is still junk for anything more than general desktop usage), larger HDD capabilities along with the SSD options, expandable memory and different screen resolutions. Although the Pros tend to be beasts. \n The Air is highly portable, great for general desktop usage, the limited options on the Air (no HDD only SSD, no internal Optical although I don't see this necessarily as an issue) means that you always have the speed of the SSD, which makes the OS and applications feel fast.", "id": "c4os7zu", "summary": "iPad - light general usage. Consumption device. Do your homework on cases and printers. No upgrade path. (Buy next version).Extreme mobility. WiFi natively and Cell connectivity optional. No Ethernet cable. (Completeness) Light glare is an issue. On screen keyboard takes adjustment to get use to. External keyboards are available. Some never adjust. Extreme resolution. 2048 x 1536 resolution. \n MBA - medium general usage. Still a traditional computer. Very limited upgrade path. (SSD only).  Limited resolution internally supported. High mobility. Limited to traditional WiFi natively. Need a USB dongle for Ethernet cable. Still may want an e-reader. 1440x900 top end resolution on the 13 inch. Video card is limited. \n MBP - The beast. Multiple options. Most upgrade able offering. Can be expensive. 17 inch is not that mobile. Limited to traditional WiFi and Ethernet Cable natively. Can be a workstation replacement. May still want an e-reader. 1920x1200 top end resolution on the 17inch. Has discrete graphics options. \n Granted that you can only upgrade three things on an Apple notebook anyways...(Memory, HDD and Optical Bay...) \n (Many ninja edits.)"}, {"author": "zgggg", "content": "Inspired by this [conversation]( with /u/logged_n_2_say I ordered the mini-HDMI to HDMI cord and I received it last night. Read on, brave reader, to see how my 5 hour experiment went. \n The Setup. \n Grabbing my Surface RT and connecting the mini-HDMI to HDMI adapter was easy. Windows recognized the secondary display (A 32 inch 1080p display by Toshiba) and an extended desktop on the display. I went in to the display settings and told Windows to mirror displays. From there I went to play the trailer for the latest GI Joe film on the built in Xbox player. Big mistake. There was tearing and artifacts from the RT trying to play on two screens at once. Drats. \n Okay, RT, display the Movie information on the tablet and play on the second display. I played around with this idea for 20 minutes trying to figure out how to do this, as sitting the tablet next to my TV with show information would have been cool. Could not figure it out. Dang it. \n Set the TV as the primary display and play. I still have slight tearing during high motion content. Dang it. \n Okay, use only the TV as the display. 1080p content plays smooth as butter, even with high action sequences . \n The Apps. \n Remember this is WindowsRT that we are talking about, so everything has to be installed through the Windows App Store (or whatever they are calling it. It is an app store). \n Looking around modern I see my primary stash of apps are available. Netflix, Plex and Hulu. Then there is Vevo, Crackle, CW, YouTube, Vimeo,Spike, CBS, ABC, NBC are all available as Modern apps. Wow, I almost think I am back on a Rocku. No iTunes, but then I move all of my videos into Plex so the lack of iTunes is not a deal breaker. \n I go into Plex and I see everything that I have on my Plex server. I pick Aeon Flux and hit play. No issues. Then I pick Constantine and watch the first 15 minutes, no issues. I exit out and pick Sleepy Hollow and the first 10 minutes of the Pilot plays. No issues. And my Plex app on my Nokia works as a remote. Slick! \n Next I need to test out how it handles streaming from the Internets. I fire up Vevo and select some random song (I get Lady Gagas new Video featuring Machete) and the video has massive stutters and buffers. \n Selecting Netflix I move over to a little bit of Black Snake Moan. No issues. Congestion to Vevo is always possible. \n I then do some Crackle. Again no issues. I am going to chalk up Vevo to network congestion at this point, and no fault of the device. \n Modern as a 10-ft UI \n Modern looks great from my couch and I suspect that with a remote it would be very navigable, once the apps were installed. Perhaps with a remote that is setup to send right clicks I would not need a mouse. \n Other ways to Play content. \n Having a large stack of movies shared out on my network I decide to see how the RT handles playing directly off a networked drive. I drop to the desktop and map a network drive. I then double click on Aeon Flux as I know it will play. For some reason, when a movie plays over an SMB/CIFS mapping, the audio is out of sync with the video in Windows Media Player.  Aeon Flux, Constantine, Matrix. Strange. \n Killing Windows Media Player, I begin to dig around on the tablet. (Remember I am using a Keyboard and Mouse). I find that My Computer on the Desktop has my Plex server listed as a DLNA device. I click on my server and start to drill down. I am presented with a file hierarchy and drill into my movies. I find Aeon Flux and open it in Windows Media Player (as opposed to Video Player on Modern) and begin to play the movie. The sound is synced with the video. Moral of this lesson is SMB/CIFs is a bad place to play video from. I killed my drive mapping at this point. \n I drill into my Music presented on my DLNA list. I click on Audra Mae and start to Play the first song. Modern flies open and the Xbox Music Player opens to play the song. Not Window Media Player. Okay, cool. The Xbox Music Player is DLNA compliant...Nope. I can't drill into anything that is not in the cloud (and I do not have an Xbox Music Sub) and is not local. Really ? This is bull. Desktop allows me to, but Modern doesn't? Strike one for attention to detail. \n Modern Video player is the same way. Grumble. I will need to check out my Surface Pro eventually. \n Streaming To. \n Okay, I have demonstrated basic streaming capabilities and the RT has the ability to function as a playback device once certain apps are installed.  One of the features that I utilize is the ability to stream to my TV from a phone or tablet. I have a Nokia 920 and remember seeing that there was an update that mentioned PlayTo. \n Smart Glass is Xbox only. I fire up the Music player and ... I can't figure out how to stream to the RT. Perhaps I can't stream music. I fire up Videos and have the Matrix on my phone. Nope, can't share it to my RT either... \n I dig around Google and find that the WD Live is the only certified PlayTo box... Dang! It! \n Wrap it Up. \n The Surface RT is a very capable HTPC replacement. There are some issues that are livable particularly if you are willing to invest into Plex. The Modern UI really reminds me of the Roku interface turned 90 degrees. (Rather than scrolling up and down, it scrolls left to right, but the channels idea is there). If I were to be starting from ground zero, with just TVs this would be doable. \n With a USB port and the ability to add a USB Hub, things like an Optical Disk can be added if desired. \n At this point in time XBMC is a no show. Which is really funny, considering that Plex is based off of XBMC. \n Why would you do this instead of a Roku ? Well, Hulu for one. Not Hulu Prime, but regular Hulu. The free version. \n 5 hours later and the SAF is wearing thin. And I notice that I did not plug my RT into power. I look at the battery and notice I have about half of it left and I shut it down. Off to bed with the wife to make up for making a computer widow for the evening. \n Comparison. \n I did not attempt to make a comparison by trying to use either an Android tablet or Apple iPad as an HTPC, but I suspect either is doable. The new Nexus 7 would be a real interesting test. \n My equipment: \n I am Apple at home through and through. I have 2 TVs with AppleTVs, iPads, iPhones and Macs galore. I am also a MCSE with the lifetime award. When I went to TechEd in New Orleans this year, they were selling Surface Pros at a steep discount and literally selling the RTs at the cost of the keyboard. (Limit one of each per customer). So I picked them up. My current position requires me to be fluent in Android, Windows Phone and iOS (I am tech support for these devices). Like most Mac users, I really like the integration and carp about the price. \n My network is based off of a 4th generation Airport extreme. My movies are shared off of a Mac Mini running Plex and iTunes. Everything is stored on a Drobo 2nd Generation (USB). Everything connects on WiFi at N speeds.", "id": "t3_1o8zn4", "summary": "Yes, the Surface RT can be an HTPC. Surprise! \n (edits: Many, as a native English speaker I can't. )"}]}
+{"author": "Informationator", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I'd never automatically assume that a beautiful woman is stupid, but there IS something to that...", "output": "I've actually spent a lot of time thinking about this...  I don't think beauty has anything to do with innate intelligence, but I do find that most women (not all, but the vast majority) who have great hair, clothes, makeup, shoes, etc. tend to be pretty ignorant/ditzy with such limited/stunted skills in life and in general.  Women I've known who are typically much more plain in how they do their makeup and in the clothes tend to be more intelligent, capable, adaptable, and varied in their skillsets. \n I'm not confusing correlation/causation here, but think about it...  Add up all of the time you're doing your makeup, shopping and researching the latest fashion trends when that time could be used for reading or developing a skill...  There are a handful of \"pretty dolls\" in my office but about all they're good for is eye candy.  The women who really get crap done look relatively plain on the exterior but are SHARP! \n Again, I've run into beautiful, intelligent, driven women on a handful of occasions, but almost without fail women fall into one of two buckets:  Stupid models and workhorses.  What they tend to place weight/time on (mind vs. looks) has compounding effects on who they become."}], "user_id": "longlamp_3306", "history": [{"author": "Informationator", "content": "I think it's the competitive/obsessive element that drives many to do things that most normal people and even many collectors would see as unreasonable, such as dropping thousands or tens of thousands on a single game. \n For complete collecting, there's a desire to have a universally-accepted, complete collection.  Most would deny that others' opinions have much sway, but I do think there is some level of social pressure there (even if indirectly) that makes one want to meet certain milestones. \n I will never have that.  Mine will always be 99% complete according to someone's definition even when I'm \"done\".  I wonder sometimes how much others' opinion drives complete collectors' desire to drop that gigantic wad of money on those final few games...  Personally, somewhat of a desire is there, but the more pragmatic side of me will never let me do that.  After giving it some thought I just can't justify the opportunity cost....  From a pragmatic perspective, it could go toward fixing up my house.  From a hedonistic perspective, I could go on a month-long cruise rather than buy said games.  From a collecting perspective, I could be well into another full set of fun games for what the last few games of a complete collection will cost me.  ...and from a philanthropic perspective, well...  It could do a lot more good.  Take your pick, but any of those will bring me more joy than having 2-4 more games in my collection.  I'd love to have them as a serious collector, but for what they'd cost me, I truly think I'll be far happier without them. \n To be clear, I'm not hating on people who have comp carts and super-rares.  Don't hear that.  This is my personal journey of why I don't think it's worth it to compare your collection to others', and, to a lesser extent, why it's not worth it to pursue all-encompassing collections in the current market.", "id": "cgmarg1", "summary": "Don't compare your collection to others' collections.  The disparity will steal your joy and trying to address that disparity will steal your joy and your money."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell! :P \n ...or in this case, be spurned over and over and tell... \n I have a pretty strict personal policy of not talking about games I care about playing but haven't beaten (same with books/movies) since people tend to ruin them for me or they just  have  to tell me that \"one thing that doesn't give away anything\".  ...maybe so for an idiot, but as a person capable of recognizing foreshadowing uh... yeah...  You just ruined the entire book.  Thanks. \n Or they'll tell me a main character dies or something.  Cool.  Now I'm playing the entire game wondering which character will die.", "id": "carevsh", "summary": "NEVAR"}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Yeah, it's like the difference between easymac and gourmet macaroni.  A kid will love easy mac but an adult that has had legit macaroni spiced and baked to perfection is going to recognize that easymac is really missing something - it gets WAY better. \n We're adults.  We ate the easymac of the video game world as kids and liked it okay.  ...then we had shells and cheese, then we had the gourmet stuff and at this point we could settle for shells and cheese but MAN are we sick of companies trying to shove that disgusting easymac down our throats.", "id": "c90q5t0", "summary": "I'm hungry and I'm going to go make real macaroni and cheese now."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Frankly I don't want women asking me out.  Then I'm rejecting women I would never have had to reject, because if I'm interested, I'd be asking them out. \n I see playing games and not asking men out as two different issues.  There are plenty of ways a woman can indicate she would like to get to know you better.  Eye contact, listening and responding conversation, inviting you to stuff, asking you questions about your life and hobbies, touching you on the arm/shoulder, smiling, harmless flirting etc.  If she's not even doing that then she probably isn't going to have the courage to ask anyone out either. \n I HATE turning down women who actually do summon up the courage to let me know they like me.  The look on their faces and the sadness in their voices kills me.  I'd much rather be rejected than reject a woman who already has all of society and most women telling her she's not attractive enough.  Men don't have to deal with that.", "id": "cf62zf2", "summary": "I think the current system is working great."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Once upon a time, there was me. \n Me was smart and motivated and needed a job.  I applied for a support desk.  They weren't sure about me, but I promised them I'd work my butt off. \n First raise, \"You get the highest raise possible.  A whole 2%!!!\"  I'm like ಠ_ಠ, but I realize my boss' hands are tied. \n Fast forward 6 months.  I apply for a new position showing in graph form that, over the course of 90 work days, I handled 30% more tickets than my peers.  Some days I'd handle as many as 50 tickets with the lowest guy handling 16. \n I get the job.  I fight and fight and fight for a bigger raise, but they give me a raise 10k less than industry standard for the job saying \"We're not sure you can handle an analyst position.\" \n ...ಠ_ಠ  I get them to all but promise me that I'll give a bigger than normal raise once I prove I can handle it.  After 2 weeks my trainer says I'm where the previous guy was at 2 months.  Everyone is praising my work ethic. \n Fast forward another 6 months.  Raise time.  My bosses tell me what a great job I've done, and \"thanks for all of your hard work.\"  2.98% \n ಠ_ಠ \n ಠ_ಠ \n ... \n BARELY ENOUGH TO COVER INFLATION. \n \"This is not what we talked about.  You've said yourself that I've far exceeded your expectations.  I've gone from 0 SQL experience to writing massive, complex scripts.  I've worked very hard and handled all of the projects you've given me.  I've risen to every occasion.  Please talk to the CIO about giving me a bigger raise.  He all but promised me this and I'm disappointed with this number.\" \n \"I'll...  Discuss it with him.\" \n Brought it up again. \n \"Oh yeah.  I need to make sure to discuss it with him.\" \n ಠ_ಠ \n Two more months till I get my 10% Bonus, my 2-weeks vacation, and my $3000 IT conference, then I'm out of this freaking communist butthole factory. \n You know the worst thing?  A guy was leaving the company and they spent $1600 of company money for a going-away party for him - mostly alcohol.  They spent more money on a guy who will bring zero additional value to the company in a single night than the sum of my entire annual raise.", "id": "c1g54wa", "summary": "Be happy your bosses GENUINELY value your hard work.  My bosses give me empty words and a lackluster paycheck.  Happy for you bro, even if you are forever alone.  CONGRATS! :)"}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "I met a girl just a couple of months ago who I thought was cute.  She dresses fashionably and has a stylish, short haircut.  I could tell she is really intelligent and talented from talking to her briefly, but the more I talked to her, the more I realized how unattractive she thinks she is. \n She is wrapped up in this insane, narcissistic web of inadequacy.  The more she pointed out her own flaws the more I began to see her as she sees herself.  I realized she is a complete emotional wreck, and my attraction turned to pity.  The sad thing is that I was genuinely attracted to her at first.  It is only by her own belief and declaration of her ugliness that she beat down my attraction to her. \n I'm not going to pull an Oprah and tell you you're physically beautiful no matter what, but what I do want to convey is that physical beauty is so freaking overrated.  Do what you can to be physically healthy, but above all else, strive to be joyful.  Foster contentment.  Count your blessings.  Laugh.  Smile.  Improve yourself as you can and grow within yourself character traits that actually matter.  Everyone is more attractive when they exude joy. \n In a nutshell, your own belief that you are ugly is hindering your social interactions, regardless of your actual appearance. \n Also, I recommend reading the novels Uglies, Pretties, and Specials (It's a trilogy).  It is both fun to read and a telling example of the true (un)importance of physical beauty.", "id": "c2k3082", "summary": "A girl who is not ugly believes she is and wrongly convinces others of the same.  Regardless of how you look, don't be that girl."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "I read the books.  The name issue reminds me of the \"good school\" discussion.  The gist of the reasoning is that while the name itself isn 't a determiner of success, it can be an indicator of success insomuch as it reflects the aptitude of the parents (you know, the people the children learn just about everything from in their formative years?...)", "id": "c8qfoc0", "summary": "Named by dummies = raised by dummies"}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "I lost a ton of nice peripherals in a break-in a couple of years ago.  Thankfully the numbskulls took my joysticks and left the three gigantic boxes containing my entire SNES collection (at the time, I was moving into my new home).  I know they looked at the games too, because we pulled a partial print off of World Heroes II, which they'd removed from the box. \n The peripherals were valuable, but not rare, and have more or less been replaced.  Losing the TIME that I had spent assembling and cleaning my collection would've been a truly irreplaceable loss...  When I audited my collection to see what was taken I actually FOUND a game that I'd somehow failed to add to my spreadsheets.", "id": "ck7bikw", "summary": "Thieves broke in and I ended up having one more game than I thought I had."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Never lend cash to friends. \n If they pay you back, great.  ...but even the best of people will fail to do so much of the time, and when they don't, the friendship will slowly erode because you keep wishing he'd pay you back and he increasingly avoids you because he knows he should be paying you back and doesn't want to, so you become a guilt-inducing nuisance to him. \n It'd be better if he got dinged for coming up short on a payment somewhere and learned that there are consequences for mismanaging his finances instead of knowing that you're his personal bank he can rely on when he comes up short. \n Before you all call me a butthole, know that I lent a friend $600 bucks three years ago because he felt compelled to send two girls to a summer camp to better their lives.  He couldn't afford to at the time, but he felt a deep conviction that they needed to have this experience.  He approached me and I gave him the money making it VERY CLEAR this was an interest-free loan,  NOT  a charity donation.  HE was the one who felt compelled to send these girls to camp, not me. \n He is an upstanding guy.  He is honest, positive, caring.  He's been a good friend to me, but after three years, he has still not payed me back.  He has awkwardly avoided the topic of repaying me and after bringing it up a few times (and him uncomfortably assuring me he intends to pay me back) I've chosen to overlook the topic to salvage our friendship. \n He's getting married soon (I'm a groomsman) and he's asked for cash donations instead of material gifts.  My gift to him will be formally releasing him from his $600 debt to me.", "id": "c25vo5i", "summary": "Your friend might be a great guy, but there are plenty of good people who royally suck with money and need to learn how to manage money the hard way.  Never loan money to friends unless you genuinely do not care if you never see it again."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "I can promise you that from a bacterial standpoint, hospitals are one of the dirtiest facilities you will ever be in.  Think about it: Hospitals are where the sick people go. \n Sure, they wash the linens and change gloves between patients, etc.  ...but not everyone follows precautions like they're supposed to, not everyone cleans everything like they're supposed to, and not every kind of infection is acquired via contact.  There are airborne pathogens too. \n The idea that physicians know everything and that hospitals are clean, safe places is a misconception that quickly goes away when you actually work in healthcare.  The fact is, physicians screw up all the time, nurses don't always follow safety precautions like they're supposed to, and a TON of patients acquire secondary infections as a direct result of being admitted to a hospital. \n All that to say...  If you're sick - REALLY sick - go to a hospital.  If you have a bad accident, go to a hospital.  If you break a bone, go to a hospital, but one of the many reasons I transitioned from being a practicing nurse to the IS/IT field is the fact that I don't like exposing myself to every pathogen in the book and you're going to run into some nasty bugs if you stay in a hospital.  The most deathly-ill I've even been was as a result of a gram-negative bacteria I somehow contracted from a patient.", "id": "cbkds68", "summary": "If you go to the hospital when you're not all that sick, you might end up sick as a result of being in a hospital."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Yeah, just today some nut in front of me swerved into my lane and I had to swerve into another lane to prevent a wreck.  5 seconds later some guy pulls up next to me with a sort of unfiltered hatred I've never seen before, throwing signs, endangering others while he tries to make eye contact with me.  The guy had no idea I had to swerve out of sheer necessity and was throwing all kind of hateful signs my way out of complete ignorance.", "id": "c7t08qs", "summary": "We live in a messed up world."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Tolerance\" is over-rated and you seem to misunderstand the definition.  I can tolerate Scientology without respecting it.  You don't want tolerance, you want people to act as if Scientology has a shred of validity.  You've been brainwashed, son. \n 1) Scientology goes after actors because they're rich and lend themselves to popularizing the business.  You ought to see a problem with the fact that people are given preferential treatment. \n 2) I've yet to attend a Christian church that says \"tithe or get out\".  If a Christian wants to actually exercise what he believes, however, he'll willingly give 10% or more of his earnings to support the church and it's staff.  Good luck taking Scientology classes without paying for them. \n 3) Attempting to change a topic from a valid question, such as the ongoing ill effects of Scientology and its illegal activities to the status of the Catholic church, is redirection, something I've seen from a lot of Scientologists.  People want authenticity.  Scientology disgusts people because it's not authentic, it's evasive, and it has to be, because you can't really be authentic when you're extorting people. \n If Scientology has helped you in some way, it's because it's good at digging into your problems and convincing you that they're resolved without ever resolving anything.  You said yourself that they told you about thetans.  Well great!  Now the problems aren't biochemical or emotional in nature...  It's those darned thetans!  Identifying the \"problem\" always feels better than wondering what the real problem is...  Sort of like how it feels good to know that, while that lump you found might be malignant cancer, it's treatable.  Now you know what it is and can fight it.  Scientology, however, finds your problems, mislabels them, gives you a placebo, and promises even better placebos for enough money.  If Scientology has made you feel better, it's because they've labeled your problems and convinced you they're getting fixed, not because the source of those problems is actually being addressed.  In the mean time you're either heading toward debt or on the road to worse debt.", "id": "c1br22g", "summary": "You're in a cult.  Get out.  Hopefully you'll realize this before you're a bankrupt wreck. \n Rage on."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "RN (and game collector!) here.  Certain microorganisms (some rather terrible ones, in fact) are not killed by the alcohol sanitizers on the wall, and I would not trust hospital staff to sanitize that properly.  Do you  know  how incompetent so many hospital staff are?  There are some real gems out there unknowingly killing people by giving them secondary infections due to not using proper sanitation techniques from patient to patient. \n I found this out the hard way as a nursing student when my bonehead instructor didn't tell me that the horribly ill patient I was caring for had a bacterial infection requiring soap and water to kill.  There I was religiously using alcohol scrub to kill something that alcohol sanitizer didn't kill... ...That night I found myself sicker than I'd ever been, crawling around vomiting at 3AM.  My family was out of town and I could've died if I hadn't spent an hour crawling down stairs and across the carpet to get some fluids.", "id": "clb5jez", "summary": "I wouldn't touch that if you paid me."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "ProTip: Don't waste your time bidding on an auction days before it ends.  It's seriously a complete waste of time unless it's an item no one else wants.  Instead, set an alarm on your phone and put in your max bid 10-15 seconds before it ends.  By bidding early you're, at best, bidding against yourself if you end up winning.  By bidding right at the end, you deprive people the opportunity to outbid you compulsively.  On hot items, the price typically doubles in the last couple of minutes of the auction. \n I'm not directing this at you, but in the past I've gotten pretty ticked when I see 16 bids on an item with like 5 days left.  I just want to track them all down and yell at them: \"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE ACHIEVING HERE?!  DON'T YOU REALIZE YOU'RE JUST MAKING EVERYONE PAY MORE?!\"", "id": "c81nceh", "summary": "There is no benefit bidding on an item at any point before the 30-seconds-remaining mark.  Better if you wait until the 10-second mark."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "I cannot tell you how many times my \"support\" never wards river or tribush let alone throw a strinker in far bot lane bush even in teambuilder.  I end up buying a ward or two as ADc just to cover my own butt since Leona can't bring herself to do anything more than sit in bush and continually miss her E. #salty", "id": "cmcxbhq", "summary": "PLS WARD"}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Sounds like the problem is his attitude, not his surfing habits.  I'm an application analyst and am currently involved in some of our company's bigger capital projects.  Yesterday I was in meetings and putting out fires most of the day.  Today looks to be much slower. \n I work very hard, but I also work fast, so when I'm in between issues, I'm on Reddit.", "id": "c1ti52f", "summary": "Work hard, Be positive, Don't be negative."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "So a year or so ago I bought this $1200 wide-gamut, H-IPS, color-calibrated monitor for my photography work and even when I pulled it out of the box I made sure to never touch the screen. \n One day my roommate comes up to show me something online.  I go to the website and I see it coming a mile away:  He starts moving his arm up to point to something and I say \" DON'T .... ....touch the screen.  Just point.  Don't touch it.\"  Dust cleans off easily enough, but I didn't want oil getting on it since it's not water soluble. \n He stops mid-gesture, looks at me, then engages in full troll mode and slowly pokes his finger into my screen.  I let him know in no uncertain terms that I wasn't joking, that his greasy finger was the first thing to ever touch that screen, and that he could kindly vacate my room.", "id": "c8fwjms", "summary": "TOUCHIN' SCREENS AIN'T NO JOKE"}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "There are [many new testament passages about marriage, sexuality, and homosexuality]( \n You're right that we are no longer under old testament law, but issues of marriage and relationship were not redefined nor were they done away with: \n Read Romans 1:26-28: \"For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.\" \n That's a pretty explicit new testament condemnation of homosexuality.", "id": "c9wel38", "summary": "Being peacemakers is following Christ.  Showing love, kindness, and compassion is following Christ.  Supporting or living in a sexual relationship outside of God's plan (extramarital, gay, or otherwise) is not supported by the Bible."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "My Final Fight Guy had superglued screws.  I tried everything under the sun short of drilling them out (did not want to damage the front half).  I couldn't get it apart to verify its authenticity, so I ended up having to cut off the back with an xacto knife, probably the most nerve-racking thing I've done to date as far as game maintenance/verification goes.  I really, really hated cutting off a back, but there was no other way in there without doing that and I wasn't about to sit there wondering if I bought a fake.  Thankfully I found an identical back from a common game to replace it with. \n After the surgery was complete, I found a 100% legit board inside.  I checked with other collectors and another person's game had super glued screws, so it must've been something Blockbuster did on some of their exclusive games.", "id": "cfwtcri", "summary": "Superglued screws is super concerning but on rare occasion, the game is still legit."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "If you use your computer a lot, you will make good use of two monitors.  I used to have three and I used every inch of that space.  At first you're like \"What the heck will I do with this?\"  Then you realize \"Oh...  I can have a hulu TV show up on this one while I update a spreadsheet over here. \n ..or \"I can have a grid view of my photos on THIS screen, and one giant photo I'm editing on THIS screen!\" \n ...or a game on your main and a your chat program on a side-screen so you can easily identify who's talking.  Sometimes I'll play league of legends and I don't know how to build a character that I get randomly assigned.  BLAM  I pull up a build guide on the side monitor and leave it up as a reference for the entire game. \n The possibilities go on and on.  I really miss my third monitor.  Even two feels a little cramped at times.  With three I can reference something while I have two spreadsheets up I need to work between.", "id": "cdi8qd8", "summary": "Every time you add another monitor you end up finding useful ways to make use of the extra space."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "I've always felt that the seriousness with which BSG characters use that word actually detracts from the overall quality of the show.  If they used something that didn't already sound like such a commonly-used curse word I think it'd be easier to digest, because it sounds like they WANT to use a real curseword, but are too afraid to.", "id": "c1crxhi", "summary": "Using \"frak\" kind of comes off as \"DADGUMMIT!\" to me"}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Noon is neither PM or AM since the terms post meridian and ante meridian are referencing noon (e.g. \"after noon\" and \"before noon\").  Noon is neither before nor after noon, but simply noon. \n Furthermore, midnight is both 12AM AND 12PM since it is 12 hours after the previous noon and 12 hours before the following noon, therefore using AM and PM for midnight is ambiguous. \n This is why it's correct to say \"12 noon\" and \"12 midnight\" rather than appending AM or PM to the numbers.", "id": "c2uf5mr", "summary": "You've been correcting your teachers in error."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "There's a lot of misinformation floating around in here...  Breasts are mostly adipose tissue with breast tissue/glands along with something called cooper's ligaments.  You don't exercise ligaments.  BENEATH the breasts are the pectoral muscles which can lift the breasts somewhat if they're well-developed, but which have nothing to do with preventing the breasts from sagging (cooper's ligaments from stretching out).  ...you think those tribal ladies in Africa who're tucking their breasts into their pants got that way because of all of the \"exercise\" their breasts have gotten over the years?", "id": "c42m1fz", "summary": "Wear a bra.  You can't exercise fat."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "I'll respond to you in-depth because a number of people are misinterpreting the bokeh in this photo as a mistake or poor choice when it was actually intentional and purposeful. \n There are photos you take for informational, historical, and archival purposes, and there are photos you take because you have a subject you want to showcase in an artistic way.  The subject of this photo is not my entire collection, it is DOOM.  The blurred games serve only to provide a greater context, i.e. DOOM is part of a much larger collection.  If I wanted to show off the titles I'd just center my camera on the shelf and  and take a very flat, boring, static photo.", "id": "cbydyo3", "summary": "It's the difference between a painting and an excel spreadsheet."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "So... I had this friend.  She and I were both into media and she got me a job shooting photography at a summer camp, the same summer camp she worked at.  I really don't think she had a thing for me or anything like that (maybe I was just oblivious), but honestly, we were just good friends.  The camp paid trash but was a great portfolio builder... \n Anyway she and I would joke around and laugh it up.  She already had a friend at the camp who'd worked there over multiple summers.  Let's call her friend \"Turd\".  Turd sort of saw herself as having seniority even though we were all on the same level.  I'd already been photoshopping things for about 5 years at that point (color correcting, basic levels work, etc.) and shooting photography for a number of years, so I understood thoroughly how aperture, shutterspeed, ISO, and depth of field all work and interact with one another and end up affecting the final photo.  ...unlike a lot of the people they hired who were just warm bodies - completely inexperienced with a camera and had zero understanding of even the most basic guidelines of composition like rule of thirds. \n Most people at that camp were there to goof around and have fun.  I was there to build my portfolio and produce absolutely excellent work for the kids and the kids' parents.  Our quota was 100 photos a day with about 30% being photoshopped as a guideline.  Most people shot about 300 photos and kept 100.  I usually shot around 500 photos and kept 200-250.  I color-corrected, cropped (if it called for it), and exposure corrected (small tweaks) EVERY photo.  Some of those newbies destroyed their photos by jacking up the black levels, but I just let them do their thing and kept to myself, not wanting to be a know-it-all.  All I cared about was doing my best. \n So anyway, I think things with my friend are fine right?  I'm doing photo work, she's doing video work...  I'm just working along, doing my best, hanging out on occasion when I take a break from editing.  We chat now and then. \n Well, each week we show our best photos...  Rememmber Turd?  Well Turd decides to critique my photos in front of everyone telling me they're \"cliche\".  This was not a time for critique, it was a time for sharing.  I was sick of her comments so I told her that cliche or not, they're excellent photos and I didn't ask for her input.  I knew they weren't groundbreaking photos, but I liked how they'd turned out and told her so.  Honestly, my work was better than anyone else's there (something I never pointed out - because I wanted to help them grow, not discourage them). \n Well the next night my friend takes me outside and talks to me about my attitude.  She tells me I've been totally ungrateful and rude to Turd (who I'd never said a thing to until the day before).  My friend wasn't even talking about the previous night, but outlined some long, imaginary string of events where I'd been continually rude to Turd.  As an example, she told me how Turd once tried to show me that using curves to correct exposure is superior to using levels.  I responded that I listened to Turd when she tried to show me that, but preferred to do things my own way (using curves to quickly correct 250 photos is totally inappropriate...) \n Basically Turd was one of those know-it-all art school losers who produced some of the worst photography I've ever seen and somehow managed to poison a good friend against me as well.  I think she was jealous of our friendship and jealous of my work and decided to poison my friend against me as some weird sort of revenge for not respecting her \"seniority\". \n You know the saddest thing?  I really liked my friend, but she chose to believe Turd over me.  In so doing, she became a turd herself.  I completely lost respect for her when she believed such stupid, unfounded lies and had no desire to be friends with her anymore after that night.", "id": "c81he7h", "summary": "Friend invites me to work with her at a summer camp.  Her insecure friend weaves a web of lies and summarily destroys our friendship, because my friend was actually stupid enough to believe the lies."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "The thing is...  ...shouldn't you be able to think independently for yourself?  No one ever had to teach me to think independently.  Then again, I did endure an unending torrent of verbal/emotional abuse for being different than the other kids...  Teachers hated me for the dumbest reasons and they sure let me know, but it never changed how I thought. \n I wonder if thinking independently is sort of like art; you can teach someone lots of artistic concepts/guidelines.  You can teach them art history and art theory and make them draw for hours and hours.  ...but even after all of that, you simply cannot teach creativity.  I've seen so many photographers who really understand the workings of a camera and understand what makes a pretty photo but never do anything inventive in any of their photos; they know creative  concepts  but aren't creative themselves. \n I wonder...  Is teaching children to \"think independently\" really teaching them to think independently or is it just teaching them a set of concepts that they'll utilize as rules without ever coming up with any concepts or independent thoughts of their own?", "id": "c81j9eu", "summary": "I question if you can teach anyone to think independently just as I refute the idea that you can teach creativity; you either have the ability or you don't."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "This photography, if that's what you can even call her \n \"You're such a  photography , Jess.   UGH! \n Haha, in all seriousness, I think that scenario would actually make me laugh just because it's, well, ridiculous that she can't distinguish between the limitations of a cell phone and the capabilities of an SLR. \n Or, perhaps, it's not that she can't, but that she won't.  In any case, I might let a reasonable person talk me out of a career choice, but I'd never an uninformed person talk me into or out of anything; their opinions don't count.", "id": "cbxor63", "summary": "Unfriend her and RUN FREEE!"}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Negative Reinforcement \n If I don't get up, then I don't go to work. \n If I don't go to work, then I lose my job. \n If I lose my job, then I don't have any money coming in. \n If I don't have any money coming in, then I'm draining my bank account while I look for work. \n If I'm draining my bank account while I'm looking for work, then I'm not investing the money I would've been saving in mutual funds. \n If my money isn't in mutual funds, stocks, and bonds, then I'm not beating inflation or gaining anything from it. \n If I'm not beating inflation and getting returns on investments, then I'm sabotaging my plans to retire young.", "id": "c2kb54b", "summary": "I don't get up, I work until I'm 50 or 60 instead of 45."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "There are one or more dynamics going on here: \n \n Introverts can enjoy mutual silence and solitude.  Extroverts have a hunger for human interaction.  I am a strong introvert.  My roomate is a strong extrovert.  He is constantly hungry for human interaction to the point that yesterday, as I was soldering some wires and cleaning some SNES games, he basically stood there having a one-way conversation with me and himself, me only chiming in every once in a while with little tidbits.  He ultimately found it fulfilling because he got what he wanted, but in a romantic relationship I can see how an extroverted girl would expect something different.  My friendships work themselves out differently.  We're okay with silence.  We're okay with just being in each other's presence and chatting about life. \n \n Deep and shallow people.  Deep people like talking about the meaningful things of life.  Shallow people like talking about everything that doesn't matter and just eat that crap up and if you pair them wrong you end up with one person who wants to talk about her latest shopping trip and another who wants to philosophize about the dynamics and motivations surrounding human interaction. \n \n \n If the conversation isn't flowing it's probably not because you're doing something \"wrong\", but because you're in different places intellectually, motivationally, socially, or temperamentally.  In times when I've taken a girl out and the conversation has gone poorly, it's not been due to lack of effort on my part, but rather, a complete inability of the girl draw ANYthing from what I'm saying, or her inability to converse on anything deeper than a \"Beautiful weather.\"-\"This food tastes great.\"-\"I bought a new dress yesterday.\" level. \n You like cars?  Cool, I can talk about headers and exhausts, custom intakes and stroking engines.  You like artsy cosmetic experimentation?  Cool, we can talk about minerals and brushes and tones all of that.  You like service projects?  Cool, let's talk about habitat for humanity, what goes into building a house, and the rewards you feel from having helped a person in need.  You like multiphysics?  I don't know much about that, but cool, tell me about fluid dynamics, mechanical workings, and all of that and I'll have something to say about it. \n When they don't have anything to say about what you're saying, they're the problem.  You may feel like you don't have anything \"interesting\" to say because you know in advance that the girl you're dating won't like what you have to say, which isn't so much evidence that what you would've said was boring, but rather, that you're not compatible.", "id": "c39omhy", "summary": "It might not be you."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "The further up you go (I.E. CIO), the less technical the position usually is - and the more the dependance on interpersonal communication skills. \n Yep.  We recently hired on a guy as a senior analyst (when I say \"we\" I mean my boss).  He's pretty good at report-writing, but as is the stereotype of database geeks, he is TERRIBLE at communication, particularly written communication.  He writes these mile-long emails that are totally inappropriate for his audience that end with an awkward signature. \n First thing that popped into my head was \"He's never going to rise above senior level.\"  There is no way this dude will ever be able to run meetings with our business partners. \n Know your audience.  Recognize the implications of what you're saying.  Think ahead.", "id": "ca33av9", "summary": "Communicate well, don't be weird."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Reddit itself has naturally exposed me to point #1 to a degree that I have yet (and hope never) to experience in real life, yet not experiencing it in my everyday life makes it no less of a relevant issue in the hearts and minds of my neighbors. \n Still, even as I read this, I'm thinking to myself that while important, and valid, and relevant, that \"debate\" is not the central issue for most of us in the sense that, while we  should  have an answer at the ready, it's our job to tell others about Jesus, not debate people into believing in Jesus, which has never really happened.  \"Never happened\" in the sense that, if someone ever were to be \"debated into believing\" it would come about because of the work of the Holy Spirit in their heart, not solely or even primarily because of the intellectual argument. \n I'm not promoting anti-intellectualism here, but just sort of thinking out loud...  In my own life I've found that recognizing where a person is in their journey, meeting them there, and lovingly walking beside them, directing them toward the truth, is where the real meat of the Christian life resides, not a public or political debate. \n That is, instead of trying to explain why the Bible is valid to someone who has absolutely no interest in the validity of the Bible or why moral relativism is faulty to a person who has no interest in entertaining the possibility of its falsehood, I can instead invest in the life of someone who is genuinely asking \"Why  is  the Bible trustworthy?\" and walk with them in the discovery that comes with honestly investigating that question. \n Then again, we can't always know what the Holy Spirit is doing in a person's heart, so perhaps I shouldn't presuppose that a person has no interest in entertaining the possibility of Biblical integrity or moral absolutism :P", "id": "c9x4syn", "summary": "Pursue relationships over debate, but equip yourself to debate."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Yeah, I think you can choose to point it out depending on who is selling it, but there's a wide gulf between lying to someone about something's value in order to get an unfair trade or price (obviously unethical) and willingly paying an asking price that the seller is apparently content with taking.  I'm sure I've walked by things in Goodwill that were very valuable, but that looked like junk to me.  You're just cashing in on your special knowledge.", "id": "c7iuvd0", "summary": "Don't lie to get a better price, but paying asking price is not lying."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Well, I might as well throw in my two cents... \n Most people blow their money when they're young thinking \"I won't be able to do crap when I'm old!  I'll enjoy life now!\"  or, just not thinking at all. \n Then, all of a sudden, you're 65 with 10k in the bank wondering how you'll live.  Most people spend all they make or MORE than they make and pile up a bunch of debt. \n I'd rather swing the entire opposite direction...  I'm currently 24 and have been investing since I was 20.  I want to work my butt off when I'm young, while I have the energy and drive, and retire young.  I don't love my job as a business application analyst, but it pays well, and I'm putting the vast majority of it into mutual funds.  By the time I'm 40-45, the compound interest of my investments will put me at 1-1.5+ million bucks and I'll be out of this rat race.  That means I have another 20-55 years to live off of the interest of my investments, and if you think 45 is old, you're crazy.  I'll be hiking, running, rock-climbing, travelling, biking, you name it.  You're young, and in about the same time you could do what I'm doing, but it does take a measure of sacrifice. \n My job doesn't do it for me either, though.  It's just technical.  I'm a photographer, an artist, a joker, a learner, a teacher.  I love creating media and sharing it with others, so I started a [YouTube channel]( to satisfy that desire.  I didn't have to take a drastic step like quitting my job to do this.  I just do it on the side.  It's fun, and who knows?...  Eventually I could get a YouTube partnership, which means more money to investments, and earlier retirement.  Try to find some way to turn something you love into a way to make money, but I don't think it's wise to throw away a stable job for an ambiguous sense of \"adventure\".  Once the money runs out, the party's over, unless you really don't mind leading a very very simple, humble lifestyle...  No video games, no gadgets, no high-speed internet, no cable television, etc...  Day-to-day menial work to feed yourself... \n It sounds like you need a vacation, because these are the exact things I feel when I've not had one in a long time.  Give what I'm saying some thought.  Most of my peers are partying right now, but when I'm free of the shackles of 8-5 work at 45 (on until death), my peers aren't going to be thanking themselves for taking advantage of their \"good years\", they're going to wonder why they didn't do the same thing. \n I know I could get hit by a car in a year and have \"missed out on life\", but if I'm dead, I'm not going to care.  If I'm not dead, though, I'm going to be pretty miserable still working into my 60s.", "id": "c1arwfk", "summary": "You can have fun for a few years now and have a crappy late-life or sacrifice for 16-20 years now and have an obligation-free life for 20-55+ years."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Games are only as valuable as they are in-demand.  The people who grew up playing SNES are now at the age where they have the financial means to purchase SNES games.  If SNES follows trends for older consoles, prices will rise and rise and rise to the point where no one is willing to pay them anymore for all but the most rare and pristine items (and even then, only because that is the ONE item they need to complete their collections).  After \"the crash\", all that will probably be left is all of the garbage items collectors didn't want and a ton of common games which have dropped in price. \n SNES as a whole has been inflating at an alarming rate with semi-popular non-sports common games doubling in price and rare/nostalgic/popular games double, tripling, or quadrupling in price. \n Anyway, to answer your question... Yes, things will drop in price, but that will not be the time to collect...  The rares will be gone - it'll be basically impossible to complete a full set.  Honestly, it already is.  There is zero hope of a complete set of anything but  MAYBE  loose cart for any SNES collectors starting out now.  Box/manuals?  Forget it.  I only feel like I can do it because, through a number of very helpful trades, I've managed to track down virtually every R8 and R7 game and manual.  All that's left are R6s, which at this point are about as hard to find (and as expensive) as R8s were a year ago.  I thought I was through with the crazy-expensive games but I didn't anticipate the sort of insane inflation that'd take place in a mere year. \n I figure that over the course of the next year or so R6s will be a huge pain to find too.  There are some I've been tracking for many weeks/months now with not a single CIB popping up on eBay. \n If SNES is a \"bubble\", it's probably a fairly long-standing one.  The thing is though...  No one will ever pay me what I paid for assembling my collection.  When I'm an old dude, my collection will be effectively worthless because almost no one growing up today grew up with an SNES and therefore it will  hold no value for them.", "id": "c8ey9qo", "summary": "Video games are about the worst investment you can make, SNES won't be cheap any time soon, and when it is, you might as well be shopping at a garbage dump."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "I'm not attracted to darker skin tones either, something I've thought a great deal about.  It's not a race or culture thing.  No hatred at all.  I'm a very visual person and enjoy photography so I tried to figure out, artistically, if there was a rationale I could provide, and I came up with this: \n Lighter skin tones provide more contrast...  Pink or yellow flesh tones; blond, red, or brown hair; blue, grey, green or hazel eyes; red lips...  There's a reason people love blonds and redheads and I think part of that is contrast of light and color on TOP of structurally appealing faces. \n Darker skintones tend to have more melanin everywhere, so you typically end up with black hair, very dark brown irises, brown skin, brown lips.  You can have structurally appealing faces, but all of the tones are very much the same, leading to (arguably of course) a less interesting visual experience. \n Black people can, very very rarely (and sometimes due to disease processes) have blue eyes or natural blond hair, but I don't think that's what someone thinks of when they think of your every day dark-skinned person.", "id": "c3g63i7", "summary": "Light skin = more color and structure variance to draw interest.  Dark skin = primarily structural variance to draw interest \n There's an artist's stance.  Probably inherently offensive to some, although it's certainly not meant to be.  Thoughts?"}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "EDIT: FYI guys, he lives many states away.  I cannot easily visit him, but I can call him. \n I was thinking about life last night a few things dawned on me... \n The first is something we all already know, but what we often take for granted: everybody dies. \n The second is that my grandfather is very rich, that he values wise use of money, that he knows I'm the most frugal, most aggressive investor in my family, and as such will probably give me a significant part of his very large porfolio, and only a fraction of a second after that I recognized what a terrible thought that is...  That'd I'd anticipate the potential financial benefit of his money, but fail to recognize the waning relational opportunity I have with him as a person.  I don't want to just wait for him to die. I want to know him while he's alive. \n Now, look guys, I don't need his money and if I don't get a dime I'll be happy; I'm blessed to have a good job - just being open about what's been going through my head. \n On rare occasion, when enough new things have passed, I'll call him to let him know what's going on in my life, because I know he likes to hear it, but it's always a bit awkward... I never know what to say...  He has nothing new to talk about because he's just doing the same thing every day in his house while taking care of our grandmother (she has dementia...  She recently attempted to flush the TV remote down the toilet.  I'll allow you to lul guilt-free on this one). \n It's not all cherries either.  He was emotionally abusive to my mom as she was growing up and while she's forgiven him for it I have a hard time forgetting that fact as I talk to him.  Over the years he's become an alcoholic, and the fact that he's in his late 80s after drinking non-stop for years is incredible to me.  The generational gap between us is huge; he doesn't use the internet.  He doesn't own a computer.  He can't even begin to understand the things that comprise the majority of my life (My budding  YouTube channel , nor would he probably even appreciate much of it because he leans toward raw practicality, not art.  Even if he did appreciate my photography or media, he has macular degeneration to the point that he can't read, let alone appreciate art. \n I know these sound like excuses but they aren't.  Even if he's grumpy, kind of a jerk sometimes, and we have next to nothing in common, I want to find a way to connect to him.  I'm sure he has a lot to offer.  Anyone have similar stories?", "id": "t3_ezkdj", "summary": "My grandfather isn't going to live forever and I want to have a relationship with him despite the fact that he's grumpy and we have nothing in common.  Why? ...because we're family.  ...I just don't know how to."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Hey all, \n I used to be an active member of another site that grew from around 8,000 members (when I joined) to over 300,000 members.  Every community hits a point where the members have answered the same question enough times that they get sick of it and start treating new members like dirt. \n Judging from the dump truck of downvotes I see applied to many harmless inquiries, I think we're getting to that point.  Take  this thread .  Just had a quick question that I quickly and easily answered.  I'm usually pretty proud of our community. ...can't say I'm very proud of the merciless downvoting lately... \n I know it's annoying to answer the same question over and over, but it just comes with the territory.  Remember that you might've answered the question 100 times, but the person posting is usually asking it for the first time.", "id": "t3_1bc3m9", "summary": "Please take the ten seconds it takes to be nice and help someone out instead of ruining their first experience here by downvoting their first posts through the floor."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Guys and gals, \n I don't like that I'm having to make this post, but as leaders in the community I and the other mods have to step in... The issue of the day is intellectual property, piracy, licensing, etc. especially as it pertains to reproductions and our much beloved member Lordloss. \n Lordloss is a rockin' dude, talented, and has brought a lot of joy to this community through his reproductions. Everyone knows that. His prices are fair and his quality of work is very good. \n You all might have a hard time believing this, but one of the top three motivations for me to collect a full SNES set was not just so that I could not just enjoy all of the games, but so that I could enjoy them legally. That said, I have less clearly-defined beliefs when it comes to reproductions - games I could never otherwise enjoy since they weren't offered in my language and in my country. Many of you no-doubt also have a level of ethical acceptance when it comes to reproductions that you might not extend to more blatant/immediate piracy (playing games you have the opportunity to buy). \n Still, the fact is that, from a legal standpoint, selling reproductions is illegally profiting off of someone else's intellectual property (IP) because the seller does not have licensing rights to that IP and is therefore not paying royalties to the owner for their IP. This copyright violation is in direct conflict with Reddit's [user agreement]( something the mod team is bound to uphold.  When something gets to a point where it has garnered as much attention as Lordloss' budding business has, it's not something we can condone through inaction. \n I've discouraged the promotion of illegal emulation on our subreddit but Lordloss has kind of lived under the radar in a way. But, because he's so good at what he does and has become so popular among our members we can't avoid the issue any longer. Lordloss, I'm sorry, but you can't promote your services on Reddit anymore.", "id": "t3_1n9zdq", "summary": "We love you Lordloss, and many of us love your services, but you cannot promote your services on Reddit."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "3232;_&#3232; \n ...people are DISGUSTING!  I just spent  TWELVE HOURS  cleaning a lot I purchased and I'm only barely over half done.  What is with the dirt and grime on these games?!  Even for 20 year old games, I just can't comprehend the lack of hygiene the prior owners must've had to have this kind of grime stuck in the horizontal slots of these SNES games.  It's like they wiped with them.  I was a kid once.  ...and all of the games since I was 5 still look like they did then. \n ...and what is with the paint pens and sharpies?!  If someone is going to steal your game, they're not going to care that your name is on it! Friggin sharpies man!  They bleed into the label so you can't remove it.  But no, sharpies aren't enough.  I better CARVE MY NAME INTO IT just in case. \n ...and then there are the game stores.  [These are the stickers from a single lot on my quickly-growing wax paper scroll of shame.](  I got all but 2 off without damaging anything.  Blockbuster's massive stickers managed to come off without harm, but no matter how careful I was, their security strips tore the crap out of the rear labels!.  I died a little inside both times I slowwwwly pull off a preheated stickers and they just slooowly tore away the labels under them.  ...and as if their stickers weren't enough, blockbuster actually BRANDED one of the games I got!  That's right, embossed into the plastic. \n BURNED IT INTO THE PLASTIC \n MURDERRRRRR", "id": "t3_h2174", "summary": "Don't carve your name into a game then wipe with it."}, {"author": "Informationator", "content": "Greetings, foul subjects! \n A great deal has happened today and the mod team has had some changes that you ought to be aware of. \n I've had the good fortune to witness the growth of our community from just a couple hundred members to a robust community with over 2,300 members!  From the community's infancy the mod team has striven to promote, support, and protect /r/gamecollecting.  ...because we love this community! \n I've been privileged to serve on a mod team filled with talented and intelligent individuals, not the least of which has been [elusivesora]( and [hotshotvegetarian](  In light of their increasingly hectic personal schedules, they have been unable to spend the amount of time they'd have liked to in /r/gamecollecting, and it is with sadness that I announce their departure from the moderator team. \n Without them, this community would not have had the sort of jumpstart it did.  They've offered invaluable support and input as we've debated the difficult issues that mods invariably have to deal with and I cannot thank them enough.  I will miss having them on the team, but you'll still see them out and about within our community, so give 'em some love when you see 'em! \n ...But that's not all you", "id": "t3_l91ff", "summary": "turdheads! \n I am excited to announce that humanman42 will be joining the mod team!  I've known [humanman42]( since before I was a mod and I can tell you that on top of being a hardcore collecting enthusiast, avid poster, and natural leader, he's the stuff bros are made of, and no one can deny our bromance  <3 \n He's done a fine job in his [FotW efforts]( and has been a consistently active contributer to our community.  While I hope that he will [follow in my footsteps]( I have no doubt that he'll do a splendid job. \n ...So sizzle your bacons and sacrifice your upgoats for our new mod, Humanman42!"}]}
+{"author": "JudgeJBS", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Complaining on Reddit doesn't help fix the actual problem, getting \"answers\" doesn't help fix the problem. You want reliable LoL servers... Which is understandable, but unfortunately no one on Reddit can give that to you. We wish we could though :( but having multiple of these posts a day, and having many of the comment section to other posts discussing this same topic is getting very tiring \n EDIT: Riot has responded to this very thread with a long, detailed description of their plans. You got what you wanted. Now will the complaint threads stop?", "output": "I play on NA, so I am immune to the EU server problems (sort of), and I really hope Riot figures their server situation out soon so that the community can continue to thrive and expand. However, and I am not trying to be rude, but I still dont understand these. Why do you want a response? You don't. You want the problem fixed. Making Riot send their Community Managers into a frenzy to come up with some drawn-out long response on (confidential) future plans is not going to help the situation. An example: \n If your car breaks down, and you take it to a mechanic, you don't demand him give you a full lecture on exactly how each part under the hood works together, and how the one of few broken parts actually got to be that way, and then a further analysis on exactly how each part was being taxed to the point that was causing the engine not too run. You simply want your car to drive from point A to B, reliably. Sitting in the waiting room and non-stop complaining to the other patrons the entire time does not help the mechanics fix your car, nor does it make the repairs any less costly, or the repair time diminish. \n Further, to elaborate on their plans, as someone who does finance/legal/compliance for a giant software company, many of these deals are highly confidential.  Riot probably aren't allowed to release its exact plans, as many software companys like to keep their projects secret from the public (for many reasons) until they have a fully polished product to release (If you have heard of Star Citizen, CR repeatedly states \"I would never release a product this early in the dev. process to the public, or even to a publisher, if this was any other scenario\". This holds true for hardware as well). \n Can we please stop with all of these \"Riot, Please give us information! We want answers!\" posts? You don't want answers. You want a reliable server. Building a reliable server, that spans multiple countries over a large area, costs millions and millions of dollars and hundreds, if not thousands, of people working together over thousands of hours.  They can't simply flip a switch at the office and the Servers work better.  If you truly wanted \"answers\" on how huge-scale international servers worked/were built/are maintained, then you would probably be in college studying it, or working in the industry, or have at least read about it online or at a library, which would all lead to the innevitable conclusion: It takes a LOT of time, manpower, and money to build the infrastructure needed to support this games bandwidth. And mostly time. And demanding \"plans\" on Reddit isn't helping the Engineers do their job any quicker. \n I play on NA. The servers are fairly reliable, certainly not flawless, but overall IMO pretty solid. I wish nothing but that every region could have the same reliability and functionality.  However, there is nothing I (or anyone on reddit) can do to help. If there was a city construction project going on in front of your house that kept you up at all hours of the night, you wouldn't (or maybe you would, as it is what you are doing here) call your family/friends that live on the other side of the world to complain about it for hours on end. They can't do anything about it. Similarly, us fellow Redditors can't do anything about it. The people who can fix the problem, the IT engineers/finance people, hopefully are not here fielding all of your questions, because if they were, then they wouldn't be actually working on fixing the problem."}], "user_id": "longlamp_3634", "history": [{"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "Basically all of my friends play their games on Xbox so... if its a game that they will play (CoD) it goes on xbox, no doubt. \n If, however, its a game they will not buy, or one that has exceptional graphics (Watch Dogs) I will probably get it for the PS4.  However, if its a game that I really want to get immersed in, I get it for Xbox, because the controller is so much better IMO (Think games like Skyrim or Mass Effect)", "id": "cbh6zr7", "summary": "MP games go on Xbox - SP games on PS4."}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "This is true, but with modern day-match making (I think I saw this on The Division but it may have been on something else, im nearly certain it was on xbox live) they will match you with players who think similarly. Further, if you get a bad reputation, you will only be matched with other players with bad reputations.", "id": "cam1397", "summary": "if you have a good attitude online on all your games, you should get teammates similar to those on the demo"}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "Remember that whole thing that happened where everyone decided Xbox One was horrible and PS4 was the greatest thing to ever happen to the planet Earth? \n Remember all those \"Xbox kids\" who raped your mom over Xbox Live? \n Well, you see, the \"Xbox kids\" are not immune to the ebb and flow of social media/marketing. So, being the xelitex420x gaming masters that they are, they had to get the best system ever - which, in fact, is the PS4, because it is the best ever to have happened to Planet Earth. Thus a new wave of gamers entered the PlayStation populous, those being the fabled \"Xbox kids\", and they are simply acting as normal.", "id": "ckjczr7", "summary": "All the whiny, entitled spoiled children who used to be on the 360 because it was the \"best\" have now purchased a PS4 because it is the \"best\"."}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "Again, stats/box scores don't tell the whole story. In basketball more than any other sport, the \"eye test\" can mean more than what the box score says. Per100Rtgs are often misleading, in that they greatly undervalue drawing fouls (unless you are an amazing FT shooter) and overvalue 3 point shooters that don't turn the ball over. Offensive ratings value volume shooters and don't take into account off nights/chemistry. These ratings also value offensive rebounds and high-efficiency/scoring offensive systems. Defensive ratings also are slightly misleading as they hedge against great offensive rebounders, and again, a great rebounding/defensive  team  will make all of the individual players on that team look significantly better individual defenders than they probably are.", "id": "cnwc54b", "summary": "It's not as simple as \"Hey Morrow has +11 that means he is 22% better than Westbrook, who only has +9, and therefor should play more\" \n \n \n Player \n ORtg \n DRtg \n NetRtg \n \n \n \n \n Durant \n 122 \n 101 \n +21 \n \n \n \n Morrow \n 117 \n 106 \n +11 \n \n \n \n Westbrook \n 109 \n 100 \n +9 \n \n \n \n Lamb \n 111 \n 103 \n +8 \n \n \n \n Ibaka \n 108 \n 103 \n +5 \n \n \n \n Adams \n 105 \n 102 \n +3 \n \n \n \n Jackson \n 106 \n 106 \n - \n \n \n \n Collison \n 102 \n 104 \n -2 \n \n \n \n Roberson \n 99 \n 102 \n -3 \n \n \n \n Jones III \n 99 \n 107 \n -8 \n \n \n \n Perkins \n 86 \n 102 \n -16 \n \n \n \n \n To find the calculations yourself, go [here]( Have fun :D"}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "Are you seriously comparing Skyrim to a MOBA? \n While this may be the dumbest comparison I have ever seen made, I will briefly explain: \n Skyrim sells an experience of immersion. You become your character and explore a new world, filled with tiny details that make it fun and feel real. To do this, you pay for the experience, because without ALL of it together, it wouldn't be worth it and would be a terrible game. Yes, you can replay it as a different character, and there are hundreds of hours of things to explore, but each time the dungeon is basically the same. \n MOBAs sell an experience of competition. You play an ever-evolving strategy game, against other humans, in what is essentially a battle of wits. To increase the core functionality, there are regular updates to the game to keep it balanced. You MAY pay for skins, or champs, or rune pages, if you want to enhance your experience by adding a dimension of fun to the game. However, as people like Annie Bot have shown, it is entirely possible to absorb the entire experience of a MOBA by playing just a single champ and (you could if you wanted) spending not a single dime. Further, every game is completely different, and presents you with completely different situations with which to face.", "id": "ceecnbi", "summary": "Skyrim is hiking up a mountain. You can do it at different times throughout the year for a different experience, but it's the same underlying experience. LoL is playing a sport. Same field, stadium, rules, but no two games can every be the exact same, and it's the thrill of competition that is the experience."}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "so you are saying that every game in development gets to the point of the dev team figuring out their vision cannot be done? \n Well, in so many words, yes. Although they rarely get to the end of the line and realize they can't do their vision at all ( ahem Blizzard ahem  lol). More often what happens is they start with the pre-alpha build and storyboarding. People toss in ideas, they read what the fans are looking for, they see how they can implement it in, and the do an extremely rough draft that runs at almost no fps. Then they begin to optimize. Throughout the optimization process, they realize that somethings simply won't fit into the game, or if they do, it will be so superficial that it's probably best to leave them out as to make the game look more polished/complete (gamers will see non-fleshed out ideas and say \"SEE! LOOK! ITS NOT EVEN COMPLETE!\" where as if it had never existed, gamers would be much more happy from the illusion of quality). They might be able to have some amazing graphical effects, (Watch_Dogs) but it might make it impossible to get the game running at acceptable (30fps, minimal crashes) speeds for a majority of consumers, so they ditch it, or it will take so long to optimize they miss their release date by a year. So, yes, considering it doesn't have a release date (but is like about 12 months away) they are still in a very early playable state and are still tinkering with things to see what can/cannot work. You start big and dwindle down, unless you are talking about the engine/physics/etc. It happens in nearly every game. \n And you are completely right about SC and E:D and NMS. But that's the point. If you look at what NMS has promised, it is quickly approaching what those games have promised, if you put it down on paper. No, they aren't the same, and people shouldn't expect the same... but some people are expecting close. Or a game with as much depth, just in a different direction, which is still absurd. \n > Well, I mean this quote pretty much sums it up. If you aren't excited about the game and still need to know what the point is, perhaps don't buy it, \n But you are telling people to buy it. You literally said, if you aren't interested, then don't preorder it, maybe rent it on day one - but if you are interested you should but it now. Which I, for one, am not totally against pre-ordering. But it's comments like these that Segway into my next point... \n > But this sub has a habit of shitting on those of us that are excited for it to come out, even to the point of saying they hope it's a massive failure so they can laugh at us \n That is totally on the NMS fanboy base. You guys get so fucking smug and preachy about this game, and so combative and defensive about it, you bring that attitude onto yourselves. You are somewhat reasonable (although still extremely defensive) but a lot of people (See: OP) are not. We get it, there is a hole in the market for games that are a little slower, a little more artsy, and a little less restricting on players. Which is great! Everyone is excited to see that! Journey was similar and it was a great success! But then you and your friends come in (and your Lord Murray) who just talk down about how people like blowing stuff up in CoD or how they enjoy following well thought stories portrayed through games (linear games) and how those people are apparently the scourge of humanity and are all dumb, simple minded folks that work on the farm with their ma and pa; and how  this  game, because it doesn't have a story (But then it does?) and how it doesn't have explosions (but there are massive space wars?) and how it's totally free and up to the player (but there is an end game where those players will destroy you if you don't also pursue it?) is much more mature. If you play  this  game, you will have a spiritual awakening and find a much deeper meaning in life and in games, and self-realization will happen and suddenly you can see the world through a tranquil lens - and that is all bullshit. \n And get the fuck out with \"We don't want anything but a planet explorer\", That is a fucking bald faced lie. If that is truly all you want, go download Terragen or one of it's many, many similar programs start up a Let's Play and have at it, as you will get a million times more detail, more realism, better graphics, etc. with any of those than you will get with this game.", "id": "cms034r", "summary": "This sub (and gamers in general after the past few months) have a real skepticism towards hype. And when a game promises the moon and back (as this game has, and yet has not shown any of it other than planetary exploration - which is easily achieved/beaten out by many other games including teragan apps that will do it better anyway), and then the fanboys of said game come in preaching about deeper meaning in games and how people who don't like this game are uneducated and have no class or no creativity, you fucking bet people are going to lash back at you and tell you to fuck off"}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "Keyboard: Razer Black Widow Pro. \n Since, I haven't used any other keyboards, it's hard to compare. I love everything about it however, had it for about a year and all the buttons (I mostly play LoL so the qwetdf keys get used A LOT) are just as responsive as when I bought it. It had a small bit of drink spilled on it once, and has been hulk smashed a few times but its solidly built and never received damage. \n Mice: Logitech G400 & Steel Series Sensei [RAW] \n Had the Logitech for a few years. Still works great to this day, never had a problem with it. Personally, the small buttons around the mouse wheel are pretty useless and I could see the side buttons not working for some people (for gaming) depending on your hand size/shape/posture. \n Recently bought the Sensei and so far I love it. It is very quick, the buttons are all easy to reach (except the back right button can be hard to hit at times, but I'm getting used to it). Love it so far. Only thing I am worried about it is that the right click (used a TON in LoL) seems to be getting muddled. The mouse click seems to be slightly less responsive than the left click, and I have only had it for a week. It sometimes just feels a little stuffy, and not a sharp click. This very well could just be my imagination or something though, if it is apparent, it will be obvious in a month or two. My only concern. Hasn't effected gameplay and the rest of the mouse is completely amazing, works a LOT better for a semi-claw or claw than the G400 even though they are similar shape. \n Headsets: Turtlebeach Earforce X12, TB Earforce P4c (For PS4) and Steel Series Siberia V2 Frost Blue. \n X12 - worked for a year. Decent sound quality. I had used it on my Xbox 360 and it worked great. On PC I felt the cord was too long and often got in the way. The headpiece is very firm, and even though I have a smaller head, after long sessions the pressure would get to me, so I often wore a hat or beanie under, or only wore one ear piece. The padding around the ears I think was the problem, and seemed to be the cheapest part. I did spike it one time (I drink a lot when I play and tend to get rowdy, lol) and one of the speakers blew off. I soldered it back and it was incredibly easy to reconstruct, so I would give it a bonus there. I also ran over the headset with my chair (on accident) and it ripped off the other earpiece, but it looks to be the same repair as the other one, so no big deal. Other people often told me the mic was dodgy, and that I often sounded like I was in some sort of tunnel or really far away. This did not happen when using it on the Xbox, so that as you will, it could have been his audio settings. Overall I liked this headset, although if I had to do it again I would buy the one step up from the X12 and hope the contruction was a little more sturdy and the mic a little better. \n After I ran over the TBx12 I decided to upgrade my audio game. I had been holding out for the Feenix headset but didn't feel like waiting/soldering back together the X12's so I just bought the Siberia V2 on sale. So far, this is completely amazing. The audio quality is higher than in the TBs. It appears to have much better internal balancing, as with the TBs it was difficult to be on Skype call and listen to music at the same time, and now it is no problem at all, and I haven't changed any settings or anything. The retractable mic is an amazing feature, and according to the guy I play with my voice is much clearer. The head-piece is MUCH more forgiving on your head, as you can barely tell there is anything there, and the ear pads are much softer. I can wear glasses under my ear/the headset and forget they are there. With the TBs it would crush them into my skull/temple, which was uncomfortable and after maybe 2 hours completely unwearable as it legitimately hurt. I would recomend this over any other peripheral I have tried due to how impressed I am, having had it a month or so and no problems yet. I have also used similar products so I have something to compare to (although not identical-quality products, I admit) \n TB P4 - These are a must buy if you own a PS4. The one ear enclosure lets you enjoy your surround sound/audio system and the mic is very clear. Not to much else to say, I HIGHLY recomend these for PS4 users.", "id": "ceqbles", "summary": "Razer Black Widow  is a beast, I love it. \n Logitech G400  was awesome, long life, works great. Still use on another computer \n SteelSeries Sensei [RAW]  Only had for a week, MIGHT be an issue with the right click, too early to tell, works prefect other than that. Very comfortable \n TB X12  Had for a year. Broke a few times due to user error/accident but easy to fix. Mic was questionable. Not very comfortable. Worth the money but leaves a lot to be desired \n SteelSeries Siberia V2  Completely amazing. Buy this if in need of a headset \n TB P4c  Buy these for your PS4. Awesome product for cheap."}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "Question for you guys who have played this already: \n I have played CoD (not super involved but maybe a few months or so each) Multiplayer since CoD4, and have enjoyed all of them. I haven't played the new one yet (waiting for next gen) but most of the reviews I have read have said this - The new player system is too complex and is a step backwards from BO2. However, for me personally, it seems this is a good thing only. \n If you look at CoD going back to MW2, most people have used the same perks because there are some that are flat out better than others. So to have each cost the same, the \"better\" ones get used by a large majority of the players, and some of the cooler, more fun perks never get used. With this new system, it would seem you get WAY more customized options and some of the fun, utility based perks would be used much more often creating a more in-depth experience. Am I wrong in thinking this?", "id": "cdco08u", "summary": "Question: Do more people play with different perks or does everyone use basically the same set up(like in the past CoD games)?"}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "I get what he is saying, but it's naïve or.. unaware? I don't know the word. \n If you have two vehicles for bringing product to consumer (Digital and physical), making a sale on one model would effectively undercut your sales on the other model, things being held constant. It is more costly (obviously) to producers to produce a physical copy than a digital distribution. Thus, if you have large digital sales, and not physical, you are effectively lowering your sales on your physical copies... which cost more, causing an increase in expenses/write offs. Certainly they produce fewer units to account for this. \n Basically - They already created/sold x amount of physical copies. That is a sunk cost at this point. They are basically cannibalizing their own sales. \n If everything was digital, there would be almost no incentive to produce nearly as many \"physical\" copies (which aren't really physical they are just a code to unlock a digital copy). Thus, having larger sales wouldn't negatively effect sales. Plus more money goes straight to the developer, so the prices can naturally be lowered. \n Selling physical copies through a retailer (indirect sales) adds to the cost to the consumer and detracts from the revenue to the producer. It can, to some people, add value to the customer (convenience, tradeb back, play testing, etc) but what we see in software (and really electronics/digital markets) is that the consumer is consistently de-valuing the \"extra value\" added by the retailer, and would prefer cheaper end product in lieu of the extra services... which come with their own benefits. \n It's basically a direct vs indirect model of sales. Tesla is a direct sales company. Chevy/Ford are indirect. It is a dated business model that is quickly evaporating, because many times the value added by the middle man can be re-couped or done away with in todays market. \n Edit", "id": "cgbndye", "summary": "If there was only one market, the direct sales market (digital) it would allow, and encourage, more sales, as the price of the game ($60) is based on the physical retail model. All digital has no need for the price added for this model, and hence, sales/price drops would be more viable. (See: Steam/Origin)"}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "That's my point. You have now received not only months of answers stating \"EUW servers are older and cannot be scaled to capacity for the tremendous bandwidth, and simple adding servers is a short term patch, but we will eventually have to do something different\" and now, yesterday, you received a huge written out \"letter\" from the President of Riot EU about future plans. You (again) got your response. You (again) got your answer. \n I guarantee that the posts \"Riot we want answers\" will not stop coming. They haven't in the past. They won't in the future-for this reason:  It stems from a misplaced sense of satisfaction and entitlement. \"I play a game (for free), therefor I am entitled to be able to play the game all of the time. But I can't. Since there is nothing I can do to actually play the game, what I can do, is to harass Riot and make a scene on the internet until someone from the company addresses me. Again. And again. And again. And again.\" \n I understand all of this, I understand it is frustrating. However, the problem has one solution (which everyone has known all along): New server center(s). To deploy a new server center takes a LONG TIME. A standard, off-line data center takes usually around a 6 month minimum. To deploy a data center migration (what Riot is trying to do, sort of) requires usually one to two years. And that is the actual construction. Not including testing, licencing, governmental agency dealings, funding, planning, continuing operations planning, contingency planning, Human Resources projects, construction contract drafting/bidding, raw materials bulk purchasing negotiations... and so forth. It's not simple. But you already got your answer... so why are people still chirping on reddit? Because they don't actually want to know all of this. They don't care. They want to be able to play League of Legends, and if they can't, they at least get some (misguided) sense of accomplishment/security/joy in making Riot community managers come up with responses to your questions.", "id": "ccuehv6", "summary": "You want a response for the wrong reasons, and bringing a subreddit to it's knees isn't worth it, considering the response you will get will have no effect on you actually being able to enjoy the game."}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "You (maybe not you, but others) would be amazed at how well simply not feeding uncontrollably works to win games. Maybe you got first blood at top, had a 5 cs lead, got a few items. so you decided next opportunity (maybe when you hit lvl 6) you will all in a fight. Unfortunately, you missed your q, misflashed, and dove well beyond the minion line, underestimating the dmg you would take, and lost the fight in overall embarrassing form.  Then you got ganked by the enemy Rengar because your ward had died and you forgot to buy a new one. \n So now you're 1-2-0 with a 10-20cs dissadvantage. \n This is the point of no return for most players- good players will simply freeze lane just outside of tower and slowly catch up in cs, allowing for the jungler to make plays in your lane or other lanes, and 'stopping the bleeding'. Bad players will simply go back to lane and all in - probably losing. Then go back to lane and all in, probably losing. Then go back to lane and all in, probably losing - all the while screaming at your jungler that he doesn't gank enough despite the fact the enemy has the river constantly warded, you won't buy a pink ward, and are dead half the time anyway. \n So now instead of being lets say 2-3-0 (Lets assume you got a gank from your jungler and got ganked by their jungler again) with a 20 cs advantage (from freezing lane/not fighting, just farming) at 15 minutes, you are now 2-6-0 with a 40 cs dissadvantage, making you useless in most formats.", "id": "ccx63zp", "summary": "Play boring if you are behind. Don't be a hero (play on tilt). Let your team (who hopefully aren't as behind as you) carry you and make the plays needed to win the game."}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "I played them a few times back on PS2 but to be honest I was never into platformer games.  They are just so simple it comes off as harder to control your actual character than to beat the puzzle/time it right/whatever. They get extremely boring for me extremely quick, unless they are absolutely doused with art (ICO, Journey) \n I also don't get into cartoon-ish games... Especaially the childish, goofy ones.  I cant even stand games like Brink or Borderlands... \n So all in all CB just isn't for me, which is fine, I don't have to like every game and to each his own :D and I am sure they can be fun to play with friends and I am sure they can be extremely challenging and difficult... but with that being said I have loved the Naughty Dog games in the past 5 years or whatever and would be hugely let down if they stopped making more realistic, story-driven games, as they are among the top in the business IMO.", "id": "cdekkiw", "summary": "I don't care if they make another CB or not, I hope they do as it will bring joy to a lot of people. I just hope it's not Naughty Dog that makes it, because I believe they can use their full potential/talent on other genres of games, which they can't on a simple platformer."}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "Serious question, why would the perpetual license be more expensive than a subscription? \n Because you are giving away the product forever. Media today (in all forms i.e., movies music etc) is transitioning/has transitioned to how art is viewed. You pay for the privilege to see/hear and enjoy it... but you do not own it.  Think of it as an investment. You aren't buying the game (Microsoft just \"bought\" Gears of War from Epic and it cost them a few million) you are \"buying\" the rights to play the game. Think of it as a fixed-income investment. When you buy a bond, you are buying the right to the proposed income on the face, for the duration of the bond (1, 2, 5, 10, 30 year bonds are most popular). You have a right to that income for as long as the bond isn't mature, and therefor you are limited on how much income you can make. However, there are Perps (\"Perpetual bonds\") that have no maturity date. If the stock of that bond ever tanks, be in 100 years down the road, they are still liable to pay you whatever the coupon price is. Bringing this back to games, it is the same. Sony is giving you the game for \"free\" as long as you are a subscriber. They still hold every right to the game and thus there is no risk to the company. If you abuse the right to play the game (ie find a way to give it out for free) they still hold the ownership to the game and may revoke your license - which would disallow you to play the game. MS program doesn't do this. They are simply giving you the game with no strings attached, which holds a high value of risk. Games do still make money (although not much, but it is a struggling industry and every dollar matters) years after release, so the only incentive for a company to give away the full game with no strings attached is if they think it has capped its market pen., expect to sell dlc,  or if they are releasing a new game in the near future and want to get their name out there.", "id": "cf599r1", "summary": "It's all about who holds the rights. MS straight gives away all rights and control, which is more expensive because they give up ownership. Sony only gives away the right to play the game, which can be revoked at any time. If someone were to find an exploit where they could \"share\" the game for free, MS (and the game publisher) would lose a lot of money. \n Think of it as giving away the right to view a painting in a museum. It only costs about $10. But if you were to literally purchase actual piece of art, it could cost as much as a few million. \n >nd do the PS+ developers only get paid while someone's subscription is active? \n I actually do not know how the model works. My speculation is that they have signed a deal for a certain amount of time that says Sony will pay them x amount per download/play of said game per year, but that the costs are relatively low. Note also that the download window is relatively short, so publishers can predict how many will download it now and charge accordingly (since this program has been going on for a while). I would be shocked if publishers are just saying \"Hey pay me x amount and you can have all rights to my game for the rest of history\" but as far as when payment actually occurs, I would assume it is part of a larger agreement between the two companies where Sony pays Pub. every month/year, depending on the pre-existing contract. (My guess is yearly). Again I do not know and this is just a guess from what I personally work with."}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "Things Destiny does better than other games/does that other games don't do \n 1) High texture quality with a lot of attention to detail. Very well done. \n 2) Hit boxes are great in PvP \n 3) Very easy to transition out of whatever you are doing and go do something else. \n 4) story is actually really good. Fully detailed, in depth. \n Things Destiny doesn't do well \n 1) very little variety in weapons \n 2) not always clear what things are/how to get them/what they're used for \n 3) the servers thus far (ps4) have been questionable. A ton of dying after running around corners, or the classic halo both people for in a shoot out. It could be it's just the way the game is coded and have nothing to do with the servers, but whatever it is it makes PvP not that enjoyable \n 4) Matchmaking isn't great. A ton of lopsided matches. \n 5) load times are very long \n 6) the tower/social experience is incredibly underwhelming. Doing story quests you'll often see people kinda running around but there is little to no way of communicating with them", "id": "cke8k72", "summary": "Game is pretty great. It's exactly as advertised. Some of the RPG elements are pretty shallow, but other than that, it delivers. All of the core functions are there and work great, and most of the problems I have found are pretty minor, or can be fixed by patching. If the game interests you, and if you like FPS games, it's worth your $60."}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "Well the fact that you can't hold a discussion about personal opinion without name-calling shows your level of mental maturity, but here is where I found MS's show more exciting than Sonys - there were actual more in depth games and of those, MS had more exclusives. A list of the games introduced at MS that had not been confirmed before: \n 1) Ori and the Blind Forest \n 2) Halo: MCC \n 3) Phantom Dust \n 4) Scalebound \n 5) Crackdown 3 \n 6) FRU \n 7) Dead Rising DLC \n 8) Inside \n 9) Rise of the Tomb Raider \n At Sony: \n 1) Entwined \n 2) Infamous DLC \n 3) LBP 3 \n 4) Bloodbourne \n 5) Dead Island 2 \n 6) Grim Fandango \n 7) Let it Die \n 8) Abzu \n 9) Uncharted \n 10) GTA 5 \n Both had sections of rapidly showing indie games (so I left those out... except I included a bunch under Sony's anyway). We saw 5 new AAA reveals at each, but we saw 4 exclusive AAA at MS and 3 at Sony. Of the remaining games, Grim Fandango we know what we are getting (an outdated PC classic), Entwined doesn't look like it has much/any depth, Abzu looks like Journey 2.0 (which is fine, Journey was awesome, but you can't compare that to, so, 4 Halo games), Let it Die didn't really show anything so it's hard to say what that will look like at all. \n Plus, to me, you mix in the fact that the MS conference showed more actual gameplay (Forza Horizon, Sunset Overdrive, Fantasia, Halo, CoD, Assassins Creed, Witcher 3, The Division) compared to Sony (The Order (I would barely call what the Order did as gameplay, but I will), LBP3, Far Cry 4, No Mans Sky(again, it was two trailers, but I will count it for the sake of argument), Batman) 8 - 5, did it with the 2 biggest games at the show IMO in Witcher and Division. And the main part? There was a constant flow and rhythm to their conference,  and it was shorter . It's not that Sonys was bad per se, but it definitely dragged on forever and there was a lack of exclusive content outside of indie games and timed exclusives.", "id": "ci41263", "summary": "Sony's was two hours of showing trailers, TV and media services, and  telling  the crowd why PS4 is so much better. \n Xbox was an hour and a half of gameplay, with more exclusives, more AAA titles, and they  showed  me what they have planned for the future."}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "So here is where I am at with my Amazon Xbox One Day One order, maybe this will bring some relief to some, and to others maybe a red flag that you should contact someone... \n I pre ordered mine a few days after E3 and was in the initial round of preorders, and said that my shipping date would be November 22. Hooray. \n But then about two weeks ago, I noticed that the shipping date had changed to November 27-December 3, and upon further inspection, saw that I had accidentally not selected the 2 day shipping option, and instead got the free 3-5 day shipping. I am not in any desperate mood to get the Xbox One, as I also got a PS4 and League just released patch 3.14, but I decided to hit up Amazon support just to make sure my order was still in place and to see if there was a way I could change to 2 day shipping without losing my pre-order (as I heard happened to some people). The CS rep (online) told me that I was not in the initial batch but would be getting one as soon as possible, and would probably ship within a week of launch. Okay, not really that upset for aforementioned reasons, but still a little annoying, as I want to be there when it is delivered as my neighborhood isn't the best, to ensure it is not stolen while I am at work. \n Then, at 3:47 PM (less than an hour ago), I receive an email stating that it has been shipped and will arrive tomorrow. \n So now I really have no idea what's going on, hopefully it comes in tomorrow (I live in the same city as one of their largest wharehouses in the country so normal shipping time for me is about 2 to 5 days even with the 5-7 day shipping) but I probably won't be able to track it, as that takes 24 hours, so I have no idea if I need to work from home or not tomorrow. \n Hopefully if any of you are confused if you are receiving it tomorrow or not, it appears they are sending out email notifications right now, so sit tight. If you haven't yet, I would prob contact CS though.", "id": "cdk3ibr", "summary": "wasnt supposed  to receive it until Nov 27-Dec 3, just now got an email saying it was shipped and will arrive tomorrow. Had 3-5 day shipping, not 2 day."}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "I have 0 medical expertise, and haven't used F.lux, but I did buy a pair of Gunnars (only $50) and my eyes do seem fatigue less.  Before I had them and gamed into all hours of the night, sometime I would get stinging in my eyes the next day, or that night my eyes would hurt.  85% of these have been eliminated since buying Gunnars - but I will admit I forget to wear them sometimes, so maybe I'm getting a 'false negative', and those symptoms were releived on their own/something else .  Also, wearing a headset (think turtle beach) will crush the glasses into your temples which can be uncomfrtable, but not a huge deal. They do seem to make games look better as well.", "id": "cbjs38f", "summary": "for $50 I think Gunnars were a good purchase. I prob wouldn't pay $100+ for a pair, but they seem to help eye fatigue and certainly make the screen \"pop\" a little bit, making it look nicer. I don't know compared to F.lux"}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "They create an atmosphere. A great atmosphere. They also do a good job of immersion, and coupled with the atmosphere, it's great, at least to me. They are also basically half fps half horror (mostly 2033) and I personally like the horror genre. If you are looking for a game that you can fire up for quick ten Minute sessions this probably isn't the game you are looking for.", "id": "cjg52rg", "summary": "immersion"}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "Question for you guys who have played this already: \n I have played CoD (not super involved but maybe a few months or so each) Multiplayer since CoD4, and have enjoyed all of them. I haven't played the new one yet (waiting for next gen) but most of the reviews I have read have said this - The new player system is too complex and is a step backwards from BO2. However, for me personally, it seems this is a good thing only. \n If you look at CoD going back to MW2, most people have used the same perks because there are some that are flat out better than others. So to have each cost the same, the \"better\" ones get used by a large majority of the players, and some of the cooler, more fun perks never get used. With this new system, it would seem you get WAY more customized options and some of the fun, utility based perks would be used much more often creating a more in-depth experience. Am I wrong in thinking this?", "id": "t3_1qh1lw", "summary": "Question: Do more people play with different perks or does everyone use basically the same set up(like in the past CoD games)?"}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "So, I am a PBE player and now that I have had plenty of time to play it live, and I played it for probably ~20 games over the weekend tests, I thought I would share my thoughts. \n First, I would like to say that when TB was first announced, I was it's biggest supporter. The chance to skip the garbage pre-game ritual of everyone calling a role, and then whoever had more friends q'd with them won their role, was novel on it's on right. Add to that the fact that you can find players depending on what role they wanted to play in what position, so that a team captain could try interesting comps, what could possibly go wrong? \n Well, here is what could, and did, go very wrong: \n 1) Can we actually skip the pre-game position posturing? Mostly. \n Yes, everyone knows what lane they are supposed to play in. Occasionally, I get a game where we find a team comp where a few pieces seem odd, and with little to no debate, we decide to Q and in game swap roles, but that is rare. I would say 90% of the time, you get with no debate, the role you q for. \n 2) Do you get to play the champ you want to play?  Mostly \n Here is where things take a gigantic turn for the worse. YES, if you q as a champ that is seldom played or \"underpowered\", you will without a doubt eventually get to play them. Eventually. It very well could take 30 minutes of q time, but you will get to play that champ, so feel proud. \n The problem is, that, most people view TB as a way for them to get their \"carry\" role, and everyone else can do as they please, within reason. So, a vast majority of people will see you q'd up as Lissandra jungle, and think... \"lol that might be fun. okay next\" and click dismiss. Which brings me to points 3 and 4, which I will address in tandem: \n 3) Do I get to play the role I want to play? \n -and- \n 4) Do I get to try fun, next team comps? \n The answer to these is, again, sort of. Yes, your dream team comp that you have been thinking about all semester in CH 202 very well could be the best devised team of all time. And yes, you will get to be it's hapless leader leading the charge with that tank Lee Sin mid. However, it could take 1.5 hours to even get your first stab at it. \n See, the problem with TB is, ironically enough, it's only minor strength. Yes, YOU get to Q up with whoever you want and signal how you will play them. And YES, the other players on your team will get to see it to. Does Twitch solo top work? Not really, barring someone with major skill and experience, which means that guy qing up to carry ADC will immediately turn down anyone qing up for something new or fun. TB is seriously flawed in that you MUST pick a champ before qing. If you could pick a role and a position it would be fine... pick your champ once you find a lobby. But you cant. And that stifles creative teams and flexibility, and to be honest, doesn't make sense. And unfortunately, TB is primarily (not saying everyone, or any of you, as the reddit LoL community does not make a good show of how most League players are) used for people to carry themselves to victory, and those team leads shoot down any new ideas in champ select. Which makes matchmaking take WAY too long, and the whole experience (along with the limited options) incredibly pedestrian compared to what it COULD be.", "id": "t3_22f1k6", "summary": "Takes  way  too long, and the setup that forces to lock one champ ultimately stifles innovation or new team attempts"}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "So it was a big thread over in nba but anyone else as concerned as I am with how the minutes are being used? \n I understand we really wanted this win, because of last week, etc, but I really don't think it's worth it to keep Russ in, over his restriction minutes, to play the last minute of a game that was already over, and the game really isn't that important. And Durant should not be playing so many minutes in a back to back. Especially when players like Lamb and Jones are getting 0.", "id": "t3_21e2ze", "summary": "I think Durant and Russ are playing too many minutes,  especially in garbage miracle time, and our young guys should be getting at least a few minutes a game heading into the playoffs \n Because of this my confidence in Brooks is dwindling."}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "So, some of you might recognize me as I am constantly brainstorming ideas to solve the problems above. I had another one... what do you guys think about this? \n What if Riot created some sort of \"loss forgiven\" point system. My initial idea is to tie it into the Honor System, and while I haven't come up with the exact system and how it would work, it would look something like this (I am completely open to changing the values/points required): \n Every time you play a game and don't disconnect, don't go afk, and don't get reported for toxicity, you gain a point. If you get honored by your own teamates(that aren't on your friendslist), you gain additional points. When you get to 50 points, you gain a \"Loss Forgiven\" token, and if you have a DC/AFK on your team, you can use this token so you don't lose LP for that match only. You can only use this if someone has AFK'd or disconnected. If you yourself AFK or disconnect, you may use two \"Loss Forgiven Tokens\" to cancel that loss out for yourself. You can never have more than 2 tokens at once. \n If you are in a series, and you use a \"loss forgiven\" token, it does not count as a loss in the series. This will help to combat those times people look you up and say \"You are in a series. Give me mid or I will AFK\" or when people simply DC at the worst possible time. \n Another idea I had in mind was that instead of being cumulative (reach 50 points over a period of time, about a month I would guess for the average player, maybe less) that you have to do it in consecutive games. Play 20 games without disconnecting/being reported? Have a token (This seems harder to accomplish but the players with the best behaviour would be able to use them more often, and more toxic players never at all). Get to 30? Next time your shitty Charter internet dies out for unscheduled maintenance for 8 hours, you don't lose that series because of it. \n Also, if you are reported by your own team, I am not sure if you would simply lose all \"Loss Forgiven Token\" points for that game (gain 0) or, if you are especially toxic, you could lose points total (Get reported by all 4 teamates, lose 4 points overall (5 if you D/C). One thing I know is that I would not want the other team reports to effect your LFT points, because that would be way too easy to abuse. Input appreciated. \n I think this sytem (which obviously isn't ironed out in all of it's details) would do a number of things: \n 1) Promote good behaviour and give a tangible reward to those who are not toxic (I realise this shouldn't be needed... but sadly it is) \n 2) Lessen the blow from AFK/DC'd teamates, regardless of the reason \n 3) Punish bad behavior, but not in a way that is so harsh that the game would become un-enjoyable for those players (I would guess most of the time people rage/flame/troll/toxic it happens fairly rarely, so if you have a few bad games and finally snap, you aren't immediately banned for a week) \n I can't think of a way to abuse this system, and I think it could provide people a tangible way to look at their behavior. Maybe someone decided they want to work on their behavior, and they themselves can take a lot of abuse and naturally dish it out, and they think they scaled back their raging one day. Right now, there is no way to tell. With this system, they can look at it and say \"Hey, I gained 0 LF points today. I still need to work on this\"", "id": "t3_1s47hj", "summary": "Every game you don't DC, AFK or get reported by a teamate you gain a point. If you get honored, you gain extra points. When you reach 50 points, you can cash them in to receive a Loss Forgiven ONLY during a game in which a teamate went AFK. At 100, if you yourself AFK/DC for whatever reason, you may use it to forgive the loss on yourself. \n Edit: My aim with the occurance would be that for the least toxic players in the community, who play often, would be 2 tokens a month. Maybe we could impose a \"use it or lose it system\" per month? Again the goal here is to limit the damage done by people who go AFK, certainly not to allow people to go AFK with no repurcussions. We could also consider removing the self-loss-forgiven option, so at most you can be forgiven 2 games a month in which a teamate went AFK. \n Edit2: This system seems very complicated, but I think if I were to make some pictures to show my vision for how it would operate in game, it would be very simple. Similar to the ARAM re-roll I think (I do not play ARAM but I think that system operates similarly to how I would want to do things)"}, {"author": "JudgeJBS", "content": "Hopefully we can get more ideas/ discussion on this topic here, as I really think this COULD turn out to be a great system. Any ideas are welcome, here was the OP (with some editing): \n The main goal of THIS post is not to find a way to punish toxicity or frequent AFKers. It is to reward the best behaved in the community with a way to occasionally lessen the consequences of having an AFK teamate, which happens often and negatively effects everyone in the community. \n Every time you play a game and don't disconnect, don't go afk, and don't get reported for toxicity, you gain a point. If you get honored by your own teamates(that aren't on your friendslist), you gain additional points. When you get to 50 points, you gain a \"Loss Forgiven\" token. You can have up to two \"LFT\"(Loss forgiven tokens) at a time, and it should take about 2-3 weeks of play time for an average player to gain a single token. If you have a teamate go AFK in a game, you may use a token to gain a \"loss forgiven\" for that game. \n Another idea I had in mind was that instead of being cumulative (reach 50 points over a period of time, about a month I would guess for the average player, maybe less) that you have to do it in consecutive games. Play 20 games without disconnecting/being reported? Have a token (This seems harder to accomplish but the players with the best behaviour would be able to use them more often, and more toxic players never at all). Get to 30? Next time your shitty Charter internet dies out for unscheduled maintenance for 8 hours, you don't lose that series because of it. \n Also, if you are reported by your own team, I am not sure if you would simply lose all \"Loss Forgiven Token\" points for that game (gain 0) or, if you are especially toxic, you could lose points total (Get reported by all 4 teamates, lose 4 points overall (5 if you D/C). One thing I know is that I would not want the other team reports to effect your LFT points, because that would be way too easy to abuse. Input appreciated. \n Further idea would be the ability to use two LFT at once to forgive a loss if YOU YOURSELF went afk. This seems shaky and easy to abuse, but for players such as myself (3 afk in over 3 years of play) it seems that it could be beneficial. If you are in a series, and you use a \"loss forgiven\" token, it does not count as a loss in the series. This will help to combat those times people look you up and say \"You are in a series. Give me mid or I will AFK\" or when people simply DC at the worst possible time. \n I think this sytem (which obviously isn't ironed out in all of it's details) would do a number of things: \n 1) Promote good behaviour and give a tangible reward to those who are not toxic (I realise this shouldn't be needed... but sadly it is) \n 2) Lessen the blow from AFK/DC'd teamates, regardless of the reason \n 3) Punish bad behavior, but not in a way that is so harsh that the game would become un-enjoyable for those players (I would guess most of the time people rage/flame/troll/toxic it happens fairly rarely, so if you have a few bad games and finally snap, you aren't immediately banned for a week) \n I can't think of a way to abuse this system, and I think it could provide people a tangible way to look at their behavior. Maybe someone decided they want to work on their behavior, and they themselves can take a lot of abuse and naturally dish it out, and they think they scaled back their raging one day. Right now, there is no way to tell. With this system, they can look at it and say \"Hey, I gained 0 LF points today. I still need to work on this\"", "id": "t3_1s6jcq", "summary": "Every game you don't DC, AFK or get reported by a teamate you gain a point. If you get honored, you gain extra points. When you reach 50 points, you gain a \"loss forgiven token\"which you can cash in to receive a Loss Forgiven ONLY during a game in which a teamate went AFK."}]}
+{"author": "Basilides", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The Christian god wasn't too bright back then. But he was smart enough to take the advice of one of his totally depraved creations.", "output": "9 “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” \n 11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. “LORD,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” 14 Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. (Exodus 32)"}], "user_id": "longlamp_742", "history": [{"author": "Basilides", "content": "social Lutherans who don't give a shit about this type of question and are there mainly for friendships, snacks, charity, and networking. \n I know Lutherans like this. Recently two of them were bragging about how 100% of the governing body recently endorsed gay marriage while remarking that as recently as 10 or 15 years ago no one on the governing body would endorse gay marriage. It did not occur to either one of them that maybe God is appearing pretty arbitrary and inconsistent by guiding his Body of Christ to dramatically change course like this. Look. I'm all for gay marriage. But I want to see Christians go the rest of the way and admit their religion is bullshit. But Christians, like those I am describing, cannot see past their noses. As you said, they are there mainly for friendships, snacks, charity, and networking. \n >", "id": "c96yxz6", "summary": "I don't think that what you call a \"Christian\" is representative of the set of people who would call themselves Christian, at least here in the United States. \n That's true. The \"Christians\" I am referring to are the ones who like to argue theology on places like reddit. Admittedly, that's a small subset of the Body of Christ. \n >Most, in my experience, simply don't have a cognitive or emotional investment in the question of whether the religion is history or myth. \n I fully agree. Most of them are just mindlessly going along with the dominant paradigm. Herd mentality."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "It was, at best, a tolerated institution that was repeatedly and explicitly condemned by the church for hundreds of years. \n In a fifteenth century papal bull Pope Nicolas V instructed European Christian nations to \"invade, capture, vanquish\" and \"subdue\" Indigenous Peoples, \"subjugate\" them and \"reduce their persons to perpetual slavery\" and \"to take away all their possessions and property.\" And according to a United Nations World Conference Against Racism document, he also \"declared war against all non-Christians throughout the world\". \n \"In 1452, Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, granting the King of Portugal the right to reduce any \"Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers\" to hereditary slavery. Dum Diversas legitimised the colonial slave trade that begun around this time with the expeditions by Henry the Navigator to find a sea route to India, which were financed with African slaves. This approval of slavery was reaffirmed and extended in his Romanus Pontifex of 1455. \n It is argued that collectively the two bulls issued by Nicholas gave the Portuguese the rights to acquire slaves along the African coast by force or trade. The concessions given in them were confirmed by bulls issued by Pope Calixtus III \"Inter Caetera quae\" (1456), Sixtus IV \"Aeterni regis\" (1481) and Leo X (1514) and they became the models for subsequent bulls issued by Pope Alexander VI : \"Eximiae devotionis\" (May 3, 1493), \"Inter Caetera\" (May 4, 1493) and \"Dudum Siquidem (September 23, 1493) when he conferred similar rights to Spain relating to the newly discovered lands in the Americas.[7]\"", "id": "c3stkk3", "summary": "To some extent the spiritual force behind the Atlantic slave trade was Christianity. Spreading the Kingdom of God on earth is a dirty job but someone's gotta do it."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "Marcion's Jesus was called \"Chrestos\". \n The earliest secular document recording the existence of Chrestians has this to say.... \n \"...Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Chrestians by the populace. Chrestus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus,...\" \n (Tacitus, Annals, 116 AD, book 15, chapter 44) \n Christian apologists like to believe that \"Chrestians\" and \"Chrestus\" in the above text are just insignificant mispellings. But the earliest copy of the Bible in existence, the Codex Sinaiticus,  also  refers to the followers of Jesus as \"Chrestians\". \n \"As to the ancient manuscripts, they all have the word in all three places and their testimony is identical – with one critical exception. The best and earliest codex of all, Sinaiticus, has instead of Christianoi (Xristianoi/), Chrestianoi (Xrhstianoi/) – and it has this reading in all three places where the word occurs.  Therefore it is impossible, in spite of the Nestle-Aland tentative suggestion for Acts 26:28, for it to be an itacism (i.e., a popular misspelling based on third/fourth century shifts in pronunciation, something of which this manuscript is, it is true, replete). For one thing, I find no parallel for changing a long \"i\" (iota) to a long \"e\" (eta) in this manuscript (and the unusual spelling would not have happened three times by mistake). Equally interesting is the fact that  in all three cases, the right vertical stroke and the horizontal stroke of the ETA have been erased to produce an IOTA (yielding the traditional spelling) . This is very unusual. Sinaiticus was corrected many times, and each generation of correctors had their own discernible \"tics\". But simple erasure without further comment seems to be unprecedented. Moreover, the empty space left by the erasure is, in all three cases, not filled up. This shows that without any question  the scribe of Sinaiticus deliberately meant to write \"Chrestian\" in all three instances; it was not a mistake . The plot thickens when we consider that two of the earliest secular references to Christianity, Tacitus, Annales 15.4, where Tacitus talks about the Christians being persecuted by Nero as \"Chrestians\", and Suetonius, Claudius 25, referring to Claudius' expulsion of the Jews mentions a certain \"Chrestus\" as responsible, we find precisely the spellings one would predict if these authors (or their sources) were deriving their information from the same tradition which the spelling of Sinaiticus suggests. \n The two titles \"Chrestus\" or \"Chrestian\" are referred to in the following written sources: Tertullian (AD 210), The Eighth Sibyl (AD 200), Theophilos of Antioch (AD 170), Marcus (AD 145), Apocalypse of Elijah (AD 100), Suetonius (AD 124) and Tacitus (AD 116). There is even a disputed inscription (now lost) from Pompei (AD 79) that is believed to have contained a reference to this lost title of Jesus. \n Again, Christians like to play off the spelling of \"Chrestus\" as an insignificant misunderstanding on the part of pagan Romans. But \"Chrestus\" appears in the earliest Bible we have so \"Chrestus\"  cannot  be an early pagan Roman misunderstanding. \"Chrestus\" is the word early \"Christians\" (Chrestians) used to refer to their god. \n Why is this important? \n \"Firstly the hero of Marcion's Bible was called Isu Chrestos - not Jesus. An important point here is you don't see \"Jesus Christ\" in second century texts. So in the Bible of Marcion of Sinope \"Isu Chrestos\" appears instead of \"Christ\" and \"Jesus\". Also in the archaeological fragments mentioned earlier the scribes used the letters \"IS\" wherever Jesus Christ now appears. The inscription \"Isu Chrestos\" can still be seen on the oldest surviving Christian \"Synagogue\" in Syria. \n Marcion's Jesus appeared full grown on earth during the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius. Marcion's Jesus had no human family and only appeared to be a human being. Marcion's Jesus only \"appeared\" to be crucified. Marcion's Jesus only appeared to die. Marcion's Jesus only appeared to be resurrected. Marcion's Jesus was a god totally separate from the evil Yahweh, whom Marcion referred to as the \"demi-urge\". \n The earliest date we have for Marcion is Polycarp's comment that Marcion was teaching in 115 AD. But use of the word \"Chrestus\" precedes Marcion by 65 to 75 years. It would seem, therefore, that the above set of dogma was the original set of orthodox beliefs. How else can we explain the widespread popularity of Marcionism just 23 years after 115 AD, the date Polycarp was willing to admit Marcion arrived on the scene? \n Writing in 138 AD, Justin Martyr said that Marcionites could be found in \"every nation.\" Could someone just make up a theological system in his head and 23 years later threaten the primacy of the supposedly established orthodoxy of Catholicism? Marcion  must have  piggy-backed off of a pre-existing theology, the dogma accompanying belief in Chrestus, the god of the Chrestians as long ago as 40 AD...just seven years after the alleged crucifixion of Christ and a good two decades before Paul arrived in Rome. \n \"Nobody knows how the Church of Rome was established. Neither the Book of Acts nor the writings of the early Fathers explain how Christianity arrived in Rome. As has been discovered, Suetonius, the Roman historian, mentions the  expulsion of followers of Chrestus from Rome, during the time of Emperor Claudius c. AD 40-50 . This indicates that  a flourishing Christian community existed in Rome, even before Paul went to Corinth or Ephesus in AD 49 . By the time of Nero (AD 54-68), the Christian community in Rome was already of a considerable size.\" \n Long before Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, ever went to Rome we find in that city a belief in \"Chrestus\". Chrestus was the god of Marcion \n How did \"Christianity\" reach Rome at that very early date and before Paul? \n Could this \"Chrestianity\" referred to by Suetonius be something other than what we have come to understand as Christianity today? \n Could \"Chrestianity\" represent the original orthodoxy of what we now call Christianity? \n \"According to Clement of Alexandria, Marcion preceded in time all the great Gnostic masters: \"those that invented the heresies\" (The Miscellanies, Book 7, ch. 17. 106f.). That educated scholar from Alexandria (Clement) represents Marcion as an \"elder\" predecessor to two early Gnostic teachers, Valentinus and Basilides. Another heresiarch, Simon Magus, who is often portrayed as the grand father of Gnosticism, also is described by Clement as succeeding Marcion. \"This statement of Clement appears to make Marcion an old man while (Basilides and) Valentinus were still young, and to put Simon Magus posterior to them all in time\" (Robert Smith Wilson. Marcion: A Study of a Second-Century Heretic. James Clarke and Co. Ltd. 1932. p. 56). Clement's chronological data is not being so readily dismissed today, and Marcion's career is being dated to an earlier time than before (Marcion: On the Restitution of Christianity - An Essay on the Development of Radical Paulinist Theology in the Second Century. R. Joseph Hoffmann. Scholars Press 1984).\" \n It would seem that the  earliest  expression of what we call \"Christianity\" was not what we know it to be today. It would appear that once the Catholics gained supremacy, the earliest orthodoxy was repainted as heresy and the heresy of Catholicism was declared to be the original orthodoxy. \n Later Christian scribes literally erased the \"e\" from \"Chrestus\" and \"Chrestianos\" and replaced it with an \"i\". And, as we know, later editions of the Bible replaced \"Chrestus\" with \"Christus\" and \"Chrestianos\" with \"Christianos\". \n But, as we have seen, the Catholic church failed to cover all of it's tracks. And now we know why. The Catholics sought to erase all evidence of the original god of Christianity, Chrestos, the God of Marcion.", "id": "c3a5kak", "summary": "If Christians are going to give weight to Tacitus as a historical source and say he is correct and knows what he’s talking about…especially if they are going to say he got his info from authentic governmental documents…then Christians have to also accept that the theology found in Marcionism came  before  the theology found in Catholic orthodoxy. This is because \"Chrestos\" is the god of the Marcionites and \"Christos\" is the god of the Catholics."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "However, the existence of a parallel doesn't prove conscious copying, \n The copying does not have to be conscious. \n >and there are also some rather important differences between Hesiod-Aeschylus and Judaism-Paul \n Of course there are differences. Pointing out the differences does not make the similarities go away. And I did not point out the similarities to make the differences go away. \n >Zeus and Prometheus are not mystically related to each other, \n Prometheus was Zeus' son. \n >Rather suspicious, don't you agree?' \n So there is no such thing as a suspicious similarity between religions when the religion that appears to have done the copying is Christianity. \n >Seriously, the assumption that shared themes and characters who resemble each other across some different bodies of literature somehow proves the deficiency or malicious intent of the youngest is kind of weird. \n \"Deficiency\" and \"malicious intent\" are not concepts that I have introduced to this conversation. \n >Tell me you're not just trying to come up with quick and easy intellectual memes to make Christianity look like a big conspiracy? \n It's not a big conspiracy. It's just Hellenized Judaism. Cultures influence one another. Religions are a manifestation of culture. Jews were in close contact with Greeks for a couple of  centuries before the Jewish god, in typical Hellenistic fashion, impregnated a mortal woman and conceived a divine son. If you think that requires a conspiracy, that's your conclusion not mine. \n >why would a Pharisee be interested in reading Archaic Greek poetry like Hesiod?). \n A Pharisee? Paul renounced Judaism and described everything related to it as \"shit\" in comparison to Christianity. \n \"5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; 6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. \n 7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8Yea doubtless, and  I count all things but loss  for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,  and do count them but dung , that I may win Christ,\" (Philippians 3) \n Saul of Tarsus took on a Gentile name, Paul. He proclaimed himself  the  Apostle to the Gentiles. He was known to reference Greek literature and philosophy: \n In the book of Acts Paul uses the phrase “kicking against the pricks”. It's a quote from Euripides’ Greek tragedy “Bacchae” written around 450 BCE. \n “I’d sacrifice to him rather than angrily kick against the pricks, a mortal against a god.”\n– Braccae (line 795) (PDF) \n The saying can also be found in other Greek writers like Pindar (Pythians 2:94-96).  The Greeks used the proverb to teach the lesson that it is foolish to rebel against a powerful authority. Any attempt to do so would result in much greater difficulties. \n \n 'We are indeed His Offspring' and \"in thee we live and move and have our being\" \n Aratus : \"for we are indeed his offspring.\" (Aratus, Phenomenae / Phainomena 1-5) \n Epimenides (6th Century BC):  \"for in thee we live and move and have our being.\" (About Zeus) \n Acts 17:28 - Paul teaches: \"For in him we live, and move, and have our being as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.\" \n \n 'Cretans Are Always Liars' \n Epimenides \"the Cretians, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies....\" (Epimenides, Cretica -- a poem scolding the Cretans for making a tomb to Zeus because Epimenides believed Zeus to be eternal.) \n Titus 1:12 \"One of themselves, [even] a prophet of their own said, The Cretians [are] always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies....\" \n \n First learn Piety at Home \n Publius Terentius Afer (Terence) (Latin comedy writer) 190 BC: \"But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home.\" (Andria Act IV -- at this link pp 34-44.) \n 1 Tim 5:4  \"But if any widow have children or nephews let them learn first to show piety at home\" \n \n Paul was known to reference that most Hellenized of all the Jews, Philo: \n Paul: \n So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we  bear the likeness of the man from heaven. \n 50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.\" (1 Corinthians 15) \n Philo: \n \"there are two kinds of men, for the one is \"the heavenly man\", and the other is \"earthy\"; the heavenly man is he, who is made after the image of God, incorruptible, and wholly devoid of earthy substance; the earthy is made of seminal matter, which is called the ground.'' \n (h) Leg. Allegor. l. 1. p. 46. \n >Even Paul's Roman citizenship is sometimes disputed (from the wiki): \n I agree that the Bible contains contradictions and lies. \n >So the thing is, if you want to say that Paul is a Roman citizen of Judaea \n I never said that. I just said he was a Hellenizer. \n >you're going to have to prove the existence of a 'good Prometheus' tradition all around the Mediterranean world that would make Paul's use of Prometheus worth his while in practical terms. \n \"And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter. For you know how many sons your esteemed writers ascribed to Jupiter: Mercury, the interpreting word and teacher of all; Æsculapius, who, though he was a great physician, was struck by a thunderbolt, and so ascended to heaven; and Bacchus too, after he had been torn limb from limb; and Hercules, when he had committed himself to the flames to escape his toils; and the sons of Leda, and Dioscuri; and Perseus, son of Danae; and Bellerophon, who, though sprung from mortals, rose to heaven on the horse Pegasus. For what shall I say of Ariadne, and those who, like her, have been declared to be set among the stars? And what of the emperors who die among yourselves, whom you deem worthy of deification, and in whose behalf you produce some one who swears he has seen the burning Cæsar rise to heaven from the funeral pyre? And what kind of deeds are recorded of each of these reputed sons of Jupiter, it is needless to tell to those who already know. \" \n \n Justin Martyr \n \n >", "id": "c5vzs8j", "summary": "So again, interesting parallel that doesn't really work as silver bullet against Christianity. \n I'm not looking for a silver bullet. A thousand cuts work just as well."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "NASB translates your \"shit\" as rubbish. A little different in meaning, especially when you look at the original Greek scriptures. \n \"Garbage\", \"rubbish\", \"filth\". The point still stands. The man you described as a Jew said Jewish religion was trash. \n >You mix Paul and Jesus, interchangeable, which they are not. \n I'm glad you acknowledge that the Bible is not the word of God. \n >Paul talks about all the things he did under the Jewish Law as rubbish because those THINGS don't matter to God. \n Paul said \" I  count them all as dung\". Paul is not God. \n >The rest of that needs a", "id": "ciupvth", "summary": "I will be appropriately readjusting my estimation of what I consider to be a post of yours that is too long to read."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "And then there is this little gem... \n In a fifteenth century papal bull Pope Nicolas V instructed European Christian nations to \"invade, capture, vanquish\" and \"subdue\" Indigenous Peoples, \"subjugate\" them and \"reduce their persons to perpetual slavery\" and \"to take away all their possessions and property.\" And according to a United Nations World Conference Against Racism document, he also \"declared war against all non-Christians throughout the world\". \n \"In 1452, Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, granting the King of Portugal the right to reduce any \"Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers\" to hereditary slavery. Dum Diversas legitimised the colonial slave trade that begun around this time with the expeditions by Henry the Navigator to find a sea route to India, which were financed with African slaves. This approval of slavery was reaffirmed and extended in his Romanus Pontifex of 1455. \n It is argued that collectively the two bulls issued by Nicholas gave the Portuguese the rights to acquire slaves along the African coast by force or trade. The concessions given in them were confirmed by bulls issued by Pope Calixtus III \"Inter Caetera quae\" (1456), Sixtus IV \"Aeterni regis\" (1481) and Leo X (1514) and they became the models for subsequent bulls issued by Pope Alexander VI : \"Eximiae devotionis\" (May 3, 1493), \"Inter Caetera\" (May 4, 1493) and \"Dudum Siquidem (September 23, 1493) when he conferred similar rights to Spain relating to the newly discovered lands in the Americas.[7]\"", "id": "c33ed0z", "summary": "The spiritual force behind the Atlantic slave trade was Christianity. Spreading the Kingdom of God on earth is a dirty job but someone's gotta do it."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "most scholars now agree that most of Josephus' reference is genuine. \n Citation please. \n >And regardless, that still leaves us with the reference to Jesus' brother James, who no-one thinks is an interpolation. \n James in question was the brother of Jesus ben Ananus. \n >Translation: \"I didn't understand your point so I'm going to bluster my way through it\". \n OK. That's a shorter way of saying, \"You're wrong\". But you could still just go with the two words. \n >Your \"high priest sacrifice\" business doesn't explain why they're so keen on having him born in Bethlehem and why they work so hard. But makes perfect sense according to the historicist position. \n No. Actually it makes sense from the \"Let's-Make-A-Character-Out-Of-OT-Prophecies\" position. \n Mic 5:2 \"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.\" \n >Josephus' narrative of Ananus (as well as the rest of Antiquities) post-dates all of the canonical gospels, and Mark by as much as 3 decades. \n Mark was written as late as 80 AD. \n But i need to rephrase my statement. The Christian grafting on of the \"absolve humanity from their sins\" character to an historical Jesus came later. Paul hatched the idea in the 50's and applied it to his cosmic Jesus. Somebody else brought the Jesus character into history. The anonymous author of the gospel of Mark, perhaps. \n >Yet John already shows signs of a rather advanced Christology \n And advanced lying. It is generally acknowledged that John is historically unreliable. So much for \"the Gospel Truth\". \n And \"John already\"? John was written after all the others. That's why it contains so many obvious lies. \n >", "id": "c5417nz", "summary": "The theology you say Josephus invented, existed before his work. \n I'm not saying he invented. I am saying he recorded it as an idea independent from Christianity."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "Yes. But Tacitus associated essential components of the life of \"Chrestus\" with the life of Christ (i.e. Pilate, the reign of Tiberius, crucifixion). \n So Tacitus was talking abut the same guy. \n The question is: who came first? The Chrestians or the Christians? \n Christian apologists like to believe that \"Chrestians\" and \"Chrestus\" in the Tacitus text are just insignificant mispellings. But the earliest copy of the Bible in existence, the Codex Sinaiticus,  also  refers to the followers of Jesus as \"Chrestians\". \n \"As to the ancient manuscripts, they all have the word in all three places and their testimony is identical – with one critical exception. The best and earliest codex of all, Sinaiticus, has instead of Christianoi (Xristianoi/), Chrestianoi (Xrhstianoi/) – and it has this reading in all three places where the word occurs.  Therefore it is impossible, in spite of the Nestle-Aland tentative suggestion for Acts 26:28, for it to be an itacism (i.e., a popular misspelling based on third/fourth century shifts in pronunciation, something of which this manuscript is, it is true, replete). For one thing, I find no parallel for changing a long \"i\" (iota) to a long \"e\" (eta) in this manuscript (and the unusual spelling would not have happened three times by mistake). Equally interesting is the fact that  in all three cases, the right vertical stroke and the horizontal stroke of the ETA have been erased to produce an IOTA (yielding the traditional spelling) . This is very unusual. Sinaiticus was corrected many times, and each generation of correctors had their own discernible \"tics\". But simple erasure without further comment seems to be unprecedented. Moreover, the empty space left by the erasure is, in all three cases, not filled up. This shows that without any question  the scribe of Sinaiticus deliberately meant to write \"Chrestian\" in all three instances; it was not a mistake . The plot thickens when we consider that two of the earliest secular references to Christianity, Tacitus, Annales 15.4, where Tacitus talks about the Christians being persecuted by Nero as \"Chrestians\", and Suetonius, Claudius 25, referring to Claudius' expulsion of the Jews mentions a certain \"Chrestus\" as responsible, we find precisely the spellings one would predict if these authors (or their sources) were deriving their information from the same tradition which the spelling of Sinaiticus suggests. \n The two titles \"Chrestus\" or \"Chrestian\" are referred to in the following written sources: Tertullian (AD 210), The Eighth Sibyl (AD 200), Theophilos of Antioch (AD 170), Marcus (AD 145), Apocalypse of Elijah (AD 100), Suetonius (AD 124) and Tacitus (AD 116). There is even a disputed inscription (now lost) from Pompei (AD 79) that is believed to have contained a reference to this lost title of Jesus. \n Again, Christians like to play off the spelling of \"Chrestus\" as an insignificant misunderstanding on the part of pagan Romans. But \"Chrestus\" appears in the earliest Bible we have so \"Chrestus\"  cannot  be an early pagan Roman misunderstanding. \"Chrestus\" is the word early \"Christians\" (Chrestians) used to refer to their god. \n Why is this important? \n \"Firstly the hero of Marcion's Bible was called Isu Chrestos - not Jesus. An important point here is you don't see \"Jesus Christ\" in second century texts. So in the Bible of Marcion of Sinope \"Isu Chrestos\" appears instead of \"Christ\" and \"Jesus\". Also in the archaeological fragments mentioned earlier the scribes used the letters \"IS\" wherever Jesus Christ now appears. The inscription \"Isu Chrestos\" can still be seen on the oldest surviving Christian \"Synagogue\" in Syria. \n Marcion's Jesus appeared full grown on earth during the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius. Marcion's Jesus had no human family and only appeared to be a human being. Marcion's Jesus only \"appeared\" to be crucified. Marcion's Jesus only appeared to die. Marcion's Jesus only appeared to be resurrected. Marcion's Jesus was a god totally separate from the evil Yahweh, whom Marcion referred to as the \"demi-urge\". \n The earliest date we have for Marcion is Polycarp's comment that Marcion was teaching in 115 AD. But use of the word \"Chrestus\" precedes Marcion by 65 to 75 years. It would seem, therefore, that the above set of dogma was the original set of orthodox beliefs. How else can we explain the widespread popularity of Marcionism just 23 years after 115 AD, the date Polycarp was willing to admit Marcion arrived on the scene? \n Writing in 138 AD, Justin Martyr said that Marcionites could be found in \"every nation.\" Could someone just make up a theological system in his head and 23 years later threaten the primacy of the supposedly established orthodoxy of Catholicism? Marcion  must have  piggy-backed off of a pre-existing theology, the dogma accompanying belief in Chrestus, the god of the Chrestians as long ago as 40 AD...just seven years after the alleged crucifixion of Christ and a good two decades before Paul arrived in Rome. \n \"Nobody knows how the Church of Rome was established. Neither the Book of Acts nor the writings of the early Fathers explain how Christianity arrived in Rome. As has been discovered, Suetonius, the Roman historian, mentions the  expulsion of followers of Chrestus from Rome, during the time of Emperor Claudius c. AD 40-50 . This indicates that  a flourishing Christian community existed in Rome, even before Paul went to Corinth or Ephesus in AD 49 . By the time of Nero (AD 54-68), the Christian community in Rome was already of a considerable size.\" \n Long before Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, ever went to Rome we find in that city a belief in \"Chrestus\". Chrestus was the god of Marcion \n How did \"Christianity\" reach Rome at that very early date and before Paul? \n Could this \"Chrestianity\" referred to by Suetonius be something other than what we have come to understand as Christianity today? \n Could \"Chrestianity\" represent the original orthodoxy of what we now call Christianity? \n \"According to Clement of Alexandria, Marcion preceded in time all the great Gnostic masters: \"those that invented the heresies\" (The Miscellanies, Book 7, ch. 17. 106f.). That educated scholar from Alexandria (Clement) represents Marcion as an \"elder\" predecessor to two early Gnostic teachers, Valentinus and Basilides. Another heresiarch, Simon Magus, who is often portrayed as the grand father of Gnosticism, also is described by Clement as succeeding Marcion. \"This statement of Clement appears to make Marcion an old man while (Basilides and) Valentinus were still young, and to put Simon Magus posterior to them all in time\" (Robert Smith Wilson. Marcion: A Study of a Second-Century Heretic. James Clarke and Co. Ltd. 1932. p. 56). Clement's chronological data is not being so readily dismissed today, and Marcion's career is being dated to an earlier time than before (Marcion: On the Restitution of Christianity - An Essay on the Development of Radical Paulinist Theology in the Second Century. R. Joseph Hoffmann. Scholars Press 1984).\" \n It would seem that the  earliest  expression of what we call \"Christianity\" was not what we know it to be today. It would appear that once the Catholics gained supremacy, the earliest orthodoxy was repainted as heresy and the heresy of Catholicism was declared to be the original orthodoxy. \n Later Christian scribes literally erased the \"e\" from \"Chrestus\" and \"Chrestianos\" and replaced it with an \"i\". And, as we know, later editions of the Bible replaced \"Chrestus\" with \"Christus\" and \"Chrestianos\" with \"Christianos\". \n But, as we have seen, the Catholic church failed to cover all of it's tracks. And now we know why. The Catholics sought to erase all evidence of the original god of Christianity, Chrestos, the God of Marcion.", "id": "cifophw", "summary": "If Christians are going to give weight to Tacitus as a historical source and say he is correct and knows what he’s talking about…especially if they are going to say he got his info from authentic governmental documents…then Christians have to also accept that the theology found in Marcionism came  before  the theology found in Catholic orthodoxy. This is because \"Chrestos\" is the god of the Marcionites and \"Christos\" is the god of the Catholics."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "The symbol, logos, of Jesus Christ is unique among the systems of worship I have encountered. \n What symbol? The logos is a concept. The concept goes back to ancient Egypt. I didn't know there was symbol. \n >the meaning of being pierced for the sake of others and hanging between heaven and earth rather than harm the piercers in return - as an expression of love for them. \n We are all spirits trapped in flesh, nailed to the cross materialism, suspended between heaven and earth. When we experience ego death it is for the sake of ourselves and the world. We are all Jesus, walking in his path. The path of an archetype. \n >Through practice of this species of love the world can be transformed into a utopia clearly possible. \n What utopian steps, directly attributable to Jesus Christ, has humanity taken in the last 2,000 years? \n >There really is enough for all, here, were we to behave so; wars and murder and theft and fear banished and nowhere to be found. \n I think you just answered my question. \n >Ask an amputee or a divorcee or a bereaved parent about dying daily, about living between heaven and earth. Not only such dramatics are representative of this principle - a good look around may suffice if one pays sufficient attention. \n Right. Suffering and death is our common denominator. A religion is not. \n >To return to knowing, the [1] parables of Jesus Christ indicate a knowing God by being known, not by presumption of knowledge. \n Odd. Paul does not seem to have been impressed by the parables of Jesus at all. He never mentions any of them. \n >The fundamentals (there is no other follower of a path but that which has its feet actually on that path) of the Way of Christ are many, diverse, and non-contradictory. \n There are Hindu Christians, Buddhist Christians, Muslim Christians, even Atheist Christians. These Christians of other faiths and non-faiths just don't know they are in fact Christians. OTOH, there are people who call themselves Christians who are actually children of the Devil. \n >that there may be (if one chooses) no death without subsequent life. And that is sufficient for me to proceed on, for it is unique in the world, \n The promise of eternal life is unique to Christianity? \n >is thus a principle which is transcendent of reason: that which makes no sense yet works) and has not by myself at time of writing been found superseded in any way by any other system of thought. \n A principle that is transcendent of reason is not a system of thought. You might call it \"a system of feeling\" but feelings are not ordered. There is no system of feelings. You are describing a wordless non-system, a kingdom of the spirit and not of the letter. \n >", "id": "c4230i8", "summary": "Jesus comprehends me because I cannot comprehend Jesus. \n That's some kind of faith."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "So to have the backbone of one's culture merely brushed aside as a \"fairy tale\" by someone who appears to want to destroy your way of life would rank pretty high on the list of insults that would incite violence. \n You have just explained indigenous opposition to the conquest of the New World by Christians. Thank you. \n In a fifteenth century papal bull Pope Nicolas V instructed European Christian nations to \"invade, capture, vanquish\" and \"subdue\" Indigenous Peoples, \"subjugate\" them and \"reduce their persons to perpetual slavery\" and \"to take away all their possessions and property.\" And according to a United Nations World Conference Against Racism document, he also \"declared war against all non-Christians throughout the world\". \n \"In 1452, Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, granting the King of Portugal the right to reduce any \"Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers\" to hereditary slavery. Dum Diversas legitimised the colonial slave trade that begun around this time with the expeditions by Henry the Navigator to find a sea route to India, which were financed with African slaves. This approval of slavery was reaffirmed and extended in his Romanus Pontifex of 1455. \n It is argued that collectively the two bulls issued by Nicholas gave the Portuguese the rights to acquire slaves along the African coast by force or trade. The concessions given in them were confirmed by bulls issued by Pope Calixtus III \"Inter Caetera quae\" (1456), Sixtus IV \"Aeterni regis\" (1481) and Leo X (1514) and they became the models for subsequent bulls issued by Pope Alexander VI : \"Eximiae devotionis\" (May 3, 1493), \"Inter Caetera\" (May 4, 1493) and \"Dudum Siquidem (September 23, 1493) when he conferred similar rights to Spain relating to the newly discovered lands in the Americas.[7]\"", "id": "c2akm50", "summary": "The spiritual justification for the Atlantic slave trade came from the Body of  Christ, the Christian Church. Spreading the Kingdom of God on earth is a dirty job but someone's gotta do it."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "Buddhism's nonattachment is total--everything, remember, including every idea, philosophy, religion, etc... is sunyata and cannot be attached to. This is the meaning behind the Buddhist injunction 'If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.' Not even the Buddha, or the Buddha's words, should be attached to.\" \n \n Sunyata and Sex \n \n \"Inwardly or outwardly, if you encounter any obstacles kill them right away. If you encounter the Buddha, kill him; if you encounter the Patriarch, kill him; ...kill them all without hesitation, for this is the only way to deliverance. Do not get yourselves entangled with any object, but stand above, pass on, and be free!\" \n \n Lin-chi \n \n \"The minute anything - science, feminism, Buddhism, holism, whatever - starts to take on the characteristics of a cosmology, it should be discarded. How things are held in the mind is infinitely more important than what is in the mind, including this statement itself.\" \n \n Morris Berman, Holocaust Century Historian \n \n \"Beware of confining yourself to a particular belief and denying all else, for much good would elude you - indeed, the knowledge of reality would elude you. Be in yourself a matter for all forms of belief, for God is too vast and tremendous to be restricted to one belief rather than another.\" \n \n Ibn Al-Arabi \n \n \"Without demolishing religious schools (madrassahs) and minarets and without abandoning the beliefs and ideas of the medieval age, restriction in thoughts and pains in conscience will not end. Without understanding that unbelief is a kind of religion, and that conservative religious belief a kind of disbelief, and without showing tolerance to opposite ideas, one cannot succeed.\" \n \n Rumi \n \n \"The truly religious man does not embrace a religion; and he who embraces one has no religion.\" \n \n Kahlil Gibran  \n \n \"Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we are not sure that we are doubly sure. Fundamentalism is, therefore, inevitable in an age which has destroyed so many certainties by which faith once expressed itself and upon which it relied.\" \n \n Reinhold Niebuhr  \n \n \"To realize that our knowledge is ignorance\nThis is a noble insight.\nTo regard our ignorance as knowledge\nThat is mental sickness.\" \n \n Lao Tzu \n \n \"Seeking Him I reached the mosque.\nBut all I found there were vain discussions\non sacraments and ceremonials. \n I was advised to go visit the temple.\nThere I found\nonly idols being worshipped\nand gongs being sounded.\" \n \n Nazir  \n \n \"The thickest veils between man and Allah are the wisdom of the wise, the worship of the religious, and the piety of the pious.\" \n \n Bayazid Bistami \n \n Meister Eckhart, the mystic of the middle ages, says that \"the ultimate leap you take is the leaving of god, the folk god\". Break through that veil of conditioning and you get to the elementary idea.", "id": "c3zvy63", "summary": "The end of the road to enlightenment looks a lot like atheism."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "Can you give me a clear, concise explanation for why your understanding of the NT is definitively, precisely \"what it says\" and the many others who disagree with you are incorrect? \n I already did. I will not repeat myself. \n >Not obviously, in my opinion. There are lots of potential reasons to call for believers to pray continually. \n John 16 promises that the Holy Spirit will lead Christians into all truth. \n when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. (John 16:13) \n Of course, this promise applies to the Church... \n the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. (1 Tim 3:15) \n But, moreover, the promise of John 16:13 applies, not just to the disciples and the Church, but to all Christians. \n 15  The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things , but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, \n “Who has known the mind of the Lord\n    so as to instruct him?” \n But  we have the mind of Christ . (1 Cor 2:16) \n Furthermore. Paul says that  each Christian  is a letter from Christ and that the new covenant, the new testament is of the Spirit and  not of the letter . \n 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3  You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God , not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. \n 4 Such confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant— not of the letter  but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Cor 3) \n I bring this up to point out that being a Christian is supposed to be characterized by  inner  guidance,  not  written guidance. And this points back to the fact that the Holy Spirit must be guiding each Christian into making sound judgments on all things. And the only way the Holy Spirit can do this is to  constantly  guide each Christian. \n This is why Jesus did not instruct the disciples to write gospels. Jesus promised that the living God would inhabit each Christian rendering the written word obsolete and unnecessary as promised in the original prophecy of the new covenant... \n 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel\n    after that time,” declares the Lord.\n “I will put my law in their minds\n    and write it on their hearts.\nI will be their God,\n    and they will be my people.\n34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,\n    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’\nbecause they will all know me,\n    from the least of them to the greatest,” \ndeclares the Lord.\n“For I will forgive their wickedness\n    and will remember their sins no more.” (Jer 31) \n Under the new covenant Christians will no longer teach or be taught because each of them will be guided by (will \"know\") the Holy Spirit who, through the human hosts (Christians), will make sound judgments on \" all  things\". \n Return to", "id": "clsmthm", "summary": "for conclusion."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "You and I are very much on the same page. I cannot call myself an \"atheist\" because atheists generally cannot appreciate that god is exactly as you have defined him/it. IOW, \"god\" is \"real\". He's real and he's not real. \n One side of the problem is that when an atheist insists that \"there is no god\" theists hear him saying, \"your internal reality is false\". Instead of continually trying to throw out the baby with the bathwater, atheists need to focus on what is real about god. The bathwater is the belief or idea that god really is an omnipotent being in the sky watching over human affairs. The baby is the understanding that  everyone  experiences, as you said.... \n >empathy, or enlightenment, or a collection of neural processes, or whatever is just beyond the grasp of our ability to comprehend \n Theists try to comprehend this \"whatever it is\" by calling it \"God\". But, generally, atheists will not acknowledge this shared reality or awareness, this \"god\" thing, and dismiss it as nonsense.", "id": "c1pwq73", "summary": "Oftentimes, theists and atheists are simply arguing over terminology."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "Yeah. Right. \n \"In a fifteenth century papal bull Pope Nicolas V instructed European Christian nations to \"invade, capture, vanquish\" and \"subdue\" Indigenous Peoples, \"subjugate\" them and \"reduce their persons to perpetual slavery\" and \"to take away all their possessions and property.\" And according to a United Nations World Conference Against Racism document, he also \"declared war against all non-Christians throughout the world\". \n \"In 1452, Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, granting the King of Portugal the right to reduce any \"Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers\" to hereditary slavery. Dum Diversas legitimised the colonial slave trade that begun around this time with the expeditions by Henry the Navigator to find a sea route to India, which were financed with African slaves. This approval of slavery was reaffirmed and extended in his Romanus Pontifex of 1455. \n It is argued that collectively the two bulls issued by Nicholas gave the Portuguese the rights to acquire slaves along the African coast by force or trade. The concessions given in them were confirmed by bulls issued by Pope Calixtus III \"Inter Caetera quae\" (1456), Sixtus IV \"Aeterni regis\" (1481) and Leo X (1514) and they became the models for subsequent bulls issued by Pope Alexander VI : \"Eximiae devotionis\" (May 3, 1493), \"Inter Caetera\" (May 4, 1493) and \"Dudum Siquidem (September 23, 1493) when he conferred similar rights to Spain relating to the newly discovered lands in the Americas.[7]\"", "id": "c2pyh9m", "summary": "The spiritual force behind the Atlantic slave trade was Christianity. Spreading the Kingdom of God on earth is a dirty job but someone's gotta do it."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "It makes more sense for me to believe that God has children whom he say set in their hearts in advance a way for them to come back to him. \n Then it makes more sense for you to ignore the clear meaning of Romans 9. Which is that God prepared in advanced some \"pots\" for special use (glory) and some for common use (destruction). \n >The other beings whom live lives of flesh ultimately being recycled. \n I had no idea that recycling was mentioned in the Bible. \n >God made it clear that human beings were made in his image. So when you eat something and it goes through your digestive system all nutrients are filtered back into the restoration of the body and the remainder is not destroyed, it merely isn't used for the same purpose as the nutrients. It becomes waste which ultimately feeds and nurtures other aspects of the creation (in this case it would be plants and sea life). \n You seem to be arguing that God eats and shits. \n >", "id": "cgttspt", "summary": "God recycles people back into creation, they aren't hanging out in a fiery pit somewhere being tortured for existing. \n Please back up your claims with biblical passages."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "You're saying that you would do different in the shoes of Adam? \n Not at all. Adam was set up. \n >There's no evidence in the Bible that states that children who die prematurely are sentenced to hell. \n I was referring to suffering in this life, the suffering caused by Yahweh's imposition of a sin and death curse on all of humanity. \n >it's obviously not just to sentence someone incapable of making this decision to hell. \n it doesn't matter. God stacked the deck against most of us. From before creation he knew that only a few of his beloved creations would escape hell. \n “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.\" (Matthew 7) \n >I don't claim to understand how the sinful nature came to be, but it wasn’t in God’s design. \n He put it in his design. \n \"For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners,\" (Romans 5:19) \n Adam was not a powerful warlock capable of subjecting all humans who would ever be born to a curse. \n For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it,\" (Romans 8:20) \n >He had to place the choice before us so that we weren’t a bunch of automatons, \n The choice was placed before Adam, not us. We were not given a choice. We have no choice but to sin. God made us all sinners, slaves to sin. \n \"For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners,\" (Romans 5:19) \n >but ultimately, there was a tempter that swayed the decision to sin. That ball is rolling now. \n And you and I are blamed and punished for an action committed thousands of years ago. \n >Face it, you don’t have to teach a toddler to do horrible things. It comes easily to us. \n It comes  naturally  to us, God made it in our nature to sin. \n >It takes work to do the right thing. \n But no one is capable of always doing the right thing. Everyone sins throughout their lives. Everyone. Because God made us that way. \n >And that’s why God provided a way to cleanse that nature, \n God polluted the nature. He both pollutes and cleanses. \n \"I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.\" (Isaiah 45:7) \n >but I for one don’t think I’d do any different in their position \n You're only human. And God blames you for that. \n >", "id": "c3eambu", "summary": "The responsibility isn’t on God for creating us as sinners. \n Only God is capable of altering creation."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "Well, not exactly. If God had intended for Abraham to actually off his own son, then yes, it would've been absolutely immoral. However, it's pretty apparent that He didn't want Abe to go through with it, it was just a \"test\"/what have you. \n The Christian god gave Abraham a passing grade on the test based upon the presence of murder in Abraham's heart. \n But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28) \n The Christian god wanted Abraham to have murder in his heart. Abraham was fully prepared to murder his son for Jesus. And Yahweh saw that murder was in Abraham's heart. And Abraham was rewarded for his murderous heart. \n But I tell you that anyone who looks at  a woman lustfully  his son with the intent to murder him has already committed  adultery with her  murder in his heart. (Matthew 5:28) \n So Abraham's trust was demonstrated by his willingness to kill his own son. Abraham had to demonstrate his sincere intent to kill his son in order for the Christian god to be satisfied that Abraham was faithful and feared Him. And in order for Abraham to sincerely intend to kill his own son, Abraham had to have murder in his heart. There is no getting around that. \n >It's an interesting sort of paradox...almost a damned if ya do, damned if ya don't scenario. \n Why...it's almost Satanic. \n >", "id": "cbr5en5", "summary": "The moral of the story is that you should be willing to sacrifice anything for God, even if it doesn't seem right. (though this example isn't applicable nowadays) \n Hardly a day goes by without a new psychotic murderer disagreeing with you."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "1) People are punished in hell mostly for the wrongdoing they each commit during their lives. \n That's a very Dante's Inferno view of hell. Where does the Bible say that punishments in the lake of fire will vary according to the extent of the sins committed? \n >(4) People are sent to hell because of their moral wrongdoing;\nit's not really based on their theological views or knowledge or lack thereof. \n Well, that's complete and utter bullshit. \n 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” \n 31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” (Acts 16) \n >(So", "id": "cfa2a43", "summary": "The ignorant Eskimo would go to hell for his wrongdoing that he knew,\nand the missionary should tell him about God and the inevitable judgment,\nand implore him to seek God's mercy and be reconciled to God) \n Then, essentially, every North Korean who does not know that he should ask for God's mercy is going to get God's mercy due to his ignorance."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "The Jewish calendar's epoch (reference date), 1 Tishrei 1 AM, is equivalent to Monday, 7 October 3761 BCE (Julian calendar), ...and is about one year before the traditional Jewish date of Creation on 25 Elul AM 1, based upon the Seder Olam Rabbah of Rabbi Yossi ben Halafta, a 2nd century CE sage.\" \n The footnote for the above wiki cite is as follows: \n \"A minority opinion places Creation on 25 Adar 1 AM, six months earlier, or six months after the modern epoch.\" \n A minority opinion! That means  the majority of ancient Judaic scholars  believed Genesis was written to be read as literal history. And, therefore, the Bible teaches that human beings have existed for only 5772. \n \"The vast majority of classical Rabbis hold that God created the world close to 6,000 years ago, and created Adam and Eve from clay.\" \n How did 2nd century Jewish scholars get the idea that the Genesis creation account was to be read as literal history? Perhaps the teaching was passed on via that impeccable Jewish oral tradition that Christians love to rave about? If Jewish oral tradition really is as accurate as Christians claim it is then ancient Jewish scholars were the people most likely to know the intent of the author of Genesis. \n Even Jesus is quoted as saying that God created man and woman at the beginning of creation. And the Christian hero, Paul, made several statements indicating that he also held a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation account. \n Yet modern Christians want to believe the Genesis creation account is just one big metaphor. \n In light of the above evidence, how can Christians continue to maintain that the Genesis creation account is  not  meant to be read literally?", "id": "t3_r1in0", "summary": "Traditional Rabbinic belief is that we are in year 5772 since human beings were created."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "Biblical references Psalm 93:1, 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30 include text stating that \"the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved.\" In the same manner, Psalm 104:5 says, \"the Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.\" Further, Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that \"And the sun rises and sets and returns to its place\" etc \n \" \n Galileo argued that such passages should not be taken literally. The Church obviously disagreed. Until 1992. \n In 1992, it was reported in the news that the Catholic Church had turned around towards vindicating Galileo: \n \"Thanks to his intuition as a brilliant physicist and by relying on different arguments, Galileo, who practically invented the experimental method, understood why only the sun could function as the centre of the world, as it was then known, that is to say, as a planetary system. The error of the theologians of the time, when they maintained the centrality of the Earth, was to think that our understanding of the physical world's structure was, in some way,  imposed by the literal sense of Sacred Scripture ....\" —Pope John Paul II, L'Osservatore Romano N. 44 (1264) - November 4, 1992 \n In 2000, Pope John Paul II issued a formal apology for all the mistakes committed by some Catholics in the last 2,000 years of the Catholic Church's history, including the trial of Galileo among others.", "id": "t3_r9fp4", "summary": "The modern Christian argument for an allegorical interpretation of Genesis boils down to: \n Pay no attention to the traditional teaching of the Church."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "The story of the Fall of Man is a case study in the manipulation of so-called \"free\" will. \n Adam & Eve had to ascertain the truth from information presented to them by two entities. \n WHAT THEY   WERE   TOLD: \n Entity #1 told Adam & Eve they would die when they ate the fruit. \n Entity #2 told Adam & Eve they would  not  die when they ate the fruit and that, furthermore, Adam & Eve's \"eyes will be opened\" and they \"will be like God, knowing good and evil\". \n WHAT THEY WERE   NOT   TOLD: \n Entity #1 withheld from Adam & Eve the fact that, upon eating the fruit, their eyes would be opened and that they would \"be like God, knowing good and evil\". Entity #1 also withheld from Adam & Eve all of the additional negative consequences of eating the fruit as outlined in Genesis 3:14-24. \n It is unclear that entity#2 withheld anything from Adam & Eve as they did  not  physically die when they ate the fruit. If Adam & Eve  did , in fact, \"die\" when they ate the fruit, then it was a \"spiritual\" death and entity #1 also failed to share that concept with Adam & Eve. There is also no reason to assume that entity #2 had any prior knowledge of all of the previously unknown consequences imposed upon Adam & Eve by entity #1 in Genesis 3:14-24. \n In any case it is clear that information was being manipulated/withheld in order to influence the decisions of Adam & Eve. \n And how are the decisions/choices of us any more \"free\" than theirs? Like Adam & Eve in the garden, from early childhood most of us are lied to about the nature of reality. Some information is withheld. Some information is exaggerated. And some information is fabricated.", "id": "t3_re7f5", "summary": "Making  informed  decisions about how to live one's life requires  all  of the  accurate  information necessary to make those decisions. Adam & Eve didn't get that information. At least not from entity #1. And most of us do not get that information. Coupled with the fact that the Christian god has willed that all of us sin (by cursing all of us with a sinful nature) Free Will,  particularly  in the unverifiable realm of religion, is a myth."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "In Exodus 32:9-14 Moses talks the Christian god out slaughtering his chosen people, saying.... \n 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? \n We can apply Moses' logic to several other scenarios: \n Why should Adam & Eve say, ‘It was with evil intent that he created us, to drive us out of the garden, punish us with hard labor, pain in childbirth, death and a sinful nature?' \n Why should all of humanity say, ‘It was with evil intent that he created us to kill us in the Great Flood and to wipe us off the face of the earth’? \n Why should all of the Jews say, ‘It was with evil intent that you entered into the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants only to withdraw your promise and burden us with impossible laws? \n Why should all of the Jews say, ‘It was with evil intent that you manipulated us into killing Jesus only to have us, for thousands of years, scapegoated for the salvation-providing act? \n This passage also casts grave doubt upon God the Father's character. \n Why was Moses superior to God the Father that day? Does God the Father have other \"off\" days. Is he having one now? \n Why did God the Father give two shits about what the Egyptians would think of him? I thought God was no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34)? But here he is afraid Pharoah might think he's a jerk. \n And then there is verse 13: \n 13  Remember  your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” \n Added to the list of God's deficits: a poor memory. \n I hope he forgets all my sins.", "id": "t3_refyn", "summary": "The Christian god wasn't too bright back then. But he was smart enough to take the advice of one of his totally depraved creations."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "Let's say the god of this universe gave you immortality and the power of creation. Let's say He told you to create a new universe wherein you would be the ultimate ruler and judge of all that you have created. \n But that is all the god of this universe gave you. \n You would be the Creator, ultimate ruler and ultimate judge of this new universe. But you would still suffer from anger, jealousy, violent impulses, all of the shortcomings of human character. \n You command your creations to worship you as a perfect judge of every situation. But you are no more perfect than your creations. You just have more power than they do. \n Since your creations are not stupid, they know that the bottom line is that they worship you only out of fear of punishment. \n Because you enjoy absolute power over your creations and you can punish any act of disobedience to your will...does that make any act of disobedience to your will an immoral act?", "id": "t3_rjjob", "summary": "Why does the Bible expend so much ink on threats of punishment for failure to worship the Christian god?"}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "if the rulers of Jesus' age understood the mystery (of Jesus' atoning death) that had been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. . . . they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.\" (1 Corinthians 2:7-9) \n God  destined  (caused) the crucifixion to happen. And God did not want Judas, Pilate, Herod or the Jews to know that they were pawns in a cosmic chess match. \n But Pilate's wife had a dream... \n While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.” (Matthew 27:19) \n Given that God \"destined\" (caused) Jesus to be crucified (1 Corinthians 2:7-9), there is absolutely no reason that God would come to Pilate's wife in a dream and tell her that Jesus should not be crucified. And, according to 1 Corinthians 2:7-9, there is no way that Satan or a demon could have come to Pilate's wife in a dream and tell her that Jesus should not be crucified. This is because Satan and his demons did not, could not, know God's secret plan. \n It has been argued that, via a dream experienced by Pilate's wife, God was trying to give Pilate reasons to stop the crucifixion of Jesus. \n God was trying? The omnipotent God who can soften or harden hearts at will \"tried\" but failed to persuade Pilate to stop the crucifixion? And this was in spite of the fact that God also wanted and destined (caused) the crucifixion to happen. And rather than contact Pilate directly though Pilate's dreams, God contacts Pilate's wife instead. This is a ridiculous hypothesis on several levels. \n In order to rule out a contradiction between Matthew and 1 Corinthians, the only explanation we are left with is that Pilate's wife's dream was purely naturalistic, unmotivated by either God or Satan. But there is no biblical precedent for naturalistic dreams. Without exception, dreams in the Bible are supernatural in origin. \n But let's say, for the sake of argument, that the dream of Pilate's wife is the first and only non-supernatural, purely naturalistic dream in the Bible. Are we really to believe that Pilate's wife's dream about the human incarnation of God on Earth on the eve of the crucifixion was caused by something she ate?", "id": "t3_enki8", "summary": "The author of Matthew 27:19 contradicts the author of 1 Corinthians 2:7-9."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "The earliest secular document recording the existence of Chrestians has this to say.... \n \"...Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Chrestians by the populace. Chrestus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus,...\" \n (Tacitus, Annals, 116 AD, book 15, chapter 44) \n Christian apologists like to believe that \"Chrestians\" and \"Chrestus\" in the above text are just insignificant mispellings. But the earliest copy of the Bible in existence, the Codex Sinaiticus,  also  refers to the followers of Jesus as \"Chrestians\". \n \"As to the ancient manuscripts, they all have the word in all three places and their testimony is identical – with one critical exception. The best and earliest codex of all, Sinaiticus, has instead of Christianoi (Xristianoi/), Chrestianoi (Xrhstianoi/) – and it has this reading in all three places where the word occurs.  Therefore it is impossible, in spite of the Nestle-Aland tentative suggestion for Acts 26:28, for it to be an itacism (i.e., a popular misspelling based on third/fourth century shifts in pronunciation, something of which this manuscript is, it is true, replete). For one thing, I find no parallel for changing a long \"i\" (iota) to a long \"e\" (eta) in this manuscript (and the unusual spelling would not have happened three times by mistake). Equally interesting is the fact that  in all three cases, the right vertical stroke and the horizontal stroke of the ETA have been erased to produce an IOTA (yielding the traditional spelling) . This is very unusual. Sinaiticus was corrected many times, and each generation of correctors had their own discernible \"tics\". But simple erasure without further comment seems to be unprecedented. Moreover, the empty space left by the erasure is, in all three cases, not filled up. This shows that without any question  the scribe of Sinaiticus deliberately meant to write \"Chrestian\" in all three instances; it was not a mistake . The plot thickens when we consider that two of the earliest secular references to Christianity, Tacitus, Annales 15.4, where Tacitus talks about the Christians being persecuted by Nero as \"Chrestians\", and Suetonius, Claudius 25, referring to Claudius' expulsion of the Jews mentions a certain \"Chrestus\" as responsible, we find precisely the spellings one would predict if these authors (or their sources) were deriving their information from the same tradition which the spelling of Sinaiticus suggests. \n The two titles \"Chrestus\" or \"Chrestian\" are referred to in the following written sources: Tertullian (AD 210), The Eighth Sibyl (AD 200), Theophilos of Antioch (AD 170), Marcus (AD 145), Apocalypse of Elijah (AD 100), Suetonius (AD 124) and Tacitus (AD 116). There is even a disputed inscription (now lost) from Pompei (AD 79) that is believed to have contained a reference to this lost title of Jesus. \n Again, Christians like to play off the spelling of \"Chrestus\" as an insignificant misunderstanding on the part of pagan Romans. But \"Chrestus\" appears in the earliest Bible we have so \"Chrestus\"  cannot  be an early pagan Roman misunderstanding. \"Chrestus\" is the word early \"Christians\" (Chrestians) used to refer to their god. \n Why is this important? \n \"Firstly the hero of Marcion's Bible was called Isu Chrestos - not Jesus. An important point here is you don't see \"Jesus Christ\" in second century texts. So in the Bible of Marcion of Sinope \"Isu Chrestos\" appears instead of \"Christ\" and \"Jesus\". Also in the archaeological fragments mentioned earlier the scribes used the letters \"IS\" wherever Jesus Christ now appears. The inscription \"Isu Chrestos\" can still be seen on the oldest surviving Christian \"Synagogue\" in Syria. \n Marcion's Jesus appeared full grown on earth during the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius. Marcion's Jesus had no human family and only appeared to be a human being. Marcion's Jesus only \"appeared\" to be crucified. Marcion's Jesus only appeared to die. Marcion's Jesus only appeared to be resurrected. Marcion's Jesus was a god totally separate from the evil Yahweh, whom Marcion referred to as the \"demi-urge\". \n The earliest date we have for Marcion is Polycarp's comment that Marcion was teaching in 115 AD. But use of the word \"Chrestus\" precedes Marcion by 65 to 75 years. It would seem, therefore, that the above set of dogma was the original set of orthodox beliefs. How else can we explain the widespread popularity of Marcionism just 23 years after 115 AD, the date Polycarp was willing to admit Marcion arrived on the scene? \n Writing in 138 AD, Justin Martyr said that Marcionites could be found in \"every nation.\" Could someone just make up a theological system in his head and 23 years later threaten the primacy of the supposedly established orthodoxy of Catholicism? Marcion  must have  piggy-backed off of a pre-existing theology, the dogma accompanying belief in Chrestus, the god of the Chrestians as long ago as 40 AD...just seven years after the alleged crucifixion of Christ and a good two decades before Paul arrived in Rome. \n \"Nobody knows how the Church of Rome was established. Neither the Book of Acts nor the writings of the early Fathers explain how Christianity arrived in Rome. As has been discovered, Suetonius, the Roman historian, mentions the  expulsion of followers of Chrestus from Rome, during the time of Emperor Claudius c. AD 40-50 . This indicates that  a flourishing Christian community existed in Rome, even before Paul went to Corinth or Ephesus in AD 49 . By the time of Nero (AD 54-68), the Christian community in Rome was already of a considerable size.\" \n Long before Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, ever went to Rome we find in that city a belief in \"Chrestus\". Chrestus was the god of Marcion \n How did \"Christianity\" reach Rome at that very early date and before Paul? \n Could this \"Chrestianity\" referred to by Suetonius be something other than what we have come to understand as Christianity today? \n Could \"Chrestianity\" represent the original orthodoxy of what we now call Christianity? \n \"According to Clement of Alexandria, Marcion preceded in time all the great Gnostic masters: \"those that invented the heresies\" (The Miscellanies, Book 7, ch. 17. 106f.). That educated scholar from Alexandria (Clement) represents Marcion as an \"elder\" predecessor to two early Gnostic teachers, Valentinus and Basilides. Another heresiarch, Simon Magus, who is often portrayed as the grand father of Gnosticism, also is described by Clement as succeeding Marcion. \"This statement of Clement appears to make Marcion an old man while (Basilides and) Valentinus were still young, and to put Simon Magus posterior to them all in time\" (Robert Smith Wilson. Marcion: A Study of a Second-Century Heretic. James Clarke and Co. Ltd. 1932. p. 56). Clement's chronological data is not being so readily dismissed today, and Marcion's career is being dated to an earlier time than before (Marcion: On the Restitution of Christianity - An Essay on the Development of Radical Paulinist Theology in the Second Century. R. Joseph Hoffmann. Scholars Press 1984).\" \n It would seem that the  earliest  expression of what we call \"Christianity\" was not what we know it to be today. It would appear that once the Catholics gained supremacy, the earliest orthodoxy was repainted as heresy and the heresy of Catholicism was declared to be the original orthodoxy. \n Later Christian scribes literally erased the \"e\" from \"Chrestus\" and \"Chrestianos\" and replaced it with an \"i\". And, as we know, later editions of the Bible replaced \"Chrestus\" with \"Christus\" and \"Chrestianos\" with \"Christianos\". \n But, as we have seen, the Catholic church failed to cover all of it's tracks. And now we know why. The Catholics sought to erase all evidence of the original god of Christianity, Chrestos, the God of Marcion.", "id": "t3_jr5bx", "summary": "If Christians are going to give weight to Tacitus as a historical source and say he is correct and knows what he’s talking about…especially if they are going to say he got his info from authentic governmental documents…then Christians have to also accept that the theology found in Marcionism came  before  the theology found in Catholic orthodoxy. This is because \"Chrestos\" is the god of the Marcionites and \"Christos\" is the god of the Catholics."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "1)  Originally the Christian God promised that the offspring of Abraham would receive the promised land with no strings attached (Genesis 15). \n Then, in the time of Moses, God promised the offspring of Abraham that they would receive the promised land  if they followed the law . The Christian God attached strings to a covenant that previously had no strings attached. \n This certainly suggests that the Christian God is a god who goes back on his promises. Paul confirms this. He says that when the descendants of Abraham failed to follow the law, God took back the entire covenant promise, removing it from the Jews and applying it to Christians only (Romans 11:11-12 & 19-21). \n This is really a two part betrayal. The Christian god altered the covenant with Abraham by applying conformity to the Mosaic law as a stipulation. And then (breaking his own promise of Leviticus 26) the Christian god deceitfully abolished the Abrahamic covenant based on the stipulation he attached to the covenant at Sinai. \n 2)  The Christian god went back on his word again when he abolished the law he said would last forever or until heaven and earth disappeared. (Mt 5:17-19, Exodus 31:16, Deuteronomy 11:1, Deuteronomy 28:46, \nDeuteronomy 29:28, Psalm 111:7-9, 2 Kings 17:37 ) \n We can see, from the above referenced passages, that, although the Mosaic law was given to Moses and not to Abraham, the law was  meant to be  as eternal as the covenant with Abraham. As of Sinai the \"old covenant\" (of Abraham) and the law (of Moses) were inextricably linked. But, according to Christian teaching, God was blowing smoke when he made all those promises about the law lasting until heaven and earth disappeared. \n 3)  Despite the Christian god's promise that under the new covenant... \n \" No longer will they teach their neighbor ,\n   or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’\nbecause they will all know me,\n   from the least of them to the greatest,” (Jeremiah 31:34) \n ...Christians  still  preach and teach. \n There is no way to metaphorize away that passage. And Jeremiah does not suggest that there is a 2,000 year period during which people under the new covenant only \"sort of\" no longer require teaching. Christians demonstrate constantly that we are not yet living in the new covenant age.", "id": "t3_pu1vv", "summary": "The Christian god lied about the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic law and the new covenant. \n Three strikes and you're out."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "1)  Originally the Christian God promised that the offspring of Abraham would receive the promised land with no strings attached (Genesis 15). \n Then, in the time of Moses, God promised the offspring of Abraham that they would receive the promised land  if they followed the law . The Christian God attached strings to a covenant that previously had no strings attached. \n This certainly suggests that the Christian God is a god who goes back on his promises. Paul confirms this. He says that when the descendants of Abraham failed to follow the law, God took back the entire covenant promise, removing it from the Jews and applying it to Christians only (Romans 11:11-12 & 19-21). \n This is really a two part betrayal. The Christian god altered the covenant with Abraham by applying conformity to the Mosaic law as a stipulation. And then (breaking his own promise of Leviticus 26) the Christian god deceitfully abolished the Abrahamic covenant based on the stipulation he attached to the covenant at Sinai. \n 2)  The Christian god went back on his word again when he abolished the law he said would last forever or until heaven and earth disappeared. (Mt 5:17-19, Exodus 31:16, Deuteronomy 11:1, Deuteronomy 28:46, \nDeuteronomy 29:28, Psalm 111:7-9, 2 Kings 17:37 ) \n We can see, from the above referenced passages, that, although the Mosaic law was given to Moses and not to Abraham, the law was  meant to be  as eternal as the covenant with Abraham. As of Sinai the \"old covenant\" (of Abraham) and the law (of Moses) were inextricably linked. But, according to Christian teaching, God was blowing smoke when he made all those promises about the law lasting until heaven and earth disappeared. \n 3)  Despite the Christian god's promise that under the new covenant... \n \" No longer will they teach their neighbor ,\n   or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’\nbecause they will all know me,\n   from the least of them to the greatest,” (Jeremiah 31:34) \n ...Christians still preach and teach. \n There is no way to metaphorize away that passage. And Jeremiah does not suggest that there is a 2,000 year period during which people under the new covenant only \"sort of\" no longer require teaching. Christians demonstrate constantly that we are not yet living in the new covenant age.", "id": "t3_pu3kk", "summary": "The Christian god lied about the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic law and the new covenant. \n Three strikes and you're out."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "Step 1) The Christian god creates two perfect people capable of sin. \n Step 2) The Christian god sets them up for failure by giving them no advance notice of the introduction of the first competing idea into the Christian god's perfect paradise, a competing idea allowed into the garden by the Christian god. \n Step 3) When the inevitable \"transgression\" occurs the Christian god blames the naive humans who were understandably confused by contradictory instructions (all of which were introduced by the Christian god). \n Step 4) The Christian god then curses every human who will ever be born with sin and death because two people failed to follow the Christian's god advice (the worst  possible  sin that anyone could ever commit). Every child who dies of cancer is killed by the Christian god's whim of 6,000 years ago. \n Step 5) Now that he has already fucked up paradise by admitting an evil serpent into the garden, the Christian god next decides to allow fallen angels to impregnate fallen humans, necessitating the drowning death of every infant and child on earth, all of whom the Christian god has labeled \"wicked\". Do you get the impression that the Christian god does not like children? \n Step 6) The Christian god develops a taste for meat, ordering the flood survivor, Noah, to cook him some barbecue. \n \"The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though  every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood .\" (Genesis 8:21) \n What a contrast to Jesus who said that  adults should be like children  if they want to enter the kingdom. \n Step 7) Next the Christian god promises Abraham that his descendants will acquire the land currently occupied by Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Iran and Iraq. The Christian god indulges his meat fetish again by having Abraham cut up a sacrificial animal into quarters and laying the pieces on the ground. The Christian god (according to Christians) then assumes the shape of \"a smoking firepot with a blazing torch\" and passes between the pieces of meat. This apparently meant that hundreds of years later a smoking firepot with a blazing torch would be crucified for failing to deliver Egypt, Jordan, Iran and Iraq to the Jews. \n Step 8) The Christian god realizes he fucked up by making a deal with the Jews wherein only he would suffer the consequences of non-compliance. Therefore, the Christian god improvised. He told the Jews they had to follow 600 or so laws if they wanted to receive his blessings (including permanent ownership of the promised land). Essentially, by adding this law stipulation, the Christian god had already broken his own covenant with Abraham. But at least this way the Jews would suffer along with the Christian god. Also, the Christian god told the Jews these laws would be in effect until the heavens and the earth passed away (disappeared). When did heaven and earth disappear? \n Step 9) The fiendishly clever part about the Christian god's law code is that he knew the Jews could never follow it. Just as in the Garden of Eden, the Christian god set humans up for failure. Again. \n Step 10) A few hundred years later some of the Jews were tired of these bullshit laws and decided it was time for the Christian god to pay for his sins. So they killed the Christian god. It was a lot of work and required a lot of cherry picking of Old Testament passages to create the Christian god on earth in the form of a human. But they got the job done. And so a \"smoking firepot with a blazing torch\" named \"Jesus of Nazareth\" was nailed to a cross. Unfortunately, the Romans were not willing to cut Jesus into four pieces (like a sacrificial animal) in order to make the sacrifice complete. But it was just going to have to do. \n And so it came to pass that the Christian god accepted the ultimate sin of killing the Christian god as a suitable payment for the minor sin of eating an apple. \n Wouldn't it have been easier on everyone if Jesus had just materialized in Eden and let Adam kill him? \n Step 11) The Christians say that the Christian god atoned for the sins of the Jews that day, taking upon himself the punishment they deserved. But Paul said the Abrahamic covenant was taken away from the Jews that day. And that was the ultimate punishment. \n But, again, according to the Christians, this was a good thing. Because now that the mean old Abrahamic covenant with the Jews was out of the way,  everyone  could be a  spiritual  Jew, a  real  Jew! \n It turned out that the Christian god never  really  wanted people to obey the Mosaic law. He just wanted people to be faithful. Unfortunately, for the Jews who jumped through the 600 or so Mosaic hoops for hundreds of years, the Christian god was incapable of successively communicating this idea until Paul received the secret gospel that had been hidden from everyone else since the before the beginning of time. \n And so Paul announced that the new covenant was now in effect. No longer would people teach their neighbor,\n   or say to one another, \"Know the LORD,\"\nbecause  now , unlike those ignorant Jews, they (Christians) all knew the LORD,\n   from the least of them to the greatest! (Jeremiah 31:33-34) \n Isn't that great? Christians are walking around with the hive mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16) and yet they can't agree on much of anything. They are constantly teaching their neighbors (fellow Christians) about what God  really  wants. Go figure. \n Step 12) Once Paul had propagated his gospel of salvation by faith only, because he had declared dead the commandments given in the OT, Paul had to present himself as the new lawgiver. The commandments of Paul are given in Galatians 5:19-21, 1 Corinthians 6:9, Ephesians 4:25-32, Ephesians 5:3-4, Ephesians 5:10-12 and Ephesians 5:15-20. \n According to Paul, the whole problem of the Mosaic law was that it made the Christian god's blessing conditional upon the obedience of the Jews. \n But Paul said that, under the new Christian paradigm, the blessing is as conditional as ever... \n \"I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.\"\n(Galatians 5:19-21) \n \"For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.\" (Ephesians 4) \n Are you, a Christian, obedient to the law of Paul? Wrongdoers (even wrongdoing Christians) will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9). \n Christians are still under the law. It's just not the Mosaic law. It's Paul's law. \n \"For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” (Galatians 3:10) \n What Paul meant was that all of those who rely on the works of the  Mosaic  law, including the 10 commandments, are under a curse. But all of those who rely on the works of  Paul's  law are under a blessing... if  they continue to do everything written in the Book of Paul's Law.", "id": "t3_pvbeu", "summary": "The 12 Step Plan of Salvation  ends right were it began, with human beings under a yoke of slavery. Hallelujah! \n P.S. When is the Christian god going to make good on his promise to deliver Egypt, Jordan, Iran and Iraq to the State of Israel? \n Are we going to have to crucify him all over again for reneging on his promise?"}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "Philo of Alexandria wrote more than two decades before the Great War of the Jews. He wrote, \n “But the single nation of the Jews …was accustomed to embrace voluntary death as an entrance to immortality, for the sake of not permitting any of their national or hereditary customs {the Mosaic Law} to be destroyed, even if it were of the most trivial character, because as is the case in a house {a building}, it often happens that by the removal of one small part, even those parts which appeared to be solidly established fall down, being relaxed and brought down by the removal of the one {trivial} thing.” - Philo, On the Embassy to Gaius, XVI, (117). \n If there was one place in the Roman Empire where such strict adherence to the Law took place, it was in the holy city of Jerusalem. “O Jerusalem, the holy city;” (Isaiah 52:1 NRSV) Jerusalem was the “Mecca” of Judaism. \n Josephus wrote, \n “… yet when any persons would compel us {Jews} to break our laws, then it is that we choose to go to war, {even} though it be beyond our ability to pursue it {the war}, and bear the greatest calamities, to the last, with much fortitude;” - Josephus, Against Apion, Book 2, par. 38, (272). \n This statement suggests that in Jerusalem, and especially at the Temple, no one could have taught the following: \n “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse …. Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’  The law is not based on faith; … Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law …” (Galatians 3:10-13 NIV) \n Hellenistic Christians could not have preached or worshiped at the Temple or anywhere in Jerusalem. Case in point, Paul was hunted in Jerusalem: \n “In the morning the Jews joined in a conspiracy and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.” (Acts 23:12 NRSV) \n But Jesus taught freely at the Temple: \n “About the middle of the festival Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.” (John 7:14 NRSV) \n It would have been impossible for Jesus to have taught the Jews to drink blood: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life” (John 6:54 NRSV) It would have been impossible for Jesus to have declared himself God or “a god” or even to suggest such a thing, and survive for a minute. \n [The history of how Jesus was turned into God](", "id": "t3_euew8", "summary": "Christianity developed  after  the Romans destroyed the Temple and Judaism (as it was then known)."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "Aquinas’ heretical belief that infants who died with the sole guilt of original sin are happy and united to God is refuted by the Devil’s promotion of abortion. If these damned infants are happy and united to God, the Devil would be against abortion because these infants would be eternally happy and united to God and hence would have escaped enslavement to Satan. This obviously would not please Satan at all. If Aquinas’ heretical opinion were true, then Satan would want these infants to live long enough to reach the age of reason and commit a mortal sin and then die so that they would suffer eternal pain and be eternally united to him instead of being eternally happy and united to God. Simply put, Satan would be pro-life if those who died with the sole guilt of original sin are happy and united to God, for surely Satan does not want that! \n We will read from a Catholic book,  Malleus Maleficarum , that proves the Devil promotes abortion so that these dead infants will be tortured in hell for all eternity. This book, authorized by Pope Innocent VIII, was written by Frs. Kramer and Sprenger, Dominican Inquistors, whose specialty was exposing and defeating the heresy and evils of witchcraft: \n MM: “For nearly three centuries  Malleus Maleficarum (the Witches’ Hammer)  was the professional manual for witch hunters. This work by two of the most famous Inquisitors of the age is still a document of force... Under a Bull of Pope Innocent VIII, Kramer and Sprenger exposed the heresy of those who did not believe in witches and set forth the proper order of the world with devils, witches, and the will of God.” \n This work teaches that Satan desires to kill unbaptized babies so they can suffer pain in hell for all eternity: \n MM: “Moreover (as was said in the First Part of the work), it was shown by the confession of the servant, who was brought to judgment at Breisach, that  the greatest injuries to the Faith as regards the heresy of witches are done by midwives ; and this is made clearer than daylight itself by the confessions of some who were afterwards burned. For in the diocese of Basel at the town of Dann, a witch who was burned confessed that she had killed more than forty children, by sticking a needle through the crowns of their heads into their brains, as they came out from the womb...[60] Now the reason for such practices is as follows: It is to be presumed that witches are compelled to do such things at the command of evil spirits, and sometimes against their own wills. For the devil knows that, because of the pain of loss, or original sin, such children are debarred from entering the Kingdom of Heaven.”[61] (Part II, Chap. XIII) \n Hence infants who died with original sin are in the hell of the damned and suffer the pain of loss in the very least. And I believe they also suffer a degree of corporal pain by hell fire. Consequently, the Devil’s promotion of abortion is empirical evidence that those who died with the sole guilt of original sin are in eternal hell, are united to Satan and not God, and are not happy but suffer eternal pain.\" \n [Damned Infants](", "id": "t3_l40si", "summary": "Christians swear abortion is evil. But this belief originated in the idea that infants need to be baptized in order to avoid being burned in the lake of fire for eternity by their evil god. \n What a wonderful world this god of the Christians has created for us. Get aborted in this life and burn for eternity in the next unless you undergo a meaningless ritual. Complete and utter bullshit."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "Apparently, Jesus intended for there to be  only  twelve Apostles. \n Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on  twelve  thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Matthew 19:28) \n So unless Paul is sitting on someone's lap in heaven, he is not an \"Apostle\" as defined by Jesus. \n Judas was replaced as the twelfth apostle by a man named, Matthias\n(Acts 1:12-26). \n Acts and the Pauline Epistles state that Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles. But Jesus did  not  restrict the twelve Apostles to preaching Christianity to the Jews. In fact, at the Great Commission, Matthew 28:19, Jesus explicitly instructed the original Apostles to.... \n \"Therefore go and make disciples of  all  nations\" \n Did the authors of Acts and the Pauline epistles not know that Jesus told the twelve Apostles to make disciples of  all  nations? If Paul was really directly led by the spirit of Jesus, how could he  not  know of the Great Commission to the original twelve Apostles? OTOH, why would the original twelve Apostles be willing to ignore Christ's final instructions and give Paul the exclusive monopoly? \n Perhaps, in order to enhance the prestige of Paul's ministry in relation to the Jerusalem Church, the authors of the Pauline epistles and Acts chose to willfully ignore Jesus' instructions to the Apostles in Matthew 28. \n Or was the Great Commission a late teaching falsely attributed to Jesus? If, as Paul claims, the Jerusalem Church was not preaching to the Gentiles, then that indicates that the \"Great Commission\" was not part of Jesus' teachings. More proof that Christianity (and Jesus) evolved over time into what we have today. \n The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the  twelve  apostles of the Lamb. (Revelation 21:14)", "id": "t3_hhc1s", "summary": "Paul got his Apostolic authority out of a box of Cracker Jacks."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "In a fifteenth century papal bull Pope Nicolas V instructed European Christian nations to \"invade, capture, vanquish\" and \"subdue\" Indigenous Peoples, \"subjugate\" them and \"reduce their persons to perpetual slavery\" and \"to take away all their possessions and property.\" And according to a United Nations World Conference Against Racism document, he also \"declared war against all non-Christians throughout the world\". \n \"In 1452, Nicholas V issued the papal bull Dum Diversas, granting the King of Portugal the right to reduce any \"Saracens, pagans and any other unbelievers\" to hereditary slavery. Dum Diversas legitimised the colonial slave trade that begun around this time with the expeditions by Henry the Navigator to find a sea route to India, which were financed with African slaves. This approval of slavery was reaffirmed and extended in his Romanus Pontifex of 1455. \n It is argued that collectively the two bulls issued by Nicholas gave the Portuguese the rights to acquire slaves along the African coast by force or trade. The concessions given in them were confirmed by bulls issued by Pope Calixtus III \"Inter Caetera quae\" (1456), Sixtus IV \"Aeterni regis\" (1481) and Leo X (1514) and they became the models for subsequent bulls issued by Pope Alexander VI : \"Eximiae devotionis\" (May 3, 1493), \"Inter Caetera\" (May 4, 1493) and \"Dudum Siquidem (September 23, 1493) when he conferred similar rights to Spain relating to the newly discovered lands in the Americas.[7]\"", "id": "t3_ejn64", "summary": "To some extent the spiritual force behind the Atlantic slave trade was Christianity. Spreading the Kingdom of God on earth is a dirty job but someone's gotta do it."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.\" (Romans 1:19-20) \n God has  made plain  to us  everything  that a human may know about him  since the beginning of the world . It is so plain, it is so clearly seen, that we are without excuse for not living according to God's law. Romans 1 explains that we understand everything that there is to know about God from  creation . Human beings are a part of creation. We understand everything there is to know about God, not only from other human beings, but also from ourselves. \n So those who say the Kingdom of God is in the midst of us are correct. But those who say the Kingdom is carried within each person, are also correct. Because it is through each person, through creation, that the Kingdom is in the midst of us. The people around us have the Kingdom within. And so do you and so do I. \n \n Jesus said, \"If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father's) kingdom is within you and it is outside you. \n \n When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty.\" (Gospel of Thomas 3) \n \"Men cannot get away from this evidence. They see it round about them.  They see it within  them.  Their own constitution so clearly evinces the facts of God's creation of them and control over them that there is no man who can possibly escape observing it. If he is self-conscious at all he is also God-conscious. No matter how men may try they cannot hide from themselves the fact of their own createdness. Whether men engage in inductive study with respect to the facts of nature about them or engage in analysis of their own self-consciousness they are always face\nto face with God their maker.\" [- Cornelius Van Til](", "id": "t3_e6g34", "summary": "The Bible says that we don't need the Bible or religion to know God."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "As John the Baptist is rumored to have said upon seeing Jesus for the first time, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). For most Christians, this bizarre opinion still stands, and it remains the core of their faith. Christianity amounts to the claim that we must love and be loved by a God who approves of the scapegoating, torture, and murder of one man—his son, incidentally—in compensation for the misbehavior and thought-crimes of all others. \n Let the good news go forth: we live in a cosmos, the vastness of which we can scarcely even indicate in our thoughts, on a planet teeming with creatures we have only begun to understand, but the whole project was actually brought to a glorious fulfillment over twenty centuries ago, after one species of primate (our own) climbed down out of the trees, invented agriculture and iron tools, glimpsed (as through a glass, darkly) the possibility of keeping its excrement out of its food, and then singled out one among its number to be viciously flogged and nailed to a cross. \n The notion that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that his death constitutes a successful propitiation of a “loving” God is a direct and undisguised inheritance of the scapegoating barbarism that has plagued bewildered people throughout history. Viewed in a modern context, it is an idea at once so depraved and fantastical that it is hard to know where to begin to criticize it.\" \n [The Sacrifice of Reason by Sam Harris](", "id": "t3_r1zlu", "summary": "Question: \n How can Christianity be valid when it is based upon a savage and ancient superstition, the efficacy of animal and human sacrifice?"}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "According to the author of the Lord's Prayer, the Christian god wants us to forgive those who trespass against us. \n That's a little ironic. \n The Christian god blew his first opportunity to forgive others and instead invented the  grudge  against others as a shining example of how  not  to be. \n When Adam and Eve committed the absolutely horrible crime of failing to heed the advice of the Christian god, not only did the Christian god refuse to forgive them, the Christian god vowed to retaliate against the entire human race. And, despite the Son coming to earth and sacrificing himself in the futile attempt to undo the damage done by the Father, to this very day the Father continues to retaliate against the entire human race. I can only conclude that Jesus' father has a huge ego. \n Jesus directed The Lord's Prayer to his egotistical Father. But how can we reasonably expect the god of the grudge to forgive those who trespass against us? He would not forgive the first trespass and for 4,000 years he would not forgive human beings for something they did not do. Now he supposedly forgives those who believe he came to earth to die at the hands of those he tormented. \n If Jesus was God, he came to pay for his own sins. \n Are we ready to forgive the Christian god for his refusal to forgive Adam and Eve? Are we ready to forgive the Christian god for retaliating against billions of people who did not eat the fruit in the Garden? Are we ready to forgive the Christian god for the following trespasses against us? \n 1) Inadequately preparing Adam and Eve for the temptation of the serpent \n 2) Withholding from Adam and Eve some of the consequences of eating the fruit \n 3) Allowing the evil serpent into his perfect paradise \n 4) Punishing two people who could not know they were committing a sin. \n 5) Cursing all women with pain in childbirth and second class citizenship because a metaphorical woman listened to a metaphorical serpent and ate a metaphorical fruit \n 6) Cursing all people who would ever be born with death because of a single metaphorical act committed by two metaphorical people. Under this curse, the Christian god stands by and watches the death of every innocent child. The Christian god considers the death and suffering of every innocent child stricken with cancer to be justice. \n 7) Cursing all people who would ever be born with a sinful nature because of a single metaphorical act committed by two metaphorical people. The Christian god causes you to have sinful thoughts and then blames you for the thoughts he causes (Romans 7:8 and 14-24). The Christian god calls this justice. \n 8) Drowning every infant and child on earth. \n 9) Destroying the unified language of the human race to cause discord among us. \n 10) Lying to Abraham by going back on His word to give the promised land to Abraham's descendants (Genesis 15:17-20). Christians say that the Christian god demanded a perfect sacrifice to satisfy his sense of justice, to somehow not \"go back on His word\". But the Christian god went back on his word to Abraham. He has been betraying Abraham for the last 2,000 years. The Christian god goes back on his word, changes his mind and changes the rules at will. Why, therefore, should we believe the crucifixion was necessary? Why should we believe the Christian god's entire 6,000 year process (game) of justice is necessary? \n 11) Ordering the Children of Israel to commit genocide. \n 12) Condoning slavery and rape. \n 13) Punishing the Jews in general for the actions of the few Jews who participated in the execution of Jesus many years earlier. Under Christianity, the killing of Jesus became the new Original Sin and the Jews became the historic scapegoats for the commission of this sin. A Christian on reddit recently informed me that even the Holocaust was God's will. And I need the forgiveness of this monster? \n Maybe the Christian god knew  not  what he did...until 1 AD when He gave birth to a new idea? The idea of forgiveness symbolized by Jesus. But, the Father continues to curse all of us to this day. And the Son seeks forgiveness. The Son is the Father's new idea. The Father's new improved consciousness. But the Father still thinks in his old primitive way. \n There's a war in heaven all right. It's a war between the primitive Christian god of wrath and the new improved Christian god of love. It's a war between the divided loyalties of God. Selfishness vs. Unselfishness. The same inner struggle we all experience every day. \n \"God created mankind in his own image.\"", "id": "t3_r6x8h", "summary": "The Kingdom is within. The Father is within and the Son is within. The metaphorical sins of God the Father represent my sins. When I can forgive and accept myself, I can forgive and accept others. \n Hopefully, the Son (the new consciousness) within each one of us will someday be able to transcend the Father (the lack of consciousness) within each one of us. Hopefully, someday the eye of God will be single - meaning God will not be divided against himself. Like Adam and Eve before the Fall, may we and God someday have one perspective and not two. On that day will not see God as a god of wrath  and  a god of love because we will not see ourselves as divided against others. And God will not see himself as divided against us. Hopefully, someday the body of the Christian god will not be full of darkness. \n \"The light of the body is the eye: therefore  when thine eye is single , thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.\" (Luke 11:34) \n “Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.” ― C.G. Jung \n May love transcend wrath."}, {"author": "Basilides", "content": "Not. \n \"First of all, we have Caesar’s own account. In contrast, we have nothing written by Jesus, and we do not know who really wrote any of the Gospels. Second, many of Caesar’s enemies reported the crossing of the Rubicon. But we have no hostile or even neutral records of the resurrection until over a hundred years after the supposed event, fifty years after Christian beliefs had become widely known. Third, there are numerous inscriptions, coins, mentions of battles, conscriptions and judgments, which form an almost continuous chain of evidence for Caesar’s entire march. But there is no physical evidence of any kind in the case of Jesus. \n Fourth, almost every historian of the period reports the Rubicon crossing, including the most prominent of the Roman age: Suetonius, Appian, Cassius Dio and Plutarch. Moreover, these scholars have shown proven reliability, since a great many of their reports on other matters have been confirmed with material evidence and in other sources. In addition, they all quote and name many different sources, showing a wide reading of the witnesses and documents, and they consistently show a desire to critically examine claims for which there is any dispute. If that wasn’t enough, all of them cite or quote sources written by witnesses, hostile and friendly, of the Rubicon crossing and its repercussions. \n But not a single historian mentions the resurrection until the 3rd and 4th centuries, and then only Christian historians. Of the anonymous Gospel authors, only “Luke” even claims to be writing history, but neither Luke nor any of the others ever cite any other sources or show signs of a skilled or critical examination of conflicting claims. None have any other literature or scholarship to their credit that we can test for their skill and accuracy. Their actual identities are completely unknown, and all overtly declare their bias towards persuading new converts. \n Finally, the Roman Civil War could not have proceeded as it did if Caesar had not physically crossed the Rubicon with his army into Italy and captured Rome. Yet the only thing necessary to explain the rise of Christianity is a belief — a belief that the resurrection happened. There is nothing that an actual resurrection would have caused that could not have been caused by a mere belief in that resurrection. Thus, an actual resurrection is not necessary to explain all subsequent history, unlike Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon.\" \n [Jesus never existed at all](", "id": "t3_elrbl", "summary": "in four of the five proofs of an event’s historicity, the resurrection has no evidence at all, and in the one proof that it does have, it has not the best, but the very worst kind of evidence — a handful of biased, uncritical, unscholarly, unknown, second-hand witnesses. Indeed, you really have to look hard to find another event that is in a worse condition than this as far as evidence goes.” \n \n Richard Carrier"}]}
+{"author": "katedid", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post My mom crushed my dreams and was a bitch to me. But things are better now. It all turned out better than expected", "output": "My mom had just divorced my stepfather. She was dating a new guy and she, my brother and I had moved into his condo with his two kids. His kids, my brother and I all got along but this guy was a real douche. He is the kind of guy that thinks his kids are God's gift to mankind and just very self absorbed. My mother and I always had a real friendship kind of relationship. We joked around a lot with each other and stuff. Well he did not like this and eventually used this as an excuse to break up with her. We moved into a crappy little apartment and I had to get a full time job and a part time job just to put food on the table. I really wanted to go to college right after high school and had taken entrance exams to community college and filled out all the paperwork and everything. When I told my mom about this her reply was, \"How do you plan to pay for this and get to school? You still have to work and pay bills here. You know it's your fault that we are living in this shit hole and not with John.\" (name changed) That was just so soul crushing to me at the time. I was already so depressed from moving around so much and never keeping my friends (I went to 9 different schools, two in my senior year) and had no money or life, really. I went into a deep depression after that. That lasted for about 2 or 3 years. I was a horribly mean person during that time. But things changed and now I will be starting college next year. My mom and I have a great relationship now (probably because we live about an hour away from each other)"}], "user_id": "longlamp_11836", "history": [{"author": "katedid", "content": "As horrible as it sounds, this is really true in some cases. My co-worker used to be a cop. One time he got a call for a domestic dispute. He gets there and the guy had just really laid into this girl and she was all fucked up. She was bleeding and had swelling all over her face. So he gets the guy and takes him outside. The guy tries to fight him and so my co-worker takes him to the ground and is trying to put cuffs on him. He can't let this guy go to get the cuffs on him (my co-worker is probably 5'5\" and he said this guy was huge). As they are wrestling on the ground, the woman (the victim) comes out with a baseball bat. My co-worker was busy trying to stop this guy from getting his gun and killing him, so he didn't notice the woman at first. She swung the bat and it landed right on his right, lower leg and broke it. He finally gets the cuffs on the guy and another cop shows up. The other cop took out is baton and smacked her in the head (splitting her skin on her forehead open). If that other cop hadn't have shown up, my co-worker said he would have probably had to shoot that woman, because she was ready to hit him again with the bat.", "id": "c5bqgnw", "summary": "Some woman tries to kill my co-worker (ex-cop) because he was taking her man to jail for beating the shit out of her."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "I am very late to comment but I just found this thread and have to share. \n I worked as a cashier at a pet store when I was about 17 years old. Sometimes a friend of mine would stop buy while I worked and we would go to the coffee shop down the street. So she comes in one time and we are talking, and about to leave. One of my co-workers (probably in his 30's, and I thought was completely normal) comes over and starts talking to us too. He is telling us about how he is going to school for criminal justice or something. He then tells us about some final project he is doing involving toe prints; telling us how they are starting to use them like how we use finger prints to catch criminals. He tells us how he has to find people to examine the toe prints and some other stuff (I wasn't really paying attention) and how he had grant money to do this study. He asks my friend (she was probably 16 or 17 at the time) if she would like to participate, and that he can pay her $300.00. She says yes, he asks me and I say yes; he even gets another co-worker's friend to say yes. The place I worked at had an unused, new vet clinic in it. A few days later my friend comes in to do the study and my co-worker says he has permission to use the vet clinic. So the co-worker's friend goes first. Everything is fine, she comes out and then she leaves. Then my friend goes in and about 2 or 3 minutes later comes out crying. She is putting on her shoes and I am trying to find out what is wrong with her. She tells me that when she was laying on the table with her shoes off, the guy was at the end of the table where her feet were and she hears a noise and looks up to see the guy masterbating. So I go over and tell my manager what happened and see the co-worker run out of the store. The police came and took a report, guy got fired and was taken to court, all he got was probation and community service.", "id": "c1rvmok", "summary": "Co-worker masterbated to my friends feet and got fired for it."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "This isn't in the city (as far as I know), but I would have to say Gino's. I have been there 3 times with co-workers and each time they have gotten our order wrong. Not to mention the food is very over priced. \n One time in particular was outstandingly bad. Co-workers went to pick up food they had ordered over the phone. They get there and are asked what they order, then are handed an order and leave. They get back to the office and it is a completely different order. They call back and tell them what had happened and head out again to get their food. They get there and the guy behind the counter asks them if they ate any of it (So they could sell it again!). They repeat their order no less than 3 times to the person at the counter, the cook and the manager (even asking my co-worker each time if he wanted grilled or crispy chicken). They get their food, take a quick look in the bag and head back. They unwrap their food to find out they forgot the fries and got a part of the order wrong for my other co-worker (he wanted a grilled chicken wrap and they gave him crispy.) At this point my coworkers were so fed up they just gave up.", "id": "c7tvrzr", "summary": "Gino's has crappy food, service and prices. Would not recommend to anyone."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "Mine is not as close to death as most of these other stories and I was never hurt or sick. When I was a junior in high school, I was walking across the school cross walk. The road was four lanes total (so two in each direction), with a small cement 'sidewalk' thing in the middle. We were about 30 or 40 feet from a stop light going one direction and a sharp turn in the other direction. I was walking with a group to the library across the school and there was no traffic. as we were walking to the middle 'sidewalk' thing I was looking both ways to make sure no traffic was coming. Then I heard one of my friends yell to wait up. I was at the middle sidewalk thing at this point and turned to look back and just as I was about to step into the other side of the sidewalk thing, my other friend grabbed my back pack and pulled be back. I could feel the air from the truck that passed me, it was that close. I still have no idea how in the world it did not clip me, or another student. It had come around the curb (way past the 25 mph speed limit). I was in such shock that it took me a minute to even move after that. The guy in the truck never stopped or slowed down either.", "id": "c19rqcv", "summary": "A truck almost clipped me walking across a street and a friend pulled me back at the last second."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "No joke. I called my mother on a Thursday night to tell her I would be leaving for her house on Friday night. We (my husband and I) didn't make it over on Friday night. My phone was dead so I put it on to charge and went to bed. Saturday morning I called my mother's house phone to let her know we were on our way. My aunt picked up the phone and said she would let my mother know we were coming. We get to her house and my mom comes out of the house and has an angry look on her face. She had called my apartment building when I hadn't picked up my phone Friday night (it was dead) or Saturday morning (it was on silent). When the apartment people sent up security to check on us, no one answered the door (we were on our way to her house). So she called the state police. My aunt never gave her the message we were on our way.", "id": "c77nt9w", "summary": "Mothers worry way too much sometimes. Sometimes they worry enough to get the police involved."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "My first vacation with my boyfriend. This was a few years ago. We were at Ocean City, alone for an entire week. I am very afraid of the ocean because of Jaws. He finally managed to get me into the water (with a floaty-tube) and it's such a wonderful day and I am enjoying life and think it can't get better. I was wearing my glasses (I don't have contacts and get headachs if I have them off for more than a minute) and a giant wave comes out of nowhere and I get pulled under. I come up.. and my glasses are gone. I had just bought them a few months before and they were pretty expensive. We had to go to a glasses place and get a new pair which were over $100.00. I felt like an ass for leaving them on when in the ocean. My boyfriend did make me feel a little better by saying there was probably a dolphin swiming around that can now see a little better.", "id": "c1k7rxm", "summary": "Dolphin stole my glasses because I'm an idiot."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "Oh! You reminded me of a story. When I was in kindergarten, I had met another girl that lived a few blocks away from me. We rode the same bus home every day. One day I decided to go over to her house after school (and not tell anyone else where I was going). So we get to her stop and the bus driver sees me getting off and knows I'm not suppose to get off yet. She asked me if my mom was okay with me getting off the bus at this stop and I said, \"Yep!\" Well... when my bus when by my mom (who was waiting for me) without stopping, she freaked out. She called the school to find out where I was and they had no idea. This was before cell phones, so they had to wait for the bus driver to finish their run before they could ask them about me. So my mom finds out where I am and rushes over there to get me and all is good in the world. Except the principal and bus driver tried to blame everything on me, a 5 year old, and told my mom that she should spank me for it. Needless to say, I went to a different school the following year.", "id": "chu9rfd", "summary": "Don't take 5 year-olds for their word. They are lying little shits."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "I've been on that kind of ride before. I didn't want to go, but my husband talked me into it. I remember freaking out before they tilted us back and screaming at them that I wanted off. The workers all looked confused and worried (so my husband tells me, because I was blind from not having my glasses on). Yet they still shot us up. Scariest fucking ride EVER. Hours after the slingshot, I still felt the same jolt, or butterflies in my stomach, as when they first shoot you up.", "id": "c6nabnj", "summary": "Never again. Never, ever again."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "I've shared this story on here before, but it is pretty stupid so I will share again: \n It was a few years ago, at a fourth of July family cook-out. We had been throwing water on each other all day. My mother, aunt, cousin and I threw some water on our other family members. We all ran in the house because they were going to throw water on us. I got to the kitchen door and locked it. Went to the front door as soon as my cousin's bf got there too. The front door had a deadbolt lock on it and it was out so that the door wouldn't shut because it locked everytime you shut it, and it had a large glass square in the upper middle of the door (it was a very old door). So I am trying to shut the door and realize the deadbolt is out, so I put my hand on the glass (without thinking) and try to un-do the deadbolt. Well he was pushing the door from the outside and I was pushing from the inside and all of the sudden the glass breaks. It was the normal, old type of glass that just shatters everywhere in sharp pieces. I didn't feel pain at first but saw blood and ran to wash it off in the sink, but I knew I had to go the hospital. Had to get stitches in 3 different places. I still have nerve damage in my right pointer finger today.", "id": "c1o4n3s", "summary": "I fucked my hand up pretty bad by putting it through the glass on a door."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "There are a lot of risks with certain types of birth control. Some just do not work for some women. Others can cause heart attacks or stokes. IUDs can cause severe bleeding and cramping the first few months to a year after implantation (although for most women it only lasts a few weeks to months). Every woman is different and has different side effects for each birth control method. \n In my personal experience, my last batch of birth control pills made me suicidal. It took me a very long time to realize it was the pills doing this to me, because I associated my depression with a miscarriage. It was only when I was asking my husband to kill me because I hated my life so much, that I realized this was happening for the past few months, two days before my period. I got off the pills and couldn't feel better. \n So while some methods of birth control work flawlessly for some women, others get those horrible side effects that they speed through in the commercials.", "id": "c893w9w", "summary": "Every woman is different. What may work for her, may not work for many others."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "I am completely with you on that! First time I went there with two co-workers and they got all of our burgers wrong (it wasn't even busy inside). We figured we would give them another chance. We ate there last week and it was WORSE! I had my co-workers pick up the food. They get back and they had given them another person's order. So they go back and tell them. The girl asks them, \"Did you eat any of it?\" They were going to RESELL the food!!! So my co-workers tell them what their order was again and repeat it back when asked. (So that is them telling the worker the order twice and the worker telling them what it was) An order of chicken strips, fries and a grilled chicken wrap. They get it back to work, open it up fries are missing. Co-worker bites into chicken wrap and it is breaded. Gino's SUCKS. Of course my co-workers called to complain but did not feel like going back again to get the order right.", "id": "c5qki53", "summary": "Gino's has mess up our order EVERY time we go there. It's over-priced and has horrible customer service."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "Kind of a funny story: \n I have a nephew that is about to turn 3. A few months ago I had been trying to teach him my name, but he just would not say it. I would try to teach him other things too, but he never said anything except words other people taught him. Every once in a while I let slip a curse word (never within ear shot of him) and my mom would tell me to watch what I say, because he would pick it up. I would argue with her that if I can't even get him to say my name, I really doubt he will say anything else I say. \n So one day a few months ago, we were all sitting around eating dinner. He was trying to eat some broccoli and cheese and a piece fell off his fork. I exclaimed (jokingly), \"Oh, shit!\" I'll be damned if that little bastard didn't say, \"Oh, shit.\" Right back at me.", "id": "c8jgzdh", "summary": "My nephew is a tiny, tiny troll."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "I'm not really sure on this one. They say that people can go to and from work, but I'm not sure what the case would be for someone who is doing an uber service (they've stopped all the taxis). Here's what it says on their webpage: \n >Details of the curfew are as follows: \n >The night-time curfew applies for all citizens (with exceptions of emergency personnel and those commuting to and from work for essential functions, including students traveling to/from classes) \n >Non-essential business operations should be suspended from 10:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. This includes restaurants, entertainment venues and bars, which should be closed during these times.  Visitors and patrons should plan enough travel time before the curfew begins. \n >For essential business operations, employees traveling to and from work during the curfew should have a valid picture ID (presumably a driver’s license) and a document from their employer stating their need to work during curfew hours with dates and employee hours. \n >Drivers or individuals may be stopped by law enforcement and should be prepared with the information above to avoid arrest.  Violation of the curfew is a misdemeanor. \n Link to the website:", "id": "cqs6w5z", "summary": "I wouldn't risk it if I were you. The only other people that are probably going to be out are emergency services (police, fire and rescue) and essential jobs (doctors, nurses, etc.). I don't think that uber counts as an \"essential business.\""}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "My aunt had an alligator snapper that lived in a pond with chicken wire around it so that he wouldn't get into the other ponds she had with her koi. Well it found a way out of the chicken wire and was missing for a few days. I was staying with her and sitting near her large koi pond, putting my fingers in so the fish would nibble on them. I am looking around her large backyard and not paying attention. Suddenly I get the urge to look down and what do I see but his head coming out from the bottom of the pond right near my fingers. I have never moved so fast in my life.", "id": "c1x6aim", "summary": "I almost lost a finger to one of those fuckers."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "I have one that just happened yesterday! I was at the beach very early in the morning, before a lot of people got there. I bought some cheese balls to feed to some seagulls at the end of the boardwalk. So I am sitting on the storm surge walls (big concrete walls that protect the boardwalk from storms) and I'm facing the beach throwing some cheese balls to about 2 dozen seagulls. They were standing on the beach and every once in a while they would get spooked, fly away, and then land on the beach again. Not even 2 minutes into my feeding of the gulls, this guy makes it his business to come up and tell me that if I feed the gulls they will poop all over the boardwalk, even though they are standing on the beach and not over the boardwalk. So anyway, I tell the concerned citizen that the birds were there before I started feeding them and they WILL poop if I feed them or not. He insists that they WILL NOT poop if I don't feed them. Apparently he thinks that only cheese balls will make these birds poop. So I roll my eyes and go back to my gull feeding. The guy angrily sticks around for a few minutes before moving off. This beach is notorious for not letting you do things (no kites, frisbees, music, pets, etc.), but they do not care if you feed the gulls at all.", "id": "c5zl7lg", "summary": "Some people just like to feel important for a moment, I guess. Oh, and only cheese balls make seagulls poo."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "The day I went in to get a blood test to confirm my pregnancy I had an early appointment for something else. I didn't have time in the morning (I forgot to eat and then ran out of time) then by the time I was finished with the first appointment I just went to my blood test appointment (they were next to each other). I didn't know about a glucose test, but my doctor knows how much I had needles, so she asked me if I had eaten at all that day (it was about 1:30 at that point). I hadn't so she sent me up to get a glucose test and all the other tests at once. I didn't feel light headed or anything. I was a little hungry waiting in the waiting room so I had some sugar-free gum, which helped with the morning sickness. Maybe bring a little snack bar, some crackers or a cookie with you for after your test. I felt fine to walk home. It didn't impact me at all. I could have gone back to work but the first appointment I went to was for my foot and it hurt after that.", "id": "c2rc4hf", "summary": "Just bring a little snack to eat afterward and some sugar-free gum to chew while you wait. A book to read helps pass the time too."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "It was a very cold spring and I was in my early teens. I had guilted my mom and step-father into a one night camping trip in the North Carolina mountains. It was about mid-day when we started to unpack the camping gear. My younger brothers were sent off to get firewood, and I helped my mom start lunch while my step-father put up the tent. Our tent was huge. It had 3 separate sleeping quarters, a main open area, and a porch of sorts. This porch was open at the bottom and there was a zipper door between it and the main part of the tent. We all had a great day cooking, fishing, and adventuring around in the woods. We went to sleep and when I woke up the next morning the nightmare began... \n I wear glasses and am blind without them. I can basically only see blobs of colors. I had woken up first and needed to pee. I couldn’t find my glasses so I figured I would go on without them and then come back and get a little more sleep. I open the zipper door to the tent and notice that the porch area is darker than I thought it was supposed to be. I did my business, went back inside the tent, and found my glasses. The instant I put them on and looked out to the porch I screamed and woke everyone up. Our porch to our tent was covered in THOUSANDS of spiders.  There were so many of them that they were on top of each other. I don’t remember what kind they were, as the rest of that morning is kind of a blur. I have a huge fear of spiders, and have ever since I was little. This was like living in a nightmare for me. I do remember that I refused to get out of the tent until all the spiders were gone. My mom thinks that they were probably on the porch because it was an escape from the cold, wet weather. I think they came for me. \n Worst camping trip ever!!", "id": "c3mh2dy", "summary": "SPIDERS. THOUSANDS OF THEM."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "You reminded me of a story about my cousin. My cousin, brothers and I all went to the same Job Corps. We were allowed to go home for the weekend after class on Fridays. My cousin decides that he wants to leave early on Friday. So he gets my brother's girlfriend to pretend to be his mother and call the school. She says that his (my cousin's) grandmother has died and he must come home to be with his family. Of course the school lets him leave as soon as they tell him. Later on in the day, I happen to see my mother and aunt at the school. This is very strange, as they never visit the school. Turns out, his grandmother REALLY HAD DIED! His mother called the school and they were, of course, confused because they thought she had already called. So that led them to come the school and try to figure this mess out (and figure out where my cousin had gone). \n If I remember correctly, he got a very light punishment for it. Something like, he wasn't allowed to go home for a few weekends or something.", "id": "c9vr6t7", "summary": "Don't ever fake a family members death. They just might die and make you feel like an asshole."}, {"author": "katedid", "content": "This is a rant as a former pet store employee. \n I cannot stand the customers that come in and buy pets for their kids without knowing the first thing about that particular animal. It frustrates me to no end. If you want a couple of hamsters you need to get separate cages or be able to know how to determine gender if they are younger. You put Mr. Fluffykins in with Mrs. Fluffykins you are going to get a bunch of babies in a few weeks. You may also get to witness Mrs. Fluffykins eat her babies because your kid can't leave them the hell alone, and she is stressed. \n I could not stand the people that would come up to me and ask me to get them a bunch of fish and then after I bag them all up, ask me what kind of tank they should get. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! You don't have a tank set up already? You don't know the first thing about salt/fresh water fish? Sure I have a  few hours to spend talking to you about a set up even though they are paging me every five minutes to get crickets even though we have them pre-bagged. It's not like my co-workers didn't do their job and clean the cages in the morning, feed all the animals, and take out the dead ones. \n The only thing worse than ignorant costumers were co-workers who did not care about the animals. My manager went through a bit of a crisis and I was sort of taking over the day to day tasks for her until she got back full time. My co-workers decided this meant they didn't have to do their jobs and care for the animals. So many times I would come into work and none of the cages would be cleaned and they would just be starting to feed the animals. They would put sick/dying animals in the back room and not let anyone else know about it. So many animals died in that room because they would be put in cages with other sick/aggressive animals. \n Don't even get me started on the backyard breeders that would bring us our small animals. Those fuckers could not have cared less about those poor animals. They would bring us rabbits and hamster that would be on the brink of death with wet tail. I once got to the shipment after they had left and was putting the animals away. I noticed that one rabbit was skin and bones, and had a very bad case of wet tail. I was able to save the poor thing by cleaning it and forcing it to drink pedialyte, because that was all we had for them (It works very well on small animals with wet tail). I got yelled at by my boss because I spent 30 minutes trying to save this poor thing. EDIT: Forgot to mention, I did end up saving the rabbit (and a few other animals that had wet tail in that shipment).", "id": "c82xxkd", "summary": "If your child ever wants a pet, make them work in a pet store and see the horror of small animal pet stores."}]}
+{"author": "OperationJack", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I scared a kid so bad he shit himself and had to go to therapy because I nearly killed his parents.", "output": "Every year my neighborhood got together to put together a Halloween Block Party the weekend prior to Halloween. It had a tiki bar for parents to go get liquor from, a haunted house set up for kids and adults to go through (made out of plywood), bounce houses and other kid's attractions, and food. Everyone in the neighborhood participated in it somehow or another. \n I was a regular \"staff\" member in the haunted house. I was no holds bars and really creative as a kid, so my \"scaring spots\" were usually some of the best and most unexpected. I'm talking about dropping out of the roof, popping out of hay bales, distracting people with a dummy then scaring them, the works. \n The area the haunted house and block party were at in the neighborhood was usually where everyone gathered after Trick or Treating in the neighborhood, so while the haunted house was up, we still had people come through it. In my city, we got a ton of press so we had people from neighborhoods all over coming in. \n Now to the story.  One halloween after getting all of my candy, I went to the haunted house to be a son of a bitch and scare the fuck out of people no matter what their age. We had this one kid show up who went to school with most of the neighborhood kids but didn't actually live there. He lived in a nicer area and regularly acted like he was better than us, so no one liked him. \n All week at school he bragged about not being scared of anything and that our haunted house couldn't scare him, so when we saw him come towards it with his parents, we got stoked, and decided to go all out. I hid in a tree at the end of the haunted house to give them one last scare. They made their way through and they were screaming. The mom, the dad, and the kid. Just freaking the fuck out, because we were demon children and got a fix for that type shit. \n They come out of the haunted house relieved thinking it's over, so once they caught their breaths, and the fog machine went off, I made my leap out of the tree, landing less than 3 feet in front of them. I scared the shit out of the kid, literally. I made him shit himself, his mom fainted, but the worse was his dad. \n The asshole kid's dad was so scared he turned and ran into the wall of the haunted house, hitting his head. This caused him to stumble back and fall on the metal picket fence behind him. Somewhat impaling himself on it. So I'm sitting there, still scaring the kid, mom on the ground, dad sitting there being impaled on the fence. \n I thought it was fake, it wasn't, the dad almost died, he pulled himself off the fence, almost disemboweling himself in front of his kid while they think his wife is dead from a heart attack."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Clemson fan yelled in my ear, so I yelled in his, he told me his buddies would jump me, I called them goat fuckers, foolishly egging them on, only to have 30-40 Carolina fans backing me up and scaring away the Clemson folks.", "output": "I almost got some Clemson fans destroyed by a mob of South Carolina fans, but only in drunken retaliation. \n My freshman year I had gone to every home game (minus fall break against Kentucky). I ended up still getting an upper deck ticket for Clemson. Before the game started I was displeased with my seat, so I walked and waited on the spiral so I could eventually make my way into the student section (you can't do that anymore). A couple of Clemson fans came and stood next to me, but one directly to my left was extremely annoying. \n First Kickoff there was a penalty, so we had to re-kick. Second try CJ Spiller ran it back for a TD. The Clemson fan went crazy. Yelling \"CJ CJ CJ!!!!!!!!!!!\" right in my ear. Our ensuing drive, Stephen Garcia threw a pick. The fan went bat-shit insane, yelling in my ear again. This continued until USC finally forced a fumble, then drove on for a TD, where I went \"OH YA LOOK AT THAT D! JAMIE HARPER TOOK THAT D!\" Then when we scored, I was like \"FUCK YA GOOO COCKS!\" Right in the Clemson fan's ear. \n He then turns to me and says, \"If there is a problem you have, I and my buddies can take care of it.\" Hinting towards he and his buddies were going to jump me. I replied \"I'll whoop all 3 of y'alls goat fucking asses.\" He got up in my face and said \"You by yourself boy?\" \n A Carolina fan came up behind me pulled me back and said \"He could by himself, but he has us too.\" I turned around to see about 30-40 Carolina fans standing behind me getting ready to fuck these guys up if anything happened. The Clemson fans, said \"Nevermind there's no problem\" and left."}], "user_id": "longlamp_5153", "history": [{"author": "OperationJack", "content": "One that doesn't deal with the MLB, but I believe that one of my little league coaches for Juniors (13&14 year old division), took payments and bribes from parents and coaches from both teams to prematurely pull me and my one of my teammates from the mound in order to give other kids a chance to play and the opposing team to play well. \n Evidence: This kid Nick and I were pretty stellar players for being 14 years old. I was pitching mid-80's with a devastating slider, change up, knuckle ball, and two-seam fastball. Nick was pitching high 70's low 80's with a sick cutter and change up. Sometimes he'd throw a decent sinker. \n That season I had 3 Perfect game bids, 1 no-hitter bid, had a 0.00 ERA and had only given up 1 hit and 2 walks in around 50+ innings of pitching. In all of my perfect bids, I was pulled after the 3rd inning despite usually being way ahead of the pitch count. Nick had similar stats, though more walks and he gave up a couple runs in 60 innings. \n Most of the time, this kid Freddy came into pitch. Freddy was alright in the field, decent 2nd baseman, or RF, but nothing special anywhere else. Freddy would always get put in after Nck and I got yanked despite our bids. Every time he came in, he got shelled. Even blowing an 8-run lead that I built and held onto during the 2nd PG bid. \n I understand this is all circumstantial, but other things that happened were pretty shady. For instance, after games where Nick and I would get pulled, Freddy's dad would be seen walking out to the parking lot with our coach, while leaving Freddy behind. They'd go get close and talk to one another, but we weren't allowed around. \n Another day, one of the opposing coaches asked my coach who was pitching that day. My coach responded \"OperationJack.\" The opposing coach kind of grunted \"Goddamnit\" then asked if Freddy was there, but this game he wasn't. The opposing coach and my coach went off and talked, and out of no where, I got moved to closing that day. I later found out that Opposing coaches wife made an ATM run after that meeting, this was information I received from the opposing coach's kid. His mom usually worked in the concession stand and make an awesome Philly Cheesesteak, but couldn't make it for us because she was gone for 15min. \n There was an instance where I saw an opposing parent pay my coach in cash after Nick got pulled. \n The sketchiest thing was something that I had heard accidentally. I was in the corner of the dugout after our last regular season game, All-Star ballots had just been cast. Outside the dugout behind the wall I was sitting next to, I heard Freddy's dad tell my coach who had been named All-Stars HC, that Freddy was going to make the All-Star team. The coach refused until Freddy's dad said \"He makes the team or John hears everything.\" \n John is my dad. He was known to be extremely disgruntled alongside Nick's dad that we always got pulled. The two of them were very vocal about it. My dad was a big guy and had beaten up a couple of car thieves at the same time a few years earlier (he was an former deputy). My coach flipped out at the revelation, and all of a sudden, Freddy made the All-Star team, despite not even deserving a spot.", "id": "capiptm", "summary": "My coach threw games and received payments and bribes from opposing coaches and parents, and a parent on my team to take me and another kid off the mound prematurely."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "There was this one time I fucked a Step MILF, or a milf who is just a step mom, with no blood relation to the child or any children at all. \n I was a young 17 year old with a fake id and I went to Orlando to party with some friends who went to UCF. At the bar I hooked up with this chick who was pretty hot. I was bragging about it to my buddies all the next week and so forth being the big man. \n Friday night high school football comes around, and one of my friends who I had been telling the story to, randomly went up and hugged this woman who looked damn familiar from behind. She turned around and it was her, the girl from the previous weekend. I was utterly confused to as why he was hugging her. I asked him why he hugged her, he said \"I thought she was someone else, it was really weird...\" \n Out of nowhere, this freshman comes up to my buddy, and asked him why he hugged his step mom. Our jaws dropped to the fucking floor. I was dumbfounded. Turns out this chick I banged the weekend before had gotten married to this guys dad like 3 months earlier. I didn't have the heart to tell him, he was already pretty flustered that my one buddy hugged her.", "id": "c5rj115", "summary": "Fucked a hot chick, bragged about it to friends, see the chick at the high school football game, turns out it's a freshman kid we know step mom."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "As someone who played baseball for the majority of my life on all different levels, I'll admit I've come close to punching umpires. It's bad when it's just something like a bad call at a bag, or a missed ball/strike call. But when it's a game changer like this one is, it's atrocious. \n The closest I've ever come to punching an umpire was one just like this: \n It was a State AAU Championship game, score was 2-1, bases were loaded, I had a 3-1 count while I was batting, given the first pitch I fouled off, and the pitcher threw three straight balls, I was given a take sign. The next pitch comes in high and hits me in my helmet, so naturally I walk down to first after shaking it off. The umpire calls me back saying I didn't try to avoid the pitch though I had turned and tried to duck. I was kinda upset, my coach asked if the ump could appeal to one of the base umpires to see if they got a better look at it, the umpire denied it and said the count was 3-2. After fouling another pitch off, the pitcher bounced one in front of the plate that essentially rolled to the catcher, I start heading down to first base when I hear a \"Strike 3\" call. I turned around and asked the umpire if he was serious, and if he could appeal (though heated I tried to stay calm) to another umpire. He denied it once again, thus ending the game. I blew up at this point and got in his face seeing how my season was over, and he said \"If your coach didn't appeal my calls, maybe you would've been standing on first right now.\" Pissed me off and I had to have my team and coaching staff hold me back while police escorted the umpire to his car amid a mob of angry fans who were trying to assault him.", "id": "c4p0qp5", "summary": "Umpire was escorted to his car amid an angry mob for making horrific calls based off of the fact he didn't like my coach asking for an appeal."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Not really G-Rated, but Scooby-Doo. I hear it was almost a reality for the big screen. I've heard about the Scooby-Doo Porno too. \n Freddy and Daphne always banging when the gang slpits up. Velma, a bi-curious cunt who really likes Daphne, ends up in a FFM with her and Freddy. Velma later goes on to bang Shaggy. Shaggy and Scooby are in fact Pot heads (let's not kid ourselves, it's obvious). \n They end up going on \"vacation\" on some mountain. They stay at a hotel ran by a sadistic dominatrix who sexually tortures people to death. She takes the dead people's money in order to support her expedition for a gold mine hidden somewhere on a mountain. Mystery Inc. is an armed mystery solving company, they were actually sent up by several family members of different groups that had disappeared up there. Shit goes down, and Freddy sets up some fucked up Traps that have some Quentin Tarantino style deaths. The Dominatrix ends up with a giant rock rupturing her ass or something.", "id": "c883yjx", "summary": "Scooby Doo meets Quentin Tarantino movie and a porno."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I almost had it twice. My appendix ruptured and I went walking around with it for 3 days before going to the hospital. Due to the infection that was caused by the rupturing, the doctors feared that slicing me open to remove it would be a risk to my further health. So after being in the hospital 3-4 weeks, I was released and went home for almost a month. \n Fast forward time for my C.T. Scans a week prior to my surgery: I get scanned and they rush me to the hospital, turns out my appendix had healed, and was about to rupture again. I get there and I get it removed before it ruptured again.", "id": "c4a2771", "summary": "Infection caused by my appendix ruptured delayed surgery until my appendix almost ruptured a second time."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I'm not British so that erases any possibility of a Tea Break. We had to sit down and eat our lunch during lunch. We weren't allowed to get up and go play. In Middle School when we went to lunch, we had the option to eat outside but anyone who tried to get up and have any form of fun, playing tag, throwing a football, etc. got detention and/or referral with having their ball taken. I also went to Middle and Elementary School in the hood. \n In High School we could do that stuff but it wasn't recess. We had an hour lunch because many kids couldn't get their lunches and eat it in less because I had so many kids in my school. My dad worked there so I just went to his class and ate with other kids from the wrestling team.", "id": "c8qmsrn", "summary": "My schools were a bunch of Nazis who hated fun, unless id dealt with the neighborhoods surrounding my school."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Why don't you just say \"Hello\" to them? Hell a person might be having a shitty day and seeing someone they know could really cheer them up. Saw a buddy that I hadn't seen since last semester walking down the sidewalk. Turned out his dad had passed, girlfriend had broken up with him and turned his \"friends\" on him, and he had been having a hard time dealing with it, and therefore not out in public much. We talked for a bit and went on our way. \n Later on that day, I get a text from him thanking me for stopping to talk because he had thought about ending his life. Told me seeing that he still had true friends in the world helped make him happy. We're hanging out tonight and just relaxing.", "id": "c9e1vci", "summary": "Too fucking bad read it. Stop putting an effort forward to be \"awkward\" and say hi to people. It may help them out."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I have two incidents, one from my childhood and one now. \n When I was in 6th grade, I had a soccer game against another school on the local high school school football field. I went into the locker room to change and found two high school guys were doing the deed on the bench. Pretty weird for my 6th grade mind... \n Second one was in Tampa, in Ybor City, I ran into the Ybor city Shoe licker. He's a homeless guy who has a fetish with licking the bottom of shoes. Not bashing the guy, do whatever floats your boat, but being drunk and having someone go through the line in the bathroom licking the bottom of shoes of those who are willing to let him.", "id": "c5p36k4", "summary": "Two guys banging when I was around 10 years old, and a guy who enjoys licking the bottom of shoes."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I once convinced a girl in HS I couldn't drive to school every day because I drove like a NASCAR driver. \n I told her I drove as fast as I could, approx. 200mph since I lived 45min. away from school. I was always shredding tires, running out of gas and getting pulled over, so by the time I would make it here, I might as well have just ridden with my Dad who worked there or my mom who worked close by. \n I also told her that I could only take left turns, so on the days I don't get pulled over or anything like that, I had to take three left turns every time I needed to take a right, so I was always running late anyways. \n This girl went on to tell EVERYONE. I mean literally everyone I knew, coaches, teachers, and other students. The teachers, coaches, and most other students knew the bullshit river was a'flowin so they played along. All together we ended up convincing approx. a third of the school that some kid drove to school like a NASCAR driver. Mostly Freshman, but many stupid upperclassmen as well. \n For those of you thinking this story is bullshit, the fact is that I went to school in Florida. If that doesn't explain much, Florida's educational system is pretty messed up, half the kids in certain graduating classes should've probably never passed Elementary school, much less hold a High School Diploma.", "id": "c70k0hm", "summary": "Convinced this one girl that I drove to school like a NASCAR driver, through the grape vine with some assistance, we successfully convinced a portion of the school thinking the same."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "This one is more embarrassing than anything else. I'm a life guard at a large pool. We have several wall ports to hook up the pool vacuum. One morning I walked in (I opened at 5:30am with another guard) and found a man screaming in pain. Apparently he put his dick into one of the vacuum ports and got it stuck. Took the fire department an hour to help get him out.", "id": "c2vbzg9", "summary": "Man got his dick stuck in pool vacuum port."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I have to agree with you on that. Anyone can go out on any given day and beat some one (See App St. v. Michigan, see ULM v. Arkansas, etc.) The point is that the SEC has a long, grueling schedule. This year teams have gotten lucky that Auburn and Arkansas are having down years. The point is though that there are teams who have to face several Top 10 opponents in a matter of weeks (see LSU, USC, UF, etc.). People claim that there are only a couple teams in the SEC, but the point is whenever we have an away conference game, it's the chance for an upset. SEC teams tend to be bigger faster and stronger than teams in other conferences, even our \"scrubs\" seem to be more complete athletes. The Stadiums are louder than a lot of schools elsewhere in the country. When you combine all of those factors, you end up getting beaten up. \n Look at Mizzou, (A&M really hasn't had too tough of a conference schedule yet)  they came in here being a middle of the road Big 12 team and just haven't been able to keep up. It seems that their team is being demoralized in front of our eyes. They have played UGA, USC, and will be playing Bama. They lost to a Vanderbilt team that has been known to be the punching bag of the SEC. I think the constant drag would tear other teams apart in a similar fashion. I think most other conferences lack the depth that many SEC teams have. Therefore not being able to hold up week in, and week out, to the demands of the schedule.", "id": "c6l2s7o", "summary": "Anyone can win any day. The constant demanding and demoralizing SEC schedule shows lack of depth in other conferences."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "When I played sports, I know it helped me when the fans were paying attention to our next game instead of having us focus on whoever the next big team we were playing. When I played baseball we had a big tournament that generally invites the best of the best to my city during Spring Break. My team had a game against a lowly school who was something like 1-12 and had only won 1 game in 3 years before the tournament started. We had everyone talking about the big tournament rather than that school. Everyone was asking questions about if we'd be in the Championship game or not instead. I tried to focus on the game but with people raising doubts in my mind about the tournament, it threw me off. We ended up losing to that team by 8 runs. It seemed everyone else had that problem too.", "id": "c6jk4d8", "summary": "It helped me when I played sports to have the fans focus on our next opponent instead of the next big opponent, aka taking it one game at a time. Therefore I follow the same philosophy and tend to believe it'll help our players too."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Though this is probably suited better for other subs, I'll take a crack at it. \n There are several reasons why a school's athletic teams are subpar.\n1) Lack of administrative support \n 2) Lack of Alumni support \n 3) Location \n 4) Lack of community support \n 5) Age of the school/program, tradition \n All of these tend to be intertwined with one another in some way. \n 1) Administration of these schools are the ones who set out agenda for the school. They decide if they school wants to focus on academia, sports, or be a combination of the two (This point is usually tough). If an administration wants to focus on academics, then they will spend the money on academics. If you have a school administration that supports athletics, they will go out and spend money to get the best coaches and the best athletes. Realistically, being a college athlete is extremely hard, and it tends to bring down academics, due to having to balance both. If your administration doesn't support athletics, then your school won't succeed. \n 2) Alumni's donate a ton of money to the school. They're the one group who can change an administrations mind on a subject. If they don't support/care about athletics, they won't push the administration to, and they won't donate money to the teams. If they push the cash towards the sports, so will the administration. \n 3) If your school is in an undesirable location, you won't have the athletes or the coaches wanting to relocated themselves there. Unless the person is attached to the money (whether in pay or scholarship), the coaches, the students, or the school itself, then they won't want to go there. Aside from every couple of years, states like Iowa, Kansas, and the Dakotas, tend to have weaker sports programs, even when they have success with their major schools, it's because of a historical program. This is attributed as one reason Southern schools tend to be favored in college sports, they have great weather year round, and they attract people from all over the world. \n Also if other schools are doing well at a specific instance in a nearby location, they are liable to recruit the better athletes from that region since many schools in the same area recruit from the same regions. \n 4) Community must support a school. If they don't, the students aren't happy, and if they students aren't happy, no one will go there. A successful college town must be ok with some form of college life and shenanigans. If a community doesn't support a sports team, they don't pass laws that will be beneficial to a sports team. If a community doesn't like drunk college students, partying will drop, and it won't be ideal for students and student athletes who are looking for a true college experience. No students->No Alumni->No Money->No sport funding. \n 5)If a program or school is young, they lack Alumni. If a sport is adopted at a school, then they don't have a following to get money from, and don't have an audience. Tradition is huge. If you don't have tradition in a particular sport, no one will go to your school for that sport unless they want to build up a program, which is hard to do, and requires sacrifices. Programs in the middle of no where won't draw talent from recruiting hotbeds because NO ONE WANTS TO GO TO SCHOOL IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKING NO WHERE* \n *unless you have great tradition and therefore you're willing to sacrifice where you live and/or go to school for the possibility of championships. \n These things are all intertwined, and all matter. They tend to be cyclical too, so don't worry.", "id": "cny1y9t", "summary": "In the case provided, Oregon is currently top dog in football taking strong recruits away from schools in neighboring states. With Sarkisian's record, the administration isn't entirely too hyped on athletics right now. While Stanford made a change a few years back to take less emphasis on academics in order to bend rules to allow better athletes in. \n At Cal, they're simply just in a shitty area. They're competing with U. SoCal, UCLA, Stanford, and many other schools in California alone. If they want to leave Cali and recruit in other areas, then they face off with Oregon and other schools. Administration doesn't seem to be too worried, and so until the students/alumni put pressure and money towards the issue, then there won't be a change."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I've seen the reverse of this too. When I was in HS, we had kids who had taken Karate, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and Tae Kwon Do, people talking shit, mostly the usual. Many of them would come by the Wrestling room and challenge our guys to MMA Matches because they didn't know how to wrestle. We would usually dismiss it as we would've gotten into trouble. The guys would constantly harass us. \n Finally, a new AD came in and we were allowed to do \"MMA-like workouts\" seeing how it could help us in wrestling(?). Bullshit we managed to get by so these guys would come in. \n Many of the guys who did got their asses kicked. Particularly a black belt in Karate (and shit talking) came in with all of his forms and got rocked.", "id": "c88lwfe", "summary": "It goes both ways. Many guys with martial arts backgrounds would bully people who didn't because they thought their martial arts would give them an advantage in a fight."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Shipsterns is scary looking, I shit bricks seeing people eat it there. Yet I think any foreign beach with water I've never been in is the scariest and most terrifying. Even when talking to locals to figure things out, you never truly know what you're dealing with until you catch a ton of rides. Even at that point you might not be totally comfortable and sure about what you're dealing with. It may take years to be confident in your rides.", "id": "c51vusg", "summary": "The unknown is terrifying. Any wave and beach I've never experienced before is scary because I don't know what is in the water, or how it's going to act."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "A girl we'll call Sarah, used to be friends with my girlfriend. After they stopped being friends, she started hanging out with my friends and leading them on and causing trouble with my relationship. This was easy for her seeing she was about 5'2, 150lbs, and pushed her fat cottage cheese DD tits up to show as much cleavage as possible in all her outfits. I finally got my friends to realize she was just teasing them and leading them on a goose chase, but after all this she still came around causing trouble. \n Finally, the day of my buddy's spring break party, she showed up 2-3 hours before the party actually started. The people there had just started playing beer pong to pass the time, and chill. Sarah challenged me and another kid to play. We kindly accept since we were bored. She lost in epic fashion not making a single cup, while the guy and I made all of but 2 shots. After this humiliating defeat, she started knocking over cups and flipped the table (it was a plastic folding one) accusing us of cheating. \n Getting pissed off at the mess Sarah made, I told her to get her ass out of the house. This is when shit really started to turn. Sarah had a mouth and turned to me and said \"since you're willing to cheat in beer pong, you're probably willing to cheat on your GF.\" I was now furious. She started walking away and I called out to her \"Fuck you Bitch I'm not done talking to you.\" \n With a baffled look on her face, I continued, \"Yes I'm calling you a bitch to your tits, because your face doesn't matter, don't you ever come over or around my gf, my friends or I again.\" \n She walked back over threatening to slap me. When I responded \"Go ahead, I've never hit a woman before but right now, today doesn't seem like a bad day to start.\" \n Her jaw, along with everyone else's, dropped. Like I said, I've never hit a woman, and usually try to stay as peaceful as possible in all situations. But it is well known that if you hit a woman in front of me, you're facing a monster you don't want to see. \n She turned around and walked to her car. It's been 6 months, and no one has heard or seen her since, atleast in our group.", "id": "c5sm4ai", "summary": "Called a girl a bitch to her tits because he face didn't matter, she threatened to slap me, I gave her a very clear warning of repercussions if she did. Left everyone's jaws on the floor."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Different types of Christians believe in different things. Catholics believe that the Virgin Mary didn't die, but was taken up to Heaven almost like the Rapture is suppose to do for deserving souls. Some Baptists believe in Hell-fire and brimstone if you don't accept Jesus as your savior. \n I personally belong to the United Methodist Church, but my specific Church doesn't normally follow all the standards of a normal UMC (Not that we're a \"contemporary church\" or anything we see ourselves more realistic to modern ways). We still sing the hymns and pray and have dressed up church, but our members are more modern. Many people in my church align with the GOP but believe in Gay Marriage, are pro-choice and stuff like that. The Ministers at my church are the same way in their beliefs as well. \n This brings me to my argument with the telling of a story: \n My Sophomore year of High School I was hospitalized with a severe blood infection and on the brink of death, my Church's associate minister came to comfort me when we were unsure of my future. He didn't preach to me or get me to confess my sins. He just talked to me. He reassured me that I'd be alright. When I told him not to lay it on easy and to talk to me about death, he did. He told me that everyone has doubts about their faith, and that with everything I had done in my life to help others, that I had nothing to worry about. He assured me that my family would have a supportive community behind them to help them through the rest of their lives if I passed. I pulled through and I'm here today, I attribute it to the talk that I had with my Associate Minister.", "id": "c9l837i", "summary": "Christianity isn't always there to get people to pray to a god who might be there or not, but it's there to provide people with support, and possible answers if that's what they seek, but mainly the support, especially when it comes to tragedy and death, and in my experience, my A.M. comforted me with only a few little comments of reassurance of an afterlife. Christianity isn't always about answers, it's about support of a tight knit community, which in most cases is the most comforting thing."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "At my High School, the Assistant Principals and other school big wigs had Golf Carts they would drive around because the campus is quite large. The AP's were the worst of them all. We had 7 of them, and they couldn't drive worth a shit and they didn't care. They'd run you out of the way, if you didn't move they'd run you over. Some how they always managed to not understand what the students were talking about when we asked them to stop running us over. They didn't understand when the Principal encouraged them to walk more like he did, they were just oblivious (or played it well). He suspended the Golf Cart usage for a bit until one of the APs had knee surgery, then the ban was lifted for everyone. \n It continued and one day I and a few other students went to the Principal on the matter after I had my foot ran over pretty badly. I told him that people were talking about taking actions against them. He encouraged that we do, and either take it up with the school board, or do whatever is possible, just don't get violent. He probably meant peaceful protest but we took this literally as far as we could without being violent. One Saturday afternoon, we went into school, borrowing keys from a more than willing teacher who had been pissed off after getting ran over, and took apart the Golf Carts. After we fully disassembled each Kart (there were like 7 or 8), we bagged up all of the parts, and typed up a Scavenger Hunt for the APs to go through in order to find their beloved Golf Carts. The APs took a week to find all of the parts, and never ran anyone over again.", "id": "c7v1n0e", "summary": "Pissed off students borrow a pissed off teacher's keys to disassemble Golf Carts for a Scavenger hunt to teach the APs a lesson on driving."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Probably this kid Eric who I beat up one time. He hit my girlfriend in middle school and so I pushed him and he fell down. He came up to me the next day at school and hit me in the head with a metal lunch box. I turned around and whooped his ass with my fists. I got suspended for 3 days. He got suspended for 2 weeks for assault with a weapon. \n I beat his team in basketball, baseball, and football, most of the time due to my actions like a late second steal, me getting a walk off hit, or I scored the final touchdown. \n Also in middle school, I had the best grades, he had the 2nd best grades. I beat him in the Geography Bee, Spelling Bee, The Math Bowl, and the Knowledge Bowl. We would always be the final two up there and I'd always beat him. \n He dated my crazy ex-girlfriend in HS, and tried to brag about dating her, I said \"go ahead, she's too crazy for me to even claim you're sleeping with my seconds.\" This was while I was dating the girl he could never get. My crazy-ex ended up being too crazy for him, stabbed him with a fork when he tried to break up with her. \n In high school, he bragged about one of his sports teams making it to state even though he was a bench warmer. I got to brag about how I won states, in wrestling, an individual sport where I couldn't rely on anyone. \n He took this girl Rachel out to a party at one of my friends house as a date-type thing. They were still in that talking phase of dating, so nothing had happened between them. Turns out this is a girl I grew up knowing at my summer vacation home and had always had a crush on. She was new in town and met him at work. She was kind of freaked out by how much he talked about me and resented me, and she asked me to take her home, turns out she came home with me that night.", "id": "c9xyl1c", "summary": "Eric has always been runner up to me. In everything. I haven't done anything really to target him, just so happens I try to do what's best for myself, and he's always there trying to beat me, but never does."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "TJ Johnson is a good friend of mine, he's actually pretty awesome and mild mannered. \n I played ball against Aaron Murray in HS. Never thought much because he was a cocky kid as most people in his position. Last year was when I found out he is a douche bag who I'd beat the living fuck out of if it wasn't for the goons he was hanging out with. \n I was at a party with my  girlfriend and some of her friends. Mr. Murray felt that it was ok to make sexist comments to themand proceed try to fuck my girlfriend and other women by stating \"I'm Aaron Murray, QB of THE Georgia Bulldawgs, any of you girls in here would be honored if I fucked you.\" \n After I found out I went and told him that it didn't matter who he was he shouldn't be talking to women like that, especially if they had made it clear that they didn't want to knock boots with him, like my girlfriend had. He pushed me and when I got back into his face about 5 or 6 of his goons got up into it with me saying they'd jump me. I asked if Mr. All-SEC couldn't take me on 1-on-1 in a fight. \n Words were exchanged and nothing happened because they left.", "id": "c7a97va", "summary": "Aaron Murray is a sexist douche who thinks it's cool to try and sleep with guys gfs then have his goons threaten to jump people. \n Also Philip Ely's (back up QB at Bama) mom can bake a damn good cookie."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "My school had a zero tolerance for fighting policy, but it was absurd. My buddy got cold-cocked out of no where because he was talking to his lab partner. The guy who hit him was his lab partner's boyfriend. My biddy didn't fight back or anything, went to the office and told the Assistant Principal. The AP took my buddy and Angry into the office, and asked them what happened. Angry Boyfriend complained that my buddy was talking to his girlfriend, so he went up and nailed my buddy. My buddy tried to calmly explain to him that they were lab partners and they were discussing results from a lab they had the day before, when he got punched out of nowhere. Lab partner confirmed my buddy's side of the story and broke up with Angry Boyfriend. \n My buddy and Angry Boyfriend were both Suspended 10 days, despite never touching Angry Boyfriend, nor having any other marks on his record. The AP claimed that he had a part in instigating it by talking to his lab partner.", "id": "c6tyrmu", "summary": "My AP is a stupid fuck and suspended my buddy for getting clocked and not retaliating, stating my buddy played a part in it by talking to his Lab partner."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I was a free safety too, but we never played against any option teams. Being from Florida we ran the spread. We weren't bad, we had fast recievers and quarterback with a good arm, and our running backs (including myself) were pretty fast and we often played well against teams. Only problem was that we would run into either Lakeland HS or Plant HS in the playoffs during their Powerhouse years.", "id": "c52110b", "summary": "We ran the spread, played well but we always ran into Plant HS and Lakeland HS and got raped."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Though I am biased, the USC games get pretty fucking loud and deserve to be atleast in the Top 10, and definitely an honorable mention. The '09 Ole Miss, the '10 Bama, and the '11 Clemson game were some of the loudest games the past few years in Football. Our fans are pretty dedicated to coming to the games no matter what, besides playing smaller schools, almost our entire home schedule is close to being sold out every week. On top of that, our Student Section is consistently ranked in the Top 5 or 10 of every poll I've seen for the past couple of years, and one of the top in the SEC.", "id": "c5jctsw", "summary": "Yes I'd consider myself biased, but the facts still point to USC being one of the Top 10 toughest places to play in the Nation"}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I just literally (actual definition of literally) wrote a reaction paper about the ABC Dateline Interview with Herschel Walker for my Abnormal Psych class judging to see if Herschel actually has Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder) or not. \n Though I feel he has been misguided by his psychiatrist, I think Herschel does have some mental problems with him, and feeding to that is his failure to properly adjust to life after sports. \n Adjustment after sports is a big thing among athletes. Whether it's high school, college, or professional level, a competitor loses a significant stimuli that's been a presence for a large portion of their lives. The longer they play, the larger the portion. Without it, many competitors feel lost and misguided. I feel like this is part of the reason Herschel's 52 years old doing MMA, why Michael Jordan Retired X amount of times. These fierce competitors have lost a major part of their life abruptly. It's like the death of a loved one on a much more interpersonal level. \n I like what Richt's doing. I think every school should implement this type of event. Maybe make it two or three times a year if able.", "id": "ch1chl8", "summary": "Read it. Shit's informational."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I'm in a class right now that discusses \"The Old South\" and the traditions within it. We've discussed how Reconstruction really played a big role, not just in Society, but on the Southern University system as well. USC for example, we had our entire student body volunteer for service on the side of the confederacy. Prior to this event, we had received several grants and other things in the name of USC. The war disrupted that change and Reconstruction repealed some of those Federal grants, preventing us to have our name as USC.", "id": "c695ty6", "summary": "The war disrupted our name change and several butthurt yankees took away our name and gave it to their California friends."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "My family was/is a bunch of moonshiners. An event that occurred I didn't think much of until I was a junior in high school. \n When I was about 9 years old, I was at a family reunion. My cousins and I were playing football as usual and I went inside to get a cold drink of water. I grabbed a mason jar out of the fridge thinking it was water (my grandma keeps water in different jars to keep it \"clean\"?), opened it up and took a big gulp. I woke up about 10 min. later feeling extremely weird with an intense burning sensation in my stomach and throat. My granddad, dad, uncle and grandma were there next to me wondering how I was feeling. He got me a ton of water and bread and told me to take my time but to eat all of it. I was feeling very weird in general. \n I had moonshine my junior year of high school from a buddy that I know. I took a sip and instantly realized the taste and burning sensation. I looked up things on moonshine and realized all the equipment needed to make it were things in my Grandpa's tool shed.", "id": "c6tvflw", "summary": "Gulped moonshine and passed out only to try it 7 years later and find out that my family makes it."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Though I'm not completely sure of everything in the rule, I think this is something where the NCAA has had a good match, you can go pro in any sport, then come back to college and participate in another sport except the one you were paid in. I'm unaware of the case you're speaking of if you can provide more detail to it in", "id": "cay1jrs", "summary": "form I'd try to discuss it with you."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I know Fraternities that have had Stripper parties before, they usually rented out a strip club or if they had a brother who owned a house non-affiliated to the University they had them go there. \n Those are always usual concerns, as it can lead to serious problems. \n Here are some ways to solve them. \n 1) When I was rushing, my Fraternity made it very clear that we were not to take pictures, touch the strippers in any manner that would make them uncomfortable, talk down or bad about any of the strippers, etc. \n 2) It was an invite only party, as it came after formal dinner the night before formal bids were given out. Basically if you were invited to formal dinner, and to the stripper party, you pretty much knew that you were getting a bid, and it had the group of Rushees you could usually count on. \n 3) Some of the things that go on in stripper parties are illegal, especially during Fall Rush. I for one know of an instance where a rushee was only 17 at the time, and if caught the Fraternity could've gotten in serious trouble. You solve this the same way as #2, with a little help from the naming rules in #1. Make sure no one is to talk about this, keep it secret and I guess don't ask age?  KEEP THE STRIPPERS HAPPY. \nIf you keep them happy, everyone else will be happy. There's nothing like having angry strippers and having them call the cops. If need to, straight up bribe them. I know that's tough, but it will help with #4. Also don't let pictures be taken, this could make it easier to deny Freshman neckbeard's claims. \n 4) That is possible, I know at South Carolina there was a huge meltdown during/after Rush because Greek Life at the school found out all about getting Rushees drunk and having stripper parties. It resulted in several Fraternities having to wait to give out bids, having smaller pledge classes, and a couple Fraternities had to cut Pledging short and initiate less than halfway through the semester. Just follow steps 1-3 and everything should be alright, as it would cut down on it getting out.", "id": "c5yj6q9", "summary": "This is can be pulled off, and it is fun when you do it right. Basically, set the rules, make them clear. Anyone breaks a rule? Kick them out, pull their bid/ blackball them. I know it's rough but it's better them than you. Make sure it's invite only.  KEEP THE STRIPPERS HAPPY . Do and don't ask questions. Don't ask age of Rushees, ask what the strippers want to do and what their concerns are, they are the professionals. Follow 1-3 to keep IFC and Greek Life happy. \n In all seriousness:  KEEP THE STRIPPERS HAPPY"}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "The CEO isn't really \"nuts\". He's very religious and holds his restaurants to a similar standard. While I don't agree with it, he has the right to do and say what he wants. He never attacked LGBT communities publicly, but stated that he personally didn't agree with gay marriage being legalized because of his faith, but never commented on the matter of it being legalized as a public icon. \n That's like how I personally don't ride motorcycles because my uncle was killed on one. I don't comment on other people riding motorcycles, it's just something I don't do and I tell people that. \n People bitch about it being closed on Sundays, but that's because everyone gets the craving for it on Sundays as a result. He can have them closed whenever he wants. He owns them. \n As for the food. Chic-Fil-A is good. Sure there are restaurants out there that are better, but Chic-Fil-A is consistently delicious. One guy in here comments on Bojangles and Popeyes. Those can get sketchy in certain areas. I'll say I've never had BAD Chic-Fil-A or bad Chic-Fil-A service, and I've eaten at them all over the country.", "id": "cqrhnfs", "summary": "People have personal choice to do whatever they want with what they own. As for the food, it's pretty fantastic. Get a #1 with a large fry and an Arnold Palmer to drink. You will not be unsatisfied."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Not me, but a friend of my family proposed in one of the most unique ways I've ever heard. He and his then girlfriend (now wife) won a trip out to Las Vegas. He had talked to her dad about the trip and asked him if he had permission to propose to his daughter. Her dad said yes and gave him a check for $2,000 as an early wedding present (apparently she had been talking to her parents about wanting to marry him). Well while in Vegas my friend took his gf up onto a balcony that overlooked The Strip and dropped a piece of paper that he said was the check over the side of the balcony (she knew of the check as being money her dad wanted them to place on different sporting events and other games). While she flipped out trying to figure out what to do he dropped to his knee and told her that if she can still love him after doing that, then he would like to spend the rest of his life with her. She slapped him then said yes. They've been together 8 years now.", "id": "c393rw4", "summary": "Friend of the family and his gf went to Vegas, he pretended to drop a $2,000 check off a balcony, proceeded to propose while she was still shocked."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "In my experience it's not that people are raised racist, just that it's a concept people develop watching the world around them. I was raised to be tolerant, and spent most of my childhood around kids of a bunch of different races. I went to a boys and girls club that was predominately black and Hispanic. I was very tolerant when I got there, but after being bullied by some kids for being white (I was called cracker, hillbilly, white trash, honky, gringo) I started fighting back. I never called them \"Nigger\" or \"Spook\" or anything but I called them burnt crackers and minor things. I started going to a magnet school in a poor neighborhood. I saw all these people getting dropped off in BMW's and stuff, but they lived in that neighborhood and in the projects. \n I saw this and was disgusted. However, it was at this school where I met my black friends who weren't from that neighborhood. When talking to them I was told that their parent's said that they are better than the people in the hood because they do more than collect welfare checks and so on. Many of the students who lived in those poor neighborhoods often discussed when \"mama was gettin' their funny money\" when we asked what that was, they told us simply that it was the welfare check. \n Over the years, after being experienced more and more situations like this. After all those years I finally understood the difference that was expressed by my friends in grade school. \n I don't think I'm racist. My friends don't think I'm racist. I have friends of all races, colors, ethnicity, and beliefs. The ones that I'm close with and talk to all have similar ideas and views about the good and bad types of people from each race.", "id": "c4x95i6", "summary": "I think \"racist\" views are developed from observations, not taught by parents."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Holy shit, this happened to a buddy of mine. He was the last one in our group to turn 18. We went to a local strip club before we went out to dinner. We walked in and his mom was on stage dancing on the pole. My buddy yelled \"What the fuck\" and passed out. His mom ran backstage and grabbed her robe and came out. As he came to, he flipped out wondering why she was there. \n Apparently she had gotten let go from her old job and started working there to make ends meet. He was pissed but understood and thanked her for going through those lengths to provide for the family. GG Club Owner gave her a managerial position that way she could make money without having to take her clothes off.", "id": "c66yczg", "summary": "Buddy PTFO when he saw his MILF of a mom working it on his 18th B-day."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "My adventure is a pretty long story. I'm from Tampa which is where Miami, FSU, USF, UCF, and UF fans/students/alumni all gather. I have history of family attending USC since it opened. I had one relative that graduated in South Carolina College's first class. \n Everyone I know knew I wanted to go to USC. It was quite obvious that I wasn't really trying to go anywhere else. When I applied for early admittance, I went and paid for my transcripts to be sent off. I filled out the paperwork and everything. I ended up waiting and waiting not hearing a thing from admissions about me getting in which was really strange. I went back and paid to have them sent off four times due to mail getting lost or it being late or something. \n Finally on the day to have everything turned for regular admission, I hadn't gotten an update that they received my scripts. I went to see where my adviser sent my transcripts and  the incompetent  bitch sent them to USF FOUR FUCKING TIMES . I freaked out, I flipped out on her and had to be carried out of the office (small price to pay considering the dumb bitch almost destroyed my future). \n I call USC admissions after I calm down, explain what happened, and had my adviser talk to them and explain how incompetent and lackadaisical she had been in her data entry methods. They flagged my app and got everything straightened out. But it was definitely on the boarder if I was going to get in or not due to the screw up. \n I got my acceptance letter after coming home from a track meet and started hopping in the shower. My mom stops me and hands me the letter. I open scream and run away in my boxers throughout the neighborhood.", "id": "c6mlhsz", "summary": "Incompetent bitch sent my transcripts to the wrong place, almost wrecking my future, I half nakedly run through the streets."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "A friend of mine was in a serious motorcycle accident which left both of his legs shattered. He wasn't able to have sex or anything with his girlfriend which he felt horrible about. He tried different positions with her just the bouncing caused too much pain. He still ate her out and fingered her but I guess that wasn't enough. He caught her cheating on him when I had brought him home after Christmas shopping (he was in a wheel chair). He told the guy to GTFO or he'd cut his balls off, and forgave her seeing how he couldn't satisfy her. \n Fast forward a year, he's healed for the most part, able to have sex now. He had completely forgiven her and all. One day he came home and saw her and the same guy going at it. From what he said he walked down quietly and grabbed the [branch cutter]( walked back up stairs where he had moved standing at the foot of the bed, her giving him head, somehow sneaked up behind him and snipped his balls off. \nHe's now serving a 5 year prison term for assault with a deadly weapon.", "id": "c35kylr", "summary": "My buddy caught his gf having sex with a man after they were forewarned and he cut off the guy's balls."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "He played really well in the Playoffs, there's no doubting that. \n But you also have to look at other aspects of the playoffs. \n Was it his playing that got him past the Broncos? Sure the pass in OT was great but the Safety blew coverage, Flacco did the standard job of a QB. \n Also prior to that, Denver coaching. You have a Hall of Fame QB with 30 seconds left in the 4th and you have 2 time outs to drive you down the field,  BUT YOU DOWN THE BALL  that's horrible play calling there in my, and many other people's opinions. No matter how good your D is, don't risk OT if you can avoid it, which they could've tried.", "id": "c8986ip", "summary": "No, playoff experience at Delaware did not give Flacco an edge, his great playing did mixed with the right circumstances to propel him forward with a great Defense to keep getting him the ball on Offense. \n Edit: Remembered that the Broncos had TWO (2) Timeouts left."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Pellini is just an idiot. He reminds me of someone I would know, who's a complete jackass and totally incompetent, probably single, or divorced by a woman who had truly tried to love him, only to realize it was impossible to stay afloat with him. \n Martinez reminds me of this kid I went to school with named Juan Martinez. He wrestled with me for a couple of years before quitting the team in HS. He was a year older than I was, and we'd square off pretty evenly in practice, but I'd destroy him in wrestle-offs and off-season matches. He'd always make excuses about it too. \n The Nebraska fans remind me of the friendly older neighbors who live next door. They've acquired some nice stuff in their life time, but they're not what they used to be, and they know it. They have awesome stories, but still look back on the past in aw. They're really nice, and always willing to help.", "id": "c7smd7t", "summary": "Nebraska and their fans are people you and I know."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "My parents recently told me they knew I was an asshole based off of my mannerisms towards others and my behavior in particular circumstances. \n They knew I would go out of my way to fuck with someone, especially if they did something I didn't like, even it wasn't wrong per se. They knew I was a bully to kids on my bus growing up, and knew I would pick fights with my baseball coaches and teammates at games because I knew the game better than them, and I knew that I knew the game better. I was better than them at it in every sense, and I was superior, and my knowing of that led me to become an asshole. \n They knew I'd take the car all over the place in order to go see multiple girls. They found out I said \"I love you\" to multiple girls to get what I wanted. They told me it killed them when they found out that my asshole behavior led me to losing my first love. They raised me better than that and they hated to see I wasn't listening and losing something important to me, especially since I was unwilling to change. \n They acknowledged the fact that when some of my better friends stopped coming around that it was probably because I used them as a stepping stone to advance myself in society, and at college I used some people to help get a grade. \n They told me all of this when they saw me change from that person when I met the most influential woman in my life. They saw that she didn't like the asshole me, and saw that I was changing so I could have her in my life. They saw me become more compassionate, more helpful, and more respectful in every aspect of my life. They admitted this to me when I lost her, and yet continued to work out my flaws and shortcomings that I developed from being an asshole so I can ensure that her and I make it.", "id": "cdfoo2j", "summary": "My parents told me they knew I was an asshole based off of how I acted towards everything, and that it wasn't just hormones and puberty because when I lost my first love, I didn't care to change, but in my most recent and successful relationship, I changed to ensure the woman would be in my future, and that I'm continuing to change to ensure she'll stay there."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Come to USC. It's been by far the best decision of my life. I'm not going to sugar coat shit for you. This is a real decision that will impact your life in some manner or another. Columbia can be a lackluster place to live IF you let it become that way. Yet that's the way any place is. Columbia is different in many cases because you're \"Two hours from the beach, two hours from the mountains\" (times to the beach depend on Charleston traffic, I've made it in an hour before). There's plenty of things going on throughout the year to keep busy and not get bored with your surroundings. \n As for places to live: \n Some people in here are saying not Bates, it's run down, it's small, further than campus than probably ideal, and a lot of other things. But honestly, I lived in Bates House my Freshman year and I learned a lot about life and how people truly are in that dorm. \n My roommate was a coke head. I had waken up to him snorting lines of cocaine at 8am several different times. He was chill aside from that but I learned that drugs are not a joke. Saw him have to go to rehab. People don't know how real that shit is until their roommate goes missing for two weeks because he has a coke problem. \n Met a ton of different people. Many of them I kept close contacts with and still got to hang out with over my tenure there. Some of them became my best friends over the type of stuff we went through there. I learned how to tell who the good people were, and who the assholes were. That's a skill in life that never stops giving. You learn who you can and cannot trust. \n I learned how to handle my time and peer pressure. There's nothing like living on the same floor as 10-11 other guys, having to interact with one another because you share sinks, showers, and shitters. Assuming it's a pretty social group, there will be nights where you have a test, paper, quiz, or project due and your floormates are hounding you to come drink with them. If you don't do know how to handle that and learn how to work under pressure  YOU WILL FAIL. It's something that everyone has to learn. \n You will learn what it's like to live with someone in close quarters. Chances are you will hate that person to some extent due to their mannerisms. You learn patience and people skills while this is going on, and with the other things going on at Bates, it's a useful skill. \n Ya the all you can eat buffet downstairs isn't always the best, but it's right beneath you. Sure the rooms are small, but so are many other places on campus. Sure the walk is long, not nearly as long as from the Roost, and you can build up some nice leg and glute muscles in the process. I'll go against the grain and say live at Bates. It was one of those things that helped my life for the better, even though at the time it was bleak.", "id": "cgsk3r3", "summary": "Come to school here, live at Bates House, become a man in the process."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I've had the sad circumstances of having many people I know in my life pass away. I found out yesterday that a guy I've known my entire life was shot in the head by his son. My mom was the one to tell me, she did an awful job just saying \"I wanted to tell you before you found out on Facebook, but Dean died.\" My parents have never been good at breaking sad news to me, they just kind of did it. \n This has been the same way since the first person I knew passed away when I was 6. I called her my Nana because she would watch my sister and I a lot from time to time. When I asked my mom what happened to Nana (I heard my mom say we have to go to Nana's Service), she just blatantly told me she died. This is the wrong way to do it. \n The way I would've been liked to be told at that age is probably very gently. If their mother is able to, you two should try to go out together as a family, though you aren't married anymore, this would probably help. When you take them home. Sit them down, and explain that there is some bad news. You tell them that no matter what the bad news is, you will be there for them. That their mother is going to be watching over them, religious or not. Explain to them the tumor. They might not understand it, so explain it in simple terms, have their mother help out too. \n You or their mother say that \"Your mom/I'm very sick. She has/I have a tumor that has spread to other parts of my body. It's a bad tumor and we're/I'm not sure how much longer she has/I have to live. I want you to know that she loves/I love you very very much, and she/I will be watching over you, and always there for you in your hearts.\" \n If you're able to afford it, have their mother get them a little silver necklace with a little medallion or something for each of them. This will be a gift that they will keep the rest of their lives in remembrance of their mother.", "id": "c8ogj80", "summary": "Read the bold parts if you don't want to read all of it. Have their mother or you say something along the lines of the 2nd bold block. Give them a little silver necklace and silver charm/trinket thing to go on the necklace to remember their mother by."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I was at a party and this bigger girl (5'7 ~200lbs) was hooking up with my bigger buddy. After everything died down, I found them both hammered on the couch and he was licking sugar off of her. Me, minding my own business, go to the room I was staying in and put on a movie. About 10min later I hear a knock at the door. I open it up to find sugar girl. She's coated in sugar from tits to toe and is asking me if she can use the shower. It's a jack and jill bathroom, so deflecting any risk of a serious accusation, I tell her to ask the guy in the adjacent bedroom. I figure he said yes since I hear the shower. About 5min. later, I hear my door to the bathroom open up, then all of a sudden she jumps on me topless, trapping my legs between her thighs and calves. She's threatening to rip my shirt off and \"bite my fucking nipple\". \n I, having a girlfriend at the time and not interested in Sugar tits, tell her to get the fuck off of me and exclaim that \"My Girlfriend gave me this shirt\" (I was wearing a shirt she gave me). She insist in ripping it so I just take it off. She then bites down on my nipple and I take a forearm to her head. She pops up un-phased and asks me \"Oh You wanna play rough???\" I say no and start pushing her off of me. She insists and starts trying to take off my pants. I struggle to the best of my ability until my drunk buddy from earlier walks in the bathroom and pushes her off of me stating he needed help. I rush with him into the bathroom. He fake pukes and then turns to me and winks.", "id": "cga0lzu", "summary": "Sugar coated girl tries to rape me. Bites my nipple. Drunk guy saves the more sober one for once. \n Two weeks ago I was at a bar and had a girl grab a beer out of my hand and as I turned to scold her, she pecked me on the lips said thanks and ran away. I, not having a good description of her nor seeing where she went, I couldn't do much about it. I'm not sure if the police would've had since I hadn't anything to go on. Bar Tender poured me a new one. If a guy had done that to a girl, it probably would've been a state-wide man hunt. \n Edit: Some errors. \n Also deleted comment said \"You sound like a massive pussy.\" or something along those lines."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "My appendix ruptured when I was a Sophomore in High School, I was out a month since I hadn't gone to the Hospital for 3 days after it ruptured. I had never missed a day of school prior to this, so me not being there was quite noticeable. All my friends and some of my teachers made up stories to tell the class where I went. \n I got back to people asking me how wrestling in China and other foreign countries was. I had one kid ask me if it was true that I was off keeping peace and brokering UN Peace Agreements. Other stuff was that I had been off taping movies, or the Jerry Springer Show, one kid said I had died and that I was never coming back (he didn't make this up, actually thought I was dead). These don't even measure up though compared to my favorite story of me. \n One of my teachers told the class that some official looking men had been in his class a few months prior asking questions about me, and if I had been a trouble maker or anything. He claimed that he thought I was in serious trouble with the law, only to find out I had been selected to participate in a Special Forces Operation to help free Cambodian rebels or something like that. He said he was surprised I wasn't back in two weeks. I got back to class I was still all bandaged up from IVs, Pick-Lines, and having a drain in my stomach. I weighed about 100lbs standing almost 6' (I couldn't eat for awhile while in there). My teacher had led everyone to believe I had been shot and captured during my Operation. \n Best part of all of this is that I played it off and got to stand up at the front of the class telling my story and answering questions about my whole ordeal, just to destroy the hopes of everyone at the end of class by telling them the truth.", "id": "c77i0wa", "summary": "Was out of school for a month with a fully ruptured appendix, came back to hear awesome stories about myself when I got back. Tricked the entire class into thinking  I was a CIA Operative."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I was 10 years old shooting off left over fireworks I found in the back of my closet left over from 4th of July. At this time where I was living, there was a fireworks ban due to a (minor) drought, with the exception of using them for agricultural purposes. \n I had been growing watermelons in my backyard (it was where we'd spit our seeds eating watermelon earlier in the summer). I was shooting them off since school was about to start and I wouldn't have time to do it again until New Years. One of my neighbors was pissed (rightfully so) and called the cops. \n The cops came by and caught me with a couple friends shooting them off. They came over had us stopped and threatened to write us/our parents a ticket. They asked me why I was shooting them off, and I told them that some birds and squirrels were coming after my melons, so I had to scare them away. \n They thought I was being smart, saying that rule only applied to \"grown ups\". I stated that the law applied to the planter of whatever crops they had planted, and never stated what the age of the planter had to be. Since the watermelons were mine, I was let off the hook. One of the cops was pissed (he was a jackass rookie), the other, quite astounded by my knowledge of the declaration (and probably let me go just for that reason).", "id": "c9iwtal", "summary": "Found out a fireworks ban didn't apply for those using them for agricultural purposes, since the Ordinance didn't state what age the caretaker of the commodity had to be, I was let off the hook. And mean neighbor had to be told I was allowed to."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "My friends and I were heading over to another friend's apartment for a party. I being slightly dyslexic, mixed up the apartment number.(We ended up going to apartment 609 first, even though the party we were suppose to go was 906). As we walked up to the door of the apartment an extremely intoxicated guy came out with a cane mumbling a bunch of non sense. Out of now where he starts swinging the cane telling us to \"watch the cane.\" After saying that about 5 or 6 times he yells \"Switchblade.\" All of a sudden the son of a bitch pulls out a switchblade and flips it open in one fluid motion. My friends and I quickly realized that we were in the wrong place and got the fuck out of there ASAP. Luckily, five minutes later we got a text with the right apartment number.", "id": "c3b5ji9", "summary": "A guy told us to watch a cane, then proceeded to pull a switchblade on us."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "It's a great place to visit, and have people come visit you, but once you've lived in Tampa >2 years, you really start to hate it. It becomes repetitive and boring. Shit's expensive, and you have to pay to do just about anything there. \n Many of the clubs are 21 and up, and the ones that aren't get flooded with High School kids and it's weird being older and seeing kids you knew when they were Freshman. I'm of age to consume alcohol, but still the places that are 21 and up are full of people avoiding 18+ places so they're extra packed. Strip Clubs are fun, but you can't go to one every week. \n Busch Gardens and Adventure Island are fun, but you can only do those every once in a while or they get boring. There's not much else to do on a weeknight, so it gets boring. People work during the day, and get off just as everything is closing. We have a ton of yankee transplants- people who move south from up north (I am one of the few true Southerners left when I'm there) you get a ton of the graphic T-shirt, Tap-out wearing people and a lot of \"guidettes\". Generally a lot of fake people. \n There's a lot of \"Old Money\" who are rich and stuck up. They have their own crowds and such which is cool, but the often shit on people and if they don't like you or your business, you'll know because everyone will stop coming. \n We have had some pretty dangerous areas in Tampa, but we went through and knocked a lot of those down. They had a few legit gangsters in there, but now there are a lot of Wangsters (Wanna-be gangsters) in other areas. Wangsters are more dangerous, IMO, because they're not proven. They're trying to make a name for themselves. \n A lot of Snow birds (Northerners and Canadians that come down for winter) bitch all the goddamn time if it's not as warm as they like it. We get some cold weather too you know!!! Not as long but it's not uncommon to hit a low of somewehre in the 20's farenheit during winter some mornings. \n They cause businesses to charge more because they're willing to spend it. You have price increases majority of the year because of these people. Spring is a low price of year, not many people coming down, many Snow birds are leaving. Summer has tourist. People off from work and school? Let's charge the fuck out of them, lol sorry not sorry Florida Residents who have to deal with cost of stuff. Fall isn't too bad, but you get a lot of price raises around the start of football season and the end of it. Winter has the snow birds coming down, so they cause prices to go up. \n We have to deal with a lot of Hispanics who come to Florida. This isn't a problem about race, but a problem with attitudes, specifically those who  take offense to everything. A lot of Hispanic women will rip you to shreds if they don't like the way you say something of if they don't like the way you look. I'm not racist, but when I'm working as a lifeguard, and your kid is breaking a rule, and I call him out on it, you don't need to get up in my face and bitch me out. STFU and leave me alone I'm doing my job.", "id": "c9danwe", "summary": "Just read it. It explains most of everything. I could go on, but I won't. Tampa has a lot of great people, there's probably a lot more not so great ones though."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Who and why \n Braves: Grew up watching them before there was a team in Tampa, and really Florida. Went to games during the '95 and '96 WS. I remember Game 1 of '96 in NY. Not really much from '95. Dad is a big Braves fan, and one of my favorite stories growing up was how my dad was essentially tailgating a Braves game the day I was born in the waiting room. \n Broncos: Dad spent majority of his life that he wasn't in Florida out in Colorado. He took me to go see the Broncos play a lot when I was younger. \n Avalanche: Same reason as the Broncos, just not as many games. Saw them win the Stanley Cup in person. \n Celtics: Grew up watching Larry Bird replays because (once again) my Dad liked him. I've read a lot of books on Bird, and really learned about how to be a humble (yet in-your-face) competitor, which is why my dad liked him.", "id": "c9etzrb", "summary": "My dad shaped who I enjoyed watching."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "There seems to be a lot of people who have had sex with teachers for grades. I know of one story where it was not. Whether it was me, I can't say, and rather not. \n The teacher was in her late 20's, married early due to religious beliefs, only had one bf. She divorced from her husband because he was cheating on her. She was a stone cold fox. Weary about her turning 30, a student found the opportunity to talk to her, especially since she was not on the dating scene for more than 10 years, if really at all. \n The student found out the teacher and him lived close to one another, which was a distance from school. They agreed to give each other rides to help save cost in gas. They became friends more than teacher and student. The student moved up a grade and out of her class, but continued talking to her, riding/driving with her to and from school, mowing her grass, and taking care of manly chores outside of her house. \n One day she invited him in, and they talked for 4 hours about everything, complementing each other's intellectual minds, hugging before the student left. They continued this for a week. When finally, after a hard day for the teacher, the student gave her a kiss on the cheek, which led to more. They had sex that day. \n It continued for several years, even after the student graduated and went to college, they still did this, though never officially dating one another due to prior relationship. \n Until the teacher passed away in a car accident, on her way to pick up the student from the airport home from his final fall semester before graduating. He planned on asking her to marry him that day.", "id": "c9yfjhw", "summary": "This is a true story, away from sex for grades, one about passion and caring between two individuals who just happened to be in a situation in which society frowns upon their intimate actions, even post-high school graduation."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I became pretty good friends with a guy I went to school with. We didn't hang out much, just played cards every day at lunch and he became my Spades partner. He seemed one of the most clean cut religious guys I'd ever met. Some other friends and I went to a party one weekend and he was flipping out on Shrooms or Acid (some type of hallucinogenic) and ran through a wall because the gnomes were chasing him. I never figured him as a drug guy, so I figured it was his first time trying it or it had been slipped to him. We got back to school and everything was cool, no one brought up what happened at the party, so I shut my mouth too. \n The next week at another party he goes on a rampage and beats a guy to a pulp and hits several other guys, at random. He comes up to me about an inch from my face, and says \" If you weren't so damn good at Spades, I'd fuck you up too. \" and threw a punch by my head into a wall behind me. \n I left only to find out at school on Monday he was on meth that night and he had gone on to beat up a couple cops once they were called. I haven't seen him since and recently found out from a buddy who looked him up that it hadn't been his first offense and went to JUV and rehab where he had found Jesus, hence his religious background.", "id": "c6yxrvf", "summary": "A guy if figured to be clean cut didn't whoop my ass while he was on meth because I'm good at cards."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I rather not have BJ Upton in Atlanta. I live in Tampa and go to a couple of Rays games a year and constantly see them on TV. He has no work ethic, and it seems like majority of the time he doesn't even try, even when going after a ball in the field. I rather sign Bourn again and take my risk with his age than have BJ come anywhere around the ball club.", "id": "c5u3fu6", "summary": "BJ is a bum. Keep him out of Atlanta."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "That's what I thought. I told the Paramedics that I had two beers when I turned 18, these were not on campus, but supplied to me off campus. I was playing games with my friends in my dorm room when I flipped out of my chair (it was one of those standard dorm desk chairs that have the weird rocking base, this was the 1st week of classes so I wasn't use to it). I busted my head open and told them everything so they were prepared. The cops who were there couldn't do anything, but the RA's there could and wrote me up for alcohol consumption, and I got a $50 ticket from the school.", "id": "c9c4toh", "summary": "just because the Cops can't get you, doesn't mean the school can't."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Not to rag on Jeter, he's an excellent ball player and all that, I'm glad I get to watch him play, but outside of baseball he's a dick. \n He's extremely rude to people, even young kids. I was privileged enough when I was younger to get the chance to go to the Yankee Luncheon every year in Tampa. From the time I was 9 or 10, until I was a Freshman in High School I went to it. He was always in a pretty grumpy mood every year, so I figured it was the luncheon, I saw him a couple of times outside of baseball, and I talked to him, as a young teen I remind you, not asking for autographs or anything, just \"Hey how's it going\", and he had a huge attitude. That's what I know from experience. \n The hear say part is from a friend of mine's sister who slept with Mr.Jeter. Apparently he insisted on not wearing a condom even though it had been pretty well known that he has herpes (and gave them to Jessica Alba), she still made him but he was pretty upset about it. He also gives a gift basket to the women of his evenings, generally includes a signed baseball, a Yankees hat, etc. and says that not everyone gets one of these. Apparently buddy's sister ran into someone else who slept with him, and he gives these baskets to every women he sleeps with. Which is cool, but apparently he also insist on not wearing a rubber and has given many people herpes.", "id": "c6463ws", "summary": "Outside of baseball Derek Jeter is a rude and inconsiderate person who spreads herpes."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I had what was technically an ex, though I don't count it because we only dated 17 hours, 9 of which we were awake. I asked her out in person, at the mall after texting her and talking to her for about two weeks. Her reasoning was that  \"I was not the person she thought I was\". Literally, wtf I thought \"we've dated 9 hours awake, I haven't said anything different to you to make you think that.\" She told a mutual friend that she thought I was someone else and that I asked her out over the phone, that we had never met. \n I told her my side, and had the buddy who took me to the mall back me up. We thought said \"ex\" was dumb and let it go. Three months later we found out that she had been diagnosed with Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar disorder. \n My only question left was which girl did I ask out, and which one broke up with me?", "id": "c70cejv", "summary": "I had an \"ex\" break up with me after 9 hours for not being who she thought I was."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Tooting my horn a bit, but Baseball used to be a HUGE part of my life. \n Up until High School I played Baseball just about every day of every year from the time I was able to walk. I had a plastic bat that I carried around with me until I was about 5, when I hit some kid in the mouth with it. I went to baseball camps, played Spring ball and Fall ball. I had a complex in my backyard where I had a batting cage, and a pitching mound. I played AAU and Little League, and from time to time filled in on teams when they needed players, including for my local Pony Ball League. \n I couldn't get enough. I loved baseball. By the time I was 12, though I was left handed, I could play any position, especially catcher. I won my League's Catcher of the Year Award 3 years in a row, recording over 100 put outs by throwing people out stealing alone. I also could hit too, not for power, but average. I was fast and could beat out anything on the left side of the infield. I recorded batting averages higher than .600 three times. My highest in Spring Ball being .838, Fall Ball, .900. \n When I got up into Juniors, I started pitching more, as a closer. I gave up 1 hit in 49 appearances for my Little League team alone. That didn't include when I pitched in AAU, or for other teams. I once pitched in 7 games for 4 different teams in one week, I hadn't told anyone that I had pitched in any other games. I was recorded hitting 86-87 several times as a 14 year old. \n Everyone I talked to thought I'd go onto bigger and better things in baseball. Even I did. I tried out for my high school baseball team my freshman year. I wrestled for my high school at the time, and got pretty good, earning the #7 ranking in the state at the end of my Freshman year. Yet this was my flaw. My high school baseball coach didn't let people play more than one sport. \n I tried out several times for the team, regular season, Summer Legion, and winter ball. I wanted to play baseball badly. A friend of mine's dad became Head Coach for the JV team my Sophomore year, I thought I was a shoo in because he'd been one of my coaches from the start. Yet I didn't even make the team. I talked to my buddy about what happened. Turned out his Dad wanted me on the team, blew a gasket when they got home after tryouts. \n The Head Coach told my buddy's Dad that if I made the team, he would cut my friend from the Team, and fire him as coach. He reported the head coach, and got fired since everyone else had kept their mouths shut. I tried out every time until I graduated. \n I went back to my high school and asked my coach why I never made the team. He told me \"It's because you played more than one sport. If you had dropped wrestling, I would've added you on Varsity in a heartbeat. I don't let players play more than one sport.\"", "id": "c73uhby", "summary": "I loved baseball with all my heart, only to have my hopes of playing in the future crushed by a dick of a high school coach who didn't like the fact that I was a great at other sports too."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Some friends of mine and I were verbally assaulted by a waitress. We had done something similar to the OP. We were a bit drunk, but not rowdy and had left a rather large tip (Each of us left somewhere around $15 for a $30 meal) on the table at the restaurant and went to pay with our cards. We all had rounded our bills to the next $5, my bill was $26 something so I made it $30. Some of my friends only left about 50cents since they left such a large cash tip. The waitress saw our bills and voiced sarcastically \"Thanks for the tips.\" Then continued to state how \"no good we were, and young people don't tip.\" I walked back to my table and called her attention, and said if you had just walked to the table, you would've seen this nice tip over here. I picked up all the cash off the table and we left.", "id": "c36ukb6", "summary": "Did something similar to what the OP did. Waitress bitched about small tip we left on the checks, so I went and picked up the ~$100 cash tip we left on the table, and left the restaurant after warning her to wait til we left to complain."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "You've hit the nail on the head. \n I was at a party a couple years back when I saw a guy wearing a South Carolina shirt (he was acting like a complete douche so I figured I'd see what he was about). Being a student at USC, I walked up to him thinking he was a student too. When I went up to him, and asked if he went to USC, he said in a rather rude manner \"Ya I'm a Sophomore there, what about it?\" I told him that I went there too, and I tried to have a conversation with him about how he liked it and everything. It became quite obvious that he didn't go to school there and wasn't even transferring there. I asked him to be honest about if he went there or not, he said he didn't and just liked the fact that they were the Cocks. I understood and went on my way not worrying about anything. \n Until later that night I saw him being a dick to a lot of people, especially a group of females that I happened to be friends with. He was telling them about going to USC, and how he loved to be a Cock (He never said Gamecock, which is strange, and he only mentioned our mascot being the Cocks, just a weird dude). As I started to head over there to see my friends, one of the girls called out to me and said \"OperationJack! This guy goes to USC too!\". This caused the prick to turn to her and say \"Why the fuck did you bring him over here you stupid bitch?\" \n Let's just say that he was no longer owner of South Carolina shirt about  2 min. after that comment.", "id": "c5grcd6", "summary": "Guy was lying to people telling them he went to USC, and then called a friend of mine a stupid bitch for calling me over, therefore messing up his \"game\". Leading to a fight and a mysteriously disappearing shirt."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I taught all the people in my 9th grade government class A B C and D in ASL and different hand signals to ask for numbers. I would sit in the middle of the classroom during test and would signal answers to the people around me who would then spread it to the out to the outside of the room. Everyone would got hundreds on the test until I messed up with one answer on the last test before the final. \n My teacher caught on to something fishy and moved me up to the front of the room facing the class for the final thinking people were copying off me. This made it 100x easier to spread the answer since all anyone had to do was look up at me and I could signal the answers and no one would have to worry about getting signals 2nd or 3rd hand (literally). Everyone got a 100% on the final and figured everyone just fucked up on one question on the other test by pure miracle.", "id": "c70ar1r", "summary": "Used American Sign Language to convey answers to classmates, everyone got hundreds because the teacher moved me up to the front facing the class for the final thinking I was being copied off of."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Great advice here. No matter what your original doctor says if it deals with something life threatening, or atleast life changing get a second opinion. \n I know it's not the same as cancer, but my appendix fully ruptured when I was a Sophomore in High School. I walked around with it ruptured for three days. I was in the hospital for a month while they drained puss and other stuff from the infection site. The doctor who was assigned to me wanted to wait til after New Years to take out my appendix. We got a second opinion and the second doctor noticed that if we had waited until after New Years, my appendix would've ruptured again as it had healed itself and attached itself to the lining of my stomach. My immune system was down so if this had happened again, I probably would have died.", "id": "c6vbpqc", "summary": "Get a second opinion."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "My dog will bark if I ask him or anyone else in the same room as him a question. Some how he knows. Yet when anyone else does this, he stays eerily quiet and just stares at them. \n I go to school out of state, so he lives at home being taken care of by my parents. He refuses to heed any command given to him by either of my parents, but once I'm back home he listens to my every command or comment. My mom will ask tell him to go outside, he lays down, but if I tell him to go outside, or even listen to mom, he does. It's the craziest shit out there. \n Lastly, the only instance where is other two quirks don't apply. If my parents or anyone else accuses me of anything. For instance, turning down the air, eating someone else's food, or anything like that. I can say \"Ask the General.\" When they do, he'll either sit quiet or bark once, we figure the barking means yes, silence means no. I've gotten out of being in trouble because my dog covers my back.", "id": "c5e51aq", "summary": "My dog and I are homies, pretty sure if he could talk he could give police a false alibi for me."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Probably the craziest phone conversation I've ever had \n I had a guy call me asking me why I was talking to his girlfriend. I asked him who is girlfriend was, he said a name of someone I did not know. I told him that I was sorry for his predicament but that he had a wrong number. He insisted that I was lying. I asked him what number he meant to call, and he said a number similar to mine. I corrected him and said that he had the wrong number, and hung up. He called me back instantly, this went on for about 3 or 4 calls. \n Finally I got tired of it, he called back demanding that I stop talking to his girlfriend and that he and his boys were going to jump me if I didn't. \n I interrupted him and said calmly \"Sir, I am not talking to your girlfriend, you have the wrong fucking number. Even if I was, is it really my problem that your girlfriend talk to people? Maybe the fact that you do this to people she talks to is why your relationship is in jeopardy.\" He told me that he was going to stab me. I lost it. I started yelling into the phone \"You wanna stab me motherfucker? Do you know who you're dealing with? I'm one crazy motherfucker. Go ahead and fucking stab me. I will pull out the knife and stab you in the fucking neck. I will then go on to shank your mom. I will kill your entire fucking family.  I'M FUCKING CRAZY MOTHERFUCKER I'LL SHANK YOUR FUCKING MOM. \nHe interrupted my tirade and completely apologized. \n We talked about his situation and found out that we live a few blocks from one another. We're now pretty good friends. Neither of us has shanked, stabbed, or assaulted one another nor our mothers.", "id": "c6vhs37", "summary": "Kid had the wrong number, I told him I'd shank his mom, now we're friends."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "My apologies, my sister and I shared a bathroom. Like most siblings we fought over time to get ready. I felt that I should get to use it first since I didn't take long, she felt she should get to use it first since she has the most to do. She'd wake up early and lock me out of the bathroom around the time I'd wake up and have to take my morning piss.", "id": "c5ssmh2", "summary": "Bitch of a sister prevented me from taking my morning piss."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I know quite a few people at Colgate. I've been lucky enough to visit a few times, I must say I love Hamilton and love the campus. I especially loved visiting the dining halls. Frank and the Coop serve much better food then I get here at my school. I hope to be back there soon. \n I know Colgate is a very prestigious institute, my question is, how lenient is Colgate on admitting so-called \"stud\" Student Athletes? I know Hockey has been extremely good in the past, while Football and Volleyball along with Women's soccer have had successful seasons winning the patriot league. \n I know the academic standards are tough for students to get in, regardless of student athlete status, but with current successes, is there any pressure to try to admit more \"stud\" athletes? \n I'm not accusing Colgate of anything, just genuinely curious due to the fact that I do not attend what is considered a school with such high marks in academics, and am intrigued at the development of sports in academia.", "id": "c77nqup", "summary": "With the recent and current success in many sports, is there any presssure to admit \"Stud\" athletes who don't quite meet all of Colgate's academic requirements?"}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "As an American, I can say simply because it's an over-hyped right of passage where mostly everyone thinks they can get laid due to movies portraying events that include getting drunk and laid, possibly resulting in the loss of someone's virginity. \n My prom was nothing like this. In actuality, my prom date was a bitch who couldn't make up her mind if she liked me or not. We got lost driving from the restaurant we went to, to the pavilion where prom was being held. While at prom, she ditched me several times to go sit down and talk to her friends. Once we did start dancing, her dress broke, resulting in us safety pinning it back into place. Only problem with this was as we were grinding (a form of modern dancing, basically dry humping) the safety pin came undone and proceeded to stab me in the abdomen  SEVERAL TIMES . The last time the safety pin got stuck so deep into my stomach, when my date started walking away, it pulled out cutting me deep enough to possibly receive stitches. I got a band-aid and went back onto the dance floor to find my date, when the only slow song of the night came on, she missed it. Where was she? She was back talking to some guy at the drink counter, I asked if I could cut in so her and I could dance, and the guy told me to fuck off and tried to fight me. As he took a swing at me, I dodged the punch and knocked him one back, rendering him K.O.ed. I was then escorted with my date out of prom for fighting, though I was defending myself, and having the guy at the drink counter confirm my story. Best part: not only did the guy not attend our school, nor was he anyone's date but he was  23 Years Old . I was still escorted out of my prom, while being yelled and berated by my prom date for getting us kicked out and fighting \"such a nice guy\".", "id": "c4recq3", "summary": "My prom sucked it resulted in a bitch date, getting lost, blood, fighting with a random adult prom-crasher, and no sex, unlike the movies. I have no idea why it's held up on a pedestal."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I once had a new guy join my baseball team halfway through the season when I was about 15 since we lost 2 kids to injury and one since he moved to GA which left us with 9 players. We had certain rituals that we had and everyone one on the team participated in it. \n As a captain, it was my job to get everyone involved. As I was doing my job, I politely informed the new kid what the deal was and what we'd be doing and why. He refused to do it the first couple games which we let slide. We asked him to come join us every time, until one day he refused and called us a bunch of poor bush-league pussies (seeing how a lot of the team wasn't in the most fortunate circumstance, it hurt some of them). \n I got mad, but kept my cool and went to explain what was wrong and that he should join us. As I started talking to him and such, he got an attitude  and spit in my face. Right then and there I dropped him and whooped his ass though he was my 10th man.", "id": "c7h5edq", "summary": "Some people may be your teammates, and they may be extremely important and detrimental to what your team needs, but sometimes that mother fucker needs an ass whooping."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Had a similar thing happen to me at a World of Wonder Tournament, basically a history/geography quiz bowl. \n We were down by 3 questions and the questions are picked at random. The Questioner asked \"Who was this A-\" I said Davy Crockett. I was right. Next question \"This American Wilderness Hero-\" I buzzed in and I knew the answer was either Davy Crockett or Daniel Boon, I went with Crockett. Right again. Third question \"Coon-Skin Caps bec-\" I rang in \"Davy Crockett TV Miniseries 1955\". Right for a third time, the Questioner looked like he shit himself and my Teacher was dying in the back of the auditorium from laughing at the madness. \n Tie Breaker question came up, and the Questioner started reading the question by saying \"This Spanish speaking country makes up the largest-\" I rang in, he said \"This answer is not Davy Crockett...\" and I replied \"No but it is Mexico\". I was right. Questioner guy flipped a shit, along with the auditorium the opposing team and their coach. \n Accusations of me cheating came up. I was frisked by judges on spot, they determined I was the luckiest kid alive that day.", "id": "c71d83v", "summary": "Three Davy Crocketts and Mexico led me to being frisked on stage in front of 1000 people because of accusations of cheating."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "You and I both. I was trying to buy tickets for the Outback Bowl seeing how I live in Tampa, and I was getting fucked over by some $28 Service Charge on top of the $87 for  A  fucking Ticket. I needed atleast 3 of them. I would've done it if it was $28 Service Charge for all 3, but $28 for  ONE  is beyond bullshit, especially when taking in taxes. \n Luckily I walked up to the ticket office yesterday, money in hand, and bought the 3 I needed.", "id": "c7q605v", "summary": "Fuck 3rd party brokers."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "As someone who spent two months in the hospital when I was in HS, there was a lot of people who came by to visit me. Most of them were my good friends, some of them people who I enjoyed hanging out with, but didn't consider us good friends. \n I found out one girl at my school was claiming to be my \"BFF\" and would go around getting sympathy and cried a shit ton during school, claiming she was giving me stuff and visiting me. Thing is  though I highly disliked her because she was an attention whore and just overall obnoxious. I never got shit from her, much less a visit. \n I also had buddies on my Wrestling team and kids from my Track and Cross Country teams who couldn't see me in that condition. It just broke their hearts. One of my closest friends who was on the wrestling team but a few years younger than me said  \"I wanted to come visit you, but I couldn't see you in that condition. You're Superman to me. I could never see the guy who I thought was invincible in a hospital bed.\"", "id": "c8p1kay", "summary": "You'll see some people who are your real friends because they show up and chill with you. You'll see some people you don't expect. Some people will claim to be your best friend though you don't like them and refuse to associate with them. You'll have close friends who can't handle seeing you in such a fragile state and can't come to see you. \n Edit: A lot of people are asking about the BFF Girl. She got called out before I got back to school. She claimed that she was at the hospital visiting me at like 5pm the night before and a friend who was actually there called her out. He told me he said something along the lines of \"No you weren't I was there for 3 hours yesterday and you never came by.\" He told me he wanted to say \"Oh really? Because the only whores I saw with OperationJack yesterday were the ones we were killing on GTA.\" but didn't fearing repercussions."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I had a good friend and teammate who was like a brother to me, die after being hit by a car. We'll call him Terry. \nMy best friend (we'll call him Kenny) who was also best friends with Terry, ditched me after Terry's viewing and funeral, to hang out with his girlfriend. \n This girlfriend was same one who texted and messaged me horrible things about Kenny. Saying that she didn't want to be seen in public with him, thought she was needed in his life to fix it (help him lose weight and to not look so ugly: her words). Despite me showing Kenny these messages, he stayed with her. After I had to call Kenny ~30 times to tell him about Terry's passing, I found out that she wouldn't let him answer the phone saying \" nothing  is so important that you have to answer the phone while in my presence.\" \nIf that wasn't bad enough she went on to say about how stupid Terry had to be to be hit by a car, and all sorts of other rude and ugly things about Terry.", "id": "c3h9i43", "summary": "Best friend ditched me after a mutual best friend and teammate's death so he could hang out with his controlling girlfriend who treats him like shit."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I grew up playing as a left-handed catcher. I played all the way up to AAU and Legion ball as a left-handed catcher. Aside from playing multiple sports and being blackballed from the high school baseball team for this, the reason I stopped playing catcher was that \"Lefties weren't suppose to be catchers.\" \n People claim that lefties have to turn their bodies to throw down to third, and we do, but if a catcher is trained properly, it's not that big of a deal. As I progressed upward in levels of baseball, I got better and better at it. \n Out of a 50 game season, I threw out 34/37 runners stealing third. 2 of those 3 that were safe resulted from dropped balls by the third baseman, and one fucker was just that fast. In the same season, I threw out 50/52 guys stealing 2nd. Teams stopped running on me. This was all in 15&16 year old baseball level, not the majors, but still extremely competitive. \n I feel majority of my coaches went against me playing catcher because \"Lefties don't play catcher\" based off of history. My would-have-been baseball coach even told me \"get used to playing outfield or pitcher. Lefties don't play catcher.\" When I asked why he said \"Because they never have, and never will on my team.\"", "id": "cd7f6be", "summary": "I think history has most to do with the \"lefties can't catch\" stigma."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I woke up one morning after a party to sirens and lights outside of my window at my dorm. I looked down to see that there was a car parked in the middle of my dorms courtyard. I then realized that I had no idea how I got home the night before. \n I walked downstairs to head to head to the football game being held that day and asked one of the officers who was there what was going on. He responded telling me that someone had stolen the car ran it into a shit ton of things before driving and crashing the car in the courtyard. \n After hearing this I frantically called my friends who I had been with the night before asking them how I had gotten home. No one knew how... The only clue I got was that one of my friends said he came to check up on me on the back porch, went back inside to get me some water, and when he came back I was gone. \n I was left with the one notion that I was the one who stole the car. I went to the football game with friends trying to piece the night back together, we could not figure out if I stole the car. As the days start passing by, I wait for the moment police come knock on my door and arrest me for Grand theft auto, hit and run, and several other crimes. \n As these days passed, I still had to go to class. I was nervous, but still had to keep up appearances. The following Wednesday on my way to physics, I ran into a friend who I had seen at the party. He proceeded to ask me how I was doing, how I was in the morning, etc. I proceeded to tell him my saga and how I might be going to jail for car theft. Until he interrupted me, and gave me the best news of my life. \n I hadn't stolen a car, he had seen me passed out on the back porch. Fearing that I may be getting too cold (it was ~30 degrees outside and I was wearing shorts and a sleeveless hoodie) he picked me up, put me in his Jeep, and drove me home.", "id": "t3_xxq6v", "summary": "I got drunk passed out on my buddies porch only to wake up in my bed with no idea how I got home. Stolen car crashed in the courtyard of my dorm, made me think I stole it. Buddy tells me later in the week he took me home. \n /r/Drunk, what is the scariest thing you've woken up to? Did it have a happy ending?"}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "If you have an extra that you are willing to sell, PM me. I'm trying to find my girlfriend a ticket to the game but with little luck. \n I am a student at USC and she is on her fall break. Since tickets have gone on sale, I have been trying to get her a ticket, but couldn't because \nA. The sold out on line fast as hell\nB. The ticket websites jack up the prices beyond reasonable prices. \nC. I've been trying to focus on grades and haven't been able to look up every single possibility. \n I have my student ticket, but need an extra one. If not, I am left not being able to go to the game (a once in a lifetime opportunity) that means a whole lot to me. I've had people looking all over the place for me (or atleast they claim they have been) with little to no luck. \n My request to you /r/cfb, is if you are going to the game and have an extra ticket, or know someone who does, please PM me and try to work something out. I appreciate it.", "id": "t3_110amm", "summary": "I need an extra ticket, willing to work things out. Please help if able."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Calling a guy a creep or creeper or anything of that nature can ruin his reputation as a person. \n My story: I asked this one girl at my High School homecoming dance if she would like to dance. Out of nowhere, \" GTFO of here you creeper!! \" She then went around telling people I \"creeped\" on her and I got in trouble with the school. \n Luckily, I had friends around me when it all happened and they went to the office and defended me by saying that the girl was being obnoxious and rude and I had only asked for a dance. She was reprimanded and sent to counselling for her actions. \n Best part was her crush (a good friend of mine) found out what she had done, she went up to him and asked him out to a party. He said no thank you, but she insisted. Finally by the end of school she asked again and he said \"GTFO away from me! Are you following me around? I told you no like 7 times already\". Turns out her Counselor had to bring this up in a meeting and if she had been pushing what she does onto others.", "id": "t3_172458", "summary": "Don't call friendly guys trying to dance Creepers. It can backfire on you leading to counseling."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "Just for discussion, we'll take something about the school as a whole, and one specifically about football. \n For me \n The School: The fact that my family has lineage going back to when the school opened. It blows my mind that I'm walking around the same grounds that someone with my blood was 200 years ago. We don't have pictures (paintings) of them until they were ~40 or 50 but I want to see what they looked like at my age. See how they were. \n Football: We're just building up a solid program. We've had solid years in the past but nothing to this magnitude. We had our FIRST 11-win season last year. Our second, in history and in a row, this past season. I here freshman talking about how good we are and shit like that, and I realize they weren't here to see us go 7-6 and 3-5 in the SEC. They've probably only been paying attention to CFB since we won the SEC East in '10. My friends and other people seem to forget our past, they're like \"Spurrier's got y'all playing great. Y'all are a power house.\" It just blows my mind that I've been apart of a history making past couple of seasons.", "id": "t3_1872p9", "summary": "Lineage of my family blows my mind, and the building of a solid program. \n So /r/cfb what are the things about your school and team that you find unique that no one else does or atleast seem to?"}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "It's been a few weeks since I've been fishing since I had to come back up to school, but when I was home for Christmas Break, I went around 7 or 8 times. \n I'm from Tampa, FL. I went fishing in the west side of the Tampa Peninsula in between Tampa and St. Petersburg. When I was fishing, my buddies and I caught the usual trout and what not like we expected to.  BUT  we also caught a fish we did not recognize. \n It was green with almost camo-like patters on its top half. It was triangular in shape, with a yellow belly. It had human looking teeth and extremely narrow eyes, literally sitting next to each other on the front of its face. It puffed up like a puffer fish but we couldn't find any pictures of puffer fish that looked like the fish we had been catching. \n Based off my description can anyone help me identify it? Was it a type of puffer that had just developed weirdly? Did we discover a new type of fish? I doubt it. We've been calling it an ugly fish, but would like to know its real name. I don't have any pictures on account we rarely take pictures while fishing unless noteworthy.", "id": "t3_18dpay", "summary": "Please read and help me identify the fish."}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "This isn't a \"I have a friend who is me\" situation. \n I have a buddy, Kris, who isn't the most attractive guy out there. He's a phenomenal person, and a lot of people love him. He has many great qualities, but he's built like a Mack Truck. 6'3 275. A little extra on him but a ton of muscle and legs of a bull. \n His problem is that he dated a girl, Anna, his 2nd girlfriend ever, who he thinks was out of his league. They were together for 8 months, but their relationship ended 4 years ago. He's had plenty of time to get over her, but seemingly either won't or simply can't. \n She was a serial dater who wouldn't have sex with guys outside of a relationship. This caused her to jump from relationship to relationship anytime she wanted to fuck someone else. Kris fell victim to this. \n Outside of being a serial dater, she just wasn't a nice or good person. Would keep him away from his family and friends, and would put ridiculous amounts of pressure on him to provide. \n How to I go about helping him move on from their relationship. I know emotional abuse and ex's last with everyone. I've studied family and marital relationship psychology in school, just I haven't been able to help him despite my attempts. He's been with other girls, but he's holding Anna's pussy on a pedistol.", "id": "t3_3jvky2", "summary": "Kirs can't/won't get over serial dater Anna even though they dated for only 8 months, 4 years ago. How do I help him out?"}, {"author": "OperationJack", "content": "I have been a Gamecock fan all my life. I lived, watched, and understood the very bad ('98 and '99 1-21 stretch) and had the very good while I was in school ('09-'13 seasons). I watched as a young man during the Lou Holtz scandals, and I watched us bring the HBC to Columbia. I've seen our most recent legends play in person in multiple places, heard plenty about those from the past. Lived and breathed Gamecock football as a result of my family's lineage at the school. \n Despite all of this, and being used to the ups and downs and expecting the worst, I do not feel as well prepared as I have been in the past. I think last season really did a number on my heart and psyche. Especially after blowing so many late 4th quarter leads, losing to Clemson for the first time in 5 years, and the thrashing we received at home by A&M. The Bowl Game made me feel a little bit better, though not a lot. \n In approximately an hour and a half we will officially be on the eve of the 2015 USC Gamecock Football Season. I want to ask you how do y'all feel?", "id": "t3_3jaxdc", "summary": "I'm gun shy about football due to last season. I want to know, how do you feel about the upcoming season?"}]}
+{"author": "zeMouse", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Barbies proportions are designed to make her look right while wearing doll clothes, not while naked.", "output": "In response to the regular Barbie proportion outrage: The current Barbie has the proportions that she does simply because the seams on her clothing and the thickness of the fabric add an unproportional amount of bulk wherever they occur. Her waist is very small so that the seams at the top of her pants or skirt do not make her look ridiculous. Her arms and legs are very skinny so that adding clothing on top of them does not make them look huge."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Barbies proportions are designed to make her look right while wearing doll clothes, not while naked.", "output": "Copied from my comment below: \nIn response to the regular Barbie proportion outrage: The current Barbie has the proportions that she does simply because the seams on her clothing and the thickness of the fabric add an unproportional amount of bulk wherever they occur. Her waist is very small so that the seams at the top of her pants or skirt do not make her look ridiculous. Her arms and legs are very skinny so that adding clothing on top of them does not make them look huge."}], "user_id": "longlamp_16258", "history": [{"author": "zeMouse", "content": "Therapy for everyone! It's not fair for either of you to be relying solely on the other person to regulate your emotions. There's a lot of times when something else is a higher priority, something that will have a longer term effect on your life (like a big exam!) Then there are other times when you'll need space from each other just because you don't have enough energy to cope with that kind of crisis. Helping someone with anxiety is nearly  or equally as exhausting as having anxiety! \n This is the sort of thing where yes, it's nice to be able to get comfort from someone else, but they are not required to be the first thing you turn to when you're panicking. This is for your sake and for theirs. What if their phone was broken? What if they were overseas? What if they were at work? What if they were dealing with an emotional crisis of their own? You need to have other strategies in place. \n This isn't to say that your partner should never support you through your anxiety, but it is up to them to set reasonable limits as to when and where they are able to. It sounds like your girlfriend is generally pretty supportive though.", "id": "cqahwx5", "summary": "get thee to therapy"}, {"author": "zeMouse", "content": "Copying this from my comment below: \n In response to the regular Barbie proportion outrage: The current Barbie has the proportions that she does simply because the seams on her clothing and the thickness of the fabric add an unproportional amount of bulk wherever they occur. Her waist is very small so that the seams at the top of her pants or skirt do not make her look ridiculous. Her arms and legs are very skinny so that adding clothing on top of them does not make them look huge.", "id": "cebp0u3", "summary": "Barbies proportions are designed to make her look right while wearing doll clothes, not while naked."}, {"author": "zeMouse", "content": "Copied from my comment below: \n In response to the regular Barbie proportion outrage: The current Barbie has the proportions that she does simply because the seams on her clothing and the thickness of the fabric add an unproportional amount of bulk wherever they occur. Her waist is very small so that the seams at the top of her pants or skirt do not make her look ridiculous. Her arms and legs are very skinny so that adding clothing on top of them does not make them look huge.", "id": "cebp1eg", "summary": "Barbies proportions are designed to make her look right while wearing doll clothes, not while naked."}, {"author": "zeMouse", "content": "Copied from my comment below: \n In response to the regular Barbie proportion outrage: The current Barbie has the proportions that she does simply because the seams on her clothing and the thickness of the fabric add an unproportional amount of bulk wherever they occur. Her waist is very small so that the seams at the top of her pants or skirt do not make her look ridiculous. Her arms and legs are very skinny so that adding clothing on top of them does not make them look huge.", "id": "cebp1on", "summary": "Barbies proportions are designed to make her look right while wearing doll clothes, not while naked."}, {"author": "zeMouse", "content": "Copied from my comment below: \n In response to the regular Barbie proportion outrage: The current Barbie has the proportions that she does simply because the seams on her clothing and the thickness of the fabric add an unproportional amount of bulk wherever they occur. Her waist is very small so that the seams at the top of her pants or skirt do not make her look ridiculous. Her arms and legs are very skinny so that adding clothing on top of them does not make them look huge.", "id": "cebp2hx", "summary": "Barbies proportions are designed to make her look right while wearing doll clothes, not while naked."}, {"author": "zeMouse", "content": "Copied from my comment below: \n In response to the regular Barbie proportion outrage: The current Barbie has the proportions that she does simply because the seams on her clothing and the thickness of the fabric add an unproportional amount of bulk wherever they occur. Her waist is very small so that the seams at the top of her pants or skirt do not make her look ridiculous. Her arms and legs are very skinny so that adding clothing on top of them does not make them look huge.", "id": "cebp4ez", "summary": "Barbies proportions are designed to make her look right while wearing doll clothes, not while naked."}, {"author": "zeMouse", "content": "Ok here's my two cents on this - I'm exactly the same way as your girlfriend when it comes to this! For me it's because I have ADHD and some related anxiety. So I'm very absentminded and distractable, and I worry a lot as (unhealthy) compensation for that - the emotion associated with a thought will keep me from forgetting it, I'm working on fixing that.\nNow for the majority of women I've heard from, I can't speak for men, good sex is mainly about where you are mentally. This is especially true for me. So when my boyfriend tries to start something, every single time I have to go and pee, mark my place in whatever I'm reading or doing, consciously put my tools or materials away so I don't lose track of them when clothes start to go flying, etc. If I didn't do this, I wouldn't be able to enjoy sex as much, because I would have those annoying little half-thoughts in the back of my head going off every thirty seconds. By tidying up my brain before we start, I'm making it so that I can lose myself in the amazing sex we have! \n So, if it wasn't any good, I wouldn't want to take care of all that stuff beforehand - I could just go along with him but keep planning my evening chore schedule or whatever in my head.", "id": "conficb", "summary": "she's probably showing you that she values your time together by making sure that she can be focused entirely on you."}, {"author": "zeMouse", "content": "I've noticed recently that I have trouble with: \n \n Planning meals for the week \n Sticking to that meal plan (Not getting bored) \n Buying appropriate quantities of food at the grocery store (Not too much, not too little) \n Estimating how much I can or should eat in a week \n Actually, IN GENERAL, anything that requires me to estimate how much of a given resource I have or need (this includes time used to cook, amounts of food I should eat or buy, etc.) \n Remembering to eat at appropriate times (especially when on medications!) \n \n I'd love to hear from any of you about how you deal with meals, grocery shopping, dieting, &etc. Particularly of interest are any articles, websites, apps, or tools that you use to help with this. I find that it's difficult to sort through many recipe blogs or food sites to get to the information that I actually need without getting distracted by complicated recipes for brownies and cupcakes.", "id": "t3_30mpn1", "summary": "what strategies do you use for food, meals, and grocery shopping?"}, {"author": "zeMouse", "content": "First of all I know this is a really long post so I'm going to  put all my questions in bold  for readability. \n OK! So I would like to think that I have a decent idea of what I'm doing but I really don't want to fuck this up and there are a lot of parts I haven't done before so I thought I'd ask for some help first.\n(Experience: one semester of working in the costume shop @ my college and one semester of wardrobe crew, along with some minor mending projects and a lot of cross stitching which never made it to a finished piece. The most complicated piece I've made by myself was this [toddler backpack]( \n ANYWAY, my project is going to be a  weighted blanket \n I am going to be following [this weighted blanket tutorial]( as a basic guide. Since the [filling]( is relatively expensive, I am going to be making a 6 lb. lap blanket, roughly 1.5 x 3 feet. I'm basing the weight/size off of [this product]( \n My  first issue  is with the fabric. He really loves disney princesses (his mom likes to imagine that he thinks they're his girlfriends which is adorable) so I got the last yard and a half of [this fabric]( at Joann's last night. I forgot to check while I was there but I'm almost positive that it's 100% cotton. Just from how saturated it is, I am kind of worried that it might bleed later. They're going to need to wash it often since he is rather messy. \n I've done some research and I'm not sure how to deal with this. One person told me to wash it in citric acid, but they didn't have any at the craft store close to me. Some internet people say that they don't wash it beforehand because it's easier to cut out pieces and washing makes the edges fray. I asked the fabric department at my craft store and they said that I could wash it in vinegar? And finally I know my Grandma usually soaks colorful things in a sink full of cold water for a few hours. \n I definitely want to wash it beforehand so that it doesn't shrink after I've put it together so my first question is  what is the best way to wash the fabric now so that the colors don't bleed into each other and the edges don't fray in the wash, preferably without having to order any special fabric treatment online?  (I'm near a Hobby Lobby so I can run out to get common things but I need this to be done by christmas so I can't wait for online orders to ship) \n OK  next issue : Before this, I've really only sewn pattern pieces together. For this project, I am going to have to cut two large rectangles of fabric with straight perpendicular edges, and I am not sure how to do that. I have a fabric marking pencil, a large kitchen table, a yardstick and several rulers, one of those triangle thingies that you use to mark corners, and some fabric scissors. I would assume that I can use all these things to turn my fabric into nice neat rectangles but I'm unclear on the specifics. \n When I've used the corner thingie on paper and cardboard, I've sometimes managed to have all four corners be nice right angles but somehow not quite lined up with eachother. I'd imagine this problem would be magnified when you're working with fabric, since the weave isn't as fixed as paper is. IDK what the right words are but like how when you cut a square of it you can pull on the corners and it'll be more like a rhombus and then anything you mark on it will be warped when you straighten it out again? That would be bad. So my question is  how can I cut nice straight even rectangles without having to buy more tools ? \n My  last two issues  have to do with finishing the edges. The [tutorial]( I mentioned earlier isn't super specific, and I wanted to bind the edges since I don't have a serger. So, I found [another tutorial]( for a plain ol' non-weighted baby blanket which I'm going to follow once I have all the pellets sewn in. \n First question on this part should be pretty simple. The author does a [zig-zag stitch to secure the edges of the blanket]( before they sew the binding on.  I've never used a zigzag stitch on an edge before and I can't tell how they've lined it up . It looks like one side of the \"points\" are just slightly off the edge of the fabric, but wouldn't that make it come apart, if they're not anchored in anything? I would think that at the least you'd have some loose little loops of thread hanging off the edge. Is that really how it's supposed to be done or am I looking at the picture wrong? \n Finally we're at the very last question of this post! If you've made it this far, you are definitely my hero and an awesome person! After I've zigzagged the edges, I'm supposed to put the binding on. I got [this stuff]( from Hobby Lobby just now. I'm a little confused by the fact that the edges just sort of... end. Like they're not folded over or anything.  Is that OK ? I thought that having edges exposed was a Bad Idea because they'll fray and stuff.  Am I supposed to fold them in myself? Is the binding made of something that won't fray even though the edge is right there?", "id": "t3_3wz5i7", "summary": "but please read the whole post?) \n \n How do I keep my fabric from bleeding? \n What's the best way to cut large, straight, even rectangles without a whole lot of tools? \n I'm confused about whether the edge of a zigzag stitch is supposed to be over the edge of my fabric \n I am not sure if I am supposed to do something with my blanket binding so that the edges are tucked away, or if it's fine to just leave them in the open"}, {"author": "zeMouse", "content": "Basically the title. I've been googling for like an hour and I can't find anything that's quite right. Your help would be appreciated :D I know this isn't the usual kind of post but you guys seemed like the sub to ask. \n The Structure: \n So I made [this little house]( in 2/3 scale for my cat. I just finished step 3, so I basically have a little cardboard dome with some windows and doors that looks kinda lame. What I'm thinking is that I'm going to reinforce it with paper-mache and then do some shaping & texturing too. Finally paint and glue some decoration on. \n The Techniques: \n This is just to give you guys an idea of what's possible. You won't miss much if you skip this section. It's not really relevant to finding reference images. I haven't got the whole thing figured out yet, since I have to decide exactly what I'm doing first. I do know that I'm going to start with a few layers of overlapping paper strips in the traditional paper-mache style to get a smooth starting surface and build up some weight, and from there create my texture with [paper mache pulp]( which is basically paper mache modeling clay. I'm also considering using toilet paper to get a [really gnarly-looking outer texture]( in some parts. \n The Look (Important Bit Starts Here): \n What I would ideally have is a little boulder-looking thing with holes left for the windows and doors, glue some greenery on, and add some fairy-house details. In terms of style, I want to try for \"playful and magical.\" The guy who put [a fairy tree]( in his daughter's bedroom gave me the idea. [This CG model]( is the closest thing I've found to what I'm going for, but in form rather than style. [This Pinterest image]( from a shut-down website is a little bit closer but not quite cave-y enough. \n I DON'T want it to be a cutesy little house-shaped thing. I'm considering adding house-type details, like some rough framing looking stuff, but I want it to be very clearly a rock/cave that happens to have become a home. Also, the inside will not be very visible, so I will mostly be working on the outside. \n The Problem: All my googling mostly turns up either plain cave interiors or tree-based fantasy homes. I desperately need more reference photos, ideas, and just inspiration. \n Here's the closest things I've found so far: \n [Plain cave entrance]( \n [Treetrunk home entrance]( \n [A random bridge]( but it has the right \"feel\" to it IMO \n [A cliff city]( \n [A cave opening in a village]( \n [A little dwarven house]( - closeish to what I want! Not foresty enough and a bit too \"man-made\" looking but very close.", "id": "t3_4d1t0h", "summary": "please help me find some images to use as reference/inspiration for a paper mache \"fairy cave\""}, {"author": "zeMouse", "content": "So, I was browsing reddit the other day and I came across the [\"It's like living in a soft rain of post-it notes\"]( essay about having ADHD. I'm taking an art class this semester and that gave me a great idea for my final project - I've been looking at text-based art like that of [Glenn Ligon]( so I want to make something that sort of visually conveys the feeling of having a million competing things to remember. \n I'm thinking that what I'll do is cover my whole paper in [handwriting]( in overlapping layers and different shades so it's still sort of readable but also really blurring together. Here's where you guys come in - I'm looking for short \"to-do  list\" type sentences. Ones that cover small things and big things, weird things and normal things, things that you actually will do and things that are pipe dreams, things that you should do and things that you shouldn't - however you'd think them in your head. I'll include these with my own entries - I really want a variety of stuff, and I have a lot of paper to cover!", "id": "t3_246qmr", "summary": "what's your mental to-do list? \n edit - thanks so much, you guys are great! Now I just have to remember when this is due... :-P"}, {"author": "zeMouse", "content": "So, I'd like to think I'm a pretty clean person, but my dorm room starts to smell sort of musty really easily! It's not a BO smell but it just sort of smells like (non-armpit) sweat and damp.\nI wash my sheets every week, my blankets every other week, I do laundry as soon as my small basket is full, I wear most clothes only once (with the exception of pants, occasionally PJ's, and sweaters), I put my laundry away, I have a small fan running, I open the window frequently... but it just keeps coming back! Is this just a dorm thing? Any solutions? (btw the room has carpet if that matters)", "id": "t3_2tfyno", "summary": "I washed all my stuff but my dorm room still smells weird, halp"}, {"author": "zeMouse", "content": "OK so before I even start, I know that people are going to say \"just talk to them,\" and I'm going to! I just really need a plan going in, because they have this way of politely steamrolling me without me noticing until later! \n So it's my fifth year of college and I had to move out of my off-campus house since my old roommates graduated. This year I've been living in an apartment-style dorm with three other girls. I didn't know any of them before we moved in. \n They seem pretty much ok, I mean we're not best friends or anything, but we don't have huge fights. I'm really introverted, especially around girls who aren't interested in nerdier things (Like... what am I supposed to say to you? Do we talk about boys? Is that a thing? I want to go play pokemon not awkwardly stand in my doorway until you decide to stop making smalltalk with me someone help!) \n Anyway they're mostly fine to live with. We've had a few disagreements like about the temperature and taking out the trash and whatnot, and I have a few issues that i've decided aren't worth pursuing too. However when we had those disagreements they tended to corner me in my room when I was trying to introvert and talk at me really loud about why their solution was the best (not in a mean way, just really overwhelming especially when I'm in \"being alone\" mode) and then I panic and agree so that they'll leave... \n Which is why I really want to have a plan for what I'm going to ask for, for this latest issue, which is really simple : their friends are over too much! They have club meetings here, their friends come over after class and stay till midnight, they study in the living room together, it's too much! It's unusual if someone DOESN'T have friends over on any given night! There's laughing and talking and gossiping and complaining and none of it is unreasonably loud but its loud enough that it bothers me and they're in my space, I just wanna get a goddamn sandwich without having to walk through five randoms I've never met and awkwardly cooking while all this socializing is happening around me! (kitchen is on one wall of the living room) \n I know that it isn't reasonable to be this annoyed, it's their space too and I do have a friend over to study every few weeks and my boyfriend comes over for a few hours on tuesdays so it's not like I never have people over, but I am! \n I don't know what to ask for - the two girls have different friends, so I can't be like \"only 4 nights a week to have friends over please!\" because then how do they divide it, or what if they don't use it, or whatever? And I don't want to say \"don't talk or laugh,\" or ask for like library voices or whatever. And a curfew doesn't solve the issue, it's MORE annoying when they're here during the day because that's when I want to be focused and doing stuff, at night I can just turn on my fan real loud and go to sleep. \n So basically, I need possible solutions that I can ask for, that account for there being two different friend groups and being bothersome during the day, that don't make me look like an unreasonable bitch, but I can't think of any because I CAN'T THINK WITH ALL THIS FUCKING BACKGROUND CHATTER ITS LIKE STATIC FOR MY BRAIN ugh", "id": "t3_2t0a4a", "summary": "Two of my roommates each have friends over almost every night. What is a good compromise that will keep me from wanting to murder my roommate's friends, but won't make them hate me?"}]}
+{"author": "elbiot", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Don't join the effing military", "output": "I'll probably get downvoted into oblivion but... \n Congratulations for being courageous.  That particular quality is admirable.  But sir was courageously following orders of very questionable ethics, and we exhault his courage while debasing the courage of the individuals trying to defend their country against invasion.  I can't really get behind that (what I can only call) bigotry.  Very few people buy the \"died defending our freedom\" propaganda the military spews in every conceivable situation. \n Is this person more deserving of recognition than a mom taking her kid to school that gets killed in gang crossfire? or the individual who brought down the helicopter in operation red wings? Or a construction worker crushed by a cement truck while building a hospital?"}], "user_id": "longlamp_10222", "history": [{"author": "elbiot", "content": "With a csv, I can batch together urls I'd want to run this on while not attending to the script (as opposed to having to run the script and sit there and type in \"yes I'd like to do another, here is the URL\" and wait for it to finish before doing another).  I prefer to just all my input and then walk away, which makes copy and paste easier too since I can just paste copy \"PNG\" down the row ratehr than type it over and over with 60 second breaks in between.  Plus, I have a record of what queries I already ran, in case I want to go back after modifying the script and do it again, or use the same URLs for unit testing.  And I might (will probably definately at some point) want to automate creating the url list, either with a python script or VIM macro.", "id": "crmvwkd", "summary": "I don't want to babysit a script, and I'd like it to be as automatic and extensible as possible."}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "I (and critical theory in general) agree that utopian visions are not useful.  Most critical theorists focus on elucidating the fundamental contradictions of capitalism.  The system as a whole is  irrational . \n The amazing productive force of capitalism has overcome its previous contradictions: The worker is no longer brutally oppressed by the capitalist, but instead drives a car on the same road, wears the same clothes, reads the same news papers, and enjoys many of the same pleasures.  The irrationality which capitalism cannot engulf and neutralize exists, but is increasingly harder to distinguish and convey. \n A good first read on the subject of these new evolutions of the contradictions of capitalism is Ivan Illich's [ Tools for Conviviality ]( \n Another work that is excellent is B. Traven's fictional Jungle Novels (March to the Monteria is great!), which tell the conditions leading to the first Mexican revolution in the early 1900's.  This is the same area that the Zapitistas now hail from. \n Towards the other end of the spectrum of accessibility, I recommend Herbert Marcuse's  One Dimensional Man .", "id": "cqvl98n", "summary": "Dreams of a Utopia are a waste of time.  Becoming aware of the consequences of the effectiveness of the current system and beginning to pursue freedom from that is invaluable."}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "I'm not saying people should use TrueCrypt.  Though, see this: \n It's more about how you told the story of TrueCrypt.  TrueCrypt isn't simply languishing as a project, not getting enough developer support or whatever.  It was comprised by a likely malicious and intrusive forces (ie the NSA), and shut down in response.  Not just in response, as a message about the state of crypto security in this world of massive state sponsored anti-cyber security organizations.  Someone who knows much more about what's going on than us suggests we use Windows built in encryption or simply [set encryption to none on OSX instead](  Any package on Linux with encryption in the description is fine, the author says.  TrueCrypt was not a canary, but a miner in a coal mine \n Though some force has likely compromised TrueCrypt, it isn't a vulnerability that would be used in such a trivial investigation.  And any other solution is likely as compromised if not more, but the devs just don't make it known due to gag orders and such.  The TrueCrypt dev was likely able to do what they did because they are an unknown individual.", "id": "cqksd7r", "summary": "The end of TrueCrypt is not that it became an unmaintained and unaudited project.  The end of TrueCrypt was a statement about how some one out there has (probably) compromised essentially all encryption."}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "This is not the opposite.  OP is rich, even if just by the privilege of living in the USA.  OP consumes this luxury (food made for you by someone else) for the sake of being seen consuming it (hence, posting it to reddit).  That is way more food than OP and friends could eat, so it is ridiculous to say OP took that food so that they could enjoy eating it.  It is about having access to the luxury.  OP's post is not about the enjoyment of food. \n The american dream, or fantasy rather, is the zombie apocalypse where the mall becomes deserted and everything is free.  Here, we can live the dream of consumption, of being the owner of warehouses of shit we don't need.  Americans have internalized the observer that would see us consuming, so even if no one else sees us, this over consumption is for the gaze of that observer.", "id": "c7dikal", "summary": "Everyone in the USA is rich, and there is not necessarily a real person that we need to be seen consuming by in order to indulge in conspicuous consumption.  Consumption for other than our own real benefit is consumption for some \"other\"."}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "Background: \n We had a room available in our house that I was filling through craigslist.  After a dozen lame candidates, an engaging artist visted out house.  We talked for 40 minutes and got along great.  The day he was moving in, the cops showed up to arrest him.  I did an [AMA]( on the event. \n I set up a google alert on his name, and seeing the media hype, started to feel that he was getting a bad rap.  I [stood up for him in the comments for on particularly bad article](  He was clearly a social deviant, but had not been convicted, or even charged with a violent crime, and the media was using all sorts of tactics to label him a violent psychopath. \n Then he was arressted for assaulting some woman and setting her apartment on fire.  [She jumped out of the second story window to escape him]( \n Now, he admits to killing the woman I mentioned in the AMA, and took police to her body buried in the woods.", "id": "c2iwlo3", "summary": "I realized that I am a terrible judge of character after approving of a serial rapist/murder, asking him to move into my house, and then defending him online."}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "I am not trying to scorn anyone.  My perspective is that attraction is something that happens between two people, and strongly one-sided \"attraction\" is naive and unreal. \n I am not saying that any real man can have any woman he wants.  Nor am I saying that i am never interested in someone who is not interested in me, or that I never desire for some particular woman to want me when in fact she doesn't.  I have these experiences. \n But, if you are \"in love\" with someone and they don't feel the same, then you are responding to something internal and not to the external.  You are not \"in love\", you only think those words.  The friend-zone is made up of people who don't recognize this and fully believe that \"if only that other person felt differently, we would be happy together\".  But that other person who feels differently does not exist, and attraction to that is attraction to a mind-object. \n How could you really be attracted to someone who isn't being attracted to you?  That is not actually attraction; real attraction is powerful and undeniable, and it is a physical experience. the false attraction doesn't feel the same and it doesn't feel nearly as good. It is a more a thought repeated than an experience.   To know If a feeling is attraction or not may require some experimentation and play, pushing boundaries, as it isn't always immediately clear.  As people get older and experiment more, they tend to get better at distinguishing. \n Full commitment to the friend-zone is based on confusion.  Usually, wanting of status, power or validation (perhaps driven by dissatisfaction with life) is at the root of this confusion.  And this is much more common in younger men than among any other group.  As people get older, they tend to learn better what actually makes them happy.  The pretty girl is actually boring, and the kinky girl is a wreck. \n That a pretty girl will be satisfying is crap the media feeds us.  That I am unhappy because I don't have a girlfriend is crap.  Get happy first and then be able to experience attraction as it happens.", "id": "c3qxci5", "summary": "Being in love by yourself is a mind-trick which covers over the real source of unhappiness.  authentic connection is real, and both people experience it."}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "It's good to know your opinion, as other users probably share it.  However, your opinion is based on some big misconceptions.  The first is that it is more secure/private/responsible for an app to handle the login process.  The second is that using OAuth is \"sharing information\" with another service. \n For the first, your password is much safer being stored through google or facebook than through a less established service.  If I write an app and create a login process, you have no idea how strong my password hashing strategy is, if I am competent at securing my server, or if I am even monitoring my logs and would notice if someone stole a dump of the user login database.  Google does these things very well.  It might look more responsible for a website to have its own login process, but it is actually potentially (probably) less responsible. \n For the second, using google for authentication has nothing to do with sharing data with google.  You might have the idea that if you sign in through google that the whole website is somehow piped through google and they can peek in on anything, but this isn't true.  The extent of OAuth's communication with google is that the user is forwarded from google to your site with a certificate stating that this user does in fact own the email address they are claiming to.  That is it.  Google is never communicated with again, and the certificate lasts for a while so google doesn't even know how often the user is logging into the site.  Sharing data with google is when the site has a google search bar in the corner, or google advertising or something, and every page you access also pings google with a persistent tracking cookie.  But this is completely independant (techically and ideologically) from OAuth login.", "id": "cis7mjp", "summary": "OAuth has nothing to do with sharing data, selling you off or taking less responsible shortcuts and everything to do with using a more reliable and secure service for the sensitive task of user authentication."}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "The police say he isn't officially a suspect.  He was arrested in Austin for 1) unauthorized use of a vehicle and 2) an out of state warrant (apparently related to stealing the car. \n Honestly, I don't strongly think he is the guy.  The \"evidence\" is all circumstantial and can easily have non murder related explanations.  Like, the news describes him turning off the security cameras at work and washing out a cooler with latex gloves on, as if he slaughtered the woman there, kept the pieces in a cooler, which he dumped somewhere and then came back to work to clean it out. \n More than likely, he was using the bakery he works at to make huge batches of the pot granola bars he sells.  probably used the cooler from work to transport them, then had to scrub the pot smell out of them.  The plastic absorbed the smell and so he just stole the cooler. \n Also, he was \"homeless\" for a period (living in his van). \n I don't know what the story behind the stolen car is.  Did he straight hotwire a car off the street, or pull a gun on someone and force them out?  Or, did he trade for it/buy it from someone who wasn't authorized to sell it, or who had second thoughts about the transaction that led to a dispute that led to calling the cops? \n A housemate who makes pot food, steals from work and who has been \"homeless\" (not through forced circumstances but by reversible choice) would be par for the course for housemates here.  Looking back on it, he did tell me about the disappeared girl, but it didn't seem like a big deal: drunk ass girl walked off \n Its sort of a shame that its hard to shake an accusation.  For instance, why did the cops show up in such force?  was it because they googled his name and made a judgement?  Or were they were in touch with colorado police and they said they wanted him arrested inorder to try him for murder.  I think the the colorado police are not ready to press charges on him, and the austin police used the newspaper headlines to decide to make a big show.", "id": "c1sut7k", "summary": "We'll have to wait to see if charges ever get pressed and, in that case, what real evidence exists and what a jury says about it."}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "Typically the cheap way out is one that is more harmful. \n And this is what I am speaking to, the ignorant voice that cries out things like \"(synthetic) chemicals cause cancer\".  But actually, we know what causes cancer:  chemicals that are  mutagenic .  Natural and synthetic chemicals alike can be mutagenic (or not).  The confidence that chloramine causes cancer while chili peppers don't is completely unfounded.  Science shows it is the other way around. \n The \"cheap is probably worse for you\" argument doesn't carry anymore weight than \"chemicals cause cancer\".  And assuming this principal to be an adequate guide retards genuinely better (and cheaper) ways of doing things from getting traction.  For instance, [Masanobu Fukuoka]( had to deal with people preferring \nmore industrial fruits and vegetables to his own because his were ridiculously cheap.  But this is because Fukuoka was  not  using the harmful methods that the industrial farmers were.  What we call organic is just as industrial as conventional veggies, because people will not buy naturally grown food. \n Stoneware is an ancient technology.  It started as simple as it gets and hasn't gotten much more complicated.  There are no techniques that I know of that involve adding poisons.  Maybe soda ash as a flux, but not soluble heavy metals or salts that leach out.  Anything that leached out due to moisture would [ruin the tile]( \n The simple way to tell if the stone is glazed or not is to see if it reflects light.  If it is shiny, it is glazed.", "id": "c4d2hck", "summary": "I no more believe the person saying \"it is probably bad for you, because it is cheap\" than I will believe the person saying \"it is synthetic so it probably causes cancer\".  Inform thyself and don't use these half-truths as guides."}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "Its amazing to me that more people don't notice \"guerrilla advertising\" on reddit.  That is, companies spend money to game reddit: buying accounts, posting not-very-funny-yet-brand-relevant original content and then using bought accounts to get some credibility.  then legit users upvote and take part in the fun, because enough people approve already. \n example: \n These companies even sometimes release dumb or flawed advertisements so reddit can link to it and spread it.", "id": "c4e9je7", "summary": "If it looks like spam, even clever spam, downvote it.  Help keep reddit from being gamed. \n edit: for instance, none of these comments suggest anyone finds this funny, yet this ad has thousands of upvotes."}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "As a bicyclist who treats stop signs as yield signs, and stop lights as stop signs, I use logic based on the potential lethal force of the vehicle. \n no vehicle < bicycle < moped < motorcycle < car < semi \n Notice the WTF factor of watching each of these blow through a red light increases dramatically with potential lethal force.  I saw a semi blow a stop light and was shaken for a couple minutes just knowing that that can happen.  pedestrian jaywalking is a 0 on the WTF scale. \n Law enforcement also recognize this gradient, and enforce accordingly.  I follow my stopsign = yield and stoplight = stopsign rule regardless of police presence, and I am rarely hassled, only once ticketed (which was basically dropped in court). \n You on a motorized vehicle, who agreed to the rules of the road by going through a licencing process, would get a ticket for something I or a pedestrian would not.", "id": "c3ffng0", "summary": "the greater your privilege of wielding potentially lethal force, the greater your obligation to strictly follow the rules of the road."}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "I was unsure how to handle such a big blister,  My doctor didn't return two messages I left for her.  I was confident that things were okay but just wanted someone with some experience to weigh in.  It was an ER visit because It was last minute, because I kept vacillating between \"its okay now\" and \"Its going to get way too big, maybe I should be doing something now\".  I didn't now if the growing blister was causing more of a problem or what. \n I showed up at the ER as the big blister was slowly leaking, and I'm glad I got solid advice on how to dress and care for it.  But on the ER I got the look of disapproval for a second, and was told I should have set an appointment at the original clinic.", "id": "c3ih7ps", "summary": "indecision."}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "We are interviewing people to live in our house, people mostly from craigslist.  The coolest guy we talked to was a 31 year old artist, just moving to our town from Colorado.  He said he left for reasons almost spiritual, that he had become successful as an artist and was feeling caught in it.  We chatted for a long time, and he brought out some gluten free pot granola bars he made.  He talked about what an artist he was, but though he seemed to glorify himself more than most people his age, we got along well.  The room was more expensive than he was looking for, but he really liked us, and had the money, so he was going to think about it. \n He spent some time weighing the decision. After calling to say \"no\", he called an hour later to say yes.  Then he called an hour after that to get directions to my house again, so he could move in (I was at work but he said he might as well check if any housemates were home).  Then, an hour later I get a call from my housemate asking if I had indeed met this guy on CL.  Curious, I said yes, and there was some muffling as the phone was passed around.  Then a man identifying himself as a police officer asked me some more details about how I knew the guy.  Satisfied, he said my housemates could fill me in later. \n Anyways, turns out (what I was told were) US marshals descended upon my house in bullet proof armor.  The guy had been driving a stolen car.  Though the cops couldn't tell us any details, they said to google \"Travis Forbes\". \n <a href=\" for your convenience </a> \n Apparently this guy was using a fake name, and forgot to mention that he was the prime suspect in the disappearance of a young lady.  Also, he has a creepy history of stealing panties and poking holes in them, and also assault.", "id": "t3_h5cjc", "summary": "Background checks all around for anyone else wanting to move into my house."}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "update: Austin wildlife rescue has accepted the animal.  After 24 hours in a cage, it wasn't clearly rabid though they were concerned it was sick in some way. \n Thanks to those who gave good advice here.\n** \n A week ago, a super playful raccoon showed up in my back yard.  I was scared of it, yet it was overwhelmingly friendly.  We played footsie a couple of times, and the thing would have jumped into my lap and licked my face if I had let it.  I was almost constantly making it keep its distance. \n Last night, I came outside to find it visiously killing something that was making all kinds of crazy noises.  But as I stepped closer, it stopped; the raccoon was alone.  It scampered a couple of feet into the thin branches of the tree and seemed calm.  Then it looked at me cazily and started \"barking\".  I ran inside and called 311. \n Animal control got back to me thinking I had called about neutering an animal.  I explained that, no, I called about rabies.  I told him about the week of bizarre behaviour, the sudden weird violence, and about how afraid I was. \n At first he acted like the issue was that the animal was in a tree 30 minutes ago (as if I could guarantee to them the location of the animal 45 minutes after I fled from it).  Obviously a trap is the answer.  To which he responded \"we don't set traps wildlife\".  But it's a public health concern in the middle of Austin!  \"We don't know that. We'd have to have the results of tests to know that\".  The test involves decapitating the animal, which they would clearly have to capture the animal for, but without which the refuse to capture the animal. \"Rabies doesn't look like what you are describing\".  Uh, Okay... \n So I found a friend with a cage trap and captured it.  Called 311.  They informed me that animal control does not relocate wildlife.  I pleaded that this animal was not \"healthy\", as the document she read kept saying \"healthy animals\".  She relented and sent the message to them.  No response. \n This was all late at night.  I called 311 early in the morning and they said I had called enough, animal control didn't respond for a reason, give it up.  We could bring it to the shelter, but they'd just release it where we had got it. \n I since gather from what I can that it would have to bite me before the city will address it. \n 10 hours later, the animal won't take food or water, but just looks at it oddly.  It is shaking and looks blankly often. Is it the captivity, or rabies? I don't know.  But the City of Austin essentially says I need to relocate it myself (release a likely rabid animal with another few days of life left in it!), or kill it myself and put it in the city compost or something.  They don't care if it seems like rabies to me and feels dangerous to me.", "id": "t3_2fyf1v", "summary": "just a rant about a caged likely rabid raccoon that the city says I should release or kill myself.  Any one wanna come over with a .22? Or, what the heck should I do?"}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "I'm working on an Entity Component System framework  and I'm a bit stuck on a problem with the allocator. \n For a bit of background on this system, a Component is a contiguous array of data, an Entity is a number that can be used to index data across components, and a System is a function that takes sections of components and changes their data. \n For instance, in a game, you might have the Components  render_verts ,  collision_verts , position , and  velocity .  An Entity might be a static background object that stays still as you pass it, so it has  render_verts  and  position , or it might be a ninja bad guy that has all of the components.  A System relevant for the background object might be  update_verts(render_verts,position)  while the ninja might be affected by the  update_position(position,velocity) ,  update_verts(render_verts, position) , and  update_verts(collision_verts,position)  systems. \n Now I need to keep the Components in sync with regard to the Systems that depend on them when I insert new collections of Component Values (Entities).  I have an allocation table for this. \n Systems require slices (not index arrays or multiple slices) to access data in components.  Naively allocating spaces in arrays without regard for this will not work. For instance: \n entity_class_id, render_verts, collision_verts, positions, velocity\n\n            01,             1,               0,         0,        0\n            02,             1,               0,         1,        0\n            03,             1,               0,         1,        1\n            04,             1,               1,         0,        0\n            05,             1,               1,         1,        0\n            06,             1,               1,         1,        1\n \n Trying to apply update_verts(positions, velocities), one cannot get a single\nslice on positions.  This table can be re-arranged to work: \n entity_class_id, render_verts, collision_verts, positions, velocity\n\n             01,            1,               0,         0,        0\n             02,            1,               0,         1,        0\n             03,            1,               0,         1,        1\n             06,            1,               1,         1,        1\n             05,            1,               1,         1,        0\n             04,            1,               1,         0,        0\n \n I see also that with just random entities, there could be no solution.  If there was an entity that had only position, it could not fit in this table without breaking the contiguity condition.  So, I need to be able to recognize what entity_classes are in conflict to give the user a chance to solve it (in this case, create a seperate position2 component for that entity class).  I'll probably also need allocation tables for multiple orthogonal sets of components.  For instance, adding  texture_coords  and  animated  components might make it impossible to satisfy the contiguity condition for a single table, but the animations have nothing to do with positions or anything in the render/collision domains, so they can be allocated without regard to those. \n I'm thinking naming the entity_classes binary values that represent their components, this when I add a collection of components I immediately know what class that entity belongs to.  Thus the entity_class_id for #01 above would be  1000  and for #02 it would be  1010 . \n I'm having a tough start on approaching this problem.  Any algorithm ideas or references to ideas in this domian would be helpful.", "id": "t3_4bibjk", "summary": "I want to sort binary numbers such that bits are contiguous through adjacent numbers.  ie take: \n 1000\n1010\n1011\n1100  \n1110  &lt;- this number breaks condition for third bit\n1111  &lt;- this breaks it for the fourth and third bits\n \n and order it like \n 1000\n1010\n1011\n1111\n1110\n1100"}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "Over the years, I have found myself solving variations on the same subset of problems, namely geometry intersections.  Every time, I've come up with a solution specific to the context of the problem.  Now at it again, I wonder if it's time I find an existing project to help turn into a general solution. \n Currently, I am working on 2D raytracing on a weighted b-splines for optics design. \n In the past, I worked on a 3D optical ray tracer utilizing cython.  It used enthough traits and was organized around the GUI it provided.  This project is now abandoned. \n I also played with making a physics based game, utilizing pymunk, the python bindings to chipmunk.  This is the correct solution in this context, and I wouldn't try to replace this. But it does fit the general theme. \n I also have used Geodjango's gdal library for doing analysis of GIS shape files.  Functions are fast, but not vectorized. \n Each time, I have written or imported a solution for: \n *Managing and applying functions across sets of geometry objects. \n *Geometry intersections. \n *spatial hashes \n \n computing normals at intersections. \n \n I know python isn't the best language to approach these problems with. But since I use python all the time, and come across these problems fairly often, and want to become a Numpy ninja anyways, I'd like to help make a fast general purpose solution.  So, if I or someone decides to implement ray tracing on a bivariate b-spline surface, the results will be available to others working on optics design, POV raytracing, E and M simulations, mechanics simulations, and maybe other fields.  Or if some wizard writes the fastest damn spatial hashing function in numpy, we all benefit. \n Related projects already existing: python-raytrace (first project I worked on), pyopt-tools (duplicated much of python-raytrace), pyrr (functions are not vectorized.  I have contacted them), GDAL, lib2d.", "id": "t3_2nos93", "summary": "looking for a project oriented at fast, vectorized calculations on geometry objects to contribute to. Any suggestions? Is my concept too general?"}, {"author": "elbiot", "content": "Back in the day, Priestly and others reduced an oxide of mercury by heat alone (no carbon monoxide or reducing agent) and collected the pure oxygen gas that was evolved. \n I also know that activated carbon is known to adsorb gases as pressure increases or temperature drops, and release them upon the opposite conditions.  But it does not release all gases at the same rate.  Though knowledge of enriching common air probably belongs to the alchemists, my knowledge skips to Dewar in the 1800's, who used extreme cold (evaporating dry ice in ether under a vacuum, and evaporating liquefied air).  He adsorbed six liters of air into one liter of carbon using the temperature of oxygen boiling at atmospheric pressure.  The first liter expelled was 80% pure oxygen. \n I believe that this method (pressure/temperature swing adsorption) is a common way of producing oxygen on a moderate scale (though not by the application of intense cold as Dewar showed).  As scale increases, liquefying air and evaporating off the nitrogen is the preferred method. \n My curiosity is from the perspective of primitive, or non modern-industrial methods of producing oxygen for productive purposes.  Concentrated oxygen is extremely useful in the attainment of high temperatures, and producing energy dense fuels such as water gas (undiluted by nitrogen) and oxidizers. \n I suspect various chemical methods have been employed, such as producing alkali and alkali earth peroxides.  If one were to use quick lime or caustic soda, how would they proceed?  How intense or wasteful would the effort be? \n And does anyone have any other ideas about how one would produce oxygen in a time when pumps strong enough to liquefy oxygen of even carbon dioxide were unavailable? \n [", "id": "t3_hog5z", "summary": "if you were a castaway engineer trying to rebuild society on a mysterious island, what method would you eventually employ in making concentrated oxygen for glass working equipment, etc?"}]}
+{"author": "p_U_c_K", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Who is the emperor after you kill him???? What is the outcome of the moot for whomever Ulfric shouted to pieces...? Why did Ulfric shout someone to pieces when you can't (unless you talk to herma mora (skaal style)? Where did he learn that? Why can't I remember anything?", "output": "I'm almost 600 hours in, and completed a lot of this stuff < 100 hours, so forgive me... But, I remember killing the emperor as a part of the DB quest line... So my question is... who became emperor, if anyone? \n Also, who is the king of solitude? So, Ulfric killed him, his wife was the de facto one, right? I think they were to have a moot but the war was f'ing stuff up. So, you take care of everything, and did anything change? Also, after you kill the emperor and feel all bad, staring off the bow of his ship... what becomes of that? Who is the emperor? I don't really remember what the point of any of that was (besides maybe showing people that the DB was back?)... \n When it comes to Dragon born... I was thinking it'd be cool if you could go full Miraak and start using Bend Will to take over people, mount up a giant force on Solstheim and attack the mainland. Maybe start funding the Storm Cloaks, attack together, take over skyrim and stuff... I don't know. It'd just be nice to be able to affect the game in a way that isn't the direct result of a prompt."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post its not that long, read it.", "output": "I came here to say that, I live in minneapolis and they are relatively anal about that sort of thing (I had to do the most menial shit to my house when I bought it, most of it cost 5 bucks a piece, but it all had to be done by a licensed person I couldn't tilt the dishwasher hose like 15 degrees so it wouldn't drain backwards). It keeps the city nice(r) and honestly what they don't mention is that the north side (I live on the nE side but have family over N) has been infested with unlicensed restoration companies (that's why there are inspectors out and about), start up companies that take advantage of tragedy's and want to be the middle man between home owners and insurance companies and get a cut. the \"hey, let me check out your roof for damage!\" companies are out in FULL force right now, so they're trying to protect the gullible that way. Combine that with the fact that the city is super protective of it's trees, like really protective (they don't want a normal person cutting city property, even if he has a heart and chainsaw of gold) and that he wasn't licensed and asked to stop and you get the general idea of where they are coming from."}], "user_id": "longlamp_13407", "history": [{"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "So... South St. Paul??? Wanna know something mildy amusing? I was born and raised in Minneapolis. So, basically, I was raised to not just hate St. Paul, but... virulently loathe it. Like a North Korean kindergartner using a \"toy\" bayonet to stab a winter carnival Vulcan in the playground... Playing hockey against Johnson, Como, Harding, etc. Didn't help... \n That having been said, I didn't venture into St. Paul often as a youth, unless it was for a hockey game. \n I'm 28 now. I didn't learn until I was 26 that South St. Paul, North St. Paul and West St. Paul were ACTUAL TOWNS. I thought they were like... you know, North Minneapolis, Northeast, South, etc... Like, parts of town. I couldn't fucking believe it when I figured that out. It was embarrassing as shit. I had a sales call with some decently sized company and argued with my contact about it. \"Do you know how ot get to South St. Paul\"... \"Yep! 94 to Dale? Take a left at the first knife wound victim?\", \"No... we're in SOUTH st. paul\", \"Oh... so a right then\"... \" silence \"... \n I blew that entire shit. Which sucked. I forget the name of the company. I think it was like fraisee's or fritze's... they made a bunch of generic candy. i wanted to go to a candy factory so bad. They weren't even a good fit for what we sold (candy poison) but I just wanted to wait in the lobby for the CFO to come out with a fake limp, have his cane get stuck in a crack, fall face first, but this time? He doesn't get up... because he had a stroke and is dead.", "id": "c9ouybg", "summary": "I don't know my own area."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I met a girl via facebook that I went to high school with, but didn't personally remember (although I did remember a lot of her friends). Either way, we started talking one night on FB chat, and then exchanged numbers, next day at work we texted all day, it was nice, she was cool, funny, etc. She came over that night, we had sex, 3 times, and the next day she texted me like, 150 times. If I didn't respond (because of a work meeting, or a sales call) she would explode. \n Either way, that night she calls me, and is acting really, really strange. She kept telling me \"she had to tell me something\" but wouldn't say anything, she just kept saying, \"I don't know\" and \"I can't say\" for like an hour. Now, I am hyper paranoid about STD's, and due to the fact that I was shitfaced, I didn't wear a condom. So I assumed she was trying to tell me she had herpes. After the second hour of her neither confirming or denying any and all my paranoid questions, I screamed at her \"stop with the mousy fucking bullshit! Just be an adult and speak, or text me, this is not fair, at all, you're making me sick with fear when all it takes is for you to tell me why I'm up at 1 a.m. when I have to get up at 6 a.m. tomorrow worried about something and nothing at the same time, fucking grow up!\", I hung up and forced myself to sleep. \n The next day, I texted her around 10 (I got into work at 7:30), I was worried about her and about the situation. Nothing. I went into complete panic mode. Around 11:45 a.m., the office phone rings, it says \"GOLD BAIL BO\", now, I was in a small office (5 people at that point), we all had cubes, so we heard one anothers conversations and had a rotating phone answering plan (as sales people \"call-ins\" were some weird incentive. Thank god. As, it was her, or rather, a bail bondsman, on behalf of her, asking if I would bail her out. I said, call me on my cellphone, and fled the office, as, it was a place of work, and, also, I was trying to date a girl in the office and had been on and off (she had a BF and it was super complicated and ended up being one giant mindfuck where she basically wanted my GF of 5 years (who at this point was out of the picture) to break up with me, or me her, simply as a game or some shit, that involved her using her vagina to defeat my logic). \n So, in the hall, I find out she's in county, for assaulting her mother, the bond was $5,000. The bond. Some don't know how this works, bond is 10% of bail, you don't get bond back, bail you do (which would've been 50k) if/when you go to trial. So, knowing this girl for a total of 48 hours, I said, \"are you seriously asking me for that much money? I don't know you, you don't even have a job Maria, seriously, call one of your friends\" and she screams \"DERP, I HAVE NO FRIENDS, AND I'M PREGNANT\", and I say \"that's impossible, we had sex 2 days ago, I'm not paying $5,000 for this\" and the bail bondsman, who was on the call, and probably thought \"this is the most WT call ever\" said \"maria, he isn't budging, let's try someone else, okay honey?\". Flash to the next week. She went through every fucking bail bonds company in the phone book, everytime I said no, she'd just call another one and have them call my work (I said once, in passing, where I worked, and somehow she got that number, in jail). So, I called the county jail and got her phone privileges taken away. \n Somehow her court date wasn't for almost 7 weeks (I looked it up on the county website), so this entire time, I'm worried about her actually being pregnant, or some genital warts forming on my person etc. She eventually got out, and then decided to get drunk and call me from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. every night, without fail, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. I'd answer, scream, make jokes, play porn, play scenes of someone shooting them self, plead, be nice, by mean, etc. Nothing stopped it. I called the police, they said without threats it wasn't a crime (as if harassment wasn't a crime anymore?). Then finally, it just stopped... \n She was forced into a detox/metal health review (through my internet sleuthing I had found out after she called me from jail that she had been involuntarily committed by her mom, twice prior, for similar shit). I know this because I read her online obituary. She hung herself with the wire on the shower curtain. Alone. In a detox facility. \n I've had constant nightmares about her. I don't believe in that kind of shit, mostly. But the dreams, I can't even begin to explain the horror. It's usually her, in like a prom dress, for some reason (we were both 26), crying, crying, crying crying crying, and I'd be like a hallway away, her on a fucking bench, just saying that I stood her up on our date, and that she loved me, and I keep telling her it's okay, until she looks up, and is fucking dead, rotting, like all green, and she stands up and is hovering, and I start crying like, I am so sorry about what happened, I was worried about my job, my life, I didn't know, I DIDN'T KNOW (my parents have heard me waking up screaming this multiple times when I've been at their house, because my house scares me now) and she starts like run floating towards me, and opens her mouth HUGE, and slams into me like absorbing my being through this huge agape maw. And I wake up like frozen from fear, sometimes crying, but mostly just feeling like shit about what happened to her. \n She was crazy, she almost got me fired, a couple times (calling the office over and over in and out of jail, and by keeping me up all night with calls (I used my phone as an alarm clock and couldn't block \"unknown\" calls and if I put ringer on silent, the alarm didn't work, which was the other reason why I almost got fired, and actually in the end, was fired). But still, she had good in her, that was masked by substance abuse and chemical imbalances in her brain, and that wasn't her fault, and she died. And I just wish one time she would've talked to me when I answered at 4 a.m., let me know how sad she was, I am a forgiving person, I would've been able to help. \n While I know it's not the case, I hope that is her in my dream, and that she knows how bad I feel. I know it's my guilt mixed with a life spent on 4chan, but I hold out hope she found peace somehow, even though she died alone and sad around strangers who didn't care enough to check on her for 4 hours after she was admitted.", "id": "c42mti8", "summary": "I don't feel right cutting this down. Read it, or don't. RIP."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Well, I'm technically in some form of therapy, I go to a counselor for alcoholism (mainly), but I also got kinda heavy into opiate shit for awhile. I've never talked to that dude about this, because I have like, tons of shit to deal with (my life went from about as perfect as a mid-20's dudes life could be to as bad as it could be in like a month and I just lost it and went on a 10 month out of control phase, I had like 40k in the bank and was getting 610 a week from the state for unemployment, so I was just fucking drunk and on oxycontin constantly, I don't know how I didn't die, to be honest.. It was bad. I'm not saying this to brag, since I know a lot of people like to talk about how much they drink like they're a high school junior \"I TOOK 8 SHOTS LAST NIGHT, SO WASTED!\", but I was drinking a liter and a half of vodka a day (not in a row, it was like, I'd wake up around 6 a.m., drink until I blacked out, wake up around 7 pm go to the liquor store to make sure I had enough for later, drink again, cash the bottle and start in on the second, black out, wake up again at like maybe 2 a.m. drink until like 10 a.m., repeat for 3 days until my body couldn't take it anymore and then just get sick as hell for like 2-3 days. Ugh. Anytime I want to drink I think about those hang overs, they were like alcohol poisoning style, full body, illness. I hated it, that's why I've relapsed 0 times in 15 months, I just imagine that shit. There is nothing I can compare that to, it fucks up your brain chemistry so bad, for atleast 4 days after you drink you're depressed as hell (it goes longer than that, but the initial part is terrible, like I'd wake up convinced that I did something wrong (as I was blacked out) and anything I could think of would hit me like a ton of bricks dude, like, you know that feeling you get when you know you fucked up? Like overslept for a midterm? I'd get that, every 20 minutes like. OH MY GOD MAYBE I DROVE TO TARGET LAST NIGHT BLACKED OUT! AHHHHHHHHHHH, then Id have to search around for receipts or something since i convinced myself I left my couch, despite never doing that). The reason I bring this up is, I was really depressed also, and then just finding out that someone I had been with, not to be gross but, the thought of how beautiful she was (she was really, really gorgeous, like half mexican half german, just, really pretty) and how soft her skin was, and knowing she was like rotting somewhere, and that she did that to herself because while she had problems, she also had no one (or so she told me, but honestly, I called her a few times proactively to ask her why she kept calling me at night, and a couple times she was with some other girls and would put me on speaker phone and laugh at me like \"it's derp from HS, he's stalking me, he thinks I like him, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, LIKE I WOULD WASTE TIME ON YOU!\" and her friends would all laugh and I'd be like... god damnit. \n Anyway. Consciously, I don't feel responsible. I mean. Seeing her previous police reports and those 72 hour things that Brittany Spears went on made me realize she clearly had issues. But, I have a guilt complex A, my mom does too, so I assume I either genetically am prone to it or just picked up on it from her nature vs. nurture style. And I do think, that had my temper not taken over a few times (like when she would do that shit with her friends), I could've rebuilt the bridge that was there and been the person that she needed to vent to. Everyone deserves that. Clearly living with her mom was a disaster, and I know what that's like, and for whatever reason, every job I've had, or in college or high school, everyone talks to me about their problems, guys, girls, fucking teachers (not joking, one lady would cry about her husband and his crack addiction (I was her TA and would work during her lunch period to help with course prep), cause I guess I'm a really genuine person, in a good and bad way. I am the best and worst friend you can have, I will take a bullet in the neck for you over someone stealing $5 from you, but if you are disloyal to me, I'll write you off and never talk to you again. And, to try to end this random clusterfuck of a response as quickly as I can, I feel like perhaps had I given her another chance (or chances) I really feel like I could've fixed it. I don't know. Man. I mean, if she took the time to call me every night, seriously, there was not a single night that she didn't call (up until she died), maybe she felt a connection or something that I couldve used to befriend her? I don't know. \n Sorry for the length man. I definitely didn't expect this response. And am bad at expressing emotions, and am just all over the place. I haven't told anyone about this, and probably due to my post, I had another awful dream last night, and let me tell you. I hope talking about this helps because I wouldn't wish these dreams on anyone. She's like getting more decomposed and angry at me. Last night it was like \"YOU LIED, YOU LIED ABOUT ME\", I don't know what that means. I need to talk to my counselor for sure man.", "id": "c42y0yj", "summary": "I'm a mess."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Has she tried anxiety medication? RLS is similar to opiate withdrawl symptoms, and causes tremendous anxiety basically by making it next to impossible for a person to get comfortable which would be maddening (I've dealt with similar problems, not RLS, but something that makes it impossible for me to get comfortable or sleep, despite how tired I am, not sure what the issue it is, I'm assuming it's related to diabetes, although I am not diagnosed with diabetes but long story short was tested every 4 months up until I turned 18 and then have had reactions to alcohol that put me in the hospital due to severe hypoglycemia, basically after a few drinks I'd pass out, like falling over backwards style (I'm 6'3 and at that time was about 195-200 lbs, and also drank a lot so my tolerance was high), anyway the first time the police found me in my car and called an ambulance and my blood sugar was < 30, which I guess can kill you. I was also incoherent and confused, and my BAC was .29 (blood sugar levels can affect breathalyzers, apparently and theoretically, which saved me from a felony DUI), my mom came to the hospital and they told her it'd be atleast 10 hours until I was sober enough to leave, so she drove home (about 15 minutes) when she was 2 blocks from home they called her cell phone and said to come back and get me, they gave me a glucose bag, and my blood sugar went up to like 590 and I was lucid and completely normal (BAC also dropped significantly). \n I was supposed to go get tested, but have no insurance. But anyway, I am constantly like hang over style thirsty, to the point of dry heaving in the morning (I haven't touched booze for 15 months), but if I drink anything I will have to get up to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes for hours, for example, I had a glass of lemoade at 9 o'clock last night, and was up until 10 a.m. this morning going to the bathroom every 5-10 minutes. Literally. The second I lay down I feel the urge to piss, like, where the tip of your dick hurts because you feel like you're going to piss your pants. So I can't get comfortable, it's HELL. So I've been not drinking anything, and then I go to bed super dehydrated and have the most terrible dreams of all time, like, anxiety dreams about being stuck in a locked box where I can't move (I wouldn't say I'm a claustrophobic but I don't like not being able to move) and I'll get so thirsty my tongue will get all dry and my mouth will taste bad which turns my dreams into these just... horrible dreams, like nightmares, of being in a weird hell where it's really hot and ... I won't say the rest, it's shit that would get my institutionalized. It's so bad. Then I wake up and am just sick from thirst, so I drink water, and then have to piss all the time... \n The only thing that has helped is xanax. It helps me just ignore the constant urge to piss (because when I go get up, only a little bit of piss comes out after awhile, but the urge is still there, so it's like, have you ever been constipated? It's ultra frustrating, but this is worse, needing to pee, or thinking you need to and pushing so hard you feel like you're going to have a heart attack just to get some piss out? It's like that scene form zoolander where Jerry Stiller is begging for a drop of pee... but it's not my prostate, it's this fucking drinking problem... crap!). \n So anyway, if I take xanax I can get an hour at a time of sleep, I still get up and pee a bunch, but then I go ack and immediately fall back asleep, but then have to get up again, but that's better than sitting there knowing I'm going to have to go back.", "id": "c4815hk", "summary": "anti-anxiety medicine may not solve everything but may alleviate the worst of it and allow superficial sleep?"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "First time I had sex I was in a car, two seater. ( fiero , classy) and when I got out to walk to the drivers side I noticed the exact same thing on my boxers and figure the condom had broke. She had a late period also so I freaked out but,", "id": "ce27l6e", "summary": "it's super normal."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Everything actually is different when \"they\" do it. Diplomatic cables aren't freedom of speech, at all. That's like saying companies should be able to read internal memos from competitors. \n I know this will fall on deaf ears, because here the West is up to no good and any secrecy means they're hiding war crimes. But objectively you have to realize that not everything can, or even should be public information when it comes to international diplomacy. That would kind of defeat the purpose.  Sidebar, as much as I would like for it to be possible, it isn't. We have legitimate enemies, and it's not as simple as \"just stop interfering and everything will be fine!\".", "id": "c6e7m5p", "summary": "releasing someone else's words isn't freedom of speech. If it were, confidentiality agreements would be unconstitutional, and a lot of us sign those when we get jobs."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Kinda reminds me of that quote from \"The Social Network\" where Rashida Jones says to Eisenberg \"you must really hate the winklevoss' \" and he says \"I don't hate the winklevi, it's just that for the first time in their life, something didn't go their way\" (paraphrased)... \n Granted he had lost the primary in '08, but this is a prime example of what happens to someone who was handed everything on a silver platter and then has to actually deal with reality for one of the first times. He prides himself as a self made man because he donated his dad's fortune (after he used it to make millions), but in reality he was just born on third base and for some reason thought that he hit the triple to get there. I really, really dislike people like that. They lecture (or rather talk down to) people who have actually had to work, and fight tooth and nail to get everything they have  because they don't understand what it's like to not have money, or more importantly, not have the connections that comes with it. \n I have a few friends who are the sons of fairly successful business owners (their parents are multi-millionaires, and their parents inherited the businesses from their grandparents who both inherited the company from the original owner who had no one else to give it to when they retired), so, in actuality, no one in their family built anything, they just fell into the success and just didn't bankrupt the established business. In Minnesota especially, people are very into buying local, so they benefit from that. When I lost my job as a senior account executive after paying for college myself and graduating in 4 years with 2 majors (after they both dropped out and got hired into the family businesses, 6 figure jobs at 19 years old) they talked to me like I was a lazy scumbag. \"Just get a job, any job, go to a gas station, work your way up, that's what I did!\"... I want nothing more than for their companies to go out of business so they have to interview for a real job. Go through 13 interviews for one position like I did recently, doing mock sales pitches to every level of management, to HR people, to other sales people, fly around the country to find a  decent job only to lose out to someone after that many rounds of interviews because they have 20 years of experience vs. my 4... That's real life. Not being guaranteed a paycheck just for showing up after doing everything wrong on the way there... \n Republicans man. Zero perspective. Dude's dad just opened a brand new store, spending millions, just to give him a store to manager himself and he had the nerve to tell me that he earned it after 4 years of \"toiling\" as a sales person for another store. Fuck. I interviewed there and saw about 10 guys in their 50's who had spent decades with the company, only to see yet another kid of the owner come in, learn the ropes and get promoted ahead of them because of their last name. I turned that offer down faster than you can say \"go fuck yourselves\". \n /obnoxiously personal rant", "id": "c7e8bp7", "summary": "It's fantastic when someone who has never earned anything themselves (sure he was a successful vulture capitalist, but when you're born into money, and then use said money to buy companies that were built by other people, and basically do the goodfellas method of \"partnering\" with them and running up their debt and credit until nothing is left, and then selling off the company piece by piece, you deserve to feel the sting of real life from time to time. I'm sure it's a shock to his system, but he'll get over it after a few months of his giant paycheck as a board member of whatever hotel chain he signed up with, in one of his multiple obnoxious mansions around the country.... this man would've destroyed everything that actually made this country the hegemon it is. The middle class, the unions that built and support them, the \"entitlements\" that support those who worked all their lives and contributed to them... Thank god that people saw through the platitudes and repetitive ideas they've been repeating ad nauseum since Reagan took his last acting job."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Just a rule of thumb for you, since it appears you're either new to reddit or to arguing a point. Taibbi is very popular here, rightfully so. He holds peoples asses to the fire, and doesn't hesitate to ass fire people he mostly agrees with, when necessary. \n That having been said, in general, if you're going to make an accusation or assertion, don't just say it, provide context. That's just common sense. But when it comes to someone who is well liked and considered pretty well researched and objective, you're going to have to prove that he is \"just not that good when it comes to the political/ideology stuff\". \n Just an FYI, this article is about finance, you don't necessarily say anything about it, but considering, this is a bad time to roll out your POV.", "id": "c4akrpz", "summary": "Elaborate on your insults if you want to get anywhere. Also, it creates an environment for debate, which is why most people (I hope) come here. I'd love to hear why you think that, and am forced to play devil's advocate with myself, and that is only fun when we're talking about the movie and Keanu is funking Charlize Theron and turns evil halfway through and hurts her vaginer from the 7th ring thrust."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I am kinda a hypochondriac when it comes to STD's, I banged this girl like 10 times (for hours, each time, super drunk, i remember glimpses, so, it was all for not, since i bang most chicks mainly so I have something to beat off to in the future when my wifi goes down). \n Anyway, I was reading about best ways to prevent STD's online, there was a bunch of shit about fish oil and other random shit, so I bought a bunch of that shit at Walgreen's (lucky each bottle of pills is like fucking 10 bucks), I was eating those like tic tacs but still was worried (it's the waiting, waiting to find out, like the idea of waking up, going to the bathroom and just seeing the texture of an elderly whale on my junk...), so I went online and read what people who date people with herpes do to avoid getting... herpes. After a lot of gross stories, I figured out the common denominator... Hydrogen peroxide (it's the skin to skin contact that worried me, granted I did a lot of raw dogging back when I drank, but I knew that regardless of a condom, her pubis rubbing all over my bed, face, neck and pube mane was probably going to be the end of me). \n At that point, it was too late to try peroxide, but the next time I drunkenly hooked up with a girl I woke up on the couch, I barely remember my friend going to pick her up (I had never met her, my mom somehow ... haha god this is bad... my mom thought she was \"cute\", showed her my picture (at 25) and so she gave my mom her number, I texted her a bunch, got drunk and somehow she ended up at my house). So, we wake up next to one another on the couch, I'm naked from the waist down, and I'm like... \"did we have sex?\" and stunned, and kinda pissed, she goes \"YES\" and I said, \"ugh... did I wear a condom?\" and she said \"at first... tee hee\" and I sat up and grabbed a bottle of vodka that was on the side table and just chugged it (for a few reasons, 1, I am and was an alcoholic (18 months sober, don't say \"good job\", I didn't do anything, I actually did the oppsite, I did nothing, no praise needed), also, I was hung over and wanted to avoid the symptoms, which included extreme anxiety and I knew I would go into panic attack dick staring mode, and also, i just wanted to get drunk...). \n So, after that, I lay back down and figured, fuck it, I might as well remember this, so I started sexing her from the side again, she went along with it (how, I don't know), I finished and said \"I need to take a shower\" and went upstairs. So, there I am, standing half in the tub with my dick in the shower, and as I pour peroxide from the bottle on my dick, it instantly kinda burns, then stings, and as that happens, bottle in hand, again, straddling the tub, the girl walks in and says \"hey baby, want some comp...\" and I just felt stupid as shit, and surprised so I screamed \"GET THE FUCK OUT!!!!\" so she walked downstairs. I gave her a ride home (awkward) and she texted me immediately \"I think we should just be friends\"... I responded \"thank god, I'm not crazy, I swear. Don't tell my mom\" and she quit her job at the grocery store immediately. \n I'm not a good person. \n Sidenote: Apparently you have to dilute the peroxide (it's already just 3% so I figured that'd be fine, but my dick was molting like a juvenile snake after that so... lesson learned, herpes avoided).", "id": "c5uenhq", "summary": "I fell in love at the carnival, but when time came to consummate our teenage affection with a kiss atop the ferris wheel, the carnie told me I wasn't tall enough. Everyone laughed, and Tom, the dick football QB took my girl on the ferris wheel and finger banged her against her will. So, I go to this old machine and take my last quarter, it says it can make wishes come true, so I use the quarter to cut the power cord out of the back, like a dull saw, and I snuck up on Tom, whipped him to the ground and choked him to death with the cord. The next morning I woke up in a cell with a 35 year old IN MY UNDERWEAR."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I lost a lot of friends due to something similar. A guy in our group had a \"special bottle\" of booze for girls only, he was really weird about it, and when asked would say that he wanted to treat girls well and give them better booze... That flew with most people, me... not so much. \n The occasion came where some girls came over and he poured a few shots for them, I tried to take one, to see what the hub bub was all about and he freaked out and put it in the fridge, like clockwork the 2 girls who took the shots got really sick and fucked up about 10 minutes later. One of them was puking on the couch so people were trying to help her, I noticed the other one was missing so I walked down the hall towards his room and saw her laying on his bed and him taking his shirt off. She was OUT COLD. As he climbed over her I ran up and grabbed him and lifted him up and slammed him on the ground and just started beating the shit out of him (which was awkward because I was bigger than him so I just crawled on him after the slam and was punching him, using my knees to pin his arms down, and I could feel his pre-rape expectation boner poking against me, which made me punch harder, until climax... I mean, until people ran in and grabbed me... \n Now, everyone agreed what he did was fucked up. But that was it. They made me leave, continued partying at his place, and the girls ended up SLEEPING THERE (not their choice) because everyone wanted to get drunk and this was their only option. After that I wasn't really allowed around when he was around, and the fact that all these people (including the girls who were the victims) continued to hang out with him and that they didn't fucking care bothered me to the point of just finding the entire group disgusting, to be honest. \n Recent update: Some 18 year old girls (sisters of my friends) were talking about going to a party at his house in the near future, I warned them that he was a rapist, let them know not to drink ANYTHING unless they brought it and such and such. Of course, they told him, he wrote \"so I'm a rapist, huh?\" on my FB wall (I accepted his friend request after he gave me some post alcoholic realization speech, being an alcoholic myself I for some reason thought I should accept it (I figured that maybe the booze made him that creepy, I don't know, he referenced the shit as one of the catalysts for him to get help. so blah blah blah)) and I said \"I never said that. I said \"failed rapist\". You can't even succeed at fucking incapacitated chicks\" he just said \"touche\" and unfriended me. \n Bing Bang Boom.", "id": "c63m4mf", "summary": "I grew up amongst scum."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Yeah... I didn't mean to imply that you should just jump on your bike (because your car is impounded for DUI reasons) and ride to the nearest liquor store,  I just meant, maybe give her a minute or 40 and then when she calms down ask this kind of question. \n Personally, based on some experiences, I've honestly given up in some relationships. I understand hormones, and being crabby, and cramps, and wanting to \"eat\" \"food\". But some girls just play the B card WAY too often, probably because they've dated the doting type, and after throwing the kitchen sink at the situation (and missing, and getting charged with \"attemped battery\", joketh) I'll just basically pick up on the faint smell of yeast and emotionally shut them out until they cheat on me and I say to myself, \"See? Your self fulfilling prophecy was right again derp! Celebrate with some xanax and cat drowning!\".", "id": "c4y9wd8", "summary": "We're both right. Friend."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "You know, that's a good question. I think... I don't know. I mean. Granted I just worked 18 hours straight with no break, so my brain is not really functioning on a level beyond that of a long since extinct missing link, but (butt) I think for me anyway, when it rains it pours. \n I'll have a dry patch, and then have like 2 options, and figure, okay, I can be picky, and it's not like I'm talking about looks, I really don't care THAT much about that. But personality and compatibility are huge to me (for example, if a girl gives me shit for having to hang out at my parents house like once or twice a month, she gets the old steel toe to the camel toe). So, when that happens, I end up burning both bridges, I guess. But, to be honest, I can't say I've ever regretted it. Not once. I mean, in weak moments of lonliness I've thought, maybe I should've been more \"flexible\" (which means abandoning my morals, I use that term loosely), but honestly man, I'd rather be lonely and periodically sad than waste my life with someone who doesn't make me happy. \n I see so many people from HS and college on FB that are all getting engaged. It's like a fucking zombie break out. And I feel like people hit 25-28 and figure, \"it's marriage time, I'm all growed up!\" and they just propose to whomever they're with at that time. They're not actually marrying said person because they feel like that's their soul mate, or whatever. They just think, all my friends are getting married, I guess it's the thing to do right now! And that's why people get divorced all the fucking time. It's basically just a glorified fucking dating scenario. There are very few of my close friends who I know feel like \"this is the one!\", the one has come and gone, and they don't want to be alone, so ... I don't want to say they're settling but they're definitely not doing it because they can't imagine not having that person in their lives. Shit, my best friend just proposed 2 weeks ago and a month ago he was asking me advice on how to break up with her... because, as he said \"she keeps asking me to go down on her and she's put on some weight\"... \n Okay... A... He is about 3 years into a lifetime of baldness. B, it is confirmed, by 4 girls that don't know one another (for conspiracy sake) that he LITERALLY has a micro-penis, I'm not trying to be funny (hence the fact that his GF who is like, one of the most reserved girls I've ever met, she doesn't really know how to handle my personality, which isn't like wacky and annoying and douchey, but I am not the most appropriate person so she just blushes and says talks through people to me like, \"did he just say that? Ask him where he went to school!\", so it's not like she's demanding he let her do the dog carpet scoot on his face, she's obviously just trying to get SOME pleasure out of their dalliances since his ex told me that she broke up with him (by cheating) because he refused to munch and she said she literally couldn't feel him inside her. I took offense, because she cheated, and he was heart broken (the one that got away I mentioned) and she was telling this to a whole table of people, as his best friend I felt obligated to defend his non-existant manhood by screaming \"shit, no one would be able to pleasure that gaping maw you whore! I could park a buick in you! (I had sex with her in High school, she was younger then but still, it felt like... there was an initial tightness, at the opening but then nothing inside, like, you know when you struggle to fit your hand into a pickle jar? Like the rim is completely small but then once your hand is in the jar is fucking huge and full of like a nuclear holocaust worth of mushy, sam's club pickles? That's her, which is what I basically told her. \n I felt bad after. Even though I feel like it's a friends duty, and he did call me crying 2 nights prior because she had been telling everyone that, so he asked me to \"tell her off\", but I don't know. I hate maturing. I don't like talking to girls like that, 5 years ago I wouldn't have thought twice, but she cried, and I don't like making girls cry. I don't want to be the dude people call when they need someone to tell people off, I want to be the dude girls immediately release multiple eggs into their uterus upon first sight.", "id": "c4yayew", "summary": "Because of the DEMYCRATS!"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Well, it is the lowest grossing MCU film, by far. But it held an A- Cinemascore with those who were polled after leaving the film. \n I like it. I think the tie in's with the super soldier serum, the retcon from the first in the credits negating any additional screen time reflecting on that junk, etc. It was a good Hulk movie. \n Outside of WWHulk, it's basically what anyone would get from any number of writers, actors or producers. It's the Hulk. People want his power, he has to run, while running he has to make sure he controls his outbursts, he's also in love with Betty, and Betty's dad hates him/covets his power. \n This gave us that. And a Villain that was nearly as powerful as he is (instead of being a mushy scientist he came into the gamma ray explosion as a super soldier (albeit one with side effects)), and they had a decent fight in Harlem. \n The one thing that bothered me about this film was when Betty screamed at the Hulk to not kill Blonsky. Why not? Maybe she assumed he'd turn back into a person. That's why. Holy shit. That's been bothering me for like 8 years. \n I also think it's cool that SHIELD wanted Blonsky as apart of the Avengers Initiative before Banner because of his ability to retain his mind. Even though he basically went nuts... I would love to see him return in a future film. \n AoU spoilers/speculation: \n [Spoiler] So, it sounds like at the end of AoU, the Hulk is basically stuck on the quickjet, getting sent into space, as he went all hulk on everyone and they had to get rid of him. That rumor seems to be pretty credible considering Stark has to rock the Hulk Buster armor, something must've happened to really, really piss off Banner. \n That having been said, there are two trains of thought on where he ends up. WWHulk, which I doubt because Ruffalo said they're not there yet, and I don't think that the MCU is there yet either, but let's say they do go that way. It would be awesome if, while spazzing out on the quickjet he breaks open an area that has an incapacitated Abomination, also being sent away, he could play a role in world war hulk, in lieu of perhaps A-Bomb. \n Second idea, the one that I think is actually going to happen, is that the Hulk is going to team up with The Guardians for their sequel, giving him another side role in a film (since Marvel has basically said, less is more with the Hulk, like Ebert said about Wolverine while attempting to speak with half a face after watching \"Origins\", this guy can't die, he can't really get hurt, where's the tension?\", well, that's the issue with the Hulk, but exponentially worse. The Wolverine gets his ass kicked, constantly. He can be overpowered, beaten down, and the tension comes from the people he loves being hurt. \n While the same may be said about the Hulk, they've kinda isolated him from Betty. So that's gone. So, you kinda just need him around as a fun character to watch, not as someone who carries 3 acts of a film. Also, him and Groot together alone is worth price of admission[/Spoiler] \n Either way. I thought that the Incredible Hulk was leaps and bounds above it's predecessor. I liked how large he was, I feel like they made him smaller in the Avengers. I'm basing this mostly off of the size of the Hulk on the cover of the DVD ( he definitely didn't seem that big in the Avengers. \n I'd love for them to expand the Hulk Universe a bit. Get the leader in there (I can't imagine him going down like he did in that MCU canon comic, that'd be more of a bastardization than the Mandarin pre: All Hail the King), Skaar is meh, but I do like the Red Hulk, Doc Samson and Joe Fixit. \n Shit, Joe Fixit could fix a lot of the problems from the films (pun!). He isn't as strong, so there's the ability for him to be overpowered. He also retains the ability to communicate and think outside of just pure rage. So, there could actually be some character growth there. Outside of course of whatever shit Bruce is up to which at this point ... who really cares? The only thing I want to see him do (Bruce) is team up with Stark, Pym and hopefully one day Richards to solve problems in a lab.", "id": "cjcykxl", "summary": "I'm desperately lonely."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Agreed, wholeheartedly. \n I have an  American Bulldog  (it was labeled a pit bull by the Humane Society that I went to to get it, it was like 12 weeks old so it was hard to tell), as he got older, he got bigger, and bigger, and bigger. \n He's only 5 but he looks like he's 20. His front legs are turned inward because his chest is so broad, he weighs over 100 lbs, has severe tooth decay (breed issue), cataracts (breed issue) and honestly has the dog version of sleep apnea. He snores so loud there are times he sounds like he is struggling to breathe, or he'll stop breathing, then snort and continue. \n White \"bully breeds\" are and were inbred. They were inbred heavily in the past to obtain the pure white coat, or the white with brown patches. The sign on the kennel at the HS said that each dog had a high risk of being deaf. They couldn't tell me if he was deaf or not, they said \"we stomp on the ground behind him but h e could just be reacting to the vibration(s) on the ground\", so I just dangled my keys behind him and when he turned around I knew he wasn't deaf. \n I have another  white pit bull , pure white (my American Bull dog has brown spots) that I got from a lady who pulled up in a van at my methadone clinic and started shouting at the people in line \"you motherfuckers said you wanted these dogs when my baby was pregnant, but no one is taking them! If you don't take them my son's going to use them as bait dogs, you need to start getting these puppies!\" \n So, I took mine, and got her phone number and eventually her address as a guise (I said I was thinking of taking her sister also but had to see how the first got along with my other dog). I called the Minnesota Pit Bull Project to see what to do (I was afraid if I called the Minneapolis Animal Control the dogs would be euthanized as they had a no adoption policy for pits, then, they just launched an adoption program like last month). They coordinated something with animal control to go get the remaining dogs (someone else took 2, so there were 11 total, 8 taken). \n So, my point is, my pup is over 2, I see the guy who got the two dogs on a regular basis, and... he's fucking inbreeding the two dogs he adopted.... blech. \n To end on a light note; [here's my buddies waiting for me to come home](", "id": "cijsbq1", "summary": "People are awful when it comes to dogs. I have 2 white bully breeds and have experienced that first hand. Plus, cute pictures!"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I'm a security guard in a downtown of a major city and I've had numerous similar interactions, I can usually diffuse their anger by saying things like \"I'm just letting you know someone called the police, so you should probably hit the bricks\" because then they can't get mad that I called the cops, and since most of them are loitering to sell drugs (not being stereotypical, the area they stand outside of our building is drug central, I have found drugs stashed in the bushes (they bury them either because the police are coming or because there are also a lot of homeless people that hang out there and I believe maybe some homeless guys leave stuff for their friends or whatever), i find needles, empty drug bags, etc. And there have been a bunch of arrests (finally) after we complained to the precinct about the lack of patrols there... \n Anyway, sometimes they misunderstand the 'someone called the cops' as me saying I called the cops, which starts the whole \"snitch nigga!\" (I'm a giant white guy of swedish descent so... it's apt!), now, I grew up in the worst part of my city, and have dealt with what I like to call the assumption of white terror. Most black people that get angry at me, or white people in general, bank on the fact that they can intimidate white people pretty easily. So, I just stand my ground and maintain eye contact and they usually don't know what to do. \"You called the cops on us snitch motherfucka!?!?!?\"  walks up to get in my face, and by face I mean chest, since i'm 6'3 and the toughest loud mouth is usually 5'8 , \"I SAID someone did, I was trying to help you out so you didn't get arrested, but now that you mention it, I am a fucking security guard, so... did you expect me to give two shits about snitching? go ahead, try to impress your friends, the longer you talk shit the less time you have to run (granted, no cops are coming)\"... if that doesn't work I just get angry and say \"I'm at work, now, we're on camera, so I need you to hit me first, I know you have your boys with you, and I'll probably end up losing, but I can guarantee that I will go after you and you won't walk out of here, regardless of what they do to me\" and that has worked every time but once. I got neck punched by a little guy after I said that and I grabbed him by the neck while putting my right foot behind his and slammed him on these steps, put both knees on his shoulders/top of his arms and pinned him and put my fist up to hit him and he couldn't really breathe (the stairs knocked the wind out of him) and he started apologizing... his friends actually fucking ran (there were some tenants from the building I work at were out in the courtyard who starting running over when the punch happened) and I just held him there until the cops came and charged him with assault... Note: the company I work for wants us to look \"approachable\" so we only wear basically a suit sans the jacket. We only have a walkie talkie and some keys, nothing else. No flashlight, no pepper spray, no telescoping rod, no taser... My job is to deal with \"undesirables\" almost constantly so I feel like it's a lawsuit waiting to happen, I have told management that we do need something more, especially since some of our guards are retiree's and older women (we have a 62 year old woman going out and trying to tell legit gang members not to sell drugs on our property... terrible)...", "id": "c8530lh", "summary": "most of the time, where I'm from, as a 6'3 white security guard, when the black dudes who sell drugs outside the building i work at realize I'm not afraid of them, they walk away, or run, depending on what I assume they're selling and how afraid of getting arrested they are (I basically preface the shit by saying the cops are coming, even though I never bother calling because the average response time is 2 hours... despite my building being about 5 blocks from the precinct, comforting!). They depend on fear to operate, when you show that you aren't afraid, and actually get pissed, they get scared and leave, but they continue to talk shit."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "This dude is not anywhere near the 4.5 inch range, especially since it curves up and hits his own pube fringe. I have a friend who every girl he's slept with has sworn up and down to me has a micro penis, I've gotten in many an argument on his behalf because girls will get drunk and be like \"Oh, derp? I sucked his dick too! OH MY GOD IT WAS LIKE  the whole table starts bending straws to show the size \". I, being his best friend, and a drunk, and a shit talker, would go and talk about their flaws until some cried and say \"see? Atleast you're here to defend yourselves, look at your conversation, you fat sluts, \"durr... I also fucked that guy and his penis couldn't satisfy my fat cunt.. now I will fashion a penis from a straw to show everyone within 10 feet what can't satisfy my gaping maw!\". (This wasn't entirely just based on my awesome best friend abilities, he called me at like 2 a.m. once and was crying, never heard him cry, he told me how his now ex told him she cheated on him the entire time she was in Arizona (she moved for over a year for school and he stayed faithful the entire time), he said she was spreading rumors about his dick and he didn't know why and asked if I could \"get her\", which meant, talk shit, so I did\"... \n Anyway, out of reciprocity he ended up making up with her like a pussy whipped micropenis and told her a bunch of shit about me (mainly that my alcoholism was worse than most people knew and the reason I didn't go to the bars anymore was because I drank alone and played xbox, not earth shattering but not necessarily something I wanted people to know, also, not something I thought my best friend would tell the girl he hired me to make cry on his behalf...ahhh... friendship). \n Either way, not every dude falls in this range, and if they don't, it must be a fate worse than hell. I mean, he is now engaged to a pretty hot girl (that he treats like shit, absolute shit, she put on maybe 10 lbs since 2007 and he gives her constant shit about it, all the while knowing he has a micro and also complaining to her (and to me) that she wants him to start going down on her, \"haha, not going to happen dude!\" which is what led to the Arizona girl cheating on him (after my verbal lashing she said \"do you know what it's like to not be able to feel someone inside you even after they orgasm? his load not even reaching the inside of you so you stop taking birth control because his load is all over your lips? Then, asking him to atleast go down on you but he won't? Who wouldn't cheat? (I said, well then tell him, or break up with him, he waited, so now you cheated and are sad he has a new gf so you're being petty and talking about his dick... good move).", "id": "c4k05fv", "summary": "I miss my old best friend and his micropenis, we had been waiting for the avengers forever, and based on the date I'm just upset. He don't wanna be my friend no more and junk so for some reason this story came into my brains. Also, that range can be much lower, and also girls will talk about it, like hens who found a sack of corn. They live for that kind of shit, atleast the uneducated townies I know."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I debated that in my head (I guess that goes without saying, I doubt anyone assumes I was sitting with my cat at a gavel running back and forth arguing the pros and cons), but this isn't graphic, atleast anymore graphic than what you may hear on a radio update at work or what you may see on most crappy filler D list celebrity \"I love the 80's!\" knock off video commentary abortions on cable. \n Meaning, you don't see the dude die, you just see him fall. That's not graphic. nSFL implies something gory and hideous, this is neither. You see a man falling, that's it, and I didn't want people to assume they were going to see a gore fest only to see an aussie with a bad belt whistle to a pilot before letting go of his grip 10 seconds after a wardrobe malfunction. \n But I appreciates your concern.", "id": "c4j106f", "summary": "Not graphic, but a wee bit disturbing \n does not equal NSFL, or NSFW. It's exactly what you said it was, which is why I didn't label it as such."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Disclaimer- As you can tell, this is long, so don't read it if you don't like long stories, I just want to alleviate the \"TELL US HOW YOU REALLY FEEL  air high fives no one*\" posts, I am bearing MY SOUL here, so, again, skip this if you want, or read it and find out what real life is like once you get past the fake smiles, forced laughs and \"personal hygiene\" of the west. \n Me neither. I do, however, get really really bad.. I wouldn't call it diarrhea, because it's not like butt vomit, but it's more of a semi-solid, lava shit.. from this place here in minnesota like chipotle, called Baja Sol Tortilla grill (I think there is also a \"cantina\" in there somewhere)... \n They are basically a poor man's chipotle (like I mentioned), but what sets them apart is this 'unlimited chip and salsa bar'. They have like 12 salsas, cilantro, fresh baked chips etc. It's all free if you buy one of their entrees. The problem is, they also have a giant tub of jalapenos. I'm only 27, so it's not like i'm hyper old or anything, but for some reason about 4 years ago my stomach, or intestines rather, stopped being able to process jalapenos. I fucking love them, I will sit there for hours, nursing my tacos and getting cup after cup to put on my chip, sour cream, salsa and then jalapeno masterpiece (my mouth, and rectum, are watering as we speak, I had to give it up awhile ago, I miss it). \n I always assumed my raging alcoholism was the reason why my body rejected the jalapeno mush like some sort of result of a drunken incestuous christmas zygote, as I used to go to Baja after like 3 days of solid bendering to get my strength up to start apologizing to everyone I offended at the bar, on facebook, at the gas station and probably at my parents house. But, it's been 16 months since my last drink and EVERYTIME I go there, like clockwork, 6 hours later, my lower abdomen gets this feeling, like someone is pouring warm water and cramps directly into my forest of unfettered pubis. \n After that, literally, it takes about 3-4 dumps and 1-2 hours for me to feel normal. I regret saying \"butt vomit\" cause it does actually feel like I am vomiting from my ass. It's like... you can feel your intestines pulsating like one of those worms from tremors, it's the worst pain in the world (that I've so far experienced), I usually put my face in a wet towel and just think I'm somewhere else (like getting surgery in a trench in wwI with a stick in my mouf). \n The first time is at first normal, which is what I call the calm before the storm. Your stomach hurts, so you expect the worst, but it comes out semi-normal, with a hint of stinging at the end. Like smoking an off brand cigarette. The second time starts out similar but then falls apart, like the challenger explosion. The third time I can't talk about yet, because I haven't fully worked through it with my therapist, the fourth is usually clean up, any lingering pain and or polyps are removed and I can finally go back to sleep. \n There is nothing I can do to avoid it, I've tried everything. I wrote about this before but I did get baja once when I had an apartment in Downtown Minneapolis. Every year, my ex, who was giant white trash, and her family would go to the monster truck show at the metrodome which was like 6 blocks from my house. So of course they all came over (for free parking, free for them, $10 a spot for me), they \"surprised\" me with a ticket to the fucking monster truck show. Now, they knew I wouldn't like to go, and I think they thought it was funny that the \"city slicker\" (yes, they called me that, because they were country folk because they drank well water and had a used septic tank in their yard 30 miles north of the city...), they thought it was hilarious that I never had exploited the maternal instincts of a deer by shooting it's yearling and waiting for it to return to help it's doomed seed. So, I had to do one of those, Oh, thanks! while grinding my teeth to the point of creating 22 molars. \n So we were sitting in the metrodome, watching cars tow trailers full of random garbage (fridges, couches, black people), the winner was the one who kept their trailer on the longest. That's when the rumbling started. If you don't know, the metrodome is or was the loudest stadium in football for decades, because it is built like an echo chamber (kind of like /r/atheism! ZING), so every muffler-less acceleration reverberated against every seat before reaching us in the nose (or soon to be ass) bleeds. \n I got up and tried my best to speed walk \"normally\" down the steep ass stairs (I saw  this guy on the way down . So, after standing in line and getting shorter and shorter from starting to fold in half, I finally got into my stall (again, the dome... their bathrooms are something that no one talks about because it's like a humiliating sex crime, there is basically a giant gutter like trough, everyone just stands there with their junk out and pisses in this slanted trough, everyone blatantly looks at one anothers crap to ensure that they're normal, and little kids are eye level with strangers balls). \n So there are only like, 3 stalls. A lot of the more \"shy\" fellas wait for the stall because they don't want anyone to see their souvenir from their college trip to southeast asia or they have an inney that requires some coaxing to come out of hiding, so they sit down on ground zero of hepatitis C and play with their weiner (why do I know so much about this? I'm projecting again). \n Anyway, so I had to try to force all 4 shits into one, terrible, life altering disaster. So there I sat, sweating so bad that my elbows couldn't rest on my knees (think of a marx brother on ice, slipping comically everywhere as my head shook left and right because I couldn't support it with my neck anymore). I couldn't stop, it was like a non-stop eruption. The kicker? Everytime the stall nextdoor opened, MY DOOR OPENED. So, every 30 seconds or so (because it's like an unspoken rule, and goal of many a minnesotan, to NEVER take a shit at the dome), so, somehow, despite the fact that the fuckers were standing outside of my stall and they had to know that since I never emerged, they kept walking in when the door popped open like 6 inches... So I had to lean forward, sweating, and hold the door shut while my ass was spraying tar like the dinosaur that killed newman in Jurassic park, people were literally taunting me (HURRY UP YA PIECE OF SHIT!!!, \"fuck off assholes, I'm not doing my taxes in here, I'm in pain!!!\"), what made it worse was the echos of 100 decibel fucking monster truck sounds, it made my stomach feel worse, like the army was testing that bass gun on me. Luckily after 35 minutes of misery I got to walk out, red faced, sweaty, and in no way satisfied to a line of 25 people who started clapping sarcastically when I finished... I never wanted to have a grenade vest on more in my life. \n So I went back up and her family was like \"look who's back! we thought you ran home, city slicker!\", so I just looked at them, pale as a rape victim and said \"I HAD DIARRHEA, DIARRHEA, IN THE METRODOME, I HATE IT HERE AND WANT TO GO HOME\". No one talke to me the rest of the night, my girlfriend was mad at me for like 2 weeks and I got thrush on my thighs.", "id": "c4oopbp", "summary": "I can't eat anything above a 10 on the scoville scale, so, regular captain crunch is okay, crunch berries? not so much."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "me too(th). I'm 6'2, kinda lanky (190 lbs) and I get shit talked to me everytime I'm at the bar by some napolean fuck. I used to booze quite a bit, and it made my tongue incapable of bitery, so I would just go off and end up getting punched by 4 or 5 guys. Then my friends would come over, and get mad at me. Fucking sucked. Especially once when I was going to the bathroom, and a guy shoulder checked me, I said whoops! and him and his friends surrounded me, the bouncer kicked us out, so it was me against 5 dudes and some bitch. I was drunk so I didn't really care, I was talking all sorts of relatively funny shit (to me anyway), one of the guys punched me and then she got in my face screaming all sorts of nonsense, I punched the guy behind her, in the process kind of bumping her, and that was the end of me. They started screaming that I punched her, every drunking popped collar in a 5 mile radius lined up to beat my ass. My 2 friends were trying to calm everyone down, I was enraged, badly, screaming I didn't punch that bitch! (The guy I did punch had a welt on his eye and was leaning against the bar), all these short muscly dudes started taking off their shirts, which pissed me off to near epic levels, so I was ready to get a beating of a life time. My friend who drove me there started getting me to move towards his car to leave, and some kid ran up from behind all I heard was \"derp, look out!\" and I turned, some kid snuck up on me and tried to blind side hit me with a piece of concrete from the alley, he was wasted too and missed by like 1 foot, but it scared me and I hopped in the car and we disappeared. Afterwards all these girls I knew were texting me like, \"why did you punch that girl? she is talking shit about you to everyone\" and i was like, why isn't she dead? She is like 5 feet tall, and she has no marks on her face? How weak am i? \n Anyway, the first punch gave me ablack eye, which was great because I was going on a company wide trip to mexico the next morning. Where I got head butted in the VIP room of our resort, and decided I should stop going out in public, and eventually, to stop drinking. Because, no matter where I went, I would get shit, and I really am not the type of person who lets it go, for some reason, I never equated it with my size, but with.. my glasses. The head butt guy broke my nose, pretty bad, it was like getting hit by lightening, I bled all over the marble, and the mexican security wanted to arrest me (luckily the witnesses blamed the group of dudes, said they picked a fight with me, and namely my female boss (they threatened to break a bottle on her head) and so I got to go back to my room, I would've missed my flight had they arrested me at the very least. Me and my bosses husband ganged up with some of the guys who saw me stick up for my boss, and my last memory was my boss' husband using 2 of the witnesses as some sort of shoulder supper as he was swinging back and forth trying to kick in the guys who head butted me's door at a 700 a night resort... God.", "id": "c1x71vq", "summary": "I feel you, same thing, but I couldn't ignore it because I used to drink too much and my personality sucks, so I ended up catching a few beatings and reputation destroyers and stopped going out completely because of it."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "durr... the heroin marijuana was meant to be crappy logic, that was my point (hence the parathesis after, kinda like I'm doing now, seems like I have to explain a lot to you, I see a pattern!). Did I say anything about damage multipliers or sending a message? Again, you can shout your intro to philosophy arguments at me all day man, the point is, you're wrong and he deserves to be in jail. Honestly, let me do you a favor and mail you some books, some simple fucking 1000 level criminology shit, see, I studied both the legality of the american criminal justice system as well as the sociological and moral aspect of it, and your view is something that was argued a long time ago. And settled, so I could get angry and say hey, asshole, you're fucking stupid, why bother even speaking when you zero idea what you're talking about? But I don't, I'm happy to let you dig your own grave, and then offer you a book or two to use to club yourself to death once you're in it. \n Also, for the record. For the sake of devils advocacy, by your logic then every criminal should have a perpetual blank slate? right? because each crime is removed from one another, each crime is measured by it's individual impact. Rather than saying, let's not look at the action, but the person committing the action. If the person has continuously broken the law, should they not be punished more than a first time offender? If you don't think so, then we should average out the sentences for each crime and apply them uniformally. So, lets see how you feel when someone gets 10 years, no stay, no probation, for having 2 lbs in their houses vs. the probation he received on his 4th possession. Fuck, let's not even devle into hypothetics because I know you're not going to be able to understand them and I would hate for you to have to replace another mousepad... Laws are in place not only to protect society, but also to punish people who break the laws, your problem is you're missing the second part of the definition and focusing solely on the first. If someone is proving that they are going to continue to be a detriment to society as a whole, then it is in the best interest of everyone to remove them from society. There are probably a lot of people sitting in jail for the rest of their lives that thought, gawrsh, I really don't think that what I did warrants this, especially in three strike states, but that's what the two strikes are for. Felonies aren't just misunderstandings that pop up on a sunday afternoon walk to the park. And the state is justified, ask the supreme court, or, ask the people of california who voted for the 3 strikes law. \n So you can create whatever sort of misguided collection of words you want, but in all cases, you are wrong. Even if you honestly think someone who is on their 30th DUI deserves the same treatment as someone with their first, which I assume you don't, you would still be wrong as far as our country is concerned. And I'm talking about what is not only right legally, but right morally, and what I consider personally. You're basing your argument solely on the latter.", "id": "c1t451p", "summary": "I'd rather be an asshole than a moron \n PS I really do go to a methadone clinic, (mostly for the conversation). HAHA OH HEHE. Also, I really don't think addiction is a disease, and that's coming from someone who, as you can see, has personal insight on the issue, but that's an argument for another night. \n Sigh noise, yawn pantomime. What's up for today? Wanna go down to a coffee shop and feign disgust about Tibet? I mean what is Obama doing, or should I say, NOT doing. LOL, text me later, gotta feed quell the \"sickness\", cause I'm diseased."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "He isn't claiming to be championing mankind's perogotive. You on the other hand are trying way too hard to be the new age comic guy who loathes \"chest and ass\" cover poses only in the company of what you hope is an available female. \n For the record. WubWub is an idiot. He doesn't need to be addressed. But if you do, at least make a logical argument. All you're doing is coming off as hyper pretentious, disingenuous and like the faux intellectual at the party who thinks he's impressing or coming to the rescue of some nonexistent victim.", "id": "cgkeeuo", "summary": "you're both just awful."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I always have wondered what is going on inside a scrote. Like, I get the testes, the vas deffy's, and what not. But is there some sort of fluid? I doubt, highly, that the testicles are just sitting inside a sack of skin, there would have to be some sort of fluid in there that protects them and helps them maintain a proper temperature for sperm creation. Like a radiator. The nut sack should be the bodies radiator. \n The shaft, however, is the bodies 80's era telescoping automatic antenna. At first it's all shiny, works perfectly, goes up when you want it, and back down after you're finished busting a load that is bumping Michael Bolton in FM's full glory. But as it gets older, used more often, by different people, it gets bent, starts to acquire some wear and tear, and won't go up unless someone sticks their finger in the old fuse box.", "id": "ck5cu6f", "summary": "The fusebox is the anus."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "How is this the business of the mods? Do you guys really need to always be in the forefront, do you get anxious that if you aren't constantly banning or bitching about shit that we will forget you have worthless powers? Seriously, fuck off, you're a half funny idea that overstayed it's welcome and gave some dickface the self esteem he never had until he got it from strangers who would spit in his face in public if he even asked what time it was. Not to be the impending doom douche but honestly this type of shit is the beginning of the end for websites like this, it's a familiar pattern, I'd make a rage comic about it but then WAS_FUNNY_LAST_YEAR might have to wipe the doritos off of his source of diabetes and angrily create a new rule.", "id": "c2eje3p", "summary": "it is not the job of the mods to say what is in the comics, the community votes on that, go back to whatever it is you do for the rest of the day that somehow convinces you not to pull that trigger. \n Edit: For the people that inevitably will downvote this or question the tone, this is a giant affront to what this site is supposed to be by definition. Once individual people start getting this type of power, we might as well start hanging out at digg or readersdigest.com/forums/thegoodolddays/eisenhoweradministration. Boo to this I say, I guess, is my point."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Ugh. sorry man, I thought this was clear, and funny, guess not. Basically, this girl wants to date me, or fuck me at the very least. She is currently married and living with her husband, but swears that they're estranged and only together because she needs his insurance for her medical maladies (all of which are complete bullshit, they're all coincidentally anecdotal, in that doctors can't really prove them, so she is trying to get disability and always posts shit like 'I need money, here's my paypal, bless the lord\" and shit... She's 25). \n So, after turning her down for the 50th time, she bitched at me for being \"Bipolar\" because I said I liked a restaurant she mentioned 2 weeks ago, which she assumed meant we were going to go there together for some reason. After that she said what I posted, which basically boiled down to: I had to fuck someone else because you wouldn't fuck me, and now my husband is mad at me. This is your fault. \n She is just generally disgusting. She isn't bad looking, and would be a dream GF in some respects (she games, has giant mammories, is kinda funny, etc.), but as I told her, there is no point in starting shit with a girl who has a husband... and now some random dude banging her. She doesn't get it, she thinks that her sniz has dominion over all men and that something must be wrong with me for not wanting to meet up and slide around in her cram cram and getting her husbands goo on my glans. I do admit, if I was still drinking, I'd black out and wake up with her in my bed, with her drawn on eyebrow makeup on my chest from her passing out on my disgusting torso, but I just am at a point where I want something else. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm tired of meaningless sex. Of the last 5 girls I slept with, 4 were married or engaged, sometimes feeling form, on both sides, and it always ends with \"I love you, you're my soul mate, but it's just bad timing, derp's parents already paid for our Mexican vacation\"... I don't need that shit.", "id": "c7177ls", "summary": "Not fucking, she was mad that I wouldn't fuck her, so she fucked some random guy, who turned out to be insane, and her husband got mad and wants to kick her out of her house, so now she has nowhere to go, and wants to live in my house for free."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "This reminds me of one of my many booze fueled adventures that I had during college. Starting at around 10 years old I've routinely gotten bronchitis right around October or November (it usually coincided with hockey try outs, which was awesome, nothing like throwing up from gagging while stretching to show the coaches your \"make a wish\" wish was to be third string JV defense), this has continued to today but I have been able to manage it with proactive steroids (inhalers and pills, plus some other inhalers and nebulizers, and I also inject Randy Quaid into my body in a small spaceship to help me bang meg ryan). \n So, sophomore year in college I had taken a little over a week off of the nonstop partying that had happened now that one of my lower class friends \"threw down\" on a 2 \"bedroom\" (quotations!) duplex. The reality was it was a kitchen, with 2 rooms. While it was awkward as hell basically cramming 30 people into 2 bedrooms, it was something other than a dorm room or someones parents house (I was the only one in my group of friends who went to college, so most of them still lived at home). Never the less, since he had moved in everynight was a booze and weed filled cluster fuck. They mainly ended up playing cards all night and losing their UPS paychecks while under the influence of schwag and jag. After much pestering I decided I was healed up enough to go hang out. Bad move. Nothing says \"don't fuck me, ever\" like being crammed into 500 square feet and coughing up goo like an angry dinosaur at the sight of newman. But, being the scum bag that I was, I soldiered through it. My first thought was to get high, I took 1 hit of a blunt and threw up everywhere  (in the backyard, it was like my lungs exploded, one of the worst feelings ever), so after that people really were disgusted by me, they had to cut the end of the blunt off to get anyone to smoke it (these are people that go around taking random half smoked cigarettes out of public ashtrays, so you can imagine how my self esteem exploded, much like my bronchial tubes), so I decided to stick to the booze. I went inside, found my friend, and we sat down and took on a liter of jager. We had a bunch of redbulls, and literally cashed the entire bottle in about 20 minutes. Now, I had a decent tolerance at the time, and felt fine, mostly because I had drank so fast. Having heard that that was the last of the booze my inner alcoholic alarm went off and I went into a small panic (I literally am an alcoholic, like a \"I'll drive black out to wisconsin on a sunday to get booze because I can't run out of alcohol until I'm naked face down on a linoleum floor! So, I am about 13 months sober? I literally typed pregnant on accident, same difference), so I spotted this bottle of nyquil, and I figured, since my lungs hurt from the whole blunt escapade, I'd take a few swigs of nyquil! it would go well with the jager, I surmised. After sip #3 I did my best jerry o'connell impression and time traveled to my room, no idea to this day how I got home (it was abotu 3 miles) or what happened at the party, but I just remember waking up really, really drunk in my bed. I was shit faced, but semi-lucid, I blame the cough syrup for the level of drunkeness as I usually just black out until morning, but the fact that I remember this but still was so drunk must've been my central nervous system fighting to keep me alive. \n I had to piss, bad, so I got up and stumbled around my room, I had a curling bar on the ground and must've tripped over it (i only remember segments of this), but do recall the feeling of being like a turtle on it's back, I was rolling around in circles I felt, for what seemed like hours, and then BAM, back into the sliders hole, and I woke up again in my bed. What a strange dream, I thought, as a lot of the time I have anxiety dreams when I'm super thirsty, or have to piss, both of which happened when I boozed, and being stuck on my back rolling around helpless definitely reminded me of the type of dreams I still have under those circumstances (usually I'm stuck in some sort of tube and can't get out, or at a lyle lovett concert with a gun but no bullets), then I reached down to inspect my penis for any post party warts and realized I was naked. Being of scandanavian decent I never get naked, as I can light a room up with my shame, so I instantly knew something was wrong. I sat up and saw my room in utter disarray, my xbox, n64 and playstation were all unplugged in some fashion and the games, controllers and random garbage associated with gaming in a basement were spread EVERYWHERE, it was like a nerd decided to make a snow angel in his virginity dungeon. That's when I saw my clumped up, soaking wet boxers next to the barbell and realized my anxiety dream was a reality, I was rolling around pissing myself on the floor for probably 30 minutes or so based on the CSI esque ability of me to see how many priceless video games I soiled and how far my hunchbacked croquet got me (I made it from my room, half way up the stairs, back down, into the laundry room and then back to my room, as was evident by the trail o' tears/piss and the laundry I had made a winter den in. \n Moral of the story? Don't drink nyquil after drinking jagermeister. Also, don't be a premature baby with lungs that would've gotten you burned alive in the dark ages. Also, don't trust brown people.", "id": "c3rxhxi", "summary": "you're looking at a screen full of words. Deal with it."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "This was murder. Not bullying, I know it's the in cause right now but there is a gigantic difference between pushing someong into a locker or making fun of them to randomly stomping them to death in the middle of the night. Reasonable bullying is both a part of growing up and a problem (depending on the severity), when you include random horrifying murder into the definition you both villianize groups of people who maybe shouldn't be and also detract away from real solutions and the credibility of your cause. As with anything this o's a very slippery slope and normal adolescent behavior may become villified and ruin some childrens lives (I'm thinking like the 17 year old black student who got rape charges for sleeping with his 15 yo girlfriend and will forever be a sex offender because of overzealous laws when that was the it issue for parents to panic about thanks to stories like this).", "id": "c15itwp", "summary": "bullying is a real and serious issue but stories that lump behavior like this Into real cases of bullying are a double edged sword that detract from the real problem and also create criminals where there aren't any."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "When I was a Junior in high school I had a pretty terrible reputation with the staff as a \"pot stirrer\", I never really did anything horrible (like fighting, or doing drugs in school), so I was never suspended, but I just got into random trouble and had a mouth on me (I was raised to question authority when necessary, I forgot about the when necessary part and just basically became a massive d bag)... \n Never the less, this situation was awful. I was captain of the hockey team, and every day we'd wait for a bus to come pick us up for practice or games, etc. One day we were waiting for a particularly long time. While we were waiting, the wrestling team kept jogging by. We never got along with those dudes, and they were chirping us when they ran by, saying things about our lack of cauliflower ear and herpes on our faces and in our eyes from the lack of rubbing cheeks together for points. At some point, one of the guys on our team threw a bottle of water at one of the jogging wrestlers, I didn't see it and no one ever admitted that they did it. \n Either way, out of nowhere this new wrestling coach comes running up to me and 3 of my friends, fucking FURIOUS. He was bright red, and just irate, screaming and swearing about someone throwing something (again, we had no clue what he was talking about), he was being confrontational and was entirely too mad about the situation, had it even happened. I mean, it was a bottle of water, and it didn't hit anyone. \n The entire time I didn't say a word, I had just been reprimanded by our coach and athletic director for orchestrating a fake fight between the 2 black kids on our team with blood capsules that ended up bringing 5 squads, 2 ambulances and for some reason a fire truck to our school (our bus had left at that time so we didn't know until we got back). One of my friends was talking the coach, at first being respectful but then getting sick of the dude insulting us and threatening us. I was standing there, chewing on a pen, just watching. My buddy had said something that I found funny, I can't remember what it was but it wasn't an insult to the coach or the team, I think it was an inside joke we had or something. So, I smiled, while chewing on this pen, and holding onto it with my right hand. \n The coach saw me smile and out of nowhere just punched me straight in the mouth. \"LAUGHING NOW??? BOOM!!!\" he said, fucking boom... I was in shock at first, and then I just said \"CONGRATULATIONS MORON, YOU JUST GOT FIRED!\" and then I went on a 5 minute tirade (verbal) about everything. The wrestling team ran over when they saw this and actually had to hold their coach back (a 30 year old man) from trying to fight a 16 year old high school kid. \n My profanity laced rant drew the attention of one of our 5 assistant principals, who disliked me for legitimate reasons. She came over and said \"Derp, HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?\" and I said \"that motehrfucker punched me! see?  spit out blood \" and she said \"okay, calm down, come with me\", so she brought me to the principals office, sat me down in the waiting area, presumably for our in school liaison officer to come interview me about my face punch. \n I was wrong. I sat there for about 30 minutes, and I asked one of the admin assistant ladies that sat at the desk \"do you know how long this is going to take? I have practice\" and she said \"Don't start with me, I know of you, and honestly, if you kept your mouth shut stuff like this wouldn't keep happening to you\" to which I responded \"are you kidding me? A coach just assaulted a student, there is zero excuse for that! Jesus christ!', at that point the principal called me into the office to ask me what happened. \n I explained it. I expected some sort of sympathy, or outrage towards the coach. Instead, I got sentenced to IN SCHOOL SATURDAY DETENTION for abusive language. I was pissed (my lip was swollen at this point, and we had hockey pictures that week, in retrospect the pictures look like what a hockey picture should, but still), so I walked out of the office, having missed the bus, to go to my car and go home, very, very upset. \n I walked by our gym to get to the parking lot and saw the coach standing there running drills with the team. He sarcastically waved at me and the team turned around and started laughing (I had some ice for my lip, which they gave me in the office). At that point I said, fuck it, I'm going to get everyone in trouble. \n And I did. Kinda. It got hyper drawn out, and lawyers got involved, I was still dealing with it 2 years later when I was a freshman in college and didn't have the energy to deal with it, so when they subpoena'd me to show up to this thing, I requested to just drop the \"charges\" (not legal, but more about the dudes ability to coach anymore)... I kept saying all I wanted was a fucking apology, and maybe just recognition that the dude did it, because he clearly had some anger problems, but instead, because I was a class clown with an attitude problem, I got blamed... Dicks. \n Sidenote: Found out later that the coach got arrested for meth distribution, he was a heavy user also. Explains a lot.", "id": "c6txzvc", "summary": "Got punched in the mouth by a 30 wrestling coach when I was a  16 yo junior in high school for smiling when he was yelling at my friends. Got told by the school that it was my fault for having a big mouth, got in school suspension while the coach didn't even have to go home that day from practice, he smiled and waved at me sarcastically when I walked out of school with an ice pack on my face while the wrestling team laughed at me. Quality!"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "It's infuriating man. It really is. He can't drop it, during ramadan he was walking around with a kufi on, a fucking kufi, this is a 32 year old man with 4 kids. Now, I live in Minneapolis, so it's a pretty liberal place, so of course in this \"high end\" condo you're going to get all these people that are like \"wow, are you muslim, neat!!!\" and he got a lot of the attention he wanted but it was hilarious when this one lady asked him when the last day of ramadan was, his face turned about as red as a black dude's face can, and he said \"i don't know... I... i i i... i'm not muslim\" and she said, sternly \"then what are you doing?\" and he said \"solidarity, for my brothers\" and put up the black panther fist... He didn't wear it after that. \n But in that same vein, he always has these hyper unpolitically correct conversations with people who are way too passive aggressive to do anything about it. Now, I don't know if you've heard the term \"Minnesota Nice\", but it's a half truth, people aren't nice, they're just passive aggressive cowards. So, this one time, after listening to him opine about this or that for weeks on end (he's the type that reads classic books, or learns about things you'd assume he should've in high school, then changes his ENTIRE perspective on everything until the next book alters those views), so i walk out into the courtyard and hear him from 100 feet away talking about \"see, what I hate is, white people think all black people are gang members, that we're all thugs, white people put us in this box, so we just conform to it because white people make us\" and the table he was at just sat there and nodded and smiled, but the 3 other tables of all white people looked pretty offput. \n So, by the time I got there, he was basically just repeating that, so I said \"do you understand that you're doing the exact same thing that you're complaining about?\" and I said it like I was fucking pissed, because I was, now, if he LIVED there, it would be different, but you're fucking on the clock, stop with the bullshit. so he goes \"what?\" and I said \"you're saying ALL WHITE PEOPLE DO THINK ALL BLACK PEOPLE DO THAT\", if that isn't irony, I don't know what is... and he just stuttered and then of course, the dude at his table, 3 sheets to the wind, goes \"no.. now, derp, you DON'T KNOW WHAT DERPY HAS BEEN THROUGH, HE HAS HAD A TERRIBLE CHILDHOOD, AND YOU CAN'T RELATE TO WHAT IT'S LIKE GROWING UP BLACK' and I said \"what does that have to do with ANYTHING?\" my point is, you're basically labeling all white people as terrible people, in the company of a bunch of white people you don't know, while you're at work. And the drunk white guy stood up and went \"IS ANYONE HERE OFFENDED BY WHAT DERPY HAS BEEN SAYING?\" and of course, everyone just sat there like \"fuck, can't I just bbq in peace?\" and he said \"see?\" and I said, \"seriously man, this not why people come out here to sit, you're at work, act professional, i wouldn't tell you this if I didn't consider you my friend, but people won't say anything here, but they do call corporate and you're about 1 call away from getting fired\" and he said \"of course they want to fire the educated black man! don't worry, I got lawyers\" and I just left...", "id": "c7io5jb", "summary": "terrible awful..."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Apparently it's not... -4 karma? No one understands me... except you... let's be roommates. \n Seriously though, thanks man. I appreciate the positive feedback. I write basically exactly what comes out of my brain, as it does. Stream of consciousness style... Most of the time I end up getting downvoted, because I think that I sound like a d bag, which I could see... I mean, the fact that I'm saying that I didn't know her name, and that she was cheating on her boyfriend with me, makes me sound like a terrible person... But at the same time, I've noticed that anytime someone writes about successfully getting a woman into bed, a lot of people get angry about it. \n The thing about it is, I spend most of my free time either playing Skyrim, or talking about it on here. I'm not rocking ed hardy shirts, diesel jeans and a car with ground effects. I'm a fucking geek, but I get laid because I don't really care about anything. And if you are kinda  a geeky dude, and you don't fawn over a girl, or turn red and get all quiet, it irritates them. They wonder, why is THIS guy not stuttering because of my tits? So they start flirting, with no intention of letting me give them my special strain of HPV, but most people here are smarter than the average girl with daddy issues, so, if you look at social situations as a game, you can easily get laid, with or without alcohol ('ve been sober for 25 months now), you just have to throw caution to the wind and say, fuck it... \n I'm not giving you advice, or implying yo need it, I'm just saying, people need to realize that I have no self esteem/respect, so I am not writing from the perspective of some ladies man. Shit, I'm 28, I live in my parents basement, there is a pile of dog poop in my room that I cannot find, but I can smell, and I get decent women despite being 25 lbs overweight and having a face that is about as symmetrical as a salvidor dali clock. I also make Dali references. So, the downvoting is misguided, but I'm used to it.", "id": "c8dv7tc", "summary": "Thanks for this man. As lame as it sounds, and as contradictory as it is (considering I just said I don't care about anything), I've had a bad few days, and it's nice to know that some person out there gets my jokes and finds humor in the weird situations that life tends to present to us."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "You haven't even tried it yet? Weird... I usually end up trying that by date 3... but then again I only date women with zero self respect, for obvious reasons. First time I tried anal was with a girl whose boyfriend was in prison for selling meth, she stopped birth control because of it, and wanted me to finish (she was a people person) so she crammed me in there, about as close to dry as one could be, it took some doing, but she lowered herself down, switched it from vag to agro crag, and ended up with a eclair in her toilet 2 hours later. \n I appreciated the sentiment but it really grossed me out afterwards. I mean, we just met that night, I didn't even know her name, probably didn't help that she clearly wasn't \"prepared\" to have sex, in anyway, it was winter, in minnesota, and she hadn't been shaving, anything, I didn't notice, but it was an all night bang fest, so the suns coming up, I'm sobering up, and we're on this box spring we tipped over in some other girls basement, and I see hair where I didn't realize hair could be... the sounds... the smells... the textures... Shit, this is turning into my Yelp review of Denny's...", "id": "c81fgx6", "summary": "Good for your wife for leaving something to look forward to."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "After being captured and held in the factories, slaves entered the infamous Middle Passage. Meltzer's research puts this phase of the slave trade's overall mortality at 12.5%.[75] Around 2.2 million Africans died during these voyages where they were packed into tight, unsanitary spaces on ships for months at a time. Measures were taken to stem the onboard mortality rate such as enforced \"dancing\" (as exercise) above deck and the practice of force-feeding enslaved people who tried to starve themselves.[63] The conditions on board also resulted in the spread of fatal diseases. Other fatalities were the result of suicides by jumping over board by slaves who could no longer endure the conditions.[63] The slave traders would try to fit anywhere from 350 to 600 slaves on one ship. Before the shipping of enslaved people was completely outlawed in 1853, 15.3 million enslaved people had arrived in the Americas. \n While treatment of slaves on the passage was varied, slaves' treatment was often horrific because the captured African men and women were considered less than human; they were \"cargo,\" or \"goods\" and treated as such; they were transported for marketing. For example the Zong,a British slaver, took too many slaves on its voyage to the New World. Overcrowding combined with malnutrition and disease killed several crew members and around 60 slaves. Bad weather made the Zong's voyage slow; the captain decided to drown his slaves at sea, so the owners could collect insurance on the slaves. Over 100 slaves were killed and a number of slaves chose to kill themselves. The Zong incident became fuel for the abolitionist movement and a major court case, as the insurance company refused to compensate for the loss. \n While slaves were generally kept fed and supplied with drink, as healthy slaves were more valuable, if resources ran low on the long, unpredictable voyages, the crew received preferential treatment. Slave punishment was very common, as on the voyage the crew had to turn independent people into obedient slaves. Whipping and use of the cat o' nine tails was a common occurrence; sometimes slaves were beaten for “melancholy.” The worst punishments were for rebelling; in one instance a captain punished a failed rebellion by killing one involved slave immediately, and forcing two other slaves to eat his heart and liver.[11] \n Slaves resisted in a variety of ways. The two most common types of resistance were refusal to eat and suicide. Suicide was a frequent occurrence, often by refusal of food or medicine or jumping overboard, as well as by a variety of other opportunistic means.[12] Over the centuries, some African peoples, such as the Kru, came to be understood as holding substandard value as slaves, because they developed a reputation for being too proud for slavery, and for attempting suicide immediately upon losing their freedom.[13] Both suicide and self-starving were prevented as much as possible by slaver crews; slaves were often force-fed or tortured until they ate, some still managed to starve themselves to death; slaves were kept away from means of suicide, and the sides of the deck were often netted. Slaves were still successful, especially at jumping overboard. Often when an uprising failed, the mutineers would jump en masse into the sea. Slaves generally believed that if they jumped overboard, they would be returned to their family and friends in their village, or to their ancestors in the afterlife.[14] Suicide by jumping overboard was such a problem that captains had to address it directly in many cases. They used the sharks that followed the ships as a terror weapon. One captain, who had a rash of suicides on his ship, took a woman and lowered her into the water on a rope, and pulled her out as fast as possible. When she came in view, the sharks had already killed her—and bitten off the lower half of her body.[15]", "id": "c1zlmeg", "summary": "Read it. I don't know how you could ever do that to someone."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I had a situation like this, albeit not as drawn out and it was more of a ... I'll just explain... \n There was a girl that I liked, a lot, freshman year of college. I had just gotten dumped by a girl I was in love with (first love, stupid love, the type you handle terribly, personally, when you lose it, like \"I'LL NEVER LOVE ANYONE AGAIN!\" type of love), so I knew this girl for years and we always were just friends that flirted. We ended up at the same school and would talk on AIM (I know, right?) and she said she wanted to check out my dorm. So I had her over a night and we laid in my bed and watch tv for like 2 hours, she had a boyfriend so I didn't try anything out of respect, despite laying on the same pillow and kinda half spooning. \n Either way, the next day we talked on AIM again, and she told me basically that I should've kissed her, I said, what about derp? And she said, I can't help it, I like you a lot and I'm just saying... if you try something I won't stop you. So, she came over that night and we fooled around, both got naked, but didn't have sex. The entire time she was like, \"I shouldn't be doing this!\" but the heat of the moment just made things keep progressing, until I was like, are you sure about this? And she said yes, then I said, \"I want you to really think about this, because I like you a lot, and I want to be with you, but as much as I will regret this, there is more to it and I like you enough to not want to create problems or guilt\", so she said \"you're right\" and put on her clothes and we finished total recall (#1 bitch getter, ever!). \n About 3 weeks I went up to my best friends dorm at a school about an hour away. We were boozing in his dorm and he was like \"oh, I invited derpina too, she should be here any minute\" ruh roh, I thought. So she got there, and we put some captain in these hockey water bottles (which was a terrible idea in retrospect, not only because it's completely obvious when 3 people are stumbling around with giant, white hockey water bottles but also because you would never be able to put water in them again, it's not like the next day they could just be rinsed out and used... but whatever), so we were getting drunk and she was talking about how much she loved me and was all over me, we were both shitfaced, so we were being gross, like making out in front of everyone and she was asking our mutual friend \"how do I dump xyz? I feel bad but I LOVE DERP *cue disgusting make out session\", this went on for about 2 hours until we went back to go to sleep. Her and I stayed up fooling around and talking for a few hours, then we ended up having sex, she let me know she wasn't on the pill, and we didn't have a condom. \n As we started, she said \"I haven't had sex with xyz yet, so it may be a little tight, it's been like 2 years\" and it was, and despite my captain morgan junk, I lasted like... 5 minutes, not even. I played it off like I just stopped, and we stayed up until about 8 a.m. talking. We were joking about baby names and she was calling me a manwhore and was talking about getting an STD test (I was sleeping around a lot back then), I let her know I was clean but told her she should probably get the morning after pill. She got up and said she was going to planned parenthood that day to be safe and we'd talk later. \n She didn't talk to me for like 4 days. I was worried, because I, at that point, was enamored. I had been shut off, emotionally, from women, after losing my first GF, and she was the first girl I genuinely liked, a lot.  So, we finally talked, and she let me know that she felt bad and couldn't break up with her boyfriend. And I was pissed, and said that that wasn't fair to me, either and I was really disappointed that she would do something like that to someone who was emotionally vulnerable and damaged and I said that she deserved to be alone since she cheated on someone she hadn't even slept with yet, with someone else she claimed to love who was fucked in the head when it came to women. I told her I couldn't talk to her anymore, and said goodbye. \n 2 weeks later she emails me. \"I talked to my mom about us, and you know, she had a great point, I want you to know I won't press charges (what!) but, while I never said no, or stop, I never said \"yes\" or that I wanted to have sex, so, you technically raped me, because I never gave my permission, and had been drinking\". So I responded \"A) I drank about 5 times as much as you. B) I never realized I needed to have women sign a release, when you removed your pants and explained to me the conditions of your vagina and why it may be hard to start (which it was) I figured that meant it was okay to proceed, C) I know you're just covering your ass and figure if your boyfriend finds out about us, that this will be your out, but I would never even do that to you, I simply said you deserve to be alone for fucking over 2 guys, not that I was going to go out of my way to find some dude I've never met, whose name I don't know to tell him that we had sex. D) This is the worst thing ever, we were friends, you were my main support over the last few months when it came to my break up and the subsequent shit storm (she was still in our HS, and I had a lot of enemies in HS and for some reason everyone from my HS started going to college parties (we never did that when we were there) so everywhere I went I'd see some kid who hated me who would be like \"hey! your ex fucked your best friend! haha\" and I'd just quietly walk to the keg and see someone else who would say \"haha, heard you cried when you found out she was banging derp! fag!\", then I'd leave, go back to my room and go online and have emails from people saying the same. Despite us breaking up solely because she slept with my friend and not because I did anything mean to her, I just didn't understand why she was telling everyone shit about me, like spiteful shit, so it made me resent women, and that girl knew that and so it was just really bad timing, it solidified the impression I had, and really fucked my head up for a long, long time. I mean, I am the type that doesn't let people talk shit to me, I talk shit back (I'm not a fighter or anything) but I was so depressed and down I was just letting people talk shit to me everywhere because I had nothing to say, no fight left, then I met her and she accused me of raping her and I gave up on women. \n So, that's my story. We actually made up, while she was engaged, and she started doing the same thing. She told me she loved me about a year ago and how she wished she didn't get married and how I'm her soul mate, and I was like, this isn't fair. I wanted to be with you too, still do. But I can't hear this shit, I won't break up a marriage and I can't love someone I can't have, it'll kill me.", "id": "c48sqbl", "summary": "boy meets girl after break up, she cheats on boyfriend, becomes afraid boy (me) will tell her boyfriend she cheated, so she says I raped her because she didn't give me permission, verbally, even though she took her clothes off and told me that it may be hard for me to get my penis in her vaginer because it's \"been awhile\" and then afterwards we joked about baby names and std's and stayed up all night talking about our future together, until she got home, felt bad and told me she couldn't dump her boyfriend (who ended up beating her btw, not for that reason). 5 years later I apologized to her for how I handled the situation (I got mad and felt bad about it) and we became really, really good friends again and she was now married to someone else, and told me she loved me and wished I was her husband, which made me depressed, even though, I should've basically written her off. But, as marty mcfly learned, that's the power of love."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "My friend took a bunch of shrooms on the first night we moved our other friend in to his new duplex (which was across the street from the HS I recently graduated from, which isn't in a great neighborhood mind you, but isn't some sort of indiana jone's arch of the covenant esque soul stealing pandora's box of methaphors gone wrong? Point being, this kid, who was my best friend since about... second grade immediately turned into a \"thug\" because of his surroundings and would literally sit on his stoop and \"mean mug\" cars because that's what people do in the hood to \"keep it real\", ugh). \n So they split a bag of shrooms, neither of them had much experience with them so I was just there to make sure nothing bad happened (hooray I did good) and to enjoy the fun (some other friends had tried shrooms recently and it was hilarious, I convinced one that we were driving through the boundary waters region of Minnesota to get away from the \"feds\" and the ice we were on was cracking, it was July, and we were in the middle of a major downtown, he bought the entire thing, and I know, major party foul, but I couldn't help it, he was all wide eyed and naive and I'm a douche, bad mix). So, after about an hour or so my \"best friend\" starts just going crazy, like, screaming at his girlfriend about being a slut (her 12 year old sister was staying there too for the weekend so it was bad), I was trying to calm him down and he grabbed the newly moved in friend and was like \"DID YOU FUCK NIKKI (his GF of 3 years at the time) and the other kid, who was high on shrooms also, was like \"what, what??? WHAT? MAN, WHAT IS GOING ON? WE MOVED BOXES RIGHT? RIGHT DERP (ME)? WHEN COULD I HAVE DONE THAT? WHAT TIME IS IT??\" and I was like \"dude, no one touched her, remember? We've been moving all day man and he just met her like 2 hours ago..\" so, he was like \"my bad...\" and sat down for like 5 minutes, didn't say a word. Just sat there. Then, he took his shirt off, put ON A DU RAG (he wasn't black, half asian half white, so, the antithesis of the du rag manufacturers target market) and out of no where ran over to the other friend, grabbed him and started screaming \"YOU TRIED TO FUCK BRIANNA! YOU SON OF A BITCH! (Brianna is, as you may have guessed, the 12 year old), so he started punching the air as I separated the two, and seeing that we were on the top level of the duplex I told the other friend to go wait in the stairwell until dude calmed down, when I was out there explaining to him why he needed to be out there (shrooms) I heard screaming inside so I ran back in, the shirtless du-rag magoo was now covered in blood, having punched holes through a door, 2 walls and a bunch of picture frames, he was just going fucking mental, so I ran over to him and he grabbed a knife and was like \"this ends, tonight\" and I was like, Great! so I talked him down, got the knife, went out to the hallway, the other friend was gone, so I ran outside really fast and saw his car was also gone... FUCK... \n Back upstairs, I see my friend, dripping blood, calmly sitting on the couch. His girlfriend was in the kitchen, crying, I ran in and was like, is everything okay? She was fine but said \"he called 911, I don't know why, I don't know what he said, he's crazy, I hate him!\" and so I walked over and was like \"Hey buddy, crazy night so far, huh?\" and he was like completely normal, in a creepy way, \"yeah, that fucker man, I knew I shouldn't have trusted him...  begin story about what a good friend I was \" I interrupted him and said \"so.. you didn't call the police, did you?\" and he was like, \"of course I did, I need an ambulance, bitch wouldn't send one because she said there wasn't an emergency, so I made one up\", that's when my stomach dropped, I said, what did you say?? \"I told him I killed nikki and brianna and there blood was everywhere, so, I'll be able to go to the hospital now!\". Fuck mode 11. \n I told the girls to head out back (I didn't want him to see us leaving together) and went out front, called his parents and basically said all hell was breaking loose and they needed to come, immediately. Right as I said that 3 squads pull up, an ambulance in tow, guns drawn they get out \"PUT YOUR FUCKING HANDS UP!\" I was like \"ahhh! AHHHH! I'M NOT THE GUY YOU WANT, HE'S UPSTAIRS... LISTEN BIG MISUND... thud  tackled to the ground, wind knocked out of me by the tackler somehow getting a knee right in my lungs\" the other cops ran up the stairs (the door was still open, lights on, music was now playing). \n They had me handcuffed and up against a squad, searching my pockets and I don't know how the fuck this happened, but I just hear screaming and since my head is slammed against the car in that direction I see this 5'7 asian, in du rag in tow, covered in blood and gashes, running down the stairs (he got past atleast 2 cops, maybe 3) he as running around the front yard, cops were screaming for him to get down,  but he was fucking tripping balls and was just running in circles, juking cops like a 12 year old playing me in madden on xbox live, it was actually quite impressive, until this big black cop, think michael clarke duncan meets 2 divorces worth of rage, fucking clothes lined him, just took him down, or rather up, since he did this weird disjointed flip and landed straight on his upper back. I thought his neck was broken, he was weezing and coughing up goo (he smoked more weed than anyone I've ever met, like, hourly at night he'd get up to smoke at night, first thing he'd do when he woke up was smoke then we'd roll over to a seedier part of the city to buy a dub (meaning, $20, the real term for dub, so an eighth, of shitty mexican weed, it was retarded), he had already had his lung collapse once (I thought it was from the tar, his parents said late onset asthma, I didn't know you could get asthma when you were 18... either way, the weed didn't help), so I was worried about that. \n They handcuffed him, the girls had come out from behind the house by now and explained enough for me to get unhandcuffed and then his parents showed up (they were like 10 minutes away), he must've seen his mom or something, and I really don't know how this happened, but the next thing I saw after walking over to his GF to see if she was okay was that fucker, in handcuffs, running down the street, juking cops again. He got away from the green mile and was screaming \"MOM! MOM! MOM!\" and doing spin manuevers in the middle of the street. There were countless neighbors watching, most of whom were black and were laughing and giving discount movie theatre esque commentary, then out of no where, green mile fucking clotheslines him... AGAIN. \n His dad was one of those d bag parents that always tried to pretend to be above his station (we were all connected through sports and he was always bragging about shit they didn't have and going into debt to get it before people found out they didn't have it) so he ran over and started threatening the cops with police brutality, they promptly told him to shut the fuck up, which he did. And the ambulance actually took him to the psych ward for the night, where he apparently kept pulling his IV's out with his teeth because they were trying to \"poison\" him, so they had to gag him. I saw him I think 2 days later, at his parents, in their above ground pool (they told my parents they bought a new house with an inground pool, so of course... NEW ABOVE GROUND POOL!) and he was fucked up, stitches everywhere, cuts, bruises (especially where the needles were). \n The other friend thankfully only drove about 2 blocks and fell asleep in his chevy s-10, he refers to that as the worst night of his life. Anyone from minnesota will appreciate that he grew up on the Iron Range (about 3 hours north of the cities), thought of MInneapolis as Gary, Indiana (which anyone else would appreciate as laughable considering we're like the 3rd safest city in the US) so he spent the night in a \"crappy\" neighborhood, curled in a ball in his 5 square feet of cabin space, while BLACKS walked by drunk and he cried. His words. \n My best friend? He was never the same after that. The \"keep it real\" mentality only grew exponentially after that, we used to give each other shit, like guys do, and anytime I did that after that he'd get in my face and say \"you talking shit? You tryin ta check me? I don't play that shit man, not anymore\" and I'd just laugh and say, dude, if you could see yourself through my eyes, which used to be about as close to your eyes as anyone I've ever met, you'd fucking shoot yourself. And I left, never to see him again (this was after about 6 months of putting up with this constant bullshit, I just couldn't take it anymore). \n But, the great news is his parents blamed ME for everything and told the gossipy hockey parents from the neighborhood that somehow the kid who didn't try weed until college or booze until almost the end of senior year was the one that corrupted their perfect son, whose lung collapsed in high school. I WAS THE ONE THAT CALLED THEM TO COME HELP. AHHHHH. Drives me insane thinking that they actually had the mental gymnastics to throw me under the bus. I hate them.", "id": "c4erxp9", "summary": "it's a thread about stories. I wrote one."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I have a bunch of these... \n So my best friend and new roommate wanted to go to target to buy some shit (it was both of our first times living at a house, we had lived in dorms previously but we were horribly unprepared for the necessities of home living), so on the way there he goes \"oh, I gotta meet up with this friend from work real quick up in New Brighton\" and I was like \"buh, why? (I wanted to get drunk on a 30 pack of Ham's beer and play halo 2 on 2 on our tube tv, history!) and he said \"oh, I told him I'd get some weed for him from derp, it'll take like 2 minutes\". So, we sat in this parking lot for 2 fucking hours waiting for this kid. The longer we were there the more paranoid I became, I was kinda pissed as I wouldn't have gone along for a drug deal that benefited me in no way, in some random suburb, for some random dude. \n The longer we waited the more irate my friend also became. So, the kid finally shows, and wants to drive around to \"inspect the merchandise\" as he put it.. \"scarface!\" I said sarcastically, no one laughed. So, we drove around and the kid kind of poo poo'ed the shit, like \"this isn't as good as you said it'd be man\" and my friend was like \"fuck you man, you said you wanted weed, I got you weed, we've been here for 2 hours so take it or don't I don't care anymore\" and so the kid opted to buy it, $500 (the amount was staggering to me at the time, I thought this was like a dub tops, that's when I was like, why the fuck did you make me come along? This is some 18 year old with a receding hairline from some northern suburb, it's not like you needed \"back\" or anything, but I would've gone to jail you fuck). \n So, we hop on the freeway and start driving, finally, to target, for toiletries! We get on the major freeway and his phone rings, it's the douche from the back seat. \"Great\" my friend says as he answers, I hear him arguing with the dude \"well man, you asked for nug, I got you nugs, if you don't fucking like it I'm not coming back, you can meet me at my house\" I start pantamiming \"no! no!\" like, don't let this fuck know where we live (I was still afraid of the police coming), despite that my friend happily gave him our new address, but now we had to skip target, I didn't care anymore, I knew I had a bunch of beers waiting at home and just wanted to relax. \n We get back, about 45 minutes goes by, to ease my anxiety I did a couple beer bongs with our other 2 roommates and played some halo. Then my friends phone rings, they're outside he said. They? Ruh Roh. I asked my friend if he wanted me to come sit on the porch, \"I got this\" he said. So, I'm sitting there, fucking shit up on the warthog in blood gulch and I hear car tires screech, and immediate screaming, I open the blinds and see 2 black dudes walking up gesturing all crazy and yelling \"BC's? THIS NIGGA SELLING BC'S????\", crap, I thought. My one roommate ran into the basement (this is the same kid that slept in his s-10 from my first story, if anyone is following along, basically, he feared black people like black people fear the deep end of the public pool), his brother, the other roommate, went up to his room also (Nice)... \n Now. These kids were all from an expensive catholic school in the suburbs and really had zero experience with black dudes. I knew, from being the dirtball of the group (growing up in the \"bad part\" of my city and going to school in those neighborhoods), that they mainly play on white peoples fear of them, once you show them you're not afraid, they panic and either have to hit you or leave, or just act like a civilized human. So I started to go out the front door and I heard \"yo, P, get the heater from the trunk, about to teach this nigga how we do\" and I was like, seriously? heater? blech. So I grabbed this miniature game day give away kent hrbek clogged artery awareness day bat we kept by the front door and went out the back to sneak up the side of our driveway to get my club on. By the time I got to where I could see the supposed \"heater\", the guy who had gone to retrieve it simply was sitting in the car, and the main dude took the handfull of $100's from my friend and walked away saying \"now we know where you live, you're lucky, this time, bitch\", I knew they were bluffing so I ran out with the bat and chased the kid who ran from me and got into the car as it was driving away (he dove in the back seat like a movie), I threw the bat at the car to try to break the window atleast and then walked back to the house. \n My friend hadn't moved an inch. He just stood there, mouth agape (he had one of those weird upside down mouths, like a fish that had chromosome issues) and I said \"what the fuck happened\", silence. It took him like 10 minutes to collect his thoughts and then he started fucking crying like \"man, they were gonna kill me dude!\" and I was like, \"god damnit, if they had a gun, they would've shown it to you, they definitely wouldn't have left it in the fucking trunk to go get it later, they just wanted to scare you\" \"BULLSHIT, YOU WEREN'T THERE!\" he said, I said \"I heard the entire fucking thing man, it was a bluff, that worked on me once, in second grade, for a sandwich, come on man... fuck, IF THEY WERE IN A GANG THEY WOULDN'T NEED TO GO TO CRAZY LENGTHS TO GET WEED FROM SOME DUDE AT A GAS STATION'S ADJACENT WORK BUDDY ON A WEDNESDAY NIGHT YOU IDIOT\", so, not wanting to add insult to injury I said, \"well, I have some loot upstairs (tip money from my job as a bus boy), how much do you owe derp for the weed?\", my friend goes \"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK\" and got up and stormed into the living room, I said \"I don't know? $400? $450?\" he goes \"IT WAS $500 YOU MORON\" and that's when I lost it. \n I said \"So, let me get this straight, you offered to be the proxy for a drug deal, of $500 worth of weed, to a guy (who at this point I had established worked at the gas station across the street from his work, and he barely knew) you didn't really know, for a drug dealer none of us like, you brought me along, so I could get in trouble too, AND YOU WERE GETTING NOTHING OUT OF IT?\", \"I just wanted to help out\" he said. Well, fuck, I figured, let's call the fucker from the gas station and figure shit out. After about a day of ignoring calls he answered and let us know that the black dudes were from a fucking farm town about an hour north of the city (I was right) and he didn't know them very well either. So, lesson learned, don't help random acquaintances get drugs, unless you rode the bus with some black kids, like me, and like to think you know how to not get shot (someone save this for when I get shot next week, thanks).", "id": "c4es7k8", "summary": "So there I was, about to get the high score on ms. pac man (the table version), when this guy, high on marijuana cigarettes, spills his beverage on my joystick! How can I manipulate the intricate maps while mainly evading the red ghost (you guys know what im talking about, lolz) with sticky sugar water on my only tool of survival? The cops still haven't found his corpse, but sometimes, I have nightmares that a mixture of his green corpse mixed with blinky is chasing me and the map is my guilt."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "God it has to be frustrating to know it's a racial thing and still have to be like ' maybe it had something to do with it'. Honestly, i blacked out at a friends, awoke in my car, in drive, in the middle of an intersection, to the flashlight of a cop. He asked me if I was diabetic, I said no, he called an ambulance, I had a 35 blood sugar, so he picked my mom up from a few blocks away and let me go to the hospital as she drove my car home. I blew a .29 in the ambulance and my bloodsuagr went up after an iv. I shouldve been arrested but wasn't. Just ended up with $1500 in ambulance bills. The double standard here makes me sad. Dude did the right thing and got beat, I (unbeknowst to my lucid self) did a horrible thing and got treated like that. I applaud his restraint. Also, don't get me wrong I do have a history of diabetes and through genetics was always told I was going to have it and have to get tested a lot but still, I had an open liter of vodka in my car and didn't even get an open bottle.", "id": "c1b0ppd", "summary": "me a youngish white male passed out drunk in drive in car in residential neighborhood with open bottle got the benefit of the doubt of diabetes despite .29 bac and got off with no charges from the police who went to pick up my mom to get my car, I also got to keep my booze."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I don't want to get my hopes up, but can definitely say that the idealistic 21 year old poli-sci/sociology of law major is dead so... take that into account. I feel like we are reaching a tipping point. \n More and more people are having these experiences. My mom is a cashier at a liquor store and told some of the \"regulars\" the story about how my car died on the freeway and the state trooper that showed up pulled his tazer on my dad (who came to pick me up) after basically.. \n The car died in the middle of 5 lanes on a freeway bridge that goes over the Mississippi river (the same bridge that collapsed back in 08, well not the same one, the rebuilt one), and it sucked. Big time. It was freezing outside, 10 below, and there was an entrance at the beginning of the bridge and an two exits at the end, so cars where trying to get on the freeway and get up to speed while others were crossing lanes to exit. I was in the middle of it. \n My car stopped. It didn't even roll, it just fucking locked up and stopped hard enough for my chest to hit the steering wheel. My four ways didn't work, and immediately I said \"fucking Mike!\" (my brother in law, who put in a new battery the day before). I was in a two door 88 thunderbird. No 2 ways, trying to get out but the doors are extra long and cars were zooming by. On top of it, in my rearview I could see the people with their heads over their shoulders looking BACK to merge onto the freeway and I could clearly see their reactions as they realized I wasn't moving and they had to blindly swerve back into their original lane. I thought I was going to die. I got out, and was trying to wave people to slow down or soemthing, and people were honking at me like crazy. \n I ran to the right side of the bridge, but there was no shoulder to speak of because it's a bridge and there was also a lot of snow, so I ran up the side of the highway, to this gas station right off of it. That had a tow service. I thought for sure I was going to look over and see a mushroom cloud. I was in a panic. \n Thankfully I was in front of a highway camera, and a state trooper showed up and blocked the lane. Unfortunately he also came to talk to me afterwards and was a complete megalomaniac. I was inside the gas station, waiting for him to come. My hands were freezing from my 8 block or so run, so my hands were in my pocket. He entered the gas station and I turned my head and he yelled \"GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OUT OF YOUR POCKET ARE YOU DUMB?\", uh oh. I responded that I didn't have my wallet with me (I was actually driving to go get it) and... it was all down hill from there. He made me stand in one spot for the 30 minutes it took for my dad to come pick me up and bring my wallet. Now, my dad works nights, and only really drives to work. He is the closest thing to bill murray in Groundhog's Day that I know, he has his routine. Part of that is leaving his wallet in his car, which was the car I took, so he didn't have his license either... Which really shouldn't have been a problem but... \n My dad shows up and is sitting there while the cop is writing me a ticket for driving without proof a license, and my dad had brought the new insurance cards (thank god) so when the trooper asked for the insurance, I went over and my dad rolled down the window and handed them to me. I don't really know why this bothered the trooper, other than I moved out of my arbitrary spot (I was so just freaked out by the whole thing I didn't think to question it but in retrospect why the fuck wasn't I allowed to move? I didn't do anything wrong), so he looks at my dad and yells \"get out of your car\" and my dad, who is parked perpendicular to parked cars, says \"where should I park?\" and the trooper screamed \"GET OUT NOW\". \n So my dad gets out, and the trooper asks for his license. My dad says it's in the thunderbird, which was up on a flatbed at this point. And the Trooper just loses it. \"No wonder, like father like fucking son, no wonder your son doesn't give a shit, look at you, 11 a.m. and you're wearing pajamas?\", my dad isn't confrontational, at all, so h e didn't say anything, I said \"he works nights officer, I took the car from him when he got home to run and get my wallet, I can grab it for you\", so I did. \n When I was climbing back down from the flatbed, I heard the officer say \"get your hands out of your damn pockets\" to my dad. Who said \"sorry, it's cold out here\", he took my dads id and went into his squad for like... 15 minutes. He told us both not to move a \"muscle\". When he got out of the squad, considering it was 10 below pre-windchill, my dad had his hands in his jacket pockets again. And the fucking trooper pulled his tazer (which I thought was his gun at first) and screamed 'GET YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR NOW!!!'... It was fucking nonsense. \n It was like a 3 hour ordeal. The reason I brought this up was become my mom was understandably furious, and was talking to her regulars about it and would come home with countless stories from other people who were having increasingly shitty run ins with the police and state troopers. My dad was there on the request of the officer, and he had no reason to pull my dad out of the car at all. He was confrontational from the beginning and was so on edge that I was afraid, genuinely, for the only time in my life that maybe my dad could get shot or something (he's a big dude, 6'4, 250). \n I had just gone through a pretty scary situation, and was just freaked out, so I went along with what he said. My usual personality doesn't permit abuse from anyone, verbal or physical, family, friend or foe. So, it could have been much, much worse. Especially considering I stick up for my family and felt that his insults were just uncalled for. \n I talked to a friend of mine who is a retired FBI agent. He told me that it's basically common knowledge in law enforcement agencies that the state troopers are bottom rung \"weirdos\" who know that they are looked down upon by their peers and act accordingly. His words were \"Nothing more dangerous than giving a guy with an inferiority complex and 33k a year salary the power they're given\". \n And it's true. It was a terrible ordeal, fucking really, really bothered me. Made me extremely afraid of state troopers. Of driving on the freeway for awhile, all of it. I'm the type of guy that looks at situations (bad ones) two ways, was is accidental or was there malice behind it? I didn't mean for my car to die like that, I didn't mean to leave my wallet at my friends house either. None of that was necessary. \n Ugh.", "id": "cjwh05r", "summary": "State Troopers aren't fun people."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Reagan decided that all the laws and work that the left had done to help create the world's largest middle class, to put us on the path to become the world's hegemon, etc. Had to be dismantled. \n Look at the dichotomy between who the right considers to be the best president ever and who everyone else considers to be a top 3 president. There is a direct correlation of union membership and the growth of the middle class. Think about Reagan and what he did to the unions, then think about how FDR [sent in the national guard to arrest the CEO of Montgomery Ward for union busting]( \n This week in my city, Minneapolis, is the 80th anniversary of [\"Bloody Friday\". Where Teamsters were murdered by the police while they were on strike]( \n People seem to forget how people fought for the rights we take for granted now. Or used to. I just read about a study that says we no longer have 40 hour work weeks. It's approaching an average of 50 with one to two nights a week including doing extra work from home... for no pay. \n When I say people fought, I mean fought. It was a war. A war for fair wages, for weekends off, for safety regulations, for protection. For a voice. People died so people could have 2 weeks off a year. \n And now people look at unions like they are parasites. Look at a country like Germany. It has one of the highest union job percentages in the world, and during the 2008 great recession they were the only Western European country able to save others. \n Our middle class is crumbling. Union membership systematically destroyed. Our economy no longer can rely on having the largest amount of consumers in the world. Let me restate that. We no longer have the hundred's of millions of people with disposable income that they can use to create demand, thus jobs. \n Union jobs used to allow families to have one \"bread winner\" and another to stay at home to raise the children, etc. Now 2 income households live check to check. It all started with Reagan. I don't blame him, really. He was an actor, a front man. Better yet, he was a front man with dementia, who had someone behind him during speeches to keep him on the topic at hand. Which usually had something to do with dismantling the middle class. \n It took about 20 years for all of the laws that benefited corporations and the elite to finally reach it's inevitable conclusion. Look at the statistics. The top 1 percent actually gained money during the great recession. The game is rigged. \n I honestly think we are doomed. People are stunningly uneducated. They vote against their own economic interests constantly. There is no quick fix. Obama has tried, hard, to push through real legislation. To create real \"change\", and by change I mean he is trying to reset things back to the way they were before Reagan. \n On top of all of this, he cut the budgets for the federally run mental hospitals and [basically created an underclass of helpless people who became \"Bums\" that people didn't have empathy for, they loathed them, they didn't understand that these people need help, and that the alcohol or drugs people assume they buy is simply a way for them to self medicate]( \n Then, you have the Iran Contra mess, where the CIA knowingly assisted a group that was pumping cocaine into major cities, namely Los Angeles. The asshole whose walking corpse of a wife started a war on drugs, drugs that he knowingly let flow into low income neighborhoods. \n He was, by far, the worst President we've ever had. We used to be a country that other countries modeled themselves after. A place where you legitimately could make something of yourself if you simply tried. Where companies actually had pensions for workers. Can you imagine that now? Working at a factory for $20 an hour and a pension to work towards so you have something to live on when you retire? \n Pensions don't exist anymore. It's sickening. These companies can afford this shit, but they don't want to, and don't need to. They don't release that the short term benefits they get from not having to pay out pensions is going to hurt them in the long run. See: 2008. I know I said the elite actually benefited, but the companies didn't. When your GDP is based on 70% consumer spending and you decide to destroy consumers ability to do anything but hopefully pay their mortgage, utilities and their car note. \n Someone needs to get out there and educate people about what Reagan did. Let people know, so someone can play every Right winger's default Reagan accolade filled sycophantic nonsense and release that things can get better. \n We can become the country we once were. Under the guidance of 5 decades of a congress run by the Dems, where bills were actually passed. And things worked, the country grew, and we took advantage of the Marshall Plan. \n Yes, we did have a monopoly on manufacturing, as Europe was destroyed and needed our help. Anyone could've done okay with the amount of money we had coming in, and the growth we were experiencing by proxy. \n But the Dems, like LBJ, used the opportunity to help the people. To build that middle class. To support unions so people had the ability to have a voice, and protection. \n Finally, one thing that has continuously dumbed down the populace and create a wedge between people who should be working together. Reagan overturned the \"Fairness Doctrine\", and people no longer needed the nightly news. They had a 24/7 station that parroted whatever the talking points were for that week. Unregulated propaganda, where a soon to be billionaire can feign empathy for the working class. They know that the working class is angry, and they assist in focusing that energy at things that in the end makes them even more angry.... It's fucking nonsense.", "id": "cj1rlkq", "summary": "Reagan was the worst president ever. Ever. He was doing what he as an actor. He read scripts about communists in Hollywood. He didn't have his own MO, he just read whatever was in front of him. His mind was gone, he was simply a Manchurian candidate that was controlled by corporations and the 1%. \n Fuck him."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "If anyone with further insight in this matter sees this I have a question. Do you know how the 120k employees break down? As in, how many are branches vs. carriers vs. administration vs. support? I am terrified as hell right now. My dad has worked for the post office for about 30 years (he just turned 53) and has been ignoring all of the warnings about this, saying things like \"the union told me it's fine\" or \"the union won't ever let that happen\" I've been telling him it's worse than he thinks it is (he lives in a world of his own reality, honestly, he always brings me car shopping, when my parents can barely afford to pay their mortgage, and by barely I mean they can't. We'll test drive trucks and he'll come home all excited and then get all mad when my mom basically laughs at him). \n They tried to buy him out last year, he (obviously) said no per his union rep's recommendation. He is at the top of the pay scale for his position (if not totally there, really, really close) and works at the main hub in Minneapolis as a clerk or sorter or something like that inside the hub. If he lost his job it'd be game over, my mom quit her job to babysit my nieces and my cousins babies for pennies (hence the inability to afford the mortgage, they changed their income, not their spending, up until now when near foreclosure forced them to restructure by the iron fist of my sister, thank god). But to be honest, my dad has worked there his entire life, and I can't picture him doing anything else. He can't even literally order food from the drive through, he's that socially inept, and would probably end up working at UPS for 8 bucks an hour or doing what he did before this which was basically manhandling the crazies at the hospital because he is a bigger guy. \n I don't mean to imply like he has mental issues, or is some sort of rain main, he is just super accustomed to his routine and my mom has spoiled him to the point of not realizing how the world works anymore. He get's paid a great wage, and works his ass off for it (he already needs double hip replacement at 53 from the repetition of his job) but I fear that in the post Reagan America there is no job for a guy like him that would support their home, and if he lost his job, his purpose, I honestly think he would die. Happened to my grandpa who was a farmer his whole life, had diabetes, lost the ability to walk (couldn't feel his feet) at 94, died a month later, he just gave up. My dad isn't literally going to die, but if he had to sit around all day doing nothing (he usualyl works 10 hours) or go back to cleaning shit off of mattress' I think he would lose it, and he's already starting to lose it cause of his hips.", "id": "c2bxsrc", "summary": "please please please, if anyone knows moreinfo about specifics of lay offs or anything let me known, my dad is a 30 year vet of the post office and I'm super afraid he is going to lose his job, he turned down a buy out last year."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Just wondering. I have no fighting skills (as in training), but have been in a lot of street fights. For some reason, probably intentional, I always end up fighting someone smaller than me (I'm 6'3). So, usually, I do this thing where, when they're in my face talking shit, I put my right foot behind their right foot, and use my height and usually weight advantage to push them over (by putting both hands on each shoulder) and then I land on them, knees on their upper arms, pinning them, and just punch them over and over until I'm weeping hysterically with ym face covered in goo. \n The only time this didn't work, really, was when this kid head butted the shit out of me in mexico. We were at this all inclusive resort, and him and his friends were at the 24 hour snack buffet thing, throwing bottles on the marble floor, shit faced. My (female) boss, said, \"hey, grow up you douche bags\", I was there, grabbing snacks for our group (her husband, an older couple, and a couple from my work, well a girl and her husbad, the girl was from my work), so these kids starting speaking spanish and talking shit about her, I know spanish and was kinda irked but didn't say anything (they were from tulsa, and were part of a spanish immersion program, I had talked to them the night before while playing pool), anyway, my boss as drunk, and honestly was a bitch, so she said something to the main one about his pink shirt. He said he was going to break a bottle on her head, in english, and I just lost it. I said \"you're not going to do shit!\" and I got in his face, he was about 5'6, maybe taller, the crown of his head was at my nose, so anysnarf, I started making fun of his pink shirt and popped collar, and out of no where he head butts me, it was like getting hit by lightening. I didn't see it coming and it didn't hurt really, it just shocked me. I bled like a stuck pig, and I went after him and he dipped behind this girl and was like \"I'm a bouncer, don't touch me!\" and I was like, \"where the fuck do you bounce\" so my boss was like, oh my god, derp, we have to go. I left a trail of blood to our table, and security came and tried to arrest me, or detain me, my boss was like, you need to detain those dudes. So these people that came to defend me, a family and some other dudes, said I didn't do anything and those kids were out of control. So, I lost tons of blood, and drank a ton more after, my last memory was going with my bosses husband, and some of the people that witnessed me getting head butted (they came up and were like \"that was so awesome, to stick up for a girl like that when you are outnumbered!), my boss' husband was using me and some random dude as like hinges, he had his elbows on our shoulders to rock back and forth and kick the door of the room of those dudes (or so we thought, some random mexican guy told us their room number), I remember having enough sense (thank god) to say, I have to go man (our flight was at 5 am and it was 2 and I thought we'd get arrested for sure. I blacked out, woke up, someone packed my clothes (which were completely covered in urine for some reason), I ran down to the bus, and apparently was like 30 minutes late, I was still drunk and my nose was completely swollen, like awful. that's when the pain kicked in. I had to get xrays. Still, to this day, I want to find that kid and murder him.", "id": "c2fztvn", "summary": "I was wondering how you would counteract a guy, that's let's say is 6'7 or taller doing that move on you?"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Everyone? This is my sister dude, you're making giant assumptions that the behavior I've exhibited to someone who can sit calmly and insult every aspect of me as a human being while telling me that she is going to ensure that I have no place to live an also that she is going to make sure I never see my nieces again isn't the way I act to everyone else. \n Gumbercules also admitted he had limited information (in his response), hopefully you realize the same. But, it doesn't really matter either way. I just don't understand the need to arm chair diagnose people when you have no idea whether or not a hyper personal and sad interaction is just some regular occurrence. \n And whether or not you agree with how I handled the situation is moot, because you really can't say how you would react to variables you haven't experienced personally, and above and beyond that you've used this as some springboard to tell me that I have a complex when you have no idea who I am or what I do on a day to day basis. I am not the person I was when I was 16, the person who argued with teachers for kicks. I'm a person who sacrificed his social life at 26 to move in with his mom to make sure she was safe from a rash of robberies in her neighborhood and also to hopefully make sure she wasn't going to spiral further into the depression that was making her drink unsafely and cut herself, the person who wakes up every morning to extreme verbal abuse from a father who has never once shown positive reinforcement, a person who has very limited income yet ensures that my parents never go hungry even if that means I don't pay my own bills (I have lost my cell phone, my car, in about 6 weeks my house) or eat myself (not in, eating myself, although I bet I would taste great because I'm obviously unable to find flaws in myself). \n Somehow I'm \"constantly screaming insults and getting into arguments\" and everyone in my life is responding negatively to me though... hope you didn't pull a muscle stretching that far man. \n I don't know what nerve I touched with you but I would apologize, but it'd just sound convoluted and fake. So. Lesson learned. It's impossible to explain this type of stuff on here, if only I could plug a USB into the dent in my head. I can promise that if you experienced the last 6 months of my life you'd probably call the cops on my behalf. I've been physically assaulted for trying to get my dad to stop beating my 12 year old dog, I wake up daily to again, my dad screaming or talking to himself about how much he hates me (i'm a slob, i'm fat, i smell, i'm an idiot, etc.), then I get yelled at by my mom for sleeping all day, even though I just pretend to sleep to avoid my dad because if he smells cigarettes he'll scream at me. Then I go into the bathroom to shower and brush my teef and see blood in the shower and toilet from my mom cutting herself, and hop in the car to go see my counselor and see a diet coke and smell vodka (I quit drinking so I can smell booze like a super hero with the worst power ever, the smell makes me sick, I can't even be around people who use hand sanitizer, it's like when you drink one type of booze when you're younger and your body creates some sort of resistance to it? Like captain was that for me, now, all booze makes me vomit, instantly, just the smell, then I get home, see my sister or her brother, the brother in law will be laughing at my mom and calling her an idiot (literally, every fucking time he sees her, drives me crazy) and my sister will just find something negative to say to me or my mom, I don't get people like that, for example, I had bought my sister a gift certificate to this salon a few blocks away, I told her that I checked and she could still use it (it changed ownership, and the person said that she could actually get a facial or pedi because they're cheaper than the other company) and I knew my sister had been using the same lady for the last 2 years and I found out the same lady stayed! so I was all excited and was like \"Oh and guess what! Sam is still there! I guess she had so much business that they kept her on so I checked and you can go in still this week or weekend!\" and she goes \"derp, chill out, I don't give a shit who cuts my hair, it's not rocket science\" and she left. \n Those are the people you're defending by proxy. So, again, after hearing day in and day out that you need to apologize to someone who claimed to my mom that she was \"devastated\" that I said I didn't like the person she had become, and you do calmly, and explain how she talks and ask her why and ask her when she said 4 and 2 years ago that you (as in me) were the worst person alive amongst other things, did she mean that and she responds, of course I did, and I don't care if you don't like me, I just wanted to talk to you in person away from everyone to let you know that if you think what I say is bad just realize this is the tip of the iceberg, I could talk for hours about what I think, or rather what I don't think about you, and I wanted to let you know you're done, here, you aren't living here anymore, you aren't an uncle anymore... etc. \n You would do what? Oh, I guess that would never happen to you. Must be nice being loved by everyone and not knowing people who use their children as pieces of a game, or having a father who takes out his physical pain (he needs double hip replacement surgery, bad) on you. You're right man, I should take responsibility for leaving the cupboard open last week. Only a white trash fucking faggot loser piece of fucking shit who has to pick up a broken chair while crying at 5 a.m. so his mom won't see it when she wakes up with no idea of what happened because she drinks and takes 3 anti-depressants and xanax to sleep at night so she can have a day where she isn't sad. So you internalize everything to the point that you wake up every night with heart burn that feels like someone stabbed you, so you drink baking soda mixed with water and when it hits the source of the pain, you vomit from the pain, and the vomit is full of blood from what you're hoping is an ulcer, but you don't tell anyone because when you do your dad tells you it's because you need to run on a treadmill because you're a lazy piece of shit or that's what you get for being so \"weak\" and being an \"alcoholic\", and so your only escape is going to your counselor everyday, who you're supposed to go to weekly, and if you have to take your dads car because you're out of gas money (because your car got repo'd to help feed said dad) he breaks your art supplies and calls your a faggot for having to talk to a therapist, what kind of man needs that? I can't believe my own son is that weak, just stop drinking, fucking baby. Then you tell your mom and she brings it up and he denies saying that, just like your sister does, so she thinks you're insane. \n So, that's my life. Day to day. So thanks for telling me how awful I am. I know I am. I hear it everyday. I speak about 10 words outloud a day, and they're to my dog when she's shaking when my dad is screaming at her for shedding. \n Have a nice day man. I don't blame you for thinking what you thought. I was a douche before, it's hard to think that someone like that would change this much. But, I'm pretty sure I died at some point, I'm trying to think of a time where I almost died but didn't, because if this isn't hell, I don't know what is, either way, I guess if the rules o' church are true (i'm not a religious person) I'll find out soon enough.", "id": "c495mrc", "summary": "you may not agree with how I responded but I don't understand how you came to your other conclusions. I'm dead inside dude, I have no fight inside me, I don't talk, I eat 1 piece of bread a day (with some butter) and drink mostly water (and baking soda)."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "They used to... I graduated in 2002 and my history class was in the office of the old auto shop class. I had a vice on the desk next to mine and got kicked out of class 3 times a week for bringing shit to smash in it (usually fruit from lunch, sometimes the hands of kids who didn't pay up in fruit from lunch)... Another school in my city had a working auto class, I tried to go with my friends that were students there for a 'visit\" (pretending I was my chinese best friends cousin, which didn't work for some reason), so I hid out in there for the rest of the day... I learned more in that day than I did before or since about autogyros.", "id": "c6druun", "summary": "School funding!"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I don't know, maybe my experiences taint my perception here, but I honestly believe every single person would have to act exactly as you're stating for this to be believable. It's as if this guy has never encountered one kind person, ever. \n Sure, your parents know you have to deal with shit on your own, but is that tantamount to shunning him to the point of him feeling like they're not even a real family anymore? No. \n Again, you can have 1,000,000 flimsy explanations for each variable or 1 underlying cause. I tend to go with the latter. \n Edit: And I know there is always one outcast, but my point is, there is usually a reason for that. We had the kid that used to color paper and eat it, claiming each marker tasted different (they weren't scented), the masturbator, the smelly kid, etc. \n So, to go out and blame the external isn't fair. Sure, it's kinda mean to say, but maybe this dude has some sort of issue. I would say that he probably has REALLY shitty parents, ones who didn't care if he bathed, buy him new shit etc., that combined with some sort of condition would basically mean he's fucked. His formative years were spent alone, both at school and at home, and by the time he reached adolescence there was no one that was going to pull him out of it, especially no one of the opposite sex. \n The fact that he used this as a precursor to therapy proves that. At the sake of sounding cliche, sometimes the simplest explanation is the best one, and he simply needs to be diagnosed. It may be amazing what a little pill or some simple positive human contact may do for the dude, it's never too late. \n Sidenote: I also based my assumption of being the \"smelly poor kid\" on his seemingly normal post. He speaks like a regular person who is relatively aware of his situation. He simply needs to figure out what part HE should take responsibility for, that is what is most important when it comes to improving a situation, clearly, whatever he is doing hasn't worked, he's changed venues and had the same result time after time, while it's shitty that someone needs to change who they are to gain acceptance, clearly he is doing something wrong if NO ONE has ever reached out, ever. \n I'm no saint, shit, I was probably considered the biggest bully in middle school and high school (verbal bully, I was a fucking lanky bastard so I couldn't hurt a fly) but I was always kind to people (until I felt wronged by them, then I was terrible, and the line they needed to cross became increasingly asinine), I remember we had a russian kid in our middle school who smelled kinda bad (recent immigrant, differing cultural expectations of hygiene), he had a speech impediment, kinda like how little kids can't pronounce R's, and a russian accent, so, the first time I saw him these kids who were considered the nerds had him cornered in these old cement pipes they put on our playground (looked like sewer pipes, I assumed they thought we'd like them because Ninja Turtles were popular then, and because they were cheap, the hill on our playground was literally dirt covered construction garbage, I went back there with my nieces recently and the metal scrap had started to poke through the top because they stopped recovering it because the school closed down)... Anyway, he was sitting in a fetal position, crying, sand in his tears, saying \"leave me alone\" in his accent, Edward, was his name, the nerds felt like they finally found someone beneath them, and were being super fucking brutal to him. So I came over, by my lonesome, stood behind him and started ripping into each kid's insecurities, 2 of them cried, the other 2 turned red and ran away... Most of our grade saw this, a couple black kids tried to make fun of me, I laughed and introduced myself to edward, he did the same to me, I introduced him to my friends, some of whom were embarrassed to be seen with him, so I said, fuck it, and we went over the swings and had fun... \n We were always kinda buddies after that. He didn't latch on or anything, but he found his group and no one really fucked with him anymore (they realized he wasn't retarded, but just that he had a different way of speaking). I graduated, went to a different HS than most everyone and didn't see him. Then, college rolls around, I was one of the few from my neighborhood that went to college, it was in the same city I grew up in and went to Middle and High School in, so I'd peridiocally run into people. My part of town has a pretty heavy Ukranian/Russian mafia influence. After I got kicked out of my dorm freshman year I started partying pretty hard in the lower part of NE minneapolis (the part of town I'm from), I had a pretty heavy drinking problem and talked a lot of shit, I got beat up quite a few times by quite a few groups of people. One night, I ended up alone at this duplex near the Mississippi, I didn't realize right away I was alone, so I thought I had back up, I don't remember specifically what lead to an altercation, but this ukranian dude was pissed at me, I think for talking to his girlfriend or something, i said something bad, again, not sure what, but he was ready to fucking kill me, I turned around looking for my friends, to no avail (they had a tendency to get super drunk and disappear, or realize i was super drunk and abandon me to avoid these very situations), so backed into a corner in one of those basements that is basically dug out of limestone (hooray radon!) I stood there, ready to take my beating, when, out of nowhere, one of the bigger dude's (I'm 6'3 so he must've been atleast 6'4, but big, like, dolph lundgren style) says, \"Wait a minute, Derp?\" and I said... \"yeah?\" and he goes \"It's EDWARD MAN!\" and I go, \"From Derpster?\" and he started laughing and said \"Yeah, WHAT'S UP MAN! STILL GETTING IN TROUBLE I SEE! Guys, he's cool\" and they turned away, he ran over and gave me a hug, and I got more shit faced than I had been in a long while... no bullshit. \n I don't really know the point of that tangent, but, this reminded me of that, and it made me happy to remember how that nice act paid off. I'm easily one of the most disliked people around, but that's because I stand up for people in a brutal fashion (if you want to point out someone's flaws, I will do the same to you, even if it's not really my business), I feel like, basically, there has had to be someone out there that would've done that for this kid, unless he has no redeemable qualities (like he touches girls asses or something...)...", "id": "c7930ba", "summary": "I befriended a russian, he saved my life or teeth, he now asks me to help him water his crops on farmville."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "This is super helpful. I mean, to be honest, the gun would be for fun (range, going to my grandma's farm and shooting pumpkins, watermelons, expired ham) and the aura of protection. Mostly feeling better when I eventually leave my parents (I own my own home, I started staying here because of burglaries and car break ins and then after about 6 months I realized I was running low on cash and rented my place out so I was forced to stay here (my dad works from 7 at night until around 4:30-5 a.m.), I want to get adept at shooting the 10mm, which I've decided to buy, and then take my mom to the range (along with my uncle who is a member to shoot his .357 snub) and then eventually probably buy her a 19 sf for the house since I can't really take it here anymore, my dad is losing his mind, maybe literally, and reacts to anything that is outside of his routine with frightening outbursts. \n Example: This morning I was leaving to meet with my counselor (alcoholic here, holler! My dad thinks that basically, alcoholism is a sign of weakness and that I don't need to talk to someone, and tells me on the regular that it's \"retarded\") and I pulled out of the driveway and noticed a grinding sound, the car (which my mom and I share, as my car was repo'd and she never drives anywhere (works from home as daycare provider)) usually sounds weird in reverse, so I backed out, put it in drive, there was another car behind me so I drove like 2 garage lengths and knew something was fucked up (I felt like something was stuck in the wheel well, like a bag of garbage) so I pulled into a neighbors driveway and got out and saw that the tire was flat flat, off the rim flat, so I put on the 4 ways and drove 1 mph around the corner and parked it in front of the house (we're the 4th house in). The rim is fine, the tire is off the rim but I assume we can put it back on, it loses air a lot but usually not this hardcore, but it did get cold last night and I did just fill it up yesterday so maybe the combo did something, who knows. Either way, my dad doesn't drive this car, and won't have to do anything at all to fix it (my brother in law has all the tools needed to either put on the full size spare and/or fix the tire, he knows how to do the fire thing, this thing: \n So, I wake him up and say \"I need to take your car to my doctor\", he asked why, I told him, and he said \"go get air\" and I said \"it's like, flat flat dad, like off the rim\" so he told me where his keys were (he hides them from us) and so I left as quickly as I could to avoid him. Get back about an hour later (I drove 5 miles, but it takes a long time to talk about stuff when this is the environment you're in) and my mom was outside crying, and said \"don't go inside, he's on a tirade\" and I said, I'm not staying out here, it's 30 degrees, I'm in shorts and sandals, I didn't do anything wrong and I just bought him $100 worth of books and records yesterday, he won't be mad at me. Wrong. I sat on my laptop with my headphones on, listening to the radio station I was listening to in his car and he was wandering around screaming things I couldn't hear, I started to record it, since, no one believes me when I tell them how bad he is (my sister, especially, my mom now does, hence the yard), he then threw this steel water bottle I bought him for his birthday and broke a mirror hanging by the top of the stairs, then, since it was clearly an accident, he got more mad, at me, like that was my fault and started kicking this garbage can and went downstairs, my mom, who had come in to respond to the sound of shattering glass (my dad has punched me a few times, in the face bone, recently, so my mom probably was afraid of that) and my dad was coming downstairs and he couldn't get the door open and started yelling at my mom about something like \"THIS IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS, I'M SICK OF THIS!\" and slammed the door, breaking the knobs off (it's an older house), he then kicked my moms dog, so my mom screamed at him to come back upstairs and I went downstairs to get away from him, left my computer on record, I'm going to post it on youtube I think, it's time for him to realize what a psycho he is. I think he blacks out (he doesn't drink or use anything, he just needs double hip replacement surgery, bad, he's 6'3 245 lbs walking on bone on bone and refuses to take anything but ibuprofen and it clearly isn't working) but I've noticed he can't recognize faces on tv, when we watch shows he confuses everyone with the same hair color (men mostly, like, hawaii 5-0??? He can't tell the criminals from the dude cop, the guy that says book 'em dano on the new show, ever, it's like a video I saw in intro to psych in college) and he shakes like michael j fox, his hands are crazy like he's working at home depot and mixing paint, he says it's cause he's \"cold\" (we mostly see it when he's holding a spoon or fork and food makes him \"cold\" he says, but it's like... bad), so I think it's a mixture, but seriously, if he's hitting me he's going to hit my mom, and then I'm going to beat him to death.", "id": "c4ayatv", "summary": "my life sucks."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I've told this story on here before, but figured I'd share it here as it is very pertinent. It is kinda long, so if you don't like to read, don't. Also, get off of the text tv you're staring at right now and go chase butterflies until you reach a body of water, then swim until you are so exhausted you feel like you can't swim another league and then dive, exhaling all of your precious air to aide in your descent... \n So, I was slumming it up on facebook after my GF of 5 years left me (thank god. Whenever I broke it off she would go nuts and I'd eventually take her back just so I could hate funk her and to alleviate the 50 phone calls to my main work line a day), I started talking to a girl that I went to middle school with, but hadn't seen since. She was kinda a \"goth\" type chick back then, but a lot of people at my middle school were, basically it was all black, hmong (Laotian), hispanic or white guys/girls who acted black (girls that would put grease, actual fucking grease in their hair to make it slick back and then have like Arby's curly fry bangs... sexy) and the rest were \"skaters\" and \"goths\", nothing delays puberty like girls with stained fingers (everyone would mix koolaid and sugar and lick it off their fingers and then eat flaming hot cheetos... ugh) and Jnco's.. \n So, we're talking, and I can tell not a lot had changed from her past. She had a name that I thought was just some attempt at being clever (on facebook), turned out that was her new legal name (I don't want to put her out there so just imagine something really, really punny, and faux dark... For example Goody Badwife or Virgin Mary McSatan). Either way, the combination of booze and not having sex for a couple months after being used to nightly stink stink made my decision making process kinda f'd in the badwife so I ended up driving over to her place (I wasn't terrible shitfaced, I had been earlier in the day, bloody mary bar...)... \n So, i walk into her place, and at first it was relatively awkward. Luckily I brought a pint of vodka with me. She lived in a basement efficiency, so there wasn't a ton of space, especially since she had piles of clothes everywhere and 3 fucking cats. She had an old computer, with huge speakers, and had german house music on, she was acting stranger than I expected (talking fast and going on tangents, etc... We had talked on the phone for about an hour before I decided to come over, so I didn't expect that), so she goes into her little kitchen nook and poured some shit into a pop cap and then set it down on the table and took her shirt off to expose her bare tits (with tiger prints walking up her cleavage) and this random tube top she was wearing as underwear...  She took a sip from the pop cap and started dancing around like crazy, yelling \"DANCE WITH ME, DANCE WITH ME!\" \n I don't like dancing. So I just started trying to down my pint as fast as possible. In between industrial remixes of 99 luftballoons, I figured out that she was drinking GHB. I always assumed that shit was like the date rape drug, since my cousin drank some (male) and crashed into a fucking telephone pole at 100 mph (not dead). But, apparently it's a fun club drink, and by club I mean basement efficiency with blown speakers and a guy that wasn't even attractive in middle school but clearly had peaked. So, she climbs on my lap and we start making out... hard... too hard actually, I didn't like it much but whatever... she wasn't wearing any van gundies so I started opening and closing her fly trap and she started taking my shirt off and pulling down my shorts. \n She lays back on the couch, pulls the tube top up to cover her stomach, exposing the tops and ze bottoms, and as I fumble to get my bone-der out she goes \"By the way, I just wanted to let you know that I'm 'poz' \", and I go \"poz? like... pausing your morals?\" (I'm awkward) and she said \"No, my status is positive, I have HIV\" and I was like a cartoon guy that finds out about pie and leaves a smoke outline of himself with a very disproportionally small penis for my height. \n In reality, I was like... okay, well we need to slow down here... and she said \"don't worry!\" and was all excited, and I felt really shitty, she got up and ran over to this drawer full of shit, I saw like 3 dildo's, condoms, lube, all sorts of shit. She threw me a condom and some lube, and said \"it's totally not a big deal!\", and hopped on her bed. I let her know that to me, it was kinda a big deal, and that I didn't want her to feel bad, at all, but I couldn't justify sleeping with her, condom or no. I told her that I was a really big STD hypochondriac (truth, everytime I sleep with a girl I freak out about std's, I just sit around and wait for something to happen for weeks or months, and in the past have gone to the doctor multiple times to get 3rd and 4th opinions on skin textures that I can't even see unless I stretch my glans skin out to the point of ... you get the idea) and also I have had issues with condom breakage in the past (combination of my ex being a dried out skank and having a lot of drunken whiskey dickery)... \n Now, this is the pertinent part, and the part I hope the one person who made it this far will comment or answer on/for... She fucking flipped out on me. Bad. Keep in mind I tried to be as nice as possible but she was like \"YOU FUCKING FAGGOT, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU! DON'T YOU LIKE PUSSY???\" (that went on for about 5 minutes), then she started crying and was like \"I hate my life god damnit, I can't wait until this disease kills me\" (which was sad) and then she was normal again and just started pleading with me, I remember her final line was \"come on derp, I fuck like 5 guys a week and you're the only one that has ever had a problem with it\" and I said \"that's not really helping your case lady\"... So, I agreed to stay in the room while she masturbated (or in her words \"got her rocks off\" which made me feel like I was fingering rhoda from mary tyler moore) and then i left. She offered to get me off while she did what she did to herself (which was really honestly gross to me, it was really bright in there, and she had just shaved so she was all irritated (i hope that was from shaving, to be honest) and she was literally fisting herself, and while doing that kinda shouting \"fist my ass derp, fist it, punch it...\" (this is all true.. i just sat there like... how did this happen? I just accepted her friend request like 12 hours ago)... But I did see her climax, she was in doggy position and I was sitting behind her so seeing everything basically react to that was... interesting... I had pushed a pencil tip through an index card to watch it (solar eclipse style) and with each anus muscle contraction I took a step towards the door... \n So, I guess my point is... First of all. What the fuck? Second of all, when I got home and sobered up and thought about everything I realized that she was really fucked up on GHB BUT I think her plan was to get me as close to fucking her as possible and then hope that the combination of vodka and horniness would override my better judgement, which I think is awful (It was clearly a booty call from the jump, I really don't pull any punches (unless they're anus punches, of course) when it comes to that kind of shit, and no one brings someone over to their efficiency or studio or whatever, that has no TV or anything unless they're planning on getting f'd in the a)... Don't you think she should've been honest with me from the beginning? \n Also, did she have a right (well everyone has a right... but you know what I mean) to get mad when I said no? The sadness is one thing, but the pure anger and hate filled nonsense she said after I said that I wasn't comfortable with it was really uncalled for. I mean, I know with a condom (or really without one) a circumsized male has a very, very low chance of getting infected, but I just couldn't handle it, and the entire shit grossed me out from the beginning. To be honest, HIV or no, I probably would've stopped once the ass play began...", "id": "c64s57u", "summary": "Met up with a girl from middle school after reconnecting on facebook, it was basically a booty call situation, and as we got to the second before penetration she let me know she was HIV positive, when I told her I wasn't comfortable with that, she got really, really mad at me... Is that fair? \n *** Sidenote, after checking her facebook page she does have a lot of information about her status, even her picture says \"this is what HIV looks like\" (but... the thumb cuts that part out and I didn't expand it), so I think she thought I knew or something, either way. That shit was something I don't necessarily want to deal with again. Snarf."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Well, shit was falling apart between her and I and there was this girl at my work who was like, super, super nice to me, she just made me feel good about myself in a way that my ex didn't. My ex was just constantly talking shit and trying to make me feel like I was a dick, this girl would just talk me up like I was god (but to be honest, for the first like, 6 months, I didn't trust her, I knew she was shifty, knew she was mainly interested in her own wellbeing and, better put, her career. I was basically co-managing the office so I ignored the shit she'd do, which included her coming up and hugging me from behind while I was doing sales pitches (on the phone obviously) and like, doing this thing, where she'd like kiss my neck without kissing it? Like just make little pecks everywhere back and forth and on my ears and shit, made my penis literally explode, I almost died). So, I said, fuck it (my boss told me not to date her or to talk to heroutside of work but I really didn't care anymore, that place was falling apart and I figured they wouldn't actualyl fire me anyway) so her and I started hanging out a lot, lunches daily, talking onthe phone every night for the entire time we werne't at work (at this point my ex had moved out of our apt but we were \"trying\" to patch things up, and weren't officially broken up). After dating and shit for a little she was talking about us getting married (work girl) and I'll admit, she had a spell over me, like, I've never felt. It wasn't my first fucking rodeo, not even my 30th, and she wasn't even that hot, she had acne scars like she went quail hunting with dick cheney and thought she had an ass like nicki minaj but it reality it was just big in allt he wrong ways. If she wore the right clothes it'd mush together correctly but otherwise it was just like a rectangle of cellulite, it wasn't a bubble butt, it was a paraplegic puerto rican mother of 3 butt. \n But I didn't care. She was nice to me, we got a long, and I did love her, or the idea of what she was using to manipulate me, anyway. It's just one of those times in your life where all different variables combine to create scenarios in which your only options are nothing that you'd normally do. Now, she was dating one of the timberwolves for awhile, while I was constantly fighting with my still current gf, but was sending me all sorts of texts like, we're gonna be so happy together and you're perfect and I love you. WHile that was happening, my gf was texting me, 'hahahaha you think anyone will want you? you're a dick, you're a piece of shit, everyone hates you, you know that\" so I forwarded her the text from big butt mcbasketskank and said \"Guess someone doesn't agree with you?\" thinking somehow, that that'd make her stop tlaking shit. Now, keep in mind it was 10 am and I was still drunk from the night before and actually had been drinking that morning to chase my hang over into the part of my liver that doctors will point at on an piece of xray paper in about... what time is it? 6:40? 3 months. That started an enormous shit storm, the likes of which, man. you wouldn't believe me if I told you. \n Every morning I'd wake up to atleast 2 texts to start my day about what a piece of shit I am. She'd bring up anything and everything, now, the mature thing to do would've been to simply change my number. But, for some reason, personality wise, I can't let someone talk to me like that and not respond. So, I'd try to have rational conversations with an irrational hose beast. It was like trying to whisper to a serial killer about how they're driving up healthcare costs. This went on for MONTHS, I'd get emails that were longer than this worthless response. All the while the girl at work was building me up more and more and making all these promises, but then stopped delivering. She stopped dating failed first round draft pick number 1,215 for the wolves, was single and should've been at the point where we were going to become a couple. But she was like \"I don't want to date now because that'd be it, we'll get married in like 3 months, I just want to goout and have fun at the club! (she'd do that whole bottle service bullshit where you pay 500 bucks to sit in VIP at some place black dudes go to spread HPV). Plus, our styles became increasingly apparently incongruent, she was basically used to getting used, and didn't like me being \"nice all the time\". Now, I'm not usually a nice person, and honestly, have usually been a dick to girls because everytime I've been nice and opened up it's come back to fuck me over ad make me want to leave the ugliest corpse ever (move over guy who sings tiptop through the tulips!), but I couldn't help it. I liked her too much and was like, listen. We're 25. We don't need to play these fucking games anymore (she'd tell me like, don't be so available to me, like, be mean and make me chase you like you used to!) and I'm like why? so either way, efventually I'd have a huge (usually drunken) explosion and call her a bitch or something, which by her logic would make her so wet that the cast of deadliest catch would whip that trap catching hook at her sniz, but it'd turn into her ignoring me for a week or two at work. That was our perpetual state of being, things would be fine, then we'd hang out, then she'd say I was too nice, then I'd get mad. Once example,we went to go see I think... couples retreat (awful movie), I put my arm around her, and she called me afterwards and was like. Don't take this the wrong way, but when you put your arm around me, I just, Derp, okay, I'm not used to such an affection guy and it made me think you might be a fag. So, of course, I explodered and said mean shit. \n Needless to say, the constant barrage of emails and texts about how big of a piece of shit I was plus the constant mind games from gravel face were just making me depressed as fuck. I worked in sales, b2b inside sales, inside meaning over the phone. So, you basically either need to do a shit load of cocaine or just be in a good mood to do that job. I never was, and never wanted to work, so my work started suffering, bad. ADd to that tthat the economy blew, I was losing clients left and right, was making NO money, and just felt like a piece of shit and my job kept making wild changes to try to respond tot he economy a lot of which were hurting my ability to do my job. So I was being defiant in an attempt to keep my clients and get paid (I was 100% commission), now, long story short (and honestly I've had cease and desists for tlaking about this so I can't say much more), me and the work girl were doing better now, had just had an awesome date, went to that horrible 3d jim carrey movie and had a fun christmas, and I got fired like a week later. \n I emailed her from home as soon as I got home like, don't worry, I deleted all the emails yo sent me (we'd email back and forth on the work server, and since dating was illegal, and most of the emails were of her complaining about our manager and owner and talking about quitting (she also convinced me to stay there 1 month earlier, said she wouldn't talk to me again if I left for a new job that was 60k BASE plus sick commission, seriously, who does that to someone they care about and also, FUCK) and sent a few other emails that morning), she basically, for no reason, forwarded those emails to the owner and (again cna't talk about this shit, C&D) but I felt so betrayed, like, why are you doing that? To someone you 'love'? After that, they were told that they weren't allowed to talk to me outside of work, which was impossible to actually enforce obviously but she did it anyway. After I was gone, she called me once (I had asked her for an emial she said the owner sent out about why he fired me (he'd do it as a way to keep people in line, I was the number one sales person so he was like, see, no one is untouchable, work harder)), she was like, I have no idea what you're talking about, all I know is that you emailed HR about stuff our manager did, DERP would never break the law and email details about your termination out to people, he's a good boss. And I was like, you know what EMILY (since you're probably reading this since someone there reads everything I write on here based on those cease and desists I kept getting that had about a years worth of quotes), My girlfriend is gone, 5 years, I could've patched it up, but you made promises, you told me you loved me, and it was all bullshit. I know you're trying ot preserve your own overrated ass here, but I lost a 5 year GF for you, I lost an awesome job offer, and now you're siding with the people you spent every night for the last 6 months calling me to complain about? How many times did I have to talk you out of quitting in a rage? How many times did I defend you and get in trouble (the beginning of the end for me there as when I took on my manager for stealing one of her sales, it backfired horribly).  You're the devil. \n Moral of the story. I was gonna say never give away all of your power in a relationship and make yourself completely vulnerable. But, that probably works for people that aren't me. God is still mad at me for this time I borrowed his Wagoneer and brought it back without any gas in it. But I can tell you, not to be the \"fag\" that flab crack accused me of being, it's going to take quite the woman to break through the number of walls I've built around my ability to care about girls. Juggernaut would die of exhaustion. Also, moral, xmen analogies never help.", "id": "c2ajm4q", "summary": "women are the devil."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "This isn't really an ex thing but close enough, it's long but bare with me, this story will change your life and basically somehow is responsible for most of the debt ceiling fiasco. After getting the old heave from my ho(e) of an ex (from a 5 year relationship, based on false accusations of infidelity), I was basically fucked. I had cut off all contact with any girls that had any interest in me, and they were all heavily engaged (sometimes literally) in LTR's at that point. So I started trolling FB for girls I didn't remember from high school but I assumed remembered me (I was a popular d bag back then)anysnarf, I found one, and we started chatting on facebook, she gave me her number and I texted her mines. At work the next day she texted me every 5 minutes. At the time, I'll be honest, the attention from any girl felt good (my ex was in the middle of a pyschological warfare campaign that, I honestly was almost proud of her for pulling off. I didn't think she had it in her, the cunt), so I didn't pick up on the \"I'm completely insane\" vibe, because I was willing to ignore red flags. So anyway, she insisted on coming over that night, I was nervous as fuck, I hadn't as much as talked to another girl (that I wasn't comfortable with) in 5 years and have a weird complex about seeing people from high school, so I got a little tipsy, and or shitfaced and said, fine, come over. Before I knew it I was balls deep in some hispanic chick who may or may not have even gone to my high school, of course, no condom (who needs them when the girl says she doesn't have aids!). After about ten minutes I\"m like, welp, I should probably stop thrusting this strangers goo pocket, I gots to work in the AM! You know, like a responsible person. So, I ran downstairs, literally dumped a half bottle of hydrogen peroxide onto my junk (editors note: don't do that) and sent her on her way. \n The next day made the texting from the day before look like she was avoiding me. It was like, crazy, lovey dovey shit. She was telling me about how she just got out of a long relationship, typical bullshit, he was obsessed with her and stalking her, and would kill me, KILL ME if he found out, he was in the sur 13 gang (which I've had run ins with in the past, because, one of them was wearing a starter jacket pullover and tried to make fun of me... it didn't go well for him, or for me, the next couple weeks/months), blah blah. So, I kept telling her I had to work, and after a sales call would come back to like 10 texts, of her being normal, then confused, then angry, then remorseful, then sad. It was like some weird jumble of the steps of grief, so as I am leaving for work I realize that I may have stuck my dick in loco. So I immediately went into emergency abandon mode and well, that was fun and stuff but I don't want anything serious, my ex is a B and I just literally ended it and whatever. \n So she texts me that she really really needs to come to my house and get her lighter, she left it there and it's her absolute favorite and she's had it forever. I was like, it's a lighter, go get another one, I'm busy. She kept saying, I need it, I want to see you, and I (angrily) was like, seriously, just go buy another fucking lighter I can't see you, I'm not home. Then came the fun, she texted me: I can see you in your living room. I figured atleast my ex would know I died after fucking some chick. And for some reason let her in. She played it off like, I was in the neighborhood and just wanted my lighter silly! I'm not completely insane! So, of course, like any normal person, I fucked her again, twice. But this time, with condoms, because the hydrogen peroxide left me without most of my penis skin. \n The next day started off as more of the same, so I turned my phone off. After work I had like 30 texts, which I ignored, and some voicemails. Now, I have an intense fear of STD's (hence the peroxide, and I do always wear condoms unless I'm drunk, which I usually was while fucking, so hence the fear, the chicken and the egg) so I assumed maybe she had to tell me she had an std? So I was like, wahts the problem? and she kept texting me coy shit like \"I can't tell you\" and \"i don't know... I just...\" so I flipped out, called her, and was like, tell me waht the fuck is going on? and she wouldn't say anything, just kept saying, voice cracking like she was going to cry, I can't tell you, its just too bad! so I bitched her out pretty bad and hung up. She didn't call me back or text me, which made my anxiety reach a level that I'm sure created some sort of cluster of cells in my brain that I'm sure will eventually turn into brain cancer and kill me. \n The next day at work, I actually texted her a few times, because I wanted to know what was going on. Nothing. I was almost half worried she was dead but more worried about my sack remaining semi smooth to the face slap. Around ten, our office phones start ringing (I was in an office of 5 people, one of which I was half dating (hence the allegations of infidelity from the ex, which I claimed were untrue but they weren't, I just wanted your sympathy, and now that I have it, let me tell you about Amway Global! We've been in business since pangea split and ... ) and the caller ID says Gold's BAIL, THANK GOD it was my day to answer phones (it was a sales office, call ins were an incentive) turns out, it's a fucking bail bondsman asking for me, I'm like, this is he and he's like, I have a derpia here asking if you can bail her out of hennepin county jail? and I was like, what in the fuck fuck? Now, mind you, the girl I was trying to date in my office was in the cube next to me, and was super suspicious of everything I did because she didn't want me talking to my ex or anyone for that matter (even though she had a boyfriend and was also, a giant cunt), so I said, call my cellphone I'm at work dude. So he does, puts her on the line, she says she ended up assaulting her mom because I made her mad. Great. She also says.... I got her pregnant. Now, I was on the 13th floor of the building (our as we called it the penthouse for superstitious reasons), I figured, I would fall at 9.2 feet per second, or is it meters, either way, I wouldn't be dead soon enough. I was fucking panicking, like the panic where your ears cease to function and only pick up the high pitched buzz sound of your brain telling you that you're fucked. The feeling of having your last final on the last day of college at 8 and waking up at 1 pm (I've done that too). So, she needed 7500 bail or 750 bond. I didn't want to pay for either of those, and told her to ask a friend (family was obviously out of the question) she said she had no friends, and I was like, how am I, the dude you just met 1 day ago, your go to on this shit? I pulled out! and the bail bondsman (who apparently stays on all calls) started laughing. So I said, I can't pay for anything, and I'm sorry about your uterus we'll figure that out later. During the course of the day, over 10 bail bonds companies called my work (everytime I said no she'd just go to the next one in the directory), and my answers were increasingly ... interesting. Keep in mind, this was my place of employment, and also a place where a girl who supposedly loved me sat 5 feet from me (again, she lied, because, her vagina was full of lava and stalagmites, brimstone and goblins pubes), and she was supposedly carrying my hideous zygote while also threatening to tell her gang member boyfriend about me. \n I called the hennepin county jail, told them she was harrassing the shit out of me (so much for the one phone call) and they took her phone rights away. She didn't get bail, was in jail for like 2 months until her court date (I knew how to check online, which also showed me her public records that indicated she ahd been fucking institutionalized against her will 3 times in the past 2 years), and afterwards called me every single night from 3 a.m. until about 10 a.m., over and over, and over and over, and over and over. I could answer, she'd just sit there, in silence, for as long as I sat there, never said a word. But everynight without fail, she'd call. For about a year? Up until I stopped paying my phone bill. So either way. I'll be dead soon. All for what the latinos call: Las Vaginers. \n Goes to show you. If you think you're attractive and charming enough to pull a hot latina chick off of 25 minutes of psuedo wit and a reputation form 8 years ago, you're not. She's crazy and just looking for someone to repeatedly hit her smelly pinata with a pink louisville slugger (little league version, fuck off) until it bursts open and releases an ovum that thankfully was either manifested or miscarried in a stainless steel county jail toilet after she was jumped for using the damn phone too much. \n The end.", "id": "c29sizg", "summary": "Facebook+America/mexican war+the plot from fatal attraction except after fucking in the kitchen michael douglas pours peroxide on his tip an then gets throat cancer+jail+mexican gang members + me making every wrong decision+a soundtrack from Randy Newman + the reason this account will eventually abruptly stop posting. Starring joaquin phoenix pre-cleft pallete correction as me and rosie perez as the love of my life, jail bird juanita. 102 minutes, rated what the fuck."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Have you watched Romeo and Juliet lately? It's terrible. Honestly. I loved that shit in 6th grade but there is no rhyme or reason to the madness. The scenes with the mother that are randomly sped up for no reason? Jamie kennedy and John leguizamo that are supposed to be tense (in the beginning when the montagues and capulets fight ... at the gas station) are just weird, with cuts of jamie kennedy making [this face]( while squealing and tripping all over while screaming \"I do not quarrel with you sir!\"... \n You can modernize a movie without making it like a zooey deschanel acid trip. And, beyond that, I never really liked that fact that they decided to make it modern day but didn't change an ounce of dialogue. Shakespeare has been interpreted hundreds of times on film (shit, 10 things I hate about you was based on taming of the shrew), so how about you call your gun a gun, and not a sword... \n But either way, I ended up signing up for Shakespeare club based on that shit, and playing romeo, which was fun, because I missed a lot of class to fuck around. But then we had to go to this theater in MInneapolis (theater in the round for local people) and perform it in front of like 300 people, with newspaper critics and other people there. It was easily the most nightmarish day of my life. If I had a \"sword\" I would've shot myself in mine brow. I atleast did better than my friend, who completely blew off his part (he played romeo too, during the balcony scene, I was romeo for the beginning where some sword fight happened with an indian kid from my class, and then I got to kiss the hottest girl in school... TWICE (booyah) at the end when the whole poison thing happened (nothing says awkward like rocking a boner in jnco jeans in front of the Star Tribune's theater editor)... But my friend anyway, he didn't know his lines, so the teacher had to sit behind one of the wooden \"bushes\" and read them to him, and he couldn't understand the old prose so he would say everything wrong, a 10 minute scene took like 45 minutes, there were intermittent boo's and people were getting up to go get food and stuff. He was asian but he turned a shade of purple reserved for drowning nordics.", "id": "c4rbt7z", "summary": "I don't get that movie's appeal in retrospect, even though back then somehow it convinced me to enter into the most terrifying agreement of my life, mainly so I could kiss a hot chick on stage, who I then dated, and was afraid to actually kiss afterwards. Ahh... to be 12 again."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Word... I was at work 2 weeks ago, working an overnight shift (security guard, condo), there is this early 30's married mom that flirts with me sometimes, that evolved into her bringing me dinner or snacks (tic tacs and rock stars, breakfast of champs), then buying me $250 T-wolves tickets, a blu ray player with the Dark Knight Trilogy, random gift cards, etc. \n I wanted to refuse most of it (I like the dinner, it's that or gas station crap), but her husband is such a prick, he talks to most of the guards, myself included, like we're the help, telling us to bring his groceries up (and just trying to demean the shit out of people when they don't) and constantly offering weird business advice to people (for example, I have a house, I had renters for about a year, they left unexpectedly and I'm trying to find new ones, his wife pretended to want to move in (so I'd hang out with her and bring her to my empty home, she finally admitted she just wanted to cram cram there), long story short he wanted me to start a daycare so his wife could work and make money, and when I said that the bank wouldn't do that (I'm in the process of a remodification) he said \"you have all the answers, don't you? so, how'd you end up a security guard, smart guy?\"... So, I started taking the shit since it was his money. \n Anyways... She figured out that when I work overnights I take naps in our breakroom, so one night I'm half asleep on the floor and I hear a knock at the door, I assumed it was an emergency and my walkie had gone dead, so I ran to the door, she was there, and pushed me back into the room, it was dark as hell, she was kinda drunk, tried kissing me, I was confused as shit,  and half assumed I was having a dream, she proceeded to go down on me for about 5 minutes and then gave up and got sad...  Now, I have been single for a little over a year, and wasn't expecting to get any action in the foreseeable future, so I was emulating the pacific northwest... I'm on random medications that fuck with my libido, so while trying to give me a handy to get me going I could feel here trying to part the black sea, I apologized and she just slurred \"I like your scent\"... and with that, I went flaccid. \n She texts me while masturbating all the time now, she doesn't admit it but it's pretty obvious. She just had a baby, about... 6 months ago? And so all I picture when she is texting me is someone reaching into a wet paper grocery bag that a can of beans ripped through, to get the additional bean cans... over and over until the french dressing leaks out of the bottom of the bag and it shutters from the wind?", "id": "c85l521", "summary": "I live a disgusting life. A married woman who lives at the condo I'm a security guard at had been flirting with me, buying me crap, etc. I wasn't taking the stuff until the 10th time her husband talked shit to me and my coworker like we're there to appease his every whim (he comes from a high level caste family in India and doesn't understand that we're there solely to make sure the building is safe, and assist EMT's and police when they show up every day for whichever old diabetic got too drunk), his wife got drunk and came to the breakroom when I was napping during my break and gave me head while I was in the middle of a no-shave whatever you call the teen decade-vember. The light was off but when I was flaccid in the beginning she was definitely trying to part my pubis, or braid it... It's all a sexual harassment esque blur."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I thought for some reason they were put down after 21 days.. I don't remember who told me that, but it was when I was there mocking the guinea pigs. Yeah, they started project pitbull about 2 years ago, I have one dog through it. It is great, and I udnerstand the need to be thorough but they kinda went overboard with me. I had to go back 3 days in a row, and get interviewed by 3 different groups of people including the director fo the facility. They were really condescending, which I took offense to but couldnt show because they reserve the right to decline my purchase at any time. But it was worth the nonsense for sure,I just think after awhile you can sense whether or not the person has good intentions, and is a good person, and I look young (was 24 at the time but still get carded for r movies, scratch off tickets etc.) but I have a shit ton of knowledge about pits and tried to show that without being a douche about it, but they didnt care. \n Also, they thought my guy was deaf (he is white with a few brown spots, a lot of white bullies end up deaf from massive inbreding), it took me 3 seconds to figure out he wasnt, i just shook my keys when he was turned around, as opposed to their stomping the ground, which created vibrations. \n Anywho, someone still should adopt him, he is lonely, and if someone else doesn't Im going to end up with a third pit.", "id": "c1ld8ma", "summary": "I like to hear myself talk."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I have a buddy who (like me) is a drinking maniac, he is like a real life version of chris farley, big, funny, drinks and eats any and everything, I've seen him beer bong a pint of captain with 3 beers and a bottle of tabasco, or eat basically anything has ever challenged. I'm not like that, but I used to drink, WAY TOO MUCH. Him and I together? Bad news, we'd wake up covered in blood in college, windows in our rental house completely punched out, just stupid, immature bullshit. Anyway, one night, second semester of my freshman year of college (I got kicked out, for drinking after finals, super long and funny story short) so I was living back at my parents house, which was about 8 blocks from his parents house, where he lived. It was a Sunday night, he was over to watch the Vikings lose, I had enough booze for about 10 people, he was the only that showed, I remember blacking out around halftime (it was a night game), in my parents basement, that's it. \n I wake up, to a man, who to me (without my glasses) looked about 70, in a very confused and angry tone saying : \"WHO ARE YOU, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY BASEMENT?\", I sat up, in only my boxers, looked around, say nothing but empty wine coolers and wine bottles and said.. \"whaaaaaaa...\" and he said again, louder, and panicked \"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, GRACE! GRACE! CALL 911!\" and he ran upstairs. I scrambled to put on my pants, that were (thankfully( right next ot the couch I was splayed across, I yelled \"HOLD ON, I'M JUST A REGULAR GUY!\" and started looking around the basement, I didn't recognize anything, except a ps2, with wine coolers around it, and a tv with the title screen of Madden on it. Then it hit me, we had blacked out, and walked ot his parents house to play madden (I had fleeting memories of talking about madden the entire time we were boozing). I had never met his parents, I had heard they were older, but had no idea they were that old, also, I was under the impresison his mom was completely deaf, so the screaming made no sense to me. Either way, I ran upstairs, and his dad was on the phone, presumably with 911, and I was like: Relax man, I'm Brians friend! (laughing and extending my hand to shake it), he pushed my hand away, and said \"I don't care who you SAY you are, I think you had better go home now\", \"oh, okay, well, where is brian, I don't have a car..\" \"JUST GET OUT\" he said... I walked through the kitchen and realized why he was A) so afraid of me at first, and then B) so pissed. We had raided the kitchen, and not in some hyperbolic way, we literally had every cupboard drawer and door open, bags of cereal torn open, the fridge and freezer doors still ajar, an entire frozen turkey was open, multiple knives stuck into it, parts of it strewn over the gas range (apparently we had been trying to heat it over the open flame, caveman style). He also, for some reason, drank all the hot sauce and bbq sauce in the fridge. \n He, being larger than me, had a better booze memory, and remembered most of the crazyness, so he was able to explain the turkey, the food, etc. It was only 25 or so out so the walk wasn't terrible, but it was drastically uphill, and I was puking on the way back (apparently uncooked turkey and every kind of booze don't mix).", "id": "c2shir1", "summary": "I had a football party where only me and my worst boozing influence attended, I blacked out at my house, woke up at my friends house, to his elderly dad screaming for the police while I was in my underwear and his kitchen looked like it was bombarded by raccoons with learning disabilities."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "What is? Proving my point?? Thanks? I guess? I don't mean to come off as some andy rooney esque \"this generation is full of morons!\" spouter, but I feel like the voting system is in place for this reason, and there are some people who like my longer bullshit, and honestly, if you read what I just wrote, it's not really possible to summarize it", "id": "c42ler8", "summary": "style, especially since I added a sidenote... you know?"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I somehow knew that, probably because I watch a lot of WWII shows. But anyway, I work security at a condo, and we have a lot of Indian tenants, especially as of late (I worked there in college and it was mainly really old people, but thankfully, a lot of them have died, they are really, really mean people, calling black people spear chuckers, savages etc. Calling me like they're dying because a group of \"chinks\" is having a bbq in our courtyard, ugh)... \n So, of course, with the influx of Indian tenants, it's a complete 9/11 in there. I can't go an hour without someone coming in and saying that they stole a cart (that people use to bring stuff up), or have \"15 people living in their unit! DO SOMETHING\", \"ma'am, I can't, if they own it's their property, I can't enter\", \"WELL THEN, I GUESS YOU'RE JUST WORTHLESS!\", \"now you sound like my dad, ashes cigar  a cha cha cha\",  death star from old person increasing their life span by 6 months, lowers mine by 3 years (probably because I was eating a rodeo burger at the same time and that was when they decided to quit smoking) \n BUT, the point was/is I've helped a few indian tenants lift stuff, or carry stuff up to the party room or something and noticed they have these rope bracelets with a swastika beads on them, they have enough sense to know that both people here don't understand that and also the people in the building are insane so they usually have them on upside down and the bead turned in, but it moves. So, I just sat, and waited, and finally one of the main complaining  Hagravens  \"I told you! i told you but you didn't listen!\", \"told me what? exactly?\", \"them hindus, they're no good! they're NAZIS! I TOLD YOU TO GO INTO THEIR UNITS!\", \"nazi... OHHH, the swastika thing?\", \"YEP! THEY'RE HAVING A NAZI MEETING RIGHT NOW UPSTAIRS, GO UP THERE AND SHUT IT DOWN OR I'M CALLING THE REAL COPS, I'M SICK OF YOU AND YOUR RENT A COP RESPONSES\", \"A) someone is having a birthday party upstairs, I may be wrong, but Dora the explorer isn't a nazi, unless she's exploring for jews, and B) That's a symbol that is thousands of years old, it's religious, nothing to do with the nazis... They don't exactly fit the mold either... Her: \"well I lived through WWII, I know waht I'm talking about, I can't wait to talk to [your manager] to let him know you just sat here during this, this isn't the last you've heard of me\"... me: \" under breath  unless you fall in the shower and no one finds you or hears you because no one loves you\", her: \"EXCUSE ME?\" , me: \"make sure you check your shower, it's fall, no one loves clogged pipes?\"... \n So yeah. It is unfortunate. It's such a cool symbol too, aesthetically, when i was younger I discovered it in this military plane book my dad had for some reason, I drew it everywhere... Best call home from school ever. \"Mrs. derp? I don't know how to say this, but, your son is a nazi\"... Hooray!", "id": "c70o6cv", "summary": "I'm insane"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Yeah... Christmas used to fill me with ... merth? But now it's just seeing people I REALLY can't stand, everyone on my mom's side of the family are classic one uppers, they all work regular lower middle class jobs (overnight stocking at target, UPS supervisor, shoe department manager at macy's) and they sit there, straight faced and talk about how they make $50 an hour and how they got some certificate of recognition for not shooting their coworkers or something. Granted I work a non-glorious job currently, but I don't pretend it's more than it is, I should just go all out this year and talk about how i'm in \"charge\" of the safety of 800 people and how I beat up a 16 year old blood. Before I worked here I was a senior account exec at an ad agency and made decent money, bought a nice house when I was 22, had a cool car and a girlfriend that ran on jealously, and I never rubbed that in anyone's face. They would always go 'so, derp, how's the telemarketing going?\" and I would just down Wild Turkey and say \"fantastic! that do not call list is really hurting our bottom line though, haven't sold a vacuum in months, suicide is starting to look like a warm bed\"... \n My dad's side of the family is hyper religious, I finally found out what they were, they never told us (for tax purposes, it's actually known in the US as the religion with no name, also as the black stockings religion, here's an article if you for some reason want to know what my aunts and uncles are... I'm awkward...  basically, it's hyper fundamental, the women can't cut their hair, wear pants (yes pants, they have to wear these long dresses), their hair is always in these sloppy buns, no make up, nothing. I got called a heathen twice last christmas, just because I shit in a pew at church. Joke, but they did call me a heathen. Then I had to ask my millionaire uncle (through marriage, and he has > $50 mil, oil) for a $5,000 loan to cover my mortgage due to said losing of account exec job and it was fucking BRUTAL. He basically sat me down with this contract, showed me that he was going to charge interest (which was fine) but then tried to lecture me for 45 minutes about how terrible I was, in addition to how terrible my family was. I flipped out, and basically said \"this is how you conduct business? You charge interest, which turns this from a friendly gesture into a business transaction, and then sit here and tell me all the reasons why you don't want to do it, none of which have anything to do with my work ethic and everything to do with your idea of how I should live my life? Everyone in texas may kiss your ass because they're on your doll, but I don't need to be, I'd rather keep my dignity and lose my house than listen to you bad mouth the family that has been nicer to me than any of you superior religious people ever has... Maybe I wouldn't be so resistant to religion if everyone in my family didn't treat me like a rapist simply because my dad left the religion when you locked him in the basement for 3 days when he proposed to my mom?\"... So, he ended up dropping the interest and giving me $12,500... Hooray! I spend it on... paying him back, monthly. Perfect crime.", "id": "c71q2pg", "summary": "I guess I just hate my (extended) family, and we only see one another during christmas and thanksgiving. i sniped a work shift on thanksgiving to avoid seeing them this year, but christmas sucks. I went on a 2 year campaign to stop going to my aunts (mom's side) house for christmas, and got it, and then all of a sudden it turned into having my dad's family over instead. It was like one of those twilight zone episodes where your wife dies after you sell your soul to the devil to open a soup restaurant."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I had this kid move into my house that I met on craigslist (all of my friends are unemployed or on drugs so I couldn't really have them move in), he gave me 600 bucks and moved in. I left for the day and came back and he had gone into my basement and dug through all these old boxes and completely redecorated the house, took down all these paintings and shit and put up old tupac and nirvana posters I hadn't seen since 1998, so I got pissed and was like, this isn't your house, you rent 2 rooms. You aren't allowed to redecorate the first floor, and you're definitely not supposed to be going into the fucking basement and digging around you fucking weirdo. So he got all offended and moved out. About a week later his estranged mom mailed my house, being that my now ex roommate had texted me drunk talking shit (and then tried to get his fish tank, but I wouldn't let him because ... well long story), either way his mom sent him a 10 dollar subway giftcard. I opened it because, fuck him thats why. About 2 days later I got a forged letter claiming to be from the Postmaster General on uneven construction paper, typed on a typewriter, telling me that if I didn't return the letter I would go to prison. It had atleast 4 spelling errors and was super crooked. After that I decided to go feast on subway and kill his fish through neglect (that was unintenional, fish are hard to maintain man).", "id": "c2gz0y4", "summary": "Don't go on craigslist. ever."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "This also happens with debit cards, clearly, but most people don't notice because of the amount(s). Hotels are a bad place to learn that, I remember I got hired straight out of college for a \"real\" job and had like $120 in my account, got flown out to Milwaukee and had to put up a credit card for \"incidentals\", I asked if money was going to be taken out, she said \"of course not, unless you break something\". The next day, after the first day, we go out to happy hour and my card is declined in front of the entire company (5,000 people, it was a small company, but still, not a good look when you already had 5 long islands and then can't cover them), so, partially sloshed, I asked the hotel what the fuck happened and she was like \"we take the amount out per night, $145, and then, put it back when you leave!\" and I was like, um, I'm here for 6 days, I don't have $700 for nothing\",", "id": "c3biro6", "summary": "I had to argue with their manager to remove my card from the room and get the money back, they acted like I was removing home owners insurance \"you're SURE?!?!?\", \"you're asking if I'm sure I don't want to be charged $145 a night for nothing? yes. I am sure.\" \n Fuckers."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "My ex-girlfriend used to only get her period like 4 times a year, because she was perpetually knocked up!  high fives no one ... But she had some sort of issue, I don't know what it was, she couldn't gain weight, so she ate like a fucking pig, and smoked like a fucking... pig with access to cigarettes. So I think it was like a Chinese gymnast sort of deal. \n Anyway, she would get her period pretty bad, get super bad cramps and the like. But she would also get ultra horny. She was usually pretty prude, and terrible at sex. Like, most sexual encounters were like a 3 act play: Act 1: getting it in... Since she didn't want to do it she was as dry and as tight as a Todd Akin test reference, I used to have to push so hard my dick would make this loud popping sound, not from bending, but from getting pushed back into my abdomen, never figured out what that was, or asked anyone... anyone else ever have that? I've had it a ton of times with multiple girls... Act 2: It's in, she's worried about me cumming in her, so she vocalizes it every 10 seconds (she didn't like the feel of condoms, and couldn't swallow pills (\"phobia\"), and the nuva ring made her \"sick\" and I didn't like the feeling of a rubber band hitting my dick and releasing hormones right into my brain.... Act 3: She had tired of the nonsense and demanded I finish, now, I knew well enough that I needed to finish, so I was usually pretty close, but hearing \"hurry up and finish BUT NOT INSIDE\"  for the millionth time usually just starts you back at the beginning of the process, or further back than that even... Ugh... \n Total run time: 3 minutes. Starring a young Derpi Derpin as Succubus, the dried husk of a formally attractive, wide eyed country girl who moved to big city to be with the man she loved, and then hated, then tormented, and a Tired p_U_c_K, who clearly was just there for the paycheck, his performance was hollow and phoned in, his crushed dreams apparent at every turn. \n So, my point was, that the crunt used to get super horny only during her menses. So she'd beg and beg and beg for sex, and as I wasn't particularly attracted to her anymore (mentally, she had a nice body and was pretty, but she was so unpleasant it wasn't even worth it, and I know, a hate fuck would seem like the next logical step, but it's just not, not when you've been with someone for 5 years, most of your early 20's, and they just reward you with constant hate speech and accusations of \"smothering me with your pillow in your sleep!\"...).. So, after about 3-4 days she would be \"done\", so we'd get down to business, and at first all was fine, but then the young british lads that were on the crows nest that is my Glans, would scream, RED SQUALL! RIGHT AHEAD! and I'd feel that .. ugh.. that unpleasant feeling of not even warmth, it's like, greasy heat... Then I knew... I'd struck uteran sheath oil. \n We always did the missionary cram cram because she... I know this is played out but this is the [best representation of how natural and rhythmic she was on top of me]( So of course we'd get up and my bed looked like Kurt Kobain's shag, so I'd stop, she'd get mad and yell \"FINISH, CUM IN ME\" while pointing to what seriously looked like the outcome of a fight with a lumberjack, and I'd get that mouth watering feeling you get right before you puke everywhere. That and I knew that sperm can swim around in even the most dried out, acidic vag for like 3 days, and the best time to nut in your wife should she want your seed is what, a few days after her period? Since she was basically at the tail end, I just figured the risk was way too high of her getting prego, which would've been the worst thing to happen ever... \n But then again she only got her period every quarter, so I was more just withholding sex from her because she wanted it... just so she knew how it felt. Which she totally got and it made us grow closer as a couple! Just kidding, she accused me of cheating on her and broke my cell phone.", "id": "c7fcwj7", "summary": "Plot of Jerry Maguire."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "i hung out with a girl i reconnected with on facebook, we had gone to middle school together, we are starting to kiss, she basically gets naked, and then tells me shes hiv positive, but has condoms, lube etc, and wants me to basically have anal sex with her. I say, sorry i would love to but i honestly cant put myself in tha tposition, i would worry too much and the risk is too high. She called me an asshole and said she never wanted to talk to me again and wept. I thought that was kinda a bitch move on her part, she said i was immature about her status and she has sex all the time with guys who are fine, i said that wasnt making me feel like having sex with her more. She did then finger herself in front of me until completion after.", "id": "c1faqv4", "summary": "girl with hiv talked shit to me for not sexing her butt after telling me of her status."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I'm an alcoholic, full blown. Not like a 16 year old on myspace, but like a real, terrible, horrible alcoholic. I used to just binge, bad, on weekends, but mostly kept my shit together during the week (when I had a job). But, my job started going to shit (I sold stuff that was directly tied to the employment market, and when the economy started to crash our management lost their minds and started micromanaging everyone and making it harder to do the impossible, if that's possible). So I got really depressed, and started drinking more, on the way home from work etc. On top of that I had a lot of personal problems with my on and off GF of 5 years and the girl I started disappointing sexually while my gf was off at her parents house texting me 500 times a day what a piece of shit I was. ? \n So, I lost both girls and my job in the same week and just hit rock bottom. I had like $40k saved and was getting $615 a week from the gov'ment. I lived in an apartment that had a liquor store in the fucking lobby so I just went off the rails. I would binge for days on end and completely lose track of time. I would wake up at 8 pm and think it was 8 am and drive places I was supposed to be the day before (parents house for a birthday) and walk in, still drunk and be like... HAPPY  hic  BERFDATE! and my mom would just start crying.. \n So the worst part of all of this was that I turned into a completely different person when drunk. Literally. Like, Bruce Banner -> Bruce Jenner. I had a house I owned, which was my parents, but they still lived there and paid me rent while i stayed at my apartment, so I had like $15,000 in $100's, cash (obviously). I kept it in a locked box in my room. I would black out and play with it, I didn't remember it but when I'd wake up I'd look at my phone and do the hyper guilt and fear check of texts and other shit (I'd literally have 100 outgoing calls to random 800 numbers and local numbers that I didn't know, I'd google the 800's and they were infommercial's, I actually got a cease and desist from one for harassment. Quality. It was for the mighty something, the little ladder that can do anything! I figured out that the local numbers were people who would call my number weekly looking for a hispanic dude, he used to have my number, 2 years ago, so I'd call them over and over and over for some reason. A black lady answered once and just started screaming \"STOP CALLIN' MY DAMN PHONE YOU PECKERWOOD MOTHERFUCKER!!! AHHHHH!\")... \n The worst part? I had received a letter from a really sleazy looking collection agency saying I owed $45 to Columbia something, you remember those stamps you'd get in the mail that said 10 CD's for $0.99! I did that once when I was like 13 (exactly 13 years before receiving the letter). So I googled the company and saw a bunch of complaints on the better business bureau and other sites that basically they were breaking the law, kind of, they took \"dead\" debts, ones that were no longer actually debts, they had gone past the 5 year statute of limitations, so this company would buy each \"lead\" for like 5 cents and harass people for the money, pure profit, right? \n So I get a call, from a random number, so I ignored it. I drank so much, for so long that my brain chemistry was destroyed. It would take like 3 days for me not to feel like a rape victim, honestly. I was afraid of everything, really really depressed and sick as a dog (my endorphins needed to regroup or whatever). So a voicemail pops up and I get really scared, I check it and it's some dude named \"Todd\", he says, \"I'm the President of XYZ collection, you called us the other night and left voicemails that you were agent smith from the FBI? Well, guess what asshole, I called the REAL FBI and impersonating a federal agent is a Felony, have fun in federal prison moron.\" \n I puked on myself. He was bluffing, or not, and the FBI didn't care, but for months I was sure that they were going to climb up my balcony, especially since their local office was literally across the street from my apartment and I could see it from my balcony. \n The worst part of it all though was that for whatever reason, drunk me would play tricks on sober me. It's like I hated my own self somehow. I always, ALWAYS blacked out (I found out during a giant clusterfuck where I somehow blacked out in my living room and woke up in my car, in drive, in the middle of an intersection with a cop trying to pull me up asking me if I was a diabetic, an ambulance showed up and took my blood sugar and I was like near death levels (25), so they took me to the hospital, it ended up costing me $1,500 but it saved me from a guaranteed stay in jail and giant DUI (I blew a .29 but didn't get charged with anything, not even for the open bottle of vodka in my lap...), but it turned out that when I drank my blood sugar went crazy, which explained the black outs).. So, where was I, oh yeah, the dick. So, when I'd wake up from a binge, I'd usually be sick as fuck and also late to something important. \n Like most dudes I have like 4 things I always check my pockets for before leaving the house. Wallet, keys, cell phone, inhaler and for me glasses. Every morning after a long binge I'd wake up and at least two of those things were GONE. I'd have no idea where they were. It was fun because without my glasses I'm basically a mole person. So I'd look around where I passed out, nothing. After hours and sometimes days of searching I'd find them in places that I had to put them intentionally simply to fuck with my sober self. On top of shelves for example (that I'd need like a step ladder to get up on top of), in a pocket of a shirt hanging in my closet, etc. \n I'd always think, god damnit, I hate my drunk self. And the more I thought that, the more he would hide shit. The worst shit was I went to grab a $100 to go shopping and ALL THE MONEY WAS GONE. I was panicking, I had a girl over at some point, I apparently came and went both to the liquor store and the restaurant nearby (since I went there to eat to get my strength up and the dude was like \"hey buddy, drunk again today?\" (I had no recollection of being there in the past month, so I just turned around and ran, never went back). So I figured I lost $15k. I finally found it IN A PLASTIC BAG IN THE TOILET TANK. \n I'm 16 months sober now, and I don't miss it at all. I have no urge to drink, the thought of the 2 days of dry heaving mixed with the pure agony of anxiety and depression I felt for 3-4 days after is still so fresh in my mind that I don't even think about drinking. I was a vodka guy, so when I smell like hand sanitizer I gag. \n Also, I want to reiterate, I'm in no way making light of my driving situation. I know it was terrible and it was one of the main things that lead me to both quit drinking but also stay sober. I figured I wasn't hurting anyone by drinking alone in my apartment, but once I realized I was actually wandering out of my apartment (I would sober up sometimes in my hallway, we had auto locking doors and I'd get locked out like once every week and a half, and our building didn't have spares for the units (I worked as a security guard at a condo across the damn street at we had 2 copies of spare keys, they didn't, made no sense, what if there was an emergency?), either way we had this super butch 50 something security guard who hated me (for obvious reasons), but she was ultra mean to me about it and I would be like, seriously, sorry you have to stop watching tv for 2 seconds and call the on call maintenance guy, stop swearing at me you unprofessional turtle person (which didn't help)... I liked to assume I was just taking my garbage to the chute, but I really don't know where I was going, I was on the skyway (the second story tubes above ground we have in Minneapolis that connects all the buildings so we don't have to die while walking to work), sometimes I'd \"come to\" (I wasn't sleeping, just wandering blacked out) and I'd be miles from my apartment, on foot, no idea what I was doing or why I was there. \n Shit was scary. I was a giant target for robbery, I was a giant liability to myself and others, I was just a piece of shit all around. Thank god for the moment of clarity, and thank god my sister managed to get knocked up and crap out a gorgeous baby that I vowed to never let see me drunk.", "id": "c4pisb7", "summary": "the plot to leaving las vegas. But my prostitute looked and smelled like a shoe, not elizabeth shue."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I had a cat in college that decided it wanted to be an outdoor cat. His name was \"little kitty #2\", as we had another cat, aptly named \"Little Kitty\". \n I think he resented his subservient status, so he took off when the weather was warm enough for him to survive. We lived near the Mississippi so I assumed that he went down there, and maybe got disemboweled by a raccoon. \n A year later we get a call. Someone 4 miles away had found little kitty #2, they had been feeding him periodically, but he never stuck around much. One day he came to them with a few infected wounds from a scrap. So they took him to the vet, and I get a call... \n They scanned his shoulder chip. I was reunited with my cat. Some people don't think cats show affection or love, but when I saw him he meowed and ran over and started doing that thing where they kinda nuzzle on your neck, but end up just leaving hair all over your face and aiming their anus at your eye. I still have him, he hasn't gone on any adventures since, and he is livingh appily with a girlfriend! \n (I realized too late that he probably ran away because I had this roommate I hated, bad. He is the worst person I've ever met and everyone in my group of friends thought he was \"harmless\" and funny... There was zero substance to this kid, he spoke in catch phrases and was really, really creepy. We'd go to a bar, and by the time I got past the bouncer, he was already getting us kicked out for groping the first girl he saw. This happened over and over, and no one cared, \"That's derp!\" everyone would say... \n ...After we thought Little Kitty #2, I started noticing that little kitty 1 was missing her whiskers. I knew immediately that he had clipped her damn whiskers. Which cats need... I heard her meowing, like crazy, and went into his room and he was shaving her with an electric razor. I flipped out, punched him in the face, and people got mad at me. \n Point being. Kitty #2 left because lord knows what that kid did to it. I'm angry just writing this. I do not understand why he was allowed to even be in our group. I used to have to sit in the middle of the back seat of cars when we would drive to the bar (I'm 6'3, 220 lbs), because girls would come to me and say \"can you sit between me and derp? He always grabs my vagina when I sit next to him\". I call him on that, and.... people get mad at me. His sister attempted to kill herself because no one would listen when she said he kept coming into her room and molesting her. I told everyone it was basically him or me. That I couldn't be around someone like that. \n They chose him... \n People...", "id": "ciri3l6", "summary": "I had a cat that was gone for over a year that I was reunited with... I also had a terrible roommate who should be in prison or in the dirt... Mean to animals, a sexual predator with girls, including his own sister. I beat him up once, and that was basically the end of me and my group of friends I had known since 6th grade."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Or. You could realize that you are on a text based website and if you're honestly too lazy to move your eyes about 5 inches left to right, then you can skip the long posts. The whole idea of this shit is just sad to me. And I never even did it up until yesterday because despite of the content of what I write, people always just post that bullshit (Ive heard, HILARIOUS STORY MAN, YOU SHOULD BE A WRITER, HONESTLY, YOU'RE WASTING THESE STORIES WHEN YOU SHOULD BE GETTING PAID, BUT HONESTLY IT WAS KINDA", "id": "c43bv0j", "summary": "TERRITORY, JUST SAYING). \n Downvote it, skip it, I'm aware it's long, I'm fucking writing it. Some people like what I write. If you're not one of them, again, no one is putting a gun to your head, and I'm not here to pander to people who can't be bothered to read on a website they go to to fucking read things."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Looks like they said something about him on family guy, but I can't find what. Or atleast video of it. At the end he says that they probably crossed the line with their gag on family guy about Jon Stewart (sorry for the misspelling of his name in the title), but either way, I had never seen Piers Morgan's show, and this 2 minute clip showed me that I never will be able to. Seriously, let your fucking guest talk. What a self important douche. A) talking shit like you're even close to Jon Stewart's level in regards to a feud, B) trying to get an answer about that from your guest while repeating yourself (or your \"joke\" that your guest clearly isn't amused by) while speaking over him to the point that Mcfarlane has to change the beginning of his statement 4 times and C) just being annoying as fuck, like, hey, Seth, you and I together, we'll take him on! come on! more publicity for me and you're actually funny so let's just drum up nonsense that clearly you didn't even want to talk about in the first place! \n I had heard rumors about this dude, they were wrong. He is much worse, in every capacity than people say. Larry King was boring, but he was an institution of sorts. This would be like replacing Johnny Carson with Jay Len... Actually, it'd be like replacing Carson with Joan Rivers or Chelsea Handler/Kathy Griffin(if time travel allowed). Someone who is more interested in their own shit and are clearly only asking questions as a way to open the possibility for them to speak their opinion. I hate those types of people. Add in that most of their humor is based on bashing flavors of the month, and you have the worst type of comic alive. Anyone who is slightly and has no stage fright or self respect can honestly go on stage and do what these people do. It's the lowest form of comedy and a slap in the face to a lot of people (not just the people they're insulting).", "id": "c431lr4", "summary": "If you're going to have a show where you interview people, ask a question and let them speak. If people were interested in you, it'd just be you, talking, not ads about who your guest is, so shut the fuck up. Also, if you need to survive by creating \"controversy\" by bad mouthing \"other\" celebrities, you're the white equivalent of a black comic who only talks about being black, and or carlos mencia. I know they say most stand ups are depressed, which I attribute to their intelligence level. But these types should be depressed because they're tape worms in the gut of a diabetic pedophile. They make a career out of bad mouthing the celebrities people hate (kim kardashian, lindsay lohan) but what they fail to realize is since their material is based on these do nothings, they're actually below them, and owe them for their very existence, therefore, depression is justified as is the eventual suicide or in the case of rivers, the replacement of human parts with machine parts like the nazi in hellboy to the point that the part of her that would've felt bad is either sand or some wind up thing she turns before doing her tv guide channel off green carpet coverage from the Best Western awards. \n FUCK."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I thought the same thing man. I mean, I never \"abused\" benzos, I just lost my script and had to buy them \"illicitly\". That having been said coming off something I took multiple times a day for years and having an underlying legit generalized anxiety disorder (among other things) made it really, really shitty (I went cold turkey and then after walking around covered in sweat and having nurses worry about me they put me on a valium taper until the last week I was there). \n Before I was discharged I had to meet with their Psychiatrist, and she wrote the script. I just spent a lot of time tapering off, and it felt really strange to get that script. I felt like a mental patient going to walgreen's and ending up with a brown paper bag full of meds. \n Either way, now that I'm sober and becoming more acclimated to my scripts (mainly zoloft) I do feel loads better. I stopped sleeping all day and have resumed old activities that I completely abandoned (like showering!), so this hodge podge of Rx nonsense seems to work. And they keep a tight lease on me (follow up's every 2 weeks, no exceptions, monthly visits with the pscyh, UA's that analyze not only the substancebut the level as well... that sort of thing), so I'm happy. \n Don't get me wrong, this was a mandatory thing, but not because I did something wrong legally. I just applied for funding through the county because my unemployment lapsed (yay congress!) and they said that I had to get off the benzo's or they'd rescind my methadone privileges, which I wish I could do but realistically can't do cold turkey. So now I'm working with my \"team\" on tapering off of that slowly so I can get away from that pain in the ass!", "id": "ciepzsb", "summary": "I have more prescriptions that a CVS."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I do the smile and wave. Shit has almost gotten me killed a few times. I had one guy in his 50's follow me in a giant truck (the kind with the 4 wheels in the back, to emphasize each inch of penis), he pulled up next to me and kept saying \"pull over, atttthhhole! I'll kick your atthhhh!\" (he had a lisp), I just said \"hey, white trash, I'm going to work, I don't have time to deal with your hang over\" and he said \"keep talking like that and I'll knock your fucking teeth out!\" and I said.. \"sounds like someone already knocked your teeth out. YOU HAVE A LISP\". Have you ever seen someone's brain just break? Like, they... can't even process the amount of rage/adrenaline that just shot into their frontal lobe? If that's how it works... which it doesn't... \n Anyway, he fucking used all the built up lisp spit to fucking newman killing dinosaur from jurassic park spit all over inside my car, which was brand new. I really wanted to get out at that point, but I just drove on, and he kept following me, and then took a right and pulled up at this catholic church/school by my house, and got his super young kid out of the back of the truck, stood there and screamed \"COME OVER HERE\", I probably should've not just sat there, staring, but I thought about it... even then. I wanted to beat him in front of his son and say something cool like \"usually kids don't find out that their dad is fallible until their teens\" before caving in his skull with my wing tip... But instead i just drove to my new job and told people I was late because I had an upset tummy.", "id": "c97iirt", "summary": "I'm obnoxious."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I forgot about the sniffing... man, I miss that cocky bastard with his f'd up scrolls... I let him follow his cat penis to the blades, and have regretted it ever since (not only because he had about 30k septims worth of gear on him), I just can't imagine him and fucking Esbern hanging out together in that dank shit hole waiting for me to kill Paarthy. I half expected him to kill everyone, or at least the friend zone master that follows around Aela (I recruited her as well... which means he is there by proxy...)... either way, I may have to send Serana back to volkihar and bring him back, even though I have found that Serana has a knack for MOVING OUT OF MY WAY WHEN I ENTER A SMALL ROOM AND SHE'S IN THE DOORWAY... she never blocks me in...", "id": "c8lcsvx", "summary": "I have no point. I just like being a part of stuff."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I was at 760 and just started my second character... I was depressed for awhile... And on homemade crank I call meth. Patent pending. Joking, about all except the hours... I had a job where I could play at work and just liked this game. It was weird. For years I'd buy games, play them once and never play them again (including oblivion, and my friend would steal them), then this came out and it was just too awesome... Plus I had all these theories about, like visiting Aedra shrines on their specific dates to unlock Easter eggs, etc...", "id": "ccu178w", "summary": "I have no reason to wake up"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Yes. Because we don't have a late gang presence already... Seeing as how the vice lords consider this their second home (after Chicago), the surenos 13 run most of lake (near 13th) and 26th st. Near Knox over north and the surround area is where most shootings occur because of the territory overlap between the crips, bloods, vice lords and GD's. And a giant open air drug market. Hence: \"Murderapolis\". \n Then you get into St. Paul and the Hmong gangs and... Boom. \n I know you're joking. But we have a pretty decent gang problem. Before the gang task force went all corrupt they did a decent job trying to stop retaliation murders, which are the basis for most (it's like the chicken and the egg, people are being shot based on someone who got shot over someone they shot .... All the way back to the original guy who was shot in 1984). \n I am in a few programs that have a lot of drug dealers, users, etc. And grew up over north. A lot of people come here from Chicago to get away from the gang life (or atleast their parents did) and all it did was transplant those issues here. I'm sure some of them feel like compared to \"Chi-Raq\" this town is small potatoes and they start their \"hustle\", whether it be drugs, stolen cell phones, chop shops, etc. Then they step on the toes of the established turfs, and honestly disrespect them because again they figure how bad could a Minneapolis gang member be? And shit just goes downhill... \n Oh, and in high school we got about 350 Somalis between my sophomore and junior year. At first they emulated black guys via dress. And then started their own gang, \"the rough tough Somali crips\". We would make fun of them all the time, because it was hilarious. But apparently they are pretty out of control over on by riverside. When I went to the U there were constant crime alerts on the West Bank from random beatings and robberies. You had that 5-6 person murder at that convenience store awhile back, that Augsburg student got his throat slit on his moped by them also. And while most gang communities refuse to cooperate whether it be for allegiance or fear of reprisal; the Simali community (from kids up to elders) have such trust issues with authority (because of the \" government\" they were f'd over by) so most murders and crimes to unsolved. They simply won't talk. Even if it's their child who died. \n The sur 13's were the scariest gang IMO. I usually got a pass just because I'm white and not worth the trouble. But I did once \"disrespect\" a member and long story long it was awful. They followed me home, 5 deep in two cars for weeks. Eventually we \"squashed\" over a bottle of tequila in the woods near Edison HS' football field. Granted walkin into the woods with a group of dudes who had been following me home was terrifying. Especially considering a group of GD's at my school has taken a white guy down to the river and made him play solo Russian roulette because he was telling girls he was a GD (to look tough and I guess get ass?), so they said it was his initiation (lie), first pull the dude blew his brains out. 4 people arrested. \n Then a Somali gang member ran out on Roosevelt's football field to shank a vice lord and ended up stabbing him and the coach. It was crazy times. \n Point being. I think it could be an issue for some guys. Like I said, you come from LA, the birth place of black gangs. And most people think of Minneapolis as a super clean, safe, boring town. We do have our share if crips and bloods, but they're dominated by the Chicago sets. So, I could see (if the reports are true and not just chip Kelly's way of doing a more hardcore Percy Harvin move and makin it seem like they HAD to let him go so the usually calm eagles fans wouldn't go insane when they're stud WR gets dumped for NOTHING) someone like that rubbing people the wrong way and ending up being shot at and extorted... See: Michael Bennett at club cancun...", "id": "cghcbva", "summary": "do you guys think I have street cred yet? Also. I had a very interesting upbringing."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I've slept with a handful of married women. Mostly because I was in a LTR during my early 20's and everyone I knew was engaged or married when I became single. \n I am shocked by how willing a lot of them are. Willing is the wrong word. Eager. I've actually had arguments with girls when I don't want to sleep with them (and I'm not anything but a normal looking dirtbag). \n It's made me afraid of commitment. And also caused problems in my professional and personal life. Big time.", "id": "cgag1f2", "summary": "seems to be very common in my swath of people, and it's not worth the risk, even as the single guy on the receiving end. Everyone just ends up angry and sad."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Thank you for posting this. I don't get hbo anymore so I miss gems like this. Bill maher is a genius, I wholeheartedly agree with him, and really think Stewart and colbert missed a giant opportunity, especially Stewart. I honestly don't think colbert stands for shit he is just Doing schtick for comedy, I mean he goes on bill oreilly and in front of congress in character, he never breaks from it and while he is mocking the right he honestly should be genuine when given the opportunity as opposed to promoting himself all the time. And Stewart really just gave the right ammo by blaming the left equally. I know everyone here soiled their dragonball z underwear with his closing remarks at the rally but that shit was misguided bullshit. The left is fucking too meek, Obama tool this country from the brink of utter chaos and brought it to the point where we added 150k jobs last month while passing sweeping wall street reform, healthcare reform and ended major combat in Iraq and people say he hasn't done shit because it isn't communicated properly so we have a republican house that will block anything he tries to do, and probably find a reason to impeach him during the next two years and then will have daytime talk show host mike huckabee as our next president, things will go to shit and they'll spin it so it's obamas fault and people will buy it because the right is way better at framing issues and communicating their propaganda. It's straight out of Goebbels playbook. Why doesn't anyone notice this? How can beck have any credibility? I remember (and bachmann who for some fucking reason just got reelected in my shithole of a state) him saying Obama wanted to out people in FEMA concentration camps, and there wasn't s fucking ounce of truth to it, nothing even remotely close to that happened and no one calls him or her on it. It's maddening.", "id": "c14qyr0", "summary": "you're fucking lazy and stupid and part of the problem if you can't read forty seconds worth of text."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I know OP wasn't impling all pits are assholes by posting this, but it did remind me of a couple awesome stories I had come across over the years when reading and talking about my pit. So I went searching, found this: \n Had to make a thread, after snuggling with my dog for like 20 minutes even though she all of a sudden has developed allergies at 10 and is goobering (or as I call it, snarfing) all over the place. OH DA SNARFY. \n Here is a cool list of stories about courageous pits: \n I'm going to be blunt. Piece of shit people made ruined the reputation of America's dog. They were the mascot of WWI, they were loved here, think of petey from the little rascals (before he killed the original alf alfa), then people realized what they were created for and exploited it to compensate for their shitty lives. As a breed, any human aggressive animal was destroyed, who would want to be in a pit, on the ground, next to a wounded dog who would attack it's owner? Also, since they were basically like fighters, they were traded or sold and had multiple owners. Any pit I've known, including my own, is the most loveable, cuddly, awesome fucking dog. I'll never own another breed. They are bred to be dog aggressive, and that's something you have to work with, but all dogs have their issues. The problem stems from the fact that pound for pound they are incredibly powerful, and have an inbred tenacity or \"gameness\" to not stop until something is accomplished, that's a terrible combination when someone breeds them to be human aggressive. \n It saddens me that we've reached a point of breed banning, or in some areas (in Australia) legislated extinction. Even in my city, that doesn't have a ban, any bullie breed will be put down regardless if no one claims them at the shelter. I always think, my dog, who is 10, and the most gentle old girl ever, would be killed, simply because of what she looks like even though if someone came in her kennel there she'd jump up on their lap and give them a kiss. That's horrible, but I'm not blaming the kennel,I blame the people that got us to this point. It still sucks though. \n I saw a puppy pit, probably about 6 months after leaving the doctor the other week. He was all white with brown spots, super cute, but dirty as hell, no collar. He may have been a bait dog or something because he was TERRIFIED of me. The parking lot was on rail road tracks, so I tried to coax him over to me, he kept running, and would stop and look back at me, I frantically looked for something to give him to eat, found half a nutrigrain and threw him a piece, he gobbled it up but wouldn't come to me, and ran out into one of the busiest streets in the city. Traffic was completely stopped and I ran up to try to get him (everyone was screaming at me from my car, I didn't care though because I knew, if the city got him, he was as good as dead, so any risks were worth it), I eventually got him into a neighborhood and away from the busy streets, followed him in my car for about 30 minutes but couldn't get him to come, I called my mom to come help (I figured a female presence would help, maybe he was afraid of men) but by the time she got there he was gone. I like to pretend he was a crazy little puppy out on an adventure and was going to head home after getting his kicks, but the dirt, scars, mange and bones told me otherwise. I felt like crying the rest of the day. \n My humane society has a new initiative called, project pitbull. They are convincing shelters to give over a few dogs as opposed to just killing them. They are very, very selective with their adoption. I got my moms \"pit bull\" (turned out to be an american bull dog) there after 3 interviews, supervised interaction and a quiz on dog ownership. I'm not sure if it was because of my age, or also that they thought that he may be deaf (white bull dog breed) but it was intense. I walked in uber confident (I had my dog for years, and my moms other half pit half lab just passed) and still wasn't sure they were going to let me have him. Thank god they did. I would suggest maybe if you guys are in the market for a dog to think about a pit. They make wonderful, wonderful dogs, and need people like us to ressurect their reputation before we can't have them anymore. I am sick of going to the dog park and having people look at me with disgust (even more so than usual, I mean), having them leave the second I come in, or having them make snide comments about my dog. My mom just brought her 85 lb American bulldog to the grocery store, had him in the car with the window cracked, and had 2 complaints in 2 minutes about \"a menacing dog in the parking lot lashing out at people as they walked by\", now, his fucking name is Winston and he is afraid of my cat. The cat walks in the room and he'll roll over on his back and he likes to wear a pumpkin costume, he just gets really excited when he meets new people and was jumping from seat to seat wagging his tail and having a goofy look on his face (he is missing one of his big teeth and is just kinda goofy looking in general). \n I'm pleading with you guys to consider it. They're great dogs for most situations, they can be high energy and require a lot of walks, but not always (mine is my clone, she sleeps in until I do, eats when I eat, it's awesome), they have super short hair so brushing isn't tough and grooming is a non issue (outside of nail trimming, which, sometimes is a pain, my girls nails are like raptor claws, no joke) skin cancer can be an issue because of hairless bellys so I use sun screen that also doubles as a snack, and they are highly intelligent and can do awesome tricks, love to cuddle, love affection, love meeting new people and love love love their owners. For a bigger breed they live a long time (12-14 on average), and don't really have a lot of health problems. \n Here;s a little guy that may come up for adoption soon in the Twin Cities, give him a chance, they take care of EVERYTHING, shots, sterilization, they can even remove the part of them that needs to poop.", "id": "c2b6bg3", "summary": "Pit bulls are the greatest dogs on earth. Piece of shit owners take advantage of the pound for pound strength only rivaled by an aluminum robot built for bending and the loyalty bred into them. I would cover my niece in peanut butter and let her run around my dog with a boombox playing audio of a cat in heat and not worry about it. As a matter of fact, shit, I forgot about something... BRB. LET'S TAKE OUR BREED BACK BEFORE THE SCUMBAGS GET THEM BANNED FOR GOOD!"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "no homo accepted. I just realized I referred to mccain as 'the mccain', I think that should stick. I have a call with I assume some paralegal from the law office tomorrow to explain the whole situation with my firing and commission date rapery so hopefully I'll have some cool updates tomorrow, and enough $ in a month to buy an island for everyone in this thread to start a society where there's no such thing as ironic tie day (forced fun for everyone!) and you can come to work whenever you want because the only work would consist of finding your own coconuts to eat for life purposes. Also, there will be girls who will eventually become accustomed to our faces and have to choose a few of us them to end their periods for 3/4s a year (you ever try swimming in a tropical paradise with a bloody trail eminating from your crotch? It's like walking through a homeless shelter eating quiznos)... I've put too much hope and dreamery into this potential retribution,", "id": "c1pa63c", "summary": "Ill update tomorry hopefully."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I remember JoAnn my art teacher in middle school used to wear this moomoo and make us sit on this zany rug in the beginning of class at an angle that would give us basically the ability to look up into the darkness. Anyway, we hated one another, she used to take my pictures, which I spent tons of time and energy on and just give the most asinine critiques and DEMANDS for improvements, not like, you could shade this more, more like, you need to shade that more. Now, I understand that basically art for 5th graders is basically a bullshit class that gives other teachers time to cultivate their extra marital pube fumbling but for me this shit was serious, I made an honest effort and didn't appreciate her sitting there slowly dying, licking her lips with the most gray, cracked tongue I've seen outside of videos of beached whales I used to climax just basically telling me to go destroy my piece of art. \n The final impasse came when I was basically just copying the picture of a vulture out of a magazine. Copying by looking at it and drawing it (not tracing, fuck those hmong kids and their tracing, oh Yang, that's so perfect, you're so talented! Fuck Yang. I always hated that kid, he beat me in the schoolwide checker tournament championship in front of the whole school, while it probably helped my reputation in the long run (a fat girl made fun of me for losing and I had a witty 2nd grade retort that made the whole school crack up in unison, it was along the lines of, oh yeah? You're fat. Classic. ALso, he thought that once your fucking piece was kinged it could go like a knight in chess mixed with a bishop (basically a queen, I'm dumb) and none of the adults knew or gave a fuck so in retrospect he cheated and I have yet to forget), anyway, I don't remember where I was but I had drawn this vulture, on a dead tree in the desert. It was awesome, drawing was one of the things me and my dad did together and bonded over so I was really excited to show him this bird, I had spent days working on this fucking thing, each feather was unique and it was shaded to perfection (anyone that has gotten a marvel character from me via my marvel character pen drawing thread would recognize this is where that shit all started), so I bring it to her for 'approval' and she sits there, slathering her chapped maw with her concrete tongue, like she was in hell and the only way back was to feast on medusas box, and was like, 'The tree needs more leaves\" and I was like, it's a dead tree JoAnn, it has no leaves.. it's the desert. So of course she was like \"I am so sick of you always second guessing my decisions, SIT DOWN AND PUT MORE LEAVES ON THE TREE, THIS IS NOT A DEBATE IT IS MY DECISION I WON\"T ACCEPT IT UNTIL IT HAS LEAVES. I flat out refused. I don't really know what the consequence would've been, I mean, what could she really do? It was one drawing, a week's worth of work in a seemingly endless year to year waste of life. But she demanded it, I for some reason got really emotional, and when that happen(ed)(s) bad things come out of my mouth, so I basically just said, \"you have no right to tell me how to draw this picture, I know you think you do, but you're just an art school drop out that tries to force her crappy opinion onto kids and kill their love of art just like someone killed yours, you fat cow!\", her already ajar mouth (for breathin'!) dropped, she turned bright red and looked like she was going to punch me. \n I was brought to 'the support room' (that's where all the degenerate kids had to go, despite my cantakery (I don't think that's an actual word, but I like it) in the past I had never actually been there, it was more depressing than I imagined. Solid brick, doors to the vaulted ceiling, recess supervisors working off hangovers and picking at acne scars. I had to sit there, explain what I had done (she was too fat to actually bring me there, so she called and I moseyed on down) and then they called my mom who (already abreast of my hatred of the art teacher) defended me and got into a giant fight with the lady in the support room. My mom ended up coming in, yelling at the art teacher after she questioned my moms parenting skills (the absolute worse thing to say to her, she is 5'4, has the blood pressure of a diet coke 2 liter filled with mentos, and the upper body strength of cultural reference but she has a temper and it scares even the biggest of ethnics), so they ended up comprimising, I had to add 10 leaves, which still made me hate the picture but basically made everyone feel like they had one. In retrospect it's the most ridiculous bullshit, I haven't thought about that since, but what a bunch of stupid people. Like, full grown adults arguing about leaves on a picture of a bird? Until they're red in the face? Man, I did a number on everyone's brains.", "id": "c2ejype", "summary": "I actually had the holy grail, itself, in my hand, after stumbling upon it after taking a wrong turn after leaving the bathroom and wondering off on the vatican tour, but I ended up trading it for a Kirk Cameron pog, I figured he was more popular than jesus and the pog would get me everything I ever wanted in life. Considering everything I wanted at the time was a kirk cameron pog, I was half right. \n EDit: You don't have to read this. This story just popped into my head after like what... 15 years? 16 years? and I felt like venting it before it turned into a tumor. Only fans of my previous nonsense will like it, and even then, it's not that great."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I don't know if anyone has said that it's okay to do so, I think its a matter of saying that girls have to take responsibility regarding their safety when they go out. Drinking to the point of blacking out or passing out is a recipe for disaster and while no one should necessarily blame the victim when that happens the victim should know that they waived their ability to be in control of their body and basically put a giant sign up that said hey perverts, i can't fight you off if you want to dig in my innards. \n That being said I am a believer that sex criminals are the scum of the earth. I have a large group of friends, and this dude who I've had a few fist fights with (I know, I'm so cool) has repeatedly tried to date rape drug girls we know, and no one fucking does anything about it. He is still hanging out with this group of dirtballs, and it drives me fucking crazy. There was this younger group of girls that was the younger sisters of these dudes I'm friends with that started hanging around him (he would get them booze and help them run for senate) and I saw them at a bbq and was like, seriously stay the fuck away from dude, he is a creepy fuck and has tried to rape girls a few times, don't ever take a drink from him, don't drink any of his booze blerp. So he decided to post some rant on my facebook page like, so I'm a rapist huh?? Long story short he deleted it after my response. \n I also know a dude who girls I was friends with would ask me to sit inbetween when we would pack 5 people in a car because he would always just grab their vaginas, and again no one ever did anything about it, they would say (name changed), oh thats just thompson, hes a weirdo! Then I would get pissed and talk mad shit to him, and people would get mad at me. And now I have no friends, and they do.", "id": "c1ohmsl", "summary": "don't raise daughters in the eastern suburbs of minneapolis."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I worked as a security guard at a condo in college, and we didn't necessarily need to watch our 50+ camera's constantly or anything, but when something happened we would go back and look for the multiple angles of whatever happened. \n So, I used to work with this black dude named Tony. We worked the weekend (friday) overnight (11p-7a) shift on the weekends, his main goal was to have sex with as many young professionals as possible, and he was fairly successful at it. I was always worried something bad would happen while he was gone getting his \"dick wet\" (most of the time we get paid to watch cable, or even play wind waker on my gamecube, but when the police, EMT's, Fire department show up, we have to run the show (show them where to go in the massive complex, lock off elevators for them, tell the gawkers to go fuck themselves, etc.) so I asked him to usually make it quick, which he interpreted as \"Invited your uncle who is somehow younger than you to come in and tag team a girl we all called muffin\"...)... \n So, one night he was gone longer than usual. I guess Muffin wasn't doing it for him anymore, so it took him about 3 hours to get his jollies (his words, not mine... just joking, I don't know how black people talk, unless it's angrily, at me, for wearing a yellow, green and red hemp bracelet). While he was gone one of the housekeepers came in screaming \"What the fuck happened in the lobby!\", not wanting to ruin Tony's little harem, I said... \"Long story, let me go get Tony from the break room and we'll take care of it, stay here (I wasn't allowed to leave the main office, just in case there was an emergency call, etc.)... So I go up to the lobby and see one of our potted plants tipped over, foot prints everywhere, the main ones leading towards one of the pillars in the lobby, to another potted plant tipped over (these things were like 4 feet high and also 4 feet around, they had trees and shit in them, not just plants or flowers, god damn banana trees)... So, I called Tony, 10 times, before he answered, said he had to finish, and he finally came down. \n I concocted some nonsense story for the housekeeper (these people lived in the building for free in exchange for their endentured servitude, so I felt very little sympathy for them, outside of the fact that they were all in their 80's and one ladies husband was a korean war vet and beat the shit out of her on a regular basis, she always had a black eye or swollen lip and claimed that she fell in the shower, or that Tony had gotten rough last time)... I looked at the tapes to see what the fuck happened and found one of my favorite things of all time. \n The way the building worked was there were 3 high rises, all connected by the lobby, where there was a desk where Tony was supposed to be sitting. People had to use their swipey thing to get into the lobby, and then additionally to get into their high rise. Next to the door for this particular high rise, was the knocked over plants. There were 2 girls that were coming back from the club, dressed in super short skirts, ass cheeks like loose wisdom teeth... They were shitfaced, I could tell by our computer that their swipey thing was working, but they were too drunk to pull the god damn handle within the 5 seconds it's unlocked, so they swiped and pulled 26 times over a 4 minute period. During this point, the actual tenant (a really hot black girl, again, rectum like a quasar), started kinda bouncing up and down like a 5 year old in line at the grocery store, the bouncing increased, as did the frequency and failure of the swipey swiping (swiper no swiping). \n So, she lifts up her skirt, 1 inch, and squats over one of the potted plants, and proceeds to do the best backwards summersault I've ever witnessed, urine flying through the air in a perfect  fibonacci spiral ... Then... she walked over and sat on one of our padded chairs (like a recliner that didn't recline) and waited for someone else to come back from the bar and followed them into the building... \n So, anysnarf, while trying to make the mess less messy by picking up the tipped over heavy ass planters, I glanced over at the chair and saw a giant dark spot. At first I thought maybe it was a shadow. Then as I got closer the smell of urine (which was already enveloping the entire area) got so strong I started dry heaving... I took the cushion and threw it in the boiler room for some reason, waited a few hours and clocked out. [Papi would be proud]( \n But the video of her flipping backwards, with her pixelated vagina spraying the dark brown urine only someone on dialysis would produce is something I'll never forget. Or stop snake biting my junk until climax to.", "id": "c7nta29", "summary": "Worked at condo where people needed to use a magnetic fob to get anywhere, a drunk girl couldn't figure out how to open the door after using hers, tried to piss in plant, did a backflip and sprayed piss everywhere, crawled over to another plant, did the same, and then sat on a chair nd soiled it.. all while my coworker peed inside the vaginer of another resident while birds and bees encompassed them... or as is my understanding."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "My point is exactly that, except backwards. Did Trayvon have a reasonable fear? Based on what we know (which is all we can talk about), yes. That was the entire point of my post dude. \n For example, in Minnesota (not sure about Florida but I would assume since they're more progressive when it comes to openly killing people it's the same), it is now legal to punch someone simply if you think they are going to punch you. So, if someone is following you while you're practicing the liberty of walking to the store, and you approach them with a threatening tone, Martin had a reasonable fear or expectation that Zimmerman was going to strike him, so he may have struck first, and after fighting, and losing, shooting someone after creating said altercation is no longer self defense, it's murder. \n Like I said before. Do you know how many people are in jail for simply shooting someone after a fight they started? In their minds, they really think it was self defense, but that's not how the law is written or how it's interpreted by anyone. If I ran up on someone and was yelling \"what are you doing here!\" after following them a few blocks, and they punched me out of genuine fear, I'm the aggressor, and I can't claim self defense, it's all there, the lack of compliance with the dispatcher, the basic harassment, the difference in body size or weight and age. It changes the question from the one you bolded to the one I'm positing, which is what I'm assuming the prosecutors did, because they operate in a vacuum, where only facts that they believe will pass the muster of reasonable doubt exist (as does the judge and jury). That is their litmus test, and they wouldn't bring murder 2 charges otherwise (I'm saying all this because the prosecutors knew well before we did that Zimmerman had been beaten, but charged him anyway, so this is the only logical breakdown of what happened and legally how they probably will win the case).", "id": "c4evljd", "summary": "you cease to be able to claim a reasonable fear of your life aka self defense when you're an aggressor. Simply put, there can't be 2 people who were in fear of their lives, legally, someone has to be the aggressor and someone has to be defending themselves. Based on what we know, and what the prosecution is bringing against Zimmerman, he was the aggressor and therefore forfeited his right to shoot a child he accosted for no reason (other than pent up frustration and racial bias based on that frustration)."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Tis a slippery slope that one. This may be a personal issue, but I was a bad drunk, always blacked out, and always got into weird arguments and fights. So I began periodically drinking alone, going online instead, or going on xboxlive, and eventually I just stopped going out period. Why spend $150 at the bar when I can get a bottle for $15 and get blotto? Then, for other reasons, I lost my job, and drinking alone at night turned into drinking in the morning to avoid a hangover and simply because I was bored out of my mind and had about $50,000 in the bank from savings and my last paychecks being crazy huge. \n I haven't had as much as a sip of booze since 12/30/2010 (I wouldn't have remembered the date had it not been the day before the booziest day of the year). Now, honestly, the smell of alcohol makes me almost violently ill, even hand sanitizer. And I'm ultra sensitive to it, for example, if someone drinks in a car the night before I drive it, I can smell it like a dog smells cancer. It makes me ill... Also,", "id": "c4782xm", "summary": "I ended up pressing charges on some dirtbag(s) tonight who I saw breaking into my neighbors car, and I could've sworn one of the cops had been drinking. Maybe he went out last night, but it was 9:30 and the smell was pretty strong, and it wasn't just a hint, it was something I smelled the entire time he explained how to fill out these forms for the charges (I had to write a description of the events etc.). \n So the slippery slope is eventually you'll gain a superpower that will undermine your confidence in the police!"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Thanks man! I copied this for later... Luckily for me I'm a security manager at this \"high end\" condo in Minneapolis with about... 800 residents who all seem to have endless disposable income as well as the need to change their decor everytime the seasons change. No joke, my entire 3,000 square foot, 5 bedroom house is decorated from things people gave me there, including a 3 piece, leather sectional (with recliners on the end and a fridge on the side!), tables, everything (except beds, although I did just get a futon that a guy bought then had to get rid of because he knocked up his GF)... \n So.. they are also clueless about computers... You would not believe the stuff I find that they assume is broken but usually is a quick fix (battery, charger is not working, monitors, shit, just last weekend I found a 5 piece surround sound and sub for a comp that was $450 new!). I usually sell most of the stuff I find there (there's an area where people put stuff because they don't want to pay our recycling fee's) and some months make more from just PAWNING (or selling to a pawn shop, rather) than I do there (I could make more if I craig's listed or ebay'd it but that's such a pain in the ass I can't do it anymore, everyone has to haggle and especially when it comes to CL there's always a fucking sob story... \"I could really use that new bluray player... my husband... his back... he can't work, I know I said I'd do $50 but all I have is this coinstar receipt for $7.14... Oh yeah, that reminds me, I just found a brand new blu ray player IN THE BOX sitting there, completely unopened. The sign on it said \"take, don't need, already have VCR\"... God I love that place... \n Which reminds me, I just found two 64 GB flash drives today and realized I can finally use them on my 360... I find it odd that those lil guys are each > 3X that giant HD on the side of my 360... Technology, I tell ya...", "id": "c8h6vdh", "summary": "I'm ranting because I just worked 20 hours straight and took some random pills I also found in the recycling room. wahoo! My chest hurts. I'm going to lay down on my soiled futon."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "So, I guess I will contact him, but he doesn't like me and will take my sisters word over mine, because she is married with children and I am 27 and single and was the one that always stood up for my mom as a kid. He basically told me when he was giving me the money that he see's this pattern of worthlessness in my family as a whole, \"no offense Ted (my dad), but you basically work for welfare (my dad is a 30 year post office employee), your wife works for scraps while watching kids (my mom quit her $20/hr medical records job to watch my nieces) and your brother (my dads brother) hasn't had a job for 2 years, so, I have no faith in you derp, your job is worthless, you sell nothing (I sell advertising) and you've always had to try to fight authority\", so I said... \"where you come from, you're an authority, to me? You're my uncle. Now, you claim to be a businessman, so, be one and either give me the loan based on my ability to pay, or don't, you can't dangle the money over my head and insult my entire family, I would rather have my pride, so, have some respect for your family and keep your opinions to yourself or, I'll just leave (I stood up and put on my jacket)\" I told my dad, let's go, I'm not begging and letting him tell you you're not really working because you work for the fed, \"by the way, how many government contracts and subsidies do you get???\" (he owns a small oil drilling company). Give me a break. \n So, it was really tense and horrible. And I emailed him like 3 weeks after because he said he wanted me to communicate with him, and he never responded. \n But yeah, I've paid $450 a month for 4 months now and the money is just sitting there and I actually had a period of about 4 days where I had no money (mortgage and other bills lined up terribly) so I tried to get like $100 and I was in the bathroom at my parents and overheard my brother in law talking mad shit about me and how he wasn't going to let me get the $100. My brother in law, like he has any control over anything.", "id": "c48doc1", "summary": "MY LIFE IS A CLUSTERFUCK OF PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE ASSHOLES WHO ARE USING THIS MONEY AS A REASON TO HATE ME AND ALSO A WAY TO FUCK ME OVER. SO, I'M LOOKING FOR AN OUTSIDE PARTY FOR HELP, I MEAN, IS THIS A POLICE MATTER? I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO ANYMORE... haha, sorry for the caps, I just wanted to draw attention."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "State/national parks are a fun cheap way to check stuff out. You'll want to try different restaurants to see the diversity of cuisines and also the portion sizes. I live in Minneapolis, if you're heading towards Chicago and towards Yosemite or glacier national park I'd really suggest you stop by man. We're the first large city on the Mississippi River, and have a lot of cheap fun shit to do. Tons of parks, bike lanes, minnehaha falls, if you wanna check out a baseball game we have a spanking new stadium that people aren't going to be going to a lot next summer because or team blows (so cheap tickets!)... \n I'd suggest Brits pub downtown, not just because you're from te UK but because it has rooftop lawn bowling and soccer on all screens...and is just an amazing place to hang out. \n Also, we're the first and as far as I know the only city to have a  PEDAL PUB  fawn over even the cockneist of British accents. \n We're also basically Portland with lakes instead of the ocean (nearby) and fat people instead of hipsters (although we have an insane amount of hipsters. We've been spraying and having controlled burns to Stymy their population but their old timey bikes have evolved to be [tall enough to avoid most fires]( \n But all in all, we're actually considered thefourth  best [place to vacation in the summer, in the world, because our summers are so short we have shit going on every day](", "id": "cfia77c", "summary": "MINNEAPOLIS!!! 4th best summer vacation spot in ze world!!!]("}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I used to date a girl who had a pretty WT family, and they didn't much care for me being a \"city boy\" who also was simultaneously a \"college boy, eh?\" And presumably an ultra liberal simply because I had never buck knifed a wild turkey to death. \n Anyway, I usually avoided them because they would insult everything I ever knew or cared for constantly. But after five years it got harder and harder to make excuses to not visit them. So, living near the metrodome in downtown minneapolis, where they hold monster truck shows on periodic Sunday, Sunday SUNDAYS!!!!!! I invited them to come to my apartment before we all went to inhale diesel fumes and watch grown men get erections they can't see from inanimate objects. \n I was a big drinker back then, and I also liked tacos. Specifically a taco place that had an unlimited salsa and chip bar. So I was super hung over and had a stomach full of jalapeños. About 30 minutes into the \"festivities\", when cars pulling trailers with random shit on them drove in figure eights and crashed into each other's shit, I felt my lower intestine doing a figure right of it's own, and there was a 10 car pile up. \n So I ran to the bathroom, and violated the one thing besides a DNR and organ donor status I have as a human. I started taking a shit at the metrodome. Now. The lines were out the door. And there were three stalls and a long piss troff. So anyone who was in line for the stall either had to shit, like me, and judging from the demographics there were probably a lot of undercooked venison shits, peppered with buckshot. So, they were angry. \n The stall door was kinda fucked u, so everytime the stall next to me opened my door would pop open. And the fuck waiting after me was so drunk, or he shit his pants and another guy took his place, over and over, because everytime it popped open someone would open the door and see me, drenched in sweat, feeling like the magma dome from mount Vesuvius just collapsed in my innards. \n So, I had to lean forward to hold the door shut, while people starting screaming at me to hurry up, in between the billowing sound of car engines, while my legs shook, I lost 20 lbs of water weight and was trying to hover over the toilet from Trainspotting... \n 45 minutes later I emerged to the angriest people I've ever seen in a public restroom (and I've been to golden gate park) and went back to my girlfriends family, where they called me a city slicker for not being able to handle the \"awesome\". I walked ass to face just so they knew where I was, and what a shitty job I did wiping.", "id": "ccluiv4", "summary": "Anne frank would pity me."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "If that's too far I feel good about our democracy, to be honest. This is not some Orwellian nightmare, it's what happens when you hire a bunch of people at $9/hr and someone cocks off to them. I like how during the part where she is talking after reaching into her bin (unsuccessfully) there is like 2 minutes of talking and no explanation of what she was saying. \n What if she was extremely rude? Although rightfully? Maybe, just maybe, they remembered her for the shit she said and not because she was just a simple wide eyed young mother who wanted to feed her baby that was back home and for some reason couldn't just plop her tit in his mouth when she got there. That doesn't make it okay to make her toss the milk, but at the same time, every person who brings milk doesn't have this problem. Clearly there is more going on here, that's the point. Standing while other passengers go by in fast motion (to show how many there were, but in actuality to show how many don't have issues, whoops) doesn't really prove anything. \n She had to wait 40 minutes? JESUS CHRIST! LET'S CALL THE UN! Let's get some perspective people. The police \"evidence\" (dog and pony show, etc.) was just a nice cop telling her to stop being a bitch and relax. If you want to fuck with people who have authority, they will use the rules to inconvenience you, that's the difference between this and a real story. If this was what the OP wanted it to be, or the woman, she would've just disappeared and woke up in a coal mine somewhere... Instead she waited in a cube for 40 minutes... and sued, and I'm assuming lost since all the libertarian websites that were championing her completely stopped posting after the TSA apologized and she responded to that apology.", "id": "c7fm97u", "summary": "she waited 40 minutes, it's not the end of democracy as we know it. Relax. Out of the hundreds of thousands of people that fly daily, people need to dig up a 2010 video of someone waiting? with zero audio to show how she responded? Maybe she is an extremely difficult person? Maybe that's why they remembered her? Maybe that's why there is no explanation during the portion after she tried to reach into her tub? It's a 40 minute wait in a glass room, not the gulag... relax..."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Thank you. You're a select few. I got threw the screening process for a job in my state, and decided I couldn't do it. It was just a DNR job, but still required POST certification. But I couldn't. \n I had one instance where a retired Minneapolis officer followed me to the gas station and claimed I ran a stop sign. He just swerved up in a wagoneer and said \"stop there, and show me some ID\" I said, \"fuck you\", as is my nature and also because he almost hit me with his car. I walked away and he screamed \"get back here NOW, police orders!\" And I laughed and walked back, he showed me some faded ID badge, like one you'd use to get into a parking ramp. I said \"good for you\"... Then he picked up this men in black 3 style radio and called in back up. 4 squads in minutes. My wallet was in my car (I had to poop, badly enough that I was pooping at a gas station) so I went back, the first squad cop talked to his old boss and then walked over and told me to roll the window down, so I put the keys in the ignition (because it's 2014) and turned them BACKWARDS -\"as to roll the window down and he screamed, shrieked rather. \"NO!!DO NOT START THAT CAR???\" And started pounding on my window with his flashlight (the window rolls down slower than average)... I was kinda laughing when I said Jesus Christ, calm down, I'm rolling it down, I didn't do anything. \n He pulled me out. I got punched, kicked in the ankles over and over because I can't do the splits, I kept asking what I did. Or if they had seen it. Or if magnum PI could stop me from my day to day. \n Basically they handcuffed me for 2 hours. Beat me up a bit. And impounded my car (after ripping it apart for drugs because I had an empty visine bottle in my center console). \n I borrowed my moms car to run errands and it dead stopped, didn't roll, just died and shuttered. In the middle of the freeway. My 4 ways didn't work. I thought I was gonna die. When the state trooper showed up he handcuffed me for initially having my hands in my pockets (it was -5). I hadn't paid a recent speeding ticket. The three tows he made me go through cost me $450. Yay!", "id": "cff1o19", "summary": "I used to respect police. Wanted to be some sort of one after I realized I hated my day job. But I can't respect that type of behavior. And how the masses always assume the perp is a scumbag."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "My mom apparently didn't have any, so she went next door to borrow some, and they gave it to her in those dixie cups with the comics strips on them. So I ran inside after derping in the backyard with my party guests and saw it from below, it looked full of green delicious koolaid (ecto-cool still existed back then, I don't know why I figured my mom purchased a single cup of it for me, but maybe I thought she loved me, it took a few more birthdays to figure out she didn't) so I grabbed it and just opened up the old hatch. \n On behalf of that dude up there...", "id": "c2896vp", "summary": "Thought Koolaid, wrong."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "This is a long story, if you don't like long stories, don't read, if you don't like stream of consciousness writing, don't read, if you don't like hewey lewis and the news, don't read. Thanks for your patience. \n I lived next to the athlete dorm at the university of minnesota (for a semester, got a lifetime ban from U housing the night of my last final for 12 housing infractions! I'm low class!), we had this table where people would go to smoke right by the sidewalk, at the end of the night we would (try to) snipe the skanks that were trying to get their planes broken. \n It worked for me, once. I was shit faced, per usual (I didn't smoke, so I just sat there with a water bottle, hydrating) and this group of small town girls (who you could tell had yet to realize that being good looking in small town minnesota basically makes you a 6 on a good day) walks by after getting the no deal on entering the athlete dorm (I assume they got a tentative invite from a drunk player), all I remember was being in the act of drinking, and the girls getting sleazed on by my roommate (giant douche, like... a whole other thread's worth of stories style, example, he was born in minnesota, moved to NC for 2 years when he was 14, and selectively used that to his \"advantage\" when southern girls were around, we'd be talking about lakes or honey crisp apples, or whatever we talk about up in this purgatory and this blonde girl from SC would by and he'd be like \"by howdy! that's the rootinest, tootinest story I ever did hear! Wait til I tell pa and his old hound gus gus!\", he had no personality, he just became what he thought people liked at any given moment, I stopped letting him tag along when he called an adopted hispanic kid I knew from high school \"essay\", with no sense of sarcasm or anything, he followed it up by downloading \"blood in blood out\" on his computer and literally scrambling to turn it on whenever the kid entered the room... god damnit I hated that kid)... \n Where was I? Ugh. Oh, so the halfway decent friend (not the hot one, or the sow) looks at me and goes \"yer cute' and I said something super douchey like \"yeah I am\" (editor's note: I'm not) and I just leaned forward and started eating her face like a zombie with bulemia, all my friends, of course, started cheering us on for some reason (they sucked, also), and after 30 seconds, or 30 minutes of basically sucking a fucking ash tray I stopped to re-up my decision altering state o' mind. She proceeded to ask me \"do you have any more of that upstairs?\" and I said \"uhh\" and the chicano-good old boy-devil spawn roommate goes \"I do, I DO, IT'S IN MY CLOSET, GO UP AND GRAB IT WITH HER\" (which was nice of him, I admit), so I go upstairs and my 2 other roommates (it was a 3 person room, but considering my alma had about 55k students at that point they decided to go with the Amistad theory of close quartering) were on their computers doing homework (on friday! nerds! haha... I'm unemployed...). They were really not into the whole college scene, one of them was a super nice guy but was just ultra awkward (his name was dong, he was from s. korea, he tried, which i respected the fuck out of, but he just wasn't cut out for partying, I gave him a shot of captain once and after 5 minutes he kept saying \"why is my face so hot?\" over and over (it was a shade of purple I had never seen before, in a human or otherwise), so I stumble in, pretended they were not there, found the booze, poured her a drink as she fumbled at my junk like a dying pilot trying to lower the landing gear with his or HER (progress!) last breath, the other roommate was really uptight, and a dick about everything (despite waking up and playing black hawk down online every morning at 5:45, no headphones, just straight up sub and 2 big comp speakers with people communicating about the location of other people who hadn't seen a vagina since their mom yanked them out of theirs on the terlit with a hanger from tj maxx). Long story pretty long, I asked them to go sit in the hall, I had whiskey snarf, bad, and so we ended up cram cramming for 2 hours, everytime I got close to finishing the other roommate would open the door and in his best napoleon dynamite voice (2 years before the movie came out) say \"WE LIVE HERE TOO!\" and I'd go as flaccid as a man with a medical condition. \n So, I didn't finish, because they eventually came in, eyes covered and demanded equal rights or something. So she left, my douchey roommate came back up, and I lamented about the state and hue of my testicles. He said he knew her friend was still in the building (she found some sophomore due to munch on the head on collision of loose skin and virus' betwixt her thighs) so he went to get her. She came back and I proceeded to go for it red, connect anus, while my south korean roommate was in the bunk above me, furiously masturbating and categorizing things for future use (I know this because the next week he kept asking me questions, very detailed ones, about what he heard, like \"at 3:47 a.m. she exclaimed \"NO\" very loudly, after hours of intercourse, why would she all of a sudden say no? And how did you get her to say yes afterwards?\" so I had to explain to him that in the commotion of trying to bangarang in a fucking bottom bunk/stench tent (the sheets around the outside of privacy made it nice and humid in there, like a sauna where they use taint sweat as the water source) my junk kept creeping into her anus. He actually looked disgusted at first, then just sad. I ended up using 12 condoms on her (at first I'd just pull them off as a sign of passion, or something, but it's okay guys, while balls deep in a stranger I asked her about her sexual history... so yeah... responsibility!), she also was the first girl to try to put her finger in my butt (I think she was offended by my inability to finish/keep it up... but to be honest, it wasn't the greatest experience, I was sobering up quickly, and she started out not smelling that great (she clearly was planning on getting laid, but she in no way prepped, she had atleast 2 weeks of pube growth, she smelled like someone wiped their butt crack with a handful of pennies after a 5k, and she was wearing granny panties (albeit, see through ones) and a sports bra... ugh...)... \n So, I finally just faked an orgasm and rolled over, like \"wow, that was awesome\" while she told me she loved me for some reason (I'm not joking). She then said \"do you even know my name?\" and I said \"I don't want to hurt your feelings, let's talk about something else\" and she got really upset and I was like, do you not recall how this went down? When did we exchange insurance info? She then got up, put on MY FAVORITE SWEAT PANTS (high school hockey sweat pants), a t shirt of mine and started gathering her purse junk (I had strewn it about while doggying her over my desk chair (with dong watching from the top bunk... ugh again) because the condom broke again (at the time I was like, man, i'm huge, no condom can contain my manhood! But I realized that she was as dry as charlie sheen's sinus' in retrospect and I'm also pretty sure I was putting them on inside out half the time). As she walked out I said \"You forgot your underwear\" and she said \"I want you to keep them\"... \n Never saw her again. But she did give me amazing scare of what we at the U call \"gopher warts\". Since we have so many students, in such a confined area, that are all exploring their sexual identities,  there was supposedly a special strain of HPV that came from our campus. After a night of drinking I was scratching my sack through my van gundie's and felt a big lump, I panicked, like that instant rush of adrenaline, goose bump, stomach ache, cold sweat, type of feeling you get when you realize you're fucked. I lowered my underwear thinking, this is it, my life is over, and lifted my shaft to find that I literally had an apple runt right under my tip in that area where archaeologists could figure out where my penis had been. I blacked out the night before and could not for the life of me figure out how it got there, or why it solidified on me... I'd like to say I never found out, but I did (I was F buddies with this formerly prude girl from my high school and she didn't F but S'd a ton of D, she didn't know what she was doing, but she was really pretty and junk so I didn't mind, but she was like... the typical chick who would read vogue and try the stupid bullshit they use thesauri on and re-print every month. So apparently she was Sing my D with her M with the candy in her mouth, and again, I was failing to live up to my end of the old bargain and said something really dickish (I was a bad person back then, like terrible, I had my heart broken by a girl and decided to never open up to one again, and for some reason to me that meant i had to treat them like shit) so she stormed out and must've spit the candy on my mezzanine and in the course of the night of struggling to live it dried on me...", "id": "c6h1m7h", "summary": "I had sex once."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I carry a badge... I can GET YOU arrested right now\"... Off duty police officers can still arrest people, one tried to do it to me last month... that dude was lying, or was doing what a lot of older white guys I've met do. They have an ID that says department of corrections on it, because their job requires them to visit a jail, or the DOC HQ (Psychiatrists, doctors, an accountant I know), they flash it all the time to get people to stop talking at movies, or baseball games. I'm just waiting for one of them to flash it to a real cop and get arrested for impersonating an officer, which is what I thought the off duty cop was doing to me (his Id badge was like 25 years old, he looked my age in the picture and was easily 60), so I told him to fuck off when he swerved his at me and almost hit me (slid in the snow) and started yelling \"get back in your car, I saw you run that red light back there\", so I said 'no?\" and he said \"listen, faggot, you better listen to me or you'll regret it\" and I said \"fuck... off\" and kept walking and he said \"Oh really? What about now?  holds up faded cafeteria ID \", cue slow clap by me, \"your son is a sergeant, you must be so proud\", he screams \"GET BACK IN YOUR FUCKING CAR NOW GOD DAMNIT!  fumbles to get cell phone, I stood like 10 feet away trying to assess the situation, and also because I had a giant turd crowning and couldn't move \", 3 squads showed up and the old sergeant apparently wanted me to do the splits because i had my legs spread but he kept booting me in the ankle (i was wearing shorts, no socks, didn't feel great) and screaming \"SPREAD 'EM!\"... \n Long story short, they tore my car to shreds, questioned me about a 1988 computer printer an old lady was trying to give away at my job that I took because I didn't have the heart to say no (\"my late husband bought it and I can't get it to work anymore but I would hate to see it go in the trash\"), so I said \"you caught me, I traveled back in time and stole the first printer ever created\", that bought me 2 more hours in the back of the squad while the cops ate lunch and called the lady in the store a \"dyke cunt\" for asking them to move their cars (they were blocking the main entrance, anyone from MPLS it was the super america on minnehaha parkway and cedar, they were blocking the cedar entrance), I was handcuffed and curled in a ball (I'm 6'3\" and the back seat of that squad had the leg room of a pow-pow-powerwheel, I had to shit so bad I could taste it, and I kept asking \"are you going to charge me with something, or... what is going on?\", I explained to them that i didn't know that the guy was a cop, hence my disrespect, because I really respected their profession and my record shows that I'm not a bad guy, and I was just mad that I was being held for no reason (I didn't run any fucking stop light)... As hour 3 started and they started throwing everything in my car into the filthy gas station parking lot goo, I got mad, at this point I had been kicked 6 times, they attempted to slam my head against the hood of their car but the guy was too short and so it didn't work but I pretended it did so he wouldn't try again, and at that point I just became irate whenever they asked me a question about anything... Cigarette plastic? Must be for drugs! Empty prescription bottle that had my mom's name on it for her blood pressure medication? You caught me! I came to buy tin foil so I could chase the systolic dragon! So, they TOWED MY FUCKING CAR, let me out and handed me a ticket with ONE OF THEIR NAMES ON IT (the off duty dude left), and said \"learn to keep your mouth shut\" and I said \"why? You just attached your name to a ticket for something you didn't witness, towed my car for no reason, and handcuffed and kicked and slammed someone's head against your car for not showing respect to a guy in a toyota sienna? All you did was show your superiors you spent almost 4 hours eating food and trashing a private citizens car in a neighborhood that has been overrun with burglaries, robberies and car break ins. Like I said, I respect your profession, but I also only respect people who respect me. I did NOTHING, yet I was held here like a fucking criminal because I didn't realize your boss was a cop because he never said he was... Good use of your time man... keep up the good work\" and he said \"YOU WANT ME TO ARREST YOU?\" and I said \"FOR WHAT?\" and he pulled out his tazer and said \"BACK THE FUCK UP\" and I was like \"Jesus man, you really are in the wrong profession\" put my hands on my head, and he laughed and said \"typical big guy, second you see confrontation you get terrified\" and I just sighed... I said \"Can I go now?\" and he said \"go for it, but we'll be watching you\"... Fantastic. \n So I went into the gas station, shit, and picked out all the stuff my mom asked i pick up for her daycare and THE FUCKING STAFF REFUSED TO SELL IT TO ME. I'm a grown man, but I almost fucking cried. That was the part that got to me. I was like \"if I was a criminal they wouldn't have let me go\" and the lady said \"we have the right to refuse service to anyone' and I said \"i know that ( tears up ) but this has been a really bad day, I don't have a car now and I need this stuff for my mom's daycare, if you could find it in your heart... \" and she yelled, fucking yelled \"DON'T MAKE ME GET THOSE COPS IN HERE!\" (they were still parked outside)... I went outside and sat on the curb, realized my cell phone was in my car, which was on it's way to the impound, and that I was wearing shorts and shoes sans socks in 15 degree weather, and just felt like shit... A few people walked out of the store, I asked to use their cell phones, they didn't even talk to me, like i was a fucking leper... I walked 2.5 miles home and got yelled at by my mom, went downstairs and deleted my online app for the police academy (I have the education for POST certification and just needed to do the shooting, driving, physical training (hand to hand, running tests, lifting tests, etc. at fort snelling).", "id": "c8b0ipm", "summary": "Off duty cops CAN arrest people, I got followed by one who said I ran a red light (I know what he thought, I started rolling when the other light turned red, but I didn't even cross the crosswalk, I always am consciousof the crosswalks because Minneapolis is a crazy bike city and even in the winter , or especially i the winter, you have to make sure you keep those open for people)... So, he didn't identify himself as a cop verbally, and showed me his ID after calling me a faggot and swearing at me, he called his buddies who were on duty, they handcuffed me and he kicked me in the ankles a bunch of times, tried to slam my head on the hood of a squad, and they tore my car apart while I spent 4 hours getting shit talked to me and my car ruined. then towed (for copping an attitude after 4 hours of sitting there asking respectfully what was going on and why I was in the squad)... I never felt so powerless, angry and disgusted."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I was walking back from a dive bar in my neck of the woods (where my best friend's brother's band just('s) played a show('s)) and on the way back we decided we weren't quite drunk enough so we stopped at another, seedier, dive bar that was on the way for a nightcap or five. \n So, we walked in and sat at the bar and ordered a couple shots. The bar was actually our regular establishment, and as usual, it was pretty dead (it's one of those random bars that is on the corner of a residential neighborhood, it's awful in there, it always smells like puke because someone through up in one of the pool table pockets, and the bathroom is just a toilet in the middle of the room, with a swing door like a public bathroom, but the stall fell over so they just have a toilet in there, many a time I ran in there to vomit and saw a toothless \"regular\" taking a dump, \"don't mind me!\" he'd say, as I replied \"DOblaaaaarghhhhhhN'T BLAARRGGHHIINDDD MEEEEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!  cough  either...\" while vomiting into a sink\", also, the roof leaked when it rained or it was snow meltin' season so we'd all grab a bowl or bucket and run around and find the biggest leaks, like some sort of Mickey Mouse cartoon about the depression)... Point being, it wasn't like we were out of our element or anyhting, but the bar was pretty empty, save for a group of 4 guys (1 white, 3 black) who were sharing a booth near the door. \n We were in there for about 15 minutes, had our drinks and started to walk out the door. For whatever reason... maybe he was trying to impress his black friends, or he was upset about his orthodontist's astigmatism, or my come hither stares... the white guy yelled out as we were leaving \"Ohhhh, you and your boyfriend leaving already???\", now, I was about an elevated heartbeat away from blacking out, and by nature I enjoy confrontation, so I laid into him pretty heavily, it started with me saying \"what, you scared all the girls away with your underbite so you figured you take your aggression out on us?\" and ended with \"so... the baby gap sells ecko now?\" (he wasn't a tall man...), my friend, the \"sensible\" one, kept yelling at me to be quiet, which made me more upset (like I was the one that started the altercation), so finally, I turn my back and walk away, the entire time all the guys in their group, the shit talker included, just sat there and stared at me, granted I was screaming at them like a mental patient so maybe they were taken aback but, either way \n I heard footsteps coming up behind me, fast, and my friend just yelled \"Derp! Look out!\" and I put my right forearm up instinctively, and my arm blocked his (the white guys), his fist (or so I thought) was even with my neck, because I'm a taller person, and again, he was wearing Keds, but before I could turn around the bouncer (yes, there was a bouncer, he was used to that riff raff so he didn't intervene when we were \"talking\") yelled, \"Holy shit! derp, run!\" and so I turned, the bouncer took about 3 seconds to tackle the kid, and he got him down, pinned, and that's when I noticed the kid had an about... 5\" blade in his right hand... He tried to fucking stab me in the neck! \n His friends ran. I stood there with my jaw dropped, drooling slightly, and my friend just kept repeating \"holy shit dude, holy shit\"... I have been in a lot of drunken nonsense in my day (I'm 2 years sober now, this had a lot to do with it), but it really, REALLY, fucked with my brain for a long while. I couldn't believe that something like that could've happened over THAT. \n The police arrested the guy, he had a lot of priors, and 3 warrants, he was charged with for carrying the knife and assault with a deadly weapon, it was close to a battery, because he did in fact touch me, but it was murky and confusing... either way the dude got 15 years for everything but did mention when the bouncer had him down that his homies would remember my face... JOKES ON HIM, I GOT FAT!", "id": "c912hdp", "summary": "Got drunk, left bar with my friendship, random white trash made a gay slur about us having the nerve to be friends and drink together, I responded with insults that would've produced nosebleeds had his sinus' not been clogged with poorly cut coke, I walked away, he swung at me from behind, I blocked the blow (I was upgraded to a yellow belt when I round house kicked x-ray peper in front of my parents in 1992 so... yeah), and the bouncer tackled the guy, he had a knife, it almost hit my jugular, feels..."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Better sign more D lineman! \n Note: I am happy with a lot of the signings, but found it kinda funny how we added so many guys. But after watching hard knocks I know Simmer likes his Defensive line strong and deep (insert joke here, also insert joke after I said insert, all three times). I also do like the fact that these moves have opened up some flexibility in the draft... \n I'd love no fly zone. The idea of him, Xavier, captain and smith together makes me frothy. But, being someone who came of age during the moss era, a part of me wants us to go full Matt Millen and pick up Watkins. Cassel would have a better corps than he had during his probowl year in New England, and we'd be able to compete through the air with GB, Megatron and the Bears. But we do need LB's... \n That having been said I feel like Norv has a lot of pull and hasn't gotten any goodies yet. So maybe he'll have some leverage. The thought of AP-Patterson-Jennings-Watkins-Simpson-Wright-Rudolph???? Honestly. Division champs!!! \n But the draft is deep, with receivers and honestly at corner also... And if teddy falls which he might, we'd be hard pressed to let him pass. I just have hesitations considering his rumored frailness and the fact that he played for a basketball school. But I still like him more than Bortles. I watched some tape (Penn State? He looked amazing... Ohio State? Not so much... Some games he looked undead table zzz under pressure he panics, doesn't set his feet and makes weird decisions... That and he had a lot of amazing supporting players... I'd avoid him)... \n Anyway... Yeah... F this article.", "id": "cg9k5lt", "summary": "I love this time of year"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "As I've commented many times here (for those of you that recognize my username, yes I am THAT puck, the one that posted that picture of that dog and got 31 upvotes 2 years ago... calm down) I worked as the \"head\" of overnight security on the weekends at this condo in downtown minneapolis for 2 years in college. It was the greatest job EVER, especially for a student. Basically, I sat in this office in the parking garage/basement of the building, I would check people in and out of guest parking (8 spots, first come first serve, unless reserved, for which I would use my awesome cone skills to block them off, and as the OP would assume, there were countless times I'd look up from my game of scrabble on Yahoo! to see an elderly dickface moving the cones so he could park in the spot, like it was blocked off because I felt like exercising the smallest amount of authority in the known universe since that manager at dairy queen tried to start a coup of Reagan in 1984. \n The building I worked in was an interesting one, it was built in the early 70's, and looked everybit the part, but, it was really high end for that time, and the original owners of their condos still were holding onto the idea that this was a \"luxury\" condo, despite units going for lik $140,000 (and this was before the crash of the housing bubble, around 2005-6), so there was CONSTANT conflict between the old people, who had that mindset, and the young professionals, taking advantage of a low price for a great location (downtown minneapolis, on the skyway (for people that don't know, in minneapolis we live like underground mole people, our buildings are connected by heated/air conditioned tunnels, I guess, they're on the second story of every building so we don't have to freeze to death, huge advantage to live on it, you can basically get to work without stepping outside) at a huge discount. \n If anything ever happened (which was namely noise complaints, people holding old grudges and just using me as a way to fuck with someone that fingered their now dead wife on new years 1979, etc) I could call this fat asian kid in the lobby to go deal with it, and I got to sit in my 'office' and literally play xbox, or usually gamecube (easier to carry, and I played windwaker back then, which is probably why I liked it, I would set the sailing directions and go piss or something). There was one older dude who was a rapist, for sure, but lost his strength so just followed women around, in a fucking silk robe and no joke, speedo, in winter, in the building (it was 2 buildings connected by a lobby, called the Towers if anyone is wondering, one was 35 stories, the other 24?), anyway, he would wander back and forth waiting for girls and then he'd like speed walk to get by them. This was back before my \"promotion\", I hated him, so I'd follow him so he'd know that I was onto his lame ass attempt to get masturbatorial material for later. He reminded me honestly now that I think about it of what david carradine must've looked like at the morgue. Anyway, one time he was carrying this metal pole, it looked like he unscrewed it from a lamp or something, and literally ran after a girl he saw, so I ran, grabbed him by the silk before he got on the elevator, and told him basically that I knew what he was doing, I was watching him, as were the cameras, and if he even thought of touching a girl in the building I would kill him, I am 6'3 200 lbs, so I just said \"I could stop your heart with one punch you emaciated piece of shit, so stop it\", after that he did, and then he drown in the pool (I read it in the paper like 2 years ago and got really happy). \n But basically, since most of my funny stories revolve around younger people getting drunk, but OP is completely right. One time, an old lady came into the office at like 2 am, and said that she saw an \"arab\" run up hennepin avenue (the main artery of downtown Minneapolis), there is a fountain there, that is public space (I think) but was close enough to our building that people would always complain about skateboarders tehre to bums (literally) taking bum baths, which aren't bad, I mean, at least they're trying, and it's just like washing up) but so she comes in, and tells me this arab ran up to that area, and stuffed something deep into the garbage can. Now, this building was basically self sufficient, you needed a FOB to get in or out, even in the courtyard, so it's not like i needed weaponry, and they definitely didn't give me any. I was equipped with khakis, a blue shirt, tie and belt. There was no flashlight, anywhere, I looked everywhere, but she would not drop it, and since I figured it was just the paranoid musings of an old woman who was up at 2 am staring out the window like the mother from psycho (I know she was stuffed, that's the point), I figured, fuck it, as I was elbow deep in garbage, and saying, \"see? nothing!\" and she was like \"he lifted all of it, it's under, further!\", but it was pitch black, and I didn't know what the fuck I was feeling, but I couldn't get her to shut up. Then it hit me. A) I'm elbow deep in a \"major\" cities downtown garbage can, which easily could have 15 used needles in it (diabetes is rampant, thanks wisconsin.", "id": "c39ckbc", "summary": "there's no point so I can't summarize it. basically I'm insane."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Isn't that shit so true though dude? The actual fear and anxiety of getting the STD is more scary than having one. There was a week where for some reason I thought I had a wart, I was convinced. And I was fine, being able to sleep because I wasn't constantly feeling myself every hour and dreading waking up etc. was great. It wasn't that big of a deal. \n Either way it turns out that I'm an idiot and it wasn't HPV or warts, it was just penile papules? Lots of dudes have them and they're benign, but no one talks about them because they're ashamed. \n I am talking to a counselor currently, more about drinking and other stuff, but I can add this to the docket. My life honestly,to me, feels like I died acouple years ago and I have been sent to hell and don't fully know it. Honestly, it's how I feel. Whatever can go wrong, has and will. Whether it's lifelong friends screwing me over, or my dad punching me in the face because my 12 year old dog pee'd on the hardwood floor and then everyone in my family telling me I needed to go to a homeless shelter because \"I should've known how dad gets\" and the only answer is \"for me to leave, so I won't be a witness to my dads rants, rages and insanity (it takes nothing to set him off, like for example, I'm sick right now, so I've been laying in my room and trying to sleep with some ambient noise and ear plugs in because he is sick also and hasn't been going to work which means he has more chances to find reasons to freak out. So, my mom owns an American Bulldog/Pit bull mix, he's adorable, and like 100 lbs, but he drools a ton, so I hear him scream at like 2 a.m., \"FUCK, AHHHH GOD FUCKING DAMNIT!\" and he starts slamming the fridge door over and over, and then I hear him go into my mom's room (she sleeps in a different room with her dog because of the obvious) and he wakes her up, even though she is also sick and says \"I thought I fucking told you to keep that god damn dog outside when you eat, FUCK! I WILL KILL THAT FUCKING DOG!\" so I hear my mom yelling \"knock it off!\" and he then opens the basement door, and takes a huge whiff (to see if my dog might've peed, she's got a bladder infection so she has been peeing), so he smells that and just goes apeshit, starts trying to come down stairs and I'm like \"dad, please, just go upstairs, I'm sick as fuck and I can't take this right now, please...\" and he just started saying mean ass shit to me, I plugged my ears more so than they already were and kinda rolled my head on my pillow to try to not hear it, because when he does this I get horrible heart burn, like, the feeling of what I assume someone stabbing you feels like, and I just ran out of my last prilosec and didn't want to add that to my current sickness, anyway he went upstairs (to the second floor) and started throwing and slamming stuff. Found out he broke all my art supplies, I was working on a drawing of my baby niece in ball point pen for the past week, it's ruined. \n Haha, I don't know why I brought this up... Maybe i just needed someone to tell, I don't know what's going on, I've never felt like dying before but this really has been as close as I can imagine. I could handle the rage,but basically to hear from my mom and sister that I'm basically the root of the problem \"well, if you just weren't there you wouldn't hear it, and I know you want to stand up for me (this is my mom talking) but that's my job, you don't need to do that, that's why he punched you, because you told him to shut up when he was in a rage, how would you react?\" and I said \"Um... I wouldn't punch my child?\" and she laughed \"oh, derp, you have a bigger temper than anyone and you challenged his manhood, what did you expect?\" ... me: crying. Okay, I'll go then. Sorry I stood up for you and my dog. (when he punched me I was upstairs watching DVR'd shows (he has the dvr) and he was doing his typical rage, he usually waits for my mom to go shopping to do it. And then it started getting extra, extra loud, and I began to fear that he was going to hurt my dog (12 year old pit bull, when I was younger I had a cat, callie, for calico, she peed on a pile of laundry and he put her in a box, taped it shut and drove like 2 hours north and let it go into the woods (he claimed he went \"door to door\" asking if people wanted the cat, but he can't even order food from mcdonalds or go into a gas station (literally, never in my life has he) so I knew that's what he did, I cried for hours as they looked for her, drew pictures while I waited by the phone for updates. Finally, the next morning, they let me go look for her too (I think they didn't want me to see where he went, because it proved he lied), either way, my voice made her dip out of the woods and run right to me. \n Fast forward to about 4 years ago. My mom had this dog that was half american bull dog half black lab. She also drooled and was a giant baby. Like, attached my moms hip. She liked me, but only really listened or cared about my mom. My mom loved that fucking dog. So one day we get home and she can't walk right, her back legs are all fucked up, and she is whimpering when she tries to poop, so we take her to the dog ER and they put her under for x-rays, thispart is contentious, but mymom thinks that the vet tech dropped her, because she saw them picking her up off the floor. But somehow, she woke up and was paralyzed from about halfway up her back down. They said she would be fine and just needed to come out from under the anesthesia, she never did and had to be put to sleep, my mom cried for a week, and was throwing up she was crying so hard, I thought she would kill herself. \n I always thought my dad kicked her (he kicks the dogs when he's mad at them), so thinking that he may kick my dog, who now has hip dysplasia, I went downstairs, and I get about halfway down and his rage turns into like, seriously, high pitched screaming, AHHH YOU MOTHERFUCKING PIECE OF SHIT AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT THE FUCK!!! and so I'm like, \"whats going on dad?\" and he looked at me with this look I've never seen and was like \"THAT MOTHERFUCKER SHIT ALL OVER THE FUCKING BED! I'M GONNA KILL HER, I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL THAT CUNT!\" and I just said calmly \"you touch my dog I will hospitalize you\" and he kind of like, stuttered and then ran towards me full speed, expecting me to flinch, I didn't, I said \"She shit the bed because you've been screaming and swearing for the past hour, don't you understand what you're doing, what you've become?\" and he just goes \"SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU LOSER!\" and punched me in the glasses. I laughed, took my now bent and broken glasses off, I had a small cut next to my eye and just said... \"look at you, you're pathetic, a shaking (he shakes a lot, like parkinsons style, he won't get tested), cowardly old man who intimidates dogs and then gets mad at the consequences. You hit like a bitch, how sad, I used to think you were superman, now I know you're just a hick who hits his own son\".", "id": "c4hmefs", "summary": "no reason to read this, I just needed to get this off my chest. My counselor told me that I need to write stuff down, whether it's to someone I know via email or AIM or to myself, this is kinda a mixture. I'm sorry for dumping this on you. I have no one to talk to. The good news is I just bought a mega millions ticket for... tuesday? So, yeah. I'm basically a shoe in for that 102 million."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Well obviously there's the herp, if you have bleeding gums you could get AIDS potentially (it's happened, like once in history), but I wouldn't worry as much about the swallowing, although herpes can and will go all the way down your esophagus (my mom used to work at a gastroenterologist and had to tell like 16 year olds on a semi-weekly basis that their \"sore throat\" was herpes, the pictures, really sad). \n I have a friend who, no exaggeration, has had atleast 250 sexual partners. I never really bought into the whole \"sex addict\" thing, but I came to find out he was buying prostitutes off of craigslist, he'd hide it, for example, like, this one time, during a party he was like \"oh, I met this girl down at grumpies last night, she's gonna stop through so I can get my dick wet\", \"great!\" I said, drunk (he was a mega douche but it was kinda funny to witness, and actually amazing as a case study for society, the \"game\" he ran at the bar was so immoral,but it worked (he used to run up to me and be like \"okay, in 4 minutes come over and pull me by the arm and yell at me that we have practice in the morning and I can't be late again, I'm telling them I play for the Wild (NHL team in my state)\" and I'd refuse, so basically his main friends were a group of complete nerds, like, the fellowship of the cock ring, they were all there to do his bidding in the hopes that perhaps they'd get ass by proxy, I couldn't do it, wouldn't do it. \n Anyway, there's a knock at the door and this 40 year old white trash lady shows up (we were about 24 at the time), she is missing the top row of his teeth. He brought her into his kitchen, made her a drink and was whispering to her (I know now that he was talking to her about the story he made up, honestly, the hangers one didn't care, but I know he didn't want me to know), so she comes out and sits in the living room with us. It was beyond awkward. I feigned interest in her story, she was talking about how they met at guppies the night before and whatever. After about 15 minutes he comes in from the kitchen (he was slamming jack daniels) and asked her if she wanted the \"tour\", the next hour I just heard his bed upstairs (he lived in a 1.5 story house, his room was the attic, unfinished, hotter than fuck, no amenities, anne frank would've refused to live there), the hangers on were literally high fiving one another as they listened from the door to her making noise, I could hear the bed squeaking against the hundred year old floor boards, that's when it all hit me. The \"prosty\" as he called them, \"jokes\" (when he'd get super drunk, which happened a lot, he and I were really bad influences on one another from a drinking perspective, alone, meaning without one another in the group, people would ration our booze, but when we were together it was like a shit fest, and he'd always tell the hangers on \"let's get some prosty's! and they'd give a look like, Derp is here... our secret, cause we're best friends! (these kids were fucking creepy, when I initially started hanging out over there this on 32 year old dude noticed that his friend was laughing a bunch at my jokes and he was getting really, really angry at nothing. So, he starts talking about how he made 500k a year selling used servers for a company, and then yelled \"you think you're tight man?\" \"tight? I'd hope so?\", \"let's put some money on this game then, $250 bucks!\" (it was the red wings vs. the penguins), so I agreed. In the next 10 minutes the red wings scored 3 goals. I was just ribbing him and giving him shit, like guys do when they fucking watch sports, and he freaked out, ran over and got in my face and was like \"I'M SICK OF YOU, I'M SICK OF YOU BEING HERE, I'M SICK OF YOU BOGARDING MY SPOT ON THE COUCH, YOU RUNNING YOUR GOD DAMN MOUTH, YOU'RE NOT FUNNY ASSHOLE\" and I slowly stood up and said \"whoa dude, you need to calm down, I'm just giving you shit, I thought that's what you guys did (since that's what their master did to them) and I was like, no need to threaten violence man, that's not why I'm here\" and he said \"haha, see derp, he's a coward, all mouth\" so I took my glasses off and said \"I'm no coward, I just don't fight 30 somethings who make half a million a year but still drive a 95 volkswagon Jetta and live in a studio apartment in St. Paul, I know you're threatened by my presence, but don't worry chunk, I have no interest in replacing you as the go to errand boy, you're a joke, look at you, no one here likes you, no one respects you, you're the designated driver, the guy who listens to his friend beat off so you can put it in the spank bank for later, you're a fucking joke\" He started crying, left, came back and threw $500 dollars at me and said \"MONEY AINT A THANG\"... no joke, so I took the money, fuck it I figured. Then I felt bad, and told the main kid to give it back to him (found out later he used it to \"make it rain\" at the club and buy drinks for strippers, while telling the other kid I spent it, fucker). \n Either way. My main point was, before these tangents, that he fucked all these girls sans condom, and would literally pour gas on his dick afterwards (he kept jars of it in every room, to run to the bathroom and pour the gas on his dick and balls, he somehow thought it would cure what ailed him). So one day, as a friend, I was like, dude, I know what's up, I don't judge people, but as a friend, I think you need to get tested, in the past week we've gone to the bar 3 times, you had sex with that 280 lb black chick in the corner of the bar downtown (he lifted her skirt, she was atleast 3 times as thick as him, and I saw him kinda grinding, but they were in the shadows, he came over and his dick was out, he was wasted, laughing \"dude I just pulled her aside and lifted her skirt and nutted in her, let's get out of here\". He didn't remember that the next day, I had to tell him, needless to say, he wasn't happy. The prostitute was the same week (the last straw), and in between that we had met some chicks with fake ID's, they were like 18 tops, I think still in high school, I was DDing that night, and we went to this lake house like an hour away, and he spent the entire time upstairs with this girl trying to fuck her. Now, I had to work the next morning and it was atleast 2 hours of driving before I could get home, so I kept going upstairs and telling him to hurry up, he kept saying \"dude, come on, I'm SO CLOSE\", so I sat downstairs, in the dark, with 2 of his friends, who had staked claims on the girls friends and tried to convince them to skinny dip (chunk was there, as was this kid that looked like the blue bird from that show on nickelodeon that went \"do you ever wonder, what would happen under, under the banana tree\"), I couldn't believe these hot, young girls were going to skinny dip with a 32 year old fat ass and someone who 1,000 years ago would've been 500 feet into a mountain screaming \"GOLD!\", so, as they ran off the dock (it was fucking March, it was freezing) the girls stopped took the guys clothes and ran back to the house, they had nothing, no towels, nothing, so they had to come back with shrinky dinks while the girls took pictures and laughed. I enjoyed it. Anyway, this part is sad as fuck, so the dude finally comes down at like 4 (I had to get up at 6 for work... buh), so he goes into a graphic story about how the girl was a virgin and it took so long because of how big he is blah blah blah, I was like \"dude, these other fucks may be interested, but these stories ceased being interesting to me in high school, and before you ask, NO I WILL NOT BRING YOU TO MCDONALDS BECAUSE i KNOW YOU DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY AND I DON'T BUY FOOD FOR PEOPLE WHO JUST FUCKED UP MY DAY AT WORK TOMORROW BECAUSE HE COULDN'T TAKE A FUCKING RAIN CHECK ON SOME ASS\", and he was like \"you don't understand man, a virgin? That's guilt free pussy! All the time with these chicks I have to worry sick about my dick, but with her, I'm her first, and it was good\", I felt so sick and sad, I remember the girl calling and texting him over and over like 2 weeks later, saying they needed to talk, and he was like \"bitch is on m nuts man, so annoying\", I just knew, that poor girl probably had something and he didn't even care enough to talk to her because, he was afraid. He never got tested, because he said, he didn't want to know. So he kept doing that, fucking virgins, random bar skanks, prostitutes, all unprotected. \n The last time I talked to him he called me and asked if I could come look at his junk, he said he had some \"skin tags\" on his dick, and I said, those are probably warts man, you don't really get skin tags on your junk. He called me later and said \"don't worry about it, my brother just got some too, we're thinking it's the water in the shower, it must be that hard water\".. (his brother had moved in like a month before and they literally would run trains on prostitutes, from what I heard, so, of course they both had it, but to them, they used one another to alleviate concern all the while sometimes he would find normal, beautiful girls, who would listen to his elaborate bullshit (see the Minnesota wild thing) and he would lie so he didn't have to wear a condom.", "id": "c4hn4o4", "summary": "I know one of the worst people alive."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Well, I guess since The amazing spider-man hasn't come out yet, technically he hasn't become spider-man yet? Otherwise, seriously, the fact that new york got more destroyed in this movie than any other I can think of (that didn't just completely destroy it, day after tomorrow style) and spider-man decided not to show up, is a travesty. \n I know you're technically competitors, but for fuck's sake, it only would make both sides more money to include the characters. I get the X-men, no movie could contain them and the Avengers. But spider-man is one dude, and he interacts with most of the avengers all the time. Not to take anything away from the avengers movie, shit is a classic, but I was a little disappointed that rumored cameo didn't actually happen (I know it was dispelled months prior, but I held out hope that they were trying to throw us off the trail, same way I hold out hope that based on my explanation above maybe he'll show up in the avengers 2? Doubt it though... but seriously, how bad ass would that be. Toss in wolverine too (to get the bad taste of x-men origins wolverine out of our mouths) and I literally would just shoot myself in the roof of my mouth after the credits rolled... it'd be all downhill from there...", "id": "c4uzcip", "summary": "I want to shoot myself."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Why they got rid of this I'll never know. I mean, I guess I know, because they started getting popular and didn't want to lose the money they got from their 10th sammich. It's strange, I remember Happy Gilmore coming out and Subway being a really, I wouldn't say \"small\" company, but nowhere near where it is today. I'd say it was more in the Cousin's sub sort of level (at least up here in Murderapolis). \n I used to get the cold cut combo kids meal, I remember hating eating it, the one by my house had the paperwork with all the subway maps on it and I remember... holy shit... I just realized why I hate watching people make my food (in public, if it's my mom or a girlfriend, it's cool, because I usually am standing behind them with my fist clenched, shit faced)... So we were at subway and this dude that worked there (keep in mind this was pre-jared, and pre > Mcdonald's (locations wise)) was like 1 level above a bum, he was a white dude, and his hair looked like one of those crappy string mops, he was just filthy. \n So, I look at his hands as he's putting my cheese on my six incher and he has bandaids on 3 of his fingers and scabs on the other 7 (including the back of his hand, etc.). He wasn't wearing gloves, and I seem to remember seeing some open scabbery. I remember calling my mom when I got home (I was with my best friend, whose mom was a giant pot head and really didn't care for the whole parenting thing (I would stay over there for days at a time and neither him or his 2 sisters ever ate meals, they'd just scavenge, I hate pistachios now because that's all they ever had, just pounds of them shits, we'd forage on them... They always bragged about how much money they had, and how poor I was compared to them, but their house was small, filthy, and hot as fuck (I used to lay on the floor, no pillow or blanket, in my boxers, there was this old bird cage on the floor that I'd press against my naked torso to cool down... Posh!))))... So my point was I called my mom after eating the sandwich and asked her if i could get aids from eating a sandwich, she laughed at me for like 5 minutes, but I meant it damn it. [I seem to remember Philadelphia starting that way]( \n Point being. Bring back this, the noid and that big foot pizza from little caesar's (it was like 4 feet by 2 feet, it was awesome...", "id": "c5ul8zx", "summary": "Those aren't black olives."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "A point that rejects reality and does nothing to address an actual issue (that has been turned into a wedge issue to polarize people but is something that should be discussed, as it is, in every country). If he wants to focus on colonialism, that's fine, but it has nothing to do with our borders and immigration policy. \n While the people he is talking to aren't accomplishing anything either (xenophobes spouting misinformation they've read online or heard on Hannity), I'm just not a fan of the type of argument that contributes nothing to the actual solution. I mean, what does he expect? That people will say \"you're right, you didn't invite us here, and by you I mean your ancestors, so let's go!\" or \"You're right, we came uninvited and performed genocide, let's just keep our borders open and let the same thing happen because of that logic!\". There's really no point, other than to try to say that these people aren't \"Americans\" by his definition and should stop complaining. But America is a country, it was taken, by force (which is the status quo for most any country). It was a shitty thing to do, but there you have it, it happened, so we shouldn't address immigration? It's like the 2 most extreme ends of the spectrum are arguing, it's a sad microcosm of politics in this country. \n Why can't we just be realistic and say, \"hey, a lot of illegal immigrants are necessary for our economy to function, so let's figure out what numbers are necessary, give them a work visa so they don't have to hide, so they can get drivers licenses, pay taxes (under their name), receive benefits from those taxes, etc.\" as opposed to shouting \"THERE WEREN'T WHITE PEOPLE HERE BEFORE!\" while a dinosaur waits for his moment to tell off the Native American....", "id": "c89rycc", "summary": "What he is saying may be true, but it really contributes nothing to the solution and is asinine. While the people he is yelling at are doing the same thing, from the other side, he isn't showing them the error of their ways, he's just showing why this country gets nothing done. There is no point to what he is doing. None. This is how the world as we know it was formed, there is nothing unique about the plight of Native Americans, and the reality is that the United States exists and we simply need to figure out how to regulate the amount of immigrants that come from Mexico. Not dig up atrocities that were the norm for millenia and accomplish jack shit."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "My school was against prom king awards, because they thought it was a popularity contest (really?), so instead they enacted a \"sno-daze king\" award to appease those who complained about the lack of prom king (so they basically did nothing, by proxy, which is why I hated them, but that was all before my time but I became a part of it anyway)... \n So my freshman year I got nominated, I came from a middle school in my city no one else went to (different neighborhood, my neighborhood is super townie-ish, even for a big city, I got endless amounts of shit for going to the other school from the parents of kids I grew up with \"you think you're too smart for derpington? HUH! ANSWER ME! (actual encounter)\", or \"WHY DON'T YOU GO TO DERP AND DO THAT BULLSHIT!\" (typical encounter anytime I did anything slightly irritating, which was all the time). To clarify, they were both public schools, in the same system, I didn't get some scholarship, it's just that my high school was considered the best academic school, which didn't irk them, but it was also a hockey powerhouse, which did (if fuckers like you didn't leave to go there we would have a good team too (said obese alcoholic fathers who never played hockey and cared way too much about youth sports)... \n Point being, I thought I had no chance of winning. There was a school nearby where all the \"cool kids\" had come from, the main one, who was a cool guy, was nominated also. We ended up becoming really good friends, but didn't know one another that well at that point. Anyway, I proposed to him, that since he was going to win, I should run out at the crowning (pepfest, in front of 2,500 kids) and tackle him, steal the crown and run off in a panic. He loved it, agreed (this was at the rehearsal). \n The time came for the crowning, we all stood there, I waited, trying to keep a straight face. They did the awards by age, so we went first. They announced all of our names, people applauded wildly for him, I got a faint, \"wuh?\" and a tumbleweed had to be shot by the liason cops, but that was about it. Then they announced the winner and... I fucking won. I walked out, confused, there were some cheers, I still don't get how I won, but I think it was more of a \"fuck those kids, they aren't going to take over this school too!\" sort of thing, and I wasn't the black kid, so I won by default. \n I put on the crown, walked out (coincidentally with a black girl, which now makes my assessment sound like more of a projection of my racism, not the schools, fuck) and I heard a scream, turned around, and there came the other kid, role reversed, he tackled me, grabbed the crown and ran, the crowd went WILD, I pretended I was really, really hurt, the liason cops chased him and tackled the shit out of him, handcuffed him and dragged him off. They put me in a neckbrace and seriously, god, a teacher came over as I was being lifted on the stretcher and put the crown on my head, I gave that phony thumbs up football players give and people were clapping like I was some hero. It was all hilarious (the other popular kids were chanting \"free derp\", which after awhile pissed me off because of course he took complete credit for the idea and didn't say it was my idea, but I didn't care at the time, I just moved to a new school after growing up with the same group of kids and like now, it's hard to figure out how to break into a group like that, I did it, and was happy enough)... \n Either way. That was how I became \"one of the group\", I eventually got more and more popular, until I reached a level of self awareness and egotism that has never been seen (my sister teaches at the same school now, she thinks I'm a terrible person now, 10 years later, because of the stories she hears in the teachers lounge, it's like when marge called for a baby sitter and the girl answers the phone \"I'm here sister, I look after her now\" \"NO BART!\"... I now know I was a giant dick, at the time, I was just young and unable to handle having girls like me and that kind of shit, plus, I was raised to be kind of, anti-authoritative, which didn't help). \n So, anyway, I was nominated and won, every year after, simply because people wanted to see me get physically injured (as I implied earlier, our school was hyper segregated, it was in a bad neighborhood but had great magnet programs, so a lot of people never realized it was a joke, and simply knew me from bullshit I'd pull in the lunch room or hallways from afar, and would say, that guy? I don't like that guy, maybe he'll die this time! \n So every year we'd have to think of a new prank, and ever year it escalated, until they cancelled it my senior year when I was nominated again. Also, some kids arm got broken in the melee after my junior year prank so I guess it made sense (he ran out on the basketball court, to grab our sign, and people like crowd surfed him off of a 10 foot rising and he flew straight down to the hardwood, I saw bone, through his skin, I thought about putting my crown on him while he was in his real stretcher, but he was literally screaming so loud it was just scary... \n Full circle.", "id": "c4ldvhc", "summary": "I invented electricity!"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Dude I worked for a very similar company back in the late 90's early 2000s. Or should I say companies. We called ourselves 'midwest readers' and claimed to be on behalf of someone (I can't remember) but it seemed to me like a giant scam. First of all, we worked in strip malls (location changed every couple months) and all we had were fold out tables, phones and leads printed out on paper. No computers. We would just call people off of the lead list, and read the script, if they agreed they were supposed to get 4 magazines a month for a year, but somehow after they agreed we'd always throw in this \"But you don't want to pay monthly so we'll charge your account 45 dollars a month for the first year and then'll you'll get your magazines for 3 years!\", people usually were fine with that, we offered a set of guy magazines and girl magazines, if they wanted to change magazines we'd tell them to fill out something when they get their first issues. I was like 15 -17 at the time, we'd always transfer the call to a 'closer' who was usually complete white trash and about 20, they'd usually blow the sale for me (I would get about 10 people in 4 hours to agree to buy, but somehow only get 2 commissions, also, as you can imagine, if a 15 year old  bastard is convincing you to give your credit card number over the phone you're probably going to be at your limit, so that factored in, unless we did a check by phone, which garnered less commission). They would claim that we would put the CC # in a computer, I'll never forget the language \"once we enter it, it becomes stars and we never see it again!' but in reality it was hastily scribbled on scratch paper, or failing that, the wall, or the table and we would try to run it through a half broken credit card machine. I would hear at least once a day from someone I talked to that they signed up, got billed and never received their magazines. I didn't know what to say so I'd just hang up. Our boss was in the work house and would leave as soon as he got to the \"office\" to bone one of the girls that worked there, classy. \n I ended up working for a second company, that was even more sleazy. I remember my last night our owner dropped  acouple k on new leads (I had heard they were 25 cents a piece), most went to dead numbers, or literally dead people (always my favorite call, my husband has been dead for 10 years damnit!\"), he was bright red, shaking, sweating, he looked like someone who needed to come up with 10 grand or the mob was going to kill his wife. He went in the bathroom to call the dude he bought the leads from and was threatening to kill him, collected all the papers and told us to go home. Went back the next day and everything was gone. After that I transferred into more legitimate telemarketing (Security machines, corporate customer service surveys's etc.) through college, but I always wanted to know if I was doing something illegal (in my defense at 15 you're ignorant to a lot of shit, and when someone is paying you 10 bucks an hour plus 4 bucks a 'pop' to sit and fuck around on the phone when you're used to minimum wage back breaking labor, you'll do most anything, that money paid for my cadillac and addiction to taco bell pizza hut express bread sticks). It's always fun when you graduate college and they want to call for references from your past 'sales' jobs and they've all gone out of business becaus ethe owners had to leave the country.", "id": "c1yxgof", "summary": "I sold magazines for crazy sleazy companies also back in the day. It was the fraud equivalent of how every white trash braggart is an 'entrepreneur' because they do landscaping in their neighborhood, or failing that, driveway paving. I have a cousin who is like that, my aunt asked him to help her landscape and he said, and I quote, \"I've learned from my education that you never do business with family\", even though he never went to any school and hasn't done any business with family and just started his 'company' a month before. At christmas he gave all the aunts and uncles (all 4!) $5 target gift cards, and I'm not kidding the same aunt said \"Wow derp, business must be booming!\", she wasn't being sarcastic. Don't mind that it was winter, in Minnesota, or that he spent $20 collectively, but he was so fucking proud. His gift to me was a picture of him and his girlfriend shoveling dirt. My mom wonders why I hate christmas, and used to get black out drunk at the family get together."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I went to a foo fighters concert in Minneapolis 2 years ago, blacked out in the crowd, woke up next to a girl I had never seen before. Apparently we had sex for HOURS, which was evident by the goo angel on my bed. I looked around the room, saw easily 10 condoms strewn everywhere (I have a habit of putting them on and ripping them off crazily while wasted, it's charming), my live in girlfriend of 4 years was staying at her parents house because it was a work night and I was a terrible drunk. So, I kicked the girl out, cleaned the room as quickly as I could, and went to work (I would've called in but our director from the home office was there for that day only and giving out reviews etc.), I also poured a shit load of water on the bed and tried to remove the white outline of random girls ass from the bed, turned the fan towards it and went to work. \n I was planning on going back during lunch and checking on everything, but the director said the dreaded \"TEAM LUNCH\" thing, so from there, my fate was sealed. I rushed home, and when 2 blocks away from our apartment I got the text. \"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO OUR BED!\"... you know that feeling where you know you're just in deep shit, like when your parents catch you boiling gasoline after watching the timothy mcveigh story on A&E? It was like that, that and diarrhea. I did what only an idiot like me (who wouldn't just take the fucking sheets off the bed and make something up??? HOnestly) and said \"wut?\", I played it off like I pissed the bed or something (thank god the white was gone, but the wetness, the stentch, and the fact that our under sheet pad was crammed up against the wall from incessant stink bumping still remained), I got up to our apt, my ex was crying, and furious. She had our sex drawer out, in the living room, of the 30 condoms we just bought, 2 of which we used, 13 more were missing. So, I did classic douche move number 2, I got mad at HER. \"HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF SUCH MALFEASANCE!\" I said, because obviously I was too classy for such behavior. After arguing for like 4 hours, she left. It was terrible timing because I was leaving the next day for Detroit (my dad and I go to a red wings game each year), so, when I got back, another condom was missing and there was another stain on the new sheets. I don't think my ex was devious enough to plan something to fuck with me, I think she just fucked some random dude. It was the beginning of the end for us, and I have no one to blame but DAVE GROHL.", "id": "c2g8e0x", "summary": "if you have sex with a leaky toilet, change the seats before your live in girlfriend comes home from work. Also, something I forgot, that skank left her panties, bra and necklace in my apartment, all in different places, just so I'd get in trouble. Who does that?"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I had this happen to me a lot at my last job, I'd get really, really depressed every morning when it dawned on me that I had to sit in my chair for the next 10 hours and call people that didn't want to talk to me to sell something that most likely wouldn't benefit them (to the point of them being angry), oh and following up with said people who had bought things from me who were PISSED. \n So, I would wait for our morning meeting to end and I'd go in the bathroom for like... 20 minutes, 30 sometimes, no one said anything, everyone was as depressed as me, or more so (It was me and 3-4-5 girls, depending on how business was, and I'm not being sexist but they cried ALL THE TIME, every day I'd have to put my \"office funny guy\" hat on and cheer up someone, including my manager, who was pregnant as shit when I got fired and would pull me into the private office and cry and talk about quitting (daily, turns out she may have just been setting me up, as most of what I said to make her feel better was ammo for my firing from corporate, pregnant bitch, she'd be all sad and emotional like \"I'm quitting after I have this kid derp, I can't take this anymore, I'm losing my mind, I'm afraid I'm going to miscarry from the stress!\" and I'd be like \"I know, it sucks, but this isn't the first time it's gotten bad here, we can just ride it out together like old times, just keep your head down and if you need to talk to corporate just have me do it (I was assistant manager and she always stuck me on the conference calls when we had a bad month, and since the economy blew I was doing all the calls as of late)\", I'd add in my frustration to show that she wasn't the only one getting shit from corporate, and all that came up during my unemployment appeal case... Nice. \n Anysnarf, more than a few times the lights would go out so someone would come in and turn the lights on manually (it was a motion detector one but you could push it to turn the lights back on), they'd start talking to themselves, so I'd cough to let them know that I was in the stall and they'd usually immediately zip up, probably with a piece of poop halfway out like a wide shouldered infant, and leave. I couldn't figure out if they were embarrassed or if they thought I was going to kill them. Probably both. \n I do want to mention that there was one guy I would've killed. He used to sit in the stall next to me, even if the one 2 spots down was open. He'd sit on his phone and talk business and shit, loudly. The worst part was that he was one of those dude that constantly needs to like clear his throat by hacking up throat goo, he'd then spit it in the toilet, as he was sitting on the toilet. Now, I'm no dirk diggler, but I would look down and honestly I could not figure out how he could spit and not get phlegm all over his dick or balls. It wasn't like once or twice, it was over and over, and he'd hold it in his mouth for like 10 seconds, and then ugh, just the sound of it somehow hitting poop water, splashing enough for me to know that that shit was splashing phlegm and poop/pee water on his manscaped ass. The more he did it, the more enraged I'd actually become (I'm the type that holds my shit in until someone else is done and leaves, and to answer your question, yes, I have gotten into a stalemate before, it was... interesting), so I'd be sitting there holding in jalapeno and booze shits listening to a dude talk about ROI and P&L while hacking up marb red remnants and proving his dick was as small as you assume the guy in the gucci shirt on casual friday and the blue tooth earpiece is.", "id": "c4qiqm4", "summary": "Without details basically I had this happen to me before also!"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Speed balls (heroin and coke) are basically heart killers. John Belushi, Chris Farley, and countless other famous people (river Phoenix) because of that very fact. \n I've tried it. It's hard to go back to one or the other when you're used to the feeling. I am honestly thankful to be alive. I had a $400/day heroin/opiate and cocaine habit while also drinking over a liter of vodka a day for a year and a half. Sometimes I feel like maybe I died and this is some version of purgatory. But, honestly, I have no idea how I made it. \n I remember a few times where I was lucid enough to be afraid to fall asleep because I was convinced I wouldn't wake up. My body was numb and my chest felt hollow, I could feel my heart beat thumping @ a mile a minute. Bad times. I got out probably just in time. A few friends (drug friends aka users and thieves) got pinched and went to prison, granted they were on parole and had no sense of fear. I remember one of them coming over at 3 am laughing that his PO showed up with a canine unit officer who checked his whole apartment and missed an ounce of heroin under his kitchen sink (he kept an open bottle of ammonia by it), it did hit on a pen he used to smoke heroin with (chasing the dragon style) but they didn't do anything but confiscate $4k in cash because they apparently put money out Via drug buys and follow the identification codes on the bills, and of all the $20's he had one lined up with a suburbs nearby's drug buy program. He never got his money back. I told him that they knew he was up to something (he sold more than he used and had people stopping at his apartment complex constantly), I stopped talking to all those dudes and found out a few months later him and his partner got pulled over and got 5 years. \n Another girl I knew OD'd, she was the gf (only because she got free shit) if one of my best friends, he lost it when she died, and he overdosed not long after. The last time I saw him he was missing his four top teeth and had lost about 75 lbs from his normal weight of 230. He yelled at me about 60 cents he thought I owed him for a can of pop. I offered to buy him a pop (I only had my debit card) and he snapped. Sad last memory for a guy I used to stay up all night playing sets genesis with.", "id": "ceipit6", "summary": "Drugs is bad. Mkay."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "in sixth grade I had a kid who used to fuck with me to no end in drama class. He used to call me a punk bitch etc all the time, I had never been in a fight, and wasnt used to getting shit like that so I would get so mad I would get dizzy but class would end and I'd go on with my life. After about a week he came up to me after class when I was already pissed, and was tried to start talking shit again and tried to slap me, so I grabbed him by his shirt and threw him through this weird art display these kids made, it was great, shit went flying everywhere, and I said, I told you not to fuck with me, and started to walk away, he ran up and punched me in the chest, and so I pushed him up against this weird green house type thing outside a class room that was growing plants and put my fist back like I was gonna punch him and then a teacher grabbed me. \n I guess the kindergardners saw us, so my schools solution was... get this, him and I had to put together a play about fighting and do it in front of the kindergardners class. I have the best mom ever so she went in to school and basically created all sorts of hell and threatened to take me out of the school if I had to do something that stupid, especially since I was basically being harrassed by the dude for a long time. The lady who suggested it at first didnt know what to do (i think maybe she wanted her and my mom to do a skit about agreeing?) but long story short I didnt have to do shit, and all of those kindergardners are now murderers. \n But for the most part growing up I was friends with a lot of black dudes, I seemed to have more problems with the black girls. This one girl Tanisha used to try to spit on me all the time, she had chemical burns on her scalp from a failed conch (sp?) attempt and couldnt grow hair so I finally called her on that, she cried and threatened to have her brother kill me, I remember her running up to him when we were in line for our rectangle pizza lunches and he basically told her to fuck off, it was mask of the fantasm.", "id": "c1masm5", "summary": "I'm a white guy from the inner city!!! My neighborhood was called Murderapolis by the new york times growing up  AMA!!!!! :/"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I don't think your everyday run of the mill conservative wants to hurt the middle class, I think that they are trying to help the middle class and don't understand how their ideology is devastating to the middle class. THat having been said I think the conservatives that run their political party, don't care about the middle class adn basicaly has a fuck you, I got mine, you get yours attitude and basically want to pander to the top 1 percent and don't really care what happens to the rest of the country. Some of that one percent, that help guide policy, do want to hurt the middle class, for selfish reasons, even if those reasons also end up hurting them in the long run...", "id": "c1t9c5u", "summary": "conservatism works for no one in the long run so it's a terrible ideology from the word go. The poor get poorer, the middle class become the poor, and the rich initially get richer, but without a strong middle class to help the economy actually grow the economy stagnates and no one is better off than if our consumer economy was running with a strong middle class that will only exist through good high paying jobs for those who are willing to work and train for them."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I live in Minnesota, we've been debating castle laws and changing our self defense law (all police departments have come out against this, but republicans are for it), basically, they extend household rights outside of the home, and also change the household law to remove the need to retreat (I think it's worded as last retreat, where as you can no longer retreat any further, they call it \"holding your ground\", and it changes the wording about the threat of death or great bodily injury to basically a general threat and also to stop the commencement of a felony). \n Now, I am a bigger dude. 6'3, 190 lbs. Broad shoulders, angry face (I'm a white guy, but I have super angry eyebrows, think jack nicholson in the shining, when I was a bus boy I basically got fired because of my eyebrows, my manager like 10 times a night would pull me aside and say \"you need to smile, and would put her fingers in the corners of my mouth and twist them, which disgusted me, so I punched her, wait, no I didn't, I just would tell her, seriously, I'm a bus boy, I'm invisible to people A, B, if I'm making minimum wage and constantly smiling about it, people who do notice me will begin to think I'm insane and really not like the fact that I'm grabbing their steak knives\"). \n So anyway, I tend to get in a decent amount of altercations in my day to day. It's a combination of my face (I have one of those, punch me! faces) and also because I was raised to, for lack of a better term, not take any shit. So, if someone says something rude, I respond. If I notice someone being rude to someone else who really can't defend themselves, I intervene. Perfect example, last night, I was at the gas station, there were 2 cashiers, one is a man in his late 70s, 2 hearing aids. He had his ears cupped to hear this mom and her son, and he kept asking the kid, \"what is in the bag?\" as in, what did you grab from the donut area? and the kid, as opposed to saying \"DONUT\" kept saying \"one twenty nine\", which was the price, FOR 2 DONUTS, but he had 1, and it was just confusing, even for me, and I go there daily. After that, it was basically fine. But I could tell the mom was pissed that it took 1 minute to ring up the donut (they had other shit, a decent amount actually), so, the old guy goes, \"would you like a bag ma'am?\" and she goes: \"Um, are you retarded or just deaf? Like I would INCONVENIENCE YOU WITH THE IMPOSSIBLE TASK OF BAGGING UP SO MANY ITEMS\" and just started grabbing all her shit and shoving it in her purse like \"johnny let's go\", and I went \"holy shit lady, what board meeting are you late for?\" and she goes... \"excuse me?\", I said \"you're insulting an elderly man who clearly can't hear like your time is so important? last time I checked MOTHERS who are still rocking pajama pants at 6 p.m. really aren't missing out on anything, so next time, show some empathy, white trash\", and she said \"oh yeah, well YOU...\" and I said \"now you're wasting MY TIME, google Irony, you're drowning in it\"... then I hopped in my chevy tracker and drove away. And then realized that I didn't get the gas I prepaid for because I was full of adrenaline and was too embarrassed to go back. \n The reason I bring this up is. Due to my size, I am basically a threat to anyone. Could she shoot me? Because I raised my voice and she had a dick head kid with her? Honestly, probably. As the law is worded. And that sucks. Because, I like to get in arguments, I'm like batman, but I just point out obvious flaws as opposed to risking my life and ignoring how my lifelong friend and love got a new face somehow after I stopped ra's a ghul and we had a heart to heart at my well. \n I would love to see the numbers of how many people have actually defended their homes from intruders with weapons nationally and by state, if that data exists. I will check. But from what the police have said, and the dems, there really is no fucking reason for this. We already have existing laws that allow you to shoot someone in your house, we also have conceal and carry. We don't need to liberalize the ability for people to take the law in their own hands, and that's what happened here. You can break it down on prejudice, etc. but it's basically a d bag who thought it was time someone did something about crime, and for the most part, so far, has gotten away with it. The fact that he wasn't arrested immediately as a precaution is beyond me. I mean, police are put on leave anytime they discharge their firearm, but some civilian can shoot a teenager to death and they let him go about his business? Insane. \n (by popular demand)", "id": "c42lmx6", "summary": "I am a bigger guy, 6'3 190, and I tend to get in arguments a lot, in public, because people are dicks and I don't like assholes and feel like someone needs to say something, and that someone can be me, since I'm halfway decent at it and I can take a punch. That having been said, just by the nature of my physical stature, regardless of circumstance (I never start an argument, I either respond to someone saying something to me, or like I said above, I stick up for people who I feel bad for), but once an \"altercation\" starts, verbally, would my size be enough for someone to feel threatened and kill me?"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "When it comes to the term american exceptionalism? Yes. I thought we were referring to the actual term, not a combination of words and what each individual can assume it means based on their own interpretation. It's like talking about the cold war and including the germans in leningrad because it was cold. Don't get me wrong, I agree with what you're saying, I'm just saying that you're not referring to american exceptionalism as it is defined. But again, I like what you is saying on there and junk.", "id": "c1td4c5", "summary": "the political scientist in me made me have to clarify that, but don't confuse that with me not agreeing with what you dudes is saying. It's just like if you say the bush doctrine was anything other than treating host countries the same as terrorists themselves if they harbor them. Semantics, thats all. Don't downvote me, please, I really have no other reason to live."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Disclaimer: Long read, I need to provide context to hopefully get real help. I know people get irritated by the length, but this is about as succinct as I can make it without sacrificing the possibility for actual advice. \n My mom runs a daycare, which mostly consists of her watching my sisters 2 daughters (3 next week and 1). The oldest has always had a temper, which isn't something that is rare in our family, but my sister and her husband definitely are passive aggressive as all get out. \n A perfect example of what we deal with is as follows. I will be sitting watching Dora with her and commercials will come on, like most young kids she will say \"I want that!\" basically for any toy. The difference? Her \"I want that\" turns into her repeating it, over and over and over, each time with more anger and volume, regardless of me saying \"I know you want that babe!\" or my mom saying \"your birthday's coming up we'll put it on your list!\" she'll just keep saying \"I WANT THAT!\" until she gets to a hulk like level of rage where she is shrieking \"I WANT THAT\", then come the tears and the all out tantrum where she will throw anything she has (food, plates, toys etc.), my mom used to pick her up but she would get hit in the face and kicked so she stopped. \n My mom now will sternly say \"HEY, STOP IT, RIGHT NOW\" and put her in a time out, which just makes her more angry. My mom and I agree that she should be spanked (I was spanked as a child, a lot, and I know that grounding and time outs have nothing compared to the fear of getting spanked, it kept me in check, and I know there is a lot of controversy about the subject but I honestly believe that children need that fear (of god), for example, my mom had this look she used to give me like, if you don't stop you're going to get the wooden spoon when we get home, I'd stop dead in my tracks). \n So my question and concerns are as follows. Can something like this just manifest on it's own? Or is there something causing such anger? My sister has been really unhappy in her marriage (It's the typical story of a couple of \"nerds\" marrying the first person they seriously dated, right out of HS and now that they're 29 and 33 they're different people and they really just generally dislike one another, my sister is constantly, and I mean constantly, riding my brother in law, which as bad as it sounds, is necessary. He talks really, really loud to the point that eventually he'll start yelling at the dinner table, and he is socially... just worthless, he doesn't realize that he is boring everyone and commands and demands attention in every situation, he will talk for 30 minutes to a room full of people and physically start tapping you or pulling your arm or leg if he realizes you've stopped paying attention (I strongly believe he has aspergers, or full blown autism)). \n So, they bicker, like crazy. Most interactions with them for me goes as follows: Bro-in-law, \"hey guys! did I tell you how Derpy (my older niece) did a kart wheel the other day? let me show you!\" (interrupts 3 conversations going on at the table, spends 10 minutes trying to force his daughter to do something she doesn't want to do, and can't do again, to the point that it becomes awkward)... My sister: Derp, sit down, you're bothering everyone...  Him: STOP SMOTHERING ME I'M SHOWING DERP (ME) WHAT MY DAUGHTER CAN DO, YOU CONTROL FREAK, DAMNIT! RIGHT DERP (ME AGAIN)? YOU WANT TO SEE THIS? RIGHT?... Me: I just want to finish my mashed potatoes man. \n I assume, if that's what they show people in public, when no one's around it must be much much worse. But beyond that, even as a baby, she used to have crazy tantrums. ALSO, her sister, who just turned 1, is a bundle of pure joy and awesomeness. She doesn't have a mean or mad bone in her body. She represents all that is good in the world to me, so somehow she's just either blocked out the BS or the genetic make up that has made my older niece into a constant ticking time bomb skipped her. I mean, everything is the same, \"I want apple juice\", me: \"Okay! I'll get it!\", \"I want apple juice, I WANT APPLE JUICE, I WANT IT, I WANT APPLE JUICE  crying  I WANT APPLE JUICE!  screaming  APPLE JUICE!\". \n Now, I'm more stern with her. I'll tell her straight up. \"I told you I was going to get it. And I told you if you talked to me like that I wouldn't help you. So now you get nothing, and you made me sad so I'm not going to play ponies with you anymore, play by yourself, because when you're mean to people they don't want toplay with you (and I'll go away for the rest of the day, shit really actually pisses me off, she's smart, smart enough to know better, and I don't appreciate that shit). \n Note: My nieces and all the kids at the daycare love me. I'm their favorite, by far. So when she is mean I will be like, \"you know I love you, why are you so mean to me? You make me sad\", and after she calms down she usually feels bad. I don't know if I can use this as leverage? I try to play the bad cop to my mom's good cop (she's not always the good cop but considering she watches the kids for 12 hours a day for like $2/hour she really just tries to get through the day, so I tell my niece stuff like \"you know grandma loves you and is trying her best, don't be mean to her, that isn't fair (for example, when my mom can't find the tutu my niece wants she goes into a rage, so my mom panics and tears the room apart looking for a specific fucking dress and my niece gets more and more mad, so I'll just take her and put her in a crib and close the door and say \"you know she was trying as hard as she could to find that for you, and you still were mean, so have fun being alone, you can come out when you apologize and calm down\" (where as my mom will keep looking until she finds it and try to get her to calm down that way. Not to indict my mom, she has 5 more kids to deal with and I can just come and go as I please, so it's easy for me to ride in and act self righteous when I don't have to deal with the repercussions, you know?).", "id": "t3_tuqan", "summary": "Need help diagnosing why my niece is so angry, also want some tips on how to handle it."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "So, I found the Ruby Paragon on that frost giant and thought it was just some fancy jewel. I finally googled what it was for and am pissed... I want me some Auriel's Shield, but I have a feeling I can't get back into where i needs to go now that the castle is rubble... \n Let me know... hoping for good news. I get really weird about games and knowing I can't get that shield will drive me fucking crazy and probably make me go all the way back to the save before fighting there, which was atleast 25 hours of gameplay ago, which would make me have to do a ton of stuff over again, which would make me not want to play for months, which would give me a lot of free time, which would lead to me doing drugs, which would lead to me stabbing a drug dealer for shorting me on a bag, which would lead to me getting life in prison, which would lead to me joining a white power gang for protection, which would lead to me getting hep C during a crappy tattoo session in my cell, which would lead to me getting severe liver damage, which would lead to me getting jaundice, which would lead to me turning yellow, which would lead to me leaving the white power gangs to join the Yakuza, which would lead to me starting a war between the Yakuza and the White power gangs, which would lead to me accidentally samurai shanking myself in the leg, which would lead to me spending the rest of my time in the prison infirmary, which would lead to me meeting a nurse named Sally who falls in love with me while taking care of me, which would lead to me giving her Hep C, which would lead to me having jaundice babies, which would lead to me getting an hour or two a month to spend with my son, which would lead to me getting back into Skyrim...", "id": "t3_zg2px", "summary": "I lost me marbles."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Up until January I worked for a national job board, clear channel was a larger client of mine. I had convinced my contact to post her \"on air talent\" posting on her account, I really didn't know what to expect ok regards to a response as I never had posted a position like that and we really didn't have a category to put it in. \n I logged into their account and much to my excitement there was an applicant the very first day. You may ask how I remember it was Ted Williams? Because the cover letter started professional and jovial; I was excited because he had experience. But His cover letter slowly evolved into a weird incoherent tirade on how clear channel was blind to his \"special powers\" and wouldn't take a chance on him but if they did the hr person would be rich and famous, but  because he was homeless and was banned from the library they were discriminating against him. The next week everyday someone named \"special powers\" kept applying and insulting the channel mostly in all caps with increasing anger and profanity. Which lead to her anger and eventual nonrenewal, I remember the name because I printed off the app and hung it in my cube because it made me laugh, and because I remember thinking about the frozen head of the baseball dude.", "id": "t3_eztjy", "summary": "Ted Williams is unstable and cost me a cool commission! Also, he has special powers."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I hate to be fatalistic, but in the interest of being succinct; I think that we're moving in the wrong direction from an already really bad position. \n The lack of knowledge in both societies is a big source of tension. I believe that it obviously is more so on the side of the muslim world (for example,  92 percent of youn Afghani's know nothing of 9/11 ... \n My main point is this. I feel like the west and middle east/parts of southeast asia/northern Africa are reaching a point where a rift may develop that may take centuries to repair. I shudder to think what is going to happen with this French cartoon... I don't only want to talk about the relationship, but what realistically you think we can or should do both internationally and domestically (regardless of what country you are in)... \n I have a feeling in America something bad is going to happen relatively soon as a response to the videos. If that happens, basically, we're looking at a fundamental right in this country creating an environment where people think their only course of action is murder. Devil's advocate; do you think we should stop accepting immigrants in western countries from that area of the world? What should/could we do? If we try to cut off OPEC they will simply strengthen their ties with our political/economic competition (Russia/China)... \n Looking for an open, honest discussion. Don't hold back for the sake of political correctness... I may be overreacting just because of the 24 hour news cycle and everything, but I feel like there's going to be unrest for the next couple months and also that Israel is building up their justification for an attack on Iran (Netanyahu's football analogy:  and it's basically going to be the beginning of a quasi-WWIII, west vs. Middle east/Russia and or China (behind the scenes, like the uSsr during the Korean War, for example)...", "id": "t3_106vtn", "summary": "If the unrest continues, or escalates (based on the French cartoon) and Israel attacks Iran, which seems more and more likely ( do you think we're reaching a point of no return? A creation of an embargo? An all out take over of that part of the world (Japan style? Take away their military, confine their people to camps in western societies?)... BASICALLY, AS TECHNOLOGY PROGRESSES, CONFRONTATIONS LIKE THESE ARE GOING TO BECOME MORE AND MORE FREQUENT, IF ONE PERSON IN CALIFORNIA CAN CREATE THIS KIND OF UPROAR ACROSS MULTIPLE COUNTRIES (EVEN IF IT'S A SCAPEGOAT) WHAT CAN OR SHOULD WE DO?"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that they have this insatiable need to talk about their political opinion constantly. For example, I recently got back from a trip to rural oklahoma (dont ask why), i didnt know anyone but my uncle, but honestly less than five minutes into any conversation with someone i just met they had to either start talking abotu politics, or asking what political party I aligned with. for example, they'd ask, where are you from.. me: minneapolis, them: \"aint that a blue state? thats gottta be terrible!\", or... \"I heard minnesota has a decent economy even with all the destruction obama has done, how is that possible, arent you run by demycrats?!\". My dad really doesnt like to talk to most people, and is really nonconfrontational, but he works at the post office, a federal employer, and hears nothing but government bashing all night, and i guess my mom is all depressed because he comes home and just freaks the fuck out, they talk shit to him, steal his books etc. He isnt a bitch, he just doesnt want to get fired and really has a temper so it wouldnt probably end too well, he cant articulate shit when he is pissed. \n I am hugely political, and love to argue, but promised my uncle i'd keep my trap shut so I acted a-political until the last night. We were playing scrabble and and was like, actually I'm a liberal... dead silence. They acted betrayed and treated me like shit for the next couple hours. \n I also used to work security at a condo in college and was reading Al Frankens 'lies and the lying liars that tell them\" and had multiple people comment on it. I've never come across Liberals like this. my family and their friends are all mostly liberal, and they keep their mouths shut when they notice someone is a conservative. I don't know if its just because liberals are more comfortable with their belief system? or if they just arent dicks. But the shit is  out of control...", "id": "t3_fxyok", "summary": "lots of personal examples of how conservatives go out of their way to talk politics, criticize liberals they dont know in real life etc, why?"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Long story short I'm currently unemployed, I'm a little bit behidn on my car payment (was 5 months, just paid 2 months off so am technically at 3 now). The other day I get home, and theres some scratch paper in my house door, it says Joe call me its adam. I text, who is this, dude asks me if Im who I am, I say yes who is this... He says adam from advanced auto, I need to pick up your lincoln. I said why? I said I know im kinda late on my payments but havent heard anything from my credit union. He basically just keeps saying that he needs to know where the car is, that the bank is worried that the car is missing. I can understand this as I also dropped my insurance on my car, and it needs full coverage (i havent driven the thing for over a year as itneeds all new brakes, like a whole brake job not just pads, and also needs new tires) so they are probably freaked out. \n So anyway, I have been calling them weekly leaving voicemails for the loan department asking to file for a hardship, no on ever calls me back. This was before this happened, I was telling this adam guy last friday, No offense but I have no idea who you are, the bank hasnt mailed me about this, called me etc. I havent seen any court order, nothing. Oh yeah, he also asked me in the beginning if I was Me or my Moms name, my mom is a member of the credit union, but not a cosigner and we have no business together there (shared accounts or the like), so i tell him, Im sorry you had to waste your time but I will work with the bank directly, next time a) tell the bank to fucking call me back since ive been trying to talk to someone for 3 months about this, B) tell them if they want to go to the trouble of figuring out who my mom is and give you her private info, that at the very least they could call her (shes been a member there for decades). after that everything seemed okay, i left another vm on monday and was going to call today. \n But... Last night i was at my parents watching top chef, and there is a knock at the door, it was the repo guy at my parents fucking house! He demanded (to my mom, i was upstairs) for her to hand the car over to me, she was like, i dont know what youre talking about. My son is 26, his car is his business,not mine, and why are you at my house, who gave you my address. He told her that I texted her the address and told her that she was responsible for the car, she called his bullshit and he went further inception style, \"do you want me to show you\",  she said yes, the text said what I described above (tell the fucking bank to call her if they want to, and tell them to not give out her fucking information). So she said she was goingt o call the cops for trespassing and was all mad obviously that he waslying and came to the house after dark. \n He immediately started calling me. I told him that he had no right to go to my parents, they arent cosigners, they dont have anything to do with it. I said, respectfully, again man, I have no idea who you are. I havent heard from the bank that I should give you my car. And you show up at my parents alone, in a car? how exactly were you going to get my car? I said, until I talk to the bank I wont talk to you. and said please dont contact my parents or me. After that he proceeded to call me and my mom 10 times in the next half an hour and text us both demanding to know where the car was, telling me he was going to bring the sheriff to hunt me down, and ruin my life by torpedoing my credit. I Told him to leave me the fuck alone etc. And then I texted him that I wanted his first and last name, company name, phone number and address to which he didnt respond. \n huff puff, so.. my question is..can he harrass my mom like that? again she has no stake in that car, and I really dont even know how they found out her info. And should I have received a court order from the bank? or a call? or certified letter? Any basic info about this process would be appreciated. He keeps telling me that they wont talk to me until i show him the car, to prove that the car is okay. I feel that they are afraid because of the insurance and the payments, but that I will be able to deal with them directly and he wants me to work through him so he can get his commission or whatever the fuck..", "id": "t3_g15rw", "summary": "i am currently 3 payments behind on my car (was 5) and stopped paying insurance on it and this guy is harrassing me about repo-ing it, but it seems sketchy. wont tell me full name or company info, is going to my moms house and harrassing her after night and calling her when she ahs no info or didnt cosign on the car, and overall is just a dick. \n thanks a ton in advance guys. Im not proud of this situation at all."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I had reconnected with a friend I grew up with not too long ago. He was always kind of an experimenter, tried different things but never more than once or twice (that I knew of), smoked a shit load of weed though. He kind of fell off the map when his mom got really sick (cancer) and ended up dying, this was around when we were both 16 or 17. \n I saw him briefly in college, he didn't go to school, frankly none of my friends did, but I did have a house on campus and they'd all come by to take advantage of the parties. Even then I'd \"catch\" him doing coke here or there with random people we didn't know (I saw catch because I'd drunkly walk into a room, in my own house mind you (I mean, MY ROOM) during a party with atleast 100 people (New Years, Halloween, the house was huge, old as shit, duplex, we had both levels and a basement carved out of limestone (hooray for radon!), I built a bar down there in this creepy section where steps went up to the bottom part of a full door (someone built that cut the door off halfway up, but )in the crack you could still see the rest of the door, I used to have HORRIBLE nightmares about that shit, like, other thread necessitating nightmares, I'm happy that's how I describe things now.. God, I have to go outside) anyway, when I'd walk into the room he'd be holding a straw or rolled up dollar (this happened a couple times with coke or oxy) and he'd be like \"FUCK, I DIDN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW\" and it was really, really awkward because A) I really didn't give a fuck and B) he was doing shit with random people, girls including, and it just looked like I was his conservative boyfriend or something, like \"HENRY, YOU LYING, GOOD FOR NOTHING!  pulls out rolling pin , SO THIS IS YOUR \"LATE MEETING\"?!?!?!). But, I was a giant alcoholic (literally, and a terrible, mean, break shit and get jumped drunk) so I was like, who am I to judge? Or more like \"Whoer erm E to Jurge you ugl..hic..ugly bithhhh!!  smashes antique clock ). \n Anyway, after college I got a regular job and his mom had been dead for awhile (like 5 years). I did know that at that point he had been stealing her pain meds, and had a problem with those temporarily (which was why he disappeared, different crowd), but from what I heard he was clean now (his dad freaked out because basically everything his dead wife owned was pawned, jewelry (including wedding band, engagement ring), clothes, old perfume bottles etc.) and we started hanging out like the good old days. He was still smoking weed, but seemed normal to me. But, I had recently lost my job and was completely out of control booze wise. So he usually had to keep me from getting killed (sometimes literally), and would drive me to pick up girls I somehow sleazed off of facebook while blacked out (I had to stop him from doing that after awhile). Anyway, we started having more people over at my house and most of the time I'd black out really early (from drinking all day) and wake up and see random evidence of shit (burnt tin foil, bags, dead people in my bath tub) but figured, as long as people aren't yelling at me about last night... I'm happy. \n Anyway, final paragraph time. Time to reiterate my hypothesis! So, he actually started drinking more, and for not being a drinker, I was surprised how much he could drink, I actually couldn't believe how long he could drink (i'd black out, fall asleep, wake up, he'd still be up with girls, drinking, I'd drink again, fall asleep, wake up, same thing). He finally admitted he had been doing coke for awhile, but it was too expensive... so... STOP METH TIME. \n I lied about the last paragraph part. So, I was like, okay, well dude, that shit is no joke, take it easy. He said he did it like once or twice a month tops, and that was it. Being in a drunken haze I didn't think much of it until one night he was just freaking out. Asking me for $100, trying to pawn shit, just all out panic mode. I had the money but didn't feel comfortable giving it to him since he never had much money and I had no job. So, in front of me, he just pops this giant white head on his forehead... ugh... puts the pus on tin foil, AND SMOKES IT. I was like (after throwing up bacardi and red bull all over my own face), what the what what? And he was like \"YOU WOULDN'T FUCKING HELP ME DUDE AND METH COMES OUT THROUGH YOUR PORES, SO, IT'S A RESI HIT.. OKAY?\" \n I was like, um... I'm worried about you and he gave me the old, you're a fucking drunk retort to which I said, yes, but I'm not aiming my dick at my face in the morning to cure my hangovers (AND IF I WANTED TO I COULD BECAUSE IT'S REALLY BIG AND THE STREAMS ARE HEALTHY IN PRESSURE AND WIDTH)... So... yeah... \n So that's my story. We're not friends no more. He stole a bunch of my stuff one night after I got sober (17 months, bing bang boom), he was over after discovering that you could DL demo's on xbox live and I was tired so I went upstairs to sleep and woke up to a missing 360, ps3, ipod etc (I found out months later he had been in my room stealing shit for awhile, mostly old jewelry from my ex). He tried to make up an excuse, but after 20 minutes of contradicting himself and using the \"how dare you!\" defense he cried, I yelled and he never came around again. \n Your turns.", "id": "t3_uxt8f", "summary": "Thank god this was before bath salts, and it my story was too long, ignore it, post yours, or leave. That's how this works. Complaining about the length of a story is like getting off of a roller coaster and punching the girl at the picture stand in the face for how long the line was."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "As we've heard from the disastrous Diablo III launch, companies want people to basically log in online every time they want to play a game, whether they're playing online or not (so, you need to verify your account even to play your solo campaign). \n The point of this is to restrict companies like GameStop from making billions in the secondary video game market. Which, to me, makes no sense. \n You can't name a market outside of general necessity commodities (gasoline, food, condoms) where there isn't a \"used\" market. Cars are an example. How did the car market react to this? By creating their own used car lots with company guarantees, or certification that the car has been given the once over and isn't a lemon (which may also include a warranty). Why can't video game companies attempt to do the same? \n Scratch that. I don't care about their business models or the fact that the largest media/entertainment industry feels that someone else is making money off of their \"hard work\". I want to know, legally, how they can basically retain ownership of the individual item the consumer purchases. Once I buy a video game, it's mine. I understand the content isn't (hence the inability to copy and sell it), but the physical game is mine, and if I want to sell it, I should be able to. \n Now, they want to make that basically impossible because only one person should be able to log into that specific disc. How the fuck? So, people can't borrow a game to their friends A, also, people without internet access can't even play a single player game? Is there any precedence ANYWHERE that would make this not a laughably easy class action lawsuit? \n I have 2 jobs. At one (security, overnight at a condo), my job is to sit and wait for complaints and then to react. Some nights I never sit down, others I never have to get up. We have an office 360 and PS3 that we all play (we also bring in and share games). What I'm learning is that in the future, simply due to GREED (they're clearly not hurting, video games make more profit than movies do for christs sake)they're going to punish a generation of customers who've grown up saving every fucking penny to save up for a new release. Not only that, of course, they're going to punish lower income gamers that can't afford broadband internet or new games (do they think kids or even adults want to wait 6 months or longer for GameStop to lower the price of a game to less than $5 off the new price? Also, they fucking make money off of gamestop, as the people who buy used games can also buy new games). \n The entire thing reeks of just everything that is wrong with capitalism. It's nothing but greed, disregard for your customers loyalty and actually gigantically counterintuitive (as the diablo release shows, people pay upwards of $80 for a title and go at midnight, and often wait hours to get the title and they can't even start the solo campaign because the servers are overwhelmed???). This WILL be the beginning of end of video game studios hegemony. Smaller companies will get their foot in the door and companies that treat people this way will realize that gamers don't forget... I hope.", "id": "t3_u4l0q", "summary": "Is there any legal precedent that allows video game companies to restrict players from selling a game they purchased (by basically having them log into a server everytime they play?). I would think of perhaps computer software and individual licenses, but this isn't windows 95, it's an industry that has thrived based on multiplayer gaming and sharing. I can't imagine being in 6th grade and not being able to bring goldeneye to a party. How is this being allowed to happen? What can we do? Are any politicians aware of this?"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I was watching Sean Hannity argue with some guy on his show and he kept basically saying that knives exist, and that if Belcher (the Chiefs player) wanted his girlfriend dead, she would've died. \n But when it comes to things like the Portland mall, where tens of people would've been killed had his gun not jammed; I can't see how people can't see that this is becoming frighteningly common. \n People simply don't need assault rifles. Any benefit they have is negated by the fact that these people have been legally purchasing the weapons, the ammo, and in the case of hand guns, the extended clips. \n It's no longer a matter of a Columbine esque \"they shouldn't have had the guns! A guy bought them!\" or talking about gang killings and stolen guns. There is no way to regulate this (even though they'd be against any regulation to begin with). I don't care that it's in the constitution. There is a reason the constitution can be amended, and we are unfortunately constantly reminded that it needs to happen. \n I find it amazing that in the UK there was one shooting that was the catalyst for their gun ban (that 45 year old guy who went into the school), and we have the equivalent of that every few weeks and all it does is somehow embolden people who believe in gun rights. \n Where are the conceal and carry heroes they've said would protect themselves and others? Why did the 3-4 people in the grocery store with Gabby Giffords hide? Why did a wounded, unarmed grandma grab Loughner's gun when he was reloading? It's a farce. \n The second amendment IS a relic of a different era. We needed militia's, and we also had a government that was afraid of the unexpected (abuse of government powers, see the federalist papers). If the government wanted to take over the populace, it easily could. No amount of assault rifles could stop a military that can hit your F-150 with a missile from an air craft carrier as you're \"bugging out\" to your cabin.", "id": "t3_14sl7t", "summary": "common sense."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "A little background; my parents moved to a \"nicer\" part of the city (minneapolis) from another part (I bought their old house, in the part of the city people from the new part used to make fun of for this kind of stuff, funny). Anyway, they're by the chain of lakes in the city, which is some of the most valuable property and land in the state (not that they're a part of that, but it's within walking distance, and they paid about double for their new house than I paid for their old house and they got about half the house, and it wasn't or isn't that nice to be honest). \n So, having come from a laid back area prior, they weren't used to the habit you need in an area where opportunistic assholes roam (always locking your car, shit, in the 10 years I lived with them at my current home we never even locked the back door and my mom is home alone at nights because my dad is at work), and their cars lost about $20 in change in the process. That seems to be the MO, granted, we don't have nice GPS' or anything but factory GM cd players from 2004 to steal, but it's always change that they steal (for example, this morning, they broke into my mom's car in a rather daring theft (they had to use a tool to unzip the side and back windows to get the car open (chevy tracker) and crawled in from the back, leaving themselves hyper vulnerable should someone had caught them, trust me, I've crawled in through the back while locked out and it's not fun or easy to maneuver), again, change was gone etc. but the best part? Dude dropped his cigarettes in the car, so he came up with like 20 cents and lost a whole pack of newports, which I happen to like...). \n I caught 2 dudes about 3 weeks ago trying to get into cars in the front of the houses, and that turned into a shitfest of them threatening me (I couldn't believe they were literally trying to use a tool to get into an SUV like 20 feet from me, I was smoking and standing in the middle of the sidewalk in my parents front yard, maybe they missed me but I'm a pretty big dude, it was dark and I was wearing a whitish gray hoodie (trayvon!) and smoking, so there was actual fire coming from my face, so I said \"I can see you, you know\" and the bigger of the 2 dudes (about my size, but fatter, 6'3ish) said \"I see you too, motherfucker\", it devolved into me making fun of their outfits and them telling me I was going to die, and when I told them \"you're going to wish you weren't mean mugging me in about 2 minutes, trust me, when the cops come you're going to think, why didn't I run when I had the time?\" \n Cops caught the big dude, not the guy who was trying to get into cars, he was charged with fleeing the police and I pressed charges of misdemeanor \"lurking\" (aka being a lookout during the commission of a crime), he told me during the ID that I was dead and that I needed to wait for the \"goons\" to come, to which I replied \"How can they get bus change to get here if their little change fairy is locked up?? (he had like $12 in nickels dimes and pennies per the cop), they laughed but told me to be quiet... The other guy I think had to get caught, they had two k9's on him and from what I overheard on their shoulder radios they had him running down an alley about 4 blocks from my house with the dogs in pursuit. \n ZOOM- back to this morning, I went to get some shit for my mom's daycare this morning (breakfast for ze babies) and came back and my sister said she got an email from the neighborhood crime watch (she lives 2 blocks away) and there were 10 car break ins reported 2 days ago the next block over, one guy was arrested on top of a guys house, trying to climb in THROUGH HIS CHIMNEY (has that ever worked?), we've had burglaries, muggings, assaults, 2 shootings at the gas stations nearby and a stabbing, again at the gas station recently. \n My question is, outside of being vigilant, and reporting EVERYTHING as a community (which is all happening, good news is this is a very proactive and connected community, we've had online townhall's, but it's just getting worse and worse, and now with the \"goons\" on my tail, I worry personally about my parents house, I haven't left to go to my house since). \n So what can I do? We are regular middle class people, money is very tight currently, so I can't like build a pit for people to fall in when they press the wrong button on my car, so any suggestions on how we could not only deter people but send a message? Cameras? Some sort of Chinese finger trap for your arm? I have 2 big pit bulls, so signs? I am looking at buying a glock 20, perhaps SF so my mom could use it if need be when I leave... I just am so pissed off right now, and worried about my mom, and need reasonable suggestions but also some ones that will appease my anger. ALSO, WE DO KNOW WHERE THEY ARE COMING FROM, THERE IS A WEIRD CUL DE SAC TYPE BLOCK THAT IS A GIANT U SHAPE BY THE FREEWAY/AIRPORT THAT IS ALL SECTION 8 HOUSING FOR THE MOST PART, AND FROM WHAT I'VE DERIVED FROM THE POLICE REPORTS, THEY ALL LIVE IN THAT REGION...", "id": "t3_scbks", "summary": "My parents neighborhood has been increasingly getting more and more dangerous, petty crime (breaking into cars) has turned into more brazen crimes (home burglaries, assaults, muggings, robberies, shootings). The area is nice, but is accessible by walking, bus, bike, to a group of section 8 housing that is about 2 blocks long and has been the source of all of the arrests I've read online (and the shootings). They can get to my parents house and million dollar mansions (not my parents house, at all) by car in <5 minutes, so it's just prime, so I'm looking for ideas on how I can catch someone breaking into my moms car, or in general. Deterrents, that kind of thing, but I just found this out and have to wait for my iphone to charge (that annoying time where it is charging but won't turn on, I could be dying apple) to call the cops and am still pissed, so sorry if I sound insane. Also, while we can lock my mom's car, it is a tracker, and has zip down windows, and while you have to be inside to zip it down, you can see the back part of the zipper, and if you have a tool or strong fingers, you can get in, like the dude did last night so it's not something we can just lock or get an alarm for so I'm thinking... a piano made from finger bones ala goonies? \n VIGILANTE JUSTICE!"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "So, you're out of power and spend the entire time trying to block any and all legislation by the elected majority, and once you're reelected to the majority your first order of business is to attempt to appeal the legislation that somehow was passed?? \n How is this not an outrage? They claim the government has become ineffective, I wonder why. If this is how they want congress to act from this point forward we are doomed. Nothing will get passed, ever. I mean look how long it took for the 9/11 bill to get through? Why dothey get a pass for this dangerous behavior? They have a solemn duty and have abandoned it and are destroying our ability to function.", "id": "t3_exupb", "summary": "we are screwed"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Long story short, I asked for a loan from my uncle who is a millionaire 50 times over. $10,000. He agreed, but wanted my dad (his brother in law) to sign, since he and I don't have much of a personal relationship (he lives 5 states away and I've only met him a couple times). I am paying him back with interest already, and haven't missed a payment or anything (granted it's been 4 months), but now I need the money and my sister won't release it from the account because her and I got into an argument and she says she's \"protecting mom and dad\", out of spite. \n Now, while the document would hold up in court (this is an asinine point but I have to say it), it's just something we wrote up on paper when he was writing the check and if I were to not pay him back (which I would NEVER) do, he wouldn't sue my parents, it's simply not the point of any of it, they're relatively close and it's not like this is a loan from Chase, is my point. So, that having been said, I don't know what else to do, I need the money ASAP to pay what the loan was for and don't know who to call. \n The check was in my name, I put it in my parents checking account (signed it over to my mom) so it could be transferred to this high yield savings account which is also in my parents name. So, I feel stuck. \n Please help. I'm desperate here and have no fight left in me. This money is evil, it's destroyed my family dynamic and I just need to get it out to either send it back to my uncle or pay off my past due mortgage amount, I'll figure that out tonight. \n Thanks guys.", "id": "t3_rrn6e", "summary": "My sister and I got into an argument, and she hates me now and is holding money that I had loaned from my uncle (co-signed by my dad) in a high yield savings account I put it in (which is under my parents name, I know, stupid, but at the time I would've bet that money this wouldn't have happened, we WERE a close family). So, I am wondering what legal recourse I may have, so, the check was written to me, I signed it over (on the back) to my mom so we could electronically transfer it from her checking account to an ING account my parents had when the same uncle gave them $23,000 as a gift (they have since spent that money, but the account was still open). We just got into another fight today and my sister told my mom told her that she wouldn't let her babysit her kids anymore (my mom quit her job to watch my sisters kids) if my parents let me stay at their house (I own a home but am renting it out for financial reasons), so I left to get away from my sister and came home and my dad tried to punch me (for calling my sister a bitch, she is a huge one, like epic) and then my mom said I had to leave for the sake of the family, which apparently no longer includes me... So please help, I'm desperate. \n Thank you in advance guys and gals. Sorry for the melodramatic tone, this just happened like 45 minutes ago and I'm like... in shock."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Okay. Finally I have narrowed my choices down to a glock 20 (I might go SF depending on the feel of all 3) and a 23. I am wondering from those of you with knowledge of glocks which you think is better? \n Better is clearly a very subjective word so to clarify I mean, the most practical in price of ammo, usability (kick, jamming problems, weird problems I've seen with brands of ammo shooting basically sideways for no reason (especially in the 10mm), potential to carry, POWER, accessories, anything else you think I should know! \n After I get mine I'm probably going to get a sf 19? or something for my mom. There has been a crime explosion in her neighborhood, well, not an explosion, I'd say it's more like a snowball, it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse, and in the past month I have gone outside at night THREE times to smoke and ALL THREE the following happened. \n \n 11 p.m. saw the dome light on on my moms car in the driveway (behind a privacy fence), I always carry a straight razor so I had that with me, along with my 85 lb pit, BURBEEE!, so I ran back there and the second he heard my crappily built fucking fence gate opening (my brother in law built the fence and the ground has moved and it's hard to get the gate open, and almost impossible to close it, U of W engineering ftw!) he started not running, but he started walking, I walked over to double check and saw that the inside of the car was a mess so I started to chase him and he ran, my dog was eating grass in between garages when I returned. You get what you pay for! \n \n 9 pm I was smoking, again, in the backyard and heard whispering, this time to the left, which leads to our side door outside of the fence and the 10 foot region between my parents house and their neighbors house. There are about 10 kids in the neighborhood who are like 14 and play hide and go seek and nerf gun battles (I think 14 is a little old to play this every damn day, buy I am actually impressed they aren't playing COD or something), so I assumed it was them, until I heard someone say \"ouch, man, fuck\" in a deep, black voice (the kids aren't black and all sound like justin beiber) so I walked over again, blade drawn, and struggled to get that gate open (this one is next to worthless) by the time I did (I had to shoulder it) I saw the back of one of the dudes turning the corner and slipping, it was dark but I saw good enough that he was pretty tall (I'm 6'3 and he was close to that, but I wasn't wearing shoes (without my shoes I'm 5'5, jokes)), they ran and I turned the corner without pursuing. Footprints in the mud alluded to them trying to pry the windows on both my parents and neighbors houses. We have a new level three sex offender in the neighborhood who robs women then rapes them, they're usually adult women, and my neighbors house has 2 parents and 2 college age women, reported to police. \n \n 9:30 last week. Was over to watch Iron Man with my mom, went out to have a smoke, saw 2 black males approaching my house on the sidewalk and stopping at cars to check if they're locked, look inside, and pry windows. After the first car (I wasn't sure if they were locked out of their car, as I didn't recognize the car) I yelled \"I can see you, you know\", and long story short a verbal altercation ensued in which they threatened to kill me, and I said some things I probably shouldn't have (nothing racist, just funny shit about their outfits, hats, life choices, etc.), I told them that they'd better run, and that they'd wish that they were running when the cops show up, or my 2 pits come out. I went in to call 911, and 10 seconds later they were gone. The look out was arrested after a short foot chase, ID'd by me, charges pressed by me and police, second guy got away (the cop chased him across a parkway that is pitch black and by the luck of the draw ended up stepping in a hole and falling, they had 2 K9's on him at the point that I was filling out my witness report, and I did overhear on their radio that an assailant was fleeing up 31st avenue through the alley, that was the next block over. Hoping they caught him but am not sure. They wouldn't have needed my ID because I gave about a 10 minute description down to basically his mitochondrial DNA, I went to school to be a cop (as one of my majors, it's a pre-req for POSt in MN) and knew to go through a checklist of features and clothing on both guys while they stood there \"eyeing me down\". Also, by the time the cops had come to have me ID the first guy it was past 11, I have yet to receive a call or anything in the mail. But, when I ID'd the first guy he flipped out and told me I was dead (they had said that before too, when we were arguing, said the \"goons\" were going to come for me and then they did that finger trigger motion, I said, \"I hope your goons all have bus fare! Fucking chicken and the egg, you need change to get to a nice neighborhood on the bus but you can't get the change until you're at the nice neighborhood and you break into hard working peoples cars, fucking dirtbags... classic)... \n \n \n My renters have moved out of my house so I'm moving back and don't feel comfortable with my mom being home alone at night (dad works nights), would a 19 be a good gun for her? We'd both go to a bunch of training classes. She has a 100 lb pit/american bull dog but anytime someone yells he rolls on his stomach and shivers like jack at the end of titanic.", "id": "t3_ry0l1", "summary": "gun questions on top, stories about my interaction with scumbags in my parents neighborhood in the middle as a pretext to me needing to protect my mom. I want to reiterate I reported to the police that they need to put my address on the report and also told the dudes that I didn't live at that house, and that it was a daycare (both true) and if they wanted to fuck with me, come to my neighborhood (which is a different part of the city), just so they knew i was visiting for movie night."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Long story short. I invested all my money and put my house up for collateral for a dolphin t-shirt company. Just all shirts with dolphins on then, dolphins doing jumps, dolphins interacting, dolphins reflecting on a hunt (my fave!). \n I'm joking, I've just been unemployed forever, and now my unemployed ran out, unexpectedly early, on the same day a job I went through 8 interviews for, and received an offer for, called to let me know that due to my credit score (my unemployment only covered my mortgage, so I stopped paying my cell phone, car, cable, internet, etc., Literally, I live in Minnesota and didn't have heat last winter, now I know people are going to call me a liar and say there's a cold winter law, but there isn't for everyone, they said since my unemployment was 32k a year (max amount) that I made too much for that assistance, despite me telling them that my house cost all the monies, I had to sit in the freezing cold, with no water (pipes), but did atleast have my parents help me out with electricity, to keep the leopard geckos I bought when I was 9 alive. Poor little fellers just want to munch crickets and not die of cold. \n So, I'm done for. My house is my childhood home. I really love it, and the thought of losing it is not only just awful personally and sentimentally (i'm sentimental about stuff), I don't want to face my family and let them know that I lost the family house. God, I joke about it, but I am teary eyed just thinking about it. So, does anyone know if someone declares bankruptcy if they can somehow keep their house? I actually sent a hail mary email to someone at corporate at the company that no dealed me after the awesome job offer (seriously, dream job, in my fingers) and have some hope that I can maybe pull it out (he left me a voicemail saying that isn't their policy and may have just been a mistake, hooray?) but as a back up I need to know just in case.", "id": "t3_m62gy", "summary": "if you declare bankruptcy, what happens to your home?"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I was driving on a busy street in South Minneapolis on the way to run some errands and saw a guy who was passed out (presumably) on a retaining wall in the front yard of someones house, he had propped a bike up against the wall and had some food sitting next to him. He was clearly completely incapacitated, mouth agape, face completely discolored etc. I figured that since it was rush hour on the intersection of 2 busy streets someone else would pull over, or call etc. \n I took the same road back (for mpls people, it was 28th and the parkway right by lake hiawatha, he was on the residential side by the pedestrian crossing) and there were groups of kids walking by joking around like feet from the dude, I pulled over and honked, he didnt move. I got to my parents and got a cell phone, called 911, and waited 10 minutes. Drove back, the cops were around the corner, i asked them if they knew about the guy, they said they got a call but didn't see him anywhere, I took them to where he was, and an ambulance showed up at the same time (which showed me that I was the only person who bothered to call, I would've sooner but didn't bring my phone with me). All in all it was about 2 hours or so that the dude sat there, on the ledge, passed out and no one helped him. \n It was really amazing to me that in a relatively well to do neighborhood (where passed out bums aren't an everyday thing, and this guy had a nice bike, and had obviously sat there to eat some food as he had a nice meal there) on a busy intersection that no one bothered to stop and ask the guy if he was okay (the EMT's were able to wake him up relatively quickly, I think he was drunk), or call before I did.", "id": "t3_ggpmc", "summary": "A younger dude passed out on a busy intersection near my parents house and no one bothered to call 911 or try to help him for 2 hours during rush hour. Bystander effect in full effect, I just lost a little bit of faith in my community."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "So my prego sister was all hopped up after snorting lines of prenatal vitamins and said that she was finally going to let me buy my niece a puppy after her 2 cats die (which I'm guessing is going to be about alittle under 2 years from now, or to make things less obvious 6 months and some poison from now). \n Here is the criteria I was given: \n \n Must be basically midsized, nothing too small (like a yorkie or anything paris hilton would let die of a heat stroke inside her purse, and nothing too big). I'm guessing something around an english bulldog or bull terrier. \n Must be good with little kids, my niece will be around 3 and a half by then, and if this second girl is ever born she would be around 2 then. My mom watches a few kids now and while she has the sweetest most gentle american bulldog right now he still manages to knock over a baby daily even though we keep him chained up a la people under the stairs (somehow he gets into the vents, but we cut his tongue off so he can't communicate. Don't throw red paint at my members only jacket, that was a reference to the masterpiece that is the people under the stairs). \n Most be a breed that isn't yippy. We grew up next to shetland sheepdogs and miniature pinchers and they just yip yip yipped all day, it was like a clockwork orange. \n Finally, a breed that doesn't shed a lot would be great!!! And, oh yeah, I live in minneapolis, so if that matters, a dog that wouldn't die in 40 below weather would be great, my pit has short hair even for a pit and she handles it okay, but only makes it about 5 feet from the door and shits all over the patio. \n \n I personally love bully breeds. I have a 10 year old red nose pit right now who is my best friend, we have matching lower back tats that say 'sweet' and 'dude' (feel free to punch me in the face), and bought the aforementioned american bull dog for my mom who for some reason named him winston and managed to emasculate him to the point that the last time he was at the dog park a boston terrier beat him up. \n Budget won't be an issue, but I'm really unable to think of a good dog off the top of my head. I always just want to buy pit bulls, because their personalities are awesome, they have a lot of good energy, have no hair to deal with and really love to snuggle. But thats already been ruled out (my brother in law hates dogs to begin with and despite the fact that he has been around both my moms dog and my dog he is one of those people that believes no matter what you do eventually they snap and eat your face). Any suggestions would be appreciated so i can start building my case and maybe even visit some breeders. I want to visit them early because I want to make sure I'm not dealing with a mill and know that the person has a good track record and junk....... \n Sorry for the long post, I'm just super excited about getting my niece a puppy and want to make sure I get her something that will be perfect when the time comes!!!!", "id": "t3_gongq", "summary": "check out the criteria above, my sister wants me to get her 2 daughters a puppy after their cats die, need help figuring out the right breed under the circumstances!!! Also, whoever comes up with the breed I am gonna get gets one free month of reddit gold as a thanks! From what I can tell thats like a $5,000 value."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "It's 2011. In my city, Minneapolis, the Lutheran capital of the United States, churches are closing at a record rates. There have been articles that the housing crisis is basically nothing when compared to the problems we have with churches closing down. People are moving away from organized religion, and feel more comfortable with the ability to express their true beliefs, whether it be atheism, being agnostic, a belief in reincanation etc. \n So as an organization, and technically a business (a non-profit one, but still, it's always been a criticism of theirs that they're basically in this for money, I mean, for example, the catholic church used to have a minimum donation amount that GUARANTEED that the individual, or their family, would go to heaven. Now, those same religions are ripping Scientology for being a money funneling scheme, while certain sects of Christianity demand 10% of their parishioners income for example. But, the whole pot calling the kettle black thing isn't my point. \n My point is, they are struggling mightily with a generation of people the likes of which the world has never seen. The internet has changed things, forever. I can tell you why the archbishops hold their little,  cough  group therapy sessions for new popes during the daytime, but seriously, they know that they need to bolster their numbers, and the pope has even gone as far as to say that people need to start having more babies (as muslims are banging out children at like a 3:1 ratio, at least, when you live in the middle of dirt and are getting bombed either by a foreign country, your own leadership for protesting, or your neighbor for not being the right type of muslim, I guess all you can do to take your mind off of shit is ejaculate in what I can only imagine is the hairiest octopus beak since that giant squid ate blackbeard. \n So, how do you find these new members? You have to be hip, young, with it, and that's not exactly easy when you're reading books from 1,000 years ago (depending on when they were written) and dealing with stories from 2,000 years ago. I mean, at least the Mormon church is trying. But anyway, the crux of my rambling, as a gamer, and one that is currently balls deep into Skyrim, I have been googling about reviews, and have come across a lot of articles about the Christian response, and as you would expect, they are against the themes of \"black magic\", witchcraft, etc. I think that  THIS ARTICLE . \n Now, this is my point. Finally! Now, while I have been mainly focusing on the fact that they have a problem of not necessarily losing members, which they are (whether through death or people finally just deciding that religion is bullshit), they are definitely not getting NEW members (through the organic way, Europeans and white americans are having fewer children, and a lot of them aren't necessarily endoctrinating their children), also, they should realize that this line of reasoning basically PROVES that their beliefs aren't something that deserve respect as what they are attacking PROVES that their beliefs are all fairy tales. \n Think about it. THEY ARE UPSET ABOUT BOOKS AND GAMES WITH WIZARDS AND WITCHES? Um, magic isn't real, witches and wizards while they did exist, had no actual power, and prayed on ignorance to manipulate people, or didn't do anything and were burned to death. So, why, in 2011 while you're trying to bolster your numbers, would you basically say \"Don't let your child see Harry Potter, they use magic! magic is evil!\" magic is fucking fake, it's something you see in vegas, it's not on the top ten list of anyones fears or concerns. Does this not show that religion is complete bullshit? I know everyone here clearly believes that, but think objectively as possible, as someone who is religious, would you not think, duringn a sermon about the evils of harry potter or skyrim, that you are being fucking duped? \"Daniel Radcliffe is practicing the DARK ARTS!\", oh, really? God forbid! \n It's a joke, and while they may believe they're doing something for the lord or whatever the fuck their justification is, they overplayed their hand and really showed that religion needs to be relegated to the annals of oblivion (no pun intended, honestly). It's an archaic, relic of a society that is moving on. The benefits of controlling a society early on aren't needed (convincing people not to stab someone while they sleep for saying something about their ... bear skin cod piece isn't needed, we have institutions in place to regulate conduct, we have countless secular states, look at sweden, they have probably the lowest percentage of religious residents in the western world and I can't picture anything closer to a utopia (or heaven for lack of a better word) on earth. \n So. That's what popped in my head as I listened to right wing radio drone on about how Obama didn't mention god once during his Thanksgiving address. I only wish a politician had the testicles or ovaries to say it.", "id": "t3_njvq2", "summary": "you come online to read, so read. I promise, I tried my best to be both entertaining and thought provoking, and I can and will give handys, both to men and women, with women, I know it is completely up the vag of each participant (same with men, but to a much lesser extent) so, I'll start off by just opening my hand, and placing my palm on your mess, and then just doing a counterclockwise motion, as if I was cleaning spilled milk off of a glass coffee table, from there, I will alter my method based on response, like unlocking a master lock on Skyrim. Guys? I'll wait for your pants to get down, grab your wallet, and run. While you're busy trying to pull up your size 46's, I'll be halfway to mexico rubbing cunts to the confused gaze of many a senorita."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Wow. It's been fun guys. I know that bullet train from LA to NY that ran on rich peoples teeth was a little overboard, but man was that shit fun while it lasted. Seriously. What the fuck are they talking about? I listen to the talk radio here in Minnesota, which granted does have better benefits than some states for those in need but for example... it's taken over a decade to get something as simple as a light rail train to run from Downtown Minneapolis to Downtown Saint Paul, which you'd think would've been around since 1860. There is literally nothing to show for all this debt except war, tax cuts for the rich and crumbling infrastructure. \n They literally say like \"sorry folks, the free ride is OVER\", like people are just living high on the fucking hog by laying around. I know people on welfare, they're (ironically republican) working 2 jobs each as married couples and still can't afford to feed their devil spawn. They're on MN Care because they have a high school diploma solely and no connects for a better job (they work warehouse jobs, and also delivery on the weekends for jimmy johns,that doesn't pay the rent and healthcare especially when you have chronic ulcers). I don't want to use what my own face interacts with as my basis for political reality so let's look broader. Again, someone tell me what awesome frivilous shit we've done as a country? If this is what they consider to be some sort of failed liberal utopia where rich people have been hung by their ankles and shaken down by a black giant then I'm really, really afraid at what they want the world to look like when thats gone. Because I've seen the converted hotels that are now just shelters for families that lost their homes during the recession, that have no windows that can open or aC so they just have to stand in groups on the street. I've seen people selling their food stamps for fifty cents on the dollar so they can get money for gas so they can go to work somewhere outside of the newly restricted bus lines. I've seen a fucking bridge fall down and kill people (a bridge that I would've been on around 6:05 had I not been in san francisco with my family, thankfully) who were sitting still because we had to do all of our construction at once because we had to wait for a new infusion of cash to finally get some projects finished. I've seen over a million Iraqi's killed at the rate of one million dollars a head (think about that), I've seen taxes cut for the top 1% and income inequality grow wider than the pot holes that cover the streets everywhere I drive to the point that I stopped listening to CD's on my Alpine stereo system because they sound like they were handled by a cat in a edward scissor hands costume doing a michael J fox impression. I've seen my property taxes increase at the same rate my house value has decreased, because my state decided to not raise a single tax under the guise of an asshole named tim pawlenty, my house was worth 240,000, my mortgage was at 232 start of 2010, I paid 3500 in property tax, it went to 205,000 and my property tax went to 4100, that's 50 more dollars a month for a house that is now drastically underwater. \n So show me what the fuck you're talking about? Because I've seen nothing but a gigantic decline in what I used to consider a pretty awesome place to live. My friend, a republican, claims that Obama has set it up now to where the benefits are so lavish that people don't need to work. He's basing that partially on the fact that I make 610 dollars a week on unemployment. Considering I used to make $85,000 a year, I'm not living lavishly. It doesn't even cover my mortgage after taxes. It doesn't cover anything but my mortgage. Which is why I have no utilities on at my house, and the city is threatening to condemn my home, so I had to sell some of my comics on Ebay to cover the water bill so the house I grew up in isn't fucking condemned. I lost my car (the alpine stereo one :/) to a repo company. I am in collections for everything else I own. Every job interview I go on puts me through the RINGER. I just did a 1 hour power point presentation to 15 people based on the website of a company as if I was their sales manager, I followed that up with 3 more interviews with their management. I got the job offer. 8.50 an hour + 3% commission, with a sales goal of $500k a year. That's about $25,000 a year, to work for an ad agency. I asked them why they asked me for my last 3 years of w2's and for 5 fucking references from past clients if they were going to offer me such crappy pay and they said 2 years ago I could've given you a 50k base, but we have no budget to hire but we really really need you. I thought you said this type of work was your passion??? I flew out to washington DC to interview for a job that offered me 30k. It was 4 years minimum b2b experience in the industry and a bachelors, they told me \"we pay what the market dictates, if everyone was like you we'd raise the pay, but almost everyone accepts and I guarantee you they're more qualified than you are sir. Yes, republican friendguy, it does make more sense for me to stay on the government troft, but whose fucking fault is that? When corporations are having record breaking quarters as a collective (15 trillion dollar profits?) and not 'spreading the wealth around' by rehiring some of the people they lost or offering livable wages (I call it liveable because I need to be able to at least keep my house, I'm fine taking the bus, or eating once a day, but I can't lose that house, I grew up there and bought it from my parents, I'd let everyone down) it's no ones fucking fault but the greedy people are apparently overtaxed so people like me can keep partying it up... \n I didn't start this thread to bring up my life, but fuck. Fuck them.", "id": "t3_ieyjx", "summary": "Read it."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "She never had any allergies in the past or anything. It's not so much like runny nose as much as a really inconspicuous mucus. It's not like thick or sticky, she just wakes up with a little yellow on the corners of her nose that I can pull off and them sometimes a booger partially blocking her right nostril. this has been going on for like 2 weeks, I thought it got better recently but she just woke up from a nap and has a big booger hanging out. Her nose is also really dry on the right side, but wet everywhere else and normal (gets really wet when she's happy etc.), If I had to say whether or not she's been lethargic I would say yes. She has slowed down a lot recently (not a lot but noticeably, she can't jump that good anymore, and doesn't run as much, but still will chase bunnies and stuf in the yard). \n Full disclosure I did recently start her on a joint supplement, high in glucosamine and also 1 small dog aspirin a day (the bottle said to do 2 of each but I just do one with breakfast). \n I am really worried and of course completely broke (house payment due and that will take all my cash until next week or maybe later), anything I can do? I know that there can be like 70 causes of her symptoms so ask any questions you want and hopefully let me know anything I can do? \n I have put vaseline on her nose (the internet told me to!) that helped for a couple days with the dryness, hoping there is something I can do to help diagnose boogers. I can tell she is getting irrtating and is doing the dog sneeze type thing when she gets up (I call it snarfing), not really a sneeze but like a deep exhale through the nose....", "id": "t3_iha74", "summary": "Sorry, I'm scared. Dry on the corner, 1 side. Not sticky mucus, not really visibly runny, just something she acquires while sleeping that goes away when she gets up. Does get a build up of booger juice in corner of nose that I have to rub or wash off, and has had partially blocked nostril from actual big boogers too. Going on for about 1.5-2 weeks, vaseline helps dryness. Less energy than usual, did start new joint supplement and aspirin regimin lately. NO BLOOD. \n Any help will be very helpful. I can pay some paypal money if we can fix it. I really am scared. :("}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "My cousin's husband's dad is a nice person. Maybe too nice. I guess he liked to go out after storms and help people with downed trees (use his chainsaw to cut branches, general clean up, that sort of thing), he was also known to drive his 4 wheeler around the block and shovel everyones main sidewalk (despite how illegal it is to drive a 4 wheeler in the city). \n Either way, he must've been anxious to help, or mad at his wife, because he was out while it was storming, bad. He noticed that a manhole cover had come off of it's... hole. So, not wanting cars to drive into the hole and wreck their suspension, he picked up the cover, put it on the hole, and stood on it to push it down. Now, he didn't think about the fact that the manhole cover was off for a reason, that reason being that the storm sewers were flooded, and the pressure blew it off. So as he stood on the cover, trying to use his 210 lbs to push it down, the pressure built and after a minute or two of trying in vain to get it to stay on the cover blew off again, like a fucking cannon. \n The doctors estimated that he flew 20-30 feet in the air. He landed on his head (luckily on the water softened grass), but broke his neck and is now completely paralyzed from the neck down. All for trying to put a manhole cover back on. Shit has ruined the entire family, he ran a manufacturing company where he was completely hands on (did all the initial machining, etc.) and he had to lay off most of his employees and also went bankrupt from his medical bills and lost his house. \n Another quick one, similar story actually. Kid I know from high school (played hockey together, so knew his dad pretty well, he was at all the games, out of city tournaments, hosted team parties at his house), now he was older (early 60's) and was semi-retired, he still sold clay pottery (actually made decent money doing that, he did the Ghost style wheel stuff mostly). He was picking up, after a thunderstorm, and was pulling branches down, he turned around after yanking a branch down and saw something coming towards him, instinctively he put his hands up and... grabbed a power line. Lost both arms from the elbows up, he basically has like shoulder stumps 3rd degree burns.", "id": "t3_p1hfz", "summary": "people got hurt."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I am really not looking forward to ending the game, at all. I know I can play again, and things can be different in that I can choose different paths, but the wonder and awe won't be the same and I really like my character and can't see playing as a nord that uses a shield next go around. That having been said, I know that there will be an expansion pack (or hopefully 10) and the story will continue, so I was thinking about different ways they could take it, I'm not that far into the main quest (despite being 300 + hours in, like I said, I'm delaying the inevitable by doing a shitload of sidequests and stuff first, don't want to miss ANYTHING) for example:  I like doing things for the original Jarl before fighting with the empire to replace that jarl, obviously if it's a stormcloack stronghold, that way, I can kind of get more out of the town, it's funny, I realized this early because I went to get my bounty and some lady was in I think dawnstar? She made me thane for my work but I had to go to the windhelm palace for all the rejects, and dude still paid me $1,500 for shooting 2 arrows into a giant , I just feel like had I ignored playing before fighting I would've missed out on that kind of thing. Either way, I'm getting close to the end and realized that I have never really gotten too into Oblivion... \n So, I plan on playing that next. But the difference in controls, graphics and the game in general will probably piss me off, like when I was obsessed with ff7 and ff8 came out and made me want to kill the first japanese person I saw (so I kept myself away from the dance dance revolution machine at the last arcade in my state). So, I got to thinking, what if we could import everything into oblivion? And morrowind? And arena? \n Basically, they could find some sort of time wound, maybe at the site of old oblivion gates (or using those oblivion gate books), and that would start you into oblivion, and you could then from there after beating oblivion, go back to morrowind, or even cooler, do some sort of back to the future style jump between games over and over, with your changes in morrowind changing oblivion and then changing skyrim! I know that sounds way too complicated but if anyone could pull it off it's Bethesda, who has somehow created a living, breathing world with it's own economy, agricultural system, flora and fauna, with 4 different voices for each sex. \n So, what do you guys think? Validate my ideas, otherwise I have to pay $4 for parking. That joke sucked. I hate myself...", "id": "t3_p65io", "summary": "what if we could use our skyrim players in updated versions of the older games? With a cool plot that involves going back and forth between games through time wounds w/ the elder scroll, and having the actions in the past games changing the course of the future, and even like carrying a fucking book with you from oblivion and seeing the authors description changed per quest in a way you may need a la weekend at bernies!"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I've started seeing a girl who seems pretty straight laced... but is very, very sexual when you get alone with her. She turns me on like crazy. \n We've had sex 7 times now. Every time she has literally came with-in a minute, tops. Now, I've talked to her about whether or not she is faking it, and she is adamant that she isn't... And based on her reaction (it's a full body, convulsion type orgasm, with... sheet washing results) I know she isn't either... But after that... it's really, really hard for me to keep going... \n Now... let me explain... She has a 2 year old toddler. So she does kegel's. Also, she is over a foot shorter than I am (5'2\" - 6'3\") so for the most part she is VERY tight, almost to the point of creating a sensation that is TOO sensitive on my tip (we don't use condom's, she on an IUD, and we've both been tested together). \n So, for a few reasons, I have been having issues finishing. The main being, the first minute, before she cums, is fucking amazing. Like, best I've ever had type sex. She's just so passionate, the eye contact, the kissing, it's amazing... then she seizures, soils the bed, and is kinda... out of it... it takes about 20 minutes or more of hard work for me to get her back into even caring about it, and by then, my junk is pretty sensitive and raw from ramming her cervix repeatedly and feeling the tight squeeze of her kegel'd up vag. \n So; my question is. I'm hoping that perhaps there could be a way for us to restart the process? And after the first episode maybe prolong the second, or even prolong the first? Because I want us to maybe simultaneousload... \n Now, I will say, that she has said that this isn't normal for her (I'm not tooting my own horn here, at all), she was married to a guy who wasn't well hung up until very recently, and we worked together and flirted a lot but never acted on it, so I think she may just be so excited to finally be able to do what we used to talk about (emotional affair, I know), and maybe that'll go away with time... but last night was our 8th time? and it was about 15 seconds of her on top, I didn't even move my hips, and she was like Linda Blair... don't get me wrong, it is probably the most sexy feeling ever, holding onto someone who you're inside of, who is just completely having a full body reaction... but I want to be able to get her to do it again, and she says she never has... \n I know how it works for me, one and done style... Girls, help me out... Any tips? I always thought that girls could just keep knocking 'em out? We have done it before where we waited about... 30 minutes between and it was fine. Worked like a charm... but I didn't end up finishing either time... \n Thanks in advance.", "id": "t3_1denat", "summary": "Started seeing a woman who orgasms HARD, very quickly during sex. Usually with 15 seconds to MAYBE 2 minutes, tops. That sex, is the best sex I've ever had (I've been with over 40 women and I can say that it's... sweeter than yoohoo) but afterwards, it's just... blah... she's not into it, and it's actually hard for me to finish for a few reasons (hence the length of the post), so, I was wondering if there was a way for me to prolong the process of her cumming, or maybe make her get back... closer to cumming after the first one... I know everyone is different but it would help tremendously. I just had sex with her... 3 hours ago, and for the second time in a row didn't cum, and she is very insecure about it (she still hasn't lost all of her baby weight but is fucking gorgeous and an amazing person anyway so that has NOTHING to do with it), so, I just need your help... \n Edit: Side note; she is 31, which I think is the sexual prime for women, I'm 28... So... I'm used ot having sex with girls that are around 25 and have never had sex with anyone over 27. So... yeah... the more sexually mature women aren't really something I'm used to. so thanks for your help..."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I recently turned 30. And, being a late bloomer my entire life (lost my last tooth as a sophomore in HS, it was my canine, and I had a GF who I mostly laid on my couch in my room and learned how to kiss. Awkward. \n Point being, I reached my full height as a senior in HS, freshman in college but was always REALLY thin. 125 lbs as a senior, 135-40 (freshman 15!) in college... \n I finally hit my genetic plan in the past few years. Getting up to about 220 lbs. With low body fat. It comes in handy a lot (people assume I'm hard to fight and bring it up a lot, girls like it), but as we all know it is a double edged sword (flying is hell, as is buying clothes, hats are really hard for me to find as well)... \n But, as I've matured, my friends have found \"serious GF's\", fiances or wives. Bought houses, condos, townhomes, etc. \n No matter what the situation. I am the one they go to when it's time to move. It is assumed I can handle things on my own, valuable things. And I can, but I don't fucking want to. Not bi-monthly. \n It reminds me of a friend of mine whose parents I met once. And then he said they wanted to have me over for dinner. So I came, feeling like found me interesting, or well rounded. When I showed up for dinner in nice clothes the dad looked at me and said \"What the hell are you wearing? Shit, I may have my older Brothers Wet suit for you\", he did, I felt like the hulk squeezed into tiny latexy foam pants, building and installing a dock at his house. \n I was furious. I felt lied to. I didn't want to help them with their projects, under false pretenses. The dad kept complaining I was \"lazy\", the nerve. Fuck you man, pay someone to do this, I'm waste deep in a literal freeway run off pond, installing cinder blocks... for no pay. \n They tried a few other times to get me to come over. My friend would get pissed and go on and on about how lazy I was. I just said I didn't want to spend my free time building shit for strangers who didn't want to pay me. I did stop over to pick him up once and his dad again asked for my help for a quick second, and my Minnesotan passive aggressiveness ended up making me miss a movie in exchange for lifting endless bags of cement to help build some sort of above ground pool deck monstrosity. \n That's the basic idea now. I am large. Therefore I owe people not only my free time (which wouldn't be an issue, really, they're my friends) but basically the ability to be on call, whenever, to help them move, lift an engine block with them, find them when they're drunk and walking home and stumbling across a nice TV taht has been left out for solid waste removal... \n I've said no. But people simply call me lazy. So, I can't win. I don't want money, I do want to help my friends when they need it, but I am being taken advantage of by people who wouldn't help me if I needed similar help (\"you can't do that on your own?\" or \"with your dad\" (he's basically my twin who flopped out 27 years before I did)... All I ask is for respect and periodic reciprocity for similar deeds. I get neither. They act it's an unfair comparison, as I am bigger, and therefore it takes no effort, while they are short and skinny, and it's not fair to ask. \n A couch is a couch, it's not heavy, it's just cumbersome. And it's about the time it takes. Not the effort one exerts. \n Wow, this turned into a much longer diatribe than I had expected... Probably should've went for a bike ride before posting this...", "id": "t3_2bj53r", "summary": "People think that since I am bigger than them that I should always be on call to help them move, or pick up scrap. Basically they only consider the effort it would take me compared to them, and not the time it takes. And they never offer to help me when I float the idea out there. So... What do you guys do? Should I have sex with their wives?"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I've smoked everything from schwag to medicinal. For example my buddy left some decent nug here and I decide to smoke, and I honestly went into panic attack mode and had to go for a walk because I thought I was going to freak out. Is there a scientific reason? Is it my brain chemistry?", "id": "t3_e0sdp", "summary": "why does pot make me anxious as f when everyone else gets chill?"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I was a b2b salesman in the advertising field, have my own home and a car with tabs from 2009. Just got out of a six year relationship so I most likely am free of stds (unless those neck bruises she used to get were in fact hickies) and am looking to meet s new girl since all the girls I dated six years ago are married and have kids, while I bought new fish and couldn't keep them alive for 3 business days. I Can send a photo upon request!", "id": "t3_e1x6b", "summary": "desperate loser lost gf and wants to buy you a white Russian at the applebees in st Anthony village"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "This thing is a human femur. It's long and rigid and wide enough that it's just sitting there, everytime I try to flush the toilet just gets angry and fills almost to the point of releasing poorly made gravy colored nastyness all over my bathroom floor. I can't plunge because it would just anger the stool and mash it further into the hole. I'm genuinely asking for help, it's been like three days and it's so nasty. I figures I would say fuck it and plunge it today and on top of the redwood in my toilet there was a fucking dead centipede who obviously crawled on it to try to drink some water then instantly died from the bacterial big bang that is going on in there so I just closed the lid and looked up realtors. Help!!!", "id": "t3_e3by3", "summary": "there is a shit the size of an antique canoe in my toilet that is becoming self aware and I need to know how to get rid of it."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I was thinking about this as I was sitting at my kitchen table scratching off scratch off tickets; my dog left her comfortable spot under the covers on the couch and just sat there to be by me, then followed me to the bathroom, sat outside until I was done and now is laying next to me on the couch. Is there a scientific explanation for this? I know she would die for me while my cat would push me in front of a car just so she could eat my flesh.", "id": "t3_e5dm0", "summary": "is there a scientific reason dogs are so loyal?"}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I've dated many a girl who have left snow angels of vag cream but never had like a Canadian fire extingusiher style juice tosser. I am wondering from any and all that have actuslly been a party to as much,  can it be an isolated incident? Like a what the fuck sort of moment? Or is it once you do it once everytime you need to put down towels and scotch guard your wallpaper. \n Also, sorry, this really intrigues me, if a woman with HIV were to squirt vaginal fluid into your eye could you possibly contract HIV? Seems plausible.", "id": "t3_e5uws", "summary": "these are genuine questions. I find this subject oddly fascinating as I've never knowingly be a party to this (I did sex a girl blacked out and wake up in a bed that was absolutely soaked), any feedback would be appreciated by me. And other with out the courage to ask."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "I figured you guys would know. I have an 08 Sony vaio with vista (blech) and really really want to download gamesalad to create iPhone games (Its a dream, perhaps misguided, of mine to create games and this seems like an ideal first step, my brain has been racing with ideas for games since I discovered this program the other day and no bs have been drinking nyquil so I stop popping up and writing down more ideas, for example: an Italian plumber who battles a dinosaur for a blonde monarch who can't hire security!!) and it only runs on mac, so is there a way to either install the new os for mac on my piece or maybe just get a program to run that on my comp??", "id": "t3_e7zcl", "summary": "can I either dl macs new os on my vaio vista laptop or run it via some emulator? \n Thanks in advance if anyone helps, again ever since I discovered othello on atari I always thought I could make a better game than this and hopefully I Can try to prove my confused chip flipping childhood self right. Thanks guys."}, {"author": "p_U_c_K", "content": "Does anyone else here have those small bumps on the underside of their shaft near the sack that if you even just out your finger under the skin and move it around white shit comes out?! I've had it since probably puberty and have heard every potential conclusion from doctors ( penile papules etc.) but the pics I find online aren't the same.", "id": "t3_dke30", "summary": "have those skin bumps under shaft you can squeeze white solid stuff out of? Reoccuring? What are they!"}]}
+{"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post 8/10. I like this. I'm not a huge fan of sweet vapes usually. Usually I can get a puff or two but then get really sick of it. This brand so far is changing that for me. Grape Drank is sweet, but not too sweet. A good amount of vapor mixed with just the right amount of throat hit and a flavor that I can vape all day. With that said, I can vape it all day for one day, two tops. Then I need a change. Something that isn't nearly as sweet. I've been vaping it all day and haven't found the need to change it out, granted I only have a little bit of one or two bottles of anything else left, but that's not the point. I personally think that if you can find a store that is selling this, pick it up and give it a chance. \n [Here's a website where you can pick some up.]( Can't vouch for how legit they are, but they have it in stock and you can order online.", "output": "Went down to my local smoke shop to stock up on some eliquid since I have given a lot away recently to friends who have just started vaping (glad to help them out on their journey off of analogs) and just finished up my last bottles of eliquid (Jungle Fever from Ruthless Vapor and Santa Sauce from Indigo Vapor). Decided to give Ruthless another go since I had such great success from Jungle Fever (put up a review on /r/electronic_cigarette a day or two ago btw if you want to check it out) so I checked out what they had and ended up getting purple drank.  Anyway, here's the review. \n Device: K100 mechanical mod\nTopper: Protank I\nNic Level: 12mg\nRatio: 85% VG \n Vendors Description: \"The flavor of grape skittles and grape soda\" \n Vapor - Took a nice long puff a few minutes after I loaded up my protank and was pleasantly satisfied with it. For a non RBA/RDA, I'm getting a nice amount of vapor. Nothing comparable to my old KM hookah, but a bit more than some other vapes I've had recently. There was more here than in the Jungle Fever that I had recently. 8/10. \n Throat Hit: I'm getting a nice tickle from this. Doesn't hit like a train or anything, but it's close to smoking an analog. Pleased with it. It's not going to knock you on your ass thankfully. The last juice I tried from these guys had no throat hit at all. AT ALL. I've had a few friends try Jungle Fever and they all agreed that while the flavor is amazing (their favorite flavor coming from a brand they've never heard of even) it just had absolutely no throat hit. Not with this. Just the right amount for me. 9/10 \n Flavor: Purple Skittles. That's the kind of grape that this has. The description says grape skittles with grape soda, but I'm not really getting the grape soda. A little bit on the exhale, but not extremely noticeable like the skittles are. Very sweet grape. Candy grape definitely. 7.5/10"}], "user_id": "longlamp_486", "history": [{"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "Got drunk off of a few bottles of JD. Danced like an idiot outside for a bit. Decided to walk around for some reason. Got lost. Middle of winter with no shoes or coat in NJ. Told my ex girlfriends best friend id rather have been with her. A drug dealer helped me find my way home. Got home. Dealt with parents (I was 17 or 18. This I had done a lot of drugs before but never much drinking until then). Go to room to relax a bit when they let me go since they either didn't know I was drunk or didn't care. My ex girlfriend (not the one I was talking about before) walks down stairs (she was hanging out with my mom at the time I think for some reason). We talk a bit. I'm dating someone btw. Next thing I know she's taking my pants off and ducking me. I get her off of me.", "id": "cdgz7sv", "summary": "got drunk, got lost, got home, got raped"}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "OP isn't saying he/she used to believe in religion then believed it to be false. That would be the circlejerk. OP is saying he/she believed religion was a thing of the past then learned that to not be true. Which in some places could definitely be true. Or how you were raised could lead you to believe that. This isn't a circlejerk, this is a legitimate answer. When I was younger (till maybe age 10) I believed that everyone believed in God. It wasn't until later that I met an atheist (or someone who expressed disbelief). Unfortunately, that person was a militant atheist. The type where if you wear a cross necklace he is offended (true story). He would bark at people and truly talk down to anyone who was religious and believed himself to be enlightened. Now I'm not saying I believed every atheist is like that, not did I ever, I'm just saying that was my first experience with anyone who did not have a religion (although with him, atheism was a religion).", "id": "con5atr", "summary": "OP isn't circlejerking, and I think I started rambling somewhere about my own experiences. Not all atheists are like the one I met, but this one was a complete stereotype. I think I'm rambling again...I need coffee...."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "So this happened yesterday. Myself and fellow band mates were chilling on the front steps of a library (we later got kicked out because two of them were loudly arguing over who was blacker) and we were talking about what we should name ourselves. After about 10 minutes I said \"let's call ourselves the stoop kids, because we just chill on this stoop and talk about things all the time\" and our singer looks me dead in the eyes and says \"except for the fact that people will make jokes about us\" I reply \"why? They'll just make hey Arnold jokes\" and he points to himself a and our bassist who are both place and said \"nah, they'll call us the porch monkeys\" and that's when I realized I was white and they were black. That's when I realized I accidentally racist'd", "id": "cldgcsu", "summary": "accidental racism"}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "Currently vegan but I'll give reasons as to why I didn't make the switch sooner. \n I started as vegetarian to work my way towards Veganism. I used it as a transition period. I planned to be vegetarian for a few months then become vegan. I started transitioning by cutting out milk first, but ended up moving out to Ohio to live in an intentional community and living with 7 omnivores (and one almost complete carnivore) made going vegan almost impossible on a shared budget of $300 a month for food so I continued as a vegetarian. I went a week as vegan during lent but ran out of food and had no money so I continued as a vegetarian. When I moved back home I made the switch to Veganism. Haven't looked back, although it's only been a short time.", "id": "ckbwlc7", "summary": "vegetarianism was a transition period for me, moved to Toledo Ohio and tried being vegan but due to group budget for food consisting almost entirely of animal products I had to go back to vegetarianism since I actually had no food to eat except peanut butter occasionally and bread. Moved back home and recently went vegan and haven't looked back."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "Vegan here with a rebuttal of sorts. \n We don't want to go to a steak house to begin with. The only reason we're there is because we're out with friends and that's where they wanted to go. Or maybe we were invited to a birthday party. We'll probably pre-eat, but we also don't want to sit around and not eat with others. Yeah, we can probably just down a few drinks, but then whoever invited you will kinda feel bad because they see you just sitting there and not eating. \n It's kinda a shitty situation that we really don't want to be in, but we want to try and make the best of it. No we don't expect an entire menu. An option without meat, eggs, cheese, honey, or any other animal product would be nice though. Hell, hummus and veggies and I'd be happy as fuck. Takes no time to prepare and you can still charge me $8 for it.", "id": "cofrils", "summary": "no vegan/vegetarian really wants to eat at a steak house. We don't want an entire menu either. But one menu item without animal products isn't really too much to ask for."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "Massive wall of text coming in :) \n Depends on what you already have. You'd want a decent set of batteries (I suggest the sony VTC 5 because if you want to start rebuilding you'll need a battery with a good amp limit in case you want to sub ohm, plus great battery life on these babies. 2600 mAh will last you a while), a good charger (nitecore and xtar make great chargers, although they are fairly expensive), a 510 atomizer (you don't have to rebuild just because you use a mech. You can use cartotanks, protanks and the like if your mech has good enough airflow. Some mechs don't provide airflow so then you'd need an atomizer that provides it's own airflow. I recommend the nautilus in that case), if you want to get into rebuilding then you'd need a rebuildable atomizer (for tank style the kayfun clones are great and easy to build on, for drippers I love my enigma, and genesis which is top wicking tanks I recommend the kraken clone), some resistance wire (if you aren't interested in sub ohm cloud chasing I say 30ga or 32ga kanthal would be good but if you want go under an ohm, I'd use like 24ga or 28ga kanthal), wicking material (silica used to be very popular. I use cotton for all of my builds though because I get what I consider to be better flavor. Stainless steel mesh is good for genesis style rebuildables also) and an ohm reader to check the resistance of your builds. Never fire a rebuildable atomizer unless you know the resistance first. Bad things may happen if you accidentally build a .3 ohm dual coil build and you're using an efest 10 amp battery. \n Another thing to remember about mechanical mods is that they won't shut off if your battery get too low. You'll notice a huge drop in performance though, so when you notice you're suddenly getting almost no throat hit and you aren't producing as much vapor as you were before, it's time to charge your batteries. You may want a multimeter as well to check your battery voltage so you don't accidentally over discharge your battery.", "id": "ci99ovl", "summary": "you don't need to start rebuilding immediately when you get a mech. You'll need good batteries, a good charger and a multimeter though, so there is a start up cost kin of."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "Downing a bottle of JD by myself and smoked some bud when I was 18. Never drank much back then so I got super drunk, especially since I didn't eat that day. I don't remember much but I went walking around my apartment complex with no shoes or jacket in the middle of winter trying to find my jacket and shoes. My local heroin dealer was kind enough I try and help me find my shit though. I stole a bike to get a guy to buy me the bottle (he needed to get to the town over). Also stole a wheel chair thinking he could ride it to the next town but ditched the idea and left the wheel chair a few blocks away. Anyway, apparently I talked a lot of shit about my childhood friend/ex girlfriend to her ex best friend. She found out and hasn't spoken to me in 3 years. My other ex girlfriend took advantage of me sexually (I was dating a different girl at the time) since she knew I was drunk as fuck and wouldn't put up much of a fight (I don't believe in violence and she's much stronger than I am, also she's fucking aggressive). Anyway, turns out I left my door wise open for an hour to my apartment and left my jacket and shoes inside the entire time. My dad was pissed beyond belief. I also misplaced my phone and it took my a week to find it (it was under my bed). \n I'm sure there's a lot that went on that day that I can't remember but yeah, it seemed like a good idea at the time.", "id": "cizrkgx", "summary": "stole a bike and a wheel chair, got drunk and high, lost my jacket and shoes in the winter time, became friends with a heroin dealer, destroyed 12 year friendship, was raped by an ex girlfriend, lost my phone, and possibly more all within a 4 hour period."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "80 from a B&M isn't bad. I'd be outraged at anything over $86.99 honestly but 80 isn't too bad. Expect mark up due to costs and rent and shit. These guys need to make a living, remember that. If you want to pay less, but from a discount vape shop online. Physical stores have expenses to pay.", "id": "ce8136q", "summary": "I'd pay $80 for it of it was from a B&M. They've got expenses to pay, remember that."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "B&M employee here. I don't recommend mechs or high wattage regulated devices to people jut starting off. I usually recommend the iTaste VV, MVP2 or an Evod depending on what's I'm stock. I encourage them to get to know vaping first. Get to understand ohms law, how batteries work, how much they can take in terms of wattage, and I explain to them how sub ohming isn't for everyone. Yes I get new vapers looking at mechs and RDAs looking to blow clouds, and if they're dead set on it I'll sell it to them. But only after I explain to them that they need to understand ohms law, not to over discharge or overcharge a battery, how to tell if a battery needs to be charged, all of the basics, things of the sort. I make sure they can at least repeat everything I've told them so I know they know what I told them.", "id": "clsmn2a", "summary": "new vapers will always want to jump into the deep end, if you teach them how to swim and sit on the side with a floatations device they should be okay. With that said they should still start out in the shallow end."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "The thing, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. So while the majority of Christians are just people who believe Jesus is the son of God (and might actually do a load of good things for their fellow brothers and sisters in this world and help their community) some are dicks and use faith as an excuse and they're the ones we hear about. It's the same with cops. While I don't recognize their authority (only authority I recognize is God), they aren't all abusive dog killers who try and put everyone in prison because they were bullied in high school.", "id": "cm1u5ld", "summary": "squeak and get grease."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "Dear God fruity rebels..... \n My coworker ordered a bottle about a month ago and was super excited to try it out. He rebuild his vertex clone and dripped some. Out of nowhere he starts coughing and gagging. I'm like \"dude, you okay?\" He's like \"try this juice.\" So I take a pull. It's way too much lemon. I start gagging also. So I rebuild my dark horse and try it out. Same reaction. \"Tastes just like Windex\" I tell him. \"That's exactly what I thought!!\" He tells me. \n Later that day my friend comes into the shop. We bring him over the bottle to try and he drips it. He takes a pull then starts gagging. He asks us if he just vaped straight Windex.", "id": "cp67rjt", "summary": "fruity rebels = Windex. \n Edit: love vapingwithtwisted420, love his videos, fruity rebels is just unvapable to me."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "I was (still kinda am) a huge fan of Star Fucking Hipsters and I heard their song with Blackbird Raum and found out about casa de chihuahua and I've also always been a fan of The Front Bottoms (they're kinda a folk punk band I guess but I've always considered them pop punk) since I live a county or two over from them and they used to play in my friends garage. anyway, from then on I got super into folk punk since I got really sick of the hypocrisy of the punk scene and all of the people trying too hard to be punk and shit. Also, I've always been a fan of folk music in general like Nick Drake and Woody Guthrie and Donovan and such.", "id": "cj67nr3", "summary": "I guess it was just a matter of time."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "I was 17. Your typical long haired stoner. I was hanging out with this girl and it was my first time at her place. So we're chilling and all of a sudden her mom walks by the bed room. She takes one look at me and says \"oh you're hot\" and keeps on walking. I'm so confused. Later that night we're all sitting around and she just says \"I'm sort, I just have a thing for long haired guys\". \n Another time at a different girls house I meet her mom. She takes one look at me and says \"oh your hair...it's so delicious\". I just sort of stand there and mumble thank you.", "id": "ci1qz3c", "summary": "my hair is delicious"}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "I thought that when I got my blu set up years ago. I thought \"why the fuck would I want something big like that? i just want something that will kill the craving and actually look like a cigarette. besides, my friends friend has one and she loves it\" \n A few years and countless cigarettes later my friend brought around an eVic. I decided \"well, maybe an eGo then\" Now i'm vaping a lavatube, and looking at getting an MVP.", "id": "cajt2cd", "summary": "I know that feel"}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "As a dripper, I would agree. I work n a brick and mortar and I can't count the amount of people who come in who are more than happy with their aerotanks. We get a few people who drip and many who buy drippers (sold 3 today) but the majority are more than happy with clearomizers. Dripping isn't for everyone, and subohm vaping isn't for everyone. Some people just dislike how it feels or how they have to redrip often. If you are content using a clearomizer then use it, or if you want more, use an RTA (kayfun, Russian, Lemo, fogger, whatever) or possibly a genesis RBA (kraken, RSST, whatever) if you like them.", "id": "cle9y83", "summary": "use what works for you. Not everything is for everyone."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "You're asking us to change who you are from this person to a new person. To be honest it will be hard, but wanting to change is a good first step. I wish I could give you some advice, but it's a change you really make on your own. You have already begun to change though just on the fact that you want to change. Notice what you are doing that makes you an asshole and try and slowly stop those habits. Ask your friend about what makes you an asshole (but be like \"I want to change, could you let me know when I'm being an asshole so I can change\" or \"I want to be better, what is it that I do?\" Or something so that he knows you aren't being confrontational. Being non-confrontational is the second step I'd say. After that, it's on you really to make the changes.", "id": "canvusm", "summary": "read my wall of text."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "Girlfriend and I were hanging out with a friend. She kept on getting calls from her ex that night. He kept saying they should meet up. She kept on telling him no. Eventually he called and said he'd meet her at her place. She told him no yet again and said she'd call the cops if he was there. We were dropping her off at her place when we realized her ex boyfriends truck was there. We parked and noticed he was waiting outside her house. She got out to talk to him and tell him to get lost. He got into his truck then started driving. Instead of leaving though he parked his car across the road, blocking us all in. He took out one of those huge wrenches and started walking out. I got my phone and called the police. My girlfriend ran up to him and told him to back off. He started yelling saying she was cheating on him and she was yelling back that they had already broken up. I called the police back because I fucked up and gave west instead of east as the address, and told them to get there quickly because the ex was armed. I yelled out something like \"hey fuckface, I just called the cops and they're on their way\" so he got into his truck and drove away. \n About 20 minutes later (damn that took a while as he left about 10 minutes after I initially called the cops) the police arrived. We all have our statements (my girlfriend also confided in them that he was raping her while try were dating) and she requested a restraining order. They said she could go down to the station the next day and request one. The police eventually left, and I offered to stay the night with her but she told me she'd be fine. In all honesty she would be because she's fucking strong and is kinda insane and could easily kill me with her bare hands. So my friend and I left, though i kept in contact with her all night to make sure things were okay. She was actually fine that night. She ended up breaking up with me shortly after and started dating him. The main reason I was with her at that point anyway was because I wanted her son to actually grow up with a father figure that was someone a good role model (not my child btw). She still sometimes randomly shows up at my place at anywhere from 10PM-2AM with no notice. Haven't seen her in a few months though.", "id": "cokwh9e", "summary": "girlfriend was harassed/stalked by ex. Ex goes full retard. Cops called. Takes forever. Find out she was being raped by him. Restraining order filed. She still leaves me for him."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "So we had broken up months before (she was fucking my best friend). Anyway, I was dating another girl at this point. I had gotten really drunk one day. after getting to my apartment I passed out on my bed. Next thing I know, she's there. She takes my pants off and starts fucking me. I eventually get her off of me though. I don't remember if she left right then or not. I was pretty fucked up at the time. Drugs and alcohol don't mix well. I repressed it until a year ago when I had relapsed onto opiates.", "id": "cdv1wif", "summary": "my ex girlfriend raped me."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "I didn't like box mods myself at first until I tried my friends MVP2 recently. I love the form of it, fits comfortably in my hand, won't roll around if I sit it on its side, all around great size. It's damn durable also. \n I never liked the vamo much. Not sure if it's the looks of it or what but yeah. It's a bit big also, not a problem for me but some people don't want to be seen sucking on a robot dildo. \n The MVP2 goes from 6 watts to 11 watts while the Vamo V5 goes from 3 watts to 15 watts. I doubt you'll be pushing 15 watts on a clearo or carto, but still something to keep in mind. \n Edit: the MVP2 can't swap out batteries like the Vamo can, but it has a long battery life and can power other devices like a phone and shit. Also, the MVP has a puff counter that pops up before you do almost anything with adjusting voltage or wattage. Just an afterthought you might want to keep in mind.", "id": "ce8a6eq", "summary": "The MVP is so comfortable to hold and won't roll around on you. The Vamo can push a bit more power but is huge. Hope this helps a bit."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "No. Simply put: they are given too much power and too often are given free passes in life. You are given the chance to \"leave your job\" instead of going to jail many times if you break a law or. Other than that, it is your word against someone in \"authority\", which will a jury believe first?", "id": "cakyuow", "summary": "nope, I don't trust cops."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "Don't worry too much. This was happening before you knew about it. Don't let it change shit. I had a strong feeling about this for the longest time and haven't changed what info online at all. Just keep on as you usually have. Don't let our government get to you this much. Don't give it this much power. Our government only has as much power as we give it.", "id": "cao4uwu", "summary": "stay mad on principal"}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "So my local B&M only sells local juices (i'm from jersey) aside from dekang and such which means I usually pay the extra and get the local juices. I usually order online but since my carto died and i don't have any left, I decided to take a trip to my local B&M and pick up a cheap clearo. There, I saw they had Halo Malibu (pina colada with menthol). I've been meaning to pick up some pina colada juice recently because it is getting to be the summer time (june 20th is summer, if i recall correctly). So i said why the fuck not and picked up the smallest bottle they had ( 30 mL for $24.99, if it weren't this good i'd feel ripped off) and a \"wickless\" CE4 clearomizer and headed home. When i got home, i took the dropper out and smelled the juice. It smelled mostly of coconut which i wasn't surprised about really. So i filled up the new clearo i got and put it on my lavatube, set the voltage to 3.7 and began vaping. Let me tell you now, this will be my new ADV for the rest of the spring and probably all of the summer. this may not be what everyone likes, but it tastes like a pina colada and a mentol cough drop combined. I personally love cough drops and i love pina colada and this mix was just perfect. The clouds are comparable to my hookah even.", "id": "t3_1g5oul", "summary": "Halo Malibu e-juice is my new ADV and i recommend checking it out if you like menthol and pina coladas. \n Edit: i should have probably said this was a review of a juice in the title in hind sight. oh well"}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "First off, I don't support doing this at all. Nothing being done here is safe and I straight up told the dude. \n So a guy came in to the B&amp;M I work at yesterday and bought a dark horse clone (this is amazing btw). He sits down and builds it. Triple parallel using 20ga, 22ga, and 24ga. Single coil and he put it on our Ohmreader. It wouldn't read since our Ohmreader only reads to .1 Ω. This build was bellow .1 ohms!!!!! He was using a vamped battery which is listed at 40a but is really like 20a since it's listing pulse discharge rate. \n So he takes out a bottle of juice and saturates his cotton. I ask what he's vaping and he replies 24mg!!!! 24mg!!!! He takes a huge pull and doesn't even react!! I'm sitting there thinking how can he even do that, so I ask to try it. Needed more throat hit actually. It was super airy.", "id": "t3_2nta3b", "summary": "guy builds bellow .1 ohms. Drips 24mg. I tried it. Needed more throat hit. \n Edit: for those getting up in arms over the fact that dripping 24mg isn't a big deal, you're forgetting that the resistance of the dual coil set up he had was unreadable on the Ohmreader. It was a triple parallel 20ga, 22ga, and 24ga and we guessed it was .04 or something. It was so fucking unsafe and I had to tell him it was. My main point I guess was just how fucking unsafe some people can be when vaping."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "So my friend/roommate said she's thinking about picking smoking back up to be more social and meet people in our apartment (people smoke on the roof a lot since there's a loft area) Basically she's thinking of becoming a social smoker. She had quit a little while ago, she said about a year ago i think. Anyway, we were walking back to our apartment when she told me so I suggested that she can always choose the tastier, less harmful option of vaping. I'm thinking of giving her my backup PV (either an eGo twist or a SID) and getting her a few bottles of zero nic or 6mg nic. Anyway, my point is that we shouldn't only focus on the smoker that still smokes. We can always deter former smokers from picking up analogs again.", "id": "t3_2007u6", "summary": "vaping isn't only for the current smokers. We can convert former smokers if they are thinking of picking up analogs again."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "I was not expecting this.... \n Meat was super easy for me to give up. I didn't like it to begin with and ethically couldn't justify eating it anyway. \n Cheese. I was that vegetarian. \"Oh, I just like cheese too much\". \"Oh, if it weren't for cheese I'd be vegan\". Of course, I went vegan anyway because I couldn't ethically justify drinking cows milk, eating eggs, eating cheese, honey or any other animal product. \n I had tried daiya. I had tried trader joes own brand. Purely disgusting overly processed shit. So I learned to go without cheese. Even fake cheese. Make pizza without cheese (still delicious btw. Always ask at your local pizzeria). Grilled guacamole sandwiches (fucking banging btw). Anything with cheese, I'd find a way around it. \n Today I stopped by whole foods after church so I could get a falafel sandwich because I hadn't really eaten anything today. While I was there I saw field roast chao. I had heard about it before. Heard it was actually decent. That price....that price though... $5.99 for 10 slices????? Fuck that shit. But....I was curious. I looked at what they had and found coconut herb which sounded pretty interesting. So I slowly cringed my way over and put it in the cart trying to forget the price. \n Got home after a few stops, opened the package, and took a nibble. I did an actual double take. Holy shit, this is actually really freaking good. Creamy, herby, almost tasted like cheddar, but also had its own tasty distinct taste. Gave a piece of a slice to my carnivorous dad and he said it was actually pretty good (although I've seen him snacking on my earth balance cheeze squares multiple times before so there's that lol). \n For the price....this will not be a staple. Not at all. Will I buy it again? Hell fucking yeah. But it's going to be my \"I'm really fucking depressed and just want a grilled cheese\" kinda food or my \"I'm in a super fucking good mood, I'll celebrate\" kinda food.", "id": "t3_2uflan", "summary": "chao is really fucking good. Especially the coconut herb one."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "Note: imgur is being shitty at the moment for me on my phone and I can't upload any pictures. I'll be linking the actual site and product page instead. \n So recently my SVD fucked up on me. Not reading any *omizers, firing at random times, not firing at other times, turning off and on randomly, ect ect. Being that I recently lost some funds and can't afford the provari I was about to order, I decided to go to my local b&m and bought [the knight]( from them. It looks a lot like the SID, except it's an 18350 only configuration. Not a problem. I like the size. The menu system is easy to navigate even if it is only one button. I was surprised. I'm used to multibutton menu systems and this one button menu system is easy to use. No learning curve at all. It goes from 3 watts to 15 watts and from 3 volts to 6 volts. I did have to search around for an ohm reader on it. turns out it was in the LCD options submenu. I think it should be one of the categories that you can choose in the main menu. would make things easier I think. The threading kind of sucks on it as well. Took a bit of time to get the cap back on when I put in the battery. other than those two things, i can't say much bad about this. Maybe I'd like a bit heavier PV but that's preference. I could do without the labeling also but at the same time I kinda like it. It's different \n On to the eliquid review. So I got it free with my kit. It's 70/30 PG/VG at 6mg. I decided on watermelon because it's one of my favorite non-tobacco flavors. It reminds me of my friends home made watermelon berry mix. It was tart but nice. Sort of sweet also. Nice clouds too. Not too big but they were satisfactory. very satisfactory. I'd go back again and not just because I love riding my bike to places. I'll be trying some other flavors in the future I think. \n Now to my first impressions of the B&M. I got there after riding my bike so I was fairly exhausted. There were two people in the store and I think they both worked there. They were friendly and helpful. They got what I needed and quickly also. The one asked if I had been a smoker at all and quickly chatted about that while the woman behind the counter got me my purchase. She asked if I knew how to operate it and if I needed help with it which I didn't but thought that was nice of her to ask. Their menu of flavors was very much a menu. They had everything in the glass counter and the liquids behind on a shelf. If I had the time I would have sat around a bit and had a vape while i was there but I was in a hurry so I declined the offer. The woman even filled my water bottle as I had biked a fairly long distance and was very thirsty. Everyone there was friendly and helpful. I'd definetly shop there again. Maybe someone looking for RDAs and RBAs or a hybrid or anything that isn't fairly simple but for the average vaper or a beginner, they'd be pretty helpful I think. I'll probably look elsewhere for my mech needs, but they'll be getting my business for cartos and e-liquid I'm sure.", "id": "t3_1nmj8o", "summary": "Knight: decent device. i'd recommend it to someone who needs a quick temp or is looking into trying VV/VW. \n Eliquid: not bad, pretty good. I like it. will try other flavors. \n B&M: Very nice people and helpful for beginner to average vaper. Plus a nice environment to vape I think."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "Posted this before on /r/talesfromretail but I'm sure it would get more love here. \n So I work at a B&M in NJ. I've only been working there for 2 weeks. We usually close at 9 but on Sundays we close at 7. It was around 6:30 PM when a dude I never saw before walks in. \n Dude: hey, I'm new to vaping but I'm looking to get a mech mod. \n Pretty standard. Nothing out of the ordinary. \n Me: okay, what's your budget? \n Dude: $100 \n Me: well, we've got a ton of clones that could suit you well, but if you bump up your budget a bit I could set you up with the Neptune hybrid. Authentic, and fairly inexpensive. \n I show him it and tell him if he's liking for flavor this is up his alley but if he wants clouds we could drill the airholes out for him. \n Dude: nope. I'm more into flavor actually. \n Me: sounds good, you'd need a good battery and charger  though if you're going to get this. \n Dude: I'm set with that actually, I use VTC5's. \n Wait, didn't this guy say he's a newbie? \n Dude: can I check out that Ra mod? \n Okay..we don't have names around any of these devices and the Ra isn't exactly well known, or cheap. Maybe he's been reading up and found this on our site though. \n Me: yeah. Sure thing \n Take it out of the case and show it to him. \n Dude: cool \n Suddenly he goes over to the RDA case and takes out the Vulcan and a drip tip that's shaped like a middle finger before I could stop him. \n Dude: thanks \n Suddenly he walks out of the store with it. \n WTF? \n I run out of the store to chase him down. Suddenly he turns around and extends his hand for a hand shake. \n Dude: hey there, you're AnxietyAttack2013 right? I'm (insert name here) I'm one of the owners of the store. \n We walk back in and my coworkers are laughing their asses off, as am I once my heart stops racing. \n We all chill out for the remainder of the night and before he leaves I jokingly threaten to check his pockets. He's a super cool guy once you realize he isn't a thief.", "id": "t3_2lno1c", "summary": "dude robs the store then turns out to be the super cool owner."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "So two people came in about an hour ago to get juice and so he could rebuild with low gauge kanthal. He was using the wonkiest panzer clone from fasttech and a tobh clone and the 24ga didn't fit in it so he bought an authentic mutation X V2. He built a coil and it didn't fire. He put it on his buddy's Pegasus clone and it fired. He put his friends plumeveil clone on and it wouldn't fire. Put on the tobh again and it fired. I spent about 20 minutes trying to troubleshoot this. I was about to give up when I thought \"why the hell not...\" And gave the center pin on the mutation barely 1/4th turn. The coils glowed like the 4th of July. I actually slapped myself for not trying that first.", "id": "t3_2n4wed", "summary": "did you try adjusting the center pin?"}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "So I work at a vape shop in my town. Only been working there for a few weeks, but I love it. Really enjoyable. Anyway, it was late on Sunday. 6:30 or so and on Sundays we close at 7. This guy walks in and I greet him as I greet everyone. \n Me: hey, how's it going? Looking for anyone in particular? \n Late dude: yeah, I'm just starting out but I'm looking for a mech mod and rebuildable dripping atomizer. \n Me: what's your price range? \n LD: around $100 \n Me: well if you bump up your budget to around $140 you can actually get pretty much everything you need right here. \n I go about showing him the product and talk to him for a bit. \n LD: can I see that Ra mod? \n (Note: we don't have the names of mods on the display case, and the Ra isn't a very well known device, but it is probably the most expensive product we have in the store at $280 for the model he was looking at) \n I realize he knows more than he's probably letting on, but oblige because maybe he saw it online and wanted to try it out in store. \n Me: yeah sure, here you go. It's a great mod, a few of the owners here use them. \n He then goes over and picks up a Vulcan RDA and a tip shaped like a middle finger. \n LD: thanks (walks out the door) \n Me: holy shit that just happened \n I run out the door to chase the guy down. As I get up to him he turns around and puts his hand out for me to shake. \n LD: hey I'm (insert name here) I'm one of the co owners here. \n We walk back inside and my coworkers are laughing their asses off. Now I know everyone. We all laughed about it after and he's a super cool dude but damn.", "id": "t3_2lhlcb", "summary": "store owner I didn't know stole from his own store to play a joke on me."}, {"author": "AnxietyAttack2013", "content": "So I was at the bar with my family tonight for what we call \"family therapy\". Once a week we go to the local watering hole together and knock back a couple (okay it's more like 6-8) beers and just have a good time since we don't get to see each other that much. Usually we start out with a few yuenglings and eventually I move on to the craft list as I enjoy a good beer. Now the bar I go to employs a couple of customers at the B&M I work at so aside from having a pretty damn good selection of microbrews, I get to sort of give back to the loyal customers at the shop I work at. I help them out at the shop and they hook me up with larger amounts of beer sometimes. For example, I'll get a glass of old gayrdian by stone and usually it's in a 12 oz tulip style glass but they're rad as fuck and hook me up with a full on pint of it for the same price as the 12oz glass. Shit like that. Anyway, my family was about to leave and I put my mod in the table as I was going to leave with them when I realized my shoes were untied. Fuck walking around with untied shoes, I don't wanna trip and fall. So I set my mod down and went to tie my shoes. Remember, I've put away about 6 or 8 beers (I don't remember how many now). After I was finished tying my shoes my family was out the door, so I went to grab my mod and leave also. That's when I realized my mod was gone. Now this wasn't a high end set up or anything, just a lavabox DNA200 and a griffin, but dammit it performs well. So I take another look. Still not there. Fuck...this sucks. I look outside to tell them that I'm gonna stick around a bit longer to ask if anyone's seen my mod. So I go outside and suddenly my dad has my mod. We have a laugh and lesson is learned. Definitely don't just leave your shit on the table or at the bar. You never know who might just take it haha", "id": "t3_465sdb", "summary": "I drunkenly lose my mod. Dad ended up taking to play a prank on me. Well played, first beers on me next time haha"}]}
+{"author": "solarnexus", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post yeah, sucks. but they've got to make money some how", "output": "I think this argument is a little short sighted. \n Computers and technology in general make it simple to produce products that on the face appear to be cheap and easy to make. Which forces you to create arbitrary limits to what you build in order to find any way to finance it. \n For example, did you know that network bandwidth was essentially free? I don't know about these days, but there was certainly a period when Internet bandwidth between carriers was negotiated on a quid-pro-quo basis and most carriers didn't overcharge. \n Yet it became necessary as part of the pricing plan of highspeed internet to charge for something that cost them nothing, because it had value to the customer. \n Mobile phone text messages are the same. From a network providers point of view, they are essentially free (certainly on their own network) but that didn't stop over a decade of charging through the nose for the privilege. \n While I can certainly understand the vitriol over Facebook screwing customers over what is a perceived reduction in service, when the platform is free, you've got to find ways to pay for it. Sometimes - most times in fact, that means creating arbitrary limits."}], "user_id": "longlamp_14737", "history": [{"author": "solarnexus", "content": "and this people, is why Gift Vouchers are almost  worthless ... \n They're like real money, only you can use it at one place. \n They're like real money, only they have a time limit. \n They're like real money, only if the store chooses, they can refuse to accept it. \n They're like real money, only it often causes more hassle to redeem than using cash. \n They're like real money, only you don't always get the full value (e.g. when you would ordinarily get change, not all retailers will give you said change) \n They're like real money, only you don't earn loyalty points (many retailers do not allow you to claim loyalty points on their loyalty cards if you use a gift voucher) \n They're like real money, only you can't earn interest on them. \n They're like real money, only often aren't accepted online (via [cube1701]( \n They're like real money, only they can't be refunded or exchanged for cash (via [purifol]( \n They're like real money, only they're not, and just all-around-shit.", "id": "c7xw3bq", "summary": "gift cards are stupid. just give the cash, it's a more  thoughtful  present"}, {"author": "solarnexus", "content": "Given the prevalence and popularity of shows like  The Big Bang Theory  which on the surface appear to make Geek culture look  trendy  but actually aim to ridicule it and anyone genuinely involved in typically  nerdy  or  geeky  pursuits, I'd say that yeah... kids and adults still get bullied over being themselves. \n Don't be fooled by the current trend of 'geek chic', its entirely false. Nothing about it celebrates being a geek or a nerd, it celebrates a stereotype not the actual culture. \n Think of it like St. Patricks day - sure, everyone goes green for a day, but are they celebrating the culture or the stereotype of drunken, loutish, Irish?", "id": "c8tloxm", "summary": "yes. people still make fun of others for being different. they probably always will."}, {"author": "solarnexus", "content": "I keep trying to think of what you could get done in one day with an entirely new team, with no experience of your code base or game idea and frankly I can't come up with any realistic scenario where you can get anything substantial done. \n Unless you've got piecemeal tasks already lined up which could be out-sourced to almost anyone in the various fields these guys work in, the  only  advantage I can see to this is maybe getting them to train your team up on something. \n You can't just subplant a new team and expect to get something done in a single day, its madness.", "id": "c2yd34y", "summary": "interesting marketing idea. impractical in reality."}, {"author": "solarnexus", "content": "Interesting. I might have something to say about this one. I've circulated the Irish/Dublin startup scene and have attended way too many events, so might have some insight on this. \n I am far more cynical than this slideshow would encourage \n Almost every one of the tech companies that exist in Ireland are here for localisation, translation or sales purposes. We do not make anything. You cannot have a services-only startup ecosystem. Right now Ireland is a safe tax haven and a resource for US-European relations, not a lot else. \n The Startup culture in Ireland is absurd - I've been to almost every event you can think of and the quality of startups are dire, honestly. I don't know if this is a trend world wide, but what I see would be funny if it weren't so depressing. \n There is a lot of hype but not much substance - incubators like NDRC, Startup bootcamp etc have a presence but valuing a company at less than or equal to 500,000 means that by default almost every company has a glass ceiling before you even begin - and don't get me started on startup bootcamp's hyped up valuation - its 8% for 13K the rest is vapour (financial advice that they wont even stand up to - 'not to be taken as real advice' nonsense). \n Those who have been successful in any meaningful sense (Collison brothers are a great example) were 'seeded' in Ireland but 'germinated' in the states. We have smart people, but not the financial, technological or human capital to back it up. \n greater than 75% of all programming jobs I'd say are supplemented if not wholly occupied by outside sources. I haven't been in a single IT department that wasn't greater than 60% spanish, polish or other non-national. My point being that Ireland is only capable of fulfilling IT roles by massive import from abroad - and without things like an IT visa, thats not exactly easy. \n Don't get me started on the quality of IT graduates, holy crap. so bad. \n Ireland is small. too small. I personally know, or have interacted with way too many people on that 'people to know list' than I should have, seriously. \n Ireland right now is developing a strong hyped-up startup culture. Startup events where drinking is a main part of the activity is rampant - fuckin' pub crawls are not how to do business. I don't care who you are, or where in the world, but that's just disgraceful. \n The fact that NCI is on this list fills me with fear. STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM THE NATIONAL COLLEGE OF IRELAND.", "id": "c9asrpl", "summary": "Ireland is not a place to be a startup. not yet. this is just a load of hype."}, {"author": "solarnexus", "content": "I'll take the bait. \n Pedophiles are sick. There is something about them which they cannot control, to say that pedophiles choose to be so is akin to saying gay people choose to be gay. Whether genetics or whatever, a pedophile is a pedophile because they have a brain of one - not because they choose to hunt children. \n Despite media and hyperbolic reactions, many pedophiles do not actually commit heinous crimes and will recognize the socially inappropriateness of their sexual desires. \n My point is this: A pedophile is no more a monster by definition than anyone else. They are sick and deserve some degree of respect in this regard. \n When you start acting like the only way to treat these people is to kill them, then you end up having horrible situations where we are now, where they can't even seek treatment without being registered as sex offenders. \n We live in a world where pedophiles can't even seek out help or try to find other ways to relieve their desires through simulated child porn (animated or otherwise) or seeking counseling, without breaking the law.", "id": "c52dmyk", "summary": "we're all fucked"}, {"author": "solarnexus", "content": "I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the constructs of the English language. \n > In real life, people like you for being a girl. They want to fuck you... \n People is a generalisation whereas \"girl\" is a specific kind of the type person. \n for example: \n > In real life, politicians like you for being a liberal. They want to fuck you... \n Not a massive change there in the sentence structure, and yet by your logic this would be to suggest that liberals cannot be politicians. \n > And I'd like people to start referring to me with gender neutral pronouns if they don't know what gender I am. \n The English language, does not have sufficient support for this ideology. Historically and presently, English does not have any truly agreed upon gender neutral pronoun that is [universally acceptable]( \n For example, the \"it\" is gender neutral, however if people went around calling women \"it\" in an attempt to be gender neutral, some people are going to get butt-hurt pretty damn quickly. \n the reason the presumption that a person on the Internet is male, is that for 99% of its existence, if you were on the Internet, you were male. \n It is a fairly recent phenomenon that the Internet has reached a more diverse part of the population, outside of academia and geeks/nerds. Yes there are women who are geeks/nerds and women who are academics, but statistically speaking, the percentage of the female population versus male has historically been significantly slanted towards men being the predominant gender.", "id": "c530pcy", "summary": "you're getting butt-hurt over nothing."}, {"author": "solarnexus", "content": "Okay, first of all, dont bite my head off because you have an axe to grind. No one person speaks for the entire reddit community, and if anyone did, I doubt my comment would be included amongst those being considered. \n I was commenting, not commending. You might want to learn the difference. \n Now onto your own stupid comments, since you've chosen to attack me like my comments represent all of reddit: \n 1) Where exactly have the people of reddit been saying that women deserve to be raped? \n 2) Nobody suggested that you should be raped for \"not dressing like the Amish\". In fact I'd say most people in this testosterone filled thread would actually prefer women in general dont dress in such a manner. \n 3) Men, I assume you address men, represent about... give or take... 50% of the world. That kind of, you know, makes them part of society. a not inconsiderable part of society. So yeah. technically if you dont conform to what 50% of what society thinks is appropriate, you really aren't conforming.", "id": "c2oclml", "summary": "your comment is self contradicting and pretty much sexist. well you represented your gender wonderfully. \n Let me remind you once more, I was not commending, I was commenting, specifically on your half baked response."}, {"author": "solarnexus", "content": "But before I explain this, let me define what I mean by \"free will.\" I mean it simply as the way most people think of it: When faced with two or more alternatives, it's your ability to freely and consciously choose one, either on the spot or after some deliberation. A practical test of free will would be this: If you were put in the same position twice — if the tape of your life could be rewound to the exact moment when you made a decision, with every circumstance leading up to that moment the same and all the molecules in the universe aligned in the same way — you could have chosen differently. \n I don't agree with this definition of free will at all. \n Choices and the deliberation of them are an aspect of the person you are. The molecules in your body, the chemistry of your brain, your personality, the environment, your past (upbringing) etc. all culminating in a present \"you-ness\". \n The principle precept of the concept of  making a decision  is that you use the evidence available to you focused through the lens of who you are and your experiences of the world to pick the best outcome out of those available to you. \n For the sake of argument lets say you could run an experiment where a person is given a choice between A, B and C and you see what their answer is. Then you turn back the clock. What has changed? Nothing. \n There is no extra information provided, no extra stimulas, no extra analysis or information to suggest that you would ever make a different decision. The only thing that has changed is time, which is outside of the experience of the person being tested. \n To suggest that you would make a different decision is to suggest that all your choices are made as if by random chance, or at most a combination of decision making and random chance. \n Of course there's some room for a discussion with quantum mechanics thrown in, but to what extent if any the randomness of the underlying fabric of the universe plays in a our macro world has yet to be determined (as far as I know).", "id": "c3duzop", "summary": "given the exact same state of the universe and test subjects, with no new information, the same choices will always be made. This does not prove or disprove \"free will\". article proposes a definition that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."}, {"author": "solarnexus", "content": "The majority of modern consumer economics is based on manipulation of the idea of a free lunch. \n You could argue that in a closed system there is no free lunch (conservation of energy ala thermodynamics anyone?), but as a personal cost to the consumer there are many occasions where there is a \"free lunch\". \n The company benefits by the advertising, word of mouth etc. generated. Or in the case of coupons, the potential for multiple high margin purchases at the time time and/or encouraging loyalty.", "id": "c3gdo5m", "summary": "yes, there is such a thing as a free lunch."}, {"author": "solarnexus", "content": "it is essentially stealing food from my plate for your[s] \n That is a  very bad  analogy. That is the same kind of analogy that corporations like the RIAA and MPAA make when people download and/or distribute songs or movies. \n You have not, by the act of duplication alone, inherently lost something you would have otherwise had. \n However, you are absolutely due  compensation  for what you create and you have the  right of refusal  for copying, creation of derivative works etc. These are the intangibles that would've been taken away from you, not direct revenue. \n The way you word it, it makes it sound like if a copycat doesn't copy your work that you will by default earn more than if they do. That math doesn't add up in the real world. \n Now going back to something else you said... \n > being a a fellow photographer it hits me hard and is one of my greatest fears \n Frankly in this day and age, this is the case of  all creative works which can be represented digitally . Software, Photography, Writings, Art etc. \n I think, as professional one of these industries and a hobbyist in others, if my work gets to a point where it is passed off by another I will think a couple of things: \n \n Well, damn, at least they appreciate my work. +1 to confidence \n Okay, they appreciate the content, not the creator - better do whatever I can to tell others I made it, and try to get paid. \n I hope they spent a lot of time advertising this stuff, saves me a small fortune.", "id": "c7epywl", "summary": "piracy has its upsides. people at large care about creators more than frauds. if you create something they love, they'll support you. if what you create doesn't inspire love, then its nothing worth getting worked up over."}, {"author": "solarnexus", "content": "what in kafkaballs's reply made you do a u-turn? \n The author didn't seem like a complete dick when replying and kafkaballs felt guilty for appearing to be somewhat rude, maybe? It did appear to be a completely unreasoned u-turn. \n In any case, a rage comic is a good way to get  like minded  people interested. It would put me off because I have my limits of internet meme acceptance, particularly in the real world. \n That said, posting it in /r/Ireland I'm not a fan of. Then again, if people upvote it, the community have spoken, so I cant really say its inappropriate to the community.", "id": "c5wdno2", "summary": "just let sleeping dogs lie"}, {"author": "solarnexus", "content": "You are quite clearly arguing the point simply because you support Polytron and Fez, not because what you say is right. \n They have worked on the game for, by now, approx 4 years or so? In that time, they have had frequent contact with Microsoft and have no doubt had the opportunity to discuss such things. \n I think that while many of us can appreciate that the large fees (40k) for updating a game is rather straining for an indie, XBLA is a market place meant for people who have their shit together enough that they understand such things. By partnering with Microsoft, you have to agree in principle to these things. \n The fees are not solely to be dicks, they are there to protect customers precisely from the kind of problems that have plagued Fez - game breaking bugs. Had Polytron sufficiently tested the game and/or its fixes, this problem would not have happened. \n Moreover, the biggest problem here for them seems only that their inexperience or naiveté is eating into their potential profits. It is quite clear from everything I've seen of the guys behind Fez, that they are more an arthouse than a business - while this is not an issue in and of itself, blaming Microsoft for your lack of business prowess is pathetic.", "id": "c5g62we", "summary": "it's their own fault, Microsoft may still be working on an old model but it is a model that they signed up to  four years ago"}, {"author": "solarnexus", "content": "I'm starting to properly kit out my electronics bench with proper equipment. I've been using a real el-cheapo no-brand meter for years now and I think its time I get something half decent. But what to get? \n I've watched Dave Jones' youtube budget multimeter shoot-outs on youtube but to be honest, after watching them I feel  less  sure of buying budget meters. The build quality mainly, the seemingly randomness of internal build quality really put me off (especially the Extech EX330 having a broken trace \"fixed\" with a bodged wire soldered on). \n Price also seems to be a thing for me, if I'm going to be paying what essentially amounts to 100euro or so for a budget meter, I'd be just as willing to double up and pay 200euro+ for a really high quality one and just be done with it. \n ---", "id": "t3_nc7gb", "summary": "What is a good quality meter for electronics use, that doesn't cost the world? Having said that though, I will pay more if it means it'll survive for years without worry (lifetime warranty?) \n The two I've been mulling over are the Fluke 116 (even though it says for HVAC?) and the Fluke 17b (chinese made supposedly 'official' Fluke)."}]}
+{"author": "GnarShredd", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Some artists can be arrogant dicks, best to ask before snapping shots. It just depends on the show.", "output": "I have some artist friends that I've known since college. Went through fine-arts programs (one is still currently in one). None of them have a problem with it, it helps showcase their work since the people taking the pictures are likely to share them with friends or are sometimes even potential buyers who just want to see how the painting might look in their house if they buy it. \n With that said, my friends are really easy-going and there are some uptight artists who are definitely against it. Usually it's the arrogant, \"I'm an artist so I understand everything better than you\" type. Usually if these types are showing, they'll have posted signs that say no photography. Flash photos are DEFINITELY a no-no, even for some non-uptight artists as flash can ruin the painting over time (granted, a REALLY long time, but still, extra and uneccesary wear-and-tear). \n I can't remember the name but there is an \"artist\"/photographer that is making waves in the industry by taking photos of other photographer's works in a way that you can not tell the original from the picture she took (did I lose you there? haha)."}], "user_id": "longlamp_2746", "history": [{"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "Hahaha. I was a bit of a late bloomer, didn't get a first kiss until high school. Went to go see one of the Lord of the Rings movies on a date. Part way through the film, we ended up kissing and she suddenly went in to full makeout mode. I panicked at first but then kept it together because I realized one of my favorite parts of the movie was coming up (I saw the movie already the week before). I was leaned over so my eyes were facing away from the screen but I managed to swap sides so I could get full view of the movie while she continued the marathon makeout. Her eyes were closed and she never knew the difference.", "id": "c21g3me", "summary": "I'm a nerd."}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "I use the same name for a lot of things. I did recently switch my name on Starcraft 2 though to something less goofy since that's the game I'm starting to focus on the most. \n I picked \"GnarShredd\" to kind of poke friendly fun at wakeboarding/surfing community culture (of which I'm a part of) and how silly some of those people can be, specifically the 'bro' type. I originally had it on message boards for those sports and it carried over in to my gaming world too even though it doesn't make much sense in gaming. I used it on a lot of things because it's unique and I hate putting random numbers in screen names but I'm starting to use my new name as I can. I'll still use GnarShredd in wakeboard communities though since people recognize it.", "id": "c2u47lm", "summary": "Nope, used to be but I picked my name as a little joke and am in the process of changing it now in my gaming."}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "I recieved a pair of headsets (the wired version) a couple weeks ago and have been using them quite a bit. I play Starcraft 2 at least 2-3 times a week using voice chat over skype with friends and used the headset for that purpose and listening to music. \n Sound  - The first thing I have to say is they have absolutely amazing sound quality. I wouldn't consider myself an audiophile by any means, but they're crisp, clear, and everything just sounds perfectly balanced from low bass-notes of hip-hop to the high-pitched sounds offered by 8-bit music (my favorite while grinding ladder games in Starcraft). A complete treat to the ears and definitely the best headphones I've ever used sound-wise for the price they're being offered at. \n Compaitibility/Use  - Second, the options provided are great for a gamer. The wired headsets with mic worked easily on Mac, PC, and gaming consoles (tried mine with an Xbox360) and each one is super easy to use, just plug and play, I had no problems at all. One nice thing that seemed above and beyond other headsets I've used is the options provided for various volumes. You can not only do the standards like adjust overall volume, mute your mic, or mute the entire headset; but you can also adjust how loud the in-game voice chat sounds over the game noises when the headset is plugged in to a console. Just a simple turn of a dial next to the volume knob either raises your teammates voices or the in-game volume depending on what you want to listen to more, really nice touch. \n Hardware  - My only gripe. As soon as I pulled them out of the box, the build quality seemed a little off. They seem to be a bit of a cheaper plastic and are very light-weight. With that said, I've had no problems and no signs of breaking or weak-points at all like I've found quickly with other headsets I've owned but again, I've only been using them for a couple weeks. With that said, they're extremely comfortable and I've worn them for a couple multi-hour gaming sessions without issue. Included with the set are all of the cables you need, all of which are super-long to accommodate any gaming position. The setup for the xbox 360 stretches all the way to my couch with room to spare, which is awesome. The mic seemed to work ok, I didn't get any complaints from anyone I played with. \n What I'd Like to See  - Some things I would like to see would be removeable/replacable earphone cups (the part that touches your head). I've had that wear out on other headsets but it's too early to tell on these. Another nice thing would be a retractable microphone instead of one that just plugs in to a jack in the bottom of the headset. I could see myself losing this in travel and the connection it provides is a little awkward at times since the mic can sometimes spin away from you if you lean forward quickly. The last thing I'd like is a better travel option. They fold fairly nicely but including a case (or having one for purchase) would be awesome to make sure you have everything with you if you're traveling to gaming events/LAN parties.", "id": "c33fyqd", "summary": "Amazing sound quality that's crisp, clear, and covers a wide range. Extremely comfortable. The build-quality feels like it's lacking a bit with seemingly cheap, lightweight plastic but only time will tell if it holds-up (great so far!). I'd recommend these for someone looking within the price-range and are fairly careful with their gaming hardware, great audio value for the money."}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "My entire high school was basically demolished by a hurricane within the first few weeks of my last year there. Guess what the first thing that was rebuilt was? That's right, a football stadium. Not just any football stadium, but easily the most expensive one in the area. It took years to recover the rest of the school while all of the students took classes in portable trailers. \n As for academics, everything was extremely lackluster. Fortunately I mostly was in what were considered \"honors\" classes but for the most part, it was a joke. I will say that there were 4 or 5 teachers throughout my entire time there who really made a huge difference and cared; unfortunately I can't say that about most of the school.", "id": "c25e9p9", "summary": "Too much emphasis on sports, none whatsoever on academics."}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "Barcraft is a nation-wide phenomenon where fans get together, drink beer, eat food, and watch professional Starcraft. Just like football, basketball, and baseball, us nerds are carving our own way to get together and scream wildly at a television set. Even if you've never watched Starcraft before, there are commentators keying you in on every step of the action so you won't be lost and I guarantee it'll be a great time (there will also be plenty of fans willing to share their knowledge with you). \n We started with a group of about 25 people and have since grown to over 50 attending our last barcraft event. This is completely done by us who are fans of the game and we're hoping to show that gamers can compete with the crowds that professional sports can draw, please tell your friends! \n This is going to be our biggest event yet for the finals of the premier North American gaming league, MLG. Players from all over the world will be competing to win the first prize of $50,000. We're meeting to watch at Peabody's in Tampa at 3:30PM on Sunday, Nov. 20th. The bar is ages 18+ only. Let me know if you have any questions about this event or Barcraft events/Starcraft in general!", "id": "c2vuadj", "summary": "Drink Specials & Video Games"}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "Oh god, this is how I knew I was a nerd. I took a girl to see Lord of the Rings, she was in to that kind of thing so I was kind of stoked. Anyway, mid-way through I lean in from the front and she's all over me. I soon realized that coming up was one of my favorite parts of the movie (I had seen it already the week before) so I managed to pull a switcheroo while maintaining full makeout mode so I could face the movie screen and watch my favorite part while kissing.", "id": "c1tdaep", "summary": "First kiss was making out during Lord of the Rings in a way that I could still watch the movie."}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "I think I've told this somewhere on here before: \n In pre-school (I was probably about 4 years old, it's one of if not the earliest memory I can recall) I was sent outside to sit in the hall as a result of my participation in a class-wide \"silly face\" contest at the end of the day. I went with the ever popular \"twisted moose antler hands with wide eyes and a tongue sticking out\" and my teacher thought I was sticking my tongue out at her maliciously. I sat in the hall, crying and facing the wall until my mom and grandmother picked me up 15 minutes later.", "id": "c2de10g", "summary": "My entry in a silly face contest was apparently malicious."}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "Nothing came of it other than an all-night conversation. But i met a woman at a bar in Austin, TX; she invited me over, fed me drinks, then proceeded to tell me she had to catch a private plane the next morning at 8AM (it was 5 or 6 in the morning at that time, right when I'm going in and out of blackout mode). I offer to catch a cab back to my hotel, she said no and tells me to come upstairs with her. I collapse in her bed (WHICH WAS THE BEST BED EVER) and she packs for her trip. She just left me there with her keys and told me to lock up. The place is super nice, huge TV's and nice art everywhere. I find out later that this was a $500k condo.", "id": "c1txmcz", "summary": "Followed some woman home, ended up with keys to Half Million $ Condo."}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "Soaked tennis balls in gasoline then Ligt the tennis balls on fire and hit them back and forth with tennis rackets/bare hands (you have to be really quick but it can be done). A really drunk kid happened to be around and freaked out when the ball came close to him and he kicked it. The ball rolls across my friend's roof and starts a small fire in the back yard. We put the fire out and call it a night. We go inside and sit on the couch and my friend's neighbors burst in the door yelling \"We just called the fire department, your roof is on fire!\" My friend had gotten a written arrest earlier in the night for providing alcohol to minors and he did not want to deal with a fire department so him and i jump on the roof and get the fire put out just as the truck rounds the corner. We decide it's a great idea to jump off of the roof to get down quickly and not be seen. He jumps first, lands and takes off running and goes and hides (remember, he already had a run-in with cops earlier) and i decide to jump down after. My foot catches the gutter and I fall about 10 feet to their concrete back porch, amazingly with little more than a bruise (i still to this day can not believe I didn't break a wrist/arm/shoulder since that's how i came down. Firefighters walk through the house, I pretend to be passed out on the couch and cover myself in blankets to cover the gasoline smell. They walked through, decided everything was ok, and left.", "id": "c1t6xet", "summary": "While playing fireball tennis a drunk kid lit my friend's roof on fire and I fell 10 feet to concrete after putting it out before the firefighters got there."}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "I'm so excited I have a chance to bring this up. I was in Canada as a stop during a Lake Erie multi-day sailing race. We were stuck in port due to weather so we decided to go to the nearest mall and catch a movie. While waiting for a cab after the film, we see a group of teenagers walking fast as a security guard bursts out the door behind them. Right at that moment a couple security cars pulled up and stopped the group. Security walks over to one of the kids holding a bundled-up sweatshirt, opens it up, and it's a small plastic cage with a turantula. Yes. Someone thought it would be a fantastic idea to steal a turantula from the pet store.", "id": "c29uju2", "summary": "A Turantula"}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "Nothing specificly oustanding as a good story, but I went to Costa Rica with another family to go surfing ang sight-see as a trip before my first year of college and they talk a lot of trash about tourists, mostly in jest and good fun though. \n This was amplified by the fact that the father of the family we were with (he taught me and my best friend how to surf, part of the reason he brought us along on his family vacation, we'll call him \"Ted\") had been to costa rica 8 times, but still couldn't speak hardly any spanish. Usually it just devolved in to him speaking english with a spanish accent, it was hilarious. Me on the other hand, I was semi-conversational at the time but I was also 6'2\" and a ginger, so nobody would expect me to understand anything. Once they heard Ted speak they realized what they were dealing with and would go to town.", "id": "c2im2uk", "summary": "Natives make fun of tourists, mostly all in good fun."}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "I'm a pretty low-level player (at my best and when I was playing the most, I never broke low-gold but was only playing a couple hours a week or so) but am starting to play more than ever and I want to make the switch to Protoss from Terran. Admittedly, Huk has been one of my favorite players for a long time and seeing him at MLG this past weekend finally pushed me over the edge to take the plunge. Any advice? \n I'm going to start by learning the standard [12-gate build]{ on Liquipedia, but don't really know where to go from there. I know I have a LOT to learn and will be watching as many replays as I can but I want to focus on actually playing as much as possible as opposed to just watching games all the time (I fell in to that trap before and that's why I still suck). \n So I ask of you r/Protoss, even though you're a tiny community, can you help me?", "id": "t3_lfjkz", "summary": "I'm a Terran taking the plunge and switching to Protoss. Help!"}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "I have a thinkpad from 2006 or so that I don't use anymore (used it up until last year when I finally upgraded). I got it to take notes and write papers in college. It's only got a 30 gig harddrive and not too much power to speak of and I'm currently running Ubuntu Netbook edition. So, is there anything cool/fun that I can do with it?", "id": "t3_ju4qh", "summary": "Have somewhat old but functional laptop, how can I make it useful?"}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "I bought a house a year or so ago and have slowly been making it in to exactly what I want. I knew from the beginning I wanted Firefly involved somehow in my inspiration for the interior design. As of now I've painted the walls gold/yellow and red (after, in my opinion, the most important rooms in the ship, the engine room being red, and the galley being yellow). I have a big, dark, wooden table and seating for plenty to keep that family atmosphere feeling in the series. I'm going to get a few of these lights to hang above the table (or similar) as soon as I can afford them  light 1   Light 2  \n(they remind me of something Inara might have in her ship). I also have long, gold curtains, reminiscent of the overall aesthetic and kind of after Inara's ship as well. \n I kind of want to stay away from any heavy, traditional Chinese influence but other than that I'd love to really bring something in to really make the Firefly/Serenity theme special. So I come to you, any ideas?", "id": "t3_ju5h0", "summary": "My house is Serenity, what should I put in design-wise?"}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "My town was hit by Hurricane Charley in 2005. Many friends lost homes, local businesses were destroyed, and my high school had to be demolished due to damage. In additon to that, we were out of electricity and regular comforts for about a month while we put the town back together. I literally went through the eye of the storm and helped hold our house together in 150+ mph sustained winds (with reported gusts up to 170mph); this sustained speed is just below the strongest category hurricane on the scale (category 5, like Katrina). \n Although some people left town until problems could be fixed, my family and I stuck around and provided as much help as we could in the community until we could get back to somewhat normal life. \n AMA!", "id": "t3_h47bi", "summary": "I went through the eye of a Category 4 hurricane and stayed to help the cleanup effort in my town."}, {"author": "GnarShredd", "content": "Mine occurred while flying back to Florida from visiting family in Pennsylvania. I was about 15 at the time. A bit awkward, kind of quiet. I just liked to get on the plane and throw my headphones on for the entire 2.5hr flight. \n I had a middle-seat with one open seat on either side of me. I sat down and the person at the window was a kind of cute girl, around my age. We chatted a bit before our final seat-mate arrived. She seemed nice enough, and was actually talking to me so it seemed like a good start. After a bit of this, the guy sitting in the aisle seat sat down. He was in his mid-late 40's, balding a bit, out of shape but not crazy obese. We all started talking a bit about where we were going and the like. As the plane pushed away from the gate and we took off, things got more interesting. \n The guy was still talking and the girl and I were listening about how this guy was going to visit his kids and it was the first time seeing them in a few years. There was a slight pause as the girl put her headphones on and she exited the conversation. I was about to do the same and the guy suddenly kept talking. Soon he revealed to me that he hasn't seen his kids because his wife left him and took them. His story slowly spiraled out of control until he broke down right there on the plane telling me his story, I'm taking verge of tears, anger at his ex-wife, the works. As soon as this started, I noticed the girl next to me clapping quietly but violently, she had started dancing and doing cheerleader-esque arm movements in her seat while lip-syncing. So I was stuck for the whole flight between a girl dancine with arms flailing and clapping, and a guy having a mid-life crisis. Neither one of them stopped until the end of the flight (the girl a little earlier because they make you turn off electronic devices early) and the guy kept talking basically until we walked off of the plane. Thank god it was a relatively short flight", "id": "t3_jgurc", "summary": "Stuck in middle seat. Girl on my right was cheerleading, guy on my left had a break-down and poured his life story out to me... a 15 year old kid, for the entire filght."}]}
+{"author": "HollowImage", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post its okay to ask fr an extension, you have nothing to lose. dont be afraid of your prof.", "output": "it takes a while for students to understand that college work load is large (assuming you are there to learn and not go to keggers every night). and the next thing takes even long: asking professors for extensions is OKAY and moreover sometimes blindly necessary. \n If you ask for an extension, you stand nothing to lose, but a lot to gain: 1. profs disposition to your will to turn in a quality assignment granted another day, 2. a kick in the arse for procrastinating this long. \n the latter helps in the long run, the former in the immediate future. \n In both cases, you win or at least NOT lose. \n From what I learned, though, you do have to exercise some care about HOW you ask for the said extension; depending on the professor, discipline and type of the assignment. papers, are easiest, problem sets with solutions posted right after are the hardest. Everything else lies in between. Sometimes you can negotiate a partial extension; for the problem set for instance, turn in what you have as is, and the rest asap, and suffer some finite penalty, If there is some honor code at the school, just promise the prof you wont look at the solutions, and that may also help your case (though not always)."}], "user_id": "longlamp_3064", "history": [{"author": "HollowImage", "content": "UofC Update: \n just got this email \n >To: All students\n>From: Marlon Lynch, Associate Vice President for Safety and Security and Chief of Police\n>Subject: Weather emergency – Shelter in place\n>Date: February 1, 2011\n> \n>Weather conditions have deteriorated significantly in the last few hours, and it is no longer safe to travel outdoors. Due to several accidents, campus shuttle bus service was suspended at 9 p.m. High winds, blinding snow and cold make walking dangerous.\n> \n>If you are in your residence for the evening, we ask you to stay there and not to venture outside. If you are in a building on campus, we also ask you to take shelter where you are. We know of some larger groups of people in campus buildings, and are working to support them. If you are stranded and you do not have support where you are, or are concerned for your safety, please call University police at 123 from any campus phone, or at 773-702-8181.\n> \n> This is a serious situation, and we ask you to heed warnings. Do not put yourself in a situation that is unsafe.", "id": "c1f58uc", "summary": "its dangerous to go outside. classes are not canceled. people are stranded in the library and other places (including myself)"}, {"author": "HollowImage", "content": "See what i mean? Why are you so defensive? \n You put  a picture of yourself in a sureddit whose sole purpose is to say the first impression. Currently that impression is that you try too hard. \n You are trying to show your outfit? Then why is the angle such that we can barely see it? In my experience as a guy who grew up with the myspace boom in middle school, mostly people who use that angle and hide the face are middle school girls tomake their boobs look bigger.", "id": "c2ob277", "summary": "if you want a true first impression, ditch the funny angles and compositions, and show us a proper photo. Otherwise i fear the aforementioned reaction will be all that people will say most likely"}, {"author": "HollowImage", "content": "I am actually kind of annoyed by the hivemind on this one. Why is it that \"good/important news\" have to be \"bad news\"? The biggest and oldest surviving royal family has a wedding. Two people are united. Come on guys, why can we not celebrate it? This is not an incessant tweet-feed of their every move, this is not 50th regurgitation of \"THAT FRIDAY SONG SUCKS!\" \nWhy is it we continuously have to watch other people suffer in order to think that someone is doing their job right? News does not equal bad news. News is news, and if you ask me, Royal wedding might even be helluva lot more important than say half of speeches Obama gave, or what kind of coffee Mrs. President likes when she wakes up ever morning; and yet NO ONE railed against the news media when they obsessed over that infantile nonsense.", "id": "c1rn79c", "summary": "ಠ_ಠ"}, {"author": "HollowImage", "content": "i know, old thread now, but finally getting to catch up) actually new dual stack 2-in-1 comcast hulks with router and modem capability flat out block RDP protocol nowadays. THis was a huge issue at my last company with paralegals not being able to RDP into from home until we started polling them not just on connection speeds and laptop configs, but also onthe type of routers/modems they had.  all  of them, to the T, had the comcast 2-in-1 wireless router and cable modem box. I could not do anything about it. at all. that shit was so proprietary and locked down we couldn't touch it without voiding employees contract service warranty and so management told us to drop it. paralegals were pissed as hell at everyone, we were pissed at managemegent and comcast, and management went out to lunch. biz as usual.", "id": "ce9wxpz", "summary": "fuck comcast."}, {"author": "HollowImage", "content": "have you had cases with this hurting before (a little bit) and just running through the pain? is this the first time? \n i will not tell you what tendonitis is, you probably know fairly well how to deal with it and anti-inflammatory + ice + rest is probably your best bet. \n there is a chance if you ran through the pain consistently for a prolonged time you may have permanently damaged your tendon -- i know people who pulled a tendon in their arch doing it and now they can no longer run competitively, pain kicks in at any level of effort. \n that said, if you are having trouble even walking -- go see a doctor. you may have a bone spur, which could be pushing against your tendon and imflaming it via dislocation causing continuous pain.", "id": "c221kzk", "summary": "go see a doctor."}, {"author": "HollowImage", "content": "I usually remind myself that whatever i did to screw something up (which happens more frequently than I'd like), there is not really much i can do to go back and change it. I could feel sorry for myself, tress out my nervous system and get nowhere, or i could get over it (takes practice to just  drop  something), learn my lessons, and use it in the future.\nin terms of activities, running helps me, also lifting weights. try going to a gym and picking up a pair of sparring gloves and just beating the crap out of a punching bag -- its hard to describe the level of relief after you spend 45 minutes beating on something. \n eventually, since you can retake the test, go back to studying. read, re-read, and re-re-read all the books and relevant articles/materials. go over your test. if anything, email the prof and ask him/her to help understand things if you think you just arent getting something. chances are they will be more than glad to help you if you are showing initiative.", "id": "c0sln6y", "summary": "stop worrying over things you cant go back and change. go beat up on a punching bag. and start studying for the next test very soon."}, {"author": "HollowImage", "content": "option 1:  My guess is what happened is your MBR (master boot record) got corrupted. \n This frequently happens when you isntall GRUB (as linux does) AFTER windows MBR has been written. the latter is extremely touchy. I learned that the hard way. \n anyway, when you boot from the windows installer util, dont \"repair\" windows -- there should be an option to boot into command line or something. then just run a fixmbr (more general info via google). NOTE: this util will write a fresh master boot record onto every storage device attached to your machine. after that you will have to use SuperGRUB to reconfigure grub as it would've been erased by the fixmbr utility. the latter should be respectful of winMBR enough to not kill it and would result in a GRUB that sees both OS's \n If your CD wont boot into that, just find a download with the util cmd prompt that talks to windows on syslevel, roll it into a flash drive and try to do that. \n option 1", "id": "c6w1rx7", "summary": "your MBR is most likely fucked up. repair it using winsys tools. \n option 2:  your ubuntu isntalled fucked up your partition tables. this is scarier. i would boot with a live ubuntu cd and see if you can mount the volumes. if you can, see  option 1  if you cant, i hope you had backups. \n edit: Oh another thing, while fixing your windows, yank the shit out of the second drive the fuck out of that box, for fucks' sake. dont confuse your boot agent any more taht its already is. get one OS bootable, then swap them, get grub working on linux, drive only, then (after both work individually, slide both of those bad boys back into the rig) and by using BIOS level boot selection, boot into grub, and configure it to scan for all bootable records in both drives, which should also work. \n edit2: feel free to PM me with more specific questions. im technically off work right now, but once a sysadmin, always a sysadmin."}, {"author": "HollowImage", "content": "A friend of mine once had a roommate who usurped the mattress and bed (after a lot of roommate drama) and would not let my friend take her stuff back. \n so she came to me for help, and i grabbed another friend. neither one of us is tall but were both stocky and in shape. as the \"friend to help someone move\" i must say it was awesome. As soon as our friend got the front door opened, we just walked in and walked out the said mattress. just moved everything off, ignored protests of the idiot roommate and just walked out.", "id": "c5bcg2p", "summary": "as a guy, being the friend to \"help someone move\" is a ton of fun if you can pull it off right."}, {"author": "HollowImage", "content": "yeah no thats not true. \n english is by far one of the easiest languages out there to learn. \n there are no cases, no differentiation between masculine and feminine, no declensions, the table of irregular verbs is laughably short (and even that is declining), half of proper grammar is being depreciated as we speak (proper usages of shall vs will forms of the verb to be). proper use of 12 tenses is also being thrown out. you will hard find anyone using past perfect or present perfect continuous properly anyway, let alone know what that that tense is and how to properly construct it -- most modern phrases are gerundian in nature since they are easiest to visualize and understand...but i digress. \n all the tricky stuff are one-offs and can simply be memorized. english sentence structures are extremely simple and straightforward. modern english frowns on construction of complex and compound sentences by calling them \"run-ons\" which simplifies syntax and diction even further.", "id": "c73k144", "summary": "english is one of the easiest to learn. source: me having learned it myself as a foreign language."}, {"author": "HollowImage", "content": "during high school for XC we ran 5k every weekends -- so its definitely doable. Considering your condition, best bet is to listen to your body. Does it ache? hurt? feels tight? \n if any of the ones above is true, ease back the workout and go easy the next day to see if it was overworking. if pain subsides, and you feel good again, slowly work back up to where you were. \n danger comes when you just barely missed exercise-induced injury by easing back, and because you feel good you decide to go for a hard run after taking 1-2 days easy. this is what pulls your muscles and inflamates your tendons.", "id": "c10y01g", "summary": "analyze how you feel. dont overdo it. gradually ramp up workouts."}, {"author": "HollowImage", "content": "from chicago -- can confirm. i am borderline hounded on linkedin to come interview with people on an almost daily basis. \n generally chicago is a GREAT tech market, between health, law, finance and technology firms located in the area, there is fairly serious shortage of professionals to the positions. \n plus cost of living is fairly low when compared to SF or NYC. like, substantially. \n and salaries are almost as inflated.", "id": "cq5to7y", "summary": "you get more bang for your buck here and its easy to get a job (if you know what you're doing)."}, {"author": "HollowImage", "content": "according to maryland driving law, merging lanes without a turn signal is a sign of aggressive driving. three of those in a row (say a car weaving through traffic on its way to work - happens more than youd think) and you get pulled over and ticketed with either reckless or agressive driving, depending on the mood the cop is in. Either way its 4-6 points on your license, and $400+ fine.", "id": "c0rrlvb", "summary": "merge without turn signal 3 times in MD, get a fat ticket"}, {"author": "HollowImage", "content": "chicken parmesan. \n you will need:\nchicken breasts halved; panko (or other seasoned) bread crumbs, milk (at least 2%), 2 eggs, white flour, vegetable oil, 1/2 lbs of sliced dehli cheese (to taste. i prefer pepperjack), fresh grated parmesan cheese; 1 jar of hearty tomato sauce (artichoke ones works very well. so does tuscan tomato and garlic), vegetable oil, 3 bowls, 1 pan for the oven with at least .5 inches high walls, 1 frying pan, and a stove, and some cahones (always good to have). 1 box of favourite pasta. 1 loaf of very fresh italian bread. \n you will do the following: \n \n 1) lay the chicken out on a cutting board. preheat oven to 375 with the tray inside, and put the frying pan with some vegetable oil on medium flame \n 2) in bowl #1: put flour; in bowl #2: beat 2 eggs with a splash of milk; in bowl #3: mix bread crumbs, parmesan cheese and any seasonings to taste. dont overdo it with seasonings. \n 3) once the frying pan is hot, proceed to the assembly line. you will dip the chicken into substances so that they are coated fully in the following order: flour -> beaten egg -> bread crumbs, followed by carefully placing the chicken on the hot pan. do this for all pieces one by one. \n 4) you are looking for a very motherflippin golden crust. dont sweat over it, but dont walk away from it either, or you will eat charcoal. it will take about 4-7 minutes per side depending on the heat. use a spatula to lift up the chicken gently to look.once it is golden brown and scrumptions on side 1, turn the breasts over.  \n 5) once both sides are good, pull out the tray from the oven, and set it right next to the frying pan (the heat to which was turned off). pour in the sauce from the jar. ALL of it. do not try and save a little. into the tray it goes. then layer the chicken into the sauce.dont bury it in there, it has to breathe a little. \n 6) shove that tray back inside and put a pot of water for pasta to boil (salt it lightly, and splash some olive oil in there if you got some). prepare the pasta AL DENTE (-1 minute of the time it says on the box) once the water boils. when you drain it, another splash of olive oil will keep it from sticking. you can do the pasta at the end if you prefer.  \n 7)after about 25-28 minutes, open the oven. the sauce should smell up the kitchen. good. now, remmember the cheese? get it over here and without burning your arms off, put the cheese on the chicken. all of it. no such thing as too little cheese. put that oven tray back inside for 7-10 minutes. \n 8) serve the dinner to your lady friend. Presentation is the following way: on a large dinner plate, put pasta and alongside it, one or two chicken breasts then top the pasta with the tomato sauce from the tray. splash a little on the chicken itself but dont drown the chicken in the sauce. serve with a slice of italian bread. \n 9) bottle of red wine. i didnt list it in the ingridients, but come on. merlot will do perfectly, or a pinor noir. if you can find a good bottle of chianti, preferably Castello D'Albola with a red seal and a rooster on it, that will be a winner. \n 10) enjoy the shit out of this dinner. you earned it.", "id": "c1ins3x", "summary": "wtf dont skim this. go back and read it. its long because i explained this step by step and its actually as easy as hitting a barn with a shotgun standing 2 feet away form it. \n no but seriously. this is a very very good recipe, and no one ever says no to chicken parmesan. just pay attention, dont burn anything. chicken dont dry up in the oven because of the sauce, so if it feels a bit unready after the 35 minutes (poke it with a knife into the middle and watch the juices run: they should be clear) let it sit a bit longer. if you are past 40 minute mark and its still not ready...your oven has shenanigans and its not heating properly, so get that fixed. \n bon aptetite!"}]}
+{"author": "pe5t1lence", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Teacher sleeps with multiple students in his house, he splits with his wife and takes one of the students with him.", "output": "I may be late to the thread, but I've got an interesting one.  In high school, my group of friends had a \"cool\" teacher join our group during junior year.  He just started at our school that year, and we all liked him.  We all went to his house a couple times, never all at once but in small groups, where we would just BS with him.  He had a wife and rumor was they were trying and failing to get pregnant. \nSo senior year comes around, and we're no longer in his class.  My friend loses his girlfriend to the teacher.   Female students start living at his house.  Things are weird. \nGo to college, hear that he got another student pregnant.  He splits with his wife.  No one in charge seems to know anything or are looking the other way because he is still teaching.  All the female students know each other and know they ate skill sleeping with this guy.  Later that year he gets fired for something \"unrelated\", and trashes all the AV equipment he got for the school.  Him and my friend's ex move away together for a while.  Eventually she moves back.  See him a few years later selling M16 magazines at a gun show; not out of a booth, just walking around with a sign on.  Weird dude."}], "user_id": "longlamp_13490", "history": [{"author": "pe5t1lence", "content": "Hard truth: Your depression is not under control and is causing these problems. It is causing this lack of ambition. \n The advice you are getting from others is fairly correct. Poor performance can be fixed and you need help to do that. \n Yes, depression will cause laziness, lack of ambition, self-esteem issues, malaise, etc etc and is a huge impediment to taking care of yourself or others. \n The people around you don't seem to know how to handle depression. They are trying to reach you on a level that they understand, but they aren't reaching you. Your self-esteem is low, low, low and they don't know how to help. \n BUT. Before you can make  objective  decisions  you have to take care of your depression . You can't see the potential in yourself because you don't have your mental issues under control. You aren't making level-headed decisions and that's what they mean by \"selling yourself short.\" \n The people around you don't see your fake limits you put on yourself. There is no such thing as \"knowing your place\", you aren't a slave. You can choose your own path in life. That is a limit  you  are putting on yourself. This obsession with your schooling is a limit  you  are putting on yourself. So they say that you are not challenging your self.", "id": "cjaf5i4", "summary": "Get to the doctor!  Get your personal issues sorted out. Get your depression under control. Talk to a professional who can give you a real opinion on your mental health. Compared to that journey, this whole job thing will be nothing."}, {"author": "pe5t1lence", "content": "Darwin theorized natural section, not evolution. \n Also This quote is misleading:\n>An important feature of Darwinian evolution is that it operates at the level of the individual. There is no mechanism for natural selection to change the species as a whole, other than through the accumulation of changes that lead to the survival of the fittest individuals. \n This makes it sound like an individual organism changes due to outside pressure, which is untrue (and also a favorite talking point for creationists).  I would argue the exact opposite, that natural selection ONLY works on a species as a whole, because evolution is only \"the accumulation of changes that lead to the survival of the fittest individuals\".", "id": "c1liw1z", "summary": "I take issue with this article."}, {"author": "pe5t1lence", "content": "I have to agree with graivt,  I was in a similar situation, she was using me for an emotional dump.   She ended up fucking and dating two other guys in our circle of friends. \n More info: She  needed  male attention at all times,  she liked teasing everyone but was sad that she was leading them on.   I thought her current relationship was always bad because she was always laying out some terrible stories.   It wasn't until later that I realized that most people often complain about problems, and only rarely share the good experiences,  so things are usually much better than what you hear.  She would fool around with me, but would never let it get too far, because she didn't want to \"cheat\". \nAfter her the bf broke up for a week and she fucked another guy all week I realized I really wasn't on her list.  Then she got back with the bf for about another month before they broke up for good.   Then she dated another guy for a month or two.  Fun fact: other than the bf, all three of us guys were friends.   So when her and guy #2 broke up, everyone in our circle of friends knew to watch out! She failed out of college and moved back home. \nAbout a year later, her and I hooked up once,  but it wasn't anything special.  Definitely not worth listening to all her victim stories!", "id": "c7hjqj6", "summary": "Not worth it, save yourself the trouble."}, {"author": "pe5t1lence", "content": "In general, pissing in Europe is pretty wild. Some places charge you for the toilet, others are holes in the ground outside  with a metal partition protecting your dignity. \n But my personal favorite was in Lisbon. Just on a regular street, on the corner of the medieval São Jorge Castle, is a hole and a partition with  Urinol  carved into it.", "id": "cp7ss0m", "summary": "I pissed on a medieval castle!"}, {"author": "pe5t1lence", "content": "Start with Power Hour, 60 shots of beer in 60 minutes.  Then go out to a cheap local bar.  One of your friends should drive, since it's your 21st.  You shouldn't have to pay for anything either. \nOptional: Drink cheap drinks until you puke.  Drink Powerade get waffle house, pass out, get hangover, try hangover cures.", "id": "c8z56xm", "summary": "B vitamins help your hangover."}, {"author": "pe5t1lence", "content": "Let me tell you the story of a love affair that could have been. \nMy mom buys books from the library fairly often.  She has boxes sitting around the house and under beds.  Some of these she would take up to my grandparents, mostly westerns. \nSo, in high school, I am up at my GP's routing around in the attic, and I find a box of books.  Almost all westerns and Louis La'amore.  But near the bottom I find  a completely silver book covered by a weird sword design .   Now, let me take a moment to point out that AGoT has no \"safety pages\" between the story and the appendix.  Not knowing that I've reached the first page of the appendix, I stumble directly into the last scene of the book. \nI tried to close it quickly, but my eye catches a few key phrases that are just baffling.  I couldn't help it, I read the last two pages.  I was just so confused at this point, I just set the book back down and went outside. \nI completely forgot until a couple years ago, when I saw the book in the attic again.  This was after the first season, so I knew what I found this time.", "id": "c83ev1o", "summary": "Reading about  naked fire women with dragons sucking boiling milk from her teats  out of context is confusing to a young man."}, {"author": "pe5t1lence", "content": "Just a heads up, there is a risk/reward balance for online booking cruises. \n You may get a better deal from Travelocity or Travel zoo, or a cruise agent, or whomever, but you have more purchase protection buying directly from the cruise line. \n Our honeymoon was on Holland America, and I got it online from Bestpricecruises.com because they were  (literally) the best price, but only $50 or so less than hollandamerica.com. Then the price of the cruise dropped $200 a week before the depart date. I couldn't get the better price because I went through the online travel agent. If I had booked with the cruise line originally, I would have got my $200 and maybe a drink card. \n Also if you fly and book through the cruise company, the cruise line will reimburse you if your flight is delayed. I would rather fly in a day early, but if you have to cut it close then that's something to consider.", "id": "co2g8w4", "summary": "In the future I'm going to book directly with the cruise company unless there is some killer sale, and will continue to fly in a day early instead of booking flights through the cruise company."}, {"author": "pe5t1lence", "content": "That seems really petty to me. The writers went above and beyond to match existing canon as often as possible. Even when the  canon was contradictory. To make a point that the crew never interacts with Romulans in person just to match a single episode of TOS shows respect for the nitpickey fanbase! \n Take the Klingons. In TOS they had evil beards and space pants. In every other series they had the TNG appearance  (TOS movies included). Add on to that, when Worf meets the clone of Kahless, he has TNG features (i.e. features identical to the Kahless born ~1500 years before). \nEnterprise took a trekkie inside joke and made a serious story arc about it! And managed to fit the DNA virus fit into a very limiting canon! If that's not respect for source material I don't know what is.", "id": "cq5csw3", "summary": "You might think their choices were silly, but the writers did the best they could with 35 years of conflicting scripts!"}, {"author": "pe5t1lence", "content": "Most of the time at a restaurant, I'm happy if they cook it the way I ordered it. If I say medium I want it to be pink throughout but no hot pink (raw) left in the center. I am so tired of ordering medium-rare burgers with the hopes I will get something less than well. Especially when the waitress  asks  if you want it pink and it comes out over cooked. \n The last time I was impressed by a burger, I ordered medium, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions, no cheese. It came exactly how I ordered. No ketchup on the bun, no mayo sneaking in. No side of mustard, it was right on the burger like it's supposed to be. Onions were fried, and the burger came assembled, not halfway open with a pile of take-em-or-leave-em veggies sitting on the top bun. And it was  medium  for God's sakes!!", "id": "car26dw", "summary": "Just cook it to order, cook it once, cook it right."}, {"author": "pe5t1lence", "content": "Ok here is the deal a far as I understand it. Many of my friends went through the same problems, half dropped out, half stayed...you'll have to decide. \nFirst off, if you think college will be easier in a year, two, three, consider that you will have many more commitments then. You'll have a job you will feel guilty for leaving  You may not be able to quit your job because you will havecar payments and possibly a GF or kids to take care of. \nYou might not be more mature over the years either. Forcing yourself to work hard one step at a time, like turning your phone off, starting to take notes, is what builds maturity. College gets easier as you go because of this.  Of course if you got a job and worked hard there, you could mature too, but then that leads back to my first point, it will be hard to leave. \nSecond, I know you really want to teach psyc, but you should really take some serious time to think about that.  College is too expensive to just learn what you like, you need a career that will pay well, if only to repay your loans.  If you can find something that you can grow to like, and has good job prospects, really think about doing that instead. \nTake an hour and measure the costs and benefits.  Be honest, over estimate your costs (loans) and underestimate your benefits (eventual salary) to include any unexpected events.  Pull your salary from last year's data, or at least post recession.  Assume you will only have 5-10% of your salary that you will be able to spend on then loans.  Will that cover the minimum payment?  How long will it take to pay back? \nReally look at your job prospects. Look it up on the internet and in magazines like forbes.  You will probably have to move far away to find an open job teaching psyc.  Can you deal with having no friends and family nearby? How are you at making new friends? \nAnyway,", "id": "c2tr50b", "summary": "You need to sit down in the library, and take an hour or two alone to really look through this decision from every angle."}, {"author": "pe5t1lence", "content": "My own choice would be XCOM: Enemy Unknown.   My expectations could not have been lower after 18 years of bad sequels, dozens of crappy, half finished fan projects, tossed around property rights, and a lackluster trailer.  The original was always on the top of my list for best games of all time, but I had just been burned so many times I couldn't believe in the series anymore. \n But then I finally played XCOM:EU.   It managed to capture the atmosphere of the original perfectly.  The aliens are alarmingly overpowered compared to your squad, and the first time you meet a Beserker he just rips through your squad. The next times you see them you are terrified of what they can do.  The research seems real and eventually you can start to fight back in an effective way. This leads to the great moments, the first time you take a full punch from a Beserker and survive, the first time you mind control a Muton and start tearing up the enemy with their own man, and then just as you begin to think you can win easily the game throws the damn Sectopods at you and you are struggling to survive again.", "id": "ciirzdg", "summary": "It is the only sequel that captures the same elements, the same spirit, that made the original XCOM such an amazing game."}, {"author": "pe5t1lence", "content": "You really can't compare the two economies like that.   In Dunk and Egg we see that 1000 stags is approximately the worth of a workhorse or an unadorned suit of armor.    You could get a work horse for less than $1000 dollars today,  but a hand made suit of armor designed for real combat could run you upwards of $10,000!    The relative costs of goods within the economy have changed. \n We also see that the output of one small village can support a single landed knight, one servant, and two hedge knights (albeit with mostly chickens and definitely not new horses). But just across the river, a collection of more productive villages with a large common field can support a small hold fast with 1000 men at arms (note, that number may have been used figuratively in the story), a septon,  a handful of knights, and a few nobles.", "id": "cf5xwjf", "summary": "The agrarian economy of Westeros is too tied to the local production of food for a relative comparison of money systems.   You are limited to comparing labor hours of a specific task/manufacture of a specific good to the price of the same in today's world. \n Edit : To answer your question directly, the Lannisters are Bruce-Wayne-rich.   They could buy or build anything and still have money left over."}, {"author": "pe5t1lence", "content": "They should be softer, like a fresh nut, before you cook them. If they don't soften up over night, like with old beans, scratch a hole in the beans' shells and let them soak a few more hours. (Or just leave them alone for more days.) \n Ok, science time. \nLast time I made beans I noticed about half were not plumping up.  I decided to determine if it was the beans or the shell that was stopping these particular ones from plumping.  So I pulled a few and scraped holes in the shell.  I put these in cup of water. \n In a few hours, the beans in the pot were still hard, and the beans in the cup had softened. \n Haha! I said, and then spent five minutes poking holes in the rest of the beans. A few more hours, and even the hardest bean was softened.", "id": "cj0yv4l", "summary": "The beans' shells keeps the water out, you may have to pierce them if you have old beans."}]}
+{"author": "kabrandon", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I'm sorry I happened to bring it to your attention that this mind game exists.", "output": "It's a fact that many of asshole men play mind games to sleep with different women. That is, until they grow up. I'm not saying anybody should play these kinds of mind games, I'm just saying there are guys that basically mimic that exact format of a human interaction just to get laid. How do I know? I used to do it before I got tired of not establishing real relationships with people."}], "user_id": "longlamp_11785", "history": [{"author": "kabrandon", "content": "Well, I do find it weird you seem to be saying you talk to your best friend more than your SO. That tells me you don't feel as comfortable with your SO. That may be his fault for not being trustworthy, but either way your SO should always be like your best friend. Think about it: do you want to try being with somebody your whole life that you don't trust enough to tell everything to all the time? \n My fiancee and I tell each other everything. She has guy friends she tells some things too, but ultimately I know all those secrets before they did and we spend pretty much all of our non-working time together. \n You also need to just be aware that most guys don't think in plutonic ways. If they're honestly a good guy, they will respect the boundaries of your relationship; but often times the guy is still thinking about ripping your clothes off, and your boyfriend (being a guy) probably suspects it (even if it happens to not be true in this case.) \n In general, girls don't trust other girls with their boyfriends. But it's also generally true for guys, and most girls I know don't realize that.", "id": "co4is9o", "summary": "Guys don't like other guys. Also, you should figure out whether your SO hasn't become your best friend because he's untrustworthy, or because you're not giving him the shot."}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "I will argue that lightsaber blades are actually contained by the force. When two lightsabers clash, they are stopped upon impact. I don't believe this is a characteristic that would be observed in a magnetic field. And don't argue that maybe the two lightsabers are being held together with opposing charges. That's ridiculous for many reasons. The most obvious one being that the wielders of these lightsabers are so easily able to pull them apart for a second swing. \n So you decided to argue with me and say \"What about General Grievous? He's a droid!\" No, you're wrong. He's actually a cyborg. He was once a living creature, but then his body was almost completely destroyed in a battle against the Republic. Count Dooku kept him alive with his intense knowledge of the dark side by replacing most of his body with robotic parts. You'll notice in the movies he still has some organic parts behind his armor. More proof you say? He's coughing all the damn time. Robots don't cough. Therefore, force.", "id": "c27yps5", "summary": "Lightsabers are contained in a field of the force."}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "First mistake \"What's up, cutie?\" That was strange. Coupled with the fact that he was just clearly waiting there for her made it mildly creepy. \n Mistake two: calling a pretty girl \"pretty\" and telling her that's the reason you wanted to go to dinner with her. Shows he's shallow. \n Mistake three: Asking if it was \"too much\" to have her number. Didn't sound confident. \n But the fact that the Lambo turned all those into a positive is definitely something. \n One could argue that the Lambo signifies success and if he's successful he must have something of value in his personality. eg. a strong will to try hard at everything he does. Whatever. \n But most likely it's because she's used to having things handed to her and he'd be able to do that if he's rich.", "id": "ccsa8wg", "summary": "Don't pick up girls like this if you don't own a Lambo."}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "I was at a house party last Fall, where everybody there was my friend already. It was a pretty small affair. We were all standing by a bonfire when I look over and two asshole friends are on top of one of my other friends. This dude is the really small/nerdy type, as am I. I looked around for a second and everybody else recognized what was going on but nobody was going to move or anything. I got up, ran over there and tackled the bigger dude right on top of him and we fought around for a few seconds before a few other guys came in and peeled us apart. I guess my action made others come in to break it up. But the guy I tackled was this huge guy that works at a big prison in my area as a guard. I have no idea why he and that second guy were fighting my friend, but fuck me if I'm going to let him take on two guys alone. I've thrown hand grenades, shot rifles, gone through basic training for the Army (never deployed yet) but that was one of the scariest things I've done. I knew if we fought long enough, he'd wreck me. Luckily others stepped in.", "id": "caom5gm", "summary": "Tackled an off-duty prison guard trying to rough up one of my defenseless friends. \n Sorry if this is poorly organized, by the way. I've always said I'd be a terrible author."}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "I appreciate it. I don't ask that people give praise for what the military does. But I appreciate a little respect. And it just sucks that whenever there's a mistake or something goes wrong, everybody in the military gets dehumanized as a blood crazy war animal, or whatever. I was raised as a nice guy with good manners. Watched every episode of Little House on the Prairie with my mom and sister. I wasn't born in some kind of murderous blood pit like Dexter (show about a serial killer). I'm just a normal guy that wanted to challenge himself and do something I think is necessary. But people treat me like that sometimes, and I just think, what did I do to deserve so much hate? Anyway, enough of my drama. I appreciate your words.", "id": "c7i2s22", "summary": "I appreciate what you said. It was nice."}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "I didn't know how to fake a smile when I was in elementary school. So anyway, on the birthday of one of the years I was in elementary school, I think I was 6, my mom took me to a Sears photo studio to get my photo taken professionally. She kept trying to get me to smile, but I was too serious and I wouldn't do it. So she scolded me because I wasted her money, took me back to our house and told everybody that was gathering for my birthday party to go back home because I wasn't having one.", "id": "cc80c6o", "summary": "My mom cancelled my 6th birthday party because I didn't smile. Told my friends and family to go back to their respective homes."}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "Not that guy you just berated, but I mean, she DID do it to herself. I feel for her to an extent, and am happy for her that she decided to take action. But ultimately it was her decision. If your body needs fewer calories to sustain itself, you can eat less. Little tummy rumbles doesn't mean you're starving yourself. You can put off eating for a while and make sure your body isn't getting excess calories. And many people get to a point long before this that they realize there is an issue.", "id": "cliadho", "summary": "I'm glad she made a decision to impact her health positively, but I agree to an extent that it was her decision to spiral into obesity this far. There is no such thing as obesity out of thin air."}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "I believe it was a website called myyearbook that did this exact thing. The website was basically 99% creepy, 17 year old females. My girlfriend at the time convinced me to sign up for an account so we could, \"Chat all the time.\" The relationship didn't last very long (wonder why), and after it was over I added a few girls from the high school I attended. I was still not very familiar with the site, as it was a total hassle just to look at, but a lot of the girls had the most slutty pictures uploaded to it. Didn't occur to me until later when I was confronted that they could see every time I went on their profile and assumed it was for the pictures. Deleted account. Moved to outer space.", "id": "c2upxzp", "summary": "A website called \"myyearbook\" caused one of the top 10 most humiliating experiences out of my high school years."}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "One day in high school I woke up at what I thought was the normal time. I  took a shower, did all the morning routine things, got dressed, and ate breakfast. During breakfast, my mom came out of her room and asked me what the hell I was doing. I replied \"Eating breakfast. Jeez, Mom, I'll wait until lunch if you really care that much.\" I then left for the bus stop. It was slightly darker than usual, but I wasn't too alarmed because it was the dead of winter and snowing like balls out. So I walk a quarter of a mile to the bus stop and stand there waiting for 15 minutes. Nobody showed up, so I went back home. This whole time there were dudes snow blowing the driveways (I live in a town home that hires people to do that for us.) I make it back home and my Mom is there like \"What were you doing out there? Do you even know what time it is?\" I'm like \"Yeah, 6:50.\" Turns out it was 3:50, and I had spent the past 50 minutes thinking that I was running late.", "id": "c2ivs4p", "summary": "I stood out in the snow waiting for a bus that wasn't going to come for 3 more hours."}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "For people that still want to read it, even though it was deleted-- \n Some backstory:\nI was kicked out of my mom's house approximately 7 months ago, and had been living at various friend's houses ever since. For two months I stayed with one of my close friends that I had known for years, but then had to leave for Army basic training in February (I'm a reservist) and when I came back I didn't want to overstay my welcome there, so I asked around if anybody needed an extra person that could pay rent. So I moved into another friend's house, and he has two sisters, who are just a little older than me, that live with him. \n Skipping ahead, back to today, I was doing my own thing in the bathroom when all the sudden I look up and there is a camera pointed right at me. I freaked out a little inside. I don't care about a lot of stuff, but on occasion, a man has to take care of some embarrassing business in the bathroom. It was a small camera with an internal microphone made by Brickhouse Security. It was sitting inside a small, girly bag with assorted girl stuff, so I could easily assume it wasn't belonging to my male friend. Anyway, it was about the same size as a flash drive, but it was relieving to see that the display was not on. So I just set it back in the bag with the camera facing up, so it wouldn't be pointed at me anymore. I took care of the rest of my business and went on my way. That's when the dude's sister spots me in the hallway. She went into the bathroom, picked up the bag, brought it to her room, and put it back in the same spot in the bathroom within a matter of minutes. As soon as she left, I went back and looked in the bag. No camera present. Made me wonder if the display didn't need to be on.\nIs it possible that this girl is spying on my bathroom activities? How do I bring it up in a way that doesn't make me seem like an ass if I'm wrong?\nSorry if I have some grammatical errors or anything. I'm still pretty weirded out about the whole idea of her possibly spying on me.", "id": "c5oquar", "summary": "Moved in with friend and his sisters. Found sister's camera in the bathroom. Pretty confident she's filming me. What do I do?"}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "Yes, but most likely no. You CAN, but once you get herpes in one site (mouth), it is rare to get it at a second one (genitals). You develop HSV1 antibodies the first time you get it, that fight the virus off at other sites. \n If you're a male, it is much better to just use hand lotion, plus you get a moisturized dick then. It just feels better too, IMHO. \n If you're a female, I'd suggest using water based lube. It's just always more sanitary. \n Source:", "id": "cox6fq4", "summary": "YOU SHOULD READ THE WHOLE THING, but basically just don't worry about it. You develop antibodies. It's unlikely."}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "My last serious relationship before the one I'm in now ended because I was fine with her talking to her ex. He badmouthed me behind my back and when she said she was busy for Thanksgiving she gave off a weird impression. Didn't find out until a few weeks later she cheated on me on Thanksgiving with her ex, probably other times too. \n I was put in the situation where my current girlfriend (now fiancee) asked me if I was fine with her hanging out with her ex. I totally wanted to be fine, but I couldn't. After a few weeks of me claiming to be fine with it, she figured I was acting weird so I told her all of that and she stopped talking to her ex for me.", "id": "ckqzk9v", "summary": "Don't take it as insulting if somebody you get involved with isn't totally cool with that situation. It's hard for some people with personal baggage."}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "I'm going to see an army recruiter later today. I know to take what they say with a grain of salt, and I understand the risks of joining the Army. (United States Army, by the way.) I figure I'll probably go into the reserves, because I'm currently in community college and have a part time job. But I was wondering, reddit, what should I ask the recruiter? What should I make sure is in my contract? I don't want to sign my life away, and end up regretting it a couple years down the road because I could have gotten a much better deal. \n I would say that I'm relatively smart, compared to a typical infantry recruit (based on what others have told me.) But I'm also pretty interested in trying out infantry. But my concern is that if I ended up wanting to make the military my permanent career, that I'd get little money for doing infantry. Is it possible for me to go from infantry, to officer school? I was told that I'll lose my personality if I did infantry, also. I'm somewhat shy, but pretty calm and jokey if you get to know me. Is that something that would definitely be hammered out of my personality? \n I'm also very interested in chemistry and science, but I heard people in the chemistry MOS get screwed in the Army. Apparently they end up mowing lawns all the time or something. \n It's all just completely unexplored territory, but this is something I've wanted to do for years now. I've got a couple of friends currently in the reserves too. One of them says their unit has a lot of room open for more people. What are the chances that I'd be able to get into his unit? Would it matter if I was part of his unit (meaning: would I never see him if he was in my unit anyway?) \n I know I probably structured this all strangely. I'm sorry about that. Any help, or advice would be appreciated. If you're still even reading, you're already exceeding my wildest expectations. Thank you.", "id": "t3_meh95", "summary": "Joining Army Reserves. Talking to a recruiter today. What should I ask him? Is there any way to improve my time in the Army? I'm interested in chemistry, being an officer, but I also would like to try infantry for a while. Is that possible? Also, what are the chances I'd be able to join a friend's unit? Or would I probably never see him anyway?"}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "r/atheistgems]( \n I don't mean to throw stones. And I am also an atheist. Phew, now that that is out of the way. What.the.fuck. I get that reddit has a large atheist user base, but why is this necessary? If you want to see things from r/atheism, then go to r/atheism. And another thing while I'm at it. Why are we all acting so damned high and mighty as atheists and putting down tons of Christians just because they're illiterate buffoons that worship a book? Who the hell cares that they posted a status on facebook about how awesome or whatever the bible is? I see this shit all the time from this subreddit. I can get behind a post where a fellow atheist is being put down by a shit ton of angry theists to the point where they feel segregated against. But c'mon. It seems like more and more of these posts are just a bunch of assholes telling theists they're wrong. So what if they are? I firmly believe that Jello is far superior to pudding, but whenever one of my classmates opens up a pudding Snack Pack I don't smack it right out of their hands and scream \"NO!\" Some of you need to grow up. As for the others, have a good day.", "id": "t3_kt16d", "summary": "Pointless sub-subreddit. And stop being a bunch of whiny children."}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "This is the first sexual relationship I have ever been in. In the past, I've had booty calls and one night stands with a few girls, but ever since the beginning I've been crazy about this girl so I locked her down with me. \n We started off having sex 8-10 times a day. At the time we were only seeing each other on weekends. But now I see her almost every day. Sex has slowed down to 1-3 times each day. But today I couldn't do it once. I would get hard and then fall over almost immediately. I felt both of our disappointment.", "id": "t3_25zusw", "summary": "Do guys in long term relationships have problems having sex that often? How do you guys keep it new for you?"}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "PCPartPicker part list]( / [Price breakdown by merchant]( \n \n \n Type \n Item \n Price \n \n \n \n \n CPU \n [Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor]( \n $125.00  \n \n \n Motherboard \n [ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard]( \n $72.33  \n \n \n Memory \n [Team Elite Plus 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory]( \n Purchased For $35.99  \n \n \n Storage \n [Sandisk Ultra 120GB 2.5\" Solid State Drive]( \n Purchased For $0.00  \n \n \n Storage \n [Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5\" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive]( \n $30.00  \n \n \n Video Card \n [Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card]( \n $172.00  \n \n \n Case \n [Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case]( \n Purchased For $73.50  \n \n \n Power Supply \n [NZXT HALE82 V2 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply]( \n $50.00  \n \n \n Operating System \n [Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Full (32/64-bit)]( \n $0.00  \n \n \n Keyboard \n [Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse]( \n $24.99 @ Newegg  \n \n \n \n Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts \n \n \n \n \n Total (before mail-in rebates) \n $588.81 \n \n \n \n Mail-in rebates \n -$5.00 \n \n \n \n Total \n $583.81 \n \n \n \n Generated by [PCPartPicker]( 2016-02-01 23:55 EST-0500 \n \n \n \n \n So here's the deets. The Corsair Air 240 doesn't have a 5.5 inch drive bay. So I can't just install one of them fancy drive bay controllers. And as far as I am aware, my h97m pro4 only has two case fan connectors. My issue is, I have three case fans. \n What I currently have is [this]( It is literally a fan hub. The odd thing is, it has a connector to go to a PWM connection on my mobo, so I plugged it in, and none of my case fans started spinning. There's also a SATA cable to plug into your PSU. Currently I have it plugged in to a SATA cable and my mobo. But my case fans are just spinning at full blast and it is obnoxious.", "id": "t3_43sqcm", "summary": "Any recommendations?"}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "I would like to start by saying that I've seen this advice on the subreddit before.  But in all 3 of my hard mode runs this week,  I've been in groups that are still unaware of this little advice,  and felt the need to give it visibility on the sub once more for all the kinderguardians that may have joined us this holiday season. \n What most people do:  get the brand,  jump to the left daughter,  slam the very millisecond you get there, get turned all around in a haze,  and then jump blindly about 500 miles away from your party.  And then you watch as your party gets slaughtered by adds mercilessly while all sighing in to their mics softly. \n Better way to do it:  jump to the daughter and land on the platform.  Turn around so that you're staring right into the eyes of the guardians that are counting on you to slam that shot and get over. And THEN slam.  No sooner,  no later. \n What this does is DRASTICALLY reduce the disorientation that is caused by slamming the brand.  If you follow this advice you will be a MUCH better runner.  And your raids will go much smoother. \n My salt: don't read further if you hate sob stories.  just spent 2 hours at daughters. Watching people jump off the daughter's platform with their shield and they would always jump almost directly away from where the party was grouping up. The entire two hours I was explaining how much this helps,  only to be followed with yet another run where nobody followed my advice,  leading to another wipe. Please don't be my raid team.", "id": "t3_43a37e", "summary": "Runners.  Face your party,  and then slam.  Then jump towards your party.  So much less disorientation.  Much fewer wipes. \n Edit: Thank you to /u/HoldenAGrenade for the info that the reason you never end up facing the correct way is that after you slam, you are just spinning the camera around, and not the player's body direction. Which explains the \"disorientation\" I described in this post."}, {"author": "kabrandon", "content": "His build is pretty solid. His motherboard and RAM are less than ideal. He has an i5-6400 and ASUS Z170 mobo. He got a deal for it at Fry's for $220, so I told him it was a pretty good deal even though it only takes DDR3. So on RAM he skimped out a bit. Bought an 8GB stick of Pacific Sun Memory. It is just the stick without the common heat spreaders RAM comes with for gaming PC's so often now. Not sure if that's a red flag in and of itself. I'm just curious if I should be neighborly and just buy him some RAM for him on /r/hardwareswap, or if his RAM comes from a good source and just happened to be cheap. I'm not sure if the brand really matters. \n Anyway, I helped him put the system together and installed Windows yesterday. It all went without a hitch, and the RAM is being recognized properly. The only reason why I'm concerned is I don't want his knew build to break down all of the sudden for this. He's a little technologically challenged compared to most of us here, so he probably would be disinclined from building another PC after this if that were to happen. \n And the only reason I'm turning here and not googling is because Google didn't seem to have much in terms of reviews on them. Just 3 Amazon reviews with 5 stars that didnt really say anything other than \"it works.\"", "id": "t3_4p4dzo", "summary": "Is Pacific Sun Memory a decent brand for RAM, or is it known for blowing up?"}]}
+{"author": "AzzyIzzy", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post You simply mastered how to play at that level, instead of mastering how to play the game holistically.", "output": "Idk I think it just depends how good at the game you are, versus how good you are in your particular skill level. Like when pro's (Saint/wt/dyrus/ect) have made smurfs and fought their way up, it is almost hopelessly dominated by their knowledge and general skill. This was actually really funny and apparent when Saint's elo got turned to 0, and for the day he just kept queing up to see how high he could get before riot fixed his elo."}], "user_id": "longlamp_655", "history": [{"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "This feature has already been suggested, along with other favorites like including post/pre chat logs. It isn't a matter of Riot not liking them, but it is a matter of time and resources. These things while nice, will do little to improve the current Tribunal's effectiveness. \n Once again however Lyte has mentioned it is on the team's list for things to accomplish within the future (versus a wip with no slated projection of time), but ultimately it is not something the team is heavily pushing for as of right now.", "id": "c8ywhao", "summary": "Good idea, but limited time and resources towards an idea that would hardly help the already successful rate the tribunal has, makes it a later side project."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "Quinn's isn't really random (anything at anytime can happen), it is simply a set of rules like those funny diagrams that ask questions and depending on the answer you advance or go back. \n However any information or methodology has not been released about Zac, even more if there is a formula at all and it may truly random. Regardless of random or not it has already been discussed and reached subninja. \n So then this discussion turns into unsatisfying play, but considering Quinn who is a released champion has similar \"if/then\" commands as does heimers turrets, or interaction of GA/ZIlean/Yorick, and by the other many comments of other players about her passive it seems to have little application. Zac is a PBE champion that is still a work in progress, so understandably this would be good for PBE discussion, but it isn't practical considering his final iteration that will hit live isn't even out yetXD.", "id": "c8y6zz2", "summary": "Don't start judging until there is actually a finalized project (zed wip), and a little look u goes a long way to understanding champion mechanics (quinn)."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "Sure. We'll just assume the creators aren't just trying to find a place for olaf to fit in their design, rather then his original idea to dictate their overall game design. \n The only thing that irks me about these comments, or comment on the main forum is NO ONE BUT RIOT HAS THE COMPLETE PICTURE. It is very fair to say \"maybe they haven't thought of X\", but considering the hours of testing and reiteraions of work they do, all while trying to set that one piece to balance with hundreds of other elements in different contextual scenarios isn't exactly easy. \n At the end of the day it's players caring too much over a minor piece of what makes Lol. It's a memorable piece, it was  fun piece, but that minority cannot be given an excuse to cause problems for the majority of other players. \n There is no amount of self analyzing, or subjectively trying to justify the limited knowledge every single player posses. Versus the actual objective knowledge of the game Riot is fed through by every single player putting in this experience. \n Overall it simply comes down to this: Riot is shown all the problems, and they try to solve or alleviate these problems. People surely have the right to be asked about ideas (which riot has done whether directly or by debating in forum threads with certain forum goers representing certain ideals), but they can't be so upset when someone like Xyph/tiza/Ames/insert rioter comes in and smacks down ideas. It isn't a lack of wanting to try, but either past experience has shown it not to work (at that time at least), or all signs in the system reject that notion. \n They definately know where they want Olaf, the only problem is they actually are trying to care about the sect of olaf players who loved that champion. And this creates a situation where they can have Olaf done no problem, but at the cost of completely destroying and creating him anew. They will try to preserve his identity considering he is not a lost cause like sorakka.", "id": "cc62r9k", "summary": "Riot knows what they want to do with olaf, the problem is they haven't figured out a way to appease the players that love his old identity, and to make that work in their new system."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "There's alot of information that is off topic, but otherwise vital to certain subjects like champion design, items, and the tribunal. I have a personal collection of quotes, but I sorta wished all these answers were highlighted in an easy to find way in the long term. This isn't to say riot hasn't tried, their \"newer\" q and a's have alot of the basic stuff that originally wasn't highlighted, but still. \n Well if we look at toxic players we get three or more sort of groups. The barely toxic (Lyte has responded and confirmed in the past that when some players were asked how they've been since their last ban, that they have greatly improved and the tribunal does account for this). We have then the middle ground toxic, basically people who have had a gaming culture where toxic behavior was always allowed or part of their clique, and this is the first time they've been asked to sit back and think about what their doing. And finally we have die hard toxic players who ultimately will not forsake their own enjoyments because of others (this is not inherently toxic in itself, but if they do any behavior that by all means is toxic, they will almost never see it as a negative and always fight for it). \n Now where am I going with this? Riot has tried in the past giving these players (the middle toxic and die hard toxics) a second chance. This was the ironman challenge so to say, in that if you get to level (it's been awhile) 20 or 30 without being reported once you can get your banned account back. The number of reformations was so LOW (like far below even 5%) that is was scrapped because of the overall expectation, and when some of the people who did pass got their accounts back, they reverted in alot of cases. \n So to", "id": "c8ztfb1", "summary": "my point since I'm too verbose: If the numbers of players helped by this is so insignificant in number, Riot would scrap the idea and come up with a better more effective measure. \n Edit:getting ready for work, missed punctuation and parenthesis."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "Maybe. Riot has shown little desire to throw the client. \n Also as to your last statement: I don't think you understand how it works. They can't just have live design, champion launch, champion reworks, among other champion related groups within riot just \"switch over\" to working on the client. Mainly because none of those groups of people probably have any kowledge or skill with working on such things. \n Secondly you could argue they could just hire more, but when this mysterious new client comes out (assuming that it is actually any better) what happens to those people then? Do they get shafted? Do the designers get shafted? \n The client overall is a secondary component, especially since it on average is sufficient enough for what is here now.", "id": "cc4nfuz", "summary": "Different departments, so stopping design would do little to speed anything up. Stopping champion design would do nothing but fill the league with a space of nothing happening for time on end, and make it arguably worse for it."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "Oh it never had to be a philosophy panel, no less a grand tribunal, but proper foresight when talking to someone about a particular subject of relative essence. However you did hit the nail on the head, the heavy use of technical terms, is what generates all the break offs and out of context thoughts shown by either parenthesizes or *. I actually did mean to indent the parts about the differences between thoughtsXD but somehow in between openings notes and copying down specific numbers i forgot to make it look nicer. \n As admitted I often am heavy handedly verbose far more than I should be, and my short cut is having to resort to the terms in themselves, instead of finding a simpler definition that will have to contain multiple words to just express the single one. Which is what makes this particular post special, because it is about subject matters that escape the realm of common commenting that you might have over a sporting event, or what makes a good movie. \n Once again as much as it does serve some level to answer back in turn with similar \"wit\" (as I called it), you still took the time to read, and by no fault of your own, was held over more by my lack of a proper written presentation of the ideas I was describing. I do take for granted when it comes to having to discuss anything having to do with my masters, that when a particular subject is brought up, I can at least use the key words or ideas prone to that idea. However, I over assume that any question within that field  is at a similar point in conversing. A question could be as simple as asking what is 2+2, and I completely blow out of the water talking about imaginary numbers or something of sorts that is indirectly and abstractly related, but not the answer that was asked. \n So my thank you was authentic, I was just hoping any response would either be in further question or relation to what I posted. Generally I think that's what most people want, and often find themselves to wrapped up in the motion to notice glaring problems that are taken for granted (grammar in my case). \n No offense to you, nor offense or the original person I was responding to. I'd rather explain my actions how I can, than make a shorter message that will be missing information. Although it goes to ask what good does including the information if it becomes too hard to read?", "id": "c8yafn2", "summary": "since I made another wall of text):Whelp regardless again thanks for taking the time to read the first, and respond to this one. It's still more appreciate to have a valid criticism, rather than someone just typing '\"fgt\" or trolling overall. \n EDIT: Talking to you made me remember the test they used for the PFT!"}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "Would White knights really down vote this? I guess in a very \"prideful\" sense they could be a regular dudley doright, but it seems most \"White Knighting\" is in respect to harsh comments. SO for example if someone said \"Hey sugar tits hope you're happy now over your shitty cosplay, cuz in 5 years no1 is gonna care lollololollool...\" \n Least that always what I've seen it as. Only time I've seen something like this said and massively \"disliked\" is when it is in an inappropriate context. But given the nature of cosplays, and the characters trying to be expressed, plus the natural form of the internet, it seems unlikely this response of \"Nice tits\" is too out of placeXD.", "id": "ccjz91j", "summary": "Nonsensical questioning and replying"}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "You kinda shoot yourself in the foot. Not only can a Riot member take corrective action, it is basically what happens through the Tribunal. \n To map this out: THe tribunal is at best a paper management system where everyone who participates help send reports that we deem to be breaking the summoners code. In no way does your or my process in doing this actually lead to a ban. This is because as one of the final check and balances a Rioter will always look at cases that would result in a ban (leavebuster is an exception here however). \n This being said: Pendragon said not only did he have a history, but the picture being posted is wrong because he did random before he was kicked. And even further he was close to being banned again already because of another few reports that were on him. The player in question obviously is one of the repeat customers that most likely never learn from their mistakes. \n As to your bolded section: I answered it, but as a", "id": "c5g6n5l", "summary": "The Tribunal gives Rioters like Pen the case, we do not actually get to ban the person. So there is not a correct channel. Tribunal just helps managing the toxicity since the player base is so huge."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "He answered your issues very clearly however: \n He doesn't think how the CR system stands now is perfect, if anything it is constantly receiving tweaks based on how it actually performs, and then also feedback from players. Because of this. \n This system is here for two primary reasons: The tribunal is down, and because CR as a whole, works alot more than bans. It's also an adding bonus it has the same effect as being a first time comer to the tribunal, in which future incidents for a majority of people stop right then and there without further punishments. \n You also seem to froget, there is a sect of people who \"act like the pope\", but there are also a set of people who are neutral. And being neutral is fine, the only thing that separates the neutral players and \"pope\" players is that the neutral players when they have a bad day, can look like the bottom 1-5% who are inherently toxic. And that's what causes the current CR system some problems, because those players had one or a couple really bad moments, but are otherwise neutral, and the system can't tell if they have improved because of this. This is something Lyte covered and is again one of the many things they are updating into this new system. \n Your", "id": "ciiroqz", "summary": "completely disregards everything that has been said about chat restrictions from when they first appeared on the pbe months and months ago, up until everything that has been shared about it now."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "My girlfriends bike was stolen at the time, however she also hated anyone spending anything on her. It took m two years for her not to go nuts when I actually got her something on her birthday/whatever else. She immediately \"forbid\" me from buying her another one with my own earned money, which I would be okay with if she didn't just lose her part time while going to school. So instead of using money I earned at my job, I just donated plasma for about a month+ till I had the 350$ to get her a bike at her quality or better. \n However on the very last week before I gave her this money, due to personal medical problems that I won't reveal she had, she asked if we could just go \"slow\" for awhile. I was definitely hurt, but if she just couldn't do it, trying to make her would just ruin whatever else we've haad. So I agreed, but by that point I was two visits away from being done, I said fuck it I'll still do it for her. When I gave her the money she took it as a sign I was trying to buy her affection/keep her attached, and I tried to explain I had already started/did this way before the talk, but suffice to say... That was more or less the nail in the coffin and she hardly knows how to treat me now. \n So yes...", "id": "cafngpb", "summary": "Donated plasma for GF to replace stolen bike, she breaks up with me right before I give it to her, I still wish for her to have herself a new bike so I give her the money anyway, thinks I'm a conniving monster and has utterly disavowed me."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "For one: \"I've read all of the posts. In general, when a player says, \"I like champion X because of Y\" I ask myself if that is an aspect I believe I am preserving in the kit. Feel free to link me to a specific post you feel had aspects about preserving the existing kit that needed a detailed response. \n Saying \"Don't change him\" simply isn't enough. They need to explain which factors they liked and want to see preserved.\" - xelnath \n (also this post \n 2nd: \"Let's start with a few facts:\nXerath has a 50% win rate across all elos.\nXerath only has a 51% win rate in very high elo matches.\nXerath's total burst has a 1134 dmg + 3.4 AP Ratio + 40% spell pen - the highest baseline burst in the game.\nXerath has a very cool theme and concept \n Despite this:\nXerath is the 2nd least played Mage across all regions. \n The data indicates Xerath is actually balanced in terms of total impact on the game. His best case burst is massive. Yet he's not played a lot. \n Why do you feel this is? What do you feel would make Xerath feel better?\" \n This isn't about if Xerath is balanced, or neccessarily his skill level, this is about understanding why alot of people don't like him, and what can be done to change that while keeping his iconic power and gameplay intact. I would really hope Xerath supporters would like this considering this isn't even a rework, it's just an update akin to Sejuanni (vs a full scale thing like Kayle rework/eve/xin/ect). This is more about perception and feel, versus perception, feel, and gameplay issues. \n Also anyone griping about Sion, just don't. He like heimerdinger is a hug monster in comparison to these \"easier\" cases like trundle/sej/and now xerath. Sion holitically has to be fixed, those other champions? They just need to ge re-focused. And to then tell Xelnath to just drop this in favor of sion just doesn't work. It's like asking Xyph to go make a brand new champion now, even though he no longer is apart of or geared towards that process. Even more, having too many people with different developmental methods on just one champion rework would absolutely ruin the productivity and cohesiveness each of the individual members has with what they normally are geared towards.", "id": "ca0que9", "summary": "Don't be afraid of change, especially minor change."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "The more people who try to define or find what is the exact thing that gives you the icon, the more and more people will be dissapointed for not getting it, and believe they are entitled even though they could of just been following the wrong advice. \n It's like if everyone in your class took a career test and you were very good at math, but when you got your results back the test said you should be a cop. Do you give up on math? Do you think you did bad on the test? When you ask the other kids in class who did get mathmatician as their goal, and find yourself too worried to discern any real reason why, does this mean you get angry? or that one test, that one moment defines you?", "id": "c7huy65", "summary": "Try not to worry or focus too hard, you'll probably cause more stress and negative by products than anything. This is literally a play and see, not a treasure hunt to find the answer."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "Which is funny, considering he has dominated other teams with better bot lanes before. His main problem is he doesn't consistently try to do this. \n Great example: At the height of TSM's power, Crs ws able to completely dishovle the \"top\" bottom lane of NA at the time with Elementz's crux fiddle support. It was so drastic until the end of s2 (not the regionals however) Fid was a common ban when crs went vs tsm just because of that. \n To make it more relevant: Elementz has a horribly small champion pool, and arguably at this time his only reliable champion is his Lulu, and when it has been a competative match, more often than not when Ele had Lulu they won in the majority of their victories of the LCS that had him on Lulu. \n His mechanics, his skill level, all of him is horribly inconsistent because one week he is completely inbedded ad apart of the team synergy, the weak after he requires a vacation to be with his gf. If elementz would be willing to buckle his shit undoubtedly he would at least be seen as a note worthy support. maybe not an edward, maybe not the top of the allstar vote, but at least he would be recognized as at least being good enough to hold his shit together if it came to it.", "id": "c9g24g1", "summary": "Ele has skill, he just refuses to refine it, but his unique plays in s2 and s3's lcs weren't by fluke, just mattered on if he was willing to work. \n No different than the majority of HSGG's title in the majority of s2. Spent more time playing random champions like AP trist instead of practicing for real matches or studying."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "I will post from the tribunal FAQ: \n \"We aren't out to punish players who use adult language; in fact, very few players are ever banned for saying stuff like \"f , I missed that skill shot\" or \"damn, f ing close game!\" However, the language filter is not an excuse to verbally abuse someone in the game. When you verbally abuse or harass someone by calling them \"f *ing  ** \" or \"n*gger noob\", that's when you've crossed the line and will be punished by the Tribunal. I've said this before and I'll say it again, we aren't trying to clean online games of adult language; we're trying to reform or get rid of jerks who like to verbally abuse and harass other players.\"", "id": "cariqfb", "summary": "It's not the fact of what they're saying, but that they are going out of their way to do it.  If a player is willing to overly abuse another player there is little reason for them to be in the league"}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "I honestly wouldn't know. It became a point with the initial reworks we saw with tryndamere/fiddle/kayle (if you want to call them reworks compared to some of the more extensive over hauls we've seen) that while somewhat succesful, any major changes were frowned upon because of a general detachment to what the character used to be and represent. So if you've noticed with alot of the more recent re-works, as well as the ones currently being handled, threads and multiple surveys are being sent out to try and peg what makes those champions \"them\" as well as then finding how they can work around these traits. \n The only problem of this is it asks that possible toxicity, or a mechanic that was meant for a different time or period be preserved in some way shape or form. Some rioters have already mentioned again that some of the more drastic champions will not keep their iconic feeling (sion either is being debated as either a mage or warrior, or he has already been decided I can't remember), but where this leaves meta-golems is beyond me.", "id": "cdq6hnr", "summary": "Irelia and other meta golems pose a unique challenge in that their identity and play style is more unique then the general champions like poppy/sion who also need a rework."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "Well sion has multiple problems, his ult is old school op, like alot of the older champs who either never got touched extensively (amumu for example is almost always all around good, but falls out of flavor until his particular brand of annoying comes to be important again). \n However sion's ult while great, can be heavily countered by 1 thing, and then moderately countered by a couple things. As you pointed out, sion's r against someone like kat, or someone who has morellos is pretty gg. However, if you have a fh, or nasus e, or a ton of cc, you indirectly screw up the efficiency of sion's ult. Especially since sion'ss try to get alot of atk speed and crit early given how much free ad he gets, it is just that more impactful because he builds for quantity of hits, rather than quality. \n But that's the thing, if we look at ap sion he is gimmicky for the fact he has his 1-2 punch(1-2-3 if he does a lich bane build). If we look at ad sion he is even more gimmicky for basically pressing r and winning really hard, or losing really hard. Now admittedly if he gets to 6 items, sion's old school op shows, just as it would on the likes of trynd and yi, but his livelihood before he gets to 6 items is so much worse because of the binary nature of his kit.", "id": "cdqdm62", "summary": "Sion is op, but old school op, and has multiple counters to ap/ad, and regardless is overly binary  because of this dependence on only 1-2 of his abilities given what he builds."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "So Riot made a trade off they either completely rework jax without any of his old identity intact, or they try to keep his identity while also keeping some of the power his idnetity gives. This came in the form of him still doing ap/ad damage, as well as having sustained and burst damage, as well as essentially keeping a lesser version of \"personal\" dodge. He to is a meta golem, and that is why he and irelia ducked it so often at the end of s2, and beginning of s3. \n However Jax and irelia are built to be everything you want 1v1 top lane, but they don't necessarily fall in the favor of the current meta of being a cc bot for example if we were to compare a popular top laner atm like Nasus. \n Now I don't like to compare Jax and Shyvana, or even call shyvana a meta golem. I would compare someone like Jax and Poppy before Shyvana. But Shyvana, jax, mundo, poppy, Kayle, (minorly kat now), yorick, and I think 1-2 others, are the few champions who either utilize both ad/ap by engaging, or benefit from just gathering them up like a carry. \n SHyvana is more akin to mundo not only in kit but how they function, in that their kits homogenizes periods of bursted intensity in action (you chase or fight while w is on for shyvana, or while mundo's E/R are up), and ultimately you have a very subjectively useful form of CC (mundo suffers less here, but arguably his can be one of the easiest to mitigate, while shyvana either has to build an item to compensate or take exhaust, and even that isn't enough somtimes). However due to their lack of kiting or being able to draw specific attention like a taunt or throw, they have been over loaded with free stats to compensate for the nature of their skills honestly. In what world could shyvana really survive ulting and pulling 5 or less of the opposing team without additional defenses to at least survive getting to them? \n Ultimately Shyvana is like alot of the old school champions, in that she was designed around compensation for her weakness, but when her weakness means less due to a new meta/allied champions/or items, she'll be a monster (as we've seen continually with amumu, singed, alistar, udyr pre nerfs, warwick pre nerfs, and so on). \n It really is interesting to see a dichotomy of how champions are balanced now. Because it seems that riot gambles on newer champions having a relatively short term period of being op/up, but with greater stability longterm for their future plans. But all of their older designs (I would count a portion of early/mid s2 into this) hinge on making the champion near \"perfect\" for the given meta, but as soon as it changes more often than not being brokenly op (Xyph was especially good at this as a champion designer if we bring up any of his champions. I really want him to make another champion now that he is less \"play good now, pay later\" oriented then before).", "id": "cdqe467", "summary": "Yes SHyvana has an additional source of damage, and while her opness will show (maybe it is showing already I don't know the data) possibly in the near future, her compensations of design are for her short comings. While someone like jax/irelia are compensated because of the current meta/their previous reworked vision and feeling."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "There have been numerous post by Lyte on the honor system, and while he does agree that more can be done, that is still in testing. With that said, how Honor acts right now is on target for how it is supposed to be happening. What happened within the first month of honor launching isn't normal, it is actually highly excessive and not normally, like someone who makes a new year's resolution. \n To be fair, while honor is still being used in the levels expected of the system in normal que and lower ranked play, the higher you go in ranked the less noticeable it becomes which is then below average. \n There's the most recent post about honor. And here is an older post with a more", "id": "cce9wrd", "summary": "view of it \n Ultimately if you want more honor in higher ranked then I'd say that's a worthy cause, but otherwise depending what mode you play in and how much you play, you are probably seeing the standard Riot is expecting the honor system to perform in at this time."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "So while this would be a great QoL for Shaco, Shaco is currently in the same respects that Poppy or Sorakka are in. Not he is special in his own case, considering what makes him who he is, essentially means he has to be toxic. And so like the above champions shaco is resigned to two fates: \n \n Wait for the rework or overhaul that will eventually happen. \n \n or if people really can't deal with a reworked shaco, shaco will just continually be nerfed if he ever infects a large majority of all skill levels, and the competitive scene ever again. Otherwise he will be kept in a endless cycle of being under tuned because of the inherent issues of him just being in a game causes.", "id": "ccz99dp", "summary": "Shaco is so unhealthy they may not do QoL on him until a rework is established."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "It really depends, I had one game as Japan, king, and I think I was on a large europe map? \n Basically I had only really been \"dominating\" one civ, and that's because she attacked me first (dido). However I deiced I wanted to kick her while i was down, especially because I was able to get ploynesia/England (2 of the 4 super powers at the time including myself) to ultimately be my friends. However after destroying dido and leaving her one city right next to france (who was being quite a warmonger) I found myself in a bad situation.  To the south east babylon because I screwed their only friend over, decide to declare war on me. \n I was fine with this because I wanted his capital for a domination victory, plus he had 2 wonders I wanted. Now I kept about 30% of my unit guarding my territories against barbs, and to look intimidating towards france, however right as I basically crippled babylon france sent his entire army sprawling into my dido/3rd expansion territory. Immediately after england and polynesia declared war on me. Honestly it was quite scary. I decide to give up all of the territory I got from carthage, and re-double my efforts. Slowly I forced polynesia/england to back off, and after about 40-60 turns got my territory back and started to destry france, england destroyed polynesia, and I split her empire in half after taking her capital. \n I do think you can make a strong come back, but, your victory conditions or stipulations might have to change dramatically.", "id": "ccb7uxl", "summary": "I went from being to 3 super powers in europe, to almost last, and then swung around and over came the armies of the top 3 civs at the time. Japan OP."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "There was a long talk last year where Lyte took time to make a forum post about a potential voice chat system. Now unfortunately it was part of the old forums, and because of this hasn't stayed in a proper format for finding all of his posts, peoples objections, and his reply to those objections or questions. \n His very first statement looks like this however: \n ...\" At Riot, we're pretty hardcore gamers. Many of us have lived and breathed games like Counterstrike for many years of our lives. Given the features games like these have, every so often, there's a heated discussion within Riot about voice chat - should we build it in League of Legends? Would it improve the player experience for the average player? Why do some games choose not to integrate voice chat, while others do? Rioters often debate for hours about the pros and cons of voice chat, so we decided to more deeply investigate the impact of voice chat. Every time the discussion comes up, we add a little bit more research to the mix and learn a little bit more about voice chat's impact on online games . \n Due to the recent rise of party voice chat applications, we decided to take a moment to share some of our findings and explain why we haven't implemented voice chat in League of Legends, but also why we haven't closed the doors on it being possible in the future. Do players want this feature? One of the critical things I want to highlight is the difference between integrated voice chat with strangers, versus with friends. We often survey League of Legends players on whether they prefer to use voice chat with friends, and over 79% of players agree that it's a more enjoyable way to play League of Legends. But when you ask League of Legends players whether they prefer to use voice chat with strangers, the agree rate drops to 50%: 1 in 2 players do not want to voice chat with strangers, or don't care. More importantly, 28% of players disagree. When looking at numbers like these, we have to carefully consider that adding voice chat would actually create an unwanted experience for just over 1 in 4 players. Meanwhile, players who want voice chat already enjoy it with friends using other voice options. These numbers might seem different than results from online polls or general threads you've seen here on the forums, but there are two important variables at play. One, players that tend to visit online forums or communities are a unique subset of the League of Legends population. Two, online polls or questions about voice chat rarely distinguish the difference between voice chatting with friends versus strangers. If you just ask the question \"Do you want voice chat in League of Legends?\", most players answer the question through their perspective. Players that prefer to voice chat with strangers say \"Yes!\", but so do players that prefer voice chat with friends, leading to bloated numbers and inaccurate perceptions. What's the player experience like. With the recent surge of party voice chat applications, we were able to do some neat data analysis on the impact of voice chat to the League of Legends experience . \n We were especially curious as to whether or not these applications created a more enjoyable experience in games where there was voice chat between strangers. One of the things about voice chat is that more often than not, you end up with games where only a few of the players opt into the application, and the rest are still using text. In our analysis, we found that text-based communication in games where only some of the teammates were in voice chat had up to 126% more racism, sexism, homophobia, and verbal abuse that we all agree have no place in League. Not surprisingly, we also saw that players who were using voice chat with strangers received 47% more reports than your baseline League player. There have also been a few concerning studies about gender cues and voice chat in other popular, competitive online games. For example, a published paper from Ohio University showed that just giving a cue or sign that you're a woman on voice chat leads to 300% more negative comments compared to a male voice, or no voice at all.", "id": "cqtbbu5", "summary": "At the end of the day, voice chat with friends is a great experience, and what League of Legends players actually want. Many players already use voice chat like Skype and Ventrilo with their friends and that's awesome. But, a system that automatically or easily puts you into voice chat with strangers leads to 126% more toxicity and 47% more reports even when players can opt-out of the experience or mute each other. Hopefully this gives players more insight into how we think about voice chat .\"... \n This is with me cleaning up everything. But he answers alot of questions in this thread, and while people have anecdotal evidence on good experiences maybe in Dota2 (although I haven't had a good experience, jus tbad or neutral), it seems other studios find the same concern Riot does \n So if people want further answers feel free to comb the old forum thread I linked. Lyte made a few more recent statements here on reddit in the last two months I think? But they don't have quite the substance. \n Link to the original forum post: \n Edit: formating"}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "There's always a chance for errors, or false positives even when the tribunal was up.  But even then at least what was admitted it was less than 1% (which is probably alot of players compared to the Lolreddit playerbase, but as a whole to the whole Lol player base it is insignificant). \n More so, there are so many people who think they haven't been monitored, or even more common they fail to see what was wrong with what they did/said. \n D3SJoJo if you want to see possibly what you did (if you did anything): Always email support first, if they don't give you relevant enough information I would actually use the Lol Forums and try to get the attention of the Rioter known as \"Slumber Jack\". Slumber jack as of late has been someone who has been slowly talking with people who are trying to make a case for their innocence. \n I don't recommend Lyte because Lyte's response rate is varied to two contexts (so it seems): The featuring of a brand new system, and special edge cases that possibly sound compelling. The first context is understandable, given a large portion of the population uses neither the Lol subreddit, nor the Lol forums, anyone who is willing to speak is valuable at first to check to ensure systems are performing to expectations said. The second context usually occurs with not only alot of forum/lol sub reddit support, but a good case. \n Now sometimes there are days where Lyte/Wookie/Slumber are on a roll and will do  series of cases, but nothing consistent.", "id": "cpsi9fr", "summary": "Contact support (if that fails), try to contact Slumber Jack on the Lol Forums (if that fails), try to contact lyte?"}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "Now when posts like these are made, I tend to always pass by them for one reason: I'm unsure for the people who post these, if they've done an extensive history looking at the subject of pre-post game chat logs. But then I realized it can't really be their fault, for not knowing, or even being able to find when Riot seriously talks about the subject given we all have lives among other things. \n So I've gone through my history of red posts and will give you two of the more pertinent and recent talks about pre-post chat logs, and if you can make a good post circumventing Lyte's rationale, and even more his data, I'd gladly upvote you, and if I ever get a chance; try to remember and bring what you argue if it has merit to Lyte. \n Because based on past history, especially the last 6-9 months, Lyte has frequented these forums, or has even asked for questions on his twitter, or has been nice enough to answer questions on his twitter. But he obviously doesn't answer every question, and especially questions that may be answered in the near future he has shown he is less likely to talk about unless it's a set date. \n First post from lyte I present:   This is almost a year old, and thus the numbers could vary, but I don't believe they would have varied much if any given he already gives an overall possible amount at that time for how much pre-post logs would help. \n This post is more impressive, given Lyte actually talks about what we could expect to see in the best nearest world to ours (hypothetical) if we were to add the logs, and what their function actually is. Overall he paints a clear picture that what they would help with, isn't necessarily close to the goal, if even related to the goal anymore.", "id": "chki2sk", "summary": "Sorry for the long post, but all you and others are doing by making these posts is incentivising the people with the wrong biases to post, not everyone. If you want everyone or a larger majority of people you can try to win them over by reading those two red posts I linked to, and making a valid argument against them. \n And any response you give can and will probably be argued about, but it's better to try and make substance out of an issue, rather than rabble. Because otherwise on these forums there hasn't been an extremely strong argument for pre-post chat logs when compared to the more rigorous statements by Riot, from a data sort of perspective, and even a rationale perspective."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "Fine opinion on the matter! There have been many talks especially from pro SC2 players about which game is the best, and it always boils down to that because it mechanical, skill, and overall intellectual level it makes it a better game. But given that what people like to watch and play isn't team specific sc2, but individual player specific, it becomes apparent SC2 and Lol aren't even relatable, because where one excels in the SP aspect, it excels or fails in the MP aspect. \n There is little to nothing that can distinguish a great or the best game after a certain threshold has been picked, all you can really do is rate which games don't go past this threshold. \n An example of this is when you start to compare BF3, BO2, Counter strike, in that they all have reached a level of overwhelming pro's and con's, but when you pick something up like Bioshock 2 MP FPS aspect, you can clearly distinguish it doesn't have enough xyz to even be compared to the level the other shooters exist at.", "id": "c9nhqpo", "summary": "You can argue from personal or relative experience how you would like, but past a certain point, games that reach the caliber of sc2, lol, CS, generally have enough pro's and con's it makes it redundant to argue otherwise unless it comes from biases. It's like arguing which type of soda is best (coke vs pepsi for ex)."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "What? It really is quite simple. Every act requires a certain amount of energy, whether this be mental, physical, or emotional. However, there is a HUGE qualitative difference between something like remembering timers, and using mechanical skill, or executing plans. \n Mechanical skill by and large is involved in almost every portion of a games length from last hitting, to trading, to simply ward or scout better than the enemy team. Putting more energy or emphasis in mechanical skill will give a noticeable effect in a game. \n Executing plans, or trying to ensure strategies is very similar to mechanical skill is usefulness and meaning to a team. You have to ensure early you are the right place, or applying pressure to a specific champion/lane in order to accomplish a goal in the short or long term. It could be as simple as the top and jungle coordinating to try and burn the TP from the opposing top lane, which would make the next dragon or bottom fight more instrumental. \n But let's look at timing. Timing has good short term effect, but with no variance, and as time goes on, becomes less and less useful save for one single timer by the late game. But as it stands the enemy jungle could steal your buffs and it could barely impact the game. It would seem it could impact it by not only starving then the enemy jungler, and also apply early pressure then to one of your lanes. But the problem is, this has been going on since early s2 and it has become less and less effective as a whole. Why? In early s2 timers were instrumental, because to be stolen from and not know your buffs would have been basically game defeating because of the lack of come backs among other issues. But now? So many teams have fall back plans that more than likely keep them in the game, or even allow them to get kills, because the other team has done what they done. This makes jungle buffs, and even dragon fights as a whole alot less valuable. There is no change, no real player interaction that isn't just scripted, in short it makes Lol worse or boring because of it. It doesn't provide the same value it once did when everyone played at a level far below they play now. \n To remove timers then, would be to remove the noose around your neck that you are forced to wear that may distract you from focusing more on mechanical skill, or implementing strategy. The argument goes even better if we just refer to it in a non-competitive sense. \n I personally like Nome's point here about what if we always had timers, or what if Riot took something else away then to give compensation for this \"loss\": \n Sorry for the short message last night, I was rushed for time, and seeing the same message posted again which doesn't actually talk about the issues of time chat, tried a more concise message versus this wall of text you see now.", "id": "ciisesb", "summary": "Hope your eyes don't bleed."}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "This isn't to attack your opinion, I'm just curious for you what makes IWD > SV? \n Like I've seen this a couple times now, sometimes with the counter point my question represents, but I've never understood it considering how he has been seen in games. I don't even mean his personality, I mean literally more his play style. \n How can I put this? He seems exactly the same as Saint (steals alot of kills, farms heavy, often is the initiator/driving force of the team), but he also has a huge passive nature about him, which always appears to me to bring out the worst aspects of a carry assertive jungler/and a support your lane jungler. \n I guess I could understand the argument that IWD would at this time = less throws/bad smites, but at the same time that all I've personally seen. I honestly believe that Saint is generally the driving force for Curse, and largely any success while dependent on the skill of his team mates, would have been largely unfunnled without him. \n I don't base this on his past, but more on what the analyst for the NA allstar team said when talking about saint. he had a great potential to call great shots, but he was so uncertain and when his uncertainty was a failing point, he then doubled down on the wrong decisions.", "id": "cat26qu", "summary": "Why do you think IWD is > SV? (I mean this purely as a question, no spite or trying to start a fight)"}, {"author": "AzzyIzzy", "content": "First off I'm just going to say I haven't been paying much attention to the threads about the rental ward skins/ward skin posts as a whole, so if someone already said what I'm about to then sorry and all the credit to you! \n Now obviously rental wards just sounds awful. Why would you pay money to get an item you get to only use for a limited amount of time, for a purpose that can otherwise be infinitely used? What if however they had adaptable wards? \n To expand further: Lets say that Riot releases 3 brand new PERMANENT ward skins, which we will call ward A B and C(you can otherwise also choose not to buy these, and keep the default skins). They look good, and people will want to buy them even if they become the new \"norm\". However lets say that during special events/holidays/what have you, the wards change to correspond with the current major theme? So lets say you buy Ward skin C, you would; during the time period denoted by riot or official international calendar dates, receive the special skin for that period(if the time in question is special, Ex: Halloween). So during the winter holidays your ward C will become ward C^Xmas, and during easter it would become ward C^easter, but otherwise regain its \"natural\" difference. \n This could go into further steps such as instead of buying ward ABC and gaining access to all the holiday skins, but for a limited time, you could then buy the ward skin C^xmas, but it won't change to ward skin^easter when the time comes. This could lead also to champion themes, anytime you play fiddle sticks Ward fiddlesticks turns into a straw puppet. \n To", "id": "t3_11rnjp", "summary": "this: What if we simply had new ward skins, that had the ability to change into non-permanent skins during special time periods? And if we like a particular holiday/event skin we can equip it, but not have access to the regular ward type, and other corresponding holiday/event skins. \n All comments are welcomed of course. I wouldn't plan to hark this or push it to riot, I'm just curious how much of a difference this makes in players perceptions of a different rental skin system."}]}
+{"author": "Myhouseisamess", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post If your job is bagging groceries you get raises for doing a good job bagging Groceries.  If your job is to make the company profits you get raises based on making the company more in profits", "output": "Of course they can.... \n If your company makes 10 million in profit, it can afford to give the CEO a million dollar raise to keep him because he helped the company make the best decisions thus be able to make 10 million in profit. \n 2 things with this, if you gave all your employees this money instead of him, they would get a 10c raise. Whoooo hooooo....or you give the ceo/top level managers a sizeable raise... \n Now if the companies profits go down or they even go into the red, well they can fire the CEO or Top executives that got the raises and who's responsibility it is to make a profit.  They cannot just go lowering the wages of everyone in the company now because they made less one year. \n So you cannot go giving everyone a raise if the company does well, a mall amount of people who are responsible for company profits sure. \n Now you could go the bonus route and give your cashiers a 100 dollar bonus based on profits instead of a million to the CEO, but your top level CEO's won't work for you, and your company will make far less profits without the top level CEO's"}], "user_id": "longlamp_4756", "history": [{"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "It was a huge family reunion first one ever of this size, my brother had put It together took him forever doing one of those family tree things... \n People were coming that I had never met in my life \n Anyway about 20 minutes in, Girl was crying.... turns out she used to date her half brother... not cousin... but a half brother... \n Ohhhh wait.... it gets worse...see you would think, how would a half sister and brother not know each other but end up at the reunion \n Turns out their Dad...was the Son of an incestuous relationship between a cousin and an Uncle, The Uncle knew of the girl, and the Cousin knew of the boy but he \"dad\" had kept one of them secret from each of his parents who basically kept the Dad a secret too as he wasn't raised by his mother but some other lady NOT in the family \n I will likely have to go back and rewrite this, shame we cannot use diagrams on Reddit to clarify this... but", "id": "cc9xswg", "summary": "Half Brother/Sister used to date, didn't know they were halves, their father was a secret love child of an uncle and cousin that was raised outside the family, Uncle and cousin each knew one kid existed not the other..both brough the ones they knew to the reunion"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "Well I worked in mental health, was promoted 3 times in 4 years to the point of running a brand new Gym and leading an evening focused programming that I designed which lowered the amount of resident on staff assaults. \n However, despite it sounding great I found myself with about 3 hours of work a day, so when the place was facing cuts I was asked to fill out a form explaining what I do, my value etc.   Well I filled it out as honestly as I could but in the end I suggested that the position be cut and the responsibilities be absorbed by other positions. \n Well... I kept my job despite my recommendation, they made huge cuts in the direct care area while actually ADDING jobs in administration \n At this point I decided this facility was doomed to be closed down (something that had almost happened) \n so I found a loop hole when they were requesting staff go to the overnight shift before having to force people, I put in the paper work and they could not tell me no \n This took me from being the golden boy in administration to an ungrateful jerk. \n Well that is where the fun started, I had always heard the rumors of how poorly the night shift was run by WOW.... \n The lady in charge was literally crazy.  My first week there she tried to right me up because I did some work for my old job (about 4 hours of work) while they were in transition trying to find my replacement. \n I did this on a day when my building had twice as many staff as needed, my job would have been to literally sit and stare at the wall, as there was maybe 2 hours of work to do on the overnight with normal staffing. \n Anyway I fought it and won and this made me a marked man for this crazy lady so she started coming at me left and right but I was frustrating as hell because I was one of the few people who didn't just sleep on the shift, I stayed productive and didn't break rules. \n So while she started coming at me, I learned that this crazy lady was illegally deleting staffs time from the time sheets.  I documented her doing this to me 15 times and sent it up to administration asking they look into the legality of it. \n They ignored me, though I heard they just thought \"House and Lady need to learn to get along\" \n I kept this up for 4 months, and nothing from administration, I scheduled meetings they said they would look into it... nothing... \n Crazy lady wanting to nail me left and right would send me emails saying if I didn't do this she would delete my time, I told her if she deleted my time I would report her to the Inspector Generals Office. \n She responded by deleting my time... so I reported the Center for illegally deleting time... \n Well this caused a shit storm and a half... how dare \"house\" go to an outside agency, he is risking all our jobs as this place is constantly being looked at to be closed... \n Oh and crazy lady... she started writing me up left and right,, was written up 10 times in total,had 8 of them overturned as I could prove she was full of shit, proved it with the other 2 too but they seemed to be annoyed with the consistent overturning of disciplines. \n (oh and don't get me started on whistleblower laws... because that is some bullshit) \n Anyway, they got sick of the back and forth between her and I so they forced me to work the 7-3 shift.... which meant I would have to drop out of school that semester... \n they then placed me under a supervisor who I previously cost a promotion (I exposed some back room dealing where they were going to move a position because this girl didn't get a promotion, me pointing it ll out made it so they couldn't move the position... a position I was using for my programming mentioned earlier) \n Anway, my new supervisor wouldn't speak to me, and the first few months were hell as the staff had heard all these horrible things, didn't take long to win them over as I worked harder than most and was the first to respond to dangerous clients... \n But I was pissed that they forced my move so I started questioning all the \"quasi illegal\" things they did.  The more I pushed the more they pushed back, I kept poking the bear. \n I learned the crazy lady was back to deleting time, reported that to the state government, caused another shit storm (I have no idea how this women not only kept her job but received no discipline) \n So they pushed back more on me, accusing me of this and that, over and over proving it wrong, I would joke about how they were out to get me but man I would predict their actions over and over... \n Once they tried to fire me for filling out a March madness bracket on ESPN.com during a break... \n Then I learned of two big things, they had created an end around on Seclusion laws, bending/breaking them and I was sending emails about this to EVERYONE at the same time I reported my supervisor with time dates and video evidence of her ignoring patient safety (15 min checks) and falsifying legal documents... \n That was the last straw..they pulled a video of me from a MONTH EARLIER that they wanted to discipline me on but decided they would lose and used that video to fire me. \n I had to subpoena the video but could prove they completely lied about with most the claims and greatly exagerated the rest, had witnesses to testify to just how much of bullshit this was... \n But then people started getting pressure, the lawyer did some shady things and sent out some shady emails making it clear people who testified against the center would be doing so \"on their own time\" \n Anyway I had people asking me if they could stay on the sidelines as they had kids etc, had one girl on the day of the hearing crying she was so scared that she would get fired if she told the truth and asked if she could not testify. \n So, during the hearing I lost my witnesses, which wasn't a huge deal, as I didn't really need them, but one guy lied under oath and we did not expect him to do this, I also learned that one law didn't apply to me that I thought did... \n I panicked and they offered me a deal that my record would say I resigned instead of fired. \n In a moment of weakness I took it. \n However the last two places basically told me I had the job, then.. well I didn't after my background check but I cannot prove my old job screwed me. \n well Moved to another state, looks like I got a state job starts on the 5th of January, if my old job screws me I will be able to prove it as state jobs have a transparency thing, and they have no reason to protect a different states agency \n So that is why I'm unemployed", "id": "cmlmlq0", "summary": "I'm a whistle blower and whistle blowers aren't protected like you would think"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "No, their protests usually lead to violence which does not lead to change. \n You can have effective protests without destroying property and impeding on other peoples rights to live their lives. \n Would you support my protests against your protesting where I surrounded your house and \"peacefully\" didn't allow you to leave to get to your protest?  No you would throw a fit about how I'm impeding your rights. \n I would get thrown in jail for not allowing you to go to your protest and rightfully so. \n You want to protest something... get funding... go after the laws.  Expose corruption in the MILLIONS of ways you now can. \n But tying yourself to a tree... no you should be removed and jailed. \n you want to stand across the street and protest peacefully go a head... just don't destroy the lives of the people around you who don't give a shit about that 300 yr old tree you are in love with", "id": "ce4c1w9", "summary": "The police putting you in jail, is no different than you impeding on another's life.  You cannot restrict others freedoms and expect to not have your own restricted in return"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "No, I don't give a fuck where the terrorists came from, Iraq wasn't retaliation for the towers, it was more a warning to all the countries in the land... \n Warning isn't the best word either... Iraq was the Middle East Superpower they had by far the biggest military in the region and made the most noise.  After the Towers went down, Saddam was a moron, he thumbed his nose at the US and tried to impose his authority by jerking around the UN and violating the peace treaty set in place after the Kuwait invasion. \n Iraq was the center of the Middle East that was celebrating the attack on America and Ignoring their peace treaty... and that is why they were invaded.   That is why Shock and Awe came about... the point was to decimate their strongest military in days... to show that America doesn't just sit back and take it when you attack... \n Not to mention those that wanted to Kill Americans brought their anger to this country.... by going into Iraq, it turned them towards are military where we could fight instead of them killing our civilians... \n Now everyone knows the planning for after the war as jacked up and a huge failure... but I have always understood why we went in... Never once did I think it was about Oil... that is just a hippie way of placing blame because really you can say anything is about money...", "id": "cdbliyc", "summary": "I suggest that when a country breaks its peace agreement that ended a war THEY started, all after the worst attack against America since Pearl Harbor... yea we invade.... and I very much believe it is the #1 reason you haven't seen any attacks on American soil since"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "Yes that is true ..... mostly... \n There is jail and there is Prison \n Jail is for people waiting for trial or people convicted of Misdemeanors, any sentence more than a year is Prison (those are felony charges) \n Mental Facilities like mine are only for men facing Felonies, however if you are facing a misdemeanor which is jail time, they can send you to a civil hospital and they may be able to hold you indefinitely as long as they can prove you are a danger to yourself or others.  However, there is no conspiracy, they DO NOT WANT TO KEEP YOU, if you are not a danger they will get you out as quick as they can.  It hurts them the longer you are there. \n Now if you are facing a 3rd degree felony (max 5 year sentence) you do not want to go to my facility because they can hold you for 5 years and then send you to a civil hospital that will hold you another 6 months (must stay 6 months even if you are AWESOME)... so you COULD spend 5 and a half years locked up when you may have only gotten 2 years in prison. \n But remember WE DONT WANT TO KEEP YOU... we are rewarded for the quicker we get you out.  most people are returned to jail in under a year... and all the time you spend with us is TIME SERVED and it is crazy easy time \n So if you are going to get convicted, You can serve some of your time with us on easy street \n The down side is, when you are at the hospital, you have NO IDEA when you are going back to jail... not until they pick you up..That can drive some people nuts just not knowing. \n Mentally a lot of guys just want to go to trial so they know how much time they will have to do. \n Now if you are facing 15 years or 25 years + and you know you are going to be convicted you 100% want to come to a mental hospital.  Its easy time, it counts as time served and it gives you a long shot never even going to trial, because if they cannot make you sane enough to stand trial in 5 years they have to drop the charges (be careful about statute of Limitations though, they can always bring the charges back if they find you competent in some way so if you killed someone, you kind of have to act crazy the rest of your life", "id": "cdro4x0", "summary": "Mental Hospital can keep you 5 years and you hve no idea if you will leave after 6 months or when you will leave... but at 5 years they have to transfer you to a civil hospital that has to let you out fter 6 months as long as you aren't dangerous"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "Being sick isn't going to cause you to be a violent person.  Heck the vast majority or mentally ill people are not violent nor are they committing crimes.  But most of the ones not committing crime are that way because they are receiving help, or their illness isn't as severe as others. \n One thing I would suggest all think about who are pondering a question is this, remember that a mentally ill person doesn't always see the same world you and I do. \n An example would be one guy I worked with, he killed his mother.  This guy is not a violent guy, he is actually very docile, and had a very long fuse. \n But he committed a very violent act, he did this because he 100% believed that his mother was out to kill him and his sister.  There was no question in his mind that she was coming to kill them and he acted in self defense.  Now days he experiences Great regret and shows signs of legit remorse. \n Now if you thought someone was coming to kill you or that they were possessed by a demon out to destroy the world and you acted on it, does that make you a violent person.  I'd say no, but that doesn't make the violence you participated any less real. \n So you have to look violence of the mentall ill in such context.  Also, the root causes to \"anger\" are embarrassment and confusion... If you are mentally ill, this can often lead to embarrassment and confusion, which can lead to anger, which can lead to violence. \n While my job could be dangerious and I did see a bit of violence, for the most part the vast majority of the guys were not violent.  Most murderers just really screwed up.  However much of that has to do with them being in a safe and understanding environment causing less embarrassment and confusion, but also they were medicated.", "id": "cdxcpt8", "summary": "ramble: I think the symptoms of mental illness can lead to more violent behavior as these symptoms would cause most people to become more violent or at least increase the likely hood of it, but if you can address these symptoms than violence drastically decreases"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "Scariest situation... \n I was relatively new maybe 5 months in and I saw this guy chasing another resident out on the grounds  I ran out inbetween them and asked what was going on.. \n Mind you this guy was HUGE 6'6 300 of just MASS... and one \"crazy eye\" that just messes with your head in a place like that. \n Anyway he was all screaming and yelling and I got him to calm a bit and radio'ed to my building telling them so and so was on the grounds agitated and to inform his building so they could send someone to talk to him \n He started yelling did you call security, you better not have called security and started coming towards me.  I explained I didn't call security just told them to send someone from your building... \n He started to calm but low and behold there came security as some one must have alerted them, and he started coming at me yelling.  I stood my ground trying to calm him... which I did to a point before security got there but I swear if he got one step closer I was going to make a run for it. \n Most rewarding....  Id say those were when I could make a connection with a resident and had the ability to calm them down and keep them out of trouble.  You really find yourself rooting for these guys. \n But to me my most rewarding would be my creation of a module program for the second shift. \n When I started there we just hung out with the residents, but few of the staff really got to know the guys.  So I created a program that consisted of games and activities designed to teach \"Competency\" (understanding the court system) to the residents.  IT also included recreational activities and interactive activities that the staff would get credit for. \n IT was basically sold as a way to improve competency, and to track the hours of interaction staff have with the residents. But really what I was doing was finding a way to get the staff to actually interact with the residents more. I felt many of them were to dismissive and this lead to a lot of violent behavior. \n The program was a huge success as far as getting staff credit for interactions, I would track the data pitting the buildings against each other, so they become competitive wanting to get the most resident involvement... \n It lead to marked decrease in resident on staff assaults, gave the staff who wanted to interact an avenue to do so without backlash from other employees for \"creating work\" and forced staff who \"didn't like the residents\" to interact with them more, causing them to see them as humans and treat them better. \n IT also allowed the residents to see the staff as human due to the interactions and not just someone who has to tell them what to do. \n I love that I was able to pull that off (with the help of a few other people mind you)", "id": "cdxd7v2", "summary": "tricking staff to interact with residents more was my most rewarding moment"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "LOL, my god you really have no idea. \n Cashiers are important, Person A who fills the cashier position is not important nor valuable because Person B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z... can all step in and do the exact same job for the same or less pay with minimal training. \n The person filling the cashier position brings no value to the company, unless they are an incredibly fast cashier, and if they are they will deserve a raise as they bring in more revenue than the typical cashier. \n As for managers, no one is saying you bring in managers to replace cashiers, you pay managers who can organize their cashiers the best, who weed out the crap and managed the best possible set of cashiers.  For example a good manager will give a raise to the better cashiers and get rid of the average ones.  This gives the place the ability to run with less cashiers and still maintain short lines. \n A quality manager gets the most out of the unskilled non valuable completely replaceable staff.  They recognize those with value and provide them incentives", "id": "cg1vl07", "summary": "On good manager, can organize your worthless completely replaceable employees and minimize labor costs, which equals PROFITS"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "i found black people tipped ok.  i would regularly get 15-18% from them. sure it was a little less than i was used to as my goal was to walk with 20% of my sales after tipping out but i realized a long time ago that if you walk into it expecting a bad tip, you will likely do a shit job and deserve the shitty tip you got.", "id": "cfvrnfr", "summary": "black people aren't good tippers, but they aren't bad tippers either"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "There are many cues but it is similar to figuring out if a girl finds you charming or not, its as simple as a look or the inflection in their voice. \n The depth to which they respond etc. \n When I worked in restaurants I worked my way up to Corporate trainer going around and training wait staff in restaurants that were just opening. \n The thing that always held true is people do not notice \"good service\", they do however notice bad service.  But in the end average service (in regards to the tangible things) + the right personality is what will earn you the most amount of money.   Knowing if they want you to joke around, interact, who can take being teased etc, along with knowing if they want you to be invisible..... that is how you maximize the amount of money you can make. \n Perfect service with the wrong personality is just as bad as bad service.", "id": "cfw3x13", "summary": "close to no one gives a shit about the x's and o's of service, its your personality that matters"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "This is what growing up is about \n It is less about everyone changing and more about you seeing them for who they really were all this time. \n Some of it has to do with people not caring enough to put up the \"mask\" any more... but mostly the more you are around people the more you see them for who they really are. \n Plus, once you start to notice people changing for the negative, well then you are going to start looking for it... thus of course you will find it because all of these actions are subjective... \n Lastly... there is a thing called the hostile media affect, It is called that because most people believe that the media is mostly made up of those with the exact opposite political views... \n Memories that have emotion attached to them are much stronger than memories without emotion \n Anger is a stronger emotion than happiness... thus when you see something that angers you, it \"sits at the top of your head\" compared to things you agree with..... by that I mean the memory is pulled much easier \n When you gloss over your memory to get an overview of thought, your brain pulls up the memories that anger you more vividly than the memories that you agree with... \n thus things that upset you will be unfairly skewed against folks.... as you have gotten older their actions of selfishness etc will bother you so much more now as they are \"such and such age and shouldn't act that way\".... thus well now all the bad they do just stands out that much more", "id": "ccfitbm", "summary": "Your friends may not be changing, you may just be seeing them as they really are... oh and some psychology mumbo jumbo on how our memory is skewed by anger emotions"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "Guy here,  but I like to think I gave a girl her best first date, we have been somewhat friends, didn't hang out a lot but saw each other in class and at parties, at work, would talk,  got along etc. \n I had saved a bunch of money and had come into 20k from an inheritance, and I really wanted to make an impression on her, I knew her roommate well \n So I asked her if she wanted to get dinner with me I knew a great Italian restaurant, it was a bit out of the way but thought she would like it and we could catch a show (she loved plays) \n Had her roommate pack her an overnight bag, it was a Saturday, I picked her up at 10am explaining some stuff as a ways away but thought she would really like it so we could make a day of it. \n Drove her to the airport parking explaining there was something I wanted to show her, grabbed a back pack out of the trunk and we went to the air port. \n We got in line the whole time she is asking what the fuck is going on, she isn't flying anywhere, I get to the ticket lady hand her two first class tickets to New York (dad was able to get me the upgrade as he travels a ton)... she kind of freaks but I explain I had tickets to a broadway show this evening, she was all worried about not having anything to wear, I explained trust, me and handed her, her return ticket as a sign of faith she could head back whenever she wanted.  It took some convincing but when I explained I had always wanted to go on this date and that between my crush on her and her love of Broadway it just fit.  And I had two hotel rooms \n This broke her down and next thing you knew were were on the plane. THe plane ride was great, we got to talk, joke, about school, work, her roommate and sister being in on it etc, how I had 2 hotel rooms as we weren't returning till tomorrow but her sister already covered her shift etc... \n When we landed we stopped by the hotel, 2 separate rooms... a below average motel as this trip as expensive as fuck but no visible hookers or roaches so it was ok, her roommate had packed her underwear, shorts, shirts, makeup and hair care products because we sill had 2 hours till the show, so we went shopping for something for her to wear, told her I had 500 dollars budgeted for any outfit (thought that was a good amount it was ehhh) but she bought a nice dress and shoes (I forgot to plan for buying womans shoes)... \n We had a fun time shopping stopped got a bite to eat at some local place then went to the show... don't remember much about the show think it was called the \"mayan prophecies\" \n I do remember when ever she would get awkward I would thank her for allowing my to life out my childhood dream date \n Afterwards went to an Italian restaurant in little Italy, had a nice meal, back to the hotel, I gave her a kiss good night at her hotel door and went to mine....I made no move on purpose \n Next morning , she jumped by bones....before checkout Flew back to florida... \n Why so elaborate..... I thought of it when I was in 5th grade as the ultimate blind date....for rich people....when I met this girl, she loved the theater, especially Broadway (I can go either way) loved the idea of New York, .... fit into my child hood idea of the perfect date which was weird fro me as growing up I hated New York because of the Knicks, Yankees, Giants so I figured if I'm ever going to do it now is the time...as this girl was perfect for it \n Was expensive as fuck but worth it... \n no we did not last, but she still was the perfect one for that date", "id": "cd4w5t8", "summary": "took chick to new York first class to her to a play, out to dinner, provided her with her own hotel room, she boned me in the morning \n Edit: fixed some not all grammar, added small part to the story to help clarify why she didn't freek"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "OK I have been trying to figure this crap out for a while, and all I get is technical jargon but one thing I have put together is this. \n If you just say, hey this is free money... no one cares. \n So they invented \"mining\" \n Think Gold, back in the day, the more gold we found the more money there was as all money was backed up by gold.  Our money is (was at one time) based on GOLD \n SO this mining they do..... It is the program allowing people to find the bits of gold in the cave (internet).  This program is designed to only allow so much at a time so it kind of mirrors the gold rush back in the day. \n You have to work to get this \"gold\" so it now has some value, because the more \"gold\" that is found, the harder it is to get find/mine more. \n So by making this internet money as scarce as gold it will hopefully have the value as gold. \n As people use the internet money to trade, its value will rise. \n So mining is the new way of finding some useless shiny metal like gold but it is all on the internet. \n Now why do people believe in it, well shit who doesn't want to be part of the new gold rush.  Real gold only has value because we gave it value for being pretty, Bitcoins only real value is it is a new \"techno geek pretty\"", "id": "cfdmtl5", "summary": "the real world did it once with a useless metal called gold, why can't we do it again with a useless technology called Crypto-coins.  Because they believe the Net is the future"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "It is about the control of sex. \n While women want it as much they don't give it away as much as men would due to basic biology.  You have the power because you make the babies \n In PART that is why woman are so into slut shaming and against prostitution (yes there are other reasons too). \n If men can go get sex when ever, then women would lose the power in dating/relationships that they are given without having to earn (the vagina) \n Without the control of sex, dating becomes about partnerships, sexual attractiveness matters less and what you actually bring to the table would rule.", "id": "cfdm8dd", "summary": "you want things equal, start slutting it up ladies"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "I would think it rates far less than actually being unattractive \n ugly - worse than birthmark\nfat - worse than birthmark\ndeformed - worse than birthmark\ntediously average - worse than birthmark \n A birthmark is going to get people to look, and during middle school/Highschool that must have sucked in your own head \n But odds are the thing is more a conversation piece than something that turns folks off \n If you are ugly fat AND have a birthmark, that kinda sucks as it will be seen as an add on of bad... \n But if the rest of you doesn't stand out as bad, neither will the birthmark, it alone won't deter people from you but yea kids will talk shit cause its different.... but for adults, it makes us look... we realize oh birth mark... then our thought about it is over, unless you are ugly too... then pity... if you are attractive... then our loins burn if we are into that thing...", "id": "ccm29it", "summary": "birth mark makes us look... the rest is up to you good or bad"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "Let me start off by saying I'm not your average ignorant poster who lacks empathy or the ability to understand deeper issues \n I get homosexuality isn't a choice and why \n I get that socio-economic status is the #1 cause of ignorance/crime not race \n I get that mental illness is the misfiring of synapses in the brain and how depression and psychosis works (to the point that we as a race understand anyway) \n I grasp Nature vs Nurture and the complexities of Free will vs our experiences and how that could come into play here \n But I cannot fully grasp how addiction is a mental illness of its own, this seems to be the one \"illness\" that is only treatable by behavior, if  that is the case, how is this really an illness and not just a behavior?", "id": "t3_1mg9a1", "summary": "I get most things, I don't get this"}, {"author": "Myhouseisamess", "content": "Under two years ago I turned my state employer in for violating federal labor laws, the DCF Inspector General found in favor (though did a half ass job as the case was passed around) \n Since turning them in I was targeted by supervisors 3 levels and higher above me, I fought and beat multiple disciplinary actions including a suspension, I had my shift changed forcing me to drop out of school, attempts continued, and I fully admit I fought back by continuing to question illegal actions.... 6 days after I forwarded an e-mail to what would be a regional manager video was pulled of me and I was terminated 40 days later.... \n Sorry for the long back story, I was terminated for conduct unbecoming a state employee and I understand if I was fired for cause I cannot file for unemployment \n I am currently fighting the dismissal with the Public Employee's Relations Commission but that will take months.  I can prove without any doubt that the biggest claim against me (Violating HIPPA by reveling private medical history of a resident to another resident) is completely bogus, They claim I said a guy had a bullet in his head, no such resident exists with a bullet in their head so I couldn't be violating anyone's medical history, on top of that the video (that I wasn't supposed to see) clearly shows us talking about facial tattoo's and me commenting on a tattoo of a bullet hole on a residents face...this is not a violation of HIPPA \n Again sorry for the extra Detail, tend to ramble about that, the Question is, while I am fighting this it is near impossible for me to get more work in my field as I was just terminated for conduct unbecoming, so is there any State Aid Available for someone who was fired \"with cause?\" \n I have spent hours online looking but it is a minefield all I could find was no unemployment for \"fired with cause\"", "id": "t3_1mjgpo", "summary": "Fired for \"cause\" wondering if there is still a way to get any aide?"}]}
+{"author": "NovaDose", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Expensive ass computer keeps stuttering.  Nothing I've found on google has helped so I come to you, /r/techsupport , seeking your infinite wisdom.", "output": "The Problem : During any and all games I'll get stuttering in the form of a huge FPS drop, a slight audio buzz, and the mouse/keyboard seemingly will become unresponsive.  This lasts for maybe less than a second and occurs maybe 1-2 times every 5 minutes.  When it comes to a game that requires fast reflexes it renders the game utterly unplayable. \n What I've Done : \n \n Used a program (cant remember the name now) to completely remove the drivers in safe mode and re add them fresh.  They are the most up to date drivers from Nvidia and match the version number in Geforce experience (v340.52). \n Set \"Power Management Mode\" to \"Prefer Maximum Performance\" in the Nvidia control panel. \n Tried turning VSync off in control panel, on in the game.  On in the control panel, off in the game.  Off in both places.  On in both places. \n Dialed back several games to settings that my laptop's 650m had no issues running at.  Then reset all the games to Nvidia's recommended settings (optimized). \n Set 60fps as the maximum using EVGA Precision. \n Updated Windows and all other drivers (including the aforementioned GPU drivers). \n Unparked all my CPU cores. \n Ran DX Diagnostics in both 32b and 64b modes, found no errors. \n Checked windows error logs, found nothing. \n Checked device manager, no issues. \n \n My Specs : (All components are less than a month old) \n \n \n Part \n Model \n \n \n \n \n CPU \n Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor \n \n \n MOBO \n Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 \n \n \n RAM \n Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 \n \n \n SSD \n Samsung 840 EVO 250GB \n \n \n HDD \n Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5\" 7200RPM \n \n \n GPU \n EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Superclocked \n \n \n PSU \n EVGA 850W \n \n \n OS \n Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) \n \n \n \n All clock speeds and voltages are at factory default settings.  CPU under max load sits at around 25-28c and never goes above around 50%-70% utilization.  RAM never goes above 50% utilization but generally hovers around 30%.  GPU temp never goes above 34c."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Mitigation is important but being able to heal is just a crucial and often over looked.", "output": "Ah I gotcha.  Yeah when I first started playing my Barb again that was my biggest problem.  It seemed like no matter what I couldn't get my mitigation high enough to even break a GR20 (pathetic).  I basically had to completely retool. \n [Here's the build I'm playing around with now.](  I'm not sure how much of this you can apply to your own build, but I'll go over it anyway... \n Using super superstition to mitigate elite special attacks is a huge life saver.  Without it my build is basically broken and I've tried subbing it out for other defensive passives and even using defensive skills without it.  Nothing compares to it IMHO. \n Since I'm constantly building up to full fury with leap+earthen might then spamming sprint and WW to dump it all so that I can use avalanche on every rotation I can use Blood thirst for healing.  With the health globe bonus I have on 1 ring, shoulders and chest its enough to refill my life after and during each rotation. \n Finally, CDR.  I'd still like to have more but the more CDR I have the more I can leap therefore the more damage I do and the more I can heal. \n Granted, my gear is no where near optimized and I have several wasted rolls currently but this is a work in progress.  Right now I just managed to clear 28 without unity so I expect I'll possibly be able to break 30 with unity...I just havent gotten a chance to try it out yet.  Hope some of this helps!"}], "user_id": "longlamp_5017", "history": [{"author": "NovaDose", "content": "Posted this in a different thread that didn't get much visibility, figured I'd post it here too... \n Reloading sound was a good thing; even though it wasn't intended. That said, I don't think it really boils down to them just \"turning it back on\". If they could, they definitely should at least for a short term fix. Long term though? It's not really refined enough. This is something I think would fit. It might look complex because of the wall of text, but its a pretty simple theory. \n When you log in your character should play a sound that gives anyone nearby a clue about the threat you may or may not pose. Because, lets face it, if you're logging in near someone then you're either friendly or about to accidentally/purposefully drop in on someone and have a bloody engagement. Neither of those things are good for anyone. The sound that gets played to warn the other player could be chosen based on specific criteria, with each sound corresponding to a tier of threat and divulging more information. \n 4-If you're carrying a firearm with ammo a reloading sound should play. \n 3-If you don't have both of those things (a gun with no ammo is useless...unless used as a melee weapon ie bayonet), then the obvious next threat would be a melee weapon. I'm not really sure what kind of sound would fit best here...especially since there are so many melee weapons and so many more on the way (re: beating someone to death with a frying pan). My only suggestion would be the sound of said melee weapon getting dropped (whichever is the most damaging implement you're carrying). Since physics have been added lots of stuff will be throw-able with more added down the line. This makes me think the sounds of several objects hitting the pavement/floor/dirt would eventually be added as well. This may not be the case at all, but if it isn't idk. \n 2-From here on out the sounds get more tame (even though fists are still an option). The obvious next one down I think would be if the person is carrying a backpack. This would basically alert others that you have at least some gear (ie food, meds, other stuff) and that you aren't down to just the clothes on your back basically. \n 1-This tier is my favorite. If you are wounded, sick, or otherwise in bad shape then your character would play the corresponding sound. This would alert others in the area to someone that could use their help. This could lead to all sorts of interactions: Nurse them back to health. Kill them out of mercy or mayhem. Or potentially leave them to die alone in the wastelands instead of chancing it. \n 0-If you get to this tier you pose no threat (other than your fists), you probably dont have much worth stealing or trading, you're not sick, so you are basically down to your bare essentials. If you're in the woods a twig would snap, if you're in a building then you could yawn (as if you were sleeping there), and if you're not in a building or in the woods you should whistle. \n The great thing about this is that the ground work is already laid. The sounds for reloading, backpack zipping (I'm thinking this is, since a lot of assets are already there just not being called), and twigs snapping are already in game. The sounds for medical statuses are there already for current conditions, and as future conditions get added their corresponding audio queues would get added too so those sounds are essentially free as well. Yawning and whistling would have to be added. \n The biggest draw back I see is that people could either mimic or play the sound of the whistling. Youd think there was a totally harmless bambi on the other side, but a geared out asshole is actually there. In my opinion though, if you treat anyone as if they pose no threat at all you're asking for it.", "id": "ch10rqa", "summary": "reload sound was a good thing, here's a better alternative"}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "Telling him how to do his job? Oh please explain. \n Ok.  With examples.  Here is you telling him to get the Arma3 team to make a change: \n [Surely though, you could like nudge them on the shoulder and go.  \"Aye mate, I think you need to take some inspiration from our work here to redesign the interaction menu\".]( \n Here is you critiquing their internal structure: \n [It would be odd for the same company to notice a flaw in their product and not address it on another product they have. Even if it meant it couldn't be copy and pasted.]( \n And again: \n [However it seems rather rude to me for it to be fully released with an issue that gets highlighted by the community quite a lot in Arma 2 alone nevermind Arma 3. It feels more like a \"Fuck it, it'll do\" approach.]( \n I can appreciate a good discussion; I can.  And while I don't think its your intention to come off like you're telling him his business, I think you are inadvertently doing just that.  You're getting downvoted like crazy, and I think that might be why. \n Anyway, back on topic.  As far as a different engine, what we have now is so different from what we started with that it is effectively a different engine as well.  How many \"different\" engines have we gone through?  Well every time a big update comes out its essentially new.  Net code, that made it a new engine too.  The water in the Nile river changes every day; doesn't mean it's a new river.  I do agree to a degree though.  It is and will be a different engine.  That does not mean that the old engine needs to be scrapped or is the reason for any of the features in your list not being in yet or being impossible/possible in the future.  You attacked the engine like its shit and is the", "id": "chsb1a7", "summary": "for everything missing/wrong in this game.  It isn't. \n >Or... better, how many terms in office have you spent as president? Wait, none? Well sonny, you can't have an opinion. \n Or how many hearth surgeries have you done?  None!  Oh well you cant cut this guy open and do heart surgery.  Yeah...seems legit, right?  Those analogies can go both ways. \n Look man, I think we got off on the wrong foot here.  All I'm saying is that there is no reason to think that the engine is broken and needs scrapped.  Its getting worked on all the time.  No reason to throw around a blanket statement like that, especially when it can be taken out of context so easily.  It spreads information and can lead to people taking up torches and pitchforks where none are needed"}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "Normally I would just let this thread die, but I'm going to post here to clear up the misconceptions you have and hopefully anyone else who wants to chime in on this thread to +1 it. \n Nothing in application (and game) development is as easy as just \"adding it in\".  Vehicles tie into literally every other system in the game:  physics, inventory, crafting, etc.  Additionally, they will need their very own unique systems development to support them.  To go even further with this the art team would need to be tasked with developing their textures and models, the sound team would need to be tasked with developing their sounds, etc, etc. \n So adding in even a \"simple\" bicycle is no \"simple\" task; but that's only the half of it.  Because all of those teams have been tasked with development of a bike they are no longer developing what ever it was that they were working on before.  That said what ever that aspect of the game was is now suffering and stagnating.  This is probably the worst part of it, since it would throw them off track on the road map. \n There is a specific order that everything needs to be executed in in order for it all to come together in the end.  With application development you have to build your road map and stick to it or else you waste resources by jumping back and forth doing a little development here then a little there then some over here.  Trust in the developers vision.  I totally agree, running all over the map right now can suck at times; but its worth the wait.", "id": "cha1vbn", "summary": "Instead of the developers wasting time developing \"place holder\" assets for the game and ignoring or dropping their current tasks we should all just patiently wait.  It will def be worth it as instead of their just being one place holder vehicle added it will likely be 2-3 vehicles all at once that really show case the vehicle system and what will be possible with it."}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "Unfortunately trading, economy, and getting loot rich will not be in RoS.  There will be account bound legendaries and gold; and you'll have a two hour window that you can give it to someone else within, and you can only give the item to whom ever was in your party at the time the item was found.  Question is though, what can they offer you that would be worth your brand new legendary?  Their own already bound legendary items are off the table...so is their account bound gold...  So what can they offer?  Some shitty rare item?  A pile of shitty rare items?  Yeah, BoA is a terrible idea. \n It doesn't encourage group play anymore than the bonuses that are already in place for partying up.  What is my reward for finding a legendary that no one can give me anything of value for?  I can give it away, sure.  Maybe get one in return one day.  But there is absolutely no 1 for 1 trading.  You can give the item away, and nothing else.  You can't even lend your items out anymore. \n BoA means that players are effectively in a bubble.  If you log in and play during the day; then find something your friend REALLY wants but he only plays at night.  Well too bad.  Everything will be look but don't touch.  That awesome geared out wizard on youtube, you will likely never match his gear piece for piece or close.  How many crit hit mempos have you found?  I've been playing since launch and have found zero.  Hell I've only ever found 2 mempos and they where basically brimstone. \n Speaking of which, those BiS items out there; you will likely never find them.  And you will never trade for them either.  Previously you could save up from making multiple trades for lesser items and eventually afford that one item you need.  Not anymore. \n BoA doesn't even discourage botters.  You can already buy leveled and geared accounts; there are already leveling up services that you can purchase.  These services aren't hypothetical.  When RoS comes out it will be the only avenue for botters to make money, so this is what they will focus on now.  Where there is money to be made, someone will always make it.  With the ladder hopefully being added; leveling services for that will be popular I'm sure. \n Finally, one of the biggest things I'll miss is being able to trade commodities.  This system isn't easily gamed by botters and it helps out a lot when you want to craft large quantities of items.  These commodities would be the SoJ of RoS with the more rare materials being the most valued.", "id": "cdpat8h", "summary": "BoA destroys the economy, and trading will be totally non existent.  It forces players to either give their legendary items away or salvage them when they find a replacement.  BoA puts us all in a soul bound bubble; everything you ever see that is BIS will be look but dont touch.  Botters are going no where; they will simply adapt."}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "Absolutely.  Like /u/hungry_squirrel said those bills are sharp.  BUT not only are those bills sharp but those fish (any large fish really) are strong as fuck and can beat you with their bills, tails, and whole body.  Not to mention their fins are pointy and basically little spears.  Try to man handle something that big while its flopping and you are just going to get yourself wrecked. \n Oh! And that particular fish likely had hooks still in it's mouth; and not large mouth bass baby sized hooks the big angry looking masochism hooks.  I once saw a double treble hook rig get buried so far into a guys leg by a dolphin that he had to go to the hospital just to get em out.  Not just that, but his leg was all bruised up from the ankle to the knee from getting beat up by the fish...and that fish wasn't even that large. \n A fish this size, there would be no way to control it.  Both of those guys could jump on it's ass but even then they would be in for a struggle.  We used to keep a small baseball bat on deck for fish that were particularly unruly.  1- suffering ends 2- danger ends \n One other thing to concider:  how far from shore were they?  If they were far enough, and that fish had punctured the guy enough to make him bleed out then the coast guard doesn't have a chopper fast enough to get to you before you are chumming sharks.", "id": "coiltgr", "summary": "yes.  you tango with a fish like that and you will feel every bit of it and it will hurt the entire time and for days and days after"}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "Was just thinking about this.  Sorry for the long post \n Reloading sound was a good thing; even though it wasn't intended.  That said, I don't think it really boils down to them just \"turning it back on\".  If they could, they definitely should at least for a short term fix.  Long term though?  It's not really refined enough.  This is something I think would fit.  It might look complex because of the wall of text, but its a pretty simple theory. \n When you log in your character should play a sound that gives anyone nearby a clue about the threat you may or may not pose.  Because, lets face it, if you're logging in near someone then you're either friendly or about to accidentally/purposefully drop in on someone and have a bloody engagement.  Neither of those things are good for anyone.  The sound that gets played to warn the other player could be chosen based on specific criteria, with each sound corresponding to a tier of threat and divulging more information. \n 4-If you're carrying a firearm with ammo a reloading sound should play. \n 3-If you don't have  both  of those things (a gun with no ammo is useless...unless used as a melee weapon ie bayonet), then the obvious next threat would be a melee weapon.  I'm not really sure what kind of sound would fit best here...especially since there are so many melee weapons and so many more on the way (re: beating someone to death with a frying pan).  My only suggestion would be the sound of said melee weapon getting dropped (whichever is the most damaging implement you're carrying).  Since physics have been added lots of stuff will be throw-able with more added down the line.  This makes me think the sounds of several objects hitting the pavement/floor/dirt would eventually be added as well.  This may not be the case at all, but if it isn't idk. \n 2-From here on out the sounds get more tame (even though fists are still an option).  The obvious next one down I think would be if the person is carrying a backpack.  This would basically alert others that you have at least some gear (ie food, meds, other stuff) and that you aren't down to just the clothes on your back basically. \n 1-This tier is my favorite.  If you are wounded, sick, or otherwise in bad shape then your character would play the corresponding sound.  This would alert others in the area to someone that could use their help.  This could lead to all sorts of interactions:  Nurse them back to health.  Kill them out of mercy or mayhem.  Or potentially leave them to die alone in the wastelands instead of chancing it. \n 0-If you get to this tier you pose no threat (other than your fists), you probably dont have much worth stealing or trading, you're not sick, so you are basically down to your bare essentials.  If you're in the woods a twig would snap, if you're in a building then you could yawn (as if you were sleeping there), and if you're not in a building or in the woods you should whistle. \n The great thing about this is that the ground work is already laid.  The sounds for reloading, backpack zipping (I'm thinking this is, since a lot of assets are already there just not being called), and twigs snapping are already in game.  The sounds for medical statuses are there already for current conditions, and as future conditions get added their corresponding audio queues would get added too so those sounds are essentially free as well.  Yawning and whistling would have to be added. \n The biggest draw back I see is that people could either mimic or play the sound of the whistling.  Youd think there was a totally harmless bambi on the other side, but a geared out asshole is actually there.  In my opinion though, if you treat anyone as if they pose no threat at all you're asking for it.", "id": "ch0j6bt", "summary": "reload sound was a good thing, here's a better alternative"}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "Why not?  Lets have a look at each section (omitting confirmed stuff).  In the animations section, most of this stuff could be done in a week or so in the mocap studio.  If you'd added one animation, you can add many many more with ease.  The commo rose would take some doing, but once that's done it becomes another interface that is easily extended.  In balancing the only thing that isn't confirmed pertains to spawn points...whats so hard about changing spawn points?  Again...if you've made one, you can make many (which is a primary funtion in OO programming).  In the endgame section there are a couple things that seem difficult at first glance...  none the less nearly everything in this category is partially confirmed.  The bulk of the environment suggestions are either more buildings or just generally more of X Y or Z.  Snow is would be nearly impossible...as well as permanent blood decals on walls.  Meh...i digress.", "id": "cb1d4dz", "summary": "just about everything in these lists is do-able.  Some stuff is def not gonna happen imho but most can and likely will"}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "The multifaceted explanation of why this would never work and why it is a terrible system: \n First, lets take a look at this through the eyes of probability.  At first blush you'd think: \"well you have just as much likelihood to spawn in berezino as you do to spawn at NWAF\" and to a degree you'd be right.  But when you simplify the problem and separate the map into quadrants you now have a 1 in 4 chance to spawn in the NW quadrant and a 1 in 4 to spawn in the NE quadrant.  So now, 1 in 4 spawns will land you within a short run to the NWAF.  You can take that even farther...maybe you have a 1 in 8 chance to be within a short walks distance.  1 in 20 to be within shooting distance.  ETC  so people will just suicide to get a spawn near a high value loot location. \n Lets go a little further with this.  I'm sure there will detractors to statement #1 but lets assume we all agree just for now, for arguments sake.  In the current iteration you have no chance to spawn near NWAF.  People STILL suicide to get a better spawn...even though, objectively they are all essentially the same.  This system would take an undesirable \"play style\" (if you can even call it that) reinforce it, then force people to play that way.  You have johnny good guy who always plays from the spawn he is given.  Maybe it takes him an hour to get looted and get to his destination, maybe it takes 10 minutes.  Then you have bobby bad guy who just suicides for ten minutes until he spawns near high value loot, then gears.  Boom, done exponentially faster than johnny.  Soon johnny will get the point and start cheating too.  Where there is an exploit, people will use that exploit and those that don't will have a distinct and marked disadvantage vs those that do.  Eventually, even the people who dont like to abuse a system will start doing so simply because they want an even playing field. \n The third and possibly most important reason:  Having isolated spawn points that undergo the design process lends itself organically to creating a \"zones of engagement\" type scenario.  You know most people near the current spawn points are either going to be fresh spawns or geared players trying to kill or help said fresh spawns.  A little further away and fresh spawns become less common while geared players become more so.  Further still and finding a fresh spawn will likely never happen, everyone is geared. \n So I'd like to address a few of the reasons people say they want a system similar to this: \n -I never see anyone in Cherno, Zeleno, etc \n Thats because of three reasons.  First, its a long walk.  Second, all the players and player interaction is going on near the spawns because its a long walk.  Third, there is no NECESSITY to go to those places.  Vehicles and camping will address all of this.  Once you can get in a car and go anywhere, finding people elsewhere will become common place again.  Add to that camping, (people will want to setup camp as far away from the spawns as possible) and finding people elsewhere will become even more common place.  Adding a map wide spawn system now, when the game hasn't even been tested to see if the current system functions under a feature complete build is short sighted and could potentially lead to a bunch of wasted work if they implemented something like that now just to remove it later. \n -I'm tired of going through towns that have already been looted \n I think most of us can agree with this.  Respawning loot will mitigate this (and potentially be easily gamed if done wrong...but thats another thread).  But on the flip side of this it kind of fits the bill...going through a town thats been totally sacked, scrounging around to find something ANYTHING...it all kind of fits in right?  I digress though.  Sure, spawning anywhere would mean you might get more loot.  It also means you could be in teh middle of no where and spend the next 15 minutes looking for even a building.  It could also mean that you spawn right on top of a gun.  Either way, it throws a logical progression from nothing to something out the window in favor of everything or nothing...and thats bad.  When thats the case people will just start killing themselves to get everything instead of taking the something or the nothing. \n FINALLY lets talk about logistics: \n Having random spawns everywhere would mean that some people would spawn under buildings, in trees, on roofs, beside zombies...etc etc.  This would be a huge issues.  Even if they leveraged the navmesh this would lead to problems since things like the interiors of rooms you cant enter are included.  The number of cases you would have to plan for and code for would be ASTRONOMICAL (re: if in tree, if in bush, if in water, if in rock, if under floor, etc etc etc etc etc)  This is poor practice, not elegant at all, and very very time consuming. \n I think this wall of text is big enough now.  I've given you all several reasons as to why this is an AWFUL idea and why it should NEVER be a thing.  I'll admit, in a perfect world I would LOVE this idea.  Everyone would accept their spawn and just play the game like it was meant to be played.  We all know that the world is not perfect and that no one would do that though.", "id": "cj4larj", "summary": "If they ever implemented this they might as well take it a step further, save people all the time it takes to die and respawn, save the server all the extra load of people offing themselves over and over, and  just let everyone spawn at NWAF.  With a system like this it would take you (mathematically) exactly 4 spawns to get into the NW quadrant of the map."}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "Not sure if this is permitted here, but I figured I would give it a shot.  So I've had this idea in my head for a bit now and I just can't figure out how to make it a reality. \n So the sun, depending on your latitude, rises in one spot on the summer solstice and a different spot on the winter solstice.  There is a specific number of degrees between those two points.  So the base design of this \"compass/calendar\" would be that angle and at the points of that angle would be an infinity loop with marks denoting the months.  I would use this next part to \"calibrate\" it... \n Another line that points towards polaris (the star) would be necessary as well as the 4 cardinal directions (N, S, E, W) in relation to that line.  To determine the month I would have to line up the polaris line (at sunrise, hopefully I'd be able to see it still which you usually can on a clear day) then check where the sun rises vs the marks on the infinity loop.  (definitely not super accurate, but it would be a decent ballpark indicator) \n So I'm curious, has anyone seen or does anyone have something similar to this.  A \"functional\" tattoo.  If so, got any pics? \n I've pretty much decided on the two features above but am definitely open to more suggestions...I don't want it to get too crowded, but I still don't think that's quite enough.  I've put some thought into charting the position of venus too but that would probably make the tat too busy.", "id": "t3_3cp9eg", "summary": "Anyone have pics and/or suggestions for \"functional\" tatttoos? \n Edit:  sorry if this is not the place for this.  please let me know and I'll remove it and go elsewhere instead of just downvoting me."}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "Is honestly starting to make me happy.  Maybe some of these folks will get the point and move on for now. \n The developers aren't going to deviate from a well thought out plan just to make a bunch of neck beards happy.  If they break stride and start pandering to the vocal minority then they ultimately waste time, money, and resources to placate a group of people who will ultimately just find something else to bitch about in the not so distant future; and in the end wind up with a game that plays like a bunch of amateurs on reddit built it.  I, personally, hope these people get so pissed that they move on to somewhere else and stop shit posting on this sub. \n -Vehicles.  Please stop bitching that there aren't any.  Adding them is no simple task.  They will require multiple teams to develop and implement them; teams that are currently tasked with other projects that would have to be dropped were they are.  Additionally, how do you develop for systems that aren't implemented?  Physics for instance, vehicles will definitely utilize the new system...so they would have to build vehicles now, then add physics, then comb back over and essentially redo vehicles again.  This is the biggest example of people asking for something without understanding exactly what they are asking for. \n -Zombie pathing, difficulty, ai, etc.  Rocket and team have stated numerous, numerous, numerous,  numerous  times that zombies are and always will be a work in progress.  It's not like they dont know there are issues (read the bug tracker) and its not like its just going to be this way forever.  Drop it already.  How would you feel if your kindergarten teacher kept calling you every night to let you know you messed up on your spelling test?  Rocket knows, just drop it already. \n -Hackers/cheaters/exploits.  See above.  Hackers are and always will be something that is proactively being addressed.  Fuck man if the NSA can get hacked then DayZ most assuredly can too. \n -The people who say \"saying its in alpha is no excuse\".  If you're one of these people then I have a question for you.  Your thoughts are opinions; the game is in alpha that is a fact.  Which one is evident and based in concrete black and white reality, the opinion or the fact?  The only answer to 90% of what these people are bitching about is that the game  is in alpha .  Critiquing the game is great, it helps drive the direction of it and ultimately is a good thing...even bad critiques.  But when you shit post on reddit just to say \"i keep glitching through walls and dying\" then you aren't critiquing you are bitching and moaning. \n -People who think they have a grasp on development structure, software engines, etc but really don't.  Please.  If you had a clue then you'd be working in the industry.  Unless you've read a shit ton of books on the subject, gone to college/other formal training for it, or work in the industry then please stop pretending that you know what you are talking about.  I'm not saying that everyone without formal training or expertise doesn't know what they are talking about, but a great deal of them do not and just use words like \"engine\" and \"architecture\" as buzz words.  Just playing a bunch of video games doesn't make you an expert on their development process.  DayZ is running on its very own engine, that is a branch of ARMA2.  Branch =/= Clone.  People don't bitch because the engine uses the same random number function as every other game coded in the same language, so why bitch because DayZ has inherited methods?  Anyone doing this is just showing that they have are utterly clueless in this area. \n -They just keep adding hats!!!  This one is the go to statement of people who really have clue not one about what they are talking about.  Stop pretending that you have an inkling of an idea about what the team is doing in the background.  There is a STARK difference between a FEATURE and CONTENT.  They are actively working on backend features that will approve performance and ultimately give a great foundation for future FEATURES.  What good is a vehicle on a server that will rubber band you?  What are you going to do with a base that, once there are other bases, gets wiped because the server fails to load them all?  What would you do with the people creating this CONTENT right now, if they aren't doing just that...developing content!!!  This, to a trained and logical eye, IS PROOF EFFING POSITIVE that they're development process is working 100% as intended and like an assembly line.  The FEATURE for clothing is in and CONTENT can and is developed rapidly behind it.  This is the writing on the wall for vehicle CONTENT to start getting pushed out rapidly when the FEATURE is complete.  You see that they are \"wasting time on shit you don't want\" I see a surgical process that is cost effect, resource effective, and proactive. \n So I'm sitting here looking at this wall of text and wondering if I should click submit.  Part of me thinks this makes me just like \"those people\" part of me hopes that if I do submit then at least some of \"those people\" will say \"hey...maybe he's got a point\".  I'm going to submit it anyway.", "id": "t3_24tcty", "summary": "if you have nothing else to do but bitch, please come back later when the game is in beta.  if you have something you want implemented asap consider the road map and how your \"simple\" request might not fit into it at all (like vehicles)"}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "Lets get this out of the way first:  I understand that everyone is tired of going over places that have been looted time and time again just to find nothing.  I am too. \n Loot respawning does little to nothing to fix this, and creates a new problem all it's own.  Lets take a closer look. \n Currently people are checking the high value area nearest them and then either moving on, or jumping servers.  The former is ok but tedious, the latter is frowned upon.  So a blanket fix seems to be enabling loot respawn like in the mod, right?  Wrong.  Instead of server jumping people just camp outside the spawn area of their choice and wait.  Six in one hand, half a dozen in the other.  The only difference is that people are switching servers to get gear now; they'll just be camping to get it with respawn activated.  Respawning fixes nothing, only changes the method to achieve the same end. \n \n Lets consider first that the engine can currently only handle X number of items (I believe 5k, maybe 50k...I don't exactly remember).  This is just  for starters .  In the future one could easily expect this number to easily double, possibly quadruple or better.  This means, obviously, that there will be overall more gear on the map. \n \n Additionally, the loot is currently only limited to a handful of things.  When this number goes up, and loot types are more dispersed, the number and types of things people leave behind will also grow.  Meaning that instead of finding only badly damaged M4 parts in the barracks; you'll find those pristine optics for the AK that the last person through couldn't use (just for example). \n \n Finally, with things like food and water having methods for acquisition that don't involve finding them in a town you have to rely on looting towns for less and less.  Once the hunting/gathering aspect is implemented the only thing you'll be going to town for is medical supplies, weapons and ammo, and clothing. \n \n \n Loot respawning also creates a new problem.  Loot scarcity can easily become a thing of the past.  Whats to stop anyone and everyone from having end game kit within an hour of spawning?  Nothing.  You are right back to an FFA in Cherno because everyone and anyone already has the best gear and they're not afraid to lose it.  Also, why worry about damaging someone's gear anymore if you shoot them? You can just wait ten minutes outside Balotta and get the same or better shit. \n So how do you address the problem of barren buildings without making the best shit in the game a dime a dozen? \n My suggestion: a random 1-2 hour spawn cycle.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  I've spent all this time talking down about respawn to just promote it.  What I'm against is a short fuse respawn that's easily gamed; what I'm promoting here is different. \n Currently most servers operate on a 4, 6, or 8 hour restart (8 hrs is way too long to restart...but I digress).  This allows for a maximum of 4/6/8 chances (respectively) that the loot cycles; and a minimum of 2/3/4 chances.  This should be enough to keep scarcity down, while at the same time making it so there's a chance that there's good stuff in that building you're about to visit.  Additionally, with a long respawn timer set at a variable rate no one will be camping and waiting for a timer to run out...or basically setting their watch and camping.  The variable range additionally makes it much harder to make a \"loot run\" where for instance you could:  loot this area, run to the next area and loot it, next area and loot it; about the time you're done you can run back and recycle.", "id": "t3_1tni7r", "summary": "Anything less than a 1-2 hour variable respawn rate starts to get into the realm of destroying scarcity, is easily gamed, and only substitutes a new problem where an old problem once grew (substituting camping for items instead of server hopping) and does nothing to eliminate the old problem."}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "Thought I would post this here since it will be burried in minutes by vids/pics on the other sub :/ \n Lets get this out of the way first:  I understand that everyone is tired of going over places that have been looted time and time again just to find nothing.  I am too. \n Loot respawning does little to nothing to fix this, and creates a new problem all it's own.  Lets take a closer look. \n Currently people are checking the high value area nearest them and then either moving on, or jumping servers.  The former is ok but tedious, the latter is frowned upon.  So a blanket fix seems to be enabling loot respawn like in the mod, right?  Wrong.  Instead of server jumping people just camp outside the spawn area of their choice and wait.  Six in one hand, half a dozen in the other.  The only difference is that people are switching servers to get gear now; they'll just be camping to get it with respawn activated.  Respawning fixes nothing, only changes the method to achieve the same end. \n \n Lets consider first that the engine can currently only handle X number of items (I believe 5k, maybe 50k...I don't exactly remember).  This is just  for starters .  In the future one could easily expect this number to easily double, possibly quadruple or better.  This means, obviously, that there will be overall more gear on the map. \n \n Additionally, the loot is currently only limited to a handful of things.  When this number goes up, and loot types are more dispersed, the number and types of things people leave behind will also grow.  Meaning that instead of finding only badly damaged M4 parts in the barracks; you'll find those pristine optics for the AK that the last person through couldn't use (just for example). \n \n Finally, with things like food and water having methods for acquisition that don't involve finding them in a town you have to rely on looting towns for less and less.  Once the hunting/gathering aspect is implemented the only thing you'll be going to town for is medical supplies, weapons and ammo, and clothing. \n \n \n Loot respawning also creates a new problem.  Loot scarcity can easily become a thing of the past.  Whats to stop anyone and everyone from having end game kit within an hour of spawning?  Nothing.  You are right back to an FFA in Cherno because everyone and anyone already has the best gear and they're not afraid to lose it.  Also, why worry about damaging someone's gear anymore if you shoot them? You can just wait ten minutes outside Balotta and get the same or better shit. \n So how do you address the problem of barren buildings without making the best shit in the game a dime a dozen? \n My suggestion: a random 1-2 hour spawn cycle.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  I've spent all this time talking down about respawn to just promote it.  What I'm against is a short fuse respawn that's easily gamed; what I'm promoting here is different. \n Currently most servers operate on a 4, 6, or 8 hour restart (8 hrs is way too long to restart...but I digress).  This allows for a maximum of 4/6/8 chances (respectively) that the loot cycles; and a minimum of 2/3/4 chances.  This should be enough to keep scarcity down, while at the same time making it so there's a chance that there's good stuff in that building you're about to visit.  Additionally, with a long respawn timer set at a variable rate no one will be camping and waiting for a timer to run out...or basically setting their watch and camping.  The variable range additionally makes it much harder to make a \"loot run\" where for instance you could:  loot this area, run to the next area and loot it, next area and loot it; about the time you're done you can run back and recycle.", "id": "t3_1tni9w", "summary": "Anything less than a 1-2 hour variable respawn rate starts to get into the realm of destroying scarcity, is easily gamed, and only substitutes a new problem where an old problem once grew (substituting camping for items instead of server hopping) and does nothing to eliminate the old problem."}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "Please note, there are exceptions to all of these rules except #1 so don't be afraid to gun someone down or run away! \n So I see a lot of posts about KOS and I see a lot of other posts that aren't really complaining about KOS but just want to see more positive interactions so I thought I would give some of my insight for what its worth.  I've got around 700 hours or so in the standalone and have killed maybe 20-30.  Some of those, regrettably were KOS kills, some were in self defense...this is an unfortunate fact of life.  However, I've had maybe 50-70% more encounters that have been at the very least cordial and some that have become true friendships. \n -Do I think I'm the master friend maker?  Nah. \n -Do I want to play like a care bear or encourage care bears?  Absolutely not. \n -Do I want to share some of my tips on finding friendlies?  Yup. \n -Do you want to hear those tips?  Well you've come to the right place. \n So without further ado, my ten commandments for friendly encounters.  [incoming wall of text] \n \n Location, location, location:   This is the one tip that simply cant be over stated or deviated from.   The likely hood that you will be shot at or attacked goes up with the number of spawn points near you and the number of military grade spawns.   That said, the likelihood of hostiles go downs the further you are from these places.  Generally speaking if you run into someone in Zeleno they are there because they want to get away from the madness that is the coast and the hostilities that transpire at the air fields.  People don't go to Zeleno (or similar towns) because they want PVP, and they don't go there to gear up for PVP either.  Staying in these areas does lower the number of interactions you are going to have (for now) but the trade off is it increases the likelihood of friendliness.  Sad truth is the more people you see, the more likely someone isn't going to be friendly. \n \n Spot them before they spot you:   This cant always be achieved, but when you can surprise someone you assume control of the situation and can help guide it towards a friendly encounter.  When you approach try to do so without your gun raised (judgement call) that way if they spot you, they see an unarmed person not someone with their gun ready to fire.  The next rule ties closely into this. \n \n Don't let them see you until you know they are cool:   If you can manage to get close enough for direct chat without them seeing you but you can see them then you are golden.  Hide yourself, watch them, and talk to them.  Use your mic, and use your keyboard (but only if its safe, they moment you go to type might be your last moment) to say hello or ask if they are friendly.  If they don't respond to either do it again or get ready to kill or be killed.  Let them know they are in plain sight, ask them to stop searching for you and to hold still, keep telling them you are friendly you just want to be sure they are.  One other thing, having the drop on someone and not killing them instantly solidifies you as a friendly and may make a hostile become friendly to you.  I haven't (knock on wood) been killed yet by anyone whom I've had the drop on. \n \n Teams of players don't need more team mates and aren't looking to make more friends:   In my experience the number of players on a team multiplies the odds that they will shoot at you by each player on that team.  A team of four, for instance, is probably going to shoot you or at the very least torture you (if you are a lonewolf).  The closer your group matches their group in numbers the better.  If you are a lonewolf, teams generally pose enough of a threat to not warrant risking it (again, your call).  Also, if you are a lonewolf talking with a team consider saying something like \"I'm just waiting for my friend\" or something like that.  This will make them worry that they may be outnumbered and you can always explain later if they turn out to be cool. \n \n Be friendly:   When you say \"throw down your gun, I'm friendly\" that's not very friendly.  Let them keep their safety net...if you followed #2 & #3 its not doing them much good anyway.  Try not to make demands or yell.  Instead, say things like \"hows it going?\", \"how are you guys liking the new X or Y\", etc.  More on this in rule #6 \n \n Talking points:   I never ask \"do you need something\" right away.  A bandit will say 'yes' 100% of the time.  I wait for them to ask me if I need anything.  Additionally, if someone DOES need something they are going to ask for it eventually anyway.  Names are also important here.  Offer your name first just like this- type something in direct chat, then say your REAL NAME over coms (something like \"but you can call me Mike\").  This humanizes you, and cuts down on the likelihood they will shoot further.  Get their name, get it through direct chat; and try to get their real name.  Once you are on a real name to real name basis you're probably going to be bros.  One last thing, just shouting \"friendly\" over and over again into the microphone is both a bad idea and eliminates the human element.  Instead, start with \"hello\" or \"hi, how are you\". \n \n Clothing does little, if anything, to denote that you are friendly:   While I have had some success dressed in bright colors I have found that the trade off is that you stick out like a sore thumb if the shit hits the fan.  Additionally, good bandits dont dress like bandits; they dress like fun loving bros.  NEVER chose your gear because it looks friendly (or do, just a suggestion). \n \n Posture:   Since clothing is out, the next best thing is posture.  If you are slinking round with your rifle out when (if) someone spots you they aren't going to think \"what a swell guy, ridding the land of zombies and such\".  If I have to approach someone who has spotted me I usually wiggle from a distance standing straight and tall and wave to them.  The wiggle + wave is a generally accepted sign of friendship.  Don't put your hands up, the animation going from hands up to hands down and moving can be just enough time to catch a round in the chest. \n \n When you part ways, get out of sight quick:   As soon as you start running you become one of two things...a sitting duck, or a liability.  Know your fastest route out with the best cover.  Zig zag into and out of cover and get the fuck out.  Once you are far enough away and safe, check to make sure you aren't being followed. \n \n Bambis can be the most dangerous player in the game:   Someone with nothing to lose by attacking you, everything to gain by killing you, and nothing to gain by letting you run away is essentially a pit viper waiting to strike.  Keep bambis at a safe distance.  If you have followed all these steps up to here then this is likely not a problem because you probably aren't in bambi stomping grounds.  If you are mingling with the riff raff around Berezino then probably every other bambi is going to try to punch you out. \n \n When a friendly double crosses you don't take it to heart:   (I know I said 10, this last ones on the house)  Lets face it, there are some dyed in the wool dick wads out there who will lull you into false security just to shoot you, and not even to take your shit, just to ruin your day.  Don't let those people win.  Don't let them rustle your jimmies.  Don't become the KOS'er that you are tired of running into. \n \n \n That just about sums it up.  Feel free to make suggestions or alterations and I'll edit the OP if desired.", "id": "t3_26bm5g", "summary": "just read the headings."}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "So this is more or less a proof of concept if anything since the PTR is, of course, subject to change; but I wanted to put it out there to get some feedback and maybe get some of your creative juices flowing.  I achieved GR50 with the Helltooth set a moment ago and feel that with the right mob fishing and a few gear upgrades I could probably get this build to GR55.  As far as I know this is the best Helltooth GR finish in the world and as far as I can see the other 171 people ahead of me are ALL using DoD.  Feel free to skip to the end if you're not interested in the nuts and bolts. \n [Pics or it didn't happen]( \n \n A little background first: \n Before ROS dropped I had the opportunity to set myself up with some legacy gear to have a little fun with once the patch launched.  I managed to keep a 2second SOJ and a 2second Mara's for Wall of Zombies in the hopes that the [then] upcoming Zombie Wall set would be OP.  So that didn't work out...but I wasn't dissuaded.  Since then I've been saving the best pieces of that set that I find just in case and I think it's finally starting to pay off.  All of the gear you see below is gear that I've farmed on live (except the bracers obviously) so I had a little bit of a head start.  All of this gear I would consider BIS with the best feasibly possible rolls (save a few 10s or 1%s here and there...and of course a few-non ancient items).  OK so lets jump in. \n \n Over View: \n [The Skills]( \n [The Gear]( \n [The Cube]( \n \n The Skills: \n In order to proc Focus and Restraint I'm using Plague of Toads/Addling Toads and Acid Cloud/ Acid Rain [Edit: Lob Blob Bomb is SOOOO much better].  I'm using Addling Toads for the CC it provides and Acid Cloud for AOE.  I've tried using Toad Affinity instead of Addling Toads but the amount of Mana on hit you get back in relation to the number of extra Acid Clouds you can drop isn't worth it when you consider that you're sacrificing the extra CC from Addling Toads for it.   Lob Blob Bomb instead of Acid Rain is viable if only to CC mobs a little more with a few extra targets.  IMHO the extra AOE from Acid Rain helps out a lot more though . \n Big Bad VooDoo/Slam Dance with SMK^3 is a no brainer.  If you can get an Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac use Rain Dance instead...more on the Obsidian Ring version of this later. \n Piranhas/Piranhado is great for the Added CC.  Add to that the fact that your Mimics from Grin Reaper will cast them. \n Spirit Walk/Jaunt is your damage mitigation and mobility skill.  You can trade this out for Hex/Angry Chicken with Manajuma's Set weapon & mojo for a very, very,  VERY  fast bounty clearing build. \n Wall of Death/Ring of Poison is your bread and butter skill.  You use it to spread necrosis, apply your slow for Bane of the Trapped, and to proc your 50% damage reduction from the 4 piece bonus of hell tooth.  A few important notes about this skill: \n \n It  CANNOT  crit. I believe it works like Jade in that your total Crit Chance and Crit Damage is rolled in with the damage.  Could be wrong, but my initial tests point towards this.  This could lead to some interesting build alternatives utilizing the Broken Promises ring...but that's for another day. \n From what I can see the damage of Ring of Poison gets rolled into 1 tick and displayed.  So for instance if the mob is standing on 3 walls of your 3 rings the damage number that pops up will be a summation of the total damage that round from each of the rings.  So I think it stacks, but I would love to get some more science done here or to get someone's else data on it.  If it stacks then don't bother with Broken Promises ring because they would have to walk through 5 rings before you would get your 100% CHC. \n It can be cast  DURING  other skills such as Acid Rain, Addling Toads, and Piranhado \n Finally its snapshot damage.  So if you want to maximize your damage with it be sure you have F&R proc'ed before you drop your WoDs \n \n For passives you will need blood ritual for your mana dividends; IMHO Spiritual Attunement and Vision Quest don't quite cut it.  Spirit Vessel for your second chance in GRifts but if you're running the Manajuma's version mentioned above use something else (wild card).  Pierce the Veil and/or Gruesome Feast...your preference.  Grave Injustice is a must have but I'm thinking if you are going with Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac you might be able to drop this.  I'm using all five of these passives with the 5th one on my Amulet. \n \n Paragon: \n R/W to 25% > INT \n CDR > CHD > CHC > AS \n Armor > Life > All Res > Regen \n RCR > Area Dmg > LoH > GF \n \n The Gear \n You must have a Star Metal Kukuri.  Always up BBV is key to pushing high GRifts.  Rhen'Ho Flayer is great for the added CC.  In my case I'm using an ancient Rhen'Ho Flayer and SMK cubed.  You could, of course do the alternate of that as long as which ever weapon you choose to keep out of the cube is the ancient one.  I think BIS here would be Ancient Furnace with SMK^3 OR ancient SMK with ancient Thing of the Deep and Furnace^3 ...with the former being slightly better if you use an Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac and the former being better sans-Obsidian Ring (because you can get CDR on your Mojo).  Regardless of what you use maximize for damage first, then CDR if you can. \n Thing of the Deep is great when you dont have ORotZ because the Pickup Radius on it synergizes well with Grave Injustice.  You are, after all, trying to stay out of the fray if you can help it so being able to benefit from the GI procs and lower your cool downs is a ton of help.  If you are going to use a Mojo then go for CC, INT, VIT, CDR/WoD Dmg % \n 6 Piece Helltooth set (get life after kill everywhere that you can) \n \n Helmet:  INT > CHC > VIT > Socket (ORotZ should use Acid Cloud Dmg % instead of VIT) \n Shoulders:  INT > VIT > CDR > WoD Dmg % \n Gloves:  INT > CHD > CHC > CDR \n Chest:  INT > VIT > WoD Dmg % > 3 Sockets \n Pants:  INT > VIT > Armor > 2 Sockets \n Boots:  INT > VIT > Armor > All Res (ORotZ should use Acid Cloud Dmg % instead of All Res) \n \n Focus & Restraint should both have INT > CHD > CHC > Socket. \n Hellfire Amulet or Immunity Amulet with Poison Dmg % > INT > CHD > Socket. \n Belt of Transcendence with INT > VIT > Armor > Life %. \n Jeram's Bracers with Poison Dmg % > INT > VIT > CHC. \n For your gems use Bane of the Trapped (proc'ed by the slow from Necrosis) and Gem of Efficacious Toxin for more Poison DOT.  Zei's Stone would make an excellent third choice.  Gogok of Swiftness could help offset CDR deficits and Taeguk could be interesting if you have Mana to spare. \n \n The Cube: \n As for the cube keep in mind that having SMK is not optional so if you're not holding it in your hands you will need to cube it.  If you are holding it in your hands then cube either a Furnace or a Rhen'Ho Flayer.  For your armor cube a Grin Reaper.  The added CC from your Mimics really makes this build hum.  Alternatively you could cube a Belt of Transcendence and wear a Witching Hour.  Or perhaps even use Leorics Crown.  For your jewelry Unity is imperative but if you have Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac that could be very interesting too...more on that later... \n \n Your Follower: \n Templar:  Eun-Jang-Do, Freeze of Deflection, Wyrward, Dovu Energy Trap, Unity, Immortality Relic.  If you're not using unity use a double AS Oculus Ring. \n \n Play Style: \n Start off by casting a few sets of Addling Toads out and 1 Acid Rain to setup your F&R.  Drop your BBV and cast a series of WoDs for the baddies to walk through.  When they get close, use Piranhado to pull them back away and make them walk through your WoDs again.  Every chance you get drop more WoDs while keeping your F&R proc'ed and spamming Acid Rain.  Use Acid Rain to proc Belt of Transcendence to keep your BBV up.  Jaunt to escape danger. \n \n The Dream: \n So an Ancient Furnace + SMK^3 would probably be the BIS weapon setup for this.  In that scenario perhaps Belt of Transcendence^3 while wearing Witching Hour would slightly win out even though you would lose a ton of CC from no Addling Toads+Rhen'Ho Flayer AND no Mimics.  The only way I could see doing something like this is if you ran Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac and changed your BBV/Slam Dance out for Rain Dance.  While in the BBV you could spam Acid Rain to your hearts content, resetting Wall of Death instantly and making it spammable as well.  This is all theory crafting but it sounds pretty solid to me. \n \n So to bring it all in I can pretty comfortably do GR50 with this setup with little worry about dying (50% damage reduction from 4 piece helltooth then an additional 50% DR from unity).  However, the damage output means that this build, in it's current state, will never compete for top tier spots.  Now, if I had my dream setup mentioned above I can imagine an Infinite rain of Acid Rain and Wall of Death creating a giant kill zone.  With enough WoDs stacked on top of each other I can imagine things getting melted pretty damn quickly; maybe, MAYBE, GR60 is possible with the dream setup.  In it's current state, with the gear I have right now the RG is a joke at this level with the new changes and takes less than a minute to drop if it has Adds.  So what needs to be changed??? \n \n The two piece set bonus seems fine to me (please don't hurt me).  I think the reason it feels so lackluster is because no one has it as a spamable skill, and everyone is relying on the 3 casts from Jeram's Bracers.  I think the only way to get a good read on it though, would be with ORotZ.  Lets say you cast WoD on a stationary target, 1 cast, 2, 3.  Now you have X seconds before you can cast again and add more Poison Rings.  Its during this cool down time that your damage suffers.  Now lets say you could go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, etc.  Then it would all boil down to how many WoDs you can cast within that 5 second duration of the skill.  That will determine your max damage output on a stationary target.  MAYBE a 500% DMG increase to the Necrosis is in order but we will see... \n The 4 set piece is great.  BUT It needs a status tile. \n The 6 set piece is where this set suffers the most.  This should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1k-1.5k Dmg %.  With the 10 second duration of the Necrosis you have a modest window in side of which to make it rain; if you could make it rain harder during that window then this set would really come alive. \n The deadzones on the skills are just fine, you just have to adjust.", "id": "t3_3cabgi", "summary": "Helltooth is OK; 6 piece set bonus needs a buff to make it viable.  Ancient Furnace + SMK^3, BBV Rain Dance, Obsidian Ring is probably the way to go. \n Thoughts?  Suggestions?  Questions? \n Edit:  Spelling and some changes based on new science and suggestions."}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "I know this isn't something specifically in the devs' court(s) and I know that the issues with 64b are intrinsic to the engine itself and not so much the game.  I know there is already a 64b client and that you just have to do some tinkering to get it to [sometimes] work; but unfortunately I cant get it to work with anything but vanilla KSP which defeats the purpose for me. \n I'm not being impatient, entitled, complaining, or trying to flame.  I know the only real answer to this question is \"its ready when its ready, be patient\".  The devs are great, very attentive, work hard, and the game is wonderful I have no complaints. \n Now that we've gotten all of that out of the way... \n Any mention of the 64b client lately?  I haven't been following the news much and am waiting to play again until a 64b client is public-ready.  Last thing I heard is a dev saying something like \"there are 64 reasons to like the next update\" or something like that which everyone assumed (incorrectly?) meant a 64b client.  I know there is likely no publicly available date for the patch that will contain the 64b client and its my understanding it wasn't packaged with the last patch so that it could be polished more?", "id": "t3_433rq3", "summary": "any news on 64bit support?  any speculative dates that anyone wants to ballpark/guess at?"}, {"author": "NovaDose", "content": "I should preface this with my purpose for the question:  I want to build a backyard \"solar model\" with my daughter that functions as a rudimentary calendar. The solar model will include, among other things: \n -Line segments that mark North to South and West to East; lined up properly by using a compass. \n -Two rays starting at the vertex of the aforementioned mentioned N/S & W/E lines that point out in an Easterly direction.  Their ends will mark roughly the heading of the rising sun on summer solstice and winter solstice respectively. \n -Between the two \"sun rise points\" (mentioned above) I will use a \"mobius strip\" (even though it wont be an  actual  mobius strip) on which i will mark the beginning of each month.  So if you look at it during sunrise you can ball park the date (month and week) \n -I would also like the \"twist\" point of the modius strip (mentioned above) to coincide with the sunrise azimuth on the day of an equinox.  I'm assuming that this day could be shared by the same point for both equinoxes but I could be wrong. \n -I also want to include another ray starting from the vertex of the cardinal lines that points towards the north star.   I'm open to suggestions for any other number of interesting things that I could chart on this model  :) \n \n [Here is a very, very rough idea of what I'm looking for](  At what degree on the face of this device should the summer solstice be plotted, the winter solstice, and both or either of the equinoxes and is there a formula for me to calculate where they should be for my location in the world?  Has anyone seen something like this done before in this way and can give us some good examples for direction/inspiration? \n \n I've been trying to use  this online tool  to calculate the azimuth of sun rise on the aforementioned dates; but I'm not sure I'm using it right. \n For example I'll use New York, New York.  I set the lat/long, time zone offset of -5 and check mark DST because I'll be using 21 June 2015 as the date and 5:25 am as the time.  The tool gives me 57.5 degrees with an elevation of about 0.  Seems right I think.  So sunrise would be @57.5 on the compass correct? \n BUT this doesn't help my kid learn anything, or me for that matter.  So can I calculate this for myself rather than relying on internet tools?  Of course, the last thing I want is to take my daughter to check our calendar on the date of the winter solstice to find that its off by 10 degrees or more; but this is about learning and doing something together...(even though I'm asking you all haha)", "id": "t3_3et11e", "summary": "Can /r/askscience help my kid and I build a modern stonehenge?"}]}
+{"author": "siamonsez", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post If you drop $2 in the jar on a tab for 2, good on you!", "output": "A second question; for take-out is a $2 tip on the same tab cool? \n Where I worked, there were 10 people working in the store (kitchen/counter/dish washer/prep) and 3 drivers on a friday night. The tip jar usually had $25-$30 from dine-in and take-out to split between them, and I always thought that was jacked up since drivers would easily make $60, so if I had a good night I'd throw $5 in the tip jar at the end of the night, or if there was a hard delivery order that a particular cook helped me with (ex. 20 sandwiches) I'd slip them part of my tip."}], "user_id": "longlamp_14525", "history": [{"author": "siamonsez", "content": "Not only that, but couldn't the predictions become self fulfilling by causing pre-reactions (preactions)? \n The software predicts badness is about to ensue, and has a track record of being accurate. Businesses and financial institutions start pulling money out of the area, government and law enforcement start cracking down, media is flooded with alarmist scenarios of how bad it could be; all of this pushes the badness(which may not have happened) over the edge.", "id": "cc7k3qo", "summary": "people carrying umbrellas don't cause rain."}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "Good analogy! \n To continue the analogy, a great first date might just mean you are dealing with a  playa . \n I was recently thinking about getting some cabinetry done in the kitchen as I was redoing the floor. The guy came out within about an hour of calling him and talked me through everything, so it all seemed good. Then it took some prodding before he emailed me the design which was just a line drawing with dimensions. I replied to the email asking about pricing. In the mean time I finished up the flooring and had pretty much given up on the cabinetry. He emailed me back a month after the project was done asking if I was still interested, so I still never got an estimate.", "id": "cj4g1ub", "summary": "Great first date, but it turned out to be nothing but a one night stand and a booty call a month later."}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "Interesting read, it got me thinking about the  food chain  of economics. \n A poor person doesn't make enough money to live comfortably, but the only reason that person needs money is because (for simplicity sake) they need to pay rent. The only reason they need to pay rent is because someone else needed a job, just as the poor person does, and their job is to own property on which they rent out shelter to people who can't afford to own their own. \n The only reason there's a market for rentals is people can't get jobs that pay enough to afford to own their own homes, but for more of those jobs to become available, there needs to be more  poor  people that can only afford to rent.", "id": "cj9y3jq", "summary": "If you want to provide better jobs for poor people, you need more poor people to provide the market for those jobs."}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "I played through the vanilla game many times and eventually got bored with doing the same quests over and over again. Then I played it again, after a while, when I got into modding, but I ended up just leveling smithing and enchanting, or saving up money to get the cool new armor mod, or whatever.", "id": "t3_15zb8e", "summary": "What can I do so that I get excited to play again?"}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "My new board is an ASUS P8Z77-V Pro, and I was pretty much locked in on a 3570K because it seems like that's the goto gaming chip. That's probably the most intensive thing I do aside from occasional video editing, just home movies and stuff. \n Well, I didn't score any good deals over the last week since thanksgiving, and MC is too far away to be worth it, so I took another look at pcpartspicker and did the cost/performance for all IB i5s and found that the 3570k is actually the worst, and that the 3470 is the best at current prices. I'm not a big overclocker, but if there's some free performance gain to be had I'll gladly take it. My current rig is running a meager 10% oc via the bios ai overclock. \n On the new board I'd be using the ASUS TPU thing, so I was wondering if anyone has any experience with TPU and a non k series IB and could let me know how it works. \n I [read]( that the non k skus can still be oc'd by boosting the turbo frequence by 4 \"bins\"? so, based on [this]( I assume that it means the turbo frequencies would go up to 4000 / 4000 / 3900 / 3800. If so, then it is in the same range as the 3570k running at stock speeds, but is this done by the ASUS TPU or in some other way?", "id": "t3_13xyw6", "summary": "With auto OCing, will I be happy with the 3470, or will I regret not spending the extra $30 for the 3570K? \n Edit: My cooling is a hyper212+ with two of [these]( and I expect case temps to be on the low end."}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "Trying to print out these mail in rebate forms and printer decides it's only going to pretend to print. (goes through the motions but pages come out blank.) I mess with the printer for an hour before giving up, I have to do some errands and will be near FedEx so i'll just through the docs on a thumb drive and do it there. It couldn't cost more than 30 cents right? Wrong! \n I cost $2.37 to print out three freaking pieces of paper! Add in postage and at least an hour of my time and it's cost way more than the $10 cash card that I'm going to have to wait like 2 months for.", "id": "t3_12p4zv", "summary": "Worked for an hour @ less than minimum wage to me paid in two months. WTF! Stupid mail in rebates."}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "Maybe it was a simple project that ended up being worth way more than the time, effort, and/or price; or it could be something that you had been putting off for a while, and now wish you had done it sooner; or even something you thought was kinda crazy when you started, but ended up being awesome. \n I want to know what your best project was that maybe most people don't think of. I'm not talking about 'fix-it' jobs so much as actual improvement jobs, but anything you have done yourself that added way more  value  than you expected.", "id": "t3_1c9uo4", "summary": "Whether bragging about your best project, or sharing something you don't understand why everyone doesn't do it, this is the place."}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "I have [these]( though I bought them separately. I love the tools, especially the size and how powerful the impact driver is. This morning I was looking for a new battery because the contact on one of mine got bent from throwing them in a tool bag, and, even though I bent it back into shape, it's still kind of hinkey. \n I found [this]( which is a really good deal since the high capacity battrery alone is $38. \n The thing is, there are only a handful of tools that use the 12v battery, and only a couple of those that I would actually use. \n Do I wait until the battery/tool starts to give out and start thinking about making the switch to the 18v tools which there are many more of that use the same battery? \n Do you stick to one brand for all/the majority of your cordless power tools, or is it all mix and match? It seems like one charger and maybe 3 batteries would be good if all your cordless tools used the same batteries, because you can't use that many tools at the same time. If I eventually switch to a higher capacity battery, should I still stick with bosch? The LBOXX thing that comes with the 12v battery kit looks pretty neat, but you could easily spend hundreds of dollars on all the bits and pieces.", "id": "t3_1g74ar", "summary": "Do you all stick to one brand for cordless power tools for the sake of battery compatibility? What tools besides a drill and/or driver are suitable for only having a cordless one, and what's your go-to brand?"}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "I have a HP Envy 4t-1000 and configured it so that it would fall under the catagory of ultrabook because I was getting it to replace my eeepc 1005ha so I didn't want to take too big a hit on battery life. \n When I was configuring it, I couldn't figure out why they only offered up to 8 gigs of ram, so I bought [this]( and put it in when it came. Now I get more like 3 hours off a full charge, and that's with low screen brightness, and just derping around on the internet most of the time. \n The other specs are: i5 3427U on a HM77 chipset and the igpu HD400 is being used most of the time, but there's a radeon hd 7670m that kicks in if anything with 3d graphics is running. \n It's a big investment because I'd want at least ~256GB, but would a ssd make up for some of the power being eaten up by the ram?", "id": "t3_17ko0i", "summary": "I upgraded to 16GB of ram and it killed my battery life, would switching to a ssd make up some of the loss?"}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "I'd like to completely isolate any user files on a second drive so it would be possible to format and reinstall at a moment's notice without worrying about updating backups or losing data. \n In the past I've tried changing the default folders of libraries to another drive but that doesn't help with  program data  and I hate using libraries because I like to know exactly where things are. \n I've also tried moving(dragging and dropping)  My Documents , etc., to another drive. Windows handles that pretty well, but it caused issues with some installers that went \"OMG, where is C:/Users.... My Documents\" \n The last thing I tried, which I thought was a stroke of genius, was to boot I to the OEM pre-installation thing and create junctions/hard links for all the folders I wanted to move. This also caused many issues with installers, similar to simply moving the folders. \n I guess what I'm looking for is similar to a network terminal where everything is stored on the server and only the actual windows install is stored locally, but using a second drive instead of a server.", "id": "t3_1lz2hf", "summary": "Is it possible to install Windows so that only the  windows  and  program files  directories are on the C: drive and everything else is on D: drive?"}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "I'm starting to understand some of the technical terms, but those generally not listed on the sites where you can buy a tv, those are bloated with all the marketing bs numbers. \n I was looking at  but the model numbers aren't the same as what I can buy in the US. \n I was looking at a [this]( but it seems like the 'true motion 120 Hz' is actually 60 Hz because reviews say that when you turn it off, the motion blur is pretty bad.", "id": "t3_1e07vd", "summary": "What sites do you use for professional reviews, full specs, and aggregating tvs by specs/price, etc.,?"}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "I'm looking for a LED lit LCD in a high 30s to mid 40s range as far as size; and have a budget of $1000 max, but am really looking more in the $700 area. \n I obviously want the best picture I can get within those constraints, I don't care about smart stuff either way, but I have been shying away from 3d because it seems like the lower end 3d systems which fall into my range, the 2d suffers from trying to make the 3d look good at that price mark. \n I need at least 3 HDMI, and will be using the built in speakers. For longevity a fourth HDMI and optical audio output would be nice, but are by no means deal breakers. \n Edit: I guess 3 HDMI isn't a deal breaker either since, as /u/freakame pointed out, I can get a splitter; though I'd rather skip the extra remote if possible. \n Per suggestions on here I've been looking at Samsung, but in the current lineup the 6300 seems like the only one that fits and it's edge-lit, which isn't important to me, but It seems to me that back lit should be better if you don't need edge lit.", "id": "t3_1e8wpr", "summary": "I've been swimming through this sea of numbers and acronyms, and I give up. Will someone just tell me what to get?"}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "The piece is about 3.5\" dia. and about a foot long. It's been sitting out for almost a year, but not for the purpose of drying, just in the covered wood pile for the fireplace. \n I want to use it to make a handle for a hatchet head I found. \n I wouldn't know how to describe how wet it still is, but when I started cleaning it up into a more cylindrical shape a lot of sap was coming out. \n My first thought was to put it in the BBQ, not directly on the heat, because when I hear kiln, I think of a pottery kiln, so I assumed it was normally done at high temperatures for a relatively short amount of time. \n Then I watched [this]( video and realized I was completely wrong. Are there any tricks; I was thinking maybe putting it in the attic, or outside, under glass, kinda like a greenhouse but open so it doesn't trap the moisture. \n Is it even worth doing or am I going to have to wait years before I have something workable?", "id": "t3_1l2a87", "summary": "Anyone with experience drying your own wood? Would it be worth it for a single project? How'd you do it?"}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "This one is really making me scratch my head. It seems to flush fine empty, but if there's anything on the bowl it doesn't flush completely, and takes another 1-2 flushes. There doesn't seem to be any issues with the tub or sink in the same bathroom, and the rest of the house is fine. \n I had rotorooter out and they used a camera on the line and there were no clogs but where the toilet drain hits the rest of the plumbing(~18\" below the toilet) I could see it just poured out softly when flushed. \n The rotorooter guy said it was due to the toilet being really old and not having the chute at the bottom of the bowl that bushes the water out, so I replaced the toilet and am still having the same problem. \n The water level and everything about the flushing mechanism is fine. I haven't taken the toilet off again to check that short section of pipe I couldn't see on the video inspection, but don't see how it could be flushing without backing up, but not flushing completely. \n I was thinking it might be back pressure from the vent pipe being clogged, but the shower and sink each have their own vents and come together within 6' to the same drain pipe, so it seems they'd be able to relieve any pressure, or they'd all be having the same problem. \n I haven't taken the toilet back off yet because it's a pain, and I was hoping for some other troubleshooting ideas first.", "id": "t3_440evl", "summary": "preexisting problem with new toilet \n Not actually clogged, and the only slow drain \n I've checked that everything in the tank is working right"}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "Couple of examples of why it would be useful: \n \n If I've asked a question and then edit the post with the best answers, the people who gave those answers won't know unless I reply to each one. This also applies to other people's questions that I'd also like to know the answer to, but won't know when it's been answered unless I keep checking back. \n I want to acknowledge a bunch or redditors that made similar constructive comments without having to reply to each one. \n Subs where edits are necessary to furthering the conversation, like /r/riddles  \n \n I thought it could be implemented by either adding a tag to the users overview page that shows that the submission they commented on has been edited, or that it could show up as an automated message in their inbox, or some combination of the two with a choice for the user.", "id": "t3_16tp52", "summary": "I'd like to see an easy and obvious way to tell when a submission I've contributed to has been edited."}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "I was looking to get a new sander because I hate mine, it's a Makita random-orbital. I was initially looking at the 1/4 sheet sanders because I thought it would be easy to get paper, but I thought I'd look around /r/diy for some suggestions on types/brands and it seems like everyone suggests random-orbit sanders for general use. \n The thing I hate about it is that when I have a lot of sanding to do and use a coarse pad it quickly gets gummed up so I have to try and clean it off or switch it out for a new one. I don't know if it's the paper (ace brand because it's what I can get around here) or if it's the specific sander.", "id": "t3_1bps7t", "summary": "Sanding is probably my least favorite thing to do, and I'm looking for something to make it a little less awful. \n ~$50, or up to ~$80 if it's worth it."}, {"author": "siamonsez", "content": "Rant/ \n The interactions between energy weapons, lasers and beams, with shields makes some sense, though heavy lasers should really pop 2 bubbles, but the relationship between physical projectiles and shields is totally inconsistent. \n All missile ignore any amount of shields, which lends credence to the fact that shields are only good for energy weapons, but by this logic the flak should ignore shields too. \n The only physical weapon that makes sense is the crystal weapons because they are physical, but their stats are most similar to laser weapons, so it's easy to imagine that the crystal projectile is simply a container which ablates off through the first layer of shields allowing the the  laser  inside to continue on  to the ship or the next layer of shields. \n This logic, however, seem to indicate that the flak should behave more like beam weapons. Either being completely stopped by shields without taking them down, or, if they were grouped tightly enough, each one would be consumed by a layer of shields without taking them down, but poking a hole long enough for the others to get through. \n By the same logic, small missiles should be stopped by, but not take out shields; where as, large missiles could conceivably have ablative armor, allowing it to punch through x shields depending on their power. \n /rant", "id": "t3_4waww1", "summary": "physical weapons should either bypass shields or not."}]}
+{"author": "squired", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Looking for quiet PSU <$55 with longish cables that will power Intel i3 2100 now and a midrange GPU in 3 to 6 months.", "output": "A couple weeks ago I upgraded my box after blowing my mobo and CPU. It turns out my old PSU (Dell) has ridiculously short cables and is sitting precariously in one of the drive bays as we speak. NOT a pretty picture! \n I'm not a huge gamer, mainly because my computers are always so old, but I would like to buy a GPU in 3-6 months. Something mid range that would let me play some modern games at medium settings. I won't be buying anything crazy. I still haven't even been able to play Fallout 3 or Oblivion yet. :( I'll have a bunch of games to enjoy though! \n I'm low on cash and trying to find a PSU for under $55 that will give me some flexibility in the future. The PSU will be bottom mounted so longish cables would probably be nice, on the quiet side would be awesome, and a floppy connector would be a bonus but not a big deal (I have an IDE > SATA adapter that uses it). I'm not concerned about aesthetics. \n [The XIGMATEK PC602 600W]( looked perfect but has been out of stock for who knows how long. \n I would REALLY appreciate any advice you guy's might have. I know I don't need much power at the moment but I don't have a handle on GPU's enough to plan for the future. Thank you so much for any help you can provide! :) \n \n Case:  NZXT GAMMA Classic Series \n Mobo:  ASRock H67M (B3) LGA 1155 Intel H67 \n CPU:  Intel Core i3-2100 \n GPU  Onboard (Intel Graphics HD 2000) \n RAM:  4 GB G.SKILL DDR3 1333 \n HDD:  1 SATA 80gb, 1 IDE 350gb, 1 External 1tb"}], "user_id": "longlamp_14856", "history": [{"author": "squired", "content": "Let's not go full retard over this issue. Ethically, it is obviously a better choice to adopt or purchase a disadvantaged dog be it a mutt, pound puppy, older dog on Craigs List etc. \n No one is going to spit on you for your decision though and most of the crying in this thread is largely breeder purchasers being defensive. \n Many adopted dogs DO have serious issues and require a patient, experienced owner to give them a good life and enjoy life together. \n My dogs are 'throwaways' and I will never purchase another dog myself,  but I bought my mother and sister very specific breeds, from reputable breeders, with recorded histories.  They aren't capable of dealing with Jack mutts or large breed mixes, and may never be. \n The world isn't perfect. I actually believe however that if more people started with a healthy Lab, you would see people adopt more difficult and rewarding dogs in the future. Too many people start with pretty breeds or cool breeds, large breed terriers and other hunting dogs come to mind, and simply cannot handle them. \n I'd rather see 10 experienced, patient owners adopting pound puppies than 30 first time buyers picking a cool dog. I've just seen too many sad outcomes. \n That said, it does become a sort of moral imperative once you are capable of being a great owner to give other dogs a chance. Sheep dogs and ratters for example are like little 3 year olds. They can have complete conversations with you, but most live sub-par or fucked up lives because their owners can't give them the attention and engagement they require. They aren't the same animals as they could be when they are just given a backyard to run around in, if that. They often turn neurotic and instinctive and that's with a 'good owner' with a 'big backyard'. \n Meh, I'm just rambling now.", "id": "c8rrg7k", "summary": "Buy your first dog to suit your lifestyle. Once you are capable of enjoying other dogs as much or likely even more so, it does become a bit of a moral obligation."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "u/onions_can_be_sweet is spot on as usual. While we mix differently, the goal is really to be efficient, accurate, and reduce as many annoyances as possible so you can play and not clean, clean, clean. \n Unless you are neurotic and REALLY into Diy, if you don't streamline your processes, you're going to mix a lot less and quit once you've found one or two favorites. \n Onion's works because it is fast, accurate, and you're only left with one vessel to rinse at the end. It is also exceptional because you can swap PG/VG and nic ratios on the fly without any prep or mess. \n I use a different process that has its advantages and weaknesses. It requires periodic prep, but you only ever have to pull out flavorants and a squeeze bottle of PG when experimenting. I've pasted it below from a previous post: \n \n \n If you plan ahead, you only need to deal with PG and flavorants when mixing and you only have to rinse a syringe or two. \n As an example, I test and mix at 12mg, 50/50, using a 60mg PG nic base. So... Whenever I run out of premix I make a dozen or so of the following: \n \n Premix: \n 2ml 60mg PG nic \n 5ml VG \n tip: measure the nic for one, then just use it as a master with a squeeze bottle to visually portion the rest. Repeat with VG. You can crank out dozens of premixes this way without having to measure. \n \n That way, whenever I want to make a juice I can just add the flavorants and top off with PG (visually) for  a perfect 10ml's of 12mg 50/50 mix without ever dealing with nic or thick VG. \n If that is confusing, I can explain it better. \n \n Practical Example: \n Blueberry Lemonade - 5% lemonade, 6% blueberry \n Grab a '12' premix 10ml bottle, add .5ml lemonade, .6ml blueberry, top off bottle with PG, done. \n No fiddling with calcs, dealing with thick VG, donning gloves etc. It takes 30 seconds and Im out the door. \n If I want to test a brand new flavor, I take 2 premix bottles, squirt half of them into empty bottles, and I have a lightning fast 2%, 5%, 10%, 15% 5ml mix collection in literally a couple of minutes (.1ml/2.5ml/.5ml/.75ml flavorant, top with PG to 5ml each).", "id": "ce49rr8", "summary": "If you are fairly lazy like the rest of us, find a fast process that works for you so you can play more, clean less, and minimize mistakes."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "You are absolutely right. Ironically, the DOD's space budget is larger than NASA. Their non-black budget for 2010 was approximately $20 billion. NASA's was around $18 billion. DOD's black space budget? Who knows how big it is. DOD's black budget is around $50 billion, a large part of which is likely apportioned to space based technologies. I believe this actually accelerates technology because they don't have to deal with the political bullshit that NASA does and can afford to take massive risks without public backlash.", "id": "c1s49yh", "summary": "The military's space budget is significant larger than NASA's."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "We are talking about US yeah? \n I was referring to total care, not just what insurance covered. Various insurance policies have covered 100% for three out of my four hospital stays. Unfortunately, I only had catastrophic coverage for the MRSA stay referred to above and had to pay my $2500 deductible. Insurance covered the remaining $1700 (but would have covered up to $1m lifetime beyond that). \n Whenever you receive inpatient care you have to sign for the totality of your bill. Some people overlook it as you most often sign/authorize it during your outpatient processing and most people are just ready to get the hell out of there or are not in a state to focus on and review what they are signing. Honestly though, most people simply sign shit and never read it... \n You sign it for the hospital and for your insurance company. You are taking responsibility for said bill in case your insurance declines payment (not one ever did), and you are also validating that the procedures/services listed were rendered. \n The process may be different if you deal with private health groups like Kaiser Permenente or Tri-care Prime (Military/Government Service) as it is all internal. \n But yes, I have seen the final bill for all medical services that I have ever received and have copies filed away right next to my vehicle registration and my dog's rabies certificate. This is standard stuff. \n BTW, I'm 100% for sane, single-payer universal coverage. All this bullshit hyperbole gets us nowhere. Is Healthcare in America expensive? Fuck yes. Does a hangnail cost $30,000 to remove? No.", "id": "c4zywbp", "summary": "Let's quit focusing on the outliers and focus on the real problems that most Americans face. How about instead of being shocked that a collapsed lung ONLY costs $25,000, we highlight the fact that for many American's $25,000 is more than  just one on the chin ."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "Amen brother.  I live it and likely see it first hand more often than most.  I work in the outdoor industry and it is wildly common for my coworkers to be big kids with white collar partners. Of coworkers' female partners,  there is a lobbyist, doctor, theatre director,  economist,  scientist,  and an NGO executive (most in their 30s). \n These women have worked their assess off and are plenty capable of taking care of themselves financially.  They aren't looking for a provider,  they're looking for someone to share their life and joys with. Outdoor guides just often happen to fit that bill for adventuresome women and we interact one-on-one with so many,  so often. The wage disparity issues seem to be lessened as well because while outdoor professionals make very little money,  they still have status and respect (something I've seen other couples struggle with,   usually the man ,  when the male decides to stay at home). \n My partner will always make 4x+ what I will,  so I take care of our lives (no kids) and dog.  I will always work,  but outdoor work is seasonal,  so I'm thrilled to take care of the house, errands,  and make sure she always has a meal to come home to (or food in the fridge when I'm traveling). \n I've been doing it for 4 years now and I'm telling you,  being a homemaker is fucking amazing.  I spend  maybe  three hours a day taking care of the house/cooking and maybe 4 a week running errands,  paying bills etc. \n I love that woman something fierce and plan to manage our lives and keep them happy for as many as we have. Women's Lib also turned out to be my Lib, I have the best jobs in the world.", "id": "cifhcpw", "summary": "sleeping with your maid is awesome"}, {"author": "squired", "content": "It sounds like you are an expert at small talk. The definition of that would be someone who can enter a large room of people, feel at ease, put others at ease, and have nearly everyone like you after you are gone. \n There IS a system to that. Some individuals operate well and are comfortable navigating it innately. Very few do. Otherwise, everyone would be decent at conversation. If you're a natural then congratulations, don't be a dick about it. But also don't overlook the fact that others are not. \n If you are talking about \"being yourself\" then that is very cool and perfectly fine. It will close doors and pigeon hole you to a large extent though if you inflexible to blending in with other cultural nuances and small talk.", "id": "c30gi3s", "summary": "Small talk is a skill, a art, and important."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "How do those katana kits compare to the vivi on an ego twist? \n I actually found out about Vape Dojo here on reddit even though I only live about 5 miles away from them! I dropped in a few days ago and picked up one of the katana kits as a backup and to check the place out (The owner is great btw). On a side note, their Twists (I think knock-off?) are cheap as sin and fantastic. I actually quite prefer their store branded version over the one I had purchased online previously. \n Basically, the katana ([ $12.99 for battery, ce4 clearo and USB charger ]( isn't quite as nice as an Ego Twist, obviously, but I've been using it daily alongside my twists. Because it isn't variable, the vapor isn't as  thick  or  velvety  and the taste doesn't pack the same punch, but it is certainly adequate and could be considered superb compared to other like priced setups. \n It is important to note that some of the sweeter, heavier juices like baked goods simply aren't going work quite right without a higher voltage. The flavor is there, but without the mouthfeel that comes with velvety vapor, you aren't going to be able to 'chew' that Cinnabon. However, 'most all day vapes' are perfect for the Katana. \n I find myself keeping it in my coat pocket for stealth and easy access. I also happen to be vaping Mt. Baker's 'White Out' with it in the tub as I type this because I don't care about the humidity or dropping it. Also, the extra charger is always cool.", "id": "c836a3y", "summary": "Amazing value and enjoyable backup. Also the perfect 'my first kit' to gift your Aunt's best-friend's son. \n \n note: I have no affiliation with VapeDojo and have only swung by their shop once. No freebies or discounts were had. I'm just a new vaper sharing my experience."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "edit]  Hell, I just realized my longest post on Reddit is about pubic hair. let's just roll with it... \n It should be noted that there is a happy and healthy middle ground. That isn't to say that either extreme doesn't have it's proponents, but to claim that \"natural\" is just how nature intended it to be and thus best, is flat out ignorant. Surgeons do still shave incision regions and cuts are absolutely trimmed close for hygienic purposes. \n Imagine having cut on the back of your head or an open abbess between your buttocks. Is it easier to clean with hair or without? Are you more likely to get infection with or without hair? \n I have personally run the gammut from \"man braz\" to full on bush. I also spend some 300 odd days a year wedged in soaking kayaks, rukking trails, or shimmying up steep places. On hygiene and generalities both, that lady is full of shit. \n Let's forgo the fact that humans no longer operate as nature intended (we wear panties, briefs and boxers) and get down to performance and safety. \n A regular, short trim via bladed razor, scissors, or preferably an electric trimmer keeps your genitals well \"dry-oiled\" without any irritation. It greatly reduces sweat and, yes, fecal buildup that frankly makes for a bad environment. \n Shaving is a different matter but does lend actual health advantages in moderation, though mostly for men. For jostling or high friction sports, a nice powder on shaved balls (testicles acclimated to being shaved that is) makes for a dryer, reduced friction environment. Powder is not only beneficial when working or performing and is advisable for all pubic hair styling. \n I've personally tried all the getups and like a semi-close trim with shaved balls for sports. Every once in awhile it's fun to go full Olsen, but that is for the girlfriend, not for me.", "id": "c5pvmo2", "summary": "Lady is full of shit, literally. Capturing body fluids next to the skin is not hygienic. \n Rundown: \n bush - sticky, not sweet \n trimmed - simple, sweet \n trimmed with shave - lets run and get busy \n shaved - lets get busy but not run too far"}, {"author": "squired", "content": "you shouldn't assume just because water has been 'treated' that it is perfectly safe to drink. \n Absolutely, without intense oversight there is no way that I could get behind direct sewage to drinking water. I'm not even sure it is economically viable to build the type of separation and containment facilities one would need to manage the inevitable storms and regional flooding. \n I'm a whitewater kayaker, largely a \"creeker\" and I play and work in this water 100+ days a year. Many urban and suburban creeks reside near waste treatment facilities and  I've swam in, smelled, tasted, and inadvertently swallowed far too many mouthfuls of \"treated water\" from FL to NY to depend upon the funding and ability of these facilities to contain and treat waste water for public consumption.", "id": "c2d14uj", "summary": "I'm telling everyone here, treatment plants DO NOT contain their shit."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "This is more important that you know. I've never tried quitting drinks of any sort. It just isn't something I worry about. But I can tell you from many, many years of experience that when water is around, I tend to drink it. \n When I'm at events where there is water, I drink water. If my girlfriend at any given point always carries water, that's what I tend to drink. A hundred people are about to reply and say \"I started carrying water and eventually found it tasty\". Arm's reach is a powerful motivator. \n If there isn't water next to me. I'll go get a soda or juice. 'Stare at a soda machine and pick one'.", "id": "c91ax9w", "summary": "Carry water. When you are thirsty or bored, you'll likely drink it."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "Why do you think women (in this data anyways) use the term bonfire specifically? That usage really struck me as odd. When I think of \"bonfire\", it conjures up Texas keggers and Boy Scout Jamborees. I'm a mountain/outdoor sport kind of guy and unless the flames lick higher than 7' or so I'd expect most men to use the term campfire most often. Is \"bonfire\" more of a beach thing? Or maybe it refers to farm/ranch parties?", "id": "c0yyjxf", "summary": "When women use the term bonfire, what do you think they may be referring to in OkCupid's context?"}, {"author": "squired", "content": "Yes, 29m here and have experience with virgins (that sounds... odd). \n The vast majority of guys you meet are going to be very respectful and want to make sure that you are 100% comfortable. They can't be supportive though unless you are both on the same page so communication is key. If you have several dates or long conversations with a guy, ask HIM if he's a virgin. You may be surprised. Regardless, he'll ask you back and there you go. Communication \n If it is an off-the-cuff deal, just let them know  before  you get to your/his place and be honest. \"You aught to know, I'm a virgin and have some boundaries, but I'd still love to go back to your place for a drink.\" \n If it is a party type, vacation, etc situation and you find yourself alone with them, tell them before any petting starts. I may catch flak for saying that. It isn't so that they can \"restrain themselves\" or any other hogwash. It is simply because I don't think YOU'LL be relaxed and enjoy yourself at whatever level of intimacy you choose to partake in until you let them know. \n Once you do, you can then chill out. The cards are on the table. \n \n Also, as many of the women here have told you, it is important for you to try masturbation or at least become knowledgeable and accustomed to your body. If you aren't comfortable looking at and touching your own lady bits, you will never be truly comfortable with someone else tiptoeing through the twolips.", "id": "c3bi10p", "summary": "Most guy's you meet are going to be extremely respectful and understanding. Let them know or else you'll continue to panic.  Frap ."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "Please don't ever sell it. If you have to, just have some people manage it and let you get final decisions because imgur is way way better than any other image hosting site. \n You do realize that they have to sell it yeah? They are hemorrhaging cash like every startup. The trick is to amass as many users as possible before running out of venture so you can sell to one of the big dogs. \n At that point, some of the users will be milked while others move onto the next free service trolling for users.", "id": "c5td27y", "summary": "Imgur is better than everyone else right now because they are burning cash to attract users. They can't \"not sell it\". Welcome to the Internet."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "Wrong battle to pick bro. I'm not starving either and I shop at whole foods here and there because it is close and I like some of their products. \n Mnhr's point stands and there is no way around it. Dried pasta, given the same ingredients (which they are), is pretty difficult to argue over. Shape, size, age, region? I make fresh pasta a couple times a month, it isn't rocket science. Dried pasta is all the same and WF up-sells it at a healthy 40%-200% like most (but not all) of their products. \n They use to be really great. All things considered though, they jumped the shark a long time ago. Putting aside the artisanal and 'local revolution', you have asian/international markets popping up everywhere for the hard to find 'niche' items that Whole Foods made it's name on (Fennel was exotic when Whole Foods started carrying it). \n As for everyone else? They got better, fast. Every grocery store now sells organics that meet or exceed Whole Food's undeniably lax guidelines. Giant, Food Lion, Safeway, WalMart, AFFES, everyone... \n \n Weird Shit? Harris Teeter and Trader Joes (their specialty) took over. \n Seafood, Produce, and Quality Butchers? Enter Wegman's. \n Beef? Oh Sweet USDA Prime powerhouse Costco...", "id": "c83b6f2", "summary": "Whole foods is overpriced and doesn't do any one thing particularly well anymore. They have been static and relying on gouging their base for far too long. They specialize in slightly above average, very expensive groceries, which is why they now carry Honey Nut Cheerios."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "Obviously asking medical advice on the internet is what it is... \n But lemons and other citrus fruits can produce a purple blemish on the skin when combined with direct sunlight. I once had a friend that use to eat lemons with salt on his back porch every afternoon when he got off work. His hands and forearms started turning a blotchy purple. It took them a dozen specialists to rule out some twisted cancer. Finally he found a doc that immediately asked him, \"You like you some lemons son?\"", "id": "c5ayx1v", "summary": "I don't know what I'm talking about, but did she spill Margarita on herself and lay in the sun?"}, {"author": "squired", "content": "The profit margin is absolutely there. Most for-profit DIYers sell to local B&Ms at around 30%-70% retail (volume, popularity, quality etc) to cutout the legwork and marketing overheads. When possible, most sell out (in the good sense of the term). That means recipes, training for the store, supply lines, and sometimes a consultation contract (included or monetized) afterwards. I've never seen a non-compete clause as part of the deal, but probably because there is little to no competition among B&Ms at the moment. \n In 5 years, ecigs could be dead or massive, who the fuck knows. Or the margins could be regulated so that only the largest of players can make anything worthwhile (how it usually plays out). That's why most sell out when fair or attractive money is on the table. \n Then you have the Juice Makers. They made a website and went whole hog. There are dozens, if not hundreds, and I imagine you have purchased from them. They decided to make it into a small business. I do not know their financials. I'd be dumbfounded if they make much though, save for a few runaways, after the overheads that no one thinks about. (You've probably also noticed that the runaways have been investing in manufacturing facilities with positive air pressure etc that will inevitably become required.) \n That said, you  typically  can't just mix up FW Bubblegum and pawn it off as \"BubbleGasm\" unless you are the end-of-the-line point of sale. \n If you have some really great recipes, there is a market and the profit margins are potentially amazing. It is a fairly long road though and there are certainly easier \"get rich quick\" schemes. You'd likely be better off with DeKang, some Egos, and a mall kiosk. \n You can make some great beer money though and if you are REALLY good and live in the right place, you could even make a nice side income, and sell it.", "id": "ce4er9s", "summary": "There is good beer money to be had and maybe more. If you do have the business sense to make more,  ejuice is just a piece of the puzzle and the regulatory environment begins to play a large part in that equation."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "Edit- Sorry bout that. I didn't mean to write a wall. I just hadn't thought about that period in a really long time. :) \n I did get that ski boat and it was everything he said it would be. \n I managed to find a job digging flower beds and carying flagstone a couple weeks after moving in as my dad kicked me out of the car whenever we passed a work crew. \"Go ask them if they can use a strong back\" he'd say. It was REALLY embarrassing but it worked and paid twice what retail paid at the time. I think I was making $9.00 an hour when minimum wage was something around $5. We also got the nod to nick some building materials here and there. \n I started scouring the boat trader booklet you buy at gas stations and found a GORGEOUS ski boat 'in my eyes'. This was in the 90's (the boat wasn't) and I think I paid like 800 and my father matched that. I had met a buddy on the job who was going into the same grade that Fall and upon seeing the beauty, he was obviously on board. \n We spent the next month ripping it apart, re-decking it (as well as we could anyways) and rebuilding the under powered Johnson outboard. We then kitted that boat out to a monstrosity that I would cringe at today. \n Waterproof Alpine 6-Disk Changer, dual MTX 15\" subs, Walmart brand Tweeters and Mids, 2000 watt' flea market amp that liked to short out, outrageous paint and stupid stickers. We were 16 and had our own \"speedboat\", you can imagine. \n We obviously couldn't park the thing anywhere so I called around and found an old RV park owner that liked to pretend he was senile. I'd try to pay and he'd pretend to tell me I already had. I think he enjoyed the novelty of the thing. \n We/I started school that Fall and had the usual new kid start. Ups and downs. Meeting the girls and navigating the groups to work your way into a happy middle so you don't hit a dead end (army brats represent). \n By then I had gotten a shorty wettop and someone had given me an ancient wakeboard. \n This is a long story on tail end comment so I'm going to skip ahead.... \n I got into wakeboarding with that boat throughout the fall and winter. By the next summer (now entering my senior year), that little, shitty ski boat was quite popular. A lot of kids parents had really nice boats, but no one had their own. One of my best friend's father was the head park ranger so we could camp on the boat without getting bothered. Drink, skinny dip, \"hang out\" in different coves. We took it out as long as someone could afford gas ($14 a tank, 3 tanks for a full day and night). When girls weren't coming, we'd cruise by the shore and offer a tube ride or wakeboard lessons. \n Yes, my father was right. Austin girls like their bikinis and when you put girls/women on a boat, great things happen. They can't help but smile and that is the first step.", "id": "c9qtsfr", "summary": "Bought/Built/Owned ski-boat as a teen. Texan girls like their bikinis and love ski-boats. Had a lot of fun. Father was right."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "Congratulations, you may be that smart and if so you'll likely do fine, even great, out of school. You probably won't understand or internalize it now but know that in a few years you'll be sitting next to your classmates every time you go for an interview or are up for promotion. Social skills and aptitude are HUGE but the willingness to put in \"10 times the effort\" is a hell of an IQ breaker. \n Also, double e' is one of those majors that sneaks up on you. Ask around to see how many Mechanical Seniors started as EE, it depends on the institution. Have you hit the theoretical math yet? I watched some of the smartest guys I've ever met in my life meltdown trying to catchup their Junior year of EE. Not one of them did. \n Luckily a EE dropout typically gets to coast through other Engineering degrees the last couple of years. They lightened up a lot for sure. ;) \n --Advice from a business major in an engineering family", "id": "c2sczo0", "summary": "You may be that smart, but probably not. Either way, at some point you'll have to learn to work hard."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "I started checking them out after seeing this thread and aside from the initial outlay,  they may be quite amazing.  It seems too good to be true,  but [this anecdotal blog post](   is quite interesting.  I may look into it myself actually.  They said their insurance covered it and that they were able to buy a used one for $1500. I spent a summer repairing small appliances,  so the maintenance shouldn't be atrocious.", "id": "clsh0nq", "summary": "I'm pretty sure I was wrong about commercial dishwashers."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "Gifting Reddit gold isn't \"donating\" to Advance Publications. It is 'buying a beer' for a commenter that impresses, amuses, or helps you. It is not asinine. It is a tip of the hat, a sign of respect, and a thank you to the commenter. \n If that is all it was though, you would be correct. However, that gold actually grants the commenter additional Reddit functionality. It isn't a beer, but Reddit Gold is absolutely very nice to have and use. \n Think of Reddit as the bartender, Advance Publications as the bar owner, and the commenter as the guy that just gave you a tip where to find the best hole-in-the-wall restaurant in town.", "id": "cbtl3g0", "summary": "You REALLY aren't getting scammed by big brother corporate."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "At the end of the semester, I use to send each professor an email thanking them for their class. I briefly outlined what I found most interesting/helpful/useful and respectfully critiqued their teaching style, being careful to point out one thing I liked and one thing I would have liked to see more of. This would literally take me less than an hour total. I signed each: \n Respectfully, \n Squierd \n \n Nearly every prof replied graciously thanking me in return for reviewing their class and appreciating their efforts.  Every semester except one, I would receive a full letter grade bump from at least one of them. \n During one of my most difficult semesters, I ended the semester with one A, two B's, and one C. When grades were finalized and posted, I had three A's and a B.", "id": "c3thb0l", "summary": "You're mother was right, people really do appreciate Thank You Letters!"}, {"author": "squired", "content": "I actually don't run a NAS. Not a traditional stand-alone, Linux running, setup anyway.  Neither do any of the other configurations I've setup for others. Somewhat because none of us are \"collectors\" but also because I wanted operation for friends and family as  hands-off/maintenance-free  as possible. \n Primarily though, I like practical solutions and while NAS is great for business use, I just haven't found many current advantages in a home entertainment setting. People use to want NASs because single box solutions were loud as shit (not to mention $power hungry$ and hot) so you'd have to put them in a closet or in the basement and push to thin clients and/or media-centric HTPCs. It has really only been the last year, maybe two, that you could build or buy a capable fanless HTPC with onsite storage. \n Needs also outpaced storage for a while. If someone wanted to download primarily 720 or 1080, you'd see NAS gettups with 2x 500gb/2x 1gb/4x 1gb. Presently though, we're at a sort of parity with media storage size and storage needs. We may be entering another period of disparity with 1080 and 3d content becoming more available and popular, but you might as well wait until we bridge that gap before dropping cash on current storage technology. \n \n My brother is a good example of single drive, onsite storage. He's currently running off a Revo and he uses a standard 2TB USB2 external HD. His SickBeard and CouchPotato setup averages around 150gb a month (80 hours of H.264 720p). Save for for the 1080 whores and movie collectors, you'll find that his usage is above average. Even so, his no frills, relatively cheap external gives him over a year of storage. \n Every few months he goes in and deletes all the Daily Show, America's Got Talent, and shite movie chaff that he'll never watch again. I figure by the time he actually fills his 2TB with stuff that he wants to archive or 1080/3d rips become more popular, 4-8 TB drives will be standard. Worst case scenario, he turns into a digital hoarder and has to use his Revo's 6 usb ports to drop in another hard drive. \n \n Extreme setups are very, very cool and I geek out on them as much as the next guy. But media storage and playback is very standard these days and insane setups are fast becoming mere blog candy. Very few new computers are going to sell if they can't include 1080p somewhere on the spec sheet. \n Nice processors have long eclipsed playback and bargain basement processors include separate GPU chips dedicated to support it. Lowly USB2 transmits to externals far faster than the ISP bandwidth bottleneck and Wireless N streams 1080 to any capable thin client in the vicinity. Your grandma's new email machine this Christmas will likely host trinity and stream to your cousin's new Tablet or netbook.", "id": "c4u053g", "summary": "NAS was extremely popular in the past and a lot of guys still use the hell out of it to great effect. If you're interested in great NAS solutions, it's best to make a new thread outlining your exact needs and/or search the subreddit. There are some REALLY cool setups. Most  new  HTPC and thin-client networkers though, even avid trinity users, would probably be better served using standard external hard drives."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "Unfortunately, not really. My girlfriend is a scientist at one of the big pharma's with a Master's from Oxford and a Doctorate in Immunology from University College London. I attempt to read every paper she publishes and I haven't got a fucking clue what any of it means (she's currently working on COPD treatments) and I have a decent head on my shoulders. These aren't psyc studies that you can read after a 101 course in statistics. They're like trying to read an advanced research paper on particle physics. When I accompany her to conferences, I can't even follow the dinner conversations to save my life. \n I use to think people could \"do their own research\" by \"reading the Journals etc.\" but I've come to realize that at best, all one can really do is find someone extremely qualified and take their advice. Of course, the problem with this is that the most qualified individuals work for big pharma and as such, skeptics do not believe them. \n I will say that it is glorious fun when someone is unfortunate enough to rant about vaccines before realizing what she does. She usually just lets it sit, but she has destroyed a couple of the more obnoxious individuals. ;)", "id": "c0wwhfc", "summary": "My girlfriend is an Immunologist and takes all recommended vaccines. I am inclined to trust her judgment."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "Typically something like tineye or Google image search.  It will  link you to galleries including said picture and/or blogs that often link to other resources or the person's own site/postings.  Comments on big sites like xhamster,  freeones,  fantastic.cc , and other aggregators typically have the info too. \n Failing that,  you could match it to torrent communities like epornium.  They probably have it and have additional info and tags about it as per the community rules.  Failing everything,  you then make a paid request and the few,  true porn savants come out of the woodwork. \n Lastly,  if you have server access to something like a usenet hub,  you can also run a matching/recognition search against the library,  which is one way the really esoteric shit,  er stuff,  is found.", "id": "cji5aoh", "summary": "Basically,  you just kind of chase an image up the beanstalk until you find more anus."}, {"author": "squired", "content": "You don't want protected batteries in mechs because if they do fail,  they can explode.  Regulated devices should have fail-safes to prevent that but mechs do not. \n For mechs you use IMR chemistry batteries.  They aren't protected,  but if a runaway occurs,  it just gets stupid hot and  vents,  which should be enough time to yank it out of your pocket etc.", "id": "cixqjkj", "summary": "protected batteries go  pop ,  IMR bats go  hiss"}, {"author": "squired", "content": "Crossposting from  /r/cordcutters  because you guys rock, I often post here, and you guy's know your shit.. Any tips? \n \n My sister and brother-in-law have been staying with me awhile and have fallen in love with cordcutting and the Usenet Holy Trinity. They move into their new place in a couple of months and would like to do something similar themselves. \n My setup is rather involved and serious overkill for them. I would like theirs to be a relatively small, self-contained and low-maintenance \"one box\" system. I've played with STB's (own and use a Revue) but aren't wild about them. \n \n My thought is a \"Newegg box\" running linux with XBMC, SabNZB, CouchPotato, and SickBeard. They're pretty blase' about quality so 1Tb with current pricing should suffice for now. \n Netflix is a must though so would that require Windows? \n What kind of hardware would you recommend? Any site/info where I can read up on it? \n I'm not even sure what a reasonable budget for a built box should be. $250? $450? Obviously cheap is great but they also understand that everything is cheap when you consider dropping cable.", "id": "t3_skrx9", "summary": "Would like to build a \"one box solution\" HTPC that supports Usenet Trinity and Netflix. Any tips on where to start? \n \n UPDATE : Thanks for all the advice guys! I've been up to my eyeballs researching this and have ordered an  Acer Revo RL70-UR10P . In the end, STB's (Roku, Revue,  Apple TV, WDTV, Boxxee, etc) aren't quite there yet and the lower power requirements of the Revo vs. most custom jobs was a huge draw. ($2 per month vs. $10+). \n I run a Plex-centric system in my own home but will be trying out XMBC for for sister and brother-in-law as it offers quite a few advantages. SportsDevil and format support being particularly enticing considering their viewing habits. \n I'm sure I'll run into issues but I'll keep you guy's updated. I'm pretty stoked about the new box and thanks for all your advice!"}, {"author": "squired", "content": "I recently lost my car key, as in completely lost it. The upside was that I turned the house inside out and found many, many 'steeped' bottles of not only my own swill, but also many vials sporting \"boutique ambrosia\". \n Included in that roundup were two 15ml TVC Honey Pearry dropper bottles (ordered ~one month apart) and one of my own bottles that spawned from the original PHoney Pearry thread. \n All three were found in gear bags stored in the basement (zero light, cool conditions). \n \n The Honey Pearry bottles are both a very dark peach, which surprised me considering the absence of light and heat. Also, I know TVC says he doesn't use any sweeteners or additives, but the tops \"grind\" as you open and close them like something crystallized. Has anyone else had a TVC bottle \"grind\" a bit as you open it? The same thing happens with any 30ml bottle of Apple Bourbon Tobacco (my favorite) that I keep around long enough... I'm starting to wonder if there is something to the mix? \n \n When dripped, both HPs taste flat. There are pear and strawberry notes, but not much else. They're definitely \"old\" (I have relatively new HP btw and even a new HP on the way from the Black Friday Sale). \n With the second 'lost' bottle of HP however, I found one of my PHoney Pearry clones, steeped 5 weeks, and boy did it age well. It was numbered in Sharpy, thank god, and smelled perfect. \n My corresponding notes literally say, \"Meh\", but it turned into something amazing and I love that it aged and kept. It is one hell of a juice (and I've made A LOT of 'meh' juice). \n I'll always order from the chef to see what he's up to and grab my favorites, but I think I've   finally  found my own Honey Pearry. \n Respect to the chef... \n \n Basic Recipe: \n NF Pear - 9% \n NF HoneyDew - 7% (May be a smidge high) \n CAP Sweet Strawberry - 3%", "id": "t3_1s55jf", "summary": "I wish I had more steeped experiments for HP, but I was mostly mixing 3ml variations on Pear, Honeydew, and Strawberry from many vendors. I kind of got tired of HP and moved on. NF was my favorite though and I made two extra 10mls which is how the lost bottle survived. (finding many great flavorants along the road also helped make it all worthwhile) \n I have recently made 15 bottles around that recipe including fun things like Apricot, Oak, Blueberry, Coconut, Lemon, Allspice, Apple, and cantaloupe. I'd love to make a 'boozy' HP, but that is REALLY difficult when backed against a sweet vape (tips?). \n Anyone else still playing with Honey Pearry?"}, {"author": "squired", "content": "A guy asked a couple weeks back in a dead sub-reddit what Usenet's advantages were over BitTorrent. I thought others may be interested or would like to chime in as well so here are my impressions. \n Do any you still use BT? Is it because of the free aspect or other reasons? \n \n The advantages to Usenet are speed, safety, hassle-free access, and features. \n \n Speed : With Usenet you are downloading directly from a single server that will feed you the data as fast as you can receive it. A good Provider like Astraweb will max out your connection immediately and always. \n \n Safety : This is an advantage mainly over Bittorrent. People do not get sued for downloading media, they get sued because they are sharing (se) it. With Usenet, you are purely downloading the media (100% leech). Noone has ever been sued for downloading via Usenet. Another security advantage to Usenet is that of SSL encryption. If used, even your ISP cannot tell what you are downloading, only that bandwidth is being consumed. \n \n Hassle-free Access : With Usenet, you don't have to mess with ratio games, seed boxes, forum access, etc. You pay for 100% unhindered access. Moreover, the Scene usually leaks releases directly Usenet, so more often than not you get them before they make their way to BT. \n \n Features : People have developed some pretty cool (and free) tools to manage and consume their downloads via Usenet. Two of my favorite are NZBPlayer and SickBeard. NZBPlayer streams video content as it is being downloaded and works great. After about 15 seconds of buffer on a 16mbps line, I can watch a 720p movie flawlessly. \nSickBeard is basically Tivo for Usenet. You list the shows you want and it manages all of the downloading, organizing, meta-information etc. as soon as they are released. It will even overwrite the files with better quality versions as they become available and will integrate with MBMC if you have a Media Center PC/Xbox. Set it and forget it... It's great to just come home from work and have the files organized and waiting for you. Before using it, I'd always forget which shows I watched, when they came back on air, and what nights they were on. Hell, an hour ago it downloaded Stargate:Universe (720p) out of the blue and I was like, \"Fuck yeah! It's back!\". ;)", "id": "t3_dkc5s", "summary": "Usenet is definitely worth $11 a month to me. After getting a taste I could never go back to BT!"}]}
+{"author": "DIGGYRULES", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post You were not right.", "output": "You have set a precedent of being rudely loud.  Because you recently made a change, you can't expect people to forget your habit of loud, intrusive talking so quickly. \n I'm a teacher.  I see good students getting frustrated every single day because students like you don't know when to shut up.  Stop trying to be the center of attention all the time and maybe next time you won't be blamed for something you didn't do (this time)."}], "user_id": "longlamp_1630", "history": [{"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "There is a HUGE difference between being alone and being lonely.  I am never lonely when I am alone.  I can keep myself entertained at all times.  When I am surrounded by people, though, I feel utterly alone.  This feeling is tripled when I go on stupid Facebook and see pictures of people I know all getting together and I wasn't there.  Wasn't even asked.  Even though I eat lunch with those people and do favors for those people.  Then...that feeling of being alone is multiplied by a MILLION when I swallow my pride and tell a \"friend\" that I would LOVE to be included in the next outing...and he says \"sure!  That will be great!\" and then a few days later I hear them all talking about what a wonderful time they had last weekend.  The weekend I TOLD them I was free.  The weekend I asked to be included in.  Sigh.", "id": "c229pei", "summary": "Being alone is different than being lonely."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "I have tried most of these and they work for me.  What fucked me up is a new principal who fucking walked through my room one day and decided that, even though my fail rate is the lowest in the school, my students' test scores are making huge gains, my discipline and classroom management are solid gold...that I had to stop every one of my techniques that work in my classroom.  Allowing healthy snacks?  Stop.  Giving kids a few minutes of down time every couple of weeks so they could play a game of chess or work on homework for another class?  Done.  Stop it.  Everything.  I despise administrators who spend less than 30 seconds in a classroom \"observing\" and then decide to stop everything that has worked for you.  If a teacher finds something that works, and it is obviously, and measurably working, leave them the hell alone to do what they are doing.", "id": "clz9qd7", "summary": "Sorry.  This was actually a great article."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "It's hard to say that.  I learned ASL when my daughter was born.  We were told that she might not ever be able to speak, so I started taking classes so I could help her communicate.  I was pretty damn fluent at one point in time...but thankfully, my daughter was able to have surgery and therapy and learned how to talk.  I kept up the ASL for a while.  Used it to train my dog, as a matter of fact.  That way I could run him through his obedience drills (border collie) in the morning without waking up sleeping kids.  I use some of it when I speak to my students, but otherwise I don't have a common use for it and have lost almost all of my ability to communicate that way.", "id": "ceep3kg", "summary": "Learning something you don't have a common (repetitive) need for, will not lead to mastery."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Well...look at it this way.  When I was young, I dated a guy who had a beautiful little girl.  I loved her like she was my own and constantly called her \"princess\". \n Fast forward 16 years.  That relationship was long over and I had lost all contact with the guy's daughter.  My husband and I had been married for over 3 years when my daughter was born.  She is a precious little angel and I have always called her \"princess\".  Since her first day on Earth. \n I don't love her any less for re-using that pet name.  There is nothing false about the love I gave that guy's daughter when I called her that name...and there is nothing false about the love I feel when I call my own daughter that name.", "id": "c5jdnr8", "summary": "Yes.  It's fine."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Just so you know, most of us teachers of higher grades do teach all about genocide and ethnic destruction perpetrated by Columbus, Pizzaro, etc.  When little kids first learn about Columbus, they are not emotionally or intelligently ready to understand more than the basic facts about exploration.  When I teach it in 7th and 8th grade, we go way deep into the hypocrisy.  I also teach my students how to look for all sides of every issue they are learning about so that they can make intelligent conclusions. \n The reason our country acknowledges Columbus with a Day is for the great strides he made in exploration.", "id": "cj9w5zf", "summary": "I don't agree with celebrating him...but most of us teachers are teaching the truth."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Damn.  I quit smoking 10 weeks and 2 days ago.  I knew the cravings were going to come and go for years...but I also counted on them getting less.  I was JUST sitting here craving a smoke like you wouldn't believe.  It was 6:00 in the morning and I was ready to go get a pack.  It was insane...this craving was worse than any of the others.  I seriously didn't think I could power through it.  I was going to cave and was already composing (in my head) my sheepish message to this reddit to report my failure.  See...I was going to go get a pack of cigarettes...and I was going to smoke JUST ONE...and then I was going to be free again.  Damn.  You know what would have happened.  As it turned out, I got side tracked.  Started a load of laundry and chased the cat out of the garage...and here I am.  Reporting my ALMOST failure to you...and feeling like a cigarette is the last thing I want.  But...that craving...that CRAVING scared me. I  wanted to smoke.  I did.  I was GOING to smoke...I don't know how I can stay a quitter if these cravings are going to hit me upside my head for the rest of my life.  Damn.  I guess the", "id": "c0xep1n", "summary": "is this:  Hang in there...if you've made it this many years, it would suck to start again now."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Not so fast.  If the kid had a urostomy bag, or any other medical condition that would make bathroom breaks a true necessity, the teacher would have been informed.  It's a law, at least in my state.  In addition to that, all students in my school have a student ID they are supposed to wear at all times.  The students who have a \"pass\" to leave class for emergency restroom breaks, insulin shots, or ANY other legitimate reason have a special sticker on the back of their ID.  They simply leave the room when they need to.  No questions asked. \n At my school there are students who will whine and hop up and down, insisting they are about to pee or poop themselves... and others INSIST that they have their period every single day of the month just to be able to wander the halls.  Several months ago there was a situation where a bunch of kids from various classes planned to get out of class for \"emergency\" restroom breaks at the same time.  They then congregated behind a portable and proceeded to have sex.  The whole school found out about it.  Teachers were SLAMMED for letting kids out of class; parents threatened lawsuits, etc. etc. etc.  I teach 7th grade.", "id": "c23cn8t", "summary": "Maybe the teacher was a dick...but maybe not."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Pam and Roy were just getting back together when she told him about the kiss.  She didn't solicit the kiss.  She didn't ask for it.  She was shocked by it.  She was being honest with Roy so they could try for a fresh start.  She was not to blame for that fight. \n \n That warehouse guy was a psychopath.  He should have been fired for defacing company property.  He should have been removed from the grounds.  The fact that Toby was a worthless HR rep. is why that situation was allowed to play out.  Frankly, the fact that the psycho tried to physically attack Pam, and likely would have severely hurt her, if it wasn't for the boom guy's defending her, enraged me.  Brian shouldn't have been fired.  TOBY should have been fired for letting it escalate.  The psycho should have been arrested.", "id": "cifmy58", "summary": "Neither of those fights were Pam's fault."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "A girl I went to high school with was in a coma for nearly 2 months following a bad car accident.  Before the accident she was taking all AP classes, was a straight \"A\" student, was a beautiful majorette in the marching band, and volunteered to help tutor students in her free time. \n After her accident, she could barely walk.  She lost the ability to talk and feed herself, or really do anything.  She had to relearn all of that.  She lost it all.  Instead of applying to, and attending, a great college, she was mentally and physically incapacitated and required her parents to care for her.", "id": "cfe86q5", "summary": "People don't wake up from comas like they do on TV and everything is okay.  The severe head injury or infection that leads to a coma will do horrendous damage."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "I will never forget my father is dead.  Every single time I pick up the phone to share something with him and remember he is gone, it is a kick in the gut.  Every single time I realize that my children will never know the wonderful grandpa that my father could have been, it's a knife to my heart.  Each and every time I realize that I never grew up enough to ask my dad about his hopes and dreams and childhood before it was too late, it is like losing him all over again. \n I will never forget.  Hardly a day goes by that I don't remember and think about my dad...but I no longer mark the day of his death as a day of sadness.  His loss encompasses every part of my life.  Not just an anniversary.", "id": "c3f4twz", "summary": "Give them a break.  They didn't forget.  I guarantee it."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "I have amazing classroom control...not to brag or anything...but here are some tips (because I didn't start off too great years ago). \n \n Set your rules on the first day.  What to do/how to do it/when to do it.  Spend the first week (some time each period) reviewing this.  Have a quiz...easy \"A\" for the kids. \n \n When the kids get nuts (before a break/after seeing a fight/if they have a substitute in the previous class). STOP teaching and go back to the procedures.  Review them again.  You cannot teach if you have no control. \n \n Get a blank stare.  Completely blank.  Somebody is out of line in the back of the room?  Turn in their direction and CONSCIOUSLY make your mind go blank (so you have no emotions on your face).  Look at them blankly.  Trust me.  They (and everyone around them) will sit up and settle down. \n \n Have a sense of humor.  Some things may be \"wrong\" but are funny.  Some teachers go nuts about little things...a student lets a curse word fly or something.  I don't.  I give them the blank look and then tell them to stop corrupting my mind.  A student breaks a little rule...most of the time, you can settle it calmly. \n \n NEVER...EVER...EVER argue with a middle school kid.  You won't win because they won't back down.  Just go back to the blank stare and remind them of YOUR procedures.  A kid wants a pass to the bathroom (AGAIN)...I have a rule for that.  I put a big banner over my white board that says \"No Work...No Pass...Don't Ask\".  A kid wants to leave the room?  Ask how much work they've done.  If it's none or not enough, I just point to the banner and tell them to ask again when they've done some work.  They already know if they're going to be sick or something that they can race from the room so I don't have to clean up or smell puke.", "id": "c0nxe8t", "summary": "Consistent rules + a sense of humor = A great middle school classroom.  Good luck."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "While I understand you have a legitimate learning disability, how do you expect the professor to grade your work if he or she can't read it?  Can you use a computer and print?  There should be some accommodations that can be made. \n I am a teacher and if I cannot read your writing, how can I grade you fairly?  My 7th grade girls have started this new fad where they write all of their E's backward.  Add that to the already hard-to-read girl writing (bubble letters written close together).  How the heck can I read that?  I can't.  Especially when I have to read 150 essays.  The absolute WORST, though, is when a girl does all of the above...but ALSO writes in yellow highlighter.  To hell with that.", "id": "c1jogsx", "summary": "use a computer.  I thought all you young people were doing that anyway.  If your disability is real then you have had years of experience in using accommodations."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Can an adult comment here?  There is no such thing as a \"friend zone.\"  People are not sexually attracted to every single guy they meet.  It isn't their fault and there is nothing wrong with them if they are not sexually attracted to you.  Maybe it's because women don't look at every single guy as a sexual object.  Maybe it's because women can form bonds and relationships with men without wanting to have sex with them. \n Nobody puts a person in the friend zone for a reason other than they want to be friends with a guy and haven't even considered them as a sexual partner.", "id": "cikq67w", "summary": "The overwhelming Reddit attitude that if a woman isn't sexually attracted to a guy who likes her, she is a bitch who has \"put\" him into the friend zone is really false and annoying."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "I have spent many years studying and learning and reading about war experiences.  For many years I focused solely on Holocaust survivor memoirs because a large majority of my family on my grandmother's side were annihilated in the camps.  Then I started reading about the Allied soldiers during WWII.  Then I went further back, to read about WWI. \n I have NEVER been under any illusion that war was romantic or anything like that.  The minutiae of the war...the tiny little experiences of war will haunt me forever. \n Did any of you read \"All Quiet on the Western Front\"?  I just read it this weekend.  It gives these little details such as what OP's grandfather told of his \"luck\".  For example:  Taking cover in a graveyard while under heavy fire.  Having shells rip open graves, which actually became shelter.  Using the ripped open coffins, and corpses, as cover during the attack.", "id": "c558to3", "summary": "War is hell."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Actually, it's not that the regular kids have bad teachers; it's just that too many of the regular classes are populated by kids who don't care at ALL about education.  They fuck around, make jokes, insult people, threaten people, curse, don't turn in the work, etc. etc. etc. It makes it nearly impossible for the kids who WANT to learn; to do so. \n I have a SMART kid in my 7th period American History class.  This class is 99% made up of kids who can barely read.  Mostly due to language issues, but also because they have crappy home lives and nobody to help them do better.  The class is heinous.  I have to move so slowly that the smart kid is bored out of his skull. \n BUT:  He dicked around last year all year long.  He didn't do the advanced work and didn't qualify for advanced this year.  I was his teacher last year as well...and I tried ALL year to get through to him about how important it was to work hard and how he wouldn't make it into advanced if he didn't work.  He made a poor choice...and now his schedule is locked.  Due to class size amendments, there is no place else for him to go.", "id": "c2ktcrn", "summary": "Make this a learning opportunity.  Do your best work for the first quarter or semester and THEN show that information to the teacher and ask to get moved.  Next time; don't fuck around all year."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Last spring I was walking my dog at about 5:00 in the morning, when a little black dog stumbled out of the busy roadway right toward us.  The thing was shaking with fear and had no leash.  I carried the thing a mile home with me, while still leading my own dog and tried to call the owner (dog had a tag on).  Left a message and fed the dog.  Little thing was sweet and obviously well-loved.  Ignored my cats, said hi to my dog and daughter, ate, and then cuddled into my lap.  About an hour and a half later, my phone rang...and it was the dog's owner.  He had been driving around all night long looking for his dog.  I told him how to get to my house and took the dog out front to wait.  He finally found me...and I have rarely been so touched.  The guy was just about crying.  He had obviously been up all night and was so freaking glad to find his dog that he could barely thank me without weeping.  It was a good day.", "id": "cfa3jpy", "summary": "Thanks for picking up somebody's beloved dog."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Probably completely off topic, but last year a 7th grade girl at the school where I teach skipped class to meet a group of boys behind a portable behind the school.  Once there, she gave all the boys blow jobs.  All of them. \n Teachers immediately heard of the incident because middle school kids cannot keep their mouths closed.  We reported it.  Nothing was done.  The girl is sort of on the lower-intelligence level and was talked into the incident by the boys. \n After it happened, the girl became an immediate target of ruthless and agonizing bullying.  She couldn't even walk into a class without being attacked (verbally).  We teachers reported it again.  Nothing happened. \n I found a note that was written about it, where the kids were spreading rumors that the girl was pregnant and that she was even spreading AIDS.  I took the note to the office.  AGAIN.  This time I was rude and loud to the assistant principal about it.  He basically told me that it had been taken care of and to run along to class. \n Nothing was done.  The girl ended up leaving school and failing the year while the boys continued on as heroes.", "id": "c2d2y8a", "summary": "Schools will say and do ANYTHING to keep their name out of the news for bad things.  Including throwing children to the wolves."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Yes.  Your tax dollars are surely wasted because one teacher misspelled a word.  The entire education system should be shut down immediately.  Let's completely forget that this is a high school detention slip so the boys who nearly got into a fight must have been big and loud.  Teachers are afraid of being hurt, you know.  In addition to this, the teacher's entire class was now ruined because of a near fight.  On top of this, the teacher has to fill out the freaking detention slip while his or her hands are probably shaking and the rest of the class is upset. \n On top of that, the teacher has probably already taught a bunch of classes that day, been on their feet without a bathroom break for hours at a time.  The teacher might have a headache from trying to decipher the handwriting on over 100 student-written essays, which were being graded for content, structure, grammar, research skills and ability to annotate correctly. \n But, yes.  Your tax dollars are wasted because a teacher spelled a word wrong on a detention slip.", "id": "c2rldmu", "summary": "Teachers are human beings.  They can spell a word wrong once in a while without it foretelling the ruin of humanity as we know it."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "My school district spent MILLIONS of dollars to shift to common core about 5 years ago.  It could have been (and SHOULD have been a good thing)...It was a disaster due, MAINLY, to the way it was packaged and delivered.  The curriculum was so specific that it told you how long you could spend on a given subject.  For example:  I was given 34 minutes to teach the Holocaust.  Seriously. \n Since the school didn't invest in new, matching, textbooks to go with the CCC (Common Core Curriculum), we were linked to scholarly articles much of the time.  These scholarly articles were a joke because they were SCHOLARLY...and my 7th grade (that's what I taught at the time) students couldn't read or understand them.  The solution?  I was told to paraphrase the articles in more friendly terminology.  Yes.  We were told to RE-WRITE all of the corresponding articles for each days' lesson. \n Oh...it was horrible.  Just awful.  Standardized test scores tanked across the entire district within a year of CCC implementation. \n Oh...and after all of that, the district dumped it this year.  Millions of dollars gone.  Now they are spending MILLIONS of dollars to institute collaborative curriculum.  Sigh.", "id": "c80s4g9", "summary": "Common core should have been good.  It was not.  But only because of how it was packaged and how it was not supported."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "You don't know that.  Stop trying to tar all teachers with one brush.  The vast majority of us encourage and celebrate such talent and individuality.  The only thing I dislike about this assignment is the hashtag with the title...but that is a personal pet peeve. \n Also...if a teacher DID give it a zero, it might be because it is a district mandated assignment that is designed to show mastery of a certain skill...and if the assignment doesn't it would receive a poor grade.  Again, not the teacher's fault.", "id": "cq6cjuq", "summary": "Not all teachers are shit holes.  Very few are."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "In many school districts, the schools share buses.  That's why elementary/middle/high schools all start at different times.  In my district (I am a teacher) high school begins the earliest.  At 7:30 a.m.  Elementary begins at 8:30 and the middle school begins at 9:15.  A lot of students bitch and moan about the early high school schedule and whine about how teenagers need more sleep, but if they switched schedules, the same students would bitch and moan because now they have to stay later in the afternoon and high school students want to get jobs or have sports practices, etc. and need the earlier dismissal time.", "id": "c540kp0", "summary": "Students will complain no matter what."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "People are going to KEEP falling for scams.  Seriously.  It sucks, but how many times can you tell people do not give their personal information away?   Even if something \"looks\" legit, it might not be.  Do not share private information. \n Holy shit.  My husband is an intelligent man...but we had a huge fight this week because of how much freaking information he just hands out.  Some guy comes to the door professing to be an alarm company salesman?  No problem.  My husband proceeds to tell the guy that we don't have an alarm, our work schedules and some of the stuff we have that needs to be protected.  Holy fucking shit.  I couldn't make this up if I tried.", "id": "c3b1hnm", "summary": "I don't think there's anything you can do.  People KNOW not to fall for this shit, but they keep doing it anyway.  Jeez."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "That is the type of asinine comment we teachers have to deal with all the time.  I am a good teacher.  I work my ass off preparing lessons that will not only educate my students, but will have them looking for MORE information.  I teach them to question and look for answers.  I give them a thirst for knowledge.  I absolutely DARE any of you morons to spend a single day in a modern classroom.  Do you think you could do it?  Do you think the kids are sitting at desks politely waiting for me to spoon feed them information?  Guess again.  Here's a snapshot of ONE of the 6 classes I teach at a Florida middle school.  I have 26 students in that class.  6 of them JUST arrived after the Haiti earthquake.  They speak no English and have faced horrors I can't imagine...and they can't communicate.  I have 2 Venezuelans who arrived this month.  No English.  I have 10 Hispanic kids, at varying levels of language acquisition.  I have 2 kids who have diagnosed psychological disorders, who worry (loudly) about protecting themselves from demons, and who think people are conspiring against them.  Of the 6 remaining kids in that class, 4 are reading well below grade level.  I have 48 minutes to try to help EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.  Add to that, the insane gang thug who is running around the school, banging on my classroom door, to point and threaten me because I questioned his frequent skipping.  Try it dealing with this.  I am a devoted teacher and love what I do.  School administrators need to start protecting the MAJORITY of the kids and stop worrying about the rights of the FEW who want to threaten the safety of others.", "id": "c0q3cpu", "summary": "FUCK YOU."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Oh please...please...please...please...PLEASE tell me that you are not making fun of somebody for being overweight while they are working out at the gym. Please tell me you are unhappy with your payment plan or the layout of the facility.  PLEASE...SOMEBODY PLEASE tell me that Reddit has not sunk to such a low level of sub-human imbecility that it is now mocking people for trying to get in shape.  Please?", "id": "cawkfci", "summary": "If you are posting a picture of an overweight woman working out so you can make fun of her, you are a low class piece of moldy shit."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Speaking as a teacher; this is bull crap.  Bullying is not okay and I will make it my mission to destroy any little nasty punk who feels the need to make another kids' life hell.  I will write you up and report you for every infraction.  When I let other kids slide once in a while for minor rule violations; you will not.  Know that I am memorizing and writing down every single comment you make and handing off those notes to administration as soon as the bell rings.  We are ALL working together to gather enough evidence to get you OUT of our school.  That is fact.  You are old enough to know that bullying is not okay and if you haven't learned it yet, chances are, you are going to grow up to be that worthless asshole down the block whom everybody loathes.  Not that you'll care as you scratch your fat gut and belch while drinking your cheap beer.", "id": "c2xn3uk", "summary": "I do not suffer bullies gladly."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Be honest, decent, and good.  Seriously.  I have a daughter.  Be respectful and don't be a smarmy bastard.  We can see through your shit-eating grin. \n Oh.  Please don't show up wearing skinny jeans/sagging/both.  Or wearing a snap back perched on the top of your head. \n If you just ONCE touch your crotch in a rapper-ish way during conversation, I will make it my mission to ban you for life.", "id": "cakik8z", "summary": "Be a decent person who doesn't mimic douche bags."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "I am a teacher and may not have \"invented\" something to help revolutionize education, but I damn well work my absolute hardest to help my students learn.  If I have 25 kids in a room, I have 48 minute to review previous lessons, introduce a new topic, give examples, question to ensure understanding, hand out supplies to the kids who never have them, make it entertaining enough that kids will at least LOOK like they are paying attention and then set them to work, explaining again for those who got distracted.  I then have to go around the room and give individual instructions for the kids who don't speak English (I already modified my plans for them and made alternate assignments).  I have to give separate individual instructions AND DIFFERENT lessons to the kids with learning disabilities.  Then I have to go around the room to see if everybody is on task and/or needs help.  I do this all day long; every single day.  In my evenings I grade papers and make/modify lesson plans.  This summer I am paying for my own training to try to help even more students. \n I also open my classroom an hour before school and stay after every single day to help kids who need it.  For free.", "id": "c57yzss", "summary": "I am freaking sick and tired of people knocking teachers and spouting shit.  Most of us are very dedicated.  I think Khan Academy is FABULOUS...but don't you DARE suggest that because I don't have time to invent something that I am not serving my students."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "My kids and I were watching an old episode of the Cosby Show this morning and in the episode, Theo and his friend were trying to study for a test about Macbeth.  They couldn't understand the play and the RECORD (vinyl) reading of the play was too hard to understand as well.  They were at a loss as to how to find the themes and such to study for their test. \n My kids were mind-boggled about it.  They just asked why didn't Theo just go Google the topic.  They couldn't comprehend a life without instant access to knowledge.", "id": "c6fm7oc", "summary": "Technology is a part of our daily existence now."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "I am a regular blood donor and I've asked the phlebotomists about this.  They say most people don't pass out or freak out if they are donating blood.  They tell me that once in a while they get some (for lack of a better phrase) attention whores who make a big production, squealing and acting moronic...but they just tell those people to leave.  Donating blood is a voluntary deal.  No need to do it if you are afraid of needles. \n Also, they check your iron levels, temperature, and blood pressure before you are allowed to donate.  If those things are out of whack, you aren't allowed to give. \n Also, you are in a reclined lounge chair while you donate and they check on you throughout the donation and give you juice and stuff.", "id": "ccf0j9l", "summary": "Phlebotomists tell me that it's a pretty good job because the people lining up are there because they want to be there."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "I've said this before, but I am a teacher.  A middle school teacher.  I will never receive a bonus.  I love my job and am not complaining.  Being a teacher is what I always dreamed of and I certainly am not in it for the money...but that being said, I'd prefer NOT to get the kind of \"bonus\" I got last week.  We sent home mid-term progress reports.  I have some truly lazy kids this year.  The ones who failed my class had been given every opportunity to pass.  Alternative lessons and assignments, I gave them the supplies for the projects we did.  I came into school 1 1/2 hours early every single day for 3 weeks so students could access my class to work.  Nothing.  The parents I called never answered or returned my calls.  Then progress reports went home.  All those failing kids suddenly have caring parents.  Who have not stopped calling me to ream me out for failing their precious little snowflakes.  I even printed out an article from WIKIPEDIA and highlighted it...it was EXACTLY the same report some kid turned in to ME.  And his parents called my boss to ream me out for accusing their kid of plagiarism.  So...", "id": "c1859ch", "summary": "I'd take the gift card and throw it out."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "The thing about teaching is that you can never become complacent.  If today was a fabulous, wonderful, solid gold day; it doesn't mean that tomorrow will be.  Tomorrow, the wheels might fall off your cart and you will have to drag the students behind you as you limp toward the final bell. \n Sometimes that kid that tries your patience will work really hard and volunteer answers and you'll think you've FINALLY gotten through to him...and then the kid who is always good will fall apart and disrupt the whole classroom... \n Sometimes you will spend hours and hours planning a fascinating lesson, create props, and spend your own money on even more things to make this the best lesson ever...and it will completely bomb.  It will just tank...and then one day you'll have to change your regular plans at the very last minute and whatever you come up with at a moment's notice, with no props or expenses or even time, will be the absolute best lesson of the entire year.", "id": "c6ge7y5", "summary": "No.  It doesn't get easier.  You just get better able to handle it.  It is worth it."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "My school initiated a PBS program this year as well.  Here's why I don't buy into it. \n \n I am sick and everlasting tired of rewarding kids for doing the bare minimum.  You should NOT be rewarded for doing what is expected of you.  Bring a pencil?  Here:  Have a reward.  Show up on time?  Another reward.  That is bull crap. \n \n If you DO want to reward kids for everything at the beginning, I can live with that...BUT, BUT, BUT...just like when you use positive reinforcement to train a dog, you gradually DECREASE the rewards until finally the kid/dog/whatever is doing what they are supposed to do with only OCCASIONAL rewards. \n \n Remember the good kids.  They show up on time, with supplies, and work hard every single day.  Reward them. \n \n Make the rewards meaningful.  My school filled a \"treasure chest\" with crap.  Book covers and chintzy crap like that.  The kids think it's worthless. \n \n It's nice to reward positive behavior, but EQUALLY important, is the absolute need to punish negative behavior consistently and immediately.  If the school's policy about cell phones (for example) is that if you are caught with it out and on, the teacher has to take it from you and turn it in to the office until the end of the day, then DO NOT EVER, EVER, EVER turn around and hand that phone back to the student as soon as the teacher turns his or her back.  When administrators do not follow through with the discipline matrix, they are not only negating EVERY positive behavior, they are sinking the morale of the entire staff as well.", "id": "c3rzlov", "summary": "Use positive rewards...but know that there are limitations and that discipline is a hugely important part."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "The system may (and does) have a lot of problems, but as an educator I think more of the problem lies with the parents.  The good, decent kids are being denied an opportunity to learn because the thugs and losers who haven't been \"left behind\" are busy doing their best to disrupt the classroom.  There are so very many creative and inspired teachers who go above and beyond to make learning fun and meaningful...and they are hogtied in two very crippling ways:  First, cookie-cutter curriculum plans that make initiative and innovative ideas against the \"rules\".  Teachers have a certain amount of time to teach a subject before they are found guilty of insubordination for not being \"on target\" with curriculum time lines.  Secondly:  Those thugs I mentioned before.  They are in YOUR KID'S CLASSROOM.  Today.  Now.  While you read this.  They are cursing and throwing things.  They are putting gum in your kids' hair.  They are whispering heinous threats.  They are stealing from the teacher and your kids. They are making your daughters feel threatened with their sexually intimidating comments and \"accidental\" touches.  They are threatening and intimidating your child's teacher right now...and the school administration will do NOTHING to protect either the teacher or the students...because these thugs can't be \"left  behind\" and they all have special education labels that bring extra money to the district. \n The parents of these thugs are every bit as horrible as the creatures they have spawned...and, frankly, I  think they are the worst thing wrong with schools.  As a teacher I cannot have very many fun or exciting plans because the thugs steal my stuff or destroy it or use the \"down time\" to create utter havoc. \n Sometimes the absolute only way I can help a child who is terrified of going to his or her next class is to whisper to them to have their parents call the police.  To press charges.  That's all most districts care about.  That's the only way to protect your child.  Threaten to go public.  Schools will do ANYTHING to keep their names out of the paper.", "id": "c1dnj0e", "summary": "Schools may suck...but there ARE more reasons for it than you think."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Look.  I am completely against the abuse of factory workers overseas...but the fact of the matter is that our own government encourages such practices by rewarding AMERICAN factory owners with tax breaks, etc. when they move their factories overseas.  There are COUNTLESS empty factories here in the States.  MILLIONS of unemployed Americans...while those people overseas are abused to make that plastic decoration your friend bought. \n I would love to buy American made products.  I would love to know that things made overseas were not made in sweatshops...but what am I going to do?  Tell me how I can do something.", "id": "c7nqnin", "summary": "I think it's bull crap to blame consumers for the choices made by billionaire businessmen and politicians."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "I don't understand.  Is this just a curious picture you are posting or are you making a dig at the President?  If so, I don't think Obama ever promised to make change in Mali. \n As for how the little girl in Mali got the shirt, I might be able to clear that up.  I spent nearly 10 years working on the corporate side of an international thrift store charity.  The policy at the time was that if items donated didn't sell in a primary store in the first 3 weeks, they were transferred to a secondary store (cheaper).  If they didn't sell in the secondary store within a set number of weeks, they were sent to our Bargain Basement stores...where clothes were sold by the pound.  Now:  2 things could have happened from there: \n \n OTHER charities and churches would buy clothes by the pound and ship them over to 3rd world countries as part of their mission work. \n \n If the items in the Bargain Barn weren't sold within a few weeks, they were compacted and sold for pennies/pound to companies that just plain shipped them to 3rd world countries (also as part of mission work). \n \n \n That's how the Obama shirt probably made it to Mali, Africa.", "id": "c25c7rh", "summary": "I think that little girl looks pretty in that shirt."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "When I was a kid, my sister used to make fun of me for having full lips.  She would call me \"fat lips\" and other equally imaginative names.  Now, rich women are paying big money to have fat sucked out of their asses and injected into their lips so they can have full lips, too.", "id": "c5qgrxc", "summary": "It's fine."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "I worked for years at a non-profit organization that was basically existing to bleed it's donor's dry while the chief officers became wealthier than anybody has a right to be.  I hated that job so much.  I was damn good at it.  Really good at what I did...but I hated that job so much that I started dreading Monday first thing on Saturday morning. \n Then I went back to college and became a teacher.  I've been teaching for over 10 years and love it.  I work harder than you can ever imagine or understand.  I never have a single free moment.  No downtime at all.  Parents are nonexistent; they don't care.  Administrators are morons who only care about climbing up to the next level.  But I love my job.  I love helping my students.  I look forward to work every single day and honestly believe that I am doing something worthwhile. \n So.", "id": "cfc6tvr", "summary": "It's important to have a fulfilling job."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Nothing.  Nothing could have made it easier.  It was heinous but I had to power through.  The only thing that helped at the beginning was forcing myself to work HARD.  To work myself into exhaustion.  Yard work, housework, working out at the gym, etc.  The rage, the headaches, the insomnia...the cravings...were insane. \n But...I made it.  I made it through the first hour.  Then the second.  Then a day...and another...and another...and a week...and then a month...and now I've been smoke free for close to 3 years.  Sometimes I still miss it, though.  I know that if I started smoking, I'd be back to 2 packs a day in a week.  So I don't. \n The only thing that kept me from caving this last time I quit was reminding myself of the worst feeling of being a smoker.  That disgusting, nauseated feeling I would get if I smoked too much or after my first smoke of the day.", "id": "c7p6db6", "summary": "Nothing will make it easier.  But it's worth it to quit."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "I wouldn't have called the cops on you, but I would have been pissed at the noise.  Why should the neighbors have to put up with your kid banging on buckets outside after 11:00 at night just because he is out of his normal routine?  Maybe I have a migraine.  Maybe my kid is trying to sleep.  Maybe the noise is making my dog bark.  Maybe I have to work early the next day.", "id": "c5rhlos", "summary": "It's pretty shitty to allow your kid to bang on anything outside late at night."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "I'm a teacher in a Title I school.  About 12 years ago, there were enough computers for every 6th grader to get one for the year.  After 6th grade, there were enough computers for each teacher to have a cart in his or her room so students could use technology in the classroom. \n But...the warranties expired on those old computers years ago. They are basically just door stops now. \n We have 3 computer carts now in our whole school and 2 of them are devoted to the science classrooms.  Since we had the computers in the past, there was no need to invest in actual encyclopedias or much other printed reference material. \n So...here we are...in 2013 and I can't have any of my students do any research this year at all.  No computers and no encyclopedias. \n There are computers in the media center (almost enough for a class) but the waiting list to get in there to use them is a mile long...and if there is any computer-based testing going on, the server can't handle the traffic and shuts down.", "id": "c82ousc", "summary": "Technology is fantastic.  If you have it and if you can support it.  I would like to use MORE if it was possible."}, {"author": "DIGGYRULES", "content": "Sometimes at meetings I will catch my gaze freezing in a certain direction...and once in a while somebody at another table or near me gives me a \"look\" and turns their computer away.  I promise that I wasn't trying to read or see what they were doing.  I promise that I wasn't focusing on anything at all...just staring into space and pondering how freaking much longer this particular level of meeting hell will last.  Sometimes I am busy counting ceiling tiles.  Other times I am making a mental list of which employees will raise their hands to flap their gums during the \"does anybody have anything for the good of the group\" portion of the meeting.", "id": "ciz2y77", "summary": "I am not reading your computer.  Heck...I probably don't even have my glasses on."}]}
+{"author": "toolongdontread", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Find something that looks like what you want, click it.  Did it work?  Repeat.", "output": "I was that guy yesterday  and I'm tech support.   I tried and tried to get AD running including adding update KB985530.  Finally emailed the level two guys talking 'bout \"why won't my AD work?\" \n Guy remotes into my PC, enables it through Add Programs -> Turn on Windows Features -> AD Users and Computers."}], "user_id": "longlamp_15541", "history": [{"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "It can be designed to have give to it, but when it does, it is reasonably weak.  As a rule of thumb, the more give, the less brittle, but the lesser maximum strength a material has.  IIRC (which I may not) aircraft aluminum is very specially made so that it has almost no give, to be able to stand up to the kinds of loads it needs to.  Steels can be \"balanced out,\" but there really is no balance in aircraft aluminum, because it is constantly on the bleeding edge of what it needs to do.  An aerospace engineer could probably explain it better than me, and probably correct me where I'm wrong. \n But that's not the difference between steel and aluminum that troubles me, at least as far as aircraft goes (and engines as well).  Steel doesn't have to \"just break.\"  It can specifically be engineered to \"never fail\" specification assuming the stresses never pass the maximum load (an imaginary asymptote on a \"Stress vs Number of Repetitions\" diagram).  Aluminum has no such maximum load asymptote.  It will  always  fail eventually, no matter how light the load.  I don't like that idea for airplanes, especially since airframes are always reused.  Buy a spanking new Gulfstream, and there is a pretty good chance it is on a reused airframe with several thousand hours of use already on it. \n Carbon Fiber is a new technology in airframe manufacturing as well as relatively new in terms of materials science.  The last time I asked (5 years ago), no one was sure how long it would be \"sustainable.\"  They were still looking into microcrystalline (sp) fracturing of the binding agents and the long term effects of UV so that they could build realistic SN diagrams. \n What I find interesting about the whole thing is that metal fatigue wasn't that big of a deal (we knew about it, but it wasn't \"out there\") until after an airplane blew its top in mid flight (or the engine blew of that Boeing, I forget which came first).", "id": "c129krs", "summary": "It is best not to think about it. \n [EDIT]  That is not to say we should start building steel framed aircraft.  At 3x the weight, it just ain't gonna happen."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "When I was 4, I tried to use a big mason jar as a stool.  It broke and cut my butt a new one.  Luckily it was only a cheek.  Apparently at that age cheeks are not particularly pain sensitive.  So my cheek is bleeding but I'm not aware of it.  I look down when I stand up from the broken jar... there is a wad of bubble gum on the ground... so I pick it up and inspect it.  Thankfully I didn't try to eat it.  I think one of my parents found me with a bunch of blood trailing down my pants, because I still hadn't realized I had cut myself a new bunghole.", "id": "c16a79q", "summary": "Bum fat torn out of one's cheek, mixed with blood, looks exactly like Original Flavored Bubble Gum.  Who knew?"}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "I had another, but I realized my brother's is way, way more epic... \n My brother chooses not to go to family dinner night with the rest of us.  Apparently he had just discovered the awesomeness that is \"lighter in front of an aerosol can.\"  So rather then just be cool about it, maybe run around with a home made blow torch, he decides the best use of his superhuman ability is to try to SPOILER ALERT. \n We get home, and my dad notices a spark coming of an 80 year old tree about five feet from our house.  We go investigate, and the entire inside edge of this tree is nothing but glowing embers.  We obviously had to put it out and cut it down the next day.  If it had not been dark out, we never would have noticed at all.", "id": "c16a861", "summary": "Facepalm."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "Came out of National Treasure 2 thinking to myself... man I should be a treasure hunter.  Even told my little brother we should be treasure hunters.  He laughed at me.  Stepping off the curb I almost got hit by a car.  In the headlights I noticed a rainbow glint.  Checked it out... it was a giant diamond!  Went home... googled \"identifying diamonds...\"  Turns out it was a giant cubic zirconia.  So my dreams of being a treasure hunter were both fulfilled and dashed within one minute.", "id": "c0xp83c", "summary": "Draw a dot on a piece of paper and put your \"diamond\" upside down exactly centered.  Look through the peak at the bottom.  If the dot is visible as a circle, your diamond is indeed fake."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "I could use some r/calmhands.  I won't even make a throwaway: \n 8 through 12 - dug the skin off the bottom of my heels.  Until all that was left was the youngest/weakest/bright red layer.  That was painful. \n Pick my face - I don't have much acne left being older, but the few zits I ever get last weeks because I  just can't stop! \n Pick chap lips - but thankfully my lips only chap in winter. \n TOO SQUEAMISH; DON'T READ:  I pull out my toenails on my second, third, and sometimes fourth toes.  I don't mean like \"pulled a little too far hangnails and now there's a little blood.\"   All the way out.   It makes me ashamed and sick to my stomach just typing it out.  It's more painful than the heel thing in the short term, but the heel thing took weeks to heal.  I've really worked hard on not pulling out my toenails - I've been fairly successful in just picking a little bit and stopping, or not starting at all.  These days when I realize I'm about to start, I just wrap my fingers around my toes, give them a little squeeze, and sit that way for a few minutes.", "id": "c2fj65a", "summary": "You can stop.  Not overnight, but it can happen.  Then you might find something else to dig at.  Don't pull out your toenails, though.  It hurts."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "Normally I'd just grunt \"gubbmint\" and be on my way.  I do have one experience to relate that is at least relevant in the US. \n In many, many places you cannot do certain work that falls under the category of \"contracting\" without a license: construction, roofing, (possibly) painting.  Also apparently \"pest control(?!)\"  As one of my jury duty cases, many years ago, a guy was charged with a misdemeanor for doing this.  He would go buy a gallon of termite spray or whatever, and spray peoples houses.  We had tv commercials prohibiting unlicensed contracting for years; the guy could only claim ignorance because the commercials didn't go into specifics. \n The judge thought the charge was ridiculous.  The PD thought the charge was ridiculous.  In fact, his defense rested almost solely on the fact that he sent an aide to Home Depot to buy a can of bug spray.  After approximately zero minutes of deliberation, the jury decided to return a charge of \"Not Guilty.\"  The guy was quite obviously guilty... that was admitted even in the opening statements.  Heck, I'm pretty sure the guy  knew.   I think he got off because the law was stupid. \n I know that not all Judges are keen to uphold the \"spirit\" of the law rather than the letter, but that is what many of our local judges seem to be about.  I agree with you about the level of convolution that we face if we want to understand the laws.  I guess you could focus on laws that affect you.  Better would be to gain a modest understanding of what is coming up rather than what is already in place.  There are resources - the internet is well on it's way to restoring truthiness.  For instance, if I am correct, GrokLaw maintains a breakdown of the tech-related laws we are facing, as well as the dangerous precedents that could be set based on upcoming judiciary processes (I think).  So find your resources.  Find the laws that are foolishness.  If your country has a representative government - write your representative (hand-written, not email).  Then protest if it is legal. \n What  really  pisses me off (in America) are stacked charges to whittle or bargain away.  How does someone have 4 counts of first offense possession?  I think (hope) it pisses some juries, too, if they ever consider it.  They will find not guilty on some counts, and guilty on a fair count.  Judges (iirc) can also choose to dismiss certain portions of charges so that a trial can proceed on a fair basis.  But this doesn't always happen... a perusal of my County's jail lets you see just what key demographics this does  not  happen for.  Then I get  really  pissed.  Gubbmint!", "id": "c0z8jik", "summary": "Jurists and juries in America often (though not always) try people on the spirit of the law as well as the intent of the \"criminal.\""}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "Never IT per se, but I did mess around with data backups on our tape drive, doing/maintaining the scheduled backups and restoring data if something goes stupid. \n We got a new guy in to be our developer (college degree and everything).  He also worked on our projects sometimes because we needed the help.  So he's looking for a particular file in search.  In order to clean up screen space he's selecting files that are \"not the data he are looking for\" and hitting the delete key. \n He: \"I can't find find the data I need for the [Enormous] project?\" \n Me: \"Hang on dude, I'll grab the link and send it in an email.\" \n Me 2: \"[Enormous] is empty! Dude, why didn't you tell me it was  empty? \" \n He: \"It wasn't... I sort-of deleted everything. You have it backed up don't you?\" \n Me: [Look of Disapproval].", "id": "c103g2h", "summary": "Manually changing 8 tapes in a robotic tape drive, waiting for them to spool through to restore a directory, and waiting for a 500 GB directory to restore takes a long freaking time."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "I think I've told this story here before, but it's worth retelling: \n While in training I was flying a Cessna from my home base to my hometown at night.  Because peripheral night vision is so good, I noted a smoke trail at the extreme right of my field of vision.  At first I though it was kids shooting fireworks, and even told my flight instructor.  As we both looked, we realized the smoke trail was coming from above.  It was a meteor coming in very, very slowly, taking at least 5-8 seconds to fall directly in front of us and explode at an altitude less than or equal to our altitude (about 1000' agl - the reason I know it was at approximately the same altitude is that it was about 5 degrees below the horizon).  Though night vision does tend to make lighted objects look much closer than they actually are, I estimated this meteor to have exploded within about 10 miles directly in front of us.  It was so close that you could count the seven individual pieces of meteorite burning up after the explosion.  I assume it was copper because it was a very bright green.", "id": "c1azdpv", "summary": "That was freaking awesome - I'm not sure I'll see anything that nifty again."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "I have to strongly agree and disagree.  I guess I have some imaginary notion that parents should be free to decide what is best for their children.  At the same time, I have a desire to see that everyone be educated - two conflicting viewpoints, obviously.  However, I cannot say that in its current form, the Dept of Education even deserves the right to decide what is and isn't best. \n I think I'll start with why not? first.  I can only think of a couple unfortunate side effects of long term home schooling. \n Point 1: The lack of interaction could maybe stunt a child's social development.  This can, of course, be mitigated by playtime with neighbors, association with friends, etc.  Having been homeschooled for several years, I can attest that it is still kind of lonely.  That's not to say it needs to be 8 hours a day, every day, rain or shine, but still. \n Point 2: Lacking the specialization that teachers have, it would be easy for a child to fall behind in what I would consider a well rounded education.  I feel confident that I know enough about enough subjects to offset this in my case, but that is not true of all (or even the majority) of people.  However, in eighth grade, our algebra teacher couldn't tell us what a slope was, which is kind of a foundational thing.  I blame this more on living in a tiny town than in the weakness of our education system. \n > If so, why? \n Warning:  I am also, to the best of my knowledge, unsubscribed from all religious threads, but this argument must sway towards religious freedom: \n Point 1: A standardized system is ridiculous.  Do you remember that video on reddit a couple months ago?  That is how I feel.  My niece is brilliant.  It has been apparent since she was 2 or 3 that she is gifted musically, extraordinarily so.  She is also very advanced mathematically.  She is, unfortunately, a terrible speller.  She probably always will be.  They wanted to hold her back because she cannot spell.  She can read great, above her level in fact.  See what I did there?  There is no room in the current system to advance strengths, or judge a child on anything other than \"her level,\" which is in fact, the other students level, based on numbers.  Homeschooling alows for individual growth. \n Point 2: Not all matters of curriculum have anything to do with proper education.  The influx of (for lack of a better term) new-age teaching introduced to public schooling is not something I support, and will therefore probably homeschool my children.  My only example from my direct experience (though obviously 20 yrs out of date) would have been our \"counseling sessions\" in middle school.  The ones that taught us that we could simply visualize our problems packed into a balloon and allowed to float away.  That is soooo eastern (minus the specifics, of course; that it is  all  an illusion). \n Point 3: I feel like kids need instruction in right and wrong.  I do not feel like they need instruction in being perfect little adults, where right and wrong are measures only of society's current collective standard. \n Point 4: And speaking of perfect little adults; the standards that schools set on time and behavior are ridiculous.  7-8 hours a day?   One hour of silence, followed by 5 minutes of rushing to the next hour of sitting in silence?  Perfect little adults - they are already well on their way to fitting into a society that demands far too much of their time after 13 years of that.  Far too much, and far too rigidly structured.  Really, it disgusts me.   A few hours of school a day for smart kids, a couple extra for less smart kids.  Umm... instruction/practice in their strengths for the very slow ones.  But no, it is all standardized. \n Point 5: (Unfortunately I must got  there ).  I am a creationist who sees evolution as the current scientific understanding, and the most probable course of said creation (were we not given eyes and a reasoning mind?).  It is not, however, taught as the most current scientific understanding - it is taught as truth, without room for improvement.  I want to be able to teach my children that my God created us, and as far as we can tell, he created us through the course of a very long time.  I don't want them to feel like they were a random accident with nothing to look forward to except non-existence.  I feel like it is more than my right, even my duty, to teach them what I am sure is truth.  I would not, however, begrudge them their opportunity as reasoning adults (or young adults) to make their own choices - both with the facts of the current scientific understanding, as well as a grounding in my beliefs as well.", "id": "c1fmdcv", "summary": "It doesn't take a village to raise a child.  It does take a village to raise a little adult and clone of society.  That isn't what school is about. \n Disclaimer: I'm not attempting to paint broad strokes of hate on our education system in general.  I support higher pay for teachers.  I hate the idea of performance based incentives.  I love math and science.  I love music and art."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "to protect the workers in these establishments from being forced perhaps to choose to be in a job where they are exposed to second hand smoke, or to not have a job... \n I don't know - that's a good point.  I suppose a question asked in an interview like, \"We have a smoking section, are you willing to work in that section?\" is maybe a fair question.  How about maybe: \n > you as a rational prospective employee can choose not to work somewhere. \n I can say there are a lot of reasons, both among far more dangerous and far less dangerous, to choose not to work somewhere.  I would not work at a place based on ideological grounds.  Also, we've all quit jobs for far more asinine reasons, too (didn't like the hours, didn't like the boss, etc...), so this point is, realistically, moot. \n I would respect someone for quitting their job if they started somewhere that later instituted a smoking policy.  Additionally, if I were their employer, I'd probably try to help them find another job (via networking or something).  I would, however, have very little respect for (the actions of) someone starting at a place that already allowed smoking, then took litigious measures to force them to stop. \n Please understand, this is coming from someone who was unemployed for months, up until 10 weeks ago.  I understand the desperation.  However, no one is \"forced\" to work anywhere (legitimately).  Go find a different job then quit.  If you work in a bar or restaurant, go find a bar or restaurant that doesn't allow smoking.  Talk to your boss about trading you with a different restaurant.  In our pro-smoking town, there are many. \n I suppose I can plainly say -", "id": "c1fm01h", "summary": "It's over-regulation, my main beef, with irresponsible spending as my second main beef. \n But just so there is no mistaking: \n > with irresponsible spending as my second main beef. \n I'm under no illusions that the republicans are guilty of this too.  I have no party.  Forever alone :/"}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "You know, when I was first playing with programming, I found usgs' elevation data.  I figured out how to read and display the elevation data in OpenGl.  I started trolling google maps for imagery to complete my self tutorial.  Two months later you guys released Google Earth, and I realized there was no way I was going to be able to compete.  I have since found seamless.usgs.gov for imagery on par and sometimes better than Google Maps, but really, there's no point in me trying.  Some dude (me) is never going to be able to compete with Google.  Thanks for stealing my thunder guys.  It would have been sweet if you had bought me out, or at least given me some stock options.", "id": "c2rimms", "summary": "At last, the conservative sandwich heavy portfolio pays off for the hungry investor."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "At least during phase I (or probably actually phase II - mid to late 80's) it was kind of a \"cracker\" sport.  At least stereotypically anyway - when one pictures a beach bum surfer in California from 1987, the image in ones mind is more often blond haired blue eyed.  I do remember one or two pros from my days reading Transworld, but for the life of me I can't think of their names. \n I guess I only knew one black skater.  Well, when I was really a skater, in the late 80's, I didn't know any.  I attribute that to the fact that my town was the most southern, racist, country bumpkin, tiny, crap town ever.  I knew one when I was a wanna-be skater in maybe 2005 (too old, my knees hurt too much).  He was one of the best I'd ever met.  The city I was in was probably 50x the size of my first town. \n I'll tell what there are not - black snowboarders.  Well, I guess I've seen two, but when you are at a resort with 20k other people and you only see two, it does tend to help build a stereotype.  A couple of my friends, I always tried to get them to go skiing or snowboarding.  They'd always agree, but never actually go.  I finally said, \"What's the deal man?\"  To which the response was, \"Black people hate the cold.\"", "id": "c11wqwl", "summary": "People of color, while they will now skateboard, still will not go skiing or snowboarding.  There are still some racial barriers to break down."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "I tried the worst most disgusting food ever and never regretted it. \n I am the most picky eater ever.  I grew up on PB&J.  I had the same 5 meals every week forever.  I am not exaggerating when I say I can eat the same fast food every night for 8 months.  I've done it several times.  People always told me I was missing out.  I disagreed, because I can try a food that I strongly dislike I actually gag.  Not like a fake gag, but get on the edge of vomitus. \n So dude tells me he has some sushi take-out.  I hate all fish, all seafood, but think to myself, \"If I can handle this, I can handle anything.\"  I ate a (small) tentacle of a raw octopus.  It even had a sucker.  It was the freaking worst thing ever, but I just manned-up about it and ate it.  I only swallowed most of it and gagged when I spit out the rest of it, but to me, that was a victory.  I have tried so many foods now, and to my surprise, I realized I liked some of it.  I even  loved  some of it.  Not much, to be fair; I'm still picky, but it's stuff I never would have tried.", "id": "c0znaks", "summary": "Chicken curry is freaking awesome."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "This one time, we ran out of spaghetti sauce.  Well, I know what it takes to make a pretty good spaghetti sauce, so I figure I'll use whatever I can find around our college student kitchen.  Made some, realized that it didn't go very well on noodles, but it was very familiar.  Slopped some on a bun and enjoyed it until it was gone.", "id": "c1rr8q9", "summary": "I invented Sloppy Joes [or Manwich for you rastafarian accountants]."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "I could never hula hoop.  Ever.  For nearly 25  years  I would try to hula hoop every once in a while.  One time, when I was 27 I picked up my niece's and flailed ridiculously for a second only to have it fall to the ground.  My Dad noticed, chuckled, and in a flash of genius said, \"Have you ever tried it the other direction?\"  \"You mean to the left?(!)\"  I was immediately a hula hoop master.  Then I never tried again because I had clearly succeeded and would never again match that level of awesome.", "id": "c3ehh8s", "summary": "If you can't do it, try it the other direction..."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "Whatever dude, I'm a 30 year old virgin, almost 31.  This: \n >once they found out about my lack of experience, I'm sure they'd go running screaming and I don't blame them. \n is silly.  I have no doubt that there are thousands, if not millions of women who would be like \"awww that's so sweet,\" then proceed to make sweet, sweet love to me for at least 30 seconds to 1 minute.  In fact, I'd be willing to bet there are even women  here on Reddit  that would.  They'd probably sleep with you too, man.  If not on Reddit, then craigslist, okCupid, PlentyOfFish, etc. \n Shut down computer, decide what you want, go get it.  This \"So I don't even try\" crap is so teen/tween angsty.  Don't get me wrong; I understand how you feel, I've been there as long as you have.  But crap man, don't blame your lack of willingness on what you assume women may do, though you have what appears to be absolutely zero frame of reference.", "id": "c16ezbj", "summary": "Chicks are pretty awesome. \n Can you back me up on this reddit?"}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "When I was five or six, we had a rope swing in our yard, tied up pretty high in a tree (maybe 10-12 ft).  We had tied a stick to it so that we could run as fast as we could, grab it and swing out.  The stick kept breaking, so we replaced it with an iron pipe, maybe 1.5\" * 12\".  So a few weeks later, in the dim light of dusk, I for some reason grabbed this pipe and chucked it as hard as I could, just to watch the arc of the rope.  Only I couldn't actually see the arc of the rope.  Nor could I see the pipe barreling back down, directly at my face.  I took a 12 foot 5lb pendulum, sharp end first, right in the middle of my forehead.", "id": "c21tbri", "summary": "I probably could have easily died.  It's really only funny in retrospect \n Edit: probably more like 3-4 pounds really, but still."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "Everyone says no work/politics/religion/goals, but I don't really agree.  Find out what your date is passionate about and engage.  I've been on a few amazing first dates, with some of the most intelligent and beautiful women ever.  A couple were down for politics, at least one for religion, one for long term goals, a couple for major world events.  Be yourself.  People want to be engaged, and they want to see that you have a passion for  something .", "id": "c3knrix", "summary": "Disregard me, acquire women."}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "Seriously, that is my biggest weakness.  I was not aware until a few months ago, I had to do this video interview.  I thought just maybe I was nervous or something.  I asked my buddies, \"do I really look like that?\" They chuckled and said, \"don't worry about it.\"  I asked again seriously,\"do I  really  look that unapproachable and devoid of expression all the time?\"  To which they replied, \"Yes.\"  \"Am I that really unapproachable after you get to know me?\"  They said that once you get to know me, I'm fine. \n I guess I've always known that people had a hard time judging my intent.  I try to make up for it by being sincere and straightforward; if you piss me off, I'll say, \"dude that makes me mad, for such-and-such reason.\"  If you're awesome, I'll say, \"dude you're awesome, for such-and-such reason.\"  I also try to make up for it by being funny.  I'm a pretty hilarious guy, though apparently when I'm smiling, it is quite nonobvious.  I can pull off deadpan exceptionally well.  Know I know why  &#3232;_&#3232;. \n I had never seen myself speak on video or in a mirror.  I figure I look like a fairly normal guy the rest of the time.  What the hell do I do with that?  I've always been confident - confident in my personality, hilarity, capabilities, and intelligence.  This video has hurt that confidence, because it doesn't lie; my expression is seriously going to limit my potential, both professionally and personally.  I think at 31, it's a little late to go into speech therapy. \n Seriously, what do I do with that?  Why did my friends and family never tell me?  Wear a t-shirt that says, \"I'm a pretty decent guy once you get to know me? or I'm not angry I just look weird?\"  How can I sit through a job interview without  knowing  that my smile after a subtle quip is not the least bit visible?  How can I even approach leadership position knowing that I look like - goofy? \n There is not a whole lot in that I wish I could unsee.  I could have gone my whole life without knowing, because truthfully, I don't really know how to change my face.", "id": "t3_jfii9", "summary": "I'm devoid of expression when speaking - how can I change that without appearing exaggeratory or insincere?"}, {"author": "toolongdontread", "content": "I guess I'll give the specs:\nKonus 130 HM - 130mm Maksutov-Cassegrain, 2000mm focal length, (f15.6).\nEyepieces - 32, 26, 17, 10, and 6.2mm Meade super plossls. \n It is mounted on an equatorial mount with RA and Dec motors for tracking. \n In short, the best I could afford.  So anyway: \n I can see planets just fine, in fact better than fine.  It will resolve a moon of Jupiter like 1/20th of a planetary diameter off to the side.  The problem is, I can't find anything else in it.  I have so far seen: the Great Orion nebula (M42), Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and somehow, unbelievably, the Ring Nebula (M57 (?)).  I live in a reasonably rural area, so light pollution is not the issue. \n I cannot, no matter how hard I try, see M33 or anything else I try to find.  I simply cannot find it.  I know where it should be.  I just can't point at it.  I imagine I should be able to see  something  there with the longest eyepiece, even if it looks small.  Also, I don't know how to use the loose guide collars to accurately aim it.  Also, why are the stupid collars loose?  What good does that do me?", "id": "t3_dqch9", "summary": "Please tell me how to aim my telescope.  I bought what I thought was the best I could afford and I am regretting the purchase every night that I drag the heavy mofo outside."}]}
+{"author": "hbetx9", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Read the title!", "output": "I'll give some suggestions: term limits for congresspeople, immigration reform (reconstruct laws not building fences), welfare reform (try to make sure money goes to those that need it, limit abuse), decrease military/defense funding 1% and increase science funding with the savings (this could be what like 100% increase?), amendment the constitution to clarify that this country is not in any way based on any one religion and that peoples of all religions/non-religions (yes this includes atheism and Islam) are welcome to worships as they choose here without persecution or protest and that no law shall be made to force the ideology of one religion on the populous (apparently that wasn't clear enough before, go figure).  For example, revert the pledge and motto (on our currencies) to their original form, meaning without the \"under god\" bits. Establish a free internet so that no company can change based on content. \n For me the one that takes the cake is serious investment to bring about the replacement of oil with the alternative energies industry (there by creating valuable investment opportunities and establishing a mini burst for our badly hurting economy). \n EDIT: To add a couple more"}], "user_id": "longlamp_11010", "history": [{"author": "hbetx9", "content": "I think your reacting a bit since it is fresh. A B+ really isn't a bad score and you should feel good that the instructor gave you high praise on your work. \n Here's the fact of the matter, your in an advanced num. theory course, a course necessarily about primes. I understand in the pressure of the exam making a small mistake but (1) as you indicated you made other mistakes on the exam and (2) mistaking a simple fact like 117 not being prime is pretty elementary (7+1+1...). \n Look, I took a complex variables course in the summer. I worked out my grade to either an A or B (we didn't really have +/-) depending on the results of the final. If I didn't show up, I got a B. If I got a perfect score I got and A but nothing less would do it. I had to make the decision (do I even study?), and went for it. The whole exam, one problem wrong, one mistake (not many exactly one). Can you guess what my mistake was? Think about it. Really hard. That's right! I squared i to be 1. This caused a 1-pt off on that problem and yes I got a B for that course. This did not stop me from having every opportunity in life to reach my mathematical potential and this B+ will not stop you. Don't worry, and concentrate on the beauty of the material, because if you can't see that then there is a much bigger problem than your grade. \n EDIT: Grammar.", "id": "c14e7eu", "summary": "Don't worry about and move on."}, {"author": "hbetx9", "content": "I'm going to get downvoted here, but grow up. Seriously, this world is full of all sorts of people, there literally fluency exams (TOFEL) that people have to pass to instruct, and while this isn't perfect, I promise you that the vast majority of foreign TAs/Profs work harder in the classroom giving you a good educational experience than you do bitching about their accent.", "id": "cgqwlzp", "summary": "Don't give your international TA shit for their accent -- they come from a different country. Deal with it. \n EDIT: Typos, there are likely more but some have been removed."}, {"author": "hbetx9", "content": "Sounds trolllike but I'll take a crack (assuming its genuine). The rally's really are a satire on Beck's rally. Its hard to even define what a \"tea bagger\" is per se, however my advice is to (1) fact check everything and (2) keep in mind the bottom line. My point is that for something like FOX, the bottom line is to stir up controversy whether it exists or not, and they will stop at nothing to create it. They aren't bound by truth, logic, reason nor accountability. Many associated with the \"tea party\" fit into this category and in my opinion that makes everything they (FOX/neocons) do reprehensible. Likewise many tea party candidates have a platform based on religion. If that doesn't bother you, then I'd say you don't have a good grasp of the spirit of the constitution or our history. In principle I don't think anyone's personal religion should be forced on others by law, and I think religious tolerance is a cornerstone of the greatness of our country. \n Finally, keep in mind that anyone who says their fiscally conservative and vote republican are also misguided and have problems. Republican leadership has increased gov't spending and increased the national debt just as much as the left if not more. \n On any important issue (evolution, race, civil rights, gay issues, spending,taxes,education,...) you can find a lot of info of where people stand by searching reddit or the internet. For me, I'm bothered by the right's viewpoints on almost all of these issues. \n My personal starting point is DS/CR/NPR. Yes their biased to the left. However, I've found that while they present a biased viewpoint, they also don't outright lie which is contrast to FOX, Rush, Beck, Hannity,...\nand they also criticize the left when it screws up. However, many people indoctrinated by conservative media will likely spew quite a bit of venom on all of this \"lib biased crap\" that I'm saying. So let me sum up:", "id": "c0zqinx", "summary": "Fact check everything and remove credibility in your mind from any source that lies on issues you feel are important."}, {"author": "hbetx9", "content": "What mess are you referring to? For example, what about the \"mess\" left in the gulf or the \"mess\" left by artificially increasing the atmospheric temperature? These are \"messes\" left to our children that can't be \"cleaned\" up. They're far more pressing than any religious issue and have far more devastating impacts on our economy and way of life than most of the religious causes championed by the Tea party (Gay marriage for example). \n The founding fathers, in writing, showed a religious tolerance and application of civil liberties that most tea party candidates would take away. I think its embarrassing to associate the great works that founded our county in such a obvious juxtaposition with the view points of the tea party movement (whose name in and of itself is really quite inaccurate).", "id": "c0zy1bv", "summary": "The tea party is a contradiction of terms. Please follow reason not blind talking points."}, {"author": "hbetx9", "content": "Despite what you think, I don't intentionally \"troll\" /r/Conservative. In fact, I made pretty clear that I was trying to have a respectful conversation about something I don't understand. Just because I am a liberal doesn't mean I'm in capable of understanding a conservative line of reasoning. It just means that such reasoning doesn't on average sway my opinion (it does from time to time though). \n You're sort of having a separate debate. We can discuss and bring up facts, but I doubt it will sway opinion, so let's just stick to the point of the article. \nOr maybe demand increased by as a scare to drive it up. Ever see those 'buy gold' commercials 15 years ago? Neither did I. \n Also, explicitly this post wasn't about what you 'think' about raising/cutting taxes or not. It was about this particular legislation, and how it fits with conservative narrative. Because, despite your", "id": "c5mxlpj", "summary": "This does raise taxes on a good majority of taxpayers."}, {"author": "hbetx9", "content": "I'm in the likely position of rebuilding my PC and would love the advice of this fantastic community. \n I wanted to save some key components of the old build, in particular if possible the  graphics card  I wanted to get state of the art and with upgrade potential later on (so that I can replace this dinky old card with some shiny new ones). I'd also like to save the HD, optical and case if possible (Specs on these are pretty standard, the HD I think is 500 GB SATA, the case is a mid-tower ATX). Recently I upgraded the [PSU]( \n The machine usually is used for gaming, but I'm not all that hard core of a gamer. \n For the CPU I'm essentially sold that Ivy Bridge is the way to go and I'm leaning towards the  E3750K . \n For the MB, here is the question. Would it be a better gaming rig to get something SLI compatible and get a second [graphics card]( despite the fact that this card is only PC-E 2 and not PC-E 3? Or would it be better to get a MB now that can has at least one PC-E 2 slot but has two PC-E 3 slots and throw in a couple hundred on graphics cards down the line? \n Also, I've heard that for gaming, RAM over 8 GB is basically a waste. I do some computations on this machine, and it might be nice to have 32 GB handy but I'm not sold on that either. \n Any thoughts?", "id": "t3_xmcca", "summary": "Need suggestions for MB for a new gaming rig using this [GPU]([graphics card]( and likely a [E3750K]( but with upgrade potential."}, {"author": "hbetx9", "content": "Hi. I'm wondering if there is a way to improve ones skill at editing. I know a portion of editing is just knowing the grammar rules and how they are used. However, more is required! In particular, the human mind is pre-programed to automatically correct errors when reading. It will insert missing words, or remove duplicates. One can remove a significant number of letters (hence rendering most words `misspelled') and the human mind has the remarkable ability to find the correct intended meaning. \n Here is my problem. I can sit and carefully read a document many times. I leave gaps between edits, sometimes up to a week or more to allow the mind to 'forget' the material allowing me to actually read what's on the page. \n This is something I've struggled with my entire life, and what I'm wondering is: are there other things I can do to improve my editing? Is it really just as simple (or not so) to sit and read every sentence out loud many times over?", "id": "t3_fg5c9", "summary": "How can one improve ones own editing?"}, {"author": "hbetx9", "content": "I've seen so many of these posts that I'm just baffled. Here is the skinny. First of all, most important, GO LEARN ALGEBRA. Seriously, I know you think its bullshit but its the most basic skill in some ways that any mathematician should know. Second learn Calculus: Single and Multivariable. If you are still interested here are some things to go onto next: \n (1) Discrete mathematics: This includes equivalence relations (probably one of the most important things for you understand ever), propositional calculus (logic) proof techniques (induction) and some basic combinatorics (Pigeonhole principle). You can literally find any text book and start reading. The theory is kinda a hodge podge, but those are the major themes. \n (2) Linear Algebra: Again, one of the most important subjects you will ever study. Once you understand this, you are really on your way, and this stuff comes up everywhere. Many mathematicians have said many of the biggest proofs in the world come down to \"just some linear algebra\". The major point here is to understand that there is only one vector space for each dimension over a field and understand how a linear transformation becomes a matrix only after a choice of basis. Here equivalence relations come up again! \n (3) Differential equations: Unless you're focused on engr math or serious applied stuff, don't worry too much about this. Seriously, its not that integral (haha get it!). \n (4) Complex Analysis: Yes, mathematicians and engr. actually do study \"imaginary\" numbers, but there is nothing imaginary here. This is serious stuff, do it. \n Okay, so now you're about at a sophomore/junior level place in mathematics. How to finish it off? Its not that unclear: \n (1) Abstract Algebra -- Grab any book read about groups, rings, fields, vector spaces and modules. Proofs will be difficult here but work through it. There are so many books here, avoid Lang (good book but not for starting out), Dummit/Foote is okay. As a ugrad I had a good time with Rotman's An introduction to abstract algebra. \n (2) Analysis -- Grab Baby Rudin. No seriously, Grab this book, sit in a room for a semester and just fuckn' read it. You will basically be \"redoing\" calculus. This is a trial by fire, go! \n (3) Topology -- Grab Introduction to Topology by J. Munkries. Its so well written it might as well be a coffee table book. \n There now, you basically have done everything a math major would. Yes there are lots of things that are missing, arguably the most important things depending on what your goals are. Typically one studies Num. Theory along with Abstract Algebra, or studies Analysis and Differential Equations together or Analysis and Topology. Seeing the links across different topics is important, but I'm just giving the overview here. \n Not every mathematician studies logic deeply and there are LOT of fringe topics that I'm omitting (including some of my favs: Projective Geometry, Varieties, Lattice/Order theory, Combinatorics, Elliptic Curves, Coding theory, Harmonic Analysis, etc). However, none of these are required courses at more than a 1% of programs. \n Stop asking for a \"good book on blah\" or \"I'm a novice and want to learn more\" because these questions are either (1) easy/clear to answer from literally 10 seconds of google/reading older posts or (2) is too vague to be of use. in order for the community to help you, its important for you to state why you want to learn what you want to learn. Stop trying to learn a topic about some buzzword you just found out about. Its probably not that important. Go to wiki, read the basic pages and get an idea. Then pick one thing and study it deeply for a while. Typically finding a book is easy, finding a study partner is hard. The latter is what the community should be for, not the former. There is no reason anyone in the world \"has to learn measure theory\" -- period. Or Galois theory, or anything in mathematics, unless you are becoming a mathematician or a professional in a mathematical field (abstract theoretical academic computer science for example, NOT programming/web developing). \n If you're just learning to learn great! Lovely! Pick up a book and start going through it! Don't skip the basics and don't pretend like this is the most important thing ever, it just what you find interesting. I would be more reactive to someone saying \"So I'm reading measure theory and I don't quite get why this part of the definition of this is stated this way\" or \"What do they really mean by almost\"? I hate answering questions like \"I want to learn measure theory\" because that whole statement is just crap. If you do, start learning and ask a more meaningful question.", "id": "t3_eohrr", "summary": "I'm trying to address all posts like this at once. \n EDIT: Thanks to all who have upvoted to get this post to the top and to Shimei for addressing the concerns. Hopefully this is a small step towards more meaningful discussions on the front page (of /r/math)."}, {"author": "hbetx9", "content": "I'm not sure what level the audience is on /r/math (graduate level, beyond,...) but for those of you who know a little algebraic geometry (varieties) or maybe a little more (schemes), I share in the frustrations of seemingly endless abstraction (affine varieties, projective varieties, schemes, sites, stacks, ....) with few if any motivations. The usefulness of these topics is abundantly clear, but somehow even that does little to slake the frustration. \n On my own personal tour through these areas, I've just reached a point where Grothendieck, with almost mystic forsight, blew my mind (for the 11th or 12th time so far), where apparently a large benefit of construction sheaf cohomology (showing the category of sheaves is an abelian category with \"enough injectives\") acts to unify traditional cohomology theories over different \"coordinate groups\" by looking at the constant sheaf they define on the space. So it seems Alex made a trade off, instead of many different cohomology theories over various coefficients, one can study one cohomology theory over different sheaves. Brilliant! \n What are some of the other favorite insights of A. Grothendieck from the /r/math community? \n P.S: I hope if anyone here doesn't know anything about A. Grothendieck but is somehow interested from the \"buzzwords\" that I've laid down, please look into his work and his impact. Truly he and Serre have revolutionized mathematics within their lifetimes; we are lucky to have witnessed it.", "id": "t3_clq4i", "summary": "Grothendieck is a bad motha, read his shit!"}, {"author": "hbetx9", "content": "Look I fuckn't get it. You can't post all the \"option\" that are in each \"package\". I get that you want me to call you up so you can try to up sell me on out of every dime I have, but for the love of fuck! If you are a company running a website in which I can \"order\" your product and you don't give a detailed description of what each \"product\" you sell is, then you're a fucking asshole and you personify everything wrong with our modern society. Fuck you! \n .... \n I have no idea which reddit to vent to, so /r/Frugal, there ya go!", "id": "t3_couir", "summary": "List your fucking options on your fucking products you fucking gooback!"}, {"author": "hbetx9", "content": "I was recently swayed towards buying a new tablet. I read a lot of math (journal articles, books, etc) in PDF and djvu and others. My question is the usual debate: ipad vs. (kindle/nook). I know the usual set up here: ipad does more, has some note-taking programs as well as the ability to mark up a PDF virtually whereas kindle/nook with e-ink is easier on the eyes and much cheeper. \n Thoughts?", "id": "t3_gltk0", "summary": "Which is better over all for reading math: Ipad vs. Kindle/nook?"}, {"author": "hbetx9", "content": "I was watching an episode of star trek and I've noticed a nice effect of the manner in which the crew interacts with the computer. In particular, they have the capability to vocally ask questions to the computer and get a vocal response. I was wondering if in any, even limited, way this was possible. For example, if one is studying a topic in which the facts are laid out in predictable patterns or information is highly organized; is it possible to get a vocal based search even if it isn't perfect or sophisticated. The point being, that this would be an added bonus as a study aid, as it would allow vocal interaction with the material as opposed to just written and text based interactions.", "id": "t3_k8h76", "summary": "Is it possible to make realistic voice search?"}, {"author": "hbetx9", "content": "So I've been having a long running argument about division by zero. I'm a mathematician however someone I know isn't and believes that once we figure out \"division by zero\" we'll have a technological boost. After giving a fairly elementary argument about what \"division by zero\" means and I was told that I was being \"closed minded\". This person is not an uneducated however, what are some ways to convince the unconvinced? Facts doesn't do it (in addition to this anecdotal evidence, there is a study showing that facts only serve to confirm a misbelief not dissuade it.)", "id": "t3_d6wom", "summary": "How to argue to people a fact (one can't divide by zero for example) when they aren't swayed by \"proof\"."}]}
+{"author": "BlakeClass", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post my first experience with anal was without my knowledge. It lasted for 30 seconds until my girlfriend had explosive diarrhea over my pelvis and torso. This was in my friend's 8 year old brother's room. My Gf did not apologize, it hurt my feelings.", "output": "I've posted this before. I received 100+ comments and messages saying \"That shit's not true!\", but it is. \n I was in high school. I'm at a friend’s house party. My girlfriend got belligerent drunk. I'm struggling to enjoy myself because I was barely buzzed and she was being annoying. \nShe won't stop talking about how horny she is. I just want her to pass out, but she's having none of it, won't take no for an answer. \nWe go upstairs into a bedroom and start hooking up. She throws me onto the floor, gets underdressed like Jim Carey on Bruce Almighty, and turns off the lights. \nShe rips off my clothes, straddles me, and says \"you're gonna love this shit\" as she lowers down. \nIt doesn't even feel good, she's making all these noises like a savage, but there's just too much friction, I wasn't feeling it and I'm about to tell her to get off of me. \n She lets out this noise that sounds like a combination of a deep cough and a hiccup. I’m like ‘Babe are you alright?’ , she lets out a hurricane Katrina style levy smasher storm surge of explosive diarrhea all over me. Apparently we had been doing anal and she lost control. \n So here I am, covered in yagerbombs, Taco Bell, and oppressive feces while in my friends little brothers room. I try to fight off the traumatizing shock which I'm in, someone needs to clean this shit up quickly. \n Luckily, everyone else was downstairs. I cleaned myself off with my undershirt and walked into the upstairs bathroom to find cleaning supplies. There was resolve and Fabreeze there. I took those to the room and did the ol' pat down and scrub. Most of it came right up, the carpet was this ugly grayish color which made things a lot easier. I put my undershirt, and her shirt we used to scrub, in a plastic bag that I found in the bedroom. I popped the screen out of the window and threw it into the backyard. \n The coast was clear in the bedroom except this putrid smell of rotten whale blubber. I left the window open and sprayed basically the whole bottle of Fabreeze everywhere like I was a hitman cleaner. \n We walked downstairs, I told my friend that my gf threw up in the room, and that he shouldn't let anyone go in there tonight before it airs out. \n Volcano ass and I walked outside, got in the car and drove to the street adjacent to his house. I walked in between houses to get to his backyard, hopped his fence, and retrieved the bag of deceit, sorrow, and teen anguish."}], "user_id": "longlamp_870", "history": [{"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "My brother and I were flying home by ourselves, from visiting our father on summer break. The flight was LAX California - layover in Atlanta - to DCA Washington DC. I was 12, my brother was 10. Our plane has to sit on the LAX runway for five hours due to a storm. It was extremely nerve racking and boring since we were so young and by ourselves. \n We arrived at our layover stop in Atlanta several hours late, missing our flight. There were not anymore flights to DCA until the next morning. The airline host called both of our parents and informed them that we would have to stay in the airport overnight because we weren't old enough to get a hotel room. My dad was freaking out during his call. My mom was hysterically crying on the phone during her call. Everyone was panicking. \n The extremely hot airline hostess stewardess decides that she can't leave us alone. She says that she will stay with us overnight, and my parents give her consent to do so. \n She takes us through a back corridor in the airport. It leads to a door which she says is the 'pilot over night area'. She opens the door, and reveals a 12 year olds dream. This ducking place has a big screen tv, Super Nintendo, bean bag chairs, free sodas and comfy beds. We played Super Nintendo for a few hours before she tells us Thayer should try to sleep. My brother goes straight to sleep like a beta, but I'm trying to milk the situation. I told the hot stewardess that I was really sad, felt alone, and was really scared. She sat on the bed and rubbed back, whispering sweet nothings to me until I fell asleep.", "id": "chco8ky", "summary": "I was 12 and traveling without an adult. I was on a plane for 10 hours and had to spend the night at the airport. Doesn't matter, got hot stewardess snugs."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "I was in highschool. I'm at a friends house party. My girlfriend got belligerent drunk. I'm struggling to enjoy myself because I was barely buzzed and she was being annoying. \n She won't stop talking about how horny she is. I just want her to pass out, but she's having none of it, won't take no for an answer. \n We go upstairs into a bedroom and start hooking up. She throws me onto the floor, gets underdressed like Jim Carey on Bruce Almighty, and turns off the lights. \n She rips off my clothes, straddles me, and says \"you're gonna  love this shit \" as she lowers down. \n It doesn't even feel good, she's making all these noises like a savage, but there's just too much friction, I wasn't feeling it and I'm about to tell her to get off of me. \n She lets out this noise that sounds like a combination of a deep cough and a hiccup. \n Fast forward 10 seconds, I'm covered in yagerbombs and Taco Bell. \n ... \n \n she didn't throw up", "id": "cg3lvfy", "summary": "my first experience with anal was without my knowledge. It lasted for 30 seconds until my girlfriend had explosive diarrhea over my pelvis and torso. This was in my friend's 8 year old brother's room. Gf did not apologize. \n *auto correct and spelling."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "This. The problem that i've seen is people doing this strategy with elite QB's/RB's, thus burning high draft picks. As acesn8ights said, you'd be better off drafting other positions at those high picks. \n IMO the  better  way to do it, if you're going to do it, would be to draft 1 Elite QB (Manning/Breese) and draft 2-4  sleeper^ish  / breakout candidates at mid/late round picks (Stafford/Brady/Luck/RG3) with hopes that they become a Top 5 QB. \n I had one guy try the wrong way (Rodgers and Brady @ 3 & 4 rd). He didn't get anything close to 4th round talent for Brady. \n I had another guy in the same league do my example except he didn't even take an elite guy; he took Stafford, Cutler, Rivers and Dalton in the 7rd through 13th I believe. He received very good value only trading Rivers and Cutler relatively early in the season. He even turned down great offers for Dalton since his lineup was already stacked.", "id": "ciydsmh", "summary": "Horde break out QB's with mid/late round picks, not elite QB's with early picks."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "You don't sound like an idiot, it's a valid question. \n Yes, setting affects audio as well as video, very much so actually.\n240p is one third of the quality of 720p HD for audio. The reason some people aren't aware of this - it's not as noticeable if you don't have a quality set of headphones/monitors (speaker, not screen). Also, if the uploading user didn't convert audio correctly, it won't make  as  much of a  difference.", "id": "cg6lw0q", "summary": "If the youtube user uploaded it correctly, and  you have quality headphones, it makes all of the difference. 720pHD is a life experience, 240p is noise. \n Source: (with conversion table affecting audio)"}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "It’s a Sunday afternoon. My friend Greg and I are drinking several Bud Heavys at the bar of a ran down Chinese Resturant.  Greg is playing Keno; Well, actually he’s attempting to play Keno, but in reality he’s just losing a lot of money. \n An old man approaches us from the other end of the bar. His face is withered, worn down from what looks like decades of alcoholism and bad descisions. He had to of been atleast 70 years old. \n The old man stands infront of Greg, places his hand on Gregs shoulder, and says, “Son, my wife left me, my childern won’t talk to me, my health is failing me; All I have to my name are these numbers, they’ve never gotten me anything but hopefully they will be kinder to you. I believe they will” The man hands greg his Keno card, the one that you fill out to get a ticket, and he walks out of the resturant before we can even respond. \n Greg looks at me and says, “Well that was akward. I don’t want this trash” as he puts the mans Keno card near his empty Bud Heavy bottle, to be throw away. \n I look at Greg and proclaim, “DUDE YOU HAVE TO PLAY THE NUMBERS. THIS IS SOMETHING STRAIGHT OUT OF A MOVIE.” \n “I’m not playing that shit.” \n “Fine, I’m playing it.” I grab the card and look at it. It was a $1 a game 2 spot, 2 – 75 were the numbers. \n I waive to the bartender “Sean, give me a two spot, $20 game with bonus 2 – 75” His name isn’t Sean, it’s Xi Lou or some bullshit, but he goes by Sean. \n “BrakeCass, you no gambull. Why you gambull?” \n “I’ve got that feeling Sean. It’s meant to be.” \n I ended up max betting the old mans numbers for 6 games. \n Both 2 and 75 came out  4 out of 6 games. The payout is $200 without bonus, some of the games had a bonus, but I don’t remember the exact game for game winnings since it all happened so fast and I wasn’t used to playing. \n I won over $1500 in winnings in 30 minutes. Apparently this is not common in Keno, it really was very surreal. \n I payed our tab and told Sean tell that old man that drinks are on me next time, but Sean said that he had never seen that man before. \n I still ask Sean about the old man every now and then. He’s never came back in the five years since.", "id": "chafl4u", "summary": "An random old man gave my friend a heartfelt monologue about how shitty his life was and told my friend to play this Keno ticket. My friend declined, so I played it instead. I max bet it for 6 games, and won 4 out of 6 games, for a total of over $1500 in winnings in 30 minutes."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "But I would like to point out, reddit did a good job of finding the 'lead' on this kid. He would definitely have been someone the police wanted to investigate or question. Police investigate 90% innocent people all of the time. The only difference, it's not open sourced online, for the entire world to see you contemplating someones guilt. Police are also trained on level of evidence and suspicion vs. cause etc.", "id": "cfzm8p6", "summary": "Reddit is good at finding leads. Not great at trials and preserving civil rights."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "I was in highschool. I'm at a friends house party. My girlfriend got belligerent drunk. I'm struggling to enjoy myself because I was barely buzzed and she was being annoying. \n She won't stop talking about how horny she is. I just want her to pass out, but she's having none of it, won't take no for an answer. \n We go upstairs into a bedroom and start hooking up. She throws me onto the floor, gets underdressed like Jim Carey on Bruce Almighty, and turns off the lights. \n She rips off my clothes, straddles me, and says \"you're gonna  love this shit \" as she lowers down. \n It doesn't even feel good, she's making all these noises like a savage, but there's just too much friction, I wasn't feeling it and I'm about to tell her to get off of me. \n She lets out this noise that sounds like a combination of a deep cough and a hiccup. \n Fast forward 10 seconds, I'm covered in yagerbombs and Taco Bell. \n ... \n \n she didn't throw up", "id": "cg9tja7", "summary": "my first experience with anal was without my knowledge. It lasted for 30 seconds until my girlfriend had explosive diarrhea over my pelvis and torso. This was in my friend's 8 year old brother's room. Gf did not apologize."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "You can develop a sense of prediction that lets you see what is most likely to happen next. You have to vigilantly pay attention to what's going on around you everyday, from an unbiased standpoint. It's not being psychic or anything supernatural. You're basically Taking in all of these outside variables around you and running a simulation, in your mind, against your past experiences with these same variables.", "id": "cg9ukea", "summary": "you can develop a heightened state of intuition regarding people you come in contact with everyday."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "You made the right choice by leaving it up. This isn't the same as a private divorce. This seems very different to me. This is going to be talked about on social media (even if not the mainstream media). There's a line in there somewhere, I'll agree with the thought process regarding irrelevant gossip, but this doesn't cross that line to me. I would classify this as  relevant  gossip. \n Johnny Manziel has been the hot topic on National media for similar situations, I don't think the sub would benefit by having to ignore it.", "id": "cjhszno", "summary": "I think this is 'scandalous/juicy' enough to warrant relevant discussion, where as a divorce is not scandalous or relevant."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "Something happened to me last night, maybe others can learn from it. I was playing Domination, I kept getting put on a team with three really good guys who were playing together. (I forget the clan tag, but they were good) \n Anyways, I'm not  great  but I do callouts of enemy movement, which flag I'm going to cap, where I think the other team is spawning, etc. \n I was running a new run and gun class since I just got the Akimbo SAC3 Fire and Brimstone [+2 damage]. I got the highscore going 14k - 22d - 13 captures - 9 defends. \n We won a pretty close battle over other team. The leader of the 3 guys goes on this rant when the score screen pops up. He says to the other team and people on my team, \"You see who's at top? DO YOU SEE WHO'S AT TOP?! MOTHA FUCKIN BLAKECLASS WITH A .6 KD RATIO! Do you know why?! BECAUSE HE KNOWS HOW TO PLAY AS A TEAMMATE AND HE PLAYS THE OBJECTIVE! I would take him on my team in a competitive match before ANY OF YOU ASSHOLES GOING 22-10 WITH ONLY 3 CAPTURES AND DEFENDS. HE IS A BETTER PLAYER THAN YOU! LET THAT SINK IN! YOUR K/D MEANS NOTHING TO PEOPLE IN OBJECTIVE GAMES! GOOD JOB BLAKECLASS!\" \n It made me feel really good. Especially since these guys were way better skill wise than me. Maybe most people in the lobby won't think twice about his rant, but even if made one or two new players reconsider their playstyle during objective games then that's worth it for the future.", "id": "cm1gzys", "summary": "If you're in an objective based game you should try pointing out a player who's in the top 1-3 highscores with a shit k/d ratio. It helps to drive the point home to players who haven't really thought about it. There were two or three people who said as a reaction \"Damn, I never thought about that\" - \"Yea that makes sense.\" Plus it made me feel good about my contribution to the team, it definitely reenforces positive behavior."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "Taxes in the USA. And no, I'm not some right wing kid trying to sound cool. I'm not talking about cutting entitlements either. I'm saying that we could do  more  with far  less  if the government was ran as efficiently as a large private business. If you researcher the issue you will find the enormous amounts of redundancy. You wouldn't have to fire anyone, you wouldn't have to cut the benefits themselves, just the cost of providing the benefits. We could bring in a few top CEOs, lower taxes, lose no benefits, and have more to show for it.", "id": "cfzw4gz", "summary": "most the government's money doesn't go towards the people. Yet everyone argues about cutting benefits towards the people."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "I've posted it before: \n I was in high school. I'm at a friends house party. My girlfriend got belligerent drunk. I'm struggling to enjoy myself because I was barely buzzed and she was being annoying. \n She won't stop talking about how horny she is. I just want her to pass out, but she's having none of it, won't take no for an answer. \n We go upstairs into a bedroom and start hooking up. She throws me onto the floor, gets underdressed like Jim Carey on Bruce Almighty, and turns off the lights. \n She rips off my clothes, straddles me, and says \"you're gonna  love this shit \" as she lowers down. \n It doesn't even feel good, she's making all these noises like a savage, but there's just too much friction, I wasn't feeling it and I'm about to tell her to get off of me. \n She lets out this noise that sounds like a combination of a deep cough and a hiccup. \n Fast forward 10 seconds, I'm covered in yagerbaombs and Taco Bell. \n ... \n she didn't throw up... \n Shit, I was covered in shit.", "id": "cgluqgw", "summary": "my first experience with anal was without my knowledge. It lasted for 30 seconds until my girlfriend had explosive diarrhea over my pelvis and torso. This was in my friend's 8 year old brother's room. Gf did not apologize. Would not do again. Bait and switch."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "My target audience is able to understand: \n \n it is unlikely for rednecks to be in Asia. \n it is unlikely that more people wouldn't have stepped in if Americans were discriminating against Asians, while in Asia. \n people from Asia are not refereed to as 'Asians' while in Asia. They would reference the persons Country of origin, not their continent.", "id": "cfyl0gl", "summary": "It is statistically impossible that he was playing pool in Asia, given the context."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "I'm trying to state this with sympathy in mind since I understand that you're frustrated: \n Putting your 6th round draft pick through waivers knowing he can be claimed for a discount [you already ate the signing bonus] carries a lot of risk. CAR could have waited until week one to put him on the IR without any risk. I would unbiasedly say this was an unnecessary gamble on Carolinas part more than a sleezy move by NWE.", "id": "cjaeyb0", "summary": "This guy was draft worthy talent and his signing bonus is already paid. What did the Front office think was going to happen?"}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "The sad part is this seems to be an  okay  deal in your area.\n I'm assuming this is the corolla Sanford A.N.? It matches exactly. I took that zip and looked around the area. There are other options out there, but it's not a terrible deal. You can do better, but it's not going to be easy to do it quickly. \n Expand your search to 06-08 all corollas around you and look at the ones around 7,000-8000. I thought I found a steal for you but it says you have to finance with south east Toyota financial for the price, also it looks like dealer fees aren't capped down there, so giving you real help would take longer.", "id": "cfrssx6", "summary": "your not getting ripped off considering your market, but it's not a great deal. Might want to do more research or offer $500-$1500 lower because of the accident And interior. \n EDIT: Great Wall of Text"}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "Judging on the \"she was being cute\" comments, Maybe I should have specified that we were both 25-26. I  might  have appreciated the humor at 16-18, but it's a different story when you get life experience, you start to realize the implications, and witness people willingly carry out threats to each other.", "id": "cgb1g15", "summary": "it's different once your realize how fucked up the world is."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "There is a lot of evidence to support the theory that we forced down United Flight 93. No planning or planting or anything crazy like that. Just that the military is the reason the flight crashed. \n The evidence proves everything up to point of intercept. No proof of actually being forced down though. It could be a coincidence, a really big one.", "id": "cg09215", "summary": "if we didn't take it down, there was a fighter pilot who witnessed the flight go down on its own."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "It's hard to put into words but I'll try. \n Results wise: Yes, the Redskins results really were that horrible. We earned that 3-13 record. We did everything wrong both on and off of the field. There wasn't one thing that you could point to, it was a team effort of terrible. \n Realistic  potential wise: No, they were not a 3-13  type  of team. They have the talent required to be much better than that, however, in the end, none of that matters.  Results matter . If you don't get the results then there is no point in making excuses or running through 'what if' scenarios. Let's leave that for the other homerboys from other teams. \n We have what it takes but lets keep that on the DL until the team starts winning on the field.", "id": "cjlub0b", "summary": "Yes they sucked but they are not a bottom of the NFL caliber team. They can win the division with this team if they get their shit together, but there isn't much use in talking about it if the results aren't there. \n HTTR"}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "Find someone and block him' is the universal rule for blockers who don't know their correct assignment. \n However, if you watch the play you will see that it was Charles who messed up in the first place. He was the only player who didn't fit the play. You can tell by the blocking that this was a read option to the left, hence the OLB was unblocked because he was the read. It looks as if Charles realized his error once he didn't get the ball, and simultaneously realized the implications of this being the read man was still coming free from the left and needs to be blocked since he can't be read.", "id": "cjemhzz", "summary": "Charles knew the correct play but thought it was to the incorrect side. He quickly realized his error and knew he needed to block the read man since he was coming free."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "I see a lot of negative comments regarding your coworker. I'd do something like that, with zero ulterior motives. I take pride in my work, and helping others, and I commit. I don't want to be 'kind of associated' with something. If I'm asked of help I will make sure it gets done right, which sometimes includes me doing the rest of the task. I don't expect to steal your thunder, I don't want brownie points, I'm just assuming whoever asked me for help or CC'd me on the email wanted to make sure that it got done. I see it as no different than them giving me an assignment (unless the specifically addressed me with instructions in the email), otherwise, why the fuck are they getting me involved?", "id": "cp4e3uf", "summary": "I see your side, but the problem is whoever is CC'ing people on shit without any instructions as to why I'm CC'd. I understand if you don't want help, but why I am involved then?"}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "This. I spent most of the last two weeks getting royalty for the AR's, Heavy Weapons and half way through the Sniper rifles and SMG's. \n Last night I kept getting matched up vs clans so I decided to Bal out. I did very well, carrying some lobbies and winning with randoms. One of the clans even asked if I wanted to get picked up for the night. \n It was pretty refreshing.", "id": "cnrx7de", "summary": "use some shit guns and get camos. Have fun. Use danger close, overkill, mdl, and gun with a nare launcher. Just do something different ."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "I was in high school. I'm at a friend’s house party. My girlfriend got belligerent drunk. I'm struggling to enjoy myself because I was barely buzzed and she was being annoying. \nShe won't stop talking about how horny she is. I just want her to pass out, but she's having none of it, won't take no for an answer. \nWe go upstairs into a bedroom and start hooking up. She throws me onto the floor, gets underdressed like Jim Carey on Bruce Almighty, and turns off the lights. \nShe rips off my clothes, straddles me, and says \"you're gonna love this shit\" as she lowers down. \nIt doesn't even feel good, she's making all these noises like a savage, but there's just too much friction, I wasn't feeling it and I'm about to tell her to get off of me. \n She lets out this noise that sounds like a combination of a deep cough and a hiccup. I’m like ‘Babe are you alright?’ , she lets out a hurricane katrina style levy smasher storm sure of explosive diarrhea all over me. Apperantly we had been doing anal and she lost control. \n So here I am, covered in yagerbombs, Taco Bell, and oppressive feces while in my friends little brothers room. It was tramatising, it was literally the scariest shit I’ve ever seen.", "id": "cgyks1m", "summary": "my first experience with anal was without my knowledge. It lasted for 30 seconds until my girlfriend had explosive diarrhea over my pelvis and torso. This was in my friend's 8 year old brother's room. My Gf did not apologize, it hurt my feelings."}, {"author": "BlakeClass", "content": "I like Vereen's talent, but I don't see why we should believe that's he's going to get more than 8-10 carries just because Ridley is out. I seem to remember one 'outlier' game last year where Vereen was the NE full time back, but I don't recall NE ever using Vereen as THE back the other times that Ridley was injured or benched due to fumbles. Is this inaccurate?", "id": "clanflh", "summary": "Vereen still has his normal scat back upside but I don't think there's evidence that NE will give him more carries. Correct me if I'm wrong."}]}
+{"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post alpha horse gets bitchy about us handling the lowly subordinate horse, throws a tantrum.", "output": "My primary mare is usually a real confident, awesome horse. You could ride her into battle, she'll do it if you prove your worth. She doesn't necessarily spook/startle, she just says \"Nope.\" Go toward the garbage truck? Nope. We're going around that beast. Jump that bush? Not until you hold your own damn body upright, I ain't a carousel pony. \n So to ever see her frightened or really surprised is rare. Recently I've been having a trainer come out weekly. Bear in mind she is the leader of the little herd I have; females are the alphas. She's lord over the new horse and gets PISSED when the newbie acts without \"her\" permission. We always get the newbie ready first, in that time she started to duck out of the stall and run down to the paddock gate and roll in the dirt, wait for me to go get her, run away once I did if I wasn't holding the lead rope. Probably mad about us giving attention to the new horse, I didn't do anything to correct it. \n Few weeks ago I tacked her up (put her equipment on) in her stall, pushed open the door, and started to walk out to follow the trainer and my other horse. My horse  FLIPS. SHIT.  She rears, huffs, backs up, pulling on the reins I'm holding, splays her legs out like she's going to jump straight up in the air. I keep holding her and wait for her to quit it because she's about to smack her head on the concrete over the door. She finally stops moving and stands with her legs spread out like a cartoon. Couldn't move her forward/back or she'd look like she was freaked. Turned her around, got her outside, trotted her in a circle, walked through the door. WTF. Equipment was all fine, nothing in the doorway, I banged the door close and flung it open a bunch of times to see if that freaked her out. Nothing, and no incidents since. \n She had never had to listen to me while being the boss over another horse, she thought she had to start calling the shots for both the newbie and herself if I wasn't. So she tried to run off. Then realized I wasn't letting her get away with it. Suddenly splaying her legs out and freezing was her \"OH SHIT\" moment."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post BPD people are the way they are because of an actively complex personal issue, trying to do better but doing it in all the wrong ways, thus leading to their rages and depression bouts. Narcissists are more willful and choose to be the way they are to avoid having to try to do better. When it comes to cognitive issues and symptoms, the two overlap, can exist in the same person, and tend to show up in the same room. They aren't the same, but when it comes to their caliber of emotional abuse and tactics, they can be very similar. That's why they're often talked of so closely.", "output": "I skimmed through, so apologies for any mistakes here; Avast ye, prepare for a waaaaallllllllll of text! ^That^I'll^probably^delete^later \n I have an Nmom and a BPDdad as well, and agree with much of what you say when it comes to the relationship the two have. My siblings and I encouraged our Nmom to get a divorce years ago, she decided not to. Back then I still hadn't wrapped my head around what was  off  about her... For most of all our lives we (their children) thought BPDdad was the sole abuser and problem. My older sibling has not been able to reconcile with him at all, nor see him in any positive or neutral light. Once I understood his disorder better and why he hasn't changed for the better, I made an effort to learn how to communicate with him and it was working. \n Then Nmom got jealous. \n I still didn't know what was really wrong with her. I knew something was up, but couldn't pin it. I kept trying fruitlessly to teach her the same things I was learning from the BPD help books and Cognitive Behavioral therapy techniques. I succeeded at least in getting her to separate somewhat from BPDdad's rages and diffuse them better... even though it's for her own gain and victim complex, it helps make things easier all around if she doesn't contribute as much to the chaos. I kept getting burned by her whenever I opened up and tried to be sincere. I kept getting shut down and goaded. I learned she had NPD after looking into her family history and making sense out of what I was learning with BPD; NPD does tie in closely to BPD cognitively and superficially, the two can coexist in one person and overlap. \n I never  felt  affected by her emotional abuse because I just wasn't emotionally needy as a kid... When I looked back on my childhood I realized how abusive she was emotionally, how neglectful, inappropriate, and  bitter . I was fine if she left me alone. I hardly ever sought her out for comfort or expected it from her. I was the black sheep, scapegoat, quiet kid who internalized things and preferred to read or be with nature. \n It's still fairly difficult dealing with the two of them. I know for sure their is no salvation for Nmom. I don't ever expect her to make a conscious effort of good will. After trying to be her \"friend\" for a long time, I heard some truths from her. I learned she had suffered traumatic events and as a young adult became bitter, entitled, and defensive as a result of poorly handling those events. The worst part was looking her in the eye and  seeing that she knew  what she was doing and what she was, but then hearing her say simply that she could not improve because it was too painful, too hard. Throughout my life she always sought  me  out for comfort, always came to me to cry and rant. I don't regret pushing her away but I do feel ashamed because... that's my mother. I shouldn't have to do this. But I do. I can't ever expect her to be a normal, salvageable person. She chose to be this way and I can't help her. I can't save her. \n Same problem with BPDdad. He actually has tried to become a better person. That's why he has his rages and depressions, he keeps hitting a dead end. He had some CBT when he attended a mandatory leadership course for his job, and came back totally changed. He cried and wrote out an apology and sincere words to me. In that letter are many clues pointing to BPD, one that stood out was how he mentioned he admired my ambition in life but remarked that personally, he still didn't know who he was or what he wanted to be. Lack of identity. \n So to see him regress was heartbreaking. I'm not sure how to capture it in words... I saw a man who was fucking  broken . Then seeing him crumble under Nmom's influence... Let me try to compare it something you can imagine: you would hope animals put a foot down and don't work under abuse or great pain, right? Some animals take a  ton  of shit regardless... They want to please their master, they want to keep trying to live with limited options. I knew a horse that worked often for a corrupt riding school. Little snotnosed kids would bounce on his back and flap their arms and legs, shouting at him to go despite their mistakes, terrible communication, and horrible balance. Any other horse would trudge along ignoring the kids or just be lazy. Not this guy. He'd go. He'd trot. He'd try. Then he got sick. He came down with something awful in his gut, probably from working too close to feed time, no one really knows. They continued to work him. He continued to try. When he finally died an autopsy was done. His intestines had all been rotting away. He had worked and worked through this pain until the barn owner couldn't get him on his feet ready for a ride in a timely manner. He was thrashing around on the ground soaked in sweat, trying his damnedest to just get up and keep doing as he was asked. They euthanized him. \n The cruelest thing is I didn't know that horse was sick until the last few days. I had been playing with and feeding him for over a month, he always made the long walk to my fence during the day and followed me back to the other side. He hid it from me until the last day, someone came to put him away in his stall. He saw her and stopped eating from my hand. He hung his head, suddenly unresponsive, dull, and sad. The life in him just shriveled. \n To me Nmom is that person leading BPDdad, the horse, back to the barn, she's the snotty kid on his back shouting at him to go, trot, try. BPDdad is sick, wants to do better, but lets himself be led along back into the same cycle of misery. He thinks he's doing good by trying so hard, when all he's doing is wearing himself down and exploding later. Like a lamb to slaughter, he dogs after Nmom's love just as she will, later in his cycle, jealously pursue his when he pushes her away. He's terrified of abandonment. He thinks he cannot do better. He's said to me sincerely before that \"this is it,\" he cannot improve further. \n Nmom has told me that she will not leave BPDdad because she can't stand the thought of him being happy without her. She especially hates the idea of him marrying someone else. She admits to being bitter and jealous, but places no accountability on it. She is a vengeful beast about my older sibling leaving and cutting contact with her, seeking me out for comfort on the matter, to which I've told her basically to let go. We talked through it step. By. Step. And she intelligently looked at me, saying, \"Let her go? Wait for her to come to me, and be ready for what comes? No. I can't do that. It's too hard. It hurts.\" \n It messes with me that I can't  save  either of them. I can't make Nmom see she's better off doing the hard/painful thing, I can't make BPDdad have good coping mechanisms so he doesn't need to be emotionally dependent on Nmom. I can't make people stop making bad decisions. I can just wait and be ready to do what I can to make the best decision I can as time goes by. I have hope for my dad. I still put some effort into having a relationship with him, and it works out well overall. Someday I might be able to tell him the truth about his disorder and Nmom, and he may listen. \n From what has already happened, I think he already knows something is wrong with Nmom. Between the fear of abandonment, lack of identity, and sense of duty to his \"family\", he just won't go past it. We're all fairly certain his mother has NPD/BPD as coexisting disorders or just a malicious, passive case of BPD, he knows she abused him as a child but to this day hasn't been able to cope with it. He still bounces from seeing her as all bad or all good and innocent. I see the gears turning in his head when he tries to talk about her, he just looks... confused... Like he's tangibly hitting a wall or shorting a circuit in his brain. It's common to hear him say, \"I don't understand,\" in anger. It's sincere and breaks my heart every time."}], "user_id": "longlamp_2987", "history": [{"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "Nah, you're right, I stated that above, \"instead of violence, they often just have sex.\" \n They evolved that way because they needed something to really tone down violence within in their group (they do still catch and rip apart baby monkeys as food, but that counts as predation, not violence). Social interaction was the answer, and the biggest bonding mechanism is mothering when it comes to a sexual dimorphic species that designates the female as the one with the highest parental investment. That explains the matriarchy. What's the next strongest social behavior? Sex. It really is what holds their group together, because if they started killing each other or wandering off, they would quickly die out; the apes who do use violence and are far less sexual than the bonobos are more successful on the evolutionary scale, being able to spread elsewhere and actively pressure other species for space and resources. The bonobos only survive in one tiny speck of the world, with no need to violently compete with each other to live. It seems that they only came about as a part of the ecosystem in order to benefit the plants and control their prey's population.... not to be a formidable species.", "id": "cj8uqwl", "summary": "yeah, you're not full of shit. \n Thaaaat was more than you asked for but it got me thinking out loud."}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "Sexuality isn't concrete, set in stone, obvious and pre-determined by the fate lords or genetics. \n Someone who is labeled gay and leads the whole lifestyle and such could be attracted to women at some point or other in any given situation. They might still identify as gay or then change preference to \"bi\" or \"hetero\" or anything else and call it self-discovery or choice. Take your pick either way, something emotional and  felt  like sexual attraction on its own does not quite  mean  anything with significance. Being gay/hetero/bi/pan/etc. does not make you better or worse or black or white or rich or poor or smart or dumb. \n The controversy arises on how truly \"deep-seated\" it is, and I have a feeling it is mostly a conflict over accountability. \n Anyway, it's stigmatizing to say gays won't be attracted to girls. If a gay person is attracted to a girl, what, can he no longer call himself gay or fit whatever standard there is to be gay? They can be. Just like there are hetero men who have sex with men, but still consider themselves hetero and lead hetero lifestyles. There is a lot of history on the latter, personally I don't want a search field for references on hetero gay sex on this computer.", "id": "ckbozmg", "summary": "Sexual feelings aren't quite core, deep-seated parts of a person. Sexual  issues , however, can be very deep-seated. When a person finds a feeling or behavior to severely interfere with their life, that is called a mental disorder.  Notice I never said you're wrong/dumb/weak or such  if you happen have a dysfunctional sexual disorder or have an opinion otherwise. Just stating that sexuality is not black or white, there's a boatload of gray."}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "PSA *for pet pig owners, because folks believe a skinny pig is a good pig these days... \n This is a beautiful lean type of pig. Confusingly considered fattening pigs; they are commonly raised to be eaten. Look at this lil guy. No ribs showing or hips contrasted.  Smooth , bit of a rump on him. Usually have an upside down U shape. That's muscle and a nice bit of fat, healthy and delicious. \n Miniature (100lb) pigs and fattening pigs both reach the same weight at 2yo. The fattening pig will be taller and longer. The miniature pig will have more fat to muscle ratio, with a potbelly. These were originally laboratory research animals, as small as the proportions of the skeleton can get healthfully. [This]( isn't a fat or obese pig, it's a regular potbelly. They aren't meant to look like the meat pigs; the only way to achieve that look is to have an underweight pig or one with too little protein. \n You can get some mix of meat pig or potbelly pig. The [Kunekune]( is the middle ground. Badly bred [potbellies]( are the opposite of the meat pig, they can be thin and still have a belly dragging on the ground. It's just low muscle mass.", "id": "crm7ar7", "summary": "a short pig at an ideal weight will look fat and stout. A taller, longer pig will look muscled and lean."}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "To each his own, I agree to disagree on the viewpoint you presented (wonderfully presented, btw). It's true that homosexuals develop their standards for monogamy sociologically rather than biologically, my point was that heterosexuals can very well reach the same social complexity homosexuals can and then some as they have a biological and sexual dimorphic foundation for it. While there are infertile or elderly hetero couples, this is natural; a person cannot behave infertile or elderly, they merely are, while something like sexual preference can change and be unknown until a person knows in their mind, not from any test or physical sign. The original grounds for a hetero relationship is still there in infertile, childless, or elderly couples. Not only do they form a relationship between two people exclusively, they are able to unite and grow the unique differences men and women possess in their minds, spirits, and bodies. \n These foundational differences make diversity in the heterosexual couple grounded, whereas with homosexuals it is merely personality difference or some altered physical difference that creates diversity in the relationship beyond that of a passionate friendship. (Not to say that there aren't profound relationships among homosexuals.) I would refer to Sam Schulman: \nHe put the social and biological terms into good focus there.\nI'm glad to see you are reasonable and understanding of all the sides included here. In my experience I have seen homosexuals in happy relationships, though it is not quite different than a friendship with sexual benefit. I have yet to meet a homosexual who wanted to abstain from sex until marriage, or be sexually faithful to only one person. I've seen some say they would be faithful to one person, and after about two or three years trail off and engage with a different partner. It's only sex in the social sense, without a biological reason.\nOur norms and mores as a whole developed from biological and survival reasons, so to see a highly social and sexually dimorphic species negate its diversity and natural foundation is interesting... Is it that we have become advanced enough to stray from natural laws and basics, or is it comparable to other advanced animals' self-defeating flaws? Loosely speaking, I think of the penguins and other animals that, when unable to find an appropriate mate, will select a same-sex partner or one of another species. We have never found a gay-gene yet, and likely will not find one for such a thing as behaviors or preferences, so it begs the question why would nature use homosexuality to control a population's growth? A homosexual can have fully functional reproductive organs, it would be much simpler and rational that nature would allow the mutations of genes rendering reproductive organs infertile.\nI believe homosexuality and the other deviations from heterosexuality are mental disorders. I myself have some mental disorders as do many others, and I am against the stigmas surrounding mental disorders as shameful and derogatory on their own. Homosexuality goes outside the realm of biology into social and mental science, easily placing it alongside disorders rather than norms. If homosexuality is a mental disorder, that alone doesn't make it morally wrong or harmful per se. Where I stand is that homosexuality offers no real benefit a heterosexual couple or friendship could not provide, and on the other hand does seem to be linked to such issues as major depression, suicide, widespread STDs, and sexual abuse. Could those issues be the result of discrimination, as is often said in their defense? Could homosexuality really be a mental disorder? Could homosexuals fare as well mentally as heterosexuals? I don't think we'll have a solid answer to any of those questions until some years have passed and the hype dies down. What I do know now is that politics and the media are overly saturated on the extreme side of homosexuality, and that little is done to empower the homosexuals themselves independently from those around them. So what it means to me is that I will continue to treat homosexuals as their lives are equal to the worth of all other human lives, and use my experience and understanding of mental disorders to help and work with them as needed. I have no desire to tear anyone down, just help work through the depression and other cognitive distortions that plague humans overall. I have a few good homosexual friends as a result of that.", "id": "cj2vgbk", "summary": "I think homosexuality itself is probably a mental disorder, while there can be folks who live satisfactorily with a mental disorder it is still something that limits them from being the best they can be, but there is no reason to condemn the individuals at all for this or treat them as lower life forms. Homosexuals are people and equivalent in life value, I just don't agree that they are the same as heterosexuals in some areas, and I think they should have their own union for themselves without redefining anything. Apologies for the poor syntax!"}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "Once upon a time, my cousin came to a family reunion, 4th of July party with beer. Twas his 21st year. Men in my family are exceedingly obnoxious when drunk, the types you can dare to do anything. Cousin re-notices that he's on a farm; I have livestock. None of my family members are farm-people, so to see horses, chickens, rabbits, and the like is new to him. He decides to ride one. \n He didn't ride the horse. ^^I ^^would ^^have ^^killed ^^him ^^if ^^he ^^did. \n He handed his beer to my 10yo sister and climbed onto... \n The pig. \n And he actually succeeded in riding that sucker. Frankie was a 200lb,  not neutered , 'roid-looking potbelly crossed with a feral pig. He was not Wilbur or Babe. Think Rambo in pigskin, he could outrun grown ass men and barrel into them like Bullet Bill. \n Frankie ran around bucking and bellowing his displeasure while my cousin rode him like he was going into battle. We all looked over and saw him fist-pumping while riding this galloping beast across the pasture, my pig's Mohawk hair standing straight up in anger. Such glory and ridiculousness crammed into one brief moment in history. My cousin is an average-built, muscled black man, about 6ft tall. Frankie is a miniature tank on stubby little peg legs. Those stubby legs gave out before Cowboy-Cuz did, Frank fell flat on his belly and that was the end of the ride.", "id": "cm1gr4b", "summary": "21yo cousin rode a 200lb, furious war-pig around our 4th of July family reunion."}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "I feel you. Lots of similarities... My father literally threw out my 19yo sister onto the street at night because she would not give him HER cellphone that she paid entirely for, he demanded she hand it over because she had stayed out too long with her friends (and no, she didn't have issues with drugs or anything serious). He PREMEDITATED the attack as soon as she wasn't home \"on time\", by pacing the house yelling to no one in particular \"She can go to hell!\" then turned on one of those epic Bible movies, turned up the volume as far as it would go, started eating chips whilst still yelling, \"She can go straight to hell!\" It was kinda like that scene from Pulp Fiction where the guy is about to shoot the little white punk who ripped off the boss. Anyway, when she got home, she said no, he said GTFO, broke her stuff, shoved her out the door, all while mum stood by uselessly screaming and crying hysterically. It was about midnight, so our younger sibs were scared shitless hearing him rage, I was wide awake and ran out in barely anything because I thought at that moment I heard him lunge at her and break something while our mum squealed, I thought he'd hurt her. She got to the door in time. I made sure she got a ride. Worst part was walking back into that house and having to act like my parents were right and I wasn't upset. She is now living on her own quite happily and our parents still can't get off her ass, they continuously badmouth her to all who will listen and have alienated her from our younger siblings.", "id": "cj3v2qg", "summary": "Douchebag father with psychopathy/schizophrenia violently kicked 19yo daughter out of his house, at night, onto the street because she was a few hours past curfew and wouldn't give him the cellphone she paid for."}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "I tried scrolling and seeing if anyone put it any way besides purely external; I did not find something similar, I'll mention the metaphysical and philosophical aspect: \n There are spheres of religion, pardon my clusterfuckery of words. You have cultural Christianity; people who read the book and try to live by the commandments, maybe enjoy the history and spirituality a bit. Anyone can be a cultural Christian, beliefs are very lukewarm there and it is more or less justified because they read it and it makes sense to them, they are free to nitpick on what part of the texts they want to believe in or attach significance to. Fairly similar to anyone who picks up a science or mathematical book and starts using the formulas; you don't try to figure out how Descartes came up with his method, or how exactly we came up with numbers attached to a system, you just start using the formulas to solve problems as needed. You could figure out all those formulas yourself if you wanted to; you do not need pen and paper to learn multiplication, or a person to teach you. \n I believe you can be a Christian naturally, hell, I'm iffy to use the word \"Christian\" to describe it, as I believe God is  literally  the beginning of time, space, and life as we have it. Jesus was literally the physical form of grace, mercy, and justice. To believe in an enduring, independent form of those three inside and out of our comprehension is the same as a real belief in Jesus. This is where things diverge from most Christians' beliefs... Jesus is considered merely a good person or teacher. God is  literally  perfection, the word \"God\" is what I'm using to encompass all that into a living being that exists both inside the human mind and out. Belief or disbelief does not change it. Most casual Christians really don't put thought into this, God is an idea or an old man in the sky to them, saying what goes or not, judging mankind. \n God literally is the force driving nature and life. You do not need a bible or preacher or church or anyone to tell you truth, what to think, or who God is. God is literally all that is in that unknowable realm; beyond human subjectivity. To believe a higher power exists independent of human awareness or comprehension is natural. God is present within our awareness and outside of it. It's easy to read the Bible or hear from other people what revealed theology is, to form beliefs and logical ideas around what we cannot know is something we can only do for ourselves in our own thoughts, experiences, and feelings. \n .... So to say we take our orders from something external exclusively is false, also that our beliefs are unchangeable or rigid. If anything, we should be ready to change our thoughts and views. The central idea is that we  trust  ourselves to follow, and our God to lead us to what is morally correct and what is truthful. It's an internal thing. To stack up a set of beliefs as  we  interpret it and claim we are defending our religion or our God is not right. We should be as open minded as anyone else and ready to change what we personally think about what God wants.", "id": "ckvnx6j", "summary": "The belief in 'god'/the book/the teachings is something external, the faith and whole mindset that comes with being a discipline, having a relationship with God as we do with nature and our own minds, is different, and involves as much of ourselves and our own judgments as God's."}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "Most animals are adorable as babies. Yet, [they all grow up]( The problem right now with all the piglet gifs is that people are buying into the old scam that tiny pigs exist; extensively, I can tell you tiny pigs are rare, and not achieved healthfully. Restricting a pig's protein intake, placing it on a \"special\" metabolism-restrictive diet or starving it  might  result in a pig of about 70lbs at five years old. Problem is that restricting their bone growth means bone issues. These pigs are dying at 5yo long before their expected lifespan of 10-15 years due to bone, joint, and GI problems from malnourishment and underfeeding. They're easy to spot as skinny, stunted, and sporting a lot of soft hair. All pigs finish growing at 5-6yo, when all the bones fuse, yet are ready to breed at only a few months old. \"Teacup/Juliana/etc.\" breeders perpetuate the lie that the pig is finished at about a year old and will stay that size if you keep it on a diet or feed it a handful a day. Pigs are not goldfish. \n It structurally is not possible to achieve a 6+ year old, mature Suid pig under 100lbs of ideal weight.  The only pig that is healthfully tiny is the genus Porcula, pygmy hog. They do not have tusks, they are cat-sized creatures that live in tall grass and graze. Suidae evolved to be huge, heavy, aggressive animals that eat opportunistically. Different body structures there. It's like comparing a fox to a dire wolf. \n It is another lie that we are able to simply breed smaller--- all tiny pig breeders do is breed lower birth weights, circulating runts. The smallest breeds are the Kunekune and the potbellies (100-300lbs), the latter brought forth by laboratory specialists who wanted a smaller test subject. Pigs are not the same as horses or dogs... they're more like cats. Domestic pigs are able to return to wild hog status within about three generations, which can be well within 6 years. Release a bunch of dogs and you will still have feral dogs after 6 years, not wolves. \n That said, pigs can be good pets. You only need the time, zoning, space, and commitment for it. A 100lb potbelly or Kunekune actually isn't as big as it sounds.... that weight is all kept densely packed on a square-bodied creature measuring 3.5ft long and 16-20in tall. \n I manage my family's farm and I've seen my share of baby pigs, rabbits, goats, sheep, and chickens. I have no problem eating any of those species. In my opinion, if you're going to eat meat, butcher it yourself or get it local. Y'all need to appreciate what you eat, including the plants most folks don't think experience stress and pain. (That sweet smell of harvested or cut plants is really their  distress signal", "id": "cqpi9n3", "summary": "no such thing as a real \"teacup/tiny/Juliana/etc.\" breed, piglets grow up, as do all other baby animals."}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "I like it how it is. I didn't like Black Flag much in regards to the ancestral plot, though the real world plot was as interesting as the old Desmond one. I felt it was a decent enough continuation and a bit clever to use a first person POV. Rogue is my favorite in regards to the plot, showing more from the Templar's side was awesome, I had hoped to play more of Haytham in III. Purely in my opinion: III's gameplay was the best overall with both large land and sea travel, dual weapons, added animals and hunting zones, decent fighting; Revelations had the best pertaining to fights; Brotherhood and II are the simple classics; Rogue built onto the changes from III well and had a great story that kept me interested the whole time though was short. Personally I miss the land travel from III. I refuse to play Unity, though I'm willing to give the next one a go.", "id": "cnk7uql", "summary": "At least for Rogue and some of Black Flag, I feel like the ancestral plot and real world plot is still advancing nicely. I hope we get more exploration into the Templar side."}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "Any concern on whether or not he is being tranced; he is sleeping, though I cannot prove to you he is  asleep  rather than relying on an instinct of fear, because a tranced rabbit and this guy sleeping on his back will look about the same. A rabbit held backward that is not tranced will have its head up and aware, this meaning, not held  flat  on its back or with its head lower than its chest. A tranced rabbit [looks like this.]( Feet straight up, head flopped back, body lengthened, absolutely still. [Tranced rabbit.]( Rabbit [sleeping on its back against owner's leg]( \n In this particular situation, he is simply a rabbit that sleeps anywhere and everywhere. So, I went to get pictures of my guy sleeping right now: he was sleeping on his back with his head on his brother, but  [woke up]( then [yawned]( proceeded to [groom himself]( ate some hay, then [tried to flop onto his back between his brother and the wall]( but couldn't get cozy, so wandered back to the hay.", "id": "cl5urc1", "summary": "he's a weird, sleepy rabbit."}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "Dunno what to add. Uhhmm... Well, I'm actually pretty fond of one guy... \n My hoarder/crazy mother brought home my first pig, a tiny abandoned piglet with a bad case of mange. We didn't get him neutered. He grew to be about 400lbs when I gave him up, I think (was 2yo then, pigs finish growing at 5yo, fuse joints at 6yo). Awesome dude, sat for treats, loved to follow me around. Started his sex drive around three months old... we gave him old rubber and plastic buckets, he'd do the horizontal mambo on those as he pleased (betcha didn't know pigs have 12in long corkscrew penises, didja?). Also loved to rear up and do some Shamu-style tackle into people's legs, stabbing out with his front feet. Keeping in mind in swine herds, the boss is a head sow; a female. So in my infinite estrogen, I usually lorded over him and he didn't bother me. \n When repairmen and such came over, ol' Frank would hover around them popping his jaws; pigs foam at the mouth and grind their teeth in preparation to attack, sharpening their tusks this way. I loved that asshole, but many a time I had to kick him square in the face or press my boot on his shoulder until he gave up. Yelling \"FUCK OFF, FRANK!\" worked most of the time, usually he was just bothering me for attention. If he wanted a belly rub he would stand still and just  scream . A very shrill, loud, \"I'm-being-murdered\" scream. Spoiled ass. \n Other times he'd run full-boar at cars down the drive way and keep pace with them like a dog after a mailman. He knew me and my car, he had a stupid \"jolly run\" and grunty laugh where he'd gallop two feet at a time like a porky slinky and dance around as I got out, making a dumb \"HURFGH HRUGH HRUGH!!\" noise. He also had that \"gonna fuck you up\" run at unfamiliar cars where he'd raise his Mohawk mane up and barrel toward them like he was going to war. One fourth of July, my drunk cousin (imagine a fairly tall AF black man) rode him like a warhorse around the pasture. Another memorable time was when I ran out of the yard to get my runaway dog, Frank was still a little guy then and followed me. He bravely ran alongside a passing van to chase it away from me. (Edit: forgot he also tried to mate with my horse. That was funny. She ignored him and ended up stepping on him, planted a hoof flat on his neck which somehow turned him on his side with his little legs in the air, squealing.) \n I had to get rid of him when his tusks grew so sharp and large that he'd shred through jeans just by brushing against them. When some pig farmers came to get him, he gave the fight of his life; reared up on his stubby hind legs and plowed one of the thick 5'7\" guys into my chicken coop, breaking the wall. One guy had to pick him up by his short little tail, the other held his head, and he froze. Apparently holding up 400+lbs of pig by the tail hurts the pig. To my knowledge he wasn't off to slaughter; he was legitimately a beautiful fucker, I haven't checked on him but he should still be a breeding boar. \n Two more pigs after that, a half potbelly/part feral gilt that was not spayed and turned out 200% more aggressive than Frank, AT JUST FIFTY FUCKING POUNDS. She would viciously fight my 300lb neutered potbelly and he'd have to snatch her up by her weave to make her leave him alone. For comparison, that potbelly and Frank got along like brothers, never fought. I don't use guard-pigs anymore, the mentioned potbelly is generally a coward, but has fought off raccoons and dogs that attempted to kill my small animals... he's friends with the chickens. I think he's pretty proud of a scar on his nose from chasing a GSP off. Dog tore up half the flock and tried to take out the 2nd best rooster, made the wrong decision of bringing the fight to Benjamin. Jams holds his city down, bro.", "id": "cp9irr3", "summary": "Overall experience is like having a naked, angry, drunk fat man as a guard."}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "Fist-sized crescent scar on my shoulder. \n Used to cover the front of my shoulder, now migrated down between my breast and armpit, ha, it's not nearly as cool as it was 2 years ago... People would think it was a shark bite. \n About 5 years ago I was interning at a corrupt horse showing stable. There are people who train horses and have people ride to truly teach better horsemen and gymnastic training for horse and rider. \n And then there's these guys I worked for. I was 13 at the time and naïve. I didn't quite know that they were milking these horses and child/teenage riders for all the money they cold get, doing whatever it took. Horses died of exhaustion every year. One horse was specially abused due to him not quite reacting well to confinement, and the pain they caused him when forcing him into submission under saddle. He hated it there. I was merely told not to feed him treats, among two other horses that were \"cranky\". One day I learned that none of the horses had their feet cleaned regularly. So I went around the whole barn of 30-something horses with a hoof pick and scraped months/years worth of manure, dirt, fungus, and godknowswhatelse out of their feet. I had gone into almost all stalls except.... Limit. The abused horse. Still didn't know it at the time. I had finished all the other \"cranky\" horses, who simply started out antsy with me and looked comfortable with me at the end, all I had to do was establish my space and the horses respected it well. \n So I went to Limit's stall, with the barn owner/his owner, standing just a few stalls down trying to sell a girl a horse. As soon as I closed the gate in there, Limit was in my face. Big deal, horses get pushy, no problem for me. I \"pushed\" him back and tried to get his foot. Every time I bent down to get his foot, he would be giving me a dark look and trying to push me away. So I said fuck it. Something's not right about him. Oh well, maybe he's too grumpy. Now, this is a 10x10 stall, with an adult horse standing about 7ft in length from nose to butt. I'm a skinny little girl at 5'1\" then. Not much room to maneuver. I didn't want to turn my back on him, so I edged around his face, all while keeping him out of mine, and slowly got to his rump right next to the gate. His head is in the corner, and he looks quiet, isn't trying to follow me. I thought he might kick, so I put my hand out like I've been taught to avoid spooking him once I get to his blind spot behind the tail. \n My fingertips. \n They  just  grazed his skin, right before I went to his blind spot. \n Next was a blur and total shock. His skin convulsed under my fingers like he had a seizure, he spun around with this demon glare, ears pinned back, mouth open, and grabbed me by the shoulder. For a second it was all black and I just kept thinking, \"O my God he's going to rip my arm off, he's going to rip my arm off...\" One split second of clarity, I realized he was winding up, then he threw me like a ragdoll at the wall. \n It truly lasted all of two seconds? \n Lucky skinny bitch me, he had lost his grip on me mid-throw and I slipped, spun in the air, landed with my arm under me on the ground just an inch from the wall. I looked up and saw him standing plastered to the opposite wall, swishing his tail, ears back, shivering, glaring angrily with his head down. He definitely could have killed me if he wanted to. Once on the ground I heard the owner call, \"Don't go in there, he'll throw you.\" She KNEW I was in there and you bet your ass she knew what had just happened but couldn't say it in front of the client. Instead of killing me, Limit let me get up, grab the hoof pick, fumble with the gate, and get out. My left side was paralyzed briefly, having \"snapped\" something in my lower back when he spun me, and my left hand wasn't... working. The owner got on the phone with the co-owner, who I had signed the internship papers with, and claimed that the co-owner said I had been told not to go into any of the horse stalls. LIE. I had internship papers just for that reason, to be able to go into the stalls and care for the horses. I had been working with the paid stable hand. \n Called my mother to pick me up, pissed about me getting myself hurt, told me to walk back, and hung up. I didn't hurt but I knew something was wrong, I felt very sick and shaken. I walked about a mile back home through the pastures, opening the gates with my crapped up left hand and dragging my left leg. My shoulder had a nice bloody mark from where he bit me and lost hold. Later learned that my ulna and radius had broken straight through, leaving the ends by my wrist floating. The wrist area had been shoved at an angle so that it kept things together, I still had to get it re-broken and get my arm from elbow to knuckle cast in a weird bent shape to heal properly. Kudos to my specialist, he nailed it. Only after all this did I quit working and learned about the horrors that happened at that place. Why did the horse attack me? Because everyone who entered his stall would punch him in the eye or whack him on the head with a stall rake without fail, before he did anything. I was the first person to go in there without hurting him. He expected me to harm him, so when I finally touched him he probably thought, \"AHA! I knew it!\" \n He was afraid and probably angry. I also later learned he had trampled, bitten, and sent to the ER at least three \n people before me and one person after me. As far as I know, the owners can't use him nowadays because he isn't sound (go figure) and he is too much to handle. He's due to be shot some unspecified time off-property before Christmas. \n I've had some accidental bruises and scrapes, but I've never been seriously injured by a horse besides Limit. \"Limit\" was  my  limit!", "id": "ckcilhl", "summary": "Abused horse picked me up in his teeth and threw me like a jollyball, scarred my shoulder and broke two bones in my arm clean through."}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "I feel your pain. I can't ride my favorite horse because the $200 saddle I have for her doesn't fit. I can't ride my second horse because I need to put about $500 more worth of training into her so she doesn't kill me. I can't ride my third horse because she's too small/I'm too big.", "id": "cjlkhf0", "summary": "I need to be like a Mongol and just ride my horse bareback..."}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "It's like two different eras. Think, not long ago most people used to ride horses... There's something... instinctive about it. Getting passionate about horses is like getting in touch with an old human sense. \n Athletes who love their sport can be hard to date and come off as a bit strange to people in opposite sports or people who aren't athletic. Animal enthusiasts, same thing, they gush about their pets, usually volunteer or some such thing, and surround themselves with things relevant to the animal they are fascinated by; I've seen girls who are dog fanatics go nuts with a bunch of wooden engraved collars for their dogs, harnesses, treadmills, special crates, leashes, sweaters, doghouses, toys, get super picky about their diet, etc. taking their dog everywhere with them, while dog hair is usually on them, the furniture, and dried slobber crust is in random places. It's kind of easy to be a dog person, you can keep a dog in an apartment, board it, they're a common sight in society. Dog-people usually brag about their dog's loyalty, intelligence, and compassion. \n Combine the two, athletic nuttiness and animal enthusiasm, and you have an equestrian. The athlete aspect of it is tough, because they are directly working with an animal and depending on it not to slip/fall/spook/get injured and kill them. The more they do with the horse athletically, the more they have to learn about communicating to a huge prey animal. Yeah, humans get quite close to an animal they have to pay so much detailed attention to. It gets increasingly difficult, especially because horses are not common anymore in most places and as a result few people understand them. To put that much effort into them, you have to be passionate about it. It starts to take up a significant portion of your life. \n There's a lot of frustration and heartache in trying to maintain an exotic animal when few good specialists are around to help. If your dog has a limp, you take it to the vet easily. If he has a biting problem, you take him to a trainer. Horses can be ridiculously complex, and the vets/trainers around are usually out for money and will do a shitty job on your horse. In the old days practically everyone worked with horses, somebody nearby was good with them, you'd call that guy over or walk your horse down the dirt road to him.", "id": "cmvp1fo", "summary": "horse people are about as nutty as people who are athletes, dog fanatics, reptile enthusiasts, zookeepers, or other exotic pet owners."}, {"author": "HeelsDownEyesUp", "content": "I did not have enough time or energy to do much beyond basic care for my horses over the last 6 months, then came loss of motivation for it. I keep seeing any training or riding as  work . I'm a jelly-legged stiff-backed noodle at this point, and unable to reach a trainer for myself. When I had a trainer it was the same thought: \"I'm tired, I suck, my horse isn't happy, I'm not happy.\" \n My primary horse is a bit off balance laterally, with one side of her back usually stiff/spasmy and the other side weaker. The more I tried to push myself to ride her and strengthen her back with just the basics of long and low, try to fix the lateral issue, the sorer we both were. It's ridiculous getting horrid joint pain myself while I was at it. Looking back I can understand I was so dang clenched up, mostly from the mental tension, I'm surprised things didn't go worse. \n I really get hung up on trying to push both of us harder than we can handle comfortably, and seeing it all as a task. We did groundwork for a long time well, and recently I gave her about a month off in pasture mostly because I was starting to get the same problem in our free lunging sessions. She wasn't relaxing as usual (probably picking up on my tension) and I gave up. \n Kills me to admit I gave up. \n For anyone that remembers my old post about the issue of their care; at the moment things have improved as I have more time now, the youngest horse is still for sale, and I have about a month and a half left until my classes start up again--- I was able to take four this time around, still full time but should be a bit easier on my schedule. I decided to go ahead and let them both out to their pasture area, though the area is overgrazed and they'll probably chew it down worse. It wasn't bouncing back well with the weather, and I figure they weren't getting enough grass to eat either way. They gained some more weight with extra hay and look better off this way.", "id": "t3_39o9tb", "summary": "Any advice or inspirational words for someone trying to get back to riding? Issues with perfectionism and \"clenching up\" with anxiety?"}]}
+{"author": "stridernfs", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post social modeling is crap, screw you all; I will be what I want to be", "output": "Just because society believes that there is a great white spaghetti monster in space that loves them it doesn't mean that there is a great white spaghetti monster in space that loves them. \n Just because someone believes that guns should be made illegal because it would make the world safer does not actually mean that gun control makes people safer. \n Just because a majority of people believe that being fat is terrible doesn't mean I should hate myself."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post journalism isn't that simple.", "output": "I disagree with your statement, if a journalist asks \"is it time for you to give up the gas guzzler?\" the answer is instantly 'yes' or 'maybe', as soon as it becomes an interrogative headline about something a person disagrees with then it's a 'no' or 'crazy conspiracy theorist'; it is the journalists who have to ask these kinds of questions because they are the people who entirely base their living upon finding the truth in every situation, and asking the reader so that the reader will ask themselves what and who is right and wrong. They could also be completely objective and just report the news, but that in itself has to be biased because it may be something that needs clarification. \n For example the difference between \n •unemployment is down 2% this month \n and \n •the department of labor census determined that 200,000 people are no longer looking for work, therefore bringing down the national unemployment 2%. \n is huge"}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The current federal president of these United States is a complete liar face douche and future despot.", "output": "He's less of a war criminal than a domestic terrorist somewhat, considering he approves of the killing of citizens of his own country without due process and used weapons of war in Syria without approval from congress.  Also NDAA, which has cemented my hatred of all future crimes committed by the administration and legislative branch currently in place."}], "user_id": "longlamp_14952", "history": [{"author": "stridernfs", "content": "I partially agree with you, and it's very clear you missunderstood/did not read my comment.  People can be called out on something, told that the better way to do it and expected to at least try it the alternate way, but \"oh my god you're such a f king moron, why the f k haven't you dropped out lol #losers\" \n I support constructive criticism, but not criticism meant to put them down and lift yourself up.  I agree that Political correctness is stupid though, and tough skins are necessary to a point, with constructive criticism it can make someone open minded and willing to look for the best way, meanness creates insecurity.", "id": "cbd2d7c", "summary": "constructive criticism is what I support, not political correctness"}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "Same,  I suffer from it a little and have times where I have to be an asshole to my family and tell them I can't talk anymore because I can only handle so much face to face conversation.  As for feeling lonely I write whenever I do,  it helps me understand how I view other people because I write in omnipotent narrator style.  Which allows me to carry several characters in a single plot. \n The only problem with that is that it isn't foolproof, so I also sing, and have learned tremendous things about singing and am in a local talent show now.", "id": "ciw5h09", "summary": "get a hobby, if one isn't enough get several c:"}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "In a free market(with O minimum wages or price controls) people are valued exactly at what they are worth. A chemical engineer is worth much more than an unskilled immigrant who is new to the country so therefore the unskilled immigrant will have to work to increase his capital.  With a minimum wage that unskilled immigrant won't get a job because the price of human capital is so high that the demand is unnaturally lowered, causing a shortage of jobs and an increase of unemployed workers.", "id": "ccjkxma", "summary": "A minimum wage devalues workers and money because it is at it's basic roots a price control."}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "You are being helpful, and I hate when people ignore the actual rules of Reddit.  As if their own made up rules outweigh the actual reddiquette :\\ \n You should not be downvoted to hell like you are but meh, most of the people on  /r/gaming  refuse to surprise me with their intellect.", "id": "cembv63", "summary": "you're right, they're wrong."}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "Make yourself confident enough to be a douche(which does not mean to insult them), then be a good guy who pretends to be a douche. \n Complimenting random girls without asking them out is one way of making yourself confident, and can open the doors for possible relationships or even good friendships.  Plus I've found that it is really really fun to see their entire face shine up with a smile and occasionally hear \"you've just made my day\". \n If that's too hard then I wish you luck on whatever endeavor you choose instead.", "id": "cciiogn", "summary": "unasked for personal advice, you're welcome"}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "I wasn't asking for a metaphor but ok,  the scenario isn't the same as the actual law considered which would have porn blocked by default, and could be opted out of by the user. \n However I will try to explain it from that standpoint. \n Joe looks through his internet explorer history and discovers that his son has not only be clicking links with pornographic content in the address, but that these advertisements had gotten past the default filter because of a loophole where it showed nipples but not the vagina and was therefore not porn. He then runs an antivirus check and discovers that those links had uploaded tracking viruses along with a few \"trial\" programs that had actually added toolbars he hadn't noticed. Joe is not a tech savvy man so he doesn't know how to get rid of them himself. \n Instead he calls a friend of his who is a tech guy, and with a discount he can get the computer checked and virus free in an hour for 60$.  Joe had wanted new speakers for his computer but screw it, he thanks his pal and calmly ends the call.  He kept his anger in check for the moment as he called his son into the work room. \n The boy slowly walks in and timidly asks if he had done anything wrong.  Joe turns around with anger in his eyes and clenched fists,  he didn't intend to look angry but he was far past pissed off that his son had caused this grief.  14 year old Timmy jumps a little at the sight of his dad's expression.  Joe calmly asked if the boy had  maybe clicked on some links he shouldn't have.  The boy collapsed into tears, he missed his mother and was still severely confused by how his body had reacted the day before at the sight of the scantily clad ladies.  Joe jumped up and hugged his son, not knowing how to respond but  a little worried about how his son was handling it.  He hadn't supported the opt in program for pornography that had reached the news the year before, but he wasn't so sure now. \n Timmy clung to his dad, tears falling down his face as he explained that he had clicked the links because they made him feel funny.  He didn't know why but he liked seeing the ladys' breasts, and he admitted that he was sorry for clicking them and would never do it again.  Joe knew he may do it again, but he still wondered if maybe there was some hope for Timmy not doing it.  He decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, he hugged his son and comforted him, offering to take them to the movies tomorrow.  Timmy smiled and accepted the offer, then went to get ready for bed like his father asked. \n Joe was worried about how the boy had handled it, and was a bit glad that he actually couldn't have seen much more than that thanks to him opting out of getting porn.  He didn't not like it or anything, he just wasn't interested enough in it to make the call to his provider.  Joe decided to go to sleep and not worry about it, after all tomorrow's worries would bring their own troubles. \n Midway through a dream about his wife he wakes up, about 2 in the morning Joe gets up to use the bathroom, not living real extravagantly he travels down the stairs to the bathroom next to the foyer.  As he's walking by the office room he hears typing and suddenly he is filled with absolute, and total rage.  Not so much that his son was still up, but that he would defile her memory by using her computer right after being reminded that she had been in their lives and had been the one to decide to get the thing in the first place.  He marches in to find Timmy with 15 different tabs and at least 3 windows, his hand down his pants and staying quite still as he almost mindlessly looks at the women in their varying degrees of being scantily clad.  He can't believe that so many ads had made it past the filter, and found it truly disgusting.  Timmy turned around to face him and burst into tears, the little boy ran to his room as he quietly cried.  Leaving everything behind as Joe's heart falls to pieces as well.  He thought of how much he missed his wife and how much he knew that his son missed her as well.  He angrily unplugged the computer and slammed the fist onto the desk before tearing up as well.  He hated those advertisements, he hated every woman on there for straining the relationship with his son and for making him miss his wife so badly.  He couldn't believe that something he had once supported as a freedom could backlash on him entirely.  He promised himself that he would find a way to get that filthy crap online banned, to save other families from the stress he was going through.  He only hoped that his words were important enough to get through to someone else, he did know now that not only is the opt in program necessary to keep it from getting worse, but that the ban could end this strife forever. \n That was one scenario, I'm sorry I made it into a story but I kind of had to because it's not a simple concept.", "id": "cdd4tjt", "summary": "people change their opinions about social engineering laws sometimes because of the failures of weak social engineering laws to help people get a grasp of what a failure laws truly are."}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "From my--very-- limited high school education I believe the answer is that the carbohydrates and sugars from those foods are changed from their cooked meal form state into their most basic form which is basically the same but much smaller and broken into the different kinds of sugar molecules. \n Where they are either stored in the body and/or absorbed so that the organs can provide sustenance for the muscles. Either way the foods are not turned into kinetic energy because it is the muscles which do that. I will fully embrace knowledge from someone who actually knows because I nearly failed AP biology and mostly slept in that class(which I regret immensely)", "id": "c97kdfw", "summary": "Muscles make kinetic energy, food is only the potential energy, but there is no direct connection because of the way it is converted and absorbed."}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "It doesn't have to work that way though, without a minimum wage and welfare then jobs could pay their workers next to nothing and it would be fine because while people may go hungry in the short term, food prices will drop to match the amount of money people are willing to spend on food(assuming that the market is not held in an oligopoly/monopoly).  Then if the government would also decrease regulation and require market led organizations with minor regulation laws(such as don't poison the people) then companies could spend less on accountants and lawyers to handle the laws. Leaving more money to invest in capital, land, labor, and entrepreneurship. Very few in the government or among the general populace understand or even care about this because oo! America's got idols is on at 8 tonight!", "id": "cbbauha", "summary": "we could actually have a healthy unemployment rate and inflation rate."}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "The federal workers not getting paid are called \"nonessential\" in any other line of work they would already be let go.  It shouldn't be any different for the government, and for those people then in the short run it will be rough, but if the government actually decreased regulation and eliminated the minimum wage then they'd not only have no problem finding jobs or creating businesses but they would be happier doing it, because they would then get a chance to do what they want to do. Whether it's making and selling drugs, manufacturing in their private homes or giving people rides in their own buses.", "id": "ccnr45v", "summary": "in the short run free markets always get blamed for things that go wrong, but in the long run there is always profit and healthiness for all, especially when the people are free as well."}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "I'd suggest getting her a gun and getting her to learn how to use it, if you don't have money for that then maybe just a taser or some kind of protection that \n1)will decrease fear in her\n2)actually protect her in case of a man much stronger than her assaulting her\n3)she can actually learn how to use and hold onto in a fight \n While a gun isn't always practical it can be good as a scare tactic at the very least, and I think it's best to try to help her protect herself rather than prepare for post rape.  It might also be more feasible to just have her walk with a group at all times. \n If it happens then it really depends on the person, situation, and location.  She could start blaming herself, blaming men, blaming society, or just have PTSD or some other stress related mental disorder that needs help with.  Best way to deal with it is for her to have someone she can just talk to one on one and trust, and help her feel like she is protected and safe; ask her 'how does it make you feel' and try your best to get the entire story out of her, but be patient, we all heal at different rates. If you feel you're unable to do that then get her a counselor, I can't say this enough, get her a psychologist, not a psychiatrist, psychologist psychologist psychologist.  The field of psychiatry, while somewhat broad, is still pretty new, it's expanded from Freud using cocaine as a calming medicine for himself to Ritalin(another name for cocaine) being used on kids with 'attention deficit disorder' and then eventually 'attention deficit hyperactivity disorder'.  Drugs are not what will help her.", "id": "cbksh48", "summary": "pre:safety through weapons, post: Psychotherapy and safety \n Sauces;"}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "I think it's because of the whole sense that some people get that because they're a mom they instantly know what's best for their kids, and because of that then if the kid turns out terrible then \"well I don't know what happened to little timmy but I certainly didn't teach him that!\" which is bullcrap because she didn't spank him once his entire life or hold true to a single promise of disciplining him.", "id": "ccya3kv", "summary": "don't tell someone they will know what to do as a parent just because they are physically able to have a kid."}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "No, a bubble would be an immense increase of value with no increase in real assets.  An example would be the housing industry in 2008 and the U.S. Dollar right now.  Bitcoin is not infinite but neither is it a real asset, you can't pull your bitcoins out of your computer and store them in a vault or a safe.  You can't use your bitcoins for immediate gain because they are a digital currency.  In the same way that you can't use the U.S. Dollar right now to drive down to your local gas station and then hold them up with the money.  You have to have enough value in U.S. Dollars to buy a car and a gun to be able to do that.", "id": "cdjfk2k", "summary": "bitcoins are a currency for which is valued by demand only, and not by usefulness."}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "To answer your questions then I'll reply here.  America and other countries generally make it harder to get into the country to battle the effect of being able to bring more people in. \"They're takin' er  jerbs\"\nWhen a company moves overseas than they're doing it because it's too costly to hire employees in the united states. Therefore lowering the amount of jobs in the united states due to minimum wage. \n \"Let's just make it harder for their money to come in!\" or \"raise tariffs so that the profits are a moot point!\" Both ways are designed to discourage companies from moving overseas AFTER they've moved overseas.  Meaning the actual effect is that of prices remaining high causing the demand for money to increase but the supply to stay the same. Leaving you in a never ending circl of raise the minimum wage, raise tariffs, raise minimum wage, etc.", "id": "ca0fx1i", "summary": "Tariffs and price floors are bad m'kay?"}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "I'll ask a question then answer your question. When you go outside what can you actually do? I don't know anyone personally who can walk outside, and have anything just appear for him. If you want food you have a few choices but it tends to come between a)get a job to be able to buy food at the grocer or b) start heading into the woods and looking for nuts and berries.  The reason we have opportunity costs is because we have limited time and resources with unlimited wants and needs.  The basis for all economic discovery is scarcity, while I personally don't want know everything about smelting, metal working, housebuilding, construction, electricity, electronics, or even burger flipping, someone else does, and as a human race we collect into small groups and work together to spread common resources as widely as possible to those who are willing to work for it.  There are those who don't want to work to the point that socialism becomes a belief, then there are those who think the government handles everything best(communism), and also those who think a military leadership is what truly drives humanity(fascism). \n Even with all those systems that are proven inefficient and terrible for their people then there were places with mixed economies like the united states. Where the hardest working and smartest thrive, innovating so that the hardest working but not so smart don't have to work so hard. Making themselves and others more wealthy by allowing themselves and others to benefit with the use of a currency that stores value, is a medium of exchange, durable, and divisble. Also a fiat currency can be used that allows the government or ruling body control of the currency. \n I believe in the free market/mixed market system and I want others to benefit from this system as much as possible so that maybe eventually we can find sustainable and continuous resources with liftle to no opportunity cost and make our global society perfectly innovative yet compassionate.", "id": "ca0hoqh", "summary": "A free market is more than just consumerism, it's teamwork on a broader, more compasionate, and more innovative scale than anything the governments or militaries can produce."}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "Should've made into 'Don't brag about how much money you make' then.  Kids have and will continue to not have a reference point on incomes and money management until people start freaking talking about it, because it is NOT talked about at any point in time at public school, nor is it an approachable subject with most adults because they don't want to \"brag\".  When I'm asking because I've no freaking clue how to manage my money and I'd like my teacher/friend to help me figure it out.", "id": "cbrpgx8", "summary": "Public schooling sucks"}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "I hate religion as a concept entirely, and I feel like I am moving towards an antitheist mindset because of my family. Almost every interaction with them makes being around my family a chore.  They are all super christians that are the epitome of what we hate about people in the religion. So I find it hard not to associate the idea of religion with fascist oppression and xenophobic tendencies. \n Is there a subreddit I can go to that will make my frontpage a bit more optimistic about people either in the religion and leaving or people just in the religion being nice? Maybe someone on here will wander along and show me things that make me generalize against the religious less.", "id": "t3_46l5oo", "summary": "experiences with my family make me hate christians, please CMV"}, {"author": "stridernfs", "content": "Here]( is an article on girls escaping/being rescued from Boko Haram, an islamic insurgency group that supports ISIL. I saw it on /r/morbidreality and some of the people were talking about it being a terror tactic used as psychological warfare. \n Which raises a question in my mind; psychological warfare used for what purpose? Terrorists repeatedly commit antagonizing atrocities such as car bombings and the famous 9/11/2001 hijackings(assuming the government story is true). It's claimed that they are in a spiritual warfare with us but there doesn't seem to be any set goal beyond killing infidels. I mean I hate to say anything good about the crusades but at least we all know they were there to pillage and rape the middle east. \n I can remember reading about ISIS troops looting villages and raping women but why be a part of Al Qaeda or try spreading terrorist cells? I am looking at it from an uninformed skeptic view but I would imagine that  there would have to be some scant form of logic behind these large groups coordinating these huge attacks.", "id": "t3_34wiwr", "summary": "I don't think that terrorists are using psychological warfare. Do you?"}]}
+{"author": "mi-16evil", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Ebert said \"We are poor mortals who dream that we can fly\" but in the style of the film character Kaspar Hauser.", "output": "The quote is from Ebert's \"Great Movies\" review of The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (directed by Werner Herzog), the true tale of an illiterate man who arrives in a small village with no knowledge of why he was imprisoned by an unknown assailant for 20 years. In the film Hauser learns to speak in a very choppy but beautiful language. Ebert essentially made his own Kaspar Hauser like line to close the review. He's also referencing [another film by Herzog about a ski jumper who wants to fly forever]( I've included the relevant parts [of the quoted review]( below. \n \"Kaspar Hauser was a real historical figure who in 1828 appeared in a town square early one morning clutching the Bible and an anonymous letter. In the movie, as apparently in reality, an unknown captor kept him locked up in a cellar for about the first 20 years of his life. Adopted by the town and a friendly couple, he learns to read and write and even play the piano (in life Bruno also plays accordion and glockenspiel).  Kaspar speaks as a man to whom every day is a mystery: 'What are women good for?' 'My coming to this world was a terribly hard fall.' And think of the concept being expressed when he says, 'It dreamed to me ...' \n ... \n The film's German title translates as, 'Every Man for Himself and God Against All.' That seems to summarize Kaspar's thinking. The mystery of the captive's origins has occupied investigators ever since he first appeared. Was he the secret heir to a throne? A rich man's love child?  We have glimpses of the man who held him prisoner and then set him free, standing behind him and kicking his boots to force him to walk. Who is this man? He is never explained. He may be the embodiment of Kaspar's fate. We may all have somebody behind us, kicking our boots.  We are poor mortals, but it dreams to us that we can fly. \""}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Be more like FX, less like A&E.", "output": "I think you have to consider it both ways. For one, it's still very apparent that AMC is in it's infancy of programming. It lucked into two of the finest shows on TV for it's first two major series (Breaking Bad and Mad Men) and it's been riding high on those  since. Now it's got Walking Dead which is a commercial hit, but can't keep a consistent showrunner to save it's life. Everything about the channel is \"throw everything at the wall\". So you get crazy ideas like a TV version of a podcast (Talking Dead), a celebrity vanity project (Comic Book Men), a trashy weirdo show (Small Town Security) as well as original programming that is stretched thin on a dwindling cash flow. The real problem is, nothing new has stuck. Besides Walking Dead, no new show has made a significant cultural impact on either side of the programming war (Rubicon and The Killing are both abject failures in my eyes and who really like The Pitch and Comic Book Men). So right now it's a matter of what sticks and what their next hit is going to be. \n I think the two networks you really need to look at in terms of the future of AMC are A&E and FX. Look at A&E. They used to be a network I would define as \"expensive PBS\". A&E became well known for their TV films and miniseries which often features 19th and 20th century historical events or novels. Stuff like Horatio Hornblower, Shakelton and Pride & Prejudice where the staples of the network. However it was clear they were always considered just a little too stuffy. The series did okay, but none made the kind of cultural splash a more daring series like HBO's currently megahit Sopranos was doing. So they tried one last time with two series, Nero Wolfe (fucking great show btw) and 100 Centre Street. Both had the same dull numbers as their previous work, so the network got Dog the Bounty Hunter. Soon A&E was finally turning a profit and those stuffy great series disappeared forever in favor of Storage Wars. \n Now look at FX. FX had a very similar lifespan to AMC. For a while it was just another one of those movie channels. You know the ones, that just play Anaconda or The Devil's Advocate all day long. Suddenly, FX gets tired of being another AMC, TNT, or TBS and gives some money to a little TV show and strikes gold. In an age where Sopranos and Six Feet Under reigned king, The Shield came out of nowhere to steal tons of \"series of the year\" awards and show that cable could finally be a contender. Suddenly they get two more hits, Rescue Me and Nip/Tuck. However like AMC, they hit a rut and nothing worked. Also like AMC, their cash flow is just enough to pay for the increasing costs and ambitions of their three hit shows, so they need alternatives. However instead of going the route of reality TV, FX invests in no-budget comedies. Given pure creative control, with zero funds these projects fail horribly (remember Starved? Yeah me neither). However a little show called It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia keeps chucking along until finally in season 3 it gets it's first million viewers. Suddenly FX found it's formula, a mix of expensive high concept dramas and low budget creatively controlled sitcoms. Now you have Louie, Archer, Justified, Sons of Anarchy, It's Always Sunny and The League all sitting comfortably under one roof, and doing amazing work. That's the kind of ingenuity that AMC needs to discover. \n The problem is AMC is in the middle. Unlike FX it actually has succumb to the reality TV crutch, but unlike A&E has had really no success. However unlike A&E the network has managed to create three shows that are (mostly) big critical and cultural hits. So it's hard to say where the network goes from here. It's past shows are very apparent (A&E never had a show win best series four times in a row) and it's downfall into reality TV would be much more widely publicized than even TLC's and Discovery's (mainly because those channels were always starved for content). So yeah, hard to say but at the very least AMC is still trying to find the next Breaking Bad. Dear god let's hope they do or else just wait till season 15 of World's Deadliest Pawns Shop Stars Texas."}], "user_id": "longlamp_12649", "history": [{"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "Wow, what an amazing story! Mine is nothing compared to many on here, but I'll share. \n My happiest moment was when my girlfriend agreed to marry me. When we started we were young and incredibly stupid. I wanted to move away to Oregon (we lived in Texas at the time) and pursue my dreams away from her. She of course, rejected that idea. After a year of fighting and never backing down, she broke up with me. We both pursued different relationships, and though I was heartbroken, I moved on. It wasn't until I moved to Portland that it finally hit me. As much as I enjoyed the city, I quickly realized how miserable I was there. I learned far too late that where you live doesn't matter, it's who you are with. No one there was a real friend, so all I thought about was her. After realizing that the school also wasn't for me, I applied for a school back home. I knew I could get in, but I felt I had no chance in the world of ever being with her again. I was certain I had screwed up the greatest thing that had happened to me. \n I got a scholarship and my parents begrudgingly shipped all my stuff back home and I started over. I told my girlfriend and she didn't care at first. But over the summer we fell back together, and despite the pain of my leaving she agreed to take me back. Over the years we had a lot of struggles. She got kicked out of her house and my parents agreed to take her in for 3 months (which ended up lasting two years). During that time she took out student loans and went through Veterinary Technician school while I was studying over 200 miles away. Every weekend I would take the trip down to my parent's house and back up to school. There were the usual somewhat long distance troubles, but we made it through. \n Two years ago, I rented out a theater for our anniversary. Together we watched  Casablanca  (our favorite movie) by ourselves. As the credits rolled, I got down on my knees and proposed. And despite all that I put her through she said yes. We sat in the theater and cried for twenty minutes and even the theater owners just let us be. And that is the greatest feeling I've ever felt. That level of forgiveness and true love could never be matched.", "id": "c3wmmb0", "summary": "I was a dick to my future wife in high school, but she took me back and now we are getting married"}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "Technically the original  The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo  was called  Men Who Hate Women  in Sweden (also the original title of the first novel) while the sequels went to the \"The Girl With/Who...\" title format ( The Girl Who Played with Fire  and  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest ) \n In the English language release, the first film was retitled to  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , probably so that we stupid Americans would realize that the films are part of the same trilogy. That or we realize the title  Men Who Hate Women  is kind of dumb.", "id": "c2myfli", "summary": "Millennium Trilogy in Sweden =  Men Who Hate Women  ->  The Girl Who Played with Fire  ->  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest \n Millennium Trilogy in US/UK =  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo  ->  The Girl Who Played with Fire  ->  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest"}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "In popular culture II (aka The Wrath of Khan) is often considered the best because it's the most approachable. It's a subjectively easy film to understand (Kirk screwed over Khan and he wants to kill Kirk now) and it's a very effective and well made action film. While it's a fantastically well directed film, it's more of a departure than the other original ST films. Four of the other six original films are more in-depth in their subject matter. 1 is about the origin of life and the meaning of it (and sex), 3 is about the concept of identity (and sex), 5 is about finding the existence of god and 6 is about putting aside racial differences and the advancement of mankind's thinking. 4 has a little bit of an environmental slant, but it's more about having fun with the established characters. They are all somewhat ham fisted in their messages, but they were films with plenty of action that still tried to be about something as well. \n The problem is that Wrath of Khan gets too much love for it's own good and so now the last 3 films have just been Khan rip-offs essentially (hell he may even be the villain in the new film). It's unfortunate because old Star Trek had at least some intelligence to it. Now it's just fun flashy action films (that I like btw) but I miss the old smarter stuff in a way.", "id": "c9rfbnf", "summary": "Khan is technically the best ST film, but there are much deeper Trek films around."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "Shot length refers to the amount of time a shot lingers on screen before cutting to the next shot.  Take this classic scene for instance  is the overall average length of time for each shot in a film. Star Wars Episode IV for example has an average shot length of about 3.4 seconds (a little high even for it's time). So a film with a short ASL typically feels much more kinetic and fast than a film with a long ASL. \n What makes Man With a Movie Camera so unique is that at the time most films were cut really slowly. Take for instance [this scene from the amazing Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans]( that came out just two years early than MwaMC. Sunrise was considered a monumental technical achievement for it's time and had an ASL of 9.5 seconds. Film was a rather new thing, so quick cut films were pretty much unheard of. Directors liked to linger on shots and explore the frame more than edit around them. That is outside Russia. \n Russians (technically Soviets) felt that editing was the most important part of filmmaking so they were constantly experimenting with cutting as fast as possible while still maintaining clarity. What makes something like MwaMC (ASL = 2.3) and Battleship Potemkin (ASL = 2.7) so amazing is that they had such rapid editing that it would never really be seen again until the late 80s, early 90s with the invention of the \"MTV style\" of quick cut editing popularized by directors like Michael Mann and Michael Bay. Even more impressive is that MwaMC not only has incredibly editing, but also the sheer number of inventive trick shots is just amazing. Most directors would linger on these for a long time, but Dziga Vertov cuts so quickly that you never feel overburdened by style. \n So when you think that a movie  like this  and they were made 70 years apart, you have to be amazed at the ingenuity of the Soviet filmmakers.", "id": "c8ausrm", "summary": "shot length is length of a shot before a cut. Soviet films were cut very very quickly."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "It's just a misuse of the word. Cloud Atlas could easily be labeled as pretentious for it's over abundent hammering in of the \"everything is connected\" theme while Tree of Life could be viewed as ambitious for trying to both tell an intimate story and explore how that story fits in the frame of the entire history of the universe. Those words are just unecessary labels used to define something in a frame people can understand. \n In terms of what you are talking about though, I think Cloud Atlas gets the ambitious label a lot because it's such an expensive and openly challenging project. Malcik films have always been modestly budgetted films with a very niche audience. He never goes out of his way to challenge the audience. He just makes the films he wants to make. At a modest $32 milllion budget ToL doesn't scream 2001 or Lawrence of Arabia in terms of scope. \n With Cloud Atlas, the money is clearly up on the screen. Plus Cloud Atlas is a film set up so that you have to find it ambitious or it doesn't work. The entire project is intended to intermingle and make huge narrative connections. Tree of Life on the other hand is much more personal than it seems. I don't think Malick intended to answer the questions of the universe, but rather show us his own strugles with those questions.", "id": "c6xv1u8", "summary": "Cloud Atlas costs more and is framed as being a huge, important tale"}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "The Cracked article doesn't explain the problem well enough (shocker!). It's not that Rhythm & Hues undersold their product, it's that all VFX companies in the US are being crushed by outsourcing and tax credits. The problem isn't just that studios pay VFX in flat fees that grossly under represent the work they do. It's that studios can now outsource their labor to foreign countries at much cheaper rates. While this would result in a decreased VFX appeal, the amount of complaints lobbed at high quality VFX are so vast that studios really don't care anymore. \n Even worse is that countries like Canada and China with smaller VFX houses offer tax breaks of up to 20% off on VFX bills. So studios are now forcing VFX companies to cover the amount they would have saved if they went to Canada or somewhere else. \n So imagine you are Rhythmic & Hues. You are already reliant on a project to project basis because that's how all the big guys work. You suddenly get Life of Pi, but instead of the $100 million you could use to both make a great product and pay your employees and secure your future till your next big product, you find out you are getting $80 million because they are doing you a favor by not making it for $50 million in Canada. Also you are going to have to pay $15 million upfront to the studio because that's how much they would have been paid in foreign taxes for outsourcing their business. Now you use up the $65 million you have entirely in the film. However despite being a surprise box office success, you see zero percentage of that gain because why should the studio pay you more when the job is finished? Also good luck complaining before Congress, who will think you are all a bunch of greedy millionaires who want more money for less work. Now you have zero capital, zero friends, your already small project line is dying and you have no more options left. \n You see the problem with VFX now? R&H wasn't some pissant company full of VFX geniuses with no business experience. It was once one of the most thriving VFX companies in the business and it's death sparks a sad chapter in the dying VFX world.", "id": "c9zz5ic", "summary": "VFX companies are dying because of outsourcing and foreign tax credits, not because of shitty business models."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "I'll repost my answer from an earlier thread. \n The quote is from Ebert's \"Great Movies\" review of The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (directed by Werner Herzog), the true tale of an illiterate man who arrives in a small village with no knowledge of why he was imprisoned by an unknown assailant for 20 years. In the film Hauser learns to speak in a very choppy but beautiful language. Ebert essentially made his own Kaspar Hauser like line to close the review. He's also referencing another film by Herzog about a ski jumper who wants to fly forever. I've included the relevant parts of the quoted review below. \n \"Kaspar Hauser was a real historical figure who in 1828 appeared in a town square early one morning clutching the Bible and an anonymous letter. In the movie, as apparently in reality, an unknown captor kept him locked up in a cellar for about the first 20 years of his life. Adopted by the town and a friendly couple, he learns to read and write and even play the piano (in life Bruno also plays accordion and glockenspiel). Kaspar speaks as a man to whom every day is a mystery: 'What are women good for?' 'My coming to this world was a terribly hard fall.' And think of the concept being expressed when he says, 'It dreamed to me ...' \n ... \n The film's German title translates as, 'Every Man for Himself and God Against All.' That seems to summarize Kaspar's thinking. The mystery of the captive's origins has occupied investigators ever since he first appeared. Was he the secret heir to a throne? A rich man's love child? We have glimpses of the man who held him prisoner and then set him free, standing behind him and kicking his boots to force him to walk. Who is this man? He is never explained. He may be the embodiment of Kaspar's fate. We may all have somebody behind us, kicking our boots. We are poor mortals, but it dreams to us that we can fly.\"", "id": "c9eez2c", "summary": "Ebert said \"We are poor mortals who dream that we can fly\" but in the style of the film character Kaspar Hauser."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "I'll just throw my hat in this fight by saying I don't think this is the best idea. I hate to say it but the hardcore internet community really has no impact on the overall attendance of films. Just compare Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Crystal Skull was unwanted by everyone in the critical and fan community but made $300 mil. Then you have Scott Pilgrim which was made entirely for an internet audience that completely flopped...supposedly. Actually Scott Pilgrim made a good chunk of money on it's back-end, through DVD and On-Demand sales, because that is the business model that our community respects. But Hollywood doesn't care about that because all that matters to them is the front end, which most people of this generation don't participate in. Essentially you are just trying to convince a generation of people who don't normally go to the theater to not go to the theater. \n Okay so let's just go hypothetical for a second. Let's say your boycott really takes of. For argument sake let's say it will be a \"boycott The Dark Knight Rises Opening Weekend\" event. So your event is really big. It's on Reddit, it's on Google, it's on Facebook and it's even on the nightly news. Everyone knows about this event. and it works and you cut down the expected profits for the film by a good 50% (which is REALLY optimistic). Even then Hollywood won't give a damn. Why? Because Hollywood has for a hundred years practiced very shady accounting skills. They can come up with any excuse to justify why a film failed or a a film succeeded. Look at the way they covered over Inception's success or pumped up Green Lantern's flop. There are hundreds of articles about infamous Hollywood accounting tricks and if this boycott is successful they will pull out every single one. They will blame the weather or a sports event or fear mongering or whatever. They will find a way to make the profits of The Dark Knight Rises look completely unaffected by the boycott. \n Okay so I've been pretty cynical so far so let's go positive for a second here. The internet showed something very powerful this Wednesday and I have to say it was the most effective protest I've seen in my life. But what made that protest effective was that it was on our terms. We proved to the government that we understand the internet better than they do, and we could fight back better than they could. With film we are just fighting a losing battle. If we are combining all our efforts to fight the media, I feel we should focus our efforts on a much more important issue: lobbyists. Let's face it, even if this boycott did go beyond expectations and succeed fully and the movie industry backed of, it's only a matter of time before another industry comes along to take down the true internet. As long as lobbyists have as much power as they want then we will always be fighting this battle, no matter how many wins we get. \n If you want to boycott and protest that's great. In fact DO boycott if you feel it's necessary. Just don't think it's going to change Hollywood within a year. They are a billion dollar industry and like any billion dollar industry they will follow the tidal gravity of the market. If you really want to change Hollywood than just keep doing what you've been doing. Use new technologies, avoid theaters and films you find appalling and encourage people to seek other options of entertainment. Hollywood is slowly dying because they are failing to innovate. They are still based on these out-dated systems that have no place in the internet age. The best way to fight Hollywood is to support the innovators. Only see films at theaters that are doing something new like Alamo Drafthouse. Only go to films that are original like Inception. And most importantly, only watch media through services that respect their customers like Netflix. That's the best way to teach Hollywood a lesson.", "id": "c3izfn0", "summary": "A Hollywood boycott probably wouldn't work and we should focus our efforts in restricting lobbyists' power in Congress."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "70mm and 4K are two different things. 70mm is a type of film format popularized in the 50s and 60s as an upgrade to standard 35mm format. The frame of the picture is huge and allows for a large capture of light and space which gives one of the highest quality images available in filmmaking. \n 4K is a term used for digital resolution. Resolution is the amount of pixels per frame. This terminology has only really been used since the invention of digital projection and distribution technology. The standard deviation of resolutions is as follows: 360, 720, 1080, 2K, 4K and 8K. The number corresponds to the number of vertical pixels in the frame, so a 720p resolution means there are 720 vertical pixels and 1280 horizontal pixels. The more pixels you have, the sharper the image will be. Generally DVDs and Blu-Rays max out at 1080i and digital film projection tends to be in 2K. \n Since 2K and 4K are standard projection resolutions for digital projection, there really is no way to tell what resolution film format is in. Invariably to digitally project a movie shot on film you have to scan it into a digital format. Because of that you could scan the frame into almost any resolution you want, but too low of a resolution will result in a pixilated mess and too high of resolution will result in a ugly distorted picture. 35mm films tend to look pretty great in 2K and slight fuzzy and blurry in 4K (I recently saw a 4K screening of Taxi Driver that had that problem). So most people tend to guess what resolution each film stock lies in based on how they look when projected in 2K or 4K. \n Cinema scholars tend to think that 70mm film lies somewhere in between 4K and 8K. Most believe it's closer to 8K but I think it's just slightly better than 4K. Since there are no commercial projectors that run 8K, a 4K DCP (digital cinema projection) is the highest quality digital projection you can find on the market right now. So the Samsara projection probably won't be as high of quality as a 70mm print, but the digital format means it will be a clean print (i.e. it will be free of scratches, dust, debris and other elements that wear down on the cinema print). \n I hope I answered you question okay. Please let me know if you want to know more or explained something poorly.", "id": "c67qt3p", "summary": "A 4K projection will be slightly less sharp than a pristine 70mm print, but it will not have all the imperfections that come from film stock."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "It's absolutely insane the amount of work that went into making this film. Essentially, Cuaron and Lubezki had to preplan all the visual elements in order to know where the light would come from in relation to the actor. Then they used robotic arms (the kind used in car manufacturing) and would preplan each shot in terms of the lighting and the movement of the actor. Then they used a massive LED light box to direct the light and the reflection on the helmets. Unbelievable work and I hope Lubezki, the art directors, and the visual effects team all get Oscars. \n Edit: Some people are confused by my comment. What I meant to say is that every visual effects shot had to basically be completed or at least roughed out so that way the reflection on the helmets would match the digital enivornments. Basically they had to almost finish post-production before they even began production and had to perfectly time out every movement of the actors to match the years of VFX footage going into the film.", "id": "cdv6g74", "summary": "they made a CGI heavy film backwards and it's impressive."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "When I saw the title I knew Mike wouldn't like Boyhood. He hated Jeff Who Lives at Home and seems to in general dislike plotless, dialogue heavy films. His compliant that he wanted more melodrama was exactly the reason I loved the film. It was more about the small, inconsquential moments in a young person's life that an outsider would find uninteresting but for the young person are incredibly important. \n Also I wish Jay would stand up and argue with Mike more. I think he takes his side way too much. Still these guys are great and I love watching their reviews even if I agree or don't.", "id": "cjgix92", "summary": "Jay and Mike are hack frauds who sold out to Marvel and hate DC and good movies. UNSUBSCRIIIIIIIIIIIIBE!"}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "Speaking of animal rape, dolphins are fucking horrible creatures. They LOVE to rape people. In fact there's been cases of dolphins gang raping women by dragging them under the ocean, killing them and then raping their lifeless corpses. \n My mom's friend was raped by a dolphin so hard that she had to have 11 stitches to repair her torn vagina. This was also on her honeymoon, FYI.", "id": "c6hhbug", "summary": "don't swim with dolphins cause they'll rape yo ass"}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "I think what you're missing here is that people are split on the two versions of Tim Burton. Most people still enjoy original Burton, the twisted mind who gave us Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood. What people really hate is the new Burton, the boring remake Burton. That Burton just seems lazy. Cast Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, make a tracking shot intro, get Danny Elfman to score the same crappy soundtrack from the last 8 movies, make it darker than the original and cash the fucking check. \n I agree that people are a bit unfair when they say thing like \"Tim Burton hasn't made a great film since Ed Wood\" because those same people will talk about enjoying Big Fish or Sweeney Todd. But I do think the general consensus is that Burton's best films of the 2000s were the ones where he went out of his general comfort zone. I think everyone is just damn sick of his remakes. They seem rushed and just made for an easy buck. Worst of all is that those films make the most money which always makes people forget about any good works of the past. That's why I am way more excited for Frankenweenie than Dark Shadows next year.", "id": "c3gxary", "summary": "People prefer Tim Burton when he is making more daring projects than crappy remakes"}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "Imagine it's like the stock market. The most well known investments in the public are the big ones with high risk and high yield, but a complete chance for total failure. These are your $200 million blockbusters of the world, your World War Zs and your Lone Rangers. \n Next tier are like mutual funds. Small independent films that are usually made at a medium budget, around $10-$60 million. Sometimes you make money with something like True Grit, sometimes you break even with The Master and sometimes you fail horribly like Heaven's Gate. However as long as you maintain a good field of entries, then you should be able to make a decent profit over time. \n Then there's the microtransactions. On Wall Street, most of the money is actually made this way. Tiny transactions produced a million times a minute that seem to produce minuscule amounts of money that accrues over time. To make money this way, you have to be fast, cheap and specific. B movies have always worked the same way. It's not about quality, it's about quantity. Roger Corman, the king of the B-movie, made his profits through producing and directing hundreds of very cheap films. The second a franchise or a brand became unprofitable, he dropped it. He even made a film in three days because he didn't want his somewhat expensive set to go to waste on just one film. \n There's always been a marketplace for crap movies. In the fifties, it was the B-movie (literally called that because it would come as the second part of a double feature, where the A-movie was usually a big Hollywood star vehicle) and in the 70s it was the grindhouse and in the 80s it was the VHS wasteland. Now it's even easier to make money through Netflix or other streaming sites. Desperate upstart streaming sites NEED content so, here comes along a group that will sell you 5 year rights to 20 films for only $3 million, the price for one year streaming rights to a minor Hollywood hit. The trick is, those 20 films cost less than $3 million to make, so it doesn't matter if no one ever watches them. Plus you can diversify across tons of different streaming sites and cheap DVD manufactures. Also, the internet has allowed a diversity of niche communities like bad movie watchers, horror junkies and other cheap movie consumers to engorge on content. Finally, digital cameras, cheap stock special effects and a wealth of new talent eager to enter any part of the industry has created the cheapest market for filmmaking ever. \n BTW, I highly recommend you check out the Roger Corman documentary,  Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel . You'll be amazed how many famous people trained under that guy.", "id": "cc4yche", "summary": "cheap movies make their money over time through lots of small, low risk investments."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "Filmspotting is the best I've heard by far. Great hosts, good segments, perfect editing. Really the best straight up podcast around. It's sister show Filmspotting: SVU has awesome hosts and focuses in on streaming titles, which makes it one of the most current and specific podcasts out there. \n I love Slate's Spoiler Specials because it's sadly incredibly rare to have someone actually be willing to talk about a current movie in full in fear of the dreaded spoiler talk. I don't love the hosts, but for twisty movies like Side Effects and The Master it's essential and utilizes the small audience of a podcast well. \n On the bad movie beatdown side, I've tried pretty much all of them and the two best IMO are We Hate Movies and How Did This Get Made. I like We Hate Movies more because they tend to go on better tangents and are way funnier. HDTGM is decent most of the time, but the insane amount of good guests they have and the more recognizable titles they do makes the podcast much more approachable. Plus at a bi-weekly basis, it's not hard to fit in HDTGM. \n The Business from KCRW is absolutely essential to me. The guests are hit or miss, but as a purely business approach to filmmaking it's absolutely wonderful. Wish it was a full hour though. On the other KCRW side, The Treatment is a purely on guest basis for me because I don't think it's ever awful it's, just dependent on good guests. \n The Toblowsky Files is great, though I'm not sure if the podcast is going to be on for much longer. He just recently released his first podcast in months because he moved the show to radio broadcast, which means probably a good two years of recycled material. I'm not sure if there will ever be any more episodes and while I can't deny that TTF getting a wider audience is a good thing, it feels like it's stalled out in my opinion. \n I personally hate Doug Loves Movies. Other than the Leonard Maltin game (which to be fair is brilliant) I just don't get the appeal. Benson is never funny to me and the show is too low brow and under-produced for me to respect it. \n Unfortunately 95% of film podcasts breakdown to one of two things: 1) current reviews and 2) bitching about bad movies. So to me even though for 1) you have great podcasts like the /Filmcast and Spill and for 2) you have stuff like Film Sack and Flophouse, once you pick your favorite it's hard to really justify having 5 podcasts all talking about the same stuff. Because of that I tend to respond positively to film podcasts that are unique and different from those two formulas.", "id": "c8s5ts7", "summary": "Check out these podcasts in this order: Filmspotting, The Tobolowsky Files, We Hate Movies, The Business, Filmspotting: SVU, The Treatment, How Did This Get Made, Slate's Spoiler Specials"}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "Probably Michael Phillips. He's Siskel's newspaper replacement and a damn intelligent writer. Has a great love an affinity for old Hollywood, but can cater to a lot of tastes. Also very willing to have unpopular opinions. \n I'm a big fan of Matt Singer. He not only reviews films but also writes about criticism itself a lot. He's also very young and has a great range of tastes. He gets posted on this sub a lot for good reason. \n The two hosts of the podcast Filmspotting are excellent. Good mix of talents plus they clash often which makes for entertaining listening. \n Scott Tobias from The AV Club is damn good at his job and his New Cult Canon (which sadly just ended) is one of my favorite article series. \n Also Dana Stevens and Dave Edlestein.", "id": "c9ryq7x", "summary": "Michael Phillips"}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "The Help. Or for that matter The Blind Side, The Last Samurai, The Hurricane and any other movie where white people save the day in a moment in history which was clearly a struggle for another race. The Help in particular though was REALLY condescending. It was clearly a white novelist and a white writer/director making excuses for white people during the civil rights movement. Oh shit, Emma Stone went to college so now she's smarter than everyone else and she wrote a book. She totally destroyed racism!  It's shameless self-congratulation that boils down the civil rights movement to a fight between educated smart white people and dumb hicks (and no black people). It's just another example of white liberals pretending they made a difference when they had no effect at all. It should have been called SO BRAVE: The Movie.", "id": "c3rg685", "summary": "I'm a white guy who hates \"whitey saves the day\" movies"}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "I saw several great films this week, but the best by a narrow margin was  Edge of Tomorrow . I was definitely going into this with a bit of a chip on my shoulder from the insane amount of /r/movies circlejerking, but hot damn if this isn't sci-fi action done right. The pacing is excellent, building the world slowly but then accelerating rapidly when the time jumps begin. I'm so happy the director, writer, and editor all emphasized the inherent comedy in a character whose deaths are merely an annoyance. I particularly love that you can never know if this is Cruise's 20th loop or 20,000th which keeps you constantly guessing just how long he's been doing this and allows for some clever twists. It's also nice to see Cruise playing a weasel at the beginning since I find him far more interesting in that kind of role, and it works well for the character's arc. \n My two complaints are of course the third act/ending but also surprisingly the action scenes. Doug Liman doesn't really shoot action scenes well in my opinion, all close-up chaos with no sense of space. That's forgivable in most films, but here you really need to feel like you are watching the exact same battle over and over, so to ruin that with shaky-cam action is frustrating. Maybe it would have worked if the action started chaotic but became more stable and spatially aware to emphasize Cruise's growing abilities.", "id": "ci84ofb", "summary": "Not a perfect sci-fi action blockbuster, but definitely a breath of fresh air."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "Not a competitionist yet, but I have seen all the Trek films and I do like them a lot so I'll weigh in. What made the original Trek films unique was that they still adhered to Gene Rodenberry's original vision of the show by emphasizing a peaceful human race in search of new worlds and ideas. So the original Trek films, though problematic, had a fair amount of substantial commentary in them. The shows were always better, but the films at least tried to have some kind of interesting conflict in them. The current films are very dry and straightforward. Bad guy wants revenge for reasons, so Kirk and Spock have to stop arguing and punch him enough till he's defeated. Even Wrath of Khan had interesting themes of loss and change beneath it's surface, plus the bad guy is defeated by wits rather than circumstance or punching. \n As /u/Tokugawa said, the problem is that these films want to have their cake and eat it to. They want to be flashy and exciting like Trek so often wasn't. However they refuse to move away from their past. It's clear Abrams only like Trek from a camp, outsider point of view and Orci is a well known hater of the government, hence the pointless evil Admiral in STID. The Trek films took time to live with characters, have them change through the film and try to tell a story that was more about exploration than war. In the new films, the Enterprise feels like a battleship, not an exploratory crew. \n I think most of all, it's just frustration. Here is Trek in arguably the best directorial hands it's ever been in and it has lost all of it's original intention. I wouldn't mind so much if there films didn't constantly try to stick as many Star Trek references that the general public would recognize. The films feel assembled in a lab, particularly the last one. They just tried to shove in as many moments the public would recognize (Khan, tribbles, Klingons, Gorns, redshirts, etc) as possible without any context for why those things are so iconic to begin with. It feels like a wasted opportunity and a film made for general public who couldn't give a crap about Trek lore. \n All that said, I do like the films. I think Abrams has made two very exciting, fun action films that are arguably more polished and fun than any Trek film before. And this whole \"worst films of the franchise\" crap is bullshit (V and Insurrection hold that crap titile). The problem though is that the references, the sameness of the story, the many useless stock characters and the very over-the-top dark plots just take away the general fun intelligent attitude of the originals. \n Just a nerd's two cents.", "id": "ccb9djd", "summary": "I wish the new Trek films would do something different and have deeper themes than \"bad guy is mad and war is bad unless it helps us\""}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "Can I just say how pleased I am with the way Nolan has chosen to work in Bane's reliance on Venom. Nolan's universe has always been more realistic (as realistic as a billionaire who can fly and fight crime can get) so I was really confused with how they would work in the Venom toxin. Sometimes in the comics Venom actually makes Bane grow twice as big within a few seconds. Even the most powerful steroids in the real world can't do that. \n So instead it seems like he's addicted to a narcotic, painkilling gas because of an injury. He then realizes it's so powerful that it makes him essentially immune to pain, which makes him virtually unstoppable. He will still be stronger than Batman not because he's bigger, but because he has no sense of pain holding him back. He can literally destroy his body to kill Batman and never feel a thing. This also means Bane can still be a drug addict in his probably insatiable reliance on the gas.", "id": "c31lbgc", "summary": "Bane's powerful because he's constantly breathing anesthetic gas"}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "There was an article I read a while ago (I think it was by Patton Oswalt) about how the internet had destroyed the idea of the true cult film. For the writer, cult meant something that had to be worked at to be achieved. Take for instance James Rolfe's story on how he watched Godzilla, pouring through TV listings and bargain store VHS's hoping to find any Godzilla related products to watch. Being a Godzilla fan back in the day meant real work. You not only had to find the films but you had to assemble any knowledge about them from fanzines or what little rumors you had. \n The writer then argues that today cult films are not a real thing because anyone can become an expert instantly through the internet. I don't really care to much about the cult film argument but I think his point that any can become an expert quickly is very telling. Even before I finally saw Gojira I could argue for it's merits. I knew of it's strong anti-nuclear themes, it's darker tone than the rest of the series, it's production design, and it's meld between human and monster stories. While watching the film itself greatly improved my enjoyment of it, I still knew exactly as much about it as I did before I saw the film. \n All of this is to say that people on the internet no longer have to be fans of something to be experts on it. For example, let's say the main bad guy, besides Godzilla, in the reboot is revealed to be King Ghidorah (a villain I know solely through Godzilla research). Years ago only fans would understand the importance of this decision, but now any one like me who hasn't even seen a film with Ghidorah in it can speak with authority on the subject because of Godzilla wikis and fansites. The internet allows for information retrieval without content. So anyone going through a Godzilla wiki binge could be just as smart on the subject as another person who's just watched 20 Godzilla films. This is not to say that the internet hasn't allowed the most access to Godzilla films in any time in history, but I still feel the huge masses of people upvoting Godzilla reboot content are experts and not fans. \n What I'm ultimately getting at is that I think the huge interest in Godzilla stems from people's idea of Godzilla, not the films themselves. It's the same reason 95% of Marvel villains are hyped yet ultimately let down. It's easy to romanticize something from information and theory alone. It's in practice that ideas are challenged. Maybe I'm wrong and there is just a weirdly gigantic Godzilla fanbase that has been waiting to emerge but I just don't think it's the case. I think there's just thousands of casual Godizlla experts who've relied on the obsessive information dump of true Godzilla fans to peek our interest. Now American Godzilla allows them to geek out on something that will have the kind of mainstream appeal that generates real discussion.", "id": "cdzhejr", "summary": "Many people haven't seen Godzilla films but still consider themselves experts on them because of the internet. \n Edit: To add a little more, I think the internet has also allowed geek culture to become more accepted in pop culture. In the day people learned about nerdy stuff through osmosis, usually formulaic parodies that falsely informed people's understanding of the properties. Now the internet has given the defender's of these franchises a voice while still acknowledging the flaws in their beloved stories. Also I think in general people like a fusion of cultures, particularly well done Americanized versions of foreign properties. I think people latch onto shows like the new Doctor Who and Cowboy Bebop because they still have their undeniable foreign roots but are presented in an American style that allows easier access to the bizarre material. I feel the Godzilla reboot is going for the same approach."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "It seems that most of the films listed on  the inflatable crowd company's website . Also Nolan is known for using practical effects and real humans whenever possible. Remember that scene in Inception where Cobb has the kick and [all the water rushes in from the sides of the building]( That scene was in the film for what, five seconds? Yet he actually had his crew build giant water canons that sprayed thousands of gallons of water onto the set. So since he knows people will willing work for free to be an extra on the final Dark Knight film, he will use that to his advantage. \n That said, one of the credits on the website is for The Prestige, so even Nolan uses inflatable crowds when he has to.", "id": "c4orkud", "summary": "Nolan will use real people sometimes, but even he's used the inflatable crowd."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "It may not be my biggest but this just happened. I was up late and I went to get myself a drink. Well my hands failed me and I dropped the glass on the floor which shattered into a hundred pieces. So I quickly donned the closest footwear which was my fiancee's rubber clogs. I also feel it's necessary to mention that I don't wear pants once I get home. So I pull out the vacuum and start cleaning out the mess, when suddenly I realize how stupid I looked.", "id": "t3_nzjmo", "summary": "At 1am I was vacuuming my kitchen without pants while wearing rubber clogs. \n So reddit, what's your \"I look like an idiot moment\"?"}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "Hey everyone, I need some advice. I'm currently a junior editor for an independent feature film company. Although the production is top notch, it's a very slow environment that is not going to be done for several years and has awful working hours. Now our EP is producing a new film for one of my favorite directors and I want nothing more than to be let in on the production. \n I want to ask the EP if I could be considered to join the editorial team on that production, but I don't know how. Although we share an office, I rarely talk to her. Also I'm just a junior editor, though my relatively low status means my job could easily be filled by many of the interns. I want to show interest in doing this job and moving to another state to do so, but I just don't want to look like a bandwagon jumping jerk or have her say no and create a toxic environment for me. \n So what should I do? Any advice from those in similar positions?", "id": "t3_1h9fgg", "summary": "I want to ask my producer for a better job, but don't want to sound like a dick."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "Sorry, but with this Ken Levine article blowing up, it completely infuriates me that his main argument is so utterly ridiculous. Here it is: \n \"This is what Hollywood does, dear reader. It sees an opportunity for exploitation and takes it. The Sundance Film Festival is another prime example. At one time it showcased modest little movies by unknown filmmakers. Kevin Smith made CLERKS – a grimy black and white film starring all unknowns. The result was discovered talent. Now look at the festival. Every entry features major Hollywood stars. During the festival they all descend upon Park City, along with Harvey Weinstein, reps from every major studio, and a thousand CAA and William Morris agents. Any hint of the original purpose of the film festival has long since vanished. \n If Will Ferrell or Brad Pitt – just to name two random examples – are in an independent film, do they really need a film festival to get Harvey Weinstein to screen their film? The chubby nerd from New Jersey who maxed out his credit cards to make a film about a local convenience store couldn’t. He needed a film festival. He needed an audience to appreciate his effort before he could be recognized. And now today’s equivalent of a young Kevin Smith can’t even get his movie into a festival much less Harvey Weinstein’s screening room.\" \n You know maybe before you use an example to trash a project you should know a little bit about the example you are using. The Sundance Film Festival (as we know it today) was founded in 1984 by the Utah Film Society and spearheaded by Robert Redford. Yes, the Robert Redford, aka one of the biggest stars of the 70s and 80s (basically the equivalent of Johnny Depp making his own festival today). Although not the intended point of the festival, Redford's connections helped upstart indie filmmakers like The Coen Brothers be discovered by the mega players in Hollywood. \n \"And now today’s equivalent of a young Kevin Smith can’t even get his movie into a festival much less Harvey Weinstein’s screening room.\"  What the fuck are you talking about? Maybe if Mr. Levine had done an ounce of research, for example just [IMDBing the production companies of Clerks]( he would know that none other than Miramax distributed the film, aka Harvey fucking Weinstein. Smith would still be a nobody today if not for Weinstein, who built Smith from the little Jersey kid who could to a guy who's doing rewrites on Superman films. Sundance has always been a bridge between the small and the mega large and it has not changed at all. \n The result was discovered talent. Now look at the festival. Every entry features major Hollywood stars.  Yeah it's too bad that changed. Hey can you do me a favor? Can you find me just ten articles about Benh Zeitlin, Quvenzhané Wallis and Dwight Henry from Beasts of the Southern Wild before 2010? You know, that huge Hollywood vanity project that won Sundance in 2012? Okay enough snobbery, but come on dude. Look at Beasts, a measly $1 mil film made entirely with non-actors (Dwight Henry was a fucking doughnut shop owner while making the film) and no Hollywood attachments whatsoever. It went to Sundance, lit up the festival and went all the way to the fucking Oscars for Best Picture. That is something that could never happen with something like Sundance, where studio like Fox Searchlight can discover vibrant new talent like this. It is a festival where little knows and underseens get their start and it's a great thing still. \n Look, I get where Ken Levine is coming from. When you hear how fake indie film with huge stars like Little Miss Sunshine get the most money bid on a film ever, it becomes infuriating. But the festival is still a massive platform for the young filmmakers and artists. For every Precious or Like Crazy win for Grand Jury Prize, you get a Padre Nuestro or Frozen River. It's a place that has always been infiltrated by the Hollywood elite because that is who you need in your corner to get any kind of meaningful attention. Yes there was films like Don Jon and jOBS that got bought up this year, but plenty more smaller films were too. Defaming an entire festival because of a few films is really unfair and frankly idiotic. \n Look I know I'm defending Braff a lot right now, but I feel this conversation needs to be had right now and it deserves a hell of a lot better than this hastily written Levine article. This issue is important, more important than writers who don't understand the things they are defending and castigating. Perhaps Levine needs to spend more time doing just the basic modicum of research instead of bashing everything in sight because it never lived up to his imaginary perfect image.", "id": "t3_1dvcp6", "summary": "Sundance was founded by Hollywood mega-giant Robert Redford and has always been a huge Hollywood powerhouse."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "I will be honest; I haven't read the books. I want to but I just haven't had the time. So yes I know Reason #1 is \"read the books and you'll see\", but I'd love to know the appeal now. I had honestly never heard of these books until the film was being cast and already there was a lot of outrage from fans. The closer the film gets the more intense the fandom seems to get and I'm left wondering why. \n I guess why I don't understand the love of these books is that they don't seem that original. The whole \"murder to survive a reality show\" is straight out of The Running Man. The children forced to kill other children is Battle Royale. And those films are just re-adaptations of the classic short story The Most Dangerous Game. Even Death Race 2000 had the sport as a national pastime angle. So basically what changes are made to this 90 year old story that are unique? \n Now I don't want to sound cynical. I do appreciate re-interpretations of classic stories, I just want to know the appeal of this one. I've asked a couple Hunger Games fans IRL and they've gotten incredibly snippy with me. I figured Reddit would be more eloquent and forgiving.", "id": "t3_ouahn", "summary": "Without saying \"just read the books\" please defend why The Hunger Games novels are good"}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "A couple years ago I went to go see Sufjan Stevens in Austin with my friends. I lived in SA at the time and only visited Austin once before. My friends who were more familiar with the place took us to this awesome late night eatery. It was this cool pancake house that had this huge list of toppings you could put in a pancake, sort of like an Amy's for flapjacks. My friend got granola and apple and I think I got blueberries cause I was lame and unoriginal at the time. \n So does anyone know where and what this place is and if it still exists? I'm assuming it's near the Long Center where we saw Sufjan, cause I think the drive there was super short. \n Anyways, any help would be appreciated.", "id": "t3_1pugwj", "summary": "Got awesome pancakes somewhere near the Long Center. Want them again. Help. \n EDIT: According to Google the concert was in 2010, if that helps at all."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "Hey all. Did you know that we created the official discussions because of The Dark Knight Rises? We knew the film would cause so many individual threads that we created a whole week of official discussions to curb the onslaught. Those threads eventually morphed into the system we have today. So we expect Interstellar is going to be one of the most popular official discussions we've ever had on this sub. Also because the filmmakers have decided to try a unique early release strategy, we are going to have  3 official discussions over the course of the next two weeks.  Here's how it's going to work. \n \n 1. Early Release Official Discussion at 9pm CST on 11/4. Thread will be stickied until 9pm CST on 11/6. \n For those of you who don't know, any theater that is showing a film print version of Interstellar can screen the film two days earlier than it's official release on Thursday. Normally we ignore advanced screenings but this is a pretty significant early release and we expect a big reddit turnout because of it. \n \n 2. General Release Official Discussion at 9pm CST on 11/6. Thread will be stickied until 12pm CST on 11/9. \n Our standard policy. We'll also have a thread for Big Hero 6. \n \n 3. Latecomer Official Discussion at 9pm CST on 11/14. Thread will not be stickied. \n This is an idea I've been toying with for a while. Basically it would be a latecomer thread posted a week after an official discussion that was immensely popular. The success of threads like Guardians of the Galaxy and Gone Girl made me think that for some of these very popular threads we should offer a second chance for users who didn't see the film on opening night to have their voices heard. Interstellar will be our test run. \n \n Finally as you know we have a policy that all official discussions be spoiler friendly. However if any users want to create a spoiler-free Interstellar discussion they are free to do so as long as they wait till after the official discussion has been posted and they copy and paste our format. \n That's all. Nolan fan rage train incoming. CHOO-CHOO!", "id": "t3_2l699g", "summary": "Just read the bold sentences, you lazy ass."}, {"author": "mi-16evil", "content": "Hey all. Short time lurker here. I'm glad this sub exists. I just need to get this off my chest and start mentally processing what happened. So if you read this, I really appreciate it. \n For a few years my wife was working her ass off to support me while I pursued my dream job. I'll explain my work in the comments if you want, but basically it's a job where you're expected to work for very little or even no money until you get your big break. It was going well but then the work dried up and I started to look for other kinds of work in my field and found this job in another city. It wasn't exactly what I wanted to do, but I got paid well and I found out it might help me get to an even better job down the line and would be enough to support my wife and I while she went back to school. \n Unfortunately due to a miscommunication, I misunderstood that this place of work actually pays a certain amount per project no matter how long it takes to finish. When I worked it out, I was making less than minimum wage for the hours put in. I complained, they gave me an hourly rate with incentives for each project finished. I got faster at the projects and was just about to get to a pay level where I felt my wife could go to school full time. \n But today I found out the hourly rate is gone and the old pay system is back up. I'm fast enough to at least make a living at this place, but the dream of sending my wife to school is gone. I just don't know what to do. I moved here and was willing to work hard at this place for as long as I could for as long as it took. Now it seems if I want to keep the plan on track, I have to find a new job. I just have no idea what I can do with little experience that would be enough. No matter what, I know I can't stay here when the pay is so screwed up. If I'm going to be making only so much, I need to at least know it's consistent. Plus it means a lot to me to send my wife to school. She's sacrificed so much for me to pursue my dreams and I to be able to support hers for now. \n It's not hopeless. I'm going to work very hard while I look for possible other jobs, and if I find a possible alternative I'll definitely give them an ultimatum of \"pay me more or I walk\". It could work, but this place changes staff so much I doubt it. I could always get a lower paying job, maybe scale back our living expenses and move to a smaller place. My wife and I won't be destitute, but the fact that yet again she has to wait to pursue her dreams kills me. This all happened today, so a lot of it is just processing. \n Anyways thanks so much for listening to my very long rant. It was nice to just get it out there, so thanks if you've actually read this far.", "id": "t3_2kaynh", "summary": "Moved to new city to get high paying job to send wife back to school. Found out today job is cutting pay by half, no idea what to do now."}]}
+{"author": "Sirinon", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post A bunch of reddit assholes did not want community moderators getting any recognition and engaged in a forum war against \n EDIT:  Keep in mind this was over CANS in a Zombie survival game, not to mention you would have to actually Zoom in to read the labels on these objects. \n EDIT #2: the official response from the Mod's creator which had to be made [\"the Notorious Can Incident\"](", "output": "r/dayz \n its related to a popular Game called DayZ the most uppity shit ive seen on the net took place here, the gist of it : \n 1\\ new patch comes out with  new food items \n 2\\ the DayZ subreddit lost their shit and launched a hate rally against the new cans stating they were ruining the game, anything against this hivemind was donvoted into oblivion. \n 3\\ DayZ community is now further divided due to some servers only supporting the food update with other not, /r/dayz subreddit is now viewed poorly."}], "user_id": "longlamp_6412", "history": [{"author": "Sirinon", "content": "We have an underlying problem with racism which manifests itself in an unsubstantiated fear of immigration (we let in very few, and still people seem to think we are overrun) and often open violence (Cronulla riots, bashing of Indians in Melbourne). \n You do realise there were black, aboriginals, indians and asians at the cronulla riots right ?    they were againt a very specific ethnic group which had been causing problems in the area for a very long time, people were fed up. \n Would you feel safe walking around central parramatta or Oxley park at night ?, chances of getting bashed for being white are high. \n our problem is people chalk it up to \"white people are racist and every other culture are angels\" instead of trying to fix major issues. \n >We have a history of terrible treatment of our indigenous population, including genocide and mass kidnapping. \n And the current party in power 'fixed' that with an \"apology\" that they spent months ensuring would not leave them liable for reparations. \n >We have a strong anti-intellectual streak and an over-reliance on sport in our national identity. \n if anything there has been a massive push over the last 15 years to ensure the current generation is educated. \n >We follow the US too readily in international relations (both recent wars, for example). \n and your problem is ?  we arent the only country aside from the US in Iraq/Afganistan, it is part of an EU, US anf UN comitment Australia has made to peacekeeping operations with out allies. \n it works both ways see the East timor Crisis of 1999 where they US and Aus led a joint peacekeeping force. [Source]( \n If you want to enjoy international trade an commerce you need to play your part. \n >Our parliament recently voted against allowing gay marriage \n internal politics stopped that not public opinion,  we have it in a legal sense: \n \"In all Australian states and territories, cohabiting same-sex couples are recognised as de facto couples, and have the same rights as cohabiting heterosexual couples under state law. From 1 March 2009 \"\n[Source]( \n >Our next Prime Minister will most likely be a sexist, racist maniac. \n Proof ? \n >sexist \n errrm you are aware he not only has a lesbian sister who he fully supports and three daughters who are womens rights campaigners + supporters of gay marriage ? \n >Racist \n You are aware he started a fund specifically for funding court cases against Racist bigoted politicans   \"Australians for Honest Politics Trust\"  \n >Then again the other major party has little interest in differentiating themselves politically anyway. \n atleast they wont sign coal seam mining leases for half of rural australia like the current one did !   or do you not read about the massive ICAC investigations ongoing  ? \n The problem in australia is we have to many loudmouths who do not approach the problems using logic.", "id": "c984kz0", "summary": "Do your research buddy."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "Stayed in one of the more Gypsy infested areas in the Czech republic for a while. \n Two of the guys in the room across from me who were complete psychopaths ( think eastern european mafia ) were \"laying low\" after pulling off a robbery in denmark.......However they made good drinking buddies andevery other person who spoke english was boring. \n These guys were scary enough to believe, anyway one night am half passed out and hear screaming from their room, I walk across and come in, the scarier of the two is on the bed with a giant ass stab wound in his side screaming \"DA GYPSY GOT ME! I KEEL HIM!\" \n I stand and look at them for a while and then decide to go back to sleep and wake up hungover the next day, I head down to the pub for breakfast and these guys are chilling having a beer in the corner. :O \n I go up and say to the stabbed one...... dude are you ok ? \n He smiles, says \"Yeah man\"  lifts up his shirt to reveal they have performed home surgey with what looks like fishing line and glue! \n we went to a strip club that night and I then watched this guy use his stab wound to get free lap dances/ private action from the girls.", "id": "c8ir5fh", "summary": "Eastern europeans are fucking crazy!"}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "I used to have some pretty Ghetto friends. \n So I got what was going to be a lift home from a mates place by a slightly sketch guy called Justin. he mentions that this girl we know is having a party, he was there earlier but left, I ask him to drop me off. \n I get there and get out of the car, he leaves, next thing a car comes swerving around the corner and then swerves across the road to try and hit me but misses by about a foot, car keeps driving away.... \n \"Huh... weird\", I think in my drunken state and go inside. \n Get inside and and its a scene of chaos, a guy I know comes up and screams \"DUDE WHERE THE FUCK IS JUSTIN HE BASHED JORDY AND RAN OVER RICK!!\" \n Guy opens a bedroom door and \"rick\" is lying stretched out on the bed with a pretty serious head wound, slightly crushed looking left ribcage and a very bloody upper leg.....Not conscious. \n I leave the room to go grab a beer and suss out just what the fuck is going on, Next thing I know the Guys cousin, a mate. comes into the hall holding a metal pipe and pushes me to the wall by the neck with the pipe ready to strike and screams \"what the fuck are you doing here!!\" ...he was the dude that tried to hit me with the car... he saw me getting out of Justins car..... Panic mode sets in. \n I manage to talk my way out of it by reminding him that we have been pretty good mates for 5+ years and had no idea wtf was going on until about 2 minutes ago, he backs down and I go get my beer. \n Crisis averted I settle into the party and the night goes on, guy and cousin took a mob to go trash Justins house while we partied.... never found out what happened to rick. \n Turns out the cousin was double upset that night because in addition to his mate getting nearly killed the girl he had a secret crush on was busy getting gang banged out the back of the house.", "id": "cdiqj5x", "summary": "Almost had skull caved in because I got a lift to a party with the wrong dude, comparable to superbad I guess \n And yes I am aware that my former friends are psychos."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "the best feeling was 5 years later when I was state manager at a much larger company and he bumped into me running a large stand at a trade show. \n I was friendly and said hi like I do to most people, it wasn't until I checked his Linkedin I found out he was still in the same position he started in. \n This was the kind of guy who tried to grease alot of big players in the industry, many times I saw him getting chummy with seniors at functions. \n this guy was hired to 'train up'  the juniors like me on new technology,  yet proved to be useless, he took it out on the juniors because we learnt the new tech faster, the Tipping point was when I beat his CCNA Score ( he used to brag about getting 92%, I got 99.3% )", "id": "c93z5jg", "summary": "Don't worry it gets better"}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "Some outfits micromanage to a retarded level in PS2, my 1st outfit were the type who would tell you what gun to use, how to fight, where to shoot  etc etc. \n the group I am in now went from 40 to 600 recruits in a few months mainly due doing the exact opposite and trying to promote a 'band of brothers' vibe   an example : \n 1\\ outfit lead gives comman to platoon leaders ( we usually have 3 running) to capture a large section of the map. \n 2\\ Platoon leads give squad leaders an area to go to to ensure everyone is spead out and a proper 'front' is established. \n 3\\ from there on out it is completely up to the squad leads and members to do what suits them best. \n also not hesitating to rotate squad and platoon leaders so everybody gets some experience. \n regarding your tank situation we do the same but we would leave 2-3 squads to hold the point and then send 2 squads of tanks + air to flank from the side, sounds like your outfit only knew zerg tactics.", "id": "c97gic6", "summary": "I completely understand your point but dont fear there are good outfis where you dont feel like a Cog."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "So gamergate is a movement aginst three things which have been happening in Games journalism for a while: Collusion, Corruption and Censorship. \n It started with a blog post from the ex boyfriend of an indie game developer ranting about how she had cheated on him with 5 guys, some of those guys were figureheads in games journalism and the indie game scene who had the ability to promote and elevate public awareness of her game, this rose concerns about a lack of disclosure between developers and games media which has been a long standing issue in gaming. \n the actual blog was prettymuch unknown until a fairly small youtuber made a video about it, that video was DCMA'ed by the Game developer and the powderkeg exploded. \n This is old news however and this incident was really a pandoras box, since then dozens of shady practices and proof of collusion, corruption and censorship on a massive scale in games media has been unveiled. \n To top it off games media chose to respond by labeling anyone who questioned them as a Mysoginyst, sexist, nerd, loser etc etc. and wrote several articles essentially attacking their target audience. also many sites (Including reddit) banned anyone who questioned this stance and deleted the comments. \n There is also a very strong focus by games media and anti-GG people to shift focus back to the original female game developer and brand Gamergate as some kind of sexist movement which is far from the truth as some of its top supporters are a notable feminist scholar and several popular female youtubers.", "id": "cllwrnq", "summary": "dont drink the kool aid just yet, do some reading"}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "To Put Mongolians tactics into perspective: \n From the steppe whence they came an army or Grey descends on the Lion Kindgom of old, at first they raid border settlements which run along the mountain ranges that edge the Steppe but these are not common bandits. \n The lord of the land is surprised when a message declaring the 'total annihilation' of the Lion Kingdom is received by the Duke of Aslan, Said to be a product of noble inbreeding the Duke is a grey and oddly formed Lion with an eery resemblance these new attackers. \n Aslan, A large city bordering the Steppe mountains Raises it's mighty levies, A great army bred of noble stock draped with the finest livery of their pride's noble armory, So Proud and sure those majestic Lions of the old houses were. \n One Month Later \n Alas they are outnumbered 5 to 1 but the Donkey's charge first, fast as lighting and swift as the eagle. \nYet the proud lion army answers with their vicious claws, the Donkey first wave is soon routed and retreats in a terrified panic Braying and wheening for their lives. \n \"AFTER THEM!!!\" The excited Duke calls and a glorious charge is made, a victory so decisive that it will be retold throughout the Lion nation for generations the story of the great duke who defeated the grey menace. \n A series of running battles is conducted over the next few weeks with Lions harassing the panicked and retreating war party, the war is won now all that remains is for the Lion army to crush the Grey horde against the mountains lining steppe from whence they came. \n On the final day the Greys are found in a valley, sheltering, cold, weak. \n Ready for the decisive blow the lions advance to the cowering Donkeys, Duke Aslan in noble fashion called out \"PRODUCE YOUR LEADER SO I MAY PARLEY\" \n What happened next took him by surprise, From the center of the herd a Great lion emerges with not a look of defeat but an expression of pure evil \n A faint Winnie  can be hard over the ridge lines around them gradually getting louder \n \"I am Subotai, I am your death\" says the Lion then walks back into the Herd with a knowing confidence. \n Terror Grips Aslan when he realizes.... \n 1\\ He is over 50 miles from home. \n 2\\ His lions are Exhausted from days of pursing \"Victory\" without pause. \n 3\\ He is completely Cut off by the now encircling REAL Donkey army. \n 4\\ He is going to die.", "id": "cjzv210", "summary": "Feint, retreat and Ambush was a famous mongol strategy used to defeat European Knights."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "My Example: \n The other day I was on Balota Buddies Whitelist AU, I had just looted Stary and gotten a shiny AK. \n After crossing old fields guy ran right across the front of where I was standing with an enfield  chased by 3-4 Zombies, he hadnt seen me yet! \n Eager to make a buddy I started yelling \"hey buddy i'm friendly!, lemme take care of the zombies for you!  I'm friendly !\", so I shot the zombies. \n then the dude turned around and said \"leave me alone !\" and kept running, I thought What ? he dosent want to be my friend ???   THAT ASSHOLE!...... then gunned him down.", "id": "c9827k6", "summary": "survivor didnt want to team up so I shot him for his beans"}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "So your life is almost Identical to mine, Minus the Fraternity ( Australia does not have them in she same scale ) \n house great job and car at 23, not great with women until around 19, witnessed many  promising girls (looks, brains, etc) make terrible decisions and then try to get guys like me to pick up the pieces and act as a provider. \n I am now 25 and my advice to you would be as follows: \n \n Keep focused on your job and advancing forward, I found once I had achieved so much at a young age it was very easy to go into autopilot and stagnate. \n \n Stay healthy, go to gym regularly... men age better and can maintain a decent appearance well into their 50's if they focus. \n \n keep investing in property/growing your wealth. \n \n \n When the  26/27/28's come knocking  DO NOT  Take it further then casual dating, they made their bed, let them lie in it. \n I'm 25 now but from meeting guys who were in my boots and are now in their mid 30's I can say that single life only gets better as you will have your pick of the litter.", "id": "cef8fa1", "summary": "Ignore women who made mistakes, you have the power now MGTOW is a bit extreme"}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "So gamergate is a movement aginst three things which have been happening in Games journalism for a while: Collusion, Corruption and Censorship. \n It started with a blog post from the ex boyfriend of an indie game developer ranting about how she had cheated on him with 5 guys, some of those guys were figureheads in games journalism and the indie game scene who had the ability to promote and elevate public awareness of her game, this rose concerns about a lack of disclosure between developers and games media which has been a long standing issue in gaming. \n the actual blog was prettymuch unknown until a fairly small youtuber made a video about it, that video was DCMA'ed by the Game developer and the powderkeg exploded. \n This is old news however and this incident was really a pandoras box, since then dozens of shady practices and proof of collusion, corruption and censorship on a massive scale in games media has been unveiled. \n To top it off games media chose to respond by labeling anyone who questioned them as a Mysoginyst, sexist, nerd, loser etc etc.  and wrote several articles essentially attacking their target audience.  also many sites (Including reddit) banned anyone who questioned this stance and deleted the comments. \n There is also a very strong focus by games media and anti-GG people to shift focus back to the original female game developer and brand Gamergate as some kind of sexist movement which is far from the truth as some of its top supporters are a notable feminist scholar and several popular female youtubers.", "id": "clk3usy", "summary": "dont drink the kool aid just yet, [do some reading]("}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "These are designed to be disposable, they cost like $2 and last anywhere from 2-6 weeks, U use a tank which works on very similar coils basically go and buy a 5-pack. \n The Ego C twist is actually the battery  so Im assuming your clearomiser (The top part)  looks something like this ?", "id": "cq2rjn3", "summary": "you dont, you buy a new one."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "I do gym with the cop in charge of our local water police ( a large unit in my area)  anyway one day we are at gym at the local surf club working out and one of the guys sees two ~16 yr old kids graffing on the wall outside. \n The cop goes outside ( not identifying himself ) and tells the kids to get lost, they leave and he comes back in... we resume gym. \n 20 mins later the kids are back outside graffing again, the cop goes out to shoo them away again, one of the kids tell him to \"fuck off\",   the Cop said \"RIGHT\"  put the teen in a headlock and dragged him into the surf club to arrest him. \n At this point the kids friend who has no idea that the guy from the surf club is a senior officer freaks out and calls the police to report a kidnapping, a car arrives and two cops start approaching the building guns drawn ( keep in mind we are sitting inside freaking out by this point) \n Our buddy the senior officer calmly walks out slowly in his gym gear with his badge drawn and identifies himself, I then got to watch as he stood there  screaming at these two juniort officers who had been dispatched for A) not policing graffiti effectively and B) taking 15 minutes to arrive at a potential hostage situation. \n Was truly amazing to seeing a senior officer screaming down at two rookies from another jurisdiction for what seemed like almost 20 minutes.", "id": "c8yasll", "summary": "Off duty senior cop makes arrest, Police are called as it looks like a kidnapping, senior officer screams at rookies for not responding to a potential hostage situation fast enough."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "I worked for a company where my department was in charge of a few million dollars worth of IT hardware ( not to mention the Data stored on it which was far morevaluable ) \n the manager for the Dept's only prior job experience was working at JB Hifi behind a counter!!! \n Imagine a room with 200 servers all of them being backed up to USB Hard drives via a copy/paste script.", "id": "c8h02ss", "summary": "IT incompetence at the highest level."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "Repost of my worst story : \n I was put on as IT manager at a medium sized government contractor. \n I did a quick independent review of our infrastructure to get my bearings and noticed a problem..... all EIGHTY servers were being backed up to EIGHTY USB removeable hard drives you buy from your local Wal-mart. \n Also no print servers, all of the PC's were directly connected to the same printers meaning they would stop working due to no print queue management. \n and none of the cabling was documented. \n I questioned the IT Infrastructure manager about it and he saw no problem with the issue, I reviewed his resume his ONLY job experience before this one was behind a counter at the local JB-Hifi (an AV store) \n somehow this guy had gone from checkout bitch to National infrastructure manager in one move...... baffles me to this day. \n Some other quotes from this Genius : \n \"Apple make great corporate products.\"\n\n\"Virtualization is unstable and will never catch on\" ( he said this in 2010 )\n\n\"why dont you use the Gui when you configure that ASA ? Cisco Command line is shit!\"\n\n\"Tape is unreliable\"\n \n Also this guy had wasted 60K of the years budget on retarded hardware like an incredibly overpriced 14TB Oracle NAS unit ( yes NAS no Iscsi ) \n Strangely I was fired for \"not being a team player\" after suggesting a project to document the cabling and a project for a centralized backup solution. \n was almost three years ago.", "id": "c96s4sv", "summary": "remarkably underqualified Inf manager runs a shoddy network."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "Any of those charities that harass you in the street and try to force themselves onto you ( I had one try to walk up and hug me today ) \n after giving money once to the cancer council I found my name on a bajillion spam email lists and cold caller lists. \n now any charity in the street gets a firm FUCK OFF, I donate to two charities which I am personally involved with only.", "id": "c8938dw", "summary": "in short the dodgy charity people sold on my details to dodgy marketing compaines."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "My story reposted from /r/askreddit. \n I was put on as IT manager at a medium sized government contractor. \n I did a quick independent review of our infrastructure to get my bearings and noticed a problem..... all EIGHTY servers were being backed up to EIGHTY USB removeable hard drives you buy from your local Wal-mart. \n Also no print servers, all of the PC's were directly connected to the same printers meaning they would stop working due to no print queue management. \n and none of the cabling was documented. \n I questioned the IT Infrastructure manager about it and he saw no problem with the issue, I reviewed his resume his ONLY job experience before this one was behind a counter at the local JB-Hifi (an AV store) \n somehow this guy had gone from checkout bitch to National infrastructure manager in one move...... baffles me to this day. \n Some other quotes from this Genius  : \n \n \"Apple make great corporate products.\" \n \n \"Virtualization is unstable and will never catch on\" ( he said this in 2010 ) \n \n \"why dont you use the Gui when you configure that ASA ? Cisco Command line is shit!\" \n \n \n \n \"Tape is unreliable\"  \n \n Also this guy had wasted 60K of the years budget on retarded hardware like an incredibly overpriced 14TB Oracle NAS unit  ( yes NAS no Iscsi ) \n Strangely I was fired for \"not being a team player\"  after suggesting a project to document the cabling and a project for a centralized backup solution. \n was almost three years ago.", "id": "t3_1amgqo", "summary": "remarkably underqualified Inf manager runs a shoddy network."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "So I am the kind of guy who although I have a fairly active dating life It is very rare that I am really truly attracted to someone. \n Every few months I go clubbing on the central coast ( a scenic but slightly dodgy area north of Sydney) with an old Ex girlfiend with whom I am now strictly friends, she makes a good wingwoman even though she is prettymuch trailer trash. \n anyway I went out with her in December last yr and while out I met two of her friends I had bumped into before two twins called andrew and pete, these guys although slightly bogan are pretty cool people so we all start drinking, later the twins mention their friend is running late. \n I was doing pretty well for the night thanks to my wingwoman ex I had a mini skirt clad girl in my lap and her friends had joined our group, then the twins friend shows up.... and I prettymuch forgot ms miniskirts name instantly , the friend was one of those rare types that I am instantly attracted too basically a stunning green eyed redhead, we ended up talking/flirting for almost 2 hours and exchanged numbers. \n so in the next few days we txted and fbooked each other and we decided we should catch up in the new year no red flags she seemed geniuinely interested, and then one day we were chatting and she joked 'oh btw apparently I'm not supposed to be talking to you' I responded 'lol why ?' she mentioned one of the twins had broken up with his fiance and my ex had made some kind of threats towards the twins, we laughed it off as relationship dramas. \n anyway fast forward to early February and a date has been organised she seems super excited ( and so am I, I actually had been spending time in the gym, cleaned my car got a haircut etc etc) and a day out from the date she stops responding to txt's and I hear nothing from her for the next week, it was confusing because I had seen no signs that she would blow me off. \n I get a hold of her a week later and she explains that the twins and her friends have forbidden her from seeing me because I am a friend of my ex who apparently is involved with the twins ex fiance in some trailer trash level dispute, according to her they would cease to be her friends if she went on a date with me. \n so aside from pointing out that they have grossly overstated my level of friendship with my ex, and that I am not involved or interested in their dispute ( I have never even met the twins ex) I immediately severed any connection I had with my ex. \n I then ended up deleting all of the contect details of the redhead a few days later as I saw it as futile, a few months later and I am still furious about the whole event both at the twins and my ex... a girl I was insanely attracted to (a rare case for me) was denied because of trailer trash 3rd parties. \n I have decided since I only come across that level of attraction every 5 yrs at best I should try to get back in touch with her, any advice on how I should approach it ?", "id": "t3_1c1r8q", "summary": "Girl I was attracted to was forbidden from dating me because our different groups of friends are fighting"}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "Hey all \n So I logged onto one of my old servers on the Vilayer hive and realized my 30 day character was still alive, this character truly has seen some shit. \n from surviving two heli crashes, taking part in four assaults on a heavily clan defended Devils castle ( in one he was one of two survivors out of 9 attackers ), being ambushed and just making it out alive, assaulting Pik Kozlovka and living through the Rigors of Chernarus. \n I am now unsure as to what I should do with this guy as I'm almost attached to the character, where so many other players died I was the last one alive !. \n so does anyone else have any characters like this ?", "id": "t3_1967eb", "summary": "Chacracter is extremely lucky/long lived, scared to leave the bushes out of fear of death."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "I'm asking this seriously because even though I play with some GREAT communities, others seem to be super ban happy. \n The other week I saw a guy get kicked on one server because he said the word 'Gay' on radio comms, then another guy get kicked for complaining that was a bit harsh. \n I also just got outright banned from a server for not being connected to Their Acre, no \"hey man could you jump on our TS please ?\"  just banned. \n I love playing with ACE/ACRE and I think there are alot of people who play wasteland that would really really be into it, however this kind of behaviour only turns people away. \n Am I the only one who has these issues ????", "id": "t3_1ge8j0", "summary": "Some Servers have issues. \n EDIT: Also I am an Ace/Acre Noob for the most part so I dont know if I am overlooking somehing which is a common trend."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "Hey Guys \n So A girl I dated about 10 years ago fell into an abusive relationship about 5 yrs ago, it has gotten to a point where I am genuinely concerned for her safety. \n After we stopped dating We kept  in touch in a friendly manner, I have zero interest in ever dating her again but I see her as a friend even though we kept had fairly flirty conversations ( just happens when you know each other well ) \n Fast forward 5 years she mentioned she had a new bf, nothing surprising we had maintained contact when she was single or taken and even gone on a few double dates with her new bf and my gf at the time (neither knew out history) who was from her area then I slowly started hearing less and less from her, she was the type of girl who flooded her fbook page/twitter/bebo constantly and it also slowly ground to a halt, I sent of a \"hey how have you been, long time\".... no response, I figured she just had other things on her mind/ no interest in talking to me. \n ... Some months later I was speaking to a mutual friend/one of her bff's  and she mentioned she hadn't seen her for ages and her new bf had forbidden her from going out with her friends partying and even her brother was having trouble contacting her at times, not wanting to seem like a jealous ex I figured the family/ her friends would surely step in if she was really stuck with a controlling abusive guy and went on with my life. \n Fast forward a few years and I noticed her status was set to online on fbook, something which I hadn't seen in at least two years so I said Hi, we chatted for a bit and she started complaining how she has to pay for everything and she hasnt left her town in four years because the Bf dosent like her travelling, we re-exchanged numbers she gave me a huge disclaimer to not call unless we had organised it 1st incase her bf was home. \n About a week later she called me and we chatted, the whole conversation had a terrible undertone that she hadn't really done much or seen anybody in a long time, also she mentioned the bf is unemployed and she has to pay bills/work/buy food/pay rent from her own pocket.... also implied she had been hit for not following his rules then mid coversation I heard a door slam and she said she had to go and hung up. \n A day later I got some dodgy guy calling me from her number asking \"who the fuck is this\" I hung up instead of saying anything ( she told me she had saved my name under Jess). \n Not a peep from her since and its been about 4 months. \n if you were in my shoes what would you do ? \n On one hand I could easily say it her problem not mine, but at the same time it kindof sucks seeing someone I used to know who had a future now living in such a shitty scenario. \n Also last thing I want to appear like is a white knight / Jealous Ex.", "id": "t3_1lpwh8", "summary": "Girl I dated a decade ago  is isolated and a victim of domestic abuse, not comfortable standing around doing nothing."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "Hey all \n So I will try to make this short, I have been very fortunate in my career and am in a place many hard working people 20 years older could only hope to be. \n At age 23 I was made State manager for the company I work for and am considered senior staff, the pay is awesome, I own a beachside apartment and am saving for a second apartment in another state. \n Except! \n I am now 24 turning 25 in august and I do absolutely nothing all day everyday, my nearest employee is 80KM away and my nearest superior is 600KM away.\n I have no drive to get out there and sell product yet I magically still hit my target every month ( dont ask me how mostly inertia I assume ) \n I feel I am stagnating and I should be working harder, most people would give their left arm to get the head start I have been given.", "id": "t3_18cogp", "summary": "How do I get motivated to do my job when nobody is keeping track of what I do  ? \n my biggest fear is my laziness will somehow cost me the job and I will struggle to find another job in Snr Management."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "Hey all, \n So I am overly stressed as a result of the poor performance and organization of the engineers at the integrator I work for. \n A little history, I am 9 years into my IT career the first 5 of which I spent as a junior network engineer then senior member of a implementations team on huge state and federal govt projects and enterprise server rollouts, early on in my career I was thrown into the deep end, force fed certifications and training and expected to learn fast, after 5 years I decided to give sales a try as there was a LOT more money in it and was also successful there making it to state manager in 2 1/2 yrs, I got poached by the company I am at now. \n The engineers at my new place are currently the bane of my existence, not only are their technical skills mediocre but they are also lazy and use their time poorly. \n If a customer calls our office and asks to book a site visit I cannot rely on them to meet the booking even if it is 2 weeks in advance, oh and they wont call to reschedule with the customer or let them know they arent coming. \n I signed on two of our largest clients in November and put together a SOW and timeline (to be completed mid January) for a complete site overhaul worth several hundred thousand dollars each......... the stock is still sitting in our fucking warehouse and the CEO's are calling me asking why, the engineers just say they are too busy, I have caught them watching movies and shit out the back when they could be actually working. \n I have four PBX installations in the same boat. \n the other week I sold 15 vpn/firewalls and adsl services to a multi-site client, the job was just sitting there and the engineer assigned to it claimed he couldn't find any documentation on creating Ipsec tunnel's for these devices so it would need to wait, It took me 15 minutes to google a step by step guide and sit there and troubleshoot the problem ( he dosent know I have a CCNP),  I then documented it and gave it to him.....A week later the boxes are still in the warehouse. \n I have tried being friendly then being cooperative and accommodating, to trying to push them to do it. and they keep delaying. \n Right now I am holding off 6x clients from cancelling their projects and going with someone else as we are so far behind,  not to mention projects not being billed is food off my table. \n My two directors had an argument with each other today both agreeing that they need to fix this issue and I am going to the meeting where we will put together a plan, most of those affected are the new clients AKA My clients. \n Any suggestions on what I can to to actually get the wheels turning ?  I am literally at my wits end.", "id": "t3_1wz0cf", "summary": "Former tech turned salesman, techs at new company keep fumbling major projects and stalling."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "So as the title says there is this girl I have slowly grown to over a few years, We are both lifeguards at a fairly popular beach, this will be the third season I have known her. \n Basically I dont have the greatest history with relationships and decided not to act on any signals I have noticed because I thought I'd probably just end up hurting her emotionally, Initially I became attracted to her personality and now she keeps popping into my head despite being the type of guy who actively avoids putting women on a mental pedestal. \n A brief history for context, so I am what is called a \"Patrol Captain\" which heads up a weekend surf patrol/lifeguard duty, there are 10 patrols in the surf lifesaving club and each captain has ~10 lifeguards who they are responsible for training and coordinating on the beach. \n 1st summer I saw her maybe once or twice and she barely registered, a lady I work with at the club told me once \"X is suuuch a catch\"  but that is really all I heard of her that year. \n 2nd summer she was assigned to my patrol, I didnt really talk about anything personal with her the 1st few months but later on we started talking more and getting to know each other she started making some moves towards me, I figured she would be to nice for me and decided to ignore it for the reasons stated above. \n 3rd summer is approaching and I saw her briefly at a club meeting this week and thought \"screw it I should just go for it\" \n How would you approach this if you were me ?, one of my concerns is she might have lost interest due to me ignoring her.", "id": "t3_2bulur", "summary": "Stalled forever on reciprocating moves, not sure how to move forward."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "Hey all, \n so I loved the citadel anti-grief plugin on 1.7.x, I have been testing on 1.8 and the plugin is only about 70% working. \n Basically reinforcement works, groups can be created but group management and list/member commands are not functional, from looking at the Database it seems the problem is the Faction_member tables have not been adjusted to 1.8's UUID system (I think).", "id": "t3_2q1vbw", "summary": "does anybody know of a version for 1.8 which exists, or a fork of the plugin ? \n Or an alternative ?"}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "Apologies for poor grammar. \n So just a small story about a guy I know through his daughter and the BS he is dealing with from mostly women in my area hounding him isn saying he has \"abandoned his family\", lets call him Joe. \n Joe is currently in his 60's and is known for his famous pro-athlete daughter, he is not her biological father although he raised her since she was 2 and supported her from driving across the country to sporting events and paying for overseas travel, he walked her down the Isle and has also been a supporting grandfather, basically the guy did a really fucking  good job of raising her even though she wasn't his own. \n So when Joe was around 55  his wife dies of cancer, 5 years on Joe got remarried to a woman in her 30's and has a son with her, his daughter is approaching her late 20's at this point. \n The uproar from the post wall women at the sport club was absolutely disgusting! he was labeled creepy, desperate and a coward for \"abandoning his family\" and eventually left the organization because of the insults he was getting. \n Absolute BS, the guy gives his life raising someone else's kid,does a better job then the biological father ever could have, when he turns around and starts his own family after she has grown up he gets kicked out the community by a bunch of post wall hags, shit like this why I don't take women seriously.", "id": "t3_1zo2od", "summary": "man gives up his life raising other mans kid from age 2-25, wife dies, gets remarried and has a biological son 5 yrs later, shunned by the community for being a creepy old man/abandoner."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "So in early January of 2010 I was working for an IT company who were shocking to say the least, the owner had inherited the company as was more of a software only guy. \n so we had an 'online marketing' (Read: professional Twitter spammers) company approach us for a server upgrade, they wanted us to move their current POP emails and files to server 2008 R2 + Exchange 2010, \ninstead of declining my boss took the job not understanding how unstable those products were in their infancy..... naturally the job went to hell, the server was riddled with errors and Exchange was problematic to say the least, not to mention what appeard to be several hardware incompatibilities with the Whitebox server the client had used. \n I brought in the head engineer for the copany to verify that I wasnt talking crazy and then sat the client down with their tech guy (Read: the guy who makes website banners), the tech guy had sugested all of this and tried to hammer me with these gems: \n 1\\ \" MICROSOFT HAD THIS IN BETA FOR 7 MONTHS THEY WOULD NEVER RELEASE AN UNFINISHED PRODUCT !!!!\" \n 2\\ \"SERVER 2008 R2 IS A VERY STABLE PRODUCT dont YOU tell ME  to wait for the 1st Service Pack!!!!\"", "id": "t3_18ugw7", "summary": "Company lets graphic designer make tech decisions, designer trusts microsoft, whole project goes to sheeet. \n EDIT: Also the Managing Director had an MAC and expected it to work identically with Exchange as his windows computer did, then blamed windows when it didn't, sigh."}, {"author": "Sirinon", "content": "So I just received an email dragging up the bones from the project from hell. \n The project -  Client seems like a decent guy, a young doctor who owns his own small 3 man practice, come across as fairly cool and easy to deal with, we share a lot of common interests and live in the same area, are involved in the same community groups, his Equipment is old/ home assembled and he wants a new system that will cover him for the next 3-4 years as his company grows. \n He shows me his files all the standard excel/word docs and some Jpegs. \n He states he wants a dropbox like system but \"more business focused\" so I include sharepoint online and hosted exchange in the picture to make file sharing and working remotely a clean process, we have many smaller clients running on this setup, no problem once you have trained them. \n The project is planned out, site review done and he is extremely happy about the price (He expected about double what we quoted). \n We sign him up to a monthly retainer (I even give him a discount for being so pleasant to deal with) and all seems good, our field tech goes and spends two days on site migrating his environment and reports back that  everything went smoothly. \n About a week later I give him a follow up call to thank him for choosing us/ make sure he is satisfied/ see if I can squeeze a referral or two based on the quality of our work. \n I get about half a sentence in before he starts \" The file sharing has never worked, the printer is broken, your tech left site without finishing, my business is losing serious money, I want a refund\" and so on. \n I am pretty taken aback and immediately call my techie, I get assurances that all tasks were completed, operations manager backs him up. \n I organize for our go tech go down to their practice and spend an hour training the owner (again) and double checking everything is complete. \n Turns out that because his computer cannot open .psd files ( the old one couldn't either, the system we sold him is completely unfit and \"ruining his business\" \n We install a free viewer for the files, explain that Photoshop costs money and once again confirm that everything is working as detailed in the project. \n Over the next 3 months anything from running out of toner to not saving files in the right directory is \"ruining his business and a total failure on our part\"", "id": "t3_25j7o5", "summary": "promising client turns out to be a giant pain in the ass, This is why I don't do work for smaller local business's anymore no matter how cool they seem."}]}
+{"author": "SnatchDragon", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post In my opinion, every penny they've got is deserved. Apart from perhaps Jerry being a bit sponsor-happy these days actually", "output": "I don't get when people complain about things like this. Such as, football players. \"They're not worth that much money!\" ... but they are. I know they're worth that much because they're getting paid that much. Millions of people want to watch them play and are willing to pay to watch. \n In this case, Jerry and Larry created something that a lot of people want to watch, both when it was a huge hit and even now that it's in syndication over 20 years later. \n You may also say they were lucky, but the truth is they took a big risk with their approach to a tv show and it absolutely killed. The two of them are also exceptionally talented, smart and hard working men"}], "user_id": "longlamp_6509", "history": [{"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "might as well have been the origin story for Two Face \n Haha that's actually a really good point. \"Two Face Begins (but also ends)\" \n >Batman is a vigilante and knows the sacrifices that need to be made and Superman did save the world. I doubt Batman is like \"Buildings were destroyed when you fought that superpowered person. Lives were lost. You're a menace and I'm gonna take you down!\" \n There is precedent in the comics for Batman not trusting Superman once in a while. Luthor and Batman are peak-humans in their own way and when an alien shows up that people almost idolise they are more reticent. Batman doesn't trust Superman to stay his 'good' self (classic Batman paranoia) for many reasons, including the possibility of mind control being used on Superman and him vaporising humanity. This is why Batman has a contingency plan to take out Superman involving a kyptonite bullet usually. It's not just mind control though, I think Batman is worried about things like emotional distress too. What if someone kills Lois Lane? Murders his parents in front of him? A Super-fit of rage is a pretty worrisome thing. \n I'm less familiar with Luthor though his motivations are often more linked to jealousy than good-intention paranoia I think. I particularly enjoy in Red Son where Luthor runs America and Superman runs Russia, but Luthor dedicates his time to getting rid of Superman as he is an alien and should keep out of human affairs. Avoiding spoilers, there is a point where Luthor forgets about Superman and dedicates his time to running America and turns it into a hyper-efficient Utopia. So Luthor may be a total asshole, but he isn't entirely wrong all the time.", "id": "clhzyqj", "summary": "3 characters with good intentions and their own faults could easily become enemies and hopefully make a fantastic film"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "The term may not be recognised as a medically recognised disorder but the word still holds a very specific defined meaning to everyone reading this post which we can discuss. \n I completely understand where you're coming from though. It's similar to people misusing words so much that they become perfectly acceptable for their misused intention as well as original (for instance, dictionaries may list 'literally' as it's original meaning as well as a word used for dramatic exaggeration).", "id": "cq5elme", "summary": "language is arbitrary and fluid, personally I think if a word has a well understood meaning by the majority of population then that is what the word means, regardless of technical accuracy"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "Buying someone a gift without any established relationship (friends/sexual/intimate) is pretty weird IMO. If you guys have been talking about something/shared interest and get her a gift related to that it wouldn't be odd. \n If the intention of the gift is to let her know you have feelings for her then I'd understand and it's certainly a valid way to do it but personally I'd try just talking to her first. I realise your anxiety issue might cause a problem with this.", "id": "cbq6dpl", "summary": "If you're doing it solely to let her know you like her, go for cliche (flowers/chocolate). If it's solely to make her like you, unless it makes sense from your previous conversations then don't bother"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "OP is a snob and is forcing his \"superior\" views on his friends. \n Taste is subjective. Some people want mindless entertainment from movies, not mentally challenging art. \n I finally stopped being a music snob a bunch of years ago when my friend downloaded the number one song of every week for the last 40 years and that was all he listened to. I couldn't believe it, thought it was the stupidest thing anyone could ever do and it was all terrible. I asked him why he didn't just put a little bit more effort in to find music that would suit his taste perfectly and he said he just didn't care that much. I still didn't understand. \n Then a few weeks later a food snob friend of mine was angry at me for using a bought jar of chilli sauce and said if I put a bit more effort in and made my own sauce it would be better and I said I didn't care that much. Then it suddenly clicked with me and realised why my friend listened to ABBA and MC Hammer and Boyzone all the time.", "id": "cgotwhi", "summary": "Some people don't care about improving their taste in certain things"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "I personally agree with you that that previous history has caused a bias towards the roles men and women are offered in the industry. \n That said (this may be an unpopular opinion), regarding this:\n>Biological gender has nothing to do with innate ability to do anything. \n There is some evidence that there are more 'genius' men than women (and similarly, more 'idiot' men than women). Essentially, on a bell curve of intelligence, mens rankings are more varied while womens are less varied. \n So say if we are talking at Best Director Oscars, we can argue that these are usually won by those considered 'genius' in the field and therefore it is more likely that they would be men. \n Disclaimer 1: Studies on this seem to be based on IQ, not a perfect indicator of intelligence, though close to the best we have. Even if IQ doesn't mean much, we can see there is definitely some inherent difference between men and women and is worth exploring \n Disclaimer 2: I'm referring to 'genius' level of directors. If there is still a huge difference in gender in mid-level directors then I think that implies bias in the industry still \n Disclaimer 3: I am not a smart man, merely an interested man, and find this sort of subject matter fascinating. More than willing to discuss/argue/be proven wrong \n Vaguely respectable looking writeup: \n Brief quote from writeup: \n > Let us get straight to the point made by the study. On average, men and women seem to score equally well on intelligence tests. The main difference is that there is more variation in the scores achieved by men than by women, which leads to an interesting effect: there are more geniuses and more idiots among men than among women. \n >This does NOT mean that a man’s genius is of a higher order; just that there is a tendency for more men to be geniuses (and idiots) than women in any random population sample. The women who are geniuses can be super geniuses, like two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, the first PERSON to receive such an honor.", "id": "cf1qspt", "summary": "There is a possibility that at a high level of directing, there are more geniuses who are men than women, hence the male dominated Best Director Oscars for instance"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "So the dude is kind of a dick. He mentioned that \"to get a high quality guy you need to lose weight\" which was unnecessary and just wrong. \n But , like you said, she asked for reasons she gets lots of views and little messages and he answered her with a reasonable answer (that I imagine is correct).", "id": "cfi95rg", "summary": "asshat is an asshat, but he's a  correct  asshat"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "I'm a bit tired of seeing these posts and are starting to think people not only find it quirky but find it stupid \n Just in case anyone is interested I'll describe why I believe this exists. \n I spent a ridiculous amount of time in the Netflix competition as part of my first degree dissertation (using the Singular Value Decomposition method for any math nerds here). \n Basically, Netflix creates the \"Related Movies\" from complete scratch using very clever, complex statistical methods (keep in mind this is my experience of a single method). \n Lets start with one person. This person rates a lot of movies. This persons taste is then broken down into an arbitrary number of values that describe this persons taste profile. (n.b. The only way to figure out these tastes is by comparing thousands of other users ratings also.) \n So let's say we're using 5 different taste descriptors. \n Person A may have data something like +5,-5,-5,+5,+5 based on movies they have rated highly or lowly. \n Each movie will also have values assigned to each of these descriptors. So, Citizen Kane may have something like +5,-5,-5,+5,+5. \n With this example, person A would find Citizen Kane as the perfect film. So using this system we can predict films that Person A would like. \n Now hopefully this is easily understood, particularly as we skipped the tricky part of actually calculating the values for users tastes and films descriptors. \n The problem is that these values don't have any obvious meaning. Maybe the first value describes films with lots of Action. If someone loves action films, this value will be +5. The second value may be Romantic plots/CGI films/whatever. \n Now, if we are using dozens or potentially hundreds of these values, they get so incredibly specific it's difficult to see the connection between films. \n So, someone at Netflix is required to look at a combination of films, say Super Troopers, Napoleon Dynamite, Lethal Weapon, Duck Soup and This is Spinal Tap and attempt to come up with some sort of way of categorising these films for the users front end of Netflix (as \"Taste Descriptor 37\" isn't good enough). \n The actual description doesn't really matter, because the taste profile exists and is real (on average). The data, whether right or wrong, has shown that people on average who enjoyed Duck Soup, will like This is Spinal Tap (as well as dislike another random collection of films). \n So the Netflix employee goes \"This is getting way too hard and doesn't matter that much. Fuck it, those guys have cool moustaches, let's go with that.\"", "id": "cdsmdot", "summary": "The analyzed data provides values that describe films, and they undoubtedly exist, but it's sometimes hard to see the connection between films that share similar values \n Hopefully this helped/interested someone"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "I took making computers as easy to use as possible as a challenge. I used to set up all the images for schools (so lots of teachers forced to start using computers in their 40s) and made everything as streamlined as possible. \n When there was an issue I would always try to come up with a way to make sure it wasn't an issue for anyone again, often suggesting Group Policy changes to my superiors, hopefully to cut down on the number of calls we had to go out to (this was over a large rural area so lots of travelling time). \n My bosses would say \"Who has requested this work?\" and I would say \"Me, I suppose?\" at which point they would remind me that we're snowed under with calls and don't have time to have 4 different hour long meetings with upper management and different heads of the school district. All just to make one small change that would reduce our calls significantly.", "id": "cbsz28b", "summary": "Working in IT when your upper management aren't IT nerds themselves is ridiculously annoying"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "You're right, drinking is expensive. Yet people (particularly here in the UK) do it in excess, so there must be some reason for it, clearly. \n Personally, I love the pub scene. When I go to pubs where I live I know a lot of people and people I don't know are friendly to talk to. 75% of my best friends I've met whilst drinking. I've gotten to know them best and grown our friendship much more when we're both drunk as fuck and open up. 90%+ of my relationships started because I met the girl drinking and probably slept with her before we even went on a date. And my relationships often last around a year or more so they aren't crappy \n Sunday drinking through the day is particularly special to me. Every person spending the afternoon in the pub is there because they hate the annoying 19 year old assholes getting wasted and throwing up everywhere and wearing ridiculous clothes and generally being twats. You buy a couple pints, talk a bit about football, then everyone goes home for dinner and goes to bed. \n That said I probably drink to excess every weekend because I hate my boring life. I have no other hobbies so it's either go out and spend my money and have a laugh, or go to sleep at 9pm and get up at 11am the next day with nothing to do. I wish I had a passion for something else in life, but making stupid jokes and being idiotic whilst drink copious amounts of rum happens to be my favourite thing to do", "id": "c4gfouw", "summary": "alcohol is great for meeting people (also great for stress release), but if you have your own way of socialising then more power to you."}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "I agree with you. \n \"Best\" film is a difficult phrase to work and causes arguments a lot on this sub. \n Is Guardians of the Galaxy better than 2001 because a larger slice of the population enjoyed it a lot, or is 2001 better because it's more artistic and tackles deeper themes? \n Personally I think the Imdb Top 250 is pretty great because I can quickly find suggestions for the higher quality end of what are essentially just entertaining films. If I want something a bit more challenging I'll check out the Criterion collection or maybe one of AFIs lists or something. \n The only major criticism I have is of newly released films getting highly rated but ultimately dropping over time, though that isn't a big deal.", "id": "clec153", "summary": "It's perfect for what it is, finding quality entertainment (not the best films ever made)"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "It was fantastically written and shot and acted and paced and everything \n But oh my god it was devastating to watch. I'm not gonna lie, I had a lot of emotional investment in their relationship anyway, making it hard to watch. But really what made it so horrifically painful was how realistic their arguments were. I had that horrible feeling in my gut watching it that I got in all the arguments of my previous relationships", "id": "cdebfz2", "summary": "Brilliant film. I didn't like it."}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "Me and a friend went drinking all day (we're 24/25). Went to a party in a hall in the middle of nowhere as they were still cleaning. The DJ put some music on, me and my drunk male friend started doing a waltz to the msuic for a laugh. The DJ cut the music and said \"I'm not playing music for any of that gay shit!\" \n Fair enough. To the bar. \n Blank. \n I wake up in some sort of wooden box a few hours later. There is a 15 year old girl holding my hand. I scream in a blood curdling little girl type of way. \n This scream wakes up my drunk friend who is also in this wooden box, with a 15 year old girl on his lap. This is a large wooden box. (It has two doorways!) He wakes up and screams. We get the fuck out of there. \n Head to the bar. \n Blank. \n Wake up the next day and head to the hall to see what the fuck the gigantic wooden box was. It wasn't there.", "id": "c4h7bh7", "summary": "got drunk, fell asleep in a box, potentially molested by 15 year old girls, box disappeared"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "I enjoyed reading your reply here but think it was slightly simpler and maybe slightly more metaphorical than that. I'll apologise ahead of time for explaining ideas badly. \n Sherlock was troubled by the situation and couldn't decide what he should do. The professor asked Holmes if he was like an automaton or if there were emotions underneath his exterior. Sherlocks bluff was called but in his mind he wasn't so certain. \n He asks Bella what the correct thing to do is expecting to hear the purely automaton response and Bella responds with the annoyingly familiar \"insufficient data for meaningful answer\" type response. I believe his facial reaction towards Bella is because that answer is not only the typical one but the exact answer he is currently giving (I.e he can't make a decision). \n Is Sherlock too automoton-like, is Bella sentient and similar to him in that she couldn't decide or more likely was it just a poetic coincidence? \n Sherlock is struggling to prove Bella isn't sentient while having trouble defining what it is to be human and make good decisions. \n I thought the episode was excellently written either way and these things don't require an answer because they raise more questions about Sherlock and his personality which makes for more entertaining watching", "id": "cmk1ipd", "summary": "Bella responded to the question in a way symbolically similar to how Sherlock answered it. Does that make her sentient or was it a coincidence that helped enlighten Sherlock that there's no correct answer?"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "I was in your place OP. Then one day I stopped caring about women/other people so much. Basically I spent my time with a few close friends, having fun, having drinks etc. Suddenly women were drawn towards spending time with us, just because we were having fun by ourselves. But we didnt fawn over them, not because it was some stupid psychological trick, we'd all just grown tired of caring and worrying. Soon I realised I was confident enough to have a conversation with anybody in a room at will, and not be uncomfortable (hint: lots of practise, talking to strangers for no reason other than to make their day a little more interesting)", "id": "c7kjoxb", "summary": "lose your shame/worries, talk to everyone, confidence will naturally build"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "I realise you have a lot of replies but hopefully this will help. \n I remember reading (I believe in \"How to make friends and influence people\") the author (Dale Carnegie) explains that people who have been friends for years rarely ask each other questions, they talk in statements. A really well flowing conversation with a lot of rapport will be something like this (and is basically an exact replica of conversations I have in bars with drinking buddies): \n 1: Hi, how are you getting on? \n2: I'm good. Just got some work done this morning, went for a run and watching the football tonight. What you been up to? \n1: Not a lot, just finished work. Maybe gonna watch the football tonight too. \n at this point there is already a bunch of topics that either person could discuss, usually in statements \n 2: Yeah it should be good. Looks like  Player  is gonna get some minutes. \n1: If  manager  stops being a dick about it. \n Usually in my conversations this starts out and eventually leads to people taking turns telling stories of things that happened to them, or stories they have heard, so it isn't necessarily always on a shared interest. Could just be \"I watched a good tv show the other that made me laugh\" or \"I was on a bus the other day and the driver absolutely lost it\" or some other anecdote. \n That was a bit of a rant but hopefully gives an indication that everything doesn't have to be an \"interrogation\"", "id": "cbni6yw", "summary": "Friends/people with good rapport talk in statements, not questions"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "All of this happened in around one month where I spent maybe 25 days of it in the pub: \n I was shaking so violently I knew I had to get some food in me. I hadn't eaten in 5 days or so, which wasn't unusual and I was used to the shakes. This was just the worst so far. I tried to walk to the shop and could barely walk in a straight line. I bumped into things a lot. I didn't wanna talk to anyone so used the automatic machines to buy my cheap sandwich, but couldn't even get the note into the machine from the shaking. \n I felt like a junkie. Spent the next two days sweating in bed watching tv shows on repeat. Then I went out drinking for another 5 days or so straight and repeated the whole thing again, though not as bad. \n I finally quit getting blackout drunk after a 2week bender where I ate maybe 3 meals. Also I'd bruised ribs and damaged my liver/kidney diving off a cliff and hitting the seabed. The doctors originally examined me and sent me away because I didn't have any pain while stretching etc (but I was hammered so obviously couldnt feel anything). The next day my morning piss was pure blood. I spent a few days getting hammered as pain relief and soon bartenders who knew me well were telling me they wouldnt serve me because I was blatantly in pain and couldn't stand straight. But I couldn't get blackout drunk like I usually did, no matter what. So I was inthe pub every day from 11am to 3am, went home to \"sleep\", then was back at opening time. This took a severe toll on my bank account finally and I called my mum, told her I was broke, jumped on a train she paid for and went through withdrawals with my family for around 3 days. \n I sobered up for a few weeks, went back into uni and finished my dissertation and started my new job and while I still drink I've got much more control of it, but I'm still an alcoholic and go to the pub to get black out drunk myself for a day or two every 3 weeks or so.", "id": "cd2b90m", "summary": "not physically able to do regular people things like walk or stand"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "These films are absolutely top notch at what they are trying to achieve, which is entertaining action stories for the masses. They're not high art but they are excellent movies, and for many people \"best\" often means \"most entertaining\" rather than \"of highest quality\". \n People enjoy Marvel movies and people know they will enjoy them purely because of that Marvel stamp. You might complain that they are generic, or have the same beats/pacing etc. You could reword that and describe it as \"consistent\", which is why it gets asses in seats. \n Finally, there's a lot of people saying ten superhero movies are coming out in 2017 as if this is terrible... Well, how many movies do you watch in a year? Just 10? I doubt it. It's not like you have a quota on films that these are ruining. And if it's the marketing or the internet comments that are getting you riled up about it then there's not much you can do about that", "id": "clky9s4", "summary": "People love them because they're lovable. Their opinions shouldn't make you sad. Watch whatever you want."}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "Pi is non-repeating, that does not imply it has every possible combination in it. \n This is similar to people thinking that the infinite universe theory means somewhere there is an exact universe as this except our hands are blue. Just because there are infinite universes does not imply every possible configuration existed. \n As a numeric example, a number that follows the pattern 1.121122111222..etc is infinite and non repeating but obviously doesn't contain every possible combination", "id": "cmfd7j7", "summary": "pedantry"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "I like your theory. It explains some parts of Nolans Joker. That said, I'll start typing my own thoughts on him and see what happens. \n Firstly, Joker is a sociopath. The rigid training of the military wouldn't give him an awful lot of leeway to manipulate people like he would prefer to do (though it's still a possibility). The very specific hierarchy in the military would make him slightly less effective. \n I like to think of him repressing his psychosis/sociopathy all his life, maybe subtly manipulating people to get ahead and feeling guilty about it afterward. \n Then, as what happens in the comics, he has one really bad day, such as losing his wife and whatnot. This allows him to finally embrace his psychosis and finds the Batman to take it out on. \n So the interesting part is what he did before his one really bad day. \n We know certain things about him: \n He has no records. \n He is a master tactician. \n He has good knowledge of explosives and weaponry. \n So what can we guess he used to do for a living? \n Take your own guess. This is mine... I think he was a spy. He is an excellent manipulator and sociopath and lying comes easily to him. It's a more autonomous career than say a grunt in the military. This gives him free reign to go about things his own way, even lying to his handlers to his own ends. \n Maybe he spent his time pretending to have a wife, then a family for a deep cover job for 5-10 years. Then maybe he had one really bad day where his son was blown up in an espionage related assassination, totally randomly. Maybe an ally murdered his wife suspecting her of some sort anti-american sentiments, pick your enemy as you will. On this day the Joker realized that chaos is the only driving force in this world. The Joker embraces his natural self, realizes he has a specific skillset that he could utilize to whatever he wants or needs. \n The Joker realizes he wants or needs nothing anymore. He has no drive to have any power in a chaotic society, not governed by any rules or reason. He doesn't even care that the Mafia in his hometown is ruining peoples lives, it's all just random chaos. \n Then the Batman shows up... He see's a kindred spirit in how they both had one bad day and embraced their psychosis to other ends of the spectrum. Think of Mr Glass's thoughts in Unbreakable. \n Anyway you've seen the Dark Knight, you see how it resolves \n Hopefully that all makes sense, I've been drinking", "id": "c6zajgi", "summary": "I reckon he could have been a spy for America"}, {"author": "SnatchDragon", "content": "I had a guy exactly like this. Even if I went into some detail about my day he still only replied with super mundane texts. \n I suspected this guy was in the closet (and possibly didn't actually know it) and was confirmed by some mutual friends. \n That said, I still think he was just a boring person (on phone, he was cool enough in real life).", "id": "cgcbdyc", "summary": "some people are boring phone people"}]}
+{"author": "CloudDrone", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I know what you mean, but I wouldn't have it any other way.", "output": "Its not supposed to play like a twitch shooter with instant precision aiming. I think its movement limitations are part of the charm, personally. It feels fluid to me, in its own way. The whole vibe of the game relies on being a little goofy, and having airtight controls would make it feel a little too serious, IMO. \n I have the most fun in GTA games when something goes slightly different than intended. The mistakes and RNGesus is a recipe for all kinds of shenanigans."}], "user_id": "longlamp_1412", "history": [{"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "Again, game companies share some of the blame because they are releasing fewer splitscreen titles, and consumers are not used to using their computers for seamless multiplayer game potential that is becoming increasingly commonplace. \n More reasons are born out of convention and historical limitations both on the player side, and the developer side: \n \n Computers used to be a pain in the dick to view at large resolutions, have limited accessibility to control devices, and were a bitch to move, so companies didn't do a lot of split screen for PC. This is now no longer an issue as we have standardized peripherals, mobile and reliable gear. \n \n Studios making titles for the last two generations of consoles began to phase out splitscreen for two big reasons: 1) They focused more on trying to keep up in the graphic detail category so much that splitscreen became \"optional,\" since the games would have to downgrade graphically in order to render for two players at once. 2) Under the guise of \"keeping a consistent experience for all players\" companies realized that instead of having Johnny invite his 3 friends over to play split screen, they would sell more copies if each kid bought their own version of the game. This would also encourage them to play online, which is a service that they have to purchase access to. \n \n A lot of players are not used to personal computers being the \"seamless\" type of gaming experience that Nintendo or sega used to offer back when local co-op was a big deal on consoles. (everyone played couch co-op games) Now, with the popularization of steam, the resurgence and explosion of PC gamers moving from consoles, people are realizing that their computers are not only great for casual and competitive gaming, but are even more enjoyable and often easier to use than consoles. \n \n \n I can't fault a lot of gamers for not thinking often about split screen when they don't have access to it much anymore, but I don't see that as purely a reflection of market potential. You are half right when you say \"if there was a market for it, they would capitalize on it.\" That statement doesn't ring true when that market is in conflict with an even more lucrative market. Companies have been able to get away with not having split screen because they choose to make money that way, and until recently, gamers haven't had as much choice in the matter. \n The dynamic between consumers and companies is in the process of a dramatic shift towards a more pro-consumer market. Gamers are becoming educated and informed about the options they have. Companies are still able to deliberately handicap the features of their games because it is still lucrative to do so, but it won't be for long. The PC gaming community is aware of what a game is capable of and will move to better options when a company doesn't provide a quality product. Console gamers will continue leave for greener pastures when they realize the companies are deliberately withholding features that cut into their profits. PC gamers are showing with games like Star Citizen that they have the power to put their money where their mouth is, and back games that push boundaries.", "id": "cqjkwa3", "summary": "The companies took away split screen because it was popular enough to cut into their profits. Now that consumers are wising up, the companies will have to start doing things to set themselves apart from other companies to stay competetive. This will undoubtedly bring back more couch co-op, which people forget about, but will welcome back into the culture of modern gaming."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "Wow, you reverted to the shit throwing after the first reply. All of my responses are in the light of your framing of these bands. Keep in mind that you said they are experimental (\"mind-blowingly experimental\" in some cases) and iconic bands. Let me go into some detail here... \n > Completely disagree with you there. They are an extremely talented young band with great songwriting chops. Their melodies are interesting and well thought out. They manage to pull on influences like early Weezer and Goldfinger but also fuzz out their sound like Kyuss or other \"stoner rock\" bands. Do they sound like a blues-rock band from the 70s? No. Should they or does anyone want them to? No. \n Let's set the record clear, I don't listen to much Led Zep, and don't expect bands to sound like them. \n I listened to even more of the wavves band and their image is so calculated. Its almost as if they are purposefully trying to get an ironically gnarly sound just because they are an ironically gnarly band (read: not gnarly.) I don't hear the same thing you hear I guess, because the chord progressions are banal, the melodies not even that catchy, and they sing like they are bored with life. The whole energy of the band comes off to me as channeled boredom, or the \"We come off as cool because we don't  even care\" kind of nonchalance. I don't find that interesting or experimental since half the young bands also take on this unaffected tone. I have yet to be convinced of their genius. \n > Robert Plant himself said he wished he could play bass for them, so your rock idles seem to think the Black Keys are better than \"really tame, steadily moving toward a cliche pop sound.\" \n Again you assume Zep are my rock idles. I speak regarding their long standing critical acclaim, and general obsessive fan base (which continues to renew itself across timeless generations) not my own tastes when I talk of their prowess upon the music scene. I don't have to attempt an objective view in light of their history. On another note, have you heard Robert Plant's, and Alison Krauss' collaborative songwriting efforts? If anything we talk about is both bland and simple, its that. I've heard maybe one good song they wrote together. You seem to not give Led Zep a lot of credit, but then proceed to use his opinion as an example of why a band rocks. ??? \n Let me move on to your breakdowns of bands: \n > The Gorillaz are a thousand times more creative than all three of the bands you mentioned put together. They are combining vastly different genres of music to create new melodic and lyrical styles that haven't been properly explored before. \n You're right the gorillas are creative. But they are a self-proclaimed pop music project, on a list of people you're comparing to blues and rockbands. Yes, they have influences and roots that cross boundaries of genres, but a lot of that comes from the collaborative nature of the project. The Gorillas is a collaboration of talented artists, I'll give you that. They are also more than 10 years old, so I see a contradiction with your criticism of my choices. \n > Band of Horses write some of the most enduring and solid rock songs of the past 5 years. Every one of them is brilliant and stands on its own as smart and well thought out lyrically and musically. They are not lazy or repetitive. \n Enduring rock songs? Yeah they write good songs, and I like to listen to them sometimes, but enduring? I don't think many people will still be listening to Band of Horses 15 years down the road that didn't listen to them now. They have a well developed modern-country rock sound, but again I don't think they Do a lot to set themselves apart from other bands. Most of the songs feature the same guitar tones, the same vocal stylings, similar structure and generally the same vibe. Thats impressive to be able to accomplish on one level, but it doesn't fit in with the criteria that it seems you are going for on your list. \n > MGMT is unbelievably creative and your dismissal of them is the first real sign of how incredibly full of shit you are. Oracular Spectacular had 4-5 songs that you would recognize at the opening notes, simply because they were so goddamn catchy that they actually made it onto the radio (which is almost unheard of for modern indie rock bands). Congratulations was not as well received but is as tight and well thought out as anything else on this list. \n I would say they are very believably creative. I mean to say, their lyrics are about some pretty open and basic shit. Not really experimenting with anything new here, and its going to be forgotten long before Zep or Beatles. The music is influenced by how these guys both studied music in college. Their song structures are the basic pop formats and don't stray at all. The chord progressions are textbook creations with stuff they picked up in Music Theory 102.\nCatchy because they understand what makes a song catchy. It takes basic rhythms and basic harmonies. \n All of the bands you mention (except for Wavves) in my opinion are fairly creative bands. I even enjoy listening to them. My original intent was not to discredit their success, or their talent, and skill, only to discredit their place in your list. Experimental? Not extremely so. Iconic? Hardly, maybe with the exception of the Gorillaz, to a certain degree, although I'd say not on a massive scale. \n > Need I go on? I challenge you to find a three piece band more creative AND listenable than the Dodos. They manage to make a single guitar, drums and a xylophone sound fascinating. Their drummer plays the rims of the heads more than the skins and does incredible things that most rock drummers never thought of experimenting with. \n The guitarist plays mostly with open tunings, and they are not an extremely developed band. Yeah they do things differently than other bands, but they don't do things different than their own stuff. Once you've heard three Dodos songs, you've heard most everything that the band is capable of doing. I drum. The things the Dodos guy does are not difficult for any drummer of decent experience to do. Saying that he does things rock drummers don't even think of doing makes me wonder if you have much first hand knowledge of drumming. And its like comparing apples and oranges. The Dodos drummer doesn't even use a bass drum, so of course he has to do things differently. That is a sign of creativity, but the violent femmes drummer didn't use a bass drum either. \n As for finding the creative and listenable 3 piece, sure! [Menomena]( \n Or how about [The Helio Sequence?]( They are a two piece, but the drummer also programs and plays the synthesizers. So its like a 3 piece, but in a 2 piece package. Both of these guys are way listenable and all their songs don't sound the same. \n I'm going to go out on a limb here and say these guys take some basic concepts and add some pretty important changes. \n Now, as an example of experimental and iconic rock band that is bringing the heat down on the scene within the last 10 years, [The Mars Volta.]( You either love it, or you hate it, but you can't deny the raw power of the rock roots, or the experimental free form jazz noise solos, or just the simple acoustic songs or song portions. The intense energy these guys bring to the stage is  hard to match. The lyrics, although sometimes too fucked up to understand, are definitely an experiment with word play, and Cedric even sings in spanish occasionally. They have recorded and toured with a number of extremely talented artists, besides themselves. [Thomas Pridgen]( and John Frusciante, who doesn't need an introduction.", "id": "c1140e5", "summary": "Your favorite bands don't suck, but they're not very good examples of modern bands that are either experimental, extremely noteworthy, timeless, iconic, or even that talented. \n EDIT: formatting."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "I'll offer my uneducated perspective on the matter. \n I could be wrong, but I think being able to skip loading the hangar is not in their best interests. We are testing the game for them, and they are trying to manage bugs based on the info that our clients and feedback provide. If we skip the hangar, they are missing out on a huge part of the debugging process. SC 1.1.0 shouldn't really be trying to remove all the difficult parts of the game just to make it to the parts that are fun. It sucks, but that's kind of the point. The hangar is built in the part of the engine that a lot of SC will take place in. It needs to be fully tested and nobody will go through it if they can avoid it.", "id": "cpqt056", "summary": "beta testing is useless if they create a shortcut to bypass buggy, yet essential parts of the game."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "Right when I got out of High School I was kind of depressed, smoking a lot of weed and cigarettes and drinking a lot. I went to school in another state and it was the first time I was away from my parents for good. I was still in an extremely rebellious headspace and When this bum walked up to me (the very same day I got there) I decided I would hang out with him since he said he had weed. I ended up smoking crack with the guy because I decided I only live once. When I ended up going with him to the shadiest part of the city I realized I was dependant on this crazy crack head for my survival, and freaked out because I put my life in the hands of a dangerous stranger. I couldn't get away from him and I freaked out and got lost when he turned on me and wanted to fight. \n I started spiraling downward even more and partied to ignore what was going on, dropped out of school because I couldn't concentrate on anything, developed  paranoia and maybe a mild schitzophrenia because I heard people saying nasty things to me all the time. Hallucinated homeless people on the side of the street and nasty things they would say to me.\nThe event was so traumatic that I started seeing people's auras when that had never before happened to me. \n I definitely regretted that for about two years. Only when I moved on with my life did I stop thinking about it. It took a lot of soul searching, and a lot of exercise and meditation, to finally feel like a new person. To get to the point where I can believe that I am a good person and there's nothing really that wrong with me and I can get somewhere in life even with dark demons always seeming to be close by. I finally have a job that I can go to without feeling like everyone hates me, have my old sense of humor back, and I'm starting to work on some music that I really enjoy. I'm training to become a manager for the pizza place I work at and that's a big boost of confidence.", "id": "c0epfz0", "summary": "don't smoke crack."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "Haha I have experienced quite a few drugs since leaving the church, (cocaine, ecstacy, mushrooms, lots of pot, lots and lots of booze, smoked cigarettes for three years, meth once to try it [nope!] DMT is recommended to any who are willing) been homeless on the streets of provo, lived in a commune in Houston, played lots of metal and reggae music, had premarital teenage sex outdoors, told my bishop off before I left. \n I live with my never-mo girlfriend, and now I live a very mellow life. I'm writing a lot of music and working as an account manager for a large  commercial carpet company. Have decent wages, a future, no drugs aside from the occasional brew. \n Basically, I went out and got experience. I regret not a single minute, even if parts of my life sucked. Now I know from personal experience what my parents were so afraid of having me find out. \n The world is full of pitfalls, but as soon as you give up on yourself and try to close your eyes to the world, in my book, you've lost. You're out of touch, and you've fallen into the biggest pitfall of them all. Sleep, unconscious to reality and truth.", "id": "c6gvt6u", "summary": "Prodigal son went out, never to return the same, and instead formed a creed of his own, and stands up for the search for truth. I don't need drugs, sex, or the church to keep me going, though I did find myself searching all of those."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "I really don't like removing comments with an opposing opinion because of how valuable it is to have other points of view. That being said, if your language is constantly and needlessly antagonistic, to the point of putting down other people, and basically shitting on other people's perspective by calling them idiots, we'll need to talk about your ability to write comments in the future.", "id": "cl4gsxj", "summary": "I want you to keep adding your perspective to discussion but keep it civil or you're out."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "What we're dealing with here is a sense of morality. A blurred sense of reality causes there to be inconsistency in morality. \n With Eve, we have the metagame, which can be different than many games out there, but its important to keep the rules of each world separate, and understand that what is acceptable within the internal world of the eve universe (socially) needs to be adapted to fit the meta-game. The meta-game exists in a kind of buffer zone between the controlled environment of the eve universe and the chaotic world of the reality which contains the eve universe. Rules that don't break morality within the game reality absolutely can break a sense of morality outside of that controlled universe. \n They are both reality, yes, but morality isn't rigid between different social constructs. \n Its like bdsm. If you want to get fucked in the ass with a wooden dildo by a group of overweight librarians, that's still acceptable in your reality if you create consent, a social construct. If consent doesn't happen, all you're left with is broken dreams (and possibly rectums). Both are reality, but its not hard to keep these constructs separate.", "id": "cmeklry", "summary": "Logging into eve is like giving consent to be fucked in the ass with a wooden dildo. Getting fucked in the ass with while you're logged out doesn't guarantee consent."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "Head on over to /r/fitness and check out the FAQ. Losing weight is 90% diet, but it is easier to lose weight when you have muscle. Don't be afraid to learn how to properly squat, press, bench, and deadlift, as that will all help you build some healthy good muscle. There is a misconception about cardio being the best way to lose weight. Its one of the slowest uses of your time to burn calories, and it doesn't help you build muscle, which can be the biggest tool to burn calories. Use myfitnesspal to help you figure out just how many calories you are eating. Eat high protein foods (about 1g of protein for every 1 lb you weight) to help build muscle, and fill in the rest of your daily caloric needs with healthy vegetables. You will want to be eating about 1700 to 1800 calories if you lift weights. If you decide to not lift weights, expect to eat a little less. \n The weight will begin dropping off, and if you are on a lifting program, you will start getting really strong, and will be able to eat more as your body gets down to size. \n If you want to try out running, which I don't recommend while carrying your \"adorable college pudge\", choose something like couch to 5k. \n Sticking to a program is the best way to see good results, and the best chance you'll have of actually sticking to lifestyle changes. If you go in and don't know what you are doing, and fuck around, you wont make very much progress, you'll probably develop really bad form, and you'll get burnt out quicker because of the lack of structure. \n If you are looking for a really rad (though potentially higher budget) ass kicking regiment of all kinds of different expercises and a supportive community driven workout, look into CrossFit. There are a couple good locations in Portland. I've had my best workouts at CrossFit gyms..", "id": "c5t2em3", "summary": "So to recap, Learn barbell lifts properly, cut out food that isn't helping you, lift weights, running is pretty bad on your joints if you've been sedentary and gaining weight for a long time, read the /r/fitness FAQ, and SQUATS!! \n And start biking to work."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "You're blatantly misusing the system as its intended, then. Its intended use encourages discussion , not agreement. I can handle having people disagreeing with me. People who down vote anyone that they disagree with are the ones who can't handle someone disagreeing. \n If someone produces an idea, and is willing to explain or discuss that idea, your down votes are an act of soft censorship. By default, a Reddit account hides comments under a certain score. You are implying that the comment was unworthy to be seen, a distinction that should be reserved for comments that do not offer value to discussion. \n Further inhibiting speech, you are lowering a persons subreddit specific comment karma which is required to participate in discussion with any frequency. If a persons comment karma drops below a certain point, their ability to comment without waiting a set time is revoked. Negative subreddit karma is used to prevent trolls and spammers from commenting too frequently. Want to win an argument on Reddit? Get enough people to down vote their comments until they no longer can reply. \n Its really simple. If you can't handle seeing someone's opinion, your words should be the tool used as rebuttal. And if the person continues to elaborate their reasoning for their opinion, and you care to continue proving them wrong, you should be thankful to have a venue of free debate where you can freely tell someone why their idea sucks. \n From your suggestion that I should be open to other peoples opinion, you agree with my philosophy. But down voting an unpopular opinion is contrary to your other words.", "id": "cnvgdl8", "summary": "down voting opinions instead of debating them is lazy, breeds a groupthink attitude, silences healthy dissent, demands consensus etc. Its a juvenile kneejerk response to something that you don't like."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "Sweeping general rationalization is not approved of by CloudDrone. Sure culture changes and the internet changes things big time, but record stores like Bleep.com would die without the people you imply are non existent. They (we, if I include myself) are out there, listening to four sided records in their entirety, and sharing music with people and getting excited by reputable collaborations and releases coming up in the near future. We're enjoying craftsmanship of sound and albums as an artform as well as single songs that we love to listen to or share. Many love the listening experience of vinyl. Some love minimizing physical stuff and download mp3s.", "id": "c26gl35", "summary": "Everybody doesn't behave this way, and probably even more than you think have a musical attention span longer than a catchy chorus."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "I am speculating here, but maybe it has to do with the tendency for people with ADHD to be simultaneously aware of their emotional state, yet not be great at putting on the brakes when it comes to impulse emotional reactions. ADHD doesn't hinder our ability to be aware of what is going on, so we can watch our emotional outbursts, yet be aware enough to know that's not what we actually want. \n I think being too nice is a result of not wanting to express the \"wrong\" emotion. Its a cover up, usually entrenched in a fair amount of fear. Maybe there is a fear that if we show the wrong kinds of emotion, people wont like us or something. From what I understand, that is a common fear, and especially common among people with ADHD. \n The results are less than stellar though. In being \"too nice\" we tend to neglect our own feelings. We end up not saying what needs to be said and what we want to be said, because we are trying to prevent being swept up and out of control. This is almost paradoxical thinking though, because we end up controlled by our emotions most when we stifle and try to repress what we truly feel because of the fear of rejection or fear of losing approval, or something. \n Definitely love yourself, and practice standing up for yourself. Don't be nice when nice is not the correct action. \n To bring in an example that I am familiar with, compassion is an attribute often talked about in Buddhism. But being compassionate does not always mean being nice. Sometimes the most compassionate thing you can do  is to let things be. Sometimes it is to stop things. Sometimes it means to use little effort. Sometimes it means to use a lot of effort. \n Compassion in Buddhism is about reducing suffering in others and yourself. Sometimes to truly help someone you might have to take an action that will lead to pain. While that may sound bad on the surface, the example I'm thinking about is taking a loved one to a rehabilitation clinic. Rehab is a painful process that is the start of a difficult journey. You have to be aware enough if taking someone to rehab is going to help them, or make things worse. Some people get clean, resent whoever took them, get back on the sauce, and overdose due to lowered tolerances, because they entered the journey when they couldn't be ready. If we are worried about how they will think of us, we won't have the ability to see the situation with as few clouded perceptions as possible. \n That brings us to the concept of wisdom in Buddhism. They believe that both must be developed to be truly compassionate, because to know what the best action to take that results in a truly compassionate act, one must be wise. \n To put it differently, people who try to be nice all the time are often acting compassionately, but using nice as a rule is acting without thinking. Often times if you're always nice, you end up hurting yourself, and allowing other people to hurt you and others. That fear of speaking out, saying the wrong thing, embarrassing yourself, these are all things that I feel almost every day. I think a lot of us feel these things. These fears prevent us from being helpful. \n I hope the Buddhist terminology doesn't turn anyone off. I feel like it describes the situation exactly to a \"T\", which is why I brought it up. \n How we counteract this tendency, is to find ways to love ourselves. Find strategies to put ourselves in situations that we are able to be ourselves. Take care of ourselves. Treat ourselves with respect. Become focused on doing our best, rather than focusing on the outcome of a situation (outcome independence). \n Some methods I use to better love myself with acceptance: \n Journalling: Try writing down your thoughts with no judgement and without stopping once for 3 pages every day. You get to get out a lot of the emotional impulses and get to work through things and share things that you want to keep personal. Since you're not sharing it, you can be free to be non-judgmental. After all, you can be proud you are getting your thoughts out of your head, so you can move on. \n Exercise: Healthy way to build self esteem, improve self-image, removes stresses of many negative thoughts to free your attention elsewhere. \n Meditation: 10 minutes of meditation every  day is a gentle way to find self acceptance, slow down a bit, and love ourselves. \n All of these things help us to love ourselves more, and I think that is the key to tripping up the \"too nice\" fear based state of mind. It's very difficult with ADHD, but if we can learn to accept ourselves, we are going to be much better off.", "id": "cq0dqzz", "summary": "Love ourselves, start doing what needs to be done instead of being nice out of fear. Tough with ADHD, but the only thing that helps."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "Being a little pedantic, I would say that Epic, choosing to eschew tradition, shouldn't be expected to only use -ator on doppelbocks just because other people have chosen to in the past. \n And the pedant in me also recognizes that it would be a little pedantic of him to be bothered by someone calling their beer an unorthodox name when nothing else about it suggests his original inferred notion...", "id": "cag85a9", "summary": "I really need to get outside more often, but I was really just being devils advocate. It is a peculiar way to name a beer, now that I know that fun fact."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "When i was 15 i played in a metal band and my high school jazz band because thats all i had. Later, i met a person who was into improv, and my decision to play with him was the single one thing that catapulted me into the kind of way i see sound today. \n The most important thing to remember is how you have the capacity to explore sound just as much as any other human being. Dont be afraid to ask any person who seems genuinely interested in the possibilities of sound, how you can do it too. But keep exploring something on your own.", "id": "c3zhq84", "summary": "do it on your own, as well as with who you can, and eventually you will find the important ones."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "I've moved around from city to city since since I was 18, and now that I'm settled in one place, kinda far from Mordor, I've had the consistent curiosity about what LDS services are like away from SLC. I grew up in Elko, NV so I was close enough to SLC to have a lot of influence from the heartland. I imagine it was similar to Idaho in a lot of ways, for those of you who grew up in smaller towns with Mormon populations in Idaho. \n I'm 24 now, and officially stopped showing up at 15, after not believing any of it for a long time. I only started learning the real history of it about a year ago, when my curiosity lead me to /r/exmormon. I was definitely blown away that people could learn about this stuff and still believe, and realized it was a lot bigger and more insane than I had originally thought. \n So I've been curious about it enough to go back, just for one sacrament meeting, since I couldn't care less about spending a lot of time there, just so I can see it from the outside in. \n Anybody else let there curiosity get the better of them and go back to see what it's like?", "id": "t3_1jr3cl", "summary": "Sacrament meeting is cheaper and closer than the zoo and I'm curious to do a little casual culture study. DAE?"}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "I have an old Janssen spinet piano that I keep at the shop I work at. It stays between 58 and 65 degrees, which may be harsh on the condition of the piano, but for now I am only interested in playability. \n The more I play lately, the more hammers are not coming all the way back to their resting position. I am getting better at playing, so during delicate passages, or most of the time I am playing, there are about 13 keys right now that trip me up. I can continue playing, but it's a little frustrating to be playing a run and 8 out of the 30 or so notes you play in succession don't sound at all due to the starting position of the hammer and the pressure required to get those notes to play out. \n So I'm wondering if any of you who understand the mechanisms a little better might help me to locate the problem and help me to know if there is a way to fix it. I would hire a piano technician, but it's not in my budget until at least 4 months from now and I'd like to spend as little money as possible. \n I don't have access to it through out my weekend because I don't live near my shop, but I'd be happy to answer any questions. you have about it that can help us solve this problem. \n Thank you!", "id": "t3_17rha5", "summary": "piano keys sticking, opened up cabinet, can see the hammers stopping a few inches short, not sure what is blocking them."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "Forgive me it this is an obvious observation, and maybe long winded, but I'd like to put forth some thoughts on the perception of the church, influenced by the book I have been reading lately called 'Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Brain'quite by Douglas Hofsdtadter. \n Forgive me if this is not thought out to a deeper conclusion. Parts of my intuition on these matters comes from my experience growing up in the church, then leaving, gaining a knowledge of the church from the outside, as well as a few thought experiments while on psychedelics, and a few episode of mild paranoia that I was quite amused to find had given fruit to a few zen like thought exercises that were new to me. Not to mention a few video game references. \n I am not a writer so I will attempt to organize these the best I can. \n The first premise I have are how members of the church believe in their church, their reality, and their existence, without a doubt. We can agree that these people exist, I'm sure. The second is that people on the outside of the church don't believe that the church is true. So we have two competing systems of thought, which influence the actions of those within each system, to behave differently. \n Those who don't see the church as true see themselves as \"outside\" of the church, and see the church as a system operating at a level within the greater system the nonbelievers operate in. Like the church is a mini-game, within a greater level map. \n The church members see themselves as inside the \"greater\" system, sort of a meta level above the regular system, and they see the nonbelievers as inside their own mini-game, which is a small closed off system which is only part of the \"greater\" system that they, the believers, are part of. \n We have two complete opposite interpretations of what reality is, which leads to some severe communication barriers between individuals. \n So a few years ago I ate 5 grams of mushrooms, donned a blindfold, some noise cancelling headphones, and laid down under a blanket to enjoy the ride. What I discovered, over the next 4 hours or so, was that my thoughts were not the \"greater\" system in my head of perceived reality. They were simply a cross section of a part of reality. I came to this conclusion by trying to out think myself. When my mind started going through thought patterns, I would try to entertain the thoughts by finding their conclusive ends. I discovered that the logic of a constantly wandering mind has a nasty habit of picking a cross section, and determining that it is the all inclusive reality, and that all decisions should be based on this evidence. No matter how much I tried to think through these thoughts to find their end, I would continue to spiral around in endless feedback loops, where misconception after misconception would lead to some very strange ideas about the nature of reality. \n Then I wanted to see what would happen if I stopped these thoughts. Being incredibly affected by 5 grams of magic mushrooms had the effect of giving my thoughts an almost definable shape, feeling, and presence in the space of my mind, so I envisioned my point of consciousness moving out of these thought loops. Silence would follow, for a few moments, only to realize that my mind had now begun creating a chattering commentary on my current state, just having moved out of a thought loop. I was caught in another! Time after time, I realized that at a moments notice, your brain is completely okay abandoning previous thought patterns in favor of the new ones. As long as it could chatter away, it was totally cool. (Any of you who have ever tried some kind of mind quieting meditation exercise can attest to the fact that the mind loves to chatter.) \n The realization I had made was that I had gone through what seemed like an infinite number of thought loops, all wanting to be the center of the universe, and that I had gone from paranoid thoughts (such as a nagging concern that I was actually asleep and that everyone around me was waiting for me to wake up) to other paranoid thoughts, (like the 4th dimension was the real reality, and that I was a slave to alien lifeforms, who feed off my creativity. At the center of each thought was a \"self\" who based his world view on the tiny bit of information that was inside its own system (its own feedback thought loop) and was isolated in such a way, that each time a new series of thoughts flowed through, each one seemed as perfectly reasonable, logical, and likely as the next. \n For those of you who have no experience with psychedelics, it tends to have a strange way of allowing you to continue operating in the ways you do, but sort of letting you see your own patterns and things more objectively, with a magnifying glass. In a sense, it allows you to take a step outside of your system of thought, and no longer view all of your actions from inside those thought systems. \n So in reading GEB: An Eternal Golden Braid, The entire book's idea is central to this theme, of conscious selves arising out of what he calls \"strange loops\". Just like my thoughts each containing their own version of an ego, who made decisions based on the way they saw the world (which was essentially like viewing the world through a prison cell window, if you ask me). They arise out of a small collection of seemingly meaningless symbols, and create an artificial large view of how everything is. A sort of \"theory of everything\", without actually taking everything into account. \n So without continuing to repeat myself, I'll state that I believe the structure of the church is similar to one of these states of thought, where seemingly meaningless symbols give rise to consciousness and an ego self. The brains of millions have given meaning to these snippets of information, and the illusion of a conscious entity has given rise in the minds of all who believe. Millions are participating in a mass hallucination, whose core consists of a story not based in reality. \n Now, when you're in the church, you can't see that its not true, because that's not allowed in the system. In order to be in the system, you must follow the systems rules. One of the rules is you must not look at the system from the outside, you must look at it as though it is true. This creates a feedback loop where everybody sees information though the lenses created by viewing the world through their system. They believe they are seeing the world, but really they are seeing all of the information and symbols that surround them, which are actually a part of the system. \n Now, I recognize that I don't offer an equal structure view for those who are non-believers, since I did mention earlier that the two world views were at ends with each other. \n I believe this falls under burden of proof, as the nonbelievers are not the ones who made the claims that the system exists. People who are within a system will often try to suggest that those outside the system are just within another system, parallel, and of equal consideration to their own. I'd like to point out that this is false, because those non-believers are inherently, out side of the system, and you can not define a greater system from inside a subsystem. You must jump out a level to truly be able to define a system. You can't apply the rules of your subsystem, to a larger one. Anyone who has ever done any programming knows this. If I knew more about programming, I could probably explain that better. \n So there, Forgive me for my mess of cross referencing and my inconsistent use of terms to define concepts. I'm trying to gain a better understanding of these ideas. \n In closing, I'd like to suggest that it seems the best way to create a more conscious view of a system, is to get out of that system. Seeing as how lds members follow the rule of no viewing the church outside of the system, its up to doctrine, and examples from within the church to cause that jump from the outside. \n If you can use \"church sanctioned doctrine\" to cause that momentary jump to the outside of the system. That little blip of doubt, they are likely to view the whole system as it really is, an incomplete closed off feedback loop, from which a select few individuals benefit financially from. \n Thanks for reading.", "id": "t3_1250we", "summary": "nope, you're going to have to read it if you want to understand."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "25-M \n Lately I've been trying to get some help to get my life on track. I have an appointment to see an ADHD specialist but its almost 4 weeks out due to her schedule. I'm not on medication yet (I was for a few months in high school before deciding to stop taking it), so I'm trying to do things better in the meantime. \n I hate getting help with things even though I feel completely incapable with handling the daily and long-term operations of my own life. Thankfully, I have some people in my life that want to see me succeed, and they want to help. Despite them being great people, I just hate the feeling of having people ask me for help, I hate the feeling of them helping, I hate getting treated more delicately after I finally break down and ask for help. I feel depressed after talking about my problems, I feel frustrated while talking about my problems, and I feel anxious when deciding what problems I need to fix and in what order. By problems I'm talking about things like bills I need to pay, forms I need to fill out, scheduling I need to do, planning, relationships, friendships, chores, the like. I don't ever feel like I have the same problems as other people. \n That doesn't change the fact that I am unable to do it alone. \n What makes me feel so pissed off is that I know I can do ANY THING. I have done every thing I've ever set my mind to. When I am interested in something I can be almost too thorough with it. I just can't do  EVERYTHING . and I can't do anything when its more than one thing. \n It pisses me off when people want to help and they say \"Tell me what to do about your situation so I can help you out.\" As if, I am supposed to say \"god, thank you for the help, yes could you do this, this, and this for me, because I can't do it on my own so I can focus on this and take care of this?\" That's just not how it seems to work. I know I'm capable of things and a large part of me wants to take care of it. Its like they think they can just ask me what they can do to help, they'll be able to help me get things done, and things will be better. Most of the time, there is no apparent problem they can help with. I'm just sitting there with a million things I've fucked up in the past month trying to get through my schedule for the day. They can't help me not procrastinate putting in an order for something I fucked up with at work. It doesn't make me feel good to fix my mistakes and it doesn't work to have to get help while doing it. \n I have a headache because i just got off the phone with my mom and she encouraged me to look up insurance info since my dad took me off of his insurance by mistake. It turned into talking about a 6 month plan for the future and I wanted to slap myself in the face and hang up the phone. I had to tell her that I don't care what happens in six months. I'll start to think about that when I feel comfortable getting through a single week, let alone a month or longer. \n Anyway... Thanks for letting me rant here. If anybody has any helpful tips for how to deal with getting help, or maybe things I might be able to have people help me with. They want to help, but don't always know how, and frankly I don't either.", "id": "t3_2h78h6", "summary": "I don't want to be broken, treated like I'm broken, or face up to the fact that I'm broken, but I do want to accept help where I can, and help myself. It pisses me off and gives me a headache."}, {"author": "CloudDrone", "content": "If you can look past the title of this post, my point is simply to highlight the undervaluing of resource costs for large ships in discussing \"pay to win\" or \"pay to skip content\" arguments concerning the advantages of paying more money now. Keep in mind I'm basing this discussion on PU mechanics, since that is what seems the most relevant to me, considering it will be the main game. \n My first and most extreme example is the Bengal carrier. If someone owns a Bengal carrier, it will require a crew. If you are a member of a huge organization, the resources you have on hand to be able to run it are human players. If you are a member of an organization large enough to man a Bengal, your enemies will not be single player starter ships. Your enemies will be other large organizations, which also will have the resources to man either other large ships, or enough smaller ships to break down a carrier's defenses. Therefore, large org Bengals will be matched up naturally with sufficient foes. \n If a single person, either by themselves, or as a member of a very small org owns a Bengal, they will require a large amount of hired NPCs in order to maintain even a base level of functionality. This will cost a fortune of UEC, which will not be obtainable without a great amount of in-game time spent earning credits. The cap on wallet to UEC transactions will likely hamper attempts to \"buy a Bengal crew\" with real currency. By the time a single player (or small crew) can afford a crew and fleet, they will still be up against other orgs who have the benefit of more resources per person. If the single person with AI crew wins a battle against players in a Bengal vs Bengal fight, there is a good chance the single person incurred a great cost simply in the crewing of the ship, boost fuel costs, and repairs to the ship. Maybe so much that the cost per person is higher for the lone wolf who paid for his Bengal than the org who all pitched in together. \n If it costs more resources than you gain, the model is unsustainable. There would need to be a goal of this fighting. Controlling sectors involves man power and steady income. \n Moving on to another case: \n Medium sized ships will have faster build times than large ships, lower operating costs, and lower entry point. These will be much more obtainable in game, so the \"price floor\" is not a huge barrier to prevent people from accessing these ships sooner. \n The same points still apply, that resources are still needed. It is more efficient to man a 4 or 5 person craft with NPCs as a single player, than large ships. The resources are far lower, and more likely to be sustainable, sooner. This closes the gaps between earning them in game and having bought them with a pledge. \n The other scenario is highlighted here more clearly though. In PvP against other players, you can roam around and fight in small gangs and don't need to be tied up in org and system politics to get gud fites. However, if one person has earned their ships through in game means, they will have a more reliable source of income than the person who bought their way in. Even courier missions require experience to gain reputation for higher payouts. I'm sure all career paths will have similar progression. The person who has the ship without the income source will be taking a higher risk since any upgraded modules, weapons, or hired NPCs will put a bigger dent in their budget. \n In summary, Ship 1 vs. Ship 2 is not inclusive enough data to determine the effectiveness of a cash paid ship vs a UEC paid ship. Arguments supporting the existence of P2W mechanics cannot be supported by our knowledge of the PU mechanics. \n [", "id": "t3_3od5ds", "summary": "To quote Bishop, \"It will cost us. In resources... in credits... in lives.\" \n It's not just a matter of who has bigger guns."}]}
+{"author": "ChillyWillster", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post People want their drugs, people are going to get their drugs.  The question is \"Who do you want the profits to go to?\"", "output": "If you can't keep drugs out of a maximum security prison you won't keep them off the streets.  People want their drugs and they're going to get their drugs.  Either the government provides an avenue for supply or the black market will meet the demand.  The big difference being that the black market has no one regulating it, plus the money is not recirculated into the economy and the inherent dangers to society the drug creates cannot be offset by taxes. \n On top of all that, when the DEA and the cartels are both do everything they can do to ensure the drug war does not end, you have a serious problem on your hands.   The DEA and the cartels AGREE with each other.  Seriously, why would anyone want to promote a drug cartel?  (not to mention the DEA, which is arguably no better)"}], "user_id": "longlamp_1327", "history": [{"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "I think it's neat.  Feels niche and almost gimmicky though. \n Us CF'ers are already strained on cash and most of us have a setup that allows us to get work done and maintain our treatment schedule. \n Organizing it a little bit better and having a MUCH nicer desk would be super cool but not at all necessary. \n As to the idea that it will increase my compliance with medication AND increase my productivity... Maybe...maybe not. \n If I'm missing a treatment it's because I am not at home to take it, I ran out of medicine, or I'm to exhausted to sit on my ass and shake.   You're desk doesn't (can't?) address any of those issues practically and therefore is only a marginal improvement on the situation I have now. \n On the other hand, I could use a new desk and I love the neb cup sanitizer integration.", "id": "c9fmleb", "summary": "I'm not sold on it yet, but I'm willing to hear your sales pitch."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "I hung a 48\" black light from my ceiling in my room and strung the power cord over the light/fan fixture where it ran down the opposite wall into the outlet.  I was sitting playing video games one day and heard a faint odd creaking sound.  I readjusted my self in my chair to try and understand what it was I had heard...just then the black light and fixture came swinging down like an executioners blade right where my head had been before.  Turns out the house had shifted a tiny bit and the fixture (which admittedly was not hung very well) slipped loose from its screws.", "id": "c4n70an", "summary": "shoddily hung black light nearly crashed into my face."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Assuming you or your loved one live through the \"collapse and reboot\" stages long enough to have children. \n Things could get bad but they aren't so bad for most of us in America.  I've had my fair share of suffering due to our healthcare system but I'd already have died if America's government collapsed and we had no healthcare system. \n Just saying slow your roll.  if you have nothing left to live for and want to start a revolution then I can't blame you but if you have friends and family and loved ones who are content and happy with their lives then maybe you need to think about what your \"collapse and reboot\" scenario would mean for them and their future children.", "id": "ciifgv6", "summary": "the situation is bad but not hopeless.  Not yet anyways."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Perhaps they wanted to remind everyone that they are not on anyone's side but their own? \n Maybe they see no point in exposing government corruption when people just shrug and go back to escaping reality. \n At this point im just spouting superfluous crap but the change that a lot of reddit seems to be interested in can't happen when we are just distracted by our toys.  People seem more driven to action about this silly minecraft attack than they are when they read about government corruption day after day.  I dunno, maybe they were trying to make a point, maybe they're just dudes who want to watch the world burn...for the lulz of course.", "id": "c1zol5p", "summary": "They never claimed to be in it for anything but the lulz."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "I don't see much of a problem with refusing to bail out bad ideas.  I take a stand against for-profit healthcare, prisons, education, infrastructure, hell even the military.  Because not all systems work that way.  The people pay taxes and these taxes ideally end up being returned to the people as benefits.  Also, governments have to regulate large corporations.  Capitalism turns everything into a commodity and it exploits that commodity till it is exhausted.  Hence the need for regulating what can be done to the environment or the minimum someone can be paid, or the conditions someone can be expected to work in.  The problem at the heart of capitalism is unadulterated greed and/or corruption.  This is what is poisoning our country today.  Corruption in our government paid for by the heads of corporations and all under the guise of electing \"good Christian people.\"", "id": "c2w3tov", "summary": "we must find a meeting ground between capitalism and socialism.  Also, corruption and religion needs to be weeded out of our electoral process as they possess no benefits to \"we the people\" despite what some ignorant few may wish to be true."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Lots of good advice in this thread but let me remind you that you need to be careful what you're eating.  Being lazy and eating too much sugar can contribute to cf related diabetes (CFRD) it's treatable but its best to just keep it at bay for as long as possible. \n Secondly, exercise will contribute to weight gain.  Part of the reason you're not hungry is because you're not expending enough energy.  It's a vicious cycle but some basic exercise will typically help boost your appetite. \n Third, try pot.  Smoking is bad, vaping is only marginally better but cannabis infused edibles do wonders for my appetite and they leave my lungs alone. \n I'm not a doctor and I only speak from my personal experience.  I've maintained 140lbs for over a year and have recently seen some amazing improvements in my strength and cardiovascular fitness following the advice I listed above. \n If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.", "id": "c8c5ck6", "summary": "Keep an eye on sugar, exercise to induce hunger, edibles."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "That's a tough question to answer. \n That all depends on how well he knows his doctors.  I can imagine someone not getting a transplant if \"illicit drug use\" is in their medicinal record.  I can also imagine a doctor overlooking that if he knows it's just weed brownies. \n Problem is from a strict medical sense...there are lots of people on transplant lists and not everyone is going to get a transplant in time. \n Cannabis cooked into food is a really great way for \"normal\" people to enjoy it but with cf the jury is still out. \n My personal opinion is that your friend be open and honest with his doctors and that he accept that may need to stop the cannabis for sometime. \n If you're friend is being honest with himself...would he feel like it was fair if someone else got a transplant and he didn't?  What if that someone else messed up their new lungs because they lied to their doctor about what they were taking on the side?", "id": "cn7crp4", "summary": "I advise caution."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "The negative effects of drug use will never be completely removed from the equation.  If people can get drugs in a maximum security prison than people will get them on the streets.  The drugs will either be purchased through drug cartels/drug dealers or through businesses regulated by the government. \n Yes, drugs have a negative effect on society but the issue here is reducing that effect by allowing users a safe, clean, and regulated option instead of the dangerous crap-shoot that is the black market. \n Why give the money to the cartels and increase the damage to society when the other option is to tax the drugs/re-circulate the money spent on them, de-fang the cartels and significantly reduce the amount of violence associated with drug use. \n The price of heroine, threat of jail, and its availability is not what keeps people away from it.  Heroine is really dangerous and people have been taught that it can destroy your life if not treated with the respect a substance like that demands.", "id": "c5qjkkf", "summary": "The war on drugs has failed and the only thing prohibition does is give unlimited power to the drug cartels."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Its not what you said but how you said fellow ent.  Let us not be condescending to our fellow ent brothers and sisters.  My apologies for accusing you of acting pretentious but it's okay to get high before work now and then, depending on your job of course.  We don't have to agree but I felt like you were attacking this person for telling a silly story which is not what I have come to believe r/trees is about.", "id": "c2wh4w4", "summary": "All is well fellow ent, let's just laugh at the stories and go about our day."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "But the assholes are ruining it for everyone else.  It's time for assholes in any organization to be called out. \n A few terrible people in any organization can give it a bad reputation.  Religious extremists, corrupt politicians, bad cops,  you name it.  It's sociopathic people who don't care about who they hurt or abuse or manipulate in order to feel in control and in \"power.\"  it's almost a vestigial mind set much like an appendix it is not required in today's society. \n A big problem with Christian folk is their mostly good people but they refuse to think critically about all facets of life and this leaves them blinded in one major facet of their lives.  It's like a computer with no anti-virus software.  It's open to being controlled by what can often times be deceiving forces. \n I'm pretty high but what I am ultimately getting at is there is nothing wrong with being a Christian.  There is something wrong with being a terrible person.  And there is something wrong with good people who don't stand up to terrible people.", "id": "cq8b9ba", "summary": "there needs to be more active empathy in the world"}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "I've noticed a lot of things on r/atheism. Mostly it's just people trying to make sense of a weird, wonderful, and oft times scary world.  I've yet to notice someone justifying their actions by blaming Christians but I'm sure it happens.  Let's remember though that there are probably a lot of atheists here who used to be religious, some very recently, who are a bit angry and confused because they feel like they've been lied to their whole life.", "id": "c2ohe3l", "summary": "the angry blame religion thing is just a phase, it will pass."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "A.  You said \"selfish prick\" no one else did. \n B.  Society gave you opportunities to make that money. \n C.  Taxes are part of living in a society (the one that gave you opportunities to make your money) \n D.  The less people hamstrung with unnecessary debt, the more people can contribute to society. \n E.  The more people who can contribute to society, the less each individual needs to pay in taxes.", "id": "cbmapki", "summary": "Today you, tomorrow me.  But in your mind its \"today me, fuck you\" or at least that's how its coming across."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "That is almost entirely up to personal preference.  There are a few weapons that have very little to offer compared their counter parts but most everyone can find a weapon to fit their play style. \n I am currently using the aek 971, acw-r, m-60, and gol magnum for assault, engineer, support and recon respectively. \n My weapon preference changes weekly sometimes and with every new dlc comes new weapons from which to choose from. \n On top of all of that, the attachments that you put on your gun can really change how you use your weapon so...", "id": "ciwnmqo", "summary": "keep playing with them until you find what suits you best."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Takes a while for a jet to become beneficial to a team.  Once the rocket pods are unlocked it is much easier for a jet to take out enemy armor.  Also, a recon with a SOFLAM can paint enemy armor and your jet fighters can easily lock on with their air-to-ground missles and ruin a tank's day.  (takes a  while to unlock air-to-ground missles though)", "id": "c2vrbcn", "summary": "Give your fighter pilot's sometime to learn and you will eventually see the benefit."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Suck it the fuck up. \n I am taking a break from work just to make this comment. \n Do you have family or friends that love you? \n Are there people in the world that you love? \n Grow up and start taking care of yourself.  Do it for your family and friends if you're not strong enough to do it for yourself. \n You'll be dead by 30 if you don't take an immediate 180 turn and start doing things by the book. \n The nebulizers and the pills and the therapy all suck sometimes but it keeps us going and it's necessary if you want to feel anywhere close to \"normal.\" \n There are children with Cystic Fibrosis doing everything their doctors tell them to do and those kids would LOVE to live til 25. \n You've been given a gift and here you are squandering it and asking us not to scold you. \n If you want to waste what you've been given well that's your prerogative but don't complain about it here. \n Take your medicine, listen to your doctor, straighten up, fly right, and man (or woman) the fuck up. \n We're all here to support and help each other but don't come in here with a whiny bitch attitude about not wanting to take your medicine. \n Cystic Fibrosis is like the Marine Corps of Genetic Disorders. \n Do things right and you might just make it. \n /rant \n Seriously, I've been through hell, and some of that hell I brought down on myself because I was afraid to face my fears.  I just want to encourage others to not make the same mistakes I did. \n I hope you get to feeling better.", "id": "cithn5y", "summary": "fuck you, go read it."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "The only reason I think taxes can be considered theft is if the people paying them are not represented.  I have no interest in our for-profit wars for oil and wars on drugs.  I in no way support paying our congressmen more than the average American that they supposedly represent.  Firefighters, police, schools, hospitals, and prisons are all acceptable use of taxes.  Bailing out firms who socialize their losses and privatize they're gains is not something taxes should be spent on.  In a corrupt government, taxes are theft.  I'm all for taxes if myself and those like me are represented.", "id": "c2w45bf", "summary": "dont get me wrong, taxes are not inherently theft, but I have no interest in my money being used to ruin innocent lives so someone can be a little richer."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Taking my money and using it to ruin innocent lives so that someone can get richer.  Just what word would you like me to use to describe that?  Remember that ole' addage, \"no taxation without representation\"?  Yah, that's what the American government (corrupted by corporate monetary influence) is doing.  Just, unlike the tea baggers, I claim to see through the bullshit and know damn well the government and taxes serve a purpose, unfortunately those institutions designed to serve society have been corrupted by a powerful few.", "id": "c2w4x65", "summary": "I want to be represented before my taxes are collected, any less than that is IMO the very definition of theft."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "I was raised in a christian environment and was I was diagnosed with CF at 14.  I declared myself an atheist when I was 23.  I get my strength and determination from the people in my life.  My family and my friends...the ones I love are the reason I keep going, without them I'm not all to sure what I'd do. \n I'm 25 now and my doctors aren't sure if I'll make it past 30.  If there is a god, it certainly doesn't care about anyone on this planet but my family and friends care for me more than I could ever know.  So I keep fighting and living and loving and breathing for them. \n It's not death that terrifies me, its the thought of all the pain my death would bring to those I love.  It brings me to tears just thinking about causing that much pain to the ones I love.  So I fight for them. \n I can't stand people telling me they'll pray for me.  My parents prayed harder than anyone could possibly pray and would gladly give their lives so that I could live so if god didn't listen to them, he certainly won't listen to anyone else's prayers for me. \n I hold a lot of resentment against a god I dont believe in and I consider religious indoctrination of children akin to child abuse. \n That's my two cents on being an atheist with CF.", "id": "c4jdejd", "summary": "god can go fuck itself, I'm fighting for the people who actually love me."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "I love weed and I support their decision.  I have driven high, and will continue to occasionally do so. \n Maybe I'm just special or smarter than the average human or just incredibly naive but I would like to believe that of all the dangers of driving that people driving high is WAY the hell down the list. \n Alcohol, sleep deprivation, and cell phones are responsible for countless motor vehicle incidents.  Weed, notsomuch. \n Alternatively; you could be right and people driving high may cause a spike in car accidents and that fact alone could derail the legalization movement.  I don't think this will happen now or ever but it is a valid viewpoint.", "id": "ca3rzff", "summary": "i respectfully disagree."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Here is a list of things that took me back from the brink last year.  These things saved(prolonged) my life and I am feeling amazing. \n Start exercising if you aren't and consider paying for a personal trainer.  Make sure you're speaking with and following up with a dietician and seek a psychologist when things get out of sorts. \n Make sure you hit those treatments and I say again, go running or swimming for exercisnf your lungs and do pull ups / push ups to build your pectorals major muscles and latissimus dorsi. Building your chest and back will give you more power to expand your lungs. \n Also, trip shrooms...seriously.  I don't know if they contraindicate with your meds but I'm sure your doctor will rationally explain the actual risks to you if you rationally ask the question.  (There are some real risks here and I highly advise you to be very careful, however I am so happy I did) \n Also, go sky diving on your next up-swing, an experience you'll never forget. \n Also, cut out alcohol, any kind of amphetamine (adderall, mdma) smoking, excess candy,  caffeine...in the past I ate weed edibles and found them to improve appetite but not enough to say that everyone should try that. \n Oh and make sure that if you are taking mucinex that you are avoiding the ones with DXM (dexthromorpan)[sp?] DXM is a powerful cough suppressant and it can make us cf'ers very very sick.", "id": "c8v7l3l", "summary": "I've lived long enough to learn from my mistakes and I hope that in passing my knowledge of cf along that you all can live even longer!"}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Location: Denton County, TX. \n Friend, A, hit a parked car and fled the scene.  Eye witness recorded license plate and called it in. \n Insurance company is hounding A to bring car in for inspection. \n A has contacted a lawyer and will meet with them for a consult on Monday. \n A is concerned about what he needs to do between now and his consultation. \n I advised A to lay low and not speak to the insurance or the police.  Would like to give him something more reassuring. \n Please advise.  A is facing a class b misdemeanor if this doesn't go his way.", "id": "t3_3xzg40", "summary": "what is best action to take in the interim while waiting for a lawyer?"}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "I am stuck i bed, I'm running a low grade fever, I am experiencing moderate to severe chest pain and I've barely eaten 1300 calories all day. \n I'm extremely frustrated because I was on top of the world, exercising, working hard, loving life until Monday and things went pear shaped all of a sudden. \n I was in line for promotion at work and now I may have to go to the hospital and ill lose that promotion if I do. \n I am doing my best to stay calm and collected, ill be seeing the cf clinic tomorrow and ill know more then. \n I don't have the energy to drive to the store and I barely have any food to eat here that's not sugary (I am pre-diabetic and must watch my sugar) \n Any encouragement/advice would be much appreciated. \n I worked super hard to get this promotion, my company was depending on me to fill the spot and if I go to the hospital all that hard work was just a waste. \n I know it's not  my  fault but it's incredibly disheartening to have all I've worked for potentially ruined. \n I feel as though I am letting my parents down and that ill never be able to support myself at this rate.  I mean why work full time for one week if ill be out of commission for up to two? \n Also, I can't even think of a place that will deliver food to my house. \n I'm frustrated, disheartened, and mad at the world. \n Fuck, fuck, fuck.  Hell I even ran a 5k in 32 degree weather last weekend on top of working 10 hrs the day before, the day of, and the day after. \n I just want to take six Xanax (.25 mg) and sleep but I have to eat.", "id": "t3_19qw36", "summary": "Fuck CF, fuck the world."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "This is unrelated to the game and may get deleted but I wanted to share a little of my current life experience and how dark souls is helping me right now. \n I have cystic fibrosis and I am currently undergoing long term IV abx which is fairly similar to chemo.  Up to 2 years though hopefully I can be done with this in three months. \n I am working full time and while everything is going in the right direction I am really struggling. \n Dark souls has always been something I relate with well due to its constant punishing nature, much in sync with my disability and how unfair it seems at times. \n Dark souls 3 has been something I've looked forward to for quite a long time and it came at just the right moment. \n I may possibly lose my job due to missing work for my health and the side effects from the meds are pretty damn harsh but dark souls is always there waiting for me when I get home. \n Anyways, apologies this is more of a ramble than anything else but I just really love dark souls and it makes my life that much brighter.", "id": "t3_4fp4o2", "summary": "4/20 praise it."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Hi All, \n My name is Will.  I am 27 yrs old and I have cystic fibrosis.  I work full time and I find that I am genuinely quite satisfied with the life I lead. \n I have just started a new career and I am making real measurable progress on my long term goal of becoming financially independent from my parents. \n My main concern at the moment is what course of action I should take in regards to dating. \n I consider myself to be an attractive, fit, responsible adult.  I've fought through depression, anxiety, and brushes with death and I've come out better for it. \n Despite all the positive energy that I've developed in my life I still feel a tinge of loneliness. \n I've spent time on OkCupid and even dropped some money for their \"premium\" service.  I've received nary a peep from the girl's I've messaged despite my very best efforts to make an attractive profile and thoughtful messages. \n Between work and taking care of myself I find that I don't have time to go out and meet new people.  I spend real quality time with my best friends and family but that doesn't expose me to a lot of new people.  My work is a small business with a handful of older adults who are wonderful people but nothing at all in the dating category. \n Being single isn't what bothers me as much as knowing that my disease, cystic fibrosis, only continues to get worse month after month, year after year.  I'm only trying to be realistic when I say that living to 40 is not something I've got 100% confidence in. \n While I'm fairly healthy these days, my real fear is that I won't find \"her\" in time. \n So I've come here asking for advice. \n Should I spend more money on a different dating site, a la Zoosk? \n Should I just stay focused on my goals and forget about dating unless something falls in my lap? \n I've read before to go spend time in a coffee shop and maybe meet a girl there but I'd rather go sky diving again before chatting up a stranger at a coffee shop.  While I have no qualms about talking to a girl at a party, I don't get invited to parties anymore like I did in college. \n Oh yah, and I'm part deaf due to some antibiotics I was on once so that doesn't help me much either lol.", "id": "t3_2bs3vh", "summary": "I have a legitimate fear of never falling in love and dying before ever getting the chance to have a real beautiful loving relationship."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Hello fellow ents! \n I was just introduced to reddit.com and r/trees recently and I find it amazing! \n I have cystic fibrosis(CF).  CF is a degenerative genetic disorder that, amongst many other things, causes tissue death and build up of scar tissue in the lungs.  The mucus in the lungs is too thick and cannot be easily dealt with.  The mucus is a breeding ground for bacteria which cause infection.  I was diagnosed at 14 which indicates that my symptoms are not the norm for the condition, they are less severe. \n Nonetheless, at 19 I tried smoking hookah.  I coughed up blood for a week straight (needless to say I have been reckless with my health in the past.)  At 21 I started trying weed brownies, and they were the best thing ever.  After doing some research on the interwebz I bought a silver surfer vaporizer Fall of 2009. \n I started vaping daily and my lungs felt fine and I had no indication of damage occurring to my lungs at all. \n Flash foward 8 months of vaping daily, I have just taken my FEV1 test (lung function test) and to my extreme surprise, my FEV1 has jumped 8% ( the highest jump in 3 years to the highest percentage I've had in 5 years) 88%->96%!  My CF doctor tells me the test was a fluke, to stop using weed immediately, and to get back on my daily breathing treatments.  ( which are essential for people with CF, which I had done perhaps 1/10th the amount i am supposed to be doing.) \n I have now been vaping for a year, give or take.  I have not had to visit the doctor once this year for a lung infection, as opposed to previous years where I was extremely sick once every 2 or 3 months.  Recently, I've developed minor chest pain, which my pro medical marijuana physician(not my CF doctor) told me not to worry about, and this is a guy I trust.  (perhaps foolishly) \n Oh yah, did I mention I can run 10 miles in 2 hours?  Which is beyond a miracle for most people with CF. \n My questions:  Does anyone know, exactly how weed vapor interacts with the lungs?  What, if anything, could THC be doing to help my lungs? \n Am I just lying to myself and my good health is just a result of a healthier lifestyle and a lull in my symptoms? \n I don't want to be the first guy who died from marijuana! lol \n Thank you for taking time out and reading my story!", "id": "t3_dqiqr", "summary": "I have a horrid lung disorder.  I started vaping, my symptoms improved.  My doctors tell me that I'm not helping myself and should stop immediately, but I haven't felt this great in years.  What gives?"}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "I have cystic fibrosis and for years now I have used cannibas edibles to get high. \n Recently I started a new CF drug called \"orkambi.\"  this is one of the first drugs to ever treat the cause of cystic fibrosis and it is actually saving my life. \n I took a two month tolerance break while starting orkambi to ensure my body was at baseline. \n I started eating edibles again only to find I can no longer get \"stoned.\"  The effects are muted and I can barely tell I'm high at all. \n I've tried increasing the potency and the amount of edibles but it's just ridiculous at this point. \n Any tips on how I may regain my ability to get high? \n Note: I can't dab or vape because of my cf.  I live in Texas so getting medical grade edibles is currently out of the question and making them any stronger is cost prohibited. \n Also, I'm allergic to mangoes. \n For my next batch I am going to try using soy lecithin. \n I am on SSRI, Paxil, so I am cautious about adding tumeric powder to the batch of cookies.", "id": "t3_42fwwb", "summary": "new med, can't get high.  Can't smoke, what do?"}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Most of y'all are somewhat aware of my constant battle with mycobacterium abcessus. \n Recently, after starting orkambi, my health really started improving.  I was running 6 miles there for a few weeks and relatively quickly to boot. \n I used my tax refund to build a gaming PC and I thought I really had a handle on 2016. \n Beginning in March I was hospitalized for what I thought was a routine tune-up.  I was in and out of the hospital in 62 hours. I was running 3 miles the day after I got out. \n I was on IV antibiotics for two weeks only to find my lung function was not improving as was to be expected.  I remained on IV antibiotics til the end of March and managed to pull my lung function back up from 76% to 81%. \n My doctor recommended I have a CT scan done to see what was going on and while many of the little infection spots I had developed last fall were gone I now had a massive infection in my lower right lung. \n This didn't surprise me as I knew that mycobacterium abcessus is very tenacious so when my doctor recommend long term IV treatment I was about as on board as anyone can be hearing that news. \n I missed work off and on in March and finally started to get a consistent schedule going this week.  I officially started my long term IV treatment just a few hours ago in the evening. \n Unfortunately, I have spent the last few hours in hell.  Experiencing by far some of the scariest, stressful, realistic and downright intimidating dreams I can remember.  I felt like I was on fire. \n I awoke and became somewhat dismayed that what felt like hours even days in agony was only a few hours.  9pm-12pm. \n Which brings us to what some of you may have already guessed.  I have a fever of 100.7 (props if you guessed the actual temp. Lol) \n When I call my cf clinic tomorrow I fully expect to be brought in to the hospital in order to examine just what is happening as this result was very damn far from expected.  At least in my mind. \n I took some ibuprofen and expect the fever to subside shortly. \n What really upsets me and is putting me into a tail spin is that I may lose my job if I miss any more work and I'm down right mortified at the thought of not being able to support myself and leeching off my parents anymore than I already do. \n I suppose much of my anxiety is stemming from this monumental under taking of 3-18 months of IV / oral antibiotics but that's not nearly as frustrating as the prospect of not being able to support myself. \n There isn't much to say at this point other than to deal with this as it happens and if anyone conquer this I know I can.", "id": "t3_4df6r7", "summary": "was sick, got much better, got a little sick, now much more sick...things aren't coming together like I needed them too.   Somewhat scared but very frustrated. \n EDIT:  didn't have to go to the hospital.  Apparently this specific IV just causes fever as a side effect.  Good news."}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Hey Fellow Ents! \n I'm planning a three week trip to San Diego, California here in a few months.  I'm wanting to know the best way to acquire an mmj card so that I may purchase edibles from a dispensary in cali. \n I read that Oregon will issue mmj cards to out-of-staters and while that card won't prevent you from being arrested if you're caught, it will allow you to purchase from an cali dispensary.  Is this true/accurate? \n I know next to nothing about San Diego, or dispensaries, or mmj cards so any input is much appreciated. \n Also, I can't smoke/vape so just finding a guy with a bud hook up wont cut it.  I need edibles.  (gotta be strong ones as my meds inhibit absorption/raise my threshold)", "id": "t3_tm2v9", "summary": "What is the best way to get access to dispensary grade edibles in cali for an out-of-stater on vacation?"}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "I'm a 24 yr old male 5'8'' 143lbs.  I have cystic fibrosis and I am being treated for a serious bacterial infection requiring 9-18 months of heavy antibiotics.  Even if this treatment works, the doctors can't reliably tell me how much time I have left; however they are hopeful and optimistic that they can buy me \"years and years and years.\" \n I am as athletic as I can be all things considered.  I ran a half-marathon last year and plan on training for another though I can barely finish 2 miles at the moment. \n I am unable to go back to school during this ordeal and may have to quit my job as well. \n I have only recently hit my stride in talking to women but this infection is a terrible set back in every way I can imagine. \n I do my best to not feel hopeless in spite of everything I am up against but when it comes to finding a girl that I could date, not to mention actually have a relationship with...hopeless certainly fits the description of how I feel. \n I've been in one serious relationship and one short-lived friends with benefits experience. \n So my initial questions are... \n How can I even begin to meet girls? Considering I can't be around smoke so no bars and I'm so worn out from the antibiotics and constant medical appointments that I have very little energy left over.  (no luck so far on dating sites) \n If I did meet a worthwhile girl how am I supposed to explain my situation without scaring her off? \n Any advice would be greatly appreciate and I'll happily answer any questions that anyone may have.(or expand on anything that I've said so far )", "id": "t3_odm65", "summary": "I feel as though I am \"proper fucked\" in regards to the dating scene due to my health complications and I desperately wish not to be. \n EDIT 1  I have no idea how to NOT bring up cystic fibrosis.  The initial conversation I might could get by but by the first date its pretty obvious...\"Why don't you drink?\"  \"Why are there tubes coming out of your arm?\"\n\"Why do you have to take those pills before you eat?\""}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "I woke up with pain in my hand adjacent to the wrist bone (but not in my wrist.)  The pain is constant but mild and is exacerbated when I extend my hand backwards or curl it fowards.  Has anyone else experienced this?  (first time for me)  I have been playing disc golf A LOT lately and I'm curious if the issue stems from poor form or overuse (or both) \n Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this, I'm sure RICE would alleviate the symptoms but then I'd have to, yah know, take a break from disc golf.  :P", "id": "t3_srtwq", "summary": "Constant, mild pain in hand after playing disc golf, HAE experienced this?"}, {"author": "ChillyWillster", "content": "Just a cautionary tale that not everyone on a discgolf course is a disc golfer, some people are just trash. \n Left my bag at the teepad on Hole #2 by the lake while I was showing the girl I was with where the basket is.  Saw some people down by the lake when I was walking her to the basket and when I returned my backpack was gone.  I took off sprinting after that group that was down by the lake and caught up with them just before they got in their car.  Asked them about my backpack and they pointed it out to me, hidden underneath their other stuff.  I said, rather indignantly, \"Can I have it back?\" and they handed it over.  Got all my stuff back including her phone and keys.  Felt good! :D", "id": "t3_shz6o", "summary": "some trash tried to rob me and I ran them down and got my stuff back."}]}
+{"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post ex-girlfriend cheated on me. I'm over the relationship. I don't know where she stands. I still want to be friends. I don't know the mature way to deal with the situation with exception of the 'just forget about her' protocol (because that's the opposite of what I'd like). \n EDIT: When I say a little weird this is before she said goodbye to me one and a half months ago. I haven't pursued the friendship as I have tried to give her space. I haven't said anything apart from a \"Hi how are you\" sort of hello recently. Now I'm trying to face the reality we won't be friends anymore - and it's a little bit of hell. Thank you for all your continued support and responses.", "output": "Hey guys, \n My ex-girlfriend cheated on me. Sure. And since she did she's kept me quite at an arms length, and she's been a little weird to me on the whole. I don't know how long it will take her to compartmentalize the relationship, if at all, but I would think that since she cheated on me at a festival with some other guy she felt a connection with (and she was bored of our relationship) she would be over our relationship. Right? She's found someone else and she's taking it slow with that person. At this stage I'm like. Good for her! I've left her be for about a month and a half because she told me that she still needed time to get over the fact we were together (as my mind kind of eradicated the romantic relation between us fairly immediately as a response to \"Your girlfriend smoked crystal meth hooked up with someone else and is now dating that person\"). \n But I do digress. I miss her. Part of what makes me, well myself, is how wholehearted I am and how much I care about the people around me (not that it's unique, I'm just that kind of person). And I don't care what she did to me or how much she hurt me at the time because as much as I've lost her romantically, which is fine, I feel I've lost her as a friend too. And that's where the hurt in the heart is really at. \n Sure there is a philosophic moral boundary of pursuing a friendship with someone who doesn't seem to want that right now and how that seems contrary with the next thing I'm about to say, because the way I see it I just want to talk to her because she means a lot to me. I don't want to just jettison the people I love and care about out of my life because they hurt me in situations that I can move on from. \n Why? Because I so dearly love and care about the people in my life I bother to distribute my emotional energy to. Part of what sucks about being me is that I care so much, but I guess I'm glad I do (not that it's unique, but otherwise I wouldn't be me, right? And there is a point to be made about just being yourself). \n I know there are probably a lot more details you might need to help me out here but as much as I know life goes on and we all move on and we learn to forget about the things that hurt us in the past I can't see a reason why she can't just forget about the negativity that surrounds how she treated me."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4216", "history": [{"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "Yeah I'm working on the weight/dimensions now. \n Assuming customs will come to £60 for importation to the UK delivery (not sure on this) this is still  . But then on top of that if I also paid for the  whole delivery  (the whole 80 dollars) then it would still be   on my end, though paying for customs on top of delivery, and that VAT factors in that delivery really sucks.. Delivery+VAT is the main issue here. But again, I don't know how Destiny would want to do things.", "id": "cmmlxji", "summary": "shit in the uk costs fuckloads."}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "Sorry Riot  but not only was the Wriggles/Ferals was VERY easy to shut down if you actually knew how to counter-jungle with other items i.e. the Elder Lizard at all, but it appears your decision to remove Ferals is not justified: it does not make an apt balance change but forces players to stop using a bad strategy which benefits nobody but the inexperienced player-market. My reasoning follows... \n If a jungler went to build Ferals I immediately built Elder and farmed their jungle predominantly instead of mine. I gained a bunch of levels by shutting down their jungler early over and over again. I've won nearly every game as Shyvana-jungle using this strategy. How? Wriggles lantern is the pre-requisite to Ferals and compared to Elder is a BAD item statistically. This meant I could win every fight against that pesky Master Yi. \n To that end, if players are letting other players farm all day then they  DESERVE  to be losing that game (because they let the ferals jungler farm all game). \n Hence whilst I understand Ferals promotes a mentality of the players to just try to farm as many stacks as fast as possible, the fact that you have made a balance change based on players decision making is simply attacking a straw man...You are confusing a balance problem with a meta-game problem that has not had sufficient time to develop: I'm sure that over time junglers who have been complaining about Ferals will actually read the item statistics and it will become well known that Wriggles Lantern junglers are easily counter-jungled and ganked. \n Additionally the potential for the jungler to be a good jungler and make that decision to choose Wriggles Lantern, gank lanes, and get away with it, shows that the Ferals Flare jungler has successfully outplayed the opponent jungler whom of which either (a) did not have the sense to counter-build the Ferals Flare early and mid-game or (b) counter-built the Ferals Flare but could not successfully defend against the jungler building Ferals Flare despite having a statistical advantage. Two ways of counter-building a Ferals rush are: Madrids > Brutalizer; or straight up Elder Lizard. \n Ultimately I don't feel that this change was at all justified for any jungler who deserves to be out of a hypothetical Wood IV: it may make ranked play less frustrating when you may have had, in Patch 4.6, a bad jungler on your team who farms Ferals all game, but for all the wrong reasons. The optimal solution to this problem I feel is to revert the Ferals to 4.5: remove stacks gained from kills/assists and allow the meta-game to develop accordingly. \n I agree that this isn't exactly \"noob-friendly\" but it ought to be given the opportunity to become common knowledge and argued as a reasonable decision making process that players should have the aptitude to consider given League of Legends is considered a competitive game. If anybody played Starcraft 2 before Heart of the Swarm (which I view totally destroyed its ability to appeal to casual players) you will notice that even the twelve-year olds did not get fooled by a Six-Rax (TM TLO) all-in more than once as even the new players use Google, Reddit, and other means to find information on how the attack is mitigated, or how the cheese is easily grated.", "id": "chc81e3", "summary": "Ferals flare was easy to shut down by counter-jungling. If a player cannot counter-jungle a Ferals Flare jungler with that counter-build then that jungler is simply outmatched (as he had a statistical advantage). Therein Ferals Flare was balanced and Riot is attacking a straw man by arguing that the Ferals Flare, a balanced item, promoted a specific player mentality and nerfing the item for the reason it promoted that mentality than any objective balance problem. Since Ferals Flare can be valued as a \"play easy to shut down\" by any good opponent jungler we ought to revert Ferals to 4.5 and allow the meta-game to develop than hesitantly jump to the conclusion that the item is toxic for the future of competitive play. \n Maybe in a couple months time we would see players beginning League of Legends as Junglers in normal-mode by farming Ferals Flare since it is fairly easy to do (instead of going two-top), then later on in levels 15-25 they realize (akin to the two-top strategy) that strategy isn't always viable. \n To finish, if you were going to let Master Yi farm the jungle for 20 minutes, pre-ordained with the very likely possibility that he is going to build Ferals Flare, then you need a new lightbulb. Therein, over time, players will eliminate this bump on the road and get themselves back on easy street."}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "Yeah I play at 75Hz now on my TV. I'm getting a monitor because I get 75Hz and 50MS input lag and still manage to dominate DMG on CS:GO. But I want a reason, really, to buy the monitor other than the fact it'll improve my gameplay. As well as my gameplay experience I kind of want a little more bang for my buck out of the price tag since I'm not playing professionally or anything; and I even appreciate the options on the monitor for reading PDFS, plus of course it is rotatable.", "id": "cnenmu5", "summary": "please justify my guilty purchase that I've been clamoring on but it seems so stupid"}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "Many a more wives and jocks to be, wait at a hall so clear and near.\n> So-few take time to meet. But yet, some wait till dawn to try their luck,\n> The lit up floor is timeless. But yet, all stop time to talk in fear.\n> Finding him surrounded in thick air, no more waiting, no more signs of a tuck.\n> Seeing her approach, lifted spirits make stars align. Eyes connected, love struck. \n Is that about Destiny's sleeping pattern and waiting for him. \n > Once Mother and Father let children rest abay, time is to tell destiny,\n> All children rush through class, at a school so near and clear.\n> Seeing life through eyes lets imagination dwinder, like bones on clay.\n> Seeing life through eyes make sounds arise, like a stars explosion of light.\n> Nearing cries, nearing fears, father leaves his hands warm with a cool beer.\n>  Discovering why, creating life, mother creates an alone deer with no one to hear (6 day bans). \n This is Destiny strimming \n > Then twilight rose upon the orange fields, tombstones appear,\n> Finding spirits rushing through grave, little more than unsung souls we fear.\n> Minutes turn to hours than days. But yet, life is nothing more.\n> We see time through light, we see time through our weary soul\n> And yet we don’t see that we are all running out of time that was written on our scroll.\n> Left alone, in darkness, in death and froze to fear the haunting memories that where always too clear. \n This is after Destiny strimming but interpret a repetition back into the first verse.", "id": "cpdlt4u", "summary": "we are all stuck in an endless paradigm of waiting for senpai strims and getting banned from chat"}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "I'm not giving any more money to Micro$oft until they fix the new AoM! As for the aggression expand I've made an interesting build which has granted me a high early-game success rate at ~1735 ELO as follows. \n Kronos: \n \n Pray to the luck of the draw you'll get a lot of hunt nearby. \n First villager Economic Guild: Take Hunting Dogs/Husbandry (depending on resources) [Send to food] \n Second villager [Send to food] \n Third villager [Send to wood] \n Fourth villager [Send to gold]: Build a manor to maintain villager production. [Send back to gold]: Build a temple asap. \n All  newly created  villagers food until 400 food. \n \n [During transition 3 villagers wood 3 villagers gold and rest on food]. \n \n On Age 2: 2 Barracks  or  counter-barracks for 2-rax harassment.  \n \n Low-ELO tip: You can maintain constant villager and army production on 2-rax. \n \n If you're winning the fight then keep pressure and advance to Heroic (by about the 9 minute mark) and whilst your advancing TP your Temple behind the enemy lines or to the enemy front line so you spawn a Behemoth (keep these on a constant production cycle): can usually close up the game with the aggression you're putting on + the behemoth spam. \n \n If you're losing or not so confident just pull forces and either add another rax for pressure or build up and expand (around the 9 minute mark again) and go for a macro game.", "id": "chhn9hx", "summary": "You can easily sustain a lot of macro options on Atlantean 2 rax so if you can get a good counter-build in and succeed it's easy to close up the game by doing fancy Temple stuff with Kronos."}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "Graves doesn't blow up, getting Tristana is really hard. \n As a top-lane assassin rengo main if pressed I'd rate the difficulty of one shotting from hardest to easiest like this... \n Tristana, Ezreal (simply because he can phase through any wall), Caitlyn (ABUSE YOUR TRAPS), Corki, Vayne (she can out-duel a Rengo but I sometimes feel like the only one with a problem against Vaynes - I only engage her around a bush so I can double gap close and have to time her ult since she becomes untargetable so unleapable to), Graves, Lucian.", "id": "coi2ker", "summary": "pick tristana into rengo and you'll be fine"}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "Just looking at Zeratul at face value my build would be something like this... \n Block \n Gathering Power \n First Aid \n Void Prison (unless either, you have a high CC comp in which case you probably will just want to stick to a stunned/rooted carry, or you are 2 levels ahead so (a) you're fed and (b) you can just ult anybody and they immediately die which is better for just snowballing out of control, but you don't need this to stick to people so if you're trying to gap close with it you're wasting your time) \n Wormhole \n Double Bombs \n Bolt of the Storm \n How does that sound? Personally if you're applying a slow I don't see  any reason  why I'd want to take extra range on the Q for anything but clearing waves and that's a bad reason. If you would like I can expand on that more but the basic idea is this... \n If you are going point blank range with your W you don't need to improve the range of your Q since you can chase them for a second W and it applies a slow such that your movement speed will always be greater than theirs. This means improved range on Q is a waste if you're opening with point blank W's (and following with a later W that you can save for later). \n An example combo is this. \n W auto Q auto auto Q. \n Wait for his gap closer if/when he tries to run away > blink after him (this is gap-closing) and W again Q auto auto Q. \n The effectiveness of this approach depends on their positioning but if they are on your side of the map this is", "id": "cofyhg0", "summary": "what I'd do 80% of the time. Alternatively if he doesn't have any such gap closer you're probably free to just run up to him and smash your keyboard. In either situation since your movement speed is higher than theirs you shouldn't have any issues landing Q on a single target in the cooldown duration which makes the effectiveness of 33% range on Q against  any single target  completely negligible: even if they land a slow on you (and you shouldn't really be getting hit by skillshots anyway since you can probably even just blink the projectile if needs be) you still have blink-2ndW available to apply a second 40% slow and follow up with the same spell rotation as earlier stipulated. \n If you want more AOE damage then the range is decent but it just isn't something I feel I'd ever need to opt for."}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "If you are going point blank range with your W you don't need to improve the range of your Q since you can chase them for a second W and it applies a slow such that your movement speed will always be greater than theirs. This means improved range on Q  is  a waste against any single target if you're opening with point blank W's (and following with a later W that you can save for later). \n An example combo is this. \n W auto Q auto auto Q. \n Wait for his gap closer if/when he tries to run away > blink after him (this is gap-closing) and W again Q auto auto Q. \n This depends on their positioning but if they are on your side of the lane this is", "id": "cofyo8w", "summary": "what I'd do 80% of the time. If he doesn't have any such gap closer you're probably free to just run up to him and smash your keyboard."}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "I have one account with seemingly endless chat bans and another with the good player sticker on. The whole system is messed up and as soon as you raise a complaint with Riot they just assure you those bans were deserved consequent to your behaviour. \n Sure. \n If you play Heroes of the Storm however for any harassing player a Blizzard representative will talk to them, and then tell you they've talked to them and warned them and that those people have reached an agreement.", "id": "coi2fkr", "summary": "riots customer service is shockingly bad"}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "Post game, sure, but I have a friend who plays Draven IN EVERY ROLE but support. Since he started doing that he wins like 80% of his games, but players would report him because the league community at low-MMR consists of idiots and children. His Draven is better than my own, I'm in Master tier and he is in silver (just played normals with Draven). The crap he pulls over on people will make you go 'This fucking guy'. To illustrate, in the last game he flashed down to Drake pit to escape a Lucean auto that'd have killed him, put a ward up, and E auto'd the lucean as he dashed down. This fucking guy can stomp silvers. \n That now said. If you play top-lane Draven and your Draven mechanics are probably worthy of Diamond level play you will win the game. \n There really is a point to when trick tells you to learn the game. But honestly I think champion mastery is an experience phenomenon, that experience added onto past experiences in other games such as Starcraft which might compensate. \n So allowing players to report in champ-select for anything BUT verbal abuse just legitimizes reporting for the excuses made of why players lost the game, i.e. \"lost in champ select\". It doesn't matter what composition you have below Master tier. If you are good you'll win. The sooner players accept that the sooner players will stop blaming team-mates and compositions for their losses. Anybody who thinks otherwise is  bad  and this has been proven over hundreds of times by streamers, smurfs, and even ELO-Boosters (yes my statement is SO evidentiated that there is even a market grounded by the idea that players don't believe).", "id": "cmg4jmp", "summary": "I agree and, relevantly, players need to get good"}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "Yeah that's why I've moved away from the game a bit and started playing less team-orientated games. I appreciate that a Diamond 1 player can easily carry 90% of games all the way up to Diamond 1. \n But you have to be EXTREMELY good at the game to pull something like that off. That's not something the average player who is better than most of his team-mates simply has the time to invest in the video game - even if he has the potential to become that good at the game relatively quickly it still requires extreme time-consumption.", "id": "ckf2bwj", "summary": "why I am cheating on LoL with CS:GO since I've always kicked ass at twitch shooters. In that game I actually don't care what my whole team does I usually win 90% of my games anyway."}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "He wasn't raging. He states perfectly sound and reasoned arguments. People just get mad because they can't deal with him challenging their premises. Basically he doesn't rest against factual evidence because someone has and opinion, and like myself (and maybe anyone else with a degree in a subject) when people are ignorant of those facts because they think their opinion somehow can be valuated over and above them it is kind of annoying. At that point its impossible to gain any traction in a civilized discussion. \n When he's mad, sometimes, it's really kind of an act. It's his brand, if you will. \n The whole and only reason I go to Destiny.gg and none of the twitch chats is the community, really. Having Destiny stream and form motivate basis of our discussions is a mere bonus.", "id": "cq61yzk", "summary": "if you don't want cancer from twitch viewers spamming XD and つ ◕_◕ ༽つ then Destiny is a good choice to donate your twenty dollars from your college fund to. He really needs it right now actually, he needs to fix his roof. \n or you can gift me a tier four subscription"}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "I know. I've been there. Don't follow your team to their death unless you can legitimately do something to change it. Don't start running to a team-fight the team started on the other side of the map if it's  painfully  obvious the fight will be over before you get there. League is in part reducible to a resource game (in conjunction to map-control), like any RTS. Those resources are transposed not only in kills but all over the map, and thus your time should be spent maximising your farm potential for those relevant resources. That's why ward control is super-fucking-powerful. So if there is a choice between saving your team which is most likely going to be dead before you get there, then you should probably just let them die and take your junglers farm instead if no CS is available (or better yet there's), since it'll likely respawn when you get back. \n You can also however use your predictive sense to intuit when and where abouts the teams are going to engage. If you're a fed Graves for instance you can thus play a much more prominent role in being aware of the kinds of positioning you know both sides of the fight are going to be in. \n Teamfights erupt because the teams are hungry as fuck and think kills define winning or losing a game. Believe me if you play teamfights defensively, disengage them and go back to CS you'll pick up so many more kills without your deaths transposing to their being fed. \n All and all, though, you need to be EXTREMELY aware of the exact damage capabilities of your champion in relation to any teamfight.", "id": "cq071tq", "summary": "Don't waste your time on a lost battle."}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "My ex-girlfriend of quite a substantial amount of time told me she loved me (clearly false), I'm platonically in love with her. She went on a five week vacation smoked a tonne of crystal meth got and hooked up with some other guy left me for that person. Since it was a long distance relationship I had saved up three thousand ish pounds for the sake of being with her and having a future together. There is a woman I met on the train two months ago who was really nice and kind of pretty but of course I was committed; and since the relationship with my ex-girlfriend isn't happening I'm going to North Carolina instead to see my friend in America and although we've never really spoken I'm taking her. \n I didn't need to cool-down for more than two-days after she told me without any remorse she cheated on me to get over her or at least decide I just have to make progress. I think she was pretty mad about that. \n We booked a trip to Amsterdam for next week and because she doesn't want to sleep in the same room as me she's taking her friend. But I still want to be friends and, apparently, so does she. She tells me that but she hasn't at all shown it. And I have all of her things at my place before she left for her vacation and I'm trying to figure out if I should go or not, and if I do should I stay in the city for more than a day? That I would like but you know, I would be on my own and then I would be paying for it. \n In addition she's putting me off pretty-hardcore be it some internal guilt or whatever else she's acting as if she is the one with the problem (which very may well be true). I will never get back together with her but I need to figure out if I should just go to Amsterdam, and give her her things, and leave, or stay in the city with her for more than just a day? In light of those circumstances I don't see why we can't be friends. I find it difficult to perceive how if I'm okay with everything why can't she be okay too. \n Of course there is the chance I'm setting myself up to get hurt by her. She made her choices. I must put myself first. At the same time I only do because I care so much. If you want an adequate analogy the way I love is the closest thing to a Labrador you might imagine. I don't run out of a capacity to care for people - which goes four times for someone who means so much to me. Though I don't want her as a girlfriend, ever, I still want to be friends so very much. Which is in part the reason I can't just be one of those angry people who just start deleting people from their lives because they feel wronged.", "id": "t3_3eju1l", "summary": "Girlfriend cheated on me I have all of her things I still, quite deeply, want to be friends and I'm capable of that and right now she's being a bitch.She doesn't deserve me as a person who has it in themselves to love and care so much, sure, but  I'm over the relationship because I'm me, I don't really need a 'cool-down' period as she describes, but in the capacity of being a friend she has mattered to me and I don't see a good reason why these things have to be inconsistent. I say a platonic love because I evicted the romantic feelings I have had from her as soon as I realized there is no going back, and there is only moving forward - but of course I care so much. \n I know that the general advice would be to forget about her and just keep on steamrolling forward. But I also feel that could be just denying who I am. \n So I have three decisions... \n Give her stuff back, go to Amsterdam for only a day OR stay a night \nOR\n  Let her deal with this"}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "Hello, \n I just met a woman recently, like 2 days ago, and we've met in real life (once) and things are going on wonderfully. I have a couple weeks vacation booked for the following week after next though. I guess I've fallen sufficiently head over heels for this person and I could commit myself to her over the duration of the festival as I don't want her to get the impression I'm not interested in her. Honestly I'm a little stuck on what to say or how to proceed. \n She even went as far to invite me to stay with her a couple of nights in a local city, but unfortunately I'm away in that duration. We get on amazingly well at face value and I would like to see where this goes. I don't think it would quite be appropriate for me to say, I want to take things seriously, at this stage (though I'm perfectly capable of such things).", "id": "t3_3hz2d5", "summary": "Having a little bit of anxiety that I could be losing out on something wonderful over the vacation period and could use a pep-talk or some general dating advice. Early days, yes, but we click pretty uniquely - in the manner you could expect when you meet someone who seems right for you at this time."}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "I'm 21 and the girl in question is 17, 18 soon. I'm in the UK and she lives in Alabama. \n I met her on holiday at a beach and I didn't know her age until I found she had Facebook'd me two weeks later. At that time we just got something to eat and kept in touch and connected almost immediately. We have both agreed we connect in the distinct and rare way you would expect from two people really interested in each other. \n She really seems to want to take things with me a little more seriously, as in start dating. I have no face-value objection to the notion of dating her when you take away the distance quality: she seemed like a great person, I think she is, and to that end not anybody I would be shy of dating. But I remember when I was her age I was more impressionable than I am now, so my prerogative is to advance the situation as slowly as possible if at all; so there is that to worry about. \n To that end I've said that I want to contact her at least electronically (via Skype conversations regularly) and see how we get on over a long period of time before I even consider that (after all we have only met twice). \n Thus the distance and age gap are concerning. Should we find ourselves in that situation I am interested in any positive or negative experiences people have had in long-distance relationships or dating women with a similar age gap? \n What I'm certain of is if things do work out then something wonderful could come of all of this. Awkwardly enough whilst I've experienced a lot in terms of dating and having relationships with people my age, the way we connected exceeded all of that unbeknownst to her age. There is then a Walt Disney idealism motivating the long distance thing: all the best love stories I've heard are as crazy as this one and maybe I might end up having that glorified romanticism in my life if I just gave it a shot. \n At the moment I'm treading lightly but a little hindsight is certainly appreciable here.", "id": "t3_2qlunf", "summary": "Met a younger girl on holiday we got on really well, keeping in touch .etc. Assuming this is something we both really wanted would anybody agree this might actually work out?"}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "I'm 21 and the girl in question is 17, 18 soon. I'm in the UK and she lives in Alabama. \n I met her on holiday at a beach and I didn't know her age until I found she had Facebook'd me two weeks later. At that time we just got something to eat and kept in touch and connected almost immediately. We have both agreed we connect in the distinct and rare way you would expect from two people really interested in each other. \n She really seems to want to take things with me a little more seriously, as in start dating. I have no face-value objection to the notion of dating her when you take away the distance quality: she seemed like a great person, I think she is, we had a lot of fun, and to that end not anybody I would be otherwise shy of dating. But I remember when I was her age I was more impressionable than I am now, so my prerogative is to advance the situation as slowly as possible if at all; so there is that to worry about. \n To that end I've said that I want to contact her at least electronically (via Skype conversations regularly) and see how we get on over a long period of time before I even consider that (after all we have only met twice). \n Thus the distance and age gap are concerning. Should we find ourselves in that situation I am interested in any positive or negative experiences people have had in long-distance relationships or dating women with a similar age gap? \n What I'm certain of is if things do work out then something wonderful could come of all of this. Awkwardly enough whilst I've experienced a lot in terms of dating and having relationships with people my age, the way we connected exceeded all of that unbeknownst to her age. There is then a Walt Disney idealism motivating the long distance thing: all the best love stories I've heard are as crazy as this one and maybe I might end up having that glorified romanticism in my life if I just gave it a shot. \n At the moment I'm treading lightly but a little hindsight is certainly appreciable here. I understand that I/she may be (probably are) just completely infatuated with one another; but we both see it would be simply unfair for distance to ruin something that might otherwise have turned out wonderful. \n Recalling I figured it was a rational thing to do  insist  on taking things slowly with her over the next month to see how we progress with one another: whether or not we really do feel we want to stay as committed as we feel we want to be now, and assuming we pass that stage, what comes next? We live in a six-hour time-zone difference, I'm not struggling to think how this could be manageable (I think I'm actually being a little crazy thinking this might work out), but again, any hindsight/advice is appreciable. I keep reading and reading and reading articles from web-site \"love guru's\" (Christ) but I'm only being so  pathetic  because there is something inside of me pushing this strong intuition that I might want to build a solid relationship with this person. \n It's crazy, but there you go. That's life. I could spend all the time in the world being meticulous as I want and I'd probably say, is it improbable, yes, could it work, it is possible.", "id": "t3_2qmztt", "summary": "Met a younger girl on holiday we got on really well, keeping in touch .etc. Assuming this is something we both really wanted what are the reasonable steps we should take?"}, {"author": "MMACheerpuppy", "content": "Hey, \n So about 8 months ago my ex girlfriend went on a vacation took a bunch of drugs with some guys she met, hooked up with one of those guys, cheated on me with him, and to this day she's still going out. \n I have completely ignored her and the entire situation for some time but today I got sucked right back into the trap of checking on her Facebook to see how she was doing and I got this awful pain. \n It's the long story that we were supposed to mantain our friendship and I personally feel it's the not having the friendship that the relationship was built on or at least that level of connectivity with someone that I miss most. \n I'm trying to figure out how I can get over her and just move on. The last time I did I kind of gave myself to doing mixed-martial-arts (I used to be a pretty insanely strong guy before I moved away from my gym and got a new job - 3 months down the line and I haven't trained since). I believe (in my head) that I still want to be friends with her but I guess I just really miss talking to her for some reason. \n I would like to not believe in the overarching generalization that I'm not completely insane even though I'm willing to bet she doesn't care about me anymore at all. I still have frequent dreams about her at least once a week. I feel a little cursed in this regard. In retrospective it seems that being in a relationship in the first place was a mistake and I should have just kept things as being friends. I think very selfishly this is not what I wanted at the time - so even when there were signs of doubt (in particular the relationship would have had to be long distance from the UK to Australia) - I still did everything in my power to try and make it work because I felt like this was an opportunity I did not want to give up.", "id": "t3_4b2i7s", "summary": "Saw facebook post of ex-girlfriend who cheated on me and felt pain, I want to be in a state where I can be comfortable talking to her. I probably say that because on some level internally I still want  her  friendship. Why? \n What I really need to do is just get out. This sucks :("}]}
+{"author": "BobIV", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Atheism is a  lack of  something and can only be discussed in comparison to other religions.  Since the concept of religion is offensive to atheists all their topics by nature show distaste for religion.", "output": "While that may be true...  /r/Battlefield isn't a good comparison for /r/Atheism. \n While /r/Battlefield is made for people who enjoy something, /r/Atheism is for people who  dislike  something.  Now not all Atheists are religion hating zealots, but the entire concept is based around not believing in religion. \n So while /r/Battlefield gets to post about upcoming new features, titles, or comment on a good experience from the game...  /r/Atheism only gets to mention their distaste for religion, why they dislike it, and their bad experiences with religion."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Steam uses player names rather than account name and none of the problems you mentioned are a concern at all.", "output": "On Steam they can't contact you unless you accept their friends request.  And even then, the moment he contacts you with \"Get Gud Bithc\" you can then select to ignore his account from the message screen. \n Also, I'm not sure how you're getting invaded by a single person over and over again in this scenario.  I get that you can on occasion run into the same people back to back while in the same area, but what is stopping you from moving on to a different section for an hour or so.  The game is non linear. \n As far as playing with your friends (which is arguably not in the spirit of the game, but that's beside the point)...  While I do occasionally come across cosplayers in the game they are not nearly as common as you think.  The odds of finding two different Solairs over the course of a month is pretty low let alone ten of them in the same area with the same SM all setting down their stones in the same exact spot. \n If you do happen to win the Solaires lottery, then you and your friend can always use the Name Engraved ring.  Which to be honest, you should be using anyway so as not to inconvenience the other players who want to play with a random bro/sis."}], "user_id": "longlamp_912", "history": [{"author": "BobIV", "content": "My point was that people use serious phrases/terms in casual ways on a regular basis and that when someone refers to an event as a social experiment that it does not mean it is actually a social experiment. \n Your retort to that provided so little in return that there wasn't much of anything I could say without just repeating myself.  So I figured I would take a crack at seeing things from your perspective.  Granted the majority of my response was irrelevant to the conversation, but the first two sentences are still valid. \n But to sum up with a nice neat", "id": "cfiew3x", "summary": "There is nothing here to imply that this is truly a social experiment and a lot of evidence to imply that it isn't.  The first of which is his changing things half way through."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Also, keep in mind that with effective branch mining techniques you only need to mine 1/4 of that level in order to see all potential diamonds. \n To explain...  you dig a 1x2 tunnel for 100 blocks you then move 4 blocks over and repeat the process.  The reasoning behind this is that you can see the blocks immediately to your side in each tunnel leaving only 1 1x2 row of blocks you can't see.  Based on how ore is laid out, it is impossible to miss any ore via this method.", "id": "c4q8x7a", "summary": "With branch mining you only need to mine 5,000 blocks to see  every  ore on any given depth."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Awww, I even had my potato already quartered in preparation for the saltiness. \n Oh well... \n I have mixed feelings on the Mega Bots.  On one hand, I absolutely love some fresh variety to the standard gameplay model, but on the other I didn't want the old model abolished completely.  I have had a total of two purely T10 matches since the update and more Mega Matches than I could count. \n I think having some forced balance between the game types would help, especially since it will only get worse when more and more Mega Bots enter the game. \n Another big issue I have is the reward for Mega Bots.  More than one Mega has come in and claimed their reward for being one shot is ~80k, which is more than the average T10 bot could claim by  winning  their matches.  This encourages Mega Bots to come in long before their actually ready in order to farm RP at the rest of their teams expense.", "id": "cou9ds9", "summary": "I want more pure T10 matches mixed in with Mega Matches.  I also want Mega to earn  zero  RP for when they get zero kills."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "I...Am just going to assume you are embellishing just a tad here... \n As for the reason Reddit \"blames 12 year olds\" for everything... \n1: since this topic is relevant to you, you notice it more while your brain simultaneously filters out other topics that are not as relevant to you.  Such as Reddit blaming 13-19 year olds.  It is a very common mistake people of all ages make for just about everything.\n2:  The largest age demographic on Reddit (as most internet communities) is roughly 13-17.  Going hand in hand with what I mentioned in my previous post, people tend to think younger people are idiots...  And assume a younger generation is responsible for every anonymous idiot out there.  Since there are comparatively few 12 year old Redditors the 11 year olds are not commonly blamed.", "id": "c4uv5le", "summary": "Shit floats downhill and you are unfortunately at the bottom of that hill."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "To start out, I would like to opt out of the giveaway for this thread.  I'm just replying for the sake of replying and don't need the $40.00 gift card. \n \n Down Votes :  I feel that this is an entirely aesthetic choice.The reasoning for this is that as you pointed out, there are dozens of ways to circumvent the lack of a down arrow on Reddit and those who browse this subreddit through an app on their mobile device will never even know the option was removed.  Does enabling them encourage people to downvote...  probable not.  Does disabling them discourage people...  probably not. \n \n The only question is whether or not having an inverted twitch logo beneath the normal on on the side of each comment looks pretty. \n \n Introduction :  Introduction posts as they currently stand offer new streamers a chance to, well, introduce themselves as well as potentially gain an initial boost in views and the attention of a helpful more established streamer.  Part of the issue we have now though is the surge in new members, which of course translates into a surge of introductions, which in turn leads to people ignoring the introductions and thus defeating their point. \n \n We could try to consolidate the posts into a single \"Introduction MegaThread\" but then none of the posts would be noticed and the whole thing would be abandoned.  Perhaps if we combined the idea of a MegaThread with a weekly highlight post.  Take all the new submissions to that thread for the week and create a new one that would be pinned to the top of the subreddit for the week.  This would serve to consolidate the introductions while still highlighting them enough to get them noticed. \n \n Advertisements : As you mentioned there are a lot of people coming in, dropping a link, and then vanishing.  This is just a problem that will always be present.  I feel that adding an \"Advertising FAQ\" to the relevant information tab would help mitigate some of this, though not all of it.  Letting people know why they can't post ads here, how to post an intro, adding their channel to their flair, networking here, and advertising via social media are /r/VGStreams will help to a degree.  The rest just need to be reported and dealt with by the mods as soon as they pop up. \n \n Relevant Information :  The Common Questions & Tools section in the top left could use some cleaning up.  All the information there is relevant and covers a lot of the questions we see most often; however, as it stands now it is very cluttered.  It makes searching for the one thing you might need harder when you have to search through a dozen things you don't.  While this isn't the worst thing in the world, if you make it easier to use more people will use it...  which translates to less \"What settings do I need/How to get Viewers/What games to play\" threads. \n \n \n For example, the first 9 guides in the Streamers FAQ can probably be condensed into a single \"Setting Up Guide\" containing its own table of contents.  The Xanbot, Moobot, and other bot guides can then be condensed into a single \"Bot Guide\".  Microphones, headsets, and other hardware can be condensed into a \"Hardware Guide\".  So on and so forth.  The less reading people have to do at a glance, the easier it will be for them to find what they need. \n \n Highlight Contest :  The Highlight contest is a great way for streamers to advertise themselves as well as a good encouragement for them to create quality highlights.  The issue we're having with it lack of voting, coupled with people possibly downvoting the \"competition\" to increase their odds of winning.  Two possible solutions to this would be encourage the larger streamers here to link to the highlight contest in their own stream each week.  This will hopefully not only bring in new voters for the contest, but bring in a new type of active member to /r/Twitch: Viewers. \n \n In order to stop the possible downvoting, we could try hosting the contest on a third party site, one where downvoting simply isn't possible.  The downside to this is we may lose potential voters due to the extra steps involved in voting, but hopefully this would be counteracted by any new voters the streamers bring in by advertising in their channel. \n \n Community Event :  I first started streaming due to a one time event started over on /r/DarkSouls2 called HardCore Death Bingo or something along those lines.  They gathered about a dozen streamers who rolled a random bingo board filled with various challenges.  They had to complete a line on their board without dying once less they have to roll a new board and character. \n \n If we were to host our own events like this, it would bring us closer as a community and allow us to gain new networking options between ourselves that we might not have otherwise gained.  If we could host a monthly or quarterly Community Event where we would pull in dozens or hundreds of us together and compete, it would be great advertisement for not only the streamers involved but for this subreddit as a whole.  We could host a giant Super Smash Brothers Tournament, a massive hardcore Hunger Games styled Minecraft match, a last man standing Day Z server, or even something as chaotic and punishing as the Dark Souls Death Bingo mentioned above.", "id": "cl0cyr4", "summary": "Read it.  Read my text wall."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "It's because it is considered a \"sensitive\" subject. \n If the teacher explains that it was a group of pissed off Muslims that did it for religious reasons then he is deemed intolerant to the Muslim community.  If the teacher takes the time to explain that it was a group of  radical  Muslims that did it and not Muslims on a whole then you get the ignorant parents claiming that they are \"helping the terrorists win\".  This is all without throwing in the nut jobs that think our own government caused 9/11. \n All in all, the topic is avoided because our society is far to willing to sue its own school districts for the smallest offense only to turn around and pat themselves on the back for \"helping the community\".", "id": "cf8z1bc", "summary": "Religion and idiots"}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Umm... Wow. \n Allow me to use small words.  You say that people no like Halo Wars but like-like Civ Rev and that it is totally unfair. \n What I said was that I own both games and have spent time playing both games.  The reason I wrote that was to show I wasn't a stupid fan-boy who worships one thing and insults everyone who likes something else despite never experiencing said something else.  I then went on to state that the two games do not compare to each other.  Meaning skill, balances, and abilities.  Comparing the two is like comparing Sponge Bob to Cowboy Bebop. \n Which is of course, just my opinion.  If you disagree with such, you should explain why and respond with your own opinion.  You should not respond with half passed and inane insults that do nothing but make you look like a spoiled and arrogant child.", "id": "c72rtue", "summary": "Stop being retarded."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Two points... \n Premium users gain RP at roughly twice what a non premium user gains it at.  A few months of grinding for a standard user =/= a few  weeks  of grinding for a premium.  Regardless of that, they gain no bonus towards experience points which means in the end they still have to grind  just as much  as a standard player. \n Second point... \n > they may only have 400 CPU, but the way they got there is still wrong \n They haven't gotten anywhere if they're still only at 400CPU.  They can build a skeleton out of armor, legs, and a gun or two in T10, but they can not compete at all.  Hell, they would barely be able to compete in T4.", "id": "clkv5v3", "summary": "Premium cuts RP and TP grinds in half but offers no boost to the exp grind.  Considering the games only  true  limiting factor is your exp and not your tier, premium members gain no real boost over standard players. \n Claiming they are pay to win shoes you have no understanding of how this game actually works."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "You can complete those quests whenever you want \n That's exactly why \"most likely\".  A truly free and open world RPG has to adopt \"squishy\" time lines in order to allow players free will yet still hold to a much larger plot.  While you're free to do whatever you want, it is safe to assume that there is a certain order to a few things... \n For example, even though you're capable of going back and starting the Mages college quest after you've beaten Alduin and may even already be a mage worth of legend who has been seen using all sorts of spells to kill dragons and save orphans throughout the land...  you'll still have to \"prove\" yourself and attend the freshman level courses. \n Bethesda could address this issue by making quests unavailable after a certain point in the main quest, but doing so would severely limit player options and hurt the freedom players have as a whole.", "id": "cpex7rx", "summary": "squishy\" timelines are a price we pay for the level of freedom we get in TES series."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Well yeah... \n The Andals are the ones who brought the Seven with them, some of the invading force going so far as to carve a seven pointed star into their chest EA-Dante style. \n The Andals eventually conquered and converted all of the seven kingdoms with the exception of the North.  Only they managed to turn back the Andal horde and as a result only they still keep the Old Gods.", "id": "c4n6ru1", "summary": "The Old Gods weren't called the \"Old Gods\" before the Andals because they were the  only  Gods.  After the Andals, only the North did not change their religion."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "While there are \"superior\" builds in Dark Souls...  I would argue that you need to find a character and play style that you enjoy playing.  While anything is possible in this game with enough patience and skill, I would say a well rounded character will survive the longest.  It is important to have some form of melee damage, ranged damage, and defense. \n With melee, you have the pick of the litter.  The only limiting factor here is your stats.  Higher DPS weapons will have higher stat requirements while smaller weapons like the longsword or mace will do less damage but free up stats for something like spells.  There are also a small handful of weapons that scale with your intelligence or faith such as the Moonlight Great Sword or the Fire Longsword.  The Blue Flame sword will allow you to cast spells with its R2 attack. \n With ranged, your options are a bit more limited.  You can either go with physical damage like bows/crossbows or you can go with magic.  If you go with the latter you can viably go for sorceries, spells, hexes, and pyromancy at the same time.  I prefer to focus on just one because I enjoy playing themed characters.  A big thing to remember with spell users is not to ignore your atunement stat.  You can always equip two of the same spell to double your available casts for it.  Also, soul and lightning spears are your friends. \n For defense you can either take it or dodge it.  Regardless of your preference here, stamina is  very  important.  Using a shield should be pretty straight forward...  on the other hand, dodging requires timing and skill but is much more rewarding.  Even more so if you can master your parries.  Most attacks can be dodged by rolling towards an enemy's right or left. \n As far as upgrades...  Upgrade any item you see yourself using for a long time.  Once you get to the Dragon Aerie you will be able to farm titanite and dragon bone to your hearts content so long as you keep using bonfire aesthetics.  There is no reason you shouldn't be able to upgrade all your items to +10 by the time you reach the Dragons Shrine. \n All in all, I recomend experimenting with different characters till you find a few you like.  I went through two characters before I settled on the one I beat the game with.  He is a Sword/Board character that carries an extra UGS for power stance attacks and a Dragons Rider bow for ranged wearing Faraam's armor minus the helm because his beard demands to be seen by the gods. \n I then went through 5 more characters before I settled on my second long term one.  He wields Heide Knight Sword in one hand and a chime in the other in order to toss out heals and lightning bolts on a moments notice.  He sports Lucatiels top and the saints pants, again no helmet.", "id": "chyqd9v", "summary": "Have fun."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "As the owner of a corgi, I get this all the time... \n They're a herding breed and as such absolutely  love  chasing things around.  I take him to the dog park and I don't even have to throw a ball, he just chases other dogs who chase the ball.  My little guy is also short (as corgi's tend to be) but manages to keep up with the bigger dogs at full speed by going into over drive.  This extra effort causing him to grunt with each step and since he is taking twice as many steps as the guy in front of him it can sound like one solid growl. \n I've gotten into arguments with other dog owners at the park because they assumed he was attacking their dog while my dog has never once shown any aggression towards any other dog in the two years since I got him as a pup.", "id": "cg1w6mx", "summary": "My dog grunts when he plays with other dogs and owners panic that he is attacking their dog. \n PS:  Not saying this was the case with you, Wilsons.  Just used your comment as an excuse to tell my story."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Skyrim is the end of time... \n The Thalmor are working to undue reality because they view their physical bodies and this world as a prison preventing them from being Gods.  Part of this process involves them destroying Talos via having all his followers forsake him. \n This is why the Thalmore, despite utterly defeating the Empire, gives them back their whole kingdom so long as they ban the worship of Talos.", "id": "cor895p", "summary": "The Thalmor win... The world dies... Skyrim is the last one."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "How does that make any sense? \n Of course the Android OS is susceptible to viruses, all software is.  The same goes for Windows, Linux, iOS, and OS X. \n The limiting factor here is how much the viruses developer could get out of it.  Windows has more viruses than any other system simply because it is used by the majority of people as well as companies.  This is why apple users erroneously claimed they were no viruses for Mac because of how good it was. While in reality the real reason was that apple wasn't considered worth the effort of hacking at the time. \n The iPhone and Android phones have swarmed the market in the last half a decade and continue to rise in popularity and their uses.  People now store all their personal info on them as well as their credit cards, and with all the methods of wireless data transmission, they are becoming a juicy target. \n Why we don't see/hear about tons of viruses already...  People call them apps now, along with everything else.  You download an app that uses every possible permission and uses it to mine your data and send it to the developer, use your cards, download new apps on it's own, etc, etc...  People just say it was a bad app.  No.  That was a virus. \n To wrap it up, virus protection on your phone is different than it is on your PC. As I described above, this is simply due to how people use and perceive their phones.  I use Avast! On my phone, and in addition to offering a number of useful features in case my phone gets lost or stolen, it will break down and report apps to me based in their permission and how often/when they are using high risk permissions.  It will also alert me if I have downloaded or attempt to download a highly reported app.", "id": "cehxq1f", "summary": "Android is just as susceptible to viruses as any other OS."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "The annoying thing with arguing on the internet...  The majority of comments will be people arguing with you.  People rarely ever comment simply to say \"I agree with you.\"  or \"You're right.  Good job.\" \n That's either because people are ass holes...  or that they think saying \"I agree with you\" adds as much to the conversation as \"I came here to post that same thing!  Shame you beat me to it...\" \n All of that said though...  considering all the crap you have been given coupled with the ample amount of proof you have provided...  Good job.", "id": "c4kcfmq", "summary": "Good job."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "3570k is the best Intel chip for gaming if your not going to crossfire...  And if you get that chip, you  have  to get a Z77. \n The HD 7970 is also the best you can get for its price point, and even if you want better you need to spend some major scratch.  Personally, I went with the 7950 as my budget went into other goodies and my screen caps at 1080p.", "id": "c8715t3", "summary": "These things are actually popular for a reason."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "For future reference...  Asking the internet for honest advice is never really a good idea.  Sure there are some people out there who will give good honest and much needed advice, but they are severely outnumbered by people who will instead offer horrible and debilitating advice. \n As far as why they don't just \"man up\"...  Yeah.   sometimes  there are sever mental health problems interfering with their social abilities.  Those people need honest and professional help.  That should go without saying.  It should also go without saying that these cases make up a very  very  small percentage of people.  Those who are not limited by a disorder of some kind probably just lack self confidence or haven't quite figured out that there are some things that they can just never get.  The  only  way they will move on with their life is to \"man up\" and the only way they can learn to do that is to be told to do it and just do it.  Giving them understanding, attention, and pity will only hold them back and hurt them in the long run. \n Also...  No one told them they were bad people for feeling lonely.  I'm pretty sure I said everyone feels that way in their life.  My point is that not everyone complains about it 24/7 or self titles themselves as Forever Alone.", "id": "c4nhzdg", "summary": "Internet is a bad place to ask for advice.  Some people have disorders, but most people don't.  People still need to man up."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "God Damnit... \n >horrible get oneshot 80k \n And that right there is why we have the crappy paper T1 Mega.  When they are rewarded more RP for being one shot and utterly trash than a good T10 player makes on average...  Seriously, this is the source of the problem.  Not trolls, but  greed. \n Right now I have a skeletal build of my mega and simply need more armor to fix it.  Apparently I can just pop into a game with free T1 armor and earn more RP getting one shot (thus shorter matches) than I could playing entire 5 minute T10 matches...  I won't, because this is the place I decide to draw my arbitrary line in the sands of video game morality, but Fuck....  Grrr..... \n End rant.", "id": "cosll3h", "summary": "It's hard to stay good in a corrupt world."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "I can vouch for that...  My initial phone (Evo 4G)/contract with Sprint, two phones I added when I upgraded to a family plan, as well as my most recent upgrade the Evo LTE were all through Bestbuy. \n Granted each time I walked in knowing exactly what I wanted and how to go about it...  but usually Bestbuy surprises me by informing me of extra sales or deals after I have already agreed to the standard price.  Hell, when I purchased my LTE they not only gave me the $50.00 gift card buy retroactively qualified me for the additional $50.00 discount you got when you signed up for upgrade notifications.", "id": "c4uiajn", "summary": "Bestbuy should be everyones go-to place for mobile purchases."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "My favorite part of my youth was this particular moment... \n You see, my mother left my father for another woman when I was 12.  Fast forward 3 years and I was your average 15 year old fapping to internet porn.  And as this was still a relatively new thing for me and my generation (AOL was still our gateway to the internet and I \"asked Jeves\" where to find \"boobs\") I had no idea that I should be clearing my history let alone how to do it. \n So my father finds that I've been browing \"TeenDream\" or \"Wild Black Chicks\" or \"Hot Lesbian Orgy!\" and other such sites...  My father raged at me for a while before getting an idea in his head. Being a Mormon, he was always clunky and awkward when it came to talking about sex...  so he figure that if he called my mother she would do it for him. \n He calls my mother up and the conversation, though paraphrased, went very close to the following... \n \n Father:  I just found out that your son looks at pornography. \n \n Mother:  And?  So do I. \n \n Father:  What?!?  But...  but some of it was \"Lesbian\" porn. \n \n Mother:  ...Go on. \n \n Father:  (this is an actual quote by the way) Well...  Isn't that offensive to your people? \n \n Mother:  My people? \n \n Father:  Er...  look, can't you just talk to him about it? \n \n Mother:  Fine.  What were the sites he was looking at? \n \n Father:  (made up and probably real site)  www.HotLesbianOrgy.com...  It is a vile an-- \n \n Mother:  Hmmm..  not a bad site.  I'll have to remember this one for tonight. \n \n Father:  WHAT!?!?! \n \n \n Phones being as loud as they were back then I was able to hear both sides of the conversation and was laughing my ass off at this point...  That was the only time my father ever struck me.  Worth it.", "id": "c4waoy3", "summary": "My father told my lesbian mother I looked at lesbian porn.  She wrote down the websites for future use."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "I would say it is most definitely  not  pay to win. \n The only items that are exclusive to buyers are the smoke trails, accelerometer, altimeter, and badges no one uses.  Also, extra garages, but you start with  three . \n Beyond that, you can purchase \"premium\" on a yearly, monthly, weekly, or daily basis.  All premium does is double the Tech Points (what you use to unlock new items), doubles Robot Points (what you use to buy items you unlocked), and doubles the experience you get towards your level (which determines how many items you can put on your bot). \n All in all it halves your grind time.  However, \"grinding\" doesn't take all that long anyway and consists of just playing the game, which is damned fun. \n To top it off, devs regularly give out free premium codes.", "id": "cokn0xa", "summary": "Premium halts the \"grind\" time allowing you to reach the level cap a bit faster.  Hitting the level cap doesn't mean much prior to the final tier, and even then it doesn't make that big of a difference."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "To be blunt...  All you did was add a camera that as said above would be useless, some speakers that will be as gimmicky and poor quality as the Wiimote's, and a microphone that will cause a lot of feedback from the TV or cross chatter from your friends (as it needs to be sensitive enough to pick up your voice clearly from 2 or more feet away.).   Other than those you just changed the size and label of some buttons. \n Don't get me wrong...  I don't really want a lot of big changed on each controller.  Despite using the Xbox for all my onling gaming, I am a big fan of the PS3 controller due to the fact that it physically has not changed much since the PS1.  The triggers are easier to use and the controller sits more comfortably in an adult's hands.  Other than that all the changes are internal:  blutooth, Li_Ion batteries, accelerometer, etc. \n I also own a Wii and with the exception of Zelda and a few drunken Smash Brothers with friends I never use it.  Mainly because I absolutely hate the controllers.  Experimentation and innovation are good for the industry, but only when new features are implemented to their potential and not simply gimmicks meant to sell the same thing. \n To be honest, I've only ever seen one good concept for the Wii and WiiU controller system and that was here on Reddit.  Use the big touch screen as a Dungeon Master and the four wiimotes as the players in a DnD game.", "id": "c4x0531", "summary": "I rambled."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "They are but there are some misconceptions here. \n Koalas and all mammals drink milk from their mother at birth.  This is the feature that mammals derive their name from, the mammary gland.  From this milk, the offspring will gain vital nutrients as well as antibodies it needs to survive in the wild. \n The mother koala bear  also  produces a special kind of dropping for her offspring that contains a microorganism found in her intestines that allows the baby to eventually break down and digest the gum tree leaves.  This microorganism can't be passed on through the milk as there is no method of delivering it to the mammary gland from the intestines.", "id": "cf163ni", "summary": "Humans didn't evolve past Koalas to no longer need to eat poop...  Koalas evolved to not need to eat poop and then continued to evolve to where they needed to eat it again."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Heh, this reminds me of a Halo 3 match I had ages ago back when I still smoked and before Halo Reach was a thing. \n I was gaming with a couple friends when I decided to step out for a smoke between a couple Big Team matches.  To keep up with the conversation, I kept my headset and the controller it was tethered to with me.  Half way through my smoke they informed me that a match was due to start in a few seconds...  I responded with my intention to blindly help from outside behind a closed door.  About a minute and a half later I returned to find myself booted from the game. \n The resulting video clip was beautiful...  I immediately began to open fire in a 360 degree arc before strafing out of the room and picking up a plasma grenade.  I somehow managed to blindly strafe back into the room and into a firefight triggered by my initial bursts of gunfire.  I switched my grenades and stuck a teammate with the sticky while spinning behind a teammate who was about to smack me in the back of the head.  I then killed said team mate while the other exploded into two others.", "id": "cfn41dd", "summary": "Nicotine caused me to get a perfect Overkill on my own team.  Don't smoke and game."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "In my experience, FM transmitters work best when the actual transmitter is near the radio or the cars antenna is disconnected. \n The problem with current transmitters is that they are not legally allowed to block incoming transmissions such as those from existing radio stations and are not allowed to transmit beyond a few feet so they don't interfere with the car beside you at the stop light.  Older ones did this but were recalled as a result. \n Your best bet is to get a transmitter that hangs from a cord and find a way to secure it as close to the radio as possible to provide a clear strong signal and then find the quietest station possible.  If you are driving long distances then you will have to be prepared to adjust the settings.  Otherwise you will need to disconnect the antenna to eliminate almost all incoming interference. \n Other than this, you really do not have any method of transmitting to the cars speakers.  If your stereo has a cassette player is will definitely not have an AUX port or Bluetooth capabilities.", "id": "c5bkn15", "summary": "Your only options are a new stereo system ($99.00 will get you one at Bestbuy that has an AUX port and a little more will get you Bluetooth)...  or buy an FM reciever ($50.00 - $100.00) plus all the crap mentioned above. \n EDIT:   Just an FYI...  the AUX cable will provide the best and most reliable sound quality."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "God damnit, kid... \n \"Whiteknight\"...  Never have I ever heard such an annoying concept as using \"You're defending people because you think its the right thing to do\" as an insult.  It is one of the most offensive things to come out of 4chan, and that is saying a lot. \n But allow me to explain, despite the fact that this will most likely fall on deaf ears...  Just because a group of people disagree with you, does not make it a \"hivemind\".  It is quite possible that you are simply wrong. \n If you need an example, consider that she did not claim the concept was original or that she is selling it.  She liked a painting and copied it.  By hand...  Which, FYI, is  very hard .  She either did this for herself, the request of a friend, or because she is learning to improve her own skill.  If you would attend an art class, you would understand that a lot of the training is doing just this.", "id": "caaqnv4", "summary": "Ask your daddy to teach you some respect."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "You mean where you can pay a single one time payment and own the server then turn around and sell it when you are done? \n Technically yes...  But not in a way that would probably work for your budget.  You can buy a physical server and keep it in your house but if you want a good one it will cost you a pretty penny.  And on top of that you would most likely need to upgrade your upload speed and that could easily cost you another $30-$60 a month depending on your ISP and the quality you want.  Once all that is said and done, you  could  turn around and sell the server; however, just like your PC it only depreciates in value, and rather quickly at that.", "id": "c4kcte2", "summary": "Yes, you could buy and host your own server, but it would be a  LOT  easier and cheaper to just pay a monthly fee."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Solar power is interesting in that it is the only power source that does not rely on spinning a turbine...  Current solar power anyway.  All other forms of power usually rely on heat rising and spinning a turbine that produces electro-magnetic energy.  Wind and water power obviously just use the kinetic energy of the wind and water to move the turbine.  Originally, solar power used mirrors to redirect the sunlight at a large tank of water.  The heat would then cause the water to boil and in turn spin a turbine. \n The above is a simplification of the process but gets the gist of it...  It is the most simplistic method of transferring one type of energy (heat or kinetic) into a type we can use (electricity).  Because it is so simple, it is very easy to reproduce using different methods (coal, natural gas, nuclear radiation, heat from the sun, etc, etc). \n Currently, solar panels utilize a chemical reaction triggered by its components when exposed to UV light.  This is very complex complex and specific...  this means that without the exact components of a solar panel, you will be unable to recreate the chemical reaction required to produce electricity.  And since the components are permanently altered in the process, the panel not only has a limited life span...  but there is a limited amount of resources world wide to produce them.", "id": "c502yo1", "summary": "While the suns energy is an unlimited resource...  the panels required to turn this energy into electricity are  limited resources . \n EDIT:  I forgot to make my initial point here...  My stance on the issue is that the time and money given to solar energy would be much better spent elsewhere.  Finding  other  clean sources of energy or attempting to make dirty energy cleaner.  Also, thanks for the polite response and your opinion, Cylonbaby."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "the return on investment payback could be near 20 years in many places but, in AZ it is much less that is why I said it is highly dependable. \n The payback is mostly dependent on cost which is countered by subsidies provided by the government, local or national.  California used to over statewide tax credits that dropped the payback to roughly 10 years.  The state no longer offers that. \n And yes, there is a  slight  different in the amount of energy produced by a solar panel in the desert versus anywhere else.  This difference is not as much as you would think as there is a  limit  to the amount of electricity a single panel can produce at a given point in time.  The panels (the ones used practically world wide) are at 100% capacity on an average day in California.  That means the ones in Arizona produce the same amount as the ones used in California. \n However, disregarding that fact...  If a panel in the Arizona sun could produce more power than the ones elsewhere it would effect the lifespan of the panel.  This is because the lifespan of a solar panel is not determined by age but by  output .  If a panel produces twice as much, it dies and needs to be replaced twice as fast. \n An example for you...  You pay $20,000.00 for an array.  It produced X amount of energy over 25 years.  Because of the electrical rates, you pay off your debt in 20 years time.  Someone else pays $20,000.00 for an array.  Theirs produced X amount of energy over 13 years.  They paid off their debt in about 10 years.  However, they were forced to buy a second array in order to continue to produce just as long as you did.", "id": "c5048ne", "summary": "The more your panels produce, the faster you pay your debts, the faster they die, and the faster you get into debt again.  But they do not work that way."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Just because a few idiots never understood how to use armor lock does not make it a horrible ability.  If you know how to use it in combat, it is incredibly useful.  More so if you travel with a teammate who actually listens to you. \n A few examples of it being used right...  In large scale vehicle maps such as hemorrhage, armor lock is invaluable in stopping another teams vehicular dominance.  Destroying ghosts, stunning/flipping hogs, or surviving two hits from a wraith allowing you to close the distance. \n Hell, I even once fought a team of people using armor lock while I came in with a warthog.  Each time I aimed at one, that person went into armor lock while the rest bombarded me with DMR.  I was forced to switch to a new target...  which promptly went into armor lock while his teammate popped out of it and began shooting me.  This cycled for about 20 seconds before I was forced to bail. \n Another good use for it is when your teammates actually communicate with you.  If overwhelmed you can pop into armor lock while your teammates cover you.  Vice versa if they have it. \n It also used to be great for shedding sticky grenades, but that ability was removed. \n If you are incredibly good/lucky then you can pop into it and EMP their shields before they can back away giving you an instant advantage. \n When bombarded with a flood of grenades or you hear the tale-tell \"woosh\" of a rocket a quick armor lock is the only way to survive. \n This list can go on...  now don't get me wrong, there are a ton of idiots who use it and pray their team will somehow arrive just in time from the opposite end of the map to save them.  This is a mild annoyance...  a little less so than those who use jet pack and a sniper rifle to find places that are out of reach but not a soft kill zone.", "id": "c59roh6", "summary": "Armor Lock is as valid ability as anything else in the game.  If I can go without ever once bitching or complaining that sniper rifles or those psychotic never stop flipping banshee pilots are overpowered, you should be able to suck up your tears as well."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "This has always frustrated me. \n Excluding the fact that some people just enjoy asking others questions for the sake of a conversation...  There is the problem that the Internet is unregulated.  People can lie or simply be wrong about all sorts of things.  Often the hardest part is finding a  reliable  source of information from google when you know absolutely nothing about what you are trying to search. \n Where if I were to ask a community, they can provide multiple points of views as well as inform me what is outright bullshit and direct me to good reliable sources.", "id": "c4p7dji", "summary": "Asking the community is enjoyable, reliable, and at times even faster than just googling something."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Your cross-post makes a wild accusation that a company is buying views from Twitch...  That's a very sever claim, and one without any evidence other than an unbalanced equation.  I might as well add on that its possible the developers of Archage are paying Twitch by sacrificing infant children. \n By spreading this filth, you are enticing those who read it to react.  While you may not be intentionally calling for \"mob justice\" that is exactly what you are doing. \n As for the bug, which is a possibility for the discrepancy.  Bugs happen in coding...  Quite often.  Some of them are easy to deal with, while other \"simple\" issues may require rewriting the entire program to correct.  Not to mention that every time a fix is implemented, it can unfortunately break more than it fixes, causing even more delays in the process. \n While Twitch is a for profit company, they are still free to use and do not owe you or anyone compensation for the glitches that pop up.  If you're unhappy with the service they provide you can look elsewhere. \n Now for a third option...  It is possible that a couple high viewer streamers had recently gone offline before that screenshot was taken and that twitch's servers just hadn't had the time to update yet.", "id": "ciz4y8s", "summary": "While it might not have been your initial post...  you are spreading wild accusations with absolutely no proof to back up the theory."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Wow, you've taken a whole developmental psychology class?  You must know a thing or two about this topic then to talk in such an arrogant manner and must be able to provide a source showing that 8 year olds have a  full  understanding of their own mortality and the risk involved with running into a burning building up to and including the pain.  No?  Shame about that. \n That aside, allow me to speak from my own personal experiences.  And before you complain, I am well aware that my own past does not count for a source as people on the internet are prone to lying for attention.  Take it or leave it. \n When I was around 4 years old I had a major infection in my right shoulder that penetrated the bone.  The condition is called osteomyelitis and the infection was a form of Strep, all in all, very uncommon in a child let alone one so young.  It was so out of place when I went to the doctor for the loss of mobility in my right arm they assumed it was sprained.  By the time a doctor got it in his head to test for osteomyelitis it was nearly to late.  I was given a 15% of survival with immediate surgery and only a 5% chance of keeping my right arm.  I was given absolutely no chance to recover the use of said arm.  While I knew that scuffing my knee hurt and was bad, I had no idea the gravity of the situation and was all smiles going into surgery.  I did everything I could to make my parents happy because I just didn't want them sad.  In the end I was extremely lucky and still have full use of all my limbs coupled with some cool scars. \n When I was 9 I nearly died again due to an injury from a fall.  Again I was given a small chance to survive the surgeries.  Again I was all smiles and brave and spent my time prior to surgery trying to comfort my family.  Again I survived.  Damn, I am a lucky bastard. \n Then I was 15.  I got a cold and ignored it because \"that's what boy do\".  Unfortunately it didn't go away but rather it festered.  In the end I got a sinus infection that again settled into the bone causing osteomyelitis, this time behind my left eye.  I was admitted into the hospital an hour before the ball dropped on New Years Eve 2000.   Due to the infections severity and location, they gave me a very  very  small chance to survive the surgery.  I thought to myself that it was no big deal, that I had beat the odds plenty of times now.  Hell, I was even a preemie baby born nearly 4 months early and survived that.  This was nothing...  Only this time I was 15.  Still a child, but one more than capable of recognizing my own mortality.  Unlike every time before I was scared...  terrified.  Dear god, I was going to die.  I tried to comfort those around me, but failed to keep my composure.  All I knew as I went under for surgery was fear. \n In the end, I survived.  I also managed to keep myself away from the hospital ever since.  Hate the smell.", "id": "cf1aygq", "summary": "Children are children, and there is a reason we do not let them make impactful choices at that age."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Hello /r/corgi, \n Ein is my first dog and I took him to the vet to get neutered yesterday.  I know most of you have had multiple dogs in the past but a fair ammount here are first timers like myself.  With that said I figured I would share a bit of what I learned this past 24 hours. \n First off, he is just fine.  The surgery went off without a hitch and he is already back to his loving playful self despite my constantly reminding him he needs bed rest. \n Second... I would try and schedule his neutering around a long weekend as he needs to refrain from his normal high energy self for four full days and will want to run and play the first morning. \n Third... He will be very groggy when you bring him home and will be very prone to having an accident on the carpet.  He will also need to pre right after you pick him up... Having been hooked to an IV and being asleep for the better part of the day. \n Fourth.... And this one surprised me the most.  Prepare for some very  very  aggressive behavior during the first 12 hours.  Ein, who is very loving and never aggressive woke me up at 2am this morning.  After taking him potty I went to feed him to give him his pain medication.  While he ate, I sat about 3 feet beside him watching to see if he took his medicine.  He began to growl and actually turned on me, trying to bite and tear.  Fortunately I'm quicker than him and caught him behind the neck, carefully turned him over (stitches), and placed a hand on his chest till he calmed down.  He continued to snarl and try to bite for half an hour before he calmed down and I put him in his kennel for the rest of the night.  Come morning he was perfectly normal and back to his old self. \n I double checked with the vet about his behavior.  This is normal for a lot of dogs right after a neuter or spade surgery.  They are in pain and highly deffensive, their hormones are in flux, and they are still groggy from the sedative used during surgery.  It fades within the first 24 hours. \n Some dogs will also need to be resocialized with other dogs afterwards.  Take it easy but don't stress... Your dog will pick up on that.", "id": "t3_zgcw0", "summary": "Your pup will probably be very aggressive and may even attack you after his neutering.  This is common and will pass within the first 12-24 hours."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Foreword  -   For fear of turning this week’s theme from nostalgia to Starcraft I decided to go over my experiences with the franchise and how Notepad and ghost towns lead to the most epic and brutal battles I’ve ever experienced. \n \n When I was in in the 7th grade I was stuck in a fairly low budget school district, though I was mostly ignorant of that fact at the time.  There was a decision in my county to improve the schools by providing a minimum number of “tech” classes as to better prepare the children for the future.  My school was required to adhere to this new standard despite receiving practically none of the increased budget for it.  Against all odds, my school managed to get the required classes together.  One of these classes was “Computer Use” and was unfortunately taught on the old IBM style computers…  The ones with the green text on a black background. \n Despite the general computing class’s lack of modern equipment the “typing” class all had modern machines.  Apparently this is where the entirety of their budget went as none of the computers came equipped with a typing program of any kind.  Instead we were told to borrow text books from our history class and type out chapters at a time using Notepad.  Meanwhile the teacher spent her time preparing assignments for her art class that usually involved making things out of egg cartons and other trash.  Did I mention my school was very low budget?  Did I also mention that out of all the members of the comity that determined the budget across the various districts, none of their children went to my school?  I digress. \n Considering the level of “tech” classes my school was able to put together it should come as no surprise to find out that their IT department was nonexistent.  Most schools attempt to lock their students out of each computer they use in order to prevent pornography, viruses, general dickery, and the downloading of games.  Instead my school simply linked all the computers together in an open network and left the Administrator as the default account for every computer.  Good times. \n This lack of foresight on my schools part allowed me to install games like Starcraft along with Brood Wars on their computer.  Blizzards lack of strict DRM at the time allowed me to copy my discs and install Starcraft and Brood Wars on every computer in the class using the same keycode.  Since we were all connecting via LAN and not through Blizzard.Net there was never an issue with duplicate keys.  The teachers general distraction gave (most of) us the means to play uninterrupted so long as we turned in our assignment at the end of the day. \n How did we manage to type out whole chapters in a single session while managing to finish multiple games of Starcraft in a single 40 minute class?  Easy.  The looser of the previous game would type out the assignment on Notepad and then save it to the network where the rest of us could copy the file to our own computer. \n Every so often the teacher would make her rounds, checking on one or two students during the whole class.  This forced said student any anyone unfortunate enough to be between him and the teacher to alt-tab out of the game which for some reason caused them to be automatically removed from the game.  It has been a  long  time since this happened for me and I can’t recall the exact details behind it…  it is possible we hit alt-f4 or some combination of keys rather than alt-tab but the end result was that the player was removed from the game while only his buildings remained. \n These spontaneous ghost towns were always somehow unsettling to stumble upon.  All the bases you come across in Starcraft were a swarm of constant activity while these abandoned settlements were still and silent.   They made amazing war zones when 3 or more players would converge on them at once while secluded ones make for a perfect place for Terrans to hide their mobile bases.  A clever Zerg player could burrow countless troops in these cities, picking off armies that wandered into them. \n Another wonderful benefit of the typing class wars was that it forced every player to play aggressively as there was no time to just dick about.  The problem I have with strategy games is that my friends tend to play defensively, be it Starcraft, Halo Wars, Civilization, or Risk Legacy.  Strategy games with my friends usually ends with everyone on a team and me being the aggressor simply because someone has to be.  These games will always stand out to me simply because of how brutal they ended up being with 8 players crammed together on a single map going all out from the first second they start playing. \n In the end we played so many games that none of them stand out above and beyond the experience as a whole.  Neither wins nor losses can compete with the simple joy of the game and the occasional ghost town.", "id": "t3_252yz8", "summary": "There was an episode of South Park where Mr Mackey was trying to teach a computer lab and failed to understand the text book.  Meanwhile all the students were playing some FPS game having already bypassed the networks security.  It was like that. \n Also, /u/Booyahhayoob managed to find my Halo 3 file share for me and linked the relevant picture for my [Smoke Break](  story.  I will be getting to the other picture there in a future story.  The same goes for the two videos linked which unfortunately don’t work anymore."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Disclaimer:  This foreword is a bit long.  If you want to skip right to the story, skip to the page break. \n Foreword:  I was initially going to share a story about my initial experience with Left 4 Dead 2 but decided to save that one for another entry considering how popular that particular game has turned out to be during this Subreddits first few weeks.  Instead I decided to break the mold entirely and share an experience with a board game called [Risk Legacy]( \n \n Risk Legacy is a bold variation on the old [Risk]( game that some of you may be familiar with.  If you’ve played the original Risk in the past you’d probably describe it as long, monotonous, and possibly the ending of a few friendships.  Risk Legacy holds to at least one of those three traditions while reducing game lengths to reasonable times and making the game much more varied.  Each play though alters the game board, pieces, and rules permanently and rewards long term players for brutal strategies thus making them prime targets for the following game.  If you have 4-6 friends that you can consistently play the game with I highly recommend it.  Just remember the following rule:  What happens on the board  stays  on the board. \n The rule book takes a bit to go through so I will just summarize the conditions for winning.  In order to win the game you need four star tokens one of which you start with assuming you have not won a previous game.  You also start with a base that once placed on the board cannot be moved but can be conquered, this piece counts as a star token.  The only way to acquire new star tokens on the first game is by trading in territory cards at the beginning of your turn which can also be traded in for additional troops.  You earn a single card each time you take over one or many territories in a turn or you can earn all of an opponent’s cards if you wipe them off the map.  Battles are determined by dice tosses with ties tilting in favor of the defense. \n You got all that?  Good.  Let’s begin the actual story. \n \n Three of my friends and I gathered around a table lousy with beer, chips, and miniature plastic figures.  The game board itself sat still folded in the middle of the table with the words “We, the undersigned, take responsibility for the wars that are about to start, the decisions we will make, and the history we will write.  Everything that is going to happen is going to happen because of us.” written above a bank square upon which we each scrawled out signature.  “N”, “K”, “R”, and myself. \n We then spread the [board]( out and divvied up the pieces, tokens, and cards before claiming out starting territories.  N settled in North America while K set up in Africa and R claimed dibs on Europe.  Meanwhile I nestled in safe and sound in the highly defendable Australia.  I then stood up and announced that I anticipate that while alliances will form I expect them all to betray me and that they should do the same.  Whatever happens on the board stays on the board. \n Our armies expanded in a fairly tame and timid manner as we each expanded to fill in our starting territories continent with K claiming South America in addition to Africa.  A handful of skirmishes happened between the four of us in Asia but teams eventually settled into a “Men vs Women” match with N and I on a team versus K and R.  After roughly an hour of gameplay and a fair amount of drinks later N had traded conquered K’s base in addition to knocking her out of the game entirely.  This earned him enough cards to earn two tokens come the start of his next turn.  This coupled with his starting token and his base meant he was one turn from winning the first game and popping his John Hancock all over the #1 slot on the winner’s board.  His armies were massive and parked on his border with R and she and K were already congratulating him on a good game. \n My turn followed immediately after his and unfortunately for him I wasn’t planning on settling for second place.  At this point I had only my initial token and base meaning I needed two tokens (or two bases) by the end of my turn as there was no way any of my fellow players would allow me to survive an additional turn after this betrayal.  I had enough cards to turn in for a single token come the beginning of my turn but instead I opted to trade them in for a decent amount of troops.  Cheers and celebrations began to taper off as they noticed me carefully placing my freshly bought troops along N’s border.   N asked me what I was doing and I responded by handing him the black defenders dice. \n With all his troops along the border with K and R my army had no trouble working their way up through Asia and across into Alaska.  It wasn’t long before I claimed his first base and began to cross down into South America and into Africa to claim K’s lost base.  While my initial army was strong the rules dictated I leave one troop behind in each territory I conquered along the way.  By the time I reached K’s old base I had just 3 troops to fight with and N has 2 remaining there to defend it.  He tossed his die and rolled a 3 and a 5 while I rolled a 3 and a 4, meaning I lost 2 troops.  The next dice toss gave him a 2 and me a 3 meaning he lost one leaving us each with only a single soldier remaining to fight and the entire game hinging on a single dice toss.  His defenders die revealed a 5 while my red die revealed a 6. \n My signature still sits fat and lazy at the top of the winners list on the side of the board.  While N won the second game it was very clear that he never forgave me for stealing that first win from him and years later he still only speaks of it through clenched teeth.", "id": "t3_242pcr", "summary": "I’m an asshole."}, {"author": "BobIV", "content": "Disclaimer:  This one was a while back when I still smoked (4 years clean now) and before the launch of Halo Reach.  I admit, this was entirely a troll move on my part and while I do not recommend this type of game play now a days, it is still pretty funny.   I’ve changed the names of various players out of respect, you never know when a post containing their username might just happen to blow up on the internet. \n EDIT:   Picture added below thanks to /u/Booyahhayoob \n \n A couple of my friends and I had just wrapped up another game of Big Team Battles in a particularly long gaming session.  The majority of players had been sticking around between games which meant that Matchmaking usually had us ready to go with only a minute or two between games and I was starting to jones for a cigarette.  I was in a party chat with my two friends “S” and “J” and informed them that I was going to be stepping outside for a smoke.  I decided to take my headset and the wireless controller it was tethered with outside with me so I could stay in whatever conversation we were having at the time. \n Matchmaking was of course twice as efficient as usual this time around and I had barely had a chance to get a single puff off of my cigarette when the countdown for the match started.  I then announced to my friends my intention to “help” while I finished my cigarette despite being unable to see or hear the television at all from my perspective.  While they initially protested they eventually conceded to my argument that I was obligated to pull my own weight regardless of my handicap. \n The map was called [Standoff]( for those of you who care to try and recreate my route.  Unfortunately the actual video for this was lost when Bungie left Microsoft so you’ll have to make do with your imaginations. \n The story from my perspective was rather uneventful at this point.  S informed me the second the match started and I began immediately pressing buttons at random.  All I heard through the headset was an initial surprised “Oh shit” from J followed by laughter coupled with the occasional vibration from the controller.  I was calmly going through various button combos, curious to throw the “enemy” off their game.  I circled, strafed, fired, punched, switched weapons, and even tossed a grenade or two.  Eventually S managed to stop laughing enough to inform me that I had been booted from the match. \n I finished my cigarette and returned inside to find a message on the TV confirming that I had been booted for team killing.  Unfortunately I was unable to watch the replay of this games eventful start as it game was programmed to delete matched you were booted from.  After ten minutes or so the game wrapped up and S invited me to a game so I could watch the replay with him.  What resulted was a thing of beauty. \n The game loaded with us on the Blue Team in our base.  Immediately upon the game starting I spun around and punched a teammate in the back of the head before opening fire on him with my assault rifle and earning my first kill only seconds into the game.  J who had been standing right beside my first victim performed a surprised dance before booking it to the door, I can only assume this was the source of the “Oh shit��� I heard on the headset.  Chaos followed. \n Both J and S had managed to evacuate the base and #1 lay dead at my feet while the remaining four members of Blue Team began to fire at each other in a frenzied panic.  At this point I apparently stopped firing and managed to blindly slip out of the room and acquire a pair of plasma (sticky) grenades before somehow slipping back into the room just in time to witness one of my teammates be gunned down by the remaining three members.  I began to once again open fire, this time hitting a Blue wearing the Hayabusa armor.  Meanwhile one of the surviving blues retreated to a stair well in order to recover his health.  He was followed by a second blue though whether to assist him or kill him I could not say.  I switched grenade types to my plasmas and caught the blue on the back of his ankle just before he made it into the stair well. \n As I was throwing the grenade I had turned my back to the Hayabusa Spartan causing him to rush into the opening and try for a melee attack.  While completely blind I spun around and ended up perfectly behind him, hitting him square on the back of the head with my own melee attack and marking him as my second victim.  Immediately after the Hayabusa Spartan fell an explosion erupted from the stair well, two more betrayal notifications appeared on my screen, and I was booted from the match less than a second later. \n The body count was 4 dead by my hand as well as 1 who died in the chaos I created.  S told me they won the game in the end with a 15 kill spread.   I of course took full credit for my teams victory.", "id": "t3_23apbs", "summary": "I earned the best Overkill in my entire Halo career on my own teammates while I was outside smoking. \n EDIT:   Grammar derp \n EDIT:   I'm the one rocking the [sexy bug eyes]("}]}
+{"author": "BumSkeeter", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post How will you approach the apparent issues with using neural networks to control automobiles? I guess moreover, will you be using neural networks to decide that cars driving path/parameters?", "output": "Seeing that most autonomous cars are using deep neural networks to navigate, how are you approaching the problem presented by this article? \n For those who don't want to click through. The article presents the issue of neural networks which will recognize images in which something is not present. Where this becomes an issue is if a self driving car were to decide that something is not harmful or is when the opposite is true."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post ASICs for scrypt will never catch on like they did bitcoin (SHA-256) ASIC's, some of the best scams in the crypto world will be people offering scrypt ASIC's  Some of the funniest things from the crypto world (other than Dogecoin) will be people talking out there ass about them too.", "output": "ASIC's will never be viable unless a HUGE name gets into them (intel IBM, etc) which will never happen in our lifetime probably (even then, they wont be much better than GPU's). \n The thing is GPU's already can do the scypt algorithm with very high efficiency, the only thing ASIC's offer is a better kh/W ratio and nothing more really. They will only be marginally better than GPU's. \n Give props to litecoin original developers, some very smart people for designing the coin as such, along with the original inventor of the scrypt algorithm."}], "user_id": "longlamp_1067", "history": [{"author": "BumSkeeter", "content": "Ok here is the maths. \n of shares   pay per share   value of bitcoin at current time = $value \n So for the answer you must supply the time, the pay per share value at that time and the number of shares you have mined at that time. \n So we have a few functions over time PPS(t), ValBtc(t), NuMShares(t). Oooh we can multiply polynomials if they are polynomial. and get a function of just our net value at time t. Or NetVal(t). \n But there is a myriad of other factors that affect these functions, so each of the three function above are probably some combination of others too... I think you can spend days deducing what might effect those functions.", "id": "c9gjbm5", "summary": "1 Ergibillion ghafillion micro BTC."}, {"author": "BumSkeeter", "content": "The only time I flame on here is when it is obvious that the OP did not even try to read something else before posting. \n To me it feels like most new comers always ask the same question, questions that if you were to spend 10 mins tops on Google searching you would find the answer for. \n The other thing that sunny_sunniest pointed out too, most of the people here do not have the technical background to even understand what they are doing when they are mining. I've spent about 50% of my time on here PM'ing and even just commenting, trying to explain to people basically what a crypto-currency is. \n If these people understood what a crypto currency is and how it worked, I guarantee this sub-reddit would see at least 25% less posts, and if they understand how computers and software works (even just in general) another 15% less posts.", "id": "cegcspo", "summary": "I don't think people understand the amount of information and technical know-how that is required to produce a proper and stable mining setup. Let alone ask knowledgeable questions about it."}, {"author": "BumSkeeter", "content": "The difficulty is based on the average hashrate over time of the entire network, this figure is used to determine an estimate of how quickly a block can be made if the trend continues (the average hashrate), the difficulty is then adjusted so that a block is hopefully completed every ten minutes on average. \n So the difficulty is based directly on the speed of the entire network. So you can then guess what effects that i.e. technology, electricity costs, profitability, etc.. \n It is very hugely based on the value of bitcoin to other currencies. If a bitcoin is worth nothing, no one will mine because it wont be profitable for some people, so the speed will drop, the difficulty will drop, more people will mine now that it is profitable, and a new trend will be created. But still its all speculation. \n The only thing you really should consider is its Mhash/$/J rating. Then it is based on how much you want to invest. This means, the better the rating the less it costs to make x bitcoins, but if you only have one piece of hardware that does y Mhash you only get so many bitcoins. But you do efficiently, so then invest z dollars to get to w speed to lower your break even time. A lower Mhash/$/J technology will always take longer with the same weight of investment to break even because it costs so much more to actually use the technology. \n So right now, the best effciency out there that you can actually buy is the HD 5830 with 3.28 then the HD 5850 with 3.0. So take as much as you can to invest in mining and buy as many as you can support to run. But right when an ASIC comes out with a rating of atleast 18_ Mhash/$/J you will be next in line to their efficiency, so they will be ahead of you to break even first. But there is a limited amount of ASIC's compared to efficient GPU's, so if only a few ASIC users have to break even in front of you, you can still break even in a acceptable time. But highly efficient means of btc creation will have to wait a long time for the more efficient people to break even. \n And that is mining profitability in a nutshell.", "id": "c9f504f", "summary": "get the most efficient technology their is and dump your money there. Be aware you must wait for more efficient miners to break even before you do, ASIC is limited (ATM) GPU is plenty....."}, {"author": "BumSkeeter", "content": "The issue is a old version of CGMiner. The older versions of CGMiner do not properly scale the hash (scaling by 65535), thus producing false positives. \n CGMiner was original designed to hash SHA-256 coins, and was adapted to scrypt. The CGMiner dev forgot to scale the hash before checking or not to see if it was a block. \n The hashes that scroll down (for instance in your image 1.72K) should really read [shownValue]/65535, but that usually equals a number that would be ignorant to show, it is scaled by 65535 for human readable-ness, and something else having to do with the algorithm itself.", "id": "cebeyjs", "summary": "SHA-256 diff = scrypt diff * 65335; bug in CGMiner 3.7.0, get 3.7.2"}, {"author": "BumSkeeter", "content": "So when I was young my mother always told me to put on a new pair of underwear each day, I assume I was not at that point in time. Being good kid I was, each day I would put on a new pair of underwear. My mother became concerned. This is also the time she figured out that I was a smart ass. One day she came to me and showed me my underwear from the laundry, though, they were all set inside each other.", "id": "cnwxuw2", "summary": "I kept putting on new underwear but never took the old off."}, {"author": "BumSkeeter", "content": "Thread concurrency is how many threads (look up computer threading on wikipedia to know what a thread is) are running at the same time on the GPU. Each thread runs its own little scrypt algorithm with its own nonce then quits. \n The biggest limiting factor in TC is the GPU's RAM. If the RAM cannot hold the number of threads you specify it is not going to hash well. \n There is nothing you can really do short of soldering more RAM onto the GPU PCB, which you can't really do unless you are very very smart. Nothing about your hardware setup can change where the cards TC sets at. So stop sacrificing goats and doing all this work. \n Without seeing your arguments for CGMiner I can't tell for sure, but from what you say I think there is a few other settings you can change to get some more khs from your cards. But as far as TC goes you cant much go past the ones posted on the litecoin mining hardware wiki (  ). \n Yes that 8192 is the  limit  for the (EDIT: removed 270 here)-280X, anyone with something above that is most likely throwing HW errors out the ass and don't understand they are destroying their hardware.", "id": "cebb44n", "summary": "You cannot do anything to fix your problem, the problem is that the GPU's RAM (and a few other GPU specific factors) limit the possible thread concurrency values."}, {"author": "BumSkeeter", "content": "From first glance I would say that you have your optimums mixed up. \n I would say that it is better for both players not to shoot. This leaves the sum of the utility per player at a maximum (in a normal game, the optimum point is when the sum of all players utilities is the highest). Though this depends on how you measure the utility of each outcome. \n As a side point, I would say that the two points of both shoot and both don't shoot are Nash equilibrium. From both of these points, no player can gain any utility by choosing an opposite action. Keep this in mind as I explain how I would measure the utility. \n So as both players approach overall the total utility is the sum of both players utility (for simplicity assume both are equally geared; equally utilitized). From here we can tell this is the maximum utility; the optimum choice, thus if no one shoots the maximum utility for all players (the sum of each players utility) is maintained. Once a person starts shooting utility can only go down (assuming equal util per player initially); a nash equilibrium, no one gains anything by changing what they are doing. Once shooting starts gear gets ruined, legs get broken, and people die. \n When one person starts shoot we move away from the maxima equilibria. The second player now has incentive to change his decision to not shoot, because if he looses the battle, he looses all utility. Once this happens we move to the minima nash equilibria where both shoot. Here (assuming equal pain inflicted to each; equal utility lost per player), no player has an incentive to change his decision (he cant in reality; requires time travel). In this equilibria if one player chooses to stop shooting the other player has no incentive to stop because he now has the ability to get all utility left, even if he was the one forced to shoot in the first place (from the other firing first). \n So back to the side point. In a normal game (as I have tried to depict here), the optimum outcome is where the sum of all players utility is the highest. Thus this is when both do not shoot, there is no chance utility is lost. Once one person shoots, utility with pretty much always be lost in some way. \n Though it might seem better to always shoot, overall the players in the game will always (in my perfect game) loose some utility overall. This kind of leads into strategy though. If you are a greedy player you will always KOS hoping to increase your utility. Yes you gained utility, but overall you both lost it.", "id": "cnv7c4z", "summary": "So I would say, in the eyes of game theory, the best option is to not shoot. This maximizes the players combined overall utility. \n \n Disclaimer: I know that the game is much much more complex than this. That if you are a less utility player you have more to gain by shooting first. It also does not take into account the loot that the players do not posses but is at the base. This is just my opinion, don't flame me. Lets just hear some nice logical arguments!"}, {"author": "BumSkeeter", "content": "ASIC's will never be viable unless a HUGE name gets into them (intel IBM, etc) which will never happen in our lifetime probably (even then, they wont be much better than GPU's). \n The thing is GPU's already can do the scypt algorithm with very high efficiency, the only thing ASIC's offer is a better kh/W ratio and nothing more really. They will only be marginally better than GPU's. \n Give props to litecoin original developers, some very smart people for designing the coin as such, along with the original inventor of the scrypt algorithm.", "id": "cebfnte", "summary": "ASICs for scrypt will never catch on like they did bitcoin (SHA-256) ASIC's, some of the best scams in the crypto world will be people offering scrypt ASIC's  Some of the funniest things from the crypto world (other than Dogecoin) will be people talking out there ass about them too."}, {"author": "BumSkeeter", "content": "My thoughts, a pool would show up in the network as a node in the network with a very powerful mining power, one representative of the sum of the power of each miner in a pool. So there is no way to tell a pool from a very powerful solo miner. \n I guess you could make a coin that makes it tougher for nodes in the network with the highest x% of the mining power to find a block. This means it would be least beneficial to group together into a pool. Though at that point you would have to be able to record the source of each block so that you (read: the coin protocol itself) can monitor \"fast\" nodes and force them to find higher difficulty blocks to get a reward. \n Hmm imagine, So right now bitcoin/litecoin aims to find a pretty high difficulty hash every few minutes. What if it was up to the fastest miners to find the \"blocks\". Smaller miners would find \"mini-blocks\". Possibly have a few tiers of block rewards. So if you mine at faster hash than me, you have to produce a larger difficulty share to credit yourself the/a block reward. \n It would make it so the more power you have solo-mining/in a pool/as a single entity, the longer the payouts. Have the protocol throttle the target difficulty on a scale such that at a level of mining power it becomes infeasible to mine. \n It would depend on if the protocol itself could monitor the speed of each node in the network so they all agree. It would have to be able to \"heat map\" powerful nodes, or networks of nodes, and set the difficulty very high for them while informing the rest of the network where the hashing speed is so they know to only accept very high diff hashes from them. \n Downfall would be a larger blockchain because of more blocks produced by the slow small miners.", "id": "cep2i2k", "summary": "Not too serious of a post but I put some thought into it, worth a read if you have a minute. Basically have the coin payout time to miners directly proportional to their mining power. Faster you mine, the longer(harder) it takes to find a block."}, {"author": "BumSkeeter", "content": "Quick rundown \n \n implementation \n \n \n Basically the scrypt algorithm needs to have a specific ratio between computing power and memory speed. The more computing power, the more you lack in memory speed, the more memory speed the more you lack in computing power. This ratio is already realized in the current GPU design, especially after the dawn of GPGPU. \n So GPU's currently achieve this ratio very well. You can create a  chip  mem+processor system that does just the same thing as a GPU, just a little bit better; power savings for unnecessary components, less doo-hickies. The problems is the amount of time money and effort needed to create such a system would, from a business standpoint, make it super unprofitable. Millions of dollars in RD and protyping will not offset the cost of what you could sell the final system for. You also would not end up with something much better than a GPU, maybe more power savings and more modularity, but it won't be special.", "id": "cel4frp", "summary": "Creating a scrypt  ASIC  mem+Processor system would be equal to recreating a GPU on par with AMD's, and well, AMD already does this quite well. \n EDIT: Sorry I read that you did have a CS degree"}, {"author": "BumSkeeter", "content": "Build Help] So I couldn't figure out what I wanted for christmas this year and my parents keep pestering me for ideas, so I said I wanted to build my own computer and they obligied. A little background, I am a 4th year CS major at a decent university. So I do have a good idea of the subject but there are just so many names and all that, it would be hard for me to build a PC on my own. \n So I asked for a price range and was told this ( from my dad ), \"as with hobbies of all sort you can get 99% of what you want for a reasonable price, but once you want that next one percent the price gets outrageous\". So I am searching for a happy medium of what I want, and not getting ridiculous. Maybe what I want is ridiculous, but I am not sure, I have never gotten into building my own pc, only writing some codez. \n What I'd like. \nMy dream is to build something liquid cooled (ESP liquid nitro!) and OC'ed, but I know that is probaly a far cry. So as I go on keep in mind I would like to OC and cool this thing, so try and make it so I can expand with replacing major components. \n \n CPU I'd prefer something fast out of the box (and as above) that can be OC'ed later. And I want this thing to have a life, I dont want something I can OC for a year and then have replace because I tear it up or something. \n \n GPU I play a few PC games so I want some nice graphics, I am also looking to get into a bitcoin mining pool (relies heavily on GPU power I am told) so the GPU too needs to have some out of the box power. \n \n Memory I'd like a large RAM as to run as many programs as I can handle at once. Like I want to be able to have 1000 IE's open or something. (yes I exagerated but you get what I mean). I know you can OC RAM too, so keep it in mind I might want to do that later. \n \n Periphs I have a monitor and a keyboard and mouse cables. But I still need the essentials sound card, wifi, usb, DVD/CD all in one, fleshlight. So keep that in mind too. \n \n \n In the end I guess I am looking for a starter, that I can expand on later if I ever come into my own money. As for the price range goes. It is vague, he wants me to get 99% of what I want so I dont get ridiculous. My best guess is he wont go over 2k. So if someone could post me two suggested builds one with a 1k roof anf one with a 2k roof. \n To wrap it up. What is the best advice you cant give right now for my position? Is this entire post to vague, what question might there be as to make this a little easier to help me?", "id": "t3_14ylr9", "summary": "Loose price range 1-2k, want to OC later, starter build now,  want a decent GPU for bitcoin mining and PC games, decent out of box CPU. Your best advice to me also!"}, {"author": "BumSkeeter", "content": "Video: \n The first few minutes of this video Ray Kurzweil explain how humans are using and producing technology at a faster and more democratic rate. \n He states it took 100's of thousands of years for spoken langue to develop, 10's of thousands for written language, 400 years for the printing press to catch on, 50 years for the telephone, 7 years for the cell phone, wikis social nets 3 years... \n Bitcoin 3 months?! \n Did anyone see the Jualian Assange and some other guy talk about Bitcoin and P2P. They start with BTC, then go on to instead of \"value\" they use information. So the blockchain would hold any arbitrary data, hashed by a unique identifier. Anyone can access it and pull and write new info to it. Perfect copywright system. \n They go onto cell phones. Each phone emits a radio signal. So I can a message to Bob then Bob to Alice then Alice to .. If everyone agrees to send everyone elses messages and they are all encrypted such as bitcoin, (bitmessage, its somewhat made) then we need no central towers, dont pay for ANY cellphone service, talk to anyone who is close to the someone in the network. \n I don't explain it all as eloquently. It is somewhere here on reddit I will try to find it.", "id": "t3_1d4drt", "summary": "Bitcoin and P2P trust is the way to go for any communication network. Presumably for any purpose. (instead of btc send arbitrary data; i.e. torrents)"}, {"author": "BumSkeeter", "content": "The story:  I had been \"out of the game\" so to speak about keeping up with everything in the crypto world. I knew that scrypt ASICs had come out and wanted one. I did some research and found GAWMiners. From what I can tell and can still tell they are a legitimate business. So I decided to buy their $45 1.8Mhs unit for something like 0.077...Btc at the time. \n The problem:  I setup my order and hit pay now. It redirected me to a website (not sure which didn't think to save them at the time) where I could pay via Coinbase or Btc, I chose btc and it gave me an address and a ten minute expiry period to use it; no idea what it was. I had already started the transfer from Coinbase to my wallet (didn't realize I could've used it), which took more time than the timer allotted me. After it ran out it produced another address, which I sent my Btc to. About 30 seconds after I sent it from my wallet the page redirected, but wherever it redirected to was a broken link. When I hit back it went back to the \"pay now\" screen and not the actual payment screen with no hint that I had just paid or try to pay. \n What I have done:  I issued a ticked on their helpdesk website, and received a reply saying \n> \n> I apologize for any inconveniences this issue may have caused! I will forward this to an agent to see if they can manually verify this for you as it shows in our system you have placed no orders. Thank you for your patience! :)\n> \n> Amaris \n It has now been ten days since I have received that. No other communication from GAW. I have sent two replies to the initial message asking what is happen and for any information, with no response.", "id": "t3_2e3qci", "summary": "So this all sounds like some sob story that you hear all the time on here/the internet. I am just looking for information at this point. \n \n Has anyone here actually purchased something from www.GAWMiners.com? Is it actually real? If so \n Then I guess the only way my story can even be confirmed is if they happen to save the generated address I sent my Btc to, Seeing as there is no way to attach an address to a name easily (especially automatically generated ones) I might just be out of luck. I wouldn't believe me if I were them if I didn't have/save the address.  \n This is the transaction itself  in which I sent my payment. I own [1F5xqLryPGpukBV2WqkAZNeviDG8Fgn9gp] and [1tNcoDB1Z51mp958vzj9dAojzvoNnrauZ] and can prove it if need be. What are [1PUGJ95uch9FGZJV1HMcDwnpCBoYw5v9NT] and [15YRcpVfB4zc7t7MKyZp7vfTkgALL8rTbV]? Are they addresses that [1CLys1SeMDdEWefXk1u89vSF3GyW6oku3v] (The one I sent my Btc to) sent Btc to, maybe GAWMiners \"main\" account(Just interested, this would help see if they would have a log of the address)? \n \n Edit: I've also called about 5 times today, no matter what redirect (1 sales, 2 orders, 3 tech) I am always put on hold until I give up (25mins at the longest I initially waited)"}]}
+{"author": "theohaiguy", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Umbreon has a Dark Time ahead", "output": "Umbreon is arguably the bulkiest of the Eeveelutions. With 95/110/130 defenses, and a good supporting movepool, Umbreon has everything it needs to support the team as a wall. Steel's nerf this generation helps it also, partially because it can wall the increase in Shadow Ball's and Dark moves. \n \n Umbreon @ Leftovers \n Ability: Synchronize \n EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Atk \n Careful Nature \n \n Wish \n \n Protect/Baton Pass/Toxic \n \n Foul Play/Payback \n \n Heal Bell/Baton Pass/Toxic \n \n \n Umbreon can pass huge 197 HP wishes. Protect allows Umbreon to guarantee that it recieves the wish itself, while baton pass can be used to safely pass it to a team mate, with out the team mate taking a hit. Particularly useful on frailer Pokemon. Toxic allows for Umbreon to stall, racking up consistant damage on every non steel or poison. Foul Play is the desired attacking move to stop you getting halted by Taunt. However this is a Pokebank move and exploiting the RNG is harder in gen 5, as Wish and Foul Play are non compatible as a Kalos native. Heal Bell is its final option, to make it a full on cleric. It also allows it to spread status using Synchronise, as it can Heal Bell away its status. \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Umbreon @ Leftovers \n Ability: Synchronize \n EVs: 252 SDef / 252 HP / 4 Atk \n Careful Nature \n \n Curse \n \n Payback \n \n Moonlight \n \n Heal Bell/Baton Pass \n \n \n Umbreon can also go on the offensive somewhat similar to a Crocune. When not passing wishes, Umbreon can run a Curse set, boosting its weaker defensive stat and attack at the cost of its already low speed. Curse guarantees that you go second, so Payback is the STAB move of choice. Moonlight is chosen over Wish as this set likes the immediate recovery more than the delay of Wish. The final slot can be used to either pass the boosts to a team mate, or cure yourself of status as you set up. Umbreon can set up on support Pokemon like Crobat. \n Umbreon could potentially run a physically biased mixed wall set but fighting and bug attacks are usually physical limiting its potential. Fairies rarely go offensive, so they are less of an issue. \n \n Team Supporting \n \n Umbreon can fit in on a stall team, replacing Chansey, as Wish is nigh impossible to get on the pink blob. A ghost type team mate is highly appreciated, as it can absorb both the Fighting and Bug moves aimed at Umbreon. Similarly, a steel type can aid Umbreon against Fairies like Mega Gardevoir. Umbreon likes to be paired with a physcial wall/tank, as that is its weaker stat. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Mega Gardevoir, despite being a special attacker, can really hurt Umbreon with its STAB, 2HKOing regardless of the choice between MoonBlast and Pixilate Hyper Voice. It cannot be 2HKOed by Foul Play, and Umbreon will find it difficult to switch into Mega Gardevoir due to the high damage output of its STAB. \n >252 SpA Pixilate Mega Gardevoir Hyper Voice vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Umbreon: 276-326 (70 - 82.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Mega Gardevoir Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Umbreon: 222-264 (56.3 - 67%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Another special attacker that laughs at Umbreon is Keldeo. Keldeo's signature Secret Sword deals damage to Umbreon's weaker side, easily 2HKOing. Foul Play does pitiable damage, being resisted. \n >252 SpA Keldeo Secret Sword vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Umbreon: 254-302 (64.4 - 76.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Heracross is at the top of the list trying to power past Umbreon on the physical side, dealing massive damage with either of its STABs. It will however take a lot of damage from a resisted foul play. \n >252+ Atk Heracross Megahorn vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Umbreon: 386-456 (97.9 - 115.7%) -- 87.5% chance to OHKO \n >0 Atk Umbreon Foul Play vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Heracross: 105-124 (34.8 - 41.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n Every powerful fighting type in the tier is begging to have a chance at Umbreon. Terrakion and Mega Medicham both do upward of 95% to Umbreon. Mienshao can OHKO but must careful of Protect, as it can force a miss. Pokemon that commonly carry a fighting type coverage move like Arcanine and Crawdaunt can also deal massive damage. Diggersby can easily 2HKO, even with wish support as it commonly sets up. One of the surprise checks is Exploud, who can deal around 40% with Specs Boomburst. 3HKOing Umbreon with a non supereffective special move is difficult, and Exploud accomplishes this even without choice specs. \n \n Overview \n \n Umbreon is one of only a few wish passers in the tier and does its job well. However, with Vaporeon and Chansey dropping to UU, and Florges having more usable offenses, Umbreon seems doomed to fall into RU. Foul Play is a redeeming feature, but what it does can be done better by other Pokemon. Umbreon's typing and ability let it down massively, and it will struggle to outlast those other options. While it resists the omnipresent Knock Off, most Pokemon with Knock Off have a fighting or fairy coverage move."}], "user_id": "longlamp_15356", "history": [{"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "I mean after you calculate the number you want, as a multiple of eight, you need 4 more EVs to max out the stat. This is because EVs and IVs scale with level, so at level fifty both cause an increase of 50% what they normally would. 31 IV means +15.5. 252 EVs would normally be +63 but is instead +31.5. Pokemon will round down from anywhere so those half stats are wasted without the extra four EVs. 248 EVs would give +31 at level 50 anyway.", "id": "ckajgyv", "summary": "the number of EVs you invest should be divisible by 8 with a remainder of 4"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Special sets have more moves to abuse Sheer Force, in particular Ground STAB. Earth Power hits harder than EQ factoring sheer force and the difference in Stats. It also has good to great coverage with better base power one Ice Beam/Flamethrower/Thunderbolt compared to elemental punches. Sludge Wave is pretty comparable to Poison Jab. If Nidoking got Gunk Shot I could see an argument. \n All of that said, Sheer Force let's you run mixed as well. Nothing like surprising an Umbreon with Megahorn, or catching something off guard with Sucker Punch. In fact a physical set is indeed usable, but for a Physical Sheer Force Wallbreaker you want Darmanitan.", "id": "cphbtmn", "summary": "stronger Ground STAB, better specialising in one stat, 4MSS"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "The tiers, simply put are lists of pokemon grouped by usage. The tiers are run by [smogon]( and basically try to balance the game for 6v6 singles. This is because the official way to play is doubles. However as most of the game is 6v6 singles people want to play that. Smogon has been the main competitive community since gen IV. The tiers acts as kind of a ban list going from bottom to top. \n NU or Never Used are pokemon that are simply rare in standard play. All pokemon not in NU can't be used there. \n RU is pokemon that are Rarely Used, including pokemon that are NU. \n UU refers to Pokemon Under Used in standard play, including all those in NU and RU. \n OU is the standard 6v6 metagame that allows almost everything. Excluding those pokemon deemed to be broken. \n Which bring me to Ubers. These are the pokemon too powerful for OU. \n The tiers are restrictions on pokemon so that they can compete in environments that are fair. The tiers are decided by what is used a lot. For example, until recently baton pass teams were everywhere, so pokemon like smeargle rose in prominence. If pokemon are broken within their tier they can be banned, usually by community vote, to the next tier. \n Now I hear you asking: Why should I agree not to use pokemon because others don't want me to? The thing is you don't have to. Smogon affects only their own simulator. In game, on your cartridge, smogon has little power. On their simulator however, their rules do apply. \n Holy wall of text batman.", "id": "cii0qxw", "summary": "Tiers group pokemon so that battles are more balanced"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Zoroark is one of the most intriguing Pokemon in the game and it comes down to its ability, Illusion. The ability to disguise itself as the last Pokemon in your party can play some absolutely major mind games against the opponent. Unfortunately, the trick can be easily turned against you, but can lead to interesting situations. \n \n Zoroark @ Choice Scarf/Specs \n Ability: Illusion \n 252 Spd / 252 SpA / 4 Atk \n Naive/Timid/Modest Nature \n \n Night Daze/Dark Pulse \n \n Flamethrower/Focus Blast \n \n U-turn \n \n Focus Blast/Grass Knot/Knock Off/Extrasensory \n \n \n Scarf Zoroark can be its most effective power play, by disguising as something non-scarfed. The mind games with the opponent start there, as it can get a surprise out speed and KO with its good natural speed and attacking stats. Zoroark has very good mixed attacking stats, and gets the most out of its sets with mixed attacking. Night Daze is very reliable STAB and in fact is the most powerful special STAB move that Zoroark has. Dark Pulse is maybe a touch more reliable, with perfect accuracy, but has a dip in power and a flinch chance over an accuracy drop chance. Flamethrower is almost a staple on Zoroark sets, as it deals with Steel types that can usually bulk the Dark type STAB moves. U-turn is another staple on choiced sets for momentum, and a get out of jail free card. Focus Blast provides an alternative to hit Steel types and also hits the Dark types that resist, Grass Knot hits bulky Waters and Knock Off is one of the best utility moves in the game, and Zoroark even gets STAB. Extrasensory hits the Fighting types that resist STAB \n \n Zoroark @ Life Orb \n Ability: Illusion \n 252 Spd / 252 SpA / 4 Atk \n Naive/Timid/Modest Nature \n \n Night Daze/Dark Pulse \n \n Flamethrower/Focus Blast \n \n Knock Off/Extrasensory \n \n Sucker Punch \n \n \n A simple all out attacking set that uses 3 different forms of STAB. The coverage remains mostly the same, but one of this sets prizes is the Sucker Punch. Unsuspecting Pokemon can take a hit that they don't expect. It makes for a fantastic surprise revenge kill similar to the scarf set but with a Life Orb boost. Just as the Choiced set can confuse the opponent by bluffing the set for another Pokemon, this can confuse with the use of other Choiced 'Mons.  The STABs are relatively self-explanatory. \n \n Zoroark @ Leftovers \n Ability: Illusion \n 252 Spd / 252 SpA / 4 Atk \n Timid/Modest \n \n Night Daze/Dark Pulse \n \n Flamethrower/Focus Blast \n \n Substitute \n \n Knock Off/Extrasensory/Nasty Plot/Agility/Sucker Punch \n \n \n Substitute is another useful move for Zoroark sets as it can punish from behind a substitute, even setting up with one of its two set up moves in Nasty Plot or Agility. Substitute lets Zoroark maintain its disguise upon a hit as the ability continues to work. \n \n Team Support \n \n Zoroark likes team mates that take the same damage from entry hazards as this is incredibly important when bringing it in. wrong hazard damage can result in Zoroark being discovered before you're ready too. Similarly, Pokemon that have similar moves truly improve the disguise. A Zoroark disguised as a Pokemon that commonly carries Flamethrower can continue the bluff for more than one turn. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n A correctly played Zoroark should be almost impossible to directly counter the first time its seen. Zoroark's Illusion should make it so a Pokemon is put into an unorthodox situation for it. Its fantastic mixed attacking stats make it difficult to completely wall. It doesn't quite have a good physical move pool but with Knock Off and Sucker Punch it can deal with many of the special walls in the tier, notably Chansey with aforementioned Knock Off. Zoroark is mainly a Special Sweeper and so finds itself able to deal with physical walls. Zoroark is best disguised as physical sweepers to break the walls coming in to tank a physical hit. The ability to lure and KO Pokemon like Slowbro is fantastic. \n >252 SpA Life Orb Zoroark Night Daze vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Slowbro: 413-486 (104.8 - 123.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n >252 SpA Life Orb Zoroark Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Filter Mega Aggron: 218-257 (63.3 - 74.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252 SpA Life Orb Zoroark Night Daze vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Aggron: 204-242 (59.3 - 70.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252 SpA Life Orb Zoroark Night Daze vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 224-265 (53.3 - 63%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Life Orb Zoroark Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Chesnaught: 307-361 (80.7 - 95%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Life Orb Zoroark Night Daze vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Zapdos: 187-222 (48.6 - 57.8%) -- 53.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Life Orb Zoroark Night Daze vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Rhyperior: 274-324 (63.1 - 74.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Life Orb Zoroark Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Amoonguss: 291-343 (67.3 - 79.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery \n >252 SpA Life Orb Zoroark Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Amoonguss: 203-239 (46.9 - 55.3%) -- 14.1% chance to 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery \n >4 Atk Life Orb Zoroark Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Amoonguss: 191-226 (44.2 - 52.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery \n Vaporeon does one of the better jobs of walling Zoroark, as it can take hits on both sides of the spectrum. Night Daze still does about 42%. Florges too can take just about any move that Zoroark would want to use. Already mentioned however, is that Zoroark should be disguised as Pokemon that force those counters out. Zoroark takes hits awfully and can be easily 2HKOed even by attacks from full on walls. Chansey too walls Zoroark but fears Knock Off. \n \n Summary \n \n Zoroark is one of the better lures and wall breakers in the tier, dealing massive damage to physical walls that should be switching in. It is an effective Pokemon with the right support and team mates but can struggle in the wrong environment. Zoroark is a versatile attacker and can support the team through its bluffs and mind games.", "id": "t3_1yrql6", "summary": "Zoro's ark is better than Noah's"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Zygarde is one of the surprisingly common dragon types in UU. It is one of the more bulky Dragons, having a fantastic 121 base defense stat. Unfortunately, Zygarde lacks reliable Dragon STAB. Unfortunately for it its is another physical Dragon and gets stiff competition from Haxorus, Tyrantrum and to some extent Flygon. It shares its typing with Flygon, meaning that it hates Ice type attacks. \n \n Zygarde @ Leftovers \n Ability: Aura Break \n EVs: 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Atk \n Careful Nature \n \n Coil \n \n Extreme Speed/Sleep Talk \n \n Dragon Tail/Rest \n Earthquake/Rest \n \n Zygarde's most unique set. No other Dragon can learn Coil, and Zygarde's impressive physical bulk is boosted to ridiculous levels, even uninvested. It's attack stat doesn't need investment as it gets boosted also. Extreme Speed makes up for a lack of speed investment. Dragon Tail gets perfect accuracy after a coil and becomes reliable Dragon STAB. Unfortunately it has negative priority so leaves Zygarde open to a hit. Earthquake is simply a reliable STAB. Rest Talk is an option for recovery. Unfortunately, it forces you to pick a STAB move, and both have immunities. Extreme Speed could be chosen but has low PP. \n \n Zygarde @ Leftovers/Chesto Berry/Lum Berry/Life Orb \n Ability: Aura Break \n Jolly/Adamant Nature \n 252 Attack / 252 Speed / 4 HP \n \n Dragon Dance \n \n Extreme Speed \n \n Earthquake \n Outrage//Rest \n \n Zygarde's Dragon Dance set. The only reason to use Zygarde over Haxorus, is the coveted Extreme Speed. Seriously, Haxorus out speeds, out damages and has Mold Breaker. Zygarde can still do some damage though. Using its bulk, it can find multiple opportunities to set up against weak attacks. Earthquake is Zygarde absolute best STAB attack, having good base power, accuracy and no drawback. Outrage is the best Dragon type option, as the alternative is Dragon Tail. No Dragon Claw or Dual Chop severely hurts it, as it frequently wants its Dragon STAB, but hates being locked into a Dragon move. Rest is an alternative to fully heal after the set up, and lets Zygarde absorb status as it sets up and rest it off. It can then wake up immediately with its Chesto Berry. Lum Berry can stop status once. Leftovers provides some passive recovery, while Life Orb has a nice power boost. \n \n Any choiced sets are done better by Haxorus. Similarly an Assault Vest set is done better too, because Zygarde is terrified of any Ice type move, and lacks good Dragon type STAB. \n \n Team Options \n \n Zygarde needs a team mate that can take Ice Beam and, the now rare without Weavile, Ice Shards. As such a water type is a fantastic team mate, as most Ice Beam users are Water type themselves. Hazard support is also important, as Dragon Tail is the main Dragon type STAB, and the extra damage while phazing is highly appreciated. It doesn't particularly mind taking hazard damage as it resists Stealth Rock. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Zygarde is easily checked by Ice Shard and fast Ice Beam users. Fortunately, its incredible physical bulk lets it take Ice Shards even from the power house that is Mega Abomasnow. It cannot do much in return however, making Mega Abomasnow a fantastic counter. \n >4 Atk Zygarde Dragon Tail vs. 252 HP / 0- Def Mega Abomasnow: 70-84 (18.2 - 21.8%) -- possible 5HKO \n >4 Atk Mega Abomasnow Ice Shard vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Zygarde: 192-228 (45.7 - 54.2%) -- 41.4% chance to 2HKO after hail damage and Leftovers recovery \n >252+ SpA Mega Abomasnow Blizzard vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Zygarde: 600-708 (142.8 - 168.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n Alomomola is a straight counter and can stall Zygarde out with status and Wish/Protect. \n >4 Atk Zygarde Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Alomomola: 91-108 (17 - 20.2%) -- possible 7HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Hippowdon can wall Zygarde for days, using Slack Off to recover and Whirlwinding, when Zygarde boosts too high. Earthquake does about 25%. \n Pokemon like Vaporeon and Umbreon can tank hits from Zygarde and heal off the damage. Vaporeon gets special mention because of Scald's burn chance, and the odd Ice Beam. \n Anything that can fly has a good match up with Zygarde in general, as they can avoid the main STAB move. Noivern and Hydreigon can take anything not Dragon out speed and 2HKO, something that Zygarde can't do with out some boosts. \n >4 Atk Zygarde Dragon Tail vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 144-170 (44.3 - 52.3%) -- 16.4% chance to 2HKO \n >252 SpA Hydreigon Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Zygarde: 308-366 (73.3 - 87.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Zygarde Dragon Tail vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Noivern: 156-186 (50.1 - 59.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252 SpA Choice Specs Noivern Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Zygarde: 390-458 (92.8 - 109%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO \n \n Summary \n \n Zygarde is one of the bulkiest Dragon types, and plays somewhat like a mash up of Dragonite and Flygon. It has a garbage ability, and only one reliable STAB. While it has two good boosting moves, it is still outclassed by the other dragons in the tier. Its power comes in the form of arguably the best priority move in the game, Extreme Speed. However with the commonness of Ice Beam, and the high amount of status being thrown around this meta game, Zygarde looks like its heading to RU.", "id": "t3_1yug1z", "summary": "Zygarde Monte"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Tauros has a lot of good things going for it. Solid Attack, good Speed and a powerful ability in Sheer Force. As a Gen I Normal type it has access to a wide variety of coverage moves, including Flamethrower, Ice Beam and Thunderbolt. It has awful Special attack and unlike the Nido's, it can't exploit these as viable moves. It does however have enough in its physical move pool to take advantage of. \n \n Tauros (M) @ Choice Scarf \n Ability: Sheer Force \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Jolly Nature \n \n Rock Climb \n \n Rock Slide \n \n Earthquake \n Iron Head/Zen Headbutt \n \n Tauros's best niche in the meta game is to out speed it and hit hard with Sheer Force boosted moves. Rock Climb is Tauros's best STAB move as Body Slam is incompatible with Sheer Force and Return doesn't get a boost. Rock Climb is a Gen V Dream World ability so it may be difficult to get. Rock Slide gets the Sheer Force boost and  should  hit more than Stone Edge. Stone Edge does not get the boost as it is not a %chance to happen as a secondary effect. Earthquake gives and Edge Quake of sorts, despite Earthquake not benefiting from Sheer Force. Iron Head is for Fairies, and gets the Sheer Force boost. While using Tauros it is important to remember that Iron Head and Rock Slide cannot flinch. Zen Headbutt is an alternative coverage move. Fairies can in general be dealt with by Rock Climb. Bulldoze may seem like a good alternative to Earthquake but slightly under damages EQ. \n \n Tauros (M) @ Life Orb \n Ability: Sheer Force \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Jolly Nature \n \n Rock Climb \n \n Rock Slide \n \n Earthquake/Zen Headbutt \n Iron Head/Zen Headbutt \n \n Tauros can also bluff a Choiced set, as Sheer Force hides the Life Orb recoil, on every move but Earthquake. Unfortunately, without EQ, you are walled by steel types rampant in the tier, like Aggron, Empoleon and Metagross. The coverage is the same as the Choice Scarf set. \n \n Tauros (M) @ Salac Berry \n Ability: Anger Point \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Jolly Nature \n \n Endure/Return \n \n Endure/Rock Slide \n \n Endure/Earthquake \n Protect \n \n An Anger Point set may be somewhat viable in doubles with a Critdra, allowing for free set up to plus six. Endure and a Salac Berry would let you out speed after taking the critical. This set is simple. Protect to stop Fake Outs, then Endure as your Crit Kingdra uses Surf, critical hitting everything provided no Storm Drain. This activates Anger Point, upping Tauros's attack 12 stages (capped at 6). In turn, by enduring the hit, Tauros's Salac Berry activates, giving it a plus one to speed. Now at +6/+1 and at base 110, Tauros is only really stopped by priority. \n This is likely a bit of a gimmick in Doubles, a meta I know very little about, I just thought this was interesting. I know that Talonflame is prevalent in Doubles, as is Will-o-Wisp. \n \n Team Support \n \n Tauros can be an excellent late game cleaner for teams and acts as a fantastic physical attacker. It does need the removal of physical walls like Mega Aggron and Hippowdon. So powerful special attackers like Chandelure or Nidoking. Tauros is only somewhat powerful so entry hazards and status are important to wear down the opponent's team. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Already mentioned in this analysis, is that Steel types utterly wall Tauros if it lacks Earthquake. Mega Aggron takes that a step further, walling even with Earthquake. \n >252 Atk Tauros Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Filter Mega Aggron: 66-78 (19.1 - 22.6%) -- possible 5HKO \n >252 Atk Sheer Force Tauros Rock Climb vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Aggron: 38-45 (11 - 13%) -- possible 8HKO \n >252+ Atk Mega Aggron Heavy Slam (100 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tauros: 198-234 (67.8 - 80.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Metagross is another Steel type that can deal with Tauros. It can take 2 Eqs, but not well. \n >252 Atk Tauros Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 146-172 (40.1 - 47.2%) -- 1.2% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock \n >252+ Atk Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tauros: 174-205 (59.5 - 70.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Outside of Steel type, Ghosts do a great job against Tauros, notably Cofagrigus, who eliminates Sheer Force with Mummy, can Burn Tauros with Will-o and takes little from any move. \n >252 Atk Sheer Force Tauros Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Cofagrigus: 69-82 (21.5 - 25.6%) -- possible 5HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery \n To wall Tauros, Ghost and Steel type Pokemon do it very well. As such Doublade counters it very well, take around 30% from Earthquake and easily 2HKOing. \n Hippowdon is another physical wall that can take on Tauros., 2HKOing with Sandstorm damage. \n \n Summary \n \n Sadly for Tauros, it looks to be another generation where it misses out on making UU. It has suffered from the power creep of the past few generations massively, and struggles to find a place. As a physical Sheer Force abuser, it is outclassed by Darmanitan, who has better STAB and Attack, as well as U-turn to keep its teams momentum. Tauros has fallen mightily from where it once sat, at the top of RBY OU. It has fallen down to NU, and hasn't gotten enough buffs to get it out.", "id": "t3_1yv97y", "summary": "Tauros can't bull his way through"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Salamence has made a splash in the UU tier ever since it dropped following the Mega Mence ban. It has great power on both sides, good to great bulk, and a couple of simply fantastic abilities. Salamence can take on a multitude of roles in UU. \n Base Stats \n HP – 95 \n Attack –  135 \n Defense – 80 \n Special Attack – 110 \n Special Defense – 80 \n Speed – 100 \n There is one obvious stand out stat, and that is Attack. With maximum investment, it can reach over 400 which is huge. Unfortunately only slightly above average speed means it needs +Speed over +Attack usually. It can very easily go mixed, with base 110 special attack. It has very good bulk for an offensive pokemon, especially combined with intimidate. \n \n DD \n \n Salamence @ Lum Berry/Life Orb \n Ability: Intimidate/Moxie \n 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Spa (4 Def) \n Naive/Jolly Nature \n \n Dragon Dance   \n Dragon Claw/Outrage   \n Iron Tail/Earthquake   \n Fire Blast/Iron Tail \n \n This is the standard DD Salamence. Dragon Dance is a pretty obvious move for Salamences. It boosts its already impressive Attack, and lift its good speed. Dragon Claw makes for a reliable STAB. After a couple of boosts, its relatively low power isn't too concerning, though Outrage is a super powerful option to smash through Pokemon. Earthquake is a nice physical attack to handle Steel types somewhat, and gives an attack to try and smack Fairies. Fire Blast is a better option to hit Steel types as they tend towards the physically defensive. Iron Tail, while inaccurate, is Salamence's best option to hit Fairy types. This is especially noticeable given that Florges walls this Mence even at +1 without it. \n \n Fatmence \n \n Salamence @ Leftovers \n Ability: Intimidate \n 248 HP / 236 Def / 24 Spd \n Bold/Impish Nature \n \n Roost   \n Dragon Pulse/Dragon Breath/Dragon Claw/Dragon Tail   \n Defog/Toxic   \n Fire Blast/Flamethrower/Earthquake \n \n Salamence is a very good tank thanks to intimidate and its ability to do damage even with no investment. The speed out paces a fully invested Adamant Honchkrow, and other base 70s. The rest is thrown into Defense, as Salamence is a fantastic Heracross switch in. Roost is obvious recovery, and can even be useful to out stall slow pokemon using Stone Edge. Special is the preferred set up as it has increased utility and Fire coverage is almost too useful to pass up. Dragon Pulse is consistent damage, but Dragon Breath is like a Scald, but for Paralysis, which can be devastating for offensive pokemon. If physically attacking, Dragon Claw is the consistent damage, while Dragon Tail lets Salamence phase. Defog lets Salamence support the team by removing hazards, though Toxic can help it recover its way through switch ins. The last move is what lets Salamence try and do some damage to Steel types, Fire Blast for high damage, Flamethrower for consistency, and Earthquake as a physical option. \n \n Life Orb Defog \n \n Salamence @ Life Orb \n Ability: Intimidate \n 252 Spa / 252 Spd / 4 Def \n Timid Nature \n \n Draco Meteor   \n Fire Blast   \n Defog   \n Roost   \n \n This Mence functions surprisingly similarly to what the Lati twins do in OU. Fast, Specially offensive Defogger, with a nuke of Draco Meteor. This hits pretty hard and isn't really walled by all that much. Roost allows Mence to stay around for most of the game and keep hazards away. Physically offensive could be used, but the damage output is poor. \n \n Scarf \n \n Salamence @ Choice Scarf \n Ability: Moxie \n 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Def \n Jolly Nature \n \n Outrage   \n Iron Tail   \n Fire Blast   \n Earthquake/Dragon Claw   \n \n Pretty standard Scarf Mence. Outrage to destroy stuff especially as Moxie rolls into an unstoppable ball of destruction. Iron Tail hits fairies, Fire Blast can lure Steel types. The choice between Earthquake and Dragon Claw depends if you want to have to click outrage for STAB attacking, or if you want a third option to roll with Moxie. Jolly over Adamant to out speed  other scarfers, like Darmanitan, Hydreigon, and Krookodile. \n \n Other Options \n \n Salamence has a couple other options. A specs set with Hydro Pump/FireBlast/Draco could work, but would be largely out classed by Hydreigon. Roost could fit on the DD set for longevity and an attempt to set up further. In theory, a mono-attacking, bulky, Refresh, Roost, DD set could have potential, but requires too much support in my opinion. \n \n Checks and Counters \n \n Mamoswine will at almost all times revenge kill a Salamence thanks to its STAB Ice Shard. Bulky steel types can generally take one hit at plus one, and get some damage off, often they can even take two. This is pokemon like Mega Aggron and Doublade, and even to an extent Cobalion. Fairies can really limit the Scarf set, and Florges in particular will hard wall if Mence doesn't have Iron Tail and even still can pray for a miss. Whimsicott can Encore a Dragon move, or a DD to force Salamence out, or even paralyse it with Stun Spore, after a Lum is popped. Powerful priority and Hazards can definitely wear Salamence down, thus pokemon like Entei and Honchkrow become scary. Lastly, faster Choice Scarfers are a decent way to revenge kill. This is semi limited to Mienshao, Heliolisk and Infernape as common faster scarfers. \n \n Team Support \n \n A fairy killer is a definite boon to Salamence. Similarly, a Steel killer. The obvious response to this is using Magneton similarly to Magnezone. Unfortunately, Magneton has trouble dealing with Cobalion, Aggron, Doublade(not trapped), and can be played around relatively easily with its low speed.     Powerful Earthquakes are highly valued in a team member. Salamence tends to be a good cleaner on volt turn teams, it gets advantageous switch ins allowing it to set up. Salamence can also be a useful pivot of its own, with intimidate and defog. Salamence is able to support most teams depending on need.", "id": "t3_3w272k", "summary": "A little Salamenacing"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "BATMAN \n OK, with that out of the way, the analysis this time is on  Swoobat . Swoobat is a speedy little bat with a heart shaped nose that has potential to be a good sweeper in the NU tier. It has a couple of the abolute best abilities in the game,  Simple  and  Unaware . It can either double its own stat boosts, or ignore the opponent's boosts entirely. Its stats back up Unaware poorly however leaving it with only one real set. However that set can be absolutely devestating. \n \n Stats \n \n HP - 67 \nAtk - 57 \nDef - 55 \nSpa - 77 \nSDef - 55 \nSpd - 114 \n Clearly Swoobat only has one standout stat, its speed at base 114, a very nice spot for the tier. It is undeniably frail, and really needs boosts to do any major damage. However, it can boost up very quickly. \n \n Swoobat @ Salac Berry \n Ability: Simple \n EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe \n Timid Nature \n \n Substitute \n \n Calm Mind \n \n Stored Power \n Heat Wave/Energy Ball/Air Slash/Shadow Ball \n \n Swoobat is basically the definition of KISS. By keeping it Simple, she can acquire +2/2 in one turn with Calm Mind. SubSalac is a proven strategy and again combined with Simple, Swoobat can grab essentially an Agility just from Substituting. Stored Power reaches base 100 power after a single Calm Mind, added with the Salac boost is up to 140 power. Heat Wave provides the best Neutral coverage, but other options are available, with grass or ghost coverage, or secondary STAB in Air Slash. \nAs far as strategy is concerned, ideally Swoobat would like to come in on something it can sub up against, preferably on a status. Weak special attacks are also good for setting up, as they do pitiful damage after a CM, which then allows for sub to be set up. At +2/+2, behind a sub, Swoobat can really power through teams. Its , uch better to set up against something you out speed. \nAn alternative is to run this set with a Sash, and extra coverage over Substitute, and use a Calm Mind to try and simply break through Walls. \n \n Team Mates \n \n Swoobat absolutely needs the removal of powerful Dark types like Spiritomb. Its team members should also be able to deal with priority users like Sneasel. Finally speed control is good thing to have with it, so Sticky Web or Paralysis support is very useful. Fast Pokemon with powerful hits, even neutral ones provide a huge threat to Swoobat. Bulky Pokemon like Spiritomb and Gurdurr are good tema mates. Having a spinner or Defoggers is helpful also. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Literally 7 pokemon resist the combo of Psychic/Fire in NU, and none of them are overly common. Still there are pokemon that can deal with Swoobat. Already mentioned is Spiritomb, who can tank even a +4 Heat Wave, and either cripple Swoobat with pursuit if it doesn't switch, or KO if it does, or just straight up KO with Sucker Punch before Swoobat can move. Spiritomb can also ignore any Substitute that has been set up with Infiltrator. \n > +4 252 SpA Swoobat Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Spiritomb: 204-241 (67.1 - 79.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n > 252+ Atk Spiritomb Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Swoobat: 368-434 (133.8 - 157.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n Swoobat is surprisingly difficult to Revenge Kill after a single CM. For example, Haunters Shadow Ball will only do 83% and Jynx does 92% with an Ice Beam. +2 gives surprising bulk. \n Lickilicky is an OK Check, if it can get in early, but is OHKOed by a +4 Stored Power. It can break a Substitute, and follow up with some big damage from a Body Slam, which has a chance 2HKO. \n > +4 252 SpA Swoobat Stored Power (180 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Lickilicky: 463-546 (109.1 - 128.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n > 4 Atk Lickilicky Body Slam vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Swoobat: 130-154 (47.2 - 56%) -- 78.5% chance to 2HKO \n Assault Vest Regirock and Assault Vest Granbull can both tank a Stored Power after a single Calm Mind, and Regirock will easily OHKO with its STAB Stone Edge, and Granbull has a slim chance for max attack Play Rough to OHKO. If it can come in as Swoobat sets up a sub, it can Break the Sub and KO, as Calm Mind is necessary for Stored power to do decent damage.  Both pokemon can be Sub Stalled until a miss or Swoobat's Salac Berry activates, which either gives it a substitute, and another set up turn, or two more boosts added to its Stored Power, which gives it a chance to OHKO Regirock, and a max of 99% to Granbull. \n \n Summary \n \n Swoobat is a pokemon who's stats scream why bother. Simple+STAB Stored Power means that it can do some impressive damage in a short amount of time. It can be a fast potent Sweeper with the right support, with surprising bulk. As with most NU sweepers it has been overlooked by other pokemon in higher tiers, specifically Alakazam, Reuniclus and Azelf.", "id": "t3_2c54no", "summary": "KEEP IT SIMPLE SWOOBAT"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Mienshao has long been one of my favourite pokemon, it slots into so many roles. It was the first pokemon I chose on my first successful team ever. Mienshao has benefitted from Knock Off's rise to infamousy as much as any other fighting types. He now has much better coverage, meaning ghosts are no longer counters. This is my second post in a mini series I'm doing on UU wall breakers. \n Stats \n > HP - 65 \n > Atk -  125 \n > Def - 60 \n > Spa - 95 \n > SDef - 60 \n > Spd -  105 \n Mienshao has stats that just scream glass cannon, and it really is, with its 65/60/60 defenses. It can barely take a weak neutral hit or 2 not very effective ones. However as a hit and run pokemon this is less of an issue. All it does is make it semi difficult to get it in safely. Once in however, it can power its way through some of the best walls in the tier. It can also pressure opponents, using its very good base 105 speed, letting it outspeed Victini, Darmanitan, Nidoking and Shaymin, some of the better offensive pokemon in the tier. 95 Special Attack is good enough for surprises, it can use hidden power to surprise some checks, in theory. \n \n Mienshao @ Choice Band \n Reckless \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP \n Jolly Nature \n \n High Jump Kick \n \n Stone Edge \n \n U-turn/Poison Jab \n Knock Off \n \n This is, arguably, Mienshao's best set. STAB HJK with a Reckless boost is insane in its damage output. Like better than Staraptor Brave Bird if both are neutral. That's the power Mienshao can possess. Outside of that, Mienshao has all the coverage it really needs, in Stone Edge for Flying types and Knock Off for Ghost and Psychic Types that want to switch in. HJK is Mienshao's move for Fairy types on this set but it can be placed over U-turn if you dont like using it. U-turn is for when you want to hedge against a switch but can't risk a coverage move. It can do ok damage because of the band. \n \n Other Options \n \n Mienshao @ Choice Scarf \n Regenerator/Reckless \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP \n Jolly Nature \n \n High Jump Kick \n \n Stone Edge \n \n U-turn \n Knock Off \n \n So you know how I said Mienshao could out speed all those offensive pokemon. Problem is a lot of them carry scarf, namely Darmanitan and Victini. By having a choice scarf of your own you can still out speed and KO these threats. The coverage is the same but U-turn is mandatory and Regenerator is the main ability letting it flit in and out of battle on weak hits, and or entry hazards. Reckless can still be used and adds some good power to HJK. \n \n Mienshao @ Life Orb \n Regenerator \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP \n Jolly Nature \n \n High Jump Kick \n \n Fake Out \n \n U-turn/Poison Jab/Stone Edge \n Knock Off \n \n A basic scouting set. Fake Out to break Sashes, scout items and plays, and can be useful chip damage or stalling. HJK is mandatory STAB, and you absolutely need Knock Off for Ghosts that want to absorbs a Fake Out or HJK. U-turn gives more chip damage,  Poison jab for Fairies, and Stone Edge for Fliers. Regenerator is definitely better for this set as it offsets the Life Orb damage you take. \n \n Any other option is probably done better by another fighting type, including Assault Vest(Toxicroak, Machamp, Scrafty, Hariyama), set up(Toxicroak, Scrafty, Lucario, Infernape), and even special attacking(Lucario, Infernape). A Mixed set with Work Up is technically workable, but purely physical is usually better. As far as surprise Hidden Power goes, Ice is good for the rare Gligar, but other wise there isn't a lot to hit with HP. \n \n Team Support \n \n Mienshao is a very powerful pokemon that can fit into almost any offensive team, including VoltTurn. Mienshao can even fit into balanced as a part of an extended Regenerator Core, using Regenerator to outlast opponents. Stealth Rock is important to help Mienshao sweep as it stops sash pokemon, sans Alakazam. A Teammate with priority is important for picking off weakened threats, a Scarfer performs a similar role. This is especially important with the wall breaking capabilities of the Choice Banded set, as the Scarfer can clean up Mienshao's mess. \n \n Damage Output \n \n > 252 Atk Choice Band Reckless Mienshao High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 238-282 (56.6 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n That is probably the best wall in the tier, and it is 2HKOed easily. Hippowdon can't even OHKO back. \n > -1 252 Atk Choice Band Reckless Mienshao High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 205-243 (53.3 - 63.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Your Favourite physical wall and mine, Arcanine is also 2HKOed. This means that it can't switch in. Arcanine too struggles to OHKO, without Attack investment. \n > 252 Atk Choice Band Reckless Mienshao High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 232-274 (61 - 72.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Chesnaught joins the list of physical walls that simply cannot switch into Banded Mienshao, and misses the KO \n > 252 Atk Choice Band Reckless Mienshao High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Swampert: 286-337 (70.7 - 83.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Swampert can't switch in either and needs investment to OHKO as well. \n >252 Atk Choice Band Reckless Mienshao High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Milotic: 312-367 (79.1 - 93.1%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock \n Milotic too struggles to come in effectively on Mienshao. \n > 252 Atk Choice Band Reckless Mienshao High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Florges: 255-300 (70.8 - 83.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Florges can't take two without full defensive investment, and even with it, can struggle. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n So this monster of a Weasel does actually have some stops. Slowbro is the obvious one, as it will often not have to take the hit after being weakened. It has a STAB super effective move that OHKOs, and it resists Mienshao's main move. Knock Off won't 2HKO from full, without absolute max rolls. Slowbro can even switch out to heal off the damage, making it a very effective check. Unfortunately,  Mienshao has a super effective U-turn to get out if Slowbro is predicted. \n > 252 Atk Choice Band Mienshao Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 208-246 (52.7 - 62.4%) \n > 252 Atk Choice Band Mienshao U-turn vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 150-178 (38 - 45.1%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Even with the buff to Knock Off, Ghost types are still very good checks to Mienshao as they stop the HJK, and have potential to burn. Some of the better ones are Sableye, Cofagrigus, and Trevanent. \n Many pokemon check Mienshao offensively, like Azelf, Scarf Victini, Mega Aerodactyl, Alakazam, and Crobat. \n Protect is another move that hinders Mienshao as it can stop the HJK,  causing it to have 50% recoil. \n \n Summary \n \n Mienshao is one of the absolute top wall breakers and late game sweepers in the tier. It makes a fantastic revenge killer and can absolutely maim unprepared teams. Its STAB HJK is fear inspiring. It has almost replaced Mega Medicham, despite fierce competition from Infernape. Infernape doesnt have HJK though.", "id": "t3_29vzlx", "summary": "Banded Reckless HJK"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Swampert is on of the more diverse Pokemon in the tier. Its stats don't lean one way in particular. With solid 100/90/90 defenses Swampert can tanks hits from either side of the spectrum. With better than average attack it can also deal out damage. Swampert is the classic tank. Its typing gives it only one weakness, to the uncommon grass type moves. \n \n Swampert @ Leftovers \n Ability: Torrent \n EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 Atk \n Relaxed Nature \n \n Scald \n \n Stealth Rock \n \n Roar \n \n Earthquake \n \n \n This is a variation on the classic Swampert set from all the way back in fourth gen. Scald's high burn chance makes up for the fact that it makes Swampert a mixed attacker. This burn chance can also let Swampert be a fantastic mixed wall with full investment in Special Defense. Swampert is a great Pokemon that can have many switch in opportunities. These are also opportunities it has to set up Stealth Rock, the single best entry hazard in the game. Unfortunately, SR is a BW2 tutor move, so it is difficult to RNG a good Swampert with rocks. Roar lets it rack up hazard damage and force out counters(read grass types) as soon as they come in. Earthquake provides solid STAB and still hits hard. Quiet means that both attacks are unhindered, and with base 60 speed, Swampert will rarely outspeed anything anyway. \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Swampert @ Choice Band/Assault Vest \n Ability: Torrent \n EVs: 252 HP/ 252 Atk/4 SDef \n Adamant/Relaxed Nature \n \n Waterfall \n \n Ice Punch \n \n Super Power/Stone Edge/Scald \n \n Earthquake \n \n \n Swampert can also go on the offensive, maximising on its base 110 Attack stat. With the Choice Band Swampert reaches an attack stat of 525. It has solid dual STAB options in Waterfall and Earthquake. Ice Punch provides useful coverage against Grass types. Swampert lacks the ever useful priority Aqua Jet, limiting its options. The final slot can be a couple of options. Super Power gives Swampert the best super effective coverage, while Stone Edge completes the Edge Quake combo. Scald is an option to patch Swampert's uninvested defense by exploiting Scald's chance at a burn. \n \n Swampert @ Leftovers \n Ability: Torrent \n EVs: 252 HP/ 252 SDef/4 Atk \n Careful/Adamant Nature \n \n Waterfall/Earthquake \n \n Curse \n \n Rest \n \n Sleep Talk/Ice Punch \n \n \n This is Swampert's only real chance at sweeping. Swampert is pretty bulky with full special investment. Curse ups his uninvested defense stat. It also ups his already decent attack. The choice between STAB move is power vs you want to hit flying types. Ice Punch should be run alongside Waterfall, however you are helpless while asleep. If running Rest Talk, Swampert is remarkably similar to a Crocune, being able to be a defensive pivot throughout the game, but clean up late. Rest is Swampert's only form of recovery and is therefore mandatory on this set. \n \n Team Support \n \n Swampert quite obviously abhors grass type attacks, and needs something to take them, such as a fire, grass or dragon type. Swampert is usually a physical wall, so should be paired with a special wall. A Celebi, Roserade or Arcanine make great team mates. As Swampert can lay down stealth rocks, he appreciates team mates that force switches, like Scarf Diggersby. He also likes a Spin Blocker/Taunter as it can lose your team momentum to spend an extra turn resetting rocks. As a ground type he can switch in on electric moves with complete freedom. This is helpful for flying types like Staraptor. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Three Pokemon stand out as checks. Roserade, Celebi and Shaymin. These three resist, at least one STAB, don't mind the burn because of Natural Cure and can OHKO with their STAB grass attacks. \n >252+ Atk Swampert Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Roserade: 228-268 (70.3 - 82.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252+ Atk Swampert Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Shaymin: 80-94 (23.4 - 27.5%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Swampert Earthquake vs. 220 HP / 0 Def Celebi: 80-94 (20.2 - 23.7%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Swampert Ice Punch vs. 220 HP / 0 Def Celebi: 160-190 (40.4 - 47.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ SpA Celebi Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Swampert: 328-388 (81.1 - 96%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Latias is another common Pokemon that resists Swampert's dual STAB. Latias can wear Swampert down, and will usually have instant recovery. It can Defog any SR that gets set up. Latias is a great switch in for Swampert. \n >252+ Atk Swampert Waterfall vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Latias: 69-82 (22.8 - 27.1%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Latias Dragon Pulse vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Swampert: 135-160 (33.4 - 39.6%) -- 19.8% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Cofagrigus can also wall Swampert. It takes barely 30% from Swampert, and can burn it back in return. Cofagrigus can stall out Swamperts lacking Rest. Burning Swampert cuts the damage in half. \n >4 Atk Swampert Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Cofagrigus: 85-102 (26.5 - 31.8%) -- 25.8% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 SpA Cofagrigus Shadow Ball vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Swampert: 91-108 (22.5 - 26.7%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery and burn damage \n Chesnaught is a fantastic wall of Swampert, resisting dual STAB and having sky high physical defense. Most lack a grass move however, but Swampert is easily stalled out with Leech Seed. \n >4 Atk Swampert Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 37-44 (9.7 - 11.5%) -- possibly the worst move ever \n >4 Atk Chesnaught Hammer Arm vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Swampert: 88-105 (21.7 - 25.9%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Gourgeist also takes a pittance from Swampert's STAB attacks, can burn it and stall it out with Leech Seed. Seed Bomb won't OHKO a fully defensive Swampert, doing about 80%. burned Swampert can't even do good damage with Ice Punch. \n >252 Atk Swampert Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gourgeist-Super: 92-110 (24.5 - 29.4%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Gourgeist-Super Seed Bomb vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Swampert: 268-324 (66.3 - 80.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n \n Summary \n \n Swampert is still doing what its been doing since gen 3. Its tanking hits, getting up Stealth Rock, phazing, and dishing hits to most things that aren't grass type. Its a good bulky water, one of the more physically oriented. It fits on FWG cores, and has only one weakness. Swampert was a standard of UU last gen and looks like it has a good chance of making a repeat appearance.", "id": "t3_1xifqq", "summary": "Shaken. Not Stirred."}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Yanmega is formerly the top speed booster. Since Scolipede has been banned in UU, the only real competition it faces is from Sharpedo, who has become somewhat obscure thanks to the rise of Crawdaunt. While it cannot pass its boosts, Yanmega has the power to get through just enough to warrant a spot on a team. \n \n Yanmega @ Life Orb/Leftovers \n Ability: Speed Boost \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 Def \n Modest/Timid Nature \n \n Protect/Substitute \n \n Air Slash \n \n Bug Buzz \n \n Giga Drain/Ancient Power/HP Ground \n \n \n This is the standard set for Yanmega. It capitalises on Yanmega's best stats, and its ability. Protect can be used to stall a turn, gain a plus one to speed and scout opposing Pokemon. Substitute is an option to prevent status and buffer a priority hit. Air Slash and Bug Buzz provide decent STAB options, and Yanmega appreciates the buff to sound moves, as she can now revenge kill through Substitutes. The last slot is for the coverage move of your choice. Giga drain hits rock, ground and water types, and allows for some recovery of Life Orb recoil. Ancient Power hits Fliers, but again leaves you walled by steels. HP Ground, despite being unorthodox can help you get past those steel types and provides the best neutral coverage. Life Orb will give more power, but Leftovers can help Yanmega with its absolutely crippling SR weakness. \n [Yanmega doing work]( \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Yanmega @ Choice Specs \n Ability: Tinted Lens \n EVs: 252 SAtk / 4 Atk / 252 Spd \n Modest Nature \n \n U-turn \n \n Bug Buzz \n \n Air Slash \n \n Giga Drain/Ancient Power/HP Ground \n \n \n This is Yanmega's alternate set. With Tinted Lens, nothing resists its Dual STAB. Again there is a coverage slot, and that is personal preference, although steel types are less of a problem. U-Turn is there for gaining momentum. \n \n Team Support \n \n There is no Yanmega set that doesn't REQUIRE hazard removal in team. No questions. No ifs. No buts. Hazard removal is essential. Despite the EVs being set so that Yanmega has 2 switch ins without recoil, that SR damage will maim it every time it comes in. Kabutops is one of the best partners for Yanmega, as it resists fire and ice moves, as well as providing rapid spin support. In return, Yanmega covers Kabutops' grass and fighting weaknesses. A ground type also makes a good team mate, as it is immune to electric moves, including T-Wave, a real issue for Yanmega. Yanmega struggles with special walls like Chansey and Snorlax, so a fighting type provides good offensive synergy. Paralysis support can be useful to para flinch the opponent with Air Slash. \n \n Checks and Counters \n \n Yanmega hates Chansey as much as any special sweeper. Chansey can paralyse Yanmega, wear it down with S-Toss and recover off any damage. After rocks, Chansey 2HKOes. \n >252+ SpA Life Orb Yanmega Bug Buzz vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 125-148 (17.7 - 21%) -- possible 5HKO \n Mega Aggron is another common wall that Yanmega struggles with. Heavy Slam does a lot of damage, while dual STAB is resisted. \n >252+ SpA Life Orb Yanmega Hidden Power Ground vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Filter Mega Aggron: 156-185 (45.3 - 53.7%) -- 42.2% chance to 2HKO \n >252+ SpA Life Orb Yanmega Bug Buzz vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Aggron: 116-136 (33.7 - 39.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Mega Aggron Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Yanmega: 258-304 (82.1 - 96.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Jellicent can also tank Yanmega's hits, has immediate recovery and hits it decently hard with Scald, for a burn chance. \n >252+ SpA Life Orb Yanmega Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Jellicent: 151-179 (37.3 - 44.3%) -- 100% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 SpA Jellicent Scald vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Yanmega: 120-142 (38.2 - 45.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n Zapdos is a straight counter. Resists dual STAB, out speeds, and OHKOes with Thunderbolt. \n >252+ SpA Life Orb Yanmega Bug Buzz vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Zapdos: 105-125 (32.6 - 38.8%) -- 5.9% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Zapdos Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Yanmega: 458-540 (145.8 - 171.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO. \n The Tinted Lens is harder to check. Pokemon like Zapdos and Aggron have a harder time. \n >252+ SpA Choice Specs Tinted Lens Yanmega Bug Buzz vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Zapdos: 246-288 (76.3 - 89.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ SpA Choice Specs Tinted Lens Yanmega Bug Buzz vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Aggron: 268-316 (77.9 - 91.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n \n Summary \n \n Yanmega has a chance to fill the void left by Scolipede's ban, to be a fast reliable revenge killer. It lacks the BP utility and requires much more support from the team however. Yanmega finds itself competing for a special sweeper spot with powerful threats like Zapdos, Latias and Keldeo. Yanmega is a good Pokemon, but seems destined to head towards RU.", "id": "t3_1xkjea", "summary": "Mega Evolved Before It Was Cool"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Furfrou is an interesting Pokemon with a really cool ability, and one of the poshest designs I've ever seen. It has forms for no point other than aesthetics, and they're change able. Beyond that it has decent speed and usable attack and HP. Unfortunately its coverage is severely limited and so therefore are its sets. \n \n Furfrou @ Leftovers \n Ability: Fur Coat \n EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def  / 4 Atk \n Impish Nature \n \n Return/U-Turn \n \n Thunder Wave/Toxic \n \n Roar \n \n Sucker Punch/Rest/U-Turn \n \n \n This is Furfrou's main set, spreading paralysis and tanking hits on the physical spectrum. Its ability is Huge Power but for its defense stat. So while base 60 Def is nothing special, the stat maxes out at higher than Azumaril's attack. Return is STAB, but U-Turn gives the team momentum. Toxic and Thunder Wave just depends on the personal preference, although T-Wave leaves is walled against physically bulky ground types. Roar allows it to phaze boosted threats Sucker Punch gives priority, but Rest allows it to have some recovery. Unfortunately it has 4MSS and doesn't quite have room for Sleep Talk. Base 90 Sp Def gives it some mixed wall capabilities. \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Furfrou @ Assault Vest \n Ability: Fur Coat \n EVs: 80 Spd / 252 Atk / 176 HP \n Jolly Nature \n \n U-turn \n \n Return \n \n Sucker Punch \n \n Wild Charge \n \n \n This set provides Furfrou with an offense while really bulking it up as much as it can. The speed invested puts it ahead of base 80s and notably Diggersby, but if that isn't required, max HP can be used also. This set uses all of Furfrou's coverage with STAB Return, U-Turn for scouting, Sucker Punch for priority and Wild Charge as coverage. It gets no better offensive moves than these. The Assault Vest propels its Special Defense well above 300 with no investment. Unfortunately, its move pool lends itself more to support than Assault Vest, which is a shame, as it is a good mixed wall with the Vest. \n \n Furfrou can run a mixed wall set, but its physical defense takes a significant drop. However it could help get past special threats that think they can muscle through Furfrou. \n \n Team Support \n \n Furfrou's typing leaves it weak to only Fighting, so a Ghost type is appreciated. As Furfrou is predominantly a physical wall and phazer, it likes being paired with hazards and special walls. Its status spreading can benefit team mates, allowing them to outspeed common threats. \n \n Checks and Counters \n \n Mega Medicham will 2HKO and can recover most of the damage it would take from a Return. MegaCham only counters sets lacking Toxic. \n >252 Atk Pure Power Mega Medicham Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Fur Coat Furfrou: 201-237 (56.7 - 66.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n 4 Atk Furfrou Return vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mega Medicham: 105-124 (40.2 - 47.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n Bulky Fighting types like Machamp also deal with Furfrou effectively. \n >252+ Atk Machamp Dynamic Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Fur Coat Furfrou: 177-208 (50 - 58.7%) -- 72.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n 4 Atk Furfrou Return vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Machamp: 111-132 (28.9 - 34.3%) -- 99.3% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Just as MegaCham walls sets with only Toxic, bulky ghosts and rock types wall sets with T-Wave. Ghosts can proceed to burn \n 4 Atk burned Furfrou Sucker Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Cofagrigus: 35-42 (10.9 - 13.1%) -- possibly the worst move ever \n 4 Atk Furfrou Sucker Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Cofagrigus: 70-84 (21.8 - 26.2%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Rhyperior Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Fur Coat Furfrou: 93-110 (26.2 - 31%) -- 8.4% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Furfrou Return vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Rhyperior: 37-44 (8.5 - 10.1%) -- possibly the worst move ever \n Strong special attackers can also get past Furfrou, Mega Gardevior does about 70%, Latias around 40% and Zapdos around 50%. without investment it struggles to keep up with these powerful attackers. \n Furfrou can somewhat shut down Darmanitan with T-Wave, one of the few Pokemon that aren't 2HKOed by Flare Blitz while not resisting. In return, Furfrou can hit hard with Return, or Phaze to rack up SR damage. \n >252 Atk Sheer Force Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Fur Coat Furfrou: 132-156 (37.2 - 44%) -- 99.9% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n 4 Atk Furfrou Return vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Darmanitan: 148-175 (42.1 - 49.8%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n \n Summary \n \n Despite an amazing ability and good speed, Furfrou just won't cut it in UU. It has stiff competition from Pokemon like Slowbro and Tangrowth, both of whom provide similar utility and better power, as well as reliable recovery thanks to Regenerator. It also faces competition from Pokemon like Chansey for a normal type Pokemon on the team.", "id": "t3_1xlkpb", "summary": "Dog Eat Dog World"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Honchkrow is easily one of the coolest looking Pokemon. Its attacking stats are equally good, but its speed is a real let down, at base 71. While this is somewhat mitigated by Sucker Punch, Honchkrow simply struggles to keep up with others in the tier. Despite its good HP, awful defenses mean it cannot take a hit. It is extremely susceptible to status, as T-Wave and Will-o-Wisp both cripple it. Honchkrow is just not a good fit in the current UU meta. \n \n Honchkrow @ Life Orb \n Ability: Moxie \n EVs: 252 Atk /  / 252 HP or Spd / 4 SDef \n Adamant/Jolly Nature \n \n Substitute \n \n Roost \n \n Sucker Punch \n \n Brave Bird \n \n \n Honchkrow's best chance of sweeping is from behind a substitute. In true mobster fashion, he lets that take all the hits, while punching out opponents. Usually Life Orb and Substitute is a bad idea, but Honchkrow likes all the power he can get. Roost recovers off any LO, Sub, or BB recoil. Brave Bird and Sucker Punch provide STAB, high power, and a way around Honchkrow's lower than average speed. Substitute helps with the mind games of Sucker Punch, by almost forcing an attacking move. \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Honchkrow @ Life Orb \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP or Spd / 4 SDef \n Adamant/Naughty/Jolly Nature \n \n Substitute/Super Power/Roost \n \n Pursuit \n \n Sucker Punch \n \n Brave Bird \n \n \n If you enjoy mind games, this set delivers. With a Substitute up, the opponent is forced into a difficult situation. Do they switch and leave themselves open to pursuit? Or stay in and try to break the Sub, only to eat a Sucker Punch? If played correctly, this set can destroy teams, and get into the opponent's head. Brave Bird provides a STAB option if you out speed and don't want to Pursuit. Super Power can be useful for hitting Steels, while Roost helps alleviate recoil, rocks and LO damage. All are good choices, but Subs that protect from status, and with full HP investment won't be broken by a Chansey Seismic Toss, are too useful for Honchkrow. \n \n Honchkrow @ Choice Scarf \n Ability: Moxie \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef \n Jolly Nature \n \n Brave Bird \n \n Night Slash \n \n Pursuit \n \n Super Power \n \n \n Honchkrow can also take on the role of a Moxie Scarfer. The idea is to come in, get an easy revenge kill for a free boost, and plough through the opponent's weakened team, adding boosts with each kill. Pursuit is again listed for mind games, and allows for the easy revenge killing of bulky Psychics like Latias. The Choice Scarf gets around Honchkrow's speed issue, allowing it to easily clean up late game. \n \n Team Support \n \n Honchkrow despises Stealth Rocks, and likes to be paired with a Spinner. Alternatively, Honchkrow can fit on hyper offense teams, that wear the opponent down quickly, letting it clean up early. Honchkrow has 2 immunities that he can take advantage of, using them to get free switches, and/or Substitutes. As such, he can easily be paired with an electric type like Jolteon, as Honch takes nothing from EQ, and Jolteon heals from TBolt. Honchkrow can't take many hits, even resisted, so pairing it with walls and tanks on both sides of the spectrum helps greatly too. As with any sweeper, hazards are somewhat necessary as they turn 2HKOs into OHKOs. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Sadly for Honchkrow, the list of things that can deal with it only got longer this generation, despite the steel nerf. Mega Aggron counters it. Straight up. Heavy Slam is a near OHKO, Honchkrow's STABs do little damage, and Filter hurts Superpower's damage. \n >252+ Atk Life Orb Honchkrow Superpower vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Filter Mega Aggron: 131-154 (38 - 44.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Life Orb Honchkrow Sucker Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Aggron: 87-103 (25.2 - 29.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n >252+ Atk Mega Aggron Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Honchkrow: 382-451 (94.5 - 111.6%) -- 68.8% chance to OHKO \n Hippowdon is another option as it has recovery, and can bulk Honchkrow's hits. Hippowdon can also set up the Stealth Rocks and Roar away a sub that Honchkrow set up. \n >252+ Atk Life Orb Honchkrow Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 175-207 (41.6 - 49.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Honchkrow's mind games can really be a blessing and a curse, as it can 2HKO most of the meta game with a combination of STAB moves. However, Sucker Punch is usually predictable, and lets Honchkrow be put into a position of mind games of its own. For example, Metagross can take Brave Birds easily, but will die to a Sucker Punch after that damage. But by predicting that Sucker Punch, the opponent can get a free switch in to a Pokemon like Hydreigon to revenge kill with minimal damage. The opposite can be worked as well. From behind a sub, Honchkrow feels safe Brave Birding the Hydreigon, has its sub broken by U-Turn (sometimes) and then Metagross tanks the BB. \n >4 Atk Hydreigon U-turn vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Honchkrow: 89-105 (22 - 25.9%) -- 25% chance to break the Sub \n >252+ Atk Life Orb Honchkrow Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Hydreigon: 298-351 (91.6 - 108%) -- 50% chance to OHKO \n >252+ Atk Life Orb Honchkrow Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 109-129 (29.9 - 35.4%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Life Orb Honchkrow Sucker Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 289-343 (79.3 - 94.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n \n Summary \n \n Honchkrow can maim its way through teams that are unprepared with it's dual STAB. However the mind games that are played with Sucker Punch, Substitute and/or Pursuit are better played by the more experienced. Honchkrow is a difficult Pokemon to use correctly. It lacks Knock Off, a move that would suit it perfectly, especially with the STAB boost. \n Overall, the lack of Knock Off, below average speed and having to play mind games has lead to a decreased usage of Honchkrow. He can still run through teams, but one misprediction and he can be put into a check mate position relatively easily. Thus he has been pushed back in preference of Pokemon like Crawdaunt and formerly Bisharp to shine.", "id": "t3_1xragn", "summary": "Grand Theft Honchkrow"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Eelektross is one of the most diverse Pokemon in UU. With the introduction of Fairy types, it stands alone as the only Pokemon without a weakness, due to its ability, Levitate. It has solid offensive stats on both sides, awful speed and about average defenses. It has enough of a move pool to go mixed, or exclusively one sided attacking. \n \n Eelektross @ Choice Band/Life Orb \n Ability: Levitate \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n Adamant Nature \n \n U-turn \n \n Wild Charge \n \n Drain Punch \n \n Knock Off \n \n \n Eelektross doesn't have a main set. It can conceivably run many sets, this is just listed first. This is its all out attacking, physical set. Max Attack and HP let it function best as a bulky choice bander. U-Turn provides momentum, Wild Charge provides crucial physical STAB, Drain Punch gives some recovery and fighting type coverage, and the ubiquitous Knock Off rounds out the set, providing good utility and almost perfect coverage next to Drain Punch. As with most of its sets, specific amounts of Speed can be used to go before specific threats. The Choice Band is preferred here, to absolutely maximise power. \n \n Eelektross @ Choice Specs/Life Orb \n Ability: Levitate \n EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n Modest Nature \n \n Volt Switch \n \n Flamethrower \n \n Giga Drain \n \n Knock Off/Thunderbolt/Hidden Power Ice/Acid Spray \n \n \n Eelektross's Special Attacking set is remarkably similar to the Banded set. Volt Switch for momentum and STAB. Flamethrower gives coverage. Giga Drain gives some recovery and coverage against Ground types. The final spot it slightly wild card, as it can be filled by Knock Off for utility, Thunderbolt for more reliable STAB or Hidden Power Ice for a much weaker version of BoltBeam. Acid Spray is a slightly unconventional move that drops the opponent's SDef 2 stages with each hit. \n \n Eelektross @ Assault Vest \n Ability: Levitate \n EVs: 252 HP / 248 Atk / 8 SAtk \n Quiet Nature \n \n U-turn \n \n Thunderbolt \n \n Drain Punch/Giga Drain \n \n Knock Off/Flamethrower \n \n \n Eelektross has so many options, especially for its Assault Vest set. The AV boosts it special defense to a respectable level, and makes it easier for a mixed set. U-Turn means it cannot be stopped by ground types as it tries to gain the team momentum. Thunderbolt is reliable STAB, and is the only real option as the Wild Charge recoil is not recommended. Drain Punch and Giga Drain provide a similar purpose, regaining health for Eelektross without team support. Drain Punch provides better overall coverage. Knock Off is honestly one of the best moves this gen and can be put on any set, if the team needs a Knock Offer. Flamethrower is an alternative, if Knock Off isn't needed. If Flamethrower and Giga Drain are used, an alternate set of 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4Atk, Quiet. Quiet is chosen for the above set to get the most out of both attacking stats, without hurting its decent defenses. \n \n Eelektross @ Leftovers \n Ability: Levitate \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n Adamant Nature \n \n Coil \n \n Thunder Punch/Wild Charge \n \n Drain Punch/Knock Off/Iron Tail/Rock Slide \n \n Drain Punch/Knock Off/Iron Tail/Rock Slide \n \n \n I wasn't joking when I said that Eelektross was diverse. With this set it takes on the role of a set up sweeper. Thunder Punch provides reliable STAB without the recoil, but Wild Charge can be used for extra power, but the recoil cuts into survivability quite a bit. Drain Punch and Knock Off are the main coverage options, for recovery and utility. Alternatively, Iron Tail can be used in conjunction with Coil's accuracy boost to give a reliable Steel type option for Fairies. Rock Slide is another option, that benefits from the accuracy boost, and hits Fire and Bug types. However neither of these provide as good coverage as Knock Off and Drain Punch. \n \n Beyond these 4 sets, Eelektross doesn't have much else to do. A scarf set is not useful because of Eelektross's low speed. It doesn't have enough supporting move pool to run a fully supporting set, although a bulky para-shuffler set could be used. Charge Beam is another Special STAB that can be used as a boosting move, but is unreliable. \n \n Team Support \n \n Eelektross is a difficult Pokemon to support, as its diversity and complete lack of weaknesses make it pair able with much of the meta game. Eelektross can be an effective pivot switch and provide the team with a slow Volt Turn. Set up sweepers like this as they can usually get in for free. Special sets can have difficulty getting past dragons, while Physical sets have very good neutral coverage. The coil set is more of a late game cleaner, so the removal of physical walls is important to it. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Mega Ampharos is the number one counter to Eelektross. It resists the STAB move, has good mixed bulk, and can't be Knocked Off. It can even damage Eelektross in return. Physical Eelektross is the best option against Mega Ampharos, as it resist all common special coverage moves. \n >252+ SpA Choice Specs Eelektross Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Ampharos: 64-75 (16.6 - 19.5%) -- guaranteed 6HKO \n >252+ Atk Choice Band Eelektross Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Ampharos: 107-127 (27.8 - 33%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n >252+ SpA Mold Breaker Mega Ampharos Dragon Pulse vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eelektross: 219-258 (58.5 - 68.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n OK. Seriously. Do I even have to say it? Mega Aggron is a fantastic check to Eelektross, at least physical sets. What do you expect from a Pokemon with base 230 Defense? It struggles to damage Eelektross in return however. Wild Charge is Eelektross's best option, and the recoil means it will have to take itself down to take down Mega Aggron \n >252+ Atk Choice Band Eelektross Wild Charge vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Aggron: 106-126 (30.8 - 36.6%) -- 61.9% chance to 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Choice Band Eelektross Drain Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Filter Mega Aggron: 88-105 (25.5 - 30.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n >252+ Atk Mega Aggron Heavy Slam (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eelektross: 114-135 (30.4 - 36%) -- 47.1% chance to 3HKO \n Hippowdon can check physical sets too, with a worst case scenario being that its leftovers are Knocked Off and it Roars Eelektross out. \n >252+ Atk Choice Band Eelektross Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 102-121 (24.2 - 28.8%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Umbreon can check special sets, using its great special bulk. Foul Play does decent damage, even to a minimum attack Eel. \n >252+ SpA Choice Specs Eelektross Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Umbreon: 126-148 (31.9 - 37.5%) -- 0.2% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Umbreon Foul Play vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eelektross: 109-130 (29.1 - 34.7%) -- 10% chance to 3HKO \n \n Summary \n \n Eelektross is an unbelievably diverse Pokemon with fantastic typing and ability. Unfortunately, it can be easily out sped and revenge killed. One of its biggest boons is its ability to act as a surprise factor. It simply doesn't have enough bulk to be as slow as it is. It lacks the priority and/or recovery of other Pokemon with similar speed. It can't quite keep up in the high powered meta that is this generation's UU.", "id": "t3_1xsoz3", "summary": "Eelektross isn't levitating high enough"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Escavalier got better this generation. It got an ideal item in Assault Vest. It gained the ability to hit troublesome steel types. It likes the Knock Off buff too. With great attack and defensive stats it can really pack a punch in the UU Tier. \n \n Escavalier @ Assault Vest \n Ability: Overcoat \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n Adamant Nature \n \n Megahorn \n \n Iron Head \n \n Knock Off/Pursuit \n \n Drill Run \n \n \n This should become the bread and butter set of any Escavalier. It has 2 powerful STAB moves that hit anything that isn't a steel type very hard. It will OHKO fairies, Slowbro, Celebi and others. It retains its bulk with an Assault Vest. For reference a Raikou Thunderbolt will do about 30%. Knock off is great utility and gives a good option versus Jellicent. Drill Run is a new egg move in Gen VI that now allows Escavalier to hit steel types on the ground very hard. This thing has wide enough coverage to hit everything but levitating steel types. \n An alternate set would be to run Escavalier as a fully defensive assault vest user, as its defenses are almost equal with 252 HP/252DEF/4 ATK Adamant. Impish would allow for the defenses to be exactly the same. This allows him to take hits on both sides of the spectrum. Escavalier has the natural attack stat to do damage even without investment. \n Overcoat, the ability that gave rise to Mandibuzz, allows Escavalier to switch into powder and spore moves with impunity. It also wont be damaged by Hail, meaning it can be used on a Hail team. Swarm is only slightly less viable, increasing the power of Megahorn if you get below 33%. \n \n Escavalier @ Choice Band \n Ability: Overcoat \n EVs: 252 Atk / 172 HP / 84 SPD \n Adamant Nature \n \n Megahorn \n \n Iron Head \n \n Knock Off/Pursuit \n \n Drill Run \n \n \n Escavalier can also forgo some bulk for raw power. With this speed investment it can go first against base 30s like Slowbro and Amoongus. Fire type coverage isnt uncommon on Slowbro. This set will hit harder, but give up the freedom of switching moves. This set requires far more switching as its attacks are easily resisted. Beyond that this set is much the same as the assault vest set. \n \n Other Options \n \n Escavalier has very few additional options. Its best sets are listed above. Its main focus should be giving out massive hits. Its excels as a tank, but cannot do much beyond that. It lacks set up moves like autotomize. An SD could be interesting, but forces you to forgo both the Assault Vest and a coverage move. A somewhat gimmicky set with Fell Stinger could be used to nab a free +2 on KOs, but again forfeits a coverage move. Escavalier can function very well in trick room, with base speed lower than Slowbro. In Trick Room it should run Brave, but its essentially the same set and will have the same damage output. \n \n Team Support \n \n Escavalier has the amazing typing of Bug/Steel, shared with Scizor and Forretress. This gives it 8 resistances, an immunity, and only one (double) weakness to fire. Thus it really needs a team mate that can deal with opposing fire types. Kingdra is a fantastic option as it takes the fire type moves. In return, Escavalier can deal with the fairies and dragons that would cause Kingdra trouble. Dragons in general make fantastic team mates, drawing out fairies and resisting fire type moves. \n Escavalier also wants a pokemon that can absorb burns for it, as it wont outspeed to KO before a burn. As such a fire type is appreciated, as it can switch in freely. \n As with any Assault Vest wearer, Wish Support is appreciated if they lack their own methods. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Escavalier really hates fire types. They resist his dual STAB, his main attacking options. Arcanine can come in, intimidate and scare Escavalier out with its Flare Blitz. They must watch out for Escav's Drill Run though as it can hurt even through the Intimidate. \n >-1 252+ Atk Escavalier Drill Run vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arcanine: 158-188 (41.1 - 48.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Chandelure gets a special mention also, as it quad resists Megahorn, its main stab. It must be wary of Knock Off as well as Drill Run though. \n >252+ Atk Escavalier Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Chandelure: 260-308 (99.6 - 118%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO \n >252+ Atk Escavalier Drill Run vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Chandelure: 216-256 (82.7 - 98%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252+ Atk Escavalier Megahorn vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Chandelure: 60-71 (22.9 - 27.2%) -- 61.5% chance to 4HKO \n >252 SpA Chandelure Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Escavalier: 504-592 (146.5 - 172%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n Chandelure will force out any Escavalier, with its power Fire STAB. This gives it opportunities to set up substitutes, or predict a switch, or dump a choice scarf/specs on its opponent. \n Steels are in a similar situation. They can come in on a STAB move, but must watch out for Drill Run. Mega Aggron hard walls, Escav, taking less than a quarter from Drill run even with no investment in Defense. \n >252+ Atk Escavalier Drill Run vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Filter Mega Aggron: 70-84 (20.3 - 24.4%) -- guaranteed 5HKO \n Magnezone can trap Escav, but struggles to KO it through the Assault Vest and Hidden Power's nerf. Meanwhile, Escav OHKOs with Drill Run. \n >252+ Atk Escavalier Drill Run vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Magnezone: 352-416 (102.3 - 120.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n >252+ SpA Choice Specs Magnezone Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Escavalier: 276-328 (80.2 - 95.3%) -- 50% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock \n >252+ SpA Magnezone Hidden Power Fire vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Escavalier: 184-220 (53.4 - 63.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Mega Medicham and Terrakion also fall short of the OHKO, 2HKOing with their respective fighting type moves, although HJK, will OHKO most of the time. Escav OHKOs back with its STAB move. \n Zapdos is another Pokemon that can take it on, using Heatwave for super effective damage. Zapdos won't appreciate a Knock Off or Megahorn very much as both do more than 40% \n >252+ Atk Escavalier Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Zapdos: 137-162 (42.5 - 50.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Escavalier Megahorn vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Zapdos: 127-150 (39.4 - 46.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n 252 SpA Zapdos Heat Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Assault Vest Escavalier: 260-308 (75.5 - 89.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Zapdos lacking Heatwave will struggle as they cannot 3HKO. \n Finally, Diggersby is an OK check to Escav, provided it can avoid a Megahorn. \n >252+ Atk Escavalier Megahorn vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Diggersby: 274-324 (73.2 - 86.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252+ Atk Choice Band Huge Power Diggersby Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Escavalier: 304-358 (88.3 - 104%) -- 25% chance to OHKO \n \n Overview \n \n Escavalier is a powerful pokemon. However it is often overlooked in favour of Metagross as an Assault Vest steel type, with its superior physical bulk, speed, and ability to set up somewhat with Meteor Mash. The surprise value of Escav can be brutal as people underestimate it. Escavalier has some raw power behind it, and should be considered a threat when viewed in team preview.", "id": "t3_1x2g01", "summary": "Cleveland Cavs new best player."}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Doublade might just be the best Eviolite user in the game, after Chansey. Base 150 defense is incredible and boosted further by Eviolite, reaching into the 500s, with minimal investment. However, it faces stiff competition from Mega Aggron and Metagross as a tanky Steel type in the tier, and Metagross has better coverage and support moves, while Aggron isn't crippled by a secondary typing. All that said, Doublade is still a powerful Pokemon in UU. \n \n Doublade @ Eviolite \n Ability: No Guard \n EVs: 252 Atk / 248 HP / 8 SDef \n Brave Nature \n IVs: 0 Spd \n \n Toxic/Swords Dance \n \n Shadow Sneak \n \n Gyro Ball \n Sacred Sword \n \n Doublade is a decent physical tank in UU. It hits hard with an attack equivalent of Snorlax, and Defense like a Registeel but at essentially +1. honestly it doesn't even need investment as it is way above 400 already. By maxing its attack, Doublade can dish as good as it gets, and given the zero speed for Gyro Ball, it is going to take a few hit. Gyro Ball is used over Iron Head as it will USUALLY have a higher damage output. Shadow Sneak gets around its low speed, rather than exploiting it, and Sacred Sword is good neutral coverage. Doublade doesn't get access to Will-o-Wisp, something Ghost types usually get, and which I think would improve it tremendously over a Toxic set. That said the residual damage of Toxic is nice, as Doublade is checked by most fire and water types. Swords Dance is an alternative to try and let it sweep, but it is usually better as a tank, as it can be easily out sped and revenge killed. \n Doublade is an interesting Pokemon as it can different EVs, but will have the same set. \n \n Physically Defensive (252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Atk Impish) lowered damage output, but takes hits better \n \n Specially Defensive (252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Atk Careful) essentially base 98 SpDef with full investment and Eviolite \n \n Alternate Tank (252 Atk / 252 Def / 4 HP Impish) a slight increase in physical bulk but a severe decrease in special bulk \n Mixed Tank (252 SDef / 252 Def / 4 HP Careful) it again reaches that essentially base 98 SpDef, but maintains that with investment to its massive Defense. Loses a bit of Physical bulk, but generally more bulky. Much lower damage out put. \n \n \n Team Support \n \n Given that this is a mini Mega Aggron(Steel Type, no Leftovers, good Attack stat), it is appropriate to treat similarly when team building. Wish support is nice, and Umbreon pairs well synergetically. Special attackers are good as well, so Gardevoir, or Kyurem are good as they too, pair with good synergy. Bulky waters can take fire hits aimed at Doublade, and fliers/levitaters can be used to take ground hits. \n \n Checks and Counters \n \n The most obvious checks to Doublade are bulky waters, as they resist the main STAB in Gyro Ball, and usually have the bulk to take its other hits. While they might dislike the Toxic they can usually do some big damage. Blastoise, Swampert, Milotic and Vaporeon all do a good job. \n >252+ Atk Doublade Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Blastoise: 82-97 (22.6 - 26.7%) -- 35.7% chance to 4HKO \n >252+ SpA Mega Launcher Mega Blastoise Dark Pulse vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Doublade: 346-408 (107.4 - 126.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n >252+ Atk Doublade Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Swampert: 74-88 (18.3 - 21.7%) -- possible 7HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >0 Atk Swampert Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 110-132 (34.1 - 40.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Doublade Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Vaporeon: 95-112 (20.4 - 24.1%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 SpA Vaporeon Scald vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Doublade: 109-130 (33.8 - 40.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Doublade Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Milotic: 80-95 (20.3 - 24.1%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 SpA Milotic Scald vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Doublade: 102-120 (31.6 - 37.2%) -- 82.6% chance to 3HKO \n As you can see, Doublade's best move to hit these Pokemon is an unSTAB Sacred Sword that generally does about 20-25% to each Pokemon. In return there is usually a 3HKO. \n Fire types also make good checks, however they mostly miss the OHKO, so must take a hit. Victini is weak to one of Doublade's STABs, but can take ONE at -1. Still, Pokemon like Darm, Victini, Entei and Arcanine all hard check Doublade. \n >252+ Atk Arcanine Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 182-216 (56.5 - 67%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252+ Atk Doublade Gyro Ball (150 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Darmanitan: 193-228 (54.9 - 64.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252+ Atk Doublade Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Darmanitan: 103-123 (29.3 - 35%) -- 12.1% chance to 3HKO \n >252 Atk Sheer Force Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 254-300 (78.8 - 93.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Doublade can live a non Life Orb/Choice Band Flare Blitz, and can 2HKO in return with a combo of Gyro Ball and Shadow Sneak. This has a chance to KO regardless(both max damage required). \n >252+ Atk Doublade Shadow Sneak vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Victini: 128-152 (37.5 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Doublade Shadow Sneak vs. -1 0 HP / 0 Def Victini: 192-228 (56.3 - 66.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252 Atk Victini V-create vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 230-272 (71.4 - 84.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252 Atk Victini V-create vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 230-272 (71.4 - 84.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n As with Darmanitan, Victini needs a Life Orb or Choice Band to OHKO Doublade. 2 Shadow Sneaks with a V-Create between will actually 2HKO Victini most of the time. \n >252+ Atk Doublade Sacred Sword vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Entei: 110-130 (29.5 - 34.9%) -- 13.1% chance to 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Entei Sacred Fire vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 156-186 (48.4 - 57.7%) -- 92.6% chance to 2HKO \n As shown by these Calcs, Fire types are generally good CHECKs. \n Bulky Ground types like Gligar, Hippowdon and even Krookodile can take on Doublade, taking little from any move. Gligar resists the main STAB and coverage move, has high defense of its own, and a SE earthquake to deal respectable damage with. Hippowdon is a straight up physical wall that Doublade simply cannot break through. Krookodile resists dual STAB, has Intimidate, and can 2HKO with Knock Off and Earthquake. Sacred Sword does not do too much after the intimidate. Gligar and Hippowdon also have recovery as they wall Doublade out. \n >-1 252+ Atk Doublade Sacred Sword vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Krookodile: 154-182 (46.3 - 54.8%) -- 10.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 Atk Krookodile Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 138-164 (42.8 - 50.9%) -- 3.1% chance to 2HKO \n >252 Atk Krookodile Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Doublade: 216-254 (67 - 78.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252+ Atk Doublade Gyro Ball (76 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gligar: 84-100 (25.1 - 29.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n >4 Atk Gligar Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 84-98 (26 - 30.4%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n >252+ Atk Doublade Sacred Sword vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 62-73 (14.7 - 17.3%) -- possible 9HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 114-134 (35.4 - 41.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n \n Live Test Video \n \n Summary \n \n Doublade is an interesting Pokemon in UU, but because of a lack of recovery, and weakness to four of the most common attacking types(Fire, Ground, Ghost, Dark). While it has toxic for some of its checks, it generally must rely on team mates to get the KO. While Mega Aggron stays UU, Doublade will head down towards RU, and even there it will compete with Gligar as a defensive wall with Eviolite.", "id": "t3_218a37", "summary": "2 Blades"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Nidoqueen is an interesting Pokemon. Its a bulky attacker, but with a more offensive ability. It shares its ability with Nidoking, and is often overlooked for its male counterpart, who has better speed, and attacking stats. They get similar coverage, but Nidoqueen is often struggling to find a spot on teams, despite being a fantastic fairy killer, with good bulk and a resist. Nidoqueen is yet another Pokemon that can take advantage of Assault Vest. It can also lay hazards but with the buff to Defog, this is slightly less valuable. :( \n \n Nidoqueen (F) @ Black Sludge/Life Orb \n Ability: Sheer Force \n EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n Modest Nature \n IVs: NaN Atk \n \n Stealth Rock/Toxic Spikes \n \n Sludge Wave \n \n Earth Power \n \n Thunderbolt \n \n \n Nidoqueen can act as a good member of a bulky offense team, laying hazards, killing fairies, and tanking hits. It retains the wide coverage available to the Nido's, but just isn't powerful enough in the current meta game. Sludge Wave and Earth Power provide STAB, and surprising coverage Thunderbolt can hit the bulky waters that love to come in on this set, namely Mega Blastoise. Fire Blast and Ice Beam are alternatives, but Thunderbolt provides the best overall coverage. The EVs are the standard bulky attacker set. \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Nidoqueen (F) @ Assault Vest \n Ability: Sheer Force \n EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef(4 Atk) \n Modest/Quiet Nature \n \n Sucker Punch/Poison Jab/Surf/TBolt/Fire Blast \n \n Sludge Wave \n \n Earth Power \n \n Ice Beam \n \n \n Assault Vest makes Nidoqueen decently specially bulky with no investment. It is weak to many common attacking types on the special side, including Psychic, Water, and Ice. Its bulk doesn't stand up to the new meta, and most Pokemon have a super effective coverage move. The final coverage move that replaces hazards, can be physical to get the surprise factor. Sucker Punch provides great coverage, and priority, and can amaze people as they see Nidoqueen go first. Poison Jab is its best physical STAB option thanks to Sheer Force. Surf, Ice Beam and Fire Blast provide minimal coverage but don't force Nidoqueen to go mixed. \n \n Any more offensive sets are pointless as Nidoking is much better suited to these kind of roles. \n \n Team Support \n \n Nidoqueen has many weaknesses, including the common Water, Ice, and Ground. Pokemon to take hits of these types are very useful. Rotom H takes most of these easily. A Dark type is another good team mate to take Psychic type hits for Nidoqueen. In return, Nidoqueen takes Fighting and Fairy hits for them. Grass types are other good team mates as they can take many of Nidoqueen's weaknesses, except Ice. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n The number one check to any special attacker in the tier is still Chansey. It takes a pittance from Nidoqueen's special attacks, can wear it down with SToss and recover any damage done. \n >252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoqueen Sludge Wave vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 129-152 (18.3 - 21.5%) -- possible 5HKO \n Jellicent is another good switch in, taking less than half from Nidoqueen's STAB attacks, and hitting back with a super effective Scald. It must be careful of Thunderbolts though those won't 2HKO \n >252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoqueen Earth Power vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Jellicent: 133-157 (32.9 - 38.8%) -- 6.8% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoqueen Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Jellicent: 177-211 (43.8 - 52.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 SpA Jellicent Scald vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Nidoqueen: 174-206 (45.3 - 53.6%) -- 41.4% chance to 2HKO \n Porygon2 can also tank the hits and strike back with super effective damage. \n >252+ SpA Life Orb Sheer Force Nidoqueen Sludge Wave vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Eviolite Porygon2: 99-118 (26.4 - 31.5%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n >4 SpA Sheer Force Porygon2 Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Nidoqueen: 202-238 (52.6 - 61.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Most things with decent special bulk can take hits from Nidoqueen as even after Sheer Force, base 75 Special Attack is just underwhelming by the new standards of generation VI. Beyond that Nidoqueen can be easily revenged by a powerful Earthquake. \n \n Summary \n \n Nidoqueen after bouncing between UU and RU last generation hasn't been on that fringe and has dropped into the heart of RU. It hasn't stood up to the power creep, and struggled even last gen. That said it can be effective in the right hands but requires much team support. All in all though it is sub par in the current meta of powerful Psychic and Ground types.", "id": "t3_1y3pq1", "summary": "Not Quite a Killer 'Queen"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Sharpedo is a speed booster. That is all it can really do. Base 40 defenses mean that even resisted hits do massive damage. It doesn't get the coveted Knock Off. It has good offensive stats, with 95 Speed, 95 Special Attack and 120 Attack. It has mixed options, like Ice Beam. Unfortunately it cannot boost its own stats. It faces stiff competition from Crawdaunt, who shares its typing. Sharpedo is underwhelming in comparison to Crawdaunt and struggles fill the vacuum that is left by Scolipede. \n \n Sharpedo @ Life Orb \n Ability: Speed Boost \n EVs: 148 Spd / 180 Atk / 180 SAtk \n Lonely Nature \n \n Waterfall \n \n Protect \n \n Crunch \n \n Ice Beam/Earthquake/Ice Fang \n \n \n Sharpedo's main set. These EVs let Sharpedo out speed Crobat at plus one, while maximising both attacking stats. Its Special Attack stat is at 271 and Attack stat reaching 353. Waterfall and Crunch provide dual STAB but base 80 power is slightly underwhelming, especially compared to Crawdaunt, who gets base 100 Water STAB and 97.5 Dark type STAB, before Adaptability. Protect is a crux of this set allowing it to out speed threats like Crobat, Jirachi and Victini, provided they aren't scarfed. Unfortunately this is often predictable and can give an easy switch in to the opponent's Crawdaunt counter which takes Sharpedo on too. Ice Beam is a good move on Sharpedo hitting physically defensive grass types hard as they switch in. However it will never OHKO Chesnaught with out a crit even if fully invested. Earthquake leaves you completely shut down by Chesnaught, but allows for max speed and Attack to be run. Ice Fang is a lesser version of Ice Beam, again allows a purely physical spread but does significantly less to bulky grass types. \n \n Team Support \n \n Sharpedo is best suited as a late game cleaner, and shouldn't come in until it is ready to sweep. As such, the best team support it can get is stuff that wears down the opponent like entry hazards, status and leech seed. \n \n Pokemon that resist Sharpedo's dual STAB are fantastic counters and checks. Keldeo, Chesnaught, and Toxicroak are all fantastic Pokemon to have in on Sharpedo. Its STAB moves do a pittance, Keldeo doesn't mind too much the coverage move of choice. Chesnaught doesn't care about Earthquake, and Toxicroak doesn't mind and Ice Beam/Fang. Bulky waters can switch in easily also. Pokemon like Vaporeon, Swampert and Milotic are all good switch ins, taking crunches relatively easily. \n \n Summary \n \n Sharpedo has suffered immensely with the rise of Crawdaunt. It has no advantage over Crawdaunt than Speed, which is off put by Aqua Jet. They have almost identical attacking stats, but Crawdaunt has the far superior ability, essentially doubling any damage done by STAB attacks. As of right now there is no reason to use Sharpedo over Crawdaunt. Sharpedo looks like it will be solidly RU.", "id": "t3_1y4suh", "summary": "Shark Torpedo < Shark Tornado"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Hawlucha is undeniably cool. Its literally a flying wrestler, complete with mask. It has powerful STABs and a very powerful ability. While its Attack stat may seem underwhelming it is easily boosted and can even do damage without the boosts. It is a fantastic late or mid game cleaner/sweeper, destroying the highly common defensive grass types in the tier. \n \n Hawlucha @ Power Herb \n Ability: Unburden \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Adamant Nature \n \n Sky Attack \n \n Acrobatics \n \n High Jump Kick \n \n Swords Dance/Substitute/Hone Claws \n \n \n Hawlucha is a powerful Pokemon, with incredible speed, that is essentially unmatched after the Unburden boost. Power Herb is consumed as you go for the Sky Attack, a free 140 power STAB move that has a chance to flinch. After the powerful initial hit, it has High Jump Kick at 130 base power and Acrobatics boosted all the way up to 110. the set up move is a matter of preference. Swords dance boosts Hawlucha's Attack stat to ridiculous levels along side its Speed. Substitute on the other hand has the advantage of back to back hits and blocking status like Will-o-Wisp and Thunder Wave, not to mention Leech Seed. It can also give scouting ability to Hawlucha. Hone Claws is an option if you are paranoid about missing your Sky Attack or HJK. \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Hawlucha @ Choice Band \n Ability: Unburden/Limber \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Adamant/Jolly Nature \n \n U-Turn \n \n Acrobatics \n \n High Jump Kick \n \n Stone Edge \n \n \n A standard choice band set. U-turn for momentum. Acrobatics lets Hawlucha act as a Knock Off absorber, and provides STAB. HJK is main STAB. Stone Edge hits Pokemon like Zapdos hard. Limber stops it being crippled by paralysis. \n \n Hawlucha @ Leftovers \n Ability: Limber \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Adamant/Jolly Nature \n \n Baton Pass \n \n Agility/Swords Dance/Substitute/Acrobatics \n \n High Jump Kick \n \n Agility/Swords Dance/Substitute/Acrobatics \n \n \n Hawlucha can also be used as more of a team supporter with a Baton Pass set. As such Baton Pass is crucial. HJK is its STAB attack. After that its just a matter of what you want to boost and if you want Flying type STAB. Agility for Speed, SD for Attack, Substitute to protect from status and for a free pass. Acrobatics lets Hawlucha have its item Knocked off and is generally a safe STAB move not much weaker than its other options, Aerial Ace, before the item is lost. Unfortunately, the only dual typed move in the game, Flying Press, isn't competitively viable and is Hawlucha's signature move. It could potentially be used as Flying STAB but will miss ghosts and that is the real point of secondary STAB in this case. \n \n Team Support \n \n Hawlucha is so powerful that it needs little support especially with its incredible speed. What it needs removed is powerful Priority like Weavile, Megacham and Diggersby. Powerful priority can deal with this in return, but bulky Fighting types like Chesnaught and Hitmontop can deal with Diggersby and Weavile respectively as well. Megacham is harder to check, but a Pokemon like Victini can do that effectively. Hawlucha appreciates hazard support, and can form half of a Double Bird core with Pokemon like Braviary and or Swellow. Braviary gets special mention because of Defiant. Doublade is a hard counter, so a Dark type is another good team mate. they can also take any Psychic hit aimed at Hawlucha if it doesn't think it will OHKO \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Zapdos is a fantastic counter to Hawlucha. It resists both STABs, the only type of moves that Hawlucha generally carries. It can also OHKO with TBolt. \n >252+ Atk Hawlucha High Jump Kick vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Zapdos: 105-124 (32.6 - 38.5%) -- 3.6% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Sky Attack vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Zapdos: 227-267 (70.4 - 82.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Zapdos Thunderbolt vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Hawlucha: 416-492 (139.5 - 165.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n Cofagrigus is another good switch in, being able to take Hawlucha's Flying type STAB, burn it, and remove its Unburden ability. Through testing, Mummy will actually cause the Unburden Speed boost to disappear, another reason that Cofagrigus is such a good switch in. Its Ghost typing can also cause Hawlucha to deal 50% to itself, with a good prediction of HJK. \n >252+ Atk Hawlucha Sky Attack vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Cofagrigus: 144-171 (45 - 53.4%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Hawlucha Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Cofagrigus: 114-135 (35.6 - 42.1%) -- 86.7% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Sky Attack vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Cofagrigus: 288-339 (90 - 105.9%) -- 37.5% chance to OHKO \n >4 SpA Cofagrigus Shadow Ball vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Hawlucha: 121-144 (40.6 - 48.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n Doublade is a fantastic counter to Hawlucha, taking next to nothing from its attacks even after a plus 2 boost. It can also 2HKO with Gyro Ball. \n >+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Acrobatics (110 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 73-87 (22.6 - 27%) -- 38.2% chance to 4HKO \n >+2 252+ Atk Hawlucha Sky Attack vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 93-110 (28.8 - 34.1%) -- 2.3% chance to 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Doublade Gyro Ball (79 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Hawlucha: 157-186 (52.6 - 62.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Beyond these three Hawlucha is somewhat hard to counter. Its dual STAB is resisted by only 11 Pokemon in the game, seven of which are available in UU. Only three are really competitively viable however. Physically bulky Pokemon with Will-o-Wisp are the best option. Most walls aren't offensive enough to really OHKO Hawlucha. Swampert is OHKOed most of the time after coming in on an SD. Hippowdon can't do much but take hits from it and phaze it out. One of the troubles is that even without the Unburden boost, this thing is ridiculously quick at base 118. this means it can out speed most Pokemon that aren't scarfed with ease and hit hard with its powerful STAB \n \n Summary \n \n Hawlucha is absolutely a stud. It can easily run through teams that lack a counter, and even those that do after a bit of prior damage. As part of a double bird core its somewhat unique in that it has a STAB move to deal with Rock and Steel types. Hawlucha is a Pokemon that could potentially be seeing a suspect test in the not too distant future, as more and more people realise what a threat it is, especially with Staraptor gone to BL. It is absolutely one of the top tier threats of UU.", "id": "t3_1y5asp", "summary": "NAAAAAAAAAAAACHOOOO LUUUUUCHAAAAAAAAAA! \n \n EDIT: Slashed Unburden on the Banded set as the recommendation of /u/Xylobe"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Entei got a new trick this generation, as it now has access to Sacred Fire. Entei competes for offensive Fire type with many popular Pokemon in the tier, notably Victini and Darmanitan. Entei will probably be at the lower fringe of UU. \n \n Entei @ Assault Vest/Choice Band \n Ability: Pressure \n Shiny: Yes \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Adamant Nature \n \n Sacred Fire \n \n Flare Blitz/Bulldoze \n \n Extreme Speed \n \n Stone Edge \n \n \n Entei is a powerful attacker, and has the powerful STAB to exploit it. Sacred Fire is reliable STAB with a 50% chance to burn(imagine Scald but more frequent). Flare Blitz is slightly more powerful, but gives Entei recoil, something it really hates, especially with Rocks up. Stone Edge is Entei's most powerful coverage option, but does not hit much super effective outside of other fire types. Extreme Speed provides Entei with powerful priority. Bulldoze is an option over Flare Blitz and gives Entei a pseudo Edge Quake. Entei has naturally very good HP and it doesn't require investment. \n \n Entei @ Leftovers \n Ability: Pressure \n EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SAtk \n Bold Nature \n \n Sleep Talk \n \n Rest \n \n Calm Mind \n \n Lava Plume \n \n \n Special Entei? I hear you asking. Yes special Entei. With a set resembling a Crocune, Entei takes on the role of the tanky attacker, maximising it physical bulk as it boosts its special. Rest stops status and recovers HP from attacks and entry hazards. Lava Plume has the same burn chance as Scald, and so can cripple physical attackers that try to come in. this set has some surprise value as people expect physical sets. In reality this is sub par, and should rarely be used. \n \n Entei lacks other real options due to its amazingly poor coverage. It has Will-o-Wisp, Iron Head and Flame Charge as alternatives, but none of those provide as much leeway as the moves above. Potentially a scarf Eruption set could work but that is better executed by Typhlosion. \n \n Team Support \n \n Entei is susceptible to every single entry hazard in the game, and weak to Stealth Rock. It practically requires entry hazard removal on the team. Blastoise is a fantastic example as the 2 pair well synergetically. A grass type like Chesnaught rounds out the FWG core. \n \n Check and Counters \n \n Arcanine is able to switch into any move not called Stone Edge. It can intimidate Entei, resists its STAB and cannot be burned. Wild Charge and Close Combat wear Entei down fast than it can do to Arcanine, especially if it has Morning Sun. \n >-1 252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arcanine: 264-312 (68.7 - 81.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >-1 252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Sacred Fire vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arcanine: 99-117 (25.7 - 30.4%) -- 0.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Arcanine Wild Charge vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Entei: 110-130 (29.5 - 34.9%) -- 13.1% chance to 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Arcanine Close Combat vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Entei: 147-173 (39.5 - 46.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n Hippowdon can also check Entei. It isn't 2HKOed even with a burn on the switch in. It has reliable recovery, and a super effective attack. \n >252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Sacred Fire vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 159-187 (37.8 - 44.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery and burn damage \n 4 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Entei: 272-324 (73.1 - 87%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after sandstorm damage \n Bulky water types like Gastrodon, Swampert, Vaporeon or Milotic can also deal with Entei. Their STAB is a super effective hit. \n >252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Sacred Fire vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gastrodon: 113-133 (26.5 - 31.2%) -- 16.4% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Sacred Fire vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Swampert: 104-123 (25.7 - 30.4%) -- 1% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Vaporeon: 162-191 (34.9 - 41.1%) -- 67.4% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Milotic: 138-163 (35 - 41.3%) -- 75.8% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n All of these Pokemon can 2HKO with their STAB Water move, and all but Swampert has immediate recovery. \n \n Summary \n \n Entei is a Pokemon that in fact shares its roles with heavy hitters like Victini, Darmanitan and Arcanine. Unfortunately for Entei, it is generally outclassed by these alternate Pokemon. Victini and Arcanine have electric coverage for those bulky Waters. Darmanitan has much higher attack. Arcanine has Intimidate, Morning Sun, and Close Combat to hit hard against Rock types. Because of these Pokemon, Entei looks like it will return to RU.", "id": "t3_1yax06", "summary": "That's Entei-tainment"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Slurpuff is a cupcake. A scary one, but still a cupcake. It has most of what it needs to be a good Pokemon, despite what its stats show. With Unburden, Belly Drum, and an immunity, Slurpuff can destroy teams. \n \n Slurpuff @ Sitrus Berry \n Ability: Unburden \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Naughty Nature \n \n Belly Drum \n \n Play Rough \n \n Return \n \n Flamethrower/Copy Cat \n \n \n Slurpuff is another Unburden Pokemon, that can do some real damage in the late game. This separates it from most other fairies, excluding the Marill line. It is one of only 2 physical attacking Fairies in the tier. Belly Drum, cuts its HP to 50% exact, which is just low enough to activate its Sitrus Berry, and as such, its Unburden. It is reminiscent of Azumarill in OU, with Unburden instead of priority. Sadly, it has truly awful physical coverage moves. It has STAB Play Rough. Return provides a powerful neutral coverage move. Flamethrower covers steel types left when you set up, but Copy Cat can be a good surprise option, to hit Pokemon with their own moves. For example, taking a fighting hit and copycatting that to their face. Once unburdened it out runs +1 base 97s, speed ties +1base 98s and is out speed by choice scarfed base 100s. \n Any other set is done better by other Pokemon, Florges and Aromatisse, and even Gardevoir are better Special Tanks. \n \n Team Support \n \n Slurpuff really needs the removal of steel types to be truly successful, and Pokemon with Bullet Punch, like Megacham. Unfortunately, Magnezone is awkward at countering steel types this gen, especially as most now have Earthquake or a Fighting type move to deal with it. A better option is a powerful fire type like Victini or Chandelure. As Slurpuff is mostly a late game cleaner, wearing down of the opponent's Pokemon is highly valued, so Hazards are almost essential. Lastly, as Slurpuff must cut its HP to set up properly, the removal of hazards is somewhat key. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Metagross is an easy counter to Slurpuff. It is only just 2HKOed by a +6 Play Rough, can easily tank Flamethrowers, and has STAB priority to get around the Unburden boost. \n >+6 252+ Atk Slurpuff Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 186-219 (51 - 60.1%) -- 89.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >0 SpA Slurpuff Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Metagross: 124-146 (34 - 40.1%) -- 35.5% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Metagross Bullet Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 168-200 (54.9 - 65.3%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock and Belly Drum \n >252+ Atk Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 378-446 (123.5 - 145.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n Other Steel types, like Escavalier, Empoleon and Mega Aggron can all take the physical hits aimed at them. Escavalier and Aggron must be weary of the Flamethrower however. \n Surprisingly, Mega Cham cannot OHKO after the Sitrus Berry \n >252 Atk Pure Power Mega Medicham Bullet Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 166-196 (54.2 - 64%) -- guaranteed 2HKO Belly Drum and Sitrus Berry \n ScarfTini outspeeds, resists STAB and can OHKO with V-Create. It can check if rocks aren't up. \n >+6 252+ Atk Slurpuff Play Rough vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Victini: 232-273 (68 - 80%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock \n +6 252+ Atk Slurpuff Return vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Victini: 351-414 (102.9 - 121.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n >252 Atk Victini V-create vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 279-328 (91.1 - 107.1%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO \n Quagsire completely walls Slurpuff. It ignores its boosts, and takes nothing from its moves, and hits back hard with its STAB attack. Quag also has reliable recovery. \n >252+ Atk Slurpuff Play Rough vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Unaware Quagsire: 93-111 (23.6 - 28.1%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Quagsire Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Slurpuff: 108-127 (35.2 - 41.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n \n Summary \n \n Slurpuff is an interesting Pokemon, but it struggles to set up. The current UU metagame hits too hard and just too fast for it to completely viable. It could spend many games doing absolutely nothing, not something you want from a sweeper. My projection for it is a mid level RU Pokemon.", "id": "t3_1ycb6n", "summary": "There is no mountain high Slurpuff to be completely viable."}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "So I have been playing a lot of UU beta on Showdown. This thing is a fantastic physical wall. Immune to Earthquake and electric moves, fighting type resist, base 105 defense, reliable recovery, and Eviolite. What it lacks in Leftovers recovery, it makes up for with huge physical bulk. Already at the top of LC usage, it is a defensive force in UU. It has a comparable defense stat to Gliscor even without Eviolite. It's that bulky \n \n Gligar @ Eviolite \n Ability: Immunity/Sand Veil \n 252HP/252DEF/4ATK \n IVs: possibly 0 Speed \n Impish/Relaxed \n \n Stealth Rock \n \n Roost \n \n Earthquake/Defog/U-Turn/Knock Off/Toxic \n \n Earthquake/Defog/U-Turn/Knock Off/Toxic \n \n \n Gligar has a Defense stat of 508 after Eviolite. This is the same as Chansey's Special Defense stat fully invested. Special Defense isn't invested in because Gligar is weak to common special attacks, such as Ice Beam and Scald. It, unlike Chansey however is not completely crippled by the loss of Eviolite, while it does hurt. It made a highly effective Bisharp counter(now OU). Beyond stats, Gligar really functions well at what is does. It takes resisted or neutral physical hits for ages, sets up rocks, and removes opponent's hazards. It is one of the better defensive pivots when using U-Turn, but it is surprisingly fast, hence the lowered speed potential(MIN = 157 @ 100, 81@50). If you want to keep the speed, you risk the opponent under-speeding and what ever you switch in would have to take the hit. It also gets the ubiquitous Knock Off, one of the most spammable moves this generation. Toxic allows it to spread status. Unfortunately its attack stat is underwhelming outside of Little Cup, and is much more of a wall than a tank. \n \n Alternate Options \n \n A mixed wall set is semi viable, as its special defense stat would hit ~376 with Eviolite. That stat is higher than a poke with base 120 Special Defense, fully invested. Even with minimal defense investment, its defense reaches 370. despite having sub par HP, it could still take special hits provided they are neutral. It cannot take the common Scalds, Hydro Pumps, and Ice Beams running rampant in the tier, especially with Keldeo. It also becomes much more dependant upon its Eviolite, as it is merely average in its defense after losing it. It still remains a viable mixed wall taking weak neutral special hits, like minimally invested Celebi's Giga Drain \n \n Gligar @ Eviolite \n Ability: Immunity \n 252HP/252SPD/4ATK \n IVs:0 ATK(if no Earthquake) \n Impish/Relaxed \n \n Agility/Swords Dance/Earthquake \n \n Roost \n \n Substitute \n \n Baton Pass \n \n \n Gligar also has access to Baton Pass. With decent natural bulk thanks to Eviolite, not to mention its immunities, Gligar can find many opportunities to set up substitutes for its team mates. This version of Gligar supports the team in a whole different manner. It can still function as Bulky Pivot Switch but now provides high amounts of offensive pressure onto the opponent. Unfortunately, this set finds itself completely outdone by Speed Boost Scolipede, which can sub, SD, and pass all this while gaining speed and have a move slot free. \n \n Calculations \n \n >252+ Atk Life Orb Bisharp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 103-122 (30.8 - 36.5%) -- 60.5% chance to 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Mega Heracross Rock Blast (5 hits) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 95-115 (28.4 - 34.4%) -- approx. 0.7% chance to 3HKO \n >252 Atk Terrakion Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 76-91 (22.7 - 27.2%) -- 54.2% chance to 4HKO \n >252 Atk Sheer Force Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 126-148 (37.7 - 44.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Mold Breaker Haxorus Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 75-88 (22.4 - 26.3%) -- 12.5% chance to 4HKO \n >252 Atk Pure Power Mega Medicham Psycho Cut vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 90-106 (26.9 - 31.7%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n >252+ Atk Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 78-93 (23.3 - 27.8%) -- 76.4% chance to 4HKO \n >4 Atk Scolipede Megahorn vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 30-36 (8.9 - 10.7%) \n >252 Atk Scolipede Megahorn vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 38-45 (11.3 - 13.4%) -- possible 8HKO \n >252+ SpA Celebi Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Gligar: 106-126 (31.7 - 37.7%) -- 90% chance to 3HKO \n >4 SpA Florges Moonblast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Gligar: 108-127 (32.3 - 38%) -- 95.6% chance to 3HKO \n >4 Atk Crobat Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 57-67 (17 - 20%) -- possible 5HKO \n \n Unfortunately, Gligar can barely take a single water or ice move. Crawdaunt's Crabhammer will OHKO after rocks(up to 98%). Jellicent's Scald does 43% minimum. The best bet physically is Icicle Crash from a Weaville. Similarly, very strong physical attackers, life sheer force Flare Blitz from Darmanitan(~50-60%) and Victini's V-Create(~45-55% scarfed). Mega Houndoom will 2HKO. Either way, just like its big brother Gliscor, keep it away from ice and water type moves. \n \n Team Options \n \n Quite obviously, a team with a Gligar needs something to take water and ice type moves. Ideally, it appreciates a special wall like Jellicent or Chansey. Something to remove the water types is also appreciated, so a strong electric type like Raikou or Heliolisk is a good team mate. As Gligar is one of the better Defoggers, he shouldn't be run on a team with spikes. If not running Defog, a Spiker should be fine. \n - \n Final Thoughts \n - \n You may have noticed a comparison between Gligar and Chansey. That's because they are very similar. Ability to act as a mixed wall. Overshadowed by an evolution in OU. Fantastic defense on one side. Eviolite. Gligar is often overlooked for Chansey when looking for an Eviolite user. Gligar Does what it does very well. It is a physical wall that sets rocks and potentially gains offensive momentum for the team. its other uses are done better by other pokemon in general.", "id": "t3_1wt31h", "summary": "NANA NANA NANA NANA NANA NANA NANA NANA BAT MAN"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "You may have noticed that generation VI has changed many of the meta games, either by Pokemon, strategies, or new moves. Gen VI's UU tier shows this as it slants hard towards a stall by nature of its bans. It retains many of its powerhouses though, with Pokemon like Darmanitan, Victini and Mienshao still rampant in the tier to drop nukes to try and break through. Arcanine is a perfect check to most of these physical wall breakers. Intimidate reduces their attacking stat. It has recovery to heal off the damage. It has good bulk, at the very least respectable on both sides. And in the UU tier, there is a distinct lack of offensive rock or ground types with Krookodile being the only prominent one on the physical side, and Arcanine can even tank its hits somewhat.  Defensive Arcanine is most definitely the best Arcanine this generation. \n Arcanine @ Leftovers/Rocky Helmet \n Ability: Intimidate \n EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def \n Impish Nature \n \n Will-O-Wisp \n \n \n Morning Sun \n \n Extreme Speed \n \n Flare Blitz \n \n \n Arcanine is a potent offensive wall, even with the commonality of Super Effective Earthquakes. Intimidate is definitely a crux of this set and is precisely what makes this Arcanine's best set this generation. The Intimidate and Will-o-Wisp together can and will shut down most any physical threat in the tier, barring Darmanitan, Victini, Entei, Emboar and the rare Floatzel. Beyond the drops it can force, it has semi-reliable recovery in an all but weather-less tier, with Mega Abomasnow being a rare sight and what seems like a majority of Hippowdons having Sand Force to avoid damaging their own team. Its main drawback is the low PP, but Arcanine doesn't need to many usually. After those it maintains some offensive presence thanks to its naturally high attack stat. Flare Blitz still hurts frail sweepers, even without investment. And Extreme Speed can be useful for both chipping away at the opponent's health, as well as letting it revenge kill weakened threats. The main downside to this set is that Stealth Rock will quite quickly cripple it. However with appropriate hazard control he can truly wall out some of the biggest threats in the tier, namely the potent fire types, among other things. \n \n Walling Capabilities \n \n >-1 252 Atk Darmanitan Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 128-152 (33.3 - 39.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery (23.4% to 2HKO without Leftovers after Stealth Rock) \n That is Darmanitan's strongest move to use against Arcanine. As shown, a Jolly Scarf simply cannot muscle through, even with Stealth Rock support. A Life Orb Darm misses the 2HKO with Lefties after SR. But the main draw is the ability to take the nuke that is a Darmanitan Flare Blitz. \n >-1 252 Atk Life Orb Sheer Force Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 97-114 (25.2 - 29.6%) -- 0% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Similarly, RK9 can switch into Victini with relative ease taking the ever scary V-Create. Oddly, most of Victini's coverage moves will do less than the V-Create, due to its immense Base Power. \n >-1 252 Atk Victini V-create vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 67-80 (17.4 - 20.8%) -- possible 7HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Entei has emerged as yet another scary fire type this gen with the addition of Sacred Fire to its rather sparse move pool. Beyond Arcanine resisting it, Arcanine also cannot be burned, giving it a one up, over other such checks, like Rhyperior. Entei needs a Choice Band to even think about the 2HKO, and even then it is only achieved through Stone Edge and its shaky accuracy. \n >-1 252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Sacred Fire vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 68-81 (17.7 - 21%) -- possible 7HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >-1 252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 182-216 (47.3 - 56.2%) -- 26.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >-1 252+ Atk Entei Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 122-144 (31.7 - 37.5%) -- Guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery \n Arcanine doesn't just wall out the fire types that run rampant through the tier. It can live almost any earthquake thrown out in the tier, including that of Krookodile, one of RK9's all time threats in UU. \n >-1 252 Atk Krookodile Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 168-200 (43.7 - 52%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n With low damage rolls, Arcanine can attempt to burn Krook, and can Morning Sun until it has to. It does a similar thing against Flygon taking well under 50% from an Intimidated EQ, and with low damage rolls can burn Flygon and recover off the damage. \n Of the remaining EQers, Arcanine possesses simply incredible speed for a wall, at base 95, and can burn these threats before they get to do too much damage. The percentages are maximum damage. \n \n Hippo's intimidated EQ – 40% \n \n \n Donphan's intimidated EQ – 47% \n \n Swampert's intimidated EQ – 44% \n \n Mega Aggron's intimidated EQ – 42% \n \n \n Heracross, too is hard walled by Arcanine, as it struggles to 2HKO with its Stabs, and needs to be Adamant Band to do so with EQ/Stone Edge(79%). Arcanine must be wary of burning it however, as Guts + Band will mean that Heracross becomes ridiculously powerful. \n Metagross is another EQer that Arcanine must be wary off, as it simply ignores intimidate. However it cannot 2HKO Arcanine with out SR if the Will-o hits, so it too can't stay in. \n The Banded Reckless Mienshao that has been gaining traction recently provides heavy trouble to Arcanine as even through intimidate, a Reckless HJK is an easy 2HKO. \n >-1 252 Atk Choice Band Reckless Mienshao High Jump Kick vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 205-243 (53.3 - 63.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Without reckless, Mienshao struggles to get through Arcanine without stealth rock, as it can do a maximum of 47% with a life orb Stone Edge, meaning that it will end up burned. \n Mega Aerodactyl too, relies on consecutive Stone Edges to get past fully defensive Arcanine, and a miss could leave it Burned. Aqua Tail + Stone Edge has a chance at the 2HKO, but 2 Stone Edges is guaranteed. Once Burned, it cannot KO, leaving Arcanine free to Morning Sun Stall through it. \n >-1 252+ Atk Mega Aerodactyl Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 204-242 (53.1 - 63%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Rhyperior is also checked by Arcanine, as it cannot 2HKO through a burn, although it can lay sneaky pebbles to make Arcanine's time harder. The burn threat however, forces it out. \n >-1 252+ Atk Rhyperior Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 210-248 (54.6 - 64.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >-1 252+ Atk burned Rhyperior Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 105-124 (27.3 - 32.2%) -- 55.4% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Machamp, despite having perfect accuracy with its Stone Edges, relies on some confusion hax with Dynamic Punch to get through Arcanine. DPunch + 2 Stone Edges won't KO without SR, so it is heavy hax that is needed. Even with SR up, two Stone Edges will rarely KO, especially as Arcanine will out speed all but the scarf sets for a burn, and the scarf set has decreased damage output with Jolly. \n >-1 252+ Atk Machamp Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 134-158 (34.8 - 41.1%) -- 2.3% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery \n Honchkrow is another potent sweeper that Arcanine can hard wall without Rocks up. Intimidate, lets it over come the huge power possessed by this bird, crippling it with a burn, and get past it. Fortunately, Extreme Speed breaks a Max HP Sub from Honch, letting it avoid any potential Sucker Punches that might come your way, and letting you avoid recoil. Brave Bird misses the 2HKO, and intimidate works if Honchkrow subs as Arcanine comes in. Flare Blitz is an easy 2HKO. Max speed Honchkrow will out speed, but can be easily speed crept with 64 Speed EVs. Without a sub up, RK9 can easily burned Honchkrow essentially crippling it for the match. \n >-1 252+ Atk Life Orb Honchkrow Brave Bird vs. 192 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 152-179 (41.1 - 48.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n \n How to beat it \n \n While those calcs might make you think that Arcanine is difficult to beat, and it is, there are a few sure fire ways to deter it and even KO it quickly. The first few should be obvious. \n > Stealth Rock \n Already mentioned is how Arcanine hates having Stealth Rock there to bother him and limit his ability to take hits. It turns 3HKOes on him into 2HKOes, very much so hindering him. \n > Special Moves \n Nido's are everywhere, and possess super effective STAB to decimate Arcanine with, not to mention the number of bulky waters, all of whom carry Scald, or in Blastoise's case Water Pulse. Most Pokemon with Earth Power or Scald on their move set can heavily damage RK9. \n > Status \n Toxic can rack up rather quickly on Arcanine, especially if it lacks Lefties recovery. Toxic damage combined with SR and Flare Blitzes can accumulate quickly and leave Arcanine with little HP remaining to deal with threats. Thunderwave too can be helpful, as if Arcanine can miss a crucial turn healing, it will very often be put into an almost checkmate position. \n > ~~ Pressure~~ \n Arcanine only has 8 Morning Suns normally, and while Pressure may seem like a round about way to defeat him, the ability to only heal 4 times can be huge as it makes Arcanine pick and choose when it wants to heal. This is only really noteworthy because of Suicune, who is an almost perfect counter to this Arcanine. A Suicune switching into a Morning sun still makes it take away double the PP, letting Arcanine get worn down easier.  I'm a derp \n \n Team Mates \n \n In order for Arcanine to avoid being KO'd by the situations above, it ideally should be paired with a special wall. Both Florges and Umbreon do this fantastically. They can cure status, easily tank special hits, and pass wishes to mitigate Hazard Damage. Umbreon gets a slight hat tip as a better candidate due to it being able to take on the Nido's better. Beyond this, a secondary physical tank can help, as once intimidated most Pokemon pose less of a threat and a tank should be kinda free to come in. Hazard control is highly important, even with wish support. Arcanine is affected by every hazard in the game, and hates the damage that it does. Special tanks too like being paired with Arcanine as it can cripple and or switch into physical threats for them. As mentioned above bulky waters pose a slight issue so a method of dealing with them is important also (although if you have no Crocune check you are team building wrong imo). \n Arcanine can also be a pivotal member of a FWG core, as it makes for a fantastic wall. Most fire types lack defensive capabilities, except for a select few (Heatran, MegaZardX, Rotom-H). Arcanine's bulk can usually allow for its remaining team mates to invest more specially defensive, as intimidate lessens physical threats. Good examples would be Roserade, Vaporeon, Jellicent, Ferroseed, Chesnaught, Trevanent, Slowbro and Celebi. While this may make it seem like it only slots into stally teams it still fits on some of the bulkier offensive teams in the tier. \n Arcanine likes to have Hazard support as much as any Pokemon, but as Intimidate and the threat of a burn can force a multitude of switches, it is especially key. \n \n Summary \n \n Arcanine's roles has changed dramatically this gen, as it did last gen. No long is it speedy powerhouse. No longer is it best suited towards bulky attacking. The power creep has forced RK9 into a much more defensive role. It is surprisingly similar to Bulky CharX, and remarkably viable in OU, where it must still avoid special attackers, but threats like Tyrannitar and Azumarill are allowed, and they threaten Arcanine deeply. I wish to restate something I mentioned at the beginning of this.  Defensive Arcanine is the BEST Arcanine.  In the UU tier, physical attackers cannot OHKO and even struggle to 2HKO. I truly believe it to be one of the premier physical tanks in the tier, this generation.", "id": "t3_240shz", "summary": "Defensive Arcanine \n \n Edit: Derping on pressure"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Shaymin may just be the best specially offensive grass type in the game, not regarding Ubers. With maybe the best Grass type attack in the game, and a myriad of coverage and support options, Shaymin can really thrive in UU. Grass being a mediocre typing is the only real thing stopping it from being OU. \n \n Stats \n \n HP – 100 \n Atk – 100 \n Def – 100 \n Spa – 100 \n SDef – 100 \n Spd – 100 \n Standard mini-legend stats, 100 across the board. Based upon Shaymin's move pool, its Special Attack and Speed really stand out. While base 100 isn't what it used to be, its still quick enough to out run most ground types in the game, as well as many fire types. As speeds have crept up to the 108-110 range for many Pokemon, Shaymin has lowered in viability. Shaymin has very nice natural bulk at 100/100/100 and is quite easy to switch in to an Earthquake. \n \n Shaymin @ Life Orb \n Natural Cure \n EVs: 252 Spa / 252 Spd / 4 Def \n Timid Nature \n \n Seed Flare \n Earth Power \n Air Slash/Dazzling Gleam/Psychic \n Rest/Dazzling Gleam/Psychic/Synthesis \n \n Shaymin is a potent special attacker in UU, with very good coverage. Seed Flare is simply a fantastic move. Base 120 power, STAB, a 40% chance to decrease the opponent's Special Defense 2 stages. The only thing really wrong with it is its 85 accuracy, which is not terrible. Earth Power is a solid coverage move, that nails Steel types, Fire types and Electric types, that might try to switch in, or you might want to switch into. Air Slash covers opposing grass types, while Psychic is its best option against Grass Poison Pokemon like Roserade and Amoonguss. Dazzling Gleam hits Dragons that avoid ground type moves, and has very good Neutral coverage along side Earth Power. Rest is the last option, and can be used to heal up fully, and use Natural Cure to remove the Sleep. Synthesis is good for recovery without having to switch. \n \n Shaymin @ Leftovers \n Natural Cure \n EVs: 252 Spa / 252 Spd / 4 Def \n Timid Nature \n \n Seed Flare \n Leech Seed \n Substitute \n Earth Power/Air Slash \n \n Shaymin is a very good, fast SubSeeder. While slightly outclassed by Whimsicott, Shaymin has more of an offensive presence thanks again to Seed Flare. Shaymin also has more bulk, but worse typing. Shaymin's speed and offense let it deal with a wide variety of Pokemon, especially once it has a substitute up. Shaymin's coverage here is dependant on if it wants to hit Steel and Fire types or Grass types that otherwise entirely wall this set. \n \n Team Mates \n \n Shaymin is a potent Special Attacker, so he should probably be paired with a powerful physical attacker like Mienshao or Darmanitan. An additional special attacker is also helpful, to supplement Shaymin's damage. Raikou gets a mention here as it resists flying type moves for Shaymin, while Shaymin can switch into EQs for Raikou. Shaymin's ability to absorb status lets it slot into many offensive teams. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Florges and Blissey are premier special walls in the tier for a reason, and can take repeated hits from Shaymin. Seed Flare drops are able to let Shaymin muscle through them eventually, or at least force them out. Leech Seed is helpful as well, due to their high HP stats. \n >252 SpA Life Orb Shaymin Seed Flare vs. 252 HP / 24+ SpD Florges: 133-156 (36.9 - 43.3%) -- 98.8% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Life Orb Shaymin Seed Flare vs. -2 252 HP / 24+ SpD Florges: 261-308 (72.5 - 85.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Life Orb Shaymin Seed Flare vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Blissey: 165-195 (23.1 - 27.3%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Life Orb Shaymin Seed Flare vs. -2 252 HP / 0 SpD Blissey: 328-386 (45.9 - 54%) -- 3.9% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Goodra flat out walls Shaymin, especially if it carries Sap Sipper. Shaymin only does about 15% to AV Goodra, who can easily 2HKO back. \n Specially Defensive Roserade can switch in and eat up 2 hits, and proceed to cripple with Sludge Bomb. \n >252 SpA Life Orb Shaymin Air Slash vs. 252 HP / 240+ SpD Roserade: 127-151 (39.1 - 46.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Black Sludge recovery \n >0 SpA Roserade Sludge Bomb vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Shaymin: 236-278 (69.2 - 81.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Darmanitan can revenge kill Shaymin with a Choice Scarf. Otherwise, Darm is KO'd by Earth Power most of the time, or with some prior damage. Darm can usually force Shaymin out. \n >252 SpA Life Orb Shaymin Earth Power vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Darmanitan: 341-403 (97.1 - 114.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock \n >252 Atk Sheer Force Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Shaymin: 540-636 (158.3 - 186.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n Mienshao too can revenge kill with a Life Orb Fake Out + HJK. But is itself KO'd by Seed Flare. \n >252 SpA Life Orb Shaymin Seed Flare vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Mienshao: 320-376 (118 - 138.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n >252 Atk Life Orb Mienshao Fake Out vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Shaymin: 56-66 (16.4 - 19.3%) -- possible 6HKO \n >252 Atk Life Orb Mienshao High Jump Kick vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Shaymin: 269-317 (78.8 - 92.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n \n Summary \n \n Shaymin is a fantastic Special attacker in UU, and while there were no Pink Blobs, it was ridiculously difficult to switch into. Even still, Offensive teams struggle to come in safely. Shaymin may not Sweep teams, but is very adept at softening them up for team mates.", "id": "t3_2huxwv", "summary": "Shaymin has Flare \n \n Edit: Added Synthesis to Life Orb set at recommendation of /u/ibcaimanalfamail"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Xatu is a bit of an oddity. Its stats head towards a special sweeper, but it lacks a good move pool. Its ability is one that is usually played more defensively. This is a problem it shares with fellow magic bouncer Espeon. Espeon's better stats and move pool have it firmly in OU. With Mega Absol also in UU, Xatu is starting to struggle to find its place. \n \n Xatu @ Leftovers \n Ability: Magic Bounce \n EVs: 252 HP/252SpD/4 SpA \n Nature: Calm/Careful \n \n T-Wave/Toxic \n \n Roost \n \n Night Shade/Psyshock/U-Turn/Tailwind \n \n Night Shade/Psyshock/U-Turn/Tailwind \n \n \n This is Xatu's main set, and supports the team, spreading status and reflecting hazards. Even fully invested it has poor bulk, being OHKOed by power physical STAB attacks, and super effective special ones. Xatu has suffered with the power creep of gen 6. with strong Pokemon like Mega Houndoom roaming, it is looking like it will continue to fall down tiers. Despite being blessed with a fantastic ability, one misprediction can have Xatu dead at your feet. It has wide weaknesses, getting hit super effective by BoltBeam, Stone Edge, Dark Pulse, Shadow Ball, while only resisting 4 types. The choice between Toxic and T-Wave is a matter of preferance and what your team needs. Roost provides reliable recovery. The final two slots are filled by your choice of attacking move. Night Shade deals reliable damage, Psyshock is an obligatory STAB move, and U-Turn for momentum. Tailwind is also an option to further support the team with four turns of increased speed. \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Xatu @ Choice Scarf/Specs \n Ability: Magic Bounce \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef \n Timid Nature \n IVs: 0 Atk \n \n U-turn \n \n Psychic/Psyshock \n \n Heat Wave \n \n Grass Knot/Foul Play/Hidden Power Ice \n \n \n Xatu can go on the offensive, using its better Special Attack and Speed to try and do damage to the opponent. Scarf Base 95 outspeeds a lot (Darmanitan). Unfortunately, its move pool isn't varied much, and it has limited options. Psychic/shock is once again obligatory STAB. Heat Wave is one of Xatu's better coverage options, hitting Steel types hard. U-Turn is for getting out quickly and momentum gaining. The final slot is your choice of coverage. Grass Knot hits bulky Water and Ground types. Foul Play can surprise Physical Sweepers as you use their attack against them. Hidden Power Ice hits Dragons and Flying types. \n \n Team Support \n \n For a Pokemon that is meant to support, Xatu needs a large amount of help. Its weakness to many common types and sub-par defenses mean it cannot be a wall in the current meta. Many strong Pokemon have dropped to UU, and they straight outclass Xatu. That said a fighting type Pokemon makes a great team mate, taking rock and dark type moves. Bulky water types are also great team mates as they can generally tank Ice Beams. Lanturn and Rotom H get special mention for resisting the BoltBeam combo. Xatu suffers from the prevalence of Knock Off, and needs a team mate to take them. It can reflect status aimed at your Sweepers. \n \n Game Play and Summary \n \n Xatu's plethora of weaknesses mean that it is very easily taken down. A strong move that isn't Earthquake will do a high chunk of damage. Darmanitan will OHKO with Flare Blitz. Most Super effective physical damage will have a similar result. Xatu is mainly used to stop Hazards, but most stealth rockers will carry a rock move. It is a hard stop to Chesnaught lacking Stone Edge. \n Overall Xatu can't keep up this generation. With powerful Mega Evolutions, and new Pokemon, not to mention improvements to old favourites (Knock Off Mienshao) it is struggling to last in UU this Gen. It was clear last Gen that it was only UU for it's ability. With Mega Absol having the same ability, and much better offensive stats, Xatu seemed doomed to fall at least one tier, as it appears to be happening. Its just outperformed by other Pokemon.", "id": "t3_1xhibq", "summary": "Xatu didn't see this coming"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Roserade is one of the top grass types in UU. Despite competing with Celebi and Shaymin for a special attacking grass type spot, Roserade's secondary typing gives it a new niche. Fairy killer. STAB Sludge Bomb does a lot of damage to Pokemon like Florges. With great natural Special Defense it is a great user of the Assault Vest, and has the move pool to exploit it. Roserade is one of two special attacking Pokemon to get Technician. Giving it Hidden Power at base 90 power. Overall, Roserade is a solid Pokemon, but has some stiff competition for its spot. \n \n Roserade @ Assault Vest \n Ability: Natural Cure \n EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n Modest Nature \n \n Sludge Bomb \n \n Giga Drain \n \n Extrasensory/Leaf Storm/Hidden Power [Fire] \n \n Extrasensory/Leaf Storm/Hidden Power [Fire] \n \n \n This is Roserade's Assault Vest set. It propels its Spec D up to 370, with just 4 EVs. It makes for a great one sided tank, with STAB Giga Drain for recovery, and Natural Cure eliminating status. Its poor(read awful) Defense and HP mean it should never be forced to take a physical hit. Roserade resists many common types, such as electric and fairy, types generally going special in the tier. Sludge Bomb provides secondary STAB, and gives it coverage against fairies. The last two slots are up for grabs. Leaf Storm allows a single powerful blast, and is the strongest move on this set. Extrasensory lets Roserade deal with fighting types like Keldeo, and poison types that like to switch  into grass moves, like Crobat. HP Fire gives an option against steel types. Varying degrees of Speed investment can be used to outspeed specific threats. 176 Timid lets it outspeed max speed Base 80s, 216 to get past max speed base 85s. \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Roserade @ Black Sludge \n Ability: Natural Cure \n EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 Sdef\nModest/Calm Nature \n \n Spikes/ Toxic Spikes \n \n Sleep Powder \n \n Giga Drain \n \n Sludge Bomb \n \n \n This is more of a support set, but it seems a waste to not utilise that base 125 Spec Attack. Again this is more of a tanky build, but lets Roserade have some passive recovery. Black Sludge lets Roserade switch in on tricks freely, as few Pokemon want the sludge. Roserade can lay hazards and incapacitate an opponent, using Spikes and Sleep Powder respectively. Sleep Powder is one of the best moves in Roserade's arsenal, as the only other sleep inducing grass type in the tier is Amoongus with spore. Double STAB is again the preferred option as grass types can't take the Sludge Bomb after coming in on a grass move. \n \n Roserade @ Life Orb/Focus Sash \n Ability: Technician/Natural Cure \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef \n Timid Nature \n \n Leaf Storm \n \n Sludge Bomb \n \n Hidden Power [Fire] \n \n Extrasensory/Rest/Sleep Powder \n \n \n This set turns Roserade into a fast hard hitting Special Attacker. Unfortunately for Roserade it is completely outclassed by Shaymin, who has the stronger Seed Flare and wider coverage. Rest is an interesting addition to this set, allowing for full recovery. Rest should ONLY be run with Natural Cure, as switching will eliminate the sleep. The other moves have already had their reasoning explained. Focus Sash is good for a one time live without hazards and allows Roserade to fire off its STAB Leaf Storm. \n \n Roserade @ Black Sludge \n Natural Cure \n 252 Speed/252 Special Attack/4 HP \n \n Leech Seed \n \n Substitute \n \n Giga Drain \n \n Sludge Bomb \n \n \n Roserade can also run a fast hard hitting sub-seeder. This contrasts with what other Leech Seeders like Chesnaught and Gourgeist Super do, which is more of a walling set. Roserade forces many switches, so can set up many free substitutes. Roserade has a good niche with sub seed, as it can destroy grass types that are immune to the Leech Seed with STAB Sludge Bomb. Its low HP can almost be a blessing as it will recover a high amount from a single turn of Leech Seed, and can Sub freely. Giga Drain just adds to the recovery. \n \n Unfortunately, beyond this any other set is completely outclassed by Shaymin, Celebi or Amoongus. It could theoretically run a Scarf or Specs set, but its limited coverage makes this a poor choice. \n \n Team Support \n \n Roserade is a powerful grass type and as such can fit in very well within a FWG core. Rotom H and any of the bulky water types in tier, preferably a physically defensive one like (Mega) Blastoise. Other good team mates are bulky steel types like Mega Aggron. Roserade shouldn't be paired with a defogger when laying spikes, but that's common sense. Roserade doesn't mind hazards too much so hazard removal is not strictly needed for it. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Roserade hates bulky fire types like Arcanine and Rotom H. Oddly if Roserade lacks Extrasensory or HP Fire it is walled by Bullet Proof Chesnaught. Fire types can usually force Roserade out. A Pokemon like Porygon2, who commonly carry Ice Beam as a coverage move have an advantage against Roserade. Predictions can be key as Sludge Bomb hits fire types for neutral. \n >252+ SpA Roserade Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Arcanine: 187-222 (48.6 - 57.8%) -- 54.3% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Arcanine Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Roserade: 542-642 (167.2 - 198.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n >252+ SpA Roserade Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Rotom-H: 109-129 (35.8 - 42.4%) -- 88.7% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 SpA Rotom-H Overheat vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Roserade: 188-224 (58 - 69.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252+ SpA Roserade Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Eviolite Porygon2: 78-93 (20.8 - 24.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO \n >4 SpA Porygon2 Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Assault Vest Roserade: 88-104 (27.1 - 32%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n >252+ SpA Roserade Extrasensory vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Chesnaught: 238-280 (62.6 - 73.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n On that list, only Chesnaught struggles to damage Roserade. Roserade also has issues with special walls like Chansey and Snorlax. Porygon2's instant recovery means that it will beat Roserade one on one. \n >252+ SpA Roserade Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 102-120 (14.4 - 17%) -- possible 6HKO \n >252+ SpA Roserade Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Snorlax: 144-171 (27.4 - 32.6%) -- 72.4% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Poison type Pokemon like Crobat are great checks to sets lacking Extrasensory. \n >252+ SpA Roserade Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Crobat: 94-111 (25.1 - 29.6%) -- 0% chance to 4HKO after Black Sludge recovery \n >252+ SpA Roserade Extrasensory vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Crobat: 226-266 (60.4 - 71.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Black Sludge recovery \n >4 Atk Crobat Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Roserade: 338-398 (104.3 - 122.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n Mega Aggron's typing ability and stats let it counter Roserade. Roserade can't 2HKO and is almost always OHKOed by Heavy Slam. \n \n Summary \n \n Roserade is the best Grass/Poison Pokemon outside of Venusaur. Despite facing the stiff competition from Shaymin and Celebi, Roserade remains deserving of a spot on a team. It has the best special defense of the three, but far worse physical defense. It has lower speed, but is much more powerful. Roserade has better secondary STAB, but has far fewer resistances including a notable one to ground type moves. It is a powerful attacker and can really help out a team as a status absorber.", "id": "t3_1xi9zx", "summary": "Kinda Rosy for Roserade \n \n EDIT: added JakeMan's SubSeed Set"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Krookodile is one of the top dark types in UU. With the banning of powerful Knock Off abusers like Weavile, Crawdaunt and Tornadus Therian, a gap was left in UU, searching for the next best option. To fill the vacuum, prominent Knocker Offers were used even more. Mienshao, Heracross and Escavalier. But with Honchkrow unable to learn Knock Off, a Dark type to use the coveted move was sought. Krookodile is probably the best thing left in UU, aside from Absol and its Mega to use Knock Off on. It has STAB, good speed and the ability to use an item. It also has a couple good abilities in Intimidate and Moxie. From this you can see that it can be used very much like Salamence, having the same abilities. Krook doesn't have 4 times weaknesses however and can effectively run some sets that Salamence is outclassed at. \n The Stats \n Krookodile – BST = 519 \n >HP – 95 \n >Attack – 117 \n >Defense – 80 \n >SpAtk – 65 \n >SpDef – 70 \n >Speed – 92 \n From his stats alone, you can see that Krookodile screams for a choice item while still being able to be a bulky offensive Pokemon. \n Krookodile @ Choice Scarf/Band \n Ability: Moxie \n 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP \n Jolly Nature \n \n Knock Off(transfer)/Crunch \n \n Earthquake \n \n Stone Edge \n Aerial Ace \n \n Krookodile has 2 of the best offensive STABs in the game. Ground hits 5 things super effectively with only an immunity and a 2 resists resist to counteract them. Dark now is only resisted by Fairy, Fighting and Dark. You may notice that these don't overlap, meaning that its STAB cannot be quad resisted. Only 17 things in the game resist this combo, and only 5 or so are commonly seen in UU. Knock Off if available is easily one of the best moves this generation, removing items with a base 97.5 power before STAB. Its spammability, power and utility had it in discussions for the move to be banned, something that was unprecedented until swagger I believe. Earthquake makes for fantastic secondary STAB, and after a boost or two, not much can take it. Stone Edge compliments Earthquake fantastically, reducing that 18 to 3. Aerial Ace hits those 3 super effectively, and has the best super effective coverage. The EVs and Ability are relatively straight forward, as Moxie lets you sweep after a revenge kill, and the EVs are standard physical scarf. Choice Band is an option for potentially wall breaking, but Scarf is better as it lets Krookodile Sweep/ \n \n Krookodile @ Assault Vest \n Ability: Intimidate \n 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n Adamant/Careful Nature \n \n Knock Off(transfer)/Crunch \n \n Earthquake \n \n Stone Edge \n Aerial Ace \n \n A bulkier take on Krookodile, using Intimidate and AV to grant it decent mixed defenses. With its good attack stat, it can still do some damage. Krookodile has good HP and so good bulk with some investment. The moves are the same. Unfortunately, Krook does not get Drain Punch, which would absolutely round out this set, granting it recovery of some sort. \n \n Krookodile @ Leftovers/Focus Sash \n Ability: Moxie/Intimidate \n 252 HP /  252 Atk / 4 Def \n Impish/Adamant Nature \n \n Knock Off(transfer)/Crunch \n \n Earthquake \n \n Stone Edge/Taunt \n Stealth Rock \n \n Krookodile also makes an OK Rocks setter, as it can usually bulk a hit turn one, or out speed the opponent to get them up. It retains its fantastic coverage, and remains a decent offensive threat. It should be noted that when using a focus sash a more offensive spread is preferred. \n \n Team Support \n \n Krookodile likes the removal of flying types and or fighting types, not to mention physical walls like Hippowdon and Suicune. However with those removed, it can usually power its way through teams after coming in to revenge kill something. Krookodile hates status with a passion, so a cleric can be helpful. Krookodile has 2 immunities, and can support the team with those, so flying, water and fighting types are good team mates to get it free switches. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Suicune is one of the top counters to Krookodile. It takes about 25-30% from Knock Off/EQ, and can 2HKO with Scald, as well as threatening a burn. It also usually has Rest, so can heal off any of the damage it does take. Hippowdon is in a similar situation, taking similar amounts of damage. It too has recovery to take it on one on one easily. EQ does a lot, being almost a 2HKO. Hippowdon can also phaze out a set up Krookodile, in a worst case scenario. \n Mega Aggron too, counters Krookodile relatively well, taking about 35% from an EQ. It can take every other move easily, and that's with only HP investment. Heavy Slam does a ton(lol), and can OHKO and likely will with even a little prior damage. \n Even with Aerial Ace, Chesnaught can still take Krookodile on with some ease. Its huge physical bulk counteracts even the quad effectiveness. Aerial Ace misses a 2HKO and with Leech Seed, Spiky Shield and Leftovers, Chesnaught can heal off the damage relatively easily. Its STAB moves will do a lot in return, practically OHKOing. \n Other good options are bulky water types like Quagsire, that ignores Moxie Boosts, Swampert, who has great physical bulk and Bulky Arcanine, as with Intimidate and Will-o-wisp it can neuter Krook rather quickly. Krookodile misses the 2HKO on Arcanine thanks to leftovers and Intimidate, and will find itself burned, and being morning sun stalled, until Arcanine is in a good position. \n \n [YouTube Video]( \n \n Summary \n \n Krookodile has fast become one of my absolute favourite Pokemon to use in UU, as its STABs can destroy teams, as well as having the bulk to generally take a hit. For me, it plays like a weird mix of Diggersby and Crawdaunt with a severe decline in power. It is a legitimate threat and one of the top two Knock Offers in the tier. As a Moxie Scarf Sweeper, it out speeds its rival in Heracross, and relies less on prediction than its dark type rival Honchkrow.", "id": "t3_239130", "summary": "Stole my Heart"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Flygon is this gen what it has been most generations. An Offensive Pivot. For those of you that don't understand “Pivot”, a pivot is a Pokemon that can come in, and gain the team momentum. Flygon does this in a couple of ways. U-turn, Defog and surprise factor. Flygon reaches that coveted base 100 speed tier, out speeding every dragon in the tier except Noivern and Latias. This gives it a good niche as a scarfer and a bulky offensive Pokemon. \n \n Flygon @ Leftovers \n Ability: Levitate \n EVs: 252 Atk / 48 SDef / 208 HP \n Adamant Nature \n \n Defog \n \n Roost/U-turn \n \n Dragon Claw \n Earthquake \n \n This is what has become Flygon's bread and butter in UU. It resists or is immune to every entry hazard, and can easily get rid of them with Defog. It is one of the few Defoggers that can claim this. Most are at best neutral to Rocks and immune to Spikes and Web. The EVs give Flygon an HP number +1. With max attack, Flygon maintains an offensive presence. The rest is dumped into special defense to let it take hits just a little better. Alternatively a spread of 160 HP/252 Atk/96Speed Jolly to out speed positive natured base 80s. Flygon has dual STAB that is nigh unresisted. Earthquake and Dragon Claw are highly reliable dual STAB. The choice between Roost and U-turn is personal preference as Roost gives some recovery(doesn't cancel Levitate) but U-turn lets it scout somewhat. \n \n Flygon @ Choice Scarf/Band/Assault Vest \n Ability: Levitate \n EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpAtk / 252 Spd \n Hasty/Naive Nature \n \n Fire Blast/Quick Attack/Fire Punch \n \n U-turn \n \n Dragon Claw/Outrage \n Earthquake \n \n This set is in direct competition with Haxorus. It has two advantages over Haxorus, U-turn and a usable Special Attack stat. Flygon can use this set to hit and run, still sporting decent bulk. Its dual STAB is still great and Outrage is an option but being locked in can be an awkward situation with Fairies and bulky Steel types roaming constantly in the tier. As such it runs a coverage move to deal with them. Quick Attack should only be used with Choice Band and is only there as some form of priority. Fire Blast can surprise physically defensive Pokemon expecting a Dragon Claw. Fire Punch can act as a medium ground between EQ and Dragon Claw, hitting Grass type and levitating Steels. Unfortunately, Flygon doesn't get any Steel or Poison options to deal with Fairies. \n \n Flygon @ Life Orb/Choice Scarf \n Ability: Levitate \n EVs: 252 SpAtk / 252 Spd / 4 Atk \n Hasty/Naive Nature \n \n Draco Meteor \n \n U-turn/Roost \n \n Fire Blast/Superpower \n Earthquake \n \n This is one of the most surprising Flygon sets available, using Flygon's OK Special Attack to hit common switch ins hard. Sadly this set is done much better by Hydreigon, who has much better offensive stats. Draco Meteor is the main STAB of this set hitting very hard on the physical walls that like to switch in. U-turn gains momentum while Roost heals off Life Orb damage. Fire Blast and Superpower are somewhat interchangeable options to hit physically bulky Steels and Grass/Dark types. Earthquake is good secondary STAB that doesn't lack after a Draco Meteor. A plus Speed nature was chosen to make sure it doesn't miss out on one of its best qualities, out speeding the other dragons in the tier. \n >credit to this set goes to /u/0ffkilter who wrote about this set in his [RMT]( \n \n Team Options \n \n Flygon hates hates hates Ice type moves so some form of bulky Water type is a good team mate. Flygon's ability to resist the EdgeQuake combo is part of what makes it such a good bulky pivot. As such Pokemon weak to this combo like Flygon as a team mate. Flygon can form part of a Volt Turn core rather easily and fits in well with Volt Switchers, thanks to the immunity to EQ Finally, if you are using Flygon as a Defogger, spike stackers are not recommended. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Mega Aggron can wall Flygon really easily. It takes well below 50% even from EQ. In return it can 2HKO with STAB Heavy Slam \n >252+ Atk Flygon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Filter Mega Aggron: 108-127 (31.3 - 36.9%) -- 76.4% chance to 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Mega Aggron Heavy Slam (100 BP) vs. 208 HP / 0 Def Flygon: 229-270 (64.8 - 76.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Hippowdon can wall Flygon a lot, taking a pittance from EQ and even Draco Meteor. Unfortunately, Hippowdon can't do anything in return. \n >252 SpA Flygon Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 202-238 (48 - 56.6%) -- 35.5% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 Atk Flygon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 88-105 (20.9 - 25%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Slowbro is another physical tank that can switch in with relative ease against Flygon, taking only half from a Draco. Slowbro has the added benefits of a potential Ice Beam, which can OHKO if Flygon is not HP invested or Slowbro has some investment, and Regenerator. \n >252 Atk Flygon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 93-109 (23.6 - 27.6%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Flygon Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Slowbro: 186-219 (47.2 - 55.5%) -- 17.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 SpA Slowbro Ice Beam vs. 208 HP / 48 SpD Flygon: 296-352 (83.8 - 99.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n A surprising check is Chansey, who can take any of Flygon's hits, wear it down with Seismic Toss, and heal with Wish or Softboiled. \n >252 Atk Flygon Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 181-214 (25.7 - 30.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n >Chansey Seismic Toss vs. 208 HP Flygon: 100-100 (28.3 - 28.3%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n Chesnaught is another check that takes Flygon on very well if it can avoid Fire Blast or Draco. In return it can Leech Seed Flygon, and deal some good damage with Spiky Shield and Hammer Arm. \n >252 SpA Flygon Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Chesnaught: 220-260 (57.8 - 68.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Chesnaught Hammer Arm vs. 208 HP / 0- Def Flygon: 153-181 (43.3 - 51.2%) -- 5.9% chance to 2HKO \n \n Summary \n \n With new Dragons now in the tier, Flygon has become outclassed. As a physical attacker, Haxorus is better. As a mixed attacker Hydreigon and Kyurem are better. Zygarde is arguably better at being a bulky defensive Dragon. Since last generation, Flygon has lost one of its main niches as the only Dragon with U-turn. Flygon has a huge mixed bag of stats, and isn't specialised like the other Dragons. Flygon is no longer a staple of the UU meta game and looks like its heading towards RU.", "id": "t3_1z1dep", "summary": "Don't know what you want 'til its (Fly)gon."}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Azelf is the being of will power and with both of its attacking stats sitting at a nice base 125, it can easily find opportunities to impose itself. Base 115 Speed also lets it out speed much of the unboosted UU meta, but misses important threats like Noivern, Tornadus-Therian and Crobat. Azelf has a wide move pool both as an offensive support Pokemon and as an all out attacker on both sides. \n \n Azelf @ Choice Band/Scarf \n Ability: Levitate \n 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Jolly/Adamant Nature \n \n U-turn \n \n Zen Headbutt \n \n Trick/Knock Off/Ice/Fire Punch \n Trick/Knock Off/Ice/Fire Punch \n \n This was Azelf's surprisingly most common set last generation, after being one of the best suicide leads in gen IV. In gen IV, Azelf was used mainly as a special attacker as the move tutors didn't give it a wide number of physical options, but gen V gave it the elemental punches. Choice banded base 125 Attack hits hard. Jolly gets Azelf past Pokemon like Latias while Adamant leaves it out speeding base 100s at best. U-turn actually hits kinda hard on the psychic types that come in to wall Azelf on the special side. Zen Headbutt provides some STAB. Trick lets you dump the Band on a wall and cripple it. The final slot can be taken by either Knock Off for even more utility and it is highly spammable, or Ice/Fire Punch for coverage. The Choice Band is somewhat necessary to put Azelf's attack to really good levels. \n \n Azelf @ Focus Sash/Life Orb \n Ability: Levitate \n 252 Spd / 252 SpA / 4 Atk \n Timid/Hasty/Naive Nature \n \n Stealth Rock \n \n Fire Blast \n \n Taunt/Psyshock \n U-Turn \n \n Azelf's Suicide lead set since Explosion's nerf. It hits hard after getting up Stealth Rock and can stall break with a fast Taunt. Fire Blast nails Steel types that are missed by STAB Psyshock. U-turn lets Azelf get out of dodge. \n \n Azelf @ Choice Scarf/Specs/Life Orb \n Ability: Levitate \n 252 Spd / 252 SpA / 4 HP \n Timid Nature \n \n U-Turn \n \n Psyshock \n \n Fire Blast \n Grass Knot/Trick/Thunderbolt \n \n Azelf can also be a powerful Special Attacker with a Scarf to out speed common threats like Tornadus-T, or Specs to turn it into a true powerhouse. U-turn lets it avoid being in an unfavourable position. Psyshock hits special walls like Chansey. Fire Blast nails Steel types. Grass Knot and Thunderbolt both hit Water types, while Trick can cripple walls too, again Chansey as a main example. \n \n Azelf @ Choice Scarf/Specs/Life Orb \n Ability: Levitate \n 252 Spd / 252 SpA / 4 HP \n Hasty/Naive Nature \n \n U-Turn \n \n Psychic/Zen Headbutt \n \n Fire Blast \n Knock Off \n \n While Azelf may not be the best mixed attacker, it has a wide move pool, good speed and great attacking stats. With this set it is walled more by Special Walls. If Zen Headbutt is used, max Attack should be better than max Special Attack. \n \n Azelf @ Life Orb \n Ability: Levitate \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef \n Timid Nature \n \n Fire Blast \n \n Psyshock \n \n Thunderbolt/Dazzling Gleam/Energy Ball \n Nasty Plot \n \n This set makes use of Azelf's great speed, special attack and expansive movepool, nasty plot boosts Azelf's SpA to 698. Fire Blast again is critical on an Azelf. Psyshick nails Chansey hard. Thunderbolt hits bulky water types that aren't part ground, while Energy Ball hits those that are. Thunderbolt also hits fliers relatively hard. Dazzling Gleam is for the bulky dragons and the myriad of Dark types in the tier. Unfortunately, Azelf doesn't get Ice Beam as an alternative to hit dragons and/or fliers. \n \n Azelf @ Light Clay \n Ability: Levitate \n EVs: 252 HP, 252 Spd, 4 Atk \n Jolly Nature \n \n Light Screen \n \n Reflect \n \n Taunt/Stealth Rock \n U-turn/Explosion/Stealth Rock \n \n Azelf is one of the fastest dual screeners, and has access to Taunt and momentum grabbing moves (U-Turn/Explosion) and Stealth Rock. Azelf can almost guarantee setting up a screen and choose to grab momentum next turn. It also has a useful ability in Levitate that can grant it easy free switch ins on occasion. Because of its high speed it will rarely become Taunt bait in UU, as Meowstic, Tornadus and Liepard are the only Pokemon that have Prankster Taunt to 'out speed' it and are rarely seen. \n \n Team Support \n \n Azelf can take at best one weak neutral hit. As such it can fit very easily on a hyper offense team. If not on hyper offense, it really does need walls to take hits for it or to OHKO the opponent. Hazards are very useful for Choiced sets. Azelf can be an effective revenge killer with a Scarf as it will out speed most Pokemon even at plus 1. \n \n Checks and Counters \n \n Physical sets are just about completely walled by Mega Aggron. Even Fire Punch won't do too much, and Aggron can OHKO with its STAB Heavy Slam. Special sets can take it on very well though. \n >252 Atk Azelf Choice Band Azelf Fire Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Filter Mega Aggron: 85-102 (24.7 - 29.6%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO \n >252 SpA Life Orb Azelf Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Filter Mega Aggron: 273-322 (79.3 - 93.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252+ Atk Mega Aggron Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Azelf: 306-360 (105.1 - 123.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n Hippowdon can wall physical sets too. It can do nothing back though, usually. \n >252 Atk Choice Band Azelf Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 154-182 (36.6 - 43.3%) -- 98.9% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Life Orb Azelf Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 199-235 (47.3 - 55.9%) -- 24.6% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Physically defensive Zapdos has a decent shot at walling Azelf, both special and physical variants but can find itself 2HKOed by Ice Punch. \n >252 Atk Choice Band Azelf Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Zapdos: 192-226 (50 - 58.8%) -- 72.7% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 Atk Choice Band Azelf Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Zapdos: 153-181 (39.8 - 47.1%) -- 98% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Life Orb Azelf Fire Blast vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Zapdos: 166-196 (43.2 - 51%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock \n >4 SpA Zapdos Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Azelf: 157-186 (53.9 - 63.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Arcanine walls physical sets too, and can burn with Will-o. Or do major damage with Flare Blitz. Arcanine is one of the few Pokemon that can take on both physical and special sets, decently. Life Orb Thunderbolts hurt though. \n >252 SpA Life Orb Azelf Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Arcanine: 149-177 (38.8 - 46%) -- 87.5% chance to 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery \n >-1 252 Atk Choice Band Azelf Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 106-126 (27.6 - 32.8%) -- 85.4% chance to 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Arcanine Flare Blitz vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Azelf: 189-223 (64.9 - 76.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Chansey can do this too, but must be very weary of Knock Off, as it cripples Chansey. \n >252 SpA Life Orb Azelf Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 220-259 (31.2 - 36.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock \n >252 Atk Choice Band Azelf Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 253-298 (35.9 - 42.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n >252 Atk Choice Band Azelf Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Chansey: 204-241 (28.9 - 34.2%) \n >252 Atk Choice Band Azelf Zen Headbutt vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chansey: 378-445 (53.6 - 63.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Azelf is considered by most people to be special, and can act as a fantastic lure for special walls, and break them with Choice Banded attacks. Florges takes about 80% from Zen Headbutt. Pokemon like Jellicent and Latias hate taking the Knock Offs. Umbreon takes a bunch from U-turn. Conversely it can go the other way, and wall break physical walls with its mixed set, hitting them hard with Psychic. \n \n Summary \n \n Azelf is a fantastically underrated Pokemon in UU, and can be one of the best wall breakers in the tier. It can punch holes in defensive cores, taking the weak hits from the walls. Azelf is a great Pokemon that can find its way onto Hyper offensive teams. It can set hazards and wall break. It won't sweep through teams, but can soften them up for the rest of the team. \n The Nasty Plot set is interesting as it turns Azelf from Wall Breaker to Sweeper. it capitalises on two of Azelfs better stats and exploits them to let it run through teams. unfortunately many choice scarfers will simply out speed and revenge kill, like Darmanitan. The Screens set is another interesting option for Hyper Offense teams, getting up hazards and screen, to let the team function easier. It is a variation, and a good one, of Azelf's traditional suicide lead set. I have not play tested either of these however, and cannot vouch for their viability in matches.", "id": "t3_1z95be", "summary": "This elf beats up Santa \n \n Edit: Added additional sets as recommended by /u/Mitchhhhhh (screens and nasty plot)"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Victini has had a very defined role as one of the biggest nukes in UU. Its a potent revenge killer with what I think is the 4th most powerful unboosted move in the whole meta. As one of the \"Little Legends\", it has the standard 100 across the board, making it very diverse. It can surprise switch ins with its surprising special coverage. It has long since battled with Darmanitan, Arcanine and Entei for a team spot but a new competitor has come. Infernape takes Victini's mixed sets and does them better at higher base speed with better secondary STAB. As far as offensive fire types, Victini and Infernape are the cream of the crop in UU. \n Victini @ Choice Scarf/Band \n Victory Star \n Jolly/Adamant \n 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP \n \n V-Create \n \n Bolt Strike \n \n U-Turn \n Zen Headbutt/Quick Attack/Trick \n \n Standard physical Victini.  Choice scarf for revenge, choice band to break walls. Again, the 4th best attack unboosted in the meta. V-Create is obvious STAB. You dont pass up a 180 base power move. This is so powerful, resisted its stronger than neutral Zen Headbutt. Zen Headbutt is secondary STAB, but not something really gone for. It can be a nice middle if you half predict a switch and don't want to to U-turn for momentum. Bolt Strike is the best option ive seen on physical fire types to deal with bulky waters. Quick Attack may look odd, but choice banded, victini can use it for a surprise revenge kill. Trick can cripple the walls trying to switch into it. \n \n Other Options \n \n Victini @ Expert Belt \n Victory Star \n Hasty/Naive \n 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Spa \n \n V-Create \n \n Bolt Strike \n \n Grass Knot \n U-Turn/Psychic \n \n Do you know what people love to assume about Victini? That its choiced. I mean with good reason, give  the standard, but this set makes people regret that. This set can easily get it past many of its  counters . V-Create is almost mandatory on every singke set Victini runs. It hurts pokemon badly. Bolt Strike again nails bulky Waters like Slowbro and Milotic. Grass Knot hits both of these decently as well, but Slowbro is a little light, and milotic is a bit has high spdef. Grass Knot is important for Rhyperior, Hippowdon and Swampert, all of whom can't take one after switching into a V-Create. U-Turn can be good for momentum, and to bluff the choice item more, but Psychic is a strong STAB move that doesn't incurr drops, although it doesn't hit much, outside of the Nidos. Hasty is preferred,  because Victini can come in on Fairies relativeky easily, and they tend to be specially offensive. It wont like Sucker Punches either way. \n \n Victini @ Leftovers \n Victory Star \n Brave \n 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n 0 Speed IV \n \n V-Create \n \n Bolt Strike \n \n U-Turn/Grass Knot \n Trick Room \n \n Base 100 is too fast for Trick room right? Wrong. Paired with V-Create's Speed drops, Victini can quickly out slow(heh) opponents. Victini has naturally devent bulk, making it kind of sturdy as a setter. The coverage is the same, and Grass Knot can double the surprise of seeing a trick room Victini. This set is uncommon because one of Victini's biggest niches is revenge killing and being faster than Darmanitan. This set should not be used outside of dedicated Trick Room teams. \n \n Victini @ Life Orb/Expert Belt \n Victory Star \n Hasty/Naive \n 252 Spa / 252 Spd / 4 Atk \n \n Psychic/V-Create/Glaciate \n \n Blue Flare/Searing Shot \n \n U-Turn/V-Create/Glaciate \n Thunder(bolt) \n \n Victini has a good special move pool that can really abuse the accuracy buff from its ability. Blue Flare is simply a better Fire Blast, Psychic gives STAB, and again is good for the Nidos. Thunder gets an accuracy buff to 77% making it more consistent, but it shouldn't be relied upon. Victini does also have TBolt, so that can be used instead. V-Create pervades even a special set, because its a base 180 power STAB move and can put hurt on special walls like Blissey. V-Create can also bluff a physical Life Orb set and lure in physical walls. Glaciate is another option Victini has, an essentially more powerful Icy Wind, that gives it psuedo boltbeam. \n \n Team Support \n \n Victini is like any other grounded Fire type. It hates hazards with a passion and should be paired with a spinner defogger. This is especially true because V-Create's drops can force you to switch often. It also hates edgequake, and likes having a grass and or ground type to switch in for it. Without Grass Knot, something to take on pokemon like Hippowdon, Swampert and Slowbro are nice. Shaymin does this nicely. Arcanine is also a big problem for Victini. The Nidos do a good job of hitting it hard and can get up rocks. \n \n Checks and Counters \n \n Arcanine is probably at the top of the list. Victini can't hit it super effectively, intimidate neuters an already resisted V-Create, and Arcanine has decent mixed bulk with max HP, meaning that even its surprise options like Grass Knot and Psychic dont hit too hard. V-Create can still pack a wallop. V-Create still hits harder than Bolt Strike though. Arcanine can heal around V-Creates, and wear down Victini with Flare Blitz or Extreme Speed, as they have similar power against Victini and the defense drops mean it will be KOd faster. \n > -1 252 Atk Choice Band Victini V-create vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 102-120 (26.5 - 31.2%) -- 11.5% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Bulky Waters seem like the obvious next Choice. They resist the main attack, and pokemon like Slowbro and Suicune can eat them up for days. Both are 2HKOd by Banded Bolt Strike however. Swampert is a decent option as well, being immune to the Bolt Strike. Their Scald's dont OHKO either. Outside of Banded, Expert Belt Grass Knots can really dent these pokemon. \n > 252 Atk Choice Band Victini Bolt Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Suicune: 232-274 (57.4 - 67.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n > 0 SpA Expert Belt Victini Grass Knot (80 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Swampert: 302-360 (74.7 - 89.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n > 252 Atk Choice Band Victini Bolt Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 238-282 (60.4 - 71.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n > 252 Atk Choice Band Victini Bolt Strike vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Milotic: 296-350 (75.1 - 88.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n > 252 Atk Choice Band Victini Bolt Strike vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Blastoise: 304-358 (83.9 - 98.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n After the bulky waters, there are the bulky ground types, like Donphan, Rhyperior and Hippowdon. Neither Donphan, nor Hippo like eating a Grass Knot, and neither can switch into banded V-Create. All scare away Victini with EQ. Rhyperior resists the hit and tanks it well, although it too must be wary of Grass Knot \n > 0 SpA Expert Belt Victini Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 271-322 (64.5 - 76.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n > 252 Atk Choice Band Victini V-create vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 237-279 (56.4 - 66.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n > 0 SpA Expert Belt Victini Grass Knot (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Donphan: 259-307 (67.4 - 79.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n > 252 Atk Choice Band Victini V-create vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Donphan: 234-276 (60.9 - 71.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n > 252 Atk Choice Band Victini V-create vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Rhyperior: 146-172 (33.6 - 39.6%) -- 22.6% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n > 0 SpA Expert Belt Victini Grass Knot (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Solid Rock Rhyperior: 497-587 (114.5 - 135.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n \n Summary \n \n The ability that Victini has to take on the premier physical walls is most of what sets it apart from Darmanitan. Infernape, however, also has Thunder Punch for Water and Ground types, so that makes it a wash. Both struggle with Arcanine. Entei only has a mention because of its HP, priority, and Sacred Fire. Victini sets itself apart from its competitors with its superior bulk, and in Darmanitan's case, speed. Victini has been a UU staple since its inception, as a revenge killer, a wall breaker, and tricky lure for the other team.", "id": "t3_29dg7k", "summary": "Victini is a Star"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Raikou is the legendary dog with the most offensive presence in my opinion. It has the best base speed out of the three, as well as the highest offesive stat with its Special Attack reaching 115. Raikou is a fast powerful electric type Pokemon. Jolteon and Heliolisk fulfil this role also however, arguably do so better. Raikou still has some niche carved out for itself in UU as it sweeps better than either of the above, out speeds Heliolisk and out damages Jolteon. \n \n Raikou @ Leftovers \n Ability: Pressure \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP \n Timid Nature \n \n Substitute \n \n Calm Mind \n \n Thunderbolt \n \n Hidden Power [Ice] \n \n \n This is the set that made Raikou scary last generation, and despite the Hidden Power nerf it can still punish weakened teams. The idea is relatively simple. Set up a Substitute on a predicted status move, or a move that won't break your sub. Set up Calm Minds until you think you can sweep, subbing as necessary. Calm Mind has the added benefit of making your subs harder to break with special hits. Once you feel it is necessary, you can attempt to sweep with Raikou's version of pseudo Bolt Beam. Unfortunately, a single time super effective HP Ice is now less powerful than a neutral STAB Thunderbolt. However, it is difficult to wall even at plus one. Additionally, Raikou gets many chances to set up, as Ground types are often coming in to tank its hits. The EVs are relatively simple, maximising its best stats, Special Attack and Speed. Timid lets it speed tie with other base 115s like Ambipom, while Modest will out pace plus natured base 100s, but get out sped by the ever common Musketeers and Latias. \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Raikou @ Choice Specs/Scarf \n Ability: Pressure \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP \n Rash/Timid Nature \n \n Volt Switch \n \n Aura Sphere/Shadow Ball/Extrasensory \n \n Thunderbolt \n \n Hidden Power [Ice] \n \n \n Raikou can run a choice set, but faces extremely stiff competition from Heliolisk and Jolteon. The main lure of this set is Aura Sphere, but that requires a Rash nature, leaving it out sped by many common threats. Other wise this is very similar to Heliolisk and Jolteon. It has Volt Switch for momentum, Aura Sphere for coverage, although Shadow Ball and Extrasensory are options, Aura Sphere helps to hit bulky Steel types. Thunderbolt is Raikou's main STAB, but can be swapped for an additional coverage move, if Volt Switch is enough. Hidden Power Ice covers the Ground types that switch in, but again with the HP nerf, STAB T-Bolt is more powerful than a single time super effecive HP Ice. HP Ice also covers Grass types that can switch in. \n \n Raikou @ Choice Specs/Scarf/Expert Belt/Leftovers \n Ability: Pressure \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP \n Rash Nature \n \n Aura Sphere/Volt Switch/Substitute \n \n Weather Ball \n \n Thunder \n \n Hidden Power [Grass]/[Ice] \n \n \n Raikou is an effective abuser of rain, using its perfect accuracy STAB Thunder to deal massive damage. Weather Ball is a good surprise option, but is a base 150 power water move after factoring in the rain boost. Aura Sphere is a powerful coverage move hitting Steel types. Volt Switch lets you gain momentum, and substitute blocks status, although Raikou is now immune to paralysis. The Hidden Power choice is relatively simple. With Weather Ball to hit Ground types, HP Ice is less needed and Raikou can run HP Grass for Ground/Waters like Gastrodon and Swampert. It should be noticed this set should never be run outside of a dedicated rain team. \n \n Team Support \n \n Like many late game cleaners, entry hazards are next to essential for it. Entry hazard removal is less of an issue, except for choiced sets, as the switch in and out a lot to avoid Earthquakes. Fortunately, most Flying types can Defog away hazards. As Fliers cover its weakness, Raikou really appreciates the removal of Chansey so a strong fighting type is a useful team mate also. On a rain team outside of UU, Drizzle Toed is an essentially mandatory team mate for the rain abuse set. Otherwise a bulky setter like Bronzong, or a priority user like Volbeat. \n \n Checks and Counters \n \n Chansey. Do I really need to say more? Absolute monster of a special wall can break substitutes with S-Toss and recovers off the damage. Only at +6 will Raikou  2HKO . Like man. Just too bulky for Raikou. \n >+1 252+ SpA Raikou Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 142-168 (20.1 - 23.8%) -- guaranteed 5HKO \n >Chansey Seismic Toss vs. 4 HP Raikou: 100-100 (31 - 31%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery. \n Swampert is another straight  up counter to any set lacking HP Grass. It tanks hits even at +1, and OHKOes with STAB Earthquake. \n >+1 252 SpA Raikou Hidden Power Ice vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Swampert: 98-116 (24.2 - 28.7%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ SpA Raikou Hidden Power Grass vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Swampert: 288-340 (71.2 - 84.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Swampert Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Raikou: 408-480 (126.7 - 149%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n The calculations are similar for gastrodon, but that struggles somewhat to KO with Earth Power. \n >4 SpA Gastrodon Earth Power vs. +1 4 HP / 0 SpD Raikou: 122-146 (37.8 - 45.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n If Raikou has HP Grass on its subCM set, it is completely walled by the plethora of grass types in the tier, such as Celebi, Roserade and Amoonguss. \n \n Summary \n \n Despite looking like falling to RU, Raikou can still be relevant in this UU metagame, especially with the removal of Diggersby. The HP nerf has not quite crippled it, although it is close. Until Chansey is banned it will be difficult to use however, and will need much team support.", "id": "t3_1yep5n", "summary": "American Raikou"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Braviary is a monster in the right hands. It has a good attack stat, a decent-ish speed stat and OK bulk. It also has Defiant. You know, the ability that propelled Bisharp to OU this generation? Yeah that ability. A free plus two every time you come in on a Defog, is absolutely wonderful and can destroy teams outright. It is right now, one of the most underrated Pokemon in the game, IMO. It has the powerful STAB of most normal birds and is one of the only ones to get a fighting type move to deal with the rock and steel types that would otherwise wall it. \n \n Braviary (M) @ Choice Scarf \n Ability: Defiant \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef \n Jolly Nature \n \n Return \n \n Brave Bird \n \n Superpower \n \n U-turn \n \n \n Braviary has just not enough speed to deal with common Defoggers like Zapdos and Latias. With a Choice Scarf, that is completely remedied. Braviary shares its speed with Chandelure. It can out speed anything not Scarfed in the tier, even Mega Aerodactyl. If running Adamant, it misses out on Base 130s, notably Crobat, a common Defogger. Its moves are relatively simple. Return and Brave Bird provide powerful STAB. U-Turn gives momentum and Superpower hits those troublesome Steel and Rock types. Unfortunately Superpower almost guarantees a switch out after it is used. \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Braviary (M) @ Leftovers \n Ability: Defiant \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef \n Jolly/Adamant Nature \n \n Return \n \n Brave Bird \n \n Superpower \n \n Tailwind/Roost \n \n \n As Defiant is a relatively unknown ability on this Pokemon, it can set up Tailwind to double its speed. As such, Adamant can be used, as well as an alternate set of 120HP/252Atk/136Spd with Adamant. That lets you out speed Jolly Crawdaunt before the Tailwind and every unboosted 'mon in the game afterwards. The EVs could be further altered to just out speed common threats like Scarfed base 100s with 204 Speed EVs and Adamant. Roost is an option to keep Braviary alive longer, but it really does need the Speed. The other moves are self explanatory, being STAB and its best coverage option. \n \n Braviary (M) @ Leftovers \n Ability: Defiant \n EVs: HP Spd / 252 SDef / 4 Atk \n Calm Nature \n \n Substitute \n \n Brave Bird \n \n Roost \n Bulk Up/Return \n \n This lets Braviary exploit is good base HP and create 101HP substitutes to hide behind as it sets up its physical bulk. Some Defoggers, like Latias, struggle to do enough damage to Braviary as it comes in on a Defog. After gaining the plus 2, Braviary can Sub up and attempt to sweep. Substitute protects it from Status and gives it a guaranteed hit. Brave Bird is its strongest STAB and the recoil can be healed off with Roost. Return is an option over Bulk Up as even uninvested at plus 2, this thing hurts. This was Braviary's  trademark set from NU last generation, but struggles in UU, especially with all the bulky Steel Types. \n \n Braviary (M) @ Assault Vest \n Ability: Defiant \n EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef \n Careful Nature \n \n Return \n \n Brave Bird \n \n Superpower \n U-turn \n \n Another Braviary set that sacrifices its admitted average speed in exchange for bulk. Base 100 HP is fantastic and coupled with Assault Vest, can let it takes neutral super effective hits relatively easily. The moves remain the same as the Scarf set. This set aims to out bulk the opposing teams defogger, as they're usually special in UU. \n \n Team Support \n \n As you may have gathered, Braviary loves to have Steel and Rock type Pokemon removed from the opponent's team, as they can stop a Scarf Defiant sweep. A rapid spinner is the preferred way to remove the Stealth Rock that do 25% every switch in to Braviary. The Scarf set lack any recovery so a wish passer like Umbreon could be useful especially as it can also tank the T-Bolts and Ice Beams aimed at Braviary. Braviary can act as either a late game cleaner or a mid game Wall Breaker, but that centres around Defog, so Hazards of your own are 100% essential. Spikes and Sticky Web will draw more Defogs that Stealth Rock, as stealth Rock as more easily played around than many Spike layers or an instant -1 to speed. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Provided it comes in on a Defog, Braviary is remarkably difficult to check, however ghost types force it to lock into BB, and steel and Rock types force it into going for Superpower, predicting the Steel and Rock Pokemon. Of particular note, is Doublade \n >+2 252 Atk Braviary Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Eviolite Doublade: 89-105 (27.6 - 32.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n Doublade is a true counter, taking little from even +2 Brave Bird, being immune to the other main attacking options. In return it in fact will 2HKO, or SD and OHKO with Gyro Ball. \n Mega Aggron won't take 2 super powers on average(2 average hits do 99.95%), but it depends on damage rolls. Unfortunately, at that point, your Braviary is back to neutral, with -2 defense and locked into Superpower. The other issue with predicting Mega Aggron is that most Defoggers resist the fighting type coverage move, (Latias, Zapdos, Crobat, Mew). \n >+2 252 Atk Braviary Superpower vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Filter Mega Aggron: 180-213 (52.3 - 61.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >+1 252 Atk Braviary Superpower vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Filter Mega Aggron: 135-160 (39.2 - 46.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n Mega Aggron won't take 2 super powers on average(2 average hits do 99.95%), but it depends on damage rolls. Unfortunately, at that point, your Braviary is back to neutral, with -2 defense and locked into Superpower. The other issue with predicting Mega Aggron is that most Defoggers resist the fighting type coverage move, (Latias, Zapdos, Crobat, Mew). \n Other ghost types need to be physically defensive to take hits from Braviary. +2 Brave Bird has a chance at OHKOing SpDef Cofagrigus. It is a guaranteed OHKO and only forces Braviary into Brave Bird, meaning Pokemon like Zapdos have a chance. \n > +2 252 Atk Braviary Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Cofagrigus: 208-246 (65 - 76.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Offensive Zapdos with Defog struggle to take a BB even though it is resisted, after Rocks damage. It will OHKO in return with T-Bolt, but will take a major hit. Fully physically defensive, it takes it on better but still not particularly well. \n >+2 252 Atk Braviary Brave Bird vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Zapdos: 216-254 (67 - 78.8%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock \n >+2 252 Atk Braviary Return vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Zapdos: 366-432 (113.6 - 134.1%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n >+2 252 Atk Braviary Return vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Zapdos: 256-303 (66.6 - 78.9%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock \n The other common Defoggers in the tier are just about OHKOed by Brave Bird, especially after Stealth Rock. \n >+2 252 Atk Braviary Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Mew: 375-442 (92.8 - 109.4%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO \n >+2 252 Atk Braviary Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Crobat: 453-534 (121.1 - 142.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n >+2 252 Atk Braviary Brave Bird vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Latias: 412-486 (136.4 - 160.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n >+2 252 Atk Braviary Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Latias: 412-486 (113.1 - 133.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n Hippowdon can't take 2 hits from a plus 2 Braviary either. Even if it could, the best it could do would be status, reset Stealth Rock or Whirlwind away the boost. \n >+2 252 Atk Braviary Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 243-286 (57.8 - 68%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Metagross and Jirachi have a typing that leave themselves at worst neutral and resist the dual STAB. Metagross isn't 2HKOed and can do some big damage. Jirachi is usually scarfed itself and can flinch hax Braviary to death after taking one BB/Superpower. Metagross can fire off a Meteor Mash+Bullet Punch combo for a Guaranteed KO either with Brave Bird recoil or the defense drops from Superpower. Jirachi's Iron Head is a 3HKO and requires 2 back to back flinches \n >+2 252 Atk Braviary Brave Bird vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Jirachi: 188-222 (55.1 - 65.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >+2 252 Atk Braviary Brave Bird vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 150-177 (41.2 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >+2 252 Atk Braviary Superpower vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 200-236 (54.9 - 64.8%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >+1 252 Atk Braviary Superpower vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Metagross: 151-178 (41.4 - 48.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Metagross Meteor Mash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Braviary: 211-249 (61.8 - 73%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252+ Atk Metagross Meteor Mash vs. -1 0 HP / 0 Def Braviary: 315-372 (92.3 - 109%) -- 56.3% chance to OHKO \n >252+ Atk Metagross Bullet Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Braviary: 94-112 (27.5 - 32.8%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n >252+ Atk Metagross Bullet Punch vs. -1 0 HP / 0 Def Braviary: 141-166 (41.3 - 48.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n If you lack a proper check, one of the best ways to wear down Braviary is with Stealth Rock, priority, and its own Brave Bird recoil. Unfortunately, this often means that you must sacrifice a Pokemon or two. With Weavile, Diggersby and Mega Cham being banned, priority is a bit rarer, and even then, it can be taken. \n >252+ Atk Arcanine Extreme Speed vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Braviary: 108-128 (31.6 - 37.5%) \n >252 Atk Mega Absol Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Braviary: 186-219 (54.5 - 64.2%) \n >252+ Atk Life Orb Adaptability Crawdaunt Aqua Jet vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Braviary: 151-179 (44.2 - 52.4%) \n >252+ Atk Zygarde Extreme Speed vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Braviary: 102-120 (29.9 - 35.1%) \n >252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Extreme Speed vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Braviary: 167-197 (48.9 - 57.7%)\n>252 Atk Life Orb Technician Ambipom Fake Out vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Braviary: 136-161 (39.8 - 47.2%) \n >252+ Atk Life Orb Honchkrow Sucker Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Braviary: 231-273 (67.7 - 80%) \n 252+ Atk Machamp Bullet Punch vs. -1 0 HP / 0 Def Braviary: 91-108 (26.6 - 31.6%) \n All of those Pokemon are OHKOed except for Zygarde which still has a chance to OHKO. Arcanine boosts Braviary even further. \n \n Summary \n \n If Braviary can come in on a Defog, it can almost guaranteed take out one Pokemon. It isn't as universally useful as its counter part, Bisharp, due to worse typing both offensively and defensively, and a lack of priority and as such, over reliance on a scarf. Without the Defiant Boost Braviary can still be an effective move, especially as it has 2 immunities, and a powerful STAB to threaten the defensive Grass types in the tier. With out Defog on the other team Braviary is less useful. However, as the team aims to set up hazards to entice a Defog, it can still benefit, as sticky web helps it get past most of those Scarfers so they can be hit by either a STAB move or a Super Effective Superpower. Braviary is mostly a one trick pony, but that trick can be very effective.", "id": "t3_1yfh74", "summary": "Defiant about rising tiers"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Venomoth and Vivillon are very similar Pokemon. They induce sleep, set up quiver dances and hit hard with their STAB moves. The main differences are ability and baton pass. These change their roles slightly, making Venomoth a slightly better supporter. \n \n VenomPasser \n \n Venomoth @Focus Sash/Black Sludge/Life Orb \n Ability: Tinted Lens \n Timid \n 252 SPA / 252 SPD / 4 SDEF \n Sleep Powder \n Quiver Dance \n Bug Buzz \n Baton Pass/Sludge Bomb/Psychic \n This is Venomoth's bread and butter set. Inflicts sleep, sets up(not necessarily in that order), hits stuff hard with Tinted Lens, and baton passes its boosts. Bug Buzz + Psychic actually nets perfect neutral coverage with Tinted Lens. Sludge Bomb provides secondary STAB, but misses coverage on the Aegislash line, Heatran, Klefki, and Skarmory, so not too much of a trade off. However the main allure of Venomoth over Vivillon is its ability to baton pass quiver dances, something dangerous enough to get it banned from RU last generation. Venoshock is an option with Toxic Spikes support. \n \n Vivillain \n \n Vivillon @ Focus Sash/Life Orb \n Ability: Compound Eyes \n Timid \n 252 SPA / 252 SPD / 4 SDEF \n Sleep Powder \n Quiver Dance \n Bug Buzz \n Hurricane \n Vivillon is the new bug flying pokemon that you get at the beginning of the game, and it doesn't really disappoint. It has a 97.5% chance of putting the opponent to sleep, has solid STAB options, resisted  by only thirty one pokemon seen in the meta. And these STABs hit hard.  91% accurate Hurricane, will rock like, well a hurricane. \n \n COMPARISON \n \n Compound Eyes is the only reason to really run Vivillon over Venomoth. They perform the same role, but Venomoth has an extra base point in speed but slightly lower HP. Both pokemon end up in serious danger of being OHKOed before even doing anything, hence their sashes. A useful strategy is to set up and then sleep powder when you out speed. Additionally, if they switch to sleep fodder, it is an extra turn of set up with your sash still intact. Baton Pass makes Venomoth that bit easier to slot onto teams, as any number of pokemon appreciate the boosts. Almost any special attacker enjoys what is essentially a special Dragon Dance. Even non-special attackers can utilise these boosts, with an increase to special defense and speed. Any stat boost is useful. Both are useful pokemon but Venomoth is more reliable. Of note with both is that Bug Buzz will now go through substitutes. \n \n Team Support \n \n Neither Venomoth nor Vivillon like stealth rocks, taking twenty five percent from Venomoth and fifty from Vivillon. This really hurts their survivability, not to mention breaks their sashes. Thus rapid spin or defog is generally appreciated. As already mentioned, Venomoth greatly improves its sweeping ability, if it is running Venoshock with toxic spikes in support. Toxic Spikes miht seem counter intuitive with Sleep Powder, however, most teams carry a steel and will likely switch it in on Venomoth. A good candidate is Nidoqueen, who can tank rock and fire moves aimed at Venomoth. Nidoqueen can also set up stealth rocks and with out toxic spikes is a fantastic recipient of  quiver dance boost. Vivillon likes to have team mates that can absorb rock, ice, electric, and fire hits. Lanturn has the bulk and ability to take all of those types, and  has good synergy, as Vivillon takes nothing from grass or ground moves. Similarly, Swampert and Gastrodon make excellent partners. \n \n Checks And Counters \n \n Not a lot can check Venomoth thanks to its fantastic coverage, as they usually will get put to sleep on the switch in. In these cases, teams would require sleep fodder, to beat Venomoth. That said, bulky fire and steel types love to counter these pokemon, resisting the bug stab, with an immunity to poison stab, and resisting the Hurricane. Fire types can inflict heavy damage with their stab, while steel types frequently carry rock type moves(Vivillon) or ground type moves(Venomoth). Thus the obvious number one counter to both of these is Heatran. Heatran doesn't care about Tinted Lens and has the special bulk to absorb even boosted hits. Second in line is Aegislash, who takes a pittance in shield forme, and can set up all over both of these bugs. However as these moths look to be lower tiered pokemon, they shouldnt worry too much about these(but watch out for eviolite Doublade). Bulky ghost types are also useful, as even with Tinted Lens, Venomoth struggles to muscle through them. Similarly, Chansey is a fantastic switch in, just because of sheer special bulk. Snorlax is another great switch in as it doesn't even mind the sleep \n \n >+1 252 SpA Tinted Lens Venomoth Bug Buzz vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Jellicent: 120-142 (29.7 - 35.1%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >+1 252 SpA Venomoth Bug Buzz vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Gourgeist-Super: 217-256 (58 - 68.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >+1 252 SpA Tinted Lens Venomoth Bug Buzz vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Cofagrigus: 120-142 (37.5 - 44.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >+1 252 SpA Tinted Lens Venomoth Bug Buzz vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Doublade: 100-118 (31 - 36.6%) -- 66% chance to 3HKO \n >+1 252 SpA Venomoth Bug Buzz vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 109-130 (15.4 - 18.4%) -- possible 6HKO \n >+1 252 SpA Venomoth Bug Buzz vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Snorlax: 157-186 (29.9 - 35.4%) -- guaranteed 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n \n Both are remarkably easy to revenge kill, as they usually can only get up one boost. Physical choice scarfers will almost always OHKO, thanks to common rock/fire type coverage. As mentioned above, Snorlax can take a couple of hits and 2HKO with stab body slam or phaze with whirlwind, all while asleep. This is where Venomoth gains its advantage. Put in a situation where it can't OHKO the opponent's pokemon, it can simiply pass the boosts to another pokemon. \n \n Summary \n \n In reality, neither of these bugs are going to sweep through very well constructed teams, but they are fantastically fun to use and incredibly annoying to face. Both can sweep unprepared teams, especially after fire pokemon are removed. Overall, they are fun pokemon, with some really cool designs.", "id": "t3_1vqnbc", "summary": "meh base stats, fun strategy"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Ambipom has always been a potent threat in the lower tiers. With Technician, it functions similar to Scizor in OU, with worse typing, but better speed. It has equivalent offenses to Starmie, but with the Technician boost it becomes all the more scary. Boosted Fake Outs and fast scouting with U-turn lets it functions very well in RU. \n Ambipom @ Life Orb/Silk Scarf \n Ability: Technician \n Jolly Nature \n 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef \n \n Fake Out \n \n Double Hit \n \n Knock Off/Seed Bomb/Gunk Shot/Power-up Punch/Payback \n U-turn \n \n Ambipom is a prototypical “scout”. It hits relatively hard, can stall turns, get out of there before it has to take a hit. Unlike other glass cannons, it is not designed to sweep, but rather wear down the opponent with repeated hits. Fake Out is important in the early game for scouting for items, and how your opponent plays, and importantly it is boosted by Technician. Each time Ambipom comes in it can get off a free base 90 attack. Double Hit out damages Return(35   1.5   2 = 105>102(Return)) , if only barely, but it also breaks substitutes. U-turn is for all important scouting and getting outta dodge. The final coverage move is a tutor move from BW2. Knock Off is its all important coverage on Ghosts, Seed Bomb hits those pesky bulky waters, Gunk Shot for fairies. Power-up Punch is an interesting option, as it can boost Ambipom's attack, gets a technician boost, and gives it a way around Rock/Steel types. Payback is another interesting option. It gets a Technician boost if you go first and is base 100 if you don't(and live). \n \n Ambipom @ Life Orb/Silk Scarf \n Ability: Technician \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 HP \n Jolly Nature \n \n Fake Out \n \n Last Resort \n \n \n That's not a typo, this set literally has two moves. Fake Out plus Last Resort when combined with Ambipom's fantastic speed can obliterate Pokemon that don't resist. Technician boosted Fake Out is a staple on Ambipom. Use it. Last Resort can only be used once every other move on the set has been, so Fake Out and Last Resort would go together simply. Fake Out a Pokemon then smash them with a STAB base 140 power move. While gimmicky, it can be effective, as it lets Ambipom  power its way through RU. After a single Fake Out, Last Resort can be used as much as you want. \n \n Sets like Choice Band, or Skill Link with Fury Swipes may be enticing. Don't use these. Leave them to Cinccino, who out damages, but lacks the Fake Out. Assault Vest may an intriguing prospect, but Ambipom will not like taking hits, even wit the vest, and sorely misses the increased damage. \n \n Team Support \n \n Ambipom is a glass cannon that hates status, a status absorber or remover is a helpful team mate. Despite not being designed to sweep, once Rock, Steel and Ghost Type Pokemon are removed from the opponent's team, it can have huge windows to wall breaker, or just clean up. As such, a Water type is a good partner as it can tank Steel hits and destroy Rock types. To deal with ghost types, a ghost of your own or a PorygonZ could work. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n For some crazy reason, Cofagrigus and Sabeleye have dropped all the way to RU, where they will likely dominate with their bulk and abilities. Prankster Will-o-Wisp ruins Ambipom's day, while Cofagrigus couldn't care less about its Knock Off/Payback and can burn it too. Being immune to the main attacking options really hurts Ambipom. \n Cobalion is another good counter as Knock Off gives it a boost, and it resists the STAB combined with huge Defense. Close Combat is a solid OHKO. Every. Single. Time. \n Gligar and Rhyperior wall Ambipom all day, again resisting the STAB. Rhyperior can OHKO, while Gligar can wall it all day and has Roost to recover off the damage. It dislikes having its Eviolite removed though. \n \n Youtube Video \n \n Summary \n \n Ambipom is a scary monkey, and has just enough power to run through unprepared teams. It faces hard competition from Cincinno, who hits harder with its STAB and has a way around Rock Types. Cincinno can also utilise other items better, such as a Choice Band or even King's Rock. Ambipom is an interesting Pokemon and should be a good competitor in RU.", "id": "t3_22ly3x", "summary": "Ambi Matter"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "So I've been playing lower tiers a lot recently. Lots of NU and PU. And Torterra is one of my favourites, it was, my gen 4 starter. And down here in these tiers he is a monster. He hits hard and has impressive versatility. Despite average typing, he has a good move pool, and solid bulk. Torterra can be a kind of jack of all trades, master of none kind of pokemon. \n \n The Stats \n \n HP - 95 \n Atk - 109 \n Def - 105 \n Spa - 75 \n SDef - 85 \n Spd - 56 \n Torterra has stats in most of the places that he needs to be a powerful choice in PU. A very solid attack stat and good bulk with 95/105/85 defenses, bulky attacker fit himmlike a glove. But with his movepool he has a lot of options. \n \n Torterra @ Choice Band/Assault Vest \n Overgrow/Shell Armour \n 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def \n Adamant \n \n Wood Hammer \n Earthquake \n Stone Edge \n Superpower \n \n Torterra is a super powerful wall breaker in PU. Choice Banded Wood hammers can obliterate almost anything switching in. If the switch in doesnt resist, it can probably expect to take well over 50%. As usual with my sets, extra speed can be run to surprise pokemon. Earthquake and Stone Edge obviously synergise very well together, with EQ being good STAB, and Stone Edge hitting Flying types very hard. Superpower is kind of unused and filler, but can be good middle ground if it is needed. Assault Vest vs Choice Band is bulk vs power. Assault Vest helps Torterra come in against electric types, fearing the HP Ice less, while Choice Band is raw power. Choose your ability depending on item. Overgrow for Banded, and Shell Armour for AV \n \n Torterra @ Leftovers/Chesto Berry \n Shell Armour \n 252 HP / 252 SDef / 4 Atk \n Careful \n \n Seed Bomb/Rest/Sleep Talk \n Earthquake \n Curse \n Stone Edge/Rest/Sleep Talk \n \n A bulky set up sweeper, utilising all of its best stats. Curse, Special Defense investment, and Shell Armour synergise really well, stopping opponents critting through your boosts, and maxing out bulk overall after a single turn of set up. You can either go fully offensive, or a more sustaining set with Rest Talk and EQ. Seed Bomb is probably more useful than Wood Hammer on this set, so you dont compromise bulk with recoil. Rest can be used alone with a Chesto Berry, to have ok coverage alongside Curse. In that case, EdgeQuake is probably the best coverage. \n \n Torterra @ Life Orb/Lum Berry \n Overgrow \n 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Adamant/Jolly \n \n Wood Hammer \n Earthquake \n Stone Edge \n Rock Polish \n \n Torterra can hit pretty hard naturally, so a Rock Polish set is very usable. Torterra hits a high enough speed Adamant, that Jolly is mostly unnecessary, though I think it lets Torterra out run base 80 scarfers. Wood Hammer and EQ are obligatory STABs thats are resisted by Flying types, which get nailed by Stone Edge. Torterra can get worn down very quickly between Life Orb and Wood Hammer, but the damage out put is very helpful. Overgrow Wood Hammers leave very little left to wall Torterra. Very decent late game cleaner. \n \n Torterra @ Leftovers \n Overgrow \n 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def \n Adamant \n \n Stone Edge \n Earthquake \n Substitute \n Leech Seed \n \n Torterra can be an effective SubSeeder, using its natural bulk to get up substitutes and Leech Seeds helping its team with passive damage and recovery. EdgeQuake is probably the best neutral coverage available. \n \n Torterra @ Life Orb/Leftovers \n Overgrow \n 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 Def \n Adamant \n \n Wood Hammer/Seed Bomb \n Earthquake \n Stealth Rock \n Stone Edge/Synthesis/Roar \n \n Torterra can also be a Stealth Rocker, and it does this ok. He's not the most durable of setters, but with Synthesis he can last enough to have multiple chances to set the rocks. He can also phase with Roar \n \n Team Mates \n \n Torterra 100% needs something to take Ice and Fire moves. In particular, Sneasel is a huge issue. Poliwrath is a very good team mate in this regard. This is 2/3 of a FWG core, that should synergise well. Electric types with HP Ice are a big problem, because Torterra can freely come in on their electric moves, and threaten with STAB EQ. Camerupt is a good choice for the fire part of FWG. Flying types like Dodrio and Murkrow are issues as well, but can be dealt with with an electric type of your own. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Grass ground is decidedly middling typing, resisting both halves of EdgeQuake, but with a crippling weakness to Ice, Fire and Flying, as well as a bunch of neutralities, that would be resisitances as a monotype, like Poison, Water and Grass. \n Ice types like Avalugg and Articuno can check most of Torterra's sets, fearing only Stone Edge really. Both then threaten with STAB quad effective Ice moves. \n > 252+ Atk Choice Band Torterra Wood Hammer vs. 248 HP / 252+ Def Avalugg: 132-156 (33.5 - 39.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery \n > 252+ Atk Choice Band Torterra Wood Hammer vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Articuno: 142-168 (44.2 - 52.3%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock \n > 8 Atk Avalugg Avalanche vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Torterra: 576-676 (146.1 - 171.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n > 252 SpA Articuno Freeze Dry vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Torterra: 424-504 (107.6 - 127.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n Sneasel needs a free switch, but can mostly force Torterra out with its Ice Punch and or Ice Shard. Mostly, recoil will immeadiately get Torterra in range for Ice Shard if you lack Ice Punch \n > 252 Atk Life Orb Sneasel Ice Shard vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Torterra: 265-317 (67.2 - 80.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Faster water types can revenge kill similarly with the Ice Beams, but they really need a free switch. \n > 252 SpA Simipour Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Torterra: 372-440 (94.4 - 111.6%) --  Guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock \n > 252 SpA Politoed Ice Beam vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Torterra: 352-416 (89.3 - 105.5%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO \n Sawsbuck resists Dual STAB, and thanks to Sap Sipper can absorb Torterra's best option most of the time. In order to really hurt Torterra back though, it needs the attack boost. \n > 252+ Atk Choice Band Torterra Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Sawsbuck: 158-186 (52.4 - 61.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Togetic is really one of the absolute best switchins, but it still fears the Stone Edge. But otherwise, it walls Torterra rather effectively, but must be wary of Roosting \n 252+ Atk Choice Band Torterra Wood Hammer vs. 248 HP / 160 Def Eviolite Togetic: 91-108 (29 - 34.5%) -- 4.5% chance to 3HKO \n \n Summary \n \n Torterra hits very hard in PU and can be a fantastic wall breaker, or late game cleaner, or even support the team. It has reliable bulk and good attack, with high base power moves. What stops Torterra breaking out is its crippling speed, and weaknesses to common attacking types. Its a very safe option as a grass type and a bulky attacker for your team.", "id": "t3_2gxmz9", "summary": "Torterrafying"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Exploud is a monster. Literally. It got a new STAB move this generation in Boomburst, a base 140 power move with no drawbacks. Perfect accuracy. No stat drops. Just power. It hits through subs, and thanks to Scrappy, hits even ghosts. Like seriously. Exploud has moved into UU proper with its usage so far, and looks to be trending upwards even further. \n \n Exploud @ Choice Specs \n Ability: Scrappy \n EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 Spd \n Modest Nature \n \n Boomburst \n \n Fire Blast/Focus Blast \n \n Sleep Talk/Ice Beam \n \n Surf \n \n \n Exploud's best set is relatively basic. Its a standard bulky Specs set. Maximises bulk and power. Specs STAB Boomburst hurts anything that doesn't resist it AND has good SpDef or is named Chansey. Honestly the coverage moves are very situational. In general, Exploud should just spam Boombursts. Its that good. Fire Blast or Focus Blast hits the steel types that resist. Surf hits rock types. Sleep Talk lets Exploud come in to take Spores and still fire off its powerful special attacks. \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Exploud @ Choice Scarf \n Ability: Scrappy \n EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Speed / 4 HP \n Timid/Modest Nature \n \n Boomburst \n \n Fire Blast/Focus Blast \n \n Sleep Talk/Ice Beam \n \n Surf \n \n \n Exploud has a speed stat of 387 when Timid Scarfed. It doesn't quite out pace base 130, but gets past base 125s, including threats like Noivern, Weavile and Azelf. The moves are again self explanatory. Boomburst is your STAB and main move. Fire Blast and Surf hit the Pokemon that resist. Sleep Talk makes Exploud a reliable sleep fodder. Again it's a basic set. Scarfed Revenge killer. \n \n Exploud @ Leftovers \n Ability: Scrappy \n EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP/ 4 Spd \n Modest Nature \n \n Boomburst \n \n Fire Blast/Focus Blast \n \n Substitute \n \n Surf \n \n \n Exploud's only form of set up is substitute, but it can really punch holes from behind one. It finds ample opportunity to set them up, as the threat of Boomburst forces a lot of switches. The moves are still the same. \n \n Exploud could possibly run an AV set or a LO set. However these are the same spread as the Specs set. In all honesty though, Specs is Exploud's best set by far. It just hits too hard to pass up. \n \n Team Support \n \n Exploud has well below average speed. To maximise its sweeping potential, Sticky Web support is useful, especially as it cannot set up itself. To pair with this support and to stop Defog, a spin blocker, and a Defiant or Competitive Pokemon is useful. If something like Braviary can come in to get the Defiant boost from defog it can weaken the opponent;s team to the point where Web isn't required for Exploud to sweep. The Spin Blocker can also absorb the fighting type moves aimed at Exploud. As there are these measures to keep hazards on the field, other hazards, like spikes and rocks can be used. These really help out Exploud turning 2HKOs into OHKOs. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Chansey is the number one stop to Exploud. It can status Exploud and wear it down with S-Toss. It can heal off the damage that Exploud can do. \n >252+ SpA Choice Specs Exploud Boomburst vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 189-223 (26.8 - 31.6%) -- guaranteed 4HK O \n >252+ SpA Choice Specs Exploud Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Chansey: 216-256 (30.6 - 36.3%) -- 58.3% chance to 3HKO \n Shuckle is another Pokemon that can tank the Boomburst, and status Exploud. It can't do much besides tank the hits though. \n >252 SpA Choice Specs Exploud Boomburst vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Shuckle: 51-61 (20.9 - 25%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Choice Specs Exploud Surf vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Shuckle: 90-106 (36.8 - 43.4%) -- 99.2% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Umbreon can't take 2 Boombursts, and struggles heavily to answer back. It can stall out Boombursts with Wish/Protect. If that doesn't tell you the power of this thing, not much will. It 2HKOs specially defensive Umbreon. \n >252+ SpA Choice Specs Exploud Focus Blast vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Umbreon: 204-240 (51.7 - 60.9%) -- 94.1% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n \n Many Pokemon are able to out speed and revenge kill Exploud. Without Chansey or Shuckle on their team, Exploud may get a KO every time it come in. Even ghost types like Jellicent aren't safe to come in. \n \n Summary \n \n Exploud sees the other Pokemon that have been buffed and raises them a base 140 STAB move. Seriously, if you use Exploud and don't have Boomburst, it isn't being used to full potential. It has become one of the most potent bulky attackers in the tier. It has just enough HP to survive hits and hit back. Underestimate at your own risk.", "id": "t3_1xuu48", "summary": "Explouding all over the place"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Machamp has been a staple fighting type of the higher tiers since Gen I. Its had various buffs over the course of the series, first gaining Guts, then No Guard and usefulness of elemental punches. Now with the Knock Off buff, Machamp has gotten even better. With massive attack, and solid defenses, its low speed is a limited issue. \n \n Machamp @ Leftovers \n Ability: No Guard \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n Adamant Nature \n \n Dynamic Punch \n \n Knock Off/Payback \n \n Bullet Punch \n \n Stone Edge/Ice Punch \n \n \n Machamp's basic annoyer set. And it executes it perfectly. Thanks to No Guard, Machamp can spam Dynamic Punches and confuse any opponent that comes in. Knock Off is a great option that provides good team utility, and is an option against ghosts and psychic types trying to switch in. if the team already has a Knock Offer, Payback can be used, as a generally more reliable dark option, given Machamp's speed. Bullet Punch is the priority option Machamp has, and gives an option against fairies. Perfect accuracy Stone Edge is what heaven is made of. A base 100 rock type move rounds out Machamp's coverage, giving an option against fliers. \n \n Machamp @ Assault Vest \n Ability: Guts \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n Adamant Nature \n \n Close Combat \n \n Knock Off \n \n Bullet Punch \n \n Ice Punch/Stone Edge \n \n \n I don't go looking for Pokemon that can abuse AVest but they just fit my play style. In general Pokemon that can utilise the AVest are bulky attackers and have a way of finding their way onto many teams. Machamp's AV set is based somewhat off of the Conkeldurr Assault Vest set in OU. It uses many of the same things. Guts. High attack. Fighting type STAB. Knock Off. Priority. And a coverage move. Somewhat oddly, Machamp does not learn Drain Punch limiting its longevity, instead being forced to rely on Close Combat, which give drops to defenses. This forces Machamp out much more frequently than Conk. Guts is somewhat important on this set, allowing it to sponge status. \n \n Machamp @ Leftovers \n Ability: No Guard \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n Adamant Nature \n \n Dynamic Punch \n \n Knock Off/Payback \n \n Bulk Up/Substitute \n \n Stone Edge/Ice Punch \n \n \n Machamp's set up set. Getting up a substitute can let Machamp just punch holes in teams, literally. Substitute blocks status, and provides a buffer for super effective hits. The coverage options are the same as the above sets, and give it fantastic coverage. I reiterate, Stone Edge that never misses is wonderful, and makes it a reliable option against flier and bugs. \n \n Machamp @ Toxic/Flame Orb \n Ability: Guts \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n Adamant Nature \n \n Close Combat \n \n Knock Off/Payback \n \n Bullet Punch \n \n Facade \n \n \n Machamp also has the option of a Guts exploitation set. Close Combat provides solid STAB as Dynamic Punch is no longer 100% accurate. Facade is used over its coverage against fliers, as at base 140 off of Machamp's Guts boosted attack stat it can hit almost anything hard that doesn't resist it. \n Machamp @ Choice Band \n Ability: No Guard \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n Adamant Nature \n \n Dynamic Punch \n \n Knock Off/Payback \n \n Bullet Punch \n \n Stone Edge/Ice Punch \n \n \n Again using the same coverage, Machamp can max out its power using a Choice Band. \n \n Team Support \n \n Machamp struggles against bulky Poison types like Weezing so a team mate with powerful Psychic type coverage like Gardevior is helpful. It can also have trouble with bulky fliers like Gligar if it lacks Ice Punch. Machamp also can be run under Trick Room, and should use Brave. As Machamp attracts Psychic types, a powerful Dark type team mate is useful for free switch ins. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Gligar is a decent check to any Machamp lacking Ice Punch. Despite, Machamp's ability to Knock Off Gligar's Eviolite, it can tanks hits from Machamp all day. \n >252+ Atk Machamp Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 56-67 (16.7 - 20%) -- possible 5HKO \n >252+ Atk Machamp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Eviolite Gligar: 55-65 (16.4 - 19.4%) -- possible 6HKO \n >252+ Atk Machamp Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Gligar: 84-99 (25.1 - 29.6%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n >4 Atk Gligar Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Machamp: 103-123 (26.8 - 32%) -- 35.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Chesnaught is another Physical Wall that can deal with 'Champ. It doesn't like the confusion however and that can let Machamp beat it one on one. \n >252+ Atk Machamp Dynamic Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 112-133 (29.4 - 35%) -- 100% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Chesnaught Hammer Arm vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Machamp: 138-163 (35.9 - 42.4%) -- 92.2% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Amoonguss is another Pokemon that can check Machamp if it doesn't carry Ice Punch. It resists the main attack, but Stone Edge is a reliable alternative. \n >252+ Atk Machamp Dynamic Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Amoonguss: 120-142 (27.7 - 32.8%) -- 81.3% chance to 4HKO after Black Sludge recovery \n >252+ Atk Machamp Stone Edge vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Amoonguss: 161-190 (37.2 - 43.9%) -- 99.9% chance to 3HKO after Black Sludge recovery \n >4 SpA Amoonguss Sludge Bomb vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Machamp: 97-115 (25.2 - 29.9%) -- 0.1% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n Slowbro can tank Dynamic Punches all day, but its weakness to Machamp's common Dark type coverage move limits it ability to stay in. Dynamic Punch + Knock Off deals about 70% and the next Knock Off will KO with some confusion damage. Slowbro does however have super effective Psychic type STAB, and the chance of a Scald  burn, neutering sets without Guts. \n >252+ Atk Machamp Dynamic Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 60-72 (15.2 - 18.2%) -- possible 6HKO \n >252+ Atk Machamp Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 158-186 (40.1 - 47.2%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252+ Atk Machamp Knock Off vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Slowbro: 106-126 (26.9 - 31.9%) -- guaranteed 4HKO \n >4 SpA Slowbro Psychic vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Machamp: 222-264 (57.8 - 68.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n > \n Not many Pokemon can switch into a Machamp hit, and stay in for the follow up hit. The risk of confusion is another factor in Machamp's favour. Nothing is more infuriating than having a move that would OHKO, and being KOed because of confusion \n \n Summary \n \n Machamp's four arms, and first gen nostalgia hasn't kept it popular this generation, despite being a fantastic bulky attacker and pest to the other team. The Knock Off buff has helped Machamp maintain its relevance. Machamp is very good at what it does, tank non super effective hits, confuse the opponent, forcing switches, and hitting very hard with its base 130 attack. Think of it like a UU Conkeldurr. Very versatile and can fit on most teams. It provides a good fighting type for teams and can destroy with Dynamic Punch.", "id": "t3_1xw16m", "summary": "Machamp is a contender for Teams"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Tyrantrum has everything it needs to be a fantastic Pokemon in UU. High attack and defense, solid HP and speed, Dragon Dance, Stealth Rock, and a good ability(ies). Unfortunately, Rock Head hasn't been released, meaning it cannot yet spam STAB, recoil-less Head Smashes. Strong Jaw is a decent ability though, and can power up some of its weaker coverage moves. Sadly, neither of its STABs benefit from this ability. \n \n Tyrantrum @ Life Orb \n Ability: Strong Jaw \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Jolly/Adamant Nature \n \n Dragon Dance \n \n Dragon Claw/Ice Fang \n \n Stone Edge \n \n Crunch/Earthquake \n \n \n Tyrantrum's set up sweeper set. At +1 Jolly, Tyrantrum hits a speed stat that gets it past base 130s, like Crobat. Adamant on the other hand lets it's attack stat reach insane levels at plus one being over 550. Dragon Claw provides a reliable STAB move that doesn't lock you in or miss. Stone Edge is Tyrantrum's most powerful STAB move on the set, but 80% is shaky accuracy. Crunch is the strongest move that Tyrantrum has that is boosted by Strong Jaw. Earthquake is an option to complete an EdgeQuake combo, and provides slightly better neutral and super effective coverage. However, Strong Jaw Crunch is more powerful that Earthquake. Life Orb is the best item as it boosts every attack, and Tyrantrum shouldn't be taking many hits anyway. \n Tyrantrum has a huge defense stat and has many opportunities to set up, especially on resisted physical hits. Tyrantrum's Dragon STAB will often bring in opposing fairies, fairies that don't like eating a +1 Stone Edge. Wide coverage helps Tyrantrum not be walled as it attempts a sweep, something it can do at +1 or +2. +2 is essentially good game, and is relatively easy to get, if you set up against a wall. [See what Tyrantrum can do at +2]( \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Tyrantrum @ Focus Sash \n Ability: Strong Jaw \n EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef \n Adamant Nature \n \n Stealth Rock \n \n Dragon Claw/Ice Fang \n \n Crunch \n \n Stone Edge \n \n \n This Tyrantrum aims at being somewhat of a suicide lead set. Focus Sash guarantees the SR set up, and Tyrantrum can then proceed to wail on the opponent's team with its powerful attacks. In UU only one Pokemon resists these coverage moves, Cobalion, a pokemon that is rarely seen any more. \n \n Tyrantrum @ Assault Vest \n Ability: Strong Jaw \n EVs: 148 Atk / 252 HP / 108 SDef \n Adamant Nature \n \n Earthquake/Fire Fang/Thunder Fang \n \n Dragon Claw/Ice Fang \n \n Crunch \n \n Stone Edge \n \n \n With Tyrantrum's fantastic natural physical bulk, Assault Vest seems an obvious option for it to supplement its weaker Spec D. This spread, makes the defense different by only one point after the assault vest. Max HP adds to bulk on both sides. The attack stat is similar to that of neutral natured Tyrantrum. The final coverage move of the set can be a few things. It can be Fire or Thunder Fang to take advantage of Strong Jaw. However Earthquake is still stronger even after the boost. Fire Fang is an option to deal with the rampant bulky Grass types in the tier, while Thunder Fang hits bulky Waters that like to Scald or Ice Beam Tyrantrum. \n \n Tyrantrum @ Life Orb \n Ability: Strong Jaw \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Adamant Nature \n \n Rock Polish \n \n Dragon Claw/Ice Fang \n \n Stone Edge \n \n Crunch/Earthquake \n \n \n Tyrantrum can easily clean up late game using a Rock Polish set. As this does not boost its attack, an adamant nature is almost required. It no longer nabs the OHKO on Florges after one turn of set up, but will 2HKO as it comes in. these moves are the same coverage and are simply Tyrantrum's best options. \n \n Tyrantrum @ Choice Scarf/Band \n Ability: Strong Jaw \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Jolly/Adamant Nature \n \n Earthquake/Fire Fang/Thunder Fang \n \n Dragon Claw/Ice Fang \n \n Stone Edge \n \n Crunch \n \n \n Tyrantrum can utilise a choice set to either max out its power with a band or overcome its sub par speed with a choice scarf. Jolly Scarf Tyrantrum goes first against up to base 130 Pokemon including Noivern, Weavile and Crobat. Adamant cant quite boast the same but has a much better attack stat. The coverage is the same as the Assault Vest set. \n \n Team Support \n \n Tyrantrum has a slew of weaknesses and resistances. Rock, while great offensively, severely cuts down on Tyrantrum's ability to take hits, making it neutral to Grass and Water while also making Fighting, Steel, and Ground moves super effective, in addition to Fairy, Dragon and Ice already doing massive damage. One of the main benefits of the Rock typing is the quad resist to Fire moves, letting it set up easily on Pokemon like Choiced Victini. As Tyrantrum can tank Fire moves, Escavalier and other fire weak Pokemon can make good team mates. Excavalier is mentioned in particular as it can take all the Ice, Fairy and Dragon hits. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Mega Aggron is the number one physical wall in UU for a reason. Less damage from even super effective hits and massive base 230 defense puts it solidly in the number one spot as counters to Tyrantrum. Its best move to hit Mega Aggron is Earthquake, that does max 50% at plus one. Fortunately, Tyrantrum is heavy enough that Mega Aggron's Heavy Slam is only base 40 power. Still, Mega Aggron walls Tyrantrum, and can even boost along side it successfully. \n >+1 252 Atk Life Orb Tyrantrum Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Filter Mega Aggron: 144-172 (41.8 - 50%) -- 0.4% chance to 2HKO \n >+1 252 Atk Life Orb Strong Jaw Tyrantrum Crunch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Aggron: 116-136 (33.7 - 39.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Mega Aggron Heavy Slam (40 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tyrantrum: 134-158 (43.7 - 51.6%) -- 7.8% chance to 2HKO \n >252+ Atk Mega Aggron Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tyrantrum: 218-258 (71.2 - 84.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Chesnaught can take on Tyrantrum very nicely. Dragon Claw is Tyrantrum's best commonly carried move to hit it, which makes contact and can hurt Tyrantrum with Spiky Shield. Leech Seed and Spiky Shield damage can rack up quickly, especially with life orb damage. Tyrantrum needs to get to plus six to guarantee an OHKO. Fire Fang is a good option against it, but is not really seen. \n >252 Atk Life Orb Tyrantrum Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 101-121 (26.5 - 31.8%) -- 28.9% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 Atk Life Orb Strong Jaw Tyrantrum Fire Fang vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 164-195 (43.1 - 51.3%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Chesnaught Hammer Arm vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tyrantrum: 198-234 (64.7 - 76.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >4 Atk Chesnaught Wood Hammer vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tyrantrum: 118-141 (38.5 - 46%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n Quagsire is a great counter to Tyrantrum, with Unaware ignoring any DD boosts. Quag's STAB EQ is a 2HKO. Quag can also instantly recover HP, and is guaranteed to win one on one. If Quagsire doesn't have EQ, Scald is a neutral hit and can Burn Tyrantrum, completely crippling it. \n >252 Atk Life Orb Tyrantrum Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Quagsire: 130-153 (32.9 - 38.8%) -- 8% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Quagsire Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tyrantrum: 164-194 (53.5 - 63.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Hippowdon is another premier wall of UU and tank Tyrantrum's hits all day, using Slack Off to recover lost HP, can phaze away Tyrantrum's boosts, and/or deal massive damage with its STAB Earthquake. \n >+1 252 Atk Life Orb Tyrantrum Dragon Claw vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Hippowdon: 156-185 (37.1 - 44%) -- 99.8% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Hippowdon Earthquake vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Tyrantrum: 206-246 (67.3 - 80.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n Bulky Rock types are one of the banes of Tyrantrum's existence. They can usually tank an EQ, even boosted, and OHKO with their own Earthquake. Steel types can take on variants lacking EQ because of Fire Fang's low base power. \n \n Summary \n \n There is four or five Dragon Dancers in UU, and Tyrantrum is one of the most Physically bulky. He is Faster than Crawdaunt and Scrafty, more powerful than Feraligatr and Zygarde, and has much higher bulk than Haxorus. It also has great coverage, and uses this to its advantage. Unfortunately, the meta game is very speed oriented and Haxorus or Zygarde will often get the nod over Tyrantrum and he looks to be headed towards being a top tier threat in RU.", "id": "t3_1y1deg", "summary": "Throwing a Tyrantrum \n \n EDIT: Slashed Ice Fang with Dragon Claw at the suggestion of /u/berychance"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Exeggutor is one of the many grass types in the tier that highly enjoys sub seeding. It has very powerful Special Attacks, but very low speed. As such it can also find its way on many Trick Room teams, and can even set it up. Another alternative is to have it be a chlorophyll sweeper but the are better Pokemon for that like Victreebell and Sawsbuck both outclass it. \n \n Exeggutor @ Sitrus Berry \n Ability: Harvest \n EVs: 252 Def / 252 HP / 4 SAtk \n Bold Nature \n IVs: null Atk \n \n Substitute \n \n Leech Seed \n \n Psyshock \n Giga Drain/Protect/Toxic \n \n If you have ever enjoyed using the Sub Seeding Harvest Trevenant, you may enjoy using this set. It is basically the same set, but with out status. Exeggutor can sub up on weak EQs or grass attacks. It can Substitute and stall for its Sitrus Berry. It doesn't have quite as good bulk, and has a quad weakness to bug (read U-turn). All that said, 95/85 is very respectable on the physical side. Knock Off really cripples this set. With Leech Seed and Harvested Sitrus Berries, Exeggutor can stall somewhat effectively. Psyshock nails bulky special walls like Florges. Giga Drain is an alternative STAB option. Alternatively, Protect can be used to stall further, racking up Leech Seed damage and recovery. Toxic can be used to add up even more damage. \n \n Exeggutor @ Choice Specs/Leaf Plate/Sitrus Berry/Lum Berry \n Ability: Harvest/Chlorophyll \n EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 HP / 4 SDef \n Modest/Quiet Nature \n IVs: null Atk \n \n Giga Drain/Protect \n \n Leaf Storm \n \n Psyshock \n Sludge Bomb/Trick Room \n \n Specs Leaf Storm hurts like just about anything. Base 125 Special attack with Choice Specs can obliterate other teams, if they are unprepared. This functions best as a Trick Room sweeper. It can pummel its way through with four turns of Trick Room or use Leaf Storm as a nuke. Sludge Bomb is literally Exeggutor's best coverage option outside of Hidden Power. \n \n Exeggutor @ Heat Rock/Life Orb/Leaf Plate \n Ability: Harvest/Chlorophyll \n EVs: 252 SAtk / 252 Spd / 4 SDef \n Modest Nature \n IVs: null Atk \n \n Sunny Day \n \n Leaf Storm/Solarbeam/Giga Drain \n \n Psyshock \n Sludge Bomb/Hidden Power Fire \n \n Exeggutor can exploit the sun somewhat with a Chlorophyll sun sweeper set. Unfortunately it has awful coverage, and even worse starting speed. There are Pokemon like Victreebell, Sawsbuck, Leafeon and Jumpluff that out speed it before sun, and have better mixed options and coverage. Modest is the best option because after the sun, it out speeds everything but Ninjask, and Mega Aerodactyl.. Again Exeggutor has its terrible coverage options. Pokemon like Victreebell have much better options like Weather Ball. Pokemon like Tangrowth can set up Sunny Day easier with its impressive bulk. \n \n Exeggutor is best suited as a trick room Pokemon. As such, it should be placed on a TR team. Other setters, like Porygon2 and Aromatisse compliment it very well. As a defensive grass type outside of TR it is simply outclassed by Pokemon like Celebi, Chesnaught and Gourgeist-Super. Celebi even shares typing with Exeggutor, with much better overall bulk and speed. Water types, Fighting types, Normal types and Fire types make good partners in general, and can take super effective hits aimed at Exeggutor. \n \n All of that said, Celebi is one of the best checks to Exeggutor there is. Their matching typing means they take each other on well, but Exeggutor can hit hard with Sludge Bomb, if it is being carried, while Celebi can do some good damage with U-turn. Unfortunately, that leaves Exeggutor in against another Pokemon. \n >4 SpA Exeggutor Sludge Bomb vs. 220 HP / 0 SpD Celebi: 158-186 (39.8 - 46.9%) -- guaranteed 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 SpA Exeggutor Psyshock vs. 220 HP / 0 Def Celebi: 52-62 (13.1 - 15.6%) -- possibly the worst move ever \n >0 Atk Celebi U-turn vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Exeggutor: 164-196 (41.6 - 49.7%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n >252+ SpA Celebi Psychic vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Exeggutor: 96-113 (24.3 - 28.6%) -- 98.6% chance to 4HKO \n Darmanitan, Entei, Arcanine and Victini, especially those with U-turn, take Exeggutor on decently also. They resist the STAB Giga Drains, have good Base HP. In particular Defensive Arcanine can absorb almost any hit, but 2HKOs with Flare Blitz. This leaves Exeggutor to Leech Seed Arcanine and recover off some of the damage. Victini can absorb any hit, and U-turn away after only one turn of Leech Seed. Good players predict this and can get free Subs, or set up a fresh Leech Seed. Entei, with a Choice Band can OHKO Exeggutor. It doesn't particularly like taking a Psyshock however. Darmanitan can OHKO as well, but only with Flare Blitz. U-turn misses the OHKO, by quite a margin. \n >4 SpA Exeggutor Psyshock vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Arcanine: 87-103 (22.6 - 26.8%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Arcanine Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Exeggutor: 224-266 (56.8 - 67.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >4 SpA Exeggutor Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Victini: 52-62 (15.2 - 18.1%) -- possible 6HKO \n >252 Atk Victini U-turn vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Exeggutor: 204-244 (51.7 - 61.9%) \n >252 Atk Victini V-create vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Exeggutor: 392-464 (99.4 - 117.7%) -- 93.8% chance to OHKO \n \\>4 SpA Exeggutor Psyshock vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Entei: 120-142 (32.2 - 38.1%) -- 96.3% chance to 3HKO \n >252+ Atk Entei Sacred Fire vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Exeggutor: 264-312 (67 - 79.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252+ Atk Choice Band Entei Sacred Fire vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Exeggutor: 396-468 (100.5 - 118.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n >4 SpA Exeggutor Psyshock vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Darmanitan: 169-201 (48.1 - 57.2%) -- 90.6% chance to 2HKO \n >252 Atk Darmanitan U-turn vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Exeggutor: 260-308 (65.9 - 78.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252 Atk Sheer Force Darmanitan Flare Blitz vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Exeggutor: 432-510 (109.6 - 129.4%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n The Steel types in the tier wall Exeggutor hard, resisting the dual STAB, coverage in Sludge Bomb, immune to Toxic. The only thing Exeggutor can do is Leech Seed. \n >4 SpA Exeggutor Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Metagross: 54-63 (14.8 - 17.3%) -- possible 9HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 SpA Exeggutor Giga Drain vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Aggron: 59-69 (17.1 - 20%) -- possible 5HKO \n >4 SpA Exeggutor Giga Drain vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Jirachi: 49-58 (14.3 - 17%) -- possible 6HKO \n \n Exeggutor is more outclassed than ever, with the harvesting tree lurking. Trevanent's Will-o-Wisp sets it apart from Exeggutor. It is a weaker Pokemon, that may thrive in NU, but will even there face stiff competition from Eviolite Pokemon.", "id": "t3_20atgf", "summary": "Not a real Exeggutioner \n \n As a complete aside from the analysis, I would like to point out that I have begun school once again, so these analyses are going to be fairly infrequent. You may have already noticed this. School takes precedence over Pokemon. RU Pokemon will be fine to suggest however as I intend to play that very heavily."}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Weavile is the definition of a glass cannon. Horendous defenses, fantastic speed and attack. It doesnt quite have the best move pool but it has all that it needs to run through teams late game. It fits very well on hyper offense teams as it can do high amounts of damage without set up. With Bisharp moving up, Weavile will probably see more usage. \n \n Weavile @ Life Orb \n Ability: Pressure \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Jolly/Adamant \n \n Fake Out/Low Kick \n \n Icicle Crash/Ice Punch/Pursuit \n \n Ice Shard \n \n Night Slash/Knock Off \n \n \n With base 120 attack, Weavile can run train with out setting up and will hit hard right off the bat. Fake Out + Ice Shard will leave many Pokemon reeling as they take two back to back hits. Icicle Crash is the main STAB, but is incompatible with Knock Off, so Ice Punch is an option too. Knock Off provides more team utility, but won't out damage in the long run. Icicle Crash will do more damage in two hits, but Knock Off will provide more immediate power. Night Slash is Weavile's best Dark type STAB outside of Knock Off. Low Kick is useful for bulky steel types like Mega Aggron coming in (~40%). Adamant or Jolly is the age old question of power or speed. Depending on what you want to out speed, you pick the nature. Adamant will out speed everything up to Heliolisk, base 109. Jolly lets it out speed something like Noivern, but Weavile carries Ice Shard anyway. Pursuit adds an element of mind games to Weavile, allowing it to trap and kill something like Latias as it switches. It can then bluff the Pursuit later in the game and go for the ever spammable Knock Off \n \n Alternate Options \n \n Weavile @ Focus Sash \n Ability: Pressure \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 HP \n Jolly Nature \n \n Swords Dance/Taunt \n \n Knock Off \n \n Ice Shard \n \n Low Kick \n \n \n This Lead Set is designed to surprise the opponent and punch holes early, as opposed to clean up late. The idea is to set up as the opponent breaks your sash, then hit hard with its STAB moves. Using a  focus sash is the only way Weavile will reliably get a chance to set up. Swords Dance boosts Weavile's attack stat to almost 700. Weavile doesn't get much in the way of coverage outside of Low Kick and its STAB attacks. Ice Shard means it won't be easily revenge killed by the likes of Diggersby with Quick Attack. \n \n Weavile can also run a choice band, but with a SR weakness, Weavile doesn't like switching around very much. The banded set is much the same as the all out attacking first set. \n \n Team Support \n \n The Lead set requires little help from its team mates. It is meant to act as a counter lead, boosting and sweeping in the face of Pokemon like Shuckle. The Lead set does hate sandstorm and Extreme Speed though, so Pokemon to take out Hippowdon, and Pokemon like Arcanine and Zygarde are appreciated. The All Out Attacker likes to have hazard removal and Intimidate Pokemon removed. Weavile's complete lack of bulk means that it will rarely take even resisted hits from powerful attackers. Fighting types, Fire types, Steel types and Rock types can usually force Weavile out. Fairies too, provide a small issue, but Weavile 2HKOs Florges. Pokemon to deal with these types are good team mates. Mega Blastoise provides much of this, with rapid spin, and STAB Water Pulse to hit those types hard. \n One of the things that Weavile does apart from hit hard is absorb Psychic type moves with its Dark typing. this can net it free switch ins against predicted Psychics and Psyshocks. It can then proceed to OHKO, the Psychic type with its power STAB \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Mega Aggron is the premier physical wall of the tier for a reason. Base 230 defense and Filter make it incredibly difficult to take down with physical attacks, and weavile struggles along with the rest of the physical threats. Low Kick is Weavile's best option. Its item can't be Knocked Off. It resists ice. Mega Aggron walls Weavile. \n >252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (120 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Filter Mega Aggron: 115-136 (33.4 - 39.5%) -- guaranteed 3HKO \n >252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Icicle Crash vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega Aggron: 40-48 (11.6 - 13.9%) -- possible 8HKO \n >252+ Atk Mega Aggron Heavy Slam (120 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Weavile: 644-762 (228.3 - 270.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n \n Keldeo also walls Weavile, as it resists the Dual STAB, and doesn't weigh enough for Low Kick to do significant damage. Meanwhile, Weavile is OHKOed by Secret Sword. \n >252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Keldeo: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 4.9% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 SpA Keldeo Secret Sword vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Weavile: 784-928 (278 - 329%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n \n Cobalion is another Pokemon that walls Weavile lacking Low Kick. It shrugs off ice and dark moves, gaining an attack boost from Knock Off. Low Kick misses the OHKO, but only requires a little bit of prior damage. \n >252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Cobalion: 78-92 (24 - 28.3%) -- possible 5HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Ice Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Cobalion: 60-71 (18.5 - 21.9%) -- possible 6HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (120 BP) vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Cobalion: 260-307 (80.2 - 94.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 Atk Cobalion Iron Head vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Weavile: 288-342 (102.1 - 121.2%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n \n Terrakion is a decent check, as it can take the dark type moves and turn it into a free attack boost. It can take a Knock Off/Ice Punch combo, get a free plus one and OHKO with Close Combat or Stone Edge. Low Kick will OHKO however. \n >252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 105-125 (32.5 - 38.6%) -- 99.1% chance to 3HKO \n >252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Ice Punch vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 165-195 (51 - 60.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (120 BP) vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 354-416 (109.5 - 128.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n >252 Atk Terrakion Close Combat vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Weavile: 1108-1308 (392.9 - 463.8%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n \n Chesnaught is also a good check. It takes a pittance from any non-ice move, and can OHKO in return with Hammer Arm. It can also stall with Spiky Shield to stop the 2HKO of Ice Punch. \n >252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 190-226 (50 - 59.4%) -- 76.2% chance to 2HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Ice Shard vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Chesnaught: 104-125 (27.3 - 32.8%) -- 62.6% chance to 4HKO after Leftovers recovery \n >4 Atk Chesnaught Hammer Arm vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Weavile: 652-772 (231.2 - 273.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n \n Arcanine is yet another stop to Weavile. With Intimidate, and a resistance to ice, it can switch in fairly freely, as Knock Off is Weavile's best move to hit it. Arcanine scares Weavile out with STAB Flare Blitz or a Close Combat. \n >-1 252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Knock Off (97.5 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arcanine: 156-185 (40.6 - 48.1%) \n >-1 252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Ice Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arcanine: 60-71 (15.6 - 18.4%) \n >-1 252 Atk Life Orb Weavile Low Kick (100 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Arcanine: 108-127 (28.1 - 33%) \n >252+ Atk Arcanine Close Combat vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Weavile: 724-856 (256.7 - 303.5%) -- guaranteed OHKO \n \n Over View \n \n With Bisharp rising into OU, Weavile can step up and try to reclaim its place as the best dark type in UU. It hits hard right off the bat, and has the speed to get past its frailty. While it is now competing with Crawdaunt and Mega Absol more fiercely than ever, its fantastic speed and priority make it worthy of a spot on many teams", "id": "t3_1x4wst", "summary": "Pop Goes The Weavile \n \n EDIT: Pursuit added as an option"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Magneton has been overshadowed by Magnezone since DPP. That is technically the point of giving it a new evolution, but Magneton maintains a niche, with its higher speed, and the Eviolite boosted defenses it has a good spot in UU. Magnezone was banned for its Analytic Specs Set, and Magneton has the same potential. In a tier where Florges is every where, a powerful Steel or Poison type is mandatory on almost every team, and Magneton does just that. \n \n Base stats \n 50/60/95/120/70/70 \n two stats should jump out at you from that. The massive Special Attack and the decent Defense. \n50/95/70 when backed by Eviolite is actually rather bulky, and can take even some super effective hits. \n \n Magneton @ Eviolite/Choice Specs \n Nature: Modest \n Ability: Analytic/Sturdy \n 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SDef \n \n Volt Switch \n \n Flash Cannon \n \n Hidden Power Ground/Grass \n Thunderbolt/Magnet Rise/Magic Coat \n \n Magneton has a Speed stat that is just on the edge of making its Analytic useful. It can often out slow an opponent and smash them with a powerful attack. Volt Switch and Flash Cannon provide some good STAB options, and Hidden Power is used for coverage. The last slot can be used for the more powerful Thunderbolt or Magnet Rise, as a surprise way around the Earthquakes/Powers that are aimed its way. Fire and Fighting moves still scare it out though. In general, you won't be going for Magnet Rise often as Analytic boosted attacks on the switch are generally more useful and a flying type covers ground and fighting type moves. Hidden Power Fire means it hits a SpAtk stat of 371, which can smash through most anything that doesn't resist its dual STABs(other electric types). The Hidden Power type depends on what you want Magneton to cover. HP Grass hits Water Ground types that wall you and HP Ground hits the Electric types that wall you. Magic Coat is another nice surprise, that can leave opposing leads/walls crippled. Nothing funnier that bouncing back a Sableye's Taunt. \n Magneton @ Choice Scarf \n Nature: Timid/Modest \n Ability: Sturdy \n 252 Spd / 252 SpA / 4 HP \n \n Volt Switch \n \n Flash Cannon \n \n Hidden Power Ground/Grass \n Thunderbolt/Signal Beam/Tri Attack \n \n Again, Base 70 speed isn't awful, and when equipped with a Scarf, Magneton can run through a lot of Pokemon expecting to out speed. Unfortunately it misses the critical base 130+ Natured Pokemon. The set is much the same as the one above but has Speed over HP. Volt Switch will be the move you go for most often. \n \n Team Support \n \n Already mentioned is how well Magneton synergises with a Flying type Pokemon. The Flier takes Ground and Fighting type moves, while Magneton can take the Rock, Ice and Electric moves aimed back in return. A Fire type like Arcanine is another good team mate, as it can take the powerful Flare Blitzes/V-Creates aimed at Magneton. Victini or Darm are other good fire type team mates, that also form a Volt Turn core. Ghosts are other good team mates, taking fighting moves out of the equation, but they must be wary of Knock Offs trying to remove Magneton's Eviolite. Wish support is appreciated also, as Magneton lacks recovery of its own. \n \n Damage Output \n \n >252+ SpA Choice Specs Magneton Flash Cannon vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Nidoking: 258-304 (84.8 - 100%) -- 43.8% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock \n >252+ SpA Magneton Flash Cannon vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Nidoking: 172-204 (56.5 - 67.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock \n Nidoking's often try to come in to absorb a Volt Switch/Tbolt. Flash Cannon hits hard enough to make them think twice. \n >252+ SpA Magneton Analytic Hidden Power Ground vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Jolteon: 184-218 (67.6 - 80.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock \n >252+ SpA Analytic Magneton Hidden Power Ground vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Mega Manectric: 212-250 (75.4 - 88.9%) -- 12.5% chance to OHKO after Stealth Rock \n Jolteon and Mega Manectric might try to come in and wall your STABs, but HP Ground 2HKOs and Magneton can live Manectric's Flamethrower, and has a good chance to live the Overheat as well.\n>252+ SpA Magneton Hidden Power Grass vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Swampert: 296-352 (73.2 - 87.1%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery \n >252+ SpA Magneton Hidden Power Grass vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Quagsire: 384-456 (97.4 - 115.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock \n Hidden Power Grass catches Pokemon like Quagsire and Swampert coming in. \n >252+ SpA Analytic Magneton Flash Cannon vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Hippowdon: 231-273 (55 - 65%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery \n Flash Cannon hits other Ground types, like Hippowdon hard as they come in trying to take the T-Bolt.  Unfortunately Flash Cannon cannot 2HKO because it loses the Analytic boost on the second turn. \n >252+ SpA Analytic Magneton Flash Cannon vs. 252 HP / 0 SpD Florges: 242-288 (67.2 - 80%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after Stealth Rock and Leftovers recovery \n Magneton hard counters Florges because of its high damage output. Analytic Flash Cannons hurt, and not too much like to take them. \n \n Tanking Capabilities \n \n >252+ SpA Mega Launcher Mega Blastoise Water Pulse vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Magneton: 148-175 (48.6 - 57.5%) -- 94.9% chance to 2HKO \n >252+ SpA Analytic Magneton Thunderbolt vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Mega Blastoise: 350-414 (96.6 - 114.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock \n Blastoise lacking Aura Sphere cannot get past Magneton easily as they get smashed by  the Analytic T-Bolt. Even Volt Switch does a solid ~70%. \n >252 SpA Choice Specs Noivern Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Eviolite Magneton: 214-254 (70.3 - 83.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO \n >252+ SpA Analytic Magneton Thunderbolt vs. 0 HP / 4 SpD Noivern: 237-280 (76.2 - 90%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock \n Magneton checks Noivern and Mega Manectric, hitting hard after tanking a powerful Fire hit. \nMagneton is a difficult Pokemon to OHKO, especially without a super effective move. The Slew of resistances afforded by its Steel typing let it come in often. However, there are some Pokemon that will always force it out, like Darmanitan, Victini and basically any Pokemon that out speeds with a ground type move. Fighting types make good checks too, but most cannot switch in, barring those with Assault Vest. Mienshao finds itself in a good position to revenge kill, but must wary of the uncommon scarfed set, as T-Bolt + Life Orb can knock Mienshao out. \n \n Summary \n \n As Magnezone was banned, many people were crying out for it not to be true. While Magneton is slightly less powerful, its better speed and bulk let it handle that drop and fill its big brother's role. Not many Steel types left in UU can fulfil a Special Sweeper role, but Magneton is at the top of the list. It finds itself competing with Pokemon like Porygon2 and Jirachi for a team slot, but shows its worth, taking Flying, Ice, Rock and Steel moves easily. While Jirachi can boast some of the same benefits, Magneton will out damage Jirachi, and doesn't rely on the ever annoying para-flinch. \n \n YouTube Video", "id": "t3_21ttgf", "summary": "Magnet is not off"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Seviper received an interesting buff this generation as it is now one of only a few Pokemon that have Infiltrator. It has wide coverage on both sides of the spectrum but its sub par speed isn't mitigated enough by base 100 attacking stats and base 60 defenses. It has the slightly useful poison typing allowing it to become a dedicated fairy killer. Seviper isn't really viable in the tier. Meanwhile its long term rival, Zangoose, got its buffs last generation. With Toxic Boost that functions somewhat similarly to Guts, but only for poison. While Seviper can be mixed, Zangoose is purely physical, but has much better speed. \n \n Seviper @ Choice Scarf/Choice Specs \n Ability: Infiltrator \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef \n Timid Nature \n \n Sludge Wave \n \n Flamethrower \n \n Giga Drain \n \n Switcheroo \n \n \n This set is about as good as Seviper gets. STAB Sludge Wave isn't awful but there are better poison types like the Nido's and Weezing. Flamethrower hits Steels that are immune to STAB, and Giga Drain gives coverage against the Ground and Rock types that resist that combo. Switcheroo lets Seviper provide some team utility, swapping items with its opponent. \n \n Zangoose @ Toxic Orb \n Ability: Toxic Boost \n EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef \n Jolly Nature \n \n Facade \n \n Shadow Claw/Night Slash \n \n Quick Attack/Close Combat \n \n Protect/SD/Close Combat \n \n \n This is Zangoose's only set. It exploits its ability and STAB base 140 power Facade. Toxic Boosted Facade does a lot of damage to Pokemon that don't resist. Unfortunately Zangoose has some limited coverage. Shadow Claw and Night Slash hit similar Pokemon but Night Slash is resisted by more. Quick Attack makes up for Zangoose's middling speed. Close Combat is to hit troublesome Steel and Rock type Pokemon. Alternatively Zangoose can use Protect to guarantee the Toxic being in place, or SD to boost its attack to insane levels. \n \n Team Support \n \n Both of these Pokemon require much support from the rest of the team. They are both very frail and lack the speed really necessary to be effective. Psychic types make good team mates as the type synergy is very good. A slow Volt Switch or U-Turn is also appreciated to get them in for free and in Zangoose's case activate its Orb freely. \n \n Counters and Checks \n \n Neither of these Pokemon are particularly threatening in the current meta. Ghosts severely trouble Zangoose while Seviper is dealt with through appropriate scouting and switching. Mega Aggron can deal with both Pokemon relatively easily (40% maximum damage). Both are rather easily revenge killed too as they are both too frail to take neutral hits. \n \n Summary \n \n Neither of these Pokemon are competitively viable in UU. They have underwhelming power, and can't keep up with the speed of new Pokemon. Despite their cool designs, neither of this tandem can compete with other Pokemon that do similar roles. However, Zangoose would seem slightly better, if only because it has a clearly defined role as opposed to the mixture that Seviper has. I expect both of them to be returning to UU", "id": "t3_1y3vop", "summary": "Seviper and Zangoose need to worry about other Pokemon too"}, {"author": "theohaiguy", "content": "Ohai folks, finished exams, and I'm bringing you a new WVW, UU edition. Today, the showcase is on Chandelure. This ghostly chandelier is a powerhouse. Whether its breaking through walls, revenge killing, or setting up itself or teammates, Chandelure is straight up beast. \n Stats \n HP - 60 \n ATK - 55 \n DEF - 90 \n SPA -  145 \n SDEF - 90 \n SPEED - 80 \n Ok so not a lot stands out on Chandelure. it has solid bulk, but low HP, and middling speed. Oh yeah there's also that humungous, overwhelming base 145 Special attack. It jumps out at you like a bomb, which is just about how hard Chandelure hits. \n Abilities \n \n Flash Fire \n \n This is the primary ability. It helps Chandy come in and absorb attacks from pokemon like Infernape, Darmanitan and Entei. Unfortunately all of these have a way to hit Chandelure hard. Flash Fire also gives a boost to Chandy's fire type attacks as an added boon. \n \n Flame Body \n \n Rage inducing, crippling, ability. 30% chance of activating on contact. With Chandelure's average at best bulk, this isn't the greatest ability, a third immunity is much better. \n \n Infiltrator \n \n A way around screens, and subsitutes. Still not better than a third immunity. \n Sets \n Chandelure @ Choice Scarf \n Ability: Flash Fire \n EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe \n Timid Nature \n \n Fire Blast \n \n Shadow Ball \n \n Trick/Energy Ball/Memento \n Trick/Energy Ball/Memento \n \n Chandelure takes on the role of revenge killer by equipping a scarf to get around its average speed. Chandelure is in an awkward speed tier, meaning it gets out sped by stuff like Jolly Mega Bee and Mega Aero, and Timid Sceptile. Fire Blast and Shadow Ball are the strongest STAB attacks with no real downside. The last two slots are for utility. Trick can let you cripple a wall trying to take a hit. Energy Ball hits water types like Swampert and Suicune trying to take your Fire Blasts. Memento is useful for trying to set up a team mate on something at -2/-2. \n \n Chandelure @ Choice Specs \n Ability: Flash Fire \n EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe \n Timid/Modest Nature \n \n Fire Blast \n \n Shadow Ball \n \n Trick \n Energy Ball/Memento \n \n Chandelure can demolish teams every time it comes in with choice specs. Its special attack hits 640(modest) and 593(timid). Tts so strong that even resists are 2hkod. The options are the same, but Trick is a lot better on Specs, as it limits offensive checks more than Tricking the scarf. \n \n Chandelure @ Leftovers \n Ability: Flash Fire \n EVs: 112 HP / 140 SpA / 4 SDef / 252 Spe \n Timid Nature \n \n Substitute \n \n Calm Mind \n \n Flamethrower \n Shadow Ball \n \n Chandelure can set up and beat on stall with its sub CM set. Even with no set up it smacks frailer pokemon hard. The EVs allow Chandelure to set up on Florges. Dual STAB has decent coverage. \n Team Support \n Chandelure fits well on many offensive teams in UU. Its ability to spin block it highly valued. Chandelure also has decent resistances to a lot of the priority in UU, resisting or being immune to all of Lucario's priority, as well as things like Entei's Espeed. Chandy is also a soft check to many fire, fighting, and fairy types in UU. Chandelure fits well in a FWG core. Chandelure can use Memento to help set up team mates, especially pokemon like Slurpuff, Salamence, Feraligatr and Lucario that can sweep after a turn of set up. \n Checks and Counters \n Blissey, Snorlax, Hydreigon, Houndoom, Goodra and Dragalge are all decent checks to Chandelure. Chandelure can do a lot to most of them anyway. Blissey gets set up on by SubCM, as do Snorlax lacking Crunch. Snorlax without Crunch must be wary of Trick. Hydreigon gets 2HKOd by Modest Specs Fire Blast. Goodra takes the hits decently well with AV, but without risks a 2HKO with rocks. Houndoom can take a single hit, but doesnt especially like it. Dragalge can be 2HKOd by Specs SHadow Ball, but can live two Fire Blasts. All of these are about the specs set as its the most potential damage. \n Edit because /u/catsnpokemon decided to pester me: [Archive link](", "id": "t3_3bu628", "summary": "Lure 'em with Fire"}]}
+{"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post social construction\" doesn't mean \"everything is a bunch of arbitrary subjective bullshit.\" \n Either way, we agree that R2WF =/= Marxism, even though there are methodological similarities.", "output": "I disagree slightly with your reasoning here: Marxism is very much socially constructivist - the concept of \"alienation\" relies on social constructivism and the base idea of Marxist sociology is that classes are socially constructed on the basis of their relationship to the means of production. \n However, I think we agree somewhat - Marxism argues that social construction is a product of economic factors. The mode of production, in Marxist theory, determines the structure of society."}], "user_id": "longlamp_7949", "history": [{"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "Then there is no such thing as racism or that issues that deal with race. And if we take the notion of there also being no such thing as gender then there is no such thing as gender issues. \n You're hypostasizing/Platonizing. You're also ignoring the nature of society. \n Society is full of individuals whom are  subjects , i.e. they have minds and can thus think things or believe in things, even things which are false. \n People act according to their ideas/beliefs/plans, ergo their inner thoughts will have an effect on their outer actions. Religions don't have to be  true  in order to  influence people's actions . \n The concept of race is like a religious belief, in this way; the belief can be  erroneous  yet can still create social effects (such as social problems). \n If people believe in racial categories and treat each other badly on the basis of racial categories, then people are engaging in discrimination on the basis of race (which is a common definition of racism). The fact that the basis is  erroneous  or  unjustifiable  doesn't mean that no discrimination on this basis is occurring.", "id": "cmol79f", "summary": "The fact that people categorize each other does  not imply  the categorizations are mind-independent, rational or justifiable. Race does not have to exist  objectively  in order to have an effect on society, it merely needs to exist  as an idea in people's minds  in order to do so."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "As someone who lost a lot of weight thanks to a ketogenic diet (/r/keto for more info), I'm tempted to back this to some degree. \n High-carbohydrate snackfoods weren't eaten nearly as often in the past. Before the McGovern hearings the standard diet in the Anglosphere was dominated by meat, eggs, dairy and vegetables without massive amounts of grain or sugar consumption. After the McGovern hearings, saturated fat became seen as the heart-stopper and so everyone started cutting out fats and meats, whilst eating more carbohydrates. The standard breakfast of bacon and eggs was replaced with a bowl of Special K served with skim milk and a slice of toast with margarine. \n The economy shifted too; companies started making low-fat convenient food products. In order to make them edible, they had to load them with sugar, or (thanks in part to corn subsidies) High Fructose Corn Syrup. \n Because all the convenient foods were higher in carbs and lower in fats/proteins  and  women were now going out into the workforce instead of being homemakers, it suddenly became a lot easier for families to eat carb-rich junk foods. Cue obesity rates going up. \n So the theory proposed by the OP has  some  truth in it; women in the workforce = less dedicated homemakers = less time to cook healthier meals, + convenient foods being obesogenic = obesity epidemic. \n HOWEVER, these are some caveats. First,  no one should be forced into homemaking  and women should be just as welcome to participate in the job market as men; the exact same logic applies  independently  of the gender composition of \"homemakers.\" \n Second, there are other ways to fix the obesity epidemic. Removing things like grain subsidies (which make refined carbs cheaper than proteins and fats) and also abolishing the government's official \"low fat high carb\" dietary advice would be a good start. \n We can't \"blame women\" for obesity. If anything we should blame the Public Health establishment and government policy. \n Another thing which may have contributed to the obesity epidemic?  The nuclear family . The \"traditional family\" was never the nuclear family but rather the  extended  family (this is still the case in Mediterranean cultures). In extended family households, there are a larger number of breadwinners-per-household and a larger number of potential homemakers-per-household (and of course, people can mix the two roles to varying degrees but obviously time spent on one task can detract from time spent on others). The nuclear family reduces this down to (essentially) two individuals, thus increasing the workload-per-person. \n As a result, shifting towards the nuclear family and away from the extended family would've increased the relative convenience of obesogenic foods rather than the more labor-intensive meat-and-vegetables-based meals. Of course, during the time when the nuclear family was becoming the central form of social organization (in the Anglosphere) labor-saving household devices were becoming commonplace, which lowered the effort required for homemaking, so this would've lessened the burden on solo homemakers to some degree.", "id": "clujbog", "summary": "less time spent on homemaking probably contributed, but I'd rank it as a relatively small contributing factor. Also, women have no inherent duty to be homemakers; homemaking is a necessary task but it can be performed by more than one person and also by non-women persons."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "It means our economy engages in huge broken window shenanigans (Cause a problem, fix a problem. I benefitted the economy! Woo!), Which undermines a lot of capitalist arguments against socialism \n Speaking as an economist myself, I have two points here. \n First, the Broken Window Fallacy isn't an argument against socialism. Rather, it is an argument against Keynesianism and also an argument against the idea that wars are economically productive in general. \n The fallacy consists of ignoring opportunity costs. The traditional example is that the boy breaks the widow and someone argues that the boy has helped drum up business for the glazer and thus stimulated consumer spending so everyone goes around smashing windows to \"increase wealth\"... the opportunity cost which is ignored is the fact that  if  people didn't have to replace all those smashed windows they'd be spending the money on other things instead. \n Second, your argument about the beauty/cosmetics industry being an example of an unproductive 'broken window' style industry is false. This is because you're ignoring the ultimate fact about economic wealth; wealth/productivity are  means to an end  and that end is  satisfying individuals  and that-which-satisfies-individuals is at least substantially  subjective . The feelings which people get from wearing stylish clothes or looking (in their judgment) cool are subjectively satisfying to the point where individuals are willing to exchange money in order to attain those feelings. The broken window fallacy is about assuming  physical  destruction is productive. \n Productive capacity may be an objective thing, but if its used for something which no one wants then that capacity is not being used productively. \"Productive\" doesn't merely mean producing something, it means producing something which people WANT. Remember, the ultimate end of the entire economic system is consumer goods; production is not an end in itself. \n Your advertising-based argument, that the fashion industry hinges on hurting self-esteem and selling the 'cure' to the populace, doesn't really describe how the fashion industry works either. The simple fact is that people in general are aspirational. They aren't necessarily 'naturally' content with everything; they have desires they wish to satisfy. One of these desires... a desire  everyone  has (this applies to all sexes and sexual orientations) is to be seen as attractive or desirable. There are other desires we have, and we can argue many of these are gendered and at least in part socially constructed (which would be a fair thing to argue), but that doesn't mean pandering to these desires is  unproductive . \n But I digress; fashion is an industry which sells idealized fantasies of how live  could  be. Read Virginia Postrel's  The Power of Glamor - Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion  for more on this. They don't literally go out to hurt people's feelings in order to manufacture demand; they try to associate their products with culturally common fantasies and desires.", "id": "cnuinky", "summary": "for an industry to be 'productive' all it needs to do is produce something with economic value (i.e. other people are willing to exchange something to get that product). Economic value is fundamentally subjective which means fashion/cosmetics are productive. In addition, the fashion industry is hardly a bully which tries to hurt your feelings in order to make you buy their products."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "If white men ignored her, she'd accuse them of being racist and not wanting to fuck her because she is black (she's mixed-race but her argument is based on her being categorized as black by others). \n White men pay attention to her? They just want to \"colonize\" her. \n To be fair, she quoted several pick-up lines and shared anecdotes which DID make it clear many white men have had sex with her out of a race fetish. \n But is a race fetish really racial supremacy? I mean, clearly racial stereotypes are involved here but... \n There's a transition here... she goes between pointing out that many white men have a fetish about fucking black chicks (or chicks perceived as black)... she points out that there are certain stereotypes and things which contribute to this fetish. She points out that there's a fetishization of that which is seen as exotic. On this, I think her argument has a point. \n But then, the transition happens and she says that the men want to \"colonize\" her body... that its about conquering and treating her like an animal... that its about colonialism. \n In other words, she package-deals race-fetish with a power-difference-fetish. \n This package-deal is empirically false. Why? In real life, there are plenty of examples of this race fetish having the  exact opposite power-polarity . As much as I hate to use this example, take some m/m interracial porn and note the big huge hulking black bodybuilder dude who is basically re-enacting prison rape on some scrawny submissive white 'boy' type. \n Who exactly is being 'colonized' and 'subjugated' here? Clearly there's race fetish involved, but it seems more about gay white men dealing with their White Guilt complex. \n Maybe there's some sort of gender-related difference between the dynamics, given black men are stereotyped in hypermacho ways and 95% of m/m porn always has the 'manlier' dude topping. But black women are also stereotyped as having more 'masculine' traits (i.e. sexual adventurousness/appetite) than white women... so that clearly complicates things from being resolved down to gender (I guess unless its a Red Sonja type thing of proving oneself worthier by conquering stronger opposition... but if THAT were the desire behind interracial attraction then why would some other men have an Asian fetish when Asians are stereotyped as  more  submissive and feminine than white women?). \n Looking at all the complex issues regarding race fetishes (and how it varies on race and gender lines quite wildly), it seems EXTREMELY hard to reduce all of this down to some sort of single \"white male colonialism\" explanation. \n Perhaps another reason for the race fetish many men had for the writer is actually, just like in the case of the m/m situation discussed above, about  white guilt  and about  apologizing for racism . The writer openly talked about how her potential suitors all stated they like black people and had black friends... maybe, just maybe, they weren't motivated by colonialism but by a desire to  make up for  racial oppression? \"You're not subhuman, you're hot and sexy!!!\"", "id": "cdexqcj", "summary": "race fetish does have some disturbing relationships to stereotypes and other racial complexes, so she's right about that and I can understand her issues over that. She wants to be liked as a person and desired for  who  she is rather than  what  she is. Go her! But it is an  extremely  hasty generalization to assume all white men want her so as to \"conquer\" her and \"colonize\" her body."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "I'm a libertarian so I'm generally positive about the Mises institute (although I don't like the paleocon streak a lot of people there have) but I think this is off-target. \n /r/SJSucks is about \"social justice\" as used today on Tumblr and SRS and the like... That kind of \"social justice\" is just a rebranding of political correctness (i.e. linguistic/semantic policing for ideological reasons). \n The Mises Institute article is targeting the kind of social justice which Hayek was talking about in  The Mirage Of Social Justice , i.e. the idea of a just distribution of wealth (however understood). \n These two issues are in fact logically independent. Whilst many who care about PC care about income-distributive-justice (as they define it), they aren't the same thing.", "id": "c9gwmcq", "summary": "version: Social-Justice-as-Political-Correctness isn't the same thing as Social-Justice-as-Distributive-Justice. The article criticizes the latter, but the former is how the term \"social justice\" is used in most online SJ discussions."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "Instead, ME3 makes a plot that had no foreshadowing in the previous games \n I'm going to have to disagree with you here. ME1 made plenty of references to the whole \"laws against AI\" issue and the theme of synthetics revolting against organics is part of the Geth vs. Quarians backstory. \n The idea that the Reapers' motivation is to prevent synthetics from wiping out organic life is one which  did  fit into the storyline and the universe. \n The problem, IMO, is how it was implemented. \n It could've been done in a far better way. The star child thing could've been replaced by Harbinger (which would've made a lot more sense). The Catalyst being onboard the Citadel was stupid and made little sense (if the Catalyst was on the Citadel, why couldn't the Catalyst simply directly open the mass relay to Dark Space? Why would the Catalyst want to rely on Sovereign signalling the Citadel signalling the Keepers to open the mass relay?!?). And how could an AI (the Catalyst) control the Reapers themselves, whom are portrayed as having organic minds?!?", "id": "clr981m", "summary": "the \"prevent synthetics wiping out organics\" motivation wasn't the problem. The problem was the entire Catalyst/Star Child thing making absolutely zero sense. The ending could've been far better without substantially rewriting ME3... indeed, I'd have only re-written the part from when the floor lights up beneath Shepard onward (and I'd cancel the Leviathan DLC because that would contradict my own 'headcanon' ending)."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "You know what? I'm sorry you had to deal with the vegan bashing. \n I'm a non-vegan. I'm one who explicitly rejects animal rights, loves wearing fur and leather, and does a ketogenic diet with an utterly stereotypical percentage of animal products. I cheered for Cruella in 101 Dalmatians, and I'm even reading an anti-vegan blog now. \n But honestly? Its your life, and you have the right to choose your diet. As long as you don't try to take away my foie gras, I will not ridicule or personally attack you (even though I disagree with your belief system). \n That said, the established Vegan/Vegetarian/Animal Rights lobbies did actually manage to get a foie gras ban passed in California. However that ban has been struck down as unconstitutional.", "id": "cr8mn6w", "summary": "as long as you don't personally advocate the use of laws to take away my beloved animal products, you are not my enemy and there is no justifiable reason to ridicule you. \n Also, regarding the nature of this subreddit, I think it is actually quite appalling that you're getting bashed for being vegan. Why? Well I'm presuming you're a guy (sorry if this is wrong)... Veganism is often seen as unmanly because Real Men Eat Meat/Real Men Are Killers/etc. Some of the vegan-bashing you're experiencing may be motivated, probably subconsciously/tacitly, by gender-cliché-motivated disgust at veganism. \n If my speculation is true, I'd find it disappointing; the MHRM should avoid gender-policing, after all."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "The AEI is a neocon think tank. Not sure why they have people like Sommers or Ayaan Hirsi Ali (a woman with much more legit death threats than Sarkeesian or Wu) among them. \n You're right that neither Sommers nor Ayaan Hirsi Ali are neocons (Sommers is a political moderate and a registered Democrat, whilst AHA is a classical liberal/libertarian albeit one with a more-hawkish-than-usual foreign policy compared to most libertarians). \n But the AEI isn't a neocon think-tank. It is a  fiscally conservative  (not necessarily socially conservative) think-tank which primarily focuses on economics. It is also funded in part by the (libertarian) Koch brothers, who are pro-drug-legalization, pro-gay-marriage, anti-censorship and in favour of a more restrained and less interventionist foreign policy. \n AEI mostly focuses on fiscal issues, not social ones. Sure, there are some neocons in AEI (Newt Gingrich unfortunately) but there are plenty of libertarians (AHA and Murray Strauss). They even once employed an Ayn Randian (Ed Hudgins, now with The Atlas Society).", "id": "cp9wqal", "summary": "AEI has a massive libertarian streak and isn't a bastion of bible-bashing culture-warriors. Because many of their members are socially liberal these members would skew in favour of GamerGate due to GG's social liberalism."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "Honestly, if a trigger warning is just \"content advisory: the following material may distress some people for reason X, read with caution\" I don't  really  have a problem with them. \n But they've become grossly overused. \n Trigger warnings were intended for people with  severe  PTSD. They aren't simply there for \"things you might dislike\" or \"things you might disagree with.\" \n Not only that, but people can get PTSD over a huge number of things. I have a  mild  case of PTSD over my time in high school so I tend to find that certain high-school-related material distresses me and gets under my skin. However it doesn't result in a completely-dissociated-from-reality-flashback. It might make me angrier than usual, sure... but its a hot button issue, not necessarily a \"trigger.\" And it certainly isn't the kind of \"trigger\" that gets warned about. \n Warning people that certain material might be confrontational to their sensibilities? Fine! Good, even! \n But please, please, not everyone that has suffered something has a case of extreme PTSD.", "id": "c7rgyca", "summary": "In theory trigger warnings have a totally reasonable function. In practice they've become overused to the point of being a complete joke."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "isn't that what being transgender is, deciding to be another gender? \n No. \n Transgender is what happens when there is some degree of misalignment between the sexual development of your body's  non-neural anatomy  and the sexual development (and thus innate sense of gender identity) of your  brain . The result is a clash between how you feel and what you were born with. \n There are also  intersex  conditions, where your body's non-neural anatomy is inconsistent with itself, and/or elements of it sit between the typical forms of sexual development. \n \"Deciding to be another gender\" is not actually being transgender. However,  Tumblr Transgenderism  (i.e. choosing to identify as trans for ideological reasons) is very much an issue of deciding to be transgender.", "id": "ci84dpo", "summary": "genuine transgender people are real. Tumblr Transgender is not actual transgender but rather \"I occasionally want to cross-dress because Fuck The Patriarchy... I'm SO TRANS!!!\""}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "Yaoi is every single Harlequin Romance cliche possible, modelled  exactly  on heteronormative gender stereotypes. \n Not only that, but it  reinforces  those stereotypes through feminizing the \"bottom,\" sometimes even to the point of Male Pregnancy, and of course having totally rigid roles both in and out of the bedroom. This in turn  denies  the possibility of a \"psychologically homosexual\" dynamic, i.e. manly-guy-wants-a-manly-guy, which basically works out to trying to \"un-queer\" gay men by reinterpreting them as a straight-couple-but-with-two-cocks. \n Yaoi is thus misogynist, cissexist/transphobic and homophobic. \n But, by virtue of it being dude-on-dude, it allows feminists with shameful Harlequin-esque desires to relieve themselves of guilt by putting a man in the \"feminine\" role, thus reassuring themselves that they  aren't  really just dealing with internalized misogyny and that they  aren't  totally getting off on traditional gender norms and that they  aren't  being \"problematic\" or \"part of the problem\" or \"in league with the Patriarchy.\" \n So of course, in the Avengers fandom, Natasha will be OH SO FUCKING BADASS but Tony and Clint lose their genitals because that way they can play the part of the Rescued Damsel Who Just Wants To Be Loved And Cherished And Possessed Because Even Though She Hates Herself The Fact She Has A Pussy Makes Her Special And Precious.", "id": "cdmj3tc", "summary": "Yaoi allows feminists who feel guilty over having heteronormative fantasies to rationalize these fantasies as \"not problematic\" due to the fact that the sex happens between characters who are both male."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "I wanted to contribute to our society's understanding of male gender roles. As a gender-nonconforming male, I face certain difficulties and hardships. \n When I heard that feminism was against gender roles and how it opposed the enforcement of gender roles on women, I immediately thought they would agree with me about how men face similar problems. \n What I ended up encountering was what might be described as \"Internet Feminism\" (Jezebelism, Tumblr-ism, whatever you call it, but it clearly sees itself as being an outgrowth of Third Wave/Intersectional Feminism). Cue a torrent of abuse, laughter, \"lol whatabouttehmenz?,\" an instance of cyberstalking/doxxing, mockery, and (most hypocritically)  outright gender-policing  rationalized by Intersectional Feminist ideology; \"SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOUR FEELS AREN'T IMPORTANT BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT OPPRESSED, MAN UP AND SIT DOWN!\" \n Zero compassion or empathy. It was an ideological lynch mob. \n At the time I was in university pursuing a degree in the social sciences as well as studying philosophy. I decided to look into this belief system and what its basic philosophical assumptions were. \n It turned out that it was predicated on a worldview that was absolutely opposed to my own, packed with questionable philosophical assumptions which they held to be infallible, and was basically the kind of pseudointellectual trash which should've been laughed out of respectable discourse in the aftermath of the Sokal Affair. \n Because the gender discourse was dominated by ideologies and frameworks which opposed my worldview, I had to create my own framework specifically to address men's issues; Individualist/Classical Liberal Feminism already looked at women's issues with a methodology I agreed with, but so far I knew of no one who had done the same for men's issues (in hindsight, Warren Farrell is probably the closest). \n The MHRM is the group most sympathetic to my outlook/theory about gender roles, although I've had some positive feedback from a few specific feminists as well (I wanted my theory to be consistent with what we know about the female gender role as well, so it had to incorporate the subject-object dichotomy and that stuff too). \n Not only that, but the MHRM is frankly the only substantial group that is  sincerely  interested in undoing male gender roles  and acts in a manner consistent with that.  Many feminists claim they want to undo male gender roles, and I'm sure several of them have sincere intent... but their actions usually misfire or end up reinforcing male gender roles or offload the discussion by saying \"take it up with Teh Menz\"... this, I think, is ultimately a product of the fact that their theoretical framework is wholly inadequate to deal with men's issues and experiences and is riddled with errors about how the gender system operates.", "id": "cjqu03d", "summary": "the MHRM has given me a non-hostile space in which I can try and come up with a systematic 'blueprint' of our gender system and in particular how gender-nonconforming men suffer due to the gender system, and also an audience that is willing to listen to my work."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "Callesen58, \n I don't think anyone here is really having a problem with the idea that certain ethnicities are predisposed towards (on average) certain characteristics more than other ethnicities. I mean, its obvious that persons of West African descent dominate the 100 meters sprint. \n But I think where people start having problems is when you treat biology as the sole meaningful influence on human behaviour and thus deny free will and the role of culture. \n Not only that, but whilst differences in  typicalities  between racial groups (and gender groups too) exist, this doesn't mean every single individual within the group is going to reflect this. \n Evolutionary biology creates broad general tendencies rather than perfectly discrete categories. Biology is one influence amongst many. The bell-curves are quite wide. \n In addition, strict biological determinism destroys moral responsibility. If black people can't help being thieves well  obviously  they shouldn't be thrown in jail for it. They were Born That Way. Many people find this denial of moral responsibility to be an abhorrent implication - it demolishes the entire concept of virtue and vice.", "id": "cp5x60j", "summary": "On a macro level, general differences (in statistically aggregate terms) exist. But to infer anything definite from this about  specific individuals  is an error on multiple epistemological/logical (and even on a strictly scientific level too) levels. And it is  THIS  which many people find objectionable about what you're arguing."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "Not necessarily... federalism is in fact a legitimate part of the US political system (the idea being about decentralizing power so as to permit jurisdictional competition and prevent anyone amassing too much power). \n I'm a bit biased here because I'm a libertarian, but I think it is comforting when a politician accepts the limits to their authority under the US Constitution. Politicians + delusions of omnipotence = bad thing. \n Certainly, however, if you ask them a question relating to an issue that is within their power to address (i.e. VAWA, which is federal, is a legit question to be asked of candidates for a federal office), then \"States Rights\" is evading the question.", "id": "cf4wkba", "summary": "generally speaking, one should prioritize views which a politician can in fact politically act upon, as opposed to those which a politician cannot act upon."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "We do discuss those issues. Admittedly they aren't discussed as frequently, but they're issues that absolutely need to be addressed. \n Often these issues are discussed from a non-gender angle too, i.e. why drug prohibition (which causes the mass incarceration) is bad. \n But clearly there's valid intersectionality between men's issues and race issues; African-American males, for example, are culturally seen as hypermasculine and thus are often presumed to be brutish, rape-crazy thugs.... so the misandry and the anti-African racism compound each other. \n This is true of gay men's issues too - certain gay stereotypes (i.e. gay men as insatiable sexual predators) are also male stereotypes (hence why gay men are typically seen in this manner but lesbians are not) - gay men are (in this aspect) stereotyped as hypermasculine (although other gay stereotypes make them out to be hypomasculine). Misandry and heterosexism compound and reinforce each other. \n So yeah, we do discuss the issues of men in minority groups. We also focus a lot on gender-atypical men more broadly, whom are a non-normative group.", "id": "cmfvkql", "summary": "yes, the MHRM acknowledges that men of color face issues which are due to them being  both  male  and  of a specific racial group. Ditto for men who are members of gender or sexuality non-normative groups; they face issues that are due to them being  both  male  and  queer."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "We both decided this was what we wanted and it works pretty good for us. \n If it is what  you two  want and it works well for  you both , then that's a valid choice  for both of you . \n This doesn't imply its binding for  anyone else  however. \n That's the issue. \n >The average man is stronger and the average women is better(designed/instincts) at child rearing. \n First, remember that an average is just a statistical aggregate and not true for every data point that goes into computing the average; for example, the average family has 2.2 kids, but how many families do you see that have  exactly  2.2 kids? The answer would be zero since you can't have one-fifth of a child. The point is that averages give you a measure of central tendency across the whole population, but they don't say  anything specific  about  any particular member of the population . \n Individuals are more real than statistical aggregates. \n Therefore, just because the  average  man may be physically stronger than the  average  woman, that doesn't imply that any particular man  has to  or  should  accept the traditional masculine role. \n Now, as for the issue of childrearing; women's anatomy allows them to  bear  children. Whether they are \"instinctually\" better at  rearing  them is a different question entirely. \n Finally, you use the phrase \"designed\" to describe anatomy. This presupposes you believe in some sort of \"designer.\" This would be disputed by the atheist members of this board. Simply being part of a group which evolved to have a higher average proficiency at X relative to another group does  not  impose some sort of binding obligation to perform action X.", "id": "cl6go9o", "summary": "the issue is one of choice and letting people make their own choices. If your choices are traditional, that's fine, if your choices are non-traditional, that's fine, if your choices are somewhere between, that's fine too. \n But your choices aren't necessarily the only correct or valid ones, and you need to accept that other people may find that different arrangements are better for them."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "I think the first step has to be raising men's feeling of self worth and confidence. \n I absolutely agree with that. \n >And at the same time going against the \"man = predator, selfish, sex-driven, afraid of commitment, unable to listen, entitled feeling, worthless, childish, must-be-a-provider-to-be-a-worthy-human-being, has to man up...\"-stereotype. \n I agree to a strong extent with that, but as a man with no desire to be in a committed relationship I don't see anything wrong with men not desiring to commit, although I disagree with that stereotype's moral evaluation of it. But I agree these toxic stereotypes in general need to die. \n >From my experience this is not the whole story. Alpha-men want alpha-women, yes. And Alpha women want alpha-men,yes. That wouldn't be a problem. \n >But from my experience (and I bet that many can confirm this), non-alpha-men would be happy to have a loving trusting eye-to-eye relationship with a non-alpha-woman. But non-alpha-women still want to have an alpha-man. \n I guess I'm a bit skeptical here. I'd think both sexes are \"hypergamous\" relative to a zero baseline but the male sex drive means women are more hypergamous  relative to a male baseline . But that only talks about sex, not relationships. \n Are men more easy to please with love/relationships? I honestly don't know, but I wonder how much of this is nature and how much is nurture. After all, a man who has his loving committed relationship has fulfilled his duty... perhaps he's just acting out of duty rather than feeling truly satisfied? \n And men will of course still prefer a hotter woman to a less hot woman (by definition). \n Maybe the only reason we think non-alpha men are content/satisfied (not merely 'settling for good enough' but truly content/satisfied) with non-alpha women is that we ignore men's feelings in general and shame them for longing for something better in their wives. The fact that married men still enjoy pornography of women hotter than their wives etc. seems to imply to me that men aren't really easier to satisfy, they've just been socially conditioned to shut up and not complain (whereas women's frustrations are listened to and given consideration). \n >This whole \"because you're worth it\", \"I deserve it\" (for no apparent reason). I bet you were inspired to post this question by the articles that were posted here recently which are pointing this out. \n Yep, very much. \n >You know...you are correct here. It's sad, but yeah, many men are bitter in their 30s and while schadenfreude can be a lot of fun, it's not really a solution. \n >Why am I telling this... Well, because there are good articles that observe the problems and some who offer solutions... but like you say, most of them are \"bound to result in a lot of unhappy people.\" \n So you'd say that fundamentally the problem cannot be genuinely 'fixed'? \n >", "id": "cgzt77u", "summary": "Raising men's feeling of self-worth and confidence while at the same time getting rid of women=good, men= bad stereotypes would heal the dating/relationship market and help with a lot or perhaps all men's rights issues. \n On that, I agree."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "I assume that you're opposed to prison rape. If so, yes, she's on your side (at least on that issue). \n But for a VERY different reason. \n She is arguing that male rape in prisons is no more than an epiphenomena of misogyny. It isn't really a \"men's issue\" but an issue caused by men's oppression of women, according to her reasoning. \n This is an attempt to  deny misandry  by claiming it is just misogyny that damages men. \n It is also an attempt to keep \"victimhood\" synonymous with \"womanhood\" by ignoring the fact that males can be victims AS MALES. \n The fact is that a \"socially emasculated\" man is NOT treated as a woman. This is true inside and outside of prison. A \"failed male\" is not seen as a woman but as a \"not-real-man.\" \n Even in the situation of an heterosexual-substitution prison bitch arrangement (i.e. where a smaller, weaker man offers to be \"your girl\" for a larger, stronger inmate and grant him sexual gratification in exchange for protection, and the smaller man literally emulates feminine roles in order to keep up the 'illusion' (so to speak)), the \"prison bitch\" cannot access female privileges like damselling or sympathy. \n They DO get protection from their \"man\" but not from men  generally . And other men (as in men who aren't their \"man\") view them not as women but as inferior men. \n The heterosexual-substitution thing really is a mechanism by which a 'lower ranking' male can \"purchase\" protection by providing the \"man\" with a substitute good for  heterosexual sex .", "id": "cg78hdn", "summary": "being a \"prison bitch\" is not equivalent to being a woman, since even IF one is a \"woman\" from the perspective of one's \"man,\" one is NOT a \"woman\" from the perspective of the prison population  in general .  Losing 'real manhood' doesn't make a male into a social woman but rather a social neuter . \n And then there's those prison rapes which take place as an epiphenomena of the macho dominance hierarchy, rather than as an act intended to emulate straight sex."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "The idea that gaming needs to \"grow up\" is based on a meaninglessly anti-populist idea of \"artistic maturity\" in the first place... an idea which is never really defined except in terms of an imagined 'superiority' to some scorned 'lowest common denominator.' \n \"True art\" is something which is going to be intellectually masturbated over forever, and everyone subconsciously already only thinks art which flatters  their  philosophical sensibilities (not necessarily ideological ones) is the only \"true art\" there is. \n Look at today's high art scene, with people signing urinals and putting them on walls, and people standing around and screaming \"OMG SO DEEP\" and being too afraid to point out that the emperor has no clothes.  This  is what the \"games should be more artistic\" people want. \n Seriously, I am no fan of gaming pandering to the mass market (rather than to the nerdy niche market which gaming used to serve more or less exclusively) but the \"artiste\" types and their hilarious disdain for commerce and mass production (a disdain which they love to express through buying Apple products, of course) is just proof of their complete economic stupidity and sickening elitism. \n I think Camille Paglia is demented on many things, but in her critique of the \"artiste\" crowd she's absolutely spot-on. She points to Andy Warhol as an example of an artist who  wasn't  a pretentious douche. Warhol grew up in working-class Pittsburgh and  loved  mass production - he was  fascinated  by mass production and understood its beneficience in getting more stuff to more people. Hence \"pop art\" and an anti-elitist bent.", "id": "cna30i1", "summary": "the \"more artistic\" crowd define \"artistic\" exclusively in terms of being anti-populist and anti-commercial. Their idea of \"artistic\" is patronizing, ideological bullshit. We do NOT want games to become no more than a reflection of THEIR idea of \"true art.\""}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "Evolutionary Psychology is an highly speculative field that can frankly argue that almost  anything  is an evolutionary adaptation. \n The basic thesis: evolutionary biology has an influence on our thought patterns through some biological mechanisms, is quite reasonable. That said, beyond this point is a hell of a lot of tenuous theorizing and extreme generalization. \n I do believe evo psych can have value, and it can be used reasonably. That said, it is  very often abused . Too often, evo psych is abused as a crude tool of biological reductionism and is often treated as if it were a pronouncement of physical laws rather than a statement about some very general overall statistical tendencies. \n If evo psych is properly used, I don't have a problem with it, although contesting a single theory which claims an evo psych backing is  hardly  the same thing as contesting the theory of evolution. \n That said, the abuse of evo psych runs rampant (although this usually happens outside the academia).", "id": "chcmtz2", "summary": "Evo psych has a valid premise but beyond that there are plenty of seemingly contradictory theories and much abuse of evolutionary psychology. Use it carefully and rationally and try not to overuse it."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "How stupid must a human being be to believe in something like rape culture? There is no fucking rape culture in any first world country. WTF. These guys are the pure definition of stupid. \n I basically agree with you but the problem is that \"rape culture\" is a very wide idea that can refer to so many different things in the first place. \n Sure, it is stupid to believe that our culture says \"non-consensual sex is okay.\" If our culture believed that, we wouldn't exactly be putting rapists behind bars. \n But \"rape culture\"  can  also refer to milder things. For instance, our society's whole dating script with all its subtleties, yes-means-no-coy-courtship and pursuit games  undoubtedly  makes the issue of consent somewhat less-than-clear (i.e. its often conveyed tacitly and implicitly and through nonverbal cues, and all of these things are very prone to misreading). In this way, one can argue that a cultural norm  potentially  contributes to  some  instances of rape, even though our culture is horrified at rape (\"cultural norm A's unintended consequences can in fact violate cultural norm B\"). \n Also, I don't think anyone would doubt that at least some people are... less than sympathetic... to male victims of prison rape. This is arguably the purest example of \"rape culture\" in our society, although it impacts men rather than women. \n So really, its an issue of what one claims to be \"rape culture.\" SJW types have a huge problem with shifting definitions and oscillating wildly between radfem arguments and less extreme arguments depending on what's more useful at the time. \n I support the MHRM but I'd happily accept that some cultural norms can contribute to rape (Warren Farrell supports this same argument BTW - his quote about date rape which feminists usually take out of context is about rape  prevention  in a society which doesn't exactly foster clear-and-direct sexual communication). \n However to make the claim that our society actively approves of rape and endorses and encourages it as a weapon to punish \"uppity\" women (which is what radfems argue) is surely insane.", "id": "cqi6ier", "summary": "there are two definitions of \"rape culture\" \n \n Cultural norms which may (even unintentionally) end up excusing or rationalizing or perpetuating non-consensual sex (including ones which obscure the boundary between consensual and non-consensual sex), and \n \n An entire culture which endorses rape as a tool of political terrorism used by the oppressor class (males) to control the oppressed class (females). \n \n \n SJWs can't make up their mind what they're discussing. Arguably they're attempting to sneak in an argument 2 within the Trojan Horse of argument 1."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "A great interview by Dr. Smith, although I must admit I find that her description of men as competitive and women as collaborative is pretty oversimplifed and false. \n Look at the military and team sports. Extremely manly institutions by traditional standards. Both contain a lot of competition, but  also a lot of collaboration . \n And then look at how women compete with each other. Rosalind Weisman's  Queen Bees and Wannabees  shows that women are just as vicious, ruthless, hierarchical and competitive as men, they just use different means to do it. The character trait is the same, the manner it is expressed differs. Women sabotage each other, call each other sluts, etc - women compete. Oh boy do women compete!", "id": "ci77c29", "summary": "women compete and collaborate. So do men. The idea that men are competitive and women are collaborative is false. That said, it would be fair to suggest that society teaches men to be more overt with competitiveness, and women to be more covert with it (thus explaining why women are seen as less competitive)."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "CommunismKills doesn't strike me as a randroid at all. \n For one, no recommendation of any Randian material in the \"education worth having\" sidebar. \n For two, Objectivism doesn't say that doing drugs, drinking, looking at porn or having sex is wrong! \n For three, the blogger is religiously Jewish. Objectivism is militantly atheist; Objectivist metaphysics make Abrahamic Monotheism impossible, so you cannot be a religious Jew and an Objectivist at the same time. \n For four, the blogger is an 'always vote Republican' and registered Republican type (see their FAQ/about me). Contrast with Objectivist philosopher Leonard Peikoff's (a  genuine  randroid) argument that during the 2004 elections, an Objectivist had a duty to vote party-line Democrat to punish the Republicans for pandering to religious conservatives. The blogger even claims that conservatives and libertarians are natural allies (\"Fusionism\" is the name for this stance) - this stance was promoted by the  National Review  magazine which was principally responsible for running Rand and the libertarians out of the 'respectable' non-left whilst also aiming to bring religionist conservatives into the fold. Rand herself returned the favor... one of her more infamous pieces was entitled  \"Conservatism: An Obituary\"  (love her or hate her, she was  great  at viciously provocative titles). \n For fifth, the blogger is an \"ideological anarchist.\" Rand rejected free-market anarchism. Whilst today there are some Rand-inspired free-market anarchists (and even self-proclaimed Anarcho-Objectivists), \"randroids\" (orthodox Objectivists) uniformly reject free-market anarchism. \n For sixth, the blogger is pro-life, anti-abortion in all circumstances. Rand was pro-choice to the extent where she thought a woman should be able to terminate the pregnancy at \"whim.\" \n Not only that, but from the blogger's page on abortion:  \"In determining when a human being becomes “human enough” to be afforded the fundamental right to life, human beings claim to possess enough knowledge to discern whether another human being is “human enough” to live. In doing this, human beings literally elevate themselves to omniscient gods.\" \n Note this - the \"human beings claiming to be at the level of the gods IS A SIN\" logic. Whilst Objectivism doesn't believe humans are omniscient (indeed Objectivism denies the possibility of any being possessing omniscience), it is  very  strongly against the idea that man occupies a natural place of inferiority in the \"cosmic order of things.\" The idea that \"man should be humble before the gods\" (the idea of  hubris  as a sin, basically) is pretty damn close to the exact opposite of Objectivism. Objectivism is much more \"yay for Prometheus, Zeus can fuck off and die.\"", "id": "c7s0ilu", "summary": "Communismkills is  not , by any reasonable definition, a Randroid."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "I'm a libertarian but I have to disagree with you on this. \n Conservative organizations may be sympathetic to the issue of the \"denigration of masculinity\" but conservatives are typically gender essentialists who believe masculinity is morally mandatory for males. This is the  opposite  of what the MHRM believes - we're  against  people being compelled to fill gender roles that they don't wish to fill. \n Additionally, conservatives with their homophobia and belief in the mandatory status of the traditional family are hardly going to be sympathetic to the pro-gay and pro-MGTOW MHRM. They stand  against  voluntary parenthood (or treat choosing to have sex as consent to parenthood... which really is based on a belief that sex for pleasure is evil and needs to be punished with additional responsibilities (i.e. kids)). \n Finally, conservatism tends to be hawkish with respect to foreign policy and tends to glorify and glamourize the military - that giant mechanical bureaucratic institutionalization of male disposability. Sure, the military is in fact a necessary institution, but glorifying it? And using it over and over again? That just results in men being either killed in battle or broken/damaged by the training/indoctrination process. \n I DO, however, see value in targeting libertarian and libertarian-leaning institutions... or at the very least  fiscally  conservative institutions which don't promote  social  conservatism. War is expensive after all, feminism has consistently promoted leftist economics (with a very small number of exceptions, but these aren't reflective of the institutionally powerful forms of feminism), and (genuinely) free markets are the best way to increase the speed of technological development.... and the more technological development we have, the faster we get to the Male Pill (something which social conservatives would probably see as bad but fiscal conservatives would not).", "id": "cgl7h6c", "summary": "social conservatives are not going to be sympathetic, but fiscal conservatives may have common ground with the MHRM. \n I should also add one thing: the old left, because of its focus on the traditionally masculine blue collar worker role, is also likely to be sympathetic to the MHRM... particularly because official feminism is basically trying to make leftism All About Teh Wimminz (focusing on class rather than sex makes a leftist a \"brocialist\" apparently). Old Leftism, with its Capitalists/Workers class conflict model, is  at its base  going to conflict with an ideology that sees Teh Menz/Teh Wimminz as either  the  fundamental or an  equally  fundamental part of our society. \n So I wouldn't write off the left. There's plenty of leftists who are frustrated with feminism as well."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "I'll admit I haven't seen many pro-life feminists (Christina Hoff Summers maybe \n Christina Hoff Sommers is in fact pro-choice and has stated so in an interview. \n > Feminism isn't a monolith. I think that's part of the folly of Women Against Feminism. As the article states, there's are a billion sub-categories within feminism. Left wing, right wing, anarchist, marxist, radical, moderate, black, white, gay, trans, whatever. I'll admit I haven't seen many pro-life feminists (Christina Hoff Summers maybe but she's one of the few people I just can't bring myself to call a feminist at all). \n You know... this is why many people are sceptical when they hear \"feminism is not a monolith.\" \n Sommers clearly fits into the category of Classical Liberal Feminism. By the definition of the term used in political science and philosophy courses, she absolutely counts as a feminist (as does most of the MHRM, coincidentally). \n But the feminist movement has a pretty obvious tendency to kick out not only its internal critics,  but classical liberal feminists generally . Wendy McElroy, Camille Paglia (whom I disagree with on many issues but sometimes she is brilliant), Cathy Young, Christina Hoff Sommers, Ayaan Hirsi Ali? All heretics. \n \"Feminism is not a monolith\" may be technically true, but the feminist movement's  actions  (note: this is not to be construed as arguing that any of the feminists  here  participate in such actions) relentlessly narrow the scope of 'true' feminism, and do so on clearly-politicized lines: no classical liberals/libertarians/individualists permitted. \n So, Wazula42, given that no philosophy or political science academic would contest the proposition that CHS does indeed fit within the category of \"feminist,\" and since you maintain that feminism is not a monolith and can be embraced by people of extremely divergent ideological views,  why are you reluctant to accept a Classical Liberal Feminist like CHS as a feminist? \n As for how this factors into Women Against Feminism, note that the prominent and institutionally powerful feminist movement (the lobby groups and think tanks and academic positions) is almost entirely controlled by Radical Second Wave and Third Wave forms of feminism (and as I emphasized before, these kinds of feminist kick out other kinds of feminist... I believe Gloria Steinem once kicked Betty Friedan out of the movement, at least for a period of time). If by \"feminism\" we mean \"the ideologies promoted by the institutionally powerful feminist movement\" rather than \"any ideology which accepts the proposition that men and women are equally human beings,\" Women Against Feminism suddenly makes a lot more sense.", "id": "cj76j01", "summary": "CHS is a pro-choice Classical Liberal feminist, \"feminism is not a monolith\" may be technically true but the established feminist movement's actions display a desire to  turn it  into a monolith, I'll be less sceptical of \"feminism is not a monolith\" when Ayaan Hirsi Ali's feminism is just as unquestioned as Rebecca Watson's, and WAF's criticism of feminism makes perfect sense when \"feminism\" is defined in terms of the institutionally powerful feminist movement rather than in terms of the broad definition used in phil/pol-sci courses."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "There's a very useful chart halfway down this page that I fall back on a lot. \n And this chart is the reason why so many people are taking claims like \"feminism is not a monolith\" and \"but if you believe in gender equality, then you're a feminist\" with a pile of salt. \n Also, I maintain that criticising the established feminist movement  is  focusing on both women and women's issues - we are, after all, talking about a movement which claims to speak for the interests of women. \n The simple fact is that no Political Science or Philosophy academic would contest the proposition that CHS is a feminist - she falls  well within  an intellectual tradition that is classified as a form of feminism. Attempting to say she isn't a true feminist undermines the credibility of any \"feminism is not a monolith\" argument.", "id": "cj82l1q", "summary": "either you can define feminism  narrowly  (restrict it to R2W and 3W feminisms) and then  stop  claiming that \"feminism is not a monolith\"  or  you can define feminism  broadly  (include all ideologies which accept the equal humanity of the sexes) and preserve the non-monolithic stature of feminism... at the cost of accepting CHS as a form of feminist. Which, as I said, is hardly controversial in at least two sectors of the academy (sectors which also happen to have, at least in Philosophy's case, some degree of intellectual rigor and integrity)."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "After reading the whole article I don't find it particularly misandric. Indeed, it basically backs up my own theory about how traditional masculinity operates - 'real manhood' is seen as a socially-conferred status granted through complying with society's demands. \n It isn't misandric to point out that men who aren't \"real men\" get socially emasculated. Indeed, the unjust nature of this social emasculation is  precisely why MGTOW can be beneficial . \n I do, however, think its hyperbolic to argue that masculinity is what is behind religious terrorism;  all men  throughout the ages have been subject to the whole \"prove yourself a real man\" thing, yet not all males have become psychotic killers. Obviously religious fundamentalism is the biggest factor here. \n I will argue that there's a large mistake in the article; the article says that today there are no 'elders' around to provide 'alternatives' to violent masculinity, but historically speaking the 'elders' have always been the  primary force behind  violent masculinity. Tribal societies, which still have the whole 'initiation into manhood by proving yourself to the male elders' thing, are far more violent (on a per-person basis) than today's western societies. The more tribalistic, hierarchical, collectivistic parts of our societies are uniformly the ones with more bullying and more violence (the military and criminal gangs being two good examples). \n Traditional masculinity can certainly encourage violence, but it isn't \"elder mentors\" who create alternatives to violent masculinity; it is the advance of Enlightenment civilization and its values of reason and technology and material development (which render physical violence more and more obsolete over time).", "id": "cl4jsf0", "summary": "I disagree with some of the article's arguments, and I don't agree that masculinity per se is responsible for religious terrorism. Traditional masculinity obviously has big problems, but its not the thing driving Jihadis. The article seems far too romanticist about the \"past where elder mentors taught boys to become real men\" - in the past, they taught stuff that was hideously violent. \n But this article is not misandric and it is not blaming men or male nature for violence. \n EDIT: I'd also like to add that the article's writer doesn't seem to be an SJW/Third Waver type... for instance, in his work  Policing Manhood  he argues that homophobic slurs are  not  about misogyny, but rather about more traditionally masculine males putting down those who aren't \"real men\" by cultural definition."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "Yeah, charcuterie plates are pretty much always keto-friendly. \n Be careful about one thing though - anything that is wet-cured or tends to sit in a bowl full of preserving fluid before being scooped into a container when you buy it... they've got sneaky carbs. \n As for cheese, white Chevre (goat's cheese that's really soft) is delicious, easy to eat even for people who aren't big cheese fans, AND its very low carb... about 1g carb per 100g cheese. Also, I think Comte cheese is borderline-zero-carbs (although I count it as 1g per 100g just to be safe... but basically, the 1g per 100g is my heuristic for all varieties of gourmet/non-supermarket cheese).", "id": "cjqq4ea", "summary": "get dry cured meats, always read the labels, rillettes are delicious as are nice exotic salamis, try and get a variety of things, and don't feel nervous about cheese! \n Also, if you can find low-carb pesto and hummus, its awesome. I also make a tuna-mayo dip composed of tuna and mayo and chives and pepper, which is nice. Serve with pork rinds for dipping."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "Well, if I were to look online...maybe I'm wrong and over-identifying, but it certainly feels to me that a large portion of the \"anti-SJW\" community out there (talking everything from Feminist-critical to Egalitarian to MRA) is coming from a place of some level of social anxiety. And responses to this vary, of course. But I can't help but feel like it's common.... \n Perhaps this is true, but a huge portion of the SJW crew are coming from a place of incredible social anxieties and mental illnesses too (and if those are self-diagnosed mental illnesses then we can probably chalk them up as having Munchausen's Syndrome by Internet). \"Trigger Warnings\" and \"Microaggressions\" and the demand for echo-chamber \"safe spaces\" and knee-jerk \"I HATE YOU FOREVER\" screaming at people who disagree with them are hardly the actions of the calm, levelheaded and confident-in-their-views. \n This of course is talking about the kind of people that get mocked at /r/TumblrInAction rather than anyone here, btw. And there are legitimate cases for trigger warnings for people with genuine PTSD.", "id": "cja2ys9", "summary": "there's tons of evidence for massive levels of social anxiety on both sides at least... and in my own experience I've seen more evidence for social anxiety issues in the SJ crowd, but this could easily be bad sampling or something similar."}, {"author": "YetAnotherCommenter", "content": "Blizzard's CEO made a speech condemning harassment. \n This is nothing to worry about since we all agree harassment is bad. \n Anti-gamergaters are  not  arguing that \"there is harassment in gaming and it is bad.\" On that issue there is no disagreement. \n The argument which anti-gamergaters are making is  much more specific  than \"there is harassment in gaming\". What they are arguing is that within gaming culture there is  systemic  harassment  of women  motivated by  misogyny . \n There is harassment in gaming. But there's a difference between acknowledging the existence of harassment in gaming and arguing that this harassment is pervasive, unidirectional, and motivated by a hatred of women. \n Blizzard's CEO acknowledged that there are some harassers in gaming and they make life difficult for other gamers. This is an empirical fact. It sucks, its wrong, and it makes the hobby far less pleasant (at least for those who play multiplayer games). \n But acknowledging the existence of this  hardly  amounts to validating the SJW narrative (which postulates that the harassment is always by men against women, is constant and omnipresent, and is motivated by cultural misogyny).", "id": "t3_2lndbm", "summary": "the Blizzard CEO hasn't condemned GamerGate and only someone with a complete lack of intellectual honesty or capacity could construe his message as being anti-GamerGate."}]}
+{"author": "ndt", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Once true but the U.S. has lost it's special place.", "output": "There obviously is enough empirical evidence \n I think in the 19th and early to mid 20th century, such a view would be well supported as the U.S. actively put it's muscle behind many U.S. based corporations and investors. You could argue that it still does in the case of oil. \n Now however, the world of international business and the international corporate model has become so widely adopted and integrated throughout the world that it just does not apply. \n Most international (trans / multi, pick your term) corporations are not even U.S. based (although many of the largest are) and the owners of all those corporations are investors from all over the world. \n It's so completely and thoroughly mixed up both in terms of headquarters and ownership that if you tried to draw a map of corporations based not on where they chose to put their main office, but on their ownership you would have one giant world wide web with seats of power wherever money is to be found. \n Business no longer has a territory or national allegiance it is correctly termed a global phenomenon."}], "user_id": "longlamp_13022", "history": [{"author": "ndt", "content": "I'll take the inevitable down votes and offer myself up on the alter to defend the logic if anyone has any questions about WTF he's talking about. \n It's an issue of [negative rights vs positive rights]( and is not limited to healthcare. \n A negative right is one that obliges the inaction of another. For example the right to free speech means another can not stop you from expressing yourself. \n A positive right by contrast obliges the action of another. In this case healthcare. A right to healthcare means that someone else is obliged to provide you with a service. \n Libertarians of which rand is one (more or less) are fans of negative rights, but obliging one person to do something for another against their will, no matter how noble the goal, violates the right of that person to choose how use their labor.", "id": "c1tvrua", "summary": "it's not just healthcare, you will find that negative rights (and he mentions a few) are viewed negatively by libertarian types because they force one person to give up their negative rights to provide another with their positive rights."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "I got to a party late, went inside and grabbed a beer. Before I even took a sip (yes, before I started drinking, OK, maybe a sip) I felt this really low vibration in my chest, like a really deep bass hum. \n I looked around and noticed that one girl was also looking around with a WTF expression but nobody else seemed to notice. \n We went outside and noticed another couple down the block looking up and to the North so we looked and saw a classic delta wing UFO (flying triangle, [these things]( lights and all. We watched it as it slowly passed directly over our heads low enough that you could clearly make out the details of paneling on the bottom which was lit up by the glow of street lights. \n I really don't think it was alien in origin, most likely a prototype of a stealth aircraft, but it was without a doubt the thing that inspired the rash of triangle UFO sighting at the time. This was in the late 80's. \n Actaully that one in the linked to photo above is pretty similar to how I remember it. The back end was not flat, it protruded slightly, more of a stubby diamond shape than a true triangle but it was longer than it was wide, the one in the pic is too short.", "id": "c2c554b", "summary": "I got a flyover by a delta wing UFO"}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Indians didn't have \"emergency\" food supplies. \n That's actually not correct at all. \n Practically every group that I can think of from the California oak woodland tribes storing huge quantities of acorns, to the agricultural tribes (most Native American tribes) from North through South America stocking piling the annual corn, squash, bean, potato, quinoa, amaranth or whatever harvests, to the  natives of the Pacific North West drying salmon during the run to the far Northern tribes stockpiling seal and caribou, the overwhelming number of tribes relied on the storing of food for the year to come. Food stores are one of the single most common archeological finds. \n Yes, to varying degrees, year round wild harvesting supplemented that core, but without the stockpile, it can be difficult to meet all of your needs in most areas, especially on a tribal scale, outside of brief seasons of plenty. If one of the aforementioned tribes were to have lost their food store more often than not, they would be looking at imminent famine. \n There are exceptional cases, where the landscape is so forgiving like temperate coastal areas, where you might not need a staple core to fall back on but they are the exception. \n I've run across this misconception three times in the last few days (not on /r/SelfSufficiency but on reddit). Most Native Americans were not true hunter-gatherer tribes, they were largely agricultural people. Most of the ones that weren't lived in areas with natural bountiful harvests like the acorn harvests of California, or the salmon runs of the Pacific North West. But while technically wild gathering, these were usually treated as an annual harvest, much like an annual crop, to be stored and used throughout the year. If you miss that narrow window of harvest, you're screwed. \n It was rarely a strictly or even primarily hand to mouth existence. Forethought and planing for the seasons of scarcity was one of the main shapers of day to day life in pre-columbian America. Nobody actually wants to eat fermented fish heads (except Akycha, he'll eat anything) you eat it because fresh fish is not always available. \n Now I can understand why the idolized, noble savage trope would take hold in Hollywood, but we are talking about actual, or at least theoretically actual survival situations here and for that reason, I think it's important that if we are going to base our plan on a historical narrative, that narrative be factual. The facts are that...", "id": "cgd1pdc", "summary": "by and large, the core of the diet of most Native American tribes was composed of a stored food surplus produced during brief times of plenty, with day to day hunting and gathering supplementing not replacing that core. It was the stored core staples that assured the survival of the group."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "I woke up to a fox by my face once. It was a nice night so I slept with the door of the tent open. At first light something brushed against my face and when I opened my eyes there's a fox kinda crouching right by my head. He kept looking down at me then outside,  then back at me. Without moving my head I looked outside and there was a coyote outside staring in. I guess I seemed less threatening than the coyote so the fox took refuge in the tent with me. I sat up and the fox didn't move so a yelled at the coyote and he spooked and ran off. The fox stayed with me for maybe 15 seconds, slowly peeked outside to make sure the cost was clear and the trotted off into the woods, no thank you or anything.", "id": "cniffis", "summary": "I shared my bed with a fox that used me and then left in the AM without saying a word."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Q: Is there a way to avoid food that is the result of mutation breeding? \n A: No, all breeding, no, all life is the result of (among other key processes) mutations. The only difference is the cause of the mutations. In the intentional (but random) mutations you're referring to, some process is used, like radiation to cause an increase in the number of mutations, the ones deemed beneficial are then selected for. \n In regular old breeding, mutations (also random) are caused by all kinds of things, including chemicals and a big one being natural sources of radiation, and the ones deemed beneficial are then selected for. \n A random mutation is a random mutation whether it was caused by radiation from the sun or an X-ray machine. It's not a change in the underlying process which is just damage to dna or a mistake in the copying it, it's just a speeding up of what would occur without intervention by increasing the exposure to mutagenic substances or processes above what might occur without intervention. \n So where do you draw the line between \"natural\" breeding and mutation breeding? Does leaving your seeds in the sun too long count? What if your farm happens to be on soils that have higher than average radiation levels? Are you natural or mutation breeding? \n There is no way to distinguish one from the other, nor is there any functional difference in the end product, it's just an organism that is slightly different from it's parents in a random way. Just like you and me.", "id": "c911e18", "summary": "Mutation breeding is a useful term for conversation but in the end, it boils down to intent not technique. All living things are mutants, you and me included."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Just because the federal budget was cut doesn't mean that government's reach was necessarily cut. \n Explain to me the the magic by which you can cut the federal budget by 50% and cut government debt by 30% and not cut the governments reach. If you have the mojo to do that you have my vote. \n > I just don't understand how any rational human being can look at the financial disaster of 07/08-?? \n By learning from the past. \n > This disaster was verifiably caused by a lack of regulation \n If that were the case, then we should be out of the woods already. Everyone is perplexed because even after pumping in liquidity to mitigate the problems caused by (for example) the CDS's, things are still in a slump. \n That's because the problem never was what you think it is. That was just a symptom, not the disease. The disease is a balance sheet recession and many economists are just now coming to terms with that. There were quite a few people that were pointing this out even before the bubble popped, but they were generally dismissed. \n > No one believes that because it's ridiculous. \n Hard to say what part you think is ridiculous so I'll assume you mean the whole idea of what the underlying problem is. \n Nobody? really? \n >... the real problem is that the global economy is badly overleveraged -- Kenneth Rogoff Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Harvard University \n I'm pretty sure the [Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco]( counts as somebody as well when they say: \n >These changes in household behavior [saving more due to high debt levels] have important implications for consumer spending and overall economic performance. The increased saving rate—a result of consumers’ attempt to protect themselves against increased economic and financial uncertainty following the onset of the financial crisis and recession—also means a smaller share of each dollar of income will be spent on goods and services. \n Then there's  Richard C. Koo  the Chief Economist of Nomura Research Institute, and  this professor of Economics . \n I can do this all day if you like. Once you read those you might just realize that what we are going through is not a normal recession and all those non-ridiculous people you have been following have in fact been running in the wrong direction this whole time. \n If over leveraging is the problem, then anything that promoted taking on of excess debt by artificially decreasing the risk of lending was the problem. That comes right back to low interest rates and government backed loans, and yes, CDS's. \n The worst thing you can do in that situation is prevent default. The defaults act to transfer wealth from the creditors back to debtors. Massive inflation is another option and since we already screwed up option A, that's where we will probably go for our solution. The third option is struggle through it over decades like Japan did but our problem is even bigger than theirs, our currency has downward pressure as it is and it still took them 15 years to work their way out. If we go that route, we are quite possibly looking at Americas lost two decades.", "id": "c2bwmch", "summary": "In the last few months, many economists are coming around to the idea that we are suffering, not from a normal recession, but a great contraction due to overleveraging. This was crazy talk a couple of years ago but exactly what kooks like Ron Paul, Peter Schiff and Jim Rogers have been saying from the beginning."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Perhaps I can shed some light on the origin of the poor reception you've received. \n You are posting to /r/food, a subreddit dedicated to \"Cooking, restaurants, recipes, food network, foodies\". It's not about the politics of food. \n Busting in there are going off on an anti-monsanto tirade is a little like taking the opportunity presented by your friends baby shower to start ranting about the problems of overpopulation, which looking at your history would not surprise me in the least.", "id": "ca721xv", "summary": "right or wrong is moot in this case, it's about your delivery and timing."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "The argument against a minimum wage is that it's essentially smoke and mirrors. It feels good but does little in the long run to actually provide what it promises. \n Companies work with a finite profit margin. There is only so much of that profit that can be reallocated to paying higher wages before the additional cost must be added to the price of the product they are selling. Since the wage earner is also the consumer, the additional money they make goes right back into the paying for the now higher cost of the product they produced. The result is higher prices that negate the higher wage. \n When dealing with free markets between countries or states with different labor costs you also get a scenario where there is a financial attraction for a company to move to the less costly area. Result, fewer jobs. Greater competition for fewer jobs results in a drive towards lower wages. \n Now perhaps there are other things that can offset these such as better infrastructure or better efficiency offsetting the drive for a company to move abroad, etc. But any demand to increase the minimum wage without accounting for these very real effects is a dog chasing it's tail but never catching it.", "id": "c1d8tq9", "summary": "minimum wage is one part of a larger equation and by itself fixes nothing."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Well first I'd say say that there are some limited aspects of it that are actually wide spread, like planting a row of trees as a windbreak, you see that all the time. A nice perfectly linear row of trees. \n By and large I think it boils down to simplicity and predictability. I can set down and write out a 1 year plan for say corn, while I'm having my morning coffee. I can set dates for drilling and spraying and I know that on X day (give or take a week) I'm going to need  n  people working, that I need this and that pieces of equipment available on this and that day. I know in advance that I can take my harvest to one place and off load it, count my money and be done for the year. Not to minimize the amount of effort that goes into it, but when dealing with a single well known crop in an area where that crop has been grown for many years, there is some semblance of control and predictability. I'm still subject to the whims of weather and blights but the whole thing can be rather formulaic. \n Every additional factor you add into that acts to increase the complexity of the system and the more complex the system the more inherently unpredictable it becomes. Quickly my plan becomes filled with phrases like should, ought to, maybe will, and even hope that. If your livelihood is being built on the success of your plan, most people don't want to see those words appear with any frequency and so tend towards what appears to be the more assured success of agriculture by the numbers, at least the perception of that, and frankly, I don't blame them, it's very scary to bet on a complex system and as a farmer that's what you are doing. \n A standard, engineering mentality works really poorly with complex systems. Try as we might, they just don't lend themselves to designing the way an overly simplified model does. \n Permaculture sort of walks that line between overly simplified models and unmanaged systems even more than basic agroforestry does.", "id": "c6eaa8n", "summary": "Any farm is a complex system, but some are more complex than others. The more complex it becomes, the more unpredictable it becomes. The more unpredictable it becomes the scarier it can be when you have to bet everything you have on it's success."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-gm, but... \n The first GM corn hit the market in 1995, almost half way though that chart. Based on that chart alone, at best, one can say that the release of GM corn was followed by a reduction in volatility (until 2010) but year to year yield increase has followed the same trajectory in the 10 years after it's release as it did in the 10 years before it's release (the line is straight before and after the release of GMO corn). There is nothing about that chart that suggests an increase in yield resulting from the use of GMOs, more over, it seems to suggest that yield increase has remained steady despite the introduction of GM corn, with a possible reduction in volatility but the timeframe is too short say for sure. \n IOW, If that chart was a stock price and you told me that some big innovation happend in 1995, I'd be skeptical about how big a factor that innovation was, any resultant gain seems to have gotten lost in the overall trend.", "id": "c8ezlhp", "summary": "That chart, by itself, does not make the argument I think you want it to."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "The stem in particular makes me think [late blight]( \n The browning on the outer edge of the leaves may not be from the same cause. It is probably comorbid (I got to use that word!) with the blight and is likely Septoria which I get to deal with yearly but is not particularly damaging in mild form. \n Yes, the watering thing is a problem and if my ID is correct, is related to both. The other thing to look into is what are the other hosts that may be in your area. Being backed up to wilderness in so cal, the first thing that pops to mind is [Blue Witch]( Do you see any signs on the local plants? \n What happens to your plants over the long run the other years.", "id": "c1n4wqy", "summary": "I think you have a case of the late blight, sorry."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Not a Freudian slip but a novice language error combined with nerves. \n When I started dating my now wife, I was living south of the border but only had a basic grasp of the language (sink or swim, that's how I roll). Anyway I was meeting her family for the first time and was making dinner trying to woo them with my culinary skills. Her mom was helping me unpack the groceries when she pulled out the largest chicken breasts I had ever seen, seriously they were gigantic. So large that I felt the need to exclaim \"que pechos enormes tienes\". Chicken \"breasts\" are referred to as \"pechuga\" not \"pecho\".", "id": "c4v8b8g", "summary": "In one of the first conversations I had with my soon to be mother-in-law I ended proclaiming loudly \"My, what huge breasts you have\"."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "I'm a libertarian that has a small organic market garden of heirloom vegetables, who sells them to the neighbors. I looked in this bill a year ago specifically because as presented it sounded rather pertinent to my specific situation. Yes, I even read much of it unlike it appears, anyone who is trying to characterize it as the coming apocalypse. \n My conclusion is that while I'm not a big fan of even more red tape, the way this bill is described in this blog and the internet in general is so ridiculously inaccurate as to be more hoax then substance.", "id": "c0ywzm6", "summary": "The blogs characterization of the bill is B.S. It's more red tape but not the end of the world for small farmers and doesn't even apply to your home garden."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Could you expand on that thought? Perhaps I'm not understanding you. \n I'm from California, we've had a large population of Mexicans, both first generation and descendants going all the way back to the original Californios. I don't see the lack of assimilation based on poverty you are referring to. \n What I think you are seeing is the tendency of large first generation migrant populations, especially when there is a language barrier, to form isolated enclaves. That is not a function of poverty, it just human nature. You see the same thing in Latin America where expatriated gringos form communities of other gringos and hang out at gringo bars. Generally they are more affluent than the surrounding population, but the effect is the same. \n As children are raised in the new home lands, these enclaves generally become more and more integrated.", "id": "c1szier", "summary": "It's a first generation adult immigrant thing, not a poverty thing."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "No, the vines are feeding the fruits. If you wanted one huge fruit (as huge as your variety could get) like an attempt to break a world record, you could remove all the other fruits so that the all the vine is feeding one fruit, but don't cut the vines.", "id": "c4v9e57", "summary": "Let it be."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "I followed basically the same path, dropped out (did get a GED), ended up going into software and have been at it for close to 15 years. I'm the head of development at the current company I'm with so if you applied for a job I certainly looked at your resume and if you came in for an interview I'd be the guy with the final say although I don't recall ever shooting down a group decision, but I could if I wanted to play alpha that day. \n I don't recall education ever coming up in an interview when I was the interviewee or over the many projects that I've worked as a contractor on, it's always been about experience. \n As the interviewer, the CS degree lets me know that you have a solid foundation but it says very little about real world experience. I'd be more inclined to call you in for an interview than someone without one or other experience, but next to someone with work and code I can look at and evaluate, assuming it's good, I'm probably going for the experience. \n I know quite a few people in the industry who, while not necessarily HS dropouts, never studied anything computer related in college or even attended one, they just ended up there by some other circuitous path, usually either the needs of a previous job or just a general interest in coding. \n After you initially break in to the industry (where the CS degree is most valuable), the main factor that will determine your success is your willingness and ability to constantly learn new ways of doing things and that requires that you really enjoy doing it, it has to be real life interest and not something you got into because the pay is good, which is a problem I've seen in a few CS majors but not in the other crowd. If you don't love your work you will burn out and fall behind.", "id": "cdg9h6f", "summary": "The CS degree sets you apart from the person without one all other things being equal. Once you have a body of work I can look at that pretty much trumps everything else. Is it worth the time and cost to get one instead of say dedicating your time to developing actual projects? A resounding sometimes."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "A lot of people hear that we don't have a duty to protect and draw the conclusion that we don't give a fuck. That's just not true. \n Some might (do in fact) but that's not my position at all. Even if you made it a legal duty to protect, try as you might, it's simply not possible to be everywhere all the time. \n You even hint at it in your comment when you say \"I do try very hard to catch criminals\". One is not a criminal until they have already committed the crime, it's after the fact. \n I'm sure you do take it seriously and greatly appreciate that effort and the risks you take doing it, but as an officer, there is not a great deal that you can do in the midst of most crimes. Most of the time, especially with rather random violent acts like muggings or home invasions, the act is over with before 911 even gets a call. \n Which leads into what I assume is the second part of Gbcue comment above. Usually the police take reports of events past and try to find the guilty parties. You might even be able to get there in time to chase the perp down after a mugging but the odds that you just happened to be there on scene to stop it in the act is pretty slim. \n The police really aren't in a position to be a first line of defense, that burden falls on us the potential victims.", "id": "cgg6lo5", "summary": "I don't so much think the police need to do more as I do that people need to do more for themselves."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Why, then, would you want to provide incentives and tax breaks for outsiders to come in .. \n I wouldn't do it for outsiders only, that's inherently unfair, it should be across the board. \n Starting a business is inherently difficult and many people (generally those who don't start them themselves) horribly underestimate the cost and effort and risk that goes into it and that is before you even factor taxes and regulations into it. \n Anything that adds to the burden of starting a business or increases it's likelihood of failure must be removed or reduced. There are just no two ways about it. \n > incentize (is that a word?) \n Incentivize. Yes, it's a word I hear often in meetings with marketing people along with \"actionable\" and \"synergistic\" but that is indeed what needs to happen. \n > What could Detroit do to help small, local businesses? \n You already have low real estate costs, and a ready supply of labor so there are only so many other areas where you could make it easier for businesses. \n Detroit is in a pickle because it's gotten to a point where \nit's lost so much of it's business that there aren't that many people left to tax. To try to make ends meet they tax the ones that are left to the max, causing even more to fail or leave. Even then, they are still having to sell bonds (borrow money) to make ends meet. \n Note to a large degree the burden is cause by the state, not the city so your hands are tied in regard to that aspect. \n To make the same revenue with a lower tax rate you need more businesses, to get more businesses, you need a lower tax rate. It's a stalemate. Something has to give and since you can't force people to start businesses, the only option left is to bite the bullet, reduce the rate first. That is going to hurt, no doubt and will have to come with a cut in services because there is just not really an option B as far as I can see. \n > Offer non-franchises tax help on their first three years of business, perhaps? \n Not unless you want to see business fold after 3 years or or fail to grow. \n Any new business requires in investment of a significant amount of capital. Many small businesses are lucky to begin turning a profit after three years if they survived that long to begin with. Giving them a tax break when they are probably not making a profit to be taxed on in the first place is not particularly helpful. \n If you jack up the rate the moment they start to get out of the red, before they have the opportunity to reinvest those new profits into expanding the business, you make it harder for them to create new jobs. Many will get locked into a single location because they lack the capital to expand. \n From a purely math perspective, I'd much rather tax 100 businesses 1 dollar than 10 businesses 5 dollars. I think Detroit need a permanent paradigm shift, not a temporary incentive. It didn't fall overnight and it will take years if not decades to recover. \n > Instead of saying, \"Deregulate, tax breaks\", which has proven time and again to actually be bad for a city \n Really? Examples that are worse than Detroit that went the other way with high taxes and heavy regulation? What Midwestern city that cut taxes and deregulated did worse than Detroit? \n Let me give you a silly example to illustrate the point. \n I live in an area where gophers abound. I trapped them out of my front yard and was quickly the only house on the block with no gopher mounds and my neighbors noticed. People started offering me money to trap their gophers. I'm thinking $20 and an hour sitting in the shade and I could fix my neighbors problem. Being the ever ready entrepreneur, I looked into what it would take to do it legally. Should be simple right? Wrong. \n City license, home occupation permit, tax id number, DBA statement in the paper (I'm used to those) and best of all, a trapping license that required me to drive repeatedly across the state to take classes and be tested on trapping everything from racoons and coyotes to skunk and beaver. Why in the hell do I need to know how to trap a beaver to set what amounts to a rat trap in a suburban neighborhood? My start up costs for what should have been a weekend hobby to help my neighbors would be about $50 in traps and about $1000+ dollars in licenses and gas and motel fees. \n I could easily have provided a valuable service to my neighbors in my spare time and made a decent side income but it's just not worth the effort. I would have had to charge an exorbitant rate to cover the costs of licensing and permits so I didn't do it, my neighbors still have gophers and the state is out that revenue because some regulator decided that to trap gophers (mice too) I need to know how to set a beaver trap. \n Most regulations really are that stupid. You want to keep environmental regulations fine, there is so much redundant, ridiculous crap built into most city codes and state codes that you could remove 90% of it and never even touch the ones that could arguably be valuable. \n The other plus to that is all those regulations translate into administrative and enforcement costs. Remove the regulations and you remove the costs associated with them and hence the size of the government and the cost of running it, as well as increase the chance that someone will start a business, even if it's a simple as trapping gophers. \n So", "id": "c1v0rzo", "summary": "gut your permitting and licensing bureaucracies (which are among the worst in the world) and reduce your tax rate to competitive levels even better, go for cut throat rates, slash them. You aren't trying to compete at this point, you are trying to recover. You want to make doing business in Detroit look so damn good that you steal businesses from other regions. You have to fatten the hog before you can send him to market. \n Without those two steps, there will be no rebirth I guarantee it."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "A broken nose probably won't heal straight and even worse some serious breathing problems can also set in. \n I know this has been said several times already, but you seem to be missing it. I had my nose broken twice, once when I was about 7 and again when I was 16. I didn't go to the doctor, nose looks fine. I also broke a kids nose that same year, entirely by accident and he also did not go to the doctor and last I saw him years later looks just fine. Barring visually obvious complications like sitting at a 45 degree angle, a bag of frozen peas and time is about all you generally need.", "id": "c463sh0", "summary": "A broken nose is not automatically a trip to the emergency room, even for a 7 year old."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Anyone harmed as a result of taking the advice of these celebrities or harmed by using the products that these celebrities shill in their books and movies and on their websites should be able to sue the celebrities for malpractice. Why malpractice? Because if a celebrity is profiting from her recommendations (through products, books and movies), she is practicing medicine without a license. \n What she is giving here is legal advice, so, if we take this doctors advice and lose our case should we turn around sue her for practicing law without a license? \n notice: if you down vote this post and you are not in fact a lawyer, I will be forced to add you to the list of future suits as you will be promoting the opinion of a non-licensed practitioner of law in regards to matters of law. \n EDIT:", "id": "cole9u4", "summary": "Getting sue happy is not the way to fix stupid."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "I take my dog with me almost everywhere it's allowed, weather permitting. I end up using the National Forest system a lot specifically because they are so permissive in allowing dogs. She's a 3 year old, 80 lb German Shepherd and easily covers most terrain and doesn't mind long days as long as you take a good mid day break and temps don't get too high. You couldn't get her under a blanket if you tried but she dosen't seem to have any problem sleeping in a tent with the weather outside hovering at 32F. \n I took her on a group hike (like 15 people) once that was about 15 miles with significant elevation gain. The group was widely spread out on the trial but she spent the whole day running back and forth from the first person to the last, nosing each persons hand in turn, anyone who wasn't part of our group she just ignored. If someone straggled, she ran back and sat with them until they got back on the trail. You don't have to teach a shepherd to herd, it's in their blood. She easily put on double the milage that trip but never slowed down. \n She doesn't do well in hot weather so if temps are going to be above about 80 I scale back the pace, take a lot of breaks and check her regularly for signs of overheating and dehydration. Above 90 and I don't take her on anything more than a couple of miles. \n She has to carry her own load, so her backpack contains her food, some treats, a collapsable water bowl, leash and a quart of water. Shes likes to have a job to do, so she actually really likes to wear the pack. \n Where I'm at in Coastal California (Big Sur area), I have to check her every hour for ticks and throughout the course of the day it's not uncommon to pick 15 tick or more off of her. I rarely miss them but she has gotten a couple that I found the next day, me too for that matter. She had a weird spell after I tried using Frontline on her, I don't know if it was related or just a coincidence in time but until I can find something else I'm comfortable with, hand picking it is.", "id": "c5v7js0", "summary": "My dogs awesome."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Seem like everyones first assumption is drugs and other black market goods. I'm sure that's a not insignificant hunk, but the most $100 denomination bills I've ever seen were in relation to legitimate businesses and transactions in Latin America. \n Cars purchased with en envelope of (non-drug money) $100's. $100 bills stored in home safes or even mattresses by retail store owners as an alternative to less than safe locally denominated bank accounts. Money belts stuffed with $100 bills to purchase (non-drug) goods in one country for import into a neighboring one. \n I've seen this in gong on in several countries as a fairly normal way of doing business so if you extrapolate that across the small businesses and small importers that service a half a billion people in Latin America, that's a whole lot of $100 bills.", "id": "c74ux73", "summary": "As an american, I've never seen so many $100 bills as when in contact with legitimate (non drug related) business transactions outside of the U.S."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Except, of course, that many \"pitbulls\" are actually Staffordshire terriers \n All the bully breeds were created by selecting traits from several existing lines. \n Give me some terriers and bulldogs (preferably the old-school ones) and I could create a brand new type of pitbull in just a few generations. It's going to get the attitude and gameness from the terriers and the power from the bulldog and whether some breed registry wanted to recognize it as a pitbull is beside the point, it would still be one because it was made from the same ingredients. \n In regards to being potentially dangerous, my new dog will suffer / benefit from all the same issues as the current bully breeds for the simple fact that I will have successfully and explicitly selected for courage, tenacity, animal agression and power. \n None of those traits are inherently bad, they are critical for some jobs which is why they were bred into the ancestral breeds in the first place, but they are a mix that does not lend itself to owners in denial about the power of genetics.", "id": "c5srhab", "summary": "A Jack Russell terrier would be fucking terrifying if it was 100+ lbs."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "up until the point that the person is executed \n I assume you recognize the huge flaw with the \"up until the point of\" part. Before that, both options are identical. After that, one can never be undone while the other can or at least mitigated. \n > For your logic to hold, you would need to establish that a prisoner's probability of vindication is higher if he is given a life sentence rather than a death sentence. \n Not at all. Probability of error does not factor into it. Taking the life of an innocent person is arguably the most egregious example of the violation of the non-aggression principle one can commit. \n I would turn it around and say that to support the death penalty, you would have show that the ability to avoid that glaring contradiction of fundamental principle is just not practical. I don't mean just inconvenient, but not doable. \n My example would be 20 guys on an island. One goes psycho and starts trying to kill everyone. You can catch him and even tie him up for a while, but there is no practical way to prevent him from escaping in the long run. It's fair to say that keeping him alive put's everyone in danger and hence his continued existence poses an imminent threat to everyone else and therefore the death penalty can be viewed as an act of self defense. \n That just does not apply to a modern society with massive and highly secure prison facilities. There is no self defense argument to be made, and the existence of any possible error, no matter how small I feel precludes the violation of a fundamental libertarian principle. To do so would be to discard the foundation stone of libertarianism either out of an argument of convenience or impulse to punish, even at the risk of killing the wrong guy. \n > How many lifers are released more than a decade after their conviction? \n That's an issue you have with the implementation of sentences. If you think life should mean life then fine, but it does not address the underlying issue. \n > Is it even fair to call their sentence \"revoked\" given that they spent a large percent of their life in prison? \n Well if it's indeed revoked because it turns out that it was an error, then the innocent person who was falsely imprisoned should have a very strong case for restitution. This is true for all interactions where one party damages another and I see no reason it should not be the same for wrongful incarceration. \n > But dragging death sentences out over an entire lifetime does not decrease the likelihood of taking an innocent life. It just helps those of us on the outside sleep better. \n I'm fine giving them a choice. I don't think you will see any more choosing death than do now by their own hand. I have no doubt that the possibility of future vindication will be chosen by the vast majority of wrongfully convicted people right to the end.", "id": "c2bnlt6", "summary": "The better sleep you are getting by being done with it, comes at the cost of violating the fundamental principle of libertarianism. The initiation of physical force against persons or property is inherently illegitimate. If the person is indeed innocent then any force initiated against them is illegitimate and therefore if restraint is an option, then it is indeed demanded."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "I'm a big fan of building your diet around basic food stuffs. Starting with things like meat, vegetables and whole grains rather then opening a box of something. I guess they call that \"cooking\". I take it much further than most and grow, gather and hunt a significant portion of my food, make my own beer, sauerkraut, kimchi, hot sauces, corned beef, sausages, bagels, flour, etc, etc. \n My biggest beef (no pun intended) with the palo-diets that I see floating around is that I don't see them as reasonable facsimiles of what an actual paleo-diet would have looked like. The big one that always comes up is the \"no grains\" rule. While it's true that agriculture is from a later period, humans have been eating grass seed since our last common ancestor with the other chimps. Banning grain while allowing the other highly modified vegetable and animal food sources doesn't make any sense to me. Grains (and legumes) were as important to the diets of people who lived where they were available as much as any plant food source. \n A real paleo diet was very tightly tied to the local area, very different from area to area, very seasonal, often composed of a very narrow list of foodstuffs at least for certain portions of the year and it certainly didn't contain the vegetables as you see them in the store today and often contained meat only on rare occasions and usually in the form of small game. While I'm on the topic, where are the insects? Insects have played a prominent role in the human story and really should be a part of any paleolithic diet worth the name. \n I'm competent enough to feed myself off the land in my local area and when I think about what a hunter-gatherer would eat here where I live, it looks very little like what I see recommended and would indeed contain at least one grain (Avena fatua) in large quantities, at least in late spring when it's readily available and easy to harvest.", "id": "c2fgipz", "summary": "I like the idea of the paleo-diet, but it feels like many of it's supporters seem to have a 1950's \"caveman movie\" image of what pre-agriculturalist societies actually ate."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "At least in regards to the inheritable forms, the existence of the low functioning individuals could be a direct consequence of the success of some of their high functioning ancestors. Obviously not as simple a trait as say sickle cell anemia but I don't see whey it would not function similarly where the increased success of mild forms perpetuates the existence of others with reproductively unsuccessful forms. \n If it worked that way then you would expect both low and high functioning forms to increase in prevalence as a society morphed into one that would reward those with a mild aspect of the spectrum.", "id": "c1yqyu6", "summary": "maybe you can't separate them. Points finger at computer geeks and math professors."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Tomatoes don't need pruning. \n It depends on the goal really. For determinants, that is unequivocally correct. I mostly grow indeterminate types though and have two drastically different techniques I use. \n The first is to simply create a 7' high tube out of concrete reinforcing panels, space them on 4' centers, put one plant in each and just let them go gang busters. \n The second is to train them to just two leaders, removing all the lower suckers (except for the one that makes the second head), and train each leader up a separate single piece of twine. You bacially have a plant that forks low and created two long vines going straight up. With this method, I can plant them as little a 12' to 18' apart, I end up with a very manageable, easy to pick, and less disease prone (better airflow) setup. The tomatoes, are larger and seem to ripen earlier. It's pretty much how they do it in a greenhouse and it works very well outdoors as well. You get less tomatoes per plant, but have a much higher density of plants. I get a larger quantity of more marketable tomatoes per square foot with this system and the cost of set up (a couple of t-posts, wire and twine vs. cages) is a lot less.", "id": "c1lkmbb", "summary": "If you are growing one or a few plants you're best harvest will be with no pruning at all. If you are growing hundreds of indeterminate types careful pruning and training can maximize the per square foot harvest of marketable fruit."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "it, promotes helplessness. It's almost as if you are beaten down into believing yourself to be this puny, weak, inept thing that can do nothing for itself \n You don't have to believe the backstory, I certainly don't, to be able to acknowledge that for many people it indeed became their way out of alcoholism. \n It does promote a mindset of helplessness, but for those it works for, most already had that mindset going into it. They are after all looking for help from outside when they go into the program in the first place. Assuming they were not sent there by the court system, they have already said to themselves in some manner, I can't do this by myself. \n Many of the people in the program have already lost faith in themselves to be able to control the situation. God, or dog or whatever, I don't think matters so much which, is simply a vessel that is not themselves, one that has not yet been proven a failure as they themselves have been, that they can once again place hope into. Hopelessness undermines the fight for changing the situation and regaining the hope that things can get better, even under false pretenses is critical to finding the will to fight. \n That said, I've been to some big AA meetings in support of close friends and I've had pretty much the same reaction as you, but there's a difference between whether something is real or not and whether something is effective or not. Sometimes lies can indeed bring you the results you desire. It would be better if you didn't have to resort to them, but we all have and probably for things a lot less serious than pulling ourselves out of the gutter. Who am I to knock someone for lying to themselves in an effort to save their own life if it works for them?", "id": "cj2o4xk", "summary": "It's just a psychological crutch for people who have already lost faith in themselves and therefore hope, but one that seems to work for many people. P.S. And yes, it absolutely is a religious program."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "You wouldn't believe how much hatred it attracts from right wing people though. \n I don't know about that. I'm a pretty run of the mill libertarian type and regularly get labeled right wing. I think co-ops are a great idea, I try to go out of my way to frequent them and often bring them up as a viable option to people looking to fight back against the excesses of some more traditional corporations in industries that require a large up front investment out of the reach of most individuals. \n The only part of co-ops internationally that I don't like, and this is more of an issue in countries other than the U.S., is that they are often based not on the pooling of resources and purchasing of the means of production, but the stealing (euphemistically referred to as expropriation) of the means of production formerly owned by and paid for by someone else. If you have to steal the infrastructure investment made by someone else to make your business successful, then it's not really a co-op and does not bode well for the long term viability of that particular co-op model. \n Other than that little caveat, this right winger whole heartedly supports the concept.", "id": "c356j5q", "summary": "There are co-ops and then there are worker expropriations. One is based on pooling resources and labor and the other on stealing those of someone else. \"Right wingers\" have a problem with the second, not the first."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "I went in a few days before my 90 and there was something (can't remember exactly where I saw it, but I confirmed it before going in) to the effect that you can apply before 90, but they have the discretion to not issue it right away. \n It was in the mail a couple of weeks later at the same time the friend I went in with who already had his residency received his.", "id": "cmnkl2v", "summary": "it's a non-issue it just could be a delay in receiving it (60 days?) but in my case was not (snohomish sheriff dpt, and very pleasant and courteous experience)."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Since this is a forum of people who consider themselves skeptics, allow me to play devils advocate for a moment and turn the mirror around. For the record, I'm a proponent of developing improved crops, among other things, through genetic modification. But... \n The claims \"GMO's are safe\" and \"GMO's are dangerous\" are both, without context or further clarification, incorrect. \n One can say for example, that the GM vegetables that have been released to date have shown no evidence of causing any diseases. That would be correct, but that is based not on the inherent safety of GM products, but on the fact that the particular gene that was added in these specific cases, produces something that is not known to cause any problems and additional testing of the final product has not shown evidence of any problems. You are making a statement in regards to the safety of a specific modification and to the protocols involved with the release of a GM product for food, not on the safety of GMOs just by the fact that they are GMOs. \n Botulinum toxin is a protein and it's production could be incorporated into a crop as easily as the production of Bt or glyphosate resistance is. Now, I have no idea, other than warfare, why someone would want to do that, and it certainly would never receive approval for release to the public, but it's entirely possible to do and I can assure you that particular GMO would most certainly not be safe to eat (raw or undercooked anyways). \n When someone says GMOs are safe, the only way that can be interpreted as correct is by reading it as, \"the protocols we have in place for the release of genetically modified organisms are adequate to ensure the safety of the products that are brought to market\". That's far too much reading between the lines for my tastes. If you understand that sentence, and you choose to sum it up as \"GMOs are safe\", you are being disingenuous because the two claims are not interchangeable. One suggests that somehow being genetically modified, magically makes all things safe to eat and the other is a statement about the safety of a particular protocol. \n Both sides of this argument have a habit of trying to distill it down to absolutist sound bites and in doing so are making incorrect claims. Some arguments have to be nuanced if you actually want to say something without being wrong.", "id": "carsa8c", "summary": "GMOs can be safe, they can also be deadly as fuck, the difference is in the details."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Yes, I did read the other sections and now (I assume it was you updating wikipedia, thanks for that) I have read the study that should have been linked to the citation in the first place. As I suspected, it does not suggest that catch and release is responsible for > 40% mortality, it's saying that tournaments and they way they store and handle fish after being caught does (in some cases). \n This study is measuring not just the mortality from catch and release, but the much larger mortality caused by subsequent holding of those fish in overheated and under oxygenated live wells as well as handling during weigh in. \n That is far more damaging to the fish than the act of catching it. The conclusion of that study includes this  \"Professional tournaments run by the Bass Anglers Sportsmans Society (B.A.S.S.) had an excellent record with mortality rates generally less than 10% due to strict fish handling guidelines and state-of-the-art weigh-in procedures\" . \n Mortality rates after catching, holding and weighing of less than 10% strongly points to mortality rates from strictly catch and release (no holding tanks / weigh in) of significantly less than 10%. Bringing us right back to the other studies mentioned on the Wikipedia page  \"While a number of scientific studies have now found survival rates of shallow water fish caught-and-released on fly and lure have extremely high survival rates (95–97%)\" .", "id": "c1vuign", "summary": "Catch and release is not killing 43% of the fish, tossing them in an overheated, inadequately oxygenated tanks for hours and heavy handling of them after (weigh in) is and the cited study makes that perfectly clear. The mortality for shallow water fish caught and immediately released is more like 3-5%. \n The cited study does not say what I think you think it says and certainly not what Peta is saying it does."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "I have two anecdotes of this in my circle of friends. Both women, both strict (no fish, poultry etc) vegetarians (but not vegans) for more than 10 years, both very methodical in preparing their diets, both diets included milk products. \n Person A began to experience irregular menstruation, fatigue and generally had a moody disposition (I added that last part but it's true). \n Person B began to lose her hair (and also was quite moody, again, my perspective but true). \n Both began to incorporate meat in their diet and all symptoms quickly disappeared. I added the moody part above because from my perspective, there was a dramatic improvement in their general attitude although both denied experiencing any psychological changes themselves, to me there was an obvious change in the general drama level. \n I also have a good male friend that is a vegetarian. He is not at all careful in planning his meals and it seems that processed type (but vegetarian) foods make up the bulk of it. He hates vegetables but heavily supplements with vitamins and minerals in pill form. He's been vegetarian for something like 15 years and at least by outward appearances is in great health. He's also probably the least moody person I know, with an almost saint like tolerance to stress and mean people. He's still a vegetarian.", "id": "c4kbcmy", "summary": "Two cases I'm personally familiar with were both due to experiencing negative health effects after a prolonged period of vegetarianism. In both cases adding meat to the diet resolved the problems and made them a lot easier to live with and not just in deciding what we are having for dinner."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "From the article:\n>  “Did you plant something there last year that wasn’t planted in the rest of the field?” he asked. Sure enough, precisely where the severe SDS was, the dealer had grown alfalfa, which he later killed off at the end of the season by spraying a glyphosate-based herbicide (such as Roundup). The healthy part of the field, on the other hand, had been planted to sweet corn and hadn’t received glyphosate.\" \n Correlation does not equal causation. \n SDS in soybeans is caused by the action of Soybean cyst nematode combined with the fungus, Fusarium virguliforme. \n The disease is generally controlled through he use of crop rotations with non host crops, tilling and drainage improvements. Two stands, even side by side will show varying levels of the disease depending on how long since last planted with the host crop and drainage. \n The area planted to corn was almost definitely tilled in since corn stubble would be rather thick to plant into. The alfalfa was most likely not since there would be no reason to treat it with Roundup if you were going to. \n No till farming favors the development of SDS in soybeans through the action of higher moisture retention and slower warming in spring. \n What you are seeing here are two areas that are undergoing different crop rotation schedules and being treated differently in ways known to affect the progression and prevalence of of SDS. The control? None tht I can see. \n > In many fields, the evidence is even more obvious. The disease was most severe at the ends of rows where the herbicide applicator looped back to make another pass. \n It's also where water accumulates in a sloping field resulting in excessive moisture retention which favors SDS. Note the dark green line running diagonally across the field with a dead zone on either side. That is a low spot accumulating water and resulting in overly wet conditions. \n The most that can be said about Round Up here is that it is often used in no till farming which itself is known to favor the development of SDS.", "id": "c1d96sl", "summary": "not even close to science"}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "My parents were the from the talk to them like they are adults camp of child raising. I don't remember ever having a talk but I don't ever remember not knowing how it worked either. \n What I do remember is hearing the most ridiculous ideas being peddled by fellow children (like babies come out of your belly button kinds of things) and wondering who the heck they had been talking to.", "id": "c1zc8wj", "summary": "I guess my parents just told me the truth when I asked questions early on because I don't remember ever having a talk. It's just something I knew about like eating and pooping the source of which was lost in antiquity."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Disclosure. I have a hobby farm and I do small scale breeding of OP crops as well as maintain several varieties of heirloom vegetables. \n There are actually several issues that are easy to conflate. The first is the lost of agricultural diversity, that's a big one for me. To a significant degree that is a natural consequence of large scale agriculture. The consistency of the plants in harvest time and appearance is a pretty important feature of mechanized agriculture. With or without GMO, that pressure would still exist. To a some degree this is also driven by regulation such as the seed laws of the E.U. where farmers are required to grow certain government approved varieties. \n I have no problem with GMO as a concept I do have a problem with how it's often implemented. Taking two big examples, Bt and Roundup Ready crops. They are both suffering from same problem, shortsightedness, one worse than the other. \n In the case of Bt crops you are taking an effective and safe organic pesticide and introducing it in way that is guaranteed to result in the development of resistance in the targeted organism. It's very much like breeding chickens with antibiotics already in their system, it's doomed to quickly collapse and result in the loss of effectiveness a very important pesticide. In the case of Roundup Ready crops you end up with a similar problem with the creation of glyphosate resistant weeds. At least in the case of RR crops the damage is done to the producers of those crops, in the case of the loss of effectiveness of Bt it hits everyone especially producers of organic produce who are left with few options. \n Yes, there are guidelines that growers are suppose to implement in an attempt to offset the development of resistance but it's ineffective as evidenced by the fact that the resistant organisms already exist and are spreading.", "id": "c4qr033", "summary": "The use of GMO in generating a vertical resistance (like conferred with Bt) by including it in the tissues of the plant, while profitable in the short term is a really dumb idea in the long run."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "It's kind of hard to tell which leaves belong to the tree. I see at least two maybe three distinct plants. \n If you look at the top left, there is a thin branch arching left and down from the left trunk with broad and some lobed leaves. Those look like Mulberry, which is commonly planted in the area. \n Below those are lance shaped glossy leaves. Those could be several different things but given where you are the chances are good that's oleander that's not getting nearly enough sun. \n In the very top middle of the photo are lance shaped leaves that have a sickle-like curve to them and are kind of yellow-green. That looks like eucalyptus which is also very commonly planted in your area. \n The mulberry and oleander are often pruned back to stubs and will regrow. The oleander can be pruned anytime, the mulberry is usually pruned in fall. I'm sure you've seen both plants around town. The oleander is the pink and white flowered bushes that line the freeway median and the mulberry are those odd looking trees that are regularly pruned so that they look like leafless clubs. Personally I think that's a terrible way to prune a mulberry but that seems like what most people do in that area.", "id": "c4nj6by", "summary": "I think you have a mess of stuff going on, including mulberry, oleander and eucalyptus. I'm not real confident of any of this though. Close ups of the leaves and any flowers or old fruiting bodies would help. \n P.S. The mulberry (if that's what it is, it could also be a vine of some sort growing in the mess) is most likely a fruitless mulberry as they are the most commonly planted so it's probably not going to produce fruit for you."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "There is relatively little in the way of novel genes in most domesticated crops and between varieties of same crop (like broccoli and kohlrabi). The majority of the outward diversity you see is actually the result of selection and inbreeding. \n It's for this reason that when looking for disease resistance for example, breeders go back to old varieties and even to the ancestors and wild relatives which contain genes that have been selected out or were never represented in the initial domestication. \n There's also GMO which by definition increases the diversity of a varieties genome. \n If anything, the picture is even bleaker when you realize that most varieties were never commercialized in the first place. They never existed in a catalog at all, they were passed down from person to person. That was the norm for most of agricultural history and we have lost most of those. \n You can still see some places where this process still exists. If you travel around Peru for example, practically every village you stop at will have a corn and potato that is unique to them. These too are being replaced by a small number of comercial varieties.", "id": "c4nob0r", "summary": "We really are losing a great deal of diversity in our crops, at least what's available to the consumer, although there are programs in place to try to protect it such as the [USDA National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation]( and many small breeders that independently preserve older varieties."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "The probability that you'll be without clothes is almost zero. \n Maybe you're just hiking with the wrong people? j/k \n I get the use of your clothes as a the basic material for making cord but being strict about it, it still violates the question posed by the title of the post. In any case cotton isn't going to be much stronger than a lot of plant materials and if it happens to be synthetics, it still requires cannibalizing your clothing which is pretty important in it's own right and eventually you will run out of clothes to rip up. \n I guess what I'm saying is that the importance of being able to make cordage, not just twisting some pine roots but actual strong and durable cordage that can take the abuse of a bow drill for example, requires skill and a knowledge of the plants in your area.", "id": "c4ekpx6", "summary": "Making good cordage is an underrated skill."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "After rappelling down from a climb, you generally pull one end of the rope and the other end snakes up and through the anchor you rappelled from. Well, it was stuck on something. I cleverly planned out a pulley system (AKA a bunch of carabiners with nuts haphazardly slapped into cracks) on the ground that gave me the mechanical advantage I thought I could use to pull the rope free. \n The rope ran from me, horizontally to the pulley system and then from there up to the jam 60 feet or so above me. On the count of three, I pulled on the rope with all my strength like a one man game of tug of war. \n Suddenly, I could see the anchor I had attached the pulley to, flying over my now horizontal face. I had punched myself in the mouth hard enough to be floating level several feet off the ground as the anchor, traveling at high speed shot overhead. The next thing I remember are my friends standing over me laughing hysterically several minutes later.", "id": "c0ur5rc", "summary": "I punched myself in the face so hard I knocked myself out."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "it is pretty hard to miss a shot from ten feet away \n I know it might seem that way but if you have never fired a handgun before you might be surprised. It's not the pointing that is the problem, it's the pulling of the trigger. \n Most people who have never fired one before, will squeeze the grip and the trigger, like clenching your fist. When you do that, the barrel usually rotates toward your thumb and down, so a righty who has never shot before will often shoot significantly down and left of where they are actually aiming. Combine that with the flinching at the expectation of the shot that most people do the first time they go out and novices missing not just the bullseye, but the entire target at 10 feet is a lot more common then you might expect, and that's in the controlled environment of a range. \n A 1 degree movement of the barrel translates to about 2\" at 10 feet. 5 degrees goes from a kill shot to a total miss.", "id": "ch9f1bq", "summary": "Shooting accurately, easy in theory, harder in practice."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "I don't think so. Proper roles of government aside for a second, thinking just in terms of the law as it stands and is interpreted.... \n I don't think it would qualify as either \n 1) An act of war - Since we aren't actually fighting. You could make an argument (rather weak but still) that it was just an example of trade between countries, although obviously with the desired outcome of war. At the very least, I think it's a lot less black and white than say, us actively bombing the shit out of them like we are now which is hard to define as anything but war. \n 2) Aiding terrorists - If only because the legal definition of terrorist is so broad, vague and based on the abetter nation (the U.S. in this case) defining who is the legitimate government. If the U.S. decided that Gaddafi is not the legitimate government, then the use of even terrorist acts to enable political change would not meet the definition of terrorism as it currently stands. \n So I'm not sure the augment that it is outright illegal (though I'm willing to be persuaded) would fly given the current state of things. \n I think it's a bad idea because 1) I generally dislike getting involved in other countries internal politics 2) this will and already is biting us in the ass (see: Arab League) and will only further our image as an empire 3) Arming is only step one, it will to be followed up with training, intelligence and both ground and air support which takes us right back to war 4) history shows that there is a very high likelihood that the result will not be at all what we though it would and if it turns out worse, do we just keep arming the next rebel alliance until we get what we want? \n That said, I'd love to see the rebels boot Gaddafi and establish some sort of secular democracy, I just don't think it's our place to impose it nor entangle our selves in the process.", "id": "c1n5lrq", "summary": "Illegal probably not, bad idea probably."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Now how does one know which berries are edible? The best way is to learn about various species of harmful berries.\" \n As a long term and still living forager of edible wild plants, I'm going to disagree with the opening premise. \n It's important to know the poisonous plants in your area, particularly the ones that resemble edible ones, but the most important way to know which plants are edible is through positive identification, not the inherently flawed process of ruling out the poisonous ones. \n Just because a berry is not one of some arbitrary number you have on a list of toxic plants does not mean it's edible, it might be another poisonous one that you just didn't have on your no-eat list.", "id": "c8t6w9a", "summary": "positive identification"}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "there doesn't seem to be a realistic way to keep it restrained. \n There isn't but from my perspective anyway, the choice is one between a democracy that I'm a member of that will constantly be trying to expand itself or an imposed system of government that I have no say in. Neither are ideal but one is clearly better than the other. That's the pragmatist speaking. \n > Someone on here mentioned a style of government called \"panarchism\" \n I have to admit the word is a new one to me but a quick search, and it sounds like what I just assumed would come about naturally in a minarchist society. A system of like minded people mutually agreeing to behave by certain rules. \n Admittedly, I have not read too deeply on the concept yet, but I'm having a hard time envisioning how this would work if you believed in the concept of private property without an overarching minarchist state setting the base framework that the others were built on and abided. \n For example, say you have a system of competing states, one protects private property, one considers it communal (that's actually a big division for syndicalism). In this system, one state would not necessarily recognize the property of the other because it's an alien concept to their system of government. \n With an overarching night watchman state (I'm talking bare minimum here) however along with the people, the possessions and property of those people would fall under the jurisdiction of whatever state that the owner chose to associate with. \n It would be possible to construct a syndicalist society (practically any type of society actually) within such a framework based on the property of it's members. Internally they could redistribute it as they see fit. They could not however seize it from the citizens of a neighboring government. I don't think that is just a thought experiment either, I have no doubt you would see exactly that happen. \n Private property is a binary thing, it exists or it doesn't. With the protection of private property, you could construct practically any system of governance as a sub unit of the whole. Without it, the whole thing basically becomes a an anarco-syndicalist nation by default. In fact panarchism without explicitly including private property, kind of sounds like a anarco-syndicalist Trojan horse.", "id": "c1yub0e", "summary": "Without an overarching framework (minarchist state) and protection of private property, I don't see how such a thing as panarchism could function. Within a minarchist state protecting property rights I think somthing akin to panarchism would naturally implement itself."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "What do you think commodities are used for? \n That wheat commodity becomes your bread, that copper index becomes your wiring. For the moment, the end consumer has mostly been shielded by manufacturers who act to moderate swings in the highs and lows of the commodity prices. Those manufacturers  have  been screaming about rising costs, it just hasn't trickled down to the retail level yet (not counting gas where the costs gets transferred almost immediately). \n It's fundamentally impossible to have a sustained rise in commodities at the levels they have been and not have that price eventually show up at the consumer level relative to it's share of manufacturing costs. Not to do so would bankrupt the manufacturer. \n It's a different kind of inflation, not one driven by increased demand for the goods but by a devaluing of the currency. \n The CPI tracks consumer prices, as such, it would lag the actual rise in commodities due to a devalued dollar which would first show up in commodities and exchange rates (which is what you see although today is a bloody day across the board). The only difference in the long run, is where the price increase shows up first. Eventually they both end up with higher prices across the board.", "id": "c2a4t5b", "summary": "The CPI is good at catching inflation driven by increased demand, but flawed at catching it due to a devaluation event. In one case it's looking at the leading edge of a wave and in the other, it's tail."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Trying to compare two countries with different or even similar legislation is not very productive since it ignores every other factor that separates them. Switzerland being a good example of that difficulty where you have very high gun ownership rates and very low violent crime rates. \n Much more telling would the the violent crime rate in england in the decades before and after strict gun control. That's not a rhetorical question I'm too lazy to google it, anyone, anyone? \n In the case of the U.S., looser gun restrictions has generally been correlated with reduced violent crime but there are some examples where that correlation is reversed. Add in the fact that correlation does not always equal causation and it becomes even harder to make an absolute statement about it.", "id": "c4r2bb6", "summary": "shits complicated."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "In the midst of a SHTF senario, food stuffs, ammunition and the like would be more immediately useful but cabbages and ham for example have a limited shelf life are not particularly portable for larger purchases. Things like ammo and booze would be very tradable commodities but come with their own storage issues. \n All value is subjective. Gold is not hugely useful itself in a SHTF senario, it makes terribles cutting implements, although I guess you could load rounds with gold bullets, but what it does have is a very long history of being used as a storable form of value, one that is portable, divisible, durable and importantly in the given senario, it's perceived value has not historically been subject, at least not as subject, to the whims of national leaders or even to the to the rise and fall of civilizations as are the common forms of currency. \n In a short term SHTF senario, it's a way of preserving value until society got it's shit back together. In a long term senario, well we are just back to a way of life that defined most of recorded human history, a time when gold and silver were indeed used as currency in much of the world. Even when it wasn't used directly as currency, they generally held value as the rare commodities they are. \n While it would not be the first thing I'd put in a SHTF box, it does have it's place as would silver for many of the same reasons.", "id": "c7v6her", "summary": "It may seem useless, but it's hard to argue with thousands of years of history."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "As the owner of a large, powerful and often maligned breed myself (working line German Shepherd AKA K9) I couldn't disagree more. \n Dogs have been bred for hundreds, even thousands of years to have very specific abilities and temperaments. While there is enormous variation within any breed, the differences are very real and quantifiable. They can not just be ignored, especially among the owners of the more powerful breeds. To anthropomorphize them and try to apply some misguided idea of racial equality is to ignore generations of concerted effort to breed in those very behaviors and abilities. \n A responsible owner needs to acknowledge and understand the breed and their specific needs and the over sensitivity and outright failure of the owners of many pit bulls is precisely why they and related breeds rank so highly on the list of fatal dog attacks. You are not doing yourself or the breed a favor by pretending that their history is inconsequential. \n It's not that they are good or bad, that would again be anthropomorphizing. \n For the same reason that a pug makes a terrible herding dog, the owner of a shepherd does not have the luxury of pretending that they have the same level of responsibility as the pug owner. The reason is that they are simply, very different animals. \n As the owner of a German Shepherd, one specifically bred for herding and flock defense, I must be aware that my dog has a [very particular set of skills]( and instincts that are mostly dead in a pug. Deep down in her gut, if it's small, runs or even if it moves too fast, my dog desperately wants to control it's movements. She wants to herd children running on the beach even if their mothers think otherwise. That's what she was bred to do. She's also acutely aware of absolutely everything going on around her and will quickly identify the things that might be a threat to her flock, she will face them and tell them in no uncertain terms to move on. Again, you don't have to teach a shepherd to do this, it's in the genes. \n One of many ways that can go wrong is that shepherds often herd the members of the flock that are not obeying by grabbing them by the leg and dragging them back to where the dog thinks they are supposed to be. That's actually recognizable in the bite statistics for german shepherd where a large portion of them are of that ankle nipping or bite and drag type of bite. That's herding behavior. It's not agressive in the sense that the dog is trying to cause injury, it's actually intended to keep them in line and hence safe, but try explaining that to the mother of the kid that your dog just dragged away from his father. \n A bite is a bite and in the case of a powerful breed like a shepherd or a pit you may not have a second chance. \n My job as her owner is to train myself in directing and moderating her behavior. I can't do that unless unless I acknowledge those genetic tendencies and abilities and accept them as real, and they are very real, rather than wish them away. \n Pits also have a unique temperament and among other things, do have a tendency toward small animal agression (inherited from the terriers) and yes dog agression. Dog agression is actually part of the UKC breed description which states  \"Because most APBTs exhibit some level of dog aggression and because of its powerful physique, the APBT requires an owner who will carefully socialize and obedience train the dog.\" . That is what we are seeing here in this thread, dog agression, and the denial of this well documented temperament of pits is likely the most frequently made mistake with pit owners. \n For the record, I like pits, I just don't like owners who pretend it's the same as owning a chihuahua.", "id": "c3ismwk", "summary": "Breed does matter."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Also, you end up in a workplace where the people working there are not hired because they are good at what they are supposed to be doing, they are hired because they are related to one another and most of the time seriously under-qualified. \n Hoo boy! If you think nepotism doesn't exist in the corporate world you can't have been in it very long or positioned very high. The difference is that the family owned business hires cousin joe to work the front counter or some other position that he is expected to actually do something which granted, he probably sucks at. \n In the corporate world someones niece becomes a VP of some obscure department that you didn't even know existed. If you happen work in their department, they are probably so far above you in pay grade that you never see them. I guess you can argue that at least they are out of your way for the most part but they are there, carefully sheltered from actually having to do anything.", "id": "c47bdwb", "summary": "In most mom and pop shops the ecosystem isn't large enough to support anything higher than middle management so the nepotism happens there, in the corporate world it starts much higher up the food chain."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Well I've never done hydro peppers, but I have played around with hydro and I've grown a lot of peppers outside and my guess is that it's probably one of the better options for things to grow under artificial light. Peppers like the warm night temperatures you would have in a hydro setup and the lower light level (as opposed to noontime summer sun) would be more to their liking as well. \n As to your selection of peppers, are you trying to burn a hole in your stomach as quickly as possible :) \n I'm growing some Naga Jolokia this year (outdoors), mind if I ask where you got your scorpion seeds from?", "id": "c1rc6fn", "summary": "No specific experience but my guess is it's a good mix."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "There's absolutely nothing here to indicate why there should be a recall other than disliking her politics \n That's why you have recalls. They are like the buyers remorse clause of politics.  If she had done something illegal, you have a trial. For impeachment you need to show cause, for a recall you just need enough people who want a do over. It's entirely political and it's supposed to be, it's by design.", "id": "cc5wxjr", "summary": "recall != impeachment"}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Your citation is referring to actual gophers (family Geomyidae). The things in OPs picture are often referred to as \"gophers\" in some regions as they tend to be terrestrial, burrowing animals, but more commonly called ground squirrels and prairie dogs in other areas, and are in fact a kind of squirrel (family Sciuridae subfamily Xerinae), marmots and groundhogs are vary large examples of this subfamily. Both Geomyidae and Sciuridae Xerinae are rodents, but gophers and ground squirrels are very different animals.", "id": "crr44rv", "summary": "These are not the gophers you're looking for...."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "I do a lot of transplanting, even when I'm starting outdoors. \n By starting in trays, the soil stays warmer and so germination occurs faster, growth in the first week or so is quicker and I don't need to tend over itty bitty seedlings in the beds mixed with weeds, just one densely planted set of weed free trays. \n I don't have problems with the soil crusting over (I'm in clay) preventing the seed breaking through and I can run the hoe over the bed right before I transplant so the veggies get a good head start on the next batch of weeds.", "id": "c1mx7pt", "summary": "even when starting outside, raising transplants is often the best way to go."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Yes, but you have something a bit different going on here. \n In canning, you are killing off all of the misc bacteria and driving off oxygen. The result is a product that is suposed to be devoid of life and mostly anaerobic, ideal conditions for botulism to take over if any happend to survive the process (which they are good at). \n This is really more of a fermented product. Using raw vinegar, this mix is inoculated with acetic acid bacteria and the raw veggies carry a mess of bacteria and fungi with them (potentially including clostridium botulinum). The acid environment is very much  not  to the liking of c botulinum while other bacteria, specifically lactobacillus types are able to thrive in an acidic environment and generally outcompete the pathogenic and toxin producing types and further acidify the mix.", "id": "c7f5w1a", "summary": "pickles, not perfect but generally don't kill you"}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "Feral pigs are a very real problem, I have to deal with them on a farm myself. I can lose several hundred square feet a night, every night, due to rooting while they are raiding and they seem to be one source of e. coli contamination that has killed several people (see: spinach contamination Monterey CA). \n These regulations, like many regulations are started with good intentions but also like most have unintended consequences and a tendency to get hijacked by the biggest players in the industry being regulated. When you hand the government to the power to regulate the varieties of animals and produce you are allowed to grow, don't be surprised when it's used against you. \n There is a similar issue going on in California right now with the Label GMO (which will pass) movement that many of my circle of friends are strong supporters of. I should mention that I have a hobby farm (about 1 acre) that grows heirloom vegetables. Despite the fact that everyone seems to think that I should be support this,  I can't. \n I can support the idea that consumers should know what's in their food, but the ballot measure as created will have very predictable unintended consequences that nobody seems to be able to see yet. I'm going to go out on a limb and make some very specific predictions below so that in 5 years I can come back here and say I told you so. \n 1) The Ballot measure assumes guilt. If you don't want your product labeled GMO, you have to document every ingredient you use as being GMO free and the producers of those ingredients need to do likewise all the way up the chain. This does not cause any problem for producers of GMO products because they know that their product is GMO, they just label it appropriately. This puts the burden of proof and associated costs of documenting, squarely on the producer who doesn't use GMO and particularly on the small producer who does not have the clout to twist the arms of their suppliers. Even if you accept the premise of GMO labels, this puts the cost on the person who doesn't produce GMO. \n This should and can be handled right now by the creation of private organizations that test and certify products as being non-GMO. If you want the non-GMO label you can actively seek certification and charge a premium for your product as a consequence. \n 2) Large agribusiness will not let this slide / it will not stop here / slippery slope. Once all GMO foods must be labeled as such, they have nothing to lose. The producers of GMO seed are also the largest producers of non-GMO seed. They really don't care if they sell you GMO or non-GMO as long as you are buying their seed every year from them. From a business standpoint, GMO is just a way to lock you into buying their products. \n If I were a company like Seminis / Monsanto here is how I would turn this to my advantage. \n a) Start testing competing non-GMO crops and look for any sign of GMO contamination. They will find it because products like GMO sugar beets and corn dominate the market and both are prolific out breeders. You don't need to find a lot, just some. \n b) Begin a campaign of [FUD]( about the GMO status of crops labeled as non-GMO. You won't even have to astroturf because people will eat it up. OMG, my organic corn is contaminated! People will start demanding something be done. \n c) Call for an official seed registry to be put into place (in the European model) that documentes every batch of seed that is sent out to farms. You know, for the sake of the children. \n Europe has such a system now and it's why they can so easily block GMO crops. If you are a farmer and you want to grow lettuce, you cant just plant any old lettuce, you have to choose one of the government approved lettuce varieties that are on the official seed registry. It's illegal to sell lettuce or the seed for lettuce that's not on the registry. \n Putting crops on and maintaining them in the registry is a costly affair that effectively locks out competition and has been directly responsible for the egregious loss of agricultural biodiversity in Europe. If I did what I do, growing unregistered heirloom vegetables, in Europe, I would be subject to large fines. \n d) Register and put non-GMO varieties on the registry. Large seed producers can afford to register and maintain varieties on the registry because they work in huge quantities. They will have effectively locked out smaller producers and locked the market by law into the use of their seed. Profit.", "id": "c4mvzs8", "summary": "Don't let the government regulate your food."}, {"author": "ndt", "content": "All [acorns]( are edible, some have more [tannins]( than others and require more processing. \n What you need to do is wash the tannins out and they are readily soluble in water so it's fairly easy to accomplish. It's the same kind of astringent compound that exists in black tea and why your mouth would pucker and dry out sucking on a teabag. \n Remove the caps and crack the acorns by placing the pointed tip on a hard surface, strike the other end with a rock or hammer to split the shell. Remove the meat and and repeat with the rest of the batch. You will find grubs, they won't hurt you, keep cracking. If you want to save the grubs for separate processing you can do that too. \n You can also do this in bulk, crushing a bunch at a time and then floating off the shells. \n When you have the meats, you need to grind them if you want to speed the process. Some native groups just soaked whole acorn meats in baskets for days in a running creek but this the 21st century and we have [theses]( The finer you grind it the faster it is to process but the harder it can be to drain off the water between batches. \n When you have your coarse ground, unprocessed acorn meal toss it in a pot with water and bring to a simmer. Simmer for a few minutes then drain off the water. Repeat this process until the meal is no longer astringent to the taste. How many times is going to depend on the type of acorn. \n Once it tastes \"sweet\" you're done. You can eat it as gruel or make it into patties and bake as \"bread\" (kind of a dense dark brown hardtack really) or you can dry it and grind it very fine for adding to other flours to make more typical breads. It works well with corn meal. \n If you don't grind the meal so fine and instead leave it as little pieces before the boil, it will take longer to process but it can be dried, dry roasted and salted and eaten like trail mix.", "id": "c6cgxgm", "summary": "1) boil the meats in several changes of water until sweet 2) eat"}]}
+{"author": "2Mobile", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Don't sweat it.", "output": "I'm gay, and hear \"faggot\" all the time, but to be honest, I've long since realized that the word has changed from a hateful meaning to an annoyance over someone acting like a whiney cunt or as a playful insult. I assume \"Jewing\" went through a similar process since Western Culture as a whole is no where near 1938. Also, please bare in mind, I was spat on, beaten, and generally tormented daily when I got outed in Highschool. If I can move past that and realize the culture has changed in the last 15 years, I am sure others can too. I'll step off my soapbox now."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post ARE MILLENNIUMS LACKING MORAL COMPASS AND IS THE LACK OF MORALITY DESTROYING OUR YOUTH?", "output": "I am having a heated discussion with a facebook \"friend.\" about the youth in our country. Here is the conversation: \n Him: ...Are you really gonna vote for Obama again, Corey? Haven't had enough of the destruction of the American fabric yet? \n Me: The destruction of the American fabric is people calling political disagreements the destruction of the American fabric. \n Him: Your right about one thing, our problem, the root of it, is not political. It's a moral one. Just listen to the music on your radio, or watch some of what passes for programming on the tv networks these days! It's deplorable! No wonder our kids turn out the way they do! Look what we feed their brains with! \n Me: Just look at the millenniums. They are the first American Generation to freely accept all into their folds. Blacks, Jews, Muslims, Hispanics, Gays, Atheists. Morality? Billy, whatever has happened during the last decade, this new generation could become Americas greatest moral compass. They are not bogged down with prejudiced, misinformation, religious bigotry, or economic ideology. \n -That's all I could come up with Reddit. Prove me right or prove me wrong. Just tell me what you think."}], "user_id": "longlamp_60", "history": [{"author": "2Mobile", "content": "That's the problem. Once this happens, you  can't  give them a fair chance. I use to be a manager in HR for a hotel. I was interviewing one day and came across the best interviewee I have ever had. He was polite, well put together, professional, perfect for the position in just about every way,  and  a felon. Every single interview I had that day sucked except him, and it was like 20 of them. All I did was tell my Director that I was considering him and I was demoted the next day out of the department. The reason, which they didn't even have to give me in Virginia, was: We do not hire felons and their faith in my judgment was in question. \n I still had his number on my desk when I cleaned it out and I called him, which should have been enough reason to fire me but they never found out. I cried to him over the phone. Fucking balled. The worst part about it all was HE consoled ME. He was used to this shit. I asked him to keep in touch with me, which is probably weird and creepy, and he never did, so I hope for the best for him, but I'll never forget my experience with the whole thing. \n so, for a", "id": "cijuyea", "summary": "I know everyone is not perfect. I don't care if you fucked up. I care about who you are NOW, not then. But the country and the general population doesn't. If it happened to me, I don't know what I would do, but suicide would be near the top of my list. Please tell me I'm wrong, but tell me why too. \n Side note: The hotel did end up hiring one of those applicants, and she was fired weeks later for theft and drug use on the property."}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "If there is to be a social revolution in this country, things must get much worse. Destroying a president and, hopefully, winning a significant majority without a significant majority of votes, will galvanize this country and crush any notion of working together. Violence will, unfortunately, ensue, but out of the ashes of what our country was, we actually might have a chance for a better world.", "id": "cb3eitp", "summary": "the United States must collapse and fall before it will ever get better."}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "Sadly, like children. \n You know when you're telling a story to a toddler, you animate yourself, emphasizing key words or phrases to help them follow along? You don't do it because you think they are dumb, you do it because they lack the cognitive ability to grasp the occasional point or are easily distracted. Well, the American Electorate is the same, but actually are dumb. \n The key to winning elections in the US is to control the message. I don't mean the media but that certainly will help. I mean how you express the talking points. Always begin with a problem: \"There is too much cheese in France.\" Now, follow it with reasons why we should care: \"We can't import our own cheese to France because of it.\" Make up an argument and give it a nationalistic tone, it doesn't matter if its true: \"American cheese farming is a time honored tradition. Our founding fathers grew cheese themselves!\" Then, follow up with a negative: \"Children in France are stuck only eating socialist cheese.\" \n Do you see a pattern? When you are convincing an idiot that something is bad, like France having cheese or Obamacare, you start with a negative, then a positive, then another negative, then, when you drive home the point in your favor, end positive: \"We must denounce French Socialist Cheese and rename our's: Freedom-Fromage,\" or conversely, if you want to discredit, end the argument in a negative. \"Too much has the French Socialist Agenda influenced our hard working blue collar cheese farmers.\" \n The story flow is important but what is more is driving home the point. Using easy phrases easy to say and easy to remember will do it. \"Yes, we can,\" \"Are we better off,\" Four more years,\" \"the liberal elite,\" \"the mainstream media,\" ect. And never forget, when you say something long enough, people start to believe it. Death Panels anyone? This is not a party centric idea, both use it, but Republicans have truly mastered it, to their credit. By twisting sound bites and saying half truths and out right lies when able, you can turn fact into opinion and opinion into fact. You just need to know how and have a stupid enough audience.", "id": "c64pyot", "summary": "keep it simple, keep it memorable, and say it very very often."}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "Simple. cut out your feelings for your mother or your whole family. Slowly, but deliberately, cut them out of your life. I did, for many of the same reasons you have plus more. My dad is dying of pancreatic cancer right now, maybe a month or less to live. I haven't spoke to the redneck bigoted piece of shit in a very long time and I have no feelings what-so-ever about his death. In fact, the only reason I know about it at all is my Mother found out at some point where I work and tracked down my work number. \n She went on and on about Jesus and forgiveness and repairing the rift between us but I know its more about making them feel better about themselves. I thanked her and firmly told her not to contact me again. I know this may sound cruel and callous, but these type of people deserve nothing from you OP. Nothing. They deserve nothing from me either.", "id": "cb49a0q", "summary": "Fuck them; both your family and my own."}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "Not really, I live in SW Virginia, which would be just as tea-party crazy as WV if it were not for NOVA. That said, we have quite a few crazies in the state government and we get just as much call for deregultion by our leaders as WV. Yes, if this happened to me and my community, I and the people here would have deserved it. I did not get out the vote. I did not do EVERYTHING I could to get levelheaded people in office. Therefore, I am as responsible for fucking up my state as the politians are.", "id": "cero9zb", "summary": "my world is not black and white. I do, however, take responsibility for my representatives as a citizen and accept the consequences of it."}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "rommie? I moved to a shithole of a town. I knew no one and, honestly, the people there didn't need to be known. I had a spare bedroom so I put an ad on Craigslist for a roomie. I didn't need one. I had enough money. But I wanted someone to talk to. I made my ad with the area in mind. I used big words and made it as witty as I could. I knew that it would be unappreciated by anyone other than an out-of-towner. It worked. I found a roomie that moved into town for work, just like me, who was from an area that would leave him in the same position as me there. We really hit it off. Our mutual distaste for the town and, even though our likes and dislikes were not similar, the fact that we knew where New Zealand was on a map and that the sun didn't revolve around Earth guaranteed we had something to talk about.", "id": "c8jnaoe", "summary": "get a roomie"}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "the last thing medical and pharmaceutical companies want is a tried and true treatment of Cancer. People will pay anything to live and with the threat of death, will try any ludicrous expensive treatment they have. the best part is that even if all their patients die, there will always be more with cancer. so long as -some- live then people will try. Cure it 100% and these companies might lose money.", "id": "c98q04m", "summary": "No chance in hell the health industry will allow a cheap cure to cancer to exist."}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "I did this once with a family member. I was out of college and unemployed and there was no work in my field anywhere nearby. A family member offered to let me stay with them in Florida for a bit to see if I can find something there. We agreed to give it 3 months, see how it goes. They even had a partime job at a pizza place lined up ready for me. I moved. \n When I got there, the pizza job fell through. The joint closed; medical reasons. So, I hit the pavement looking for jobs for temp money while I find a job in my field. Most jobs in my field are advertised online. My family did not understand this and wondered why I wasted my time online. Finding work at Mcdonalds is hard when you're a college graduate. I finally snag a job as a cashier/training for night manager at CVS. Took nearly a month. \n Still living at their place, I finally get my first paycheck from CVS, it comes about 4 weeks after working their in month 2. First check is held. I get sat down by my family that night and told I am obviously not trying hard enough because its been 2 months and I still have not moved out. I should move back home. I cashed my CVS check, quit, and used my whole check to move back home just as broke and even more depressed than I was before I tried it. \n I ended up getting a job 3 hours away from home. I lived in my car for the first month and whorebathed at Denny's. I'll never trust anyone to help me again.", "id": "cou44uk", "summary": "Never move in with anyone to look for work. Either have a job concrete or live in your car."}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "That's not quite true. I too work with blood samples on a daily basis. I can tell you that yes, its true that serum will look like that if you have high cholesterol, however, it doesn't change your blood platelets. The tube that it is in is called an SST, or serum separating tube, and it is designed to be centrifuged and that yellow goo at the bottom will separate the blood from the serum. However, even without spinning, the blood will naturally separate if kept still. OP simply tilted the tube to hide the blood underneigh the serum. So, no, fat people do not have strawberry milkshake blood pumping through their systems, but take the platelets out of the equation and it damn well looks like it.", "id": "cgd0cif", "summary": "that's serum, not blood."}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "Photobooths still are the safest place in the South to developed photos like this (excluding home of course). I developed some vacation photos a few years back with my boyfriend and when I went to pick them up from Sam's, I was told that this was a family orientated business and my membership was revoked. The lady then threw a picture alot like the OP's with my kissing my boyfriend on the beach. I was asked to leave the store or else the police would have been called. \n I know what happened was not only illegal but against the company policy (I think) but I was not out and if I was I would have lost my job. Besides, at the time, I could not really had even trusted the police. Sodomy was illegal in my state and there were several cases where police raided known homosexual's homes and arrested them for it.", "id": "c6puda4", "summary": "in the south you learn real fast to develop your pictures at home."}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "Okay, since there is like a thousand comments, I won't bother editing this for negative karma's sake since non will really see it: \n Living the life you have lived and knowing science as what it is today, if doctors come up for a genetic test for your condition that can be given well withing the first month of pregnancy, would you be in favor of abortion.", "id": "c5zah8i", "summary": "would you rather have been aborted?"}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "you'd have to spend a considerable time there to understand what I mean. I'll try to make you understand with another example that equates. \n Imagine you're wealthy. You have a good job, good pay, a beautiful home, and nice neighbors that look after you.  Rather than build upon that, and share in your good fortune with others, you instead: bitch about your job, demand more money, let your house fall apart, have five kids with five different people and don't care for any of them, demonize your neighbors and demand they should be taking better care of  you  and when the time comes and you look around at the shit hole you created for yourself, it is the nigger's fault. \n This is rural West Virginia. The job was manufacturing: they are leaving because the population is under-educated, the pay was unionized; unions are destroying america because Mitt Romney said so, the homes were the cities which, believe me, use to be beautiful (Bluefield); but became run down and trashy and now they blame the government for it when they dump their garbage  and  shit on the street (i'm literal; I've seen both), and the neighborhood is the state which, regardless of the ignorance of its populace, does everything it can to help them; they are \"big government\" and services should be rendered by the Church only because AFA told them so. Then they blame blacks, gays, arabs, asian, and latinos for it all. \n sorry for the long winded explanation.", "id": "c91tlnm", "summary": "They have messed up priorities."}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "I really love Brave. Joining this corp was the best thing I've done while playing EVE. But I got a problem: I find humor in even the darkest of things. Alot of it stems from real world issues and struggles I have dealt with in the past. Alot of it is because sometimes laughter is the best way of dealing with hate and tragedy. And, I must admit, alot of it is because I have a much thicker skin as I have gotten older and can take it. \n So, that is the root of my problem. If I post [this]( and then get called a racist towards Americans, I am in deep deep shit because I think things like this are hysterical. Also, I'm gay, and love love gay jokes. If I can't laugh at myself, I'm going to be miserable. Of course I am not going to tell gay jokes whenever wherever. I do have some fucking tact, but I still will laugh at em.  You'd think I took a huge shit on someones chest for doing it though. \n I'm probably not going to last long in Brave with my sense of humor. I need to be a little proactive. I still want to stay in the alliance. I want to call my ship is Queefing Queen without worry and create a gigantic space cock with warp bubbles without causing an incident. Where in our alliance can I go?", "id": "t3_2tlb2q", "summary": "Brave is becoming a Fem-nazi. Where else can I go? \n &nbsp; \n Edit  Thanks for all the great suggestions folks. Its nice to know I have options without leaving Brave behind. I feel much better."}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "Porn didn't draw me into the 1990's internet, MUDs did. Multi-User Dungeon or MUD were the forebearers to your fancy MMORPGs. Heres the thing though, MUDs were  text  based games. Back in the early days of the interenet, MUDs and the people who played them (MUDders) had a strong community and a variety of games. You think people are addicted to World of Warcraft? WOW can't hold a candle to how addicting a good MUD could be. I've lost jobs, plural, to MUDs. Why? Details. \n Text based games could, like a book, bring you into a far more vivid world than a visual based game could. Just this about it: Have you read the Harry Potter books and watched the movies? Have you read any Tolkien and then saw the LOR movies? Don't get me wrong, visual can be satisfying, but it still can't hold a candle to detail. Detail is what brings me here. I need some help finding a new game to play. \n I've tried several MMORPGs, even quite a bit of single player RPGs. Nothing holds a candle to the text games I use to play. I can forgive the world detail. Unless Virtual Reality explodes in sofistication and Polygon counts become near infinate, nothing will compair to text. Not what I am asking. What I am looking for are intricate games, with many facets. Games where lvling to max doesn't mean you are the strongest you can be. Games were lvling really doesn't affect the quality of the game at all, with missions, quests, grinding are just one part of a bigger picture. I am looking for a game with REAL roleplaying value. When I log in, I am really another person, with another role, with infinite room to grow, experiencing a world completely different than another person playing the same game, with the same roles. \n As an example, I played a MUD where I was a Medic. I diagnosed people wounds, illnesses, ect and healed them, performed amputations, assisted other Medics with surgery if I did not have the experience (not EXP, just general knowhow) to do it. I splint arms, created anitidots, applied salves, and did all of it in a fantasy setting of goblin wars and mage fights. Could I fight? Sure, if I wanted to, Would I be any good at it, no. Why? Because I spent all my time learning another trade. Sure, I was handy with shield, just to use it long enough to dash into a fight and drag a wounded soldier to safety and my care.  THIS  is the detail in a MMORPG I have been looking for. \n So, here is my question, finally: Is there a game, being played now or is comming out, that has such an infinite ability for character growth, while being detailed enough that no one person or single character could hope to accomplish it all. I can either stick to being a sheep herder and being the best sheep herder I can be, or be a really really shitty wandering minstrel sheep herder mage.", "id": "t3_1orw0l", "summary": "I am looking for a game that is as indepth as a MUD with a rich roleplaying environment and with a diverse way-to-play."}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "I'm a tech guy. I work with GIS. Its BA college level, so nothing too fancy. The job market for it has been freaking horrible though. I just got an offer in the Chicago area. Its a temp job, no benefits, 6 months, but I will be honest; If I don't get a job in my field soon, I will be obsolete. But, here is my big problem: I have to submit a salary requirement! \n If I high ball my requirements, I will not get the job. If I mid range the salary, I may not get the job. I have to low ball the hell out of it, but I don't know what the cost of living in CHicago is, the type of rent, the cost of living in safe areas, public transportation costs, ect. Also, I am unfamiliar with most of the neighborhoods, except by reputation, like the SouthSide. Any advice, or suggestions, would be very appreciated.", "id": "t3_1qxkm7", "summary": "whats the lowest salary I can have while still living independent in Chicago? \n Edit  I was told it would help if I narrowed down what I was looking for. I'm looking for access to public transportation; a non-gang area would be nice, but if I had to, I can keep my ass at home; Something affordable obviously, since I will be paid as little as possible. I'm fine with studio if I have to, but I would be heartbroken if I had to give away my cat so I would prefer a 1 bedroom.  I hope this helps."}, {"author": "2Mobile", "content": "I may have a different outlook about smoking than most. I started smoking when I was 11. I grew up in a very rural area and buying cigarettes, even as a child, was no problem. I've smoked for so long and for such a large portion of my life that I don't even remember a time when it was like to not smoke. This created a problem for me. I had no idea what type of person I was without cigarettes. \n I know alot of you long term smokers understand this problem. When times get tough, when your stressed, when your happy, when your relaxed, all aspects of your life revolved around smoking. You smoked when you first woke up until you went to sleep. With that kind of integration if your life, cigarettes are a part of who you are. We, as long term smokers, are simply not the same person when we're not smoking. Quitting can be terrifying. \n I quit smoking last month, oct 18th. It was cold turkey. Believe me when I say, any hope I had to be a leved headed person evaporated after day one. I had/have no coping mechanism. To put it simply, I discovered that I am a bastard. If you asked anyone I knew before Oct. 18th what kind of person I am, the general description would be zen-like. I was calm, practical, kind, and empathic. Well, not anymore. Douchebag would be a more fair description now. \n So, you can imagine the kind of stress I was under to smoke again. Day 25 was just as hard as day 1. I had enough of it. I baught a pack today and not more than 20 minutes ago, I had my first cigarette in 28 days. What happened just now was so profound a personal experience for me that I had to come here and write about it right away. \n I've been told that smell and taste are some of the most potent memory inducing senses we have. I beleive it. When I lit that cigarette and tasted it on my lips I felt like I just got ripped back in time. I remembered clearly my childhood, me, smoking on my parents back deck in my pajamas, sneaking out at night to burn one behind the house, the taste ashy, and not very pleasant, but the feeling could not have been more pleasurable. There is a very simply joy when you smoke. Most of us, after smoking for so long, sorta forget it. Because I had been smoking for so long I had completely forgot it. My biggest fear about smoking was I no longer remebered a time when I did not smoke. That was an error. It was amazing. I never again want to forget that feeling, of lighting up, not out of habit, nor out of need, but out of simple enjoyment. \n So, now, I have a reason to keep this up, for the first time since I started. Yes, health, yes increased stamina, but I will be honest with you: after 28 days, I had not seen any sort of benefit to quitting. None. If anything, I had every reason to start smoking again. But after today, for the first time, I have a personal reason to keep from smoking. If it means that I can enjoy a cigarette as much as I just did by continuing this bullshit clusterfuck I call my life, and be as contented as I am right now, then by god, it just might be worth it.", "id": "t3_1qpvsx", "summary": "Needing to smoke is a far cry from simply wanting to smoke. I prefer the latter so much that I am finally sure I have enough will to kick the habit. God save my family and friends."}]}
+{"author": "southpaw19711", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Water is a bitch. It can screw up your house many ways. These are the ways it has screwed up mine in my 15 years of home ownership.", "output": "When you go on vacation, turn off the water supply to your house. Otherwise, your toilet could overflow or a pipe could burst and you could do $35,000+ worth of damage to your home. \n \n If you have an air conditioner on an upper floor, get it inspected annually and have them install a \"kill switch\" should the condensate runoff ever overflow. Otherwise, the water from your condensate pipe could run down the walls and floors of your house. \n \n When you go to drill a hole, even if you used a studfinder to find the studs, remember that studfinders can also find water pipes. Be careful. Especially in your laundry room. I prefer to not drill holes on walls that  might  contain water pipes, myself."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I am tight everywhere. Deep tissue massages are agonizing due to adhesions all over my body, particularly where things like my piriformis, psoas, and hip flexors are involved. It hurts everywhere. How can someone who may have physical or emotional trauma drain the tension from their body? \n Thanks for any insights. I must relax my muscles or I will never be able to move forward athletically and I'm tired of being a hunched over hermit in agony. :)", "output": "Hi everyone - my first time posting here. I'm your average Jill who has had massage therapy on and off for 20 years. Started with regular Swedish at a Ritz-Carlton. Now I do deep tissue regularly at a Hand & Stone location that is excellent at hooking me up with their best deep tissue folks. I've been going there for 6 years now, and have always had deep tissue. \n First point is: Every therapist who sees me wants to  do more  than the usual. I have heard for the past 20 years that I'm incredibly \"tight\" - everywhere. Even the Swedish massage folks express concern. My husband routinely gets massages too and never hears this, so I don't think it's just, \"let's get her in for longer massages to take her money.\" \n It all  truly  started going to hell in a handbasket around six years ago when I started training for Century (100 mile) bicycle rides and half-marathons. Massage went from being a \"nice-to-have\" to a necessity. \n Now, I haven't been actively training for roughly a year, but I'm still in a lot of pain. My stand-by deep tissue lady left H&S two years ago, so I've been bouncing around since then. \n Finally found a woman who is quite elevated in her technique. First, she asked what comfort level I had with deep tissue and \"experimentation\" of techniques at our first visit. I'm game for about anything, as I told her. She started with techniques that were almost \"Rolfing\" - loosening up the fascia all along my back and neck (I was in agony and only had 50 minutes so I asked her to focus on those) before going in for tissue manipulation. Having done Rolfing sessions along with deep tissue, I was impressed. \n She was shocked, in her cursory go-over on my main muscle groups though. I am apparently, shockingly tight. I've heard this before, all the time in fact. She asked some probing questions that got me to thinking though. Here's what she asked: \n \n Have you been in any major accidents? \n \n I haven't been in any major accidents in the recent past. I broke many bones as a child from climbing trees, I dropped a motorcycle about 15 years ago, and I dropped a bicycle while turning about 5 years ago. \n \n Have you had any major psychological traumas? \n \n This is where the question gets harder to parse. How do we define traumas?  I have not been beaten for a long term (my mother beat me as a child, but not so anything showed) or sexually abused - at least that I'm aware of. However, I've had just about everything short of that. I've had a truly beloved pet die in my arms while I was trying to resuscitate him after I gave him medicine our vet prescribed, but it actually killed him. I have major PTSD from this. \n Simpler traumas? Believe it or not, my sister dying 23 years ago from cancer (I was the bone marrow donor). And the fact that I have been subjected to severe emotional and verbal abuse from my mother and a partner. Of course, the partner left, but not after scarring me severely to the point police intervened. I still deal with my mother, but at an arm's length. \n I didn't share this all with her, but her take was that subconsciously a mind can \"stiffen up\" muscles in preparation for a physical or emotional hit and sometimes after trauma, there's a subconscious urge to always be \"stiff\" in preparation. She thinks that possibly something like that's happened to me and as depressed and anxious as I am, I could believe it. Seriously, she could find no muscle group on my body that wasn't taut and un-pliable. She gasped when I turned over and she started working on my pecs and forearms. She said she hasn't had anyone this stiff in a long time, and that it will be a long, painful road back unless I can find a way to loosen up off the table. \n So my question is this: Have you ever had someone stiff in every muscle group due to emotional or physical trauma? If emotional, how do you get them to loosen up, especially if it's all a subconscious thing? I'm tired of being in pain, and I am every day no matter how much I try to relax and stretch."}], "user_id": "longlamp_14787", "history": [{"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "So am I - VERY allergic (top of the scale for cat dander). I take Zyrtec for my seasonal allergies though and it takes care of my cat allergies. I have two cats and a dog and never buy the \"I'm allergic\" excuse because if I can manage it, others who have allergies can.", "id": "cb75mps", "summary": "Pets come first in a brand new relationship."}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "Part of being married is considering your spouses feelings as much, if not moreso, than your own. I have male friends, but if any of them made my husband feel insecure or uncomfortable, they would go by the wayside. Our marriage is more important. \n I have a male friend that I hang out with every couple of weekends - as we go riding together. His wife isn't a cyclist, so he and I go. Heck, for awhile I worried that his wife might not be comfortable with our friendship, and so I took extra care to include her and be around the both of them with my husband so she could get to know me and feel like her husband was going riding with one of \"their friends\" not just \"his friend\".", "id": "c5sxy99", "summary": "You marriage should come first for him. If it makes you uncomfortable, he needs to stop seeing her. If he doesn't, start questioning that."}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "I once lived in a single family home with a family next door. Just two parents and their son. \n Once, during a snow event in DC, they apparently had some friends over for dinner. Since school was canceled the next day, it was PARTAAAAY TIME for the kids, who were probably between 6 and 8. \n At 11PM, the screaming was so bad it carried through my windows into my bedroom.  I  had to work the next day. So I opened the window and in the dark \"quietly\" yelled out in that whispery kinda yell, \"Hey you kids need to keep it down we're trying to sleep.\" \n One of the \"guest\" kids yelled back, \"Oh yeah? MAKE ME!\" \n BAM!!  I was out of the bed and on the phone to the mother who lived next door. I told her precisely what had just happened. They were good parents, and their kid was generally a good kid and she was  pissed  about it as well. She assured me it would be dealt with. \n I then watched in glee from the darkened window as not a minute later, all the outdoor lights went on, all the parents went out, and the kids started getting yelled at for being rude to me. Within 5 minutes the brats were packed up and in the minivan with their folks to go home, all the lights were out and I enjoyed a silent night.", "id": "cagmfw4", "summary": "Kids, don't ever fucking tell me to \"make you\" because I will fuck your shit up."}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "First off, having been born in 1971, I am OLD. Like, 40 old. Jesus I'm old. \n I first discovered \"Prodigy\" at a friend's house back in the 80's. That was fun. I stayed up all night chatting with some random person who lived halfway across town. \n In college (1990 - probably before half of you were born) I got a job in a computer lab. There, I saw someone talking with a \"friend\" of theirs in another country via IRC. I wanted in on that action, but you had to have a UNIX account to use this thing called \"the Internet\". You could only get those from the comp. sci. lab. \n So I went there and got a UNIX account. I will never forget the first time I got to the command line. I typed \"help\". Nada. \"irc\" Nothing - I didn't have the right path. \"read news\" - Nothing. (The command was 'rn' for Usenet news). I exited out of the terminal program. Re-opened it and tried again. After about 5 minutes of this, someone told me to type 'rn' and I did. That is honestly the last thing I remember having to \"learn\" on the Internet. \n For several years, I would come home and talk on my computer to friends in Germany, Switzerland and Australia, all of whom I had met online gaming or via newsgroups. My parents thought I was crazy, and weird. Then in 1994 the Internet became more accessible. \n Slowly family members started getting online and getting email addresses. The people who thought I was crazy came to me for stuff. My dad now stalks me on Facebook. It's cute.", "id": "c63cjny", "summary": "I am old. I was on the Internet probably before most of you were. Back when being a \"girl\" on the Internet was almost unheard of - no one believed I was a girl in the MUDs I played. I discovered it early. :)"}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "Mine is a long, long tale of Psycho Julie. \n Met Julie at a ice skating rink where she and I both skated. Knew her only casually. She asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. In retrospect, the fact she had so few friends that she had to ask me should have set off alarm bells. But me, being the fool that I was, I felt like I should do it precisely because she seemed to be in dire straits and so low on friends. So I did. \n Did all the wedding stuff. She acted really weird toward everybody on her wedding day. She was a little \"off\" anyway, but she became a raging bitch to her photographer after the wedding when we were taking photos. That was my first glimpse of the \"psycho\" part. I came to realize eventually that in general she was a manipulative person. She threw tantrums (at the age of 32) when she didn't get her way. \n I met her husband's brother at the wedding and we started dating. This made Psycho Julie come out in full force. I went home with him to meet his parents in another state. I last saw \"normal\" Julie at our workplace several days before we left. Oh, did I mention I helped her get a job? Last kind words she ever said to me were, \"See you in Tucson!\" She arrived a few days before we did. \n Went to meet my BF's parents and they took me aside and told me that Julie had told them I had been terrible to her, had called her fat and had been emotionally abusive to her. What the everloving fuck? His parents told me that they knew she was manipulative and seemed to be a compulsive liar. They didn't like her either, but she was married to their son so they tolerated her. \n Julie suddenly wouldn't be in the same room as me. Every time I showed up she'd stomp her feet and leave. She suddenly viscerally  hated  me (or at least put on the show that she did). I tried to ask her what I did, but she never told me. It was all an act, to make me seem terrible to her husband's parents. \n She kept up this act for the next year while I dated her brother-in-law. He hated her too, but he was upset because we could never have them over because she was such a raging bitch around me. It got so he was blaming me for her hostility. \n He ended up being a cheating asshole, and we broke up. But it wasn't a terrible breakup because I soon realized I was rid of that glorious cunt, Psycho Julie. He has to live with her for the rest of his life. It's common to say \"I wouldn't wish that on anyone\" but really, I do. I do wish that on him and the bitch he cheated on me with, who ended up marrying him. I wish them a long and horrible life with Psycho Julie.", "id": "c93cg6d", "summary": "Weird girl at skating rink asked me to be in her wedding. I also got her a job. Then she stabbed me in the back for a year."}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "I was 16, my brother was 19. I had a pretty brutal fight with a boyfriend on our front porch after I caught him cheating on me. After we yelled at each other, I ran into the house crying. \n Moments later, my brother comes running in from another door of the house, and very quickly dashes to the shower. As he passes I hear him mutter,  \"I fucking maced my balls!\" \n Turns out, he'd been crouching in the bushes to make sure I was safe, and was ready to beat the shit out of (and no doubt mace) the asshole I was fighting with. As he crouched, the mace can sprayed his balls. He stayed hidden in the bushes until my boyfriend (ex, by then) left and I ran inside.", "id": "c5t0khz", "summary": "bro was looking out for me and accidentally maced his balls."}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "I sent out resumes during my final semester in college for jobs several hundred miles away in Washington, DC. After I graduated, I moved up to DC for a job by myself. Was pretty lonely for awhile, but it was the right thing to do and a new life experience.", "id": "c5sxlsh", "summary": "Move somewhere more interesting to you than where you are once you're done with university."}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "Shit like that's done intentionally. I used to work for Worldcom and at their campus in Ashburn, they had carpet like this, and in the bathroom the tiles weren't laid out like a grid, but rather in this haphazard horizontal pattern. \n I asked my friend, a Facilities Manager who had assisted with the campus build why stuff was so ugly. His answer was very matter of fact: \"They paid extra to put shit off-kilter and to make it ugly in order to keep you in your cube. They don't want you hanging in the break room, or in the hallways. They want you in your cube working and not socializing.\" Sure enough, only place on campus that wasn't butt-fuck ugly was inside the cubes.", "id": "c6ljum7", "summary": "Evil companies will design campuses that are ugly everywhere outside your cube to keep you chained to your desk pumping out work like the little rat in a cage they think you are. \n Also, Worldcom CEO Bernard Ebbers is still rotting in jail. Wonder how that shitty old fucker likes his \"cube\"."}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "Well, back in the day I dated 2 coworkers at separate times. It was... awkward after break ups. After that I adopted the attitude of \"don't piss off the pier you fish off of\" and stopped dating coworkers - except for that hot number that came down from the NYC office for a week. We hooked up and that was delightful. \n Then I got married to a man who worked at a totally different company than I did. My husband was in finance. I was in IT. I figured our paths would never cross, ever. \n Four years after we got married I got hired at his company. Two years after that, I was asked to be the IT \"Relationship Manager\" of the group that he supported for finance. We ended up in meetings together. It was weird. I could tell, even via a conference call when he was in a different place, when he was going to speak. I also understood everything he said, even though it was Finance. He just spoke in a way I could understand. \n A couple of our business partners told me, \"Wow, you guys talk exactly the same way. I mean, even though you're talking about totally different things, the way you present it and your logic is identical.\" \n Fortunately for us both, he moved onto another role two months later.", "id": "c9ti2xo", "summary": "Dating coworkers is awkward. Marrying someone and then working with him is more frighteningly awkward."}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "What did your professor and classmates think of this? \n You are a braver soul than I. I grew up in the \"deep south\" just outside Atlanta in the 70's. It was a hotbed of racial tension. I got beaten up and accosted at school regularly for being white. (There were only a few of us.) \n My mother was (and still is) openly racist. My dad just put up with her and divorced her later without being racist around me. I moved away as quick as I could after college to DC. After dealing with the friction from Atlanta's race relations, DC felt like a mixed-race Mecca to me. Finally, there was no \"us\" or \"them\". It was just everyone. \n I like to think I'm not racist but I had such a terrible view of black people when I was getting assaulted as a kid that parts of me are worried I might be. So I try to overcompensate, I think. As a result, any time I feel like a black person working for me is underperforming I get a huge twinge of guilt. In fact, in our last reorg both the black women who worked for me ended up moving to other teams and I feel terribly guilty. Do they think I tried to get them moved off? (I didn't, they were just better fits.)", "id": "c8iii9q", "summary": "Grew up with a racist mother. Had a lot of childhood experiences that gave me a negative view of black people. Moved to DC and got over that except for the overwhelming guilt whenever I think anything negative of a black person."}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "Sure I can... Background: Majored in Journalism with a minor in English and Drama. Discovered 3rd year of college I had a HUGE affinity for technology and the Internet. By then I didn't want to switch my major to Comp Sci or take more classes so I graduated with my uber-liberal arts cred. \n First job out of college was in tech support. It was for an awful company. Used it as a launching pad to search for my next job. Still tech support, but for a great company. Moved into being a network engineer. Then, as one of the most LITERATE and organized network engineers, people started to realize I could plan things.  poof  I morphed into a Project Manager. \n Bled that for all it was worth for 10 years. Got my PMP certification after about 6 years. The biggest obstacle to getting it was realizing that by putting all this effort into doing it, and getting it, I was admitting that being a Project Manager was my \"career\". I'll be honest with you, being a PM sort of sucks in many ways. You are responsible for the actions of people who do not report to you. You must use soft skills way beyond what most people do. It's great and all that you're the guy who \"has the plan\" or who can \"figure out the plan\" but that's only half the battle. You must also be the guy (or in my case, woman) who can get a bunch of tech geeks on board with the plan. And you have to communicate to executives who simply don't GET the plan. \n The highlight of being a Project Manager, and especially a PMP? Job security. I obtained my Six Sigma Green Belt certification a few years ago. I can drop into nearly any situation, doing anything, and be the PM. Technology projects are especially my wheelhouse, but if you can logically understand and sequence work, and have the discipline to document it and (politely) nag people to do it, you can be a Project Manager of anything. \n I have (knock on wood) survived many downsizings, always had a steady job when I moved to a new area, and I'm well respected in what I do. The key with being a great PM is getting people to respect you and to be on board with what you're asking. When I was a PM for networking projects, I automatically earned the respect of network engineers because I knew their shit too. \n \"You say it's going to take 3 weeks to put an access list into these routers? Why don't you move over and let me do it in ten minutes\" was an actual phrase I used when going over a project plan with a group of engineers. They shut up and stopped padding their timelines real quick. Then I started managing SW developers. I can't code for shit outside of scripts, etc. You learn to ask questions that dig into what they know and formulate timelines based on their answers.", "id": "c66tg3h", "summary": "No one wants to be a PM when they grow up. But if you can do it, even for a little while, as you save money for that Mother Theresa fulfilling work, you will learn a lot about how to deal with people and you're likely to have better job security than most."}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "Pssst: Sorry for the Wall O' Text! Links are in bold.) \n With the recent standing desk talk going around here, I thought I'd share some useful links about standing desks. I started standing during work hours in July of last year. At six months, I'm still standing at least four hours out of an eight hour workday so I'd say it's still going strong. \n **[NY Times - Taking a Stand for Office Ergonomics]( \n **[Lifehacker - Standing Desks on the Cheap]( \n **[Ikea Standing Desk Build]( \n Here's my experience: \n Originally I started standing the full workday. I just stood up the first day and figured I'd sit down when I got really tired. As hour after hour ticked past, I didn't get tired. So I kept at it. About three weeks in, I started to develop foot pain and plantar fasciitis. So now I stand only four hours a day - usually from 8-12. I sit down for lunch and sit for the rest of the day on a more ergonomic chair than I used to have. This works pretty well. \n I always stand and pace for my 1:1 meetings using a wireless headset. I find that doing two things at once increases my focus tremendously, and pacing is the perfect \"second thing\". While I'm standing, my focus is increased just from shifting from foot to foot. I have a foot rest that I use in my current set up which keeps one foot elevated a bit while I stand on the other foot. Then I shift and repeat. It really does help me focus and \"fidget\" productively. \n I tried a gel support mat on the floor, but it's cumbersome to move back and forth as I switch from standing to sitting. So now it's stored away. \n At the end of the day, one of my \"habits\" is to straighten up my office, clean off my desk, file away or recycle all the post-it notes I've scribbled on, and then finally lift my desk up to standing position before I close off my office. This way it's standing when I stumble in groggily the next morning and I don't even have to think about making sure I stand. \n Another tip: If you're working at home, always wear supportive shoes while standing at your desk. Don't stand barefoot unless you're really used to things like running around barefoot all the time anyway. (This helped my plantar fasciitis as well.) \n Here's how I started. \n **[My original desk configuration pre-standing]( \n **[My temporary standing solution]( - Actually this photo was taken before I realized it would be too short. I added a box later to help raise the keyboard to the right height. \n The setup was not ideal, but it allowed me to work for a month or so to see if I standing would help me. Once I knew it would, I set about to set up a more permanent solution. I linked to inexpensive standing options above, but I wanted a really good standing solution with an eye toward using it for 10 years or more. (My original desk was 10 years old.) I work from home 4 days a week, and I spent about 10 hours a day at this desk and in this room. \n **[This was my splurge - my permanent desk solution]( \n My setup was was purchased from [Ergo Depot]( Really nice guys, they got the order right, were always available to answer my questions, and the product is perfect. I also bought my CPU mount from them at the same time. \n You don't need the fancy stuff to stand up at all. There are a lot of solutions out there. \n Since I've started standing, I am much more engaged in my work. I can concentrate better, which is huge for me. I used to, quite literally, park my butt in my desk chair and not MOVE for 8 hours. Now I'm moving all the time. And all the movement allows for other executive functions, particularly the \"Pause\" that ADHD'ers so often neglect (the ability to stop what you're doing, think about what you need to be doing, and transition easily) to just  happen . It's great. I'm definitely a fan and encourage other ADHD'ers to try standing, just for a couple of hours. Park yourself at a tall countertop, or get some boxes. It's worth a try!", "id": "t3_1690ae", "summary": "Tried standing 6 months ago. Loved it so much I tricked out my office. Helps with focus, fidgeting and pausing. Lots of inexpensive ways to try it out too."}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "Hoping some experts read this, as none of my doctors has ever heard of this. I have a reaction to Adderall that I can't find documented as a side effect anywhere. Whenever I take Adderall, my gums feel sore and swollen, and my tongue feels swollen and, for lack of a better word, \"pickled\". If I keep taking it, I get a metallic taste in my mouth, like my gums are bleeding. But upon visual inspection, everything in my mouth looks totally fine. Eventually, the pain my mouth gets so bad I have to stop. \n This happens, to a much lesser degree, with Ritalin-based drugs like Concerta. I can \"feel it\" in my mouth a little on Concerta, probably 10% of what it feels like after a week on Adderall. \n I also noticed, when I was on a medical weight loss program, that other stimulants - specifically Phentermine and Phendimetrazine, had the same effect as the Adderall. It was very bad. \n I've asked my dentist about it. He calls this \"paraesthesia\". My neurologist didn't believe me when I told him these were the side effects I had. My psychiatrist has me on Concerta instead of Adderall because of this. \n These side effects mean that a whole class of medicines are out of the question for me because they cause me such discomfort, but I can't find  anything  about these side effects in the literature. Has anyone else had this? Does anyone have any suggestions about how to manage these side effects?", "id": "t3_11yzmd", "summary": "Adderall makes it feel like my tongue and gums are swollen and like my gums are bleeding even though they aren't. Help?"}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "First off, disclaimers out of the way: This is not an advertisement. I have no vested interest in anything mentioned below. I wanted to share because what I've learned is making an  enormous  difference in my life and helping me. \n If you have ADHD, especially along with comorbid depression, anxiety or fatigue - think SCT for some of you ADHD-PI'ers out there, I'd encourage you to get genetic testing done through 23 And Me, and then run a free Methylation analysis on your genome to check for mutations. \n Steps: \n \n Genetic testing at www.23andme.com runs $99, get it, send in your spit and get results back. \n \n Get a free methylation analysis here -  and select the option to either connect directly with 23andme.com by logging in, or download your genome from 23andme.com and simply browse for the file and upload it. \n \n Get your results \n \n \n Genetic Genie provides much more specific information on a range of genetic markers related to Methylation than you will find on 23andMe.com. I found the 23andMe results quite lame, and not insightful. Genetic Genie is a donation-based site and the guy who developed it has done his best to educate on what issues you might find. \n Key things to look for: \n Heterozygous (single copy of gene is defective) or homozygous (both copies of gene are defective) mutations for the following genes, and others. Genetic Genie makes it easy to see - Red results mean you have 2 copies of a defective version of the gene. Yellow means you have one copy. Green means you're good. \n \n MTHFR (C677T or A1298C) \n COMT (V158M, H62H or P199P) \n \n What it means: \n If you have defective copies of these genes, your body is likely having problems correctly generating and/or using dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonin and possibly testosterone and estrogen. \n MTHFR defects mean you can't use folate or folic acid properly, so you can't begin the \"methylation cycle\" which is important to getting your body to create the right neurotransmitters for your brain. \n COMT defects mean you can't break down and properly metabolize the neurotransmitters listed above. So even if you get them in your system, your body isn't fueling your brain with them properly. \n And the result? \n A combination of these defective genes will lead to the following types of symptoms: \n Autism, ADHD, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Miscarriages, IBS, hyperactive behavior, as well as defects in the inhibition of behaviors, short-term memory, planning, abstract thinking and emotion. \n Treatment \n Finding a specialist in epigenetics is good. If you have MTHFR variations you will want to limit folic acid, which is not a good thing to be in your body since you can't break it down. (No more fortified cereals, limit fortified breads, unfortunately in the US they started throwing folic acid in everything.) \n There are supplements you can take to help manage the expression of these genes. COMT variants are harder to fix, as there's no readily available supplements to just make it all work. In this case, the specialist I'm seeing wants to try amino acid therapy which he believes will \"soften up\" the neurotransmitter receptors in the brain, helping override the restrictions of COMT. \n I have homozygous mutations of the following genes: MTHFR C677T, COMT V158M and COMTH62H. Upon reading this, my specialist said it was no surprise whatsoever that I have struggled with ADHD, depression, chronic fatigue and pain. \n One month into treatment, I'm now taking B12 with Deplin, a supplement that the body can use so it doesn't need the MTHFR gene to work to start my methylation cycle. I finally am not exhausted. I can concentrate (enough to write this out) and research the causes in-depth. I'm still on Vyvanse and expect to stay on Vyvanse for the short term, but the difference pre-treatment and now is night and day. I wake up in the morning after 7.5 hours or so of sleep. I get to the gym and work out. I feel better than when I was in my 20's and 30's. I feel like I've lost 10 years off my age.", "id": "t3_1og3l0", "summary": "If you have major problems with ADHD with or without depression, you can check some key genes to see if there's a biological basis. If there is, a specialist might be able to help you supplement in partnership with, or even beyond, traditional ADHD meds to get energy and focus back. \n Key Google terms: MTHFR defects, COMT defects, methylation and ADHD, MTHFR and ADHD, etc."}, {"author": "southpaw19711", "content": "I discovered this corner of Reddit just a few days ago and I'm really glad to be here, and glad to see it's an active community. \n I'm the youngest daughter of a narcissistic mother and I am, as so many of us are, the scapegoat in the family dynamic. My older brother and sister (by 4 years) were twins. My mother got her matched set on the first try, so I'm on this planet quite by accident. \n My sister died of cancer when I was 9, and throughout her illness and after her death she was heralded as the ultimate golden child. It's been 30 years and there's still a dusty shrine to her today in the foyer of my mother's home. After my sister passed, her twin brother became the de facto \"golden child\". \n I was the bone marrow donor for my sister's transplant, and if she had lived maybe I would have been the recipient of some sort of affection? (Nah.) In the end, she was in remission (so the transplant had worked) but effects of radiation and chemotherapy killed her. \n I lived in the long, dark shadow of my sister for my entire childhood. I remember calculating the precise date when I would  finally  be older than she ever was, and silently celebrating it, in hopes it meant I was out of her shadow. In my head I was, in my mother's head, I never have been. She gleefully tells people, \"The good Lord can take me anytime he wants, because I can't wait to see my daughter in heaven!\" All the while, ignoring the pain that statement causes me. \n My parents pretty much ignored us in the year up to and after my sister's death. I mean, they mostly got the basics taken care of (except I'd have to wait after school for 2 hours daily for my mom to come pick me up), but there was nothing left in their hearts to give to their living children. I got that. We didn't have much in our hearts to give back either. \n After that phase, my dad came around, but my mother never did. He moved out when I was 14. \n I spent a painful 9 months being cursed at, physically abused, and viscerally hated because, \"You're just like your father!\" Finally, she kicked me out of the house very cruelly (called me at work to tell me I wasn't allowed to come home) and my dad came to pick me up. I ended up moving in with my dad, who gave me the love and kindness my mother never did. \n After that, we were in \"low contact\" mode for awhile. Holidays spent over there out of guilt, Mother's day, etc. \n I graduated college and hit it big back during the dotcom boom of the mid-90's. I decided to try to win my mother over by taking her on a cruise for Christmas. All she did was bitch and complain and make my life hell that whole week. It was the worst decision I ever made. I would leave her to go to the room after dinner and I'd go to the casino and gamble, drink and smoke until I was sure she was asleep, dreading when she woke up. \n I finally went full on No Contact with my mother after a bad breakup whereupon, when I wrote her a heartfelt email telling her how upset I was about this guy who cheated on me, she wrote me back, nastily snarking at my spelling errors, addressing none of my pain. \n I called her up in tears, asking her why she would criticize me at such a vulnerable time. I told her it was cruel and heartless to do that. I said, \"You're my  MOM  you're supposed to love and comfort me!\" She refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing. That statement only made her angrier at me. She hung up on me. I didn't call back. \n Almost a year went by, blissfully silent from the cruelty, and I met a wonderful new man. We dated for a year, and then one perfect night he proposed to me. I was still shaking from the emotional high as we toasted to each other and our life together when suddenly the most crushing thought hit me. \"Shit. What about my mom?\" \n Pressured by my dad and my fiance, I wrote out a letter and sent it in the mail telling her I was getting married. We gingerly began to speak. I brought my fiance down to meet her for a weekend. He got the 'crazy' vibe from her the minute he met her. She behaved at my wedding, probably because she knew she was on thin ice. That was 10 years ago. \n Now we're back in the same old mode. Small levels of contact. A phone call every week or two, where I ignore the horrible things she says. She yelled at me because I was hiding all of my Facebook activity from her, so I grudgingly let her see my activity now, and it only makes her say more horrible things. \n \"Why doesn't your dad get plastic surgery? His eyelids seem droopy!\" - This from a shriveled up old crone. She's always looking/hoping for signs my dad is ill on Facebook. (He's happily remarried in another state by the way.) \"Lynn told me she'd heard he was in the hospital, was he?\" No, no he was not. \n When my godmother was dying, she wouldn't return her calls. I asked her about it and she said, \"Barbara knows why I won't talk to her. That's none of your business.\" I knew why too. Barbara told me they'd gotten in a fight after I went NC with my mom, and Barbara told her she was wrong. My mother hung up on her best friend too and never called her back, not even when she was dying. I visited Barbara, all the way on the west coast, twice before her death. Her picture is framed in my bedroom. Her handmade quilt, that she left to me, covers my bed. She's my \"mother\" and after my mom dies, I'm going to tell people that Barbara was my mother. \n I guess I'm just waiting for my mom to die. I know that sounds horrible, but it's true. To be the chronic disease ridden, lonely, shriveled up person she is, she just keeps living. She's 75 now. I learned about NPD about 8 years ago and it's helped some, to know that her abuse isn't about me being bad. It's about her. I'm just sick of her. I'm sad I never had a mother. I don't think I'll ever be able to understand what it was like. \n Thanks for reading this far. For those who didn't:", "id": "t3_1m6bec", "summary": "Batshit crazy narcissistic mother makes my life hell. You know the drill."}]}
+{"author": "harryballsagna", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post either kids are mentally capable or they aren't. Can't have both.", "output": "Here's why the child porn charge is bullshit: the axiom on which we predicate CP laws is that children are not mentally able to give informed consent. This suggests that they don't understand the consequences of their actions. Thus, if kids take sexual pics of kids, they're not operating with fully developed mental faculties. We can't say that one child is victimized by their poor judgement but other kids have enough judgement to know better."}], "user_id": "longlamp_10995", "history": [{"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Apparently the number of reported rapes is lower than the West, but I think that's simply too easy. I think the notion of rape is different here. Date rape has no traction here yet. Also, due to the shame of being raped, I think it is underreported. I also think that most girls would probably internalize it as somehow their own fault. Also, the cops here are bumblers of the highest order. They can, and do, fuck up tons of cases. They're known by ex-pats here as Keystone Cops so they're not likely helping things. \n There was a case about 8 years ago where a girl was raped in a train bathroom while everybody could hear what was happening. Not only did nobody intervene, but nobody called the cops either. People here tend to avoid uncomfortable situations, and even most sex acts are euphemized by using English loanwords. I don't think this embarrassment helps matters involving rape/sexual assault, etc. \n I think that if you look at the culture, you can get a decent idea of how things are. Men read porn on the trains sometimes, Manga has open child/teen rape, older men make lewd suggestions to younger girls, etc. Also, in my years I've spoken to many  many  girls who've been fondled on the trains. Lots of them just bore with it and hoped it would stop. Women are not exactly empowered here in most capacities. Personally, I would not be a Japanese woman for anything.", "id": "c7d1j63", "summary": "on record, yes. In practice, I doubt it."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "I'm sorry but it seems that your problem isn't children, it's in choosing really shitty friends. \n If you talk at long length about anything that the other person either doesn't seem engaged in, has no experience with, or seems bored by, then you're a jerk. If you use your guest as a baby-sitter while you vacuum and do chores, you're an asshole.", "id": "c250xsf", "summary": "Your friends are jerks; kids are reflections of their parents"}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Just to note that you said \"death is nothing\". If that were truly the case, seeing others die should not affect you at all, as it is \"nothing\". In reality, death is quite clearly \"something\" which is likely very painful followed by something we are unsure of and is resultantly fear-inducing.", "id": "c21efjh", "summary": "if death is nothing, nobody would care about seeing others die."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "No offense, but you're wasting your breath. OP is not an MRA as much as he is a woman hater. He brags about punching a woman in defense, brags about not letting his girlfriend ever touch the remote control because she watches MTV, and generally displays a keen dislike for women, which is only truly unfortunate for women in that he's physically attracted to them. He seems like the type who hates that he loves them, and is bent on punishing women for this dichotomy.", "id": "c1soidq", "summary": "Unfortunately, OP'll never take what you say seriously."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "These shows are so faked in Japan. People pretend to be dumb and they are told how to act beforehand. Keep in mind this guy has had ~five hours a week of English for at least six years. \n For those who live/lived in Japan, I agree that most Japanese have learned remarkably little English in that six years. Granted, many Japanese students have trouble differentiating between 12 and 20, but ten-ten? Even if he were to do a literal translation, it would be two-ten.", "id": "c0llzt4", "summary": "Japanese television is fake and sucks to boot."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Believe it or not, I was a kid once. A latchkey kid from age six with a single parent. I watched  a lot  of TV and I learned very early that no meant no. Parents who cave easy create kids who feel that if they just wear their parent down, they'll get what they want. Fuck that. \n I've got an eighteen-month-old and when he wants something that he shouldn't have, you  just don't give it.  by holding your ground, you make your job easier in the future and your kids will respect (or at least adhere to) your decisions. Should we sue toy manufacturers next because our kids ask for something every time they're in a toy section?", "id": "c19coab", "summary": "parents who don't teach their kids not to beg deserve whiny brats."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Girls at my high school (where I work) can be very flirty, but that may be because it's kind of a safe environment for them to be so. Girls on the street/in bars/etc are so much less forward than western girls and I've been in a relationship my whole time here so I'm not throwing game. Also, I'm almost 35 and most women my age here have settled down. And I'm 6'2\", 260lbs and look like a biker-ish linebacker, quite the opposite of the teased mullets and slender tight-pants-wearing peacocks that are the \"alpha males\" of Japan. I think most girls find me scary unless they know me.", "id": "c0uaa2z", "summary": "I haven't a fucking clue."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "I had a nice long discussion with a redditor about that the other day. Their point: You know why blacks say racist shit to you. \n Me: Well, I'm Canadian and my ancestors were slaves, too, not slave owners. \n Them: But white male privelege, amirite? \n They left me, a white guy in Japan (a hugely racist country) who took woman's studies and majored in sociology in uni, this:", "id": "c3i1hdf", "summary": "Apparently it's okay to call out whitey, even if his ancestors didn't own slaves, because of (get ready) the colour of his skin."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "In the end though, to the Japanese, you'll always be a foreigner no matter how well you speak. Japanese-ness is very much related to blood as well as language. \n I don't know if you're being tongue in cheek about the blood part, but they are migrants from the Korean peninsula, and although the narrative of Nihonjinron says they are racially unique, they totally aren't. \n In fact, Japanese don't know what makes somebody Japanese. If you ask them, they will first say \"race\". Then, if you ask them if a Japanese person who has never lived in Japan is Japanese, they will hesitate and likely say it's a cultural identity. If you ask them if a white person who speaks Japanese and lives the Japanese culture is Japanese, they'll say no, you have to be born there. Then you ask if the Chinese or Koreans who are born there, live the culture, and speak the language are Japanese, they will say no. Then stand back as their heads explode.", "id": "c1e1ob5", "summary": "Just thought I'd clarify in case anybody thought that Japanese-ness was related to blood. It isn't."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "You have a lot of anger towards people who hold Aesop in high regard, which is your prerogative (but seems really childish to me). Then you took out your silly anger that you have for his fans on him. \n No matter what, he took time (two days in a row, at different intervals) to answer his fans questions. He's obviously a humble and polite guy, so why not treat him with a little respect?", "id": "c2y752x", "summary": "You think you hit him with some much-needed \"tough journalism\", but you were just a salty little hater who showed a complete lack of class."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Neither. Japan is doomed because it changes glacially and that simply isn't fast enough to get out of this rut. Westerners are waiting for the old people to die off so we can finally legalize inessentials like weed and gay marriage. Most of Japan's current teenagers can't even grasp the idea that women are actually equals.", "id": "cc7zg5p", "summary": "don't hold your breath \n Edit: I don't care about internet points, but it shows that people are downvoting instead of disagreeing."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "As for our comedy, there is too many cultural references for a non-native speaker. The senses of humour are way too different, as well. \n And if she gets angry watching stand ups, then she is forgetting how silly and juvenile manzai is. It's Vaudevillian shit with a Japanese version of Laurel and Hardie smacking each other on the head. it's funny, but only when your expectations are really really low. \n Credibility? Japanese shows are all basically scripted. Any student of non-verbal cues can see this. Japanese shows are usually trite, contrived and full of canned reactions. \n As for our food being too sweet, try eating anko. It's so sweet I can't get to bed.", "id": "c2h82dy", "summary": "Japan just has different versions of America's fucked up shit."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "I'm all for people being comfortable with their bodies and people being sexually uninhibited. What I'm lamenting here is the pressure to conform to a standard, which is enforced through downvotes and an attempt to bury people who have a different comfort level. If we did this to women who politely but clearly said they didn't want to swallow cum, we'd be a pack of assholes, wouldn't we?", "id": "c24cg46", "summary": "I don't want blood on my dick, but I couldn't care less about you bloodying up yours. Respect me, I'll respect you."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "If somebody told me they didn't believe in gravity, I'd just shrug and find it odd. Mainly because I know, based on evidence, that gravity exists. But when you don't believe in God, of whom they claim to be sure, they often get angry. If something is a sure bet, you don't get pissy if people don't believe it because they don't threaten your worldview.", "id": "cab8g2b", "summary": "people get real grumpy when you question their untenable ideas"}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "I don't know how enviable it is here. Women I've talked to get sexually harrassed by co-workers but fear complaining, I've personally spoken to a ton of girls who've been molested on trains but just endured it for fear of upsetting the apple cart. My wife, who is a school nurse, has had male students invite her to their nursing room bed and it is common for male students to try to embarrass female teachers with sex jokes. \n Bed death is more common here as many couples move to separate rooms after having kids. Also women here seem way too meek to say no if they need to.  Child pornography is legal to possess here and there are types of porn here that are so disgraceful to women, it's like a horror movie. \n Honestly, I wouldn't be a Japanese woman for anything. It just seems like such a losing prospect. I highly doubt that women who face as much oppression as they do here can possibly enjoy sex as much as the men who are oppressing them. \n And I also wonder how their \"openness\" to sex can include pixelated junk as mandated by law in their pron.", "id": "c15l94o", "summary": "I don't think it's as great as you think."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Okay, so the narrator keeps intimating how enlightened and liberal they are about sex in Japan. Then they show prostitution and a photographer who, in every shot, is clothed while the women are naked. One guy says \"feelings and sex are separate\" then a girl says she lost her virginity to a guy she really liked and trusted. The narrator says that in the West, sexy photos would be considered porn but in Japan they're art. Also, they say that the human form (surprise...a woman's!) is beautiful, yet they are forced to pixelate genitalia by law. \n They talk about how high school girls were becoming prostitutes and that sometimes 1/3 of girls had been prostitutes. He goes further to say that there is nothing shameful about being a prostitute in Japan. Then they show Mariko who has a boyfriend and is secretly a prostitute. She talks about how she might marry and still secretly have sex for money. If it's not shameful, why not be honest? \n Almost every woman in this video is a prostitute and every guy is either buying sex or selling the woman's image. Congrats on being so enlightened, Japan!", "id": "c15md7k", "summary": "this is a thinly-veiled Japanese propaganda movie that trumpets Japan and poo-poos the West. Pathetic."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Actually, I had an ex that had her same fear. The difference is that she  would  let me go down after I went through a battery of oral hygiene tasks and rigorous hand washing. She said she was often itchy down there (despite daily showers) and, to be honest, had a constant  piquant  odour. The preliminary sanitization and metaphorical haz-mat suit coupled with her constant fear that the hot wings I ate 6 hours ago would give her a yeastie made us phase it out.", "id": "c0ulan6", "summary": "it could be a very real phobia"}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Paypal is shit. I sold a ring on eBay to some girl in Brooklyn (I'm in Japan). She started a chargeback and then two days later gave me positive feedback. I gave paypal a screencap of the postal receipt, the EMS arrival page, the positive feedback and her correspondence trying to buy the ring off of eBay and thereby defrauding them (I would only sell it through eBay). Paypal's \"chargeback team\" lost and now my account is in arrears by 360USD. It sucks because I buy so many things from eBay that I can't get in Japan but I won't pay the fee on general principle. Now that bitch has the ring and her money. Cunt.", "id": "c0n6fym", "summary": "I got scammed by some myatch and paypal didn't do shit, so no eBay for me."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "This is not \"chickens coming home to roost\". This is all women being judged for the actions of a few. It's like saying that the forced rape education that happens in some colleges/universities is \"chickens coming home to roost\" when the actions of  some  men affect  all of them . \n It's horrible to be raped and horrible to be falsely accused, but cutting off service to a whole sex is stupid when a simple camera could render the whole issue moot. \n Honestly, I would hope that we look at how unfair treatment has been against men for the actions of a few of them and realize that, if some honest drunk girl wants a cab home at 3am, it's not cool to pass her by for the actions of a few shitty women.", "id": "c2spp9m", "summary": "Let's not celebrate this as it's the same generalizations we revile against us."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "My millionaire grandmother died wabout 6 weeks ago. She verbally abused us all and used her money as the one power-play in her arsenal. She was a horrid person about it and spent a great deal of time writing new wills to favour whoever had kissed her ass. She left her fortune to her son (my uncle) and my mother (she raised me poor as a single mom). Everybody was always talking about getting her money and I would have to say that it's because she lorded it over us whenever she could. She worked a total of about 14 days in her life, married rich and always berated us working stiffs for never making millions. The worst style of Calvinism this century. \n Now that she's dead, nobody gives a shit about her. They just want her money. (I've refused my entitlement based on how awful the money feels).", "id": "c1nr4b3", "summary": "if you want to be loved, be loving. If you use your money as a weapon, prepare to have everybody fight over it."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Oh, you're talking about weak American beer. Sorry, I grew up on 5% beer in Canada but I drink 8% Chimay or heavy PAs. \n \"A glass of white or red wine, a bottle of beer, and a shot of whiskey or other distilled spirits all contain equivalent amounts of alcohol and are the same to a Breathalyzer. A standard drink is: \n * A 12-ounce bottle or can of regular beer\n* A 5-ounce glass of wine\n* A drink of one and 1/2 ounce of 80 proof distilled spirits \n \n (either straight or in a mixed drink)\n[source]( \n So there are five drinks in a bottle of wine. If you get drunk off of five drinks: \n >you likely have little to no real world experience with alcohol.", "id": "c1fj94j", "summary": "comparing a bottle of wine to weak American swill beer does not make a bottle of wine contain nine drinks."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Look into a low GI/paleo style of eating. Eat minimal carbs but eat them with a fat or get your carbs from veg. \n Anybody who tells you that calories in vs calories out is generally unaware of hormones and genetics. \n EDIT: I was on my phone earlier and wanted to be more thorough. \n I've been overweight most of my life (since 11 months) despite eating less than others and less frequently. Also, I've always been very active (heavy weights, cycling, walking) and never a junk food type of guy (2 pieces of cake a year, McDonald's the same, etc). \n In my thirties, I started to gain a lot of weight despite eating whole foods and not eating crap. I went to the doctor to get my BMR tested (2648kcal/day). That's what I burn at complete rest. I couldn't understand why I was gaining weight: I was eating barely over that but cycling 50km a week, doing 325lb bench press, and walking 40 mins/day on top of a standing job. All my Japanese doctors said \"Eat less\". The problem was that, at the end of all this exercise, if I didn't have a dinner of mostly carbs, I would wake up in a sweat having a panic attack in the middle of the night. Then I'd have to have a little bowl of rice or I couldn't get to sleep and I'd have explosive anger. Keep in mind, every calorie calculator would get my BMR right, but with my activity level, they said I should be  maintaining weight  at 4000kcal/day. I was eating 2800kcal. It was maddening, especially when compounded by people everywhere saying \"Do you think you can break the laws of thermodynamics?\" \n Then I started to reduce my carbs. It was magic. The weight started to come off, my mood leveled, my brain fog disappeared, I became happier. I'm eating the exact same calories as before, but I'm exercising less. \n Carbs make your body secret insulin which makes your body store glucose as fat and hinders gluconeogenesis (making glucose from proteins), as well as hinders your body's ability to oxidize fat. If you have a lot of insulin in your blood, it will pull that glucose into your fat cells, and your body, in a panic to raise the glucose level, will secret stress hormones (adrenaline and cortisol) to make glucose. That's why I couldn't sleep without eating more carbs. But you can bypass all this by getting a majority of your calories from fat, some from protein, and less from carbs. For many people, insulin is their undoing. \n So there I was getting shit sleep, exercising my balls off, barely making it through my days, counting calories and weighing food, getting called a moron on the internet, going to doctors, and being unable to lose weight at all. Because of some fucking carbs and insulin. Thank fuck, despite all the people who are derisive and make it seem so goddamned simple, I realized we are not all equations, and I found a solution that fit me.", "id": "chs2mi7", "summary": "OP eat some fucking fat, some protein, and a smidge of carbs and then go shopping for some new clothes."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "No, it's actually one of the dumbest comments. If I were attracted to amputees and my kid lost a limb in an accident, would you be worried I'd fuck my kid? I love Asian women, my mother-in-law is an Asian woman and I've managed to keep my hands off her thus far. \n Being attracted to a particular type in no way means that you have no control over your sexuality. It's only puritans and idiots that would conflate the two. \n I have a child and I'm sure at least one pedophile has checked him out. I personally don't care what someone fantasizes about, so long as they don't infringe on anybody else's rights. My wife has great tits and guys look at them all the time. What am I going to do, beat the shit out of all of them?", "id": "c1mtu1h", "summary": "as long as people conduct themselves legally, I don't give a shit what they do with their minds or computers."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Whoa whoa whoa! Making her feel awful about her \"hang ups\" then reducing her options to \"...be dumped\" or \"...dump him\" is reducing some very complex feelings and basically dismissing them. You can't tell her her feelings about oral sex are stupid and tell her it's not degrading in the same breath. \n I've dated girls who've hated giving head and if you open dialogue and are patient, you can work through it. You have to usually work towards sexual compatibility.", "id": "c0mrvt6", "summary": "You came off brutal."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Okay, your first source is a magazine that cites one incident: \n >“It’s just destroyed our community,” said Sheila Harrison, 48, a hospital worker  who says she knows several of the defendants . “These boys have to live with this the rest of their lives.” \n She is a friend of the defendants. And she is one person. One. \n The story is about an 11-year-old girl who was hanging around with 19-year-olds. \n >Residents in the neighborhood where the abandoned trailer stands — known as the Quarters — said the victim had been visiting various friends there for months. They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said. \n Something has to explain why an 11-year-old was hanging around with 19-year-olds. \n And then we have the only other person who would go on record saying \"What was her mother thinking?\" \n Just because neither of the  two  people who spoke explicitly sympathized with the girl doesn't mean they  didn't  sympathize with her. And one friend of the victims saying that is not a good indication of the general public. \n In your second link, there is a story of a policeman who tried to tell students, under the radar, not to dress like sluts as a rape prevention method. There was a massively big deal made of this and he was forced to make an apology. Newspapers all over picked it up. Do you know why? Because it was widely unpopular and shocking. \n Also, in the second source, is a reference to justice Robert Dewar and how he told a girl that her tube top was part of the reason for her sexual assault. What was the reaction to his opinion on the matter? \n \n A formal complaint was lodged against him. \n \n There was a public protest in front of his court. \n \n Rona Ambrose, the federal minister for the status of women, condemned his remarks. \n \n Jennifer Howard, the province's minister responsible for the status of women, condemned his remarks. \n \n Due to the complaint, he was removed from presiding over any cases of a sexual nature  ever . \n \n \n And do you know why all this made the papers? Because it is considered to be atrocious and despicable and doesn't represent the vast majority of opinions out there.", "id": "c9ctjch", "summary": "A very small minority of people do not speak on behalf of the majority. The massive reactions to people blaming the victims is, to me, incontrovertible evidence that this is not part of our culture."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "It shouldn't be taboo at all, but it is, as a result of the racism that is inherent to capitalism in a barely post-segregation nation. \n So it shouldn't be taboo? We should all be free to \"nigger nigger nigger\"? My point was that if we're going to put a moratorium on its use, it should apply to all. I'm actually in favour of shaming the use of the word. I'm just not a fan of words being appropriate for certain members of a population and not others. \n Also, capitalism isn't inherently racist any more than communism is inherently totalitarian. For the record. \n >You can sit there with your abacus waiting. \n >>What's your point? You can sit here and bitch about how it's taboo for you to say nigger all you want, but it's not going to make it socially acceptable either. \n I'm saying that you'll never see \"equality\", as you use it, between blacks and whites in your lifetime. The pendulum is in the middle of swinging in the opposite direction but huge parts of black culture are not ready for being equal. Much like large segments of the female population are not ready to be equal. There will be growing pains, part of which is the identity of victimization which hinders progress for this substrata (I'd say 'these people', but I assume you'd say 'What do you mean, 'these people?'). \n I will readily admit racism is still alive, but I think that the poor black communities are doing a great job of keeping themselves in squalor without the help of racists. By this, I mean that there is a level of disapproval for success by their cohort. It's well documented that blacks of equal financial prosperity as whites fared worse in academia because of this. I wouldn't hold my breath for the equality thing.", "id": "c0shqzd", "summary": "I don't want to use the word \"nigger\". I want either nobody to use it, or it to take on another meaning and be available to all. Racism will not be overthrown on linguistical battlegrounds though, so the lower classes of blacks can \"nigger\" themselves till they're blue in the face."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Unfortunately Karma requires an original cause. For example, a bad person deserves bad karma, right? Well, why did the family of the girl have to suffer? If they're suffering, maybe they deserved the karma. Or the woman who helped (Chen Xianmei) did something to deserve her troubles. Or maybe the little girl Yueyue deserved her death because she did something horrible.", "id": "c2t7fku", "summary": "karma doesn't exist"}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "If you're a smoker/heavy drinker/drug addict/etc then it's okay to take risks with your own life. But to normalize these things sends the wrong message. Be fat and happy.  But let's not act like a 12-year-old having diabetes from drinking litres of soda is acceptable. \n Source: overweight man with impeccable yearly health checks who's trying to lose weight.", "id": "chzq4o4", "summary": "body image acceptance is fine. But let's not teach our kids that being obese is less dangerous than it is."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "My ex bought us both a massage from a Korean parlour for my birthday. We got naked in a room with a mature woman and a young girl in her twenties. I got the senior and my gf got the hot young one. After a few tickles to my junk I asked how much for them to take off their tops. The older one said 100 each. I told her to throw on a sweater and a simple massage would be fine. \n I think the older one was angry because she gave my nuts shiatsu and kneaded them until they tried to retreat into my abdomen. When the time was up, the cute girl smiled and told us my gf and I could fuck by ourselves if we wanted. My junk was so turtled from the beating that I intimacy was impossible.", "id": "c0uly1m", "summary": "a great plan went awry"}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "I don't think he deserves what he gets. If you know the penalty for littering is execution, do you think the death penalty is a proportionate response for littering? \n The point is either you agree with the laws and say that this punishment is just, or you think that no matter what the laws say, this kind of punishment is unfair. \n If you would not personally dispense this punishment to this man for his crime, then that is your admission that he doesn't deserve this punishment.", "id": "c7kv273", "summary": "either you support this punishment or you don't. If you don't support it, you must recognize it as unfair. If it's unfair, this man doesn't deserve the punishment."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "I'm dead average in the dink dept. Wife wishes out loud I were smaller and asks me why I thrust like I'm trying to get my balls in there too. \n She had an ex that was 3\" and she would've gladly stayed with him if he hadn't cheated. Your loss, 3\" guy.", "id": "c7fazgr", "summary": "some women have tiny vaginas"}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Nice idea, but it falls a little short on some fronts. The religious have a long history of trying to deprive others of rights and freedoms. Atheists strive to give more freedoms (of course, I'm speaking in generalities). There are places in the world where apostasy is met with state-sponsored death. There is nothing even remotely equivalent with atheism. \n Are the religious more physically violent? It's likely, in my estimation. There is an inherent fear in believing in something that can't be substantiated and is often a sign of trying to control life's unknown/undesirable elements. This fear, along with an idea that god is on their side, can result in some volatile attitudes. \n Lastly, I don't think beliefs need to be respected, especially where religion is concerned. However, the right to believe must be acknowledged and respected. Religion should not be tolerated in the public sphere, nor subsidized by the gov't, nor have any kind of political sway. Also, given the correlation between education and atheism and how many atheists are morally grounded based on philosophical principles, I don't foresee a future where there are roving gangs of atheists preying upon small underground groups of worshipers.", "id": "c1737fu", "summary": "violence more often flows from the religious to the atheist, not the other way around"}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Like most people with retarded ideologies, they don't think it through to the end. It's like holding any moral framework that benefits you. You wind up doing some mental gymnastics to validate it. \n Their idea of \"no snitching\", when taken to its logical conclusion, is \"might makes right\". You're expected to \"handle your business\" and get revenge on whoever wronged you. But if you're weak, unarmed, or scared then you don't deserve justice, apparently. \n I've posed the following question to people on WorldStar Hip-Hop: \"If there were some powerful authoritative international body that could've prevented slavery, it would be wrong to appeal to them because it would be snitching?\" I was usually met with \"fuck outta here cracka!\" or something equally poetic.", "id": "cdgnfq9", "summary": "Don't worry. They don't understand their ethic either."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "I'm fat because my insulin reacts like a motherfucker to carbs and stores them as fat. I've always enjoyed whole foods, always hated soda, don't like candy/snack foods, eaten moderately sized portions, lifted weights, rode a bike, walked a lot, etc. Always been fat. \n Halted the carbs at about 40g/day and have lost over 25lbs since May. Some of us actually have a physical problem that impedes us but we have no idea what it is. We try to do everything right and still have to deal with the judgemental looks and people seeing us with a small portion and assume we must hork down eighteen ice cream sandwiches when we're home alone.", "id": "c0uk2ue", "summary": "Obesity is not such a simple matter for some  of us"}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "I think I should clear something up: \n >I probably would have shared your feelings on black culture. \n I feel that way about a sub-culture that happens to be black, not about black culture as a whole. Just wanted to get that out of the way. \n >Statistics is not my thing but isn't a better indicator of crime poverty and not race? \n Yes, but there are certainly some dirt-poor white people in America but there is a dearth of white gangs. There is a volatile mix of being brutally wronged in the past (and arguably still), hypermasculinity in the black sub-culture, and poverty (though the sub-culture bleeds out of this category into higher classes). In my estimation, there just seems to be more of an acceptance of violence, and more brutal violence, among some black sub-cultures. \n I'm a minority in Japan and I know that I am way way way more quick to think of violence as an option than Japanese guys. It's not even a consideration and they would be scared t death if I asked them for a fight. Violence is more accepted in most parts of white culture (I grew up poor but am now educated middle-class), just as violence is even more acceptable in parts of black culture. \n The", "id": "c16fz2q", "summary": "is that there is something more than poverty at work in the level of violence seen amongst blacks."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Okay, let's have a look at this: \n >I hope the men who did it go to jail and get ass raped for the rest of their lives. The people defending them and accusing the little girl should all get wiped off the face of the earth by a tornado. \n So rape is okay if it's done anally to prisoners? In essence, you're only against rape in certain situations. Say it out loud: \"I am sometimes pro-rape!\" \n Secondly, you think debates about guilt should result in people's deaths. I'm assuming this will apply to the defense attorneys which would result in no more defense attorneys. I hope I don't have to explain that the result would be thus: accusations=convictions. Bye-bye fair trials.", "id": "c1nen8a", "summary": "You're being reactionary and small minded and you didn't think anything you said through at all."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "As a person who's unbearably skinny, I wish I was fat, because it's a simple fact that your body will start eating away at your fat as you starve it. I eat and eat, and nothing, straight out the next day without any weight gain. \n Okay, so you're invoking the 2nd law of thermodynamics for fat people but not for yourself? If, as you say, fat people will lose fat if they starve then why wouldn't you gain weight if you just ate more? Surely you must understand that, as someone who can eat and eat and never gain weight, that the same thing could occur for some fat people, right? Some bodies will lower the metabolism further and further in order to keep fat. The body may even prefer shedding muscle in order to keep subcutaneous fat. Just like your body would turn the metabolism up in order to burn those extra calories.", "id": "c1bwcng", "summary": "you can't invoke thermodynamics and not live by the same rules."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "What would you call getting 150 messages a week? It's not being entitled, but your judgement criteria is based on the assuredness of being pursued. Men hand out resumes and women do the hiring. You can reject the \"hey\" messages because you are well aware that there will be a hundred more, and some of those will be by men who will try harder to make your acquaintance. If you had a scarcity of messages like men do, you'd be more likely to respond to a \"hey\" message. And many men don't want to waste time writing something engaging and be rejected.", "id": "cpp2pmz", "summary": "women aren't entitled in a shitty conscious way, but they know, on some level, that men will work way way harder to get their attention, and this limits the effort they themselves put in."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "He committed a crime. Yes, he is a juvenile...but he committed a crime. I don't see  the double standard  you are so upset about. At all. Adults are different than children.  This is not a double standard . A child that commits a crime is a criminal.  This is not a double standard. \n Were you drinking? You seem to be on loop. Anyway, I don't understand what you don't understand about my post. I'll try to clear it up a little. \n You cannot have sex with a child because they don't understand the consequences. The reasoning for this is that their brains are not fully developed yet (although there are puritanical reasons as well). If their brains are not developed enough to consent to sex with an adult because of an inability to see the long-term consequences of their actions, then that should make them less culpable for a crime of posting CP. I mean, isn't this why we differentiate between adult and child offenders? \n SpaceViking posited that he may be charged as an adult. In this case, he would be looked upon as a grown-up with fully developed mental faculties. This is in complete conflict with the idea that he is an emotionally immature child (which would surely be the logic in the case of him being statutorily raped by an adult).", "id": "c2339g7", "summary": "If he had sex with an adult, he is a child who doesn't understand the consequences of his actions. If he posts a CP pic, he's a willful  adult  pedophile who totally understands the consequences of his actions."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "I don't think anybody really chooses it. It's just part of the  shou ga nai  attitude so prevalent in Japan. Nobody will be able to keep their jobs if they protest losing their personal time or neglecting their family. And if they can't be fired, their coworkers will bully them into toeing the company line. \n The head of the English department at my Japanese school worked so much that he never saw his kids. His son failed English in junior high school because his dad never had time to help him.", "id": "ckp7wfc", "summary": "nobody in Japan chooses to work that much. They're just too scared to stand up for their rights."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Here]( is a list of war apologies made by Japan. Some are more official than others. \n The problem is that Japan is not consistent in their remorse, and I believe that's where the conflict lies. There are many formal apologies, but then you have the Osaka mayor claiming that soldiers needed comfort women/allied forces in WWII had comfort women. Or the Gov't appointed head of NHK (Japan's answer to the BBC) downplaying the history of comfort women, and being allowed to keep his job. One of the other NHK governors flat out denied the Nanking massacre took place. Also, if you look at [Abe and his cabinet]( you can see how the highest branches in the government are actively attempting to change Japan's historical narrative. \n Personally, I work alongside a conservative Japanese man who tells his students that the Nanking massacre was faked. These people can be found everywhere in Japan. It is much more comfortable for people to deny the truth or invent a new one instead of admit their wrongdoing. A Japanese proverb is thus: \"kusai mono ni wa futa o shirō\" (put a lid on the stinky thing).", "id": "cim2mns", "summary": "Japan is not Germany. Not by a long shot."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Well, I'm a permanent resident of Japan for eight years, and it most certainly is not \"encouraged for the sick and elderly to pass away rather than seek medical attention\". Japan reveres their elderly far more than in the West, and Japanese will go to the hospital far quicker than Western people will. \n Even without firsthand knowledge of Japan, it seems counterintuitive that the people with the longest lifespans could possibly be encouraged to slide off the mortal coil.", "id": "cc50rxi", "summary": "I'm a PR in Japan. This is not at all true."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "This is annoying. unlimitednights said nothing in this thread generalizing America. Yet, in the interest of holding somebody responsible for any negative Canadian perception of America, you've homed in on unlimitednights and falsely accused him/her. Then you've been rude to me when I ask a simple question, while scolding me about English, which you refuse to capitalise.", "id": "ccbr39k", "summary": "You're mad about generalizations, so you generalize. Then you make a snide comment about English while failing to properly capitalise it. That's a lot of hypocrisy."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Can I delete an eBook from my HDD? What about if I legally acquire numerous e-copies of that book and delete them all? The publisher is still intact and the book still enjoys its protected legal status, but I just want to destroy something I rightfully own without harming another. Can I do that?", "id": "c0mf0fr", "summary": "Don't let the connotation of an old fashioned crusade-y book burning colour your view of some angry dude burning some of his own books."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "I'm 186cm and I ride a 49cm MTB and a hybrid of the same size. The difference between our bike frames is far larger than the difference in our heights, but our bikes should only reflect roughly half the height difference being that frame size is relative to your inseam. A lot of the height difference between us would be torso and neck/head.", "id": "clvkm35", "summary": "you don't need a bike that big. Get a 520mm bike from Rakuten or Amazon.jp"}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "I was just asking for some insight. Fuck you for biting my head off\" \n >\"I think everyone has their areas of closedmindedness, no? Plus she apologized\" \n >\"1.Not an option\n   2.You're a dick \n \n Why is this necessarily a deal breaker?\" \n \n Hey, why don't you just include the answer you're looking for in the title or the story and save everybody the time and effort of giving advice to somebody who is acting, unbelievably, bitchier than his slappy girlfriend. \n You don't want opinions from other people, you want  your  opinion from other people.", "id": "c0apwvc", "summary": "Quit whining."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "She is bullshitting in the form typical of a woman who wears too much make up, thinks too little, dates rich creepy guys, and thinks that no matter how gaping the vag, it is the guy's responsibility to bring a baseball bat that'll make it seem like he's not playing a game of \"Operation\".", "id": "c4hwwdf", "summary": "if she can't feel her own middle finger, she has more problems than a poorly hung lover."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "Male perspective: those guys aren't out to control your emotions. They want to be the one that makes you smile. They think if they make you happy with a compliment, they might get a date or they just want to randomly compliment you. \n As a guy, we never hear random compliments and we rarely get hit on (by women). We don't think it'll bug you because we'd love more of that kind of attention ourselves. However, a lot of women get too much of it and it wears away at them. I understand.", "id": "c0yl2zi", "summary": "We want more of the same kind of attention we give you and you want less of it. Tough times for both."}, {"author": "harryballsagna", "content": "I don't find any problem with people of that minority group using the words as long as they aren't used for hate (which is sort of impossible, see below). \n It's not only not impossible, it's highly likely that they are often used hatefully. Is it a coincidence that those blacks who are the most impoverished place the least value on each others' lives? You think that calling other black men \"nigger\" is something positive and affectionate? How would King, Malcolm, DuBois, et al. think about that? \n >My point, that you seemed to have missed \n No, I didn't  miss  your point. I understand how words have context but I also feel that allocating a different lexical pool to one race than another is silly. And, at its core, racist (different rights and allocations based on race is  racism ). \n >There's a big difference. For you imply they should \"expect\" the language to be used by everyone, because they use it themselves is preposterous, and way off base. \n What would be the problem if I met a black guy a few times at a party and said \"Yo, my nigga, you want a beer?\" (I'm white). Maybe I really like the guy and would genuinely like to share my beers with him. I have never owned slaves or discriminated against a black person and he has never been owned. Does the word \"nigger\" benefit us or does it keep us apart? Maybe he's cool with being called \"nigger\" by me but I'm apprehensive because of my white man's guilt. Maybe he calls me \"my nigga\" but would lose his shit if I returned it.", "id": "c168npn", "summary": "Black people calling each other nigger is stupid. It was better when it was \"brother-this\" and \"brother-that\"."}]}
+{"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Popcorn is low; markup is high.", "output": "The markup is unreal.  I have a theater-style popper in my entertainment room.  I can buy a 50lbs bag of popcorn at Sam's Club for like $30.  Do you know how much popcorn a 50lbs bag will pop?  I could probably buy a car at the end of the year if I sold it at a movie theater."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post More cats, fewer birds.", "output": "The city where I went to college is right on the flight path of grackles.  We're talking massive numbers of disgusting black grackles shitting on everything and generally making life look like a scene from 'The Birds.' \n So three of my friends were renting this house that had a big privacy fence and a pool.  There were also several stray cats around.  We went to the Wals-Marts and bought ourselves scoped pellet rifles and 'bird shot' pellets.  Also, lots of beer.  We spent an entire summer sitting around in lawn chairs, drinking beer, and shooting grackles that the stray cats would then run and take away for us."}], "user_id": "longlamp_3309", "history": [{"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "Not at all.  I was raised upper middle class in a small lower class town, but I was a straight-A student and very respectful to my peers and teachers.  I only had one detention my entire life which was in MS when the principal, no joke, said I needed to \"experience it\" at least once.  I bought my lunch every day -- most kids couldn't.  I neither bullied nor was I bullied, but I'd give kids some of my lunch money if they asked. \n I set a lot of limits upon myself.  No punishment and no rules at home made me ultra-paranoid about getting into trouble.  I hated going over to my friends' homes because I never knew what was considered a 'general rule' for most houses.  As such, I was astoundingly well behaved and all of the adults loved me.  As far as peers and friends, I was the type to \"go along to get along\" so long as it never put me into a compromising position where I could get in trouble, my reputation would be harmed, or I'd get arrested! \n Having said all of that, inside the privacy of my own home was another matter.  I had wonderful parents, but I had an explosive temper and I was very demanding.  Getting everything I want on demand and never being expected to do...anything...did have consequences but only at home.  I've grown out of it now, but it took me longer than most. \n Just before I went to college, I came home one day to find both my parents sitting on my bed crying -- they told me, \"You really don't have to go to college if you don't want.  We are more than happy to support you for the rest of your life, and we don't want to lose you.\"  That's the kind of parents I had.", "id": "cimho16", "summary": "yes and no."}, {"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "I'm an independent campaign consultant.  Let me also say that I've always rejected politics as a 'science.'  There will never be a magical formula that political scientists can plug specific demographic information into in order to predict, with certainty, the outcome of any election.  Elections are based upon human nature -- politics is an art not a science.  If professional campaign consulting has taught me anything, nobody really knows what goes through the mind of the individual voter when they walk into that booth.  If anything, political science should be relegated to a sub-discipline of sociology.", "id": "ck8to19", "summary": "I hated math and statistics suck."}, {"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "There's this scene from Parks and Recreation when Ron Swanson goes to the hardware store.  An employee comes up to him and asks if he can be helped -- Swanson replies, \"I know more than you\" and simply continues walking without even making eye contact.  That's how I feel about the 20 Best Buy employees that ask me that question every time I go in there.  :D \n I do have a low opinion of Geek Squad; however, I actually had to break down and go in there just before Christmas.  I was building my sister a PC for Christmas.  There was a disaster with UPS shipping the parts from Newegg, and I ended up not getting my shit until the 23rd of Christmas. \n I got the PC built (I didn't independently test each component as I went) - hit the power button - nadda.  Could not figure out what the hell was wrong, but I suspected it was the PSU.  It acted like the PSU, but I thought it may have been the motherboard (which did not have LED indicators).  So, I broke down and went to Best Buy around 8pm that evening because they said they'd test it for free.  It was the PSU. \n Anyway, the Geek Squad guy that helped me was amazing.  He was a Baron of the Master Race -- we discussed different PC builds for awhile, and he even took me back behind the counter to show me all of their different diagnostic equipment.  The guy was really intelligent and knew his shit. \n If I ever break down and have to take something in to Best Buy, he's the only son of a bitch I want touching my equipment.", "id": "chkr8sq", "summary": "Some Best Buy employees aren't idiots."}, {"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "This amuses me.  I have a degree in PoliSci with an emphasis on political and constitutional theory as well as a History degree with an emphasis on early-American/colonial history.  Jefferson, in particular, has long been a hero of mine as I'm a paleoconservative in the Jeffersonian/southern agrarian mold. \n It amuses me you think he would hate the 'right wing' which, for many reasons he absolutely would.  However, he would find the left equally detestable.  The degree to which the left accepts government authority would have him grabbing torches and organizing pitchfork brigades.", "id": "cj0dweg", "summary": "Jefferson would find both sides utterly detestable and would be horrified we haven't already revolutionized and overthrown the government."}, {"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "The thing that you have to understand about Jefferson is that nobody, even the most scholarly of Jefferson biographers, really and truly  understands  Jefferson.  He was an incredibly complex man. \n He detested government.  He detested the idea of centralized government and vastly preferred state power to Federal power to the point that his personal vision for Washington DC was to have an 'embassy row' where each state would have their own embassy to the Federal government (which is essentially what the United States Senate was Constitutionally created to be).  He believed, and I agree, that all government is tyranny to one degree or the other and the only way to prevent an expansion of that tyranny was by a well armed public. \n Now...on the other hand... \n Jefferson also believed in something I call (I don't know if he had a specific name for it) \"Generational Sovereignty.\"  Basically, Jefferson believed that one generation imposing its laws and customs on successive generations was a form of tyranny.  If governments rule at the consent of the governed then is it not tyranny for an individual to live under laws and institutions devised before he/she was born and gave no consent to?  That was Jefferson's belief. \n He was also a Deist (as am I) who would have found radical Christian evangelism and its impact on politics to be frightening.  He was certainly opposed to organized religion. \n He also hated industry and banks and considered cities and their populations to be the catalyst for tyranny in the United States.  He believed rural agrarian living was the ideal condition in his new republic, and he believed that the cultivation of schools and universities dominated by the underlying principle of 'reason' would create a more perfect union.  He was an idealist... \n His protege was James Madison who tried very hard to take Jefferson's \"pie in the sky\" ideas and make them not only palatable for the public but politically viable.  He did this to varying degrees of success.", "id": "cj0erbk", "summary": "Jefferson was far too complex to be pigeonholed as either this thing or that thing and it's impossible to definitively say that Jefferson would have been this or that if he were alive today."}, {"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "I got hit by a car in Austin when I was going to college (not UT).  I was crossing the street in front of a BBQ joint my friend I were going to eat at.  Got hit in the middle of the intersection, and I went flying through the air. \n It's funny because time really does slow down and you really do see your life flash before yoru eyes.  I turned toward the car, and I can remember how cold the hood felt under my hands when I reached in front of me.  As I was flying through the air, I remember thinking \"Well I'm going to either be paralyzed or dead.\"  Ended up hitting the pavement and skipping like a stone across the intersection.  I laid there for a few seconds and then wiggled my toes and moved my legs and arms to see if I was paralyzed.  My friend rushed to me and I checked to see if I was bleeding.  I seemed fine at the time...the driver of the car gets out (UT student) and asks if he can help.  I tell him I'm fine and stagger into the BBQ joint.  I'm pretty shaken up, but I order my onion ring appetizer.  About that time, this fire truck, ambulance, and cop car show up outside and they're clearly looking for me.  I didn't want to go to the hospital, so I just \"hid\" in the restaurant.  They eventually left.  The guy that hit me came in and asked if I needed help -- I told him 'no' and he offered to buy me a beer.  I went to school about 100 miles north of there, so my friend had to drive us home in my car.  Later that night my roommate had me scared shitless I may have internal bleeding, so I got talked into going to the ER.  Got bitched out by a nurse who said I was an idiot for not going to the ER in  Austin.  Then I called my dad, who is a doctor, and got bitched out and called an idiot for not going to the ER in Austin!  I ended up being more or less fine.  Nothing broken, but I had a major contusion.  My entire left leg was basically black and purple form my waist to my ankle.  I was damned lucky.", "id": "chrc9pu", "summary": "I braced."}, {"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "Did he never study congressional districts in the south when Democrats were in firm control of those various state legislatures?  Trust me, we're playing catch-up when it comes to carving out favorable Congressional districts -- they are old pros! \n Republicans do this.\nDemocrats do this. \n One side's egregious attempt to carve out favorable districts is no less and no more unfair than when the other side does it.", "id": "chv7m4x", "summary": "Yawn"}, {"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "I ran a guy's campaign for the state legislature (I'm a campaign consultant) with the understanding that he would take me to the capital with him as staff.  He won the election, and then I heard nothing from him for a couple of months.  Finally, out of the blue, I got a call from him just before the session started.  He told me the job was mine if I wanted it and that I'd be 'shared' with another freshman state representative.  He told me to get ready to get to the capital and pack my stuff. \n So then he sends me a text telling me he needs my resume and that this other state rep would be giving me an interview call since I had never met her.  The interview went extremely well, but he had to have that resume within an hour of when he called.  I updated it and whipped together a quick cover letter.  Unfortunately, I spelled the name of this other state representative incorrectly.  I hear nothing from this guy for several days when he finally sends me a text telling me he hired someone else because I misspelled her name (I was off by one letter) on the cover letter. I should have proof-read better, but I was in a pretty big hurry. \n Ironically, he always misspelled my name with an 'e' instead of an 'o' -- he did this in the rejection letter he sent me. \n I was pretty devastated.  I really wanted that job.", "id": "ci4pj8t", "summary": "A politician I worked for promised me a job if he was elected -- he lied."}, {"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "I'm a Deist.  By and large, I think the purpose of life is simply to make the most of our lives.  I think the purpose of humanity, in general, is to better understand why God created the universe in the way that he did and we learn that through science, reason, and understanding.  If we were made in God's image, and I believe we were, then we are inherently God like thus our purpose is to be God-like....we do that by understanding.", "id": "cnkeq07", "summary": "in 10 words or less):  To be like God."}, {"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "In elementary, we had this huge wooden three-level play structure on the playground.  I learned to play poker and then started running an illegal gambling operation at the very top.  Kids would bet their lunch money.  Some kid was stupid enough to bring $20 which I err \"the house\" was more than happy to take from him.  Little shit then went and ratted me out.  I was told there would be no more of that and had to give the money back.", "id": "citedrr", "summary": "The house doesn't always win."}, {"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "In addition to that... \n I'm a paleoconservative, and I firmly and absolutely reject neoconservatism which is 'en vogue' on the right and they still dominate national party politics.  It's a big reason why I refused to vote for both McCain and Romney and why I truly regret voting for Bush in 2004. \n Point being this...the neoconservative movement was essentially founded by former communists and socialists from the 60s...specifically, Trotskyites.  They began to reject the left and went to the right, but they took several beliefs with them.  Namely, a belief that a nation should spread its ideology globally thus the reason it's apparently now our thing to shove American-style democracy and (small r) republicanism down the throats of everyone who won't accept it.", "id": "ciubfvs", "summary": "The 'right' was heavily influenced by former communists."}, {"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "They're interesting.  As far as good/bad/neutral -- I'd say they cancel themselves out.  Set aside for a moment both the causes and individuals they choose to donate their money to and realize they are doing what every American is Constitutionally entitled to do under the 1st Amendment.  The left has made them the poster-children for all sorts of supposed nefarious and conspiratorial accusations.  Most of it is nonsense, but like most things there's probably a little bit of truth there.  I won't deny that. \n Now, as far as who they are donating their money to, I don't think they have any real clue what in the hell they're doing.  I tend to fault them, big time, for their support of AEI but then again they'll turn around and support FreedomWorks.  A lot of their donations make no ideological sense whatsoever.  It's the conservative equivalent to supporting both the Trotskyites and the Leninists at the same time.  That's probably a bad analogy, but I don't even consider neoconservatives to be legitimate conservatives (but that's a topic for another day). \n But anyway, yeah...I think they throw their money from one end of the conservative spectrum to the other just to see what sticks.  This tells me there is no master plan for what they're doing and no single focus-oriented goal.  They're just throwing money at conservative causes -- no more no less.  It's fundamentally no different than Warren Buffet or any number of wealthy leftists doing the same thing.  The amount of money and the success of their results may differ but aside from that it's pretty much the same.", "id": "chjzt0b", "summary": "The Koch Brothers don't seem to know what they're doing."}, {"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "This is a bit of a long story, but I'll keep it as brief as possible. \n My grandfather was a WWII vet -- an \"old army\" horse soldier with the 1st Cavalry Division.  He was a recon platoon Sgt. in the 5th Cav.  He ended the war with the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and all of the associated campaign ribbons.  He was also given a civilian medal by a national historical organization I was associated with just before he died in the late 90s. \n He had a son, my uncle, who died in a car crash in 1985.  That left me (born in 1982) as the only male in the family.  My grandfather and I were close and he was the finest most gentle man I've ever known next to my father (he was my maternal grandfather).  I've had a life long fascination with WWII, but he would only talk about the war in very general terms until just before I went to college when he sat down with me and told me stories he had never told anyone. \n I was always supposed to be the one to get his medals.  That was made very clear to my grandmother, my mother, and my aunt.  Unfortunately, I lost my grandfather in 2001.  My aunt and her two twin daughters have always lived with my grandparents.  My aunt still lives with my grandmother save the four years she was in the Air Force.  One of my twin cousins is a very looney-left sort.  She isn't at all keen on the military and has a world view very much at odds with my grandfather's and my own.  Even though I was supposed to get my grandfather's medals, my aunt has kept possession of them and has promised them to this particular cousin. \n This has been a major point of contention in my family, and it seems unlikely that I'll ever get his medals.  So my question is this:  would it be completely wrong and unethical for me to try to obtain copies of those medals so that I'll at least have a set?  It won't be the same since they aren't \"his\" medals, but at least I'll have something tangible that's connected to him in concept if not reality.  But I know that purchasing medals is considered a 'no no' under most circumstances. \n Not sure what to do...", "id": "t3_39p9fd", "summary": "Is it okay to order copies of my grandfather's medals since my loony cousin has possession of his real ones?"}, {"author": "Ingens_Testibus", "content": "This happened last Thursday, but I haven't felt like telling the story until now.  I had a heinous cold -- terrible congestion being one of my many symptoms.  My dad's a doc, but he's out of town so my mom called to ask if she could do anything for me.  Now, when I'm running a fever and sick I tend to semi-hallucinate.  I'm barely functional, but I was up all night watching WWII documentaries since I couldn't sleep. \n So....there's a brand of decongestant that I prefer called \"Zephrex D\" but in my less-than-fully-lucid state my mind reverts back to the previous night's documentaries and I tell my mom to run by my pharmacy and pick up some \"Zyklon-B.\"  She writes the name of the drug down and heads over there.  About 45 minutes later she calls and tells me, \"Uh  insert name of Pharmacist  said they most certainly do not have Zyklon-B and he asked if I was making a sick joke.\"  It was only then that I realized my mistake.", "id": "t3_3rws6d", "summary": "Told my mother to pick up some Zyklon B from my Jewish pharmacist, and now I need to switch pharmacies."}]}
+{"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Let's boycott superficial content for a month.", "output": "So I was reading this thread earlier \n And I realized how far reddit has come. When I thought about it, I've been just as guilty as everyone else of dumbing down my experience on reddit. Rage comics, memes, and just general fluff are easy and fun. \n But reddit can be so much more. I know most of you will say hide in the subreddits, and yeah that's an option. But I want to propose a fasting of sorts. \n Join me in 1 month, starting today, of not upvoting or clicking any memes, ragecomics, cat pictures, or any pictures at all. Redditors are increasingly younger and younger, and I have nothing against kids---I work with them for a living. But it's hard for them to contribute things to an intellectual conversation. \n This sound really smug. Maybe it is, but do you wanna be smug with me?"}], "user_id": "longlamp_1908", "history": [{"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "content": "In Kindergarden we were in the room right by the front door where the bell was. The fire bell and the morning bell were the same bell, but rather than a constant ding ding ding for the fire bell, the morning bell was a rapid buzz-like ringing. So, naturally, when the bell went off, we all put our hands over our tender little ears. One morning as we were sitting in a circle, the bell(as bells do) started ringing. Like clockwork, all us kinders started covering our ears. \n For some reason that was the final straw for our teacher and she thus proceeded to flip shit.\nShe singled me out and berated me about how \"some children don't have hands and can't cover their ears\". So...she rubberbanded my hands to each other and made me go the rest of the day without using my hands. Looking back if I had known what was going on I probably could have gotten her fired. At the time it seemed fair...\"I should be more considerate of handless children.\"", "id": "c3d6tkb", "summary": "Baltimore City Public School System"}, {"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "content": "This will probably get washed out but... \n In Kindergarden we were in the room right by the front door where the bell was. The fire bell and the morning bell were the same bell, but rather than a constant  ding ding ding  for the fire bell, the morning bell was a rapid buzz-like ringing. So, naturally, when the bell went off, we all put our hands over our tender little ears. \n One morning as we were sitting in a circle, the bell(as bells do) started ringing. Like clockwork, all us kinders started covering our ears. For some reason that was the final straw for our teacher and she thus proceeded to flip shit. \n She singled me out and berated me about how \"some children don't have hands and can't cover their ears\". So...she rubberbanded my hands to each other and made me go the rest of the day without using my hands. Looking back if I had known what was going on I probably could have gotten her fired. At the time it seemed fair...\"I should be more considerate of handless children.\"", "id": "c242iqq", "summary": "Baltimore City Public School System"}, {"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "content": "In Kindergarden we were in the room right by the front door where the bell was. The fire bell and the morning bell were the same bell, but rather than a constant ding ding ding for the fire bell, the morning bell was a rapid buzz-like ringing. So, naturally, when the bell went off, we all put our hands over our tender little ears.\nOne morning as we were sitting in a circle, the bell(as bells do) started ringing. Like clockwork, all us kinders started covering our ears. For some reason that was the final straw for our teacher and she thus proceeded to flip shit. \n She singled me out and berated me about how \"some children don't have hands and can't cover their ears\". So...she rubberbanded my hands to each other and made me go the rest of the day without using my hands. Looking back if I had known what was going on I probably could have gotten her fired. At the time it seemed fair...\"I should be more considerate of handless children.\"", "id": "c2dffwk", "summary": "Baltimore City Public School System"}, {"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "content": "One of the things I do over the summer is run a zipline at a summer camp. Usually the kids are 7-12 graders by the time they are allowed to do the zipline. Younger kids get to do the climbing wall. Particularly with the younger ones that are a little scared, I lift them up by the belay loop of their harness to let them see what it feels like. \n So one day there was this particularly little 7th grade girl doing zipline and I decided it would be cool(/showing off) to pick her up by her belay loop. The belay loop is pretty small and really only big enough to fit 3-4 fingers in, so I tighten and check her harness and then start lifting her. \n \"Woah\" she exclaims, and everyone is amazed. \"Do me, do me\" shouts some fat kid I can't lift...but before I set her down my hand slips and I catch her in the bottom of the chin with the top of my knuckles. \n After a bit she was ok, luckily she didn't bite her tongue.", "id": "c2doqxe", "summary": "I punched a little girl in the face"}, {"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "content": "The life of an athiest...how horribly unjust. You are very clearly overstating the extent of your \"persecution\". And atheists don't come to Reddit to release their frustrations, they come to do the exact same thing you are complaining about to others. \n r/atheism should only exist in the context that they are there to support newly outed atheists in situations like you mentioned. What r/atheism  actually  is, is a circlejerk where people post cartoons and stories about how stupid christians are, or some encounter with someone who doesnt believe in evolution. WHO GIVES A FUCK? \n There are much worse things to suffer than someone accosting you for being atheist, grow a fucking pair.", "id": "c2c8dpx", "summary": "DOWNVOTE ME YOU FUCKERS"}, {"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "content": "All that they would have to do to remedy the breach would be to give you your money back. However, IANAL but...if you enter into another contract(selling the ps3s you just bought) and then Target didn't deliver the ps3s, then Target would have to pay you the difference in what you would have made. i.e. most breach remedies seek to put both parties back in the position they'd be in if NO breach had occurred. So if you payed 40 bucs and then got that back, you're all the same. But if you payed 40 bucs and entered into a contract to sell it for 200, target would owe you 160 bucs.", "id": "c1d1zer", "summary": "contract the ps3s out after you have entered into the initial contract with Target(paying them, or agreeing to pay them)"}, {"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "content": "Reposting from another thread but: \n In Kindergarden we were in the room right by the front door where the bell was. The fire bell and the morning bell were the same bell, but rather than a constant ding ding ding for the fire bell, the morning bell was a rapid buzz-like ringing. So, naturally, when the bell went off, we all put our hands over our tender little ears. One morning as we were sitting in a circle, the bell(as bells do) started ringing. Like clockwork, all us kinders started covering our ears.\nFor some reason that was the final straw for our teacher and she thus proceeded to flip shit. She singled me out and berated me about how \"some children don't have hands and can't cover their ears\". So...she rubberbanded my hands to each other and made me go the rest of the day without using my hands. Looking back if I had known what was going on I probably could have gotten her fired. At the time it seemed fair...\"I should be more considerate of handless children.\"", "id": "c4ocu36", "summary": "Baltimore City Public School System"}, {"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "content": "I'm not going to play this game with you, and frankly I don't think others should either. The fact that you are so adamant in your views in the face of consistent legitimate claims against that viewpoint(not our claims here, but in general), proves that you are not arguing from a intellectual standpoint but rather an emotional one. I find this ironic as you demand hard evidence for counter opinions to your views when your opinion is clearly based on irrational motivations. However, Freud wouldn't find this ironic at all.", "id": "c1d295p", "summary": "BAM Roasted"}, {"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "content": "I understand, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having them. Why would they matter at all if there were simple magical counter measures? No one would own any. It would be like owning a PS2 when you have the original PS3(fully backwards compatible). \n Because, if actual evil magic fuckers could avoid them, and they were only good against non-magic fucks...why would wizards care? They didn't know about the motherfuckin predator. As if they would keep \"dark detectors\" to spot some fucker like Dudley.", "id": "c32sr5u", "summary": "FUCK THE FUCKERS"}, {"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "content": "One day after this gig I was performing at I stopped by the owner's place to collect my share of the covers that night. Turns out this other guy had the same idea and was robbing the owner right as I got there. I wasn't really feeling so hot after performing so I just acted like nothing happened. \n The guy later ran into my uncle on the street and shot and killed him.", "id": "c7de6j8", "summary": "With great power comes great responsibility"}, {"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "content": "So I started playing about 3-4 years ago and jumped right into chords. I skipped the string progressions and the entire music theory part of the process as I was just teaching myself. Now I play praise songs for a contemporary service and I'm looking to really expand my knowledge base. \n I'm always jealous when I see other guitar players being able to \"jam\" and just hear or see what key someone is playing in and play along with them. So, my question is, what is the best way to progress to the  next level? Lessons might be hard to fit into my schedule, are there helpful resources out there I can use myself?", "id": "t3_m1p8v", "summary": "I want to be able to jam with ma bros"}, {"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "content": "So my aunt posted a status about how Obama didn't do shit and how the Navy Seals/Military did all the work. \n Ok, so to break it down \n \n No one is saying that Obama deserves all the credit. I wish I could meet the guys that pulled this off, but that will probably never happen. \n \n People focus their attention on Obama because he is a representation, an icon, of our military(as commander in chief). People still praise the coach when their team wins, but the players are praised as well. \n \n LET'S BE REAL- They are saying this compound was built in 2005, and that the community is pretty tight knit. On CNN they had a guys saying that when the neighbors didn't know who lived somewhere, they would go knock on the door. There is the chance that any new comers could be Indian spies they said. \n \n \n Also, they said this compound was right by a Pakistani fucking military base. So what does this mean? \n Pakistan KNEW that Osama was there, and chose to hold out that information. This part is a bit of a jump, but don't you think Pakistani officials(and governments worldwide) were more open to working with the US after Bush was gone, and we elected a more reasonable and less aggressive leader like Obama?", "id": "t3_h2pm6", "summary": "Pakistan knew Osama was there, only reason they told us was because Obama is not as huge of a dick as Bush was"}, {"author": "DirtyCommunistPig", "content": "Taken from the wikipedia page of....(you're a bright bunch, you tell me) \n Another cause was the state's effective bankruptcy due to the enormous cost of previous wars, particularly the financial strain caused by French participation in the American Revolutionary War. The national debt amounted to some 1,000–2,000 million[citation needed] livres. The social burdens caused by war included the huge war debt, made worse by the loss of France's colonial possessions in North America and the growing commercial dominance of Great Britain. France's inefficient and antiquated financial system was unable to manage the national debt, something which was both partially caused and exacerbated by the burden of an inadequate system of taxation. To obtain new money to head off default on the government's loans, the king called an Assembly of Notables in 1787. \n Meanwhile, the royal court at Versailles was seen as being isolated from, and indifferent to, the hardships of the lower classes. While in theory King Louis XVI was an absolute monarch, in practice he was often indecisive and known to back down when faced with strong opposition. While he did reduce government expenditures, opponents in the parlements successfully thwarted his attempts at enacting much needed reforms. Those who were opposed to Louis' policies further undermined royal authority by distributing pamphlets (often reporting false or exaggerated information) that criticized the government and its officials, stirring up public opinion against the monarchy.[5]", "id": "t3_mrqob", "summary": "Don't be rolling around in a Lexus when Bastille day comes..."}]}
+{"author": "burncycle", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post College kid severely lost in IT and I don't know how to choose what MS certs to look into. \n Thank you for taking the time to read this. And if you know where I should xpost this for more insight, please tell me.", "output": "Hi there everyone, \n So if you browse my posts, you'll notice that I'm a junior in college at the moment. You may also find that I have a internship in a nice corporation and I've recently realized how deep in shit I am. Excuse my language. \n Essentially I've got a decent amount of computer knowledge. I can put one together, take it apart, swap parts, fix it, etc. I can do the same to a network: put together, make it nice, fix it when it breaks. However, this doesn't compare even close to what happens on a corporate level. And I get that I require experience, and that I lack it at the moment. But I guess I don't know how to close the gap of where I'm at now, and where they people that work here are at. \n To my point: How do I choose which set of Microsoft certifications I should take? At one point I was interested in getting my CCNA, but that fell off. Now I'm not sure what part of IT I'd like to learn. I'm interested in tech support, and maybe some sort of networking. Maybe even database."}], "user_id": "longlamp_9061", "history": [{"author": "burncycle", "content": "I'd say \"Hear ye, hear ye..\" but then I realized that there are a bunch of degrees that aren't of any use(in my opinion). Not to pick on those that studied art, but art majors. What are you gonna do after the 4 years of debt? Study more art? It just doesn't compute. I'm studying computer related things, and I already have it paying off. I finished my first year of college and had a full time summer internship at a Forbes 500 company. I even went back during the winter of the following semester. Guess where I'm at now? Finished my second college year, and interning at the same place!", "id": "ca7l7s7", "summary": "Don't be an art major"}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "Don't know if this counts as beating the system, but my dad bought property. On the property, in the backyard, was a cable pole. It held the lines that gave cable to the entire block. One day while renovating the house, cable guys come by and ask if they can fix something. So my dad says sure. Apparently one of the guys was feeling good and called his supervisor. After a few minutes of back and forth on the phone, the cable guy said hes gonna send three cable boxes (three floors in the house), and give us free cable for the property. Here is the kicker - only two of those three floors are livable by government conduct. So dad took the third to where we actually live and we have free cable. Whoop!", "id": "cab910d", "summary": "got free cable cause cable guy felt nice."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "Joining an outfit helps a lot as well. \n This. So much this. I used to also be worrying about where the fight is cause I couldn't get certs/exp and have fun. I found an outfit on my server, and since then I've always been in the fight(usually 1/2 platoons up for the outfit). Depends on the leader and if (s)he listens to the squads, we either follow where the rest of our faction is going, or go cause hell in a different place.", "id": "c7tvhav", "summary": "outfits are fun, and you get exp/certs if they are good."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "I come home for the breaks from college. I sometimes hate it when my mom asks me to constantly stand around the kitchen and help her while my brother just plays video games or something. Sure, I'm an adult now and I should be WILLINGLY doing things like that, but I come home from college to unwind and just be lazy. But, it gets better. My mom is the only woman in the house now. Theres my dad, my sibling, me, and my mom. My grandmother passed away, and my grandfather is still with us. Then theres my cousin and uncle. Uncle and aunt got a divorce two years ago. So, during the holidays my mom does all the cooking, and my grandfather makes a dish or two. We still hold old traditions, so my mom cooks a billion different plates. Now its gotten much harder because of the recent situations. However, I feel like since I've gone to college I've matured and stopped wanting to be lazy. So now whenever my mom asks me for something, I instantly help her. Sometimes I just end up next to her without her asking. (Same for my dad - with or without asking I'll help him).", "id": "c7k6qoy", "summary": "when I was younger I hated helping out with every little thing, but now life has gotten harder and help my parents with anything and everything, and I enjoy it."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "Parents combined dont cross the $40k a year salary line. Yet I have to pay more then half of my college tuition because the government cant \"afford\" to help me. Also, the government gives me less and less each year. I think by next year (my third year) Ill be paying 3/4ths of the tuition myself. Yet I hear ignorant people getting EOP scholarships, and all they do is party and not care about their grades. Is this really fair?", "id": "c6zpuh9", "summary": "I'm 19, and I've got gray hairs all over my head."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "This one time, my friend got drunk. It was his first time drinking, and he apparently gets violent when drunk. Anyway. He was on the floor, and I got the brilliant idea to get someone to tickle him with the broom. \"TICKLE HIM WITH THE BROOM!\", I yelled. It was all fun and games...and then the fire nation attacked!!! \n Just kidding. He took the aluminum broom, snapped it, cut himself severely, and continued to cover himself in his blood. He ended up spelling his own name in blood on his chest/stomach. We woke up the next morning to the suite having blood everywhere.", "id": "c98t01l", "summary": "do not allow first time drinkers to get tickled with the broom."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "I hate clubs. I've never been to one, but I know it's not a place for me. \n I prefer spending my friday nights in. When I'm at college, fridays I spend at a LAN, and sometimes I drink there. It's plenty of fun, and I enjoy what I like to do most: gaming. When I'm at home, I either go to the upstate house and spend friday night driving there, or I'm with my parents. Usually fridays I make sure the house is clean when mom and dad come home from a long days work. Speaking of which, I miss them :(", "id": "c796ai2", "summary": "video games if at school + some drinking. at home, make sure house is somewhat tidy/going to upstate house"}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "When I was in the 7/8th grade, I really go into cycling (biking with the tights and clip in shoes,etc.) Anyway, some mornings I would be so tired from going to bed late or the day befores work out, that I would not be able to see anything. Like, I would honestly just remember where all my clothes and stuff would be, and I would get dressed. One day I was experiencing this, and I was all dressed already. Got my shoes clipped in, and I got on the bike. My dad (who I obviously biked with) was already down the driveway and at the corner to turn towards the park. I roll down the driveway, and take a right onto the street, but I hit the parked car. Time slows down, all of a sudden I see everything clearly, and I think to myself \"Shit. Shit shit shit shit! This is gonna hurt\". I fall over on my side. My dad hears me crash, and comes back. He stops and just starts laughing as I lay on the pavement just thinking if I should go back to bed.", "id": "c7twuve", "summary": "woke up tired to go cycling in the morning, roll down driveway on bike, hit a parked car. Think to self \"Shit shit shit shit\" in slow mo before I hit ground."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "Went river rafting at John Thrope's this weekend with gf and her family. We got stuck on a rock, and so we started rocking the boat. I started to fall out and so did her father. I somewhat pushed her father into the boat, but for that I fell right the fuck in. Back hit the rock we were stuck on, and I went underwater for a second. I come up, gasp for breath, and start floating down river. At one point, there were two sharp rocks that came right out of the water, and a small gap in between. I was able to bounce off the two rocks, and go left of the gap. If I went through the gap, I probably would have severely hurt myself.", "id": "c5pi0tg", "summary": "quick thinking and my love for being in water saved me from panic and survived rapids. Also, somewhat saved gf's dad from falling in."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "Something along the lines of I have still yet to find my true friends. My ex gf is a really good person, but can be too much to handle. I feel like I need to move ti the desert, or some secluded place to rethink things. But, Ill end up being too lazy to stick to what I end up thinking of. Well, maybe I just want to rant. I know some people dont have shelter or food, but I want to complain too. Anyway, listening to songs like Sing for the Moment(eminem) and Always(blink182). Just a depressing mood.", "id": "c9e7rj2", "summary": "does walmart sell true friends?"}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "SO THERE I WAS... \n But really. It was probably the second week of freshman year, and I was talking to some girl. After an hour or so, I managed to get my schlong in her mouth. She was going to town when the door swung open. My roommate, and two of his friends stood there wide eyed. My roommate simply said, \"Enjoy!\" and closed the door. After the door was closed, I heard his friend say \"Dude, burncycle has huge balls\".", "id": "c9nxxoy", "summary": "schlong getting sucked, roommate and friends walk in on it, I have huge balls."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "Ex gf and I were getting it on. After close to finishing, it starts to feel really good. So I'm just like wtf. Continue for a little more, then I stop. I told her it was feeling too good, and we should try a different position (I didnt want to get too into it and then finish fyi). So we do. I go to hold my schlong and guide it into her, and theres no condom! WTF. I tell her this and she starts to freak out. After looking all around my bed and the floor, I come up with the idea of it being in her vagina. Well, lets play operation! I ended up pulling it out of her vagina lol.", "id": "c6vav78", "summary": "exgirlfriends vagina stole the condom."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "Not my worst experience, but my roommates. I was busy getting fellatio, and forgot to warn my roommate. He opens door, girls is slobbing on my knob, and he has two friends with him. He slams the door shut. I get my clothes on, so does she. I hear outside his friend going: Yooo! burncycle has some big nuts! \nI lost my cool and just started laughing so hard.", "id": "c5m750m", "summary": "getting head, roommate walks in on me. INFORM YOUR ROOMMATE IF YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING!"}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "I agree with this comment, but I also disagree with this comment. I spent an entire summer grinding WoW items, and was BiS for my protadin. Everything was speccd properly, gemmed correctly, and I knew everything about my class. I considered this a big thing cause I've never put so much time into one thing, and had it come out so successful. It felt really good knowing I was one of the best in the world. (pve, not pvp. bleh) \n Get a girl friend? Why? Girls only cause trouble and cost money. And don't say they don't, cause they do. This is the same reason I stay away from parties at bars, and clubs. The amount of money saved is amazing. \n As for computer science, do build something cool. I'm a computer information systems major, and I built myself an android application to sign into my colleges network without me having to type anything in. My next step? Make it usable for the entire campus, and then make it useable in other campus's (campuses? i hate english). I'm doing all of this while having a 9-5 job, hanging out with friends, playing sc2 at night, and working out.", "id": "cabd84c", "summary": "Girlfriend - no. Comp sci projects - yes. Get GM/High masters - do it, if it will bring you a good memory one day."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "A friend of a friend did this in college cause she had a car. \n Our dorms are about a two minute walk from the food court. However, said girl had had a car from her rich parents. Anyway, one day said girl is hungry. So she takes her car(parked behind the dorms) and drives two blocks to the near parking spot of the food court.", "id": "c7j9zfq", "summary": "fatasses that are lazy. I hate them."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "Both my mother and I had the same thing. We both went cold turkey into it, and started Sunday morning. By Thursday, I had massive headaches, and was really out of it. But when I woke up Friday, I felt amazing. I've done some reading into it, and found out that it takes a few days (usually less than a week) to get into that cleansing period. My mom continues to eat paleo, and whenever she has a piece of cake, or something that isn't paleo, she has diarrhea.", "id": "chfnzwg", "summary": "Within a week of starting, I had headaches and stomach problems too. After the week, I felt amazing."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "Hello people of AndroidQuestions! \n Just yesterday I got my SGS3. It is the 16GB version, from AT&T. (Not sure if there is a more specific name, but I will find it if you ask for it.) I was toying around with it, and I noticed it won't let me send MMS. I received a picture from my girlfriend yesterday, and I hit download. A little loading circle appeared, and nothing happened. I then turned on Data Usage, and it downloaded. That is pretty weird. \nToday, I tried sending her something, and it too wouldn't send. Instead, I had the little circle there. \nRight now, after restarting my phone, I asked her to send me a picture, and I'm stuck at the same place. This time, there is no little circle. It just says the Message size, when it expires(date send), and gives me a button to hit download. I hit download, and it just says downloading for some time. \nI searched the web, and I am not the only one having this problem. However, I have not seen/heard of any fixes. \nWhat am I doing wrong? Any advice?", "id": "t3_x7bb6", "summary": "My SGS3 can't receive/send MMS. Users of internet have this problem too."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "Hi all, \n Quick question: I paid off my school loan in full 3/4 weeks ago, and I checked a few days ago on Capital One's site, and it shows that my loan is still \"open\" or something of that nature. The loan company has acknowledged that I paid the loan, and has sent out emails, etc saying they acknowledged it. \n When does Cap One wipe that off of the board?", "id": "t3_3orzsm", "summary": "How long before Capital One erases my paid off school loan in their system?"}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "Hi there, \n My account got locked last night/this morning. I clearly don't have all the information for the account as I have changed emails several times, and lost files while changing computers, etc. \n Anyway, last night I reinstalled my operating system. I installed the Runescape application, logged in with my authenticator and did a few minutes of divination before going to sleep. I also logged into Steam, and got a verification email from Steam and noticed my IP address was completely different from what it was yesterday. I believe my ISP or dad did an external IP Address change. When I did a lookup on the IP Address, it shows the same city, but a little distance from where I actually live. (Previous IP address I was directly in the circle). \n So did my account get locked due to this ip address change? If so, I can't recover it because I didn't save any information from years ago. \n Lastly, I have an authenticator on my phone. Can I use this to prove it's my account? My email address isn't recognized by Jagex either. \n I tweeted @JagexSupport, but I was told to do a recovery. \n Help?", "id": "t3_2djl6n", "summary": "Lost account cause I lost info about it. \n Please don't say I'm stealing an account, etc. I actually did lose my account cause of stupidity."}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "Hello! \n In the past week, my girlfriend and I have decided to split and focus on ourselves. I'm not here to ask for advice on how to save the relationship, but on how to move on and recover from it. \n I work in IT, so I'm locked many hours behind a desk. I've noticed that I do lack a hobby that is separate from my profession, and I've been told that changing that could help better me. I'm open to trying it. It also doesn't help that I've shunned many friends since I started dating her. How would I go about reconnecting with people? \n But before I start that, I guess I need to do some of that healing stuff. How do I start that? I've been recently unmotivated to play games, read, or even watch movies. I've sort of sulked at my desk, or slept from when I get home.", "id": "t3_3qm9vm", "summary": "GF and I split ways. Best ideas for putting my best foot forward to get life back on track?"}, {"author": "burncycle", "content": "Hello /r/trees ! \n I did some smoking back in high school and enjoyed it mainly cause of the people I was around. However, since shipping out to college, I haven't seen those friends in quite a while. Those good times are missed, and college has been bumpy. \n While I don't smoke in college, because of financial issues/paranoia of getting caught, I do browse /r/trees . I must say, everyone here makes me feel better when I'm having a long day. \n Keep the funny pictures, custom built devices, and everything else flowing in. I especially love the [how high are you chart](", "id": "t3_22h77v", "summary": "I miss highschool buds, and the high times, but when I'm feeling low, /r/trees picks me up."}]}
+{"author": "JeepChick", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post My Memaw died. I was sad. Family are asshats. Found her jewelry...keep or not keep?", "output": "Well this is sort of a long one; brief backstory first. \n My grandmother was a widow and all things considered, my best friend. We had inside jokes, shared recipes and pretty much mocked the rest of the family together. Mostly her wondering, \"How did they turn out like THAT?\". We'd play scrabble, I cleaned her house, Mr. JeepChick mowed her grass & I coordinated all of her Dr. appts and medications. At times rushing her to the hospital if something was wrong. She wouldn't admit it to anyone else but I could always tell, even over the phone when something \"wasn't right\". She had diabetes and COPD which required 24/7 oxygen. \n Our family is spread out between NJ and Northern Pennsylvania with me, her and my parents & sister all in in Central PA, right in between the rest of the family. There were times over the last few years that I was unable to get to her place to mow her grass or run to the store so I typically relied on my sister & / or parents to step in when I couldn't. They usually did a good job but unless I really nagged them about it they were AWOL. Once, when I was caught up in the purchasing of my first home and the moving & paperwork that went along with it I asked someone (can't remember who) to arrange for her dinners / food shopping and only later did I find out that rather than shop for her or take her shopping they sent Meals on Wheels to her house. (Typing this I realize I have a lot of anger about that still). Anyway, she might see the family in NJ & N. Pa half a dozen times a year at best but that's fine, whatever. In the meantime I am literally stockpiling my time off of work to get her to & from appts., sit with her when she's hospitalized...etc. to the point that my office forces me to use time off because I'm accruing so much of it. \n August '07 finds her headed in for surgery and consequently ICU (which we were expecting because of the 02 machine). I had stayed at her house the night before and had \"her last meal\" of coffee & an apple fritter because she said, \"If I'm not gonna make it I might as well have something good to eat!\". We talked, had our final important conversation and that was that. Off to the hospital we went. Suddenly ALL of the family is on hand. She's in ICU and now they want to be involved. Maybe it was guilt over the time they had missed, I don't know. I'm actually getting angrier now typing this. \n So the surgeon (who I have a rapport with from earlier appts) is trying to tell us her diagnosis and bring us up to speed and meanwhile the rest of the extended family ruh-tards are interrupting him to suggest they give her medicine for depression and asking if her (now diagnosed) cancer is hereditary and if they should get check ups. So self centered and ridiculous. \n Enough backstory...She died and it absolutely destroyed me. The day she died everyone else just left the hospital, didn't stick around to plan, talk, make arrangements, just left. I found out after the fact that they went directly to her house and let themselves in. In doing so my Aunt, her daughter, removed every single piece of jewelry from her house including taking the ENTIRE JEWELRY BOX with her. I was offended but my g-ma had already given me the ring she wanted me to have years prior. Added to that was some little stipulation in her will that said all of her jewelry should go to her only daughter to distribute to the family. No matter the rules I knew we'd never see a single thing...not even pieces I had just given her for her birthday. \n Within that week both aunts and my uncle were calling my father accusing me of \"stealing her wedding ring and engagement ring\". I had no idea it existed and had never ever seen it in person. I guess she had stopped wearing it after her health started going downhill due to fingers swelling...etc. \n I deny, deny and deny because it's the truth & I've never seen this ring in my life. The rest of the family enjoys accusing me in my absence, they fight over her belongings at her house to the point that the police had to be called on numerous occasions and even lawyers are brought into play to argue this side or that side. It's just the worst side of people I've ever seen and its sickening because where the hell were they all when she really needed them. \n At the very end there were a handful of things left in the house that no one wanted and my sister & I were allowed to go through the house and see if there was anything we'd like. In \"rummaging\" around I realized no one had emptied out her sewing room closet. Mostly it was just packed with her half started quilts and fabrics and batting for the quilts. I thought that I'd love to finish a quilt she had started and began pulling out fabric from the closet. In the closet, I found a large tote bag wrapped up in a quilt, covered by batting in what looked (to me) like an intentional effort to hide something. In that bag? Boxes upon boxes upon boxes of all of her \"real jewelry\"...including the elusive wedding ring that I was accused of stealing. I nearly screamed when I found it realizing that the vultures had torn the entire house apart looking for these things and here they were almost like she put them there for me to find. \n This, was my ethical dilemma. What would you do?"}], "user_id": "longlamp_3503", "history": [{"author": "JeepChick", "content": "Since you're so well versed in how to phrase everything as gender inclusive Foresthill, I hope you were out on Saturday holding your own sign?\n Sidenote: I like how you gleaned over that entire middle part of my response where I suggested you go out and rally yourself. \n If we're going to get into ALL inclusive we should probably be holding signs up that say:  \"PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF TRANSGENDERED, GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL, STRAIGHT, MEN, WOMEN, UNICHS, ANDROGYNOUS INDIVIDUALS, ASEXUAL BEINGS\" ... they all deserve rights and their rights COULD come under fire in the future. \n I am not asking for rights at the detriment to anyone else so why is the onus on me to represent ALL sides. Why must I be all inclusive? I'm not saying  \"YAY WOMENS REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS DOWN WITH ANYONE ELSE'S\" . No. I am simply protecting MY reproductive freedoms and in the case of the OP, they are defending their fallopian tubes. If you don't like someone's sign then make one of your own.", "id": "c4jqj1u", "summary": "If you want ALL INCLUSIVE rights then go out and rally/protest/petition/lobby for them, stop critiquing those that are trying to effect change the best way they know how.**"}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "This is a long one that I'm typing from the framed dog eared yellow paper next to my screen: \n Just for today I will live one day only, forgetting yesterday and tomorrow and not trying to solve the whole problem of life at once. \n Just for today I will adjust myself to what is and try not to make everything over to suit me. If I cannot have what I like, I will try to like what I have. \n Just for today I will be agreeable, cheerful, charitable, do my best, praise people for what they do, not criticize them for what they cannot do; and if I find fault, I will forgive it and forget it. I will not try to improve or regulate anybody except myself. \n Just for today I will have a plan. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have one. It will save me from worry, hurry and indecision. \n Just for today I will get people off of my nerves and not get on theirs. I will appreciate them for what they do and what they are. \n Just for today I will not show it if my feelings are hurt. \n Just for today I will find a little time for quiet, to relax and to realize what life is and can be; time to think about God (or FSM), and to get a better perspective of myself. \n Just for today I will look at life with fresh eyes and discover the wonder of it. I will know that as I give to the world so the world will give to me. \n -Temple of Aaron Writings", "id": "c0y9lpl", "summary": "One day at a time"}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "Hol.E.Crap. \n Also, formatted. \n She had a good career, a husband, two kids, and a nice house. They had a good marriage and family for decades until he began drinking more and more and getting mean. \n It started off as verbal abuse and eventually escalated into him physically abusing her in front of their kids. The police had to remove him from the home and the couple separated. His drug and alcohol use slowly got worse. Although he was gone, the harassment continued, with phone calls and him showing up wherever she was. She decided to get a restraining order and he wasn’t allowed near her. \n The harassment laid off for a few months until one day she started getting texts and calls, describing her whereabouts and what clothes she was wearing. She hadn’t seen him in almost a year now, and their divorce was almost final. She decided it was time to get the hell out of town and put her house up for sale. \n While waiting for the sale, she lived between that house and an apartment she was renting. One day, she comes home to find that the house reeked of gasoline and gallons of it were on the living room carpet. There he was, standing in the corner of the room with a loaded shotgun and some cigs. He told her he was going to light a fire and shoot her, then himself. He tied her up to a chair and began chugging whiskey. Every few minutes he would smoke a cigarette and drop it still lit, hoping to ignite the house. It didn’t work. Eventually his drunken ass had to pee and went to the bathroom, leaving her time to text someone for help with her phone hidden in her crotch. \n About an hour of him burning and torturing her goes by when all of the sudden they hear a helicopter. TURNS OUT the police had been hiding outside for the last half an hour, formulating a plan with a SWAT team and a fucking NEWS CHANNEL picked it up on their scanner and just flew on by in their LOUD ASS HELICOPTER. \n “Well, I guess the police are here, its time to die.” He said. The man then raised the shotgun to her face and she insisted that he cover her head, as she didn’t want to even see it happen. The next thing she knows she hears a loud SMASH and hears a gunshot. The police had broken in the window just in time and he had shot HIMSELF dead the second he saw them!! \n They carried her out to an ambulance, still blindfolded and tied to a chair. TURNS OUT that that little fucker had taken out a massive, million dollar loan and used the money to build a FORT in their several acre, wooded backyard he had lived in for the ENTIRE YEAR SPYING ON HER. (You couldn’t see it from the house, not even if you looked hard.) He ALSO hired a PRIVATE DETECTIVE to follow her and give him info on her so he could harass her, despite having a restraining order keeping him from bothering her. Now, she has to cut hair and rent a room from a family in another town because she is in so much debt from the husband wreaking havoc. \n Just wanted to share because this story makes me rage on so many levels.", "id": "c1dwi92", "summary": "Psycho ex husband harasses wife from hut in woods, kills himself after almost killing her."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "True story - I'm in communications and I do a lot of design work as well. I have an overly eager overly designed resume myself...that I never gave out even once. \n Now I'm on the other side of the table and I've received a few similar to yours and while I empathize, it's communications, you've gotta know how to communicate and making everything big and info-graphic-y isn't helping me understand your talents and isn't convincing me of your abilities.", "id": "ceuv50i", "summary": "we've all been there. Save the design for your business cards and keep resume in line. Sell yourself w details. Not artwork."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "they are  REALLY  not getting along...my older cat, who has been with me for 14+ years has always taken issue with other cats. hissing and yelling anytime one would so much as walk past the back window. \n somehow i thought, well this won't be so bad and gave it a whirl. the first month, lots of hissing, trying to claw each other and chasing to be had...let's not forget 3am RAWWWRRRRR - HISSSSSSS at each other (totally awesome to wake up to btw). this went on for a few more weeks and then i THOUGHT they were adjusting. \n turns out it was just vintage cat avoiding kitten (& everyone in the house). it totally wasn't fair to vintage cat, it's her house and she's been with me for such a long time. seemed unfair to put this stress on her at this age.", "id": "c1krhhx", "summary": "yes. they do indeed dislike one another."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "True Story: All day softball tournament. We are between games and one of the guys on the team lives nearby so we all head over there to have a few drinks & grill. \n I had pulled a muscle or strained my upper leg somehow earlier so armed with my Icy Hot I head to the bathroom upstairs to rub down my leg. I should now note that it was also that time of the month. \n I sit down on the toilet to rub in the Icy Hot and with that accomplished, I then pee and remember I need to change my cotton rocket. No worries, right? WRONG. \n I never washed my hands after the Icy Hot application and dear god it alternated between feeling like I jammed a block of dry ice up my lady hole and then like a thousand hot pokers filled with habanero peppers and lightning. \n We won our tournament.", "id": "c1ejqh2", "summary": "Wash your hands. Always."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "I was able to continue paying all of my bills and still have discretionary cash so I'd say yes I was comfortable. The hard thing to adjust to is that it's never consistent. You might have a record week now but in two weeks see only 50% of your listed items move. So you have to plan. \n I'm still unsure about most profitable ever but I did touch on that in my reply to [robdidlyob]( below. \n Oh yes...sooo many things. It really is akin to gambling. Just because I have seen a  tri cone lamp  is going to move at all. Thankfully I've learned this hard lesson (though it's taken a looong time and I tend to get caught up when at live auctions): unless I'm 100% sure and can look at closed prices then and there I will typically not shell out more than 1/4 of what I anticipate for it. \n For example, the lamp I linked to above I have seen move for $75 - $175 on Ebay. I bought this one for $3 on Saturday. If they had asked $15 I would have bought it though $25 would have been a bit pricey for me since I've no guarantee that I will at least double / triple my money. \nHope this is making sense. I've got some kind of logic in my head & I'm not sure I'm conveying properly.", "id": "c1y4tvf", "summary": "YES, I've lost my ass before by paying out $100 for an item to end up selling it for $25 or not at all."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "You forgot the part where it wasn't a healthy BDSM relationship, was more an abusive one if anything at all and that he (Christian Grey) had deep emotional problems leading him to this lifestyle (he must be broken to like anything outside of the norm) annnnd that the author has zero lifestyle experience. Also, if you read the book - medula oblingata.", "id": "c56jw0s", "summary": "4 hours of your life youll never get back"}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "I posted the same yesterday in a similar thread... \n Let me preface this by saying that I work with the homeless and impoverished communities in both a professional and personal capacity and can see both sides of this coin.\nWhile I'd agree that there are some who subscribe to the NIMBY mentality, even more are trying to address a complex, nuanced issue. By providing food, at random, pop up sites you are removing the community from the additional resources that they need to actually become self-sufficient and you're removing any impetus for them to walk an additional few blocks to receive that help. \n You're providing sustenance and maybe a warm blanket but what you can offer will only get them through to the next meal. They know where the next meals will be served so they'll just show up there at that time. Hell, in my city if you walk fast enough you can get 8 square meals for free from the backs of trucks, under bridges...etc. you just have to know who is serving where and when, and they do. \n I understand entirely, with every ounce of my being - people are hungry, you feed them. I get it and have done so for many, many years. But, by doing so, you remove them from the very real help - mental & medical, shower facilities, IDs, P.O. Boxes, case workers...things that must take place to get 99% of them back on their feet. Without them, you have a homeless population with nothing but full bellies. \n That being said, I'm not blind to the numerous cities bussing the homeless out of sight, or the bench spikes to deter sleeping and I'm of the opinion that if we put half as much time, energy, and money into addressing the causes of homelessness, including mental health, we wouldn't see the staggering numbers we do today. \n The right answer is to streamline these services, make it easy and accessible for the community to get the help that they need in one location - not get a meal here, get your coat there and your prescriptions over there - but all under one roof. If volunteers who have been serving the community for years are upset they can't do guerrilla serving sites any longer, then they need to put their ego in check and collaborate with brick and mortar locations that can offer the full continuum of services that these individuals desperately need. If they are truly in it for the homeless community, they'll do so. Unfortunately, all too often it's about getting the warm and fuzzies because this is \"their thing\". And while these collaborations are taking place the cities & locales should be ramping up their funding, availability, and staffing so that all of the resources are ready with no wait and no overflow. \n You can't have one without the other - you don't want them to eat meals at rogue set ups? Then ramp up your official, city-sanctioned sites and be ready to take them all in. That's how you'll know if a city or a town's intention is to help them or to hide them; whether or not they ramp up services for the homeless while they are shutting down independent sites.", "id": "cmi24ni", "summary": "Everybody wants to get the warm & fuzzies handing out food but we've got a problem bigger than a plate of s'gettis can fix. \n EDIT: FFS, everyone is ignoring the massive wall of text above and taking issue with the fact that I prefer the word \"serving\" instead of \"feeding\" but whatever your preferred nomenclature - I do not care."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "Yay! Friends are good. \nWell, it doesn't do too much unless you have a Gold acct or RES I think. \n Otherwise it simply highlights threads so you can see posts. If I was scanning a post's comments your responses would stand out above everyone else's with a red box around your name so I can find you. Ooh, also, on the left hand side of the top gray bar is a FRIENDS button. If you click that you can see all of my comments.", "id": "c16tizq", "summary": "Doesn't do much but makes stalking far easier. \n Cheers!"}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "no it's okay and i would be as well. \n i set up the page in october. the page you linked to is not us. here is our website: \n additionally, if you look at our facebook page:  and look at the pictures...there's a redhead in a few of the pictures. she is me and i am her. feel free to send me a friend request (if only for verification purposes) and you'll see my posts about tonight there. also, if you do send me a request you can scroll through some of my status updates and in addition to seeing content TOTALLY ripped off from reddit you will see some other posts where i talked about our needs and donating clothing...etc. \n ooh! i'm friends with two real live redditors on facebook too. i can even pm you their contact info and they can verify.", "id": "c16u0sp", "summary": "you are not a dick and don't blame you, i would be skeptical too. a few reddit scams come to mind. i can prove it anyway necessary...including, well, including whatever would put your mind at ease. \n edit: even if i cannot put your mind at ease, i understand, in lieu of \"liking\" HH or even donating please consider something local to your area. i'm certain it would make a difference."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "Thank you for breaking it down for me. I'm so angry lately about reading about my vaginer every damn day that I have trouble articulating it at times. To counter that I try to be sure I have the most comprehensive understanding of each of these issues so when I must, I can succinctly defend my point of view / our rights.", "id": "c41kbuk", "summary": "I know someone that would counter this by asking, \"did you actually read the bill or are you just believing the \"liberal\" media again?\" and I need to be prepared to pwn."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "Please. Please. Please. Do this for her. \n I lost a 10 year relationship in nearly the same circumstances. He was bigger when we met but by the time I moved out he was close to 315. The extra weight pulled out every last bit of energy from him and naps and movie marathons were his hobbies. \n In the end he resented me for my time spent running and at the gym, everything he should have been doing and I resented him for not giving enough of a damn about himself or even me to take care of his own body. His weight / health got to such a point that not only did we spend his 30th in the hospital (for chest pains) but his um, \"equipment\" wouldn't even work anymore (high weight = low testosterone). Its a bad bad spiral. \n I threatened many times to leave if he didn't shape up. Cried, begged and pleaded. In the end there was nothing else I could do because he had to want it for himself. I wanted him to want better for him and he just couldn't make that connection. Or maybe it was apathy, I don't know. But I really did leave. And he's gotten bigger. \n Don't misunderstand, he would come out the gate strong, work out early in the morning or ride the exercise bike for half an hour at a time...but that only ever lasted 3 weeks to a month tops. After that it was right back to where it started. \n Why am I telling you this? \nBecause if you don't get your shit together right here, right now, she's gone. The life you had is over and your chances of finding another woman that's as great and cares about you as much as your girlfriend clearly does are slim to none. Sure you might find a chubby chaser or two or someone that thinks looks / health come secondary, it's true. But eventually they will do one of two things, gain enough weight that the two of you are 2 unhealthy heart attacks walking down the street or she will, much like your girlfriend, hit her breaking point where she says, \"You know what? I love you too much to sit back and watch you continue to kill yourself\". Consider yourself lucky that your girlfriend is giving you THIS ONE FUCKING opportunity to make it right. This is the time my friend. You HAVE GOT TO DO IT NOW. Not tomorrow and not next week. I don't mean sit around crowdsourcing your health plan to everyone on Reddit or even your friends and neighbors. \n Go take a look in the mirror. You are here because of every decision you've made up until now. Accept that. \n \"Only when a man can say to himself, I am who and where I am today because of the choices I made yesterday can he say I CHOOSE DIFFERENT\". \n Head over to r/fitness or find your closest gym. In the meantime start pushing water. Walk more. Small steps. If you can afford it get yourself to a gym stat and talk with a trainer. Set goals. I mean real achievable goals. Not just this generic \"Der, okay, I'll be healthier and get extra lettuce on my hamburger\" either. You need to take some extreme steps but you also have to break them down into small manageable goals. \n Make a goal today for this time next week. What do you want to accomplish by then? Do you want to lose 5 lbs? Do you want to be drinking one liter of water a day? What do you want to cut out / not touch for a week? You need goals and you need to share them with her. \n You must involve her in this process. She loves you, she's essentially warning you and its because she wants you to stick around. Walk together, run together, hell, have all day fuck-a-thons (those work off tons of calories) but do it together as much as you can while still, doing this for you. \n At the end of the day you're the one that has to look at yourself in the mirror and only you are going to know if you gave this everything you had. You don't want to look back and think that you fucked up the best thing to ever happen to you, (a girl that loves you so much she's trying to save your life) by being a lazy, obese bastard. \n You deserve better, you ARE better and you've gotta love yourself AND her enough to do this. \n Best of luck my friend.", "id": "c126kqb", "summary": "Do it now and don't fuck it up. She loves you and you only get one chance"}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "The red Keystone was the [symbol for the 28th Infantry Division aka The Bloody Bucket]( \n The Blue Bar with the rifle and wreath is the [Combat Infantrymen Badge]( \n 1 - [The star is the Bronze Star Medal]( \n 2 - Obvious, [Purple Heart]( \n 3 - The eagle medallion (w. red & white striped ribbon) is a [Good Conduct Medal.]( \n 4 - The fourth from the right (green & red & brown striped ribbon) is the [European Campaign Medal]( with what looks to be at least 2 sets of bronze stars that would indicate campaigns he participated in. \n 5 - The far right medallion is a [WWII Victory Medal](", "id": "c185pys", "summary": "Your gf's grandfather kicked some WWII ass"}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "I've got to chime in here as well, hope you don't mind. Unfortunately its ALL of midtown. \n I really hate to say it as it is hands down my favorite place I've ever lived. The walkability, the neighborhoods and the people most of all, I love it but it's only getting worse. \n My place was adjacent to the HACC midtown parking lot and while I've never made so many great friends in one place you probably couldn't pay me to go back until some of these crime issues are addressed. Between the need to be on constant alert, the daily crime updates from Engleton (our hood within midtown) and general lack of police presence, its just overwhelming. When I moved there there back in 09-10 there was crime too but nothing like this. Now it would take more than 2 hands to count friends and people I personally know in midtown that have been mugged, robbed or had a weapon pulled on them. \n So much of what happens in midtown is NOT reported in the media (either won't make a good story or simply too commonplace) and its gotten to the point that my hood, along with other midtown neighborhoods are considering bringing in off duty police officers or hiring out private security groups to keep everyone safe. Its like we're on our own in midtown...we're not the hill and we're not the downtown money generating business district so its like everything that happens, unless it happens to someone significant, is brushed under the carpet. \n Speaking of; keep an eye out for a Patriot News / Penn Live article shortly regarding the brazen daylight muggings, robberies and beatings (a reporter recently approached my (now former) neighbors asking for opinions and reactions. \n I can't speak highly enough of the area, I love midtown and the people so much but so many of my friends that rent have moved out of the area and the ones left are property owners wishing they could sell. One of my neighbors (in an area you're very familiar with if I remember correctly) has had her place for sale for over 2 years now with so little interest. \n The only places that seem to be selling quickly are the real estate flips and rehab jobs that inevitably end up being rented to any tenant with Section 8.", "id": "c5k6e4n", "summary": "It's bad man. It's really bad."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "I mean this with the most respect possible and don't disagree with you whatsoever with regards to the money spent on scientific research and space exploration. \n I do however take exception to: \n>\"in all honesty isn't that big of a deal\" \n It IS a big deal. It's a great big damn deal. Maybe not to you, but to me, and millions of other women it is a big deal. \n Maybe it's perspective and you're lucky enough that you don't have to give things like this a second thought. Maybe you already have kids. Maybe you're a gay male. Maybe you're abstinent ..I don't know & and I'm not judging you for it. \n The fact is that as a woman, our reproductive rights and and our bodies have been the focal point for discussions over the last few weeks and I'm damned tired of a bunch of old rich men thinking that they have a better understanding and a divine guidance regarding my lady business. \n I realize that this post in particular is about an obese shock jock that likely vomited words to get ratings and in that I will tip my hat at you regarding \"bullshit\"...but it's part and parcel a part of the bigger problem. His words only strengthen those that are almost daily suggesting that I have less and less of a say over my body.", "id": "c3x24ik", "summary": "You fight your fight and I'll fight mine and hopefully when we colonize the moon I'll be allowed to decide what I want to do with my woo-ha"}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "so it's sunday morning and i'm on my deck having coffee. my german shepherd Lucy corners a baby squirrel in my backyard. i yell at her and she comes running up and sits beside me. we sit on the deck, me and my dog, and we watch the cute little baby squirrel hop around doing squirrel things. my awwww'ss are quickly interrupted when a stray cat hopped out from behind the shed like a ninja and ran away with baby squirrel in its mouth.", "id": "c0dvh43", "summary": "someone give me a good reason to click on this link as i think i've had my share of \"Circle Of Life\" shit this week. is it worth the click?"}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "I've read and reread your comment above and it seems that you just took my statement and added the following exception  \"'I'm not stating this behavior has something to do with gender.\"  to fit your feminist?? agenda. I didn't type those words because I don't believe that is the case. \n If I were male I wouldn't need to address this as it would not occur. Plain and simple. These types of women only act out towards female and not male coworkers. Perhaps it's something to do with their upbringing or socialization when they were younger but you never see them pulling this silent treatment petty crap with men and especially not their male superiors. The second a man walks in to the room they wilt and I have zero respect for that. \n The reasoning behind my: \"I'm not stating that that ALL women do this....\" is to be clear that there ARE women in the business world that conduct themselves like professionals that are sans tears, passive agressiveness and jealousy however I have not had the pleasure of working with many of them. Of course I don't know every woman in the world...I should hope that's understood without having to spell it out. \n To clarify I'm not interested in damage control. Reddit is a forum for intelligent discourse and that is exactly what I set out to do by posting the original question. Okay, not really. I had a shitty day at work with these two and was mostly venting but it's since evolved to a conversation of sorts.", "id": "c0df1ab", "summary": "I work with two petty vindictive bitches. I have worked with these kinds of women in the past. It infuriates me and embodies everything that can be wrong with women professionally. Not all women are this way"}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "No reason to downvote this man folks. \n While I know it's difficult to see someone here asking for help turn to ALL CAPS and yell in a defensive manner please remember he's swallowed his pride by posting here and you are more than likely seeing him at his lowest point (perhaps in his entire life). \n Knee jerk is to downvote, I understand that but please remember that these are real people. Karma is just karma but by downvoting his responses anyone coming through that might be able to assist will not be able to see all comments without expanding.", "id": "c26xlqi", "summary": "These are real people in bad positions. A little kindness goes a long way."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "Live in and embrace the moment right in front of you. \n When you're getting angry or filled with rage take a deep breath. Focus more on how exactly you are feeling and why you are feeling it. Embrace the feeling and try to accept and own your anger. Later, without trying to do so and through deeper realization/understanding, anger will disappear. \n How you act in the world would be different - but it is not because you are rejecting anger or fighting against it.", "id": "c0knjbb", "summary": "Accept that you're pissed off & live in the present."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "FFS - look OP, I don't fault you, or half the pitch fork carrying crowd behind you but really...there is not a thing wrong with this woman nor this picture. \n Yes, I understand that it's been ingrained in your heads forever that \"pregnant women shalt not drink\" but times they are a changing. There are plenty of medical authorities that approve of moderate amounts of alcohol during pregnancy, most after the first trimester. Specifically red wine or an occasional beer. \n Given that the user base of reddit is such that 80% it's users will never be in this woman's shoes (or her doctor's) there is always a resounding condemnation of these pictures, of which we have no context. She may have been taking a quick sip of someone else's beer or enjoying her one of the week. For all we know she may have made it to month 9 with not a drop and finally said fuck it and decided to treat herself...or she could be on her way to getting shitfaced, we dont know. But as a 7 month pregnant woman who, with her doctors okay, enjoys an ocassional glass of wine with dinner these posts do nothing but make my life more difficult when I'm out at dinner attempting to enjoy my 1/2 glass of Pinot noir and am forced to endure dirty looks and comments from other patrons.", "id": "c5snvp4", "summary": "leave pregnant women the hell alone"}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "It's a NIMBY thing... \n Yes and no. \n Let me preface this by saying that I work with the homeless and impoverished communities in both a professional and personal capacity and can see both sides of this coin. \n While I'd agree that there are some who subscribe to the NIMBY mentality, even more are trying to address a complex, nuanced issue. By providing food, at random, pop up sites you are removing the community from the additional resources that they need to actually become self-sufficient and you're removing any impetus for then to walk an additional few blocks to receive that help. \n You're providing sustenance and maybe a warm blanket but what you can offer will only get them through to the next meal. They know where the next meals will be served so they'll just show up there at that time. Hell, in my city if you walk fast enough you can get 8 square meals for free from the backs of trucks, under bridges...etc. you just have to know who is serving where and when and they do. \n I understand entirely, with every ounce of my being - people are hungry, you feed them. I get it and have done so for many, many years. But, by doing so, you remove them from the very real help - mental & medical, shower facilities, IDs, P.O. Boxes, case workers...things that must take place to get 99% of them back on their feet.  Without them, you have a homeless population with nothing but full bellies. \n That being said, I'm not blind to the numerous cities bussing the homeless out of sight, or the bench spikes to deter sleeping and I'm of the opinion that if we put half as much time, energy, and money into addressing the causes of homelessness, including mental health, we wouldn't see the staggering numbers we do today. \n The right answer is to streamline these services, make it easy and accessible for the community to get the help that they need in one location - not get a meal here, get your coat there - but all under one roof. If volunteers that have been serving the community for years are upset they can't do guerrilla serving sites any longer then they need to put their ego in check and collaborate with brick and mortar locations that can offer the full continuum of services that these individuals need. If they are truly in it for the homeless community, they'll do so. Unfortunately too often it's about getting the warm and fuzzies because this is \"their thing\". While these collaborations take place the Cities should also be ramping up their funding, availability, and staffing so that all of the resources are ready with no wait and no overflow. You can't have one without the other - you don't want them to eat meals at rogue set ups? Then ramp up your official sites and be ready to take them all in. That's how you'll know if a City's intention is to help or to hide. Do they ramp up services for the homeless while they are shutting down independent sites. \n I've rambled enough about this. I'd talk all day of someone was listening but the", "id": "cmhj3ry", "summary": "Everybody wants to get the warm & fuzzies handing out food but we've got a problem bigger than a plate of s'gettis can fix."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "Step 1. Breathe \n Step 2. Continue breathing. \n Rinse & Repeat \n These things can seem terrifying and overwhelming and life altering all at once, I completely understand. Why do I understand? Because last week I had my second colposcopy. \n I had my first a few years ago and that led to a biopsy and that other procedure (the name is eluding me now). I had some crazy cells on my cervix during a regular pap and that started the chain of events. I remember being so scared and thinking \"that's it, i've got cancer...no little jeepchicks for me ever\". I was sad and scared and felt all alone. Here's the thing, you're not. \n It's actually REALLY common for them to find abnormal cells, true story! The colposcopy is no more than like 4 minutes. All they are going to do is look all up in your business with a magnifying glass. If, when they're there, they find what appear to be abnormal cells then they will take a biopsy. Even that isn't terrible, just a little bit of cramping. \n I went through all of this a few years back and had to go for Paps every 6 months. Lots and lots of \"clean\" results and then BAM, it happened again. This time though, I went for the colposcopy (a little less scared than last time) and the Dr. took one look and said \"nothing to see here folks, show's over\". :) Not even a biopsy. \n I know you're thinking \"my periods are miserable, things are all out of wack, i know there's something wrong\"...because I have had crazy periods for years it seems now. Sometimes it shows up other times it doesn't, other times the cramps are so bad so when they told me they found something I was like \"AHA! This is why I'm having so many problems that no one else does\"...but that wasn't it. I'm fine, (just me and mother nature aren't bff's) and I bet you will be too. \n Try to breathe, post here (hell, or pm me) if you feel overwhelmed and you will get through this. I'm willing to bet with the same results as me...and lots of us are in the very same boat.", "id": "c23xdqz", "summary": "Breathe. You're not alone. It's probably nothing. A lot of us have been where you are and came out the other side unscathed. <3"}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "Here's some insight into the way assistance or welfare works: \n While you may qualify for some, you don't always qualify for all. In this situation let's say the mom qualifies for all of it, Medicaid, TANF, SNAP, Housing, child care, the works. \n So she's working, making let's say, $10 an hour. And she's working as hard as she can, extra shifts...etc. Everything she can to better her situation. Everything right. After a lot of hard work she gets a raise! Now our mom is making $12.00! This is awesome! \n Except it's not. Because she's making $12 an hour, she doesn't qualify for as much assistance as she did before. So she loses 2 of her benefits entirely and part of another. \n After all of her hard work she's actually worse off than before. Her buying power has essentially dropped at a higher rate than her pay increased. After it's said and done she's actually at about $8.00 an hour because she now has to scrape together the money to feed her family, cover childcare and pay part of her rent...on that $12 an hour. It's not until she's somewhere closer to $24.65 an hour that she is actually \"ahead\" and can achieve self-sufficiency. \n It's called the wage gap and it represents everything that's wrong with the system. It's the impetus for hearing folks on assistance saying they can't work more hours, that they can't take a raise or would actually make more on welfare than working.", "id": "cj21j62", "summary": "the system is f'd ya'all."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "I want to tell someone and this seemed like the best place for it. \nRedditor [formated4tv]( deserves lots and lots of IRL good karma! \n Sometime before Christmas there was a  kitten  they insisted I take her and give her a warm home. I obliged and me and kitten were home and she was safe and warm and happy and hungrily destroying rolls of toilet paper. \n Things were good but my vintage cat disagreed. She apparently doesn't care for any other cat within a 5 mile radius of her. Too much hissing and cat yelling and I'd had enough. I took to Craigslist but only received creepy responses from people like \"Marty\" that \"want ur kittee\". So in an act of desperation brought it [here, to Reddit]( and was immediately overwhelmed by the responses! \n Formated4tv lives TWO hours away so we agreed to meet half way. He's fallen in love with the [little monster]( I mean who wouldn't? And now she sits in judgment of him everytime he's in the shower...she's fascinated with the bathtub for some reason.", "id": "t3_fs8sf", "summary": "I was REALLY sad about rehoming the little monster and ridiculously worried about her fate but formated4tv gave her a good home and made me feel okay about it all. ALSO, got to [meet my very first Redditor IRL!]( they all lived happily ever after. The end."}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "This is partly a word of caution, partially a vent session for me and a little bit because really I've got not a damn other thing to do but sit around and wait for her to arrive on her own. \n I'm officially 40 weeks today and everything is good. It's been an exhausting 2 weeks because after a high-normal cord doppler about 2 months ago my ob/gyn group (10 different drs that rotate appointments) has been talking about inducing on the 31st at the latest. Sooo...fast forward a few appointments. Baby looks awesome, NSTs, BPP and fluid level looks great. Still, I'm headed to the hospital for induction and I just did it because they said so. \n I questioned maybe once why they were inducing so soon but figured 39 weeks was close to 40 and I'm pretty damn tired of being pregnant and in pain and really excited so off we went. Bags in hand and checked in to L & D. What started as induction turned into 2 failed rounds of Cervadil (gel to ripen cervix) and then 2 failed rounds of Cytotek (pill stuffed up in baby hole). I never moved past 80% dilated, -2 station and sat at 1cm dilated until midwife \"helped it along\" to 2cm. I screamed in pain. \n After 40+ hours of contractions (some as close as 3 minutes apart for hours) and others (after about 20 hours) started to wane and become sporadic and untimeable I gave up I had a talk with my midwife. She explained that this was fighting against my body and it was time for pitocin. She knew I didn't want pitocin and after a long talk she agreed to let me go home and labor at home like I originally planned. Only going to the hospital when it was really really time. \n I had to go back for additional NSTs and at Sunday's I saw a midwife I've never met before. She didn't bother to get my chart, seemed bothered that I was there and even said she didn't know she had any appointments scheduled that day. Whatever, not my problem. We ran the NST, baby looked good and then the midwife started throwing out new induction dates. I asked why we needed to induce when my original due date wasn't even until the 7th (today) and she answered that it was because this was a \"high risk\" pregnancy. WHAT? 10 months of being pregnant, 10 Drs and suddenly I'm high risk? What the hell ever. I asked what in particular made me high risk and she said that the high cord doppler indicates high risk and I asked what the symptoms / repercussions / issues are that would qualify high risk. She said that in a high cord doppler situation you'd see restricted growth, limited fetal movement and failed NSTs. I asked if I had ANY of these (I knew I hadn't as baby's looking fantastic) and she answered no but still it was \"for the best\" that we started induction as soon as possible. \n She gave me a date for more gel (11/6) and then told me I'd need to return the following day (today, the 7th) for Pitocin to start labor at SIX AT NIGHT (yes, at night). Never once asking what I wanted or if I was okay with this. We left, instructions in hand. \n I came home, thought a lot about it and returned to the hospital yesterday. I didn't let them so much as hook me up the NST machine before I declared I was talking to my midwife or another Dr. before we started ANYTHING. \n I got lucky and one of the Drs. from my practice was nearby and she came by and talked with me. They wanted to do the gel but when I asked why no one could give me an answer except \"just in case\" and \"aren't you ready to have this baby?\". Seriously. Not one medical reason, no fetal distress, no chances I'm taking by not starting today, just convenience (& liability) it seems. She stepped out to confer with another Dr. at the practice and my midwife (who is all about doing this naturally). My mom and I could overhear them talking to a nurse about scheduling. We heard \"Well, tomorrow night is open from x-y time, we could gel her then send her home until when? Who has a section scheduled that night? HOw many sections?\" \"Who could see her at this time? Oh, they're busy? Okay, what if we move her here to this day and time then do this and x y, z?\". \n My mom looked at me and said, \"Seriously? They're doing this? Can I? Can I go out and say something, I'll be nice.\" I said \"Go for it\", too damn tired and sort of taken back that I'm not even 40 weeks, I've no problems and they're making this an assembly line / scheduling issue. I get that scheduling helps, they can control the numbers of beds, who is on call, productivity...etc. But this is my baby. She's coming when she damn well feels like it and no one is going to push me into doing it before she's ready without a good reason. \n They came back to our room and tried to talk us into gel twice more and we refused. After a lot of negotiating they agreed to let me leave on the agreement that I will not go past 41 1/2 weeks and I have to have 2 NSTs a week until she's here. I'm home now. Have a terrible cold I caught while in the hospital last week and with my first NST tomorrow. I'm sick to death of being pregnant, I'm exhausted and in pain but she isn't ready to be here and I'll be darned if I'm going to force her here because its convenient for someone else.", "id": "t3_12tbxr", "summary": "Be careful of being induced before its time ladies. Unless someone has a really good reason, or baby needs to come out, stick to your guns. It's way too easy for them to push us into the whole assembly line process and ignore what we want"}, {"author": "JeepChick", "content": "I just received the redditgifts email this morning saying you did NOT receive your gift...but I bought it...and I sent it. \n I'm not sure what to do, waiting to hear back from KickMe... \n I bought you a \"serious\" book...something in line with what you like to read (which was totally easy because we have read nearly the same books AND I included a copy of [More Stuff on My Cat]( because it looked funny. \nI bought them [here]( and mailed them all from the post office near my work.", "id": "t3_h62wi", "summary": "I swear on my karma count that I sent you your books...I'm so very sorry they haven't received / disappeared. I'm sad."}]}
+{"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post In a few days, the amount of coins that can be mined from any block will be cut in half. This may cause an increase in value. It may not. But in case it does, it may be worthwhile to mine/buy as many coins now before the value (hopefully) increases.", "output": "Every 100,000 blocks the block reward is reduced by half. Currently, the block reward is 125,000 Doge. When we hit the next milestone (block 300,000) the reward will decrease to 62,500 Doge. This reduces the amount of Doge being created and available at any point. Theoretically, a reduction in the quantity available of a desirable good should result in the value of that good increasing. In this scenario, Dogecoins are the goods, and if the demand for the coins persists (or increases) then the value should increase. However, this is all speculative as we have yet to see a significant trend of increasing value. One possible reason is that Block Rewards are still quite high relative to other currencies, so the decreased availability may not be as perceptible. There are plenty of other factors to consider as well. \n As for keeping \"those miners toasty\" there is typically a surge in the week[s] leading up to a halving when multipools and multi-coin speculators converge on a currency to mine as much as possible in case the desired increase in value occurs. If the value does increase, the network hashrate may continue to grow as mining dogecoin is perceived as a more profitable endeavor. If the value does not increase, there is usually a rather drastic drop in the hashrate as the speculators, and a number of previously committed miners abandon the endeavor and look elsewhere."}], "user_id": "longlamp_2282", "history": [{"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "It's a PPLNS pool, meaning only the shares you contribute during N period of time before a block is found factors into the payouts. It discourages pool hopping as you only get your max possible reward if you were actively hashing during the entire N time span. \n Seems like most pools are like this. Rough that you weren't aware, but the pool certainly wasn't trying to scam you. They're a small pool, so it makes sense that they'd have long stretches without blocks. Granted, 2 days is a long time, but that's simply a ~400% round. All pools will go through similar droughts. It's just that on a large pool, a 400% round may only be the equivalent of an hour or two.", "id": "cfkdmkl", "summary": "Don't pool hop and you won't waste your hashes."}, {"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "Just as you are considering investing in a 280x because it'll be useful as you upgrade to a newer PC in the future, you should think similarly when investing in your other components as well. PSUs are often where people try to cut costs because, at a first glance, they seem to all do the same thing, yet there are significant price jumps between models seemingly delivering the same amount of power.  But the reality is that there are differences. The differences may not justify the premium a particular manufacturer is charging for additional features (looking at you, Corsair, with your \"Corsair Link\"...), but the justification may be there when also considering warranty periods, ease of RMAs, etc. \n There is lots of literature on the importance of a quality PSU available. A simple Google search will supply you with hours of reading. But the gist of it comes down to a couple of things: Efficiency, reliability, expandability, and warranty.  You want a PSU that is 80 plus certified with a Gold or Platinum rating (Silver is acceptable if you really need to watch costs, but jump to gold is usually not significantly more costly). Reliability is usually gauged through reviews. The bargain brands will usually show their true colors pretty quickly, and it's quite easy to get a feel for the reliability of a product based on the reviews. Warranties are different for each manufacturer, but they really shouldn't be anything less than 2-3 years. The longer the warranty, the more faith the manufacturer has in their product. Expandability really relates to what your long term goal is. Wanna run 2 or 3 GPUs in the future? Then you'll need a psu with enough PCI-e 6+2-pin connections (likely 6 connections) and a power level large enough to deliver the necessary wattage without stressing the psu to the point of failure. If a single 280x requires 250w, and there is any possibility you'll run a second one in the future, you'll want a PSU that offers 500w plus whatever the power needs of your cpu, hdd, cooer, case fans, etc. Additionally, if possible you should assume the power delivered will only be 80% of the rating on the PSU. So if it is rated for 500w, assume it will deliver 400w. \n There are any number of  PSU calculators  and Thermaltake without issues.", "id": "cfhk3l9", "summary": "Don't cut costs with your PSU. If it fails on you, you not only run the risk of damaging your components, but you're also completely shut down until a replacement can be found and installed.  It's far easier to swap out a faulty HDD, fan, or even a GPU than a faulty psu."}, {"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "I got a call. Didn't recognize the number so I ignored it. Got a friendly email saying \"Sorry we missed you. When should we call back?\" And I ignored it as well. A second call a few days later from a different unknown number was ignored. No follow up email. Today my free-trial expired because I ran 2 8-core VMs and a 4-core VM 24/7 for the past 7 days.", "id": "cfj81o8", "summary": "You can ignore the calls and 2x 8-core plus 1x 4-core VMs last about 1 week."}, {"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "Theoretically, given enough time, all Doge-only pools should pay the same if a miner were left to run 24/7 with no hiccups. Unfortunately, this is not always going to be the case because hiccups happen. Thus, there is something to be said for pools that have a strong history of resolving issues quickly and efficiently, while also communicating well with the pool members. \n An additional consideration are the \"types\" of pools (i.e. PROP, PPLNS, PPS, etc.) because if you're not running your miners 24/7 that can affect them. The two most common types are PROP and PPLNS. In simple terms, PROP pays you a percentage of the block reward based on the proportion of the total shares you contributed before the pool solved/found a block. The advantage of PROP is that if you can't leave your miners running indefinitely, you can turn them off and you should still receive some amount of payment for the contributions you made while they were on. One of the disadvantages is that PROP pools can be exploited by pool-hopping, as described  here  you would not be privy to any reward. If you are leaving your miner on 24/7 then PPLNS is a fine option because you'll theoretically always be submitting roughly the same amount of shares and you don't have to deal as much with pool-hoppers. \n Of course, there is also always the multipool option. These pools use the collective hashrate of the pool to mine different types of coins based on their profitability/difficulty, and then convert all of those coins into a single type for payment (usually done at the end of the week). It would be dishonest to say that multipools aren't more profitable than Doge-only pools. However, that profitability varies based on the overall crytocurrency market as well as the individual value of whatever the \"payment\" currency is for the pool. But while multipools may be somewhat/decently more profitable than Doge-only pools, they have the potential to create a fair amount of instability due to the massive swings in hashrate/difficulty they cause when mining/leaving a particular currency. And while it really might not be logical for them to contribute to any sort of majority-hashrate attacks, the fact that certain multipools are regularly attaining greater than 51% of the network hashrate is problematic if for no other reason than the fact that it negates the entire purpose of decentralization. Thus, most who are not exclusively profit-driven will advise against multipools, even those that pay in Doge.", "id": "chcsf3d", "summary": "I mine with [RapidHash]( because they have a custom UI, they're extremely communicative with their members, the IRC chat is helpful and friendly, and when I'm lonely I can enter the Konami Code for... companionship..."}, {"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "Can confirm: Almost died from a window fan blowing the wrong direction in my bedroom. Sucked all the air out of the house. Only survived because I woke up to use the bathroom and, wondering why I was so groggy, realized I was suffering from oxygen deprivation and rectified the near-deadly mistake.", "id": "chfwpqu", "summary": "Fans kill people."}, {"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "Well, \"cost-effectiveness\" is somewhat subjective, and is also significantly affected by the timeliness of availability. The Gridseed Blades were first to the market as \"big\" ASICs, so they were much more costly than a similarly performing ASIC being released now.  But  that also meant they were unchallenged in their hash/watt efficiency, and even when they were over $1k, they were still more \"cost effective\" than trying to get a matching total hashrate out of a collection of GPUs. The downside being that they are now in moving toward the position that GPUs were in when Gridseeds were first introduced (i.e. their hash/dollar ratios aren't as good, though the hash/watt ratio is still competitive). \n So, at $575 for the blade, the hash/$ ratio is 9 KH/$. Your power figures seem a tad low compared to the published stats, but if we go with the published stats (64w-70w per panel = 128w-140w total) then it has a hash/watt ratio would be 37.1-40.6 KH/w which actually puts it above the Furies I discussed earlier. Thus, the overhead costs to run that blade are theoretically lower than the cost to run Furies matching the Blade's hashrate (it would take 4 Furies to match 5.2 MH/s, each at 45w totaling 180w versus the high estimate of 140w for the blade). \n Analysis over. Annoying \"real-talk\" incoming:  All in all, the hard truth is what many have said but most of us don't like to hear: During a \"gold rush\" the ones who profit most are the ones selling the \"shovels.\" That doesn't stop me from mining, but I don't have any illusions that this has every possibility (perhaps even likelihood) of being a fruitless and expensive endeavor if Doge tanks (yes, I'm one of the stubborn ones who still mine Doge exclusively). But then again, I abandoned the pipe-dream of Doge being my ticket to riches a long time ago. I dig the community, the different fundraisers/events, and do believe Doge has a real shot at being the \"Internet's Currency\" for micro-transactions. But if it fails, I won't be in a bad financial situation, and I'll be able to say I was part of something very \"unique\" for a while.", "id": "ci4vlk4", "summary": "There aren't really any \"good\" investments in this game because it's all speculative. There are certainly \"bad\" ones like throwing money at vaporware. Research everything before you buy, and recognize that bigger isn't always better. \n EDIT: Just noticed you mentioned your Blade is running at 5.9 MH/s, so that shifts the hash/dollar ratio to 10.26 which is actually quite competitive. If folks can get Blades at the price you're getting them, they're decently competitive with these newer \"Gen 2\" ASICs."}, {"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "Okay. I was trying to be supportive without reinforcing a self-important \"woe-is-me\" thread. Clearly it wasn't necessary as you are apparently \"laughing out loud\" with alarming frequency. So since you're \"done being nice...\" (I see no obvious pattern of one-sided niceness, but whatever) I won't worry about being nice either. If your acts of \"kindness\" were only performed because of an expectation of reward or reciprocated \"kindness\" then they weren't genuine anyhow, so this community loses nothing. If you're so bitter as to think you are owed any particular treatment, I wish you the best of luck in pursuing that mindset in life, but I won't make any bets on your success.", "id": "chn9bdr", "summary": "since we're apparently no longer \"being nice\") Shit or get off the pot."}, {"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "Well, I'm no wizened Shibe or anything, but I will tell you this: \"Life stuff\" will always be there, and will always try to get in the way of whatever it is you're trying to do. That's just how it is. But the moment you realize that life can go on, even if you don't let the life stuff get in the way, you'll realize you have far more options than you may have originally thought. \n I was in a bad place before I moved to S. Korea to teach. I was burned out, working a dead-end job, and living an unhealthy lifestyle. I was in a stagnant relationship and thought \"I can't just end this relationship to move overseas and start a job in a country I've never been to! I have student-loans/credit-cards to pay off! I have family and friends who live HERE, not THERE!... etc., etc.\"  But I had a moment of inspiration and realized \"If not now, then when?\" and the fact was that there would never be a  better  time because even if my plate were less full, the opportunities would not necessarily still be there for me. So I did what I needed to do. Ultimately it was for the best. It was life changing for me, and my ex ultimately met her now-husband after I left for overseas, so it was ultimately good for her too.", "id": "chtpdpz", "summary": "Life is full of \"stuff\" right up until the moment you die. If you let it get in the way, you'll never actually live. Do what you want. Regret the mistakes you made rather than the ones you missed."}, {"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "I think a few things need to be clarified first: \n \n \"ASIC/Scrypta\" -  ASIC  is just an acronym for  A pplication  S pecific  I ntegrated  C ircuit. ASICs are built to work with a particular type of code/algorithm/application and exist in a variety of environments besides crypto-mining.  Scrypta  is [controller software]( to run on Raspberry Pi devices. \n \n \"dual mining\" - I imagine what you meant here was SHA-256/Scrypt where both of those represent hash functions of a variety of cryptocurrencies (Dogecoin being Scrypt and Bitcoin being SHA-256 as examples). First generation ASICs from Gridseed offer dual-mining capabilities, but not in a profitable manner since SHA-256 hashing is at a difficulty level requiring significantly higher hashrates than what can be generated by the Gridseeds, and the wattage required for dual-mining further reduces the profitability of utilizing that function. On the other hand, Scrypt-only hashing with Gridseeds consumes an extremely low amount of power and while profitability is pretty low (if even possible) right now given the value of Dogecoin (and really established Scrypt-cryptos in general), the \"loss\" one must absorb from overhead costs is \"less\" (debatable due to single-function aspects of ASICs) with Scrypt-only mining with ASICs compared to dual-mining or GPU-mining. \n \n \"the halving\" - This is a necessary feature built into many cryptocurrencies that, among other things, is theoretically supposed to create a reduction in the availability of the currency which can trigger an increase in value (supply vs. demand economics). If value increases in conjunction with the halvings (halvenings? sp?) then the decreased reward from blocks should theoretically not matter too much. If it becomes completely unprofitable for mining/hashing to continue due to low value  and  low block rewards, then no one will continue and the currency will die (unless it moves from a Proof of Work system to, for example, Proof of Stake which further reduces the need for complex/high-powered computations). So ideally, if value were to rise consistently (even if only in small amounts) then the low-power consumed by ASICs would keep them relevant for a decently long time, regardless of consistent network growth. This is, of course, all speculative because it's impossible to accurately predict what will/won't happen. \n \n \"Wait or buy?\" - This is the big question right now as a number of companies are \"promising\" big items, but none have made it to the actual consumer market yet aside from the Gridseed ASICs (which are more power-efficient than GPUs, but don't really offer big advances in hashrates).  The problem with waiting  is  A)  the adjustments to the reward schedule (halvings) means that when you do finally start mining, you'll have less time to take advantage of the higher rewards before they decrease and  B)  the network growth (i.e. difficulty increases) that come from large ASICs being added to the network. If you gamble incorrectly and choose a company that doesn't deliver first (or within a reasonably close time to the first big ASICs), by the time you do receive your device and start mining, the difficulty may have increased enough to completely through off your original profitability calculations.  The problem with buying  is that nothing currently available will remain \"profitable\" (quotes because almost nothing is actually profitable at the moment) for very long past the point that the next gen ASICs are introduced to the market. So, you may be able to mine more currency in the interim than if you wait, but if the network hashrate spikes, that may be the only currency you can really earn before difficulty makes the overhead loss too substantial to overcome.", "id": "chdnkls", "summary": "I don't have answers, and really know one here does. Mining is a gamble or a hobby, but probably shouldn't be viewed as an investment, especially with regards to ASICs. As others have pointed out, GPUs have resale value 6 months down the line, but ASICs probably will not (at least not for anything close to what you'll purchase them for initially)."}, {"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "I figured I'd wait on submitting my experience until after I actually received my Gridseeds.  Well, they arrived today, and while I haven't yet had a chance to test them out, I'd say my experience with [GAW Miners]( has been pretty stellar so far.  Here's why: \n [This is a small album showing my GAWMiners package and unboxing]( and I'll try to remember to update it once I get things set up and running. \n I had been on the fence regarding purchasing Gridseed ASICs for a while, but when they ran the promo for $99.95, I figured it was worth taking a shot since mining with anything (aside from 750 TIs) was just not really cost effective. Initially I was just going to purchase a pair of the ASICs, but in doing a quick Reddit search on the company, I saw someone had made a post about a promo they'd done in previous weeks where adding 5 Gridseeds to your cart, and then using a promo code, got the price of the 5th one deducted so it was a Buy-4-Get-1-Free deal. I wondered if that promo would still work, so I added 5 to my cart and put in the promo code and received an error message: \n Your order does not meet the minimum total for this coupon code to be applied. Please spend another $0.25 first. \n Holy crap! It still worked, it just required the purchase price to be over $500. So I added a $4.95 power supply and tried again. Success! The promo code deducted $129.95 (previous price of each unit before the sale) meaning my new per-item cost was $74.95. At this point I figured that the order would probably be flagged and cancelled and I'd receive a \"Sorry, but that can't happen\" sort of response, but I decided to try my luck. I moved to checkout, selected the free shipping, and hit submit. Then I waited to see what would happen.  You know what happened?  My order was confirmed and I received a notice it was being prepared for shipment, then it was shipped, and today it was delivered. \n Now, you may think I simply fell through the cracks and escaped their notice. But here's why I don't believe that: The following day, while the $99.95 price was still active, and after my initial purchase had been confirmed, I figured I'd see if I could get 5 more at my \"super discounted\" price. But this time, when I tried to apply to promo code, the error message read  The coupon code you entered has already expired so it can't be used.  Mind you, this was on a different computer, and I wasn't logged into my account at the time, so they had deactivated the promo code, presumably because  my  order (or another person doing the same thing as me) had brought it to their attention. Still, they processed and shipped my order with no hassle, and I received it today, within their 4-business-day guarantee.", "id": "ch033m4", "summary": "GAW Miners stayed true to their pricing, even after I exploited an overlap between their promo pricing and their coupon codes. They shipped promptly, the items arrived in perfect cosmetic condition (will test and update on performance), and I'll absolutely do business with them in the future!"}, {"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "First and foremost , I don't know about everyone else, but I haven't made any actual money from Doge because I haven't traded it in. I've exchanged for some goods on /r/Dogemarket, and I've tipped/donated a fair bit, but for me the real return has been in being part of such an interesting, outgoing, friendly and generous community! The fundraisers have been awesome. The upcoming Talladega race is going to be epic! And even if Doge doesn't soar in value afterwards, I'm going to take a lot of pride in knowing that I donated and was part of the community that got our beloved Dogecoin mascot plastered on the hood of a racecar that will be watched by millions of people! That has literally changed the entire landscape for sporting event sponsorships! We've shown that cryptocurrencies don't have to be associated with shady dealings or blackmarket websites. Our community has shown that through the cooperation of complete strangers, good works can be accomplished that benefit other complete strangers (Jamaican bobsled team, Kenyan villagers, those who received help from the therapy animals, those who have received tips/donations when they've fallen on hard times), sponsor underdogs (Josh Wise, Austin Lyons), and just bring out the best/generosity of a people. This, above all else, is why I plan to stick with Doge for as long as my gear will allow. \n To that end , the 5 Gridseeds I recently acquired were purchased specifically to hash for Doge until the day they, or the currency, dies. They draw such little power that I have no issues leaving them working for Doge indefinitely to provide a little help keeping the hashrate from being centralized with the multipools. \n Beside the aforementioned reason I'm sticking with Doge, I really hope other people will continue to stick with it as this halving certainly doesn't represent the end of the coins potential. In point-of-fact, halvings are designed to create less availability of the currency so that the market is less flooded and value can actually rise. Granted, there are other factors necessary for value to rise, but a mass exodus of hashing is a surefire way to contribute to the failure of the currency. \n People seem to be of the opinion that game-changing ASICs are a moment away from being released, and that it's time to abandon ship. This simply isn't so. The only ASICs that have made it to market so far are the Gridseeds and the GS Blades, and neither of them bring hashrates any higher than what can be achieved via GPU mining. The only thing they do is make mining a bit \"greener\" by requiring far less energy to accomplish the same tasks as GPUs. I invested ~$400 for the GS that pull ~1500+ kh/s total. You could achieve that exact same hashrate at similar pricing by finding some used HD 7950s/7970s on eBay, craigslist, or even some of the ASIC vendors' websites. The only difference being that with ASICs you can do it with a ~35-40w draw on power (plus whatever your pc/controller requires) versus the 500w of the GPU. The tradeoff is, of course, that the ASIC can't provide a sweet gaming experience if I decide to take a break from mining... but that's why I still have a pair of R9 270s.  The point is, until these theoretical \"monster\" ASICs actually make it to market (and they probably will eventually arrive, but even the ZeusMiner models only promise \"by May 31st\" and who knows if that deadline can be met) there is no reason to just up and quit. If you can find a way to mine more efficiently, then go for it! If you can sell some power-hungry GPUs and invest in some 750 TIs then you have the best of both worlds! And if you're committed to keeping Doge alive and decentralized, then maybe you grab a few Gridseeds when they're on sale, and dedicate them to Doge regardless of the profit margin. \n Alright , I'm done with my little rant.", "id": "ch2lfc6", "summary": "I'm with Doge to the moon and beyond!"}, {"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "Most have probably seen that the GAWMiner Fury Week 3 price jumped from $149.95 to $179.95 last week. I had planned to make a purchase since I had some store credit, but the price jump put me off. Well, today I happened to visit their site via my smart phone and saw that I had an item in my \"cart.\" It seems I had added a Week 3 Fury to my cart when the price was $149.95, and it was still listed in there at that price! Optimistic, I decided to try my luck, so I proceeded to check out and after using my store credit and a 4OFFHOT promo code (GAW25 only works for your first or second purchase it seems as I can apply it if I'm not logged in, but it says \"expired\" if I am logged into my account), my final purchase price for a Week 3 Fury ended up being $108.95! [Screenshot of my order detail - note the date of purchase is today, June 5, 2014]( \n So, if you're considering a Week 4 purchase ( currently listed at $134.95 . \n And as always, if you're willing to get to their site  via my referral link I'm eternally grateful !", "id": "t3_27dqua", "summary": "Add ASICs to your \"cart\" while logged in to your GAWMiners account on your mobile device to potentially avoid sudden increases in price \n EDIT  As of my check at 7 am EST on June 6, 2014, the Week 4 Fury  price has dropped to $125.95"}, {"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "Seems like nearly every time I see a thread developing where someone is claiming to have been scammed, if the accused scammer hasn't already deleted his/her account it almost always appears to be a user who has only been on Reddit for less than 2 weeks. This is easy to see people, just click on the users name and the \"age\" of the Redditor appears below their Karma Breakdown. \n So, if everyone just started instituting a policy of  not trading  with anyone who has been around for less than a week or two, I'd wager a fair number of the scammers would grow impatient and abandon their shady endeavors. \n But what about the patient scammers, you ask? Well, just take a look at their comment history. If they've been a Redditor for 2+ weeks, but haven't made many contributions aside from offering to buy/sell but have no flair yet, then you should be on alert. Most legit Shibes have found their way to the /r/Dogemarket because they started out in /r/Dogecoin or /r/Dogemining and will probably have participated in a least a few discussions in one of those subs.  If the user you are viewing hasn't been involved in the community outside of this market, then I'd personally find that a bit suspicious, and I'd probably avoid trading with him/her. \n Ultimately, we legit Shibes have the final say in who we do or do not do \"business\" with, and so it's on us to do our own research before sending Doge/money/goods to anyone else. Scamming is despicable, but ignorance is no excuse.", "id": "t3_21fwpe", "summary": "1) I suggest Shibes refuse trades with accounts younger than 1 or 2 weeks. \n 2) I suggest Shibes be extra cautious of users who have not been participating in Doge subreddits aside from the marketplace"}, {"author": "EvilToaster0ven", "content": "Alright, I'm going crazy and it's getting late so I'm hoping some Shibes with some Gridseed experience can help out. \n I followed  this guide  and it shows up properly in Device Manager. And when I start the GS fork of cgminer it recognizes that a GS device is attached and begins hashing away at 350 kh/s... but no shares are ever submitted and the WU remains at 0.0 no matter what. I've tried dropping the clocks down and up again, I've attached and detached the USB cable before and after initializing cgminer, but nothing works. I know it's not an issue with my pool because running my GPU on Kalroth's cgminer build works just fine [See this pic for clarification. GPU instance is on top, and GS instance shows 0 shares and 0 WU]( \n So, wise Shibes, help me out! What am I doing wrong? \n EDIT 1:  <Sigh> It may have all been due to a faulty friggin' power brick. I assumed it was working because when it was plugged in the fan on the Gridseed would spin up, lights turned on, and off, and on, and I assumed it was normal. Well, then I noticed the light was pulsating on the power brick and though \"hmmmm, much pulsing, very odd, wow... I'm gonna be pissed if... aw crap...\" because when I plugged in a different brick, low-and-behold, the fan went twice as fast, the brick stayed lit (no more pulsing), and then I could suddenly submit shares. Sheesh. Well, I guess we'll see how stable it is in the morning. But for now, any Shibes experiencing something similar, check your power supply. \n EDIT 2:  Yup, it seems the big problem was with the 12V 5A Power Adapter I was sent. The new one remained stable and strong when hooked up to a 1-to-8 adapter (don't worry, I've only got 5 GS on it. 1 amp per unit is what I've come to understand as the minimum for non-modded devices. If you volt-mod, I believe you need 2-3 amps per unit.) Anyhow, they're all running off the other power brick, and they're running strong! [Here's an updated pic of all 5 GS running solid at 360 kh/s with an 850 clock setting](", "id": "t3_2408x7", "summary": "If your Gridseeds aren't submitting shares, but you've already ruled out config settings, your USB cable, and proper drivers, then check your power adapter. Apparently the system can still technically be hashing away, but if the power is faulty, it can impair the unit's ability to submit shares. Happy hashing!"}]}
+{"author": "MadQuixote", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post runes...Runes...RUNES!!!!!  RUNES EVERYWHERE!!!!", "output": "This rune enchantment concept could also solve some of the issues discussed  here , so you could still trade them, but not to the extent that it creates an unrealistic/unearned power advantage. \n I know you guys don't want a whole lot of restrictions on the players, but I've also considered the possibility of limiting which items can be traded (e.g. you can trade runes but not weapons, or vice versa). This would limit how much power you could give another player by making it so that you can give a weapon with more slots, but the player can't use runes beyond their current dungeon; or you can give more powerful runes, but they are limited to a given number of slots for their weapon level. \n Another random thought: what if rune-mastery were the deciding skill factor in deciding how powerful a weapon can be? Essentially, as they increase in rune-mastery, they can combine runes to make them more powerful (e.g. at level 5 you can combine 2 runes, at 15 you can combine 3, etc.)."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4244", "history": [{"author": "MadQuixote", "content": "Never be afraid to open up to a psychiatrist/therapist, even if it's something as strange as sexual thoughts about them. They can't help you if you don't give them an accurate description of your symptoms. \n Have you told her about your difficulty sleeping? She might recommend adding a sleeping aid. In the meantime, try using Benadryl as a sleep aid if your insomnia persists more than two or three nights. You may have some groggy mornings, but it might help add a few hours. \n And yes, hallucinations. Dancing shadows, figures in the corner of my eyes (some very distinct but unrecognizable), and headlights flashing at night (sometimes the flashing persists even when I close my eyes at night). Since starting Lamictal, it's become less frequent, only happening when I'm manic and haven't had a lot of sleep. \n The sequence of letters doesn't establish your humanity. The sequence of letters is just the name given to a collection of cognitive and behavioral tendencies. YOU determine your humanity by fighting the destructive impulses. Keep in mind though, that humanity is an ideal separate and distinct from the way humans and society behave. Maintain your functionality and embody humanity as an ideal rather than conforming to social expectations and trying to fit in, that's just hiding away.", "id": "cgcdokg", "summary": "Pudding"}, {"author": "MadQuixote", "content": "It's funny, but I never even considered giving it a name. In my dreams, my negative thoughts, and even when I just close my eyes sometimes, it has a distinct presence, but I never named it. Once it was just my opposite in appearance, a dark version of myself, but then I locked it away and it got really weak looking. Then I let it out and it became a huge hulking brute, then I fought it and it went away for a while. \n Then I brought all the personas together: Maniac, Zen Master, Philosopher, Neurotic, Engineer, Alchemist, and Mad Hatter. They all sit at a table that I visualize, which keeps me from forgetting that it's all really just me. But that dark persona sits at the table too. He still doesn't have a name/title like the others, and I usually just refer to him as \"the one I locked away in the box\".", "id": "cmtwf96", "summary": "As much pain as that persona causes sometimes, I still feel a mixture of pity, fear, and love for \"the one I locked away in the box\". It's still me, and I don't want to hate myself anymore. So I still include it at the Tea Party :)"}, {"author": "MadQuixote", "content": "I was arrested twice, had a 4 month long nervous breakdown, and had to withdraw from college before I was diagnosed. I didn't accept the diagnosis at first because I had been diagnosed with depression and ADD 7 years prior. It was over a year before I really accepted it. I was having dark depressive episodes which largely focused on suicidal ideations, and was characterized by lack of energy, unwillingness to engage people socially, and excessive drinking. \n My girlfriend at the time was very patient with me and tried to be there as best she could, but when I really accepted the diagnosis I couldn't bear the idea that she'd be there through all my shit. More importantly, I didn't want her to be hurt if/when I can't hold back the thoughts and kill myself. \n For me, accepting it initially meant that it did define me. It had to reach that point before I really accepted it was an issue. I could see the symptoms, I could track the episodes, and I knew it was getting worse. I began thinking that I couldn't face a life with such senseless pain and despair, that I'd eventually become a threat to myself or others. But now I see it as a tool for understanding. I know how people think and feel when they're suicidal, depressed, manic, psychotic, dissociated, addicted (a wide range of outlets), and I can help them. I can't cure them, but I can help them define what they're thinking and share my techniques for coping. So far it's only been with close friends, but I hope to go into counseling someday. Afterall, who understands us crazy folk better than other crazy folk? Isn't that why we're all here? =)", "id": "cf4viwl", "summary": "I had a similarly difficult time accepting it, and it took things getting really bad for me to even consider it. Eventually I looked at my symptoms objectively and found no better explanation. Now I'm on meds and I'm a bit better, though it's still a struggle."}, {"author": "MadQuixote", "content": "Since color blindness is predominantly caused by non-functional cones in your fovea (back of the eyes), this would suggest that something, perhaps unique to this strain, activated the photoreceptors. \n Alternatively, there are a few other places where chemical interactions could take place and, considering the unique range of colors you're blinded to, you'd have to have an exceptional neurological condition (in which case I could put you into contact with a researcher who might be very interested in studying it), or you're full of shit (weed can help a lot of things, but this sounds pretty far-fetched).", "id": "chqk83m", "summary": "Possible explanations, but most likely you're full of shit/just hallucinated due to random neurons firing in your brain."}, {"author": "MadQuixote", "content": "Double check the DSM diagnostic criteria for Bipolar Disorder; if you've had a significant manic episode and a significant depressive episode after the age of 18, it's a pretty safe bet you fit the diagnosis. \n A common misconception of Bipolar Disorder is that you have frequent fluctuations between mania and depression. I'm rapid cycling (transitioning ~every 2 weeks), which, though not uncommon, is by no means the typical manifestation. It's possible you're in a hypomanic episode, which includes increased cognitive speed and elevated mood but not necessarily the \"delusions\" or increase in risky behaviors associated with mania. \n My recommendation would be continuing to stay on medication, though I won't/can't suggest a specific one. You may not feel like it's necessary, but most medications aren't effective in the acute treatment of manic episodes; continuing to take your medications will help prevent the escalation of mania-esque symptoms and decrease the likelihood that everything will spiral out of control.", "id": "chqjz7e", "summary": "If you aren't taking it because you don't think you need it, consult your doctor before stopping them; if for no other reason, take it to help preserve your current state of stability."}, {"author": "MadQuixote", "content": "I've never had the sense of euphoria while manic. Racing thoughts, need to engage in some activity (cleaning, designing things, or compulsively doing sodokus or playing solitaire on my phone), decreased threshhold for aggression (I've never been an aggressive person, but it's been getting bad recently), violent tremors in my limbs, twitches/ticks, and uncontrollably analyzing anything and everything I'm exposed to. I'm also finding that that my social anxiety is beginning to persist while hypomanic because of these symptoms. I become worried that others will focus on my muscle spasms, or that I'll hurt someone either physically or emotionally. It's gotten to the point where I prefer the depression, as sick as that sounds. \n A diagnosis of Bipolar II indicates that you predominantly have depression, but have had at least one hypomanic (or manic) episode. When my symptoms began, I was diagnosed with MDD and ADD and didn't really accept having BPII until my alcohol and weed binging got me into legal trouble. I'd be interested in knowing whether there is an interaction effect between personality type and BPD that could predict whether euphoria will manifest.", "id": "cdx830u", "summary": "You aren't alone."}, {"author": "MadQuixote", "content": "I routinely do the same: Mad Hatter, Don Quixote, The Alchemist, and a few others. \n I think what you're looking for is The Alchemist, one who accepts failures and perseveres, striving for the ultimate prize--gold for some, everlasting life for others, but for us it is stability. Much of the time, we think it as far-fetched as turning lead into gold, but in actuality both require the same approach. In Eastern Alchemy, it was believed that finding a balance between mercury (representing the abstract etherial) and sulfur (representing the concrete tangible), you could truly understand the universe. At this point, turning lead into gold becomes a metaphor for bettering yourself.", "id": "clcko9t", "summary": "The Alchemist is a fluid identity which evolves as your understanding of things grows, which at times requires failure; it is only by reaching for the seemingly impossible that you learn it is possible."}, {"author": "MadQuixote", "content": "Rapid cycling with 2 week episodes, I can usually tell within a few hours of a transition, and this pattern has been VERY consistent for the last few years. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I've now gone 4 weeks without a breakdown, with substantial stability and mood improvement during that time. \n Due to an upcoming stressful event which I cannot avoid, I have spent the last week trying to trigger a breakdown so that it happens in a time and location that I can control. Very inadvisable, low chance of it working, and it's possible that I will have a breakdown anyway. \n I've been told it's a bad idea by a lot of people, but I'm confident enough in my understanding of how my mind works to disagree. I'm not getting into an argument on this point, and I don't feel like I should have to explain myself any further in this respect. Trust me. \n Approach:  As most of you know, a depressive breakdown entails fixation on negative thoughts, feelings of guilt and loneliness, and generally tormenting yourself in every way that you know how. I'm definitely depressed, so it shouldn't take much to go over that edge, right? \n Problems:  I've gone through all the skeletons in my closet, obsessed over everything I've done wrong, and brought back the memories of all the women I've loved and lost. I've gotten so good at combating them that most can be dismissed with a single thought, so increasing the length of exposure to these triggers has proven to be difficult. \n Another complication is automatic mood/physiological responses. Presently, auto-numb is preventing me from reaching the threshold. I believe that finding something external and tragic to fixate on and connect with (romance movies are my best bet) then this response will be lessened. There are a few movies that come to mind right off the bat, and I can provide a brief list if you are interested.", "id": "t3_3gz9yz", "summary": "SCIENCE!...will update later today."}, {"author": "MadQuixote", "content": "Straight guy here. She was having some psych issues, especially when it comes to relationships and self-identity. Being pretty well versed in these areas, I knew that I'd be able to help, and I did. I identified why she wasn't happy romantically, and outlined a way for her to go about \"discovering herself\" on her own. It's a process that doesn't really work if someone holds your hand through it. \n The kicker: I was high and she was drunk...then I became drunk (she kept pouring me drinks so I don't know how much I had, but I still remember everything that happened). \n She kept trying to seduce me, and wasn't very smooth about it. I thought it was odd and kept pointing it out, and she denied it each time. Then she pointed out that I couldn't leave because I was drunk and would have to stay. I was fine with this, I love cuddling, and knew that it wouldn't lead to anything because she's a lesbian. Then she started grabbing my dick... \n I shit you not, she just started playing with it, not in a sexual way, but in a \"how does it even work?\" way. Not viewing it as sexual, I wasn't even hard. I had to force an erection. She told me to show her how to play with it, to which I responded \"there really isn't a wrong way, you just kinda play with it until something happens\". \n It didn't really get sexual until she mounted me, dry-humped the shit out of my flaccid dick, bit my chest, asked me if I wanted to beat her with her toys, got pissed when I wouldn't cum within 10 minutes of not-even-close-to-sex, and then jerked on my dick for a while while I was on top. Then we cuddled some more, watched the lightening from her window, and talked some more. \n The next day, I woke up feeling fantastic. It was some of the best non-sex I've had. Just holding someone, laughing, and feeling safe, it was amazing and rare for me. I was a perfect gentleman, didn't push anything, constantly pointed out what she was doing and asking if she was sure she wanted to do it, even trying to keep things from getting sexual and get back to the reason I was there to begin with. \n She invited me over, got me drunk, seduced me, and groped my dick. Then she texts me saying that if I didn't give her back the rx script I took in one hour she'd call the police for rape. \n \n I don't do pills, and I definitely can't do the pills that she was prescribed. It has the potential to make my brain a lot worse than it is. \n RAPE?!?!?!", "id": "t3_39ahfl", "summary": "I went to help a friend, who got me drunk and seduced me. I tried to keep it from getting sexual, then showed her how penises function. Now...rape?!? \n I'm still basically in shock and I can't get any further than \"rape\". And the sad/funny thing is that I did everything exactly as I've been taught as far as avoiding these kinds of situations. \n Advice?"}, {"author": "MadQuixote", "content": "My episodes are 2 weeks long and it's starting to ware on me. It's basically been like that since I learned I was bipolar, and the regularity makes it a little easier to plan around, but it also means that every 2 weeks I have a breakdown and have to leave work. It's either a buildup of depression/anger/mania, or it's the physiological tics, twitches, and tremors that I can't hide or stop, and it makes me self-conscious which increases the buildup. \n I basically just have to wait it out until I dissociate, which I hate doing now that it's automatic. I used to get drunk, but now I basically smoke weed every day, which really does help. I know I should adjust my meds, but I will not go on antipsychotics again, even the atypicals. I'm about maxed out on Lamictal and have lost a lot of weight this year (300->230, unintentional). \n I'm beginning to resent neuro-typicals for making it look so easy to be happy and normal, despite loving what I've learned and using it to help people (Atlas/hero/savior/peter pan complexes). I'm also paranoid that I could develop schizophrenia or BPD, or that if I really do lose control I'll develop DID (these are real possibilities, and I almost developed DID in college). I'm obsessed with maintaining control because I can't afford to lose it again, I've become very narcissistic and socially avoidant, and I'm both a hopeless romantic and a manwhore. \n I think that's everything relevant, and I'll answer any questions.", "id": "t3_3m79f1", "summary": "This shit sucks, how do you deal with it?"}, {"author": "MadQuixote", "content": "That should pick you up.\" Man bursts into tears. Says \"But Doctor... I am Pagliacci.\" Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains. \n Perfectly explains how I've been the last few days. My meds have kept me from feeling the full extent of depression and so I can't get that catharsis from crying, but I'm losing interest in everything. I don't feel like watching movies, catching up on my favorite shows, playing videogames, hanging out with friends, and the internet is losing all appeal. \n But I can still make people laugh. Jokes, witty retorts, and comical ideas flow freely when I'm around others, but it takes so little effort that there's no real satisfaction from it. It's like \"eh, yeah, that's a thing I can do\", and there are so many other things I'm capable of that are really cool, but...just...no satisfaction. I'm existing rather than living, but I don't have any suicidal thoughts.", "id": "t3_2juqx8", "summary": "I know I'm not the only one who's felt this way. What are some ways you all get back to living?"}, {"author": "MadQuixote", "content": "I've been wanting to tell you all about this for a while now but haven't known how to go about it until now. \n I've been going by the moniker \"Mad Hatter\" for about 9 years now. It started out because I always wear hats and was a bit eccentric, but since my diagnosis, it's making more and more sense. I added the moniker \"The Alchemist\" to my self-identity after reading about alchemy in eastern philosophy a few years later, and have used the balance between metaphysical elements to become a better person, despite the progression of my symptoms. \n Balance Between Extremes : I had the idea that a perfect balance could be released if a balance between Mercury (fluid, cold, reflective) and Sulfur (earth, hot, volatile). This lead me to create a symbol which I only recently  got a tattoo of , I need to become more fluid and let the ideas slide away, I need to embrace the mercury (top symbol); to get through the mania (red), I need to remain grounded and temper the impulses and anger, I need to embrace the sulfur (bottom symbol). \n The Mad Hatter : I've used this moniker as an analogy for a long time to describe how I've felt crazy and removed from everyone else, how they always seem to come and go whereas I'm stuck at Tea Time, and how it's perfectly rational to lose your mind under these conditions (the Mad Hatter was trapped at the Tea Party for pissing off Time, you see). \n The Connection : I just realized this, so it's a bit underdeveloped, but here it goes. Hat Makers in the old days would go crazy due to mercury exposure. Similarly, my issues developed around the same time I started dissociating from life events which left me with PTSD. I embraced the Mercury too much, and, while it was beneficial in some respects, it ultimately left me nonfunctional, constantly using weed and alcohol to stave off the darkness. I inadvertently tried to balance this out last year by becoming more grounded. Too much Sulfur led to panic attacks and increasing suicidal and intrusive thoughts, eventually resulting in a partial hospitalization program (VERY helpful, if you're thinking about it). \n Right now, I'm working on the balance one day at a time (yeah, that old cliche). When the depression kicks in, I embrace the Mercury/Yin. When the mania kicks in, I embrace the Sulfur/Yang. It's difficult, but it's moving with the waves to keep afloat.", "id": "t3_2z1k5y", "summary": "The Mad Hatter dabbled in alchemy and found that balance can be found by recognizing what is taking hold and changing his perspective/mentality accordingly."}, {"author": "MadQuixote", "content": "I found out this morning that I didn't get the job I was hoping for. I've been unemployed for almost 3 months now, and only ~4 months in the last year. I'm beginning to feel like the struggle and effort I put into graduating college was in vain. I have a BA in Psychology with a Chemistry minor, but every position relevant to my degree requires more experience. The only exceptions are sales positions, which I can't do again; between my own inconsistency, the required motivation to milk punters as much as possible, and my own career goals, it doesn't mesh well and ultimately ends up with me either smoking weed all the time or having regular breakdowns. \n This most recent job was relevant though. It was a customer service position for a healthcare company, and while I wasn't intending on making it my career, it would have been useful experience both for customer service and healthcare environments. For once, I actually WANTED this job. But, after a week and a half of waiting, I got the \"We regret to inform you...\" email. \n FUCKINGCOCKSUCKINGASSLICKINGCUMDUMPSTERDONKEYFUCKINGSONOFABITCH \n Unfortunately, I don't let myself stay angry for long, so I expect that soon the angst will be converted to depression and I'll drink myself to sleep tonight amidst a torrent of tears and cognitive fixations along the lines of \"what did I do wrong?\" and \"why am I not good enough?\"", "id": "t3_28w761", "summary": "Unable to find and keep a job due to lack of experience and illness, despite intelligence and Bachelor's Degree. I know most of my generation is running into this issue, but have any of you run into it to? Do you have any advice?"}]}
+{"author": "drnick5", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post if you buy new and drive it til the wheels fall off. It can be worth it, but most people get the new car itch too early and trade in.", "output": "I think it depends... for most people, I'd say yes.. its a bad idea. Since they buy or lease a new car every 3-5 years and get killed on depreciation. \nI'm sort of particular in my cars in that I want a manual transmission but want all the toys. The car I currently have (2006 accord) was special ordered exactly how I wanted it. (couldn't find any used ones that had built in navigation as well as a manual transmission). Its also nice to have a warranty to not have to worry about an unexpected repair. \n My plan is to have this car at least 10 years. (and im sticking to it!) lots of people say that... but then trade in after 3-5 years. I paid 24,500 for the car. I put 12k down and financed the rest. I'll probably be able to sell the car for $10k. meaning the car cost $14,500 over 10 years. so $1450 a year to drive a nice car that was built for me and am the only owner. its not a bad deal. (I used obviously simplistic numbers not factoring in car interest taxes and insurance. so the actual number is closer to $1550 or so)"}], "user_id": "longlamp_10057", "history": [{"author": "drnick5", "content": "the \"Net neutrality\" issue is just 1 piece of the puzzle in the US. But its a large piece in my opinion. Basically without net neutrality, ISP's can choose which websites or services get the best speeds. Take a look at what comcast did to Netflix, basically cutting Netflix speeds to the bone until they paid them a ransom to increase speeds. \n As League gets bigger and bigger, it will start to account for more and more web traffic. It wouldn't surprise em to find out that this has already happened, and Riot's paid up to keep things working (the recent issues with FIOS users over the past few months as an example). \n So, even if all of that wasn't the case, we still have the problems with the servers themselves. Not only their location being west coast, but also their stability/reliability and capacity. The migration they did recently I'd imagine should help with this, but that is also just 1 piece of the puzzle.", "id": "cnyix7x", "summary": "Net neutrality is 1 of many issues that effect our League experience"}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "I had a mixed experience. on the plus side, I ordered the free trial and received it within a week. I haven't seen any additional charges except for the 0.01 charged to my card. However they didn't send the flavors i requested (actually sent every flavor EXCEPT the one i asked for) So, I started using it and stopped smoking cigarettes all together. it was going well, until I lost the ecig.... (I think it fell out of my pocket and since it was snowing last night, may very well have got pushed away by the plows) \n So, I went to a local tobacco store to try and find a replacement battery. I was in luck as they had a few types, but none worked with the Victory e-cig cartomizers. (the threads were different) My friend recently got a Greensmoke starter kit, it looks almost identical to the Victory, but has different threads as well. \n I was able to buy a starter kit of a different brand E-cig (that looked identical to the Victory) for $20 with a charger and 2 caromizers. A 3 pack of cartomizers is $10 so I\"ll grab one of those soon. with the amount of \"smoke\" right now, each cartomizer lasts a week.", "id": "c7q2vmz", "summary": "Got Victory e-cig with no additional charges... but if you lose the battery or need additional catromizers, good luck finding them locally"}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "I started my own business 7 years ago. Getting a loan is near impossible, however if you incorporate with your state, apply for a business credit card. I was able to get a business AMEX with a 25k limit. (My highest personal credit limit was 7k). \n After being in business for 3 years I applied for a SBA credit line and got turned down. Tried another local bank, and got turned down again. After another year we tried with another bank and finally got a credit line. This was about 5 years or so after we were in business.", "id": "cbppzjv", "summary": "its VERY tough to get a business loan, but a business credit card is much easier to obtain."}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "First off, Harassment in ARAM? I don't play the mode all that often, but I've never once been raged at in ARAM. Not saying it can't happen, but I find it the least stressful PvP mode. \n To answer your question, League is toxic because its an online game. every single one has some level of toxicity. I've found it come mainly form the really young player base (although plenty of \"older\" players rage as well). \n How do you make it better? turn off All chat. only talk to your team if absolutely necessary. If they rage at you for a bad play, don't respond.", "id": "cmix4l4", "summary": "Don't Feed the Troll"}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "The receiver is responsible for routing video from all of the devices you plug in (blu-ray, cable box, PS3, roku, etc.) To your TV. They can also upscale non HD sources to HD. So some of what you are paying for is the quality of the video processor. It also amplifies audio and sends it to the speakers. Better receivers have better, more powerful, amps and can decode higher end audio streams. They can also use more speakers (7.1 instead of 5.1). \n They also have features such as airplay and multi zone setup (play a movie on the TV, and play a CD or radio on speakers in another room at the same time).", "id": "ce9wpre", "summary": "more expensive receivers have more power, and better video processing as well as other features not found on cheaper models."}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "First, don't name a player you want. Ideally name stud players early you don't want (i like to name stud pitchers who I think will go for a lot but under perform.. Like halladay last season). \n Its best to set up a list of players and values you are willing to pay, but you NEED to be flexible. If some players you want go for more and you don't get them. You should increase the values a bit on the other players on your list (mainly for studs) keep in mind...its about the numbers, not the player name. In the middle to late parts of the auction there are usually guys with big names who are declining when other lesser known guys will put up the same numbers. you want to name the big names so other owners spend their money while you clean up on the lesser known guys for less money. \n Don't bid on a player you don't want, you may get stuck with him unless hes going for crazy cheap. You don't wanna get suck with a player you have no interest in simply because you felt he should go for $8 and you bid $6. \n Lastly, save a few bucks for the end of the auction, this is where a lot of deals can be found. If you  Have the most money left and most others are just about out. You can afford to pay that extra $1 on a player you want. this is the ONLY time you may want to name a player you want.(usually sleepers) Since most owners won't be able to bid you up.", "id": "c8t7cmr", "summary": "name players you don't want, be flexible, save a few bucks for the end of the auction. \n Good luck!."}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "I bought thresh when he went on sale and have been playing him anytime I get put into the support role. (I main ADC and have been trying to learn top and mid, but a lot of times no one wants to do support so I take it) \n Thresh takes a good amount of skill to feel like you are accomplishing something. The biggest one is landing your hooks, but also knowing when to take the hook and go in or when to let it go. The more you play, the better you'll be at making these decisions. I sucked with him at first, while I'm still not great at him I've had some pretty fun games. Its great to chase someone down after a teamfight, hook them and let a teammate secure the kill. Or even better, hooking an enemy and throwing a lantern out to bring a teammate into the fight. \n Thresh also happens to be a little tanky (for a support) his auto attack range is pretty long for being mele and he deals some decent damage. (I take AD quints and marks for him usually).", "id": "cgj8b0s", "summary": "The more you play him, the better you'll get!"}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "Not a car salesmen, but I've bought several cars and also assisted lots of family and friends in their purchases. When buying a new car, NEVER negotiate down from the sticker price.... go online and find the invoice price, and ideally, what they get for holdback (usually 1-3%) this tells you basically what their exact bottom line is. You should then negotiate UP from that price. \n As far as extra fees, all dealers have some sort of fee, registration and doc fees, Courier fees to run it back and forth from the DMV.. etc. So on a new car, having $200-$400 in fees is reasonable.. but if there is anything additional beyond that, question the fee. \n Also, when leasing... do your homework on Money factors (which is how interest is expressed in a lease) When leasing my first car at age 20... most dealers that I was some dumb kid who didn't know what he was doing. I was quoted a money factor for a Honda Accord that showed .00244... which to most people, would look like an INSANELY low interest rate... however... its actually 5.86% interest! (to convert, multiply the money factor by 2400). I had done my homework and knew honda was offering a Money factor of .00172 which is 4.1%. When I asked the salesmen about the interest rate, he tried to pass it off as a deal... saying \"yeah, its a really low rate huh?\" I replied \"Actually.. thats a crazy high rate! And.. how can you quote me an interest rate when I haven't filled out the credit app yet?!\" I was also told later by the sales manager that \"It's illegal to convert a money factor to an interest rate in this state\" I laughed in his face and said \"well, you better lock me up then!\"", "id": "c8m49jm", "summary": "On new cars, Always negotiate UP from the invoice price, not DOWN from the sticker price. When leasing, ALWAYS check your money factors"}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "If this was me, unless you (or more importantly, your wife) are 100% in love with this house and can't find anything else even close, I'd walk away. There are PLENTY of houses on the market, you'll find another one I promise :-) \n If they lied about this, who knows what else they lied about? (or \"forgot\" to mention). A house is a major investment. How would you feel if you get them to agree to all these repairs (unlikely) and then a month after moving in you find a bunch of other issues? (I'm aware you had the house inspected, but its still possible he missed something).", "id": "cix5eb8", "summary": "I'd walk away as there are plenty of other houses on the market that have honest sellers."}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "Auctions are a bit harder to predict then a draft, as you have no idea how high another owner will go on a certain player. you NEED to be flexible (even more so then a draft). The idea is to get the best value you can for a player, if you do this consistently, you will end up with a pretty good team. That being said, with the stud players, the top ones typically go for more then they should (AP for example). And depending on when players get named, its not uncommon for the 2nd or 3rd best guy to go for MORE then AP, simply because the dropoff to the remaining players might be a lot. \n So, my advice is to put a value on all of the players in your league before the auction. This was posted yesterday which is a pretty decent list of players an auction values based on a $200 cap \n Once you have your values and go into the auction, try to identify good values. I like to try and go after the 2nd or 3rd best player at a position, since the top guy usually goes for a lot. But it all depends on when they are named. if it was me in a non keeper, I'd probably name AP as soon as I can to get other players to spend their money. as someone else said, the goal is to name players you don't want but other players do. Toward the end of the auction, you'll want to name sleepers you do want and hopefully you have a few dollars more then the rest, so you can snag them.", "id": "cboe6pk", "summary": "Be flexible, try to get the best value of players, and try to save a few bucks for the end where some deals can be found."}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "The one thing you are not mentioning as part of your argument is the possibility of repair costs on the older car. In my experience, the older a car is, the more likely it is to breakdown. I'd say to possibly try a compromise, look for a car thats 1 year older or so (say a 2008 mazda 3, or something else?) I did a quick look in my area, and saw 2009 mazda 3's going for a lot more then 11,500....(the cheapest I found without getting too old of a model is a a 2008 with 80,000 miles for $11k) obviously you should never pay the sticker price for a car (especially a used car)  Also, have you checked with your car insurance to make sure it will actually go up $50 a month? That seems a little steep to me (not sure of your driving history, but I pay about $900 a year for full coverage on my 2006 honda accord, I have no accidents or tickets on my record tho, and insurance rates vary from driver to driver, state to state and company to company.", "id": "c6759qa", "summary": "look for a slightly older/cheaper car, double check with insurance to verify the rate increase. it doesn't hurt to shop around either!"}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "Years ago I was heading to Florida on Spring Break with a few friends, All of them were couples except for me being the only single guy. When I got to the check in counter, they were telling people they had a few seats available in 1st class, and they could upgrade for $50. I've never flown 1st class, and figured $50 was too good of a deal to pass up, seeing as how it's normally 3X the cost of a normal ticket. So, I paid the extra $50 and off I went, none of my friends decided to do this as it was only a 2.5 hour flight. \n I get into 1st class, and am asked what I'd like for my pre-flight drink, It's 8am at this point, so of course I start with a screwdriver (vodka and Orange juice), I finish this quickly and ask what beers they have. After drinking my 2nd Heineken, I put my head back and rested my eyes, about 30 minutes later I wake up to see this HUGE breakfast in front of me. Cereal, a bagel, some fresh fruit and a few other sides. At this point I realize we are still on the ground, apparently due to the snow storm that was passing through, they had closed the runway and we were waiting for them to plow the runway and de-ice the plane. \n So, naturally, I keep drinking. I had another few mixed drinks and a few more beers before we even took off. I'm not sure of the exact number I had by the time we landed, but I was fairly drunk walking off the plane. When I finally met up with my friends after the flight, I asked them what they had for breakfast. they responded with \"Breakfast? All we got were peanuts!\". I'd say the $50 was well worth it, and easily the best flight I've ever had.", "id": "cc9kwod", "summary": "Spent $50 to upgrade to first class, Plane got grounded for 2 hours on the runway where I proceeded to drink for free."}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "I think the OP is speaking more to the type of customer that assumes they know everything... yet has no clue at all what they are talking about. Lucky for us, these are rare in my shop.. but I had a great one the other day. Customer comes in without her computer to ask a question, told me her flash player won't work and wanted to get it fixed. I asked if the computer could get online (it could) suggested we do a remote support. We offer a free diagnostic on anything brought in, so it shows up a few days later. I diag it, and shes using Internet Explorer on Vista 64.. apparently flash player is no longer supported on 64 bit versions of XP or vista. I noticed she had chrome installed, and flash works perfectly fine. I look over the computer, and it has Mcafee and Norton both running, as well as all sorts of \"registry boosters\" and \"pc optimizer\" programs. so I diag it as a full tuneup, check for infections and remove if I find any, remove norton and mcafee, install Microsoft security essentials. set chrome as default, migrate favorite into chrome (to solve the original problem). I also said if she didn't want the full tuneup, I'd just do the IE to chrome transfer, and remove norton and Mcafee and replace with security essentials for our basic labor of $59. we call her with the Diag, she refuses to switch to chrome (likes IE to much... dispite the fact flash player doesn't work) and wants mcafee. also said she KNOWS she doesn't have any infections. (its not like anything ever gets past McAfee, right?) but asks if I can clean up the computer for $59. at this point i decided to stand my ground... usually I'd bend the rules a bit.. but I figured, if she wont' take my 2 biggest recommendations (ditch IE for chrome, and use Security essentials instead of the other crap) then im sure she won't be happy with whatever other tuneup work I do...and will result in a big headache (because again, she knows everything) I let her know that this is my recommendation. and that she is free to take the computer back with no charge if she didn't like my recommendation...", "id": "c538utn", "summary": "Got a crazy lady that likes IE, Norton AND McAfee on her computer... refuses to switch since she knows everything"}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "Items now have more base AD than before, although they cost a bit more gold. \n Berserkers Greaves now has more attack speed (although it costs a lil more than it used to). With the BT nerfs many are choosing to go BOTRK in their builds instead, which gives more attack speed.", "id": "cj7kh8p", "summary": "More attack speed and AD in items"}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "Hey All, \n I've been looking at LASIK for years, but was never able to afford it. My brother and Mother had it years ago with no issues. A few weeks ago my brother emailed me a groupon for Lasik, at a local place for $1499 for both eyes, including all pre-op and post op appointments. \n I purchased the Groupon and made my appointment at the Lasik Vision Institute in Providence RI. I did some research, from what I can tell, LVI is sort of a lasik farm. They provide the facilities, group a bunch of patients on one day to have the procedure, and have an independent surgeon come in to perform it. \n The place seemed new, very clean, and had a friendly staff. My pre-op appointment was about 2 hours or so, which included a full eye exam as well as scans to determine if I was a candidate. It turned out I was a great candidate (I was -2.75 in both eyes). \n I booked the procedure for the following week (which was yesterday). I did some digging online about this place, and saw a very mixed bag of reviews for Lasik Vision Institute, but couldn't find any for the location I went to in Providence. \n Most of the bad reviews I see were at other LVI location around the US. People who came in under the bait and switch pricing of $299 an eye, and upset they were being told it would be a lot more. (looking at the site and its fine print, it shows the $299 price only covers -1.0 or less prescription, so pretty much no one gets this price). I was expecting to be upsold a lot, my normal pricing without groupon would have been $1799 per eye according to their website. But I got the entire procedure done for $1499 for both eyes from groupon. This was for traditional Lasik. They upsold me on punctual plugs (which I declined) but I did have to pay additional for a lifetime guarantee, but even with that, I spent $2000. (minus the 2% cash back on my credit card and 6% cash back I got through ebates. I paid about $1850 in total). \n The Dr. who preformed my procedure was stationed at a local hospital, and has been a Dr. for 23 years, specializing in refractive and cataract surgery, so I felt very comfortable having it done by him. The procedure itself was very quick. I went in at 11am, had my eyes checked again quickly, was told to take the Valium they prescribed, then I waited for it to kick in.  About 30-45 minutes later , I walk in to the operating room. Lie down on the table, and off we go. \n Each eye took about 6-7 min in total. They put a few drops in your eye to dumb it, put an eye lid spreader on to hold your lids open, then place a ring over your eye to cut the flat (I had traditional lasik, not \"bladeless\" or custom waveform). I felt no pain at all, once the cut was done, the Dr. lifted to flat, told me to look at the green light. and in 5 seconds that eye was done. he put the flap done, brushed it with something and rinsed it, they moved to the next eye. Same procedure, and I was done. I was picked up about 1pm. \n The worst part was when I got home. You're told to take a nap as soon as you get home, but at this point the numbing drops were wearing off and my eyes were pretty uncomfortable, making it tough to get to sleep. Once I eventually fell asleep, i woke up a few hours later feeling a lot better. Eyes still felt a little scratchy, but using the over the counter eye drops helped a lot. I also have 2 other sets of drops I need to put in 4 times a day. \n Today when I woke up, my eyes felt even better. I went in for my follow up appointment, and was told I now have 20/15 vision! Which is better than i had with contacts. I couldn't be happier with how this turned out, and the price I paid.", "id": "t3_3qzx8f", "summary": "I bought LASIK on Groupon, paid less than $2,000, and it went great!"}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "title says it all, just wondering what you guys are doing to handle credit cards. \n We have a merchant account that we got hooked up with through sovereign bank, I've been trying to find a better deal but its a headache inducing process. we use PC charge and a USB swipe reader to handle cards in the shop.. I've been trying to find a merchant who will let me do this AND also let me have some sort of online portal with the SAME merchant account, but I have been unsuccessful.  (every company I've talked to said I need 2 accounts to do this... which means 2 sets of BS fees...on top of the % they take from each card) \n Also, the fee structure is so cryptic you have no idea how much they are charging until well after the fact (because it varies by card) I've looked into \"Interchange plus\" pricing which seems to be the most fair way... but these have monthly fees associated with them, we don't do a TON of credit cards, (I'd say 20 a month?) so im not sure if the monthly fee are worth it \n when we do remote support, we started emailing invoices to customers. We found a plugin for quickbooks that will email a customer an invoice and provide a paypal link. it works great even if the customer doesn't have a paypal account. The fees are reasonable (I think $0.30+2.9%) but I'm not really a paypal fan... I hate how it takes a 5 days or so for the money to get in my bank account and how I have to manually \"grab\" the money from paypal. (also, if I go to buy something on ebay or a place that accepts paypal, it always defaults to take the money out of your paypal balance FIRST, before it will let you use a credit card or your bank account.. which makes keeping track of this a nightmare, I always make sure to empty the paypal account before making any purchases so I can use my credit card.)", "id": "t3_lcgbz", "summary": "Anyone have a good, reasonable priced, merchant account that works well for online and offline cards?"}, {"author": "drnick5", "content": "I just found this subreddit.. LOTS of great stuff in here! I've run my own Comptuer repair shop for over 5 years now and I was curious as to how other shops charge. We originally started out with hourly rates (bench work at $60 per hour, onsite work at $90 per hour, remote work at $30 per half hour) \n a few years ago we realized that it was very rare when we charged the actual time we spent on a computer (a really bad virus removal can easily take several hours.. yet we'd usually only charge 2 or 3 hours..) so we decided to go with tiered, flat rate pricing with 3 tiers  (Basic, Advanced and Critical) as it was easier to convey to the customer. \n Also, what do you folks do for comptuer sales?  I've found over the past few years prices on everything have come down so much that its hard to compete with the big box stores (Best buy and Staples are the 2 big ones that come to mind) I have a distributor that I can buy form but in most cases their prices are higher than newegg.com or other similar type online store.... \n Do you still build custom towers for customers? how about laptops? are there certain brands you resell? \n Any other services that you offer that have been successful besides computer repair? (we offer online backup, email hosting and migration, web design and hosting just to name a few)", "id": "t3_kgoud", "summary": "Do you own or manage a comptuer repair shop? what do you charge? do you sell your own computers? what services do you offer that are successful in competing against big box stores?"}]}
+{"author": "ls1z28chris", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Visual inspections are important, but requiring people you are training to conduct physical inspections also can help you, if you're training others, see that they are conducting their checks properly. You'll see them finger fucking chambers and know it was done. Also, think about doing brass checks after that first inspection. \n \n >If every novice makes it a goal to check and double check to see that the chamber is clear, mistakes like this will not happen. \n Safety is paramount. That never goes away. The second you forget that is the second before you die or kill someone else. This applies to experts just as much as it applies to novices.", "output": "visually checking that your gun is clear just to be sure. visually check that the chamber is empty. visually check that the chamber is empty. visually check that the chamber is empty. visually check that the chamber is empty. visually check that the chamber is empty. \n Not to disagree with you here or anything on your emphasis on safety. I think that visual inspection probably would have prevented this guy's ND, as he probably would have seen the magazine. In the Marines, though, I was trained to always visually and physically inspect the chamber to make sure a round isn't present. I think this incident just demonstrated to me why, all these years later. \n 95% of this probably has to do with the fact that when training on a range, there are several people and only a few marksmanship instructors behind you, each running several targets. They want to see a line of guys finger fucking their weapons with their pinkies because that is the best way you can inspect a mass of people taking their chamber inspection seriously. \n I always thought that rule was crazy. I looked in the chamber. There is absolutely nothing there. Why am I sticking my finger into a dirty chamber? I still think that when I go to the range now several years after I got out, because the technique is muscle memory. After I slide the bolt/slide forward after that inspection, I go back again and also check for brass. Pull the charging handle a little, see if there is brass in there just to make sure. On the 1911 there is a hole in the top of the slide for this purpose. On the Glocks, the extractor protrudes to the side a little bit. \n Again, I agree with everything you said. I just wanted to add that requiring people to do a physical inspection might be helpful if you're looking at a large group and trying to make sure they're doing everything right. I also wanted to add that checking for brass after sending the bolt home or slide forward, even after the physical inspection, might be something else you require people to do if you're training them."}], "user_id": "longlamp_12343", "history": [{"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "The interstate system isn't drawn in a straight line from the northern border of the state to its southern border. It meanders a little. Also, the speed limits in population centers like Atlanta and Macon are significantly below 70 mph. This is all before we even start talking about the significant problem of congestion along that corridor of I-75. Also, the northern portion of the state is at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, and a significant portion of your driving in that area consists of gaining elevation.", "id": "c6jv8vw", "summary": "There is no way in hell anyone realizes a 70 mph average speed across the state of Georgia. \n Source:  [U mad, bro?]("}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "I don't have the patience to explain the intricacies of court martial procedures, but if your primary concern was the extended detainment before being placed in a courtroom, I found an article that summarizes it very nicely: \n That is not my primary concern. My primary concern is Obama's pre-trial declaration that Manning is guilty and that he will be punished for his crimes. \n I've been subject to the UCMJ, and I've also held SECRET clearance and been permitted access to sensitive information and locations. So I'm aware of the consequences facing Manning, and I don't believe Manning is some brave whistleblower who should be pardoned or excused from prosecution for moral reasons. Until I saw Obama declare Manning's guilt long before the trial began, I thought Manning would rightly be convicted under the UCMJ of releasing classified information. \n All of that changed when I saw Obama declare that the boy is guilty, and that he would be punished. The Commander in Chief publicly declared that a service member with pending court martial proceedings was guilty and would be punished. How in the world can this kid now get a fair trial? If you were in the military, did you not receive the instruction on commander's intent? Have you not seen the scandal going on regarding the current CMC and his towing the administration line in disagreeing with the convening authority on the proceedings with the Marines who urinated on the Taliban corpses? \n If the Commander in Chief declares that a kid is guilty long before his court martial, that kid will be found guilty. There is zero possibility of a fair trial, which is a right even people subject to the UCMJ enjoy. Obama fucked this up when he publicly stated Manning was guilty. As much as I think Manning should be tried for the crime of releasing classified information, because he can no longer enjoy the right to a fair trial, he should be released immediately. \n It sucks. I understand that this would have negative repercussions. But so what. We're supposed to be Americans. We're supposed to steadfastly remain vigilant in defense of our rights, especially those rights which many of us put our lives on the line to defend. We put skin in the game. Better that one hundred guilty men go free than one innocent man be condemned.", "id": "cbbprqy", "summary": "Obama declared Manning's guilt long before the trial. I have declared kangaroo court."}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "Years ago when I got back from my first deployment, my brother was stationed at 8th & I. When I went up for a visit, we stopped by the offices of our senators and representatives. One of the most interesting things I learned is that the Hill has a CCTV system that is like an even more dull version of C-SPAN that televises speeches and proceedings in the two chambers, and so members of Congress are usually either in meetings with lobbyists and constituents, or they are back home doing the same thing. So the people who work in their offices are generally pretty lonely, especially the interns for whom that is their first time away from home. That is the impression they all gave me. \n That is one thing I didn't see you mention in your advice. When we visited, the people there were so happy to see a face from back home, we spent a significant amount of time just making small talk about our homes and lives. Normal Southern stuff. So every time I went back to D.C., I stopped by those offices again. Fresh faces were there every time, but it was fun. \n \"Good morning. Do you have an appointment or a message for Senator/Representative?\" \n \"Nope. Just in town and thought you'd like to see a friendly face.\" \n It was fun because those kids so obviously had to deal with other people contacting them to vent and complain, when we showed up and introductions were finished, they used us to vent and complain. That first visit was in 2004, so almost ten years ago now, but I can't imagine much has changed. Sweet tea and gossip. \n That is the only thing I'd add to your post here. Those folks deal with so much crap on a daily basis, even crazy conspiracy stuff like in my initial post, but at the end of the day they aren't your enemy. They're (you're) our neighbors, and they're people, and they have feelings. \n So that is about it. Sorry for the sarcastic post earlier, it was meant to be funny. If anyone is ever in D.C., I'd suggest they stop by and see you guys. Not to talk about politics, but to give someone a friendly face to talk to about back home, and then get one of those passes to get into the chambers and see floor debate when they're in session.", "id": "c87hx0r", "summary": "Be nice or leave.]("}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "Okay, so you've been paying attention through this thread, right? It should be relatively easy to see from that info contributed by me and others that a person growing up in this situation never grows up having a healthy female relationship. It is like \"daddy issues,\" but for guys. They're called \"mommy issues.\" \n Here you have someone who is supposed to love you unconditionally, yet deliberately does things that they know will hurt you emotionally. Even after you share your feelings and ask them to stop, they show a complete lack of concern for your feelings. They will crush your soul in order to give themselves a moment of happiness. It is basically the opposite of Adam Sandler's speech at the end of Big Daddy. \n So that taints future relationships. You worry if the person you're with really likes you. You start worrying about when things will fall apart and the person will do something to hurt you. Everyone feels anxiety about these things, naturally. But for kids who grow up like this, the anxiety is much more deeply rooted and takes much longer to get over. FSM forbid one of your really formative romantic relationships turns out poorly and reinforces everything negative that you've learned up to that point. \n So for my brother, he tends to keep women around as girlfriends but refuses to commit. He does not want to get stuck with someone who is going to make his life miserable. Even if he has been with someone for a couple years, even if he knows she is in love with him, he won't commit. His last girlfriend left him because of it. \n For me, I generally want commitment. I'll do anything to make someone happy, but that comes off as needy. Women identify this, some after a couple weeks, some after a couple months, and they're gone. It is scary as hell to women for the same reason a woman who has daddy issues is scary to a man. Basically, the other person is looking for validation from a romantic partner that they only could have gotten from a nurturing parent. I figured that out first hand several years ago. A man with some mommy issues and a young woman with some daddy issues. It made for a fun time, but when it fell apart it do so spectacularly.", "id": "c6a84sg", "summary": "Go to /r/relationships and you could probably read a lot about this. We're basically just a bunch of emotionally scarred primates running around spiteful and distrustful of one another romantically because we were fucked up as children by our moms and dads. So we run around reinforcing that bullshit. \"Don't stick your dick in crazy,\" or, \"Don't let crazy stick its dick in you.\" And then from either side, what is the reply? \"But they're all crazy...\" Some people end up just running around selfishly using one another for pleasure. Others end up removing themselves from that chaos entirely."}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "Dude, it was the 4th of July in New Orleans. First of all, this isn't exactly a protest town. Even if there are a bunch of liberals in the city, they're probably mostly hipsters and they're not going to want to protest their messiah. Safe bet is that they're all off somewhere eating pancakes with nutella. Second of all, it is hot as balls. Third of all, Essence Fest is in town. Unless you live in the CBD, Warehouse District, or Quarter, if you're a local you're not likely to go downtown for anything this week.", "id": "cawl5cy", "summary": "Ain't nobody got time for that."}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "A Starfleet admiral, after being frightened by the events of the 2009 film which included the planet Vulcan being destroyed, believes that war with the Klingons is inevitable. He does not wish for Earth to be destroyed like Earth's biggest ally in the galaxy, so he forms a plan. \n Section 31, a shadowy intelligence operation with a black budget and navy all its own, is formed. That admiral also taps genetically engineered super humans in order to exploit their intellect and ruthlessness and better position Starfleet in said inevitable war. He taps into some dark shit, violates every principle he should have as a Starfleet admiral, because he is scared and thinks humanity itself is on the line. \n This backfires. He cannot control the darkness that he has unleashed. His brilliant plan to quell the uprising is to kill off the genetically engineered humans in an illegal strike against a neighboring faction, which will also provide a casus belli for total war as he has sabotaged Starfleet's flagship so that she and her crew will be annihilated by the \"enemy.\" Thanks to the suspicions of a chief engineer who was willing to resign his post on principle, and a man who was himself a victim of a nearly successful genocide yet remains steadfast to his own principles, the Captain of the sacrificial starship is apprehensive about his morally questionable mission and adjusts his strategy as a result. \n Sadly, this adjusted strategy operates on the assumption that the admiral in question has some sort of fealty to the guiding principles of the organization to which he belongs, the one in which he is the senior commander. This is a horrible miscalculation. The admiral is beyond saving. He has gone too far into the darkness. Not only is he willing to sacrifice his service's flagship to start a war, but he is willing to pull the trigger himself. He is willing to personally execute an entire ship's compliment to keep Section 31's secrets and start his war. \n But the darkness is unleashed. It cannot be controlled, not even by the man who commissioned it in the first place. It overtakes him, it destroys him in front of his own kin, the person for whom he was motivated into compromising his principles in the first place. Then the darkness continues. It consumes everything. It continues to the planet he wished to save, aiming to essentially destroy it from within. This darkness that was unleashed in order to protect Earth is now going to destroy Earth. No battle, just destruction. Destruction at the hands of its supposed savior and with the arms of its own protectors. \n All is nearly lost. The darkness almost consumes Starfleet and Earth. Seeing the destruction on Earth and the damage to the Enterprise, it very nearly consumes the officers of our hero ship, the ones who were so steadfastly dedicated to their principles earlier. They are compromised. Our captain's best friend is consumed by anger. He witnessed the genocide of his people. He witnessed the destruction of his ship. He witnessed the wielding of his savior's, humanity's, strongest ship against itself. The darkness consumes even him, as he proceeds to attempt to murder a subdued and unconscious enemy. \n Then he is walked back from the edge. All is not lost, after all. There is hope for his friend. There is hope for humanity. There is hope for Starfleet. \n This is the movie that I saw, in spite of all the explosions and in spite of the callback to a villain from TOS. In the movie I saw, Khan wasn't even the villain. Marcus wasn't even the villain. The villain is mentioned in the title of the film, and is described in the closing scene by the film's hero.", "id": "cc2tnrz", "summary": "The only people \"getting derailed with all the Khan crap\" are butthurt fans who apparently need to be bludgeoned over the head with plot themes in order to know that they exist."}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "I once encountered on I-75 south of Atlanta an idiot driving like an asshole. He rolled up on me doing about 90 in a 70. I was in the left lane passing traffic to the right, and so continued my passing maneuver until I had space to return to the right lane to allow the faster moving vehicle to pass. \n Guy had no patience. Flashing blinkers, tailgating, middle finger waving, everything. He passes, and I see he has tags that indicate he's a member of the general assembly in Georgia. \n I write down the tag info, then call the office of the chairperson (I think it was a woman) of the ethics committee in the state house. A staffer picks up. Turns out, the number on the tag indicates the district of the rep or senator. Staffer asks if I'm in front of a computer. I say yes. He tells me to google the rep for that district. Sure enough, I see the smiling face of the dickbag driver. \n Staffer asks me the date of the encounter in question. I tell him. Turns out, the general assembly was in session. That day I learned people in the general assembly get those plates because they rate driving like douchebags. When they're in session, apparently they're permitted to speed and break other traffic laws.", "id": "cb46b3a", "summary": "All animals are equal. Some animals are more equal than others. \n That incident happened back in 2006. I have no idea whether or not the laws are the same in that state. The moral of the story is that government officials are sometimes exempted from certain laws. It wouldn't surprise me if this judge is permitted to park wherever the hell he likes, especially when he has cases on the docket that day. Walk an additional 100'? Ain't nobody got time for that."}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "They're poorly produced in a couple of ways. The first is that they're long as hell and basically just feature a person looking into a camera while complaining about things. That format blows whether you're talking about a confused feminist or a confused reactionary conservative. \n The second way in which it is poorly produced is that it is obviously not very well researched. There are plenty of rebuttal videos on YouTube, so I won't go into detail. The", "id": "c91tlw0", "summary": "version is that there are examples within the very games she cites to support her thesis that would refute her thesis. \n The ultimate problem is confirmation bias. \"I believe video games do all these bad things. Now if you give me enough money, I'll sit around and research video games so I can tell you how and why they do these bad things.\""}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "I had an incident a couple years ago in which I was given a ticket for running a red light. The light was yellow when I entered the intersection, so the ticket was bogus. The cop admitted the light was yellow when I entered the intersection at the time that I was given the citation. I explained to him what the law was, but he stuck to his guns and told me that if I thought I was right, I could have my day in court. \n Well, I'm a stubborn bastard and I knew I was right because I had the state law explained to me by several police officers from multiple different departments. He was wrong, I was right. Well the days leading up to that court appearance, where I defended myself, were some of the most nervous days of my life. Had he consulted with a superior or a knowledgable fellow officer, he would have been corrected. Who is to say that after being corrected, he wouldn't have simply changed his story? \n I won the case and was found not guilty. He explained his \"yellow means slow down\" BS to the judge, something that is not found anywhere in the statutes, and when I cross examined him, he admitted the light was yellow when I entered the intersection. Instead of ending it then, I moved to enter satellite imagery from Google Earth into evidence. I asked the officer if he could draw on the image the location of my vehicle at each stage of the light:  green, yellow, red. I wanted this in evidence in case I had to appeal. The judge told me that he found me not guilty a while ago and that I was free to leave. \n It was pretty satisfying. The best part was watching him walk to his patrol vehicle in the parking lot looking dejected. Then I realized all of this would have changed if he had remembered the incident, checked his notes, and conferred with a fellow officer. Had he walked into that courtroom and said he observed the light turn red before I entered the intersection, I would have been absolutely fucked. My word against his. \n That is why from now on, if I get a ticket like this, I'm going to let the officer operate under his deficient knowledge. I do not, under any circumstances, want to correct that officer. He might realize his mistake and decide to lie in court.", "id": "c7fo11j", "summary": "Don't tell an officer why he's wrong. He might realize he's wrong and change his story in court, thanks to your helpful advice."}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "I'm pretty sure I got the same sampler pack when I first started. What I did wrong was make the mistake of trying the Feather too early. \n What happened was that I did a couple of the Derby's, including the ones that came with my DE89LB, and found that they tugged and gave me irritation. So I went with the Feather thinking I was good by that point, about a month in. Turned out I was afraid of the Feather because of all the hype on here about them being the sharpest out there, and never got a good shave. \n Later on in the pack, I got good shaves from pretty much all of those blades. I don't recall any others standing out as much as the Derby's as either incredibly bad or good. \n I ended up getting a 100 pack of Astra SPs. I'm probably 15 blades into that thing, and I find myself often wondering what the Feathers would have done me had I waited until I was a little more experienced. One of these days I'll buy the pack of 10 for $4.50 on Amazon and figure it out, but right now I'm branching out into trying new soaps.", "id": "caqwjit", "summary": "My advice would be to wait to try the Feather if you're worried about its reputation for sharpness. A month or two should be good. At least until you're solidly comfortable with DE shaving."}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "Policy is DoD wide. Has been for over a decade now, at least. You cannot enlist in order to defer punishment levied by civilian criminal courts. \n Judges only give out this option because a lot of them were around long before this was explicitly prohibited. They don't know that they're doing something against the rules. If the judge does put it in writing, some recruiters won't touch that applicant. Those are the types of recruiters who don't make mission. Recruiters who make mission will improvise when it comes to the paperwork, and hope the applicant doesn't allegate when they get to MEPS.", "id": "cc6k6mp", "summary": "It happens, but it is illegal."}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "I was in the Marine Corps. That service is America's expeditionary force in readiness. Thousands upon thousands of us float around on boats all around the world ready to do violence on the enemies of our country. Training, or if you prefer, brainwashing, makes Marines hungry for conflict. We want to spread hate and discontent to the people who wish us harm. We want to kill bodies. The average Marine thinks the only thing those Devil Dogs who pissed on taliban meat sacks did wrong was tape public urination. \n Glory. Duty. Battle. All this stuff is great. But watch the next time a tsunami or an earthquake or a civil war pops off. Guess which bloodthirsty killers of the American empire are the first to take their machines of war and turn them into machines of hope and compassion. All the fucking bullshit goes away when people need help after a natural disaster, and you've got young motivators who are trained to kill handing out bottles of water and meals, ready to eat. \n Do we believe we're better than everyone just because of where we're from? Not really. We're better because of our beliefs and our actions. We get shit on all the time for being world police. But who else is going to do it? Not you. We step away, the Russians or the Chinese step up. I doubt you'd prefer living in a world in which those guys possessed the best hand at the table. \n So we do it. Western European nations have comfortable welfare states only because they know they don't have to spend on defense. American taxpayers subsidize your lifestyles by giving you the ability to pay for social welfare instead of defense. And in exchange, we get shit on. Constantly. Even if the Russians or the Chinese didn't step up, and Europe had to fend for itself, how long do you think your union would last? How long do you think it would take before that union fractures and you pricks are back starting another world war? \n So you shit on us. We just march forward. If an earthquake or something hits your country, we'll retask that vast war machine that you hate with a mission of providing assistance. And you'll take our aid. And you'll enjoy our aid. And you'll appreciate the assistance we provide, and you'll secretly, in private, admit that you're glad we were there to help. \n You know what? If something catastrophic happened to us, we'd do the same damn thing. So would you guys. You don't have the same resources, but Europe would step up to help. When I was in the Horn of Africa nine years ago, I didn't know what to think of the French. They declined to be a part of the coalition of the willing, and folks back home were running around renaming dishes made with fried potatoes. But every single French person that I met was amazing. They thought our decision makers were fucking up, but we shared meals, shared a rugby pitches, and shared our common humanity. Years later when I watched my city flood after the levees failed, the French were one of the first to commit their military assets to provide assistance. [This shit]( makes me misty eyed.", "id": "cbbo0fz", "summary": "Yeah you right. We think we are better than you. You think you are better than us. But when bad shit happens, we drop everything and help one another because, regardless of what little things we think make us better than one another, we have more things in common than anything else. In the long run, that is probably the best we can hope for. \n Apologies for the wall of text. I've had a couple servings of what you'd call piss water in a can, and what we'd call beer. 4.5% is greater than zero, so enough over time and they still might have an impact. We're not on metric, but I think the math checks out."}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "I do not see how your first point works against me. As you said, two of the most significant anti-gay laws were passed right at the end of TNG and the beginning of DS9 and VOY. Not getting involved in the issue during that time would appear to me to be exactly what I said:  Not taking the lead on the issue. The passage of anti-gay measures persisted a decade later in 2004 and 2006 when the GOP used gay marriage prohibitions on state level ballots in order to turn out the conservative vote. It worked, and it is only now, ten years later, that it appears we are seeing the backlash against that. \n I think these things would have happened regardless of whether Star Trek took up the issue. While I think it is appropriate to be disappointed twenty years later when looking back on all those episodes and seeing the issue ignored, I do not think it is appropriate to go beyond that disappointment regardless of what Roddenberry wanted. It just seems like Monday morning quarterbacking to me, or Sunday morning presidenting, whatever. Berman ignores the issue but the series persists to great commercial success? Years later we end up looking at the show we loved being behind the curve on an important issue and missing an opportunity to make a positive impact on our society. Berman decides to take up the issue by making a gay person a part of the main cast and the series then fails? Years later we end up looking at him as the idiot trying to fill shoes twelve sizes too large who lost us Trek. \n Perhaps you are closer to the issue than I am. Or perhaps you have the perspective of seeing the impact of TOS while it was on air. I just see it as more of a disappointing lost opportunity rather than an abandonment of the Trek we love.", "id": "cpqtkym", "summary": "I think I agree in principle to what everyone here is saying, just not in extent or severity."}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "The man looking down the barrel is military trained, and had opened up the action completely. He was checking the barrel to make sure it was clear. This is how you fucking do it. \n If that is how the British trains its military, no wonder they needed the Americans to save them twice. \n >", "id": "c8t1z3b", "summary": "The rule is to always assume guns are loaded, unless you've checked yourself. \n [That is not the rule.]( You and your yokel friends are giving people horrible advice that is going to result in someone having an ND."}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "The Battle for Iwo Jima was far from finished when that photo was taken. IIRC, it lasted for at least another 30 days. Three in the picture died on that island. The other three went on a tour in CONUS to sell war bonds. \n One was a Pima. He died drunk and alone on a roadside out west. Our country failed him. Another lived an average life but always aspired to more. He died inauspiciously. The last one, the Corpsman, he went on to be an undertaker. He lived a good life and raised a good family. \n The one thing that anyone who reads that book should remember is that even for the man, John Bradley, whose life turned out to be a \"success,\" the war never ended. That is the one theme that you would find in every single life story of the men pictured on that boat. Their war wasn't over when that ship sailed into harbor. It never ended. \n Murica and all that. In spite all of our faults, so long as we have men like those and [these]( who fought on Iwo Jima, this country will endure. \n \n Four paragraphs, but I think a pretty good", "id": "cecsu8p", "summary": "for a book that every patriot should take the time to read."}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "I've sued a police department before for a civil rights violation. \n \n The officers will hate you because they think you are questioning their ability to do their job. In my case, they weren't deliberately abusive. It was a question of law, who was on the right side of it, so it was mostly cordial. \n \n In the case recounted in this story, I would hope that dashcam video was taken. She should have contacted an attorney immediately and requested this footage. There should be evidence to corroborate her story, and it should be requested by her attorneys. \n \n Police departments don't put out a BOLO for people who sue their departments. If anything, they handle those people with kid gloves because they know if anything goes wrong, litigation will follow. Basically, what you've explained is the opposite of what I experienced. They're overly cautious until the courts rule on the issue. \n \n In my suit, I got about $900. The attorney got much more, but I didn't have to pay anything out of pocket. He represented me pro bono. Many attorneys are willing to do this. If they believe in your cause, they'll represent you. If they lose, they're out of pocket for billable hours. If they win, they get their billable hours. \n \n \n For me it was a win win. I lost on two of the three counts in the lawsuit, but the state General Assembly changed the law, rallied around my example as a case study, so that what happened to me could never happen again. So I ended up winning in the end. The other side lost nothing. They just have to obey the laws passed by the legislature, which is their job in the first place. I wouldn't call that losing. \n In this woman's case, whether she wins or not is irrelevant. It would lend more credence to her story if she recounted it under oath in a deposition. People tell stories on the internet. I know, right? Who would go on the internet and just lie? But bringing a case forward, giving your account under penalty of perjury, gives it weight. Even if you are ruled against for some reason, you gave your story to the court. You gave it under penalty of perjury. So people are more likely to take your account as truth. \n The victim in this story could do this. Her story could be a huge deal. There are no shortage of organizations willing to represent her free of cost. Even if she loses the case, she won't lose any money. And hopefully, her case will be similar to mine. If that department doesn't have dashcams, they'll install them to avoid future litigation. She'll make a positive impact.", "id": "c8tnaw7", "summary": "Winning or losing a lawsuit isn't the whole shebang."}, {"author": "ls1z28chris", "content": "In the earlier grades, we got bused to a different school one day a week for the gifted class. We worked on critical thinking, logic puzzles, and problem solving. It wasn't a chance to get away from bullies. It was a chance to get away from retards who were holding us back. \"Your platoon is only as fast as your slowest Marine.\" Well, they put all us fast ones in one room for one day a week, and we had a good time. Nothing more complicated than that. \n In high school it was one period. It wasn't as big a deal. Mostly creative and artsy stuff. Incredibly boring, and I felt it wasn't really worth the time. By the time you reach that level, there are electives and AP core classes that you can take if you want to challenge yourself. So honestly, and this may be dated because I graduated 11 years ago, gifted classes at the high school level seem unnecessary. Specialty schools for art or science seem much more useful. \n I agree, though, on people making the false assumption that a single experience is representative. From my experience, it all depends on your definition of success. The most \"successful\" people I know, in conventional terms, are high achieving morons. High expectation having, socially adept idiots are the people who I know that have gotten married, had kids, and secured good employment. Are they happy? Who the fuck knows. We aren't in our 30s yet. If the statistics are accurate, half of them will be divorced and miserable before we get to our 20 year renunion (that no one will attend). \n Even this is kind of a poor way to put things. Bringing it back to the point I made at the end of my second paragraph, specialized schools would be more appropriate. If reddit has a problem with \"gifted\" kids because they think it is just a label people use to pat themselves on the back, then they should get fucked. People use labels all the time to make themselves feel better. AP courses. The universities they attended. The companies for which they work. All of this is just the same bullshit status consciousness that exists everywhere else. Yeah, it was called the \"gifted program,\" but it was basically just a bunch of kids learning in a different way at a different place. Big fucking deal. \n If the concern, though, is with education, then the problem is with our education system. People learn in different ways. Gifted programs allow kids who are analytical and learn through hands on experience to flourish. The sad part about this is not that kids in gifted classes want to pat themselves on the back, but that our education system classifies people as gifted, special needs, or average. You have to be on the margins on one end or the other, or else you get the industrial sit-behind-a-desk-and-do-make-work-bullshit-all-day-long-memorize-test type of education. \n The thing is, this makes me think of the George Carlin bit. Education sucks in this country because we need obedient workers. Special consideration is given to the slow, not out of compassion, but because we want to find a way to make them function in society as best as possible before writing them off to whatever we call contemporary sanitariums. Special consideration is given to the quick, not out of compassion, but because they don't want people to come and rock the boat because they're dissatisfied with the system. Everyone else, they're just pushed out of the machine as obedient workers. A house, a mortgage, two cars, a spouse, and 2.5 kids. \n Even these arguments are pointless.  Divide et impera.  People learn differently. We shouldn't be fighting against one another. We should be fighting against the government run schools that are responsible for classifying us as either retarded, gifted, or average. Let us learn as we wish, play to our talents, flourish as we desire. We should do that instead of spitefully antagonizing one another. \n You asked if other schools were different, so there it is. My experience, and my opinion.", "id": "c9tbjie", "summary": "Our education system blows. \"Gifted\" people shouldn't be fighting with \"average\" people. We should all be fighting for an education system that recognizes each student has different abilities and talents, and permits each of them to succeed based on those factors."}]}
+{"author": "lolgrim", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post You're dying. Slowly. \n edit: spelling derp", "output": "the youngest I'll ever be again \n Meaning, right now, you will never again be this young - and after reading this, you've aged, and cannot ever be as young as you were when you first started reading this. \n Basically, this Philosoraptor just throws your aging into sharp contrast, since it's assumed most people don't consider their own mor t ality everyday."}], "user_id": "longlamp_12275", "history": [{"author": "lolgrim", "content": "Again, you're completely ignoring the logic fallacies abound in your chosen examples, none of which acknowledge the simple fact that  properties of the part cannot automatically be applied to the whole . Let's try again: \n \n This clock contains gears. \n Gears are round. \n This clock is round. \n \n If I am referring to a grandfather clock, then no, the clock is, in fact, not round, but rather rectangular. Additionally, if the gears were said to be metal, but the clock, as a whole, made of wood, it would be  logically  incorrect to say that the entire clock is made of metal, or even that every part of the clock is made of wood.", "id": "c12629z", "summary": "Believe in your God as much as you want, but stop trying to support it with  logic . Specifically, stop using  fallible logic . Accept that your faith is exactly that, faith, and not something that can be, or is even meant to be,  logically  or  factually  absolute."}, {"author": "lolgrim", "content": "This is how I've been ever since I reset my stats. It's a simple matter of, \"this situation is pretty crappy, but I'm still a BAMF\". \n If the game is that far gone and my noobmates won't concede, I'll try to see how long I can farm jungle before they start to hunt me. I've actually done that once, with Legion and a well-used PK, to the point where I was almost able to flip the game with the jungle farm I started netting. It was pretty intense.", "id": "c1cfxja", "summary": "this article is completely right - as long as you rage, the game will not be fun and there's no point in playing it. And never say \"everyone rages\", because that's not true either. Find your  zen ."}, {"author": "lolgrim", "content": "I fully agree - you can't generalize race, but you can sure as shit generalize douchebags. There will  always  be a significant difference in personal presentation, manners, and even hygiene between [this black guy]( and [these black guys]( \n I'm a minority college student, and the only reason I ever tip lowly is simply because  I can't afford to . This is usually the case when I eat out on gift cards from relatives because I have no other food. And, even so, I treat my server with the utmost respect, as I do with any other person I encounter - if they're rude, I simply request a new one from management and suggest that they look into that server's disposition. And if I have a great server, I tip whatever I can. If it's small, I write out a note on the back of the receipt explaining that I loved their service and will probably be back because of them, but that I'm short on cash.", "id": "c12x5mp", "summary": "It's about CLASS, not race."}, {"author": "lolgrim", "content": "I went against 3 different decks (2 versions of Caw-Go, 1 random GW thing) that sided Warder. I just don't trust Blighsteel unless he's the focal point of the deck because he's really easy to remove (or control, if the enemy's deck is so inclined). \n Pyroclasm, to each his own. I put more faith in Slagstorm, if you really want that red removal, and if you're doing it specifically against KR (which is really the only deck against which you'd need turn-2 weenie-wiping), I'd side it. For what, I really don't know, because I haven't tried my hand at T2 B/U control.", "id": "c1jqyi9", "summary": "I feel like you should focus on that aspect rather than being spread over multiple win-cons, specifically because B/U's strongest aspect is it's ability to control hard and keep Tezz around for face-raping. \n Ninja-edit: speaking of proliferation, board control, and artifacts - why no Lux Cannons? Reusable, cheaper Spines."}, {"author": "lolgrim", "content": "I have one for this, it's one of my favorite \"welcome to D&D\" memories. \n I was DM'ing for some friends who were pretty new to D&D, and we were going through The  Sunless Citadel  campaign as a starter for our adventure. To help set the scene for anyone not familiar, the citadel is a fortress sunken into the earth, currently being fought over by kobolds and goblins who reside there. \n The  mostly-Good  party was looking for some lost human adventurers in the dungeon, and helping out the kobolds, they are told that the humans were taken by the goblins. The party proceeds to head towards what they presume is the goblin stronghold, and as they pass a set of large double doors, I inform them that they hear \"the sounds of many goblins from within\", giving them phrases like \"pass me the food\", \"drop that\" and \"go away, I'm sleeping\".  I expected them to try to find another way around - I was  wrong . \n The party realizes they have  a large cask of oil from a store room, and a torch . Using caltrops, they poke a hole in the cask, and use the bard's Unseen Servant to sneak the cask into the room, without looking inside. As soon as they hear goblins inside react to the casks's presence, they light the oil trail it left behind, creating a kind of  makeshift napalm . \n From the fiery ruins of the door, I tell them that they see about 38 goblins inside of the large room - and of those 38, about 6 are combatants. The rest are comprised of  children, elderly, sickly, infirm, and cowardly . \n The looks on their faces as their expressions went from \"woo, dead goblins!\" to \"...we set children on fire?\" is something I will never forget. Of course, shortly after, the remaining goblin combatants came running out, and the parting reacted to them by casting entangling them all, and then slowly  coup-de-grace 'ing each one, so there's also that.", "id": "cnxk4tm", "summary": "Good party told by kobolds that goblins have their friends, party proceeds to accidentally set a small goblin village on far with homemade napalm, burning children and elderly to death, then killing their leaders; kobolds now run the place."}, {"author": "lolgrim", "content": "else you'd see that at no point have I leveraged criticism at Halo.\n>>...is a sign to me of a focus on producing simply for the sake of selling a product rather than developing any sort of artistic quality in the game. \n So either you believe that a product (in this case, the Halo series) can be well-developed, aesthetically-appealing, fun, challenging, and almost emotionally-satisfying as any book or piece of artwork, even though subsequent marketed improvements/continuations of said product are close in terms of time... or you're a hypocrite. \n Personally, I've read through this entire discussion (and the other one with that one fellow), and I find cynicism to be your primary source of information. While the games were released relatively quickly, you also have to consider the time frame in which they were developed. Sure, there were massive gaps in the development of the  Super Mario Bros.  games, but those were also initiated from back in 1985 until now. By your logic, the 3 most recent titles (Galaxy, Galaxy 2, and New) should be terrible and only done for the sake of milking the franchise - those three titles were released in only 4 years (2007-2010), with the last two being barely a year apart. \n The time it takes to develop a fully-functional, satisfying video game is no longer innately grand. Portal, for example, took only 2 years to develop (it began with a group of students in 2005 and was released in 2007) - and yet it is one of the most critically-acclaimed, albeit short, FPS's available today.", "id": "c11knpw", "summary": "I read your stuff, and I think you're wrong anyway."}, {"author": "lolgrim", "content": "The problem is that, going by just those lists, you have about 5 different cards to use - which totals to about 20 cards overall, assuming you run a playset of each. While this sounds all well and good, it's highly unlikely you'll draw  all 20  of them in a single game, but it's very likely that they'll still have enough lands left over after you run your enchantments to play regardless. \n Additionally, while these are all relatively cheap cards, unless your other 20 cards (again, assuming you're running ~20 lands) are an impeccable mixture of control and lategame beaters, you'll find yourself losing after turn 6-7 (again, assuming you've drawn a significant amount of enchants in order to stall them that long).", "id": "c1db7ku", "summary": "It doesn't sound like a very good idea. If you're going to do mana-denial, go red and/or black so you can [all-out destroy lands]( or [force them to sacrifice lands]( And, of course, there's [always Manabarbs]("}, {"author": "lolgrim", "content": "My point was this: modify = good, change completely = bad. You market a game as a \"Dota-clone\", you'll get (1) a lot of DotA-players and (2) a few new people. Then, when the DotA-players realize you dun goofed their game, they'll rage about it and give it crap reviews. These reviews then deter the otherwise uninterested players who were just going to try it because they heard good things about it.", "id": "c10vb1w", "summary": "Don't call a game a DotA-clone when it's not."}, {"author": "lolgrim", "content": "I fail to understand the massive \"OMG THEY DIDN'T JUST DO THAT\" with this soundpack. \n Personally, I find that kind of shit hilarious. Not because a person is gay (why the hell would you laugh at a sexuality?), but because that presence of tone is just humorous to me. Similarly, when I see a group of young Hispanics rolling out in a low-rider, all wearing wife-beaters and tossing around 'slang' like \"ese\", I don't immediately call up my local Hispanic community leader with a complaint. I smirk, because it's funny to me - stereotypes wouldn't exist if the people who live under them didn't. \n Should I be offended that those young people are misrepresenting my culture? No, why? Do all Jamaican-American or African-American people get pissed at hoodrats and rap-gangstas on TV? Do all European people get pissed at racist Bible-thumping southerners? Do all Chinese people get pissed at creepy subway rapists in Japan? \n Probably not, because it's not their culture. The rainbow lettering  is  fucked up, because that's S2 taking a clear symbol of LGBT pride and smearing it across the screen as a derogatory statement. Should the rest of the pack be left as-is? Why the fuck not? \n How does \"CHERRY POPPER~!\" even remotely relate to homosexuality (and I'm assuming we're referring to gay men)? Or \"THREE WAY\"? And furthermore, aren't you all doing injustice to men who simply talk like that, assuming that they're all gay? How about metrosexuals who just like to look and act a certain way - or how about people who  just talk like that ? \n If S2 released a spanish-themed pack saying things, \"MIRALO, CONYO!\" for First Blood, or \"TODOS SE ROMPIERON\" for Genocide, and it had a clearly-Mexican twang to it, I'd be cracking the fuck up. Why should I be offended by something so damned small?", "id": "c18kwnw", "summary": "Put more points into Slab Skin and less into Sonar Scream, and learn to take a fucking joke. There are way, way more important things to be spending your time and effort on. Also, S2, the rainbow lettering is tactless as fuck, change it. \n Note: I'm Spanish, Puerto Rican specifically, hence the use of Hispanic-things. \n Edit : [Read what Raiden has to say.]("}, {"author": "lolgrim", "content": "To be fair, the feeling tends to be mutual - a lot of women will be \"disappointed\" by a guy's first performance simply because he didn't bring them to orgasm in the right way, missed \"the spot\", or whatever. As with every single person, the experience will differ - everyone has a different body, different feelings, different desires.", "id": "c162rhz", "summary": "SEX IS A COOPERATIVE THING - SAY OUT LOUD HOW YOU WANT IT, AND YOU'LL PROBABLY GET IT."}, {"author": "lolgrim", "content": "Still, I hope they give Flux a little more thought than just another Chronos. Like poor Gladiator, who still has no story. \n Edit : I just reread the Savage lore, and ironically, while it talks about Humanity slowly recovering lost technology, it seems that it's the Hellbourne who consistently shows actually use of 'high-science' objects (in HoN). Repulsor's contraption, Electrician's vat, even Chronos' body. If we count Chipper's contraption and Engineer's Energy Field as being on the same level of tech as the rest, then that leaves the Legion down 2-3. They also have less STR heroes than the Hellbourne.", "id": "c1s70mu", "summary": "I think Flux is going to be Legion."}, {"author": "lolgrim", "content": "Whenever I play Witch Slayer (which is often, since he's my favorite support hero), once I have a Bottle (or Chalice/Battery), Ghosts (or Striders if it's a crappy game), and a couple of other small items, I'm basically farmed. Luxury for me becomes Spellshards and SotM. \n The reason support-oriented heroes are expected to ward/courier is because typically the carries and semi-carries (at least the ones who are melee-based) need the extra gold to be  relevant . If I'm babysitting a Sand Wraith, I'm not going to expect him to ward everywhere - my job is to make sure he gets as fat as possible, as soon as possible, to rape the other team's face. I can spend the extra 100g and ~20sec it takes to ward, because  he  needs the farm a lot more than I do. \n Now, later in the game, when everyone's ganking and the 'laning' phase is basically over, sure, the rest of the team can help ward and such. But early game farm and item choice is crucial for any hero even remotely able to remain useful late game - and you cannot possibly believe that the support heroes have the same usefulness later on. The enemy can get one Shrunken Head, and I'm suddenly useless - however, the Sand Wraith that I babysit before is now nearly invincible and can single-handedly drop half of their team without hitting red.", "id": "c1chfff", "summary": "Roles are important, and if you don't want to play your role, don't pick that hero."}, {"author": "lolgrim", "content": "A 'Mitchell'-hopeful here, wishing you the best of tidings and kudos on having a Mitchell. \n My 'zorb' isn't in the same physical situation as you are, but a lot of times, her emotional stress is glaringly apparent and painful. I try my damndest to make her day just a little better, and from what I assume is Mitchell's perspective, I can assure you of this: \n Your smile is the greatest thanks you can ever give . \n In all seriousness, nothing makes my day brighter than an action I undertook generating a smile from her. It's not to say that failure to do so leaves me crestfallen, but her beaming face  is  one massive, beautiful 'thank you'. \n Here I list the obligatory blowjob/dinner/massage (not necessarily in that order, of course), but honestly, that's just delicious icing on the cake.", "id": "c125088", "summary": "Good luck, and glad to see someone deserving has the right person for them."}]}
+{"author": "Astridasteroid", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post my Hispanic husband's brothers are coming here soon and he wants to help them but I can't deal with living with a whole slew of people (I really just want to live with him, myself, and our kids!!!); can a Hispanic person give me insight on how his family is going to think of me if we don't help his brothers with housing or money?? Have any other gringas been through this??", "output": "I've come on here before whining about this. My husband [30M] has 5 siblings. 1 is here, as is his dad, and 2 are making the trek very soon (if you know what I mean). Once they get here, I think there's an expectation for my husband to help - either monetarily or house wise. \n The problem is, he and I go to closing on our very first home next month. Our townhome is 1080 sq feet and the rooms are small. Plus, we have two young daughters. \n I grew up an only child, in a single family home, with just my mom and dad. Never once did we ever house a relative of any type. I didn't have any friends who housed relatives either - it's just not what we did in 80s/90s America. I am having the absolute toughest time in the world dealing with this. \n On one hand, I don't want to feel like a horrible bitch. I don't want my husband's family to hate me. But I am  not  comfortable living with relatives. Even if they were my relatives I couldn't do it. Back in his country, they lived 12 in one home. Here his dad and bro live with bro's wife, their kid, and used to live with her cousin - but now don't. They're all Hispanic and from the same country and they're used to living like that. \n I think his brother here asked if we were going to house one of them and my husband made an excuse that we are moving too far away (we will be ~6 miles away, but in an area that is 80% housing developments - we are moving from a city more central to jobs and transportation - which is where his bro lives now), and he can't drive back and forth daily because of his work schedule. \n Anyway idk what to do. I  do not  want to live with either of them. If they were facing homelessness we'd take them in. But they're not. I also am worried my husband is going to be supporting them financially - which, whatever. He sends money back home to his mom and aunt every month. He also has a job (so do I) and all of our bills are paid on time. But moving into this new place - we'll be paying at least an extra $400/mo in new bills/mortgage. So while money isn't going to be absent, it's going to be tighter than usual. \n I really don't want his family to hate me, especially because we spent 2 1/2 years apart and I went bankrupt trying to get him back here legally (he has a 10 year green card now) -- why wouldn't they see that and appreciate that and  not  be like \"omg what a bitch that she doesn't want to house our brothers wtf\"???"}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post my husband won't let me go back for my Masters. Am I in the wrong or is he?", "output": "I've got 2 Bachelors and 32k worth of student loan debt. We have 2 kids. My husband doesn't even have a high school diploma (not interested in getting a GED either). We have a mortgage and car loans to pay on. We're both full time employed, and our babysitting is cheap (thankfully!!! -- $300/2 weeks). \n I feel stuck in  my career and I'm quickly falling out of love with it. I don't want to be an admin assistant for life, so, I'm toying with getting an MS in Forensic Science as I've always wanted to be a homicide detective but I hate exercise so me being a cop -> HD isn't an option. \n My husband is adamant that I not return to get my MS. But I am jonesing so hard to go back. I miss college. I miss learning. \n I should note that I'm a pretty shushly individual (shushly meaning fidgety or like, always obsessed with something for 3 days then moving on -- like inattentive or unfocused). I go through periods where I want a different new thing every 2 or 3 weeks. Cars are an obsession of mine - I'll get on a hook where I research all local dealers, try to appraise my car, do the math, obsess over it, transfer loans for lower APR, etc etc and just like that, the obsession is gone and redirected toward something else. \n Anyway, I digress. He is adamant that I not go back to school. How the hell do I convince him otherwise? It'd only add another like 25k to my student loan debt - so who cares?? It's not like you have to pay it all back at once."}], "user_id": "longlamp_585", "history": [{"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "Man I was diagnosed by a therapist back in 2005. I guess she saw the history of cutting, impulsive behaviour and spending, rapid speech, etc etc and put a label on it (bipolar NOS). After her, probably 3 psychs and another therapist labeled me the same BP nos/hypomanic. \n I went into therapy because I was really clingy in relationships. I cut myself a lot whenever I felt rejected (all the time). I made dangerous choices (drinking, drugs, driving). Had multiple sex partners in a short period of time, etc etc. I think the icing on the cake was me breaking up a marriage by sleeping with some chick's husband for a month. \n I've been on all kinds of mood stabilizers but hated the side effects so now I'm just on Prozac. Being married, being a mother, and having a job I can be proud of, plus not\nDrinking, has worked wonders for me. \n Ugh, so", "id": "ckczdgy", "summary": "Sorry."}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "First off, babysitter speaks nothing but Spanish. I speak Spanish but have a hard time understanding her. My husband speaks Spanish (and some English). \n So, my 3 1/2 y/o daughter has been in her care since she was 1 1/2 months old. We love this woman and she treats our kid like she's her own. \n This past winter, my kid was spending more and more time upstairs. This woman lives with her husband, her adult son, his wife, and a couple guys here and there (I believe nephews or cousins). When I would get there, the sitter would greet me at the door and go upstairs to get my kid. I was under the impression my kid was spending time upstairs alone with the sitter's husband. \n So anyway, last Friday my kid tells me her butt hurts. She hadn't had a bath in a couple days, had spent a lot of time at the playground during those days, and is having trouble properly wiping - so I now chalk the redness down there (when she says butt she means vagina and butt - I'm working on it.. okay?) up to bathing and wiping habits. I started questioning her if anyone had been touching her down there. She said no, then she said the sitter's son, then she said her friends (playground kids), then she said the sitter's husband. So I freaked out - she saw me start crying. I got really concerned (let me say IDK how to handle this - she's my first kid and I haven't read hardly any books on the subject, nor do I have other parents to talk to except my own mom, who would probably freak out too) and starting asking her questions like \"where does he touch you, how, why, etc etc\" and she told me everything I (didn't) want(ed) to hear as well as she could (we're still having language difficulties - or maybe 3 1/2 year olds just aren't articulate, idk). \n I asked my friend who is a social worker what I should do - she said it ultimately sounds like my daughter was telling me what she thought I wanted to hear. My kid doesn't engage in any sexual behavior, doesn't draw weird pictures, she didn't volunteer the info to me, etc. Basically she doesn't display any signs of having being abused sexually. \n So, I asked the babysitter how often my kid was alone with her husband, if the door was closed, etc without directly saying \"my kid says your husband touched her.\" The sitter called me, I didn't answer (phone was charging) so she called my husband and talked to him, saying she would never ever let anything happen to our kid, that our kid is always with her, so on so forth. I believe her. \n My daughter hasn't been upstairs with husband in probably 5-7 weeks. My sitter says when my kid is upstairs she's also upstairs. My sitter also says her husband would never do anything to hurt my kid. My sitter has been so worried about this that she talked to my husband about it  again  today - wanting to clarify these things. \n My question is, do I in my horribly broken Spanish (I get nervous around her) tell her what my child said (that her husband touches her)? My husband told her I was worried about my daughter being upstairs alone with him and that I wasn't sure if she ever was so I just wanted to know, etc etc. He kinda smoothed it over - but do I owe an explanation too?", "id": "t3_37rbv0", "summary": "my child, after much prodding by me, said the sitter's husband touched her, yet my child shows no signs of having been abused and the sitter swears she's been with my child every minute that she's cared for her. Do I tell my sitter what my child said, despite my husband having smoothed things over (short of saying what our daughter said)?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "My husband and I will have been married 4 years in November. We get along pretty well. We're both good parents (I think), we both love our two daughters dearly. We both work full time jobs. However, I work M-F 8-5 and he works usually Wed-Sun from 1-11 (though a day or two can vary and be 9-5 instead of 1-11). We have a joint account so our money is pooled; I make slightly more than him. \n But, when it comes to chores, there's always a sense of \"well I did this.\" I'm not sure if it's me or what. \n Every Saturday I clean. I clean the hell out of our modest apartment. I vacuum, I clean the bathrooms, I sweep, I do 3 loads of laundry including towels and linens. I do the dishes almost daily. I dust. I put things away. I can't stand living in a home where there's shit all over the place. My husband, on the other hand, only really ever does his laundry, and nothing more. Sometimes it seems like a struggle to get him to do something as simple as taking the trash out (when I ask it's always \"again??\" - and I'm not sure if he's kidding as he has a very playful disposition toward life). \n Well, yesterday, it came to a head. I had spent all day Saturday cleaning the apartment. I asked him to take out the kitchen trash and the diaper pail trash around 12:30p since he was out the door on his way to work, to which he replied \"I will when I get home\" (which would have been at 11p+). Like, I'm sorry but the fucking trash can was full. I wasn't going to have that in the house all day. So, I gathered up both bags and marched them out myself. I came back in to, \"I told you I'd take them out later.\" And that's when I lost it. I took a nasty tone (sometimes my emotions get the better of me) and snarled at him, \"you don't have an excuse. I work a full time job, I'm home with both kids for two days all day just like you, I'm tired too, yet I still clean.\" He was clearly upset by this but didn't apologize, he just kissed the kids goodbye and walked out. \n I texted him later saying I'm tired of coming home to a mess (there's always toys all over the place and empty cans - he is  notorious  for leaving empty soda cans on the \"breakfast bar\".. I mean, the god damn trash can is literally 10 feet away, you can't throw that shit out?!!?!), I'm tired of cooking dinner and then cleaning the dishes, etc. etc. He said he'll \"try\" to help me out, and that \"[he's] the one who has to take our kid to and from school, and [he does] it happily because she's [his] daughter. [he's] just telling [me] so [I] know [he does] something...\" \n I'm tired of these picky bullshit fights always ending in \"well, I do this that the other thing\" and \"well I do this too\"... it's never \"okay, I'll help.\" Or, \"thank you for doing this.\" Like why is it so much to ask that he throws his god damn soda cans in the trash? Or cook dinner? Or pick up after the kids?? Or take the trash out?? Could it be that when he was in his country waiting for his visa for two years that he just got used to his sister doing everything for everyone in the house? Could it be his culture (Latino)?? I mean, what do I have to do or what am I doing wrong??", "id": "t3_3mp5o6", "summary": "I feel like I do all the housework, cook dinner all the time (I'm serious, he's cooked 3 times in the past two years), and that my husband does nothing, despite both of us working full time jobs (albeit with opposite schedules).. HELP!!! \n EDIT  Guys, I don't always bite my husband's head off for not helping. He has admitted to me before that he doesn't throw his cans out simply because he's lazy. He himself has called himself lazy. I also don't bite my kids head off when she's asks to help. I gently try to suggest she do something else because the times I have let her help, she hasn't understood my direction so I get frustrated. However, I realize my fault and I am working on correcting it. Last, my husband and I fight incredibly infrequently. The only thing I ask him to do is take out the trash - that's it (well and pick up after the kids and himself). I'm fine with vacuuming, laundering, washing dishes, cooking dinner, dusting, etc. But what bugs me is being met with \"again????\" when I ask him to take out the trash. That's it."}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "So you guys here are excellent at honing in on what needs improvement about whoever OP posts. Yesterday I was on about freaking out at my husband for not taking out trash, which led me to discover I need to be more patient and more kind. I also need to teach my daughter how to help me instead of doing everything myself. \n I digress. This issue I'm posting about now has been bugging me for 15-16 years now. \n I can't deal with my step-mom. She is loud, she drinks and smokes a lot, she's one of those who gives you unsolicited advice, and just everything is always awkward all the time. \n Let me first begin by telling you that my dad left my mom for this woman back when I was 16. I didn't know about her until I was 17 and he and I took a roadtrip out west to scout colleges. He talked to her on his satellite phone while I was in the car and that's when I first learned of her. She lived out west, so of course my dad wanted to see her. I told my dad I was not interested in meeting her. What did he do? Somewhere in Kansas, we pulled into a Burger King, got out, went in under the pretense we were going to eat, and there she was. My father had completely ignored my wish to not meet his then girlfriend (now wife). We had dinner at her home later that evening, where I met two of her three kids. All of this was forced on me if you will. \n Long story short, he moved out to Kansas to be with her. I had to see her every time I visited him. They got married in 2002, they now live in FL, and have since they were married. \n A few examples: one time I was on vacation, visiting my dad, when my step mom decided to get plastered. She was acting really touchy feely with my dad while we were all sitting on the couch watching TV. She's normally pretty touchy feely with him but this had a hint of insecurity. Something set her off for whatever reason and she went to bed in a huff. \n Another time, they were up here visiting; my then 1 year old and I went to dinner with them and my kid went to give my dad a hug but wouldn't hug my step-mom. My step-mom then proceeded to (jokingly) call my 1 year old a slut. \n A year ago, my husband, our then 3 year old and I went to visit them in FL, and my kid was kind of acting up at the dinner table. My step-mom gave me completely unsolicited advice on how to handle my child. She said something mean to my kid (I honestly can't remember what it was) which caused my kid to cry. My dad kind of stepped in to correct his wife and she got passive aggressive like \"well, if this was  my  kid that wouldn't happen...\" \n Another time, we went to a restaurant because I wanted wings, but changed my mind when I got there and ordered a burger. She made a comment like, \"well god, if you had wanted a burger we could have saved $10 and made them at home!!\" \n She's even openly argued with my father about the name of a local Mexican restaurant (he was right). If you guys think I'm demeaning and controlling because I flipped out at my husband about the trash, you should see her. She has no qualms with telling my dad he's wrong about something, and in a very condescending way. \n Most recently, they were up here for the birth of my second daughter. My mom has stated her displeasure with my dad coming around for the birth of my kids - as she says \"he had the nerve to walk out on your life, and now he has the nerve to come around to see your kids??\" This made things ultra tense. I told my dad when I was going in to be induced, and I didn't want my dad, mom, and step-mom in the room immediately post-birth like they all had been the first time I had a kid. I asked that my dad wait until I tell him it was okay to come. They came anyway, without me saying it was okay for them to come. \n My mom said many times \"don't you refer to his wife as 'grandma' - she's not your kid's grandma\" so this puts added stress on me. He and his wife came to visit, so did a long time friend of mine that I hadn't seen in a while, and I kind of ignored her... because wtf am I gonna say. I don't want you there. I don't like you. Once I was discharged from the hospital I had my dad over. I hadn't talked to him for two days post-my leaving, and then I said \"can you come over by yourself? I miss you and I want to just hang out with you alone.\" Thankfully, he came over alone and stayed for about 45 minutes while she passed time at the mall. \n Okay, so this is a lot to take in, I know. My dad was in town again a couple weeks ago, sans wife, and said to me as he was leaving my home, \"you know [wife] is getting weird again... she says she feels like she isn't a part of the family.\" ..... \n .. what am I supposed to do here? I clash with her (though I never stand up to her or get loud with her). I'm sure she's a nice person and I want so bad to like her but god damn is she loud, mouthy, and brash. She's uncouth. She just needs to dial it back a notch and think about how she acts before she acts and I'm sure she'd be fine. But I've never told her this. I feel like keeping my dad away from my newborn broke his heart and I'm sick over it, but I didn't want to deal with his wife.", "id": "t3_3mu69n", "summary": "I don't like my dad's wife because she's uncouth and can be offensive. How can I force myself to form a decent relationship with her (which I'm positive both her and I want)?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "Last night my breast pump came in, so I put the cups in my shirt and they stuck out so far it looked ridiculous. I found it funny so I laughed quite a lot at how obscene I looked. I guess he did not, because he snapped at me and said, in a nasty tone, \"you're laughing like a crazy person. stop.\" - this isn't the first time he's snapped at me for laughing at something. \n I'm not sure exactly why he snaps at me if I laugh at something - if I'm watching a TV show and I find something funny I have to stifle my laughter or suffer him snapping at me. Why the hell would anyone, especially someone who supposedly loves you, snap at someone else for laughing? I don't even laugh during inappropriate times.. I mean.. and it's not like he's a serious Sam - he's very happy-go-lucky and carefree, always smiling or joking, very rarely serious. What the hell is going on here? (I know I need to sit down and ask what about my laughing makes him upset).", "id": "t3_36mefu", "summary": "my husband snaps at me for laughing."}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "Got the sad news today that my first love passed away a few days ago. None of our mutual friends (who I keep in touch with but haven't seen for  years ) know what the cause was. \n I'm married. I should ask my husband, right? Idk. I don't know how I feel about everything. It's weird. I hadn't talked to my ex in years (at least 8 or 9 years). But he'll always hold a place in my heart...", "id": "t3_3g1ktv", "summary": "my ex died. Do I go to funeral."}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "I've been friends with this group of people, 2 females and a male, since 10th grade (which was 17 years ago). Sure we've moved to different locations (one lives in the DC area near me, one in NYC, one in Charlottesville). We all have relationships or are married (except the one in NYC). But, despite all of our life experiences, our stays at college, our moving, etc. we've all remained friends and speak to each other by iMessage group chat on a daily basis. \n Our male friend who lives in NYC used to date this guy - we, as a group, have known this friend's ex-BF since they dated way back in I wanna say 2003 or 2004. After they broke up, the two of them remained friends. \n When our group chat started 3 years ago, one of the female friends suggested we invite the ex into the group chat, so we did. He used to be a HUGE pot head - every day, several times a day, would smoke weed. He was so mellow, it made him scatter brained and slow to catch up to things, etc. But then he stopped. And once he stopped (about 2 years ago) he got  mean . And I mean  nasty  mean. \n Ex is a former Marine, he's Conservative with his politics (despite being gay - he is against gay marriage), he only dates white guys (he is white himself - we all are), he  hates  immigrants (especially people here without papers) and people who won't or don't speak English. Which, is a conundrum for me because I'm married to a Hispanic man who was here without papers before we underwent the long, complicated process of getting him a green card. \n During the time I spent apart from my husband because of immigration, ex was  super  non-supportive. He would make jokes about \"rounding them all up and sending them back\" or go on about how they drain the economy. Whatever - if you want to have your own opinions, fine. But if you're friends with someone who is battling it out with immigration and is married to someone who had no legal status at one time, you'd think you'd be a little more sensitive and just keep your mouth shut about it and anything related. \n It all came to a breaking point - we (he and I) argued so much about politics (I'm liberal), about immigration myths, about mental health and therapy (he thinks people who see therapists are weak-minded and refuses to sympathize with them - I go to therapy and am dx'ed bipolar nos..), about everything. He would endlessly pick on his ex (the guy in NYC) about his lifestyle, about how much money he spends on material things, about his dating habits, about being a sugar daddy and a pedo (because he likes to date much younger men - many 20 y/os). He was just virulent in his attitude toward me and NYC friend. I mean, he picked a fight about  dog food  for fuck sake. \n I cut him out of my life, blocked him from my phone and contacting me. He contacted our NYC friend with a long text about how I'm trash, how my  mom  is trash, how I should die, etc. etc. NYC friend showed the group and everyone was appalled and disgusted he would bring my mom into it and say such things. \n It's been about a year since that's happened. But he's started coming back around. He tried to add me on Waze - I denied his request. He group texted everyone but me last night with a picture of powdered heroin and said he loves doing it. He's like wilding the flip out and is actually (finally) in therapy and on medication, but now has a drug habit. \n Anyway, I'm jealous and upset that these friends of mine (the MFF) talk to or entertain him. Sure, he never got rude or insulting with anyone but me and NYC friend, but you would think that friends who have been your friends since high school would have your back and stand up for you (which, none of them ever did when he would attack me). Am I right to be upset they're talking with him again? Or are these \"friends\" just not that into me?", "id": "t3_2tysd6", "summary": "had a friend who is a total dick, verbally attacked me and one of our other friends a year ago, we all cut ties but he's come back around and they're all talking to him again. I'm jealous."}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "I've enjoyed working with our landlord who is also the agent for the people who we rent our condo from, but, she was very unprofessional end of August when our ac unit crapped out (was original to the building, so ~20 years old). Long story short, she accused my mother of yelling at her (didn't happen), accused me of betraying her because my mom called her, and, if my mother is brought up in conversation or correspondence, she'll take cheap shots. \n Anyway, I'm only saying this because she's pretty unprofessional and sensitive for her age and experience. I asked her, our landlord/agent, back in October to be our agent for when we buy a house. Stuff has come up and now we realize we can't afford to buy a house when we were hoping to (early 2016). \n When our lease is up in June, we are going to look for a ground floor condo or a townhouse to rent, but I don't want to use our landlord/agent to find it for us. \n List of complaints about current place:  I would stay here in this 2bd/2ba condo but the owners won't replace the carpet, it smells like cat piss (we don't have a cat, never have living here), the window seals are broken so much so that all windows in the condo are COVERED in condensation in the mornings and mildew grows on the plastic parts of the windows, the linoleum is gross and old, the sides along the refrigerator are coated with 20 years of grime.. I mean, I saw all of this moving in but I was recently discharged from bankruptcy (Nov 13) and my husband had recently returned from El Salvador with a green card but no job. It was between this place or a ground floor with a landlord that was a contractor living overseas and who questioned why my husband had to go out of the country for 2 1/2 years. Let me also add we have a 3 year old who loves being a 3 year old (and is the subject of many a complaint to me by my hag of a downstairs neighbor, despite me trying to stifle my 3 year old from being a 3 year old), and we are expecting baby #2 in mid-July. So this little mildew stricken, weak floor having, cat piss stench smelling carpet having, old linoleum condo is not an option anymore.. \n What do I say to her come June, and what if she gets offended or makes me feel like crap? \n (And yes, if anyone recalls, I'm the one who has the 45+ y/o downstairs neighbor who throws loud, late night ragers and has zero regard for anyone else in the building and who came and pounded on my door the day I after I called the cops on her about a year ago.. living around her stresses me the eff out. I posted about this a while ago). \n Last question - considering our situation (me chap 7 bankrupt discharged 11/13, husband with 1 year work experience, us with no where near the amount needed for a 20% down payment, 2 kids come July), is it stupid to rent a townhome? Believe me, we want to own a home, but right now that's not plausible.", "id": "t3_2tnjko", "summary": "Our current landlord/agent is sensitive, hates my mother, and will probably be mean and nasty to me once our lease is up and I tell her we are no longer interested in using her as an agent -- how do I let her down gently?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "Husband, 3 y/o daughter, and I are in a rented condo right now - have been for a year. We pay $1295/mo for 2bd2ba. \n We're on the 2nd floor which has proved stressful because our downstairs neighbor complains about the noise my kid makes (I don't let her run around like an elephant). I've had it out with her a couple times over the noise we make vs the noise she makes (she likes to throw loud, raucous parties, late at night during the week and then comes up and bangs on my door for calling the cops to shut her up and screams at me for letting my kid be a kid during normal daytime hours). Anyway, living above her is stressful. \n We have 4200$ in savings, would like to save for a 300k home (homes in our area are expensive and 300k is on the lower end of the spectrum). I make 45k before taxes, he makes 35k before. I pay ~2200 in bills a month, he pays ~1200. I feel like I never have enough money to put away into savings because after all the bills are paid I have ~200/250 left and always inevitably spend $100 - 120 on groceries for 2 weeks and the rest of it, I guess goes to gas and therapy (which is 45$/session). \n We are expecting a new baby come mid-July. Our lease is up June 30. We can extend the lease another year, we can extend the lease 9 months (but this is only if we decide to really go for home ownership come November), or, we can move to another condo or townhome and rent. For a $300k home we would need 10,500 (so 6,300 by November or $700/mo. That is impossible. Wholly impossible). I can't live in this fricking condo any longer, and even March 2016 seems like an unbearably long time. \n Let me rant about the condo: one part of it smells like cat piss (we don't currently own, nor have we ever owned a cat - was from prior, prior tenants). The carpet is old as flip and the owners refuse to replace unless they sell - and they ain't selling. There is years of caked onto the floor crud alongside the refrigerator that was there when we moved in. There is a white catch all type thing under the old washing machine that has years of caked on detergent on it. The flooring in the kitchen is peeling under the sink. The windows leak so much so that we get condensation on them and mildew will grow on the plastic. The bathroom linoleum is screwed up in front of the shower (we could probably fix that). This place was built in 1996 - the only positive is I love our deck (that I can't sweep because stuff will fall through the cracks and land on my mean downstairs neighbor's deck), we also had the ac fully replaced this past summer, and the oven was also replaced. \n Now, you're probably asking why we settled on a place like this. I was discharged from Chap 7 BK in November 2013. My husband returned to the US with a green card (finally) after having been out of the US to wait out the immigration process since June 2011. It was this place or another place where the owner asked the agent to ask us why my husband was \"returning\" to the US with a green card. I had lived in my mom's home for 30 years at the time and didn't want to love there a day more. We can't do anything until November 2015 b/c of my bankruptcy. \n We're looking at FHA but jeez, for a 300k home we'd have to put 10,500 down and the monthly payment would be too much. I think I know the answer to my dilemma but I need to hear it from someone else.", "id": "t3_2urhlo", "summary": "husband and I make 80k combined, want to buy 300k home by March 2016 because I hate the place we're in right now and I feel like a failure for being 31 y/o and not owning a home."}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "I have  always  been a high strung, on edge, frequently agitated person. I don't have angry or violent outbursts, but I do show my frustration in the form of yelling (within reason). \n I've got a 4 year old and a 5 month old. This morning I was trying to get my 5 month old back to sleep so their dad could sleep in a little bit (he works nights, I work days, so the amount of sleep he gets is not ideal). I told my 4 year old,  REPEATEDLY , to please be quiet because I was trying to get her sister to sleep. Long story short, my 4 year old came into the bed with me and the baby, she shined her iPad onto the baby, had the volume going, and I was just... I was fed up as I had told her several times by this point to be quiet. So, I raised my voice from a whisper to a stern, normal volume tone and said \"okay, you need to either leave the damn bedroom or turn off your iPad, and since you won't listen to me--\" and then I grabbed her iPad and threw it onto the floor. This, of course, woke up the baby even more than she already was, woke up her dad, and caused her to cry. \n I find myself on the edge of anger every day with this kid. I ask her to pick up her toys, she won't listen. I ask her to get ready for a bath, she won't listen. Tell her to stop whining, she won't listen. I'm at my wits end. Spanking isn't an option because I don't want to teach her that violence is the answer, but I know my behavior (in yelling, throwing things, getting visibly frustrated) is basically like an adult tantrum. Let me add, I start out asking for these things patiently and with love and a neutral tone. And then, as she continues to ignore or disobey me, it progresses into a nasty tone, a raised volume level, and me blowing steam out of my ears. \n What am I supposed to do here? My husband has wonderful patience with the children. I, on the other hand, expect them (or at least the four year old) to behave like adults, and when they fall short (which, they always do because they're  kids ), I get pissed. \n HELP. ME.", "id": "t3_3xckto", "summary": "need help with getting out of the mindset that my 4 year old should be treated like an adult and not understood like a kid... if that makes sense.."}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "I have one daughter; she's 3 years ~4 months old. She's been with the same babysitter since she was 1 month old. Let me start out by saying, I don't want advice or an opinion on the background information,  I only want to know where to go from here. \n BACKGROUND \nMy child goes to an in-home babysitter maybe 3 or 4 afternoons a week. Come September she'll be in playschool - but that's neither here nor there. We've been going to this in-home babysitter since she was 1 month old, and, when we started, for the first 2 years of her life, she went 5 days a week, from 7.30a - 5.30p while I worked (husband was in other country). My husband and I like the way the babysitter is with our daughter so much so that we asked her and her husband to be our daughter's god parents. Our child gets a long so well and loves the heck out of her godparents (baby sitter). I've never seen her come home crying (except for when she doesn't want to leave, then she cries lol), she's never had mysterious marks on her, she's always cared for and loved. \n Now, recently, my child has started venturing upstairs at the sitter's home. There's a couple bedrooms up there and she likes to hang out with her god father. I don't think the bedroom door is ever closed, but I don't know. \n I got there last night to get my kid and the god mother/sitter opened the front door as soon as I knocked. My child was upstairs playing with her god father, presumably by herself. I gather my kid, get in the car, leave on a positive note like \"bye see you tomorrow!\" When we're in the car, I ask her what she was doing upstairs and who she was with - in a nonthreatening, non-angry tone. A \"I'm curious about your day how was it?\" kind of tone. My 3 year old isn't fully fluent in either English or Spanish yet so much of her speech comes out kind of incoherently (I'm a native English speaker, dad and babysitter are native Spanish [and only speak Spanish] speakers). She babbled something like \"I was playing upstairs, playing hide and seek, and blah balh blah bathroom.\" So I'm like.. \"okay.. why did you go into the bathroom?\" \n I can't really remember from that point on what happened, I just know my heart started beating fast because why the hell is a 3 year old girl upstairs, alone with a 50 year old man, godfather or not, and what the heck does it have to do with the bathroom.... so I kind of start getting frantic, and I'm like, \"you  cannot  go into the bathroom with him, do you understand?\" To this she starts  screaming  and yelling \"no, no quiero\" - she was basically telling me not to tell her to not go into the bathroom with this old man. And at this point, I don't even know if that's what she was doing. \n I get home, I'm crying, she's okay, I get on her level and I say \"do not let anyone touch your butt except me, your dad or your babysitter - and that's  only  to clean it.\" She concurs and comes to hug me. \n which leads us to my dilemma \n Clearly getting stern and a tad angry with her, telling her \"DO NOT GO TO THE BATHROOM WITH YOUR GOD FATHER OR ANY MAN THAT ISN'T YOUR DAD\" rubbed her the wrong way. I tried talking to her again in that curious, non-confrontational way again to no avail. Anytime I would ask \"did you go to the bathroom?\" she'd answer \"I don't know.\" Any question that included the word \"bathroom\" was met with an \"I don't know.\" \n I have scarred my child from answering questions about potentially life-screwing-up situations because I'm scared of what I don't understand or know. I plan on having my husband ask the babysitter to try and keep her downstairs or only go upstairs when the babysitter is there; I don't want to paint her husband as a child molester or someone capable of hurting a child (he's a very, very sweet man - very nice, very nonthreatening) -- I've never seen him mishandle or get creepy with my daughter, so I'm not sure why I'm worried. \n Which brings us to...", "id": "t3_2teiwo", "summary": "after having yelled at my child because I didn't understand what she was saying and possibly misconstrued it, my child will not talk to me about possibly life-altering events/questions (ie; molestation). Help!!!!"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "I'm 32. She's 64. \n My mom suffers from some kind of mental illness - I would call it bipolar. Over the past few years she's had very little luck finding employment. She was a homemaker for most of my life, holding part time retail jobs here and there. It wasn't until my dad left her when I was 16 that she had to get serious about work. She went into human resources in the retail industry, where she worked quite successfully for a while, with two different major department stores. \n She left one department store, as HR manager, for another job, and was very quickly let go from that job for making mistakes. That was maybe 4 or 5 years ago. She has said she's been making an effort to find a job since then, but I'm not sure if that's true. She took an HR certification course, and passed the HR certification exam (on the second try), but it did her no good. She held an admin job for about a week, and was let go for \"mistakes\" back in May. She got another job at a kennel, working as a receptionist, and was there for about a month and half before they fired her (last Friday) for \"making mistakes.\" \n I'm not sure what kind of mistakes she makes, but she's not very computer savvy, and every job has always let her go for \"making mistakes.\" \n She says she gets so depressed - to where she's sick. She lies in bed, doesn't interact with anyone. When she gets this depressed, she goes into a mental fog, and says she's not able to think straight or process things. I know she suffered through two episodes like this during her stint at the kennel - these episodes last for 3-4 days. \n Aside from mental health issues, she is chronically complaining about being in pain, \"oh my arthritis\" or \"oh I'm fatigued\" or \"oh my knees\"... I mean, the woman walks her dogs, sure, but she only walks them for 10 -15 minutes a day, if even, and the rest of the day is spent sitting on her butt on facebook, drinking no less than 64 oz of diet coke (which she's drank, daily, in that amount, for I'm not kidding no less than 15 years now). \n I have two kids, ages 4 and 4 months. She'll see them maybe once a week for no more than 2 hours. If she babysits for us, she starts nagging me about 2 hours into it, \"when are you coming home\" \"you better get your butt home.\" \n She doesn't have a boyfriend - hasn't had one in years, though, she has been on several dates and could very easily get a boyfriend if she wanted one (she's an attractive woman, and a lot of fun to be around when she's \"up\"). She's stopped taking care of herself though. IDK, her dad and mom both died within 2 years of each other, and that was about 4 years ago. She has brothers and sisters but isn't close with any of them. She has friends, sees them maybe once a month, and mainly talks to them online. She also owns 3 dogs (all greyhounds), and her life revolves around them. They sleep in the bed with her (I wonder why she's fatigued), they tear up her house, they eat all her food, they make messes even if she's only gone for 15 minutes and just walked them... like.. idk how she lives like that. The brand new carpet she had put in only months ago is already WRECKED because of them (shit stains). She won't put them in any kind of obedience classes because \"they're skittish\" or \"it's hard to get one out and keep the others inside.\" \n A gen prac recently (about 3 months ago) put her on the MAXIMUM dose of prozac. She hasn't seen a psychiatrist in YEARS. She thinks she has physical health problems (she doesn't. It's in her damn head). I mean.. ugh idk. I don't know how to help her, but I'm worried about her. And her constantly getting fired makes me fear for my own employment related issues - because afterall, I'm her daughter and aren't \"smarts\" genetic? I feel bad for her, worried about her, embarrassed for her, and quite frankly, if I were her, I would've offed myself years ago. \n What am I supposed to do? How do I help this woman? All she does is come up with excuses and complaints. She has money trouble but she's not willing to get a menial job. She could have a date but she's not willing to date just anyone (she's  super  picky). She could train her dogs but, well who knows the reason behind her not wanting to do that. She could get in shape and solve her \"fatigue\" by making the dogs sleep elsewhere, and by exercising... I mean, it's not fricking rocket science.", "id": "t3_3tgqcd", "summary": "My elderly mom (64) has lost 2 jobs in the span of 5 months, after only having been there for 2 weeks - 1 1/2 months time for \"making mistakes.\" She may be suffering from debilitating depression, or a mental illness, but only wants to see a doctor and not a psychiatrist. She's, IMO, on the wrong type and dosage of medication. How do I help her?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "I applied for KP insurance on 11/17 by fax, directly with KP. They took 9 days to call me and tell me I was approved - and in that time I had emailed the agent I was working with (who never responded to me), applied with Anthem, and was accepted same day I applied. When someone from KP called me on 11/28 to say I had been accepted, I told them I no longer was interested in insurance with them and asked how to cancel it. They gave me a 301# to fax a written request to, which I did, later on that afternoon. That 301# bounced back so I called their member services line and was given an 866#. I faxed the letter to the 866#. \n Sometime in Dec. I got a piece of mail with explanation of benefits. I called KP and said \"uh, I cancelled my insurance why am I getting letters from you guys?\" the member services person I was speaking with couldn't find me in their system - so I figured they had received my request and the letter was a mistake. \n Fast forward to 1/2 when my checking account is withdrawn by 261$ - thanks to KP taking $402 out for insurance. I called them and no one could give me an answer - it was always \"let me get you to another department\" or \"my supervisor isn't available but they'll call you back\" or \"that amount won't post\" (it was pending on 1/2) or \"okay it takes 6-8 weeks for a refund\" and even \"what is that 866# you faxed it to? I've never heard of that...\" Thanks to either my incompetence or their incompetence, I was charged $36 for overdraft too, despite being unenrolled in overdraft protection. So now, $402 insurance became 438$ insurance and I still have zero answers. \n The last person I spoke with on Friday said \"fax in that request to this 301# and they'll refund your money.\" \n Now, when I called PNC to talk it over, they offered to dispute the charge, including the $36 overdraft attached to the KP transaction. But, the guy I spoke with from PNC said it's possible KP will pay for the overdraft fee as well - though if I dispute it with PNC it will definitely be returned to me. \n My dilemma is this: \n-do I wait for KP to act on this, considering the two different people I spoke to on 11/28 gave me two wrong fax numbers so the request was never received (although I do have a fax transaction successful receipt and that 866# IS registered to KP...)... or do I dispute through PNC? \n-If I dispute through PNC do I pursue this with KP? I'm sure I'll have to send in another \"I NEED THIS CANCELLED.\" letter if I don't follow up with them. \n-If I do dispute with PNC, they'll do all the contacting of KP for me, right? I shouldn't contact KP?\n-And once KP agrees to return the 438, will that go directly to PNC or to me (if I don't contact KP about a refund)? And, if it goes bank into my account, PNC will take that 438$ themselves once the case is closed, right?", "id": "t3_2raxur", "summary": "Do I dispute a charge that KP applied to my account on 1/2 despite me having faxed in a cancellation request in Nov that they never received because two people who worked for KP gave me the wrong fax #s, or do I take it up with KP?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "Original post: \n I've filed a noise complaint with the condo management association; the manager herself should be back in the office today. I received a response from the President of the Board of Supervisors for the condos and he encouraged me to get reports from 102's next door neighbors and our next door neighbor's as well. \n THANKFULLY 102 has been quiet since the last incident on Christmas Eve. I'm thinking on telling management to hold off on the noise complaint for now, as it's been peaceful and I don't want any unnecessary or (recently) unprovoked confrontation with this woman. \n Should I continue with the noise complaint or back off?", "id": "t3_2reh3z", "summary": "downstairs neighbor hasn't made a peep since Christmas Eve - do I continue with the noise complaint submitted to the condo assocation or do I back off?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "I was at an orchard last weekend, heading back to our car with my toddler in my arms. The road we were on was jagged, unfinished, a little gravelly -- just a typical, well worn, rural road. Anyway, my foot must've hit a jag or an uneven part in the road because I tumbled. Rolled the hell out of my ankle, suffered a DEEP cut (almost serrated or perforated like) on my other knee, and dropped my kid. I could barely make it back to the car once I stood up for being dizzy and on the verge of fainting (thank god husband was with us). \n Went to ER same day, took x-rays, said I suffered a bad sprain. The next day I couldn't walk, at all, so I stayed home from work. The incident happened on a Monday (Labor Day) and by the time I was able to walk on it normally with minimal pain was Thursday. I'm a paralegal so I run back and forth to court at least twice a day.  Anyway, today my ankle is KILLING me. I feel like I have a nail in a bone down there. It was just stiff for a few days after the initial incident but now it stings, hurts, feels horrible, etc.", "id": "t3_2fr63t", "summary": "can a sprain turn into a fracture if you don't baby it or take it lightly?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "We have a little girl who will be 3 in about a month. She has been an excellent sleeper (literally has slept through the night since she was a week old) and a very good child, if not a little spoiled. I've had problems disciplining her and getting her to listen to me the first time - so for instance if we're in the parking lot at our apartment complex, sometimes she'll test me by running in the opposite direction from the building. Anyway, that's not why I'm here (though if anyone has advice PLEASE HELP). \n I'll be 31 in a week. My husband and I have decent jobs and make a middle-class income together. I would like to have another child but I'm diagnosed Bipolar NOS. My husband is very helpful, never mean toward our current daughter - he's patient, understanding etc. We would like to have another child but I don't know if I could I handle it emotionally. \n I grew up an only child and so wish I had a brother or sister to turn to at times. Both parents of mine are still alive but divorced. \n Anyway, am I over thinking this?", "id": "t3_2ftaec", "summary": "Is more than one kid a good idea for someone who has a mental illness?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "My husband has a whole slew of siblings, whereas I'm an only child. My husband is Hispanic and grew up in central America, whereas I'm American and grew up, well, here in the US. He has one of his 5 siblings here in town where we live, along with his dad (both have temp. protected status). I got word recently, that 2 of his brothers will be coming to the US here soon. \n A little background - my husband was once undocumented himself. He got caught, thrown into immigration jail, and had to leave the US on voluntary departure. We spent 2.5 years fighting to get him an IR-1 visa, and he returned to the US, legally, a couple years ago. \n Very recently, we put in a bid on a home and our contract was accepted. We go to closing in a month or so. We've got two small children. My BIL, who is here on TPS, lives in a small, 2 bed apartment with their dad, his common-law wife, and their kid. I think her cousin may stay over there, too. He's looking to buy a home, but idk if that'll happen or when. \n So, my husband, who, while he was back in his country waiting for his visa, lived with 3 siblings, their spouses and their 1-2 kids, as well as their aunt, is trying to get me to let one of his brothers stay with us. The home we're under contract on is kind of small (under 1100 sq ft). I lived with my mom up until I was 29 years old, so I'm really not looking to stay with family even longer. \n I'm not sure if there's a difference in culture here or it's because I'm an only child or..?? But I  do not  want to house either of his siblings. Hell, I don't want to house even the ones here under temporary protected status! I want to live in our home, with just us and our kids. Not an uncle, not a father in law, not a cousin. I just don't. I don't want to. I feel like if I had brothers and sisters I wouldn't want to live with them either. I really value my privacy and my alone time. \n My husband has asked what he's supposed to do if one of them asks us to live with us. He's also asked if they could live with us, to which I've said no. Period. \n Am I being unreasonable? Is there a way around this? \n Please, no lectures about \"being illegal\" and all that shit - I'm a seasoned immigration veteran here and have been through the ringer with USCIS while trying to get my husband back here legally.", "id": "t3_4biniq", "summary": "my husband wants to offer one of his soon-to-be-here brothers a place to live in our brand new home (we go to closing in May). I don't want to live with them (or anyone except my immediate family - so him, and our two kids). Help."}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "Downstairs neighbor blasts heavy bass music during the day and occasionally at night (right now is one of those times). Has also held several late night, LOUD parties over the last year, one of which ended in me calling the cops. I have written the condo association management several times by email about this woman, and have even mailed a letter and all the emails to management, the call to the police, the emails to my landlord and the emails to the Board of Supervisors President. \n Condo management claims they sent her a noise violation back in early January but this has clearly done shit because she continues to be inconsiderate and blast her music. Her landlord is different than mine as we live in condos which are privately owned and rented out. What am I doing wrong here? I've contacted everyone in a position of power and yet nothing. Nothing has changed. No one else here makes noise the way her 45 year old grown ass does. \n I refuse to confront her myself because she's a stone cold b *  and frankly idk what she's capable of. Let me just tell you a quick story -- on Christmas Eve she had a loud, raucous party. It was going on into all hours of the night. At midnight, when I was rudely awoken by \"Shake it Off\" by Taylor Swift, pounding from her apartment, I got a hammer. I sat on the floor, over the stereo, and I pounded the hammer three times so as to say shut the duck up. She turned down the music, I heard a door slam. Shortly after she pounded, even louder than I had, on the ceiling so as to say \"f  off.\" And then she turned the music right back up for another 30 minutes. \n I mean I don't know what to do about this lady, I really don't. My lease isn't up for another 4 months (can't come soon enough) - I'm 19 weeks pregnant and will be high tailing it out of here a week before I give birth so as not to suffer another year thru this bullsh*t.", "id": "t3_2w55j9", "summary": "downstairs neighbor plays loud, bass heavy music during daylight hours all the time, sometimes at night. I've complained to management about at least 2 loud parties in the past, they've \"sent noise violation notices\" and yet she persists. What am I doing wrong and is it like this in every damn apartment/condo building?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "I don't have the most ideal financial situation, so when it came to moving out of my mom's home last year, I had to take what I could get. \n My husband (recently returned from his country a year ago with a green card), myself, and our then 2 (now 3) year old daughter found a cute little 2 bedroom, 2 full bath apartment in a safe neighborhood. All of our neighbors are either families or they're older professionals, or they're retired. Point is, literally everyone - especially in our building - is quiet. Well, everyone except my 40+ year old downstairs trashy neighbor who works odd hours (but not as a nurse, I can assure you). \n During the days she pumps her stereo up to where the bass vibrates the walls and floors. Her favorite are bands like Staind or Nickelback, sometimes Metallica. Around the holidays, she enjoys having her trashy friends over for alcohol fueled, all night ragers. This often leads to insufferable noise late at night (always past 11p), screaming, yelling, laughing, talking loudly, playing loud, bass-filled music.. \n Last year, after two occurrences, I decided to call the cops because I couldn't stand it anymore. It was 12a+ and she was going full force (mind you, no one else in this building does this). I didn't want to confront her myself because who knows what she's capable of. Anyway, cops were called, cops stopped by, told her to quiet down, but didn't write her a ticket (which here, noise violation is a class 2 misdemeanor with a hefty 1k fine and up to a couple months in jail). \n She came pounding on my door a couple times before I finally answered it. All \"IDK why you called the cops on me. You have problems with me, come talk to me yourself. I'll stay quiet if you keep that brat kid of yours from running around.\" I was in shock. All I could do is say \"okay, I'm sorry\" and close the door. I cried and cried about it (I hate confrontation with strangers). My mom suggested I go downstairs with my husband and child and try to talk to her again - to start fresh. \n I brought my husband and child downstairs, hoping she would see my kid and soften up and be like \"okay, she's a kid. Making normal kid noise.\" But nope. All she could say was \"calling the cops isn't cool. I don't get off of work until 11:30p. My son (19-21 year old army guy who was home at that time) wants to sleep during the day and he can't because your kid runs around\" blah blah blah. Anyway, I just said, look if you have problems come up and knock on my door, if I have problems, I'll come to you. \n A couple days later, she came upstairs again, pounded on my door after my kid had been running in circles for about 5 minutes - this was at 5p at night during the summertime. She said \"you need to shut that kid up.\" And I'm all apologetic, \"I'm sorry, I really do try.\" She accused me of not knowing how to discipline my kid (so I should beat my kid because she's... being a kid..??) and was like \"I have to hear this every god damn day. EVERY. GOD. DAMN. DAY.\" ... I just kind of screamed at her and said \"SHE'S TWO.\" \n Anyway, we haven't interacted since that (about a year ago). I have contacted the property/neighborhood manager several, SEVERAL times about the amount of noise this woman puts out both during the day and at night. Nothing has been done. It's always \"you need to write the board on paper and put the times and dates down,\" yet she never includes an address of where I can do this at... \n Last night, my downstairs neighbor was quiet up until 11p. She started BLARING \"Shake it Off\" and then \"Rude\" and I could hear her and all of her friends wailing at the top of their lungs. I got fed up and got a hammer and pounded on the floor 3 times (mind you, I normally go to bed at 9p - I'm 11 weeks pregnant and my work schedule is M-F, 8-5, plus, I have a 3 year old and my husband works nights and cares for our kid during the day..). The music stopped. I heard a door slam, and then, she pounded on her ceiling twice, really hard. It took everything I had to not go down there with my hammer and smash her fucking windows in. \n I wrote the president of the board of supervisors for our community, I wrote the property manager again (IDK what my landlord can do so I don't write her -- she is an agent for an older couple who owns the condo unit we live in - we rent from them). It's RIDICULOUS that I have to complain about a FORTY + YEAR OLD WOMAN MAKING AN ABSURD AMOUNT OF NOISE AT ANY POINT OF THE DAY. I wanted to call the cops but I sincerely do not want her coming upstairs and pounding (and I mean  pounding ) on my door again. \n I don't know how to deal with this woman. If Zillow is right, she's renting, and her lease should be up sometime around April. IDK if she's going to leave or not, but she's a blemish, an ugly blemish, on an otherwise nice, quiet, quaint community full of families and working professionals. Our lease is up at the end of June, but I'm due to give birth July 15.. and, we can't get a mortgage until at least November 2015. \n Help...", "id": "t3_2qdddr", "summary": "downstairs neighbor is trashy and throws loud parties despite being in her 40s, and then gets aggressive and confrontational if I call the cops -  but I can't sleep!!! Help!?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "I signed my 2 year 11 month old daughter up for dance. The studio has a no parents in the room policy. Anyway, lessons started for the first time this morning and the other 7 girls (probably more 4-5) had no problems listening to the teacher and being away from their parents. I held my kids hand as we walked into the studio and tried to reassure her, very calmly, that I would be right outside. So once they got underway I left, closed the door, and sat outside in the waiting area. She. Was. Screaming. Like desperation crying - very, very stressed. I figured maybe the teachers would calmly take their time to coax her into joining them, but I'm not sure that happened (no clue). She cried for a good 5-8 minutes before I went in and decided to take her out. \n A.) did I traumatize her forever?\nB.) should I have left her in the classroom?\nC.) separation anxiety is normal at ~3 right? (I honestly thought she would be fine - she's a very friendly child). \n Also, update: my husband threw out the bottles Thursday. She hasn't had a bottle since Wednesday actually and is more than content to drink from a big girl cup!!", "id": "t3_2gbdxe", "summary": "if you leave a kid in a scary situation without rescuing them, does t scar them for life?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "I was discharged from/with Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in November of last year. Though I was (and still am) married at the time, my husband's accounts were NOT included in my bankruptcy as he had no open accounts and was in another country awaiting a visa. He came back to the US that same month - last November - and opened a bank account with Wells Fargo (checking and savings). \n I am HORRIBLE at saving money. I get $1 and I spend $5. In order to curb this, we were recently looking at adding me onto his account and closing my account with PNC (which I had before BK). However, Wells Fargo \"could not\" add me to his account, claiming there was a pop-up that would not allow them to add me. We tried at two different WF branches. One (banker?) went so far as to tell me \"we can't add you - it's for your husband's protection.\" \n I pulled my credit reports and found nothing that would be out of the ordinary, other than the bankruptcy. I don't owe anyone money, in the 15 years I've had bank accounts and credit cards I have never ONCE been late on a payment. I simply do not understand why my husband and I can't do something as simple as get a joint account - I have a steady income, no debts (other than student loan and car), no delinquency, etc etc. What gives?", "id": "t3_2gr8ov", "summary": "husband and I can't get a joint account because of my discharged bankruptcy. Is this normal?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "My mom and dad were married in the 70s after having dated for 5 months. They had zero in common. \n My dad married a total bitch back in 2002. He met her at work during the 90s, took several \"business trips,\" got excited when my now step-mom got pregnant with her now ex-husband's kid, blah blah. So this relationship with total B was a big part in ruining my parents marriage. \n I don't care that my dad and mom didn't get along (they didn't fight or anything, just slept in different beds and like I said, had no common interests). If they weren't happy, well, divorce was the right thing to do. What I do care about is that my dad's wife is uncouth and a total type A. She has questioned my style of parenting before, has made my daughter cry, my husband doesn't like her, and she controls  everything  my dad does. I mean everything. \n They're both in town for the birth of my second daughter tomorrow. The shitty thing is, both my parents and my dad's wife will be there. I will allow my mom in the operating room, but I don't want my dad or his wife there. So they'll be in the waiting room. The thing is, my ~4 year old will be there too. I would like for her to be in the room when I give birth, but I'm starting to get stressed that my mom and my step mom are going to interact. And I sincerely hope my step mom doesn't refer to herself as grandma. \n I think my issue is, what am I supposed to do when the situation gets uncomfortable and all parties are present in the same room post birth? Do I need to hold my new daughter and say \"hey who's that? Your grandpa and grandma\" about dad's wife? My mom would flip shit for sure. She doesn't even like that I refer to this woman as \"Oma\" to my current daughter (and frankly, I don't either). I don't want to be disrespectful, but I can't stand my dad's wife, I don't want to call her grandma or any variant of, but I would feel bad saying \"dad and [wife's name]\" you know.? She has three kids of her own but none of them have kids and probably none of them will... And I'm too much of a pussy to stand up to her so..", "id": "t3_3dc7qh", "summary": "both parents (divorced) will be at hospital tomorrow for birth of my second daughter, dad will have uncouth wife in tow. How do I ease any tense situations and how do I grow a pair to refer to dad's wife by her name instead of any variant of grandma?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "Long before I met my husband 5 years ago he worked with this old lady at a restaurant. They've been friends for longer than we've been together. Anyway, he's gone over to her house several times in the past 5 years. He's out in her area today with our 3 1/2 year old daughter (he went to meet a co-worker and his kids for lunch), so I guess he figured he would stop by and see this older woman, whom he hasn't seen in a while now (months if not a year or so). I've never been okay with it because I'm trying to figure out what business a man in his 20s would have with a woman in her 50s - really another woman of any age. I've met her twice and I guess she's nice but the two times we went we sat around and watched TV and the conversation was sporadic. \n Let me add my husband's mother lives in El Salvador - only his dad is here in the US. My husband was recently in ES for 2 years (b/t 2011-2013), came back with a visa and has visited her since (in 2014), though he's not very close with her. My husband doesn't have many friends so I was very happy to hear he was going out with his male co-worker, but then he sprang it on me he's going to see this old woman and I'm like... eehhh.... She's probably like a mother to him, right? And there's nothing hinky going on?? She has an adult son that lives with her (I think) and a husband, but no one else in the house.", "id": "t3_339e0y", "summary": "I'm feeling insecure about my husband (a man in his late 20s) hanging out with a woman in her 50s/60s, at her house."}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "Let me preface by saying my husband is not manipulative, nor is he controlling, or abusive. He's never been violent or emotionally abusive toward me, ever. He's a truly gentle soul, a great husband, provider, and father to our kids. \n Also, let me preface by saying I go through phases. I'll take a keen and obsessive interest in something, do it for a couple weeks, and then get so sick of it I can't even think about it. I did this with beads - I went out and spent maybe $200 on beads in a couple weeks time. Made a bunch of shitty stuff, tried to sell it, didn't work, so I gave it up. And had all these beads... and all this shitty jewelry... I sold the beads for 1/10th of what I paid for them. \n My most recent obsession is photography. My mom gave me her Canon Rebel T3 and I've taken a smooth 2k pictures in the past month or so that I've had it. I only take pictures on weekends, and they're usually of birds at my feeder. I'm frustrated by the quality of the shots, and I'm hopeful a new lens would fix that. You can rent lenses online for like $20 a day. So I asked my husband if I could rent a lens (because he would  never  let me spend 1k-10k on a lens appropriate for bird photos), and he immediately, without any thought, said no. \n Another recent obsession of mine has been cactuses/succulents. I've invested maybe $150-200 on them in the past 2-3 months. I get a lot of joy out of looking at them and watching them grow and form new leaves (I also  love  gardening during the summer, although gardening for me is planter pots on our deck as we live in a condo...). I haven't given up succulents, but I haven't been spending money on them lately either. He (and my mom) see them as being worthless (which is surprising because my mom loves gardening and has been doing it much longer than I have). \n The thing that irritates me is my husband says we don't have money to waste on these things (camera lenses, cacti), but yet he's planning on spending at least 800$ on a trip to his country this coming December to see his family (mom and 4 siblings still live there). This planned trip irritates me because he was just in his country for 2 years back from 2011-2013. He visited again in 2014. And is going back 2016. But he refuses to take our kids to Disney World (he does want to bring our oldest daughter back to his country with him on vacation.... I don't know how I feel about it because it's one of the most violent countries in the world....), mainly because he thinks it'll be a waste of money. His logic is that  I  go somewhere for 20 minutes and then am ready to go (which is true, but come on.. Disney??). \n I'm just irritated that he gets to spend all this money on a vacation back home, but I can't even use $20 of my paycheck to rent a fucking camera lens. We have a joint account, and I have limited access to money because I have a spending problem, and we're trying to save for a house. The joint account and limited access was my idea because I'm sick of living paycheck to paycheck despite earning good money. \n My point in this post is for you guys to point out how stupid I'm being and that I really don't have a right to have hobbies.", "id": "t3_3zf55e", "summary": "husband won't let me have hobbies but is planning an expensive vacation."}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "I make 1600$/mo more than my husband. If it weren't for our health insurance coming out of his paycheck, I'd only make $900/mo more. \n I just need tips and pointers on how to handle my rotten, resentful attitude. \n He'll send money home to his country every month - and it's a small amount, like 50-100. But for some reason, I get resentful. Like, really resentful. 50-100 is a lot to them, and it feels like a lot to me, but the grand scheme of things isn't that much. \n His other vice is eating out all the time - 4 times a week at 5-12$/meal. Plus, if he goes out to lunch with a guy friend or his dad, they take turns paying, so that's an extra $40/mo. I rarely eat out. I'm content to bring my lunch from home to work, and to eat breakfast at home daily. I spend $1.48 on coffee 5 times a week, but could easily replace that with the coffee here at work. Maybe once every other month I charge a store credit card with 100-150$ worth of clothes, and then pay it off in a week's time. I've got a job where professional attire is imperative - his job is jeans and a company issued polo... \n Anyway, he bitched at me this morning because I recently spent $110 on new clothes for the summer (I got 8 things!!). He was mad I bitched at him yesterday for having sent $150 home in the past 2 weeks time. I guess I view it as my spending is a sort of an investment - I'll get return (or, many uses out of the clothes) from my spending. His sending money home and eating out at taco bell and baja fresh every god damn day yields no return, in my opinion. \n I just want to sit down and come to an agreement with him. I'm resentful because I make more money than him so when he spends all this money on food and his family back home I'm just like, well fuck, now I need to foot the bills (even though it's not true). I'm resentful because he doesn't even have a high school degree and shows no interest in getting one. I keep suggesting he get a GED and go to college but \"who has the time?\" or \"it costs to much\" or \"I'm too old.\" So he's content to work in food service management forever.. where he'll never advance... and never make a decent amount of money. \n I've been doing ynab for 4-5 days, but he, from what it seems, \"can't remember the passwords for his credit card accounts\" so he doesn't even try to help with the budget (but in all fairness, I haven't had a serious discussion yet). \n How do I get through to him, and how do I change my attitude, and how do we set boundaries and help each other and keep this marriage alive? I don't want this to end in divorce but I sincerely think that if we were to split, it'd be better. I mean, then, he could send money to who tf ever he wants, and eat out 45 times a day. But nope, he doesn't want to divorce.", "id": "t3_4cwrbq", "summary": "I make more than my husband and have a super shitty, resentful attitude about it, especially because he sends money back home to his family (aunt, mom) in his country. Please help me understand him, suggest things so we can meet in the middle and not get resentful about money."}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "Long story short, my dad left my mom when I was 16 and immediately started dating his current wife. They got married when I was 18. I'm an only child. My mom is very resentful of my dad - though she claims she never loved him. She tries so hard to be diplomatic about things, but sometimes her opinions slip (like comments under her breath when my dad is in town and wants to see me and my kids)... \n My step-mom is everything my mom isn't. She's loud mouthed, type A, industrious, self-made woman, opinionated. I want so badly to like her. But a part of me is scared that if I do like her, it will hurt my mom. And I don't want to hurt my mom because at the end of the day, my dad walked away from us 16 years ago, not her. My step-mom has a way of speaking and being where she doesn't  really  censor herself before she starts talking. She has very strong opinions on things, and won't hesitate to share them. \n The last time I saw my step-mom it was a disaster (I had given birth, her and my dad came to the hospital despite my asking them to wait until I told them to come because my mom was there...)... I couldn't find it in me to be outwardly nice to her, so I generally just ignored her. It's always eggshells around her - or between us. Anyway, I haven't talked to her since July (not that I ever talked to her on a regular basis anyway). \n We (so me, husband, 2 kids) are going down to FL to visit my dad and his wife come April of this year, and I'd like to bury the hatchet. I want to just hash out all the issues. Maybe get drunk and let everything fly. I want so badly to like her, especially since she's my dad's wife, she's here to stay (I mean, it's been 14 years since they got married...)... we'll be staying at their house with them when we go so.. \n Help?", "id": "t3_40nk02", "summary": "I can't stand my Dad's type-A opinionated wife, and a part of it has to do with my own mom and her feelings. I want to be friends with said wife, but, it's hard :/"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "As the title suggests, I'm one of three employees - I'm an assistant to two attorneys. I love them both dearly, but it's time for me to move on. I've been here 4 1/2 years but there's no room for growth, and frankly, it's starting to get frustrating. But that's a post for another day. \n I'm actively job seeking. I almost left them back in January when I had another firm job offer, but unfortunately, that job was a government contracting job (so, no security) and it paid less than what I make here. My bosses counter-offered and made me a salary offer that was too good for me to leave. I don't get any benefits here, never have, never will. But, they're wonderful when it comes to allowing me time off for things like my kid's preschool's mother's day tea party, or a 3p dentist appointment. \n Anyway, I want to leave. I have to leave. I can't stand it anymore because I'm constantly making excuses as for why one of my two bosses never calls anyone back. We'll have a pile of prospectives sitting on his desk and he'll choose to browse the internet for hours on end. It's like... it's just frustrating. \n I digress. HOW can I get out of the office to interview if I never ever take lunch (in the 4+ years I've been here I've taken lunch and actually left the office maybe 20 times)? \n I don't want to tell them I'm looking because when I signed on another girl worked here, very part time. She was kind of irresponsible when it came to this job (always showing up late, leaving early, calling out), but she had mentioned she wanted to go back to college in another town, so they kind of told her \"either take a pay cut or quit...\" and then eventually they told her to stop coming to work... I don't want it to end up like that (btw, I've never been late, never call out sick, I do leave early but it's like once every 4 months and for a doc appointment or whatever). I'm afraid if I say I'm looking they'll be all too quick to replace me and kick me out before I find another job. What if I don't find another job? Then it's gonna be awkward... \n Anyway, I love them, they're  incredible  people who show me appreciation on a daily basis, but... I can't anymore. I just can't. I can't deal with the clientele, I can't deal with the lateness of one boss or his laziness. I can't deal with the mundane answering of the phone, and getting incessantly interrupted... I'm burnt out. :[", "id": "t3_4iuy2i", "summary": "how do I make excuses to go interview with other firms?"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "Long story short, two BILs tried to come over here to the US on foot. They were left behind somewhere in Texas because one of the two got violently ill. Last communication with them was yesterday morning (they had a cellphone that they kept turned off because who can charge a cellphone in the desert). \n Anyway, my husband and another BIL (who both have valid papers, thanks) flew down to Texas to try and find them, but the lost BILs couldn't give a good location. We think they were picked up by immigration, but I can't find record of them in the system. My husband and other BIL are flying back home today. \n My husband has been very distant. We'd had numerous fights over the past couple months since he announced they were trying to come. He knew I didn't want them here. Anyway, he's worried sick about their mom, their aunt, and of course his brothers. \n How the hell do I help here? I told them it's a good thing if immigration got them because then they'll go back home and be with their mom... And he told me I don't understand. \n Help. :(", "id": "t3_4ib6lb", "summary": "two BILs are probably dead or still lost or with immigration because they tried to come without papers. How do I help my husband deal with the uncertainty and/or loss? \n EDIT: OMG!!!!! THEY'RE OKAY!!!!!! ICE picked them up!!!!!!"}, {"author": "Astridasteroid", "content": "Just a few things first: \n \n I'm 13 weeks pregnant. \n We have a 3 year old daughter who falls asleep in bed with me. I don't bring her back to her bed (which is a convertible crib that has been made into a toddler bed -- we'll be getting a twin bed here in the following weeks). \n My husband works the late shift. I work mornings. \n My husband  snores . It keeps me up at night. \n When he comes home, he likes to watch an hour or two of TV and often dozes off on the couch. He'll wake up momentarily to turn off the TV and will go right back to sleep. He says if he wakes up to come to bed, he has a hard time getting back to sleep. \n \n Should I be concerned at all by this? We have a relatively healthy sex life, but we are both often very exhausted from our opposing schedules. I am out of the house for work M-F from 7.30a-6p. He works a few days during the week and most weekends. His schedules vary wildly - he could work 1p-11:30p M, Tu, Th, be off on a Friday, then open on a Saturday, etc. During the week, when I'm at work, he often has to get up at 7:30a when I leave the house (after a 1a bed time if he closed the night before) to watch our daughter until he goes to work (and brings her to the sitter). \n Anyway.,", "id": "t3_2rutd9", "summary": "husband rarely sleeps in our bed - but there are many agitating factors. Is this cause for concern?"}]}
+{"author": "LondonPilot", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post pressurisation is expensive (especially the cost of reinforcing the aircraft structure to support the pressurised environment) - they're not going to do it unless they really have to! \n Edit: this is the [video I was thinking of]( - although there are lots more examples if you look for them.", "output": "It is possible to survive at very low pressures. \n But it's not possible to function normally. There are videos around of people trying, and failing, to complete children's puzzles designed for a 1-year-old at the pressure that exists at cruising altitudes. They generally find it very amusing that they can't function properly, and don't realise there's anything wrong. \n What's more, an aircraft has to be comfortable not just for the seasoned mountaineer. It's got to comfortable for a 110 year old man who's smoked 60 a day for 95 years, and had a lung removed six months ago. And it's got to have a margin of safety over and above what that 110 year old man requires. \n As for the pilots, they in particular have got to do more than just live. They've got to make decisions upon which the lives of hundreds of people could depend. It might be possible to survive and be comfortable with a lower pressure, but not to accurately make critical decisions."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4125", "history": [{"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Many years ago, there was a case I followed quite closely (professional interest) where a helicopter pilot applied for, and got, a job flying police helicopters in the UK. Although he had a private pilots license for flying helicopters, he didn't have a commercial license, and was not allowed to work as a pilot, but he lied about that and worked as a helicopter pilot for some time before he was found out. \n He was represented by a solicitor who was very well known in aviation circles, and who used to post regularly on a particular Internet forum for pilots. \n Most of the charges against the pilot were dropped on technicalities, and the prosecution admitted they didn't stand a chance of winning on the one remaining charge and dropped that too. \n The solicitor wrote a very interesting post [here](", "id": "c8o67nm", "summary": "He said the officers who brought the charges against his client brought the wrong charges. His client had acted dishonestly, but was not guilty of the charges brought against him. It is the job of the prosecution to prove the defendant's guilt, not his job to prove his innocence. On this occasion they didn't do that, therefore the justice system worked."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "To understand this, you need to understand the difference between \"true airspeed\" and \"indicated airspeed\". \n True airspeed (TAS) is the speed at which the aircraft is actually flying through the air. It's of little interest to pilots, except for navigation. \n Indicated airspeed (IAS) is based on the density of the air, and how many molecules of the gasses in the air pass over the wings. \n If an aircraft is flying at 250kt TAS at sea level, in a temperature of 15 degrees C, it will have an IAS of 250kt. As the aircraft climbs, if it were to attempt to maintain TAS, its IAS would decrease because the air is thinner. More realistically, we tend to climb at a (to a point) constant IAS, which means as we climb our TAS gets higher and higher. \n Aircraft wings stall (assuming other things are fixed too) at a fixed IAS. \n So, to get to the levels the U2 flies at, pilots of these aircraft keep their IAS constant, above the stall speed. But because the air is so thin, they achieve a very high TAS when they do this. \n Note: this is quite simplified, specifically because it ignores Mach effects.", "id": "cj96odl", "summary": "aircraft like the U2 have to fly at a very high \"true airspeed\" in order to not stall."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "When your operating system was installed, either you or whoever installed it told you what country you are in. \n When your browser was installed, it checked with your operating system what country you are in, and configured itself to use a search engine for that country. For example, my browser uses google.co.uk because it knows I'm in the UK. \n The search engine predominantly searches for websites in the language appropriate to where it thinks you are, based on a combination of the address you use for the search engine (for example, I use the UK version of google) plus information it gets from your IP address about what country you're in. I believe that google goes more by the website you use than the IP address, although I'm not certain of this, and other search engines may vary. \n Because of that, it returns results almost exclusively in English, to both you and me.", "id": "c9bxfih", "summary": "it knows where you are partly from your IP address, and partly, indirectly, because you specified where you are when your operating system was installed."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "You get points for being \"Quite Interesting\". You lose points for being obvious or boring, especially if you say something so obvious that it sets off the klaxon. \n I don't believe that it's ever been explained in any more detail than that. I suspect there's an element of making it up as they go along. And as with most of these celebrity panel quizzes, some of the questions are probably edited out, which means that the score doesn't relate exactly to what we see on tv anyway.", "id": "cag2x93", "summary": "who cares. It's a comedy show, so sit back and enjoy it, don't waste brain power thinking too hard about it."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "It's not hard, it's just harder. \n The whole copy/paste thing is pretty good in iOS, but it's so much easier with a mouse. Especially if you know the keyboard shortcuts for copy and paste too. Equally, having more than one tab isn't hard in Safari in iOS (nor on many 3rd party browsers), but it's just a tiny bit more fiddly than having a big screen with a mouse so that one click changes tabs.", "id": "cc0vkm6", "summary": "people are lazy"}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Imagine the ground gets heated by the sun. As the ground heats up, it causes the air that's next to the ground to also heat up. The air begins to rise, because hot air rises..... and that will leave an area of lower pressure. \n In the mean time, in an adjacent area where the air hasn't begun rising, there is higher pressure. Air begins to flow from the higher pressure area to the lower pressure air. \n And this is how the wind begins to blow. \n But as the air moves into the low pressure area, it begins to swirl around, because of something called the [Coriolis Effect]( And you end up with much higher wind speeds where the low pressure is, and much calmer weather where the high pressure is. \n The fact that air is moving around much more near the low pressure causes fronts to form - that's when one air-mass meets another. Two different air-masses have different properties, for example different temperatures, and this determines how they interact with each other. Most of these interactions involve creating bad weather - rain, drizzle, thunderstorms, low cloud, etc - all the things that we normally associate with low pressure.", "id": "cd6fh8r", "summary": "Low pressure causes wind, wind causes fronts, fronts cause bad weather."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Hmm, I'm not sure about that. \n Brains process things in parallel. So raw data coming in is processed by a different part of your brain to that doing complex problems, and doesn't slow down the complex problems. \n But on the other hand, if you became blind, the brain can re-route its circuits so that the part of the brain previously used for sight can get used for something else. So if you  never  had all this input coming in, then I suppose what you're saying is true.", "id": "cbldrj3", "summary": "I get what you're saying, but I think brains are too complex to apply simple rules like this to, in most cases."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "That is one of the worst, most biased reports I've ever read. \n It cites only one source, and that source is a summary of the [\"Shades of Green\" report]( \n Here's what the executive summary of the full report says: \n > It shows that in countries with coal dominated power supplies electric cars generate carbon emissions four times higher than in places with low-carbon electricity. \n >Where power generation is coal dominated electric cars are the emissions equivalent of average petrol cars, while in countries with low carbon power they result in less than half the emissions of the best petrol hybrids. \n And the conclusion of the report says: \n > These figures serve as a reminder that electric cars are not a standalone technology for carbon reduction, but that they must be deployed together with low carbon power to maximize their potential. \n > In countries with coal dominated power generation electric vehicles do little to reduce carbon emissions when compared to petrol vehicles. In countries with a broad fuel mix they are equivalent to the best petrol hybrids or efficient diesels. In places with low carbon power they are more than twice as good as the best combustion engines. \n > Though often overlooked, vehicle manufacturing emissions are increasingly important in low carbon vehicles, and should be considered to fully understand the benefits of new vehicles", "id": "cgmyxcw", "summary": "not only does your link only cite one source, it also selects from that one source only the conclusions it wants! \n Electric cars may well be the solution once green energy is more common. Buying an electric car now, in many, if not most, countries might make little difference in terms of carbon reductions. But you would still be supporting what I'm sure will be the technology of the future, so I'd still say it's a good idea if you want to be green. And if you happen to live in Paraguay, where almost all power comes from green sources, then electric cars are great!"}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "I totally agree. \n However ...... there are few things more annoying that doing a google search for something, clicking on a result, and being promoted to download an app. I'm not a regular user of your website! I'm just passing by - I want to see what you've got to say, then move on, and quite possibly (unless I'm really impressed by it, or unless google points me your way again) never visit your website again! I do  not  want or need your app!", "id": "cfp2icp", "summary": "the best sites have native apps  and  web apps, and they don't mind which I use."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Why would you want to be original? \n I'm pretty sure I could dream up some whacky way of being original, doing something no one else does. I could keep a pet polar bear, eat boiled tree bark every day for lunch, and sleep on the kitchen work-surface at night. That would make me pretty original. \n But the fact is I don't have the knowledge to be able to keep a polar bear safely, and I don't really have the desire to gain that knowledge. I don't know what boiled tree bark tastes like, nor how to cook it safely, and I don't really desire that knowledge either. Nor do I particularly want to sleep on a kitchen work-surface. \n There might be some people who do one of these three things, but I'd be very surprised if anyone did all three. Because most people desire normal things, most of the time, and every now and then we fancy something a bit different that makes us  different , if not totally original.", "id": "c8rcyqt", "summary": "do what makes you happy, who cares whether it's original or not."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "the bottom line is if they don't have the money, you're not going to get paid. \n So long as my car insurance is fully comprehensive, if I get into an accident with someone who's not insured, my insurance company will cover me. \n However, that costs them money. And they pass that cost onto me. There are figures available that say what proportion of my car insurance premium is there to cover the cost of uninsured drivers, and it's quite a significant amount.", "id": "cfbkwl3", "summary": "even if I never get into a crash with an uninsured driver, the simple fact that there are uninsured drivers out there  still  means that my insurance costs me more."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Language changes over time. You can see this if you compare the way you speak to the way your grandparents speak - and your own grandchildren will speak in a very different way to you. \n Many languages descended from Latin - but each of them evolved. And without modern technology such as television and internet to enable us to all share our language developments with each other on opposite sides of the world, there's nothing to stop language developing in different ways in different countries. \n To start off with, the different ways of developing would just show up as different accents. Then new words would be introduced, and they'd become dialects of the same language. But after several centuries, the language will have developed in such different ways in two different countries that it really can't be considered to be the same language any more.", "id": "cd1bpqo", "summary": "the languages which are descended from Latin are, really, just different versions of \"modern Latin\" to one extent or another."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Pretty much all western music has the following two key components: \n \n A time signature, which tells us how many beats there are in each bar. You'll notice that all the music in both those videos has 4 beats per bar. There are pop songs in 3 beats per bar, and these won't fit. 4 beats per bar is easy to dance to, so that's what's used most commonly, but ballads, in particular, might use 3 beats per bar because you can sway to that beat quite easily. \n \n A key signature. This tells us what note the song ends on (and often what note it starts on), as well as which 8 notes make up the scale used in this song. It's easy to change a song from one key signature to another - this is called  transposing . So we could pick a key, then transpose dozens or hundreds of pop songs into that key. Once we've done that, we've then got dozens or hundreds of songs that all use the same 8 notes of the scale. And of these 8 notes, we can combine them together to form chords. While there are some chords that really only work at certain times, there are a few chords which will work well with anything that's in the same key as those chords - and this is what both videos you've linked to are taking advantage of.", "id": "cfxdkfl", "summary": "both videos have taken a load of songs with 4 beats per bar, transposed them all so they're in the same key, and then used some chords that can work with anything in that particular key."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Most airliners operate in \"controlled airspace\". This means that an air traffic controller is responsible for managing the traffic inside this airspace. \n Most controlled airspace is intended to provide what air traffic controllers call a \"known traffic environment\". This means that the air traffic controller knows what every aircraft is, where they are going, what their intentions are, and so on. \n In a \"known traffic environment\", the controller can pass aircraft relevant information about all this traffic. For example \"The B737 ahead of you will be turning left\", or \"You may see an Airbus ahead of you, he's cleared to be 1000' above you\". \n The first problem with drones is that there is no way for air traffic control to communicate with their pilots. That means they can not possibly know what their intentions are, and they can not possibly pass information about the intentions of the drone to other pilots. They can't deny or delay access to airspace to drones, if the airspace is particularly busy, for example. The controller has no way of interacting with the drone. \n The problems are made worse by the fact that drones are so small. Regardless of how much help air traffic control can or can't be, pilots rely on being able to look outside their aircraft and see other aircraft to be able to avoid them. Airliners, being pretty large, are often (but not always) quite easy to see, but light aircraft can be very difficult to see because they are so small. Remember that, at the speeds at which aircraft travel, seeing an aircraft just a couple of miles away might be considered a \"near miss\". And however hard it is to see something as small as a light aircraft a couple of miles away, it's much, much harder to see a drone because they are so small. \n There are tools which can help pilots look out for other aircraft. Air traffic controllers have radar displays and can tell pilots what is going on around them (even when they are not in a \"known traffic environment\"). Airliners, and also many newer light aircraft, have on-board systems to help pilots spot and avoid other aircraft. But all these systems rely on the aircraft having a piece of equipment called a \"transponder\" - a device which responds to radar signals and lets the radar equipment know more about the aircraft. All airliners, and most light aircraft, are fitted with transponders, but drones typically are not. So there's literally no way for a pilot to avoid them, other than by spotting them visually. And, what's more, the drone pilot may or may not be in a position to spot the other aircraft, so it's quite possible that see-and-avoid will only be going one way instead of both ways.", "id": "cm7weif", "summary": "for all kinds of reasons, there's a much, much higher chance of a mi-air collision with a drone than with a piloted aircraft."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "We will not suddenly run out of fuel. \n Most cars get scrapped when they are around 15-20 years old. \n When we run out of oil which is easy to get hold of, we will be forced to use more expensive oil, and the price of fuel will rise gradually. Then when we use up that oil, we will start to use more expensive oil. And so on. The process of \"running out of fuel\" will probably be spread over 50 years or more. \n In those 50 years, people will scrap their old cars just as they currently do. But instead of replacing them with more petrol/gas/diesel cars, they will replace them with maybe electric cars. At first, only a few will do so - in fact, this is what's already happening now. But over the course of 50 years or so, they will become more common, while cars that run on existing fuels will become gradually more rare and more expensive to run.", "id": "cmyk3vn", "summary": "there will not suddenly be one day when all the existing cars have to be scrapped and we all have to drive new cars."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "The reason you think like this is because you're used to seeing an icon for each file. Two different icons, you click on one for one file and the other for the other file. How  you  can tell them apart is a good question, but it's your problem, not the computers. \n But internally, files are referred to by their name. When you double-click on an icon, the computers says: \"What's the name of that icon? Answer - file1. Ok, now open file1\". If there are two files both called \"file1\" then the internal parts of the computer wouldn't know which file is being referred to. \n Why does it have to be that way? Well, go back 25 years, and we used to routinely open files by typing their name. It was the only way to refer to a file, before the days when each file had an icon. \n But surely we don't need hangovers from 25 years ago? Well, we could certainly change it now... but then we come back to the question: if there are two files with the same name, how will  you  know which is which?", "id": "casm94i", "summary": "It was like that originally because we used to type the name of a file when we wanted to refer to it. Now we have icons, there's technically no reason it still has to be that way - but to change it would require a massive effort, and would possibly make the computer harder to use."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Cats' voices aren't flexible enough to make all the sounds needed for human speech, and the relevant parts of their brains aren't well enough developed. \n This isn't true for all animals. Parrots' voices are very capable of producing speech. But like cats, their brains haven't developed in the right way to understand what they're saying, only to repeat blindly what they hear. \n Other animals may have brains with areas that can understand speech to some extent or another. Dogs can be taught to understand simple speech. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that dolphins are capable of understanding it a lot more - I don't know this for a fact, but I've often heard the intelligence of dolphins compared to that of humans. But neither dogs nor dolphins can produce enough range of sounds to speak like humans.", "id": "c9eitbo", "summary": "to speak, an animal has to be clever enough to understand speech, and have a voice that's capable of speaking. Lots of animals have one or the other, but none have both."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "I don't think the country makes any difference at all. \n Whether in Italy or in the USA, if a 14 year old girl makes a considered decision to have sex with her long-term 15 year old boyfriend, she's not going to be traumatised by it. It might be illegal in some parts of the world, but that doesn't make it traumatising. \n Whether in Italy or the USA, if a 14 year old girl is pressured into having sex with a 35 year old man, that will be traumatising. It is illegal in most (maybe all) developed countries, because it is considered to be rape. In some countries, the age of consent makes it particularly easy to prosecute this particular type of rape, because the law considers that a girl of that age can't possibly have consented. In other parts of the world, you'd have to prove there wasn't consent in order to convict for rape.", "id": "cdgp2xc", "summary": "being illegal and being traumatising are not the same thing."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "All of the polls predicted that the two biggest parties, Labour and the Conservatives, were neck and neck, with each having around 34% of the vote, and both being a very long way off of winning enough seats to secure a majority (ie. more than 50% of the seats). \n It turns out that every single one of the polls was wrong. The Conservatives - who are the more right-wing of the two main parties - did far better than expected, and just about managed to win an overall majority, winning 331 out of 650 seats. \n The people who are upset are generally left-leaning - many, but not all of them, Labour supporters. They are basically upset that the party they view as being \"evil right-wingers\" won unexpectedly. There's really not much more to it than that. It might have sparked a bit of a debate about proportional representation - although even under a PR system, the Conservatives would still be by far the biggest party.", "id": "cra2j2h", "summary": "left-wingers, who tend to be more vocal than right-wingers anyway, are upset they didn't get the result they wanted or expected."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "When I'm looking at a weather report at work, I pay careful attention to the dew point - specifically, I'm interested in how close it is to the temperature. \n A surface temperature and dew point which are very close is an indication that there's a chance of mist or fog forming, especially in the evening when temperatures are likely to fall. It can also help give an idea of how likely cloud is to form, although its only a small part of the picture of cloud formation. \n Probably my best indication of whether mist or fog is likely would be to read the forecast and see if it mentions mist or fog. The forecaster will use the dew point, together with lots of other information, to decide whether to include mist or fog in the forecast. And it could be argued that once the forecaster has done this, he doesn't need to tell me the dew point. While that is true to an extent, forecasts are never completely accurate, and it's important that I build up a picture of what the weather is actually doing, rather than just reading a forecast. The dew point helps me do that - as does the synoptic chart, the rainfall radar picture, the satellite images, etc.", "id": "c7o8404", "summary": "dew point is used by forecasters. It could be ignored by anyone else if forecasts were perfect, but forecasts aren't perfect, and understanding the dew point helps understand what the weather is really doing."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "I've lived in houses I've owned, and I've also rented out houses I've owned. \n They are very different. \n I've decorated houses I own, I've replaced kitchen equipment, I'm looking into upgrading a bathroom suite soon. The mentality when I do this is that I want something nice, something that I'm going to have to use and live with for many years. \n I've also decorated and re-fitted houses which I rent, and it's a very different mentality. It's all about finding the cheapest way of doing the work, for the maximum amount of rent. I don't buy the cheapest I can if it's going to result in me losing rental value, or if it's going to need replacing again soon because of poor quality, but other than that, cheapest is always best.", "id": "crngpce", "summary": "you are correct in thinking that owning a house can be a good investment when compared to renting a house. But the way you treat that \"investment\", your attitude towards it and the way you consider the costs associated with it are very different - we don't treat the house we live in as an investment when we maintain it, because it is  more  than  just  an investment."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Everyone at a school would do it. \n Then, one group of people from this school would go to a youth group, and meet a group of people from a different school. It would become common throughout the youth group. \n People from the youth group would go to their own respective schools, and it would spread around the rest of their school mates who don't go to that youth group - but perhaps go to a different youth group. \n Once something got popular enough, it might feature in magazines or even on tv.", "id": "cna8yrk", "summary": "social networking. Socialising does not need the Internet to form a social network!"}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Do you have any specific examples of opcodes that are \"unusual\"? \n It's been many years since I've done any assembly language programming, so I may be out of the loop - but instructions are normally added to processors in response to modern compiler and software demands. \n For example, when 3G language compilers became prevalent, processors began adding more complex instructions to do things like manipulate the stack pointer directly (3G languages typically do this because they store local variables on the stack), and adding addressing modes to retrieve data from a location relative to the stack pointer (to retrieve data from local variables, as well as parameters which are passed to functions and procedures on the stack). Prior to this, it was \"unusual\" to use the stack other than to \"push\", \"pop\", or \"call\". \n I learnt to program assembly back on 8-bit processors before compilers were common, and when I first saw these kinds of instructions turning up in instruction sets I thought they were \"unusual\". But in fact they'd been added for a very specific purpose - unusual if you're coding assembly by hand, yes, but useful for compilers, and a few years later it would be unusual to find software which  didn't  use them.", "id": "ciaj4pu", "summary": "processors designers don't waste space and other resources on their processors adding \"unusual\" things without a very good reason."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "True story: \n I was a relatively inexperienced flying instructor, based at Blackpool Airport. The airport is very close to Warton, which is owned by British Aerospace. \n [Here's a map]( so you can see what I'm talking about. Blackpool Airport is on the left hand side of the image, and Warton is at the bottom. \n On this day, my student was wearing some glasses that blocked his view out of the window, to simulate being in cloud. But in fact, we were in real clouds, on final approach to the main runway at Blackpool, approaching from the east (the right hand side of the picture). \n We popped out of the clouds near Clifton, on the right hand side of the picture, which, as you can see, is lined up with the runways at both airports. \n Well, when we came out of the clouds, I still couldn't see Blackpool because of the poor visibility, but I saw a runway that we were lined up, which of course was Warton. My student was flying, and his view out of the window was blocked. But I swear, if I was flying, I'd have landed at Warton. Because it was the only runway I could see, and because I was expecting to see Blackpool, I'd have headed straight for it. \n It was only because my student wasn't pointing at the runway that I questioned, in my own mind, what was going on, and realised my mistake.", "id": "cdjyyqk", "summary": "it doesn't take much to put an idea into your head, and once you have that idea in your head, it's not easy to get rid of it."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Regarding changing your \"name\": \n At work, my students and I use a particular call-sign on the radio when talking to air traffic controllers. Unlike commercial flights (which usually change call-sign each flight), it's common for flight training organisations such as mine to use one call-sign per instructor. So my students get very used to using my call-sign for the three months or so that they typically spend with me. \n When they change instructor (for example, for a test, although there are other reasons they may change instructor too), most of them will  continue to reply to my call-sign when air traffic control are trying to call me.", "id": "caakzge", "summary": "even for a \"call-sign\" which gets used only for a few hours a day, much less than a name, people still get used to responding automatically to a particular call-sign within a couple of months."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "First of all, releasing software for free is not making it \"open source\". Open source means that the source code from which the software is built is freely available for anyone to inspect, use or modify. This is not what Microsoft are doing. \n Edit:  as pointed out below, I've missed a piece of news, and this isn't true! I'll leave the rest of my post up for general information, but it doesn't answer OP's question. \n As for why they're giving away software for free - they make almost all their money from corporate contracts to supply software to businesses. This isn't changing. They are only giving away software to private home users. \n Are they losing money by doing this? Well, their software is much cheaper for home users than corporate users, so not much money. And many home users \"borrow\" software from work without ever paying for it anyway. So they're losing very little money. \n What do they gain from it? They hope to keep Microsoft software as the de facto software that most people use and are familiar with. One big factor for businesses is training costs. If home users stop using Microsoft at home, and start using, say, Google, then businesses might start to wonder if it would be worth them using Google too, because their employees already know how to use Google software.", "id": "cm28ydg", "summary": "it's not open source; they're losing very little; the benefit is they get to keep their position as market leader."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Major and minor scales both consist of 8 notes, which can be split into two groups of four, each callee a tetrachord. \n The gaps between each note in the scale can be either a whole tone (w) or a half tone (h). \n In the major scale , the gaps between each note as follows: \n 1-w-2-w-3-h-4-w-5-w-6-w-7-h-8. \n If we split that into two tetrachords, it looks like this: \n (1-w-2-w-3-h-4)-w-(5-w-6-w-7-h-8). \n The intervals in each tetrachord are the same - w-w-h. What's more, the interval between the 7th and 8th note is a half a tone, which is good - that 7th note is the \"leading\" note, and having it half a tone below the tonic (the 8th note) makes it less in to the tonic nicely. \n Now onto minor scales . \n The thing which makes a scale minor is that the third note is a semitone lower - making it a minor 3rd above the tonic, rather than a major 3rd. \n With that in mind, let's look at what happens to our tetrachords if we do nothing else except change the third note: \n (1-w-2-h-3-w-4)-w-(5-w-6-w-7-h-8). \n The two tetrachords are now different. You might recognise this pattern as the ascending part of a melodic minor scale. It sounds very pleasing, especially when it's leading up to the tonic, because it still has the half tone between the 7th and 8th notes. \n But when you're not leading up to the tonic, there are more pleasing combinations, which all use a minor 6th, since that works well with the minor 3rd. \n The natural minor scale is: \n (1-w-2-h-3-w-4)-w-(5-h-6-w-7-w-8). \n This is also used as the descending part of the melodic minor scale. The use of the minor 6th makes this sound much more \"minor\" than the ascending part of the scale. But it doesn't have the leading note, so it doesn't work quite so well going up the scale one note at a time \n Then there's the harmonic minor scale. This is a compromise, which uses the minor 6th, but augments the 7th note so it still forms a leading note. It sounds very harsh when it's played one note at a time. But it's easy to pick notes out of it to form harmonies, hence why it's called the harmonic scale, because the 6th and 7th notes both work very well with the rest of the scale, even if they sound harsh next to each other.", "id": "cbo45of", "summary": "major scales are neat and tidy, and work for everything. Minor scales aren't quite so neat and tidy. The first tetrachord is fixed, but the second tetrachord needs to be changed depending whether you want a very minor sound, a nice leading note, or both."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "With the exception of the fan, each of those devices you've listed has a little chip in it, basically another computer, which looks after the USB communications. \n The chip is fairly universal - the chip in each device works in pretty much the same way. \n That means that, when you plug a device into the computer, you've basically got two computers plugged into each other. At this point, they each understand each other, and can communicate about exactly what device you've plugged in. \n Your PC, once it's spoken to the USB chip in your device, will know what device it is. It can then check to see whether it knows how to deal with the device itself - and, if it doesn't, it will find/download a driver for it before it carries on. \n Only once all this has happened does the actual guts of the device get to talk to the correct driver installed on your PC.", "id": "cd06fjs", "summary": "the chip in hype USB device talks to the computer in a generic way, telling the computer about the device, until the PC has the correct driver ready. Then the driver can talk to the device."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "First of all, the rules are bound to change multiple times before you reach state pension age, so what I'm about to say almost certainly will be very different by the time you need it. \n Secondly, I'm not an expert on state benefits; you should speak to a Citizens Advice Bureau for some proper advice from someone who understands the system (or try posting this question in /r/AskUK). \n Having said that, if you never work a day in your life, you will be entitled to the  Basic State Pension  You'll also be entitled to other benefits like Housing Benefit, with certain conditions attached.", "id": "cgmynwp", "summary": "you're not screwed, you're not left to sit and die. Good luck with the job hunting, though - and if you can build up a private pension you'll be much better off financially when you reach retirement age, because the state pension system won't leave you to sit and die but it also won't pay you enough to live a life of luxury."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Non-scientist here, but familiar with the vestibular system and how it combines with other senses, especially vision. \n My job involves teaching people to fly in clouds. One of the most dangerous things you can do is trust your vestibular system when you don't have a good visual reference to back it up. \n Pilots call this \"spatial disorientation\". Tests have been done in flight simulators, where qualified pilots who have had no training in bad-weather flying have crashed within 30 seconds of entering clouds because they're not able to ignore the false information from their vestibular system.", "id": "cgwihwn", "summary": "I'd be amazed if OP really does know where he is during his car journey if his eyes are closed. Or, if he does, he's using other information too, such as knowing that if he's stopped, he's probably at that set of traffic lights he knows is on the route."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Brains are capable of doing very complex tasks, but they take (by computing standards) a long time to do each task, regardless of the complexity of the task. \n Computers are capable of doing only the very simplest of tasks, but can do those tasks millions of times per second - so quick, in fact, that we can get them to do million or billions of these tasks, which makes them appear to do some clever things. But not as clever as what our brains do.", "id": "ccqf9qn", "summary": "brains: complex tasks, slowly; computers: simple tasks, quickly."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "I suspect I'm late to the party, and this will get buried, but let's give it a go anyway. \n As a man, I honestly can barely tell the difference between one scent and another. \n A few years ago, I wanted to buy my sister-in-law some perfume for her birthday. I spoke to my sister for advice. On her advice, I asked my brother what perfume she normally wears, then asked a perfume shop for something similar. \n Well, the first telling thing was that my brother didn't know what perfume his own wife wears. He had to go away and find out. \n But he did find out. So I went to the perfume shop, and did what my sister told me to do - I told the assistant I wanted something that's a bit like XXXXX, which I know my sister-in-law likes. \n The assistant brought out about 5 different perfumes for me to choose. And I swear, every single one smelt exactly the same. I don't mean they were similar. I mean EXACTLY the same. In a blind smell test, smelling each one immediately after the other, I'd have sworn that I was smelling the same thing 5 times. \n I picked the one that was in the right price range. Sister-in-law seemed happy enough. I haven't been back to a perfume shop since....", "id": "cdg9xzs", "summary": "we can't tell the difference."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "A colleague landed an aeroplane very badly. I didn't see it, but I heard air traffic control ask him if everything was ok, and he said yes, there's no problem. I didn't think anything more of it at the time. \n A few weeks later, by chance, I noticed a strange noise when I moved the controls on the aeroplane. Turns out that \"someone\" had landed the aeroplane hard \"some time previously\", and bent some internal parts that weren't visible without dismantling part of the aircraft. These bent parts were touching a control cable that they wouldn't normally be touching if they weren't bent. And they were gradually sawing through that control cable. \n I couldn't pin it on my colleague for certain, but I know it was him. (What's more, because he wouldn't own up to it, we couldn't tell the insurance company the date when the accident happened or who the pilot was. And without these details, they wouldn't pay to have the damage repaired.) \n (The same guy, 10 years later, came very close to killing himself by flying into a hill at night. He thought he was 10 miles away from the hill.)", "id": "c8egw1x", "summary": "colleague broke an aeroplane, didn't tell anyone, the broken bits (that couldn't be seen) nearly killed me. \n Edit - I feel like I should add that this was at a small flying school, not an airline or anything where the general public would have been at risk. Airliners have automatic systems that detect hard landings, so the pilots can't pretend it didn't happen - this situation would be impossible on an airliner."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "The biggest reason is because plain language is ambiguous. \n \"See the table there, with the book on it? Pick it up.\" \n Did you just pick up the book? Or the table? You know that I most likely meant for you to pick up the book, because it's more rare to pick up tables. But what I said would have been perfectly correct English if I meant you to pick up the table too. You used your life experience to determine that although the language I used could have meant for you to pick up the table, that was less likely than picking up the book. \n The problem is that computers don't have life experiences to be able to make these decisions. And even if they did, the consequences of them making the wrong choice could be quite severe.", "id": "cblprvs", "summary": "It's very important that computer languages are unambiguous. Natural languages are not unambiguous."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Went for a drink with a few mates in the student union once, about 20 years ago. \n A drink turned into a few drinks, which resulted in me and my mates shaking our stuff on the dance floor..... when some guy decided to take a swipe at my mate because he had long hair or something stupid like that. \n I usually end up being the peace-keeper in these situations, so I put myself between my mate and this other guy. But my mate decided he was going to return the punch anyway, and tried to reach around me to the other guy. With me in the way, he was punching at a really odd angle, he landed his blow but it landed awkwardly, and hurt my mate's hand more than it hurt the other guy. Then the bouncers stepped in and broke it up. (They'd seen that it wasn't us who started it, and we were regulars there anyway, so the other guy got kicked out and we carried on partying.) \n At the end of the night, we were on our way home, in the lift (elevator) in our building, when my mate said his hand still hurt, it must be dislocated. He started hitting it on the lift wall to \"put the joint back in\". He asked the rest of us to help out. It didn't help, and he went to bed. \n Next day, his hand still hurt, so he went to hospital, where they did an X-ray and found it was broken. Broken - probably - from being hit repeatedly on the lift wall!!!", "id": "cbzk4gv", "summary": "mate got in a fight, threw one punch, then broke his own hand later that night trying to put back in a joint he thought he'd dislocated but almost certainly hadn't."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Much of an air traffic controller's job is routine, and could perhaps be automated. \n But a large part of what they do at airports is visual - looking out the window and controlling based on what they can see, and that's very difficult to automate. \n Additionally, automated systems are very good at following routines, but a lot of what air traffic control does is not routine. The most obvious case is handling emergencies. Controllers have to think on their feet to be able to help pilots in the most appropriate way when there's an emergency. Or to guess what pilots are doing when they have a radio failure. Or an emergency that requires them to act immediately without having time to speak to air traffic control first. \n Even in their regular day-to-day activities, controllers will often have a set routine they follow, but that could easily be interrupted by something unexpected - an aircraft travelling much slower than the traffic flow, an aircraft that's not followed its clearance correctly, an aircraft that's inadvertently entered controlled airspace without seeking a clearance. \n Then there are changes to the routine. A major sporting event, a presidential or royal flight requiring other flights to be moved out of the way, for example, or an aerobatics display in the place where they'd normally send their traffic. \n Even if you put all these aside, you still currently need a human to pass instructions, by radio, to other pilots, as well as, by telephone, to other controllers. Of course this could be changed, but only at a huge expense, and with the huge risk associated with major changes in infrastructure technology.", "id": "cen2zjk", "summary": "there are too many variables to automate the job."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "According to [this article]( from two years ago, 60% of the price paid in the UK is tax - either fuel duty or VAT. 34% of the price is is the cost of oil. \n In 2011, per litre,  the price of oil in the UK was 45.2p, and tax costs 80.4p . \n According to [this article]( in the USA, the oil makes up the bulk of the cost - 65% - with only 13% going on taxes. \n In 2009, per gallon, the price of oil in the USA was  $1.08, and the tax costs $0.31. \n Dividing by 3.8 gives an approximate cost per litre of oil of $0.28, and tax of $.08. And converting this to Pounds Sterling (at today's rate) gives  the cost of oil as being 17p, and the cost of tax being 5p .", "id": "cd1auey", "summary": "Brits pay around two and a half times as much for oil as Americans - but the killer is tax, where Brits pay around sixteen times as much as Americans. \n Disclaimer: I can't find matching figures all from the same year, so there will be some errors due to using American prices from one year, British prices from another, and currency conversion rates from a third year."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Just because two different cases result in conviction for the same offence, that doesn't mean they are treated the same and given the same penalty. \n Here is the [sentencing guide for rape]( used in UK courts. \n You will see that there are three different starting points for sentencing, depending whether there was a single offence committed, or whether it was multiple offences, and depending whether the rape was accompanied by certain other factors (including abduction or detention - your \"1st class rape\" scenario - as well as gang rape, rape when you know you have an STD, etc). \n Then there are some \"aggravating factors\" - things which can increase the sentence you are given. These include ejaculating, or causing your victim to ejaculate, as well as threats to prevent the victim reporting the incident. \n And there are \"mitigating factors\" which would reduce the sentence. In the case of rape, the only mitigating factor is if the victim had consensual sex with you immediately prior to the rape. \n Interestingly, contrary to your theories, alcohol is considered an aggravating factor,  not  a mitigating factor. \n So the courts do actually do pretty much what you've described. However, I can't imagine them ever giving the offences different names, as you've suggested, because politically there was be a massive backlash from the \"No means no!\" campaign.", "id": "cbfcqt2", "summary": "they do, but they just don't use those names. And they are unlikely to use those names, or anything like them, because it's a political hot potato."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Pilot here, although not a jet pilot. \n Pilots learn to fly on simple aircraft with one engine. Even these simple aircraft, for the most part, have the same six basic flight instruments. \n When you first start learning to fly, you don't use the instruments at all. You do everything by looking out the window. In the first few lessons, though, you will start learning to use the instruments to check your height, your heading (the direction you're flying) and your speed. You also learn to use the engine instruments - the rpm gauge shows how fast the engine is going, and there are temperature, pressure and fuel gauges. You learn to use the radio - possibly the only radio in the aircraft, too. \n For flying a simple aircraft in good weather, that's all you need. \n Then, as you train to become a jet pilot, you learn to fly more and more complex aircraft in more difficult weather. In bad weather, you will be constantly referring to all six of the flight instruments. Instead of a single radio, you might need two radios for communication, and four or five different radios for navigating. But the basic layout is exactly the same as what you first learnt to fly on. \n More complex engines have more gauges. If you fly an aircraft with two engines, there'll be two sets of all of the gauges. But you've still got the same basic instruments as when you first learnt to fly. \n Gradually, you move on to more and more complex aircraft, and you need controls for the pressurisation, controls for the electrics and hydraulics, controls for the cabin lighting and the toilets and the in-flight entertainment. But the same basic instruments are still in front of you (although there are two sets of them now, because each pilot will have his own set of instruments). \n I've never flown a jet. But I can look at the cockpit of a jet, and find most of the controls, instruments and gauges I'd need to fly it within a few seconds. There are a few that I'd have to hunt for a bit longer.... but that's why pilots have to spend weeks learning to fly the specific aircraft they're going to work on, even after they've got their pilots license.", "id": "ccuzgud", "summary": "Yes, they use them all to some extent or another, but the key instruments are the same in every aircraft. \n And a note for accuracy: I've referred to the six basic flight instruments a few times, but every new jet has, for many years, shown all these instruments on a computer screen, rather than having discrete instruments, and this is becoming more common on small training aircraft too. This layout is known as a \"glass cockpit\"."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Chrisss is correct - there's absolutely nothing they can do with Airplane mode. Apple have thought this through very carefully. \n If they enable Airplane mode, you can't lock your phone remotely. But they can't get anything off your phone if you have a passcode set, and as soon as they eventually connect to the web, your lock will take effect. The only things they can do with Airplane mode active and the phone locked are turn on the flashlight and use the calculator. (Ok, there are a couple more things, but they're no more useful.)", "id": "cixgya1", "summary": "no, Apple didn't allow what you're suggesting because there's absolutely no need for it. They designed it to be secure."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "The price of almost every type of good depends to some extent on oil prices, because goods need to be transported, and that requires fuel. \n If oil prices fall too much, then fuel gets cheap enough that the reduced cost of fuel can make it cheaper to make and distribute goods - maybe enough that the price of these goods begins to fall. \n Falling prices - aka deflation - is generally a bad thing, because there's no reason to make any non-essential purchases today if you know that things will cost less next week. That means people stop spending money, and the economy grinds to a halt.", "id": "cmbj08j", "summary": "Small drops in oil prices can be a good thing, but not drops which are big enough to cause the price of other goods to fall too."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "First of all, you'd have to hack into the bank's computer system. This will be heavily protected - for example, employees don't just need a password, they also have to use some other kind of electronic device to prove they are an employee. You'd have to do the same. \n Then you'd have to hack into the database. The database is probably protected so that it can only be accessed using the appropriate applications, you can't just log into it. \n Next, you'd have to amend the database. Once you're in the database, amending it is easy - but every single change to the database will be logged, showing who made the change, when, using what application, from what computer, etc. \n If you somehow manage to get through all that, then the bank will total up the money in all their accounts every evening, as well as totalling up all the money they've received to go into customers' accounts, and all the money they've paid out. If someone tampers with an account, then the numbers won't add up, and they'll start investigating to figure out why.", "id": "ce0nein", "summary": "No"}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "There are several layers to this answer, many of which have already been pointed out by others. \n \n First of all, there are different types of  airspace . In uncontrolled airspace, the pilots basically look out of the window to see and avoid each other. In many countries, there are facilities for air traffic control to help pilots spot other aircraft, by telling the pilots what they can see on radar. This is how most small aircraft avoid each other - but most airliners will rarely, if ever, fly in this type of airspace. Instead, they fly in controlled airspace. \n \n Inside  controlled airspace , there are some basic rules about following certain routes, and which level you have to fly at. The level will usually depend on which direction you're going, with eastbound traffic usually flying at an odd number of thousands of feet, and westbound traffic usually flying at an even number of thousands of feet. There are lots of exceptions to this, for example aircraft are more spaced out when they fly higher because their equipment is less accurate, and routes going north/south can't follow this basic rule. \n \n The next layer is about  how the airspace is designed . The routes that aircraft follow are carefully chosen to funnel aircraft in and out of the busiest bits in such a way as to allow the traffic to flow the easiest. For example, the airspace over England is very busy with traffic routing from London to the North Atlantic, and on towards America. To ensure a smooth flow of traffic on these routes (and considering that there are 5 international airports in London, dozens of routes across the Atlantic, and these same routes are also used by traffic going between Central Europe and North America), northbound traffic is generally restricted to the east of the country, east of Birmingham and then up to Manchester. Southbound traffic is generally restricted to the west of the country, from Liverpool and then south remaining west of Birmingham. \n \n Despite all this planning, it's still necessary for  air traffic controllers  to keep a careful eye on what's happening. They use a combination of vertical separation and horizontal separation. For vertical separation, they keep you 1000' from anyone else going the same way. If you want to climb to 15,000', they'll approve that only when there's no one else along your route between your current level and 16,000', for example. Or, if necessary, they can use horizontal separation, so they'll allow you to climb to 15,000' only after instructing the other aircraft, the one at 14,000', to fly in a direction where he's not going to conflict with you (or equally they could tell you to fly in a specific direction). \n \n The next layer is  arrivals . Arrivals at busy airports follow very specific procedures, which often involve holding if there's traffic in front of you. When you have to hold, you enter the hold high up. The bottom aircraft in the hold comes out of the hold when he's able to start his approach, then, one by one, air traffic control tell everyone else to move down to the next level in the hold. The levels are 1000' apart, so they are using vertical separation to protect the aircraft in the hold from each other. \n \n Departure routes  are then planned so that they go between the arrival routes. Departures are normally held to a low level initially, with permission given to climb higher only once air traffic control can see there's no one else at a higher level in your way. \n \n Then there's the final layer -  TCAS, Traffic Collision Avoidance System . This is a fail-safe mechanism fitted to every airliner. It looks for other aircraft, and if it spots a potential collision it will warn the pilots. If the collision starts to become a real possibility, TCAS will instruct the pilot to take evasive action - climbing, descending, or maintaining the current level - after having automatically agreed the action with the TCAS system on the other aircraft if possible. Pilots are taught that TCAS Resolution Advisories - the instructions to avoid collisions - take precedence over everything else, even if they contradict instructions coming from somewhere else like air traffic control.", "id": "c9pq9yz", "summary": "there are many, many systems in place to protect aircraft, from generic rules, to specific planning of busy bits of airspace, to humans watching the whole thing, and including automatic systems just in case all the other systems don't work for any reason."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Classification of animals into groups such as reptiles took place a long time ago, and was based on observations including the fact that they are cold-blooded, and they have scaly skin. This is in contrast to birds which are warm-blooded and have wings, or mammals which are warm-blooded and suckle their young. \n However, science has advanced a long way since then, and, as you suspect, according to [Wikipedia]( \n > Due to their evolutionary history and the diversity of extinct forms, the validity of the class is not universally supported in scientific circles, though in practice, it remains in use by some biologists and more laymen, especially in mass media \n The problem, basically, is that we now classify animals based on their genetic ancestry. But since we've been able to decode the genes of animals, it's become clear that mammals and birds evolved from reptiles. Therefore, it's not scientifically correct to classify all reptiles as being together and distinct from mammals at all. \n There's a pretty detailed description of the history of the classification of reptiles on the Wikipedia page, which answers your question much more thoroughly, but the", "id": "cqicj36", "summary": "answer to your question is \"No\"."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Britain is an imperial-unit nation at heart. Almost everyone thinks in imperial measurements. \n However, European regulations have meant, over the last couple of decades, that some things have to be sold in metric units. Therefore, when you go to the supermarket, you'll find that milk is sold in 568ml bottles. It's a pint, we all know it's a pint, and it says on the bottle, somewhere, that it's a pint. But it has to say 568ml first (and I think the metric units have to be in a larger font, too - I can't remember the exact rules). \n Some shops do sell 500ml bottles of milk, because they think if they sell them for the same price as everyone else sells a pint, no one will notice. This tends to be confined to smaller shops - and most people  do  notice, but they buy it because the location of the shop is convenient, so they don't mind paying a bit extra for the convenience. \n In some areas, though, European rules still allow us to use imperial measurements. Speed limits, and distances on the road, are the most obvious place. We have a 70mph limit on our motorways, and it's about 200 miles from my house to Manchester. \n However, lorries (trucks) are restricted to 56mph by European law. The law actually says 90km/h, but on the back of our lorries it says they're restricted to 56mph.", "id": "cbl4uwd", "summary": "it's a mess, thanks to Europe!"}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "I've found recently that the last two people I know who have activated iMessage, it's taken a week or so before I've been able to send them iMessages, although they could message me straight away. I think it just takes that long for the servers to register that this number can now receive iMessages. \n I've also found that I can sometimes message someone from an iPad or iPod sooner than I can from my iPhone. The iPhone insists on sending text messages, whereas a device without text message capabilities is more likely to check whether it can iMessage the number, I guess.", "id": "cftawe7", "summary": "you probably just need to wait a bit."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Food isn't free because farmers need to be paid for the work they do, supermarket workers need to be paid for the work they do, truck drivers need to be paid to transport the food to the supermarkets, and so on. \n \n Farmers, according to you, are \"scared of the price of food becoming so low that it's not profitable\". How would it help if food were free? That would make things infinitely worse for farmers. \n \n You also talk about food being destroyed while people starve. The reason there are starving people in much of the world is not because of a lack of food, but because we don't have any effective way to get food to people because of the political situation in the countries where they live. This is nothing to do with the price of food.", "id": "cr08uc6", "summary": "You've made a few claims, but I don't see how any of them are connected to each other (besides being about food), or how free food would solve any of the claims you're making."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "I spent 4 years working in McDonalds. \n I loved it. They fitted shifts around my university studies. I could transfer between my home city in the holidays and my university city in term time. I worked with a great bunch of people, mostly of a similar age to me, who loved to party. I got free food when I was working! \n The work was hard, but it could be satisfying, especially when it got busy. And however bad your shift was, it's the kind of place where, when you arrive the next day, any problems from the previous day have gone. \n The money was crap, but there were worse paying jobs. (There was no minimum wage in my country then. There is now, I'm not sure how McDs pay compared to minimum wage.) And it gave me enough extra spending money, compared to my university friends that didn't have a job, that it made a big improvement in my life, and enabled me to run a car throughout university.", "id": "cdm4u7n", "summary": "not everyone gets treated badly at these places. I wouldn't have wanted to work anywhere else as a part time job while I was studying."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "I use VirtualBox, and I have several virtual machines, which (depending what I'm doing at work) I can sometimes use regularly. \n I configured my virtual machines to have fixed size hard drives, generally of around 40-50GB. \n When I use a virtual machine, I might make some changes which only involve small files of a few MB each. But those files will be stored on virtual hard drives which might be 50GB. So what's happening from the point of view of the Mac filing system is that one file, which is 50GB, has changed... although only a few MB of the data in that file has actually changed. \n When this gets backed up regularly on Time Machine, will it make a fresh copy of the mostly-unchanged 50GB file every time, therefore using up the storage space on my backup media very quickly? Or will it only back up the bits that have actually changed?", "id": "t3_47f1ig", "summary": "Does Time Machine always save a fresh copy of the entire file when that file has changed, or does it only back up the bits of the file that are different to the previous backup?"}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "I'd love to hear from anyone with any advice, or who's been in a similar situation to me. \n A bit of background: I split from my ex-wife when our daughter was 3 months old. She's now 5, and although she lives with her mum, for near enough all of the last five years, she's seen me regularly - she sees me most weekends, and stays the night two weekends a month, as well as spending longer periods with me in the holidays. \n About 4 months ago, I started dating someone, and we soon realised it was becoming a serious relationship. So, a few weeks ago, I introduced my daughter to my girlfriend, and they got on brilliantly. So much so that my daughter talked about her the following week when I collected her from her mum. Her mum said to her \"Is that daddy's girlfriend?\", which annoyed me a bit, because I hadn't said anything to my daughter about her being my girlfriend, I wanted to keep it low-key and just introduce her as a friend - but my ex didn't know that, and what's done is done. \n Since then, my daughter has seen my girlfriend twice more, and both times has got on well with her again. She sometimes draws pictures of her, too. \n Anyway, tonight I had a call from my ex. My daughter has been getting very upset the last week, saying that she likes my girlfriend, but doesn't want her to be my girlfriend because that means I won't ever get back together with my ex. She's been crying when she's being dropped off at school, which is unusual for her, and she's been very clingy, and saying things like \"You're the best mummy ever\" to my ex - as if she's worried that my girlfriend will somehow replace her mum. \n My ex has reassured her that she still loves her, and that I still love her; that we're not ever going to live together again whether I have a girlfriend or not, and that this isn't our daughters's fault, but she's still very upset. My ex also spoke to her school teacher, who said this is quite normal (although normally happens when children are a bit older than my daughter), and that she's very happy at school and stops crying as soon as my ex leaves after dropping her off. But the situation is quite upsetting, and not really sure what, if anything, I can do about it. \n Anyway, like I said, I'd love to hear advice, stories or words of wisdom. Thank you!", "id": "t3_1o63v2", "summary": "5 year old daughter likes my girlfriend, but doesn't want her to be my girlfriend, because that means I won't be getting back with my ex."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Tax avoidance is when you use legal loopholes to reduce your tax. It is considered \"dodgy and immoral, but not illegal\". \n A few years ago, I became self-employed for a short while. Since this was new to me, I arranged appointments with 4 different accountants, and had initial consultations with them all, before choosing one to look after my financial affairs. \n The first question they all asked me was how much money did I expect to take, and how much of that would be profit? I told them the answer, which was enough to make a living from but certainly not enough to get rich from. \n Every single accountant then told me that this was enough money to make it worth setting up a limited company. This way, they explained, I would be able to draw a minimal amount of salary from the company, using my tax-free personal allowance (and ensuring I took enough salary to be eligible for national insurance credits), whilst taking the rest of my pay in the form of dividends, which attract less tax than a salary does (or at least that was the case for the amount of money I was talking about). My expected income was only just enough to be worth going down this route, they all said, because if it was slightly less, the extra cost of running a limited company would be more than the amount of tax I'd save, and I'd be better off registering as being self-employed. \n Naturally, I followed the professional advice. \n Does this make me a tax dodger? \n I never thought of the work I did as being the work of a company. I was working by myself, choosing when and where to work - a layman would look at what I was doing and would say, in every way, that I was self-employed. The only reason I operated through a company and not as a self-employed individual was because I was advised it would reduce my tax bill. \n Does this mean that all of the accountants I spoke to were providing advice on tax avoidance? I got exactly the same advice, almost to the letter, from all the accountants I spoke to. \n If that does make me a tax dodger, does it make what I did immoral? How is one supposed to know that the advice they get from every single professional is immoral? \n And if it doesn't make me a tax dodger, then how is it different from tax avoidance schemes and individuals who use them?", "id": "t3_2vnmuy", "summary": "Where exactly is the cut-off?"}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Our Valentine's Day was going to be a quiet one anyway. My daughter (6) is due to be staying with us for the weekend, so we can't really go out, but I was planning on cooking a nice meal for is both and spending a quiet evening together after my daughter and my girlfriend's teenage children were all in bed. \n Her friend's birthday is on Feb 14, and this friend always complains that it gets overshadowed by Valentine's Day. So this year she said she was planning a party the week before. But when the invitation arrived, it was for Feb 14th! I can't go, because I need to babysit my daughter, and this friend knew that in advance. My girlfriend spent the next hour or so slagging off her friend, and I assumed was going to turn down the invite - but then she said no, she had to go even if just for an hour because it wasn't worth the grief she'd get from the friend if she didn't go. In fact, she thinks the friend deliberately made the party this day as a test to see who were \"real\" friends are by whether they come to her party. \n I know this is a minor thing. I know the birthday party is a one-off, but we could have a quiet night in any other time. But this has really annoyed me, and I can't explain why! \n My girlfriend said she would eat dinner with me first then go out just for a short while. I told her there's no point - by the time my daughter goes to bed it would be 8.30. There's nothing romantic about rushing through a dinner together so she can go out without me afterwards. But when I said this she accused me of making life difficult for her. \n I think what I need is advice on how I can calm down. I'm not normally an angry person at all, and I just can't explain why this has upset me so much.", "id": "t3_2sdkg5", "summary": "Girlfriend is going to a party without me on Valentine's night, how can I stop being angry? Thanks! \n Edit : Thanks, everyone, for helping me put this in perspective! Will definitely arrange something special for another night. /u/DeejaeHarper suggested making it a special daddy-daughter day, which I like the idea of very much."}, {"author": "LondonPilot", "content": "Hi, \n I'm after recommendations for a password vault. I need something which I can use on my iPhone/iPad, as well as my PC at home. But the difficulty is that it also needs to work on my PC at work. \n I can't install anything on my PC at work, so that means it needs to have a web interface. I've seen lots of people raving about 1password, but I don't think that has a web interface? For quite a while, I've been using SecureSafe, and I've been very happy with it - it does everything I need, and, bonus, does it all for free! \n Now the problem: this week, the geniuses at my office have decided to block file-sharing websites. And because SecureSafe is a file vault as well as a password vault, it's been classified as a file-sharing site, so even though I don't use the file vault, I no longer have access to the password vault at work.", "id": "t3_1yj8u8", "summary": "need a password vault, with a web interface, which is  not  a file vault. Free would be better, but I don't mind a small one-off cost. Thank you for any suggestions!"}]}
+{"author": "MyNameIsRay", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post the ones that need to be pointy are, the ones that aren't are simply serving another purpose.", "output": "For starters, [lots of bullets are pointy.]( although as you can tell by the colored tips, most of these are hollow tips with a pointy plastic plug for aerodynamics. FMJ bullets with a pointy tip certainly exist. \n Bullets serve a certain purpose, whether it's penetrating armor, flying long distances very accurately, or packing lots of tiny bullets into a single clip. Bullets with a pointy tip are generally an \"armor piercing\" style, where the small tip allows it to pierce armor. The downside is, against a non-armored target, it will pass right through and keep going. This can be dangerous. \n Bullets with a \"hollow tip\" or ones designed to deform when entering a target, expand once inside the target and keep from exiting and continuing into others. Since the objective of a gun is to stop the person you're aiming at, a bullet that puts all of the energy into the target (instead of passing through) is ideal. \n When it comes to hand guns, because of the length needed for a pointy tip, the charge becomes too small if they want to keep a reasonable loaded length (remember, clip fits in grip, grip fits in your hand, there's only so much room). Rounded top bullets solve this issue by packing the same mass in a smaller space. For the distances a handgun is effective at, the loss of accuracy and distance is negligible."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4750", "history": [{"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "It's called \"Visual Adaptation\". Your brain takes the input of the eyes, combines it with your inner ears (level/gravity) and body (relative position) and makes everything line up like it's supposed to. This is an active process, not passive \"wiring\", and thus, can be changed. \n As an experiment, you can wear special goggles/glasses that invert your vision. After a while (5-10 days), your brain will adapt and flip your vision. Quite literally, you wake up one day, and your brain has just accepted the flip and made it normal again. When you take off the goggles, it's all flipped again until your brain adapts back. People who use bi-focal glasses go through a similar transition when adapting.", "id": "cnfef07", "summary": "Your brain make sense of the input it gets, no matter how \"wrong\" it may be."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "The growth rates of dinosaurs were an advantageous evolutionary outcome in response to their environment. They had access to enough food to support that size, for starters. Bigger size meant less predators (but also meant, bigger predators were viable as the food supply existed to support them). As far as we know, there was also a higher concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere, meaning that the physiological challenges of \"powering\" a body that large are much less difficult. \n While part of the growth is genetic/evolutionary, much of it is also due to environment. A dinosaur today simply could not grow as quickly or as large in our current environment. Unless something drastic changes, animals currently on this planet won't be growing that fast or big any time soon.", "id": "copoeso", "summary": "Over thousands of generations, they evolved to be that large, thanks to ample food, higher oxygen levels, and the evolutionary advantages of bigger size (like less predators, and winning fights against smaller members of your species in order to mate). With any of those criteria missing, it wouldn't happen."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "I'm oversimplifying here, but this is the 5 year old version. \n Cavities are caused by bacteria's waste products eating away at your teeth. They eat the bits of food stuck in the nooks and crannies of your mouth, digest it, and excrete acidic waste. What is essentially the \"poop\" from this bacteria is the acid that eats away at your teeth. \n By eliminating the food, you eliminate the bacteria, and prevent cavities. \n Sugar, salt, spice, and everything nice does not cause cavities-it's the bacteria that feed off of these things that does. \n Regular brushing ensures these food particles are wiped away, preventing the bacteria from ever getting a start.", "id": "cqjvqlm", "summary": "brushing does not encourage hardening/regrowth of enamel, but it does prevent the bacteria that causes loss of enamel/dentin from getting a chance to do damage."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "There are some exceptions. Trader Joe's wine,  Two Buck Chuck  (now called \"Charles Shaw\" to sound fancier), is a literal $2 bottle of wine that is fantastic (although, depending on where you live, it might be a bit more). Some brands of chocolate are also affordable and amazing. Expensive doesn't necessarily mean better, or even higher quality. \n That said, there are certain things that lead to higher quality, and almost all of them cost more. \n Using the finest ingredients, skilled and trained workers, higher levels of quality control (and the extra rejected product, and cost of that product, that comes with that), are some of the things leading to a better product and a higher price. Proprietary processes, and other \"secrets\" also have a cost, and result in better quality. \n Things like marketing, branding, and packaging also factor into cost, but not necessarily quality. Going back to 2-Buck Chuck, it's not advertised or marketed. It's a plain bottle with a plain stick-on label. Compared to something like Grey Goose, less than half the price is actually for the product. The rest is for big profits, advertising budgets, and that fancy printed and etched bottle.", "id": "coodnvc", "summary": "cheap can be the way it's supposed to be, if you know where to look. Expensive doesn't guarantee quality. Quality can be earned through certain processes (like quality control, or using better ingredients) that ultimately drive up the final price to the consumer."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "It comes down to the copyright of the specific work whether it's an issue or not.  Generally speaking, copyright infringement happens when you obtain the work in question, not when you actually use/view it. \n Content created for Gary's Mod, by Gary's Mod, for Gary's Mod owners, would be a violation if you downloaded it. If it was created for anyone, whether they have the game or not, then it's not a violation. \n Content created by third parties, for free, that works with Gary's Mod, is not a violation. If they charge, and you stole it, that's a violation. If you re-sell without permission, even as part of a compilation or package, that's also a violation. \n Content created by third parties, for their purposes, made to work with Gary's Mod by a third part, is still protected by the original copyright. The person who made it is in violation, as are you for downloading, whether it's used or not (unless the original copyright permits such modifications, which almost none do).", "id": "couro8e", "summary": "If it's copywritten, and you download it in violation, you are in violation whether you use it or not. If it was downloaded in compliance with all rules surrounding the work, you're fine."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Multiple reasons, but mostly, just works better for the task. \n In the US (also Canada, and Australia, where the \"pointy nose\" trucks are common), roads are wider, city driving is less common or non-existent, and long-hauls (>300 miles) are commonplace. In EU/UK, 300 miles can put you a country or two away, here in US, it doesn't even get you half way across a single state. \n The US trucks have \"sleepers\", that big box behind the cab is a room with a bed and bathroom so you can sleep in the truck on a long drive. They're generally rated for higher towing loads, have bigger motors, and carry more fuel. Overall, there is an economy of scale, and these bigger trucks going further is actually more efficient (in terms of fuel and time per pound of cargo moved per mile). The downside is, they are larger and less maneuverable. An American big-rig with a full trailer honestly couldn't get around a European city center, they're just too big.", "id": "clrpfg1", "summary": "The truck is better suited to the type of driving and roads in the area."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Those with high alcohol tolerances can function with higher concentrations of alcohol in their system, including when poisoning/death is involved. \n In real life, a new drinker would likely be puking, falling over, and passing out around .3, and .4 would be life threatening. Many lifetime alcoholics function just fine at .3. \n While .4-.48 is the accepted concentration where death by alcohol poisoning occurs, there are many cases of people surviving double to triple that with no ill effects, all of which were long-term alcoholics. Some of them even pass 1%, a death sentence to most people. \n Even the [National Institute of Health]( is sure to state \"in most drinkers\" when referring to the risk of death, since alcoholics can regularly go above and beyond those limits without dying thanks to their tolerance.", "id": "cr6s4ku", "summary": "No, they are not equally close to alcohol poisoning, as the alcoholic's tolerance allows higher concentrations of alcohol before ill effects occur."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "It's an evolutionary trait, and the period it takes to return back to a stable level is dependent on intelligence. We actually have one of the longest mourn/celebration periods among animals, despite it being relatively short in our life. Cats, dogs, iguanas, and other \"lower\" animals have a period that is very short. Elephants, dolphins, apes, and other \"higher\" animals have notably longer periods, like humans. \n The ability to \"carry on\" through a tragedy is essential for saving what's left and rebuilding, even if you've been devastated. Surely, a trait that helps us as a species. \n The ability to accept major positive, like a promotion and raise, or a successful hunt, and then again seek advancement is something that has driven us to continue to improve almost everything we encounter. Getting lazy after a success is a surefire way to not advance.", "id": "croq8x7", "summary": "The ability to \"get over\" major events, adapt, and keep going is what keeps our species progressing."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Insanity workout. \n Yea, that infomercial workout with the nut that yells at you. College buddy got it for Christmas, asked me to join him. Long story short, we followed the plan and ate right and I lost 45lbs in a semester, he lost about 25 (but started off in better shape). It sucked, and it was hard, REALLY hard. I've passed out, puked, etc., but I think that's why we stuck with it, it wasn't some wussy crap. My cardio/strength/balance/endurance was DRASTICALLY improved as well, it was shocking.", "id": "cjxqk7c", "summary": "Insanity Workout from infomercials really can and will make you lose a ton of fat in a few weeks if you follow instructions. Not for the faint of heart, or those who are starting on square 1."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Life expectancy is an average. Having a bunch of children and babies die brings down the average by a lot. Even if we didn't live as long now, the average is still higher, because less young people are dying. \n EX. (40+40+40)/3=40. (3+52+50)/3=35. Lower average, even though 2 out of 3 people actually lived longer. \n is the Social Security Administration of the United States Mortality table. \n The interesting column is the last one, \"life expectancy\", or \"how many years until you die, on average\". Do notice that for every year you are alive, more than a year is added to your life expectancy.", "id": "cmvrjlv", "summary": "Less young people die now because we can prevent or cure the things that used to kill them, which drives up the average."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Ammo is super duper common, and cheap. It's been in constant use for nearly a century, and is used by many other guns. \n \n It's prolific. It's been in production since 1947, by multiple manufacturers in multiple countries. There's more AK's out there than any other weapon. This also means they are cheap, and repair parts are easy to find. \n \n It's easy. Anyone, even children, can easily operate and use with a few minutes of training. They are easily repaired as well. \n \n They're basically indestructible. You can pull them out of sand, and they cycle with no issue. Drop it in mud? It'll shoot the mud out with the next shot. Bolt rust shut because you forgot it in the snow all winter? Kick it open, it'll work fine. No maintenance is a nice thing in the areas where they're used (jungles, deserts, untrained owners, etc). (FYI, guns like the M16 and M4 are basically ruined if you were to bury them in sand or mud and try to shoot.) \n \n They're POWERFUL, almost twice the energy of 5.56mm rounds, the other common standard (used by M16/M4 guns, American standard issue). To give you an idea of the difference, it's 1,974 Joules vs. 3,275 joules.", "id": "ckpfd34", "summary": "They're the most common, cheapest, most reliable, easiest to use, and most powerful weapon around."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "They're really annoying, because they're so smart. \n They destroy property. They will enter your home and eat your pet's food, and attack your pet if it has to (potentially spreading diseases like rabies). They don't mind eating fish out of ponds, chickens, eggs, etc. \n They get big too, 30-40lbs in suburban areas where they can access food easily. They're not cute little bandits, [they're the size of a medium dog]( and mischievous. \n They knock over garbage cans, and sort through the garbage, [making one hell of a mess]( They're smart enough to bypass locks, levers, bungee cords, etc. If not, [they just eat through the can]( destroying it. \n They will force their way into spaces . Once in, they'll destroy more, like [wiring]( \n They take over those places, and  pee/poop everywhere . They'll attack humans if cornered, especially if you end up in \"their domain\". [They're not always cuddly](", "id": "cpl3xcd", "summary": "they're destructive pests and in huge numbers due to the availability of food in suburban areas."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Well, high school was interesting, between the gang fights, school wide lock downs while murder suspects were hauled out from class, bomb threats, and myriad sexual incidents. \n Most disturbing thing happened in college. Kid joined a fraternity, was in (not pledging) and his brothers decided it would be funny to roofie him with methamphetamine in his beer at a party. He didn't do drugs like that, only smoked weed, just started drinking that semester. Party broke up before midnight, he went back to campus. \n We all went to a mutual friend's dorm room (we were all in the same building). He was kind of freaking out as he was in a full blown meth trip (high? experience? whatever) and had no idea what was going on. We figured he was too drunk or something, put him to bed on the floor with a pillow and blanket (of course, we were all out drinking as well, and wanted to sleep). \n Meth heats your body up, and between that and the blanket (along with no water and dehydration from drinking), he basically cooked. He ended up having seizures in the middle of the night and was taken away by EMT's. Emergency airlifted to the city hospital 40 miles away soon after. \n He never recovered. He can't even take care of himself the last I heard. I talked with him when he got out of the hospital, he wasn't the same. \n He was the funniest guy I ever met, and wanted nothing more than for everyone around him to have fun. It was disturbing not just to see him become mentally handicapped in a matter of hours, and know he didn't deserve it, but know how simply it all happened.", "id": "ciydax1", "summary": "College friend was roofied with meth as a joke. Resulted in him basically baking himself alive until he was brain damaged permanently. A lifetime ruined is sometimes more painful than a lifetime lost. \n Think before you act."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "NY'er here too, hope I can shine some light on this, it's pretty simple actually. \n Much of NY's petroleum comes from the port of NY and NJ, a decent portion of which is refined in NJ. It's driven to gas stations by trucks. \n Before the storm, which we all knew would be big (a \"superstorm\"), there was a bit of a panic. People filled up their cars, generators, and reserve cans before the storm, tapping out gas stations. \n Tankers couldn't get into harbor before, during, or after the storm-it just wasn't safe. Because of this, supply was limited, and wasn't fully restored until the harbor was working again. \n With everyone driving, using generators, chainsaws, woodchippers, pumps, etc. gas was in demand. With the shortage, people \"hoard\" the resource, buying as much as they can so they don't have to do without (with no concern about the person behind them getting some too). \n These things came together into a bit of a \"perfect storm\". The result was scarce gas for a week or two. I know I was riding my bike around, using my car's gas for the generator.", "id": "co1esal", "summary": "Panic caused a rush, the storm made it hard to get gas into the area, the shortage caused \"hoarding\" and over-purchasing, resulting in a more severe shortage. All of this was resolved once the supply returned after we did some cleanup and got the system working again."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Lets discuss headphones, the simplest ones. \n Positive and negative line to a speaker. Positive makes the speaker move out, negative is in. To make a sound, say, a 100hz tone, you'd just switch back and forth 100 times per second. All sound can be represented as frequencies of various amplitudes (volumes) interacting to make \"resultant waves\". To raise volume, you just put more power through, which moves the speaker further. \n Now, television. More complex, but a similar idea, we're still just using frequency and amplitude with a 2-conductor wire. Coaxial cable has 2 parts, the outside is a reference ground (a shield) and the inside wire is the signal line. Many signals are on one line, one for each channel. Each one is assigned a unique frequency. The \"tuner\" or cable box can sort out just one of these frequencies, the channel you want, and ignore the rest. The actual picture is transmitted as different amplitude variations of this same frequency- the same note at different volumes. It's important to remember, this is happening at very high frequencies with very fast changes in amplitude. This is the basic way data is encoded into these wires.", "id": "cox1v6m", "summary": "they vary how fast the signal switches, and how powerful the signal is. Encoders on one end, and decoders on the other end, take this signal and produce the sound or picture."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "There is no downside to overestimating, other than spending a few extra dollars on a PSU you won't have to replace at upgrade time. \n There are significant downsides to underestimating, from burnt out components, to failure to start, to stability issues. \n Additionally, the PSU he had doesn't even have connectors for the 280. It literally can't even be hooked up.", "id": "ckj5swc", "summary": "it's not ok, it won't even work."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "There's a few reasons: \n 1) Drugs grow there easily. The climate and soil makes it incredibly easy to grow illicit drugs like marijuana and cocaine. \n 2) Legal system. It sucks. They don't have the manpower to regulate the underground drug industry, to find all of the grow operations, or to stop the refining/trafficking. Further, corruption is rampant in many of these countries (low wages means that bribes are even more enticing) so many times the law looks the other way. \n 3) Desperate workers. People don't resort to growing drugs unless they have to. Due to the economic climate, there are more than enough farmers and laborers willing to accept higher-than-average wages for working in illicit drug operations (while more than average, they still live in poverty). \n 4) Distribution. Main buyer is the US, and Latin America has easy access to get drugs to the US. Production almost exclusively goes north to the US, a very small amount goes overseas to Europe or Asia.", "id": "cougcd0", "summary": "Many reasons come together to make it particularly enticing to produce and distribute drugs from Latin America."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "I have both monitors and TV's on my PC's, and have had many versions of both over the years. Single, double, triple monitors. TV's from 27\" to 65\" and everything in between. Many combinations of monitors and TV's. \n TV's are bigger and cheaper. They have more types of inputs. It's cool to have on a wall, but it's generally too unwieldy for desktop. You want to sit about twice the distance away as the TV is wide (32in TV means 64 inches away, give or take). Works fine for games, great for movies, sucks for text. You don't want to have to read anything on a TV if you can help it. \n Monitors are smaller, lighter, and more expensive. Text looks better, and the latency is usually better. (usually, not always). Comfortable viewing range is generally 1-2x the screen size (22in monitor means you're sitting 2-4 ft away).", "id": "cje9xcn", "summary": "If you want big, or only view video/play games, get a tv. If you want clear and friendly, or plan on doing reading, get a monitor. If you're like me, get both, and put the TV on the wall behind your monitor so that from your chair they're both comfortable to view."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "If you don't know anything, the only thing you have to do is find someone who does. They are called \"financial advisers\", and they can assist with planning, managing, and accounting for the money you want to invest. \n If it's purely stocks, you can seek out a stock broker and tell them what you want. They'll be able to enact the trade, and commonly provide either a web portal or paper report that will allow you to keep tabs on your investment. Tell them when it's time to sell and it's done (but remember, you're paying a fee for everything they do!) \n There are dozens of \"trading platforms\", like TD Ameritrade and E*Trade, that allow you to do this yourself. However, if you really don't know what you're doing, it's not recommended. Fees are generally involved, and the risk is always present, but you gain the freedom to manage it as you want on your schedule. You literally click a \"buy\" button or a \"sell button\" and put in a quantity. To collect your earnings, you just transfer the cash from the stock account to your bank account after selling.", "id": "cqt0jbe", "summary": "seek out a reputable financial advisor in your area, that's the best place to start."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "The only factor that has been replicated and tested is shoes. \n Limps, bow-legged stance, pigeon feet, etc. are all physical in some way. We haven't seen any prominent changes between cultures, hobbies (say, horseback riders vs. marathon runners vs. soccer players) or upbringing. We all basically walk the same, in general. Of course, variance exists, but a consistent factor causing a certain gait is very hard to find. \n Shoes are the only non-physical factor that has played into gait in a measurable way. 1st world countries (where decent shoes are expected) humans have an on-average longer stride for their height, and tend to land heel-first, roll their foot, and push off the toes. Their heel strikes the ground in front of their body. \n In places where shoes are less common (or sandals are the footwear of choice), overwhelmingly, stride is shorter compared to height, and tend to land \"flat footed\" (heel and ball of foot land at same time). Even when running, they tend to land flat-footed. Their foot also lands nearly underneath them, not in front like heel-strikers do.", "id": "ck005j9", "summary": "Shoes are the thing most likely to cause a known change in gait. We don't have any solid data on other non-physical factors."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Maggots only eat dead flesh. \n That's key to what's going on, it's called \"Maggot Therapy\". Believe it or not, those maggots are the solution, not the problem. \n Maggots are still used to this day to clean a wound or infection by eating all of the dead flesh, and have been used for literally thousands of years. Gross, I know, but there are some advantages to normal \"debridement\" processes, the name given to removing dead flesh. Maggots are actually more precise, effective, and do less collateral damage than even the best surgeons can do manually. Doctors put the maggots there, and remove them once they do their job (about 2 days later), which is the video you've seen. \n As for why the therapy was needed, I don't know specifically, just that it is some type of infection that resulted in dead tissue. Could be MRSA, could be a flesh eating bacteria, or any number of other infections.", "id": "cori0gs", "summary": "Doctors put the maggots there to clean up the dead tissue created by an infection of some sort. The maggots are actually the solution, not the problem, despite the video title."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Motion sensors work off of infrared. They're often called a \"PID\", or \"passive infrared detector\". \n Infrared, as you might know, is heat. Basically, this is a little heat sensing camera. When your warm body disrupts the view of the room-temperature surroundings, it knows you're sitting there. When it doesn't see your heat any more, it knows you're gone and flushes. It checks every few seconds, if things look the same, nothing happens. If it was cold and is now hot, nothing happens. If it was hot, and is now cold, it flushes (presuming a person was there, but isn't anymore.) \n Two ways to prevent false flushes. \n \n Don't leave. As far as the sensor is concerned, if you're too far away, you're gone. Avoid leaning/moving far forward, or conversely, leaning back before returning to normal. The camera sees both as if you were there, but moved away. \n \n Don't put out heat. This isn't so easy or practical, but a thick coat, space blanket, being a zombie/vampire, or covering yourself in the CO2 from a fire extinguisher like you're in a remake of Tremors (Kidding! Don't actually do this!) will cause the sensor to never \"see\" you in the first place. It also means it won't flush when you leave.", "id": "cp6mdhu", "summary": "do your business in one position, avoid leaning forward or backwards. As far as the camera can tell, leaning back and leaning forward is the same as sitting and getting up."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "It depends on a big number of factors: \n \n What you're eating (carbs, sugars, fats, proteins, roughage, etc) \n How you're eating (cooked, raw, blended, etc) \n Your body (insulin levels, muscle, fat, physical size) \n Your activity level (energy requirement/usage) \n \n In theory, you can basically process as much as you can take in. Professional athletes (Michael Phelps is a great example, as he's given a pretty close look at his training and diet) can eat 10,000-20,000 calories per day, and burn all of it training, storing none as fat. Physically, it's hard to eat that much food. To put that in perspective, it's about 30 foot long subway subs, or 15 big mac meals (with large fries and sodas). \n There have been cases of extremely obese people who consume 20,000-30,000 calories per day, and essentially store it all as fat since they have no physical exercise. This is the upper limit, but honestly, because it's just so hard to prepare, chew, and swallow that volume of food. Often, they have someone who \"enables\" them to eat that much.", "id": "ckt30lv", "summary": "There is no maximum amount we know of, we're limited by what we can physically consume, which is somewhere in the 20,000-30,000 calories per day area."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Go talk to the head of HR or the company insurance broker. You're missing some very vital information. \n HSA is a \"health savings account\". It is a tax advantaged savings account used for medical expenses. \n An \"HSA plan\" (technically the wrong term, but many people call it that) is a type of health insurance plan that is legally compatible for use with an HSA account. Namely, a deductible of more than $1250 ($1300 for 2015) for an individual and a maximum out-of-pocket of less than $6450. \n I'd bet you have an HSA-compatible health insurance plan. You're paying for the plan, and it costs $160. The HSA account is optional, and up to you to open or utilize. Of course, the head of HR or the broker could assist with this.", "id": "ckznp92", "summary": "an HSA is not insurance, and it's not what you have. Go talk to the people who do know what you have and ask them to explain it, it's quite literally their job."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Have your license/insurance/registration ready to go, hand it to the officer before they ask. \n If they do ask, just say \"I have a feeling you're about to tell me\". \n Don't ever, ever, ever admit  anything , ever. \n Not \"I was going to fast\", not \"I didn't signal\", not \"I have tints\". \n Don't ever explain or give a reason/excuse/justification (unless it's a hell of an emergency, like you're shot and going to the er). \n In fact, don't do anything besides your confirm your identity and ask for a lawyer. That applies to any LEO and any situation.", "id": "cpvon3m", "summary": "sit there and shut up unless you're confirming your identity or asking for a lawyer."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Dreams are (believed to be, as far as we can tell) a way of your brain to make sense of all the bits of information its taken in and file it away while we sleep. \n Fear comes from the unknown. Children know a lot less than adults, and much more of that they perceive can be made scary (ever see a kid cry when approached by a big stuffed dog at a carnival?). When processing the information, it's easier for something scary to come out of it. \n As adults, there is simply a whole lot less that scares us. Adult nightmares typically revolve around 3 things: Embarrassment, failure, and harm to themselves/loved ones (not by monsters, but car crashes, murderers, etc.).", "id": "cjxs3lv", "summary": "Nightmares don't stop, the topic just changes. When they do occur, adults are better equipped to deal with it mentally, and are less likely to be affected by it. Just like in real life, where kids are concerned with different things than adults, and what scares a kid rarely scares an adult."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Biggest place you notice is copying a big file to another drive over sata. \n Write speed (on the slow drive) is above almost any internet speed, USB, etc., so it's not like you could download faster. When unpacking a compressed file, chances are, the decompression is the limit rather than the write speed.", "id": "ckvubm9", "summary": "you can only tell on benchmarks and copying large files over sata (maybe installing a game). In normal use, it doesn't matter. How fast you can get a file is far more noticeable and those drives are very close in that area."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Vinegar is almost entirely water, 95%+. There is 3-5% Acetic Acid (CH3COOH) and possibly some traces for flavor, color, or scent (like how apple vinegar is dark and apple scented) \n What's happening when you smell it, is specifically, you're smelling the acetic acid, since the water has no scent. \n As an acid, it's not particularly harmful, at least at the concentration in vinegar. It's essentially harmless, although, it might irritate sensitive parts (eyes, mucous membranes). When more concentrated (2-5 times the level of vinegar), it starts to irritate less sensitive spots (like skin) but won't do any real damage. At high concentrations, it can cause burns, permanent eye damage, and possible nose/throat/lung damage if vapors are inhaled. It can even be explosive/flammable at high enough concentrations.", "id": "cmwm36n", "summary": "with vinegar scent, worse case scenario, your nose/sinus will be irritated, and your eyes may burn a bit. Obviously, \"huffing\" the scent isn't recommended, nor is \"snorting\" the liquid, but the same can be said of basically any liquid."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Basically, it's still illegal, it's just \"decriminalized\", which means you're not going to jail for it. It's not more available, and there is nothing preventing kids from secretly trying drugs (there never has been, and never will be). However, with less addicts, and less dealers to supply those addicts, and less drugs existing in general, kids are less likely to encounter or be pressured into trying drugs. \n When caught, instead of jail, they face a consultation group that evaluates them and recommends treatment. Instead of incarcerating users and addicts, they are offering rehab, counseling, and assistance in changing their lives. \n They are addressing the issue, not just punishing the symptom like other countries. \n Between rehabilitation, counseling, and general awareness, people do less drugs. The thrill is gone, the ignorance is gone, and when deciding based on facts, most people don't want to do drugs. \n Other countries, like the Netherlands, that have followed a similar path have [seen very similar results](", "id": "cq43omo", "summary": "Treating an addiction is far more effective than punishing when it comes to correcting the behavior, as supported by data from extensive studies in multiple countries over many years performed by very reputable research foundations. \n EDIT: Inspired by /u/BillClintonsPenus, here's some links to the actual source data so you can read for yourselves. Remember, often what you see in the news is a story on the report (interpretation of data), not the actual data. \n First, I suggest Transform's report:  This is probably the best report on the topic. \n Here's the study/data, info tracked by the EMCDDA (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction) which is cited in almost every article you'll read on this topic: \n Here's the report/overview on the data provided by EMCDDA. Again, cited in almost everything you'll read on the subject:"}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "The 60fps parts were pre-rendered or mundane, the FPS dropped in basically every fight scene where there was more than 2 characters on screen and tanked whenever there were visual effects (fire, particles from clicker @14:30, etc). \n The clicker scene, which is only a 10fps drop, just LOOKS bad. Look at that stutter! That slowdown! It's clearly, noticeably, chugging and struggling, and that's 1 enemy with 1 effect. The slowdown is worse than a low cap, I'd take steady 30fps over 60fps slowing down every major fight in a heartbeat. \n This game looks good visually, but it's nothing special compared to most modern PC releases. It really looks like the absolute limits are being pushed considering the incremental degradation of frame rate as characters come on screen.", "id": "cja2976", "summary": "60fps is like 60mph in a car. This video is the equivalent of a car that struggles to maintain 45-50mph every time there is a hill but can hold 60 on the flats. This is the equivalent to PCMasterRace honking at the guy doing 45 in a 60."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "G-force is a measure of acceleration, with the measurement given relative to the force of gravity experienced on earth (1G is about 9.81m/s^2, meters per second squared, the acceleration on earth due to gravity). \n Acceleration is acceleration, no matter where you are. If you were in space, floating, with no acceleration, you'd feel no g-force. \n If you were to turn your rocket on and accelerate forward at 9.8m/s^s, you'd certainly experience 1G of force. \n If you were to accelerate forward at 98m/s^2, you'd certainly experience the 10G's that comes with that, and risk blacking out. \n Of course, it's not just straight lines, but changes in velocity (speed and angle). Turning in a \"loop\" causes a constant acceleration towards the center (or else you'd go in a straight line). Just like a tight loop in a jet can cause massive G-forces, a tight turn in a spacecraft, even in 0-gravity, will result in the same G-forces being generated (compensating for the lack of our 1-G of acceleration towards the Earth, of course).", "id": "cqrigln", "summary": "Yes, acceleration in space causes \"g-forces\", even if there is no gravity to speak of. G-force is just a measure of acceleration using the scale of gravity on earth."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "It's exclusive, so it will sell more on xbone than normal. \n It's exclusive, so it will sell at full price for far longer. \n It's exclusive, so it won't go on sale anytime soon, and will never be put through the PC bundling/saving/steam sale system. \n It's exclusive, so you'll see it bundled with new consoles. Guaranteed. \n It's exclusive, so there will be a ton of lucrative DLC. \n It's exclusive, so M$ is giving them an incentive of some sort that ultimately results in more profit in their pockets per unit sold. \n It's exclusive, so development is easier (only one platform to build and test for).", "id": "cjo3c5z", "summary": "the game will sell just fine because it will be forced down console players throats. Even if they sell less, they will make more for less effort."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Taking photos, images, etc. that are not yours and passing them as your own is plagiarism. \n Selling photos/images/etc that are not yours is copyright infringement. Technically, anything you produce is copywritten at the time of production, even if it is never published. \n Whoever took the photos has a pretty rock solid lawsuit. An injunction will be levied to stop the artists from continuing to sell the works. The artist who created the work has a claim to take all profits generated by their work, plus legal fees. The gov't also may levy punitive fines in addition.", "id": "croqq51", "summary": "they're accused of copyright infringement. \"No one bats an eye\" because the lawyers made it clear to not say anything until the case is finished. For reference, he's been sued for copyright infringement quite a few times, it's basically his thing."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "FYI, there are viruses for smartphones, they are just less common. \n Viruses are EXTREMELY easy to make for PC's. There are literally thousands of security vulnerabilities in operating systems and common programs (everything from Java to IE). Most people using a computer, are using some version of Windows. People fail to update regularly, and don't use proper antivirus software with current definitions (the PC equivalent of getting your immunizations and flu shot), allowing viruses to persist. Part of the reason so many exist, is that so many old ones are still around, living in PC's that don't have the updates needed to get rid of them. \n The distinctly different hardware, operating systems, and software present on phones makes it difficult to get a reliable and spreadable virus. PC's, on the other hand, are near identical architecture, similar hardware, and identical operating systems with the same software.", "id": "couizsl", "summary": "It's harder to do, there's less reason to do it, and automatic updates and a relatively short lifespan mean that viruses don't persist like they do for PCs."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "America has a long, multi-century, history of private health care. We have very big, very powerful companies employing millions of Americans and paying billions in taxes. \n In order to establish \"single payer\" healthcare, the existing private system would have to be dismantled. This isn't easy when you realize it's 17.9% of our GDP, one of the biggest parts of our economy, and responsible for employment for millions. \n The government can't just write a law that puts millions of Americans out of work, and forces dozens of companies, many around for over a century, out of business overnight. There are trillions of dollars of assets at stake, and a government takeover like this is unprecedented in non-dictatorial governments.", "id": "clenou2", "summary": "Because it's basically impossible to get rid of the existing system without disregarding basic American rights."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "I've seen quite a few in New York city, and spoke with a few long-term users (although I'm not one myself). \n It's a toy, but a cool and useful one at that. A lot of users use it daily, for multiple miles of commuting, and do so for a long time. It's more transportable than a bike, handles rougher urban terrain than a skateboard, and looks a whole lot less childish than a scooter. \n That said, if there are steep hills or more than 10-15km in a round trip, a bike would serve better and be faster (and can be cheaper, and always ready to go). Much further, and this won't even make the trip. It only does about 6mph/12kph on flat ground, a fast jog on foot, or an uncomfortably slow pace on most bikes. If you are going through a congested area (foot traffic wise, this is a sidewalk item, not a street item like a bike) you're almost always better off on foot.", "id": "ciqust9", "summary": "Chances are, you're better on foot or on a bike, unless your commute is 10-15km on level ground with non-congested sidewalks. Otherwise, it's purely a cool toy that has a function."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "It's called an \"ASCII Code\", the \"&#__;\", where the blanks are two-three numbers is specifically used for HTML, the programming language used for websites. \n ASCII stands for \"American Standard Code for Information Exchange\". All letters, numbers, and characters have an ASCII code. \n Basically, when it comes to programming, certain characters (like apostrophes, ampersands, asterisks, parenthesis, brackets, carrots) have a programming function. In order to display these characters as text and not as programming, we need to use the ASCII equivalent. The ASCII equivalent has no programming function, but when rendered by your internet browser, becomes the character needed. For characters without a programming function (like letters and numbers) there is no need for this. \n So,", "id": "cpe0puk", "summary": "If an apostrophe (') was used instead of the \"&#39\", it would be treated as an apostrophe in code, not an apostrophe to be displayed, resulting in many possible issues. The ASCII code ensures it cannot be misinterpreted. (For reference, I have to leave the semicolon \";\" out after the ASCII code, or it really just puts an apostrophe in, feel free to try it yourself.)"}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "It's called (colloquially) the \"nostalgia effect\". \n We, as a species, tend to remember good things while diminishing the bad. When we look back, we remember all the fun we had playing stickball in the street, chasing squirrels, conversing with friends, etc. \n We conveniently forget about the splinters, fights, rabies, etc. It's an adaptation. If we remembered, recalled, and re-experienced the bad, after a few years, we'd be crippled with fear and depression. We're all embarrassed, insulted, hurt, or scared on a daily basis. \n Of course, some people do remember, and obsess, about the negatives they've experienced. Some experiences are too much to forget.", "id": "cjzzuon", "summary": "By forgetting the bad and remembering the good, we're able to keep going, even repeating things that have had unpleasant outcomes (like the pain of child birth). It's an adaptation, and very widespread."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Did you check for dropped frames? \n I ask, because it's very easy to force a display into a higher rate with the Nvidia control panel. I forced my monitor from 60hz, to 75, 90, 100, 110, 120, etc. Anything over about 90, it drops frames, but still works. Reports say it's running higher, it's displaying fine, but it's clearly dropping frames when tested with no indication otherwise. My \"240hz\" Samsung LED, \"600hz\" Panasonic Viera (3d with shutter glasses), and \"120hz\" Vizio all let me feed 120hz in. They all drop frames at anything over 60. \n Just read the comments on the link you suggested:  . Almost everyone that tests for frame skipping mentions that they're skipping frames and it doesn't work, or they have to go to 720p (or do something crazy to make it work).", "id": "cl40euv", "summary": "what you suggested merely changes the value in a box. It may work, but chances are, it won't."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "New Yorker here, spent quite some time upstate in the snow belt. \n I've owned/driven everything from Mustangs, to 4wd Durangos, to 2wd s-10s, to Audi quattros, to a bunch of FWD cars. \n Front wheel drive cars, like the Jetta or Passat, get around just fine. I've never had an issue, especially if you throw snow tires on the front and know what you're doing when it comes to snow driving. Won't have the same acceleration as awd, but turns/stops the same. \n IMO, and experience, you're no more or less likely to get stuck. In snow, you're usually stuck because you're high-centered on snow. It doesn't matter how many wheels are turning when they don't have grip.", "id": "cp6f2go", "summary": "They can certainly get around. Unless you're somewhere where you deal with 6-12+ inches of snow on a regular basis, you shouldn't have an issue. If you do have conditions like that, you'd have an issue with any car, and want a truck with more clearance."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "I've always had roommates, but had the chance to live alone for a year recently (similar situation, only it was ~$800 more per month alone). \n Solitude was nice, the space was nice, but the extra $200/week in my pocket is even nicer. \n The roommates make all the difference. It could be awesome, or it could be hell, all depending on who you're living with. Honestly, when I went alone, it was worth the money to not be with the people I was with. With different roommates, that don't suck, I can't find a reason to go single again.", "id": "cr1med2", "summary": "make sure the roommates don't suck."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Competition audio guy here (and 10+ years professionally selling/installing things like this). \n More importantly, I've done just this, many times. CarPC's, consoles, big screen TV's, even a kegerator and a mobile DJ booth. \n A decent PC build is about 500w peak, 300 nominal. Decent LCD screen is next to nothing honestly, maybe 15-25w depending on size. \n Most cars easily support 500watts (50 amps) with no issue. 1000 watts (100amps) is pushing it, anything more you're looking at extra batteries or an upgraded alternator.  Engine on, of course.  (I know cars are 12v, not 10, but being realistic we have an ~85% efficiency rating from an inverter.) Engine off, this will kill the battery in a matter of minutes. \n I'd recommend the Stinger SPI1000, 1000w nominal, 2000 surge, so a PC and screen should be well within the limit. You can probably get by with the SPI500, but for the few dollars you save it's not worth it IMO. I've personally used these exact models for doing just this, and they're still working fine years later. \n It must be wired directly to the battery with an inline fuse, no cigarette lighter on this one. I'd suggest 4g wire, we usually put them under the front passenger seat or hide them under the dash. Isolator is optional, but you shouldn't need one as you shouldn't be using this with the engine off.", "id": "coxu1ja", "summary": "it's totally possible, just make sure you have someone who knows their stuff do it as the potential for a screw up is huge. This is a pro-install if you're not familiar with the components involved. In my neck of the woods, that means ~$100-150 in parts and labor, plus the inverter."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "These NPC's, believe it or not, are a vital part of game. They are prevalent in many servers, and are actually the base food for other NPC classes. like frogs, fish, and birds. Of course, those NPC's can be searched for the meat our players need to survive and avoid the dreaded hunger de-buff and eventual ban that has afflicted so many players since launch.", "id": "cjihmpk", "summary": "it's not only part of the game, some players contest, the game would fall apart without them."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Some games work better. It really depends on the game. \n CS:GO sucked on triple, I only play on the middle monitor now. Didn't help that the HUD scales to horizontal and is MASSIVE. \n TF2 is awesome in triple once you fix the HUD, which is simple. Otherwise, important info is off in the far corners. \n Titanfall is epic in triple, but you don't get ANY HUD at all. Forced to play in single to see radar/ammo. \n Bioshock Infinite is great, and self scales the HUD correctly! There's even an option for it! However, res is limited to 720p per screen =( \n Battlefield is epic on 3 screens. \n DOTA I play windowed now, so I can have player guides up on another screen. \n Assetto Corsa is cool in triple, especially the in-car view.", "id": "cjgikwz", "summary": "I use it, but only on some games where it actually improves the game. Some games don't support it, some games don't support it well. If I was to do it again, I'd rather have one good screen (or a 21:9) than 3 16:9 middle of the road monitors."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "All humans have a \"fight or flight\" response. When something traumatic happens, our body dumps a bunch of chemicals and hormones into our system so that we have the ability to stand our ground and fight, or run away. \n The alternative would be to sit there and cry because it hurts, and that's not very good for survival. \n Basically, without pain, your body has no idea how bad the injury is. As the hormones wear off, the danger is gone, and you finally see the injury, your body realizes the extent of the injury, and the appropriate pain is experienced. \n In the midst of the hormone surge, even if you saw the injury, you wouldn't feel it. I've personally witnessed people cut off fingers, pick them up, laugh, and then be in a world of pain a few minutes later.", "id": "cms2r2e", "summary": "your body has some amazing pain killing hormones. Seeing it isn't why it hurt, the hormones just wore off."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Regardless of the country or whether you're on the right or left, you sit near the center of the road when driving. It allows you to better judge how close you are to the center line, and oncoming traffic. \n It puts drivers, not passengers, in harms way when swerving into traffic. It ensures you're always entering faster moving traffic on the driver's side where you have better rear visibility and a smaller blind spot due to how much closer the mirror is. \n When making the \"tight\" turn (right for left side drivers, left for right side drivers) being positioned closer to the center of the road gives far better visibility down the road, so you can check for things like bicycles on the wrong side of the road or pedestrians. \n It allows passengers to safely enter/exit on the non-traffic side of the vehicle. \n With the engine in the center of the vehicle, running the steering linkage/pedals on one side or the other is much easier than routing it around the motor. With the transmission in the center, it's far easier to sit on the side and use one hand, than link it to come up \"off-center\" for a center positioned driver, or shift between your legs.", "id": "cq6htzn", "summary": "multiple practical reasons."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "It does work, and that's why they put it down. \n Black roads are usually the warmest part of the landscape during the day. Even when below freezing, roads can be warm enough to melt snow. As the snow persists, and the road cools, this melted snow turns into a solid sheet of ice, locked to the asphalt. \n Salt raises the freezing point of water. By beating the storm and putting salt/brine on the roads, this melted snow never gets the chance to re-freeze into ice under the snow. The end result is that they can plow down to asphalt, not just to the ice sheet. The next salting can be much lighter, as it's just keeping the exposed road from re-freezing, not trying to melt whats there and then keep it from re-freezing.", "id": "con75pq", "summary": "makes it possible to plow down to asphalt, not just the inevitable frozen layer of ice under the snow. Also results in less salt being used overall."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "I've had a lot of their products, and so have my friends. Performance per dollar, they're great. It's hard to find a better value. I've never had an RA issue, never been stuck with a dead product. \n That said, myself, and all of my friends, basically agree we would buy something else if we could go back in time. \n MoBo's are hit or miss. Some are perfect, some are shot. All of them have some sort of quirk that raises it's head after a while. Whether you live with it, or roll the dice and hope the next one is better, is not a decision I want to make again. \n GPU's are generally good, although some have clock issues or quirks, and some are just DOA. It happens to any manufacturer, but still...", "id": "cjd3iua", "summary": "In my experience, great value, quality is both good and shit, just depends on your luck. IMO, I'd spend more money to not have to roll the dice on quality."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "As you know, the fuel can't be dumped over a populated area, like London. The linked article has the flight path, and it's clear to see that the craft circled in the Bristol Channel outside of Devon (after discovering the problem, trying to figure out what to do), before flying back near the airport (Sussex). They then made a few loops over the English Channel (to dump fuel) before landing. Somewhere in the process, they made attempts to get the gear down, one would presume during the multiple loops around the airport.", "id": "cn8mjuc", "summary": "They spent 6 hours airborne from takeoff, to realizing there is a problem, to trying to fix it, to flying back, waiting for a landing opportunity, then dumping fuel, and landing. Dumping the fuel only took a few minutes."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "The most useful thing with decoys is using them in a way that it's not obvious they're a decoy, or obviously using a decoy in a way they wouldn't expect. Just chucking one every round off the start is a waste (unless you're practicing your throws for real grenades and saving money). Good players (above silver) don't get confused by a random decoy for the most part. \n \n Buy a decoy a few rounds in, throw it outside of spawn, then buy a weapon. They think you're ecoing or being stupid with a HG, not running right past that spot with a rifle. If they're cocky, you might catch them off guard rushing. \n Be good with an awp, get some picks. Buy an awp and a decoy next round. Throw it where you were last round (but behind a corner/crate/etc so they can't see it). They'll be hesitant to take that route again for fear of your wrath. You watch where they would rotate to flank you, or further back watching the position they are trying to \"take from you\" depending on how you think they'll handle the situation (are they down a few rounds and desperate to stay alive? Are they up a few and cocky enough to take the risk?) \n As a T, throw it into a site before you run in (or, throw it right after a flash). Pro's think it's a flash and turn, giving you a chance for a pick. New players are confused, and will likely watch it and think while you get a pick. If it's empty, plant, and the next one is hesitant to come in, or checks the wrong spot.  \n Take it a step further. Get 2-3 T's together and walk to a site silently. Throw a decoy, have one run away as if rotating, but just watch the flank. A good player will call the rotate to their team (decoy+1 set of feet running away=rotate, right?). Other two walk up silently, pick the guard as he rotates through rear, and plant. \n Do the same, but then rotate. YOU HAVE OPTIONS. Not knowing what you're doing, the element of surprise, is your friend. \n Fake suppression. Lets say you're CT on Nuke and watching A site. T tries squeaky, you get a pick, but know there's more back there. They know you were above vent in the corner. Drop a decoy where you stand (right click) and then silently walk back towards the door, putting a round or two in the door first. They think you're still up there, in the corner, not above them. \n Cover a rotate. Say you're T on nuke, and went for ramp room, but met resistance. You're stuck in radio, but have lobby and can get outside. Drop a decoy (where they can't see it), and keep those guys from advancing radio, thinking you've got it held. They might even call for reinforcements, getting the guy from heaven to come give cross fire. Advance to A with a full team, while they figure at least some of you are in radio still. Overwhelm, plant, defend. \n Use with smoke for suppression. A smoke at mid with a decoy in it makes anyone with sense question taking that route. They throw a smoke and cut you off? Decoy and rotate. Next time, decoy, count to 5, and run through the smoke because they expect you to rotate.", "id": "ck17ake", "summary": "use it sparingly, use it differently each time, and don't just randomly throw a D off the spawn into the middle of nowhere. Using it in a strange way is the best way."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "The planets follow a very well known and consistent orbit, it's a lot of work, but calculating it all out is doable. While the exact path it took might be impossible to replicate on a different launch, you could still get from A to B on a different path using the same mechanics and tactic. \n Gravitational \"boosts\" have been used for decades at this point, and some are even crazier than rosetta's.", "id": "cm1l3i1", "summary": "a lot of math to make the situation they had work, they could have gotten there on a different path if forced to."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "There are a lot of rules surrounding issuing new stock, new classes of stock, or splitting existing stock. But, to be clear, it can be done. Since stocks are just a percentage share of the company, the total value remains the same, which means each stock is worth less (the dilution /u/uvindex pointed out).", "id": "cqtxsns", "summary": "it always is more profitable to invest the money in the company's growth. You could theoretically make money trading your own stock, but (within reason) you will make more by taking that same money, investing it in the company, and growing the total value."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "CS:GO Competitive with 4 randoms, all unranked except me (I just got GO in the summer sale). 3 legitimate new players, one guy with a new name (but more experience and skill than me, at least according to him. I'm pretty sure I was playing CS when it was a HL1 mod and he was giving his mother stretchmarks, but that's another story.) \n The three newbies played like a team, we coordinated, covered each other, and played well- like we're supposed to. \n \"New Pro\" 4th guy insisted on \"covering our flank\", and sitting by our spawn with a sniper rifle, covering our spawn for some reason. He was the last guy alive every round, and proceeded to just die alone. He wouldn't coordinate, wouldn't command, and insisted \"this is how I do best, I'm just going to do what I want while you guys do all the work\". \n I was in the lead by a long shot after a few rounds, even had a 5k clutch win (I ended up 32-14). He was in last, behind all the new players (ultimately ending something like 6-14). Even after 10 consecutive losses, he refused to even consider using his rifle to cover long, or come help us defend a planted bomb, let alone actually helping us clear rooms and plant. He'd just sit in spawn, let them defuse, and save his rifle. Did I mention we usually died 30 seconds in, and then spent another 60-90 watching him watch a fence and clouds while waiting for the enemies to find him? \n We lost 2-16, he blamed the \"newbies\" and complained I had bad tactics and was also a newbie, even said \"BAD GAME\" to the other team at the end. \n Those insult hurling 12 year olds, team killers, cheaters, and match abandoners don't come close to the rage generated by a legitimately bad teammate in a ranked competitive game you can't leave. Especially when they decide to insult the rest of the team's abilities after making us lose and coming in last place themselves.", "id": "ciqxb6s", "summary": "Had a guy that should have known better go out of his way to avoid teamwork in a competitive match, watch us lose while sitting in last place himself, and continued to insult our abilities and call out \"BAD GAME\" to the other team at the end."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "He should thank all of us for being willing to pay large sums of cash, be guinea pigs, and providing feedback on bleeding edge tech that will find it's way into everyone else's hands in a few years. \n If it wasn't for us \"elitists\", they wouldn't have access to half the tech that exists today. Companies don't dump R&D dollars into run of the mill parts. Money goes towards the best, and the tech trickles down over the years. Without a solid base to purchase those bleeding edge and expensive projects, the tech would never be available for everyone else.", "id": "cjp2n3b", "summary": "Thank the \"elitists\", for they are the reason what is available to you even exists."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "They really don't do much of anything besides squish you temporarily. It's the same effect as if you sucked in your gut, just without having to try. \n It's just an elastic band that puts constant pressure on your body. The effect is similar to a corset. In fact, quite a lot of them are basically just corsets. \n When removed, pretty darn quickly, everything goes back where it was. You can't \"reshape\" organs, muscles, or fat with simple, gentle, temporary pressure. Fat cannot be moved around your body with simple pressure, nor can it be burned. \n No muscle is built or moved, no fat is burned or moved, no organs are reshaped. Constant use may slowly move bones, but that's a pretty extreme scenario. By the end of the day, it's all the same as if you did nothing.", "id": "cn9lb7u", "summary": "They don't do anything besides squish you while you're wearing them, just like a push up bra won't make boobs bigger or perkier, and glasses won't make your eyes better."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "I've always been a good student (valedictorian, generous scholarship, cum-laude baccalaureate). I never \"studied\" or \"took notes\". I spent the whole time learning, and my friends hated me for it. \n \n PAY ATTENTION! Most students are chatting, doodling, daydreaming, texting, updating facebook, swiping right on tinder, or doing some other BS in class. Sit down, shut up, and pay attention the whole time. \n \n ATTEND CLASS! Yes, ALL OF THEM. More to the point, be on time, and sober (college kids, that means you), without a hangover. \n \n DO YOUR WORK! Do you homework when it's assigned, have it done with time to spare so you can ask the teacher relevant questions before it's too late. Same goes for reports-I've had a lot of \"C-D\" reports I get an \"A\" on because I went to the teacher with a \"draft\", let them give me some pointers, and turn in what they are looking for. (Plus, brownie points whenever something is at their discretion-if they know you, they like you). \n \n PARTICIPATE! For the love of god, raise your hand and answer questions. You should have read for the class and done the work, you should know this stuff, show it off. \n \n PARTICIPATE, PART 2! Ask questions. If something confused you, after reading the book and doing the work and paying attention, chances are, everyone else missed it too. Ask the question, it's better than not knowing at test time. \n \n RELATE! Everything you learn builds off of something you already learned. Relate it all in your head, tie it together, look for the connections. It will help you recall later on. \n \n At test time, trust yourself. If you've done the above properly, at test time, answers should just pop into your head; you know this stuff like cats know cheezburgers. If it doesn't come right to you, skip and come back. If you come back, and it doesn't come to you, take a guess, because obviously you don't know it.", "id": "cj0x8bh", "summary": "Learn as you go, and actually try. Cramming, studying, and flash cards are no substitute for actually learning piece by piece and day by day. IMO, if you're \"memorizing\", you're not \"learning\", and you will forget it before the final comes. If you've learned it, you'll have it for life."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "New phones? Or new generations? \n Every 4 years or so, we see a pretty big shift in cellphones. Bricks to flips in '96. LCD to Color screens around 2000. Qwerty keyboards, out of nowhere, in 04. Then touchscreen gained traction around '08. 2012 was the tablet/phablet/giant screen thing, and the addition of power and massively improved screens. We've seen a few years now of incremental improvements. \n IMO, we're due for a big shift, soon. These watches are an accessory, not a revolution. Don't be surprised to see something that turns these phones into the equivalent of a Startac today, next holiday season. My money is on flexible, paper thin displays that fold. They've already been shown in action, working, for a while now.", "id": "ckdxpei", "summary": "Just go grab an S5, M8, or Nexus. A new one will be out soon, but a new one is always out soon. Expect a big change around 2016."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Chemo (chemotherapy) is a poisonous chemical cocktail infused into a patient via an IV. \n Cancer cells work faster than normal cells. They use more energy and multiply faster. We abuse this fact to fight it by poisoning the person. The cancer cells take in more of the poison in comparison to healthy cells, and basically kills itself in the process. \n The trick is to get enough poison in to kill the cancer, and not enough to kill the person. Of course, some of the \"weaker\" or \"faster working\" cells in our body are going to be poisoned too. Hair is fast growing, and follicles are a \"deposit\" where the poison sits around longer, resulting in the hair loss. Stomach lining cells are also vulnerable, resulting in the all too common stomach issues (vomiting, discomfort, loss of appetite). There are other things, like finger nails and bones, that are effected as well. The loss of energy is due to your body spending all it's power fixing what the poison is destroying.", "id": "cleoe11", "summary": "cancer cells work faster, so by poisoning someone with cancer, the cancer dies first and leaves the healthy cells behind."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "What kind of car is it? I ask, because some cars are valuable even with a shot motor (sometimes, especially with a shot motor, like a 240sx/miata/mustang/camaro which are desirable for crate motors). You might be able to unload that at a decent price, or trade it for something cheaper. \n I had a similar situation when I was in college. I ended up blowing all my savings on a used Audi (horrible idea, lesson learned). Moral of the story, it never even passed inspection and needed near $5k of work. I traded it to some guy for a beat up S-10 pickup, which ended up needing about a grand of work, but at least was reparable and worked the rest of the time I needed it.", "id": "ckjwcqi", "summary": "trade it for something cheap and reliable if possible (civic, accord, etc), that's your best case scenario. Sell and use for a down payment if possible. Don't throw good money after bad trying to save a dying car."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "I went to a college with graded online homework. In \"auditorium\" classes (200-300 students, \"100\" level classes) this was 25-40% of your total grade. No slack, you submit and it's wrong, they had no qualms about giving bad scores, and these were not easy. Not on time? Enjoy the 0 averaged into your grade. \n 2 tests per week (one per class, tues/thurs class). \n I started hosting study groups. I quickly found out that our 10-15 question homework exams were pulled from a pool of 20-25 questions. So, 4 or 5 of us meant that we could get all the questions, and could even rotate who submitted last and got a 100% score. \n I started charging $5 per test to outsiders, guaranteeing a 90% or better, or that exam, and the next one, was free. Only once did I get under 90% in four years. \n I was making ~$2000/month doing this. Roughly 100 exams per week, or about 50 participants, and it grew to that level in a matter of weeks. \n When there's 10 multiple choice questions, and you have the answers printed out (from study group) it honestly took maybe a minute per test, plus the time it took for me to copy and paste their user names and passwords from excel into the homework portal. \n Maybe 4 hours of work per week, on my schedule, for $500 cash, and I got bonus points for hosting the study group (and knew this stuff like the back of my hand, perfect score in the class).", "id": "cicq661", "summary": "I made ~$125/hour for 4 years of college doing online homework assignments. Assignments that other kids gave me the answers to in a study group I hosted. I also got bonus points in the class for hosting the study groups."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Take this with a grain of salt, search engine algorithms change all the time, this is how it is today, but it was different just a few years ago, and I'm sure it will change again.) \n What you've described is an \"external link\", a link that goes to a site that isn't yours. The way search engines weight results, they don't value what  you  say, but  what others say about you . Gone are the days of keywords, meta tags, and other easily manipulated and abused stats. \n In 5 year old terms, the search engine assumes that a page cited by many other pages for a topic, is the best result to present. It must be, if everyone else is using it. If everyone that talks about Kobe Bryant cites kobebryant.com, it's safe to assume that someone searching for him would want to see that site first, right? These inbound links are a big portion of the \"score\" that determines which is best result for a search.", "id": "coqhvn6", "summary": "It's not hurting you, but, it is helping those you cite rank higher on that topic."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Terms like mate or bloke are generally considered to be \"slang\". They are the informal versions of the formal \"mister\" or \"sir\" or \"friend\". \n Slang, generally speaking, is very regional. Terms may not make it from city to city, let alone, country to country. \n \"Dude\" or \"bro\" are our equivalents, generally speaking. In some places, it might be \"pal\" or \"buddy\". In some other places, it might be \"homie\" or \"cuz\".", "id": "code34y", "summary": "slang is regional, and those terms aren't common in this region."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Going by the example you use, I presume you're referring to pornography. Pornography is banned for those under the age of 18, because they are not yet adults and cannot consent to sexual activities. (I know it's a bit of a stretch to equate porn with sex, but ultimately, that's the tie.) \n The age restriction was set up so that physical establishments selling that type of adult-only material would not be selling to children. For many years, you had to travel to a store to obtain that type of stuff, and chances are, they'd ID you because they have to. Even the local convenience store would make you prove you're an adult before you grabbed a Playboy from the magazine rack. \n Now that it's moved online, they still have to ask in order to cover their butt, but they really don't have a way to verify beyond your own honesty. The net result is, it's a joke, and even those of us who are legal just throw in a random date in order to move on. I imagine there's a lot of people born on 1-1-1900.", "id": "coh0imk", "summary": "the age restriction once meant something, but today, it's just a technicality that must be asked in order for the government to not shut you down."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Using various techniques, directors can achieve different effects depending on what they're trying to accomplish. Ultimately, someone has made the artistic decision to do it one way or another. \n The Hobbit is a great example of going super-realistic. Minimal filters and effects, very clear, high res, high FPS. Shows like Breaking Bad, for the most part, are shot in this style as well. \n 300 is a great example of doing exactly the opposite, highly stylized, tons of filters and effects. Walking Dead is a show that does this as well (especially when they're trying to build tension). \n Watch any soap opera, you'll see the dim lighting, soft focus, and bloom filter on bright spots to soften everything up, almost dream like. Of course, movies along the same lines (chick flicks, rom-coms) will have these effects somewhere along the line too.", "id": "cobztky", "summary": "it is intentional, and is done for effect. From the depth of field, to the lighting, to the speed the film is shot and the aspect ratio, everything is carefully controlled to give the emotion desired for the shot."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Went to school in upstate NY (in the snowbelt, where 140\" is something that happens in a storm, not a season). \n <3\" doesn't even make the news. They don't plow. It's literally just morning dew. \n In 4 years, never saw a car on fire. Honestly, never even saw or heard of an accident. Then again, everyone knows what they're doing. Sand/kitty litter in the trunk, always have a shovel, and snow tires are saviors. \n \"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure\" as they say. \n If you didn't prepare, air your tires down to ~20psi (any lower and they can fall off the bead pretty easily, but I've gotten away with as little as 8-10 knowing what I'm doing) to improve your grip. Remember that ice has higher static friction than kinetic. What that means in normal terms is that as soon as your tire spins, you have less grip. The bigger the difference between the speed of the tire and the speed of the car, the less grip you have.", "id": "cfeauu8", "summary": "Bring kitty litter or sand, throw it on the ground, and increase friction. Air down tires to ~20psi to increase friction. Keep tires from spinning to increase friction. Maintain your goddamn momentum uphill or you're gonna have a bad time."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "It can be lost. Generally speaking, speech is one of the first things we learn and last things we lose. In fact, loss of speech is one of the defining characteristics of Stage 7 Alzheimer's Disease (there are only 7 stages). \n My mother had a stroke, and her memory was severely changed. She has no short term memory, and lost many years of memories. What stayed is unreliable and spotty, but she's grateful she remembers her childhood, having kids, getting married, family vacations, etc. \n She could not speak after it happened, she could make happy noises and sad noises, but it was nothing like a word. We brought her favorite cookies, and she quite literally could not pick them up and put them in her mouth, she had forgotten how and we had to help. She understood our words, but couldn't make a response come out of her own mouth. Strangely enough, she could still write a response, and her beautiful handwriting was exactly the same. It was the only comfort I had that my mom was still in there somewhere. Thankfully, she's regained speech, but her memory has not improved and her motor functions are still lacking.", "id": "cn8ot9r", "summary": "You can literally lose everything, speech included."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "A few things to remember. \n \n The editor/publication will reach out to YOU, not the other way around. \n The editor or publication will tell you what they need, format wise. \n They generally don't need anything, besides a certain length on a certain topic (and even that is lax sometimes).  \n If they're not looking for you, you don't know the owner/manager/publisher/editor, are not a big advertiser, or a public figure, you're not getting published.  \n \n The stuff I, and my colleagues, have had published is generally just written in an e-mail to the editor or reporter working on the article. They proof it, edit it, format it as necessary, and get it printed. Sometimes they send you a proof, most of the time, you only see the finished product when it hits the stands. \n I've only heard of people writing articles and sending them to editors for publication successfully when it's someone with a reputation and connections. Argument's sake, the president of a major corporation (like Donald Trump) can write a business article, submit it to Business Week, and get published. \n I've been on news stations, TV interviews, speaking engagements, commercials, etc. I've been published on websites, newspapers, and magazines (no books yet, but my colleagues have). It's been pretty much the same process every time.", "id": "cn8n5vn", "summary": "Knowing the person in charge, being an expert, or being a public figure is what matters, not your format."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "The other posters appear to have never seen a [gas turbine]( before and are referring to wind turbines. \n Gas turbines are fueled off of fossil fuels, and the output is used for everything from electric generators to spinning helicopter blades (the two most common uses). They are typically more efficient than internal combustion motors, but have some serious downsides. \n Efficiency is lost when scaled down, so the gain is minimal or non existent in car appropriate sizes. \n They make A LOT of heat. They literally melt the asphalt as they drive along. The heat made, and dissipating/cooling, is a huge issue. \n They have very slow throttle response. From the time a change is made, to the time the turbine reacts, may be a few seconds. In a pure generator scenario, not such a big deal. In a hybrid drive, it's a very big deal. Imagine letting off the gas, and your car keeps accelerating for 2-3 seconds. \n They spin at incredibly high speeds. Any failure is generally catastrophic. \n Maintenance, and production, is prohibitively expensive. Good luck finding a mechanic.", "id": "cpwomr4", "summary": "They're still impractical."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "When I was younger, BF1942 was what got me into PC gaming online. I had played adventure games/click games (think Myst) but shooting, aiming, reloading, moving, crouching, proning, jumping, and switching weapons all at once was too much for my fingers. \n So I mapped movement to the arrow keys, and had a friend work the other side of the keyboard. Yell out \"DIVE!\" and he was there hitting Z, or R for reloads, etc. We'd switch off every game. Teamwork to the max. \n Honestly some of the most fun we had. Of course, these days, WASD has the letters worn off and doing it all myself is second nature.", "id": "cmykypp", "summary": "At least you made it work, some of us had more trouble adapting."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "It's called \"confirmation bias\", which basically means we as humans are more likely to notice and remember things that match what we believe. \n Even if there were 10 normal-normal lesbian couples for every 1 normal-male stereotype you saw, you'd only notice the one because it's what you think of as a \"lesbian\" while the other 10 flew under your gaydar.", "id": "cqfetq8", "summary": "most lesbian couples are not like that, it's just what you're more likely to notice because you're looking for it."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "There are very tiny organisms out there, many we need a microscope to see. \n Organisms this small do not \"see\". They do not have eyes, retinas, or a brain (as we think of a brain) to make sense of ocular input. \n Very small organisms with \"eyes\" have \"compound eyes\" like a fly does. This isn't vision like we know it, more of a light/dark sensor, sometimes with colors. Even with an organism is as small as a Tardigrade (0.020in full grown, the smallest thing I know of with eyes), they don't have the resolution or focus to see molecules. They can basically sense the amount of ambient light, but couldn't resolve detail.", "id": "cp6ki82", "summary": "No."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "This conversation has been happening for generations. Choose a month and a year, and you can find an article citing some powerful businessman or economist saying the economy is going to crash any day now, so invest in gold/guns/food. \n This is the equivalent of those cults that think the world is going to end, and when it doesn't, say \"oh, we misinterpreted the signals, it's actually next year\". \n The fear hinges on our debt, that it's going to cause a collapse. The countries we owe have no interest in making us fail, they want us to succeed because that, in turn, makes them succeed.", "id": "cra0sxb", "summary": "No, we are not likely to collapse any time soon. We might see higher inflation in the near future (1-5 years), but it certainly won't be a collapse (or even hyperinflation like 1990's Zimbabwe)."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Judges can basically require any rules they like, thanks to \"contempt of court\". A certain level of respect of the court must be shown, and the title is part of that. \n Contempt means that one is does not follow the rules, or disrespects, the court, it's officers, it's rules, or authority. Rules, not laws. \n Literally anything can be contempt so long as the judge declares it so. Crying, laughing, speaking, debating, disagreeing, failing to follow instructions (even if they are silly), dress code, etc. Judges can even decide arbitrarily to require someone to raise their hand before speaking, and then find them in contempt for not doing so. Typically, you're immediately arrested, processed, and thrown in jail before being arraigned (by the same judge, most likely), found guilty, and ultimately issued the punishment they feel fit. \n Typically, it's a fine. It can be jail time, and some have even spent multiple years behind bars for it.", "id": "cnjpa8t", "summary": "Using the title isn't an explicit law, but the judges ability to force you to comply with their rules certainly is."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Counterstrike:GO competitive. \n I'm the last CT alive. Took down 4 T's by myself after my team all went down, watching A, I was across the map at B and came up behind them while my team was getting slaughtered. 4hp left, no grenades. \n Bomb Planted. The beeping starts. \n I have 40 seconds to get to the bomb before it's too late, it takes another 5 sitting like a duck to defuse. It's beeping faster every second. My teammates haven't said a word- they're staying silent to let me concentrate and listen for him, and they don't know where he is either. Silence doesn't help the tension as I move closer. \n There is one terrorist left, hiding, obviously guarding the bomb from somewhere. I'm around the corner, weighing my options. \n Check the scoreboard:\nRound 14-14. We can still win the game if I pull this off. He's got the high score on their team-he's no slouch. So do I-I'm no slouch either. Backing off and saving my weapons isn't an option, then we draw, at best (best of 30 rounds). We've been playing this match for almost an hour, not going down without a fight. \n He knows where I am, one of the 4 I killed must have told him. Even if they didn't, he knows I was somewhere I could shoot his teammates. He must be within feet of me, he might be watching this corner, there are only so many ways to go. My heart is racing. \n Beeping gets even faster. 30 Seconds left. \"You gotta make a move\" comes from a teammate. \"I know, shhh\" is all I have to give in response. \n Peek the corner, he's looking right at me. Half a dozen AK rounds hit the wall behind me. \n 25 seconds left, he's watching the short path, and now I'm too late to take one of the long paths. \n I'm out of options. Stutter step, fire a burst where he was, it's my only hope. \n Flashbang comes out of nowhere as I step out, I take the shot blind. \n Whole team yells \"NOOOOO!\" over the headset. My vision clears, and there's a headshot on my killfeed. \n I got him, pure luck, and he didn't even get to shoot because he was avoiding his own flash. Thank god, even a graze would kill me. \n Run to the bomb, start defusing. Light turns white as I hear \"Bomb defused, Counter-Terrorists win\". \n MVP for defusing, and I got an \"Ace\". \n What a rush. \n We lost the next round and tied anyway...", "id": "ciqysew", "summary": "had a very close competitive match of CS. Tied score in second to last round, I managed to kill the entire enemy team single handed and defuse with not a second to spare."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Worked in a stereo shop. \n Middle of summer, a very large lady, in a BIKINI, flip-flips, and a sheer wrap that hides not a single fold, walks in. Said she's going to the beach, her radio broke, and she needs a new one. She pays, I take the keys to go install. \n Grandma, and 5 kids in nothing but swim trunks, are in the car (a 5 seat civic). Told them they'd have to wait inside while I worked. \n One kid takes a full bladder piss, on $2000 home speakers and the carpet while waiting. I come to give her the keys, and see the mess. \n \"Uh, your kid pissed on my stock and floor\" I said, pointing. \n \"Oh, yea, he does that. Is the car ready?\" \n \"Not until you clean that up\" \n She made a stink about how she doesn't have to. Got the manager involved. They let her go. \n As soon as she was gone, I looked right at my manager, handed him paper towels and carpet cleaner, and said \"you don't pay me enough for that\". \n He nodded, found some gloves, and cleaned it.", "id": "cm6yebj", "summary": "customer's kids pees in waiting room, mom won't clean it. I'm not paid enough for that."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "High end 8gb card 290x card, high end i7 cpu, hdd and sdd, all running off of the cheapest 500w power supply you can find? I think we just spotted the problem here. \n A 750w PSU is the minimum recommendation for that card, they suggest 850w. You can get by with less, but I'd bet that a bronze rated $29 PSU that's rated 30% under what they say is the minimum has something to do with the system crashing when you try to put it all to use.", "id": "cogdrgd", "summary": "Check your drivers/updates, and if that doesn't solve it, it's probably the PSU."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Turned 21. Did what you would expect; went out with college buddies and drank into a blackout. Wake up to 8am alarm, remember getting home and flopping into bed without so much as taking my shoes off, and need to pee. Bathroom is covered in puke, on the mirror, wall, toilet tank/lid/bowl, floor, carpet, garbage can, tub. Puke bomb definitely went off. Room mates wake up to me yelling \"Who's the asshole that puked all over the damn bathroom!? It's my 21st, I'm supposed to be the one puking all over.\" I look down and notice dry puke of the same color on the tops of my socks. This is when I notice I'm in underwear. I'm the asshole who puked all over the bathroom on my 21st. I'm also the asshole who woke up my room mates who generously bought me drinks all night, and then cleaned me up and put me back in bed after I redecorated the bathroom. They didn't even take a picture or make a facebook status, what gentlemen.", "id": "c8pqg8e", "summary": "I defiled the bathroom 5 men shared while blackout drunk and proceeded to wake them up at 8am after a night of drinking by boisterously accusing one of them of doing it."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Might as well take your example and explain: Netflix. \n Started in 1997 with $25m of funding from investors/founders. Yes, personal investments, risking personal money. \n It started small, with just mail-order DVD's (which were brand new at the time). They offered a new model for renting movies (compared to Blockbuster style stores), did it well, and grew organically. \n In 2002, they had an IPO, and raised significant funds for expansion from investors. \n By 2003, they were making their first profits. Millions in profit from hundreds of millions of gross, while they had been operating at a loss for years. This money was invested to expand. This is where so much of what we know today came from. \n In 2007, they began offering a streaming service in addition to DVD's (funded by profits). It wasn't until 2011 that the streaming side became big enough to stand alone (with the failed \"Qwikster\" brand). It started small, and has grown over time into the vast collection we have today. As it expanded, options like producing their own shows, or reviving cancelled shows became an option. \n When you realize it took nearly 20 years of hard work, good timing, and luck to get where they are now, it's easy to understand how it all comes together.", "id": "cro1032", "summary": "It's almost always investors risking their own money to start businesses. They almost always struggle and often post losses for years before finally becoming profitable (if they don't fail, and most fail). Once that point is hit, profits are re-invested for growth, and a company the size of Netflix can emerge a decade or two later."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Are you in pain? Are you having issues? Blisters? Chaffing? Cramps? Sores? \n If yes, you're doing it too much. If not, you're fine. \n You're riding a lot, but it's nothing extreme. Listen to your body. If something isn't right, if something hurts, give yourself a day or two to recover-it's better than pushing and causing a real injury. Of course, always make sure you're fed, hydrated, and wearing proper gear.", "id": "cr1m5jm", "summary": "Listen to your body and use your best judgement."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "There is math in the background, and a defined formula. Honestly, there's quite a few different formulas in use at this point, and a plethora of other ones developed off of FICO used privately. They change it every so often, the most recent put less negative weight on unpaid medical bills, for instance.", "id": "ckfn5tb", "summary": "There are many formulas, and anyone that cares can make their own (like a bank, for instance). Nothing is published because there are so many variations and changes."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "Our sun is a big ball of energy. Hydrogen atoms are fused into helium, and a whole bunch of energy is released in the form of electromagnetic radiation. \n This radiation is broad spectrum. It has everything from Gamma rays(short), to skin burning UV rays(not as short), to visible light, to infrared (heat, long waves), radio (even longer), and everything in between and out side. It's basically a huge energy generator. \n A hot spot occurs where more energy is created than normal, a \"sun spot\". There are a few ways the energy can be released, but moral of the story is, this excess energy is released quickly and in one direction. \n This is the solar flare, essentially, an explosion of a bunch of energy from the sun. \n The amount of energy is hard to comprehend, something like 50 billion times the energy of the nuclear bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. It's a LOT of energy, and this one happens to be focused at us. \n This energy messes with us on a planetary scale. The energy can be absorbed by our electronic devices and destroy them (it's happened before, 1859 is the last huge one), or just cause general interference, messing with our cell phones and GPS.", "id": "ckflthd", "summary": "it's an explosion of electromagnetic energy from the surface of the sun. It matters because it's aimed towards us. It's effect will likely be an inconvenience, GPS/Cell reception issues, maybe a dead satellite here and there, maybe a cool light show for those near the north pole. If it was bigger and aimed a bit more south, it could very well wipe out enough electronics to set us back years and cause trillions in damages."}, {"author": "MyNameIsRay", "content": "There's always holes, and the more complex the system, the more chances for holes. \n Generally, it's a procedure breach, not an Alcatraz style prison break. Inmate looks around, realizes \"hey, a guard is out sick, I can jump in this laundry cart and no one will search it\", and bam, they escape. Sometimes, they realize a gate is open, and just walk right out (yes, this happens, and the guards who breached procedure is in big trouble). Sometimes, they pick their cuffs while at their hearing and are nowhere to be seen when called.", "id": "clqry9s", "summary": "they exploit a mistake, take advantage of a situation, or manipulate guards, and basically walk away. The days of literally breaking out are mostly done."}]}
+{"author": "maxy55555", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post In case I've not made it clear through my ramblings-on in this comment, I'd like to say once again my main and only point: Borderlands 2 actively encourages farming for the best loot and gear  almost every other level . Having to stop, farm enemies for the better version of what you've currently got, then discard your previous farm-fest worth of gear is not satisfying. And although there are (very few) exceptions, they do not serve to break the rule, only to reinforce it. \n P.S. Although I do bash you a few times for your excessive and unnecessary use of video evidence, I do appreciate the time that you took to attempt to back up your statements, and I thank you. I also thank you once again for reading this entire thing, because I am known to go on with words. I look forward to your reply.", "output": "Since you're a fan of copy-pasting:\n>he never did them to finish the zone? He killed enemies and showed the gear was more than usable. Would you like me to record a run covering an entire area? \n My reply:\n>Sure, green gear is usable. By top-tier players who like to prolong fights for no reason and die a lot. Other people like using unique guns that do damage on top of having cool effects when they're at endgame and have literally nothing else to do than to watch their enemies die over and over again. \n Since the next part of your post was more video-spam, all of which is speedruns of random bosses with all the best gear available that most likely would take the average player at least 400 hours to get... I'm gonna say you already know the answer to this question you asked:\n>Also, what is the 'standard time'? Because three times longer is shit and you know it. \n Maybe it is shit, but I don't know it. Please enlighten me. And if green guns are almost equivalent in clearing rooms of enemies as legendaries, why is there a rarity at all? It seems a bit counter-intuitive. \n Going on, the entire middle section of your comment actually seemed pointless at best, if it didn't reinforce my point that legendaries and farming are necessary for a good experience in BL2. But I'm going to go with pointless, because speedruns are not a good indicator of actual play in a normal game. \n The final section of your comment says that I use exaggeration. First, you don't say what I exaggerated. I'm going to assume it's \"you only get to use [an orange gun] for an hour.\" And yes, that's exaggeration. Some people like to use hyperbole to get their point across, especially when that hyperbole is pretty obvious. But it's not too far off. During playthough 1 or 2, if you find an orange, it's not going to be worth using after about 10 levels. Even someone as lowly as me can get to 61 in about 10 hours. Doing magic, I deduce that I gain about 6lvls/hr and the time necessary to get 10 levels is about 2 hours. So from the moment I get an orange gun, if I want to continue with the story at my normal pace, I have to abandon it in 2 hours, if not sooner. \n Now what this has to do with the max-level completely normal boss speedrun, melee-only boss kill that abused health-gating, and two videos showing off the berserker's OP crit potential combined with serious player skill and a very specific loadout, I have absolutely NO idea. Maybe if you could make your point with words, then provide videos as backup to your original point instead of just copy-pasting the first few links of whatever it is you search on youtube to get these videos, things would be a lot clearer. \n >Yes, gear is no longer effective after leveling just one level in UVHM. You are right! \n See! You know how to use hyperbole and sarcasm as well! (Unless you're serious &#3232;_&#3232;.) \n >Just because you like BL1 doesn't mean you get a free pass to make obviously false statements on BL2. \n If you could please point me to those statements, as they are obviously not obvious enough, otherwise I'd know which ones you were talking about."}], "user_id": "longlamp_12536", "history": [{"author": "maxy55555", "content": "I challenge you to a duel. You use only the abilities detailed here, and I'll use only defensive abilities in the combat area of your choice. You just slap your keyboard repeatedly and see how far that gets you. \n Piercing Shot is not OP, it is a very basic ability. In fact, it is one of the worst ones damage-wise. An extra attack and a quarter every 5 seconds is almost too low to be of any use, except to saturate a little bit more damage while building up to threshold. \n Snipe is not even close to OP, as it requires a 3 second set-up time. Seeing as you can use an ability every 2 seconds, this eats up precious time you could spend getting more adrenaline by using another ability. \n >The first problem is that players can now rapidly grind down an opponent with these abilities. \n Haha. Ha. Ha. What are you? A lvl 1 def pure? If not, be sure to wear armour for a massive (8000+) lifepoint boost. Then complain about the lack of length of a fight. I have never had anyone (even people who beat me on the combat triangle) kill me without a full adrenaline bar. \n >The second is that they're only limited by cooldown, which means you can spam these two abilities in succession and will raise your adrenaline extremely quickly, with only a 2 second break between uses. \n That's the point -_-. Use basics/thresholds to get to ultimate, go boom, repeat. Unless you're one of those dual-wielders, then most of your boom is at threshold. What else would you limit abilities by? Mana? \n >Threshold abilities include firing both of your ranged weapons and doing damage equivalent to 6 seconds of auto (normal) attack for a mere 20 second cooldown. \n Countered by anyone with a shield. Also, for all their damage, they have no shield which means about 1440 less Lifepoints than you and less Armour than you. This is easily taken advantage of. I'm surprised you didn't mention some of the more commonly stated as OP thresholds, like Slaughter, and even those are most times easily countered (Slaughter by not moving). \n >The adrenaline bar does not deplete at all for basic and threshold abilities. You have many of them at your disposal, probably more than 2 or 3 of each. The cooldowns are a joke and they're all powerful. \n Are you missing the point? You're  supposed  to use all these wonderful abilities to build up to an ultimate and crack some skulls. If basic abilities depleted the adrenaline bar, we'd be back to regular RS combat, except now everyone would take up to 10x longer to kill. No shit they're powerful. If abilities weren't powerful, why the hell would be use them at all? \n >This will result in combat being entirely reliant on you lining up a set of abilities in order on the bar and wire them to hotkeys. You simply go up on the hotkeys as you use abilities and keep an eye out for whichever ability has run out on cooldown and use that one only. \n I think you are confused. You can still click on the abilities in your action bar, and they will be used the exact same as if you had pressed the associated hotkey. Also, if you simply use every ability off cooldown immediately, you will get your ass kicked by someone who knows what they're doing. Sure, you can get by spamming the basics for the first half of the fight, but once you unlock thresholds it's a whole new level of complicated. I personally constantly have at least 3 abilities off cooldown at any point in the fight after this, so either you're not binding enough abilities to your bar, or you're using only the 30-second ones. Either way, you'll get destroyed because you're not utilizing every chance to get adrenaline and more ultimates = more wins.", "id": "c5a80ue", "summary": "I think you're confused. Exactly none of the basic abilities are overpowered, rather, they are all very basic. I don't know what you're going on about basic abilities and thresholds using up the adrenaline bar, this is silly because then we would be back to the current system with maybe 3 or 4 abilities per fight (most likely none since eating decreases adrenaline) and fights would take for F***ing ever. My hypothesis is that you are one of those people that doesn't like change at all. You would rather stay with the current system because it's easy and afkable.\n>This also forces players to... pay far too much attention for an exercise that should be very simple. \n In conclusion, try to get used to the new system. If you don't like it, sorry, that's the direction Jagex is going to go. You can either go back to RSC or recognize that you don't like evolving games and stop playing RS. There are plenty other slow-paced games out there. Good luck to you."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "I watched Hellsing Ultimate. I had seen small clips before going in, so I knew it got gory at some parts and had a badass vampire. Little did I know, that was the entire show. Twice. There are two badass vampires, and twice the gore. I didn't go in expecting anything, so I was not let down and certainly not disappointed by the series. I like its brevity because I needed another short series. There are certainly some things it could improve on (cutting down on the 20-minute speeches that don't explain anything and leave you wondering why you just watched that and how everything else happens) but it doesn't detract from the main selling point: mindless slaughter. Blood flows like oceans and rivers in Hellsing Ultimate. It's pretty much the vampire version of Hellboy. \n I'm sure many of you have already watched this old series, but I thought I'd give my take on it. Interesting fact: the main antagonist in this series matches Joffrey's ranking (#1) on my list of people I'd like to punch the face. Mostly for his long and boring speeches, but also because of his stupid grin.", "id": "cdmi5zm", "summary": "Hellsing Ultimate is a story about people who can't stop smiling."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "Let's show them what content we want and do not want ! \n What if I want that person to make the racist joke? Now you know the problem. Since when have people  not  up/downvoted according to what they want? That's not even what it's supposed to be used for. It's for keeping the discussion relevant, not for upvoting the left and downvoting the right. Yet, that's what happens. People view the votes as agree/disagree buttons. \n And since people are already using voting for what you say it should be used for, the answer to your question: \n >why do we keep upvoting those things? \n is because that's what reddit wants to see. \n You think that those posts get accidentally upvoted? Or that you're upvoting them but you don't want to? I'll have what you're having. It's not like you upvote a racist comment, then do a double take and realize that what you did was bad. You may have noticed that I used \"you\" a lot in this comment. That's because you have the audacity to use \"we\" and \"our\" in your comment, implying that you are part of the group of people who \"keep[s] upvoting those things.\" So, why did  you  keep upvoting those racist jokes? Or did you not, because it wasn't what you wanted to see? If you can answer those questions, then you have the answer to your own question. \n ^", "id": "cbtrgg6", "summary": "There's an upvote/downvote button that is already being used to show what content we do and do not want. I don't know why you would think otherwise. So to answer your question fully, the reason those comments are at 82 karma is because 113 individual people clicked the upvote button. They wanted to see that comment. And 31 people didn't. \n So instead of pleading to the masses to change their opinion on what's good and what's not, rely on the moderators to do their job and filter out the really bad stuff. Because they're the only ones who can. Like Batman or something."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "Commander craziness two weeks ago. I was playing with a borrowed Ruhan deck against five other opponents. They were (in order from my left to right) Progenitus Super Friends, Lazav Clones and Trickery, Trostani Tokens, Obzedat (seemed like a draft deck that had more lands put in), and Riku Goodstuff. \n There was already some craziness before the win; some highlights include Grip of Chaos on the stack with Hive Mind on the battlefield (the Grip was totally countered), a copied Bribery targeting Riku for his Diluvian Primordial which got everyone a Boundless Realms out of Riku's graveyard, and everyone ganging up on Progenitus for trying to ult Elspeth, Knight-Errant. \n As I said, I borrowed my deck from a friend. I didn't know what cards were in the deck and had no real strategy. It seemed fair that everyone else should have the same restrictions, so I cast Possibility Storm. Progenitus hates me because he knows he can't combo out through the Possibility Storm and convinces some other players to help him take my head. He beats me down to 11 with Progenitus (I think) and can't finish me off on his next turn without help. He convinces Obzedat to reluctantly play a Bloodhunter Bat and drain me 2 life to put me in danger of dying on Progenitus' next turn. \n I have a bunch of board nukes in hand including Planar Cleansing, Terminus, and Wrath of God. I really want to Terminus, but Hive Mind died somewhere along the way, so I try to cycle through my deck with Possibility Storm to get it. I Storm into some useless sorcery (I think it was some artifact removal that got rid of a Chromatic Lantern) and try again, casting Planar Cleansing this time. I whiff into something horrible like Ponder, but I cast it. At this point, I realized I had Ignite Memories in hand and that the Progenitus player's life total was around 20. He has one card in hand. I cast Ignite Memories and all of the storm copies at him. I resolved the storm trigger first, and he revealed a Contagion Engine (or some other 6-cost) and lost. \n How did I kill the others? The Possibility Storm trigger flipped me into an Enter the Infinite. I only had RRWW in my mana pool, but I drew my deck, put Omniscience on top, and cast Stranglehold. Now that all of my spells were free, I cast Leyline of Anticipation and then Dovescape and some other enchantment to get Dovescape out. Now that I knew nobody could counter my win, I cast every non-sorcery card in my hand, putting the storm count up to something like 60 and getting a lot of doves. Then I cast Ignite Memories again and gave 2 other people 30 copies aimed at their head. They conceded. I cast another sorcery, triggering Possibility Storm to get to Ignite Memories for the 3rd time this turn and the other 2 players just conceded.", "id": "cd6ub1t", "summary": "Oops, I Possibility Stormed into Enter the Infinite."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "Well your point is kinda moot, seeing as we don't have these modes to begin with. If League got a \"High-bounty\" or other custom game mode, it became popular, and Riot removed it, we'd be right back where we started. No real loss. That said, thinking that game functionality would be removed due to... being too popular (?) is extremely unlikely. I'm not sure your Battle Tanks translates to League's system at all. In League, we do have queues and can name our custom games so it'd be pretty damn simple to name your game \"high-bounty\" or something else. \n Basically, your whole argument comes down to this line, \"Sooner or later they will request a queue for it because ARAM got it too. But this would not happen so eventually Riot would remove the game mode....\" \n How do you know that 1) players will like the gamemode 2) more people will play that mode than regular league which has its own ranking system and rewards, not to mention all the pros play it and 3) that Riot  wouldn't  make a queue for it if it became popular and would instead delete it? Like seriously? ARAM became popular. We got a queue for it. The data suggests that if something similar started happening, we'd get the same result. I'm not sure what happened in your Battle Tanks game, but it doesn't sound like League at all.", "id": "cbt7s5t", "summary": "basically, we're saying \"give us a toy.\" You're saying \"no, don't give us that toy because it'll get taken away.\" So what? If we don't ask, there's a 0% chance of getting that toy. If we do, there's a good chance we keep it, and if we don't, we have fun while it lasts anyway."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "Sorry my answers are getting a bit detailed (read: long) here. You can probably skip to the bottom for quick answers if that's what you're looking for. \n \n Seriously. Just get Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014 for Steam/Xbox/PS3/iPad/Andriod. If you don't know how to play or what you want to do, it teaches you. It's like the demo of Magic (except it's a great game). Especially if you don't already have friends or others to teach you, it's the best learning tool out there. If you're skeptical, try the demo of DotP (or, \"the demo of the demo of Magic\"). Buying a booster box gives you a bunch of random cards, most of which you'll have no idea what to do with. Also, buying packs can be very inefficient. Since you're just starting out, I'd recommend buying a Deckbuilder's toolkit (2014 edition) if you really just want paper cards. Right now, you probably don't have the resources to make your own decks. Buying a toolkit gives you a variety of options for multiple casual decks, as well as some insight in deckbuilding. The cards are semi-randomized so you're guaranteed some cards you may need to build a particular type of deck. If you end up buying a booster box, it's not the end of the world. You'll just have a bunch of cards. I have never seen anyone recommend buying a booster box as a first purchase. It's excessive ($100, maybe less) and not very noob-friendly (unless it's Magic 2014). \n \n Eh, do whatever floats your boat. Going to a store is a great way to get in touch with people who play Magic. I personally have never been to a scummy store, and the owner/regulars are always ready and willing to help new  addicts  players. However, there are those reddit horror stories that pop up every now and then on this site, so keep an eye out. FNMs are a great way to get introduced into the Magic culture. Just try to be a little prepared. First, use  the wizards locator . If they don't, just stick around and ask them questions. Then come back next week with your awesome deck. \n \n You're welcome!", "id": "cbgfm4t", "summary": "I don't blame you for taking the easy way out on this one, I know I have a writing problem and I'm working on it. \n \n No \n \n Yes \n \n YW"}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "Having to farm for four hours just to get a chance at one of a certain boss' unique legendaries is not fun for me. I'd like to have the really cool, insane guns without having to waste a few hours doing the same repetitive actions over and over again. Oranges in this game are like the pearlescents of the last game. But I was fine with never getting those since there were only a handful of them. Now, I am forced to trade or mod my game just to access a whole tier of weapons. This makes me feel like it's not my achievement, and no fun is had there either. \n What I want is basically the Crawmerax of the last game. 10% chance to drop a legendary (whether it be random or not) seems ok to me. But when I spend 7+ hours staring at a computer screen killing the Warrior over and over and over again with no sight of a single orange weapon... I feel that the drop rates are nowhere near where they should be, and I'm not having the fun I could be. It would literally take me up to 4 hours to mod my save and spawn infinite orange guns. It could take me up to 10 minutes to convince someone to dupe any weapon in the game for me. When I look at these alternatives, I have to ask myself if I'm taking the right choice by choosing to farm instead. If I go another 3 hours, (totalling 10 hours total) farming for  one  weapon and I don't get anything... then I know I've made the wrong choice. And when playing the game is the wrong choice, the game is bad.", "id": "c6roogv", "summary": "bad."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "Okay... we'll go through this a step at a time. First off, my friends rarely play LoL (maybe once a month in some cases). When they go to game selection, they do like I assume most people do and select the game mode they want, ignoring all other options. Sometimes, they don't even go into game selection because I just invite and the accept. They do not watch streams or anything about League of Legends, so they miss IPL4 (whatever that is) and patch previews.", "id": "c4z967p", "summary": "not everyone cares about LoL."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "It depends on if it is your turn or not. In most situations, it will be your turn, so I'll cover that. In this situation, yes, the spirit will die. \n Let's skip to where your pontiff's first ability resolves. Your opponent's doomed traveler and nibilis die. There are 2 triggers waiting to be placed on the stack, one from the traveler and one from your pontiff. Since it is your turn, the pontiff trigger is placed on the stack, then the traveler's ability is placed above it. The traveler's ability resolves, giving your opponent a token. Then your pontiff's trigger resolves, giving them all -1/-1 again. The spirit token is a 1/1 and is on the field when the pontiff's ability resolves, so it dies along with all the 2/2 tokens (that are now 1/1).", "id": "cagqlmh", "summary": "most times yes. \n As an exercise, try to figure out why this doesn't happen if it's your opponent's turn."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "I think SoF has the opposite effect, increasing the black RWT market, not decreasing it. My thinking is this: the average person who buys spins will buy them, maybe spend $10 or $100, whatever. They will get their reward, after clicking on a red button over and over again. Their reward will feel pretty low to them (hey they just spent their week's allowance or Christmas money) and they'll be a bit depressed. The next time they go to the GE, they'll see one of those bots spamming a website advertising gold. They'll think, \"wow, I could have just spent my money on getting that great deal instead of on these silly spins.\" They won't see the difference between buying spins on the SoF and straight up buying cash (because there isn't, other than the security risk) and they'll become yet another RWTer.", "id": "c5fwlpx", "summary": "SoF is a gateway drug to black market RWT. \n Also, what does this have to do with the Original Post?"}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "You answered the question technically, others answered the real question that was being asked. When someone is new to something, they shouldn't be expected to know fully what they are talking about. It is a partial responsibility of the person answering the question to give their best guess as to what the person who put the question forward really is asking. In this case, it's not \"can I target my own spell with this ability?\" it's \"do I have a chance to respond to my opponent's spell with an ability?\" \n Answering the wrong question can confuse the questioner further, resulting in no net gain for either side. A good approach is to instead answer the question they meant to ask, then correct them on the details they got wrong. For example, \"yes, you can activate the ability in response to your opponent's spell and it will fizzle. Just remember that the ability doesn't have a target, and that exiling the spell is part of the cost, not the effect, so it is exiled immediately.\" \n So while your answer is technically correct (the best kind of correct) it is also unhelpful. Sometimes determining the actual question (instead of the question asked) is difficult, but not in this case (as you yourself seem to know).", "id": "ca8zh8z", "summary": "answer the question they meant to ask, not the actual question. Correct them later."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "So many things wrong with this, but first you should know how Possibility Storm works. First, what happens to a spell that you cast from your hand with P Storm on the field? It gets exiled. What happens to cards exiled from P Storm? They get shuffled around on the bottom of your library. \n >So I had no library to exile. \n So you  did  have a library to exile. In fact, it was precisely 1 card: AEther Membrane. And when that trigger resolves, you will have a library of 2 cards: Membrane and Temporal Mastery. Now how do you win? Cast a spell that lets you draw a few cards, then another spell that shares a type with it so you can cast it through the Possibility Storm.", "id": "cegw0b1", "summary": "Playing with a 1-card library and a Possibility Storm just delays everything you cast by one spell. \n And if you ever can't do anything that a card says you should do because of an effect on that card, just ignore it and move on. In this case, if you  actually  had an empty library and went to cast a spell with Possibility Storm out, it would exile your spell and then put it on the bottom of your library."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "Honestly, I have no idea if it's worth doing or not. I know the rewards are bonus XP and slayer points, but I don't know how much. I also don't know how hard she is. \n What I do know, however, is that she is a bit difficult without experience and that most solo melee people tend to bring Verac's. So I would suggest either buying that set and/or bringing a friend. Yes, you can bring a friend! The only catch is that you have to do more damage than them. Even if it's your first time I would suggest you do it since you'll have the fun of fighting her for the first time. If you find out you don't like her or she is not worth killing for you, at least you walk away with that knowledge. Of course, if you enjoy killing her then you walk away with something fun and new to do.", "id": "c5a0e6j", "summary": "can't hurt to try. Take armour you're willing to lose."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "Nah, I don't have time for that kind of thing. Also seems like a waste. I don't get my satisfaction in knowing I get people banned. I'm a lenient guy, and while I do hope the trolls learn a lesson all I want is to play my game with little to no distractions. \n If it's to help your future reporting, then you're reporting wrong. You don't report someone to get them banned, you do it because they're doing something wrong. Whether or not they get punished (and how severely) is up to the Tribunal and Riot, and you as the reporter don't need information on the final decision as it shouldn't affect the reports you make anyway.", "id": "c5e9mkp", "summary": "no."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "Hehe, you reminded me of my most recent act of kindness. A level 138 was walking around the Grand Exchange with nothing on (so I assumed he was recently hacked). He politely asked me if I could buy him a teletab. I asked him which one. He replied with, \"fally.\" So I bought him one, but while I was purchasing it, he had disappeared. I ran around the GE looking for him, then found him back where I started. I ask him if he still wants it, he says yes and offers me a trade. I accept and he walks off to the north-east, canceling the trade and telling me to follow. He then attempts to trade me again. I accept, put up the tele-tab, and wait for him. He runs off again, then quickly comes back. Repeat this process twice before I figure out he's what he's trying to do. Just to mess with him, I decide to put up 5m instead of the teletab one time. He does the same thing, trying to cancel the trade, but comes back and tries to get me to trade him the 5m again. I then proceed to accept then deny the next 5 trades. Finally, I tell him \"you're pretty bad at this aren't you?\" and sell the tele-tab back on the GE and continue with my day. To my knowledge, he only ever got 1 person to fall for his trick, he really was pretty bad at it.", "id": "c5i06vi", "summary": "got trolled trying to help someone out, reverse-trolled them back."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "QQ count: 4. \n I'm with you. I think that items are a lot better than skills right now. I don't agree that this is as big of a problem as you think. I think that someone wielding the best weapons available in the game should probably do the most dps compared to any player without them, hands down. That's an incredible investment and it should have payoffs like no other. \n In theory, stats should have less impact on the fight than your gear. Gear is short-term and (supposedly) riskier. Stats, no matter what you do, will always stay with you no matter how many times you die. I prefer a high-risk, high-reward system. \n The reason that Turmoil felt fucking amazing was because it was overpowered. Buffing it to its former state would make Jagex buff all bosses again, making them unkillable for anyone without 95 in that one skill, or 99 in the rest. Then more people would show up on reddit complaining, \"oh this guy showed up to Nex and outdps'ed us with his fists and 95 prayer. I spent a long time grinding 200m+ for a single weapon that costs 300k/hr to use only to have this schmuck come in like he owned the place.\" So don't expect Turmoil/Overloads to get a significant buff any time soon. \n But (a very important but), I do agree that even though weapons and armor are \"riskier\" and should be a better short-term investment than stats, their current state is unacceptable. Stats feel like they have no impact on combat at all, other than determining what you can wear. This needs to be changed. Your example is probably where I personally would draw the line. Your incremental advantages (overloads, turmoil, and +20 combat levels) definitely should have enabled you to output more dps than the other guy, or at least have you come close.", "id": "c8d8dhd", "summary": "I agree that skills need to have more visible impact on a fight, but I don't want a level 200 with a bronze dagger soloing a level 150 with full dragon."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "OK. Let's do this. What you have here is a case of multiple triggers all firing off at the same time. Magic can't handle multiple spells/abilities resolving all at once, so we have to split them up somehow. The way we handle this is to have the active player (you) set up their triggers first. You can choose any order for your triggers to fire off, and once you're done we move on to your opponent. Your triggers are placed on the stack. \n Now the non-active player gets to set up their triggers. Again, they can order their triggers however they like. The triggers are placed on the stack. The anagram we use to remember the order of simultaneous triggers is APNAP (Active Player, Non-Active Player). As you can see, because your triggers are placed on the stack first, they are at the bottom and will resolve  after  all of your opponent's triggers have resolved. In the example, you're dead after his Reckoner trigger resolves, but before any of your Blood Artist triggers resolve. \n I hope this clarifies things, but if it doesn't, try that link /u/ubernostrum kindly hands out. This is a perfect question for that chat. You could also wait for more answers as (at time of writing) there are none.", "id": "cbftjjv", "summary": "It's Magic. \n Trivia: if you had cast your Blasphemous Act on your opponent's turn (after resolving one of your 4 Hypersonic Dragon) then you would have won. If you understand why, then you got the full message."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "How about we use the monthly # in the exact same Nov18^th announcement? 11.2 mil, not 32. Almost 1/3 your amount. If they haven't played in a month, why should they be compensated for not playing? \n Now let's look at the rest of your information. \n >Riot's annual revenue in 2010 was predicted to be between 25 and 50 million USD. \n Assuming this is correct, is it safe to assume that their total revenue would double if their playerbase also doubled? It did, in the first link in your comment, from July 2011. I can't imagine what the 2010 numbers were. Lets say League was 1/4 of what it was in Nov 2011, shall we? Adjustments calculated, they were making 100-200mil a year in November. And if they pay out 1/3 of your number (to only those who played at least once a month) then they're paying about 82mil in product. Nowhere near \"financial suicide\" and what I would believe to be a fair amount. As long as they don't do this more than once a year, they're still making considerable money.", "id": "c56v5h8", "summary": "OP's numbers are inaccurate, this is not financial suicide, more like paying 82mil when Riot makes 100-200 mil a year. I can extrapolate, too."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "I never mind players who don't know the rules. I treat them like I treat newbs at any game. I tell them the correct ruling and implore them to call another party (usually a judge) over for an opinion. Sometimes more harshly than I should. But that's not the point. \n What I really hate is game stores that host tournaments without a judge/rules adviser. On the road to being a rules adviser myself, I know the rules better than 98% of the store, but I can't voice an unbiased opinion if I encounter a rules problem. When nobody else knows the rules, I look like a dick trying to explain the rules like they're all five-year-olds. \n Story: \n At a random LGS that some friends scoped out for Winter Break FNM. I'm playing G/W tokens against Tempered Steel. I manage to stall the game out spamming spirit tokens. After a few turns, I decide to alpha with a few tokens and Hero of Bladehold. A few get through, others die, life is lost. On his turn, he swings back 3 3/3 Myr tokens and a 2/2 Glint Hawk. He aims a Myr and the Hawk at my Elspeth (at 5 loyalty) and the others at me. I cast Midnight Haunting and, after pondering a bit, chump a Myr swinging at Elspeth and another Myr swinging at me. \n He then asks me if I was done (declaring blockers, I assume). I say yes. He activates Mikaeus the Lunarch to pump his dudes by 1 each, then casts Dispatch on the spirit defending my life total. Maybe some of you can see where this is going. I have to explain to him that his Myr does not have trample and that it is still blocked, dealing no damage to me. \n After a few head nods and shakes, I can tell he doesn't believe me. I raise my hand and yell for a judge. A few people give me weird looks but say nothing. After about 20 seconds of awkwardness, I ask my opponent if he played here regularly. He did, and then a player to my right chimed in with, \"yeah, we don't really have a judge.\" My heart sank as they called over the stoner kid from the register to give a ruling. He admitted to not playing Magic since middle school. \n I stand up and ask the (~16) people there if any of them went to a PT, GP, or StarCity Open. One guy in the corner stands up and I ask to borrow a minute of his time. Thankfully, he turned out to be a regular and had a much easier time convincing everyone else how the rules worked than I did. Had it not been for that one guy, I would have not been in first place to take home 6 packs of my choosing. \n I'm fine if you're a casual store and have lax rulings. But if you're putting prizes on the line, you ought to have  someone  who has an inkling of the rules before you host a tournament. I don't have a smartphone or the time to look up the comp rules during the match. \n To finally answer the OP's question: no. I do not feel guilty when accused of cheating because I'm either not cheating or I'm intrigued by the loophole that makes what I'm doing illegal. Mostly, I feel bored or impatient because we're eating up game time sorting out someone's ignorance. Sorry if you're one of those ignorant folk, I have no ill will toward you, but perhaps you'll also keep time in mind next time in addition to satisfying your thirst for knowledge.", "id": "c6cx2am", "summary": "too long; didn't rephrase."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "Thanks for putting to words what I imagine quite a few people cannot. Although I disagree with your opinions, I appreciate that you actually gave a response and didn't just say \"against.\" \n I am for the combat update, because it does make Runescape an active game. Your \"passive\" sounds like \"boring\" to me. Why else would you switch tabs or watch TV rather than play the game? If you do this, then you aren't really  playing  now are you? No. You're just watching your digital numbers go up and down and checking to make sure you didn't die/run out of prayer points. Some of the best combat in the entire game is bossing and PvP. Not bandits. Why? Not only do they have great rewards, they have an epic journey to get there. You don't watch The Last Airbender whilst killing Jad. You don't play online poker whilst in above Edgeville on a PvP world. You don't need other entertainment because you're  playing the game.", "id": "c5f3lzh", "summary": "I think this game should be about who can actually  play  it worth something, not about who can browse the Internet the longest and actually remember to check on their character every once in a while."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "Many other games with multiple servers can tell us our approximate ping before we log in. Riot not only should, but in my opinion, has to do the same. Logging in and having no idea if the most recent patch fucked up their servers, or if your router is on the fritz, is detrimental to the game. \n I don't care if it's simple to implement or not, the fact is that it needs to be implemented. If I can randomly lose games because my ping goes over 300, then I have a right to know when it's going to happen and how to avoid it in the future. \n If Riot cannot do this in the next few months, then the barrier to entry will be too high for me. I can't just go into a game and pray that I get a good connection. That's not a method, it's being stupid. And being stupid doesn't get you anywhere in this game.", "id": "t3_ynwya", "summary": "If Riot can tell us our ping at the loading screen, they can damn well tell us before we queue up. And if I'm wrong and they can't, then their game is bad and they should feel bad."}, {"author": "maxy55555", "content": "Hello, I just had a great experience and thought I should share :D. \n I've been playing this game for quite a while now, and have everything except 2 achievements unlocked: Dark Boy and Platinum God. About a week ago, I figured I'd give it my all to beat this game once and for all. Dark Boy could not elude me forever. I started playing a few games a day every day and would quit as soon as I got hit in the depths. \n My runs were mostly with Cain. I tried Isaac for a while, but found that he snowballed slower than Cain. As Cain, I could get to maximum power as soon as I saw an arcade. Isaac seemed to take longer, since the D6 gets better with more items. Also, I hate not being able to pick up any spacebar items due to the die being better pretty much always. I also love the good pills as Cain. Yeah, I understated that. It's probably his best trait. Finally, Cain's stats are more suited to my needs (high speed/damage to get to Mom faster and beat her up while dodging feet). Isaac's high health isn't as necessary and I don't find enough Devil rooms to make use of that extra heart. Range is not generally required as long as your speed is high enough. \n Today felt like a good day, and I had a great first run. I was playing Isaac but quickly turned into Cain. I had PhD as my first item, found a lucky foot from a beggar, and got some good hp from bosses. In the caves, I was fortunate enough to find a Joker card. I gave away all of my hp to grab the pact and around 12 soul hearts from Guppy's Paw. (I was hoping to find the photo before I got to Mom, I thought I had a decent shot if I could find a fortune telling machine.) Later in that floor, I found a bloody penny in a regular chest. On the room before the boss, an arcade appeared. I felt sad that I had wasted all of my hearts on the devil and skipped it. \n The boss dropped breakfast, so I went back to the arcade to donate blood. Bloody penny secured me an IV bag and I finally let go of the dice. At this point I had pretty much transformed Isaac into Cain with infinite hp/coins. I abused the arcade until I got bored and moved on to the depths. I was lucky and cursed with the labyrinth. I started heading in a random direction, using the IV bag generously whenever it looked like I would take damage. And then I spawned into that room. The room with the four green dudes that shoot explosives at you and only one path to take. I was too slow to react to four simultaneous shots and took them all to the face. I knew it was over and committed suicide. I would not achieve Dark Boy on that run. \n But there was hope! I returned to the basement as Cain and searched for my first treasure room. After racking up a considerable amount of bombs (like 5+) I find the boss room and treasure room. I walk in to take my treasure and find a great surprise! A strange fetus doctor sitting in a jar! I knew this run would be the one from that moment. I demolished everything in my path. The basement died in a few select bombs, the caves were bombarded similarly. After cleaning out an XL caves, I found a top secret room containing a fortune telling machine. It dropped 3 key items. First, it spewed out a tick. I backed away hastily, not wanting to commit to that trinket. A few more rolls gave me some soul hearts and a Joker card. I used it immediately. The devil offers me a choice of a shovel or an evil book (of Belial), each for one heart. I thought there was a mistake, for this was surely heaven, not hell. I grabbed the shovel and the devil grabbed my heart. It didn't matter, it was all over if I took even a single hit anyway. I walked out of the room with my prize in hand and thought to once more try my luck at the fortune teller. When I had but 10 coins left, the fortune teller spits out the final piece to secure my victory. I look at the Emperor card dumbfounded, thinking,  is this really it? It's over? This is my best shot at winning, just handed to me on a platter?  I grab the Tick, walk over to the boss room, and go down. At once, I used the shovel and jumped down. All that remained was to use the emperor.  Can I do this? Am I ready?  Of course I was. I wanted to kick Mom's ass. I use the emperor card and encounter one final shred of luck: Mom's red. I laughed out loud. This was by far the easiest version and the one I had the most practice against. As the first foot came down, I almost managed to get hit because I was laughing so hard. It was like the game wanted to help me! Well I messed up a little bit, got too close a few times, and missed almost all of my bombs due to my nervousness. I took a deep breath, calmed down, and listened to the rhythm of Mom's feet. After 3 stomps, I knew I had the rhythm down and hit a bomb. And the next. And the next. And the next. At this point she was 2 bombs from dying. I aimed one shot between her legs and barely grazed a foot with an explosion, but it was still enough. She was one hit from dead. Then I made my last mistake. I was too close to the left wall. Too late, I moved away as Mom's hand came slamming down. Under her open palm, my dreams would be flattened once again. I could not let that happen! I charged downwards as quickly as I could. The width of her hand is shorter than her reach, so if I could just.... \n I hear her hand hit the floor. She laughed maniacally, and I knew it was over. For her. I had escaped her grasp and all I needed was one more bomb. I knew where the foot was going. I would win! But my luck had run out. I readied the shot and fired. The foot came down as expected. The bomb glowed white and expanded. It was beautiful. Mom screamed Isaac's name as she went down for good. I could feel the Dark Boy in my hands, the thing so sought after by everyone who plays this game. But no achievement popped up. Instead, I was rewarded with an explosion. Somehow, in her dying moments, Mom had set up an invisible explosive and detonated it just to spite me. Cain took the hit, his health dropped by half of a soul heart, and I punched my keyboard. \n And so I try again tomorrow. \n Hey guys, thanks for reading! I started this because I was pretty pissed after getting   so close   to getting Dark Boy but ending up getting cockblocked by Mom (ha). I came here to find out when/why Mom blows up after dying sometimes, and how to avoid it. I also figured I'd throw some effort into this post, so I told my story. So if anyone can help me with Mom blowing up, I'd appreciate it! So far, the only reliable way to avoid it for me is to get invincibility (book o' shadows or my lil' unicorn). I'd be pretty depressed if those items were required for the achievement. So hit me with knowledge! Of course, all comments are welcome in this thread. If you don't know how to avoid invisible explosions, I understand! \n Oh, and", "id": "t3_1kg5dz", "summary": "it's a story. Not required reading. You can just ignore it if you want, my main points are right above in the italics."}]}
+{"author": "rogueman999", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post always spin plates.", "output": "Spin plates (Rollo is a genius btw). If you spin enough plates, the question simply doesn't matter. If it looks like a IOI, you go for it. If she flakes or takes too long, you simply move to the other plates. If she shows interest and things are progressing, you still keep the other girls spinning. \n Even when you got the girl and are monogamous you keep spinning plates, you just stop fucking them. It gives you the confidence to have a successful LTR, and gives you insurance in case things don't work."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post don't lie, and give her a good time.", "output": "Then don't. There are quite a few shitty things you can do to a girl that's attracted to you - and I hope you won't do them - but making her choices for her is exactly like a white knight saving a girl who doesn't ask to be saved. \n I did that in the past, and in the clear light of hindsight I realized \"the talk\" is much closer to a shit test than anything else - and even when it's not, hooking up with the girl would have done more good then harm."}], "user_id": "longlamp_14177", "history": [{"author": "rogueman999", "content": "Speaking of, I get  really  annoyed when people act as if you're mature when you're 25 and old when you're 30. I'm 31, and I'm only beginning to get my shit together. I'm not a loser either - I did about 3 (failed) startups and I'm paying my bills from freelance programming - but I can tell there's a lot of stuff I simply haven't figured out yet. Some about life, some about women, a lot about work and business. I'm thinking it's going to take at least another decade to be satisfied with myself.", "id": "c16h6bm", "summary": "We already learn for many decades... it's just as a society we're pretending it isn't so."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "Come on people, no downvoting here. The comment is pertinent and useful, and doesn't take anything from the story. The Harley rider was obviously in the wrong, but this doesn't change that too few people know that car mirrors  can  be set up so that you don't have any blind spots.", "id": "c9mxhie", "summary": "set them up so you only see the sides of the car if you slightly move your head."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "You're not going to like what I say and it may not be very polite, but I have no sympathy for people who treat the pain. Pain is not the problem, pain is simply there to tell you something is very wrong, and you should take care of it. \n And please don't tell me it's a money problem. Even if you are in US (in which case I am really sorry), waiting will only make things way more expensive. And no, you can't just ignore it forever. End result is not bad teeth, end result is a big abscess and ER.  Then  the huge bill.", "id": "ccjg1uu", "summary": "see a dentist."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "Memories are a fragile and untrustworthy thing. There are numerous studies that show that people can easily remember things that didn't happen, and there have been numerous cases where therapists helped create false memories of past sexual abuse that never happend. \n In addition, traumatic memories are much stronger and harder to forget. PTSD is a real and frequent condition that arises from exposure to traumatic events - repressing memories on the other hand is a long discredited theory with absolutely no real support. \n If it helps I can spend some time to dig up links and such, but I'm a bit in a hurry right now.", "id": "c2z83fu", "summary": "if you just remembered it, and there's no corroborating evidence, it probably never happened."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "Taica-miu sta in casa de chirpici facuta de taica-sau acum vreo 60 ani. Are schelet de stejar pe dinauntru, si din ce-o vazut la ultima lucrare e destul de solid ca sa mai tina 100 ani. Pus termoizolatie pe dinafara, aer conditionat si centrala cu lemne pe dinauntru, panouri solare pentru apa calda vara, adaugat bucatarie/baie cu apa curenta etc.", "id": "cjpx24h", "summary": "sta in casa de chirpici ca in secolu' 21."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "I recently had to learn a precious lesson about keeping friends: you have to know how much you can expect from them. They may be your friends but they're not perfect, and for some reason sometimes that's not an obvious thing. The right thing to do is to keep them, but still live your life your own way - but this will take a bit of effort.", "id": "c11es4j", "summary": "they're wrong, but they probably mean well. Dealing with it takes some work."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "This is like the statistics 10 years ago that the users of C# increased 2000%, while Java's only 20%. The difference is the numbers they started at. \n Producing tap water has an energy cost of almost zero (the costs, whatever they are, are probably in salaries, infrastructure and maintenance). In many cases it comes from uphill, so if you put a turbine you get negaritive energy costs. Compare anything with almost zero and you'll have a huge number.", "id": "c07z4y9", "summary": "Relative numbers in this case are bollocks."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "This kind of thing is natural, and by natural I mean there's a cocktail of chemicals in your brain making you feel this way. It's ok, enjoy it. \n The trick (which many don't learn until their 30's, by which time it's pretty much too late) is to make the big decisions while ignoring the way you feel. It's harder, but worth it. \n For example: you don't get married because \"you feel right for each other\", or because \"he makes you happy\". You get married because: \n \n you're at a point in your lives where you're both ready to do it, both career wise and emotionally. \n you have a history of getting along and no major recent problems \n you can afford it.  \n \n And so on. Most people do things the other way around, starting from the feelings. They get pregnant because they're horny, have the child because it feels right, then get married because they're supposed to, then they try to have a life and discover they're pretty much fucked.", "id": "c1jjqoa", "summary": "Feelings are good. Big decisions based on feelings is bad."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "Economics. The recipe for pretty much all the economic successes in the past hundred years, from US to South Korea to Japan to Singapore were actually very similar: protectionism of local industry by a strong government followed by gradual liberalization when the economy grew enough. \n What we had/have is the very opposite. Our integration with the global/European markets started in the form of cheap labor (google \"lohn\" - this is probably the largest part of the problem) and no support from the government for growing industries. Add to this plain old corruption and the sale of very valuable businesses for petty cash.", "id": "cd6eg2g", "summary": "Early liberalization, corruption, inefficient privatization."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "I-am citit (well, rasfoit 2 ore pe tren) cartea autobiografica. Primul mandat la Sibiu a fost foarte chill, din afara nu s-a intamplat mare lucru. In al doilea au inceput sa se intample proiecte incepute in primul, plus cateva chestii mai flashy. Deja proiectele pe care le-a lasat acolo o sa fie science-fiction cand se termina.", "id": "coshbbb", "summary": "deocamdata omul sta si invata. N-avem ce parere sa ne facem."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "Cati bani ai tu, personal de cheltuit? Eventual cu inca 2-3 de pe scara? Pasii sunt urmatorii: \n \n Cauti o firma care poate face o expertiza la situatia asociatiei. Basically ei ofera consultanta: vin, iau dosarele la purecat, iti spun cum sta situatia. Evident, nu trebuie sa ceri voie administratorului pentru asta. Posibil sa trebuiasca ceva acord de principiu de la presedinte sau unul din cenzori - o sa-ti spuna tot ei. Cu asta rezolvi problema administratorului. \n \n Dupa pasul 1. deja multe chestii o sa fie schimbate. Shit may hit the fan, dar cel putin o sa sti(ti) daca vreti sa pastrati administratorul sau sa lucrati cu o firma (gen [asta]( \n \n Cu cine va fi administrator in momentul respectiv, preferabil o firma ca ei au mai facut asta, dati in judecata restantierii. Banii vi-i recuperati sigur, in cel mai rau caz se vand apartamentele. \n \n Intre timp creati un fond special in care puneti bani pentru plata utilitatilor \n \n Dupa ce luati banii inapo cu penalizari cu tot va faceti piscina in spatele blocului si/sau nu mai platiti intretinere 6 luni.", "id": "cogawe4", "summary": "it's gonna take a while, it's gonna be ok, but seek professional help."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "What you're saying has been said many many times before. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. We all appreciate the sentiment - the idea of having rich people play with food while the poor watch doesn't appeal to anybody (except maybe psychopaths). But every time some form of regulation has been used to prevent this, it had side effect which are much worse then what it's been trying to prevent. It's very important to understand this, because otherwise it will go on an on. \n Let's start with what would happen... no, what  will  happen now that this event has been stopped. \n First, no poor person will eat a tomato that he wouldn't otherwise. It's important to start with this, because it's true. Stopping it won't feed anybody. \n Poor people can't eat tomatoes because they're too expensive for them. This event would not raise the price of tomatoes any further. Actually, there is good argument that it will lower it - having a great quantity of tomatoes imported, raising awareness about tomatoes, having sellers offer various promotions - all this will tend to make buying tomatoes easier. \n In addition, any money spent in that district (such as for tickets, and the tomatoes used for the fest) generates taxes - taxes which are used directly to help the poor. \n Usually, this is when people start thinking about how you would make the tomatoes go more directly from the producers to the people needing them. That's a much worse path, leading very fast to producers making less/worse tomatoes.", "id": "c2kernf", "summary": "The problem is that the poor don't have money, not that the rich have. Work on that end, and the world will be a much better place."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "Oh, how I envy you. There's a beautiful world waiting out there. \n First, get the classics out of the way. Dune by Frank Herbert is  the  science-fiction series, and with good reason. Both deep and broad, and arguably un-equaled so far. Stay away from anything written by his son. \n Ender by Orson Scott Card, plus the next two volumes. In a hurry you can just stick to the first (not that you'll be able to stop). May want to read other stuff by the guy, but do it on your own risk. \n The Foundation Saga, by Isaac Asimov. You can skip this if you want to - not that you won't enjoy it immensely if you don't. Lighter in both mood and content, very scientific and possibly slightly dated. \n Anything by: Robert A. Heinlein, Norman Spinrad, A. E. van Vogh, Paul Andersen, Larry Niven, Ursula K. LeGuin, William Gibson. \n My pet peeve these days would be The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold - it brought me back to sf after a pause of almost a decade.", "id": "c83f1pg", "summary": "read Dune"}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "Black\" right now has two meanings (and it's a shame people, especially black people, don't realize it more). It's both a skin color, and a culture. \n As far as the skin color goes, the current society has things pretty much figured out. Discrimination is not ok, you can't judge people from their skin color etc \n As far as culture goes, there is still a lot to take in. I'm European myself, so take it with a grain of salt, but I seldom hear anything good about the black culture. I can pretty much compare it with the Gypsies here, and being called a \"gypsy\" in my native language as every bit as much an insult as \"nigger\" is - regardless of the race or skin color. of the receiver. Unfortunately society hasn't really figured out how to deal with this... Is it discrimination to treat differently another culture? The differences are real... there are neighborhoods where you shouldn't walk alone at night - is this discrimination? Because if it's not, then it's ok to also treat people according to how they look or what music they listen to.", "id": "c16h359", "summary": "you're not black. Deal with it."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "You have good chance of getting a relationship, but you have a lousy chance if you ask for it in the beginning. \n Many guys (me included) want \"something\". Not a one night stand, but definitely not a serious relationship from day one. Sometimes we know that things don't have a good chance of getting serious, and sometimes we just wait and see. But if you don't give guys a chance to try for themselves, they definitely won't commit just because you ask them.", "id": "c1k1zey", "summary": "Asking for a relationship up front is a huge turnoff. Ask to see them again, and they'll all be for it."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "Also GS500, care e cam top in clasa asta. Toate 3 sunt ok, diferentele nu sunt mari. CB500 e usor overpriced (deh, honda), gs500 e mai sport (pozitie si handling). De er5 nu stiu mult, dar ce stiu stiu de bine. \n Io am un GS500E din '90 de vreo 5 ani deja, asa ca o sa-ti povestesc de el. Mi-am luat alte 3-4 motoare de atunci, dar gs-ul a ramas nevandut si inca merg fericit cu el. E bun si de mers prin oras cuminte, si de bagat un pic mai tare, si de iesit la munte/mare. N-are cine stie ce \"punch\" motorul, dar daca nu esti maniac nici nevoie n-ai. Also racire cu aer si no computers, so e more or less bulletproof si super usor de lucrat pe el. Iar pretul e ridicol de mic la ce ofera, majoritatea pe bikeshop sunt listate la sub 1000.", "id": "cipdy4z", "summary": "oricare din cele 3 e ok."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "My internet is going haywire at the moment so I can't google myself, but I saw a video a while back about how to deal with a tall bike when you're a short guy. Long story short, there are ways to do pretty much everything: to mount, you step with the left foot on the peg, then put yourself on the bike (like mounting a horse). To stop at a stoplight, you always decide in advance on a side, and put down just one foot on that side. Etc.", "id": "c6yvral", "summary": "there are ways to ride even a very tall bike."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "Don't worry man, people sometimes are just weird that way. You didn't do anything wrong. Jedberd should have dropped a line he's working on this. If he wanted to make a surprise, he should have expected a bit more noise: after all, it's a good idea (obviously, since he's implementing it) and it's not reasonable to expect reddit to forget a good idea so soon.", "id": "c1cygcy", "summary": "you're not a dick. have a hug."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "The whole collective society still exists in every society, but only on a smaller scale. You can't have common ownership on a large scale for obvious reasons (i.e. somebody will just come, get what he wants, and move on) and the costs of enforcing order in a large collective society are 1984-style prohibitive. \n What we can do is acknowledge that collective societies still have their value and promote them whenever we can: \n \n as slices of the larger society (health etc) \n \n by making it easier to have smallish collective bits of society.", "id": "c3p1s38", "summary": "you get around it, not over."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "This is a very good way to be an environmentalist. Natural resources as a rule have very low profit margins, and are a perfect target for this kind of \"friendly aquisition\". The only problem is he was a bit of an jerk with it; i.e. he first made the bid, then used the publicity to raise money. This is dangerous, as it could encourage lawmakers to make exactly the kind of laws he's fighting now.", "id": "c06yehy", "summary": "If you care about the environment, simply putting the money where your mouth is can be the best way. But you have to be civilized, and avoid basic no-nos like lying about having the money."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "Part of it is just fooling others and then use the feedback to actually feel better about yourself. \n But there is also something called a Success Spiral. Point is to start doing stuff which takes effort, but that you have a good chance at succeeding (with the proper effort, of course). Start small: a hobby, something you've always sucked at, a sport... anything. Learn to ride a bike, swim, do karaoke, dance... whatever. \n Once you do one thing, immediately start another. Use the \"feeling good\" you get from the last thing you managed to do to carry you into the other. Pretty soon you'll find out that your life is sprinkled with accomplishments, and accomplishments breed confidence - the real kind.", "id": "c243rri", "summary": "challenge + effort = success => confidence. Repeat until happy."}, {"author": "rogueman999", "content": "Numa nu incerca sa-l \"prinzi din mers\" sau sa treci asa rapid printr-un tutorial sau sa zici \"las ca folosesc un  GUI\". Are un learning curve  foarte  abrupt la inceput, dar nu dureaza mult. Tre' sa bagi 1-2 dupa-amieze in citit primele capitole din documentatie (recomand  si sa exersezi in timp ce citesti. Daca incerci s-o iei pe scurtatura ai toate sansele sa dai cu capu rau de tot. Dupa ce apuci sa prinzi conceptele e super ok.", "id": "clawxzq", "summary": "n-ai 5 ani in pula mea, esti ditamai programatorul. Pune mana si citeste ca invatatura nu doare."}]}
+{"author": "david531990", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post read and understand the summoners code plus the terms of use. Elo jobs does break both. \n Also, saying Riot gives 0 fucks it's saying Riot gives 0 fucks about the rules they stated. So let's go and troll, rage, afk, etc, when we get banned we tell them exactly this. They don't give a shit about their rules, why would we?", "output": "Lol, here it comes, they guy who bought elo now he wants to defend that pathetic action. \n Anyway, in the terms of use it clearly states you CAN'T play on an account you don't own. So there you go, it's against the terms of use. \n And if we get a bit strict, in the summoner's code it says to have fun but not at others expenses. the 2k elo dudes are ruining the game for the low elo, that breaks that part. the pathetic guy who bought the elo boost then goes and ruins the game for his teammates when he feeds every game since he can't handle w.e elo he bought, so there you go he is having fun at the expense of his teammates. \n So"}], "user_id": "longlamp_9724", "history": [{"author": "david531990", "content": "3 in fact. In all honesty they are way cheaper than going to a club, spending cash on booze trying to impress a girl then listening to dumb shit for hours just to get laid. \n Not to mention random drunk girls are more likely to not use a condom (on the dude, obviously) so the STD chance is actually higher than with a prostitute. \n Then the prostitutes are not drunk so they are actually moving and doing good sex stuff. \n Even if prostitutes judge you for whatever kinky stuff you want to try, WHO GIVES A SHIT, is not like she will burn you with the whole campus (workplace or whatever). \n Some of them are not just bimbos and can hold a decent conversation for when you are dressing after having sex. \n Easier to fuck a 10 by paying than fucking a 10 in real life. \n They will pretend you are the best lover ever, unlike some girls that bitch when you don't bring your A game. \n Just do the math on how much money you waste trying to score a girl, gotta include all the failed nights.", "id": "cafkum9", "summary": "Easier to buy love, also cheaper. \n Now to answer your actual question, yes it was good. After sex we had small talk about life then we both left happy, I had sex she had money."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "You are ugly/disgusting. There. That's what she wants to tell you, you have a nice personality (doesn't every redditor?) BUT you are ugly or you don't take care of yourself so you disgust her (not enough to be your friend, but enough to not be your gf). Lets be honest here, you don't look a girl for how nice she is, you look for boobs and ass. Then you look for her personality. They do the same, except they don't look for boobs. \n Anyway,", "id": "c5eoyht", "summary": "get in front of a full body mirror and look at yourself. Then you will realize why you are in the friendzone. Unless you still believe your mom that you are a gorgeous dude. In that case, I can't do shit for you. \n EDIT: To make more sense"}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "In case you aren't sarcastic, they probably owe taxes from when they made money. Also, it's most likely they work a shitty job, they spend all their pay in whatever and they don't pay their taxes. Also for example, here in Mexico you have to pay taxes for the house you own every year (pretty stupid) also you have to pay taxes for your car and any other private property you have. So even if you have 0 income you still owe taxes for whatever you own.", "id": "ca7934i", "summary": "not having a job don't mean you can't owe taxes for other reasons."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "1.- Use the fucking search bar, I swear this thread is posted 3 times a week \n 2.- Everyone that doesn't queue for support would have 4 hours queue time. \n 3.- I queue for support, get 4 seconds queue then pick w.e the fuck I want, who is gonna stop me? \n 4.- This leaves no room to change the meta, making the game boring as hell. \n So", "id": "c661coa", "summary": "your idea is stupid and you should feel stupid,  not to mention it's been posted hundreds of times before, use the god damn search bar."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "Abuse him early game when Vlad is shit. Get cutlass first for sustain, then get a triforce. After level 7 or 8 if you are not fed then play cautios because that's when Vlad starts to wreck. After level 11 or 12 you are fucking Jax. No one can stop you unless you fell really behind. Maybe try to pick 1 or 2 mana pots so you can constantly trade early game.", "id": "c5l3b17", "summary": "Jax shits on Vlad early game, Vlad shits on Jax mid game, Jax is Jax late game."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "Let me try to break it down. The law says you can't download software without paying for it right? not even share it. We don't give a fuck and we download pirated shit right? we are breaking the law. Since we are breaking the law, the congress is about to pass a bill called SOPA so they can close websites that host pirated software. Now, there is a big campaign to stop SOPA, I read about how you are sending letters, making phone calls, doing smoke signals, sending a rhino with a message tattooed to his ass and all right? My question is why not do that (the work, the messages, the calls to your representative) BUT to change the laws that forbid software sharing? why start to work when the shit gets real and the congress is about to pass a bill that will change the internet? Let me put it this way, you throw a match in the woods (downloading pirated shit). The woods catch fire (SOPA). Instead of waiting until the fire is about to burn all the place to start trying to put it out, why you don't work to stop the match from setting the woods on fire in the first place? If the software laws where different we would be on this situation, if you had worked to change those laws years ago you would be shitting in your pants because you won't be able to pirate shit any more. And yeah don't tell me is about freedom of speech, if they close the website because some asshole is streaming illegal shit, you can easily write your opinion somewhere else and no one will shut down that website because your opinion. Anyway I hope you get my point.", "id": "c38vtmz", "summary": "Work to change the software laws, don't wait until something like SOPA comes to move your lazy ass."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "People needs to stop doing that shit. I always see the same shit. A moron earlier was trying to counter Irelia top. So he picked Olaf. Saw his profile, 0 games with Olaf in Ranked. When match started saw Irelia's, 200~ games with Irelia. Guess who was 0/7 by 10 min? Just play your best champ, I've played enough Renekton/Graves to handle their direct counters. \n PS I carried that guy, sadly I gave him free elo but I needed that to reach 1400 again :) then I lost my next one.", "id": "c5q2uex", "summary": "Stop caring about counter picking and play your best. If the other guy has TONS of games played with that champ and you have a few with the counter, he will own your face no matter what."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "And as usual, redditors have no idea how the world and economics actually work. Let me give you a quick run: \n 1) EU buys from Russia because cheap prices \n 2) EU cuts that deal because Ukraine \n 3) EU has to look from other suppliers that are FARTHER than Russia. Why does this matters? Because the farther the goods are, the pricer it gets to transport them. \n 4) Any supplier with an average IQ will rise the prices because this ain't charity, these are business. \n 5) You got the same demand for X resource but now there are less because you are not buying from Russia. PRICES GO UP. Economy 101. \n 6) EU governments has to subside them (which can lead to problems) or let the people take the price hit. \n How long until europeans step down from their high horse and stop caring about Ukraine because higher prices means less money in their wallets? \n Seriously, if they cut off Russia, the other countries won't go selling cheap, they will try to get as most as they can while the sanctions last. And let's be honest, no government gives a shit about Ukraine unless you are right next to it, so the other providers can't give a fuck about it, they won't give away their resources to EU for cheap just because something that don't effect them.", "id": "cftrd02", "summary": "Cutting off Russia means higher prices, people will stop caring about Ukraine once they see their economy affected. Welcome to the real world."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "Lies, everyone knows women don't shit. Since you don't go do your own shit, we can deduce you were lying also when you said you didn't care. So you do care if your man is doing whatever he wants. Since 2/3 of your statements are already a lie, we can say the whole statement is a lie.", "id": "c82g2nt", "summary": "you are a man."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "Being nice won't get you elo. Skill is what gets you elo. You can be the biggest asshole in the game, but if you are a 2.4k elo player, you will reach it. You can be the nicest player in the game, but if your skill is a 500 elo player, you will be 500 elo. \n All the AFK and trolls, today you get 1 tomorrow the enemy gets 1. So that balances. I love using my example because I'm proud of what I did, I was 750 elo, I realized I was a baddie and started to improve, I got to 1410. I'm not nice, I'm not an asshole either. I never type anything in chat unless is relevant to the game.", "id": "c6c0x4f", "summary": "read the whole thing, if you too lazy: Attitude won't get you anywhere. Skill is what matters. \n EDIT: The ragers are everywhere, the only difference is that the higher elo the \"classier\" they get. Instead of \"retard\" you get called \"noob, instead of \"ahmahgawd fucking retard stop feeding\" you get \"How did you get this elo? Did you buy this account?\". Trolls are everywhere as well, just go to the SS chat and ask Mudykipp how many times he has been trolled by SaintVicious."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "I'm actually happy that they banned you. Why do people rage so hard? IT'S A FUCKING GAME. Nothing more than that. It's awesome, I play it myself. I'm a noob, sometimes I play bad sometimes I dominate. I just played a game where literally four enemies where at the doorstep afraid to get in a fight with me because, well, they would just die. \n My teammates where doing extremely bad, plus we had two leavers at min 20. Plus a dude trying to \"jungle\" and he was just dying and leaving us in disadvantage. Anyway, was I frustrated? Yeah, my best game ever and we lost because my teammates performed poorly and left. Was I taunting the enemy? Yeah, in a friendly way (with smiley faces) we were laughing and well, they were taunting me to leave my precious turret haha. Was I receiving assistance when they actually attacked me? No, and I killed them all. \n And not a single fuck was written that day. Of my part at least. Even when we lost because of poorly performance from my teammates.", "id": "c3i9mau", "summary": "CHILL THE FUCK OUT, it's just an awesome game but again, a GAME. No need to rage, yeah sometimes you get troll and douche teammates, well then just do your best and report."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "80% of the times you are right. Sometimes you are lucky enough to be 4th pick so you don't have too. I was first pick ONCE doing solo queue in normal draft, I have no idea how I accomplished that. Also notice that if you ask nicely you may get the role. When me and my friends play with a random and he ask nicely we usually give him the role he wants, if he is a dick (I'm going mid and idgaf) we troll him untill he leaves or even if we go into the game we keep trolling.", "id": "c44t1km", "summary": "fucking ask nicely for the role you want, they may give it to you. no need to be a dick."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "Can't blame Khan for what heppened to the muslim culture. As a matter of fact the dude from persia provoked Khan. The whole invasion thingy was a reaction to the mongol emissary that went to seek trade agreements and returned without a head because the Shah thought he was cool. Then when the Khan came he offered vassalization in exchange to not rape and pillage stuff, they said no because they thought they were superior.", "id": "caq9mli", "summary": "they sought their own destruction."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "If you let the supports have more money, you need to nerf them, again. Have you ever played AP Taric? He is insane, AP soraka/janna/lulu used to be broken. What supports need is cheap, aura items. Riot needs to design more support items. A support will get an aegis (first item) at 25-30 min. By that time most champs have 2-3 major items completed. Items like Locket of the iron solari have a nice concept, the hp regen aura. If you could actually get at least the emblem in lane, that would make up for supports without sustain, but you can't.", "id": "c60ug4l", "summary": "Riot needs to design cheaper, aura items to make support build something else instead of the usual Reverie, Aegies and GG game is over you couldn't buy anything else."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "Ok I'm here, let me explain to you. LA had the Chargers, Raiders and Rams right? \n 1.- Chargers left after 1 years because they were never meant to be there, this was in the 60s and LA was pretty much a place holder for them until they moved to SD after just that 1 inaugural season for them. They don't exactly explain why they only played 1 season there but never meant to stay there, I'm assuming they were waiting for a stadium deal. \n 2.- Rams. They were actually meant to stay there forever BUT their owner in the 90s (Georgia Frontiere, widow of previous owner) decided to act like a brat and wanted a NFL team on her hometown (after trying to move them to Baltimore after the Colts left). She accused that there weren't enough profits for a new stadium (in LA LOL) but the owners actually tried to block her stating she just mismanaged the team. She moved them to Anaheim to alienate the fan base and use that excuse to move them. She achieved so and moved the team to St Louis. LA had nothing to do with her and her bratty ways. There is a drama going on with the new Rams' owner (Kroenke) about St Louis not full filling their commitment to the stadium and he wants to move them to LA building a stadium with his own cash, league is trying to block him. My opinion? Backstage owners want him to move the team but they don't want to take the heat for abandoning a small market in favor of bratty LA so they condemn him publicly but will do nothing if he actually moves. \n 3.- Raiders. Raiders were Oakland's team since their inception. In the 80s, late owner Al Davis wanted to move them to LA but the league blocked it (important). He sued them because that's what Al Davis did (flipping the NFL off) and won, he moved them to LA and were pretty successful there (1 SB and pretty much dominant). In the 90s Al Davis wanted to secure a new stadium deal in LA and the city was willing to play ball with him BUT the NFL (Roselle, previous commish) out of spite because Davis sued them and won (40 mill in damages plus legal fees and moved the team against the league wishes) blocked the deal along with the other owners. Al Davis had to move the team back to Oakland. LA wanted the Raiders to say, like the Rams, but people acting like children prevented such thing. \n So", "id": "crd0gba", "summary": "LA wanted to keep their 2 teams (Chargers don't really count since they moved after 1 season only) or at least 1 but owners and the commish acting like little brats set in motion some shit and prevented LA to keep any team. \n I agree with your current sentiment that the team needs to be good in LA BUT considering the Lakers are shit and still have good attendance I doubt that with that much population and the lack of professional football in LA for 20 or so years will pretty much guarantee you good attendance for at least your first years there. \n Now /u/swxrice mentions the possibility of an expansion franchise, well, the NFL won't do that for LA, San Antonio or any other city since they currently have 32 teams divided perfectly in their divisions not to mention in the NFL it's hard as hell to fin a worthy QB to lead a NFL team for 32 teams (consensus is that there are 15 or so franchise QBs, not even half the league has 1), imagine if they expand that shit. Also you already have 3 teams in Cal (Chargers, 49ers, Raiders) so adding another 1 would split the profits even more. San Antonio has the same issue, Texans and Cowboys already play in Texas and moving a team, say, from Missouri would split profits in Texas and will \"prevent\" the league from taking those Missouri profits."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "one question, was that guy giving orders? If he was and the OP wasn't listening then yeah, the rage is \"justified\". But if he just expected for a new guy to know about the strategy, then fuck that guy. I'm new myself, I had had teammates like this, getting angry because you are not a pro and so. Also I got some teammates that new I'm a noob so they gave me orders (in a nice way) also helping me to buy stuff i needed. I just finished a game where i killed 20 dudes and died 3 times. For me that's awesome since I've been playing for six days.", "id": "c3gn9wr", "summary": "If you know how to play but neglect to help your noob teammates, how the fuck do you expect them to know everything about strategy?"}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "you have a good point, now I urge you to read my point before downvoting (you would probably do that). \n While they pay low salaries and most of their products are done in factories that also pays low wages and could be considered sweat shops I urge you to consider the following: as of 2006 1.6 million people worked at a walmart. If this corporation disappears because we hate it (I don't), most of this people would be jobless. Now, lots of them could work in small businesses, ok, BUT the prices would be a little higher there, therefore people would buy less. With people buying less, let's say clothes, then the clothing factory would have to cut costs. In other words fire some people that now would be jobless, therefore not buying from this small businesses. You see were I'm going with these? I hope. \n Now if they start to pay good salaries and shit, prices would go up, leaving people with less products for the same money. And here we go again to the factories firing people for selling less. And we go again to the firing circle. \n Basically these evil corporations provides jobs that wouldn't exist without them, don't delude yourself thinking that all the people would have jobs in small businesses. I'm not saying I agree with walmart and that I would love more of this corporations but I also don't live in a dream were we could take down this corporations and everything would be better. \n The same thing happens with other corporations, even with sweatshops. I know that this is not related but if sweatshops go, prices would go to the sky and people wouldn't be able to afford shit, eliminating jobs as well. \n Again, I don't support this \"evil\" practices, but I know that (sadly) are necessary. Maybe we brought this upon ourselves for being greedy and now it would be impossible to \"fix\" this situation.", "id": "c371g45", "summary": "getting rid of big corporations would eliminate countless jobs. And no they wouldn't end up working in small businesses because of the higher prices."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "Why? I play only AD in ranked and I've given free elo to morons who didn't deserve it. Why do I only play AD in ranked? Because I know I can carry easy with that role. I carried teemo's who are 0/8 by 10 min vs Irelia. Morgana's who are 0/5 by 10 min, because morgana op but they have no idea how to play with her. \n You need to understand something, you will never play all the roles at the same level. There is always 1 role that is your best, then your second best role, you can't play that at the same level. Same with champs, I only play Graves on ranked and that works for me. Why? Because my other AD's are not as good as my Graves.", "id": "c5w0hrx", "summary": "No, fuck you I only play Graves on ranked and that got me from 750 elo to 1398 elo. Where is your logic now?"}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "Are you sure you can't live without the ipad? Are you going to die without it? Are you going to starve without it? Does it \"fills\" the ozone hole? can it make a blind person see again? No. Of course it makes your life way much eaiser. I know it because I have a Blackberry Playbook. \n And it's the same with the autistic kids. It made life easier for the guys handling those. Still it is not neccessary. Extremely useful, yes of course. and to engage your kids there are several real life apps for that. Not that you are a bad parent, I actually like that you want to engage your kids. But you could have done that without an Ipad, but again it's easier with an Ipad. \n so yeah, it's needless YET useful luxury.", "id": "c3ha36l", "summary": "apple products are not first neccessity products. therefore he didn't changed the world to make it better."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "But saying: \"Oh, since I don't like this law I will break it\" it's completely wrong. Also I don't disagree with that particular law (the one for copyrighted shit) since most of them work hard (games studios, movies and those) to earn that money and not because they are already rich we have the right to take whatever we want. \n It's like if I go to your place to use the things you worked hard to get without your permission and then I rage when you ask me to stop. \n For the methods, I don't agree with SOPA BUT it is true that other methods such as talking haven't work because, well, pirates don't give a shit. Basically then can't be reasoned with so what is left?  A bill that threatens everything. Also notice that most of the pirate promoting websites do make profit from others works, I doubt you appreciate when someone else takes your ideas and profit from them without your permission.", "id": "c3iyx5v", "summary": "talking methods didn't work, we pushed them into desperation and they will unleash something they don't understand."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "Because most LoL players are sexually frustrated nerds who get aroused by it. That makes them play more and spend more money. why do you think all the female champs (except Annie) have DD bra size and are always showing 3/4 of their tits and ass? \n If you want to know how pervert and sexually frustrated our community is, you just need to recall how many posts requesting ahri in thong, I mean volleyball sex ahri skin, were here in reddit. If we ever get a fat female champ, it would be probably the less sold champ in the history. Unless she is retardedly op.", "id": "c5t0ctt", "summary": "most LoL are sexually frustrated nerds, need to make them feel aroused so they keep spending monies."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "negate the heal? how am I suppose to stop auto attacks? Using tryndaqueer don't require skill at all. just wait until you need to pop ult. use it. attack to gather rage. use your queer mini flash to get away. pop heal. laugh at opponents. That's what makes tryn so annoying compared to kayle's ult and the other examples you provide. and that's my point, he is the most annoying champion (in a whole, not just because of his ult) than any other champion. and if you fail to see my point here then you just don't want to read or understand.", "id": "c4ik813", "summary": "my point is that tryndaqueer COMPLETE SET OF 4 ABILITIES are retarded. That's why his ult is more annoying than kayle's because he have MORE stuff to shit on your day"}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "My personal policy? I rather have people looking the inside of my store from outside that some posters. So I don't have any problems with a person asking for a poster. and probably is my marketing fail but I just like my store better with the glass empty so I can see it from the outside.", "id": "c3c0psm", "summary": "I will give any poster if you ask for it."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "People who hate him just because he is \"black\" (come on, he is more brown than black) is a really tiny fraction of his haters. Not gonna deny racism is a thing still, but you can't hide behind that to defend him either. He took a dying country and just accelerated the dying process. He keeps the same war policy as his predecessor except he still have to find an excuse for an full invasion so he just bombs other countries (yemen, Pakistan) and he still have to retire the troops from middle east as he promised. \n He keeps spending like if the US had all the money in the world instead of a 7-8 trillion dollars debt. Instead of actually trying to create jobs, he just keeps giving more handouts so people would rather live off a government paycheck since that means more money than a minimum wage job. \n He raised the taxes for the middle class, he hasn't done shit for the educational system, his Obamacare has lots of flaws.", "id": "c81iy61", "summary": "is not racism, people playing the \"you hate obama because racism\" card are just naive to see the reality. Not saying Romney should've won, but for sure Obama hasn't done shit. \n PS Hitler actually took Germany from the shithole they were after WW1 and made it a super power in few years, there is no comparison at all between these two."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "So, I'm playing as the Roman Emperor and I already have the empire of Arabia, the Byzantine empire, Hispania and Francia. Before I start my germanic campaign, I love to have everything as in the vanilla de-jure map so I do want the HRE title. Now, since I'm orthodox I can't usurp it, create it (in case I completely destroy everything) or anything. In my game the stupid AI decided to have a germanic emperor that is a bishop, so no heirs no nothing. My initial plan was to marry a sister of the emperor (before they turned to that bishop-emperor) and basically have my son with a claim, then destroy them all and just let him have a dutchy and then press the claim to get the empire. Now that's not possible, so how can I do it? If I invite a guy with a claim and press it, will he be a regular emperor or he will get the bishop-emperor stuff?", "id": "t3_15iel2", "summary": "how to return the HRE to have a regular emperor so I can do some stuff to end up with it if they have an emperor-bishop?"}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "1.- If you choose to start as William the asshole (for some reason I hate this guy) you have it all easy, wait until the Norway and England armies fight then come in and clean up. \n 2.- Harold of Godwin, this is the most difficult one in my opinion, you have to retreat your army to wales and hope that before you get a forced surrender the armies of Norway and Normandie meet then just show and clean up. \n 3.- Harald of Norway, you have to retreat to Scotland until the other 2 guys meet in battlefield and then you show and clean up. The trick here is that you are an old dude and you have to pray to the norse gods you stay alive long enough for Harold and William to destroy themselves then you come in and clean up. Extra tip, if William insta wins by luck (he captures harold) you get an extra dutchy when you win (normandy).", "id": "t3_166dhd", "summary": "whoever you choose to play as, retreat immediately and wait for the other 2 guys to beat the shit out of each other then come clean with your 9k+ army."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "So, the Arpads being as balanced as they can, conquered everything to reform the tengri religion in like 20 years or so. Didn't matter to me, was playing as the first Piast bro trying to form Poland and then the Wendish Empire. Mid game I decide to stay Slavic and try to reform it (was gonna go christian since the slavic holy sites are so fucking far away, 1 in rus, 1 in wallachia, 1 in poland, 1 in pomerania and the other one somewhere else). Anyway, after some work and 2 genius rules dead after less than 3 years of ruling (seriously, fuck this game) my imbecile slothful ruler manages to conquer stuff and reform the religion. Now, my head of religion is a tengri dude, polish but tengri. He also holds both titles, the slavic head of religion and the tengri head of religion. Will this affect the game? Will he still call some \"great holy wars\" whenever the date comes? I've been holy warring my way into Europe destroying dem stinky Karlings but obviously a slavic crusade makes shit easier, so that's why I'm worried.", "id": "t3_1j0uig", "summary": "Arpad dude reformed tengri, I reformed Slavic and now the same dude is head of the two religions, he is still tengri so want to know if that will affect my slavic game."}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "As for now, I'm the emperor of Arabia. Started as the count of Napoli, conquered Sicily and the dutchy of latium (muslims kicked the pope's ass, took it back). Then I started my African invasion, first was the kingdom of Africa, then mauretania, Mali, Egypt, Arabia, Jerusalem, Syrya, Armenia, Anatolia. After that I went for Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Wallachia (half of it, some bitch from the rurikovich has the other half), Georgia, Alania and Taurica. \n Since I usurped Egypt early, there was only 1 failed crusade for Jerusalem, after I took Egypt all the Fatimid territory broke into dutchies (that I conquered later) so the pope decides to call a crusade for Andalusia, which I won after having to assassinate the HRE leader. I had to have a levantine dude educate my past heir so I could create the Arabian Empire (for the cultural restriction) then I killed myself :P so my brother inherited. Anyway, the Byzantine empire only holds Greece as for now, I took half Armenia and full Anatolia from them since they actually were strong and didn't lose to the Seljuk (with the Fatimid destroyed, they only had 1 opponent). So they still hold Constantinople (not for long >:3). When I click on the Byzantine empire icon to see how to usurp it, it says something about Roman Empire. I still can't usurp it since apparently in Greece there is like 25% of the de jure byzantine empire. So I have to defeat them and then I would be able to create the Roman Empire?", "id": "t3_11uwo5", "summary": "I have the whole Arabian empire, Armenia, Anatolia, Croatia, Wallachia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Rome. how do I create the Roman empire? Do I have to take the last kingdom from the byzantines first?"}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "LIEK WTF I CARRY TEAM WITH MY SCORE 5/55/0 BUT ALWAYS BRAZILIANS (HUSHUSHUS AMIRITE?) DONT SPIK MURICAN AND RUIN MAH GAMES!!! LIEK IM TOO DUMB TO LEARN TO USE PINGS BUT ITS THEIR FAULT FOR NOT SPIKING 'MURICAN BECOS IF MURICAN GUAS GUD NUUF FOR JESUS ALMIGHTY THAN ITS GUD NUFF FOR ME!!!!", "id": "t3_17o972", "summary": "I SO ALONE I WANT TO CHAT WITH PEOPLE INSTEAD OF PLAYING SO I BLAME TEAMMAES JO DONT SPIK MURICAN ON MY STUPIDITY AND LACK OF SKILL"}, {"author": "david531990", "content": "So, I'm writing a calculator as a homework. I got 3 variables, 2 ints for the numbers used in the calculation and 1 char for the operand. Now, I need a condition to check if any of the operands is invalid, say, we use letter A instead of a number the program needs to tell me it's an invalid operand. With the char it's easy with an IF condition, but I'm having issues with the numbers. How can I tell the program to return me an \"invalid\" if any of the ints is not a number?", "id": "t3_1ya7tr", "summary": "Is it possible to have a condition saying IF(a != number){exit(0)}? And if so, what replaces \"number\" to make it work?"}]}
+{"author": "dragontology", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Quick/Rapid charger advocates sound, to 2A charger owners, like iPhone users trying to justify themselves to Android users.", "output": "The amount of people who fall for this is worrying. There needs to be a Venn diagram of Android users who A) Believe in quick/rapid charging, B) Prefer Samsung, and C) Dislike iPhones. The center should be called \"Idiots.\" \n First of all, quick/rapid chargers just use a higher amperage. You can get 2A chargers on Newegg for $5 shipped, but some phones are coming with them or near about so it really doesn't matter. They're standard with tablets. I believe the HTC One M8's charger is 1.8A, close enough. \n As for the other two, it's just a matter of hating one device and loving its form factor. Not caring about signal quality (Samsung is the absolute worst for this) is icing on the cake. As it relates to chargers, it's paying more for a brand when the off-brand does the same thing."}], "user_id": "longlamp_10026", "history": [{"author": "dragontology", "content": "For me, it's just bad software, though I haven't used it since iTunes 5 or 6, and maybe I should give it another chance. Only, I haven't got any real good reason to, since I've been collecting music since MP3 was new, and I just use folders, and Winamp 2.91 (Winamp 3/5 are crap IMO). It works for me so why change? Though I have tried, and iTunes was one thing I tried. \n What most pissed me off about iTunes was that while it had tag editing, it would not write to the files; rather, it wrote to a database. That I did not back up. And lost so much work after a reformat. I guess I'm over it now. But again—I have a smartphone... iPhone is alright but so limited. I never had an iPod. I got a Creative Zen Touch 40GB for $20 less than the 20GB iPod (first generation). I've had so many near-misses with being an Apple customer. Apple is great if they're all you buy, but Apple doesn't play well with others (not as well as they play with their own stuff) and I'm so entrenched in PC and Android that Apple is too many steps down, too much to compromise. All Apple might be better than what I have now, but I don't have the capital to make that happen.", "id": "cjti8d4", "summary": "It's Apple, and it used to really suck."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "Yes! A launcher is basically your desktop environment, and they can differ widely. \n What you probably have on the Nexus 6 is the Google Now launcher. This is a closed-source fork of Launcher3, Google's basic launcher that anyone can use and remix. Launcher3 is also the basis of popular launchers  Apex , but this comes down to preference. \n Not all launchers are based on Launcher3, and beyond Apex and Nova, they can get pretty wild.  Yahoo! Aviate  and you might have a hit on your hands, but I don't care for a phone trying to out think me. There's also a launcher that was nearly $20 that had a bunch of wild and crazy features, but I can't find it. Not sure what happened to it. \n Lastly, there are launchers based on other mobile operating systems. These are often expensive, or free with heavy restrictions. Espier makes a whole suite of iOS clones apps (launcher, lock screen, maybe dialer) but everything is something like $25 and I think that's yearly. There are also launchers based on Windows Phone 8, HTC Sense, Samsung TouchWiz, and more.", "id": "cr3wb6q", "summary": "I prefer Nova, and wholeheartedly recommend it for the \"I like stock but I want more options\" crowd."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "AdAway. \n Adblock for Android is weird. It only works on WiFi and it works by creating a proxy, which blocks ads. So all your data is going through someone else's pipe, and only on WiFi when your data allowance doesn't count. Unless they changed it. \n There's another one, AdFree, which works similarly to AdAway. Both of these apps download custom HOSTS files, and replace your system HOSTS file (which is most likely as empty as Windows') thus blocking ads on all networks. \n Between AdAway and AdFree, it really doesn't matter which one you use. AdFree has a stupid theme, and it's given me slightly more problems. AdAway looks nice (enough) and is slightly better. I'm on an HTC and they lock down \\system, even though I'm running a ROM that removes the protection, sometimes it still doesn't wanna write to \\system and fails. It even did that occasionally on my Galaxy S3 (which didn't lock \\system) but AdFree did it a lot more. I started with AdFree, and I use AdAway now. \n If you were so bold, you could even go get your own HOSTS file, and, being rooted, replace the system one yourself. You don't really need an app. The apps just make it easy.", "id": "ckl4w8w", "summary": "AdAway ?> AdFree >>> Adblock."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "It was never easy to bend the iPhone 6+, but it's a large device and a lot of hipsters wear tight jeans. Something was gonna give and it did. \n Apple, like other phone manufacturers, stress tests their phones. Most phones will bend, it just depends on how much pressure is applied. Watch [this guy]( test a bunch of phones, including the iPhone. \n The new Galaxy S6 from Samsung [bends under the same weight]( as the iPhone 6+. This isn't abnormal. When you hear a phone is made of metal or has metal in it, or something like \"Gorilla Glass,\" these phones aren't invincible. They're just tough. They are meant to stand up to normal use, and some fringe cases. They aren't meant to stand up to abuse tests, beyond a certain point. \n So, all in all, bending was never a real problem, on the iPhone or any phone, really. Like Samsung and exploding batteries. These things happen, especially with Samsung and Apple which ship tens of millions of each generation of devices. There are going to be a couple bad apples, but they aren't representative of the generation as a whole, and the problem, such as it is, is often solved by the company just replacing the device. They sell so many, it's a drop in the bucket for them to give one away (and they actually give away a bunch in various contests, plus Apple gives iPhones to celebrities and athletes, and Samsung probably does it too) and then they get good PR. \n So,", "id": "cq4gubp", "summary": "It was just a couple isolated incidents, and the solution was to replace the vastly few defective devices."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "There are a lot of people who count their day's victories in how many people they annoy, bother, or outright piss off. If these people worked just as hard to do kindnesses instead, the world would be a better place, but kindness doesn't get them off. It would make them feel better, but they won't know until they try.", "id": "cql9dub", "summary": "jerks being jerks."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "I imagine it would be easier for parents. If you're a father of a little girl or mother of a little boy who needs help but is out of the diaper, which bathroom do you go in? Yours, or theirs? It's pretty normal for a mother to take kids of either gender into the ladies room, but for a father who needs to help his girl, well, we tend to assume he has a woman do that, even if she's not related to his daughter, because while it's okay for a woman to help a child in the bathroom (surely she's seen it all) if a man does it, he's a pervert. \n But really, segregated bathrooms help more than they hurt. Women have no need of urinals; they're certainly not going to squat over and pee in them, though they certainly could if they wanted to. For men, urinals are a great convenience. Nobody's sitting on them, so we can just walk up and pee, no need to consider a seat. Since women don't need them, they can have more stalls, since every time a woman has to go to the bathroom, to pee or poo, she wants a stall either way. Also, especially in this day and age of women as victims, women and young girls want a segregated place to drop their pants and underwear without fear of rape or molestation. Sure, a guy could hide in a women's bathroom, but the assumption that men stick to their own bathroom gives them a sense of sanctuary. So to answer the question, women and young girls would be far less inclined to use public restrooms. \n All that said, I'm in favor of co-ed restrooms. However, to successfully do so, we would have to make changes to our society. Nudity and bathroom habits would have to cease to be taboo. Rape and sexual assault would have to be far less common than they are now, to the point where a tourist from, say, Nebraska, would have no fear in sending her nine-year-old daughter to a co-ed public restroom, in, say, Pittsburgh, with men in there, with confidence that no one would bother the little girl. But by the same token, the little girl living in such a world would not be old enough to remember a time when a little girl in a public restroom full of grown men from all walks of life might be in danger. (Not that they really are now, considering how few people are actually pedophiles, and how many/few, depending on how you look at it, would actually sexually assault a random child in a random chance encounter. Most grown men wouldn't look twice at her. I'd think more would be concerned for her safety and keep an eye out.)", "id": "cp5psi0", "summary": "As evolved and enlightened as we may be, we're not quite there yet."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "Rockband. I'm retired now, but playing Rockband on vocals corrected me so many times. \n In other, slightly related news, Rockband helped teach my niece how to read. I was her favorite bandmate, so she'd hang out by me, and if she liked a song sometimes she would steal the mic. Five years old and she loved Alice in Chains (Heaven Beside You) and Breaking Benjamin (The Diary of Jane). And did a pretty good job even though I kept it on Expert.", "id": "cio3th6", "summary": "Play Rockband and trade some dignity for this not happening as much."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "Late to the party, but no, just having the saves is not enough, at least for the Steam version. \n I played Season 1 when I was on Windows 7 last year. I used a third-party tool to back up all my save games. Then, late last year I installed the tech preview of Windows 10. (Happy to report both TWD games play fine on it, if anyone is considering making the switch. But explorer.exe (file manager, taskbar, system tray, etc.) is half borked with no fix.) Restored the TWD:S1 save. TWD:S2 still said I would be starting over. I Googled for a fix. Everyone said you have to have TWD:S1 installed. Reinstalled it, save imported. \n Basically, the first thing TWD:S2 does, is check for TWD:S1. If it doesn't find it, it doesn't go looking for the save. If it does find it, it looks for the save. \n Every time you download a game on Steam, back it up. I think Seagate, but maybe Toshiba, is about to drop an 8TB hard drive for ~$260. Eight thousand gigs. Back up all the games. And all the Blu-rays, for that matter. Or you can get 2-4TB drives for ~$100. Yeah, two 4TB drives are cheaper than the 8TB, but 8TB on one line and in one drive letter is sweet. Granted I could RAID/mirror the two 4TB's but, fuck it, I just want that big drive to throw my data at.", "id": "cnre4al", "summary": "Backup first, then uninstall. You will need the game installed for save recovery."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.\" Not all of us want boring. \n Since you didn't elaborate, I'm assuming you want your desktop boring, black and white, Courier New font all the way (or maybe Chicago, maybe you like that old Mac Plus look (not that I didn't, when it was new)).", "id": "cmmi5r3", "summary": "your lack of details are confusing. Unless you're just trolling. In which case, carry on."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "Stupid society. I don't disagree with you, but I can  almost  understand why people wouldn't say anything... \n 1. Won't change anything. The police check it out, maybe, and even if they do, if they don't actually see evidence, they can't act. The kid probably won't talk. The police can't go in without a warrant. Not that they'll try, but they can't get a warrant without evidence. Some cops are old-school, and believe parents should smack their kids around. For these meatheads, I don't think they differentiate, in their minds, smacking around a disobedient child, and sexual assault. In their minds the child is their parents' property. \n 2. Anonymous call or not, they'll find out who called the law. Those of us who care are seldom anonymous or hidden. Those who care are easy to spot. They don't hide it. Then you've got this person targeting you, and vandalizing/destroying your shit. If you call the police, again, you have no proof. Oh, but you retaliate, everyone knows it was you. Fucking double standards. \n If you know somebody is molesting a child, killing them openly on the streets, or kicking down their door, catching them in the act, and killing them, seems, and feels, like the right thing to do. But the law won't side with you. So if you're willing to give your freedom and possibly your life to stop one abuse (and more of us should be), yeah, that's one thing, but many aren't. We can say they're complicit, but the law says by letting it happen, they're doing the right thing. \n Fortunately, I've never been in this situation. I've tried to put myself there... If I get close to a kid (like a niece/nephew, or friend's kid) I let them know if a grown-up is doing something to them and it feels wrong, I'm someone they can talk to about it. I also tell them there's no such thing as bad words with me, that if they need to talk, no words that they feel are necessary, are bad or wrong. It's not just fuck and shit, though, that's the first thing a child will think of. But they keep that rule tucked away, and if someone's hurting them, when it dawns on them that they aren't comfortable saying so-and-so is hurting their vagina to their parents (though it's changing, a lot of parents will make kids use 'funny' words for their private areas), if they have someone they can swear around with impunity, they'll be more comfortable telling that person (because in their mind, fuck and shit are worse swear words than penis and vagina). Again though, fortunately I haven't had a kid come to me with that, though I've given a half dozen or so of them the opportunity, if the need arises. \n But hurting people for falling victim to the bystander effect? Not judging you, you're not far off there, but there are bigger threats to kids out there. How about rich old men who hold contests to see who can bring them the sexiest toddler? Of course I'm talking about child beauty pagaents. There's no reason for them to exist, except to get pedophiles off. If you have a kid, or a niece or nephew, or a good friend has a kid and has named you godfather/godmother or honorary aunt/uncle, and you list the five or ten things you like about them the most, what they look like shouldn't even rate. (Hell, I call my niece \"Stinky\"—it's a long story—and everyone says, \"OMG, you can't call a little girl that!\" but I do anyway, it's almost like an inside joke.) So these people who judge a bunch of kids on which one's the cutest? I'd love to let computer forensics go through their computers and phones/tablets. Bet they find some incriminating evidence.", "id": "cllqb5x", "summary": "I've never met anyone who hates child abusers as much as I do, but I may have met my match today..."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "What you need to realize, and if people on the Internet telling you so doesn't convince you, having kids of your own will, is that (most likely) he's hurting far worse than you are, and each day makes it worse. There may, or may not, be a breaking point, where he finally breaks and gives up. Before he gets to that point, you should go talk to him. \n To clarify, what I meant in my opening statement was that the worst thing for a parent, is to lose their child. If the parent fucked up (actually beat, or molested/raped) the child, that's one thing, it's on them. But if, through no fault of their own, the child turns their back on the parent, shuns them, that's almost worse. Because they're alive and they could be in your life but they're choosing not to, for reasons unknown to you, or for reasons known, that you could work out, if they would meet you halfway.", "id": "cpgz6vc", "summary": "He's missing part of his soul. Go give it back."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "Get a FlyGrip. Totally not shilling for them—I'll tell you up front, it costs $30. It used to be $13. Not sure why. But hey, my One M8 is standing beside my keyboard, vertically. The FlyGrip can kinda tuck inside itself, it works great as both a vertical stand or a kickstand horizontally. And I love the way it feels holding it as intended. Another catch: You must use their case. The curved back of the One M8 will not support it.", "id": "ciyn7am", "summary": "I've had the same kickstand on both my M8 and my last phone, because I added an aftermarket one and it's awesome."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "This is the same guy who thinks people who download music should be stripped of all their worldly possessions. He is, by no means, a nice guy. He's a douchebag who happens to make music a lot of people like. \n I've never been a KISS fan. I just like a few singles. When their first album's 30th anniversary came a few months ago, someone posted a YouTube link of the whole album. I listened to the whole thing. Good stuff. They make good music. But one of their members (bassist?) is a douchebag. It happens. Look at Axl Rose of Guns n' Roses for crying out loud.  I don't know what age range we have here, but they were doing a show with Metallica. Axl was already mad because he thought Metallica should have opened for them, not the other way around. But Guns went first, played a great show. Metallica played, and Hetfield (singer) stepped forward when he should have stepped back, and literally fought fire with fire. He was carried out on a stretcher, treated for burns. Guns was told to go back out and finish the show. They did, but when the crowd was chanting for Metallica, Axl flipped them the bird and walked off stage. Riots happened, and now he and/or the band is banned from, I don't know, either all of Canada or that city. In more recent news, the entire band of Evanescence left except the singer, co-founder Amy Lee. They started a new band called We Are the Fallen, a reference to the Evanescence album they worked on. That happened once before that I know of... Tantric was the resulting band. The guy they left behind never amounted to anything. \n And that's just people who were bad people, um, people. I could go on and on about dirtbag famous people who still made good movies and music and whatever. Look up Woody Allen. Or that director from the '70s who can't come back to the US... I forget his name. Raped a teenage girl. A lot of people like his stuff.", "id": "cjrf43n", "summary": "KISS still makes great music (or have made), Gene Simmons is far from the worst."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "Well, at least you're honest. I think what's indefensible is assuming everyone who enjoys a piece of entertainment is dumber than you are, or lower than some measurement of intelligence you pulled out of a hat. What if Stephen Hawking, or Neil Degrasse Tyson, happened to read the book and said, eh, it wasn't bad. Kind of a fun story. So now you're smarter than they are? That's mind numbing. But, there are worse things to be. \n Shit, I feel the same way about iPhone owners sometimes. It was 2014, the iPhone 6 just came out, and it's the same specs as the 2012 Nexus 4, which was half the price when it came out two years ago. I'm thinking, how stupid do you have to be? Or, at best, uninformed? But then my rational brain says, the brand is worth that extra $300-400 and being 2 years behind in tech. That's worth it to some people. It's worth it to enough people, to so many people, that the company that makes it is one of the biggest companies in the world. They figured out how to cross tech with fashion. So good for them, and the people with more dollars than sense.", "id": "cpb3dbi", "summary": "Thanks for being honest, no hard feelings, I feel the same way about iPhone users."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "A couple months ago, I planned to write about this here on /r/TrueAtheism today on the 1st of April, not because it's a bona fide April Fool's Day prank, but because it might be seen as one and that would be funny. Now I find more understanding and less irony in my story, but here it is anyway. \n When I was 12, my father married the worst kind of Christian, one with views in line with the Klan and the WBC. Hated blacks, hated Hispanics, hated gays, but, as it affected me, hated secular music. My father got an exception, but didn't stand up for anybody else. My rock and metal tapes had to stay at my mother's house, where I was only able to visit every other weekend. Being a teenager in the early 90s, music was important to me. So, this was a problem. \n A couple guys from church invited me to a party, and the music they were playing was, to my ears, pretty amazing. It was somewhere between Def Leppard, Van Halen, and Bon Jovi. Of course, all the lyrics were God this, Jesus that, but I've never been one to say I identify with lyrics. I groove to the guitar and my heart beats with the drums. I like vocals as a musical instrument. The sound of the voice. So I don't even care if music is in another language, as long as the vocals sound good. \n So I got the name of the band, and ran it by my evil stepmother. She had heard of them, so we went to the Christian bookstore, and bought their tape. Our church's youth group went to see them in concert, but they only had CDs, so I bought the CD of the tape I owned, plus the new one. I had no CD player, but was bound to get one sooner than later. \n I would later learn that the band, Petra, was the biggest Christian band, and that they had been making music since the 1970s, taking popular rock music and adding praise lyrics, to rope in secular listeners. But the music was legit, their guitarist can legitimately shred with some of the best of them — he's no Eddie Van Halen, but he's got chops. Typical late 80s, early 90s hard rock. Heavy guitar, lots of synth... I actually liked it. \n Fast forward however many years. Conflicts came to a head and I moved back in with my mother. Dropped all the Petra stuff in a drawer and went straight back to secular rock and metal. I don't know what I did with my Petra tape, but the CDs, I got rid of, though, before I did, I \"ripped\" them to my computer. And there they sat for years and years, kind of as a joke. I considered deleting them many times, but never did. I never needed the space, and I felt that they served as a reminder. \n For Christmas last year, my wife got me a 64GB memory card for my phone, so I proceed to load up ALL THE MUSIC. I mean that figuratively, as my Music folder is 150GB. So I get all my favorites. Many classics. Secondary favorites. Tertiary favorites. At this point when I'd get bored I'd look for music to put on my phone. \"Oh I might play that. Sure, copy it over.\" The Petra folder catches my eye. I laugh... then copy it over. Sort of to troll myself as I'm scrolling in Poweramp (my music player of choice). Then, a couple months ago (bringing us back to the beginning of this story), I'm looking for something to play. Something I hadn't heard in a while. I scrolled past Petra a few times, but started noticing it. It didn't \"call to me\" or anything like that. But I thought, what the hell. I hadn't heard it, at this point, in over 20 years. \n As an atheist, the lyrics were straight up cringe worthy, but the music itself was as powerful as ever. I found that I still really like it, and 2 months later, I still do. I don't agree with what the lyrics are saying, but I don't usually agree with a lot of lyrics. That has never been a requirement for me. So I'm struggling with this, and the solution that I came up with is two-fold: \n One, Christians like my evil stepmother, are limited to Christian media that reaffirms their faith. There's a lot of secular music that doesn't that they can take or leave, but probably just as much anti-theist music as there is theist music. Or media. But I feel that atheists should not be similarly limited. Should we only listen to anti-theist and secular music? (Deicide is an anti-theist band; aside from their name meaning \"to kill a god,\" they have expressed their anti-theism in interviews.) I say no. I say we don't have arbitrary borders. The only borders we have, we set for ourselves. They aren't decided for us. While many atheists will put Petra's music outside their borders, that's their choice. It wasn't decided for them by an organization, a parent, a church, etc. \n Two, there are a lot of rock stars out there who do things we may not necessarily agree with. I neither drink alcohol (except for Irish creme in my coffee, and the occasional craft beer) nor do drugs, but a lot of rock stars do. I mean, Aerosmith — coke, and/or heroin almost killed them, and fueled some of their greatest early songs. Eric Clapton. Duh. Jimi Hendrix, who put LSD in his headband and, when he would sweat, it would drip down into his eyes. So many of them do drugs. There are a lot who abuse their spouses and kids. One rock star was convicted of child pornography, a pop star prosecuted for molesting children. There are some bad people in music. People do shitty things, yet the music they like speaks to us in such a way that we can't help but like it. I think that's okay on some level. You don't want to support them, but you want to support all the other people who worked on the music, like the producers and engineers. Or maybe you tell yourself that you separate the music from the person. \n Also, I think I have an interesting view on Christianity (and other religions). I think some share it, but I also think it's a relatively new approach to religion, by atheists. That is, I don't think of the Bible as fiction, per se... I mean, I do, but I don't actively, I guess, make that a point. I think of it more as like a fandom. Do I tell Spider-Man fans that there's no such thing as Spider-Man? No. Of course I know it, but I don't feel the need to tell them. I assume they know it full well, and they choose to like what Spider-Man represents. Of course a lot of Christians believe their religion, but how can they? They say all other gods are false, but theirs is right, even after it being proven to them that Christianity was adapted from the very religions they said and still say are false. You can't have it both ways. But I let it go. I think of them as a fandom. A dangerous one, sure, but they wouldn't be the only dangerous fandom. Ask any con crowd, there's a fandom they all generally hate. It isn't Twilight, it's some web comic. Someone here probably even knows the name, but I forgot. Homestar Runner comes to mind, but that isn't it. At least I don't think... Anyway, as an atheist who is not an anti-theist, I just look at Christians as another passionate group of nerds who love a fandom I don't. When they quote the Bible chapter and verse, it's just like Trekkers who can speak Klingon, or Warsies who can cite Imperial history going back to the Old Republic. It's like, \"I love the fact that you found something you love, that you can dedicate that much grey matter to, but shut the fuck up, you're making my head hurt.\" And I mean \"shut the fuck up\" in a nice and playful way. \n But wait, it gets better. So I'm listening to the original album, \"Beyond Belief,\" and some of the lyrics actually start to make sense to me. I'm sure the band would hate this, or at least not approve, but what do I care? I bought two of their albums (one twice), so I don't owe them anything. Anyway, in the title track, he's singing about a higher place to go, beyond belief. What lies beyond belief? Isn't faith the be-all, end-all of religion? Have faith and don't look too hard for answers? To me, atheism is what lies beyond belief, if you look hard enough. Right? Then there's the song \"Underground.\" At first it's typical Christian persecution complex. Oh no, the horrible atheists are persecuting us. That load of crap. But I listen again, and the only thing in the lyrics that makes his cause Christianity is \"the cross I claim.\" Well, what is a cross? The cross was the burden that Christ carried up a hill. He's saying Christianity is the cross he bears and he's being persecuted for it. But the cross can be anything. He could very well be singing about gay rights. The cross he claims being hated by society. The cross is metaphoric to whatever struggle you go through. But mostly, I just like the guitar and drums. \n For a few weeks, it was most of what I was listening to. But that was mostly because I hadn't heard it in 20 years. Music is weird like that. Now it's still in rotation — I listen to the two albums together — but I'm back to playing all the stuff I was before. \n My experience with atheism on Reddit is mostly limited to /r/Atheism — you either hate all Christians, or you're a Christian yourself. That's the impression I got. If you're active there and that isn't you, know that I'm not judging you personally, but that seems to be the impression I got. So for a while I did not identify as atheist, I tried to identify as anything else that was closer to my views. Apatheist (I don't care if there's a god or not), Secular humanist (we're good because we want to be, not because we're afraid of Hell or seeking Heaven), etc. But, basically, I'm an atheist. I live without theism. In my book, being atheist doesn't include set opinions of Christians. It's like vegetarians don't need an opinion on how best to cook a steak, and non-Potter fans don't need to have a favored House (Ravenclaw represent!).", "id": "t3_314kix", "summary": "I believe being atheist means Christian media doesn't have to be excluded — we can reject it, but we aren't compelled to, in the sense Christians are at times compelled to reject secular media. \n Wondering what others here think. A couple months ago, I was thinking about posing the situation as a question looking for some kind of validation. Like, does this mean I'm not an atheist? Am I crazy? Then I realized, yes I am crazy, and if I don't fit a label, that's fine too. Or maybe it's normal to color outside the lines a little. Maybe it's my drug. While drugs attack the user's body and the response is enjoyable to the user, maybe my drug is music whose lyrics contradict what I know and believe. Who knows."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "When I did Nuka World, I did both endings. That is, I completed Power Play for the Operators and Disciples, and then turned around and murdered all the raiders. \n However, I was faced with a problem. Upon returning to Somerville Place, the raider outpost I had Shank at, everyone killed me, and I killed them, and I did not get the settlement back. It was lost. Gone. \n I came across Oberland Station, another raider settlement I made. Same thing. Attacked, so I killed them all. I also destroyed their turret, and shot the generator. Well, I shot everything. Then it told me I could use the workshop at Oberland Station. Woo hoo! \n So I went to my favorite settlement, which I really regret giving to the raiders. Egret Tours Marina. I had really built this one up. Ran off over a dozen good settlers. Felt legitimately bad for doing it. So I kill the raiders, and shoot up all the things that could be shot up. I was not given the message, but by holding back/select, I was able to use the workshop. However, when activating it, it told me I was not allied to the settlement. After a save and reload (playing the next day), I could not do either. So I used the set ownership console command, and then I could activate it, but not hold back/select. \n I was worried that I would never get this settlement back. I don't know what I did wrong. Other than side with the raiders and run people off their land for achievements, that is. Other than that. \n On the third day of trying to retake Egret Tours Marina, one of the settlers who was now there (all of a sudden like four people showed up) approached me and told me her friend was kidnapped and taken to the Coast Guard Pier. That's just a hop, skip, and a jump away, so I hopped, skipped, and jumped over there, slaughtered the Super Mutants... and I found my bartender. I know it was her because I use \"Don't Call Me Settler\" and I recognized her name as the same as someone I know IRL. The IRL person has a lot of attitude, so I put the one in-game in the bar I made on the dock restaurant. In the original settlement. And when I talked to her, the \"Activate\" was replaced with \"Bartender\" (a feature of \"Don't Call Me Settler,\" I believe). So some of my people were coming back. And better yet, once I turned in the quest, I was able to convince my settlers to join the Minutemen. And then the settlement was legitimately mine again. \n Now to retake Nordhagen Beach, though I don't care about that settlement as much. I suppose I should use it to teach myself the barn/warehouse pieces and the Far Harbor decor, both of which I almost never use.", "id": "t3_547v1e", "summary": "If you did the bad ending of Nuka World and then killed the raider leadership, and you want those settlements back, you have to do the following. 1) Kill the raiders. 2) Destroy all things you can destroy and repair. Turrets, generators, and possibly crops. 3) That should give you the settlement back. If it doesn't, you're going to need to wait for it to re-populate (possibly by using the set ownership command, and throwing up a settlement recruitment beacon) and then do a fetch quest for the settlers to get them to re-join the Minutemen. \n Though if anyone has a better and more concise guide, I'd love to hear it."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "You may have seen the \"People you may know\" section on Facebook. In fact, unless you use Social Fixer or something like it, I'm sure you have. \n Mainly, it displays people with whom you share mutual friends. That's obvious. But what about people with zero mutual friends? \n Same high school graduated from, and same hometown are some common ones. \n Facebook also regularly suggests a friend with whom I have had two interactions, none having to do with Facebook. I know him on XDA-Developers. And we're mutually circled on Google+. I know him well enough to know his real name, though he uses his XDA forum handle as his G+ name. But we've never interacted in a way Facebook should be able to track. \n Today, it just suggested a coworker. We have accessed Facebook from the same computer, though she uses Internet Explorer (and doesn't know any better) and I use Portable Firefox.", "id": "t3_2mtck6", "summary": "Facebook will suggest friends based on interaction on Google+ (likely not XDA) and common IP address."}, {"author": "dragontology", "content": "Standard disclaimer, this didn't happen today, but many years ago (although it happened again today, I'll get to that). \n When I was a kid, I had chronic, severe asthma. I had a nebulizer (in fact an air compressor, was the main unit, the nebulizer was the small part that took compressed air, and converted liquid medicine to gas to be inhaled, in what is still magic to me) and had to use it 3 times a day. It was noisy, nobody liked it, so I was often isolated in a room with it. \n Years later, I get a new model that is much quieter. The old one is to be disposed of. I decide to have a little fun first. \n I put some milk in the old nebulizer and turn it on. Gaseous milk is boring and uninteresting. \n So I tried Pepsi. That was actually very cool. I later learned that most substances won't harm a nebulizer, so go ahead and try this one... although you really shouldn't be \"breathing\" soda... That may be a bad idea, actually... I really don't know. Maybe don't try that at home after all. \n Then, at the height of teenage stupidity, I put Tabasco sauce in it. I cannot explain why I thought this plan would bear fruit of any kind. I loved Tabasco sauce on damn near everything, so why not inhale it? \n Biggest. Mistake. Ever. Flushed out my sinuses. I was in tears. It was the worst thing ever. Do not try this at home. \n That was when I learned that pepper spray was literally that. Hot pepper sauce (in fact much, much hotter than Tabasco) in aerosol form. \n Today, I'm making chili, and I just dump the whole 2 pounds of ground beef in the pan and put the heat on. So I break out my Tabasco. Not the regular, wussy Tabasco. The habanero Tabasco that most stores won't carry, because it's really fucking hot. And I'm just pounding the bottom of that bottle, spurting sauce so hot most stores won't carry it, all over the meat. Some of it hits the pan... Same effect. I got my shirt up over my mouth, coughing like I'm in a burning building, fumbling around for the 'exhaust' button on my microwave... I still have a slight rasp. \n Woulda been fine if I put the Tabasco in later, but no, I had to be a badass... or a dumb ass, you decide. \n And I'm fully aware there's hotter sauces more common than habanero Tabasco... Our local Fresh Market sells ghost pepper sauce. I'm not fucking with it.", "id": "t3_2mxtx7", "summary": "Tabasco sauce, when inhaled via nebulizer, is much the same concept as taking pepper spray to the face, albeit far milder, but I done it to myself as a teenager and again today, because dumb ass."}]}
+{"author": "ullrsdream", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Formerly had an R6, haven't had a bike in 5 years.  Put a deposit on a CBR250R to pick up in a couple of weeks.", "output": "Friday afternoon I put a deposit down on a new CBR250R (take THAT, Ninja forum!), which will be my first bike since 2007. \n Back in 2006 I bought a new Yamaha R6S as my first bike ever (terrible idea, don't follow in my footsteps), dropped it on my way home from the dealer (no damage at all!) and commuted on it for a few months before winter arrived.  All told, I put about 500 miles on it - pretty pathetic. \n I sold it in 2007 when I moved to Canada for school and haven't had a motorcycle since. \n This past summer, I got big into DH mountain biking and rediscovered my love for two-wheeled transportation.  I thought about getting a motorcycle again, but couldn't justify the cost in any way at the time.  The past few weeks have brought small bikes back into my mind, as premium gasoline passed $4.00 in my area and my race-built WRX gets about 15mpg combined (awesome on the highway though!). \n So I started looking in earnest and decided that the CBR would be the best fit for what I want in a bike right now - super economical, practical (as a bike can be, amiriteguys?), and sporty yet comfortable.  I'm planning on riding the bike year-round in New England unless there's snow on the road, so the EFI was the deal-maker for me, I don't want to be dealing with mixture settings when it's 20˚F. \n I called my local Honda dealer and they had one 2011 model left in black.  I told the salesperson that I was very interested and would come in to take a look ASAP.  I went in the next day and put a deposit on the bike to hold it until my tax return shows up!  I'm unreasonably excited, I can't wait to ride again."}], "user_id": "longlamp_15684", "history": [{"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "Thank you for that link, but the authors failed to mention what is probably the most likely confound to their results. \n Riders who are already more concerned with safety are likely to purchase and wear high-visibility equipment.  These same riders are also inherently less likely to be involved in an accident.  They could have controlled for this by administering a few questions on their survey about rider attitudes and concern for safety.  I can almost guarantee that their survey would then show that more riders who are more concerned with safe riding more often wear high-visibility equipment.  Think about it - when was the last time you saw a squid (highest rate of casualties) wearing hi-viz gear?  The last time you saw a commuter wearing hi-viz? \n It's an interesting initial study, but more work needs to be done.  I smell a research project coming on.", "id": "c3xafr3", "summary": "Riders who ride safely are more likely to wear high-visibility gear, thus providing an alternate explanation for the results of that study. \n Edit: Sorry if this came off as harsh at RonnieTheEffinBear, I don't mean to seem like I'm criticizing him.  I spent two and a half years majoring in Psychology Research and the overwhelming majority of my classes were focused around ripping studies apart so that we could learn to write better, more complete studies.  It's frustrating to see published work with gaping holes in the research."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "Not necessarily, the force of gravity is proportional to the distance between the two bodies.  We sit roughly 6300km from the center of the earth and feel 1g in accordance to that distance.  The force of gravity is measurably different than 1g on the top of tall mountains and at the bottom of deep valleys. \n It would still take quite a bit of mass to reproduce earth gravity, but not the entire mass of the earth.", "id": "c43cetq", "summary": "Apply the inverse-square law, you don't need earth mass to make earth gravity."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "So this happened about a week or two after I started smoking. \n I was visiting people in a new city, and smoked up with her on her balcony.  We went back inside and watched some awful TV for a bit, then smoked some more.  About 15 minutes later, some more people came over and we decided it was time to go out to the bar, so we smoked some more and then hit the town. \n My father only ever told me one thing about smoking weed - don't mix it with alcohol.  Well, this night I ignored his advice.  I had several drinks over the next few hours, enough to get me a little bit buzzed under normal circumstances.  We finally left the bar and upon getting back to my friend's apartment, packed up another bowl.  Then I went inside and laid on the couch. \n About 10 minutes later while listening to [this]( I suddenly became aware of the atoms in my body and then examined one very very closely.  It was incredibly beautiful.", "id": "cak22pa", "summary": "mixed bud and alcohol, got to a 9+ and while listening to music saw the atoms of my body."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "When I first started, I refused to wear a helmet - they were for dorks, blah blah blah. \n Then I started racing.  I had to wear a helmet in competition and training, but would still just wear a hat when free riding.  Then I saw someone get a concussion and throw up everywhere and haven't been out without a helmet since.  I myself have BROKEN three helmets during crashes on the GS course.  Praise be to Allah that I was wearing them. \n They're warmer, more comfortable, and mine has speakers built into the ear flaps.  Hell, my other helmet has a removable liner, ear flaps, and vent plugs so I can even wear it in the summer for long boarding (it's a multi-impact/multi sport helmet, calm down) or in the late spring on bathing suit days.", "id": "caychn9", "summary": "saw someone get fucked up without a helmet, haven't not worn one since."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "Here's my take on what happened to her car: \n There's this woman that goes out with her friends one night.  They go to this swanky club and get pretty tipsy, start to flirt around with the guys in the club.  Eventually, this woman goes home with a guy she meets at the club and they engage in coitus.  They don't see each other for several weeks until she realizes that she's pregnant.  She calls him and they get together to talk about it.  She's planning on just getting an abortion and being done with it, but he is a pro-lifer and pressures her into keeping the baby.  He declares that they will get married and everything will be great, a happy little family.  She carries the baby to full term and a beautiful baby boy is born.  The father wasn't able to make it to the birth because of work obligations, so the mother takes the baby home alone.  To an empty house.  There's simply a note that says \n> I never loved you but couldn't stand the thought of you ending the life of a child.  Thank you for not getting an abortion.  Good luck. \n He signs it with his divorce lawyer's phone number. \n She gave up her budding career (she didn't yet have enough time at the company to qualify for maternity leave) to have this baby and now the two of them have nothing but an empty apartment that they can't afford and a pile of insurance claims to her ex-husband's insurance company that will likely be denied now. \n The woman loses it.  She drops the baby off with her parents for a couple days to try to get her head in order.  Her parents give her some money to help, and she heads off.  The first night, she buys a couple of bottles of wine, three bags of chocolate truffles, and rents a handfull of chick-flicks.  On her way out of the store, she notices a car with a whole bunch of pro-life stickers and slogans plastered across it.  She snaps. \n 7 months of pent-up emotion pour forth as she takes her anger out on the pro-lifer's car.  She kicks, punches, bashes with rocks, and steps back.  She realizes that it's not the car she's mad at, but the slogans and stickers, so she peels them off and otherwise defaces them to the best of her ability.  She hops back into her car that has been sitting in the hot hot sun for an hour or so now and notices a horrific odor.  Dirty diapers.  She stuffs them into a shoe box that she finds in her trunk and leaves it, along with a note, in the pro-lifer's car.  The note reads \n >You're so concerned about the lives of unborn babies, but my life was torn apart by an unexpected pregnancy that I was forced to carry to term by one of you people.  Where are you now? \n Several years later, you post on reddit about the very same car that our abused mystery woman beat the shit out of.", "id": "c42mzic", "summary": "just read it, it's not that long and doesn't have very many big words. \n Edit  Some of you seem to be getting the idea that I'm in some way trying to justify the vandal's actions - I'm not.  Losing control of yourself to the point that you destroy someone else's property is just...weak and inexcusable really.  Kind of like drinking to the point that you lose control of yourself and drive your car into a schoolbus full of kids.  It's really not an excuse at all."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "I played several matches about a week ago with a designated recon man.  He would lead the way with a MAV and it was utterly devastating when combined with us (the rest of the squad). \n He would deploy the MAV from a safe location, our support guy would drop a resupply box for him and we'd all set off with the MAV leading the way to our objectives.  I would call the objectives using the spot method and I'd also call them out verbally.  If we were taking a building, I would have the recon call out all the enemies within and the we would rush in knowing exactly where the defenders were.  Half the time we would clear a building without taking any damage. \n Our golden setup that night: \n 2x Assault, one with smoke the other with med kit.  I had squad ammo, the other had explosive.  We both had Defibs. \n 1x Support with C4 for \"improvised entry/exit points\", IIRC he was using flak. \n 1x recon with MAV, he was using suppression \n We steamrolled about 10 games in a row, it was fucking awesome.  Solid spawn pins on about half of those. \n Edit", "id": "c42m0zs", "summary": "Recon, when played correctly, is an ENORMOUS asset to a functional squad."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "I got into triathlon while I was doing C25k. \n Around w4 or so I started going for runs almost every day, and then when the new years sale at the gym came up I joined and have been swimming 4,000-6,500m every day. \n I refuse to use a stationary bike at the gym, so I haven't been for a bike ride since December (we have 3 feet of snow on the ground and the roads are dangerously narrow and icy), but between the running and the somewhat absurd amount of swimming I've been doing I've gotten great results. \n If you're looking to push yourself, I don't recommend going down the intermittent fasting route  I tried it, crashed hard, and had to take a week off.  At this point I'm always just looking to fuel my workouts and help my body recover from them. \n I'm not going to give advice, but I'll tell you what I do. \n 1) Wake up, check heart rate and put it on the chart.  This is my stamina gauge.  My morning HR should be 60-65, if it's higher than that I'm overtraining and I take a rest day.  THIS IS IMPORTANT WITH INTENSE TRAINING SCHEDULES.  This is the only objective way that I've found to measure my readiness for training, we can all convince ourselves that we feel fine or that we're too tired, but data points don't lie.  Listen to your body. \n 2) Fuel my workout.  This is very dependent on what I have planned.  If I'm only going to be doing 4k in the pool I'll have a small Red Bull and do my thing off of the caffeine and sugar (I'm trying to lose fat and fueling up this way facilitates fat burning).  If I'm going for a run afterwards I'll have a banana or two with the red bull and eat another one or a power bar or something before the run. \n 3) RECOVER!  My gym has a baller hot tub that I do a 15 minute relaxing soak in before I shower off.  I get into compression as soon as I'm dried off out of the shower.  Get some quality protein into you ASAP after your workout.  I really like having a protein shake after my hard days; they're full of good things for my muscles, my soul, and they also help to replenish some of the calories I burnt during my workout. \n 4) Track it all.  Everything.  I don't know about you, but I'm a data nerd.  I track all of my workouts and all of my calories.  I use MyFitnessPal, but there are others out there that are just as good or maybe better. \n Sorry about the book, here you go:", "id": "coujk4q", "summary": "I turned into a tritard while doing C25K and I like to talk about training a lot.  It worked for me to lose a fuckton of weight and put on muscle at the same time."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "I lived on Laurier Ave between the canal and the bus route, and we walked to the mall (Rideau Centre?) and into Byward Market often.  We had run ins with vagrants maybe every other week or so, generally ending with little more than funny looks being exchanged.  The overwhelming majority of people we met were incredibly nice, but we ran into a few less appealing characters during our time there. \n There was another guy who was considerably less threatening one night we were walking up to the Blue Cactus.  I haven't carried cash since I opened a checking account years ago, so I almost never had anything to give to the homeless on the way to dinner.  This crackhead gets up in our face DEMANDING something for having allowed us to walk on his sidewalk (or something), and started posturing when I told him that I didn't have any money to give him.  \"WHO COMES DOWNTOWN WITHOUT ANY MONEY!!??\" he yelled at me before jumping up and getting in my face.  I nearly shit myself, but have a pokerface that could win the poker tour if I didn't suck so much at the rest of the game.  My \"fuck off\" face did its job and he sat back down grumbling.  A young woman (probably all of 18 or 19 years old, also homeless) a few sidewalk slabs up apologized for his behavior and called him a menace.  We bought an extra burger at the restaurant and gave it and all of our leftovers to her on the way home. \n Kind of an aside, but I think that it kind of illustrates that what you're saying is absolutely true.  There is (or at least was when I was there in 2007) a HUGE homelessness problem in Ottawa and where there's desperation, there's people that do stupid things.", "id": "c399i10", "summary": "Ottawa is a very nice city with nice people.  There are a few jerkoffs that make a lot of noise.  I gave two cheeseburgers to a homeless teenage girl and her dog."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "I'm from New Hampshire and lived in Raleigh from Sept '12 to Sept '13 for work.  I complained about the lack of snow that winter (I hated my job and that hate spilled over into hating Raleigh...that's a different story) and couldn't wait to get back to New Hampshire to have a real winter again.  Now that I'm back... \n I grew up with tons of snow every winter (insert people from out west saying that I don't know snow here) and would go so far as to say that I completely took cocking about in the snow for granted.  It's not just me either - my friends don't post to FB about snow, if they take pictures of driving in it they usually won't even share them publicly.  Even as a subaru driver, I'm fucking sick of driving in the snow. \n You not only appreciated driving around in the snow enough to take a picture, but to take several pictures, upload them, and share them here.  Thank you for putting the fun and whimsy back into snowstorms.", "id": "cf32qju", "summary": "New Englander takes snow for granted, Southerner has good time in the snow and makes New Englander appreciate it again."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "It's EA's proprietary method of making more money in the name of \"fighting piracy/illegal copying\" \n Basically, when you buy a new EA game, it comes with a code that lets you play the game over XBL.  If you buy a used copy of the game, it most likely won't come with the code, which you then have to purchase from EA separately.  Because SO many people were making copies of Xbox discs...", "id": "c3b5ivv", "summary": "EA made up a problem and found a way to make more money at the same time."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "I took my car to town hall this morning to register my bike.  When I got home, I was responsible and put my registration under the seat where it should be and decided that I was going to ride to school today.  Apparently when I made that decision, I also decided it would be a good idea to leave my keys with the bike so I wouldn't lose them. \n An hour later when it was time to leave for class, I panicked because I couldn't find my keys.  I grabbed the spare and made my 20 mile commute without a second thought.  I was going to put my gloves under the seat instead of carrying them, and I found my keys.", "id": "c4cw33b", "summary": "In an effort to save time later, I left my keys in the lock for the passenger seat, forgot, and rode 20 miles with them still in the lock.  My life is on the flash drive attached to them."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "Well to be completely honest \"not getting into it\" sounds more like \"I just really don't want to do it in the first place, but hey everyone says there's this great high and if I feel that then maybe I'll want to do it again.\" \n Sorry.  That's exactly how I felt for a long time and finally my outlook on life changed to be more positive and optimistic and suddenly I genuinely  wanted  to not only exercise, but take on challenges of the fitness I'm working to achieve.", "id": "cowv4yr", "summary": "if you don't want to get into it you're not going to."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "I hear this a lot, particularly here on Reddit. \n Raising a child is a MONUMENTAL undertaking.  Government benefits barely cover the essentials, if they do at all.  The problem isn't with people having more kids to get more benefits, the problem is when those benefits aren't then spent on the children for whom the benefits were intended. \n If we want to reduce the abuse of those benefits, we need to keep tabs on where they go and how they are used.  Everyone has a story about the welfare queen in the Cadillac, but the part that's left out is that the kids are in torn clothing and have had Kraft dinner for the past year, despite clothing and food subsidies.", "id": "ck1754w", "summary": "benefit abuse isn't a matter of stopping people from having kids, it's about making sure the benefits are used as intended."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "I feel bad too, but people  do  need to look out for themselves too. \n This discussion isn't about people who have a bad week/month or whatever, this is about people who have a pattern of depression and can't/won't get out of it (I know it's their condition, doesn't effect the way it affects those around them). \n I've been involved with a woman with severe depression and anxiety issues for 13 years, of those the past 5 have been an immense struggle that I'm getting tired of. \n She wasn't always like this.  You know that person who you avoid at work because they never have anything positive to say?  Try living with them.  Try having a family with them. \n There are only so many times a partner can talk someone out of suicide.  There are only so many times you can have a door slammed in your face because your words were taken out of context.  There are only so many times you can go weeks without being touched in any way when all you want is for them to hold your hand or put their head on your shoulder.  Only so many times you can be turned down after suggesting cuddling up on the couch and watching a movie.  Only so many times that you can hear them say \"what's the point? I should just kill myself\" after an argument.", "id": "cfcr3u4", "summary": "Being in a relationship with someone who is just waiting/wishing to die is one of the most draining experiences a person can go through.  ESPECIALLY if you truly care about them."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "I was (and am) a  total  SAP.  I had a ton of \"friends\" in high school, but only one of them has stuck around to present day. \n My experience, YMMV: \n I went off to college locally right after graduating high school and made a few friends, but was held back by trying to be friends with the couple of people I knew from high school that went to the same college. \n I decided to go to culinary school after my freshman year of real school didn't go so well.  I went as far away as I could conveniently go and made a few friends, a couple that I still follow on facebook from time to time, but nothing really meaningful. \n A couple years later (two 1/2 years ago now) I decided to go to school closer to home again at my state's flagship university.  I've made more than few REALLY GOOD friends, the kind that don't mind if I crash on their couch, the kind that I swap paying for meals with, etc.  I went into this school knowing absolutely nobody, and I was at least two years older than most people in my classes.  Before that, I really only had one good friend other than my fiancee. \n What I'm saying is that you shouldn't be intimidated by not knowing people at whatever school you go to.  It can be a good thing to go to school with people you know, but it can hold you back by letting you stay in your comfort zone.  Why meet new people when you can hang out with your high school friends again? \n I'm being 100% honest when I say that I would not have gotten as close as I have to the people who I now consider to be my very best friends had I not gone to school alone.", "id": "c3ppef9", "summary": "Going to school alone forces you to meet new people and they may very well turn out to be the best friends you've ever had. \n Edit: for teh grammerz."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "I currently work as a sales/marketing consultant in the Greater Boston Area for a company that will be pushing into Raleigh this fall.  The owner of the (not yet existant) Raleigh office asked me to go with him to help get things going and give him about a year or so of my time.  I've always said that I refuse to live south of the Mason-Dixon Line because of the [bullshit]( that the south is known for, but I see this as a growth opportunity that will affect my financial, professional, and personal lives immeasurably. \n I've never been to NC.  Well, I drove through on a bus to Florida and all I remember is the countless Waffle Houses lining the highway.  I'm expecting a bit of a cultural adjustment, but I don't really know what kind of a cultural adjustment.", "id": "t3_w5o2s", "summary": "Yankee from New Hampshire moving to Raleigh in the fall for work.  Said Yankee has always had an arrogant northerner attitude about the south, but is open minded.  What should he expect?  Things to do/avoid during scouting visits?"}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "As the title says, I'm taking a class that focuses on argument and persuasion.  Our first assignment is to write a \"letter to the editor\" about anything we want. \n I've taken more than enough english courses over the years to be a competent college-level writer, so I'm thinking that I might do something different this semester. \n I'm thinking about writing persuasive pieces about things that I don't believe in, in the hopes that this will help to strengthen my writing that much more.  Think [Star Trek: TNG, Measure of a Man]( when Riker has to present to the court that Data isn't an individual, but rather the property of Starfleet. Woops, my geek is showing. \n I thought that this would be a good place to share this idea, and also a place to show my work as it comes together this semester.  I think that challenging your own beliefs is essential to being able to articulate them better when confronted. \n I think that for my first assignment, I am going to argue in favor (100% against my true feelings on the subject) that the recent wave of Anti-Evolution/Science legislation that has been proposed in NH is a good step.", "id": "t3_ong3e", "summary": "I'm being forced into taking another composition class, and am going to try to convince the professor that I'm a lunatic fundie through my writing, in the name of becoming a more effective rhetor."}, {"author": "ullrsdream", "content": "Last night, I brought my dog out for a walk and brought the last 1/3 of a blunt along with me.  We finished our walk and I still had about 5mm left of blunt.  Not enough to warrant bringing the stinky roach back into the house, but too much to just throw away so I grabbed a seat in my backyard and decided to enjoy the conflict between winter and spring for a bit.  One of my favorite sounds (high or sober) is the low frequency roar of the wind above the treetops (if you don't know what I'm talking about, please hike into the nearest forest and wait), not the rustling of leaves...it's more like the sound of a waterfall.  The wind was making this noise all night and it was glorious.  Anyway... \n I plopped down and then the pooch came over and sat next to me.  I dropped my arm over the arm of my chair and he nuzzled in under my arm (he's super pushy sometimes, but it's sweet) and we just sat there, me smoking and scratching his shoulder and him just...dogging out. \n I finished the b and sat back.  It was a little bit windy and on the cool side, but I didn't get cold in the normal sense.  I was a part of the world around me which just happened to be cold, so in turn I was as well but no colder than what the air, ground, chair, rocks, or my dog were experiencing.  I got to be one with the world for a bit and it was incredible. \n A few minutes after this realization (or seconds, who knows...we're talking about high time here), shit got weird and I had sort of a mind-meld with my dog.  I'm very close with my dog anyway, but we seriously sync'd for the rest of the time we were outside.  I'm still scratching his shoulder, and I suddenly had the sensation that my shoulder was being scratched in the same spot.  When his ears twitched at a noise in the distance, my ears would try to do the same...AND I WOULD HEAR THE NOISE.  I heard people doing dishes in their houses, I heard chipmunks underground, a dog barking miles away, just all the sounds of my backyard at 7:00.  When the wind would come down out of the trees, he would turn his head and sniff at it.  Why not?  I tried it too.  We mirrored each others senses for a solid 20 minutes before we decided to go back inside. \n It was seriously one of the most profound experiences of my life, if not THE most profound.  I now absolutely 100% understand why people have always used cannabis for religious experiences.", "id": "t3_22cm87", "summary": "Smoked a little bit more than I usually do, turned into my dog."}]}
+{"author": "Neebat", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post People treat you badly if you're outside the norm.", "output": "Yes.  I also contrasted them.  Being retarded is genuinely undesirable, detrimental.  Being black or gay makes retarded people treat you as if you were undesirable.  There are real, physical and mental handicaps, made worse by societal pressures, and then there are human variations that become disadvantages purely on the basis of societies prejudices.  Gays and minorities have been in the later category. \n A more interesting question would be, which category does shortness of stature fall into.  It's clearly treated as a negative condition by society, but aside from the social stigma, how much of a problem is it really? \n Hell, you know that even exceptionally SMART people catch hell for it?  Nah.  Pretty sure you never bumped into that."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post While it's YOUR DVD, you have the right to transmit it to YOU, and no where else.", "output": "That's a very different case.  The owner of a physical DVD has the right to electronic transmission of the contents, whether that's down an HDML cable, across a circuit board, or via  SlingBox \n The right to view the content of a DVD  and does not include the right to transmit it to someone else.  So the hotel had no right to show it to guests. \n But, when a rental store transfers temporary ownership to a customer, the store loses the right to keep and view a backup, and it passes to the renter.  That person then gets all the same rights that an owner would, for the limited duration of the rental agreement."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4840", "history": [{"author": "Neebat", "content": "Sleeplessness gives me the hallucinations.  I see things moving around the edges of my vision.  Really messes with me when I'm driving. \n But the trippiest part is the hysteria.  I'll start laughing about how funny it is to be so fucking sleep-deprived and then I'll laugh at myself for laughing at it. \n I stayed up 3 days in a row playing Sega Genesis when I was in college.  And then there was the time at an internet startup when I did a 36 hour shift.  First 8 hours, I was gathering requirements from the team.  Then 16 hours head-down coding.  Then another 8 hours explaining to the team what I'd done.", "id": "clpzne7", "summary": "Don't drive on no sleep!"}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Also, CPU power correlates with energy use.  The computer in the Model S runs off a single, old-fashioned 12V lead-acid battery.  A more powerful computer would translated to a heavier load on that battery.  That could mean they need a larger DC/DC voltage convertor, which means more load on the main battery pack and more weight.", "id": "cdjxv8c", "summary": "Throw more programmers at the problem, because you don't have to haul around the donuts."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I'm in Austin.  We're going to get Fiber and that makes me incredibly excited, but also a little scared.  I don't want 3 companies competing when 2 are TWC and AT&T.  I want 10 where half of them are small operators who are fighting to get ahead.  I want real strong competition. \n (If you recognize most of this message, it's because I've said it before.) \n The trouble is, it's too damn expensive and risky to dig up the roads for that last mile of fiber.  I want real competition for Fiber service in Austin.  I mean, it's awesome that Google is willing to climb over the barriers, but I'd rather knock down the damn barriers. \n Google Fiber provides a nice illustration.  They picked cities that made it cheap to run fibers.  They hang fiber on poles in KC, which is cheaper than digging up the streets.   In Austin, the city council promised expedited permits.  Well, that didn't really happen.  Google Fiber is behind schedule here because those permits are taking forever to come through. \n Obviously, you don't want 10 different ISPs having to tear up the streets to lay their fibers.  But you also want to avoid one set of hardware that everyone uses, because that means no one can compete by using better hardware.  If the city council proposed municipal fiber, I'd be spending my days off in the council chambers begging them not to.  Because I don't want to be stuck with a city-owned network which is bound to become second-class sooner or later.  The city is never going to be competing for my business. \n But there's an alternative that lets 10 different ISPs all run fiber cheap, and that's to bury  conduits .  Empty plastic pipes, owned by the city, running to the curb in every neighborhood.  Then you get to rent space to the ISPs.  This is a win-win-win: \n \n The city recoups their initial investment in infrastructure and more through competitive bidding on leasing out those pipes. \n The ISP gets a shorter, cheaper rollout.  They won't need the financial assets of Comcast or Google to roll out a new system. \n The customers get tons of different choices and innovation as ISPs rush to the latest cutting-edge technology to provide a better service.  And no one dreams of caps, throttling or fast/slow lane crap that ISPs are pulling today. \n \n It's too late for us in Austin.  We'll have 3 providers and that's \"GREAT!\", but maybe some other city can make this happen.  You're going to need to get involved in your local community.  Talk to your city council, mayor, anyone that will listen.  Tell them to literally get the ground work in place for the fiber ISPs to come to town. \n There are laws in some states that forbid municipalities from providing free or discounted services to new ISPs, and forbid them from providing their own Internet services.  (I don't know if Texas got them or not.)  Some cities even have signed non-compete agreements with an ISP so they can't legally be an ISP.  But they say nothing about renting out public plumbing open to all.", "id": "ci0s1e4", "summary": "Cities with open conduits will have more competition among ISPs.  In the long run, cities that get Google Fiber now may be left behind."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I can't refute all his bullshit, but this one is easy: \n > Cancer, by the way, is a systemic problem when it emerges, not a local problem limited to just the breasts or other organs \n It's a systematic problem ONCE IT metastasizes.  But that's very late in the process.  The tissue that develops into cancer is always identifiable with the tissue it originated from, so metastasized breast cancer is based on breast tissue.  If you don't have breast tissue, you can't get that.", "id": "c9zds4l", "summary": "The guy is an idiot using big words."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "It's impossible to point to the \"robot\" driving the car as anything separate from the car.  In fact, even saying \"robotics\" is pretty silly when you take a car that already has drive-by-wire capabilities and connect it to an AI.  The same actuators do the driving whether they're operated by a computer or a human. \n Example:  When I'm driving my car, the accelerator sends a signal to a computer that tells the DC to AC converter to deliver more power to the motor.  Is a robot driving my car already?  If an AI were driving it, the algorithms would send the same signal.  Nothing changed mechanically.  Where is the robot? \n Example:  When I need to turn, a small portion of the power to turn the wheels comes from my twist on the steering wheel.  The rest comes from a computer-controlled power-steering pump.  (It's computer controlled to offer more aid at low speeds and less at high speeds.)  Take away my input and no \"robotics\" have been added, just an AI.", "id": "couto6f", "summary": "AI can absolutely drive a car on its own, because most car already have all the actuators needed."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Since that's not actually a moving violation, I'd let him have it, but I think he's a fool.  If you've got Steve Jobs money, you can get someone to doctor up the application for a handicap placard.  It'll be cheaper than continuous fines, and we can't really prevent fraud when it's  that  well-funded. \n Besides, in the end, it was his mental handicaps that killed him.  Pancreatic cancer is really fuckiing deadly, because it's rarely caught in the early stages.  But the cancer that killed Jobs  was  caught early, and he fucked around with homeopathic crap until it was too late. \n So, maybe he deserved that handicap placard.", "id": "cnfi7j5", "summary": "Money works like this]("}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Is it really ok to spread phone numbers on Reddit?  There have been so many scams and pranks where people posted someone else's phone number to get them harassed, I just don't trust it. \n I mean, just hypothetically, if an abused wife fled domestic violence, the abuser could post pictures of the wife's service animal, then we'd all be helping him track her down.  Not cool. \n Wouldn't it be just as good to post a case number and call 311?", "id": "c7qztmo", "summary": "crappy society has made me scared and cynical."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "That seems to be Nissan's \"design language\". \n I bought a Leaf about 2 weeks ago.  Walking around the Nissan dealership, there are random edges sticking out where they don't belong all over that place.  The Leaf isn't close to the only car with headlights that don't fit in.  I also saw taillights that don't fit with the trunk lid and generally just bizarre blocking shapes that don't make sense.", "id": "cinlpe6", "summary": "I love my Leaf, but the designers are on crack."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "The little-known game Eschalon Book 1 had a GREAT example of this.  In typical-RPG fashion, you could \"cheat\" on a quest and get both rewards. \n A bad guy hired you to kill someone and get their key and bring it to him.  You could of course blow him off, not kill the person, or kill the person, take the key and use it yourself. \n But you could also kill the person, get the key, USE it to clear out the vault, THEN give it to the bad guy.  The surprise was, he'd come and hunt you down much later with a bunch of thugs.", "id": "c289idk", "summary": "I've never had an RPG surprise me that well."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "The city isn't getting applications because it's an extremely expensive, risky process.  You want competition in your town?  Knock down the barriers to entry for companies looking to run fibers.  The city may not be to blame, but they  can  fix this. \n Google Fiber provides a nice illustration.  They picked cities that made it cheap to run fibers.  Mostly on poles in KC, which is cheaper than digging up the streets, and in Austin, the city council promised expediting permits.  Well, that didn't really happen.  Google Fiber is behind schedule in Austin because those permits are taking forever to come through. \n Obviously, you don't want 10 different ISPs having to tear up the streets to lay their fibers.  But you also want to avoid one set of hardware that everyone uses, because that means no one can compete by using better hardware.  (City-owned networks are bound to become second-class sooner or later, as they don't have to compete for users.) \n But there's an alternative that lets 10 different ISPs all run fiber cheap, and that's to bury  conduits .  Empty plastic pipes, owned by the city, running to the curb in every neighborhood.  Then you get to rent space to the ISPs.  This is a win-win-win: \n \n The city recoups their initial investment in infrastructure and more through competitive bidding on leasing out those pipes. \n The ISP gets a shorter, cheaper rollout.  They won't need the financial assets of Comcast or Google to roll out a new system. \n The customers get tons of different choices and innovation as ISPs rush to the latest cutting-edge technology to provide a better service.  And no one dreams of caps, throttling or fast/slow lane crap that ISPs are pulling today. \n \n So, how do you make this happen?  You're going to need to get involved in your local community.  Talk to your city council, mayor, anyone that will listen.  Tell them to literally get the ground work in place for the fiber ISPs to come to town. \n There are laws in some states that forbid municipalities from providing free or discounted services to new ISPs, and forbid them from providing their own Internet services.  Also, the article talks about non-compete agreements with the existing monopolies.  But they say nothing about renting out public plumbing open to all.", "id": "chyz48q", "summary": "Cities with open conduits will have more competition among ISPs."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "When I was in highschool, I was in German club, and there was some kind of German trivia / language competition event that we went to in another city.  Some of the people were hell-bent on practicing for the competition, while I was more or less just there for an interesting trip.  I found a Tetris arcade machine and while they were drilling with flash cards, I was playing Tetris. \n Now every time I hear Tetris music, I hear lyrics about Germany.  Somewhere in there, something about \"Baden-Wurtenburg\".", "id": "cnpxbhx", "summary": "I sucked at a German competition."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Questions can frequently have benefits far better than the intentions of the people who ask them.  Example:  Many indoctrinated people start off asking questions about religion to comfort themselves and end up becoming disillusioned as the response is to to answer. \n In this case, it's up to us, the people who recognize the value of Electric cars, to have answers ready that will cause the people asking the questions to turn around and question the quality of their own sources.", "id": "cbnni3j", "summary": "A good answer can raise the value of a biased question."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "There's a difference between IT and software development.  I did several years as a contractor, and worked in several IT departments.  They're treated like janitors.  Personally, I would rather unclog toilets than put up with the conditions most IT departments provide. \n There is another side to the world of technology and it's product development.  When the company is  selling  the fruit of your labor, you get a whole lot more respect and better pay too.", "id": "cfk77yt", "summary": "You may be part of the IT staff, but I'm a software developer.  I don't want your job, but in an emergency, I can muddle through."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I have the urge to draw a comic \n It would picture two cars on a race track.  Open top, F1-type cars.  Obama on the left, Romney on the right, with pistols shooting at each other.  The sides of the road are labeled \"left wing\" and \"right wing\" but these two are fighting to drive right up the middle.  They've flattened each others tires, there's gasoline leaking out of one of the cars, they're really not going anywhere. \n Off in the distance ahead of them is Gary Johnson.", "id": "c600lma", "summary": "Libertarian is not the middle of the road.  It's a whole different direction."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Fixtures. \n Depending on the type of hardware store, they could be Headlights. \n If you're proud, they're Power Tools.  If you're not, they're Plumb Bobs. \n If you watched 40-year-old Virgin, they're sand bags.  If not, you should. \n If you work in gardening, they're Slug Bait. \n If they're covered, Tool Holsters.  If not, Spot Lights. \n Regardless, they're awesome.", "id": "cdj0vpd", "summary": "You showed the customers your Accessories."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "When I made  my game  reducing complexity, cutting away unneeded cycles, tweaking and refining until it reached something pure. \n Then I got a few fans, one of them being my sister.  (I never imagined I had a relative who would play a logic game!)  And she played it differently.  She would get something working, maybe align the runestones so it didn't look too terrible, and then post it and brag about it.  Even though it only worked one time in 10 runs! \n I was floored.  I wanted to scream, \"But it doesn't work!\"  (... every time!)  But I hadn't made that rule, and I wasn't about to revise the game to make her victory invalid. \n Instead, I added a \"Gold Star\" victory condition.  The only way to get a Gold Star for beating a level was to turn on the extra victory conditions.  I applied this to levels where you could do a flaky solution that would work if you tried it over and over, eventually.  On those levels, \"Gold Star\" always implies Murphy's Law.  \"If anything can go wrong, it will.\"  The game will run your solution 20 times, invisibly, in less than a half-second.  If any of the 20 runs fails, it stops, rewinds to the start and shows you the failure, one agonizing step at a time, so it always appears you got unlucky. \n I also made up some other Gold Star conditions to hide my reason for implementing the Gold Stars.  The end result was people wanted Gold Stars, so, even though they COULD play by my sister's rules, they chose to play by mine.", "id": "c28vwv0", "summary": "When this happened to me, I offered a purely symbolic bonus for playing by MY rules."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I can't find a link right now, but a couple years ago, I saw an article which used fireplaces as an illustration of how even modern, sophisticated, non-religious people still find themselves clinging to irrational, comfortable ideas.  The people of Reddit are fiery against the old and stupid who cling to their ideology in the face of scientific fact, and it did a great job of showing how we each react when our cherished rituals and heart-warming traditions are challenged.", "id": "c6mhjzm", "summary": "But it's a stupity I'm accustomed to, and it feels good."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "You've got the right idea basically, the 10th amendment is good and keeps things in balance.  But you're reading it a bit backwards.  All governmental powers were reserved by the States when forming the union with the exception of those specifically granted to the federal government.  Our country is first and foremost a collection of individual sovereign states.  They've banded together, but the primary power remains at the state level.", "id": "c1j8c2e", "summary": "The \"limited\" part is federal power, not state autonomy."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "If you're talking about the definitions used in the US, they're two different things. \n Depending on the topic, Libertarians will side with either end of the left/right spectrum. \n Social issues: \n \n Personal Freedom - preferred by libertarians and progressives. \n ... Vs. Morality enforced by strong law enforcement - preferred by conservatives. \n \n Economic Issues: \n \n Economic freedom and personal responsibility - preferred by libertarians and conservatives. \n ... Vs. \"Fairness\" and government financial safety net - preferred by progressives. \n \n Both \"liberal\" and \"conservative\" once applied to libertarian principles, but that's changed.  \"Liberal,\" as it's used in the US today is a synonym for progressive.  This confuses non-Americans who still use the older meaning, so I tend to avoid it.  The word \"Conservative\" is almost as bad, having been adopted by the religious right, which makes it VERY different from libertarians.  Both progressives and conservatives (including the Tea Party), favor bigger government, when it suits them. \n Libertarians are on the more popular end of most issues, and yet Libertarians as a party isn't popular.  They seem to like to spend time preaching about issues like legalized prostitution and abolishing the federal reserve, and the immorality of tax enforcement.  It's a self-destructive tendency of the movement that I can't understand.  When you've got legalized weed AND lower taxes in your back pocket, I don't know why you'd wave around your freak card.", "id": "c1j9o9r", "summary": "Hell, yes.  There is a difference between conservative and libertarian.  One believes in freedom above all else and the other thinks it's their job to beat Jesus into you."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Are you saying that Libertarians are trying to make friends with the progressives by supporting progressive issues?  Seriously, if you know anything about libertarians, it's that they don't fucking want your friendship.  (Ok, I'm generalizing a bit here.)  Libertarians are some of the most zealot adherents to a pure philosophy that I've run across in any political process.  They don't want to compromise to be your buddy.  Whether you support government freedom or not, libertarians are going to keep right on supporting it. \n Yes, there are common interests with progressives, but that's by chance, not by choice.  Progressives happen to favor less government sometimes.  Libertarians always favor less government than we have.  (And sometimes, none at all.  Most anarchists are a subgroup of libertarians.  Others believe they must force anarchy on others by violence.  EDIT: Those are the anarchists who are NOT libertarians.) \n Libertarians support freedom and equal rights for all, including gays.  But libertarian philosophy has no vested interest in giving out marriage licenses for gays.  I hope that pisses off the progressives.  We don't want gays getting marriage licenses but we also don't want straight people getting marriage licenses.  Getting a government license is not \"Freedom\", it's permission to live your life.  You don't need the government's permission to live the life you choose.  No matter whether you classify marriage as a legal contract or a religious institution, it's none of the government's fucking business. \n Giving marriage licenses to gays is a poor compromise, but it's one most libertarians will happily make when the alternative is worse.  If you're going to grant licenses, you'd damned well better be fair about it.  DOMA is a pile of crap that libertarians won't tolerate.  And THAT pisses off conservatives. \n If you know the libertarian philosophy on abortion, you're doing a hell of a lot better than /r/libertarian.  Libertarians are split on the abortion issue with a majority favoring freedom of choice, and a minority insisting fetuses are human beings with the right not to be murdered. \n As far as I can tell, libertarians have pretty much exactly 50/50 left and right viewpoints, depending on where the left and right stand on freedom.  But on any given issue, libertarians are never in the middle, and rarely looking to compromise.  Compromise is having one hand cuffed to a radiator.  That does not make you half free.  You're totally a prisoner. \n Yes, I was joking with the", "id": "c1j9vls", "summary": "Most of them seem to be jokes in some form."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "There was a storyline in online comic [\"Order of the Stick\"]( which explored the first option.  Kill your enemy, everyone who will ever mourn your enemy, and every one who would ever mourn them and so on. \n I linked to the beginning of the strip, because the storyline about the black dragons is a lot less meaningful if you don't know who Vaarsuvius is and why someone would behave that way.  It's a comic about characters.", "id": "ccn2pfj", "summary": "Genocide is bad, m'kay? \n Edit:  [Here]( is the strip where the spell is cast.  But it really won't make much sense without knowing the history.  Seriously.  There's freaky deaky shit going on here."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I visited California and had a rental car while I was there.  I've had enough time now to recover from the trauma, and through therapy and selective memory, I'm now calm enough to describe my impression. \n Drivers in California are like prisoners, locked into a fucked up road system and cooperating to survive.  I don't know how they do that every day.  Must take some kind of immense patience and crazy observational skill.  Getting on and off expressways had me screaming, \"Cars are coming at me from WHERE?!?\"  Every now and then I hear about a California driver who snaps and takes it out on his fellow inmates, but it's the system that's broken. \n (LA might be different.  I went all around San Fransisco Bay.)", "id": "c1w7ce2", "summary": "Ever heard of a fucking frontage road?!?"}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I'm from Iowa, but now... \n I live in a [modern, progressive city]( with a thriving economy.  There are shortages of workers for some occupations.  Our home prices have not crashed. but you can still find a livable house for under $200k.  I don't own a winter coat, nor any winter clothes.  But I did own a convertible, which I drove with the top down year-round for 7 years.  It didn't rust and I didn't freeze. \n Having experienced all of that, I'm convinced there are two ways to remain a contented resident of Iowa.  You either have to be uninterested in the previous paragraph, or you have to believe it's not true.", "id": "c3bhsad", "summary": "Austin could use some counter-balance for all the immigrants from California."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Great breeders work hard to provide the healthiest animals possible to people looking for specific show-quality animals with pedigrees.  I encourage people to check the shelters first, but if the animal you want is uncommon or in high demand, breeders exist to serve you. \n I've gotten 3 dogs that were the result of breeders.  There are not a lot of [basenjis]( in the shelter.  If you're a cat person like me, looking for a cat-like dog, that's a great choice.  The fact is, educated people who know what they want will never need a pet store to shove kittens and puppies in their faces and their kid's faces. \n The pet stores create a high-pressure sales environment where people are feeling and reacting, not thinking!  They support a whole different type of irresponsible factory breeder that's over-producing animals like livestock for the bulk market.  They churn out lots of sick, mistreated, traumatized animals.", "id": "ciauavr", "summary": "Responsible breeders aren't the ones supplying pet stores."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Picture sliding down [the poles that firemen used to use.](   Sounds fun, right? \n So, when I use a youngster, probably 8 or so, I decided my tree house should have one.  I set it up, wrapped my hands and legs around it and slid down.  Where did I find a pole?  I used [one of these.](", "id": "c3nbqz8", "summary": "Ripped the skin right off my balls. \n Edit: better picture."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I have a really difficult time getting inside a woman's mind on this issue.  I know people believe they are somehow revictimized every time someone looks at a picture of a private moment.  I know they say that affects them in some way, but I have trouble understanding it. \n Look at it this way:  When I was in high school, I had pictures of some great accomplishments published in the local newspaper.  It's possible that someone has those newspaper clippings up on their wall.  Should I feel a little burst of pride every time they walk by those clippings and see my face there?  I don't know how to sense that.  I don't know how to be affected by what happens to that scrap of paper.  I just lack that kind of psychic bond with an artifact of some past version of me. \n Those pictures aren't me.  They aren't connected to me.  They don't change who I am in anyway.", "id": "cpqc27m", "summary": "Your psychic powers confuse me."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Eventually someone is going to come along with the motivation and technology to wipe out human life on this planet.   That is a deadline for us to figure out how to put humans on other planets, or humans will cease to exist.  We don't have much time. \n Beyond that, someone is going to come along with the motivation and technology to wipe out human life in this solar system.   That is a deadline for us to figure out how to put humans out yonder, or humans will cease to exist.", "id": "c0gidls", "summary": "We need to spread life faster than we spread our own deaths. \n Whether it's a ship or a system, or a hyperspace thingy, we need to get a move on!"}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "There is more than one kind of self-replication.  There have been self-replicating robots, where, given a supply of the right sorts of parts, a robot builds another robot just like itself. \n But cell-division is a whole different kind of process.  You have a cell that gets big, so it splits in two and then you have two cells.  Which one is the original?  In some sense, they both are.  All cells multiple this way.  Every single cell in your body was divided off from some other cell, which is a sibling or a twin, as much as an ancestor. \n Or look at it another way, when a cell divides, both the cells that result are the original cell.  I like to look at it this way, because then, if you follow the logic back to its origins, I'm not the great, great, etc, grandchild...", "id": "c1wmhle", "summary": "I am the original, self-replicating life."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I used to have  this cat, Allister   One day I was grooming [the fat yellow cat]( trying to get burrs out of his coat.  He was NOT happy about it and started making a lot of noise.  Suddenly I felt all 20 of Allister's claws sink into the flesh of my back simultaneously as she had launched herself to the defense of the fat cat.  My wife had to come and pry her off of me. \n Now I have [Firefly](  You might notice she looks a bit like Allister.  The fat yellow cat has not forgotten.  If someone is picking on Firefly, he gets MEAN.", "id": "c29f5h0", "summary": "A good deed is not soon forgotten."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Someone just reminded me of a good one... \n I was a contract-slave for a computer manufacturer with a household name and a trademarked color.  They were developing a new class of server machine that was slated to sell for over $100k each.  We managed to get an early prototype for testing software.  It hand-made, one of the first packed into an actual case.  So it's really impossible to put a value on it, but it was at least $500k, probably more. \n I was working late one night, the last one in the lab.  One of the full-time employees came in and tinkered with the expensive machine while I was busy coding away.  A bit later she asked me to look at see what was wrong with it.  The dialog went roughly like this: \n Her:  I put the memory in like they said, but it stopped working. \nMe:  You mean, it won't boot up after you added more memory?\nHer:  No... should I try shutting it off? \n She had added memory to a LIVE mainframe-class server.  This machine did NOT have hot-swappable memory.  They had power-tools in the lab the next day tearing the system down, tracing down what all was fried and replacing it.  I have no idea how she kept her job.", "id": "c646gmw", "summary": "Turn off the power before servicing."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Have you ever overheated electronics so that the grey smoke gets out?  That's bad smelling smoke, but it's in there for a reason.  Once you let the smoke out, the computer chips won't work. \n Candles however ARE shit.  They're literally made from manure, but infused with pleasant smelling smoke.  When you burn them, it lets the good smoke out, but if you try to eat them, you just taste the shit.", "id": "cd2a0no", "summary": "Candles contain good smoke, in a shitty aerogel."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I think you're trying to be sarcastic, and it really doesn't work without intonation and emotion behind it.  I really recommend you just come straight out and say what your point is to avoid confusion.  If I'm wrong, and you sincerely mean what you wrote, please consider this agreement. \n The price of a patent will go up when you establish that someone is using the technology.  As a patent holder, you only have to convince the buyer that it's a valid patent with real infringement.  When someone is infringing a patent, that's solid proof that it's useful and valuable.  The buyer of the patent would be investing in the value of the licensing fees associated with the patent. \n The fact that you need a lawsuit to enforce the patent isn't going to reduce its value very much.  It just postpones the ability to collect license fees.  It does not reduce the amount of those license fees. \n But what about court costs for the patent's new owner?  When people are infringing patents, and fight it in court, they can end up having to pay the legal fees.  In this case, that serves to protect the people buying the patent from the cost of the battle to enforce it.  But they will have to have the money to post a bond to cover the other side's legal cost.  That's not really a problem if the patent and infringement are real and valid.", "id": "c9cfsrt", "summary": "Infringement  proves  the value of the patent rather than reducing it."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Just so you know... \n I had a friend for a couple decades or so...  Call him Robert.  I learned that he was a mostly harmless nutball, so long as you never depended on him for anything.  In the early 90's, Robert met a girl, and in spite of my warnings to her, she entered a tragic marriage, ending in a drama-filled divorce. \n Anyway, the divorce drove Robert totally off the deep end and he started threatening everyone involved, including me, with murder.  It ended when (in about 2002, note the year,) he threatened to blow up the child protective services office.  I guess he's out of prison now, but he now insists the whole incarceration thing was just a misunderstanding.", "id": "c387l1m", "summary": "Threats aren't jokes and eventually they threaten someone they should not."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "It's part of the FCC's fight against the destructive duopoly of TimeWarner and Comcast.  TimeWarner and Comcast have been forcing people to rent their cable boxes, which is monopolistic bullshit. \n The cable providers claim it's to provide network security and prevent people from getting channels without paying for them.  The CableCard was supposed to be the bridge between the cable network and the consumer devices like DVRs, TVs and computers. \n The cable companies don't want to give up that rental revenue, so they've worked to systematically undermine the consumer choice represented by the CableCARD.  First, they rented them at prices that made them cost-prohibitive.  Then the FCC required that every cable box include a CableCARD.  The cable companies kept on charging a premium for a CableCARD that wasn't inside a cable box.  So the FCC made it a requirement that the CableCARD has to be billed as a separate line item, even if it's inside a rented cable box. \n Meanwhile, the cable companies have been adding undocumented backdoor features to the CableCARDS to support 2-way communications for on-demand, Pay-per-view and directory services.  This means that any third-party DVR or TV that uses a CableCard is going to be handicapped and useless. \n There's another proposed interface, somewhat dependent on CableCARDs, in Java, but it's just another way to keep third party electronics (like the XBox) from providing a better interface.", "id": "ca3gft8", "summary": "Google Fiber - You are our only hope."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "There is nothing universally true about schools in the US, because education in the US is a responsibility reserved to the individual states, and those mostly delegate to local school districts.  The Department of Education tries to regulate through control of a huge pool of funding, but it's only partly successful. \n As a rule though, it's frowned upon to openly offer a choice of educational quality for money in the public schools.  So, instead of saying, \"I'll pay more to send my kids to a better government school.\" people say, \"I'll pay more for a house in district X, which has better schools.\"  And then people work hard to enforce district boundaries, because they paid more for a house in the \"right\" school district. \n The result is that most high schools in the US are mostly stuck offering the least common denominator of education.  Discipline is a terrible problem, with lots of acting out.   Teachers are prohibited from punishing students and when there are punishments, a 3-day vacation is generally the worst they can do to someone.  Schools are penalized with reduced funding if they don't keep everyone in class, no matter how that disrupts classes.  Parents will sue at the drop of a hat, so administrators are paranoid to take any action which might open them up to litigation.", "id": "c25dkxk", "summary": "Dante's Inferno was a documentary of the US educational system."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Seeking replacements is pointless.]( \n \"Retard\" is a great example of the repetitive failure of political correctness.  The pattern starts with a condition that puts you at a disadvantage.  Whether it's a real physical or mental deficit like retardation, or a distinction like homosexuality or skin color, which isn't actually a disadvantage at all.  You come up with an \"official\" name for it, but then in 20, 60 or 100 years, it's become a playground slur and there's a new, politically correct term for the same thing. \n The only way to break out of the loop is to prove to wear the condition with pride.  Gays have done marvelous job of this and Oprah has made it ok to be black.  With the real disadvantages, it's a much harder fight.", "id": "c1wjhn4", "summary": "Derp\" seems to be gaining popularity."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "It sucked when I was hitting that one girl's cervix when only halfway in. \n An individual vaginal canal varies in length depending on the situation.  Sexual excitement can cause it to stretch out and be more accommodating. \n It's very strange to me to come from the political discussion another subreddit and immediately be thrust into a discussion of penis vs vaginal dimensions.", "id": "ckxny8g", "summary": "Maybe it would help to get to know each other."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Sorry for being such an asshole.  I'm usually pretty patient, but I see so many people on Reddit who assume the FairTax is the same as what the liberal propaganda says... I'm actually excited to hear someone asking a question. \n [This is a pretty solid summary.](  That site can answer a lot of questions. \n Here's my explanation.  The FairTax has three parts. \n Part 1 :  The one you've heard about is a consumption tax of 30% on all new goods and services.  Nothing is exempt and nothing is taxed more than once.  That keeps it simple to keep the lobbyists from carving out special exemptions that only the rich can use.  (Our current tax code is full of them.) \n Now, econ 101 will tell you most sales taxes are regressive, right before they tell you how it's possible to tax luxuries which is progressive.  But what they don't make clear is a luxury tax is  also  a sales tax.  I'm not a rich man.  I've bought 1 new car in my whole life and it was a fucking Daewoo.  So other than that one mistake, I would have never paid FairTax on any car, but a wealthy person out buying (and getting service on!) a Mercedes is going to pay way more in FairTax than I will. \n That by itself makes the FairTax  less  regressive than most sales tax plans.  I can't claim that's enough to make the consumption tax portion of the FairTax progressive.  For that, you need the rest of the bill. \n Part 2 :  A constitutional amendment which eliminates the existing regressive payroll taxes for good.  With the FairTax amendment, Congress can't tax pension funds.  They can't write thick tomes of tax regulations which let GE shelter all their income from taxation.  After the FairTax is passed, it becomes the ONLY tax collected by the Federal government.  While the existing tax codes are written to  look  like they're progressive, there are tons of loopholes written in, like the mortgage interest tax deduction and deductions for charitable giving, which the poor almost never claim or get any benefit from.  TODAY the CEOs pay lower tax rates than their secretaries, and the FairTax would change that. \n Part 3 :  In order to make sure that the poor don't have to pay any tax at all, the FairTax includes a provision to pay it  for  them.  This would look something like the welfare cards some states offer now, but it's much simpler, because you don't have to prove your income to anyone.  Every person in the country, from Bill Gates down to Leslie Cochran (famous homeless person, except he's dead), would be eligible for quarterly payment.  The  same  payment.  The name for this is the \"prebate\" and frankly, I think it's stupid, but it's like a tax return you get in advance... pre-rebate... ew. \n The important thing is, each person would get exactly enough for a person earning at the poverty line (determined by the economists of the federal government) to pay 100% of the FairTax.  That means everyone would get their necessities, like food, water, rent and medicine, tax-free \n Of course someone could go out and buys a $80,000 wedding feast and a $50,000 boob job, and I'm okay with those people paying taxes on \"necessities\", which are luxuries, because they're fucking rich people.  Again, nothing is exempt, because the rich are going to buy more of whatever it is you make exempt. \n So that means, if someone is making $10,000 a year, they're going to get MONEY, (spendable money, even though it's likely to be a plastic card,) for more than they ever spend on the FairTax.  That's your negative tax rate.  You get more money from the government than you pay the government. \n But here's the awesome part:  Income doesn't count against you, only consumption.   Anyone  who follows the green mantra of \"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle\" can avoid the FairTax.  Reduce your spending to the poverty line.  Reuse by buying more durable goods and less disposable.  And recycle by buying used, which is exempt from the tax. \n A person making $100,000,000 a year isn't some kind of villain unless they're out squandering it on cars, houses and skydiving lessons.  (Oh, new houses, because every millionaire thinks USED houses are for the rest of us, and used houses wouldn't be taxed.) \n In fact, it's pretty easy to pay no FairTax at all if you're making 50% more than the poverty line.  You just need to reduce your taxable consumption far enough.  But if you're a millionaire, you're damn well going to end up spending it.  (Or investing it in companies that will spend it.  Money that's not used to actually buy things is meaningless numbers.) \n There's more I could say, but that's how the FairTax pays a negative tax rate to the poorest people. \n But the awesome part, for me is, it makes it  DEAD SIMPLE  to pay your taxes.  No more \"Tax Planners\" or lobbyists rewriting the laws to favor one business's tax burden over another.", "id": "cddz4m3", "summary": "FairTax pays a poor person's taxes for you, and if you didn't actually pay any taxes, you get  to keep FREE MONEY."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "This is one of the most frustrating parts of /r/selfdrivingcars for me.  Many advocates for self-driving cars have this belief, I mean, a fanatical devotion, crusades-style, to this idea that self-driving cars will be tiny shared fleets.  Never mind that people will be making  more  trips, which means more congestion, which means more time on the road. \n More time on the road means more need to be coddled and entertained. These things are going to be rec-rooms on wheels, with exercise machines, a bed, maybe a microwave. \n They still of course need to have a place for stuff you want to haul around with you, but not take inside.  I'm a diabetic.  I'm not on insulin right now, but when I was, I'd keep some supplies in my car so I only needed a small emergency kit on me.  That's just one example where taxi-fleets are absolutely not an option.  A car is a locker that follows you.", "id": "cn4fzwk", "summary": "Self-driving cars are going to be more like Winnebagos than VW Bugs."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "The ocean is a mindless beast weighing over 1.3 × 10^21 kilograms.  I'm also scared of bears, which are somewhat smaller than that, and may be frightened away by loud noises.  The ocean is not scared of loud noises. \n However, the ocean does move around.  The wind can make it move.  But mostly it moves because it gets confused (by the moon) about which way is up and down.  So, we have a slightly confused thing weighing billions of billions of times more than I do, which occasionally twitches and wipes out the coast of Japan. \n Honestly, I'd feel safer on a boat, because then at least I'd be  riding the beast  and not in its path when it goes on a rampage.", "id": "cgo9nfh", "summary": "I want to go climb a mountain.  Can I climb a mountain now?"}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "You should look into what women go through to get IUDs.  That shit sounds TERRIBLE to me, and that's for the people who have a fairly reliable birth-control available in several other forms. \n Right now, the only game in town for men is to have a doctor muck with the vas deferens.  Whether you get an old-school vasectomy or this hot new gel injection, its the same location, same anesthetic, same everything except what they do to the plumbing. \n Picture an airport with conveyor belts to deliver suitcases to the planes.  Every current operation means someone messing with those conveyors.  A vasectomy is simple, but unpleasant, they rip out a piece of conveyor.  Ouch. \n This procedure, on the other hand, is a bit like installing an automated luggage mangler along each conveyor. (Clearly, that technology already exists!)  The conveyor belt is still doing its job in case you ever want to remove the mangler.  (They flush it out with some Scrotal Draino.) \n So, with a vasectomy, you've got tons of luggage piling up making a mess.  In theory, janitors come around and make off with your valuables.   (It usually works, but sometimes vasectomies end up with painful cysts.)  But with this mangler, the luggage doesn't build up.  Its destroyed remnants are still loaded on the plane (seminal fluid) and shipped out to heaven. \n No one knows yet whether the luggage-mangling solution they've invented is going to break down and stop mangling sperm. 10 years is a guess. It might last forever.  They'll have to monitor.", "id": "c1yn6wj", "summary": "Maybe I shouldn't write analogies after 10PM."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Just to clarify the trademark question:  \"Asteroid\" is a real object in astronomy, so you couldn't publish a book about those rocks orbiting out in space and claim a trademark on the word. \n \"Asteroids\" in computer gaming was something created by Atari in 1979.  It didn't exist before that.  Trademarks exist within a specific market, limited both by the field and geography.  In this case, the field is computer games and the region is the US (and probably other regions under other laws.)  If you wanted to make a productivity app named Asteroids, you would have some defense.  But in games, Atari has a clear case that they  built that brand  and deserve protection for it. \n I linked to the Apple case below because it has some really interesting features.  Jobs' \"Apple\" and the Beatles' \"Apple\" could actually coexist because they were in two very different businesses.  Computers and music publishing didn't overlap at all.  But iTunes changed that forever, and they inevitably had a conflict that had to be resolved.", "id": "cnfhy0n", "summary": "Asteroids\" the way you used it, didn't exist before 1979."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Each state would be a district, with some number of seats.  STV would decide who got those electoral seats.  The actual voting in the electoral college would still have most of the flaws it has today.  A minority of voters could still elect the president, but it would be MUCH, MUCH less likely. \n In theory, this change could be done on a state-by-state basis.  \"Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress\"  (Article 2, Section 1).  So Texas could decide to elect all our electors and representatives via STV if we wanted to. \n In practice, with regard to the electoral college, no state would do this.  To gain special influence with presidential candidates (which includes everyone in Congress,) each state has to spin itself as a battleground for the presidential race.  There can be no \"battlegrounds\" without big swings in the electoral representation, and the only way to generate those big swings is a winner-take-all election within the state. \n So, it would have to be a Constitutional amendment.  And it would be in the interest of both major parties to oppose it.", "id": "c23yvib", "summary": "In our best interest, but too many vested interests in opposition = Never gonna happen."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Old Rule: To sell, bonds need ratings.  Think \"Ebert\", but with complex financial whatzits instead of movies. \n Ebert got lazy, greedy.  Granny bought tickets to Gigli. Economy crashed. \n Obama law: You can sue Ebert. Ebert goes on strike, stops bond sales. Very bad. \n News: Old Rule waived. Skip Ebert and buy bonds at own risk.  Opinion: Improvement. Research > Ebert. \n Shortest accurate", "id": "c0uylat", "summary": "gets upvote?"}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "First-past-the-post voting (which is what we have) is a terrible, fucked up system.  It guarantees that you'll always have 2 parties to choose from. \n HOWEVER, we have a long history in this country of CHANGING WHICH TWO PARTIES.  The current configuration has only been around for about 15 presidential elections.  Major parties CAN and DO become obsolete. \n The Republicans are quickly becoming irrelevant as they're bogged down with the politics of religion.  We're going to see them replaced as one of the two major parties.  Stop fucking yourself because \"BUT REPUBLICANS!!!\" and vote for the policies you believe in.", "id": "cadi59u", "summary": "The Republicans are the terrorists of American politics.  Democrats use them to threaten us into submission."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "You're almost exactly right.  There is exactly one major site which expects you to use your real name, Facebook.  It depends on the network effect.  Once that kicks in, the site become unstoppable and nearly untouchable.  Getting started against an established site with the network effect is damned near impossible. \n Blizzard cannot force anyone to use the new forum, but they can offer some nice incentives, maybe enough.  If it works, Facebook might just get some competition.  I think that would be very cool, especially considering it would be a real gamer zone from the beginning. \n I phrased my comment carefully, but it might have slipped by.  It is  a  forum, not  the  forum.  Blizzard is not actually taking away your anonymity any more than Facebook does.  If Blizzard sees a profit in it, they could still run a forum for those who prefer anonymity.  The liability issues are very likely to prevent that, but you know someone will. \n Oh dammit, I voiced an opinion in conflict with the hive mind and now I'm going to be punished with downvotes.  :-(", "id": "c0tudjc", "summary": "If you don't like what Blizzard is doing, don't use their forum.  This should be the end of the discussion."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I don't think it ever actually went into affect.  However, I've seen a documentary suggesting that Australian censors believe that visible labia minor only happen in hard-core porn.  (Depending on the woman, the labia minor could be visible in some pretty mild porn.)  The censors have applied this so often that pornography for the Australian market avoids the use of actresses with larger labia minor.  The result is that  cultural ideas of how a vagina should look in Australia are twisted.  There may be women out there thinking they're deformed, or men telling women they're deformed, because they don't fit the accepted standard of appearance enforced by the censors.", "id": "c2p345u", "summary": "Censorship fucks society."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "You're both right, because immersion isn't something you create, it's something you break.  There are dozens of places to fail, and it only takes one to collapse the whole thing. \n If lights and noise are going to pop you out of the game, then you, as the player can fix that. \n If inconsistent game rules are going to rip you out and have you searching the wiki, the game designer needs to fix that. \n If jarring, inconsistent graphics are reminding you of Windows 98, the UI designer and artist need to fix that. \n If clip planes and shadow masks are turning 3D into mush, then the engine programmer needs to fix that. \n It cannot be achieved by any one fix, but only by everything working together.", "id": "c387xpg", "summary": "Game immersion is like a chain.  Only as strong as the ogre layers."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Again, I don't know if the Texas law even has that provision.  I just want to emphasize, this movement isn't limited to Texas and the laws aren't all the same.  But the goal is always the same:  Find and exploit loopholes in Roe v. Wade to remove women's right to an abortion. \n Here's an example from Alabama: \n Here's Mississippi (where they tried to kill the last abortion clinic in the state): \n Here's a bunch of news from Oklahoma (But a lot of this was before the whole \"Health and Safety\" thing caught on with anti-choice advocates): \n Edit:  Found some [details on the Texas bill here](", "id": "caussv6", "summary": "The bill requires abortion clinics to meet unusually high surgical standards and mandates that doctors who perform abortions must have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic.\" \n So it's following the same playbook as Mississippi."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "This is what I get for Redditing right before bedtime.  Lots of other people have given you good answers, but for me, it's the sum of a lot of things. \n As a software engineer, I really feel the depravity represented by the EA Spouse situation.  That's a sick company even by the messed up standards of the game development industry.  It's impossible to make quality software under those conditions, so it's really not about making more money or anything.  The management is clearly flailing about with no idea how to do the job. \n I loved quite a lot of games made by companies that EA bought and closed down, or just dumbed down.  Once a company is bought by EA, they have a maximum of 5 years left to make good games.  Many show the symptoms sooner.  Look at *[this list]( \n Origin, Bullfrog, Pandemic, Westwood, Maxis, all made great games before EA bought them.  The only significant creative content to come out of those studios under EA was The Sims and Ultima Online.  Those ideas were already in the minds of the creators before EA bought them, and developed while those companies were still mostly independent inside EA.  (That lasted a long time for Origin, because Richard Garriott came into EA with so much power.)  These are the exceptions that prove the rule. \n Bioware hasn't invented an original idea since they were bought.  Dragon Age Origins was brilliant, but it was mostly finished before EA got involved in the internals of the company.  Mass Effect was great game hampered by a cumbersome interface. EA polished the interface to build ME2, so it was a better game, but not creative or new in any way.  DA2 was downright terrible and finally drove me to boycotting them. \n Origin, the distribution platform, was about 10 years late getting started.  And it was started for all the wrong reasons.  Competition is a good thing and Valve has some healthy competition, scrappy companies like GoG and Desura, which don't force anyone to give exclusives.  In terms of a competitive landscape, Origin is a solution looking for a problem. \n Steam has been a huge boon to the consumer, bringing down game prices, keeping games up to date, and providing DRM in a form that consumers actually LIKE to buy. \n But Steam has done one more thing that put them in conflict with EA:  They put all the DLC right there in the game's page on Steam so you could see what it would potentially cost you.  In Steam, there's nothing hidden, no surprise costs.  Well, that's how it is now, with EA gone from Steam.  The last time I was surprised by hidden DRM costs was Dragon Age Origins. \n Steam has cracked down on that.  All DLC available has to be listed in Steam.  There can be no retailer-specific DLC.  EA hates this.  They left Steam because of the exact rules that make Steam so consumer-friendly. \n At this point, the only way I'm going to buy EA games will be when they're on sale at a deep discount on Steam.  Steam is the gaming platform I play on, and EA no longer releases game for that platform, so they've pulled out of the market. \n So, my boycott has nothing to do with ME3 or SimCity, except that those botched releases are symptoms of the mess that is EA.  I knew EA well enough to know shit like that would happen. \n I haven't touched on the issue of exclusive contracts with sports leagues.  Tons of fans end up having to buy EA, because it's the only game that can legally be marketed for their league.  But those \"franchises\" are just the same game, year after year, with nothing but graphical refinements.  We miss out on so many creative new game titles because EA cannot bear to have competition in their core sports markets.", "id": "c9vl8c4", "summary": "EA is an abusive lover.  People keep going back, but I'm no longer one of them."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "AskReddit and IAMA were major problems for BestOf because they generate tons of prose.  To eliminate that, the moderators of /r/BestOf instituted a policy that default subreddits are banned. \n I'm here to say that was the wrong way to slice this turkey.  We should recognize that some subreddits are  specifically designed to generate tons of comments  and that's all they do.  It doesn't matter if they're AskReddit, IAMA, ELI5, or ExplainLikeIAMA.  They exist to generate fluffy stuff that really doesn't need to be in /r/bestof, because it will dominate /r/bestof. \n There's a solution over at /r/webcomics.  \"Comics banned for being too awesome:\" in the sidebar is permanent links to some of  the best,  most well-known web comics, so anyone who wants more of that stuff can find it.  And at the same time, they're banned from being submitted, because if they were submitted, that's all the subreddit would ever be.", "id": "cba6inh", "summary": "Don't cut a turkey with a chainsaw."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "A patch is a download to update files.  Testing a set of files takes a lot of time, and that's why Microsoft caused so much angst amongst independent game developers by charging $40,000 to test each patch. \n As a developer, I want to make damn few sets of files.  When I patch, I'm going to do my best to get  everyone  onto the same version, so there's only one set of bugs I need to worry about. \n The new version of Plants vs. Zombies has \"a number of in-app purchases in it\".  I don't actually know how many, but I understand they're mostly new game modes.  That means each one of those in-app purchases is going to come with  another  set of game logic. \n Let's pretend there are just 2 new game modes, purchased separately. \n \n People with the base game have neither A nor B. \n I purchase A. \n You purchase B. \n Someone else purchases A + B. \n \n Now, if we wanted to  PATCH  the game logic for each of those people, that's four different versions of the game that the developer has to support.  Every additional game mode means you DOUBLE the number of versions the developer has to write, test and distribute.", "id": "cbmg51u", "summary": "There is no cost-effective way that game logic changes can be sent out as patches.  They must all be built into a single binary."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "The civilian criminal justice system provides many appeals and hearings in a death-penalty case.  This costs a lot of money in terms of the legal counsel on both sides, plus judges, courtroom costs, but it also costs money to house the person until the entire process is exhausted.  Then there are the medical procedures used to actually carry out the execution itself, which inflate the cost. \n But Hasan was a member of the military on active duty who killed fellow soldiers.  For the military, killing people is ...  well, let's just say they practice.  Ok?  If there's one thing they can do cheaply, it's all in the execution. \n Video analogy in case", "id": "c0fsire", "summary": "civilian death penalty]( vs. [military death penalty]("}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "If you get a phone from a carrier, you're trusting the carrier not to embed spyware.  (And they all violate that trust.) \n If you get an image from someone else, at WORST, you're trusting that person.  But an open-source image gets compiled by multiple people and scrutinized closely, so there's a good chance, even the author would be caught if they were slipping in spyware.", "id": "c37kwo9", "summary": "CM doesn't include CIQ."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Everything BlessedBlogger said makes sense, and no one has a right to feel entitled to someone else's body.  That kind of behavior is bullshit.  I don't care how someone dresses.  All you get is the image.  Nothing more. \n I think things get a lot more questionable when people pretend the image is also off limits.    If I look at someone as if they're a desirable object, I realize that makes people uncomfortable, but that's VERY different from me pretending like that person is an ATTAINABLE object, or public property.  The link that brought me here said BlessedBlogger was writing about \"objectification\", while what I read about was false entitlement.", "id": "c6stmri", "summary": "Just because people like looking at you doesn't mean they think they can fuck you.  Some might.  Not all."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "On the radio, they were talking about people blaming Hollywood movies. \n Here's how I read this: \n \n In the beginning, there were some basic biological and cultural differences between men and women.  Me man, lift rock off little woman. \n Movies and TV played up those differences for dramatic effect.  SUPERMAN! \n Eventually marketers figured out that most products sell better to one group than the other.  Women don't buy lots of farm tractors. \n Those marketers started looking for shows that would provide mostly female or mostly male audiences.  Beer + Sports = Sales. \n People making TV shows and movies started making shows specifically to appeal to those marketers.  Princesses and explosions! \n Since men and women are now being specifically funneled into gender-specific movies, the differences become even more exaggerated.  Twilight is a plague. \n Now every studio executive has to appeal to this increasingly split demographic.  If a show doesn't appeal to gender stereotypes, it can't attract ads. \n \n Whether those executives are male or female, sexists or not, they're all stuck with a culture defined by a gender gap.  And there's not much they can do but continue to cater to that culture, because it is what sells.  Shallow, stupid, wrong and sexed up sells. \n It's over-simplification to say that this is just about the way men view women, because it also reflects on how women view themselves and their relationships.", "id": "chsd48e", "summary": "Firefly was a great show, but our society is too sick to allow it."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "A circuit breaker is the sort of manual lock you're thinking of.  Switch it off, and the apparatus ain't fucking starting no matter what. \n Once, my father was working on some wiring.  He had the circuit breaker shut off, since he was up to his elbows in the cables.  His boss found that something didn't start up when he hit the button, so he came to the circuit box and flipped the breaker.  Fortunately, it was non-fatal. \n Could you say the same about monster screw pumps when some moron decides they should be on?  By the time the moron has turned off 3 separate safety system, there's a good chance you'll realize he's fucking with switches and stopped him.", "id": "c3h34sc", "summary": "When dealing with human lives 1 mistake should not be fatal."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Two 27\" monitors is 62% more real-estate than a 30\" monitor.  Source: math. \n I can't do the math on pixel count, because I don't know which monitors they offer an an alternative. \n But using two monitors that large may be spread out so far in one dimension, you'll have trouble using the pixels effectively. \n Source:  I have two 23\" monitors on my desk at work and two 23\" monitors on my desk at home. \n At home, I'm within the limits of usability horizontally by positioning them side by side in landscape.  Pushing that out to 27\", I'd still be ok, so long as I only wanted them for gaming.  Lots of people do this.  They'll also go up to 3 or more monitors.  But for technical work, those outer edges would be much less useful. \n At work, I'm pushing the limits of usability vertically by positioning one in portrait mode.  I figured out quickly that it's just too much vertical real-estate for one window and started dividing it into two, and I still don't get a good view of the upper or lower end.  27\" in portrait would put the top and bottom out of range. \n Now, having said that, I'm not using CAD, which may be able to exploit more real-estate than software engineering.  I have to actually be able to READ what's on those screens to do any good.", "id": "cc1e39a", "summary": "In my experience, a single huge monitor arranges the pixels near your center of attention more effectively than multiple smaller monitors. \n Edit:  Just want to add [Kawisled80]( has relevant experience suggesting dual-monitors work better for some people.  It may depend on the resolution of that 30\" monitor.  I think the ones Google uses cost more than twice what a 27\" costs."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "You're dead for infinitely longer than you're living.  So fundamentally, non-living is your natural state.  Your life is a rare, freakish disorder which will revert to its natural state quickly.  You're like a cough to the bits that compose your body.  Human life is a brief spasm of consciousness, soon cured. \n Thus, the whole existence of your mind is a battle against nature.  You exist as a struggle to continue to be something unnatural, unlikely and interesting for a little longer. \n You shouldn't be, and soon you won't.  I hope that pisses you off.", "id": "cemdbht", "summary": "Fuck nature."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Deepwater Horizon was the name of the oil rig which sank. \n \n It was built by Hyundai, but you don't call it the Hyundai oil spill. \n It was owned and operated by Transocean, but you don't call it the Transocean oil spill. \n The oil well being dug by Deepwater Horizon belonged to British Petroleum, but since it wasn't finished, there's no reason at all to call it the BP spill.", "id": "c0pq4k8", "summary": "You're an idiot."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I have to point out, because I've seen this mistake many, many times... \n Many young people (and maybe some older ones) are confused about the term \"anal\" regarding sex.  Just because a woman is getting fucked from behind, does NOT make it anal.  It's actually very hard to tell from a distance which orifice is being used.  It varies from one woman to another, but the two openings may be less than 1.5cm apart.", "id": "cjol2jb", "summary": "It's probably not in her butt."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "This]( is the drink you're talking about?  5 different liquors, plus coke and a slice of lemon?  That seems fairly high-effort to me.  Hell of a lot more than mixing some rum and coca cola together.  Frankly, if the drink prices weren't simplified to be clear for drunk people, I would expect it to cost more.", "id": "c2hhc3h", "summary": "Think of the lemon, man!"}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "The answer to this question may be heavily influenced by your culture.  It would be much more helpful if people would tell where they're from. \n I am a US citizen who has traveled to Europe.   After seeing how openly the Europeans flaunt their sexy bits, I see US society a bit differently... \n In much of the world the sexual nature of the beast is not a secret and they learn to deal with it.  Our puritan ancestors warned us that people lose control when they see naughty bits and start lusting for sex with everyone around them.  It turns out, this was only true of our puritan ancestors and the perverts they spawned.", "id": "c1nb31w", "summary": "WHEN REPLYING, TELL US WHERE YOU'RE FROM.   Americans are a bunch of prudes and our whole attitude about sex is screwed up beyond measure."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "It makes me laugh that you're being downvoted for having an opinion about what we call a sandwich.  That's exactly what the bestOf is, an opinion.  Reddit can be hilariously hypocritical sometimes. \n Edit:  When I made this comment, /u/TheHandyman1's comment was at -1.  Since then, it has taken off.  That's awesome.  But it makes this comment seem kind of silly, so here's some on-topic thought... \n You're allowed to season a grilled cheese by adding spices to the cheese.  So what about ground onions?  Chopped onions?  Where do you draw the line?", "id": "cmq1lko", "summary": "How big can a bacon bit be before it hogs the cheese?"}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I built my own treehouse, and I wanted a fireman's pole. \n So, I found something I could connect to a branch and slide down.  It looked like [this]( but with more pointed, sticking-out metal bits. \n I wrapped my arms and legs around it and slid down about 12 feet to the ground.  It cut right through my pants, and scraped the skin off my testicles.", "id": "cknr9gw", "summary": "Remembering hurts."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "When I was a young lad, I wanted a fireman's pole for my treehouse.  I used a dog chain, the cheap kind with jagged points of wire sticking out.  That's how I scraped the skin off my ballsack. \n Then, over a decade later, I found myself in a religious school with no access to proper lube...", "id": "cbs1l8s", "summary": "I've done both."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I'm not going to defend Dick Cheney here, because I think he's a dick with nasty political ideas. \n Having said that, Rand Paul's accusation is silly and unprovable.  That makes it perfect for politics, but it doesn't mean I have to accept it.  It uses both the Ad Hominem and the Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacies. \n Alternative theory, just as likely: \n Dick Cheney is a person who believes in the power and value of military strength.  This was the root cause of both his ownership share in Halliburton AND his hawkish political policies.  He bought a company he believes in, because he believes military force is necessary and important for the defense of the country.  He advocated to use military force for exactly the same reason.  He believes in it. \n His beliefs are bullshit from my perspective, but no where does that say his investment in Halliburton caused his warmongering.", "id": "cgne7tz", "summary": "Warmongers will warmong, and they'll invest in warmongering."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "You realize that this message doesn't affect all audiences equally, right? \n The trolls and abusers  like  to think that there is an actual person out there somewhere, hoping that human is crying, because that's real power.  You don't need to remind bad people that they're hurting others.  That's the  goal .", "id": "cfnpt1h", "summary": "Trolls like humans.  Humans are the ones that cry."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "The S-Pen is something that has to be integrated into the phone design from very early in the process.  It requires a separate digitizer (actually made by Wacom, which is just legendary for high-quality digitizers) because it uses a more precise method of locating the pen.  Samsung also includes hand-writing recognition software and a pressure-aware API which is first rate. \n Oh, and I should add that I have my own [bluetooth headphones.](  They work fantastic for making phone calls or blocking out noise and listening to music.", "id": "caymbis", "summary": "It doesn't surprise me that another manufacturer leaves out the stylus.  It disappoints me when Samsung does it."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "The OP is probably a troll trying to contrast Reddit's liberal response with the response a man got when he went to Michelle Bachman's Christian counseling services and asked them to help him stop being gay.  He expects us to be shocked that a Christian-based organization recommended prayer, while a bunch of uncredentialed lunatics on an internet discussion forum give a different answer. \n Christian Counseling is unprofessional crap in general, breaking all the principles of professional counseling organizations by promoting cult behavior, but when you walk in the door, with the sign that has \"Christ\" before \"Counseling\", you aren't expecting Reddit's high-quality of advice.", "id": "c25cm30", "summary": "You can't expect Reddit to give the same crappy advice a Christian Counseling center gives."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "After my divorce, I found myself with a lack of friends, living in a little apartment across from the jail in downtown.  I realized I had less of a life than the people locked up on the other side of the street and decided to change things. \n I started joining things.  I listened to some music online until I stumbled across a small group that I enjoyed.  Then I went looking for a chance to see them, found an online fan group, joined and asked if anyone wanted to ride with me to the next show.  The one who accepted that invite is now my wife. \n So, if all you like is software and Reddit, you've got Reddit meetups and software meetups (conventions).  Join your local subreddit and see when they're meeting.  Join your favorite language's local user's group and get involved.  Make plans to go with someone to a convention.", "id": "ccmhjgm", "summary": "I became a \"fan\" of something even though I felt like a fool for doing it.  April 1 is my anniversary."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "An address book is a small folder for information that a person can carry around with them. Practically by definition, it maxes out at about as much information as a book. \n A file cabinet on the other hand, contains much more information and generally requires a search warrant. It contains as much information as a few hundred books. \n Cell phones are still classified like address books by the court system, not filing cabinets. This is in spite of the fact that a good smart phone could contain hundreds of thousands of books.", "id": "c5gv4ef", "summary": "The law's view of cell phones is terribly out of date."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "That's the very best revenge against assholes. \n There was [a case recently of a Catholic church that booted out a teacher after finding out (from her mother's obituary) that she's gay.](  I suggested the same remedy.  Set up some competition and invite all the teachers and students to join you. \n Another example: \n I'm not going to read that version, so it may be different from this", "id": "c9o6kg0", "summary": "The wedding trolley wouldn't serve gays.  That's illegal, so it's shutting down and the competition is run by a gay man."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "trying to learn math from someone who doesn't understand it is less than effective. \n I was public schooled all the way, and I can confirm this.  I'm afraid you're wrong to think that state schools are somehow exempt. \n Example 1:  High School Geometry teacher, who was proud that she had struggled with math through her whole education and still clearly recited what she'd memorized by rote. \n Example 2:  State university professor, Computer Science, Machine Language.  Her own example code was filled with bad practices and misunderstandings.  But she was damned attractive and that seemed to distract everyone from her total lack of understanding.  (Just picture a class full of 60 future engineers trying to learn the material from a woman in a slinky black dress and high heals.) \n Example 3:  Elementary Education majors.  It's a refuge for math-phobic people, and puts them in the perfect position to give children the initial introduction to the fear of mathematics.  But that's too broad.  Let me tell you about my own experience as a math educator. \n I was an unregulated, private educator, and the most expensive kind: a tutor at the college level.  I didn't finish my degree, because I didn't have money, but rich students came to me trying to get me to do their homework.  I was very good at redirecting them to do the work themselves, and had a reputation for building real knowledge, not just passing grades.  A lot of the worst were those future \"professional educators\" working on elementary education degrees and teaching certificates. \n Then there was Becky.  (Might be her real name, but after 20 years, it's hard to say.)  She was a math phobic elementary education major taking the one required \"math-appreciation\" course and struggling.  I helped her and a friend, (who gave up, Math is HARD!) and eventually just Becky, through to the end of the course.  Took her from failing to an A.  I was proud of that.  I was really sad to see her go for the last time, since she'd never have to take another math course.  So, I was very surprised, several months later, when she came back asking for me again.  It turns out, I'd passed on my love for mathematics and changed her whole direction in life.  She was doing well in basic Calculus, but she'd missed a lecture and wanted to make sure she didn't get off course, because it was a required course for her new major, in Math. \n (Waiting for the tears to clear so I can remember my point...)", "id": "c41rvgr", "summary": "Lack of a degree doesn't make you a bad teacher.  State regulations and accreditation doesn't make you good."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "When the Constitution was written, there was not a Bill of Rights included for exactly this reason.  It was assumed there would be people, like Scalia, who would interpret the Bill of Rights as an exhaustive list.  These are people who would allow the legislature to deny people any right not explicitly listed.", "id": "c6i7hor", "summary": "The Bill of Rights is the complete list of protected individual freedoms only in the mind of Justice Scalia."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "That's fine for normal usage.  You should always be able to stand over the top tube with room to spare.  But what if you're not standing? \n I used to ride a bike back and forth to work.  One day, I signaled a turn at the same time I hit the brake with the other hand.  The bike stopped.  I didn't.  I slipped off the seat and onto the top tube.  To add injury to injury, I had top-tube cable routing, like [this.](  Before I even knew what I was doing, my own legs had thrown me off the bike onto the pavement.", "id": "c1udxwn", "summary": "Slipped off the seat, raking my balls with metal cables.  Did not want."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "So, hundreds of little spiders disturbs you, eh? \n Once I was eating a granola bar.  Probably twenty years ago now.  But thinking about it still gives me shivers.  I'd ripped open the package like I'd done to a million others and just stuck it in my mouth and started chewing. \n This time it was different.  Those oats and honey don't usually wiggle.  I looked down at the part of the granola bar that was still in my hand and it was crawling with tiny little granola-colored worms. \n I spit out what was in my mouth, but couldn't make myself vomit what I'd already swallowed.", "id": "c1xi7g2", "summary": "I can't write any more about this.  Need to go rinse my mouth out with bleach again."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Dealing with the poor, there's an important point that has to be driven home:  Results matter more than intentions.  If it makes you feel warm and fuzzy to help out the poor, that's great for you, but if it robs them of control and responsibility for their own lives, then you end up destroying them as people. \n So you end up having an entire class of poor people who don't believe they can do anything, don't believe anything they do will ever matter.  They'll raise children who aren't just dependent because they lack money, but poor in will, in hope, in self-determination.  A person like that becomes vulnerable to addictions, whether it's drugs, alcohol, or just the mindless pop culture. \n Sure, you started off to do good, but what you're doing has been tried before and it fails.  On the other hand, self-sufficiency, independence and self-direction has worked over and over again in the history of mankind.", "id": "c3v34py", "summary": "It's not greed to give people responsibility."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Kind of close.  But it's clearly a different font. \n \n Look at the top of the \"g\".  In the GTA font, it lacks detail. \n The bar on the \"t\" extends farther left in the GTA font. \n Also notice the top curve of the \"h\".  It's flat in GTA, smoothly curved in Price is Right. \n Without pulling out a ruler, it's hard to quantify, but there are substantially different proportions on several letters, including the \"e\".", "id": "c2g9dau", "summary": "Bob Barker is still a badass mofo."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "There are  massive  energy losses from refining oil for automotive use.  Those semis that deliver fuel to gas stations don't run on air.  Supertankers are  extremely  efficient, and they use fuel so dirty no one else wants it, but that's still cutting into the efficiency of the overall process.  Then car engines are less than 50% efficient at using the energy that's left. \n Power generation gets more efficient when you scale it up.  Looking at the efficiency on my Leaf, there are some losses... <10% from converting back and forth to DC, another <10% from battery chemistry (charging releases a lot of energy has heat,) and a tiny percentage in the motor itself.  (A/C rotary induction is massively efficient.) \n My car says \"ZeroEmissions\" on the side, but it should really say \"SmugEmmissions\", even worse than a Prius.", "id": "ckn0t87", "summary": "Those numbers seem to be spot-on to me. \n Edit:  Just clarified, I'm not claiming each step is exactly 2%.  But they are far smaller and at fewer places in the process than losses in internal combustion."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "When I was about 7 or 8, I was in a new school and getting picked on.  One kid kept picking, even when the adults weren't around.  That's a mistake.  So, I knocked him down, kicked him a few more time to make sure he got the message. \n Two days later he was dead. \n Hit by a semi truck on his bicycle.  Nothing to do with me.  But 30+ years later, I haven't forgotten.", "id": "c6chtip", "summary": "Don't fuck with me."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Gamers do not associate the game with the designers, because the designer's name isn't featured prominently on the box.  The exception is \"Sid Meiers Civilization\". \n For a publisher, this is the second best situation.  Ideally, they could enslave a game designer and own everything that person ever creates for life.  If that happened, they'd be happy to promote the fuck out of that developer's name so he could spin off franchises for the rest of his days. \n But, alas, for the poor publishers, you can't own a human.  So it doesn't pay dividends to promote the name of someone.  He might leave and become the competition and then all that name recognition they've built up would be lost. \n So instead, they put the franchise name at the forefront and they can keep cashing in on it even if the original human has left the building.", "id": "cadl1zh", "summary": "Damn abolitionists ruined it for everyone."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "If you have two categories, A and B (two-income families and single income families in this case,) it's possible for the average of A and the average of B to both go up, while the average of the whole lot A+B goes down. \n Here's how it can happen.  Starting out: \n 90 families in A with an average of 100. \n10 families in B with an average of 50. \nOverall average: 95. \n Now, things change.  Averages go up, but people change groups, so now it looks like this: \n 10 families in A with an average of 120. \n90 families in B with an average of 60. \nOverall average: 66. \n Obviously what's happening to incomes in the US is not that drastic, but you can see how it works.", "id": "ccaxoyt", "summary": "Statistics fuck your brain."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Americans like things BIG.  Big cars!  Big homes! \n Your half-toilet, half-bath idea isn't nearly BIG enough! \n Sure, we'll have your \"toilet room\", but we call it a \"half bath\" with just a toilet and a sink.  Then elsewhere in the house, we have a full bath with a bathtub, another toilet and another sink.  And then we very often have a third room attached to the master bedroom with a second bathtub or a shower stall, two sinks and a toilet. \n The USA is a BIG place.  GO BIG!", "id": "c5nac49", "summary": "My house, with 2 people living in it, has 3 toilets, 5 sinks, two bathtubs and a shower stall. \n That should freak out the rest of the world.  (I'm not wealthy.)"}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "This is not just a Japanese thing.  They're just more open and honest about it. \n I was a child prodigy in the US and discovered the hard way that an older worker will almost always be paid more no matter how much they contribute.  Contrary to what I was taught in school, a surprising amount of payroll is actually paid out based on need, \"He has a family,\" vs contribution.  It's quite common for a young person with the latest technology to make less than an older person supporting a family, even when the young person is 8x as productive. \n As an engineer, I couldn't be trusted no matter how much I knew at age 22.  But now I'm 40 and people listen even when I'm just making shit up. \n In many companies, there are specific limits on how often you can be promoted.  They won't even considering promoting you to a position of power until you're older.", "id": "c5namd5", "summary": "No one wants to admit Americans really do respect our elders."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Mine never seem to mind.  At some point, we got stuck with a litter box in the living room right where it's in view from the couch.  (Not by choice, probably a sick cat who needed it close by.)  It's our cats most favorite place to poop, whether we're watching or not.", "id": "c5j91nf", "summary": "Our cats like to make us watch.  :-("}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I've had bad experiences with the best people we hire not staying.  The work here frequently sucks, and when they figure that out, we lose all the time we spent training someone.  But the people who do interviews think they're doing us a big favor for talking up how awesome the company is and how we're a great team.  (We don't even work as a team.  Every individual has an assignment handed down from someone they never meet.)", "id": "chz24ir", "summary": "We need people who will be able to handle the reality."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "If you can't talk about kinky sex, then there's a good chance you're not talking about vanilla sex.  And if you're too afraid to talk about it, you never know if you're actually doing it right. \n To put it more concretely:  How do you know your partner isn't into the kinky stuff if you and your partner don't actually know how it works enough to discuss it? \n I've seen too many people who still think you need 3 hours of douching to do anal sex.  Your own preferences could be based on nothing but myths and superstitions if you don't educate yourself.  And if myths and superstitions limit what you can talk about with your partner, then your partner is missing out too. \n Metaphor: How do you know that vanilla is your favorite ice cream if you've never had chocolate?", "id": "cf0cmj5", "summary": "Vanilla ice cream is awesome.  I tried chocolate.  I don't like it at all.  But cinnamon ice cream is worth seeking out!"}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "You recognize that self-driving cars may be operating without passengers, but fail to account for how much extra traffic that can represent.  With human drivers, my wife and I choose a place for takeout and we each pick from that place's menu.  With SDC, each of us chooses a place and two cars are dispatched, doubling the traffic.  But we'll also do it more often, because you don't need to tip an SDC.  Convenience stores may be replaced by big warehouses somewhere irrelevant, with a fleet of SDC vending machines that can deliver a candy bar to suburbia in 2 minutes or less, at enormous energy costs, but a very low price to the end user. \n If vehicles become 80% more efficient, they become much  cheaper .  And that means the number of miles they travel increases by a factor of ten.  You've actually increased the energy usage much more than double, because all those extra cars are going to be entering an overloaded traffic system. \n Worse, people aren't going to be comfortable spending all that time in tiny SDCs.  They're going to be looking for bigger, livable SDC spaces, which naturally consume more energy. \n You assume that Google's tiny SDC designs will actually sell.  Bullshit.  They're being designed by engineers and not marketing.", "id": "ci6wgi9", "summary": "Each individual SDC may be more \"green\", but the system built out of SDCs could still be much less green."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "When you grow up and move out of your mother's basement, you're going to discover something called \"rent\", and \"grocery stores\", where they take \"money\" so you can have a place to do your \"art\".  If you don't have money, you'll be homeless, hungry, and your ability to create art will be seriously impeded. \n So, you're going to need something called a \"job\".  That's something you do to get money.  And while you're doing a \"job\", you aren't making art.  In fact, with your art degree, your job is probably going to be at McDonalds, and you'll come home so fucking exhausted that the thought of doing \"art\" in your \"free\" time is going to make you cry.", "id": "cch3k7m", "summary": "You're an idiot, and probably a child."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I upvoted it, but there are some minor errors.  I can see why some programmers would downvote it.  I think it's close enough for a novice. \n Here's the one part that bothers me: \n > the computer needs an \"interpreter\" which can translate source code into machine code on the fly (usually this is much slower than code that is already compiled). \n That's simply not true.  An interpreter does not turn source code into machine code.  An interpreter is a program that allows the computer to process programs that are not written in machine code (mostly slowly) indirectly. \n This is an important distinction because there  really are  programs that actually translate source code on the fly, but they are not called interpreters. \n Example:  The Perl compiler turns the source code into abstract syntax trees at start up, and then interprets the abstract syntax tree.  Calling Perl an interpreted language is an  incredibly  common error. \n Example:  The Java Virtual Machine is mostly an emulator.  (An emulator is related to an interpreter, but not the same.  It allows the computer to process a program written in machine code  for a different machine .  The machine code that a JVM processes is called \"byte code\", and the machine doesn't actually exist as hardware.  It is always emulated.)  But a JVM can also feature \"hot spot\" compilation, which means it can actually compile the byte code to native machine code. \n Example:  JavaScript is designed to be an interpreted language.  Every modern browser has some kind of interpreter for it.  But the fastest JS engines are not JUST interpreters.  A modern JS engine like the ones in Chrome or Firefox will also  compile  portions of the JavaScript source code into machine code.", "id": "c9b75sp", "summary": "Producing machine code is not part of being an interpreter.  It's a separate feature."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "There's a misconception that \"Necessity is the Mother of Invention.\"  It's bullshit.  The wheel existed as a toy before it became a tool.  Mathematics is a collection of fun little problems until someone comes up with uses.  Fire was a shower of shiny sparks from banging rocks together before it became a source of heat and light.  Every technology starts first in experimentation and play. \n And yes, alcohol was a social lubricator long before it became a basis for chemistry.  It's hard to imagine how much scientific knowledge we have today that's rooted in BREWING alone. \n To say that the latest iteration of recreation is going to destroy us is blind not just to the future, but to the past as well.  Games are becoming a place, a workbench, a laboratory.  This is an environment where we can try out not just little toys, guns and cars, but also societies, philosophies.  Games are teaching us more about how we experience the real world and that's going to take us to new places.", "id": "c3cu2sr", "summary": "Games are not to blame."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Hard evidence?  What's the chain of custody on that?  It was recorded by the defense, using equipment designed by the defense, extracted by the defense, and delivered to the court by the defense. \n I'm not saying that evidence is compromised, but it does look a bit self-serving. \n Look at what Toyota went through with the unintended acceleration issue.  They have logs from the engine computers.  Most cases were elderly people who hit the wrong pedal and ran through things, but Toyota took a massive PR hit before any evidence implicated them.  Now they've got hundreds of thousands of lines of computer code used in their car's computer systems being poured over by expert witnesses, and maybe, just maybe some bug could, possibly, cause a problem like the ones reported.  Multiply the amount of code by 1000 and you'll see how those court cases run for a manufacturer of Class 4 cars. \n There is a damn good reason Google can't find a manufacturing partner, and a good reason Tesla is talking Class 3 and not Class 4.", "id": "cd6unwu", "summary": "I always feel the need to repeat, in every one of these discussions:  I'm a fan of self-driving cars.  They will be a huge boon to transport, efficiency, safety, productivity and environmental friendliness.  And we need to recognize the hurdles and not walk blindly into them.  The legal repercussions are huge."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "What you're describing is double-think.  Being able to describe your algorithm in terms of a high-level language, while still considering the low-level implications and how they're going to impact the performance.  It's a great skill to have. \n Sadly, the most clear example is writing and hinting SQL for an optimizer.  Your write one thing, knowing it's going to get rewritten in a completely different way.  You can't (and don't want to) write it at the lowest level possible, but if you're unaware what happens there, you'll be putting your performance at a huge risk.", "id": "c1lcq7a", "summary": "The implementation details routinely leak up through the pretty abstractions, especially on performance."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "It would be interesting to see a rise in new, \"designer\" religions.  Belief systems built from the ground up as fiction, to motivate, reassure, or guide the faithful who may not be bright enough to make good decisions on the basis of science and logic. \n Very small example:  Thermostats act as on/off switches.  Turning the thermostat up a lot does not make the furnace put out a lot more heat.  (In general.)  But believing the thermostat acts like a valve, releasing more or less heat, depending on how high you set them, can help people accept the benefits of turning down the thermostat at night.", "id": "c1t00b9", "summary": "Even a false belief can help people deal with a complex reality."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I think you've misunderstood me.  There are damned good reasons to set your thermostat down at night, but the real reasons aren't obvious, and a basic understanding of the facts  can  lead you to the wrong conclusion.  So for many people, avoiding the truth and accepting the answer on faith is the best answer.", "id": "c1t8ifx", "summary": "You're right, and my point is, \"Have faith\" is the best explanation most people can handle."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Software developers, to be most effective, should have an allergy to poor logic, arbitrary rules and accepting things without question.  The longer you stay in college, the more of those things you'll face, so if you put up with college long enough to get advanced degrees, it's probably a good indicator that you shouldn't be programming.", "id": "cgnc9i9", "summary": "College = bullshit.  Programming != bullshit."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "I permanently injured my ankle.  There was a girl I wanted to impress.  So I jumped off an overpass about 12 feet high, landed on some mud and one foot sank in.  When I fell over, it wrenched my ankle to one side.  I still can't watch some scenes in movies where people twist an ankle.", "id": "cb84ytq", "summary": "Please don't show me a wobbly person in high heels.  A simple beheading or disembowelment I can handle."}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Every now and then, I say you should be supporting [the FairTax](  I just reread part of [the FairTax Book]( and I had to share it. \n From [the FairTax Book]( page 140-142: \n ... The story of Alex and Kay Council shows the tragic lengths to which an honest citizen can be driven by IRS enforcement actions.  In the late 1970s, an insurance executive named Alex Council received a sizable bonus at work and got involved in a tax shelter.  His tax accountant told him it was a legitimate option, but the IRS disagreed.  Council's liability for taxes due on the bonus expired at the end of three years.  Nonetheless, after the statute of limitations had expired, the IRS sent the Councils a notice demanding more than $180,000 in unpaid taxes on the bonus, a figure including penalties and interest.  The Councils' accountant notified the IRS that the statue of limitations had expired on the Councils' tax liability.  Two years later, the IRS wrote back to claim that they had mailed a certified letter to the Councils prior to the expiration of the statute notifying them of the deficiency.  Okay, fair enough -- show us a copy of the certified letter and the receipt!  No way.  Not only did the IRS refuse to provide copies and a receipt for the letter, they wouldn't even tell the Councils where the letter had been sent until yet another two years had passed.  Well, wouldn't you know it -- when the IRS finally coughed up the address to which they supposedly had sent the delinquency notice. You guessed it.  Wrong address! \n Now, you'd think this would pretty much be the end of things, wouldn't you?  By virtue of sending the notice to the wrong address, the IRS had failed to inform the Councils of their tax liability within the time allotted.  Well, that's not the way the IRS operates.  When this matter found its way into the federal court system, the IRS informed the court that it was the Councils' responsibility to prove they hadn't received the notice.  In other words, the Councils had to undertake the impossible task of proving a negative.  Apparently the old innocent-until-proven-guilty idea never really caught on with the tax collector. \n As you might guess, the Councils couldn't prove they didn't receive the notice, so the IRS slapped a lien on their construction business for almost $300,000.  The lien destroyed Alex Council's credit rating, and his business collapsed.  Shortly thereafter, Alex Council left his wife the following letter: \n My dearest Kay, \n I have taken my life in order to provide capital for you.  The IRS and its liens which have been taken against our property illegally by a runaway agency of our government have dried up all sources of credit for us.  So I have made the only decision I can.  It's purely a business decision.  I hope you can understand that.  I love you completely. \n   Alex\n \n PS: You will find my body on the north side of the house. \n Ultimately, the court threw out the IRS's claim against the Councils.  But that was too late to save Alex's life. \n --", "id": "t3_ba6lm", "summary": "Man's accountant failed to understand tax code.  IRS sent notice to wrong address, never received.  IRS pursued him anyway, killed his business.  He killed himself for insurance, which gave enough money to win fight against IRS. \n I've stolen enough from the book for this post, now you should go buy it:  [the FairTax Book]( \n And support [the FairTax]("}, {"author": "Neebat", "content": "Since Diabetes is a growing problem, I figure it's worth pointing this out to everyone.  Unexplained thirst is a symptom of diabetes  and soft drinks will just make it worse. Some folks have come here begging you to save their lives. I'm suggesting a way you might save yours. \n Tuesday, my doctor informed me that I'm diabetic. Diabetes causes your blood glucose (sugar) level to go up.  My kidneys tried to fix this by peeing out the excess glucose, which made me very, very thirsty. I was up to about 8-12 cans of Mountain Dew per day, getting up six times a night to pee.  I went to the doctor because I wanted a good night's sleep. \n Now I've stopped drinking soft drinks and I'm trying to get enough caffeine to fend off the headaches while my blood sugar comes down. I'm on medication and learning to stab myself. \n Some related links: \n \n [American Diabetes Association]( \n [Islets of Langerhans]( \n [Sugar (what you didn't know could kill you)](", "id": "t3_c0tjl", "summary": "If you're thirsty for no reason, go ask your doctor for a glucose test.  It's FAST and might save your life."}]}
+{"author": "Gailyn", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Amateur psychology student wants to make surveys/studies/research/etc. based on League of Legend players and their thoughts/behavior.  Any advice or suggestions appreciated! \n P.S: I will most likely be using both survey method and observation method to compile my data. I may do some interviews with players or Riot employees, if it gets to that. \n edit: Added questions 8, 9, 10 as suggested by Redditors.", "output": "Hi guys, I'm a psychology major in my second year at college. I've been studying psychology since I was 17 (I'm almost 20 now) and I've been a passionate League of Legends player for two years. \n I find that communication and human behavior/cognition is imperative to excelling at this game. I notice that a lot of players will give tips on how to improve mechanics and skills when playing the game, which has  a ton  of value to it, but I honestly feel that there's a huge part to this team game that may be overlooked. It's deeper than strategy. There's an emotional and cognitive connection to what's going on in the Rift and on both teams. \n What I am asking you, Reddit, is this: What studies would you like to see conducted? I am completely open to ideas and any brain storming you have to offer. \n Here are some tentative ideas for what we can study: \n \n Why do significantly less women play LoL than men? \n Why don't people close out games? \n Why do people stick to a single role? \n Why do people flame/rage/get angry/etc.? \n Are males better at LoL than females? \n Does playing LoL induce stress or relieve stress? \n Does playing LoL encourage better social interaction in real life? \n Do you have friends in real life that play League of Legends? How often do you play with them, if at all? \n How did League of Legends change or affect you as a person? \n Has playing League of Legends influenced or helped garner real-life skills? (Ex. reaction time, reflexes, confidence, socializing, academics, etc.) \n \n etc. \n Any other suggestions would be great to hear. I'd love your input!"}], "user_id": "longlamp_2622", "history": [{"author": "Gailyn", "content": "I was homeschooled for the majority of my life. For storytelling and contextual purposes, I will tell you that I am female. When I was 11, somewhere I heard of the word \"porn\" and wanted to know what it was. Since I was a noob at the internet, I typed in \"www.porn.com\" on my uncle's computer and was horrified with what I saw. I closed the window immediately, but then was scared to death that my mom or someone would find it in the drop-down address bar history (is that what it's called?) so I started typing in as many fake websites that started with the letter \"P\" that I could think of to drown out the porn website, because I didn't know how to delete browsing history. One of the websites I typed in was \"poopy.com\" because \"poopy\" was an expletive my older sister would use, which happened to be ANOTHER porn site that I stumbled upon. So, horrified even more, I just turned off the computer and went to bed. \n The next day I was at another relative's house and my mom called me on their home phone. She told me that she found that I was on a porn website, and let me explain. I told her the truth and said that I just wanted to know what it was since I heard the word somewhere, and I said I closed the page immediately once I saw what it was. Then she said \"So then why does it say here that you looked at  two  porn sites?\" and I'm just like \n fuck \n this looks bad \n So again I told the truth and said that I tried to use a bunch of random words and websites starting with the letter P so that no one would see the porn website as a suggestion \n Well basically she didn't believe me and genuinely thought I was a budding pervert, she told my dad and I was grounded from the computer for 4 months. Probably one of the worst, most embarrassing parts of my life.", "id": "cg3irqr", "summary": "Looked up porn when I was a 11 year old girl because I didn't know what it was and parents didn't believe me and ended up grounding me for 4 months and thought I was a pervert"}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "My mom didn't want me to date until I was 18. My father was... absent for a large portion of my teen years, which I attributed to the strong possibility that I lacked a male figure in my life. \n So when I was age 15-17 I was more or less starved for affection/attention since I didn't get it from my family, and I was manipulated emotionally and physically by boys because of it. I lied to my mom and told her I wasn't dating someone or didn't like them. This was awful, because I wanted so much to be able to talk to my mom about relationships, because I didn't know half of what I was doing. I was in an emotionally abusive relationship on-and-off for two years, and all I needed was for my mom or dad to tell me that I'm worth so much more than that. I didn't get that pep talk until this year, me being 19 years old and now with the RIGHT kind of guy. \n I made debates and arguments during high school trying to persuade my mom to let me date. She said \"Dating is for finding a husband. You can't legally marry until you're 18, therefore there's no point in dating.\" My arguments consisted around \"Well it'll prepare me for more mature dating,\" or \"It'll help me know what qualities I like in a man,\" etc. etc. She wouldn't buy it. She was raped when she was 16 and had an alcoholic mom, so her teen years were pretty turbulent and I guess she just didn't want the same thing happen to me (getting raped). \n My mom really over-reacted in terms of males. She relaxed over the years, but from age 14-18 she wouldn't let me be in cars with boys, (even if other people, like girls, were in the car,) she wouldn't let me go to boys' houses even when parents are present, she wouldn't let me go to parties of friends if she didn't know their parents well, she wouldn't let me go to sleepovers (all-girl ones), the list goes on. \n Basically she initiated a lot of fear of males, and it affected me quite a bit. I don't have a very good relationship with her today. \n SORRY FOR THE WALL OF TEXT.", "id": "cghze1z", "summary": "Mom thought boys were sex-hungry rapists who wanted to violate their daughter's innocence. Therefore, she didn't let me date until I was legally an adult"}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "My mom and sisters completely denied it when I approached my mom telling her that I felt I had severe depression. Since I was 11 years old I remember feeling hopeless, ugly, inadequate, stupid, a burden, and an oxygen thief. I wanted to die hundreds of times. When I was 15 the pain was so severe that I felt like I was going crazy. I went on the internet and searched for an online depression screening (just a simple, unofficial test) and it concluded that I most likely had moderate to severe depression and that I needed to see a doctor ASAP. \n I was so scared of telling my mom or approaching her about the situation. I didn't want to tell her that I wanted to kill myself, because I didn't want her to over react and pull me out of school, or relocate me, or take away my access to the outside, or any variety of ways a mother could over react (she was the type to). \n So one day, again, when I was 15, I gathered up the courage and I went in my mom's bedroom and explained to her, choked up and misty-eyed, that I felt I had depression. I wanted to see a doctor to get it diagnosed, or maybe see a therapist. I explained that I used the depression screening test online and that I thought I needed help. \n The first thing my mother said to me was,  \"You aren't depressed, you're just a teenager.\" \n I never asked her for help again. \n Apparently she gossiped to my two older sisters, and the middle sister approached me a few days later and said \"You don't have depression. I felt the same way when I was your age, and it went away in like a year.\" \n My depression has been around for 8 years, and I'm positive that it isn't normal teenage behavior to have suicidal thoughts. But I guess they didn't know that part. \n A couple years ago I overheard my mom talking to one of her friends on the phone. My oldest sister told my mom that she wanted to die, and she supported her. My sister got counseling and was put on medication for her bi-polar disorder; now everything's peachy. I just wish my mom recognized how desperately I needed help. I felt abandoned. I still feel abandoned.", "id": "cghzkz3", "summary": "Mom denied that I was severely depressed, attributed it to regular teenage hormones."}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "This isn't at work, but I play League of Legends (an online competitive video game) and I have a group of friends and acquaintances who hang out at my college's library who play the game as well. \n Whenever I give suggestions on how to play the game better (I'm really tactical and gentle with it, too), they either ignore me, roll their eyes, or say that my suggestion is stupid or that I don't know what I'm talking about. I noticed that the guys are more susceptible to advice when a male peer tells them, but I guess when I'm giving advice it's perceived as ill-informed or nitpicky, which the only indicating difference (at least in my eyes) is my gender. \n Furthermore, and a little more of an illustrating example, I advanced in ranked play (a mode that assigns sort of a \"leaderboard\" based on skill, performance, and how often you win games) to Gold 5, which is considered above average. When that happened, I didn't go around telling people about it, but two guys who I was friends with personally messaged me, one saying \"I bet if I had tits I'd get carried too,\" and \"too bad I'm not a girl, that way I could get carried to gold, too.\" (Carrying is when another team mate does consistently better than you, usually when you are doing poorly and the other team mate helps win the game. Getting carried is considered an insult to individual effort and skill) \n I have other stories that are actually related to the workplace, but it's mostly just sexist comments which aren't all that interesting.", "id": "chkukdr", "summary": "Boys think I'm bad at video games because I'm a girl."}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "I used to watch anime when I was younger, but as I grew older I realized I only watched it so that I had something to relate to with my older sisters, so I stopped watching it and had little to no interest in watching it anymore. My boyfriend convinced me to watch Fullmetal Alchemist, and although I was reluctant, I keep watching it because of it's enthralling story line and parallels (I'm a bit of a bookworm and I also like dramas with deep, interconnecting plot lines like in  Breaking Bad. ) \n So basically the", "id": "cgr076u", "summary": "is that it has a good story and it makes you think. That's what kept me watching it. It also makes you think about human nature in a way, and how evil is manifested in the 7 deadly sins/how that reflects personal agendas."}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "I appreciate the ending Jack Sparrow remark. ahha \n I wrote out this long series of paragraphs then decided I just needed to get to the point lol. I actually think it would be more pro-women/feminist to be AGAINST sexually objectifying oneself rather than being FOR it. \n I'm sorry for not providing the time stamp that it is mentioned, but [this video]( has a part in it where it talks about how mens' brains light up looking at pictures of women wearing very little fabric versus women who are dressed modestly. \n The basic difference is that when wearing very little clothes, the brain recognizes the woman as an object. When dressing modestly, the male brain recognizes the woman as a person with power, feelings, etc. (I'm completely paraphrasing, please watch the video to get the actual quote) \n It's interesting that you call it \"sexually objectifying\" because making yourself out to be an object, as in an item that is devoid of feelings or human nature, is absolutely right. \n Now just to clarify, I myself am not a feminist, and I don't believe that men are sex-drived crazy monsters. I'm just saying that it's natural for a man to look at a near-naked woman and sort of \"rear into\" primal feelings of mating. That's just how God made us, and that's okay. \n I'm sorry if I worded this totally weird (again I'm like so sleepy and have hiccups like wut) but my", "id": "cftugcf", "summary": "is that dressing \"sexy\" actually does the opposite of empowering women. You're basically manipulating men into being more \"fond\" of you rather than WORKING for respect through your character and actions. Using sex appeal is just the \"easy path\" for a false sense of respect, in my opinion. \n If you have any more questions about my opinion then feel free to ask"}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "I was 13, it was the day after my nmom and ndad had a huge fight and he told her he was divorcing her. I woke up feeling really tired and I just slept in. My nmom came home and I told her I was hungry and she microwaved me one of those banquet TV dinners, and I only ate a few bites then couldn't touch it. It was the weirdest thing. I knew I was hungry, but I couldn't eat. After that, I was laying on the couch watching TV for a few hours. I tried to get up at one point because I was thirsty, and I got so fatigued/wiped out that I had to fall back on the couch. I yelled to my nmom asking her to bring me water,  and she told me to get it myself. I felt like I couldn't move so I just laid there until it got dark outside. I remember at one point I wasn't even watching TV, I curled up in a ball and was facing the other way. I kept calling for my nmom and she wouldn't come. A sharp pain formed in my lower abdomen on the right side,  like I was being stabbed. I gathered what little strength I had and walked to my nmom's room where she had been all day, and I told her that my side hurt really bad. She asked me if I \"wanted an advil\" (what?) And I said no. I just went back to that couch and an hour ish later I could hardly breathe, it felt like a huge weight was on my chest. I yelled for my nmom and she still didn't come, so I got up and then I knew shit really hit the fan. On top of the pain and the pressure on my lungs, it looked and felt like the room was turning. I started walking to my nmom's room and I tripped and stumbled, I had to lean against the wall to keep moving upright. I got to her room and told her that the pain got worse, and she asked again if I wanted an advil (?????) And I started bawling my eyes out saying I could hardly breathe and that I was extremely dizzy, so she finally called my doctor and he told her to take me to the emergency room. She couldn't find her keys for like 20 minutes and she was freaking out about it, and while she was looking for them I crawled hands and knees into my room to try and get dressed (I was in my pajamas) and I remember getting my pants on was the hardest thing ever, that I kept falling over and over etc. \n Anyway this story is getting long so I'll cut to the chase. I went to the ER, the nurse apologized profusely because she \"accidentally\" sent 2 people ahead of me (my situation was a higher priority), I had a bottle of water and she told me to stop drinking it (I was thirsty as fuck) because she didn't know what the doctor wanted. Doc came, discussed my symptoms, he thought my appendix was enlargening, took my pee, gave me an IV drip, made me drink a gallon of rotten orange juice (CAT scan fluid) over 2 hours, did the CAT scan, couldn't find anything enlarged anymore, sent me home, next day I did blood work,  two weeks later I get the results and it was mono/mononucleosis/Epstein Barr virus. Yaay. \n So it wasn't my appendix exploding/enlargening,  it was my spleen. And I had to have a melt down in front of my mom for her to help me. The end.", "id": "cp9anid", "summary": "Mom didn't listen to my pleas about all the pain I was having for hours, ended up having a sharp pain, barely being able to breathe, and extremely dizzy, we went to the emergency room and doc thought my appendix was going to explode. It was my spleen. My spleen did not explode. Epstein Barr virus if anyone wants to know \n Edit: The reason I mentioned my parents having a big fight is because doc said that mono can lay dormant with no symptoms for months,  and can spring out and attack under high stress."}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "I'll share an experience I've had these past couple weeks. I mained support in Season 3 and I was pretty damn good at it. However, I was in Bronze for the majority of Season 3 and toward the end I grinded to Silver 2. I grinded not by supporting, but by picking more carry roles like mid and sometimes jungle. \n In Season 4, I kind of abandoned supporting a little bit. I wanted to get to gold, BAD. I've been cross training in all roles, and found a great niche as playing feral flare junglers (Yeah, I'm that person). \n Feral flare was my golden ticket to gold, and now I am sitting at Gold 4 and I am in-and-out of my Gold 3 provisionals. I've been having 50-50 win/loss games rather than having win streaks which was what I was used to for a few weeks, so I felt I was maybe losing my touch jungling. I was so used to jungling that I've gotten lazy at CSing properly, so I wanted to go back to supporting to see if I could \"get my groove back\" that way. \n I bought River Spirit Nami the day it came out, because  I LOOOOVE NAMI  (as well as a handful of other supports), and so I started playing her a ton these last few days. In ranked I currently have a 50% win rate with her, so nothing special so far, but I'm in a high enough MMR that I get ADCs that know what they're doing at least for the most part. It's been much more of a pleasure supporting in Gold MMR rather than Bronze/Silver MMR.", "id": "ci3ggz8", "summary": "Gave up on supporting for several months so that I could play carry roles to climb in MMR, and now that I'm in Gold 4 I can support with a more skilled team and it's more rewarding/fun."}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "Serious question for a serious conversation. \n Real example: Yesterday I was duoing ranked with a new friend, last pick called jungle, third pick locked in Lee Sin jungle (pick order, so fair enough), last pick locked in Warwick and changed his spells from Smite and Flash to Clarity (???) and Cleanse while saying \"Why did Riot remove revive from the game?\" Lee Sin followed suit, replacing his spells with Clarity and Cleanse, Lee Sin built Boots of Mobility, repeatedly ran through mid lane, and he ended the game 2/21/2. \n Now my friend was upset with me because I \"didn't dodge.\" He said he couldn't dodge, because he dodged recently and didn't want to have to wait ~20 minutes to join another game. That I should have dodged because he'd rather I \"lose a small bit of LP than be doomed to lose much more in a troll match\" \n I lost 19 LP in losing the game at 18 minutes, and I was 6/8/3 Leona in what effectively was a 2.5 vs 5 game. \n With this example being said, which is more ethical, fair, and the \"right thing\" to do? If you dodge champion select, this is more or less a \"punishable\" offense and may potentially lead to discipline from Riot if done frequently. However, if you stay in the game, even if you try your hardest (which I attempted to do, in my example) you will spend ~20 minutes in a game almost destined for failure, and will lose ~20 LP despite your valiant efforts.", "id": "t3_2zr7xc", "summary": "Which is more ethical/fair? Dodging champion select when a troll or severely negative person is present, or stick it out through the game and see what happens?"}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "Original post by /u/Kaenes \n I've seen a lot of discussion centering around Elise lately, and so I'd like to dissect exactly what her role is, why and when she is strong, what her counters are and what she counters, and the different ways that she can be built. \n Although Elise isn't a new champion, she's been out of meta for so long that a lot of the playerbase seems to have forgotten how to deal with her, and what kind of champ she is. \n What are the defining elements of Elise's kit? \n Elise has previously been a laner, but now she is played exclusively in the jungle (although a few players have found situational success with her in the top lane). She has a few primary characteristics that define her playstyle: \n \n Strong base damages with %health damage on two abilities, and relatively poor ratios on most of her skills other than W. Because of this, players generally build to maximize her penetration rather than stacking full AP. This provides the additional benefit of dramatically shortening the time she needs to become a real danger. \n \n Fast, healthy clears of the jungle by kiting camps and tanking damage with her spiderlings. Although she doesn't clear as fast as champions like Udyr and Shyv, she has one of the fastest and healthiest clears of any assassin, which means that she can gank often and early to snowball lanes. \n \n Relatively weak at lvl 1 and 2, but powerspikes hard at lvl 3 and then with each rank in her ultimate. Elise has powerful ganks at lvl 3, and so she's often able to start a snowball for her team before other junglers have finished their first clear. Her second spike is when she's completed runeglaive, and then she spikes again with each completed item. Generally, she's most powerful before 30 minutes - although she's still capable of blowing up other champions in the lategame, Elise often finds that she'll struggle against champions that outscale her in damage output. Because of this, she's often seen as a more offensive, AP counterpart to Lee Sin. \n \n Strong ganks, backed with high duration, ranged CC. Great dueling during the early/mid game, but will struggle in lategame teamfights where she can't easily dive the other team without being CC'd. Because of this, she's often relegated to trying to find picks with her cocoon during the lategame. \n \n \n To summarize, Elise has a strong early and mid game, but her kit doesn't hold up as well in the lategame where teamfights are common and CC is plentiful. However, she has a multitude of tools to ensure that the game never goes that far. \n Why is Elise's winrate so high right now? \n There are two factors at play in dissecting Elise's winrate. \n First, she's been the target of a few much needed buffs - the two most crucial of which have been to her self-healing in Spider form and the base duration of her cocoon. The increased healing on Spider has allowed her healthier clears than other assassins, meaning that she's more resilient to being invaded, easier to counterjungle with, and her ganks are safer and more frequent than other comparable champions. Secondly, because the base duration of her cocoon was increased, Elise can now forestall maxing her E and max her W instead for additional damage. This mitigates most of her mid-late game weakness that used to be her downfall. With these two buffs, Elise has gone from a severely underpowered pick to one that is definitively viable, even strong. \n The crucial factor behind Elise's success, moreso than the buffs, is that he is the definitive counter-meta champion of this patch cycle. \n Let me dissect this - the current patch has seen the rise of Devourer junglers, bringing back memories of pre-S5 with devourer WW one-shotting people. A lot of junglers (especially below plat/diamond) are giving up the early power of warrior and runeglaive junglers for the lategame dominance of devourer champs like WW, Kayle, and Master Yi, all of whom are capable of incredible 1v5 feats when at full build.\nHowever, the power of devourer comes with a cost - the jungler must powerfarm through the early and mid game to reach sated in a reasonable timeframe, leaving their lanes to fend for themselves. \n This is the first place where Elise counters the meta. By aggressively ganking and snowballing all of her lanes in the early and mid game, Elise can tilt the entire deck so heavily against devourer junglers that their superior scaling isn't enough to overcome a team that is so far ahead. \n But what about lategame, where devourer junglers are going to out-damage Elise significantly? This is the crucial point where one of Elise's previous weaknesses is actually a strength in the current meta. Nearly all devourer junglers lack consistent gapclosers, lean towards sustained damage over burst damage, and are susceptible to kiting and CC - which is what Elise brings to the lategame. Cocoon completely shuts down Master Yi, Kayle, Tryndamere, Udyr, and WW - allowing her team to focus and burn them down before the devourer can make use of their superior damage. \n To summarize, Elise counters the present meta of devourer junglers in two ways:\nShe can snowball her team in the early game, where the devourer cannot answer with counterganks because of the necessity of farming. \n She provides late-game lockdown, negating their superior damage and lack of burst/gap closers. \n How do you counter Elise, and what does she counter? \n Simply, Elise counters devourer junglers. If the other team picks Elise, DO NOT PICK A DEVOURER INTO HER. If she has any idea what she's doing, your chances of winning are effectively nil. To emphasize this point, even before she was buffed, Elise still had the highest winrate in the game vs. Devourer Kayle, and followed only nidalee against the rest of the devourers. Her kit is perfect for countering this champions, and after she was buffed, this matchup became so one-sided that I would not attempt it. \n If I'm planning to play a devourer champion, Elise is my #1 ban.\nOn the other hand, Elise is countered in two ways - champions that can match her early pressure and champions that can outduel her via superior burst damage or CC. Primarily, I would recommend picking Nidalee into Elise - nid is slippery enough, with enough ranged poke and burst, to be able to poke down and execute Elise without risking being cocooned. Especially at lvl 2, Nidalee can completely outduel and shut out Elise. \n Other champs that can do well into Elise tend to be bursty assassins or AD bruisers. Wukong has found a lot of success in high elo, and the potential for outplay with his decoy is significant. Xin is a good pick, and this matchup is relatively even. Personally, I'm confident in picking Rengar into this matchup; by warding safely and farming to lvl 6, I can often start an equivalent snowball by using my ult intelligently. \n How do you build Elise, and how do you build against her? \n First, I'd like to discuss jungle enchantments. \n The two primary builds for Elise start with either Runeglaive or Cinderhulk. CH has been the traditional build for Elise in S5 before her buffs, but that was only because none of the other enchantments really did anything for her and she was mostly built as a tank anyway. \n After her buffs, we've seen her shift back towards an assassin playstyle instead of building fully tanky. Runeglaive provides a massive early game spike - when she completes it between 5:30 and 7:00, Elise is undoubtedly the most dangerous champ in the league. She can outdamage and outduel anyone, and the map is hers to control and dominate. Other champs will soon catch up to her, but this spike is so large and so dominant that I don't really think that cinderhulk is worthwhile in comparison. \n A secondary note : I've seen a lot of discussions about trying to play Elise as a devourer jungler. This thought process tends to sound similarly to this in my ears, \"You know what, Elise has really great early game damage, snowballs incredibly hard, and can completely take over the game at 10 minutes. Wouldn't it be great to get rid of all those things for an item that doesn't synergize with her at all, cripples her burst damage, and makes her susceptible to the exact strategies that made her strong? \n Yes, devourer can increase the healing that she gets from spider form after 20 minutes. Yes, full AS / AP elise can be a situationally viable splitpusher. But these are niches that are better filled by other champions, that magnify Elise's weaknesses and surrender her strengths, and show a complete lack of understanding of how the meta is currently functioning. \n If you don't believe me, just check this link. Pro and high-elo players build Devourer on her 0% of the time. That isn't accidental.\nBluntly, there is no reason to ever build devourer on Elise. Just don't do it.\nMoving on, how should Elise be built? \n In short, you want to finish your jungle enchantment (Runeglaive or Cinderhulk), then build into your sorc shoes. Those are her two core items, giving her a ton of early and mid game power for very little gold.\nAfter that, you'll find that her builds are incredibly flexible, but will often include these items: \n Liandry's Torment. Flat pen, health, and %health burn. Everything that Elise wants in a cheap, compact package. If purchased, this should be your third item after jungle and boots. This item will fall off lategame, so you want to get it as early as possible to maximize its value. \n Abyssal Scepter. AoE MR shred for her team, MR resists for her, and more damage.\nRylai's Crystal Scepter. Amazing synergy with Liandry's, plus a nice chunk of health. If you get ahead, this item is a great pick up on Elise. \n Frozen Heart. CDR, Armor, mana. A great tanky item. \n Spirit Visage. Great synergy with her spider form, MR, health, and CDR. A solid defensive item, and one of my preferred choices into AP heavy teams.\nSightstone. Can be built situationally on Cinderhulk builds. Very popular choice in Korea/China. \n Randuin's Omen. Generally, Elise's go-to armor/health item. Great for diving.\nZhonya's Hourglass. If you're ahead and plan on diving the other team, there is no better item. Slightly expensive, and Elise can't make use of the large chunk of AP, but still a solid choice. I find that I build this in about 30% of my games on Elise.\nFor boots, you want to build Sorc's 99% of the time. Some cinderhulk builds will take Tabi or Merc, and some prefer mobis for the presence, but sorcs are just so good on Elise that I don't think they're comparable. \n Lastly, to build against Elise, just stack MR. It's that simple. Buy early MR items, and her flat penetration won't matter as much. Build MR, ward your lanes, and play safe for 20 minutes, then stomp her after she's been starved of kills.", "id": "t3_3fjhy4", "summary": "Elise in a nutshell. \n Elise is a strong pick into devourer junglers because she snowballs off their weak early game and can shut them out of fights lategame. \n Elise struggles against champs that outduel her or match her early pressure and can outscale her (read as : NIDALEE). \n Elise wants to stack magic penetration and bruiser stats to maximize her great base damages. \n Don't build devourer on her. Ever."}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "Hello! \n First (or second? idk) time posting to /r/relationships. Please be gentle! \n So this conversation with my dad happened about an hour and a half ago. I played some video games (League of Legends, if you care to know) and now I am a lot more calm. Anywho, here's an explanation of the situation: \n My mom and dad are divorced, and my dad remarried a few years ago. A component of their divorce settlement entitled me child support from my dad until age 25,  while  I am in college (if I am not attending college full-time, I can lose support). Until this Summer, when I graduate with my associate's degree, I am and have been attending college via a program similar to \"Running Start\" where my college is paid for. \n I recently moved out three months ago in an apartment with my two older sisters, aged 26 and 27. I receive no support from them. We moved out of my mom's house because she's been unemployed too long and had to sell the house. \n Since I moved out, my dad has been sending me the child support money instead of my mom. This is enough to cover my rent, nothing else. I still have to pay for food/gas/medical co-pays/cell phone/auto insurance for my crappy and broken car/etc. \n Today I was struggling trying to fill out a FAFSA for the first time, since I planned on getting my bachelor's degree in Public Health starting Fall of 2015. Because I am considered a dependent, it asked for my dad's financial/tax information, so I called him to ask for that info. He gradually got more and more frustrated by the questions, and he kind of dropped a bomb on me. He told me that he can't support me once I turn 21, because he owes thousands of dollars in taxes and can't afford to do that plus send me $x/month, and that I would need to find and work a full-time job. \n This immediately made me emotional, confused, and fearful. I currently work a part-time job while I attend college full-time. I have a car that has major problems that causes it not be able to drive for more than a few miles, which is one of the reasons why I got a new job that is close to my apartment. I'm trying to save up to buy a newer used car, but it's difficult when I make very little money and have to buy food/etc at the same time. \n In terms of work, I've never worked a full-time job before. I'm not against it, it just seems extremely difficult to achieve in this stage of my life right now. Because I go to college, I've only been able to work part-time jobs, because my availability changes every quarter and the hours I'm available aren't always attractive to employers. Because of my work history, I fear that I won't be able to get anything above a minimum-waged job. I feel like even if I worked as much as I could, I wouldn't make enough money to support myself and that something bad may happen to me. \n I feel like I'll have to drop out of/stop going to college so that I can support myself. The time and money it takes to continue going to school seems like a big problem. This part makes me more sad than anything, because I love going to school since it makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something in life. \n I have a few medical concerns that I've put off getting doctor's appointments for because I'm trying to save up for a newer car. I have a couple dental problems, one of them being a wisdom tooth growing in, which will need to be pulled before it grows out too much--or else I could develop significant problems with my jaw. \n If I could describe what I'm feeling right now, it's betrayal, uneasiness, fear, depression (the medical kind), and hopelessness. \n I have 6 months (my birthday) until these changes come into effect. Until then, I will still have support from my dad in order to pay rent. \n Sorry if I'm coming off as a whiny female dog--I'm just totally out of my element here and I feel like I'm being thrown off the high dive. Any advice or comfort would be incredible. Thanks for reading!", "id": "t3_2v4m2i", "summary": "My dad gives me child support as per divorce settlement, which covers my rent while I go to school. He plans on pulling that support in 6 months, so I need to figure out how to support myself and not go insane."}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "My boyfriend and I are both Christian. We're both 19 years old and have been dating for over a year. We're serious and committed and are planning to be married after college. I've asked him previously if he'd ever watched porn before, and he said no. I trust him. \n I have an extreme opposition to pornography because of my indirect experience with it. My father was addicted to porn for years and it led to him being unfaithful and then divorcing my mom, who tried very hard to make it work. When I was a young girl, I walked in on him downloading it and I was shocked. I used to be very affectionate with my father, but since that day I could never cuddle with him, and did not want to hug him or touch him. I felt dirty knowing that he looked at girls who could be my sisters' age. (They were 18 and 19 at the time) \n Recently I found out by having a chance discussion with my boyfriend's brother that he had porn in his browsing history not long before we started dating. I confronted my boyfriend about this, and he said that he was addicted to porn for a few years during high school (about ages 14-17, I believe) I started dating him when he was 17, so my guess is that he stopped when he met me. \n He told me that he lied about having previously watched porn because he was ashamed and didn't want me to think he was a pervert. I validated his feelings and told him that it was okay, and that I forgave him. \n However, after a couple weeks of this sort of \"sinking in...\" I have a couple issues. \n \n He lied to me about something that was an important phase in his life. Who's to say he won't lie to me about something larger, even though we've been very open and honest with each other for so long? \n \n ~Three years is a significant amount of time to be regularly viewing pornography. Will this affect our relationship, even our marriage? Will I always have that itching feeling at the back of my head, \"What if I don't measure up to what he's expecting?\" or \"I'm not the first naked woman he's seen. I'm not the first woman he's lusted after.\" \n \n \n This is going to sound very immature, but my boyfriend was required to take a \"Human Life Drawing\" class which involved nude male and female models. At the time I was very emotional about it and distressed, because I hated the idea that I wouldn't be the first naked woman he'd see. It took me about a month to come to terms with it and to let it go. \"It's just art,\" I learned, and I was fine. But porn is a completely different story. It isn't art; it isn't a practical necessity.", "id": "t3_212dqo", "summary": "I feel like I lost an amount of trust for my boyfriend and I'm worried his past porn addiction will affect our marriage and sex life."}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "The post I wrote out was sent to /r/legaladvice , but then I realized that board is/was dead so I'll just give you the link here to read through the information. \n By \"deceiving\" I don't mean actively lying to me, I mean in the sense that he's been leaving out a lot of details and I basically feel cheated. \n I posted about this problem to /r/relationships in the past when it first happened, (I'll find the original post if you're quite curious) but I'm posting again because I have updated information, as in I have the actual child/post-secondary support order in my hands. \n Adding a bit more detail about the situation: My dad divorced my mom when I was 13, and I have two sisters who are older than me and who were both adults when the divorce finalized. In October 2014 my oldest sister decided that the three of us should move out because my mom was forced to sell our house because she was out of work for too long. My dad encouraged me to move out with my sisters and he told me that he would be giving me $500/month as child support rather than giving it to my mom, since I'd no longer be in her house. The $500 would pay for the base rent of the apartment (my sisters chose an expensive one...) and I'd still pay for utilities, auto insurance, food, gas, medical co-pays, etc etc. \n So toward the end of January, where taxes were being done, my dad called me and told me that he said he couldn't claim me as a dependent and that now he owes $7,000 in taxes. He said he can't afford to pay for both the taxes and supporting me at the same time--which I think is a lie for different reasons, but I won't get into that right now. He said he'd stop giving me support after I turn 21, which is in August. \n He told me that he was letting me know ahead of time so that I could \"figure things out\" (which in my head, translates to getting a second job and temporarily quitting college). I got pretty emotional because I was going to continue to try and get a bachelor's degree, but now I don't see that as possible right now. \n For those of you who didn't read the post from the link I shared... I'll just give the short and (I feel) most important concern: The child/post-secondary support order said that I would receive $1,700 per month in support from my dad. He's been giving me $500 per month. \n The second thing is that the order said that I would receive support until I graduate from college, or until I'm 22 & 1/2 years old. I'm graduating with my Associate's Degree this month. \n I think the timing for him to stop giving me support is a little too perfect, and I don't understand why he wouldn't just tell me \"Hey so the court order is like this, so just be prepared.\" Instead he promised me support while I rented the apartment with my sisters (Which is a year long lease) and made no indication that he'd discontinue support. \n I feel like this puts me in a very awkward position. I don't think he was being completely honest/up front with me all this time. I'm more hurt about that than the money. I'm bothered that it appears he hasn't been paying the support that it seems like he's obligated to pay. And it's not like I want  to take his money and buy a car or something, I'd just like to use it for school. And the fact that I may have to quit school for a while bothers me a lot. \n I guess I just don't know what to do with my dad. I've talked to my college counselor about it, and she wants me to talk to my mom to see what's going on (as far as the child support order goes) and to talk to some pro-bono lawyers. I don't like the idea of pursuing my dad legally, because he's my dad. I know that I would want to talk to him about all this before I do anything, but I'm just afraid that he'll turn it around somehow to manipulate me. He used to yell at me as a kid, so I guess I'm just afraid of confronting him about something so serious. \n Any advice would be appreciated. Honestly I'd just like some support right now, and if any of you have been in a similar situation and could give anecdotes to what you did to fix the situation, I'd really appreciate that too.", "id": "t3_38gz9h", "summary": "Child/post-secondary support order (from parents' divorce) said my dad is obligated to give me $1,700 a month, but he's been giving me $500 a month and wants to stop supporting me in two months."}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "Ever since I got out of high school, I feel like I don't have any friends. I've been going to college for a year and a half and I just feel like I'm a loser. The only thing that is really keeping me sane is my incredible boyfriend who enthusiastically spends every moment he can with me. I'm content when I'm with him, but I have like almost  no  female friends, and I have a few male friends but they have their own lives and such. I just need like... a PAL to hang out with and chat up, and I really love my boyfriend but I'm an extrovert and I need to be with groups of people. \n I used to be invited to parties/get togethers all the time in high school but now I'm lucky if I get invited to anything. \n I'm just like really freakin' lonely and I get bouts of depression. A couple weeks ago my mom and I got into an argument about something unrelated and she said \"you need to get off that stupid computer and get a freaking life,\" and it hit me really hard. Video games and the internet are the only way I cope with my lack of socialization problem. \n Any advice?", "id": "t3_28mgaj", "summary": "College student with little to no meaningful friendships at the moment. Feeling lonely and needs advice with maintaining or creating bonds"}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "For context: I am female. \n I've grown up very sensitive emotionally and I was bullied verbally in elementary/middle school and a bit in high school. The bullying came from female \"friends\" or acquaintances. \n Now that you have a slight bit of back story, it's been my experience that girls have the tendency to be mean. (Ta-daaa!) \n I am usually more comfortable being friends with men my age (I'm 19) because my friendships with guys have been more reliable and stable. (What I mean by that is that there's more conflict resolution or simply dropping unimportant differences, are usually not prone to gossip or slander, are more honest/up front with their thoughts, etc.) \n Of course, I know that all men and women are different. I really do apologize if it sounds like I am generalizing. I am  purely  speaking from my experience. I have met girls that are kinder, but it seems like female friends sort of come and go without having a best friend sort of  stick.  I do value female companionship, but I just feel like I mess up or they mess up or I just don't meet the right person to have as a close friend. \n I had one best friend for 6 years when I was in elementary/middle school. Once she switched schools we saw each other a lot less. When she got a boyfriend, I never got to hang out with her again. A similar situation happened when I got a new best friend in high school who I've been very close with for 4 years, and once she got a boyfriend I barely see or hear from her. \n I feel like the real problem is that I'm afraid of having a new emotional intimacy or vulnerability with a female friend. I'm tired of getting hurt, I guess. \n What is your advice for me? What should I do? Is there a way I can think better?", "id": "t3_23fbwy", "summary": "Butthurt because I've had bad luck being friends with girls and I would like to learn how to better make close emotional bonds with girls. \n (P.S., I'm new to this subreddit so I'm so sorry if I'm posting here inappropriately)"}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "Hard to fit the whole situation in the title, but let me explain. \n I have a 1990 Volvo wagon. I recently bought it from a close family friend (we'll call him Jim Bob) a little over a week ago. This problem arose a day after I bought it, after I went to get my Emissions test. It passed Emissions, and I was on my way to the DOL to transfer over the vehicle's title/ownership. When my friend and I got back to the vehicle after it being parked for about five minutes, we tried starting it up and the engine starts fine. Once it's put into reverse and gas is applied (this was on a  slight  hill), the engine quits, the brake pad gets tough (won't push down) and so we have to turn off the car and put it in park. When we turn on the engine again, the brake pad goes soft and allows you to push it. Attempting to go into reverse again yields the same result. Being idle does nothing to the car, but once you apply gas, it turns off. The electric in the car is still on and all that; just the engine dies. \n We waited a while and asked the guy parked in front of us to move his car so that we could attempt to drive forward to see if it'll let us continue that way. We put the car in drive, go forward, keep going and after about 10 seconds of driving, the engine dies and we park in another nearby parking space. My friend doesn't know what's wrong with the car, and neither do I. I call Jim Bob (who sold me the car), and he arrives 45 minutes later to help us. During this time, we left the car alone after trying to get it to work a couple times before giving up. \n Once Jim Bob showed up, he did not attempt to run the car. He popped the hood and cleaned out the MRS scanner (I forgot what it's exactly called, sorry). He looked at the filter and it was almost completely clean, so that couldn't have been the problem. He wiped out the pipes and put them back in, even though Jim Bob said that it didn't seem very dirty at all. We tried to start the car and it worked. Keep in mind that the car was untouched for at least 50 minutes until this moment. \n I begin driving home, then once we're almost there, the engine stalled once I took a relatively sharp corner.  I decided to leave the car at Jim Bob's house, because I called him saying the problem happened again, and he said he'd take a look at it. \n I left my car at his house for about 5 hours, and he said that during that time he took out all the parts of the engine, cleaned it all up, and drove it around the neighborhood, revved the engine, took sharp corners, did everything he could to replicate the engine stalling, but couldn't make it do it. So he gave the car back to me and said that he'll buy the car back from me if I have more problems, because he \"doesn't want me to have a crappy car.\" However, he said that his daughter (who drove this car before me) NEVER had problems with the car for the 3 months she drove it. The car has 272,xxx miles on it, but it's in good shape and drives fine. \n My engine has stalled 3 times within the 9 days I've owned it. I don't want to give the car back to Jim Bob, because I love my Volvo and I desperately need a car. I've noticed a pattern when the engine stalls: \n \n Only stalls after a considerable time driving (~15 miles) \n Will not stall if I leave it alone for a couple hours (like going to work or school) \n Does not (besides that one incident I mentioned) stall while driving \n Does not stall when idle (engine is on but I'm parked) \n Only stalls when gas is applied (after ~1 second of driving in reverse, engine dies) \n \n Is this a problem that I or Jim Bob can fix? He's not a mechanic, but he's good with cars. If you could point me into the right direction, that'd be amazing. I'll try to answer any questions I can. \n If I need to take it into a mechanic, I will, but I'd prefer not to. I am stripped of cash at the moment; it'd need to wait.", "id": "t3_2hxo7b", "summary": "Engine sometimes dies when applying gas after being parked. Only occurs when driving for a while (~15 miles). Problem goes away if car is left alone for ~1 hour."}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "I strongly believe that my mom is occasionally emotionally abusive when she is feeling especially frustrated. \n Her frustration can be set off by simple things, such as today I forgot to put away my guitars and take out a trash bag from the kitchen, and she threatened to take away my internet (which I need for college finals) and told me I need to \"get a freaking life\" \n Although today was one of her more milder outbursts, it still cut me deep, for a few reasons. Last night, in fact, she was having a conversation with my boyfriend and I about how her mother-in-law would make \"cutting remarks,\" as in she would insult her and degrade her as a human being by making comments of manipulation and whatnot, such as criticizing her character, or even her weight. I found it curious that all though she spoke of her previous mother-in-law's tendency to make cutting remarks in a very sad and reminiscing way, she sometimes makes very similar comments or insults to me. \n The second thing is that I also confided in her last night saying that I \"don't have many friends right now.\" This is because I'm still in a difficult transitioning period in college where I don't have an established group of friends, and I devote more time to studying and going to work, which I currently have a 3.7 GPA. \n For clarity, my mom was telling me to \"get a freaking life\" because I play video games in my spare time and I don't currently own a car, although I have a license. \n If you think this problem is rather mild, that's because it requires a lot of back story. \n Since this post is already relatively long, I'll give you one other example of her outbursts, and then turn you loose. \n No more than a year and a half ago, I was just on my computer surfing Facebook and listening to music while wearing a modest floral night gown I bought myself and a rather unattractive fuzzy pink jacket over it. My mom walked into my room without knocking (this is normal) to ask me some kind of question, but she stopped and asked me why I wasn't wearing any pants. I stood up and unzipped my jacket to show her that I was wearing a dress, and then out of  completely no where  she starts pointing her finger an inch from my face, and then pointing at my laptop (which I bought a few months prior) threatening to smash my computer if she ever caught me stripping on webcam, despite me crying and telling her that I'd never do that. She pressed, very un-subtly accusing me of being a slut saying \"And I know you've done things like that before, so don't tell me you wouldn't do it\" (although I honestly don't know what she is referring to, I was and still am a virgin). \n The same thing happened not even two weeks after that incident where she came in my room again, and I was sitting at my laptop wearing a towel with my hair still wet. She starts going off about the webcam shit again, yelling at me, and this time I told her that I just came out of the shower and I always air-dry before putting clothes on, and I opened all of my browser tabs and showed her that I didn't even have a webcam or Skype application running. \n There's a LOT MORE DETAIL to the dynamic of our relationship, and I'm giving you very little information to go off of, but any general advice on what I should do about my mom would be great. Let me get you some few bullet points of information before I turn you loose. \n \n My family is Christian. \n I want to wait until I'm married to move in with my boyfriend, although if my mom's behavior escalates, I am heavily considering moving in with him pre-maritally. \n My mom's erratic behavior started when my dad divorced her when I was 12. He has since remarried. \n My mom's relationship with me was pretty strained before the divorce, too, but it wasn't so bad. \n I was closer with my dad than my mom before they got divorced. \n I'm planning on moving to California with my boyfriend once we get married, since his family lives there and he's much closer to his family than I am to mine. \n I'm a bright kid who is frustrated about my current situation and with my future.", "id": "t3_27lx7x", "summary": "My mom says hurtful things that cut me down when she's frustrated. It kills me inside, what do?"}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "I don't want to turn this post into a Feels of Justice, but duoing is really a hit-or-miss for me. I notice that I play my best with higher-tier players, because (in my humble opinion) I am usually  more like-minded with them than people who are in my division. \n Now, I'm not trying to say that Silver players are garbage or bad at the game. What I'm saying is that the people or friends you have really good synergy with... those are hard to come by. \n With higher-tier players (platinum+) who I've played with, they tend to think like I do. What I mean by that is when I initiate or feel confident that I or we can get this kill or objective, they are right on the ball with me. I see an opportunity, and I usually don't hesitate. Silver players, on the other hand, (that I have OBSERVED,) often doubt their support/team mates' judgment and do not commit to their initiations or their ideas. Therefore, Leona goes in, her ADC isn't committed, zero follow-up, Leona dies in a 1v2, and then the ADC cries that Leona is an over-extending moron who needs to uninstall the game. Thaaaat's all I'm saying. \n I'd say that I play better in solo queue ranked than in duo queue, or at least I win more games that way. I'm getting better at more roles and more champions, and it's shaped the way that I play today. I just feel like I'd learn much more about how to be a better player if I had someone to consistently work with me, who have a similar mindset in-game.", "id": "t3_21n6og", "summary": "I'm aggressive and goal-oriented in-game, while some players are too cautious, unwilling, or stubborn. How can I find a duo partner that I can really \"click\" with?"}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "I'm hesitant to share this because I feel like people who have legitimate weight issues will scoff at me or make fun of me, but I'm just getting so sad and I want it to stop. \n When I was in high school, I did two seasons of cross country. Not necessarily by interest, though. I pretty much hated running (I was one of the slowest kids on the team, one of my coaches even barred me from entering meets for one full season) but I joined because a kid I was acquainted with from another class told me I should join, and I did it because I wanted to make friends and feel included, and my mom was all for it because I've been inactive for the longest time and she felt it would help my depression symptoms. \n The first season was awful, I wasn't allowed to participate in meets because I wasn't fast enough (I later learned that coach probably wasn't allowed to do that to me, and he was replaced for other unrelated reasons). But the second season was much better, I kept doing XC because I didn't want to give up, and this time around I made friends and I improved. \n When I was 17 I weighed 120 lbs, which was great because when I started XC at 16 I was about 130. I had a flat stomach and I was happy with the way I looked (besides my small chest, but I'm alright now). \n Now I am 21 years old, have been in college for 3 years, and I weigh about 154 lbs. I gained 34 lbs since I left high school. I heard of the \"freshman 10\" but this is not good. \n I've consistently been in school full time and working part/full time, and any free time I do have, I'm exhausted. I just want to nap or relax with Netflix or video games or be with my boyfriend. I know I need to exercise, I need a routine, and I probably need to evaluate my food choices. The thing is, I hate exercising alone. It was just nice having team mates in XC who would run beside me and say \"you can do this\" and help me set goals, etc. \n I've tried asking my boyfriend a dozen times to exercise with me, because I know if I had some kind of accountability partner who would work alongside me, I could definitely do this. He gives excuses saying that he's too tired after work (welcome to my world) and on the weekend when he doesn't work, he just wants to \"sleep\" and \"relax\" (yup, me too!) \n The thing is, he doesn't really need to work out because he works a physical, outdoor job. He's adorable the way he is, but he could definitely tone himself if he wanted to. \n I've made several attempts asking friends to be workout partners with me, but is often met with canceled plans, or our availabilities miss each other. \n I'm constantly tired, which I think is a health issue related outside lack of exercise, because I've had this issue since high school. I've seen doctors about it and they give me the run around, sending me to this specialist and that specialist. I don't have the money to go on a wild goose chase trying to diagnose my issue, so I've stopped seeing doctors for a while. \n I'm just now wanting to be serious about this because I'm on vacation visiting my boyfriend's family, and my heart breaks when I see some of the photos I'm in. It's very easy to get the right angle where I have a double chin. My stomach pushes out and sometimes I look pregnant. I push my stomach behind the waist band of my pants and it still doesn't help much. I don't look as cute in clothes anymore. I'm constantly \"out growing\" my clothes and I can't wear half my wardrobe. I practically live in dresses and sweat pants/yoga pants because jeans are being so unforgiving. \n My boyfriend is so sweet and tells me he thinks I'm beautiful and loves me the way I am, but he acknowledges that I'm unhappy with my weight and sort of half-assedly encourages me to lose weight. \n I also feel kind of weird because when we were first dating (almost 3 years ago), I was cute and he looked like a mildly-chubby goof ball with a bad haircut, and now he's more healthy and attractive and I feel like the roles reversed. I don't know, I guess it's a self esteem thing, like he's hot and I'm not? \n I also dress myself in nice clothes much less, like I don't take as much pride in my body. I avoid being in pictures, I occasionally struggle with envy, and I worry what people think of me. \n Sorry for the word vomit. Hopefully I can get some advice on what would be the best things for me to do. I really appreciate any thoughtful input you have, please just be gentle.", "id": "t3_3yw2lf", "summary": "gained 34 lbs, clothes are too small for me, I need encouragement and a workout buddy, I feel chubby. Help."}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "Hello, \n I believe I have some intestinal issues that aren't quite diagnosed. Basically I was playing the doctor game for a while where I was thrown around specialists, and I got tired of forking out money for people to tell me \"I don't know\" and then recommend someone else. \n I am not allergic to wheat and I do not have Celiac disease. I know this because I've gotten blood tests for them. My mother has a gluten allergy and one of my sisters is sensitive. I know I am lactose intolerant (I learned this from a blood test about a year ago) but knocking off dairy has been difficult. I tried going a week without dairy, and my problems of bloating and constant fatigue have not subsided. \n When I have wheat, I get very bloated. The more I have, the bigger my belly gets. My stomach looks mildly bloated by default (probably due to lack of exercise or maybe poor diet) but worsens with food consumption. \n My previous doctor, before he retired from his practice, suggested that I may have IBS, but I'm not quite sure how to determine if this is true or not. \n Is there a cheaper or more efficient way I can determine what's causing my fatigue? I've had this problem with my body for the last 3 years, and it sucks. I am unable to feel energized. The way I describe it to people is that it's like that groggy feeling when you first wake up, except that's how it feels to me 24/7. It's absolutely miserable. Because I'm so tired I zone out or am easily distracted, and people frequently get angry with me because I'll forget details to conversation even when I'm trying to attentively listen (I do not have ADD or ADHD, so please do not suggest this). \n I was not always this way. I'm almost 21 years old and I used to have a flat stomach in high school. Part of that was because I used to be in sports, but even before I began regularly exercising, I was naturally thin. I think something changed in my body to make me a bit heavier. Within 3 years I went from 125 lbs to 150 lbs, and I'm 5'4. \n Sorry if I made this too long. If I posted in the wrong subreddit, let me know. I just have a feeling it could be linked to wheat/gluten and that it could be from problems other than an allergy or sensitivity. Thanks.", "id": "t3_3eurp5", "summary": "Lots of bloating and extreme fatigue for years. Lactose intolerant. Not allergic to wheat or gluten, and not Celiac. Symptoms made worse by wheat. Looking for guidance"}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LENGTH! \n Sorry if the title isn't super descriptive--but that's what gets you curious, right? This is my first time posting to this sub, so sorry if I'm giving too information or the wrong information... be gentle please. \n My fiancee and I are getting married soon--in late August, so almost 3 months from now. Both my fiancee and I are laid back and aren't the type of people to sweat the details or worry too much--for those of you who are into Myers-Briggs, I'm ENFP and he is INFP, which means we're both \"perceiving\" types. This can occasionally be a problem with planning, however I am much more organized and have a better feel for things than my fiancee does. \n So let's get right down to it. I'm currently in college, and this quarter wraps up in the middle of June. I go to classes over time (25 hours per week, not including studying) and work part time (~23 hours per week). I am very crunched for time and often use the weekends for errands. I've put a lot of wedding planning on the back burner because I don't have the time or energy to get everything together, and I plan on kicking into gear once this quarter ends. My fiancee (We'll call him Ted for simplicity) works full time. I bring in about $1000 per month and he brings in a variable pay (he does piece work) of about $2000 per month. We live separately and have room mates, and our bills are similar but he pays maybe a couple hundred dollars more per month than me per month. Even though I don't have a whole lot left over after paying bills, I'm doing alright and I manage to save--I have a little over $1000 in savings, I paid off both my wedding band and his wedding band (~$975 total) myself, and I'm making payments on our wedding photographer ($300 paid, $500 to go). Ted is making monthly payments on my engagement ring but he won't tell me how much the payments are, which makes it hard to figure out how to help him budget his money, but it's whatever. \n I receive some extra money from a scholarship (left over after paying for classes & fees) that I put toward living expenses, like rent. After June, I'll be going back to personally paying the full amount for all bills. I plan on working full time (minus an 8-day break I'm taking a few days before the wedding and a few days after) during the Summer until classes start up again in late September. \n So I guess you probably want to see more numbers. As I mentioned earlier, while I'm in school I pull in about $1000 per month (not including scholarship) and Ted pulls in about $2000 per month. With gas, rent/utilities, car insurance, and a phone bill, I pay about $800 per month. For Ted, counting gas, rent/utilities, and his music subscription, he pays about $1000 per month plus whatever the monthly payment is for the engagement ring. I put away maybe $400-$500 per month into savings (I could do better if I was more careful about what kind of food I buy and how often) and currently Ted is putting zilch into savings, despite my pleas. It's really hard to get him to save, because if he sees money in his account, he's going to use it. It's hard to tell exactly what he's spending all his money on, because I've asked him to keep his receipts so that we could track our spending, and he \"forgets\" to. I know he goes out to eat nearly every day, usually fast food joints. He doesn't like putting in the effort to make himself sandwiches for the week, and I don't have time to play mom and come over to his house to make food for him when I barely have time to make food for myself. Whenever I'm at his house he has very little food options, usually bread and lunch meat or PB&J. It sort of solidifies my assumption that he goes out to eat just about every day, which he has admitted to me that's mostly what he does. \n A couple weeks ago one of Ted's groomsmen volunteered to give him $400 (this was an unsolicited gift) to help pay for the wedding expenses. Ted told me his friend's plan, and I asked him to give me the cash immediately after his friend gave it to him, because I'm the one who's handling all of the wedding expenses and I wanted to use that cash to pay off our photographer (there's $500 left) to guarantee that the money would be used on wedding expenses and not blown on something stupid. Well, Ted didn't listen to my request because the kitchen sink at his house got backed up and his room mates begged him to get a plumber. He used $300 of that cash to pay the plumber, and the landlord is refusing to reimburse him for the costs because he deemed it as the tenants putting foods into the garbage disposal that weren't meant to be put in there, resulting in the clogged pipes. Two out of three of Ted's room mates have not given him any money for it, and he's unsure when they plan on giving him the money and one of the room mates doesn't plan on giving him any money at all. Anyway, the point is that we're not getting that $300-$400 back any time soon, which is frustrating to me. \n Anyway, that's a bunch of back story. The \"unexpected loss of income\" bit is something different. My dad offered a few months ago to give me $2000 to help pay for the wedding, which was a huge blessing to me. He said he'd give me two separate payments, one being in May, and the other being closer to the wedding date (I'm assuming August). \n Earlier this month he called me and told me some bad news. He said that he got news from his work that he's on a list of people who may get laid off of their job. He told me that if he gets laid off, he can't give me any money because he's not sure what his next job will be or how long he'll be unemployed for. This is devastating for a few reasons, as you can probably tell. First and foremost I'm worried about my dad, because he's been laid off in the past and those have been very difficult experiences and I know how negatively it impacts him. Second, I've been spending my money and living with a worry-free attitude for months because I've had this mindset of $2000 sitting around ready to be used for the wedding, and suddenly I'm feeling hot under the collar due to this loss of income. My dad won't know until mid-June whether or not he will be officially laid off. \n Ted said that his parents agreed to give him $500 to help for the wedding. Not sure when that'll happen. \n I already said that I plan on working full time during the Summer, and I honestly believe that everything is going to work out fine, but I'm worried about my fiancee's spending habits, and I'm worried about how much I'm spending on food (I rarely make my own meals and buy $3 lunches at fast food joints because it's quick and easy, and I understand that adds up) I'd like to go to the grocery store tonight before I go to bed and make myself food for the week so that I can break this cycle. Even though I dread it, I'm probably going to live on sandwiches for a while. \n So here are the expenses that I know of for the wedding: \n \n Venue: $0 (family friend is letting us use their property for an outdoor wedding) \n Catering/Food/Beverages: ~$1000 \n Chairs, tables, dishes, silverware, decoration rental: (Under) <$1000 \n Honey Bucket rental (Family friend is concerned about their septic tank getting rekt): ~$300 \n Photographer: $500/$800 remaining \n Miscellaneous costs for prints, candies, props needed for ceremony, floral arrangements, etc.: Estimated ~$300 \n \n So that's a total of about $3000 needed from now until late August. My bridal shower will be in the middle of July, so I have no idea if people plan on giving gifts of money or not. My family friend suggested asking family members for donations, but I feel a little squeamish about that. She said that asking family members for money (or if they can't give money, practical help for the wedding) is completely acceptable, but I'm not so sure... maybe it's pride getting in the way, I don't know. If I go that route, I'd prefer to wait until I have the official news that my dad was laid off. I don't want to ask for money from other people unless I need to. \n I'm sorry about the length, I guess I don't know the difference between venting and giving the gist of what I need help with x_x", "id": "t3_4lnjk6", "summary": "Father was going to give me $2000 to help pay for my wedding, now he's not. The wedding is in <3 months. Limited money. Is asking relatives for donations acceptable or not? Looking for advice. \n Edit 1:  There's 62 RSVP'd but I'm estimating about 100 people because Ted's relatives are not RSVPing like they're supposed to. According to his mom, it's just assumed that they're all going.  sigh. \n Edit 2:  Someone was suggesting cutting prints/programs. That won't be necessary because it's an incredibly negligible amount of money because I get a large discount through my work because I work at a print shop, and everything will be done in black & white ink. Most of the expenses will be through food and furniture rental."}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "This is what \"Low Priority Queue\" looks like]( \n I made fast friends with someone in ranked champion select, and while we were talking strategy, another team mate apologized, saying he needed to dodge because his friend wanted to play with him. Everyone was cool with it so he got ready to leave. The person who I was talking to said \"Gailyn, want to duo?\" and I said \"Sure!\" So I added him and he asked me to invite, so I started the queue but it put us in this 20-minute waiting period. I closed it, and reopened it a few times, and  it always restarted at 20 minutes.  (I asked why he had this handicap and he explained that he left too many games). I wanted to play with him, so I said I was cool with waiting. \n Unfortunately, when this screen is open, I can't whisper/talk to any of my friends while waiting. This is pretty frustrating, since I'd still like to chat about strategy with my new friend while we're waiting. \n Riot, pretty-please enable chat while in this waiting period (:", "id": "t3_2ukzed", "summary": "People are unable to talk while in Low-Priority Queue. Please let us talk while waiting."}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "I volunteer at a local Human Services organization where I work with children aged 3-5. One of the things that the children are taught concerning conflict resolution (which I am very impressed by), is that if someone is upset or hurt by another's actions, the teacher will ask the \"offending\" child, \"Look at his/her face. What do you think he/she is feeling right now?\" This helps develop empathy and gives the children tools to work better cooperatively as they grow older. \n We've all heard of \"cyber bullying\" before, or just arguing over text/the internet. We can't see each others faces. It's hard to see tone, expression, context, etc. When having an argument online, people are much less likely to try and reconcile than if they immediately saw a person get red in the face, teary-eyed, their body language change, etc. \n Have you ever seen a person's (Streamer? Friend? Family?) face while someone is being toxic on League? Who was that person? What (roughly) was being said? How did it affect that person? What did the person do (mute them, argue with them, keep silent, etc)? Did the person's face contort, squint? Did their eyebrows furrow? Were they surprised, angry, amused, or totally calm? What did the whole picture look like? \n Sometimes I get frustrated with other players. Sometimes they get frustrated with me. I think what's really important in dealing with \"toxicity\" is that we need to try recognizing that there's a human being with dignity on the other side of the screen, and although we may not understand why they act they way they do, or the way we act the way we do, if we see that they're just another person with feelings and different backgrounds just like us, empathy, kindness, patience, and understanding will all come more easily. \n I just felt like making this post because we put so much responsibility on  Riot  to make this community better by trying different things like harsher punishments, rewards for not being toxic, when  WE ARE A PART OF THE COMMUNITY.  It is OUR problem just as much as it is Riot's to make this game better for everyone. Most of us are really cool people, and sometimes we can act like jerks because we let ourselves act like jerks. Let's fix that--its up to us. \n Edit:", "id": "t3_2xxll0", "summary": "We're all humans behind the computer screen, so play nice mmk?"}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "I honestly haven't talked to any friends or anyone about this, because I didn't think much of it. But now this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. \n My boyfriend and I are both 19 years old and have been together in a committed relationship for over a year. He's been working at a fast food restaurant for about 5 months. Within the last month or two, my boyfriend starts telling me about \"weird things\" that his female coworker is telling him (we'll call her Britney). \n At first he told me that she seemed to hit on him a couple times, but I told him that I didn't consider it a big deal unless it got out of hand. (After all, I can't control what is being said to him by other people). \n So then I guess she gets a little too comfortable. Last week he told me that Britney said to him while he was working drive-thru, \"Hey, stop talking to your customers in that sexy voice, you're going to make them drop their panties for you.\"\nand\n\"Look at that guy. [Points to the customer at the window] He wants to unbutton your pants and suck your dick.\"\n\"Wow, your voice makes you sound really horny or something.\" \n The list goes on. \n After it went to this extent, I told him he needed to report her to his manager for harassment. He told me he didn't want to cause trouble or get her fired. He says he would rather just quit his job (which I think is stupid).\nHe has not attempted to ask her to stop talking to him that way. \n So now for the last straw. \n Today my boyfriend tells me that Britney \"accidentally\" touched his junk, and that she started squeeling, yelling, laughing, generally freaking out, and then proceeded to tell all of their coworkers about it. Which made him very embarrassed, but he didn't want to make a big deal of it so he didn't tell her to stop. \n So as I am listening to him talking about this, I'm nearly red in the face and I want her fired or at least written up. This is unacceptable behavior and I have no idea why he let it go on for so long. He doesn't want to report her, though. He just wants to quit to leave the situation. \n What should I/we do? \n edit: words", "id": "t3_21hq89", "summary": "This chick says gross/weird stuff to my boyfriend, touches his junk then tells everyone about it, and he won't report her. What do"}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "Carl Medearis is a famous Denver-born pastor who is well known for his incredible impact in the Middle East bridging the gap between Christian and Muslim relations. (  ) \n About two years ago I did more research into Islam because I made a good friend who was a Muslim. I made my interest of the topic apparent to my mom, so she lent me a book called \"Muslims, Christians, and Jesus: Gaining Understanding and Building Relationships.\" \n Since then, I'd argue that I know more about the religion than the average American. Due to the tragedy of 9/11 and the tension between the US and the Middle East, I believe many of us are or have been more prejudiced than is understandable. \n I often get very offended or hurt when I hear a regular church-going friend of mine call muslims \"Satan-worshippers.\" When challenging them on what they mean by that, they say \"They [muslims] worship Mohammad.\" Oh. Well, the qu'ran actually specifically addresses that the 'prophet' Mohammad EXPLICITLY told people not to idolize him for fear of being worshipped [he went so far as to tell his followers to never draw pictures of him, make statues or likenesses of him, etc]. \n Then I hear \"They worship Allah, which is a false god.\" \n Actually, \"Allah\" is Arabic for God. The English word \"God\" is actually pagan in its roots from the Germanic word \"gudan\" (sp?) which is used for any god and is polytheistic in semantics. Muslims worship the God of Abraham, which is the same God that we follow, love, and worship. The trade-off is that the Muslims follow down the blood line of Ishmael,  who they believed him to have been the rightful heir (leading to) the coming of Christ, versus Isaac who, as God ordained, is the rightful heir (leading to) the coming of Jesus the Christ. \n Muslims completely believe in Jesus and recognize him as an extremely wise prophet, as Mohammad spoke great lengths about Jesus in the qu'ran with great respect. Unfortunately most Muslims do not accept Jesus as Christ because (again, most) believe that a human can not be divine. \n It's 1am and I'm rambling, but my basic", "id": "t3_1z93l4", "summary": "is that I feel like we should be reaching out to Muslims  in brotherhood rather than treating (or thinking of) them as being on a 100% completely separate team. There are many similarities to Islam and Christianity, both in culture, customs, roots, core beliefs, and practices. \n What are your thoughts?"}, {"author": "Gailyn", "content": "Swung by my local GS a few days ago and the assistant manager there said that they're no longer allowing pre-orders on Amiibos. Is this for all GS stores or just my area? I'm feeling worried because I have a very modest Amiibo collection (5 of them, 2 commons) and I want to complete the Zelda series by getting Ganondorf (I love that guy). \n Edit: Not sure why I'm being downvoted so much? Just to clear up what people have been thinking/saying, I talked to a guy working at a different Gamestop in a different city today, and he said that all Gamestops were no longer allowing pre-orders on Amiibo  because  Nintendo has not been supplying GS with the Amiibo that were promised, i.e. with Wave 3 they weren't able to give Amiibo to everyone that pre-ordered one... so the", "id": "t3_2xl97g", "summary": "is that \"Nintendo's supplying us hasn't been reliable, resulted in angry customers, so we're done with allowing pre-ordering Amiibo\" (I'm paraphrasing). \n I'd suggest that people visit their local Gamestops and see what they have to say about whether or not they will be allowing pre-orders for Wave 4."}]}
+{"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post If you concede it does not lower crime and increases sentences for at least 50% of people who are non-violent offenders (previous cite) and it is only to keep \"bad guys\" under incarcerated longer, decreases the chances to ever be able to pay restitution, or to be a productive member of society is bad. \n PS And again your belief that defense attorneys need to \"Stand up for their defendants against illegal plea bargaining\" is incredibly misguided and is near offensive.   Read here for a Harvard Law Journal look at  exactly  why the Brignham Young Study is wrong.  People on this side of the court, regardless of what society at large thinks of us overwhelming, push every possible button to secure fairness but are denied by the courts.", "output": "Again, if the prior strike is weak (say a 422 from 10 years ago), the DA won't file or the judge will probably strike it\" \n Not in my experience.  And again because it is not technically misconduct there is nothing to be done but endure. \n \"even though there are awful attorneys out there (that probably screw up Romero motions), there are an equal number of DAs that fail to file prior strikes.\" \n Again not in my experience. But regardless. \n In what way does this Law benefit anyone other than the CDC and the private prison labor unions and services corporations? \n \"While and the studies may be correct, you missed the point of the law. The point was to increase punishment, not to reduce crime. So, for a relatively minor cost in the grand scheme of things, you keep the really bad guys off the street (about 35 per county)\" \n First off I think the studies I sighted not only show the lack of purpose in deterring anything, but also the lack of preventing \"really bad guys\" \"off the street\".  If it costs more than it saves, if it increases the insane amount of incarcerated citizens, and if does not do what it is  specifically  marketed as doing (ie. reduce violent crime) and what the average citizen is deciding to spend money on. \n Also in the larger perspective do you not feel like perhaps having the most human being incarcerated in the modern era is not good?  While this certainly won't help in any way reform the system and instead perpetrates the same dogma of a penal system that is among history's most severe. \n I think if 1 dollar is spent on increasing the prison population and does nothing to re-intergrate offenders, limits victim restitution, rehabilitate, then what the hell is the point?  This may just be a personal moral position, but because the law doesn't do anything to protect Californians or fix our record overcrowding then it is a waste."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The old \"everything is great except\" is a vicious cycle.  Just leave and find a way to be happy alone.  Then find a guy whose baggage is less debilitating.", "output": "My friend has a 1964 Ford Galaxie he absolutely loves.  When he got it there didn't seem to bne any problems.  It needed paint and so forth which he did.  He did an interior re-haul and it looked beautiful.  He borrowed a sowing machine form his elderly neighbor and taught himself to sow.  He put a beautiful set of seats in the back. \n Then the engine trouble started.  Initially it was a slight knock.  Then it was a transmission problem.  After weeks of ordering parts and stuff and getting everything back in tip-top the manifold blew. \n Me, I drive a honda civic.  Because in the end fuck all that shit.  He was always explaining the ways it was really \"fulfilling\" to drive that fucking wreck because it was so special to him and he kept putting it back together."}], "user_id": "longlamp_7602", "history": [{"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "Too Late to matter, but Mikey B if you're out there this goes to you, you magnificent bastard. \n My homey who I'll call Schmike had a girlfriend I'll call Shelley.  Shelley was a sweet little blonde who was pretty funny when she had a couple drinks.  More than a couple and there was nothing funny about her.  All the roommates (myself included) would watch Schmike and his girl fight.  Not throwing punches but throwing everything else.  Their door was at the bottom of the set of stairs and me and a roomate I'll call Glucose, would sit and drink beer at the top of the stairs as they comically ran in and out of the room shutting the door and kicking it open.  Like actually taking turns, it was pure madness.  They didn't notice us unless we landed an empty near them.  She cheated he cheated they were insane. \n Anyway Shelley went overseas for a semester and Schmike is fucking our neighbor.  Nice girl, pleasant to be around.  So Schmike has been fucking her the whole time.  Shelley gets home and Mike starts fighting with her so as to buy himself some time to figure out what to do with the neighbor.  The neighbor comes over. \n Now Shelley is back at her place with her girls and is shit-canned.  She decides she's had enough of Schmike's shit and is breaking up with him.  She walks all the way over maybe 1 mile but she is totally canned and it is snowing like a motherfucker.  Anyhoo, me and Glucose are chillin with the other roomie Schmack.  Shelley opens the door iand starts up the stairs in the most fluid way I ever seen a drunk move.  The front was near the stairs and we were all just sitting there but jump up.  We can't even yell a warning before she is at his door.  We scramble for a better view. \n She opens the door and (from Schmike's account) he is eating the neighbor out.  Not fucking, not getting his dick sucked, straight  diving  in the muff.  Shelley starts screaming Scmike rushes into frame at his door with his hands out palms up. She full-on Thai Knee strikes his testicles, (unprotected even by denim) at least twice before he gets his knee in the way.  He's fucking buckled. \n Mike is desperately trying to push her down the stairs.  She takes a couple steps but tries to charge back up.  Neighbor is now starting to get in the action too.  The three are all coming downstairs.  tears are streaming down Schmike's face.  (Later we considered taking him to a hospital Schack was the only sober one to take him but he refused on the grounds when he shattered his wrist we all refused to take him and called him a pussy [In our defense it would have been the third time I took him to the hospital and it didn't loook that bad]) \n by now we are helping throw Shelley out the front door which had a large glass window dead center.  Old style you don't really see anymore.  Like a classroom on a movie set.  Anyway she looks at us through the glass cocks back an straight Karate punches that shit.  The glass breaks but it is old Eastern Winter glass and it doesn't shatter, it doesn't spider, it turns into about 3 pieces of 7 inch glass razor blades and absolutely  ribbons  her flesh.  Fucking gross. \n Well it was fucking hilarious at the time.  We had to get a restraining order and everything. then I stayed at Schmike's house for my 5 year reunion.  He and Shelley are engaged after about 2 years of court ordered stay-away, a minor lawsuit and a year or so of nothing.  He reminded me and Glucose not to mention \"the incident\" like we would.", "id": "c9i6gq8", "summary": "Love will find a way"}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "You're not a sportsman.  I'm not asking I know. \n Because no one on the planet is going to say Shaq is a great athlete \"who is also big\".  That's fucking insane.  Shaq is a great basketball player,  and an incredibly fortunate giant, but no one on the planet is going to say he was a skilled athlete. \n It may be a term that people use differently. \n In wrestling you have to kinds of guys, great athletes and freaks.  SOme examples of greats who are both? Not Shaq, that's for sure.  Alexsander Karelin was insansely skilled and talented but had the additional advantage of great size and comparative wingspan.  His patented move was reliant on an unusual piece of his physiology.  Does that make him a great athlete? No.  What made him great was his skill, tactics, dedication. \n Wilt Chamberlain is perhaps the most dominant player (in terms of the era) of all time.  Would he stack up now? no he would not. \n He was on average much, much larger than most opponents.  Yes he was very skilled.  But he wasn't the most dominate because he was greatly skilled.  He was dominate because he was greatly skilled and 10% taller than most of his contemporaries.  In the modern era he would be mediocre at best. \n Many people are good at sports.  Is a golfer a great athlete? No he is not.  At least not as I perceive it.  If a golfer started the PGA tomorrow and because of misformed left arm was able to put the ball accurately one point at 500 yards, it wouldn't matter how shitty his putting was.  He would be considered pretty good despite his actual skills being terrible. \n I separate what makes a good athlete from what makes someone just good at a sport.  Being 12 feet tall (assuming I could avoid some of the pitfalls of such height) I would be the greatest basketball player who ever lived.  But I wouldn't even after to be a decent athlete to do it.", "id": "cjxwhx8", "summary": "A inborn physical trait can be nurtured, developed and utilized.  It does not affect the skill of the person involved.  A physical gift is just that, a gift.  A great athlete is one who's skills and tactical ability make them great.  Shaq is just a big idiot who got pretty good at basketball and is a giant."}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "There will never be anything you can do to change the fact that while she may love you deep down, there is nothing that resembles love when you interact.  It's always gonna be, Just the move, just her job, just her unemployment, And  You will Never be able to make it better for her.", "id": "c9wh35k", "summary": "It's gotta come form her, all your doing is putting yourself in a position to be a punching bag and the focus of someone's reflected issues."}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "My girlfriend squirts and after a couple hour session her \"scent\" is insane.  It doesn't smell like anything, like a person after a shower with the slightest pinge of, dare I say it, cat piss. \n NOt that it smells like cat piss but in the same way you know you are smelling something in more than one way.  I can't really pin down her scent per se but it has a actual effect on me biologically.  I'll get more frequent no reason boners and such. \n The craziest part is (and I wish I was kidding) is how much other women smell it.  They don't know what it is but I have had platonic female friends who I've cuddled with, hung out with, played sports with, who never have commented on my scent start dropping compliments left and right. \n My bestie said, \"Man what is it?  You never really smell like anything but you just smell so good.\" \n I had to tell her when I was dying laughing and she reddened up immediately.  If I go to a bar after a session, attenton from women goes up at least 75%.  That's obviously a made up statistic but truthfully the only way I usually get women is with the mouthpiece but all of a sudden I say nothing and girls are like, \"Hey what's your name?\".  And I'm like why my name is Vallrjo_Central.  And their like that's fucking stupid. I say I know but when I mispelled my own hometown I had to own it.  And they're like what? And I'm like fucking Reddit.", "id": "cbc6dkn", "summary": "bathe in glory and you shall become glorious."}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "While I respect your courtesy and experience I think you are not being very realistic. \n \n I think this is a very blanket and inaccurate statement.  Many 3 strikers have \"violent\" conduct that is 7-10 years ago.  Most of the two strikers violent conduct was in close succession at least 5 years prior to the third.  \"Career criminal\" is tossed around a lot but is mostly misapplied. \n \n I have only once seen a DA use the discretion to not attempt to apply three strikes to a non-violent case.  DA's are not made head of departments or other elevated positions by being reasonable.  It is frequently better for them to threaten to file it as a third strike and make the attorney have no choice but to plead someone regardless of whether they believe the case could be proved at bar. \n \n Judge's do not get elected by granting Romero motions.  Look in any legal textbook regarding professional conduct.  Malicious prosecutor's are never named only referred to anonymously.  Conduct frequently must reach almost cirminal levels to get a judge to intervene as the over-whelming majority run on \"tough on crime\" campaigns, and are themselves former prosecutors. \n \n The California Appellate process is incredibly slow and expensive and again, most higher judges looking for public office later in life are not willing to apply the law correctly just to save someone they most likely despise. \n \n \n Despite those factors which I think in practice dictate how laws are interpreted there is a very real cost associated.  Anytime you want to send someone away for life for a commercial burg, you now have to spend nigh-insane amounts of money.  Not just money to keep them locked up but money to prosecutors, attorneys, cops and investigators. \n In my line of work I find that 95% of victims could care less about whether or not a defendant gets 5 years or 10 years or life.  Especially for theft and drug related offenses.  Most victims would be much happier not spending 4 weeks in mind-numbing courtroom boredom to ensure the guy who broke into their garage to steal a bike and a old television gets life.  Most would rather not have me in every aspect of their life digging up shit from their entire lives to ask them about on the public record just so a DA can say he put away another career criminal for life.", "id": "c6q65ft", "summary": "Has major problems when no one has the teeth for oversight, costs way too much, is actually a serious burden on the victim, etc. etc."}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "Again well cited but again in my opinion entirely naive.  Ask the experts in your area regarding sentencing, see if you can find your evidence there. \n \"If you are a defense attorney and a DA pulls that, I'd call 'em on it, because that's a no-no.\" \n Do you honestly believe it is that easy?  If you know ANY and I mean ANY defense attorney's ask them what the process is in contacting the AG regarding misconduct of District Attorney's on off the record proceedings.  Or for citation look up People of the State of California v. Michael Gressette. \n The attorney general allowed a political rival of the accused to not only be present but to direct questioning under the color of authority to the accused co-workers and made statements on the record, and again in front of an attorney general's representative, to make unlawful threats of retaliation.  This is a matter of public record.  Feel free to find any number of those transcripts at the Martinez Courthouse.  Please then locate me where  anyone  and I literally mean anyone who suffered any consequences as a result of that illegal and immoral behavior. \n Further I agree with our differing definitions of Career Criminal lead to different conclusions.  I think of a career criminal in the practical terms of on how makes crime his career. \n Although I accept your definition you seem to believe that all answers are simply to be interpreted strictly by the law.  Section 17 of CPC allows offenders charged with \"Wobblers\" to be charged as misdemeanors if the conduct is determined not to reach Felony Standards.  This is again where a DA has discretion and a choice.   Most people are not aware of either 1203.4 or a certificate of rehabilitation which could allow someone with the exact same priors to be charged entirely differently down the line.  If conduct occurs 3-12 years after the original felonies then the only difference in the defendants being charged as three strikers relies on their own ability to retain an attorney or an ability to do so themselves. So there is in fact a lack of uniformity of sentencing predicated on a defendant's legal awareness not his conduct. \n If you were to look up Burdine v. Johnson, 262 F.3d 336 (5th Cir. 2001) (en banc) you would see the court refusing to suggest that an attorney who slept through a homicide trial and had 3 pages of handwritten notes is an acceptable defense.  So it is my preposition that the court does not view defendants and their defense as needing to be anything more than prefunctary. \n And again not necessary for the argument but the numbers you cite count exactly one year of incarceration and does not include the man-hours to district attorney's offices, court appointed attorneys, clerks and judges overtime and so on and so on. \n But as you say \"That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” \n So here is my evidence, 3 strikes does not (1) Protect Society, (4) Deter others (6) Secure restitution (7) achieve uniformity of sentencing. \n (same as prior but from the direct source.) \n (refers mostly to the below study) \n (I especially implore you to read the section regarding non-violent or non-serious offenders being over half of those convicted of their third strike) \n Each and every study shows that 3 strikes does not decrease crime in any way.  It might also be noted although I have no citation that it is very difficult to make money in prison, therefore it actually impedes victims from gaining restitution.", "id": "c6qo6nc", "summary": "3 strikes does not work, anyone arguing otherwise is not using numbers to reach that conclusion. \n PS - A straw man argument is the intentional use of a weakened version of the other side.  My argument simply lacked citation of a statistical analysis.  A straw man might be suggesting that the natural bias towards a lack of fairness in the eyes of the AG and the higher courts is a \"collapsed legal system\".  Lack of citation but feel free to look it up. \n EDIT: Apologize for my lack of smooth formatting.  Your post is in a nice and highly readable format."}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "The US Supreme Court is filled with people like Justice Thomas.  Thomas decided that it is not unreasonable to STRIP search a 14 year old girl at school because there was a \"suspicion\" she had aspirin.  They know the law but choose to ignore it.  Scalia and his crew are monsters.  they decided Torture, a principle this country was founded in opposition to was okay. \n Look it up. \n However that's just me and if there was no possible way to do anything to hlp my family before I passed.", "id": "c5g0e6e", "summary": "donate Organs \n PS For the DOJ this is an entirely ficitonal piece of work and I hope Scalia lives to a billion.  Also that I live to one billion and one."}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "Most people who roll (BJJ, Wrestling) have seen this type of \"awakening\" only after a decent shot to the head. \n The thing is once you spend a large portion of your life rolling, you treat it like exercise.  In high school you wrestled \"live\" for about an hour a day, five times a week for three or four months a year. \n In my own experience about 5% of verbal confrontations  actually progress into real fights .  If one gets so used to people posturing, pushing and shoving and not actually fighting it often takes a snap to realize the severity of the situation. \n A good knock to the head will put a person's body into a True fight mode as opposed to a rolling situation with your pals.  I don't think I ever achieved a state of better technique but focus increases about 98%.  And pain tolerance increases as does aggression. \n Some people do not have it in them.  Not something that separates the \"men from the boys\" or whatever because no amount of rage and pain tolerance can achieve the technique that is the ultimate trump.  however you will see some high level competitors take damage and acquiesce.  Others are only incensed to fight more.  It's not really something that can be trained I don't think as it seems insanely dangerous to bash someone right before combat, even simulated combat.", "id": "c8ukfe3", "summary": "It can take you out of simulation mode in a fucking jiff."}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "I like World Rugby shop.  But you can't try shit on and you're going to want to. \n Here is some advice for your first boots though.  I started playing having never played an organized sport that wasn't wrestling.  I had cleats for pick-up football[Hand-egg] games and those were rubbish. \n Many of the cleats for Rugby are WAAYYY too deep for where you'll most likely be playing.  Most fields are kept relatively trim here, so the cleats you need are most likely short. \n Long metal psikes are great for the sloshy games but when the ground is hard you will want to die.  I suggest shorter plastic spikes until you figure out where and when you'll be playing most.  On deep grass in the summertime when the ground is soft it's nice to have the extra traction from the longer spike, but most games you'll just be feeling them stick through your feet like little razors. \n After about 2 pairs in my first two years I just bought American football cleats with plastic spikes and good ankle support and just cut the front cleat off with a knife.  It is important if you find one you really like wearing, comfort wise then just look under and see if you can cut the cleat without losing all forward traction.", "id": "c64gxdc", "summary": "try on a bunch first.  It is a small price to pay for the most important piece of equipment."}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "As a Criminal Defense investigator my job is not to try to get you to say you lied about the charges.  If you are a victim or witness I need you to talk to me.  You can always say you do not and hope the police will look out for your best interests. \n However most cases will not resolve without you speaking to someone from the defense, why? \n \n 95% of cases resolve extremely quickly. \n We cannot just take the cops word for it because we deal with these came individuals over and over and know which ones will distort statements, If Trojanowski took your statement I will inform the attorney to make no negotiation until I can speak with you. \n No DA gets the big promotion for making deals. \n \n If you are convicted of a second degree murder with a firearm you will never be released.  Meaning that the DA will make you go to a 6 week trial re-live your presumably harrowing experience in front of strangers, be open to what can at times be devastating cross-examination, maybe a mistrial maybe at least a pretrial hearing but a lot of grief.  The reason you will do all this because the prosecutor could have made a deal in which instead of 1st degree the person gets 2nd degree murder with enhancements. The defense  must  get the best possible result for their client there is no lee-way no breathing room. But for the DA the one who is on \"Your side\" has no interest in how a protracted series of legal hearings will affect you only their status.", "id": "c4z5mis", "summary": "Even though I work for the defense I am there to save you time.  Unless I decide you were lying in which cased I'm gonna be all over you no matter what."}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "That's a somewhat objectionable position.  The truth is many peopel aren't there SO's best ever. If your relationship is about more than sex than forget it. If its not then you better worry. \n I have a had a lot of sexual experiences and I love my current partner.  I also acknowledge she is the best partner I've ever had.  I can only think of a single other experience that I used to count as my number one.  Each experience is different even with the same person.", "id": "cah20en", "summary": "I used to tell my girl she had a couple of my all time top sexual experiences.  Now she's completely dominated the top ten, like pinball."}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "I was a super nice and fun guy in high school who never got laid. \n I went to college switched from wrestling to Rugby and just generally tried to give less of a fuck about women than anyone in the room.  This proved irresistable to women.  Now I had a lot female friends, mostly lesbians, and was generally raised a feminist so I didn't go too far.  I had a blast and was with a lot of girls. \n I only preface with that to say this, I never did anything \"wrong\" per se but it is unsustainable.  I don't give a shit about people saying oh you led her on, or she didn't know what she was doing, etc., etc. \n I was a small kid who was fat and had glasses until I got to late high school and college.  Every girl I slept with was a personalized \"fuck you\" to some girl who had rejected me.  In the end I'm glad I did some of the stuff I did and mostly it was light it was fun and it was casual. \n The warning contained herein is this, On more than one occasion I beat the shit out of some poor fuck for fucking his girlfriend.  Most didn't seem to care that A. I wasn't the one in a committed relationship and B. That most times I didn't know. \n While my friends thought it was hilarious and I loved the attention, the truth is some of these girls loved it too much.  The look on a girl's face after one fight made me feel bad for the dude and bad for myself to have fucked such a person as to derive some sick pleasure from putting her guy up to defend the \"honor\" I had somehow besmirched only to watch him beaten, sometimes badly, and love it.  I never got really beat but sometimes winning can be much worse for your life not just your rep. \n You'll learn to dial it back and realize it's actually more fun if a girl actually likes you for who you are (at least a little) rather than you were the craziest one there.  Paradoxically I would sleep with a girl and then hate her for liking someone as terrible as I was.  But you are young and that time will come for you or you'll be one of those 45 year old dudes at the bar picking up young idiots and die alone, whichever, I don't judge. \n I am inclined to say there is absolutely nothing wrong morally with what you are doing, and some girls will always  be most attracted to those who care the least about them.  Those girls are not for relationships because the moment you care their fucking your neighbor. \n So in the end be young have fun.  The greatest game is truth.  It seems you are being pretty upfront its just a lot of these girls have buyers remorse.  They wanted to fuck you for not caring but then get hurt when you don't care.  It's not on you.  I can't imagine you are waxing poetical about love in-between games of beirut. \n Most of the guys who \"hate\" you are really just not sure of what is going on in their own romantic lives, it is not your concern. \n In the end I ended up really hurting someone I had no beef with over something he didn't even really understand.  It still bothers me 10 years later at 30.  My friend was seriously injured when a guy came home to him fucking the guy's wife and he never got over it.  And he was tough as nails.", "id": "c6gj7uv", "summary": "You're fine doing God's work but sometimes it bites you in the ass. \n PS Dining and Dashing is for rich pricks who have never worked a service job.  I don't know you but that makes me think you are an asshole."}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "They do not debate I got into it with them because I actually work on cases of men falsely accused of shit and they started throwing BArry Goldwater at me.  I went actually trying to understand but they called me crazy because I actually work on cases and they only work their self-hatred. \n One guy who kept calling bullshit on me convinced me to actually photograph my certificates on the wall and even then they weren't satisfied I said look man you must have some kinda problem that isn't raitonal mixed in with rational things.  Turns out he really just wanted to be fucked in the ass by women.  It was what all his other comments were about.", "id": "c5qtvp6", "summary": "Men's Rights quotes Barry Goldwater and McCarthy right there on the side."}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "Dear Louie.  I of course enjoy all your work.  I really hope you do another podcast with Maron.  Together re-hash more of your past not unlike the Muslims and their preservation of Western culture. \n Actual question; \n How does it feel along w. Maron in a way to be part of the forefront of the new media, not just podcasts and stuff but by creating new and exciting content that is easier to buy than steal, cutting out all types of people who are great at business and terrible at art.  I look at it like insurance companies and doctors.  A wholly unnecessary leech on the creative side from the side that just requires a profit.  The studio hates it because its the end of an era but look at the bright side while back in the day being on Carson made you a star overnight now the true meritocracy of entertainment can begin.", "id": "c4nwp1o", "summary": "How does it feel to be one of the harbingers of the end of bland entertainment for the masses?"}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "My ex talked about how giant her ex's cock was.  But he didn't know how to use his fingers for shit and he couldn't lick a clit if it had neon lights on it.  I just got over it.  Even though I could tell how turned on she was by the \"monster cock\" variety of pornography.  I just didn't care because he was a fucking loser who ws gifted a big dick but was an otherwise useless human being. \n Now I been with a lot of girls since but my new girlfriend told me the other night she had slept with the same dude.  I couldn't fucking believe it.  Dude ran through quite a few baristas I guess.  I guess I have too.  Anyway when I started telling her how my ex used to say it was big she started dying laughing.  She said not only was my dick probably twice as thick around and hard much more firmly but that she actually thought mine was bigger and thought I had a huge dick. I believe her because she doesn't care and knows I don't care.  Also if you look at it now it measures up pretty well with mot of the amateur pron out there. \n To be truthful though I did lose about 30 pounds and after I broke up with my ex started doing kegels more and more to increase my girth.  Also I would masturbate for about An hour and 30 minutes when I did, once a week, until I could feel confident lasting with any woman. \n MY Current gf has had a kid naturally but because long before I ever put my dick in her she had come from fingers enough that her pussy was so tight she thought I had used my forearm. \n John Holmes said he had a 13 cock, in reality it was more like 7 or 8.  a Cock is not like your height, blood flow, turgidness, all kinds of other factors make dicks quite different.", "id": "c9vlkl2", "summary": "Quite being a pussy about your dick."}, {"author": "Vallrjo_Central", "content": "Some people think Oral sex is gross.  Especially some males think it's disgusting.  I love it.  Both giving and receiving.  Some people don't and some people can only climax (in my experience most women cannot climax w/o oral or manual stimulation) with it so for them it's most likely a deal-breaker.  Pressuring your partner means you are either not compatible with that partner or are willing to be somewhat sexually limited .  But that's on the person.  It's not right to  pressure  anyone into anything.  I sincerely agree with what your saying. \n However  it is certainly a little lame to blame it on porn. My current Gf likes both and liked neither when I met her.  She felt safe enough to try all the stuff she had never done before or had only done unsuccessfully.    I had an ex-who hated when I gave her oral. \n For the record, Anal sex for me is mostly about nerve endings and stimulation areas.  Money shots are a fun way to play with power and submission.  I personally love it when she cums in my face.  It's all part of me begging for it, then she goes right in my mouth and has to spend the next couple minutes whimpering to recover. \n Considering I've never seen a porn with that and she has never spent any real amount of time watching porn means she doesn't get off on doing it because of porn but because she can feel powerful and in control of her sexuality, just like she enjoys the submissive act of me cumming on her.", "id": "c9mraye", "summary": "Anal, Oral, PiV, facials, not doing any of those doesn't make you a prude.  Being into them does not mean you are porn-obsessed."}]}
+{"author": "composer77", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Don't take money from friends/family.  If you do, understand that you just gave them power over you. \n Never let another person dis-respect the person you are married to.  They aren't just dis-respecting her, but also your autonomy. \n If you end your marriage, do it in a stand up way, and make the decision on your own.  Letting others interfere in your relationship implies weakness and immaturity on your part.  Women you date in the future will notice this.", "output": "Ok, that makes sense.  Please ignore the people that are pumping you up and telling you to just dump her.  It's very stupid advice, especially if they refer to her as your \"girlfriend\".  That's dis-respectful not just to her, but to you as well.  You are a grown man, with real responsibilities. \n Your parents and friends will encourage you to leave her if they don't like her, but that doesn't mean they are giving you good advice.  No matter how much your mother loves you, or thinks that you can go out and just find another woman, here are the facts: \n \n You will be divorced \n You are broke \n You are young and screwed up early \n You will be a single dad \n You don't have an outstanding track record in the relationship department \n \n That above does not make you an exceptional catch, and any future woman dating you will see those red flags and go running for the hills.  Don't take your wife for granted.  If she's crazy, then by all means leave her.  But, if you're simply toying with the idea because mom says you can do better, well, that's idiotic.  Every mom thinks their kid can do better.  If you get back on the dating market, keep in mind that women will be very skeptical, and the narrative that you tell yourself, for why you are getting divorced, could have a much colder audience when you try to explain it to a new date.  So, if you do get divorced, do it with class, and for the right reasons, because you're going to have to eventually explain it all to your next partner (or lie about it). \n Last, you really screwed up when you made your wife tell you to stand up for her.  That should have been you telling your parents they weren't welcome, and it should have happened as soon as they said she wasn't welcome.  If you tell future dates that story, they are going to think, \"Here's a guy that won't stand up for me, that is pathetic and weak, and will go running when things get tough.\"  That's what I thought of you.  Marriage comes first, ahead of your parents and friends.  The kids on this forum telling you that mommy and daddy come first are young.  I'm in my 30's, Mom died, Dad may die in a few years.  Parents don't live forever.  The person you are married to will outlast them, and be there far longer.  Also, you have a commitment, that you made as a grown man, to your wife.  If you want to have any honor and integrity, you will honor that commitment, or at the very least, have enough respect for it to end it gracefully.  You have no commitments at all to your parents.  Remember the one that you made a commitment to.  Your parents don't respect your commitment to your wife, because they think of you as a child who made a mistake. \n Finally, the young kids on here may not realize it, but people that offer you money are a far, far greater threat to your freedom than people who give you ultimatums.  Ultimatums are straightforward.  If anything, the ball is completely in your court on that one.  However, the money ALWAYS comes with strings attached.  Even after you pay it back, it will change the power dynamic in your relationship with your parents.  Don't be naive.  Avoid their money at all costs.  Your parents are a far greater threat to your happiness and independence than your wife.  Your wife is treating you like an adult.  Your parents are not."}], "user_id": "longlamp_9439", "history": [{"author": "composer77", "content": "As a guy (sorry, I know this is askwomen but noticed you did the same thing I did by letting her manage it), I would have kept a better eye on the budget.  It can be incredibly easy and tempting to let the women in our lives manage the things they think are important (like weddings), but this can have huge repercussions if you don't set a financial limit you are comfortable with and stick with it.  The same goes with home purchases, decorating, or any other task where one party takes the lead.  Both parties need to pay attention to the finances and agree to them.  I left a lot of these decisions up to my soon to be ex only to find out later that the bills were astronomical and that she wasn't operating in good faith.", "id": "cd9x9uk", "summary": "Keep an eye on the bottom line.  Weddings only last a day, but that debt can have a devastating affect on your marriage."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Hey OP, ever heard of \"burying the lead\"?  Seriously, how disingenuous can you get, do you really think they didn't intend for the title to be misleading?  It's actually worse than if the title was a straightforward description of the subject matter (i.e. the war on Christians in the middle east...).  That little phrase at the end is important, and titles like this border on being propaganda, and are created with intention of deception.  You should check out \"Manufacturing Consent\" by Noam Chomsky, he goes into quite a bit of detail covering subtle propaganda tricks used by Western media.  The title of the article is terrible, and will be used by many Christians (who have a propensity for missing the actual point) to bolster their \"arguments\".", "id": "c3rofaz", "summary": "The title of the article uses an old propaganda trick, is highly misleading, and is very destructive to the cause of atheism in the U.S.  It's kind of like if, when we were going to war with Iraq again, they said, \"Saddam attacks Kuwait\" and then in the article said, \"in 1991\".  Or, more true to historical form, they asked misleading questions like, \"How many WMD's does Saddam have?\"  Headlines are important, get it?\nedit: Changed reading recommendation..."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Doctor's \"wife\" (actually husband, but whatever) here.  Congratulations and savor this feeling for as long as you can.  When things get bad over the next few years (and they will), try to remember how you felt when you were first accepted. \n This won't apply right away, as the first two years are spent in the classroom.  But once you start your internship, and later, residency, the following observations may be useful to you.  The thing to keep in mind is that doctors are part of an elite group with a fairly rigid hierarchy.  Like other elite groups, there is a bit of \"hazing\" involved with the new members.  They don't make you work 30 hour shifts to improve retention,  as it's a fairly well-known fact that extreme sleep deprivation severely impedes learning.  They do it because you are the backbone of the medical system, and your wage slavery is what helps keep it going. \n Without cheap labor provided by interns and residents, our system would be even more screwed up than it already is.  Try to throw any concept of fairness out the window.  Yes, your attending might make 5x your salary and work half as much, but that will be you some day.  In the small picture it will seem grossly unfair that you have to do all the work that attendings, chief residents, etc, are too lazy or important to do.  If you don't keep it in check, your resentment will eat you from the inside out.  (I've seen this happen to some members of my wife's class, and the results weren't pretty, they would have been much better off if they had just focused on doing what they needed to do to survive).  In the big picture it works out.", "id": "c3z59rl", "summary": "congratulations.  Don't get caught up in politics and learn how to let the bad things that happen slide off your back.  If you do this you'll come through the other side mostly intact.  No matter how bad it gets on any given day, remember that  in the grand scheme of things it will all work out."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "One thing to keep in mind, and never occurred to me until it was too late, is that sedentary activities (sitting, laying down in weird positions, etc.) can actually provoke injury.  I screwed my back up simply by sitting on top of my wallet every day for 10+ hours a day at my desk job (no, I'm not rich, just one of those thick leather wallets).  Combine that with one leg that is slightly shorter than the other, generally bad posture, and over decades it set me up for a serious injury in the weight room.  Sacroiliac pain is often caused by sitting on uneven surfaces, and it only takes a very small difference in height over a period of years to do this. \n The pain lasted for years until I saw several physical therapists.  While the exercises helped, the pain always seemed to return until I did several things: \n \n Put inserts in my shoes so that my feet hit the ground at the same time without having to rotate my hips when walking. \n Always sit on an even, level surface, and take anything out of my back pockets when sitting. \n Use proper posture when sitting, standing, and walking (chest centered over hips, abs slightly flexed, etc.). \n When sleeping, avoid awkward positions that put my spine out of alignment. \n Avoid over-rotating or tilting my hips too much when walking (partially fixed by addressing the small difference in length between my legs). \n Make sure that my hips and back are in proper alignment by stretching.  Tight hamstrings can easily cause your hips to rotate backward slightly, forcing your lower back to stretch more when bending down.  Instead, stretch your hamstrings, and learn to  bend over by rotating your hips forward, not by bending your back. \n \n A lot of fitness buffs ignore these details, always assuming their injury was caused by something in the weight room.  Chances are you have been practicing poor posture while out of the gym, which set you up for this injury.  Good posture is one of the best ways to develop a strong core, essential for proper lifting.", "id": "c5n8994", "summary": "Pay attention to how you use your body outside the gym, a lot of weightlifting injuries are incorrectly assumed to be from lifting weights, when in reality, lifting is about the only time many of us attempt to use proper posture/form."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "I think that using that thread as an example of poly is like using a discussion about date rape to discuss the ills of monogamy.  That thread illustrates what poly is NOT, not what it is.  It tells us no more about poly than a cheating spouse does about monogamy.  The \"friends\" were very close, if not crossing the line on date rape, and this in no way is representative of how poly relationships are supposed to be established. \nInstead it was a textbook example of what NOT to do when introducing others to the lifestyle. \n There was documentary on Showtime \"Married and Dating\" about poly, and they were extremely focused on communication, not using drugs, getting permission from all involved before starting a new relationship, etc.  What the last OP's \"friends\" did was little more than taking advantage of them in a very selfish way, and again, I think date rape applies, as they were intoxicated, and expressed a desire to make this decision sober.  Their friends understood this and went ahead anyway, or in other words, they raped them by taking advantage of their intoxicated state (which fits the standard scenario for date rape to a T).", "id": "cbbrcyh", "summary": "The previous OP is in no way representative of poly, or what happens when a poly relationship  is started.  Yes, people have feelings of jealousy, but OP's feelings weren't just jealousy, they were of being outright violated and taken advantage of by a couple of losers.  That's not poly anymore than a loser looking for one night stands is representative of monogamy."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "You don't judge people based on how they treat you, or even how they treat others when they are around you.  You have to measure things that can't be easily faked.  So, you have to look at the orientation of their entire life.  Chances are if you asked the guy what he was doing to make the world a better place, he would have had steam coming out of his ears, or at best, would have uttered a bunch of meaningless and vague bullshit comparable to a political campaign (or bp ad campaign).  It's incredibly easy to fake superficial politeness, give 5% to charity, and be a completely narcissistic, sociopathic scumbag.  That last sentence could be a description of any CEO.  When looking for decent people, don't look for people that say, \"I want to help the poor.\", but go a step further and look for people that ask, \"Why are people poor?\".  Don't just look for people that want to look good, but look for people that actually want to be good.  To do this successfully, you will have to internalize this discomfort with the status quo, with injustice. \n I suspect that the reason you didn't catch this guy is because your idea of \"good person\" is the typical, wall street banker version.  You go to the right schools, follow all the rules, make a lot of money (no one thinks they do, even millionaires), give a few crumbs to charity, but never really lay anything significant on the line for other people.  Don't feel bad, that describes nearly the entire college educated population in the US.  Just keep in mind that if this is your definition of \"good person\", then scumbags will have a very easy time living up to it. \n Work on developing your insight.  Think deeply about others, how to make the world a better place, and how to see past all of the bullshit around you.  While there are some intelligent sociopaths out there, they can be extraordinarily superficial, and the more deeply you think about the world around you, the less effective their charms will be.  We live in a society that glorifies selfishness.  Of course a sociopath can hide in this society.  If you want to avoid the scum, you probably need to hang out with people that are a bit outside the norm, and reject some of your current values.", "id": "c1oiuo9", "summary": "A few questions: \n \n How many extremely ugly friends did your ex have? \n How many extremely overweight friends did your ex have? \n How many stupid (low IQ, not uneducated) friends did your ex have? \n How many poor friends did your ex have? \n How many extremely old friends did your ex have (or very young)? \n How many unpopular or socially awkward friends did your ex have? \n How many sick friends did you ex have? \n How many friends of your ex had disabilities? \n How many people did your ex hang around, not because he enjoyed it, but because he though they could use his friendship? \n How many friends did he have that were homeless?\nand so on....   \n \n I would suspect none of the above, but I could be wrong."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Actually, Saint Louis is on average 2 degrees warmer in August than Atlanta.  :)  It's also a lot more humid.  Savannah, being further south, is likely a different story.  Our overnight lows are 80 this week, with 80-90% humidity.  In the day it's less humid, around 50%, with nice, sunny 100 degree days.  Saint Louis is definitely an anomaly, with it's harsh winters and very hot summers.  I've never had anyone who comes from a traditionally hot area like Arizona or Texas say that they found the summers here pleasant, maybe an infinitesimal fraction cooler.  On the other hand I have had visiting friends from cooler climates nearly stroke out during our 100 degree summer days.", "id": "c26lnnj", "summary": "it sucks to be in Saint Louis right now. \n Saint Louis \n Houston \n Atlanta \n Savanahh"}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "If unions work then why shouldn't people use them?  What is wrong with a group of people bargaining collectively?  Capitalism says nothing about how people negotiate a contract.  If a group wants to negotiate to get more leverage, then that is their right, and it's a perversion of free market principles to claim that they can't.  The vast, vast majority of profits/money goes straight to the top, and unions are the only way that you are going to get leverage on them. \n People outside of unions are basically free riders that are taking advantage of the work unions do.  When a union bargains for higher wages, it drives everyone's wages and benefits up, as now employers have to compete with union shops.  That would be untenable in a society where employers couldn't make a profit, but the majority of them make huge profits, and distributing those profits to the people that help generate them boosts the economy by increasing consumer spending.", "id": "c3wz5y6", "summary": "Union \"whining\" is what helped ensure you have decent wages, working standards, and vacation (if you have it).  You shouldn't complain about it, but thank them for their hard work."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "It's not uncommon for narcissists, when met with failure or disappointment, to turn to their children for salvation.  The thing is, if you've had a soft life, a university education, and relative autonomy, then how do you give your child something better?  Well, if your running excuse for why you turned out to be such a loser is that you weren't given enough opportunities, when in reality mom and dad coddled you all the way through college, then your solution is going to be the bizarre approach known as helicopter parenting.  The result is \"children\" who hit 25 and still \"need\" mom and dad to help with graduate school applications.  Of course, it's not about helping the kid.  When you see helicopter parenting brought to it's absurd conclusion, it becomes clear that the parents are doing this for themselves.  This helps the parents forget the fact that they are pieces of crap, with the small price of robbing an adult human being of their autonomy. \n For a narcissist, the kid doesn't even exist as a separate being, they are merely an extension, who could never do anything for themselves, and whose purpose is to help mom and dad forget that life didn't turn out the way they thought it would.  Sure, one can argue that the parents are doing it out of love, but people who are responsible, and who live complete lives rarely need to lean on their kids this much.  Instead, helicopter parenting is usually reserved for narcissists who have given up on their own lives, which is why they panic when their kids leave, as now they'll need to be responsible for their own fate again, and can't just fall back on the excuse of, \"I may be douche, but I'm giving it all up for my kids\".  There's a lot of hand-wringing about how this approach will create future narcissists.  But, the narcissism is actually coming from the parents, not the kids.", "id": "cp8mjb9", "summary": "Modern child neglect laws (such as not allowing children under 18 to be unattended) aren't being created for kids any more than helicopter parenting is done for kids.  Instead, childhood is becoming increasingly more regimented because it helps the current generation of parents feel better about their own shortcomings.  It falls in line with their narrative of, \"I would have been successful if I wasn't neglected!!\"  For, if their childhood falls under the modern definition of neglect, then at some point you have to realize they are telling you they think they were neglected.  And, that's why you see all these parents putting their kids in school as young as 2.  They really think they were denied opportunities and that this is the source of their failure, nevermind the fact that 40 percent of fortune 500 companies in the U.S. were started by immigrants, many of them from countries with a much lower standard of living."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "How do you know it costs well over $200, are you a musician?  I think the problem is you, not the guy you are dating.  This anxiety that you have about people is going to cause you to make a lot of bad decisions.  The only example of \"weird\" that you give is buying a generous gift, which actually makes you sound a bit weird, to be honest.  Do yourself a favor and try to be less suspicious, otherwise your attitude will cause you to miss out on meeting and knowing a lot of great people.", "id": "c1qcbw6", "summary": "Attacking someone that from all outward signs is a nice guy says a lot of bad things about you.  You should try to look in the mirror if you are looking for something to worry about."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "As someone with \"mild\" autistic traits (diagnosed as on the spectrum, but don't have all traits necessary for aspergers), I can say that I have awful, and I mean  awful  mirroring skills.  What I mean by that is the innate ability to pick up on subtle facial expressions and mirror them as a way of connecting with people.  I also am not good at processing a lot of things going on at once, which makes it harder for me to think on my feet in a social situation.  This dearth of ability to process many things at once (compared to \"normal\" people) makes it harder for me to notice all of the subtle things people do that give away their true intentions.  This makes it quite a bit more difficult for me to lie, or even effectively learn how to do so.  That doesn't mean I couldn't pull it off, but it would have to be planned out perfectly, like it was in the usual suspects.  If I were a criminal I would do it like I write software, dealing with all contingencies ahead of time and creating a very detailed plan.  Running off script would be highly risky, even for someone with mild autistic traits.  Since the vast majority of crime is unscripted and requires the ability to take large risks, it's less attractive to autistic people. \n The above is my perspective, I'm sure others may throw out different answers.", "id": "c43v7y1", "summary": "Committing crimes and lying convincingly about it requires one to have the ability to improvise and lie convincingly.  Most autistic people learn very early that they are terrible liars (if/when it even occurs to them that lying is an option), and as a result are averse to situations that force them to do so. \n P.S.  One other thing.  I think the idea that autistic people lack empathy is bunk, as it decreases one's understanding of the disorder.  People with autism may  appear  to lack empathy, but it's not due to a lack of willingness to understand or care about others, but more a lack of awareness of how others are feeling.  Once made aware, I absolutely care about how others feel and respond as appropriately as I can.  I may come off as callous because I'm not as good at reading obvious cues, but describing it as a lack of empathy is highly misleading."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "No doubt this woman's rage is a reflection of her narcissism.  I bet she was the kind of grandmother whose parenting style was something close to benign neglect 99% of the time.  She was fine with this as long as she wasn't exposed.  But, then the bus driver mentions her granddaughter did something wrong, and she experiences intense, insane levels of embarrassment, \"What will the bus driver think of ME?\".  And then out comes rage, homicidal rage.  \"What will everyone think?!?!?!  YOU EMBARRASSED ME!!!!\"  And then the punishment was death (maybe she didn't start with that intent, but narcissist's rage knows no bounds, she couldn't even begin to empathize with her granddaugter's pain).  She's the type of woman that knows no limits.  That's narcissism folks, they don't all drive sports cars and have million dollar salaries, and they don't all appear grandiose at first glance.", "id": "cptp1tc", "summary": "She wasn't punishing her granddaughter to make her a better person.  She was unleashing her intense rage for being exposed as a bad grandmother (at least that's how grandma perceived it), and she justified it by calling it discipline.  The punishment was all about grandma."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Measuring a distance requires two points.  The statement \"the distances between a point and itself is 0, so therefore the distance to all points must be zero\", is false.  Motion requires two points in time, it means nothing to say that an object hasn't moved when the change in time is exactly zero.  It would follow from the very definition of velocity that d/t produces a distance of zero when the time interval is zero.", "id": "c2g3qqj", "summary": "There is no paradox here."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "You need to cut ties with your friend.  You may think you are helping, but when depressed people get together, it's bad for both of them.  It could even push one of you into committing suicide.  I had a close relationship with someone that was suicidal, and I was also depressed.  I spent more time thinking about killing myself during that 6 months than I ever have in the rest of my life combined.  It ended up making my own depression much worse, and I had a hard time pulling out of it until I stopped seeing my friend.", "id": "c3z50md", "summary": "spending time with an extremely depressed person while you are in a bad state of mind is a great way to end up killing yourself.  You are in danger and you need to get out while you can."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "The flip side is that people who appear too perfect can often be off-putting and intimidating to would-be customers, so it's good to have a mix.  e.g.  I have a friend who is about 5'9, 320, and does very well at sales.  He (yeah, I know, not a she) has a great sense of humor and is good at putting people at ease.  When selling high end pianos, he comes off as a lot more easy going and low pressure, and as a result tends to get a lot of sales as a result.", "id": "cbmcbta", "summary": "The smartest employer hires a mix of well-adjusted people.  Not everyone will be comfortable dealing with extremely attractive staff."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "If by \"they\" you mean the people at the top, I agree.  However, if by \"they\", you mean that you are upset by ordinary people using their own moral intuition to guide their decision-making, then I absolutely disagree.  Applying rules without evaluating the context to which they are applied can result in horrible outcomes, and people should be allowed to use the rules as a guide, not a rigid policy.  This goes for all rules, not just religious doctrine. \n I think that strict fundamentalist interpretation is far worse than bending and twisting things to get a just outcome.  It's all just a bunch of crap that people wrote down, so there isn't much sense in sticking to it if it results in a horrible outcome.  The hypocrisy in my opinion is the idea that somehow a collection of books assembled two hundred years after Christ allegedly lived is more valid than our current moral intuition.  They threw out and censored a lot of material to create the modern bible, and the idea that only a few select people get to decide the rules is a bunch of nonsense, IMHO. \n To put a finer point on it, the church has changed their stance multiple times with regard to abortion.  The early church believed that the soul didn't enter the body until the baby took it's first breath, which meant that infanticide wasn't a sin until the kid started breathing on it's own.", "id": "c4x7z2v", "summary": "I'm glad I'm an atheist."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Actually, very few people look at grades out in the \"real world\".  I have never once been asked my GPA, and I'm a 38 year old scientific programmer working for a top tier University research lab.  They look at the person, ask them tough questions, look at their work, discuss it, etc. \n Grades are nearly useless as a barometer, because grades are inflated and people cheat.  They also don't reflect one's ability to self-direct their learning, which is far more important in the real world.  I'd take a C student with a huge portfolio of applications they've written on their own time over an A student with no portfolio, any day of the week, without exception.  I've met many 3.5+ students that are as dumb as a box of rocks.  I've seen people coming out of the best schools that are pants on head retarded ('W' is a great example).  There are also D+ students that are ambitious (i.e. a friend of mine launched his own company while still in school, flunked out, but in terms of his expertise in the field in question, was a very, very smart guy.  He was able to obtain employment and excel.  Bill Gates is another guy that comes to mind.)  Chomsky, who is a very well known intellectual, went to a Deweyite school where they were not given grades.  He credits it for his intellectual success, as do many other standout intellectuals that have attended these schools.", "id": "c5p5chk", "summary": "You don't have to examine this guy's opinions in the abstract.  You can look at reality and see how students have actually performed under the conditions he describes.  The results may surprise you."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Evidence based medicine is so far from being reality.  I recently read a study that shows that many anti depressants (SSRI's in particular) have an effect that is indistinguishable from placebo.  The problem is that the FDA allows drug companies to do as many studies as they want and lets them cherry-pick the best ones to get approval.  There are many drugs on the market that have multiple studies showing no effects (or in some cases dangerous side-effects that are swept under the rug, like celebrex).  Then there is corruption that is so deep that in any honest profession it would be called a conflict of interest.  Many doctors regularly accept meals, money, gifts, and other perks in exchange for prescribing the latest (expensive) block buster.  The courting starts very early too.  My wife mentioned that before our school banned them, pharma reps would regularly wine and dine residents. \n I actually don't think it's a problem if they say, \"We don't understand the mechanism but when we do 'X' we observe that 90% of patients get better.\"  What's problematic is that there are many treatments where they've never even scrutinized the results. \n Then we have the problem of pathologizing normal behavior and creating diseases where they don't exist.  A lot of these types of illnesses are in psychiatry.  If the society is sick and people are depressed as a result, does that mean that they need treatment, or that the social issues need to be fixed?  (ADD and depression fit this quite well.  While there are definitely people who are depressed for no good reason, I don't think it's a disease if a gay teen is depressed due to being ostracized non-stop, for example, or ADD if a kid can't handle the monotony of an 8 hour school day).  On the flip side, there are a lot of \"healthy\" people who can't get treatment because doctors haven't come up with a name for what they have, so apparently the patient is making it up.", "id": "c40kmbi", "summary": "There are still a lot of quacks."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Historically conventional medicine was full of quacks and it was the norm rather than the exception.  As a skeptic you should know this.  Until only the past 50 years the separation between allopathic, osteopathic, and chiropractic medicine was surprisingly shallow.  I think it's going to take our society a long time to get over the cultural hangover of treating doctors like priests and instead demanding evidence for the efficacy of a given procedure. \n If you've ever heard of the phrase \"evidence based medicine\", which is a relatively new idea, it should tell you a lot about what medicine was like before that.  Just 50 years ago we had the guy who made lobotomies famous by using ice picks to perform the procedure receive a nobel prize for his \"pioneering\" work.  That's not very long ago.  Fifty years before that doctors were masturbating women as a treatment for hysteria.  Even many modern surgeries and medications have an effect that is nearly indistinguishable from placebo (lot's of arthroscopic knee surgeries are only marginally better than simply doing the physical therapy alone).  So, before we worship at the altar of allopathic medicine, we should pause to look in the mirror a bit. \n The above said, I get your point.  There are a huge number of quacks in chiropractic medicine and that is far more troubling than the years of training.  If you know anything about medical school their coursework is only 2 years, and the other 2 are training on the job (internships and clerkships).  The residency program, which is an additional four years for most specialties, is a combination of training and slave labor, mostly the latter.  One could effectively get that training in less time if it were focused on education rather than providing cheap labor to hospitals.  My wife is a doctor and has had to work 38 hour SHIFTS.  Do you honestly think they retain anything or even make good decisions when they are operating for those kinds of hours?  They don't.  It's essentially about survival. \n I think a lot of what drives people to alternative medicine is a lack of options.  People can't self-medicate effectively because it's illegal (as a skeptic you should know that the FDA was started because drug companies were putting poison in their drugs, not because patients couldn't read the label.  The modern fiction is that people are too stupid to read the back of the bottle).  They can't see a doctor because it's too expensive.  So, they go out on the web seeking an alternative and they find a quack, just like they would have 300 years ago with snake oil salesmen.", "id": "c40ctr2", "summary": "If you apply the same skepticism to conventional medicine I think you'll be surprised at what you find."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "I'll leave this here (note: I do not condone or condemn this behavior, just trying to inject some facts about our breed into this, as it's funny how often people underestimate Dachshunds.): \n Dachshunds do not know how to quit, no matter how bad the pain.  They have lungs that take up two thirds of their body, and their over-developed lungs and heart gives them extreme endurance.  A house cat getting in a fight with a Dachshund would get a few scratches in, which are nothing compared to the teeth of the fox above.  The Dachshund would shrug it off and within 5 to 10 minutes the cat would be exhausted.  Most cats are smart enough to jump to the fridge or some other place, but in a one on one fight with no ability to escape, the cat wouldn't stand a chance.  Remember this breed was bred to take serious amounts of pain which is why they could fight badgers and win.  Most other animals would run from a badger, but not these guys, and you don't teach them this, it's in their blood.  I've never encouraged mine to go after anything, they just do it.", "id": "ce46qb9", "summary": "I would avoid putting another animal in a cage with a breed that was bred for two purposes, one, tracking and hunting badgers, two, fighting other animals in a cage to the death (usually badgers, known as badger baiting).  They look cute, and it's best to leave it that way."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Even when genetic explanations are true, they should only be emphasized to the extent that they matter.  In the vast majority of cases (except when talking about purely physical traits like height or strength), genetics play a much, much smaller role than environment.  There is a much greater difference in performance with relation to experience/practice than there is due to genetics.  So, if genetics accounts for that last 1/10 of a second in a 100m sprint, but practice makes a difference in terms of seconds, it's a bit stupid to focus on that last 1/10th of a second.  The only time it makes a difference is in the mostly artificially constructed case of winner takes all competition.  In every other real world scenario, it's meaningless and not even worth worrying about.", "id": "c3zouct", "summary": "environment and practice trump genetics most of the time."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Overall, the idea of a platonic relationship makes the mistake of first, arguing that our and our instincts should be treated as separate entities, and second, arguing that relationships without physical attraction are better/more ideal in the platonic sense.  I would say both of these ideas are false.  A better question is can any two people, with enough commonality to be friends, avoid having sexual feelings?  I think the answer is no, not without a ton of societal pressure keeping them in check.  Most of that pressure is in the form of shame.  With same sex or bisexual pairs, it's the stigma of being gay.  With men and women, it's the stigma of being seen as too promiscuous.  To handle this cognitive dissonance, you'll see many people claim that they are friends when more is going on under the surface.  You'll also see people make the mistake of believing a friendship that has no physicial chemistry is superior to one without it.  All of this mass delusion points to a failure of our worldview to meet our needs.  We can fix this by: \n \n Understanding that all people possess the ability to be attracted to each other. \n Understanding that sex adds to, rather than dimishes, a relationship. \n Understanding that we naturally have feelings for multiple people, and we should create institutions beyond marriage that better understand and fulfill these needs. \n Understand that our instincts aren't evil, but often can form the best of who we are.  Some of the least selfish aspects of human behavior are fueled by instincts, not by rational thought.  Conversely, purely intellectual, abstract, platonic modes of thought can lead one to a very deranged, sociopathic view of the world.  Rather than battle our instincts, instead, our world views and the institutions we build need to be enlightened enough to foster and fulfill the positive aspects of our instincts, including our sexuality.  They need to support and nurture, rather than suppress and shame our instincts, whenever possible.", "id": "caza2d9", "summary": "So, to answer the question, nope, and if we're honest, we're probably not 100% friends with most of our guy friends either, and that's a good thing."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Have you ever looked into therapy or taking some personality tests (like the Myers-Brigg's type indictaor)?  I'm not recommending it just for treatment, but also so that you can gain some insight into how you work, and what's important to you.  My impression is that you have a rare personality that makes it hard for you to connect with your current family. \n I know you've put quite a bit of thought into this topic from an intellectual standpoint, and you make a lot of perfectly logical points.  However, from an emotional perspective, I sense great loneliness, that you don't have a single person in your life that you can even remotely connect with.  I see this as your primary problem, not the problems you listed above (BUT YOU CAN FIX THIS, there are ton of people out there who you can connect with).  I also sense that you aren't completely aware of the source of your pain (lack of self-insight is common among depressed people).  Rather than thinking about this from an ethical/intellectual point of view, you should instead view it from an emotional point of view.  Ask yourself, \"What am I feeling right now, and why?\".  You need to think hard about this, because you (we) aren't always immediately aware of the source of our pain.  It is surprisingly common for us to blame our pain on the wrong cause, and to mistakenly solve the wrong problems in the process, wondering why it didn't fix our unhappiness.  Once you fix the right problem, the other issues will be much easier to address.  (an example is people thinking that if they had more money they would be happy.  Almost every single human walking the planet does something like this, and focusing on the wrong problems can be a fatal mistake)", "id": "c4160iw", "summary": "This isn't an intellectual problem.  You need to stop over-analyzing and explore your emotions.  This will help you understand how to address the emotions (and this is about emotions, not logic) that are driving you to this choice."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "You should also remind OP that if he's running 87 octane on a modern high compression engine, he is VERY likely to not get the best performance from his engine.  This is due to the fact that all the tech you describe adjusts for lower octane gasoline, and will alter the timing of ignition, causing the engine to produce less power in order to safely use lower octane fuel.  In some (most?) cases, running a lower octane fuel will end up being MORE expensive for a modern high compression engine, as the savings in fuel cost will be offset by reduced engine efficiency, fuel economy, and power output. \n If you could add detail about what the computer does when running on a lower octane gas, that would be great, as it's an important issue for most modern high compression cars, and I'm afraid it's a bit outside my realm of expertise.", "id": "ce6hbuj", "summary": "Read your manual OP, and if it recommends high octane gas, use it.  Your wallet will quite likely thank you, and you will be even more impressed by the engine's power and responsiveness."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Voting usually tells me more about the mindset of the voter than the quality of the post.  If I read two or three highly rated posts that are crap, then I know that I need to be looking at the posts that are rated negatively.  Don't overestimate the effect that voting has on people's perceptions of your post.  Just because you are down-voted doesn't mean your contribution has no value, it just means that for whatever reason, users are putting your post in a different category than the top-rated posts.  Don't count on the idea that a negative rating means that users won't read what you have to say.  Often times the most negative posts get read simply because people want to see what the other side has to say.  In a forum where the top rated posts are devoid of substance, you'll find me reading the bottom rated ones, and I suspect many users are the same.", "id": "ce7dpzx", "summary": "Don't sweat your karma rating.  It's simply a way of putting posts on a continuum, and chances are most readers are smart enough to figure out which posts they want to be reading without taking the post's rating at face value."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Just a few quick thoughts (sorry in advance for the length, I could go on all day if I had too)...   There is a theory that bad vision has increased due to relative lack of early bright light (sunlight) exposure in developed nations.  This same lack of light exposure is also causing a rise in vitamin D deficiency.  Interestingly enough, vitamin D deficiency is one of the root causes of a very recent adaptation, the lack of pigment in some races. \n Given that we actually aren't able to fix all issues that could cause people to die, (not everyone gets lasik, and many cases of vitamin D deficiency are undiagnosed), it is a bit naive for your students to use \"improved treatment\" as a cornerstone for arguing that we are fixing all that ales us.  In fact, quite contrarily, one could argue that we are creating many selective forces (uncorrected poor eyesight, uncorrected deficiencies, over-abundance of food, increased exposure to carcinogens, increased exposure to a rapidly evolving set of diseases like HIV), which we are unable to address with technology, and in fact, are CREATED by technology.  If your students come from privileged backgrounds (from the sound of their arguments, I would say yes), it may also behoove you to remind them that the U.S. is behind Cuba in terms of life expectancy and that many of us don't have access to the technology they refer to.  If they are too insulated to understand that we have a huge underclass which more than offsets their privilege, tell them to wake up.  While THEY might enjoy access to life saving technology, their experience is irrelevant if they expect to gain insight into the conditions that most humans live under.  More interesting even societies with comparable life expectancies have different selective pressures.  The selective pressures in a society that treats people based on income, vs societies that have more egalitarian access to healthcare, could look very different, which would also cause one to expect a different set of traits being selected for in a place like Cuba vs the U.S. despite comparable average life expectancy.  This is yet another confounding factor if one wants to accurately predict what exactly \"our\" evolutionary pressures are.", "id": "c52vmtp", "summary": "Attempt to turn their arguments on their head.  Many of their assumptions are poorly researched and a bit naive, and definitely do NOT apply to all 6 billion of us.  At least in the case of LASIK, one could probably find evidence that widespread poor eyesight is a relatively new selective pressure which many cannot escape through technology, and in fact, is caused by technology.  A lot of the bright-eyed faith in technology is the result of sophisticated marketing/propaganda which saturates the airwaves (not just commercials, but the stuff between the ads too), not results.  Whenever I put my faith in technology, I remember that people like myself are responsible for implementing it, and that thought is fairly sobering."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "My point is that the reason this particular person is reconsidering getting a degree is because of the money.  There aren't any other factors that are getting them to re-think their decision other than finding employment (money).  If it weren't about money, who in their right mind would choose employment over completely directing their own research? \n Look, there's no shame in it.  It IS about money.  People from working class backgrounds feel ashamed to admit it, because they've bought into elite ideals that are ingrained in the college experience.  They feel that saying it's about money, or that money plays a very large factor in their decision, somehow marks them as materialistic, or less of a person than someone who says they aren't doing it for money.  The thing to keep in mind is that people who can afford to follow their bliss without severe consequences tend to come from well-off backgrounds. So, it's not that they are better than someone who \"does it for money\", it's that they've had an easy, care free existence where money has no real meaning to them.  Remember, college, until very recently was for elites.  For them, it wasn't about money, it was merely for the experience. \n For those of us that have to work for a living, we have to consider whether or not we will make money doing it.  People that try to live by upper class ideals (i.e. \"It's just money, and it's not important, etc.\") usually end up broke and miserable.  The reason why some professors give out blanket advice to \"follow your bliss, do what you love, and it will work out\" is because up until very recently, people attending university could afford to do so, and it was the best advice.  Applying such norms to your own life, if you can't afford it, is very, very stupid.", "id": "c2xbq2t", "summary": "In this case, it IS about the money, and to claim that money isn't that important, or apologetically defend one's need for money, is delusional."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "The one stat that AA doesn't publish is the relapse rates.  They are exactly the same as for those who quit drinking on their own (Penn and Teller did an episode going over this fact).  That doesn't mean that AA doesn't work.  Here's the rub, for some people, AA has a much higher rate of success, and for them the support is crucial.  For others, it's the exact opposite.  I've known people that have been successful with it.  I also know that for someone like myself, it would never work. \n Addiction is a choice.  It's a very hard choice, but it's still a choice.  Try to, as much as you can, figure out what it is that's driving you to drink.  Back when I smoked, the thing that kept me going was that it fed into my procrastination.  I would successfully quit, but then think, \"now what?\", get bored, and start up again.  As long as quitting was my number one goal, I didn't feel pressured to make the tough decisions and advance my own life.  I also had undiagnosed (high functioning) ASD with anxiety.  I had no idea how anxious I was, or how to avoid the things that made me miserable.  Once I figured out that I didn't have to live that way, my attitude changed.  I actually wanted to live.  I cared about my health and well-being, and staying healthy was much easier.", "id": "c0n6g21", "summary": "Find your sources of pain/anxiety and eliminate them to the greatest extent possible.   \n Give yourself something to look forward to after quitting. \n \n P.S.\nHere's something I read when quitting smoking.  Take it with a grain of salt, but it's an interesting way to think about it.  It really highlights the connection between anxiety, expectations, and quitting (in other words, a lot of addiction, even the physiological aspect, IS in your head).  It's much harder to get hooked if you aren't stressed out and anxious:"}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Here's the hierarchy*: \n \n Doing well is better than \n Feeling miserable, which is better than \n The hard work of change \n \n That hierarchy is running your dad's life, and is quite likely ruining him.  If you aren't careful, it can end up running your life, and you will CHOOSE to be miserable rather than doing the work that it takes to be happy. \n Basically, your dad feels like a failure.  What, you thought this was about you?  Nope, my guess is if we sat your dad down and asked him how he thinks you feel when he jumps on you like that, he would have no idea, as it's all about him and how he feels.  So, your dad feels like a failure, then along comes his son, a convenient proxy for work he needs to do.   Rather than do the hard work of change, he uses you as a proxy for that work, in other words, he make YOU do work every time he feels like he needs to do work.  Why work when he can just make one of his extensions do the work for him?  Then if you are successful, he can insert himself in the middle and make it about him, avoiding any work on his part.  So, he barks out orders, \"Clean your plate!  Get up early!  Give me my fan!  Stop wasting money!\", which has the effect of making him feel powerful (a temporary antidote to his non-stop feeling of impotence, yes, your dad feels completely powerless to change his own life.), and also allows him to discharge his anxiety about work he is putting off.  My guess is, every time your dad tells you to do something, it's to avoid work that HE needs to do.  In other words, his anger against you is a defense against change.  In his mind, if he can make you do all the things he feels he was supposed to do, \"Go to college!  Get a good job!!\", then he won't have to do it, and he can feel good about himself without ever having to change.  Since the work of change, for him, is terrifying, if he can't make one of his proxies do the work, then he'll choose to be miserable.  Finally, the worse he feels about his own life, the more he will NEED to see failure in you so that he can \"help\" you correct it.  I doubt he is conscious of this, nevertheless, he does it. \n With a narcissist, it's all about them.  In his mind, he's probably miserable because reality has failed to live up to his grandiose expectations.  Rather than blame it on himself, he blames it on his parents, \"If only they'd given me more structure!  If only they had set up strict guidelines!  Then I'd have been an amazing success!  It's their fault!\".  Eventually he may also blame his failure on others, including you, \"If only I didn't have kids, I would have had more time!  I would have been happy and successful!\"  So, in his mind, by being super \"strict\", he is keeping you from \"failing\".  He also gets to avoid work.  He feels anxious about his own life, and every time he does, he gets rid of that anxiety by giving you a hard time.  Every single time he is hard on you, it's because something happened to HIM that reminded him of his own failure, and he's giving you a hard time so that he can be lazy and skip out on the work he needs to do.  Read that sentence again, he's taking it out on you because he's lazy, and is trying to AVOID work that will allow himself to succeed.  What is failure for a narcissist?  It's being ordinary, average, happy even. \n The thing is, N's are 2 year olds.  So, he wants you to succeed, not for you, but for him, on his terms.  He doesn't want to do the work, and in fact, is likely incapable of doing the work.  Every time he does it, or more accurately, tries to do it, it reminds him that he is ordinary.  (Note that this isn't ALL types of work that he is trying to avoid, only the work that makes him feel powerless, slow, ordinary, which also happens to be EXACTLY the work he needs to do to get over his narcissism.)  However, if you did succeed, and he no longer had to worry about you in that way, then the first thing he would do is try to make it about him.  If he doesn't succeed in making your success about him(i.e. you wrote him out of your life), then he would be filled with rage at you for being happy and successful.  \"My son betrayed me!  I gave him everything!  I'm the reason for his success and he can't even thank me!  I'm a failure because he used me and took everything I had!\".  He would wonder why it was \"easy\" for you, and his answer would likely be because he \"helped\" you, and you are an ungrateful person for not recognizing it.  So, you end up in a lose/lose situation.  If you don't succeed, then they hate you because you remind them of their own failure.  If you do succeed, they either take full credit (and continue to abuse you), or they end up also hating you because you remind them of their own failure.  Again, it's all about them.  And no, he'll probably never let you grow up, as chances are he has failed to grow up, and he needs someone to order around so that he can continue to avoid doing any real work towards improving his life.  Often times if someone can't handle letting their kid make decisions, it's because they've never been comfortable with making decisions and being an adult.", "id": "cj2q08n", "summary": "The thing to remember, always, is it's all about him.  If you trace back the source of his anger, quite likely, it rarely has anything to do with you.  His anger against you is a defense against his own change.  If you're observant, you might even be able to figure out the work that he is trying to avoid when he does this. \n P.S. Sorry for the repetition.  It took me a few tries to develop these ideas.  I hope they helped. \n P.S.S. Citation/credit - the hierarchy and many of the concepts in this post comes from this guy's blog,  very interesting reading if you ask me"}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Yes, at least temporarily.  Sexual function in men requires a very delicate handoff between the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system.  The parasympathetic system is activated when you are relaxed, and your blood vessels dilate.  This dilation is what allows you to achieve an erection.  Then as excitement kicks in, your adrenalin pumps and your sympathetic system kicks in, which can cause your blood vessels to constrict.  Anything that screws with your autonomic system (i.e. the regulation between relaxation and excitement, and regulation of vascular tone), including just having a stressful day, can screw with your ability to start and maintain an erection.  For me, if I'm stressed out and start to relax, often I can get things started, but the excess adrenalin means that once I start having sex, my blood vessels clamp down and things take a turn for the worse.  On the other hand, people that are drunk have an easy time getting turned on, but a difficult time finishing, as they are relaxed enough to start, but when it comes time for their sympathetic system to kick in, they are too relaxed, and they usually end it without having an orgasm. \n So yes, smoking, having a cup of coffee, or having a bad day can all contribute to erectile dysfunction.  On the other hand, things that help your autonomic system function properly, like cardiovascular exercise, treating high blood pressure if you have it, rest, stress avoidance, and adequate rest, can help with this.", "id": "cc729yk", "summary": "Anything that messes with your circulatory system (i.e. powerful vasoconstrictors like nicotine), or that screws with your regulation of stress hormones (pretty much any stimulant or sedative) can interfere with sex."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "I don't doubt that race draws attention and that racism is alive and well.  For that I'm sorry. \n That said, you made a couple of mistakes that would have gotten anyone pulled over.  There's also an age factor that we all had to deal with at that age.  Cops pull over young drivers quite a bit more.  One thing you need to do is get used to driving in a lower gear.  Your car obviously has more power than you are used it and you are speeding anywhere from just above the 5 miles an hour threshold to nearly 15 over, and that's just when you got caught.  Putting the car in a lower gear will allow the engine to act as a natural break, keeping you from accelerating without knowing it.  I had 3 cops pull my wife over and keep her there for 45 minutes.  She works 100 hours a week as a resident physician and gets paid very little for that work (roughly minimum wage if it was by the hour).  After all was said and done, the cop mentioned that she was a doctor and should have more than enough money (and time I guess) to take care of her registration.  They wrote 3 tickets, two of which were dropped.  Cops like to harass people that aren't registered.  I also was pulled over for expired plates when I first moved here, and was told to be \"careful\" after he spent 20 minutes running the plates.  We're both white, and it apparently didn't stop them.", "id": "c3vinrs", "summary": "cops hate it when cars don't show up in their database, probably because they think that at any moment they could get shot for confronting a car thief.  Also, drive in a lower gear to prevent your car from slowly creeping up to high speed."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "This is true, AT&T did create unix, but government funding is what launched computer research far before it had profit potential.  The DOD also created the internet (and the first computers), not corporations, which had every bit as much impact as UNIX.  There's no doubt that businesses can get something done, but we don't have enough competition to ensure that they will provide good value for their services. \n Most businesses are very short-sighted and it's much worse than it was 50 years ago, which is why I don't think we'll see them dumping massive amounts of money into space exploration.  It's all about quick profits and with the ability to game the market using real-time trading, significant numbers of very smart people have moved to simply playing the numbers and maximizing profit, no matter how devastating their decisions are.  Businesses that don't focus on maximizing profit tend to have serious disadvantages when they try to attract investors.  Now, they may TAKE money if the government hands it to them, but then it will likely be more similar to your average defense contractor, not efficient like you are thinking.", "id": "c41orob", "summary": "If it improves their bottom line significantly, yes, they'll do it, otherwise they'll leave it alone.  Other than launching satellites I don't think there are any near term sources of profit, so most businesses will avoid getting into it."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "I had a pretty bad attitude at one job (they withheld raises for 2 years), and ended up doing 6 double shots of whiskey at the yearly employee dinner just so I could tolerate the event.  Of course, my awesome co-workers obliged me by giving me their drink tickets.  That night ended with me dropping five hits of a potentially illicit substance given to me by a co-worker, and showing up bright and early at work the next day (7 am) because I was extremely motivated.  I went home after lunch, when I became completely paranoid that the waiters could read my thoughts if they looked into my eyes.", "id": "c0xj8mw", "summary": "Yes, I'm all about getting shit-faced as a passive aggressive way to show disdain for my employer."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "The same excuse is used when men assault each other, \"boys will be boys\".  I think we are quickly approaching, or past the point where we can make progress on male->female assault, without addressing a culture that systematically tells men to suppress their emotions, and is willing to accept it when men are violent with each other (\"boys will be boys\").  That statement, when used to describe male->female assault, is met with the outrage it deserves.  However, we seem to show little outrage for male victims of violent assault, who actually represent the majority of victims. \n What you need to understand is that men are bigger than women by a significant degree.  So, for men to be murdered at a 3:1 ratio means that not only are we victims, but that the attacks against men are that much more savage.  Rape and domestic violence are nearly the only categories where women \"win\" in this debate.  At some point, you are going to need to understand that you can't expect for the violence to be contained within the male population without having some of it spillover.  Until we teach men that all forms of assault are wrong, and teach men how to properly express their emotions in positive ways (rather than bottle them up), this problem will never go away.  Think about it this way, feminists regularly use the alarming infanticide rates in 3rd world countries, and point to the population ratio, where women may be out numbered by men by a 5:4 ratio, as a sign that women are victims and repressed.  I agree with this logic.  However, when we look at the U.S., where repression of emotions causes men to suffer depression, commit suicide to a greater degree, and die at a much younger age, feminists write it off as basic biology, without providing any proof.  Does that make sense to you? \n Instead, I think the direction that feminism needs to move, is rather than encouraging women to be more traditionally masculine, we need to start encouraging men to be more traditionally feminine.  If we can encourage men to learn healthy ways to express themselves, while avoiding violence, this will dramatically reduce violent crime that is perpetrated on both women AND men.  Men don't behave the way they do just because of inherent biology, much of the inappropriate ways men express rage is due to socialization, where rage is often the only negative emotion men (in many, but not all social circles) are encouraged to express.  BTW, I was banned from two  of the feminist forums, and I have very little faith in today's feminist movement to have any kind of enlightenment when it comes to addressing these issues. \n Edit: Please don't downvote if you simply disagree.  You are embarrassing yourself and are doing nothing but making feminists look bad.   When people observe this behavior, they come to the conclusion that the self-identified \"feminists\" on reddit are a bunch of close minded, reactionary troglodytes with no ability to reason.  You are doing serious feminists a dis-service, and are an embarrassment to the courageous women who have come before you. \n Edit2:  Have the women that get upset about this article considered the fact that the described behavior isn't an issue related to sexism?  I was upset by the article too, but the behavior described is not driven by sexism.  I'm a man who has reported death threats, and got the EXACT same treatment.  I've reported a stolen car (illegally towed is more like it), and got the exact same treatment.  Later it was found out the chief of police was part of the towing scam, and was fired.  This kind of shit is what many cops do, no matter what your sex.  Unless they are out on an adrenalin fueled rampage chasing down a bad guy, they just don't give a shit.  It's rough, and needs to be fixed, but for the young woman writing this article to turn this into an issue related to sexism shows just how young and naive she is.", "id": "ce19qfr", "summary": "for the most part cops don't give a shit unless it's a murder or a high speed chase."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "When I found out my personality type it was incredibly gratifying.  It also gave me a lot insight into relationships, career choices, and a lot of insight (or so I thought) into the kind of friendships and relationships I should pursue.  Let's just say I took it too seriously.  Twenty years ago, when I read the statement, \"While well-developed people of any type can form a healthy relationship, here's the best match for...\", I basically interpreted it as saying that one should mainly look for one's \"ideal\" match.  That was a mistake.  I've learned that in fact, the opposite is true.  Rather than use it as a guide for who you should spend time with, use it as a guide for which weaknesses to focus on.  The types themselves are extreme archetypes, and the more you match any single type, the more work you have to do.  Unbalanced personalities of any type will have trouble, even with their \"ideal\" match.    Conversely, if you are well-balanced (i.e. closer to being XXXX with all axes squarely in the middle), it really won't matter who you interact with or what career you pursue.  This is where MBTI profiles fail in my opinion.  They are way too indulgent and complimentary of each type's strengths and weaknesses.  They don't really spend enough time pointing out that the closer you are to completely matching any type, the more work you need to do.  Fitting neatly into any category is bad, in my opinion. \n Marrying an INfj was one of the best things to happen to me from a personal growth perspective.  I can see and relate to concepts that were invisible to me when I was younger, and have much greater insight into relationships.  If I had married my \"ideal\" match, I think that it would have been harder for me to strengthen my weaknesses, and relationships with shared blind spots tend to also have serious issues, much more so than relationships where both partners are well-rounded.", "id": "c53u5nl", "summary": "The closer you are to fitting into any single type, the harder it will be for you to form relationships, be successful, and find happiness, even with your \"ideal\" match or career choice.  Conversely, the more well-rounded you are, the less relevant MBTI becomes when applied to your personal life.  Rather than fit your life into the box they describe, only seeking the careers and relationships they recommend, instead use it to recognize the cage you are in, and break out of it."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "If that puppy hadn't removed the toe the owner would have died of gangrene.  Dogs are social animals, and evolved to do this because it improves survival of other pack members, not out of some desire to inflict harm on those that they are bonded to.  They also lick each other's wounds and clean each other, with no harm intended.", "id": "c69za29", "summary": "The toe was dead, presenting a huge threat to the owner's life.  The dog removed it, saving the owner's life."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Not a lawyer, but the question isn't about fairness in the sense that life should be fair (to which I think we all agree).  It's about fairness in the sense of who should accept the burden for what is arguably a one in a million lottery.  In that sense, the person that takes the chance should assume the burden.  If you play the lottery and win, then guess what, the money is yours, no matter whether you expect to win it, and no matter what we think about fairness.  In terms of liability it's the same way.  If you play the reckless driving lottery and \"win\", then the \"winnings\" are yours, not the victim's.  At least with driving we have insurance, and I imagine the Patriots also have insurance for this sort of thing (so in this case your concern is a bit mis-placed). \n When insurance isn't available, is it fair (in the sense that life should be fair) for a single person to assume the burden of the collective risk taken by many every day?  No, it's not, and in that sense in an ideal world we would make every jackass that increases risks share the burden (i.e. everything would be insured if it were practical).  If we had a perfect world where this was feasible in every domain, and e.g., every person that behaved recklessly like this was either fined $10 or forced to pay a premium, I don't think you would have a problem with it. \n Your problem with the unfairness of it has nothing to do with the courts.  The courts are incapable of distributing risk in the way I mentioned above, because we are incapable (and hopefully never capable) of tracking the behavior of every single individual.  So, we come up with the only practical solution, and that is, unfortunately, the person who wins the reckless behavior lottery is on the hook for huge sums.  It's not perfect, but far better than having the victim bear the burden of the costs. \n That said, keep in mind, when you look at a large institution, it's hardly ever a back breaker to lose a lawsuit like this if they plan ahead and insure their employees.  A security company with even the slightest clue would already have an insurance fund for this sort of thing.  So, I think you are worrying a bit too much, as at least in the case of a large corporation, the risks are spread around quite a bit.", "id": "cbtd306", "summary": "If one can't handle the risks of their recklessness, then get insurance.  If the chances of something bad happening really are that small, then your premium will be next to nothing.  Otherwise, they shouldn't complain when their recklessness, even if it's a one in a million chance, ends up causing catastrophic damage for which they are liable."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Of course, all of the talk about job creation is beside the point.  The real focus should be opportunity creation (or at least the first step).  If we look at opportunity creation, business fail at this, by design.  Their entire goal is to restrict options to the lowest amount possible for consumers, by squeezing out competition, limiting the consumer's options so that they are forced to pay the highest price possible.  This makes it very difficult for start ups to compete, as they are likely to fall victim to larger competitors.  That's what's happening with how corporations deal with consumers. \n In terms of corporate relations to workers, their goal is similar.  They want to provide as little alternatives for their workers as possible, reducing the employee's opportunities for other jobs to the lowest amount possible, preferably to one, the job they are offering the employee.  They then use this leverage to drive wages down to the lowest amount possible while increasing productivity to the highest amount possible.  They reduce employee's opportunities through many methods: \n \n Flooding the labor market with cheap overseas labor, forcing the employee to work for much lower wages. \n Making employee's sign non-compete contracts, making it impossible for them to get a job elsewhere. \n Over-specializing employees, to the point where their job is so specific to a single area that the employee doesn't have a chance of doing anything else, due to lack of \"training\".  This is quite contrary to reality, where generally people with expertise in a general area of science for example, can transfer that skillset to another area of R&D without many issues. \n Foisting the burden of training onto the worker, so that the worker needs to invest a small mortgage in training before they can qualify for a job.  Then remove bankruptcy protection for this class of loan, since apparently getting an education isn't as worthy of protection as splurging with credit card.  This makes the employee more desperate and eager to accept a lower wage.   \n When the employer does have training covered, force employees to pay for it if they quit before a certain amount of time. \n Grow so large that employees have no alternative but to continue working for someone else. \n \n So, at best, business DO create jobs, the kind of jobs with wages that plummet, with a work pace soars to a frenzy, where employees are eventually burnt-out, used up, and discarded for the next crop of eager slaves.  That's at best.  By definition, when they create those jobs, they are becoming even larger, and as a result, reducing the opportunity of entrepenurs to start their own business in the same industry.  That's at best, they reduce opportunity for one to create a business, but create an alternative for that person, a \"job\". \n At worst, they don't hire.  Instead, they notice that decreasing pay is resulting in decreased consumer demand.  So, they cut jobs, which further decreases demand.  The entire time they are hoarding their money.  They can still be very profitable, because even though demand for goods declines, the demand for labor declines even more, so that productivity rises dramatically.  Eventually, this causes deflation, which further helps out the top 1%.  Since the poor have a disproportional amount of debt, deflation makes it even more difficult for them to pay it back, raising their effective interest rates through a variety of mechanisms.  At the same time, the rich are able to pay off their debt, and buy bonds, which pay higher interest in a time of deflation.  They can continue in this manner until they essentially own everything. \n Steep tax rates for the wealthy prevent the above scenario by forcing them to continue to use their wealth productively.  These taxes should be more focused on property taxes than income, in my opinion.  Higher taxes allow for us to have free education like every other 1st world country, free healthcare, and real welfare.  The combination of the above three items would give people a great ability to launch a business, as they would no longer be indentured servants, bound to their student loans, bound to their employer's group health coverage, or too scared of unemployment to take a risk.  Property and asset taxes are especially good for this, especially if one, for example, applied a high tax rate on the value of factories, farms, and other industrial equipment that goes unused.  This would force businesses to either use it or lose it.", "id": "c4p9tui", "summary": "They may create jobs, but it's beside the point, as a job is the lowest common denominator in the social ladder.  What we should instead desire is the opportunity to own our own businesses, so that we can keep the profits that our employer's would normally keep.  Allowing wealthy businesses and their owners to accrue more wealth makes it harder for small businesses to compete, thus lowering the living standards and opportunities available to the rest of us."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "It's actually significantly higher indoors, unless there are plants available to keep the CO2 down, so yep, highly dubious indeed.  There are probably better sources, but yes, I think it's safe to say levels above 426 ppm are easily survivable: \n Note that 600ppm was the LOWER limit used in the study.  FTA, if you're reading this while sitting in class, enjoy your 3000 ppm's :)", "id": "cbmcst5", "summary": "Don't forget your supplemental oxygen tank before you head to school."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Ah, that makes quite a bit more sense then.  I think your concern is valid, that we need to focus on all intrusions, not just drones. \n A better question to ask is why is the general population getting it right this time, when they ignore all of the other threats?  It's because people have read books and seen movies and video games with drones, and it's been embedded in our subconscious mind.  A drone is a very obvious, visceral, inhuman invasion of our privacy.  It draws out our gut level fears. \n The problem with the other intrusions is that it's tough to get people to even believe it, much less fear it.  They have no exposure to largescale supercomputing and just how powerful it has become.  We also have a stigma we are working against.  In the past, when people talked about government spying, often they in fact were crazy, as we don't actually have the manpower to do it with people.  These days, it's entirely different.  You don't need people to do the spying, you simply save the data, and use a supercomputer to analyze it.  Since people don't understand how powerful data-mining is, they write off the idea of massive surveillance as impossible. \n Even worse, there is also a lack of understanding about data-mining's weaknesses, and just how many false positives these types of programs can generate.  There is a reason your google search will give you a million results, and that is exactly what these visual and audio processing programs will do.  Imagine the insanity that would arise if people took the first hit from google as the best site to go to for their answer, and keep in mind that this is exactly the kind of nonsense that law enforcement is doing when a face recognition system gives a \"match\" on a terror suspect.  The ignorance on both sides, public and law enforcement, is pretty scary.", "id": "ca8i4t7", "summary": "I'm glad you agree.  To answer your question, people aren't panicking about other things because they don't understand them, yet."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Nice try, kid. \n In all seriousness, at a previous employer I had a couple of junior programmers ask about my salary, as they weren't sure how much they should be making.  We agreed to keep the discussion confidential, and to be honest, I don't have a lot of respect for employer's wishes in this area.  I do what I think is right, and I wanted to help them get paid a fair salary.  They of course didn't manage to get raises (our employer was pathologically cheap), and I think that over time, large differences in salary can create resentment. \n It is an absolutely horrible idea to discuss salary if your employer doesn't allow it.  If you aren't making as much as your peers, the unfairness will eventually eat you alive.  You will quite likely get fired, get your co-workers fired (by indicating that you know what others are getting paid), or take it out on the people who confided in you.  If you make more than your peers, then you expose yourself to petty backstabbing, getting fired, or having unreasonable expectations placed on you because you are getting paid more. \n Most employers don't give massive raises to current employees, even if they are very good.  I think it's an incredibly stupid policy, but it's not my policy, just what I've observed.  Therefore, if you fail to negotiate coming in the door, you are screwed, and knowing how badly you are getting screwed won't help (unless you are willing to quit).", "id": "c1p3swi", "summary": "NEVER discuss your salary with a co-worker.  A significant difference in pay might ruin your working relationship over the long term, and could get you fired.  Don't count on them to deal with it rationally by placing the blame on the employer."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "It's not practical to give everyone praise all the time, and really, when you think about it, most of the praise we give to scientists is for work that is largely done by the people working under them.  So even in the case we award a nobel prize, often the wrong people are getting recognition, or it's very disproportionately skewed towards the recepient (as expected) while ignoring the huge number of people supporting them. \n If it takes too much effort to give praise at the level you are referring to, then a better question is why we give artists and athletes so much praise?  My answer is that the corporations selling them to you aren't doing it for the people they are praising.  They are instead doing it to create a false perception of value.  For example, when they sell you tickets to a sports team, they have to convince you that this collection of bozos is somehow worth spending $100 to go see.  They do this by creating stars, a largely self-referential phenomena where a league is created, players are selected (sometimes quite arbitrarily when you consider the large pool of potential athletes), and then they focus on the ones that do well, giving them star status.  Now, keep in mind, no matter what league you create, you will always have a number of individuals that are above average, so it shouldn't surprise us when they show up.  But that won't keep them from talking about the athletes like they are the best thing since sliced bread.  This is done to create the false perception of high value, which encourages fans to spend more. \n The same thing happens with music.  No producer is going to tell you that the guy they picked is a dime a dozen in the industry.  Nor will they tell you that for every artists you've heard about, there are 100 more that are just as good.  If you knew that then you might not be inclined to spend $15 on a CD.  Instead they create the illusion of otherworldly talent, justifying the expense. \n In my opinion, this sort of outlandish praise is highly toxic.  It's not the sort of thing we should be encouraging.  For the people that receive, it can be extremely damaging, as they end up with a very distorted sense of their own importance.  For the spectators, it can be very discouraging, as they may be convinced that they will never measure up.  I believe that this is largely responsible for the fact that we have fewer people than ever participating in organized sports in adulthood, and ever-decreasing numbers of people that know how to play instruments.  If anything we need to emphasize that people have worth outside of high achievements.", "id": "ca4sely", "summary": "If you want to receive an over-the-top amount of praise, first establish an industry that stands to profit by exaggerating your skills.  Once you do this, no matter the industry, their marketing department will make it sound as if you walk on water.  Guest speakers, performance artists, authors, athletes, and other \"talents\" usually have at least one person in their life whose job it is to make them look good.  Conversely, if an industry stands to benefit by minimizing your skills, then there will no shortage of managers willing to tell you just how easily you can be replaced."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Considering that Bachelor's degrees are the new GED, I would hesitate to spend a bunch of time flopping around switching majors.  Don't waste your time, just get a degree in some field of science.  Spend the extra time at the graduate level. \n Take it from my experience, extra degrees at the undergraduate level don't count for shit, and you will be far better off finishing your degree as efficiently as possible and pursuing biology at the graduate level.  If not, you will have to start over, and put a bunch of time into getting a different bachelor's degree.  There are several reasons to do what I suggest: \n \n A biology undergraduate degree will at best qualify you to wash dishes or do grunt work in a lab, while a Masters or Phd will qualify you to do actual research. \n An engineering degree, on the other hand, actually can land you a well-paying job, so this gives you something to fall back on. \n You will likely qualify to get into an advanced biology degree with very little extra effort.  You may need to take a couple of remedial classes to fulfill the requirements, but don't feel like an undergraduate engineering degree locks you into anything.  An undergrad degree is a foot  in the door, it's not even close to closing any doors.", "id": "c2w8zl6", "summary": "Quit wasting your time over-thinking your degree.  For what you want to do, an undergrad degree won't cut it, so finish up fast, apply for a Phd program in marine biology, and do what you need to do to get in.  Having a hard science background may actually give you an edge over other candidates."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Part of the problem (and if you look at my history, you'll think I'm a commie nut, but this IS relevant), is that we have an economic system that steers us towards never ending expansionism.  When a free market economy contracts (otherwise known as recession), a lot of bad things happen, and the market ends up failing to meet the needs of the population, both in terms of employment and adequate resource distribution.  So, markets need never-ending growth to function adequately, using more resources as they go along. \n Humans are smart, but we are both enhanced and enslaved by the ideological frameworks/tools that help us survive.  If we steep ourselves in an ideological framework that causes us to continue trashing the planet (global warming for example), and provides resources to all the wrong people (irresponsible businesses) so that they can continue to manipulate the population into accepting their behavior as benign, then we will continue to make bad decisions as a population.  And this doesn't just apply to the environment, but everything, including how much food we eat, how much exercise we get, what we choose to buy, etc.  Advertising and constant manipulation are capable of disabling the rational part of our brain, crippling us. \n Market economies require expansion, and players at the top are all too willing to manipulate public in a way that is disastrous for the planet but helps increase their bottom line.  If we continue with this system, we are quite likely screwed.  Sustainability is actually one of the strongest arguments against capitalism and the big businesses that run it, which is why they fight so hard to pretend that global warming doesn't exist, that everything is fine, etc.", "id": "cbr7cf7", "summary": "If we constrain ourselves to social systems that cause us to make bad choices, all the intelligence in the world won't save us."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "Ah, well, if it makes you feel better, I've thought about this stuff so much that posts like the one I wrote previously don't take nearly as long to write as they appear, but it did touch a nerve. \n One way to think of it is that the more demanding people are of their employers, the more their employers are forced to capitulate by providing benefits and higher salaries.  Far from being a zero sum game, when one employer is forced to pay their employees more, other firms have to pay more in order to compete for the best workers.  People that you describe as \"making life difficult for others\", are only making life difficult for a certain kind of person, the legal person defined as corporations.  Any other headaches they generate for yourself, while significant, pale in comparison to the headache you will have when they are fired.  When you automate people out of a job, your salary won't go up, it will go down.  That's because the pool of unemployed people will increase, and no matter how smart you are, it WILL affect you.  Case in point, my wife is an MD, and salaries for skilled surgeons have been cut in half over the past 20 years.  That's a job (MD) that actually produces positive value.  Where is the money going?  It's going to insurance companies, wealthy investors, and other people who do nothing more than push paper around.  So, you are increasing the efficiency of people that are already working to the bone, so that billionaires can get a better return for doing nothing other than sitting on their ass and collecting interest.  That's \"efficiency\". \n What's sad is we could immediately have a dramatic, across the board increase in actual efficiency.  How?  Create an economic system that spreads the rewards for increased efficiency across the board (rather than treating it as profit and leaving workers out of the equation).  There are a ton of ways to increase efficiency that are very obvious to the guy that has done the job all day long, for years, that would never be obvious to you.  If gains were shared, then all of those millions of workers, rather than fighting you tooth and nail, would probably end up doing your job for you, even better than you.  Increases in efficiency would be celebrated, because it would mean that our work days would be shortened, or we would get paid more for the same work day.  Instead, in our current system those gains go to the top, and labor is punished through job loss.  But really, what else would we expect from a system based on profit/rents/interest, which for millenia were properly defined as ill-gotten and unethical.  What can we expect from a system designed by merchants and nobility to serve their needs?   Certainly not an efficient economy, anything but an efficient economy.", "id": "c5kx0rt", "summary": "When we succeed in automating people out of jobs, we'll reap what we sow by competing with a bunch of young unpaid interns.  Imagine justifying your salary in that context.  It won't be fun, I can tell you that."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "I would be willing to bet that any of the things below cause more accidents than 0.05 BAC: \n \n Driving while tired \n Driving while distracted (i.e. cell phone use) \n \n \"A study by researchers in Australia showed that being awake for 18 hours produced an impairment equal to a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .05, and .10 after 24 hours; .08 is considered legally drunk.\" \n Now, who here has ever gotten a ticket for driving around their normal bed time?  If you average 6 hours of sleep a night, and decide to drive to the store and buy something around bed time, then you are putting others on the road at the same level of risk as a \"drunk\" driver under the proposed laws.  If for some reason, you pull an all nighter and get on the road, then you are putting others at the same level of risk as someone who is drunk under current laws.  Think about that, and ask yourself how much sense it makes to prosecute someone who drives to the convenience store around his normal bed time?  On the flip side, ask yourself why we don't prosecute people who are driving after being up for 24+ hours? \n I also would say that while it's not as common, aggressive driving tends to be more dangerous when it does happen, and yet surprisingly I never hear of people getting tickets for tailgating and other dangerous driving maneuvers.", "id": "c9ynn04", "summary": "critical thinking can be useful."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "I have to say that the jury is still out over whether non-violent protest actually works.  Sure, it works when the powers that be already were moving in the same direction.  But most of the movements that pushed powerful people in directions they DIDN'T want to go had some element of violence or economic coercion.  Protests during the 30's definitely had elements of violence, and shutting down production for an entire city caused severe social disorder.  While I would love to believe that we can all just show up in our Sunday best and get what we want, realistically, the track record for non-violent protests isn't that great.  Ghandi was able to achieve what he did because the British were already in the process of severing ties with their colonies.  MLK was able to appeal to broader sentiments, and his vision didn't really interfere with how our economy is run.  His later views, such as describing the U.S. government as the greatest purveyor of violence in the history of human-kind have been conveniently white-washed.", "id": "c4jdnt5", "summary": "Non-violent protest that simply asks for governments to do what they want, or to do things that don't threaten their power, do work.  Non-violent protests don't work when the things being asked for change the power structure significantly.  I hate to say it, but as an officer of the law, you may be faced with the same predicament as National Guard troops did during the 30's and again in the 60's.  That is, you will be defending the rich and corrupt against the poor and honest, potentially with deadly force."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "I think a lot of IT workers have the same attitude as mechanics, in other words, that people are stupid.  The fact is, people don't care, and to them, they hate computers so much that it's worth it to have someone else do it.  What's invisible to people that would do it for free, is the fact that getting good is very expensive (either in terms of time, money, or both), but since programming is a culture/lifestyle, a lot of geeks overlook the costs, since it's part of how they choose to live.  It's like the motorhead that buys $40,000 in tools to work on cars, but thinks that people are stupid for going to him for an oil change.  He's so used to the idea of spending everything he has on cars, that it's hard for him to fathom why someone wouldn't just buy a set of tools and change the oil themselves.  He's also used to being broke, so to to him, $10 is a lot of money.  It's not that his customers are stupid, it's that they can't stand working on cars, and hate it so much, that they don't even want to find the lowest priced mechanic.  People like that aren't stupid, they're great customers.  If they were really that stupid, then $300 for tech support (or car repairs)would be a lot of money to them.  Conversely, if you were REALLY that smart, $300 would seem like pocket change to you, just like it does to his friend's dad.  You (the OP)are feeling sorry for someone that quite likely has a much easier job than you and a lot more money in the bank than you do.  Ironic, isn't it?", "id": "c11509n", "summary": "Who is the idiot, the guy that makes so much money that he can piss away $1,000's on top of the money he's spending on his kid's college education, or the dumbass kid that's so broke he can't fathom his work being worth the princely sum of $300, and feels bad that the guy got 'ripped-off'?  It's a humbling lesson, but it's worth learning.  His friend's dad probably makes $300 before lunch, doing a job that's 10x as easy as tech support."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "I think the school system is deathly afraid the world will figure out that they are useless and full of shit.  That's why we award women degrees for carrying a fucking mattress, but then deny children the opportunity to learn for having the \"gall\" to get cancer.  What people need to understand is that the reason the educational system makes no sense is because the culmination, a university degree, is going to turn out to be the scam of the century, and will turn out to be a bubble that will make the dotcom and housing bubbles look like nothing.  It's hard to be a bunch of con artists and make sense at the same time, so don't expect them to.  I'm not saying the premise of an education is flawed, just don't expect it from the bozos that are currently in charge (who are spending your money on shit like marble tables for the conference room and million dollar salaries for administrators while stiffing the students and low-level facutly), any more than you would expect great programming to come from dot-com era programmers. \n Think about it this way, in what sane world does an education in something cost more than the value that can be produced from that knowledge?  Think about all the degrees that are being awarded that are worthless.  Schools then turn around and blame it on the kids for not being disciplined enough.  When the reality is that many of the things that are being taught are bullshit, especially at the higher levels.  That's why it's so hard to get in.  Nooone wants another fucking underwater basket weaver, middle manager, mattress carrier, or random SJW douchebag.  What the world needs is more college dropouts.", "id": "cqns95k", "summary": "fuck, I need another drink."}, {"author": "composer77", "content": "I think your only real choice is to forget the guy, at least in the beginning.  Anything you do to confront him verbally will just make him feel good.  Anything you do to confront him physically will get you sent to jail or fired.  Confronting him at work is also a bad idea, as there is no way for that to go well, and could land you in quite a bit of trouble. \n The way I see it, the best way to get even is to act like you don't care and ignore the guy.  If you see him and have to interact with him, then feel free to work some insults into the conversation (in a non-confrontational way).  i.e.  When he delivers something, say \"Wow, that's a small package, it reminds me of you.\", but don't give him any indication that you respect him or care about him.  One liners are great, but don't get into a verbal sparing match with the guy at work.", "id": "c1q37uv", "summary": "Your best bet with people like this is to combine ignoring (or even being superficially nice to) them 95% of the time with the occasional cheap shot or insult."}]}
+{"author": "lasertits69", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The amount of adderall you seem to be using is minimal; adderall improves impulse control/reduces drug abuse; MOST IMPORTANTLY, GET HELP. \n PS: get professional help", "output": "crazyclover92 is both right and wrong.  I'm a little bit older than you and I'm finishing up pharmacy school this year so I know a bit about adderall and can relate to your experiences.  I saw in the thread that you take between 20mg every other day and up to 100mg on weekends.  This is nothing.  Normal dosing is between 20mg to 80mg per day and you take between 10mg and 50mg per day.  Assuming it is your prescription and it actually helps you, it is in your best interest to keep using it.  A person with ADHD who is untreated has 5x the risk to abuse drugs.  So, paradoxically you might need drugs to keep you off worse drugs.  That said it is better to be drug free so push yourself to get fully sober.  It won't be easy, there will always be a reason/excuse to keep using.  Above all, the most important thing you could do  right now  is go get help from a professional.  Do whatever you can to get professional help.  IF you have ADD/ADHD, don't stop taking your Adderall until you've talked to someone who is licensed to talk to you about these problems.  I am not and I doubt anyone here is...so get professional help."}], "user_id": "longlamp_12118", "history": [{"author": "lasertits69", "content": "divorce her.  not because of the money, because of the crazy.  \"I will not beg for money\" .....but she'll steal it.....from her husband......who is working HIS face off to pay for her house and bills?  She didn't even stop when she ran out of money.  20k wasn't enough, she needed another 750$ after that, which was all cosmetic shit too.  She just said fuck it and kept going; that is not someone very familiar with reality.  She wont contribute a damn thing to the household out of selfishness and then once she consumes her whole income, she consumes your whole income and then cuts into next month's income too???  She is like a debt explosion.  The only benefit to staying with her is that after a few more months you might not have a house and bills to work three jobs to pay down because of the insane amounts of debt she sounds like she has hidden from you somewhere or will incur suddenly.  How much does she put out?  If she's not on your dick 24/7 with all of the beautifying shit she buys, she's probably on someone else's. \n You know Im all for staying with your partner when they get a bit chunky; if they have some mental issues that came up that they have to sort out; you know, the whole for better or for worse thing.  This lady is NOT a partner.  She is a 21+ year old 16 year old.  She is a 16 year old with a credit card thats linked to YOUR wallet.  Ask yourself...what does she contribute to this relationship, materially or otherwise?  Am I getting a good return on all of the work I am putting in?  It is admirable that you will work so hard for your family but it sounds like this woman will cause you nothing but greif.  You work your ASS off all year and she doesnt think you deserve anything for your birthday because you saw your friends?!?!?!?!?!?  As if thats some sort of treat that should be rationed out.  cut your losses and call it good luck that you only wasted 2 years on this girl and then get out and find a woman who will appreciate a man that will work as hard as you do. \n Divorce her sooner rather than later, the longer you wait the more debt shell have to split 50/50 with you in court.  And if I had to wager money Id bet that you two will get divorced, you do not have your life priorities aligned.  You guys are on totally different pages.  I'd wager $20,723 you guys will divorce.", "id": "c1re8gj", "summary": "You are sacrificing your emotional, mental, and physical health working for your life expenses and she shows you nothing but disrespect and ungratefulness.  FUCK. THAT. NOISE."}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "Couple of things: \n 1) Most addicts start out in the under control phase and them things spiral down.  Pass a drug test as an active meth user, get job, get money, get more meth, get addicted.  Now the employer has a meth head handling his product. \n 2) Most people who piss hot for pot are not addicts.  Pot stays in the system for up to 60 days.  Smoking pot recreationally will not affect employability for the vast majority of jobs. \n So the drug users most likely to pass a drug test are also most likely to become addicts, while those most likely to fail are recreational users of a plant that is safer than alcohol, cigarettes, and even Tylenol.   It is a poor filtering mechanism born of insurance incentives, propaganda, drug free workplace incentives, and profit motive of the testing companies.", "id": "cmksrkc", "summary": "10% useful tool/90% shitty system."}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "The real stims are better with dopa reputake inhibition for sure as that is a part of their mechanism in the reward center of the brain.  The issue with that and Bup is that the mild dopa reuptake inhibition is that the stims do it better so your dopa receptors are downregulated and when you use Bup only you can't reach the same level of dopaminergic transmission.  Honestly though it seems as though you know your facts and when you talk to doctors using facts you've done a large part of their job for them.  If you present a well supported theory about your medication regimen docs are usually responsive to that.  Ie don't go in and act like a drug addict; go in and act like a knowledgable patient who is concerned that their medications are no longer working well.  Doctors like this because it puts them in the know, rather than having patients trying to go over the doctors head and self treat.  If you have under managed pain for instance, a dr would rather hear about it rather than having you take more painkillers.  This is the same thing but with a different problem. \n As I'm sure you know, when you stopped taking the dex you caused the quick fatigue etc.   Now I am no doctor and this is no medical advice but it seems to me like your issues are mostly managed by the Dexedrine and are helped out with the Bup.  So you need the stims for effective management of your symptoms. \n If you are worried about asking for stims, just be honest and tell the dr what you told us.  You may even want to Suggest vyvanse instead of the dex if the dr is skeptical of giving you the dex for fear of abuse.  Vyvanse is a lysine ester conjugate of dexamphetamine.  This means that in order for it to be active to must be converted to dex by esterases in your blood.  The end result of this is that it is very difficult to abuse because it is difficult to spike plasma concentrations to a recreational level. \n I too have ADHD and find that vyvanse is like dex but with less edginess and ADRs.  The only issue remaining is insurance which generally doesn't like vyvanse unless the dr convinces them to pay for it.  If your insurance gets in the way of your healthcare try to find a new provider which I know is harder than it sounds but if they are tying your and your drs hands then they are harming your health. \n Sometimes medications stop working and when they do, it is always better to address that sooner rather than later.  You know what you're talking about but you're talking to the wrong people since reddit can't really give you the kind of help you need in this case. \n best of luck good sir or madam.", "id": "c3u6kzo", "summary": "do your best to get the right meds through the right channels even if it means new insurance and other bullshit."}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "Codeine is what is called a prodrug.  This means that the molecule in the pill is inactive until converted to its active form in the body.  The conversion of codeine to morphine is mediated by CYP2D6, an enzyme with relatively high genetic variability.  Some people are poor metabolizers, and do not activate codeine at a sufficient rate.  Others are rapid metabolizers and get pretty jammin over a Tylenol #3 (30mg codeine-300mg APAP). \n Aside from the predictability issues of it, it passes in breast milk and has caused infant death due to CNS depression.  You can give kids APAP as soon as they pop out. \n As an opiate analgesic, codeine also can get you a DUI, land you in the hospital for constipation requiring manual disimpaction (nurse digs poop rocks out of your asshole with her hands), make you itch all over, get you nauseas to the point of vomiting (esp is combined with alcohol), and can cause death due to CNS depression (where you stop breathing and pumping blood because your brain literally can't even). \n As far as chronic use specifically, you will develop a tolerance and need more and more drug to do the same job.  You will wind up progressing to hydrocodone, then oxycodone, then morphine and beyond.  Another side effect, particularly of the more potent opiates, is a feeling of intense euphoria.  I hear this gets quite addicting.  So now, you aren't taking it for just pain but also sometimes for boredom.  The spiral of addiction begins.  Eventually, your RX will no longer get you high and at this point many people start taking more than recommended and then \"finding a guy\" to get them pills to get through the rest of the month until they can fill their next RX. \n At some point they can't afford the ever increasing amount of pills they require and their guy will recommend heroin: the mack daddy of all opiate pain killers.  Its cheaper than the pills, gets you higher, kills more pain, and lasts longer.  Oh you don't want to inject?  Great news!  you can snort it or eat it just like with the pills.  Some time later you will have a tolerance to all the oral/insufflated heroin you can afford, and being in the clutches of addiction, you will succumb and turn into an IV drug abuser. \n Switching gears to APAP, it is not addictive, does not build tolerance, and is completely safe for normal livers when kept under the dose limit of 4g/day.  The four day warning on the box is mostly because if you have pain or fever that requires more than four consecutive days of treatment you may be treating the symptoms of an underlying condition.", "id": "cn0q36u", "summary": "tylenol is OTC while codeine is DEA scheduled for good reason"}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "it will take some attention. \n FUUUUUU.  attention is why im on it in the first place!!! lol\nNah, I knew it had serious addictive potential so i havent taken it on a daily basis as my Dr. recommends.  Sure, on days i dont take it im all over the place.  Better that than addicted to amphetamine derivative or unable to focus at all without the drug.", "id": "c1j30do", "summary": "Im not really addicted; this isnt withdrawl, its rebound"}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "Feminists doctor stats to benefit the movement.  They try to reason out ways that sexism against men isn't real or it is actually men's own fault.  They look at the top tier and say men are over represented here, so all men have privilege.  They downplay female privilege as benevolent sexism.  Feminists have created a world where a CEO can go around calling her male employees \"penis\" and be able to make the argument that men are not a protected class so it isn't sexist.  Feminists often refuse to compromise on issues that are clearly not black and white.  They protest outside of a lecture on issues facing men and boys to the point where police have to get involved...and then they yell police.  They try to annex anyone who even talks about equality.  \"You believe in equality between the sexes?  You're a feminist!\" ...fuck you I'm just a guy who thinks people should be free.  Feminists want equal opportunity, then bitch that girls and women don't want to seize those opportunities.  So they want to lower the bar so that when my building burns down the send in some 150lb woman carrying half her weight in gear to haul my 260lb ass out.  They campaign in a way that makes individual boys and men ashamed of their gender and afraid to be masculine.  When girls have a problem it's patriarchy and needs to be fixed.  When boys have problem it's a snide \"patriarchy hurts men too\".  When a man presents a logical take on a female problem, he's mansplaining...even though they can't find anything wrong with what he's saying.  Hell the title doesn't even mean anything anymore since it covers anything from egalitarianism to radical lesbian man-hate.  If the word means everything then it is kind of actually meaningless.  And for a meaningless word it sure gets tossed around like its important quite a bit. \n Besides that, I find feminists focus on nonissues in the present world.  They focus on issues that women could fix for themselves if they wanted to.  Example: your makeup question.  Women are getting gang raped to death in Africa and amerifems are worried about makeup.  If it were such an issue to women, they could stop wearing makeup and men would have to deal with it. \n They see the world with blinders on.  To take your makeup question again but reframed without the blinders: why is it that when a man wants to hide a blemish he is made fun of for wearing makeup, but women can cake the shit on without a word? \n I personally feel that many of the modern feminist issues are imposed by women on women, eg slut shaming. \n Many feminists seek to criminalize normal Hetero sex.", "id": "cdt53fp", "summary": "feminism earned its status as a dirty word by pushing a gendered ideology that supports radicals and focuses on empowering women to equality without even considering that maybe women have the advantage (or privilege) in some situations.  It presupposes female as victim and that doesn't line up with reality.  (Did I mention they hold/promote/legislate based on views out of touch with reality?)"}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "Nobody here believes they have the god given right; but they certainly have that as a state-protected right. \n If you defend yourself against a woman, she will call the cops.  She will tell them a story that differs greatly from reality, with you instigating, escalating, and striking without reason.  She will ham up the crocodile tears.  Any marks left on you from her initial assault will be chalked up to self defense.  No marks left on you? She was too scared to even try fighting back. \n Good luck convincing the officers that the sobbing, weaker, physically inferior, passive, clearly shaken woman came up and assaulted big scary you.  (Especially if you've been lifting per TRP and have a visible tattoo) \n Do you live with the girl?  You're spending the night in jail thanks to the Duluth model of domestic violence wherein the stronger person more physically capable of harm gets hauled off.  Want to venture a guess as to which gender is stronger and more capable of harm?  Hint: it's not the \"fairer\" sex.", "id": "crp1uxi", "summary": "God might say to slap the bitch down, but the guys with handcuffs and guns say otherwise. \n Edit: teeth is also a pretty bad place to punch without hand protection.  You can get cut up pretty good and the flora of the mouth can get deposited into the wound.  Here they will become infectious and with the short distance to travel to the bones of the hand, you can wind up with a nasty bone infection.  Infections of the bone are difficult to treat since it's hard to get antibiotics into bone.  You'll need more than the augmentin your  pharmacist has for ya."}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "It would have been incomplete without that characterization.  At first read, it DOES sound crazy and made up.  But sometimes real life is stranger than fiction and it is fully POSSIBLE that this happened.  The possibility combined with the serious claims should prompt society to at least look into these claims.", "id": "c768t58", "summary": "It sounds crazy and made up\"=/=\"It is crazy and made up\""}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "Exactly.  But that actually kinda proves the point.  It lays out the really real reality, the impartial truth.  From that truth you can draw one of two convictions: to stay vibrant and be happy...or to never bother to try.  From there, it gives a choice for you to do what you want since none of it matters in the end.  Take the easy way out or make something. \n Its a sort of gift you can only give to yourself.  With dedication to your mindset and lifestyle, you can live more happy minutes for your short, ultimately meaningless life.  Once forgotten, even if it takes a million years, the only value of your life will be the value of  your  experience.  Well not just your the value of your experience, but also the value you can add to other's experiences.  Their lives work like yours: ultimately forgotten.  Their value will have only been in how well the lives treated those condensations of consciousness no longer remembered.  So if everyone enriches their own lives and everyone else's, we can augment the only value our lives can possibly hold. \n and you don't do that by giving up on your goals, blindly following impulse, and watching TV.  You do it by getting out there, contributing what you can.  The most work is done when you organize.  It all requires some degree of putting yourself out there, and valuing your self enough to make the most of 745,000 hours.", "id": "ca94hhr", "summary": "the pic says none of its gonna matter anyways so do what you really want.  If that's what you really want, you probably haven't thought about it very well."}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "Really quick distinction: individual neurons do not store information, they transmit information.  This pattern of transmission in general is what makes up our perceptions and personalities, and recall. \n And at that, Personality, perception, and recall are not really very distinct from one another.  For example: \n You see a red car.  The \"red\" wavelength photons hit receptors on your retina which send signal to the occipital lobe which renders the color red to your frontal lobe.  You are now consciously aware that that car over there is red. \n But thats not all.  When you were a child a man wearing all red murdered your whole family and you sat in their (red) blood for days before you were found.  Now instead of just seeing a red car, the very color \"red\"--that is the event of \"red\" photons entering your eye and being processed in your occipital lobe--is tied to this memory.  It was deemed so important that now a neuron responsible for \"red\" also tells stimulates a neuron responsible for \"Memory of the man who murdered my whole family\" and that painful memory is summoned. \n Now you hate the color red.  You don't have any red shirts, red shoes, you hate marinara sauce.  All because that sensory input process also cross references with your memory of similar sensory inputs. \n So really you see memory, perception, personality are tied to one another. \n I would like to provide you with more specifics but the truth is that there are PhD researchers looking into the very questions you ask.  We don't know the specifics.  We [think we] know what some individual components and neurotransmitters do but often, as is the case with serotonin, we are missing huge parts of critical information.  With serotonin, we still don't understand the various families of 5HT receptors well enough to manipulate them with clinical success.  Furthermore, IF these PhD level researchers found the answers, chances are that it would take years of study to truly be able to understand the workings of the brain let alone the abstract construct of consciousness. \n Consider your computer analogy.  How complicated are modern computers? Very.  And how many strings of data do they process in parallell? Not many compared to the human brain.  The brain is a biological computer which has processing mechanisms vastly different (and more complicated) than the modern binary computer. \n What is teh end result of all of modern computing?  An image on a screen, sound from the speakers which are responsive to your input (from the keyboard and mouse).  The image and sound are both perceptible to humans...we can objectively measure and verify them.  But what is your brain's final output? A motor output, internal monologue, and a construct of consciousness responsive to over five different types of external stimuli.  None but motor output of these are absolutely objective or verifiable [and we understand the peripheral/mid/hindbrain components motor output pretty well].  For exclusively cranial processes, we have surrogate markers such as \"localized glucose demand\" to estimate energy consumption of areas of the brain and extrapolate from there what is going on.  But we cannot directly measure consciousness the way we can a computer screen.  All of this makes for A LOT of inconclusive studies or studies which pont in a direction but don't actually prove it is the right direction. \n Besides that there are severe ethical concerns over experiments on the human brain/psyche, as even a minorly careless procedure could permanently stick someone with mental issues.  We can't just go in and saw off someone's skull and place tiny little sensors on each neuron to see what exactly is going on b/c it isn't safe enough to do on another human.", "id": "c3p5eju", "summary": "Essentially trying to figure out the human brain/consciousness by modern science is sort of like trying to figure out the interior layout of a mansion from the keyhole on the front door."}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "I see you're getting downvoted a lot in this comment subthread.  But as someone who had studied martial arts for almost half my life, I've gotta say that I agree with you.  We would be taught techniques that seem fucking brutal and downright deadly.  Some of them were overkill.  But you know what sensei would always say?  \"I know this seems brutal and deadly.  Because it is.  You don't use this stuff in horseplay with your friends.  You use it when your well being is in danger and not a second before.  You use it because a person swinging a club at you may not want to kill you; but you must act as though they do.  A club can put you down for good with one strike.  It is deadly force even if the person isn't using it with that intent.  So yeah, you control the weapon, break his arm, strike his throat, take the weapon, and beat him until he isn't a threat.  And you don't feel bad about it the next day.  When someone swings a club, one person is going to the hospital and one person is going to jail.  Which one do you want to be?\" \n So if a woman is grabbing your balls, she  could  just want to assert dominance.  OR she could squeeze twist and pull until your nuts rupture and you suffer hormonal havoc and infertility the rest of your life.  Or, you know, die from shock.  So you assume that when she makes that power grab that she intends to maim or kill.  And you react in kind. \n Even if the knights do get involved, chances are they aren't going to mutilate your nuts.  They'll give you a nice beating to flex their knighthood and move on satisfied that they demonstrated their value to the woman with their balls in her purse.  Plus, if it happens in the bar the bouncers  will  eject the knights, whereas they wouldn't even notice a woman squeezing your balls until you die.  If it happens out of the bar, then you made a huge mistake by sticking around in an outnumbered combat situation.", "id": "ceykcpb", "summary": "like you say later in this thread, you should destroy the threat and retreat to safety.  That means KOing the bitch trying to rip your nuts off and getting away from her gang of knights."}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "well yeah . but the term \"asking for it\" is really really insulting, that's what I mean. Not that you can't take precautions not to fall into the wrong hands. Just that \"asking for it\" implies you're inviting rape to happen. \n 'Asking for it' and 'inviting rape to happen' are both hyperboles.  Nobody actually thinks you sent some scumbag an invitation to come over and rape you.  Nobody thinks you went to his house and shouted \"please rape me!\" until he did.  What they are saying is that behavior like from OP: getting too drunk to keep your skirt down while you fumble with your phone slumped against the wall in some strange location filled with strangers is giving them an opportunity to rape you.  A passed-out-drunk girl is a very easy target to rape.  The rapist does not differentiate between invite and opportunity and that is what makes them a rapist.  Unless rape is a new concept to you, a 21 year old adult should know that it doesn't take stationary to look like an invite to a rapist.  Rapists don't wait for invites, they wait for opportunities.  If you know that rapists will take advantage of any opportunity  and then you give them a blatant opportunity  then you should probably change up your game plan the next time you go out. \n Similar to muggers.  Muggers don't wait for you to ask if they would like to have your new iPhone 4s.  They see an opportunity to TAKE the phone and treat it as an invite.  If I know this and walk around in the ghetto at 3am texting on my iPhone, I just chose to give the mugger an opportunity to take my phone.  Neither a rapist nor a mugger waits for an invite, they only wait for opportunities.  If you know that and you give them that opportunity then you're not operating rationally.", "id": "c4323ft", "summary": "With rapists, opportunity==invite.  Hence the problem still lies with the rapist scum and I don't blame the victim for anything other than failing to account for the existence of basic rapist scum tactics."}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "I've heard in in college it's supposed to be really easy to make friends \n It is probably the easiest it will ever be.  College friend making is easy-mode.  All the same age and situation.  All live together.  All looking to make friends.  Take advantage of those factors rather than using your lack of success despite those factors as excuse to stop trying.  Next year, live in a double or triple on a shared bathroom dorm hall.  Leave your door open whenever in the room.  Get a booze connection and people will flock to you.  Talk to people about parties or they won't invite you to them.  Be interested and interesting.  You're in good shape?  Use this social fail semester/summer to get in fucking great shape and next semester will be a feeding frenzy.  Fit-->Confidence-->Frat bid-->instant social circle/invite to parties/social proof.  Frats not your thing?  Just cut it out but the last part will be a little tougher to get on your own without a network of like minded fellows with the same exact social goals. \n Also, as an asian/middle eastern looking person, you WILL be stereotyped.  You've gotta fight that yourself.  It sucks but look around and see what the other people who look like you are doing, see what they look like.  You'll probably notice they all hang out with each other like boring little racial cliques.  I'm guessing you don't want that so you need to look like you don't want that.  Getting fit as fuck will help you to that end A LOT.  I have never seen an asian/arab clique with even one dude who isn't skinnyfat or outright fatfat and I go to a goddamn pharmacy school. \n Think of all the wrong shit you did in high school and all the right shit you did in high school and compare it to your freshman year.  I bet it looks a lot like the wrong shit you did in high school.  Don't repeat your mistakes.  Go join some extracurriculars that have a party factor to them.  Don't go join the nerd club, join something that will get you where you want to be. \n Women got you down?  Remember they are just people.  The only way you'll get over the all boys school nervous mentality is by going out and talking to tons of women.  When you get shut down for the nth time, remember that your goal is to get good with women and you do that by failing a lot with women.  Mission accomplished.  First girl you approach each night, go up and say the absolute worst thing you can think of and nothing else will bug you out.  \"Well hello, would you like to meet my mom?\" will make \"oh wow, is your drink blue?\" feel like casanova.  And yes \"is your dink blue\" is a line I've used that led to me getting laid/repeat dates.  Women love when you say stupid shit to them because it shows you aren't serious. \n Did any of that tickle your fancy?  No?  You want parties now?  Well then get the hell out of your dorm room and start walking into parties you weren't invited to.  I've done it and its not bad.  Pretend like you belong and make up a story if you want.  Or when people ask who you know just say you walked in off the street because you wanted to party.  And show you mean it by having fun and making fun.  You'll never get kicked out if you are making the party better. Bring your own flask so you won't leech their booze.  Or fuck it, leech their booze.  Worst that happens is you get kicked out and walk up the street to the next one.  If your school is repped as a party site, there were parties going on all three nights of MLK weekend.", "id": "cfmkjsc", "summary": "Get fit as fuck and talk to people, express your value+confidence.  Nobody will give it to you so go take it.  College is \"different\" because it is four years of YOLO, not because somebody comes up and hands you fun on a silver platter."}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "The study is  decent .  The interpretation is horrendous.  She says that  college age men  are 6%....blah blah.  Just because a measure of center (like mean or median) is about \"college aged,\" does not mean that the study is representative of \"college aged.\"  For example, I could take an extremely well designed study of 10000 male newborns and 10000 forty year old men and survey their physical coordination, finding that the 50% of them are unable to even hold a pencil.  Just because the mean of age in this hypothetical study is 20, does not mean that 50% of college aged men cannot even hold a pencil.  Not to mention there is a bit of sampling error associated with convenience sampling (and with offering to pay your participants)", "id": "c1j2y39", "summary": "The survey is not representative of the population which she claims it is."}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "For me it comes down to personal responsibility.  If you started a life with irresponsible contraception choices, then you should do right by that life.  Even though that life is not aware as far as we know, it has to do with the idea that it was pretty easy for one to not get pregnant.  If you decide to not use condoms or other contraception, then you decided to create that life.  The woman involved knew she could get pregnant and went ahead and decided that HER BODY could be used for sex at the risk of HER BODY becoming pregnant.  If that is news to anyone, they should not be having sex. \n However, if someone is raped that is a whole different story.  The pregnancy was not her choice, it was forced into her.  She was walking down the street and someone just up and put a baby inside her body without asking her. \n Its the difference between adopting a dog and then kicking it out VS kicking out a dog that someone just tossed into your house when you said you didn't want a dog.", "id": "c3w85rv", "summary": "We cannot expect someone to: \n 1) Take care of something which they did not accept \n 2) Be constantly reminded of the time they were raped \n We CAN expect someone to: \n 1) Fulfill responsibilities which they willingly accepted \n 2) Accept the consequences of their actions which they chose to perform"}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "The majority of feminists do not agree with radical feminist groups, but then again, at least there are groups. \n The majority of feminists who don't agree with radicals aren't speaking up about it.  Person 1: \"I am a Globrog and I think Z, X, and A.\"  Person 2: \"I too am a Globrog.\"  Although Person 2 never said anything about Z, X, or A; the fact that they use the same identifier (Globrog) to describe themselves as someone who IS known to think Z, X, and A often leads to the conclusion that Person 2 does believe those things.", "id": "c1eok90", "summary": "Extremists get the attention but moderates do not argue against the attack dogs. \n > Don't forget it was less than 40 years ago that the feminist movement began, and before that, we had nothing. \n Its been at least 90 years since feminism (as the idea that women are oppressed by the patriarchy and need to be liberated) started."}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "It does pertain to what you said: \n If the costumes didn't sell, they'd be off the shelves.  So, the absence of non-slutty costumes which you note tell us that they don't sell when on shelves next to slutty ones.  And who buys these costumes?  Women do [mostly].  They choose what they want and it is overwhelmingly slutty. \n The woman in the picture says that feminism is the solution to slutty costumes but feminism is what empowered women to actually buy the clothes/costumes they want in the first place.  This sexual liberation caused the market to respond by giving women what they will buy the most of.  She doesn't understand this economic property but she feels forced into being a slut.  When this woman feels her sexuality limited in any way, she says 'this is why we need feminism'.  But all she needs to solve her own damn problem is an internet connection, 10 minutes, and 40-100 US Dollars. \n But instead of doing this, she falls back on her feminist dogma and says that she needs feminism to protect her from the results of feminism.  I just mocked her, therefore she is mockable.", "id": "c71legl", "summary": "feminism--> sexual liberation-->--> Market response: 95% of costumes are slutty [what you describe]--> disenfranchised minority can't find a costume which matches her sexuality--> Feminist perceives a need for feminism to protect her from the choices of liberated women--> non-indoctrinated people find this mockable [what loose-dendrite describes]"}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "I took a one semester logic course as an elective in my Doctor of Pharmacy program and that shit helped soo much.  I just clarifies and streamlines the way you think.  It would definitely help clean up the education system and result in more scientists; more understanding. \n Many others in my school lack clear critical thought to scary degrees; They will be in charge of healthcare someday.", "id": "c1fh72v", "summary": "Logic class should be mandatory!"}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "So I regularly take a 54mg dose of Concerta (time release methylphenidate).  It usually goes without issue.  I took it at 830AM (Boston time) and it is almost certainly wearing off.  Normally the clarity and focus simply wanes away until I am back to normal.  Today it gradually dropped off but, instead of being my normal self, I am extremely \"different.\"  I have waves of anxiety that at times drown out any meaningful thought or focus on even the simplest task.  When they recede, I am marginally functional.  My HR is about 80 BPM--up from my normal resting of about 65.  I have compulsion to identify every moving object and every noise.  I cannot tune anything out.  I am even noticing that my writing [typing?] is more rigid and choppy than usual.  sounds weird but my teeth are somewhat tingling.  It is like I am acutely aware of everything and nothing at the same time.  I am talking a mile per minute and just going on and on and on (as you can probably tell)  This is not good news since I have to study for two exams over the next two days.  I do smoke cannabis, though i havent since tuesday.  I am very experienced with marijuana and have  relatively  excellent functionality while baked--enough to study.  I thought about smoking to reduce anxiety but if i had a negative reaction then id be worse off than i am now.", "id": "t3_fw4vk", "summary": "Im coming off of concerta and FREAKING THE FUCK OUT.  Got two exams over thurs/fri and need to not be freaking the fuck out.  Should i smoke some bud?  anyone been in my spot before that has some advice?"}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "So my friend was toking some bud, smoked 1.5 bowls to his face and got moked. This bud had been dipped in green isopropyl alcohol wash from his grinder and the alcohol was allowed to evaporate, so this bud had extra THC on it. He was feeling good, ate a whole chocolate bunny but then everything went south. He said he was getting this weird \"rushing headache but like not a headache because it doesn't hurt its just uncomfortable\" and he was kinda squirming on the couch. So I walk him to his room and his legs are shaking and trembling and he is swerving all over the place like a drunk (he did not drink). It was like his legs just weren't listening to his brain. By the end of the short trip to his bedroom he couldn't walk and fell into his guitar amps and then flopped himself onto his bed while saying \"oh fuck\" as he started falling. So he knew what was happening as he was falling and after he was on his bed I sat with him for a bit and we talked like normal. Mentally, he seemed OK just pretty moked but I have seen him wayyy more baked. He mentioned a fear of dying a few times but didn't stick with the idea he was going to die it just came up a couple of times. He also said there has been a couple of times when he gets really baked that he has passed out under the stress of fluorescent lights and come to within seconds feeling fine and reassuring everyone that an ambulance is not needed. What happened last night? Has anyone had a similar experience?", "id": "t3_s0x3p", "summary": "friend tokes on some special bud and his legs stop working and he gets an \"uncomfortable rushing 'headache'\""}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "So I had this awesome idea.   Get anywhere between 250-1000 Ents to pool a bunch of resources, purchase an area of land, and use knowledge and skill from within our collective to construct a working community.  We could farm for food and have an economy based on whoever was best at a task performing it.  If everyone did their part and it was well managed and budgeted, I think that a stable local economy would emerge and we could form an artisan economy that is entirely local and independent from big bankers, politick, and unstable world economy.  On top of all this, because we could self sustain, it means that we would be harder to coerce by larger government because they can't revoke funding that we don't ask for!  We could be somewhere inconvenient for them to monitor us so we would basically have the police power.  Especially if we don't connect to state funded roads.  This means that nobody would bother you for toking up because the local police would have plans to toke later too.  We could say 'fuck this' to all the shit going on with countries worldwide going bankrupt and break away from that and produce a thriving economy, community, and culture on our own would be awesome.  It would prove that you can smoke herb and lead a productive life.  It would prove that politicians and engineers and accountants and medical professionals can be smokers too (not on the job!).  Mostly, it would show everyone that MJ is not that bad.", "id": "t3_gogth", "summary": "A semi-communist town of Ents who all produce a stable, independent, local economy amidst a world that is going down the tubes run by people who say herb is evil.  Proof that MJ is clearly not evil; that people who smoke it can be productive people too."}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "So a recent  post about an 80$ blunt  they could've gotten a full 7g (40% more weed for only 25% more cost! marginal price: 10$/g--a good fuckin deal). \n So...Do you pick up grams or 8ths or even quarters regularly?  Well check your dealer's price structure and figure out what the best way for you to purchase would be.  Mine is like this: \n >1g=20$ \n >3.5g=50$=14.29/g= savings of 19.99$ over purchasing 3.5g at 20$ each \n >7g=100$= 14.29/g= no savings over getting two 8ths \n >14g=170$= 12.15/g= 29.96$ saved over getting two 4ths \n >28g=340$ 12.15/g= no savings over two halfs \n Buying weed is a balancing act: you take risk every time you go to your guys house.  You are spending a lot of money and time picking up.  But in order to mitigate these factors all you need to do is spend more money  at once  but less money  overall .  If you've got the money to drop and you smoke more than an \"every-now-and-then\" smoker you might as well save money and time by getting the next 2-3 weeks worth of bud at once instead of 14 times over the next 2-3 weeks.  So looking at the price scheme above, the cheapest unit cost is with the ounces or half ounces.  The only incentive to buy an oz would be to save time on picking up, but I rarely have 340$ sitting around, so half ounces it is!  Figure out what works for you! \n I used to pay 20$ a gram.  Now I pay 12.15$ a gram solely because I pick up 14g at once.  I know that I will smoke 14 more grams of weed in my life, so when I have the money, I buy in bulk and my weed is squared away for a while and I save 110$ every time I buy a half oz instead of 14 grams one by one. \n So pair up with a friend and split halfs.  If your price structure is anything like mine you'll wind up paying ~85$ for 7g and you will never have to drop 170$ at a time!  The system I use (when I have money flowing) is to buy a half and hold on to it.  Every time I smoke I have to \"buy\" they weed from myself at retail price.  If I smoke a gram, I need to put 20$ into the pot pot.  After smoking 8.5g I have enough cash to pick up  and  about 5g of weed.  So I reup and I archive an 8th and seal it up in my head stash to be smoked in dire times or when I just wanna smoke that fire 'pepe le pew' in three months.  It is a somewhat complicated system but it yields excellent results when it has been running for a while and I wind up with a massive head stash of weed I already paid for but never smoked.", "id": "t3_ix4f6", "summary": "buy more, spend less \n word"}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "So I'm at a friend's house roasting the volcano and listening to him drop ill beats.  He had packed a fat bowl and smoked me out so I figured I'd pack one since he just sold me 1.85 for the price of a g (20 bucks, dank bud).  I rip out a nug and hand it to him for the vape.  He suggests we smoke out of his roomate's amsterdam-made bong.  I wholeheartedly agree, knowing full well that I'll probably smoke out his roomates too.  I pack a fat bowl, corner well and take a rip.  pass to friend who does the same.  He passess to one of his roomates in the circle, who also corners.  The last fucker, however, roasts the whole bowl, and KEEPS THE FLAME ON EVEN ONCE THE THE BOWL IS BURNING/CHERRIED.  Now, my blood is boiling (worth mentioning that I'm at about [8]-[9]) as I watch the ignorant bastard rip the bong for a solid 8 \"Mississippis\" and I watch the cherry work its way down through the bowl pack and pull through.  After he kicks about 2/3 of a bowl of someone else's buds he has the nerve to hand the bong back to me and say with an unrestrained tone of douchebaggery \"hmm...I think its kicked\" \n So I look him right in the eye and say \"huh, well at least we each got our equitable share of the weed in that bowl.\"  He was about to nod in agreement when I roundhoused him in the side of the head.  He drops to the ground, briefly loses consciousness and--upon coming to--says, \"Ahh my head!  What the fuck is going on?\" \n \"Hmm...I think it's kicked.\"", "id": "t3_f9naq", "summary": "Stoner rage over cornering ends in a deranged fantasy including feet of fury and witty word play.  Fantasy ends and stoner peacefully vapes in another room. \n EDIT: sorry I didn't make this clear.  This was a daydream, not reality.  daydream ended in peaceful smoking and a resolution to write on /r/trees about it to blow off some steam"}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "At 1am on 4/20, I was alone in my room trying to figure out my pharmaceutics teacher's inane slides.  They just didn't make any sense!  Now, I was at a [0] and I'm a pretty smart guy when it comes to this type of stuff; it really was just these damn powerpoint slides.  I was frustrated as hell so I took an r/trees break and upvoted  all  the things.  Went back to the notes and was immediately re-frustrated and just said \"Fuck it, I'll smoke a bit for 4/20 and come back to it\".  I came to remember that I only had a stale roach, so I smoked it a bit and decided it'd be easier if I just killed it in my bubbler.  On my way downstairs to get the piece, I was thinking about how shitty my day was going and bitching to myself about my 3rd world problems and I took a hit and was pissed cause it was a kinda nasty, stale roach and it was all I had on 4/20.  That's when it hit me that there are people out there with  real  problems and that are suffering for long periods of our already short lives.  And they dont even have weed to smoke!   I was bitching about all of this unimportant shit,  and  that I've got weed to smoke.  That basically made all my negative feelings about my problems go away, and, as I killed that shit in my bubbler, I really thought about the how much I have to be thankful for compared to so many other people out there.  If you're reading this, you're probably not one of them [since you're on the internet].  So, I figured I'd share this perspective so that any other Ents who are having a shitty start to 4/20 can apply it to their own problems and be reminded that they even have some bud to make it even easier.  Life is good. [7.34]", "id": "t3_gu89x", "summary": "On this day of celebration, remember to count yourself lucky for all of the problems that you don't face and for the ganj that you smoke.  Don't forget how good you have it :)"}, {"author": "lasertits69", "content": "At 1am on 4/20, I was alone in my room trying to figure out my pharmaceutics teacher's inane slides. They just didn't make any sense! Now, I was at a [0] and I'm a pretty smart guy when it comes to this type of stuff; it really was just these damn powerpoint slides. I was frustrated as hell so I took an r/trees break and upvoted all the things. Went back to the notes and was immediately re-frustrated and just said \"Fuck it, I'll smoke a bit for 4/20 and come back to it\". I came to remember that I only had a stale roach, so I smoked it a bit and decided it'd be easier if I just killed it in my bubbler. On my way downstairs to get the piece, I was thinking about how shitty my day was going and bitching to myself about my 3rd world problems and I took a hit and was pissed cause it was a kinda nasty, stale roach and it was all I had on 4/20. That's when it hit me that there are people out there with real problems and that are suffering for long periods of our already short lives. And they dont even have weed to smoke! I was bitching about all of this unimportant shit, and that I've got weed to smoke. That basically made all my negative feelings about my problems go away, and, as I killed that shit in my bubbler, I really thought about the how much I have to be thankful for compared to so many other people out there. If you're reading this, you're probably not one of them [since you're on the internet]. So, I figured I'd share this perspective so that any other Ents who are having a shitty start to 4/20 can apply it to their own problems and be reminded that they even have some bud to make it even easier. Life is good. [7.34]", "id": "t3_gu8k3", "summary": "On this day of celebration, remember to count yourself lucky for all of the problems that you don't face and for the ganj that you smoke. Don't forget how good you have it :)"}]}
+{"author": "thebumm", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Doucher 12 yr old kicks my shin, I kick him back. He tells mommy and gets himself in trouble.", "output": "When I was 14 I was in a fairly large musical production, maybe a 100 member cast. There were many kids my age and younger, solidifying a young chorus. \n During dress rehearsal a group of younger douches, maybe 12 years old, would not leave my buddies and me alone. We play cards, they mess up the cards. We find another room and play kneeling mini-basketball, they come take the ball and laugh. I sit down in a chair, they kick my shins. \n Okay, the shins took it too far. The dude was annoying as shit, but violence, even 12 year old violence, crosses the fucking line. Before that, they were actively pursuing, and we were trying to get our own space. But he saw the look on my face when his foot connected with my shin bone, and though his laughter did not cease, the smile disappeared. He  knew  I was getting him back. He and his lil' Douchers left at once, and I was left rubbing my sore leg. \n For a time. \n I sniffed them out with no problem, they were once again in the play room we had vacated during our ditch-the-dolts marathon. He was busy cracking jokes with his friends as I walked up, no hiding, and kicked the shit out of his shin in one, beautiful move. \n He started crying and ran to find his mom. Justice served, I sat in his now empty chair and started playing with the ball he had previously stolen. His mom walked in a minute later, seething. His tear-stained face was behind her, smugly smirking like the little bastard he was. She lit me up, hard. \n And all I could muster was, \"He started it.\" while lifting my trousers, showing a big, purpley bruise. She choked back her comment about talking to my parents, told me to be careful with my hard-soled dress shoes and proceeded to tear her son a brand new, shining asshole in front of everyone ages 6-16."}], "user_id": "longlamp_15282", "history": [{"author": "thebumm", "content": "Google Nestle California or Nestle water rights. They bleed places dry, ignore regulations and contracts and laws, and pay pennies on the millions of dollars. They are mostly to blame for California's long running drought, and steal water from drought stricken countries as well, countries with no clean water for their citizens.", "id": "crk0lhu", "summary": "we are fucked if this goes through."}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "Well, from my perspective, that just caused more of a rift, though most liberals think that way. It seems clear to me who is at fault, but pointing fingers hasn't helped yet. I more than anything want the problems solved, which requires teamwork among all parties. Unfortunately, not everyone (both parties included) sees it this way.", "id": "ccl4s4d", "summary": "Most do blame Republicans, but the blame game doesn't solve anything. And then the Republicans bitch."}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "I can! It's a buzz word or a Dr. Oz word. As soon as you realize just how specific companies are with what they provide (for example they'll show how many grams of whole grain, that's pretty specific) you will also realize that if \"removes toxins\" did anything, they would list that specific thing on the box.", "id": "cmywuue", "summary": "Toxins means that you will be paying money to learn a lesson."}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "I'll try to clear up any confusion. His point is a terrible one, just as mine was. \n We breathe in oxygen, out CO2. When we do mouth to mouth, as you pointed out, we're simulating breathing, saving a life with our outgoing CO2. Cars emit CO (carbonmonoxide) which, correct me if I'm wrong, never has saved a life, nor simulated any breathing mechanism. In fact, simulating breathing with CO would probably kill the person you were trying to resuscitate. \n So, any technicalities or semantics about my ill-phrased post won't resuscitate his argument. His argument is bullshit.", "id": "c8ov5c8", "summary": "His argument is bullshit."}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "To go along with that, after having paid $30 for my wife and I to see each movie in a theater, and getting people kicking our seats, talking over the movie, etc... convenience comes in more than just immediate availability. \n EDIT: You all are not discussing what I am discussing, or are missing my point entirely. I am well aware that there are myriad options in movie watching. Yes I  could  get a security guard to boot and asshole, yes I  could  adjust my schedule to go when no one is around, yes I  could  work at a theater to get free tickets, but I also  could  just download the movie via torrents and not have to worry about any of those things or sitting in traffic or missing part of the movie to get myself raisinettes. Which is the most convenient option? Not the most overall attractive option, which would be different for everyone based on ethics and morals and whatnot, but which is most convenient? \n Most people pay for convenience. You pay more for X groceries at one store instead of buying individual items at whatever store they are cheaper. You pay a valet to park your car so you don't have to. You pay for someone to clean your house or car or whatever. If I pay to see a movie, that's what I want to happen. I don't pay to see and asshole yelling, or to get my seat kicked or pay to have to adjust my schedule to fit off hours. I pay for entertainment. Which is why I am arguing that /u/impediment is correct in saying that torrenting is popular because it is convenient.  More  convenient in fact than any other available option. It is simple, people already pay for internet access, and it is right at their fingertips without any other work (driving, paying, dealing with snacks, dealing with assholes, etc.). \n If I had to go to Scotland, take out a loan, lick a goat's ass and then jerk off a stranger in a wet bathrobe to torrent a movie, it would be less convenient than adjusting my schedule to off hours to see Guardians of the Galaxy. Shit, waiting for the GotG DVD is less convenient than adjusting my schedule now to go see it, so which am I going to do? For some people torrenting is a great way to stay in the know with media that they wouldn't be able to afford otherwise, sure. But Netflix is owning right now, and Blockbuster went bankrupt because Netflix is  convenient . You pay for both options, and the most convenient one won out.", "id": "cjf9n7q", "summary": "Plenty of options, torrenting is the  most  convenient."}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "This honestly makes sense to me. If someone, a person, is being confrontational and out-of-line, asking for a fight, they can get hit, in my mind. I don't hit  people  in general. But I haven't been in a situation I've felt the need to yet. I wouldn't shoot someone, but then I've never been involved in a war conflict directly so, there are times. \n Hitting isn't \"mature\" or \"responsible\" or whatever, but it happens. You don't have to be a wife-beater to hit women, but women beat men sometimes, are they not expected to fight back? \n I'm married, I would never hit my wife. But my wife isn't a horrid bitch.", "id": "ccrlu3t", "summary": "Don't hit women, hit bitches."}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "In third grade we did Monday journals, where we described our weekend in one paragraph, plus an illustration. April Fools day fell on a Monday, and everyone was doing silly and outrageous journal entries. I decided mine would be the most outrageous of them all, drawing a picture of my dad, dead and buried. Everyone rolled their eyes, telling me that wasn't believable and therefore was a terrible joke. But I kept the ruse, and used the paragraph to discuss the funeral. \n My teacher saw it and asked if it was real, seeing that I wasn't choked up enough when I answered \"yes\" she sent me to the office, the principal got involved, I had weekly counseling appointments for the rest of the year, my parents had to come in and I had to keep digging for reasons I came up with such a dark joke. My dad hates me, my parents hate me, I hate my dad, he neglects me. All because my sense of humor was well beyond my years.", "id": "c5lmvjr", "summary": "Joked about my dad dying, was in therapy for a year"}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "First off, it is well documented that I defend the LDS church (on reddit) from undue hatred and bigotry. This post is NOT unearned hate. This is a very real and very big problem in many large organizations, the LDS church being just that. It also is an issue I myself had with the Mormon church (similar circumstances, different tragic outcome). \n Normally I would say go after - legally speaking - the Mission President because in all reality, he didn't check with anyone. He didn't check with God or the prophet or anyone, he (or his wife maybe) just denied the request. The request is  meant  to be out of respect for the process and in no way is supposed to be stonewalled. It's supposed to serve as notification rather than formally asking. That's abuse of power on MP's fault. \n Normally. I think he will be protected by the church lawyers, so it has to be the church. You guys have to. Even if we give the whole church the benefit of the doubt (like I mentioned above, likely is just MP) they have to be made aware of this guy abusing his position and get him the hell out of there. These are young people that are being \"guided\" and if any of that so-called guidance is abused, more bad things will continue to happen.", "id": "cqcljif", "summary": "I defend the church at times, this is NOT one of those times. Go get 'em. Please, go after this."}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "I haven't read the article, Canzano loves to be a rainy cloud so I usually stay away. I'll glance at it at your request, OP, but first I'll say this. \n LMA is a little like Dwight Howard in the put in work department. He puts in work, but he doesn't put in  work . Not everyone can have Kobe's work ethic, not everyone can be Wes Matthews, but a guy that wanted the team to be better and wanted to be an All-Star (and now has) should be willing to work a little harder on his own stuff to get there. \n He's great, I like him. I like his game, I like that he has worked on it and gotten better, but if he had even just a 5-10% increase in that drive, he'd have been better faster and there wouldn't have been as much talk about him v. Blake v. Kevin for who's the best. \n I want him to stick around. I want him to step up, and I want him to take some of the responsibility. It seems superstars complain about not having pieces to work with... be the piece others want to work with, you know? We built a great thing here, we have all the parts, and they got injured this season, too late to recover from. There's no question in my mind with healthy Wes for the rest of the season we do better, and make it out of the first round. Our matchup likely would have changed anyway. Afflalo got here late and was hardly the Arron people thought they were getting. \n Our chemistry is baller. Dame is gonna be pissed and work his ass off, Wes is already working his shit off, Rolo will rehab, Nic will likely return to better form (if his later season form was any indication), McCollum and Leonard (check my post history on this dude, I always wanted patience for him) are really coming into their own. If LMA manned up, worked on his game and led how you see Kaman leading, we are legit as fuck. If he takes it upon himself to do that, no telling what we can do. He hasn't yet. He's spread the blame to others. \n He doesn't have to be happy with only getting to the playoffs, no one does. But other people try to work on their own shit before/while they complain, and if the rumors are true, LMA is just looking for a Reason to leave, not for a reason to stay. \n If he goes, we're fine and we'll figure it out. I can't blame him, it's his life, his money, his job. If he stays, we could be  stellar . Honestly, I'd be disappointed if he left, but I'd only be pissed if Portland's offer is matched and he takes the match. If someone offers him more, okay, fine. But if it's the same money and he takes it elsewhere, he's dead to me (a lot because he did say he wanted to be here and was just waiting to be paid).", "id": "cqu75nw", "summary": "Don't pass the buck, we'll be fine or great, keep your word."}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "Okay, I'll break my point down to simplify the coversation a bit. There's no need to get flowery or condescending with your language in a common conversation. It adds nothing to the discussion and makes you look like an asshole. \n Me using the term asshole does not diminish my point in the least, even though it's slang. You said the word stupid makes the people using it look stupid. Not really. You get their point, they get their point. Similarly, everyone gets my point when I use the word asshole. Is there another word I  could  use instead? So many more in fact, but I settled on a commonly used word people will know. \n You complaining about my word choice (which is what you did above) did nothing for the conversation at hand and instead made the subject switch to you and how much better your way of communicating is. This is clear by the fact that we are no longer discussing the movie, production company, or anything else related. You also tried to invalidate someone's thoughts on the actual subject by addressing their diction instead of their thoughts. That's condescension. If you actually cared about the conversation or their opinion (and not their word choice) you could ask for clarification. As it is though you chose to shit on them (that's me using a common expression, here I go showing how little you think of me) and tried to make yourself look good instead of adding to the conversation at hand. \n What you could have done to avoid looking like a tiny-pricked douche is weighed in with your thoughts on the  subject matter  and not on one person's way of speaking. \"Oh, you think it looks stupid? Why do you think that, specifically? I think it looks great because...\" is adding to the conversation while \"You say it's stupid which just shows lack of education. If you want me to care about your opinion, speak more eloquently. I'm distracted by your lack of class on an anonymous internet forum about a comedy movie.\" does not, which is how you came off. (To be clear, that is not a direct quote and should be taken as a hyperbolic example.) \n Edit:", "id": "cmyxtb2", "summary": "To avoid being condescending, stay on topic and address  what  someone says, not  how  they say it."}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "I was in fourth grade, rocking some mad sweet overalls and involved in an intense, lunchtime game of Oregon Trail. Right before the bell rang, I knew I'd need to empty the bladder, so I made a beeline for the closest water closet. Since I was in the library at the time, the nearest restroom was a full hallway's length away, across from my classroom. \n As I walked, my beans jostled about, as man parts are naught to do, and I knew I was in for the piss stream of my life. The faster I walked, the more I needed to release. I had to find the delicate balance of speed and comfort, much akin to a Honda going 55mph to hit the highest fuel economy. \n Well, lucky me, I made it. Right on time. I hadn't grown accustomed to using the fly for quick access - loose overalls render this experience awkward - so I ducked into the first stall to unfasten and drop trou. \n The frantic finger fumbling to unclasp and the unconscious feeling of success for getting to the restroom without incident combined in such a way that I felt immediate relief in my frontal lobes. I stopped unhooking for a second, confused as to how I could be brimming with piss, in a painful way, and so quickly be relieved without emptying. \n And then I felt it. I was peeing. I couldn't stop. DOwn my legs the liquid poured. I was embarrassed and wet and it felt so warm and awful and awesome all at once. Woah, that felt good. Empty-bladder induced shudder. \n And then I wept. Overalls cover everything, so I was completely soaked on my exterior. There I stood in a puddle of my own making. No concealing that. I had no idea what to do, so I washed my hands and walked to the doorway. I sat and cried, until a playground duty teacher walked by and heard my fourth grade wails. Through tears and hand gestures I managed to get my message out, and she went to the office to call my parents. \n I sat there for 30 minutes, covered in my own piss. Meanwhile, two kids came in to deuce, saw the puddle and asked what happened. I feigned ignorance, and they never asked why I was seated on the gross floor just chilling while class was in session. They fetched the janitor who exclaimed \"It's PISS! Someone pissed al over the floor. I gotta get a mop.\" \n I should mention that in my white-washed community, the janitor was the only African-American I had ever seen, and I was terrified of him. And he was pissed at the floor piss, and asked me point-blank what happened. \n \"I have no idea.\" \n I returned to class late, in a completely different outfit, and only one dude acknowledged the next day that he knew what happened. Everyone knew.", "id": "c96v3jn", "summary": "I peed all over myself in the middle of school in fourth grade. Everywhere."}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "Well, he changed his mind on the punishment earlier from my recollection, but some religions still are run (on earth at the very least) but hans with flaws. Like racism. I don't fault people for following what they believe, but that doesn't mean it's not ridiculous. That's hardly the weirdest religious belief I've seen. I do think the gay marriage to bestiality thing that some religioms argue is pretty weak considering more states already have laws allowing bestiality than marriage between same sexes. I totally digressed, sorry. \n Edit.", "id": "cq5rekl", "summary": "You and I see some flaws in the logic, some don't and some probably do and still believe in the overall message of their respective religions."}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "This may come off confusing, but I'll do my best. This did not happen to me, but I was told about it. \n My dad is on his way to a church meeting. He is supposed to open the meeting with a prayer, so he's trying to get there early. He came across a person struggling with car trouble. This is in Oregon, so the rain is coming down hard. He stops, gets out his tools (always prepared), gets down in the mud and changes this stranger's tire. He is completely soaked and dirty, soiling his better suit. She tells him her plight and how grateful she is. She offers payment, he declines.\nOne thing to mention is we are poor as fuck. So he's wearing his nicer clothes not just for the church meeting, but because he's supposed to be front and center at the start of the meeting. \n He walks into the meeting 5 minutes after it begins, having delayed the start of the meeting by 15 minutes in part to wait for him. Someone else had to pray, and people around him were giving him dirty looks, some even talking about what a douche he is for even bothering to come after missing his prayer, making someone else fill in, and dirty on top of it all. \n The dude in charge of the meeting opens with a story about a man sacrificing his social obligation to help someone. Like Jesus, he says. Everyone cries \"amen\" in agreement, this person is a saint. Then the man says, That was Thebumm's dad, tonight. Turns out he had been running late himself and saw my dad taking care of this helpless woman. \n Everyone gets embarrassed, faces flush, people apologize. \n It's small, seemingly insignificant to some people, but some people learned that day.\nI have issues with my dad as a dad, as does anyone, but he's a damn good person.", "id": "c75191z", "summary": "My dad helped a woman in need, was late for an important meeting and mocked for his appearance."}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "I'm writing a feature. I was planning on just getting 100% of the story down, but I'm noticing many of my scenes are long. Quite long. The way I want to tell the story kind of deems this necessary, but I'm afraid the whole first act is essentially three scenes. The beginning of the middle act is probably three as well. Any suggestions on how to beat them out? Make some beats to break up the monotony? \n I'm not out of story. I know where I'm heading, how I'm getting there. I don't think the story is the problem, but maybe the story design is. Thoughts?", "id": "t3_1b3ms5", "summary": "Scenes are long, story has depth but I fear boredom in delivery. Do I finish the draft and fix it later or scrap it?"}, {"author": "thebumm", "content": "My biggest issue with everything is that no one mentions Mellie's affairs while negotiating. \n I could be misremembering (maybe no one but Mellie knows?) but I thought some people knew she was boning the [former] VP while he was VP and before. Like, why is Mellie so pissed that Fitz has a sidepiece that she already knows about and knows he loves? And why is that not some ammunition for negotiating? Setting Mellie up for a good campaign and Fitz up for smooth sailing is easy if they both sit down, let the country know they both had been working too hard separately on their politics that they drifted and found new romances with (less busy) other parties. Olivia no longer works for the White House so that's an easy sell, the other dude didn't even have to be named for Mellie to say she was romantically linked to someone else and they stayed together in public to keep focus on their politics until it was clear their personal lives became a distraction. \n Every American knows personal lives, especially for workaholics, are tumultuous. And I don't know why everyone felt like they had to be Mellie's bitch. And why the damn hell Cyrus decided to brown-nose the shit out of Mellie when she cheated too. I get he felt betrayed, but karma's a bitch and why would you saddle up to someone who is just as bad if not worse than Fitz?", "id": "t3_3o727m", "summary": "Mellie cheated too. Multiple damn times, and with the VP. Fitz and Olivia only broke news when Olivia was out of the White House, why is everyone keen on being Mellie's bitch when she been just as horrible to the relationship?"}]}
+{"author": "PopsicleJane14", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Went to a place that charged $100 bucks a plate, got served raw steak.", "output": "A few weeks ago my brother and sister in law decided we should go to a place that was essentially a hundred dollars a plate. Not something my husband and I normally do, but we thought we would try it once. We   All order steak and my brother orders his medium, and we sit there for almost an hour waiting for our meals. When our meals come out the steak looks fine to me, but my brother very politely tells the waiter his is too dark (it was) and the waiter agreed and sent it back. An our later the waiter comes back with my brother's steak (we were all finished eating.) and on the plate is a raw steak. Not even cooked, just raw and placed on the plate. At this point my brother was pretty upset, and just asked for a box. He told the waiter he was going to grill it himself. The waiter apologizes, and tells us we can have dessert on the house. We order, and an hour later we get our dessert. I ordered Tiramisu (which if you don't know, it a white cake with cookies in it and vanilla cream, with a side of Heaven.) but they brought me out a dry chocolate cake, and tried to pass it off as tiramisu. I didn't eat it, but I didn't make a fuss."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Boyfriend stayed when my parents died.", "output": "I was dating a guy for two months when I found out my mother died. Both of her lungs collapsed (This is why you don't smoke!) and my siblings and I were all called into the hospital to say our goodbye's. At the time I was over at my boyfriend's, and he drove me over to make sure I was okay. I was completely stoic until we walked in and I saw her just laying there, and I just completely lost it. He held me as I sobbed uncontrollably in the hospital. Fast forward a year, and the same boyfriend is with me as I hear the news that my dad has brain cancer. We take my dad to a Yankee's game, where my boyfriend asks my dad for permission to marry me. (was not there. boyfriend told me after we became engaged.) A month later, my dad dies. My now husband has been with me through both parent's deaths, and handled it like a saint. He also owns a home, makes a ton of money, and treats me like a princess. I know without a doubt that I will never ever find anyone better than my husband."}], "user_id": "longlamp_5486", "history": [{"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "That's such a great idea, and I'm trying to get over my fear of the foster system. I have a friend in a similar situation, and she had a few kids for a while who were Iraqi, and moved here. The kids got taken away because when the mother decided to tie them to dining room chairs instead of hiring babysitters while she went to work in a factory for 10 hour shifts. The neighbors heard the screams of the kids and would call the cops, and finally the kids got taken away. \nFast forward,  these kids get placed with my friend, and the mother continues to place death threats on my friend and her husband. The mother stalks them, throws fits in court, and finally places an ad in the county newspaper about how the foster system is so bad, and how my friend and her husband are absolute monsters for keeping her children. Basically worst case scenario stuff. The kids mother eventually got them back, and my friend got another set of kids whose parents don't bother them.", "id": "cd7h5ij", "summary": "Some parents of foster children are psychos."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "I started dating this guy before I started working at a summer camp, ( I was 19.) and everything seemed fine. He was a few years older, going to college to be a youth pastor, and working as night security at a retirement home. I stayed up at camp during the week, but came home on weekends. He told me he never wanted to meet my family or friends because he was \"scared to meet new people\" which should have been a total red flag, but I was young and naive, and I let it go. I started abandoning my friends for his friends, and I hung out with him every chance I could. I was so hung up on this guy. He started out really sweet, telling me I was the kind of girl he could marry, he told me how beautiful I was, etc, took me to fancy dinners, and was just a total prince to me. I was quickly falling for this guy! I worked at camp all summer and in August came home, expecting to find the same guy I left. I was wrong. Very quickly he continued to seclude me, telling me to take up jogging, that I should dress better, and just constantly belittled me. I also started paying for all of our dates, because he was constantly out of money. (Not that I am against girls paying, I'm not, but there needs to be some give and take.) I started paying for his car loan, giving him money for gas, and buying his groceries. He would constantly call me to come over and once I got there he would tell me to leave because his buddies were coming over. He also started comparing me to his ex girlfriend. At this point my self confidence was totally shot. I was a wreck, and I thought all of these things were my fault. After a few months of this, my boyfriend started doing this thing where he would break up with me, then about a day later call me and want to get back together. Of course I caved every time. Then finally he broke up with me right before I went on my family vacation to a cabin in Maine, and I met a fantastic guy who told me how beautiful I was, and how wrong of a boyfriend I had. Strangely that was the boost of confidence I needed to realize that I was not completely worthless. When I got home I got a phone call from the boyfriend, with him wanting to get back together, and I told him it was over for real. Long story short, he called me a whore, and has never talked to me since. 5 years later, I am married, in a good relationship, and he is still single. I feel like the winner.", "id": "c5kit3z", "summary": "Controlling boyfriend gets angry when abused girlfriend leaves."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "I had something similar with Proactiv, about two years ago, but not nearly as bad. Proactiv sends you a new package every three months or so, and before I got another package, I had found out that Walmart started carrying a replica, which cost about $11. (compared to about $60) so I called and cancelled, no big deal, but then I get another package in the mail. I called them, and they claimed that I had never cancelled, but they offered to take the package back, so I had to mail it back at the post office. Thought everything was squared away, but it happens again 3 months later. This time they took payment from my credit card right before I tried to pay a utility bill, taking all of the money I had set aside for that bill. I called again, really angry this time, and asked for my refund. 'sorry ma'am, that can take 6-8 weeks...' \nI started yelling at this point, and demanded the supervisor. When the supervisor came on I started screaming. The hell if I was going to let proactiv steal my water bill money! After that, everything got taken care of.", "id": "cceljvv", "summary": "FUCK YOU Proactiv!!!"}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "When I was a teenager my parents threw a pig roast annually for all of our friends and family. One year, my parents let my brother invite a friend from a sleep away camp, and because she was from out of state, her parents came along too, and pitched a tent in the back yard. (both my brother and his friend were around the age of 9.) Anyway, in the middle of the night, the parents of my brother's friend decided that they absolutely had to have sex everywhere, and the mom was on her period. They had sex in the hot tub, the trampoline, our bathroom, our sliding board, and on some deck chairs. After they left we had to clean up what obviously looked like a war zone.", "id": "cgk3x4d", "summary": "A couple on their period fuck like rabbits everywhere."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "I had just turned 16 and was at the park with a boy I liked when a quick rain shower came our way and we ran under a pavilion. We were soaking wet when he pulls me aside and kisses me, and then grabs one of my boobs. Soon after that he moved and I had no idea whatever happened to him, until last year, when I saw in the newspaper that he had gotten arrested for beating up his then current girlfriend.", "id": "c6t7ot1", "summary": "So glad things didn't work out."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "I've posted this elsewhere, but I once dated this guy I'll call Nick, anyway, we dated for months and had given each other oral, and messed around without vaginal sex. We had even tried anal... So one day we decide (joint decision, nobody was forced...) to have vaginal intercourse. We start out, me in the doggy position, him behind me (obviously) and he humps three times, then runs into the bathroom. After a few minutes he emerges with tears down his face. He was a virgin, and wanted to initially save himself for marriage. Total news to me... So I awkwardly put on my clothes, and leave. I've never talked to Nick since. By far the most terrible sexual experience I've ever had.", "id": "cdtvqhi", "summary": "male sex partner starts crying."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "My MIL has a lot of tantrums, but this one happened on Christmas Day this year. My nephew who is 2 got two train sets for Christmas. One that was age appropriate, (from my MIL) and one that was for ages 5+ for smaller parts. (given by an uncle who has never had children.) The parents of the boy say thank you for both gifts, and start unwrapping the rest when my MIL loses it on the uncle who bought the other train. Saying how dare he buy an a gift not age appropriate, how he should know better and then she started dragging me into it saying how he should learn from us how to buy age appropriate gifts etc. Then she threatened to return the age appropriate train set... So the parents of the boy start playing with the train that my MIL bought to make her happy and the two year old doesn't play with it on the tracks, he just wants to roll the train on the carpet, and my MIL freaks about how he doesn't even know how to play properly. She also had several other issues that day, but that was the worst one I witnessed.", "id": "cnb7q3i", "summary": "Mother in law ruined Christmas over a gift."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "Before I met my husband he dated a girl who lived next door to his parent's house. He was still living at home then, so it worked in his advantage. (Or so he thought.) He treated her like a princess, taking her on nice dates, buying her whatever she wanted, etc. The only 'problem' was that he wanted to wait a little bit to have sex with her, and she was a full on closet sex addict. So long story short, she is sleeping with all these men (something like 20 he said.) while he is treating her like a goddess. Fast forward a year, and my husband buys himself a house, starts dating me, and suddenly this bitch (who still lived with her parents) starts texting him, coming over unannounced, trying to Facebook him, stalking his parents... Just basically trying to get back with my husband. My sweet husband, never wanting to hurt her just ignores her, but she just doesn't get the picture, so I just had to step in.  I told her blatantly that if she ever comes near my husband, I will break her legs. She has stayed away ever since.", "id": "c5jm4wf", "summary": "Don't date a neighbor.\nEdit: I should clarify my husband is a devout Christian and did not want sex before marriage. That's why he did not want to jump into bed with her."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "Oh totally before. I had just started dating Nate and I was helping him with his coffee house one night, and I had gotten a flat tire on my way there. Nate came and brought some of his guy friends to help, and his one friend comes up to me, brushes his hair out of his face and starts talking to me. I was INSTANTLY smitten! I knew instantly at that moment there was something about this guy. But I lost track of him, and kept dating Nate. He was older and more sophisticated you know. Needless to say Nate and I broke up, and I found his friend on facebook. My husband and I were friends for a good year before he asked me out, then asked me to marry him. I'm still totally smitten with him! to answer your question though, once Nate found out I was dating his friend they stopped being friends. We still have some mutual friends, so we still see each other, but he makes things awkward. (Before I get any comments about how mean it was to Nate, he was verbally abusive to me while dating, and I was a very young 19 when all of this happened.)", "id": "c5m0w2z", "summary": "Husband steals girl from friend, friendship ends."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "I was kicked out of my house when I was in high school (long story) so I was living with some relatives who had a daughter who was a year or so younger than me, that had a baby. So this girl's parent's go on vacation and she decides she's going to smoke weed in her bedroom, windows closed, with her baby in the crib. I'm not home but I get this upset phone call from her sister and she's worried for her niece. I get home, confront this girl, she starts screaming at me and I tell her I am go to call the cops. I shit you not, no one wanted to deal with me. I got transferred to 3 different departments. Not a single cop gave a fuck about this little baby. Children's services has looked into this girl once or twice, but she still has her kid. Fuck the police...", "id": "c5mx3d0", "summary": "Police refused to help a baby."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "I had a kidney infection and kidney stones once, so I feel your pain! The worst pain I ever had though was last year when I had carpal tunnel. Being 23 at the time ( I had a heavy nursing assistant job.) my doctor wanted to do everything he could to avoid surgery, so he gave me a cortisone shot, right in the wrist. I've never cried so much in my life, and I have never wanted to punch someone so hard either. Basically they take a thick needle and slowly insert it into the base of your wrist, and it hurts like a motherfucker.", "id": "c6oqe9z", "summary": "Got a cortisone shot in the wrist."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "When I was a teenager, my stepmom and I fought all of the time, mostly because she was a total bitch to me. Anyway, at the time I wore a size six, and my stepmom was probably a size 22. For Christmas she got me only clothes in her size. When I said anything to my dad he said 'well, your stepmom would be upset if you told her you didn't like them...' And he excuse for getting me clothes in her size? It was my fat wardrobe, for when I inevitably gain a ton of weight. She then proceeded to 'borrow them till they could fit me.' \nThey still wouldn't fit me.", "id": "cec6rc5", "summary": "Stepmom got me a super huge wardrobe for 'when I get fat.'"}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "There seemed to be a lot of sex with teachers going on a my High School. When I was a sophomore, a girl in my grade slept with. Gym teacher who was also the girl's basketball coach. (she played.) It was especially scandalous, because she was also the vice-principal's daughter. My senior year, a girl in the marching band screwed around with the band director. A year after I graduated, a teacher was found having sex with a student in a coat closet. Two weeks later, a substitute teacher employed by my old school was caught in a parked car with a student.", "id": "ceoy51d", "summary": "4 teachers banged students while I was in HS, and shortly after I graduated."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "Not so much 'the worst' creep story, but it happened to me this week. A few years ago I was apart of this strange mennonite church, and a guy that went there creeped out all of the younger single girls. He was in his 40's, single, and stared you down in an uncomfortable way. When you made eye contact (hoping he would look away.) he would stare even more. He made irregular comments, and just overall it was an uncomfortable situation. Anyway, he had 'friended' me on Facebook while I was a member there, and I had forgotten about it, until 4 years later. (this week.) Anyway, to shorten things, I no longer go to that church, I'm married, and I was weeding out my 'friends' on fb, and saw his name. I figured since I hadn't seen him in about 3 years and I never cared for him anyway, that I would just unfriend him. 5 hours later I had a friend request from him.\nI'm not saying I think he 'stalks' my page on a regular basis, but I'm not saying I think it's a coincidence either.", "id": "c7che3c", "summary": "creepy guy tries to 'friend' ex Facebook friend shortly after he was Unfriended, even though they hadn't spoken in years."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "I had a flat tire.\nI was driving to a coffee shop that my boyfriend ran at the time, and had gotten a flat, so him and some of his friends drove to find me and fix it. (Basically, my boyfriend changed my tire while all of his friends stood and watched.) while he was changing my tire his friend who I had never seen before 'Evan' comes up to me, and we hit it off instantly. I felt this weird feeling like I had never felt before. It wasn't 'love at first sight' or anything, but it felt like lightning going through me or something. So I get my tire changed, and I go on my way, dating my boyfriend, thinking of Evan... Eventually, problems with my boyfriend arise, he has some drinking issues, so we break up. All I could think about was Evan. I find Evan on Facebook and we start talking, hitting it off like before, and we decide to go on a date. We go on said date, and decide not to make things official because we had both just gotten out of relationships, and didn't want to jump into anything. (he had just gotten out of a 4 year relationship where the girl cheated on him with 15 other guys. She was a SLUT.) so Evan and I stay friends but nothing happens for another year. Finally, I run into him, and we decide to go to a diner late one night, and things take off. Suddenly we are hanging out every chance we can, and life is awesome. 9 months later, he buys a ring and asks me to marry him. We've been married almost two years now. Life is awesome with Evan. :)", "id": "c6vql4o", "summary": "Had flat tire, boyfriend changed tire, fell in love with boyfriend's friend, got married."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "My husband and I went to DC for our first wedding anniversary, and stayed at a hotel just outside of DC with plans to ride the subway in. So we get to our hotel, unpack, and have a great day. The next morning (we planned to stay for 4 nights) we wake up early,  go for breakfast, and enjoy another day. When we came back, we tried using our electronic room key, but it didn't work. My husband went down to the front desk, and here while we were gone, hotel staff placed all of our belongings into trash bags and kept them in our back room. They had accidentally placed us in room that had been reserved for that night, knowing full well we planned on staying for 4 nights. When My husband came up (in shock) with our stuff I was livid. I went to the desk and screamed at them. (probably not the best idea, but I felt so violated.) Some of our things were missing, and I just lost it. Finally, we got our hotel stay for free, and we got upgraded to a jacuzzi suite, but that still didn't feel like enough. Don't stay at the Days Inn outside DC.", "id": "cgo6pfa", "summary": "Hotel staff packs up all of our shit in trash bags and keeps it in their break room, because they booked us in the wrong room."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "My husband and I got married a week before my birthday in 2011, and we were coming home (we live in PA) from Mexico and happened to fly on my birthday. Oh, and this was my first plane trip ever... So we're flying over the mid west when we hit a severe storm (tornados and everything) and we fly in turbulence for the next 6 hours. I was crying the entire time, horrified that I could die, while my husband keeps looking at me saying 'it's just like a roller coaster.' I wanted to punch him. Needless to say, as we are flying into Newark Airport (we had a 18 hour layover.) we have to circle the runway for an hour until we are allowed to land. As we go to land the airplane shakes violently, and i'm crying, other people are crying, and people are throwing up. I honestly thought I was going to die, then and there on my birthday... But we made it. When we got off the plane I told my husband I was not getting on the next plane, and I was getting my dad to pick us up. To this day, airplanes scare me to death, and I refuse to get on another one. As a new flyer I was probably over reacting, buy flying scares me, plain and simple.", "id": "c5lrkaj", "summary": "I thought I was going to die in an airplane, on my birthday."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "My brother in law and I never got off to a very good start. He was in Iraq when my husband and I started dating, and he came home when shortly after we had gotten engaged in the summer. Right after we get engaged, he started dating a girl and they were dating for a month or so when he tried to call his mom at our engagement party. (He lived in a different state.) He was trying to tell her that he was engaged as well, and since the family was all there, it would be a great time to tell everyone... Knowing it was OUR engagement party. So, obviously my mother in law ignored her phone, and we all found out the next day when we saw they changed their relationship status on Facebook. My fiance called his brother and asked him about it and he said \"Well, if mom would have answered the phone last night I would have told you guys in person. Your loss.\" It gets better though, My brother in law decided he needed to get married in three months, (no, they were not pregnant.) And that they needed to get married before us. So they call us, asking us if we would be offended, and of course we say yes, but we won't stop them. Then he says \"That's good, because I already paid the deposit. I was just asking to make myself look better.\" That's when shit hit the fan. Long story short, my fiance almost didn't go to their wedding, and I didn't even get an invite. Fast forward to our wedding, my new sister in law comes up to hug me and says \"Welcome to the family!!\" I wanted to punch her in the face. I had been around them for 3 years... She had been around for 5 months. I didn't, and almost two years later, I still hate my fucking brother in law, and his bitch wife.", "id": "c5qvnt2", "summary": "Brother in law is a douche."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "My husband's family has a deep secret.  Shortly after my in laws had gotten married and had their firstborn, my father in law decided he was going to build their first house himself. Working all day long, followed by building a house after work everyday and having a family, my father in law wore himself pretty ragged.  Well, one night on his way home from building the house he fell asleep at the wheel, blew through a stop sign and killed a family. I'm not sure what else happened along with that (I know he went to court, etc, but not details.) but I know it has wrecked him ever since.", "id": "c6ym9fn", "summary": "father in law accidentally killed a family."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "A few years ago we had a couple of Mexican boys who were 'fresh air' kids (city kids who stay with families in the country for a week during the summer.) stay with us, and my mom decided to take them on a tour of our local dairy farm. During the tour we see the milking parlor, and the place is crawling with hispanic people working there. So my mom, cheerfully and naively says to the boys 'look kids, they are Mexican just like you! You could get a job here one day!'\nOh mom...", "id": "c7u83dw", "summary": "Mom insults Mexicans."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "I've never liked my sister in law, but it's a long story why, anyway, my husband and I were/still are trying for a baby, when my sister in law texts me that she was pregnant. Her and her husband were not trying, and they didn't know we were, and I was livid. Long story short, she had a miscarriage, and I felt so happy and relieved.... And then I felt like a complete asshole. She was devastated, and I was jubilant.... I felt like the biggest jerk on the planet. Needless to say, she very quickly got pregnant again, and I am still struggling. I'm happy for her this time.", "id": "c67q81j", "summary": "Felt happiness when sister in law miscarried, then felt like an ass."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "Ex-Mennonite here. I came out of a family that was abusive when I was in my teens, moved in with a mennonite relative, and I finally felt like I belonged. I wanted to do anything and everything to be even more apart of their family. Plus, I thought the covering was a beautiful thing. I saw the woman who wore them to be holy, and delicate, and that's what I thought I wanted to be. I wore the covering for a few years, and told myself that it was for the \"biblical\" reasons. That it was a beautiful tradition, and that God would be proud of me. But soon after wearing it, the women who were apart of this family's church (not the family) started giving me grief because I didn't just wear skirts, or that my t-shirts were too tight. Then, the icing on the cake was that I was seen at a Christian rock concert, and it was an unacceptable place for a covering woman to be seen. I started to become a very self loathing person. Why could I not fit in?! I become very self conscious, but I could not change who I was. And once I became okay with that, I took the covering off, and decided that I would never go back. But to answer your question, most mennonite women that I know will feed you some bullshit line about scripture, completely ignoring the \"And your hair should be given to you as a covering\" part of the verse, and then they will tell you all about how it is a beautiful tradition. For the most part, most of these women don't know why they do it anymore, at least where I am from. Here's a picture I found on the internet of the type of covering I wore (not me. Found on the website from the lady where I used to get mine.)", "id": "c5qv78p", "summary": "No Idea. Tradition or something?"}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "I find it attractive when men build things. My husband works as a carpenter, and when he comes home dirty, and in his work clothes I just want to jump him. If he brings me flowers that's kinda nice, but if he builds me something? My panties fall off instantly.", "id": "cgfe97g", "summary": "be good with your wood."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "My mom started suffering from mental illnesses when I was a child, that stemmed from sexual abuse she had from her father when she was young... Anyway, when I was about 9, my parents decided to split up, and for obvious reasons I stayed with my dad. In the beginning, everything was amicable, and my dad wanted my mom to seek treatment, and work on their relationship, so he was very supportive of her, and helped her any chance he could. One day, my mom's car broke down, and my dad offered to drive her somewhere, and I fell asleep in the back seat of the car. I slept maybe 10 minutes, and felt very groggy, so I kept my eyes closed for a bit longer. Before I could open my eyes I heard my mother say 'sometimes, I'm afraid I might kill Jane. I really have to fight the urge not to kill her. I love her, but something inside of me wants her dead.'\nSo needless to say, I didn't get to see my mother for a long time, as she was placed into a hospital for a while, and we didn't have a relationship until I was an adult. Also, my dad never wanted to get back with my mom after that.", "id": "ceozhll", "summary": "Overheard mentally ill mother tell my dad she wanted to kill me. I was 9, and she meant it."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "I live in a tiny development of town houses all jumbled together, and all of my neighbors are elderly, which is probably why living here is bearable. (less noise!) apparently our walls are paper thin and our neighbors like to congregate in front of our house to talk to or neighbor Charlotte. One afternoon my husband and I are really getting into it, and we see people outside, but figure they can't hear us, and keep going. The next day, my neighbor man, who is in his mid 70's sees my husband and shakes his hand. He also tells my husband how all our neighbors heard us, and were basically all outside giggling  during the whole thing... That's when my husband realized our windows were open.", "id": "c5upimu", "summary": "Elderly neighbors heard us doing the nasty, and giggled like children."}, {"author": "PopsicleJane14", "content": "My mother and I were never very close, but she lived in an apartment with her alcoholic boyfriend on and off for almost ten years. When I was 21 she suddenly died, leaving myself and my two brothers to deal with her remains. She didn't have any assets except an old beat up truck and a small life insurance policy that went to her boyfriend. (We never saw that.) Meanwhile, I'm just out of school, my oldest brother is dealing with his house being foreclosed, and my other brother is battling a drug problem. We were in no shape to deal with any of this. Around this time my grandparents (my mom's parents) decide that they need to help us in this time of need. They were never really in my life before this, or my mom's, but it was nice to have their help and advice.   Around this time my brothers and I decide that the best bet was to get my mother cremated, and sell her truck. We thought we could maybe break even that way. We also each pitched in a few hundred to do a memorial service. We just wanted to be good to her. So, after my mom is cremated, and we go to get the truck transferred into our names (to sell it) we realize that the truck is gone. Here my grandpa went to his friend who was a notary, had a copy of my mom's death certificate (Found out later he got it from my druggie brother.) and had it transferred illegally into his name. My oldest brother and I were so hurt. My grandparents tried to justify what they have done but they can never make up for stealing from their grandchildren. To make matters worse for months after my grandparents would call me, asking for money and trying to invite me to family things. I stopped talking to them, and with the exception of my oldest brother I stopped associating with that entire side of my family. It's awful how major life events can really bring out the worst in people.", "id": "c5ndypj", "summary": "Grandparents steal from grandchildren after mother dies."}]}
+{"author": "MetalOrganism", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Autonomous killer robots are not in an ethical gray area; they are strictly immoral and dangerous, and can only have a negative affect on our societies.", "output": "This is a reasonable, but limited, perspective. \n You have to also consider autonomous robots, robots who will have the capacity to kill humans at their own \"discretion\" without the direction or confirmation of a human pilot. These robots DO violate human rights, as they choose to end life based on algorithms and projected data available in the immediate moment; the right to live is deprived without a trial or any kind of due process. \n Also, it is unrealistic and poor thinking to assume autonomous killer robots will be confined only to warzones, or used solely against violent \"enemy\" forces (a hostile army, paramilitary group, etc). Such autonomous robots would make extremely terrifying and virtually implacable security guards. They would be present at political protests, surrounding banks and other high-value institutions, guarding politically sensitive buildings like the White House or the Fed, you name it. Frankly, autonomous killer robots would revolutionize the relationship of power between the governed and the governor in a very terrifying and dangerous way. They will make the governed far less able to effect change via protest and redress of grievances. They will solidify the governors monopoly on violence and greatly enhance his capacity for control."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Corporations are not people because they are fundamentally unable to interact with the regulatory mechanism of the state in any way similar to an actual person. The notion of corporate personhood encourages sociopathic and destructive behavior from the people using the corporation as a mask, including buying politicians (undermines democracy), buying police forces (to force away protestors, media, etc that might incur losses to future profits or public image), and committing crimes (the corporate shield protects from personal accountability and keeps white-collar criminals free).", "output": "Why is it so bad if the law treats corporations like people?\" \n Because they aren't people. They are made up of people, yes, and every person within it gets their own vote, and their own individual paycheck for their own livelihood, but the corporation itself is not a person. No more so than America or Egypt or China is a person. \n Some will argue that corporations should be considered people because they get taxed. Lot's of things (estates, sales, etc.) get taxed. This doesn't mean the estate or the sale is a person, but that the actual, flesh-and-blood human being pursuing the transaction is being taxed. This is similarly true for corporations; the corporate revenue is taxed, but instead of being a tax against the corporation itself, it's essentially taxing the revenue that the corporate heads made  through  the corporation's activities. The corporation isn't a monolithic entity that uses it's own money, the money is collectively divided according to shareholders/board of directors/whatever as they see fit. The quality of this distribution of revenue (into paychecks for employees, into more capital, into overhead, etc) is what determines whether a corporation survives or not; poorly distributed revenue will soon sink a company. Notice that at every step along the way, the humans within the corporation are doing the work and gathering the fruits of their labor. The corporation itself is just the \"team name\" if you will, the mascot, the label, the face for the operation. \n Here's where giving corporations people status gets sketchy. Corporations often have enormously more money at their disposal than individuals, and with the recent allowance of unlimited, anonymous campaign contributions (a terrible court decision that sets a terrible precedent), corporations can easily out-muscle individual donors and effectively 'buy' politicians. Even more so, this legal pandering to corporations has turned them into quasi-extra-judicial stateless power groups. Corporations don't just sell us products anymore, they deliberately shape our culture, our media, our information, and are becoming similar to monarchical/oligarchical authorities that use the state to impose violence on people. A fantastic example of this is Coca Cola hiring mercenaries and government police forces to keep union-organizers disorganized and powerless is countries where the ingredients for their namesake are harvested. Another example is the growing trend of corporations having people arrested for activities that 'diminish future profits', common with oil companies going after protestors (usually environmentalists) who shut down or stop expansion plans (usually for environmental reasons). \n Fundamentally, corporations are not people because they cannot be legally equivalent to people. Consider being arrested and put in jail. When this happens to you, you are effectively removed from the \"play field\" of life; you lose many of your belongings, your physical body is put in a cage, you are unable to participate in economic / commercial affairs, you are unable to earn an income and provide for yourself and your family. Essentially, you are put on 'pause' while the game goes on without you. This is important because a corporations  cannot  be imprisoned. You cannot put McDonalds on house arrest, you cannot send Boeing to solitary, you cannot make Walmart spend a winter in the slammer. When a corporation deliberately commits crimes, or is complicit in crimes (Yes, this does happen. Let's not be naive little children and believe that companies are all ethical and play by the rules, all the time), the corporation cannot be economically or socially impeded in the way a person can. At most, the company will be fined (money taken from the revenue I talked about earlier), and the actual flesh-and-blood people behind the illegal activity will hide behind the mask of the corporation and escape accountability. This is also the case for non-deliberate accidents like the B.P. oil spill. Yes, the company is fined, but the people responsible are not themselves held accountable (In the B.P. example, these would be the managers who neglected maintenance and ignored survey warnings because of money). The only difference between that, and a random citizen accidentally pouring an eco-system-destroying amount of poison into a critical water body system is that the citizen doesn't have a multi-billion dollar corporate swamp around him protecting him from the retribution  cough  I mean justice  cough, cough  of the state."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4471", "history": [{"author": "MetalOrganism", "content": "The idea that Israel is being coldly callous to the body count is simply incorrect. \n I don't completely disagree, but I don't completely agree either. Yes, Israel isn't going full apocalypse mode on Gaza, and yes, they are trying to inform Palestinian citizens about bombing schedules and that they should leave their homes, BUT, there is an enormous discrepancy in the power at play here. \n When Israel says they are \"defending\" themselves, what are they defending against? Hamas has rockets, but they are literally made in kitchens from household supplies. They don't even have explosive heads. Israel is being \"attacked\" with the equivalent of a first-year engineering students final project. \n In response to this non-threat, Israel ramps up propaganda against Hamas and the Palestinians, to the point that [Israeli citizens hold unjustifiably bloodthirsty views about these other human beings]( Plus, being American's #1 friend, Israel get's all of our best, top-of-the-line weaponry. \n Let's recap: A guerrilla insurgent group using ineffective homemade weapons that barely kill more than a couple Israelis a year, justifies the use of sophisticated 21st century cluster bombs against the civilian population that said insurgent group has infiltrated? \n I can tell you want to hold onto this belief that Israel is, at the end of the day, in the right; I want to tell you that Israel is a nationalistic, jingoistic, propaganda-fueled murder machine. You want to believe Israel is defending itself; I want to tell you that the threat from Hamas is nothing compared to the actual damage Israel has done to the Palestinian people. You want to believe that Israel is forced to kill civilians because Hamas uses them as shields; I want to tell you that, if this really mattered to the Israeli state, they would not propagandize their people against Palestinian children and they would not choose to \"defend\" themselves with the most destructive and indiscriminate weapons available. Indeed, specifically targeting civilians is a war crime (This is, as far as I'm aware, not what Israel does). But I would argue that in a military conflict so one-sided, this level of unprecedented \"collateral damage\" (to the point that more innocent Palestinians civilians are killed than Hamas fighters by several orders of magnitude), indicates a complete disregard for the safety and right to life of non-combatants, and should be considered a war crime. Unsurprisingly, this is very similar to the war crimes committed by the U.S. military and CIA in territories where the hellfire drones operate. \n >The media narrative is much easier to get hits with if you play up the death&destruction angle. \n If you have any kind of knowledge of what Israel has done to the Palestinian people, you wouldn't say naive and hypocritical things like this. The death & destruction of innocent people, especially on this scale, should be cause for  any rational, kind, sane person  to demand it's cessation immediately. \nSeriously, look at the civilian damage that has been done. You speak of context-less pictures, but I have seen many pictures from this conflict, in-context, and they are absolutely FUBAR. I've seen dead children, their bodies cracked open from their homes falling on them, as Israeli missiles destroy their neighborhood. I've seen the hysterical, screaming parents holding their murdered offspring swaddled in blood-soaked fabric. I've seen the shelled towns, the destroyed families, the ruined lives, all the result of one psychotic power group trying to kill another. Look at the raw pain inflicted on these  innocent people  by a force that propagandizes it's own people against them, reducing them to animals, and tell me with a straight face that this isn't being done by someone cold and callous.", "id": "cjfpsxf", "summary": "I'm not supporting Hamas, I'm supporting the innocent Palestinian people who (1) were forced off their land and out of their homes by the British to make way for Israel, (2) are propagandized to be below vermin in the eyes of the Israeli citizens, (3) are exploited by the Hamas militant group at the cost of friends and family, (4) are bombed and murdered indiscriminately by the Israelis advanced weaponry in a supposed \"self defense\" campaign (even though the Palestinian people have literally no way of defending themselves or of mounting any meaningful counter/attack, AT ALL), and (5) are mischaracterized on the world geopolitical stage as being pseudo-combatants supportive of Hamas, which justifies Israel's rampant bloodthirst to everyone in the West."}, {"author": "MetalOrganism", "content": "is the intellectual equivalent of saying \"maybe the world is only 6,000 years old and was created in 7 days; we just don't know\". \n This is disingenuous. Whereas biblical literalism requires the denial of much known science, we truly  dont  know the long-term effects of GMOs. Widespread consumption of them really only began in the mid-90s. That's only about 20 years; we have no idea what effect GMOs will have on elderly people who've been eating them their whole lives. \n GMOs aren't 100% safe like everyone likes to claim. They have indirect consequences with devastating results. The gene (BHT, I believe) we put into corn to keep it from being attacked by an insect predator is already useless as the insect has developed resistance to it. Additionally, there ARE studies that show that a GMO-corn heavy diet is not optimal for cow consumption, and that it causes acidosis and other ailments in the cows that affect the meat. The cows, which are genetically modified themselves (one modification makes them produce human milk…kinda cool, kinda creepy), are dangerously full of hormones (to grow bigger, faster) and antibiotics (to protect them from the literally shitty condition they're kept in on the \"farms\"). The American beef industry is one of the largest and heaviest users of antibiotics on the planet, and is a leading suspected cause of the massive developed resistance we're seeing in so many bacteria today. Additionally, the  steroids and hormones heavily used to encourage growth stays in the meat, and is consumed by human customers. This is a speculated cause behind the [observed and measured realization that children, particularly girls, have been going into puberty earlier and earlier]( \n Basically, our food environment is very out of rhythm with the natural state that we evolved in, and our bodies will pay/are paying the price. HFCS sowed the seeds of the obesity epidemic; who knows what serious long-term issue is waiting for us when we start seriously messing with hormone levels and igniting evolutionary arms races with predators and diseases by using our antibiotics recklessly and carelessly. You certainly don't know, no one does, because no testing on the effects of a lifetime of GMO consumption have ever been done.", "id": "cjp4l0e", "summary": "GMOs aren't 100% safe, their are always unintended consequences. Our heavy use of antibiotics is leading to an evolutionary arms race with bacteria, and our heavy use of pest-resistance genes is leading to an evolutionary arms race with crop predators. These are paths that lead to enormously catastrophic disasters in the future. Additionally, the heavy use of growth hormones involved in the production of beef are possibly bleeding into the population via the food supply and causing large-scale hormone imbalances. Current GMO research is inherently short-term, and the long-term repercussions of GMOs on our health and the environment are  not known ."}, {"author": "MetalOrganism", "content": "Unmanned vehicles are enormous psychologically damaging for the people in the communities affected by drone strikes. \n On the ground, they are defenseless against the drones. Having them nearby in the sky is like constantly being under the shadow of death. Having entire families blown apart at random and without reprisal makes people frustrated, enraged, and desperate. They encourage anti-American sentiment, and provide cause for the local population to be sympathetic towards radical militias. \n As if to reinforce the revenge-motive, they are notoriously inaccurate (contrary to the propaganda declaring how \"surgically accurate\" they are) and kill an absolutely disgusting number of innocent civilians. The ['double tap' practice]( is a virtual war crime, and is standard procedure. \n Don't interpret this to mean that it's preferable for soldiers to be on the front lines instead. We need to realize that we are an invading force, we are not helping, and we are there in the first place for immoral and illegal reasons. I don't want drones in the skies, I don't want soldiers in the fields. I don't want to destroy a foreign country and waste trillions of dollars and thousands of american lives. It is also important to understand the propaganda that surrounds the use of drones; \"collateral damage\" is a racist way of writing off death as part of war, when in reality it was the result of an unnecessary and deliberate act of indiscriminate destruction that costs innocent human lives.", "id": "ciggqrv", "summary": "Drones are too inaccurate and cause wanton and unnecessary civilian death. They are virtually impervious from the ground, and their psychological presence provokes anti-american sentiment and encourages militia activity, which destroys all hope of achieving stability, or 'democracy', or whatever you want to pretend we did for Iraq and Afghanistan."}, {"author": "MetalOrganism", "content": "Let me start out this post by saying that my primary concern is with the criminal element operating within the U.S. military and intelligence communities. These people present a very real and very dangerous threat to global peace and actual freedom. I have always kept my rhetoric on this subject limited to these elements, as well as the financiers; criminal elements in the banking and financial sectors, and large, organized drug cartels that cooperate with the CIA in central America. \n The link with that quote in it was used because it had a very neat list of all the rothschild-affiliated central banks. I haven't mentioned anything about this first sphere of influence or whatever because I have never heard of it. Unfortunately, online communities devoted to discussing the facts about these matters through rational, mature dialogue often attract a particularly paranoid and hysterical subgroup. This subgroup will project ideas, fears, theories, and even dreams, onto the factual framework and get lost in fanciful delusions that quickly leave any real information behind. Some things that fall into this category include, but are not limited to, Lizard People, the Hollow Earth, Timecube, most of the wildly varying Illuminati/Golden Dawn/Mason/Other Ancient Order theories, and Russian Mind-Control Technology. Though these kind of \"conspiracies\" are clearly ridiculous on their face, many of these \"theories\" at least try to include a handful of facts that, in the authors opinion, keeps the theory grounded in reality. \n Fortunately, these people are a minority within the community that discusses these issues. Unfortunately, they are louder than the rest of community and, because of that, give the entire community a generally negative reputation. This is just one more example of the Extremist effect, where a few bad apples ruins the bunch. From my personal observation, many of these 'extremist conspiracy theorists' seem to suffer from some form of schizophrenia. Considering the nature of that particular mental disorder, it is not surprising that many of them are attracted to the \"conspiracy\" community; schizophrenia often induces visual and audio hallucinations, supposed recognition of patterns where none exist, general paranoia, difficulty with trust and empathy, and a poor ability to recognize and understand the intentions, inflections, and meaning of others. I will  strongly  argue that the discussions within the so-called \"conspiracy\" community are, by and large, reliably factual and important, and that they shouldn't be dismissed automatically because of the crazy ideas of a small, loud, and generally uninformed segment of the communities population. After all, even David Icke doesn't believe in the Reptilian Overlords anymore.", "id": "ch68w73", "summary": "There is factual information regarding CIA, military, and financial criminal behavior that threatens the rights and safety of people across the globe, Americans included. Some people will myopically accept a handful of these facts that they then use to shape a hysterical nonsensical, often predetermined worldview. This is the classic 'Moderate v. Extremist' relationship that is seen in every community; Atheists, Christians, Muslims, Republicans, Democrats, you get the idea. \nSo while that source you quoted has solid facts in it (the list of central banks), there is also a misinterpretation of the facts and a projection of faulty pattern-finding on behalf of the author (The global mononation concept). I'll concede that I shouldn't have used it as a source."}, {"author": "MetalOrganism", "content": "I wouldn't say you're making a mistake. You sound kinda similar to me, honestly. I'm only 22, so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt if you wish. \n I was 18 when I lost my virginity (to my first gf no less), smoked my first joint, and got really wasted at my first legit party. The next 3 years were a blur of sex, drugs, and good times. Like, really good times. \n Eventually, I realized big parties and hardcore boozing weren't for me. I realized that being stoned all the time wasn't very cool. I realized that banging all the random sloots I could find, along with my \"notch-on-the-bedpost\" mentality, was more gross than fun, more creepy than impressive, and not really conducive towards developing real relationships with people or for building a respectable reputation. \n I still smoke the devil's lettuce, and I drink socially. I've been with my wonderful girlfriend for the last year and change. I don't go to many parties anymore, and the ones I do are almost always all close friends. And I would consider myself to be pretty fuckin happy. \n As for all the partying and stuff, I don't regret doing any of those things at all. I like trying lots of things at least once, just to see how they fit with my personality. By doing this, I realized how much I like some things (cannabis & magic mushrooms, travel, organic chemistry, etc.) and dislike others (getting super drunk, going to big, wild parties, & porking randoms). In order to really find out who you are and what you like or love or hate, I would encourage you to  push the boundaries of what you find comfortable.  I mean, that's what being  young   in love  alive is all about. You get to experiment and find out what you like and what you don't. That's what defines us as individuals and what creates the infinite uniqueness within all of our lives. Some people will tell you that you're on a good path and you should stay on that path, but I don't think that's good advice. If you really want to grow as an individual human being, you  need  to make mistakes. You  need  to do crazy shit. You  need  to walk up to her and tell her you love her, consequences be damned. You  need  to take mushrooms and have your entire worldview completely flipped inside out. You  need  to get so fucking hammered that the mere smell of alcohol sends you running for a toilet. If you don't do any of this, you won't learn anything. You won't grow. The sad part that they don't tell you, is that if you follow all the rules, get good grades, and color within the lines, you'll become a bland and boring person with no personality, no real memories, no meaningful experiences or opinions, and you'll die having lived an empty, mediocre life wherein you did nothing but listen to other people and play their games. Play your own game, man. \n I'm gonna stop ranting right now, but the", "id": "cmbfbru", "summary": "is this: Every experience you have will affect who you are and what you do with your life. Do things that frighten you, do things that make you uncomfortable. Step outside of your comfort zone and see what the world really has to offer. Apathy, cowardice, and obedience will only make you bored (and boring), depressed, and lonely."}, {"author": "MetalOrganism", "content": "I was depressed during middle and high school for about 4-5 years. Social anxiety, existentialist crises, awkwardness, trust issues, insecurity, you name it. Interacting with anyone, especially girls, was terrifying and would always ruin my day. Smiles were fake, condescending. Casual conversation was them taking pity on me. Friends were only pretenders that I  knew  wanted to be somewhere else, with other people. \n Basically, I was being extremely myopic in my approach to my life; very egocentric and self-absorbed. My insecurity was projected onto everyone and everything in my life. Because I painted my whole world blue, it all looked blue. Because I couldn't get out of my own head, or out of my own way, I could never really have a fully engaging conversation or experience. My face masked a trembling mass of social calculations that overanalyzed everything I said and did. The actual subject matter was sidelined to prioritize thoughts like, \"Was that weird to say?\", \"She thinks I'm creepy, just look at how fake her smile is\", etc. \n I didnt know it at the time, but the cure was to step out of my own head and get a fresh perspective on everything. Marijuana helped significantly. It altered my perception in a comfortable and non-dramatic way, and really helped me understand that other people are just that; other conscious minds piloting meat vehicles. We all have insecurities, we all have dreams and anxieties, it's just that some of us allow ourselves to become consumed by them. After I started smoking marijuana, I felt like I could understand people a lot better, or at the very least, associate with them a lot easier. \n After a while, I started experimenting with psychedelic mushrooms, and that only helped me more. I would like to clarify that I took these substances in very positive, controlled environments; with a small number of trusted friends out in the woods on a sunny day by ourselves. Taking psychedelics at parties, with people you don't trust, or in any other compromised situation IS NOT A SMART IDEA and you SHOULD NOT DO IT. Anyways, these psychedelic experiences reinforced the concept of subjective human experience to me, and the value and necessity of positive thinking and positive energy. Don't write off positive energy as new age mumbo jumbo. It is a very real thing that we all experience to some degree every day; laughter, optimism, relaxation, tolerance, understanding, patience, humor, playfulness, these are all perfect examples of positive energy that brighten our lives. I learned to actively emulate and integrate these qualities into my life, and now, 4 years out of high school, I would consider myself a very happy, social and outgoing person who has the confidence to try to achieve my goals and unapologetically state my mind.", "id": "cgs9te9", "summary": "If you're depressed, it's probably because you're neurotically attached to the 'high' of depression, pity, and negativity. Realize that doing this actively damages your life, and that it is a choice. Realize that positive behaviors affect your mind state and your life, and incorporate them into your existence. Using marijuana and psilocybin SPIRITUALLY and RESPONSIBLY can greatly help with this transition from a negative, self-absorbed, depression to a positive, expressive, constructive life experience."}, {"author": "MetalOrganism", "content": "Old style communism was opposed to religion because it was seen as a threat to the functioning of the state. Religion provided a competing outlet for the citizen's idolatry, and was seen as a potential source of danger. \n People who claim that \"old style communism\" is atheist seem to conveniently forget that those same \"atheist communist\" governments also targeted, imprisoned, and killed atheist intellectuals and scholars. Nazi Germany, often described by the ignorant as an atheist empire, was, in reality, heavily influenced by and reliant on Christianity. The Nazi state fervently hunted and silenced atheist groups, free thinkers, intellectuals, educators, atheist authors, etc, as they were viewed as a threat. \n It must be understood that supposedly \"atheist\" regimes attacked religious institutions because they viewed them as a threat to their own sovereignty and power. This is fundamentally different from the opposition to religion you find in modern societies. Modern opposition to religion stems from the explosion of scientific literacy and the abundance of information made possible by things like the internet. This avalanche of information access has exposed many religious claims and practices as hypocritical, unnecessary, factually inconsistent, or physically dangerous.", "id": "cnbf2xo", "summary": "Anti-religion purges were performed as a self-preservation mechanism by the state against perceived threats from institutionalized religious groups. Modern opposition to religion is based on information awareness and scientific literacy. Claiming that modern atheist movements are on par with \"old style communist\" states is not only factually inaccurate, it is intellectually dishonest and self-serving."}, {"author": "MetalOrganism", "content": "V-Ups are similar in the crunch movement, but unique in the form you hold while doing the exercise. \n With v-ups, your knees should not bend the entire movement. You hold your legs out straight in front of you, with your arms pointed straight down your sides to your feet. Flex your abdominals as you raise your shoulders, feet, and hands. At the top of the movement, your feet will be together high up in the air, and your hands will raise up to tap your feet. Your head should be as high in the air as you can make it. \n Once you reach the top of the exercise, lower your torso, arms, and limbs until you are as stretched out as possible without resting your torso, arms, or legs, on the floor.", "id": "ck9zq5h", "summary": "main difference is Z-ups have your legs bend at the knees and keep your feet near the ground. With V-ups, your legs should have minimal bend, and your feet are brought up high in the air with every rep."}, {"author": "MetalOrganism", "content": "Not me personally, but a friend of mine is unbelievably attractive. \"His face was carved by angels\" and all that. He's not the brightest guy you've ever met, but he's really nice, and he genuinely tries to do well by people. If there's a party, he's either the life of it or just putting out good vibes for everyone else to enjoy. \n The girls he would date we're all very attractive, with high confidence and self-respect, and a shallow and rude, confrontational attitude with people they viewed as inferior in some way to them. They would be the only girls with enough confidence to hold a conversation with him, and he would be happy to get a hot girlfriend. After a few months, she would realize how manipulatable he was/is, and exploit him. It would take him a solid year each time to figure it out and finally break it off. \n He was so attractive, just a friendly conversation starter would literally scare most girls into a shy and awkward silence. He really didn't get it, and thought these girls weren't interested, or that they considered him rude or something. Because of this, he latched onto the first girl who would actually talk to him, and the rest goes from there. \n Eventually, I was finally able to convince him of this destructive pattern he was in. A few weeks of self-reflection later, he told me that depression and belief that girls didn't like him had convinced him that he wouldn't ever be able to find someone to love and it killed him on the inside.", "id": "ckmu1jj", "summary": "Friend is extremely good looking guy. His looks intimidate most girls, and he interprets this as them not liking him. He is depressed and doesn't understand why this keeps happening. It caused him mental pain and suffering for years, but he's over it now and has become very good at making random girls out in public give nervous smiles or a small giggle. He's been dating someone for more than 2 years now, so I think things really have turned around for him."}, {"author": "MetalOrganism", "content": "I like how [Joe Rogan]( put's it. \n As for me, smoking the ganja had a very positive effect on my life. I was depressed, anxious, distrusting, and paranoid. Getting baked helped me put my life in perspective, helped me calm down, and help me develop a much more practical and appreciative perspective on life. \n There are always days that are better or worse for smoking. Job interview at 10 in the morning? Not a good idea to wake and bake. Friday night after finishing my homework? Light up the bong, son. This was a lesson learned through trial and error, and many awkward high situations. \n Today, four years after I started smoking, my tolerance is through the roof. I smoke about three to five times a day, and the effects last for about two hours. The \"high\" is really only noticeable for about 15-45 minutes, or until I eat a big meal or something that dilutes the THC in my bloodstream. \n I am self-employed, and luckily the nature of my work allows me, encourages me in fact, to smoke before or during operating hours. It isn't really a nuisance, but only because I'm so jaded that I don't really get \"super baked\" anymore. If I want to fuck myself up, I'll have to eat a couple edibles and fill in the first hour with bong rips and vaporizer bags. Regardless, I avoid smoking if I have to meet family members or business associates because it certainly doesn't improve my capacity for legible and sensible dialogue.", "id": "ckdiruc", "summary": "Context is important. Use common sense. Smoke when you are free, don't smoke when you have obligations. Then you will be happy."}, {"author": "MetalOrganism", "content": "Not him, but here's what I think he's trying to articulate. \n Victorianism and her daughter, Protestantism, are cultural and religious philosophies that encourage, among other things, an extremely (sexually) modest form of dress, modest thoughts and actions, and sexual purity / chastity. They even covered up table/chair legs out of fear of them appearing too \"phallic\". Basically, these were really sexually repressive and conservative ideologies. \n Naturally, the heavily-reinforced sociopolitical values encouraged by an ideology don't die out immediately when the ideology itself loses popularity. Behavioral influences remain ingrained in many generations of descendents of the culture that beheld the ideology. Specifically, the Protestants took a lot of Victorian values with them when they crossed the Atlantic and founded what would become the U.S., including all the sexual baggage that their Christian ideology demanded. These sociocultural \"genes\", if you will, are dilute but still extant, reflected in our typically irrational American fear of nudity, and conservative attitudes towards sexuality and reproduction. \n For comparison, look at other Western societies that were not founded on Protestant principles or otherwise heavily influenced by Victorian prudishness. Where nudity is automatically sexualized in the U.S., a French or German person would only consider nudity sexual if it was in a sexual context or associated with sexual acts and behaviors. In these cultures, there is no automatic association of nudity with shame or guilt (the 'Original-Sin Complex'). \n In Germany, exposed breasts and penises can be found in public advertisements and on public-access tv with, by and large, no outcry. I don't have to hypothesize on how Americans would react to this kind of thing on their public media. \n In Spain, nude beaches are common and popular places for people of all ages to enjoy the day outside. The extremely few nude beaches in the U.S. are not very well-trafficked, not in easily accessible locations, and not even socially popular to talk about. \n In France, movies with exposed breasts, or even genitals, will not get an \"Adult\" rating equivalent unless there is graphic violence or strong sexual activity as well. In the U.S., many films rated acceptable for Teens/Kids include some measure of often-brutally-gory violence (usually murder, or a horrific death passed off as \"humorous\" or \"well-deserved\"), but will be branded \"Adult\" if they have only a few seconds of exposed female nipple or  suggested  (ie not on-screen) penetration / intercourse. \n I could go on, but I feel like this post is already 10x longer than the reply you were expecting.", "id": "cphp5u6", "summary": "Protestantism and Victorianism were extremely sexually repressive cultural ideologies which created \"behavioral left-overs\" in their descendent culture(s). These include an automatic association of nudity with sexuality, guilt or shame of nudity, and a belief that exposure to nudity will cause psychological trauma. Clearly, none of these are objectively fact-based, which means our American cultural legacy regarding sexuality is one built on self-hatred, ignorance, and stigmatization."}, {"author": "MetalOrganism", "content": "We're all in the same boat, really. The system that has worked for previous generations cannot handle the immensity of the current populations. \n No one on the news will mention this, but the 18-35 year old population group is  huge …way bigger than the \"baby boomer\" generation. Our collective political and economic voice is enormous, but exaggerated political tit-for-tat in the culture divides and pacifies us via apathy. \n The internet is a beacon in the dark, as one of several technological breakthroughs available to us in the new millennium to reshape our societies. This form of free, open, neutral interaction has completely rewritten the books. Our realized potential is a truly equal, egalitarian, free society, the end of restrictive laws against consensual behavior, with the capacity for greatly advancing the causes of science and global unity as a species. This is completely opposite to our current atmosphere of restrictive laws, continual warfare, nation states, and centralized powers pushing the levers of exploitation and warfare. \n What we're going through now is a period of strife as the old system collapses, ultimately to be reformed in a manner better suited for the current technological and culturally paradigm. The rise of internet-famous individuals; bloggers, vloggers, etc. is a symptom (a good symptom) of this reformation. It simultaneously takes power away from established business models by out-innovating them; a musician no longer needs a label when he can sell his music online himself, a repair that would require a technician can now be solved with the help of a google search, and an entrepreneur can have a public access point for his business or startup for extremely little money and maintenance. The individual has become empowered with the collective knowledge of the species.  This is also why net neutrality is critically important . \n These are emerging cultural forces that are reshaping our lives in unprecedented ways. For free, I am anonymously interacting in real time with potentially tens of thousands of people  right now .  Literally no other people in human history had anything like this level of democratization.", "id": "chjbjcf", "summary": "current technology has the capacity to fundamentally reshape culture and society, this realized potential + an enormous, educated young population conflicts with the established system, and the result is the accelerating degradation of the function of said established system. This is why there are no jobs and you're unemployed."}, {"author": "MetalOrganism", "content": "He isn't talking about censorship, he's talking about soft-censorship. Censorship is the government stopping you from saying certain things. \n Soft-censorship can take a variety of forms, but for simplicity I'll list the varient he's referencing. \n When a society is, by and large, run on corporate terms, the corporations hold more power in certain respects than the government. The government can cooperate with or use corporations to do very bad things without getting their hands dirty or without breaking rules that only apply to governments. When the only platforms for communication with enormous groups of people are owned by private enterprises (save for physically going outside and talking loudly, but that doesn't hold a candle next to the effectiveness of internet-based communication), those private enterprises effectively control the dialogue. If they don't like something being said or done on their servers, they can censor it. It isn't illegal, because it's a corporation, not the government, doing the censoring. However, the net result is the same; an individual's ideas are repressed for sociopolitical/monetary reasons, and the culture as a whole suffers. This bad effect is compounded by the fact that the corporation really isn't accountable to the citizens, and the citizens really have no say. A country ruled by corporations may be just as \"Free\" on paper as a country led by a democratic government, but the functional exercise of rights can be curtailed and limited to the point of nonexistence by corporations, and no one can do a thing about it. The fascist state is not conducive to freedom of the individual.", "id": "ckff3ti", "summary": "When a company offers a communication service that connects millions, or even  billions  of people, that company censoring their communication service is worse than government censorship because it does the exact same thing with respect to the individual and their ideas, except that the corporation is unaccountable and unstoppable to the citizen. A society run by corporations cooperating with government is the exact definition of a fascist state. \n Edit: As for the idea that a public response would cause their stock to plummet and \"the free market invisible hand will get rid of bad companies\", this just isn't the case. Bad publicity simply isn't strong enough to be a viable threat to established companies that can get away with this kind of soft-censorship. BP, Comcast, Facebook, and more all have experienced  extremely  terrible publicity about their products and management, but these companies still exist and are still very powerful and influential, and hold an enormous amount of economic sway in their industries."}]}
+{"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Questioning wether or not i should be smoking weed due to lack of concrete information. What are your thoughts on the alleged positive and negative effects for smoking marijuana specifically?", "output": "I had a conversation with someone not long ago about marijuana use in comparison to cigarettes. And i cant seem to make sense of it. This person was telling me they didnt understand how someone could smoke weed but be so against cigs because according to him they are equally as bad for your lungs. He had a lot of choice words about dispensaries being capable of being \"reputable\" too. \n Now from my personal research and understanding of Marijuana, the smoke can have tars and carcinogens in it like cigarette smoke does, but no where near to the same extent, like it's a drop in the bucket in comparison and isn't enough to cause any real damage to your lungs. What made me doubt this though is the fact that the person i was having this discussion with has some type of medical degree. So i felt like he at least had SOME kind of idea of what he was talking about. But at the same time, the disdain in his voice made it also sound like he was just spewing pre-recorded arguments from the past when things with weed and dispensaries were a little different. I feel like he kinda is getting his information from anti-weed propaganda almost. Especially because he is under the firm belief that no dispensary lab tests their bud and that all bud is very dangerous and has pesticides in it and other chemicals people dont know about, it was almost like he was describing the horrible synthetic weed, which is it's own drug completely. I explained this to him and was like \"Is this what you are referring to?\" And he was adamant about meaning regular weed. It made me think he's judging it based on out dated or wrong data. \n Recently i've decided to go back and re-do my research to see if anything he said had any weight to it. And i've found a lot of conflicting information. A lot of information suggests use of marijuana has literally no negative side effects (outside of the commonly expected ones like dry mouth and the munchies) and at the same time, i've also found plenty of information that supposedly reveals how bad weed can be for you. I personally dont think it is too bad for you, we all know plenty of ents who've been smoking since their teenage years and are now elders who dont have lung cancer or any respiratory issues at all. And i tend to want to believe that over \"data\". But i cant help but feel torn. Multiple reputable as well as multiple non-reputable propaganda-like sources both have reported positive and negative things about the short and long term effects of weed smoking, and im just not sure what to believe anymore and i am a little confused. I want to stay an ent, but if there really is weight to long term negative effects similar to smoking cigarettes, then im definitely not going to partake anymore, at least not smoking it (id switch to other non smoking forms of taking it such as vaping or edibles and all the other options). \n I think this is one of the main reasons why getting weed legalized is such an uphill battle. There's so much missinformation and it's almost like no one really actually knows any facts about it at all. Why is there so much conflicting information about this wonderful plant? Why are scientific results so varied? And what is the truth to YOU about how healthy or not healthy smoking weed is? (Provide a source if possible)."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I'm 22 and never been with any one because of reasons and dont know what else to try.", "output": "I'm 22. \n Havent ever had a boyfriend mostly just cause every guy i've ever liked, flirted with, or asked out have all been straight. Literally every single one. It's actually so bad, i've only ever even met a single digit number amount of gay guys in my whole life. I can count them on one hand. \n I also dont think im very attractive. But people have told me i am good looking before, even some of my straight guy friends have gone out of their way to tell me that if they were single they'd turn for me or whatever... I dont see what they see, but im mature enough to realize that im just not my own type. \n On dating and/or hookup apps like okcupid or adam4adam all i ever get is either no response or an endless stream of profiles that say \"No blacks\" or whatever other variation of that phrase. \n I try to go to gay bars and such and it just, never really works out for one reason or another. It's not my scene at all and i just dont feel at home/welcomed at gaybars. \n It's very frustrating cause every one i know is getting married and having kids (which most of my friends are my age, and i personally think that's way too young for marriage and kids) and it makes me feel shitty cause every one is settling down with their love lives and i can't even get mine to start. \n Which then puts the worry in my head that im never going to find someone cause i see so many posts on places like here or /r/askgaybros or other websites where people complain about or voice their dissatisfaction with dating in-experienced guys who've never been with any one. And so on and so forth. \n So i kinda just dont really know what else there is i can do or try at this point. I dont even know if i should keep trying, sadly. I dont even know what else there is i can try."}], "user_id": "longlamp_7922", "history": [{"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "When i see hot guys, i usually stare and become overwhelmed with frustration to the point that i feel the need to pinch myself so the physical pain distracts me from the rage and shit storm that is going on in my head. Cause i pretty much (after years and years of back to back rejection from straight guys) that any guy i find attractive, is straight by default.", "id": "c8n5xt6", "summary": "Hot guys make me angry."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "Same here bro. But over time i've come to realize it's not really a racial problem, the vast majority of people aren't racist any more. Especially people under 40. What i do think is the issue is just the sheer numbers. Caucasians out number pretty much all of the other races in the small context of the gay community (as they do in the general population as well), and more people are attracted to Caucasians than to any other race. \n It's just a numbers thing. Yeah there are a small few who legitimately are racist, especially on hook up apps that attract the shallowest of the shallow. But there's plenty of guys of all races, ages, and body types out there who are attracted to us. Trust me, i have found them. It's a numbers game and we just have to sift through more before we get a winner sometimes is all. Keep at it dude. \n I used to get really depressed about feeling like no one wanted black guys, but i finally found a hot dude that did on Adam4Adam and we went out on a date. He hadn't planned on doing anything sexual but he said he was so into me that he couldnt help himself and he went for a kiss. Ended up back at his place and he literally couldn't keep his hands off me. He ended up rimming me for what seemed like hours, he couldn't tear himself away, i was BEGGING for his dick. \n I'd never felt so attractive in my whole damn life. Only thing that stopped him from \"Seeing how many times i can make you cum in one night\" was that since he hadn't planned on sex, neither of us had condoms on us and he had to get up early the next morning.", "id": "ccm2ihl", "summary": "Keep hope alive and keep trying, there are plenty of guys out there that love us and would love to fuck our brains out."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "Obviously, do not cheat on your gf. Do not go on gay hook up sites and blow some guy behind her back. This is risky for you health wise as well as to your relationship with your gf if she ever were to find out. \n I recommend talking to your gf about it. I believe this is your only option (other than just keeping the urges as just a fantasy you jack off to). I don't know how much of her sexual fantasies/interests you know about. But a lot of girls enjoy gay porn/man on man action in general. If she also likes threesomes, it's very easily possible you two could set up a threesome in which you and her share a bisexual mans cock. Suck him off together or something. There's a ton of porn like that. And there are subs right here on Reddit devoted to that and other forms of cuckholding and gf/wife sharing. You also might be able to work out a deal where you get to suck the guys cock solo, but she gets to watch (some people like to just watch). Or maybe if she has any bicuriousity, you both let each other explore it. There's many deals that could be worked out. \n However, if you do tell her about it, be sure to explain the limitations of your fantasies. If you just out right say \"I want to suck dick\". That might frighten her into thinking that you just discovered you are gay and are probably going to leave her for another man. Sit her down and have her agree to not speak until you are done speaking. And just get it all out. You two have been together for over 2 years, she should at least hear you out without judgement before saying no/yes. \n Explain that you have these fantasies/urges of sucking a man's dick, but that that is all you'd want to do with the man. Make it clear to her the difference between being sexually confused, and being sexually curious. They are not the same thing. Explain that you have no interest in any form of butt sex or the other man sucking you off, or kissing, romance or anything like that. Which ever it may be for you, although, even if you don't feel the urge to do it now, just be open to the possibility that upon trying dick sucking you might feel urges to do more. \n It's relatively common to happen. Not saying you are a latent homosexual/bisexual. You know yourself better than any of us. But for the sake of keeping her and your own expectations realistic, keep that possibility in mind. And be prepared to discuss that possible outcome with her if the conversation goes well. Because she most likely will ask \"How do i know you won't end up wanting to go further with guys if you like sucking his dick?\" or some variant of that question). \n Treat it like something you just need to get out of your system. Like a passing interest in wanting to go sky diving or do something adventurous or something. But also make it clear that it's something you are really keen on trying and that it's not just a thing that will go away if you don't think about it for a few days. Explain to her that it's a reoccurring fantasy that has not (and possibly will not) gone away over time. \n At the same time, you need to make her understand that if she says she doesn't want you to try that while you and her are together that you will respect that wish and let it remain something in your head that gets you off during \"alone time\". Involve her in the process of you exploring this fantasy (if she lets you that is). If she feels like you aren't hiding anything, depending on how she is, it will make her feel more at ease and not like she'll lose you to a guy. \n I hope that helps! And i hope she let's you suck some cock. I must say, it is a very fun activity and i think you will enjoy it. There's just something empowering and confidence boosting as well as sexually gratifying about having a dude in your mouth and knowing that any moans of pleasure or involuntary muscle spasms/body movements are a direct result of your actions. It's just a great time all around. \n If i were sexually experienced enough (i've sucked all of like 2 dicks, years ago) i'd be glad to give ya some pointers. But honestly, dudes know their way around a dick better than the majority of chicks do, because we have dicks ourselves. You'll be able to figure it out relatively quickly with communication with the guy you are blowing as well as just throwing in stuff you know you'd like if it was done to you. Sorry for the wall of text! If you do decide to talk to her about it, please update us!", "id": "cc9i0l5", "summary": "Talk to her about it. Assure her that you are sexually curious and not sexually confused. Assure her you won't leave her for another man. Let her get in on the action if that is what let's you be able to go through with acting on your urge."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "Dude i'm in the exact same situation with my best friend. He has a gf, but he and i are very very close and our horseplay can sometimes get very physical and sometimes even flirty and and romantic (the other night when he and i hung out he slept in bed with me and he kinda cuddled a bit). We've kissed once. And he's actually admitted to being ever so slightly bi (enough to kiss guys if he's drunk or on E at a rave but nothing beyond that). And it's kinda got me in this weird place where i feel like im in a relationship with him but with no sex and it's doing some considerable damage and i've been working up the courage to try and talk to him about it. But im conflicted because part of me doesn't want the actions to stop, cause it's too late for me and i've already fallen for him. So i kinda dont want the few bones (so to speak) that he does throw me to go away, but i also know that it's not good for my emotional health. Sigh... I do actively search for other guys though, because im the type who finds it hard to get over someone unless i find someone who is equal or better for me then the previous guy. But me and him are so close and click so well that it's nigh impossible. So i almost feel like i need to kinda pull back from our friendship, but at the same time i dont want to do that because having a male best friend is new for me and im kind of addicted to finally feeling like just one of the guys.", "id": "cbtx6t8", "summary": "Your story is exactly what im going through right now, but i havent yet worked up the courage to talk to my friend about it like you did."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "Ugh, i know what you mean about the latter example. I have a friend of mine who im absolutely crazy about who does that at times. He's straight and has a gf, but he's acknowledged (while sober) he's ok kissing dudes he is comfortable with if he's drunk on occasion. And with me specifically, when he's really drunk he'll be REALLY flirty. Like once when we were drunk at a party that had a dress code. He had never seen me dressed up before. So when he saw me he was like holy shit you look amazing dude and was gushing about me, to me, all night about how handsome and sexy (both the exact words he used) all night. And at one point in the night he was trying to help me feel better about my self (cause i lack social skills and he was trying to get me to be a little more social at the party) and he put his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye and after saying some encouraging things, he again made a point to mention that i looked great that night. Going as far as saying he'd turn gay for me or something along those lines. Straight guys say stuff like that all the time, but the way he said it made it seem more serious. He'd said it in that kind of sincere but stern tone you use when you are like trying to tell your best female friend that she's not ugly and she is pretty but she keeps being all down on her self and not believing you so you eventually have to kind of yell it at her so she knows you arent trying to be some patronizing friend who lies for the sake of the persons feelings. So i felt like he meant what he was saying. But then when he sobers up, all that goes away and he's just like a regular straight bro with the normal boundaries straight bros usually have. He never brings up any of those types of things he says to me, and i dont either cause i figure he probably never remembers. (Though at another party where we were drunk and he kissed me, he wasnt shy about talking about that the next day, but he said it was a harmless in the moment kiss thing or something). It's really confusing for me sometimes, especially cause he knows im into him. We talked about it and he of course said that for obvious reasons (such as him being straight and also not being single) it couldn't ever happen. Maybe im just reading to much into his drunkness cause i want a shot so badly or am in denial or something. But yeah, im just really hoping he eventually comes out and wants to be with me. But it's highly unlikely to happen and unrealistic. \n EDIT: I'm so sorry, i meant for that story to be short and it turned into a /r/askgaybros wall of text post...", "id": "caficl6", "summary": "I know dat feel."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "Reading through the comments, it seems the cause of your high seizure has been found. Passing out from not getting enough oxygen to the brain. \n I figured i'd still share my similar experience with ya though. One of the reasons i smoke is to stop muscle spasms/twitching that i have. It's kinda like a nervous tick i have, but it more so happens if im angry, depressed or profoundly perplexed by something. However, i've found that the weed sometimes increases the spasms/twitching. The weed relaxes my muscles (im usually very tense from stress), feels like waves of relaxation washing over my muscles. \n However, it sometimes feels like the muscles get so relaxed to the point that they freak out from not being used to being that relaxed and randomly spasm. It's not a bad thing though, cause when i spasm while sober, it usually ever so slightly hurts and feels uncomfortable as if the muscle contracts past the point it should be able to, but when i spasm while high, it feels different. Like an explosive physical manifestation of my enjoyment of being high almost. \n Usually my spasms are quick rapid fire but singular movements in localized points on my body such as my hand or arm muscles twitching or a portion of my back muscles and most commonly a neck twitch kind of how you see stereotypical crazy people in movies do when they spaz out. \n Though there was one time where i experienced something similar to what you describe where i got REALLY REALLY high, and when i went to sleep, i dreamt i was hurdling through space at a very high rate of speed. And for for what ever reason my entire body was spasming out of control. I was lucid dreaming, so i was aware that the spasming was not part of my dream and was something i was experiencing for real. But for some reason i also could not snap myself out of the dream, so i felt kinda trapped in my own body at that moment and it was very scary. \n I thought i too was having a seizure and that i'd die there by myself from it. The only thing that comforted me in that moment was the fact that i was lucid dreaming and was able to continue to construct the dream of hurdling through space while this was happening. Kinda cool way to go out i guess. \n I've never had synthetic weed and have only gotten weed from reputable dispensaries here in Los Angeles. But after reading this posts comments, i now believe i experienced the not getting enough oxygen to the brain and the body freaking out as a result thing.", "id": "cbpsec6", "summary": "I had a \"seizure\" while high as well, while lucid dreaming about hurdling through space. Thought i was going to die. Reading this posts comments made me realize it was just lack of oxygen to the brain though."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "If you aren't comfortable with it. Dont do it. \n But i will say though, as someone who never got any sexual or romantic action while in high school. Do the sexually adventurous fun stuff now while you have easy access to it honestly. This is the point in your life where you should explore and have fun and step out of your comfort zone. Bout 5 to 7 years from now when you are my age, you'll be looking back at what will be your recently passed high school years and think about all the things you wish you did. Regret is a horrible feeling because you cant go back and change anything. You have the entire rest of your life to be a romantic and not want to share. And also, your bf wanting a threesome has no baring on how serious his feelings for you are. Some of the most committed relationships healthily partake in threesomes and swinging and group sex. Long as both parties are into it and agree to the limits (for example, i have a friend with a gf of 4 years, they are most likely going to end up with each other for the long hall as they are getting close to that time to settle down age. But they have an agreement where they are both allowed to kiss/makeout with other people they find attractive. Anything beyond that, the other one of them has to be there for it), it doesn't have anything to do with someone not feeling as strongly about the other, it can actually be something that brings you together. Imagine being able to go out and about with your guy, scoping out other guys together rather than being like the couples comedians joke about where you have to hide your attractions to others so as not to make your SO jealous just cause you stared at someone elses ass for 1 second too long. It's a kink just like any other, that a significant other would want to share with the other significant other when they are comfortable enough with them to do so. If he didnt have somewhat serious feelings for you, he'd go have at it with the guy on the side with or without your permission. But he's being considerate and asking your opinion on it and if you are into it. \n The things that should be off putting for you is the personality bit. A shitty personality can ruin a dudes hotness. But if the dude is THAT hot, i can forget about how shitty his personality is. I dont have to try and discuss politics or movie interests while I'm boning him lol. \n I totally am with you on the jealousy thing though. I've never gotten to participate in a threesome or anything similar yet, but i too imagine i'd be at the same time very jealous that another guy would be getting to experience sexy time with my guy, but also turned on at seeing him pleasure someone else and cause of the whole voyeuristic aspect of it. Like seeing porn in real life starring two guys you find attractive. When do you ever get to see porn where both stars are hot? Let alone seeing it in person. On top of the fact that you get to join in!", "id": "cbclyey", "summary": "If you already know off the top of your head you dont want to do it, have that discussion with your guy and tell him you aren't comfortable with it. If there's any shred of curiosity about threesomes in you. Go ahead and give it a shot and enjoy the experiment for what it is."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "This is a tough situation. If it were me. I would talk to your friend immediately and let him know that you are ok with him being bi. Cause right now, with him not knowing you are gay and the way you reacted to his coming out, he probably thinks you hate his guts. So squash that asap. If you need more time to figure out what else to say, still tell him you two are cool but that you need some time to figure things out and then take your time to figure out what you want to do. If it were me i'd come out to him, but don't tell him how you feel about him just yet. Figure out where he is at mentally. Does he know for sure he is bi? Or is he more along the lines of someone who is confused and doesn't know/understand the feelings he's feeling. If he's the latter, he most likely would not be emotionally/mentally ready for a possible relationship with you. So in that situation, i'd say stay with the guy you are with for now and help your bi friend figure himself out, as a friend. However. If he is sure of himself as a bisexual man and all that and he is just simply coming out to you so he doesn't feel alone and so that he's not hiding a part of himself from a good friend of his (you). Then i'd say you've got some thinking to do. You could eventually tell him you had a big crush on him when you guys were younger and see if he says he felt the same way. Then if both of you still feel that way about each other and you know you'd be happier with him than your current relationship, you should break it off with that guy and be with your friend. However, if you only want to go with your friend just to fulfill a fantasy and he actually wouldn't be that good for you in a long term relationship, than it's not worth breaking up with your current guy for. At best you might get a threesome out of it if your current BF is down for that.", "id": "chxumf1", "summary": "Come out to your friend. Worry about his needs first. Make sure he's alright with himself. Then figure out if a relationship with him or with your current BF would be more satisfying to you in the long term. If you just want to fulfill a fantasy with your friend. Stay with your current BF. If how you felt/feel about your friend is real and stronger than what you have with your current BF. Take a chance on a relationship with your friend (find out if he has feelings for you first)."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "I understand what you mean about the being so inexperienced that you dont even know what you want part. \n I was in a similar situation sexually. I had been a virgin (though im 22), but i felt annoyed about it because i felt like my prime is slipping by unused. However, i too have a HUGE aversion to hooking up with strangers from the internet and, but i also dont have the social skills to go meet people IRL either. So i was at this stand still for a long time (till just this week actually). I was sitting around stoned and thinking to myself about what i could do to make things happen for me. I didnt want to feel like i was missing out on common life experiences any more. So i knew i needed to take a step out of my comfort zone. So, i set my fear of online dating/hook ups aside in my head, and literally about an hour or so later i get message on one of the more hook up oriented sites (i have had accounts on them since i turned 18 mostly just for window shopping) and he was a little out of my age range, but good looking enough to where i was like ok whatever close enough. Talked to him for a bit (nervous and uncomfortable as fuck the whole time), he seemed kinda cool. So i decided to take him up on his offer to go to the movies with him. I went intending to just go see the movie, maybe get food with him after to actually talk, then go home. The whole time i was terrified of this random stranger i had met and i felt like a horrible person and i was angry at myself and everything for doing this, but at the same time knew it was good for me to help break me out of my shell and to take that first step so that going on a date or what ever the second time wouldnt forever be this huge step into the unknown. The guy was pretty forward and he showed interest and made me feel comfortable after a while. Ended up back at his place to watch a movie. This turned into fooling around (no sex though) for the whole duration of the movie. And i am the type who previously felt virginity was something super sacred and all that. And after fooling around with the guy, i didnt feel like i tossed my virginity out the window or like i was a whore or slut or anything of that nature. I did an experiment for the betterment of my self moving forward in life. So i went into it not even intending for anything to happen and i ended up having a good time, got a little action, and now i have that experience under my belt and now the process of meeting new people online for dates (or whatever else) doesnt seem as scary anymore (though it still is, but now i know what to expect for the most part ya know)? You have to find an equivalent to that for you and just start taking baby steps till something happens. \n I dont directly relate to the confusion about liking guys or girls part, but i think the core theme of my wall of text applies. Start taking teeny tiny baby steps to each goal and over time you'll figure it out. So take a shot at the online sites. If it really really freaks you out that much, use something like OKCupid or Plenty of Fish. Those are much more relationship/dating oriented than the sex fueled apps like adam4adam and grindr. Start chatting people up (both guys and girls) and just start talking to them. You dont have to spill your whole life story to them, but tell them you like to take things slow. Chat for a while, then and only when you feel comfortable. THEN meet them, then go hang out with them again, and again and how ever long it takes for you to feel casual and comfortable with him/her. And just dont put any pressure or deadlines over your own head. Just let what ever is meant to happen for you happen on its own and naturally, and you never know what might happen. \n You also can ask other friends of yours if they can introduce you to other friends of theirs. Expand your social network in real life. It expands exponentially. So you are bound to find a cool guy or girl you click with as friends and who knows where it can go from there. Nothing will happen if you stay in the rut of not wanting to break out of the comfort zone is something i had to convince my self to realize, and now that i have, even though im not ready to go at things at full speed, im at least moving now. \n Hopefully that helps man!", "id": "cadymb8", "summary": "Nothing will happen till you try something (anything)."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "I'm short (5'4''/5'5'') and i find it infuriatingly difficult to find guys who want short guys. When im browsing around the hook up apps the majority of what i see is tall guys looking for guys even taller than them and it's so fuckin' frustrating. I'm also a black short guy and i feel like guys seldom want that too. The majority of guys who are into black guys are only into it for the big tall muscular black guy with a 13 inch dick fantasy and i'm not that at all. \n When it comes to topping/bottoming, i'm more vers/bottom but i like topping from time to time. However, i find that i'm usually not tall enough for the guys who are even shorter than me who i'd prefer to top. And the guys who are taller than me who i'd want to top usually don't want to be topped by smaller guys. And the few times i did get to top a taller guy it really wasn't enjoyable because it was difficult logistically. Like in order for doggy style to work i had to stand on a stool to reach their ass so i wasn't going in at an odd angle. \n Doing missionary where they are on the edge of the bed and im standing on the ground has the same issue with going in at odd angles unless i stood on something (which makes me feel insecure and not be able to get into the moment), i couldn't reach up to kiss them at all. My head barely made it up to their upper chest. The only positions i like topping tall guys in are missionary where i can be on the bed with them and sit up right where our bodies form a right angle or if it's the one where they are laid out flat on their stomach and i'm on top of them. Regardless though, i still feel like a chihuahua fucking a doberman most of the time.", "id": "ceh3178", "summary": "I fucking hate being short, though it's really nice to see in the comments of this thread that some tall guys do actually like us shorties. Makes me feel a little better."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "That's definitely false. The amount of all the raw footage (like every take and shot) from a movie all together can be terabytes when it's shot in 4k. But the actual finished movie is never that huge. Because the movie files get compressed for streaming, download and home video use (BluRay/DVD). Only when it's being shown in the movie theater, is it the TBs huge file playing off of a specially built hard drive and Sony's own 4k Theater Projector that is currently in like 80% of the worlds movie theaters right now. Videos for home use will still be at 4k resolution, but they turn down the data rate (not sure how familiar you are with the techy stuff like file types and data rates and all that) or other methods of compression in order to make the file more manageable. An hour long television show that is shot in 1080p HD. The uncompressed file for that if it's at DNxHD 220 (a sort of raw video format that can be directly exported from a video editing software) is about 100 GBs or so give or take for other things that come into play like graphics and music and such. But on average it's about 100 GBs. This file then usually gets compressed using a compression software into a file type/format that retains the visual quality, but cuts down the file size. If you have good/professional level software, you can get the file down to like 5 to 10 GB and it still look fantastic. And if you are doing it for Streaming on things like Netflix, you can turn the data rate lower, or have it fluctuate based on the WiFi, and the quality will adjust it self. That's what Netflix does for 1080p content, and it wont be any different for 4k content. (They've already made a statement saying 4k content will come to Netflix in the future, but they didnt say when, but judging by how it only took 1080p like 3 or 4 years to really catch on. 4k will catch on faster, because the rate of technological advancement is exponential.) The file codec commonly used for this is h.264. It was made to be able to handle standard def and the at the time on-coming 1080p HD that is now common. H.265 (and other competing codec standards being made by the likes of Google and others) coming around the corner will do the same thing for 4k content. H.265 specifically is twice as efficient as H.264, being able to compress files to the same size as an H.264 file, but retaining double the quality. 4k is 4 times the data as 1080p. If/when H.265 (or another equivalent codec) is used for the compression of the file, you have a 4k file that is the same size as the 1080p file, but somewhere around triple the quality of 1080p. Triple because downscaling  from a higher quality to a lower quality will still look better than the same video natively shot at the lower quality.", "id": "cavvfas", "summary": "4k content in the home will have a lot of kinks in it in the beginning (like 1080p HD did). But if there's any company who you should trust with doing 4k content right. It's Sony. They are able to brag that almost ALL digital projectors in ALL movie theaters across the globe are Sony's 4k Projector. Hand picked by the movie industry itself. Fear not, they have this shit covered! And im excited as fuck for the future!"}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "But 1.4 doesn't have support for alternative frame rates such as 48 fps, which granted, there's no standards for alternate frame rates for consumer use yet though but there will be sooner than later if Peter Jackson and James Cameron get their way from continuing to push it's use in movies (Hobbit at 48 fps, Avatar 2 and 3 rumored at one point to possibly be 60 fps) and i believe 1.4 only has up to 7.1 surround sound, where as movies are now using 10.1/Dolby Atmos (it's so freakin' wonderful sounding! They added speakers to the ceiling and made it so that now in addition to the sound coming from left, right, behind you, infront of you, and above you, the full enclosure can create the illusion of a sound coming from in 3D space). \n If those things catch on quickly (though i dont think the alternative frame rates will catch on, if at all, till maybe the around the time of the PS4 Super Slim), but i dont think adding it for other things it could bring to the table such as the 10.1/Dolby Atmos surround sound and just general improvements like higher data carrying capacity/bit rate, color depth, higher audio bit rates and possibly even 4k-3D (which 1.4 cant do) is overly far-fetched.", "id": "cavwv6l", "summary": "I like the latest and greatest tech for no real reason other than liking shiny tech and specs lol."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "For me personally. I like a lot of gay guys here prefer \"masculine\" men. However, for me the masculine/feminine dichotomy more so refers to how a person carries themselves, more so than what interests they have. \n To me, masculinity is not how many sports you play or how much time you spend at the gym. It's a vibe, a certain level of confidence, independence, individuality or eccentricity without it crossing the line into being an attention whore or someone who lives just to get reactions out of people, being able to handle your business, not being overly emotional and so on and so forth. \n And feminine to me is not the clothes you wear (though i do prefer my future boyfriend to not wear dresses unless he's on a drag or theater stage show of some sort or it's halloween, cross dressing just isnt my thing otherwise) nor is it necessarily how one speaks. Femininity to me, refers to the stereotypical role of a woman in a relationship. That they are the one who are always dependent on the man (whether it be financially, emotionally, or what ever else... Relationships are a team effort), emotional/moody, dont know how to turn their brain off and relax every now and then, childish jealousy and so on and so forth. (Sorry to any ladies on this sub, but every comedian who has jokes about their wives doing all those stereotypical wife things that annoy them aren't just part of the act, it's funny because it's true). Don't get me wrong, i love my lady friends, but no one can deny that almost every straight couple let themselves fall into these roles of provider and house wife. Even without it being socially forced upon them. Cause these roles that we play in relationships are partially genetic too. \n Every one says that the desire for masculinity in the gay community is a social construct. But does any one ever think about the biological causes? Men by nature are designed to notice certain things in women, and women notice certain things about men via biological cues like pheromones and such. And if you subscribe to the idea that homosexuality is genetic. What's actually happening is that we gay men are receive some of the wants and desires in a mate that women do on a genetic level. Which the vast majority of the time is a \"masculine\" male. This is where the \"I'm a gay man, so i like MEN.\" thing kinda stems from. It's natural for us to want that, because that's also what most women want too. However, we are all human, and we all have exceptions and variations on these biological rules of attraction. There's nothing wrong with masculine woman or feminine men, and there's nothing wrong with any one being attracted to them. And there's nothing wrong with the fact that the majority of people want one over the other, which ever one that may be. \n Where it becomes an issue of offense is when people use it to exclude (beyond that of just being preference), insult, demean, or berate others. That's where the hate for the labels comes from. However, i believe that these labels should not be eradicated. We need them (and other labels) to be able to guide us toward the mates we all want, which as we all know is different for every one of us. Would anyone want to go to a grocery store or library where none of the isles or shelves are labeled and you dont know where anything is? Neither do I. No one has time for that. That's the purpose that labels like Masculine, Feminine, Gay, Straight, Bi, Pansexual, Trans, Bear, Otter, Twink, and any others serve. \n What needs to end is the hate and mistreatment of people because they happen to completely or even just loosely fit into a label you happen to not be fond of or attracted to. This, is what is a social construct. And nonchalantly just throwing the want for a masculine male into the category of \"self shame\" is just as negative a thing to do as well. Yeah, those people do exist who have shame issues with their sexuality, but that term gets thrown around way too much at people who have genuine preferences for some types of people just because they are butt hurt that they aren't someones type. This, is what is a social construct more than anything to me. \n **", "id": "ca0f65o", "summary": "See the comment /u/RainandWind made on this thread."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "Dude i totally know what you mean, I'm literally the exact same! Except still havent had a boyfriend... \n My parents got divorced when i was very young (the first thing i can remember for the most part is the divorce, i have no memory of happy times before the divorce). And because of that, i spent a lot of time alone in my room watching tv and movies, which depicted certain types of friendships and things friends do together. Almost every where we moved to, always happened to be to a neighborhood with no one my age around. So my only contact with other kids was at school. Which i was not the social type at all, i went to school, did my work and went home for all of elementary school for the most part. I met acquaintances and such, but nothing substantial really. I never saw too much of my other family members as a kid either, during the divorce my immediate family tended to keep their distance so as not to deal with drama. So i had no foundation for social skills what so ever. And an unrealistic and idealistic concept of what having friends was from tv and movies. And it's been pretty detrimental to my life today. I understand the social concepts now. But for some reason am always unable to apply them in practice. I feel its because i dont have that basic foundation of social skills to build upon. And it's resulted in me also having this weird emotional disconnect from people. I sometimes feel like interacting with people is like if you were put into a cage with an animal. Not because people are animals, but just like that feeling of \"...What do i even do with this? How do i communicate with it?\" And you kinda just hold your ground not knowing what to expect out of fear of the unknown. My fear of people i dont know, and my fear of bombing at social situations has made me damn near agoraphobic. Just this past Saturday i went to a friends bbq where i didnt know 98% of the people there. It was too overwhelming for me and i had to leave. I'm 22. I often worry this will effect every aspect of my life for the rest of my life. Especially my career. The entertainment industry works solely based on your ability to socialize and network. I sometimes get suicidal because of it. I think sometimes \"why should i even bother going on knowing im never going to be able to function properly in this world anyway?\" Luckily though, this time last year i met a guy at work who's now my best friend. When we met we just really clicked. He's one of the greatest people i've ever known, and he's helping me break out of my shell little by little. I dont know what about me drew him to me. I feel so uninteresting and like the most boring and socially retarded friend on the planet. He's really been the best thing to happen to me in life so far. I can actually be a little hopeful and optimistic sometimes cause of him. Sometimes i get down on myself cause i feel like im not a good enough friend to him. Mainly cause of my still warped perceptions of what friends do with each other. I've seen too many Breakfast Clubs and movies about teen rebellion. For a long time i thought kids were always supposed to do stuff like sneak out at night and just go do random fun shit with each other like in the movies or like when you're kids, i always see kids in movies who have that group of friends who all are in the same neighborhood, kinda like the culdesac in Ed Edd N' Eddy. They'd have nothing but time all summer to just go out and get into shenanigans, and i wanted/want that so fucking badly. But it depresses me, i feel like i've missed out on all opportunities to have that now that i'm 22 and in the real world. I'm overwhelmed by regret daily. So many things that were common to other teens that i just never got to do or experience and it makes me so mad sometimes that i see red. It makes me unable to enjoy most things. Im so desperately in need of a friend to do things with that i cant really enjoy things on my own. Nothing really phases me when i do things on my own, cause i've kinda become the type who enjoys experiencing something with someone than actual experience it self. I like the thought of doing something with someone, cause then that's a shared experience just you and that person or persons have. It can be talked about and referenced. But if i do it on my own, it kinda does the visual equivalent of going in one ear and out the other. \n However, now that i do finally have some friends, i have to adjust to a more realistic idea of what friendship is and what friends do together and how most male friends do and dont interact with each other. It's been a really hard adjustment i've been trying to make over the last few years. But it's slowly starting to happen. This weekend me and my friends are road tripping from L.A to San Diego to see Patton Oswalt record his new standup special. It makes me really happy cause i've seen soooo many fucking bro movies that contain awesome road trip scenes with friends bonding or getting into shenanigans and having fun, and i feel like im finally going to get a taste of that. And ugh i totally know what you mean about having to bug your friends. I often want to talk to them every day or when ever i can, but they dont. One of them even had to explain to me the concept that sometimes friends have to take breaks from each other (this was after me and him had spent like a month together non-stop working on a project for college). I literally did not comprehend this concept. Still dont. Also, most people have multiple circles of friends. So they dont always feel the need to chat with each other every single day, cause usually both parties have other groups of friends they tend to as well. So it's quite common for some friends to go days with speaking while they do other things with other friends, but i dont have that. So i sometimes get antsy sitting at home wanting to do something with one of them and having to wait for my turn in their rotation. I sometimes even get jealous of their other friends. Even though (like with the case of my best friend) i already have the closer relationship with the person... (Yes, i'm well aware i have serious issues lol). \n Also, as far as your question in your comment about physical contact with friends. It mostly depends on the friend, some friends are more comfortable with certain levels of physical contact than others. Especially straight guys. You kinda have to let them guide you on what they are comfortable with. You can kinda give little hints as to what your threshold is though, and that can sometimes bring them out of their shell a bit. I love hugging for reasons relating to being alone for most of my childhood and teen years. When i was living in Maryland (Where im from), female friends were all about hugs. Most males thought it to be gay to hug males. When i went to college in Florida, i had to beg friends for hugs sometimes. I really didnt understand people and their weird personal space issues. I understand if someone is standing within 2 inches of your face with their face and just awkwardly staring at you. But i couldn't wrap my head around the idea that some people dont like hugs. I was so starved for physical contact and i felt so many people took it for granted. Towards the end of my college schooling though i started to make a few friends and some of them were comfortable enough with me to give me hugs as a reward sometimes. Like once we had a group project for a class and i busted my ass on it. And they called me MVP of the project and they all gave me a group hug. But since moving out to L.A i've been getting a lot more hugs. Mostly cause of that best friend i met last year. He's very lovey dovey with his friends. We hug every time we see each other, and every time we part ways. Hugging is our hello and our goodbye. He's not afraid to say \"I love you\" to me and expects to hear it back from me. And he's pretty playful too, he'll smack my ass when ever the opportunity presents itself. He looooves tickling me (im extremely ticklish). We share secrets and are there for each other when we need each other always. Even though he's a much stronger person than me and much more sociable and what not, he started out kinda like me, socially awkward and insecure and such. And that is still there in him sometimes, and sometimes i think that part of him needs me as much as i need him. He's got the a problem on the opposite end of the spectrum as mine. He's got so many friends, that he's not actually very close with almost any of them. When i met him he had just one or two friends he considered close that he could actually have deep discussions with and all that. And i dont know how but when me and him met we just gravitated towards each other and became really close really quickly. He's great to be around, so much fun. Keeps me on my toes. It's weird, it's kinda like we're dating, but not (which sucks cause i wish we were.  sob sob straight friend crush ).", "id": "cb38bwv", "summary": "Long story short. I relate! This post hit super close to home for me and all this shit had been on my mind the past few month and i guess i decided to unload on your post. Sorry! lol"}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "Omg, so true. I've been dealing with this from the vast majority of my friends for life and it's really been getting to me lately. I'm so fucking tired of their blind optimism. Some friends, any time something bugs me or im struggling with trying to do something that's very difficult for me, they like to quote Yoda and say there is no try there is only do, and just do it, and good will come if you want it to. All those cheap throwaway reassurance lines people optimistically give without realizing how empty and naive those phrases are. I feel too many people take \"there is no try, there is only do\" type sayings WAY too literally. Especially the concept of how thinking positively can affect the outcome of a situation. NO IT DOESNT. A person in the path of a hurricane can think positively all they want but the only thing that's going to save their life is if a change in wind direction happens or if they get up and physically vacate the premises. I understand the idea behind thinking positively, in very very specific situations such as social interaction, where your perceived confidence has a direct effect on how the other person perceives and reacts to you, but people try to apply it to EVERYTHING as if thinking positively is the only thing you have to do to do anything. And when ever i try to explain that shit doesn't work that way, or \"this is what is holding me back from excelling at this situation, how can i work around it?\" and that there are ways a solution of their suggestion could go wrong when attempted by me (out of just wanting to properly check the situation and be aware of all the variables involved), i'm instantly called a negative nancy and then anything else i say is blind pessimism to them cause they just don't want to accept the fact that not everything is always peachy keen sunshine and rainbows or happens at the snap of ones fingers. It drives me so fucking insane that i can't even put the rage i feel right now just from recalling all this into words...", "id": "cbwecb1", "summary": "I COMPLETELY relate, turned into a tangent/rant about my situation."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "For me personally. Had i bought a 32 GB one, i definitely would have regretted it. Cause i bought this phone with one of my intended uses being as my main music device and retire my iPod Classic. I have 22 GB of music that grows by about 1 GB a year. 32 GB, after carrier and/or manufacturer software and bloatware, there's actually only about 28 or 29 GBs. \n And me being aware that the fuller and fuller hard drives get the slower they get and the more likely they are to malfunction. The general rule of thumb is to never have a hard drive be more than 80% or about 3/4ths of the way full for medium to long periods of time. A little less than 6 GBs of free space on a 32 GB drive is 2 GB into the danger zone for me.", "id": "c9sqy46", "summary": "Prior knowledge about hard drive performance & mortality told me to buy the 64 GB HTC One for my needs."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "I feel you on this man. If it were me in your situation, i would talk to the guy and let  expense) and show that it's what ever. Let him know that that subject matter is not off limits with you. You dont have to say \"hey im gay, its ok.\" (Does he know you are gay? If he doesn't, him sending a text with gay subject matter probably is him gauging your interest). But just be like hey that stuff is ok to talk about to and that you really did just fall asleep and if he's got something he wants to talk about he shouldn't feel the need to hide anything. Basically just be a friend. \n Then as far as flirting, im right there with you in not knowing how to do it. But many friends have told me i do it on my own and dont even realize im doing it. You probably do to. You are smart enough to realize he may be doing things to gauge your interest just as you'd like to do with him. If there's enough evidence to support this, and you already know he is gay.I say just go ahead and ask him out on a date. Maybe even just be completely honest like \"hey, i've never been on a date before, id like to go on one. Will you go with me on a practice/experiment date?\" That way, it can be like a practice thing, so if it doesn't go well or goes awkwardly, it can just be an experiment and doesn't have to be all awkward. But if it goes well, you'll know what to do from there. From my understanding of it and based on what my friends who have witnessed me flirt without my own knowing. Flirting never was something you have to think about doing. If it is, you are doing it wrong or too intensely. If you are interested in the person, your behavior will subconsciously be different around them than it is with others, and it will show. Unless you are consciously making an effort to go out of your way to hide flirtatious behavior to stay in the closet/not be obvious. Especially if the other person is keen on reading body language. \n A lot of this depends on how close you and this guy are, if both of you are gay, if you know he's gay, if he knows you're gay and such. But over all yeah, just keep being a friend to him and if he does any other tests like texts with gay subject matter, play along with it. And nature will most likely take its course. Please update us if things happen! :-) \n P.S.\nKeep in mind, this comes from someone who's ultimately in a similar boat as you. No dating experience, dont know how to flirt, never been with a dude. Very \"How do i even?!...\" about it all. But i'm lucky enough to have a group of supportive straight bros and straight sisters who've helped me figure some of these things out over the past few years (im 22 if it matters at all).", "id": "cb1q7qo", "summary": "Tell your friend the texting situation is completely fine and no one should feel weird about it. Ask him on a practice date if you feel comfortable enough sharing the fact that you're gay and wanting to experience a date with him."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "Hey guys! So i just started playing around with trying butt play and such and in the anus it seems like the intestine takes a sharp 90 degree turn maybe like 5 inches in. Im curious as to how bottoms take cocks longer than 5 inches without discomfort. Where does all that cock go? Does the hardness of the cock force the intestine straight? Is that why so much lube is needed? So it doesnt get too dry inside and cause the penis to get caught on the sharp turn and cause damage? Am i doing something wrong with my anal play where that or something else that should be happening inside, isn't happening? Is there some way to straighten out that turn in the intestine in a similar way that you have to prepare the anus for penetration?", "id": "t3_1g1c88", "summary": "Please explain to me the quantum physics of butt sex and my anus..."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "Sup guys? So, after a nice long session of reveling in the epicness that was Sony's press conference. I started thinking about \"Gosh, did Sony get anything wrong at all?\" So i did some looking around just to look about for any information that could have been left ou that people would still want to know?. And one thing that piqued my interest and made me curious was the WiFi capabilities of the PS4. \n Most new devices coming out as far back as 4 or 5 months ago have all had the new IEEE 802.11 ac WiFi standard on board. PS4 isn't out until \"Holiday 2013\". Does any one find it odd as to how as of yet (if you glance over to the right panel where the so far confirmed PS4 specs are listed) the new WiFi standard hasn't made it into the PS4? Do you think it'd be something they'll add sometime between now and release? Do you think PS4 really needs IEEE 802.11 ac, or can it get by for another however many years the console stays flagship for on IEEE 802.11 b/g/n? Especially considering the PS4's internet heavy feature such as streaming gameplay in real time to friends, streaming PS3 games from the Cloud, and massive online multiplayer maps as demonstrated in the demo for The Crew.", "id": "t3_1g3wj5", "summary": "PS4 as far as we know right now, does not have the new IEEE 802.11 ac WiFi standard on board currently being implemented by most new WiFi capable devices coming out. It has the previous standard, IEEE 802.11 b/g/n. Does it need the newer WiFi?"}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "So i had a straight guy crush (story of our lives right?). He shot me down, gave me the \"let him down easy\" line of \"Oh if i was gay i would date you.\" It's a nice sentiment and such but... Later on this straight guy realized he actually was in fact gay. He told me this one day and i got excited, cause i remembered he said if he was gay he would date me. Then he proceeded to tell me about how he met this guy online who he was very much into. I was just like \"..........\" Took me a while to finally be able to sleep again and not be kept awake by the thought of \"somewhere right now, some OTHER dude is boning my guy...\" Twas a rough year indeed. I'm over the guy now, but still, thinking back on the fact that that turn of events even happened at all still frustrates the shit out of me.", "id": "t3_1826ps", "summary": "That feel when your straight guy crush turns gay, and STILL isn't into you."}, {"author": "Y6Y1Y9", "content": "Hey everyone, \n I've been lurking on here for a few months now and am in the process of getting started with producing my own stuff (genre to be decided). I've got FL Studio, and the classic starter VSTs Sylenth1 and Nexus. Serum is next on my list to get. This is all running on my Late 2013 Macbook Pro on Windows 10 via Bootcamp dual boot. \n What i'd like help with is figuring out my hardware accessory set up. I've got some speakers that were given to me by my roommate who produces hip hop but has since upgraded to newer speakers. I've also been given his old [Akai MPK mini mkII]( that he has since moved on from as well. I also already have an original [Korg MicroKorg]( synthesizer that was given to me when a friend moved and needed to get rid of it. \n Ideally, i'd like to be able to able to run FL Studio on my laptop into two computer monitors (Which i've yet to purchase). With the MicroKorg connected via MIDI or USB into my Macbook Pro and also have the Akai MPK Mini into the laptop via MIDI. I'd want to use the MicroKorg as a synth so i can use the sounds built into the MicroKorg and i'd like to be able to use the Akai as a MIDI controller for the synths and VSTs in FL Studio and have both be always active/live for lack of a better way to describe it. I'd also like to be able to use the hardware knobs on the MicroKorg or the Akai to control Automation parameters in real time recording on tracks within FL Studio if it's at all possible. \n Right now all i have for cables are the MIDI cables that come included with the MicroKorg and the Akai. If anyone has any advice on how to make this setup work best, whether that be with different types of cables or a MIDI hub or whatever else i might need to make this setup work how i'm describing. I would greatly appreciate it.", "id": "t3_47qqzg", "summary": "I have a Late 2013 Macbook Pro, FL Studio 12 running on Windows 10 via Bootcamp, a MicroKorg, an Akai MPK Mini MK2, the included MIDI to USB cable that came with both, and two speakers/monitors. What do i need hardware accessory wise or software wise to make this setup function properly? \n Thanks everyone!"}]}
+{"author": "dangerousbirde", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Girlfriend rode my stick, got stuck cause I can't drive stick. Very close to losing my stick.", "output": "I grew up in a small town. One night I snuck out to see my girlfriend and pulled into her neighbors driveway to park (probably around midnight). \n Around 4AM I walk back to my car to see that I'm now blocked in, fuck! But, this being a small town the kind neighbor had left the keys in the ignition. I'm thanking god and every saint I can recall as I settle into the car. Her Dad was a large Mexican man and I was a skinny white boy who had just plowed his daughter. I did NOT want to be caught with my car over here. \n But the motherfucking neighbor drove a stick. I knew the basic principles but could not for the life of me actually \"drive\" the car. And so began the most stressful 30 minutes of my life stalling and lurching that poor, poor car until finally I had my car on the road and the neighbors car, if not fully in the driveway, at least out of the road. \n The next weekend I got a buddy of mine to teach me how to drive stick, and this is the story I tell anyone who wonders why they would ever need to bother learning to drive a manual."}], "user_id": "longlamp_9653", "history": [{"author": "dangerousbirde", "content": "I was going back up my hotel room in Vegas after lounging in the pool so I was only wearing boardshorts. This guy in a full tuxedo gets onto the elevator with me, gives me a once over and says, \"What you didn't get the memo? You gotta step it up kid.\" \n As I'm trying to figure out if he's serious or fucking I realize he's incredibly familiar looking. Just as he steps off it clicks, mother fucking Scott Baio!", "id": "c33im2e", "summary": "Got trolled by Scott Baio in an elevator once."}, {"author": "dangerousbirde", "content": "A troop of monkeys chased me off an island once. \n I was swimming around some of the tiny isletas in Lake Nicaragua and came upon one with a monkey hanging on a branch over the water. Curious, I climbed up onto the island (maybe a half acre all said) and that's when the trees exploded. \n Every direction I looked there were little monkeys all screeching and shaking the branches. Some began to drop down and chase me so I high tailed it in the other direction. Eventually getting to the edge of the water I dropped down and sorta scrambled on all fours until the water was deep enough to swim. \n I got out a few feet and looked back as I tread the water to see one of the trees start to bow down with the weight of the monkeys still trying to get me.", "id": "c8m5iia", "summary": "Fuck monkeys."}, {"author": "dangerousbirde", "content": "I leave the bar after closing in the city, it's a dreary night so the streets are quiet in this rundown neighborhood. Standing on the street corner I reach for my pack of cigarettes and light up leaning against the brick wall. I'll wander up the block to hail a cab soon; right now I just want to take in the stillness of the night and enjoy the alcohol coursing through my system. \n As I reach to put my lighter back in my jacket I hear footsteps coming toward me. I would have sworn no one was around... \n Slowly looking to my left I see a tall figure walking towards me, obscured by the dimness and my current state I can't make out his face. He walks as if he's going to pass me but stops, looks around and reaches into his coat. I should be nervous but I'm calm. Something about his presence leaves me unafraid. \n He pulls out a pack of cigarettes, \"Could I bother you for a light?\" \n Drawing on my cigarette I pass my lighter over to him. I can make out his face, he's familiar, but I can't place it. There's something about him, a familiarity but my foggy mind can't place it. He leans against the lamppost oppisite me and takes a long drag, slowly exhaling, \"One of those nights, huh?\" \n I chuckle and agree, \"One of the those night.\" \n We don't speak again, but he stays across from me. I'm aware that this should be weirding me out, but there's something soothing about his presence, he wants nothing more than a companion in the night. We're silent compatriots in this moment and chatter would break the wonderful stillness enveloping us. \n Finished, he drops his cigarette to the ground and very deliberately rubs it into the cool cement sidewalk. Burying his hands into his pockets he nods his thanks and begins to turn the corner headed uptown. As he walks past he's briefly bathed in the yellow Sodium light and I can see him more clearly. I hear his footsteps as he disappears around the corner and it finally hits me. \n That was  Christopher Walken! \n Throwing my cigarette to the ground I nearly sprint around the corner to try and catch him. It couldn't have been more than 10 seconds but as I peer up the road...he's gone.", "id": "c1yynpn", "summary": "I was a big fan of Pulp Fiction."}, {"author": "dangerousbirde", "content": "My mom and uncle drove across the country from Baltimore to San Francisco with everything they owned in a 2 door Datsun. \n I guess they ran out of money just outside of Salt Lake City but managed to camp out, find temporary jobs, eventually sublet a room and saved up enough money over the next 6 months to make it into San Francisco. \n It was just a couple of years later that she met my Dad at a party here. The story is all the more epic in my head because no matter how hard I try I can't get any serious details out of her.", "id": "c1smeif", "summary": "My mom is a secret badass."}, {"author": "dangerousbirde", "content": "We had to write autobiography when I was in the 8th grade (a whole 10 pages!). I remember starting it by describing how I wanted to die...I was a morbid little fucker. \n I decided that I wanted to die in a hail of gunfire protecting my family and the rest of the patrons at a bank that some evil robbers had taken over. I of course also killed all of the robbers and saved the day for everyone!", "id": "c7tw97e", "summary": "I probably shouldn't have been allowed to watch Heat at 12..."}, {"author": "dangerousbirde", "content": "In large part it's just how the committee system works. Bills have to be referred to several congressional committees where they can be tweaked and discussed before being brought to the floor to be voted on by all of the members. \n Even assuming Lamar let it out of Judiciary it had at least one other committee to clear (I can't be bothered to look it up, Agriculture maybe?). Assuming it made it all the way to the floor it would have been up to Boenher to actually schedule it for discussion, amendments and then a vote. I'd be blown away if he bothered allowing a roll call vote on something like this (this is also what the Speaker of the House is kind of a huge deal, control of the calender). Say he did schedule it for discussion, one amendment could end up with it back in committee. And fuck - this is just the House. Getting it through a conference committee within the Senate is another huge hurtle.", "id": "c21qo2q", "summary": "School House Rock was just a wee bit simplistic."}, {"author": "dangerousbirde", "content": "This qualifies as \"worst\" on a number of levels I suppose. \n Back in high school my friends and I liked to see how much we could get away with in a single night. Friend walked through a grocery store naked, pool hopped every HS in the district, set a couch on fire in the middle of a field. You know, good ol' teenage tom foolery. \n Having extensive knowledge of getting in and out of the pools in our town we decided we wanted to do something crazy. Back at my friends house we discovered that a bit of gasoline could still be lit on fire while floating on top of water and immediately we wanted to do this writ large. \n Cut to 3 of us tossing a 2 gallon gas tank up the side of the building as we snuck into one of the pools. We poured the whole thing (I'm cringing just recalling how dumb this was) into the pool and started throwing matches trying to ignite it. When our terrible fucking plan didn't work the gravity of how dumb this was began to set in and we panicked. The gasoline just created this foul smelling slick on top that refused to do anything but incriminate us. I whipped off my tee shirt and scrubbed the tank and everything else we touched for finger prints. We left the tank on top of the diving board to make it as obvious as possible that no one should go in the water. Then we ran as fast as we could out of there. \n The next day (a Sunday) I was at work just a few blocks away from the school when a friend came in wearing his bathing suit. He was really confused as to why the pool was closed to the public that day because normally it's open every Sunday. It was closed for several more Sundays...", "id": "c8moj7i", "summary": "In a practice run for my glorious voyage to Valhalla I accidentally closed a public pool for several weeks."}, {"author": "dangerousbirde", "content": "Back during the Democratic Primaries I was working for the Obama campaign in rural Nevada. Needless to say they weren't exactly heaping money on our district. \n The night before Super Tuesday my team was tasked with setting up the \"Obama\" placards along the route into the polling station, but through some mix up we never got the signs. Instead we found an old box of the rally signs, the plain cardboard ones people hold up in the crowd. They were big enough, but with no way to keep them in the ground we had to get creative. \n A bottle of whiskey, 300 coat hangers, 4 pairs of pliers, and a shit-ton of duct tape later my team (about 6 people) had made ourselves about 100 serviceable signs to plant. By now it's 2 AM and we spend the next couple of hours playing Obama's elves, scurrying about town getting all of them set up. \n Cut to the next morning, I've had exactly zero sleep and the hangover is just starting to creep up on me as we drive to the polling station to get the last minute prep work done. As we drive in I see a couple of people in the distance poking around the hills we had been putting up signs the night before. As we get closer I can make out one word, “Clinton.” \n Two volunteers had managed to trash about 50 of our signs and replaced them with nice big Clinton ones. \n Once I realized what was going on half my body exploded out the window of the car and I let forth a breathless string of profanity that would make Carlin blush. I LAID into those 2, enough that even though we were driving past them both managed to drop everything they were holding. \n In the grand political tradition though when I encountered them later on at the polling station we both just shot barbed stares.", "id": "c1yd959", "summary": "Hilary Clinton almost gave me an aneurysm."}, {"author": "dangerousbirde", "content": "This reminds me of my friend trying to dry off a cigarette. \n Dropped an unlit cigarette into a screwdriver (OJ and vodka) while we were pregaming for a party. Being low on cigarettes and common sense he decides he's just going to pop that fucker in the microwave. \n After a minute or so it smells like burnt ass in an orange grove so he pops it out and declares it a success putting the now brown and gnarled cigarette back in his pack. \n Later that night he pulls it out to smoke and starts coughing to the point of retching a little bit. Turns out the sugars had caramelized somewhat in the cigarette on top of whatever Fantastic Four style mutations kicked in while exposing the tobacco to microwaves.", "id": "c9hrrf4", "summary": "Don't smoke kids, and if you do don't fucking microwave it first."}, {"author": "dangerousbirde", "content": "There is actually two very distinct types of chiropractors, Straight and Reform. \n Straight believe in a nonsense magic based on the idea that all ailments (from colds to cancer) are caused by misalignment of the spine. These are caused \"subluxations\" and can be corrected via manual adjustments. \n Reform chiropractors on the other hand broke away and started using actual fucking science regarding the spine and realized that manual adjustments only help with problems directly related to the spine, like back pain. To call them glorified physical therapists sounds a bit more mean spirited then I might like, but it's pretty accurate. They serve a useful albeit very specific function.", "id": "c7te4p0", "summary": "sounds like you found a good reform chiropractor."}, {"author": "dangerousbirde", "content": "I was spending a Summer doing volunteer work in rural Nicaragua using an outhouse that my host family had constructed. \n The outhouse wasn't that bad all things considered, but I had a rough time keeping my TP sanitary. We'd leave it in ziplock bags, but the seal wasn't perfect and sometime dirt and grit would sneak they're way in. \n One morning I head out to do my business and pull my dirty TP out of the bag. I unrolled a few sheets  and a mother fucking scorpion drops out into my lap. \n I nope right the fuck out of there and end up running, pants at my ankles, in full view of the family straight out of the outhouse and into the jungle. Where I eventually calm down enough to get my pants up.", "id": "c30uy1e", "summary": "I didn't poop for 3 days after that."}, {"author": "dangerousbirde", "content": "So my favorite Uncle and I have been talking recently. He's always been non-religious even as his wife has kept him involved in the Catholic church (my whole family really is culturally Catholic). But recently he's come out to his wife as an atheist. This wasn't a huge deal for their family but he's now apprehensive about the reaction of the social network that 20+ years of involvement in the Catholic church has built for them. \n While he has been non-religious most of his life he's never really tapped into Atheistic community that is growing around the country. There's so much cool shit I can't wait to show him! So that's why I'm coming to you wonderful people: \n What are some of the best videos, debates, websites, forums, silly photos, serious photos that you can think of to show someone new to being an \"out\" atheist?? (I'm currently searching YouTube for the best of the Hitch-Slaps). \n This is for myself as well as my Uncle, we both live in the Bay Area, and I'm curious if they're any events or meetups that might be good to show him the IRL bits of this awesome community? \n I realized the whole religion thing wasn't for me pretty early on in my life, so any advice or stories of people who have had to remove their lives from the church would be really great to hear as well.", "id": "t3_xe2of", "summary": "I'm really excited to show my uncle all the cool shit he's been missing!"}, {"author": "dangerousbirde", "content": "New York Times Article I am referencing)[ \n Basically what's going on is the bank that's representing the restructuring of Greek debt,  BNP Paribas , is trying to get investors to \" voluntarily \" take a 50% loss on any Greek debt they own. The bank stands to make a lot of money in processing fees for bringing in as many investors as possible into their restructuring program. \n Now a lot of investors own Credit Default Swaps (CDS) on their Greek debt. This allows them to collect some money if Greek goes into a full default, also known as a  credit event . CDS are like insurance on an investment, you pay a little more but if everything goes totally belly up - you'll make some money back. \n One of the big questions in Europe right now is, if investors take the 50% loss on their bonds (the Greek debt) will this be considered enough of a credit event that the CDS will pay out. \n The board of people who determine credit events is the  International Swaps and Derivatives Association  (ISDA). Who quite literally has a board of shadowy figures make their determinations, \n >the names of I.S.D.A. committee members are normally kept confidential. The association doesn’t disclose them, and lists only panel members’ employers  — 15 large global banks and financial services firms. Those institutions include Bank of America,  BNP Paribas , Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and Pimco. \n(emphasis added) \n BNP has been actively advising investors that, \n >their credit insurance may not pay off down the road, because after the restructuring is completed, the terms of the old debt might be changed, these money managers said. \n One of the individuals who issued this statement is, Belle Yang, who  identified herself as a board member of the ISDA. \n This means that the bank who stands to make a lot of money on the \"voluntary\" restructuring of debt is bending International Law by revealing that they have a member on the committee who will influence if their insurance pays off. \n (", "id": "t3_mm0uk", "summary": "This is like someone forcing you to pay them not to burn your house down. Even if you have full fire insurance,  it's the same fucking arsonist who is going to be able to reject your insurance claim! \n What the actual fuck people? \n I am by no means an expert so I'd love any criticism of this analysis, thoughts or comments!"}]}
+{"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Taxing corporate income is a terrible way to raise government revenue and discourages economic growth.  Let's pick on CEO income instead. \n A longer argument against corporate income taxes:\n[Is Corporate Income Tax Regressive -- National Center for Policy Analysis](", "output": "Raising corporate taxes is a terrible idea.  Guess who ends up paying Walmart's higher corporate tax?   We do  when they raise prices slightly.   We do  when they  hire less employees.  cut wage increases. \n Taxing corporations is nothing more than a disguised tax on their employees and customers. \n Edit:  I can agree that a hiring freeze is debatable; I'm willing to cede that point and replace it with cutting payroll costs. \n Edit:  I'm going to ignore the people who seem to think I'm some sort of shill for corporate America... \n Economists disagree on what amount of a corporate income tax is passed onto consumers but they all agree that at least some of it is.  In the end a small increase in the price of goods and services, stagnant wages, the possibility of layoffs and even overseas outsourcing hurts the middle class much more than it hurts big business. \n Businesses can hire people full-time to take advantage of every loophole and tax break to avoid increased costs and pass on those profits to shareholders who pay less on dividends.  Taxing corporations is a double tax on business income which slows down growth.  Slowing growth can even mean you raise less government revenue eventually.  20% of a growing economy is  much  better than 22% of a stagnant economy.  Corporate taxes are already 35% which is relatively high compared to many countries.  How about instead of driving away business we figure out a way to tax the people who can afford it like corporate CEOs?"}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Everyone including your so-called crazy people deserve an equal voice.  If you don't like them, debate with them.  If they won't listen, vote against them.   Never  stop listening or being willing to debate them or you will become just as close-minded and unwilling to listen to reason yourself.", "output": "What I'm trying to convince you of is that in a democratic system your viewpoint is cancerous as it completely dismisses anyone who disagrees with you as deluded. \n Hypothetically the most efficient system possible would be a benevolent dictatorship run by yourself to force people towards the logical \"rightness\" of your philosophy.  Unfortunately revolution would quickly follow because of your unwillingness to give half of the country a voice in politics.  You can't write off the conservative half of the country no matter how deluded you might think they are. \n >What's more, they're not even interested in the possibility of being convinced. As soon as someone or something is identified as liberal, they just put their fingers in their ears and sprint in the opposite direction, screaming back that liberals are babykillers that want to destroy America. How do you convince someone that won't even hear you out? I seek out conservative media, I want to know what conservatives are talking about, and this just isn't true of their side. \n While this might be true of some conservatives you are yourself demonstrating the exact same behavior.  Maybe your \"countless hours talking to conservatives\" demonstrates something different however at the same time you're promoting a viewpoint here on reddit of complete non-interaction.  While you the point the finger at them as close-minded you are yourself telling me to sprint in the opposite direction screaming that conservatives are backwoods-bible-thumpers that want to destroy America.  How is that supposed to convince me that you are any better than them?  Your attitude is profoundly hypocritical. \n I'm not going to address the conspiracy theories surrounding the election you claim the Republican majority subscribe too as I am unfamiliar with them. \n Regarding the government shutdown you do realize that this has happened 18 times since 1976?  It's an extreme measure of congress however it's hardly unprecedented as a radical tactic a party can take to fight for policy.  I do think it's an extremely hurtful tactic and panders to playing politics vs. running the country.  If it were possible I would prefer if we could deal with it in much the same way the Australians dealt with it in their government.  However the attitude that it was somehow invented by neoconservatives is ridiculous, the same tactics have been used by both parties. \n Maybe your opinion is a reflection of the flaw in the American electoral system in that it gives the impression of overwhelming support to the winner.  It's worth noting that Obama won with 51% of the vote.  While that is huge in terms of precedent(although less than 2008) for an American president it is ironic at the same time.  Where else would you say that someone has overwhelming majority support when 49% of the vote was against them.  Furthermore why is it that we are supposed to instantly call that other 49% deluded and incapable of logical discussion and value simply because they lost?  You're lumping all conservatives together into a caricature fed to you by the types of people who dominate this subreddit."}], "user_id": "longlamp_1182", "history": [{"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "Well you didn't understand it then. Nevada is giving Tesla  tax breaks,  not a sum of cash. There is no deficit to make up. Only a loss in future revenues on very cheap land. This is going to be a massive boon for Reno in the long run. 6,500 jobs is only the tip of the iceberg. \n [\"In exchange, the company must invest a minimum of $3.5 billion in manufacturing equipment and real property in the state—a threshold that is much lower than the $10 billion state officials say they expect the company to invest in Nevada over the next two decades.\"]( \n Property values are most definitely going to go up which equals higher property tax revenue for the state government. This also doesn't account for the extra services and support growth that will spring up around the new population growth of both temporary construction workers and the long-term factory workers. Nevada also agreed to let Tesla sell their cars direct so it's likely that quite a few new showrooms will open. Nevada is primarily a sales tax state so the higher EV sales equals even more revenue for the state. \n According to Brian Bonnenfant, project manager for the University of Nevada, Reno's Center for Regional Studies: the types of businesses that would come here or be affected are extensive. \n \"The proposed Tesla facility would attract interest from the plastic manufacturing, electrical engineering, mining, transportation, logistics (shipping), management, licensing, renewable energy, employment placement, real estate and construction industries,\" \n \"Secondary industry attraction would result from spending of household wages; therefore expect expansion of industries that cater to households including retail, professional and other services, education and health services, and new residential construction.\" \n There is also an Apple data center in the area and it helps your city brand name and credibility to have these two companies in the area if you are trying to attract other technology companies. \n Also: \n \"Nevada does not currently have a storage battery manufacturing industry so we turn to Arizona for a comparable (jobs) multiplier, which is 2.384,\" said Brian Bonnenfant, project manager for the University of Nevada, Reno's Center for Regional Studies. \n This means for every 1 Tesla job, 2.384 jobs are really created. For 6,500 Tesla jobs, that's 15,500 overall jobs. \n Who knows, you could even get bullish and hope for an advanced manufacturing tech boom to grow up around this area. There is a reason why Dave Archer, president and CEO of Nevada's Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, [said closing this deal] [\"...would be the Triple Crown, the World Series and the Super Bowl wrapped into one.\"]( \n That's also why [\"Nevada economic development officials anticipate the gigafactory—a three-story behemoth with more than 5 million square feet of manufacturing space—will generate a $100 billion economic impact over 20 years.\"]( \n Even if all that doesn't happen the investments from Tesla alone make this a good bet, there is a reason why states were falling over each other to close this deal.", "id": "ckajqm3", "summary": "Your math is fine, your original premise is flawed."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "I  didn't  did check the rest of this chart,  but  the EIA report clearly says that 70% (not the 40% shown here) of net electricity generation in Oregon was from conventional hydroelectric power plants and other renewable energy resources. \n \n [U.S. Energy Information -Oregon]( \n \n I would like to give Reuters the benefit of the doubt; please explain why I'm wrong. The only reasonable explanation is that the artist of this graphic intended for it to show something completely different than its title. \n A few more random states percentage errors: \n \n North Dakota - Coal is 79% not 40% \n \n Idaho - Renewables are 78% not 50% \n \n Missouri - Coal is 83% not 40% \n \n Nevada - Natural Gas is 68% not 50% \n \n Nevada - Renewables are 18% not 7% \n \n \n Edit: This appears to be the original article which was posted by Ben Walsh on the Reuters blog Data Dive. The graphic is tagged S. Culp who shows up as Steven Culp the Graphics Editor at Thompson Reuters. They're either using unexplained metrics for this graphic or it's based on completely false information. \n \n [Mapping America’s power, state-by-state]( \n \n This is the U.S Energy Report from the EIA which this graphic claims to be referencing. \n \n [U.S. State Profiles and Energy Estimates](", "id": "ci3a0e5", "summary": "This graphic appears to be complete bullshit."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "People like you make me depressed to call myself a human being.  This sort of \"pandering\" as you call it is a life-changing experience.  If I was that kid I would decide then and there I wanted to be a NASA scientist someday.  Astronauts are obviously his heroes and the fact that one of them responded to him likely elevated his heroes to god status.", "id": "cfrwjl9", "summary": "He'll remember this video for the rest of his life, I know I would.  So kindly fuck off."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "Interesting fiction, I enjoyed a lot of the descriptions in this story.  The thing that always bugs me about these sort of techno-utopia ideas which get tossed around a lot in this sub is that they're actually taken seriously. \n Mostly they're bullshit.  They focus on the glitter and fluff and explain away the real questions with hand-waving.  Their answers are lot like Apple's catchphrase: \"It just works.\" \n The author is clearly trying to make an argument for this sort of society and is attempting to paint a picture for how it might work.  But then he goes and just hand waves away the most important question of the whole story. \n \"Where do the rules come from?\" I asked. \n \"We make them. Everyone is involved. They'll spend almost a week on that during orientation -- it's a big part of living here.\" \n That's it.  One line.  Who controls the law enforcement robots?  Calling them \"refs\" was a little too 1984 for me by the way.  Who controls the Vertabrane?  How has greed and desire for power magically disappeared from this society?  This system either has some mythical future machine pulling the strings or some unrealistic benevolent dictator/ruling class.  I guess the third option would be some very clever brainwashing.  What he so briefly describes is massively top heavy with its power structure and could easily become corrupted, abused and turned exploitative.  I'm guessing a magical future machine will solve all those problems... \n In other words: the manna society is completely bogus and can never exist in our current understanding of reality.  The author never even tried to explain how it actually worked.  I welcome arguments from someone who can prove otherwise.", "id": "cfxfa90", "summary": "Cool story but I don't really see anything worth discussing seriously."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "Honestly I think people need to just forget the notion that anonymity can be used as a form of protection.  Sensors will be tracking every minute of our lives,  privacy is dead .  Accepting that coming reality and writing laws that protect individuals from being taken advantage of by corporations and governments is what we should be focusing on. \n Personally I view the loss of privacy as a largely positive thing, crime becomes much harder when every inch of the earth is being tracked monitored and recorded.  People freak out about the notion of the government tracking us but they forget that as these tools become cheaper it turns into a two-way street.  If they can track us, we can track them.  All of these opinions aren't really based on hard data so feel free to rip em apart.", "id": "cg4a170", "summary": "Transparency has some benefits too."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "Except Target's credit records had a redundant backup system called credit protection so that's an example of a system that still worked.  I could post my credit card information all over Reddit today, let you go on a spending spree and I wouldn't be liable for a dime.  Were there identity problems that came out of it?  Maybe.  Was it a global catastrophe?  I'll let you answer that. \n Is it possible there will small isolated hacking events?  Probably.  Are they going to kill 1.2 Million people every year like our current traffic system does?  No.  Even if your Hollywood event somehow happens that will still be a single isolated event.", "id": "cg4dd6x", "summary": "You suck at risk assessment."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "I think both philosophies viewed the state as ultimately only a means and not the end. However in practice the flaws in the perception of human nature in both led both to be 'objectively' (as the marxists used to say) and permanently pro-state. \n Where in National Socialism is the government viewed as only a means to an end?  The powerful central government seems to  be  the ultimate end.  How is it possible to define communism as permanently pro-state when the ultimate end is to dissolve the state? \n Merriam Webster definition of Fascism: \"a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader...\" \n Encyclopedia Brittanica: \"...[fascism]stresses the primacy and glory of the state, unquestioning obedience to its leader, subordination of the individual will to the state's authority, and harsh suppression of dissent.\" \n Concise Encyclopedia: \"Philosophy of government that stresses the primacy and glory of the state, unquestioning obedience to its leader, subordination of the individual will to the state's authority, and harsh suppression of dissent...it differed from contemporary communism (as practiced under Joseph Stalin) by its protection of business and land-owning elites and its preservation of class systems.\" \n Yes I know that dictionary and encyclopedia sources are lazy but I think they are a decent reflection of society's general understanding when defining terms.  These definitions also seem to agree with the more primary historical research sources. \n Wikipedia references historian Emilio Gentile who notes that fascism preserves \"...corporative organization of the economy that suppresses trade union liberty, broadens the sphere of state intervention, and seeks to achieve, by principles of technocracy and solidarity, the collaboration of the 'productive sectors' under control of the regime, to achieve its goals of power,  yet preserving private property and class divisions. \" \n Stanley Payne is also referenced as defining the Fascist state as an: \"Organization of a new highly regulated,  multiclass , integrated national economic structure, whether called national corporatist, national socialist, or national syndicalist\" \n Mussolini himself flatly states that \"...Fascism [is] the precise negation of that doctrine which formed the basis of the so-called Scientific or Marxian Socialism.\"  While I've never read the entirety of the  Doctrine of Fascism  I'll tend to take the author's word for it. \n Mussolini also stresses that \"Fascism is therefore opposed to Socialism to which unity within the State (which amalgamates classes into a single economic and ethical reality) is unknown, and which sees in history nothing but the class struggle. Fascism is likewise opposed to trade unionism as a class weapon, but when brought within the orbit of the State, Fascism recognises the real needs which gave rise to socialism and trade-unionism, giving them due weight in the guild or corporative system in which divergent interests are coordinated and harmonised in the unity of the State.\" (p.15)  Again this speaks to preserving the very structures that communism wishes to sweep away. \n While the exact form of Fascism seems to be a hotly debated topic, it's ultimate structure appears to be defined by authoritarianism, preserving the power of the ruling elite and economic control through private corporations.  This stands in stark contrast to the final stage of true communism in which Marx describes an era in which states, property and class no longer exist.\n>'fascism is what happens when someone with communist ideals gains power and actually has to govern a real society'. \n This statement I can agree with when looking at the history of China, North Korea and the USSR.  However, just because I attempt to implement a constitutional monarchy and instead fall into a dictatorship, logic does not say that both were in fact one and the same all along.", "id": "cc2td86", "summary": "Regardless of actual practical experience, the root arguments of Marxist-Communism continue to represent a starkly different approach to the ideal structure of society later proposed by Fascism."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "From the Hyperloop whitepaper pages 3-4: \n Another extreme is the approach, advocated by Rand and ET3, of drawing a hard or near hard vacuum in the tube and then using an electromagnetic suspension. The problem with this approach is that it is incredibly hard to maintain a near vacuum in a room, let alone 700 miles (round trip) of large tube with dozens of station gateways and thousands of pods entering and exiting every day. All it takes is one leaky seal or a small crack somewhere in the hundreds of miles of tube and the whole system stops working. \n However, a low pressure (vs. almost no pressure) system set to a level where standard commercial pumps could easily overcome an air leak and the transport pods could handle variable air density would be inherently robust. Unfortunately, this means that there is a non-trivial amount of air in the tube and leads us straight into another problem. \n -Overcoming the Kantrowitz Limit- \n Whenever you have a capsule or pod (I am using the words interchangeably) moving at high speed through a tube containing air, there is a minimum tube to pod area ratio below which you will choke the flow. What this means is that if the walls of the tube and the capsule are too close together, the capsule will behave like a syringe and eventually be forced to push the entire column of air in the system. Not good. \n Nature’s top speed law for a given tube to pod area ratio is known as the Kantrowitz limit. This is highly problematic, as it forces you to either go slowly or have a super huge diameter tube. Interestingly, there are usually two solutions to the Kantrowitz limit – one where you go slowly and one where you go really, really fast. \n The latter solution sounds mighty appealing at first, until you realize that going several thousand miles per hour means that you can’t tolerate even wide turns without painful g loads. For a journey from San Francisco to LA, you will also experience a rather intense speed up and slow down. And, when you get right down to it, going through transonic buffet in a tube is just fundamentally a dodgy prospect. \n Both for trip comfort and safety, it would be best to travel at high subsonic speeds for a 350 mile journey. For much longer journeys, such as LA to NY, it would be worth exploring super high speeds and this is probably technically feasible, but, as mentioned above, I believe the economics would probably favor a supersonic plane. \n The approach that I believe would overcome the Kantrowitz limit is to mount an electric compressor fan on the nose of the pod that actively transfers high pressure air from the front to the rear of the vessel. This is like having a pump in the head of the syringe actively relieving pressure. \n It would also simultaneously solve another problem, which is how to create a low friction suspension system when traveling at over 700 mph. Wheels don’t work very well at that sort of speed, but a cushion of air does. Air bearings, which use the same basic principle as an air hockey table, have been demonstrated to work at speeds of Mach 1.1 with very low friction. In this case, however, it is the pod that is producing the air cushion, rather than the tube, as it is important to make the tube as low cost and simple as possible. \n That then begs the next question of whether a battery can store enough energy to power a fan for the length of the journey with room to spare. Based on our calculations, this is no problem, so long as the energy used to accelerate the pod is not drawn from the battery pack. \n This is where the external linear electric motor comes in, which is simply a round induction motor (like the one in the Tesla Model S) rolled flat. This would accelerate the pod to high subsonic velocity and provide a periodic reboost roughly every 70 miles. The linear electric motor is needed for as little as ~1% of the tube length, so is not particularly costly.", "id": "cn3461s", "summary": "ET3 = Hard vacuum or near vacuum tube, magnetic levitation. \n \n Hyperloop = Low pressure tube, air cushion levitation via nose air compressor fan. \n \n \n Both use electromagnetic propulsion."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "By that logic what are you doing using a computer and wasting time on reddit?  That is a non-essential activity. \n While your intentions are commendable they are misguided and extremely ill-informed.  You should know the facts on a subject before you try to argue with someone regarding it.  I'll try to explain what little I know about the nuclear process as well as what I've gleaned from Google search. \n Uranium found in nature consists largely of two isotopes, U-235 and U-238. The production of energy in nuclear reactors is from the 'fission' or splitting of the U-235 atoms, a process which releases energy in the form of heat. U-235 is the main fissile isotope of uranium.  U-238 is not a fissile material and cannot be used as fuel in a nuclear reactor. \n There are three basic types of nuclear fissile materials that we currently use or have researched. \n \n Uranium-235 (0.7% of all U)-->Fission \n \n Uranium-238 (99.3% of all U)-->Processed to Plutonium-239-->Fission \n \n Thorium-232 (100% of all Th)-->Processed into Uranium-233-->Fission \n \n \n Uranium-235- \n The most common reactor in the world is the thermal reactor which uses U-235 for it's fuel.  Although U-235 is it's major fuel, the uranium-238 atoms also contribute to the fission process by converting to plutonium 239; about one-half of which is consumed in the reactor. Light-water reactors are generally refueled every 12 to 18 months, at which time, about 25 percent of the fuel is replaced.  However since by nature of critical mass in fission almost all of the U-238 is regenerated.\nWhen the spent fuel is taken out of the reactor what's left is the 99% of the fissile materials put in at the beginning-namely the U-238.  Now the crazy thing about this is that U-235 is extremely rare, it's actually on the scale right above Platinum.  However even though it only makes up 0.7% of uranium it is the fuel we use in most of our reactors today.  Uranium as a whole is itself much more common.   U-235 which is the primary fuel in nuclear power has never been used commercially in anything other than power plants and the Hiroshima bomb. \n Uranium-238- \n U-238 is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature.  It is not fissile, but is a fertile material: it can capture a slow neutron and after two beta decays become fissile plutonium-239.  Around 99.284% of natural uranium is uranium-238. U-238 can be used as a source material for creating plutonium-239, which can in turn be used as nuclear fuel. Breeder reactors carry out such a process of transmutation to convert the fertile isotope 238U into fissile Pu-239.  It has been estimated that there is anywhere from 10,000 to five billion years worth of U-238 for use in these power plants.   Breeder technology has been used in several experimental nuclear reactors. \n Our current generation of reactors use U-235 which is extremely rare although we've never figured out a use for it other than weapons and power.  However because of it's rarity it will run out within ~200 years if we were to continue burning it in our first and second gen thermal reactors.  Because of this fact the original inventors of this technology decided that we should move on to a more sustainable and safe version of nuclear power. \n So to review: we currently burn U-235 which as of right now is unsuitable for anything other than weapons and thermal power but is unsustainable.  Some experimental breeder reactor designs burn Plutonium-239 which comes from U-238, we are in danger of running out of this in thousands to billions of years. \n Which brings us to Plutonium-238 which is unique in it's use for NASA's  radioisotope thermoelectric generators in long-range space craft. \n Plutonium-238 \n Reactor-grade plutonium from spent nuclear fuel contains various isotopes of plutonium. Pu-238 makes up only a percent or two, but may be responsible for much of the short-term decay heat because of its short half-life. This is not useful for producing Pu-238 for RTGs because difficult isotopic separation would be needed. \n Pure plutonium-238 is prepared by irradiation of neptunium-237, one of the minor actinides that can be recovered from spent nuclear fuel during reprocessing, or by the irradiation of americium[1] in a reactor. In both cases, the targets are subjected to a chemical treatment, including dissolution in nitric acid to extract the plutonium-238. A 100 kg sample of light water reactor fuel that has been irradiated for three years contains only about 700 grams of neptunium-237, and the neptunium must be extracted selectively. Significant amounts of pure Pu-238 could also be produced in a thorium fuel cycle. \n To produce plutonium-238 in a form less likely to undergo a chemical reaction and more safe for technological purposes near humans, the plutonium-238 isotope is reacted with water enriched with oxygen-16 to form 238Pu16O2. This compound generates fewer neutrons because oxygen-16 has a much lower (α,n) transfer nuclear reaction rate than do other isotopes of oxygen. \n Thorium you'll have to look up yourself.  Suffice it to say that Thorium has the potential as a nearly infinite supply due to the sustainability of the Thorium fuel cycle.", "id": "ccecots", "summary": "Facts are fun, hot air is stupid. \n \n The U-235 (1% of Uranium) we currently burn in reactors is rare and unsustainable; however it's application uses are currently limited to unsafe inefficent reactors from the 1950s and '60s and inefficient nuclear bombs. \n \n U-238 (99% of Uranium) which cannot fuel today's standard reactors when burned in Generation IV reactors can supply our energy needs for 10,000 to 5 billion years.  This fast-breeder process has already been successfully demonstrated many times and doesn't require any 'fundamental breakthroughs' to prove it is an extremely viable energy source.  Russia's BN600 has been running over 30 years, France's Phenix which was about 2/3 that size ran just fine for over 30 years.  Updating the engineering can make the fast-breeder design economical.  GE's [PRISM]( is an example of this. \n \n Thorium when burned in a Molten Salt Reactor is essentially an infinite supply of fuel due to it's abundance and the sustainability of the Thorium-Fuel-Cycle.  This has also been demonstrated in the [prototype]( stage.  The MSR family of reactors is far simpler than fast breeder and potentially cheaper. \n \n Plutonium-238 which is the energy source NASA uses is created from U-238 which is not used to fuel our current Nuclear reactors. \n \n If this technology is so amazing why hasn't it been built yet?  [The Thorium Molten-Salt Reactor: Why Didn't This Happen?]( \n \n \n Edit: It's possible that U-235 might have one commercial use as a form of geological measurement.  Can't confirm though."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "The problem with that idea is that it is extremely short-sighted and will in fact create greater inequality in the long run.  Sure back in the 1930s workers could bargain for higher wages and if they refused to work the company couldn't produce.  Unfortunately that is not the world we live in today.  You are no longer competing with just your neighbor for a job, you're competing with the world. \n In today's global market if the government raised minimum wage to $21.70 USD the result would  vastly  different than the Great Depression era.  In the short term wages and living standards would improve which is a good thing.  However this would quickly be followed by businesses accelerating automation and returning to exporting your job overseas.  This would also make the barriers of entry for new small businesses much higher as they would have to account for increased labor pay margins.  The business market is used to labor margins being very small so if wages went up layoffs would also go up particularly in the medium and small sized corporations.  Higher minimum wages are great for big business because it hurts smaller competitors who can't absorb the cost as easily. \n What you have to realize is you're competing with an overseas worker that can afford to do the same job as you but has a much lower standard of living and wage requirement.  Is this fair that U.S companies are allowed to export labor overseas?  Well it kind of sucks for us, but it's not as if we can hold a gun to their head and force them to stay.  If the government does decide to drive up labor costs by raising the minimum wage it had better implement some very good and creative reasons for them to stay.", "id": "cch3jl8", "summary": "Raising the minimum wage alone is a terrible idea. \n EDIT:   Actually I take back what I said about the U.S minimum wage creating more inequality, in fact it does create more equal wages.  It will raise the living standard of Chinese and Indian workers to levels closer to American wages so we will no longer have disproportionate wealth compared to them.  So I suppose if that's what you're interested in than your idea is great!  ;)"}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "again word games to dodge answering my point. \n What word games?  I asked for examples, you gave none. \n >Jeff Bezos started a website, did he actually do the building? Who are the rest, did they actually build anything, or did they just \"own things\". I am thinking the latter. \n Jeff Bezos founded and runs the most successful online store in the world.  It was started in his garage.  The others you can do your own homework. \n >your mixing up develops and designs with funds. Generally develope and designing and not done by the people who fund. They are done by other workers hired to do so. But again, in your twisted definition of work, wage earners don't actually do work, property owners are the workers. Its somewhat twisted view on life. \n Never claimed for a moment wage earners don't do work.  I merely stated that founders and owners also do work.  You claim they don't. \n >He got the money from the last company, or thing. Your implying that people who have start up capital had to do real work at some point which is not always true. More often than not, its false. \n More completely bogus claims.  Did these people just snap their fingers and produce cash?  NO.  They borrowed or worked for it.  Sure maybe some inherited but why punish people for passing on wealth to their children?  If your claim was even remotely true then upward social/financial mobility has never been possible in the last 200 years. \n >you imply all these are somehow on equal footing in use of language, but some of these positions have far more economic rights than others. In fact the way Americans generally talk, the people who actually do the work, the design, the physical labor, the programming, are not actually doing work, but whoever owns whatever they are part of is doing the work. \n Your strange generalizations about Americans are utterly untrue.  If Americans didn't think these positions were unworthy of being called work then nobody would be paid.  The wages of those workers are determined like everywhere else in world by supply and demand.  Out of curiosity on what planet are programmers underpaid?  Most of them are massively overpaid, but the market demands it so that is what happens.  Manual labor is low skill work and can be done by just about anyone, market demand is low so wages are low.  Would you prefer we all be paid exactly the same?  Why bother getting an education or learning new skills?  The economy would shrivel up and die if people had no incentive to improve their skills and education. \n >In your own line of thinking, everything in the world before the Republican revolutions we hold so dear as overthrowing tyranny, everything was made by kings and princes, and we should be so happy to have had them, and nothing could be done without them. \n Why do you keep going back to kings and princes?  Are you equating someone like Jeff Bezos to a king or prince?  Are all business owners kings and princes?  That is absurd.  Maybe in a family company ownership is passed to a son or daughter but if they don't effectively run that business it will die or be taken away.  In other words they still have to WORK. \n >what about all the employees that worked extremely hard alongside the owner who have no rights. If an employee asks to receive credit and benefits after he stops working, people scream about laziness. If an owner who once works for a company decides to stop working, how is it not stealing from people who still work for the company. \n Do unemployment benefits not exist in your country?  The economy puts value on ideas, if an owner continues to be paid for his idea why is that wrong?  Even if he stops working he might continue to be paid for his idea.  We should encourage new ideas and businesses.  The worker in the company is being paid for his work.  When he stops working he stops being paid.  For practical reasons we created safety nets in the form of severance and unemployment benefits.  These are a good thing but they are not in return for current value or work being created.  They were created so people who lose their job don't crash and burn. \n Does corruption exist?  Hell yes.  That doesn't mean we throw out the baby with the bathwater.", "id": "cghprzs", "summary": "Ideas have value, it takes hard work to create them; that work should be compensated and encouraged.  The amount of that compensation is based on market demand.  The worker deserves to be paid, the ideas man deserves to be paid, the designer deserves to be paid.  The person who gives money to that project or business also gets paid, how else do you encourage them to give money? \n Edit:   Think of it this way:  I want to open a lemonade stand.  You have a crate of lemons and a juicer.  I agree to give you X% of my profits if you give me the lemons and juicer.  I'm successful and make enough money to open two more and hire two workers to run the two lemonade stands.  In your world you are a leech because you are making X% of the profits even though you never manned a lemonade stand.  In my world I say that the lemonade stand would never have existed without your capital investment. \n Maybe in some futuristic Utopia you will just say, \"Damn the world needs more lemonade, take my lemons and juicer.\"  Unfortunately that world doesn't exist, hence we create incentive."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "Even if ACA is successful I don't really see it as a death knell for the Republican party.  Politics evolve all the time, it's the nature of our system. \n American politics are built around a two party system that swings back and forth for control of the middle ~10% of the voters.  Even if by some crazy happenstance the Republican Party collapsed (doubtful) things wouldn't really change much.  Whatever new party takes their place would still quickly consolidate control over the 40% conservative vote and fight over the middle ground like they do now.  The one and only time a major political party collapsed was on the eve of civil war in 1860 when Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican president in American history.  The Republicans represented a radical breakaway progressive movement from the Whig Party who wanted to cooperate with the slave-holding southern Democrats. \n It's basically a structural impossibility for three parties of equal power to exist in American politics.  This is partially due to funding as well as the overbearing power the two current parties are able to wield.  The real reason however is that our political and electoral system is designed around a winner-takes-all victory making it impossible to sustain third parties.  Proportional representation is one of the reasons that a place like the Netherlands for example has so many different parties. In the United States an electoral candidate race is only allowed one winner. \n The second piece of it is America just does not have a very broad ideological spectrum. If you look at America's two parties, they're actually very close together in terms of their ideological differences. Both American parties -  the Democrats and the Republicans – would fit comfortably as center-right parties in Europe.  Most of the power in the Republican party has arguably been dominated by a small, vocal, more radical faction of the party but they don't represent a majority. \n My guess is that the Republican leadership supported the Tea Party faction because they believed it to be a new radical direction the country was heading towards.  Their plan has arguably backfired but that assertion will remain to be seen in the coming years.  In some ways you could say that the Republican Tea Party faction is simply the American version of a radical European third party.", "id": "ccr82m8", "summary": "The Republicans will be just fine.  I think it would be pretty safe to argue that Tea Party politics are dead next election if ACA passes successfully.  They're committing political suicide at the moment and will likely be ostracized by the Republican majority."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "Okay. \n I've done some digging and I've found a few holes in your argument. \n First off I think it's best that we both admit we're amateurs with limited access to accurate data so deferring to the experts when the data gets murky is advisable. \n \n [Energy as an ultimate raw material, or problems of burning the sea and burning the rocks - Weinberg 1959]( \n \n This presentation in New Orleans to the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society on April 10, 1959 is the main source for this argument.  This opinion is shared by Kirk Sorensen who is an expert on the writings of Alvin Weinberg and a fairly visible proponent of Thorium research in the U.S.  This research is also taken seriously by the Chinese government which has one of the fastest growing needs for sustainable energy in the world.  Let's also not forget the hundreds of other scientists and university groups who are also working on thorium power.  In other words, I've never heard anyone who is involved in this arena of study claim that thorium is unsustainable in the long term.  Feasibility of reactor design has always been the basis for objection. \n Now on to that argument posted by /u/dredmorbius. \n First off it's eye-catching that his estimate was 42 years, why would so many people pursue this technology so aggressively if we're going to run out in ~100 years assuming we ramp up thorium usage quickly.  Is there something that /u/dredmorbius has discovered that the rest of the nuclear researchers missed?  That would be quite a leap.  Let's look at his data.  Right off the bat his numbers are called into question by citing Wikipedia estimates [here]( of 1.9million - 2.8million tonnes and then completely ignoring the rest of that article which continues by throwing away both of those estimates. \n The preceding reserve figures refer to the amount of thorium in high-concentration deposits inventoried so far and estimated to be extract-able at current market prices; millions of times more total exist in Earth's 3×10^19 tonne crust, around 120 trillion tons of thorium, and lesser but vast quantities of thorium exist at intermediate concentrations.[73][74][75] Proved reserves are \"a poor indicator of the total future supply of a mineral resource.\"[75] \n Two things of note: \n The market for Thorium barely exists so when referencing the USGS and IAEA estimates for  economically extract-able at current market price  that number is not going to be an accurate reflection of actual deposits in the world.  Mining companies don't actively seek to prove thorium resources because they already get a surplus for the market from mining other rare-earth materials. \n Secondly, if earth crust thorium estimates are guessed at 120 trillion tons by what logic are we only going to have access to 3 million tons of it?  Even if our mining methods are terrible and never get better in the future that is an absurd claim.  Thorium is more than twice as abundant as Uranium which averages 2.8PPM.  Proven world uranium reserves are currently estimated at [5,404,000 tonnes](  If we extrapolate purely from that number then today our access to thorium is likely much closer to twice the uranium reserves which would put us closer to 11,000,000 tonnes.  Also if you look further into the estimates of Uranium reserves there are projections that 35 million tonnes have been recorded as eventually economically recoverable.  If thorium is twice as abundant as uranium then we can extrapolate another conservative guess at 40-60 million tonnes which can one day be recovered by modern mining methods. Even so that assumes our mining and geological survey and extraction methods never improve. What if we manage to extract just 0.001% of that thorium estimate?  We're still at one hundred twenty billion tonnes.  Still an utterly absurd amount of potential energy to exploit.  What if we only access 0.000001% of the thorium estimated to be in the earth's crust during our entire future as a species? That would be ~120 million tons of thorium.  Based off the calculations from /u/dredmorbius that tonnage would still give us ~2520 years of usage out of thorium power.  I have no idea if his math is even accurate.  If he made such a glaring mistake in the basis for his argument the rest of it is suspect as well.  Do you see why I have such a problem with throwing out 42 years as an estimate?  The logic is shaky at best. \n Sources for the 120 trillion tonne estimate: \n From this basis I don't have the time, inclination, or skill to double check the rest of the argument put forward by /u/dredmorbius.  However, since he is a single dissenting voice against a majority including some very authoritative sources (Alvin Weinberg & Eugene Wigner, ORNL, present day Chinese, Norwegian, & Indian Governments) the burden of proof is heavy for him.  Even if his calculations are accurate and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that they are, he has based them on faulty and incomplete data. Since we can't place an accurate measurement of the world's true thorium reserves based off discovery, we have to fall back to Weinberg's and others' strategy of guessing based off PPM averages and working backwards from there.  If a true healthy market for thorium is created then I'm certain we will begin to explore and measure the world's thorium reserves as obsessively as we do today with oil.  Until then, we have to guess.", "id": "ch93hpj", "summary": "Even if the math is good (that's a big if), the premise is bad. \n Edit: Even if everyone is wrong and nuclear fission only lasts us for a couple hundred years, it is an amazing technology which can be used as a stopgap to get us to the stars.  Once we have access to the asteroid belt our resource options are infinite.  Anything which can produce clean, reasonably affordable energy, capable of scaling with the population should absolutely be pursued aggressively to break our dependence on fossil fuels.  I would rather waste money on solar, nuclear and wind than save money on coal and oil. \n Edit: Some of these papers also estimate Thorium at four times the abundance of Uranium so you could theoretically double those numbers I quoted again."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "If that were true then why haven't they done all of California, instead of just Mountainview? Or even just more of California, like all of the bay area. \n Why would they? There's very little incentive for horizontal development of their maps at this point. They're still in the vertical development stage. I think you don't quite understand the purpose that the maps serve. They pre-load the map data so they don't have to process all that information in the car. The sensor data is then overlaid on top of the map. The mapping process works in much the same way that Google crawlers index the web. Their search engine doesn't search for \"trees\" every time you type that in, most of those search results have already been pre-loaded and indexed long before you came along. \n To quote one of their engineers: \n \"Rather than having to figure out what the world looks like and what it means from scratch every time we turn on the software, we tell it what the world is expected to look like when it is empty,\" Chatham continued. \"And then the job of the software is to figure out how the world is different from that expectation. This makes the problem a lot simpler.\"", "id": "chpolib", "summary": "So far, Google has mapped 2,000 miles of road. The US road network has something like 4 million miles of road. \"It is work,\" Urmson added, shrugging, \"but it is not intimidating work.\"]("}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "Let me clear a few things up, first a calorie:\nthe energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water through 1 °C (now usually defined as 4.1868 joules).\nThat has nothing to do with the metabolizing of a calorie of food. \n I'm sorry this is just flat wrong. \n This is how we measure food energy in the western world. The metabolic process in our bodies requires energy to oxidize the food molecules and break them down into triphosphate which our bodies can use. How are you measuring food energy? \n It's worth noting thatl  food energy . Small calories are the measurement size you typically see in physics and chemistry although they've largely been replaces by joules. However the calorie system of measurement has lived on particularly in the food industry in the form of kcals instead of small cals. A kcal is the approximate amount of energy required to raise one kilogram of water by one degree celcius. That's it. We don't care whether or not that substance can actually be consumed by people, it's a universal system of energy measurement that happens to have been adopted by the food industry. \n >Don't believe me then what happens when you eat a a diet consisting of 1500 calorie of coal?\nDo you gain weight? No because you can't digest coal but you can measure it's energy in calories.\nWhat happens if you eat 1500 calories of soluble fiber?\nDo you gain weight? No because you can't digest fiber, it is food unlike coal but you can't digest it so it's calories are unusable. \n None of this matters. You can still measure them in calories. Just because the human body can't process them doesn't suddenly mean that the calorie measurement is invalid. A kcal is nothing more than energy divided by mass; that metric is a constant, the  values exported are variable. \n >Now let's talk about \"Specific Dynamic Action\" also known as the \"Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)\" which is the amount of energy that is required to process the food you eat. Obviously it takes more energy to digest and utilize calories from proteins than carbohydrates, more to digest complex carbs than simple carbs and so on. \n This is all true. That's why one gram of protein has a very different calorie measurement than a gram of carbohydrates. However  one calorie of carbohydrates is exactly the same as one calorie of protein.  It's likely that the mass of the item is question is very different relative to its calorie content. If it turns out that our measurement of mass relative to energy in the case of carbs or proteins in the context of the human body is flawed then we will change it accordingly by either increasing or decreasing the kc/g but that doesn't change the actual metric itself, only its influence on the substance in question.", "id": "chvdydm", "summary": "A pound of lead weighs exactly the same as a pound of feathers. A calorie of protein is the exact same amount of energy as a calorie of carbs. \n Edit:  By the way, insulting people doesn't give more legitimacy to your arguments, in fact it usually has the opposite effect; it's also a sign of immaturity. Just some friendly advice, using insults might feel good but it ends up making you look stupid and/or ignorant."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "Yes but I actually do my homework, you apparently just latch onto the top Google results without checking their legitimacy. \n Your entire comment is a copy and paste from [this]( article on HowStuffWorks.com.  That number is just flat wrong. \n I actually remember the DOE report because there was something of a controversy back in 2009 over a misquote from a certain senate hearing involving Al Gore which was then repeated on various blog sites.  The report actually says 100-miles-square, also known as 100-miles-squared which translates to 10,000 square miles, roughly the size of Vermont. \n But wait, this information seems to directly contradict a study published in the [Scientific American]( that same year which said 46,000 square miles of solar photovoltaics would be needed to support U.S electricity needs.  When the study's authors were asked about this they said that in fact they completely agreed with the calculations from the DOE.  The only difference was that the DOE report was for electricity usage today, their calculations included 344 million electric vehicles which will very likely be on the road by 2050. \n All of this ignores the fact that you and me were not talking about supplying just the U.S with solar power, we were talking about the world.  Nine billion people. \n Now for some paper-napkin math: \n If 46,000 square miles of solar photovoltaics will support a population of ~313 million people, how much would you need to support [9.6 billion by 2050]( \n First let's divide 46,000 sq. miles by 313 million people. \n Each person needs ~ 0.00014696485 sq. miles to supply his electricity. \n Now multiply 0.00014696485 sq. miles by 9.6 billion people to get enough land to power the whole world. \n So you would need ~1,410,863 million square miles to power the world. That's an area roughly the size of half the continental United States.  You can also quadruple that number again when you add in land usage from all of those high-power transmission lines coming from the world's deserts.  You can also multiply that number some more when we decide to put those solar panels in places that don't get as much sun as Nevada, i.e Germany.  Finally you'll have to add in some more because transmission losses will be killer when we have to pipe power thousands of miles. \n Do you see why I cannot take seriously people who say solar is good enough?  The problems with solar are many and complicated.  I didn't even bring in the argument about the non-existent grid storage problem.  Sure, nuclear supplying world-wide power has a lot of hurdles to overcome,  so does solar,  let's pursue them both and use both to the best of their abilities.", "id": "chbyyzk", "summary": "100-square miles is wrong, the DOE never said that.  Check your facts. \n Edit: Why did you link a biomass article?  We're talking about nuclear and photovoltaics."}, {"author": "CaptaiinCrunch", "content": "So long story short I have a friend who is a bit free (stupid?) with his money and bought a 5.1 Affinitive Smart-410 Home theater system second-hand and never opened it.  I was helping him clean his garage and found this boxed 6pc set of speakers which was still in it's packaging and he said I could have it because it \"sucked.\"  I thought I might see if I could get a couple hundred bucks for it on Ebay until I realized this system was selling for $1000 so I thought I'd try it out myself. \n It's an older generation system which uses the (pardon my ignorance) red/black wire pinch/clips for the speaker connections to the subwoofer.  It was missing the speaker wires and I'm guessing that's what caused my friend to throw this system out without ever trying it. I'm trying to find out what wires I should buy for these speakers to get the best quality sound out of it.  I've tried to find the manual for it but I can only find the directions for the newest generation Smart-410.  Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated.  I copied down all the info on the box that I could find and posted a link to what I think might possibly be the kind of wire I should be using.", "id": "t3_1sfy7d", "summary": "What kind of speaker wire should I use to connect an older generation Affinitive Audio Smart-410 5.1 Home Theater system with red/black clip connections? \n \n Affinitive Audio Smart-410 \n 2200 Watts Total System Power  \n 600 Watts Subwoofer \n Impedance 8 ohms \n Sensitivuty 91dB \n Crossover slope adjusted to 80 Hz \n \n After looking around Google a little it seems that a bigger gauge wire equals better sound true/false? \n Also more insulation equals less distortion? \n Why is [this]( so much more expensive than [this](  These aren't like the diamond tipped HDMI cables right? \n Edit:  Hmm so after looking around Google I'm guessing that  this  is a cheap knockoff of  this \n Edit:  Nevermind it looks like all of these are a scam.  Thanks for the heads up.  I'm off to tease my buddy for blowing money on these.  For anyone who might be unaware of the scam : [Affinitive]("}]}
+{"author": "Eilinen", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post is that conscription is just a tax among many. It's not ideal, but there aren't any alternatives. \n Nowadays Sweden has a professional army. Finland doesn't. Seeing as how Russian media still talks about \"taking Finland\" or more subtly \"Russian laws trumping Finnish on Finnish ground\", there's a good reason for this.", "output": "Because, as everyone knows, telephone services can only be provided with copper cables. \n Do you happen to have even a vague idea how mobile telephone network works? Hint; the \"wireless\" part is just till the nearest antenna. After that, it relies on copper cables. The situation is relatively good in Finland/Sweden, but for example in many parts of US you can only get one cable company offering Internet. Because, you know, natural monopoly. \n Of the four or five operators national operators, two service my (highly populated) area, and only two can offer service. And this is after laws making sharing those wires mandatory. \n >Today, we have private telecom companies providing high quality worldwide video telephony services for free (e.g. Skype). \n Skype also relies on copper wiring. You are paying for the copper wiring in the cable/DSL; Skype might offer free calls, but it's still a business and it does bill people. And true, life is easier. I do remember what it was like making international calls 20 years ago. \n >Does it or does it not fall out of the sky for free? \n It does, at that! There's also a lot in lakes, most of it even drinkable. But the thing is, it doesn't rain all the time and I don't live next to a lake. There's a free water post outside, but carrying water in and storing it isn't half as convenient as opening tab and drinking directly from it. We did that hundred years ago (and that's why there's that water post outside), but there's a reason why we don't use it anymore. \n Chemical water purification at the end-point isn't, for limitations of space, half as efficient and the results aren't half as good as doing it centrally (you know, economies of scale). But this isn't really the point. \n The point is that creating the piping and making the water flow through them is really expensive undertaking. And I'm quoting wikipedia now; \n > A natural monopoly by contrast is a condition on the cost-technology of an industry whereby it is most efficient (involving the lowest long-run average cost) for production to be concentrated in a single firm. In some cases, this gives the largest supplier in an industry, often the first supplier in a market, an overwhelming cost advantage over other actual and potential competitors. This tends to be the case in industries where capital costs predominate, creating economies of scale that are large in relation to the size of the market, and hence high barriers to entry;  examples include public utilities such as water services. \n The quality of water is just a nice perk. They can offer clean water, the best in the world, so why shouldn't they? The raw material is plenty good already, it's cheap to provide (also, this is a point of pride). Also there's something to be said for water that doesn't make you sick if accidentally digested. \n >A large percentage of your tax money goes towards paying for wars.  If you disagree with those wars on ethical grounds... \n Sweden (and please note that I have a Finnish flag next to my name) hasn't been in war for 200 years. Military (peacekeeping) operations in both of these countries tend to have good support from population and I don't believe we've been thought as invaders in operation countries either (before making the mistake of going to Afganistan, where we are mixed up with Americans). We haven't fought any Vietnams. \n Finland still has conscription, but only professional soldiers get to volunteer to leave for peacekeeping. There have been talks about if conscription is necessary, but we also had these talks in 1930s, which didn't really end that well for us (you know, Soviet Invasion, having to ally with Nazis for want of guns and ammo etc). The Finnish past is a big reason for how Sweden has handled their defence as well. The"}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post on the subject than I) or nearly ANYTHING to do with science doesn't make me seek answers in religion; I simply find the stuff inconsequential compared to truly interesting and important stuff in the world. Such as how people work (is there anything more interesting than that?). \n >>Tons of literature, debates on the subject of God and yet you can't say the same for Santa Clauss. \n These people have no training in the subject of of debate (I myself do very little) but still wish to be part of the discussion - so they come up with anecdotes from their daily lives. \n But to tell the truth, I don't know how many on /r/Christianity have heard about Thomas Aquinas - similarly many Christians here are talking from personal experience, causing the same effect as when \"we\" are talking of Father Christmas. \n >>No rational intelligent person can hold the belief that belief in God is like another belief which no one takes seriously it just goes against all empirical evidence. \n You might want to check your grammar here.", "output": "Atheist claim to be rational and empirical. \n No, some atheists make that claim. You (and I!) have selection bias in that the outspoken atheists often need something to quote to, so they rely on scientific articles - but this interest on debates is probably of interest only for a very small minority of atheists. Even the circlejerkers at /r/atheism have little or no interest on rational or empirical practices. \n In the world at large, most atheists would probably wish that we would just shut up about this and would continue on with our hobbies without whining about them to each other. \n Personally, I'm here because I'm interested in psychology, theology and sociology - I know almost nothing of \"hard sciences\" and find most discussions which involve them either directly or as some sort of fodder against religion to be absolutely uninteresting. \n I also have very little knowledge about the subject at large - just today I found myself musing about pressurised vacuum for nearly half an hour before understanding the level of my ignorance. \n This lack of understanding of Big Bang Theory, of evolution (it's probably true, but most priests would give more scientifically accurate"}], "user_id": "longlamp_2150", "history": [{"author": "Eilinen", "content": "I'm actually also from Europe! From North, actually, and pretty typical specimen as well. The main difference between me and my neighbours is that [I pay less taxes](  I removed myself from Church books partially due to money and partially due to not wanting to be hypocritical and doing Church-stuff \"purely as tradition\", as most people I know do. \n To answer your questions; \n \n I don't know if I ever was Christian. That's a term that has a different meaning here than it does on the mainland or it does at the States. I paid Church taxes and I've been baptised at birth. By that yardstick I was a Christian, but with any more confiding parameters you're going to lose at least half of the members of Finnish Lutheran Church (which is currently about 80% of Finnish population). \n \n My parents; my mother was disappointed that I wouldn't be married at a church (\"but you can always join when you find the right girl\"), so that wasn't a very big fight. \n \n Negative experiences? Not really, if you don't count the people in American telly shows and those people who share pamphlets at streets. Scientologists, Jehovas Witnesses, mormons and other fringes that the Lutherans consider mad anyway (sorry people on the board, not my personal opinion!). \n \n \n I use the A-flair so there would be less confusion when I'm commenting on more religiously charged stuff and because I (and also most North Europeans) believe in personal ethics and morals instead of \"given from God above\", unlike most Americans, apparently. \n I made that Venn-diagram because people in this thread seemed to have trouble with the idea that you can just swap words on both sides of \"is\" and the phrase-meaning wouldn't change. It's something that has bugged me even since they taught me logical thinking back in the equivalent of Junior High (this would have been in Mathematics, I think).", "id": "c5og6kc", "summary": "I didn't make that Venn-diagram because I'm an atheist, but because I  was awake at school at the tender age of 13."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "I don't really think you can compare Anita Blake and Twilight. Sure, Bella is rather submissive (she even lets men drive her own car in the films) but Anita is all about shooting stuff and having sex till everything gets magically resolved on the last page, usually without any direct help from ms. Blake herself. \n These [blogposts]( talk about the comic, but the same points mostly stand for the original material as well. \n Anyway,", "id": "c9foxd2", "summary": "is comparing Twilight and Anita Blake is like comparing stepford wives to dominatrixes and saying that one gives more wholesome image of females as a gender."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "In that case, cases of unfree markets would be; \n \n Limiting manufacturing, importing or exporting certain products either by taxing or banning outright (creation of goods within the country). \n Taxing or outright banning selling or buying certain products to discourage their use (distributing goods within the country) \n \n These have very little to do with democracy and before GATT/WTO these were common tools in the arsenal of nations. They are still used within the rules of WTO. While reasons why \"unfree people\" would use these are many, you were interested in \"free people\" and why they would be against free markets. \n \n To stop losing jobs to cheaper countries or to bring jobs from other countries . Such as call centres, but also to give edge to big home industries. For example, American Boeing and European Airbus have gone through many fights at WTO. Also to push local food (eg. \"grown within the state borders\") over \"non-local\" (foreign). \n To save local culture . Extremely common reason in France, and to smaller extend, in many other European countries as well. Certain percentage of programming has to be European to ensure that there would still have funding for local TV-shows and films when American entertainment is so cheap to import. \n To stop change . Related to previous one. Banning inventions or tools that may affect negatively on the way things are historically be done. Think music industry and piracy and laws that ensure that status quo is maintained even with negative broad implications. Government might, for example, ban discussion between people on how to circumvent DRM for fear that it might affect negatively on the CD-sales of local musicians. \n To protect the populace . For example, gene-manipulated food is fairly unpopular at Europe and legislators are constantly trying to find ways to deny importing GM-food from the States as well as rising it on EU-soil. Many other items sold in States are also banned or altered to be sold in EU. \n \"For common good\" . For example, cigarettes do not harm only the smoker, but also the State that will pick his hospital tab. Also other products and practices that may be beneficial to one individual but not to the society as a whole. At one German island cars are banned as a whole. \n To stop \"fat cats\" from preying on the weak . Monopolies may be granted for gambling and selling alcohol, for example. Small enterprises and co-ops (ran by politicians) may be given some extra-benefits over privately run large corporations.  \n To protect people from themselves . For example, young people are stupid and should neither drink or drive. All people are weak, so selling drugs (both medical and mind-altering) should be heavily regulated or outright banned.  \n Public pressure due to individual incident that is unlikely to happen again . German Nuclear power after the tsunami in Japan.  \n \n And last, and perhaps most importantly (in Nordic countries); \n \n *All implications of [Jante's Law]( \n \n These all address \"unfree markets\" in one way or another. I could think probably scores more, but these should give you few ideas why society would (and has been) against free markets. Dictatorship may ban things more readily, but they have an image to maintain (so no back-pedalling!) and less knowledge/time to get into details, so things tended to be done with a wider brush. But the method is the same.", "id": "c4sz5f1", "summary": "People as a whole may have different ideas than people as individuals. \n EDIT: Added few details for clarity."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "This is an interesting subject I have pondered a lot. \n But before I start, worth pointing out that LotR's \"Mount Doom\" is an intentional silly name, as the mountain's proper name is Orodruin, which the hobbits shorten to \"Doom\". A proper translation would not only translate the mountain as equivalent of \"Doom\" but also do something with the word \"Orodruin\" to make it clear why hobbits decided to settle on \"Doom\". Either to switch some letters in \"Orodruin\" or expand the conversation a bit by having Sam (or somebody else) shout \"Why are we going to Orod..oorodrin... this Mount Doom? Why can't somebody else do it?\". \n The same goes for \"Death Eaters\". Rowling would want our mind to go to  beefeaters , the bodyguards of the English sovereign. Thus the Danish translation is excellent; just as beefeaters guard the queen, so do deatheaters guard Voldemort. Thus OP's idea of halberdiers was just what the translator intended. \n On this note, there are three important factors to realize when we talk of the subject of translations. First, that fantasy translations tend to be done on the cheap (making them at worst unreadable). And second; it's very easy to think that foreign names are exotic and thus better than familiar. \"Mount Doom\" is a great example - when you read \"Mount Doom\" you are SUPPOSED to realise how grandiose and overblown it sounds. But because we are not native English-speakers, we just take the original as a great name, while the translation puts some of us into giggles. This gets us to the third point; an excellent translation is sometimes seen as a bad one because the reader is not familiar with her own language OR English on the same level that a proper translator is. \n Thus, a good translator doesn't just mindlessly translate; he also adds and removes. Finnish version of  Good Omens  is by no means a faithful translation, but it IS a damn good one. \n We might also add number four to our list of important factors; remembering failures but not noting the successes. I'm still somewhat annoyed by the translator of  Name of the Wind  for translating  Commonwealth  as  Federation  (even though Finnish has established words for both, and they are not the same). I actually had the opportunity to ask this of the translator, and she said she thought this reflected better the situation in the book. But even if I would oppose this argument, I can't say that she translated 700+ pages and only got ONE TERM in a way that I would feel bad about.. and I still thought that she could do better.", "id": "c9aaje3", "summary": "We tend to appraise translations not based on how good the translators are, but on how bad we ourselves are in the same job."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "But there isn't a good distribution! \n As I said, Germany has to import engineers; they are doing so intensively in Finland and Scandinavian countries. Probably in their neighbouring countries as well. They are so desperate that even rudimentary knowledge of German isn't asked for and offering to pay two, even five times more than they would earn in Finland (and engineers aren't exactly bottom-paid here either). \n The German high unemployment in the early 2000s was partly due to there being more mechanics, chefs etc. than there were place openings. The current situation of low unemployment is the result of creation of McJobs, low-paying places where you don't need any education - such as janitors and retail clerks, cleaners etc. (and honestly, if their effort is valued, they should be paid more). So even the education that the Germans DID get is being wasted. Meanwhile they are scalping the the neighbouring countries of their more enterprising youths.", "id": "c79jzvd", "summary": "The German system ensures ANYTHING BUT good distribution of job applicants through all careers."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "You forget the time we were under Russian Tsar Alexander II ? \n I was talking of a situation where Sweden would never have gotten to Finland and it would have been Russia all the way to the tip of Österbotten in 1323. In that timeline, we would never have gained autonomy (as the local populace would not have revolted and gotten support from West). Russia has done russifications several times in its history, and that would have been the end of us. Just look at now-Karelian state in Russia. The situation there was identical to Finland in 1323; the same language, the same culture. They never rebelled. When we got there in WW2, they were still living the middle ages there. \n And later? Old Finland was put under Russia in 1721, it was promised all the great stuff they promised New Finland 90 years later. Guess what? Russification, serfdom, economic apathy etc. Again, if Russia had gotten the whole Finland back then we wouldn't be doing so well now. PERHAPS we would have followed Poland (who got put under Russia around this time, got autonomy, which was then dismantled etc.). \n Well, what about New Finland and Grand Duchy? Alexander I saw that Old Finland was doing really suckily and simplified things by adding it to the Grand Duchy. Things there were shit and we spent the next 20 years cleaning it up, dismantling serfdom etc. Again, we were promised autonomy and whatnot. Then what? Nikolai I. The guy actively ignored us! 50 years and he didn't sign any new laws. Diet was supposed to be called every four years, but between 1809 and 1868 it wasn't called ONCE. \n OK, Alexander II did us fairly, but by the end of the rule he was going for russification as well. Decided to start with Poland and work his way to Finland. Luckily, a Pole did us a solid and threw a bomb at the tsar. Then Alexander III and Nikolai II. And that meant, you guessed it, russification. And it was turtles all the day down till the bullets mets Nikolai II's fair skin. \n You can't pick up one cherry from a pile of shit and say that it was better than Sweden's rule -- particularly as \"language sets the borders\" idea hadn't even been born when Sweden withdrew. We CAN look at how Sweden handled the Finnish areas that stayed under it's rule, and it doesn't look at all bad, excluding that one brief period in the 60s and 70s when they tried that \"everybody-should-speak-SVT-Swedish\", an experiment hated by even the Swedish themselves.", "id": "c8eeji5", "summary": "200 years under Russia and we got a perhaps 30 good years with Alexander II, Karelia got 800 and look where they are now. Meanwhile Sweden got 600 years with current Finland and 200 additional years with the Finnish areas in Swedish Lapland, and Finnish people don't have anything to complain. \n So yes. Ass-licker. Because I value the marriage of 600 years of domestic bliss higher than the 200 years of being concubine under domestic violence, where \"Good Times\" refers to the time when husband was busy beating his other mistresses."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "Hi OP! Sorry for being a bit slowpoke. I read the thread and people are generally on the right angle (mandatory Swedish colouring the opinion on Sweden). \n You should know that I'm really enthusiastic about Sweden. I spend there weeks every summer and I think it's a terrific country, with terrific people! \n But I think you are mostly interested of this; \n >regarding Sweden as a former occupying power \n You have to understand that before Swedes came, we had our own native religion, the land belonged to commons and we didn't really know much about the outside world. The Swedish kings took the lands from the villages and gave them to nobility (I've met people who are still pissed about \"stealing their birthright\"), people were christianised by force and very little is known about our native religions ( Kalevala  was Karelian, not part \"East-Sweden\"), even though they were well-practiced even in the 16th century (compare: in Britain, Italy that's almost present day!). \n We know that we used to worship the high-god Ukko Ylijumala, but nothing is known about him. Even less is known about the lesser gods. The fields are full of Jumi-stones, but again, we don't know what they were about. Stuff like that makes one rather sad (and I understand that the same goes for old Swedish gods, so it isn't like you did to us anything that you didn't do to yourself). \n But yes, that checks all the boxes of colonial rule. \n Of course, Sweden gave us great laws, ruled us fairly and all-in-all life was good. Much better than it would have been under Russia! So, you know, thanks for that. \n But the good stuff is seldom mentioned. I love the fact that I can go to Sweden and see what Finland could have been if not for the wars and history of 19th and 20th century. During my first trips ten years ago, I knew virtually nothing about what our common history and what it meant in practice. Even after ten years of travelling Sweden up-and-down-and-left-to-right and meeting a lot of locals and (what became) lifelong friends, I'm still often surprised by what I find. And so are my Swedish friends. As  Finland är Svenskt  says, we concentrate on looking at history from the perspectives of Modern Sweden, Modern Finland, forgetting that the Sweden-that-was was a lot bigger than modern Sweden, and that Finland-that-is didn't spring up from nothing after we became a Russian Grand Duchy. \n While it's political acrobatics, I really like the children's history book-tactic that titles the Sweden-that-was as \"Sweden-Finland\". It wasn't JUST Sweden, we were part of it too! And if Finland War hadn't happened, we'd still be part of it - and would probably be very happy about this, as well. \n >The article brings up that some Finns has threatened the broadcaster and called her \"traitor\" and \"swedish whore\". \n You should know that whatever the topic, there's always somebody shouting against it. Particularly with the mandatory Swedish and the losing of our traditions/history. People don't also much care about the show's premise that \"to know what Finland would be without Sweden, you only have to go to Russia (and to know what Finland would be without Russia, you can go to Sweden)\". \n The problem with this premise is two-fold; \n -It goes against the \"pulling ourselves up by our own shoelaces\"-idea that some people have of Finland. \n and \n -It promotes jealously against Sweden, that has everything that we could have had if not for Russia (while also making us thankful that we have things even this well). \n So.", "id": "c8dum7x", "summary": "Younger-brother complex."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "Nations can be built over differ ideas. America is special in that you came from somewhere else and now you're there -- \"The American Dream\" -- but Finland isn't built around that. We've been here a very long time. I usually hesitate to speak of the following because patriotic stuff looks rather inane or even insane in written context shown to outsiders, but I'll try to be somewhat understandable. \n Americans might look at their flag or their constitution and think that honouring those two is what makes you American. I've often noted that people in the States start talking of 1779 like history started then, even though New York and Boston had been around for centuries by that time. Because before the constitution was written, there were no American people, only foreign people on American soil. Those two items - constitution and flag - is what define you, I think. It's what made you. You may correct me if you want to. \n Finnish people isn't like that. There's no single flag, single constitution or single object that makes us what we are. No single point before which we were something else. As far as written history goes, we've always been here. We've been under several administrations over the years. Divided by borders in the middle of our tribal lands, strange flags put up and ordered around by foreign lords who suddenly decide that our ancestral lands now belong to the crown. Historically, there are no ancient Finnish kings (we're so north that upkeeping an army to stop rebellions doesn't work), only tribal leaders, and they didn't really do that well together. There's no Robert the Bruce, no Charlemagne, no Rurik. There isn't even any ancient glory days like what Italy and Greece have. The only things that really unites us is the language and some shared believes on how world works and what's man's place in it (and those we pretty much share with the Scandinavian countries). \n And I've lived extensively in foreign countries. I can do well; I know the customs, I speak the language. I've made friends etc. But getting back home here and speaking the language of my thoughts and seeing that the other person shares my unspoken ideas on what's proper way of doing things is incredibly relaxing. It's like being family, even though you don't know each other. \n And no, language is not just a thing you talk to other people. Language is also the way you share culture. For example, in the first half of 20th century very few people in Finland spoke English, but many spoke German and Swedish. So all the new ideas we got came from those countries. When we looked for examples on how to write our laws, how to structure our nation, we looked at those countries because we could understand what they were doing. Today, most speak English but very few speak German. Thus when doing research or talking politics, earlier examples are often sought in Anglo-Saxon countries, even if culturally more apt examples could be found from Estonia or Sweden. In Finnish political conversation when talking of immigration, the examples are often taken from Britain, even though Sweden would be better example. With copyright, we are looking examples from USA even though Germany has the same legislation system. And so on. \n Languages affect how ideas spread. Not historian, but I don't think it's only due to Soviet armies why the Iron Curtain fell at the border of Slavic language group. So the border of language is often also the border of ideas. Like what's proper way of doing thing, should television only be entertainment or should it be part of cultural integration etc.", "id": "cajc3ky", "summary": "Saying that Finland would be Finland even without Finnish language is like saying Iowa would still be Iowa with communist constitution, another flag and another history."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "I'll just quote wikipedia now. \n >In February 1960 Khrushchev sent his deputy Anastas Mikoyan to Cuba to discover what motivated Castro following Castro's failed trip to Washington where he was refused a meeting with President Dwight D. Eisenhower.[4] According to reports, Khrushchev's aides had initially tried to characterize Castro as an untrustworthy American agent.[3] Mikoyan returned from Cuba with the opinion that Castro's new administration should be helped economically and politically. Though there was no talk yet of military assistance.\nWashington's increasing economic embargo led Cuba to hurriedly seek new markets to avert economic disaster. Castro asked for help from the Soviets and in response Khrushchev approved the temporary purchase of Cuban sugar in exchange for Soviet fuel. This deal was to play a part in sustaining the Cuban economy for many years to come. Following the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, Fidel Castro announced publicly that Cuba was to become a socialist republic. \n Just to", "id": "c6xcplh", "summary": "Castro went to Washington first without any success; Moscow got interested but did nothing till embargo forced Castro to look for new markets. Buck would have ended there if not for Bay of Pigs, after which Castro pronounced Cuba socialistic. \n I really wonder what you are doing on this subreddit as you seem to know astonishingly little about generally well known topics AND IN ADDITION you aren't interested in teaching yourself."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "I don't know how apparent this is to somebody who lives in North America, where everybody speaks English and certain mutual understanding is retained due to mobile population, uniform writing standards and popular culture, but languages change A LOT inside even relatively small areas. \n But first examples; The area of  Wheel of Time  was somewhere between the size of Europe and USA. Nevertheless, all people spoke the same language with only few unique phrases per country (and semi-forgotten old language that doesn't seem to have any relation to the modern one - where did that come from?). The same goes for many other American books. In  Song of Ice and Fire  the Seven Kingdoms are the size of South America, but there is only one common language (and one or two semi-forgotten ones). \n Meanwhile, Scotland and England share the same small island and even they have hard time understanding each other (the language-differences in WoT are more akin to the differences between two counties next to each other - not those of two countries on the opposite sides of continent). 1500 years ago all the Mediterranean spoke Latin, but the off-spring languages of French, Spanish and Italian are hardly identical. \n Learning new languages in immersed environment isn't very difficult. Even today, exchange students are thrown into the deep end of the pool without any earlier language skills and three to six months later they return home speaking the language with only few minor missteps. \n I'm not saying that author SHOULD create several languages just for the authenticity, but it's easy enough to say that the main character speaks three languages and the author translates to the reader - and the languages the protagonist DOESN'T speak are just given as descriptions (\"all Bob could tell was that the merchant was angry and he spoke to his nose..\"). You can think few phrases that are often repeated to give examples of what the foreign languages are alike - this brings something to the world as well! \n Or you can have trader's language or some sort of lingua franca for the charactes to speak in addition to their own languages! \n Of course, like software programmers say, each  feature  like this takes time to write. It takes pages or time from something else. The trick is finding the features that are important for the story (and important for the readers) while avoiding the stuff that very few will ever spot. That Tolkien had elvish dictionaries was fun for him, but it isn't important for the story and other authors should feel it important to ape him on this -- but putting some thought into languages is important. First language, second language, dialect etc. tell as much about the character and of his society as does his wealth, dress, body-appearance, customs. \n In a way, language tells MORE about character than any of the above; you may lose wealth, you may change your clothes, you may be adopted and even customs are easily learnt. But language, accent and dialect? Those aren't easily ironed out! Just by opening his mouth a person tells where he's from, how he's been educated, how high he has prioritised  the learning of foreign culture etc. That so many fantasy writers completely ignore this is one of my biggest gripes with the genre.", "id": "c8c4178", "summary": "Languages are important in fantasy-setting, particularly in a setting where the land wasn't colonised in the very recent past in haste."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "Well, there are few things here to put into account. And as I'm not professional anti-drug speaker, can't really argue too deeply on this subject. So if you don't buy my arguments (based mostly on things I've been told and what I've read); ok. \n Also worth pointing that I'm from a country (Finland) where people don't generally do (much) drugs, tobacco-use is low as well (and generally seen as evidence of low intelligence) and stronger spirits is sold only on government-run spirit stores. I'm well aware that my views are probably stronger than your average Americans. \n But generally speaking drugs (particularly ones cooked by other than pharmaceutical companies) can be impure. They are often cut, so judging the right dosage is hard, making OD possible with the harder drugs. Even with pharmaceutical drugs complications are possible, as every body is somewhat different and we tend to have allergies for the funniest things. \n This was in general. I wouldn't put anything in my body that I couldn't validate all the way back to factory with oversight. You can damage yourself even with medical aspirin (if you can believe that!), so taking stuff \"just for the fun of it\" without knowing its origins sounds rather insane to me. \n If we're talking of drugs created with the highest quality controls possible, they still tend to be addictive. People tend to do stupid things when doing drugs (and are likely to harm themselves or people around them). Particularly as you are likely to use drugs when you're already under influence of alcohol. It's rather hard to judge dosages or the cumulative effects of all the stuff you have put into your body. Will lead into deaths, brain damage, etc. \n To argue further, even \"mildest\" of examples, smoked cannabis is at least as harmful as tobacco with tar and cancer-risk (etc.). Several studies show that users are also more likely to develop psychosis later in life. True, there's the correlation/causation bias as always, but outside cannabis use as a medicine, I don't really see it's use should be specially encouraged. After all, we're [trying to ban tobacco]( not introduce its cousin to the markets! That said, police raids to people's houses due to what they homegrown is insane. \n But", "id": "c7zdtxf", "summary": "I've heard of the benefits of our current drug policy, but I've not heard the benefits of a laxer policy. For the longest time, Finland was the world-capital in heroin-use (with drugs available without receipt in pharmacies) till 1960s, and it showed in the death statistics. We changed our policy, the deaths went down. I don't see why we should go back when the current approach seems sensible."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "I'm not sure if I can explain this - I would have thought this would have been pretty self-explanatory, but seeing as you made the request and people here don't seem to see a difference between a 5-year, 30-year and 2000-year old life-cycle, perhaps my view on this isn't as universal as I thought. \n But I shall endeavour! \n The redwoods are unique - there are nothing quite like it anywhere else in the world. And while we can seed more trees, it will take at least 1000 years for the forrest to be anything like it was before. \n As species, we humans tend to gentrificate our surroundings. To cut down the trees for farms, to damn the rivers for electricity, kill the animals that are not directly beneficial for us. And while such environment is more beneficial to us, it is as artificial as downtown New York. \n And what have we left to live for? It would be a very efficient world, but there would be no wonder left, I would think. For wonder demands certain level of alienation, not available from human-constructed artefacts. But trees! Bigger than most houses! Even the people in that picture could see it! The wonder! And they decided to cut it off, preserving it to the later generations only as a photo. Wouldn't it be grander to actually GO there, to see it for yourself? To take your kids to see these giant trees, instead of just telling how you logged down the very last one in existence? To say that when that tree was young, Jesus still walked the Earth? All those years, and you can see it all in the girdle of the tree. Amazing, wouldn't you say? \n And they cut it down. \n Have you ever wondered what would it be like to see a living, breathing dodo? Or wondered what bananas tasted before \"the better\" bananas went extinct in the 1950s and Chiquita started exporting \"the poorer tasting\" Cavendish-bananas? To see a live mammoth (or normal elephant, as those are probably extinct soon enough as well)? Or an orang-utan or a panda (soon to be extinct as well)? \n They are all gone, or soon to be gone. And I think the world will be a poorer place for it. We need to remember that we are not alone on this world, that we share it with others. And even if we do have the biggest brains, that doesn't make it our right to decide what else has the right to live on this planet.", "id": "c63xbgp", "summary": "To me, that picture symbolises all the bad things humanity has ever done to this planet. Not because there aren't any redwoods any more, but because there aren't any dodos anymore, as there soon isn't going to be any pandas or oil for that matter, and nobody cares as long as there still is some for tomorrow.. \n Yeah, I'm eco-hippy, apparently. Please heckle me and tell me how you own a SUV and like driving over small animals on the freeway.. \n *And 100 years ago the extinction of horses as animals that had outlived their usefulness was often forecasted! When that picture was taken, the destruction of redwoods was also forecasted and seen as unavoidable, something not to be grieved over."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "It could well be true. As I understand, shared custody is the norm these days. \n Much depends on how the article ended with this particular number. Are married couples with children counted? What of common law marriages (as less than half of couples actually marry in Finland)?  What about divorced couples where the children live permanently with one parent but visit their other parent on the weekends? And what about the \"ideal\" situations where children have rooms with both parents and split time 50/50 between them (these have started to get more popular during the recent years). \n And are children where one parent is dead excluded? You can never be sure. \n However; of the divorced couples, only 4% go to court over children. We may assume that the large majority of 96% would decide upon shared custody, and that most of those 4% would be opposed to such arrangement. Some wouldn't, but most would. AND AS IT HAPPENS, 96% is very close to 95,2% given in the article.", "id": "c7o7stj", "summary": "I believe that the number is correct, under certain conditions. \n EDIT: According to  Statistics Finland ."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "We are living on the  Common Era \n You must also realize that \"the year 0\" (actually \"year 1\", as 0 was yet to be invented) isn't actually the year Jesus was born (that is, if he even existed at all) and was chosen pretty arbitrary as well.  This post . \n The day was chosen because pagans celebrated around that day the shortest day of the year and turning the meaning of holiday was easier than just outright banning it. Also; people didn't actually think that the date of Jesus' birth would be that important (remember that while we are counting from Jesus' birth, year doesn't change on 25th of December, even though this would have been easy enough to arrange by moving few fences). The calendar we are using is actually the Roman calendar - we just replaced the Emperor's reign (\"the fourth year of the reign of Julius Ceasar\") with Jesus (\"the 2012th year of the reign of our Lord, the Christ\").", "id": "c5rwvy5", "summary": "We are using the Roman calendar with some software patches, just instead of starting from zero each time an Emperor dies, we are counting from some arbitrary date and call it the Common Era (CE) and the time before CE Before Common Era (BCE). \n EDIT: Some clarifications."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "All the places I've been to the post boxes have been situated in places through which people walk past regularly or spend time at. Plazas, next to (outside of) mall/store entrances, on front of post offices, on train stations etc. \n The only things I can think that you can do while sitting in a car is having your car washed and buying hamburgers from McDonalds. In effect, it doesn't matter if you come somewhere with bus, train, bike or car, you still get the same experience. \n Few things you have to realise of car use in Europe; our cities are built more tightly and land is way more expensive - building one parking spot on the ground (that is, laying asphalt on virgin ground) costs somewhere between 20 000 - 100 000 euros depending where you are. Building something to be \"easily accessible by cars\" compared to by public transport/walking/bikes means a huge expenses. Even if the company might be ready to sink that kind of money (think; ten customers at the same time means you need ten spaces; that is 200 000 - 1 000 000 euros more in start capital), the city might not want you levelling some 300 year old building for a parking lot. \n Some big places built their things outside city limits (such as IKEA) but even then, city might see this as against landing zones (it's hard to have effective public transport if places are far from each other). \n The end result is that people are accustomed to walking a kilometre to the place where the car is stored, drive somewhere and then walk two kilometres to the place where they actually want to go. At that point, you might just walk to the nearest store instead. Or take public transport directly to the destination.", "id": "c7aha38", "summary": "Not that many people own cars, and those who do drive less. This shows in the way how things are planned."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "Not having done much research on the subject, but the guide isn't exactly the youngest person and probably not doing continuous research on the subject. He went on to talk about 70s and 80s being depressing, so I didn't get the impression he was that well caught with modern day. \n The suicide rate of Finland has been falling down 20 years non-stop (from 550 in 1994 to about 200 in 2010). All other things being equal, with 550 we could get the second billing on the modern list you provided. Apparently Lithuanian suicides are mostly (accoarding to Yahoo Answers, so take with a pinch of salt) mostly discriminated Russians who have it bad in the free nation, so I suspect their rate has been getting higher as Soviet Union goes farther back into history. \n The guy also said \"Helsinki\", not \"Finland\", so it might be that the suicide-rate used to be even higher in the capital than on the countryside. I'm a bit iffy about it, as there are those places where people travel to do suicides at. Surely they have higher per capita rates?", "id": "c4onx63", "summary": "It may be that Finland used to have the top #1 spot in early 1990s and the guy hasn't kept up with the times."}, {"author": "Eilinen", "content": "Growth is and always will be important.\n> Real growth is always important for an economy. \n You must define what counts as \"real growth\". \n If, for example, we go from a situation where housewives do housework to a situation where wives get hired as cleaners somewhere else, the economy grows but no additional value is created. The same thing happens if you have a national park with a lot of forests - economically it has no value, if you remove the protection and cut the forest down and sell as timber/paper, then it suddenly HAS value, not counting that the park may have had use for people as relaxation, something they now have to replace with something else (eg. to go to some place farther away (costs more) or to go to theatre instead (again, costs)). \n As such, it's possible to create a situation where economy decreases but people stay happy (or even become happier). \n Also, I must question your priorities in this quote: \n >I think you would be hard-pressed to find an economist that believes technological development and productivity would be bad for an economy by displacing too many workers. Politicians try to pull this card, but I don't know any economists that would buy it. \n What's the priority? Is it for the economy to grow or for people to have the highest possible standard of living? Politicians are supposed to look after their electoral while economists are supposed to look after growing economy. It's very bad form to say that politicians should have to justify their views to economists which either allow/disallow it based on how it affects economy. On the contrary, politician should do what what it's good for the electoral. Sometimes (often!) this means looking for economic growth, but it might also mean spurning it (such as when you set aside forests as national parks or refuse a fracking operation near housing areas). \n TO ANSWER OP: \n Your question could have been divided better. There's stuff there like lowering population which affects as relating to retired people as percentage of the population as well as national GDP vs. GDP divided by population (can't remember the English word). Also scarce resources mean that we may be paying more for something essential while not actually getting any more out of it (eg. housing being warmed by oil - we get same amount of warmth out of it than 15 years ago but it costs a lot more). Switching to home-grown wood might be cheaper and being as good but as it's less expensive this shows negatively in the economy. \n So, economy itself is an indicator, nor absolute measurement of things being good/bad. \n On unemployment:  factories will have more and more robots, they will need less humans. There will be other professions that will also vanish (such as some cleaners being replaced by roombas etc). On the other hand, there people don't like being idle and will find something else to do. 200 years ago most of the population gained their living from farming; now it's five percent (where I live). At best industry hired half the population; now it's like 20 percent and descending. Instead we have now a large service sector. \n It is said that back in the day Henry Ford increased his employees wages and lowered the price of the T-model so that there would be people who could buy his products. In some manner, this will happen again. Hundred years ago a good overcoat cost as much as the most expensive iPhone today. Today overcoats of same quality can be bough much cheaper and in hundred years the technical equivalent of iPhone will be similarly cheap as well. The remaining industry workers will get higher salaries that they will dispense in the local economy, bringing many of the same advantages as when the factory hired more people (of course, this \"trickle-down\" only works to a certain level, but it's a partial solution further helped by taxation etc). \n People will get capital to get what they need someway. National economy is an ecosystem and unemployed people are a vacuum: and as we know, ecosystems abhor vacuums. Certain amount of unemployment is needed for our capitalist system to work but after that limit they become a hinderance and something will happen. One guess might be that a large unemployed force would vote for higher taxation on factories and the employed to create new positions through regulations, to extend public sector or to subsidise private sector self-employment. \n We have examples how government has solved situations like this in the past from all around Europe concentrating on different methods. These would all affect economy (as everything that involves money does). \n The bigger problem is that the change doesn't happen at the same pace: if it would, this would all be relatively easy. But because the world moves on different paces and each pace has their own pros and cons, we have problems like factories (also other parts of the economy) moving from place to place to enjoy from high technical knowhow while at the same time staying in places where the general unemployment is high enough that the workforce is cheap: but if the unemployment rises too high, then government will start to rise taxes to take this into account. In effect, they will try to find the \"snapping point\" just before the state intervenes.", "id": "cg3vnip", "summary": "Economy\" just means that money changes hands. If we start to count something money it affects economy even though it isn't \"real\" work. This is why we have \"expensive\" and \"cheap\" countries to visit as tourists. \n Also, sorry if the text is a bit clunky. I am not accustomed to talking of this stuff in English.. yet."}]}
+{"author": "BinaryMn", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post people are the problem.", "output": "I view her as a rather clueless person, innocent in the death of this teacher, feels remorse for what happened (probably because it was her car that ran the teacher over), and wants to make the situation right by trying to reason with everyone blaming her. \n The radio is the first place to go, but unfortunately, she's thinking people can be reasoned with. Look at how people are reacting to me here after I've explained all this. Even though I'm right, people don't care and still want to blame her, some even believing that she's still responsible."}], "user_id": "longlamp_837", "history": [{"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "So everything must be about Rochester only in this group? \n Usually, no. However, you've made it a habit of posting WXXI press releases in this subreddit and to be frank, have annoyed the hell out of most of the people that follow this subreddit, especially /u/kevan. \n I can't say I blame him for calling you out. Perhaps for your own sake, you should stop submitting things to this subreddit for awhile. Or, if there is something you HAVE to submit that you feel that we should all read and is related to Rochester in some way  (and isn't on the wxxi.org domain) , post it using a different account.", "id": "cd8fpq2", "summary": "your account has repeatedly submitted what most consider spam and created a negative reputation."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "I work for Blackboard. Yes, that Blackboard. I deal directly with the DBAs, system administrators, application analysts, etc ranging from a variety of issues and/or questions about Blackboard Learn or our old (soon to be entirely unsupported in a few months) CE/Vista. \n Like all jobs like this, we have our \"problem clients\". We're aware of who they are and just deal with it. Most of them aren't too bad -- they're just known for being obnoxiously thick. However, every now and again, we'll have an overly rude client open a case. \n Unfortunately, being impatient and rude for a rather unimportant issue (as in, a question about our product) does not allow me to refuse to help the client. I'm still required to provide an update of some sort at least one response every 24 hours. However, for me to \"accurately understand the issue being experienced\", I'm well within my right to ask for any log files that I think that might be relevant to the case. \n When I have to deal with an asshole client, in no specific pattern, will draw the case out as long as possible by: \n \n Requesting near every log I can justify as \"relevant\" \n All configuration files I can justify as \"relevant\" \n Requesting logs from a specific time period, usually all logs over the last week \n *insert additional inane requests that can be justified as \"relevant\"* \n Updating the case once every 24 hours, with broad responses like \"I'm still researching the cause of this issue and....\" \n \n Of course, there's always some exceptions -- like higher severity issues involving an entire environment being down/database tablespaces out of space/etc. Even if I can fix it, I'll determine the problem and get any required logs from the client and throw it on up to our Tier 2 team, mainly because they have more lenience in telling a client to shut up and go pound salt.", "id": "c6v8k3i", "summary": "don't be rude to people answering a question for you or fixing something that broke if you want a quick resolution."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "I wish it was. \n long-winded story below: \n UPDATE (for visibility): I was given the green light. The fabled video I keep referring to [exists]( \n I expect he wrote it because he was giving me shit about having pepper spray and a pocket knife after manhandling me and taking the knife and pepper spray away from me (which I can understand his initial attitude given his position, but my beef is with how he was acting once I wasn't a threat anymore). \n I stood my ground on this and explained that it isn't a crime nor a reason to detain me. After a back and forth pissing match about unlawful arrest and detention, another officer explained they got a report of someone fitting my description had been causing trouble over at Frontier Field. \n I hadn't been over there all day and they eventually figured it out I wasn't the  droids  person they were looking for, but Officer Asshole still found something to write me a ticket for, then tried justifying that he was just doing his job. \n I ended up getting some nice video of this guy being a grade A jackass after telling him that having a knife and pepper spray isn't a crime and I might end up putting it on youtube. I want to get the professional opinion of my lawyer before I do that first.", "id": "c9ahp8n", "summary": "officer asshole couldn't find that I was doing, had done anything, or possessed anything illegal so he wrote me a ticket for the only thing he could think of \n P.S. he had to give me my knife and pepper spray back. \n EDIT: I left out the biggest gripe I have. The jackass somehow managed to lose my license when he took it. I'm going to try getting the city to pay for the replacement, but I'm not getting my hopes up in the least."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "Laws are not equally universal and absolute, contrary to your extremely skewed view. As it has been explained to you more than once, disobeying an officer is neither a crime nor justification for what happened here. Even if the act of waiting for a bus is enough to satisfy the statues for all four or so of the \"crimes\" they were charged with,  it still does not justify arresting three kids waiting for a bus to a basketball game .", "id": "cdt27i2", "summary": "shut up."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "I show up to work 15 minutes late and my boss doesn't give a fuck because he knows I'll stay 15 minutes or more past my shift to make up for being late. I've had past bosses that throw a fit over a single minute and that's when I promptly turn in my two weeks notice and warn people to never work there. \n Unless you have a salary with benefits, you aren't being paid enough to be 15 minutes early like some people are saying, nor are you paid enough to be exactly on time every day all 52 weeks of the year that you're scheduled to work. Any type of manager that would fire someone over 32 seconds (which is something you could file a complaint with the Department of Labor over) is a pathetic excuse of a human being.", "id": "c68an9y", "summary": "Unless you work in a restaurant/diner/retail, never work for someone that's anal about being on time to the second (or minute). If you're one of those people, pull the stick out your ass. You're one of those people that no one really likes."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "I see no other comments. \n As far as your question goes, it really depends on what you're looking to do. Murphy's Law and all the nearby Irish pubs on East Ave and Monroe are going to be packed and full of drunken idiots. Tap and Mallet isn't Irish, but is usually pretty full, keeps a good vibe without having too much drunken stupidity. \n Even though it's a British pub, The Old Toad'll probably get a pretty good in flux too.", "id": "c41xud9", "summary": "if you're looking for drinks and loud stupid drunk people, go to murphy's law. if you're looking for drinks and less stupid drunk people, try tap and mallet or the old toad."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "As an all season cyclist (in NY and not DC), I must point out that bicycles (excluding e-bikes) don't have giant freaking motors attached to them. \n It's one thing to mindlessly blow a stop light or stop sign, but if I'm slowly approaching either and they're is clearly no oncoming traffic, I'm not going to come to a complete stop out of principal when I have to get that momentum going again -- unlike a car who just has to hit the gas pedal and not break a sweat.", "id": "ca11use", "summary": "don't hate on us cyclists because we don't like stopping if we don't have to."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "That isn't exactly true. Blackboard is good at buying out it's competition and integrating code and patents from the products it acquires into it's flagship product -- Blackboard Learn -- however, there is still  a lot of competition  and Drupal just announced an LMS module coming out in 2013 that I don't believe is on that list yet. While Blackboard is definitely expensive, what keeps it ahead of the competition is it's 24/7 support phone and online support. In all honesty, when a Blackboard environment goes down, more often than not is it a fault of Blackboard, but a problem with the hardware it is being run on, or general incompetence of the admin maintaining it ^1 . \n Moving on, Blackboard is not the evil company that crushes every product that could compete with them and leaves their code out to rot. WebCT -- which was initially invented by a professor at UBC -- served as the basis of what is called CE/Vista, a product that Blackboard created, maintained, and supported for  several  years. It will reach end of life come January 2013 which is really because it's outdated and limited. It's intended purpose has outgrown what is the current standard of what is expected in a large scale LMS. \n The bug your referring to is incorrectly described. Let me clarify. About 3/4ths of Blackboard Learn is written in Java. That being said, Java, by nature,  is  a virtual machine (referred to as a Java Virtual Machine, which processes something called Java bytecode), so comparing how normal file permissions are handled in an operating system to how Blackboard works is as inane as comparing an orange to a banana because they're both fruit. Now, with that clarification, the bug was (unexpectedly) creating an additional Java thread to handle the file permission changes and not ending the thread afterwards. It required specific conditions to be met for this to happen, so not everyone was mindlessly suffering from it.", "id": "c7f8f5j", "summary": "Blackboard drives LMS development (where do you think Moodle and Sakai have gotten their ideas from) and sets the standard for what is expected in a modern day LMS. They write far better code than given credit for. \n ^1 Personal experience that I'm not at liberty to detail."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "I'm not supporting her. She definitely fucked up. \n All I'm doing is making sure she's not vilified for the death of this teacher when it's solely on the boyfriend's hands. People are hating on her simply because plowing into her ultimately killed her and forgetting that the teacher was thrown into the road by the guy on the motorcycle. \n Any one of us could've been driving that SUV, sober. You're still going to travel several hundred feet before you come to a complete stop, and that's not including reaction time (at the early hours of the morning, who's expecting a cyclist is going to be flung into the road in front of you while you're going 55 at minimum), how well your brakes work (I know the brakes on my dad's Ford Ranger stop his truck faster than the brakes on my Subaru), and the overall weight of the vehicle.", "id": "c5m526e", "summary": "Even if this girl was sober and driving safe with a license, she wouldn't have been able to stop fast enough based on the recreation of this accident. None of would have, even myself."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "I've been getting downvoted in this subreddit for the last several weeks for sharing my opinion. I've even being attacked by people I know in real life (who haven't said a thing to my face). \n The internet gives people a false sense of superiority, courage, and backbone. It's quite rampant, especially here. No one here has the backbone to talk to me in real life the same way they do here. \n I honestly doubt anyone here has the audacity to talk to you the same way in person as they do here, given your reputation.", "id": "c46ehzx", "summary": "people don't think they're accountable for what they say on the internet."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "The call/commission based jobs at Sutherland aside, the tech based ones (e.g. Blackboard, Cisco, etc.) have little turnover and are practically tenure. \n The only downside is they underpay (generally no more than $15 to start), but it pads your resume and as far as I know, many people take classes on EdX/Coursera/Codeacademy during down time or go on to work for the client directly \n Source: I worked for Blackboard for over a year up until December of last year. I landed a promotion three months after my year anniversary, was able to work from home for about four or five months while I was unable to drive due to a broken ankle, and I left for another job. I was interviewed for two different positions with Blackboard directly while I was there.", "id": "cgauscl", "summary": "Sutherland's reputation comes from many shitty experiences on call center/commission based jobs. It's not all bad."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "Wait you can indict someone for \n No. I cannot. A DA can. \n >being with the person last \n Yes. \n A common definition is \"a reasonable amount of suspicion, supported by circumstances sufficiently strong to justify a prudent and cautious person's belief that certain facts are probably true\". \n >if they are from out of state \n Even more so. It strengthens the argument of probable cause. \n >You don't have to have any type of solid evidence \n No, an officer does not need any solid evidence to arrest you for anything, nor does a DA need any to indict you. \n >or probable evidence \n This is not a proper term. I'm not exactly sure what you're asking, but in short, to be accused of a crime, law enforcement officers do not need evidence of a crime to arrest you, regardless of a felony or misdemeanor. All they need is either: \n 1). Probable cause, or; \n 2). Their own sworn statement accusing you of a crime \n Afterwards, the DA's office has the option of not prosecuting the case, effectively dropping the charges. Judges also reserve the right to throw cases out, but criminal cases are rarely thrown out. Even when there is clear evidence the accused crime was not committed. Plea deals are offered where a person pleas guilty to to a considerably lesser crime so ultimately, a guilty verdict is recorded which translates in to money. \n For example, if you are arrested in Monroe County and pay bail to not stay in jail until your court date, you forfeit 3% of the bail money if you plead to a guilty verdict, even if you take a plea deal for a lesser charge (this is in addition to a $120 surcharge that you'll be sentenced to pay). Simply put, if you pay a $1,000 bail and plead guilty to anything, you will only receive $970 back. \n Remember all this the next time you serve on a jury. It's not about justice. It's about money and politics. Don't believe the word of a law enforcement officer simply because they wear a badge. Unfortunately, law enforcement officers are far more corrupt and lie more than regular citizens.", "id": "c6fby0a", "summary": "you can be arrested, charged, and indicted on probable cause. no hard evidence is required. \n when serving on a jury, make your decision based on hard evidence. not based on the smooth talking of lawyers. \n Lastly, IANAL."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "Gore-tex winter coat and pants, wool socks, waterpoof gloves, winter boots guaranteed to -10°F, and a balaclava for windy days. If I'm walking to a bar by my house and it's just cold but not shitty out, I go with jeans with wool long johns underneath, wool socks, the boots, gloves, and a fitted Chesterfield winter coat on. \n You can find considerably cheaper clothing looking for non gore-tex fabric (i.e. nylon), but gore-tex is the best.", "id": "cj6263u", "summary": "wool undergarments are cheap and make a huge difference \n Source: I'm an all season cyclist."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "First off, don't talk to me like you're some superior intellectual scholar that has to have cited sources for a counter argument to be valid. More to the point, I'd contemplate giving you a good beating if you acted like this racist and passive-aggressive asshole in real life. The next time you have a smartass remark, go choke on a dick. This has nothing to do with what I consider morally right, though, your racist opinions are morally wrong. It doesn't take a study to know that or understand why. \n Two, you're arguing intelligence as a capacity, essentially IQ, which there are no definitive studies. The closest is [this]( which is a HYPOTHESIS and the correlation is minimal. There is hard evidence and [studies]( behind intelligence, or lack of it, as a cause in youth violence, amongst other things, regardless of skin color. Factors that all stem back to lack of education and intelligence, which are unfortunately common in black families. All these factors essentially turn into this vicious, almost inescapable cycle, but  I'm not going to dig up links to all the studies. You have fingers. You can look them up. While you're at it, where are your facts that black people are less intelligent than white people? \n The previous article I linked to DOES have cited sources to where this stereotype that black people are less intelligent than white people came from, but you're really dead set on believing that black people are less intelligent than white people and that it's scientifically provable. Nothing about this is hilarious. You, however, are fucking pathetic. You actually believe that black people are inherently less intelligent than white people and dismiss conflicting information as being politically correct. \n I hope one day that someone gives you the beating you deserve for being such a pathetic fucking excuse for a human being.", "id": "c8vrmv8", "summary": "if somehow, in an alternate universe where every event that has happened to me in this universe also occurred in this alternate universe, but my alternate self was a black man, my alternate self would be a non-violent, educated black man. As I said, the problem is racism. People treat people differently because of their skin color."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "The hive mind in this subreddit continually downvote me, even when I'm right. It's made up of many intellectually stupid and petty people, so votes here are an indication of popularity and nothing else. \n nathos' comment was something along the lines of \"because she's black\". That was sarcastic. It's not because she's black. Her race has nothing to do with her ability to perform her job. The comment is drawing attention to the fact people are judging her because of her race. I think he's a little extreme in calling everyone racist, but he is no more an authority in Rochester politics than anyone else bitching about her.", "id": "cepit1n", "summary": "it is sarcasm. Stop arguing this."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "I have a Raleigh c30 hybrid that I got off Craigslist for dirt cheap. Mind you, it was in horrible condition when I bought it. I've put in a lot of work into it and it's a pretty reliable bike. I'll easily rack up about 50 - 100 miles in a week on it commuting on a regular basis. \n Right now, I have a back rack and a 12x12 milk carton bolted to the rack with U clamps and a piece of 12x12x.5 wood. In the near future, I plan on bolting two hinges to the milk carton with a 13x13 piece of wood as a cover to keep rain out. I'll be using tarp or something equivalent to keep water from getting in on the sides. It also makes it pretty theft proof as long as my bike is in a public area. \n However, my real question is this. I have one of [these]( Unfortunately, it's not as rugged as advertised and there's small holes on two of the three pockets that I'm going to fix by sewing some stronger material over those pockets, but I digress. I keep this bag wedged between the carton and under the seat. The seat holds it in pretty well. I keep a lot of equipment in it, some of it expensive and irreplaceable. I bring it with me and don't leave it on my bike, but I need to make it waterproof/water resistant so if I'm caught in either a light shower or heavy downpour, nothing inside will get wet.", "id": "t3_jib7b", "summary": "it's raining more and I try riding my bike as much as possible because gas is expensive and I'm broke. What is the best way to waterproof [this]( bag?"}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "So, a quick background. I work for an after school non-profit. I'm the network administrator/tech person/miracle worker/etc. I maintain the \"network\" and all of it's computers. \n Since it's a non-profit and I'm still in school, I'm ridiculously underpaid, but it's a good company and they're flexible. However, I've had this recent idea to try making the industry minimum by using all of these \"computer lab\" PCs for bitcoin mining. \n All of them (with the exception of two in the library) are about 5 to 10 years old. I have room for about 17 computers in this lab (possibly 20) and due to some law of the universe where elementary, middle school, and high school age kids somehow manage to break computers just by being near them, I have about 12 working. When I first got the job, most/all of them were full of malware and spyware, some running unlicensed copies of XP Pro so I have Ubuntu 10.04 on them. I'll be in the process of upgrading them over this week and next week. \n The majority of the computers are these donated HP desktops that are dual-core P4s @ 2.5 GHz. The video cards are GeForce MX 440s (8x AGP). About four are Dell Optiplexes: single core P4s at 2.5 GHz with ATI Rage 128 Pros. The two library computers have integrated Intel GPUs and Pentium dual-core E200s. \n Since I doubt I can do GPU mining, I was thinking about CPU mining. One core throughout the day from 11am - 8pm and from 8pm to 11am, these computers are working as hard as they can. I can write a few scripts and set up cron to do this for me. I was reading up on MMP (Multiminer Protocol) and have a computer in the \"office\" I can use as a server, then all the computers could run ufasoft and talk to the MMP server via JSON RPC unless there's a CPU miner that speaks MMP. \n Has anyone done anything like this before? Does anyone have any advice? Is there a better way to do this? I spent most of yesterday reading up on bitcoin, bitcoin mining, etc. Still learning so if something I said doesn't add up, that's why.", "id": "t3_i0hpe", "summary": "what's the best way to set up a private pool of 12 average-end desktops in a LAN for cpu mining?"}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "So, a quick background. I work for an after school non-profit. I'm the network administrator/tech person/miracle worker/etc. I maintain the \"network\" and all of it's computers. \n Since it's a non-profit and I'm still in school, I'm ridiculously underpaid, but it's a good company and they're flexible. However, I've had this recent idea to try making the industry minimum by using all of these \"computer lab\" PCs for bitcoin mining. \n All of them (with the exception of two in the library) are about 5 to 10 years old. I have room for about 17 computers in this lab (possibly 20) and due to some law of the universe where elementary, middle school, and high school age kids somehow manage to break computers just by being near them, I have about 12 working. When I first got the job, most/all of them were full of malware and spyware, some running unlicensed copies of XP Pro so I have Ubuntu 10.04 on them. I'll be in the process of upgrading them over this week and next week. \n The majority of the computers are these donated HP desktops that are dual-core P4s @ 2.5 GHz. The video cards are GeForce MX 440s (8x AGP). About four are Dell Optiplexes: single core P4s at 2.5 GHz with ATI Rage 128 Pros. The two library computers have integrated Intel GPUs and Pentium dual-core E200s. \n Since I doubt I can do GPU mining, I was thinking about CPU mining. One core throughout the day from 11am - 8pm and from 8pm to 11am, these computers are working as hard as they can. I can write a few scripts and set up cron to do this for me. I was reading up on MMP (Multiminer Protocol) and have a computer in the \"office\" I can use as a server, then all the computers could run ufasoft and talk to the MMP server via JSON RPC unless there's a CPU miner that speaks MMP. \n Has anyone done anything like this before? Does anyone have any advice? Is there a better way to do this? I spent most of yesterday reading up on bitcoin, bitcoin mining, etc. Still learning so if something I said doesn't add up, that's why. \n P.S. Posting this year since I haven't gotten any attention from /r/Bitcoin.", "id": "t3_i0pny", "summary": "what's the best way to set up a private pool of 12 average-end desktops in a LAN for cpu mining?"}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "Today, I had a freshman student new to the area (and likely, new to the country) approach me as I was getting off my bike in front of Gleason Hall. He had recently bought a new bike and it had come outside to find that it had been stolen and was completely aghast. I just happened to be the first person on a bike he saw and he wanted answers. \n I quickly found out that the student had locked his bike up with a simple cable lock and gave him a good 10 minute explanation and demonstration on why you never want to use a cable lock and to invest in a u-lock. Then I called public safety since he had the paperwork from the store he bought the bike from with the model and serial number, but I digress. \n I'm writing this for everyone here for two reasons: \n \n I've seen a few other threads here about stolen bikes lately \n I could have cut every single bike loose off the rack his bike had been locked to with a pair of bolt cutters in less than a half hour \n \n Seriously, not one bike was locked up with a u-lock and almost every bike had quick releases on both rims. Even worse, almost every bike was locked up by the frame. Any idiot could make over a $100 by swiping all theses unlocked rims in less than a half hour. \n So, let me begin. \n \n Lesson number one.  Buy a u-lock! Do not use a cable lock. \n \n Cable locks keep honest people from running away with your bike. I'm not joking. If you don't believe me, go buy a pair of bolt cutters and try cutting your lock with them. If you can break it, what's stopping any other person with a pair of bolt cutters? \n \n Lesson number two.  Lock your bike up correctly! \n \n I took these at random unnamed racks located on the campus after campus safety showed up to take a report from the student that had his bike stolen. I'm not trying to be a dick, but [this]( [is]( [pathetic]( If you're going to use a cable lock, don't be an idiot -- especially if you have quick releases. RUN THAT CABLE THROUGH THE RIM AND FRAME! \n \n Lesson number three.  How to properly lock a bike! \n \n For starters, you need a u-lock, but there's more. Never EVER just lock the bike through the top tube. Lock the back from to the frame and lock it to a bike rack or pole like [this]( And if you have quick release skewers, [replace them with bolts]( \n If you have a bike, go get it right now and flip it upside down. There's a serial number stamped into the bottom of the bottom bracket shell. Take a picture and e-mail it to yourself. If it's ever stolen, file a police report and contact campus security. I'm also pretty sure that RIT will register your bike for you for free, otherwise it's $10. \n Another thing to know is that there's a bicycle co-op downtown called R Community Bikes. If you show up on one of the days their open to the public, you can get a free bike if you have a police report. It won't be brand new, but at least it'll be a working bike.", "id": "t3_1123c9", "summary": "Don't use a cable lock. Buy a u-lock. Don't lock your bike up like an idiot. \n If any students that know of any other specific campus resources, please post them here. Also, one last thing. \n If you're reading this and have a friend with a bike that locks it up with a cable lock, give them an earful and tell them to buy a u-lock."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "Long story short, I have a roommate that keeps selling and smoking weed and has been using the attic as his own sort of personal party room. Every time we've approached him, his explanation is that we can come up to/use the attic anytime, but the room is littered with empty beer bottles, cigarette butts, and weed ashes, not to mention he keeps fucking his girlfriend at random up there. So no, we can't go up there any time. \n His lease ended last month and the landlord has been extremely patient in letting him stay longer to find another place due to his lease ending around the time his finals ended. He has financial support from his father and could easily stay with them until he finds a place, but I digress. \n I'm also in the process of moving out and historically, the attic is used to store stuff in, with stuff already being in it. Some stuff I'm selling and I can't bring people up there in the condition that it's in. Am I breaking some law by cleaning the attic out and putting any personal effects in a box for him? There was a bit of a confrontation/intervention a couple weeks ago where I told him he needs to start cleaning his shit out of the attic and he starting going on about me moving his stuff being illegal, but this is the same guy that started citing the Constitution when I put my foot in his doorway so he couldn't shut his door in my face. Just doing my due diligence before I do anything.", "id": "t3_2skblc", "summary": "roommate has a bunch of shit in a public/common room and won't move it. can I clean it and box his shit up without breaking any laws?"}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "DERP: I just noticed I a word in the title. My bad. It's supposed to read  Ticket me for   not   having a bell on my bike? Enjoy getting the shit scared out of you. \n I don't think I posted this back when it happened, but I digress. \n Back in March, I was out riding my bike during a fairly nice day weather wise. It was a month after I had been hit by a taxi and I was still in a cast and had crutches strapped to the side of my bike. At one point while I was stopped on the side of the road and checking my bike, I had an officer pull up, get out of his car, and aggressively tell me to get off my bike. \n Long story short, a nearby parking garage (that I hadn't been anywhere near the whole day) reported a \"white male wearing a black shirt acting suspicious\" and I just happened to be in the area on a bike that fit the description, regardless that I was in a BRIGHT RED CAST with crutches strapped to the side of my bike -- none of which was reported in the description of this \"white male\". This officer was being a real dick, giving me a hard time for carrying pepper spray and a pocket knife which are completely legal to possess. After a half hour being detained under \"reasonable suspicion\" and having two other officers show up to explain that the knife and pepper spray are legal to own, I'm given a ticket for not having a bell on my bike because I bruised this officer's ego after repeatedly telling him that the knife and pepper spray are not a crime and possessing them doesn't give him grounds to act like a jackass towards me. \n Anyways, a month or two passes by. The day before I'm supposed to be in court, I'm out biking and see this same guy giving two skateboarders a hard time. Weeks ago, I had bought this obnoxious air horn intended for bike use. I did a quick u-turn as started coming down the road behind this jackass and as he's walking back to his car, I let this horn rip. It was so loud and sudden, the jackass visibly jumped in the air. Then he immediately tried chasing me. I went into a skid and turned sharply down a side road, ducked into a parking garage, went up a pedestrian walk way, and went into a nearby coffeeshop that I frequent with my bike and lost him.", "id": "t3_1s3eg3", "summary": "Officer Jackass gives me a ticket for not having a bell on a bike. I buy an air horn and scare the shit out of him a month or two later. \n EDIT:  OP delivers  and nothing overly damning happened him. That and the wind made it real hard to understand what was being said."}, {"author": "BinaryMn", "content": "I was asked to crosspost this]( mainly because I ended up delivering with a video I took. I'm just going to copy/paste the original. \n \n Back in March, I was out riding my bike during a fairly nice day weather wise. It was a month after I had been hit by a taxi and I was still in a cast and had crutches strapped to the side of my bike. At one point while I was stopped on the side of the road and checking my bike, I had an officer pull up, get out of his car, and aggressively tell me to get off my bike. \n Long story short, a nearby parking garage (that I hadn't been anywhere near the whole day) reported a \"white male wearing a black shirt acting suspicious\" and I just happened to be in the area on a bike that fit the description, regardless that I was in a BRIGHT RED CAST with crutches strapped to the side of my bike -- none of which was reported in the description of this \"white male\". This officer was being a real dick, giving me a hard time for carrying pepper spray and a pocket knife which are completely legal to possess. After a half hour being detained under \"reasonable suspicion\" and having two other officers show up to explain that the knife and pepper spray are legal to own, I'm given a ticket for not having a bell on my bike because I bruised this officer's ego after repeatedly telling him that the knife and pepper spray are not a crime and possessing them doesn't give him grounds to act like a jackass towards me. \n Anyways, a month or two passes by. The day before I'm supposed to be in court, I'm out biking and see this same guy giving two skateboarders a hard time. Weeks ago, I had bought this obnoxious air horn intended for bike use. I did a quick u-turn as started coming down the road behind this jackass and as he's walking back to his car, I let this horn rip. It was so loud and sudden, the jackass visibly jumped in the air. Then he immediately tried chasing me. I went into a skid and turned sharply down a side road, ducked into a parking garage, went up a pedestrian walk way, and went into a nearby coffeeshop that I frequent with my bike and lost him.", "id": "t3_1s4pnl", "summary": "Officer Jackass gives me a ticket for not having a bell on a bike. I buy an air horn and scare the shit out of him a month or two later. \n EDIT:  OP delivers  and nothing overly damning happened him. That and the wind made it real hard to understand what was being said. \n [Picture of the ticket]("}]}
+{"author": "spotter", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Miguel is obviously sucking up to Apple now, that he's over Microsoft. /s", "output": "I always laugh at \"year of Linux desktop\" japes and I've been using Linux as my primary OS for years now, single boot, baby. It's always particularly funny, because there is no such thing as \"linux desktop\", there are only attempts and patch-up-jobs, no offence to Ubuntu and Fedora communities. I'm here for the freedom, but because of this freedom we will never be mainstream -- there is still no \"Joe Sixpack experience\" guaranteed anywhere. We lost that niche some time ago and now Linux is catering to industries (TVs, set top boxes, phones, tosters, cars, post-big-iron servers), so nobody cares about the freeloaders... erm... desktop people. And yet if you want freedom then you can only go to one of free BSDs, which will not give better desktop experience, will it."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Big stick is good to have, but speaking softly is also required.", "output": "You're not really rational unless in some special spectrum of autism. Even then - not being destructive in your natural environment seems pretty rational. People are really easy to damage, even unintentionally, and sometimes impossible to fix. We're not simple objects, we're complicate systems with fuzzy bullshit stacks built in, and everything we can communicate is a bunch of approximations."}], "user_id": "longlamp_14838", "history": [{"author": "spotter", "content": "JVM, the goliath, was/is tuned for high performance and portability (YMMV). They've got a good JIT, GC that doesn't suck is on its way (G1), there is cool threading support and languages other than Java might get some love from the JVM too. It was heavily researched, because in the past it sucked when it comes to the performance, but now it really shines. And there are specialized, proprietary VMs that do even cooler stuff (running on patched os). Not to mention the myriad of libraries written in Java that can be utilized on JVM to do almost anything. And you can do that in Scala or Clojure or Jython or whatever, you get the idea. [s] Most important: it's Oracle, which makes it even more pro. [/s] \n CPython VM, on the other hand, is a byte-code interpreter, that was designed to be simple, portable and run Python. It's written in C, has simpler GC, it uses posix threads, but Global Interpreter Lock makes treading act weirdly; extending can be done in C, in which you need to do a lot of book keeping yourself, then you need to compile against all Python versions you want to support. There is of course Cython, but I have not used that. CPython is still orders of magnitude slower than C, unladen-swallow is not even mentioned anymore, so it looks like there is nothing more that can be done. There is work done on PyPy that can make CPython look really, really bad in few years (now it just makes it look bad), but it seems that CPython will stay the reference implementation. \n Disclaimer: I adore Python, I respect JVM. Everything above is MHO and I welcome any corrections.", "id": "c1ws5um", "summary": "Millions of dollars in R&D."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "No, actually I always bait people who try to ,,discuss'' things the way you do, silly troll. The sad truth is that nobody cares about you and your animosity towards either Python's philosophy or developers. When one of them tried to tell you that you are basically talking about changing Python characteristics you went straight into full-retard mode. \n And I was not actually arguing against your technical points -- these are overshadowed by your shitty interpersonal skills to the point of dilution.", "id": "c0r73ug", "summary": "nobody cares about your opinion, because your attitude sucks, cry me a river."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "I actually found that starting with \"It's easy after you learn this trick!\" encourages them and grabs their attention. Because first it positions the problem elsewhere (the obstruction is external to them) and promises something neat (a fricking  trick , man!). Then you just guide them to what needs to be done. The  trick  is the process. Ending \"tadaaa!\" is a bonus, not obligatory. \n Of course this only works for easy things. Saying something hard is easy is in fact a douche move.", "id": "cmg3vdg", "summary": "You too can mentor your disciples through 100 problems a day with this easy hack!"}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Valid point, but still -- isn't it almost as easy to use Python (Django, Flask) or Ruby (on somethings, Sinatra) these days? \n Or even one of multiple libs that exist for JVM via Clojure, Scala or Groovy? Or even Javascript for this virile nodejs ecosystem it has going on? \n I know that hosting PHP is easier and you can probably scam some third world govs by selling them Wordpress for milions of $$$, but is it still worth anybody's time in 2014?", "id": "ck2mzd5", "summary": "Friends don't let friends use PHP (except for monnies). \n edit: thanks for the no-response downvotes. I've worked with PHP 3-5.1 profesonally, then I left and never looked back. I'm not sorry that the hivemind is right on this."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Not understanding how your tools work sucks. Ideally if you need to  use global state you'll initialize it in your program's execution entry point, like  -main . Having things like  (open-global db)  as top level call is a easy way to get memleak/resource leak cancer when you reload your shit.", "id": "cp2t2s8", "summary": "You should contain mutability in your Clojure."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Dude, it's called ,,A Life'', you should get one. In other words: diversify or die. \n Honestly? I learned to program years ago (Logo, then straight to Turbo Pascal) before I even got a personal computer at home. Then I finally got my first box and started with C. Since then I've learned to use semi-efficiently or at least had a romance with most of major programming languages, out of which C and Python stayed with me until now. \n Now I work as IT supporting finance division in a Big Corp, where my best chances to write anything are SQL, VB(A) and maybe even Java someday. I managed to push for and create a small subsystem in Python only (did design, testing, got sign-off's and after a year it's used frequently but has not been approved for moving into production). During my studies and later when I was working I always found time to play with my own creations, shorts scripts to do silly stuff or semi-useful micro-tools. It basically ended this summer. We had a big (mostly non-programming) project going on, it's still  in progress . I was declined vacation from April till now, I've done my fair share of working 70+ a week. As of September I barely turned my private laptop on when I came back home after work. I've started three projects, but let them to rot. Currently I can not find pleasure in doing any coding for myself, as my ambitions are usually set high and time is very-very-limited resource. Right now I am scribbling this comment instead of sleeping (working in another window), so tomorrow I will have to drive few hundred km, fly over next few hundred and then drive for another hundred km to be back home. Where my gf awaits. I also try to read through my book collection and re-read all Pratchett's I gathered (which is nearly all). I bought a guitar lately and I'm trying to learn myself play. I've got an ambitious goal to sample every restaurant in my town. Finally I will ride my car for the kicks. Right now I will do almost everything but computer related stuff in my spare time. I mean, srsly.", "id": "c0e6qhv", "summary": "I love to code, I just want to try different pleasures, because I feel like I've spent my entire life in front of a fucking computer screen. \n Would you hire me? \n (Edit: my English sucks after 14h of work, sorry for the inconvenience. ;-)"}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Or maybe some people can't stand those overly verbose rants, that take an hour to read each and in the end can be summarized, without any information value loss whatsoever, in less than six short sentences? Because some of us try to make it on proggit with very limited time, which is non-renewable resource btw. \n And that is less than six sentences  including  the pun most of the time.", "id": "5ech", "summary": "Life is too short for this, we moved on! \n ( edit: added bold )"}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "No. The problem here is that weapon has a listed, operational ROF, and somehow turbo controller or fast finger can go over that. This is crazy and they never managed to even start working on that as far as I know. \n Also lack of spread for first 30 something bullets on AR that meant no spread for autofire users = WAT. This also applied to larger blasters post last nerf, as far as my turbo friend says.", "id": "ck9qkh0", "summary": "I don't want turbo detection. I want ROF to mean something and spread to be calculated properly."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Actually I think you misread that comment of mine, so here's the dumbed down version, just for you: \n 1) Stallman currently does nothing for FSF except crazy rambling. Most of the time he's just throwing shit at other people. \n 2) De Icanza rocks by actually giving FSF people something, that they can use to make further progress. At the same time he's a dick when confronted. \n 3) I am not joining a cult of any of these false idols. Have your circle-jerk fun without me.", "id": "c0dq4ca", "summary": "Your mom."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "It's not \"a single silly sentence\". It's a quote from Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which is in turn quote from J. D. Salinger's \"Catcher in the Rye\". \"Complex\" segment of the series describes a emergent group similar in (lack of) structure to anonymous, which grows around the event sparked by single hacker, who used said sentence as his motto.", "id": "c1sqfvv", "summary": "Dunno, seems relevant to me."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "If your program is something trivial, that starts and finishes in under a second, logging will help you greatly. If it's a bigger beast it might be better to actually be able to stop it during execution and take a look around. This is what debuggers give you. And don't get me wrong, I love using logs to get a feeling on what's going on, but you can't log everything and with a good breakpoint you can see most of it.", "id": "cngawlf", "summary": "printf s are for printing,  gdb s are for debugging."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "So Marissa Mayer, who famously banned working from home at Yahoo last year, was wrong? \n > It’s not so simple. There are lots of factors that could lead to such a ban, including a culture where remote workers tend to be slacking because of low morale. Also, we were studying call center work, which is easily measured and easily performed remotely. \n I'm not a call center worker, but it seems that half of my open space cohabitants are... add to this that I'm a one-man-team (literally) and I have exactly  nil  functional contacts on site -- both customers and team are spread globally. So yeah, my kitchen makes a better office for  some unknown  reason and I tend not to be in the office when not required to by meetings etc. Which is around once a month. \n On the other hand for last few months I've been hitting managerial meetings (calling in) and I've been struck by how many local managers in my company  ban  remote work for their teams. One guy literally said \"I need to have my  flock  where I can see them at all times\". First thing I did was looking that guy up and making a note of not ever moving there. He literally called his people sheep and sounded like young \"imma manage you so hard\" power-tripper. \n So it all depends on factors, but people who want to get their stuff might be better off without distractions. 100 people open spaces are not work-friendly. If 10% if people are there only to fraternize (there's a space for that, it's called kitchen/lunch room/coffee machine spot) -- they will make it worse for everybody.", "id": "crcw1k2", "summary": "Redditting from office is as easy as redditting from home. :P"}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "But Gimble, rosters were public and so was what they did -- their squad was in the open as well. Their strategy gave them no chance of winning -- any result reached was to be taken away from them. I doubt Caz did not know that, despite the shitstorm on the forums. \n It's like doing a marathon on a moped -- no real chance of winning, even when you're first -- somebody will notice the fucking wheels, right? It makes you look like a douche and leaves a stink, but does not really qualify as cheating. Somehow it exactly like something a frenchie would do, look up Rémi Gaillard. \n Also I'm not saying what they did was OK -- it clearly wasn't. This discussion was caused by me mentioning that I've faced Caz on the field many times since close beta, and he was a good sport, then got told that he's a dirty cheater, because of this one time in the forums, because he brought gungame-wielding-guys into a game that had controlled roosters.", "id": "chjepcu", "summary": "I've done goofed when I cared about what I say on reddit."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "So in the ancient times I had a PS1 and freshly released Gran Turismo. The problem was I just lost my memory card and could not afford another for few weeks... So I've played the game for 10-12 hours straight, switching seats with my brother, getting fully pimped out GTO Twin Turbo and having fun, storing car settings on a piece of paper... only to have it powered off by my parents at night. This happened 5-6 times. I got tired, borrowed some money and got a memcard.", "id": "cjugatq", "summary": "Read the fine manual, man!"}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "I get it, share the sentiment and keep \"Javascript: The Good Parts\" near my bedside. Still, it's damn easy to misread \"==\" as \"===\" when you read code, so I'd rather start with big green thumbs up for === and red flames of ass pain for == on the same slide. It's the only way to be sure.", "id": "cnw0a3h", "summary": "IMHO == is a fucking trip-mine in foreign code."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Exactly. \n But for one of you, the cool heads, I'd still get nine guys telling me their favourite language's name here, before I even finished asking that question. \n And for some reason you too called Java \"weird, lazy choice\" before, prompting me to try this trap. Is it? Java is new COBOL and the de facto standard of the industrial/corporate world. JVM is everywhere and can now be programmed in a bunch of languages, providing nice paradigm cushion and common language runtime (LOL). For these languages Java is the semi-assembly language of the JVM. \n And yeah, there are things that will get you close to metal, will provide decades of math discoveries implemented in very optimized way, or a way to formally prove your program is correct when it compiles, when this is what you need. And indeed, there are also new, exciting things. But there is no shame in Java. Java works and has pretty wide and field-tested library ecosystem, JVM lets you get things done and deliver. It's also present on every box I touch these days. And it's not going away.", "id": "cp9136d", "summary": "I don't think Java is a \"weird, lazy choice\"."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Did that for my PS2 when I bought the TV -- I shelved good money for Sony component cable (only Sony av-comp was available at local media markt). It would look passable on 32\", but 40\" and up you really need to sit far from the screen and keep your eyes half shut. I actually finished RE4 three times like this (switching to 480p in the first screen), could not bring myself to finish MGS3 and instead of buying GC (for Twin Snakes) I just went and got a PS3. After finishing Uncharted 1 & 2 I am slowly thinking about going back to PS2, but daaamn.", "id": "c3jqs4i", "summary": "When games are in 480p (NTSC mode) they look OK and scale nice (RE4 looked just about passable). But PALish 576i is shit that hurts my eyes when displayed on 40\" Samsung LCD. IMHO. :)"}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "This sounds like a cliche, but most importan part is to have fun -- do what floats your boat. I've been running a dedicated support logi full time for a year and did Dropships too (non assault ones back then), that's how much I don't care about KDR. ;-) \n Even now my Gal Sco with little over 200hp is set to avoid confrontation (run the fuck away, circle back, retake), that's how much I don't like gunning. Having said that if I chance upon a sniper or singular prey far from home -- I might try to gank, but only after careful 2 second consideration... and in that time my entire squad sees the target, so usually someone engages first. ;-) \n But if you go lower than 0/5 in pubs then you might need to rethink your strategy.", "id": "chtvkcz", "summary": "Demanding KDR from supports is silly, but try to stay alive."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Can you honestly say they even tried? What I saw was vanilla UE3 prototype thrown together without any special care. Without any in-house specialists. They hired people from Dice and now Legion will have BF-like class system with class locked equipment. They are literally rebooting it for a second time. \n Also. \n Other PS3 games can have good aiming settings, even UE3 ones (Borderlands franchise), but Dust had shitty aiming for over 18 months - it was not a priority, right? Because aiming is not something that needs to be perfect in shooter game, right? \n There was nothing holding PS3 from having EVE market - there was no clue about how to connect the economies so it didn't happen. Or rather CCP never planned on connecting Dust to Eve in the first place. \n There was nothing holding PS3 having USER market - there was no incentive from CCP to implement this, now we know why. \n There was nothing holding PS3 having more content - obviously CCP didn't care and put their resources elsewhere. Procedurally generated maps could run on PS3 as a well as the fixed ones, CCP doesn't have it done on their end so we did not get it. Now we know why -- lobby shooter testing, keep costs down and profits up. \n Typical money grab operation, unfortunately only visible now.", "id": "ch971dv", "summary": "If they implemented something and it worked like shit -- OK, blame the hardware. But they never came to this, they did not have ideas, resources or will to deliver."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "BDSM like strong-static type systems fans (Haskell, Scala) will tell you that after their code is accepted by the compiler^ ) it's almost^ ) guaranteed^ ) to be bug free and run forever without an error. Because to them only bugs in software are Runtime Errors, and their language obviously solved that problem already^ ** ). \n So they take one thing that happens in dynamically typed languages and pretend that this is the only problem in software dev. And it's of course solved for them. Thus BDSM-like-type-system superiority complex is born. \n ^*) There's a joke somewhere that Haskell compiler needs to see you type theory PhD thesis first. \n ^**) They need to say this, because sentence not proven by Science. \n ^***) For some very liberal definitions of what \"guaranteed\" stands for. \n ^ ** ) They handle their incoming errors using conditions based on types and would rather pretend no interaction ever happens between their running program and impure world.", "id": "cmf6fta", "summary": "Haskell is the promised land; You're missing out!"}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Because some of us spend their waking days in front of a PC at work and want to chill with DS3 afterwards. Also KBM is superior already and it seems they removed turning cap speed on mouse control... DS users, like myself, are now fucked. \n Hey, I played old CS. Also Quakes 1-3. And UTs up to 2003. You know the era. I've spent a lot of time with mouse in my hand trying to get other tryhards to die with that quickscope headshot. Now I'm a casual and this is what I think: DS doesn't stand a chance with properly implemented KBM support. It's not even a crutch, it's like shooting to retards. No amount of aim assists will help you win a fight with KBM user, who strafes instantly (no wiggle motion of the controler, just ADADAD) and can precisely land every shot on your head, while still being impossible to hit. You can actually see this already in DUST, despite KBM users whining and crying that they are not supported and KBM is implemented badly. But yeah, lets cater to EVE guys and tryhards. Because pubstomping is too hard for them as it is now. And besides they all declare that DS is unplayable and they will use Eagle Eye anyway, if not given a choice. So sure, why not just give them what they want -- mechanical advantage.", "id": "cballa3", "summary": "The advantage it gives is crushing."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "I love it how CPM member is crying for pre-nerf, Kane. Have you seen it in action? No. You just don't want it to start OP. Where were you when tanks have been buffed and AV has been nerfed AT THE SAME FUCKING TIME? CCP consults CPM, so why did you not care about \"game breaking\" then? Have you played many ambushes lately? \n And on topic: why can't we have cloak shooting like in Crysis? It works there and it seems CCP wanted to steal that. But no, let's just pre-nerf everything and call \"shooting while cloaked\" something politically loaded like \"line that should not be crossed\". Better! Let's disallow equipping weapon when cloaked! Yeah, that will not make cloaking useless at all!", "id": "cem6u5n", "summary": "Great job."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "I don't think there are any. I started with Tomb Raider 1 (the old one), but that got old in fourth or fifth iteration. I love Uncharted series, platinumed 2nd without even thinking twice. When I started the new Tomb Raider I thought it's a \"ruh-oh, uncharted wannabe alert!\"... but at the end of it I was sad to see it go -- it was more of \"what uncharted could have been\". I even got over the annoying noises Lara makes. And look -- Uncharted 4 even took TRs washed out colors. ;-) There is nothing like it, sadly.", "id": "ciufv6m", "summary": "I don't think there is another game like it."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "If you guys agree, someone send this idea to CCP. Make a big noise and fuss about it so they actually feel the need to do something about it. \n Make a ticket yourself, we're not your personal army. And BTW it's only been dropped on a forums a thousand times or so, so fresh. \n Also weapon proficiency 5 anything would rape MLT gear folk. Just skill one of the rifles this high, along with all other skills at least to 3 (reloads, sharpshooters, whathaveyou) and see what the lowest level gear does do people.", "id": "cev4cfe", "summary": "It would still not be \"skill based\" but \"SP based\", and protostopmping is that already."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Yeah, usually I just LOL at floating rocks and grassy bushes levitating in the battlefield, but floating buildings/structures are kinda bad. I'm running revives too and having people stuck in the ground or glitched curbs pisses me off... but less than them, I presume. \n Also uplinks in the fucking walls... I like them when flux clears them, but when you have to glitch the fucking grenade to get the link I get pissed. Unless reds are stack in wall, then I'm LOLing again.", "id": "coufit4", "summary": "This is Dust, nothing new. Let's just keep on shooting people."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Been using them for few months and I can honestly say I like Browns. For one they allow me to use my personal 60% keyboard everywhere, even in a 100 seats open-space, without getting shanked. Or with wife sleeping in next  room. Ironically this is the only aspect of Browns she likes. I like how they took no time to get used to and are decent for my touch typing style. I rarely bottom out now, feels like I'm just whisking them to make words appear. ;) \n Yes, they're a little on the light side. And yes. I would go for Clears, except I'd have to wait for it to show on massdrop, then 1m+ for shipping. And I just wanted a keyboard. Now Browns are good enough, so fat chance for swap to Clears. \n I see myself swapping switches if I get to work 100% remote. Blues/Greens for me. This is also wife's preference: BeeGees and then inexplicibly Blacks as third place.", "id": "cmg3b6d", "summary": "Browns are OK, get Clears if you can."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Will wait for at least a year, because: \n \n Don't like getting first gen. \n Gotta get through the PS3 backlog. \n Don't really have much time to play the backlog itself, but working it. \n New Gran Turismo and MGS will hit PS3. \n Haven't got GTAV yet, just added to the backlog. \n I already have PS+ and will grab all those PS4 instants anyway, so I'll have a few more launch titles when I get my PS4 finally.", "id": "ccssacg", "summary": "I'm not that hungry, ma."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "And why would people suddenly leave JVM? It moves forward. At glacier's pace, true, but still it's not that bad. It is actually getting better with every release. And yes -- .NET people will laugh while they point fingers at new JVM features. I will laugh every time when I execute my JARred Clojure swiss-knife-like-toolset-with-integrated-REPL on my Solaris 11 machine. And then the same JAR on my Windows 7 laptop and my home Xubuntu laptop. \n I like JVM. I don't love Java, but these days Java is optional for JVM, so quality of life increased in that area.", "id": "ckkowy3", "summary": "Since JVM<>Java there is hope."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "I think that CCP caters to self-selected group of players that think getting served shit-sandwich is the best experience to have. At this point they are able to pretty much cash on empty promises. This business model will be held. \n I also think that  CCP is really bad at delivering due to really bad managerial culture going down from the CEO, overall great on promises, hyping concept art and shifting blame in the end .", "id": "ckos7ce", "summary": "Caring about anything from CCP will only bring misery."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "It's one of the things they promised but never delivered. I guess mobile platforms cannot handle their vision either. Like with many other Eve/Dust related things -- it was hyped to the customers and never developed. There is no proof they even started doing anything beyond promising it. :) \n They're now Laser Focused(TM) on preparing another milking action. It's called EVE:Legion.", "id": "ck0vp2z", "summary": "Forget about it."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Sorry if I'm coming off as harsh, but its talk like this that WILL kill the game. \n Dev team was taken away from this game in December. No development is happening in Dust. Ever. The game is dead already, just on life support (servers are online). We've been told this is not the case for months and some of us spent money to support the game. Which means I have both AUR and boosters on my account, but there is no point in logging in anymore. \n > CCP has blatantly said that they will continue support for DUST 514 if the community doesn't abandon it. \n Yes, we should definitely buy more aurum. The game is not finished and it will never get finished.", "id": "chii90e", "summary": "Everybody who cared got fucked by CCP, but good news is you might be Eve Online player material."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "It was like that since day one. \n Still easier than the damned vehicle assists and stacks of WPs rarely seen outside of boosting. I mean I can logi out 4-5k, but above that it's [redacted boosting method of choice] time or AUR for re-roll... to get with 3x savant mission. :[ \n On the other hand sometimes I forget to check my dailies before first battle of the day and I find that I've done 4-5 already afterwards... of course the rewards for the easy ones not worth it and three out of five outstanding are AUR ones. \n But at least they're tunning it in the hotfix and the prizes should be more worthwhile too.", "id": "coj63x0", "summary": "Honestly they should make the missions scale in difficulty and tone that AUR BS down. :["}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Which is funny, because: \n > * insisting that writing code is better than using tools \n I'm insisting these tools are more code you need to worry about now, that it will require you to buy into the opinions it has and might be hard/impossible to extend to perform tasks you need to perform. \n > * underestimating how much code is involved in some of the tasks these tools provide. \n I've been working with XLS and CSV (in sizes 2x my RAM) in Python/Clojure for years. Interfacing with data warehouses and doing control checks stuff in between. Over things like financial and HR data. But yeah, go on assuming I'm clueless. Again you're delegating responsibility for bugs to someone else, but when you trip on something you've got another layer to dig through. \n > * failing to appreciate that these tools include (...) \n (...) unknown amount of gotchas from  csv  + unknown amount of gotchas introduced by itself. SQLite is far better tested and can process CSV, so why not advocate SQLite? Because not shiny enough? \n My CSV processing always requires map-filter-reduce logic on top of it. You're telling me that bash script will be better suited for that than Python? Because using Python's module via bash wrapper is just better than using the lib directly? \n And listen -- I don't have any ulterior motives here, I'm not trying to diminish authors work and I'm not releasing my (proprietary) tools written over the years. I'm just jaded by years of leaky/culled abstractions that you need to fight as soon as you want to do something more complicated than printing to stdout. But \"oooh, shiny!\"", "id": "cpwgxf1", "summary": "I might be getting downvotes for vocalizing the fact that I'm not be a target audience of this library."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Even more than that, almost every part of your system that accesses the database could return something completely different from one second to another. So you can throw out the concept of pure functions most of the time as well. \n What? When running the same query Relational Database will give you either values of one shape OR error. Your stuff operating on these values can still be pure, and it probably should be, in any non-OOP-is-the-only-thing-I've-got language. \n I really hope you have not just written that you need to work with live data and your biggest problem is that it's live. How else would you go about it? \n > There's a disparity here between functional programming and databases. \n There is disparity between functional programming and interacting with world outside of the program. This is a well known fact. That does not mean that your program cannot be mostly pure. Everything outside your program is mutable. Clojure understands, that's why we've got STM constructs.", "id": "cmch3br", "summary": "Real World (TM) is mutable."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "They are general DB concepts  as implemented by SQLite . They're using SQLite source code, SQLite binary format and SQLite CLI to show what SQLite does. So it is in fact a series about inner workings of SQLite. \n I'm not sure why would you call it unfair. Nobody claims credit for discovery of new things, they just took SQLite and show what it does and how.", "id": "ckz7p66", "summary": "The name is OK."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Nope. Got both, Slim for myself and Super Slim for wife. Both running 7200RPM HDDs without overheating and both operate in vertical setup. I can only say that disc cover is really graceful in that setup, no idea why it's so daft in horizontal. \n It's a matter of design -- people say super slim is super cheap looking. My answer is I don't really spend much time looking at the console. Games work the same. We're mostly digital household anyway. I also don't hear a disk drive of a console that is standing behind TV with sound on. So that's that.", "id": "cpvdgqi", "summary": "Nope, grab whichever."}, {"author": "spotter", "content": "Did not venture into APEX yet, still hoping to be able to buy the LP variants in short time. \n But I've been running my BPO Dragonfly Scout (STD equiv with no skill req) on regular basis and I actually really enjoy it. I do have some BPO modules from beta times, but I guess my favourite BPOs are: dF I mentioned, Sever Logistics and Bloodraiders Saga LAV. Still thinking about getting that Methana BPO though, colors are meh, but Armor LAV > Shield LAV. \n Aaaand that Sever Logi + Saga combo allows for very cost efficient jihading if I'm into that. ;)", "id": "coq8tn1", "summary": "If you're planning on playing -- you might invest AUR."}]}
+{"author": "Zenatic", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I agree!!!  1.99 digital copies is a perfect price assuming they are DRM Free!  Screw DRM!!!!", "output": "This is exactly why I will not spend a dime on the current digital comics.  I was the same way when iTunes had DRM...until they went DRM Free I never bought a single song. \n I don't know what the cost is to print & ship comics are but I know that digital comic delivery is much much cheaper.  This should be reflected in the digital price.  Even if they eventually go DRM Free, I still won't pay the same price for a digital version as the print version.  I like the 1.99 idea and I think it is a great price point for digital comics. \n The problem with this is that it could have a bigger impact on the distribution model for print.  If sales for digital comics increase, then the demand for print will decrease and Local stores will begin ordering fewer copies and this will again affect print costs.  In addition it will also hurt local stores that rely on print sales."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I looked at Intel's Framework, ultimately I am going with Appgyver Steroids w/ Ionic.  The general consensus is that native performance is better than hybrid, but this is a broad generalization and the differences might be negligible depending on your specific apps features.", "output": "I looked at it.  I liked the idea of having both iOS and Android layouts.  Ultimately though my first stab at a hybrid app will be with Appgyver Steroids and possibly ionic framework. \n remember you are posting in /r/androiddev. so a majority of people here will always tell you go Native due to performance regardless of your app functionality. \n Does this mean a hybrid app will be bad just because it is a Hybrid app? I doubt it, and this will depend greatly on what you are trying to accomplish with your app. \n I am challenging myself to begin and finish an app in 30-45 days next month.  I have many many years of experience in web application development (backend/frontend) and 0 in mobile development.  I could go native for 1 platform or I could try out Hybrid and try to get on 2-3 platforms. \n Example: \n The app I want to build collects data from the user and allows them to share that data on different social media sites and contacts with a click of a button. \n Does this mean it is going to suck as a Hybrid app vs a Native app?  I don't know, but the functionality is simple enough that the difference between Native and Hybrid might be negligible. \n And later down the road if hybrid becomes a barrier, I can always take my codebase and port it to a native language."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Spend a few days configuring both, and code for a week in each and see which you like.  It only took me 3 days to decide that I preferred Sublime over Aptana (and I have been using Eclipse/Aptana for CF development for 5+ years)", "output": "I just recently moved from Aptana to SublimeText for Coldfusion development.  It took me all of 3 days to decide to purchase the license. \n Please note that some of these items are more plugin specific and not necessarily SublimeText/Aptana themselves. \n Speed \n SublimeText is just fast.  Loads faster, opens files faster.  I work in a corporate environment where my hardware is fairly old so this is vital. \n Color Theme \n This may not seem important but I spend 80% of my time inside the software, so setting up a color scheme is important to me.  These are about the same, but changing colors for syntax highlighting is slightly easier in Aptana than Sublime, but just barely. \n Code Completion \n I use snippets, and code completion heavily.  Both seem to do these decently and is really dependent on the plugins and not the application itself. \n Code Folding \n Again this is plugin specific (specifically Coldfusion); Aptana wins this item, but CFEclipse is a much more mature plugin for Aptana than the CF plugin for Sublime.  Sublime does a better job at allowing you to manually code fold anything. \n Keyboard Shortcuts \n Sublime, Sublime, Sublime, Sublime doesn't force you to use keyboard shortcuts, but it definitely makes it easier and pushes you in that direction.  Once you get used to this and start to memorize and create your own...you almost reach a state of Coding Zen and you wonder why the hell you have done it any other way!   Aptana has some of this, but it never pushes you to use them and isn't nearly as extensive. \n Overall, I if you are familiar with Aptana, force yourself to spend a day or two configuring Sublime then a week coding in sublime.  Do the reverse if you are familiar with Sublime but not Aptana.  I personally found I enjoyed Sublime much much more and the fact that it was snappy, even on my older machines, made me noticeably more productive."}], "user_id": "longlamp_8042", "history": [{"author": "Zenatic", "content": "I have setup several plex machines for myself and friends. \n My Main Server: \n This thing handles everything I throw at it.  I can run 4x 1080p streams to any device forcing transcoding and it barely even flinches.  This still handles it fine with a Minecraft VM running on top of it and another windows VM running for other services. \n \n i5 Ivy Bridge \n 32 GB Ram \n 128GB SSD \n 4x 3TB WD REDs \n 3TB Hitachi Desktop Drive \n 2TB Seagate 7200rpm \n 4TB External USB 3 backup drive \n Windows Server Essentials R2 with Hyper-V \n StableBit DrivePool & PMS running on host OS. \n Dual Port 1000Mbps Network PCI-e card \n 1x Windows VM - VPN Services VM - Any services/apps I want to run over VPN \n 1x Debian VM - Minecraft Server \n \n Clients:  Roku 3, FireTV, Browser, Android LG G2, Nexus 10, Plex Home Theater \n Friend #1 Server \n AMD A10, 8GB RAM, WHS 2011, StableBit Drive Pool & PMS - He handles multiple 1080p streams (transcoding) just fine no problems.  He built the machine for about $450 from microcenter (no kvm, reused old case) \n Friend #2 Server \n AMD X2 Dual Core 2600+, 4GB Ram, this thing is slower than shit but still handles 720p transcoding pretty well, but takes a while to load videos on his Roku 3 when it has to transcode.  Forget 1080p. It isn't the fastest and gets the job done, but isn't great overall \n Friend #3 Server \n Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB Ram, this thing can handle a 1080p just fine, I didn't get a chance to test more than 1 transcoding stream so I can't tell you how well it handles beyond that.  I got the feeling the way it was acting, that it could possibly handle 2 1080p streams, but 3 might start pushing it.", "id": "cmnh5b8", "summary": "I have setup multiple ranging from really old POS equipment to a big bad ass beast. \n For someone looking to just do PMS and some basic minor things and want the most bang for your buck, look into the AMD A8-A10 APU's.  If you are linux savvy, go for it, if not, grab a copy of WHS 2011 (~$60) and Stablebit DrivePool and you can have a good machine for under $500.  You will still need multiple HDD's on top of this to take advantage of Stablebit DrivePool"}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "This would be a fantastic model for comics, but I doubt it will ever happen. \n Trading Paper Dollars for Digital Cents - If you only collected 4 comics a month (and this is a lot less than the average comic reader) @ 2.99 that is 12/mo revenue for the comic industry.  Most collect/read more than that and are willing to pay that amount, but revenue would drastically drop if they did this. \n Volume - Magazine, Movies & TV Shows can support this model more easily because of the drastically larger consumer base compared to comics.  The largest selling comic in June was AvX #6 with[ ~190k estimated sold](  Now if all 100k of those people had a sub and didn't buy the comic that would be a 50% reduction in Revenue generated and in turn that 100k would only be giving the company pennies for consuming that issue via subscription service. \n New Consumers - Again Mag/Movies/TV have a large consumer base already, and if they throw their content up in a sub service they may acquire quite a few new consumers that wouldn't normally pay full price but are willing to check it out since it is part of their sub.  This would happen for comics but on a much much smaller scale since comics are more of a niche form of entertainment, even though movies are helping bring them to a broader audience. \n Don't get me wrong...I would absolutely love for something like this to happen, but due to scale and niche of market I think it won't happen, and wouldn't be that great since they would push delivery back of newer issues until they have squeezed out regular sales. (Netflix already has this with its limited release content).", "id": "c5byv61", "summary": "AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME, won't happen anytime soon."}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "I just built a machine to do this and more: \n \n i7 -3770k \n 32GB Ram \n 320GB HDD - Main Drive \n 1TB, 1TB, 1.5TB, 3TB, 2TB, 640GB Storage Drives \n Windows Server 2012 Essentials \n 1GBit Switches/Router w/ 100Mbps ISP \n \n Now these specs are a tad overkill for what you might be doing but here is what my server currently does: \n \n 2 Minecraft instances (light load) \n XBMC Streaming - up to 1080p, up to 3 LAN clients \n MySQL Server - Development machine (light load) \n IIS + Railo - Development machine (light load) \n Plex Server - Video Streaming away from home, up to 2 clients \n Teamspeak Server - 2-8 people simultaneously \n \n I was using Windows Home server for almost 5 years until they finally dropped the product.  I then moved to Windows Server 2012 Essentials.  I looked into several options but all had their pros/cons.  unRaid, Hardware Raid, FlexRaid, FreeNAS, etc.   I am proficient at Linux but ultimately the drive pooling and capability to do all the other things I wanted easily, made Windows Server the best option for my specific situation. \n If you want to do Plex (which has worked out pretty decent for me) then either look at building a dedicated Plex desktop (good CPU for on the fly transcoding) and then build a separate NAS (unRaid, FlexRaid, FreeNAS, etc) or Build a storage PC with linux or windows as the OS and use some type of other RAID.  Or go with a Robo Raid machine like Drobo \n unRaid, FlexRaid, etc are good if you have varying HDD sizes.  Drobo, ReadyNAS, etc are also good if you want a hardware solution without having to build your own NAS. \n Now, I absolutely love WHS/Windows Server 2012 Essentials.  I have had a couple of hard drive failures and was able to recover everything...even an OS HDD failure didn't lose me anything (except a lot of time).  I have multiple HDD's with varying sizes so the drive pooling in Server2012 is AMAZING!!!  I start to run out of space, I head down to the nearest PC store or online, pick up a drive, toss it in and add it to the pool, voila more storage space!!!!  I don't have to worry about size except when dealing with parity recovery. \n I don't use PLEX when I am at home, I have streamers that do that for me... XBMC (pc). Popcornhour C200 & A110.  RaspBMC on my Raspberry pi.  My Nexus 10 and Galaxy Note handle playing HD files just fine over WiFi at home using MX Player.  Now when I travel, I use Plex and it works pretty well!  I use it to stream to my Nexus 10 and/or Note or Windows Laptop.  This is only used for when I am away from the house.  You can use Plex in the house if you want, but I already had money invested in XBMC/PCH/Raspbmc and they work great. \n If you want more details let me know, this comment is getting a tad long!", "id": "c9p6mym", "summary": "I use a core i7 server running windows server 2012 Essentials to handle everything for me including Plex.  I chose that OS to use the drive pooling technology to reuse my different size HDD's for storage, backup and recovery."}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "Based on your edits: \n The Quickest \n Decide if you want to use a Content Management System to host yourself \n \n Drupal \n Wordpress \n Concrete5 \n Joomla \n Mura \n many many others \n \n Depending on your expected traffic volume, you could find any shared hosting company with decent reviews and use them to host it. Higher volumes might require a little more power through a VPS or Cloud Server (AWS, Rackspace, etc) but these will have a much higher learning curve than shared hosting \n OR \n Decide if you want to do a hosted CMS like Squarespace, Wix, Wordpress, etc.  These won't require you to know much about hosting a website. \n Pick a template for the respective CMS, or use a base template to custom build your own.  Then take that template and customize it or leave it as is. \n Fill in the content and create the pages you need for your site. \n This will save you a ton of time...might take you a couple of days to a week to get everything setup.  Then you can concentrate on other things, like a marketing plan or logo design, etc. \n Then once you have some capital, hire a professional.", "id": "cfhiiud", "summary": "Use a template to start using a Hosted or Self-Hosted CMS.  Customize the template from there.  Then once you can afford it, hire a professional"}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "My title is Senior Product Development Engineer....I have no idea what that actually means.  I think someone at HR decided hey lets throw a bunch of technical words together and make it a title. \n I would say I am about 40/60, 40% of my time at work is on front-end work, while the remaining is spent on Project Management and actual backend coding. \n If I had it my way, I would prefer to have someone give me a complete front end and I just plug my back end into it and work around the front-end constraints. \n My side business however, is a lot more front end work as I am working with a lot of different clients on website and/or helping our my partner (mobile dev) with the UI elements.", "id": "cgy1m2k", "summary": "I do it in the front and the back  wink .  I would say overall I split my time about 50/50 across my main job and my side business for web work."}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "just make sure your GPU can push 1920x1080 resolution or larger...some monitors are 16x9, others are 16x10 (1920x1200). \n Definitely watch for input lag and look for response time. \n Response time is very important for gaming...2ms GTG means how long it takes the pixel to go from gray to gray.  It used to be B2B meaning how long it takes the pixel to go from black to white to black. \n You want something for gaming in the ~2ms GTG range. \n Now for the rest it is up to you on budget...There will always be a debate for IPS vs TN panels for gaming.  IPS panels are in general considered better looking, but suffer from slower response time and input lag (this is a broad generalization and there are always exceptions).", "id": "c3ruybq", "summary": "Check that your GPU can push 1920x1080 resolution and look for something with 2ms G2G response time (or better) for gaming."}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "Because of the vast amount of hardware combinations, you can't really be specific if it is better.  It will be better for some but not others. \n Here has been my situation: \n \n Core i5 OC'd to 4.5Ghz \n 16GB Ram \n SSD \n AMD 6950 OC'd \n \n BETA  - AWESOME SAUCE!!!! \n First 2 Weeks  - Win7 - Updated non BETA GPU Drivers - Almost unplayable, Guaranteed at least 1 crash every other map \n Next Week or so  - Win 8.1 - BETA GPU Drivers - Playable, still get soundloop crashes maybe once an hour and a weird rubber banding issue when on Google Hangouts while playing. \n Most recent update (12/17)  - Win 8.1 - BETA GPU Drivers - Had my first 3 hour session without a single crash!  I do get some minor texture flickering, but it isn't as bad as others have posted. \n My buddy I play with has an older rig, I think nvidia 500 series GPU - his FPS is low and the game takes forever to load, but he has only had a couple of crashes since release. \n So for me, it has improved, but I am only 1 case. New patches will always introduce new bugs, but overall stability for me so far has been on a gradual increase.", "id": "ce4p4q1", "summary": "It has improved for me on a Win 8.1 BETA GPU Driver AMD 6950 OC'd over time and the 12/17 patch really made it better on my build."}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "My POV \n I am an unlock whore...me love some carrots dangling on a stick. \n However, I do have my goto guns when I am just getting obliterated.  I don't care about SPM as a primary stat...however I do use it to judge my advancement in skill...I was at a low score of 165 SPM starting out and in the last month I have moved it to 255 and it is slowly creeping up (I am not a great player, but I have a ton of fun). \n However, I don't play to play for points, sure I jump on 24/7 metro to get a few attachments for a new gun I am \"leveling\" but what do you expect, I am an unlock whore!!!! \n I will go games where I am 3/5 K/D yet will get MVP 1,2 or 3 or very close...PTFO. \n Gun balance is very important regardless of point value and unlocks...it is when several guns start feeling the exact same, some of the guns introduced with B2K really didn't feel that different from existing, yet I still play them to level them...I am an unlock Whore! \n I never would have given the AEK a glance if it weren't for my need to sell my body out for unlocks...I love this gun!!! I would never have found it if it weren't for the \"unlock\" system. \n Each player, plays the game for different reasons....having the dangling stick works for a large portion of the player base, SPM works for another, just playing the game and having fun works for another. \n I like the feeling of achievement and I keep coming back for more...but that is how I play the game.", "id": "c3umyw5", "summary": "Everyone plays BF3 for different reasons...Chasing the unlock works for some, chasing SPM works for others...and some just like to shoot people in the face...others like to run people over with MAVs for hours on end (thank god they won't be around much longer) and I am an unlock WHORE!"}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "I had this happen to me back in the day. \n We had this one kid that was a constant problem on the bus...Cussing, yelling not doing what he was told.  He always sat close to the back to be away from the bus driver to get away with crap. \n Well one day apparently the driver had enough and stopped the bus, got up and proceeded to the back, yelling at him that he was tired of his shit.  He reached to grab him and the kid started to fight back.  The Driver finally got the upper hand and started pulling him to the front telling him he was off the bus and won't be allowed on ever again. \n About 5' from the door they both stop, turn and yell \"April Fools\". This was probably one of the best april fools I had ever seen.  I was lucky I didn't piss myself...they pulled it off flawlessly.", "id": "ca376lr", "summary": "I witnessed a better Bus April Fool's joke involving a fake fight between a kid and the driver."}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "To start off, I really can't stand people that cry \"Hacks\" in chat when the game lag kills them or they get hit with a headshot from some epic shot one time. \n I am very hesitant to cry Hack for this very reason, but the other day I was playing on a server and this player started dropping me every few minutes.  At first I thought ok, he must have got me from some angle, no big deal.  Then I spawn at deployment and bam I am dead from a PKP, in my spawn with him nowhere near our deployment. \n Then a couple of other people started complaining too, but there were no admins on the server and he just started talking shit...fine whatever, after multiple people started calling him out...the kills stop coming from him.  Again, I rarely cry \"hacker\" but by the 6th kill in deployment against a wall is my breaking point. \n Here is his profile: <removed due to subreddit rules> \n Definitely not something outrageous like you some some of the ridiculous hackers, but have you run into players that you are 99% sure they are hacking but seem to stop or slow down not to raise suspicion? \n I hope this isn't something of a trend of hackers being more subtle with their hacks and trying harder to go unnoticed.", "id": "t3_pf6ee", "summary": "Have you run into hackers that reduce their hack usage to go unnoticed?"}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "I am very new to this game, but not new to CCG's. \n Post after post I see \"Zoo Cancer\", \"If you want to piss everyone off, play Zoo\". \n Why is this considered bad? \n I am coming from Magic, and certain deck types always crop up as overpowered in the beginning.  New sets will almost always have a RDW (Red Deck Wins) as the goto deck in the beginning for tournaments.  They will win a lot till some people figure out a better deck with more consistency.  (This is a very broad generalization).  MTG swings the BAN hammer when the meta becomes dominated by one type for too long, but this isn't often. \n I just don't get the hate for Zoo...I mean the card selection is so small right now, that seeing a certain type of deck bubble up to the top is not surprising to me at all.  Blizzard has the advantage of being able to adjust cards on the fly to help with this since it is all digital, but only so much can be done with such a small card base. \n I normally just ignore \"zoo cancer\" responses, and move on, but lately they seem to be a cancer themselves to posts, and are dominating the thread responses. \n What is the reasoning for all this?  Jealousy? Bitching to bitch?  or is it truly a \"cancer\" to this game?", "id": "t3_2q6blv", "summary": "Why is Zoo hated?  With such a small card pool is it really unexpected to have 1-3 dominating deck types?  It will probably improve as expansions are added."}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "So my side business does web design/CMS hosting for small businesses.  I am at fault for usually going the template route, but most of our clients just want a basic web presence (home page, contact/inquiry form, photo gallery, about us).   So for me to keep their costs down I end up using stock templates and/or slight modifications to stock templates. \n That being said, I would like to move into a more design oriented revenue stream and I am not a design expert, but I am also not clueless. \n I see lots of examples of bad web design and/or posts of web design and an onslaught of why those designs are bad.  What about sites with good design and why those designs are good?", "id": "t3_1yzs31", "summary": "What are some examples of websites with good design and citations as to why those designs are good?"}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "Am I doing something to cause my HDD to fail? \n My video server HDD total: \n \n 1x 1TB WD Black (OS Drive) \n 4x 3TB WD Reds \n 1x 3TB Toshiba Desktop drive \n 1x 2TB Seagate  \n \n 4 HDD are connected to the PCIe Cheap SATA card(I will look up mfg later, don't want to move the server in the middle of a scan, either vantech or rosewill)\nOthers are connected to the Mobo \n Originally using Windows Storage Spaces, now trying to use StableBit DrivePool. \n All the drives were mounted in 2x CoolerMaster 4n3 Module in a CM Stacker case. \n I started having issues with Freezing and crashing so I bought and installed StableBit Scanner \n \n Toshiba popped bad sectors, sent in for warranty, got a replacement, using as external 3TB backup in an enclosure \n 1x WD Red popped bad sectors, warrantied, replacement popped bad sectors. \n 2x WD Red popped bad sectors, returned 2 and the previous replacement (total of 3) \n 1x Bought WD Red 3TB, scanned fine \n \n Bought a SuperMicro 5in3 Hot Swap cage.  Installed all WD Reds (1 new, 3 warranty replacements) in it. \n Start my StableBit Scanner: \n \n 1x WD Red (35 days old, scanned healthy at 2 days old) popped Bad Sectors \n 1x WD Red (Warranty replacement) popped Bad Sectors \n 2x WD Red (Warranty replacement) - awaiting scan results \n 1x 2TB Seagate - Awaiting scan results \n \n My WD Black is running like a champ and is almost 2 years old.  It has only been connected to the Mobo SATA ports. \n WTF am I doing wrong?  could my 4x Sata Controller card be killing these drives or am I just having really bad luck?", "id": "t3_2fe1sz", "summary": "My WD Red 3TB keep popping bad sectors, I am now almost 100% warranty replacement drives and they are still popping bad sectors"}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "So I finally got my Devo 7e delivered after weeks at sea.  Installed Deviation flawlessly.  As far as TX goes, everything is working as it should. \n FYI- I just got into the hobby and this is my first build \n Hook up my alienwii and lemonRX (DSMX) satellite, flash the FC with the proper DSMX settings, go to bind and run through the binding on my TX & RX and get the appropriate beeps and lights. \n My RX red LED is blinking sporadically, but responds to stick inputs.  The quad responds to input and flies but wobbles and shakes during hover.  It feels like I am getting constant brownouts/frame drops from the TX/RX and this is causing the heli to wobble. \n Everything is mapped fine in MultiWii...Any ideas? \n \n Could it be an issue with a DSMX Satellite instead of DSM2? \n Could something be up with my TX?\nI do have a DSM2 satellite being shipped to me, but won't be here till next week.", "id": "t3_30apon", "summary": "DSMX Satellite LED blinks red constantly on an AlienWii when bound to my Devo 7e Deviation TX but responds to stick inputs.  The quad flies but wobbles and appears to wobble in sync with the LED blinking"}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "So I finally got my Armattan 226 CF up in the air with decent PID settings for Pitch and Roll.  2 Batteries and only 5 props destroyed (3 props were due to dropping TX signal and failsafe worked perfectly twice) \n notes: naze32 w/ cleanflight, 2204/32 1960kv w/ 5030GF props, Devo7e(deviation), lemonrx dsmx sat ppm \n A few questions: \n I bumped my Yaw rate up, but anytime I apply yaw stick I get oscillaions, what PID value for yaw should I be adjusting?  I assume P should probably be decreased.  It doesn't oscillate when hovering, only when applying yaw. \n Is having a 0.50 TPA too high? if so, does it mean something else is off?  I get high frequency oscillations when throttle is high, and having a 0.5 seems to tone down the oscillations at max throttle (punch outs). \n I have a buzzer attached, and the 2 times it lost communication to the TX it started beeping as it should.  but when I get in range and the board responds to \"arming\" switch, the beeping doesnt stop.  Am I missing a setting or do I just need to always unplug and replug in the battery to reset? \n Any suggestions for learning on Rate/Acro Mode?  Currently I am just flying left to right in straight lines.  I plan to progress to flying a box, then figure 8's and oo's, then start to practice circles/banking.  Rate/Acro mode is incredibly foreign after many hours of flying on toy copters in angle mode \n It is dropping TX signal from time to time, anyone familiar with the range distance of the Devo7e (deviation) with a lemonrx dsmx sat? I have been getting signal loss within 50'. \n I can fly my hubsan extremely fast in all orientations so orientation is not a problem for me. \n Sidenote: 2 batteries was definitely not enough to get me started...2 more on order from china :( I might order a couple of glacier's and solder in some XT60 connectors.", "id": "t3_32te9d", "summary": "What PID value should I adjust when oscillations only occur during yaw input? \n Is having a 0.50 TPA bad or too high? Does it indicate something else? Can I go higher? \n Buzzer beeps when RX/TX loses signal, but when signal is picked back up, is there a way to turn off the beeping besides disconnecting/reconnecting the Lipo? \n Any recommendations for learning Rate Mode? \n Anyone run into range issues with Devo7e+lemonrx dsmx sat @ around 50'"}, {"author": "Zenatic", "content": "So I definitely learn by example.  Usually I find a few sites I like and begin to \"recreate\" the site from scratch to learn how it is done.  This allows me to view source code and see how different sites handle different looks and accomplish certain things on their site. \n I have been reading article after article about the new HTML5 tags and every tutorial/blog seems to give examples for the use of the <article> & <section> using a blog.  This definitely makes sense because a blog post easily represents the required markup to structure under <article> or <section>.  However the majority of client websites aren't blogs.  They are usually landing pages, contact forms, service description pages, portfolio's,etc. \n I have spent several hours looking at sites that seem to be professionally designed and high quality for use of these new tags, but they all seem to use them differently, sparingly, or completely contradictory to how many articles discuss how they should be used (ie major styling a <section>). \n Does anyone have some decent examples of real world sites using some of the new HTML5 tags properly that are not blogs or pages other than blog entries? (I realize the use of \"properly\" can be highly subjective)", "id": "t3_22gk4l", "summary": "HTML5 Semantic articles always give examples using blogs for the <section>/<article> tags.  Do you have any \"proper\" real world examples of these tags being used outside of blog entries?"}]}
+{"author": "MN1H", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Weakling started heavier than he should. Is there a problem? \n EDIT:  I hope you guys don't mind a weakling making a post on a powerlifting sub-reddit, especially asking questions about a beginner program", "output": "I'm 180cm @ 70.4kg (5,9foot @ 155,2lb). \n I've only done high volume workouts such as ppl twice a week with high sets/reps, therefor my strength is lacking. My size is also lacking, but I actually look stronger than I am, in my opinion. \n My 1RM's are: \n \n Bench:  80kg...176lb \n * [Squat:]( 105kg...231.5lb  (got video)* \n * [Deadlift:]( 120kg...265lb  (got video)* \n \n I started stronglifts 5x5 monday. \n I didn't start with 50% of my 5RM as the workout stated. I used a weight I could complete all the reps on all the sets, and could probably have done it with 1 extra rep per set. \n Is there a problem with it? I'd rather not add weight for some weeks to compensate other than using a weight I would hardly even feel... \n But at the same time, I'd rather not be that one guy who f'd up by not following the simple rules and not benefiting from the workout."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4219", "history": [{"author": "MN1H", "content": "My starting maxes were 125/90paused/140 \n On my 5th week I got [122.5x1]( on squats. But I blame the fact that I hit the bar against the safety things and lost balance a bit. But oh well, I'll repeat a cycle without upping my max so I can work on form. \n On bench I got [87.5kg x4]( so....an estimated 1RM of 95-99 which is a progression from anywhere from 5.555% to 10%. \n On deadlifts...I still haven't gotten the chance to do it because I'm sick...damn it. I was really looking forward to it. I believe I could jump from 140kg to 150kg!! But I'm guessing I lost some strength gains with this sickness.. \n I don't count macros..I guesstimate how much to eat. Next cycle I'm going to try and gain weight. You can probably get much better results with perfect dieting.", "id": "cp6lc3q", "summary": "My squat didn't progress. I believe I could have got 3 reps instead of 1 if I didn't hit the safety things with the bar. My bench progressed somewhere between 5.5% to 10%. Couldn't test deadlift..sick"}, {"author": "MN1H", "content": "Been doing calves after almost every workout. I do my workout with the prescribed reps, sets, weight, etc. Afterwards its fuckarounditis time for calves! I literally invent some stupid shit everytime, for example (I'll probably do 2 or even 3 of the options below): \n \n 3x8 heavy \n 3x20 light \n 2x50 is the machine even loade... AH THE BURN \n I start at the highest weight possible that I can use for 5 reps, and do 4. Decrease the weight by 15lb and do 4. Repeat untill there's no more weight to decrease. This may up being more than 50 reps. It goes from hard & not painful, to easy and damn burning. \n Doing the reverse of the last one. Starting light. Doing 4 reps, adding weight, doing 4 reps, adding weight...until I can't add anymore \n I use the lying leg curls machine as some sort of seated calf raises and do random set/reps. \n Standing calf presses \n Calf holds for as much time as I can with a random weight. \n More random shit I'm not remembering right now", "id": "cpwhzaf", "summary": "I want some cows"}, {"author": "MN1H", "content": "When little me was in the fourth or fifth grade, I had never kissed a girl. I was the shy type. \n During the vacations I went to a camp with like 50-100 people my age to do activities for a week (such as rapel, paintball, water parks, treasure hunts during the night in a big old farm, fear factor, and many more). \n Somehow, I was the cool kid. Don't ask me how. I went with a friend of mine and everyone was really cool with me and after 1 or 2 days, everyone knew who I was. Everyone said that I had all the girls after me. I had 2 girls that \"liked me\" (fifth grade liking). I kissed one of them. To do this day I have no idea how that shy kid became so popular for a week all of a sudden.", "id": "cjlcslb", "summary": "Little me was shy. All of a sudden I become popular in a summer camp. Girls \"liked\" me. Kissed one."}, {"author": "MN1H", "content": "I sometimes have a bit of pain. Not when doing legs workouts. \n Today after my leg day I did some stretches: \n \n Used smith machine to put one leg up  and stretching it whiel trying to touch my knee with my head. Repeat with other leg. \n \n Used smith machine to bend my leg backwards on top of the bar and stretching my quad by trying to bend it when it's already bent. Not sure if you understood what I said. \n \n Used a bench to do [something like this]( Put leg sideways on top of bench while my other knee is on the ground. Try to touch leg with head. \n \n Leg press to stretch calfs. Just loaded some weight and just waited while the weight did the work for me \n \n \n If there is any thing that you didn't understand, tell me.", "id": "cjwpdjn", "summary": "Smith machine is useful"}, {"author": "MN1H", "content": "Yesterday, I got to the gym for my 8th session of Madcow. I always ask for a plastic cup because I always feel like drinking a cup of water before my protein shake, which I have been taking to the gym lately. She tells me the water machine is broken but I could fill it in the bathroom. At this point everything is going fine.. \n I accidentally filled the shaker with  HOT  water. And for some reason I kept drinking that thing throughout the workout. After my last set of deads....I do some accessory work (ab wheel, calf raises)....damn was I feeling kinda of  ewww . \n I walk upstairs and the lady tells me \"Sorry, actually the machine had been fixed but I was not aware yet\"", "id": "cmit32s", "summary": "fml"}, {"author": "MN1H", "content": "Shoulder pain sucks. It started during a AMRAP(max of 10) set of Squats and only got worse through the 8 back off sets (all triples), this Tuesday. \n No shoulder pain while Benching Wednesday :) No shoulder pain while OHPing Wednesday (although I feel weird in the lockout). \n Self-diagnosed shoulder impingement through various videos like  this one . \n Wednesday I did tons of scapular elevation, retraction, depression. External rotation, etc. Got a little weightless routine I started doing today, when I wake up and when I go to bed. \n Got upper body tomorrow and lower body Saturday. If my shoulder hurts in any of those I think I'll drop whichever exercise hurts it for the time being :/ I'll warm up my shoulders thoroughly this time, opposed to the usual \"light squats\" before \"heavy squats\" ahah", "id": "cpr82wb", "summary": "Don't neglect external rotation, rotator cuffs and warm-ups. \n EXTRA RANT:  I always take my white chucks to the gym. Best belts have no white belts. WHAT IS THIS??? THEY ARE LITERALLY HITLER. ^^^/s"}, {"author": "MN1H", "content": "Finally benching 80kg for reps (2-4 depending on days.....why am I so inconsistent the last 2 weeks??). \n Feels good because in my gym the 15kg plates on each side look like 20kg plates..... [EGO INTENSIFIES] \n EDIT:  Speaking of my latest inconsistency. I already squatted 100kg for 5 or 6 reps. I failed on the 4th rep the other day. First time failing on the squats. Thank you based squat rack for holding the weight for me.", "id": "cn98orb", "summary": "Need to get my sleep schedule back on track"}, {"author": "MN1H", "content": "I'm at a new gym. Went today for the third time for my push day. Tomorrow is legs. \n I asked a buff guy if the squat rack is always empty seen as the only person I had seen using it....was me..on my Monday leg day. \n He said \"Pretty much yeah, people prefer the smith machine\"", "id": "ck7xb5u", "summary": "I found a new home"}, {"author": "MN1H", "content": "And it depends on the FoM (flavour of the month) champions! If let's say, Faker makes another play worthy of first place on reddit with say, Diana. Or if some pro picks Diana and spams her in soloQ. \n People will start playing Diana a lot, no matter their ranking. Diana being a FoM champion, people will start picking up her counters, making some of them viable again. \n The meta is ever-changing. Meta-shifts cause meta-shifts. \n New masteries brought the tank top laners out to the field again. But new masteries or items aren't needed to change the meta (althought they sure help), all the meta needs to change is a couple of pros deciding to play X champion.", "id": "cflsst8", "summary": "Meta1 > Meta2 > Meta 3 > Meta 1 > Meta π  > Meta X \n EDIT: Then again, don't take advice from a Silver Player...."}, {"author": "MN1H", "content": "Competed in my first meet today (well, technically yesterday), at \"Nacional de Equipas\" (translates to Team's Nationals) in the WPC. Weighed in at 73.3kg. Also 18yo and 181cm if anyone cares. \n Attempts went as following: \n \n Squats:  130/140/150  5kg PR \n Bench:  85/92.5/95x (I wanted 100, but based on how 92.5 felt...)  Have done 98 in the gym \n Deadlift:  150/160/175  5kg PR, still should have gone for more \n \n \n \n **[Full video on youtube here]( \n [Squat on Instagram]( \n [Bench on Instagram]( \n [Deadlift on Instagram]( \n \n \n I had a really awesome time. The lifting was fun. Having my friends/girlfriend/mom wathcing me lift was fun.. Being with other lifters was awesome. The whole thing was an experience I plan on repeating!. I saw a 15year old crush a 190kg squat and a 145kg bench! \n \n I somewhat was program-hoping for this last 11 months that I've been training for strength so I can't give a really detailed description of my training. I was aiming for 420kg or 422.5kg for those sweet 300 wilks, but good thing I weighted in lighter or I would have missed my wilks goal. \n My program hop was somewhat something like: \n \n Madcow 10 weeks \n Candito's 6 week program for like 8 weeks \n 5/3/1 for 8 weeks \n Squat/Bench/Deadlift/Rest split for the majority of the summer. I just appeared at the gym and did what I felt like \n \n I started training for strength 11 months ago with Madcow, when my maxes where 105/78tng/120. \n I'll not keep training to be less weak as time goes on. I plan on sticking to the same program for quite some time now (6 months minimum, since I may compete in 6 months again).", "id": "t3_3mjew4", "summary": "Had tuns of fun. Met other lifters with who I exchanged contacts with. Learnt stuff. All around a really cool experience. \n flair me up mods"}, {"author": "MN1H", "content": "Competed in my first meet today (well, technically yesterday), at \"Nacional de Equipas\" (translates to Team's Nationals) in the WPC. Weighed in at 73.3kg. Also 18yo and 181cm if anyone cares. \n Attempts went as following: \n \n Squats:  130/140/150  5kg PR \n Bench:  85/92.5/95x (I wanted 100, but based on how 92.5 felt...)  Have done 98 in the gym \n Deadlift:  150/160/175  5kg PR, still should have gone for more \n \n \n \n **[Full video on youtube here]( \n [Squat on Instagram]( \n [Bench on Instagram]( \n [Deadlift on Instagram]( \n \n \n I had a really awesome time. The lifting was fun. Having my friends/girlfriend/mom watching me lift was fun.. Being with other lifters was awesome. The whole thing was an experience I plan on repeating! I saw a 15year old crush a 190kg squat and a 145kg bench! \n \n I somewhat was program-hoping for this last 11 months that I've been training for strength so I can't give a really detailed description of my training. I was aiming for 420kg or 422.5kg for those sweet 300 wilks, but good thing I weighted in lighter or I would have missed my wilks goal. \n My program hop was somewhat something like: \n \n Madcow 10 weeks \n Candito's 6 week program for like 8 weeks \n 5/3/1 for 8 weeks \n Squat/Bench/Deadlift/Rest split for the majority of the summer. I just appeared at the gym and did what I felt like \n \n I started training for strength 11 months ago with Madcow, when my maxes where 105/78tng/120. \n I'll not keep training to be less weak as time goes on. I plan on sticking to the same program for quite some time now (6 months minimum, since I may compete in 6 months again).", "id": "t3_3mlvg9", "summary": "Had tuns of fun. Met other lifters with who I exchanged contacts with. Learnt stuff. All around a really cool experience."}, {"author": "MN1H", "content": "So, we're given: \n \n A text document with like 130,000 words (one per line) \n A few text documents with test text so we can test our code. \n A command line c file that shows us how to output our stuff and the basic structure of the program. \n \n \n For starters, I'll have to pass the entire dictionary to a structure. I'm assuming the best option (since we'll be evaluated on complexity and the time the program takes to run their testing files) is a hash table (currently seeing youtube videos as I skipped classes the week we learnt this. \n So, any suggestions apart for Hash Tables?  Looked through the various structures we learnt and it seemed the most appropriate one since they will evaluate us based on time and the dictionary they gave us has like 130k words! \n One of the outputs will be the time it took for the program to run (in seconds). How do I do that? How do I start a \"timer\" or whatever? \n Thanks in advance.", "id": "t3_4jrc78", "summary": "The stuff in bold."}, {"author": "MN1H", "content": "What I'm supposed to do \n \n Program reads date. \n Checks if date is valid \n Ask use how many days to jump \n Save new date in the same structure \n Print new date \n \n What I have \n (The data files were given to us by the professor. We're supposed to finish) \n \n [datas.c]( - functions to use \n [datas.h]( - Ignore the descriptions. Didn't bother translating this ones seen as they're the same as the datas.c ones \n [programa.c]( - The program itself. \n \n My Problem \n On programa.c (line12) it says the  dataValida(d)  argument/parameter is wrong.", "id": "t3_4048wj", "summary": "How am I supposed to call structures into functions? Any tips or warnings before diving deeper into this you might think are relevant, shoot away :) Thanks!"}, {"author": "MN1H", "content": "I apologize if this is the wrong sub-reddit or if this question is really stupid. \n According to [wikipedia]( there are 5 books, and 2 more to come. \n \n A Game of Thrones (1996) \n A Clash of Kings (1998) \n A Storm of Swords (2000) \n A Feast for Crows (2005) \n A Dance with Dragons (2011) \n The Winds of Winter (forthcoming) \n A Dream of Spring (forthcoming) \n \n Why are there 10 volumes on [FNAC's website]( \n I bought the [first one]( \n If I want to buy the second one, should I buy [the second one according to wikipedia (a.k.a the third one according to FNAC's website)]( or [the second one according to FNAC's website](", "id": "t3_2ejbi2", "summary": "I'm confused. Help mahh"}]}
+{"author": "rootyb", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Your girlfriend is absolutely right.", "output": "First, BMI is  not  an accurate indicator of health, and should  never  be used as such. \n As others have said, if the blood sugar test wasn't a fasting test, it's irrelevant. (Note that your body still  needs  sugar, so if you aren't eating any, it will make it from protein via gluconeogenesis) \n Finally, before you freak out, go to your actual doctor and get a cholesterol test that includes a breakdown of good vs bad LDL. I can't remember the specifics off the top of my head, but most tests don't check, and just lump them in together."}], "user_id": "longlamp_14191", "history": [{"author": "rootyb", "content": "If you want to replace fat with muscle, jogging ain't gonna do it. Endurance it'll help with, though (and, really, some impact in your exercise is good for bone strength). \n Now, it may be heteronormative, but I'm going to assume you're female, given your boyfriend comment. \n Going with that assumption, I'm also going to assume that you're worried about \"getting too bulky\", since that's a fairly common concern that women have. \n If that  is  a concern of yours, it's completely baseless. [You can  not  get bulky by accident]( If you want to build muscle, you need to exert your muscles. \n Nerdfitness.com has some solid strength-training info. As does /r/bodyweightfitness (their beginner program is over at  Great community (as long as you're willing to do a bit of research on your own and/or read the FAQ before asking questions) over there. \n note: I am  not  an expert. I've only been doing their beginner routine for a few weeks, now. It complete kicks my ass three days a week, but I'm really enjoying it nonetheless. \n I am, however, the kind of person that uses preparation as an excuse to procrastinate \"doing\", so I do know some stuff. :)", "id": "ci97qyj", "summary": "if you want to build muscle, do strength training of some kind"}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "Get out your pitchforks, here comes a paleonteer (sorry, to the best of my knowledge, there isn't a commonly-accepted noun for \"one who follows a paleo diet\". I'm working on a few ideas. Feel free to contribute your own). I'd like to give a relatively short primer on paleo for anyone that might not know some of the finer details. \n First, let me point out that \"vegan\" and \"paleo\" aren't mutually exclusive. Paleoists (any better?) that pay attention to the science (which, admittedly, not all of them do) eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, partially because they're delicious, and partially because they're great for you. \n Now, to clarify something, I think the author of this article is operating under a slight (and common) misconception of the various flavors (pun somewhat intended) of the paleo diet, so please indulge me as I try to clear up this misconception. \n Paleo isn't really about trying to reenact what cavemen (or, more specifically, humans during our evolutionary period) ate.  For starters, that would be impossible, as many of the plants and animals we ate are likely extinct by now (as are neanderthals, for the most part, unless you count the cast of Jersey Shore). Beyond that, though, while our bodies are nearly identical to those of our ancestors, going back hundreds of thousands of years, our lifestyles and environments have changed. \n Yes, some people take it a little far and are super-strict, only eating things they hunt/gather themselves, etc, etc. Those people are the fringe and are not most of the paleo community. \n Instead, most of us think of paleo as a way of looking at nutrition and fitness from an evolutionary foundation. That is, we try to use evolutionary clues (since god knows what our ancestors ate) combined with metabolism and nutritional scientific research to determine what foods are good for us and what foods aren't. \n Besides, there isn't any one \"paleo\" diet. Once humans started spreading out, the diets of various groups would have differed wildly. While one group would likely be eating piles of fruits, vegetables and fish, others would likely be eating almost nothing but bison and corn. \n Where the evolutionary clues come into play is in choosing foods to avoid. For example, while we don't know exactly what our ancestors were eating, we can easily look at the technology available at the era and extrapolate things they  weren't  eating (or at least, things they weren't eating in any sizable amount). \n Things like: \n \n Grains (yes, there is some evidence of grain usage 100,000 years ago or so, but to the best of our knowledge, humans of that era lacked the tools to harvest substantial amounts) \n Seed oils (not a lot of canola processing plants back then) \n Refined sugars (honey is probably the closest we got) \n Dairy products (ever try milking a wild mammal large enough to provide you with a decent amount of milk? That said, there's been a pretty strong selection coefficient pushing us as a species toward post-weaning lactose tolerance) \n \n Now, that's not to say that all of these things are necessarily bad. \"Grains\" includes a lot of stuff, and is more of a \"spectrum of badness\" than \"me grok. all grains bad. ug.\" On one end, you've got wheat (especially the crazy genetically-engineered mutant dwarf wheat we're sold these days), to which some studies have shown a great number of people react poorly to, and on the other end, you've got white rice, which, while fairly nutritionally empty, doesn't have a whole lot of \"bad\" going for it. \n There's so much more discussion and debate on all of these topics (including things like legumes), but they're not really relevant to the OP. For anyone interested in learning more about how the paleo diet actually works, I highly recommend  Kurt Harris' Archevore , and [The Framework of Common Sense](", "id": "c3sd625", "summary": "Nobody (at least that I've heard of) that's eating a paleo diet is trying to re-enact caveman culture or even caveman diet. To do so would be ridiculous. We're using evolutionary clues along with modern nutritional research to make decisions about what foods will best fuel our bodies. \n /edit: Also, I can't believe I completely forgot to mention that one of the primary attributes of paleo meat-eating is focusing on getting quality meat. That means pastured, humanely-raised animals that aren't pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. Look through any of the books, blogs, forums, etc, and you'll see lots of people talking about grass-fed beef, pastured chickens/eggs, etc. For some, this is a health issue, but for others, the health benefits are just the icing on a humane, animal-loving cake."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "I would imagine if it existed, such a sign would be in an academic office, not in the strength coach's office. \n If someone was failing history, would you expect their physics teacher to do something about it? \n >When studying conflicts with exercising, they're expected to exercise. \n Actually, they're expected to honor their commitments by those that they made the commitments to. I can't imagine their professors expect them to exercise instead of study. \n Plus, this isn't about shame. It's about keeping them from getting professional sports contracts.", "id": "c7nk4rh", "summary": "Your point is nonexistent. It's an attempt to try and act superior and \"intellectual\" at the expense of athletes. It's asinine at best."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "This. \n Cavemen didn't worry about macronutrient ratios or calories. They ate what they found/hunted. \n They ate animals (most likely the fatty parts and some of the organs).\nThey ate plants (That includes potatoes, too). \n That said, I go out of my way to eat some extra fat, just because it's kinda tough to get decent amount normally, and I notice when I eat more fat, I've got more energy (and tend to drop weight a bit faster, too). \n Also, like nance said, paleo is about avoiding neolithic thoughts on food and nutrition, but for a lot of people, it's also about self-experimentation. That is, you start with cutting out foods that are problematic for a lot of people (grains, seed oils, sugary snacks, legumes, dairy) to set a baseline for yourself. Once you see how you feel eating just meat, fruits and vegetables, start tinkering and see what effect other things have on you. \n For example, I find that a couple tablespoons of good, grass-fed butter (Kerrygold is amazing) gives me more of an energy boost than a cup of coffee from starbucks. Plus, it's delicious. :) \n Any significant amount of wheat, on the other hand, will have me pooping funny for 2-3 days. Same with canola oil. Dairy doesn't really have much effect either way, but when I add heavy cream to my coffee, it'll keep me from getting hungry for quite a while. \n Once you set your baseline (and have broken your carb/insulin cycle), you can try experimenting with intermittent fasting. Personally, I find that skipping a few meals, then breaking the fast with a big meal consisting of lots of protein, fat and vegetables leaves me with a slight buzz (energy, not drunk) for several days. \n I also find that spiking my carb intake every so often (one day every 2-3 weeks) helps with weight loss, as long as it's good carbs, like potatoes/sweet potatoes/fruit (even some rice sometimes), and not sugar/wheat garbage.", "id": "c2lbvx4", "summary": "There's no single answer because there's no single \"paleo\" diet. Start by getting rid of grains, vegetable oil and sugar, and experiment from there to see what's best for you."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "So... We're supposed to post questions on a SR that will have a handful of subscribers (who's really gonna subscribe to that SR? People that just love answering housing questions?)? \n Were the housing questions really causing that much of a problem, or were they just annoying a handful of vocal redditors that didn't happen to need the info at the time it was posted? \n I appreciate the work that went into the new SR, but disagree with it being a rule (if it is). The whole point of the up/down arrows is to make interesting posts more visible and redundant garbage less visible. If housing posts are being prominently displayed, it means that people are actually interested in them, despite what a few naysayers claim.", "id": "c4jl93e", "summary": "a new subreddit for housing is a mistake."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "First, they tend to not be nearly as careful and cause me issues when dealing with restaurants because they set a bad precedent of \"well THAT person ate that, why can't you?\" \n Yeah, I get that. I know I've been guilty of this in the past. I do, though, make an effort not to be, and will try to educate wait staff as necessary, if not for myself, then for others that may come after me. \n Still, though, at the very least, without all of those undiagnosed gluten-free eaters, wouldn't your GF options still be pretty severely limited? Annoying though we may be, I think it's hard to say that the fad hasn't improved things for celiacs in general. \n >Second, IMO it's kind of dumb to not go through the process and know for sure, since you may get none of the protections that are starting to evolve out of various current ADA suits. \n I can see this, but that's more of a personal choice. I don't see a lot of situations in which I'd need such protection, but if it came down to it, I definitely would go and get a specific diagnosis. \n > Third, if it's not actually what's making you sick, you haven't found the root of the problem. A good doctor would then proceed onto other tests from there like fructose malabsorption or other conditions. I'm a fan of knowing what is actually wrong with me, instead of just kind of hand waving at it with a bogus self diagnosis. This pet peeve of mine includes doctors who just do that too. \n Unfortunately, \"good doctors\" like that are kind of hard to find, in my experience. I agree that it's better to know what's actually going on, but I also think there's a line to be drawn between wanting to know for medical/treatment reasons, and just wanting to know for knowing's sake. Where that line is will vary with every person (and every issue, really). For me, it's kind of like the \"doc, it hurts when I do this.\" \"well, don't do that\" joke. I don't feel well when I eat gluten, so I don't. Just like how it hurts my back when I sleep on my stomach, so I don't sleep on my stomach. There isn't much that an x-ray or CT scan will change about that.", "id": "ck061oj", "summary": "I think I get your anger, especially as it relates to your life in particular, but being angry with other people about the way they live their life only really affects you. \n (What's the saying? \"Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die\"?)"}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "Awww, yes, you definitely somehow hurt my feelings. Except for the part where I'm not religious and don't give a shit about what you think. \n I was just pointing out that making religious jabs like that is childish and irrelevant to the conversation. \n Regarding the OP, it's great that he wants to spread the good word, but most of us have figured out that we can't make anyone want to just turn their back on a lifetime of conventional wisdom out of nowhere. The harder you push, the harder they push back. \n The absolute best way to show the benefits of this lifestyle is to be a great example. Make a point of it, but don't be preachy about it. When you start seeing success, others will see it in you. Some will ask what your secret is. This is not an invitation to proselytize. They don't actually care. Tell them you're avoiding grains and sugar. If they want to know more, they'll come back and ask. Most won't.", "id": "c5k8v1s", "summary": "your post was worthless. OP should succeed as best he/she can, to be an example for others around him/her."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "Um... I don't think there's any one cause, but I'm going to ramble a little here, and see what comes out. Bear with me. \n As bloggers get more followers, more books out, more attention, etc., I think some of them handle it poorly and start thinking that their view is \"important\" (a subset of this is the \"probably certifiably insane\" group). \n Self-importance leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to paleodrama. \n But really, I think a big part of the problem is paleo \"gurus\". I don't think it's their  fault , necessarily, but some people treat paleo like a religion, and like any religion, they need someone to follow. Likewise, since groups are defined by those that  aren't  part of the group, they look for people to harass, abuse, etc., whether it's for being too strict, not strict enough, low-carb, not low-carb, misogynistic, too \"woo\", etc. \n Another part of the problem is people taking all of this  too  seriously. Instead of eating a paleo diet, people are considering themselves \"paleo\". There's a difference. When you wrap your entire identity up in something like a diet, religion, etc., any affront to that thing becomes an affront to you, yourself. So these people that \"are\" paleo (whatever particular brand of \"paleo\" that might be) read/hear about somebody criticizing their flavor of paleo, and take it personally, then they lash out through their keyboards or podcast or whatever. \n On the one hand, I worry that all of this nonsense and bullshit (and infighting and the name \"paleo\" and exclusionism, etc.) are going to keep this movement from going truly mainstream. If I was new to paleo and stumbled upon something like the paleodrama tumblr, I'd be pretty immediately turned off. \n On the other hand, I think that most of it is only really apparent to those of us that read tons of paleo blogs, tweets, etc. I hope that's the case, anyway. Otherwise, this handful of grownups acting like infants is making us all look bad. \n Truthfully, I rarely even tell people I eat a paleo diet anymore. I find it kind of embarrassing. Not because I'm embarrassed about the diet itself, but because the way it's marketed/sold is a joke. I love bacon, but I don't wrap all of my food in it. I'll have a gluten-free treat every now and then. I don't live off of them, but I don't feel guilty about it, either. My diet is more than a Ron Swanson meat platter. (I know that isn't what paleo  actually  is, but more and more, that's the way it's being peddled, and I don't like it.) \n I'm much more comfortable just telling people I focus on eating \"real foods\". It's simple, direct, doesn't sound like a fad, and even if they don't know the details, people have at least a vague idea of what it means without any explanation. If they want to know more, I'll happily talk about it, but I'll usually make them ask me a few times (somebody asking once doesn't usually give a shit).", "id": "c9011qv", "summary": "Paleo drama is fucking stupid. Knock it off. Grow up."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "Wow, way to be a complete dick to someone (who even implied that they are/were in the military) presenting a perfectly valid thought. \n Also, what makes this war any worse than any other? I think once you hit a certain level of \"ohfuckthissucks\", you start to max out your shitty-shit-o-meter. \n Did you even read the article? It doesn't say anything about the mental trauma of this war being worse. \n Instead, it talks about how there's greater awareness of things like PTSD (so it gets reported more now), a shittier economy (so people need help more often), and possibly the biggest factor: better battlefield medicine is saving more lives. That is, a lot of soldiers that would otherwise have died are now disabled instead, and collecting benefits. \n Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of any war, let alone this one, but before you try being a dick to the first person participating in the conversation YOU started, maybe you should actually read the article you posted, instead of just the headline.", "id": "c4taoku", "summary": "OP probably didn't even read past the headline"}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "Agreed. \n Of course, when someone chooses not to eat meat, they  are  saving the lives of whatever amount of animal they would have otherwise eaten. That's obvious. \n Unfortunately, the \"message\" doesn't really go beyond that. The most it does is basically let them feel better for not \"contributing to the problem\". \n Here's why: \n The factory-farm industry is like any other, in that it cares for one thing: money. Because of this, every consumer can vote with their wallet to determine how the meat industry is run (unfortunately, government subsidies undermine our ability to do so, but there isn't a ton we can do about that, so we fight where we can). \n If you choose to not eat meat, you are voting with your wallet; businesses (even big ones) want to follow the money. The problem is, if you're completely pulling your money out of the meat industry, where are they supposed to follow it to? When you stop eating meat, the meat industry doesn't know if it's because you don't think animals should be eaten at all, because you don't like the way animals are treated in their farms, or because you just don't like the taste of meat. \n A better option, IMO, would be to support small, humane farms; ones that treat the animals well. This, while not saving the life of whatever animal you're now eating, sends a much larger message to the meat industry: \"What you're doing sucks. We want this, instead.\" (vs. the just \"What you're doing sucks.\" of going vegetarian). \n From a \"voting with your wallet\" point of view, going vegetarian because of poor animal treatment in factory farms is not unlike learning that your favorite shirt maker uses child labor, and, instead of switching to another clothing company for your shirts, choosing not to wear shirts at all. This makes you feel better, but really just leaves the shirt makers thinking you're a weirdo they couldn't be selling to anyway. \n Of course, there are people that feel that animals shouldn't be used for food at all. They don't really factor into this, other than as another point where the meat industry would see them as lost dollars, not money they could follow to a better option. (Though, this stance completely ignores the fact that, were it not for meat production, something like 99% of the animals we eat would never have been born at all, assuming their species hadn't gone extinct hundreds of years ago.)", "id": "cceo7b0", "summary": "Vegetarianism/veganism are well-intentioned, but ultimately ineffective means of helping animals being mistreated in factory farms. If you care about how farm animals are treated, eat meat from small, local, humane farms. \n ^Now... ^how ^do ^I ^turn ^off ^response ^notifications ^to ^this ^comment..."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "I'm not sure why anyone is surprised by this. We, quite literally, have a system that elects whoever is the best at campaigning. \n I'll make a metaphor (allegory? I'm never quite sure): \n Let's say that congress is actually a tech company. This company needs to hire a bunch of web designers for two-year contracts. Due to the nature of the job market when the company was founded (over two hundred and thirty years ago), the application process consists exclusively of a series of torch-juggling competitions. \n The problem, though, is that, once they're hired, the torch-jugglers know that they're going to have to re-apply for their job in two years, so instead of working on websites for you, they spend all of their time practicing torch-juggling. \n \"Well, that's easy! Just fire them!\" you might say. Unfortunately, this company's contracts are written in a way that makes this so difficult that in over two hundred years, only ONE employee has ever been fired from this company. \n Now, all is not lost! These web designers can only work for a set number of contracts in their lifetime, after which, they can no longer apply. Surely, they'd get some web design done during that last contract, right? Since they know they don't need to torch juggle ever again? \n Weeell, they actually just spend all of their last contract helping their friends and family learn to torch juggle, so THEY can get cushy web design jobs.", "id": "cbmbq6n", "summary": "If you set up a system where people compete for a job that's entirely unrelated to the competition itself, you're going to end up with people that are good at the competition, not the job."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "You know... I  just  finished listening to all of the Order 66 podcasts over the course of a couple weeks. I tried going back to my old podcasts, like Radiolab, This American Life, etc., and I'm just not that interested in them. \n I got desperate and searched my podcast app for \"Edge of the Empire\". I found a podcast called Dice Hero(es?), where they've done a like, 14-episode EotE campaign, but the audio quality makes them really hard to understand.", "id": "cbof797", "summary": "I'd love to hear another EotE podcast, so thanks! :)"}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "Here's evidence that the paper, at least, isn't photoshopped (or if it is, is done  very  well): \n This is a \"threshold\" adjustment, at various (progressive) settings. Basically, threshold just turns anything below a certain brightness level black, and anything above it white. \n The gif shows that even though the paper  looks  all white, it's actually very naturally graduated (if only slightly).", "id": "c9e42cg", "summary": "w: OP has no idea what he's talking about. Nor do 90% of the people on this thread."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "This may be a counter-point to the top comment or two, and it's more \"advice\" than \"thing you didn't know\", but: \n Don't start a business just to make a job for yourself. The point of starting a business should be to separate your income from the amount of time you put in. \n If you start a business just to work there, you're just trading your day job for a new day job, but now taking all of the risk onto yourself, rather than letting someone else carry it. \n Instead, start a business and work there to get it off the ground if you need to, but have an exit strategy, and get out of there as quickly as you possibly can. Hire someone to do the work. Even if doing so drops the amount of money going into your pocket to just a tiny amount, if you're having to do no work to make it (and are building a strong company in the process), it's worth it. \n As my friend says, \"I can do a whole lot of nothing.\" \n (Meaning, if you do this a few times over, you're still doing nothing, but making decent money in the process.) \n The one exception is if your business is doing something that you truly love. Even then, though, do it as a hobby, separate from the business.", "id": "cea8q8b", "summary": "Never start a business to work for yourself. Start a business to have other people work for you."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "This is something my wife and I are trying to figure out (I'm 29, she's 27). We have quite a few \"couple\" friends, but they're all pretty much in different phases of their lives. \n Most have 1-3 year-olds (we're not having kids for a couple of years at least), or on the flipside, are younger/in party mode. We have basically  one  set of friends that's in about the same place as we are, and they work like crazy, so we only get to see them once every month or two (they're two of our favorite people, though). \n What complicates things even more is that my wife and I don't share a lot of interests. I like videogames, she doesn't. She likes reality TV, I don't. We both like having people over to play board/card games, but we have fairly different taste in games (she'd rather play rummy-style games, I'd rather play Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, or Fluxx). \n Haven't yet figured out a solution. I'm super-outgoing and don't have trouble meeting new people, but my wife isn't, really (and is student teaching right now, so our free time is limited). Plus, it seems like it would be tricky to find new couple friends without sounding like you're either trying to finagle a four-way or sell them amway.", "id": "c2jlzgl", "summary": "same boat as OP, but with lots of couple friends that are in baby or party mode, when we're not."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "Nope. Honestly, I think it's kind of overblown in the paleo community. That is, while getting down to a 1:1 ratio  might  help some health markers, I think you definitely get into diminishing returns as you get closer. \n At the end of the day, we still don't fully (or even barely) understand the human body's mechanisms, so why stress over making things \"perfect\"? \n From a pure \"paleo\" standpoint, there were likely huge variations in O6:O3 ratios among different primitive groups during our evolutionary past. It seems disingenuous to claim that any one ratio is \"ideal\".", "id": "c3lonal", "summary": "don't stress over it. Eat whole real foods. Get higher quality (pastured) when you can. Live your life."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "Why does this make me feel like there's some kind of grand backstory? Like you came from a long line of donut makers, and were training to take over for your dad when he retired at the family donut spot, but at 18, announced that you were going into finance. \n There was a large falling-out and didn't speak to your family for over ten years. Then, when the market collapsed, you lost everything. Destitute and hopeless, you ran into your father at Howe and Fair Oaks, where you had been panhandling for a year. He took you to lunch at the Safeway deli, where the two of you began talking. Suddenly, you broke down, sobbing, telling him how sorry you were. He waved it off as though there was nothing to be sorry about, but you saw a small tear roll down his cheek as well. \n He told you not to mention it again, and that as far as he was concerned, it never happened. He offered you a job at the bakery, which you humbly accepted. Back on your feet, you began getting your life back together, and before long, you had an apartment and a great girlfriend. \n Then, one day, your dad didn't show up for work. You called his house, but he didn't answer. Concerned, you closed up shop for the day and rushed over to his house, where you found him, laying on the kitchen floor, barely moving. Rushing over to him, you called 911, but they didn't get there in time. Knowing his time was short, he explained how he had seen you panhandling every day for a year before you spotted him, driving by 10-20 times a day, in different hat/sunglass/shirt combinations, to give you a bit of cash without you knowing it was coming from him, as he was worried you were still upset with him and wouldn't accept it otherwise. \n The day you spotted him and accepted his invitation to lunch was the happiest of his life, and he was proud of the man that you had become. With his dying breath, he told you that he loved you, and that he knew his bakery would live on in your capable hands. \n Two weeks later, Doughbot opened down the street, putting your father's bakery out of business.", "id": "c4mfkzj", "summary": "Did Doughbot kill your family's bakery and along with it, the last piece you had of your relationship with your father?"}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "In my experience, the best way to deal with this is by asking questions. Don't argue, but ask them to expand on what they're saying (and try to avoid doing it in a dickish way). \n Most of the time, they're just regurgitating what they heard on MSN Health, and they won't be able to. Asking questions keeps them from getting defensive, so they're more likely to lead themselves to realizing you might be right (which is far more effective than arguing with them). \n Like a lawyer, though, never ask a question if you don't already know the answer. \n For example: \n Ask  why  you need grains, and what, exactly, you'd be getting from them that you can't get in greater quantities from meat, fruits and vegetables. If she can't come up with a reason, tell her that you'd be interested in seeing a chart of the necessary nutrients that grains provide and how the amounts compare to meat, vegetables, etc. \n Ask her why carbohydrates are so important, and why you need 300g a day. \n Ask her if carbs are the only place you can get energy. \n Ask her what the problem is with protein/fat. \n Also, tell her that you're happy to get your cholesterol checked (Griff on the MDA forums has some great info on what kind of test you want to get, and what the numbers all mean), to make sure you're not killing yourself. \n Part of the trick is making sure you don't act like paleo can do no wrong (and really, we shouldn't be thinking that anyway). People want to be heard. Invite her to express her views, and ask questions about what she says. If she doesn't have an answer to a question, ask her if she'd be willing to google it and get back to you. Likewise, offer to answer any questions she might have about your dietary rationale (and make sure you know why you're eating the way you're eating).", "id": "c3u0by2", "summary": "Listen to what she has to say. Ask questions of her. Invite her to do further research and talk with her about what she finds. Don't get defensive, and don't put her on the defensive."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "My suggestion would be twofold: \n 1) tone down the \"crazy\" parts of paleo for your wife. Putting coconut oil on toast is a little weird. Eating it from a spoon is weird for non-paleos, and doesn't really accomplish much for you. \n The weirder paleo seems to her, the less likely she'll be to listen to you on any dietary issue. Focus on the fact that you're eating whole foods, healthy meats, fruits, and vegetables, and trying to avoid nutritionally-devoid processed foods that are just filler. \n 2a) go do some research. Aside from diabetes, there are studies that suggest that gluten issues can cause (or at least contribute to) ADHD, autism, colic and other common childhood issues. Present some of this research to her (NOT PALEO BLOGS ON THE RESEARCH) as \"this is what I'm seeing, and it scares me.) Gluten is a \"yes/no\" argument. Diabetes is a \"more/less\" argument. \n 2b) emphasize the fact that children have smaller stomachs than adults, and that they therefore need more nutrient-dense foods. When they're full on toast, they miss out on a bevy of nutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc) that are sorely needed by a growing child.", "id": "c3ssjlh", "summary": "tone down your paleo crazy as much as possible. Focus on the gluten, not the diabetes. Focus on nutrient-rich foods. \n P.S. read wheat belly. Some shitty science in there, but it's alongside good info as well, that might help you out."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "Let me break this down, lest I get all convoluted and confused jumping back and forth. \n First, beef jerky is a pretty solid option, but it's tough to find jerky without: \n \n Loads of sugar, and  \n Wheat (in the form of soy sauce) \n \n As far as \"exceptions\" go, it could be worse, but if you're going for it and eating paleo, why not go all-in, at least for awhile, to see how it goes? \n Now, sodium. The research showing that sodium causes high blood pressure is overblown at best. The original study that most people are thinking of showed that rats would get high blood pressure when fed the human equivalent of half a kilo of salt a day. In fact, if you're eating lower-carb than normal, you'll need additional salt intake to offset the salt you're losing along with the water you're shedding. \n If you want to share a link with your parents regarding sodium intake, most people tend to trust [Scientific American]( \n Now, onward to fat! This much-maligned macronutrient has caught a pretty bad rap over the years. One of the pioneers of the \"lipid hypothesis\" (which is a fancy way of saying \"fat, especially saturated fat, causes atherosclerosis\") was a scientist named Ancel Keys*. In the 50s, he released a couple of studies that seemed to show, fairly conclusively, a link between heart disease and saturated fat intake. \n There were a couple of problems with his research, though: \n \n He conveniently neglected data from countries that didn't support the lipid hypothesis, and \n His study was observational (as you may have heard, correlation does not imply causation) \n \n For a good explanation of the shoddy science behind the lipid hypothesis, check out Tom Naughton's work. Specifically,  Fat Head , or (my preference)  Big Fat Fiasco . \n Paleo is about eating the way the human animal would. In the wild, humans don't eat grains, refined sugars, or seed oils. We eat plants and animals. When eating animals, we go for the most nutrient-rich parts, which are the (usually saturated) fat and internal organs. Lean muscle is more of an afterthought. This is how our species evolved to eat, and how we thrive. \n * For the sake of fairness, Ancel Keys is often slightly misrepresented by the paleo/low carb community (note that paleo is not necessarily low-carb, and vice-versa). The always-insightful Denise Minger has a [good explanation of the common misconceptions we have about Ancel Keys]( in case you're interested.", "id": "c3mytqw", "summary": "Fat and Sodium are not bad for you."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "As I understand it, it is  quite  difficult to gain a patent on game mechanics (I am not certain whether wotc owns such a patent, but I don't believe they do). You can copyright the actual description of a mechanic, but all somebody has to do is describe it differently to avoid running afoul of said copyright. \n The OGL that you're referring to, I believe, simply lets game developers use actual text/content from WotC-owned properties. \n /edit:", "id": "cjxwym1", "summary": "Anyone that wants to can implement game mechanics without a license, for the most part. Just can't implement artwork/text/copyrighted material."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "So, she spends 17 minutes \"debunking\" the \"media\" version of the paleo diet, ignoring the fact that most people that pay attention to paleo would know that eating things like bone marrow and organs are recommended, and that very few of us are advocating \"re-enactment\", or think that we're \"eating like our ancestors did\". \n Then she spends five minutes recommending something that's actually very close to what most of us follow/recommend. \n Right after stretching outside of her area of expertise and saying that 3bn people can't eat that way. \n As always, I feel like this was a great opportunity wasted. Because of misconceptions about this diet, we got a \"debunking\" of things that are basically irrelevant to most of us (though, I think that a few of us will learn something from it). \n The thing is, though, I don't blame her, or in other cases, the reporters doing stories on paleo. Information on paleo is SUPER easy to find. You can throw a rock and hit a dozen sites. Unfortunately, most of them present, first and foremost, this caricature of paleo. The caveman, lots-of-bacon, \"lolol vegetables\" caricature. \n Even on most of the sites that talk about it, you have to really dig to find out that the idea behind paleo is that there are lots of \"paleo\" diets, and that we're not trying to replicate them, but we  are  trying to learn from them. \n I totally get this, too. We want to get the word out to as many people as possible. We feel, deep in our bones, that this makes sense. This is the right way of looking at nutrition, and we want our friends and loved ones to know about it (yes, very religion-y. I get it). To that end, a lot of sites dumb it down, so that it's easier to digest (pun totally intended). \n Unfortunately, this dumbed-down version is like a knight going into battle wearing a crotchplate (I don't know what they're really called) made of canvas. Anyone looking for a fight is going to see that, start swinging, and easily hit something. \n Likewise, \"herp-derp paleo\", as widespread as it is, is basically ASKING for people like this to come along and go \"wait, no. that's bullshit. This whole thing must be bullshit.\" \n And I can't blame them for that.", "id": "c8wfofq", "summary": "Dumbing down paleo to get our message across ultimately hurts the message and makes it an easy target for people that know what they're talking about."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "While grassfed meat is ideal, it's not absolutely necessary. IMO, it kinda falls into the land of diminishing returns. If you can get it, great, so much the better. If not, don't worry too much about it. \n Now, as for the non-question part of your post: \n Cravings are completely natural at this point of what you're doing. Your body is addicted to sugar and \"easy\" carbs (and probably physically addicted to wheat). You're going through withdrawals. Plus, your body is transitioning to getting most of its energy from fat/protein rather than carb carb carb all day long. \n You'll probably start feeling kinda crappy, too. That's commonly referred to as \"low-carb flu\". Happens to the best of us. Power through. It almost always helps to increase your fat intake. Get fatty cuts of beef, add butter to things, etc. Avoid vegetable oils. Olive oil is mostly okay. \n Think of the extra fat as a signpost for your body. \"HERE'S YOUR ENERGY, BODY. GOOOOOOOOOOO.\" \n Now, my story:\nI started at 235 (6'2\") on Jan 1 of 2011 (not as a resolution, but because it's stupid to start weight loss in the middle of the holidays) on 4HB, just like you. I was eating beans and eggs practically every morning, day after day. For lunch, I'd usually make a salad, and for dinner, we had a lot of chicken breasts and roasted broccoli (my wife wasn't dieting, but I do almost all of the cooking). I was losing almost a pound every other day at first. Mostly water weight, but there was definitely some fat loss, too. \n On Sundays, I'd do my cheat day, and go nuts. Candy, cereal, bread, pizza, etc. After the first cheat day, I didn't feel too bad, but after the second one (so, a couple weeks in), I was hating life. I'd get pretty bad stomach pains, gas, epic, gross poops (sorry for TMI). It wasn't fun. For a while, I was still losing, though, so I didn't mind so much. \n I didn't hate beans yet (never really loved them), but breakfasts were pretty boring. After a month or so, I was noticing that with every cheat day, I was gaining back all of the weight I had lost in the week prior, which would then take almost exactly a week to lose again. In other words, I had plateaued. This was at about 220. I kept at it for another month or so, because a few friends were kicking ass on slow carb, but I never really got under 219-220ish. \n In March, I was reading around and found paleo. I thought \"huh, that's not TOO big of a stretch from what I'm doing\", and it actually made stupid amounts of sense to me, so I gave it a try. No more cheat days, and I went into it as a lifestyle change for long-term health benefits. If I lost weight, so much the better (I did. Got down to a steady 209 before I got complacent and starting eating potatoes far too often). \n Now, I'm still going strong on paleo (though, I got a little lazy at christmas and ate too much candy), and am borderline obsessed. I learned that I have at least a mild gluten intolerance, as well as a very mild dairy intolerance. \n I  can  cheat, but I find that I really don't want to, because I can tell you, almost without fail, exactly how I'm going to feel after any given meal. Sometimes, it's worth it. Most of the time, though, it isn't, and frankly, I don't miss it. I used to be  really  into bread and pizza crust making. Now, I miss the making, but not the eating. \n Even the smell of fresh-baked bread is very neutral to me (whereas, before, I'd catch a whiff in the grocery store and start planning an entire meal around a french loaf). \n So yeah. There you go. If you have any more questions, feel free to bug me. I enjoy answering them, though I'll probably just give you a link to something Mark Sisson has posted.", "id": "c3eom6u", "summary": "Started on 4HB. Felt like shit after cheat days. Plateaued after losing 15lb. Switched to paleo. Lost another 11lb. Am very happy and plan on sticking with it indefinitely."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "So, as part of my blade-testing, I threw a couple feathers in the mix. I wasn't a fan. They were super-sharp, but felt very harsh. I didn't cut myself per se, but my skin was definitely raw. \n Today, I went to replace the shark that was in my razor, and the closest was a feather, so I thought \"eh, I'll give it another go\". \n Pretty damn good shave today. Better than I've had with just about any other blade (except for a \"sweet spot\" shave that I got with a stupid amount of prep and a derby, and haven't been able to reproduce). No real change in prep. I was just  very  light on the touch. Like, zero pressure. I'm thinking that was my problem originally. Gonna keep going (I've got a couple packs of feathers) and see how it works out, but I'm hopeful.", "id": "t3_shxul", "summary": "If you've tried feathers, but thought they were too sharp/harsh, try again, and use as little pressure as humanly possible. A 'feather' touch, so to speak."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "Actually, this is more of a way for me to think \"out loud\", and bounce ideas off of people that may or may not even be reading this, but I'd value any input you guys might have (especially those of you that have GM'ed one or more sessions of EotE). \n So, I have run one session of the Beginner Game scenario. It was my first time GM'ing any RPG, and like, my third time being involved in tabletop RPG'ing in any way. \n Needless to say, I  really  enjoyed it. We stumbled a bit here and there, and made a few mistakes in hindsight, but my players (just two) had a good time, so I call it a win. \n Of course, now, I'm looking for another group to GM for (assembling a group of noobs that are interested in tabletop rpg'ing), but I want to come up with something to make my life as GM a bit easier. Naturally, as a web designer/developer, my first thought was a page I could load on my iPad during games. \n So, I need thoughts on what would be priorities for such a tool. \n So far, I'm thinking: \n Character sheets for each player, including all skills, characteristics, calculated dice pools for each, strain, wound, weapons, items, armor, etc. \n Likewise, I'd like to be able to have pre-built NPCs (from the beta/core rulebook, as well as GM-defined ones) stored, and have the ability to select at the start of a scenario which NPCs will be involved in the current session. \n I'd also like to be able to have a button next to each skill (with options for difficulty, range, and modifiers) to either do a dice roll for that ability, or to just show the appropriate dice pool so players can roll for themselves (more likely). \n During encounters, I'd like to be able to bring in any of the aforementioned NPCs, store action order, calculate dice pools, calculate/save wounds (after soak, for example) on players and NPCs. \n That's all I've really thought of from a GM standpoint, though, I'm sure there are things I haven't thought of, since all I've played is the beginner game scenario, where everything is basically laid out for you. Once I start making my own scenarios, there will probably be things I'd want to track. \n Oh, and I'd like to have a character builder, so my players can use their phones, ipads, or even just their computers, to build characters ahead of time (of course, there will probably be things I'll have to verify/veto when the time comes). \n A map builder would be amazing, but probably outside the scope of this tool. I think for the first version of this, I'll make it a tool primarily for running the Beginner Game. \n Any thoughts?", "id": "t3_182t2x", "summary": "What would you want in a web-based tool to help GMs manage their games?"}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "So, near the end of the article, Eades explains stable isotope analysis and how it's used in determining the diet of a creature from its bones. \n Long story short, C13 analysis tells us whether the meat was land or ocean-based, and C15 analysis tells us how high on the food chain we are. \n According to the data presented, the neanderthals tested were even higher on the food chain than several obligate carnivores (basically, C15 builds up in your bones, from the food you eat. Plants have less, animals have more. Carnivores have even more, still). Eades uses this information to conclude that: \n > But since we do know that wolves and foxes are predators that consume mainly food of animal origin, and we know that early humans have an even more carnivorous stable isotope footprint, it seems unlikely that these humans would have consumed many calories from non-animal sources. \n I feel like this is kind of a leap. Doesn't it just mean that we ate other carnivores, making us apex predators? That doesn't necessarily say anything about plant sources of food, does it? \n Also, this kind of analysis is just showing where protein comes from. I don't think it's a big surprise that most of human's protein comes from animals. Protein isn't exactly abundant in plant sources. \n Don't get me wrong, I'm all about eating meat, and I even believe that humans can survive (and even thrive) on animal products alone; this just seems like a pretty specious argument to try and prove that we're \"supposed to\". \n Am I missing a piece of the puzzle, or just misunderstanding?", "id": "t3_nlf96", "summary": "Is Michael Eades pulling conclusions out of his ass?"}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "So, I started my Star Trek watching as a kid with TNG, then eventually DS9, and even a little Voyager. I watched through all of Enterprise when it was all done (and loved it). \n Recently, I started watching back through them, starting with TNG, then going in order. Once I finished Voyager, I decided to watch through TOS. I had seen a couple of episodes, and never really had much interest in watching the rest, largely due to the camp factor. \n That said, I'm a few episodes into season 2, and while this will come as no surprise to many of you, it's  really  good. Like, good-to-the-point-that-I-now-understand-the-people-that-think-Kirk-is-a-better-captain-than-Picard good. \n So far, the only episode I've really just tuned out while watching was The Menagerie, and that's because I watched The Cage as the pilot, so I had already seen about 90% of the episode. \n Beyond that, the campiness and crappy fx have been surprisingly easy to ignore, as the story and acting end up being far more of the focus anyhow (which is as it should be). What end up being more jarring is noticing things that don't quite mesh with my TNG-era knowledge of the Star Trek universe (\"United Earth Ship...\" instead of \"Federation Star Ship\", \"Vulcanian\", etc.). \n These are all pretty easy to ignore, though, too. \n I also notice there are a lot fewer  bad  episodes in TOS. Some are just fine, while others are great, but TNG, DS9, and Voyager all had some absolute stinkers, with a few gems interspersed. I haven't noticed any atrocious episodes just yet.", "id": "t3_172rlf", "summary": "If you've been holding out on watching TOS, give it a shot, but maybe skip The Cage. You'll get about 90% of the gist by watching the two-parter  The Menagerie  near the end of Season 1."}, {"author": "rootyb", "content": "First, thanks, everyone for your input. We appreciate it, because hell, we (the mods) don't know everything. At least, not all at the same time. \n Second, I'm happy to announce that /u/joelrunyon and /u/ac91 have joined the /r/paleo mod team, so be sure to give them a warm welcome. Given /u/joelrunyon's past history around here, especially, I think it's pretty likely that he'll be spearheading the monthly theme posts, so feel free to PM him with suggestions. ;) \n Now, a few changes to the rules around here (all of which will be in the sidebar shortly): \n Link posts are back, with a few caveats: \n \n No memes/macros, paleo-related or not.  There's so much of that everywhere else, we don't really need it here.  \n If you're posting a link to a blog post, please do so as a self-post with a quick, one-paragraph summary of the post.  This is partly out of consideration for our mobile users, but also to help keep people from mindlessly link-dumping. If the link you're posting is mostly a recipe, but it has a big ol' blog post associated with it (I still don't know why that's a thing, but it is), you can just post the link. \n (And this one is important for some of you)  If you are posting a link to your own blog or site, it must be a self-post with a short summary,  and  you must tag the title of the post with [SP]  (so, like \"How to lose weight by eating nothing but sticks of butter! [SP]\"). \n \n #3 is, of course, a bit harder to enforce, but it's usually pretty obvious what's going on when a user has never posted anything but links to a single domain. We'll be investigating any reports and making judgement calls. In the case of blatant and repeated violation of this rule, we won't ban anyone, but we will probably blacklist direct links to the offending domain. \n That brings me to... \n Title-tagging \n Going forward, please include one or more of the following tags at the end of the title for each new post: \n \n [SP] \n [Article] \n [Recipe] \n [Research] (links to scientific articles) \n [Discussion] (general discussion) \n [Food Pic] \n [Progress Pic] \n [Paleo Junk Food]  \n [Other] \n \n Feel free to suggest more, but let's keep them fairly broad for now. This is mostly an experiment, so expect changes over the next few weeks, and for now, enforcement will just be a reminder reply if you forget a tag. Eventually, though, should this experiment stick, we'll be removing posts that don't include a tag, and sending a reminder/explanation so that you can re-post. Totally not something we'll be banning/shadowbanning for. Just more of a \"hey, you forgot a tag, please resubmit your post with one\" kind of thing. \n And last, but not least (seriously. Not least at all. Probably the biggest change): \n Comment rule change \n (I didn't know how else to title this) \n This is sort of an expansion of our general, long-standing-but-not-often-enforced \"don't be a dick\" policy. First, we (the mods) are going to start being a bit more liberal with the modhammer when it comes to people generally being jerks. By and large, you folks are fantastic. Usually people being dicks get downvoted pretty hard, so we don't usually feel the need to remove those comments. We're going to start, though. \n Additionally, and this one's going to be somewhat controversial:  We're taking an official stance on what paleo \"is\" (at least regarding /r/paleo), and enforcing it to a certain extent. \n That stance is this: \n Paleo is something different for every person, but at its core, it is little more than a framework to achieve personal health by paying attention to your body and the history of our species. \n Pretty vague, I know, but that's the point. Here's how it affects you (and how it ties into the \"don't be a dick\" policy): \n Stop acting like \"your\" paleo is the \"One True Paleo™\". It isn't, and, frankly, acting like it is confuses new people. Feel free to tell people what's worked for you, what they could try, what you've read, what other people are doing, etc., but if you're writing the words \"you need\" in a comment, it probably needs to have \"to talk to your doctor\" after it. Beyond that, you probably don't know what that person needs. \n This is a place for advice, support, discussion, shared triumphs and commiseration. It is  not  a place for dictating what others should be doing or proselytizing for your \"One True Paleo\", even if your version of paleo falls squarely into the center of what most of us would consider \"paleo\". \n Before you freak out, let me clarify something about this:  You will have to try  very  very hard to get banned, shadow or otherwise, as a result of this policy \n Most of the time, we'll just be posting reminders. If you are particularly pushy about it, we might remove individual posts. If it gets beyond that (like, you're a total jerk about it and are directly abusing people for their choices), we'll try discussing with you in PMs, and then (and only then), if the issue continues, we'll kick you to the curb. \n If you're still with me... well done. I apologize for how long this post was.", "id": "t3_2ypw8d", "summary": "New mods, most link posts are back, blogspam has to be self-posts, tag your posts, and don't try to bully people into your version of paleo"}]}
+{"author": "zenthr", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Doctors are pretty good sources, but if you want the best (and most critically examined) understandings, you want researchers.", "output": "Just an aside- I'd be more interested with medical  researchers  than doctors. Doctors are often touted because they are perceived as having authority in medical matters. Sure, the doctor is who you go to ask about these things (and SHOULD), but they are not really trained in being critical about understanding studies or the effectiveness of a treatment. They might have some understanding via experience, but without it being formally studied, that \"information\" is worthless scientifically. \n Doctors are first and foremost concerned with the immediate case in front of them. I'm sure many do keep up on recent matters, but for many things it's not worth the time researching too heavily because they have to get to each of their patients."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Linearity helps keep the pacing, all pokemon games do it (even though the end map looks more \"connected\"), and doing away with linearity destroys the game internally and externally. \n > To add to that, there is an abundance of towns that have no reason to exist. \n Why is this a bad thing? It literally should make the world feel bigger (which is sort of a joke, since Kalos feels like the smallest, emptiest region in terms of battles, but still in principle more towns should make the world feel more deep). \n > Next up, it added a plethora of things that ruin the online metagame. \n I like that they tried to shake up the meta. In fact, they did. Maybe they didn't do it well, and the Mega's are certainly fan service in far too many cases, but I appreciate that they consider the depth a battle can go to. (I don't like Mega's in the main story, as per your reasoning. I would hope they would be held off to post game, but Hoenn remakes suggest otherwise). \n > And finally, the post-game. Aside from the 10-minute side quest, it's next to non-existent. \n I don't think it's fair to consider a game a failure for not continuing when you consider it to be over. The post game serves, for a while now, to introduce mechanics for challenges and ways to continue leveling for battle against other humans. There never really needed to be much here at all.", "output": "By and large, I am also extremely disappointed with the changes made in GenVI, but I have a bit of a different view. \n > Graphically, the games were downgraded  IMO . \n This point is a matter of taste, and you even admit this much. I really liked GenV's art style as well, but there quality is still there, just with a new style. That said, comparing V and VI, I would say that VI has much better designs for the new pokemon than V, in that sense, it is a success. \n > The gameplay is insultingly easy \n Not one of the changes to the Experience system is inherently bad. They are all good ideas. The total collection has a problem, but each change is justifiable: \n \n No more experience splitting: If you do this while trying to progress, you are investing HP of all of your pokemon (free turns for the opponent), items/money for healing, or lots of time backtracking to pokemon centers. It's not a big deal, but it does help shorten grind times while not really incentivizing power-leveling. \n \n Full party EXP share (with above)- game provides an \"easy\" mode. There's nothing inherently horrible with providing difficulty levels (well... excepting the way Gen V tried to do with the keys. That was hideous). \n \n \n > THE STORY IS EXACTLY THE SAME (as PMD:GTI) \n I don't buy this. There are similarities, but that's mostly a result from sharing the themes that come with the World of Pokemon. Unfortunately, if I'm going to make this argument, I'm going to say Gen IV had a weaker story than GTI. \n \n Lysandre is basically alone in his thinking. Even his damn henchmen don't have the same view of the future as he does. He is very morose over what he thinks must be done; Team Flare revels in it. It's ridiculous. In GTI, everyone felt as Lysandre did, and at least there was a hand-wavy sort of explanation for how they felt. Lysandre remains totally unjustified. \n \n GTI has a HUGE focus on accepting people as they are. Virizion should be trusted, even though she's been a bit heartless. Gurdurr should be the one to build the house, because that work would be meaningful to him. Munna's crew existed because they felt unaccepted. Gen IV however is more about compromise. Diantha gets to be a star for now, and will eventually give up the stage for the next generation. As you approach the Elite 4 and have your last battle with the rival, they suggest that Lysandre may not be entirely wrong, pushing a sort of middle ground view where both sides  should  change (this is ludicrous, since it suggests that some number of people and pokemon should be killed for completely unexplored reasons). \n \n Kyurem is reflected as inaction and allowing for natural consequences of the isolated world to destroy that world. Kyurem doesn't seek to do anything, but to let the world progress naturally. Lysandre seeks the means to actively bring about the end of the world. This is a very meaningful difference. \n \n The Kalos region sucks. It's very linear, \n \n \n No no no. I hate this argument. I hated it since Gen V was \"just an oval\". Linear paths have ALWAYS been a part of pokemon. Linear paths are NOT bad. In fact, for a game like pokemon, linear paths are GREAT. Go back and play Soul Silver/Heart Gold. After about the 4th gym, you can reach the next three gyms in any order. This destroys the level balance between you and everything else, and you've already railed against that. The levels of wild pokemon and trainers  stop progressing  because of this non-linearity, but the gym leaders  don't . You have very little to help you prepare for the Ice gym, since it is intended to be the seventh gym. The best course of action is to just grind against Tentracruel forever. That is  horrible  design. And it doesn't end. Trainer/Wild pokemon don't make a jump after that point, so you continue to have difficulty preparing for the Dragon gym or for the Elite 4. Everything in Kanto is just absurd. [Here is Route 17,]( the lowest level you can find in a trainer battle is a Lv. 37 Weezing, the highest you can find is Lv 47 Skorupi and Gulpin. Both high leveled one's are not fully evolved, but compare this to [Lance]( who you had to beat to get here, with up to level 50. This is \"ok\" in universe, since Lance should be the strongest, but it is poor game design. Not to mention, in universe some Kanto gym leaders break the lv 50 barrier, with Blue pushing up to Lv. 60. So in universe, the levels are broken. Out of universe, everything is disproportionate, and you can't reasonable prepare for these battles."}], "user_id": "longlamp_16273", "history": [{"author": "zenthr", "content": "Physical concepts are not totally theoretical. Sure, something like, \"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction,\" is not a 100% verifiable statement, but it is  testable , and tests don't counter it (though some nuances can be adjusted, such as the fact that simaltanaity is not preserved in all frames). \n The uncertainty principle is not itself directly measurable, but the results we do get  assuming  it work. Sure, there may be future nuances to adjust, but through the massive testing we've already done, we are bound to find it at least a useful idea (useful enough that we may call it \"true\", with some provision). \n Now you may say, we still haven't shown absolute truth in it! Sure. We haven't. What we have found is that it is that these concepts are very good  approximations  at certain times. Even for the absolute truth of an experiment, you'd have to dilute it down to the point where you specify that it is a special case of certain form of a general case, and thus  the result is not applicable anywhere else . \n For example,  the Michelson–Morley experiment . It can really only be reduce to saying that there is no motion through the aether at these certain times, at this particular location of Earth (which is itself at a particular position in the Milky Way [which is itself at a particular position...]). Sure, to argue that there is an aether requires special pleading, but to assert that there is none with 100% certainty is not really justified either.", "id": "c75b8hl", "summary": "Truth\" is what we call the stuff we have a good amount of evidence for, and we understand it to mean \"approximate to the actual truth\". Experiments may be actually true (though our understanding of the experiment itself is itself also approximate!), but the actual results are incredibly specific and are not allowed to go beyond themselves."}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "What I try to keep in mind is that anything and everything can be \"politic'd\". Suppose you remove the filabuster- you haven't removed any political tool, you just changed the game. You would see politicians arguing that the opposing side has filabustered at any arbitrary point. \n \"Senator X is wasting Congressional time via an unlawful filabuster!\" \n is somehow only said by people whom Senator X's words did not support. \n If you set discussion limits, then it becomes a game of whomever can make so many points, such that the opposition cannot possibly openly respond to them all. It does not matter that the points are good, just that they are not countered: \n \"Senator X votes against policies which have a vast majority of uncontested points!\" \n sounds real bad if you try to think of politicians being anything other than politicians.", "id": "cb8igyf", "summary": "Politicians game every rule as well as every lack of rule."}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "More Martial lets you personally raise more armies, so it can be good if you are a small independent ruler with other small independent targets. Additionally, a martial education means you know you will have at least one competent lead (are you not leading troops? \"Come on you pansy! ----\") and lets you aim for a useful trait (i.e. if you really want a military \"organizer\" you can only influence yourself getting that trait or trying to invite  some foreigner  to do it for you). Later on, though, secular power tends to be mostly come from Diplo. \n My take on it: \n Military: Stronger personal army and one reliable commander that you can give some guidance for your play-style. Good if small. Diplo works better after you have a few counties so that you can take more from your vassals. Also good for getting military tech. \n Stewardship: Money access is important if you are small. Buying mercs can be better than being a better leader personally, but that takes money. Bonus holdings net you more direct vassals, but if you have diplo, you can turn up either taxes or size of levies for a better bonus (dem feudal taxes!). Also bonus to econ tech. \n Intrigue: I want to like it. And it's good, offensively, ONLY if you are the best and targeting your liege. For everything else, there's Diplomacy. You will pretty much never scheme to do anything alone- if you're going to need people, you might as well be able to get them. Intrigue is ok for defense, but I would prefer the paranoid trait. \n Learning: If you want to tech fast, you want to be a Theologian. If you want to convert large swaths of noblemen (for instance, going into a heresy), you want a high learning stat so you can convince people that your views as the most sensible (just like real life!). People will confront your \"heresy\", and you will gain a free chance to convert them with high learning. This is the one thing I would say Diplomacy doesn't usurp (although diplomacy factors into cultural tech).", "id": "ciuug7f", "summary": "I think having many holdings personally is never important since they always come with some vassals. After just a few counties, I'm much happier with happy vassals paying taxes than being personally good at anything else."}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "Let's give a view from from the view of conserving \"some quantity\". Let's discuss \"Euclidean three space\" (just \"ordinary space\" you are used to). You would say, it makes no sense that an object's length, width, or depth has, in this space a (line) length is conserved, and is written as \"(length)^2 = x^2 + y^2 + z^2\". Boring trig that you are just told \"is true\" in class. \n Where did that length come from, and what is a metric? \nThe reality is that that isn't true. It depends on what we call the \"metric\" of the space. You might say that a metric is \"how you measure things in this space\". You might also describe it as how the space is curved. For example, if we were 2 dimensional creatures, living on a three-dimensional sphere, we would not live in \"Euclidean two space\". It may be approximately true (if the sphere is very large compared to whatever we are interested in). A consequence to these creatures would be that a triangle would not have its angles add up to exactly 180 degrees (as it did your geometry class). \n What is Minkowski space? \nEuclidean space certainly is simple and nice, and fortunately for us, at very low relative velocities (compared to c) we can say the spatial dimensions are Euclidean to more precision than necessary. We really live in an approximate Minkowski space (plus other distortions from mass, but let's keep it as simple as possible). \n So how to do we measure the length of a line in Minkowski space. Well, if we call this additional fourth dimension \"ct\", we get something like \"(length)^2 = x^2 +y^2 + z^2 - (ct)^2\". This means that \"duration\" (length in \"time direction\") is a measurable quality of a physical object. And why call this thing the \"right way to measure things\"? Because if you had a line, and \"rotated\" it in these four dimensions,  it's length never changes . We call this length the \"invariant interval\"- it represents the \"length\" between two \"events\", and it is constant no matter what. It may be helpful to think of an \"event\" as a \"time and a place\". \n So what about your question? And math! \nSo what about your question? If you are asking about an object moving at high speed between two \"events\", what does that look like? Let's say you happen to move only in one such dimension of space and throw a ball upward. The first event is \"you threw a ball up\". Where and when did this happen- let's say at x=0 and t=0. The second event is \"You caught the ball\". But this time is later, and you were walking in between. So, let's say now you exist at x=L and t=t_1. The \"invariant interval\" (let's call it S): \n S^(I See) = L^2 - c^2 t_1^2 \n This is only what I saw. What did you see? \n Think this way- you never see yourself away from where you are. Yes, it's a really stupid sentence, but it's absolutely true! So when/where do you see yourself exist? Well, never away (x=y=z=0) but you certainly \"feel\" different times. So while you were moving the events \"You threw a ball\" happened at x=0, t=0 (we have a bit of freedom to choose this to coincide with when/where I saw you first exist, but let's leave that be for now) and also later \"you caught the ball\" at x=0 (remember that stupid sentence I said) and t=T. What's important is that this time is different than before, but represents that same thing- it's when you caught that ball! Yes, this means I saw you catch it at t=t_1, and you saw it at t=T. But what is the \"invariant length\" you measure? \n S^(Your Frame) = - c^2 T^2 \n We already said this has to be the same as my \"invariant length\": \n So S^(I See)= S^(Your Frame)\nL^2 - c^2 t_1^2 = - c^2 T^2 \n Solve for t_1^2 \n t_1^2 = T^2 - (L/c)^2 \n What does that mean? The time I saw you take (t_1) was shorter than the time \"you saw yourself take (T)\". So if I ever see you moving, you will feel more time than I measure you for! \n Extra Notes \n \n The idea that the invariant interval in Minkowski space is \" x^2 + y^2 +z^2 - c^2 t^2\" is not universal. There is another, equivalent metric that measures the interval as \"c^2 t^2 - x^2 - y^2 - z^2\". Both are fine for physics, as long as you remain consistent. \n \n Some intervals have special names. For instance, that time \"T\" you saw yourself for; this would be called the \"proper time\". Similarly, if you ask about the \"length\" of an object, you really might mean the \"proper length\"- it's length when viewed at rest. \n \n An event doesn't need to be anything happening at all. I used the names \"throwing a ball\" for instance to give a frame to understand why I was doing that math. \"This box exists\" is a valid idea for an event. So it just saying \"this point and space and time happened\".", "id": "c8c35ae", "summary": "version \nThe interval, S, between two spacetime events in Minkowski space is conserved by all viewers: \n S = x^2 + y^2 + z^2 - c^2 t^2 \n If I see you move, some of \"your interval that I measure\" exists in space. Since I have to have the same interval as you measure for yourself (which is ONLY in time), I have to add more time to bring it back down to what you measure."}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "I can't speak for the intentions of gay pride movements, but let me make a statement of the results. \n Gay pride movement is part of what accelerated the LGBT rights movement. Prior, it was downright dangerous to be associated with this (arguably still is, but it still is \"better\" in some ways now), and more importantly, this was not a political/social issue. An effect of saying, \"We're queer and we're here!\" is that people started to talk. People talking about it could not imagine that there was any fundamental problem. 'Why would them queer even want marriage? Most of their problems come from their dirty/sinful lifestyles.' \n In forcing this discussion, new ideas of 'what it meant to be gay' could come out. Once it was being talked about, and the proposition of gay marriage was introduced to that discussion, it became fundamentally harder to think of gays as a group of horndogs with deviant natures. \n Did this cause social unrest in the short term? Probably. People are averse to having problems put in front of them, but until the problem is clear before you, you won't fix it.", "id": "ca34wkh", "summary": "Spurring discussion is not just a good done by these movements, it is an essential part of fixing the issues they face."}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "While raising my son, we became best friends- because he was in trouble with me, but I got him out of it. Later, I would set him up with a genius as a wife. While they stayed at my court, my daughter-in-law  decided she had eyes for me, and nine months later there was a child. My son thought it was his, but my wife knew better. \n For years my wife tried to plan to kill our daughter-in-law, until one day, I though, \"You know, I would really like some more children... But my wife is rather old... Hrm.\" I then asked the Eccumenical Patriarch for a divorce (I don't recall if a bribe was in order to accomplish this), and got my divorce. \n But hey, there's still a problem- I don't want my daughter-in-law dead, and it's rather illegal to scheme to murder someone, so I imprison my wife. Her punishment is decided- banishment. All of her assets are seized, and she is never to return to my lands. I then go off to marry a 16 year old. \n Crusader Kings topic is Crusader Kings topic.", "id": "cd5uzql", "summary": "Impregnate wife of extremely trusting son. \n Divorce the my wife when she cannot have more children. \n Take everything of monetary value from wife, and banish her. \n Marry 16 year old. \n It's good to be the Doux. \n \n Now, this is discounting the destruction of cultures, wars on Pagans for having the wrong religion, and helping free a kingdom from a large empire because I want to take it over."}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "The concept of \"de jure territory\" means you are  not  part of a new kingdom, you just happen to be beholden to a new king as far as levies and taxes go. \n The Church crowned the King of A, giving him explicit right to your land (at least as far as having you as a vassal) and this is reflected in Crown Authority. Similarly, you have been crowned as someone who is \"legally\" a part of Kingdom A, regardless of your current liege. Since it is the Church that is ultimately behind your right, going against the decree of your legal lord would be to go against the Church, which is a very unwise thing to do in such a situation (essentially, you'd be worse than an infidel as you have no theological basis for your actions).", "id": "cip2wge", "summary": "God still has you legally beholden to A, though seems to temporarily favor your vassalage to B (or at least A has not \"asked God\" to rectify this in war)."}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "1) You see anarchistic support because welcome to circlejerks. \n 2) Democracy is supposed to be around so the creator doesn't have to step in every time something difficult arises and we can elect to give up for the sake of progress. \n 3) This kills the spirit of the game, but keeps it going so it looks popular since people invested in the anarchistic approach are already too invested in the awesome base idea that they won't go away. \n The popularity ISN'T dropping due to the changes, hence they are not inherently bad. There is \"good\" in the sense that the stream will remain popular for longer, even though the base idea has been scrapped.", "id": "cfjlbl6", "summary": "Man, I really can't believe this terrible service everyone, including me, is using.\""}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "I disagree on principal. When I played through Oblivion (I generally play with a stealth focus, so maybe I am about to be biased) I always felt totally marginalized by the capacity of magic. If I wanted to do something- ANYTHING- non-magically I was systematically at a disadvantage precisely because magic was so damn broad. \n Consider this: A non-mage needs better defense. They need to either game the system for experience in armor, purchase training for better armor skill, or find/buy better armor. But what about a pure mage? \n A pure mage, you might think, has the same conundrum, but with a focus on getting a spell rather than armor (or skill therein).  But they gained so much more in the process!  Why? Because  they get better at a WHOLE SPHERE OF MAGIC . Suddenly, they are also better at lockpicking. And magic defense. And carrying capacity. And Encumbering enemies. And traversing water. This goes for every sphere of magic- they contain MULTIPLE SKILLS that nonmages needed to deal with independently. \n But the inventory system made it worse. For total preparedness, the nonmage has to carefully manage their inventory. What are my best array of weapons for where I am going? Will I still be able to pick up loot if I bring all this? What's the best number of hammers to bring? There are going to be two different elemental creatures- do I have  different armor for both ? The mage has none of these concerns. Admittedly, they will generally have less raw carrying capacity, but since their arsenal is  functionally limitless  it's a no-brainer. Go mage. The incidental cost of magicka didn't matter with a regenerating system (sure, Atronach's had it different, but this is a very specific build). \n But the stat system made it worse, again (though these may be alleviated in Skyrim). I so far made no mention of Enchanting, considering a free agent. But a stat system made that laughable. Since enchanting worked off of magic-related stats, the mage was generally more prepared to have better enchantments. Similarly, just the capability of having multiple resistances as a mage is practically a  given . Anyone else had to let it eat into their stat growth (and they still didn't compare to a pure mage) or deal with it through inventory.", "id": "c6x2l9n", "summary": "A mage that is just as good as a nonmage at a given skill has objectively more bonuses on other things."}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "The point is he's railing people outside of the game to his cause who don't care about the game. \n They don't care, so they got involved. Ok. \n > That's like someone going to the kids in the playground and ruining their game. \n It's not YOUR fucking game.  The only person who can call foul is the streamer, and strife IS INTENDED. \n >>It was created as an experiment to test the viability of this format, the way people interact with the input system  and the way they interact socially with each other. \n This is my biggest issue. NO ONE gets to claim the game as \"theirs\", but you want an exception for the hivemind at the expense of everyone outside the hivemind. I feels I am being told that I am not invited to this OPEN experience if I don't feel like bowing before the almighty hivemind. If that is  your  rule, then  your  rule makes my participation absolutely meaningless. And to expand on  your  ownership... \n >If someone actually organized this from WITHIN, then that would be fair game. If the players themselves decided they want it, just like we have the democracy and anarchy groups, then people would be okay with it. \n There is no \"within\". The stream started with literally nobody. It wasn't someone going to his viewers and saying, \"Hey guys,  we  are going to do this.\" The in-group is no one because it was started without an audience and  advertised to all . You don't get to claim squatters rights because \"you were here first.\" I'd bet you've never even fretted if you stepped in the way of the people who started playing before you. \n >Honestly, if you think anyone can do anything and it's still part of the \"fun\", alright. \n What boggles my mind is EVERYONE said this. In argument against democracy. Anarchy allows for all sorts of interesting narrative to happen that democracy would block- oh shit, someone is trying to make something happen, BAN HIM. \n >But the point was to see what happens if millions of people in the game INTERACT with each other. \n But not people who disagree with the hivemind. Not anyone who would like the smallest bit of agency in affecting the game. \n >That's why it's even called \"Twitch PLAYS Pokemon\". People are supposed to decide on their own and talk about it in the chatbox, when someone brings their followers to execute his plans they're not playing. \n \"Twitch\" is anyone with a twitch account. Humans. \"Except for people outside the hivemind.\" And you are here ON REDDIT. Have you participated in a strategy discussion here? Upvoted one?  Acted in accordance with one?  The chat is absolutely terrible unless you have filters on it- where did you get them by the way? Reddit? That just means only  some  people get to strategize, and it just so fucking happens to be YOU. What. A. Surprise. \n >This isn't the same thing like when people in the game decide they want to keep Helix fossil or get rid of Flareon on their own because it wasn't a collective decision. \n Because: \n \n They aren't people. \n \n They don't have Twitch accounts. \n \n They aren't the ones the stream is created for (YOU and YOUR designs are). \n \n \n and most importantly \n \n They aren't the hivemind.", "id": "cfmrlbd", "summary": "You don't get to claim any special treatment. They stream was NOT made for you, or even people who knew what Pokemon was. It was made to see what happens, and you thought that was great until something you don't like started to happen. It's meant to be an open experience and the game is the  platform  for the experiment, not the experiment itself. \n And what I get from this interaction is not just \"He's a dick,\" which I agree with, but that \"No one is welcome unless they agree with the hivemind!\" \n Thanks for uninviting people (including me) to a game you have no fucking claim to. All praise your glorious hivemind. \n I'm sorry I made the mistake of thinking I was welcome to try to have input on the adventure. I'm sorry to mistakenly have thought that the OPEN STREAM meant YOU welcomed me to play. \n Please send me a list of any other forms of online interaction you are a part of that YOU forbid me from."}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "The term has utility as \"propaganda\". The difficult thing for the LGBT movement was justifying their existence and eliminating the moral arguments that were used to limit their freedom in the first place. Part of this means to show that gay couples have the same interests are straight ones, but are (illegitimately) limited. It would be wrong for a gay couple to use the terms \"husband\", \"wife\", or \"spouse\", as these imply being married (which they were/are legally barred from). The term \"partner\" conveys the seriousness of a wed couple, but also to demonstrate the lack of legal support. That seriousness is important because of the prejudices viewing homosexuals as inherently unstable or unfaithful (so why do they care about marriage?). \n Those who use the term may be showing solidarity for the problem that might not affect them specifically (based on their orientation or state of residence).", "id": "cig9ckq", "summary": "The term is useful in the gay community to demonstrate their personal commitment while highlighting legal injustice they experience. \n Additional argument:\nAnother view to consider is the whole \"sex vs gender\" issue that transgender equality makes us face. If I, a cis-male, marry a transgender, what is the proper term? Maybe in that situation one would prefer a separate term as a cue to inform a third party that my partner is transgendered. I am not really well read in the issues surrounding transgendered people, but it is something to consider."}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "gnostics tend to be much more elitist when talking about what they believe. \n >[...] \n >[...] agnostics generally don't care about religion as much as people who are vehemently for and against it. Their views are more outspoken and they generally say many more controversial things that spark huge arguments. Many people start these huge debates because they think their view of the world is 100% correct [...] \n Disclaimer: I am generally focusing here on the atheist side. To be clear, I mostly contest that this stance is (and above statements are) not an accurate assessment of the atheistic side. \n I see some issue here, particularly because I feel you are trying to quietly discuss \"those people making/consuming debate videos on Youtube\" or \"the r/atheism crowd\". The thing is, very many of those people are NOT gnostics. You will almost always be able to pressure them into admitting that there could be some god, but that does not necessarily mean that any possible description of a god is valid. For instance, I claim that, \"this particular stone is the entirety of the God of Universe,\" and maintain that \"the God of the Universe is far to complex for the human mind to comprehend.\" Well, we comprehend rocks, hence an inherently contradictory definition of what god is not a valid position. \n I bring this up, since many of the criticisms that define \"contemporary\" atheism are about denying the currently existing faith structures- claiming that they are not consistent either internally or they are incompatible with other current understandings of the world. By and large, modern loss of faith leads to accepting the atheist label (this may be a non-sequitur, depending on what you mean by \"atheist\"). This is important to understand, because what most people really mean to say is not \"There is no god,\" but rather that \"All human religious belief systems are failures.\" Yes, they say the former, but again they easily can be pressed into the latter (resistance varies). \n Additionally, the gnostics [people who know] have very little reason to debate compared to the agnostics [people who are unsure] (bracketed terms seem to be how you define the terms, I'm not entirely sure of the precise definition, but I'll work with yours). Gnostics may spread their \"100% correct view\" and make the world \"better\", but it's the agnostics that would gain information to potentially refine/adjust their view as well as spread their view. In another thread here (starting with /u/Omega037), you seem to be open to new evidence, but this evidence can only reach you with debate. If nothing else, you  must  challenge it and try to break it before you are to accept it (assuming you wouldn't accept me saying \"Gnosticism is a better view, end of story\", you expect a reason, and you will put it through some test before you accept it). \n If you are concerned with \"jerk-assetry\", I claim it's not so much a line between gnostic/agnostic, but rather levels of conviction. Agnostics can have high convictions, and again I claim that atheists mostly fall into the category of \"agnostic\" and have wide array of conviction (you have to have SOME amount to actually hold a stance of atheism, but it may be very little).", "id": "cf7vlcy", "summary": "Vast majority of atheists fall well into a definition of \"agnostic\" (they may need to be pressed, and I would say usually this is easy, but I am limited to my own experiences) \n \n Contemporary atheism is not about \"strong\" claims that there is no god (rather the \"strong\" claims made are that particular systems have failed, which is NOT incompatible with agnosticism). \n \n Debate does not particularly favor gnostic views \n \n Some debate will be REQUIRED if you claim to be agnostic open to argument/evidence \n \n Level of conviction (dogmatism?) can be high for either side and is the root cause for your concerns. \n \n \n (Also, I mentioned being unsure about definitions, here is what I usually think in case I flubbed up somewhere: \n Gnostic- thinks an argument is possible to make (they may not personally know it, but it is knowable) \n Agnostic- thinks an argument is fundamentally impossible to make (the question can never truly be answered) \n I don't know if this is necessarily correct, but I try to stick to your definitions of does know vs is not sure.)"}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "It follows some logic, but off hand it doesn't strike me as anything. Some things of note: \n \n Equations of A, k, and q consistently have units... except for k. Unless this means k is unitless. \n \n \"k\" is NOT unitless, in order to make the equation for q to work out. I assume T is in units of force, as mg is usually mass times gravitational acceleration (they use 9.8 for g, which is a decent approximation near Earth's surface. T must have the same unit as mg in order to even be allowed to take a difference. This results in k needing units of kilograms per meter. Not a useless unit, but not something I would expect to see in a rocketry equation. Either way, minus 2 points for inappropriate units. \n \n More on this \"k\". Look at the equation: k = (1/2) p C dA (p might be greek letter \"rho\"). See how I've written it? dA is one \"variable\". The next line shows for numbers, so two of those letters must be \"together\" in some sense, and dA struck me as an obvious choice, since it is a calculus \"differential element\". The problem is a differential element  does not have a definite value . It is something so small, it transcends numbers, without actually being zero(as infinity is so large it transcends numbers). Minus 3 points- differential elements need calculus operators to get a numerical result. \n \n Next up is x. Now I expected x to be a distance, but I was wrong. Working through the units (with k as a kg/m and q as a m/s, assuming \"M\" is another mass), I find x is an inverse second (1/s). This is actually  consistent  with the equation for v that follows (the argument of an exponential must be unitless). Minus 2 for no unit in the final expression for x. \n \n Finally, wtf is with this t equation. \"t = 1/T\"? They want t to be a time, so T must be an inverse time. But is this the same T as appeared above in the equation for q?  In that equation, T was \"12\" (presumable with some suppressed unit), and we see that 12 come up again. But what is this 17? Unfortunately, 1 =/= 17, so there is some massive confusion here. Minus 10, work cannot be reasonably followed.", "id": "cbtxhyi", "summary": "College freshman in physics, hope you can handle a dropped class this semester. \n Also, I should really do my actual work."}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "Multiple axes of rotation doesn't make sense to me- for any object. You can always find a single axis of rotation in any problem (though it may change- for example precession and nutation). For a general problem it may not be very pretty though, and you may often see people discussing up to \"three\" axes of rotation. There isn't really a conflict, because they have chosen to look at the so-called \"principal axes\" which are determined by the geometry of the object. These are generally easy to work with, and there is no reason that two of these axes may be used in a general problem. This is similar to a choice of coordinates, and often one chooses coordinates to make these axes easier to understand. \n That said, you still can define a single axis if you feel the desire to, and the rotation about this axis is what we mean when we talk about the \"(rotational) angular momentum\" of an object. Angular momentum is conserved quantity, so we would have many issues if there were two different axes that defined it. \n Planets do no need to rotate about a principle axis, but do they anyway? It seems to me to be likely, but it also seems that the shape of the planets tends to change due to rotation also. For instance, the rotation of Earth allows it to maintain a bulge at the equator. This makes the axis of rotation nearly an axis of symmetry- which would make it a principle axis automatically (at least for \"solid\" and uniform objects- Earth's molten core and seas confuse the issue a bit more, but there is still roughly azimuthal symmetry).", "id": "c89iiy7", "summary": "If you want to, you can always define a unique single axis (though it may change over time), but there are sometimes advantages of talking about multiple \"principle axes\". The unique single axis is how we define (rotational) angular momentum. \n edit : A clarification on when symmetry can be used to find principle axes."}, {"author": "zenthr", "content": "Here's my 2 bits: The ampere is more natural than the volt, in exact contrast to your claim. The reason I say this is because current is, in a sense, more of a physically real thing than voltage in the sense that it is non-negotiable. The simplest realization of this is that voltage of an object is not possible to define- \"high voltage wires\" are high  relative  to the ground's voltage, but you could define any particular wire you want as having 0 voltage. This probably seems a bit weak, since I have really only argued that voltage differences are what we are concerned with, but it is possible to abandon voltage entirely if one really wants to do so. What I mean is that for a given static electric field, one can define a voltage field and the meaning, utility, and simplicity is great, but it is not necessary. That same field can be described as instead being \"0 volts\" everywhere, but at the cost of having a much more complicated (and time dependent) description of the potential in terms of magnetic vector potentials. By and large, this is a ridiculous proposition, but it is a possible proposition since potential is just an abstract mock-up for us to utilize, not a real thing (like flow of charge is). \n As for measurement, this is not a problem even with such a \"theoretical\" definition. Circuitry is the easiest way to contain current, but it is more difficult to make to scale. That said, if you define \"1 Amp\" with that definition, you could do the theory instead with a finite wire and a measure of the magnetic field generated.", "id": "chwjkzk", "summary": "Current is a physically real thing, and voltage is a (very useful) abstraction."}]}
+{"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Never.", "output": "This is where the idea of a self regulating free market completely falls apart. \n You need a certain level of scientific literacy even to understand what the problem is. A huge percentage of our population isn't going to understand the problem, and a small percentage doesn't believe in things like evolution so once they find out the crux of this makes use of natural selection/evolution-y stuff they wont believe it anyways. There's also the issue that this will never get major airplay in the media because they can't sell something people can't understand. There's also the fact that finding out what is or isn't factory farmed isn't exactly easy. It's not like factory farms put a big label on their meat that says \"Made in Horrific Conditions!\", Jack in the Box isn't going to advertise their Jumbo Jack as being filled with antibiotic resistance enabling antibiotics. \n If you don't believe in the problem, or don't understand why it's a problem, or haven't heard about the problem because there's no profit in reporting about it, you're not going to take it seriously. Even if you do take it seriously, you don't have access to the kind of information that would let you make an informed decision about it, so it still doesn't matter. \n So I would say there is no point where the general public will will just stop buying meat from factory farms."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post If you don't know what you're doing, it's actually pretty hard to blow up a building, the fact that someone failed doesn't mean they didn't try.", "output": "Self-extinguishing and did damage to the building? That could be something like an M-80 for all we know? \n Calling it self-extinguishing is kind of a stretch. For example, have you ever tried to light a fire in a fireplace? Had it go out on you after a few minutes? It's actually not easy to catch most things on fire, and without enough fuel to get a blaze going most fires will go out. You could douse a brick or stone building in gas and light it, and once the gas is consumed the fire will go out. So the fact that the fire burned itself out doesn't really tell us anything. \n However, the bomb did damage to the building... \n I don't know how many M80s you've lit off, but I've lit off a LOT. I have never once done damage to anything made of concrete, stone, brick, or anything else a building would be made of, hell, even dense and thick wood would be hard to damage with an M80. \n Then there's the fact that the person using the bomb likely didn't know how to set it up for the purpose of damaging a building. \n For example: \n Try to compare before and after the explosion. Almost no damage to the hill and the fire is nearly out moments after the bomb goes off."}], "user_id": "longlamp_3639", "history": [{"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "It all depends on the data, personally, I would like to see subsidized childcare available to everyone, regardless of situation. I  feel  like this would improve society as a whole, but don't have data to support that. \n Something like that could also backfire, I think a big problem in society right now is a huge decrease in the level of involvement and responsibility for children from the child's family. The handing off of responsibility from family to government has had a negative effect on education in general. People feel like it's the school's job to educate and far too many people feel that absolves then of the responsibility to educate their kids. \n In a single parent situation the contributions of extended family are especially needed, I wouldn't want to see anything to discourage that by giving the impression that the government is picking up the slack. \n In the end I guess I'm just the wrong person to ask.", "id": "c6rrrgf", "summary": "I don't know"}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "it's meant to highlight your lack of systematic disadvantages. \n Well, I think that's how it has come to be seen, but I don't think this was the original intention.  The original idea was to highlight your ignorance about the point of view of people who have lived with systemic disadvantages. \n In other words, you hear a lot of \"why don't poor people just do X? It's so easy and I've done it!\", and it's important to point out that something that is easy for you, with your background, may not be as easy for someone else. Poverty itself gives people a different mindset and a different view of the world, that view works well when you're poor, but it's a shit view if you're trying to transition out of poverty. If you don't understand that then it's going to be hard to understand why a poor person is making what you perceive as bad decisions. \n To give a simple, you might say  childish , example: \n When I was a kid I was lower-middle class, and my best friend was poor. I occasionally got a Nintendo game as a gift for my birthday or Christmas, but my friend almost never did. What his parents did do was rent him two games every weekend. That was essentially their entertainment budget for their two kids. He once remarked about how many games I had compared to him, which I found puzzling. I said that instead of renting two games every weekend just don't rent and buy a new game every month, then he would have more than me. \n This idea was entirely lost on him and no amount of explaining could get him to see that they were spending more on games in the long run, but had less to show for it in the end. Though various work and volunteering I've found that there's an immediacy to poverty that people who haven't been there will never really understand. The privilege of being not-poor makes it difficult for people who want to do something to help understand the people they are trying to help.", "id": "chg7hzo", "summary": "Privilege isn't supposed to be accusatory, it's supposed to help you understand other people and why they aren't like you."}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "The point of a business, especially a corporation, is to take as much money out of the hands of the customer as is possible. If your customer has $100 of discretionary funds, you want $100 of it; no matter how that happens. \n As long as people forget this fact they will continue to get fucked by corporations. \n The problem is that in theory the \"free market\" would be self correcting. People would see that a business is acting against their best interest and wouldn't buy from them. But these days there are so many parent companies and subsidiaries that it's hard to tell who not to buy from. \n Then there's what I call the Wal Mart effect. People know that Wal Mart is essentially responsible not only for running local businesses out of business, but also for the relocation of many factories overseas. In the long term that's bad for just about everyone in the U.S. who isn't rich, but do you boycott the company? Sure, eventually you would like for them to not exist, for people to make more money, and for jobs to return, but in the here any now that isn't happening, so you may as well save money by shopping there.", "id": "c1jnjw2", "summary": "this is what happens when people can't be fussed to boycott."}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "The brother of a friend of mine friends porn stars all the time. Almost every day I see him in my feed, and learn that he is now friends with 5-10 scantly clad women. \n Also, he once asked his mom to get him the Girls Gone Wild video hosted by Snoop Dog...for Christmas.", "id": "c29ny2z", "summary": "Some people don't give a fuck."}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "lol, every time I hear the  you need to look at the entire context  to get the real meaning, that's just a dodge, because when I do, the meaning, in context, is exactly the same. \n But I'm totally used to the \"you need to keep this in context...not that I'm going provide any context or anything..\".", "id": "c1c7nv6", "summary": "Unless you're going to provide context, don't even bother making the statement."}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "Somewhat related story: \n I once had a very realistic dream where I found out I only had about an hour or so to live. I was at my parents house and went for a walk to let that sink in, and I realized that I would never see another band again, maybe never hear music again. \n At that moment, I realized that one of the greatest songs ever written was  Night Train , by Gun's n' Roses and how dumb it was of me to not have listened to it more. I was incredibly sad to think I would never hear Night Train again...", "id": "c4emwhj", "summary": "Night Train, just for the humor in it."}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "There aren't any actual whales in that book though, the \"whale\" is just a figment of Ahab's imagination, a representation of his own unfulfilled desires. It's only a hallucination, a fact that an earlier manuscript makes more clear with an explanation that Ahab's leg actually being cut off by a saw.", "id": "c2sbzl3", "summary": "The \"whale\" is essentially Tyler Durden"}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "That's just because you aren't one of the obnoxious Apple owners; just like I'm not one of the obnoxious Apple detractors. \n Trust me, I've been around more than my fair share of obnoxious Apple devotees. \n My favorite was a woman I worked with who appointed herself Apple Tech Support for our department, not that she was paid for the job, or that I wanted her to do it (I was the actual tech support, for Mac, Linux, and Windows), but she wouldn't stop, and went to any length to get people to go to her for their Mac problems. She also did all she could to convince anyone in the department to switch to Mac; and when she did she would come into my office with an \"in your face\" attitude and tell me about it (\"HA, I got four more converts this month!!\"), like I even cared.", "id": "c1hd39r", "summary": "There are obnoxious people on both sides, you just only experience the ones who are obnoxious to you."}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "My story isn't as dramatic as some people's, but the epilogue still cheers me up when I think about it. \n I worked as a \"cook\" in fast food in high school and right after. I worked my ass off, went well above and beyond what you would expect from a high school employee, I even worked 14 days straight, while still in school, which was pretty illegal. They were short staffed, which meant that on any given day only 1 or 2 cooks had the day off (there was one person who only worked weekends due to another job, so it wasn't possible for him to cover another shift). That meant if someone called in sick there was really only one person to call, and since I worked almost every day the only person that could cover another person's shift was normally me. And I did. Every time they called me when someone else flaked I came in. \n I know everyone thinks they're great, but, well, I really was. I cooked fast and got shit made. I washed dishes fast at the end of the night, and got people out after close earlier than anyone else, while still doing a good job. I worked more nights than any two other cooks combined so I had a system and it worked well. I was the king of Shit Town. Until my employee review. \n I got to hear a lecture about how I had the worst attitude of anyone there, how I was the worst cook there. I got the smallest possible raise, 5 cents per hour. My boss made it a point to show off how much she hated me, I already knew she didn't like me, that was no shock, but the fact that she let her personal feelings interfere with work was really the last straw. \n Fortune decided to smile on me, I had graduated high school and was starting at community college. I met a really cool guy in one of my classes and he and I started talking and joking and stuff. It turned out that he was a manager at a local company, and his girlfriend was in HR. He said he would get me an interview and his girlfriend would be the one doing it, I was guaranteed the job. I fill out the application he brought me, and get a call for an interview that evening and schedule it for the following day. \n I opened at work that morning, went home, washed all my uniforms, then went to the interview (which was mostly just for show). By the time I got home I had a message on my answering machine that I got the job. I picked up my uniforms and drove back to my old job, luckily my boss was there. I just handed her the uniforms. She asked what was up and I said I quit. She got enraged. Told me all about how I was the worst employee ever and how I wouldn't be able to come back after this. I didn't say a word, just walked out the door. \n Fast forward about three months: \n I get a call at home, it's the second in command from the fast food place. You would have though this was a casual call, just her catching up with an old friend. She was asking how I was doing, where I was working now, if I liked the job.....how much I was making. I can hear my old boss in the background telling her what to ask, and getting the answers repeated back to her. Then she jumps on the phone and just cuts to the chase, she asks if I'll take my old job back. I just laughed, said no, and hung up.", "id": "ceor5xi", "summary": "quit my job with no notice, my boss said never to come back, then tried to call me after a couple months to get me to come back, said no"}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "and if I complain about it, suddenly I'm being called a \"crybaby pussy.\" \n Once again, missing the point. \n It's not the act of complaining, it's who you're complaining to. \n No one here on reddit can do anything about it. No one that reads that blog can do anything about it. No one that reads the BART Idiot Hall of Fame on Facebook can do anything about it. The time and place to complain is at that place and at that moment. That's the only time and place that anything can be done about it. \n There's also a huge difference between your case and the typical case. I would bet this blogger, along with the vast majority of people posting to the above mentioned Facebook group, is a completely health/non-disabled 20-30 something who wont be at all hurt by standing for a little while. They come online to complain because people are such utter cowards these days that simply saying \"excuse me, but could I sit there?\" is too much for them.", "id": "c9hd92x", "summary": "Complaining to someone's face doesn't make you a crybaby pussy, complaining behind their back on the internet hours after the fact does."}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "I had a friend who was homeless, entirely through his own idiocy. Myself and another friend of his took him in and and let him stay with us, at either of our houses. This went on for a couple weeks then he either found somewhere else to stay or started sleeping in his car, I really don't know. \n But, the whole time he would be with me he would complain about how it is when staying with the other guy. Kids are too loud, they don't want him coming in too late because it will wake the kids and they have work in the morning, they didn't want him drinking or doing drugs around the kids...you know, they were good parents and he was a guest in their house, totally normal shit you would expect, but it really pissed him off and he complained about it all the time to me. \n I later found out that he complained about staying with me all the time to other people. Not about rules, I didn't really have any, but my house was also not really set up for guests and I guess it wasn't comfortable enough for him.", "id": "cd6xmzw", "summary": "My friend became homeless through a serious of his own idiotic actions, friends take him in, he never thanks them, and does nothing but complain to others about it."}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "I almost made a new post about this, but I'll post it as  a comment here instead.... \n This story is good because it's 100% true. \n I was in on vacation in San Diego with a guy I used to know, he and I would play pool with each other four or five nights a week (forever alone, together). So, on our second night there we decide to find a \"normal\" (non-touristy) bar to go shoot some pool. We called a bunch of bars looking for places with pool tables. We eventually found two which were right near each other, and the place we were going for dinner. I call one of them to make sure, a place called the SRO Lounge. A gruff sounding guy answers the phone, I ask if he has a pool table he says \"Well......yeah....we do, but.....\" and doesn't say anything else. I say thanks and tell the guy I'm with that the bartender sounds weird, but they have a pool table. \n So, we eat at the Corvette Diner then check out the Brass Rail and decide that it's probably a gay bar, and since we were looking to hit on some girls, we pass and drive to the SRO Lounge. The moment we get there I realize that we should probably just leave. There's a six foot something bald bouncer, the moment we walk up he belts out \"You boys know where you are?\", just before I can say no and turn around the guy I'm with (cocky son of a bitch) belts out \"Hell Yeah!\" quite enthusiastically. \n Fearing the worst, I walk inside while the bouncer is still checking the other guys ID. I get inside and it's not as bad as I was fearing, but I would still not be able to hit on girls...at least the ones I want to hit on. The place is wall to wall transvestites; and it is  packed . I check out the pool table and it is booked solid, about 15 sets of quarters are up, and some old dude (only non-tranny there) was running the shit out of the table. \n We ended up leaving because it was just too long of a wait to get on the table, plus we still wanted to hit on some girls who didn't have a penis.", "id": "c31itv6", "summary": "If a guy asks you if you know where you're at when you don't....you should say so."}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "This isn't a single incident, but an entire semester. \n I was a math major, and the department required one non-math class that would involve writing (our school was pushing for all departments to have at least one essay class). \n Well, on the first day our professor was telling us about all the work we would be doing, an essay every other week, readings from two different books every week, problem sets every week, and one page writing assignments every week. Also three research projects and one final project that we were supposed to start working at least by spring break because it needed to be something like 20 pages. \n We balked at the amount of work this throw-away class was going to take; and actually managed to talk her down a bit, though the big stuff was still there. \n So, fast forward three weeks into the class. We've turned in a bunch of assignments, and our first draft of our research project (she wanted first drafts for some reason...), but haven't gotten anything back. \n At this point she stops assigning homework. \n The deadline for the first project comes and goes, she never gave back the first draft, so no one turns in a final copy, we are all expecting comments from her before we finish. \n The date for the second project starts coming...and she says nothing about it. Deadline passes, we were never even told what the project was supposed to be. \n By the time we reach spring break we haven't gotten a single paper back. None of our homework had been graded and returned. Any pretense that we are supposed to be doing any work at all for this class has been dropped. \n This is when I stopped going to class. \n I start asking people one every other week if anything has changed, answer is always no. By the end of the semester I start talking to fellow students, we're worried about what kind of grade we'll get. A lot of people were all for going to the department chair, but I was worried. We clearly hadn't done any work, if we made the case that we don't deserve a bad grade because she was incompetent then wouldn't that be the same as making the case that we needed to retake the class and just consider this a wash? \n A couple weeks before the end of the semester I start going to class. It's clear the big class project is still on. I take a paper I wrote for geometry, reformat it, and turn that it (construct-ability of regular n-sided polygons). We get told that we can get extra credit if we do a presentation on the last day of class....so...who wouldn't? I just get up and essentially read my paper for a few minutes. I think I constructed a pentagon on the board or something. \n In the end, most of the class got a B, a few people (the ones who sat in front and never stopped coming) got an A, I met one person who got a C. We never got a single assignment returned. Our grades seemed to be based on what she thought about us, rather than any actual work.", "id": "c2pn3rj", "summary": "had a professor that didn't grade any of our work; our grade in the class was based on what she thought about us as people."}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "I was taking a community college class and was around 26 years old. There was a super-hot girl in class who  always  sat next to me, always chatted with me, and was super friendly to the point of being flirty. Thing was, she was around 20 or 21, so a bit younger than me. \n I kind of liked her and I thought it would probably be nice to put my penis in her at some point, but I was nervous for exactly the reason from this image. I didn't know if she was interested or if she chatted with me because she thought I was older and wouldn't ask her out. \n After a couple weeks I figured \"what the fuck\" am I going to go all semester in the fucking friend-zone always wonder about what could be? Fuck that. So, after class, I hung back a bit and walked with her, asked if she wanted to go get dinner (class got out at around 7pm).  She said she couldn't, maybe some other time, with a tone of  I'm being polite, but \"some other time\" is never . \n Next class it was awkward for about half the class, then we were joking around again. It was a bummer knowing that my penis would never be in her, but at least I knew and could go about my business of finding other places to put it.", "id": "c2fisvu", "summary": "Man the fuck up and try, the worst she can do is say no, and that's a hell of a lot better than always wondering about what could be."}, {"author": "JumpinJackHTML5", "content": "I have two (short) stories that relate to this: \n I knew a guy who had the nickname \"Maglite\", because he was dancing with a girl and she could feel his penis, then asked if he had a Maglite in is pocket. Since then, both he (and his penis) were called Maglite. \n Both I, and a former girlfriend of mine would joke about how big my penis was. One day we were driving over a newly built bridge, which had kind of a long name, and I said they should really just call it \"JumpinJackHTML5's Penis (actual size)\". We had a good laugh, and she went on to tell many people about this. Eventually, some people knew me (and my penis) as Bridge.", "id": "c2tbsnf", "summary": "Maglite and Bridge"}]}
+{"author": "the_raptor", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Your deck is bad and you should feel bad.", "output": "I think you are going to lose a lot to anyone playing aggro. I just tested your deck against G/B zombies, longest game was 20 turns and still a win for the zombies, your deck is not good for controlling 1CMC creatures hitting for 2. If you want to be annoying play turbo-fog or at least put in a win-con."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Stop buying crap supplements when you probably just need to eat more fruit and vegetables.", "output": "Actually plenty of people have minor to severe vitamin and mineral deficiencies (especially those with fucked up diets, which is pretty common). However there is little evidence that standard vitamin supplements are effective at treating those problems. \n Most people who take vitamin supplements are just making their poop more expensive."}], "user_id": "longlamp_15254", "history": [{"author": "the_raptor", "content": "This is what a fascist government looks like in 2015. \n Not even close. Fascism is a political ideology where corporations and other representative groups (eg labour bodies) work together for the good of the whole. Fascism isn't Market driven. \n What Abbott and friends want is a return to the class structure of the early industrial revolution. But this time they will use technology to prevent labour from organising.", "id": "conwofk", "summary": "Authoritarianism != Fascism."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "For the simple reason that games designed for the PC and games designed for consoles were often completely different with minor cross overs (eg DooM ports to consoles). Then more and more console games started to be ported to PC, and more PC games ported to console, eventually reaching a critical point where games started being designed for simultaneous PC/Xbox/Playstation release. \n However, as consoles typically sell more copies of games the simultaneous releases are heavily aimed at the demands of the console market, which tends to be younger and more \"casual\", leading PC gamers feeling ignored. This has also happened as the games industry in general massively expanded and became more commercialised leading to game design being profit focused instead of gamer focused which gets blamed on the focus on consoles.", "id": "c41yjfh", "summary": "PC gamers get the sloppy seconds from the console market and feel ignored by mainstream developers."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "Only if you are postulating that OP would have bought tons of guys to back him up. If he had two friends like the jerkwad did there wouldn't be any possibility of them resorting to legit lethal force because of \"disparity of force\". In reality there is almost no way to argue legit lethal force in most places unless the other guy pulled a weapon first.", "id": "c5mfldo", "summary": "Don't pull a lethal weapon unless the other guy did or you legitimately fear being killed by him then you do going to jail."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "Ask the porn companies. \n From some of the covers of those kinds of movies that I have seen they look to be just using shitty licensed costumes which I doubt is protected (otherwise Levi jeans etc could stop companies filming their jeans without permission). They probably also put a little proper parody before the boning to pass the parody test.", "id": "c7v2im0", "summary": "Make some parody comics and stick sex scenes at the end."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "China keeps their currency value low by buying up foreign debt. This means their exports are cheap, and the price of their labour is cheap. This attracts foreigners to buy from China and to move production their. This gives China the capital to build their industrial base and skill their workers. \n However, it also means that average citizens can't afford to buy much of what China makes. This means most of Chinas production is going to satisfy foreign markets. \n If China stops devaluing their currency (as the US keeps hassling them to do) then average Chinese citizens will be able to buy more Chinese and foreign goods, thus raising their standard of living. Most other countries want China to compete \"fairly\" by stopping the currency deflation and letting international markets set the value of Chinese currency. There are signs the Chinese government also wants to do this to improve the standard of living in China.", "id": "c48nn1a", "summary": "The Chinese are playing the long game and using foreign capital to grow their industrial and knowledge base so that one day China will be a super-power again."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "I think technically \"neckbeard\" is a slur. It is almost even an \"ethnic slur\" as it is targeted towards and refers to specific physical attributes of a group of people (\"Internet basement dweller\" may be a new group, but they have rapidly established a recognisable culture). \n But this persons complaint doesn't real because almost all XY people can grow neckbeards. The stereotypical \"neckbeard guy\" is considered an arsehole for the same reason they grow a neckbeard: an almost complete alienation from societal norms.", "id": "c74llsz", "summary": "Well balanced people do not grow neckbeards."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "Yeah, Australia has a wide climate range so there isn't much we can't grow somewhere. \n And the point is that people shouldn't be expecting something like apples to be available all year-round and should eat things seasonally when they are fresh. But we also have the problem where people buy on appearances so we have big juicy tomatoes and strawberries that taste like water.", "id": "c42y8wa", "summary": "Fuck supermarkets."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "For many years the United States produced over 90% of commercially usable helium in the world, while extraction plants in Canada, Poland, Russia, and other nations produced the remainder. In the mid-1990s, a new plant in Arzew, Algeria, producing 17 million cubic meters (600 million cubic feet) began operation, with enough production to cover all of Europe's demand. Meanwhile, by 2000, the consumption of helium within the U.S. had risen to above 15 million kg per year.[32] In 2004–2006, two additional plants, one in Ras Laffan, Qatar, and the other in Skikda, Algeria, were built, but as of early 2007, Ras Laffan is functioning at 50%, and Skikda has yet to start up. Algeria quickly became the second leading producer of helium.[33] Through this time, both helium consumption and the costs of producing helium increased.[34] In the 2002 to 2007 period helium prices doubled.[35] \n >By 1995, a billion cubic metres of the gas had been collected and the reserve was US$1.4 billion in debt, prompting the Congress of the United States in 1996 to phase out the reserve.[1][2] The resulting \"Helium Privatization Act of 1996\" (Public Law 104–273) directed the United States Department of the Interior to start liquidating the reserve by 2005.[3] \n I was wrong in that it wasn't originally for nukes, but for military airships, and then rockets. Nukes just kept it around until the 1990's.", "id": "c50yxtv", "summary": "The US has been depressing Helium prices for the past twenty years by selling off their billions of USD worth of Helium reserves. When that is finished in 2015 it will be more economical for private parties and other governments to capture and stockpile Helium."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "As the Refugee Council of Australia points out, in 2012 Australia gave refugee protection to 8367 asylum seekers and resettled 5937 refugees from other countries. That made us number 24, on a per capita basis, in the world. \n >Australia ranks third in the world for officially resettling refugees. But most countries do not have official resettlement programs for refugees, simply adjusting their intake according to the ebbs and flows of arrivals. \n >In 2012, Pakistan hosted 1.6 million asylum seekers and refugees, Iran hosted 868,200, and Germany hosted 589,700. \n >Refugee Council of Australia chief executive Paul Power said while Australia had a generous refugee resettlement program, it was false to claim it was more generous in receiving refugees than any other nation. \n >''Less than 1 per cent of the world's refugees get access to resettlement in any year, with the bulk of the global protection of refugees being carried out through asylum processes,'' he said. \n >''Even a quick look at the global figures shows that the increased flow of asylum seekers to Australia is relatively small in international terms. While Australia received 29,610 asylum applications in 2012, Turkey received 325,301, Jordan 135,946, Lebanon 134,896, South Sudan 101,480 and France 97,643.''", "id": "cdgvrmq", "summary": "The government invented a new classification so that it could claim to be the world number 1."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "There is no compromise, I have been saying the same thing from the beginning. It was you that lost it and started throwing insults because you didn't like what I was saying and lacked the intellectual capacity to show any error in what I said. \n That you got confused about what I was saying, despite multiple corrections, and attempted to \"win\" through moving goal posts and insults is not victory for you.", "id": "c3t0yy0", "summary": "I never said burst/auto was best in combat or what the military focuses on this feature in its rifle. I said the AK was designed for that, is extremely inaccurate when used for its intended purpose, and the design focus on burst fire compromises the AK's semi-auto accuracy."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "Is there a reason for this? \n Yes, you have to announce a trigger to put it on the stack, just like you have to announce a spell when you put it on the stack.  If you fail to do this you have broken the game rules . \n Now as you have broken the game rules at high REL the judges could very well punish you with a warning or even a game loss. But in the case of beneficial triggers they punish you for  breaking the game rules  by saying you lose the benefit of the trigger. \n Now the reason your opponent doesn't have to remind you of your triggers is that people disliked having to help their opponent beat them and because it is impossible for a floor judge to tell if your opponent forgot or didn't mention the trigger on purpose. Therefore the policy is that your opponent will not be punished for a failure to remind you of triggers.", "id": "c7dyluw", "summary": "The trigger policy does not allow you to break the game rules. Instead it punishes the trigger owner for breaking the game rules by not announcing triggers as required."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "That is a media myth. While there are concentrations of certain ethnicities in Iraq there is considerable mixing as well, and the Ottoman's didn't neatly divide the place by ethnicity either. \n Before the mid-20th century Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived relatively harmoniously in countries like Iraq. It has only been with the fall out from the creation of Israel, and the growth of Wahhabism in the late 20th century, that the ethnic conflict we see today came about.", "id": "ckzbqd4", "summary": "The Wahhabi Saudis, Qatiris, and Emiratis are the fucking problem. Until they are dealt with like the Americans funding the IRA were dealt with, Islamic terrorism will not end."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "There will never be a homogeneously skin-coloured and facial-featured human race. Even if everyone ends up being brown there will still be shades of brown and subsequent discrimination (this happens in India now). And there will be other features which are more common in some groups then others. \n When most Europeans had never seen a black person there was extensive racism within Europe based on skin colour (eg the Welsh were considered \"dark\") and other features.", "id": "c4oogvj", "summary": "Humans are arseholes, always have been, and always will be."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "The point is that most people just want to play single-player offline and would rather the game was balanced around loot from playing and not buying loot from the AH as it appears to be now (ie the don't give a shit about the AH). If you had to make a special online only character to play multi-player I doubt many people would care, there was no need to do the old system where b.net characters could be played offline and online.", "id": "c4zee9p", "summary": "Single-player and multi-player could have been split into offline/online and pretty much no one would have cared. Blizzard wanted to \"encourage\" people to play with their friends to get them hooked on the game for longer and to generate more profits with the RMAH."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "The beginning of the combat step has a round of priority which goes in Active player - Non-Active Player (APNAP) order. This means that when the round of priority starts the active player can choose to do something or can pass to the non-active player, the non-active player then can do something or not and priority keeps passing in this way until both both players have \"passed in succession\" and then the top object on the stack resolves. Once that happens priority happens again in APNAP order. A phase ends when both \"pass in succession\" on an empty stack.", "id": "c6ossja", "summary": "It was perfectly legal for you to play an instant with the stack empty and in response to nothing. \"In response to...\" is just short-hand to indicate you want to respond to an opponent putting something on the stack or when a round of priority begins that might be skipped through (eg end step)."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "People with actual phobias don't \"choose to endure it\" to get karma for a post. If you had a real anxiety disorder you would feel panicked and distressed  just thinking about posting that picture . \n To break it down: Psychological disorders are outside the spectrum of average human experience. Being creeped out by a picture of some seed pods is not the same as refusing to leave your house because you might pass a garden that has a plant with seed pods in it.", "id": "c2sczw1", "summary": "Stop fucking appending \"phobia\" to the latin word for an object and equating it with real phobias. It is as offensive to people with actual phobias as claiming you are a cancer survivor because you had a wart burned off would be to cancer sufferers."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "US Army SF is a lot larger program that was originally set-up for behind enemy lines cadre training in the event the balloon went up in Europe. \n SAS (SAS, SASR, NZSAS) have always been deep recon and counter-terrorism/insurgency, which is still SF but slightly different to vanilla US Army SF. Delta is closer to what the SAS do.", "id": "c3estf0", "summary": "US SF is mostly about cadre training, liason, and behind enemy lines shenanigans. SAS/Delta is operators operating operationally."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "Delta recruits from SF/Rangers etc. Delta/SAS/Seal Team Six etc are what is known as top tier SF units. \n Similarly the UK has the Royal Marines Commando, which are probably closer to US SF in training, but the SBS (Special Boat Service) recruit from the RMC. Australia also now has Army Commandos which are roughly equivalent to the US SF, and similarly find it easier to get into a top tier like the SAS. \n For top tier units the recruits generally need to have 4-6 years military experience (as it takes roughly two years to master basic soldiering). You can go into the US SF, RMC, Australian Commandos straight from civvy street (hard but doable).", "id": "c3esuh6", "summary": "Recruits into top tier units like Delta will be experienced soldiers, probably at least Sergeants, and then they will go through a recruitment process that washes most of them out, and require roughly another two years training to be fully operational."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "ATM the Taliban do not care about what a) the local populace thinks, or b) what those who understand COIN warfare think. Acts like this are entirely aimed at selling the idea to Western populations that they are engaged in a pointless and un-winnable intervention and should just pull out before more soldiers die. \n The taliban have been incredibly successful in this attempt as most countries are fixated on a 2014 pull out at the latest and if America doubles-down instead of pulling out it is unlikely to see much support from other members of the population.", "id": "c68gu1i", "summary": "These kinds of tactics have won the war for the Taliban and most governments are just trying to save face for when the inevitable pull-out happens and leads to the Taliban taking over."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "What are you smoking? Since WWII the US has been one of the most advanced arms producers, but a lot of the crap the ordinary infantryman got wasn't super whiz-bang space age stuff. \n Also the US has a history of selling its old WWII (most of which wasn't best-in-class in WWII) and Cold War gear to its \"partners\". A lot of this gear is beat all to hell and only seems like a bargain compared to beat to hell SovBloc gear that was left rusting in a field for 30 years.", "id": "c3p76bt", "summary": "Infantry don't get any good shit unless there is a war on, and US \"partner\" nations get gear that last saw action during the battle of the Bulge."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "I'm of the belief ... that propagation of intrinsically hateful and potentially harmful misinformation is a bad thing that should be actively spoken against by others. \n Then why are you for r/atheism? \n 'cause if you don't notice that stuff on  /r/atheism  then you are tragically ignorant or self-deluded. \n Due to  /r/atheism  I have come to the conclusion that the problem isn't Christianity etc, but the cognitive and inter-personal skills of some Americans.", "id": "c36j32o", "summary": "Some people are ass holes and use their belief in a deity to express that and excuse. Others use their non-belief in a deity to express that and excuse it."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "Maybe you should. \n >I have identified two principal causes of the inadequacies which led to the increase in contract price, the\nserious shortcomings in contract and project management, and in the State’s decision to settle with IBM.\nThose causes were:  unwarranted urgency  and a lack of diligence on the part of State officials. That lack of\ndiligence manifested itself in the poor decisions which those officials made in scoping the Interim Solution; in\ntheir governance of the Project; and in failing to hold IBM to account to deliver a functional payroll system. \n >These problems are not ones which should be thought to be unique or unlikely to arise again. The particular\ncircumstances of this failure may not recur, but the problems are systemic to government and to the\nnatural commercial self-interest of vendors. They are commonly experienced in projects of this kind, the\nCommission was told by Dr Manfield \n [SNIP] \n >The unnecessary sense of urgency to which I have referred influenced the procurement, contract and\nproject management phases of the Project. The sense of urgency was created by the real or perceived risk\nthat the legacy payroll system, LATTICE, would fail and as a result be unable to pay QH staff. The cause of\nthis was the State having failed to plan for the upgrade of LATTICE in a timely manner. The State was on\nnotice from at least May 2004 that LATTICE would not be supported by its vendor after 30 June 2008. The\nState failed to plan for that reality and did not adopt an effective succession or contingency plan for its\nreplacement. \n [SNIP] \n >The Queensland Government’s ICT Audit of 2012 was released after this Inquiry was established.\nIt surveyed the state of Government ICT infrastructure with a view to identifying the condition and\nperformance of the current state government’s ICT portfolio. This audit should serve as a reference point\nfor identifying those systems which might require upgrade or replacement in the future.\n2 .11 \n >The ICT Audit identified that over 40 per cent of all significant systems, with a combined replacement\ncost of $407M\n1\n, are past due for replacement, or due within the next two years. Significant systems have\na high total cost of ownership and underpin services which are considered critical. 14 such systems are\ncurrently past their end of life and have a replacement cost of $170M\n2\n. More than half of all systems due for\nreplacement now or in the next two years “have no formal evidence of planning related to their upgrade or\nreplacement”. \n [SNIP] \n >As the Auditor-General noted in his Report, it was not clear which Accountable Officer had responsibility for\nthe overall governance and successful completion of the Project. This failure can be attributed to a number\nof factors: \n >a. CorpTech having the contractual relationship with the contractor despite the Project being delivered to QH\nwhich had the direct and primary interest; \n >b.the very many people on a large number of Committees and Boards across CorpTech and QH charged with\nthe responsibility for managing the project. As Dr Manfield noted “there was plenty of active oversight of\nthe program however successful governance is not just about having processes, but about how governance\nprocesses and tools are used to get the result”\n4\n. The terms of reference of these bodies, as noted by\nthe Auditor-General, were unclear. Responsibility was spread too widely. There was no single point of\naccountability; \n >c.there was a dearth of expertise and continuity of membership on these bodies which affected the skills\napplied over the life of the Project; \n >d. the tendency of these governance bodies to act pragmatically and “push on” resulted in the compromise of\nGo/No Go gates and the reclassification of established criteria put in place to ensure a functional system was\ndelivered.", "id": "cbincby", "summary": "Project failed because it was pushed through too quickly due to a decaying IT infrastructure. While senior public servants made bad decisions this report doesn't cover the political pressure put on them to deliver this project. It also notes the major flaws in the planning and project processes themselves which lead to those bad decisions being made. \n The people directly responsible for this projects failure are the ministers heading the relevant departments, contracted senior public servants (aka the type that have short term contracts, not the type that are hard to fire), and IBM."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "The triviality of keylogging is inherent to the security model that  Linux/Windows/OSX all have. There are a thousand and one ways to do it (and aiming to exploit a non-X11 one is more common) and if you have malicious code running at user level you are fucked. If it doesn't keylog it's way to root there are tons of local privilege escalation vulnerabilities on most machines. \n To prevent this you need to put the standard user account in a small sandbox and require explicit privilege escalation for many common tasks. Users hate this and either revert to a \"normal\" security model, or just click every \"yes\" button they see.", "id": "c4zctgs", "summary": "Don't run malicious code. Don't be a stupid user."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "Except that the legal system has given men powers over the women in their family unit.. So all men get powers over some women and an elevated position above all women in general. \n Which is utterly irrelevant to your assertion that if men had wear it then the laws would change. The fact that in those countries there are restrictive standards of dress for men shows that your argument is wrong. \n Your argument is based upon the idea that groups of people only support laws that are personally convenient, and that if faced with the inconvenience caused by those laws they wouldn't support them. A brief look at history (or even present times) should show you how nonsensical that argument is.", "id": "ckvec9t", "summary": "The argument \"if men had to X, they wouldn't make women X\" is unsupported by reality. There is much more to human behaviour than if something happens to be convenient or not."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "I think we like to just reduce everything down to timey-wimey when something happens in the show we don't like. In a show about time travel, everything is timey-wimey in one way or another. \n That isn't what I am talking about. I am talking about making the companions from just being companions into being massively important people in the history of the universe. \n >As for New Who being too companion centric \n Again not what I am talking about. You can make a companion centric show by building it around \"small\" characters. I would say Rose for the most part was just an ordinary shop girl, and her episodes focused on her interaction with all the craziness the Doctor showed her. \n However, the Bad Wolf stuff went over so well that now the writers seem compelled to make every companion do a similar thing. Martha is the only one so far who wasn't apparently anointed by time itself but she was still critically important in repairing a paradox and saving the human race.", "id": "c7vzzhc", "summary": "New Who would be better without the Bad Wolf/Meta-crisis/Cracks in time stuff because it is so bloody repetitive. If they want to do arcs they should focus on smaller ones like the serials had."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "That's great but this whole time I have been responding to cjackc's premise that:\n>Its to show that cats can't right themselves in zero-g, like they can on earth because they have no reference. \n My argument is that this single experiment seems insufficient to determine whether the cat can't \"right\" itself because it lacks a gravity reference or because it is using movements inappropriate for a zero-g environment. \n And no gravity isn't the only variable, when a cat is falling naturally it is falling through air and experiences that movement through the air and can even use that to its advantage in manoeuvring.", "id": "c48amim", "summary": "We also need to drop cats in a vacuum."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "Capitalism: Fascism by another name eh? \n No not really as Fascists were for basically nationalising industry and ensuring high employment. Fascists were populist nationalists. \n The modern Liberals are trying to return to the time of robber barons, and where wealth triumphed over the masses. This is what Fascism was a reaction to. \n Fascism places the good of the group above that of the individual (that the symbolism of the [fasces]( whereas the Liberals are ultra-individualists.", "id": "ck3ku53", "summary": "Don't call everything you don't like \"Fascism\"."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "As I already said I was mostly having a go at Batman. But even Bioshock is just Atlas Shrugged with System Shock mixed in. \n As an analogy there are a whole bunch of Three Musketeers movies and shows. However some are stand outs, and re-making that story with 2011 \"style\" doesn't make it \"new IP\" in my book.", "id": "c2x34g4", "summary": "Game companies need to stop making cover based shooters and re-make XCOM properly God damn it!"}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "Ummm...you left out the second part of the sentence you quoted. \n Yes, because you have consistently placed American deaths above the death and suffering of the victims of communism. You state that it isn't worth American deaths to intervene. You are a self-interested prick who couldn't care less about those in other countries. \n >I am shocked to see you still haven't responded to why we don't free Saudi Arabia or China or Zambia or Iran because WE LOVE THE FREEDOMS SO MUCH AND HATE THE TYRANNY!!!! \n I did, people like you think the US and friends shouldn't interfere too much in other countries so there is no political will to conduct armed interventions in anything except the most egregious violations of human rights. Then you go and whine when the International community doesn't militarily intervene in your favourite charity case.", "id": "c4u0slu", "summary": "You have no clue about Vietnam except revisionist history by those sad that the Soviets didn't win the Cold War. \n P.S. Next time you attempt to look up insults to match your opponents nationality you should try harder."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "He can retain priority after he casts a spell and cast a split second spell, but after the split second spell resolves you will be able to counter his original spell. \n >116.3c. If a player has priority when he or she casts a spell, activates an ability, or takes a special action, that player receives priority afterward. \n >702.59a. Split second is a static ability that functions only while the spell with split second is on the stack. \"Split second\" means \"As long as this spell is on the stack, players can't cast other spells or activate abilities that aren't mana abilities.\"", "id": "c7rievg", "summary": "Split second will only stop you countering a spell with split second."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "you mean like the one that just did? \n No, because that was a re-write for PC. The UI requirements between a PC game and a handheld/tablet game are completely different, and iOS and Android have limited development environments anyway (ie you can't just transfer a C++ program over to iOS).", "id": "cijxo3w", "summary": "Using C# and WPF makes no difference to a handheld port."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "Think of it like this: If Kotick had NOT milked those franchises, he might have been fired a long time ago. \n I would love you to find a single incidence of the CEO of a major company being fired for not making enough profit. No really. Plenty of CEO's lose money year after year and just end up not having their contracts renewed. CEO's are rarely punished for the most egregious yet-still-legal behaviour. \n Technically his job is to \"maximise shareholder value\", however in today's 24-hour news cycle world this has been reduced to short term stock price pumping. However, it is incredibly unlikely that a CEO could be fired for refusing to focus entirely on the short term. Developing and nurturing brands over decades (as Steve Jobs did at Apple) is just as much fulfilling his duty as riding them into the ground is, if not more so.", "id": "c4pupg3", "summary": "People need to stop excusing every corporate excess as being due to the executives legal obligations to share holders. This is almost never the case, most behaviour like Kotick's is about enriching themselves, not worrying about their duty to the majority of shareholders."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "I actually don't think this can be argued to be Nazi. The [Nazi party flag]( had a full armed swastika, usually black in a circle of white, on a red flag. \n This is a short armed black swastika (which was used by tons of people until the Nazis made it uncool) outlined in red. I have done a quick search and can't find any evidence of this [variant]( being used by the Nazis.", "id": "c6adsek", "summary": "Not all swastikas are Nazi ones."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "There's many more IT systems administrators today than 20 years ago. \n I actually doubt that as the number of systems served by sysadmins has vastly increased. Small and medium businesses are likely to shift most of their infrastructure to \"cloud\" providers in the near future, and those providers service a huge number of systems with a small number of admins. \n Most of the work force is not skilled and is not capable of being highly skilled. \n >Same can be said for IC designers, mechatronics engineers, climate researchers, and pretty much any skilled work. The jobs that disappear come only from the lesser skilled sector (that can be fixed with education), and from superseded industries (that are superseded by newer sectors). \n Which is what I said has been the trend so far. But as computing power increases even those skilled jobs will be at risk. You don't have people manually laying out IC masks any more for example. \n >The total number of jobs in the last two centuries has only risen. \n Which is absolutely meaningless as the population has risen massively. \n The issue is that capitalism requires constant growth to keep the number of jobs even with improvements in efficiency. Unless we get off this rock we will tap most resources in the next few decades and then economies will stop growing and increasing \"efficiency\" will mean fewer people employed. \n >People become wealthy by serving others. \n No, people become wealthy by having starter capital and getting lucky. Dick Smith, David Jones, and Lindsay Fox aren't the average worker. \n >Wealth not spreading means nothing is purchased or sold, and that \"wealth\" is then useless. \n No, it means wealth only changes hands between the elites and the handful of people they need to service their needs.", "id": "cbchig3", "summary": "I never said \"there'll be no jobs!\" I said capitalism and increasing computer power will inevitably put most people out of work. There will still be work for the very high skilled."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "The average civilian in the middle-east does not like the US or the West in general, because they view as us intruders that are constantly interfering in their politics and culture, and propping up brutal dictators. \n Groups like Al Qaeda were set-up to oust the Western supported dictators like the Saudi monarchy. Average civilians might not necessarily be on board with extremist variants of Islam, but they do want the dictators gone.", "id": "ckhvrfs", "summary": "Anti-colonialist sentiment gets used by extremis groups because the alternatives are controlled by the colonialists."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "Pathogens have problems crossing the blood-brain barrier, unfortunately so do immune cells. This is usually a good thing as infections of the brain are rarer then infections of other tissue. But it also means the body normally can't fight an infection of the brain early on, which leads to swelling of the brain, which leads to brain damage and death.", "id": "c5ie53c", "summary": "Normally you don't have bacteria in your brain. When they get in there it commonly leads to life-threatening inflammation of cranial tissue."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "No charge back was allowed by the vendor with the cash because they were told it was prizes for an event, so it was going to be used for that or the butthurt guy could just take his $1000 of ETC. Also if you read the full story the Dredditor did destroy Dreddit, on the test server. \n I compressed the story for", "id": "c3q756l", "summary": "purposes."}, {"author": "the_raptor", "content": "EvE is serious Internet spaceships drama! Basically everyone is spaceships and can either sit in \"Empire\" (NPC controlled and policed) space and shoot NPC's, or go out to nullsec and fight other players and take their stuff. \n EvE is an MMO where pretty much anything goes. Stealing other players assets, extorting other players, infiltrating them with spies, scamming etc is all perfectly acceptable game play. \n Because you can literally steal or destroy tens of thousands of dollars (you can't licitly convert ingame currency to real money, but you can basically licitly buy ingame currency for real money, so stuff is easy to value in terms of real dollars) worth of Internet Spaceship goods and make other people cry. \n This tends to generate drama when people feel that how their Internet Spaceships Goods was destroyed and/or stolen wasn't \"fair\".", "id": "c3q6jxn", "summary": "EvE lets you be Internet Spaceships bad guy and rejoice at the lamentations of neckbeards."}]}
+{"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Parks & Rec deals with event participant registration and payment for free, but is a hassle to go through for the user. Cheap(ish) alternative to set-up our own payment page accepting CC? (Maybe Paypal, etc.)?", "output": "I'm part of an organization hosting our annual trail run fundraiser. We have track lengths of 3.2, 5.5, and 7.8 miles, and offer all kinds of food, beer, and live bands playing all throughout the evening in the local park we hold the event at. \n For the last two years, the city Parks & Rec group has allowed us to use a section of their website for details and registration (payment). The issue however, being a State Government run website, it is overly complicated and frustrating to use the registration portion. \n I was wondering if anyone could offer ideas for easy and not super expensive options that could be used to set-up our own payment page? We own the domain (GoDaddy, not my choice) and simply need a splash page for details on the event (I can create) and a payment page (have never done). \n The current deal with Parks & Rec for the registration and payment is free on our end (this is done by an agreement that they keep registrant information for their own purposes as agreed to by the registrants during processing), but we would really like to implement a more user-friendly and better looking implementation for our users if the price is not too exorbitant. \n EDIT: More details. The event had 250 registrants last year, though the number keeps jumping each year (this is our 3rd). I believe last year we raised like $4,000 for this event. Hoping to pass that this year."}], "user_id": "longlamp_420", "history": [{"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "Will try my best to describe: Me, working at a very small chained hotel as evening desk clerk. No one there, killing time until shift is over, this is one of my 5 jobs at the time. \n Kind of odd guy checks in, 30 something, process his stuff, on his way. It's him and this woman in the hotel besides me. I see her walk by once, but that's all, she was checked in before I got there. \n About 30 minutes before my shift ends, the guys come to the desk... \n Guy-\"Hey man, you guys have any condoms?\" \n Me-\"Uh, Yea...\" (First time a guest has ever asked, actually have to search for them) \n Guy-\"How much?\" \n Me-(Checks the list) \"$3.75 each\" \n Guy-\"WHAT?! Dude, I could get a whole box for cheaper than that.\" \n Me-\"Sorry, it's what we charge.\" \n Guy-\"... Damn, that's such a rip off.... do you guys have like, any lube or anything?\" \n Me-\"Sorry Sir, just the condoms.\" \n Guy-\"Do you at least have any butter? Some butter would work fine.\" \n Me-(Trying desperately to keep straight face) \"Uh, no Sir. I'm afraid we are out of butter...\" \n I worked about 6 months at that hotel, and that still stands as one of the weirdest Hotel experiences I've had. \n That, and the lady who came in on a stormy night that I am 90% sure was a professional hitwoman. Real sketchy type. Said her Father had just passed away and she was passing through for the funeral. All dressed in black, very little luggage, rather fit physique. Even asked me to show her the hotel room before she decided to stay, where she then proceeded to check every nook and cranny of the room... \n Hard to describe, just the general vibe I received from her. Nice lady though, flirted a bit later on in the evening since we were the only 2 in the hotel.", "id": "c9huhkf", "summary": "Random guest when complaining about condom prices instead asks if we have butter he can use for lube... \n Pretty sure I checked in a professional hitwoman."}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "I wasn't our official class clown, but was frequently involved in a lot of things. Here's a few: \n \n Wired the Testing Computer behind the teachers desk to be the same line as the class Intercom and proceeded to announce various things throughout the year using Microsoft Sam's Voice. \n Would go into British Literature teachers room 10 minutes before start and hide all the books, causing her to spend 20+ minutes looking for them all, since we each needed our own to read from. \n Frequently slept in class with head down in a hoodie (dark places make it comfy to sleep!). Used backpack as torso and baseball glove to fill head-slot, essentially scare-crowed my way out of class for a few hours to grab a pizza. \n Art class was often held with Windows open, so would stand out back of school until called, then come running and jump through the Window yelling \"HERE!\" \n \n Not as class clown, but just funny thing that popped into my head: \n \n Little freshman on the Baseball team used to try and mess with me a lot. 1 day at the very end of practice he grabbed my shoulder as I was heading out and in a very bad mood. Before he could blink I spun around grabbing the back of his neck, swept is leg, and flung him over my shoulder flat on the ground. Proceeded to grab my stuff as usual and head-out while everyone tried to figure out if he was alive.", "id": "cdeilsg", "summary": "Irritation can make you a martial-arts master. \n EDIT: Formatting."}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "It varies not by the title, but by the Employers actual listed duties for the position. I've been lucky enough to never be involved in true blue Help Desk. I started my career as a 2nd Shift Data Analyst, though other than a very few number of Crystal reports, spent most of my time Developing small single-man project Apps (Software Developer). Next I became an Information Technologist, which was just a very broad designation in State Government IT to be lazy and lock so many positions into a set pay scale. I was in fact working as a Software Developer, but some with my designation were DBA's, others Help Desk, some Technology Specialists like DB2 Mainframe, etc. It also completely varied not only by the job, but even by the different State Departments (Education, Agriculture, Conservation, etc.) I then got into my current position as a Software Engineer, but in my experience this one does blur the lines a little bit. I do mostly Development work into Web Apps, but there is a good bit of Database Design & Implementation, Website Design, etc. To be fair this, these more numerous duties and responsibilities are partially responsible for the automatic $10,000 Salary Increase from my previous Position. \n Those industry polls basically research online the various listed positions and then average the Salary out for all results with that Title. The Title does not (in some) cases truly reflect the position having the same duties everywhere. The pay is also going to vary LARGELY due to Location & Experience. The trend I'm seeing today is Employers no longer listing a Salary on posted positions, with everything pending experience and impressiveness in the Interview (though most organizations will include a certain Salary Range for each position and corresponding Level such as Software Engineer I-IV, with a lot of overlap between each level. In this setup, a promotion/raise do not always guarantee the other. Sometimes it's just a title change, sometimes it's just a little more money. \n Hope this in some way helps.", "id": "cmmrkva", "summary": "Data Analyst -> Information Technologist -> Software Engineer)  = ~\"Software Developer\"."}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "I can vouch for anywhere in Switzerland really. \n STORY: As a Midwest American, I had 2 Exchange Students in my class the Junior year of high school. Stefani from Switzerland, and Isabella from Brazil. We would chit-chat in History class and have a good time but never really hung out. Participating in both Track & Baseball, I was forced to do Track practice in the mornings. While in the gym, I overhear Stef telling the coach that she decided to also try Softball, so she needed to switch to morning practices for Track, but didn't have a ride. I figure why not, and ask who she is staying with. Turns out she is right on my way to school, so everyone talks the talk and it's all good. \n As weeks pass we get to know one another more and really become good friends. After Track every morning would hang out, just the two of us, and relax. I was a bit upset when one day I found out randomly that she had needed to leave earlier than expected. We had talked of keeping in touch but we didn't have any way planned yet (she had none of the usual Social Media connections). \n A few weeks pass by, I'm laying in the basement watching some movie and pass out around 8. Wake up at about 11:30 and check my phone: Voicemail? \n Who's it from?... Yep. Stef :) She figured out how to call from over in Switzerland! Because of the time difference (7hrs) we eventually worked it out to where we planned to call each other every weekend. To this day we still call each weekend possible. \n Back in Summer of 2010 I was invited to come visit after graduation, and so spent a month in Switzerland touring around and generally just having a blast with Stef & her family. \n The next summer before she started her 2yr contracted apprenticeship she came back over to the States to visit me, and we still talk every weekend possible. \n But yea, my apologies this turned into a rant about my best friend, but generally Switzerland is a beautiful country with a lot of things for any traveler to do! It IS a little pricey in some areas though, so be prepared. Staying with Stef & her Family basically all I payed for was my plane ticket ($1460ish) and a 3-day all country pass.", "id": "c8fqvud", "summary": "I have a best friend in Switzerland.\nSwitzerland is a bit pricey, but beautiful!"}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "Have shared before, but was well received: \n Will try my best to describe: Me, working at a very small chained hotel as evening desk clerk. No one there, killing time until shift is over, this is one of my 5 jobs at the time. \n Kind of odd guy checks in, 30 something, process his stuff, on his way. It's him and this woman in the hotel besides me. I see her walk by once, but that's all, she was checked in before I got there. \n About 30 minutes before my shift ends, the guys come to the desk... \n Guy-\"Hey man, you guys have any condoms?\" \n Me-\"Uh, Yea...\" (First time a guest has ever asked, actually have to search for them) \n Guy-\"How much?\" \n Me-(Checks the list) \"$3.75 each\" \n Guy-\"WHAT?! Dude, I could get a whole box for cheaper than that.\" \n Me-\"Sorry, it's what we charge.\" \n Guy-\"... Damn, that's such a rip off.... do you guys have like, any lube or anything?\" \n Me-\"Sorry Sir, just the condoms.\" \n Guy-\"Do you at least have any butter? Some butter would work fine.\" \n Me-(Trying desperately to keep straight face) \"Uh, no Sir. I'm afraid we are out of butter...\" \n I worked about 6 months at that hotel, and that still stands as one of the weirdest Hotel experiences I've had. \n That, and the lady who came in on a stormy night that I am 90% sure was a professional hitwoman. Real sketchy type. Said her Father had just passed away and she was passing through for the funeral. All dressed in black, very little luggage, rather fit physique. Even asked me to show her the hotel room before she decided to stay, where she then proceeded to check every nook and cranny of the room... \n Hard to describe, just the general vibe I received from her. Nice lady though, flirted a bit later on in the evening since we were the only 2 in the hotel.", "id": "cigo4y5", "summary": "Random guest when complaining about condom prices instead asks if we have butter he can use for lube...\nPretty sure I checked in a professional hitwoman. \n EDIT: Wall of text."}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "Hello! I came here looking for some opinions. \n I now have a thriving client-base, but my Freelancing all started with one client back in College. She is a nice middle-aged woman who is about 95% computer illiterate. She runs a high-end home decor and floral arrangement business. When we started she had no web presence and I was still learning. I built her an entire static website using html/css for Internship credit, and she liked my work so much we struck a deal for me to remain on retainer and perform updates for $100/month. This price, if she had used me properly, could have been very low pay on my end, but she was uncomfortable calling/emailing/txting me regularly to say what updates she wanted done (in her world, she would have preferred me there in the shop all day to make changes right as new products came in). \n After a year the client grew to think the price was too high, and we changed to an agreement of all future work being billed at $10/hr (this was before I grew my client base and is the still-standing agreement, nearly 1/4 of what I charge current clients\n). \n The client still failed to be in contact regularly, so I would about every 1-1.5 months call her up for some updates. It has now been 3 months since any updates to the site were made to the site. The following is the response I received after contacting the Client: \n \"Hi AnalyticLunatic-- I want to thank you for all the help in the past with my website. But, I think I am at the point where I need to manage it myself. Would you please forward to me all the information regarding my website, including any passwords, etc... as soon as possible? Thanks again and I wish you much success in your future endeavors!! -Client\" \n I do not believe she has found someone else to take over the site, and if she has, they are someone who is overestimating their own abilities based on what I was charging. It could be as simple as the client believing they can figure out how I make all the html changes for new photos. \n I don't need the business any more, but this was my first client (and a good contact since she is married to the President of my bank). \n Should I propose the option of building her a CMS so she can upload new content as she chooses, or, play the waiting game to see how long before she comes running back? There is no way this Client can update on her own in the sites current set-up, and I doubt anyone will charge her less than me (especially after the first round of headaches). \n Looking for some thoughts/opinions on the situation.", "id": "t3_1i8oh4", "summary": "Client is ending business with me and I'm trying to decide to propose CMS system for her or play the waiting game until Client comes running back."}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "In my current shop their are 3 Developers. 1 is an intern who recently turned full-time once he got enough college credit for his Associates Degree. We had 4, but our lead Developer with over 17yrs IT experience left for a better position elsewhere. \n I have been in my current shop for over a year now. I was hired on straight out of college as an I.T. 1 at the lowest spectrum of the pay scale. Since that time I have learned a lot and become one of the most experienced Developers on our team, beaten in Seniority by only 4 months. \n There are positions for I.T. 1-4, with requirements that the person has at least one years experience as the previous rank before they can move up. \n What is the best way to go about discussing with my Supervisor that I would be interested in moving up to an I.T. 2? My opinion carries weight in a lot of decisions made during development these days and my supervisor knows I am dependable for almost any task. \n I know a lot of employees in the agency move up by simply changing departments when openings happen, getting assigned I.T. 1-4 based on their experience, but I like where I am at and don't desire to leave just yet. \n I had planned to bring it up during my Employee review, but after my 6-month probationary period ended I was told we would have the first one after another 6-months, with each year thereafter. It has now been over 8 months since my probationary period ended and I'm trying to figure the best way to bring the issue up. \n Any help appreciated.", "id": "t3_1il0im", "summary": "How best to approach supervisor about interest in moving up from an I.T. 1 to an I.T. 2?"}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "In my current shop their are 3 Developers. 1 is an intern who recently turned full-time once he got enough college credit for his Associates Degree. We had 4, but our lead Developer with over 17yrs IT experience left for a better position elsewhere.\nI have been in my current shop for over a year now. I was hired on straight out of college as an I.T. 1 at the lowest spectrum of the pay scale. Since that time I have learned a lot and become one of the most experienced Developers on our team, beaten in Seniority by only 4 months.\nThere are positions for I.T. 1-4, with requirements that the person has at least one years experience as the previous rank before they can move up.\nWhat is the best way to go about discussing with my Supervisor that I would be interested in moving up to an I.T. 2? My opinion carries weight in a lot of decisions made during development these days and my supervisor knows I am dependable for almost any task.\nI know a lot of employees in the agency move up by simply changing departments when openings happen, getting assigned I.T. 1-4 based on their experience, but I like where I am at and don't desire to leave just yet.\nI had planned to bring it up during my Employee review, but after my 6-month probationary period ended I was told we would have the first one after another 6-months, with each year thereafter. It has now been over 8 months since my probationary period ended and I'm trying to figure the best way to bring the issue up.\nAny help appreciated.", "id": "t3_1imzu0", "summary": "How best to approach supervisor about interest in moving up from an I.T. 1 to an I.T. 2?"}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "Advice certainly appreciated. \n Backstory: I first began college (and finished) in an Associate Degree program (Computer Programming) through a very good Technical College in my State. Graduated with distinction and immediately began working after graduation in a full-time position. At the same time, I immediately started Evening Class with Columbia College in pursuit of my Bachelor Degree. \n At first I started just knocking out general education requirements which didn't transfer from my previous college, and then took all courses I could take at my local campus. In the end, I knew I always wanted to proceed with getting a Computer Science degree, which is only offered at the MAIN Campus program setup (Day/Evening Both offer this Degree, but NOT Online). All went well, as I came down to my last 7 or so classes, I began having to drive up Columbia in order to take the last remaining classes that are ONLY offered at Main Campus. Now I've run into a bit of a situation: \n After 16-Weeks, I have passed Calculus (barely), but it was not enough to meet the C grade pre-requirement to move on Discreet Mathematics I, which then leads into Discreet Mathematics II. I wasn't too far off, so I have emailed my Instructor asking basically for some mercy, but haven't heard back yet (expect he may be gone for the Holiday and not checking email). As far as I know, Final Grades have not been submitted, but I already know it is unlikely he would have mercy enough to bump me up just enough to enroll in the next course. \n So, where that leads me: \n \n This course is one of the only 16-week (usually 8-week at Columbia College) courses in my Degree Program. As it is upper-level and we aren't graduating 20+ CompSci students every May, this course (and the others that follow) historically have only been offered every 2-3 years.  \n I can attempt to enroll in the next course (the online system allows me to go so far with registration as asking for payment, so maybe the pre-requisite check is not properly in place in the system, which may allow me to go ahead and register). This would either work for me and hopefully the instructor just not make a fuss about it, or I'll be out $720.00 on my Credit Card until refunded in February. \n Another option would be to email my Adviser and see if any sort of waiver could possibly be applied to allow me to continue on (have held off for now to see if my Instructor would email me back per my request). While not close, we have been in a lot of communication over the past year discussing the Capstone Course to complete the program (long story short, they have NOT offered it the last 4 years in the Evening Campus course scheduling and their workaround has been to \"allow\" Evening Students to take the Day Campus offering of the course (1:00-2:00PM) for Evening Tuition rates -- which does not at all work if you fit the paradigm of a traditional Evening Student who works until 5:00PM. I have been sent all over the administration and campus inquiring into the issue, and now am on the \"we will tell you more once we find someone to teach the course\" list....   \n \n Basically, unless something can be worked out, I'll seemingly have to wait 2+ years for the courses to be offered again, which, while not dire seeing as I'm already several years into my Career position is still more than a bit of a setback. Another option I have been considering is the following (if forced to take a \"break\" and wait for the last courses needed in my Bachelor's Program to be offered again): \n My current and seemingly long-lasting position includes benefits for Tuition Reimbursement in pursuit of my schooling. I had never intended to go beyond a Bachelor's Degree before arriving in this position, but considering my Employer is willing to pay, it seems ridiculous not to continue on. While open to suggestions, I am currently eyeballing either Mizzou (for proximity) or Washington University Online (great reputation) for my Master's, though I have not yet decided if I want to stay within an IT related degree or go with something else I could perhaps fall back on one day such as Accounting or General Business. I know next to nothing of the process for entering or going through Graduate School, but I did read on Mizzou's Graduate School application you can be within 30hrs of your first Bachelor's Degree and apply (is this common in most Master's Programs?) \n Can anyone offer advice, perhaps they have been in a similar situation?", "id": "t3_3xvjf8", "summary": "Didn't pass Calculus (by enough), advice for situation to not have to wait 2 years to re-take or just continue forward and enroll in Graduate School?"}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "A couple years back a good friend assisted me with building my first PC. He had some free time while I was away for the weekend, so after the parts came in he actually assembled everything for me. \n Here are the specs: \n \n CM Storm Stryker - White Full Tower Gaming Computer Case with Handle and External 2.5\" Drive Dock \n ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 * ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS \n Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge Quad-Core 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K \n ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM \n OCZ Agility 3 AGT3-25SAT3-60G 2.5\" 60GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) \n EVGA 01G-P4-3650-KR GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card \n NVIDIA Gift - Assassin's Creed III Game Coupon - OEM \n Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5\" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive \n G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9Q-32GBXL \n RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-630SS 630W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Power Supply, New Version with Build-in LED Fan On/Off Switch \n \n Basically I went in with about a $1,000 budget and in November 2012 ended up at just a hair over $1,100 from Newegg. The 60GB SSD was kind of a last minute after thought to load the OS on, which I know of course am wishing I had gone a little larger. I'm running Windows 7 currently, and if I don't regularly do file cleanup/defrag, I get persistent warnings of low disk space on the drive (C: also happens to be the default download location for a lot of applications/files, some of which you cannot change easily). \n I'm looking to get either a 120GB or 240GB SSD to upgrade soon, and I wondered if it's possible/how I could clone what is currently on my 60GB SSD, and basically swap the 2 out, then wipe the 60GB SSD and use it as just a separate drive? \n Apologies if this is a pretty newbie question, but I'm more Software Oriented in experience/education/career.", "id": "t3_2cstv1", "summary": "How to copy/swap SSD with a larger SSD?"}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "Anyone have suggestions for a new Credit Card? I got my first one last year for everything related to going to a work conference (Registration, Hotel, Flight, etc). Originally I applied for the Chase Freedom card because at the time I believe the deal was if you spent $2,000+ in 3 months and paid it all back, you got $500 cash. \n While my Credit Score is a fantastic 728 at the age of 23, I did not have enough Credit HISTORY for them to feel I qualified (despite multiple loans in my name of varying amounts). I then went with the Citi Forward card as I am still in college for my Bachelors Degree in CompSci (9 classes to go!). \n Typically these work trips are the only thing I use my Credit Card for, other than the very rare big purchase like a new TV. I typically pay $100-$150 a month (could pay it all off, but have been wanting to build up the HISTORY I didn't have before). This year I'm going to Chicago for Microsoft Ignite and I was wondering if there were any good offers currently like the Chase Freedom one last year? \n The conference is in May, so I have some time.", "id": "t3_2o9plx", "summary": "I now have Credit History. Suggestions for new Credit Card?"}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "With the start of the New Year I've set a few Personal Finance Goals: \n \n Pay off remaining $600 Credit Card debt. \n Pay off 2010 Mazda3 - $2,365 or 8.86 payments of $267. \n Pay off 2005 Mercury Mountaineer - ~$1,500 (Was kept by parents for an extra vehicle to one day use for trade-in value, but after sitting for a few years I offered to fix it up if I could have it to drive until such day comes. $750 down for new tires, etc. and looking at about $90/Month by agreement). \n Once my HSA hits the maximum of $3,350 (currently ~$3,100) via Employer Contributions, start investing some of the funds (only $2,100 minimum needed in Account to invest the rest -- HDHP has $2,700 premium). \n Increase Nationwide 457 Retirement Plan contributions by an extra $50/pay period (currently $100/pay period plus $32.67 match by Employer.) \n Budget Eating Out/Fast-Food to $150/month (according to budget spreadsheet the last year I averaged around $220/month...!) \n Begin paying off some of my Student Loan Debt. \n \n Once I take out the first several goals, I want to begin tackling my Student Loans and I'm looking for advice on the best way to do so? \n Here is my loan information: \n \n  #  |Type                                |Amount    |Date         |Outstanding Principle  |Interest  \n [1] Direct Stafford Unsubsidized | $5,500 |      09/23/2010 |  $5,500 |                      $1,499 \n[2] Direct Stafford Unsubsidized | $4,587 |      09/22/2011 |  $4,587 |                      $939 \n[3] Direct Stafford Unsubsidized | $5,500 |      08/20/2012 |  $5,500 |                      $738 \n[4] Direct Stafford Unsubsidized | $7,500 |      08/19/2013 |  $7,500 |                      $283 \n[5] Direct Stafford Unsubsidized | $7,500 |      08/26/2014 |  $3,750 |                      $30 \n \n Since October 2013 I have been at an Employer that offers Education Reimbursement which I've been making use of but not yet paying back towards my loans. For some background, I started a 2-year Tech College in 2010-2012, then after graduating and starting a new career I began evening courses at a new college in pursuit of my Bachelors Degree in Computer Science. I will be finished with this school year in May bringing the total principal of Loan [5] up to the full $7,500 for outstanding principle. \n Once this school year ends, I will be left with exactly 3 courses remaining to complete my Degree. The only problem is that due to an oversight by my Academic Adviser and scheduling issues, there is a real possibility that 2 of those 3 courses may not be offered for another year or 2. This being the case, I'm a little concerned about my status going into [repayment] until those courses are offered again. \n According to [ with a Family size of 1 and AGI of ~$45,000 I'm (currently) looking at a monthly payment of $333 by the Standard Repayment Plan over 120 months (my goal once done with the degree is to pay $500/month minimum). \n So, there it is. Anyone want to offer advice for the best way to tackle my Student Loans? Once the other goals are met, the Student Loans will be my only outstanding Debt. \n P.S. Is it possible for me to pay directly on the Loan Principle or must I first pay off all outstanding Interest on the loan?", "id": "t3_2qxp9z", "summary": "I have Loans and I have Goals. Advice on Loans post-Goals? \n EDIT: Formatting"}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "Apologies for the cruddy title and long read. First time here and not sure what I'm really looking for. Maybe some thoughts, maybe just to vent a little. I'll try my best to explain what I'm feeling. \n I've been together with this wonderful girl for almost 1 & 1/2yrs now. We are both successful adults who have founded our relationship on respect and partnership with one another. Things have been going great between us pretty much up until last night. As a little background, I am her first serious relationship of any kind and after several months into our relationship the first guy she has been intimate with (over time that side of our relationship has grown more and more to the point she probably has a higher sex drive than what I do). \n Well, everything was great until one day a couple months back (sitting here on my computer) I received a random text message from her  \"I might be moving back to [Minneapolis] :D\" . Just out of the blue, no warning, no heads up. As it turns out she had become aware of an awesome job ($7,000+ on salary, better benefits, better environment, room to move up, etc.) 2 hours away back in what is/was more or less her home town for some 15 odd years. Granted she was just super excited for the possibility of this new job, but the way in read to me was that she was capable of being perfectly OK with moving 2hrs away from me, and just assuming everything would go on as normal. It cut me pretty deep, but what could I say? \n We talked it out later, but ultimately I could not fault her for wanting to improve herself. She interviewed and (because I know how awesome she is) she got the job just like I knew she would. She got moved in about a month ago to her new place and we've stayed together with a lot of communication each way and visits to see one another on the weekend (long-ish, but worth it). \n Last night though, came a new hurdle that I'm having difficulty with. \n Towards the end of 2014 was difficult for her (only child), with her parents (agreeably) divorcing after I believe 24 years. I stuck by her side and did what I could to comfort during the situation, and I tried to be sensitive to the fact that they were divorcing right around Christmas time, just before she is moving BACK to the same city as her parents, with her mom right before Christmas moving across country to South Carolina. It's been hard for her, but I'm proud of how strong she has been to handle the situation (not sure I would have had as much grace). \n Like I mentioned before, I am her first serious relationship and the first she has ever been intimate with -- she grew up in very religious home, not to say strict, just very heavily involved with the Church, Southern Baptist. Now that she is back in her home city, few close friends and her parents divorced, it is no surprise to me she wants to get back more heavily involved with her church. As of last night (first time she has brought anything remotely like this up to me) I have been informed she wants to get back more in touch with her faith, and cannot \"call herself a Christian if she is having sex outside of marriage\". \n I may not be the most religious man, but I have some manner of faith. I try to be respectful towards all people's beliefs (it is theirs and not mine, I have no reason to judge upon them). This however has caught me completely off guard. We are not in high school, we are both nearly 25 year old adults, and both with a very healthy and (up until now) happy sex life for the last year. \n When she told me how she felt, she was in tears on the phone very fearful of me wanting to leave our relationship because of this decision  (I don't) and saying she would understand if I did. Our relationship is not at all whole-heartedly founded upon the physical side, but we both thoroughly have enjoyed it for the last year. \n Like I said, I have respect for religion and I even envy those who can throw themselves wholeheartedly into their beliefs without reservation of any sort. What I cannot wrap my head around is where this decision has come from, especially given the timing (the move 2hrs away, parents divorce, etc), and that we both openly and thoroughly enjoy the physical side of our relationship. I am trying to be respectful of her decision and her faith, but I'm just having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around the idea (religion or no) someone would want to cut off part of a relationship that they themselves enjoy so very much. \n I'm trying to be respectful, but I'm having some issues on my end. \n Admittedly I'm still hurting from her moving 2hrs away. I cannot fault her for it in any way being that it was based on a great new job opportunity, but it hurts. Then last night I get told that she is wanting to cut out the physical side of our relationship (in the now very limited time we actually get to spend with one another). This has left me feeling very torn in every direction, as no matter what I do I'm either the bad guy or disrespecting myself. \n \n Completely be the good guy and respect her wishes without a second thought? Lying to myself. \n Respect her wishes and assist her going forward by saying no when the temptation and feelings rise? Bad guy for not giving what she wants. \n Respect her wishes but ultimately give in when she swears she wants it? Bad guy, left possibly dealing in this exact situation with her feeling guilty afterwards. \n \n I'm just feeling very torn right now. No matter what I do/possibly do, I see myself ending up as the Bad Guy or at the very least the guy who has to end up comforting the crying Girlfriend afterwards suddenly having a sex/faith crisis at the age of nearly 25. \n She really is an awesome girl, but I've been feeling very \"secondary\" in a lot of her major decisions lately, and (faith or no) feel deep-down that some of these decisions are being selfishly made on her end without much thought to me. Our relationship is founded on being partners, and while these major decisions (new job/moving, this new crisis) are her personal choices, they do heavily affect me in our relationship. \n Like stated, I can't help but feel the timing has something to do with this, but I just don't know what to do. The last thing I want to do is to end our relationship, but there just seems to be more and more mounting pressures against it with what feels like very little regard for my side of things. \n I can't possibly begin to adequately describe all the facets of our relationship, nor fully describe everything I'm feeling as I reel back and forth arguing with myself between being the \"Good Guy\" and being honest with how I feel. \n In any case, I'd welcome some thoughts on the matter. I've tried my best to describe, but I know I can never adequately get everything across through these digital characters.", "id": "t3_2t6emk", "summary": "Girlfriend has moved 2hrs away recently, and now (because of Religion) wants to cut the sex out of our relationship, which we have both thoroughly been enjoying for the last year (and now have such very limited time together to enjoy). I'm left feeling very \"secondary\" in the major decisions lately, and am looking for some thoughts on the situation?"}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "I wasn't particularly looking, but recently a good number of friends and (past) neighbors have been moving into houses. These houses are rather nice, and IMO not badly priced. I'm wondering if it may be a good time to consider buying (investing really) into a house. I currently reside in a rather nice 2BR/1BA apartment by myself for $445/month (water/sewer/trash all included). I've lived in this apartment since May 2012. Here's my layout: \n Age : 22, Male, Midwest USA \n Education : Associates in Computer Programming, 12 classes shy of Bachelors in Computer Science. \n Career : Software Engineer; Salary (Gross): ~$45,000 \n Liquid Cash:  (HSA, Paypal, Checking, Savings): ~$16,000 \n Retirement Accounts : (401K, Nationwide 457, Bonds): ~$7,100 \n DEBT \n \n Car Loan : $3,700 (2010 Mazda3) \n Student Loans : ~$23,000  \n \n MONTHLY INCOME \n \n Paycheck : $2,440 (Net, just received a small raise) \n \n MONTHLY BILLS \n \n Rent : $445 \n Electric : $114 (Budget Billing, Flat Rate) \n Internet : $42 \n Cable : $88.50 (Reducing/Canceling soon - DirecTV) \n Netflix : $7.00 \n Cell Phone : $85 \n Tek Protekt : $11 (Phone Protection Plan) \n Food : ~$400 (Rough Estimate - Varies a lot in Summer) \n Gas : ~$100 (Again, Summer causes Variance) \n Car Loan Payment : $267 (Minimum) \n \n My current employer is awesome and looking like a gig I will be sticking around with for at least a few years. On the retirement side of things, each paycheck they match up to 6.8% contributions, as well as matching up to $35 into the Nationwide 457 plan (I currently allocate $100 per paycheck pre-tax). They also offer Tuition Reimbursement which I have recently been able to start receiving now that I've been in my position enough time (they cover everything except books, basically). This will help me finish out my Bachelors (will still be taking out Federal loan, just in case) and could potentially pay for my Masters (never really been in my plan, but if someone else is willing to pay for it, hard to not consider...). \n If scheduling pans out, I've got at least 1.5yrs remaining to finish out the Bachelor Degree, and as the terms of Tuition Assistance, would need to remain at least 1yr afterwards to not owe back any of the assistant funding. The position I'm in now also has a lot of room for growth. \n As for a quick overview of a particular house which caught my eye when I did a search on Realtor.com: \n Built in 1984, 2 Car Garage, 3 Beds, 2 Full Bath & 1 1/2 Bath, House is 1,385 Sq. Ft,  Lot is 6,970 Sq. Ft. \n Interior Features : Dishwasher, Refrigerator, Wood Floors, Garbage Disposer, Stove, Public Utilities, Hood, Walk Out Basement. \n \n Master Bedroom is 13x11'6 \n Living room is 12'7x11'5 \n Kitchen is 18'9x9'5 \n Laundry room is 7'5x6 \n Lot size is less than 1/2 acre \n Parking features: Garage in Basement: 2, In Basement \n \n Exterior Features : Built with Brick/Vinyl, Deck which is 10'6 x 10, Patio 30 x 26'6. A shed and a flat concrete area great for use as a Basketball court. Small bit of yard area. \n Heating is FAE (not sure what this means honestly, anyone?)/Central cooling. \n Lot size is approximately 0.16 acre(s) and 60 x 115 \n Now granted, I have not looked at this in person (just started internet searching around), but on paper this property offers everything I would be looking for in an upgrade from my 2BR apartment. \n Listed Price is $89,900. This would be my first home purchase, and my family has a long standing relationship with our home bank, so I'm sure I could get a more than fair loan (among other first time buyer credits). No guarantee I'll be in this area in the next 10+ years, but for at least the next 5, I would say it's a safe bet.", "id": "t3_2bj8v4", "summary": "Considering moving from my apartment and buying my first House. Is my situation good/logical enough?"}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "Back Story : I am in Midwest USA; I have a best friend in Switzerland. We got to know one another well while she was here as a foreign exchange student and became close friends. After she left we made the effort to stay in touch and even call one another almost every Sunday still to this day. \n In 2010, after my high school graduation and shortly before entering College, I visited her and stayed with the family for roughly a month. We traveled all about Switzerland and it was a great time. The next summer in 2011 she came back to visit me for a similar amount of time in Missouri. \n The other day we were talking about how we need to get together again, and while we had kinda thrown the idea out there vaguely before, this time it took to some serious discussion. According to Stef (Note: I have no source to link to...) there is a Mono-Rail pass available for purchase that allows you to travel anywhere in Europe for a small sum of $500 per month (under the age of 26). \n After swapping notes, we discovered we shall both be completing our Bachelors Degree in about the same time (Early -> Summer 2016). Nothing is set in stone, but this sounds like an excellent way to kick of being finished with college! (I already hold my Associates Degree from a State Tech school and will have 3.5 years of experience in the industry as a Software Developer when I complete my Bachelors). \n Question : Any advice/tips/tricks for this trip? Plane fare last time I visited was about ~$1400, and I'm sure it has/will gone up from there. Then there is the $500 for the monorail pass. \n The idea is that we would basically pack a bag and head across Europe. If I have the time saved up, we will be journeying for the full month. If I'm somewhat short on the time (can accrue only so much at my position per year), we will at least do a couple weeks in Ireland. \n We plan mainly to just travel as we please, probably staying in hostels along the way to keep our costs down while allowing ourselves to have fun where and when we please. \n I've spent basically my entirely life (besides that month in Switzerland) in Missouri USA and would appreciate any advice for saving/enabling/doing this Eurotrip. We are both good with our finances and I expect neither of us to be hard up for funds, let alone with planning so far out in advance.", "id": "t3_230lc5", "summary": "Swiss Friend & I (USA) graduate college in 2016. Advice for traveling across Europe?"}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "Sorry for the long post, but tried to include as much relevant information as I could. So in a condensed nutshell, here is my financial situation: \n \n ACCOUNTS: \n \n \n Savings: __ $11,233.60 \n Checking: __ $1,152.83 \n HSA: __ $3,673.10 \n Cash/Coins:___$2,500.00 \n Mother owes me $1,036 (Family Loan, no interest...) \n \n Total: __ $19,595.53 ($15,992.43 without HSA) \n \n DEBTS: \n \n \n CreditCard:__$253.04 \n CarLoan:___$1,831.00 \n SuvPmt:___$1,450.00 \n \n SubTotal: $3,534.04 \n \n Student Loans (5 Currently, each Direct Stafford Unsubsidized Undergraduate loans): \n \n \n [1] 9/23/2010 $5,500 | Outstanding Prin: $5,500 | Interest: $1,562 | Interest Rate: 6.80% FIXED \n [2] 9/22/2011 $4,587 | Outstanding Prin: $4,587 | Interest: __$992 | Interest Rate: 6.80% FIXED \n [3] 8/20/2012 $5,500 | Outstanding Prin: $5,500 | Interest: __$801 | Interest Rate: 6.80% FIXED \n [4] 8/19/2013 $7,500 | Outstanding Prin: $7,500 | Interest: __$332 | Interest Rate: 3.86% FIXED \n [5] 8/26/2014 $7,500 | Outstanding Prin: $5,625 | Interest: ___$62 | Interest Rate: 4.66% FIXED \n \n Total Outstanding Principle:  $28,712  | Interest:  $3,749 \n \n I will be paying off the Credit Card next month. On the car loan I am required to pay $267/month, so I have 7 payments remaining -- I used to pay $445/month, but with agreement to my folks I agreed to allow the car as collateral against a newly structured loan my parents set up for some of their stuff (basically it rolled all their current debts more or less into one loan, which gave them a lower interest rate overall and a better situation). The agreement (in writing) stands that I pay off what was remaining of my car loan, and then they will take over making payments on the remaining total loan amount that encompasses their own stuff. The only reason I haven't paid off the car loan amount fully at this point is to allow my mother time to pay off some smaller stuff before she begins making payments on the total loan for her end. \n In any case, the car loan will be paid off this year, as will the SUV (currently not making payments as an official bill has not been sent yet). \n Once all of these are taken care of, the only remaining debt(s) I will have to my name are my Student Loans. Once this session ends, I will only have 5 courses remaining for my Bachelor's Degree, and due to scheduling offerings, I will at most only be taking 1 course at a time (Soonest estimated Graduation would be May 2015). To go along with this, I am now in a stable job position with my Employer offering full Tuition Reimbursement of any course required for the degree I am seeking -- A/B 100% Reimbursements, C 75%, and so on. \n I plan to have my parents finish their side of the FAFSA and submit this week, though I am debating on if I should accept a loan for the upcoming (final) school year? I have a good amount in savings which I could cover each class at a time (~$750.00 each counting Textbooks). Since I am still in school I am currently not making payments towards my Student Loans. \n Besides the option of beginning to make payments on my Student Loans, I also want to add some extra  umph  to my Retirement Savings. Currently I have the following towards retirement (I am 23): \n \n Nationwide 457:  _ $5,993.02 \n Employer Pension Plan:  $4,679.05 \n \n With my Employer Pension Plan (based on my salary), I receive a full match in contributions up to 6.86%, which I am doing. There is a 5yr Vestment period, and I will be at 2 this October. Besides these I have been debating on starting a ROTH IRA or something like a CD ladder (1-5yr all started at the same time with either $500/$1,000, then recycling them each maturity). \n My current accelerated goal would be to pay off my Student Loans in 5-7 years (once beginning repayment) instead of the standard 10yr plan (would be putting $500 minimum towards these each month). The soon-negated car loan this year will alone cover half of that payment with those previous held funds, with my already decent gross salary of $45,000 expected to increase somewhat in May. \n Does anyone have suggestions for the best route I should consider with expanding retirement planning? Or should I just focus on paying off the loans before expanding my Retirement sights?", "id": "t3_2x8zaq", "summary": "After paying off smaller debts should I begin paying [early] payments towards student loans, expanding methods of saving towards retirement, or some approach towards both? \n EDIT :  formatting and student loan interest rates."}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "Sorry for the long post, but tried to include as much relevant information as I could. So in a condensed nutshell, here is my financial situation: \n \n ACCOUNTS: \n \n \n Savings: __ $11,233.60 \n Checking: __ $1,152.83 \n HSA: __ $3,673.10 \n Cash/Coins:___$2,500.00 \n Mother owes me $1,036 (Family Loan, no interest...) \n \n Total: __ $19,595.53 ($15,992.43 without HSA) \n \n DEBTS: \n \n \n CreditCard:__$253.04 \n CarLoan:___$1,831.00 \n SuvPmt:___$1,450.00 \n \n SubTotal: $3,534.04 \n \n Student Loans (5 Currently, each Direct Stafford Unsubsidized Undergraduate loans): \n \n \n [1] 9/23/2010 $5,500 | Outstanding Prin: $5,500 | Interest: $1,562 \n [2] 9/22/2011 $4,587 | Outstanding Prin: $4,587 | Interest: __$992 \n [3] 8/20/2012 $5,500 | Outstanding Prin: $5,500 | Interest: __$801 \n [4] 8/19/2013 $7,500 | Outstanding Prin: $7,500 | Interest: __$332 \n [5] 8/26/2014 $7,500 | Outstanding Prin: $5,625 | Interest: ___$62 \n \n Total Outstanding Principle:  $28,712  | Interest:  $3,749 \n \n I will be paying off the Credit Card next month. On the car loan I am required to pay $267/month, so I have 7 payments remaining -- I used to pay $445/month, but with agreement to my folks I agreed to allow the car as collateral against a newly structured loan my parents set up for some of their stuff (basically it rolled all their current debts more or less into one loan, which gave them a lower interest rate overall and a better situation). The agreement (in writing) stands that I pay off what was remaining of my car loan, and then they will take over making payments on the remaining total loan amount that encompasses their own stuff. The only reason I haven't paid off the car loan amount fully at this point is to allow my mother time to pay off some smaller stuff before she begins making payments on the total loan for her end. \n In any case, the car loan will be paid off this year, as will the SUV (currently not making payments as an official bill has not been sent yet). \n Once all of these are taken care of, the only remaining debt(s) I will have to my name are my Student Loans. Once this session ends, I will only have 5 courses remaining for my Bachelor's Degree, and due to scheduling offerings, I will at most only be taking 1 course at a time (Soonest estimated Graduation would be May 2015). To go along with this, I am now in a stable job position with my Employer offering full Tuition Reimbursement of any course required for the degree I am seeking -- A/B 100% Reimbursements, C 75%, and so on. \n I plan to have my parents finish their side of the FAFSA and submit this week, though I am debating on if I should accept a loan for the upcoming (final) school year? I have a good amount in savings which I could cover each class at a time (~$750.00 each counting Textbooks). Since I am still in school I am currently not making payments towards my Student Loans. \n Besides the option of beginning to make payments on my Student Loans, I also want to add some extra  umph  to my Retirement Savings. Currently I have the following towards retirement (I am 23): \n \n Nationwide 457:  _ $5,993.02 \n Employer Pension Plan:  $4,679.05 \n \n With my Employer Pension Plan (based on my salary), I receive a full match in contributions up to 6.86%, which I am doing. There is a 5yr Vestment period, and I will be at 2 this October. Besides these I have been debating on starting a ROTH IRA or something like a CD ladder (1-5yr all started at the same time with either $500/$1,000, then recycling them each maturity). \n My current accelerated goal would be to pay off my Student Loans in 5-7 years (once beginning repayment) instead of the standard 10yr plan (would be putting $500 minimum towards these each month). The soon-negated car loan this year will alone cover half of that payment with those previous held funds, with my already decent gross salary of $45,000 expected to increase somewhat in May. \n Does anyone have suggestions for the best route I should consider with expanding retirement planning? Or should I just focus on paying off the loans before expanding my Retirement sights?", "id": "t3_2ww2yo", "summary": "After paying off smaller debts should I begin paying [early] payments towards student loans, expanding methods of saving towards retirement, or some approach towards both? \n EDIT:  formatting..."}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "I live in Missouri, USA. For the past several months I have been saving up all the possible leave I can to put towards a hopefully month-long European excursion with my Best Friend who lives in Switzerland. Long story short, we met when she was a Foreign-exchange student in my high school and have been fantastic friends ever since. I visited her for a month after high school graduation and before starting college in 2010, and the following year she came back here to visit. Now that I have a full-time career while pursuing my Bachelors in an Evening Program (CompSci) and she herself is enrolled in University, we have potentially planned a month long European Adventure sometime in 2016 (we should both be either close or even finished with our respective degree programs at that time.) \n Now then, I found out today that it is my Employer's policy to each Fiscal Year require employees at some point to take 5-days of Consecutive Annual leave. My Girlfriend & I had just last week discussed the idea of taking a trip somewhere away, just the two of us, and today's news bodes excellent timing. \n So then, what are my fellow traveler's suggestions for best places to visit in a ~9 day time frame? \n My Girlfriend & I are pretty open-minded and love to travel, be it within the U.S. or outside especially. I myself have spent my entire life in Missouri (besides the month in Switzerland), and have had a few family/conference trips to New Mexico, Kentucky, and Texas.", "id": "t3_2nedup", "summary": "You are forced to leave your home and travel for one week. Where do you go?"}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "I live in Missouri, USA. For the past several months I have been saving up all the possible leave I can to put towards a hopefully month-long European excursion with my Best Friend who lives in Switzerland. Long story short, we met when she was a Foreign-exchange student in my high school and have been fantastic friends ever since. I visited her for a month after high school graduation and before starting college in 2010, and the following year she came back here to visit. Now that I have a full-time career while pursuing my Bachelors in an Evening Program (CompSci) and she herself is enrolled in University, we have potentially planned a month long European Adventure sometime in 2016 (we should both be either close or even finished with our respective degree programs at that time.) \n Now then, I found out today that it is my Employer's policy to each Fiscal Year require employees at some point to take 5-days of Consecutive Annual leave. My Girlfriend & I had just last week discussed the idea of taking a trip somewhere away, just the two of us, and today's news bodes excellent timing. \n So then, what are my fellow traveler's suggestions for best places to visit in a ~9 day time frame? \n My Girlfriend & I are pretty open-minded and love to travel, be it within the U.S. or outside especially. We enjoy hiking, sight-seeing, adventuring, and just seeing the world and experiencing new sights and people; learning their stories and making new memories. I myself have spent my entire life in Missouri (besides the month in Switzerland), and have had a few family/conference trips to New Mexico, Kentucky, and Texas.", "id": "t3_2nhds6", "summary": "You are forced to leave your home and travel for one week. Where do you go?"}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "Yesterday I was perusing an app for one of my local buy/sell platforms when I found someone selling a Samsung Chromebook Model# xe303c12 for $140. I had sold my old laptop due to overheating issues and generally being outdated awhile back and been getting by with just my smartphone (S4) and 2 tablets, Nexus7 and Motorola Xoom. \n Recently though I had been considering looking into a cheaper laptop just for general doing school work from the couch and what not. I hadn't ever considered a Chromebook heavily for a solution, but thought if I could find one cheap enough I'd give it a try. After some back and forth negotiation I talked the guy from $140 to $100 and now I have this Chromebook. \n I was wondering if it would be possible (feasible) to upgrade the ram any from the 2GB it has? Also, could I do the same with the SSD? \n Here are the current specs: [ \n It seems to be handling well from the playing around with it I did last night, just curious if I could pep it up any. Also if anyone has suggestions for must-have apps or must-do things on a Chromebook feel free to weigh in. Thanks! So far I'm very happy with it, especially how lightweight it is. Looking forward to using it at the next work conference for notes.", "id": "t3_2s73sp", "summary": "Can I upgrade Memory/SSD in my Chromebook? \n EDIT: Added link to Chromebook Model specs."}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "Yesterday I was perusing an app for one of my local buy/sell platforms when I found someone selling a Samsung Chromebook Model# xe303c12 for $140. I had sold my old laptop due to overheating issues and generally being outdated awhile back and been getting by with just my smartphone (S4) and 2 tablets, Nexus7 and Motorola Xoom. \n Recently though I had been considering looking into a cheaper laptop just for general doing school work from the couch and what not. I hadn't ever considered a Chromebook heavily for a solution, but thought if I could find one cheap enough I'd give it a try. After some back and forth negotiation I talked the guy from $140 to $100 and now I have this Chromebook. \n I was wondering if it would be possible (feasible) to upgrade the ram any from the 2GB it has? Also, could I do the same with the SSD? \n Here are the current specs: [ \n It seems to be handling well from the playing around with it I did last night, just curious if I could pep it up any. Also if anyone has suggestions for must-have apps or must-do things on a Chromebook feel free to weigh in. Thanks! So far I'm very happy with it, especially how lightweight it is. Looking forward to using it at the next work conference for notes.", "id": "t3_2s79yc", "summary": "Can I upgrade Memory/SSD in my Chromebook?"}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "I am 24 working as a Software Developer in the Midwest US. I have taken out Student Loans since I began college, which I started in 2010 and went 2 years for my Associates Degree at a Tech School. Upon graduation (and working 32hrs/week even before) I had a job lined up, and immediately after graduating in May 2012 proceeded to begin Evening courses at a new College in August 2012 in pursuit of my Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science. Now that I am in my final year for my Bachelors Degree (3 Math Courses Left + The Capstone), I opted not to take out any more unnecessary student loans as I have been in a new job since October 2013 which offers full Tuition Reimbursement as one of the benefits. \n &nbsp; \n Below are my loan details as they currently stand: \n &nbsp; \n \n \n No \n Type of Loan \n Interest Rate \n Loan Amount \n Loan Date \n Disbursed Amount \n Canceled Amount \n Outstanding Principal \n Outstanding Interest \n \n \n \n \n 5 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 6.80% \n $5,500 \n 09/23/2010 \n $5,500 \n $0 \n $5,500 \n $1,810 \n \n \n 4 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 6.80% \n $4,587 \n 09/22/2011 \n $4,587 \n $0 \n $4,587 \n $1,199 \n \n \n 3 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 6.80% \n $5,500 \n 08/20/2012 \n $5,500 \n $0 \n $5,500 \n $1,049 \n \n \n 2 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 3.86% \n $7,500 \n 08/19/2013 \n $7,500 \n $0 \n $7,500 \n $524 \n \n \n 1 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 4.66% \n $7,500 \n 08/26/2014 \n $7,500 \n $0 \n $7,500 \n $281 \n \n \n Total \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n \n \n \n \n $30,587 \n $4,863 \n \n \n Total All Loans \n \n \n \n \n \n $30,587 \n $4,863 \n \n \n \n &nbsp; \n And this is the rough outline of my finances (not including some of the more miscellaneous and varied like clothes shopping): \n \n \n Income Type \n Amount \n Note \n \n \n \n \n Take-Home Pay (Monthly) \n $2,500.00 \n \n \n \n Flipping (Varies) \n $50-$X00.00 \n \n \n \n Total: \n $2,650.00 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Diversified Monetary Asset(s) \n Amount \n Note \n \n \n Bank 1 (Savings/Checking) \n $7,000.00 \n \n \n \n Bank 2 (Checking) \n $1,300.00 \n \n \n \n Saving Bonds (Letting Mature - Current Value:) \n $640.00 \n \n \n \n $1.00 Pres/Sacajawea Coins \n $1,017.00 \n \n \n \n Gold/Silver Bullion \n $7,000.00 \n I caught the Silverbug bad back in February and invested heavy for awhile partially as an investment and partially as a Collector for the Coins/Rounds. Done for the moment and letting the values grow (already up $800 from investment by official estimates). \n \n \n BitCoin \n $212.00 \n \n \n \n Google Wallet \n $100.00 \n \n \n \n PayPal \n $30.00 \n \n \n \n TOTAL \n $17,299.00 \n \n \n \n \n &nbsp; \n \n \n \n OTHER - Description \n OTHER - Amount \n \n \n \n \n 401(a) Retirement (Company does 6.86% Match) \n $7,400.00 \n \n \n 457 Supplemental Retirement (Company $32/mo match) \n $8,200.00 \n \n \n HSA (With only Company Contributing) \n $2,800.00 \n \n \n HSA Funds Invested \n $3,100.00 \n \n \n TOTAL \n $21,500.00 \n \n \n \n \n &nbsp; \n \n \n Bill Type \n Amount (Monthly) \n \n \n \n \n Rent \n $445.00 \n \n \n Vehicle Gas \n $100.00 \n \n \n Insurance (2) Vehicles \n $80.00 \n \n \n Vehicle Service (Regular) \n $16.67 \n \n \n Groceries \n $275.00 \n \n \n Eating Out (Fast Food, Dates, etc) \n $333.00 \n \n \n DirecTV (Cable) \n $57.00 \n \n \n Internet (1.5mbps) \n $44.00 \n \n \n Electric \n $103.00 \n \n \n Cell Phone (Verizon - Single, 3GB Data) \n $110.00 \n \n \n Cell Phone Insurance \n $11.00 \n \n \n $1.00 Shave Club \n $9.00 \n \n \n YMCA Gym Membership \n $38.00 \n \n \n Netflix \n $7.99 \n \n \n Haircut \n $25.00 \n \n \n TOTAL \n $1,654.66 \n \n \n \n &nbsp; \n This is the simplified overview of my Finances. On top of this, I have about $300 flat I owe currently on my Credit Card and still owe $1,450 for having my secondary vehicle repaired to working order (not currently making payments as the mechanic is a family friend who does it on the side and has not yet served me with a final bill -- legit, just hasn't gotten around to it). Also, my Mother currnetly owes me ~$700 for helping her out with some sudden bills she had awhile back which she is paying back when she can/wishes. \n &nbsp; \n Now then, currently I am not paying anything on Student Loans. I'm currently in half-time enrollment, and with some luck (scheduling-wise as far as what I need being offered) I will graduate May or December 2016. Once this is all said and done, my Payments should work out to roughly $385.00/mo currently, though this is by current numbers (interest is growing at about $4.12 a day). \n &nbsp; \n First off, I know that I will definitely save money if I stop eating out so much. Second, due to new responsibilities I should be receiving some form of raise at my job this next June, not to mention the sizable lump I expect once my Bachelors Degree is complete. \n \n Now, the new consideration. After running the numbers in my head compared to the local market, I've now started the process to see what I pre-qualify for in Home Loans at my local bank. I have a solid relationship with a woman who works in town (Lawyer), and while we both agree it is too soon to go in on a house together, I have begun Window shopping for a house on my own just to see if I can find a reasonable upgrade from my apartment for similar in what I'm currently paying in Rent (have paid $445/mo since May 2012 for a current total of ~$19,000). \n &nbsp; \n I have never bought a house before, but for 24 years old feel like I have myself in a pretty solid situation and wondered if some of you could weigh in with some advice on the thought of buying a house (possibly) given what I still owe in Student Loans. While I am considering beginning to pay on my Student Loans (again, not currently) once I graduate my plan is to flat pay $500/mo if not more as finances allow -- pending the purchase of a House. \n &nbsp; \n Can I get some opinions from you guys on how to proceed? Sorry if everything is a bit essay-like, I just wanted to get everything thoroughly detailed. \n &nbsp;", "id": "t3_3sk3zj", "summary": "I'm 24, pretty solid financially, debating Student Loan payments early vs potentially doing a first home purchase."}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "I am 24 working as a Software Developer in the Midwest US. I have taken out Student Loans since I began college, which I started in 2010 and went 2 years for my Associates Degree at a Tech School. Upon graduation (and working 32hrs/week even before) I had a job lined up, and immediately after graduating in May 2012 proceeded to begin Evening courses at a new College in August 2012 in pursuit of my Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science. Now that I am in my final year for my Bachelors Degree (3 Math Courses Left + The Capstone), I opted not to take out any more unnecessary student loans as I have been in a new job since October 2013 which offers full Tuition Reimbursement as one of the benefits. \n &nbsp; \n Below are my loan details as they currently stand: \n &nbsp; \n \n \n No \n Type of Loan \n Interest Rate \n Loan Amount \n Loan Date \n Disbursed Amount \n Canceled Amount \n Outstanding Principal \n Outstanding Interest \n \n \n \n \n 5 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 6.80% \n $5,500 \n 09/23/2010 \n $5,500 \n $0 \n $5,500 \n $1,810 \n \n \n 4 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 6.80% \n $4,587 \n 09/22/2011 \n $4,587 \n $0 \n $4,587 \n $1,199 \n \n \n 3 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 6.80% \n $5,500 \n 08/20/2012 \n $5,500 \n $0 \n $5,500 \n $1,049 \n \n \n 2 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 3.86% \n $7,500 \n 08/19/2013 \n $7,500 \n $0 \n $7,500 \n $524 \n \n \n 1 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 4.66% \n $7,500 \n 08/26/2014 \n $7,500 \n $0 \n $7,500 \n $281 \n \n \n Total \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n \n \n \n \n $30,587 \n $4,863 \n \n \n Total All Loans \n \n \n \n \n \n $30,587 \n $4,863 \n \n \n \n &nbsp; \n And this is the rough outline of my finances (not including some of the more miscellaneous and varied like clothes shopping): \n \n \n Income Type \n Amount \n Note \n \n \n \n \n Take-Home Pay (Monthly) \n $2,500.00 \n \n \n \n Flipping (Varies) \n $50-$X00.00 \n \n \n \n Total: \n $2,650.00 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Diversified Monetary Asset(s) \n Amount \n Note \n \n \n Bank 1 (Savings/Checking) \n $7,000.00 \n \n \n \n Bank 2 (Checking) \n $1,300.00 \n \n \n \n Saving Bonds (Letting Mature - Current Value:) \n $640.00 \n \n \n \n $1.00 Pres/Sacajawea Coins \n $1,017.00 \n \n \n \n Gold/Silver Bullion \n $7,000.00 \n I caught the Silverbug bad back in February and invested heavy for awhile partially as an investment and partially as a Collector for the Coins/Rounds. Done for the moment and letting the values grow (already up $800 from investment by official estimates). \n \n \n BitCoin \n $212.00 \n \n \n \n Google Wallet \n $100.00 \n \n \n \n PayPal \n $30.00 \n \n \n \n TOTAL \n $17,299.00 \n \n \n \n \n &nbsp; \n \n \n \n OTHER - Description \n OTHER - Amount \n \n \n \n \n 401(a) Retirement (Company does 6.86% Match) \n $7,400.00 \n \n \n 457 Supplemental Retirement (Company $32/mo match) \n $8,200.00 \n \n \n HSA (With only Company Contributing) \n $2,800.00 \n \n \n HSA Funds Invested \n $3,100.00 \n \n \n TOTAL \n $21,500.00 \n \n \n \n \n &nbsp; \n \n \n Bill Type \n Amount (Monthly) \n \n \n \n \n Rent \n $445.00 \n \n \n Vehicle Gas \n $100.00 \n \n \n Insurance (2) Vehicles \n $80.00 \n \n \n Vehicle Service (Regular) \n $16.67 \n \n \n Groceries \n $275.00 \n \n \n Eating Out (Fast Food, Dates, etc) \n $333.00 \n \n \n DirecTV (Cable) \n $57.00 \n \n \n Internet (1.5mbps) \n $44.00 \n \n \n Electric \n $103.00 \n \n \n Cell Phone (Verizon - Single, 3GB Data) \n $110.00 \n \n \n Cell Phone Insurance \n $11.00 \n \n \n $1.00 Shave Club \n $9.00 \n \n \n YMCA Gym Membership \n $38.00 \n \n \n Netflix \n $7.99 \n \n \n Haircut \n $25.00 \n \n \n TOTAL \n $1,654.66 \n \n \n \n &nbsp; \n This is the simplified overview of my Finances. On top of this, I have about $300 flat I owe currently on my Credit Card and still owe $1,450 for having my secondary vehicle repaired to working order (not currently making payments as the mechanic is a family friend who does it on the side and has not yet served me with a final bill -- legit, just hasn't gotten around to it). Also, my Mother currnetly owes me ~$700 for helping her out with some sudden bills she had awhile back which she is paying back when she can/wishes. \n &nbsp; \n Now then, currently I am not paying anything on Student Loans. I'm currently in half-time enrollment, and with some luck (scheduling-wise as far as what I need being offered) I will graduate May or December 2016. Once this is all said and done, my Payments should work out to roughly $385.00/mo currently, though this is by current numbers (interest is growing at about $4.12 a day). \n &nbsp; \n First off, I know that I will definitely save money if I stop eating out so much. Second, due to new responsibilities I should be receiving some form of raise at my job this next June, not to mention the sizable lump I expect once my Bachelors Degree is complete. \n \n Now, the new consideration. After running the numbers in my head compared to the local market, I've now started the process to see what I pre-qualify for in Home Loans at my local bank. I have a solid relationship with a woman who works in town (Lawyer), and while we both agree it is too soon to go in on a house together, I have begun Window shopping for a house on my own just to see if I can find a reasonable upgrade from my apartment for similar in what I'm currently paying in Rent (have paid $445/mo since May 2012 for a current total of ~$19,000). \n &nbsp; \n I have never bought a house before, but for 24 years old feel like I have myself in a pretty solid situation and wondered if some of you could weigh in with some advice on the thought of buying a house (possibly) given what I still owe in Student Loans. While I am considering beginning to pay on my Student Loans (again, not currently) once I graduate my plan is to flat pay $500/mo if not more as finances allow -- pending the purchase of a House. \n &nbsp; \n Can I get some opinions from you guys on how to proceed? Sorry if everything is a bit essay-like, I just wanted to get everything thoroughly detailed. \n &nbsp;", "id": "t3_3rjm7h", "summary": "I'm 24, pretty solid financially, debating Student Loan payments early vs potentially doing a first home purchase. \n EDIT: Lot of formatting. Added Interest Rates."}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "I am 24 working as a Software Developer in the Midwest US. I have taken out Student Loans since I began college, which I started in 2010 and went 2 years for my Associates Degree at a Tech School. Upon graduation (and working 32hrs/week even before) I had a job lined up, and immediately after graduating in May 2012 proceeded to begin Evening courses at a new College in August 2012 in pursuit of my Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science. Now that I am in my final year for my Bachelors Degree (3 Math Courses Left + The Capstone), I opted not to take out any more unnecessary student loans as I have been in a new job since October 2013 which offers full Tuition Reimbursement as one of the benefits. \n &nbsp; \n Below are my loan details as they currently stand: \n &nbsp; \n \n \n No \n Type of Loan \n Interest Rate \n Loan Amount \n Loan Date \n Disbursed Amount \n Canceled Amount \n Outstanding Principal \n Outstanding Interest \n \n \n \n \n 5 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 6.80% \n $5,500 \n 09/23/2010 \n $5,500 \n $0 \n $5,500 \n $1,810 \n \n \n 4 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 6.80% \n $4,587 \n 09/22/2011 \n $4,587 \n $0 \n $4,587 \n $1,199 \n \n \n 3 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 6.80% \n $5,500 \n 08/20/2012 \n $5,500 \n $0 \n $5,500 \n $1,049 \n \n \n 2 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 3.86% \n $7,500 \n 08/19/2013 \n $7,500 \n $0 \n $7,500 \n $524 \n \n \n 1 \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n FIXED 4.66% \n $7,500 \n 08/26/2014 \n $7,500 \n $0 \n $7,500 \n $281 \n \n \n Total \n DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED \n \n \n \n \n $30,587 \n $4,863 \n \n \n Total All Loans \n \n \n \n \n \n $30,587 \n $4,863 \n \n \n \n &nbsp; \n And this is the rough outline of my finances (not including some of the more miscellaneous and varied like clothes shopping): \n \n \n Income Type \n Amount \n Note \n \n \n \n \n Take-Home Pay (Monthly) \n $2,500.00 \n \n \n \n Flipping (Varies) \n $50-$X00.00 \n \n \n \n Total: \n $2,650.00 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Diversified Monetary Asset(s) \n Amount \n Note \n \n \n Bank 1 (Savings/Checking) \n $7,000.00 \n \n \n \n Bank 2 (Checking) \n $1,300.00 \n \n \n \n Saving Bonds (Letting Mature - Current Value:) \n $640.00 \n \n \n \n $1.00 Pres/Sacajawea Coins \n $1,017.00 \n \n \n \n Gold/Silver Bullion \n $7,000.00 \n I caught the Silverbug bad back in February and invested heavy for awhile partially as an investment and partially as a Collector for the Coins/Rounds. Done for the moment and letting the values grow (already up $800 from investment by official estimates). \n \n \n BitCoin \n $212.00 \n \n \n \n Google Wallet \n $100.00 \n \n \n \n PayPal \n $30.00 \n \n \n \n TOTAL \n $17,299.00 \n \n \n \n \n &nbsp; \n \n \n \n OTHER - Description \n OTHER - Amount \n \n \n \n \n 401(a) Retirement (Company does 6.86% Match) \n $7,400.00 \n \n \n 457 Supplemental Retirement (Company $32/mo match) \n $8,200.00 \n \n \n HSA (With only Company Contributing) \n $2,800.00 \n \n \n HSA Funds Invested \n $3,100.00 \n \n \n TOTAL \n $21,500.00 \n \n \n \n \n &nbsp; \n \n \n Bill Type \n Amount (Monthly) \n \n \n \n \n Rent \n $445.00 \n \n \n Vehicle Gas \n $100.00 \n \n \n Insurance (2) Vehicles \n $80.00 \n \n \n Vehicle Service (Regular) \n $16.67 \n \n \n Groceries \n $275.00 \n \n \n Eating Out (Fast Food, Dates, etc) \n $333.00 \n \n \n DirecTV (Cable) \n $57.00 \n \n \n Internet (1.5mbps) \n $44.00 \n \n \n Electric \n $103.00 \n \n \n Cell Phone (Verizon - Single, 3GB Data) \n $110.00 \n \n \n Cell Phone Insurance \n $11.00 \n \n \n $1.00 Shave Club \n $9.00 \n \n \n YMCA Gym Membership \n $38.00 \n \n \n Netflix \n $7.99 \n \n \n Haircut \n $25.00 \n \n \n TOTAL \n $1,654.66 \n \n \n \n &nbsp; \n This is the simplified overview of my Finances. On top of this, I have about $300 flat I owe currently on my Credit Card and still owe $1,450 for having my secondary vehicle repaired to working order (not currently making payments as the mechanic is a family friend who does it on the side and has not yet served me with a final bill -- legit, just hasn't gotten around to it). Also, my Mother currnetly owes me ~$700 for helping her out with some sudden bills she had awhile back which she is paying back when she can/wishes. \n &nbsp; \n Now then, currently I am not paying anything on Student Loans. I'm currently in half-time enrollment, and with some luck (scheduling-wise as far as what I need being offered) I will graduate May or December 2016. Once this is all said and done, my Payments should work out to roughly $385.00/mo currently, though this is by current numbers (interest is growing at about $4.12 a day). \n &nbsp; \n First off, I know that I will definitely save money if I stop eating out so much. Second, due to new responsibilities I should be receiving some form of raise at my job this next June, not to mention the sizable lump I expect once my Bachelors Degree is complete. \n \n Now, the new consideration. After running the numbers in my head compared to the local market, I've now started the process to see what I pre-qualify for in Home Loans at my local bank. I have a solid relationship with a woman who works in town (Lawyer), and while we both agree it is too soon to go in on a house together, I have begun Window shopping for a house on my own just to see if I can find a reasonable upgrade from my apartment for similar in what I'm currently paying in Rent (have paid $445/mo since May 2012 for a current total of ~$19,000). \n &nbsp; \n I have never bought a house before, but for 24 years old feel like I have myself in a pretty solid situation and wondered if some of you could weigh in with some advice on the thought of buying a house (possibly) given what I still owe in Student Loans. While I am considering beginning to pay on my Student Loans (again, not currently) once I graduate my plan is to flat pay $500/mo if not more as finances allow -- pending the purchase of a House. \n &nbsp; \n Can I get some opinions from you guys on how to proceed? Sorry if everything is a bit essay-like, I just wanted to get everything thoroughly detailed. \n &nbsp;", "id": "t3_3rjnwm", "summary": "I'm 24, pretty solid financially, debating Student Loan payments early vs potentially doing a first home purchase. \n EDIT: Lot of formatting. Added Interest Rates."}, {"author": "AnalyticLunatic", "content": "I'm in my lower twenties, and in a good place financially. 1 Associates Degree complete and working full-time in my chosen career while pursuing my Bachelors Degree (42 Credit Hours left!). \n With my current job, I make a pretty solid take-home amount of around $1,100 per pay period (~$2,200) monthly. Pre-Tax I am contributing 6% of my paycheck to my Employer-Funded pension plan (they match 6% contributions), and have about $1,500 already in that account (4 months here so far, only a 5 year vestment period). \n My employer also gives us access to a Nationwide 457 plan which they match contributions up to $33 (I currently place $100 each paycheck pre-tax). The 457 Account currently stands at about $2,500 thanks to some rollover funding from my previous employer's retirement plan. \n Taking into account all of my bills and expenses, I have ~$700 leftover each month to do with as I please (barring any big trips, etc).  I was wondering if any of the PF crew here had recommendations for other plans/options I could get into to start preparing for retirement early? \n I enjoy my current position, turnover is low-to-nill, and while I am at the very very base salary for my position, they regularly perform reviews. In my position I am a Base 1 employee, which has the potential for an extra $19,000 in salary alone. While I don't know the crossover as of yet, that is only for my Base 1 position (there are some here who are Base 5's in my same job title). \n I've done some research before into Roth IRA accounts, and plan on opening one once my salary has increased enough to at least bring me close to the max contribution amount ($5,500). Though, if anyone has reasons to go ahead and open one, I'm glad to hear ideas. Thanks! :D", "id": "t3_20ei5p", "summary": "Low-twenties; have extra money; additional ideas for retirement saving?"}]}
+{"author": "Ellimis", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post if you're going to do any gaming at all, get the box. If not, get the stick.", "output": "I got the stick because my TV already had optical out, so if you have a TV that supports it already, that may not be a reason for everyone. All of the other features are only helpful if you use it for gaming - outside of that, (aka for streaming only) they're superfluous specs."}], "user_id": "longlamp_2170", "history": [{"author": "Ellimis", "content": "I'm not 100% sure you know how airbags work. I'm really glad you escaped with minimal injuries though! \n An airbag would not have trapped you in the car. They deploy and then IMMEDIATELY deflate. It's not like a balloon that stays inflated - it's inflated by an explosion of air, and there are many vents and holes in the airbag specifically to cause it to deflate or vent extra pressure. It could have prevented any injuries to your face whatsoever, at the expense of some first degree burns on your arms  maybe.", "id": "cc2cwml", "summary": "there are no negative aspects of having an airbag deploy in your situation."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "OMA doesn't make it less fun for me. In fact, our absolute most intense games are always when both sides bust out the tubes. It gets heated and it gets fun, and we have to coordinate a lot more. It's also not the standard, so it's really fun when that happens. It's varied. \n THAT BEING SAID, it's probably because I'm on PC and it's a fuck ton easier with a mouse to snipe a tuber out of his little camp hole if he happens to have killed me twice. \n I will say that I have only VERY rarely lost a game because of opponents' tubing. As in, probably single digit games over the course of 2400+ hours. \n Plus, IMO scav is far more OP than OMA. I'll scavenger tube the fuck out of any campers, and pick up extra RPGs along the way. The fact that nobody bitches about scavenger completely discounts (to me) their complaining about OMA, because I will consistently top the scoreboard with scavenger. \n When I say \"broken\" I mean shit like knifing not actually working even after I've already teleported, or horrendous damage dropoffs and ranges on guns, or ridiculous recoil that makes counting bullets pretty much worthless. I'm sure it has somewhat to do with experience, but over my 300 hours of MW3 I still can't count bullets to tell when an opponent will drop. It's useless. I can tell with most guns (even depending on range) when my enemy will die in MW2.", "id": "c6u1xli", "summary": "I fucking love MW2"}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "the video and audio data between the discs is pretty much indistinguishable. They share many of the same requirements and standards, including uncompressed PCM audio and a variety of dolby digital and DTS lossless and lossy formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. Typically though, considering the bandwidth limitations of spinning media, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital are the ones that really get used because they take up less than 5Mbps, which is still really an enormous amount for an 8-channel stream. You know how 320kbps MP3s are pretty much indistinguishable from lossless audio? Well, 8 channels at 4.7Mbps total (Dolby Digital Plus) is nearly 600kbps  per channel . Keep in mind that the 320kbps in an MP3 is the total bitrate for both channels combined. So, even though both Blu-ray and HD-DVD support things like Dolby TrueHD at 18.64Mbps, and DST-HD at 24Mbps, it's kind of ridiculously overblown. You'll run into minor distortion from your speakers long,  long  before you'll notice the difference between 5Mbps audio and 25Mbps audio.", "id": "chmqltl", "summary": "it's baloneium, and  additionally  it wouldn't even matter unless you have tens of thousands of dollars worth of studio monitors."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "Okay, so I get that there are plenty more animals to have as pets, but... maybe those are the only two that appeal, or he just doesn't want to have pets in the house? It's really not some crime to not own an animal. I had a pet rock for a week as a kid, and sure it got old but there wasn't some gaping hole in my soul that could only be filled by an animal.", "id": "c6ji6p4", "summary": "I vote we leave OP alone (except we should definitely downvote for repost + karma farm) about what pets he can have."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "Fuck you for being a dick with false data. Look at the keyboard in that picture. Now look at the one in your link. They're not the fucking same. \n I  also  have the keyboard from the post,  like I'm sure OP does as well, so you can be less of an uninformed ass . It's not motherfucking mechanical. It's a piece of shit. You want pics? [Motherfucking pics]( Now compare my pics to the one in OP's photo. It's THE SAME, SURPRISE! You can see the goddamn membrane in several of them, and you can tell by the shape on the insides that it's NOT fucking mechanical, and it's  most certainly  not the one in your link either. It's made of sadness and tears instead. And much as I hate Apple's philosophies, I do not deny that the majority of their hardware is fantastic,  BUT NOT THIS SATANIC PIECE OF WHORE . \n When I was in college, I had this keyboard because it was free and USB and I was a broke-ass student. Every single fucking person that used my gaming rig  hated  it with the burning, fiery passion of a thousand motherfucking suns. It's pretty, but goddamn it those keys are slow as fuck. It is the most godawful, horrendous keyboard my fingers have ever had the terrible displeasure of coming in contact with. I'm considering purchasing every single on listed on ebay just to burn them in a pit in my backyard. Or maybe I'll burn them one by one and make it some kind of ritual to the gaming gods, but  fuck that keyboard . \n I've removed most of the keys from it so it says \"the dotCommune\" (what my roommates and I call the house) in leet speak and it hangs by my front door. Best thing that keyboard has ever done.", "id": "c2sysz8", "summary": "go fuck yourself. OP is right."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "This guy knows what's up. I did exactly that and never stopped playing that way. Yesterday, I shit you not, I got four nukes in a row while running and gunning. \n I've also worked in a LAN gaming center for some time, and I can offer you another piece of advice. I've seen identical games played on 15 foot projector screens, 55 inch DLP TVs, and 22 inch DVI monitors, and DVI monitors offer the best visibility  by far.   It helps to be as close to the screen as possible, up to a limit of course. I don't mean you should stick your face into the screen, I mean that with a 22 inch LCD screen you're sitting 1-2 feet away, whereas you're at least 6 feet from a larger television and even further from a projector screen. This is true for both PC and consoles- I've done it on both. \n I'm not trying to sound all guru-esque and stuck up, just offering advice since I can speak from tons of experience. You learn things like this when it's your job.", "id": "c20p7hq", "summary": "sit closer to the screen and run like a motherfucker"}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "Personally, I think SteamOS is promising in its streaming feature. I'd love to built a shitbox to run SteamOS and pop it on a TV in my living room. I don't do a ton of living room gaming (because my office chair and corner desk are awesome) but it could be fun for parties or just for a change of pace. Maybe i'll get more into platformers and third-person adventure games with a controller. Who knows?", "id": "ccmsyv0", "summary": "SteamOS still appeals to me even though I don't want to leave Windows"}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "You're right about my card, but for $500 you can still build a PC that outperforms the listed specs on the PS4 by a long shot. The GTX 660Ti puts out 2.4 TFLOPS and costs $250 on sale. The HD 7870 regularly drops below $200 after rebates. Combine that with a cheaper AMD barebones kit with a 1045T, and you're pretty much set. \n Adding Windows and other peripherals obviously costs more, and I'm not saying that the prices of PCs are ever going to drop BELOW that of the consoles, but it really just puts it in perspective that you're basically getting what you pay for. You spend $400 on a PS4, you might get slightly more performance (due to optimization) than a $400 desktop, but not by a landslide. It will also have longer life, yes, but hopefully Sony doesn't try to milk this generation like the last. Holy shit that was a long time to go between generations. Embarrassingly long.", "id": "c8j3j3u", "summary": "you actually COULD build a  decent  gaming rig for the price of a console, and CERTAINLY for the price of last-gen's MS and Sony offerings. I've built a few for around $500 that I would call better than decent, but not great. \n I think that Nintendo still has the right idea when it comes to pricing (and, well, pretty much everything else) and I can't wait to see how this generation unfolds."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "It's not even just \"technically\" wrong, it's wrong by nature. It literally means 2000 pixels wide. QHD is  significantly  different. \n edit: just to make the point, the DCI standard 2K resolution is 2048x1080. That's 2,211,840 pixels. We can call it 2.2 million pixels \n 1080p is 1920x1080, or 2,073,600 pixels. Pretty close, right? 2.07MP, about 2.1 million pixels \n QHD is 2560x1440, or  3,686,400  pixels. It's an enormous difference. 3.69 million pixels.", "id": "ckvho0p", "summary": "stop acting like it's acceptably close"}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "I think just mildly apathetic with regard to situations like this is more how I see myself. I think the system works. If someone doesn't understand how to use the simple system, then they're still weeded out of my dating pool. I have no problem with this. \n But I see your point :P", "id": "c37fhki", "summary": "I'm cheerful as fuck"}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "The GTX 260 is a much better choice at a budget than the 560Ti. It is substantially cheaper and will more closely match your processor. Benefit of having 560Ti: depending on how soon you build an entirely new computer, you might be able to keep it for a future build. Downside of buying a 560Ti: you wont get much more benefit from it than from the 260, since at that point your processor will be the limiting factor (bottleneck).", "id": "c2cjov0", "summary": "go with the GTX 260, and be sure to upgrade your RAM as well."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "I think you're misunderstanding what I meant, or maybe I wasn't clear. I'm saying monitors are better for everything, though the latency is rarely an actual problem especially if your TV has a \"game\" mode. My point was that the blurry effect that TVs tend to have (it's slight but still present) is  less unacceptable  for games than it is for text. It still sucks and I'd rather not have it be blurry at all (", "id": "cnafuta", "summary": "get a monitor), but if you're gaming instead of reading facebook, the blur will be far less noticeable. \n I'm not disagreeing with you, just clarifying."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "Time for a Super True Story: \n I work in a haunted house. This year, I told the owners I wanted to be a slasher and showed them  this pic . \n The costume turned out okay in the light, but better in the dark. [pic]( It isn't complete, either. \n My role is to be on a zipline and fly over people's heads slashing at them and growling/moaning, etc. Just before my zipline is a little girl's room, and the gig is that all the monsters in the house are actually in her closet. I did this for a few days, and there was some generic music playing on a CD in my room, for ambience. \n The next day, they turn the lights off a little early, and I mosey on over to my room to find that [THIS SONG IS PLAYING IN MY ROOM]( None of the owners/managers play video games, and I am absolutely positive they don't know the origin of the song, but  somebody  felt it appropriate to play that in my room because of the little girl's room.. It freaked me out a bit for a few minutes, but in the end I liked it. It's an awesome song.", "id": "c6osqk3", "summary": "I'm a slasher in a haunted house and this music got is playing in my room, by random chance."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "Well at the time that actually was one of the issues. Early Blu-ray discs adopted a higher use of region-locking, and some blu ray players couldn't play discs that  weren't  region-locked. I believe this has been circumvented since then, in addition to the adoption of the practice of not locking discs in the first place. \n In general, the benefits are that it's so much cheaper. This is manifested in a bunch of ways. \n HD-DVD discs store data much further from the surface of the disc. If you drop a disc and it gets scratched, that's okay! the surface can be repaired, and the data isn't damaged. If you manage to scratch a blu-ray disc, you're basically screwed. The data is stored incredibly close to the surface of the disc. \n This would be a worse issue if Sony hadn't developed a super hard substance to protect from scratches, but that really only matters up to a certain threshold. Yes, it might withstand light scratches completely, but light scratches don't really hurt digital media anyway. Deep gouging from dropping a disc in a parking lot, or having it fall on a hard wood floor that's slightly rough are much more likely scenarios for scratches to actually matter, and the hard coating wasn't good enough to withstand that anyway. \n The process to make them was far more expensive, because the machines making the discs had to be changed. I don't remember specifics, but you can imagine the huge costs of upgrading  every factory that manufactures discs . Higher costs equal higher prices for consumers. \n HD-DVD actually includes almost exactly the same functionality as blu-ray discs. Same color laser, same codecs, same formats, same output (1080p, not 1080i - that was a limitation of the players, not the discs). \n HD-DVD supported a larger set of filesystems ideal for different tasks. This doesn't really lead to fragmenting, since there are still standards, it just allows manufacturers more options in fringe cases. \n The programming for menus was generally (though not universally) easier and more efficient with the HD-DVD spec, since it was something microsoft implemented specifically for interactive menus. It's equally powerful as blu-ray's system, but far more accessible - seriously, the SDK for it was incredibly easy. Lots of microsoftians bragged that you didn't need  any  authoring experience under your belt. Not sure how accurate that was, but it was certainly easier than developing menus for blu-ray. \n All HD-DVD players can play HD-DVD, DVD, and CDs because of how the laser head is constructed. It's not a requirement and costs more to include this on Blu-ray players. It's generally included, but again, costs more to manufacture, and therefore more to the consumer. \n That's all off the top of my head. Feel free to ask anything specific. \n edit: I might as well include the benefits of blu-ray discs. \n \n Higher capacity... mostly. \n \n Java support in players. \n \n \n edit 2 by request:", "id": "c7undb3", "summary": "Generally it was just cheaper all around, at the moderate sacrifice of capacity. Toshiba was all about \"Hey, DVDs are cool - let's just make the lasers a different color so we can fit more on the same discs! Efficient!\" and Sony was all \"FUCK. EVERYTHING. MAKE IT DIFFERENT. SOLVE PROBLEMS BY BRUTE FORCE. THEN BUY ALL THE STUDIOS SO THEY ONLY USE OUR DISCS\""}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "Not as strongly as you might think.  this is a video of the toll booth  and then asked if I wanted candy (I guess due to trick or treating, but who the hell does that at a toll booth?). I growled and moved on. \n Please don't judge my unprepared grunting skills. \n I think the best was actually when we went through the drive-through at Taco Bell. I completely forgot there was anything on my face, and I just rolled up like it was no big deal, smiling and everything. It wasn't until all the workers kept peeking at me from a distance (through the tiny window) that I remembered I was covered in fake blood.", "id": "c8o27qx", "summary": "the demographic that works in taco bell was pretty freaked out, but nobody else cared after five seconds."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "I've heard that you can't cross GeForce cards with Quadros in the same system, but [this post]( says differently. That guy did it successfully, just follow his steps. \n You won't be able to game as well on the Quadro card, and you won't be able to CAD as well on the geforce card. This DOES extend to whichever screen you're using. Gaming on the quadro screen will suffer.", "id": "c6ytrdo", "summary": "just buy any old GeForce card and you'll be fine."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "Seriously, did none of you play CoD4 on PC? Nobody ever used the /record console command? It was fantastic, and the EXACT same data that Black Ops records. Cool story about it: the data is extremely tiny. An  entire match  worth of data is only a few megabytes. So, no, theater mode is without a doubt  not  what caused lag in Black Ops. It was optimized horrendously on PC since it was built primarily for consoles. \n One thing that most people don't seem to understand is that turning Anisotropic Filtering  up  will increase your performance somewhat. Plus, the performance hit was only noticeable (after the first patch) on extremely old machines. Anything with a Core2Quad/8800GT and up was fine.", "id": "c2j1jsd", "summary": "theater mode has nothing to do with performance unless you're running a P3. Trust me. \n Edit: so you can see exactly how small the data is:"}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "Seems like you forgot to read the lines in that TOS that didn't agree with your statement. \n Highlights: \n >For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission,  subject to your privacy and application settings : you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). \n >When you use an application, the application may ask for your permission to access your content and information as well as content and information that others have shared with you.   We require applications to respect your privacy, and your agreement with that application will control   how the application can use, store, and transfer that content and information.", "id": "c6dne2j", "summary": "yes, Facebook, the only other company with rights to your photos, requires that applications respect your privacy and sharing rules. \n That's code for  Nissan can't sell your photos \n edit: you can't paraphrase something I didn't say or mean. That's called misquoting. It's still incorrect."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "If you've got the coin and you play shooters, check out the RAT 7 by Cyborg Gaming. It's around $99 straight from Mad Catz or through Amazon, but deals do pop up. If you play RPGs, the mouse won't be the most helpful because it doesn't have a ton of extra buttons, but for shooters, it has features that I have never before seen in a mouse. There's a button on your thumb that cuts the DPI in half (or indeed by whatever fraction you desire) for when you're scoped in with a sniper rifle, and it gives you an extremely competitive edge. I absolutely love mine. There are two other programmable buttons on the thumb that are extremely easy to differentiate between by feel, and almost every dimension on this mouse is adjustable. You can palm the mouse, claw it, hold it however you want, adjust the angle of the thumb rest, choose from three different palm rests, etc. It's absolutely amazing.", "id": "c1j6ldq", "summary": "for shooters, go with the RAT 7. at least look it up.\nif it's not a shooter, give it a look anyway, but there are probably better choices."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "It doesn't. Either you nerf knives to be a multiple-hit kill, or you make bullets super powerful. Well, hardcore makes bullets really powerful and completely solves this problem, but it's not the primary game type. \n I may get flamed for calling CoD a realistic game, but in this context it makes sense. It's made to  somewhat  simulate how gun battles work. More like paintball maybe, but it's more realistic than, say, Halo. \n Now, since this is the case, imagine you are staring at an enemy from the side at point blank. You just snuck up on him. What are the odds that you're NOT going to be able to kill him, in real life? Zero. Bullet, stab, punch, stomp, whatever, you are  GOING  to kill him, and he's not paying attention to you because he's looking the other way. If he's on the ground, stomp on his fucking neck. If he's standing, stab him in the face. Or shoot him. You would not POSSIBLY miss him, for any reason whatsoever, and he would immediately be incapacitated the the point where you can consider him dead. \n Now, in this world you all want to create, where knives are less powerful, it would take you TWO hits to kill him. You know what he's doing after you stab him the first time, if he's still alive and bullets are more powerful? He's going to shoot you in the fucking head, and you're going to die before you can get the second knife off. That makes absolutely no sense. \n THAT  is why melee is a one hit kill in this game.  THAT  is why having a two-hit kill would completely break the system. There would be literally no reason to knife, ever. \n Now if you can't simply be aware of your surroundings or the opponents' general positions and kill them from a distance, then the first person to mash the knife key wins. This is not a flaw. This is intended. You should have been able to kill them with bullets from a range anyway. You have  ranged supersonic metal slugs  and if you miss with them, it's not because knifing is OP, it's because you missed. Deal with it. Maybe ADS a little more. \n Now I agree that the knifing mechanic was pretty overpowered in Modern Warfare 2, but in MW3 the mechanics for knifing are already absolutely horrendous. The range is extremely small and the \"spread\" (if you will) of the hit-area is tiny. Knives miss all the time, even after teleporting you a few feet. That's nerfed enough. \n If you can't deal with that, I feel like you maybe need to play some more MW2 with me and my friends and we'll show you what it was like when knifing was overpowered.", "id": "c504cpf", "summary": "Play hardcore if this bothers you \n If I'm missing something, please do let me know."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "I've built [a fair number of custom computers]( so let me tell you what I have found works for me. \n First of all, do you already have a computer that meets most of your needs? I'm going to assume first that you're already using a decent rig and can play all the games you want to, but that you are building a new rig. \n If that is the case, there is no reason to buy everything at once  unless you are going to take advantage of a deal like Newegg's no interest if paid within 12 months Premiere thing . \n First, set yourself an overall budget. Use pcpartpicker.com to fill out an approximate build using parts that will fill your budget. Then, look at the parts that are  one tier better  than those you picked out, and watch for sales. I can't tell you how many times I've ended up with, for example, a GTX 760 instead of a 660 for only $20 more. If none of those parts go on sale within a couple weeks or a month, you've already been following the prices of the parts you know you want, so you go ahead and buy them. Within a month you  will  see a sale on any part you want as long as you're not brand-picky. Don't put a huge amount of stock in one video card brand over another, with the exception that you should probably avoid Zotac and shoot for EVGA given the choice. \n Many times, combo deals are insanely cheap. I've purchased mobo/cpu/ram combos before that have given me the ram for  free . In fact just last month I bought an i5/z97/8GB DDR3 bundle that was $80 off. However, you should mostly likely ignore any power supply you see in a bundle with other parts. Odds are you won't use it and it's wasted money. \n You must consider the time value of your money. If saving $40 on a GPU is something you're aiming for but it takes you three months, think about this: after those three months, would you rather have paid $40 more to have the GPU for that extra time?", "id": "cp1yprh", "summary": "don't wait too long, but  do  set yourself a budget and hunt sales daily. \n EDIT: something really important! Some parts, like power supplies and cases, don't require fitting in your couple-week window. If you ever see a case you really like and it's on a good sale, fucking buy it. If you find a good modular or semi-modular power supply that you KNOW will be big enough, buy it. Spinning drives are another good example of this."}, {"author": "Ellimis", "content": "I saw a guy in some ground war today (on PC) that completely dominated with the KSG. We suspect him of hacking for a bunch of reasons, but one of them was that he could fire the KSG ridiculously fast. It seemed as though he would fire, then switch away/back to the KSG and this would allow him to fire again faster than pumping would. He probably had a hotkey set up so that he could click once, and have a delay set to switch away and back, all in one click. \n Anyone heard of something like this? Any thoughts?", "id": "t3_15cv6n", "summary": "has anyone else seen a glitch that lets you fire the KSG faster by switching guns?"}]}
+{"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post find a new pair of shoes,  ya bish !", "output": "1) Those shoes are UGLY as FUCK for $140, son. Lacoste is played anyway. Don't justify high prices for a lame ass brand because of its 'status'. Find a different pair. \n 2) USE EBAY. Or Amazon. Just google that shit. The success rate of finding a replacement or substitute pair at a reasonably attractive discount from the MSRP is high. Use the customizable search options. A basic understanding of [auction]( [theory]( would be immensely beneficial, but I don't expect your bitch ass to understand that."}], "user_id": "longlamp_8771", "history": [{"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "linkjacking because I think my idea is better : \n shocked that this hasn't been mentioned, but... create a dedicated thread similar to 'recent purchases' over at /r/malefashionadvice. seems like a win-win for all of us here to me; thrift stores are a HUGE resource for financing an affordable wardrobe and are intrinsically relevant to FMF.", "id": "c6rzify", "summary": "just create a \"recent finds\" sticky. thrift finds are cooler than seeing the same 20% off LEC sale - fuck THAT noise."}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "I've looked at a few of your responses on here, so I don't think there's much of a point in trying to facilitate a reasonable discussion over why I think you're wrong. But you made quite a few lofty claims without much support that should probably be addressed. \n Let's see: \n You're placing the blame of Chief Keef's arrest on an entire online publication (you're saying that his probation isn't  his own responsibility  or even  his manager's responsibility , you're saying that it's Pitchfork's). \n You're then transferring Pitchfork's guilt to make the claim that \"hipsters\" and \"hood\" (two very ambiguous groups of people) don't mix. Again, what? \n Just to make sure I'm following correctly: because Pitchfork tricked Chief Keef into violating his own probation, and because all hipsters read Pitchfork and Chief Keef represents everyone who is \"hood\", these two groups of people don't mix? \n You then segue into a tirade against hipsters only to tangentially somehow relate it to Chief Keef. By the way -- having childlike wonder makes me a hipster?? I just thought it made me curious.", "id": "c7zcila", "summary": "your argument is weak and you're a bad writer and you should really take a break from the internet because it's making you cranky."}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "not to tell you that you're completely wrong, but.......(you know where I'm going with this). \n you act like Barbour and Filson are the only two suppliers of waxed cotton jackets. your best move, OP? make like me and scour ebay. \n true story: about a month ago I really wanted a jacket similar to the one Danny Boy's wearing in the pic you posted. I searched \"waxed cotton\" under men's outerwear for less than a week before I found a new, waxed cotton Fred Perry jacket for $70. saw the exact same jacket go for $300 the week before. \n needless to say I didn't make the same mistake twice; pulled the trigger like a goddamn champion. wear this jacket everywhere now.", "id": "c6vf1sv", "summary": "blah blah bragging blah blah ebay blah bragging blah blah."}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "Pro Tip: sometimes you don't have to predict it, you just have to be patient. \n The deadline for this GW wasn't until 10PM EST last night – so you had right up until kickoff to see rosters (which are usually disclosed ~45 minutes prior to kickoff) and make your transfers accordingly. \n I was planning on bringing in Grana last night, but I thankfully waited until the lineups came out to see that he didn't even travel with the time. Instead opted for Hernandez because he has a DGW next weekend.", "id": "cq6q308", "summary": "all about that preparation bro. be 17 steps ahead of the competition."}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "I rolled my ankle pretty badly playing basketball about 6 weeks ago. I thought I heard stuff pop when I fell, so I went to ER. No broken bones, but the swelling continued to get worse for about a week (it looked a lot like yours -- even the spaces in between my toes were bruised). It turns out that I tore most of the ligaments on the outside of my ankle. Shit is still tight, but I'm regaining mobility. The doctor said average recovery time of a major sprain/strain like that is 4-8 weeks. Be gentle on it.", "id": "ciyvaoy", "summary": "vicodin and netflix, baby."}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "After recently selling my  unbelievably shitty  bundesliga squad, I set out to build a new squad. One that would not be rage-inducing to me, but to my opponents. One that would be shamelessly OP, with the condition that Neymar and Bale were in it. I came up with [this.]( \n I've read a lot of speculative talk on /r/FIFA and futhead that teams with a lot of IFs are handicapped in-game. I figured I was losing because I was just kind of shitty and inconsistent (division 6). After creating my new squad,  I'm convinced that the more IFs you have/the higher your squad's overall rating (and/or star rating), the more FUT's handicapping-engine restricts you. \n While designing the squad (I originally intended for Neymar to be the only IF), I realized that the overall rating of the bench players directly contributes to the squad's overall rating -- obvious information for some of you, I'm sure. This got me to wondering about a team's overall rating -- does a 5  team get handicapped more than a 4 1/2  team? \n I'm sure I'm not the first one to try this or talk about it, but I figured I'd stack the bench of my OP squad with some of the lowest-rated players on FUT to see if I could hit a 4 1/2* team rating. It worked. \n This new squad has been extremely efficient -- I've won 7 out the first 10 games played. I'm sure this 4 1/2* rating is huge factor in my performance, because I'm not that good otherwise. My evidence is only anecdotal, though, so I'd like to hear what you guys think.", "id": "cjhc3nr", "summary": "1) read bold-faced print up ^ there, 2) is this a thing? Do people do this? \n edit:\nI'm not saying I \"discovered\" this. I hadn't found a definitive resource on futheads or /r/FIFA, so I posted here. I hope this wasn't offensive 2 u"}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "you shouldn't necessarily heed this advice, OP. judging from the only two posts I've seen you make,  I'd say you're  the world's  MFA's most interesting man. \n wear whatever the fuck you want because: 1) I'm pretty sure you're going to anyway, and 2) you're handsome enough that you can get away with it. are you German? something about the eyes.", "id": "c6tffv9", "summary": "yes, the pants are hideous. but you are cool. bottom line: you're cooler than the pants are hideous, which means you can and should do whatever the hell you want."}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "Of course there are people like that on Reddit – the same people who naysay tattoos with the go-to generalizations you stated above are the same people who naysay [insert literally any topic/situation/event/noun/verb here]. They exist in every thread, every class, and every workplace. There are people like that everywhere. I have this theory: \n Some people  get it , and some people don't. \n Unfortunately, the world is populated with more of the latter. \n These people who don't get it – they never will. You can either (a) accept their close-mindedness as unfortunate fate & choose to exclude these people from certain opinions you may hold, or (b) undertake the daunting, agonizing, and for the most part fruitless task of trying to shift the worldview of someone who doesn't get it. \n What I essentially meant to say is this: disregard the people in the world who have shitty opinions. Some of them can be saved but most of them can't. Don't antagonize them, don't attack them, don't even try to reason with them – just fucking ignore them. \n This isn't a steadfast rule, because of course shit needs to be said to defend what people believe in from time to time. But I think a lot of people's bullshit opinions would stop manifesting themselves if more people just chose to mentally hit the 'mute' button. \n FWIW I don't have any tattoos. On the other hand I think the tattoo is dope aesthetically and I admire the intimidating amount of confidence (or lack of regard for others' judgments), but in terms of meaning it's kind of lame and in terms of life decisions I'd regret it come time for job interviews. But in the end, this guy with the video game tatt has literally  no consequence  on my life outside of the few seconds of visual pleasure I derived from watching the gif. It's not my life so naturally it's not my business, ergo I don't really give a fuck.", "id": "cqe1ufk", "summary": "guy without tattoos proselytizing about why you shouldn't care"}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "Hey man, ease up. \n This is the first time  I've  seen it here, and I've been coming to /r/trees for more than a year. \n And, if it  wasn't  my first time, I'm sure it would've been someone else's. I think I'm willing to sacrifice a few pixels of my browser window in order for someone else to see this for the first time. \n Anyway, my point in this being: don't bitch about people/reposts/etc. At least not here. That's what /r/AdviceAnimals is for. I think I speak for quite a few subscribers when I say that this subreddit is unlike any other. It's a sanctuary amidst the chaos; the constant sandwiched between an alphabet of variables. \n So. Be aware of your energy before entering this sacred domain, because this melodramatic bitchery about reposts doesn't belong here.", "id": "c92dqbr", "summary": "7]"}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "Please  don't  do this. I'm serious. \n Do you really think those guys know what's up when it comes to doling out meaningful sartorial advice? Probably not. \n Here's exactly what you  should  do: \n Keep your eyes on the prize. \n \n Not to make too many assumptions, but if you're a straight male and open to the opportunity of gettin' in some draws, this formal is your chance. Regardless, making a good impression on a group of sorority girls is never bad for your credibility.  Know your audience and dress for the occasion accordingly. \nWhat kind of tie are these broads going to be impressed with? This isn't the time to be edgy. But the same time, your tie is a perfect way to subtly stand out (in a good way). \n \n Wear something that's going to be a conversation starter. Honestly, if I could just materialize any tie to give you for this event it would be a solid-colored tie embroidered with miniature martini glasses. Just go for something like that; all sorority girls love embroidered critters. \n \n I don't even know why I'm bulleting this shit anymore. But I do know that my advice is fucking sound. [How do you feel about anchors?]( Just get something like this and you'll be fine. \n \n \n suorce: I'm good at going to college.", "id": "c9eqh5h", "summary": "Kind of drunk redditor goes on and on about nonsense only tangentially related to male fashion advice to finally tell you to [ just buy a tie similar to this. ]("}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "C'mon now, you stole that other guy's joke. But seriously, I'm gonna be real with you for a minute. Maybe make this a conversation between two humans rather than two anonymous internet-dwellers. \n I am an American middle-class heterosexual white male. I can't go a week without somehow being referred to as an Aryan. But, by birthright, I'm afforded a lot of privileges and spared a lot of discrimination that plenty of others aren't – even in my country. That's a problem. \n I've noticed a lot of subtle discrimination during my time as a Redditor. From calling OP a faggot to those lengthy threads that say every African American actor looks like every other African American actor (\"Hey, that's LeBron James!\"; \"No it's not, it's Denzel Freeman!\"), it's started to get under my skin. \n Lately, it's gotten to a point where I feel compelled to mention it and try to have a conversation with someone like the one I'm trying to have with you right now. They usually end in the same way. That is to say, they don't; they are quickly buried in the static. But, as an eternal optimist, I'll keep trying. \n I didn't mean to shit on anyone's parade, I just figured I'd try to make Reddit a better place by sharing my opinion about an issue that largely goes unmentioned. I see gay rights posts upvoted to the front page all the time, which is great. But then I see people still using a derogatory term that is clearly aimed at homosexuals (with all due respect, if you mention cigarettes or say one more  goddamn!  thing about twigs: go fuck yourself). It seems hypocritical – you'd think anyone who'd claim to support gay rights wouldn't use the word 'faggot', as a joke or otherwise.", "id": "c9pgsfv", "summary": "I'm not trying to be a self-righteous asshole, I'm just trying to make Reddit a better place. \n edit: \"a word\""}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "obviously not making the pursuit of dressing yourself in designer clothing a priority. with a little bit of effort it's easily accomplishable. my number one tip: learn to discern the quality of a garment not based upon brand name. once you learn this, shop thrift stores, ebay, online outlets, etc. \n although the vast majority of my friends and coworkers scorn the idea of buying any material possession that is not superior in every way (I generally agree), I support the notion of shopping  sample sales, auctions, secondhand stores, et cetera. the same caliber garment is capable of being acquired at a significantly reduced price via arbitrage. be enterprising: look for mislabeled items on ebay (they end up selling for cheap), form rapport with people you regularly purchase from... just be enterprising and you'll be successful. \n I know you get this all the time from bros like me, but: trust me, I'm in finance.", "id": "c6sp83w", "summary": "you're not dressing yourself in designer clothes because you're not trying to hard enough. learn how to judge quality of clothes not based on brand and apply that knowledge to thrift stores, ebay, sample sales, etc."}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "feeling compassionate. (honestly). \n from the tone of your title (I may be wrong; just hear me out) you seem to lack confidence. if that's the case -- ain't  NO  need for that. you're young AND good-looking (and soon to be looking fly as a MF). what are you wearing those baggy clothes for? it's not like you've got much to hide. \n 1) your first purchase, disregarding anything else that's been said, should be a new pair of jeans. more specifically, a pair of high quality, slim fit raw denim jeans. I don't know what your budget is like, but it doesn't matter. save up, this will be the only pair of jeans you'll need for 2+ years. [THESE WILL FIT YOU PERFECTLY]( seriously, the thighs/crotch are roomy and the legs taper, meaning that they're comfortable and flattering. buy them a size down -- if your testicles are suffocated the first time you wear them, they fit. they'll stretch out plenty. also, don't wash them for 6-12 months. \n 2) exercise more/eat healthier. I could be TOTALLY off point, but if being slightly overweight has anything to do with your insecurity, you should be  relieved . coming from a once somewhat chubby yet incredibly insecure homie: you look better than you think you look, and you're at a point where it'd be easy to get fit as fuck. your clothes will fit you better and, more importantly, you'll feel more confident. and because you feel more confident (because you already got the looks, bruh) you'll get more ass. if none of what I said is accurate of you, then it's just me projecting. sorry.", "id": "c6u5djh", "summary": "buy [these jeans]( and be confident in yourself -- there's no reason you shouldn't be."}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "Nah man, it's really not like that. That last post was reckless – I'm sorry about that. Just give me a chance to clarify. \n Honestly: your flair  is  kind of distracting. I could've gone about my request friendlier, but it just kind of triggered a reaction to a larger trend I've been noticing here at HHH. Don't get me wrong, I love it here. But some mods/'consistent contributors' act like they're the muhfuckin sacred gatekeepers of the subreddit. It makes it feel like a popularity contest. \n I think it's awesome that there are people like you around here who take the initiative to compile mixes and shit like that – it's really what makes this subreddit a community, and I'm all about community. \n But when you say something to me about paying attention to \"what you do and say around here,\" it's just like, whaat? Kinda blurs the line between you jokingly saying you're the shit and you actually believing that, since you actively participate here, your opinion should be held in higher regard. \n It's cool that you've crafted this online identity that has become somewhat of an opinion leader, but it's bullshit when I can't make it through any front page self-post that doesn't talk about how fucking right they are, like their opinions are facts. \n This was kind of a long diatribe. It's not about you as much as it is about all of the more active users who discuss their status within this subreddit. It takes away from the reason why we're all here. Maybe I'll just make this a PSA, who knows. Anyway, I'm sure you're a cool dude. We'd probably even get along IRL, who knows. I just took the offensive and you reacted like I would have had someone else taken the offensive. Here's to resolving arguments with white dudes on the internet.", "id": "c91vqj5", "summary": "I'm just concerned about the attitude a lot of the consistent contributors have around here. This whole encounter just made me want to voice my opinion about the matter."}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "I think some of it has to due with the timing of his ascension to fame and the color of his skin. I'm in no way trying to discredit Eminem or his legacy in hip-hop – I think he's a pioneer in a lot of ways, especially in terms of technical lyricism. I'm just saying that he got into hip-hop, as a white dude, at the  perfect  time. I don't even think the argument can be made that Eminem's race has nothing to do with his commercial success. I'd say his whiteness enabled him to break through the then predominantly black cultural barriers of hip-hop. In doing so, he vastly expanded its accessibility and, in turn, its demographics.", "id": "cd9ducu", "summary": "Eminem is to hip-hop as Mark Zuckerberg is to social networking."}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "In high school, for a particularly anal retentive teacher, our class was assigned a 1,000 word paper. We submitted them electronically so she could use the WordCount tool instead of counting them herself. A particularly cunning friend of mine only came up with about 400 words when he decided to fill the title page with 600 'a's in white color. Our teacher was baffled; she went so far as to print out the essay and tally every word by hand. Twice. She couldn't figure it out. She knew he was being a little shit but didn't know how to get him in trouble for it, so she sent him to our school's conduct board for  plagiarism . Her case didn't hold up because she regularly submitted so many students for plagiarism that even the faculty started to discredit her. My friend got off clean and she was pretty resentful toward him for the rest of our time at high school.", "id": "ccc1kz1", "summary": "I ate my own placenta; taste resembled that of kimchi."}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "you shouldn't have to defend yourself for asking a question -- reddit does that to you, I guess. anyway, I believe you. \n I'm cool with Lil B. I think his persona is interesting and some of his music is pretty entertaining. For him, though, it's not really about the \"quality\" of the music (as in its \"sound\"), it's about the message. He speaks sincerely and (sometimes) profoundly on some life lessons. \n I think his candid nature is really what sets him apart from others and is one of his biggest draws. unfortunately for everyone who doesn't like Lil B, his fans are seriously annoying AS FUCK. deliberately counter-culture to a point where it's sickening sometimes -- as you can tell I'm a little biased from a couple experiences.", "id": "c6tfuu8", "summary": "people like him because he's sincere and talks from the heart. he's kind of a joke within a joke. I like Lil B's character and I'm okay with most of his music. he's got a bunch of obnoxious dick riders who believe he's the messiah or some noise like that though. fuck those people."}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "This kid is going to turn out fine. He's photogenic, comfortable in front of a camera, and soft-spoken (even if the words weren't his own) – he'll blossom in high school or college. If I were his age and in school with him while he was being bullied, I would stand up for his scrawny ass. \n I will say one thing, though – someone needs to tell his parents that if they don't want their son being bullied, they shouldn't have taken him to get his goddamn ear pierced. I'm not against piercings – it's your body, do what you want. This kid seems pretty young, though. What... 14, tops? \n It seems like his parents made a bad move on that part. I wanted to do all kinds of crazy shit when I was little (I once used Halloween hair paint to give myself a pink faux-hawk for no reason when I was in middle school...), but thankfully my parents were more reasonable than a young, not fully matured /u/bergdorf_bandit. \n I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm sure I will manage to unintentionally incense some of you sensitive Redditors no matter what, so I'll stop there.", "id": "cdxrkci", "summary": "his parents are kind of questionable for letting a 14-year-old boy get his ears pierced."}, {"author": "bergdorf_bandit", "content": "before I proceed, allow me to note that this argument, from both parties, is incredibly pedantic. Now then. \n I wasn't addressing beckermt in my argument, I simply acknowledged his sarcastic use of the word and proceeded the introduce an opinion on the word as to elicit discussion. I understand both uses of 'literally', and I frankly don't agree with them; I'm not going to use the word 'ironical' just because it's in the dictionary. From my personal experiences, it is my opinion that the ubiquity of the word 'literally', in written and spoken word, has made it a platitude. \n Additionally, are you seriously going to describe what I'm doing as 'crusading'? that's more than a little extreme.", "id": "c73gsvl", "summary": "I don't have anything against the use of the word 'literally', you're just not going to find me saying it anytime soon. IMO overused words are shallow and make your language boring."}]}
+{"author": "OmegaUnit333", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Sex affects you socially and so rape damages your personality deeper than most crimes. And people are afraid of rape so much because religion.", "output": "Well, it DOES affect us on a much deeper level of our psychology. Our sexuality is more or less the foundation of our personality. It sets the mood for how we will interact with others based on our reaction to their physical appearance. This is altered by our actual interactions with them after we first see them, but if you apply chaos theory, then the initial state has great influence on the end result. \n Getting myself back on topic, rape IS just another crime, but it affects us in a different way. When the part of our brain that deals with sexuality is traumatized, and our sexuality directly affects our interaction with others, the trauma very easily and noticeably affects our interactions with others from that point on more than other types of crime. \n That being said, I think the reason society views rape as so different and horrible is because most religious mores include the idea of sex being objectively sinful except for the purpose of a husband and wife making a child. That stacked on top of the fact that it was a nonconsensual, usually aggressive criminal act, makes it seem twice as bad to those who place great value in tradition and religion, which is most Americans."}], "user_id": "longlamp_5119", "history": [{"author": "OmegaUnit333", "content": "Backstory: I used to have pretty serious social anxiety. I got over it for the most part, but I still have some trouble interacting with girls on a level of anything other than just friendship. \n Story: I started dating my girlfriend last year. I'm now a college freshman, and she is the first girlfriend I've ever had (aside from one internet girlfriend, but I've learned that they only count in specific situations, and mine was short-lived and probably a guy). When we first started dating, we were hanging out with some of our friends and they started asking a lot of questions about our relationship and teasing me about how little I understand how to act in a relationship. I started getting really anxious and felt sick, so I excused myself, and went to sit in my car for a while, shaking. She came out and calmed me down while hugging me with my head on her chest. She does that whenever I start to feel that way. I guess I started to become conditioned to relate the sound of her heartbeat with comfort and safety.", "id": "cfxsolj", "summary": "The sound of my girlfriend's heartbeat (or I guess any heartbeat really, they aren't too different) \n EDIT: This makes some horror movies a bit weird for me."}, {"author": "OmegaUnit333", "content": "Backstory: im an orphan. \n Frontstory: My friends and i were discussing parenting once, and i said, \n \"Well, when i have kids, im gonna do what my mom did-\" \n At this point i am cut off by my friend, who is the nicest guy in the world, and neither of is have any idea what he was thinking to this day. He said... \n \"What? Die?\" \n At this point it is silent other than the gasps of our friends and them backing away, sure that i would retaliate with violence. I begin laughing. It was funny as hell.", "id": "c9vi8vg", "summary": "An orphan says \"im gonna do what my mom did\" \" what? die?\""}, {"author": "OmegaUnit333", "content": "Well, im 16 now, and i remember being made fun of for my high voice, but at 13 i was blessed with the gift of a very deep, soothing voice. (Think morgan freeman, only not as good) and as short as i am, (5'1\") it always surprises them when i talk. Unfortuantely, i was cursed with the mind of a psychopath so the disturbing things i say are made worse by how calm and serene it sounds.", "id": "c6bl432", "summary": "My voice is deep and calming, but i say very disturbing things, so my voice doesnt help me socially..."}, {"author": "OmegaUnit333", "content": "Yeah, I ended up getting in some pretty heated arguments with a very close friend of mine over religion. It was really the only thing weve ever really disagreed on, but she found out that im an atheist and she wanted to \"save\" me by pressing arguments and giving me her \"evidence\" which caused me to react like an asshole and try to push her into a corner with logic. We didnt talk for about a month, but i finally apologised to her and she said that i had to promise her that i would go to her church youth group every wendesday once she got her drivers liscense or so help her god she would castrate me (its a weird friendship). \n Anyways, my main point in this is that the youth pastor was an excessively enthusiastic guy. He was enthusiastic to a point of where he honestly reminded me of an indoctrinated cultist. \n One day he confronted me about my lack of enthusiasm and antisocial behavior. I simply told him \"No offense to you or your organization, but im not religious by any means, and im only here for my friend. I dont think any less of any of you for your beliefs but im just here for her. Sorry if that offends you.\" He was really nice about it and asked why i was an atheist so i gave him my life story, and he asked if i wanted to talk about it, i said no. \n He doesnt try to get me more involved than i want to be anymore, and always groups me with my friend.", "id": "c988c08", "summary": "YP (youth pastor) is a pretty cool guy"}, {"author": "OmegaUnit333", "content": "I, personally loved FLCL, but i completely understand. Its one of those things where the value isnt in whats there, but rather what isnt (i guess thats basically me saying that it was more art than entertainment). And so the real fun in it was theorizing, trying to interpret metaphors, trying to see if metaphors are there at all, trying to figure out why if the guitars are a metaphor for their penises, then why does Haruko have one, and things like that.", "id": "cfpag7y", "summary": "i liked FLCL but i agree that it was too artsy for its own good"}, {"author": "OmegaUnit333", "content": "Someone was spreading rumors that i was the one who told on half of the track team for smoking pot in the locker rooms after practice. For one, i do my best to stay out of the lives of strangers and not to betray my friends. Also, my friend who was on the track team knew the guy who did, and didnt blame him because everyone who got caught was an asshole to him. \n Anyways, one of the track members heard and wanted to kick my ass. He was about twice my weight in muscle, and i probably would have gotten hurt if he didnt go in showy. He jumped off of a table, trying to punch me with the help of gravity (my greatest nemesis). I saw him coming and reacted in a way that made me wonder if i was a government sleeper agent for the next week.... I basically just hit him in the jaw, dodging his punch with pure luck. He layed there holding his jaw, and instead of a badass line, i just said, \"and so uhh...yeah...\" and walked away. I still felt like a badass.", "id": "c8yxfgl", "summary": "a big guy from the track team tried to jump me literally, so i broke his jaw and walked away akwardly"}, {"author": "OmegaUnit333", "content": "There are a few since I try to leave my world view a bit maleable. \n 1) Welcome to the NHK \n 2) FLCL \n 3) Neon Genesis Evangelion \n 4) Watamote \n 5) Soul Eater \n Watamote and NHK for the same obvious reasons (realizing how bad my social anxiety could get if i didnt do something about it). I watched FLCL  as I was starting to consider myself mature, and it helped me refine and critique my idea of what it meant to be a mature adult. EVA helped me question reality and who I really am, and i realized that we are all basically the same, but we see ourselves as what we imagine others would need or want from us. Soul Eater is probably the one where most of you are saying something to the effect of \"how did THAT change your perception on life? its little more than a typical shonen\". Well, I watched Soul Eater as a naive middle schooler, so thats why. but more specifically, Medusa's speech about fear (namely the line \"Fear is a driving force and a creator of order. Because of this, there will always be much more fear in the world than there is actual danger.\"), and Stein's speech about truth (basically stating that the truth and what is righteous was only what the most powerful person said it was). These helped me to understand social structure a bit better and not believe everything I was told.", "id": "cfu70v3", "summary": "NHk and Watamote helped my social life, FLCL made me more mature, EVA gave me a little socialogical insight, and SE made young me think about shit"}, {"author": "OmegaUnit333", "content": "I dont see what chaos theory has to do with robotics, but ok. \n Robots can not uprise. A robot can only do what it is programed to do and nothing more. The closest thing to a robot capable of fighting back is an adaptive AI. However, this also can only do what it was programed to do, but it can change how it reaches its goal if it finds a more effective method.", "id": "c9zx0f3", "summary": "the only reason robots/computers will ever rise up against man is if man tells them to"}, {"author": "OmegaUnit333", "content": "As insensitive as it seems, i think they should do heritage checks on these. My school makes you bring a pamphlet from the funeral and some of these little FUCKING PRICKS show up just to get a pamphlet for a week or so off of school. At my mothers funeral, a few people from my school that i hardly knew came and pretended to be all caring. I was suspicious already, but then when they go inside they go to the table with the flyers and start to walk RIGHT BACK OUT. I (being dangerously paranoid) never leave the house without a knife, with few exeptions. So i block the exit, discreetly show them the knife, and say \"give those to me right now, or ill be staying out of school one week for each of your funerals...\". They comply silently and have never spoken to me since. Keep in mind, i am notorious for being the \"crazy ginger kid who never talks, always has an 'i will kill you' face, and laughs like a psychopath\". So overall, it went pretty well.", "id": "c7xrkmj", "summary": "high school kids can be fucking pricks that dont care about others, so i showed a few what for"}, {"author": "OmegaUnit333", "content": "Ive had a few of these, but even more where it is the students. In fact, the class i JUST left is on the 1st floor can apparently be heard from the 3rd floor. They literally scream while right next to eachother about the stuidest bullshit imaginable. Our original teacher actually quit because of my class now the new teacher (who i actually used to work with at a summer camp) cant get shit done because they wont stfu. They balme both teachers for being stupid, and the new teacher is actually a very good and leniant teacher.", "id": "c85vaul", "summary": "my class is a bunch of fucktards except me and a few others"}, {"author": "OmegaUnit333", "content": "I have a friend thats really into that domination stuff (honestly, shes kinda turned me onto it too). She likes to beat me up and humiliate me, more behind closed doors, but to a lesser extent in public and around our other friends. I think she probably does it just because im pretty short (5'1\") and she knows that i wont fight back. \n What was i saying? Oh yeah. Shes been more aggressive lately, but things still havent escalated to anything that can really be considered sexual. However, a couple months ago she asked if she could put one of her vibrators in my ass. I try to stay open minded, but i still kinda froze up and avoided the question. She hasnt brought it up since, but im conflicted on what to do. One side of me wants to oblige her and try something new, but the other side is afraid of the pain and theres probably some subconscious homophobia.", "id": "c9g62hy", "summary": "my friend likes to dominate me and wants to put her toys in my butt. some advice would be appreciated."}, {"author": "OmegaUnit333", "content": "I work at a summer camp. \n 1) If im on my break, sleeping in the trailer, i dont want to be woken up to hear complaints from parents. The door to the office is clearly marked less than 5 feet away from me. \n 2) If you are a parent that wants to complain to me that \"my child has an issue with bullying, schedule, lunches, etc.\" I have no idea who's parent you are. I cant memorize all 500+ campers, much less their parents. \n 3) If i hear that a parent needs to talk about a kid in my group (9yr olds, 10-11yr olds, or 12-13yr olds), and when i walk up to you, you ask to \"speak to an adult\" (im 16 and only just 5' tall), you had better be pretty damn cooperative in finding a solution. Im pretty calm but i dont take well to people getting a condescending tone about my hight. And while im not an adult, im put in charge of the older groups SPECIFICALLY because of the fact that im (sadly) more responsible than half of the 18+ councilors, and the fact that i refuse to not reach a fair agreement to an issue.", "id": "c8jqcyv", "summary": "if youre the parent of a camper, show a little respect to councilors and think before you complain"}, {"author": "OmegaUnit333", "content": "I showed this game to my friend, who is in college. He turned it into a drinking game. \n However, when he came back to see me and his other friends in high school, he wanted to make it more \"youth friendly\". \n Here are the rules. \n 1: The house is the ship. The living room is the cockpit. The bedroom is the shield room. The bathroom is the door/sensor rooms. The kitchen is the engine room. The dining room is the medbay. The porch is the teleporters. The attic is weapons/stealth/drones. \n 2: The captain can NOT leave the cockpit. \n 3: Any crew can talk to the captain on the phone, and give input, but the captain's decision is FINAL. \n 4: Obey the captain. You may act of your own volition, but must inform the captain. If the captain says no, dont do it. \n 5: You will be assigned to the role of one of the crew members, if you die, sit with the captain. You can be more than one character if they are a team (Repair engies, boarding, etc.), but these characters cannot be in more than 1 room at a time. \n 6: Any time your character is doing something, you must do the activity that correlates to it. \n -fixing systems/working engines/putting out fires is playing a building game on phone \n -working sheilds is playing a tower defence game on phone \n -working weapons/drones is playing a smup game on phone \n -working stealth is playing mark of the ninja on laptop \n -boarding is playing a fighting game on phone \n -healing is eating \n There was probobly more to the rules, but i forgot. There is normally a group of 4-7 of us playing. And yes, i can imagine what this must seem like, 2 college kids and 5 high-school kids playing video games, running around the house, screaming about pirates and glaive beams and slugs. But just try it. \n If you have any questions/suggestions, feel free to ask/tell.", "id": "t3_1982y4", "summary": "we do something thats 50% roleplay and 50% actually playing the game."}]}
+{"author": "Redtoemonster", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post If you have the money, go ahead and get one.  If not, your game WILL NOT suffer AT ALL.", "output": "People usually disagree, but both are fine.  I don't believe one is inherently superior to the other.  I've played on both and I see no reason why one can't be successful with a pad.  Button mapping has become standard in all FGs, so those multi-button presses can be mapped to your comfort. \n Honestly, I think sticks are going to phase out, unless we see a rebirth in the arcade scene.  That's why people still use sticks.  The pros play on a stick because they play in arcades.  Then people see that, and hope to emulate them, believing a stick will immediately make you better. \n And it won't. You'll need to get used to it, and that transition takes a lot of time.  Even afterwards, depending on how long you've used a pad, you'll wonder if it really made you any better, or if you just ended up playing more and improving your natural skill. \n All that said: go ahead and get one.  Even a relatively cheap MadCatz is a worthy investment (get Sanwas buttons).  They are tough and can take abuse.  I even go back to mine occasionally, there's something fun about mashing buttons and spinning the stick.  I even had fun replacing the buttons.  But in general, I find the pad easier, just because I can use it standing, sitting, or laying down."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I think this was little more than a PR stunt, but a necessary one.  It's good that games are slowly acknowledging the LGBT community.  But Bioware is hardly making vast social strides.  Games have a long way to go in regards to sex and sexuality.  And while it is becoming more accommodating towards gays, transgenders, etc., its depiction of sex and romance is absolutely laughable.  It's funny when a game filled to the brim with fanservice, Catherine, is more mature than Bioware's games in regard to this.", "output": "You know, I may be in the minority here, I would rather Bioware just abandon the whole \"romancing\" thing all together.  Now, hear me out.  While I have played DA:O, I don't remember much of it so I'll be focusing mainly on Mass Effect. \n The Mass Effect romantic relationships are a joke.  Bioware seems to claim to try to bring a more \"mature\" element to their games, but all that ends up happening is shoe-horning a sex scene.  I don't buy the whole \"maturity\" of it. \n First of all is the blatant fan-service.  Bioware is fully aware that their main demographic is the straight-male gamer.  It's why there are so many gay/bi options for femshep.  It wasn't until the 3rd game that male shepard could have a gay relationship.  And why would they?  They knew the hot lesbian sex would not only stir controversy, but would be a hit with their primary demographic. \n Secondly is how it is kind of forced on the player.  There's only an achievement for romancing, not for flying solo.  On my final playthrough (for now), I decided to take Shepard in a different direction.  I played him as a straight-laced military guy who respected the chain of command.  No fooling around with subordinates while the Reapers threatened the galaxy.  He had bigger problems than getting his dick wet. \n And that's my main beef I think.  Bioware wants to pretend it's tackling an important social issue in a mature fashion.  But it turns out being little more than, in Garrus' words, \"blowing off steam.\"  And there's nothing inherently wrong with that.  But be honest.  There is nothing mature about Mass Effect in this issue.  Bioware is clearly pandering to its audience, only rectifying its mistake in the final installment."}], "user_id": "longlamp_5820", "history": [{"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "I seems to me that the author had some preconceived notion of what she wanted the characters to represent \n This is exactly it.  She wanted Kanji to be gay and Naoto to be transgender.  While there's nothing wrong with that, obviously games could use more gay and TG representation, the author totally blew everything out of proportion. \n I think she completely forgot that these are highschoolers, 15 y/o I think?  You know, an age where there's questioning of one's sexual identity?  And I think, with Kanji at least, his sexuality was never fully revealed, it stays a theme in Arena. \n And the Naoto part was absolutely ridiculous, still referring to Naoto as a guy.  As stated, Naoto just wants respect, which she felt she couldn't easily gain as a woman.  There's really nothing sexual there.  Hell, there's a juicy bit where the author could argue about sexism in Japan, or something that a case could be made for.  Nope, let's make up some bullshit.", "id": "c8p8gpg", "summary": "Shitty article."}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "I plan on picking up Persona 4: Arena at some point because I'm a fighting game fanatic and I'm hoping that may pique my interest enough to try one of the RPGs. \n This is exactly what happened to me.  I'm a huge Blazblue fan and I was super-excited to hear that ArcSys was working on a new game.  Thought it had an interesting concept with these \"secondary\" characters, combined with the fast pacing (and airdashes) of BB/GG. \n But I knew nothing about Persona.  I had heard a little of it, and what I saw/read of it I figured it wouldn't be my cup of tea.  A bunch of reading, grinding and I too hate the highschool theme. \n But I figured I would give FES a shot, and got about halfway through before Arena came out.  Eventually finished it a few days before Golden came out, and picked that up, finishing in less than a month. \n Needless to say I'm a huge fan of the series now.  Hell, I enjoyed the story despite having  both  games' endings spoiled. \n I don't think you can really give it a \"favorable\" description because it  sounds  so boring.  But I went in with very low expectations and came out extremely satisfied.", "id": "cau9pvq", "summary": "Pick up Arena ASAP.  And if you have a PS3/Vita I'd highly recommend giving P3/P4 a shot"}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "I hate to be \"that guy,\" but this is a Beta. It's largely composed of folks who  desperately  want this to launch without a hitch, especially considering the 1.0 fiasco. \n It is great to see such a queue that even the British would be proud of, but there is a certain context. \n All that said, all y'all need to play this game when it launches!! It's coming out on August 27 on both PC and PS3! It's looking extremely good. Ignore the reviews it's gotten so far! \n This revamp is  truly  unprecedented,  everything  has changed and for the  better . Pick it up when you get the chance!", "id": "cajubdz", "summary": "pick this shit up ASAP!"}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "XI vet here too. Looking back it amazes me how civil we were regarding NMs and the Lot system. But remember, it wasn't always  so  civil.  Mob trains were abused against  those who tagged a mob first, and just griefing in general (Garlaige Citadel...) and had to be patched. \n That said, the XI community was pretty good, certainly a notch above the rest.  And it could've been a lot worse considering the influence CGFers in the game's economy. \n I don't want to get into  why  I think we were so well-behaved (JP practices had a  tremendous  influence I believe), but we definitely were. And I agree that it will translate into XIV, and has been demonstrated so far. But context is key! \n Again,", "id": "cajv95s", "summary": "PLAY THIS GAME EVERYONE \n EDIT; Along with with the mob trains being patched, the CGFers had to be patched with Rare/Ex addition (which were very poorly implemented since it jumped prices of items such as LL boots from 300k to 3 million, according to ffxiah.com)"}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "I really wish they had done like they did with P3P. As far as DLC though, I don't know how I'd really feel. \n I think it would be a bit much to do. New lines, scenes, etc.  Too much voice work uses gender-specific terms (Big bro, dude, etc.). The camping and hotel and pageant scenes would have to be completely redone. \n Looking forward, I don't even know how I'd feel about a female-MC. Games like Mass Effect make it work by having such a gender-neutral environment. He's and she's are switched depending on your Shepard, and the scenes are identical except romance sections. Shepard's actions, in general, are gender-neutral. \n I don't think this would work in Persona, at least not if they keep the High School setting in 5. Persona has a linear story focusing on character development. \n One thing that would work in its favour, having 2 MCs is disk space. Persona isn't big on actual cutscenes, most usually use the in-game engine. On the PS3 (PS4?), there'd be plenty of space for 2 sets of dialogue and scenes. If Atlus is willing to put that extra work in, I think it'd be awesome. If not, I'd be really interested in just having 1 female main character. I'd have no problem, but I can't speak for others.", "id": "c9gi3xa", "summary": "It would've been a lot of work for P4G; a lot more than for P3P. I would like to see it for P5 though."}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "I usually hear that it would be too difficult, that we were \"built\" to eat animals, that it is cheaper, or meat tastes too good. \n And I think these are perfectly valid reasons for being non-vegetarian.  For me, I never  loved  meat so it's been fairly easy for me; I don't get cravings for a steak.  But others do, especially if you grew up eating a lot of meat. \n Beyond cravings though, it's still difficult determining what you can and can't eat.  Labels aren't always clear, and fast food, which is a staple (unfortunately) in America's diet, is pretty much off the table. \nIt is also a bit more expensive, especially before you know what to look for. \n The main issue, however, is the mindset people have about consuming meat.  Some people simply believe that animals don't have the same rights as people, and are just not appalled by the whole process.  And, to an extent, I think this division also exists in the vegetarian community as well.  Some, like me, don't eat meat simply because it's generally healthier.  Others are supporters of animal rights or have religious beliefs, such as Hindus. \n I think asking vegetarians this question, however, is pointless.  Ask your meat eating friends, maybe explain why you think they shouldn't eat meat.  But understand this; people, at least in the western world, are omnivores, and this will not change anytime soon.  The best you can do is live your own life, perhaps lightly influencing the ones around you.  But understand that meat is important to many people for a variety of reasons.  Respect peoples' beliefs, just as you'd like them to respect yours. \n That will go very far to end the \"veggie-hate.\"", "id": "c8p63r1", "summary": "There are many reasons to eat meat just as there are many reasons to not eat meat."}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "I'm not sure if I'll be able to change your view, but I think I might be able to explain  why  you don't like it. \n I'm partially split on anime: I loved it when I was younger and now I'm largely ambivalent to it.  I grew up on the stuff, Dragonball Z was a show that defined my childhood.  Every day I would come home and watch cartoons scream at each other.  It was  different .  Violent and cool, a young boy's dream. \n Anime that came on late at night had a kind of \"forbidden fruit\" feel to it.  My parents were always fine with it, but I knew it was slightly more mature than other cartoons I saw.  There was blood and cursing!  But not like Family Guy or other comedies.  It had complex plots and themes.  And it was a continuous story. \n Now, as an adult (mostly), I don't like the stuff too much.  I just see it as another medium to convey something, little different than a TV show.  Most are extremely long, at least the main stream stuff.  I can see the limits of the style (mouth flaps, little movement, etc.). \n What is curious to me, however, is how it bleeds into my other likes.  While I don't particularly care for anime, I notice that I consume other Japanese products, most notably video games.  Almost all of the games I own are Japanese, and many of them have similarities to anime.  What I dislike in the anime medium; such as weird characters and melodrama, I love in my games. \n I think there's some fascination with what is foreign, and this is especially true in the anime fandom.  Usually it's completely harmless, someone might pick up on Japanese words, relatively familiar with basic customs, etc.  And in rare cases it explodes into full-blown japanophilia.  I think this can be extremely offputting to newcomers. \n In short, I don't think it's easy to jump into for the very reasons you listed.  A good amount of love comes from something akin to nostalgia; being raised on the stuff.  It's weird and foreign, employs far too much fanservice (in my opinion) and unlike anything seen on Western T.V.  But that's its appeal to many. \n While I don't think you will ever have a passion for anime that many do, it still has value as a medium, especially with movies.  With the larger budgets a feature length film allows, a lot of the genre's weaknesses are avoided.  And there are quality films out there; Grave of the Fireflies, Ghost in the Shell, any of Miyazaki's works.  And I really suggest you check all of those.  They  do  have artistic value and are great films in their own rights (grab some tissues for Grave of the Fireflies though).", "id": "c9qooiz", "summary": "If you didn't watch them growing up, I don't know if you can ever become a \"diehard\" fan.  I'm not suited to change your view, but I wouldn't dismiss the whole genre as \"awful and empty.\""}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "What caught my atention in fight games and what I love is the mind games involved and I can't reach that level of play. I lose vs players who Smash all buttons many times. \n I can really only speak for SF4 (Although I mainly play ArcSys games and Soul Calibur), but I think this can apply to your other games as well, but I think you're putting far too much focus on \"comboing.\"  My reasoning for this is that you're losing to \"mashers.\" \n All fighting games, at their basic level, come down to footsies.  Spacing and punishing are paramount.  If you can't get your openings, you're going to lose every time. \n In SF4, especially in regards to online play (which seems to be what you're talking about), this is what you need to be focusing on.  Can I punish your opponent at  this  moment?  If not, what pokes can I throw out that will still leave me in a favourable position?  Depending on spacing, a sweep can be completely safe with decent reward, or can be punished on recovery (Vega...). \n You  can  win without \"combos.\"  I know everytime I come back to SF4, I don't try the difficult links for the first few games.  I'm definitely missing out on optimization and safer confirms, but the  fundamentals  always take precedence. \n All this said, this stuff can only be learned through experience.  Frame data is always important to keep in mind, but that crap completely goes out the window when you're still first learning.  It takes  conditioning  to remember this stuff, when you can capitalize in the middle of a match. \n Combos will help this, definitely.  You'll be able to punish things with a c.lp X c.mp X Scarlet Terror that you couldn't with just c.mk X Scarlet Terror.  But Honestly, a c.lp X c.lp, even if you miss the link and they block the second LP, leaves you in favorable position. \n So, pretty much, with fighting games, you  have  to start from the beginning/bottom.  You have to understand that you  have  to practice.  Practicing combos in training mode is not nearly enough.", "id": "cbn8dwj", "summary": "Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals."}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "I think you're right. Even ignoring the terrible CT release, ArcSys has mainly appealed to Japanese players. Localizations take forever, the P4U snag in Europe really shows this. \n The west is simply  not  ArcSys' target.  Hell, a 360 release for Chrono Phantasma still hasn't been confirmed. There would be no demand in Japan for a PC release and very little here. \n And there doesn't seem to me much demand even here. Look at the EVO lineup this year. Despite winning numerous awards and praise from the FGC, was barely voted in. Yet Injustice gets a free ticket in. \n And I don't think Guilty Gear will be very different.", "id": "ca2hnyh", "summary": "Don't get your hope up for a PC release."}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "It depends. How knowledgeable of your laws are you? \n Contrary to what most of these responses seem to suggest, some people have clean cars. No drugs or weapons of any kind. \n Of course you have a right to privacy. But you also have the option of \"waiving\" your rights if you think it will speed up the process. \n All that said, such a person probably won't even be asked to have their car searched. Cops exercise a lot of discretion; that's their job. They're not \"out to get you,\" at least not from the get-go. -Usually- \n You have a junkie-lookin' car?  Better make sure it's clean as a whistle. If not, be cooperative and respectful, but know your rights.", "id": "c9vx1xb", "summary": "I waive my rights because  I know  I have nothing to hide."}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "But the ending is very conflicting, since essentially Joel condemns people to continue dying from infections. But at the same time, who's to say for sure it would have worked? \n Ignoring your second point, albeit a very good one (it rarely happens that cleanly), I have to disagree with the notion that Joel is condemning humanity to a certain fate. \n What I got throughout this game (which so many other zombie films/books etc. ignore), is that other humans are the real threat in this kind of society. \n Using the game's scenarios as an example; humanity  almost  seems to have the infected under control.  They are completely separate from the humans; you only run into them when you venture off the beaten path. \n And even then, in the game, it seems that they are just an \"obstacle.\"  The infected are much weaker; stupid and disorganized.  They never actively sought out their prey, rather they hung around until they heard/saw them. \n The Hunters were the real threat.  They had weapons and technology and would even \"hunt\" Ellie and Joel simply out of spite (i.e. the Hunters with the Humvee and David's clan).  Hell, the \"scary\" Clickers seemed almost an afterthought to these societies; the Hunters leaving their gates weakly guarded at night, casually popping them in Pittsburgh, or Tommy's primary concern being with raiders, mentioning the infected as a mere \"way of life.\" \n This is where I see the Fireflies as a real threat.  They're chasing a false prophet, so to speak.  It is 20 years too late for a vaccine.  Unless Ellie could have provided a weapon that would neutralize all infected (not suggested and unlikely, only a vaccine), all that would happen is that people would die rather then turning when attacked. \n And yet this problem seems to have remedied itself; every time given the chance, as a player and in cutscenes; it seems most want to avoid turning; the guy in the beginning when you first use your gun, Tess, and even David's buddy seems to want David neutralized when he thinks he's infected.  No time is wasted putting down those with the slightest indication of being infected. \n Taking it a bit further; you'd have only the Fireflies with the vaccine.  I'll don my tinfoil hat for a moment and say that they  wouldn't  do what's best for humanity; that is provide vaccines to everyone.  First of all, it would be impossible logistically.  Secondly, they're a paramilitary group in opposition to those in control of the QZ's on the East Coast.  They were hunted down in those areas, viewed as destabilizers/terrorists and rightly so. \n The Fireflies were formed shortly after the outbreak as a resistance movement.  Perhaps there were looking to save mankind 20 years ago.  But their chance for that is long gone. It would come full circle; the infected would become slightly less of a threat than they were, and you'd still have to deal with people killing people. \n ALL THAT SAID ; Joel is a selfish douchebag, and it seems that his actions were in direct contrast to Ellie's wishes.  HOWEVER, I would argue that Ellie was heavily influenced and manipulated by Marlene's misguided ideology.  Whatever the case, I want a god damn sequel.", "id": "cal16ar", "summary": "The Fireflies are a group of misguided idealists, who missed the bus to humanity's salvation 20 years ago.  A vaccine would do jack-shit to remedy the real problem; hundreds/thousands of clans fighting amongst each other for resources and territory."}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "Now don't get me wrong, their anime showings is what really got me into AdultSwim back in the day. But I'm truly confused, why is AS pulling this whole Toonami stunt?  From what I can tell, it's just their usual Saturday block with 2 new shows. Are they trying to instill new enthusiasm in people, or is this just some marketing ploy for viewers? \n Don't get me wrong, I absolutely despise AS' current lineup (besides Saturday) and I would like to see it changed.  I pine for the old days, when the wee hours were loaded with quality anime.  But I'm really disappointed that this \"Toonami\" craze will just be on Saturdays with 2 new shows. And no, I don't simply want the \"old School\" stuff, I just want some anime on cable more often than once a week.", "id": "t3_u71ce", "summary": "Why exactly are they calling this Toonami when it's more-or-less the regular Saturday lineup?"}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "Classic CB-style post, Wall-of-Text ahead! \n So this is floating around the front page, a video of a news report on Cannabis in Colorado.  No surprise that its making the rounds on the News: pro/anti-legalizers the world over are watching CO's experiment very closely. \n A pretty all right piece by CNN, showing perspective of the everyman in Colorado, enjoying their new, legal, activity.  Nothing groundbreaking or scientific, but worth a watch in and of itself. \n But the OP decides to focus on the second half of the video, when Cooper interviews the reporter.  How stoned she is is questionable (I think), but let's get into the comments! \n Up top is this very insightful comment: \n [She looked pretty baked and was having fun. I wish all reporters had to do live spots like that. I would actually watch cnn.]( \n Really?  Remember everyone, CNN is only slightly less hated than Fox News.  I'm sure most of us remember the Boston bombings.  But everyone falls head over heels the second they do a piece on Cannabis and the reporter acts a bit silly? \n I suggest you read the rest of that comment-chain, it devolves in standard Reddit fashion: memetic jokes that are repeated ad-nauseum.  But let's continue down the post. \n This  is also worth a read, somewhat echoing the top post.  Again, we have this completely ridiculous idea that the news should be reported high, \"might actually make conversation easier.\" \n I'm sure there's a little bit of truth to this, but with all Reddit  hates  the media, their solution is to get them high for giggles? This is right about on par with those topless news sites.  Completely ridiculous. \n Let's continue on to [this]( comment right below.  Ah, the good old \"popular-unpopular\" opinion concerning Marijuana.  This sentiment is seen  everywhere,  it's a common schtick by Reddit and their beloved comedians.  \"Stoners are annoying\" basically sums it up.  That's about the most you can get away with criticizing Cannabis use without getting downvoted, and, as in this case, even heavily upvoted. \n Not much else to say about that, so let's [continue on](  This guy can't fathom why a professional news anchor, who's career  depends  on his image, would prefer if his viewers  didn't  think he spends his weekends blazing up. \n The rest of the comments continue in typical Reddit fashion: quotes from the video being upvoted, shitty pot jokes, and puns (thankfully the video took care of that for the most part).  But there's a few more I'd like to point out. \n >If the media starts smoking pot, they might learn something about the drug war bullshit \n What?  Is he/she talking about some kind of enlightened awakening when blazing up? Or is he ignoring the statistics that suggest that most of these people have  probably  smoked before? \n >Wine tasting but substituted for weed is a really good idea. Kudos Colorado. \n An absolutely  terrible  analogy, but it's got that air of \"sticking it to the man\" that Reddit loves. \n I'll end with this comment, floating around the bottom (perhaps where it will stay), displaying Reddit's \"unique\" hipsterism: \n>I'm already hating the mainstream. I don't know how to explain it but It sounds weird; like when they try to explain memes on the news. I guess I already know all that stuff and hearing it explained to people who know nothing about it just isn't interesting to me. I guess all the current stoners will be talking about how they did it first when they can no long talk about legalization.", "id": "t3_1v8r3t", "summary": "What's happening in Colorado is a historic event.  Never has Cannabis been legal and as available as it is right now over there.  The main benefit of phasing it in such slow fashion is to generate discussion and analysis of the benefits, and any possible dangers of its open use. \n But Reddit ignores this opportunity. instead focusing on shitty jokes. More troubling however, is this belief that the media would be better if the folks on-screen were high.  Really, Reddit?"}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "As I'm sure we all know, /r/the_donald has had a meteoric rise in subscribers and activity over the past few weeks.  /pol/ likes to claim it's some kind of beach head on Reddit (and I think it's pretty obvious that they've had something to do with it, and that's not necessarily a bad thing).  Other meta subs like Circlebroke are already in a tizzy over it, and I think it's only a matter of time before we see more shit about it posted over here. \n Unfortunately, there's a glaring problem.  Unlike /r/politics or /r/sandersforpresident, /r/the_donald is full of ironic shitposting.  A few recent links to those former two subs here have linked to pretty blatant trolls.  But, for the most part, you have some real delusion linked that we all get to enjoy a chuckle out of.  But if you spend 2 minutes on /r/the_donald, it would be impossible to tell the difference between a thread there and one of the Trump generals on /pol/, were it not for the sites' layouts. \n So where should we go from here?  At this point, I think it would be against the spirit of this sub to be linking there too much, especially when it's nearly impossible to differentiate between shitposts or not.  But I think it's inevitable as we march towards the RNC, and Sanders continues to fizzle that the sub will continue to grow.  And if one subscribes to that fake Descartes quote, the ironic shitposting will surely turn into legitimate delusion and retardation warranting links here.", "id": "t3_493sjb", "summary": "When should /r/the_donald be considered fair game here? It's clear that it will eventually reach S4P spam, but how do we sort through the mass of shitposting?"}, {"author": "Redtoemonster", "content": "If any of you guys browse /r/hockey, you might know what I'm talking about.  And this goes beyond Reddit.  I suppose it must be a holdover from the Soviet days, when Canada really didn't like not being the undisputed top dog.  But there's a definite stigma against KHLers, especially Russian players. \n I hope this doesn't count as self promotion, but look at this thread from the  team  and a superstar in the KHL is described as \"cancer.\"  I don't feel like digging through /r/hockey, but take my word for it, a similar sentiment echoes. \n And then we have Kovy.  I have had the pleasure of following the vast majority of his career, at least in the NHL.  I was a Thrashers fan until they moved, but I was a Devils fan before I moved to Atlanta.  I saw him literally transform his game.  He was a pure goal scorer with a lethal shot.  Yet for his last 2-3 seasons he became the best Penalty Killer in the league.  A powerplay against the Devils meant a real chance that you'd get scored on.  If you told me that Kovalchuk would become an elite defensive forward on the PK in 2005, I'd call you a fucking liar. \n But the same comments came up. \"Locker room cancer.\"  \"Greedy, bolts for money.\"  Ignoring the fact that his contract in the KHL paid about the same with his monster contract in New Jersey.  Never mind the fact he dealt with 2 lockouts in the NHL, or that he seemed to  really  like playing in his hometown.  Never mind the fact that Russia absolutely adores him, seemingly even more than Malkin or Ovechkin. \n And those are just two of the bigger names.  It trickles down to other guys that come to the NHL from the KHL.  \"Lazy Russian.\"  But even beyond that, just playing in the KHL carries a stigma.  Steve Moses was kind of a bust in NA, and it was chalked up to playing in Europe.  But this guy is pretty damn good. \n So, with all that wall of text, I just want to know your guys' thoughts?  A Russian seems to never be good enough in NA media's eyes.  Even a Canadian kid who's played over there: not good enough.  And beyond the game on ice, you have drivel about financial problems and the league going under.  Why is this, and maybe what can be done?", "id": "t3_4jcsau", "summary": "KHLers and Russians are routinely defamed in North America.  What are your thoughts on this phenomenon, and how can this be improved?"}]}
+{"author": "fultron", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The stigma of being birthed from toys hampers artistic progress for video games.", "output": "I think this has to do with video games being an immature medium of art, in the sense that they have not been in existence long enough to have shed the stigma of being \"toys\" or a fad. \n I think about it like this. The visual arts (drawing, painting) have existed for tens of thousands of years, the written word for nearly as long, moving pictures for more than a century, but video games have only existed for ~40-50 years, and for less than half that time have there been games created purely as an expression of their creators' artistic desire, and not for commercial gain only. \n How about this- not even a  single generation  has yet to live and die with video games informing their perception of life in the way that film and literature have. \n We are living in a time where this form of expression is coming out of adolescence and into maturity. It's exciting, and games like this, games that spark discussions despite their dependence on profitability, are what push the whole artform forward."}], "user_id": "longlamp_10651", "history": [{"author": "fultron", "content": "I'm an outlier for my generation; I'm 23 and I can count the number of times I've smoked weed on one hand and have fingers left over, and the number of times I qualified as high with only one. \n My friend was giving me a lift back to my car and he offered a pipe about a block before we stopped. I'd been offered before but always in a group and turned it down because that feels wierd to me. This time it felt right so I had two solid hits. I didn't feel anything until I got out and we said goodbye. Suddenly I had the urge to say goodnight like five times and then sort of swayed down the driveway to my truck. Probably not a good decision to drive myself home on the first real high ever, but I very clearly remember driving exactly 35mph the entire time. \n I basically had a calm, relaxing drive home. Put the iPod on shuffle and every song was the best song I'd ever heard, and when each ended I felt sad, but then the best song ever came on right after it so it was a temporary sad. \n Probably a 30min drive felt like hours, but hours spent doing the most relaxing and engaging thing you can think of. I got home and had some leftover spaghetti and it was the best thing I'd ever eaten and by the time I went to bed it had worn off and I was trying to think of other people I knew who smoked weed and how to go about getting back to that high without becoming a stoner. Hasn't happened yet. \n But I live in Denver so I'm not too worried about it.", "id": "c8gkd7l", "summary": "23 years of sobriety is not enough to overcome first (albeit excellent) high."}, {"author": "fultron", "content": "I think you do have talent! There's a lot about this that stands out- you did a good job fitting the video to the pace and feel of the song. \n At 2:37, when the song breaks, you put a little wobble on the image that really works, and it makes the shots without it look bland. Even though the song slows down, you should probably still have some movement, like a slow pan across the singer's face or his hands on the guitar. \n You've got a bunch of grading on the image, so it might be feasible to do a fake pan in post without losing obvious quality.", "id": "c8jz6o7", "summary": "you have talent. Keep it up."}, {"author": "fultron", "content": "Once upon a time a man named Benny was living in ancient mesopotamia. A miner by trade, one day he discovers a secret cavern filled with jewels, gold, and piled high with priceless artifacts. \n The floor was covered with golden urns, each the size of a man's heart, carved with runic symbols and the air around which shimmered and pulsed as if alive. But the real prize was atop the pile of loot, nestled in a case lined with red velvet; a golden oil lamp, etched with markings and symbols older than time. \n No sooner did Benny take it into his hand than a swirling tornado erupted from its spout. When the dust had cleared, a man stood before him, clothed in gold with his arms folded across his chest. He spoke with a rumbling voice that could not be ignored. \n \"You have released me from my ten-thousand-year imprisonment, and in gratitude I will grant you a single wish. Choose wisely.\" \n Benny thought for a long while, and when he had weighed the options he asked for immortality, that single unobtainable goal that all men strive for. \n \"Everlasting life I will grant you,\" said the Genie, \"But on one condition. You must swear by the life you will owe me that you will never again shave the hair of your face or head, never for all eternity. Do this, and eternal life shall be yours. Do not, and your soul is forfeit, and you will join the many who failed and in turn have been imprisoned here.\" He gestures around at the urns that cover the floor of the cavern. The air around each shimmered and pulsed silently. \n Of course Benny agrees, and the Genie vanishes in a puff of gold dust, leaving all the wealth of the chamber behind. \n Benny rushes into the city and buys the land containing the cavern of riches and overnight becomes the most famous and wealthy man in the realm. He gives up mining and buys a fleet of trading ships, not only to grow his wealth but to spread the tale of Benny and the Lamp across the seas and to distant lands, the better to see his own self last through the ages. \n As time passes, and his beard grows longer, he notices the passage of time more distinctly. His parents die, his brothers and sisters, all fabulously rich and comfortable, but their passing is no less sorrowful to him. \n When his wife and the last of his children are in their graves, he swears to continue his life for as long as the Genie's spell could prolong it, spreading his wealth amongst the people in honor of the family he'd outlived. And yet his solemn vow was tainted with sadness, because he knew no amount of good deeds could win back that which time had won from him. \n And yet his business prospers, sails turn to oars, oars turn to steam, the sun and stars march on in their ceaseless wandering. All passes in the blink of an eye to him, his experiences and memories dull as glass in the dark of night. He becomes a myth, a legend whose tales are told and songs are sung but who never truly existed, or certainly not in this age. Wealth has lost all meaning to him, success long achieved and then forgotten. \n He sits in his cavern of riches, and thinks. He thinks of time passed and love lost, of the crashing sea and its inexorable destruction of earth.  He sits, and he thinks... \n One day his reverie is broken by a shaft of light cast down into his cave. The eons had reformed the entrance around him, sealing off the man and his thoughts in a silent black tomb. A head pokes through the hole in the ceiling, a mane of fiery red hair stained with sweat and rock dust. It is the first person Benny has seen in unknown thousands of years, and, eyes watering, he lifts his arm to touch the face of god, as it were. He finds he cannot. His arm is frozen, encased in a fibrous tomb, as well as his legs and head. In his ages of inactivity, his arms and legs had withered from disuse but his beard grew on still. It grew and grew, wrapping the man and then filling the cavern with its mass, until the weight of it pressed itself into stone. Benny was encased in a layer of rock of his opwn making, only a faint outline of a face in the rock wall to mark his existence. \n The young treasure hunter drops lightly to the floor from a long rope, shouts up to her companions to come down. The first man down is bulky and graceless, encumbered by a bag of heavy equipment. The next man down is timid, inching slowly down the rope and pressing a sweaty finger to the bridge of his glasses  every few seconds. The woman and the heavy man begin searching the cavern as the mousy man dusts off his vest and examines the stone under his feet. \"Interesting...\" he says to himself. \n He draws a small leather pouch from his rucksack and produces a magnifying glass and set of tools. He kneels, examines the stone here, the stone there, and eventually finds a small protrusion in the center of the chamber. \n \"Kind of looks like a person\", he thinks as he chooses a small hammer and chisel from the pouch. He opens a notebook and notes the date and location. \n A single tap with the tool, a shingle chip of stone falls through the air and suddenly the man too is falling, falling, through dust and air and... gold? The cavern swirls away, the light above dwindles until it's no more than a pinprick high above. \n He slams into the ground and rolls down an incline. His glass are broken, of course, but after checking himself for fractures he digs through a pocket and flips open a lighter. \n The flickering yellow light casts long shadows away, he thinks he might have triggered a cave in but he couldn't be sure... He'll have to examine this yellow flowstone to see how far down he might be.  the magnifying glass is still in a pocket, thankfully, and he's able to examine his surroundings. \n Pots. Vases?  So many they disappear from view into the gloom. He toes one with a boot. Firmly encased in the rock below. As he turns, a glint catches his eye. He walks toward what looks like a very old, probably very valuable trinket... Maybe it's a lamp, with a genie even! He chuckles as he walks away. \n As the glow from his light fades away, the long shadows stretch by way of the urns covering the chamber floor, all covered with strange markings and coated with millenia of dust. \n All but one, a single one that sits in the center of the room, gleaming as if new.", "id": "c67fu0m", "summary": "A Benny shaved is a Benny urned."}, {"author": "fultron", "content": "I started out answering craigslist ads. You know, the unpaid ones that in retrospect were the skeeziest shoots I've ever been involved with. \n The thing is, if you have no experience and no contacts, you have to start at the lowest level, which these days is pretty damn low. Gone are the days of steven spielberg wearing his only suit and just faking his way into the studios. Now every yokel with a credit card is a filmmaker, and so you have to make do with the opportunities that this era permits. \n Eventually, one of those yokels will scrape together enough cash to hire an actual professional for a discounted rate, and that day of shooting is your opportunity. \n Not only do you need to make yourself known but you need to prove that you are interested in actually making film, not by shitting on the current group you're with ( don't ever burn a bridge from your end ), but by demonstrating interest in the process and respect for the professional's experience. \n Being friendly and enthusiastic (while staying out of the way)when the actual filmmakers are involved will get you further up the ladder than working on a thousand backyard sets ever will. \n I can trace my current job back through countless connections and referrals back to a single craigslist ad that put me in touch with my current mentor and employer. I didn't work for him right after we met, but as I grew and gained experience, he was always willing to keep me on his list, to keep[ bringing me back for reshoots and new projects, to the point where now I'm in business with someone I never would have met except for what (in hindsight) was a particularly low-ball production.", "id": "clsfppf", "summary": "Basically you've got to polish every turd because one of them has a diamond in the center."}, {"author": "fultron", "content": "If you decide on Denver (which is kind of a no-brainer considering what life in a militarized theocracy must be like), you'll have to choose a neighborhood, because the Denver Metro Area is BIG. \n IT job? High chance that it will be in the Denver Tech Center, which is south central surrounding I25. Housing is expensive and sparse. Traffic is cheap and plentiful. \n Parks/Mountains? Go west, young man. Lakewood, Wheat Ridge, Arvada, and Golden (if you're into swarms of road cyclists and smelling shitty Coors-hops every day). I grew up in Wheat Ridge, and it is a charming little motherfucker with many quaint mob-connected Italian restaurants. Also [Lakeside]( \n Music? Split your time between Red Rocks (the greatest outodoor venue on earth) in the west and access to the many grimy bar-with-a-stage joints in Five Points and further south on Colfax and LoDo (Filmore, Gothic, Ogden, etc). \n The Springs are truly closer to the mountains, in fact they are quite close, but perhaps a lesson in [failure in wildfire mitigation]( would highlight why that is not ever a good thing. \n Also one of those mountains is a [highly fortified nuclear-proof command and control bunker]( for all of the USA's armed forces. So it's kind of a bullseye. It's literally walking distance, if you can make it past the [five thousand heavily armed policemen]( at the mountain's base. \n So there's pros and cons.", "id": "c5csgvl", "summary": "whatever you do, [avoid Commerce City at all costs]("}, {"author": "fultron", "content": "I find that since there are varying shapes and sizes of urinals, aiming for a specific angle of incidence between your urine and the urinal wall works best to minimize splashback. in fact, you could generalize and say that if 90º produces the most spillage, then approaching 180º will provide the least.", "id": "c4utppg", "summary": "come at a shallow angle in for a soft landing."}, {"author": "fultron", "content": "My mantra is that every set is different and you can learn something from every one. \n Sometime you learn what type of individual to avoid, sometimes you learn some new lingo, sometimes you meet people who appreciate your work and sometimes you'll meet the best of people on the shittiest of sets. \n That alone is why I can't recommend avoiding Craigslist and other low-rent productions, because I've made contacts on some of those crapshoots that have helped me build my career in a very real way. You just have to be careful and learn quickly how to judge the potential of a shoot via things like spelling errors in emails, lack of call sheets, the use of \"deferred pay\" in contracts, lack of contracts, etc.", "id": "co97b5q", "summary": "If there's one universal judge of character for a filmmaker, it's the quality of the food they get for their crew."}, {"author": "fultron", "content": "I was a PA on a one day shoot for some Bing travel video with  Dhani Jones . We were shooting in the top level of the D&F Clocktower in downtown Denver. ([Not really proof, but that is Dhani Jones in a clock tower. 2/3 ain't bad]( \n I'm not so into sports so I didn't go out of my way to talk to him, but I was wearing  this shirt . Then we launched into a discussion on how they left the comic's storyline pretty quickly and about how TV shows need to do that sometimes to be successful, etc etc until a producer came to get him for the next bit.", "id": "c54knfb", "summary": "talked zombies with an NFL linebacker in a clock tower."}, {"author": "fultron", "content": "My Mom loves James Taylor. She loves going to Red Rocks (in Denver, CO) to see him. She was super excited because she'd gotten a spot in the 4th row center for the show last week. \n It rained, enough so the show had stop (rare). The rain poured, and most people left. After more than an hour, roadies start taking tarps down and bring out the mops and squeegees and the few people that are left start cheering and crowd down to the now-open front section. A lot of people called their friends who had gone to their cars and the crowd built back up. \n Mom hadn't moved an inch. \n That's when this photo was taken. I don't think I've ever seen her happier :) \n Also, JT played for another hour, four or five songs more than the set list. Good man.", "id": "c5lckbz", "summary": "Rained out Red Rocks concert = good times."}, {"author": "fultron", "content": "I beg to fucking disagree with you.]( If cement mix gets wet, it's burns like a motherfucker. If it gets into your throat or eyes, it will still burn like a motherfucker. with the added bonus of not being able to immediately wash it off. \n I was working with some friends on a backyard project once, a guy dropped the bag as he was setting it down, it broke and blew a cloud of dust in his eyes and was blind for a couple of days from the swelling. ER vists and all. \n That being said, I don't think what the kid is lifting is concrete, looks more white than grey and I'd like to believe that people aren't so stupid as to douse someone with a fucking toxic material.", "id": "c5rnczu", "summary": "ITT people who have never been around construction."}, {"author": "fultron", "content": "Here's a trailer: \n It’s 1963. The Hayes code is on its way out, but audiences aren’t quite ready to witness the inhumanity of fascism as anything less noble than a struggle between honorable soldiers, each side doing its duty. So the film isn’t really about a murderously efficient plan to eliminate undesirables in the POW system of WWII Germany, unless you look at it from the perspective of the Gestapo. \n “We’ve put all our rotten eggs in one basket” \n In what century would this be considered a sound strategy for prison design? Put all the experts on escape into one place and of course they will try to break out. The prisoners even state explicitly their intention to attempt escape and divert resources to guarding them. It's a badge of honor, and the Germans know this. \n Obviously there’s an effort to portray the camp as secure (“What’s this place, then? It’s new”), even as escape-proof, and the Luftwaffe is obviously convinced that they have taken every precaution. \n And yet, the kommandant runs an incredibly loose ship. Guards are allowed to fraternize with prisoners, luxuries are allowed to circulate and be bartered, digging tools are distributed for gardening, prisoners are allowed to be unsupervised in large groups, and punishment is meted out only in the form of solitary confinement. On the first day, a dozen men attempt to escape with a group of forced laborers and aren’t punished at all. The design of the camp made a major escape attempt inevitable. \n Germans aren't sloppy people. They are meticulous and thorough, they leave nothing to chance. If they are fooled, it is at great effort and expense. In a fascist hierarchy like the Third Reich, people are currency to be spent on power. \n Here’s my theory: The Gestapo and SS take the opportunity to make a more permanent solution to the problem of escaping POWs. They intentionally allow a prison camp to be filled with escape artists and overseen by an ineffective commandant. When the inevitable occurs, they pounce on the ringleaders, round them up and execute them without preamble, ensuring that the knowledge base for future attempts will be cut significantly. \n Perhaps there was a large effort expended to recapture them, in a sense a materiel victory for the escapees, but it was their final act, and now the leadership has been devastated, the men with skills crucial to the escape effort have been removed, and the rank and file has been demoralized. They remove the commandant (perhaps something they had been unable to do until now), and I would be very surprised if any other even minor escapes would be attempted from that camp again.", "id": "t3_3993bb", "summary": "The Great Escape was engineered by the Gestapo to instill fear in POWs and discourage future attempts."}, {"author": "fultron", "content": "The main example is Guns of Icarus- two teams with two airships each try to hunt and kill each other. On board the crew of four has assigned roles, the pilot, the engineers, and the gunners. They have different responsibilities and have to focus on their tasks instead of lone-wolfing. \n I posted over in /r/MadMax about how an Icarus-style system would work well for a Mad Max vehicular combat game, it seems like every one of the movies has a long chase with a team of attackers trying to board and capture a capital vehicle like a gas tanker. The teamwork mechanics of Icarus with an additional \"repel boarders\" system would lend itself to that franchise perfectly.", "id": "t3_38harl", "summary": "Teamwork and role-playing."}, {"author": "fultron", "content": "Here's my embellished version of a joke I learned when I was a kid. I swear to god there's no loch ness monster. \n Benny and the Urn \n Once upon a time a man named Benny was living in ancient Mesopotamia. A miner by trade, one day he discovered a secret cavern filled with jewels, gold, and piled high with priceless artifacts. \n The floor was covered with golden jars, urns that were formed from solid gold. They were each the size of a man's heart, carved with runic symbols and the air around which shimmered and pulsed as if alive. But the real prize was atop the pile of loot, nestled in a case lined with red velvet; a golden oil lamp, etched with markings and symbols older than time. \n No sooner did Benny take it into his hand than a swirling tornado erupted from its spout. The light from his single torch seemed to falter, then blazed anew as the tornado calmed. When the dust had cleared, a strange man stood before him, clothed in gold with his arms folded across his bronze chest. He spoke with a rumbling voice that could not be ignored. \n \"You have released me from my ten-thousand-year imprisonment, and in gratitude I will grant you a single wish. Choose wisely.\" \n Benny thought for a long while, and when he had weighed the options he asked for immortality, that single unobtainable goal that all men strive for. \n \"Everlasting life will I grant you,\" said the Genie, \"But on one condition. You must swear by the life you will owe me that you will never again shave the hair of your face or head, never for all eternity. Do this, and eternal life shall be yours. Do not, and your soul is forfeit, and you will join the many that failed and in turn have been imprisoned here.\" He gestures around at the urns that cover the floor of the cavern. The air around each shimmered and pulsed silently. \n Of course Benny agrees, and the Genie vanishes in a puff of gold dust, leaving all the wealth of the chamber behind for the taking. \n Benny rushes into the city and buys the land containing the cavern of riches and overnight becomes the most famous and wealthy man in the realm. He gives up mining and buys a fleet of trading ships, not only to grow his wealth but to spread the tale of Benny and the Lamp across the seas and to distant lands, the better to see his own self last through the ages. \n As time passes, and his beard grows longer, he notices the passage of time more distinctly. His parents die, his brothers and sisters, all fabulously rich and comfortable, but their passing is no less sorrowful to him.\nWhen his wife and the last of his children are in their graves, he swears to continue his life for as long as the Genie's spell could prolong it, spreading his wealth amongst the people in honor of the family he'd outlived. And yet his solemn vow was tainted with sadness, because he knew no amount of good deeds could win back that which time had won from him. \n And yet his business prospers, sails turn to oars, oars to steam, and always the sun and stars march on in their ceaseless wandering. All passes in the blink of an eye to him, his experiences and memories dull as glass in the dark of night. He becomes a myth, a legend whose tales are told and songs are sung but who never truly existed, or certainly not in this age. Wealth has lost all meaning to him, success long achieved and forgotten. \nTired of civilization and wanting solitude, de returns to his cavern of riches, and thinks. He thinks of time passed and love lost, of the crashing sea and its inexorable destruction of earth. He sits alone, and he thinks... \n One day his reverie is broken by a shaft of light cast down into his cave. The eons had reformed the entrance around him, sealing off the man and his thoughts in a silent black tomb. A head pokes through the hole in the ceiling, a mane of fiery red hair follows, a round laughing face stained with sweat and rock dust. It is the first person Benny has seen in unknown thousands of years, and, eyes watering, he lifts his arm to touch the face of god, as it were. He finds he cannot. His arm is frozen, encased in a fibrous tomb, as well as his legs and head. \n During his ages of inactivity, his arms and legs had withered from disuse but his beard grew on still. It grew and it grew, wrapping the man and then filling the cavern with its mass, until the weight of it pressed itself into stone. Benny was encased in a layer of rock of his own making, only a faint outline of a face in the rock wall to mark his existence. \n The young treasure hunter drops lightly to the floor from a long rope, shouts up to her companions to come down. The first man down is bulky and graceless, encumbered by a bag of heavy equipment. The next man down is timid, inching slowly down the rope and pressing a sweaty finger to the bridge of his glasses every few seconds. The woman and the heavy man begin searching the cavern as the mousy man dusts off his vest and examines the stone floor of the cave. \"Interesting...\" \n He draws a small leather pouch from his rucksack and produces a magnifying glass and set of tools. He kneels, examines the stone here, the stone there, and eventually finds a small protrusion in the center of the chamber. \n \"Kind of looks like a face\", he thinks as he chooses a small hammer and chisel from the pouch. He opens a notebook and notes the date and location.  He decides to chip it from the rock wall for a memento. \n A single tap with the tool just below the chin, and the stone chip flies through the air and suddenly the man too is flying, falling, through dust and air and... gold? The cavern swirls away, sucked down to a point far below, the light above dwindles until it's no more than a pinprick high above. \n He slams into the ground and rolls down an incline. His glass are broken, but after checking himself for fractures he digs through a pocket and strikes a match. \n The flickering yellow light casts long shadows away, he thinks he might have triggered a cave-in but he couldn't be sure... He'll have to examine this yellow flowstone to see how far down he might be.  the magnifying glass is safe in a pocket, and he's able to examine his surroundings. \n The room is filled with smallish vases, jars, no, there's a better word. Urns! So many urns, they disappear from view into the gloom. He toes one with a boot; it’s firmly embedded in the rock below. As he turns, a glint catches his eye. He wanders off looking for the source. \n As the glow from his light fades away, the shadows cast by the urns stretch until they cover the chamber floor, all covered with strange markings and coated with millennia of dust. \n All but one, just a single one that sits in the center of the room, gleaming as if new. \n >", "id": "t3_2jyybt", "summary": "A Benny shaved is a Benny urned."}]}
+{"author": "nutsocharles", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post For responsible adults, with any measure of experience in holding a job, paying bills, completing and/    or continuing their education,  meeting Mr. Or Ms. Right, working through arguments, and realizing that you were incredibly stupid when you were young, the Twilight movies really can be that bad.", "output": "Oh, I totally forgot about that scene. Love TWKYK. It doesn't quite fit, though, because in that scene they're happy. Whereas Twilight features two people who should be ecstatic to finally be experiencing love regardless of the circumstances (that's if you look beyond the whole 'I love you so much I want to be dead forever and never know what a real, normal life is') yet remain two of the most morose and dispassionate characters on film. The film is popular to hate,  I agree. But that doesn't make everyone who dislikes it a bandwagon hater. Some people really find it to be a terrible movie, because it's a paean to all the thoughts of teenagers who think the world revolves around them, but it's completely unironic in its portrayal that that is completely true, and that all the thoughts, emotions, first loves, hormonal reactions, and rash decisions of high schoolers are ultimately concrete and permanent,  and absolutely correct. It's a movie that basically supports vapid teenage girls in their decision to forget college and just get pregnant now, because my boyfriend will love me and be with me until the end of time, and there will never be any really negative consequences. When I'm 50 I'll be so glad I did this. You don't even understand. What we have is real. \n Aside from that, because it's somewhat excusable as entertainment culture caters more and more to the younger and younger, and they don't want morality plays or judgment of any kind, the acting is terrible. The breathless low talking is excruciating after about thirty minutes. The conflict, both with Edward and Jacob and with the other vampires trying to kill Bella and the Cullens, is never enough to really engage me. The self-assured teenage mentality becomes pervasive and no real threat to Bella's romance or life is ever felt. The threats were like caring parents or concerned teachers, something is actually trying to stop you from ruining your young life, but who cares? They can't come in the way of true love! Neither can Edward or the Volturi!"}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Executive chefs are responsible for all the food that goes out. The guilty party was punished correctly here.", "output": "Here's the thing; I understand where everyone here is coming from, but I also understand the judges' decision, and you should too. The main issue was that in the edit we all saw, the wrong words were emphasized on everyone's part. But Kristen was absolutely responsible, so the \"covering for Josie\" (and believe me I want Josie gone) is utter nonsense. \n Here is how you have to look at it. You are a restaurateur who wants to open a hot new place. It's going to cost a ton of money, but as long as it's a success, you're okay with that. You have four chefs jobs open, executive, sous, partie, and commis. You test out four candidates and assign them roles. The one warning they all go in with is simple -- you don't get demoted, you get fired. \n Now, the first night of service has some big problems, so you call in the four chefs. The commis chef is the one who stands out as doing the worst. You wonder why. As you ask questions, you find that your executive asked the commis to make a bouillabaisse the day before. The commis didn't do it, and the exec said nothing. Next day, the commis started very late in making the dish, but the exec didn't take a hand in it. Then the commis waited too long to add gelatin, so the chef said to add cream. Then it turned out that the commis had done a terrible job on the fish, but the exec had never checked them. When it was time to plate, the exec took over and sent the dish out to some very unhappy customers. \n In this scenario, the owner has to fire the exec. It's simple. The next executive chef can fire that commis, or the owner can next time if everyone else is doing a good job. But  you cannot have an executive chef who sends shit food out to customers. \nLet me repeat, you cannot have an executive chef who sends shit food out to customers. Kristen had the opportunity on day one to say \"Hey, my team, start cooking that fucking bouillabaisse now.\" Next day, taste it. Hey, this hasn't thickened yet, it's time to add the gelatin. Hey, this fish is poorly cooked, let me show you how to redo it. An executive chef is responsible for that dish going out and should have had their hand in it the whole time it's being prepped and made. If it's terrible,  you fire the exec first. Because if you keep replacing everyone under the exec with more bad chefs, they've proven they're happy to send out that shitty food to your customers.  That's not only unacceptable, it doesn't happen to top chefs, because top chefs check and taste everything as it's cooked and if it's not up to standard they don't send it out. They teach the junior chefs the same principles. Gordon Ramsay would never send out a bad dish and assume the customer would blame the line cook who overcooked the fish. He'd take charge, yell at the line cook and get it fucking right. When you take on that role in the kitchen, final responsibility really does rest with you. Kristen said it, the judges said it, and for all of us knowing Josie was lazy it's easy to want to ignore it, but the truth is Kristen deserved to pack her knives because that was not what a top chef does. Editing aside, throwing people under the bus aside, she was a terrible exec, and that's who should go if the food quality is bad because they're in charge of it. Kristen might be better than Josie overall, but it was Restaurant Wars, so judging is different,  and the right person did go home. Padma and even Kristen acknowledged that and the correct reason why before and after the show."}], "user_id": "longlamp_13225", "history": [{"author": "nutsocharles", "content": "FITT- Hundreds of people whining about how that underground band that they really deeply loved and connected to recorded this one song that got really popular and now everybody knows about them and now they SUCK and I HATE them and it's not fair their music is ruined for me now because it's so overplayed and I knew about them first,  I went to a They Might Be Giants show at the Music Farm and nobody had ever heard of the opener this group called OK Go but I was like so amazed and I said \"These guys are awesome!\" and so because I started following them right at the beginning I was like the first person to see one of their videos and I, emphasis  I  told my friends we had to make our own video for 'A Million Ways' and I choreograped it but then I made the one I really wanted to make with me as all four guys recorded four times and cut together, and THAT'S the one they used in the fan supercut, which was AWESOME, but then that stupid fucking treadmill video comes out which was really awesome but then everybody saw it and the band just started to blow up and EVERYBODY is saying I saw them right when they started but YOU DIDN'T,  I DID. And now like every video and song they do is an event and everybody thinks they're all in on it. And I hate it.", "id": "c6n9z0j", "summary": "This thread demonstrates that everything people claim to hate about hipsters is in fact how redditors define themselves."}, {"author": "nutsocharles", "content": "1) Any major weather service like the weather channel/weather.com, AccuWeather, etc., but the best info will come from local weather forecasts so trust Rob Fowler more than Jim Cantore. Live 5 or Channel 2 sites will keep you most up to date. \n 2) No. Nononononono. This is something very, very stupid characters in Carl Hiaasen and Tim Dorsey books do, and they come out of it just fine. You are not a character in a work of fiction, so you should value your own mortal flesh more and stay away from windows and in a central room or doorway. If a hurricane is coming, you are very unlikely to only see it pass by, if you see an edge, the rest is coming right behind it. \n 3) You should stop and think about this yourself. It's very much about how it can and will affect you and what your needs are. For example, they tell everyone every year to a) have an evacuation plan and b) have a hurricane preparedness kit. Now, if it gets really really bad, are you okay with sitting in gridlock for five hours trying to get out? If not, you should probably plan. Do you have kids who need formula? Does anyone in the family require electricity for anything (sleep apnea machine, anything for health issue)? You need to take these things into account and decide if you would rather evacuate to a city where there won't be a run on formula at the supermarket and the power probably won't go out, or if you're okay with buying a generator and stocking up on a few weeks worth of formula and gasoline beforehand. You will need a ton of water, and it will become difficult to get, but if the water lines go, you can't drink, bathe, flush, etc. Other people will buy a lot for the same reason. Fill tubs before the storm hits for water to flush with. Buy wet wipes and washcloths to bathe. You may need plywood to board up windows for Cat 3+. There will be a scarcity of that as well. If you can store what you need in your garage it isn't the worst idea. \n Other things: depending on where you are, the real danger may be flooding. Know that before you need to. If a storm is coming in with the tide and you're in a flood zone, you may need to have gills surgically implanted. Wait, is that a real thing? No? Okay, then if you stay you could drown in your living room. Dying room now, I guess. \n Tornados also frequently develop in powerful hurricanes. You know what those are like, so if it happens, take appropriate action. Few basements or storm cellars in Chucktown, so doorways again. \n If you have pets, take care of them. Don't leave them outside. Its really sad how many people do when that kind of thing happens. Bring them indoors and kennel them if possible during the storm. Comforting toys, blankets, t-shirts with your scent are helpful. \n Don't think about looting in the aftermath. You're in the South, so a lot of homeowners have guns. If you try to hit a jewelry store, the National Guard will show you what they keep in the Armory. \n Don't mess with downed power lines. Louie the Lightning Bug is fuckin'-a right about that. \n Candles and kerosene lamps are great to have in the aftermath, but don't forget Monopoly and a deck of cards. With no TV, iPads, internet, reddit, etc., your family will need things to do. Look up some house rules for gin rummy and Texas Hold 'em while you can. My family played cards after Hugo and kept up the tradition on Friday nights for years afterwards. It was actually great fun and really bonding. \n Have your insurance agent's info and phone numbers available. \n Having a battery powered cell phone charger is useful. I have a dozen rechargeable batteries fully charged beforehand, as it takes 4 to charge my phone. Buy a weather radio that can run on batteries or hand crank. The generators on those are manual but some have plugs to charge other devices. \n If you see hurricane veterans running, gtfo. \n I'm sure others will think of things I'm forgetting; listen to them, too. When preparing for a worst-case scenario, the more you anticipate the better off you'll be. If it turns out you were over prepared, great. You don't want to find out what any of the alternatives are, and you might be the one who's able to help your friends and neighbors when they need it. Hasn't this site taught you to chase that karma? \n Edit:", "id": "cimbmu7", "summary": "No worries, I can't imagine there's anything you really need to worry about if a hurricane is coming."}, {"author": "nutsocharles", "content": "Your comment made me recall a thought I've had recently but haven't really expressed here, which is that if 2015 is Reigns' year, WWE will be shortening the amount of time they can use him in the top spot by several years. Cena had been on TV for two years before winning the US Title at WMXX. It was another year before he won his first world title, and the decade at the top since has certainly made him a Hoganesque figure in the history of pro wrestling. The guy is definitely a first ballot Hall of Famer, but like Hogan, ten years after the Mania or Cenation began there are often more boos than cheers. WWE seems unwilling to ever consider tweaking Cena's character to spark renewed interest in him, though, while Hogan won his original Hulkamaniacs back to his side by donning the black, literally and figuratively. \n Reigns, however, is greener now than Cena was at WMXX. Being the big monster of The Shield for a large part of his run means he hasn't had anywhere near as many 15-25 minute singles matches under his belt. His ring psychology, timing and rhythm aren't at a main event level, but he seems headed that way based mostly on looks. That reminds me a lot of Diesel being given the belt in late 1994 to hold it for a year of badly booked matches that exposed his flaws and downplayed his strengths. If the same happens to Reigns, if he gets the WWEWHC this year and they give him even six months with more experienced workers like Orton or even Dean Ambrose (who would be in a somewhat similar position to Shawn in 95 watching his less able stablemate wear the belt in favor of his ability to put on a better match) it will become clear that he is not a good enough worker yet to be in that spot. Diesel never really recovered in WWE after being taken out of the title picture. He had to rebuild himself in WCW. Mabel is another example of a big guy who was given a rocket for a short time (King of the Ring, title match) that showed he would never deliver a four star match and subsequently became a perennial midcarder. \n I think Vince sees in Reigns his dream of a Cena kind of guy who's even bigger and will be the next Hogan. He always seems stuck on guys with the look and the size, when an outside analyst would expect him to be looking out for a scrappy six footer who may be losing his hair to a certain extent, who has several years of singles experience and a lot of natural charisma -- that could describe Shawn Michaels or Stone Cold Steve Austin or Kurt Angle, and with any of them you've got a true top guy who can headline Mania without a large section of the audience just being sick of seeing them. HHH hurt his own long-term audience relationship because of the booking influence that was evident in his ironclad grip on the title of the early 2000s. Roman Reigns also may be a relative, but he is not The Rock either, which may be Vince's true wish, that this tall muscular athletic Samoan will one day start gushing charisma to the point that we can all smell it through our TV sets. Acting lessons while injured didn't seem to aid in bringing that out at all, so my real fear for Roman Reigns is that if he is absolutely set to take the reigns this year as I'm sure the announcers will put it, it will only serve this early in his career to hurt his long term prospects by convincing Vince and HHH that he doesn't have the total package needed, that of wrestler, entertainer, corporate representative...and once they decide you don't have that, if you stick around, you move down the ladder, and it is beyond rare for guys in that position, like Sid, Diesel, Kane, Big Show, etc to ever truly work their way back into the main event WHC scene. It may mean that Reigns gets the belt this year as Vince and many fans seem to want, only to be fighting Jose Canseco or Jon Jones in the middle of the WM card or opening in a tag title match with Finn Balor as his strange bedfellow tag partner.", "id": "cni4lz8", "summary": "If you are a fan of Reigns, hope that he is allowed more time to grow as a performer before being expected to carry the company."}, {"author": "nutsocharles", "content": "POST FROM NUTSO's GF WHO IS  TOO LAZY TO SIGN IN TO OWN REDDIT: a lurker and hijacked my account to post here: \n You would be truly amazed if you knew the kinds of people that are on disability and what they are on disability for...especially when it comes to psyc disorders. I am a study coordinator and do clinical trials for psychotropic meds. Many of our studies are done inpatient and more than 70% are on disability in my estimate. I can say in all honesty there are probably 5 out of all these people that I felt were legitimately disabled and whose disorders would make it hard or impossible to hold a job. And I am a liberal who strongly believes in social safety nets...but after working this job I realize much more the importance of reforming and regulating services like these. I am talking about young men in their twenties who would say \"I hear voices\" and that was it. They were diagnosed with schizophrenia even when they showed no other positive, negative or cognitive symptoms and would admit to people left and right that they were lying. Even people who really did have things like bipolar d/o would use it as a way of getting out of working and even paying child support. One guy wanted us to write to a court to explain that he had bipolar d/o and that was why he hadn't paid child support in YEARS. At the same time he was coming up positive for cocaine and marijuana. (We laughed and said no). I studied psychology and love the work I do and when you are around these kinds of people who fake these things you know it right away. When you speak with people day in and day out with things like schizophrenia, you know when someone is bullshitting you. They say \"I see elephants\" or \"clowns\". That's it. It is extremely rare that people have these types of hallucinations, and even rarer that they show no other symptoms. But doctors diagnose bc it is the only way to get insurance to pay and they need insurance to pay to keep the census up. Then the disability office sees all these hospitalizations and thinks \" wow this person is really sick\". It is a vicious cycle and really quite sad.", "id": "c7zzv6t", "summary": "too many people are on disability that should not be and our mental health system is fucked."}, {"author": "nutsocharles", "content": "This is actually my girlfriend's story, not mine, but here goes. \n My girlfriend was in middle school walking home with a friend she describes as \"a dork of unimaginable scale\". Meaning the girl had no social skills to compensate for her nerdiness. They lived in a neighborhood which had an elementary school of the same name. A guy driving down the street stopped and asked them the location of the school, and her friend walked up to the cab and started talking the guy through it. He continued talking and asking her questions, and my girlfriend started to get uncomfortable. She kept indicating to dork girl that she needed to move away.from the truck, but dork girl was oblivious. So my girlfriend got closer to pull her away and discovered the guy had his dick out and was masturbating while talking to a pubescent girl and asking about an elementary school. She pulled her away from the truck and took her home to call the police, which she had sense enough to do. Apparently dork girl noticed nothing until my girlfriend walked up and saw the guy fapping, at which point she cued in on the fact that the guy was trying to nut on her. Both girls were freaked out at that point and the cops came out but as far as she knows nothing ever happened/guy was never caught.", "id": "c7s54ib", "summary": "My girlfriend kept her female friend in middle school from taking a random cumshot to the face by a cruising pedophile."}, {"author": "nutsocharles", "content": "Okay, first, this is the James Bond subreddit. I didn't write a letter to the author and publisher. I didn't submit this to/r/literature and rail against the injustice of it all. And it's not the word Bond I'm up in arms about, it's the phrase Bond Girl. Google it. On\nthe first three results pages you'll find this book once. Every single other result has to do with the women of the Bond novels and films. Why? Because that's what Bond Girl means. The first entry you'll see is Wikipedia page which defines Bond Girl as a character (or the actress portraying a character) who is a love interest of James Bond in a film, novel, or video game. There's not even a disambiguation page for the book. They simply gave the book a borderline clever title which upon reflection should have been discarded unless corporate espionage and gunplay was going to come into play. Having to determine that it has nothing to do with the Bond series might be within the capabilities of a literate person, but creating the need for them to do so is unnecessary and smacks of a very ill-advised gimmick to sell more books. I'm also leery of everything to do with the book because the reviews on Amazon seem very possibly doctored. You see a full range of reviews from 1 to 5 stars. The people who give less glowing reviews explain why. Silly, boring, lacking originality, doesn't give insight into the world it's supposedly about. Then lots of four and five star reviews. I saw one of those say they got a copy for review, but it honestly doesn't seem like a professional reviewer would emphasize \"I got it for free!\" Another gave 5 stars seemingly in response to poor reviews and said \"Come on people it's chick lit not War & Peace!\" Well then why did you give it 5 stars? What are you going to give War & Peace? 4 stars, good book but too long? Also, the positive reviews bother me for another reason; they use buzzwords, and they use them too much. Any teacher knows that when you see the same words and phrases come up in different papers you get suspicious. I'm not at this moment going to print out and compare every top review, but a) lots of them seem to use the language of the blurbs already attached to the book, which is either lazy and plagiarism or a publicity scam and b) the top reviews seem to have kept pace with all negative to average reviews in such a way that the overall rating doesn't drop below four stars. This seems especially odd for a book that even supporters acknowledge as a chick-lit beach read and detractors say does not delve into the world of bond trading with any expertise and that the characters and story lack appeal and depth. Also odd, the book as I noted has about a 4:1 ratio of positive to avg/negative reviews, but there's a stretch where you see pages of positive reviews all at once with only two below four stars interspersed. Almost as if there was an effort at that time to build up a strong base of positive reviews and acquire a higher rating. One that isn't really characteristic of a chick-lit book about a girl who knows nothing about bond trading sleeping with hotshot assholes and hating life, especially not an author's first novel in that genre. \n Finally, with respect to Stephen Fry who said it best, nothing is fucking required. It's not required that we wear clothing of different colors, but it makes life interesting. Many things in life are not necessary, that has absolutely no bearing on whether or not they should happen or exist, and those who say otherwise are idiots.", "id": "c7xw4qv", "summary": "Then go play with crayons."}, {"author": "nutsocharles", "content": "This was my pick because it so often comes up as a be all, end all of current gaming. But it's not for everyone. My girlfriend was a casual gamer for a long time, but shifted to dedicated gamer in the current gen because of the leap in storytelling and gameplay that comes with so many large game worlds. She went from Undead Nightmare and L.A. Noire to Heavy Rain, Assassin's Creed, Dragon Age, Amalur, Fallout, Fable, Borderlands, Gears of War, Arkham Asylum, Dead Island, Mass Effect and The Elder Scrolls, and if a game has sequels she has them all. She has amassed a serious collection that I have huge respect for and has played and beaten amazing games I've never begun. We do have a lot of our tastes in common, though I don't do as much RPG gaming as her in the last two years. Anyway, after the endless hype machine (and I include the people who talk it up endlessly in that) had been running awhile, we decided to give it a shot. She started playing first while I watched and we tried to figure things out together. One thing became quickly apparent though: she hated it. She despised the game, and I disliked the constant sense of a dark underground environment. She could make progress; there was no issue with getting permastuck in one place and giving up, she was moving on across unlocked bridges and ramps. But she was nor having a good time, and that's why she plays. I only play games I really really want to unless she tells me a game blew her away and I must play it. I can easily pass on Condemned 2 or Call of Juarez, even Yakuza, and Dark/Demons Souls didn't really call to me. She tried them, and didn't like them. She didn't dislike every aspect, the character interaction is the kind of thing she enjoys; however,the game did not deliver enough of the type of gaming she enjoys, so she uultimately had enough. She found plenty of games she preferred after it. \n The craze over the difficulty ignores that the game may have appealing points, but is missing pieces for lots of gamers. A lot of the people who like it might dislike some of the Nintendo hard games I beat when I was a kid that could be equally brutal and unforgiving about enemies, their weaknesses, and dying, but they can rightly decry that there are games now that offer more adaptable styles of play and are better in terms of graphics, control, and story. That's not to say that the Souls games aren't better than NES games, just that in a world with so many game titles and types available they do not offer everything for everyone, and the people who love it most seem to sing its praises without consideration of the fact that some people grew up on DuckTales, Super Mario Bros, EA Sports NHL hockey, Bases Loaded, Skate or Die, Legend of Zelda, Punch Out, Bad Dudes, Double Dragon, and yes Battletoads, and while we can learn the ins and outs of games and how to get around/beat a challenge, we want to have fun during the playing of it, not just a sense of reward when an insurmountable goal is conquered. A girl whose first love was Mario Party might get into Oblivion but not be up for spending hours with lunatics in hellish caverns. Some players like the environment as much as the game, and when the Rome of AC Brotherhood or the hills, grasses, and lakes of Dragon Age are there for the exploring, they don't want to be in a dark pit. For the people who love them, fair enough, but remember that they seem to have so much caché because they're relatively niche, and if every gamer did have a copy, a lot just wouldn't like it. \n Every year many gamers ignore new iterations of Madden (myself included) while others clamor for it, and every week some books and CDs are released that are the best ever to some people and reviled by others. These are games to me that have a very strong fan base, and I'm not saying they are wrong to enjoy themselves, but they have a limited appeal and will continue to. The blanket you should play endorsements they get is well-intentioned but shortsighted. My favorite band has a Grammy but most people have never heard of them, and I only recommend them to close friends I have a sense of. If every gamer owned a copy of Demons Souls most wouldn't like it, and it would remain a title that's popular for a segment of gamers, often their favorite game, but it wouldn't become the new standard. With the number of IPs we have nowadays, people who hype this one should consider what the people they're recommending it to like. If they say they love Super Mario World, Final Fantasy VII and They Might Be Giants, maybe save your breath.", "id": "c9ovbl7", "summary": "This."}, {"author": "nutsocharles", "content": "I'm sorry richielaw. This kind of thing was exactly what I was talking about in a recent post, asking people not to put spoilers in the title and tag for spoilers in the post. Unfortunately, I was met with a lot of the same resistance you are getting: first, responses like those of archaeonaga and cdb03b, who attack your example rather than the thrust of your argument, and second from users like MASTER_ZEROIZE blaming the user who gets something spoiled for even being here. To the first, the response is utterly ridiculous. Richielaw is not asking that  this particular  item be removed or suggesting that it is the problem. His request is the avoidance of AMoL spoilers in post titles at all, and that is a problem which has plagued this subreddit. It really needs to stop. That flies in the face of the second argument, which suggests that /r/WoT is now reserved for people who have read all of AMoL and no one else. This reaction is so widespread as to be beyond belief. People always make the case sound so logical when it is in fact completely self-centered, selfish, and an unreasonable double-standard. These users suggest unsubscribing, as if it's fair to deprive others access because it would impose restrictions on them -- a childish attitude at best. These same users would have likely been dismayed had a bookseller with early access posted major spoilers prior to release, yet once the release date passes their point of view shifts dramatically. They're the guy who comes out of the theater and promptly spoils The Empire Strikes Back or The Sixth Sense for everyone in line. They saw it unspoiled in the first showing, who cares about you?Oh, circumstances prevented you from getting all the info at the same time I did? Too bad, buddy, life is called The Me Show for a reason. \n They see the sub as their little clubhouse, and because they have the thought process of little kids, they're worse than sociopaths at empathy. You don't belong here, this sub is now only for people who finished all the books. I shouldn't have to make an effort not to spoil things for you. You deserve no consideration. It's amazing to me how many people agree with that line of thinking. It appals me that more don't rally to say \"No, this sub was for every book in the series before AMoL, and we cared enough not to spoil anything then. We will do the same now.\" No, the victim gets blamed for being here. If richielaw didn't want my opinion on the epilogue, he shouldn't have been in this sub wearing a short skirt. Or at the very least, I don't have any problems, why should I have to worry about yours. \n The response people should always be giving this is A) we don't want to ruin anyone else's experience, just as we wouldn't want anyone to ruin ours. That's the Golden Rule, and regardless of religion, ethics, creed, we should all follow it, without semantics about what is harmful and egregious and what is \"iffy\". If it's iffy,  make the very small effort I just did to put it behind spoiler tags . B) Nobody should be left out because they pose a problem for you. We mandate wheelchair ramps because so few people adhere to this on their own, but none of you has any business saying or suggesting that people should stay out until they finish. This is not your private sub. It is public and open to all, and that equal access is only right. Saying \"I just unsubscribe until I finish\" is irrelevant, no one is required to do things your way for one, and it's tantamount to saying \"I wouldn't shop where I'm not wanted\" to discourage certain people from coming to your place of business. And blaming the people you spoil things for because they should have known better and were in the wrong place is even worse in terms of behavior. Frankly, I'd like to see it become a subreddit policy that all are welcome and all discussion should clearly indicate spoilers, with consequences for those who ignore it in the form of warnings and temporary bans.", "id": "c8ayboq", "summary": "Do unto others as you would always, under any circumstance, (i.e. if you were in their position) have done unto you. Do not expect or demand others to remove themselves, it's their choice and they should have access to valuable, spoiler-free content. If you refuse to consider others in this public space, then like a drunk at a bar you should be tossed out."}, {"author": "nutsocharles", "content": "Somewhat regular insomnia sufferer. High frequency of taking a long time to fall asleep, less often my body rhythm just goes haywire and I know I'm not going to sleep. Only things to do are read, go for a late-night run, find ways to kill time and get tired. When I was in high school and this happened, my dad, who never had insomnia,  would firmly instruct me to \"just go to sleep.\" I would get incredibly angry and explain to him that I was frequently exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go to sleep but it just wasn't possible. Then he'd get angry. And I'd get angrier. Good times.", "id": "c71lrtj", "summary": "I'm an insomniac, dad said just go the fuck to sleep."}, {"author": "nutsocharles", "content": "I absolutely agree. You might get some people replying \"Oh, so you WANT Seamus v. Bryan from Mania in 18 second matches to become the norm?\", because people tend to try refuting arguments with extreme counterparts, but while 18 seconds, or even a minute or so in the case of Warrior-Honky Tonk Man at Summerslam is too short, sudden endings would absolutely improve the product in my opinion. There could have been moments going back years when someone tried a backdrop on HHH only to receive a sudden Pedigree, or swing a huge haymaker at The Rock to have him duck, step in, and Rock Bottom them for the win. \n Especially with some finishers that people are supposed to be able to pull off at any moment, I don't remember Sweet Chin Music ending a lot of matches before the twenty minute mark, and it would have been smart to have a Raw [not a PPV match, or at least very, very rarely, because people are paying for the match and it would weaken the losers' credibility greatly] with a three minute match that's not Mark Henry or Ryback squashing somebody, but Orton in a hot contest that is just warming up before a sudden RKO ends it instantly. \n Not only would it make the product seem more legit and strengthen kayfabe because, as you pointed out, a fight can end in a knockout at any time in real life, and punching a guy in the head ten times without leaving a bruise on his face or your hands is a good way to expose the business, but it would help get finishers and signature moves (which I agree should be part of the mix too) more over as threats and separate your top guys from the pack by giving them something to add to their story. \n A great use of the idea that I would book would be to apply the idea to Dean Ambrose. I don't believe it would work with the DDT he's using now, but as people have felt there was some apt comparison between him and Stone Cold, you have a blueprint for how your suggestion could be effected. Steve Austin often used the kick/Stunner as the first thing he did to a multitude of people, and it was always a finisher. Coming up on somebody head on or spinning them around from behind, when he hit the Stunner they went down. And he did that often, and to wrestlers and non-wrestlers alike with the same result, they were down and out. Have Ambrose lay people out like that, in segments outside of matches like they did with Stone Cold and in brawls against multiple wrestlers, all of which would make sense with his unstable character, and it's fine if he wins a match for a title in five minutes. Extending the idea throughout the roster -- not setting everybody up as capable of ending it instantly, but just altering the reality a little -- would allow them to stop having people kicking out of ten finishers before losing, or never tapping out. \n Playing knockout or submission finishers in WWE as being roughly as effective as UFC blows or submissions would give you opportunities to make escaping them beforehand more important and give matches an air of unpredictability if you believed that among the top superstars, a successful finisher meant the end of a match by tap out or pin with a high degree of certainty, and ultimately longer matches would tell better stories about struggling to put a guy away, rare submission escapes and finisher kick outs would become huge moments, and the business would improve with technically skilled wrestlers naturally being easier to book as having a strong defense to withstand initial onslaughts from guys like Lesnar or Cena attempting to win with power as quickly as possible. \n Wow. Long response.", "id": "cmutxqb", "summary": "I totally agree."}, {"author": "nutsocharles", "content": "Merrells are fantastic. (Disclaimer: I work for Merrell and parent company Wolverine World Wide -- that being said, I pursued my job with this specific company because I was a huge fan of their products going back to the 90s. I wanted to be in bed with them.) \n Here are a few things I recommend in terms of buying a pair of Merrell boots: \n First and foremost, buy from a highly knowledgable salesperson. Buy from the website only if you have to have a particular pair not available at a store. You want to talk to someone who has a real background in, and understanding of, shoe manufacture. You may find such an individual in an R.E.I., Cabela's, Bass Pro, local retailer, or actual Merrell store. Unfortunately the Merrell dot com page does not do a great job of listing retail locations; we have far more than you can see by putting your zip into the locater. PM me if you'd like me to look up the stores closest to you. \n Continuing that idea, you want someone who knows which lasts are used in the manufacure of different boots and what their purpose is. Different boots are made for backpacking on fairly flat terrain and hiking in rocky or mountainous areas. Heel reinforcement (crush and roll protection) varies in rigid and flexible boots. All you should need to bring to the table is an idea of what conditions you want to use the boots in. \n So, when you start you search, you want a salesperson who is familiar with and capable of using a Brannock Device to measure your feet. This is that metal, double-heeled sliding foot measure you had used on you as a kid. Do not trust your measurement to a scanning bed. They are not very accurate, and they only measure heel-to-toe length. The more important measurement for fitting boots is heel to ball joint, that protruding knot of bone on your toe pad behind your big toe. That tells us your  arch length , which can be a different size than foot length. We always size to the larger, but if your arch length is 11 and your foot length 10.5, you should wear an 11 in most shoes so that the arch makes contact and provides support in the right place. \n Next, we run down what purpose the boot has and what kind of conditions it will be worn in. This is where  competence in a salesperson is also important. Generally, a squared heel and an overall straight line sole is better for hiking in terrain that demands careful foot placement at every step, for instance mountains and foothills with loose rock and steep muddy slopes. A rounded or rolled heel provides a more natural walking gait good for a day of light backpacking or hunting in a meadow. An example of the former, mid-foot stride would be a shoe like the Moab or Hilltop Ventilator, and an example of the latter would be one like the Yokota Trail. There is a hybrid series called Chameleon that is very popular with U.S. Special Forces and is suited for any terrain while still being great for times when you want to move more rapidly. \n Speaking of the troops, the best Merrell boots and shoes are soled (and sold) with Vibram soles, like U.S. Army boots are. Vibram is  the  company par excellence for making top-tier treads for hiking boots, running shoes, etc. Look for their bright yellow stamp on the sole to know you got the best. Merrell replicates their style of tread with a few shoes (but with a little less than total success). In the Moabs and Chameleons for example, the Vibram treads continue right up to the toes, which is what you want when you're ascending (heel lifts up first, push up with toes, toes dig in first) or descending (weight comes down on toes and pads first), while in the Hilltops (which ironically would not be as good for climbing hills) the tread ends at the pads. Keep an eye out for that unless you live in Kansas. \n Now, for Gore-Tex. Forget about it. Not waterproofing, but Gore-tex. Their patent ran out. Merrell makes their own identical fully impermeable internal membrane, so if you buy the Gore-tex edition of a shoe you're just paying too much for a brand name now. Gore-tex is now Kleenex, and my non-Gore-tex waterproof hikers got me through deep standing water in the Honduran rainforest through days of intermittent intense rain, no problemo. \n So, waterproof or ventilated? Depends on your climate, but generally I'd go waterproof. Most people on r/survival would spend enough days a year outdoors that some of them would be wet, and you can always encounter fordable streams on treks. If you're in a really arid climate vented might be the way to go, but here's my take: a ventilated shoe can be water- and stain-proofed and with the right products still be breathable, but companies now make good wool socks blended with nylon to wick moisture away and keep your feet drier. Invest in several pairs of them and waterproof boots and you'll never have to worry about soaking wet feet cracking and or rotting. \n Now for climate you'll need to consider if this is a winter boot, spring/summer/fall, year-round or what. A waterproof mid height boot with thick wool socks should be good for most of the year. A rigid thick-lined boot like the Ridgeway would carry you into cold temperatures. For extremes and sub-zero an arctic boot like Northcoat or Norsehund Beta would do better. By the way, I assume everyone reading this would gather that you can scope these out by doing a Google search for Merrell + Name of Style. For most outdoorsmen (and women of course, most of these styles are available in men's and women's) I would guess they'd want one of the more flexible styles. \n One other thing; don't forget about comfort. It's what built our company. In our first year of existence Backpacker magazine named us the number one hiking boot in the world, because making something you can wear all day without pain or soreness is kind of our hallmark. Lots of arch support is essential; you want the central part of your foot, the arch and instep, to bear its fair share of your weight just like your heels and pads. That will keep any one spot from bearing too much pressure and stress and becoming painful. But don't forget about the part you actually stand on, the foot bed. If I've learned one thing it's that the right footbed makes all the difference, because a thin cushion will soon tamp down and provide no cushion at all. The best in our shoes are the Ortholite polyurethane inserts. They allow for heel and pad decompression as they conform to the pressure put on them and give some positive pressure at the arch, kind of like a memory foam mattress for your feet. We sell those in pairs for ten bucks, so if your boots don't have the Ortholites, plunk down the ten dollars for the upgrade. You might even want to swap some out in your everyday shoes, they will be transformed. \n Finally, my rule of thumb. You want about the width of a thumb in front of your toes before the end of your boots. Feet do swell after a lot of hiking, and when going uphill or down you want to make sure your toes aren't being abraded by the boots. A good fit will not allow your heel to move around too much and blister, but will let you spread out your toe pad and flex and grip with your toes without rubbing. To get that fit, bear this very, very important fact in mind: Merrell's boots tend to have very thick material builds, not just the rigid or cold-weather ones but even the more flexible fabric and leather overlays. As a result, when worn with good wool socks Merrells  almost always  run at least a half size small. If you normally wear a 10, start with a 10.5 and try an 11 on too. Walk around in each for 10 minutes and see which feels better. I buy all my Merrell shoes a full size bigger than my sandals, if that helps as a guide. \n And just to let all of you in r/survival know, Merrell makes really great outdoor apparel too. I myself own two waterproof and windproof jackets and a fleece I'm wearing right now, and we have down jackets good to negative thirty or forty and shirts for summer with wicking material and built-in UPF. Slacks, cargo pants and shorts too, lots of hats and gloves. It's all comparable to gear from Patagonia, Columbia, North Face, Mountain Hard Wear, etc., but a lot of our prices are way better because you're not paying for a The North Face Jacket image. \n So, if you have any more questions for me or want more info let me know. I'd just like to reiterate that 1) I'm off today, and definitely not getting paid to say any of this. 2) I am a true believer in Merrell and came to work for them because of that, but I'm honest about it. 3) I am a subscriber to r/survival who digs kayaking, canyon hiking, survivalist techniques in camping/hiking/backpacking, and I do it in real life. 4) this was a really happy coincidence for me to see a post here about something I know a LOT about. And our company motto is on my business cards, \"Let's Get Outside!\"", "id": "cegdliq", "summary": "Yeah, sorry about that. \n Edit: Originally answered from my phone, edited out a few typos. Please excuse any remaining m!$+ak3$."}, {"author": "nutsocharles", "content": "I was watching Thai women weaving silk on a handmade bamboo loom and realized neither I nor anyone I know could produce thread, yarn, or cloth, work out and construct a loom, or do many other things that villagers around the world in places without electricity can. I think I could work out winnowing and milling grain. I don't know how flour is produced. Through a lot of trial and error, I might be able to do several things poorly, if I hadn't starved. I'm not a SHTF survivalist at all, don't have a bug-out bag or survival plan, but if for some reason (EMP weapons spring to mind) we ever lost technology on a broad scale, for some significant time we would only survive by what we think of as primitive living. In our modern cities, with hundreds and thousands or millions of people, why don't we have people trained in doing things the old-fashioned way and ready to teach others as a back-up plan? Why aren't technology-free living and tribal skill teaching contingencies that we consider important?", "id": "t3_19csp4", "summary": "Why do I have what we consider higher education and absolutely no lower education should I ever need it?"}, {"author": "nutsocharles", "content": "I have a 2005 Chevy Cavalier Sport Coupe, which is basically just a 2-door edition of the sedan. Driving home the other day I noticed the car seemed to be pulling hard to the right, and at my interstate exit I limped off with a flat (passenger side front). I put on the dummy, and drove less than a mile home, where I had a good tire on a spare wheel for my car in the garage. I drove to the closest gas station with an air hose and got the new tire filled and added some to the dummy, but drove home on the dummy as a thunderstorm began just at that moment. I should note: when I had the flat and changed to the dummy, the car didn't seem to lift off the ground as much as normal (I keep a 4000 lb floor jack in my trunk, I'm not great with cars but I am paranoid about things going wrong so what I am able to fix, I make sure I have the gear for, head and brake lights, screwdrivers, etc.). I had very little clearance to get the dummy (or donut if you prefer) on, which seemed unusual. Well, today I pulled into my garage to put on the good wheel/tire, and loosened the lug nuts a little before jacking the car. I could tell the wheel drum wasn't elevated enough to accommodate the full-sized wheel, so I adjusted the valve on the jack to get a little more height and tried again. I was ready to at least give it a shot but when I took the dummy off the new inflated tire was just too high to attach. I rolled it to the side and hatched the idea to use some wood blocks in my garage to give me a little extra height on the jack, and this is when things went from bad to worse. \n I got the wood blocks and was working on a strategy when I turned the release valve on the jack. In the process of lowering the right front end, something must have given, because the wheel drum went straight to the ground. There's a metal wing behind it that I assume is part of the support and the whole wing/wheel seems too low. I re-raised the front passenger side end and put the wood blocks under the wing, but right now I can't even get the dummy back on. My car is stuck with its butt sticking out of the garage door with the right front up on blocks and a jack. This is what I need your help with: \n 1) What broke/went wrong? Is it more likely to be the front axle bent or broke, or maybe the support assembly? The spring on that side doesn't appear to be broken. \n 2) how should/do I move it? It's face-in to the back wall of the garage, so if it has to be towed, that will be a problem. If I can get the dummy or wheel back on and roll it back out of the garage, should I? \n 3) based on my description and any follow-up answers I can give, how much will this cost me? As I said, I don't have the tools or knowledge to fix this, and the timing could not be worse. I'm hoping to start a new job in the next week or two, but don't have one at the moment and money is an issue. I would love your advice and opinion, even if it's qualified, i.e. IF it's this part, it will likely cost this much. \n Thank you in advance, and I will be hanging out here to reply to any questions and provide any follow-up you need. \n Edit:", "id": "t3_1gqckd", "summary": "I tried to change a flat tire but I can't get the wheel hub elevated enough with the jack to put even the dummy back on. I think something in that front right wheel assembly bent or broke. \n Edit 2: My hydraulic, 4000 lb-rated jack broke! Got one of the old fashioned lever/screw jacks and we're good! Thanks all!"}]}
+{"author": "garnteller", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post We lose nothing that we would have had without her, and gain additional opportunities to hear from people we are interested in.", "output": "First, if there weren't Victoria, many celebs would simply use their publicist as their filter (and do it anonymously).  In fact, they could easily let their publicist do the whole AMA, while they are down at the pool. \n Yeah, processed, guarded \"safe\" AMAs suck.  But it's not like Victoria stops celebs from reading the interesting questions and answering them.  There are plenty that are filled with personal anecdotes, heartfelt comments, and surprising, honest revelations.  Victoria doesn't prevent that. \n What she does prevent is: \n \n Woody-like train wrecks that scare the hell out of publicists and would keep celebs from coming in the first place \n Observing the celebs struggle with the interface, the typing, the in-jokes.  It's not cool to invite someone over to your place to visit and then make all sorts of jokes to your friends if they are going to go over the guest's head."}], "user_id": "longlamp_10713", "history": [{"author": "garnteller", "content": "The Media is hyping Hillary because she is almost certainly going to be the Democratic candidate. \n There is no one else with the remotest chance of winning who has even mentioned the possibility seriously. \n It doesn't matter whether she had officially announced or not, everyone knew she was going to, and has been planning to for years. \n In any case it's newsworthy for two reasons: \n \n The campaign reporting is all about the horserace.  It's great to talk about who is going to win the NFC, and how they match up against each other, but even before it's decided, the analysts are discussing whether Seattle or the Packers match up better against the Patriots.  (Especially in this case where no one is even playing against the Pats, and they are automatically getting a Superbowl bid). \n \n Hillary has an extremely long and interesting track record.   How long can you really talk about Mike Huckabee (especially knowing that he's going nowhere)?  But Hillary - well, you have her time as First Lady (and her involvement in the health care initiatives), her time in the Senate, and her time as Secretary of State.  Throw in the right's long time hatred of her and the focus placed on every negative event (Benghazi anyone?) and it's an easy way to generate stories.", "id": "cq8uwdb", "summary": "The media has been covering Hillary because she is newsworthy.  Maybe that will sell papers too, but they would be remiss if they were not covering her."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "It's not about being fair or respecting employees beliefs - it's about business. \n First, on the hiring side, if you are trying to hire a very talented Orthodox Jew, and you insist that he work on Rosh Hashana, but your competitor will give him the day off, guess whose job offer he's going to take?  It's a fairly small concession in the grand scheme of things. \n The, on the sales side.  I'm not sure if you're in the US, where this is more true, but there are a lot of religious people.  If you are perceived as being hostile to \"reasonable\" concessions to mainstream Judeo-Christian observances, and your competitor is seen as friendly to them, guess where they are going to shop?  You might get some atheists, but most non-religious people don't care enough for them to shop your store. \n On the other hand, non-mainstream religions don't have the same proponents, which is why your day to honor the Flying Spaghetti Monster might not be respected.", "id": "cf6qm9g", "summary": "As usual, it's all about the money."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "Sure, there are financial and legal reasons, but that's far too pragmatic for me.  By the reasoning all single people should find a partner for a sham marriage to collect the benefits. \n Here's the thing- marriage is hard.  Really hard.  Raising kids can be even harder. \n Marriage doesn't guarantee that a couple will stay together, as your own experience has taught you (for which I am sorry). \n But apart from outlawing divorce, it's the best we have. \n There is a power in standing up in front of your family and friends and promising (and, hopefully, believing) \"I'll be with this person for the rest of my life\".  There is a longer view that you adopt - most people don't view it as \"well this is good while it lasts\", instead being more likely to think \"how can we get through this?\" \n Why?  Well, for one thing, getting divorced is a pain in the ass.  The lawyers and forms complicate matters, requiring you to think things through more. \n Then there's the \"shame\" element.  You know that all of those family and friends who celebrated with you are going to learn you screwed up, either in the choice or the execution.  And that's embarrassing.  (Note- I'm not trying to be judgmental of people who divorce.  There are many, many good reasons to do so.  But there is still a stigma that they need to deal with.) \n Finally, there's the fact that you are quitting.  You built something that you thought would last forever.  To divorce, you need to come to terms with the fact that it's so broken and can't be fixed. \n Note- I also realize that this can cut both ways, that people stay  in bad, harmful marriages because of some of the same reasons I noted, but that's not the topic.", "id": "ce5iarp", "summary": "A public promise fundamentally changes the dynamics between the couple."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "I think you're bringing in a bunch of different concepts and equating them. \n The capacity that an IQ test purports to measure is a raw ability, and isn't supposed to be changeable.  The fact that you can study for it shows the flaws in the test, not in the concept. \n However, you're right.  My dad, a retired engineering professor likes to say that \"brains are a dime a dozen\" - there are plenty of smart people out there - but if they don't know how to work it ain't worth much. \n The idea of the single intelligence is also limiting.  Howard Gardner's \" Multiple Intelligences  intelligences: musical–rhythmic, visual–spatial, verbal–linguistic, logical–mathematical, bodily–kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. \n But regardless of how you measure it, there is another huge distinction to make.  I've taught my kids that it's silly to be proud of being \"smart\" any more than of your eye color or height.  The question is are you knowledgeable - have you taken the time to learn about things?  That is something to be proud of, because it's what you've done. \n I know this doesn't address your OP head on, because when you phrase something as \"Some people have misconceptions\", that's pretty hard to refute.", "id": "cfvti3b", "summary": "There are different intelligences to consider, but intelligence alone indeed is nothing without work."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "I think it's fair to say that, before Camp David, no one thought that Egypt and Israel would be at peace, for many of the reasons you list. \n Similarly, \"The Troubles\" in Northern Ireland seemed insurmountable, until they were surmounted. \n In both examples, you had a long history of animosity, religious differences, and lots of dead bodies on both sides. \n Yet, peace was achieved in both places. \n There is no doubt that both sides in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict can point to loses and reasons why they are right, and should continue on the struggle.  But at the end of the day, the vast majority of both Israelis and Palestinians just want to be able to have their kids go out to play without fearing that if they are late that they have been killed. \n To do that, both people will need to have bold, brave leaders who care more about peace than winning.  We haven't had that on both sides, but it doesn't mean it will never happen.", "id": "cgcdfov", "summary": "Peace won't be easy, and may never come, but it most certainly is possible, since we've seen it in other \"impossible\" situations."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "The problem is that there a wide range of suicide posts. \n Those like \"CMV: Suicide is not the answer\" will be removed as soon as we are aware of it. \n More abstract ones like, \"CMV: Robin Williams was wrong to commit suicide\" or \"CMV: Assisted suicide for terminally ill patients should be legal\" will generally be allowed. \n It's the ones in-between, where it's hard to tell how how personally the OP is asking the question that become difficult.  Generally, we will remove posts and refer to /r/SuicideWatch or a hotline if the OP sounds at all suicidal. (However, we aren't always aware of the threads if no one reports them or messages the mods). \n Hell, I'd guess that half the people like those posting the kind of threads that /u/tweetypi mentions are at least somewhat depressed/suicidal.  Should they all be removed for that reason?", "id": "cr5tmgw", "summary": "We try, but nudge us if you think there's some action we should be taking that we aren't."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "The two things are not at all comparable. \n The blackface shows were done by whites (who were, of course, the main agents of discrimination).  The content was extremely demeaning to blacks, with stereotypically stupid and subservient characters.  The purpose was to  pretend to be black . \n Drag shows are very different.  The performers are gay, and the shows started when anti-gay discrimination was far more severe than it is today.  There was a subversiveness to the shows- gay men who were being harassed for being effeminate instead embracing it, with a \"you want effeminate?  I'll show you effeminate!\" attitude. \n The underlying idea behind the shows isn't one of derision, but of lampooning the idea of gender, that we need to be one thing or the other, that it's \"dirty\" to step outside your \"official\" gender role, something that is positive to the transgender community.", "id": "ceww8pu", "summary": "In one case, you have people pretending to be black to mock them.  In the other, actors screw around with gender roles, because we should relax about them."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "I think you're drastically over-complicating things. \n If either the Treaty of Versailles had been less punitive, or Hitler had not been born or come to power, we could also have avoided WWII and the Soviet Bloc. \n If you really want to try to make your case, you need to define more clearly what a German \"win\" in WWI would have looked like - what would a German-written peace treaty have been, what would be the impact on the various European empires, etc.", "id": "clxnvyi", "summary": "if I had a time machine, I'd change the Treaty of Versailles or kill baby Hitler if I wanted to make history better, not give victory to the Kaiser."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "Let's look at how stocks work.  You create a business.  It's wholly owned by you, and you make widgets in your garage.  The guy next door makes thingies that you use in making your widgets.  You guys decide to get together and combine into a single business.  You decide that you'll get 60% and the other guy gets 40%.  All the risk and reward is yours.  Maybe you get a bank loan to expand, and assume the liability for the loan. \n After you get bigger, you incorporate, so that the company owns stuff, (and you two own the company), so the company can get some loans in it's own name. \n Now you have the opportunity expand in face of the worldwide widget crunch.  Instead of getting a huge loan, you and your partner decide to sell half of the company.  Now, you could get a partner to give you money, but you can also instead sell \"shares\" in the company.  Essentially, a bunch of people all chip in, give you the money to buy the factory, and they will take a share of any profits (but, they are not responsible for any losses). \n So, your ownership is converted to shares - you own 30%, your partner owns 20% and other 50% is stock. \n Say you do well.  Because the company is doing well, each share gets a nice earning.  So, if I get $10 earnings on a share that costs $100, I'm making a 10% return.  Someone would be willing to buy that share off me for $110 or $120.  Maybe I think the widget market will go down, so I sell my shares to him. \n There might be some confusing over the direction of the company, but you and your partner can outvote the other shareholders. \n Now, lets say you go a little crazy.  You had a vision that widgets are the work of the devil and you want to manufacture rotary telephones, which will be all the rage after the zombie apocalypse. At this point, your partner can rally enough of the other shareholders, they can vote to oust you as president of the company.  You still retain your 30%, but you don't get to make the decisions anymore. \n So, where is the immorality in any of this?", "id": "cgw414y", "summary": "When you understand how it all works, it's pretty fair."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "I can't comprehend why we as a society should respect every old person just because they're old. \n I don't think anyone believes that you should \"respect every old person\".  Charles Manson, for example, is old, but not deserving of respect. \n However, yes, the pressure is to, in the absence of other information, default to respect. \n Now, I think all people should be treated with respect, but there are reasons to grant extra respect to your elders. \n \n They've survived this long.  Life is hard.  There are many ways to screw up.  They have avoided those pitfalls. \n Clearly, a well-travelled, well read 22 year old who has had a rough life can be wiser than a 75 year old who lived by themselves without leaving the same town .  But in general, older people have experienced more of life than younger people.    There are things about life and people that I understand now that I didn't know in my 20s.  I suspect that there are things that I will know in my 70s I don't know now.  To put it another way - they know what it was like to be a kid, to be a young adult, to be middle aged, to be old.  If you've only experienced youth, it's harder to have a real perspective on the whole experience of life. \n You quickly dismiss their contributions to your life.  Who built your schools?  Who built the roads?  Who invented the computers and networks that you use?  (Yes, they've also made bad decisions, but have done a lot for the young, at cost to themselves) \n Racism?  Sexism?  What was the world that THEY inherited like?  Segregated schools and lunch counters?  Women expected to quit their jobs when they got married, and certainly not expected to hold a \"man's job\".  Widespread laws against homosexuality.  Who do you think changed those laws?  Yes, some have had a hard time adjusting to the rapid changes in society - but it's not like young people are immune from bias either.", "id": "co7wni3", "summary": "On average an older person is more likely to have a unique perspective gained through experience that you might not have considered."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "You make some good points, but here are a couple of things to consider. \n First, if a company wants an \"official\" site, the should start their own subreddit, and do the work to get subscribers and run the damn thing.  If they are piggybacking off of someone else's work, then that's the risk they are taking. \n Second, I think there's a difference between the subreddits that are obvious ('nba', 'league of legends') and the ones that only exist because their creators thought of them ('advice animals', 'showerthoughts', 'dataisbeautiful', 'cmv').  The first set pretty much were going to be created no matter what.  If the creator of /r/nba decides that they are board with basketball and wants to remove all threads not related to gardening, that's not cool.  It's also fair to say that a lot of the subscribers are people who just think, \"I wonder if there is a sub for NBA fans\". \n The second category, though, owes their existence to the creator.  There would not be a /r/changemyview if the person on the head of the mod list hadn't come up with the idea, found some people to help them, developed some rules, grew it, publicized it and ran it.  [Disclosure- I'm a mod here, but I came after the real heavy lifting was done].  I'm sure the same holds true for all of those other subs. \n Yes, there is a risk that our creator goes wiggy on us and removes all posts that contain the letter 'e'.  As a more junior mod, there's nothing I can do (well, I could undo the removals, but presumably it wouldn't take long until I was removed as a mod if I did that).  And that would suck for the 175,000 subscribers and the mod team.  But it's their baby.  As with White House staffers, \"I serve at the pleasure of the president.\" \n But the beauty is that reddit gives us the solution as well.  The remaining, (sane) mods could create \"/r/changemyview2\".  It would be some effort to get the word out and get people moved over, but we could create a community that welcomes all posts, with or without the letter 'e'. \n Why take that risk?   Because I believe that creation is the greatest things humans can do.  Having a vision and having the ability and investing the time to make it real is great.  If you created it, you get to keep it. \n Now, of course, it's unlikely that a mod will go that far off the deep end.  More likely, they will make a controversial decision about what content should or should not be a part of their sub.  Frankly, what do the admins have to do with that?  They didn't make the decisions that made their sub popular in the first place.  They didn't have the vision.  They just lent the serve space and the sub tools.  Once they start taking editorial control (when it's not about legal/privacy/copyright matters) you're going to see creators looking for another host for their content.  And that's the day reddit starts to die. \n Damn, sorry for the wall of text.", "id": "cp1h1xl", "summary": "Creators who aren't allowed to control their creations here will find somewhere that they can."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "I think this post is probably better for /r/askscience  or /r/AskMedical - it's not really a view that you're looking to change, you're just looking for info on ebola. \n I just searched /r/askscience - and there are a number of great posts. \n [This one]( is a pretty in-depth answer to your question.", "id": "cjirzta", "summary": "No, not likely."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "First of all, most religions don't change their teachings unless there is a compelling reason to do so.  The Jewish/Muslim food laws are a great example.  Pork and shellfish were much more likely to cause food poisoning back in the day, which is why they were forbidden.  There's no reason for it now, but it's a \"thing\". \n Second, waiting until marriage is, in general, better for society.  It does decrease STDs.  I don't think anyone would argue that  in general , raising children within a marriage with the commitment and resources that requires is better for the children. \n The most compelling argument in favor of premarital sex is that it's enjoyable, and perhaps increases the chance of compatibility after marriage. \n Your", "id": "ckhzswx", "summary": "is really an entirely different argument than the rest of your post, focusing on parents rather than religion.  40 years ago there was birth control and no AIDS - so, the only thing that changed was that it's now more risky."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "As far as I know, there are no Christian sects that follow the entire bible literally.  For instance, the ban on wearing mixed fibers.  Or stoning disobedient children at the city gates.  Or supporting slavery. \n They all pick and choose the rules that match with their core beliefs. \n Here's the other thing - unless it's a family thing, like WBC, they all need to make themselves appealing to potential parishioners.   A church without members becomes an empty building. \n Now, religion is an interesting thing.  Part of what people look for is tradition - Catholicism lost a lot of members (or at least pissed the off) after Vatican II when the service stopped conducted entirely in Latin, and other \"liberalization\" took place.  There's a timelessness about doing what your parents and grandparents did that fits in well with the tenets of religion. \n On the other hand, religion is also about values.  There is scripture against intermarriage, for instance.  When the world changed its view, each religion needed to decide what to do.  Those who held on to bionically justified racism started to lose members who found the racism at odds with what they considered the central message of their religion. \n We're seeing a similar trend on homosexuality.  Gays and gay allies don't feel comfortable in a church that, to them, preaches hate and intolerance.  So, either the church changes, or they change churches. \n The church might gain some new followers who feel abandoned by their liberalized church, but ultimately, the losses will be too great.  Too many young people support gay rights for churches to hold out forever.", "id": "cgzvvxt", "summary": "The churches are changing due to simply market forces, not \"social pressure\"."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "Good for you for recognizing this tendency and wanting to do something about it. \n It's interesting what you say about having black friends, yet disliking blacks in general.  There's an interesting think about racial relationships- in places where ethic groups are separated, there is often a high level of mistrust or hatred.  Yet in cities where groups are more integrated, there tends to be much less.  It's because you run into \"them\" more and you see them having the same problems paying rent or getting a job or dealing with their relationships that you do - they aren't \"blacks\" (or Hispanics or Jews or Asians...) but  people . \n Are there \"bad\" blacks?  Yup.  (And bad every-other-group-members as well).  And, due to the socioeconomic factors you and others have mentioned, probably a greater percentage of \"bad\" blacks turn to street crime.  (Meanwhile, a greater percentage of \"bad\" whites embezzle, run scams, or god forbid, go into politics).  But the percentage seems inflated due to media coverage, and confirmation bias (where once we've formed an opinion, like 'blacks are criminals' we weigh data that supports our premise more than that which disproves it). \n There's also a cultural issue where young black males often \"act tough\" or try to appear threatening as a way to feel powerful when society strips away most of their power in other venues.  Others blacks resent some of the silly customs of (white) society- speaking louder and laughing harder than is \"proper\". \n None of which negates the evidence that you have personally experienced - that blacks have been to blame for your car theft (or probably to blame since you don't know for sure), and are difficult where you work. \n But here's the real question- what impact on your life will you let this budding racism have?  If it's to think of blacks  as a whole  as over-represented in crimes and given to a sense of entitlement, that would be understandable.  But if you let it impact your judgement the next time you meet a co-worker or a friend of a friend who is black, and distrust them personally because of your bias, that would be a shame.  Both because it is unfair to brand them based on the behaviors of other, but also because it will keep you from developing relationships that might counter the negative experiences you've had.", "id": "cewkhgh", "summary": "While a group might share some behaviors, individuals should be judged as individuals."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "Here's a question.  Let's say you fall in love and get married.  Your partner is then in a car crash, and her face is scarred.  We can even stipulate that she wasn't wearing a seatbelt, so it's \"her fault\".  Should you stop loving her? \n What if she grows old, and gets grey and wrinkly?  How about then? \n I completely get that she isn't as attractive.  And attraction is why you fell in love in the first place.  But if that's all there is, it's not much of a basis for a relationship. \n I might get in trouble for saying this, but 20+ years later my wife doesn't look like the 20 couple year old grad student I fell in love with.  But I love her more now than I did then.  And, yeah, she's still beautiful to me, even though 20-something year old me might not agree.", "id": "cgqjy20", "summary": "Attraction helps create love, but it's not what keeps it going."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "First of all, there is a huge difference between, say, being sad because your mom died and being clinically depressed.  While conditions and events in life can contribute to it, depression is a different beast.  Not recognizing it as a medical condition leads to the well-meaning but unhelpful suggestions to \"snap out of it\", \"count your blessing, \"choose to be happy\" etc. \n Second, just because there isn't a blood test or brain scan (yet) doesn't make it a \"metaphorical disease\", and more than leukemia was before we knew how to test for it. \n Third, it's not like mental health is the only place with misdiagnoses.  [Here are 15]( that docs often get wrong.  Does that make Lupus \"metaphorical\"?", "id": "cqmc39a", "summary": "Don't confuse the current diagnostic limitations with the reality of the disease."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "There is a concept that is applied to civil servants and elected officials - it's not enough to just not break laws, but you have a responsibility to avoid the \"appearance of impropriety\". \n So, maybe going out to a nice dinner with someone whose business you can impact is perfectly innocent, but it gives the appearance of bias, which undermines the people's trust in the integrity of government. \n Now, if the charges are complete BS, then the politician should fight them. \n But if they were participating in questionable, yet borderline legal activities, resigning might be in their best interests.  Not only is there the \"don't hurt your party\" element, but they will get considerably less media attention of they step down.  That allows them to go through the trial, either establish their innocence or accept responsibility, and then reintroduce themselves on their own terms, rather than being a daily feature on the news. \n Finally, the burden of proof in a criminal case is high.  \"not guilty\"<>\"innocent\".  Just because they were unable to build enough evidence to convict doesn't mean that there weren't laws broken.  If it's something your opponents can use against you, again, you might be better off taking a break.", "id": "ckurfky", "summary": "More often then not they are doing it for their own good, not anyone else's."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "There are lots of things that can make things easier when dating.  Money, looks, being the race or religion that your family/friends accept, and having a car as well. \n But it really boils down to your motivation. \n Let's take money - if you're barely breaking even, dating someone who has even less money can really impact what you can do, especially if you live in an expensive city.  But if you're both outdoorsy people living somewhere with easy access to places to hike, limited funds could be fine.  But if you are in the second case, and break up because you are afraid what others will think if you date someone without money, then it is superficial. \n The same thing goes with a car - if it makes it significantly harder to get together and places an undue burden on one partner that it's legit.  But if you happen to work and live near each other and you just don't like thinking what others will say, then you're superficial.", "id": "cjn7kle", "summary": "Characteristics that impede or burden a relationship can be legit, but if it's just based on fear of what others will think, then it's superficial."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "Hey there.  First, I'll echo what the others say- if you don't want to give kids, then don't, because it's something you need to be willing to sacrifice for in order to succeed. \n That said, a few notes. \n First, overall, even with all the crap, most people are happy. \n So, you're far more likely to be denying Junior happiness than saving him or her from unhappiness. \n More than that, I don't understand how you can use the Tyrion quote to apply to yourself while denying to \"possibilities\" that life offers to your possible offspring. \n And your \"mercy\" strikes me as very shortsighted.  Yup, life is full of horrible, nasty painful stuff. We all feel sadness/pain/anger/loneliness/hatred, and it sucks, sometimes enormously.  But there is also joy and wonder and love and kindness.  Those who you (thankfully) love too much to consider suicide - do you think that they would have been happier if you had never existed, if they'd never have the opportunity to love you and be loved by you?  Even if they hurt you and vice versa, I know from experience that it's the love that matters. \n You're a thoughtful person, clearly trying to be merciful and kind to your non-existent kids, while obviously facing some nastiness (sorry!) - but that's the sort of person who, if he or she commits to parenting is the good kind, unlike the ones who are just trying to make mom happy, or create little copies of themselves to live the dreams that mom or dad never did.", "id": "ce53o66", "summary": "Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet, you can't win.\" - Robert Heinlein"}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "This truth is beyond debate. Every day we see more and more evidence of corruption, misconduct, incompetence and abuse of power in our legal system. \n Actually, no, it's not beyond debate.  I'm assuming you're American, if not, I'll tailor the argument.  If you look at measures of corruption, it's a tiny percentage. \n You want a corrupt system? Go to Africa or Russia. \n The system is a lot less corrupt than 50 years ago when there was more baldfaced patronage, and mob influence (think \"vote early and often\").  Cops had much freer reign to violate rights, beat up prisoners, and generally act as laws unto themselves (think the civil rights movement, or union busters). \n Assuming there is \"more evidence\" (which is questionable), it's because it's easier to record a cop doing something wrong, there's more coverage, there's all sorts of ways to report wrongdoing through the web that otherwise would have been buried. \n Sure, there is  some  corruption.  But it's not this huge growing scourge as you imply.", "id": "cfqfdfm", "summary": "Let's make sure there's a problem before we fix it."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "While renewable is great, the world uses a LOT of energy. \n The EU is pretty advanced in using renewable energy, and just 13% of their power comes from renewable energy.^[[1]]( \n A lot of the \"easy\" spots have been taken.  Think of the area needed for solar panels.  The landscapes cluttered with wind turbines.  And those have environmental impacts as well (converting fields to solar panels or the birds dying from flying into the turbines, and habitats destroyed when damming rivers for hydro). \n Then there are many places without the land (say, Japan) or the sunlight (the Pacific northwest) to make solar workable, or the sustained winds for turbines, or the coastline or rivers for waterpower. \n Now consider Fukishima.  It's hard to consider a more ridiculous set of adverse circumstances.  It was an old plant, and the Tsunami and earthquake were beyond the design specs.  Obviously it was a mess, and it looks like the the increase in cancer rate in the area is expected to be 1.06%. \n On the other hand, the World Health organization estimates a million deaths worldwide due to coal plants.  And that doesn't even get into the global warming impacts.", "id": "cg52sg5", "summary": "Renewable can't cover the growing demand for energy, and nuclear is less harmful than coal, which is generally the alternative."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "Looks like there's a whole lot going on with you around this issue, but let me try to break it in to a few issues and address them. \n People motivated by money \nLet's remove what they are doing with the money for the moment - I'll get there.  The funny thing about money is that the definition of \"how much is enough\" is very fluid.  Compared, say, to most of Haiti, someone working at McDonalds in the US has a lot of money.  Even the working poor can afford more than most Haitians.  But even upper middle class Westerners tend to want more.  All of their needs are most certainly met, but not all of their wants.  And even when you are rich, you see what those who are richer can do, and want that as well. \n Humans aren't normally wired to say, \"You know, I'm good.  I don't need more money (or power, or love, or time off, or pretty much anything we value). \n So wanting more is really just part of the human condition - or at least of Westerners in general.  It's not a good or bad thing - it's just a thing. \n People working for positive change \nThis really is an independent variable.  You can be a McDonalds fry cook and still be a Big Brother, or volunteer at Habitat for Humanity or give blood.  And you can be rich and give money, or run a charity event or volunteer as well.  Doing good is a good thing, really independent of the money question. \n People taking care of their families \nAgain, completely independent.  There are people who crusade as do-gooders, putting all of their time and energy into helping others while neglecting their kids.  There are people who put all their energy into making money while neglecting their kids.  But there are others who balance it or, or put all of their time into their family, none into helping others - and not having the money to take care of their family's financial needs. \n Everything is a tradeoff, a decision about where you are going. \n It sounds like your father is an asshole.  Not because he's rich, but because he's an asshole.  I've met awesome people (and parents) who are rich, and assholes who are poor.  And vice versa. \n I'm sorry that it looks like you got stuck with a schmuck.  But don't blame money or careers.", "id": "ch2snlp", "summary": "He's not selfish and shallow because he makes money and screws his family and others. He focuses on money and screws his family and others because he's selfish and shallow."}, {"author": "garnteller", "content": "Disclaimer 1: I think Bieber is at best mildly talented, and undeserving of the fame and fortune that has be thrust upon him based more on his puppy dog looks that tween girls swoon over than on, say, musical talent. \n Disclaimer 2: I think Bieber's a dumb-ass, reckless punk who is probably on board an express train to self-destruction. \n I don't understand why we, as a society do this.  We build people up and idolize them.  Here's a kid who has been a star since he was 14.  Money, fame, swooning girls - you know, the life of a typical teenager.  What is the probability of anyone not getting screwed up in that situation? \n I'm not absolving him of responsibility, but it seems we're doing the equivalent of eating sugar daily without brushing our teeth and being surprised when we get cavities. \n And so when the inevitable happens, and he acts like the punk that we raised him to be, there's this delight that the monologue writers take in tearing the punk apart, even though these shows were happy to have him on in the good days when he would be good for ratings. \n Beyond the fact that those who created the problem are now laughing at the consequences as if they had nothing to do with it, to the best of my knowledge, Bieber is, actually, a person (more or less).  A 19 year old person at that. How would any of us feel about millions of late night viewers laughing at us when we screwed up?  What does it say about our humanity?  Aren't we better than that?", "id": "t3_1w7f69", "summary": "Even if we hadn't created the monster, it would still be cruel. \n EDIT: This Craig Ferguson monologue seems relevant to the discussion:"}]}
+{"author": "Apemazzle", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post there's no threat to the species", "output": "There may be truth in this, but modern medicine is definitely  not  selecting against strong individuals. Access to modern medicine is highly limited, AND modern medicine isn't even that good, hence there are still plenty of selection pressures for all the good genes. \n What does this mean? Well, let's say there's a nuclear holocaust or a dreadful virus or something which sends us back into the dark ages. There may well be bucket loads of so-called \"weak\" people dying out when the going gets tough, but there will still be plenty of \"strong\" people to keep the species going."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I'm looking for cheap/free music notation software with MIDI capability", "output": "Hey all, I'm looking to get my hands on some music notation software, and just balked at the price of Sibelius: £60 for the cheapest version is just not worth it for me as I won't be using it very much! \n On the other hand, I'm wary about downloading the first bit of free software that comes up on google in case it's, you know, shit. I'm happy to spend a few quid (like £15 max) on a decent product, but if there's a free one that's decent I'll go for that. \n Ideally  I'm looking for one with MIDI capability, i.e. where it can play back what you've written, but if those all cost top dolla then I'll happily settle for something that just produces decent looking sheet music."}], "user_id": "longlamp_493", "history": [{"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "SOMETHING created this universe, that must be bound OUTSIDE the realm of this universe\nor\nThere was NOTHING and then something was created out of that. \n If you believe that SOMETHING created the universe, then how did SOMETHING come to be? Was SOMETHING created? Or did SOMETHING come out of NOTHING? \n Basically to say that SOMETHING must've created the universe is not a complete answer, since it merely poses  the same questions  about that SOMETHING. \n Also, you've ignored a third possibility, which is that the universe  did  arise from something outside the realm of this universe, but that that something was NOT a coherent \"creator\" or \"God\", in any recognisable sense of either of those words. Saying there must've been \"a creator\" of the universe is like saying there must've been \"a creator\" of a lake. Lakes form because rivers erode ground in some places more than others - is the river really \"a creator\"? That's a silly idea. I'm pretty sure the universe didn't form by a process of erosion, but it  could  have been formed as the natural result of several processes that we do not know about; processes which we could not collectively describe as \"a creator\", since they are independent from one another. This is the third possibility. \n > The latter is foolish. There can not be \"nothing\", no existence of any kind, but if you are an atheist you must believe that it is true. Telling me that there was nothing makes absolutely zero sense and makes you look as foolish as the (religious) creationists you mock. \n It's  counter-intuitive  to say that something arose out of nothing, but that doesn't mean it's  foolish . The world of physics is full of bizarre phenomena (e.g. relativity, quantum mechanics) that make no sense to our human brains. Not all atheists assume that something arose out of nothing - atheism is precisely about avoiding such groundless assumptions, such as \"I don't know how this happened therefore God must exist and be responsible for this\". \n To label whatever forces that caused the big bang, \"God\",  is  foolish, because it carries with it connotations of an actual being with a consciousness like our own, intentions like our own, and actions like our own. There may well have been something before our universe, which \"created\" our universe, but to call it \"God\" is rather like calling the Sun \"God\", because the sun gives energy to life on Earth, or calling the ocean \"God\", because the ocean provided the environment in which life originated, or calling the stars \"God\", because the stars provided all of the chemical elements that make up living things.", "id": "cay6bay", "summary": "You (and other deists) are just stretching the definition of the word \"God\" to mean, \"whatever resulted in the big bang\", so that you can then justify belief in all the other unjustifiable meanings of the word \"God\"."}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "One step at a time, pal. When you're dreaming at night, you feel like you can do anything and everything, but when the day comes round, the motivation is gone. Next time you're dreaming of all the great things you can do, pick one small way in which you can start to work towards one of your goals, and do it. Let's say you're dreaming about your potential transformation into a hard-working, physically fit, sociable high achiever. Choose one really simple way to make the first step towards one of those. Something like, \"I'm going to run for 20 minutes tomorrow\", or \"I'm going to do an hour of revision tomorrow\", and make sure you do that one thing. Keep doing it every day, until it's part of your routine, and then add something else equally small. This is the best way to make lasting progress. If you aim too high straight away, you're setting yourself up to fail, but if you're organised and you break up your goals into small steps, it'll come naturally. Don't let the \"vanity\" that Lawrence speaks of distract you.", "id": "c9t0qc8", "summary": "If your goals are great, motivation is scarce, but if they are small, motivation is abundant. Break up your big goals into smaller ones and hey presto, progress."}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "Rape is very rare indeed. Certainly compared to many other crimes. So right off you are talking bollocks. \n Where are you getting these numbers? Cos the ones I've heard are very bad. \n > False accusations of rape are the most common of any crime. \n No shit, cos there's never any evidence. Still doesn't change the fact that it's waaaaay less common than actual rape. \n > All feminists do this. Here's your fucked up Everyday Feminism site on it: \n Crucially ignoring the word \"often\", and the following quote I see: \n > feminists are well-aware of the fact that there are morally inept women out there who make false allegations of rape \n Oh and what does the finallyfeminism101 site have to say about false accusation: \n > It’s two to eight percent [of rape accusations are false] \n Hmm, it's been almost 3 years since I did Maths at school, but I'm fairly sure that: \n 2 < x < 8 \n => \n 0 < x \n In other words: No that site does not deny that false accusation occurs. \n Yet you said: \n > what the fuck kinda dumb feminist are you? \n when I denied that feminists deny the existence of false accusation.", "id": "ci9a525", "summary": "Your persistence at making up random shit about feminism is truly impressive."}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "I'll be impressed if anyone can compete with this. I was flying to Ecuador from London via Atlanta in June. I got to the check-in desk with 5 minutes to spare before they closed, only to find that I needed an ESTA for travel to/via the US. The guy said, \"It takes 10 minutes to set up, there are computers in the lobby downstairs, but you're gonna miss your flight\". After fiddling with my ipod touch to try and get WiFi for a bit, I legged it to the lobby, set up the ESTA and came back within 20 minutes. The time was 10:10. I was 25 minutes late for the official check-in, but the flight wasn't due to leave for another 35 minutes. I begged them to see if I could get on the plane. I had 35 minutes right? The guy called over his supervisor to ask her. As I write this I'm beginning to seethe just thinking about her. She picked up her walkie talkie, pressed a button, it made a sound, then she turned to me and said, \"No, I'm sorry, it's too late.\" Unfortunately, I was too much of a panicking dumbass to see that  she hadn't done anything for me at all. She hadn't spoken to anyone.  So instead of confronting her about this and saying, \"you didn't speak to anyone, please just ask the people at the other end\", I just started pleading with her, saying \"Please, I've spent so much money on this flight, please just let me on, the flight doesn't leave for half an hour, why can't you just let me through?\" etc, to which she responded with some plausible-sounding spiel about how it takes 40 minutes for luggage to go through security. Eventually I had to give up; she didn't want to help me. This is where the shit starts. They couldn't get me on another flight, or \"the next\" flight, because I wasn't entitled to that with the ticket I had. What's more, my return flights from Quito were now invalidated, because the stupid cunts have this cunt policy where that if you miss your outbound flight, your return ticket gets cancelled without refund. What the actual fuck? I was forced to buy another return ticket. I spent about £1300 on BA flights via Miami. For some reason that I cannot recall, the lady at the desk gave me a return flight that was a few days too early. So, in Ecuador, I had to spend another $150 or something to change that. This was where it really sucked not to be able to just take my original, fucking, flight, that I  FUCKING  payed for. FUCK. So to sum up, I spent the vast majority of my money on this flight, something which could so, so easily have been avoided. Oh yeah there's one other thing; the flight I bought to Miami wasn't leaving until the next day, but instead of going home I spent £90 on a night in a crappy hotel because I was too ashamed to see my parents. It's amazing; it's been 6 months and I still get angry when I think about it. All I can do is put it into perspective; I never manage to actually laugh about it.", "id": "c7p9rqs", "summary": "fucking airlines. fucking dumbass... self. \n EDIT: Reading some of the others, I realise it may sound like I'm making a mountain out of a molehill here. Just to confirm, I'm not saying that no one can compete with this in terms of overall shittiness, just that I doubt many people have behaved quite as avoidably stupidly. In my defense, most of the massive fuck ups here seem to have happened when people were blinded by love. I had no such excuse."}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "Explanation: I was going to my first training session with St John Ambulance (like Red Cross) to become a First Aid Volunteer. I'd already missed the first one and I was worried I might be late. The door was locked on the building but it said \"St John Ambulance\" so it was definitely the right place. The lights were on upstairs, that had to be my class right? So I hopped up onto the balcony expecting to see a group of people practicing first aid; muslim dude with a massive beard gives me the most \"WTF?!\" look I've ever seen in my life. He opens the window (of his bloody apartment) a fraction, I ask if it's St John Ambulance and he shakes his head, still with the same expression; so I climb down, and I'm scratching my head as to where the class could be when the (next) door opens and this really, really angry, short, chubby guy with glasses storms out with the muslim guy behind him, screaming \"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING BLAHL BLALH BLAH...\", and at one point he turns to the muslim guy and says 'GO! CALL THE POLICE!\" and I'm like 'NO WAIT I CAN EXPLAIN PLEASE!\" etc. It goes on like this (at one point he shouts 'IN BROAD DAYLIGHT!\") until eventually I explain my predicament, show him my clean CRB check (always helps) and he believes me and calls me an idiot (in broad daylight). He walked me round to the other side of the block where the main entrance was... Google maps had sent me to the commercial entrance or some shit. Tbf I was a fucking idiot.", "id": "c6cg8ku", "summary": "I climbed up to a first floor balcony, rapped on the window, freaked the guy out who was there and his neighbour almost, ALMOST called the police on me. It was intense."}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "I went camping in February, with temperatures of -5 degrees C outside my tent. I'd forgotten my sleeping bag and had only a borrowed, lightweight sleeping bag, which claimed to be good to only 10 degrees C. I woke up at around 4 am shivering, continued to shiver for a long time, then stopped shivering. It dawned on me that I must've got hypothermia, as, barring a miraculous feat of respiration, nothing had happened to cause me to warm up. My whole body felt strangely weak. I put on all my clothes, ate some maltesers, curled up into the foetal position and, after a few minutes, started to shiver again. At first I told myself that I mustn't fall asleep, but eventually I gave in, in the hope that my fellow campers would be awake in time to save me if the need arose. Needless to say I was fine in the end, but I'll never forget thinking to myself, \"I am going to sleep now, and I might not wake up.\"", "id": "c6fcsds", "summary": "got hypothermia in a very cold tent;"}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "What if someone decided/decides to implement a rigorous eugenics policy? I.e. not prejudiced stuff like kill all the jews/gays/gypsies but something like only athletic/good-looking/intelligent/nice people can breed etc. Obvs it's totally immoral but you can't help thinking \"what if we just took a couple of generations to weed out all the cunts/malcos/people with myopia in the world? Where would the race be?\". You often hear people say things like, \"THE PROBLEM WITH SOCIETY IS PEOPLE ARE TOO LAZY/DISHONEST/SELFISH/DISRESPECTFUL\" etc, so I can't help but think \"well what if we just weeded out the people who are (most) like that?\" This raises more questions about the extent to which these things are genetically determined, but still it's an interesting thought.", "id": "c6fbpfl", "summary": "what if we actually improved the race using eugenics?"}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "It's harder than you think. The key step is something I like to call \"the sauce stage\" - if you can eat small pieces of something in a sauce, you're not far from eating big pieces of it on its own. Don't try too much too quickly though, because you can make yourself throw up that way. Also it is probably your parents' fault but you'll never get anywhere (i.e. escaping the perils of a poor diet such as MUCH higher risk of cancer etc.) if you don't take responsibility for yourself. \nInfo: I'm 19 and only started eating vegetables regularly about a year ago", "id": "c6mztqz", "summary": "eat small pieces of the food you don't like in sauce to build up your taste tolerance"}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "This is literally the reactionary sub of a debate sub of a reactionary sub. \n Ah ok. \n > It has no potential. The movement is reactionary hate. \n Yeah but I've seen good stuff there - there's genuine interest in real men's issues (not  just  false accusation but mental health, boys doing poorer in school than girls, homelessness, rape and domestic violence against men, reproductive rights etc.) \n It has very unpleasant origins but the simple fact is with a name like \"men's rights\", it attracts reasonable people as well. Plus at the end of the day it's pretty much just a subreddit - you don't have to sign a contract saying that Paul Elam is God and you hate women just to post there! \n In fact, many recent threads I've seen are filled with people condemning Paul Elam and AVFM, or at least decrying the fact that he's seen as the leader of the movement.", "id": "cixdpak", "summary": "the name \"Men's Rights\" attracts men, most men don't hate women/feminism, hence with enough publicity I'm confident it  can  lose the misogynistic streak."}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "I'm a medical student, and I heard a story about a guy (med student also) who got told to go and fetch a patient's chart from their bed. The patient was sleeping. He grabbed the chart, gave it to them and got back to his business. About 5 minutes later someone came running saying \"What did you do, what the hell did you do he's dead!\". He ran to the patient's bed and there was a whole group of them laughing, and one of them said \"we're just kidding bro, he was dead when we sent you in the first place\". Apparently it's something they do to desensitise new doctors to death or something. Seems pretty damn harsh though, not to mention disrespectful i.e. probably not true", "id": "c6jgip4", "summary": "some doctors made a med student think he'd killed a guy for japes"}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "the saving would be tiny compared with what is spent treating cancer and heart disease etc i.e. the stuff that everyone gets. Also what if the guy with the genetic disease and a lifespan of 35 is also an absolute genius? What if he's not a genius, but is a carrier for some seriously awesome but recessive genius genes? No one is amazing in every way. If you selected for people who were exceptionally healthy AND intelligent AND athletic you'd be left with about 1000 people. The only reasonable way to do it would be to split people into classes (the clever ones, the sporty ones, the drones) like in brave new world/bees, and that is just way, way too fucked up. There are 6 billion of us, we're not going to die out any time soon. Any threats to our species as a whole come not from within our own genome but from external sources. You'd have a bit more traction if you said something like \"fuck charity and medicine, let's put all of our money into NASA and climate change research cos this planet is dying and we need to fix it/find a new one\", but eugenics is just useless frankly.", "id": "c6o11g4", "summary": "like the other person said, you have not thought this through"}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "Yep. Also, remember that the sodium-potassium pump is electrogenic i.e. it pumps more cations out than in, so on its own it should always be making the inside more negative than the outside. The reason the potential difference across the membrane is stable at rest is that the action of the sodium-potassium pump is balanced by some diffusion of Na+ and K+ ( mostly K+ ) through certain channels that are open at rest. I.e. at rest, the diffusion of these two ions is equal in rate and opposite in direction to their transport by the sodium-potassium pump. \n What you haven't learned about yet is that the \"driving force\" for diffusion of these ions is affected not only by their concentration gradients, but also by the potential difference across the membrane; if one side is more positive than the other side, this \"positive-ness\" will act to repel cations to the other more negative side. So, potassium ions \"want\" to move out of the cell because of their concentration gradient, but they also \"want\" to move  into  the cell because it's more negative there. The net effect of these two forces is called the \"electrochemical gradient\" of a particular ion. Theoretically, you could make the inside of the cell so negative that potassium ions will naturally diffuse  into  the cell,  even though  they would be moving  against  their concentration gradient. \n So anyway, when the membrane is hyperpolarised (i.e. the inside is more negative than usual), the force pushing potassium ions out will be weaker, because they are more attracted than usual to the negative inside of the cell. In addition, the force pulling sodium ions in will be stronger, because they will also be attracted to the negative inside of the cell. The result is more sodium diffusion inwards than usual, and less potassium diffusion outwards than usual, which causes depolarisation. Like be_moore says, the key step is the closure of the voltage-gated potassium channels, which reduces the membrane permeability to potassium so there is less diffusion of potassium ions out of the cell. \n So, depolarisation is caused by greater diffusion of sodium ions inwards than potassium ions outwards. You might be thinking, \"well why doesn't it just keep depolarising until it reaches threshold then?\" The answer is because the depolarisation affects the electrochemical gradients of sodium and potassium. Depolarisation will weaken the sodium gradient inwards (because the inside becomes less negative and therefore less attractive to sodium) and strengthen the potassium gradient outwards (because the inside is less negative so potassium ions aren't attracted inwards so much). Depolarisation stops once these two ion fluxes are in balance.", "id": "c8b9wfv", "summary": "your textbook is simplifying a lot, it's all about gradients really"}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "If a man is in a leadership position in a company or organization people will ponder the positive qualities he must have to have gotten there. \n More like people will ponder the arse-licking, brown-nosing, nepotistic, political bullshit that got him there. The professional world is a world of jealousy, regardless of sex. \n Edit to add: As I said in another comment, I agree that this is an example of sexism, but I disagree that it's misogyny. In my opinion, men and women in positions of power get this kind of hate for the same reason - jealousy/general antipathy towards people in power. These women get hated on because they have power, not because they're women (for the most part anyway. Misogyny does exist ofc). Men in power also get hate for the same reason. Unfortunately, this hate is expressed in different ways depending on sex, because people are sexist.", "id": "cca3c48", "summary": "sexism yes, misogynistic double standard no"}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "This sort of thing is what people gloss over when they say UKIP won't do well in the next election - by forcing the Tories to lurch to the right they're doing well, at least in part. \n But are they really lurching right though? Or is Cameron just coming out with right-sounding stuff to win elections without actually backing it up with more right-wing policy? \n Cameron's always been a PR man, saying the most on-the-fence thing possible to garner approval from as many as possible. It's a mistake (I think) to judge his politics by what he says, rather than what he does. Although even then half the shite he does is just an effort to get reelected, rather than a reflection of his actual principles. For example the gay marriage bill; it was clearly a stunt to get popular support at the expense of disapproval of people who'll vote for him regardless of what he says. Then again the bill has passed, so that clearly was a tangible victory for more left-wing/social justice-y parties than the tories. I'm just not sure that UKIP are having quite the same effect.", "id": "ck8y0nh", "summary": "if UKIP are so strong that Cameron moves his  policy  to the right to gain votes, then they've succeeded; if all he does is move his  rhetoric  to the right, then they have failed."}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "I can tell you about the UK: \n Application for undergraduate medicine in the UK is done through UCAS, which is an online application system. Check out www.ucas.com for more info on the application process. When you apply to university through UCAS, you are given 5 choices; however, for  medicine , you are only allowed to apply to 4 universities. This leaves you one remaining choice, which most people use to apply for BioMedical Sciences somewhere, though you can always just leave it blank. The deadline for your UCAS application is usually around the  15th of October  (for entry in the following September). \n What will your application through UCAS consist of? \n 1)  Public exam results . This is where you basically list all the public exams you've sat (GCSE equivalent, AS/A level equivalent), along with all the ones you are going to sit (i.e. any A levels you won't have completed yet) with grades/predicted grades alongside. \n 2)  Personal Statement . This is where you write about why you want to do medicine, and it's limited to 4000 characters. There's boatloads of stuff to be said about this, but basically you want to say why you're interested in medicine, what relevant experiences you've had (e.g. work experience in a hospital, volunteering with the elderly etc.), other experiences which are tangentially relevant (e.g. evidence of working in a leadership role, evidence of working in a team etc.), and also any relevant books you may have read (and briefly, what you got from them). Most people like to list a few extracurricular activities at the end as well, but generally you should avoid including too much stuff that isn't directly relevant to doing medicine. It's  really important  that you have some kind of experience that shows you've taken an interest in the medical profession. Obviously it's very difficult as a 16/17-year-old to get direct experience of shadowing a doctor, but if you've helped out at an old people's home or volunteered for St John Ambulance (ideally for an extended period of time, e.g. every week for 1-2 years), that shows that you've taken a serious interest in healthcare as a career, working with other people etc. \n 3)  Reference . This is a really important component, and will usually be written by a teacher/teachers from your school. Your main UCAS referee will usually be a teacher from school who knows you well, such as a personal tutor or class teacher, but it can also be anyone really. Check the website for more advice. \n 4)  English aptitude test . I'm not sure exactly how this works but I know that if you're an international student applying for medicine, you will have to have taken some kind of English language proficiency test to show that you are fluent in English. www.ucas.com (or probably just Google) will have the answers here. \n 5)  Admissions test . These vary depending on which medical schools you are applying to. A handful of medical schools don't actually require a test (e.g. Liverpool), while most require the  UKCAT  (United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude Test), which is a computerised multiple-choice test that you sit at a registered test centre, somewhere between June and September of the year you apply. The UKCAT is a really annoying exam that claims to be a test of aptitude, but in actual fact it's very possible to improve your score with practice, as the same sorts of questions come up all the time - so buy a/the book of practice questions! \n The other admissions test is the  BMAT  (Bio Medical Admissions Test), which is only required by 4 medical schools: Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial and UCL. It is a written test that you sit in early November, at the same time as everyone else in the country/world doing it, and it has 3 components: Section 1 is a kind of \"critical thinking\" or \"aptitude\" test, which is all multiple choice and lasts an hour; Section 2 is very similar to Section 1, but it's only half an hour, and the questions all have a basis in GCSE level science (Biology, Chemistry and Physics); finally section 3 is an essay for which you have half an hour, and are given a single side of A4 to write on - you're not allowed to write beyond that space! The BMAT is a very challenging exam, probably the hardest you'll ever have sat, so it's highly recommended that you do some practice papers, as you'll be under a lot of time pressure in the test. \n How are admissions tests actually used? Some medical schools just use them to shortlist candidates for interview, e.g. UCL will give interviews to everyone who scored above X in the BMAT, and from then on in the application process it's a level playing field for all candidates (i.e. it's all about the interview). Other medical schools do give some weight to how good your score is (i.e. the better your score, the better your chance of getting in), but at all medical schools, the most important part of the application process is the interview. \n Interviews  typically take place anywhere between November and March, and are an essential component of the process for just about every medical school in the UK (except Southampton, which does give out some offers without an interview first). Again there's mountains of stuff to be said about this, but you can pretty much guarantee that you'll be asked about why you want to be a doctor, along with an ethical scenario of some kind; often they ask if you've read any medical stories in the news, so it's good to be aware of a few things. If you apply to  Oxford or Cambridge , they will also use the interview as a further aptitude test, by asking you some scientific questions about a topic you've never heard much about before; you won't be expected to know the answers, but they'll want to see what kind of ideas you can come up with, to observe how you think. Typically you'll be asked to go to the medical school for interview, but many of them can conduct interviews by Skype as well.", "id": "cm3zpad", "summary": "To apply for medicine in the UK you'll need to do some volunteering and/or shadowing, find a referee for your UCAS application, write a personal statement, sit the UKCAT and/or BMAT (depending on where you're applying), and prepare for interviews. You may also wish to visit some medical schools on their open days. \n Finally just on  the actual courses , most are 5 years long MBBS (aka BMBS, MBChB, BM BCh, BM BChir etc. they're all the same), with the option to do an intercalated BSc, which would add another year. A few are 6 years long and include a BSc as standard (Cambridge, Oxford, UCL, Imperial…). At the end of the 5/6 years most students apply for a hospital-based foundation training programme somewhere in the UK, which lasts for 2 years, before going into specialty training. If you want to  move to the USA  you'll have to sit their board exams (STEP 1, STEP 2 etc) at some stage during your training. There are probably other hoops to jump through as well that I don't know about."}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "We're a long, long way from MRAs and feminists co-existing happily. \n However, I think the first step is for both camps to start acknowledging the other's struggles. We already hear some discussion of male issues in feminism, but there needs to be much more - ESPECIALLY of the issues that conflict with the plight of women, e.g. false accusation, child custody, men getting harsher prison sentences, financial abortion etc. Likewise, we need more MRAs to acknowledge the struggles that women go through in our society. \n At the moment, it feels like any acknowledgement of any feminist issue in /r/MensRights makes you \"one of them\", a deluded fool who's been taken in by evil feminism. In fact, there's even a subset of MRAs that think useful feminism is over, women have it all now, and the sole purpose of feminism is to improve things for women at the expense of men. If you are one of these people that honestly thinks that \"women's issues\" are a thing of the past and feminism is 100% evil and pointless, then please have a read of [paragraphs 5-7 in this piece]( You don't have to agree with everything in the article, or even everything in those two paragraphs, but unless you are completely wooden you will find SOMETHING there that makes you think, \"Huh, as a man I'm lucky that I don't have to experience this\". There are also many other women's issues that are not mentioned in those paragraphs. \n Likewise, there's an unwillingness within feminism to talk about a whole raft of men's issues, or to consider issues from a male perspective. A great example recently was that guy who made a [spreadsheet of the times his wife rejected him for sex]( The voice of feminists everywhere was \"Omg omg this is emotional abuse, she was stressed at work, she was having body issues, how dare he confront her in this way and then not answer her calls\", but no one stopped for a second to think that maybe  he too  was suffering; that maybe  he  was having body issues as a result of their diminishing sex life; maybe  he  was afraid that she didn't love him anymore; maybe he  knew  that the mature thing to do was to talk to her but he was too afraid that she would deny that there was a problem, which would leave him feeling weak; maybe he already  had  confronted her and she already had denied it, so his last resort was to \"prove\" that there was a problem by making a spreadsheet. Of course, maybe he was just a controlling arsehole who was trying to bully her into having sex with him by making her feel guilty, but  we don't know this . Either way I don't condone his actions, but I was very disappointed with the way that feminists were all too ready to condemn him without the slightest ounce of empathy.", "id": "cjo13h2", "summary": "each movement needs to acknowledge the need for the other."}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "Hey runners, I just found out that I've been offered a place to run the London Marathon next year for the charity I applied to 2 months ago. I'm unsure whether to accept their offer and commit to doing it. I'm really here to find out how much preparation I'm going to have to do for this thing, so that I can decide whether I can do it. Here's my situation: \n I'm going into my 2nd year of medical school, which I'm told is the hardest of the 6. I just about passed my exams this year, but I really need to do as well or better next year if I'm going to go to the clinical school that I want to go to. Next year is gonna be a bitch, marathon or no marathon. My exams will start a week or two after the marathon itself, so the marathon will come slap bang in the middle of major revision time. If I don't do the marathon next year, I could maaaybe do it the year after, but after that my free time levels will be at an extreme low for probs about a decade and a half, after which I'll be well past peak physical fitness. OK now I'm just whining. \n Seriously though, how much time am I gonna have to devote to this to make sure I get round? \n As for current state of fitness, I ran 9.5 miles a couple of days ago at casual pace, which felt pretty great. The London Marathon will take place on the 13th of April 2014, so 8 months from now. \n Oh yeah I just remembered one other thing - is it important to run in the morning? A friend of mine did the marathon a couple of years ago and had a really tough time. He'd trained a shitload, but he put it down to the fact that he'd always been running in the afternoon/evening and so wasn't used to/prepared for getting up early in the morning and running a marathon.", "id": "t3_1k0qe0", "summary": "how much train must do for marathon 8 months time?"}, {"author": "Apemazzle", "content": "To clarify, some of the ways in which you use your hand to grip things have been categorised. There is for example the power grip, which you would use to hold a hammer, and the precision grip, where you hold a pen, say, between your forefinger and your opposed thumb, resting the object on your middle finger. \nLearning about these complex mechanisms that have evolved completely shattered my illusion that you can \"do what you want\" with your hands. In fact, there is a limited set of functions, each one incredibly complex physiologically, which have evolved for specific purposes. Making a fucking fist to punch someone is something we have evolved to be able to do well! It's not just a meme (anymore), it's anatomically facilitated by, for example, the varying mobility of your metacarpals. Now I think it's all awesome though. Or I did, until I started writing this!\nSo what stuff have you ever felt depressed about without good reason?", "id": "t3_126hds", "summary": "I felt depressed reading about the grips of the hand, but after a break I actually found them awesome. Made me wonder, what sort of weird stuff has made you feel depressed? \n Hell you can throw in some positive emotions too if you like. I remember smiling at some ionian columns in a building once, \"you guys and your neo-classicism\""}]}
+{"author": "ChemicalRascal", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post You are a retina.", "output": "Exactly. You're observing the event of a photon smashing into your retina. The photon, when taken into context of other photons, typically will indicate another event, which typically will have occurred in the past. \n In your case, we take the photons to indicate the generation of photons 50 million years in the past and 50 million light years away, given the context of multiple \"viewings\" over time and using parallax. And, due to other \"viewings\" of other things we draw the conclusion that it's a big ball of hydrogen undergoing fusion. \n Indeed, the observed event could be even further removed from my definition depending on your definition of what \"you\" are. But I draw the line at the retina."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post A few full-mouthed fellows flying false flags fuck everything up for everyone.", "output": "Be aware, this will sound like I'm mansplaining.  Try to get through to the last few paragraphs if you can, because it gets less \"emergerd, I'm a man, help I'm being oppressed\" around there. Please don't just read the second paragraph and then heap shit on me for it. \n \n Men's Rights Activism has the same problem as what MRAs (Men's Rights Activists) say is wrong with Feminism: there are members of both sides who fly the banner of MRA/Feminism but are really just loud misogynists/misandrists. \n An example of the latter (because I'm male, and I'm kinda blind to examples of the former because I'm not really blatantly exposed to them?) would be a couple of (female, for context) bloggers suggesting that the ideal society would be full of women with a few \"attractive male studs\" (paraphrased) for breeding. Another would be a gender studies professor putting a slant on the topic that would rival any creationist school's explanations of \"evolutionism\", another [this particular rally against a fellow by the name of Warren Farrell.]( \n Now, these are obviously  very extreme  (though real, demonstrably so for the first and last) examples that I've chosen to make a point, but I'm trying to demonstrate a phenomenon here. These people, of course, are not legitimate feminists (those in the video, maybe, it's kinda difficult to say). But they call themselves feminists, so when MRA sees that banner they go \"Emergerd, feminists, all feminists do this\" and label all feminists as man-hating persons. \n Genderflip the above and that's what's wrong with the Men's Rights movement  and (by extension) /r/MensRights - Loud people who fly that flag but actually just stand for hating the other gender for whatever reason. And, as a result, people who are easily offended/intolerant/have only been told one side of the story (hopefully the third) get the wrong idea, and form their opinion based solely on that. To be fair, this isn't just an issue that occurs only in specific-gender rights movements, although the only other example I can think of off the top of my head is the \"Islam == terrorist\" thing (especially popular just after 2001-09-11, if you recall). Maybe \"Atheists == bad people\", but I haven't seen that in reality (ie, beyond r/atheism). \n So. Yeah."}], "user_id": "longlamp_1306", "history": [{"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "Oh, don't be such a defeatist. There is always a solution. It may be mild, it may be extreme, it may be violent, it may be peaceful, it may be short-game, it may be long-game, but these systems are systems made of people. \n People die, people change, people are replaced, and as these events occur, the systems that they operate and operate in are changed. Laws are mutable, living entities, procedure can be altered. Over time, the system itself can be reshaped into what it is desired to be. And, of course, this ignores the more short-game, possibly violent option of simply replacing the system entirely. \n That said, America is a democratic nation, and if \"the opposition\" seems \"too fortified\", it's entirely possible that  you just don't want what the majority wants.  Which is fair. Because if 1% of the population wants Option A, while 99% of the population wants Option B, Option B is the fair answer. \"The opposition\" are people to, and they have the right to vote just as much as you do.", "id": "cawaikn", "summary": "Stop being a defeatist. At the same time, though, realise that your idealised image of utopia may be entirely different to your neighbour's idealised image of utopia."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "Whenever feels appropriate, I say. It's totally cool, provided you're not going \"Hey, my name's XYZ! Nice hair!  facenom \". Give it a little while, have your smalltalk, escalate appropriatley, and have a shot. \n If you're really having problems (especially escalating), consider /r/seduction (and no, it's not as mysoginistic/creepy as it sounds. Give it a chance). In particular, seddit talks about the \"Vin DiCarlo escalation ladder\", which roughly lays out how people tend to go from \"Hey I just met you and this is crazy\" to ripping each other's jaws off. \n Again, pick-up artistry can be a bit creepy under certain lights, but seddit tends to be more about self-confidence improvement, motivation, and basic analysis of how people interact in social situations. PUA does tend to have a stigma of \"Lay ALL the women!\", but I haven't really seen that in seddit. Your millage may vary.", "id": "c61v9vx", "summary": "Dolphins and candy floss."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "If it's targeted at a particular particular person - if  you're  targeted at a particular person - it would probably indicate oneitis. If that's the case, and especially if you've known that person for a while, you've probably struck out. It migt be time to move on. \n The two important things to note is that there are  plenty  of gals out there that any particular guy would be perfectly compatible with, and that \"agressivley approaching\" doesn't nessecarily mean that you're approaching with the goal of sex (ideally, he who is outcome independent doesn't really mind what happens), all you're really doing is quickly meeting a lot of women. \n Ideally, or at least in what the proported ideal you often see around PUA communities, you would have a number of relationships on-the-go, working out who suits you, and going through these until you find someone you want to be more serious with. Now, you could be having sex in all these relationships, or only some, or one, or none. It all depends on how you want to play the dating game. Indeed, I have no doubt that this style of meeting women could be applied by the strictest of Roman Catholic men - he just wouldn't be having sex with any of them. \n So, really, the", "id": "c7ma9o5", "summary": "is: Approaching isn't a methodology to sleep with whole binders of women, but just to meet 'em. If you want to filter them after that by dating in order to find The One True Love, more power to you. Just be aware there probably isn't Only One True Love out there for you, and if you really really really like someone but strike out, meh, there's gonna be another."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "Oh dear. \n The metric system is more than just verbal prefixes, you know. For example, the metre. The kilogram. The second. And so on. \n The thing that is wrong with imperial units is that they are inconsistent in scalling up. For example, inches. There are twelve inches in a foot. There are three feet in a yard. You've also got links, chains, bluhbluhbluh it's just convoluted, and makes no sense. \n Meanwhile, length in the metric system is measured using one thing - the metre. Or meter, in the US. Scale it up or scale it down by a factor of 10, 100, 1000 - It's something very easy to do, given that our number system is base 10, and this scaling allows you to very quickly have a unit at the scale you need, and a unit that can very easily be converted to another unit. \n Don't like verbal prefixes? Fine, don't use them. Whack on scientific notation, as it's exactly the same thing, and people who know how to use scientific notation will understand you perfectly. Joe Average might not, and that's where you'd have to go back to prefixes (or probably just one, such as kilo [if dealing with meters on large scales, for example] and get used to writing out a whole bunch of zeros), but if you're concerned about quantitative data, Joe Average probably isn't the person you're talking to.", "id": "c4fcxe2", "summary": "Metric system has one unit for any given task, and only one. And that means that everything works well in our base ten number system. The prefixes are optional. \n Also, if metric had been used more, there wouldn't have been the issue with the French/English inches being different, and Napoleon wouldn't be remembered as the short-ass he wasn't."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "Don't even consider the people around you. I've opened on public transport before (we're essentially in the same boat), and I don't care about those around me. Yes, it's a packed metro train, and everyone just heard me comment on the motto tatooed on a young woman's feet, but what do I care? I'm now talking to a young receptionist at a fitness place who has tatoos on her feet.", "id": "c66ybqt", "summary": "Disregard chumps, get conversation."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "No, it was nicknamed the goddamn particle as it was so goddamn difficult to find. \n The reason it was so goddamn difficult to find was because it takes a phenomenal amount of energy to create (kinda), because it's  big , and for a long time we just didn't have the technology and equipment to do so. And to analyse these particles, you do have to generate them - you can't just go out and grab a higgs boson from the wild, even though they are all over the place.", "id": "c6vwpyy", "summary": "Difficult to make, hence frustrated theoretical physicists for over thirty years, hence goddamn."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "Well, you don't  have  to update your clocks. And most of the time any two clocks are going to be out-of-sync by more than a second anyway. \n The internet, though. That's when it kind of becomes important that servers run the same time. And, well, in order to ensure that everyone runs the same time, you make sure everyone runs the correct time. \n Now, you see, time is based off the length of the day. The length of the day changes, you've got to fiddle with the current time a bit to make it correct. Guess what - The length of the day does change due to good ol' Luna. So they fiddle with the time to ensure it's spot-on.", "id": "c57xuxs", "summary": "It actually is important that everyone runs the same time on the internet, and that time is defined by the floaty stuff in the sky. I'm a hamburger."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "Was put in a special needs class/program in high-school due to poor orginisational skills and poor spelling, by my parents. School system here was split into semesters. This would have been around year eight. \n First semester -  A male English teacher took the class I was in. He really made an effort, and I will admit, before going into that class, I wasn't great in keeping track of things and study and so forth. In hindsight, I believe there was improvement. \n Second semester, until I got out (year ten, total 5 semesters) - A female who was the head of the special needs department/program/whatsit.  She was pure bullshit. \n First of all, if you're the head of department it's fair enough that you don't have the time to not be \"leading\" the class, but then  don't put yourself down for the work.  She was never there, leaving it up to the specific-student helpers to manage the group. \n Secondly, there is no need to treat  absolutley everyone  like a retard. Yes, there may have been people in that class with learning difficulties, but I don't need a reasuring hand on my shoulder, thanks. Heck, even those people don't need your patronising voice in their ears, because they are intelligent enough to recognise that you think yourself better than them. I mean, come on. \n What might be of particular interest, though, is that early in my ninth year my school likes to send away a huge chunk of it's students to a foreign country for a term. Naturally, I was part of one of those chunks, and as my social skills weren't up to par at that point it was quite the trial by fire. Of course, at the end of the tenth year, which was when I managed to convince my parents that it was a waste of my time, she claimed credit for my improved social ability. \n Later, I found out that she had told my parents that I wouldn't be able to pass years eleven and twelve without the help of the program. I'm now in University.", "id": "c2dh3s8", "summary": "Was attacked at school by rabid dogs. Squad of smexy cheerleaders rushed to my aid as a gym coach did nothing."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "Well, there's a difference between enjoying having sex with a man and being sexually attracted to men. Sexual identification has, although I suppose people are free to label themselves as they wish and this is more my opinion here, probably more to do with what genders attract you as to what genders you have sex with.", "id": "c4e3iza", "summary": "Don't listen to me because I don't know what I'm talking about  also cheeeeeese."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "Has  to be fake. \n Firstly, a minor thing: While I run Linux (Arch Linux, thanks for asking), who the hell plays triple-A games (note quoted as being sourced from Best Buy) but, upon facing the mere hurdle of a \"broken Windows installation\", goes nuclear and puts Debian on it? We all know that WINE isn't  that  good, especially not when it's coming out of the Debian repos. Granted, it's a small detail, but it's a detail none the less. \n Onto picking through that day's events, though. If someone is as tech-illiterate as the sister is written to be, there's no way she would have gotten through, say, the XFCE login screen. \n But let's say he disabled the login screen or something, because #YOLOswag. He's off at school. School days are six, six and a half hours long? Let's say he also grabs the bus for an hour a day. Means he's leaving at 0830, getting home at 1600. \n So, sister hops on the unlocked machine, running Debian. Problem. Things are different under Linux. You can't just sit down and know it, to be perfectly honest, if you've only ever used Windows. So, let's say that the sister spends... what, an hour and a half? Two hours trying to figure out that Windows binaries won't run on the protagonist's machine? Let's say one and a half. But then she has to go and convince their mother to take the thing to BestBuy. You know, ignoring the fact that she's sick. \n By this point it'd be 1000, probably later than that. Now, I don't know any mother who would be able to just drop their plans for the day and rush a laptop into the city. In the situation where this  could  be done on the same day, I would say that wouldn't happen before 1300, because you'd still want to at least get your morning tasks done. \n Drive to BestBuy takes some length of time, probably twenty minutes or so. Tech work probably takes a while. Two hours? Either way, by the time the laptop returns home, the protagonist is either home already or on his way. Even if you give that time a bit of slack, does his sister really have enough time to get the machine infected? \n And really - really - what kind of a parent takes an expensive, self-purchased object away from their child? That parenting is implausibly bad, especially considering it'd have to get past his father as well (unless the family is split, in which case wouldn't the mother be working on a school day? That kinda shoots the whole thing in the face.) \n But most importantly, the four final kickers: \n \n \"BACKUP - DO NOT WIPE\" isn't a valid volume label on FAT systems. 21 characters. FAT systems support 11-characters-max labels.   \n Who the hell uses FAT16?  On a Linux machine?   \n Who the hell (only) backs up onto the same physical disk? Especially when we're considering someone competent enough to run Linux.   \n It's a laptop.  Why isn't he taking it to school? \n \n \n So, what do I think? It's gotta be fake. I'd say it's been fabricated to play on: \n \n People who are tech-literate (language, dropping what amount to buzzwords),   \n People who don't like BestBuy (by presenting them as incompetent),   \n And people who don't have a positive relationship with either women or more specifically the women in their immediate family (or at least feel that they've been hard-done or victimised by the women in their family). \n \n To what end? I don't know. Perhaps anon gets off on having people react emotionally to things he knows to be false.", "id": "cdlvm0p", "summary": "Sleep, knight of GabeN, in the knowledge that this tale of tyranny is nothing but an old story, a false fable, a giant shitty mountain of rather smelly bullshit. \n EDIT: Minor readability edits. Also, thanks for the gold!"}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "Quite. It might just be worth quickly double-checking a few anatomical diagrams. If it really was as simple, painless and difficulty-free as I'm reading it as, you may have had vaginal sex without realising it. Indeed, on women, the anus and vagina aren't as far away as the penis and the anus are on men. \n The cynical bastard in me is also saying that she may be trying to fool you into getting her pregnant as a form of manipulation - yes, I'm being paranoid, but some people are manipulative shits. Both men and women. Maybe I've just been hanging out on subreddits that are very heavy on the \"bitches be crazy, yo\", but it's worth a thought regardless, especially because if it's true, the consequences are  severe .", "id": "c48brcc", "summary": "Grab a road-map, put those navigating skills to good use, and use a condom regardless."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "It's difficult to say - if you've seen benchmarks that say the NP8235 can do that, and you trust whoever is doing those benchmarks, then I guess the NP8235 can do it. \n Fundamentally, though, it's important to remember the following: That's a GTX 770 M , not a GTX 770. Mobile GPUs (and, similarly, CPUs) are always going to be of lesser ability than their desktop cousins - for example, [these benchmarks]( show the 770M getting a G3D Mark score of roughly 45% of the 770. That's  really bad , especially considering the price argument. \n Considering that the NP8235's price point is around the range of a one and a half thousand dollars, I'd highly recommend you do as I advised in my previous comment. Get a nice,  cheap  netbook for school, and head over to /r/buildapc to see what you can do with the rest of the cash. \n I mean, I just jumped on  Logical Increments . $1200 for an experience you can have for $550? Psh. \n There are two main downsides of this: \n \n Firstly, you've got to build the desktop. It's not that hard - certainly, it's not as hard as it used to be, and there are  plenty  of guides on the internet that will walk you (or whoever is building the machine) through the process. I highly recommend [Tek Syndicate's guide]( though they are building a higher-tier machine. You probably won't need an SSD or a non-stock CPU cooler, for example, so ignore those bits as well as what he says about thermal paste. It'd probably be a good idea to look up some other guides, such as some recommended by /r/buildapc - they know what they're doing, they'll be able to point you in the right direction, so be sure to read through the relevant bits of their sidebar. \n \n Secondly, you won't be able to play ARMA 3 at school or on the bus. Let me assure you, though, as a guy who was one of those kids in the library every day with his laptop - it's not worth it. The friends you make in high school will be, if you want them to, an excellent group of mates to forge through your adulthood with -  so go make friends.  Furthermore, playing games on a bus is difficult, you get teased for it, and playing games in class is a bad idea - trust me. I'm failing at college because I never paid attention in High School. Your classes are going to get very difficult, very quickly, so focus on your work. Future you, the guy running around in expensive suits and who has a Manhattan apartment, will thank present you for it. \n \n \n The biggest upside of desktop gaming, though, beyond the superior performance, lower price point, and having a proper screen and keyboard - You can upgrade that sucker. In five years, the graphics aren't going to be where you want it to be. With a laptop, there's nothing you can do, beyond spend another $1900 or whatever it's going to cost by then on a new laptop. With a desktop, you simply take out the old graphics card, replace it with a modern graphics card - probably about $500 for a moderate-to-high-level card by then, due to inflation - and, assuming there's no need to replace the CPU or motherboard, your computer is up and running the latest stuff again. \n So,", "id": "cdinq0p", "summary": "Laptops are always going to be more expensive and have less performance. \nBuilding a desktop isn't that hard. \nGetting a netbook instead of a gaming laptop will help you focus on your studies. \nDesktops can be upgraded as needed."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "ON THE TOPIC OF FUD, CRITICISM, AND HOW OPINIONS CAN DIFFER \n \n > This unrestrained FUD-fest that has surrounded the feature since its introduction is the only damage that's been done because it creates an air of uncertainty, and cutting through the bullshit to reach these people on forums like this one has been difficult because unfortunately most people don't look into things for themselves and happily base their opinion off of heresay. \n I, personally, have seen both FUD and... well, whatever is the opposite of FUD. Hype-based propaganda? Starry-eyed super-positive hippie hype? Yeah, I'll go with that. SESPHH (pronounced kinda like \"cesspool\"). \n Here's the thing. What I have said is not (intentionally) FUD. It is my opinion, nothing more, nothing less. I am free to hold my opinion in high regard. I am free to state my opinion. And so on. Such is the freedom of speech. \n I understand, of course, that you have an opposing opinion to mine. This is why we are having this glorious fight. \n Let me pose a thought to you, though - Is all criticism, by it's very nature, FUD? If anyone holds an opinion that is contrary to another person's opinion, is it bad and wrong and do we get to label the opinion \"FUD\"? I say no. \n The problem is as follows: We humans (well, you humans, seeing as we're operating under the assumption that I'm a cyborg, if you recall) have ideas. Some of these ideas are good ideas.Some of these ideas are shitty ideas. \n Yes, I used the term shitty. Sue me. Sue me hard. \n It's probably not correct that any human would intentionally implement a shitty idea. Typically, to the person's values, it is a good idea. Problems occur when the idea that they hold to be good is judged by others as being shitty - that is, when others hold values that are different to the person who has the idea. \n Hence, I'm sure Canonical views the Shopping Lens as a good idea. To their values, the pros outweigh the cons. And yes, there are cons, don't get all SESPHH on me now. To the values of myself, and I suspect a large amount of the \"neckbeards\" who are taking up arms with myself and marching up to Canonical Hill in this act of Nerd War, it is a shitty idea. It just is. Hey, I could be wrong - if there's some massive, massive pro that I haven't seen, perhaps that would cause it to be a good idea in my eyes (if the pro was something I particularly valued) - but in the meantime, I'm going to march until the sun rises in the West, because to my values, it's a shitty idea.", "id": "c6k6yd3", "summary": "Just because I have a differing opinion to you of the Shopping Lens, because we likely hold different values, doesn't mean that I'm speakin' FUD, or that you're speaking SESPHH. Ding ding, let's fight about it. \n \n Take note that I'll demonstrate how the Shopping Lens is advertising in another comment. Hold onto thy pantaloons, good sir, and attempt to prevent them from twisting!"}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "I'm not arguing the contrary. Calm down. You're absolutely correct. We just stated the same thing. \n What I  actually said  was that your method works off the relative angle of the player's craft and the Mun in their orbits. The rise method uses the same idea, although the way that it determines that angle is less direct, and also more likely to be fraught with error. \n To expand upon this, I would note that a clever man who understands what is actually going on with the rise method would be able to use a variant of it to be more accurate (for example, say, when the Mun is {30, 40, 50} degrees above the virtual horizon), but at this point any clever man who understands the geometry behind the Munrise method is likely to know enough about orbits to be able to eyeball it directly, as is your method.", "id": "c5lzog8", "summary": "I agree with what you have said. Let's not fight."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "Alt owner here. \n Well, it was more a reference to the whole scene at the end of whateverthenameofthelastfilmwas where Kenobi, Yoda and Skywalker are all standing around and dead. Given rjm-11 using the term \"padawan\". /neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerd \n That said, atheism does not mean that one does not believe in the afterlife, merely that one does not believe in a diety. That said, my understanding is that Sagan, at least, believed himself to be nothing more than a collection of organic mollecules...", "id": "c2ew5b8", "summary": "I'm going with yes?"}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "I understand branch mining, but even so, you're going to have to mine further and further away from your mine entrance in order to get more materials. Your pickaxes are used more for cobblestone, filling your inventory and chests quickly. \n There's a very, very efficient zig-zagging style pattern that, from what I've seen, lowers the travel time as much as possible. I'm about to try it out myself and see how successful it is long-term, but conceptually at least you aren't really mining \"further and further away\". Well, you are, but it aleiviates the travel times at least somewhat. \n Regarding cobblestone, however - Some people, self included, seek large amounts of cobblestone. Good for creeperholes, better for big builds. It's also somewhat of a status/success symbol (\"Look at me, I've got eighty chests filled with cobblestone. I've been doing this a long time, I'm very good at what I do!\"), which some people like. \n The other thing about cobblestone, though, is that it's inevitable. Unless you plan to live with a complete lack of gold, redstone and diamond, and very, very little iron or lava, you're going to need to mine. And if you're going to mine, you're going to get cobblestone. Lots and lots of cobblestone. \n And, again, I've always found that by mining for minerals, you end up with mad stacks of coal anyway. Sure, it's not huge, huge amounts, but it's more than the smeltable materials that I  am  looking for. Like cobblestone, coal almost becomes an afterthought to mining, once you get into it. \n >Try starting a tree farm at the beginning of your map and watch how easy it is to get started, rather than trying to Bear Grylls it in the mines and caves. \n That's the other big thing - Mining is a fairly (intellectually) passive process with moments of sheer terror. Tree farming is more constantly working, constantly thinking about what you want to do, how to tackle this next tree, and so on. Granted, if that's how you want to play Minecraft, that's great - I just think some/most people tend to prefer the more somewhat more zen-like action of mining two blocks two blocks two bl- holycrapcaverncreepersnopenopenope", "id": "c2q6j2n", "summary": "There are ways to minimise travel times regarding branching mines. \n \n Cobblestone is part of life, unless you live with no minerals at all. \n \n Coal becomes secondary when you are mininf dor minerals. \n \n Mining is (generally) intellectually passive."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "It's off-topic, but there are basically two different kinds of items in TF2: cosmetic (hats, hats, Tux, the Mac earbuds, also hats. Did I mention hats?), and functional (the weapons, basically). \n To equip items, head into your backpack when you're in TF2. I can't remember exactly how it's done, but it's not too difficult.", "id": "c8g5gl3", "summary": "Tux is a cosmetic item. Equip in the backpack."}, {"author": "ChemicalRascal", "content": "Well, while I don't disagree with you, I don't think proving that one's \"soul\" (a term I define as the collection of a person's memories, personality, consciousness and so on, if you'll permit it) is in constant change exactly disproves it. I mean, you could swap out all the atoms in the human brain over a period of time and yes, it would be a \"different brain\", but I'd argue that it's the same soul. That's not to say that I'd be right, of course, but still. \n Personally, I believe (or maybe not even that - hope, perhaps) that there's some other \"medium\" that holds the \"structure of the soul\", which somehow then interacts with (and is interacted with by) the world that we percieve, in the same way that we don't directly percieve electrostatic fields and yet they do influence and interact with what we can percieve. \n I mean, sure, there's no evidence for that, and even evidence against it and it sure doesn't stand up to a good debate, but I can't help but believe that a human being's mind, the self-aware thing that it is, is too complex to simply be a glorified electrical circuit. \n Now, of course, the existance (here assumed) of this structure doesn't need to be static, it would have to be able to change - After all, you don't have one single, unchanging visual input, you are capable of multiple emotions, drugs affect your thought proccess, and so on. That's a given. But that it can change, I don't think, exactly disproves it's existance.", "id": "c2denw2", "summary": "I don't have the balls to accept the \"eternal void\" ending of our lives, and hence have reasonless and evidenceless hopes about \"the soul\", yet still consider myself an atheist. Expecting downvotes?"}]}
+{"author": "IronMew", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post it seems to me that pressurized baskets that use a valve consistently make much better coffee than pressurized baskets that only have a tiny hole at the bottom, despite the latter being far more widespread. I'm curious if my experience is just coincidental or if the pressurization type actually makes a significant difference.", "output": "All the pressurized baskets for espresso machines I've seen around here belong to two types: one, by far the more widespread, has a single small hole on the bottom plate, and pressurizes the brewing mess inside simply by virtue of flow reduction through said small hole.  Example . \n The other type has a small valve in a pressurizer assembly. [Example]( \n My mom has a supercheap [DeLonghi BAR32]( We spent a ludicrously low sum of money on it - I think €40 or so, when the local supermarket had a clearance sale. It has a valved basket, and produces surprisingly good coffee - not bar-grade, obviously, but the taste is rich and the crema is thick and long-lived. \n A couple years later I decided I wanted an espresso machine for myself. This was before I'd visited here or read coffee forums, so I didn't know about fine grinding, burrs and unpressurized portafilters - which was probably just as well, or the whole endeavour would have turned out way more expensive than I could afford. I asked in various generic-conversation forums, and I was recommended by quite a few sources the [Bialetti Mokona]( I was told not to be bothered by the stupid shape, under which lay one of the best consumer espresso machines on the market. \n I went ahead and bought it (I specifically looked for clearance sales close to where I lived, but I still ended up paying twice as much as we paid for my mom's BAR32) and it immediately appeared to do worse coffee. The taste was only so-so, and the crema was thin and would disappear soon. Puzzled at why one of the best consumer machines would work worse than my mom's bottom-of-the-barrel model, I thought I'd gotten a defective one - but when I tried other machines at some friends' places a pattern started to emerge: all those using single-hole pressurized baskets made barely-passable coffee at best. \n I couldn't find another valved-basket machine for a while, but when I did (another DeLonghi of some kind) the result was comparable to my mom's BAR32: somewhat inferior to what a good unpressurized machine makes combined with a proper grinder, but definitely enjoyable and plenty good enough for a low-commitment home solution - and a far cry from anything me or my friends had managed to produce with our machines. \n I know pressurized baskets have a bad reputation, but I'm starting to get the idea that it's not the pressurization itself that makes for bad coffee, it's the widespread single-hole design that sucks. Unless my experience is an unlikely coincidence, I'm thinking if all pressurized baskets used the valve design their reputation would be much better. \n What are your thoughts? Is the pressurization system significant to the end result, or am I making it up in my mind?"}], "user_id": "longlamp_3353", "history": [{"author": "IronMew", "content": "Fino a qualche tempo fa ti avrei dato ragione, ero un convinto sostenitore di Grooveshark, specie da quando esiste la versione HTML5. Purtroppo ultimamente [hanno cominciato a bloccare gli account]( presumo sotto pressione dell'industria discografica. Da notare che non hanno mai risposto alla mia richiesta di chiarificazioni, e il mio account rimane bloccato.", "id": "cic0p8y", "summary": "Grooveshark si è avviato verso il tramonto."}, {"author": "IronMew", "content": "Let's sum it up, shall we? (If this is too long for you, just read the last few paragraphs) \n 1) she self-describes as an \"Apple fangirl\". Not a good way to start - more because of the fangirl part than because of the Apple part. I instinctively don't trust anyone who unashamedly admits to being faithful to a brand more because of the brand itself than for more sensible reasons (if it even makes sense to be faithful to a brand at all nowadays). \n 2) she states the phone can literally be dropped on the ground with no fear of damage. This is patently false - even ruggedized phones shouldn't be dropped on the ground as if they were invulnerable, let alone standard consumer phones like the Lumias. It might resist a few falls, but if you keep dropping it it  will  fail. (Yes, you can start making 3310 jokes now.) \n 3) she believes Instagram is a vital app no phone can be without, and \"loves and depends on\" the Instagram network. I suppose I shouldn't expect any different from a hipsterish Apple fangirl, but surely other far more essential things would take precedence even for such a person? Well, apparently not, for Instagram is \"symbolic\", a sign that \"a platform matters\", and is apparently capable all by itself of making or breaking investment deals by independent developers. \n At this point I considered the review relatively n00bish, but still at least somewhat sound. \n (", "id": "c77vmpt", "summary": "start here) \n Then I read this: \"At Mashable, we use Google Apps\". Wait... Mashable, why is this name familiar? Oh right, they're the ones who made [this cringeworthy video]( where two absolute incompetents barely manage to figure out the basics of a Chinese Android phone in a magazine, bumbling through the whole process like a pair of apes. And wouldn't you know, one of the two is none other than senior tech analyst Christina \"It's a Blackberry!\" Warren! \n At this point I consider this whole review worthy of the same respect and credibility I give her as a professional \"senior tech analyst\" in the field of consumer electronics, which is exactly zero. I wonder if all this seniority gives her the essential ability to properly analyze the impact of [hipster quotes]( on smartphone trends, because it sure as hell doesn't make her any good at reviews. Or teardowns."}, {"author": "IronMew", "content": "This is how you learn you are not an attractive person. \n You'll always be attractive to some girls. I know guys with severe problems - both aesthetic- and personality-wise - that have managed to hook up with one or more girls, to everyone's astonishment. \n I myself, though not quite to their level, am not what you'd call a hunk, but I've focused on using my personality to attract women and I've managed to hook up with some  really  hot ones. It helps not to think in terms of leagues - there's nothing that insures you won't hit it off with someone more effectively than considering them out of your league.", "id": "cgxzvd4", "summary": "The human race is too diverse; however weird or ugly you might be, there's someone out there who'll like you. Now  finding  those people, that's where the challenge lies..."}, {"author": "IronMew", "content": "I am fortunate that I can control my curiosity enough to not actually go there, but this doesn't prevent me from putting it into words. \n I figured from the comments it's not about medical penis removal, but it's about doing it as body modification. What's the psychology behind this? Is the need to modify one's body so strong for these people as to trump the need to, oh I dunno,  have sex ever again ? Do some of them undergo castration as well at some point to stop the urge they can no longer satisfy? How the hell does one live any sort of life that isn't total abject misery when one has removed his own penis?", "id": "cmqdkln", "summary": "Why?"}, {"author": "IronMew", "content": "No fucking way in hell. She is a manipulator, and always tries to turn her guys into yes-men who'll blindly side with her whatever inanity she happens to be spouting at the moment. This is relatively evident and only usually has an effect on the weak-willed (or tragically sex-deprived), so it'd be fairly easy to resist. Problem is, she'll also do her best to make your life impossible if she believes you've somehow wronged her, which she probably would if one were to have sex with her and then say \"HA HA HA NO\" when she tries her brainwashing thing. \n It irks me that I can't do her because from a purely sexual point of view I get the strong vibe that we like the same things -  no-holds-barred wall-shaking pray-for-dear-life fucking of the kind that leaves one bruised and spent, and probably facing a crowd of angry neighbours. But from every other point of view everything about her screams \"FLEE FOR THE HILLS\", so I regretfully leave the tapping and the wrapping to others. \n I like my life uncomplicated.", "id": "c981alv", "summary": "don't stick your dick in the crazy."}, {"author": "IronMew", "content": "I see your point in turn, but the problem is that people are perfectly fine with \"meh\" games. Look at the success of the entire casual genre, which pretty much defines what \"meh\" means, or at the many who bought SimCity5, didn't care that you had to stay always online, and thought it perfectly acceptable that they had to wait for Maxis' servers when they'd go tits-up. \n Here on reddit, or on other gaming-centric sites, you have a skewed demographic. People here are careful about this stuff and will crucify a game without remorse if it compromises on gameplay to give a few more quick bucks to the publishers. But most other people won't. \n Hell, I know self-proclaimed gamers who have no idea what the major review sites or channels even  are , and base the entirety of their gaming choices on TV advertising, \"reviews\" (and I use the term very loosely here) by mainstream media and the latest funny pictures they see on Facebook. Those people are who Ubisoft, EA et al. target. Every now and then they make a token effort to please the actual gaming crowd because that 10% of profit we provide is still quite a bit of money, but by and large they make games for the lowest common denominator, and they will keep doing so for the foreseeable future - there's far too much money into it to care about anything else, and those of us who care simply don't have the means and clout to reach and influence their target market. \n Hell, we don't often have the motivation, either - I know I for one would much rather just ignore the huge brands and their products rather than launch in personal crusades and heroic attempts to get the many humanoid monkeys that surround me to see the truth.", "id": "cm9uo7w", "summary": "people are stupid."}, {"author": "IronMew", "content": "I worded my reply poorly; I didn't mean that YOU don't have any brain, I meant that I doubt the mental capacity of anyone who suddenly goes \"OMG we're being lied to!!!11!\" as if it's something that only started happening in the last five years. I did not put you in that category. \n The political system is broken to such a degree that anyone who gets into a position of relevant power should on no accounts be allowed to do the job. And anyone who has the potential to threaten the system is not allowed to achieve power, and therefore remains weak and unable to change anything. \n The only way to change this would be to fake conformist positions until you're in power, then reveal your true intentions and renege all the promises you've made to the greedy bastards who enabled your rise. I imagine this would make you loved by the common people, but the EvilCorp® of the moment would probably soon be looking at the \"hitmen\" category on LinkedIn. \n As for the military thing: I understand all your wants, and since you do seem to have a brain I'd be surprised if they were any different, but wanting things doesn't magically make them happen. As you say, it makes very little difference who you vote for nowadays; either is just as likely to send you protecting your country's  oil interests  freedom and democracy in deity-forsaken places whose leaders would prefer all the modern civilized world to just up and die. \n If the political system made it possible to  actually  bring sanity to those places (who, let's face it, are in dire need of it), then I'd applaud you for a courageous choice; but as this is not the case, and since wherever you go you're very likely to just incite further hatred and tyranny from unhinged extremist groups and possibly from the very people you're hoping to protect, I don't really know how you hope being in the military is going to restore hope in humanity. \n Or to put it in other words: I don't doubt that your intentions are good, but you're serving people who will make sure you're part of the problem rather than the solution. \n Notice that I don't expect this to suddenly change your opinions and life choices, I'm just clarifying my point so you don't think I'm just pointing a finger at you and shouting \"HA-HA!\" like Nelson. \n Edit: whoa,", "id": "c6jtyoi", "summary": "level achieved. Sorry about that."}, {"author": "IronMew", "content": "You don't. \n I have the terrible tendency (which I'm desperately trying to fight) of falling for broken girls, and after years of pain I can tell you this - from the point of view of someone who tries to maintain a positive outlook on life, depressed people are black holes of positiveness. \n You think if you pour enough positivity into them they'll eventually feel better, but that's not how it works - the black hole will gobble it all up, and all your attention will give them very brief respite at best, before the gravitational attraction sucks it all back in and they lapse back into misery. \n But while their black holes' appetite is neverending your reserves of positivity aren't; keep it up and at some point you'll run out, and at that point there's nothing but pain for all involved - and once you can no longer sustain the situation their depression is likely to worsen, for at that point they'll have become dependent on your now-missing support. \n Depressed people can only come out of it by themselves. You can help somewhat by being friendly and supportive, but you can't be the instrument of their saving. \n I know first-hand how hard a fact this is to swallow when you're in love with someone, but nobody said life was fair.", "id": "ch2i71m", "summary": "You will have to end it at some point. You cannot avoid damaging her by doing this - by the point you're in a relationship it's far too late. But the sooner you do it, the less damage there will be."}, {"author": "IronMew", "content": "I hate hate HATE glossy screens on portable computers. I can't use them if there's any light at all - the reflections cause me anything from extreme distraction to headaches. As a result, I've always considered glossy screens a complete dealbreaker, and have always bought laptops and netbooks with matte screens. \n Problem is, tablets have eaten up the netbook market, and of the few remaining only one seems to have all the features I need (12\" or so screen, a proper CPU capable of some performance to speak of, low price)... and it's an Acer (the 756 to be exact). Of couse, Acer NEVER use matte screens on their portables, which is one more reason to hate them... but at this point I seem to have no alternatives if I don't want to spend 2-3 times the money for an ultrabook.", "id": "t3_1bvoxk", "summary": "start reading here : I'm thinking of getting it and applying a matte protector/film to its glossy screen. How well do they work? Will I have an experience similar to a native matte screen (thinking Asus EeePC), or are there unpleasant compromises to be made?"}, {"author": "IronMew", "content": "I have a first-generation netbook, a 701 4G with the Celeron processor. It works (save for a bunch of dead pixels on the display, a result of me stupidly shutting the lid with a thumbdrive on the keyboard), but hasn't seen any serious use for years. \n I used to turn it on when I needed a Linux machine for something (say, running gparted on an external drive) but couldn't be arsed to reboot my main box from Windows into Mint; however, nowadays it doesn't even see that use because I got an ultrabook, and my slightly less old EeePC 1005HA was demoted to the 701's old job. \n I also occasionally used it with an old external HD as a torrent downloader, but as I switched to a much faster provider I can now download anything short of super-huge video collections in a matter of hours in the background on my main box, and the need for an overnight downloader has vanished. \n Stuff like bitcoins is right out of the question (its paltry hardware might make me, I dunno, 0.05$ per day while consuming many times as much for energy) and I don't need a webserver. The screen and the keyboard are too small to use as a writing machine, and any visual purpose (media viewer, image/video frame) is out because of the bad pixels.", "id": "t3_1l6tjn", "summary": "start reading here \n I'm looking for smart ideas about making my old EeePC 701 do something, because it pains me to have fully working hardware that uselessly collects dust on a shelf. However, most obvious uses are already taken care of by other hardware in my household. \n Any ideas?"}, {"author": "IronMew", "content": "I have an old [Aprilia Area 51]( 50cc scooter, unused for at least six years now, that I'm of a mind to restore. It's not actually too broken, just neglected, and the ruined seat worries me more than the carb rebuild that's all that should take to get the engine running again. \n Years ago, when I didn't yet have the bike and I used it regularly, two cuts formed on the seat; I didn't stab it or anything, so I'm assuming it was age coupled with the ice and fairly strong winds we get here in the winter (back then I didn't have an enclosed place to keep it in, so it spent many winters in the local parking area). As time went on the cuts became gashes, and I could see more wear where others would form. I decided to do something about it before rain and ice destroyed the seat from within, so I got a roll of duct tape and neatly taped over the entire seat in a nice criss-cross diagonal pattern that covered everything perfectly. The seat became a bit slippery, but it was protected from the elements. \n After a few days the local cats decided they too liked the reworked seat, only they were more interested in the claw-sharpening ability of duct tape than in the ability to keep the water out. Needless to say, my scooter became the most loved scratching post of the local feline scene, my neat work went to hell and all the scratching greatly worsened the previous condition of the seat.", "id": "t3_2004s7", "summary": "start here \n Nowadays the scooter is in a cat-free garage, but the seat is a mess of ruined duct tape and worn pre-existing seat covering full of cuts. \n How do I make it decent again without having an expensive specialist work on it? I don't need it to be pretty, I just need it to support my ass and not fall apart."}, {"author": "IronMew", "content": "I fix computers as a job (well, sorta), and due to my willingness to work on older systems (I'm an old-school gamer and retrocomputing enthusiast) I'm often called to fix computers that cause other techs to look at them and say \"fuck this shit, I'm outta here\". You know, old Win98-running Pentium 3s with CRT displays and such - there's plenty of people who still run oldware like this in business environments and are unwilling to change it, usually because they depend on it to run other legacy hardware and replacing one thing would lead to cascade replacement of everything else. This is usually more expensive than they can afford. \n I've managed to collect a decent amount of old spares by recycling and disassembling the systems of those who do end up replacing them, so things like processors, RAM and ISA network cards I can replace with ease. The problem is hard drives. As you know they're pretty much consumable items, and the superannuated systems I recycle for parts usually have tired old drives that have been swapping like crazy for years, so they can't be counted on to work as reliable replacements - when they aren't dead outright; plenty of those who end up recycling the systems are spurred to do it by, you guessed it, the drive(s) dying. \n There are still legacy IDE drives being made, but they're much more expensive than modern SATA ones due to lack of economies of scale. They're also usually only available in the largest size IDE ever got to, which is to say 300GB (occasionally 200). This presents the same problem as running a SATA drive with a  SATA-to-IDE adapter : old computers often don't know what to do with such big drives.", "id": "t3_1y5a7q", "summary": "skip to here \n EBay job lots of IDE drives are invariably sold as \"untested, sold as-is\", which is auctionese for \"ha ha, I can't believe you thought they actually worked\". \n I thought about using SD-to-IDE converters, fortunately still available in large numbers on eBay, and running flash cards (whose smaller sizes old BIOSes should see fine), but old computers commonly have RAM shortages that cause plenty of swapping, and putting swap files on flash memory is a no-no. \n I'd use passthrough CF converters and stick Microdrives in them, but they too are quickly becoming extinct as well, having been thoroughly blown out of the market by cheap flash memory. \n And, of course, old computers don't have fast USB ports - and even if you add them they can rarely boot from them, and even if they can most users can't actually run Linux, and we all know how old Windows versions are about booting from anything that isn't an internal drive. \n This is becoming a more and more serious problem as more and more IDE drives remove themselves from this plane of existence. Is there any practical way to solve it?"}, {"author": "IronMew", "content": "A few months ago, since my ER-6F was running on very old oil and badly needed a change, I changed that and the filter - but where I was then, only cheap generic oil was available. I had nothing better so I used that, with the idea of replacing it with something better when I could. \n Needless to say, I didn't. The bike seemed to be working fine and I had other things to do, and to be honest the idea of having at the fairings again, and those stupid useless plastic plugs keeping them together, didn't exactly fill me with motivation. So the bike stayed with the cheap oil for, oh, I think a couple thousand kilometres. \n Now, however, I suspect the cheap oil might be the source of the increasingly worrying ticking noise the engine's been making. I read around and it seems the ER-6 engine is known for camchain ticking due to a somewhat lazy tensioner, but that it's all regular and that it'll eventually subside as the tensioner finally kicks in. \n Well, mine isn't. The ticking now has a worrying soft rattling as a background, and I'm afraid the chain might jump a tooth. More reading around showed that people have sometimes solved this by replacing oil; apparently cheap oil can cause the tensioner to gum up, and a new fill of good oil unsticks it. \n So I bought good oil and I'm readying to do tomorrow what I should have done months ago. The only question is: should I also remove the filter and empty it out? It only has a little use in it, so I'd rather not replace it, but I fear it contains enough old bad oil that it might negatively influence the properties of the new oil. \n On the other hand, I so very much don't want to have at the filter with the strap wrench again unless absolutely necessary - it was a huge pain to unstick it last time.", "id": "t3_21dhae", "summary": "replacing bad old oil with good new oil, but filter is almost new so want to keep it. Afraid bad old oil in filter might impact performance of new oil. Will it? Do I need to take the filter off and empty it out?"}, {"author": "IronMew", "content": "A whlie ago I spent several months writing reviews for a gaming website. The boss liked my writing abilities enough to make me managing director, but it didn't last too long because managing everyone else's reviews took so long I no longer had the time to write my own, which I much preferred. I went back to writing my own, then resigned after a while. \n The reason I resigned was because all through that I was essentially unpaid. The website was professionally made (the boss was a webdesigner by trade), but not widely known (and not in English, which cost us a massive amount of potential readers). The idea was to eventually turn it into a profit-earning entity, but interest just wasn't there and it never happened. Somewhat amazingly it still exists, and still remains the largely-unknown amateur enterprise it started as. \n Now, years later, I find myself with several potential careers to choose; among them the one I'd prefer by a very large amount is technical journalism (not just games), because I love technical writing and if half of the praise I've received can be believed I'm damn good at it. But I remember the work I did, and I see the situation now, and I'm leery. \n Thing is, because at that site it was all unpaid work we were independent; we had no affiliation and no sponsorship issues. Someone would occasionally send us a game to review, but mostly the reviewers got the games by themselves - not always legally, either. \n As a result, when a game sucked we'd give it the low ratings and criticism it deserved. Every now and then something so bad came out that we'd get cynical and absolutely destroy it, which was particularly fun. \n It seems this isn't possible in the professional world. In fact, it seems unless something so utterly terrible comes out that everyone jumps on the make-fun-of-the-new-kid bandwagon (say, Simcity 4 with its massive and widely criticized server issues), you're forced to give it at the very least a \"decent\" rating, because whoever's pushing the product has you by the balls - if your site gives bad reviews you'll stop seeing any early deals and preview versions of products, and you can of course forget about any sponsorships. \n And on top of all this even if you do forget about any form of integrity and just do what they want, you still get paid a pittance. This leaves me feeling pretty miserable, and considering other and much less appealing choices.", "id": "t3_206rh8", "summary": "start here, I guess \n Am I being overly pessimistic? Is there a place in this world for tech writers who can honestly express their opinion and aren't treated like slaves? I'm obviously not looking to get rich out of this, I'd just like to have a decent life doing what I like."}]}
+{"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Focus on the best thing in your life, and centralize everything around that.", "output": "I am 21, a senior in college, about to get my degree.  I always wanted to be a professional skier, but that isn't too easy when you get only a couple months a year to ski and you're working and going to school an hour from the mountain.\nI've been thinking over the past few years about what I want to do, but every time I think about it, I just see myself as a Skier and nothing else.  I don't know what job I am going to have, but I know that I am going to live close to a mountain because I love skiing.\nDo what you love, and you will make a job out of it.  I know a surf bum who opened a bakery in hawaii.  He is doing well and has surfed every day for the last 3 years.  That's all I need in life.\nEDIT:  That's all I need in life = ski mountain and job I like."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Cannabis makes you think differently but you should try it because you want to not because Trees or anyone else tells you to.", "output": "Don't try it because we say it's great.  Don't try it because you think you should join the crowd.  Try it if you legitimately want to and you've researched the effects and you see the effect it has on those around you.  I was always heavily opposed, until I saw how chill my friends were when high compared to drunk.  It really does make you open your mind by allowing neuron receptors to fire differently in the brain, causing you to come to a conclusion or thought differently than you would have normally.  Not sure if that explains anything but it makes your brain function differently.  Imagine taking the usual commute to work.  Then one day you decide to take a road other than the highway.  Yes it takes longer, but you experience different things and experience MORE things in a way you usually would not have thought about.  Personally, the most noticeable thing weed helped me with was racism.  I honestly couldn't get the idea through my head that these people (minorities) weren't programmed to rob and steal and commit crimes.  Then WEED made me think differently and consider the possibility that these people might come from a rough family or might not have had parents at all to guide them.  It makes you think about EVERYTHING and ANYTHING.  It just makes you more open minded.  Sorry for long response."}], "user_id": "longlamp_11977", "history": [{"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "content": "I agree with your point, but who is to decide whether or not a game is \"cashing in?\"  I personally think Halo has been cashing in for a while, but many of my friends would say they love the new halo games.  The opposite can be said for The Elder Scrolls series.  I loved Skyrim, but many friends were unimpressed, saying they were just playing a shiny, more polished oblivion. \n I agree with what you are saying, that there needs to be a balance.  But just imagine the game devs, and how passionate they are about a new game.  Maybe they are so focused on expanding the Assassins' Creed storyline that they are blind to the fact that they have been making the same exact game for so long.", "id": "cb391jc", "summary": "I agree but it is tough to draw the line."}, {"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "content": "I can't comment on the graphics of CoD, but I imagine they will be better than older ones.  I know the CoD engine will be upgraded from the Black Ops and MW3 games.  But I personally think CoD has lots of clutter around the maps that pisses me off and makes it hard to see enemies. \n I liked CoD (still like CoD4) for the instant action and quick matches.  However, I like BF3 more because people have different roles on the battlefield, there are vehicles, the guns are much more realistic, and the gameplay is more visceral and engaging (was gonna say realistic but I don't look for realism in games). \n Battlefield, on the other hand, I love.  The graphics are stellar, and the gameplay can't be beat.  In the beginning, BF3 multiplayer was the greatest game I'd ever played HANDS DOWN.  The matches were mostly very close and there were TONS of servers.  BF4 will only improve on BF3, and hopefully correct the mistake of Premium segregation. \n The changing battlefield is a very cool concept I have thought about since Red Faction.  In the BF4 beta. you could take out most every wall that had playable area on both sides.  This made for very fun and interesting gameplay where I would get a friend to team up with me and we blow a hole through the backdoor.  I can't tell you how fun this is.  Also, the BIG battlefield changes like buildings falling down and flood gates are pretty cool as they change the level entirely and spice things up mid match. \n I can only imagine that since BF3 was far superior in graphics to CoD franchis that BF4 will do the same and blow us away.", "id": "cd0afgo", "summary": "CoD has more mindless instant action, BF has more complete battle experience with superior graphics."}, {"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "content": "Ok lets talk about it.  So it's an internet meme.  Meme: \"A cultural item that is transmitted by repetition...\" \n Lets think about that.  Repetition.  Hmmm.  What could be more repetitive than a T-shirt (rhetorical).  You wear it many many times, and it is seen by hundreds, maybe thousands or millions (if you're on TV or something).  This is called transmitting the meme.  If you don't want people rocking the FFFFFUUUUUU, then why create it?  If there was an \"Aint that some shit?\" t-shirt, you bet your skinny white christian ass (all, some, or none of the above) that I will buy one and wear it all the time.  If you think the meme sucks, why care about the shirt?  If you think it rocks, you should want these t-shirts to be MASS produced.", "id": "c167egl", "summary": "Higgs Boson NOT EQUAL TO hot topic t-shirt"}, {"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "content": "Good point, but the comment above mine mentions the stretch of time between quality SP games.  I really think AC sucked (as well as the sequels) and Mass Effect 1&2 were OK but I got bored after my first play through.  I can see why people love mass effect, but it never kept me interested.  Skyrim, however, invades my thoughts and dreams at all times.  I'm just saying that it's easier to just change a few guns, make 10 new levels and call it a day than to actually put in creativity and passion into a game (not saying CoD devs aren't passionate but they sure as fuck don't spur my imagination or provide me with any excitement as passionate devs usually do [see blizzard]).  It's much harder to produce a new Elder Scrolls game than a new CoD game, yet people line up around the block for CoD every year to throw their money away (in the sense that they are practically being exploited and ripped off, starved of any real development work and creativity).", "id": "c37cvou", "summary": "It's just my opinion, nothing spectacular.  If you didn't read it, it's not really worth your time. :D \n Also, I didn't proofread and I don't care for your grammatical or spelling corrections."}, {"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "content": "One time my brother and our friend were bowling with a plastic bowling set.  We set up the lane down the hallway going away from my brother's room, towards our mother's.  We were slamming strikes all night (on the hardwood floors, no less).  One toss went wildly awry, smacking the iron railing on our staircase and flew down to the first floor and hit our grand piano.  No response from my mom.  About an hour of bowling later, one rolls into my mom's room and I'm sent after it.  I tip toe in, grab it, and start to make my move out the door.  One floorboard creaks the TINIEST amount and she wakes up in a flash and yells at us for staying up too late.", "id": "c66muq2", "summary": "Bowling at midnight, floor creak wakes the sleeping beast that is my mother."}, {"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "content": "True, which is why we need to just make the t-shirts and stickers and give them away for FREE. \n Giving shirts to supporters will quickly spread awareness.  Something factual and tasteful that won't immediately make people think about cannabis (READ: Immediately turn people off of the issue), but instead they should think about how horrifying the statistic or fact is and then reveal to them that it is about cannabis.  Classic psychology; bring them to your side, then tell them which side they are really on. \n Maybe write a few stats about war on drugs (WoD for future reference) that make them appalled but hide from them the fact that it's really a stat about cannabis until they ask you about the stats on your shirt.  Then when you reveal the whole truth, they aren't predisposed to oppose it as they would be if you came out and said \"end prohibition because XYZ.\"", "id": "c42qnj3", "summary": "Free shirts that make people think about Prohibition without immediately knowing that the shirt is about prohibition"}, {"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "content": "Do it. Google Vail jobs and go to the career site and have your pick.  You might not be qualified for all jobs (driving jobs might require 21+) but you'll have a lot to choose from.  Restaurant, lifty, mountain safety, instructor (don't make enough money IMO).  I was a lift attendant last year and it was the best decision of my life.  This year I'm returning to the mountain, with a different position. \n Seriously, last winter was the greatest 6 months of my life.  Pow city. \n Jackson hole and other non-corporate resorts might be hard to find jobs without resort exp.  I didn't get hired by Jackson, but breck is a way sicker town anyway.  Also, vail, beaver creek, keystone and arapahoe basin are all nearby (and free to ski all year no blackouts at all these mtns if you work for Vail).", "id": "cd0en71", "summary": "Come to Colorado, the pow is epic and the people are great."}, {"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "content": "I definitely would appreciate it and would give ads more thought if they weren't catering to those people who are mentally incapable of seeing through the BS.  Like you said, if they gave me less bullshit, I wouldn't mind them as much (I still wouldn't enjoy them or appreciate the ad in and of itself). \n Even still, the thought of being manipulated by a sign or sound bite is sickening, no matter how beautiful or creative the ad may be.  Giving in to one ad is just as bad as the next, because they inherently cast their product in a false manner, rather than presenting facts and letting the consumer decide. \n For me, the only time an ad would be acceptable is if I personally requested ads for a new MP3 player or video game.  Even still, I would prefer a user review of the movie, game, or gadget over an ad MADE BY THE PERSON SELLING THE PRODUCT.  Nobody will make an ad (other than pharma because they have to) that points out the shortcomings of a product, so therefore they will never make an ad that is \"true\" or straight forward. \n I like watching movie trailers, but not when I am forced to watch the prometheous trailer (with the high pitch skreech noise) a hundred times.  The only reason I pirated that movie rather than watch it in theaters was due to the excessive advertising that annoyed me to the point where I would NOT buy a product I WANTED (prometheous movie ticket) because of the ads.", "id": "c6rkpy3", "summary": "It would be nice to get clean, straight-forward ads, but I would still prefer NO ADS.  They CAN NEVER BE unbiased."}, {"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "content": "Tragic true story.  I once had this card, among many others.  I had them in a binder, and loved them with my life.  One day, I took them on a field trip, where some kids proceeded to tease me about having pokemon cards.  I got so embarrassed that I gave them to some other kid and told him he could have them.  Didn't think twice about it, because I was \"being cool\" or some bullshit.  Now I have no pokemon cards, and no cash to show for it either.  :(  Had a holo charizard, and this post brought back a sad memory.", "id": "c3fgcms", "summary": "Gave all my Pokemon cards away, including Holo charizard, because I thought pokemon cards made me uncool."}, {"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "content": "Precum: I'm at an [8]. \n You make a fantastic point, and you have Aleve-iated my headache. \n >Imagine that you had never smoked yourself, and had only heard about cannabis from conservative sources. Would you still think it harmless? \n True Story: When I was younger, about 13-15, I knew very little about alcohol, cannabis and drugs in general.  I only knew enough from the occasional assembly and DARE speaker to know that I never wanted to drink or smoke anything, because drugs are bad.  I went through a period where I lost respect for my brother.  He would frequently come home tired the morning after spending the night with some friends (undoubtedly smoking reefer and drinking).  Rather than play video games or watch TV with me, he would just go back to sleep for a while. \n I though less of him for a while, regretfully, because he chose to succumb to the temptations. \n In hindsight, I probably just felt excluded.  Once my friends and I started dabbling with all things taboo, I became much more open minded about not only drugs and alcohol, but about the choices we make and maturing and such. \n 6 years later, my gamertag is RippedBacchus, I own $500 in glassware and my experience with cannabis is surpassed by few. :D", "id": "c14b7d7", "summary": "Straight Edge until 17.  I believed all the lies I was fed, and my views on life were just projections of others' views.  Cannabis  unlocked  my mind (Not the act of smoking, but the idea of something that I was always taught was bad that turned out to be so good), and enabled me to change how I understand things and see the world as it is."}, {"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "content": "In most RPG's there are poisons, and poison resistance.  I find these mostly useless, but would love to make a totally new character type in Skyrim that I have never been able to commit to.  I would LOVE to see poisons that take a few days to kill a target or beast, and might work with a story line or quest line to further my immersive experience.  Perhaps there are poisons to create certain effects (such as poisoning a shopkeep to make him friendlier for a few minutes for a big discount or otherwise unavailable deal to make).  Maybe in a Mod (or if dragon lairs exist in the game) you can sneak into a dragon's lair and poison him, to kill him painlessly (and perhaps preserving the dragon's soul and granting additional power to the character).  One more cool idea I had was poisoning people to make them hallucinate and turn on their friends (like the spell used in many Skyrim demo videos) or do something they wouldn't normally do (like help you or tell you a secret).  Just a thought, any opinions?", "id": "t3_ks1y5", "summary": "Poison mod please."}, {"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "content": "Everyone will die.  You will literally spend the rest of eternity doing nothing.  Being nothing.  I don't know when you or I will die, but I do know that I sure as hell won't spend the rest of my life as some low wage slave to the oligarchic government and police state politicians.  You only live once, and that amount of time is infinitely smaller than the amount of time you'll spend dead.  So I'm going to try to move out and spend the rest of my life skiing and traveling, doing what I love and meeting new people as long as I can.  Because after this one ride, you won't get another chance.", "id": "t3_nk3hc", "summary": "Deep shit."}, {"author": "kiwisdontbounce", "content": "Political Issues:  They start as challenges.  We face these challenges.  Some are easily solved, others not so much.  We converse with each other to find solutions to difficult challenges.  These conversations generally involve things like \"science,\" \"data,\" \"logic\" and \"experiments.\"  When these things aren't available (or are consciously ignored), our discussions turn to arguments.  Our arguments create \"sides,\" and people on either \"side\" generate FEAR and HATRED towards the other \"side\" (sometimes fear and hate come in milder forms, such as dislike and ridicule).  This HATE, creates ISSUES, and these ISSUES represent everything that is wrong with our otherwise great country. \n EDIT:", "id": "t3_e60bi", "summary": "Challenges>Arguments>Issues creates issues rather than solutions."}]}
+{"author": "Kaito-kun", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Different strokes for different folks as they say. Lay down relax and just go with what feels good until you climax! there is no rush or time limit to it, your way of doing it is correct. HAVE FUN!", "output": "There isnt really one way to do it.\nwhen you feel aroused and start to get a boner go lay down in bed or somewhere comfortable and run your hand around your manhood.\nrub, tickle, grab and stroke.\ndo different strokes with different tensions.\nmaybe slow and gentle or slow and with more grip to start\nworking your pace up a bit when things start to feel really good. \n get some lube, make it slippery, that nearly always makes things feel really great, it creates a bit of heat which feels nice and is slippery over the head and shaft which makes those nerves go crazy.\nuse just your finger tips on the head of your penis as if to massage someones scalp or pick up an egg out of a carton, [like this]( but with all of your fingers and twist lightly in different motions, dragging your finger tips along it. focus constricting the base of your shaft at the end where it meets your scrotum. constricting on every down stroke that can feel really awesome. you can use two hands if you want. hold decently tight at the shaft to keep the blood constricted and build some pressure while you stroke the head of your penis or higher up on the shaft. \n the [frenulum]( is a really sensative place and can give lots of pleasure when touched right or glazed over by lubricated surfaces such as hands or toys. doing the same motions as the egg idea but putting your thumb on the top of the head and the rest of your fingers against the frenulum you can do small strokes pulling away from your shaft and going back and forth, this always feels really good. \n when lubed up some guys like to stroke up and down while adding a twisting motion, or you can use only your index/middle finger and your thumb to make a ring like [\"Ok\"]( with your fingers, and just glaze over the head slighly constricted as if to similate penetration, go down the shaft and then let go and do it again, using two hands one after another both with this hand position creates and interesting effect. you can also do this in reverse. same hand position, grab around the base of your shaft and glide up wards constricitng over the head. \n when i was younger i used to lay on my stomach, my erection going up towards my belly button ( facing comfortably to lay on) put my hand slightly cupped underneath it as if to cover my head and shaft pressing with either my index and middle finger or middle and ring finger against the base of the penis but not to constict too much on the  urethra \nand then basically grind against my hand. \n I stopped doing this because your hand can start to hurt pretty bad when you get rough and in the moment, and thats probably not good for you over long periods of time, but if it can help you find the start of what pleasuring yourself feels like then it may be worth trying a few times. \n I really enjoy knowing as much as i can about sex and sexual organs, I think it would be really awesome to go into that sort of medical/scientific field so, dont be afraid to ask any questions at all.\nIm not claiming to know everything or be a professional take on matters. but im not shy about sex or masturbation details. its all really natural and good for you, the more you know the more fun you have and thats only going to benifit you. \n once things start to get really good at what makes you tick, please also keep in mind also that when you get too rough, or masturbate a large amount of times in succession, you can start to give your self bruises rashes and various other wounds. lube does wonders at avoiding this and well giving your body a good amount of time to rest is important too. \n I would like to suggest you look up edging and keggle exercises after you have learned to get off and are looking for a bit more with what you can do with masturbation that also help a lot with sex."}], "user_id": "longlamp_3701", "history": [{"author": "Kaito-kun", "content": "He didnt misunderstand after you showed him you were right and that is how it worked. he just didnt realize he was playing agianst something he felt was cheap and felt cheated. \n There are always combos that people get frustrated with to great extremes and your going to run into them. Everyone has a flavor of deck that they find they hate going against. \n All that i can advise you do is either tell them before hand or during their confusion. \n If you are going to play a deck of the extreme types try to give a fair warning without giving any tactical details away. ( im not sure how, be creative, maybe tell them its a more serious deck is it ok that you use it ) \n or when they start to question let them know that you will answer them with sources to enlighten them and if they desire to drop the match thats ok with you. you want to show them that you can understand and relate to the ill feelings that arise towards our individual discomforts when facing a different style but also that your deck is fully functional, within the rules, and you would like to play with it if that's alright. \n My brother uses a pretty broken deck called his white artifact deck. It uses wall of glare for its defenses, and some other broken white creatures that help abuse some equipment to make it flying, unblockable, shroud, double strike, trample, paired with inquisitor flail. if its blocked its attack gets massive and steam rolls you. he can do this in a few turns. the amount of damage he is able to do was questioned so many times and everyone hates that deck. i take every game light hearted but i can say ive been annoyed with how broken it is so i made my own broken deck suited for the purpose of smashing that deck into the ground faster than it could ramp up. we both enjoy fighting these two decks against each other every once in a while.", "id": "cbsxfve", "summary": "Ask the person to express their discomforts with the problem and then let them know (before doing anything) that you can explain that though it may feel wrong or unfair, its well within the rules and if they would like to stop the match their all they have to do is say so."}, {"author": "Kaito-kun", "content": "when i was in High school about 5-6 years ago there was a broadcasting on the news of a space shuttle launch blowing up killing the team inside,\nhere in the US. I immediately started to burst into tears from laughing so hard after watching the explosion. My step mom to this day thinks i need mental help, or that im going to become a murderer someday. \n It just crossed my mind that these people made their entire career and lived their lives to become part of the largest most expensive human firework anyone's ever made... that made me bust. \n [I do not think their deaths were funny, I don't have anything against what they do. I do understand that their families probably witnessed one of the most horrific ways imaginable to have your child die. \n But human reaction is curious and not everyone sees things in the same light.]", "id": "cds4x3k", "summary": "Space shuttle blows up, I laughed hard... Im going to hell for that"}, {"author": "Kaito-kun", "content": "well this should be fun\n> what have you recently downloaded \n > From the start of December on, all the programs i have downloaded or were installed and are updated regularly: \n > Various paid steam games (no add ons for them, just buying from sales) \n > adobe flash player 15 activex \n > adobe reader \n > adobe flash player 16 NPAPI \n > UTorrent \n > Razer synapse 2.0 \n > Microsoft silverlight \n > Microsoft PowerPoint viewer \n > Microsoft visual C++ 2008 Redistributable \n and well,\n> not just through torrents \n >however my last download was about 6 months ago \n and then theres this \n > but also through website \n >so nothing i recognize out of the ordinary and i wasn't really on my computer much so there weren't any other files that i would have intentionally downloaded besides those. \n there i made you a little", "id": "cnfhfgc", "summary": "since you  DR \n > How opposed are you to just saying fuck it, and downloading a crack? \n By a crack you mean basically something to just shut windows up (kind of illegally id assume? since it would be a torrented or downloadable program or file that goes against windows policies?) \n Not really against knocking the idea considering the annoyance its been, and well i torrent things i shouldn't so how much farther in the deep end could i really go? i suppose \n >either they help you or you are morally in the right to crack\nthats how i look at it ahha!"}, {"author": "Kaito-kun", "content": "Ok strap your self in, grab a soda or something to snack on (;P) this ones going to get long and detailed. \n the below does not indicate that i am a professional or that this works for every woman out there but im about to get into great detail about my favorite part of sex. I have researched the web for many different tactics and new ideas so if you see some that you may have read or heard before thats why, i don't claim it to be mine, merely just putting together my collective knowledge on the subject to be shared with you guys and gals \n Part 1:  Communication is the key to perfecting what you do and making it easier for you to give her what she wants. I mean when you learn what she loves and how to do it right you wont have to even think about it you will know and you wont have to sit there licking or sucking thinking \"is this doing anything, are we getting somewhere with this\" and wasting your time and efforts on it. \n I mean see if you can casual ask her if she likes oral, and what she likes about it. where does she like to be licked and in what manor. Does she like sucking/ a tongue inside her/ fingers playing around with tongue? \n don't ask all of these at once, unless of course the lady likes these questions or wants to let you know very openly. \n asking beforehand is good but the best time i find is after (seeing as during is very distracting unless its openly expressed that your both doing it out of experimentational purposes) \n Ask her how certain things felt, more than likely the most memorable parts will be the endings or the surprisingly good parts, focus on finding what those were and figure out how to fine tune them to her liking's.", "id": "cl2onua", "summary": "Part 1    You   --\"what was the best part of that, was there anything that really felt great?\"   Her   --\"oh my god yes, i loved that figure 8 pattern you did, it really got me going!\"   Now you know that she likes that movement spice it up and use it as a warm up for her, or if she got off to it use it as a killer move occasionally, if she asks for more FINISH HER!! \n Now so long as you guys are talking and shes helping you learn her do's and dont's its start to actually craft a solid example of great ways to initiate and perform!"}, {"author": "Kaito-kun", "content": "Part 3:  Now its time to get into things (take my puns as you will ;P) \n Also the longest in depth part (again sorry XD) \n What i want you to do is go buy a  peach . \n find the little crease it has and go in as if you were going to eat from that spot. \n your lips should wrap around it and your tongue should begin to make soft contact.\nnow take a bite and notice how you try your best to suck up the juices and move the piece you bit off into your mouth. (we  aren't  biting the vagina just stay with me) \n this crease can be treated like that of the vagina, your lips go around it softly (not engulfing her outer labia just resting on them accommodating her size) your tongue will then move within your lips, gently sucking at it to create pressure. Like how you move the piece into your mouth i want you to use that pressure when moving around her inner labia and such. sucking up the juices feels good to her just dont slurp! (try to keep the noises to a minimum when you start to get her there she doesn't want it spoiled by a terribly funny noise!) \n Eating a lady out is fun and a form of creativity, I like to imagine how it would feel or where i might find more sensitive nerves and muscles. \n Her clit is where its going to feel great but try to figure out just how much pressure and attention she wants there,  also DON'T start there!  after reading this and applying it I think you will begin to understand what i mean, its not bad its just there is another way to start it out to get a better ending. \n Now that we got those out of the way some pointers and good examples of things to try. \n Learning to love eating a girl out and desiring to be good at it are going to get you half way there, the other half is learned good movements and listening to her body. \n Every time i think of going down, I salivate in the same way as when someone offers me some sour skittles. this salivation makes everything great for the lady, my mouth never goes dry and she gets the perfect smooth tongue (no dry cat like tongue! avoid that like the plague!) \n the key about salivation however is to allow yourself you do it in spurts hold it in your mouth and allow it to flow when you feel its getting a bit dry as you move, you want to moisten her along with her fluids not flood the gates! getting it all over wet can be uncomfortable for some woman so choose an amount of wetness and after you finish feel free to later ask her if it wasn't tooo wet, if it starts to go down her ass she may get distracted and feel gross you want to avoid this of course. keep in mind also that if she is standing and your on your knees or she is sitting on your face or 69-ing with you feel free to messier as the fluids are able to spread out more and get away from her ass and drenching the sheets under her. \n The entire vagina is sensative and welcomes your tongue, around the outter labia, between the labia pairs, around the clitoral hood, down the urethra, and along the fourchette (that bottom \"lip\" of the opening of the vagina) \n learning to navigate it smoothly and with varying pressure allowing your self to stop and suck on her is a good way to warm her up. \n other fun ways to really get her going, writing the alphabet along her clit and hood with light pressure, really exaggerate the intersections of certain letters like X Y B G things like that, allow words that are circular like D G P to go around the clit while letters like E F H L J go beside it and around the edges. If you know cursive maybe play with that as well ;P creativity is a blessing! lastly two other things for this link up your letters don't stop the movement after finishing so instead of A B C D you want ABCDE going from where you stopped on one letter and moving into the next. Don't be afraid to stop at any letter you choose to do something else, if she doesn't seem to like it move on, if she does maybe write all the letters again but backwards or upside down. \n one of my favorite starter moves after i have her warmed up and i have explored her with my tongue is to treat her clit like its a dripping drop on an ice cream cone,\nturn your head sideways and drag the side of your tongue with it [curled slightly]( from her opening or urethra up across her clit. when you get underneath her clit apply a bit more pressure as if to lick it up and as you glide over the clit try to lift her hood a little bit playfully. I personally do this once or twice to tease her and release a few waves of pleasure. \n after you have her warmed up there are a few things ive learned about sensing her body's pleasure and how to use that to navigate your tongue as you try to learn what she wants from you. \n Her hands, if she has her hand on your head your where she wants you to be, stay there! \n to find rhythm, speed, and pressure move a hand to her lower stomach or the bottom of her thigh as if your holding it up a bit for support, these two areas are not only comfortable to her as you press on, but they also allow you to feel her muscles as she squeezes her inner muscles. her lower stomach is the ideal place to feel from as the closer she gets the tighter she should flex and the longer she will hold her muscles. If she doesn't like your hands in either spot or you don't feel like putting your hands there because they are busy with other things you can watch her breathing and her stomach for tensing up. if you have your fingers in her you will be able to feel her contractions and be able to use that as well to know what is feeling good. \n Moans and panting are good signs but not the tell all be all of how it feels, sometimes she will lose her self in concentration on how good it feels and could stop breathing for a while (lol this is fun to see ;P). Silence is hard to tell often times if it is good or just not really cutting it so pay attention to her facial expressions her breathing and her body cues, if her hands grip at anything this could be a good sign just make sure you aren't hurting her by slowly doing what you did again with a bit less pressure, if you get the cues like its still good then great if she pulls away or winces you may want to pull away from that again as it could hurt (too much pressure) or she may be too sensitive to that still. \n once you find her way of explaining that what your doing is what she wants through her body, you want to stay there and keep going until she climaxes! \nit could take a while, and like running a mile sometimes you may need to slow the pace slightly or extended your stride to make sure your keeping up a good strong pace to finish the mile. you can speed up slightly with a little more pressure to tip her over the edge however keep in mind that if you start this you could get really tired and it may cause you to stop at the worst moment, use that wisely and as a last means to get a great climax for her as you run low on strength. Also a quick word about sucking some girls really like it others say they dont care for it, i usually will give a bit of pressure always and for those who like it alot i will finish her buy sucking mildly as i lick her clit. \n the mouth cupping the vagina is superior to just licking with the tongue, since your tongue is still in your mouth and you have a better range of motion/speed/pressure with out having to use as much effort. Not only that but when you know shes close or if she starts to grind against your face (fuck thats sooo nice!) you can use your head or jaw to asist in the motion of your tongue or her thrusts! \n After she climaxes, personally i like to gently slow down get away from the clit and hood and maybe kiss her labia, mound and tummy or one or two licks from bottom to top very lightly to clean up the mess a bit ( and my way of saying thank you for the ride ;P) \n No", "id": "cl2oo51", "summary": "for this section as its very detailed and if you cant stop to read that, your on your own \n This could have been much long as i could include eating out while fingering, 69-ing and face sitting! \n Lastly if you want me to find the articles ive read and the videos ive watched to learn more id be more than happy to share! \n Thanks for reading and i hope i helped you lovely people to learn something more about going down and doing it with passion!"}, {"author": "Kaito-kun", "content": "Lets put it in this perspective, \n lets say that hitting on someone or making moves is like saying hello to a girl\nonce is fine accepted and if she greets you back it may be ok to continue but most of the time when guys hit on girls its like your saying \"hi, hello, howdy, how you doin\" and shes sitting there like ok i get it shut the fuck up. \n your basically advertising yourself and to a point its perfectly fine (i mean we all do it) but there are a lot of guys that go for all or any woman and never stop advertising thus making them really unattractive. \n In one of my friend circles we have a friend that has hit on everyone of the girls in the group at one point or another when he doesnt have a girlfriend. hes a sweet genuine guy and they all know it but what makes him unattractive is that hes puts him out in such a way it makes him seem desperate. he falls for one of the girls for a few months and when things don't progress he goes for another one of them. I dont blame him for moving from one to another with all of the girls because they are all very pretty unique fun and down to earth as well so its hard to really say he could just choose one. However had he not tried in the manner he did and just got over his break up and was just being a good friend there is a possibility he could have struck interest in one of the single girls and things would spark from there. \n their point is to slow down be yourself and have no intentions of hooking up or trying to persuade her of anything. by being you your actually more attractive more down to earth and the girls start to become comfortable with you and youll realize when its appropriate to make that first move and show interest in her. \n This is how i found my girlfriend, random chance and just letting things string along on their own. had i hit on her or tried to follow her around like a lost puppy she would have never even given me a chance. i've been with her for 4 years now, and i feel our relationship is strong because we both got to know one another first, no lies, no trying to act more attractive then we were, we just had fun together and talked alot.", "id": "clisvqw", "summary": "not so much \"once you stop trying to attract women and focus on yourself, they'll start coming to you!\" this but more like \"slow and steady wins the race\" this i suppose"}, {"author": "Kaito-kun", "content": "I get angry when people do unreasonably stupid things.\nSadly i don't know why little stupid things that i cant fathom people doing, get to me. Because this is my reaction to stupid things i just cant figure out, I feel like the stupid one. I ask myself why its such a big deal that i get angry and take it so serious and its hard for me to answer so if feels unreasonably stupid of me... which is what makes me angry. i know its quite a stupid issue but hey at least im honest? aha) \n i get that its not to annoy people, they are excited but if you reply to people with information they didnt need to know to simple questions you just sound like an idiot and its actually harder to provide more information to the question. \n if someone asked me if i slept well last night and i answer you in seconds (yes it would be really trolly of me so at that point has the potential to be funny but if thats how i answered questions) im sure most people would think what the fuck dude the normal response is in hours... just why?? \n its just the fact that the parent knows (they did grow up with being asked how old are you and responding in years like everyone else) to respond in years and gives you months is just mindblowingly stupid. the reason is just plain silly i have heard from some parents saying their child is 38 months, 56 months when all you wanted to hear is \"oh shes 2\" or \"he'll be 5 here soon\" \n I understand that in most baby books or information on babys they like to try to give you an idea of what growth to look for in the weeks then into the months timeline of things considering that babies do grow kind of fast, however i still haven't wrapped my brain around the parents, having years of conditioning  to tell other people their age in years, to just switch to months because they have a baby and now feel thats going to tell me something special about their kid. \n I didnt ask \"how  developed  is your child?\" or \"I have a little one,  how many months  is your baby?\" \n I asked \"How  old  is the little guy?\", \"shes cute how  old  is she?\" \n i get that  age  can be defined by any measurement of time however we use the How old is (said person) as a way to ask how many years they have been around. I could ask \"how many years old is she?\" but then i sound like the clown, I'll get the answer i want so it works however then people look at me funny for asking so strangely, it almost comes off as if i had some hidden agenda, why specifically years? do you see what im getting at? \n we form questions to get certain answers all the time, and when we are taught to reply in a certain manner, replying with different information feels like a troll, a misunderstanding of what is being asked, or they just refuse to communicate normally for what ever reason. they could be attempting to convey something additional but with out actually telling me what they are thinking about when they say month i will have no idea what they are referring to, replying in this suggestive style helps no one and i find it irritating for all the reasons above.", "id": "cj6obzi", "summary": "I guess what im trying to say is the reason for answering like this never out weighs answering normally (in certain circumstances) . considering the fact that if you answer in months i have no idea why you did that and it allows me no additional information, im sure this is almost always the case with others as well. \n (also this is part of why i get mad i suppose, i break it down to the why vs why not argument in my head and cant justify the pointless answer they gave me. if it serves no purpose when communicating to the masses your missing the concept of communicating at a very basic level to me. why do people choose to fail at communication they know the right way but choose another.. then why speak at all? this is irritating) \n Edit: I know it looks ranty but i like to explain things, especially when im motivated to do so. I dont mean any disrespect at all do as you please but as another human being (and i feel like i cant be the only one) please keep others in mind when speaking :) i'll try my best as well"}, {"author": "Kaito-kun", "content": "Pistols](\npretty bad drop off after 20 ft \n [Smgs](\nscorpion evo does less damage at max damage and drops off much sooner, it shoots faster and has more bullets in each mag. \n Kap 40  excels in a lot of places such as point blank, where it is your \"go to - for escape\" secondary, in the cases of legnthy reloads or snipers. Used to put someone down in moments where your main gun wont cut it. \n However after about 30 feet, you need 6 bullets in either the head or the body spot on to drop someone (19 x5 = 95 damage one more for 100 health and it has a 1x multiplier to the head meaning you have no advantage for head-shots--other than camos of course) \n It is greatly possible to use this gun and do well don't get me wrong but its partially because you have mobility and that allows the element of surprise. it excels in close combat, and gets you there quick, its fire rate is higher than most but, its mags are small. \n all of the pistols are fantastic in this game having great potential for stopping players using any other class of gun as long as they are used in the right scenario (thats how all the guns are in this game, give yourself the advantage of placing yourself in the best position for the weapon and you grant yourself the best odds for securing kills). \n Saying all of this glorifies the Kap 40's strengths, sure its great but how much kill potential does it actually have. well in a perfect world you could kill 5 players at 10 feet with each mag(45 damage up to ten feet per bullet x3 =over 100 damage, 3 bullets to kill/15 bullets in each mag = ability to kill 5 people), does this happen? \n Hell no! its usually 2 at most (including extended mags imo) so there is alot of reloading and you aren't equipt with a whole lot of ammo for the gun considering its supposed to be used as a secondary (lol who does that). \n Its easily outclassed when you put it up against anyone who knows how to use the r870 for example. 50 damage per pellet (8 pellets per shell)\nmeaning you need 2 to kill up close  (chest or head - 4 for legs/arms) and they spread pretty well, its sprint out time is .15 as to where the kap is .2 meaning quicker on the draw add quick draw and kap 40 doesn't have too much of a chance so long as the r870 is pointing at you. \n This gun is Op only in the case of Hardcore in my opinion (yet most people don't use it), 1 bullet to kill up to 20 feet 2 bullet to kill at any range, burst firing this into crowds of enemies just rips them to shreads, it out classes most of the smgs for their usefulness, its practically a msmc with rapid fire but no damage over range reduction. \n Its always possible for a gun to feel op, but it could actually be that the other player knows their weapons strengths and weaknesses and is giving themselves the advantages of the weapon, or that your simply being outclassed (could be map knowledge, being out gunned, or the fact you may not be using cover. There are many things that you may not be noticing about you and it could be the entire reason your losing against this particular gun)", "id": "cc6gbut", "summary": "Kap-40 Isn't op, Break it down it could be you"}, {"author": "Kaito-kun", "content": "A little background,  I scoured the internet and can only find the opposite (reducing the noise: moving the device farther away or put the phone in airplane mode) I found out that it's known as [Electromagnetic interference]( in the speakers when the phone is sending [GSM]( to cell towers. \n Now I'm not sure if this subreddit is where i should be asking but i figured it would be a good place to start. I would love suggestions for other subreddits that may be techy enough to come up with some kind of answer or if its possible. \n The reason i want to know is more on the interest side, my [new phone]( seems to send these signals a lot more than any other phone i have had. when i get calls, when it updates, sometimes i don't even know what its doing to get these signals. Past that it made me think, if there was a way to increase or boost that range teachers could use that to keep students from screwing off in class, in jobs where clients personal information is at the employees disposal and personal technology is forbidden. things like that would be a useful application, or other useless things like being able to know a text is coming before it shows up to my phone... from my bed. \n Just a fun thought itching my brain at 4 am, if i can get an answer id be grateful.", "id": "t3_1kq3lk", "summary": "any ideas on how to boost cell signals that are received through speakers"}, {"author": "Kaito-kun", "content": "Back story: \nI work for a call center that is working for a contract with a bank. so basically i'm a third party bank employee who takes the banks calls. \n(cant release where or who.. obviously) I sit in a row of cubicles unable to have any form of electronics, pens paper or any sort of way to write anything down that you can think of (other than blood on toilet paper lol but its not some sort of prison i just think its stupid considering if there is a will there is a way), I've been bored out of my mind when we are slow with call volume. we can do anything that isnt distracting to others or loud really. people used to bring puzzles but recently that got vetoed. \n my question:\nI would like some suggestions of some things i could bring to work to enjoy my time instead of dreading the little blue walls around me.\nIve been looking to buy a good Yo-yo and ive sewn all the holes in all the clothes i own back together (22 year old male here by the way aha!) my friend gave me some parachord and ive been tying some knots but that got old quick of course.\nSo reddit what might you suggest i try", "id": "t3_1d3m6u", "summary": "Cant have electronics cant have anything i can steal member information on, how do I entertain myself at work, any suggestions?"}, {"author": "Kaito-kun", "content": "So about 5 years ago when i first bought my 1987 YJ, I attempted to roll up my back window in winter after a really hard snow and it literally snapped. this last winter something hit my rear driver side window and ripped it as well. Being that i have two pretty gnarly rips in these windows and winter is coming back around again, id love to get some new ones if anyone knows of an online store that i could buy them from. \n I've been searching on and off for a while now and i cant find anything for my model that isnt a whole set, i dont want to drop money on an entirely new soft top when id like to just get a hard top at some point here soon anyway. \n You guys are always super helpful and I seem to be failing at searching the internet for this for whatever reason so any help at all would be awesome! thanks guys", "id": "t3_2gbye9", "summary": "Anyone know of an online store where i could buy a replacement back and rear driver side windows for an 87 YJ soft top?"}, {"author": "Kaito-kun", "content": "Some context. \nGirlfriend of 7 years has watched a ton of anime with me,  plenty on her own as well. She loves anime and the culture but can't stand Naruto and the community.  She says this because of the crazy over the top Naruto fans in her school who ran around with the headbands acting rash and rudely so it put her off from the series. Now it is a bit of harsh assumptions that were caused by kids who didn't seem to care about their surroundings but that doesn't mean you hate the anime,  why not give it a shot. I've tried to get her to watch an episode through out the years to no avail. \n She decided randomly to barder for annoying chores one day and asked me to do something and name my price, my roommates (long time friends) said \"why not trade him an episode of shows he really likes that you wouldn't normally watch\" she grumbled but agreed. \n So I have a lady who supposedly hates this anime (I've watched it through a few times and I've almost finished reading through it) and I've been trying to line up the best episode to show her.  She has little to no context about the show and I know many of the good juicy episodes that get me pumped or move me are climactic endings of several episodes or plenty of little details adding up over many episodes. \n Anyway what,  in your opinion,  would be the best episodes to show someone with no context that may spark an interest. \n She likes to say the style is ugly (i keep telling her the anime is kind of old, and that the fight scenes are totally crazy animation wise so she really needs to cut it Slack there) she doesn't like Narutos voice,   I'm not a fan of the American actresses voice until shippuden so that I can understand a bit. \n Other than those two points,  she loves the anime fairy tale and I've been telling her that this series has a much more serious side but has the same feeling.  You have many characters with lots of back story and character development along with them having unique abilites and skills to fight with. \n Any and all suggestions are apriciated", "id": "t3_4wtx3i", "summary": "what are the best episodes to show someone with little to no context that would possibly win them over to being interested into this anime.  Single episodes if possible, also the least amount of spoilers if you can as a challenge becuase that could be fairly difficult but that's fine."}, {"author": "Kaito-kun", "content": "Two plus you is the occupancy laws in city of  Fort Collins Colorado, Greeley doesn't really have  a name. For this explanation i the name describes the law. It's an occupancy law that states that you can have a max of two unrelated people to you can live with you. If any combination of people ever reaches three unrelated people to any one person it's illegal and breaks the code. \n I know it's long please skim and scan, then ask questions where you need to. We really would love for any advice at this point we are all at a loss. Fearing losing a lot of money and a good home causes a lot of stress with no where to turn. Thank you for the help in advance \n My friends and I just moved into a really nice house on the nice side of town. The occupants are a friend and his wife, my best friend, my long time girlfriend and myself. We a renting this house that is a four bedrooms. Our landlord let us know a few days ago that the HOA of the area had a complaint that we were in violation of the occupancy laws of the city. She stated that it shouldn't be a big deal and that she was \"going to bat for us\" letting them know that we are great quite tenants and that the three boys are brothers so she's not sure what the issue is but that we have the communities best interest st heart. She also let us know that it was in our lease that we were all aware that we were breaking the city ordinance and that we would lose our deposit of 2000 dollars If we were ever asked to vacate by the city. (of course the concerned us but it seemed like we may already be screwed with this news before we were ever to be ready for it,  I'll explain more further) It seems the HOA either never saw this message or didn't care about it because they gave word to the city. Today a city official (i beleive) arrived at my door to ask about who lived here after she received the complaint. I was nervous about what legally could happen to all of us If i lied. I said that we had two married couples and a mutual friend. (we figured if someone did ask this is what I should say because we thought that the fact that we had a married couple and that my girlfriend and I have been together that we could be seen as married by common law that we would be alright seeing as its a unrelated couple and another person) saying this the lady explained that the. Married part means nothing I'm not related to the wife or the husband or my friend legally so that's three points of separation. She proceeded to explain that she feels both the tenants involved and the renting company may not be aware of these laws so if she could talk it over with our landlord they may be able to work out an extension to the amount of time we would have to vacate more around a few months rather than a month. I called the landlord and she says she knows that its the old guy across the street that complained as the home owners have had problems in the past about him complaining. She seems to think that if we could somehow make him happy he could retract his complaint from the city. She wanted to write a letter and tape it to the 15 or so houses in the immediate area explaining the situation and letting them know we care for the neighborhood, our property, and the peacful demeanor that all of the current neighbors do. My roommates and i feel that this would only encourage more complaints seeing as we are basically announcing that a complaint about is is causing us to have to move out and if any of them for any reason decided that they didnt want 5 middle aged neighbors they could simply do the same. \n We have no idea were to proceed from here,  we feel totally screwed and that there is literally no other option but for all of us to start packing and move out. We would all have to pay a new deposit and months rent somewhere else and thats going to be extremely difficult. Not only that but of course we would love to stay in this nice house and really take care of it. We are actually very quite seeing as we have a couple friends over every other Tuesday for board games or movies in the basement where no one would really hear us of we did ever get a little loud. \n The lease part that I said Id get back to. I kept asking for the lease, I've been nearly screwed over a few times (there are a lot of what i'd like to call slum Lords in Greeley since most of the city is poorly taken care of with plenty of theft going on everywhere)  and would have loved to fully look it over and question as many things as I could. We had to push the landlord (more leasing agent I'd guess since there is the owner of the home not directly involved) to keep asking the home owners about considering us. The home owners didn't want 5 of us living in their house for fear of not taking care of the property. After they finally decided they were OK we were sent information on how to sign in on their website and sign the lease, the online document looked fine but it also had the line about the lease being subject to change at their discretion.  I felt bad about this but the lady is often really hard to get ahold of. Regardless I didn't read everything as thoroughly as I should have and I should have been more Persistent about asking her about everything that was concerning. \n It is in the lease that they are aware we are in violation of city code and that we will lose our deposit so if there is nothing we can do then I know we are screwed. \n Jokingly I talked about the married couple adopting me and my friend to make it so we are all legally related but that seems like an expensive and timly solution that would allow us to remain here until we wanted to leave and screw my friend and I out of inheritance from our family's down the line seeing as it cuts the s ties there. \n What else can we do,  just how screwed are we. \nWe figure we could also have our friend move out and keep the couples however rent would go up 100 a person, which is possible just very difficult to manage. Not to mention  what does ourf friend do, he basically takes the getting screwed for the rest of us. \n Sort of", "id": "t3_51p1e1", "summary": "my 4 friends and I are in violation of the cities occupancy laws. Landlord knew and had it in the lease we had no idea (stupidly didn't go over the lease deeply enough) max of two unrelated people per home in this area. We have a married couple, my best friend not related to anyone, my girlfriend and me (been together for long enough to be considered legal by common law if we had to go that route). Old man made a complaint went from HOA to the city and the city came today. How screwed are we and can we do anything to fix the situation before the - we all move out - phase of the law."}]}
+{"author": "logged_n_2_say", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post yes you can get a mac with almost those specs for more money, or if you are comfortable you can hackintosh.", "output": "did you mean a 650m?  i dont know what a 950m is. \n but yes, the macbook pro w/o retina have those specs, but at the apple premium (minus 16 gb ram).  you are talking about hackintoshing, which can be done (check out /r/hackintosh) but you better be tech savy and anticipate peripheral problems.  like trouble with wifi, sound, bluetooth, etc, etc.  those things are common, but if you are up for it usually can be worked through.  however, every little os update can completely undue everything. \n also why do you need 16 gb ram?  video work?"}], "user_id": "longlamp_12267", "history": [{"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "maybe they meant this]( but it's 28\", $699, and only 30hz. \n or they meant korean ips/pls panels?  but they are 27\" \n or maybe they meant 24\" 1200p, but they aren't near what i would call \"high dpi\" compared to some of the other examples.  the've also been around longer than 1080p monitors.", "id": "cf0z0dn", "summary": "not sure what they're talking about."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "stimulus spending is a band-aid instead of than a cure, i thought most knew that? \n no stimulus will be successful, unless markets correct themselves and we eventually produce more than we consume.  i've always viewed the stimuli we've received as trying to stop the bleeding and shallowing the valley, but again that depends on the belief that brighter days are on the horizon.", "id": "c5p1axc", "summary": "stimuli don't fix the problem, they make the symptoms of the problem not as bad until the problem is fixed."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "And I know that VRAM doesn't stack with SLI. But I was wondering if the bit bus does. \n ok so the equation is: \n Bus Width x Effective Memory Clock ÷ 8-bits = Bandwidth\n \n for the 4gb 770 gb OP has linked: \n 256 x 7010 ÷ 8= 224 GB/s\n \n in sli you now have two \"pipes\" splitting the work, but the buffer rate is the same.  the gpu units cant process it fast enough to saturate the bandwidth.", "id": "cbe7vg8", "summary": "the bus bandwidth isn't the issue."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "According to the United States Census Bureau, in 2011 there were 48.6 million people in the US (15.7% of the population) who were without health insurance. \n but \n >  The number of people who lack insurance at some time during a multi-year period is greater than the number currently uninsured. A study published by Families USA in 2009 estimated that approximately 86.7 million people were uninsured at some point during the two-year period 2007-2008. This represented about 29% of the total US population or about one-in-three under 65 years of age. \n [wiki]( \n > Almost everyone agrees that once healthcare is more affordable, they will start getting things taken care of, co-pays or not. Most insurance companies cover at least 80% of costs. \n but there is no agreement that healthcare  will be  more affordable.  theoretically the majority of those uninsured are \"healthy\" and as the mandate (or \"tax\") was upheld by scotus with more healthy people paying premiums the overall cost should go down.  in practice, the projections are increasing for 2014, but then again they are always up.  some states are reporting \"great savings\" they also usually happen to be blue states, whereas red states are complaining \"meteoric rise in premiums.\"  what's reality?  i don't think we'll know for sure until the dust settles.", "id": "cbp070d", "summary": "there is no agreement on what will happen or should happen.  time will tell."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "let me start by saying that yes it  could be  an issue going forward, but there really isn't any evidence of performance problems currently. \n now look at your alternatives: \n \n another 2gb 770 = $321 \n everything else = $$$$ for upgrade(290x, 780, 280x xf, 2x770 4gb), or $$ for sidegrade (single 280x, single 770 4gb [very unecassry unless you plan to sli, and even then, meh...]) \n \n and look at the  guru3d bf4 page some posted.", "id": "cdbul4j", "summary": "sli might take advantage of higher vram 770's, but sli 2gb 770's still out perform even single 290x and 780ti and is best upgrade path for you."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "Why does no one use sound cards in builds? Will there still be sound when I connect it through HDMI? \n yes, hdmi will work.  unless you are an audiophile or have specific needs the mobo sound is usually sufficient. \n > Is everything compatible? \n it appears so.  that mobo isn't highly regarded, but mitx has limited options.  you don't  need  a cpu cooler, unless you just think you want one.  the psu is way more than you will need.  [this is still more than you need,]( but it's cheaper and is modular.  if you wanted to save some money you could get non modular like the xfx pro 450, but not recommended for a prodigy build. i would get 8 gb ram in 2 sticks.  if there's room, a wifi on the pci may perform a little better, but no biggie. \n >Is the processor too weak? I3 seems small for gaming. \n well, you have the older sandy bridge which are still very good compared to ivy, but it's a little questionable these days for gaming with amd options.  BUT since this is a mitx build, i don't recommend any fm2 options for gaming and a dedicated gpu.  i would go to at least a 3225 and an ib mobo for a little more and for better benchs, but that's not a major improvement.  HOWEVER, if you can afford it, even a 3470 is a really nice gaming cpu and will perform well making sure your 7850 is a bottleneck for a long time.", "id": "c945bd1", "summary": "at your price point, if you get away from the mitx (which honestly, the prodigy is bigger than some matx) then we have am3+ options, and things get interesting.  if you want mitx then your options are the i3 or budget willing an i5."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "i can't really help you as far as \n > leave me broke \n goes since you're out of the US.  but a lot of the dvd's take external hdd's, but the codecs may vary.  i would just search for drives with a usb port, and then do a google search of the model number.  most of the reviews, and forum posts should have first hand knowledge.", "id": "cebec77", "summary": "don't buy a ps3"}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "i think it will be entirely possible to run bf4 with a 660ti on high (not ultra!) @1080p as long as you drop the aa settings.  don't sweat it, 6months is a long time.  if you want to game now, then get as good as your budget can handle and enjoy.  people make a big deal out of ultra and 60fps, but people are using older stuff and gaming on new games with lower settings and enjoying the game.  there isn't a threshold of settings where you can't game....well i guess there is, it's like ~20fps and any of the cards you mentioned in op should do way more than that on decent settings for at least a couple years (*except crysis, fuck that franchise).", "id": "c9gajp2", "summary": "don't stress.  if you want to pc game now, then get the best you can afford and i bet you'll be pleasantly surprised how well it does with bf4 when it comes out.  if you are patient, then be patient and wait..."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "well, it looks like a link bait article.  near as i can tell, samsung doesnt release sales figures of units sold to end user.  however, they have recently reported that they [sold 10 million units to carriers]( in about a month, which is about 20 days sooner than the gs3 reached those numbers. \n compare that to the iphone 5 which sold 5 million in 3 days after release.  also, the introduction to tmobile will certainly bolster iphone 5 sales ( [500k](  however, according to gartner, samsung continues to gain market share of smart phone sales, at the cost of apple's. [samsung smart phone market share up ~3%, apples down ~3% ytd.](  keep in mind those numbers are all smartphones, not just s4 and iphone 5.", "id": "ca309fc", "summary": "it could be possible but author has no source.  most sources tell a conflicting story."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "4670k is unlikely to be cpu bottlenecked by any single gpu vid card out.  the fact it can overclock, should insure it's ability to continue that for the next year or so. \n very few games take advantage of the 4 hyperthreads of the 4770k currently, but theoretically the 4770k should overclock higher than a 4670k if you disable hyperthreading.  in practice, that may not be your personal experience.  multitasking while gaming being the biggest plus for the 4770k.", "id": "cer05vo", "summary": "4760k is more than enough for single gpu gaming (and then some)"}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "BF4 - unknown, but beta multiplayer? - [no with a i7-3820.]( \n crysis 3 - [at \"high\" you can ~60 with a 4960x, not ultra]( \n PS2 - cpu bound, but unlikely to get consistent 60 fps \n watch dogs - unknown, early rumors suggest it could be challenging for cpu/gpu \n cod ghosts - unknown, but historically not very graphically intense.", "id": "cctj4e4", "summary": "according to techpowerup@1080, 280x ~7970 GHZ and 680]( \n [according to guru3d, sli 760 can vary on scaling but typically near or better than titan.]( \n EDIT: also keep in mind, mantle's implementation could be widespread or follow physx.  [it's not going to be used in consoles]( potentially limiting it's usefulness."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "Otherwise, no system builder even Dell would purchase these products, as who wants to be the one financially responsible if/when a part you sourced breaks. \n the oem has the warranty, not you.  the oem can request warranty work, not you. think about that. \n > Apparently Aeon is probably not an authorized reseller. Amazon, and Newegg, however, ARE. \n third party sellers are NOT covered by amazon's warranty. \n > but you are misleading people by claiming that OEM drives do not carry a warranty. \n i certainly never meant to imply that oem dosent have warranty, but i'm speaking of this specific drive.", "id": "cfeinna", "summary": "buy at your own risk.  these are likely older unsold oem drives, that will probably not have warranty coverage."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "the real question should be \"is the card under warrranty?\" because if the card works when you bought it, the only likely risk from mining is the wear and tear on the fans. \n if the fan goes out (or anything else weird), most of these mining cards are still under warranty , so you are out a month or so for the rma, but then you get a refurbed working card back.", "id": "cgx9drt", "summary": "check for a warranty, if the card works buy with piece of mind."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "I was making roughly $2500 to $2700-chunk payments per month on my $27,000 loan, and it took every effort to squeeze out what I could from each paycheck. \n just a comment on this for a different perspective.  i had more debt than you but at the same subsidized interest, but paid it down in similar sized payments a and large lump sum that i had been saving. \n granted, it felt great to accomplish my goal but i somewhat wish i had listened to my accountant. \n this last year i paid off my loan, so the interest payments were miniscule for 2013 and i paid for it, literally.  my tax obligations since they werent offset by the student loan interest, was substantial. \n if i had maybe a slightly less aggressive payback schedule, not only could i write the interest off for maybe a few more years but i would have a nice savings chunk to go towards a down payment on a house.  i still have a comfortable size of savings, but looking back and thinking what i could do with it all of it now...i do have a little regret. \n anyways, my fiance is in a similar boat, now.  she has accrued a nice savings but wants to pay down her student loans.  she would prefer to do it aggressively, but i think she understands better than i did, seeing my situation.", "id": "chnmk78", "summary": "congrats on paying off, it's a testament to your work ethic and sacrifice.  but aggressive payback can also have some unfavorable consequences."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "remember those were benches released from amd, but the highest was 58% increase in fps.  independent reviews arent out, that i've seen.  most setups had a smaller fps improvement, even from amd itself and this is only available to gcn amd gpu's and apu's and only bf4 has mantle currently. \n [more info]( \n [morer info](", "id": "cf3ljgn", "summary": "it's unlikely that directx is going anywhere soon, but time will tell."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "there are lots of cpu benchs from crysis 3, some give the edge to the 8350 some give the edge to ivy bridge i7's, but the hcw is the newest one and only one with haswell.]( \n it may also vary from scene or mp used, given slight edges to different cpu's in different scenarios.", "id": "cghe3nw", "summary": "you're good"}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "asus rampage iv formula right?  it has dual pice3.0x16 lanes and dual pcie2.0x16. \n the concern being that pcie2.0x16 isn't as fast as pcie3.0x8, but i asked one of the ee's on here about that very subject and he said \n > The new scheme for PCIE 3.0 may actually allow x8 to keep pace PCIE 2.0 x16 because of the reduced overhead.  If we look at the raw transfer rate of the two we get: \n >  PCIE 2.0 - 5 GT/s   16 lanes = 80GT/s at 20% overhead = 64GT/s \n \n PCIE 3.0 - 8GT/s * 8 lanes = 64GT/s at 1.54% overhead = ~63GT/s \n \n > This slightly better than back of the napkin calculations shows the total lane transfer rate and that they're really close, probably so close that the difference should be negligible.  That being said, I've read plenty of benchmarks saying that current PCI3.0 offerings are only marginally better than flagship PCIE2.0 counterparts which puts the bottleneck at the hardware itself and not on the bus speed.  In the next year this should change but we'll see what the Hynix DRAM fab fire has in store for that because the 2 fabs that burnt down primarily manufactured GDDR5 (from my coworker, i haven't verified this personally though) which is being used in almost all levels of current GPUs. \n so then i asked a f/u question if there would ever be a situation where pcie3.0x8 would outperform pci2.0x16, and he said: \n > Not necessairly,  as far as I know, there aren't many, if any PCIE 2.0 x32 (2x16 links) capable boards out there so most crossfire/sli setups will negotiate to 2x8 links.  From what many people tell me, the biggest factor is just shipping data around the memory on the card and since GDDR5 is only 4.5gb/s at its fastest, there is incurred latency there, plus you have setup times for the processing pipe, DMA, and where ever the data has to go intermittently between execute and writeback to memory. \n > I think the two (pcie2.0 2x16 and pcie3.02x8) are going to be so evenly matched you're going to just run into other factors that will affect performance more than hardware choices.  I assume overclocking will be an option here, just give your ram slightly more bus speed, CPU FSB could benefit you some here. \n > If this is a choice of hardware, grab a PCIE3.0 capable board and cpu and run a single x16 for now.", "id": "ccgq8om", "summary": "the setup should be equivalent, or even give the slight edge to pcie2.0x16 over a 3.0x8 setup."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "4k\" refers to the horizontal  vertical  resolution ~4000 pixels, but the 16:9 ratio made popular by \"HD\" is also know as \"1080p\" ( which the pixel count of the vertical) and has 1920 pixels in the horizontal  vertical . \"1080p\" is the tv version of cinematically used \"2k\" but for whatever reason 1080p caught on. \n Flash forward to \"4k\" which is 4x the resolution of \"2k\" (2x the horizontal and 2x the vertical = 4x) but again for reasons unknown they call them \"4k monitors\" even though they are not \"4k\" they are 3840x2160 = 2(1920)x2(1080).   technically  the correct term for that is ultra high definition (UHD) not 4k. \n In all actuality, UHD is no more 4k than 1080p is 2k, but the name is sticking.", "id": "ccfwb8j", "summary": "what pedowithherpes said"}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "By the logic of the test AnandTech is showing we should see a larger difference between 3.0x16 and 3.0x8 \n explain why on [this,]( the 3960x at 2.0x16/16 is 10 fps behind the 3770k at 3.0x8/8 and every other pcie3.0?  or why the 2600k at 2.0x8/8 is essentially the same as the 3960x at 2.0x16/16? \n if theoretically you could completely saturate pcie 2.0 x16 then i agree, but this assumes there is no difference in pcie 2.0x16 and pcie 3.0x8.  that doesn't appear to be the case. \n to me it says we have reached or are reaching the max transfer of pci 2.0 but the tech has yet to saturate pcie 3.0 x8 let alone pcie 3.0 x16. \n the i5 with crossfire pcie3.0 x8/x8 will be very similar in price, and where it doesn't flat out beat the 8320 it should be extremely close.  if cost were significantly lower then i would have no problem going the 8320. \n sidenote, personally i have never maxed out any data transfers be it usb3.0, firewire400, ethernet 100MB or gigabit, etc.", "id": "cc27s1f", "summary": "imo the data suggests there is a difference in pcie 2.0 x16 and pcie 3.0 x8."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "yes, but if you're gaming you'd probably want to wait it out for the 980 ti.  if they follow the trend between x80 and titan's the x80 (like the 780 and 780 ti) are the more gaming oriented versions.  althought the \"step up\" program from evga has a time limit, and the 980 ti may not come out in time or never. \n this titan x will likely be 2+ times more expensive than the 980, without being 2+ times more performance gaming wise.", "id": "cp4eocg", "summary": "dont get the titan x unless you need the workstation help, or if you don't care about price/performance ratios for gaming."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "they tested a sandy bridge i5, which is two gens behind so we can only guess, and it would really only be for the beta, but: \n presuming a 12% perfomance increase with the 4670k over a 2500k at stock, would give a slight edge to an 8350 at ~60 fps max, 46 fps min. \n truthfully, that's a really shitty way to compare the two, and those seem really low fps for a titan at the rez, with no aa.", "id": "ccjqmxw", "summary": "wait for the official release."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "OMG...as a christian, this story..THIS STORY...you can't deny it's truth. up until 3 seconds ago, the word of \"god\" was the only truth i knew, but but \n the lime green font set against star stuff... \n le rage faces... \n it's so universal.  SCIENCE, REASON, LOGIC.....whoa.  and with that I announce to the world, I AM NOW AN ATHEIST.  thank you msf!!!  i can't wait for part 2!", "id": "c6e5qdn", "summary": "god   O.M.S."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "as a rule of thumb, tn's will be better at input lag.  although, newer ips and amva also have very low input lag, and the difference is in milliseconds.  take for instance the u2312hm which tft tested at average .6ms difference from a crt (still the reighing king of input lag.)  which if true, is realllllllly good. \n but the u2312hm is typically around $180 when on sale, whereas a tn 23\" should be had for near $100.  so you paying for brighter, more vibrant colors, and much better viewing angles.  ips v amva is a little closer in specs but amva is cheaper, and some amva have been near $150.  amva maker is usually benq and i'm not aware of any that come in matte.  but they shouldn't be overlooked, as they have great blacks/colors and viewing angles.  many here swear by ips, and it's easily the most popular choice, but that is also because only ips (or samsungs version called pls) come in high resolution large screens like the 1440p and 30\" 1600p.", "id": "cayysef", "summary": "i hope i didn't confuse you - but if you want near $100 or lower go tn.  if you want 120 fps possible or 3d, go tn but much more expensive.  if your budget is higher and you dont want 3d or 120hz there are options."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "regarding your edit, and the general discrepency with the results, i have a theory. \n tpu used the Catalyst 13.3 Beta 3, instead of the 13.5 beta 2, for everything but the 7990.  most other sites used the 13.5 beta 2 for all the 7xxx series cards they compared.  that coupled with the fact that they used many older games, may help explain the data. \n but one problem with this theory is that they also used the older nvidia 314.22 for the 6xx series and only the newer 320.18 Beta driver for the 770 and 780.  so does that effectively level the playing field?  i make no assessment of that, but interestingly many sites reporting poorer performance of the 680 used the 320.00 beta or 320.14 beta. \n tpu also used windows 7, but so did some of the other sites.  i don't think the tpu results are \"bad\" or \"misrepresentative\"  but they focus more on comparing the older cards with march drivers, to brand new cards.  whereas other sites are comparing up to date amd drivers against april nvidia 600 series.  just my current theory, the discrepancies are too small to really draw any conclusions imo.", "id": "ca9gffj", "summary": "tpu:13.3 beta 3/314.22    \n other sites:13.5 beta 2/320.00 beta & 320.14 beta \n however, greater sample of games and resolution may still be bigger reason."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "that's where the power hungry component need the power, but some of the cheaper psu's will report a high overall wattage, when in actuality they arent providing the amperage to the 12v rail(s).  check out the stickers at the bottom of psu's, newegg usually has pictures of them and i think pcpartpicker also reports it.", "id": "cfpbk5p", "summary": "not every 550w is created equal."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "while i don't know where op got some of their assertions, it isn't as bad as it looks \n [here]( you can see that 1x690 running at pcie3.0 x16, so 2 gpu's per x16 is slightly under two 680's running at x16 each on a 2011. \n and [here]( it convolutes the pcie 3.0 x16 even further, although granted they are running at 1440p.", "id": "c9xjpt4", "summary": "not the end of the world"}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "it will fragment online access even further, for a long time.  also i think you'll see more restrictions to access shows online, not less.  unless a group like google/youtube can guarantee a large cash sum, which quite frankly i don't think they can. \n online advertisements are still a bit of smoke and mirrors.  allegations of \"clicking bots\" at facebook, adblock programs, and lower reimbursements.  tv execs know that online is the future, but we're still in the present and tv ad dollars/cable shares still reign king.  they will squeeze traditional cable and tv revenue streams until they run completely dry, and will stifle any movement away from those revenue streams (online streaming.)", "id": "c5wgrkv", "summary": "don't get your hopes up."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "i did sorry, the time frame wasnt apparent to me.  of course there is the  iphone 5 battery recall  of the iphone 5 vs g2 for why you may experience differences than what anand (who probably had a golden sample, truthfully) tests. \n my own experience is that android has gotten a lot better and the have offering like maxx droid.  my iphone 5 has had the worst battery out of the iphones i've owned, but it's still not the worst as i've owned some other android as well.  overall, my experience is also that android users know how to get the most out of their phones while many iphone users will have location services on every app, background refresh, and email updates every minute and not even know it.", "id": "ckpey5s", "summary": "it's really hard to know the truth. \n anand's methodology is always pretty good, so i do think they are on the upper end of trustworthy but that doesnt stop companies from cherry picking gold samples to send test sites.  also the former ceo of anand (his name is the site) now works for apple so there's that."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "depends on the merchant, but that's not the preffered way, unless you talk with them first and they instruct you to. \n the retailer was very nice to issue you a refund, but technically you are now liable for the return shipping (legally in the USA) and since they have your CC on file, they can charge it. \n now you have to file a claim with your CC which may or may not hold up, and the merchant will be less likely to deal with you.", "id": "cd1blfo", "summary": "talk to the retailer first"}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "honestly, i think you are better off getting a prebuilt.  you will spend tons of time researching and looking for deals...a TON of time, especially if don't have a lot of experience or knowledge about parts.  i do it because i actually enjoy it, but builds are not always the way to go especially for someone like yourself. \n if you check deal websites ( i use slickdeals.net) you can often find great deals on prebuilts.", "id": "c7t8nwa", "summary": "unless you want learn and think you will enjoy the process of a build (aka an enthusiast) you will probably spend too much time and more money than buying a decent quality prebuilt."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "i was born and raised in oklahoma.  there is somewhat of a identity crisis, being as were a relatively new state but i dont think of oklahoma as \"southern.\"  most often i think of the mason dixon line as the real determining factor and OK wasnt a state during the civil war.  interestingly enough some of the tribes here in the \"indian territory\" aligned and incorporated with the confederates and some battles were fought here. \n as for what else entails being \"southern\" we are very much a part of more general qualities.  there is a oklahoma rural twang which differs north to south, east to west. we identify with more traditional  mindsets, slower pace, and people are generally thought of as \"friendly.\"  we also like sweet tea, but it's not as much of a staple. \n i would also say a lot of rural communities in \"northern\" states also have very similar attributes, but the larger metropolitan like okc and tulsa still identify with a rural/country mindset more-so.", "id": "cksak5c", "summary": "not \"the south\" but southern characteristics."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "well, you are comparing a built and supported solution, some of which have a 5k monitor built in, to a custom built and hand picked solution. \n of course it's cheaper and better for your purposes but the knowledge and experience to do those things isn't innate in people, hence the cost of even non-apple workstations. \n there is also something to be said for standardization and familiarity.  if everyone is familiar and had years experience in one environment, or if all other systems run something different, changing that to save money on hardware isn't always saving money in the long run.", "id": "co0m3t3", "summary": "going custom sounds like it might work really great for your shop, but that doesn't mean it's the same for everyone."}, {"author": "logged_n_2_say", "content": "ok, i saw where you added the previous post. \n if you want to upgrade to lion, at least 2gb is ideal.  i have done it on my 2006 17\"mbp and it took 3 seconds, but i cant speak on the mb.  i did however find a helpful installation [video]( from OWC.  they are a great resource for upgrading macs. \n according to OWC the mb 4,1 is upgradable to 6gb.  typically they recommend matched memory sticks.  you can also check newegg for regular memory (\"mac\" labeled may have a higher price for the same thing) so long as the pin's and bus speed is matched.", "id": "c4mef79", "summary": "it's a decent price but will need upgrading (for minimal cost) is you want to bring it up to lion."}]}
+{"author": "thisshortenough", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Boss made me realise that I'm probably a dick", "output": "So it all came together today when my boss called me in for a chat. I had been about to leave when she called me in so I thought I had really screwed up with cash (Im a server in a private club) and was prepared to get my ass handed to me. But when she sat me down she was quite nice and yet it ended up making me feel worse than if she'd yelled at me. \n She basically asked me if o actually looks working there because she hasn't been able to get a feel of me. She did point out that I haven't had that much work there (It's a private club in a venue so there's only work when there's a gig on.) but she then said that some of the things I've said have just seemed... And she trailed off because she couldn't think of the right words. But I know she wanted to tell me that I come across as a bit of a bitch. \n I've always been sarcastic and this has caused me to clash with my family members but I've always thought it's been just different personalities rubbing off each other in bad ways. But if it's starting to affect me in work then obviously I am the problem. But I don't know how to stop it. My immediate reaction to a lot of things is to go for sarcasm or dry wit. This has always been fine with my friends but clearly it rubs people the wrong way and I don't want to be known as the person who you'll like once you get to know them or the person whos a bit of a dick. Or even worse than that. \n But I don't know how to switch it off. And a lot of the time I'll say something that I didn't think was offensive just factual and people will react like I said the most offensive thing ever. And that makes me feel awful cause I don't mean it this way and genuinely didn't think that it would come across badly and I don't want to hurt other people with what I say. What do I do to fix this? \n \n **"}], "user_id": "longlamp_15424", "history": [{"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "Went to a friends house for what was supposed to be just a few cans. I had four cans which would have gotten me tipsy but then a friend gave me two more and I was just hammered. We played never have I ever which only added to that and helped to bring the people of the party together. At one point in the night a tent was put up for some reason and a bunch of the lads went to the park at like 1 in the morning and hopped the fence into it. Ended up shagging a guy I had met that night in my friends bed and had my bra nicked from the room and put on the washing line. Walked home by myself and laughed myself silly as I realised how little  I could walk. \n Another night I was on a night out with friends and the club we were at was doing a deal on peach daiquiris which are delish. They had a great dj and a great beer garden so spent half the night actually able to chat to friends and the other half dancing. Was walking through the city with friends and ended up splitting off with one of the guys and shifting him. Was getting a taxi with that group anyway so when we got of back to our neighbourhood he walked me home and we lay on the green near my house until like quarter in the five in the morning with the sun coming up.", "id": "ch9b1rm", "summary": "a lot of my drunken nights involve me getting the shift"}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "Hormonal hissy fits are the worst. I was once young and in a state of fluctuation just before my period. I went to make two ham and cheese toasties, to cheer myself up. I went to the fridge and pulled out the cheese, the bread was already lined up on the counter ready to go. But then, to my horror, when I pulled out the packet of ham, there was only one slice left. One. I couldn't make two toasties with one slice of ham. Next thing I knew I was screaming at my granny for not keeping the ham supply up to scratch and then I stormed up to my room and cried, lying flat on my stomach. My granny was so freaked out she came up to my room to make sure I hadn't gotten assaulted or anything in the recent past.", "id": "chehtmh", "summary": "I was a teenage cunt over ham"}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "Periods aren't a steady stream of blood and a pad or a tampon aren't the  equivalent of a plaster. It's chunks of your wombs inner lining and can go from heavy to light to heavy within one day. There can be whole days where you think you're finished until you wake up the next morning with ruined underwear. Tampons are fine as long as you get the angle right. Wrong angle and it's rubbing up against your walls in the most uncomfortable way. Pads are generally fine but can end up feeling like a giant nappy. There's also moon cups which are cups you place in your vagina and allow to fill with blood then you remove it, empty it, clean it and put it back. This is all coupled with the hormonal fluctuations that can make you rage and cry and laugh within ten minutes and the cramps that have caused some girls not to notice their appendicitis because they just though they were cramps.", "id": "chqxld8", "summary": "periods are a huge messy affair that are treated like an overreaction (ovaryaction, heh puns) by far too many men"}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "I did the same with my dad. He'd been an alcoholic pretty much all my childhood and was an absolute dick all the time. My best friend from then even hates him because she was over so much and she'd see how much of a shithead he was. So many nights would be spent with my mam and dad screaming at each other. My mam had breast cancer and nice my dad and I were joking about my eighteenth birthday as we walked back from my camogie match. He said that he'd be playing pranks on me all day and I said my mam wouldn't let him. He turned to me and said that she wouldn't be alive at that point. I was fucking eleven and had just been told that my mam was going to die before my eighteenth birthday on the street. I cried the whole way home and when my mam found out what had happened she screamed at him for an hour and kicked him out. When I was 12 her cancer spread in the worst way possible and left her in a wheelchair. \n At that point we had moved into my dad's old house and tried to live as normal a life as we could. The fighting never stopped despite how sick my mam was. I've inherited her way of dealing with stuff and I know she could definitely be irrational but he should not have been fighting back she was fucking dying of cancer. They fought so much one week that my mam decided while we were visiting my granny, her mam, that she wasn't going back to his house. We went back to my childhood house and made the best of our situation there. My mam had carers coming in to look after her and we seemed to be doing okay. Then she let my dad come back and it got shit again. One day he called me in to her room and asked me which of my family members I'd like to live with if my mam died. I was shocked and automatically said my granny since she was the person I had always stayed with if my mam was in hospital for treatments or whatever. He told me that I couldn't stay with my granny. So I said my aunty that I was closest to. He said I couldn't stay with her either. He then said I should probably go live with my uncle who lives in the country about an hour and a half drive away from my friends my school and everything I knew. He actually rang my uncle up and asked him if it would be okay for me to go live with him when my mam died which had my uncles wife ringing up my mam in tears. \n Eventually my mam was admitted into a hospice shortly after my thirteenth birthday and I went to live with, guess who, my granny. When my mam died I stayed with my granny and I've been living with her ever since. My dad never even tried to stay in contact with me. He just occasionally sent money for a birthday or christmas present which stopped when I was fifteen. My mam left me the house in her will and left him all the money in all her accounts, including the money from her car which she had sold. Even then my dad wasn't satisfied and was going to go to court to gain a portion of the house unless he didn't have to pay child support. We just gave up on that fight and he never paid child support. He also nearly kidnapped my puppy because during the whole funeral planning and mourning we hadn't had the chance to sort out the dog as well and he just took her. If my uncle hadn't bumped into him with my dog he'd probably still have her.", "id": "cha281f", "summary": "my dad was an alcoholic who fought with my cancer ridden mother, tried to get a portion of my house, told eleven year old me that she was going to die and tried to steal my dog"}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "I think these days it seems to be if you're fat everything around you is telling you that you need to be skinny. But in person no one will say that to you (unless they're family). The opposite is true for skinny people. Skinny people aren't discouraged in media but people see no real issue with discussing how thin someone is even if they're being dicks about it. We should all stop talking about everyone's body unless were their doctor.", "id": "ci9okm5", "summary": "don't comment on people's bodies"}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "Sometimes we don't want to talk about it or we know from past experiences that talking about it with you, as the particular individual you are, will not work out well. So we say fine and wait until we can talk to someone who we feel will understand. Especially as men are more likely to want to just solve a problem but we just want to talk about it because we no there's no real solution to it.", "id": "cic1sb9", "summary": "Its not about the nail"}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "I generally think that's it's just Americans are more likely to be confident and speak to people in a way that can seem obnoxious. I was sitting in McDonald's in Dublin and this guy sat next to me. No real big deal, I was at a counter seat. But then he introduced himself and said he was from San Francisco and I was so unsure where to go on but I ended up chatting with him for a bit, thinking maybe he'll be my new American friend. Then he said that he hated gay people and I was like ah well too bad.", "id": "chb7eku", "summary": "Americans your confidence and friendliness is seen as obnoxious and overbearing upon first meeting"}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "I went after being sexually assaulted and to just get my granny to stop pestering me about it. First session there I openly sobbed and got a lot of stuff out. However my issue has always been that I go for a few weeks and I seem to get whatevers bothering me at the time out and then I think \"I don't really need to go as frequently, I can just stop coming and I can always come back when I really need to\" but that doesn't work for me. I end up just not going back until it all builds up and I'm desperate for it and I keep repeating the cycle. \n What I'd really love is to have some counselling sessions with someone like Kester from My Mad Fat Diary (which is a really great example of people dealing with mental issues, body issues, sexual issues and is genuinely entertaining). I want someone who isn't afraid to ask tough questions and where I'll feel safe enough to shout in session and get angry or upset. I always feel like I have to be neutral or crying because I never feel like I'm really discussing my issues or being offered solutions, I'm just saying it all out as if it were bullet points.", "id": "ch8xhkb", "summary": "I find it can help but finding the right counselor is the tricky part"}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "You know what? It doesn't really bother me that rose doesn't try to get jack on the door. It doesn't bother me that she doesn't give him her life jacket so that he might have stayed slightly warmer for longer or at least his body could have been recovered from the water. No it's the fact that she jumped off a lifeboat onto a sinking ship while poor third class women were busy smothering their kids a few decks below. Then at the end of the whole thing she throws the fucking diamond in the water, the monetary value of which could be given to anyone who truly needed it of she was so caught up in not spending cals money. And at the end of it all she dies and goes to titanic heaven where she meets up with jack and all the nice people on the boat and disregards the man she actually married and the rest of her family including children, grandchildren and possibly great grandchildren.", "id": "cjgyzlb", "summary": "fuck you rose"}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "I wasn't either. My dad didn't live with us until I was about five or six and then he waltzed in and banned the Simpsons, McDonald's and soap operas from our house. Which was crazy cause my mam loved coronation street and now couldn't watch it. I used to react to the theme tune when I was a baby because she had watched it so much while pregnant. Then suddenly no more soaps. I got to keep up fairly well with the Simpsons though because my mam and I went for dinner at my granny's house every Sunday and my cousins would be watching it and I couldn't just turn it off because I wasn't allowed watch it, that wouldn't be fair.", "id": "chm4liv", "summary": "my dad banned Simpsons, McDonald's and soap operas for unknown reasons"}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "My dad was once ordering me around all evening, telling me to get him all sorts of stuff. Now I was doing it but I was just getting more and more fed up since all he was doing was watching tv and thats what I wanted to be doing as well. My mam had made him a toasted sandwich and he told me to go get it. I muttered at him \"Get it yourself\". He. Went. Mental. He stood up and pulled off his slipper, a hard leather flip flop sort of one, and just started hitting me with it, anywhere he could reach. I just curled into a ball on the couch and covered my head, not knowing what to do. He left the room and I spent the rest of the evening sitting on the couch crying. My mam comforted me as best she could and made him apologise but it still didn't make me feel any better.", "id": "ch8w5ee", "summary": "I told my dad to get his own sandwich and he slapped the shit out of me with a slipper and had me crying for the rest of the evening."}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "Probably too late to the party but oh well. Not a teacher but in 2nd year in my secondary school I dropped from Higher level maths to ordinary level maths. I'd already been struggling to keep up and then after missing three weeks because my mam died I just couldn't catch up. I finished up first year in Higher level then dropped to Ordinary in second. So much easier for me to cope. Well the class I dropped into was just huge, I mean that it was absolutely packed, there was never a spare desk in a room of thirty. The teachers knew this wasn't okay so they took about the ten of us who had last dropped down and put us into our own class so that there were three ordinary and one higher level maths class. \n For a while everything was amazing, our class size was so small that you could chat all you liked and still understand the material AND still get one on one time with the teacher. She went on maternity leave for a while, we got a shitty teacher and a few more people dropped down until we had an average class size. \n Then it's fifth year, our regular teacher is back but the class size is large. The class is divided by people who genuinely couldn't cope with higher level and dropped and the girls who were absolute shitheads who had skipped transition year. No topic was ever completed within a week because the shitheads never shut up talking. Our teacher makes empty  threats but never makes them leave. I ended up teaching the girls who sat behind me most of the time because our teacher was busy trying to get these shitheads to do work most of the time. \n By the time sixth year rolls around our teacher has given up and is just trying to get us through our Leaving Cert exams with the most basic pass possible. About 70% of my class were just absolute shitheads in class, talked constantly, shouted out at the teacher when she was explaining stuff, complained they didn't know how to do work even though it was because they had mitched off all those classes and weren't interested in learning in any rate. This included some of my close friends. One day I asked them why they hated the teacher and they said \"it's cause she's such a shit teacher, we never learn anything off of her\" \nMe:\"but you never pay attention and you're always talking\"\nThem: \"Yeah but she should be able to control us and get us to pay attention\"\nAfter that I just walked away and focused on learning with my grinds teacher", "id": "ch8vp9e", "summary": "Majority of my class hated my teacher because she couldn't their shitty behavior that they knew they were doing."}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "Went to see captain America 2 with my cousin. Sat there with the 3d glasses on all excited. Movie starts and there's cap doing his running. But the 3d is awful. The film is blurring in the corners and making my eyes cross. My cousin goes out to complain as do a couple of other people. At this point were about 10-15 minutes in. The screen is turned off and an employee comes in and apologises and says they'll fix the 3d. So we sit back and wait. They put the film back on and it seems like the 3d is working. Until about 20 minutes in when the 3d goes again. People go out to complain, film goes off, lights go up, same employee comes in and says they're trying to fix it. We wait for about five minutes before they come in again and apologise, saying they can't fix the 3d so they'll put the film on in 2d and refund us the tickets. \n Fine we say, as long as we see the film. We wait another 10 minutes then this poor employee who looks so embarrassed comes in and says that the screen has broken entirely. Luckily there's another screen showing it in 2d in the next screen if we don't mind moving. We move and join the other theatre who look a little annoyed but just deal with it. \n Finally were watching the film and at this point it's an hour later and I've seen the on your left joke four times. Now here comes the point where I actually get annoyed. A guy was there with his two kids. One just about old enough to have the patience to watch captain America and enjoy it. The other old enough that he'd want to have seen it but not old enough to have the patience for a 2 and a half hour film. Especially with an hour of delays. \n This kid starts talking loudly, standing up and sitting down frequently. The dad just ignores him or shushes him occasionally. I could tell this guy had really wanted to see this movie and was just going to watch it despite his shitty kid. At one point the dad gives the kid his phone so the kid can play minecraft. With the sound turned on. The dad has the sense to turn the sound off after a bit but still it's a bright screen in a movie theatre. Then the kid gets bored of that and starts talking again. Eventually a woman directly tells the guy to shut the kid up and he cops on to himself and keeps the kid quiet for the last half hour of the movie. \n And to top it all off instead of refunding the ticket they gave us a free movie ticket which I then lost a few days later. \n Edit:'", "id": "ci7mijw", "summary": "at cap 2 the 3d broke, the projector broke, we had to switch screens and a kid wouldn't shut up."}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "Sorry if this is long and ramble but it's the only way I can think to describe this. So two years ago I was out in a night club with my friends dancing away, more than a few drinks in, when I make eye contact with this guy, who we'll call Stan. Stan comes over and before I know it we're kissing. Since it's a night club I don't expect too much of it although he does ask for my number. I give it to him and get back to dancing with my friends. Over the rest of the night Stan and I occasionally bump into each other and make out a little more. I'm thrilled because to me he's so out of my league that I feel lucky just to be getting this kind of attention. \n Anyway next day rolls around, I'm nursing a hangover and I hear nothing from him. I shrug it off and go about my week and then end up at the same night club the week after I first met Stan. Well turns out he's there too and comes up to me, telling me that he tried texting but my number didn't work. I take a look at it and realise that while slightly pissed last week I put in too many 7's and that there was no way he could have text me. I fix it, Stan and I spend the night much the same as last week. \n Next day I get a text from him and we spend a good few hours texting. Keep this up for a good few days and then it kind of fizzles out. Couple of weeks later the texting starts back up and we arrange to meet up and go to the cinema. Spend a couple of hours cuddled up in the back. We do this again a couple of weeks later. Then it kind of just goes back to texting. \n And this pattern kind of continues on over the years. Well start texting each other for a while, and then it will fizzle out again. Except this year the messaging has gotten more frequent, we've met up a lot more. We added each other on facebook a while back so using messenger made it easier to talk I guess. \n But now he keeps flirting and being suggestive about when we finally will have sex. We both live at home with our families so we've never had the opportunity to do anything together. I like him I do, and it's not always flirty. In fact he frequently comforts me about any insecurities I have and knows some pretty personal stuff. \n But I don't know if all Stan wants out of me in the end is sex. I've never met any of his friends, he's never met any of mine, although they all know about him. Sometimes I feel like a booty call except we never actually do anything together, it's just flirty messaging. He's moving out in November and was telling me he wanted to have me over. I'm away for the summer so I haven't seen him in months but he's still messaging me. It's not just flirting though, we do genuinely just talk. But I still don't know how he feels or how I should feel about the situation. So any advice reddit? \n Again sorry for the long winded rambling but I couldn't think of any other way to post it.", "id": "t3_3fima9", "summary": "Flirting with a boy for two years, don't know if he wants to get more serious or just wants to have sex."}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "So I'm pretty damn heavy, 5 foot 4 inches and regularly bungeeing around 14 stone. My heaviest was 14 and a half stone. Despite the weight ive never had the big boobs to match. I was an a cup most of my teen years and now am a b cup with a very large band size which I only am because I gained so much weight when I started college. \n Anyway my point is every time I start to get serious about losing weight I see myself in the mirror and after the usual hating of my double tummy (Id look pregnant if it weren't for the dip at my belly button) I take a look at my boobs, worrying that they've gotten smaller. Very recently I've gotten serious about losing weight and I want to know how some of you cope with the fact that the first place you could lose weight is on your boobs. Because I know I should just cae about being healthy and that guys won't really care about my boob size if they find me attractive but it still makes me so damn insecure to think that if I lose all the weight I might just end up with a load of flabby skin and no tits. \n Sorry that this turned into more of a rant than a question but the question is still there.", "id": "t3_30zmgq", "summary": "how do you deal with boob loss insecurity?"}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "So like the title says we're having to deal with my granddad being emotionally abusive. I've lived with my grandparents since I was 13 and for the past year and a half my aunty has lived with us while she's received chemo. \n Now my granddad and I have very similar personalities but different interests so inevitably we clash a lot in shouting matches. I find it hard not to get frustrated by him and he takes offence at any perceived slight so we tend to fight a lot. Lately I just try and stay out of his way which he also takes as an offence because he expects me to talk to him normally but I can not do it as he so often just says stuff to get a rise out of me and then acts like he's joking. It's incredibly frustrating but I'm working on just ignoring it and getting on with my life. I'll also be moving out this summer so that will help me. \n But it's the way he treats my granny that really angers me. My granddad has a lot of health problems that have to be managed by lots of different medications and frequent doctors appointments. My granny looks after all of these things while also having to maintain her own poor health. They both require false teeth and hearing aids but while my granny will put hers in automatically in the morning before even getting up, my granddad will wait to put them in until hours after he's gotten up and then gets frustrated and shouts when he can't hear us talking to him. In addition my granny makes all of his meals for him, brings them to him on a tray, sorts all of his medication into his pill organiser, gives up chances to go on trips because he will be angry if she goes away and drives him to all of his appointments unless one of my aunties takes him. He gives out if my granny leaves the house for too long because she leaves him alone, even though he doesn't talk to her when she is sitting in the room with her. He will sit in the same chair all day watching tv, smoking a pipe that fogs up the entire room and splitting the tobacco for his pipe. That is all he does all day every day unless there's been something arranged where he has to leave the house. \n Even leaving the house is an ordeal as he will give out about every time he has to leave the house to do anything that isn't a doctor's appointment. My uncle invited us out to dinner in a restaurant last week and around guests my granddad accepted happily and was all smiles wanting to go out. On the day of he started shouting and arguing about having to go because it was only me and my granny around. He was giving out right up until he got to the hotel and then he was all smiles and charm. \n He is like this all the time with the family. My grandparents had a lot of children, leading to a lot of grandchildren and around the ones he doesn't see often he acts like he's all charm and smiles, wanting to hug the little kids and have everyone listen to his stories. When they're gone and it's people he's around all the time, particularly me and my granny, he turns back into a grouch. It's like living with both versions of Scrooge. When my granny brings him dinner on a tray he will say \"what's this shite?\". If one of my aunties does it he will be all smiles and thanks. With my uncles he acts like the best man in the world, it's really irritating because they don't see how awful he can be to us and almost don't believe us when it's mentioned. \n Just today he screamed at my granny because he says that our recent conversion of the space under the stairs into a small bathroom is unfinished because there is a small gap in the floor for the pipes. This is in a small cupboard area that we've created to store christmas decorations, nothing else. He then schouted at my aunty and said \"oh i suppose I'm the fucking eejit, it's all my fault\" then he went off and sulked for a while. When he gets like this we all know to try and stay out of his way. So we were hanging out in the kitchen when he came out and said \"I'm sorry for earlier but this is your granny's fault [...] You don't know what I've to put up with\". He said that to me, my two younger cousins and my aunty all while my granny was in the room. I couldn't actually he'd said something so blatantly offensive about my granny. \n My granny has developed a twitch almost like the shake a Parkinson's patient has. If you've ever seen Downfall, the frequent shaking of the hand that Hitler has is exactly like what my granny has (oh god what a comparison to make). We all believe this has been brought on by the stress of looking after my granddad. He is not pleasant to be around and even when he's acting cheery it feels false, like he's putting on a show for the guests and then he'll get ready to scream about whatever he's offended about again. He once managed to turn a conversation about how he needs to stop abusing my granny into a conversation about how my granny and aunties don't know the meaning of work (despite my granny looking after all the kids and running the house long after he retired, and all my aunties working since they were sixteen). All conversations turn back to him and we tiptoe around him half the time just to make sure we don't set him off.  It got to the point that when we found out he would be spending a week in hospital, we almost treated it like a holiday. When it turned out he didn't have to stay we were actually disappointed. \n What can we do Reddit? It's gotten to the stage that sometimes I actually hope he dies soon because if he doesn't the stress is going to kill my granny.", "id": "t3_4crrlx", "summary": "My granddad treats me and my granny terribly and it's making us hate him."}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "So I've known this guy \"Mark\" for three years now. We met in a club, text on and off and met up on and off for a while. Then April of this year we went on a couple of dates before I went away for the summer. During the summer he messaged me a couple of times a week and told me that he was missing me a lot. I realised that I was missing him too. I've been back almost a month now and we've seen each other every weekend since then.  I've met some of his friends and honestly were so much closer than we were when I left. It used to be that when we met up the time was spent full of awkward silences. Now we can talk and I get butterflies from him doing simple things like kissing my hair if we're sat next to each other. \n So we've known each other a long time now but I think we both needed to grow up a bit to actually pursue a relationship together. My summer away really helped me mature, I feel, and he is going to graduate in a month and is planning to move out. And that's where my problem is. \n When Mark moves out we've both pretty much agreed that that is when well move into a physical relationship. Now I've had sex before but they've all been one night stands that I was drunk for. I also have some... trouble when it comes to arousal and orgasm. Basically I can't without something like a vibrator to help me. And now with the idea of having sex with Mark becoming more of a reality, I'm getting nervous. I don't want him to think that I don't want to be with him, I really do. And I don't want to fake orgasms or anything because that just leads to a life of constant faking to please him. \n I just don't know what to do. I want to take the next step with him but I keep feeling nervous and obviously that isn't helping the situation. Any advice is appreciated.", "id": "t3_3mp12k", "summary": "I have trouble with arousal/orgasming and want my first time with a new boyfriend to be good for me and him, no nervousness involved."}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "When I was 13 my mother died of cancer. Before that him and my mother had a very emotive relationship with each other, screaming fights with each other every couple of weeks, he'd leave, she'd beg him to come back and the cycle would begin again. He was also an alcoholic. Needless to say I resented him a lot as that relationship continued with my mother even throughout her illness. I haven't seen him since her funeral which was 9 years ago. \n But today I found out that he's on his last few hours in a hospice. I started bawling when I found out. Now I'm planning to go and see him. But I don't know how to feel. For years I had almost been wishing for this but now that it's come... I'm kind of stuck.", "id": "t3_452wo1", "summary": "My estranged dad is dying and I don't know what I feel about it."}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "So tonight I was flirting with this guy I've been sort of seeing. You know the way it goes when you first start going out with someone, you get that excited feeling whenever you're around them, you act in ways you never thought you could. \n Anyway I normally hate selfies and letting people see me naked or semi-naked but tonight I thought \"fuck it, he's attracted to me, let him see what you got\". So I took a selfie of myself in underwear on snachat and prepared to send it. Put a nice filter on and everything. Chickened out at the last minute and closed the app, put the phone on to charge and left it at that. \n About a minute later the guy messages me saying he liked the snap but did I not realise everyone could see it? Quickly open snapchat to discover that I had added it to my story and tagged him in it. So for the two minutes that I had been calmly playing candy crush, anyone on my snapchat friends list had the opportunity to get a look at my tits. \n I did what any logical person would do which is delete the snap then delete all my friends off snapchat in sheer panic. Now I'm sitting here wondering if any of my family members or friends I'm not that close with saw it. Now if you'll excuse me I'll be living under a rock forever.", "id": "t3_2ya9ru", "summary": "spontaneous snap scares sender since story shows sexy snap"}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "My aunty has been officially confirmed as terminal from cancer. Obviously this is a horrific tragedy and the rest of the family is rallying around her and her husband and children to support them. Today was really the first day we've actually all accepted it so I haven't actually gotten to talk to her properly until this evening. \n My own mother died of cancer when I was 13 and since my aunty is my godmother she was there for me through it. To go through this with her is awful but I've decided that whatever I can do to support her I will. \n I was talking to her tonight and one of the first things she asked me was if I can get her a joint. I said that I would do, since she is near the end. So after that she basically jokingly asked me to arrange her fuckit list or her living funeral, something like that. I want to do it for her and obviously I want to prioritise things she tells me but I kind of want to surprise her with things she wouldn't think of or things that would just be nice to do for her. And that's where I come to you r/relationships, I'm looking for ideas to give my aunty a great final send off.", "id": "t3_4sdt49", "summary": "Need ideas to give my dying aunty a great final send off"}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "I've been with my boyfriend, let's call him Shane, for 6 months. He's incredibly sweet, we have common interests and a similar sense of humour. My biggest flaw with him is that he's really bad at texting back but that's just honest forgetfulness not neglect or anything on his part. \n But the thing is I have had the thought \"oh god I should break up with him\" a couple of times now. And the most prominent times are if we're out on a date and we end up dancing. He's a really bad dancer, I mean I'm not great but I know that so I don't go all out with it. But I feel like I'm being incredibly irrational about this, I've never been in a relationship before so I have no idea if this is normal or not. Please help", "id": "t3_4yod2j", "summary": "Can't tell if I actually want to break up with my boyfriend or if I'm just embarrassed by his dancing."}, {"author": "thisshortenough", "content": "My mam died when I was 13. I've learned how to cope without having her around. But it's my family. My mam was one of 9 children. She's got four brothers and four sisters. My uncles and aunties. My uncles for the most part treat me as normal. But it seems like my aunties always need to bring her up when we're at family gatherings. I realise they miss her, she was their sister. But she was mam. I miss her more, no matter how much longer they got to know her for. And it seems the more family gatherings that have happened since her death, the more I seem to be deemed the replacement. \n Like tonight. It was my auntys F's hen do. And at one point she was hugging everyone as we gathered in a circle. And when she reached me the first thing she said was \"I wish your mammy was here. But I'm glad you're here\". Like I get that she does love me and that she just misses her sister whom I remind her of. But I'm sick of being compared to my mam, of being reminded that I'm not her, that I'm just filling the void. It feels like this happens at every big family gathering. It happened at my 21st, it happens at Christmas, it happens at any big occasion. I want to be treated like my own person but I feel like I will always be seen as a replacement for my mam. \n **", "id": "t3_4h6fza", "summary": "How do I make my family, particularly my aunties see that I'm not just a replacement for my dead mother?"}]}
+{"author": "diMario", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post you assume something about me.", "output": "I think neither. There are those who suffer from attention diarrhoea. All sorts of social media appeal to those people. They twitter, they flicker, they reddit, they 4chan, they linkin, some of them even uncyclopidiae. Hell, they even imgurl. \n Basically, they want attention. This stems from feeling somehow incomplete without interactinng with other people. I have some insights on why this happens, and I pity you the more. \n On the other hand, there are people who feel secure within their abilities and limitations. The overwhelming trait these people share is that they  do not raise to a bait . For sure, be a bit too rambunctious, and they will put you in your place. But always in a friendly way. But  wave a giant red flag in front of them, and they will be complimenting you on the quality of the seaming."}], "user_id": "longlamp_9840", "history": [{"author": "diMario", "content": "Photons  are the messengers. They are not completely understood by science, but some things we assume about them enable us to build transmitters that send out photons to receivers that receive them and further process the data. \n When reading the word photons, most people think of visible light or perhaps even high energy radiation from outer space or from radioactive decay. \n The truth is that what we call photons are the particles that we imagine to more or less propagate what we call the electromagnetic field. If this sounds all a bit iffy, this is caused by scientists not having a 100% explanation of how things electrical and magnetical and lightwise do work. \n The point is that they are able to behave as particles, but also as waves. When looking at high energy photons, the human tendency is to think of them as particles. \n When looking at low energy photons, the human tendency is to view them as radio (or electromagnetic) waves. Your FM morning news program in your morning commute to the office is brought to you by ...  photons! . Only we call this brand of photons FM radio waves. \n In practice, our assumptions appear good enough to have built transmitters for probes far, far out to transmit signals to receivers on Earth. These signals are able to travel through empty space. \n In contrast for instance, for sound to travel from someones mouth to your ear it takes air pressure. Sound is a series of high and low pressure areas in air which mechanically cause your eardrum to move and thus convey sensory input to you. They travel through air. Without air, they cannot travel. \n In space, no one can here you scream . Unless  of course, you screem into your headset. You screem and your space suite broadcasts your screem using photons of a certain energy (which we call radio waves), which are tailored to be received by receivers in other space suites and/or the base ship. There is no need for an atmosphere to exist between A  and B, because photons (radio waves) have the capability to travel through empty space. \n So far, so good. We can get a signal across from the probe to a ground tracking station. \n Next question, how do we send a picture across? \n It starts with taking the picture and storing it. How does this work? The general idea is to break up the picture into an array of tiny, tiny dots (called pixels) and then saving data for each individual pixel consecutively into computer memory. What is important here is that you make a note of the order that the data for various pixels was stored. \n In the case of colour pictures, the most customary way to register information about one individual pixel is to note down an integer value for each of the three primary colours (red, yellow, blue) pertaining to that pixel. Other schemes are also in use, see for instance [CMYK]( \n Which model your picture taking hardware uses is less important for this discussion. \n You end up with a series of integer values that in triplets hold the colour value for one tiny pixel of your image. If you succeed in sending this series to a receiver, and the receiver is aware of how to place the individual pixels with repsect to eachother so that the original image is recreated at the receiving end, you can send an image from A to B. \n Now, as for transportation considerations...Two things spring to mind. \n 1) Lag. Probe A sends a packet of information to Earth tracking station B. Due to the theoretical finite speed of photons (and thus radio waves) it takes perhaps 2.5 seconds to get the signal from A to B. Suppose B picks up only part of the packet sent by A, and the rest is stattic (engeneering means that you have to deal with things not working correctly for part of the time). It would waste another 5 seconds round trip if B had to tell A  whoa, I missed that part, plz resend \n To solve this, packets are sent with some amount of redundant information. The reduntant information enables the receiving end to correct errors in the received packet without requesting a resend from the source. This is a trade off: reduntant error correcting information means you need to send more data from A to B, and it also cuts down on the \"plz resend package\" requests from B to A. There is a tradeoff that usually cannot be estimated in advance. \n 2) Data compression. The basics are this: suppose that you have a succesion of seven pixels all depicting exactly the same colour, Mars Red. Your binary representation for this colour takes three bits per pixel. \n One way of transmitting this portion of the image file would be to send all seven pixels separately to the receiver. This would cost you seven times three bytes = 21 bytes. \n Another way of sending this file to Earth more efficiently would be to make use of a compression algorithm. What this does is look at the whole of (image) file you are sending from A to B. The compression algorithm notes that you have seven times the same information. The compression algorithm then basically says:  Hey guys, write out seven times this value . Transmitting this informtion will take you one instance of \"this value\" instead of seven, plus some overhead to tell the other side what to do with it. \n So compressing will reduce your 21 colour byte values to 3 plus overhead. Depending on the efficiency of your compression method and the variety of your input data, the overhead will rarely exceed 4 or 5 bytes. So there is some gaine to be had from compression. \n And of course, when you compress a file that was already compressed, such as a  .zip or a  .jpg,  all these  considerations do not apply. Compression relies on data at different positions in the file being identical and creating a small overhead data structure for the receiving end to be able to reconstruct the data. \n But when you feed a *.zip file to for instance winzip, it cannot really find portions of the input file that more or less look alike. Mainly, because there aren't.", "id": "cm0v9ho", "summary": "Images are taken by a camera that works more or less like the camera on your phone. \n \n Files can be sent across empty space using radio waves (which technically are photons) \n \n File Compression is able to reduce network traffic and sluggishnes."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Mmm... \n Niet helemaal. Een slordige helft van wat jouw werkgever je aan loon uitbetaalt wordt van je afgepakt en andere mensen beslissen dan waar dat aan wordt uitgegeven. \n Soms ben je het eens met de keuzes die ze maken, en soms niet. De enige invloed die je op de keuzes hebt is dat je een keer in de vier jaar een stem kan uitbrengen, en daarna hopen dat ze gaan doen wat ze beloofd hebben. \n De meeste politici scoren tamelijk laag, waar het verwachtingen en waarmaken daarvan betreft. Veelal zijn persoonlijke belangen verweven met de besluiten die ze mede namens jou nemen.", "id": "cmp08pk", "summary": "we mogen de helft van ons geld uitgeven aan wat we zelf leuk vinden. Van de andere helft moeten we maar hopen dat er wat nuttigs mee gebeurt. Het instandhouden van de levensstijl van dit soort vieze vuile smerige stinkende ongewassen egoistische uitgevreten stomme inteelt zieke kankermongolen (pardon my French) wordt door mij niet als nuttig ervaren."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "The bits of data in you mp3 file are converted into an electric current by the electronics in your player device. The electric current varies in intensity and polarity over time as indicated by the music being played. \n In your earphone, the current is fed though a small coil of copper wire. This causes the coil to effectively become a magnet, the strength and polarity of which varies very quickly. The coil is suspended inside the magnetic field of a permanent magnet. Because the magnetism of the coil varies rapidly in time, and because two magnets exert force on each other, the copper wire coil moves to and fro inside the permanent magnetic field. \n In fact it moves so quickly (because the electric current varies rapidly with the music being played) that it vibrates with frequencies in the audible range. The coil is attached to some sort of membrane (a small plastic sheet) and thus causes the membrane to vibrate with it. This vibration in turn creates waves of compressed and thin air that travel towards your ear and are there perceived as sound.", "id": "cdlr51w", "summary": "rapidly varying electrical current is transformed into rapidly varying waves of compressed air, a.k.a \"sound waves\"."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Be rational. Take an empty sheet of paper. Divide it in two with a vertical line in the middle. Write the name of one college in the left part, the other in the right part. \n Next, make a horizontal line. The area aboe is labeled \"pros\", the area below \"cons\" \n You now have gour areas on your empty sheet, two cons areas and two pros areas, one of each for both colleges. \n Now, start filling in thoughts. It doesn't have to go down in one session. Take your time. A week. A month. Depending on your deadlines. \n Pros obviously are nice dorms, good teachers, they offer courses you are interested in. Cons obviously are shitty dorms, bad teachers, and mandatory courses which are difficult to pass. \n In addition: what is the home town of the college? Rural Alabama ... (crickets) SoCal ? Sign me up! Chances to clash procreational appendages with females of the other gender? Smoke pot? Forge old boy network alliances that will last you the rest of your natural days? \n Whatever floats your boat, put it in writing. Then, as the deadline approaches, maybe start assigning priority multiplication factors. In the end, make a tally. Use that rational number as a rough guide to what you  really  want.", "id": "cg3zezd", "summary": "trust your gut feeling, it is always correct. But fool your ratio into wanting the same thing by pretending you are keeping track of pros and cons in a rational way."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Communication is a process that takes two sides cooperating to succeed. \n In general, when I am having some sort of problem, and I get on the phone with someone who is supposedly more knowledgable than me, I will listen to their suggestions and try them out. If I don't understand an instruction, I ask for clarification. \n Of course, the people on the other side of the phone are not always more knowledgable than I am. I start  in with the assumption they are, and then adjust my views as things move along. \n The key here is to maximize your returns as someone who needs a problem fixed, is to remain focused on the problem. No swearing, no badmouthing the other company, not losing your temper. After all, it's only a case of technology not delivering the expected result. It can be fixed, albeit perhaps not by the person you are currently on the phone with. \n Once you both understand that it cannot be fixed at this level, politely ask to be taken to the next level.", "id": "c8c473b", "summary": "keep your cool, it's only money. Probably not even your own."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "I have an opposite tale to tell. I am a cat person, to start with. In the happy days of my life, ex-girlfriend and I were adopted by as many as five cats simultaneously. Ex-gf and I split up, the cats switched homes repeatedly and eventually all died off. No problem there. \n Now here I am. Male 52 years old. Living alone. Neighbours at the left have a cat. Neighbours two doors over on the right have a cat. They make my acquaintance (the cats, I intend), and decide they like me. I am all smiles and offer them dry cat food every  mourning  morning, plus a little bit of positive attention. \n Before you know, they literally  demand  attention and cat food. When I get down from sleeping in the morning, there they are, practically screaming \"let me in\". After I manage to get them outside again (after much coaxing) and finally get back from work, there they are again, demanding to be let in. \n I must point out, these are not strays, these cats have their own families who treat them very well (I know this, because I care for the cats in their own home when the neighbours go on a holiday and the quality of cat food they stock up for me to dispense on those occasions is excellent).", "id": "c7dbd2t", "summary": "neighbourhood cats cramp my style. I am defenseless."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Our help desk ticket software allows us to send mails to other parties internally concerned. However, there is an option to include the initial logger of the ticket in the list of CCs. Such as the customer who orginally logged the issue. \n Recently, I used this email function for the first time ever in order to report back to my superior that an error in our software did in fact exist, it had been brought to my attention, I had consulted a few other persons, and seeing this was an acient piece of software no one was responsible for, it just sort of gyrated my way, I invited her to instruct me formally to not take any further action. \n Unfortunately, the \"mail originator of the ticket\" option is  on  by default, and my wits were operating not on full strength that day.", "id": "cmt8x56", "summary": "the customer got a CC reading \"Dear boss, I have investigated this complaint. It is legitimate. Please don't make me solve it.\""}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "I'd say you are thinking in terms of measures, as opposed to solutions. By the way, I am an elderly Dutch Socialist, just so you know how to interpret my words. \n I believe that every person living in this world has some inalienable rights. Amongst those: the right to have enough to eat, be clad, access to medical resources and be protected from the elements. The right to not be prosecuted for what I am, say, or think. Only for what I do. \n You might throw in some other fancy stuff such as the the right to work, right to be educated, for the Americans the right to protect yourself and for the Dutch the right to complain. \n Basic survival should be a right of every human being. I am aware of the fact that in many regions of the world, presently this is not the status quo. \n If you take the above view to be a correct way of conducting a society, then you can start thinking about ways of achieving the goal. One way would indeed be guaranteeing an income high enough for basic survival to people who otherwise are unable to earn such an income. In essence, this is what happens in North Western European countries. It's known mostly as welfare. In the US of A, you have similar programs, called \"food stamps\". Perhaps the emphasis is different, but the intent is the same: you don't want to deny your incapable citizens the basic means of continuing life.", "id": "c80z6uw", "summary": "there is an underlying desire to help other people, and various instruments for achieving this goal exists."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Man. I felt like shit when I woke up and wanted to call in sick. But there were some things that had been promised to customers to be put on-line before January 1st, 2013. \n So I dragged my tired old bones over to the office (this is why the Brits call it  working stiff , not to be confused with the other kind of stiff). I did what had to be done and proceeded to push it to production. Then I simply went home again. On the way out, I said goodbye to my manager who was fired in order to cut costs and this was his last day at our firm. He didn't cramp my style. \n So here I am, Redditing on a rainy Monday afternoon from my home in the Dutchlands. Everyone and their aunt are prematurely disposing of their fireworks, it sounds like a bloody war zone over here. Think Stalingrad (I wasn't there, I was on a training mission in Osaka at the time). \n The last of my cats died in 1995, the same year my first and only serious woman left me. \n Since then, I am friendly to the neighbours cats (and to the neighnours). The cats go from shy to demanding in no time. The neighbours themselves have slightly better manners, although many of them are from Amsterdam.", "id": "c7oqsok", "summary": "I did the same thing that you did. Brothers in crime."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Opera is good, fast and has a very small market share. This means that websites will not target the Opera browser as their prime platform. \n Chrome is good, fast and operated by the evil empire. When you use chrome, you can be sure that your movements are being recorded. Google will tell you that they do this to enhance your experience, and Google is full of shit. Google was actually started by secret service government funding. Google equals NSA. \n Mozilla firefox. They had good intentions when they started out. And now they are bloated. All sorts of esoteric functions no-one uses. \n MSIE. Reviled from the dawn of time. HTML standards? We'll show you HTML standards. And they will be OUR html standards.  Capisce?", "id": "clds8qa", "summary": "there is no objectively good browser."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "In my opinion, the game is all that exists. There is nothing else outside of it. \n So logging out is an option, I grant you that. But it is an irreversible act. \n I cannot judge your state of mind. Sometimes people are pushed. Sometimes people are pulled. Usually, it varies from day to day.", "id": "caxm0sq", "summary": "just make sure that it is what you want (or what you  don't  want) before taking action."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Do not be alarmed. I'm Dutch and I stand 1.695 meters tall (5 feet 5.5 inch).  Technically, this means I will never be able to join the police force (minimum height requirements 1.70 meters), which all together is not a bad thing. \n Also, throughout the years I have compensated for this perceived shortcoming (pun intended) by being a great, big and large person. Every time someone tries to slight me for being less-than-average in height (\"hee, kleintje\"), I point out to them that they are statistically more likely to get hit by various objects residing in the lower upper biosphere. Such as stray windmills, door-openings (particularly in older buildings), or just plain the ceiling. And that getting hit in the head usually results in diminished intellectual abilities. Using words of more than two syllables whilst communicating is mostly met with a blank stare, which kind of tends to reinforce the statistics cited. \n Anyway, if they persist in their ridicule, I show them an (photo shopped to look like an triple-x large) picture of my reproductive organ. This generally shuts them up.", "id": "c1ytokt", "summary": "I'm Dutch, shorter than average, and fuck all idiots that have their elbows approximately at the same height as where my nose resides."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "I do agree it's abstract and difficult but you don't need a \"more than average intelligence\" to understand it. \n I declare an  contradictio in terminis . \n The very nature of being intelligent is tied in with being able to follow,if not produce, abstract thought. \n Also: \n > I've explained this concept to my 15 year old sister before, using basic concepts and tying them together with real world analogies. \n Pray, regale us with the lecture you gave your little sister, and apparently for no reason withhold from us, the broader audience.", "id": "c96isxo", "summary": "your're full of it. Put your money where your mouth is."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Grow a pair and tell her this whole thing is stupid? \n Yes, and no. Growing a pair is only possible when you already possess a pair. What you really mean is \"should I let her know I am annoyed by her behaviour?\" The answer is probably yes. If you value the relationship, you will end up telling her in a nice way. Nice, as in \"mature\". We are ready for a new phase, and in order for that to occur I would like you to change in these ways: <fill in what irks you in her behaviour and how you would like to see that changed> \n > Spend a while away from her? \n No. And yes. Literally going off on yourself for a couple of days sends the wrong signal. You basically say \"I care more about myself than I care about our relationship\". This is not good. What you probably do mean, is that you need some  alone time  once in a while. Just a couple of hours not being with her. Just you, yourself, and you. How you fill in this  alone time  is up to you. She has no say in it (although if you choose to spend it with loose women, she will not be happy). \n > Fake interest \n No. Just no. Faking anything is a no. No. A true person does not fake. \n > Should I apologize ? \n You are the only one who can answer this question. I'll tell you how I fared. I used to be an obnoxious asshole. Girlfriend of many years left me, 1995. Forever alone since then. Lesson learned: these days, I sometimes are an asshole. I sometimes are obnoxious. And never at the same time. One learns. \n > Should I ask her about this? \n Communication is the mother of all relationships. Try to not be an asshole, do not demand, and the moment she becomes demanding or an asshole, confront her.", "id": "c8cm3px", "summary": "some people are born to be their own worst punishment. The trick lies in knowing how to separate the wolves from the sheep. Sheep, in general, don't know how to."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Pointers are evil. Stay away from them. \n They point to storage locations that you yourself need to allocate before use and free after use. This is a major pain in the arse. Things get really abstracted and confusing when you start using pointers to pointers. You are now 2 Cuil removed from reality. \n Extra fun: pointer arithmatics. You have a contiguous memory area filled with pointers. You decide to select one pointer out of this by using the starting memory address, an index and the memory size of the pointers in the area (usually 4 or 8 bytes). This gets you lost very quickly, unless you are able to juggle three or four abstract entities in your short term memory (and when you revisit your own code three months hence, you likely will have to deduce what the hell you were thinking all over again). \n More fun facts: in the old days of the 8088 and the 8086 processors, you could not address contiguous memory space larger than 64 Kb (that's is right, 64535 bytes). The whole range of 1 Mb memory was addressed by having a base address in one register, and an offset counter in another. This made for fun times when trying to perform pointer arithmatics.", "id": "c2vlmkl", "summary": "stay away from them."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Hey, kid. Coming from a 52 y/o Dutchie, lifelong alcoholic: \n > beer that I took back to my room and drank alone. \n That is an acceptable way of managing your resources. Some people like to share. Other people just hate people in general, and the people they know in particular. I know the feeling. \n > I passed. \n At this point in time, you are what is known as a \"socially functional alcoholic\". You drink a lot, and you meet your targets. \n > bipolar \n No. Sorry, just no. Bipolar is bullshit. You are a drunk, you are an alcoholic, and your mood swings are not different in any way from the mood swings regular people undergo. Only regular people have no doctor telling them they might be bipolar, and regular people cope with their mood swings in a different way than you do. Source: me. \n > inferiority complex. \n That may be the case, and yet again, it is a cop-out. You just don't want to take on responsibility for getting your life on the rails and you keep pointing the finger to a perceived ailment and/or other people. \n > voices within me that constantly try to derail and bring me down. \n Those voices are called your \"inner monologue\". Everybody has several facets of her or his personality coexisting in the consciousness. When making decisions concerning your well-being, you debate within yourself. There is nothing strange about that. The point that some of these aspects of your personality are bringing a negativity to the occasion is something that might be worrying, but nothing a little counselling could not fix.", "id": "ca53rzt", "summary": "you are perfectly normal, continue as usual."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "When you save a file to disk or to a USB stick, it usually is not written completely at the moment of saving. Writing to disk means that your file is written to a part of your computer's memory, after which the operating system tells your program the file has been saved. In the background, the data of your file is then transferred from this  memory buffer  to the storage medium (that is: your disk or USB stick). \n So after you have saved a file, parts of it remain in memory and have not yet been written out to the storage medium. However, your program has told  you  that the file was successfully stored. \n When you prepare a USB stick or external hard disk for ejection, you tell your computer to finish writing out all data that is currently lingering in the memory buffer, while at the same time rejecting any new files to be written to the device. \n After the buffer has been  flushed  (that is what it's called) all parts of all your file(s) are actually stored on the hard disk or USB stick and it is safe to disconnect it from your computer. \n The real-life situation is a bit more complicated, because in addition to writing the file's content to the storage medium, it also takes some housekeeping reads and writes to register  where  exactly your data was stored in the file system of the external drive or USB stick.", "id": "ccliace", "summary": "pending data needs to be written out to the storage medium from the memory buffer. \n Edit: removed some  actually s and polished up lightly."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Ik was een keer in Aarsdonkerveen (Dr) op de kermis. Dat kan ik dus iedereen afraden. De geluidsinstallatie van de botsauto's deed Tiroler hoempapa muziek, en de draaimolen pal ernaast draaide slechte disco uit Duitsland (Boney M en zo). \n Toen wilde ik later met het veer naar de overkant van de Aars, bleek die slechts twee keer per dag te varen en ik had de ochtendeditie net gemist. Dus ik wachten in het veerhuis (boven de schoorsteenmantel een verplicht borduurwerk met de tekst  Hier zet men koffie, over en af ). Nou, dat van dat afzetten klopte dus. &euro; 6,50 voor een kop koffie met een roze koek. \n Zat ik eindelijk op het veer naar de overkant, komt er zo'n zigeunerkindje uit het niets opgedoken, of ik een roos voor mevrouw wilde kopen. W&eacute;lke mevrouw? Mijn ex is al sinds 1987 bij me weg. Het kreng bleef aandringen, en op het veer was er geen ontsnappen mogelijk. Ik begrijp nu waarom die kindertjes altijd huilend op die kitsch schilderijtjes staan afgebeeld. Wonderbaarlijk genoeg hebben ze in dat geval nog een volledig gebit. \n En natuurlijk, eenmaal aan de overkant bleek de bus naar Oudeknardijk drie minuten eerder vertrokken, geheel volgens dienstregeling. De volgende bus zou pas over twee uur komen. Het bushokje waar ik geacht werd te wachten lag vol gebruikte condooms, met hier en daar een gebruikte injectienaald als interpunctie.", "id": "co035o4", "summary": "Aarsdonkerveen."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "I agree with you that the world is not an ideal place to live in. \n And there you are, still holding a grudge about something that happened literally a hundred years ago? \n If you care that much about it, why don't you go back and whack the shit out of them? Oh wait, they have been dead for several decades. Now there might be a valid reason not to.", "id": "c7n2kyo", "summary": "cool you ass down."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "I agree with you not  wanting  to change your ways and learn new things is bad. \n However, not  needing  to change your ways can actually be defended. \n I will give you an example. I myself am an elderly youngster (52) and I get payed for building and maintaning web applications. XML, SQL, Java, various script languages, HTTP, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, a rudimentary understanding of TCP/IP: I work with that stuff on a daily basis. So I am not exactly a computer illiterate. \n When I came of age and started working, MS Dos and Win 3.11 were the predominant environments of the era. I quickly learned efficient ways of doing every day stuff (copy files, delete, rename, zip and unzip) using Norton Commander (This was before Peter Norton started wearing salmon pink shirts). \n Then came Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 3.5 with a smattering of OS/2 ( where is the other half? Ha ha ha ) and everybody else started using \"visual tools\" and \"drag and drop\" with the windows explorer to do these things. \n Not me. I stubbornly stuck to Norton Commander because once you get the operation of it memorized, you can accomplish much more than by clicking a stupid mouse cursor on an stupid list that somehow excludes half of the files in the directory because someone at Microsoft decided it would be \"safer\" that wat way. It got even worse when they decided to hide the file extensions by default. \n Sadly, my employer decided to discontinue the license for Norton Commander and for a while I had to use substandard tooling, which annoyed me because it just did not work the way I expected. \n Then I was assigned to a project whose lead programmer was an early linux adapter and as a result I now suddenly had a dual boot machine which booted SuSE 6 by default. \n Imagine my immense joy when I discovered that it came with Midnight Commander, which is a function-key compatible clone of Norton but running on linux. I felt like I had been broken, and now I was whole again. \n Another example: I don't own or operate a smartphone. I simply don't need one. The only reason I carry an inexpensive prepaid clamshell is so that I can summon help when my car breaks down and let other people know I'll be in late. I live alone, have no family, and keep in touch with friends via email. \n All this twittering, facebooking and hyving: it is completely wasted on me. I am not a social person. Not awkward, 's just that I prefer being on my own instead of catering to attention whores. \n I must confess, I tried a smartphone once (a cheap one, from Aldi). I couldn't get it to work with my home WiFi, though it worked at the office. Also, I was constantly baffled by all the unnecessary things it would let me do whilst displaying everything in abysmall small type. I never even once used it for making or answering phone calls. After two months I got fed up and gave it to my neighoubours daughter, who uses it to play (non-online) games.", "id": "cmttwve", "summary": "Newer technology is not always better technology for everyone."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "That is from your point of view. You are probably educated and like to see different potential threats labeled with some sort of accuracy. \n Most of the other Redditors don't care. If they remember to label something as potentially dangerous, they'll just slap the easiest label they can find on it. \n Also, Reddit itself does not provide a fine grained system of warning labels. It's either gore, death, not suited for work, and not suited for life.", "id": "chec4xg", "summary": "people dislike thinking. Thinking is difficult."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "A man sits on the train, reading a newspaper. He has a banana in his ear. \n The train conductor makes his rounds, notices the man with a banana in his ear and politely states \"Sir, are you aware of the fact that there is a banana in your ear?\" \n Upon which the man with the banana in his ear goes \"SPEAK UP MAN! CAN'T YOU SEE I HAVE A BANANA IN MY EAR?\"", "id": "cijca64", "summary": "don't put Q-tips in your ear. It says so on the box."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Same here. As for back to high school. \n I would then proceed to fuck the brains out of Claire, Juliette and Sophia. Possibly at the same time. Oh, and the  other  Sophia, too. \n I can only shake my head in quiet desperation at what a moron I used to be.", "id": "cjb8yfv", "summary": "adolescent males are inept at picking up subtle invitations. I can tell from first hand experience."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "There are other ways of losing data. \n Only yesterday, I was working on my desktop during a thunderstorm. Suddenly the power went out. \n Ubuntu on my JFS formatted SSD refused to boot after the power came back on. \n Next step: boot from USB stick and find out whats going on. fsck.jfs informs me that both my Primary and Secondary Super Blocks on that partition are corrupted, and it cannot continue. \n I tried some tricks that I found on the Internet, but to no avail. \n So it appears an abrupt loss of power is able to kill your JFS file system pretty much beyond repair (well, beyond my repair skills anyway. I consider myself a power user, in that I know about and use dd, fsck, wget, tar, find combined with grep, midnight commander etc). \n Fortunately for me I have learned the values of backups the hard way. Call me paranoid, and I keep two sets of redundant backups on cheap, inexpensive external USB disks. One at home, one at the office. That way, when either one get stolen or burnt to ashes (together with the primary source of the data) I still have the other. \n In the end, I did a re-install of Xubuntu, copied back my home directory, /opt and various files to /etc and I was up and running again in about two hours. No biggy. I did lose a couple of days of work, but it is all reproducible. I hunt computer bugs for a living, which involves investigation and occasinal tweaking of local source files, and the understanding of what is going on is not lost when the file system crashes and burns.", "id": "cmtx9ej", "summary": "do not only design a backup stragety, test it as well when you are not under duress."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "There is no great mystery. A cassette player has at its input end an electric coil that is sensitive to variations in a magnetic field. The variations in the magnetic fields cause a small electric current in the pickup coil. This small electric current is then amplified and finally fed into your speakers, which turn it into audible sound. \n When playing a normal cassette tape in your player, a plastic tape containing magnetic \"dust\" is moved along your pickup head. The plastic tape has been previously been set up to have the strength of the magneticism vary in accordance to the sound that was recorded onto it. Passing the tape along the pickup head at a steady pace re-creates a voltage that varies in time more or less exactly as the original recording of sound waves varied in time. \n The device shown here interacts with the magnetic/electric pickup head of your cassette player. Instead of having a magneticized tape moving passed the head, it has a fixed electromagnetic counter head (counter to your cassette recorders pickup head) which has a magnetic field that varies over time in accordance to the music that you are playing.", "id": "cmgd8fj", "summary": "original function function moves a magnetic tape across your pickup head. New function replaces magnetic tape with  a fixed electromagnet that plays back the music against your pickup head."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "The joke is that it plays with your expectations. You are used that \"to compare\" is an activity that requires two inputs. The joke leaves one of the inputs away, which is supposed to tingle your \"this is not quite right\" sense. \n To further enhance the estrangement, the punch line delivers an answer that actually could be the legitimate answer to a comparison question, if a proper comparison had been set up.", "id": "cogdmce", "summary": "it messes with your head and that is funny. \n Here's another one, this is a two-phaze Q & A, objection and double whammy punchline. \n Q: What is smallish, more or less rounded, and is coloured purple with black lines? \nA: An egg wearing suspenders. \n .... \n Objection: Wait a minute! Eggs aren't purple! \nPunchline: The suspenders are too tight."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Lights that are powered by alternating current go from brightest to lowest along with the cycle of the alternating current. It depends a bit on the nature of the light (light bulb, fluorescent, LED) how much the maximum and the minimum brightest differ. \n Your eye is able to adjust quickly to varying strengths of light, but not quickly enough to steadily track the on/off cycle of a light bulb being fed at your standard A/C power outlet frequency, which in Europe is 50 full cycles per second and in the Americas 60.  And you have to actually double those numbers, because a full cycle means two tops, to minimums. \n Anyroads, what you are experiencing is the so called [stroboscobic effect](", "id": "cim0cn4", "summary": "lighting conditions vary too quickly, and your eye and brain working together are not able to interpret a smooth movement as a smoothe movement,."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Web servers are a counterpart of web clients. As the names imply, a client is wanting to have something. It turns to a server in order to obtain it. \n You can compare this to you visiting your local library. You have a school assignment to read a certain book, let us say \"green ham and eggs\" by dr. Seuss.  You have no clue as to where it is located, so you (client) step up to the librarians desk (server) and issue a request: \"please direct me to this book\". The librarian is kind enough to honour your request and responds \"gangway 13, shelve B, in the middle\". \n What you have experienced is a client-server interaction, sometimes also known as a \"service\". The key points are: \n \n A server sits idle, listening for requests. \n \n A client is active and sends a request to the server. \n \n The server responds to the clients' request upon receiving it. \n \n \n Computer servers are more or less an automated form of the librarian in the above story. They are computers that are idly listening for requests for information  from other computers, and when such a request reaches them, they try to understand what is asked from them and respond accordingly. \n Web servers are a special kind of computer servers. They are special (or a subset of servers) because they listen on the Internet for requests to respond to. \n A good example of a web server is the computer that sends this text that you are now reading to your web browser. In your browser, you clicked on a link. This caused your browser to issue a request for the content for that link to Reddits' web server over the Internet. Reddits web server responded by providing the content that you are now reading. \n On a more detailed level, things get complicated fast. Suppose you and I were to engage in a conversation,  and the first thing I ask of you is \"Hoe laat heb jij het\" (this is Dutch). Obviously, if you are not able to understand Dutch and formulate an answer in Dutch, you as a time server will not be able to successfully interact with me as a client asking what time it is. \n To make sure that a computer client and a computer server are able to understand each other, they need to speak the same \"language\". For this purpose, a language needs to be agreed to by the programmer that creates the client computer program and the programmer that creates the server computer program. In computer argot, such agreements between the client program and the server program are called a \"communication protocol\", or protocol for short. \n Note that this is very very different from a diplomatic protocol, or a medical protocol. A computer protocol is an agreement by human programmers on how two computer programs will be able to understand each other. \n These agreements come in two flavours: Internet Standard and Propriety. Internet Standard protocols are largely developed and maintained by computer scientists working a universities all over the world. They may be used without paying for a license.  Examples are FTP and HTTP. \n Propriety protocols are developed and maintained by corporations, who generally make you pay for the use of their protocols. Examples are NET8 (licensed by Oracle) and SMB (licensed by Microsoft).", "id": "c30mchu", "summary": "A web server is actually a program running on a computer connected to the Internet that sits listening all day long until a request is received by it. The request is sent by a client program, usually triggered by a human person clicking links or buttons or generally interacting with a user interface. \n The web server will respond to the request by sending back information.  There needs to be some form of agreement between the web server and the client program so that they are able to understand each other. This agreement stems from several programmers having agreed beforehand on what the protocol is."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Organize. \n Every day: clean underwear (slip, socks, handkerchief). Yesterdays items go into the [hamper]( \n Every day: clean shirt (or T-shirt). Again, yesterdays shirt or T-shirt goes into the bin. \n Trousers last a week, as does the towel you use to dry off after showering (did I mention you shower daily? No, I guess not). Bed sheets also get changed once a week. \n You do your clothes washing in the weekend, when you have time to attend to it. Pro Life Tip: ironing stuff is not necessary.", "id": "c6lbx78", "summary": "wear jeans for seven days. When awake, the jeans are on you. When asleep, the jeans are on a chair. Everything else is refreshed daily. Spent items go into a collecting hamper."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "When you draw a perfect circle on a piece of paper with a black pencil, you can measure the length of the line drawn in black pencil. This measurement is called the  circumference  of your perfect circle. \n There is another measurement you can make by placing a perfectly straight ruler on your circle (on the piece of paper) in such a way that it passes by the exact center of your circle. \n Let's say you mark a red line along the edge of your ruler. Now, you measure the length of your red line from where it enters the black-line circle to where it exits the circle again. This, by the way is called the  diameter  of your circle. \n You now have made two measurements and decide to compare one to the other. You do this by dividing the length of the black circle circumference by the length of the red diameter line. The outcome is somewhere around 3. \n Rince and repeat the experiment for circles of varying width. You start with a small circle, hey, it's about 3. Make a circle five times larger, and hey, it's about 3.14. Try again with a very big circle and dammit, the measurements compare as 1 to 3.1415 \n Apparently, the size of the circle does not matter for the comparison of the circumference with respect to the diameter. \n Now, call in some mathematicians and let them model this aspect of reality. Indeed, confirmed, they have formulated a model that fits the observed data. This model predicts that the ratio of the circumference of a circle with respect to its diameter is a fixed constant. \n They decided to call this constant  pi  (this was some time ago, I believe the ancient Greeks had something to do with it). \n Now, following the model the mathematicians have set up for understanding the relation between circumference and diameter of a circle, there is no exact precise number that you can put on it. You have a calculation recepy, and when followed through, this recepy does not end. \n You can make your computer overheat for one hour, and you will perhaps see one hundred digits of precision. You can make your computer overheat for three hours, and maybe see one hundred and twentyfive digits of precision. \n You can make your computer overheat for an indefinite amount of time, and still there will be more levels of precision to compute.", "id": "clxelqj", "summary": "pi was not created. It existed, and was dicovered. It is infinite because we have a method to calculate it, and the method never stops."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "52 and very relieved that a shitty week at work finally ended in success. \n Sorry for the longish read (hey, at least I used paragraphs) but writing about it gets a little bit of the frustration out of my system. As we say in Dutch:  Gedeelde smart is halve smart  (Shared misery is half misery). \n I work for a IT company and was originally appointed developer in a web application development team. The team lead at that time was a whizkid with little patience and he had some pretty powerful friends in the organization. \n When the project started somewhere in 1999 he pretty much had carte blanche to create his own solutions. Being critical on top of being brilliant, he investigated what at that point in time was available for building web applications as open source and decided that it didn't meet the companies needs. \n So he wrote his own framework, doing things comparable to Java Server Faces but differently. Furthermore, he set up the server choosing SuSE linux where the rest of the organization was using Redhat. And he decided that sometimes the way SuSE did things was incorrect. Little things as having an /opt directory for all your additional tooling, such as Apache (provided also by SuSE), Java (provided also by SuSE) and several others. \n Anyway, he also set up the database server. In his unique, brilliant and non-standard but much better way. \n Then in 2006, he left the company and took some senior members of our team with him. Throughout the following years one by one the other members of the original team left the company, while I did not. And of course, there was never time to transfer knowledge or document things. \n As the focus of the company moved on to greener pastures, the team was disbanded and I was promoted to the maintenance guy for this bringer of sorrow. Being a non standard system with a non standard Oracle database, all of the other system specialists and database administrators made sure they stayed far away from it. \n And that is how I became my own system specialist for the OS, my own database administrator and my own team lead. Now, you must understand at the time this whole thing started I was a pretty junior Java programmer who had had no formal training in these forms of Martial Arts. Basically, it was dropped into my lap. \n I did my best, set up cronjobs to monitor all kinds of stuff and raise panic through mail if things went awry. Monitored the database etc etc. This on top of also implementing our customers RFC's, hunting down bugs, and explaining to customers why what they thought was an error was actually the correct behaviour. \n All this running on ancient equipment (the iron was installed in 2004 and is still up and running. I'm silently praying that the processors will be able to contain their magic smoke withing the confinements assigned to it) that I get constantly nagged about because it is a pain in the ass for people who do the maintenance in the server room. \n In spite of all my monitoring, March 8 the database partition of the file system filled up to 100%. Oracle was not happy at that. I found out pretty fast what the cause was and decided to stop the database (it wasn't responsive anyway), clean up some logging etc etc then restart it. \n And that is where my joy begins. \n big mistake \n Apparently, when you shutdown the database in a certain way (which I did) it wants to write all kinds of stuff about ongoing transactions. Then, when you start her up again, it reads this information and does its stuff with it to get the data in a consistent state again. \n Except, when your disk is 100% full, you cannot write to it. The state didn't get saved and after starting the whole database instance was one sick puppy. \n Angry customers, irate management, the whole nine yards. \n Fortunately the incident manager of the regular database guys had a heart (and sound business insight) and lent me one of his more experienced DBA's. He found out that there was some trouble with a temporary storage part of the database and solved it. Or so we thought. He managed to fix it, and the database came alive again. Or so we thought. \n I tighten the monitoring of the data partition and go home. \n Come March 12, I discover that the database system is becoming unresponsive again. Check data partition, 95% full. A bit high, not unusual. Check system partition. Holy crap! This time the system partition is 100% full. \n It turns out that our action of March 8 had left some process whining every few seconds that it wanted to do something but it couldn't. Triggering a whole lot of logging and archiving, plus the occasional core dump that was written where to? You guessed it. The whining was caused by a bug in Oracle 10g, which has been solved in Oracle 11g. \n That explains why I spent the past four days working overtime and under pretty high pressure from management to set up a new 11g database (standard, maintained by proper DBA's) and getting my data content from one to the other. \n Finally, yesterday (March 15) at 23:45 we could declare a go. \n Ladies and gentlemen, I now have a shiny new standard Oracle 11g database server which I am not responsible for anymore. All this  for my crappy old web application. It took some doing, it stressed me out to the point where I couldn't sleep at night, but it was worth it. \n I now are a happy man.", "id": "c8wofas", "summary": "my database broke down. I don't have the knowledge to fix the problem. Agitated managers, angry customers, the DBA Cavalry comes to my rescue. I get rid of a ancient non-standard database server. \n Edit: cleaned it up a bit."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "I can confirm that at this point in time, nothing has been decided yet. The original plan is indeed to introduce membership requirements to coffee shops, for which only Dutch residents would qualify, thus blocking visiting tourists from successfully visiting coffee shops. \n This idea sprouts from several municipalities in the border region wanting to cull drug tourism. As it appears, especially in several regions in Limburg and Brabant, there are \"drug runners\" that will endanger the normal flow of traffic as soon as they notice a car with foreign plates. Their objective is to make drug sales to the occupants of the foreign car, stopping them by force, and they generally are a danger to other people on the road. This is a problem, and everyone involved in solving it has his own opinion on how to solve it. \n Another problem posed by drug tourism is perhaps the sheer number of foreign stoners that invade certain municipalities in the weekend. Imagine for a moment that you live in a small town, with small town crime and small town problems. Then, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday your small town is inundated by the equivalence of seven fraternity houses and four Jersey shores, bringing along all the false drama and pent-up rage such organizations usually exhibit. Would you be happy? \n For these reasons, the municipalities that experience such problems want to stamp out  drug tourism. \n Then, on the other hand, there are the large cities such as Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam, who see their fair share of drug tourism. However, somehow, these drug tourists are better behaved. They are in search of a good time and understand that keeping a low profile is appreciated by the local natives.", "id": "c2keie0", "summary": "some cities thrive on drug tourism. Some cities have good reasons to hate it. Unfortunately, there is one law that rules all cities. A compromise will be reached."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "I'd say you are doing it wrong. But then again, I took my homework seriously. \n And see where it left me: a rather well-paying job, I own my house free of debt. I am currently contemplating whether to spend half of my savings on a vintage Roller, or buy silver (not gold). \n Or maybe I'll just take that trip around the world on a sailing schooner, and what is left I'll spend on some high class call girls.", "id": "c2qf240", "summary": "take your school work seriously.  In the long run, it has benefits."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "I agree with you completely. Drivers should be watching and anticipating other drivers behavior. Substitute \"road user\" for \"driver\" to include pedestrians, bicyclists, horse drawn carriages and anything else applicable in an identifiable situation. \n On the other hand, when you pass an intersection with traffic lights each and every day on your commute, you tend to gain a certain knowledge of it and feel that you are able to predict when the light is going to change (whether to green or to red). You see cars perpendicular stopping for their red, you see the cars waiting to turn left from across your direction starting to move, and you know that next thing, your light will turn green.  You can even time it. But not to perfection. Sometimes you are gunning the engine too early, sometimes you are a bit slow putting the car in to gear after the light turned green. \n For these situations, I propose a hybrid solution: let traffic lights behave in the \"classic\" way when turning from green to red. Everybody is used to this way, the light goes from green to yellow, and then after a short while to red. Nothing new there. An overwhelmingly percentage of drivers will decide not to take their chances when the light turns yellow, and slow down and stop. Just like regulations intended them to do. \n Now here comes the hybrid part of it: just before their traffic light will turn green on them again, show some indication of  exactly when  their traffic light will turn green. Let us say that when the light is red, just start showing a count-down ten seconds before it turns green. This gives all stopped drivers ample time to (1) continuing to assess the situation of other road users relevant to their own plan for crossing the intersection and (2) enough preparation time to plan on going from stationary to rolling once the light turns green.", "id": "c2hxaat", "summary": "I think it is basically a good idea to count-down a wait for a traffic light change, but only for the change from \"stop\" to \"go\" and only for a short while before the change."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Being from Europe, and specifically from the Dutchlands, I think that driving is an acquired skill, on the same difficulty level as ice skating, wind surfing and handling a gun safely. \n To be sure, I spent a small fortune on driving lessons and do in fact own a veterans pin for having failed my fourth driving exam (four is the limit, after that you are considered \"special need\"). Don't worry, I got my license and these days drive a magnificent beast. \n The problem I suspect with your system is that your  legislation just hands out driving licenses without establishing the actual driving ability of the person who gets it. You turn a certain age, you apply for a license, and your license is approved. \n You have no requirements to study and pass an exam in basic traffic law ( what does this sign mean that has stop written on it? Meh, ignore. ) and you have no system in place that ensures that new drivers comply to a certain standard of ability. \n You  need  to know how to put your car in reverse. You  need  to know how to turn on your windshield wipers. You  need  to know that your engine is located in the front compartment of your car, and when smoke starts billowing from the front of your car, you should pull over to the emergency lane and call for emergency services. \n Many people do not find out about these things only after they have been confronted with them. It is not stupidity, it is ignorance.", "id": "cmq9vig", "summary": "your drivers ed sucks, and you have no convincing exams to test it."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "I am me. You do not get into my personal space. And  I  decide what my personal space encompasses. \n It may happen that you temporarily tresspass into it, for instance if you are a person of alleged authority, such as a cop, judge or screw. \n And in the end, retribution is a dish best served cold. Unless you kill me of course.", "id": "cjvw7l7", "summary": "don't mess with me."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Hey, kid. It's what is generally known as \"soldiering through\". You might want to look out for yourself a bit more. \n >  the demands and needs of my kids \n Where, specifically, in the contract, does it specify that you are required to be a perfect mother? Good enough is good enough. Same goes for hubby. Him offloading his shitty day onto you is just bad form and no gentleman should engage in such blatant activity. \n > No me time \n This will in the long run demolish all the fun you experience in living. \n My advice: take up a hobby, preferably one that gets you out of the house one, maybe two nights a week. Maybe you have a nice singing voice. Perhaps you like to study the bible (I hope not). Do you like ballroom dancing? Most women do. Or you could go and do something in the range of political activities. Save the alligators, or occupy wall street, that kind of stuff. Canvassing for your favorite politician.", "id": "c2v62gl", "summary": "you are neglecting your own well-being. Change this. You are you, in the first place. You are a wife and a mother, in the second place. \n Edit: Okay, a mother in the second place only when your children are not physically threatened. Otherwise, engage mama bear mode."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Only if you look at it from a coast/gain point of view. Coast/gain is a typical capitalistic way of looking at things which does not consider long term effects. \n For example: you can fuck your brains out and have fifty children, but when your habitat can only support ten people, forty of them will die, probably before  they  can procreate. \n Another example: you can drive your nice SUV's which have a terrible mileage and spew out CO2 and other bad stuff like there is no tomorrow. Hell, you can even send an army overseas to secure your source of petrol, and pay them by borrowing huge amounts of money, scheduled to be payed back by future people. \n By the time the bill is due, you will be dying of old age. You have had your SUV fun. And you also have a rather large amount of war veterans that one way or the other eat into your expenditures, and on top of that you need to start repaying your debt. Only  you  are dead or dying from old age, and the generations that come next to you get to deal with your shitty deals.", "id": "cmq7x3h", "summary": "Short term, long term. Responsibility."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "While that is true in principle, in practice law enforcement in the Dutchlands implements a policy of \"gedogen\" (laissez-faire) when you grow less than a certain number of plants (at the same time). This number is currently placed at five plants, which is considered the maximum an individual user will need to fulfill her or his own personal needs. And then again, because it is a gray area, if you behave in such a manner as to raising complaints from the community you live in (i.e. loud parties in the middle of the night, junking up the neighborhood, or being a jerk in general) the police will hold the fact that you also grow plants against you.  After all, it  is  illegal. Welcome to the Dutchlands.", "id": "c3hsb7f", "summary": "yes, possession of any amount of plants is against the law, and no, you will not be prosecuted if you \n \n keep the amount of plants grown to a maximum of five. \n \n aren't a nuisance to the community you live in."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "how should I treat the situation? \n Coming from a 52 y/o male person: at your age, you should be looking out for [Number One]( \n People your age have not yet invested heavily into each other through the course of years, so it is more easy to abandon a relationship and be attracted to a new partner. There is no shame for the abandoned party. It just happens. Not through any fault of you, I might add. You sound like a thoughtful and friendly person. \n > I just am not sure how comfortable I am with all of this stuff. She always says that she loves me and she would never do anything, but I always tell her my discomfort with some of the things she says and she just says to not worry about it. \n Like you, she doesn't know. She has had the pleasure of a steady relationship with you, she knows what to expect from you. Then along comes another person, who somehow seems exciting. You are far away. The other person is accessible. People are not saints. \n >", "id": "c70e2d3", "summary": "I am in a long distance relationship .... how should I treat the situation? \n I'd say if you do nothing the relationship dissolves. Not your fault, not her fault. Things just did not work out. In the case you find this unacceptable, because you continue to have genuine feelings for the girl, you must (a) cut her some slack and (b) somehow get her interested in you again. (a) may be difficult, because where you are a Superhero where it involves relationships, she might not be. (b) may be difficult, for reasons not specified."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "There are people I like, and there are people I dislike. Mainly based on how much (or how little) our views coincide on life in general and what should be considered fair treatment of people. \n When meeting new people, I try to keep an open mind. Yet, I see distinct patterns and likenesses in people I have come to dislike in the past, and cultural background is a big factor. So when meeting a new person with a background that other people shared whom I have grown to dislike, I am a bit wary and keep my distance. \n If, in the course of time, they turn out to be okay, then I have made a new friend. \n If, on the other hand they conform to the stereotype that I have based on interactions with other people of their particular culture, then they will not be treated as my friends.", "id": "cgw068f", "summary": "I'm a bit wary based on stereotypes but give everyone a fair chance. Not racist."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Debt is what you do when you borrow money now and promise to pay it back later. To sweeten the deal, you offer to pay interest. \n Those who are willing to lend you the money try to calculate a balance on two things: risk and reward. The more risk you run of not seeing your money back, the more interest you will demand for lending out your money. \n Reward can usually be measured in an objective way, by looking at a percentage of interest and offsetting that against a percentage of devaluation. Well, actually this is not objective at all. The percentage of devaluation (how much will my guilder be worth in five years time) is a gamble. You can say some things that make it look like science, and no. It is a gamble. \n Percentage of interest has been the holey grail of finance instruments for quite a while these days. Unfortunately, that one goes the way of good intentions (they pave the way to hell). You intend to pay a certain percentage, and then you find that you cannot sustain such a level. \n As a single person, you go broke and no bank will ever touch you again with a ten foot pole. \n As a bank, or a small or even mediocre country, everybody and his cousin rush to your aid, because you are too big to fail.", "id": "chskpwy", "summary": "it's all about trust. Take away the trust, and panic ensues."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "In addition: basically, any kind of soap will do. It works like this: the water in the pie pan is intended to drown the fleas. Water has surface tension, which in turn means that very small beasties are able to actually [walk on the water]( \n Fleas qualify as very small beasties. The soap (detergent of any kind) reduces the surface tension of the water to practically zero. Meaning that when a flea would land on the water, it would go under and drown. \n The light is intended to get the fleas into the water. In olden days, a candle was used, planted in the middle of the water. I guess an electric light works just as well, with less dangers for burning down the house. \n Fleas have been conditioned by Evolution to associate an isolated light with a meal. Mind you, in day time, when everything is aglow with light, they stay put. At night time, create an isolated source of light (such as a camp fire) and their conditioning causes them to move in that direction. In the end, they take one flea jump too many, land in the soapy water, and drown. \n Edit: in my version of the explanation, there is no function for the cookie sheet.", "id": "c5zlfbc", "summary": "so there you have it: a deadly flea trap."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "No. Do not ignore them.Call them out. Remain civil and reasonable. With every newly minted insult addressed at you, pretend you don't understand and ask for clarification. Play dumb. Playing dumb will draw the other party out in full war mode. \n Which is what you want, because the other people present will be there to witness it. \n During the mangling (and it can get brutal) try to not lose your phase. Whatever is said, do not react in a manner that leaves you open to further attack. Choose other ways to provoke instead. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.", "id": "c7wtexq", "summary": "grow a pair, then apply them."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Your \"rights\" are only as good as your means of enforcing them. \n In any encounter, at the time it goes down, he who has more might wins. It is not just, it goes against what you were taught, and sadly, it is reality. We call it the law of the jungle. \n What you can do as damage control when you find yourself on the foul end of a cops' wrath: shut up. Say nothing. Do not try to explain. Just say  I invoke the right to remain silent  (or whatever the correct wording is). \n After that, stay silent. If they nag you, threaten you, harass you: repeat that you invoke the right to remain silent and will answer questions only after conferring with legal counsel of your choice. After that, rince and repeat.", "id": "clxe4pc", "summary": "what you do not say cannot be held against you in a court of law . No need to be an ass about it. Just be firm. No means no."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "That was a very good explanation. Just one little detail I think needs some clarification: \n > With an induction stove, only ferromagnetic materials touching the surface will heat up \n As I understand it, any conductive material is affected by the induction effect. The magnetic field (from the copper coils in the stove) cause electric currents in the pot placed above them. Because the pot (and especially its bottom) is in effect a short circuit, the electricity is converted into heat. This is the same effect that heats up a light bulb, or pretty much anything that consumes electricity.", "id": "c3b4wmy", "summary": "induction works on any material capable of conducting electricity, not just ferromagnetic materials."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Bedrijven worden door de aandeelhouders onder druk gezet om ieder jaar hogere winsten te maken. Als je dat niet doet als bedrijf zijn je aandelen niks waard en kun je geen geld ophalen om activiteiten te ontplooien of uit te breiden. \n Als iedereen jouw product wil kopen en het ook kan betalen is het niet zo verschrikkelijk moeilijk om steeds meer van je product of dienst af te zetten in de markt. \n Maar nu zitten we dus al jarenlang in de situatie dat de mensen die jouw omzet moeten genereren ieder dubbeltje drie keer omdraaien en het daarna toch maar weer wegbergen in afwachting van nog slechter tijden. \n Wat moet je dan als bedrijf om toch je winst op te krikken? Besparen op je uitgaven. Voor veel bedrijven, zeker die in de dienstverlening, zijn de loonkosten een relatief een grote kostenpost in vergelijking tot gebouwen, machines, grondstoffen en vaste lasten. Dus is het interressant om te kijken of je de loonkosten kunt drukken. Daarvoor moet je dus mensen ontslaan maar toch zorgen dat je productie en omzet op peil blijft. \n Mensen op grote schaal ontslaan gaat niet zomaar, dat geeft maatschappelijke onrust en is slecht voor je imago als bedrijf. Maar mensen sluipenderwijs per twee of drie ontslaan lukt meestal wel, dan noem je dat een \"herstructurering\", \"reorganisatie\", \"afslankingsoperatie\" of hoe die mooie eufemismen ook mogen luiden. Je schudt de manier waarop mensen zijn ingedeeld in logische eenheden binnen jouw bedrijf op en hee, kijk nou, er is ineens geen nieuwe functie meer voor drie oude en dus dure werknemers! In jargon: die zijn  overtollig  pardon overt a llig geworden. \n Dat na zo'n operatie de werkdruk toeneemt voor de achterblijvers die hun baantje voorlopig hebben behouden wordt door de bedrijfsleiding meestal juichend genegeerd, of aangeprezen met newspeak in de orde van  Meer Met Minder  (hallo, Almere),  Toekomstvaste Structuur ,  De Klant Centraal Stellen  (alle banken zo'n beetje, alsmede ziektekostenverzekeraars). \n Andere manieren om de loonkosten te drukken is om je lonen zgn \"marktconform\" te maken. Je huurt dan een adviesbureautje in, die schrijft in een rapport dat de salarissen in jouw bedrijf tien procent boven de salarissen van de concurrentie zitten, en hoppa, dat gaan we dus met achterblijvende loonsverhogingen corrigeren zodat we na vijf of tien jaar \"marktconform\" belonen. \n Wat je ook ziet gebeuren is dat mensen steeds vaker worden ontslagen en daarna op slechtere voorwaarden weer worden aangenomen. Dat is bij de postbedrijven gelukt, in de thuiszorg net niet dacht ik, veel bouwvakkers zijn ineens zelfstandig ondernemer die op projectbasis worden ingehuurd in plaats van in vaste loondienst zoals voorheen. \n Het gevolg van al dit fraais is dat de mensen die het toch al breed hebben ieder jaar tevreden mogen vaststellen dat het dividend dat zij krijgen wederom enkele procenten is gegroeid en hun aandelen meer waard zijn geworden. \n Een ander gevolg is dat de mensen die uiteindelijk voor de omzet (en dus de levensvatbaarheid) van jouw bedrijf moeten zorgen, namelijk de consumenten van jouw producten en diensten, steeds minder te besteden hebben en dus steeds minder bijdragen aan de omzet van jouw bedrijf. Dit is bijvoorbeeld in Amerika heel goed te zien: mensen die vroeger met 1 werkende volwassene per huishouden redelijk konden rondkomen, hebben nu soms twee of drie deeltijdbanen verdeeld over pa en ma en kunnen desondanks nauwelijks het hoofd boven water houden. Dit terwijl je wel steeds juichverhalen hoort over de economie die het daar zo goed doet en dat de koersen op de aandelenmarkten alsmaar weer omhoogschieten. \n Dat laatste willen Rutte en de zijnen ook graag in Nederland zien gebeuren, namelijk het klootjesvolk terug in hun hok en de rijken een riant en onbezorgd bestaan. Zij worden daartoe ruimschoots in de gelegenheid gesteld door het project Europa, wat in feite een neoliberale machtsgreep is van een stelletje witteboordencriminelen. Democratie in het Europese avontuur is ver te zoeken, we mogen gewoon betalen en moeten verder onze bek houden. \n En als het volk het doorkrijgt en begint te morren organiseer je snel een beheersbaar conflict (De Krim, Oekraine, Midden Oosten) om met wapengekletter de aandacht af te leiden. \n De enige oplossing die ik in de verre verte zie is dat de rijken op hun beurt worden teruggeknuppeld in hun hok en dat hun hebzucht en graaizucht stevig wordt beknot door wetten, de uitvoering daarvan en vooral ook een cultuuromslag. Het probleem van Nederland is dat het misschien (heel misschien, als bijvoorbeeld de SP ooit in de regering komt) die kant op zou kunnen gaan, maar dat er ook nog een grote boze wereld is die een flinke invloed heeft op ons nationale huishoudboekje. Voor een klein landje dat voor een relatief groot aandeel van de inkomsten is aangewezen op internationale markten (transport, doorvoerhaven, export) heb je slechts een beperkte bewegingsruimte. \n Voorbeeld: er gaan stemmen op op een einde te maken aan het handjeklap van de belastingdienst met grote multinationals die in Nederland hun hoofdkantoor hebben. Zodat ze eens een keertje normaal belasting gaan betalen in plaats van heel weinig. Zodra je dat in bepaalde kringen zegt roept iedereen verontwaardigd  Nee! Dan gaan ze naar het buitenland en betalen ze helemaal geen belasting meer in Nederland!  Ongeacht de vraag of dat wel of niet waar is (dat weet je pas zeker nadat je het hebt geprobeerd), is deze argumentatie een remmende factor voor een regering die haar belastingbeleid jegens grote multinationale ondernemingen zou willen herzien. \n Een ander probleem is de Europese kolos die maar voortdendert, en die van onze achtereenvolgende regeringen vanaf Balkenende 2 steeds meer zeggenschap heeft gekregen over zaken die ons allen wezen treffen, zoals wetgeving, beleid, en vooral ook dat we nog steeds netto meer betalen aan de EU dan de EU aan ons. \nDit alles nogmaals op een zeer oncontroleerbare en dus ondemocratische wijze. Waarvoor hulde, heren Balkenende, Zalm, Bos, Rutte en Samson.", "id": "cnbosmi", "summary": "Zoals de fabrieksdirecteur in vroeger tijden tegen de pastoor placht te zeggen: \"Houd jij ze dom, dan houd ik ze arm!\""}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "It is a matter of degree. In the so-called exact sciences like physics, descriptions of how reality works (so-called  theories ) lead to predictions that can be tested through experiment. \n A very simple example: suppose I have a rock in my hand. I let go of it. It falls to the ground. I can observe this quite clearly. Now suppose I take another rock in my hand. I let go of it as well. Again, I observe that it falls to the ground. There is pattern here! I predict that when I take yet another rock in my hand and let go of it, it will fall to the ground. Lo and behold, when I perform the experiment the prediction is found true. \n Now, as for an explanation of why rocks fall to the ground. Enter the Theory of Gravity, later to be replaced by the Theory of General Relativity. These are a set of descriptions, definitions and assumptions that together can accurately predict how things will behave given a certain set of circumstances. It's called a theory, and when you follow the rules you can make very accurate and repeatable predictions. Which is why most scientists feel that such a Theory is \"proven\" or \"true\". It is more than a theory, it can make predictions and the predictions can be verified to come out true. \n In economics, the element of controlled measurement is missing. In Physics,  can pick up a rock and let go of it. I am in control of every little detail of that operation and measure exactly what I want to measure. \n In economics, there is not very much room to experiment. There are plenty of theories competing to explain why things happen as we observe them to happen. But you cannot devise an experiment to test a prediction of your theory. All you have is past evidence. \n You cannot simply say \"let us double the tax rate and my theory predicts that the Gross National Product will go up three percent\". Because if your theory is incorrect and GNP will go  down  three percent instead, that is not good for an awful lot of people. \n Rocks. You may hold them, then let go of them. Maybe the third rock you do this to will float upwards to outer space. Who cares? A countries economy on the other hand, is a very serious matter. Many people care when you conduct an experiment and the outcome goes other than what you expected.", "id": "c7maofs", "summary": "In exact science, you can set up an experiment and observe it's outcome with relative impunity. In economics, not."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "For the people residing on top of things, like your ordinary white male husband who could support a family with a single job,  things actually  were  better in the past. They were worshipped as small gods, and although blowjobs did not yet exist in the 1950's the sex they enjoyed was readily available. \n In the sixties, things started changing, and from mid-to-late 1970's such bliss is no longer carried in the usual man/woman partnership. These days, you have to  work  as a white male with a job to make your relationship with a woman continue.", "id": "cm7708s", "summary": "from a working white male's point of view, things  were  better in the past."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "I've been firing up Opera from time to time for the past ten years, first Windows, then from 2004 on on SuSE, and recently I switched to Gentoo running xfce. I must admit, I get the occasional segfault. Running Gentoo on AMD64x2 is perceived to be not perfectly stable, so I don't blame Opera. Recovery is swift and hassle-free. \n I have always regarded Opera as an also-run/on-the-side tool/toy/occasional-source-of-extra-information-when-webpages-break. TIL, partly through the advert and some research, of the existence of Opera Dlagonfly. I will be definitely looking into this. Oh, and by the way, at home (where I run the Gentoo boxes) Opera is my default browser. I just nevar suspected it to have all the nice features that FF has.", "id": "c15f6nx", "summary": "today, I finally became aware of the potential of Opera for me as web professional, and this was caused by an advert on Reddit. Huzzah!"}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "It's [dunglish]( \n I thought it would be fun to cause some old-fashioned lost in translation confusion. \n Je weet nooit hoe een koe een haas vangt  literally translates to \"You cannot know in advance how a cow will catch a hare\". It is an expression that more or less says \"be prepared for things you haven't imagined possible\". \n We all know that cows are not in the hare-catching business. And then again, should a cow develop a whish to catch hares, that is a scenario we have not reckoned with. At the very least, the cow would develop non-standard (for a cow) behaviour, and thusly by not conforming to the norm, break our expectations and the routines we built on those expectations. Routines broken lead to shit hitting the fan, which we would like to avoid.", "id": "clvy53m", "summary": "expect the unexpected."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Please. No. \n There may be extraterrestrials out there, and they may even swoop in every now and then to get some samples from the troposphere. \n They sure as hell aren't going to abduct you. Look at it from a cost-gain point of view. \n In order to keep you alive once abducted, they need to replicate your habitat. At least air pressure, food, water, and absence of lethal radiation. That is costly, especially in modules flown in from hundreds of light years away. \n And what will they gain? The pleasure of your presence? Chances are, you'll spend the rest of your life without them and you ever being able to communicate in a meaningful way.", "id": "c8p1l06", "summary": "alien abductions, not happening."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "You make some valid points there. \n Bottom line: my cat abuses me, and I let him get away with it. The physical abuse is mostly limitied to checking in on me at about 04:20 hours, to establish wether I am sleeping properly.  This is implemented by jumping up and down on my sleeping body until I am awake. Once satisfied that I was indeed sleeping properly, the second order of buisness kicks is which essentially consists of me lavishing nice attention upon him. \n Unfortunalely, all cat abuse victim houses in my town have been closing due to GOP budget cuts.", "id": "clj25p0", "summary": "My cat abuses me and I have no where else to go. Plz HALP!"}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "They are secretive about themselves. When you hide something, it is usually assumed you are acting in your own best interest. Strike one. \n Furthermore, the general impression is that many people of influence are involved with freemasonry. Imagine your alderman, mayor, doctor or chief of police or governor being involved in activities which are partly shrouded in mystery. Would you not feel uncomfortable? I would. With great power comes great transparency. I want to know what you are up to. Strike two. \n Then, when confronted with requests for clarification, in general the response is \"we are a private organization and fuck off\". Not very user friendly. Strike three.", "id": "cffvb7l", "summary": "people hate who they cannot trust."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Not really. When the vein flows, the vein flows. In my experience, it is not a process you can induce or control. \n What sometimes helps is being contrary. See things from an absurdist point of view. \n Examples: \n A man walks into a bar. There is a frog attached to his head. Barman wants to know what happened. The frog answers. \n Truckers and overpasses. Maximum height restrictions not met. Idea: bleed some air from the tires, it will fit. Rebuttal: no, you moron, it is too high on the upper side, not where the tires are. \n The sea.", "id": "ch09nfd", "summary": "sorry, no. You will have to develop your own style."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "You psycho analyze them meticulously in front of the whole family, preferably at Thanksgiving or christmass. \n There is a reason people are nasty and mean. If you manage to come up with it, you will shut them up. The truth hurts. Amongst possible reasons you can guess : \n \n Did not manage to accomplish a life long dream (no relationship, no children, going to college, whatever). \n \n Was sexually abused as a child. \n \n (subtle one this:) Their parents loved them less than his or her siblings. \n \n \n Don't be afraid to throw mud at them, something will stick. When something does, imply that is is through some fault of their own that that particular thing happened to them.", "id": "cjyotps", "summary": "destroy them."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "In the first place, I am an atheist and I am not attacking you personally. Yet. \n In the second place, people twisting the meaning of a religious text for their own benefit is old, cheap and utterly despicable. \n In the third place, given the above first and second, when you pretend to be an educated person yet you still base any part of your daily dealings with other people on a historical text that is clearly not applicable to life as it is lived by me in the 21st century, you are not an educated person. This goes not only for fundy christians, fundy jews or fundy moslims. I will call bullshit on anyone who is trying to bullshit me. \n The way Arab men in general and those who purport to follow the islam way in particular treat women is just plain horrible. For me, it is as far removed from my approval as the fact that my forefathers where slave traders. I will not accept excuses. You cannot point to a philosophical text that is 1400 years old and say \"well, that there is all the justification I need\". \n Also, you cannot point to said philosophical text and say to me \"the others who believe this to be true are confused in their interpretation, the original text says nothing about women being treated like property, slaves, or breeding devices\". The fact of the matter is that they use this text to justify their horrible treatment of women. They believe that text to be true, you believe that text to be true. How are you different from them? And more to the point, how do you intend to prove to me that you are different from them?", "id": "c2hxj04", "summary": "rant"}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "It may seem a bit heartless, and this advice comes from an elderly Dutch male, who admittedly has some things in his past he regrets. And some other things he could have handled better. In retrospection. \n In the end, it is you. You are the one you are going to grow old with throughout time. Perhaps a sibling, should they choose to maintain contact. You. You are the most important person in your life. Yes, you! \n Friendships live while you care for them. After a while, you are either going through the motions or the friendship has actually died. I'm 52, sweety. These things happen. You can trust me on that. \n The same can be said for love, only when love ends, you don't see it coming. There comes a day when he is leaving you, and you want to tag along just to be in his presence. He will say no. You will be cramping his style. And thus it ends. You can put up a fight, and thus it ends. \n I could throw in some French philosophy shit, or some German (sorry I am not up to speed in Spanish) and in the end, all you have is yourself. \n Now, pay attention. I know this is difficult, and I didn't exactly pass the test myself. The big question is:  What do you want? . Yes, you. The most important person in your life. Oh, sorry, did I just repeat myself? Maybe there is a reason I did. \n As in  you are the most important person in your entire life.  Not your children. Not your parents. Not your husband. Not your brother, nor your sister. Not your uncle, not your aunt. Not your grandmother, for crying out loud! What does she know about living your life?! Most certainly not your neighbour (she is deluded in so many ways, the Guiness book of records would have trouble recording them all). And last, but not least, your pet animal.* \n Oh sorry \n /me switches rant mode off. \n Look. Seriously. It is all right to like other peops. And it is more all right to like yourself. You don't have to flaunt it. Just so that you know, when push comes to shove, who really matters. \n Jeez, I just wish you were Dutch. It would all come naturally to you then.", "id": "c7mh4rl", "summary": "There is them. And there is me. I am more important. Period."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "For starters, I am a male/52yo/Dutchy. I am thoroughly convinced that I am actually a male. Testosterone levels at 120 percent. \n This being said, I have a colleague at work who some ten years ago transferred from being male to being female. She changed her name from \"Jan\" to \"Jeannette\". (Jan is a boys name in the Dutchlands). \n At first, when management (no less) announced this change, people were sceptical.  Then, when no deterioration in her efficiency was noticed, people started to just shrug it off. It was no big deal. \n My biggest beef I have with her these days is that she is  thorough . She goes slowly from one conclusion to another, after having checked all the facts presented. \n But she used to do that when she operated as a male as well, and it annoyed me then too.", "id": "c8sisys", "summary": "You are what you are. Feeling inferior to other people ... sometimes there are reasons to do so. In your case I'd say you were feeling inferior as a male, and after transiting you feel inferior as a female. \n My advice: don't feel inferior. It's easier said than done. Then again, every human being is unique in her or his special way. I'm sure  you  are the best  you  that ever existed!"}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Mmm. Most months have more nights than twelve. Batman  is  the night, according to his own reckoning. \n Let us do some math. \n The average month has about twenty two work days. Batman, following a European approach to work, has a four day work week. For a European Batman, there are 18.5 work days per month. \n Now, in order to be Batman fighting crime, he has to invest some time at the gym, and invest some other time keeping his gadgets up to date and familiarize himself with new and/or upgraded gadgets. If it is anything like the business I am in, that eats up another third of your productive hours. \n We are now down to twelve days and a bit. \n But! Batman participates in several group efforts, and has weekly meetings to coordinate stuff and relay feedback. Deduct another four hours per week from the productivity score. Let us say two full days each month. \n We are now down to about ten full productive days each month. \n I could probably talk it down a bit more. Batman supervises Robin. Another hour or two lost across each week. \n Legacy projects. They follow you around. Yes, it is now your responsability to maintain subroutine XQ013. Written in Cobol. Yes, it used to be my baby. No, I don't get paid to answer any question you might have about the inner workings of that subroutine. Yes, I am a nice guy and will make time for you. \n Another estimated two hour a week. There is a side effect: you'all talk very loud and excited, and I can't help from being distracted as I try to tackle my own  bug I am currently working on. It appears to be a multithread thingy, and I am almost understanding it, and then you lot make a lot of noise.", "id": "chtgat0", "summary": "twelve times a month is a bit optimistic."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Een boertje uit het Noorden des Lands is een dagje uit in de Stad. \n Op een gegeven moment wordt hij aangesproken door een fraai ogende dame die hem vanuit een portiekje benadert. \n \"D'rop?\" vraagt de vrouw, met een suggestief hoofdgebaar. \n \"Neen bedaankt\", zegt het boertje wijzend naar zijn mond, \" 'k Heb al een pepeurmeueuntje!\"", "id": "ci4wfeu", "summary": "ik houd ook van d'rop."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Computer  memory  storage does indeed tend to double for every new set of commercial devices. \n The reason is that there is no smaller increase possible. You need a certain number to pinpoint a certain location in your memory storage. When this number reaches the maximum value it can represent, you reach the maximum number of memory locations you can address. \n If you want to be able to use more memory locations, you need to increase the counter that counts them. The only possible way to do this is to add an extra bit to the binary circuitry that does the actual counting. And adding one bit to a counter doubles the amount of memory locations it can count to. \n So this explains how we got from 2 Gb to 4 Gb, and then to 8 GB and so on. \n As for the RGB thingy. \n Why not 256? Easy peasy, we start counting at zero. Imagine this: we have a variable that can take on four different values: 0, 1, 2 and 3. There are  four  distinct values, and the value of the highest one is \"3\". How can this be? Because we start counting the values at 0, and not at 1. \n RGB only up to 255. \n 1) It is not 256, because we start counting at 0 (see previous), so the highes possible value is 255. \n 2) It is not 511, because of the definition of RGB. The defintion of RGB says: \"we are going to use  eight  bits to denote the value of the primary colour component for each pixel in the image\". When you use eight bits, as in the RGB definition, you are only able to determine colour intensities in steps of 256 values. \n Should you want to make an image file that determines the variations of primary colours in steps of 512 different values (still starting at 0, with 511 being the highest one) this would be possible, but the resulting file would not be your standard RGB file such as being understood by your standard image file interprerting programs.", "id": "cmjbhgz", "summary": "the standard is to encode colours in 8 bits (256 different values for each primary colour). \n There is no theoretical objection against encoding colours in 9 bits (512 different values for each primary colour). In practice, the programs that you use to display image files do not understand this type of encoing, and are unable to render such files for your viewing."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "The other side is where you are not. However, when you do travel to the other side, you will be there so it won't be the other side anymore. Instead, some other place (or idea, or feeling) will have become the other side. \n And yes, the grass always  is  greener at the other side. It serves as a motivation to you to keep moving towards the other side. Which, once you are there, will cease to be the other side (see above).", "id": "cfy2skb", "summary": "You can't win, but you sure as hell can lose badly. Or with good grace."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Otto, who is known for not being very bright, presents himself at the hardware store one day in quest of yellow paint. Canary yellow paint, to be exact. That's right, he's going to put a brand new coat of paint on his little budgie, Petey. \n Try as he might, the sales clerk is unable to change his mind. \n \"You can't paint budgies, Otto\" he warns. \n\" Can too! \" is his answer. \n \"Birdies die when you paint them, Otto\" he admonishes. \n\" Petey won't! \" is Otto's firm conviction. \n So after all is said and done, Otto leaves the store muttering merrily to himself and in possession of one can of canary yellow paint. \n The following morning, here he is again at the hardware store, looking rather sad. He dramatically plants one can of canary yellow paint, unopened, on the counter, produces the receipt (Otto is an avid reader of /r/talesfromretail) and asks for a refund. \n Relieved that Otto has made the right decision after all, the sales clerk goes \"So, changed your mind ey?\" \n \"Nah\", replies Otto dejectedly, \"Petey died last night before I had a chance to paint him!\" \n The clerk is taken aback. \"How did  that  happen?\" he wants to know. \n \"Well,\" says Otto, \"I guess he died right after I tried to scorch the old layers of paint off of him...\"", "id": "corynd1", "summary": "don't try to paint your wren blue if your name is Otto..."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "But I cant deny though. \n You can deny anything that you damn well want to deny. My guess is that you mean that you cannot deny it because there is evidence (name, handwriting) pointing to you. But you confuse denial with circumstantial evidence. \n A famous American President once rallied to this denial: \"I did  not  have sex with that woman\" (the woman in question being Monica Lewinsky). He got away with it and today is more popular than ever. \n Denial is about people believing you, or not. Those who believe your denial will ignore the facts presented to them. The only question you have to ask yourself is wether you want to go that way. At first, it will feel like you are lying. But after a while, the lie grows on you and you will start rationalizing why the lie actually is not alltogether a lie. The human mind is a wonderful instrument where it comes to self deception.", "id": "cg51veq", "summary": "of course you can deny everything. Questions are (1) do you want to? and (2) Can you make it stick ?"}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "pay back! To, it will b ... \n Should not that be  too  ?  But I digress. \n As for making up your mind, it is you that needs to do so. I can tell you how  I  make life-changing decisions, but I am not you. You'll have to do it yourself. \n This being said, whenever I face a difficult decision that certainly will affect my life in a big way, I take my time. Sometimes a few days, sometimes months. It depends on the urgency of a decision needing to be made, and on how much research I feel like doing on the subject. \n I usually let my emotions simmer for a while, collecting information and examining how I feel about various potential outcomes. Then, when I am ready, I take a piece of paper, divide it in two with a vertical line, title the left side \"Pro\" and the right side \"Contra\" (or vice versa, if you are a republican). \n Then I make two lists: one sums up what the foreseeable benefits for me will be, the other sums up what the foreseeable costs for me will be. Over the next few days, I will occasionally add items to the lists, or perhaps remove them. Perhaps I'll also weigh the relative likelihood, impact and risks of the various items. \n Finally, when I am really really ready to make a decision, I take the two lists, inspect them one final time, perhaps rearrange two or three priorities, risk assessments and uncertainties. And then I make my decision. \n Obviously in your case the benefits would center about having a piece of paper saying that you have a college degree, the drawbacks would be that in order to get there you are left with a rather hefty debt (and it takes an investment of several years of your time that you could otherwise spend profitably), and the uncertainty would be whether the degree will land you a good job. \n I can advise you about the former two: a college degree can be of some worth to potential employers, but in my opinion there are many more factors that influence your employability as well: your personality, your ability to take shit life throws at you and learn from your mistakes, whether you are a rather more or less attractive member of the human species, what previous experience you have that relates to the job being offered. \n Student loans and investing several years of your life (in case you decide to go the college route) are a certainty. No doubt about that. Also, you'll have to spend the four years or so that it takes you to complete the degree in relative poverty, under usually shitty circumstances (sharing your place of residence with other people) and in general being overworked and underpaid. \n As for the rewarding part, once you have completed a college degree: there are no guarantees. Much depends on the state your country is in once you are ready to enter the labour market. If the president at that point in time is Santorum, then you are basically fucked (twice over, and once more in your ass). \n It also depends on what your degree is in. Generally speaking, engineers and medical doctors are more likely to find a job relating to their degree than say a philosopher or art mayor.", "id": "c49iz7m", "summary": "Predicting is very difficult, especially when predicting the future."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "so much gravity that nothing can ever get out of it? \n Yes. The correct term is \"escaping the gravitational field\" but you understand that part of it. The \"gravitational field\" is caused by \"space-time being distorted\" and that is where my eyes get that far away, glazed over look. I used to understand the mathematics that describe the distortion of space-time due to a mass being in it, but I can't for the love of me imagine what it looks like in real life. \n What things look like inside a black hole is only known from pure speculation. If you lived to cross the boundary between being outside and inside a black hole, you probably would not be able to detect the difference (until you tried going outside again). In all probability, a black hole has no \"planetary surface\" you can stand on and propel yourself upwards from. \n What I  do  understand from what I have read, is that things get pretty violent long before you even get near the surface of no return (called the \"event horizon\"). Because the gravitational field of the black hole pulls with extreme force on anything nearby, the dust and gas clouds get compressed and accelerate very rapidly towards the black hole, and they heat up tremendously and give off a lot of radiation in the process (mostly heat, but there is also gamma radiation caused by the acceleration of matter). \n Another thing to consider is a thing called the \"tidal force\". Bodies are attracted towards a center of gravity by a force that is inversely proportional to the square of the distance to that center of gravity. \n When you jump off a dive board into the swimming pool feet first, your feet are approximately one point seven meters closer to the center of the Earth than your head. Because the distance is slightly smaller, the Earth will pull a teensie weensie bit more at your feet than it pulls at your head. In Earth conditions, this effect is too small to notice. \n Replace the gentle Earth gravity field with your average black hole brute, and the effect  does  become noticeable. So much so, that the black hole will pull much more strongly at your feet than it pulls at your head. The difference in gravitational pull will probably be so large as to literally rip you apart. \n Other interesting phenomena to consider are microscopic black holes. Consider a \"planetary body\" with a very small radius, say one micrometer. You can stick this radius into the formula for escape velocity and see what mass a black hole would need to have in order to exceed the speed of light. Surprisingly, when you make the radius smaller and smaller the mass you'd need to be a black hole drops into the region of elementary particle physics. I don't know if you recall, but when the Large Hadron Colider in Geneva was first started up, there was some serious concern that its collisions would create microscopic black holes which would then fall towards the center of the Earth and slowly devour our beloved planet. \n Another theory is that the Universe itself is in fact the ultimate black hole. In a way, since nothing can escape from it (there is no \"outside\" of the Universe), i guess this is true. \n Another fun fact is that black holes very slowly \"evaporate\" until they stop being a black hole. The evaporation occurs by stuff (particles, radiation) \"escaping\" from the black hole by an effect called \"tunneling\". Basically, \"tunneling\" means \"go where according to the laws of physics it is impossible for you to go\". It has to do with probability and statistics.", "id": "cdb9ghq", "summary": "stay away from black holes."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "What I understand of the process that turns a star into a black hole, it needs to be pretty massive, probably ten times the mass of the Sun. The way it works is that initially, Hydrogen is converted into Helium. The heat this generates creates a pressure that counters the force of gravity that makes the matter (Hydrogen and Helium mixture) want to collapse towards the center of the star. \n After a while, this process runs out of Hydrogen (the fuel is being used up) so the fusion of Hydrogen slows down, which makes the counter pressure go down as well and allows the matter of the star to collapse towards the center. \n This in turn drives up pressure and heat, enabling other fusion reactions, for instance from Helium to Boron. \n Depending of the mass of the star, the collapse of matter towards the center when the star runs out of Hydrogen can be gradual or violent. The heavier the star, the more violent it will be. Sometimes it will be so violent that the heat and pressure increase rapidly enough to suddenly re-ignite the fusion motor, which sort of can be like an explosion (in slow motion, these fuckers are  big ). When this happens we say that the star has gone Nova. Particularly violent versions of this process are known as Supernova. \n So the star explodes because fission is suddenly re-ignited. A lot of matter gets blown into space, but also a lot of matter remains behind. Remember that everything was on the move towards the center? Well, the remaining matter just continues to do that. \n Depending on how much matter there was to begin with, and on how much inward speed it has, it can turn the star into a Neutron star (very dense) or a black hole (even denser).", "id": "cdcxqdc", "summary": "you need to start with a decent sized star (I'd say about ten times Solar mass) in order to reach the level of violence required to get a black hole after things blow up."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "I spreche auch Rudi Carell Deutsch. \n No, but seriously. What you describe, with slight differences. I grew up to an Italian mother and a Dutch father, so that accounts for at least being basically bilingual. \n Then, at the time I was in basic and high school, the Dutch schools were awesome, so I was trained in English, French and German as well. The English I further picked up when I was a student. Course books in English were cheaper than in Dutch (or Dutch not being an option). \n So, when the mountain does not move towards Mohamed, Mohamed moves towards the mountain. \n I must confess, My French and German are getting a bit out of practice. As is my Italian, since my mother came to pass. English and Dutch: I'll fight you any day over those.", "id": "c6edi45", "summary": "you sound like a nice kid. If you want to get together some time,  eh  (that is a positive Italian shrug, not an apologetic Canadian one)."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "You can look at history from a conflict point of view. Conflict has always existed, from the day Lug and his gang tried to take over the cave and I beat his sorry ass. Conflict is justified by parties that participate in the conflict by pointing out how they are  better  than the other parties that they have a conflict with. \n As society as a whole got better at recording events as they happened, or reconstructing what happened after the fact, an element of  I hate you because your forefathers wronged  mine  has been added to the narration. \n But if you look at it from a few steps futher away: \n \n I am not dying from the Bubonic Plague. Nor from Malaria, nor from Tuberculosis, nor from Cholera, nor from general misery, malnourishment, or many other conditions that were a major death cause at the beginning of the 20th century. \n \n Should I find myself in disagreement with other persons as to my rights to do or do not do whatever is in dispute, I need not resort to threats, fisticuffs or organizing a posse to get the matter resolved in a way that I can live with. \n \n Perhaps, the clinger: modern society is very powerful, technically speaking. You take a shit in your bathroom, you flush, and it is gone. Imagine doing that in the 16th century. Oh, and while you are taking a shit, you are on your smartphone, read two messages from your friends and like four statuses on facebook. Imagine doing that in the sixteenth century. \n \n \n But it gets better! Your number two is of exceptional dimensions. So you decide to use your smartphone and take pictures of it before flushing. About twelve, from different angles. For future reference.", "id": "cj3rgti", "summary": "insights shift towards a more positive way of interpreting strangers, as they become less of a threat, because our technology keeps providing better solutions at cheaper coast. \n Mark my words, one day we'll find a solution to potable water for everyone! No telling where we will end up from there."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Excuse me for intruding. \n > but I just want to do something nice! \n sounds a bit like you would like to claim your fifteen minutes in the spotlight. While there is nothing wrong with that, and your peer group will probably be impressed with you in the event that you manage to pull off some serious stunt or epic scenario, there are also the feelings of your girlfriend to be considered. \n In my experience, many people just kind of like to keep to themselves and are not totally comfortable when attention is drawn to the fact that they exist, not even when in the form of a stage prop. \n Ask yourself this: is your girlfriend as comfortable as you are to be the center of attention when you pull off your stunt and ask her to the prom in that unique, never-will-I-be-this-awesome-in-my-life way that you concept? \n Or is she more comfortable when not being at the attention span of a large group of people?", "id": "c4b4jta", "summary": "you may think it is fun what you are planning, and once confronted with your action plan, she may feel utterly embarrassed. At least discuss it beforehand, so that you will not totally surprise her. Contrary to popular belief, surprises are  not nice ."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "but he was aware that I had moved on -- that should have made him happy, right \n Wrong. \n > I like to think that I'm a nice person \n You sound like one. \n > and just acting like a child. I have no idea what his problem could be \n You have a splinter in your eye, which prevents you from noticing the log in his eye. Or some biblical shit. Anyway, he just never did grow up. Essentially, emotionally, he still is a seven year old boy. We can argue about the reasons why this is the case, which will not be very productive. Or we can acknowledge that this is the case and develop a plan based on that assumption. \n How to deal with a seven year old who still has a crush on you but refuses to admit it? It's gonna be difficult. My first advice: harden up. Don't take shit. Don't let him act as if he is more important than you are. Very very important: document all the unpleasant interchanges: \n     Captains log, stardate 83 22 01: coworker accused me of taking too long a coffee break. I explained that I was in the toilet suffering cramps on account of me having my period and needed some time to gather myself together. Coworker was not sympathetic with my plight.\n\n    Captains log, stardate 83 22 79: Coworker invaded my cubicle and started an incoherent argument about a paper clip that apparently went missing from his desktop overnight. Though I have nothing to do with it, I generously offered him my ration of paper clips to recover his loss. With a rude expletive, he actually hit my hand holding the carton, causing paper clips to fly all over my personal space\n\n    Captains log, stardate 83 23 13. Co worker is wearing a red sweatshirt. Comes to my cubicle bragging that he is assigned to an Away Mission together with the doctor and Mr Spock. I can't wait for him to beam down.", "id": "c7o9osn", "summary": "Hell hath no fury like a women scorned. Unless it is a seven year old boy that somehow holds a grudge. Unless you do something, he will cause serious problems."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "One is what one eats. The atoms your body consists of are slowly but surely replaced by the atoms of the food you consume. I have seen estimations (sorry no link) that all the atoms in your body get swapped out once every seven years. Being 52, I am now roughly on my eight set of atoms. \n Fun fact: atoms were forged in fires much hotter than the religious hell as described by various religious texts. A large part of the atoms in a star are just plain hydrogen, which in a stable cycle lasting billions of years fuses into helium, under pressure of gravity. At one point or other, the balance shifts due to lack of hydrogen and you get helium fusing with hydrogen and itself into other elements. \n The reason this happens is because there still comes energy out of the equation for atomic fusion. Due to entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the dying star is following an equilibrium that tends to favour the fusion of lighter elements into heavier elements. The best equilibrium that can be reached lies with Iron (Fe-56) if my memory serves me correct. \n Due to radiation from the heart of the star dwindling while this happens, the equilibrium of outward pressure due to radiating heat and inward pressure due to gravity also shifts in the favour of inward gravity. \n What happens next depends on the size of the star. Relatively small stars will collapse in a lazy way and more or less become particle soup when all the fuel is spent. Dwarf star, Neutron star, that work. \n However, bigger stars continue to collapse once they reach the iron fusion stage because of sheer gravity. This, in turn, drives internal pressure and heat up to such values that it becomes possible to fuse elements beyond Fe-56. \n Some stars take the collapsing process to an extreme and are able in the end to produce such heavy elements as Uranium. These stars usually shrink with such force that the fusion process runs away (overheats) and the stars become Nova or even Supernova.", "id": "c7teo41", "summary": "we are stardust, literally."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "For me, the definition of freedom is that I get to choose what my own definition of freedom is. \n In a conflict, usually both sides are wrong in as much as that they measure intentions and actions with two different yardsticks. \n Surely, it is wrong to determine the value that different persons have, based on what they are: female, a different religion, a different skin colour, old, young, wealthy or poor. And just as surely, everyone does it. Me myself  included. \n I am aware of the wrongness, and I try to improve myself. No really, I do apply self-reflection and when I find myself being sexist or racist, I feel bad and try to correct my views. \n Organized religion is excluded from this process, I decided long ago to hate that one with a passion. Be you jew, muslim or christian and go to a church to worship, know that I hate you. Uncompromising, searing, wish-you-were-dead hate. Unorganized religion..meh. Be you jew, muslim or christian and keep your personal beliefs to yourself without bothering me...Okay, I guess I am not bothered. I still think you're stupid, and I can live with it. We all cannot have an IQ of above 100. In fact, exactly half of you don't.  Soit , as one says in French. \n All this being said, I live by these rules: \n \n There are many causes worth fighting for. \n \n There are perhaps some causes worth dying for. \n \n There are no causes worth killing for. \n \n \n I am a reasonable person, and if you have some problem with my views or with my behaviour (or maybe the way I smell or the cheese I eat) : talk to me. I will respond reasonably.", "id": "c4852sv", "summary": "terrorism is the domain of people who are not able to reason about the griefs they bear."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "People are entertained. \n I do not mean this disdainfully. \n People find reassurance in that what confirms their feeling of how the world  should  be (according to themselves). A nice dream is nice, even if you know on a different level that it is just a dream. It takes your mind off the dredgery of everyday coping with more stressfull outcomes of person-to-person interactions that you experience.", "id": "cl36848", "summary": "they are some sort of brain drug. Your brain is far more better at deceiving itself."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Hey kid. It's up to you. \n I'm a grizzled old Dutch bastid, had myself a woman once long ago. She want no kids, I want no kids. Happynness ensues. \n She left me, kinda like 1995. Yes, that is right: before you was even bourne. \n I'm still in doubt. Do I want offspring or do I not? Obviously, any seed of my loin can only be magnificent. \n Women who give me the eye these days are ... how can I say this kindly? ... Not from my continent.", "id": "c8caznc", "summary": "I am a nice catch, and I am also hard to get. Doubts exist, and options become unavailable as time marches on."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Kid. \n I smoked like a chimney age 15-23. \n m/52/Dutch by the way, but no matter. \n I struck gold with a woman. I was twenty, she was twenty-two at the time. She was my soul mate for many a year to come. I continued smoking. \n Come May 18, 1981. She put her foot down. Either I quit smoking then and there, or she quit seeing me. Took me some days to decide. I quit smoking. \n I went on to enjoy her company until our paths parted for other reasons.", "id": "c9g0w1o", "summary": "put your foot down. Withhold sexy time (don't just threaten, do it). No one likes to kiss an ash tray. \n > I care about him and want him to be healthy, but it’s not my place to change someone and I don't really believe one person can change another \n No, sorry. You are woman. You are the superior gender. You smack him around the head until he sees things your way."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "A bit. One of their uses is that they act as a temporary buffer between buyers and sellers. \n Suppose I want to sell my freshly grown christmas trees to you today, because I need money, but you won't be needing it for another eleven months because that is when christmas season starts. We have an obvious mismatch in time, although we could do business profitable to us both were it not for that discrepancy. \n If I could sell my christmas trees today to a broker, I'd have money today. If somehow the broker was able to keep the christmas trees fresh until next December, he could sell those christmas trees to you. Both you and me can be serviced at the moment we need to perform a transaction of goods against money. \n The christmas tree broker would buy them at a cheaper price from me and sell them at a higher price to you. The difference in cost would be justified because the broker and his family have to make a living too, and the broker would incur some expenses in keeping the christmas trees fresh during the 11 months between buy and sell. And if he borrowed fron the bank to be able to buy, then he'd have interest to pay as well. \n So far, so good. Perhaps christmas trees are a bad example, because well, christmas trees. \n But substitute christmas trees for crude oil, and hey. Oil does not spoil, you just need a facility to store it. It costs a bit, but you can keep it as long as you want. I want to sell my oil in June, and you will be needing it next February. Again, I sell to the middle man, he sits on it for a while, you but it from him when you need it. The middle man levees a small fee for services rendered and everyone is happy. I get to sell when I want to sell, you get to buy when you want to buy, the broker gets something for his trouble, everyone happy. \n The picture remains essentially the same when the commodity is stock. Say I hold 100 stocks in McDonalds at 30 dollars a piece. They represent a value of 3000 dollars, then.\nI need to pay $ 3000 for some repairs on my car and I need to pay for them  now . So I am looking to sell my position. \n You are looking to buy some McDonalds stock, because you just got your sales bonus and you are a bit silly with respect to money, you decide you want to invest. However, your bonus comes in the pay check which still is three days away. I can't sell my McDonalds stock to you, because you don't have the money yet.  Although you are willing to buy my stock on fairly short notice, there is a mismatch in availability and need of cash. \n Enter the stock broker. He buys my stocks on Tuesday, sells them to you on Friday (with a margin). You and I both are happy. \n So this element of the functioning of a stock broker is beneficial, in that it sort of \"lubricates\" the economy. I get to sell when I need to, you get to buy when you are ready for it, and the broker takes up the slack in between (and gets payed a fee for that). \n Things turn a bit less rosy when you factor in other things that happen. Mainly, the price of a stock can fluctuate wildly, based on demand and availability. These last two factors are subject to speculation, fired by news and rumours. \n In the McDonalds example above, lets say I sell my 100 McDonalds shares on Tuesday for $ 29.50 to a broker. Then on Wednesday, McDonalds announces that the dividend per share will be $ 1.50 this year. This means that whoever owns one share, stands to receive $ 1.50 from the McDonalds company. In other words, whoever owns the shares on Wednesday, sees their value increase by $ 1.50 instantaneously solely due to the announcement of the dividend. By the time the broker  sells  them to you on Friday, this $ 1.50 dividend will show up in the price they will ask you to pay for a share. \n This is another aspect of stock brokers: they speculate on stock prices changing due to news and gossip. They have  ways of  financial instruments for making money even when the price of a stock goes down.", "id": "cej3zho", "summary": "stock brokers  are  a benefit because they for a buffer between buyer and seller. However, they are also detrimental because they rely on speculation to up their profits."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "I think it has to do with the bidding process. The companies trying to win the bid naturally downplay the negatives in their plan (such as cost and time to service) and highlight the positives (such as efficiency, total cost of ownership, planned maintenance, and cost to the public). \n The people deciding about who gets the bid usually are either not qualified (because elected politicians) or down right corrupt (because elected politicians). \n So, the bid is awarded to the company that can spin the nicest fairy fale and throws the most hookers, cocaine, free \"study trips\", \"general aid\" and \"study compensation\" at the politicians in question. \n After that, it is time to perform and this is usually when reality kicks in. The plan relied on an ideal geological model of the ground to be excavated for the underground tube. But alas, the soft lime holds some pockets of clay and there are granite boulders strewn about it. You have to get those out first, one by one. \n The plan relied on a smooth sailing with regards to zoning changes. Alas, there is a rather vocal movement in the neighbourhood you need to tear down for your line to be constructed, and they are fighting you up to and including the highest court. This may cause some delay. \n Then there are your subcontractors. The company delivering the rails and signals won  your  bidding round because they could do it for a certain price within a certain timespan. Turns out, this is their first project of this size and they simply can't. It's going to take longer, and it's going to cost more. And if you try to replace them with another subcontractor, you'll find yourself in a legal mess that will take fifteen years to clear up.", "id": "chvky9j", "summary": "fairy tales are not real. Yet people belive in them, especially when they can use other peoples money to pursue them."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "If I may reiterate a blurb: when matter is accellerated in a major way, one theory says that a huge amount of electromagnetic radiation is emitted by it. Matter falling into a black hole would qualify for this theory in terms of being accellerated in a major way. So while still outside the event horizon, the falling matter emits ample radiation. This is interpreted as a \"quasar\".", "id": "cg5ynrv", "summary": "it's all in a name, and the interpretation of it."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "It is due to a marketing method called  price differentiation . Some of these steps require no additional effort when you sell multiple tickets in one go to the same person (agreeing the sale, accepting payment, delivering the goods). \n So when you sell 1 ticket, it will cost you 4 dollars to process the sale for 1 ticket. You need to sell the ticket at 10 dollars to have a 6 dollar profit \n When you sell 40 tickets at the same time, it will cost you maybe 7 dollars to process the sale for all 40 tickets. The only thing you need to do extra is print some more tickets, and reserve the seating. In this case,  you could sell 40 tickets at 5 dollars, grossing you 200 dollars, and your cost will be 7 dollars, netting you 193 dollars for just a slight bit more of your time.", "id": "c2xjb9o", "summary": "you offer the same basic product with varying perks to different target markets, at a different price."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "This is the bit I find most confusing about this stuff \n Agreed. Creating a website and running it on your server is only part of all that needs to be done. In addition to knowing something about the database server software, the operating system your server(s) runs on, and configuring Apache you also need to know about for instance SSL certificates and where/how to obtain one (if necessary), you need to know about the administration process for registering a URL to the public domain name servers, you need to know about tooling (not just your IDE, but you may want to set up a source repository, a continuous build server, a knowledge repository plus ticketing system such as  Trac  and so on and so on). \n You can learn all these things on your own, but you have to know that they are part of the effort in the first place. For that, it helps to discuss work with a more experienced person occasionally. \n Now, to answer your question: \n By \"working environment\" I mean \"instance of the software running on a server somewhere\". \n The general idea is that your production server and the production version of your software are completely isolated from any development and/or troubleshooting activities. For instance, a user reports that a certain sequence of data input and actions in the application causes it to malfunction in a pretty major way, completely crashing the server. Obviously, you want to try and repeat this sequence of input and data in such a way that if it does indeed crash something, it is not the production server that is crashed. \n Enter the troubleshooting server. You can crash that without your users noticing anything amiss because it is a completely different machine (server plus application, database server) than the one that runs your production application. \n Similar with developing new things on your development machine. You might make a mistake causing something to break, resulting in an application that will not start up in your development server. Again, the production server and application are not affected because they are isolated from the environment you are tinkering with. \n In a pinch, when budgets are tight, you could run the troubleshooting version of your application on the same iron as you are doing development on, and have it use the same database server you use for development. Both the iron and the database server you use for production should be other than the ones you use for development and troubleshooting.", "id": "cblhvv7", "summary": "isolate your production stuff from potential bad effects from troubleshooting and development."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "En goor. En uitgenast. En een verrader. En een pinda (vraag maar aan je vader wat dat betekent). En een leugenaar. En een gestoorde malloot. En een machtswellusteling. \n De PVV is geen partij, want ze hebben op geen enkele manier democratie. Heb je wel eens gehoord van een PVV congres, waar de lijn van de partij werd vastgesteld aan de hand van stemming door de leden? Nee dus, want er  zijn  helemaal geen leden. De PVV, dat is Wilders zijn werkverschaffing. En er is geen tegenspraak, en er is geen inspraak. Die mongool gaat gewoon zijn pensioen halen van  mijn  belastingcenten.", "id": "cicnhzg", "summary": "hij hoeft niet dood, maar hij moet wel weg."}, {"author": "diMario", "content": "Reddit: so so. \n Uncyclopedia: warm feeling, though if truth be told I've been neglecting them. \n Wikipedia: not by a long shot. I will refrain from being specific. Well...Bunch of assholes. Sums it up as far as I am concerned. \n For the rest of the communities, I merely leach, so no participation. \n Please note that I have no facebook page, I do not twitch, nor do I twitter, and all of the other social media pass me bye in a large way.", "id": "c5d6m4x", "summary": "my own company is sufficient, don't need others."}]}
+{"author": "bluefyre73", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post grape sounds like rape.", "output": "Grape (as in the fruit) is sometimes used instead of \"purple\" to describe something of that color. This is an, admittedly violent, pun on \"grape\" and \"rape,\" and the name uses this pun like how a suspect is charged with counts of crimes. In this case, it's two counts of assualt and one of rape, but with the color pun used instead of rape. The desc is playing further on the rape pun, with the joke being society often blames rape victims for dressing showily and therefore prompting such an attack."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Many many years, so long as we get attention and meaningful updates.", "output": "The fact it is F2P extends it's lifespan by leaps and bounds. It seriously is the smartest thing Valve has done with TF2. \n TF2 is entirely focused on multiplayer: there is no campaign, single player or story mode what so ever. Since it is dedicated to multiplayer, you need players for there to be any kind of experience: at least thousands and thousands of players. Your game is going to be an unplayable piece of garbage if you have to wait minutes in matchmaking in order to get enough people to play in a game. \n Since TF2 has a high fan base, an active and involved fanbase, and will constantly get new members to keep the game engaging, it has a very long foreseeable life span (3-5 years). \n Now, if Valve is going to constantly update the game, this number is increased in an amount directly proportional to how many updates. If we continue to get hat update after hat update, the game grows stale enough to make older members quit. You can't have an active community if your experienced members are leaving. It sets no ground rules for newer players, and the chain of succession is broken to the point where the game isn't worth playing. \n Valve would never throw in the towel for TF2 either, it's a huge cash cow. If the community dies in one of the scenarios previously described, then yes, the costs of running an empty game will lead to them closing it."}], "user_id": "longlamp_8887", "history": [{"author": "bluefyre73", "content": "Roaming engie is actually extremely viable. Simply put, you want to have a dispenser upgraded to level 3 safely put somewhere out of harm that you can fall back to. With this dispenser and surrounding ammo pack, you build a level 2 or 3 right on the front lines, then either wrangle it of simply let it do its thing to decimate the enemy team. A level 3 has huge DPS, and wrangling it allows it to tank tons of damage while you soften up the enemy team during a push. It is devastatingly effective to have a level 3 spring up out of nowhere and rain hell down upon the enemy team during a push. When your sentry is under heavy fire, simply pick it up before it is too late, fall back, and reconstruct and repair it, then rush back  if your team hasn't fallen.  If the other team has countered your push and is now using that momentum to push through themselves, having a level 3 around the corner will destroy them or stall them long enough for your team to recover from their set-back. The important thing is to fall back with the other team's counter push in mind, so you would place and repair it about the point where the uber is over, the team's combo and company is rushing forward, and a spot where they would easily be killed by a surprise level 3. Other than that, pulling your sentry out of fire for a quick repair will keep it in the fight, which is one hell of a curveball you are throwing the other team that they have to deal with. \n Also, set up a lvl 2 tele if you can, even if it is pretty far back. Being able to skip even 1/3 of the map is pretty substantial for recovery. Alert your team when and where a dispenser is being set up, because you can't place it on the front lines. It is your fail-safe in case your sentry is destroyed, and your means of getting another one on the battlefield in 20 seconds. But without telling your team your dispenser is 30 feet behind the chokepoint, they will have no idea and yell at you to build one. Informing them where it is so they can fall back if they need to for health or ammo is a very important thing, and a reason a mic is handy.", "id": "cc154es", "summary": "Set up a dispenser to fall back to, and tell your team where that is. Build level 3s and wrangle them on the front lines, falling back to repair them and keep them into the fight."}, {"author": "bluefyre73", "content": "Buzz is at a serious disadvantage because of his size, he is shown to be roughly 6 inches tall at best, using cereal boxes and humans as a point of reference. However, his flight and small size together allow him to evade his opponents. Assuming he plays it smart, he can simply avoid direct encounters and make his way toward the milk hose, and use its lethal capabilities to hunt the others down (going under the presumption he can lift and fly with it without too much effort). \n Count Chocula is still a vampire, he just has an affinity for sweets. This gives him above human strength, speed and reaction time; he dominates in any physical confrontation. While largely goofy, if he has to kill to win he will gladly do so. Not sure on if he feeds on blood or can survive through chocolate, but I'm guessing he can still drink blood, although Cap'n Crunch is the only human here, and animal blood is generally avoided by vampires because it is either unappealing or unconsumable. Drinking blood may even increase his powers. I feel he stands the best chance. \n Tony the Tiger is an athletic, strong tiger. Since tigers are about 700 pounds, and Tony's upper body is visibly more muscular than normal tigers, he'd weigh about 800 pounds of pure muscle. This gives him a lot of power, and in terms of size, he towers over the likes of Trick or the Cap'n. I'd place him the second most lethal in a brawl. When you factor in a tiger's speed, stalking ability, and acute senses, he can detect enemies, follow them through the maze, and kill them when the time is right. \n Cap'n Crunch has had some naval experience, but the extents to this are largely unknown. He has wielded a sword in the past, and has commanded his own vessel for years, so his combat experience is presumably existent if not better than average. His short stature and old age lead me to believe he wouldn't last very long in a fight, although he would make use of the spoon as a weapon of a sort. Perhaps he could maneuver through the maze somehow, with markings on the wall or with the sun? Like Buzz, the fire hose is his best bet, but I doubt he would last very long as he is bound to run into someone and be killed. \n Trick is a wildcard in this, he displays creativity and cunning in his plans so I think we can consider him intelligent. He is the only antagonist, and would be no stranger to confrontation or challenges. Even with his higher cognitive ability compared to the simplistic Tony or Buzz, I still think he is too weak to win any fights directly. He could perhaps defeat the Cap'n or Sam, and stomp Buzz if he finds him, but against the two powerhouses of Tony and the Count, he stands little chance. He would be the most capable at recognizing the milk hose is his best chance, and put all effort into finding his way through the maze. \n Sam can't fly IIRC, he still walks everywhere. I would say he is perhaps the most intelligent and best at problem solving, and that is a huge asset. He is also an explorer, and could find his way through the maze with enough time. He also flees at danger, something that would allow him to avoid confronting others. What I find interesting is how he uses the environment to his advantage. By making his way through the maze and evading fights, he still stands a chance at winning, or letting the others finish one another off at least.", "id": "cfnpdnm", "summary": "Count Chocula."}, {"author": "bluefyre73", "content": "Ehhhhhhh if the entire server is doing it, then you kind of become that asshole who kills everyone having a good time. I'm looking at the comments above me and seeing that friendlying is frowned upon because it is failing your teamates trying to complete the objective by being useless, ruining your teamate's enjoyment of the game. \n But if 3/4 of the server is partying or making a giant pyramid or making an engy train, let them have their fun. On a serious server, wasting a slot and being useless to your team is not helping your teamates have a fun time, but if things are getting silly, killing players for your own fun is then ruining everyone else's. You can just leave and fight players who will actually fight back, rather than blow up a heavy pyramid because you can. The fact that 20 people can get together and have stuff like that happen is what makes tf2 so great of a game and community.", "id": "cc22zd9", "summary": "Don't ruin everyone else's fun, whether they are trying to play a game  or  doing something silly."}, {"author": "bluefyre73", "content": "Scout \n Slugger: Unfiting to the scout class, which rewards getting up close with scattegun pellets. Only having one large pellet makes this a revolver almost. You need to have pellets in a scout primary otherwise you eliminate the core function and playstyle of the class. \n Scald: So, it ignites enemies nearby, but has a slow reload? Why wouldn't I simply use a scattergun to deal more damage up close? One round clip in addition to slow reload seals the deal for a useless weapon. Giving the scout a flare gun is a strange and utterly useless idea. \n Hellion: A weapon that only works when you are milked or jarated is so incredibly circumstantial it's useless as a secondary. The gimmick itself is pointless. \n Hightops: Interesting, but are other weapons for jumping. Wall jumping would be too limited. \n BamBino: The drawback is nullified without random critical hits, making it a straight upgrade from the bat. \n Soldier \n One Hit: Way to weak. One clip, even with a damage boost, cannot compete with any other RL. The idea of detonation is unique, but I think it would be extremely OP. Dealing less damage, have less radius but having 4 rockets would be fair I suppose. \n Odyssey: Controlled rockets? Nope. \n Dragon: One rocket clip size is far too weak. With all 4 rockets but slower speed to counter the large radius it becomes far more viable as a spam weapon. \n Miner: Just doesn't belong in a tf2 environment. \n Jackass: Seems pretty ok. Change the minimum height to increase in fall damage and add a small health penalty/vulnerability. to counter the extra jumps and it becomes a balanced tool for roamers. \n Nife Trowel: Would need more of a damage bonus, I like it but I feel a soldier Boston Basher would certainly change things. \n Bayonet: I don't like that the weapon changes with your choice in shotgun. Also, 40% faster speed is a lot. \n Pyro \n Fireballer: Double damage of flames in exchange for incredibly expensive airblast makes this an instant kill when in close range in addition to a weapon that discourages teamwork. Perhaps make it so the flames deal more damage than stock but are shorter in range, and reduce the +75 airblast cost. 100 ammo airblasts are useless. \n Phleg: I actually like this one as a support/heckle weapon. A small damage penalty may be needed to make pyros really weigh their options. \n Candle: -75% is punishing as hell, the crits barely do any damage. I guess it's ok as a heckle weapon despite how OP its stats are at first glance, but I think this should be toned down all the same. Maybe 3 clip size, double flare interval, and +33 clip size. \n Reserve: Flying pyros with double ammo? Nope. \n Hatchet: Can't be more useless than the Fragment. But I strongly dislike weapons that introduce nothing new other than \"attack faster, but less damage\" or the like. \n Lethe: Unsure why anyone would want this over the Axtinguisher. It literally is worse than the Axtinguisher, it only deals mini crits. \n Demo \n Ghob: Eliminates the ability to fight up close, but a cool spamming weapon. Maybe the burst damage alone would be enough, no need for mini crits (they are not affected by falloff and therefore bullshit). \n Bulwark: Basically a get out of jail free shield for demoman. There is literally no way to stop this thing from killing you with a sword crit without a backstab. The gimmick is extremely unfair. \n Nest: Ok...isn't this just a stickybomb that deals like 20 damage? \n Heavy \n Ramenskoye: 10 bolts is far too much, I think if it fired about 5 but you  had no star up time it would be cool. Should fire about 50% faster than a crossbow but only have 20 bolts of so, and require long reload. \n Okhotsk: I like this one, had a similar idea a while back. The damage-time correlation should be removed considering heavy could function like a sniper, and there should simply be an overheat bar. \n Tub: Weapons that make heavy even slower suck ass (Brass Beast). I can't really think of a way to counter extra health without making it as shitty as the Beast/Tomislav/Natasha. \n Kevlar: Eliminates primary, is bad weapon. \n Helper: You should definitely receive some sort of mark upon eating so players know of the mini crit thing, but the +2 health should be more like +5 to compensate loss of sandvich. Overall is pretty useless. \n Bear Claw: Removing movement penalties? Nope. Seems a little weak alongside the Steak Sandvich anyway. \n Dusters: Ugh. \n Engy \n Porsche: Insta teleport? Nope. Huge abuse potential. \n Attache: 250 metal but no pistol, wrangler or SC? Good enough. \n Rig: Not sure I understand this one, but it seems really overpowered based on the damage absorbing but useless since you can't repair buildings. Nonsensical to carry a sentry to a point very quickly but being unable to repair it. \n Driver: The wrangler... crossed with the gunslinger. By any chance, did you design the short circuit buff from a few weeks ago? \n Bugaboo: Eliminating teleporters cripples and engineer's usefulness. \n Breaker: I mean ok. Not too helpful since you lower your own defensive ability. \n Mender: Heal rate kills this one. \n Rejuvenation: Dependent on ally medic being present and getting ubercharge=bad. \n Fluctus: So any attack that would kill the patient simply gains full health and invincibility? Why not just get invincibility normally? This one is a little weird to me. \n Aide: Requires full charge to be useful. Dumb. \n Painkiller: Self Ubercharge? Double nope nope. \n Tranq: This one is pretty cool, but players hate stun weapons or movement impairing. I think the sleeper would be more team oriented while compensating for no head shots. Plus, every shot is a head shot, so it's pretty OP. \n Popgun: .... \n Abseiler: Grapple hooks really don't belong in tf2, plus you only make it easier for every class to kill you... \n Quiver: Wayyy to much versatility for a secondary. And only -15% damage? \n Bolo: Not sure how I feel about it. \n Maenad: Critical hits for nothing? \n Longsword: Iron sights? Nope. \n Ziel: Ok I guess. \n Isochronon: K \n Smoke Bomb: No \n Dev: 2 seconds is barely enough time. \n Stunner: 8 seconds far too little. \n Epee: Spy knife with no backstabs. Is this one a joke?", "id": "cemm01l", "summary": "There are like 4 good ones. The rest are poorly thought out and are either against the class's playstyle or just plain stupid. I'm being very negative but I mean come on."}, {"author": "bluefyre73", "content": "Ok, mini sentries are very annoying because of how they are used to change the engineers role in combat. Engineers typically have a support role: they teleport players, have dispensers for health and ammo, and the sentry is a weapon typically for area denial, protecting the engineer and his buildings, and occasionally players would use sentries offensively. A wrangled, level three sentry overlooking an objective can be used to rain hell upon the enemy team. Deploying sentries in aggressive locations offensively instead of defensively is a helpful and powerful tool. \n This is where the difference between a regular and mini sentry lies, and why the gunslinger is a very annoying and potentially game breaking weapon. A big sentry deployed in an area will become a serious obstacle that must be removed at all costs (talking about a big sentry in an offense location to clarify). This sentry must be removed before anyone else can proceed, or pushes are to be made. \n Team Fortress 2 is a team game that requires player responsibility to work. To use a brief example, if your team needs an engineer on last,  you  have to switch to engineer or else your team will lose, and it is your fault. Expecting others to assume a position will lead to your team's downfall. Back to the sentry issue now. One could simply switch to soldier or demo and remove the big sentry so your team can proceed, and be more cautious in allowing an engineer enough time to build a level three and deploy it in the same spot. This is easy enough to understand: when an engineer builds a sentry in a tricky spot one round and wipes your team with it, you make sure he can't do it again. \n This is the problem with the mini sentry.  It takes so much less time to set up, less effort to use, and has a game-breaking effect: you can't simply go soldier and take care of the mini sentry, then go back to playing scout. Because all the engineer has to do is walk over and slap another one down. Scout is suddenly now off limits to you, and you must spend the rest of your game countering this engineer and his mini. (I understand this is a little hypocritical because of this player responsibility thing, but hear me out.) \n It's a weapon now, not a player or a team or a strategy that is forcing you to play soldier to counter a threat. Without the mini, it isn't possible. A big sentry is an obstacle to be removed, but a mini sentry is a crutch weapon using less skill or effort and having a great effect on players while still not being as powerful as stock. Level 1 in koth_harvest? Fine, that takes slightly more time to build, can be destroyed with corner peeking, and I can keep the engineer off of that point. But a mini sentry? Engy can keep placing that shit everywhere, with no effort, and to great effect, but still less effect than a stock would be. \n Would be happy to defend this argument with anyone who disagrees, I certainly feel it is used incorrectly as a defensive weapon. I could care less about people who use it offensively, such as in payload, but plopping one down on a control point for 5 rounds is ridiculous.", "id": "ccfh016", "summary": "Big sentries better, but minis easier to use and used as a crutch in place of big."}, {"author": "bluefyre73", "content": "It depends. Characters wouldn't automatically become more or less powerful upon entering a separate universe, but their existing power would carry over. For example, Donkey Kong can punch the moon down to Earth in his own universe, so upon entering our realistic universe, he would retain that same level of god-like strength. The same level of power would have to carry over regardless of that universe's own set of rules. To go back to your example, Bruce Lee would become more powerful because you would be giving Bruce Lee the potential for abilities he did not previously have, and, likewise, Batman would not be limited to our universe's rules because you would be making him implausible since his past feats cannot exist in the universe he is currently in.", "id": "cejxa2c", "summary": "no"}, {"author": "bluefyre73", "content": "He is saying the sentry is in a good location so long as it is denying a chokepoint or area, as opposed to the notion a sentry is in a good spot provided it is killing lots of players. So long as a sentry can keep players from entering a large, exposed area, it is doing a capable job. \n In that spot in particular, it covers 2 of the 3 ways to get past first on badwater. Players cannot climb either hills until the sentry is dealt with: it is denying them options and denying them area. This is compared to that undergroup box shaped shed directly in front of first point. Sure, it will eventually surprise the attackers and kill most of them. But it does nothing to stop them from pushing the cart up into that point.", "id": "ccjpf5a", "summary": "Trap sentries hidden around corners are less helpful than a sentry overlooking an area and keeping enemies from advancing"}, {"author": "bluefyre73", "content": "That was quite a harsh statement. Calmed down yet? And I never said it was OP. I said it's DPS should be lowered, which /u/Orange_Cake said as well, but he has 10 upvotes and I'm in the negatives. Go figure (this isn't to throw him under the bus, he had lots of other valid suggestions). \n The only difference suggestion I offered was to remove its bullet knockback. The difficulty with getting close to a mini is that it's bullets knock you back as you approach it (anyone who has tried walking up to a mini and meleeing it and you know what I am talking about). So do all guns of course, but the mini has a high and perfectly accurate rate of fire, making this knockback extremely effective against the lighter combat classes, like scout and pyro. Soldier is also killed by the mini sentry, it's health makes him take a significant amount of damage before he wastes two rockets on it, then has to deal with the engy (I'll come back to that). Demo and heavy are the least effected by mini sentries, as they are capable of destroying them in seconds, especially demo. But mini sentry knockback is the biggest problem if you are in the air. Once again, the high rate of fire and accuracy means the mini sentry can pin jumping players against walls, mercilessly ruin rocket jumps, and shove players aside. It’s an annoying weapon considering how easy they are to construct, you get two of them at least, and the amount of DPS you can rack up with them. \n But weapons being annoying isn’t a reason they are OP. Weapons are OP when they force another team to counter it specifically. This is why weapons like the Battalion’s Backup and Quick-Fix are banned in 6’s: they force the other team to counter them and slow the game down. And while 6’s is very different from regular tf2, where strategies and weapons are supposed to be countered, the fact is the mini sentry is a very disposable weapon. To use your suggestion, let’s say I am scout, but “Oh no a mini sentry. Better switch to soldier to destroy it and then go back to scout!” Switch to soldier. Destroy mini sentry. But the engineer just puts a mini sentry back in the same spot. Now I have been forced off of a class I was going to play to specifically counter the mini sentry. That’s why it’s OP. Because mini sentries aren’t that difficult to deal with if you have the right class. But a regular sentry is something you can switch to demo as for a brief minute to destroy. Any gunslinger engy will just be using the same couple of camping spots that won’t let you play how you want to. \n And now for the engy himself. A soldier will waste 2 rockets on a mini sentry, and then still have the engineer, who is shotgunning the soldier while he takes care of the mini, to deal with, except he is down 2 rockets that could be used on a different player. Pyros are scouts are almost dead by the time the finish off an open mini sentry. But the engineer is still there, read to finish them off, take their ammo, and build a new mini. Classes like medics or engineers don’t stand a change, they don’t have high enough DPS to deal 250 damage in a couple of seconds.", "id": "cc0fqd1", "summary": "which I bet half of you didn’t) Mini sentries force players to constantly deal with them, have high DPS, that, when combined by the engineer by their side, makes them far too big a nuisance to deal with considering how easy they are to use. \n Gentlemanly enough for you? Do I need a fucking monocle?"}, {"author": "bluefyre73", "content": "Actually, I think TDKR is a better comparison for V. Both are not physically strong or powerful: they incluence the masses to achieve what they want. I'm going to have to assume that Bane was the one who created the plans in the movie instead of Talia, otherwise I don't even think he compares. However, since this is a battle of ideals, it is actually a fairly intresting fight and chance for TDKR Bane. A lot of people were unhappy by how the movie represented him: however, what the movie did was play less on Bane's physical powers or really even his mental ability, and more on what Bane stands, in both character and beliefs. \n This is a fight between the two forces of rebellion and freedom and terrorism and \"justice.\" The problem is, once a rebellion succedes, it is only a matter of time before corruption occurs and a new rebellion is needed. However, if this is taking place only a few years after this ideal nation is created, spirits and morals are still high and upheld. Terrorism by Bane is basically chaos. He unleashed this lawless chaos and free reign on Gotham in the movie. In a way, both are about freedom. This is where Bane's ideals have the advantage. After the people in London have shaken oppresion of their backs, and given freedom to all, what is the next step to freedom? Absolute freedom. A nation with no laws and everything is permitted. It would be easy to plant this idea of absolute freedom in a post-revolution society. \n Alternatively, Bane could introduce the exact opposite idea: a world with perfect order. This idea fits more with the league of shadow's way of thinking: to reduce all crime, make the world as safe as possible: simply take harsh, and extreme measures against crime. Control the people to create a \"utopia.\" In a developing nation, giving this alternative is tempting. V's followers would not even notice in their haste to create a safe world, they are creating something they should oppose.", "id": "catak6q", "summary": "In the end, Bane would create either a lawless, chaotic world with complete freedom idea that would easily grow, or pressure the new government to create as safe and secure of a world as possible, but in reality create an oppresion. I'm basing this off of how all nations that rise out of rebellion eventually fall due to corruption like Bane's own ideals."}, {"author": "bluefyre73", "content": "I think GTAVO is very different from reality. I understand the point you are trying to make, and have thought similar things myself, but in the end, GTA is a game, while real life has very real consequences. In real life, people would be far less willing to kill others or run wild in an anarchy situation, where there are no rules. In GTA, you simply respawn if anything bad happens: there are no real consequences, or at least consequences that have a serious effect as in reality.", "id": "cctboqw", "summary": "No b/c YOLO"}, {"author": "bluefyre73", "content": "Not me, but my aunt once found a homeless person stealing her frozen pizzas by breaking into her garage and taking them from the refrigerator she had in there. At first, she thought she was going crazy because frozen pizzas kept vanishing, but eventually she came home one day and caught them in the act. She then proceeded to chase said homeless person for 2 blocks screaming \"CITIZEN'S ARREST.\" Eventually she got tired and let the person go, realizing they had to be pretty desperate to steal frozen pizzas from people to survive.", "id": "cce84nb", "summary": "Citizen's arrest didn't happen, but did involve pizzas and homeless people."}, {"author": "bluefyre73", "content": "Here is how I judge players based on their hats and loadouts: \n All pink/lime/gold/black painted set: Try-hard pubstar, probably on the mic a lot, usually very annoying and critical of his team despite not being very good himself. \n Unusual wearers: (if they are on the mic a lot) Pub-stars that are full of themselves and have a lot of money: or (very quiet and more professional) someone who plays competetive tf2, or is simply very good, and is pubbing for fun. \n Bills (on anything other than soldier): Moron traders who are wearing currency because they like to show their superiority, those rich little shits. \n Hatted people: Average players. \n Full loadout people: Players with more time invested in tf2 that just a hatted person; generally better. \n People with silly-looking loadouts and are doing odd things: Someone trying to play a specific way, either all-fish kills, being friendly, market gardening, etc. \n Gibus wearers: Players to avoid at all costs. 99% of them have no idea what they are doing and will not use chat or the mic to communicate. Frustrating to heal or uber, they are never in the right place. \n Non-hatted: A grey area: could be worse than gibuses, or just choose not to wear them. If they seem sharp, alert, have good aim, use comms, and are actually getting points, I have no problem trusting them and often assume they just lost their loadout connection.", "id": "cbnr6w0", "summary": "if you are F2P, dont wear a gibus. \n EDIT: added bill's (little late sorry >.<)"}, {"author": "bluefyre73", "content": "You are making the stickybomb launcher out to be an extremely difficult weapon to use, \"if you've got the trap set up. That still takes time and coordination.\" It's the  stickybomb launcher  we are talking about here. You just spam stickies everywhere, detonate, and reload. And with a crit canteen? 300 damage per sticky, with splash damage everywhere. Demo-knight is viable, but if you are playing seriously, you are just playing a distance bound scout with lots of survivability.\nDemoman has an important role in MvM: He can deny the robots the bomb, has  the highest dps of any class,  has knockback, and is capable putting out incredible amounts of damage at robots. Demo-knight doesn't hold a candle to that. \nDemoknight requires you to be extremely close to the robots, you can easily get overwhelmed by swarms of robots or torn to blown up by crit explosives. You are risking your life no matter what your skill level is at. You are also very misleading when you say \"1000 nonstop damage per second,\" \"The Targe already cuts down on explosive damage, and crit resistance is incredibly cheap, and stack that with MORE explosive resistance and you will tank damage for your entire team,\" \"390 damage per swing.\" These all cost money. On paper, yes, it sounds better, but 1000 dps from your melee isn't going to happen in 2 or 3 rounds. You also have to upgrade your resistances, or else you will simply die. In the end, by the final round,  maybe  you have this kind of tank power, but you certainly can't have that tank level resistances  and  that crazy dps. \nIt also is extremely unfair to make statements comparing the upgraded demoknight to stock demo with no upgrades: sure the eyelander can deal 360 damage, but what about a fully upgraded stickybomb launcher.", "id": "cbp77wz", "summary": "It is unfair for you to compare upgraded demo-knight's dps and abilities to an un-upgraded stock demo, or to advertise fully upgraded demoknight stats that cannot co-exist."}]}
+{"author": "Vulpyne", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Enjoy [this video]( with your favorite nine-year-old.", "output": "If you are a grown man, watching what most people consider a show for little girls you are going to get weird looks. \n There are definitely some nods to older viewers in the series.  I have watched some episodes, although not recently, and I can understand why people like it. It's basically cute things doing happy stuff, there's no mental effort required to watch it. It's pretty much candy. People like candy, even though it has no nutritional value. \n I won't say I understand \"bronies\", but to be honest I don't get how people become obsessed with  any  TV show or celebrity. It seems pretty common though. \n > If you then use your fixation to start a conversation with a little girl you are definitely going to be giving off predator vibes. \n It doesn't say anything about the guy starting a conversation. Good chance he just had some My Little Pony stuff in his workspace and his boss's daughter was at work and saw it — that could very well lead to a conversation about it, not necessarily initiated by him. \n Some of my co-workers have brought their children into work. I haven't exactly had any in-depth conversations with them, but if one started talking to me and I was someone that could actually stand children then would it really be that creepy to talk to them about a mutual interest instead of ignoring them or brushing them off? \n > I think that employees need more protection, but I personally think that the employer is fully justified in firing this guy. \n I think there are some situations where it would be justified, but it seems like most of your assumptions are not in this guy's favor."}], "user_id": "longlamp_7703", "history": [{"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "because no one's really making arguments like that. \n What are you basing that assertion on? He said he based it on experience  actually  debating the topic with philosophers. Unless you have a) experience debating philosophers and b) your experience contradicts his hypothetical philosopher then really you cannot say he is wrong. \n Now it would be fair to say an argument like that isn't relevant to  you . Keep in mind this paper is intended to make a rigorous argument. That means he is anticipating all possible refutations to his points and including counters. I don't think random internet people were the target audience. \n If you didn't read further perhaps you didn't realize that wasn't even the core argument. In case it is useful for you, [here is a", "id": "c7cznxp", "summary": "I wrote]("}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "What I don't get is those that say we're wrong to hunt animals for food. \n Well, there aren't many vegans/vegetarians that would criticize someone for doing what is necessary to survive. So the distinction here is whether one is hunting animals for (necessary) food, or whether one is hunting animals because they like the process or how meat tastes (but they have access to other foods that can satisfy their nutritional needs). \n > Predators kill other animals all the time for food. \n The issue here is you're basically saying that humans should be held to the same moral standard as a lion or bear. Lions and bears aren't moral agents — they both don't have dietary alternatives nor are they aware of the effects of their actions and their impact on other individuals in the way that a human can. \n In philosophy, there's a distinction between moral patients and moral agents (although one individual can possess both traits). Moral patients are individuals that can be affected in morally relevant ways. One makes moral decisions concerning moral patients. Moral agents are individuals capable of making moral decisions — so being able to think in abstract terms, consider the ramifications of actions and so on are prerequisites to be considered a moral agent. \nA human baby would be a moral patient (because it can be affected in morally relevant ways) but not a moral agent (because it cannot make meaningful decisions in a moral context). The same would essentially apply to a cow or dog, provided one can accept that those are individuals which can be affected in morally relevant ways. An adult human with their mental faculties would be both a moral agent and a moral patient.", "id": "cjn61gc", "summary": "It makes sense to hold humans to a higher moral standard than a tiger."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "Anxiety is a generalized mood that can occur without an identifiable triggering stimulus. As such, it is distinguished from fear, which is an appropriate cognitive and emotional response to a perceived threat. Additionally, fear is related to the specific behaviors of escape and avoidance, whereas anxiety is related to situations perceived as uncontrollable or unavoidable. [...] While most everyone has an experience with anxiety at some point in their lives, as it is a common reaction to real or perceived threats of all kinds, most do not develop long-term problems with anxiety. When someone does develop chronic or severe problems with anxiety, such problems are usually classified as being one or more of the specific types of Anxiety Disorders. \n Anxiety takes several forms: phobia, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and post-traumatic stress.   The physical effects of anxiety may include heart palpitations, tachycardia, muscle weakness and tension, fatigue, nausea, chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, stomach aches, or tension headaches. As the body prepares to deal with a threat, blood pressure, heart rate, perspiration, blood flow to the major muscle groups are increased, while immune and digestive functions are inhibited (the fight or flight response). External signs of anxiety may include pallor, sweating, trembling, and pupillary dilation.   For someone who suffers anxiety this can lead to a panic attack. \n Although panic attacks are not experienced by every person who has anxiety, they are a common symptom.   Panic attacks usually come without warning and although the fear is generally irrational, the subjective perception of danger is very real. A person experiencing a panic attack will often feel as if he or she is about to die or lose consciousness.   Between panic attacks, people with panic disorder tend to suffer from anticipated anxiety- a fear of having a panic attack may lead to the development of phobias. Anxiety is the most common mental illness in America as approximately 40 million adults are affected by it.  - [{Wikipedia}]( \n \n \"Anxiety\" isn't just \"I'm kind of worried about this\" in the same way depression isn't \"I'm a bit sad now because something distressing happened\". You might as well tell someone suffering from depression to just get over it, and that would demonstrate a similar lack of understanding for  that  condition.", "id": "c72t6x6", "summary": "for the quoted part is that the difference between anxiety as a disorder and legitimately being worried about something is that anxiety is just emotions of fear/stress without a valid target. So you have the anxiety sufferer stuck with all those strong emotions (and strong physical reactions due to fight/flight response) and nothing they can actually confront."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "Why do I see so many people militantly discuss their lifestyle choice? I genuinely don't understand it. I don't mind the lifestyle, I think its great that people live like they want to, and do what makes them happy, \n I think this is where the confusion comes from. Veganism isn't a \"lifestyle choice\", it is essentially a moral position. \"You do your thing, I'll do mine\" doesn't really work in that case. \n Of course, no one that believed themselves a good moral person would stand by while a robbery or murder or rape occurred, and we would of course think it was ridiculous if the robber said \"I understand that you've made the lifestyle choice of not robbing: I'm fine with that and happy for you! But I don't see why you have to be so militant about not robbing people. Let me do my thing.\" (Note that I am not attempting to directly compare rape and eating a burger here.) \n A while back (and unfortunately I forget who posted it and what the attribution was) I saw a quote here which went something like this: \" If you want to know what you would have done during the time of slavery and whether you would have opposed it or been complicit, look at what your position on animals rights is today \". Now, you might say that it's simply invalid to compare harming humans to harming animals, but there is a considerable amount of similarity. \n Have you heard of the [Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness]( [{full PDF}]( \n \n In 2012, a group of neuroscientists attending a conference on \"Consciousness in Human and non-Human Animals\" at Cambridge University in the UK, signed The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness \n The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states.   Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness.   Non-human animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates. \n The neural substrates of emotions do not appear to be confined to cortical structures. In fact, subcortical neural networks aroused during affective states in humans are also critically important for generating emotional behaviors in animals.   Artificial arousal of the same brain regions generates corresponding behavior and feeling states in both humans and non-human animals. \n In humans, the effect of certain hallucinogens appears to be associated with a disruption in cortical feedforward and feedback processing. Pharmacological interventions in non-human animals with compounds known to affect conscious behavior in humans can lead to similar perturbations in behavior in non-human animals. In humans, there is evidence to suggest that awareness is correlated with cortical activity, which does not exclude possible contributions by subcortical or early cortical processing, as in visual awareness.   Evidence that human and non-human animal emotional feelings arise from homologous subcortical brain networks provide compelling evidence for evolutionarily shared primal affective qualia. \n I'd suggest reading the whole thing rather than just the parts I extracted. Basically, the preponderance of evidence and scientific opinion from those qualified to discuss the topic (neuroscientists, cognitive researchers, etc) indicates that humans aren't alone in being sentient or possessing emotional states. \n If (many) animals have the same neural substrates that produce our subjective experience and emotive states and we can't reasonably quantify (or otherwise conclude) that an individual would in fact experience things either not at all or in a markedly different way then I don't think it's justified to deny that individual consideration. It seems pretty arbitrary to do so.", "id": "cb2fr7x", "summary": "version (though please, read the whole thing!) is that many animals have the same neurological equipment in common with humans that emotional states and subjective experience are based on. Therefore, they probably have quite similar experiences and experience of emotional states and can be aptly compared. \n My final point is this: If animals are, at least to some degree comparable to humans on a moral basis then a enormous inequity is being committed when humans kill an animal simply because they prefer one flavor to another — most humans in first world countries don't  need  to eat meat, they just like to. \n Roughly 100 billion humans have lived in the history of the world. We kill about 10 billion animals in slaughterhouses per year in just US/Canada/EU — that's more animals than the total amount of humans that ever lived every 10 years. It's a staggering number. I think that probably new vegans are the most militant, and if you imagine having your eyes opened to something that seems like an immense wrong you would not want to simply sit by and let it occur. \n Personally, I don't think the militant approach is productive (in fact, likely counterproductive) but I can understand why people are angry and want to do  something , and a new vegan lacks the desensitization and calluses some of us have. It's been said, and I agree, that the hardest part of being a vegan is not giving up foods you like but becoming aware of how much harm is being done to produce those foods that you are mostly powerless to stop. Even if you don't agree with the core precepts of veganism, perhaps you might be able to empathize with that."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "You seem to be under the mistaken impression that I have asserted there are no beneficial nutrients in meat. At no point have I said that eating meat was unhealthy, or that there weren't necessary nutrients in meat or other animal products. \n What I  did  assert was that those necessary nutrients may be acquired from non-animal sources. If those necessary nutrients may be acquired from non-animal sources, then eating animal products is  not  a requirement for satisfying a human's nutritional needs. \n If eating animal products is not a requirement for satisfying nutritional needs, then the reason to eat one type of food rather than another comes down to flavor/texture preference. \n Conclusion: If someone chooses to satisfy their nutritional needs by eating meat rather than plants, given that those same nutritional needs could be satisfied with either food source, then it comes down to the enjoyment derived. \n Since eating meat (and dairy/eggs) pretty much necessarily requires killing animal, the eating animal products is killing animals based based on enjoyment, rather than necessity. \n Hopefully my point was easier to understand broken down like this. \n Also note that I did not say anything about torturing animals, although people who buy factory/mass farmed animal products pretty much are supporting torture of animals. If the kosher meat you eat meets the standards you have asserted, then this may not hold true for you. You still are trading the life of a sentient creature that very likely feels physical sensation and basic emotions the same as you do, for the pleasure you derive from consuming its flesh. I consider that to be an inequitable trade. \n > As for the pleasure aspect, you also seem to be under the impression that taking pleasure from the act of eating is somehow a bad thing \n Certainly not. There is nothing wrong with taking pleasure in eating food. \n > I remember an article where it explained the national recipes from Ethiopia, and the comments were filled with people that had no idea of this, who were under the impression that Ethiopians had no food culture, and simply starved to death on dirt and bugs, undoubtedly people like you who could only see them under the box of \"third-world country\". \n I implied no such thing. My point was that there are some people who genuinely do not have an alternative to consuming animal products. My criticism is not directed at them, but at people who do have choices. As I said, I assume that my audience (reddit) does have those alternatives available. \n > Face it, If the pure enjoyment of food was taken away from humans, and we were only given pills that gave us all the nutrition we needed, a lot of us would kill ourselves. \n Hey, I freely admit I am a \"live to eat\" person rather than a \"eat to live\". If those pills existed, I would probably replace the majority of my meals with them, simply because I am lazy and eating makes up a pretty small amount of the enjoyment of my life and I frequently resent having to take the time away from things I enjoy more to satisfy my nutritional needs. That's certainly not to say that I eat bland pablum, or that I don't enjoy tasty food. \n In any case, as I said before, there's nothing wrong with enjoying food. Or living a life focused around the next meal (although I don't pretend to understand this). \n >", "id": "c3guwxw", "summary": "kosher meat and basic nutritional facts destroy your argument. \n You have destroyed a straw man."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "But Nicolelis is in a camp that thinks that human consciousness (and if you believe in it, the soul) simply can’t be replicated in silicon. That’s because its most important features are the result of unpredictable, non-linear interactions amongst billions of cells, Nicolelis says. \n “You can’t predict whether the stock market will go up or down because you can’t compute it,” he says. “You could have all the computer chips ever in the world and you won’t create a consciousness.” \n That's all the justification he gives, which seems pretty specious to me. We absolutely could predict if the stock market could go up or down if we could account for all the factors: there's nothing intrinsic to the stock market that makes simulating it impossible. \n As for simulating something that's \"unpredictable\" and has \"non-linear interactions\" to prove that a physical object is actually completely  unpredictable  would be quite a task: you would have to prove that it is impossible to understand the rules that govern it, or to analyze it in enough depth to determine its state. There's nothing really so far that backs up an assertion that the brain cannot be understood: if it can be understood, it can eventually be simulated.", "id": "c8hhjhz", "summary": "Bunk and/or twaddle."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "Are pigs self-aware, incredibly intelligent creatures? \n Does intelligence and self-awareness  really  matter in the context of morality? No matter how smart you are or whether or not you recognize \"self\" as an abstract concept of some sort, if I poke you with a fork you are going to feel it the same way. \n I really think that sentience is the only thing that confers moral relevance: intelligence or self-awareness can make your fork-poking experience either more positive (if you could understand I give a million dollars to anyone I poke,) or more negative (if you could understand that I murder anyone that I poke) but one could say the same thing about if I poked you on a sensitive or bruised area of skin — that would also make the positive/negative experience more or less intense. \n I expect you would agree that people with sensitive skin are not morally significant to a greater extent than those without. If intelligence/self-awareness simply makes us more sensitive to certain types of harm or distress then those traits don't seem different in a practical way.", "id": "cevbh8c", "summary": "Intelligence and self-awareness have no inherent moral significance. Sentience does."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "An old science fiction book by Niven and Pournelle called Oath of Fealty is very on-point. The city computer was like our Internet, and people could get a minor implant that let you communicate with it in real time. \"Millie, who am I looking at?\" \"Millie, what's the GDP of Iceland?\" And when someone got used to this implant, they were really at a disadvantage when they lost contact with the city. \n I don't think you really need an implant to produce that effect. When I don't have access to the internet, I feel like I've lost a part of my brain. Not only is there a  lot  of information I'm unable to access, but my approach to information has changed substantially. These days I mostly memorize how to find information rather than the information itself: the benefit is I can remember a lot more of that type of information. The down side is that if I no longer have access, I'm a lot more helpless than I otherwise would be.", "id": "c9o1pre", "summary": "If society ever collapses, I'm going to be screwed."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "The Unruh effect]( [This interesting blog post]( describes it. \n Basically, if you're constantly accelerating very close to the speed of light, you can end up in a situation where light can't catch you essentially creating an event horizon. Since you have an event horizon, you'd expect the mechanics of hawking radiation to be in effect; virtual particles spawning and annihilating each other, but some of them fall on the boundary of the event horizon. The interesting thing is, you would see those particles while to an observer at a different frame of reference, they would not even exist. \n Disclaimer : Very horrible", "id": "c1ogg4s", "summary": "explanation, read the second link for a much better one."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "Everything I said is true and supportive of meat intake. \n Having canine teeth isn't supportive of meat intake. You basically seemed to be saying \"we have canine teeth, therefore we are meant to eat meat\". Gorillas are vegetarians and have larger canine teeth. Are gorillas meant to eat meat? If not, then \"having canine teeth\" is not adequate support for the conclusion that an individual should eat meat. \n > An appeal to nature is perfectly acceptable \n I think you might not be clear on what an appeal to nature is. Did you read the link? \n I'll give you the", "id": "cd83tze", "summary": "version: An appeal to nature assumes natural=good (and often unnatural=bad). \n The reason this argument is typically considered a fallacy and overall insufficient for supporting a point is because it is possible to come up with many counterexamples. For example, starvation is natural, but is starvation good? Most people wouldn't agree. On the other hand, medical care is extremely unnatural but would you agree that it is bad? Probably not. \n So the assumption that natural things are good, and unnatural things are bad cannot be applied in any consistent way."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "vegetarians aren't that bad. i think the people that annoy me the most are vegans. vegans are just plain assholes. no human being should be that picky about their food when millions worldwide are starving. fuck vegans, seriously. \n This makes very little sense. \n \n Vegans aren't buying dairy/eggs and throwing them away so other people can't use them. So it in no way makes food less accessible to the hungry. \n \n People don't starve to death because there's simply not enough food. They starve because they can't pay the people with food. \n \n Vegans eat low on the food chain, which typically takes far less resources (around 90% of energy is lost each time you move up a trophic level). This means both less environmental damage (which meat eaters should be able to appreciate too) and more food available, even if vegans were the only ones eating efficiently.", "id": "c6j3c95", "summary": "There is no conceivable way a vegan's pickiness would in any way adversely effect the hungry, and it would very likely affect them positively."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "I'll apologize I'm not a big debater. (If I had known what I was getting myself into, I would have shut up.) \n No reason to apologize here. I guess you could call me a big debater, but this isn't really a subject I have a lot of interest in or motivation to debate at length. \n > If there was belief on many sides that Saddam was in possession of or trying to be in possession of WMD and was trying to go rogue, wouldn't overthrowing his government be a kind of common sense solution to the problem? \n I'm some random person on the internet, so how much my (quite uneducated) opinion on this topic matters is pretty dubious. However, I would say that it's not necessarily a common sense solution to the problem because actually toppling a regime can create problems of its own (as we see). The US  has  done so before with poor results so it wasn't really uncharted territory. Wars are also extraordinarily expensive and a consideration is what benefit you get from your money if you applied it to the war or increasing the standard of living at home (I can dream). \n Finding/removing the WMDs or depriving Saddam of his ability to use them would be sufficient to remove or at least ameliorate the threat greatly. \n > What bothers me is that Pelosi, Kerry, Gore, Clinton and the rest are not being honest when they scream \"Bush lied.\" \n It would reinforce your point more if you used quotes along the lines of \"We need to invade Iraq\" rather than \"It may be justified in using force against Iraq to mitigate the WMD threat\". Like I said at the beginning of the post, I'm not really educated as far as politics goes so it may well be that they did explicitly endorse the war. \n I'd also point out that if someone or some political sector took the information that was available to create a false or misleading narrative and another political sector or politician fell for it, it's not necessarily a case where equal blame would apply. \n ^(", "id": "cm8zb2k", "summary": "Politics  [poly-ticks]  noun : Many bloodsucking insects.)"}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "I think the 'Dominos Cows' would be worthy of making a complaint about, given that they are implying (at least obliquely) that animal rights is not to be taken seriously \n In the US at least, there's a  ton  of advertising that implies better conditions for animals than the reality. You pretty much can't go to a place that sells meat or eggs or whatever without seeing pictures of happy animals wandering around in a lovely pasture or whatever. In fact, most of the time it's a  lot  more overt than the Domino's box. \n Does that actually not exist in the UK? \n > I'm not saying I expect Dominos to show photos of mastitis and tail-docking but this is certainly glossing over a reality that very few people are aware of. \n They are absolutely glossing over the reality of it. My point is that I really don't see any legal basis to bring action. I'd also be very surprised if there was any standards body with enforcement capability that would take such a complaint seriously in the US. Maybe things are different in the UK, it certainly would be nice if that was the case. \n > Sorry for the length of this post \n No reason to apologize for that at all! It's a little depressing that we anticipate people having such a short attention span that they can't even make it through two paragraphs of text without a", "id": "cmarjyu", "summary": "Upon researching this there doesn't appear to be a dedicated charity/foundation that monitors animals being used misleadingly in marketing, in particular in food marketing. \n I don't think I've heard of one. \n >  /u/macaroni_monster said it better than I could have: \"Giving the cows names on the pizza box perpetuates the erroneous idea that there's some nice cow willingly giving her milk to humans instead of her calves. \n I agree with that completely, but I still don't think there's a chance of legal action or enforcement that would force them to remove those ads in the US."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "In 2000, PETA was contacted by a police officer who was appalled by the terrible suffering of animals in local North Carolina shelters. Some \"shelters\" were nothing more than exposed, unheated or cooled shacks that left animals to either drown or freeze, depending on the weather. PETA became involved in assisting shelters with cleaning, adoptions, training, staff, providing supplies, conducting cruelty investigations and providing adequate shelter to animals. PETA has spent over $300,000 on services to NC shelters in the last few years. Many pounds in the area had no adoption programs or even operating hours. Unwanted animals were either shot, gassed in windowless metal boxes or injected with a paralytic agent that caused them to slowly die of suffocation. These practices were carried out for decades until PETA began providing humane euthanasia. Although veterinary services for lethal injection were secured for one of the four pounds they discovered, animals at the other shelters would have been gassed, shot or died of suffocation had they not been picked up by PETA staff for euthanasia. \n Although some of the animals have been adopted out, most of the dogs and cats from NC shelters have suffered from various debilitating conditions. These include Parvo, heart worms, mange, Lyme disease, untreated injuries, embedded collars, broken and exposed bones and severe parasitic infestations. \n According to CCF: \n \"PETA kills animals. Because it has other financial priorities. PETA rakes in nearly $30 million each year in income, much of it raised from pet owners who think their donations actually help animals.\" \n PETA is an international animal advocacy organization. Members are not under the false impression that they are an animal shelter. They are kept informed via email and member publications and may participate in campaigns. According to PETA's (independently audited and available upon request) statement for the fiscal year ending July 31 2008: 83.66% of funding went directly into programs. 12.16% was spent on fund raising and 4.18% on administration and operations. 29% of PETA's staff earn $19,000 to to $29,999; 45% earn $30,000 to $39,999 and 26% earn over $39,999. President Ingrid Newkirk earned 35,462 dollars in 2008. \n Organizations like CCF not only represent multi-billion dollar corporations, but industries which are heavily subsidized by tax payers.  [{cite}](", "id": "c4k282m", "summary": "They don't really run normal shelters, they take in animals other people won't deal with. Animals that other people won't deal with are primarily sick, aggressive or unadoptable for some other reason. It isn't surprising that a high percentage of them are euthanized. To suggest that they would be happy about someone killing animals is ridiculous."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "Now that I am how and because of the excessive downvotes I will provide a fairly full defense and explanation of my argument. \n For what its worth, none of the downvotes were from me. \n > The scenario you listed above is actually real. Consider a with Chronic Insensitivity to Pain (CIP). They cannot feel pain. \n That is true, but I said positive/negative  experiences . This is not restricted only to physical experiences. \n > Would be morally justifiable to break this person's arm? \n Breaking their arm is likely to cause them other types of distress. Not being able to use their arm, and physical complications from breaking it will likely cause them distress as well as diminish their ability to do things that generate positive experiences. \n > What about killing them? Again you are not causing them physically distress. \n You can kill someone without CIP painlessly too. \n > I am causing zero distress in either situation but I think we would agree that both are not morally justified. \n You would be removing their capability to generate any more positive experiences. \n > You have already stated that such an individual is morally equivalent a rock, so I may not convince you, but I would think that such a robot does bear moral worth. How can you hold a conversation with an entity, debate life, the beauty of the trees, whatever you can the automan want to talk of, but simply because he cannot feel pain his life is worthless? \n The benchmark is not feeling pain, it is being capable of having positive and negative experiences. (Actually, I'd say the capacity for either positive or negative would be sufficient for moral relevance to apply.) \n Could the automan meaningfully debate the beauty of trees if trees give him no pleasure? \n If the automan is not capable of experiencing anything in a positive or negative way, how can he be harmed? (Again, I am not only talking about physical sensations.) \n > Singer himself has endorsed that oysters can be killed, since they cannot feel pain, are not sentient, so therefore the automan can be killed. \n Yes, I agree, provided we're going by my definition of the automan's capabilities and not the one where he only can't feel physical pain. \n > But really when it comes down to it, how are we different from the automan? Yes, we know we can feel pain, but on the surface we have no way of proving that other people feel pain. The automan does not feel pain but when he sees the person stub his toe, yank back, curse, etc., the automan walks over stubs his toe, yanks back, and curses. How do we know he is not in pain any more than the man \n First: This seems like an argument for giving the benefit of the doubt, rather than for showing  less  consideration which would seem to be the end result of only labeling self-aware autonomous individuals as morally relevant. \n As for determining the probability of the automan being sentient without any outside help, we'd have to go by our scientific understanding of how sentience arises, find out whether his physiology/behavior correlate, etc. \n I think we mostly have to look for things that correlate with ourselves, since as you said we only have a single example of sentience that we know is there for sure: our own. \n > The only pain you can feel is your own. This is because you are a self-aware, autonomous individual. \n That isn't correct. If I feel pain, it's because I am sentient. Only being able to feel  my  pain doesn't have anything to do with sentience or self-awareness or autonomy. Now, you could say that perhaps being able to  reflect  on my pain in the abstract way humans are capable of doing is something only a self-aware autonomous individual would be capable of — bit this individual would also need to be sentient or there would be nothing to reflect on. \n > Things that are not self-aware would seem to be morally equivalent to a rock. How can some entity, that doesn't know it is an entity, be harmed by having its \"entity-ness\" removed. \n Suppose you buy a lottery ticket, and you put it in your drawer at home where you live with a roommate. Your roommate hears the winning lottery numbers announced when you were not at home, and checks them against your ticket. When he discovers it's a winning ticket, he switches it with his own losing ticket. \n Did your roommate do anything wrong? You never knew you had a winning lottery ticket, so would that mean you weren't harmed when your roommate swapped it? I don't think you have to  know  you were affected in the abstract sense. You just have to  be  affected. \n >", "id": "cdpuscq", "summary": "Sentience is a poor standard to determine moral worth. A better standard is self-aware autonomy. \n Sorry, but you have not convinced me yet. It seemed like you were primarily attacking a much weaker version of my position. If the confusion was my fault, then I apologize."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "That sort of mutation usually isn't free: it has a cost. Once the bacteria isn't exposed to the antiobiotic it was resistant to, it has to compete with the same type of bacteria that  doesn't  have the mutation, and the latter is generally more efficient than the former. \n So what Mikeavelli said is pretty reasonable. The only problem is if you don't have enough effective antiobiotics you're able to cycle through to cover the time it takes for the mutated strains to die out. I think that's a pretty significant problem, since there aren't  that  many effective antibiotics. And also, not every antibiotic is \"broad spectrum\", nor do broad spectrum antibiotics work effectively on all conditions. If there's a rare/specialized condition that needs a certain antibiotic, you're screwed when stuff that's immune/resistant to that antibiotic crops up.", "id": "cdyv7eo", "summary": "Antibiotic immunity has a cost, which will allow non-immune bacteria to outcompete the mutated ones when the antibiotic isn't used. We'll probably never end up where all antibiotics are  permanently  useless, but temporary uselessness could still be very unpleasant. \n ^( Also, I am just a random guy on the internet and this is my impression from what I've read. I don't speak with any authority. )"}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "The problem with many TED talks is the involve a guy just standing there making a lot of assertions. Either you believe him or you don't: there isn't really  support  for those assertions. This talk does not seem very different in that respect. \n His conclusions do not seem generally to be accepted by the scientific community. \n Researchers of the United States Department of Agriculture concluded \"these results refute prior claims that animal trampling associated with high stocking rates or grazing pressures in rotational grazing systems enhance soil properties and promote hydrological function\".   Similarly, a survey article that examined rotational grazing systems, including Savory's system, found \"few, if any, consistent benefits over continuous grazing.\"   These confirm earlier evidence, where a researcher compared short duration grazing (SDG) and Savory Grazing Method (SGM) in southern Africa and found no evidence of range improvement, a slight economic improvement of a seven-unit intensive system with more animals but with individual weight loss. He found no evidence for soil improvement but the increased trampling had led to soil compaction. \n A coauthor of the USDA paper pointed out that Briske had examined rotational systems in general and not Savory's holistic method with its many components, and contrasted the success seen by many ranchers practising multi-paddock grazing with results from academia.  — \n \n Another common criticism of holistic planned grazing is that while farmers and ranchers around the world have proven it consistently works for them and they have even received awards,   the majority of scientists have consistently stated that rotational grazing systems do not show any evidence of benefit, and those managers' successful examples are anecdotal.   Some groups value the role of animals in agriculture as part of the ecosystem, though in the form of free-living wildlife, not in the form of domesticated animals.  — \n \n That said, this doesn't necessarily mean he's wrong. I think that you're substantially overstating the case when you make an unqualified statement like \"Cattle are carbon negative\". For example, if a rancher chops down a section of rainforest to raise cattle, or food for cattle that certainly isn't going to be carbon negative. \n There may be specific cases where raising cattle is carbon negative or beneficial to the land. His talk (and results — anecdotal as they may be) seemed mainly focused on Africa and arid/semi-arid climates. \n Large areas of land have been cleared to produce soybeans/corn for cattle: those areas were not initially grasslands. If you consider how much more land would be needed to graze the cattle instead, the environmental damage would be compounded. So, for this approach to have positive effects it seems that you would necessarily need to accept  vastly  decreased production. \n Furthermore, it is likely that a method of population control other than killing the animals would likely be more beneficial. Here is my reasoning: The cattle graze on the grass and take its nutrients. You kill the cattle and transport their dead bodies to some other area — those nutrients have now left your grassland. On the other hand, if you simply manage the population through sterilization, for example, those nutrients remain in the grassland to nourish its further growth. \n In summary, I don't think the TED talk or your", "id": "ca1nkw7", "summary": "serve as an adequate rebuttal to my post."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "Meat is a way of obtaining nutritional value from geographic areas that are poorly suited for other types of food crops. \n Not \"is\", \"can be\". \n > Does this mean that this is the case everywhere that meat is consumed? No. There are definitely some meat animals that get raised in areas that will support crops \n This is a huge understatement, and possibly misleading too. Although I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that was not your intention. The way you phrased it makes it sound like most of the time meat is produced with land that can't be used in other ways, and occasionally it's produced in some other way which is most certainly not the reality. \n Of the  top four crops grown in the US . Just an example. A lot of environmental damage is driven by a need to create pastureland for cattle or feed production. Consider the Brazil and how much rainforest has been cut down to grow soy (which is primary fed to animals). They're starting to clear the [Cerrado]( also. \n Producing concentrated feed (such as soy, corn) for cattle is considerably more efficient from a land use standpoint than letting them graze. It's also not even possible in some places for cattle to find adequate forage year round, so that would compound the problem (and damage). So if you propose only grass fed cattle, then you must accept producing  far  less (which would mean much higher prices) or greatly expanding destruction of other habitats to make room for grazing cattle. \n In addition to simply destroying habitat, there are other secondary negative effects. For example, grass fed cattle produce considerably more GHGs than CAFO cattle — and climate change is something that will likely affect many people in profoundly negative ways. \n > Even seemingly innocent trends like the locally-grown movement could have huge negative effects if they became laws \n Did anyone even make the argument that local food should be the law? I can't imagine anyone reasonable doing so. \n > [...] it could have disastrous effects on real people, especially those in economically poorer areas. \n And if you're concerned about that, it seems like you simply could not argue for only producing grass fed cattle in areas that already had forage since production would drop steeply and prices would skyrocket. \n > Therefore, I say the issue is with our population size \n There are multiple ways to deal with and mitigate the problem. Eating inefficiently compounds damage caused by a high population. Roughly 90% of energy is lost for link in the food chain, so it's easy to see how scaling that loss up to feeding 7 billion people is going to have very substantial effects  even if  there are some edge cases where producing animal products may seem efficient. \n >", "id": "cocen74", "summary": "if you object to meat because it hurts the environment, there's a long list of offenders doing way more damage \n For instance? \n > If you take issue with eating meat because you have ethical issues with killing something with intelligence and possible self-awareness for your own sustenance \n People mostly take issue with doing that when it's  unnecessary ."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "My mid lane came and ganked top without me even being there and fed my lane which was already winning a kill. I said \"Wow feed your own lane your doing quite fine with that being your only job atm lol\", then at the end of the game 3 of my teammates reported me for being a so called \"asshole\". \n If I saw that case, I would hit punish. There is absolutely no beneficial effect from demeaning someone who probably already was unhappy/frustrated that they got killed. It's not going to help them play better, and it's very likely to make them play worse. \n If you genuinely think that they weren't aware that they made a mistake and your purpose is to prevent the same thing from happening again, there are  much  better ways to convey that information.", "id": "c3p7q2i", "summary": "Don't be an \"asshole\" and you really don't have to worry about Tribunal reports turning into a ban."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "thus why he put this post here... because people like you need to thicken up your skin and stop being a cry baby bitch. \n I find that people being jerks is detrimental to my game experience. Riot gives me the means to punish those jerks. I don't cry about it, I act. \n > If you said that to someone in real life.. I believe you'd get your teeth kicked in. I don't know why you think everyone has to be nice to each other. \n If I said that I was evaluating cases in some scenario where there were set rules, and someone violated the rules and I determined that this was the case, the appropriate reaction to this would be kicking my teeth in? Either you're pretty young, or you've been in and out of jail your whole life if you follow that credo. \n Do you consider it manly to have such little control of your emotions that you resort to physical violence if anyone disagrees with you? \n I'm not sure I speak your particular dialect of neanderthal, but hopefully you'll manage to puzzle it out.", "id": "c3pc4k2", "summary": "cinderstorm ANGRY! cinderstorm SMASH!"}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "but they were the cool vegans that are like, \"oh, you eat meat, i wont get up in your face about it. keep doin what your doing.\" \n Don't you think that's sort of a strange thing to consider being a cool vegan? To be a vegan is essentially to take the moral stance that killing animals or causing them to suffer when it's unnecessary is wrong. So your \"cool vegans\" are the ones that apparently object to something on moral grounds but shut up and accept the status quo anyway. \n Do you think that it's a good (or even neutral) moral action to practice non-interference when confronted by things that you believe are genuinely wrong? I will present an example — but first a, disclaimer: I'm  not  trying to make a direct equivalence here between the things I will talk about. Anyway, continuing — Imagine you observe another person getting murdered, raped, or robbed. Don't you think you'd have a duty to interfere? Or would you be \"cool\" about it and say \"Oh, you like robbing people, I won't get up in your face about it. Keep doing what you're doing.\" \n You can look through history and see that changes that advanced human rights and liberties are generally a result of people that believed something was wrong and  weren't  cool about it. Suffragettes, anti-slavery abolitionists, and so on. They were probably rather annoying to people who were content with the status quo, but they attempted to push society in a direction that they believed was closer to the way that it should be. \n Semi-", "id": "ckcfs6g", "summary": "If you think that vegans are wrong, you should try to convince them of why this is the case using facts. What you shouldn't do is tell them to stand by when something they believe is morally wrong occurs and let it pass without trying to change things for the better.  You  probably wouldn't take that advice yourself if the situation concerned something  you  thought was morally wrong, nor should you!"}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "I hope you will find this information useful: \n \n \n Food \n Usable protein (lb/acre) \n \n \n \n \n Soybeans \n 263 \n \n \n Rice \n 224 \n \n \n Legumes (avg) \n 94 \n \n \n Milk \n 75 \n \n \n Wheat \n 75 \n \n \n Eggs \n 71 \n \n \n Maize \n 68 \n \n \n Meat (avg) \n 36 \n \n \n Beef \n 15.6 \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Food \n Mil cal/acre \n \n \n \n \n Potatoes \n 17.8 \n \n \n Corn \n 12.3 \n \n \n Wheat \n 6.4 \n \n \n Pork \n 3.5 \n \n \n Soybeans \n 2.1 \n \n \n Chicken \n 1.4 \n \n \n Beef \n 1.1 \n \n \n \n \n In comparison with grazing, intensive livestock production requires large quantities of harvested feed. The growing of cereals for feed in turn requires substantial areas of land. However, where grain is fed, less feed is required for meat production. This is due not only to the higher concentration of metabolizable energy in grain than in roughages, but also to the higher ratio of net energy of gain to net energy of maintenance where metabolizable energy intake is higher. A pound of beef (live weight) requires about seven pounds of feed, compared to more than three pound for a pound of pork and less than two pounds for a pound of chicken. However, assumptions about feed quality are implicit in such generalizations. For example, production of a pound of beef cattle live weight may require between 4 and 5 pounds of feed high in protein and metabolizable energy content, or more than 20 pounds of feed of much lower quality. \n \n Generally, each trophic level relates to the one below it by absorbing some of the energy it consumes, and in this way can be regarded as resting on, or supported by the next lower trophic level. Food chains can be diagrammed to illustrate the amount of energy that moves from one feeding level to the next in a food chain. This is called an energy pyramid. The energy transferred between levels can also be thought of as approximating to a transfer in biomass, so energy pyramids can also be viewed as biomass pyramids, picturing the amount of biomass that results at higher levels from biomass consumed at lower levels. \n The efficiency with which energy or biomass is transferred from one trophic level to the next is called the ecological efficiency. Consumers at each level convert on average only about 10% of the chemical energy in their food to their own organic tissue. For this reason, food chains rarely extend for more than 5 or 6 levels. At the lowest trophic level (the bottom of the food chain), plants convert about 1% of the sunlight they receive into chemical energy. It follows from this that the total energy originally present in the incident sunlight that is finally embodied in a tertiary consumer is about 0.001%", "id": "c7ivu84", "summary": "You lose roughly 90% of the energy each time you go up a trophic level."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "what politician supports this? This isnt a republican standpoint, \n Via policies like tax cuts that favor the wealthy (from a marginal diminishing utility standpoint), lax regulation of businesses, trickle down economics. Just a couple examples. \n > the majority of republicans are not rich, \n Republican voters mainly aren't rich, that's true. Republican politicians usually are, though. \n > so why would they support policies that hurt themselves? \n That's a good question. \n Here's an article that seems to sum up some of the reasons why I'd consider that to be the case: \n Business owners are primarily Republican, and businesses have a lot of political clout: \n Also, there is a correlation between lower income levels and voting Republican: \n The", "id": "caad1ee", "summary": "version would be: Skewed information sources, religion, lack of education, business political power."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "The problem is when powerful groups try to say that their way of thinking is the \"universally valid\", or \"rational\", or \"objective\" way of thinking to the exclusion of all others. \n If they cannot justify or back up such assertions, then certainly it is a problem. \n > Someone asks whether there are any famous philosophers who come from a transgender point of view and the immediate response is that \"if transgender people think any differently from white men who own this field, then they're just wrong\". No one said it in those words but \"why should that matter?\" and \"your mom\" amount to the same thing. \n I really wouldn't agree, and I definitely did not interpret it the same way that you did. \"Why should it matter[, because the validity of your thinking and points is not influenced by your sexual orientation]?\" \n edit : So in a way, I would interpret as people trying to show how unbiased they are. Now there are certainly reasons why someone might want to know if famous philosophers with a certain attribute exist, even reasons of idle curiosity would be valid. It would have been good to give the original poster an answer. \n It would be reasonable to think that a transgendered person might have an advantage when speaking on the topic of things pertaining to changing one's gendered or the perspectives and trials experienced, but certainly someone who isn't transgendered could speak with insight about transgender topics (likewise, a transgender person could speak with insight about things not related to transgender topics, obviously). \n > The fact is, I have no access to an understanding of what it's like to be transgendered and frankly I'm quite interested to know what someone of that identity has to say. \n And that person speaking to you would give you access (at least to a degree) of what it's like to be transgendered, and how perspectives differ, right? So you thinking isn't constrained because you're white, or because you're not transgendered, you are simply missing information on a topic and want more. \n > I suspect you might be surprised to hear what a transgender philosopher has to say, and I wouldn't be surprised if that person weren't so convinced that the rationality which we white men have developed in last few thousand years is so \"objective\". \n I can understand your response, given that you seem to have interpreted the replies to this post as meaning transgendered people are wrong or do not have anything important to say. I certainly don't believe that, and I don't think that's what the other posts (at least the ones that I saw) were attempting to convey. \n Personally, I think it's quite debatable whether humans (white or otherwise) have access to anything objectively true, anyway. \n >", "id": "c4n2f3n", "summary": "it doesn't pave the way for discrimination, it allows oppressed people to have their own unique voice. \n You stated that you meant the opposite of my interpretation, but from what you said, I still don't really get that impression. You said: \" And the kind of thinking you're able to do depends on the kind of body you have. \" \n I think it  does  pave the way for discrimination. If you have attribute X and people decide that people with attribute X cannot think thought Y, then as soon as they see you have attribute X, they can determine that you can't think thought Y. If thinking thought Y is considered positive or necessary, then if you have attribute X you're screwed — even if you're perfectly able to think thought Y."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "1.) I didn't say \"They do experience suffering.\" I asked Who are we to determine that their ability to perceive their affliction is not suffering, you little bi%&. \n >  Also know plants can interpret pain \n Pain is an experience. If plants can \"interpret\" pain, just using the word \"pain\" implies you think they can experience it. The only pain I can ever experience is my own. So the only reason I have to assess the ability of \"pain\" in other individuals is if I can evaluate it as probable. Given the available evidence, a reasonable person would not reach the conclusion that it is probable, you spawn of a flea-infested hamster! \n > Give sources for your assertion, you fuc%$&* CUN@. \n The assertion you said I made but didn't make, you delicious butternut squash?", "id": "c80egi3", "summary": "May the mites of a thousand gonorrhea-afflicted platypuses cover your diminutive genitalia and cause substantial scabbing and itching that is not relieved by topical ointment!"}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "From the looks of things that would be the earth herself and the evolution that drove the diversity of life on this planet. \n It seems a little odd to start out saying you won't be influenced by religious arguments and then call earth \"her\" in the next sentence. \n > Every organism, as near as I can tell serves a purpose in the web of life. \n Natural selection has no intent. If you throw a bucket of gravel on the ground it will form a mound. Each piece of gravel except the top layer serves to support the gravel above. That doesn't mean the current arrangement is valuable and should be preserved or that there's some actual purpose in each bit of gravel's position. \n > Some animals serve as food for other animals, it's not sexy, but that seems to be how nature operates. \n Some humans served as slaves for other humans. That would seem to be in line with the natural process: the strong taking what they want/need from the weak without compunction. \n I would also point out that you are communicating your thoughts in the form of symbols to people potentially on the other side of the world. You can perhaps say that some things are natural and some aren't, but as soon as you start to associate \"natural\" with \"good\" or \"justified\" you will run into serious problems being consistent. That's because there are many unpleasant natural things: starvation, disease, etc. And many pleasant unnatural things: access to computers, medical care, pain relief, etc. \n > As far as them being voiceless and as such it's unfair to decide for them, perhaps. But it's no more unfair then when the cheetah targets and runs down the new born gazelle. \n It doesn't really make sense to talk about actions being immoral or unethical unless it concerns an individual that: \n \n Can anticipate the effects of its actions. \n \n Act intentionally. \n \n Is free to act. \n \n \n If you're not already aware, such individuals are called moral agents. \n For example, it would be  non sequitur  to call an avalanche killing someone \"unethical\" or \"immoral\" of the avalanche. It wouldn't be meaningful to say that if an infant pokes you in the eye while flailing its arms around that the infant has done something unethical: the infant does not understand that its actions will cause pain. \n In addition to moral agents, there is another useful concept: morally relevant individuals or moral patients. These are individuals that can be affected in a way that is meaningful in a moral context. Personally I believe quite strongly that sentience is what confers moral relevance. The capability for an individual to experience positive and negative things subjectively.  It wouldn't make much sense to talk about doing something unethical or immoral to a rock: a rock cannot be affected in morally relevant ways. \n To make a moral determination then requires at least one moral agent and at least one moral patient. A moral agent can of course be a moral patient as well. \n You may find this interesting: \n In short it doesn't make sense to call something an cheetah does to another animal  immoral or unethical, because that action does not involve a moral agent. This would also include handicapped people/young children if they weren't able to meet the requirements to be considered a moral agent. \n We can of course classify actions and results based on whether we consider them good or bad. While we can't say that an avalanche killing an innocent person is immoral, we can say that it's a bad thing and we can prefer the scenario where the person was not killed. This is also the case with all the suffering wild animals cause to each other.", "id": "cf44ao1", "summary": "It doesn't make sense to hold humans to the same moral standard as a cheetah. \n \n Another very big difference is that a cheetah doesn't have a choice: it must kill a gazelle or die itself. Many humans do have a choice, and I would venture to guess the vast majority of humans with the free time to post on reddit do not require animal-derived foods to live and be healthy."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "It starts with some assumptions: \n \n A world with less pain and suffering is better than a world with more. \n \n A world with less unnecessary pain and suffering is better than a world with more. \n \n (Optional) We ought to take steps to make the world a better place. \n \n We ought to do what we reasonably can to make the world a better place. \n \n We ought to do what we can reasonably can to avoid making the world a worse place. \n \n A morally good person will take steps to make the world a better place and stronger steps to avoid making the world a worse place. \n \n Even a minimally decent person will take steps to avoid making the world a worse place if it can be accomplished with low effort. \n \n The reader believes they are at least a minimally decent person. \n \n \n Furthermore: \n \n The reader believes that animals (and least vertebrates) are capable of experiencing morally relevant pain. \n \n It is morally wrong to treat animals inhumanely for no good reason. \n \n \n He also touches on efficiency and that people generally believe it to be a good thing to leave resources for future generates and such. \n The rest is spent proving that typical farming practices do in fact result in suffering and eschewing the use of animal products is something that can be accomplished with low effort and little/no detrimental effect. \n Bit of a long", "id": "c7cxahh", "summary": "but you have to admit it's rather shorter than the PDF! \n As for whether it is irrefutable - only if one accepts all of his core assumptions. I have definitely debated with people who didn't think animal pain/suffering was morally relevant or comparable to human suffering. Those people likely would not be convinced or find it extremely compelling."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "It's not really that we just point at how things are and say \"fine tuning!\", it's that we can't really imagine a universe where life could arise if the fundamental constants of the universe were even a little bit off. If gravity was a little different, either everything would clump together into red hot balls or black holes or spread out. If chemicals acted a little differently it would be extremely hard for complex processes like life to take place. Too cold and chemical reacts just sit there. \n Even with the current configuration of our universe, it's hard to imagine life evolving in a substantially different substrate. For example, life evolving without water since water is such an amazing solvent (as well as other useful properties). Water, of course, has a very narrow range of temperature where it could be used for life. Ice isn't going to do much, nor is boiling vapor.", "id": "cfrtqkv", "summary": "When we look at a tree, we can imagine some other type of life that is quite similar to a tree. But imagining life in a fundamentally different universe is much harder or even impossible. \n Hopefully that helps a bit. Also, if you haven't read the Wikipedia article it is pretty decent:"}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "Plants can react to stimuli and \"communicate\", but that is not the same thing as a subjective experience. My computer reacts when I press keys, but there's no reason to believe it has a subjective experience. It also communicates with other computers and devices. That is a somewhat extreme example. Here is hopefully a more congenial one: If you reach out and accidentally touch a hot surface, you will find that you jerk your hand back before you're even aware that you made contact. There's no subjective experience of pain or distress at that point: it is simply a reaction to stimuli (that particular one is generally referred to as nociception). After some time the experience of pain enters your awareness: that is subjective experience. Another example would be the knee jerk reaction: If someone taps you on the knee, your leg will jerk. The signal to your muscles that causes the movement actually isn't even transmitted from your brain but from the spinal cord - it's an adaptation that helps maintain balance and posture.", "id": "c7itg3c", "summary": "There's a categorical difference between reacting to stimuli and experiencing stimuli subjectively."}, {"author": "Vulpyne", "content": "That's absolutely true, but it's important to note that intelligence by itself doesn't confer moral relevance. Being able to compute stuff is a categorically different thing than experiencing feelings. A blob that couldn't do anything but experience pleasure/suffering would be morally relevant in a way that a AI which possessed advanced logic/linguistic/creative/insert-whatever-human-attribute-you-like but  not  feeling simply does not — and the latter would be as morally inert as a rock. \n This is not to say that intelligence is an irrelevant factor in a sentient creature. Intelligence allows the creature to be affected in more/different ways. For example, the elephants which can remember harm for a long time could be said to be affected by it in a worse time than the hypothetical blob I mentioned which would only experience suffering for the duration it was actually applied. Or harm from an action realized to be a betrayal could magnify harm — but intelligence can also act as a salve. One can experience harm, but realize that that it is for a worthy cause and take satisfaction in that.", "id": "cd6hdx7", "summary": "You can't get to moral relevance with only intelligence, but the attributes associated with intelligence can of course magnify feelings both positive and negative."}]}
+{"author": "creepy_doll", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post If you're motivated and capable, yes you can. Most people I see here with the same plan as me end up teaching 5 years, make no effort to learng the language and then leave. Don't get too involved in the expat community or you won't have the motivation needed to learn the language properly and generally integrate.", "output": "I work halfway between research and software engineering, at a japanese company. I did 3-4 years before that in a different japanese web app type company which which led me to this job. I got the first job from a Japanese acquaintance who told me her company was hiring. Before this I had moved to japan to teach english for a short while while I figured out what I wanted to do. My education was in games dev, so AI, physics, 3d graphics and such. I demonstrated an ability to pick stuff up fast and want from a pretty typical japanese entry level IT salary(really bad) to around 80k in a couple of years as I proved my aptitude."}], "user_id": "longlamp_9528", "history": [{"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "I genuinely think that every language that gets rid of semi-colons is merely involved in an exercise of masturbation on the part of the developer. \n They're not there for the compiler. It's not really  that  hard to develop a  syntax that has non-ambiguous statement structure that doesn't require a terminator. \n Semi-colons make it clear to a person viewing the code where a statement ends. They're not even hard to enter... They're on the damn home row. \n Python  does  make a valid case for removing them, by forcing a method of formatting. But maligning semi-colons as stupid and unnecessary is, in my humble opinion, made into a far bigger deal than it should be.", "id": "c9mbe9j", "summary": "Viva  ;"}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "Get a subsection of a few million people from all walks of life and you'll find people that are willing to say pretty much anything. \n Reddit does not have a history of promoting or accepting pedophilia. It provides a platform for discussing pretty much anything and everything. Reddit itself has no voice. Post a question on askreddit and you're most likely to receive responses from people who are familiar with the issue, not people who are indifferent about it or have the \"normal\" opinion of it. You could  make a post about incest and suddenly you'll find a significant minority of people who think it's sorta ok defending it. You can also find groups of racists, sexists, and pretty much everything else.", "id": "cd70jvb", "summary": "reddit is a bigoted pedophile nazi racist hate central"}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "I try to take about 40minutes before playing rocksmith to actually \"practice\". What I do: \n Couple minutes stretching: \n Followed by some basic chromatic exercises to get my fingers moving. \n 10 minutes working on my left hand: generally legato type exercises, 5 minutes of 2 exercises. \n 10 minutes working on my right hand: alternate picking, cross picking, economy picking whatever. Focus on one thing and work on it in a focused manner. Again 2 exercises, 5 minutes of each. \n Focus on some chord changes I have trouble in in songs. Basically whatever I'm missing in game. Practice each chord a couple of times, then try to make as many switches as possible in a minute. \n Some scale practice. Pick a mode, scale and position and practice it. Try to learn the boxed method(until now I've always played them 3 a string) \n In rocksmith \n So at this point I pick up the game \n I generally start out with just something to relax. Pick a song I know fairly well and just play through it, in score attack or learn a song, whichever. \n I might try a couple of missions. But more often than not my current mission is \"Improve score on satch boogie\". Yeah, screw that. \n I recently started participating in the weekly challenge back at the ubisoft forums:  This has separate divisions for all levels, so it's definitely worth joining for motivation. \n This weeks target song is thunderkiss '65, so I'll spend a while working on the solos in riff repeater. The unison bends are really kicking my ass, but I finally have a couple of them fully levelled up. Still haven't been able to try a full HSA run. Great song though. \n I rarely bother with the guitarcade anymore. I used to play string skip salon a lot, and managed to get a top 5 score on xbox. Ducks dux is also pretty good, but the random element of the rainbow duck and its random direction change pisses me off too much. Most of the other games are too gimmicky to be useful. \n After I'm tired of practicing a specific song, I tend to just play songs I enjoy, whether I have them levelled up or not. Right now that means playing \"The thrill is gone\", \"snarling of beasts\"(if you haven't unlocked it yet, you should! It's really awesome) and \"paranoid android\".", "id": "cfdw3uw", "summary": "I try do my technical practice outside rocksmith, where I focus on one thing at a time. I then use rocksmith to have fun and to learn specific songs and keep me motivated."}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "think this through. \n how do games get made? a bunch of dudes spend thousands of hours working to make then. now how is that possible? because they are payed to do it. ok, so it's not that simple. what else is involved? publishers and all that. what do they do? a lot and a little at the same time. many of them finance the development of games so studios aren't working out of pocket. publishers do sometimes make a shitton of money on some games. but they actually lose money on a lot of games. the winners finance the losers. \n ok, so cut the losers? well that's one way to do things, but wjat happens then? no-one can take risks anymore. Welcome to sequelitis and derivative gameitis. You may think it's bad now, but it'll be a lot worse. \n What else do the publishers do? They advertise. Actually they often spend more on advertising than dev. Wtf eh? Reality is that most gamers are still swung on advertising alone. They don't track lots of social media to know what the awesome new title is. So if you choose to cut advertising, you have a smaller player base. with lower revenue projections budgets also have to be reduced. so all of a sudden skyrims world has to be scaled down significantly. \n ok, so we see now that games cost money to make and to distribute. so is it really that horrible a thing that everyone pays for the games they play? If less people were pirating, renting, sharing and second-handing games, they wouldn't be turning to bullshit like release-time dlc and free2play riddled in microtransactions to run a profitable business. and we can keep getting kick-ass large budget games like skyrim and gta. because if you kill the large publishers financing the studios what you're left with is indie devs financing themselves out of pocket playing the hit-miss lottery, and quite possibly having their ideas ripped off by zynga.", "id": "ccsqze0", "summary": "just because it costs nothing to copy doesn't mean it cost nothing to make."}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "I have never seen tentacle porn here. I have a pretty good idea of where I could find it if I did, but I wouldn't be overly surprised if most Japanese people aren't even aware of its existence. \n And apparently(according to lolol internet scholars) the whole reason it exists is as a substitute for penises becuase the GHQ forced genital censorship after WW2", "id": "celzat8", "summary": "America is responsible for tentacle porn"}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "Brains work in the weirdest ways. \n I can read Japanese pretty quickly(not native speed, but close enough. Also 2000 characters instead of 6000 for chinese). Interestingly enough, on the other hand, I can barely handwrite any of the stuff I can read. Since I do nearly all my Japanese writing on a computer or phone where I spell it phonetically and then flip through a few choices. \n The brain doesn't analyze all the strokes, it just sees a shape and goes \"hey, that's abc\", kinda similar I guess to how we can look at someones face and easily tell them from another person with a similar face. If I start thinking about the strokes(for example if I was trying to write the character from memory) I easily get confused and start second guessing myself. \n edit: for example 間　開　閉　all look kinda similar at a glance but they're really obvious, especially when read in context. \n also interestingly enough, the example 糖尿病　from oderdigg is also the same word in Japanese and it quite literally translates to sugar piss disease. Lovely", "id": "cce8r0o", "summary": "the human brain is pretty amazing"}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "All my numbers are just from binomial distributions. I chose to use my examples with 2 sets of guys of the same values because it makes numeric calculations far easier, and more simply illustrates how poor a choice your using averages is. \n Looks like reddit ate my calculations, we don't have TeX formatting here. I'll throw in the standard notation and a simple explanation. Replace above as appropriate) \n So when we're working with 50 rookies with a probability of 0.1, we get B(50, 0.1) \nThe probability of having 5 of them being psi is B(5; 50, 0.1) <- the probability of 5 psi given 50 samples with probability 0.1 each. The probability of that is C(50, 5) * 0.1\\^5 * 0.9\\^45 <- Ways to choose 5 from 50 times the probability of 5 psi and 45 non psi. \n What is important is that events that are not unlikely are skewing your results, and you're claiming that as evidence. The chances of having zero to one guys out of your 8 guys with 60+ will turning out as a colonel is pretty reasonable(probably something like 10%. I'm definitely not going to calculate every permutation). The problem is, if that somewhat unlikely event does happen, then you will end up with the result you had. \n Now if you were to repeat this 5 times, and consistently get the same result, it would be much more convincing. While it is entirely possible to happen once, the chance of it happening even 5 times is well under 1%. I'm throwing out loads of variables here since I'm trying to leave only the core of the issue here, which is: \n \n small number of high will characters, and a low likelihood of anyone being psi results in a wide distribution of results. A single result like yours has a non-negligible likelihood of occurence. \n \n If you really wanted to iron this stuff out, you'd need to get into prior probabilities and the likelihood of probability distributions. One probability distribution posited is one of a flat 10% rate. Another posited probability distribution is one that increases linearly with will. \n Further, as an incidental point of note, you should recognize that if your numbers were actually meant to correlate to something, that you'd be claiming that low will = psi of course this isn't the case, and it shows how easily swung by low probabilities on small samples your numbers are. \n In another comment I mentioned how you could actually test this using one of the game constants, I'll paste it here: \n > If you want to make testing theories significantly easier, I suggest using a PSI_GIFT_CHANCE that gives rookies a roughly 50/50 chance of psi. It would be easy from there to posit whether or not will matters since you would be testing for significantly larger differences in probability(if my guess is correct, 40% vs 80% instead of 10% vs 20%, which is inconclusive due to small number of colonels). To test for the theory of psi chance=will/PSI_GIFT_CHANCE, you would thus use a value of 0.8(or 1.0 if you have new guy, giving squaddies instead of rookies). If the theory is correct, you can expect 50% of rookies to be psi and most troops over 70 will to be psi \n None of the samples that people have tested so far are anywhere near significant. Because of the low probability, you need a large sample size for anything even vaguely conclusive. Or like I said, you can raise the probability which would then be satisfied by much lower sample sizes. \n Until someone actually provides a set of data that indicates the likelihood of a flat 10% probability distribution regardless of will, I will believe the game which says will is a factor(that fact that I and others have also had good luck with colonels is only a poor counter example to your poor example I could measure the average will of that and it would come with significantly higher for my psi guys).", "id": "c6q1td7", "summary": "You're taking one possible distribution, which happens to have a moderately low probability of happening and basing a single arbitrary measure on that. Just because you love statistics does not mean you're good at it."}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "At the end of the article it refers to another one it claims to be running an opposite argument: namely that there are jobs that could be done in the US for which the skills are not present. \n The claim that the two articles are mutually exclusive is false. The thing is, a lot of the degrees people are taking are simply not degrees with demand outside of academia. The skills that are required generally tend to be in fields like STEM, and yet there are increasing numbers of students who believe that math/science is hard, but still want to get a degree, so they take a course in something like English Literature and then complain because there aren't enough jobs available. \n I don't mean to poke fun at people who genuinely have a passion for English Literature(or whatever else). Chances are they are driven enough by a subject they truly love, and will hopefully succeed at it. I'm mainly pointing at those that simply want to go to college, but don't want to study hard. \n They'd be better off joining the workforce for a couple of years while they figure out what they really want to do. They'll have a greater appreciation for the value of what they can learn at college and likely choose a more useful degree.", "id": "c85dzu0", "summary": "If you want a job when you graduate, study something that's in demand. It'll probably be more demanding and you'll have less time to party, but you will have freedom to choose from many jobs instead of settling for a substandard offer."}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "I'm more fed up of the bitching of other people about it than I am about the inconveniences. But hitting your head does suck, and back problems are not a \"minor inconvenience\", because most offices just buy the same desks and chairs for everyone and they're generally made around short/average people. Getting a setup with ergonomic posture is hard, and with 8 hours a day at the desk, it is not just a minor inconvenience. Same applies to sinks that are low, so washing dishes means having to slouch over for a long period of time, as do numerous other activities.", "id": "c712iy9", "summary": "mo height mo problems"}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "But that can be the case even with the hardest routes. I remember in a recent lead climbing world cup final Sean McColl did a one-arm pullup in a place Sacchi Amma did some crazy acrobatics. \n Many sections of problems can be muscled through, and it's not really related to the difficulty. It's a strategic choice to be made when attempting to flash or onsight a hard route, or it may even be a choice forced by body type... Too short to reach? Muscle through. Too tall for this cramped position? Muscle through. \n I have a poor strength/height ratio due to being tall and generally not strong(though all the bouldering is doing crazy shit to my back), and I've some of my peers who are roughly the same level as me can campus up problems I have to use careful footwork on, so brute force is definitely not my style, but there are times my height forces me to have to use it(more often than not I fail because I simply lack it) \n In the case of indoor walls this may just be considered a setting problem, but in nature, if the original climber was very different from you, so may be many of the moves.", "id": "c8i8ifz", "summary": "Routes of all levels have sections that can be muscled through, and sometimes it can be a valid/necessary choice."}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "Weekly lessons? You mean with a guitar teacher? \n I'm the opposite, having had a fair amount of lessons and recently  coming to RS. You can skip my experience and go to the conclusion at the end if you want. \n Your experience will vary with the teacher you get. Honestly, picking a guitar teacher is really hard(at least in my opinion). I've gone through several and currently don't have one. A couple of them were really great. Others not so much. Several of the worlds best guitars were all students of Joe Satriani, so it is hard to say that a teacher doesn't make a difference. \n A lot of really good guitarists are not very good teachers. Unlike say the piano where most teachers have gone through a musical education that includes learning to teach, many guitar teachers have no formal education. \n My first teacher was for classical(spanish) guitar, and he was great. Seeing as it was classical guitar he also had a full education and worked at the local conservatory. Nuf said. But tbh, it wasn't very rock'n'roll. I still play mostly classical style because of its influence(less stress on joints, especially right shoulder and left wrist). I had been basically coerced by a parent to learn classical first and never got to progress to electric so in a stupid act of teenage rebellion I quit after a couple of years of this. A pity, because some of the stuff I was playing then was really cool(all fingerstyle, some flamenco and stuff like that. Basically lost  it all now) \n I had a long gap after that, but my next teacher was for electric guitar. Part of a large  music education company(like the yamaha schools, but it wasn't yamaha). He had no formal training and we basically followed a book presrcribed by the school. Ok in general. He helped with a couple of issues. I eventually gave up on it and went on another hiatus. \n After that I went through a guy that insisted on teaching everything through traditional notation. I'm still unsure of this one, but the school moved locations. Musical notation is great if you're going to play jazz or classical, but a lot of guitarists learn songs by ear or from tabs, and sight-reading isn't really a relevant skill to rock guitarists(opinions on this vary wildly of course). \n After that I tried online for a while. Specifically tomhess.net. It's very expensive especially considering it's online. It's got a lot of focus on mechanical training drills and economy picking, so I learned to play scales pretty fast via that, though I picked up some music theory there too. I stopped this after a while because it was expensive and lack of feedback. \n Next guy was my favourite teacher by far(at least for electric guitar). Basically he encouraged developping my own style while also pointing out issues and how to avoid them. Improvisation was also important, and he helped me to change up my playing style to accomodate certain playing styles as well as introduce funk style muting broadening my horizons. I wish I could've kept studying with him but scheduling conflicts put an end to that. \n Guy after that was pretty much a wash. He was a \"pleaser\"(basically just does what you want to do, which while appealing is not what you need to do). He never prepared for lessons and made them up as we go along. If you're paying something like $40 for 30 minute lessons, that should absolutely include some preparation from the teacher. With my previous teacher I'd been happy to practice an hour  a day, but learning under this guy basically burned me out and I quit guitar again. \n I started up about a month ago with rocksmith, and have picked up most of the stuff I learned before though my improv certainly isn't as accurate, and I can't tear through scales like I could before.", "id": "celuphf", "summary": "I'd definitely recommend taking in-person lessons if possible(time and money wise). Failing that justinguitar is a reasonable substitute but needs some discipline. There are freak accidents occasionally that became great guitarists without lessons, with really bizarre styles, but they tend to be the exceptions. Rocksmith is not a substitute for lessons. It's better than nothing but its level of feedback is far inferior to a good teacher, and it lacks \"eyes\". It's a great tool for learning specific songs and for motivation, and I love it, but it isn't a substitute for a teacher. \n That being said, as you can see from my experience, the efficacy of lessons varies strongly with the teacher. A good one will inspire you and broaden your horizons, working as a guide. They should listen to what you want but not necessarily lead you there by the seemingly shortest path. The should also not just be trying to mould you into a copy of themselves, strictly pushing their own \"values\" onto you. A good teacher will be taking notes and preparing your lessons in advance with your strengths, weaknesses and ambitions in mind. Do not pick your teacher based on how well he can shred or whatever. \n Good luck!"}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "Don't become the other girl/guy until the break up actually happens. You're always the most likely to come out of the situation poorly. \n Had a new girl join my group of friends, another couple go on break(due to temporary increase in distance), apparently split up. Guy gets with new girl, then old girl comes back, gets back together with guy, makes out new girl as the villain, guy worms himself out not calling bullshit(or he just lied about the whole break thing in the first place). Most other people involved ignored their bullshit and hung out with new girl separately, but the full group could never hang out together again because couples on break are just problems waiting to happen.", "id": "c5xflk9", "summary": "Couples on break are worse than sticking dick in crazy"}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "Plenty of space. \n These are old stats I remember from when I was a kid giving a presentation on my home country but: \n In the south of Finland, the population density is 48 people per square kilometer. That means on average, each person has a square box with sides length 144m of space to themselves(that's approx 500 feet). \n In the north(Lapland) this density is further decreased: 2 people per square kilometer. \n Incidentally, for reference for all our American friends, Alaska wins this competition with 0.5 people per sq km. Wyoming also comes very close to Lapland with a density of 2.25 people per sq km. There are plenty of US states with a sparser population than Finland, but the ones that are close would be Kentucky or New Hampshire. Of course most Americans are accustomed to urban centers with extremely high population density (10,640 per sq km).  Even the Urban density of Helsinki is less than a quarter of this, and most Finns live in far less dense areas. \n In comparison to this, countries like India have a density of 364 per sq km. It has 3-4 times the population of the US, with 1/3 the living space. \n I dunno why I spent the last 20minutes checking these numbers and writing this.", "id": "cf86o86", "summary": "there's a lot of open space and not many people in finland. There's lots of people and not much space in india"}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "Croc ripoffs are very popular here in Japan amongst climbers/mountaineers. They're lightweight and tough so you just hang them off your pack, and then when you get to a campground or whatever you can get out of your bigass hiking boots and feel the freedom. Most of the mountain huts also leave them out for \"outdoor shoes\". \n They're also generally left at climbing walls so people can just get in a pair of them to go outside to smoke while taking a quick break from climbing.", "id": "ce68waa", "summary": "Yeah, I'm a crocs apologist. Problem?"}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "As an european I see absolutely no problem with using cm. Mainly because 180cm->1m 80cm it's so absurdly simple to convert that really, you can say 180cm or 1m 80cm and no one will care. 1.8m counds kinda bizarre though. \n Also in  many languages it is also shorter. In japanese I describe myself as 185cm(hyaku hachijuu-go senchi) rather than the longer 1m85(ichi-meetoru hachijuu-go senchi)", "id": "c713lay", "summary": "Converting inches to feet is annoying, cm to meters isn't."}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "Chalk itself does not increase the coefficient of friction. By reducing humidity it removes lubrication thus indirectly increasing the coefficient of friction. Placing chalk between a dry hold and a dry hand will only make the coefficient worse. \n Placing chalk on a wet hold does absorb some of that moisture, but you're often better off getting a rag and giving it a good scrubbing.", "id": "c8bdxuc", "summary": "The chalk due to its powdery nature reduces friction, it just does it much less than sweat."}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "I have 40k hp/250res/4000 armor. When I did act 2 kulle/belial runs I might take 1-2 deaths in the progress(mainly because I avoided every area with stupid monsters). I don't get passives with which to boost those. I don't expect to be able to faceroll the content but I feel that even if I doubled my res to 500 it would make very little difference... I also have 34k dps to go with that, I never played a pure glass cannon. If I moved to less dps however, fights would take even longer. I  can  still farm act 2 but there is no point... I can faceroll act1 killing champs at least twice as fast making up for the lower droprates from act 2. The incentives are just counterproductive and discourage progress. \n The reason so many people went pure glass cannon was that all the incentives were towards it. DH even with survivability gear could not last long, so it was simply better to pump dps high enough that you could kill within the space of 6 smoke screens. I resisted this movement hoping that blizzard would be smart enough to actually address the survivability issues when the inevitable dmg nerf and death penalties came. The latter two came, but they never did justify my current build, so now I am replacing half my gear with MF gear with half decent stats and face rolling act 1, which will actually give me more drops(which is the perverse incentive I keep mentioning)", "id": "c535s9b", "summary": "blizzard replaced bad incentives that encouraged glass cannon play with bad incentives that encourage regearing to MF and facerolling act1. I tried to play the way they expected us to, but after being spurned by this patch, I'm just going to go by the path of least resistance \n edit: I really think that the people that are happy about this patch are the people that never made act 3, mostly didn't even progress into act 2. Now act1 seems awesome and they're just HOLY SHIT AWESOME PATCH. Eventually they will progress to acts 2/3/4 and realize that the increase in drop rates does not justify the increase in kill duration and risk/reward."}, {"author": "creepy_doll", "content": "I've been working with dev4phone's \"ear trainer\"(the full version) for a while to try and finally actually train my ear after playing for a few years. \n While I managed to get through distinguishing the larger intervals when there's a common root, my progress has slowed down massively as soon as the root is different. With some difficulty I've been able to learn to distinguish the larger of m2/M2 melodically and harmonically, but for m3/M3 I cannot for the life of me distinguish them when played harmonically(descending/ascending is better, I can get it right  most  of the time). \n I've been taking out the app any time I have a break whether that's on my morning train ride, on the toilet,  waiting for a friend, whatever. Every time I feel like I might have made progress, I will end up scoring something like 5/15 realizing that all I had was a lucky streak. For a while I was fairly consistently doing better with 70%ish scores and lately I'm very  frequently going under 50% so I think I've gone and made some incorrect mental association. I feel that the method I'm using may be confusing my brain and that especially  when  there's a long distance between the roots of the intervals that I have no idea what I'm doing. \n I believe it's possible for me to beat my ears into submission and eventually learn relative pitch. Robert Fripp could go from being tone deaf to where he is now, so with effort it's possible. But I feel like I'm bashing my head against a wall and have stopped making progress at what should be a very basic level. \n Are there alternative approaches that might work better? I feel like I might do better if I could ease into the different roots by identifying the larger interval with initially smaller gaps between the roots. Or perhaps if there was an app that identified patterns in when I get it wrong. \n I don't mind paying significantly more(like a couple hundred $) if there's a solid product out there. I'd be curious if people can point out methods that work too, or research into teaching methods. I never expected the process to be easy, but I did not expect to be stuck at such a basic step for over a week with absolutely no progress :/ \n Sorry about the long post. Any advice would be appreciated.", "id": "t3_31ya6t", "summary": "I can't successfully distinguish the larger interval between m3/M3 when they're played with different roots. Progress on this is pretty much non-existent. The app I'm using(ear trainer) plays two intervals and asks which is larger without any kind of reinforcement learning methods, just right/wrong. Can I improve this learning method?"}]}
+{"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Its hard for me to have sympathy for incompetent parents like this.", "output": "This is just the universe saying that carless mother's shouldnt be allowed to raise children. Any mother who just lets their child's stroller roll onto the tracks in a subway station because she's not competent enough to notice when she's around danger completely deserves this. And if her baby hadnt gotten run over by a train it was really only a matter of time until it got run over by a bus/car, or rolled off a cliff for that matter. Incompetent parents piss me off beyond reason."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4232", "history": [{"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "I've been playing guitar/music for about 12 or 13 years and I am a strong advocate on hating pop \"music\".  There are many reasons why I hate it, and I won't go into detail now, but it is mainly because of the authenticity of the music.  Pop music is too synthetic for me.  Actual music with instruments is just real.  It's the way music was supposed to be played.  Not through a macbook. \n But to answer your question I do find myself from time to time getting a pop song stuck in my head or mildly moving my head to a pop song (subconsciously).  But for some reason I could never bring myself to sit there and enjoy it for what it is.  It's mostly just jumbled up crap that was put into a template and spit out by a record company.  The reason it sounds so good to some people is because it all sounds the same.  Whether you know it or not, most pop songs have the same chord progressions, key changes, and over all feel of the song.  The majority, however (Non-musicians/regular-ass people), would never notice in 100 years.  But musicians like myself notice immediately.  That is why people who play instruments tend to gravitate towards \"real music\" instead of the fake, synthetic shit.", "id": "c6owehn", "summary": "I refer to pop music as music for people with short attention spans."}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "I agree. But I, myself, have never and would never hit a woman, unless to use reasonable force in a self-defense situation. I'm just saying that men don't  have  to lay the first hand on women, but some do, and the very existence of the men who do causes the \"ones screaming that reputation\" to react that way in the first place. Is giving all men this reputation of being facilitators of \"rape culture\" and domestic abuse a reasonable and equal response to a minority of men who actually commit these acts? Of course not! And that's where the line has been exceedingly crossed by women. \n It reminds me of that recent series of commercials commissioned by the NFL that featured football stars urging men to quit making excuses about domestic violence and abuse. But last time I checked, Ray Rice was the one who committed domestic violence, NOT ALL MEN WATCHING THE COMMERCIALS!!! So why the hell did the NFL's marketing division feel the need to lay this unnecessary guilt trip on their male demographic? It probably had something to do with the outcry of women who confused the Ray Rice incident with the lives of every single male watching a football game! It's just not fair for all men to be so blindly generalized by a few publicly powerful women who felt victimized in their pasts.", "id": "com0s5b", "summary": "In my opinion,  some  men are guilty of laying the first hand on a woman, and it is their fault for doing so. But the public outcry is an unreasonable and unnecessary response to a problem that is not as serious as the majority of people are led to believe."}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "I live in the most densely populated state of NJ (south) and it fucking sucks. Everywhere you go there is just shitty new cookie cutter houses, shitty new strip malls, shitty businesses, shitty traffic, shitty highways, a shitty surplus of shitty people who have shitty attitudes, shitty scenery, shitty pollution, shitty weather, shitty landscapes, shitty everything in every shitty direction in 100 miles. Anywhere you stand just pick a direction and walk a hundred miles and you will see nothing but what I just listed above (except for the pine barrens [which aren't that impressive]). Whenever I go out into the \"country\" of Pennsylvania my grandfather makes fun of me because I absolutely cherish the beautiful scenery of farmland and openness because its something I NEVER get to see in NJ (unless you live in Tabernacle or Chatsworth, which still doesn't even compare to the beauty of PA, VA, WV, NY or ny other state around NJ). Long story short; Cherish the fact that you live in such a beautiful setting like Wyoming where there is nobody around and no shitty business strip mall/highway systems everywhere to ruin the scenery. If you've ever lived in the suburbs of Philly in NJ you'd understand.", "id": "cf1mst1", "summary": "I live in the most densely populated state [NJ] and I am so jealous"}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "Just read the whole thing, truly heart-breaking, but sadly I can't say I'm surprised. \n This reminds me of my high school, except for one thing, it was predominantly white. There was, however, an utter similarity - virtually all of the black students became failures. Before continuing, please realize that this situation has nothing to do with economic status. Many of the black students I'm writing about came from financially comfortable households, and admittedly some did not. But the school had plenty of scholarship programs available for minorities, so going to college and continuing their education was not a financial dilemma, it was obviously social. \n I grew up in a fairly affluent community, about a third of the town was rich out of their minds, a third lived comfortably, and the last third lived on the \"other side of the tracks\". About 90% of the students were white, jewish, asian, indian, and the remaining 10% were black. I never felt unsafe when going to school, walking the hallways, or being in the bathroom alone, so as you can imagine it was a pretty nice place to get an education. So nice in fact that it is considered one of the top school systems in my area. \n So considering there were about 300 students per grade (1200 total), and 10% of them were black, you would think these 120 black students would take great advantage of the opportunities they were given. HELL NO! The majority of these black students led the same exact lifestyle as described in the original post. Some of them, without overwhelming pressure from the other black students, actually decided to take advantage of their situation and study hard, get into a good college, break the stereotype, and make something of themselves. \n But for the majority of them: the teachers were afraid to discipline them, they were always in the main office having gotten in trouble or kicked out of class, they sold drugs in school, they fought, screamed at the top of their lungs, and walked slower than molasses in the hallways, were always late to class, obnoxiously blared rap music through their ear buds during class, stole from other students, failed classes, repeated grades, didn't give one ounce of admiration for learning or going to college, accused every single authority figure (even black teachers/staff members) of being racist, etc, etc. I can confidently say that, now, most of these former black high school students are either selling drugs, living in their mom's basement, working at fast food restaurants, or in jail. \n What happened to all the white, asian, hispanic, indian, jewish, etc, students? The vast majority of  those  students graduated high school and moved on to college. \"How could this be,\" you ask? \"Certainly all of the teachers in this high school were racist because they disciplined black students as well as white students when they misbehaved!,\" is what a half-minded liberal would have to say about my high school. Well I'll tell you how this could possibly be. For the most part, the black students didn't really have any fathers to kick them in the ass when they were acting like total imbeciles. They were completely undisciplined at home, which led them to be legitimately belligerent and militant when they walked through the front doors. Every single police officer at my school knew who every single black person was by name. Can't really say that about the white students.", "id": "cji8uj4", "summary": "Black high school students in a fairly affluent community with extensive opportunities reinforce stereotypes instead of climbing the social ladder."}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "It seems like every relationship that surrounds me these days involves an extremely dishonest partner. It can never end in a civil manner, all these relationships seem to end with the girl or guy fucking their partners best friend and then lying about it. Why cant people just be honest and caring towards their partners?", "id": "c8jfe1z", "summary": "im tired of dishonest bitches and assholes who destroy lives through relationships."}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "I didn't necessarily LOVE the finale (holding my hands over my head screaming \"NOOOO\" as he was being hung), but the writers of homeland never fail to amaze me. I am about 20/80 on the possibility of brody's alive vs. brody actually died. It aggravates me when people who have been fans for so long are completely throwing the whole show in the garbage because one of the main characters died (in my opinion 'Homeland' is more about Carrie anyway). \n I agree with the people commenting on this page that Brody's story arc was drawing too an end. The more and more ridiculous situations he got in and out of, the less appreciation I had for the writers and their intelligence. If he really IS dead, then, in my opinion, they took him out in great fashion. Think about it, it's way better than him dying in that IED explosion or getting shot telling Iranian forces he's Al Qaeda. He had come to peace, and realized the things he had done that got him there in the first place. He was a killer for good and evil, and he died in front of the people who he had once embraced (after his brainwashing). \n I think it is important to note that even since he was brainwashed, embraced Nazir and his son, tried to kill high ranking officials with a suicide vest, killed the VP, was framed for the Langley bombing, and became a heroin addict in the world's tallest and most intriguing slum in the world, he died an American, if not an American Hero. His speech in the promo for the finale (eventually you find out he's saying it to Carrie) says it all. BRODY: \"This is about Redemption!\" It brought me the chills. And throughout the past three seasons of twisting and turning (I also read the book 'Homeland: Carrie's Run' [highly recommend for any Homeland fan]) I am definitely not giving up on them now.", "id": "ce3xbr9", "summary": "Even though we all loved Brody, his story of redemption is something to relish. And I have way too much respect for the writers and actors/characters that have had my mind racing throughout the past three seasons to give up on them now. True Homeland fans will move on!"}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "The constant parade of religion in this country is sickening. Theres always so many people attempting to solidify whose made up ruler of the heavens is better than anyone elses. In an era of science and scientific discovery you should atleast expect everyone to realize that literally NO religious text is backed by science. And many of these texts, when taken into wrong hands, discourage the advancement of science because ordinary, sometimes intelligent, people would rather believe/live by a collection of fairy tales written by random guys who lived in the iron age than take into account that our society could advance much faster if those texts weren't interpreted so literally. In this day and age do people really believe that a completely ordinary guy that was born, grew up, and got a job as a priest, rabbi, shaman, etc, is really in more touch with some unexistent \"higher power\" than the \"believers\". All that matters is he chose to become a priest after he got his ass kicked in high school, sprayed some \"holy water\" on himself, said a few prayers, and molested a couple of alter boys instead of taking the life route any ordinary american could have taken. And for some reason these ordinary people are completely dooped from birth about a guy in the clouds and eternal salvation as long as you follow these specific ten rules and go sit in a box every sunday with that kids ass you kicked in high school while you tell him all the mean things you did to your coworkers over the week. People are seriously buying into this shit everyday in america. I would consider myself more conservative than liberal, but one thing that really just makes the republican party come off as insane is their overwhelming belief in \"god\" and their will to push it on everybody who learned a long time ago that religious people are nuts. Sorry, but i love rambling about how stupid religion is.", "id": "c8lvbkp", "summary": "i am fed up with religious oppression in america."}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "HELLLLL NOOOO!!! This is abysmal advice! My one friend invited this kid over my house one day who I'd never met. Within an hour of meeting him he was basically doing exactly what this post is titled. He was acting way too buddy-buddy and being like, \"Hey man what's your last name...I'm adding you on Facebook. Also can I get your number? And your gamer tag? What are you doin' later? We're trying to go back to my house in a little bit and hang out. You wanna come?\" \n These annoying personal questions went on the entire time he was at my house. Then they started to get worse, \"Hey, what are you doin' tomorrow? We should hang out! I have a cool house, you would love it! We should hang out there! You seem like a cool dude! My dad's rich and gives me money so we can go out and buy some weed or something and just chill! So are you down, man? Are you trying to hang out?\" \n The whole time I was trying to dodge these outlandish questions by changing the subject, but as the subjects changed, the only response he would give was more personal questions and information, acting like he was my friend already. All I knew about him so far was that his first name was Mike and that he was annoying as shit (plus all the other probable bull shit information he was giving me). As soon as he and my friend left, my brother and I turned to each other and were like, \"WTF was that kid's deal? He was acting like we were best friends!\"", "id": "chihs03", "summary": "Don't take this advice. People will assume you are clingy, weird, and desperate for friends, which is definitely the WORST way to make new friends."}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "I'm 22 and have been playing for about 11 years now. For a while when i was starting out I was obsessed with learning other people's songs. Then as i evolved I kind of became just as obsessed with writing and listening to my own music. Now I'm at the point where I've learned and written so much material that I've kind of realized that so many songs share the same qualities such as chords/progressions/keys. In a nutshell, I used to look at songs individually, taking way too much into consideration that each song has its own specific characteristics. For instance, if I learn/write a song with the chord progression E G C D, I've basically just learned every song that's written with the same progression, whether it be E G C D, or F# A D E, or A C F G (They're all the same progression just in a different key, use a capo and it'll be easier to notice). Even if the tempo or style is different, it is objectively the same song. In my opinion too many players are way too focused on playing exact notes and accents that they don't take a step back, break it down into a basic format, and look at the fact that they can attain a similar, almost identical result if they realize that they probably already know the song.", "id": "cdwxgb2", "summary": "I think the reason that you don't think you know these \"popular\" tunes is because you don't realize that you probably already know them; and since \"popular\" songs usually contain \"popular\" chord progressions"}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "I need help believing in/understanding ghosts and paranormal activity.  I am 21 years old and I have never experienced anything that could be considered paranormal, mostly because I take the time and scrutinization to \"dubunk\" whatever it was I originally thought was a ghost.  I've always wanted to see something that would make me believe, but throughout the years I've seen nothing that I couldn't explain with basic science. \n My younger brother (19), however, is a hardcore skeptic.  He claims to have seen a cup levitate and move in front of him in the bathroom one night, and I always ridicule him for his insane belief.  I know that he is definitely not the type of person to do any investigating whatsoever and will just automatically assume that it was a ghost.  Unlike me, he is a bit ignorant at times when it comes to situations like this, which leads me to question his skepticism.  Also, keep in mind that he believes in shows like 'ghost hunters' and 'paranormal state', which I believe to be complete bull shit and do nothing but exploit peoples' beliefs in ghosts for personal gain and television entertainment. \n From time to time we get into heated arguments over the topic of ghosts; me being the logical person I am, I choose the side of \"you're crazy and you imagined it\", while he takes the \"it was definitely a ghost\" side.  FYI, we were raised Catholic, but around the time I started high school I started to seriously question my faith and now I consider myself a stone cold atheist who dismisses the existence of ghosts and paranormal entities.  In my opinion, I believe that the belief of ghosts usually stems from a belief in religion.  As an atheist, I can't help but look down upon people who hold religious beliefs because it all seems so absurd to me. \n It took my brother a little longer to come around to the fact that there is no god.  Like I said, he is a bit ignorant which is why my parents had him convinced for so long.  I was in 8th grade when I stopped believing in fairy tales, and my brother was in about 10th or 11th when he finally came around.  I consider myself atheist while I consider him to be agnostic.  I don't believe in anything but what's right in front of my face, while my brother believes in a higher power, spirits, energy, etc.  I put 100% of my trust in science and believe that there has never been concrete evidence other than personal accounts that lead to the existence of ghosts or ghost-like phenomenon.  I recently learned about something called 'confirmation bias', which is a common occurrence in the mind that leads the \"believer\" to disregard any scientific facts about ghosts simply because they WANT to believe.  I don't mean to offend anyone, but this is what I assume is the cause of most ghost beliefs. \n Another thing that people do not understand is that the brain can become disillusioned at any time and make you see and hear things that are not actually there (especially when in a tired or frightened state).  These notions are all backed by science, and in my case of my 21 years on this earth, science has never failed to prove something to me without a simple explanation. \n I also am very aware of the usual stance a person has on believing in ghosts.  Most people who claim to have seen a ghost will take their beliefs to the grave and say things like, \"you may not believe now, but someday you'll see something that will make you believe.\"  I have been going out of my way to search for such things to make me believe, but I honestly can never find anything close to what I think was a ghost.  I always try to keep an open mind, but whenever I think I'm trying to be contacted by a ghost, I'll do a little investigating, and quickly realize that what I thought was a ghost was just something that can be simply explained by science (for example: door slams shut, window in other room is open).  I fully trust myself when thinking that I'm seeing something, such as an apparition, as well because unlike many people including my brother, I won't automatically shrug it off as a ghost.  I don't get scared because I don't believe in ghosts, so I try my hardest to figure out what I saw.  An example of this notion would be something like my eyes playing tricks on me. \n Just like cameras, eyes can easily be tricked by light.  I'll be on the computer or watching tv and be staring at an image too long.  When I look away into the room I am in, there could be a ball of light or what appears to be a human figure on the other side of the room.  I realize that I am probably seeing this because of the light from the screen playing tricks on my eyes, either from staring too long, afterburn, or an easily explainable reflection.  This is just an example.  I could go on for hours about things that many people would consider ghosts, only for me to shrug it off as simple science. \n But regardless of my stance on the existence of ghosts, I do enjoy a good ghost story/movie.  I like being scared and I honestly find way more entertainment in the paranormal than stupid hack movies.  I like the notion that there are some things out there that we don't understand, but I believe there is nothing out there that we will never understand, just because science hasn't taken us there yet.  As I grow older, however, my belief in the paranormal is in a constant exponential decline.", "id": "t3_xtui7", "summary": "I don't believe in ghosts.  Please tell me some experiences, give insight and opinions.  Try to help me understand.  Also, scientific proof of any kind would be helpful (couldn't find anything on Google)."}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "I don't understand when people say they HATE cats. How could you absolutely hate an animal? I don't get it. I'm not necessarily a dog person, but I don't hate them by any means. Some of the arguments that people make against cats are ridiculous, and obviously the two animals are going to have different instinctual behaviors. \n For example, people say that cats think they are \"God\", and they are assholes who don't want attention. They refer to them as selfish and anti-social. I have owned cats my entire life and have known many dogs. My cats have always been playful and loving. \n I currently have 3 cats and they all have different personalities. One is a little shy and is very loving towards members of the family. One is also a little shy, but tends to socialize with guests occasionally, and is usually very playful. The other is extremely playful and can sometimes be a handful. He is the boy out of the three and when guests come over he immediately hops on their lap and wants to play. He is always up for attention. \n The great thing about all three of them is that they were all adopted from shelters and are completely non-hostile. They fight and play with each other, but have NEVER retaliated against the family or any guests. Their ages currently range from about 3-5 years, but we adopted them about the time they were 6 months - 1 year. \n On the other hand, I have met some cats who have bad personalities. For instance, my friend's old cat was abused, they adopted her. The only person she liked was his mom, and anyone who tried to pet her would be scratched. Real Asshole! But what many dog lovers do not understand is that is not a typical situation. \n I don't want to come off as sounding malicious against dogs, but sometimes I find that they can be much more annoying than cats. Don't get me wrong, I love dogs. I've had many good relationships with dogs. They can be as loving and friendly as cats, in my opinion. \n I always find it annoying when I encounter a completely untrained dog whose owner has no control over him/her. I hate when a dog who sheds finds it necessarily to constantly jump and drool on my lap after constant efforts to push them away. Sometimes it's cute, especially if you have a good relationship with the dog, but if you don't, it can be annoying. In my opinion, cats usually sense when they are not wanted. \n You can however have a much more active relationship with a dog, in the sense of recreation and play. That is a completely valid argument against cats, but still serves no reason to hate them. My cats, however, love to run around and play and I love to throw their toys around and play fetch. Yes, my cats play fetch.", "id": "t3_14frkb", "summary": "What's up with the cat haters? I really can't think of any valid reason why cats are not better than dogs."}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "I'm from the Philadelphia area and I've lived here my entire life.  A friend and I were recently offered a job opportunity in Miami and we're planning to stay down there for at least 6 months.  I am really into music and shows, and I don't know the city at all.  I'd love a place no more than 15 minutes from the beach and a decent bar scene.  I trust Reddit, so my question is where is the best area for a middle class kid from Jersey to live in Miami?", "id": "t3_1c8lsi", "summary": "Where is the best area for a middle class kid from Jersey to live in Miami?"}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "I'm a 5'11\" 145 lb male, and after class I like to stop off at the cafe and get myself a burrito (one of my two meals per day). Today, the girl in front of me in line was easily 250 lbs, and I think she could sense my judgment as we moved through the line. In addition to the entree, my school's meal plan allows you a choice of either fruit (banana, apple, or orange) or two cookies (sugar, chocolate chip, or oatmeal raisin). Without any hesitation, this girl goes straight for the cookies, completely disregarding the fact that the fruit was even an option. I just thought to myself, \"Aaaaand that's why you're fat!\" \n I'm sure this girl went home and got straight on Tumblr to complain about how she can't lose weight, despite the fact that she just ate an entire Chipotle-sized burrito with two fattening cookies to top it off. And I'm sure she'll talk about how thin-privilege is choosing cookies over fruit without the guy behind you in line judging you.", "id": "t3_2xxusw", "summary": "Fat girl reinforces stereotype by choosing two cookies instead of a piece of fruit as a side."}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "I have an interesting theory about Holly's return in the 7th season. This may have gone right over my head at first, but it's not clearly laid out in the show. The very last scene of the 6th season was Jo telling Michael, \"Just let me know if I can do anything for you.\" Michael replies, \"You can bring Holly back to Scranton,\" in which Jo seriously replies, \"I'll see what I can do.\" \n Season 7 Episode 11: Classy Christmas is the episode where the office finds out that Toby has been assigned to jury duty on the Scranton Strangler case, and Holly will be his temporary replacement. Michael then goes on to say, in a talking head scene, that he's written emails, made multiple calls, etc, to try and get Holly back, but in the end he owes it all to the Scranton Strangler. This, in turn, leads the audience to believe that it was solely the Scranton Strangler who was responsible for Holly's transfer. \n My theory is that Jo was actually responsible for Holly's return, and that the Scranton Strangler case was just a catalyst for the transfer. I think in the episode of season 6 called 'Sabre', Jo reveals that she is a close personal friend of Nancy Pelosi, which means that she obviously has strong political ties. What if Jo was responsible for Toby being assigned jury duty to the Scranton Strangler, and in turn forcing Holly to have to transfer to Scranton (given the fact that Jo couldn't just force Toby to transfer or give up his job)? \n Jo obviously has the connections to pull it off, and I feel like that last scene in the 6th season was more significant than just foreshadowing to Holly's return. I feel like it served a deeper purpose, displaying to the audience that Jo's political and economic influence is much stronger than we thought, and that  she  (not the Scranton Strangler) is who Michael owes Holly's return to.", "id": "t3_2rw1ut", "summary": "Jo Bennett was responsible for Holly's return, not the Scranton Strangler. \n Edit: Ok, maybe it's not completely probable or possible, but it's just a theory and a different/interesting way of looking at the situation in the show. I've seen each episode more than 10 times each so I guess I'm just kind of desperate for new ideas, material, and parts of the story I've never really noticed or put any thought into before. But even after seeing it so many times, once in a while I catch something that went over my head the previous 10+ times, which is one reason why the show is so good."}, {"author": "Mac2TheFuture", "content": "Meredith Palmer is the office alcoholic. She presents herself in a way that lets the office and the audience know that she openly admits her \"problems\" without any form of remorse or concern about what people think or assume about her. Even though I like her character (as I do every character since they are all so unique and colorful), and that the show is technically fiction, I feel that sometimes the writers take her personality and confessions a bit too far. \n For example, during one of the conference room one-on-one interviews with the camera/audience, the topic was cheating in relationships. She overtly states, \"I've never cheated on, been cheated on, or been used to cheat with. I always ask everybody in the room, are  you  in a relationship?\" In my opinion, this is not something someone would so calmly converse about at work, especially directly into a camera filming a documentary that will eventually be released to the general public. Also, during the episode 'The Duel', she states (to the camera), \"I always have guys fight over me. Usually it's about which one gets to hold the camera.\" Collectively, there are many examples of her overt willingness to talk about her promiscuity outside of the office environment (and sometimes at work). \n Another very important example is when she willingly admits to the office that she has genital herpes and doesn't understand why anybody would think it's a big deal. One of the things I love about the show is that even though it is a fictional account of a somewhat dysfunctional office, it usually comes off as feeling very realistic and sits just on the border of taking situations too \"over the top\". But sometimes I feel like Meredith's confessions and antics are the result of the writers trying too hard to portray her character as a conspicuously functioning alcoholic whore. In my opinion, not all the time, but sometimes her appearance on camera breaks the story's realistic flow by saying or doing something completely outlandish and overtly inappropriate. Does anybody else have similar thoughts?", "id": "t3_26sx74", "summary": "Is Meredith Palmer's character a little too over the top?"}]}
+{"author": "GrokMonkey", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post my friends are pussies and think I'm a serial killer.", "output": "My favorite books as a young child. \n Sadly, I lost my books (had all three!) when moving at the age of seven. Years later, in high school, the topic of favorite childhood books came up; I went on a bit on how amazing the books were, how it made me appreciate the stories of other cultures, and oral tradition. I especially stressed how much I loved the pictures. \n Well, a week later, I found .pdfs of the three books, and brought them to school to show them. The macabre art terrified them."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post They fucked up  big time  and there's not really any way to defend it. \n Edit: Typo", "output": "You misunderstand my point. I wasn't saying it's not due process as far as broad protocol is concerned (Hear allegation, look for evidence, act accordingly to take subject into custody). This is clearly not true. But their actions in this case violate due process. This is partially because of the ineptitude/impatience of investigators and partially because of the ineptitude of some or all of the SWAT team involved. \n They should have searched his trash more than once. \n They should have watched him and done more than rudimentary detective work. \n The fact that the corgi was hit means they were probably using a completely inappropriate loadout or acted inappropriately to eliminate the pit bull. \n They should have known he had a kid. \n This was a massive failure. This was not due process. They made gross assumptions almost every step of the way. \n It doesn't matter that he was convicted before. That's not due process. Due process is \"innocent until proven guilty\". He was proven guilty of possession (and circumstantially, at that)."}], "user_id": "longlamp_2846", "history": [{"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "Ah, but if you divvy the rainwater up into many smaller increments for use later, it wouldn't get nearly the same penetration. There would be less saturated soil, so it probably wouldn't touch other water sources or bodies, and you'd likely be greatly increasing how much would be evaporated just because of different humidity, wind, and/or barometric pressure. \n If too many households collected too much water, that's a meaningful difference in the end. \n Of course, this would also all require certain soils, plants, geography, and climate to be necessary. Dallas suburbs? The law would be pretty reasonable. San Antonio? The city prefers you use rainwater for garden and lawn care.", "id": "c9d6d66", "summary": "Depending on the area, it could be important in the end. Sometimes water doesn't get as far as you'd think."}, {"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "But nobody's pretending those are genders. \n >/r/TumblrInAction \n Ha! Yeah, there's always something to see coming in out of tumblr. It can be a real shitshow. \n Still, I haven't seen anyone say that  those  are genders. More...I don't even know if there's a term for it exactly, but I know you know what I mean. They build it up around themselves to feel like they have an identity. It's a placeholder for themselves, yeah? It's all quite silly. \"I am psychologically part dragon\"; \"my current lack of romantic interest in people is somehow a major, major part of my existence\" (Though I still am just  baffled  by 'demi-platonic') \n Ninja edit:  Personas!  That's the word! It's a persona! The moment I hit 'save', it came to me. It's like a costume they put on; it's a supplemental piece of identity. If it was done with self-awareness the whole subculture around it would be the mother of all performance art pieces. \n Anyways, right, genders. First off, I should note that I'm not well read on the topic. I'm ultimately a layman and just sort of broadly aware of the book and the sort of stuff it covered. \n I'm having a real bitch of a time finding anything from the book itself, but  here's a brief preview . The book's called  Die Transvestiten , or 'The Transvestites'. I'll just copy/paste what wikipedia says about it for lack of a better explanation. \n >###Hirschfeld developed a system which identified numerous actual or hypothetical types of sexual intermediary between heterosexual male and female to represent the potential diversity of human sexuality, and is credited with identifying a group of people that today are referred to as transsexual or transgender as separate from the categories of homosexuality, he referred to these people as 'transvestiten' (transvestites). \n It hinges on a couple of things, from what I can see: do you recognize transgender as a third gender and/or a sort of mid-gender spectrum, and if so, can it be mapped out into more mid-step genders? Also, what of intersex people? \n It seems like there's a lot more work needed to properly explore the subject and break it down, but with so much armchair pop-psychology about it on Tumblr it'll probably be a loooong time until there's anything considered definitive.", "id": "cnyonnt", "summary": "The big-huge bolded bit mostly covers it for genders. Sorry for the long-ass post!"}, {"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "Infinitely  better than current housing insulation. \n My physics teacher had a couple of chunks of it from old space shuttle tiles (lucky bastard apparently has some of the coolest friends ever) and heated one to glowing red hot with a blowtorch. He was holding it with large calipers and welding gloves, and asked who wanted to hold it. I, being the only student who had heard of aerogels before, grabbed it without hesitation. All my classmates freaked out for a bit, and we shared a good laugh.", "id": "c1inheg", "summary": "Aerogels (and my old physics teacher) are quite cool."}, {"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "We (or at least I do not) refer to him or his ideas as nuts because we/I don't agree with them. I call them nuts because he insists upon them despite the total lack of factual basis and a clear motive in informing his arguments. \n Croco-duck, banana design (fun fact: typically, bananas aren't the same shape, don't taste nearly as good, and are packed with large, hard seeds; the only reason they are what they are is by man's cultivation using artificial selection), the hypocrisy of when sodomy is okay (classically the answer is 'never', and any sort of non-vaginal sex is sodomy; all forms of sodomy were once all equitable), and a general attitude of completely shrugging off anything that weakens his own arguments regardless of validity.", "id": "c47jtov", "summary": "He's an irrational, spiteful man who says baseless things on an international level.  That's  why he's nuts."}, {"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "On reddit the content and the userbase are inexorably linked, so if one goes to shit the other follows closely. \n If the shit redditors didn't post anything, you wouldn't even know they were there. But you do know they were there, and remark upon it strongly. It's a point of contention for you. As you've painted it, you have zero reason to be here (which of course isn't to say you  shouldn't  be here; you can go where you please). \n That analogy doesn't carry very far unless only the submissions or only the comments are mostly shit. It's not just some bad patrons sharing a restaurant space with you if it's both. It's the restaurant having gone totally to shit under new management or rebranding or some sort of dramatic change in quality or tone, and then you eat bad food in a bad place with bad people. If someone who liked the way the old restaurant was run and hated almost everything about the new restaurant, but went to it regularly none the less, you'd surely question that as well, right?", "id": "c6p4boe", "summary": "But why are you sticking around for shit ice cream? \n ^(Edit: I understand this is all probably annoying as hell; It's fine if you just drop this thread and go about your life.)"}, {"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "I dare you to go play OoT now. If you can earnestly tell me that the controls in that game is less than trying I will eat my hat. It's still a hallmark of story and design, but it almost feels like you fight the controls most of the time. If  playing  the game isn't fun, and is, in fact, fairly annoying, is the game still worth playing?", "id": "c14xlbt", "summary": "pooping all  over  parties>"}, {"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "What really bothered me was that pretty much nothing made sense about the kingdom. It's like  everything  got put on hold for 10 or so years, as everyone waited for coronation day, and then for a few hours more as the quest to retrieve Elsa. What's-his-face and the Moose grew up with the trolls, and that's about it for things happening in a decade. \n Okay, maybe that's a degree unfair. We can probably assume there was some sort of trusted and reasonably capable regent, but if they ever existed they seemingly evaporated the day of the ceremony. Assuming the king and queen didn't die when they did, who was even in charge while they were gone? And why didn't this person do  anything  about any of the crisis at the heart of the movie? \n I was never able to reassert my suspension of disbelief about the small details. I couldn't shake the feeling that if it wasn't immediately central to the plot, it may as well have been a crude backdrop. \n In Arendelle, everybody is standing around concerned. Hours later, everybody is still standing around concerned; seemingly the entire native populace is  completely  static aside from a shopkeeper, and only because that shopkeeper needs to talk to a central character. \n Contrast this with, say, Beauty and the Beast, where every bit of the Belle's village  clearly has it's own sort of vitality. Same with Aladdin, and The Lion King, and even the older Disney classics; the world moves on outside of the plot. Things very clearly grow and change outside of the direct purview of the central characters. \n At least the animation was  amazing , especially at the climax. \n =", "id": "chk63ms", "summary": "Underlying details being absent ruined the movie for me; sorry for the length, I guess I had more to say about this than I thought."}, {"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "4e gets a bad rap, but most of the complaints people have of it are because of presentation more than anything else. \n An example--the 3.X skill system and 4e's more generalized skill system give people the illusion of more and less choices, respectively, with people saying stuff like 4e's not made with roleplaying in mind when it's just a relatively simplified skill system which should have zero effect on roleplaying if you're actually interested in it as a storytelling device. \n Another big complaint people have is about the central reliance (some would say overreliance) on using miniatures when compared to 3.X, which is sort of silly as I've only once in my life seen anyone play 3.X without  miniatures/tokens of some sort, even if they're just corners of paper and a crude grid. Sure, you  can  play it without it, but the game usually really suffers. \n And then there's powers. 4e's powers are largely the same as many special abilities, maneuvers, and what have you from 3.X, but presented in a sort of standardized block that makes them much more readable by stripping them of a lot of context. Similar to skills, people think of them differently more than they are actually different than what you would find in 3.X. It's just the presentation gives a different \"game-feel\", to borrow a term used a lot in discussing video game design. How it's presented, in terms of only the explicit mechanisms of how you use it, paint it as an entirely different thing, when they're ultimately the same thing recontextualized. \n Complaints about the re-scaling of things like vital statistics and what they mean in real terms are usually fair, though every edition's different when it comes to that. I'd say that's a matter of preference. \n God, this is longer than I thought it would be.", "id": "c7ac2dc", "summary": "It's just a matter of preference, and people get in a tizzy over almost nothing when it comes to 4e. \n Oh, and 5e, DND Next, is in a fairly consistent state of flux right now, but from what I've seen it's doing some cool things, and looks like it'll be a fun mix of old-school ideas with a good bit of new stuff thrown in. Haven't been able to play it yet, unfortunately."}, {"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "It's because we have military bases fucking everywhere. All over the U.S., all over the world. These bases require a lot of money and time. Staffing, equipment, utilities, and another shit-ton of money ensuring they're all networked together well and in such a fashion as to operate efficiently and effectively. \n The purpose for such a thing probably isn't apparent at first glance, and most people would see it as a bit unnecessary. It's actually fairly important: the U.S., being as isolated as it is from the rest of the world, greatly benefits from remaining culturally and militaristically relevant world wide. Keeping those bases in many other countries (and keeping them in ship-shape) is by far the best way to do this. It asserts us as the global power and allows us to remain an important figure. Also, there's certainly the aspect of military preparedness. \n It's the same reason we have fleets moving about the world's oceans.", "id": "c1inf88", "summary": "It's for base and fleet upkeep and continuing modernization; showing off for allies and putting fear in our enemies. \n Edit: Also, because most of those deciding the budget see aerosciences as no longer relevant or important. I disagree greatly, but no one can deny the waning interest."}, {"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "As a soldier, I use the Beggar's Bazooka, the Buff Banner, and the Escape Plan. It can be tricky, though: with the Beggar's Bazooka, you can't resupply from dispensers, so managing your ammo/firerate and position are very important. Don't over-extend yourself and make a point of knowing where the closest ammo pickup is. \n I find it's easy to build Rage with the Beggar's Bazooka, especially if you have the high ground, and the Buff Banner's extremely useful for boosting your team's damage output. It will even give sentries mini-crit boost, as long as the Engie who made it is within range. It's worth noting that mini-crit damage ignores damage dropoff. \nKeep tanks in mind. Buff Banner against a Tank, with most of the team getting the bonus, can be amazing. It's worth saving from time to time, but if you have doubts just pop it. \n The Escape Plan is--well, an escape plan. I've also used it to chase down scouts before when I was out of ammo, but this can obviously be incredibly risky. \n I know that the Righteous Bison can be of incredible use in MvM, but I've never used it myself. \n I don't think I've actually played more than a round as Pyro in MvM, but just know that when things go down to the wire airblast is incredibly useful. And if you can position yourself to reset the bomb, that can buy a lot of time for your team.", "id": "c6m2dfc", "summary": "Beggar's Bazooka with max reload speed and damage + Buff Banner = Everything dies.* \n *as long as you don't get caught out in the open or without ammo. Don't get cornered."}, {"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "Having a guy go super saiyan with rage and yelling fuck sort of means the exact opposite of what you're saying. \n Also, you yourself said \"...it's the name. Why change something that's already good?\"; it certainly sounded like you were under the impression that it's the same thing as DBZ.  EDIT : You also complained about the name [here]( when the Japanese title is just \"Dragon Ball Kai\". Honestly, I don't think you can blame a guy for getting the impression that you didn't know the difference. \n And here's the kicker:  I don't actually give a shit if you make a rage comic about it . I'm commenting on the comic you made in the comments section. I'm not sure why this is something that would lead you to call me a douche.", "id": "c1mqpv2", "summary": "re-read this thread and stop taking everything personally."}, {"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "I checked, and it isn't part of the military  per se ; it's a sometimes affiliated 'uniformed service', and the purpose of the ranks seems to have been to eliminate some weird logistical problems that arose in the civil war and WWI. \n The President technically has the authority to merge them with an armed service in an emergency, and did so in WWII (and possibly WWI as well; the page is a little fuzzy on whether they served on their own volition or via executive order). \n Pretty dry, but interesting to skim.", "id": "chac818", "summary": "Seems to depend on if there's a world war going on or not."}, {"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "Now that's just silly. \n I'm saying you're probably not a graphic designer because you only told me what program you used. That's largely irrelevant to the issue. What's important is what settings you used. If you tell me all the settings you used and variations you've tried and provide the file for each, than yes, I'd buy that your a graphic designer and would have some reason to believe what you told me.", "id": "c1sf4fm", "summary": "Use something resembling the scientific method (ie, verifiable) or I have no reason to believe your claims."}, {"author": "GrokMonkey", "content": "Well, are you building a character as a character, or as a vector for the right numbers in the right places? \n If there's roleplaying at all in your game, you need some good justification as to how you went from not knowing something to being able to effectively use it while getting stabbed and generally thrown about, on top of being able to explain other ranger-ness about the character.", "id": "c6dlk16", "summary": "If it's all combat with little to no justification, multiclass, because hey why not. If there's an emphasis on RP, you'll need to have some reasonable lead in to multiclass."}]}
+{"author": "MikeDuck1", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Slept Drove about 2 hours across the State of Illinois with no recollection at all", "output": "Girlfriend came to visit me at college 4 hours away on the Amtrak for the weekend.  My roomate had the only car between us, so I was going to use his car to drive her back Sunday.  Sunday comes, and my roomate still isn't back at college yet.  My GF is freaking out, as she has class the next day, and I have to wake up for class. \n Eventually he gets back at like 11pm.  Keep in mind, I've already been up for a whole day.  Drive the 4 hours across the state, and drop her off at her dorm.  I look at the clock and it's like 3:55am.  I have class at 8am, 4 hours away. \n Leaving her dorm, I get pulled over by a police officer for failing to stop at a stop sign.  I tell her the story, and she lets me off.  I get about 1 hour in, still pitch black, and I'm tired.  Eyes start nodding off.  I stop the car.  Piss.  Do a few jumping jacks in the below zero degree weather.  Get back in. \n I'm good for 10 minutes, then it happens again.  I know my body is physically shutting down.  Against better judgement, I try to fight through it.  I catch myself waking up violently as my head drops in a spasm.  I tell myself \"I got this\" and try to phyche myself back up.  I try to drive faster hoping the fear for getting a ticket will keep my mind alert. \n Then next thing I know, it's like noon and I'm lying in my bed in my Dorm room."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4503", "history": [{"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "I met my girlfriend at a party back when I was in my \"Alcoholic Stage\".  Anyways, I was hammered and asked her to go on the roof with me because there was an awesome Fireworks show about to start. \n It was summer, but it wasn't even close to the 4th of July, but in my drunken state, I always had these crazy, random ideas. \n Anyways to get on the roof, you had to climb a 3-4ft chain link fence, then shimmy on over to the edge of the roof, where you'd have to do a shoulder raise (imagine getting out of a pool w/o using the ladder) to get on the roof. \n She went first and I guided her up there.  I went second, and I still vividly remembering being WAYYY to drunk to be able to pull this off.  I managed to get on the fence, then felt myself begin to fall.  By some act of God, I just reached out and managed to grab the gutter.  Eventually got on the roof. \n We got on the roof, and just kinda hung out and talked, and got to know each other for about 15-20 minutes.  Fireworks show never started, and I told her \"I'm not going to help you get down unless you kissed me\" \n Ended up making out for awhile, hanging out everyday since then, and we're going to get married next year.", "id": "cl8suek", "summary": "Trap a girl on a roof and demand something sexual"}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "I used to Manage a Health Club directly overseeing about 10-20 employees at a time.  The HARDEST part of my day was time management. \n When you're the employee you don't think much of asking your boss for a second of his time to handle an issue, but when all 20 workers all present 1-2 five minute problems a day, that could easily be 3-4 hours right there. \n Something that might help is the 4 D's of Management: \n \n Do it \n \n Delegate it \n \n Delay it \n \n Dump it \n \n \n You'll realize really quickly that the 'work' piles up much more quickly that you can complete it. \n Other general tips I'll give you from my experience: \n \n ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS be the Boss, not the co-worker.  A lot of managers try to be the \"Cool Boss\", i don't want to say it's impossible, but it's really, really hard to pull off.  Don't gossip with one of your favorite employees, don't go 'out' with your employees outside of work, don't fuck anyone.   \n \n Trust me, you want all of your interactions at work to be professional.  Be polite, be friendly, but keep it professional.  You'll have an employee that sucks that you want to fire who will bring up ANYTHING and EVERYTHING 'unprofessional' when you try to fire them. \n People making Minimum wage/Entry Level salary don't give a fuck about references or not burning bridges.  If they're going down, they're going to air out your laundry to your supervisor. \n Trust me, no gossip, no relationships outside of work. \n \n Always train first.  Sometimes you get blasted with problems and it might seem easier to just roll up your sleeves and help out.  But think about it, 2 workers are always more efficient that one, 3 more than 2, and so on.  You'll have 3 trainees standing there doing nothing and a problem will occur.  Don't push their training back.  Get them up to speed ASAP, so they can help out.  Each minute of productivity you're sacrificing with them will be quadrupled (them working plus you) once training is done.  \n \n \n Don't fuck with people's money.  A lot of jobs have commission incentive.  In my gym, the Sales team, the Personal Trainers, and even the Managers were all responsible for hitting individual sales numbers.  DO NOT PUT OTHER PEOPLES DEALS IN YOUR NAME!  \n \n On paper, yeah, it makes sense, cover your ass (goal) first, then let the sales people get the rest of the deals. \n Don't do it. I know a lot of managers that hire sales people, tell them \"That's just the way it is\" (in reference to them not getting all of their deals). \n This will always backfire.  Sales is so easy to fake.  That guy at the desk.  Is he really making 100 calls a day?  Or is he making like 10-15 and texting?  Those guys going outside prospecting, are they really shaking 250 peoples hands and introducing themselves or just getting lunch? \n People will WANT to work for someone who gives them an honest opportunity to make a ton of money.  If I know you're going to cut my deals, why would I want to hustle? \n \n You MUST be a PERFECT Employee.  You gotta be there ON TIME everyday, but your ass, and adhere to the dress code.  This isn't the time or place to let your hair grow or start rocking a \"Playoff Beard\".  If you're lax on dress code, people will use that to slack on every other aspect of the job.", "id": "chm2rpa", "summary": "Being a \"Cool Boss\" is impossible.  You're getting paid slightly more to run the show, so run it.  Keep work and social separate, bust your ass, be ethical, and don't stick your dick in anything."}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "I used to deliver sandwiches for Jimmy Johns.  My boss wasn't from the area, and was a complete moron, so he just kind of gave a 20-30 minute mental window in terms of when he expected us back for each delivery. \n Obviously, during rush hours, we'd want to get back A.S.A.P. to re-supply and make some more money, but towards the end of a shift (2PM-4PM) we would have to do work in the store (slicing meat, cleaning bathrooms, etc.) for minimum wage. \n So, during those hours, it benefitted us to milk the deliveries as much as we could.  This one day I got 3 orders, all within 5 minutes of the store, all in the same neighborhood. I knew my boss wouldn't expect me back for an hour, so what did I do?  Went to my girlfriends house and had sex for about 45 minutes. \n After awhile, I got really good at turning 1 cash order into 3 orders while in the store, just so they wouldn't expcet me back for awhile, then using the hour to just bang my girlfriend.", "id": "cbt4ssu", "summary": "Instead of having to clean toilets at work for the last hour of my shift, I would get paid to have sex with my girlfriend, all the time."}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "The key is to not spin it, but to quickly jab the handle directly backwards from the side.  Each jab you'll move the coin ever so slightly in a straight line towards the center, which is the largest area of each subsequent landing area.  Whenever you need to change direction, rotate the handle and once again tap it straight back. \n The only way you'll ever lose is if your food comes out quick and you don't want to waste another few minutes playing, and/or your girlfriend/buddies are embarrassed at the levels you're going through to save 89 cents. \n Most Taco Bell employees don't give a shit either, so if you win just say, \"YES I just won a  Insert $5 Item !!\"  Works more often than you think.", "id": "cixgn9s", "summary": "Don't spin, just slowly nudge the coin all the way to the bottom.  Takes a few minutes, but it's worth it."}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "I was dating a girl for 3.5 years and went out to the local bar to watch the football game with my \"Best Friend\". \n My friend gets hammered and I (I don't drink) just watch the game and get some food.  We ran into some old friends from H.S. and they invite these two girls who they were friends with.  One of the girls had a thing for me in H.S., but it's never amounted to anything. \n Anyways, I'm stuck at this place ALL night because my buddy just wanted to keep drinking.  Eventually the kids we ran into start taking off, and this girl's friend takes off.  At this point, it's 2am, bar's closed. \n It's me, my best friend, and this girl outside of the bar.  My buddy, still in his work clothes was going to walk home, I rode my motorcycle up there, and this girl came with her friend, who already left. \n My buddy and I live next door to one another, and live about .5 miles away, so he was fine walking.  This girl, who's pretty drunk, says she'll walk herself home (2-3 mile walk). \n Obviously, I'm not going to let a girl walk home 3 miles when she's drunk.  I don't live in Somalia, but I'm still not going to risk it, I have a conscious.  My buddy, pulls me over, and in his drunken stupor tries convincing me \"Not to do it\" and that I'm in a relationship.  I try to explain to him that it's a harmless ride home and to let it go. \n I drop her off at home and I go back to my place.  I get there and I have about 6 text messages from him saying how much of a shitty person I was and how he \"Couldn't lie\" if my g/f asked about it. \n I, once again, text him telling him that I'm at home and to let it go. \n Long story short - The next day he goes to her house, tells her I cheated on her (because he used to like her before we started dating), and my girlfriend whoo was also 3+ years sober, goes into full binge mode, fucks her ex-boyfriend, and had to be taken to a psyche ward a few days later by her mother who honestly felt like she was going to kill herself.", "id": "cd6tnav", "summary": "My best friend wanted to fuck my girlfriend, tells her a lie that I cheated on her, she starts drinking again (3+ years sober), fucked her ex in spite of me, and had to be hospitalized because she was suicidal."}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "Driving back from getting Call of Duty Black Ops 2 last year, I got cut off by someone a few blocks from my house.  The regular two lane, 45 mph road was down to one due to construction.  Guy in front of me plows through about 4-5 construction cones and keeps going. \n Obviously, he's hammered.  I call 9-1-1 to report a drunk driver.  She asks for the plates, but I'm having a hard time making them out (not to mention the guys going like 65).  I tell her that it's hard to tell and that he's speeding.  I forget her exact wording, but she basically told me to do what I had to do to get that plate. \n I speed up, at this point going like 70 mph, and right before I read out the letters, I'm out of district.  Call is transferred.  New dispatch.  Read plates to her.  Shes trying to locate the closest officer.  Out of district again. \n At this point the guy is going like 85-95 running reds (45-55 mph roads) but I'm determined to at least hand him off to the police.  Up to this point, I haven't been able to stay on 1 towns dispatch long enough to relay all the necessary information. \n A few towns in we both FLEW past a cop \"Timing\" going about 100.  Didn't even move. \n Eventually I get transferred to county and I'm a good 15-20 miles from home (keep in mind all suburban driving).  County's dispatch transferred me back to whatever town I was in.  Eventually he pulled into a subdivision and parked in a driveway, either he was home or was trying to get me to leave. \n Before someone says it, I wasn't trying to Ruin someone's life, this guy was a legitamite threat to kill someone that night.", "id": "cdq0osw", "summary": "Encountered a drunk driver going 50+ mph over in the suburbs.  Followed him while on the phone with the police for a good half hour.  Every town kept transferring my call to the next district (\"It's not my problem\") and nothing was done."}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "Met this girl my senior year of college, we each lived about 5 hours away from campus in opposite directions, so it wouldn't be a \"practical\" relationship to start. \n But, we both liked each other, so we kinda agreed to just hook up for the semester and see what happened.  About a week or two in, she finds out I'm with this other girl at a party and got pissed.  I told her that we're just hookup buddies, and that she was the one who originally wanted that. \n So now I'm spending the night, because a) It's what I think she wants and b) It's much closer to where I had to practice in the morning.", "id": "cfyje8y", "summary": "She wants to just be hookup buddies, she gets mad when I'm with other girls, so I kinda fake date her/ act more romantic around her (to keep the sex coming) and ultimately she thinks we're getting too attached, so her I was pretending to like her because it's what I thought she wanted all along. \n What could've been 3 months of 3-4 months of daily sex was 3 weeks of sex, followed by 3 months of Game Theory trying to figure out what to do/say to ensure more sex kept coming"}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "I got a giftcard to this Fancy Italian place for Christmas a few years ago.  They had a special every 1st tuesday of the month, buy 1 entree get another free.  Their entree consists of a plate, plus a pre-made doggie bag to tag home.  So technically it's buy 1 get 3 free, with a gift card. \n Of course, nobody wanted to, or was available to go this night, and the restuarant is pretty anal about honoring the BOGO without everyone there (you can't bring 5 people and get the 6th one for free) \n So what do I do?  I go there in nice suit and get a table for 2.  I tell the waiter that I'm meeting a girl here for a blind date.  Got a delicious plate of pasta for free, plus enough to take home and feed me for the rest of the week.  I regret nothing.", "id": "cbd4e6f", "summary": "Faked getting stood up on a 1st date just so I could get a ton of free pasta from a fancy Italian restaurant. \n EDIT at the \"12 hours ago\" mark:  It was Maggiano's.  I understand this isn't technically a \"Fancy Italian Restaurant\", but I was a broke college student whos pasta consumption was pretty much 95% Ramen Noodles at the time. \n Also, I left out most of the sad/awkward parts.  In hindsight it was delicious, but looking back there was a ton of \"Why is that guy eating alone?\" looks going on and sitting in a booth for about 30 minutes pretending to be waiting for someone isn't exactly a pleasant experience either.  Luckily it all worked out though."}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "Back in college my girlfriend came to visit me, via Amtrak, with the assumption that she would take the train back Sunday night. \n Train gets cancelled and I have to drive her 4 hours across the state and back.  She has some huge test Monday and can't wait.  We leave at 10pm, and I'm already exhausted. \n I drop her off at like 3:30am.  I actually got pulled over by a Uni Police at her school for rolling a stop sign.  She saw my Football Warmups from the school 4 hours away, and I tell her I had class at 8.  She says something about how that's true love and lets me slide. \n Driving back, my head starts nodding about 30 minutes in.  I start blasting the radio, and open all the windows in an attempt to stay awake. \n I spasm wakeup after a micro sleep episode and stop the car to get out and do some jumping jacks.  That works for 10 minutes then it's back to the heavy eye lids. \n The next few hours are a hazy blur of nodding off and trying to will myself to stay awake.  One time I woke up once I hit the Rumble strip going about 105mph. \n As an 18 Year Old, there was no way I could approach my coach and tell him I missed practice. \n I get back to school with 10 minutes to spare. \n I should've probably died that night.", "id": "cezr83u", "summary": "Somehow managed to drive 4 hours across the state on zero sleep nodding off the whole time."}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "About a year ago, the Health Club company I worked for bought out another Health Club chain, and I was tasked with going to the new club and turning it around. \n Because the old club was bought out, I was expected to correct all of the problems. \n Our club opened up at 4am and within 2-3 days of taking over, a member took a cell phone picture of my front desk check-in girl sitting in a chair on her phone.  My boss emailed me the picture with the caption \"Fix This.\" \n This was my first big Management gig, so I had to prove to him that I had the balls to fire someone. \n I pull her aside and ask her about it, she says that she was frantically trying to find a ride for her kid to school because her car broke down (She actually walked like 4 miles to work that day at 4am) \n I felt horrible because I was given the \"It's either you or her\" from my boss. \n I put it off for the rest of her shift, kind of hoping the whole situation would blow over. \n She cried, she told me her rent was due and this was her only job, she begged me to give her another shot (Keep in mind I didn't even know her name before I was expected to fire her). \n I ended up firing her, hooked her up with a job at my buddies restaurant paying almost twice as much, and ended up quitting myself a few months later.", "id": "cd5jcvr", "summary": "Firing people sucks.  I wouldn't \"want\" to fire anyone, sometimes it has to be done, but it's an awful feeling."}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "Our Gym has Personal Training, Group Fitness (Typical Classes, Yoga, Cycle, Kick Boxing, etc) and just recently build an Interval Training Studio. \n This Interval Training is in a separate room and is an additional cost to the members.  We have a guy in charge of it (Interval Training Supervisor). \n Since it's an additional fee, and basically the same thing as the Free Group Classes, the # of members in the program is really low.  We only have 2 classes a day. \n This guy's job is Salary, 9-6 and consists solely of hanging out at the gym, working out.  For 2 hours of the day, he is responsible for making sure the classes \"Run Smoothly\".  He doesn't even teach them.  He basically just watches the 3-4 members walk in and the instructor get going.  That's it.", "id": "ci6rq5d", "summary": "Guy is on salary to hang out at the gym all day"}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "Most sports drop the Spread before the Moneyline by at least an hour or two. \n So you'll see: \n Houston: -6 (-110)\nPortland: +6 (-110) \n Before the Moneyline (-260/+220) even drops. \n Here's what it would look like \n Book A: Hou -6\nBook B: Hou -6.5\nBook C: Hou -7 \n Since there's very little in the total pot, the lines tend to dance around in the early stages. \n Clearly, everyone is on Houston, just more magnitude at Book C.  Once the Money Lines drop, I'm going to make, as you said, an educated bet on Houston's Moneyline which corresponds to -6 on the assumption that Houston will become a -7 (or higher) in time thus creating an opportunity to bet the underdog.", "id": "c99ijzn", "summary": "Sportsbooks offer ONLY Spread Lines for a few hours that one can use to analyze the direction and magnitude of line movement before the Money Lines drop"}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "My ex (20/F) and I (25/m) broke up due to Long Distance, and stayed in touch since then. \n About a month ago she contacted me, we started flirting, and calling e/o on the phone daily, and skyped a few times. \n We talked about seeing each other this summer, I mentioned that I got a promotion (enabling me to see her bi-weekly if we so chose) and things were genuinely good. \n Then, seemingly out of nowhere, she basically ignored me for a few days, I sent her an email explaining how I felt, she replied with a: \"I won't know if I want to pursue this again until I see you and hangout in person\" \n I told her I'd fly out that weekend and we'd spend the day together.  She said she'd 'Let me know' and got back to me Thursday night telling me she had the weekend off.  Obviously, I can't take off work with such little notice and next day flights cost an arm and a leg. \n In order to plan a weekend meet-up, we need to text/call, and establish some sort of rapport and plan. \n Maybe I'm trying to rush the whole situation, but if she wants to hang out for a weekend to see if we're still compatible, I don't understand why she's so distant all of a sudden? \n I don't want to come off as an asshole, but I'm in my mid 20s, I have a career, and quite frankly, I don't want to waste any more time on this. \n I'm single, she's single.  We had a great relationship, and we broke up due to logistics.  We both confirmed that we still have feelings for each other and we're okay with meeting up to see if it's worth pursuing a relationship. \n But, I don't want this to be a 3-6 month process.  How can I tactfully expedite this whole process without coming off as a selfish asshole? \n From a female perspective, is she just nervous about the whole situation (A random casual flirty text kinda turned into a 'lets meet up and reconnect' relatively quick) and should I just give her time? \n Is her lack of texting / 1 word responses / and lack of calls a sign that she's just genuinely not interested in the idea...but doesn't want to tell me? \n (Even though it was her idea to initiate conversation again, and say we should do a summer trip together?) \n Help me out here Reddit.", "id": "t3_34fc08", "summary": "My Long distance ex-girlfriend contacted me out of the blue, and suggested we reconnect.  I agreed, and after she somewhat withdrew, I emailed her how I felt.  She confirmed that she still loved me and wanted to wait till we \"Saw each other in person\" to decide.  Since then she's been distant, hasn't called/texted, and is very short with responses. \n The process of booking a cheap flight, hotel, rent a car, and coinciding our work schedules to make this happen will take a few weeks...but she's not communicating well enough at the moment to even get this set up. \n Don't want this to be a 3 month process, any tactful way of telling her that we need to fully commit to planning this NOW or else Im out?"}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "25/M dating this girl 22/F for a few years, just recently having got back together. \n I flew out there 2 weeks ago and everything was GREAT.  In the past 2 weeks she's basically made her IG and Facebook a shrine to me, has written a bunch of love notes and a diary (showed me pics) to which she's going to give me at the airport, and we've been in contact EVERY day...usually talking for 1+ hours. \n Tuesday Night...she was talking about our future and our kids and how much she loves me...then for whatever reason I check my Facebook an hour later and notice she's not there.  Instagram...same thing. \n The next day, she finally called me and said, in tears, that she didn't feel like she was good enough for me, and wanted to \"See/feel what it was like to not have me\" (Or something along those lines, I forget what she said) \n The things she posted on Instagram made it REALLY obvious that we were together, and she had them up for a few weeks.  As much as I'd like to believe the \"Dude, she's hiding you from someone else\"... I just don't see it. \n This girl is extremely emotionally driven, and having literally spent the entire 3 day weekend with her 2 weeks ago, I'm confident that she's not seeing someone else.  (Had her phone  ON  the whole time, not texting anyone, etc...I'm usually pretty good at picking up on those clues) \n Last night we talked on the phone for about a half hour, and she called me before work today (I ignored it) \n I really don't know what to make of this.  I called her out on our initial call and asked if she was seeing someone else or didn't want this anymore, but she adamantly denied it. \n I really do need a \"Best Course of Action\" for the next few days though.  I'm flying out Saturday morning, and I have a big interview later that afternoon that she's my only ride to. \n In that regard, it's in my best interest to kind of pretend like everything's alright, and hopefully sort this out over the weekend, but it's honestly eating me up inside. \n She hasn't told me NOT to come this weekend or to cancel my plans/vacation days at work. \n 2 Options:\n Confront Her Before I Go \n Pros: I can enter the weekend happy/excited again and I can stop worrying \n Cons: If I force her into a corner she might cancel on me, costing me an already paid for vacation and good opportunity. \n Don't Confront Her Prior to Going \n Pros: I'll be able to go on my vacation, and hopefully figure everything out in person, versus texting. \n Cons: This is going to eat me up inside for the next few days, and I could possibly waste a weekend with her if I don't air out my feelings early on.", "id": "t3_37mgv2", "summary": "Long distance GF blocked me on Facebook/IG a few days ago, despite having a vacation planned for this weekend.  She told me, in tears, that she didn't feel 'worthy' of dating me, and did it b/c she was depressed.  She still calls, she still tells me she loves me... it just feels  off . \n I'm torn between confronting her, remaining silent and seeing what happens this weekend, or pouring my heart out (assuming she's being honest) to boost her self-esteem. \n At this point it feels like a game, and I don't even think I'm acting on my own emotions anymore, I find myself doing or saying the things I feel like I  should"}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "Background: \n I'm 25, and just moved back home from across the country.  We met at a Friend's party last Saturday night. \n I just got out of a long term, long distance relationship so I'm relatively inexperienced when it comes to the little nuiances of dating.  Also, just moving across the country, and doing a ton of traveling for work, my life is programmed to be on \"Fast Mode\" \n Here's a timeline of our week: \n Saturday - Met at party, she sleeps over, cuddle/make out all night, I take her to work next day. \n Sunday - She sleeps over again, literally picking her up to come to my place.  Sex all night (best sex ever!) and we shower together the next morning and go to work. \n Monday - Text all day, both busy with work, mentioning how it was weird to NOT see each other. \n Tuesday - We hang out, her place, watch movies all night, was supposed to meet her mom. \n Wed & Thurs - Texting was slower as she was working a second job ~14-16 hour days.  I kind of shot an awkward text out at the conclusion of each day asking if she'd like to hang out briefly.  When she declined Thursday she said we'd hang out Friday. \n Friday - She didn't text all day till I broke the ice around 6pm.  She replied consistently but made no attempt to meet up.  Called her around 8 and she said she had plans with friends and she'd 'keep me posted'.  Ended up getting a text when she got home at the end of the night saying \"Go to the interview next week\" \n (I received an interview for a position in the city I just moved from, and jokingly mentioned that I didn't want to leave her) \n Not sure exactly what to make of this: \n Technically, I've been the one to ask/imply a hang out 3 times now and have been declined.  On the flip side, she's working 6 out of 7 days in a week and having spent 3 nights together in the first 4-5 days of knowing her is still really good. \n Still, I can't get this \"Take the Interview next week\" text out of my head, along with her essentially standing me up last night. \n I don't want to be overbearing or appear too needy, but we definitely don't have the let's schedule something next week type connection. \n I know I'm an attractive guy and early in the week she texted me saying that she was happy to have met me and wouldn't be investing time in us is she didn't see potential (Basically, we both did the \"I like you\" confirmation) \n The only 'red flag' was a text she sent Monday night saying that we were moving fast, yet the next day she invited me to hang out and meet her mom, so I don't think that's an issue. \n Reddit...what do I make of this? \n Unexplained disinterest or do I just need to better plan in advance? \n Maybe she's afraid I'm going to move, take another job, and leave/hurt her? \n Being extremely busy myself, I really don't want another week to pass by without seeing her at least 1 more time and figuring this out.  What's the most tactful way to get her to meet up and discuss \"Where we stand\" without just blindly texting her another vague implied hangout request?", "id": "t3_3ko3vs", "summary": "Met a girl last weekend, spend the 1st half of the week ALL over each other.  She knows I just moved back home and am still sitting on job offers in other cities.  How can I tactfully figure out why she's being distant and reassure her that my intentions are not to leave/hurt her?"}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "I've been seeing this girl for about a week.  We've had sex, she's slept over twice, and she invited me over to meet her place with the intentions of meeting her mom, who wasn't home. \n We are both REALLY busy people and the thought of a relationship is overwhelming on both ends, we both got new jobs, a full time schedule, and are physically moving. \n In a perfect world, the thought of a casual hookup buddy that slowly developed into a relationship (potentially) is perfect for my current schedule. \n Unfortunately, she was dropping MAJOR hints at a relationship/exclusivity early (I only have sex with guys in dating... Texting me \"babe\"... Prolonged 30 min goodbye kisses \n At this point, I feel as if she genuinely has feelings for me and I'd like to continue to see her with this new approach. \n Whats the best way to reengage conversion without dwelling on the awkward backoff? \n For what it's worth, I left my hoodie and my ID at her place so im guaranteed another meet up, but I don't want to lead in with a \" I need my shit back \" text.", "id": "t3_3ksgc9", "summary": "current fling was showing MAJOR signs that she wanted a relationship, so I followed suit.  Now she's overwhelmed, how can I backtrack to the \"casual/friend\" stage and continue seeing her?"}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "27/m. \n General Concepts I've learned \n \n If a girl is attracted to you, you can literally do or say just about anything (within reason, of course, no psycho shit) and you'll do just fine. \n \n Think about the last girl you had a Major Crush on, what happened when she texted you?  Butterflies right?  You did not even notice if her text said \"hey\" or how long she took to reply.  Any attention made you feel good, and more was always better. \n On the flip side, any attention from someone you were NOT interested in was annoying and intrusive. \n After realizing that the 'little things' didn't matter, I was able to... \n \n Focus on becoming more attractive.  If I could do whatever and say whatever and still get the girl, how could I put myself in that desirable position? \n \n If I had to categorize what girls are attracted to, it would be: \n \n Ambition \n Physical Appearance \n Confidence \n \n So instead of spending 2 hours chasing girls or 2 hours on Tinder, why not spend 2 hours at the gym?  Log 2 extra hours of studying.  Invest into yourself. \n Think of it as a video game.  You have to level yourself up to be the guy that girls deem 'attractive' \n This takes time but is well worth the investment, because you'll always be the catch, and you'll always be indifferent in whether or not you and a particular girl hit it off. \n Once you begin the Dating Process: \n Dating Rules \n \n Be direct.  A girl knows whether or not she's into you much like we 'just know' if we like a certain girl.  A lot of guys text/snap/message girls endlessly and when they finally get the courage to ask them out they try to secure an ambiguous hang out hoping it leads to more.  Here's the problem: \n \n She only sees you as a friend = You wasted time and money\nShe in interested = She won't see you as confident as she would've been \n Either way it's your best interest to just be direct.  Here's the line I like to use. \n \"What's your schedule look like these next couple weeks, I'd like to take you out.\" \n I like this because her response says a lot.  If she's feeling you, she will flat out text you her full work schedule.  If she's not she'll send some flaky \"I'm not sure\" and you'll know to move on.  It's direct enough so she knows it's a date without saying \"HEY THIS IS A DATE!\" \n When she replies, YOU pick the day.  I usually say, \"Sunday works best for me.  I'll pick you up, just wear something casual.  What works better 7 or 8?\" \n Using an 'Implied Yes' and focuses her attention on the time rather than the Yes/No. \n After that's confirmed, I just let it be.  No contact.  She's already attracted to you, no need to.  Only potential wasted time if you don't hit it off. \n Plus it establishes you as a busy, successful guy.  In the future you can ALWAYS ramp it up, but if you text non-stop from day 1, any let down is going to have her question things. \n \n On the date.   \n \n Pick a casual place.  I like bowling.  It's fun, pretty cheap, and a good way to ease the potential awkwardness.  Be goofy, have fun, and let the spare/strike high fives turn into hugs and putting your arm around her between frames.  I don't spend a ton of money, and pick something that's quick 1-2 hours. \n Remember, you're not trying to impress her...you're seeing if she qualifies for Date 2 (The more extravagant date) \n \n Go for the kiss/sex if it happens.  If not let it be.   \n \n Analyze the date.  Did you genuinely have a good time?  If so, then ask her out again.  If not, then tell her and move on.  \"Hey, I had fun last night too, but I did not feel a romantic connection, I wish you the best of luck with  insert something going on you learned .\"  Harsh right?  Trust me, getting led on sucks 10x more.  And you're a successful guy now, so allocating time for future dates or putting her on the 'back burner' isn't worth your time.  Plus, the world is smaller than you think, cutting you off will only help your image in her eyes.  In the event that you date in her social circle, she will have respect for your past directness. There's plenty of other girls out there for you. \n I'll schedule the first 2-3 dates, have sex, then let them come to me.  A girl that's into you is going to want you exclusively. \n Every other guy out there is throwing themselves at her, blowing her phone up.  You're going to be different.  You're going to have options.  She'll run to you. \n Texting: \n \n This is logistics to set up a date, nothing more.  A VERY RARE 'check in text' (In the event that I met a girl I wanted to take out, but logistically we couldn't go out), but only in special circumstances. \n Texting cute messages or day check-in's is a \"Girlfriend Perk\" \n No sexting / No Pics.  Period \n \n Calling: \n \n Don't call before the first date.  It's awkward and unnecessary.   \n CALL to set up the second date.   \n No phone conversations until she's your girlfriend.  Once again, that's a girlfriend perk. \n \n My weekly set up: \n \n Work 5 Days Week \n Gym 6 Days Week  \n Friends 1-2 Days Week \n \"Date Night\" 1-2 Days Week \n \n Literally, pick a few nights, and have those be your Date Nights.  Fill the slots, go out, have fun, rinse and repeat.", "id": "t3_4e0gua", "summary": "Don't drive yourself crazy overanyzling \"Maybe Behavior\".  Focus on you, 100% of the time.  Be direct.  Ask girls out. Once you hear 'No' a few times, you realize it's not even demoralizing.  It doesn't even phase you.  It's like a \"Well, that's your loss, not mine\" kinda feeling.  Stop texting.  Stop calling.  Ask Out.  Go Out.  Have Sex.  Repeat.  They want to be your girlfriend."}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "Background: \n Been dating this girl for about 2 years, moved out there this summer, and ended up moving back home and breaking up.  (Reasons: Job didn't pan out, pressure from family, etc.) \n So for about 6 months now, we've been in that \"Gray Area\" as I like to call it.  She dated a rebound guy for about 2-3 months and I was with a few other girls.  We still talked everyday, and still have phone calls that reach 2-3 hours (Works out nice b/c I drive Uber and I can talk to her while I work).  She still sends me sexual pictures and around Thanksgiving she really poured her heart out and asked for me back (I went NC for about 4-5 days). \n Booked her a flight for last week, which she ultimately didn't come on, citing work conflicts and potential parent conflicts. \n I asked her point blank, \"When can I see you?\" in which she really couldn't give a straight answer. \n Signs that make me thing this is still worth pursuing: \n \n We talk everyday and still make each other laugh \n She still tells me she loves me \n She still sends pictures that are sexual \n We have great chemistry and I love her to death \n \n Signs that make me think I'm getting played or we're just friends: \n \n If she REALLY would've wanted to see me, she would've been on that flight. \n She's really hesitant to commit to any type of travel plans.   \n \n On one side, this girl could have strong feelings for me, be willing to commit to me but just says that she's guarded/afraid (What if she gets hurt, what will her parents think) which gives me hope that it's worth pursuing. \n On the flip side, what if I'm just some guy she's comfortable with that's filling an emotional void during this time frame of her having no one. \n From a male perspective, I just want some sort of \"Plan\" & \"Rules\".  If I could at least get validation that our interactions are romantic and not friendship based and she's open to letting herself fall in love again, and she's not going to pursue/date other guys...then I'd be willing to work with her and see this through. \n If not, then I'd like to cut ties and move on. \n Thoughts on how to approach this situation?", "id": "t3_3y8xo1", "summary": "Stuck in that \"Gray Area\" with a long distance ex.  We're not official, but still 'Talking' and experiencing a ton of \"Hot & Cold\".  What's the most tactful way to lay out my expectations of this relationship and getting her to commit to some sort of a plan without coming off as this overbearing, controlling boyfriend? \n I'm sick of these 2-3 hour phone calls that are seemingly going nowhere.  If she's unwilling to see me or allow me to see her, then this isn't worth pursuing."}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "7/21 Update:  Woke up to a 4am missed call.   11am missed call and a text that read \"misss u\" \n Shot a vague reply of \"what u miss\" \n \n Just ended a relationship with my gf who insisted on 'no contact' which I've respected. \n But, she can't go 24 hours without contacting me.  It's been about 5-6 days and she called about 6 times today in which I just told her id call her later. \n Kept my word and we talked for a good hour.  Things were going good till she mentioned what she was doing with her new boyfriend. \n I just don't understand why she feels the need to string me along?  She ended it with me... She's apparently happier with him... So why call me and text all day to talk? \n For what it's worth, I moved to be with her and just moved back home when we ended it.  She broke my heart and she's still keeping me around. \n Any insight on her motives?? \n Does she want me back and is kinda hoping I initiate it? \n Is she second guessing her decision and trying to keep me available till she decides? \n Or am I just the guy she turns to for attention when the new guy isn't available? \n Unfortunately, at this point, I still love her and am not ready to completely burn any possibility of another chance. \n I genuinely care about her but having hour long conversations with my ex isn't going to help me heal from this, especially if she's truly moved on.", "id": "t3_3e1dwa", "summary": "she broke up with me... Why does she want to talk all day a week later?"}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "No two relationships are the same, and I'm having a hard time adapting the \"No Contact Rule\" or believing in the cliché \"There's other fish in the sea.\" \n My individual situation: \n \n 25/m Moved to be with me 20/f GF - Dated 2 years \n \n Returned home when I found out she cheated \n \n 6 Months post has been a vicious cycle of Hot & Cold with neither one of us to completely sever ties. \n \n We're both REALLY into Health & Fitness (Compete & Do Shows) \n \n We're both Non-Drinkers (I have family history of alcoholism) \n \n I do a TON of driving for a living (Used to talk with her on the phone ALL the time) \n \n \n My lifestyle isn't exactly condusive for 'Moving On'.  I'm in the gym, training, usually alone, every day.  Something we used to do together. \n When working, I'm on the road, alone, which I used to spend the time on the phone with her laughing and enjoying each other's company. \n I don't drink, plus the Fitness Lifestyle, so going out to a Bar / Restaurant isn't exactly ideal to attract a woman who I'd be interested in. \n This girl just FIT my lifestyle so perfectly.  I literally could not have created a more ideal fit for me...and yet here we are. \n As much as I want her to show up on my Front Door tomorrow morning and jump into my arms and we can start our life together, I know I have to shake this Fantasy Fairy Tale Ending. \n Every time we try No Contact, she'll reach out Day 3-5, and we'll start talking, realize how great we are...then I'll get anxious/insecure over the infidelity...then she'll pull away...then I'll go no contact....rinse and repeat for the better part of the last year.  (I think just the fact that I'm OPEN to a possible reconciliation is what's causing this process to keep occurring) \n As much as I WANT us to work, being in this limbo is pure hell.  I can't \"Give In\" and respond to a simple text or a few missed phone calls. \n What can I send her, tonight, (if anything), via Text/Email, in which I can forever free myself from this shit. \n As much as I WANT her to chase me and beg for me back, I want that to come from her...not because I told her that's what I need. \n Reddit, tell me what I need to do, as painful as it might be to hear, I feel like I've posted a similar thread every month for the better part of the last year.", "id": "t3_40a89b", "summary": "Moved to be with GF, got cheated on, and left. \n Tried to Move On and do No Contact, but she keeps reaching out. \n It's a vicious cycle of false hope which ultimately never progresses. \n I need to get past this stage of my life..."}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "27/m - Living in Chicago in a 2 Bedroom by myself.  My girlfriend stays with me 4-5 nights a week, and a buddy usually crashes on the other bed. \n I'm on the lease by myself. \n For work, I drive Uber & Lyft, but my MAIN source of income is renting out cars through an App called Turo.  In order to expedite the process and free up my time, I frequently use Lock Boxes to hold the keys. \n I was 100% upfront with my landlord about this and for 2 months it wasn't an issue.  One day he just woke up and a switch flipped and he had a HUGE problem with it. \n He asked me to remove the box in which I stated that the current renters have already been given clear return instructions (i.e. return the keys to their assigned box) and that I would find another means in the future if necessary, or only put the boxes out on days where a car was coming back (i.e. Have the boxes not present unless 100% possible) \n He seemed okay with the idea when speaking in person, but shot me about 8-10 PARAGRAPH (Think crazy ex-girlfriend) text messages basically saying I had 30 minutes to get the boxes taken off or he'd get the police and his attorney involved. \n I didn't respond to his text in that time frame (Because, who's on their phone 24/7) and he entered the unit and psychopathically banged on my door for a good 15 minutes yelling \"I know you're in there\". \n My girlfriend, in the unit at the time, was absolutely terrified.  I had 14 missed calls from him when I returned from the store ~ an hour later. \n Keep in mind, at this point, I had just spoken to him a few hours ago, and we left on decent terms (For what it's worth, I'm a former NCAA Football player 6'6' / 270, so I could see him avoiding stating his true feelings face to face) \n I apologized, and told him that I was very busy, and usually respond to calls/texts sporadically when I have time. \n Today - My girlfriend left for work, and I got a call that my grandmother was in the hospital.  I intended to be at home when she returned, so I had her set of keys.  I had to leave on short notice so I put the box back outside, and texted him, \"Just had a family emergency, my grandmother is in surgery, my girlfriend is at work without her keys, the box will be off later on tonight.\" \n Once again, instead of the 99.9% expected humane response of \"OMG that's horrible, I hope everything is okay\" he once again starts sending paragraph texts demanding to know the second she's expected to return and that he would cut it off and get the police involved if I didn't comply. \n Of course, when she got there, it was off, and I just had to pick her up from a 24 hour restaurant a few blocks away and she's completely in tears. \n My buddy, who had a spare set, rushed over to let her in/make sure she was okay, and my landlord met him at the door and demanded to know who he was and how he knew me. \n Everyone in my social circle is terrified of this guy's antics and we don't feel safe in our own unit. \n I'm clean, rent is always 100% on time. \n I know the issue is somehow related to him thinking I'm subletting. \n At this point, what's the best course of action? \n I genuinely like the area and don't want to have to move again, but I shouldn't have to live like this. \n If this will 'blow over in time', that's fine, but I don't want to give him a reason to get me out by engaging in his confrontational behavior. \n To me, there's 3 ways I can handle this: \n \n Say / Do nothing and hope it all blows over in time \n \n Engage conversation in a very peaceful way hoping to clear the air.  (Basically asking him to step back from micro managing and to let me run my business) \n \n Engage him in a manner showing that I'm \"Preparing my Defense\"  (i.e. Just documenting that on the night of x/x/xx I returned to the unit to find my property was removed and taken without consent.... You interrogated my friend on site making him feel very uncomfortable) \n \n \n I'm not looking to \"win\", I'm just looking to enjoy a peaceful life at home. \n What I'm asking for is so minor and insignificant that, honestly, I have no idea why it's escalated to this point.", "id": "t3_4n90us", "summary": "I'm on the lease for 2 bedroom unit by myself, but routinely have my girlfriend, best friend, or work buddies spend the night when we have an early commute. \n My boss thinks I'm running an AirBnb or subletting and doing everything in his power to make my life a living hell. \n What's the best way to get through this with as little backlash as possible?"}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "This girl found me on Instagram 2 years ago, and we had the most addictive love I've ever known.  Texts, calls, skype sessions, letters, constantly ALL DAY everyday. \n I'm huge into Health & Fitness and so is she.  We'd both spend HOURS in the gym everyday if possible, have this amazing compatibility (she's my best friend), and have amazing sexual chemistry. \n She skipped out on prom to come meet/visit me, and I drove halfway across the country to meet her family. \n It was literally a Story Book Love Story of such impossibility from Day 1. \n \n During the first ~6 months of our relationship, I was still hanging out with my ex-girlfriend (prior to meeting her) and when this information was discovered, she was completely devastated.  Her trust for me was shattered. \n We had a very brief 'cooling off period' then I realized I WANT THIS GIRL IN MY LIFE.  I booked flights, flew out to see her, and promised to her that I'd do whatever it would take to rebuild that trust and prove to her that I was worth the effort. \n This past summer, after a few months of a second 'honeymoon phase' I quit my job and moved out to be with her - I knew she was the one. \n When I got there...things were...okay.   Everything was still magical in person, but I just couldn't shake this anxiety and paranoia that I was having. \n I felt so powerless and at her mercy, and I didn't know if I could trust her.  About a month before moving to be with her, I asked her where she worked (I wanted to surprise her with flowers) and she was hesitant to tell me.  It was such a harmless question and her response took me by surprise.  I eventually told her that I needed to know and her hesitation was making me uneasy.  She told me and said that she didn't tell me because one of her co-workers (supervisor) had a thing for her and she didn't know what to do.  According to her, he tried to 'make a move on her' in the break room and she felt uncomfortable. \n I went through her phone one night and confirmed what I feared... she was talking to that guy.  Nothing explicit or instant 'deal breaker' but when I confronted her on it, she admitted to kissing him once before, but didn't want to tell me because there was nothing there and she didn't want me feeling anxious when visiting her at work. \n I only stayed in her town for about 1.5-2 months, and my behavior started to become more paranoid.  It's like I was on a mission to PROVE that she was a shitty person. \n One day, when leaving her work together, there was a note on her door handle.  When I pointed it out, she instantly panicked and tried to grab it from me.  It simply said \"You looked beautiful today\" which she said was from a customer and she gets hit on all the time. \n I left, and shortly after, her and \"Random Note Guy\" were dating. \n The following 3 months were filled with extreme moments of Hot & Cold, with her reaching out on a near daily bases, asking for me back, sending pictures, and calling. \n I was confused and really hurt as to why she couldn't just let me go after cheating on me and literally choosing someone else. \n After they broke up ~October, she poured her heart out and wanted to be 'exclusive' again.  I compiled a list of rules (i.e. End Goal has to be her moving here, she has to EARN my trust, etc.) \n Things were good for a few weeks, then it started again.  She'd mention anytime a guy hit on her, which, of course, would cause me to 'investigate'. \n She was supposed to fly out before Christmas, but didn't get on the plane, citing that she didn't want her parents to know. \n It's January now and we're STILL in talks with one another. \n In my opinion, this should've been the cleanest break in history, but I cannot fathom why neither party can just let the other one go. \n It's been 15 months of limbo with high periods of hope with low periods of betrayal. \n In my heart, I know I took her for granted, then made a complete 180 and did EVERYTHING to make our relationship work. \n I'm not sure if I'm addicted to the possibility of what COULD'VE been (I can envision us living together, having our own business, working out, and loving life, etc.). \n Logistically speaking, I don't trust her.  She would need to put in a ton of effort, and ultimately move to my city, for us to have a REAL relationship. \n As a college educated guy, I don't understand why I can't use that last statement to delete her number and move on. \n I honestly think we're both addicted to the idea of what COULD be, but are both unwilling to put in the necessary time/energy/work to make it a reality.", "id": "t3_409new", "summary": "Gave up everything to move to be with my girlfriend whose trust I betrayed.  She cheated on me and ended up dating that guy. \n Anytime I try to move on, she'll do whatever it takes to contact me and keep me in her life. \n I've never had problems cutting ties with shitty people, I just don't understand WHY it's so hard to let this one go. \n I just want to be happy - either with or without her.  If I can trust her fully again, then I would be open to reconciling, if not, I just want to move on. \n Any good advice, final messages, etc. that allow me to move on and just let her make the next step?"}, {"author": "MikeDuck1", "content": "Ex Girlfriend who I want to get back with: \n Week Ago = Randomly texts me inviting me to go on a trip with her this summer \n We start texting and have quick phone calls throughout the day \n She randomly texted me saying \"Let's have a kid\" after all of our conversations were really platonic. \n Few days ago = She texts me telling me that she's depressed and she hates herself and her life and how she hasn't been happy in months (Since we broke up) \n Next day = Few texts / quick phone call (She worked all day) \n However, the last 2 days I haven't heard ANYTHING from her.  No calls no texts. \n She initiated the reconnect about a week or so ago, things have been going Well.  She broke down, I was there for her. \n I'm mentally torn between if this is the time to: \n A) Confess how I feel about her.  Basically write her some heartfelt genuine letter letting her know that I love her and \"Win\" her back. \n B) Just continue to give her space \n I don't want to be \"That Guy\" who sends the 4th straight text when none of the previous ones have been returned...but I got all excited thinking that I'm going to get my girl back and now I'm left wondering what's going on. \n If anyone of my friends were in this situation I'd instantly tell them to back off... but I just think this situation is different because she initiated conversation with me...and confessed to this overwhelming depression... I don't know \n Advice", "id": "t3_33w0rv", "summary": "I fuck up.  We break up.  6 months later she starts talking to me, invites me on a trip, then confesses to being so unhappy...then silent treatment."}]}
+{"author": "megret", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Might also just be uncomfortable with the culture (real or perceived) that goes along with being a part of other cultures.", "output": "I'm white. One of my co-workers, who is black, had tried some cornbread chili muffins that the chef had made that day. I told him to put a dollop of sour cream on them; it would change his world. \n He took a bite and gave me a look. \"What?\" I said. \"You don't like it?\" \n He said, \"This is why I can't date white girls. White girls like to eat white people food, shit like this. Look, this is delicious, but how the fuck am I going to go home today and tell my boys that I was tearing up some chili cornbread muffins with a goddamn dollop of sour cream? I mean how am I even going to explain that I know what the fuck a dollop is? I can't take you to McDonald's. They don't got no dollops on that menu.\""}], "user_id": "longlamp_12595", "history": [{"author": "megret", "content": "I'm an audio/visual coordinator. I set up projectors and mics for meetings in hotels. Sometimes I have to sit in the meetings and monitor the mixing board. It's boring, but we're not supposed to bring laptops to dick around on because the client is paying extra for us to be there to monitor shit. \n I bring my laptop, and I get away with it every time. First thing I do is open Audacity, then open an audio file (Madonna's Material Girl is good for this) and I play it with the volume muted. \n When the client comes to stick his/her nose up in my business at the tech table, I stare intently at the wavy lines that the song is making within the program, pretend to adjust something on the mixing board, pretend to notice the client, and say, \"Hi there. Sorry, just checking levels.\" It looks terribly impressive, and I never get a complaint that I spent the whole session staring at my laptop. \n Of course, as soon as the meeting gets underway, Audacity is minimized and I'm on reddit until the end of the day.", "id": "cb849cm", "summary": "I make my laptop look like necessary equipment so the client won't complain that I was on it all day. It's not at all necessary."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "Five or six years ago I was working at Starbucks. We got a new manager. She sat us all down and said \"Holiday season is upon us and we have to check ID for all credit card transactions.\" I told her that was illegal but she didn't care. \n Two days later, a woman comes in and orders a hot tea. It cost about $1.80 as I recall. I wasn't checking IDs on these little purchases because it's stupid, but the manager was in line with the assistant manager and I didn't want to get in trouble for not following orders, so I asked for ID. The name didn't match. \n The lady pitched a fit. I looked over at the manager, who just turned her head like she didn't know what was going on. The AM did the same. I apologized to the lady and explained the policy. The manager still didn't step in. The lady leaves. \n An hour later, the lady's mom (the owner of the credit card) came stomping in. Tells me she wants to see me and my manager, so the three of us sit down. The mom explains to me that I am a horrible person, I don't deserve to be alive on this planet, and that running out in the street and getting hit by a truck would be too good for me. And more stuff along that same line. \n The manager offers her a free drink. The lady doesn't want it. I explain the policy to the lady. The lady tells me, \"Shut your lying cunt mouth.\" The manager apologizes again. We all get up from the table. The mom leans over and says, \"I'd kill you myself if I thought you were worth a damn.\" \n At no time did the manager explain the policy to either of these ladies, or back me up when I explained it. She also didn't stop the lady from cussing me out or wishing my death. I stayed calm the whole time, waiting for the manager to intervene. No such luck. \n And that's the day I learned that facts don't matter. Customers matter, and you do not, and don't even bother thinking for a second that anybody involved with your job gives one little runny shit about you because you will be disappoint.", "id": "c5r6kvg", "summary": "Everybody's an asshole."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "2.5 years ago my boss said he wanted to prep me to become his assistant director of the department. Five months after that, I threw my back out big time (I'm still wearing a back brace) and he really went out of his way to make sure I could still come in to work (keep my insurance) and not have to do any of the heavy lifting that goes with our job. \n After six or eight months I was at about 70% back to normal, which is all I'll get for now, and doing my best at work. He mentions the assistant director spot once or twice but it really just feels like putting the carrot out in front of the horse. \n I quit smoking nearly 7 months ago and my performance really shot up. He mentioned it more than once. Then our company got bought out. We're all pretty sure that all of us who are currently on salary are about to go to hourly pay (in accordance with the other company's standards) and I can't live on that money again. I could barely live on it the first time. \n So my review was two months ago and I asked him what I need to do to secure the AD position. He said I needed to be able to do his job. I\"m already handling all the paperwork, procurement, heading projects. I can't do the sales stuff that he does because all training classes shut down company-wide when we got bought out. \n I'm really pissed that he keeps giving me more hoops to jump through, but he really has had my back when shit has gone south for me. He's always there with excellent guidance and advice, he's easy to get along with, he puts projects in my hands and lets me know he has faith in my ability to complete them, and he always makes sure that people know when the work they're complimenting is mine. \n But he won't give me my fucking promotion, even though I do more than other ADs in our other offices and co-workers introduce me as an AD  and when I correct them they go on about how it's stupid that I don't have that promotion yet. \n I think he's holding off on promoting me because our office is small and we don't need an AD, and if I get promoted then he's back to dealing with all of this shit on his own. But if I have to go back to hourly pay I'm going to have to find a new job. \n I told him I'm worried about the hourly pay and he basically said he doesn't believe it's going to happen, so that argument is invalid. \n I just want my fucking promotion. It's a decent company, a good boss, all that jazz. But the fucker won't relent.", "id": "c9m8w7w", "summary": "My otherwise really awesome boss won't give me a promotion he's been dangling in my face for two years."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I live in Chicago and I don't own a car. I don't want to date someone outside of the city because I don't want to take a train all the way out there and be stuck in an unfamiliar place, dependent on the guy to get me to where I need to go. Even if I take a train out there, I'd have to wait for that to come through before I could leave. \n He could come see me in the city, but having a guy drive an hour for a date puts a lot of pressure on the situation and makes me too nervous. \n Assuming I did manage to find a guy I wanted to date who lived an hour away, it would be a huge hassle. I usually work evenings and weekends. After I got off work, it would be a bus to the train to his stop, or a very long round trip to pick me up in the city and go back to his place, or he'd be at my place all the time. None of these scenarios are appealing to me. \n Even if I worked a regular 9-5 job, I'd probably only get to see him once a week and that would be on weekends, which means I'd have to start doing all my weekend chores and errands on weeknights, and between that and the commute to my boyfriend's place I'd never get a chance to see my friends.", "id": "c3wew2v", "summary": "She probably already over-thought this"}, {"author": "megret", "content": "Me: Sorry, your ID doesn't match this credit card. (I know it's illegal but manager said we had to check, and she's standing right there) \n Customer: You stupid bitch! It's my mom's card! [leaves] \n ~An hour later \n Customer's mom: WHERE IS THE MANAGER? [sits down with both of us] \n Customer's mom: You are a horrible human being. You should run right out and jump in front of a truck. The world would be infinitely better without you. I hope you get a cancer in your stomach and you have to live with that pain, that agony, for two years, and then you die alone in a pile of your own puke.", "id": "c471euf", "summary": "Starbucks customers are fucking crazy."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I do this all the time. Some of my favorites: \n \"Are you fucking serious? You think the guy running the cash register sets the fucking gas prices? You worthless piece of shit, you're why everybody hates America.\" \n \"What the fuck is wrong with you? You think the lady ringing up your fucking romance novels on a Sunday night is the person who makes the company's return policies? You think this national chain of stores was like, 'Well, what shall we do about return policies?' and decided 'Well we'll leave that up to Lisa, who we pay minimum wage to be behind the register at 8:30 on a Sunday night, and that way all the useless fucking twats in the neighborhood can come by and discuss the issue with her directly.' Fuck you, lady. Get your shit and get out, the rest of us are tired of waiting in line for your bullshit.\" I don't even know if the cashier's name was Lisa but whatever. \n \"Uh, no, sir, actually a cappuccino means frothy, foamed milk. You can't froth cold milk. You can have an iced latte but that's it.\" He: \"Shut up, you fucking bitch! Nobody asked you!\" Me: \"Nobody asked me if you were a dick, but I'm here to tell you, you are.\" \n \"Lady, McDonald's doesn't serve onion rings. What the fuck is wrong with you? I had to listen to you bitch about standing in line for the past five minutes. You didn't have a chance to look at the fucking menu in all that time? Do you see motherfucking onion rings on the fucking menu? And now you can't figure out what you want? You want a fucking burger and fries and a coke, and you want to get the fuck out of everyone's way because you're making this line worse.\" She: \"Bitch you better shut up.\" Me: \"Bitch you better order.\" She left, cussing at me the whole time. I got a free milkshake. It brought no boys to the yard. \n \"Hey, guys, have you been having trouble with that waitress?\" Old man: \"She's a stupid bitch.\" Me: \"How so?\" He: \"She got my order wrong. I ordered a burger and she brought me a reuben sandwich.\" Me: \"I heard you order a reuben sandwich, man. Looks like you're the stupid bitch today.\"", "id": "c471w67", "summary": "Take your retail-employee frustrations out on customers at other establishments. It's basically awesome."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I'm a lady A/V tech, one of only two in our region. (The other one could kick my ass, no lie, I'm kind of scared of her.) I get this shit from time to time. The first time, I didn't even think before I said, \"Please don't patronize me. I don't need a penis to do this job.\" Completely inappropriate, I really, really shouldn't have said it, and I'm damn lucky I didn't get in trouble. But the guy I was talking to never pulled that shit again.", "id": "c243228", "summary": "Please don't patronize me\" seems to work."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I keep hearing stories like this, where these out of control kids go to someone else's house and act like wild animals. When I went to other peoples' houses when I was a kid, we had to obey the rules of that house. There comes a point where the owner of the home needs to say, \"That behavior is not allowed in this house.\" \n Since the mom keeps leaving the kid there, that makes the grandparents responsible for the discipline. Nobody gave that kid a time-out, nobody forced the kid to part with the toy after repeated requests that she knock that shit off. \n My friend has a niece who gets away all kinds of shit like this, as well as talking back to adults and even cussing them out! But she doesn't act like that to my friend, who has told the kid, \"You don't talk to me like that. It's rude. If you want to talk to me you'll be polite or I won't answer you.\" The kid is sweet as sugar to my friend.", "id": "ce7us1s", "summary": "If you let children act like animals in your home, children are going to act like animals in your home. If you'd rather they didn't, you should let them know."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "Don't just ask a friend's BF. Don't go talking to Christian (who obviously knows the guy and probably actually IS the guy). Get down to the police station and say, \"I have a message here from someone I don't know who knows intimate details of my schedule and personal habits and has threatened to coerce me into sexual acts.\" Say exactly this. \n Then say, \"He seems to know a man who contacted me last weekend. Here is that guy's number.\" \n BSDM is consent, not coercion. This guy is not kinky, he's creepy, and if he's so very aware of your schedule after only meeting you once at a party  last summer  he's a super creep. Even if he ends up not hurting you, letting him act like this will probably end up with someone else getting hurt.", "id": "c86qlu3", "summary": "Call the fucking cops already"}, {"author": "megret", "content": "In 1999, I was driving from KC to DC with my mom. She was moving, and everything she owned was in the back of the U-Haul I had to drive because she doesn't know how to drive a stick shift. \n We only had about 36 hours to make the trip. The first night, around 10 PM, we stop at a rest stop in Terra Haute and some trucker tells us our rear axle is leaking. My mom has borderline personality disorder, and gets bad panic attacks. She heard this about the axle and did what she does best - freak out. We called U-Haul but nothing was open. I went to the phone book and started calling people. We had about $75 between us. We knew U-Haul would reimburse us, but that $75 was for gas and food on the trip. \n We find someplace that's open, and we head over. It's 10 at night, July 3, the town is celebrating July 4 a day early because it's a Saturday. It's just me, a 21-year-old female, and my 52-year-old mom, in a small town where we don't know anybody. Again, everything my mom owns is in the back of this truck. \n We pull into the shop, and they say they'll look at it. We say we don't have much money, ask if they can bill it to U-Haul, basically \"We are fucked, please don't take our money, or our truck, or kill or rape us.\" An hour later, the guy comes back out and says what the problem was and then says they already fixed it. Luckily, my mom had gone in to the bathroom and didn't hear it because she would have put on her lawyer hat and freaked out on the guy for charging us for un-authorized work on the truck. I asked the guy how much it would be, and he said \"Don't worry about it.\" I said, \"Ok, I can forward the bill to U-Haul, or do you do that?\" And he said, \"No, seriously, don't worry about it. Someone else had ordered the part, but they never came for it even though they paid for it. Don't worry about the labor, I've been where you are and it sucks.\" \n We thanked them profusely and hopped back in the truck. I don't even want to think about how screwed we'd be if they'd charged us. It drives me nuts that my mom threw out the paper I'd written the service station's name on so I can't ever go back and thank them properly.", "id": "c421mc5", "summary": "U-Haul broke down. Too broke to have it fixed, it's after hours so U-Haul won't deal with it. Repair shop in small Indiana town fixes it for free."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I was parked on the street once about 10 years ago. I opened the passenger door to throw in all the crap I was carrying. As I took the key from the lock, it fell down the sewer grate that was right beneath the lock. Streets and san fished it out for me.", "id": "c2oqaop", "summary": "Streets & san have some big fucking magnets."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "Yes, but not without permission. Dom/sub relationships look like forced sex from the outside, but really it's a strong, trusting bond between two people. You've really got to trust someone before you let them strap you to a bed, a wall, etc. (And I don't mean with silk scarves or fuzzy pink handcuffs that can be easily taken off. I mean with straps, leather cuffs, tying up in such a way that you can't escape on your own.) \n If a Dom doesn't have permission to do things, and does them anyway, that's a bad Dom and the situation goes from kinky fun to a domestic dispute. \n Edit:", "id": "c24b701", "summary": "Once permission is given, yes - you want the Dom to take control. But you still don't want to be forced to do something you don't want to do."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I can do that now, but on day 3 I was still hesitant. I've tried quitting dozens of times. From early 2000 to mid-2002 I quit once a month. And I've tried once or twice a year since then. I've had to go back to buying cigarettes with the people behind the counter judging me because just a few days earlier I'd been crowing about how I'd quit, but there I was, back again.", "id": "c7ovkd1", "summary": "I didn't know if quitting would stick at that point. It has!"}, {"author": "megret", "content": "This was a few years ago...I had promised myself that unless there were big warning signs, I would go on one date with whomever contacted me because it's hard to show your real self on a dating site. So in the span of about three weeks, I went on three dates. \n The first one, I thought that he was just wearing a funny hat in his pics. When we met, it turned out to be a matted, possibly melted, horrible toupee. We met at the movie theater, he got winded walking to our seats (no stairs involved) and spent the whole movie making weird noises with his mouth and his stomach. He was giving me nothing in conversation before the movie. It was awful. \n The following week, I went to the same movie theater with a different guy. He said, \"Where do you want to sit?\" I said, \"Oh, it doesn't matter to me,\" and he said, \"Let's set in the back. It's better for handies.\" Then he made the international sign for handies. I just turned on my heel and left. \n Then I met a guy who was really interesting to talk to. We had coffee at a Cosi downtown. He was really, really into soda. He wanted to talk a lot about Mountain Dew and Sprite and Old Coke vs New Coke. He was flabbergasted by the soda machine they had that let you dial up your perfect mix on a touch screen. Eventually we got to talking about more interesting things. At this point I was kind of seeing someone I'd had a few dates with earlier in the year and I made it clear to him that we'd just be friends, but that I really enjoyed talking to him and I was looking forward to hanging out again...I stressed \"as friends.\" A few weeks went by. I was really busy at work, working 60 hour weeks, and I kept having to cancel with the soda guy. Eventually, Thanksgiving weekend, he texted me that he was really upset that I wouldn't see him and I was just as bad as the others and he was going to die with his V card and apparently he'd pinned a lot of hope on things advancing with me. I told him I was sorry he felt this way. He told me that he was going to go wash down some pills with some whisky. \n I've dealt with manipulative people like this before so I didn't take the baite. Sure enough, I got a call from him the next day apologizing for his behavior. He had been lonely and upset; his mother had died on Thanksgiving a few years earlier. He said was in the hospital with back trouble (an issue we had in common and had joked about when we'd met at Cosi) and could I come see him. Well, I felt awful for the guy being in pain in the hospital over Thanksgiving so I hopped on the subway and went to meet him. Something told me this story wasn't right but I figured I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. I picked up some different bottles of soda before going in. \n These were nearly confiscated by the nurse on his floor which, of course, turned out to be the psych ward. I sat with him an hour, told him how disappointed I was about his manipulative bullshit, and left at the end of visiting hours. I left it at \"you get one more chance\" but the whole ride home I got more and more upset and when I finally got home I emailed him that I'd thought it over and his manipulation was just too damn much and he shouldn't contact me again. He hasn't. \n But I've met a lot of great people on OKC. Made some good friends, but either we didn't click romantically or they live too far away, so I won't be sending a wedding notice to OKC any time soon. \n Sorry for typos I'm on a really crummy computer with a few bad keys.", "id": "cfso4fi", "summary": "Don't give up, and don't let yourself wallow too much about it. \n [Linky]("}, {"author": "megret", "content": "My college English professor started reading us some story about a guy at a vacation resort or something. He's just hanging out. This little girl comes up to him and they have a little convo. Nothing big. \"Is that your boat, Mister?\" \"I don't have a boat.\" Something completely boring. The kid wanders away like kids do. A day or so later, he's out on the water in like an inner tube or something. They were at a lake, I think. The kid swims out to him. They talk about some other boring shit. I think the guy was depressed or something. \n Anyway the professor finished reading the story. He puts down the book and said something like \"How many of you thought he was going to do something bad to that kid?\" Almost every hand went up. In the story, he didn't do anything to the kid. The kid was funny and saw things in a funny way like kids do and it helped him get a better perspective on his life or troubles or something. \n But every single one of us was waiting for him to diddle that kid. We were surprised that he didn't, and that he didn't have to talk himself out of doing it. That's what expected of guys with kids these days.", "id": "cna1fhr", "summary": "I don't fucking blame you."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "The job I have today came after a lot of shuffling around, but before all that shuffling I just went through the usual employment sites and applied for absolutely everything. Even if the process to apply online was a pain the ass, even if it wasn't anything I was qualified for, absolutely everything except CDL-related jobs. Actually I think I did put in a few resumes for office work at those places. \n The company that finally hired me closed down a few years later and I was hired on the spot by the company who took over the accounts, based completely on what they'd heard from our clients about me. They laid me off a year later, along with a couple hundred others, when the market crashed. I went through the same process (applying for everything) and got another job where I was completely miserable, and one day a friend asked me to join LinkedIn with her so she could expand her list of contacts. \n I did, and I linked (or whatever) to the district manager at the company that had laid me off. I got an email a week later asking me to come back. And now I'm back at a job I like with a company I love. All those tedious hours of filling out online applications and fruitless interviews were well worth it. \n A side note: The company I worked for first (the one that shut down) didn't appreciate jack shit anything that I did, but I did my best anyway. It completely paid off when they shut down.", "id": "c1ibg66", "summary": "Apply for  everything . Keep up with your networking. When you get your job, do it so well that your networking will save your ass during your next job search."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I was in a store where a friend of mine works a few years ago. His co-worker, whose name I can't remember, told me this story. (I'm going to call her Sandy.) \n Sandy pulled her car into a parking spot on a street where the spots are at an angle, not parallel. She went into the store, got what she needed, and came out 20 minutes later. Her car was blocked in by an Escalade. She was furious at being blocked in and went around to the driver's side to tell the driver to move. She noticed the keys were still inside and the car was still running. She hopped in to move the car 10 feet so she could get out. \n When she got in she glanced in the rearview mirror and noticed an infant in a car seat. Instead of moving the car ten feet, she drove it three blocks to the police station around the corner. The cops chastised her for grand theft auto and kidnapping, but sent two cops out to find the owner of the car. \n The owner of the car was browsing in a store, completely unaware that her car and child had been taken. It's been 10-15 minutes since Sandy has driven off with the car, and this woman honestly had no idea. \n The woman got arrested but Sandy just got a stern warning from a cop who \"looked important.\"", "id": "c4acy24", "summary": "If it's in the interest of a child's welfare, you might get away with the breaking and entering, but it's probably a better idea to just call the cops and let them do it."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I have something similar. Having no space between the bottom of the colander and the bottom of your sink leaves you really disappointed in the draining of basically everything, especially stuff like hot pasta. Having to hold your strainer up while pouring boiling water/pasta is a pain. Having the thing just sit flat against the bottom of the sink is isn't much better.", "id": "cdqq97i", "summary": "Buy colanders with feet to put space between it and your sink."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I was three. Mom was changing all our last names back to her maiden name in a post-divorce jab at our dad. We sat in court for three hours, waiting our turn. Mom eventually said, \"Ok, kids, go get a soda\" or something. My brother was 6. My sister was 9. Sis got to hit the button to call the elevator. Bro got to hit the button for the floor. I wanted to hit a button. What button is a 3-year-old in an elevator going to go for first? \n Right. The big red one, right at the bottom. Building evacuation, fire trucks, ambulance, police, the whole thing. Took an hour to sort out. But our case got moved up and we were the first ones called up when court re-convened.", "id": "c3bqtlv", "summary": "Hit the emergency button on the elevator in a crowded court house."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I've had to call the police about lots of things. I hardly ever get my info taken down and put in a report. The time a lady followed me into my apartment building and fought with me on the stairs until I could get my phone out to call the cops? They didn't even get my full legal name. To this day no one believes that story and I regret not having the bitch arrested just so I can say \"Here's the police report. I am not making this up.\"", "id": "c2q52l7", "summary": "Nothing everything gets written down."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "When I was three my ma took us (my older sister, then 9, and my older brother, then 6) shopping for our Easter outfits. We were at some shopping center in Kansas City. As we're crossing the street I just dart out ahead and my sister runs behind and tackles me. \n Apparently I had something in my mouth because I began choking. My mom picks me up and starts screaming, which is her superpower. These two ladies run over, one says \"I'm a nurse, give me the kid\" and my mom hands me over. I had turned blue. Heimlich achieved, she passes me back over to my ma. After checking on me, my mom looks up to thank the lady but they're both gone. \n She wrote to the local paper asking for any info so she could thank the nurse and got a letter back a few weeks later. It seems the nurse was the sister of a local nun; she was in visiting her sister for the week. They hardly ever go to the mall but they decided to make the trip that day to pick up stuff for less fortunate kids or something, I don't know. Anyway it all boiled down to good timing. \n Edit:", "id": "c1mm8mf", "summary": "I owe mine to some random nurse who was in town visiting her sister (who's a Sister) for Easter."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I used to drive a 1995 Ford Escort. I came out to the parking garage after work one day to find it gone. I completely freaked out, it was my only way to get to school as the buses didn't run late enough to get me home after class. I was working in a hotel. \n I went down to the security office and we walked through the garage together. We found the car on a different floor, parked in a place I would never park it, and it wasn't in gear. (It was a stick shift, and I'd never leave it to the shitty hand break to keep the car from rolling.) I was adamant about someone having taken my car, but the security guard just treated it like I was just some stupid woman who didn't know where I'd left my car. Ass. I drove us down to the security office and went in to get my stuff I'd left there when we went to look for my car. I came back out and found some money on the dashboard that definitely hadn't been there when I drove the car from the spot where I found it to the security office, and a receipt from a gas station. \n A few days later, I'm still pretty upset about it. I mention it to a co-worker and she says, \"Wait, what kind of car do you drive?\" I tell her it's a white Escort. She starts laughing and uses my phone to call another co-worker, who I will call Lisa. The other co-worker comes over, and we find out this is what happened: \n One of the bellmen asked Lisa if he could borrow her car to go home to pick up something. She said sure, and gave him some money to put gas in the tank. He came back and said he'd stopped for gas, handed her the keys, and the day went on. Lisa went out to get her car and found that the bellman hadn't put any gas in it. The next day she tore into the bellman for taking her money and not putting gas in the car. It was a big to-do. \n Turns out he'd taken my car instead, and when he saw it parked down by the security office he remembered to give back the change, so he just left it on the dash. (I'd left the car unlocked.) \n What Lisa and I discovered is that her car key opened my car doors and started the engine. Mine only opened her doors. Nobody stole my car, and the bellman had topped off my tank instead of filling hers. \n So, sometimes it doesn't matter that you've locked the doors. Sometimes it's just weird coincidence, and suddenly someone else is in your car.", "id": "c3s8xu1", "summary": "Found out the weird way that my co-worker's car key could open my car doors and start the engine."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I don't think it was lack of car specifically that made him suicidal. I think it was not being able to get on with his life (an obstacle imposed by not having a car). Yeah, a lot of us can get on without a car, but not everyone has that option. I sold my car in January and I'm getting on fine without it, but I live half a block from a subway in one of the largest cities in the country. I also live across the street from a grocery store and take part in a car rental service that goes by the hour (igocars.org), so I'm all set. \n Riding a bike back and forth 11 miles (as someone else here posted having done) is probably completely feasible, unless it isn't. It might be that highways are the only way to get to where you're going and obviously you can't ride a bike on a highway. Also, trying to get groceries home on a bike is ridiculous, even if you have baskets on. If you can't work as much, you make less money and have to downgrade your living situation. I've had to turn down work because it's too far from public trans and the car rental fee would be more than the money I'd make on that shift.", "id": "c1ju6t4", "summary": "Don't judge other peoples' situations unless you know exactly what that situation is like."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I don't like the taste of regular Coke. I like Diet Coke, not because it's diet but because I like the taste. Regular Coke is too sweet. But because everyone assumes people ordering diet colas at a fast food joint are idiots, I have to order tea or Sprite or something instead of what I actually like - Diet Coke.", "id": "ca1vmnf", "summary": "People eating fast food don't care about calories, they care about taste, and they prefer the taste of diet."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I only shop at Jewel when I'm desperate. I usually go to Aldi, Ultra Foods, Trader Joe's - all stores with low prices and no loyalty programs. A lot of people don't like Aldi & TJ because they don't carry national brands. Others don't like Ultra Foods because while they do carry national brands, you have to bag your own groceries. Aldi adds extra stigma because you not only have to bag your own groceries but you have to either bring your own bags or buy them from the store. I have a bunch of re-usable bags I bring, and if I forget them I just grab an empty box or three from around the store. \n But I don't have to deal with cards, I don't have to deal with high prices, the stuff at Aldi and TJ tastes as good (or better) than the national brands, and if I bag my own I can bag according to where things go in my kitchen so it's easier to unload when I get home anyway. If I go to Jewel it's only because it's more convenient, and that's why you have to pay more - convenience. I care more about my money and my privacy than my convenience, so I only go there if I'm in a real hurry and don't have time to go to one of my preferred stores.", "id": "c1l8hcz", "summary": "Shop elsewhere."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "In the book, for example, Pennsatucky is mentioned only once, in passing, and I don't remember exactly what the author said but it was a completely benign relationship, just another inmate. Nothing special at all, and certainly not the wacko hillbilly mess we saw. She said in the book that she called the girl Pennsatucky only in her head; nobody else called the girl Pennsatucky. \n Alex and Piper were not in the same lock-up. Near the end of her sentence, she was indeed taken to Chicago to testify. She was put in a scary facility there, and that's where she ran into Alex, and Alex's sister who apparently had a hand in the whole thing. They all got along fine. \n But when Piper went to Chicago, she only had a few days left of her sentence. I can't remember exactly, but I seem to recall that she was telling people \"I'm supposed to be getting out\" and guards, etc saying basically \"Yeah? Join the club.\" But her lawyer worked it out and she was let out in Chicago, not New York. Her fiance was in Chicago to get her. In the book, they never broke up. \n There were a few other borrowed scenarios, people, or ideas from the book, but they have been skewed and expanded or reduced or in some cases cut from whole cloth. These are all I can think of off the top of my head. I could look up more but that book was pretty boring compared to the TV show and I wouldn't be interested in picking it up again.", "id": "cidkyc2", "summary": "Basically, Piper wrote a book that had some stuff that happened and people who existed, and Jenji took that information and turned it into excellent, addictive television."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I know they can radio the attendants because they do that for getting the ramps when they have to load a wheelchair, but I doubt the attendants will do anything, either. Besides, Pulaski & Congress isn't a great neighborhood and chances are the attendant won't do anything, either. When I got to the top of the ramp and stopped to call the police (the thief and I both knew I wasn't going to chase him into that neighborhood) the attendant just stood in her booth playing with her phone.", "id": "c1sbhnd", "summary": "Maybe, but don't count on it."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I wouldn't want someone from the internet coming to my house. Of course, if I'm that adverse to it, I would get a post office box instead of giving out my street address. \n That being said, I  don't even like having my actual friends over to my place. I always feel like I have to entertain them. Plus I have to clean my apartment, which is a hassle. Maybe this guy just wants what he bought and then to be left the hell alone. Not everybody is awesome with social interactions and if he officially meets you for this exchange, he's going to have to say hi to you every time he sees you and then come up with excuses about why you two can't hang out. \n And if I were the buyer and OP were to just drop it off at my door, I would have to sit there and wait for OP to leave, and then I'd know he was judging me from his window when I went out to get the package.", "id": "c470k2s", "summary": "Social anxiety is a bitch. A ridiculous, expensive bitch."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I've been fired for: \n \n Complaining to HR about my manager's sexual harassment (worked out well, I got a little loot from that company for the fiasco) \n Catching the boss snorting coke. \n Working too many hours to cover the staff that wouldn't pick up extra hours and the manager who wouldn't give me more staff \n Missing work for a root canal \n \n I've been written up for: \n \n Having my arms crossed while apologizing to a customer for a misunderstanding about the store's hours \n Taking a smoke break with a mere cashier after I was promoted to supervisor \n Correcting someone who called me by a name that wasn't my own \n Being late for a shift after pulling a lady out of her van that was in the process of being run over by a semi \n Telling my neighbor that I got a promotion before the promotion was announced (she mentioned it to me a week later at the store I where I was working) \n \n I've seen a lot of fights in restaurant kitchens, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone fired over them.", "id": "c0wddt7", "summary": "Everybody's an asshole"}, {"author": "megret", "content": "When I was in fourth grade I was living with my dad and his wife, after living only with my mom previously. My mom let me be a total tomboy and didn't make me wear skirts at all, but my step-mom insisted I start acting like a lady and made me wear skirts. \n One day I'm in the school cafeteria and I'm walking over to sit with some friends when I realize my undies (the worn-out, laundry day pair - we all have one) were sagging. The elastic finally gave out or something, I don't know. But it was a crowded room and nobody really noticed me walking with my legs pressed together. Or if they did, they thought I was just being goofy and didn't pay attention. \n By the time I got to my seat, the undies were around my knees. I just let them fall to the floor and kicked them away under the table. At that school, we sat with our class and our teacher sat there with us and ate lunch. We all ate, then got up to go outside. Our teacher, I forget her name, reached to get her purse off the floor, and demanded loudly, \"Whose underwear is in my purse?\" \n Only three girls were wearing skirts that day, and those other two were all too eager to show the teacher they had their panties intact. \n The kids made fun of me for the rest of the year, but I moved after that and didn't wear a skirt again for years.", "id": "c106otq", "summary": "I lost my panties, the teacher found them in her purse. But it sounds a lot more naughty than it was."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "Starbucks: drive through. Lady at the speaker orders a drink, changes her order, I confirm and she drives around. I make the second drink. She screams at me, cussing and all, calling me all kinds of names. I apologize and offer a refund plus the proper drink. She cusses at me again, drives around the building, comes back to the window, cusses at me some more, talks about my mother, throws the drink at me and peels off. \n Starbucks: holiday season. New manager has made it clear that we have to check IDs for credit card purchases; no exceptions. New manager is two people behind a woman paying with a CC. I ask for ID but feel stupid because it's only like $3, and if the manager weren't standing there I wouldn't have asked. It doesn't match. The lady cusses at me, berates me, the manager ignores the situation. The lady leaves. \n The lady's mom comes back two hours later. It was her CC. She asks for a meeting with me and my manager; we sit at a table. The lady proceeds to tell me I'm the lowest form of life on the planet, I should never have been born, and the whole world - nay! - the entire planet would be better off if I just killed myself. Manager apologizes and offers a free drink.", "id": "c15gezg", "summary": "bitches is crazy about Sbux."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "A guy messaged me in January, we talked from time to time for the next four months. We went out in April and very casually kept seeing each other and other people. I saw some other guys, nice guys who just didn't click. I met a few who were the types of creeps and crazies that people think of when they think internet dating. \n Neither one of us are big fans of commitment, but he gave me my own log-in on his computer a few weeks ago. That's like the nerd version of cleaning out a drawer for me, so I guess it's getting serious. I'm ok with that; he's a really good guy.", "id": "c399bae", "summary": "It took a year, but yes - it's a success."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I didn't know I was a bully. I thought I was just defending myself against those asshole kids who kept harassing me. But apparently nobody knew they were harassing me, and my anger (directed at everyone, not just those assholes) made the kids who weren't involved think I was just a bully. Since I was \"the bully,\" they'd gang up on me and make sure I was put in my place. It was all really stupid. \n Also I have always had a serious case of bitch-face. So now when I'm joking around and being sarcastic with people who don't know me, I have to make a big show of smiling and chuckling when I make jokes and everybody thinks I'm an idiot.", "id": "c8t9y00", "summary": "Everybody was an asshole. My only option was to be an asshole right back."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "About every six weeks when I'm about to fall asleep I hear someone say something like they're standing right by my bed. This has gone on for as long as I can remember. Sometimes my name is said - absolutely clear in a normal speaking voice (not a whisper). In the past year or two it's been other things. One night it was \"Heather hates you.\" This could have either been a reference my friend Heather, who at the time had good reason to be mad at me, or my step-sister Heather, for whom the hateful feelings are mutual. I digress. It was said clear and plain, in a normal conversational tone/volume. Two nights ago it was an irritated sigh. \n I considered it might be some kind of schizophrenia, but it doesn't happen during the day - only when I'm just on the cusp of falling asleep. \n There have been other things that I think would creep other people out more (footsteps running on stairs when no one is there, shadows and whispers in the laundry room), but of what I've seen/experienced, this is the creepiest to me because it's been following me around for thirty years, four states, more homes than I can remember (we moved a lot when I was a kid, and I kept the tradition up when I moved out on my own), etc.", "id": "c1mv7yf", "summary": "Creepy voice when I'm almost asleep."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "When I was 25 I dropped everything to move from Chicago to Maryland to help my sister with her kids during her divorce. The kids were aged 3, 6, and 9 and were pretty decently behaved kids. \n I spent a year and a half basically raising those kids while my sister kind of checked out mentally. I learned that I am too selfish and lazy to deal with having kids. \n I was raised to be an independent person. I had to enroll myself in junior high and high school. I worked three jobs in high school. Kids always  want  things. Attention, money, \"buy me this, can I get that, I don't like that why did you bring me that?\" I wasn't really into it. \n I also know that I will never be good at marriage, but that's a different thread.", "id": "cc6k78o", "summary": "Tried it, didn't care for it, prefer goldfish."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "My sister has refused to speak to my dad and his wife for nearly ten years. When our grandma died five years ago, my step-mom called my sister (who refused to answer) and left a voicemail. Later, when I found out Grandma had died and been buried and it was too late for anything, I asked my step-mom why she didn't call me or my brother. Her response was that my sister should have answered the phone, then my sister could have told us.", "id": "c8n8108", "summary": "That stupid bitch used my grandma's death as a way retaliate against my sister. This is really just par for the course for this moron."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "The way I lost the cravings was when that little voice in my head said, \"Cigarette!\" I told that little voice to shut the fuck up. Constantly. For weeks. \n Also, when I'd had a bad day and that little voice was looking for any excuse to get me to smoke, I told myself, \"I've had a bad day, and I do not deserve a cigarette. I deserve something better.\" And I'd go buy a book or an app or something.", "id": "cbwumw1", "summary": "They go away when you tell them to. \n Source: I used to smoke 3 packs a day and I haven't wanted a cigarette since last November."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "Those spots don't look very roomy. It looks like the first two cars are right next to each other, giving them room only on one side of the car to get the person and chair/walker/crutches out of the car, instead of both sides. It works if the person with the disability is already on the side of the car that has the extra space, but not if the person is on the \"wrong\" side of the car. \n If the person with the disability is driving and has to get the chair/walker/crutches out of the back seat him/herself (assuming it's the sort of disability where the person can walk three steps and stand for two minutes but no more than that), this might be the only way to get enough room to get the stuff out. And once the person is in the chair/using the walker or crutches, they can't then get back in the car and move it. And why would they want to? They have to get the chair/walker/crutches back in when they get back to the car. \n I used to work at a camp for people with disabilities. Sometimes we'd take day trips and have to park the van all kinds of crazy to get people in and out. Lucky us, we had a guy who could then move the van to a better spot when we weren't using it. But most folks aren't that lucky. \n *Edit:", "id": "c0zv2qb", "summary": "There's not enough room in the parking space to get the wheelchair out of the back seat."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I see your point, and here are two thoughts: \n \n The person with a disability was on the passenger's side, and the driver (after lifting the person out and putting him in the chair/on the walker/etc) either had to immediately tend to the person, or was just so sick of these parking lots that he/she didn't give a fuck any more about moving the car back in place (having long ago become frustrated with this rather short-sighted style of disabled parking) or \n \n They're assholes and feel the disabilities parking sticker makes them entitled to park as assholes. \n \n \n To be honest, as someone who couldn't walk for 15 weeks and had to drop out of high school due to this illness, I see their point. After a while, you get the feeling of \"fuck everybody anyways, if they lived one fucking day in my pain they'd see why parking was such a bullshit thing to worry about that they wouldn't think about it, either.\"", "id": "c0zw87b", "summary": "People have problems. Sometimes they're forced to work with what they have and throw away ideas of what's conventional to deal with them."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I wear a back brace under my clothes. I have a pinched nerve in my spine, plus an oozing disc, and it's not something you notice because the brace is under my clothes. I got this brace in December 2010. \n For most of last year, I was barely able to hobble and it took a great concentration of energy to just make it look like I was a lazy-ass slow-walker when, in fact, I was lucky to make it a block without having to lean on a wall from the pain. I don't want to walk around looking like I'm as bad off as I am because I'm worried about being targeted for robbery or worse. I'm already a target because I'm a lady; no need to compound the problem. \n I work in a hotel. There are days when I'm just trying to save every ounce of energy I have to get up to the street at the el stop by my apartment. So even though I have the ability to walk the four blocks between bus stops, I don't because I worry about having to sit on the el stop by my apartment and wait until I'm able to walk up to the street. \n There have also been times that I've been followed too closely by creeps and if I saw a bus coming I hopped on it just to get away from said creep. It didn't matter where that bus was going, but I was getting on and if he followed me it was fine because I stayed by that driver the whole time. \n So, yeah, 90% of the time the situation you described is a lazy bastard who just took advantage of a bus full of people for no good reason. 10% of the time, though, it's legit and not something a person is comfortable explaining.", "id": "c4gacdk", "summary": "Not all people who take short bus rides are lazy assholes."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "Here's the thing. I do nice things for people. I don't like to talk about it for exactly the reason the duck is talking about. But once in a while, when I do mention it on Facebook or in person or something, a few days later someone else does something nice and says it's because they saw my post. \n All I want in the world is for people to be completely decent to each other. A little more basic fucking compassion. To that end, I sometimes mention the good stuff I do. Do I Instagram every sandwich I hand out to homeless people? Do I require lost tourists to follow me on Twitter when I help them figure out directions? No. But I check in on social media when I go to the food pantry to volunteer. If it's something more out of the ordinary (helping a lady walk four blocks to her aunt's house as she sobs in pain because she just got out of surgery and her boyfriend abandoned her) I'll post about it. The point of that post was \"it took about 15 minutes of my day. My laundry at the laundromat was still going when I got back. I would have otherwise spent that 15 minutes playing Clash of Clans. It's really easy to help others and it doesn't have to be a big deal. Those of you who keep telling me you don't have time to help others...think again.\" \n But I do feel like a douchebag when I post about it, like I'm patting myself on the back.", "id": "ciku394", "summary": "Sometimes we're just trying to peer pressure others into doing good."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I work in a hotel as an a/v tech. The worst groups to work with are doctors' meetings. All these professional people in one room, well educated, on all kinds of medical boards, and hardly a lick of sense between them. None of them grasp the concept (even after having it explained to them) that you must actually put the microphone near your mouth in order for it to pick up the sound of your voice. \n I was the tech at one group of doctors who were all sitting at round tables. About 10 tables in the room, six people to a table, two rows of ten tables. It was two groups of people who were apparently in a fight and the presenter was actually a moderator for the discussion between the two groups. \n One guy raised his hand to interject something about what some lady was saying. Everyone had their backs to the guy with his hand up because that's how the room was arranged. After about ten seconds of frantic hand-waving he grabs his mic and says, \"Stop ignoring me! I won't be treated like this!\" Apparently the concept that someone needed to actually see his hand raised in order to acknowledge that his hand was raised was too damn much for him to handle. \n Too his credit, he spoke directly into the microphone. Unfortunately, he mouth was right on it and he was almost eating it. And he was yelling. So there was some nasty feedback.", "id": "c43qvfx", "summary": "I fucking hate dealing with doctors' conferences."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I work in a hotel. These pharma companies have conferences where they pay to fly in doctors, nurses, whatever, who ever wants to come along from all over the country. They have a fancy fucking $200/plate dinner, then order about $1,500 in audio-visual equipment and staff (that's me, in the back, teching your microphone, and wondering why you ordered two of them in a room that only seats 25), pay for rooms for these people, plus a few hundred for printed materials...the list goes on. Basically for a sales pitch. \"Oh redditipsumodine will clear up acne! Look at all this research! Please think of us when you prescribe similar crap for acne sufferers!\" This shit could have been a mass mailing. But now it's about $20k in bullshit ass-kissing.", "id": "cc0p81q", "summary": "Some of the inflated price does go back to research. Some of it goes to complete bullshit."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "Today right near the end of a great workout I got a phone call telling me about a family emergency. I did what I could about it (they all live out of state) and headed home. At Walgreens I wanted just a sweet snack for my family troubles; I was hoping for a single 100 calorie pack of Oreos. I didn't find that, and I didn't just buy regular Oreos. Got some cheese and a chocolate nutrition bar. Still haven't touched the bar. I spent over half an hour wandering around the store trying to find something delicious that didn't negate all the work I'd just done.", "id": "cdn8r8v", "summary": "Today I walked away from Oreos."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I was at a training seminar in St Louis. Everyone from the seminar was staying at the same hotel, and none of us knew our way around. It wasn't SL proper, it was kind of on the outskirts. \n Anyway we were trying to figure out how to get to a bar and grille we'd seen in the hotel info folder in our rooms. There were about 8 of us and we decided that instead of just walking around the un-lit highway at 9 at night we'd get a few cabs. The lady at the front desk told us it was just about a mile away. Nobody could get a clear signal on their iPhones so we couldn't map it. \n Well the cabs show up, and those of us in the second cab tell the driver \"follow that cab!\" And he did. Across the street and 100 feet up the road, where the restaurant was hidden behind some trees. We felt like morons. The cabs didn't even have a chance to get up to 30mph before we were there.", "id": "c1hsdra", "summary": "Worst fucking \"follow that cab!\" ever."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "The teachers in my school didn't like to interact with me. I didn't find this out until twenty years after we moved away from this neighborhood, but it turns out the whole town knew my mom was a rotten mom and we were being raised wrong. As a result, the kids weren't allowed to play with me. As a result, they didn't even really talk to me in class. As a result, I was the odd kid who had no friends, and as a result my teachers (who had taught my older siblings a few years earlier, before we were the Worst Family in Town and adored said siblings) assumed I was the bad apple and didn't really like having to deal with me.", "id": "c4fgoxe", "summary": "Everybody's an asshole."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I threw my back out in December (after hours, not while on the job). I have a job that's heavy on physical labor. I have gone to work a few times since I threw my back out but it's been slow and painful. Coupled with this, it's our slow season at work so there aren't a lot of hours to pick up anyway. \n I think I'll be ok to work by March or April. But my bills are piling up and I don't know if I need to apply for disability or unemployment or what. I used to work 40-60 hours a week and now I'm working about 16-20. It doesn't even come close to paying my rent, much less the rest of my bills. Anyone know if there's a state program I can go to for help? I'm in Cook County, if it matters.", "id": "t3_f2h6e", "summary": "Can kind of work but not enough to pay bills. Can I get help from the state?"}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I threw my back out in December (after hours, not while on the job). I have a job that's heavy on physical labor. I have gone to work a few times since I threw my back out but it's been slow and painful. Coupled with this, it's our slow season at work so there aren't a lot of hours to pick up anyway. \n I think I'll be ok to work by March or April. But my bills are piling up and I don't know if I need to apply for disability or unemployment or what. I used to work 40-60 hours a week and now I'm working about 16-20. It doesn't even come close to paying my rent, much less the rest of my bills. Anyone know if there's a state program I can go to for help? I'm in Cook County, if it matters.", "id": "t3_f2hfg", "summary": "Can kind of work but not enough to pay bills. Can I get help from the state?"}, {"author": "megret", "content": "There's this guy I do freelance work for. Not editing, but things like book layouts and compiling indexes and all that boring stuff. He mostly writes books about boring things that I don't want to discuss here in order to protect his identity. \n Anyway I've known this guy most of my life, my mom has been his editor off and on for decades. I hate him. He's a complete ass. I don't even bother dealing with him directly; all negotiations go through my mom. I charge him my special \"fuck you\" rate and it turns out that while money may not buy you happiness it sure will buy civility. \n He's also written some novels about stuff I really don't care about. I don't want to expand on that, either, since the topic is irrelevant and again it might give him away. \n They sent me some of his novels in Word and PDF format to get them formatted for Kindle. My fee wasn't discussed because I didn't think they'd actually get around to sending me the files. Well, they just did and the guy wants to know if I want 5% royalty on sales instead of a flat fee. They also want me to figure out how to get the books on Nook, in physical form on Amazon, and into B&N. I have no experience with any of this crap, but I know a few solid days of putting my Google-fu to work and I'll have it sorted. \n I just don't know if 5% royalty is worth it. I'm selling my car this week to pay the rent, so money right now would be best. I don't think his books will sell enough to cover even a fast-food dinner, much less any bills or anything in the future. He's been self-publishing and selling the books through his website or whatever for years but it hasn't exactly been a gold rush. The problem might be the distribution; I don't think he advertises much. \n The question is, should I make him pay me now to deal with immediate bills, or roll the dice on the possibility that he might sell books if they're available from someplace other than his basement? Does anyone have experience with this? \n I have no degree in this stuff, I work as an A/V tech for fuck's sake, but my mom had me editing manuscripts and stuff when I was like 6 or 7 so I've been doing it for a long time. Other than editing resumes and term papers and stuff like that I don't have a lot of experience with editing, and I have zero experience with publishing. So it's not like people are knocking down my door to pay me money for shit I can do while watching TV. I don't want to tell him \"Nah, give me a boatload of cash now\" just for him to take his business elsewhere.", "id": "t3_f422u", "summary": "I've been offered 5% royalties on the sales of books in exchange for some formatting work and distribution research. I have no faith that the books will sell. Should I take the royalties or demand loot upfront?"}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I threw my back out in December. Since then, I've been going to spinal decompression sessions and wearing a brace, as well as taking non-addictive prescription pain management pills. I'm not back to 100% yet but I'm doing pretty well. I've been working out at least half an hour a day (step aerobics and other high-burn activities on the Wii mostly) for the past few weeks. \n My chiropractor doesn't charge me a co-pay. That's the main reason I go to this guy. I'm not really impressed with the staff and I'm sure I could get these results from any decent chiropractor in town, but I don't have a budget for 3x/week co-pays. So now I'm starting physical therapy with a therapist in the same office. I don't like this guy. He doesn't listen to me, he made me describe my pain repeatedly for about ten minutes like he'd never heard of bulging discs before, he cuts me off when I'm talking, and he said I can't do my workout any more. \n It's not like I'm walking five miles on the Wii. Just stepping for half an hour. I don't have a car so I walk a lot anyway, even if it's just to the bus or the train.  According to my pedometer, it's about 750 steps from the bus to the chiro office each way, so every time I go it's 1400 steps. I do about 3000 steps on the Wii. Yeah, I should hold off on stuff that really works my back (hula hoop, most of the yoga and strength training, stuff like that) but I don't see any harm in just basic stepping on and stepping off the 4\" high Wii board. \n I don't want to change chiro offices because I'm missing work due to my back so I can't cover the co-pays for 3x/week sessions. Complaining to the staff or my chiro won't help. I complained last month about one of their nurses or whatever who was rushing me off the chiro equipment and since that day I have had her helping me exclusively, instead of one of the three or four other nurses in the office. \n So I have two questions: one, do you think if I went to another chiro or physical therapist and said \"Hey, Dr. X isn't charging me a co-pay but my insurance is giving him a mess of money. How about you get the money from my insurance instead, and we keep on with the no co-pay?\" - would that work? And two, is the PT right about a basic workout? I have a huge weight loss goal and I know if I stop working out now I won't ever start again. I've only lost 7 pounds these past three weeks but I'm motivated now and I don't want to lose momentum.", "id": "t3_g1gyx", "summary": "Is it normal for chiros to not charge co-pays for good insurance? Is a basic step workout really that awful for my back during physical therapy? After three weeks of it I feel no ill effects."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I  posted earlier . \n Today was the holiday party for the hotel where I work. It was nothing but stressful. A lot of running around, last-minute changes, broken equipment, re-setting things that were already marked off my to-do list. We were also short-handed. \n That night, during the party, I threw back a few drinks and had a nice, polite, work-friendly buzz. A bunch of my old smoking buddies dragged me out to the smoking area. One even offered me a cigarette. I said, \"No, thanks, I quit,\" and then tried really, really hard not to lecture them about if I could do it, anyone could. I hated getting that speech as a smoker. \n But since you are all hopping on the wagon, I'm here to tell you: if I can do it, anyone can. Seriously. If you need some encouragement, just PM me!", "id": "t3_14u0zw", "summary": "booze, stress, smoking circle, offered a cigarette, turned it down!"}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I work in an A/V company, and everyone I work with has smart phones and most of them are facebook friends with each other. Since I go to different offices fairly often and attend pretty much all of our training sessions, I meet a lot of employees. They ask me to add them to facebook and I politely decline because I don't need my co-workers eyeballing pictures of me drunk and stupid. \n So I opened a Twitter account and made that public. That seemed like a great solution because I could control what was shown on my page, instead of worrying that I'm tagged in some picture from 10 years ago of me passed out after a party or whatever. Co-workers who asked to be facebook friends were directed to the twitter feed, which they weren't interested in, so I started a second facebook account that just grabbed my tweets. That's all that gets posted there. \n For whatever reason, I don't get email notifications when someone comments on a post for that account, so I figured I'd sign up for Google Voice and use that to get texts, but for whatever reason it isn't working. I tried to send a confirmation code to my GVoice number; no dice. (A test text from my regular phone went through just fine.) I tried adding it by choosing a carrier on Facebook, but GVoice isn't an option and Verizon doesn't work. \n If I log out of Facebook on my Android and log into the work account, I only see things within the last 15 minutes and nothing else, and that's just stupid. The Facebook mobile site is stupid and hard to use. \n I don't like having to deal with all of this and I wouldn't even do it if I weren't bucking so hard for a promotion. The people in charge of promotions tend to ask around before they approve a promotion so they have more info than just what my immediate boss tells them. Since my promotion is essentially riding on what my co-workers say about me (and as a company involved in technology they take shit like Facebook to be important), I want to make this work. Any advice?", "id": "t3_hwz5j", "summary": "Is there a way to get texts from Facebook sent to my GVoice account? What's the best way to manage multiple FB accounts from an Android?"}, {"author": "megret", "content": "USPS says my giftee got his gift last Saturday. I sent him a PM Wednesday to make sure he got it because I was worried it had been stolen or something. He said he got it and thanks, but still hasn't marked it as received. If he never gets around to it, will a screen shot of the conversation be enough for me to be allowed to join in the next exchange?", "id": "t3_gfufh", "summary": "Mark it as received, everybody! You are driving your gifter nuts!"}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I'm on week seven of not smoking. My last cigarette was September 30. From October 1 to November 3rd I wasn't hungry at all. I just kept eating, constantly. I told myself I was allowed to get away with it for October because weight can come off and it was more important to be done with cigarettes once and for all. \n So, for November, I promised myself I would move more and strive to make working out a regular part of my routine. I decided against making myself change my eating habits drastically because the holidays are coming up and I'd just set myself up for failure. One step at a time: first, get used to exercise. \n I've had some trouble fitting the exercise in because of my crazy work schedule (this week has been nothing but 10-14 hour days), but by skipping the bus, making a pedometer goal, and using some 5-10 minutes workout apps, I've made sure I wasn't letting myself off the hook entirely. Exercise is not going to go on the back burner! \n My problem is, now that I'm not eating constantly, I'm constantly hungry. Tonight for dinner I sat down and ate an entire frozen pizza. Not one of those little Totinos things, but a big Tombstone supreme. I finished it an hour ago and already my stomach hurts from how hungry I am. It's only been an  hour , and that was a  whole pizza. \n I don't want to keep eating all the time. I know the extra hunger is a combination of having eaten so much for all of October, plus not having the appetite suppressant of cigarettes, but I don't want to be hungry all the time. And I'm worried how I'm going to make it after the new year when I have to stop relying on convenient foods and start cooking real meals. I ate six of those Clementine tangerines just waiting for the pizza to cook tonight. As I type this, I'm going through a box of those Special K popcorn chips. \n I don't even know what kind of advice I need. I'm scared I'll never be full again and I'll just keep eating and eating until Oprah has to come out of retirement to host the ABC special where they have a crane lifting me from my living room window. I hope she brings cookies. \n I know I need a plan, but I have no idea what to do, besides keep eating, and eat healthier foods. But like I said - I'm working 10-14 hours a day this week, and that's not that unusual. I live alone. I have nobody else to help with meal prep. Sometimes I work 10-12 days in a row, so planning out a cooking day when I can make and freeze meals for the week isn't always possible. \n I don't know what to do, and I figured that before I just give up and go back to just resigning myself to my weight I'd come ask you folks for advice. What do?", "id": "t3_13a38y", "summary": "Quit smoking, started exercising (not heavily but regularly), not counting calories etc until after new year, but constantly hungry. How do I deal with this constant hunger?"}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I don't write every day. I know I should, but [insert list of everybody's best excuses]. But when I get inspired, I write like a motherfucker. \n The thing is, I only seem to get inspired when I'm at work and I have to sit at a tech table during a boring meeting. (I'm an audio-visual tech; I usually have to monitor the mics or change the Power Point presentation.) I always make sure to have some paper handy for doodling. When I doodle, I get inspired to write and usually it's good starts to stories, or notes on stories I'm already working on. \n The thing is, as soon as the meeting is over and I have a chance to sit and write uninterrupted, I can't seem to manage it. The \"magic\" is lost. \n Anyway, we're on our dead season at work, no meetings for months, and I'm looking for a replacement for boring meetings so I have a similar environment to get the juices flowing. \n I know this sounds stupid, but (outside of taking classes, which I can't afford) what would be a good alternative?", "id": "t3_mgkt4", "summary": "I do my best writing during boring meetings. No upcoming meetings for months; what's a good alternative?"}, {"author": "megret", "content": "In August, I went out with a guy who I'll call Joe. I met Joe on OKC, and we had a nice time but I'd made it clear I was only looking for new friends. (This was in my profile, and I mentioned it again when we were sending messages to each other, and I said it again when we met up.) I was already seeing someone, I just needed to make new non-married, no-kids friends. \n So we met up the one time, and life got very busy for me. We tried to make plans to hang out again, but they never worked out. I was either busy (working, volunteering, running a business on the side) or broke, or both. I felt bad that I couldn't get it together to hang out with him, but that's life. \n I got an email from him last night saying basically that he was done trying to be friends because I could never get it together to hang out. I wrote back apologizing, pointing out that I had hardly seen any of my friends since work really picked up in August, and that he shouldn't take it personally. I said I'd leave an open door on the situation and we could try again later, and I respected his decision if he just wanted to stop having contact. \n He wrote back with some very personal information about himself, basically having a pity party. I tried to calm him down but to no avail. Then he told me he had taken a bunch of pills and was planning to drink a bottle of whiskey. I should have called someone, but I don't know where he lives or anything. I told him to be careful. He wrote back the next day saying nobody cared if he lived or died, and it had been a long time since anyone had. He said he'd try again later. \n He has no family, his parents are dead, and I get the idea he doesn't have a lot of friends. I know he needs professional help, but I hardly know the guy. I don't know if he's just saying these things for attention or if he's serious. \n Do I try to find out where he lives so I can find help for him? How? I thought about suggesting we hang out at his place, but don't have time to go to his place this week; I'm slated to do a lot of volunteering for Thanksgiving and I have a lot of work to do for a client as well. What kind of help can I even get him? He has no job, no insurance, he's not really a threat to himself or others (the magic sentence that got the cops to take away my old roommate's brother) so the state isn't any help. \n What do, reddit?", "id": "t3_mnapk", "summary": "Mild acquaintance is threatening suicide. I have no idea how get him some help."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "I couldn't sleep, it was 2 a.m. and I got a text saying my paycheck had been deposited so I got up and went to the store. I came back home an hour later and as usual parked my car in the lot behind my building. \n I live above some shops and as I was getting my groceries out I noticed someone trying the back doors of these shops. I froze, and saw some headlights coming down the alley. The car was moving very slowly and stopped behind the next building. I couldn't see the car, only the light from the headlights. The person trying the doors was about 75 feet away, but I had to go within 20 feet of him in order to get up the stairs to my apartment. \n The car I had at the time had a broken handle on the driver's door so I had to crawl across the passenger side, open the driver door, then go around to get in. There was no way I could make that happen before that guy was going to come at me. Besides, I was sure his buddy in the car would block me in. So I was stuck. \n I looked around for a floor lamp I'd thrown out the day before. I figured finding a weapon was my best choice here. It was gone. Then the guy said something to me that I didn't catch. My heart was pounding; he was heading my way. He said something else but I couldn't make out what it was. I did notice it was a woman's voice, and I thought maybe I could take her. I called back, \"Can I help you with something, lady?\" \n She walked towards me and I tried to slowly reach for a grocery bag, figuring if nothing else I could hit her with that. I probably wasn't going to win, but I was going to go down fighting. The car around the corner started pulling up. I guess the driver heard us. \n The woman advancing on me said, \"Just making sure everything's ok.\" This confused me, until she walked into the light and I saw she was a cop. \"Just another service we offer,\" she said. I looked over, and sure enough the car was a squad car. I got that weird deflated/excited feeling you get when your adrenaline realizes it was a false alarm. I said something stupid like \"thanks\" and she said, \"You shouldn't be out here at this hour. If I'd been up to no good I would have definitely taken an opportunity to rob a woman in an alley at 3 a.m.\" I mumbled something like \"ok,\" grabbed an armload of groceries and went up to my apartment.", "id": "t3_ks6zq", "summary": "Thought I was going to be beaten to death in a back alley. Turns out my would-be attacker was just a cop doing security checks."}, {"author": "megret", "content": "Some kid snatched my iPod out of my hands on the el. I chased him just far enough to see where he was going and called the cops. Since the kid thought he had my phone he wasn't expecting me to call the cops so he only ran a block. We both knew I wouldn't follow him into that neighborhood. \n So the cops catch the kid! A three others! And they had a stolen car, and at least seven stolen phones. Another guy had his phone stolen, he was in another squad car to ID the kid and we rode back to the police station together. He was about to head off to work when the call came in for my mugging. If I hadn't called, he wouldn't have gotten his phone back. He works for a non-profit, doing good in the world, and I'm so glad he didn't have to find money for a new phone! \n Also the kids I helped catch were part of a big theft ring on that train line. The cops were all really excited to have nabbed them. Just the tip of the ice burg, of course, but still good stuff. They even found my iPod. One of the cops said, \"Ma'am, but in the future please don't chase the thief.\" Another cop said to that cop, \"Morgan, you're just mad because she caught those kids and you couldn't.\" Tee hee. \n I had to throw down $20 for a cab to work because I get paid hourly and I was already pretty late. Then I got a $20 tip from a client at work! And bossman bought me my favorite lunch. Everything turned out ok, and I have a good story to tell on my big date tomorrow night.", "id": "t3_dv6ah", "summary": "I got mugged, helped catch the thief, and helped other folks get their fancy phones back. I dun good!"}]}
+{"author": "Masterchiefg7", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I'm a monster!](", "output": "You know, I run over pedestrians constantly. I run over the people after I steal their cars. I hit people to watch them ragdoll. If someone says something rude when I'm walking around I'll murder them. \n So I'm playing the other day and this dog starts biting at me and chasing after me. So I get pissed and run it over. I immediately felt like the single worst person."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4367", "history": [{"author": "Masterchiefg7", "content": "The intent would be the intent to take the item. Even if he was mistaken to whether the property was his or not, he would still have converted it if he took it and did damage considerable enough to it (trespass to chattels in that instance) or destroyed it and made it inherently unusable to the original owner. \n Think about it like trespass on land. That's an intentional tort right? But we still don't forgive those who wander onto the land of another even though they think it is their own or think it belongs to another. In that instance the intent is simply the intent to step onto the land, or the purpose to move your foot into that territory. \n In the case you talk about the defendant intentionally exercises dominion over the property. It happens to be the property of another, but that part isn't relevant to the intent. \n I'd need more information on how he got the papers and the painting to really flush this out, and whether or not the original person asked for their chattels to be returned to them.", "id": "cqeqt33", "summary": "The intent is the intent to exercise dominion over the chattels, not the intent to convert them specifically or that they happen to belong to another."}, {"author": "Masterchiefg7", "content": "They don't even match their own store's online. I had one instance where Walmart.com said they had a game for ~$20, and the in store price tag was $35. I showed them, on my phone, where it said that on their own site and they suggested I buy it there and have it shipped for in store pick up if I wanted it so badly.", "id": "c91r2s1", "summary": "Fuck Wal-Mart"}, {"author": "Masterchiefg7", "content": "I always suggest that you have them read over the basic rules at the very least. Pass around your copy (or make them buy their own, it's like $11 on amazon) of the starter set rules so that everyone knows what the essentials are. \n Before the first session, go over any outstanding points that they might have questions about or that you think might be confusing. Then open up the floor to questions as well. Try to settle any disputed matters before the game actually begins. \n Other than that, keep in mind that these people will have questions. I have a friend who has only played a few sessions with our group and still asks what he needs to roll or add for what skill. This is okay, and make sure that no one in the group-especially you-are criticizing them for this.", "id": "cklxbe7", "summary": "DnD is incredibly fun, and 5e is boiled down a lot, but it's still a learning process so you almost have to treat it like primary school."}, {"author": "Masterchiefg7", "content": "I don't think this will happen. It would cripple developers, as if they don't use the additional hardware they'd be criticized by those who bought the update and don't want it to be useless. If they did use it they'd be criticized by those with the first two iterations and don't have a cpp, which would be rare at that point. \n Nintendo has purposeful made their own games, which some might work better with another joystick like Luigi's Mansion, not use the cpp to make it seem less than necessary.", "id": "c9hrbq4", "summary": "Probably won't happen until there is a new handheld."}, {"author": "Masterchiefg7", "content": "I had a friend who was talking to me about Pokémon X/Y, saying he could play it on his old DS. I tried to correct him, but he was insistent the advert had said it would work on both. I pulled it up on my phone and Atty the end it says available on 3DS and 2DS. \"See!\" He exclaimed. I then had to explain to my fairly technologically literate friend the difference.", "id": "ccl2964", "summary": "People think the 2DS is just a DS."}, {"author": "Masterchiefg7", "content": "I'm not surprised in the least. In spite of the constant hate they get, this has nothing to do with their shoddy business tactics. Within ten miles of where I live there are three, one of which was just built. One on each side of town, and now one to the north as well. The one in the mall does absolutely no business and even routes all their midnight launches to the more popular store in the east. The store in the north is so new and so separated from most areas of residency that more people prefer to just stick with the one to the east since they know it better and it's practically the same distance.", "id": "c89mn6e", "summary": "Gamestop is literally competing themselves out of business in certain areas."}, {"author": "Masterchiefg7", "content": "My only response to that would be that learning how to play the game is hard and VERY subjective. You could read the Player's Handbook (5e) from front to back and have a decent enough understanding of how things work, but when you get to the table your DM has a house rule that overrides a main rule (ie, one of my DMs says ties go to the player, while the book says a tie results in no change in the situation). \n I think a large part of learning to play DnD is getting your hands on the base rules, giving them a quick once over, then sinking or swimming into a game with some friends. Learning to DM, on the other hand, I feel requires quite a bit of player experience. It's not easy to just start up a group with people who have never played before. I was lucky enough to get into a group with two or three \"seasoned\" DMs. From them I learned Pathfinder and 3.5. Now that 5e is out, I picked up the rules and I'm running our group's first campaign through that.", "id": "cklwzn2", "summary": "DnD is subjective. There are certain basic rules that will apply to most games, but not all. So teaching someone HOW to play would quickly become overridden by how the game works in real life."}, {"author": "Masterchiefg7", "content": "It's based on a manga to start with. The game series was released before the television show even aired. And do you not get what nostalgia is? It's this fondness of something that you have grown with and that is a large part of your past. Since most redditors were kids in the 90's, we're pretty much the target audience when older jokes and a sense of strategy are put into Pokemon.", "id": "c7tpdec", "summary": "Because nostalgia."}, {"author": "Masterchiefg7", "content": "The katana sweep can be used effectively. When a monster trips, my roommate stays clear from me and finds a way to get hits in while begging me to finish my spirit combo. He knows it will up my damage, do quite a bit itself, and help cut whatever part I focus it on.", "id": "c9z27yd", "summary": "All moves are useful when used correctly."}, {"author": "Masterchiefg7", "content": "I have a similar story. I'm not going to lie, I used to have my friends pirate and burn everything for me about seven years ago before I got Half Life 2. And at that point in my life I absolutely fucking HATED Steam. See, I had dial up internet. Along with the incredibly annoying sounds, updating my newest game purchase and getting \"Offline\" mode to work were a bitch. \n Flash forward about three years. Left 4 Dead went on sale on the Christmas sale. My friends were all playing it. My new gaming setup was a laptop. I jet over to my friend's house, buy the game for about twenty bucks or so, download it in a flash, meanwhile Steam reminds me that I own Half Life 2 and a few other things such as Gary's Mod and The Orange Box. All I had installed on the laptop up to this point was pirated, so upon seeing my old games still existing and whatnot, I install them. I also kept up with the steam Christmas sale that year, and from that point forward I have been an addict. The only games I've pirated since that point have been more to demo than to actually play, and because of Steam and the fact that it has updated and stayed so true to me ever since I did away with my shitty internet, I have only regretted one purchase. And that was Brink. Fuck Brink.", "id": "c5e8px9", "summary": "I know that feel."}, {"author": "Masterchiefg7", "content": "Alright, so I just wrapped up the last nineteen episodes of Code Geass...and I'm very distraught by the ending. I'm not the only one that is left feeling like LeLouch is most certainly still alive right? Jeremiah didn't act to defend LeLouch, and I feel that even if that was his wish that his protection would come first and foremost. Also, the Code that the Emperor of Brittania had simply dissappeared...so where did it go? Would it not go to LeLouch since he performed the act that killed him, making LeLouch immortal? Then there is the flashback that Nunally experiences touching LeLouch, very much like those that people experienced touching C.C. when she was vulnerable. LeLouch pointlessly used his Geass on hundreds of people at a time to turn them into slaves, most of whom served Brittania for him anyway, leading me to believe he was strengthening his power as to use the Code to make him immortal. C.C. also is speaking to someone at the end, and we find that Marianne, who she spoke to earlier, was actually still alive and that C.C. wasn't crazy, so it wouldn't be implausible for LeLouch to still be alive. She also mentions that he isn't \"alone\" or estranged as the power of the king made others, indicating he has an \"accomplice\" in her, right? Especially since he is alone given that the rest of the world aside from a few who know completely hate him. Then there is the paper crane, a symbol of hope and wishes crafted by Nunally, which meant much more to LeLouch than C.C. Why would she carry that around? I believe it to be a possession of LeLouch. Finally, why is the driver of the carriage so thickly veiled? If they live in a hopeful world where crime and drugs and other things have all but vanished, clearly that driver has a secret he needs to protect other than his giant cart of hay. I believe that to be LeLouch driving.", "id": "t3_v5ej8", "summary": "Lelouch couldn't have died for a lot of reasons and it would make me sad."}, {"author": "Masterchiefg7", "content": "Just a bit of a background on this, but last night one of my party members decided to roll intimidate on the party members, who failed their will saves. They were fairly unhappy about over half the party being coerced into doing what one member wanted to do. \n Next up one of my players made a deal with a devil to save herself from mummy rot. She was given three options, and the one she picked was to kill an innocent person in the name of that devil a week in exchange for her cure and her life. I made her change her  alignment from neutral to neutral evil, which she protested an I did not let up on. She proceeded to complain constantly, which all of the other party members began criticizing her for. \n Well, she was presented with a few opportunities to complete her pact, but failed. The devil showed up and stole her soul and  infected her with vampirism. This happened in a split second in the eyes of the party, as the devil stopped time around them when it happened. There was some pretty convenient timing...she disposed of the ceremonial dagger she was supposed to use to sacrifice the innocent by jamming it into a demonic altar and snatching a book off of said altar. When that happened, time stopped and when it started back up her skin was pale and she had a cross of demon blood on her head from the transaction. \n Our barbarians first reaction was to strike her with his silvered +1 axe, and he landed a critical hit. This killed her almost instantly, and the rest of the party began savagely shocking//shooting/bashing her corpse. The cleric, on the other hand, heard the voice of what he believed to be his god telling him to drag her toward the blood. When he did this, the rest of the party started attacking HIM as well. \n They struck the cleric with a nonlethal blow, and then the Warlock of the party continued to shock his corpse brining him very near death before anyone stopped bickering long enough about \"what to do with him\" to notice. \n At this point our warlock makes a blood sacrifice at the demonic altar and that turns the other two towards him menacingly. \n As a DM, this is the point where i stepped in. I realize that a chunk of this is my fault. I expected the Monk-turned-vampire to create tension, although I did not expect almost immediate death. I also did not expect that they would turn so quickly on the CLERIC, the only holy-man of the party who tried to help them.", "id": "t3_2hmngj", "summary": "I waited to step in until half my party was trying to or had successfully killed the other half. When do you step in, or do you?"}, {"author": "Masterchiefg7", "content": "Load up the game, scroll through the terms and conditions for literally 5 minutes, click okay, pick up my controller . . . annnnndddd it doesn't work. I went into the settings, adjusted things, messed around with stuff for a while, couldn't find a setting for a primary controller. Right as I was about to give up I grabbed my Warthog Hotas out of curiosity. Sure enough, my flight stick is controlling my menu options. Unplugged the HOTAS and had no further issues.", "id": "t3_4efy7l", "summary": "Unplug your other controllers if you plan to use a 360 controller or another controller. Also, I might try a flight stick run in the future."}]}
+{"author": "Cormophyte", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post People place way too much importance on names.", "output": "Actually, I kinda agree with you. I'm American, I make chit chat with the waitstaff in the places I frequent, even eventually became irl friends with some. But if I'm just eating somewhere random, who cares if either of us know our names. As long as the food comes out hot, the tip is right, and nobody pulls some crap in the meantime we're both good people."}], "user_id": "longlamp_1480", "history": [{"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "They're both stupid. Banning gun-shaped things or going \"bang bang\" in the hallways and the rest of that over sensitive, overprotective nonsense is dumb.  Also , going out of your way to try to be the mostest infuriated by anything that hints at restricting anything about guns (even imaginary ones) is dumb.", "id": "cb0hvv2", "summary": "Everyone involved is trying to influence rules about imaginary guns. They're all idiots."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "On top of what others have said, you also have to remember that their are probably other cases either coming down the pipe in these other states. The Supreme Court taking the this up risks all the states and slows the process down. Unless it's a slam dunk I'd bet that this is the most pragmatic outcome.", "id": "cl1yly0", "summary": "Legal shit's complicated, yo."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "Took the GF at the time to a party at a friend's house several weeks after I starting dating her. A bunch of girls (and guys) are there, they're frequently seen acquaintances who I've never had sex with or dated. I had never showed any signs of cheating or not wanting to be with the GF. She goes upstairs to go to the bathroom before we all head out to go bar hopping, she's not shitfaced but not sober. Comes back down, huge scene outside, evidently all the girls want to fuck me, evidently it's is a bad thing she's dating a sex god. I don't have a clue what she's talking about, wont give details, what the hell. Missed going out with my friends. \n Stayed with her. She broke up with me several times over the summer. Once she stopped responding for a week and blamed me for not calling her after the first day. Not bringing her around my friends was a huge deal and she just didn't get why I wasn't excited about the idea (it was, really, but my friends and I drink and she looses her mind every time she has two beers). We start drifting apart because she's nuts and then I cheat on her before I get the balls up to break up for reals. We brake up and I quickly decide to take my new freedom and bike from New England to Florida. \n Around New Jersey she wants me to get back together. I am sliiiightly into the idea of having sex with her again, she insists I get on a plane and fly back right away, I tell her she's nuts, I'm on a bicycle and I have a goal. Also, I'd checked Facebook between her first \"Heeeey, how's it going out there?\" call and the \"Come to me right now, you're just screwing everything down the east coast aren't you?!?\" call and noticed she's in new ski slope pictures with some guy. \n Skip ahead six months, I check her Facebook for the first time since that day in NJ. She'd married that guy in the pictures, and was pregnant.", "id": "c6mdm0k", "summary": "I stuck my dick in crazy, because crazy was cute and had a nice butt, but I never let crazy get its claws in me. Now some dude has a wife and baby mamma who was sending me road fap material while they were dating and was livid because I wouldn't abandon a bicycle trip to run back to crazy."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "Source: Any guy who's gotten accused of cheating constantly until they did. \n Though, really, it's never about the particular accusation. It's about the hatred and resentment being mistrusted for no reason cultivates. It'll eventually lead to anything from being broken up with to being cheated on (because he wants to break up but he's too much of a pussy to deal with it).", "id": "cb8duxy", "summary": "Mistrust sours relationships, soured relationships are cheaty relationships."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "I DOUBT. Mostly because I noticed a similarly focused study published late last year or earlier this year (that I'm not sourcing at 12am) that found plenty of skeptics. Also I'm a pessimist and I don't have faith in my average to below average fellow human's ability to learn new things quickly.", "id": "c6oq15d", "summary": "The swing in opinion is too damn fast!"}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "Of course he had some issues. I think the main problem we have with guns in this country is that we have a bad attitude toward them, we invest too much emotion into them. I'd like to see people take a much more dispassionate stance when it comes to guns in general because being dispassionate leads to better judgements, both legislatively and in the heat of the moment.", "id": "c7bpfqk", "summary": "Disclosure: Shooting guns is a hell of a lot of fun, and I'm neither afraid of them nor want them to go away. I just wish people would think of them less like their cars and more like spatulas."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "Well, the best way is to use a rice cooker. It's so much easier to hit a button and ignore it for a half hour. But for stovetop it's still easy, but slightly finicky. \n There are two things I've seen a lot of people get wrong. It sounds nit picky, but there are reasons why they're so important. They're also directly related so if you don't do either you're really screwed yourself. \n The first is that you  have  to use the correct ratio of rice/water for the type of rice you're cooking and how \"cooked\" you want it. It's not something you want to eyeball at all. It's usually somewhere around 1.25-1.5 cups of water for every cup of rice depending on the rice variety and how much is lost from your particular pot during the boil. It's also really easy to find the correct amount for a particular variety online and it's a very good idea. You can also probably find it on the back of the bag but not always, my sack of medium grain has directions, my basmati doesn't. Rice will absorb a lot more water than you'd ever want it to (unless you're making porridge) and even a little extra will cause consistency problems, so definitely measure it out. \n The second thing I've seen people get wrong is that you don't want to touch the lid after you get to a simmer, and you definitely never uncover it during the boil. You lose heat and, much more importantly, water when you do that. Again, you want a particular amount of water to have been absorbed by the rice when it's done depending on your tastes. Let more water escape than you were planning on and you have undercooked rice. The more you let escape the more uncooked it is. \n Now that that's over there's the procedure. \n You should rinse the rice in the pot a few times to get rid of the dust left behind from milling. Just fill the pot with water, swish it around with your fingertips a bit, and dump the water. Repeat that until the dumped water is relatively clear. If you don't rinse the rice the dust will form a slightly gummy film and while it's not at all a disaster, it might be something that puts you off your final product. No real need to use a strainer, just let the rice settle and don't pour it off so fast that the rice goes with it. \n Now, this will rinse the added vitamins off of enriched rice. The vitamins are in powdered form and are not actually  in  the grains of rice. But if you're not relying on the rice for those vitamins then rinse away. \n So, now you have rinsed rice in a pot and you've added the appropriate amount of water to it. Maybe add a pinch of salt for flavor. So now you throw that thing on the stove on high and get it boiling. That boil is only to make sure you have a pot of uniformly hot water, though, because you're going to set it on a simmer the second you start getting large rolling bubbles. \n You want the simmer to be pretty low. In my pot, for example, I go for a steady amount of bubbles about half to a quarter of the size of a dime. 20%-ish of the flame on my gas stove. You're not trying to cook the rice with heat as much as you're keeping the water hot so it'll get absorbed. \n Don't lift the lid. \n Now you wait. 12-15 minutes (or even 20) is a rule of thumb but it's going to vary depending on just how high your heat is, your pot lid, altitude, whether Vishnu is pleased with your offering, etc...etc. This will take a little trial and error, but a good starting place is 15 minutes, or the back of your rice bag, or online because it  really  varies with variety and your particular simmer. You're going to find that you'll want the water level to be well below the top of the rice (practically gone, but not quite) with some starchy bubbles still coming through when you kill the heat. \n Don't lift the lid. \n Now you wait. Ten minutes is good, fifteen's probably better. You're just making sure the small amount of remaining water has been turned to steam and either has escaped or been absorbed by the rice. After it's rested you'll want to take a fork to it and fluff it all up because it'll still be slightly more moist at the bottom of the pot than the top and you don't want the bottom getting gummy while it sits around. \n That's about it. The most important points are the amount of water you start with and making sure you dial in the right amount of time to simmer it for and to stay consistent once you find the right mix. That'll take a little trial and error but once you get close you'll have decent rice. \n Now, all of this assumes that you're not cooking it correctly. So what if you've got all this down? Well, definitely shop around for rice and see if you might like another brand or length grain more than the one you're using. There's a lot more variation in quality than you might think and some of your trouble might be that you just don't like the brand. For example, my girlfriend hates calrose. She likes plenty of other varieties of medium grain rice but she  hates  the texture of calrose. Maybe hit your local Asian grocery if there's one nearby and grab a bag of something you haven't tried before. You might be surprised. \n Anyway, hope this helped and that there aren't too many mistakes. Typing something this long on an iPad is a pain and the paragraph breaks are probably atrocious.", "id": "ckka6i2", "summary": "Look up the amount of water per cup to use for the variety, rinse it, bring to a boil and immediately simmer, simmer almost all the water away, rest for 15 minutes, fluff with fork. Don't lift the goddamn lid until  after  it's rested, seriously."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "I'd say the biggest practical difference is that you as an individual taxpayer have almost zero impact on...well...anything. You and I have no public face or position that anyone pays attention to and nobody in the broader public associates you personally with an idea in any meaningful way. \n As the leader of a party which has the abolition of copyright as one of its basic tenets she has a responsibility to promote that viewpoint, especially since the party is just now emerging out of political obscurity. The takedown notices are a talking point for those wishing to undermine the party goals, so she's hurting the party for her personal profits, and nascent political powers are fragile enough as it is.", "id": "c6ac61g", "summary": "She's entitled to flex copyright, but is it best for the party? Nup."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "Not that you haven't had a shitty time with cops personally, but personal experience doesn't change the fact that if you weren't white you would be a lot closer to the middle of your race's statistics than you are being the whitey that you are. Just look at the sentencing statistics for similar charges when sorted by race. We white folks make out like bandits. Paroled, community serving, not locked up as often bandits.", "id": "c7oxccs", "summary": "It's not racist to state facts, even if they're generalizations, if you're speaking generally."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "It's literally not be same thing and you're showing bias by representing it that way. Proportional, by congressional district, and winner take all are three completely different ways to apportion electoral votes. While it's true that the dems were trying to shave votes off of the total, which is kinda shady, they were gunning for proportional and not by district. If the republicans were trying to make the states proportional you'd have a better point, but by doing it by district they're shaving, and then shaving the shaving all over again. \n Of course now you're going to say \"Look, see! Stupid brainwashed lib.\" Well, when you make an incorrect statement and dare someone to tell you you're wrong sometimes they tell you you're wrong.", "id": "c83ub4n", "summary": "The dems would have made every person's vote worth an even share of an electoral vote to get more. The republicans want to make some people's votes worth less than others, but intentionally only the other side's votes. Both completely gimmicky, only one \"unfair\". They're not the same thing if you know what you're looking at. \n Quick edit add: Instead of doing what I expect you to do you judging by your first post you (or someone else) could make a reasoned argument as to why you think proportional is the same as by district."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "There's two possible motives I see for putting a TV out for \"free\". You want someone to get this thing out of your way and don't care who gets it or you want someone to get it out of your way and you want someone who needs it to have it. The way to make reasonably sure that the second wish is accounted for would be to wait a little while to give the TV-less a chance to get in on it. I assume OP didn't wait for a person who actually needed a free TV to see it (and it's college so somewhere in that dorm is someone without a TV who watches every dollar they spend) because I don't have any faith in humanity and lots of people are thoughtless and/or selfish.", "id": "c90es13", "summary": "This isn't an atrocity or literally equal to Hitler, but I assume OP probably sold something some poor kid living on Pell grants and student loans could have actually used."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "Sitting in a NY bar at 22 with my father, brother, and a smattering of family friends of various ages. We're all getting ready to go to a small event and having a few drinks at the hotel bar. Nice place, low lighting. Everyone's spread out around the place and I'm sitting one bar stool away from a friend of the family in a sparsely populated bar having a pretty concerted conversation. A good looking woman sits down between us, I lean backwards and continue talking. \n When we all get up and walk out of the bar I have all six of them immediately turn toward me and the first thing my father says is, \"What was that?\" \n \"Huh?\" \n \"The blonde that sat down right in front of you and started flipping your hair at you.\" \n \"What about her?\" \n facepalm", "id": "c7im5ma", "summary": "I had a hot woman sit literally in front of me and tried to get my attention and not only was I the only person within 20 feet not to notice, I leaned back in my stool to talk around her."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "Both the owner and the bartender could easily be correct from two different points of view. \n The bartender had to do something about the drunk, but that could have been one a number of things ranging from not serving that person when they walked in to calling them a cab after they were obviously drunk. The one option on the table that would be both good for public safety bad for business was getting that patron arrested. The article doesn't mention whether or not she tried to get the patron a cab, but if the first thing she thought of was to call the cops she lacks the skills required for bar tending. No bar can afford to be known as the place you go to if you want to be pulled over for suspicion of DUI. You don't want her tending bar if that's what she did, you want the person who will call the cops as a last resort. \n Of course we don't know what actually happened because the article wants you to be mad at the bar owner.", "id": "c8lmiw3", "summary": "Her job was both to both keep the guy from driving and to pay attention to the reputation of the business. Depending on details that aren't in the article she might have ignored one half of her job and deserved to be fired. \n Or maybe not."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "Well, the special case of what to do with people too sick to follow the letter of the law is a bit out of scope. Also the nitty gritty of getting into specific exceptions...that's for the scholars (who should probably be Jewish, something I don't happen to be) to decide. It's the people you were excluding when you said \"most Orthodox Jews\" that my point would be concerned with. They'd be the people taking the letter but not the spirit into consideration. \n I think anyone who has a set of very specific strictures laid out before them, accepts them, and says \"That's what I believe I should do because that's what my deity believes is good\" has a responsibility to not only what the words they say but what they mean. \n What if I had a roommate and I told him (as a crude, loose example but you get the point) that I would really love it if he didn't move any of my papers out of order, so he throws a ball near them and gets his dog to knock them over. Then he looks at me and goes \"Wha? I never moved any of them.\" Sure, I never specified the dog... \n I just figure that if someone believes in a God, and they think God told them to not move the papers, you stick a rock on the papers if you think there's going to be a stiff breeze.", "id": "c6o0w40", "summary": "Not saying your religion is stupid, saying when people try to game a religion it's like trying to argue with a freight train, and that seems pretty stupid."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "I think he's implying that this is something that wouldn't happen during the last few years when the wingnuts like Bachmann were getting all the rope they wanted. Now that the situation's tightened up a little people like O'Reilly feel a bit more free to criticize the obviously wrong like her. \n I kinda agree. He's an asshole, but he's good at riding the popular wave.", "id": "c8zu1kf", "summary": "He's getting ahead of her eventual downfall so he can seem on the right side of the Bachmann in the future."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "True, but they're really two different things. One is potentially, possibly, sorta, maybe legal but probably not (although we'll get away with it because we have a lot of money and guns) and kinda, sorta, half-ass acknowledged by some people around the administration and is widely known to be true and directly attributable to our government. The other is possible, has no direct evidence, and is definitely pure conspiracy theory.", "id": "c803h0r", "summary": "I'm not saying targeted killings are ok, but they sure as hell aren't conspiracy theories."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "That's the answer to the question \"did one player make contact with the other,\" which is completely obvious. As someone who also doesn't know the ins and outs of the penalties in this game I am no closer to understanding if OP and the announcer's opinion that this was an obvious penalty (since the offending player was obviously trying to kick the ball and not the player) is rules-based fact or conjecture.", "id": "c913n26", "summary": "No American knows what constitutes a penalty in soccer."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "Absolutely a dumb assumption to make. As someone who has racked up thousands of miles on a bike in the past few years I can quickly come up with at least four times I know I've almost been killed. \n One was an unfortunate encounter when a scumbag oddly-shaped soft shoulder conspired with the setting sun and a sweaty pair of glasses to make me do a sweet dirt ramp jump at 20mph on a bike loaded for touring next to a lot of traffic. That sucked, but wasn't anyone's fault but mine, luck's, and shitty road designers. The other three times were completely the fault of the guy in a car and two of them happened while I was riding in a straight line at a steady pace. \n I can't even count the number of times I've been cut off, had to stop short because someone decided I was probably doing half the speed I actually was (or just couldn't wait literally two seconds more for me to pass), been passed a biiiit too close (if I can knee your car door without taking my foot off the peddle you're too close). I'm not saying you're not a good driver or that you don't watch out, or that I haven't been passed by hundreds of thousands of drivers that do a good job, or that some cyclists cause their own problems. But there are plenty of morons and odd convergences of circumstance and shitty luck out there and I've single-handedly helped plenty of people avoid some insanely expensive hikes in their I insurance rates.", "id": "c9a9uei", "summary": "Don't be arrogant, people suck at driving, too."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "The two fights that stand out in my mind with the worst intensity/stupidity ratio are from the same relationship. \n The first fight stemmed from a three day period that began with a phone call and text message that were not answered nor returned by her. After three days I called (or texted again, I can't remember which) and a huge argument took place which revolved around the atrocity I had committed by not calling her during that period in which she just decided not to contact me. I asked why she hadn't replied and she didn't have an answer for that. I'm not even talking a \"good\" answer, she just literally said something to the effect of \"I didn't\" which I later interpreted to actually mean \"I was being incredibly needy and wanted you to get a little desperate before I called back, but when you didn't show desperation I got mad.\" \n So, later on the relationship degrades due to similar displays of fabricated self-destructive neediness and random jealousy and we break up. I decide a few months afterward, having no pressing responsibilities or relationships, that \"screw it, I'll ride a bicycle down the east coast of the US.\" So, flash forward a little while and I'm somewhere around the NJ/Penn border. I start getting texts from her. She wants to get back together. Not only that but she wants me to fly out immediately to meet her on the work trip/vacation out west that she's currently on (a trip I was planning to take with her before we broke up). \n Now, she knows I'm on my bike many miles from home and would have to abort my trip to fly out to meet her. Not only that but it's not like we broke up for no reason. I'm a bit of an idiot and getting back together in some shape or form when we were both back home didn't actually sound too horrible (good sex and I have a high tolerance for bad behavior) but there's no way I was just going to pack my bike in a box and fly out west because she decided that she missed me more than she was maladjusted that week. Evidently her mind processed my reluctance to drop everything and rush out to her as a solid sign that I was getting laid in random towns from Delaware Water Gap all the way to Key West and all the strange was why I wouldn't just box up my bike and pack it in. Needless to say the short but intense argument that ensued consisted almost exclusively of me being incredulous and amused at that turn of logic and her being very angry. I wasn't mad...I just couldn't believe what I was hearing and was very much over her. \n Fun fact: I had checked her Facebook twice between first breaking up and unfriending her in a Facebook Spring Cleaning. The first time was when she first started dropping hints that she was thinking fondly of me during my trip (cell phone vagina pictures leave little to speculation). It had been two months since we had talked so I was curious. At that time I noticed that she had some extremely recent very couply-looking photos on a ski slope with a guy I didn't recognize, which was kinda suspicious for someone so interested in talking to me every night. The second time I checked was about four months after that and she was married and pregnant. \n I had considered warning the guy but with her pregnant I figured it was too late. Nothing against the guy (never did anything to me) but I also didn't  really  care enough to wade into that hornet's nest. \n Shit, this really needs a", "id": "c9p8o96", "summary": "Girl decides I need to call her more often even if she doesn't feel like calling back, then she decides my epic endeavors aren't as important as her getting laid  right now ."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "If you find yourself in a lot of situations where there's a great deal of pure luck as to whether you or the other tank gets hit with a shell first you're playing the game recklessly. There's nothing anyone can do about reckless playing and there's a lot you can do to make sure you don't get surprised by random tanks in firing range.", "id": "c8hiuks", "summary": "Sure, you're going to get surprised sometimes, but that shouldn't really be the norm unless you're not watching out"}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "Have you looked at your city's bike paths? Unless you're moving in a straight line along one of the rivers you will  never  get where you're going. Best I can do for you is half bike routes, one quarter bike lanes, one quarter slamming my elbows into oncoming traffic and praying they don't swerve  too  hard.", "id": "c9aq6cf", "summary": "Your city is bad for actually traveling from place to place by bicycle (which you'd realize if you spend any time trying to do so) and you should feel bad (for insinuating otherwise)."}, {"author": "Cormophyte", "content": "I'm a 6'4\", dark skinned, broad shouldered Italian American man who frequently shaves his head and who looks terribly anorexic if I drop down to 185lbs. I am not a frail-looking individual (not bragging, just setting the scene). \n One day I was fiddling with my brand new Nexus One while taking a smoke break outside the office. In the midst of my fiddling I noticed a teeny-tiny little bright green praying mantis, about the size of a dime, sitting on the smoker station. Having lived in a New England city I've never seen anything of the sort, so I was terribly excited. Seeing how I had a shiny new camera phone that I hadn't tested out yet I squat down to take a picture. I inch closer...closer....closer....and then the little bastard lept onto my hand. \n Being a born and bred city boy this was the very last thing I was expecting and damn sure wasn't going to act in a reasonable manner, so I let out a little yelp and shook my hand as hard as I could to get it off before it burrowed into my skin, or something. This resulted in my flinging my half-week old, newly released phone face down onto the concrete. Smashed screen. Glad nobody saw. Looked like a pansy.", "id": "t3_v8uwp", "summary": "Big man shrieks and smashes phone at slightest contact with god's creation."}]}
+{"author": "SmartSexSlave", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post you don't care about me\" is a useless accusation made in relationships. Instead, focus on the one issue at hand. \"I statements,\" not \"you statements.\" Arguing is a learned skill.", "output": "Also wanted to add that a person's immediate reaction to \"you don't care about me,\" is usually not, \"Ah, this person is upset about Action A and wants me to say sorry for Action A or change Action A.\" Instead, people's natural reactions are \"Wtf, I've done Actions B, C, D, and E that clearly show that I care. This person seems to have forgotten those actions.\" And that's what they feel upset about."}], "user_id": "longlamp_6485", "history": [{"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "I think another user already pointed out the heart of the problem: \n \"The problem isn't that she doesn't desire sex, but rather that she doesn't care that she doesn't desire sex.\" \n When you express that you're worried there hasn't been any intimacy for 6 months and her response isn't anything along the lines of \"Let's see how we can get this to work,\" then you probably want to leave. I mean, you're 21. I guarantee you that even though it would suck if you left, it's good to catch this red-flag early. \n A super active sex-life isn't important to everyone and that's fine. Let those people find each other. But if she isn't worried about what her birth control is possibly doing or whatever other medical reason  might  be the cause of the dead bedroom, she isn't going to make any efforts when it gets really tough (i.e. kids, after-labor, working more hours, etc).", "id": "cfhp7b3", "summary": "When you already know that your sex-life is important to you, 21 is too young to settle for someone who doesn't care to make theirs a priority."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "I'd leave just for the \"fuck off\" comment. I grew up with verbal and physical abuse. Now that I'm adult, I don't need to choose people in my life that will treat me the same way. I don't care if someone swears. But there's a huge difference between \"I'm so fucking pissed off right now\" and \"fuck off\" or \"fuck you.\" \n If someone's going to love me, they need to be able to love me even when they are mad. I hope you respect yourself OP and walk away from this guy. \n As a side note, similar to your BF, my dad once took my laptop and smashed it while angry. I was 18, walked out of the house and didn't answer my parents calls for days. My dad sent me an email and said he would never hit me again and would replace my laptop and that he was embarrassed. It was the first time he ever said sorry, admitted he'd done something wrong, and it was the last time he ever lost his temper on me physically. I often wonder what my life would have been like if I'd taken that kind of stand at 7 years old or at 13 years old.", "id": "cfic46q", "summary": "Walk away and let him learn how he needs to change in order to make relationships work."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "I ended up asking my master if I could call him master the first day I met him. It kind of took me aback because I've never had the desire to say it right away like that. I don't think he knew back then the extent of what that meant to me (he may have been running for the hills if he knew \"oh god oh god oh god this stranger loves me\"). \n But he knows now at the very least, that it means I'm extremely dedicated to him and love him on a level that only a slave could.", "id": "cfek7kh", "summary": "Sometimes it takes  less  than months or years to know that this is the person you want to belong to."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "Was she abused as a kid? Sometimes abused kids are so used to a cycle of mad-relief-mad-relief that they manage to replicate the same cycle in relationships. \n Alternatively, she could have had a past relationship where the boyfriend did that to her, she learned the cycle, and now it's her thing. The only way to fix this is to recognize the problem and go against your reflex reaction. \n Another possibility is that it's you that starts fights and she's very dedicated to the relationship, so she's doing everything to feel like you aren't mad at her anymore. You did pinpoint that you're  also  nicer/happier after fights.", "id": "cftgma0", "summary": "One of you started the cycle and now you're both enabling it."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "lol, just 4 attempts at contact? :P \n When I first moved away to college, I put my phone on silent and slept in on one Saturday morning Freshman year and woke up to 47 missed calls from Nmom. I called back in a panic, sure that someone had died. \n ...No. My Nmom just couldn't handle not knowing exactly what I was doing. I'm not entirely sure if that's an N trait or a very over-protective trait. \n But the \"tactic\" of calling someone selfish/uncaring for not doing something they want is an N trait. And it's terrible. I learned it to be a FLEA of mine in my early teen years. It's something I've slowly shaken off since recognizing it though. \n I also really never catered to my mom's demand that I call her every night and slowly she did back off. Now she doesn't call me at all anymore \"because I know you're busy and will call when you get the chance.\" She genuinely only calls when she needs an important matter taken care of and such.", "id": "cfqxrvj", "summary": "Don't call more and give her what she wants. That's reinforcing the idea of \"call her selfish and she'll do what I want\". Instead, stick to your boundaries and she'll learn that you will call/text when you're ready."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "I think it can go either way about their  own  sexuality. Though, they might take one extreme or another (either be very overt or very prude). \n I do think it's more common that Nparents invade  your  privacy about your sexuality though. Because N people don't understand boundaries. My parents would get upset if I had any locked doors (including the bathroom). I remember countless times I was walked in on naked by my dad (and I'm a girl) or got yelled at for having a locked door. My dad once went on a rampage about how it was disgusting that I let a guy finger me (which he found out by hiring a PI on me). It  so uncomfortable . He went on and on about how it's a pleasure for the guy (and apparently not me...) and that I shouldn't just let that happen willy-nilly. \n For me, there was also a cross-cultural difference in conjunction with NPD traits. Being and Indian girl, sex was something I should feel ashamed of and people who do it before marriage are really gross people. My parents were each other's first and only after marriage, so I think it's hard for them to grasp the idea of anything different. Somewhere around 19 my dad sent me an email saying he knows that I \"might be following American culture and to please just be safe about my choices.\" It was maybe one of the few times I respected him as a father because I didn't feel like he was crossing any boundaries (reading an email is way better than sitting in a chair and being yelled at about how awful being fingered at 15 is). My mom still thinks I'm a virgin though. Even though one time I specifically said I needed to go to the pharmacy to pick up my BC while visiting home. Her N personality managed to convince herself that I was only using BC for \"clear skin.\" Amazing.", "id": "cfq3ewo", "summary": "I think Nparents will ask intrusive questions about their children's sexuality, but I think the trait of their own sexuality (whether overt or prude) is probably independent of NPD."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "It's definitely sexual harassment. \n In grad school, I started to get pretty friendly with one of my officemates. I then told him that it was probably better to keep things platonic b/c we work together and I'm still vulnerable from my ex. Fast forward a month (during which was the heavy 'pursuing') and I get wasted at our department picnic. I don't really remember the details but I'm waking up next to him on our office floor extremely pissed off. \n When we talked about it he said I was \"clearly into it\" and I said \"by what scale? Did what I say when I was sober not mean anything to you?\" I don't know if I was conscious for it or not. I don't even remember biking back to the office. :/ \n My point to the story is that guys who \"pester\" for sex after you've said \"no,\" are generally not of the thread you want in the military. Later on my roomie mentioned she had a crush on her TA that just so happened to be this guy. I didn't know how to tell her what happened...to me I felt very violated and I just had this gut feeling that he wasn't a good person. I tried to tell her this and I tried telling her about the drunk-night thing, but she doesn't share my views on it. They ended up going out and he really hurt her emotionally later. Not in just a \"I don't love you anymore\" kind of way...but a strange really emotionally abusive way.", "id": "cfjjc9x", "summary": "Relatively good\" people leave someone alone at the words \"no\"."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "Your GF is lying. I'll tell you why. \n The first time I felt like I was going \"crazy\" (years ago), I immediately went to the hospital. I was fucking terrified. I was diagnosed as bipolar, borderline, and possibly mildly schizophrenic. I was then put on meds, and life was  so much better . Most importantly, I felt like a good person again. When I wasn't on meds, I was always between an \"out-of-control\" state and a \"guilty\" state. It was  hell . \n A few years later, I felt like I was so normal, I didn't need meds anymore. I went off them and was okay for a few months. Then started the \"craziness\" again. I'd hear voices, but they're from PTSD (physical and sexual abuse from father and then an escalation from there). I tried to ignore it for some time before I realized I was doing things I didn't want to do repeatedly. That's when I knew I had to go back on meds and needed severe help. \n Even during this, I tried to drop hints to my BF that something was very wrong with me. He knew about the voices long before I had to come clean about certain things. More importantly, those voices are very independent of the things I ended up doing. The voices were of people who had hurt me before. They would escalate the fear or paranoia I felt at the time, but they didn't dictate what I did. Instead, I'd have more \"intrusive thoughts,\" that would lead to my \"out-of-control\" state. Then shit hit the fan, I'd come down from that state, and I'm left with a plate of guilt. \n Anyway, I didn't cheat on my BF, but I did do something I consider super awful. When he asked me, I came clean immediately and expressed guilt. I didn't really want to bring my mental issues into it until I realized that he didn't understand why I didn't stop (it was an action I did  repeatedly ) if I genuinely felt bad. \n So I tried to explain how it's an intrusive thought process and that for a time period, I really feel out of control. I'm still aware of what's going on though, hence the extreme guilt and anxiety attacks that happen later. He knows that I see a psychiatrist weekly and that I take 3 meds for this (lamictal, lithium, and seroquel). I also told him that I still wasn't better and I had \"impulses.\" I said I couldn't promise not having those anymore but that it would help if I could tell him freely what was going through my head during the time of my \"impulses.\" \n The reason why I think your GF is lying is because people who suffer these kinds of mental illnesses are genuinely terrified of themselves and once they reach a point of ultimate hoplessness, we do seek out help. Meds make such a huge difference. I finally feel normal again and it's amazing. We appreciate life in a way that others can't because we know what  internal hell  feels like. To have that mental freedom again....amazing. \n Something my psychiatrist explained to me that helped was that there are a lot of external factors to look for that lead to these kinds of problems. Years of  extended  abuse will lead the brain's chemistry to change as a coping mechanism. If you've had  years  where you were genuinely afraid, then your brain will only understand paranoia and how to deal with that. If your GF hasn't had a life of abuse, I highly doubt she experiences these kinds of things. Secondly, and not to sound super pretentious, but IQ can be a correlating factor for schizophrenia. It's not very comforting, but it is nice to know that how rapidly I think and my intelligence is to \"blame\" for some of my mental shit. \n That isn't to say we're all hopeless because science is awesome and meds really make a huge difference. Last night, I introduced my BF to a female friend. I think he felt weird around my male friends who were also there, so he talked mostly to her. If I wasn't on meds, intrusive thoughts would have taken over and it would have been an intense argument. Instead, I was able to joke and admit to the ridiculous jealousy I'd been feeling. Trust me, people that go through this rely and love medication. Life is just so much better. \n Lastly, I'd like to add that if your GF is genuinely suicidal, take her to the hospital and see how she reacts. If she gets upset about it, then it means she's being manipulative. Every time anyone has taken me to the hospital or called 911 on me for my suicidal bouts, I've been grateful that they cared to get help for me. The hospital doesn't always make me feel better, but it certainly doesn't make me feel worse.", "id": "cfvwdf1", "summary": "The reasons that lead me to believe that your GF is lying is that guilt doesn't seem to be present nor has she actively sought help. No one begins hearing voices without freaking out. We tell at least one person the first time it happens because we're terrified of ourselves."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "He probably didn't say it with the intention to cheat on you. People say hypothetical what-if's all the time. Since he was married and has been cheated on before, he probably said that coming from  that  POV - that perhaps he would have not wanted his wife to tell him. \n I understand getting worked up over what-if statements and worries, but taking it to a point of questioning the relationship and if you should cheat on him first to avoid heartbreak or something isn't very practical. \n I think the reason why you brought up the app is because now you're actively looking for reasons why he must be tempted to cheat. But he told you about these messages. When a guy hits on me, I tell my BF - not to make him jealous, but because in case he happens to glance at my phone or something, he doesn't have a WTF moment.", "id": "cf7xnw8", "summary": "Getting worked up over what-if's and searching for reasons to solidify your what-if's in a relationship is nothing but damaging to the relationship."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "I feel your pain. I was diagnosed a few years ago right around when I lost most of my friends too. At that point it hit me that I've actually been Bipolar (and BPD) my whole life and have been through an endless cycle of making friends, losing them, trying again. \n When I was diagnosed and put on meds, I felt different fairly. I was also put into DBT where I learned to separate my BP and BPD tendencies from my \"real\" self and actually become a good person. My temper is pretty much nonexistent on meds. \n It'll be hard. Yeah it sucks to have lose those friendships and I still dwell on all these terrible things I've done. But it's hard for most people to accept the \"explanation\" that my actions without meds don't really reflect who I am on meds. \n But there's hope! I have two friends from college that do seem to understand (and they don't suffer any mental illnesses of their own to relate to...they just seem to \"get\" it). I went through a period where I confessed to everyone things I've done and most of them ran away (but not before calling me a bad person). These two people were like, \"Okay, well it seems like you're getting help now and that's all that matters.\" \n I can tell from your post that you feel love, connection, and guilt very strongly. It's the \"upside\" to being BP - we're extremely loyal people at heart, even though we get out of control and do crazy things. \n On meds (lamictal has worked great for me) and therapy, you'll find that you can harbor your sense of love and loyalty more while keeping your out-of-control emotions in check. Slowly, you will learn to trust that you're a good person. And that you can me not just a good friend, but an amazing one.", "id": "cfp8moh", "summary": "It will get better. Feeling guilty over the past isn't useful - you weren't on meds then and you weren't getting help. Loving, understanding friends will get this concept and forgive you and such people do exist."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "I literally immersed myself into reading Twilight straight for 4 days. That was when I realized I no longer felt the need to talk to him every night before bed and that I was going to be okay. \n The books are terrible, but imagining a \"big\" romance actually made me feel good.", "id": "cfnqp2n", "summary": "I was so into the books and reading constantly that I no longer felt emotionally dependent on my ex."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "After reading some of the other responses and yours, I'm going to respond from a person with bipolar (and borderline...great combination) POV. \n It's really hard. Like, unbelievably hard, for people like us to be in relationships. I can't explain why, but in general, if we hit a big depressive bout, we becomes super resistant to medication and help. \n You've listed a number of other reasons that highlight just a few things that make getting help hard as well (every medication has a plethora of other side effects and they are not fun), but something else that might be hindering him is the time. When we get into our \"resistant state\", then  everything  is easy to make an excuse, but really, the hardest part is making the time to work with both insurance and providers. That part really sucks. It isn't snap-easy to find help. \n So now that I've made excuses for him, let me tell you why you shouldn't stay. There are two types of bipolar people. The type that know they have a problem and acknowledge it to everyone that's close in their life. These types may not always be actively seeking help, but they are always being actively introspective and trying to improve themselves. \n Then you have the other kind...which sounds like your BF (and like my dad, but that's irrelevant), that don't know the extent of their problem. They don't experience guilt. And without feeling that guilt, they can't change...and that's the only thing that will ever make them better. Is if THEY want to change. \n On one hand, I commend you. Seriously, I wish I had someone in my life that was that understanding. I tend to always have someone that adds guilt to my already strong self-guilt (\"Get yourself together. You aren't trying hard enough. You're driving me nuts. Why can't you be like normal people. This needs to stop, etc, etc.\"....well yeah, I know I need to get it together. I'm trying my hardest, I don't need someone to yell at me or make me feel like they're going to leave if I'm not doing good enough. We feel incredibly alone as it is.) You would work well with someone who was bipolar and knew they were struggling. Kindness goes a very long way to people that struggle as hard as we do. \n But your kindness shouldn't be walked over like this. Just because someone's bipolar, doesn't mean you should be okay or settle for feeling bad. And honestly, no matter how you try to confront him, I see a very angry, defensive fight coming. My dad doesn't try at all and my parents' marriage is less than stellar. I would get out, leave a note with the empty bottle that says \"I know you've been lying. I wish you'd gotten help sooner.\" And don't look back. Maybe he'll get help on his own, but it should anger you that he didn't think highly enough about you to get help. Seriously...our number one motivation for getting help is to try and make our friendships and relationships more smooth. We get tired of fucking it up over and over.", "id": "cfbz7qw", "summary": "From my experience, if a bipolar person isn't trying, there's no hope. Leave. If a bipolar person is trying, kudos, keep up the kindness and compassion. It's tough."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "I don't know if this will make you feel better or worse. I've struggled with suicidal thoughts my WHOLE life. Before dating, it was \"easy.\" I consider my suicide attempts from pre-dating \"pure.\" Like, I knew exactly why I wanted to and why I felt it was the only solution. \n But after I started dating, that's when it became messy. In my teenage years, I learned to differentiate between when I was really suicidal and when I was just angry that something wasn't going my way. If I was genuinely suicidal, my plans were never spoken out loud and I hardly talked about it to anyone. And if so, definitely not my SO. \n But if I was just angry and petty, that's when I turned to pills. Because at most, we know it might cause a little damage, but it won't really do the job unless there really isn't someone around that cares. Very few people are really able to kill themselves with just Tylenol. \n Now, this is something I still struggle with and in my current relationship, my plan is that if I'm genuinely suicidal, I talk about it to my BF and explain where the feelings might be coming from. He knows it's essential to me that he never feels like it's something he does. The problem is, I see that he still feels like he's to blame sometimes. So if there's something he has done that triggers those feelings, I talk to a friend instead. \n I'm borderline and bipolar, so I have to deal with anxiety every day. What I've learned is that I'll probably never figure things out, but I can learn how to manage things without damaging my relationships. And it's still hard and I still mess up sometimes, but the point is I do try. \n You're going to have to make a decision because I promise you, at 20 years old, she won't have it figured out. If she still hasn't come to terms with having whatever mental disorder she might have, she hasn't taken ANY steps to learn how to manage the disorders. And it's very hard to learn those things while IN a relationship. Not impossible, but hard. \n You guys started dating at 15. The note she gave you was extremely petty and insecure. And something I would have done at 15...maybe 20, but highly unlikely. But, I'll tell you what she was actually trying to say, because I've said this same thing to a guy I'm dating now. \"I'm extremely anxious and I know I have a plethora of trust issues. But I feel really attached to you. I love you a lot and if you don't think you could ever love me or if you don't see a future with me, then please break up with me. It'll hurt me a lot less now than later. And we could still be friends now if you left.\" \n See what I did there? I showed him what I was anxious about but I also didn't make him feel trapped either. At the time he was honest and said he needed more time to get to where I was, that he was glad that I loved him, and I knew that because what I said didn't scare him, he did genuinely want me around. But that's 27 yro me. 15 or 20 yro me would have been like \"OH GOD, I'M FREAKING OUT. DO YOU LOVE ME? SAY YOU LOVE ME! IF YOU DON'T, I'M GONNA' GO KILL MYSELF!\" \n With all the fucked up shit that goes on in my head, I still feel the same way as the all caps statement, but I've learned not to project that kind of unfairness on my partner.", "id": "cf2qy15", "summary": "If you want to stay with this girl, make sure she understands she has things to work on and explain to her that she can talk to you when she's anxious, but that it's never okay to use suicide as a form of emotional manipulation. If she's feeling suicidal about you, she should talk to a neutral friend instead of you. It'll calm her down faster, and it won't damage your relationship. But if she's feeling suicidal about other things, she should feel able to talk to you."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "I guess this could go into the relationship advice subreddit, but I feel like fellow bdsm-ers would be able to give me more helpful advice. \n My master and I have been in a relationship for about six months now. It started off as a master/pet relationship from the get-go and then kind of a combination of master/pet and bf/gf around the 3 month mark or so. \n The problem is that a few months into our relationship, I was sexually assaulted [See here for my feelings on this, if you want more explanation about that]( \n This affected me really badly and right after it happened, my insecurity reach all new levels of high. I told my master that I had these irrational feelings of feeling like I'd cheated on him or something. I felt unworthy of him. I still struggle with this. A lot. \n He tried to help me and he took extra care after the incident to make me feel like he still did want me. We had, what I call dominant-loving sex. It actually meant a lot to me and helped me move past the rape that my submissive identity really appreciated. \n The problem is, outside the bedroom, I'm still dealing with this incident and I have very strong suicidal feelings. I'm in regular therapy now and I'm slowly (VERY slowly) getting better, but the truth is, I'm suicidal. And it's bad because if we get into a fight, the suicidal part of me gets more intense. It just isn't fair to the relationship. I also have a lot of anger in me, and sometimes take it out on my master. I feel EXTREMELY bad about this and am also working on trying to separate my anger from the rest of the world. \n Last-last weekend, I went to the hospital. I went in and said, \"I'm suicidal and need help learning how to cope with my pain differently.\" And for a few days after I left the hospital, I felt better. \n But I'm still trying to work through my new levels of anxiety and insecurity. Last weekend, while my master was at work, I went through his computer like an insecure idiot. I felt very bad about doing this and confessed to him. \n I expected to be punished for this. I did not expect to get into a stupid argument about porn. This fight got ridiculously out of hand. I tried to tell him that I wasn't upset about the porn...I just didn't want to talk about the porn. \n I think because he didn't want me to judge him, he felt the need to explain the porn I'd found. The problem is, the one clip I found, reminded me of my rape. I didn't tell my master this at the time of our fight because my master was too busy trying to explain \"It's a guilty pleasure of mine...like, I really get off on what a whore she is.\" What he didn't know is that during my rape, my assailant made me get on my knees and open wide like his bukkake porn and called me a \"worthless whore\" while doing it. All this left me with really sad feelings and my suicidal feelings just PIKED. \n Meanwhile though, my master was getting angry because he felt like I went through his computer looking to start a needless fight (\"like I always do\"). I said that wasn't fair, I don't know why I went through the computer (but I do think that I have a problem with making people mad at me if they aren't always mad at me because I feel like everyone should be mad at me). I don't know, the next thing I know, I'm threatening suicide and my master is sending me home with two orders: 1. To not kill myself, and 2., To not cut myself. \n I followed those orders, and he said, as punishment for the suicide threat, I needed to clean his apartment by Friday (that's a real feat, btw). He also said he wanted more alone time. He said he still loved me but that he was extremely frustrated about this whole situation. \n My issue is this. I am cleaning his apartment while he's away, and I feel like I'm being punished for proper reasons. The problem is, I'm angry too. I'm angry because I think he said and did things that were very hurtful that I deserve an apology for. I feel like a lot of our threads of trust have been snapped in half and I don't know how to mend them. \n But if I try to tell him things I'm unhappy about, he gets very defensive. I want to maintain our master/pet relationship and build the trust we once had. I want to be able to tell him things like... \n \n When he brings up how hot other girls are, it isn't okay with me even though I am bi. It adds to my insecurity. \n \n \n When he yells at me, it's the worst feeling in the world. A pet/slave never wants to disappoint her master. I need some reassurance that I'm not a disappointment to him. \n \n \n I get that he watches porn, but until I'm in an emotionally more stable place, I don't want to fucking talk about it. I feel like ALL porn could remind me of the bad things that have happened to me and I don't need to try to reconcile that with my boyfriend jacking off to that too. I just can't do it right now. I can't. \n \n \n My relationship with him is extremely important to me. And being a good slave is also very important to me. I know that I've been messing up more frequently and been having more \"bad\" days, but I'd like credit and encouragement for trying to get better. I am in therapy. I'm on meds. My suicidal thoughts are less strong, but they still remain. It's a work in progress and I just need the people who are in my life to be patient with me. When he says that I'm not trying hard enough or that I need to do better...it actually makes me feel more hopeless and worse about myself. \n \n \n I am genuinely terrified to be alone at night. I get these really bad night terrors that peak my anxiety and I can't get back to sleep. \n \n \n I want to be able to tell him things that are bothering me without it blowing up into \"I've always been there for you, how can you say it isn't enough.\" It's ridiculous. I never said it wasn't enough or that I need more. Just that I want a certain something changed. For some reason, trying to point out one thing turns into a whole fight about how I think he doesn't do enough for me even though I'd said COUNTLESS times how grateful I am to have a master that's been sticking things out with me when it's clearly so hard.", "id": "t3_1wzz7f", "summary": "As a slave, I've done things I should be punished for. But as a master, he's done things I think he should say sorry for. How does a slave ask their master to apologize and also try to mend the relationship? \n EDIT: \n I want to thank everyone for their comments and suggestions. I read each one carefully. I really liked reading how other people handle communication issues. It was very helpful. \n I'd like to update and clarify one thing. \n Update:  We ended up taking 2 days apart and when he called to check-up on me, I basically said everything in this post. He said he would do better and just wants me to continue to get better. He apologized for the things he said that did upset me. I do think that in the future, I will try the writing thing before things get so out of control. Expanding my support group is also on my list. \n Clarification:  As someone else pointed out, every d/s relationship is different and in general, my master doesn't punish me unless it really is something he wants me to work on. His intent isn't to make me feel bad for having suicidal thoughts (and I never felt that was his intention). His intention is to emphasize just how much he doesn't want me to think those thoughts. His intentions are wrapped in love and if I felt like it was harming my progress in any way, I'd let him know and we'd figure something else out."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "I want to start off by saying my roommate, N, is a good friend of mine. If we weren't living together, I'd probably like her a lot more. If I'm in trouble, she'd be the one I'd call to pick me up somewhere at 4 AM or something. As such, I'd like to find a way to fix my issues without ruining the friendship. \n She doesn't clean her gross stuff out of the fridge, nor does she take the trash out. I've Facebooked messaged her a few times. \"The fridge smells really really bad. Could you get your expired food out?\" \n It stresses me out. Mainly because I hate the feeling that I'm nagging at someone. I want me having said it once to be enough. But I feel like she won't clean anything unless I ask her to or I do it myself. I try to set a good example by cleaning promptly after I use the kitchen for a big cooking ordeal or something, but I don't think she's picked up on my examples. \n I'm slightly OCD. Not too bad, but enough that when she's used my cutting board to cut raw meat and hasn't washed it for a week, it genuinely angers me. I just don't know the correct way to express this anger. \n My other issue is, the utilities are all in my name and I'm having trouble getting her half to me on time. She eventually pays, but it'll be after 2-3 months of bills have accumulated. When she does hand over the money, she points out how poor she is and how she had to donate plasma in order to pay me. She's a grad student living on student loans and I'm an engineer. So I know that it's easier for me to pay things on time...but it makes me anxious to hound her for money every month. I feel like she doesn't take utilities into her budget because she knows I can \"cover\" it until she feels like getting around to it. \n The smaller things are also nagging at me. She eats yogurt in the morning and leaves the container out on the table. The trash can is RIGHT THERE. Why can't she throw it away? Why?! I don't understand. I just don't. \n She cooked some pot roast a month ago. It's still in the fridge. I want it the fuck out. But I certainly don't want to throw it away myself. It's in a glass container that isn't mine so it isn't my place to throw it away either. Every time I open the fridge, it stares at me. Taunts me. I want it gone so badly. \n Then there's the yogurt drink from a month ago and the soy milk from two months ago. Why can't she just throw it away without me having to tell her? T_T \n Her boyfriend came over the other day and spilled beer on the blanket I keep in the living room for common use. I guess it's my laundry now to take care of. \n Then there's the toilet. I've wiped her period blood off the toilet. WTF. Why should I ever have to do that? Why. T_T  And there's usually left over shit when she flushes that I have to stare at in the AM. I don't know why. I have NO idea how to bring it up to her either. \"Please use the toilet in a neater manner?\" She brushes her hair and takes the leftover strands in her hairbrush and leaves that in the toilet too. I've never encountered this strange behavior. I could get used it as it's not super gross. But I find it very strange. I'm Indian, and our custom is to wind up leftover hair from our brush or counter into a little ball, spit on it, and throw it away. Keeps the evil spirits away. Strange, I know. So I'm wondering if the hair in toilet thing is an American custom I don't know about. \n She took my soap from the kitchen to use in her bathroom because she says, \"sorry, I keep forgetting to buy soap.\" \n I usually take the bathroom trash out, but because the toilet is technically in her bathroom sink space (I have a separate sink space where I brush teeth, wash my hands, etc), it's really not my trash. Right now it's overfilled with her tampons and I just don't want to take it out. I don't want anywhere near it. But it's so time to take it out. \n On occasion when I ask her to take the trash out, she says she's sorry, she forgot, and that she's too busy. She often throws the fact that she's still a student in my face as being too busy. \n Part of this post was to vent. But really, any ideas on how to get her to change all these things that are driving me crazy without damaging the friendship would be great.", "id": "t3_1wakt6", "summary": "Ideas on how to have a functional relationship with your insanely messy roommate while maintaining the friendship."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "Me and Archie have only been together officially for maybe a little less than 4 months but there's a very strong connection. We exchanged the I love you's pretty early on, have talked about living together after my leases ends in a few months, have both said we see a future with each other, etc. [This post]( tells more about the relationship itself. \n The thing is, Archie hasn't really had a girlfriend before. He had one in HS that didn't go so well and he's slept with other girls along the way, but he really hasn't entered any relationships because he struggles with depression. He said he tried meds when he was in college but they left him not caring about anything, so he didn't do so well that year. \n Sometimes, he gets pretty overwhelmed with these emotions I think, he starts crying pretty hard, and he mentions that he doesn't understand why I \"put up\" with him and that if it weren't for his dog, he'd have shot himself by now. \n He knows that I'm bipolar(on meds) and that I've had my issues with suicide before. I've attempted it a few times and I don't think he ever has, but I've just seen him so, so sad. \n I've gone through years of therapy to get to where I am today. I still have bouts of sadness as every bipolar person is going to have, but it isn't really intense and it doesn't last for long. I'd like to bring up to Archie that maybe he's bipolar or something else besides depressed because A - those meds didn't work out for him (antidepressants trigger the bad stuff in bipolar people) and B - I see him feel better when he immerses himself in projects, which isn't typical of pure depression. \n The part that I can't relate to is that he has severe social anxiety. I think he deals with it pretty well, actually, but it's made the notion of going to therapy pretty hard for him. Last night, we went out drinking with friends (I got wasted, he stayed pretty sober). Some of our friends mentioned that we don't really want to live to be that old (one said 50, I said maybe 65)...Archie said 35. I got sad and asked him about it and he said he didn't want to talk about it. \n Later when we were alone at his place, in the middle of us making-out, I brought it up and it triggered this like, massive breakdown. He cried for awhile about wanting to die, feeling convinced that things wouldn't work out between us, just all sorts of sadness. I told him some reasons why I loved being with him, that I was sorry he was so sad, but that it's temporary. \n He said it was a permanent thing for him and I realized he didn't see the temporary thing the way I do, because he hasn't learned that set of coping skills in therapy. I asked him to consider going to therapy with me - that maybe me being there would make it easier for him to talk to someone? He didn't really say anything. \n Pretty abruptly, I had to go throw up from the alcohol. When I came back, he had stopped crying, asked if I was okay, I said yes. I snuggled in his arms and the next thing I know, we're having really, really good sex. \n Now it's the next morning and I'm feeling pretty emotionally exhausted from last night. I don't want to give up on a relationship that works out for me in every other possible way just because someone is struggling with some mental issues - especially when he's made it pretty clear that he feels guilty for 'hurting' me when he's sad, if that makes sense. \n I guess I'm asking what's the best way to get him help or if even, he can be helped. I worry because I don't know how I'd have dealt if 30 was the first time I really tried to take control of my mental issues.", "id": "t3_46qcbc", "summary": "Boyfriend keeps talking about suicide and I don't know how to help."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "I've been to therapy. For years, off and on. I went through this really awful cycle from maybe 4-11 where my dad used to get really angry at me, then beat me for hours, then I would go cry in my bedroom until he molested me at night. Later I was raped when I was 13. Needless to say...my relationship with sex is really complicated. \n In some ways, I've progressed. I don't like cry, slam doors, or yell...I used to. I never thought it was okay. I always felt guilty about. I continue to hate myself for making anyone feel like saying no to me isn't okay. \n Some of it really just is that I can't understand not wanting to...even if I'm like, not that turned on, I'll still want to make sure it happens at night otherwise I'm convinced things are wrong. Therapy has led me to understand why my dad's cycle trained me to feel this way but I'm 30 and I still feel this anxious about it all. \n My current BF [30/M] - I don't really know where his drives ACTUALLY stands. We've been together since November last year and he's probably only told me no...5-6 times? Only two times of those have gone \"well\". He's told me before that he doesn't feel okay telling me no because he knows it won't go well. \n Obviously that doesn't make me feel great. I guess I'm asking how \"normal\" people handle the no? Both of us are engineers of sorts so kind of creatures of habits. I see him every Wed and the full weekend. Unless like, there's emotionally bad stuff going on, I don't initiate. He never initiates - he has social anxiety and has never had a girlfriend before me. So, I imagine someone who went 10+ years without sex just doesn't really \"feel it\"? \n His lack of initiation really doesn't bother me. He usually gets hard pretty easy from just us kissing and he knows I want it...initiation of anything just isn't a part of his personality, and I'm okay with that. But sometimes I think he feels forced and I'm not sure how to make it right. I don't know the things to say, I don't know how to handle my anxiety, and overall I just feel awful. People who do the rejecting - what does your partner do that makes it feel \"okay\"? Like, is it ever a \"happy\" thing? Has someone ever handled rejection that made you feel happier in the relationship? That would ultimately be my goal. \n I've learned to be okay if his reason is emotional but when it's \"I just don't feel like it\" I have such a hard time not feeling sad and then it gets compounded with guilt and hating myself.", "id": "t3_54a9ig", "summary": "Lots of bad stuff in my past have made handling difference in sex drives really hard. HALP."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "Me and Archie used to work together - about a month ago I left the job. When we worked together, I knew he was different. He's never really had a girlfriend before (he's slept with a girl before in HS, but she cheated on him and I guess there's been nothing since then). He has massive social anxiety and to be honest, I can't say I understand all the issues that come with that, but he can get pretty moody randomly. He also gets depressed. \n Despite all that, I would have described our relationship as pretty great. We're both geeky (I'm a programmer, he's a sys admin) and into outdoors stuff, so we spend our weekends together pretty much on the same page all the time. The sex is pretty amazing too. \n When I worked with him, I did know that trying to make plans with him too far in advance always resulted in a \"I don't know\" or a \"probably\". When I called him out on it, he got anxious and said he can't often think that far into the future. I never had to rely on texting or phone calls because I just naturally always talked to him at work. Sometimes he was up for a beer afterward, but sometimes he really just felt too anxious to be around people so we sat in his car instead. \n We exchanged the L-word pretty early on, but I think that's because we were friends at work for about 6 months before we started dating. He also tends to pick up on relationship cues from me I think, because he's just never had one before, so he thinks whatever I pace I'm setting must be \"normal\" and \"expected\" though when I brought up moving in together at some point he said \"that could really take me a long time to be comfortable with\" - so he does have some sense of what he wants/needs in a relationship. \n Toward the end of my time at my last job, I started to feel like he was really into me. Just from the way he'd look at me and how often he touched me. The weekend before I started my new job, I was at his place and we had a lot of fun and expressed to each other how much we'd miss working with each other. \n And then I fucked up. That Monday morning, he drove me to my house (we used to just carpool from work to his house because well, we were always going to the same place) and he said something like \"You're going to have to drive from now on because getting up earlier and that traffic sucked.\" \n Reasonable. But at the time, I don't know, I was on my period and I don't know, frankly, feeling kind of bat-shit crazy. And so I proceeded to act bat-shit crazy. There were weeks of various triggers leading up to this, but it's really irrelevant. \n First, I yelled about how he didn't care and that an extra hour wasn't too much to ask. Then I said I was too upset to go to my first day, so I didn't, and I stayed him and cut myself (I do have a cutting problem I'm working on). \n Well it was slightly true, but I did end up going to work. Toward the end of the day, we were still arguing over the driving and the next day I wanted to tell him the truth, so I sent him a pic of my new desk. \n Well suddenly he started ignoring me. Didn't answer my messages and didn't pick up my calls. He has NEVER done that before, no matter what sort of tension we had between us. Frantic, I went to his house but he wasn't there. That was unusual because I knew he was on-call that night. \n I drove to his office, figuring he might be out with coworkers drinking...which would still be unusual for him to do on-call. I did find him and he was massively drunk. I'd never seen him this drunk before. \n The coworker he was with left us and so for the next couple of hours, I proceeded to have Archie yell at me. He's never yelled at me before and he kept forgetting everything I said literally 5 minutes after I'd say something. Needless to say, he was really, really angry that I'd lied. I've always known that trust is a huge thing to him and I said sorry over and over, but he was just...mad. \n After a couple of hours, I took his keys from him and said I'd drive him home. It was a battle, but I got him into his bed. I was really surprised...he'd packed all my stuff. I just didn't expect something so drastic without him talking to me. I didn't say anything and a couple of hours later he had to throw up...numerous times in the bathroom. I stayed with him and he rested his head in my lap in between vomits. When I had to leave in the morning, he didn't really say anything except \"fuck, I can't believe I blew off being on-call.\" I said that Tracy*, his boss, wouldn't really mind since it never happens. When I left, we hugged and the kiss was awkward at best. \n The next day, I sent him an email. I mentioned that there'd been weeks of triggers - well in that time, I'd been kind of an angry person and just overall a difficult person and so in between him yelling at me for lying, he said he was tired of feeling like a bad person around me. I felt absolutely awful. \n So in my email, I listed all the things I thought were amazing about him and that I'd never yell at him again...like blowing things like driving out of proportion. I avoided the lying thing in the email because I knew an email just wouldn't do it justice. \n We talked on the phone later that day and he surprised me by saying he was sorry he yelled at me and even though he doesn't remember it, he feels bad. I asked if he still wanted me around and he said yes. I brought up my stuff being packed up and he said \"Oh. Yeah. I'll unpack all that.\" \n When I went over on Friday - all my stuff was right where I'd left it last and he was really really sorry about yelling at me. We talked about it for a bit, but then just carried on with our normal weekend outdoors stuff. All seemed okay. \n But then next week, I noticed he didn't really respond to my online messages. He didn't call after work...I did. And I dunno, everything just seemed...off. One night he flat out ignored my calls all together and it made me feel really anxious. I knew some servers were down but it didn't make sense that he wouldn't call me after they were back up. \n I texted him quite a few times and he finally responded \"I don't know what's going on, I just need some space right now.\" \n So uhm, naturally, I didn't give him space. I went over to his house after work and said \"Look, if this is about me lying to you then I really need you to understand that I won't do that again.\" \n He said \"That's part of it and I really don't want to break up, I don't really know what's going on with me right now.\" We hugged and spent the night together. \n When we spent the next weekend together, it was really different. He didn't say anything was wrong, but he was far less affectionate than he normally is and he didn't look at me with like...that dopey love look I'm used to. The sex felt different...more primal than emotional, if that makes sense. \n And then there was the lack of communication. When I called at night, he seemed...distracted. Just ugh. So I made a cookie cake that said \"I'm Sorry\" on it and brought it over. \n When he answered the door, he seemed happy to see me. He said the cookie cake looked delicious but didn't know what I was sorry for. I said \"Because I think you're really upset over the lie and aren't able to tell me just how upset you are.\" \n And he said \"I don't think I feel the same way about you that you do about me.\" \n Now, normally if I heard that (and I have been told I don't love you anymore before), I accept it. Like, yeah, it sucks, but that happens. But everything with this guy has always been...not-normal. I said \"I think you love me but are really mad.\" \n And he just kind of flipped a switch and said \"It is really hard for me to talk to people. I've been backstabbed by everyone I've ever let close to me and it ends up you're no different from everyone else. I don't feel like talking to you anymore.\" \n So i cried. I begged. I said sorry. If I tried to hold his hand he was like, \"don't touch me!\" and he really doesn't like it when other people touch him, so it hurt to suddenly be treated like a stranger. \n He went to bed and I basically spent the rest of the night anxiously pacing and finally in the morning I asked if he'd hug me before I left and he said okay. When I went to kiss him he didn't really participate. I asked him to please kiss me and then he did. Basically. It was an awful night. \n The next day, I tried calling him after work and he ignored my calls. I didn't really know what to do. If the relationship was going to end, I at least like, needed to hear it. I really don't do well with anxiety so I went over in the morning. At this point, I do feel certifiably crazy. He hears my doorbell, comes up to the door, looks at me, and goes back to his bedroom. Cringe. \n At that point I tell myself I need to be completely hands off. So I stop trying to contact him. It's a long-weekend and the only thing I heard from him was on Sunday morning, a text, \"I can't believe you came over to my house at 6 AM\". (I'd come to find out later that he was mad about this because I was supposed to know that he'd been up all night working on servers and he needed his sleep) \n By Friday, I'm feeling pissed and massively anxious. Like, really, either break up with me or say you want to work things out...this not hearing from you nonsense is driving me nuts! Also, I'm not super attached to my stuff but it would be nice to get my $600 mountain bike back if we're breaking up. \n Convinced he won't pick up my call, I end up calling him from a different number. When he picks up and I say hi, he still sounds...pissed. I make a final plea about forgiving me and ask if I can come over that night. He says \"fine.\" \n I mean, at the very least we can finally have a break-up conversation, right? \n When I arrive we just kind of stand there, say nothing, and finally he brings me in for this really long, warm hug. I'm confused. \n He says he wants to order dinner and asks what I want. We order food and he says Pat*, a coworker, mentioned that we should watch Silicon Valley together, so we start that show up (and it's really good and we're laughing together and stuff). \n After a couple of episodes, we start kissing and then cue make-up sex. Which I've never had before, but all sorts of \"I'm so sorry!\" and \"I'll never hurt you again!\" were thrown on both sides. Great sex and definitely felt more connected than the last time I'd been with him. \n We then had a great weekend together. I asked him if he'd ever planned on calling me again and he said, \"Yeah.\" I asked, \"How long were you planning on making me wait?\" and he said, \"I don't know - I tried several times I just couldn't.\" \n I don't know what that means. And in the days after our weekend, I found contact with him has been just as minimal - he doesn't respond to my texts throughout the day and he doesn't call. I'll wait until like 9 PM before finally calling. \n Since his parents were coming into town for a week and I won't be able to come over, we agreed to see each other last night. During the day, he didn't respond to my messages and when I asked for a 30 minutes heads up to drive he said \"tonight won't work, i have lots of stuff to do with being on-call and cleaning before my parents come in.\" \n right, so we'd already talked about me helping to clean and i've known before that social anxiety often means avoiding people at the last minute but that was never something with  me  before. I felt really frustrated. \n So since we've already established that I'm crazy, I went over. At first I didn't say anything. He said \"hi\" and I simply glared, and started to clean. We cleaned in silence for awhile. He said \"I'm ordering food, do you want anything?\" I put what I want into his phone and when I see the total I'm like, \"What else did you order??\" and he said, \"Ice cream...I got one for you too.\" \n Confusing. Right? \n After cleaning and another episiode of silicon valley, I say, \"Yeah, so we need to talk.\" And I tell him, \"I can't handle all this anxiety. I've had to drive over here unannounced literally every week since I've left my job. Ignoring my phone calls is not okay and frankly, I hate feeling as crazy as I do right now. Like, this just isn't working for me and somewhere you've got to know that I really won't ever lie to you again so if this is some kind of punishment or whatever, I really can't take it anymore.\" \n He started crying and said he didn't want things to end and that \"he wasn't doing this one purpose.\" That the thought of calling me made him really anxious and he didn't know how to respond to anything. I was like \"that doesn't make sense, it was never an issue before\" and he said, \"I think after you lied to me it fucked with my head. i'm trying though.\" \n In the morning I said \"what if we set a time? like, you call me at 8?\" and he said okay. and when he called i asked, \"was this difficult for you?\" he said, \"yes\". i said \"does knowing that it's the highlight of my day help at all?\" and he said, \"yeah, a lil' bit.\" \n Ultimately, I'm looking for advice on how to build trust back up with someone who's got this sort of anxiety. I feel like things are great between us when we're together in person but that's really only 2.5 days out of the week. I don't know what to do for the rest of the time.", "id": "t3_4ncwkh", "summary": "Boyfriend with massive social anxiety completely runs away from people he doesn't trust. He seems unable to trust me after I came clean about a lie and I don't know how to build it back up...especially when he's just avoiding me."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "I think this goes here, but I'm not sure. I have an Nmother and bipolar dad. The quick and dirty childhood background: tons of physical abuse from my dad, my mother was always putting me down, both were unreasonably strict and controlling - wasn't allowed to have friendships, orally raped at 13 -> led to all sorts of promiscuity later, and when I was super young, my dad would kiss me in a very inappropriate way on my neck and cheek before tucking me into bed (while usually apologizing for beating me). Nmom is fantastic at the guilt trips and manipulation. \n They were also  always  fighting. Fast-forward a few years later (I'm 29 now) and their marriage is considerably better, I no longer get beaten, and though they make me feel bad about certain life choices, it isn't as bad as childhood. \n I know the idea is that if you question your own Nness, you probably aren't N, but I have had some seriously fucked up relationships and I'm convinced they're all my fault. \n My HS boyfriend, K, was a decent guy but I feel so bad that he had to put up with me. When I'd get mad, I'd hit him. It wasn't hard but still, totally not ok. I'd also call him stupid when we were fighting. I'd hit objects when I was angry. I was angry a lot. We broke up for a bit (he said he wanted to go back to his ex) and when we got back together a few months later, I was constantly testing his love. I even faked my own death (which ultimately ended the relationship). So that's all pretty fucked up of me. \n My second relationship (senior year undergraduate college -? grad school), R, was also fucked up. The temper was less but I was still constantly testing his feelings and we fought a lot. I don't even know what caused the fights. This escalated until he broke up with me...but it wasn't a clean break and it was long-distance. So we talked every day, said I love you, I visited. This is when N manipulation sneaked in. I pretended to have cancer. Came clean about it later, lost a lot of friends, he chose to never talk to me again. So yeah, that was fucked up of me too. \n After R, I was single for a little over a year until I met M. Unlike the other guys, M was genuinely a nice guy except he couldn't hold a job and I eventually fell out of love. But when I look back on the relationship, I feel like I treated him like shit. Again, the testing and fighting. I lied too, but not like before. I noticed at this point though that I've gotten control of the physical violence and putting down other people. \n After M, was J. Worst relationship ever! He didn't want something serious, so I made up a stalker to get him to worry about me (I know, so fucked up). I came clean about 6 months in and he never really got over it. He was actually extremely abusive and I put up with it until I met someone else. \n Now there's D and I'm terrified of fucking this up. He's a really, really good guy. He has all the life interests that make hanging out with him awesome to me and he seems to care if I'm happy. We haven't reached the I love you stage yet (though I feel it). My relationships seem to go completely downhill once these words are exchanged. \n I find myself anxious because I have no idea what a \"normal\" relationship is like. How often are couples supposed to fight? How can I communicate or stop lying out of desperation to get words I need/want to hear? He hasn't had a relationship in 8 years, so that also doesn't help. \n Everything with him is still super-new. He's a coworker, so I like that we were friends first for several months before things just kinda' happened. But I get really anxious when we spend many nights together...we don't fight but I feel like that's because we haven't taken things to the next level yet. \n I'm also anxious because I see things in him that made my past BFs put up with me far longer than they should have. Recently D revealed a secret of mine to another coworker. It wasn't anything serious (I told him I run Windows at home and since I'm a dev, that's kind of embarrassing). I'd specifically told him to not tell this certain coworker because I knew if he found out, I'd never hear the end of it. Anyway, it accidentally slipped out and I jokingly gave him crap for ruining my reputation. \n I was surprised...he looked genuinely afraid and apologized many, many times. I sent him a message saying I wasn't seriously mad (he said he knows, but he still feels bad for forgetting). But again, my anxiety hit. If I slip into my testing, I could easily see him saying sorry for things he really shouldn't have to...if that makes sense.", "id": "t3_40ql0l", "summary": "I guess I'm asking for some insight into what a normal, working relationship means and how to stop feeling the need to test people and trust that they care about/love you."}, {"author": "SmartSexSlave", "content": "It started out pretty simple. A simple request. Our sex drives differ, so on days that he's not up for it, I masturbate in his arms. Sweet, right? \n We talk dirty, and sometimes my fantasies involve other women. But that doesn't mean I want to hear him talk about fucking other girls. Seriously. How can he not know how insecure that makes me? I'm bi, but I'm still a girl. A possessive, jealous one. So I told him the last time he did that while I was masturbating, please don't talk about fucking other girls. It hurts me. I THOUGHT HE UNDERSTOOD. \n Then, last night, I found porn on his computer. I told him I was sorry about going through his computer (I still feel really terrible for going through his computer like that). Instead of getting angry at me for what I expected him to get angry about, he wants to talk to me about the porn I found. He wants to try and make me \"understand.\" \n Well, no, I don't understand. But that doesn't mean I want to ruin our relationship over it. So why can't we just not talk about it? Why did he feel the need to tell me how he has to watch porn and imagine himself with these women? In what universe would I understand that?? I told him I'd never understand why he watches it. And I was prepared to let it go. BUT NO. He HAD to keep hounding the issue to try and make me understand. Wtf. \n I know he doesn't like the idea of another guy touching me, so does he think it's okay to fantasize about other women and tell me about it because I'm bi? Why did he have to hurt me and say this. Why couldn't he have just kept it to himself. And since it's happened twice, I feel like this will just happen again. \n I know he never told any of his past girlfriends this kind of shit. But because I'm bi and more open about sex, it's like what, it's okay to tread on my sensitive heart? I just don't get it. \n EDIT:  I'm sorry if this post makes it sound like I don't love my BF or don't think he's a great guy. He's really wonderful and we're both going through a sensitive time right now (I didn't intend for this post to become about rape, but someone asked about the porn in question). I just think he said some things he didn't need to say. And my entire point to the thread was that just because I'm bisexual, doesn't mean all bi-girls want threesomes or want to hear about it. We crave monogamy too and some fantasies are better kept silent than with a partner. But thanks for everyone's POV and helping me understand where he might come from. \n EDIT AGAIN (", "id": "t3_1wwt8c", "summary": "This isn't about the fact that he watches porn. It's that he felt the need to tell me WHY and his reason was that he needed to imagine himself with other women. The dynamics of our relationship are overall good, but he tends to ask me \"Do you find so-and-so\" hot on <insert TV show name\" as a segue to tell me who he also finds hot. We don't talk about threesomes anymore because I learned it was a bad idea. Being bi while also wanting to be monogamous and having strong monogamous feelings can lead to tricky boundaries to navigate. That's what this post is about. I'm not sure how it turned into all this other stuff. And again, posting about WHY guys watch porn isn't relevant to this post because he already told me what his specific reason was (\"I need to see dicks in porn so I can imagine myself with the girl.\"). When I asked why he felt the need to tell me that, he said, \"I was just trying to relate it back to you.\" See...it goes back to me being bi and how it's somehow okay to talk about his sexual desires about other women with me. This post was intended to talk about how to establish boundaries in a monogamous relationship where one person is bi."}]}
+{"author": "Muleo", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The Germans found a different solution to the same problem \n sidenote: modern turboprops (prop planes powered by turbine engines that go faster than normal props) combine the two solutions. They use [propellers with 6+ swept wide blades.](", "output": "The problem with propellers is that if you want to go faster, trying to translate that power into thrust with the prop can be hard if you're already going quite fast. \n The easiest way to do this is to make the prop turn faster. Problem is the prop is already spinning very fast, the tip of a prop is usually already quite close to the speed of sound so going much faster is going to be difficult since it comes with extra drag and loads that the prop has to be braced against. Another solution is to pitch the propeller more but that doesn't work when you're going very fast either, higher angle of attack causes crit mach to drop and your airflow's reaching sonic speeds again blablabla \n The four/five blade prop solution is to bypass these issues by simply add more propeller blades. You don't have to have the prop turn faster, you don't need to increase pitch. Just add more blades, let the extra engine power worry about compensating for the extra drag from those blades, and benefit from the extra thrust those extra blades give you. \n The German solution was to increase the efficiency of their prop blades at higher speeds. If you look at late Fw190/Bf109 blades, they're very very wide (low thickness/chord ratio), and late Bf109Ks were being tested with swept leading edged props. Both these make a prop better at high speeds (similar to how jet wings are swept and wide) by lowering their critical mach. This let German props turn at higher RPM to get extra thrust."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Shermans aren't shitty tanks, they were simply designed to be used as 'infantry tanks' (which they were great as) not a tank designed to fight other tanks.", "output": "It sucked because it needed to be mass-produced \n That's not true, they didn't suck because they needed to be mass-produced, they 'sucked' because they had to be shipped over from America so a weight limit was imposed on tank designs. \n Shermans weren't even terrible tanks of similar inferior quality as T-34s. America just had the industrial/financial ability to mass produce them, they didn't need to sacrifice quality for quantity. Shermans cost ~48k$ which is about 620k$ today, by comparison a Panzer IV cost ~100,000RM which at 1941 exchange rate was worth 40k$. It's simply wrong to say Shermans were crap in order to be manufactured in numbers, they were more expensive to make than the German workhorse. \n >they lacked experience against German armour designs. It's gun was severely underpowered too. \n As far as armour goes, Shermans (for instance M4A2) had 64mm sloped armour which beats the Panzer IV's 80mm flat. Which was enough to defeat all small caliber German AT guns, and even PaK40/2s at 500m range. That's sufficient armour IMO. What more do you want? Should every tank have 100mm sloped armour to even have a chance of bouncing an 88mm shell? Fire issues were quickly solved when they started using wet ammo racks. The only thing that really blows about the Sherman is how tall it is, making it a really easy target to hit and making it less armour-dense than it could have been for the given weight. \n Allied command simply understood that German tanks like the Panther/Tigers would be few and far between so converting all of their tanks into dedicated tank killers was unnecessary. A tank's job after all isn't primarily to kill other tanks, it's to support ground offensives. Tanks only kill other tanks to stop them from supporting the army. In this sense the gun wasn't severely underpowered, the medium caliber cannon (and 105 howitzers) was perfect for the job. \n Even dedicated American tank destroyers (M10, M36, M18) were used more as mobile artillery supporting ground offensives than as anti-tank weapons because German tanks were so rare (OK, partly because those tank destroyers were assigned to infantry rather than armoured divisions, so I guess they abused them a bit :P)"}], "user_id": "longlamp_4724", "history": [{"author": "Muleo", "content": "Find me one piece of confirmation from devs that any plane  ever  had the FM of another as a placeholder. \n Even at the beginning of global closed beta when all FMs were 'placeholders', no plane had the FM of another. It doesn't take much time to make a basic FM, you're just measuring the area of a wing, horistab and vertical stab, plugging in some weights, some basic horsepower values. It really doesn't take very long. Those 'placeholder' FMs weren't accurate, but they all had wing areas, horsepowers and basic weights plugged in. They were incomplete but all unique. \n This isn't going to get you a perfect FM ofc, roll/pitch authority isn't gonna be right, engine's performance is going to be a mess (especially the various critical altitudes won't be right) and top speed (because you haven't tuned for drag or put in the correct propeller yet) isn't going to be accurate, and those things take much longer to 'perfect'. Not sure if airfoils were calculated for back then, that could have been same for all planes. \n But when it takes 15 minutes to make a very basic FM it makes absolutely no sense to just copy paste a P-40 as a placeholder for a P-51. There's been absolutely no official word from a FM/dev guy that they use other planes as place holders for others (except for different models of the same plane, like B-17E using B-17G FM until it could be customized). Someone made it up a long time ago that P-38 had the FM of a He-111 (because back then elevator authority was messed up) and then a bunch of idiots repeated this lie. Ever since we've had people saying this plane has the FM of that plane etc. because they're frustrated and stupid/ignorant of what makes a FM.", "id": "caugwem", "summary": "Why would anyone use the P-40 FM for a P-51 when they can make a basic P-51 FM that would be more accurate in 15 minutes? If a plane's FM is flawed, it's just a flawed FM. It doesn't make any sense to, and is a complete lie that any plane uses another plane's FM as a placeholder."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "Here are some stats from various websites regarding the P51's performance: \n >Maximum Speed ASL 358mph = 576kph. \n >At 3KM (10k ft) \n>437 mph = 703.2 kph \n >At 7km (25k ft)\n>325 mph = 523.03 kph \n Those values are simply bullshit. P-51 goes slower at 7km than SL? 703km/h at 3km? You've got altitudes messed up or... something. Posting links to a lot of charts is nice, but how about you actually take a look at them yourself... \n >Why does the P51 literally struggle ASL in-game to even reach 400kph when Emils, Friedrichs, and Gustavs, Tonys, Yaks, and almost every other low-tier plane not only reach that speed easily but also maintain that speed with literally no effort required? \n Have you even flown the P-51? It reaches 590 km/h at sea level and [700 km/h+ at altitude]( It's faster than every plane across all altitudes except for K-4 above 5km, Ta-152 above 4km, La-7 below 3km etc. Honestly don't know what you're complaining about. P-51's underperforming by like 6km/h at FTH but it's still bloody fast and faster than the likes of D-13s. You just need to learn to fly without wasting you energy/speed by expecting to out-turn everything for some reason. \n >The Mustang was highly regarded as one of the best planes of the war, mainly because of its long-range capabilities, but also because of its extreme maneuverability. \n Mustang and maneuverability? Mustang's fast. It isn't maneuverable. Climb rate is mediocre, turn performance is mediocre. IRL it was similar in turns to the Fw190 which are some of the worst turners. Bf 109 completely outclassed the Mustang in a turn fight. P-51D and the heaviest 109 K-4 have almost identical wingloadings at 200kg/m2, the big difference is the P-51 uses laminar wings which while awesomely slippery at high speeds (and so gives the P-51 it's high speed and fuel efficiency) doesn't behave well at low speeds (like turn fights) and hurts it's turn performance. \n >", "id": "caufbm2", "summary": "just click the graphs and look at how the P51 should be performing to how it compares in-game. \n Half those graphs are utterly useless since they're about the Mustang III, P-51Bs which were 600kg lighter than the P-51D."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "Bombs are more than purely HE, they have a casing, the fuze, the fin (and even priming explosive to even get the main explosive to explode at all could take up 20% of the weight) all this takes up weight and doesn't really add to the destruction done. Larger bombs tend to have higher % HE in them. \n German 50kg contained about 32% HE, 250kg 52%, and British HC bombs were up to 80% HE\n>It is also interesting to note that a Wellington carrying a single 4,000lb HC carried over 2.5 times the amount of explosives as it would have if it carried 18 250lb or 9 500lb general purpose bombs. \n High capacity bombs were quite favoured, about a third of the tonnage of British bombs dropped on Germany were made up of cookies. British bombers had the advantage of having nice fat fuselages that could carry these giant bombs so they took advantage of it.", "id": "c9empmg", "summary": "Big bombs are more efficient than lots of smaller bombs of the same weight. So, no. '3200 pounds of bombs isn't 3200 pounds of bombs, no matter which way you slice it.'"}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "Please be so kind as to tell me when I said shit about the beaufighter, mate. \n I'm using that as a general example about how this game is getting more realistic. It's the example I was pointing out from the OP's post, you replied to it and talked about how you want a casual game so I elaborated on it.  shrug \n >>My point is you can't expect them to make Arcade the top priority \n >When the fuck did I say that? all they have to do is not fuck it up with frustrating as fuck additions from FRB/HB. \n Well what are you asking for then? You're asking for Arcade to be a fully fleshed game mode in it's own right, aren't you? You're asking for Arcade to be a priority and not be merely a gimped version of the game. You're asking for the devs to put a huge amount of resources into making Arcade mode balanced with their own FMs, DMs so they aren't limited by 'realism' and can put Arcade balance and Arcade fun first. \n I'm sorry but Arcade mode isn't War Thunder. Arcade's supposed to be a slightly easier mode that people can learn the ropes in (air combat isn't your every day first person shooter after all) a stepping stone towards proper air combat. As such Arcade should be as realistic as possible while still being easy enough to learn the ropes in. Now, how realistic/arcadey it should be is debatable, but as long as the devs are working on realism first and foremost, Arcade just isn't going to get the kind of attention you want. Arcade's going to use the same FM/DM as the rest of the game, which you find too realistic... but they aren't going to make Arcade a full proper game mode in it's own right without diverting huge amount of resources into it, and atm realism is the top priority. \n >If they want to keep or attract customers... \n >No, I've put money into this, I don't have to be happy with what I can get. \n This makes my soul die a little. Instead of making what the devs envisioned for War Thunder they should just make whatever's going to attract the most number of people and milk the most amount of cash? If you want to read a bit more about this, go check out the early War Thunder announcement/press releases. They talk about a realistic game that's accessible, they say they aren't making an Arcade game, they're making a semi-simulator that can be played without a joystick etc etc", "id": "c8ysgl1", "summary": "Gaijin's got limited manpower and time, their priority is making a realistic game. Sorry if you want a perfect Arcade mode, but Arcade was and always will be, an afterthought."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "I don't see what's wrong with the Panther II. \n Yes in 1943 they considered upgrading the Panther into the heavier Panther II, but that project was cancelled. They decided to keep the Panther (in favour of not disrupting production to change tooling for the Panther II) and put in small upgrades to the Panther instead. Then the war ended. \n But what if it hadn't? What if the Germans had to fight Russians (and Americans/Brits etc) into the 1950s? What would the Germans have done then? That's what the Panther II represents. That's why it's a tier V tank. \n If the Germans upgraded the Panther in the late 40s is it inconceivable that they would have called it the Panther II? Wouldn't they have mount the latest model of turret, the Schmalturm from the Ausf F? Wouldn't they have mounted a gun on it capable of challenging the T-44 or T-55?", "id": "cin5mmh", "summary": "The Panther II in War Thunder is a hypothetical Korean War era medium, not the 1943 cancelled project."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "Caused by 2 things, stick force and compressibility. \n Yes, the faster you go, the more exaggerated the aerodynamic forces and your plane rolls/turns/flips about better, but the same forces that act on the control surfaces are also felt at the stick. The plane will only continue to move better as speeds increase if the pilot is strong enough to keep the stick deflected, which gets harder and harder as speeds increase. \n Compressibility can also be an issue, what speed it becomes an issue at depends on the design of the plane, namely how thick the wings/tailplane is. Airfoils speed up the air flow and thicker wings speed up the air more than thinner wings. Problem at high speeds (going above mach0.5) is that the air is being locally accelerated to the speed of sound at the wing. This causes shockwaves and all sorts of issues and your control surfaces start losing effectiveness.", "id": "c8q3z6l", "summary": "it's realistic and modelled accurately for planes with FM."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "I could argue that you're the  odd  one out here. To go head-on is to accept a coin-toss decision, you're (almost) completely removing skill from the equation. You're allowing your opponent to shoot at you so that you can get a chance to shoot at him too. \n It's a bit like two units of line infantry just standing in front of each other and letting loose, hoping you outlast your opponent, instead of using your head and finding a way of getting on your opponent's six. It's a dumb way of fighting. Both sides don't care about the huge risk to themselves, so it's a little weird to complain that people engaging in head-ons don't care if they live or die.", "id": "c9attc1", "summary": "Head-ons are a retarded tactic, expect everyone playing that way with you to be retarded. stop complaining."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "This is quite stupid, I know but humour me :) \n Here are the [rules for Hungarian horse archery]( Basically.. \n \n You have a 90m track and a target(s) in the middle facing all directions so you can shoot at it throughout the 90m run \n There's no limit to how many arrows you can shoot, the more the better \n You get more points the more accurately you shoot \n There's a 16 second time limit, you get extra points for finishing inside of that time (and get 0 points for going over time) \n \n Now if you look at the specific Hungarian rules or the more [general horse archery rules/guidelines]( there's no specific mention that competitors have to be  on  a horse. Lots of stuff about how horses should be treated, how horses will be supplied to competitors, how you aren't allowed to fall off a horse, how if you want to shoot at the target before or after the start/finish line you have to be at a gallop etc. But no specific requirement mandating you have to be on a horse to score.. \n So what this means is, if we got Lars Andersen to teach Usain Bolt (who can run 100m in 9.6s or 90m in ~8.6s) to shoot a bow twice a second, he could just stand at the start line, shoot ~14 arrows at the target in ~7s then throw his bow/arrows away and sprint to the finish line within 9 seconds to make time. (Hits on the third target score a point higher than hits on the first target but I imagine shooting a bow after a 10s sprint is a little difficult, so shooting first then running seems a better strategy) \n Lajos Kassai (who basically founded/revived Hungarian horse archery as a competitive sport) shoots about a dozen arrows in a 90m run (I'm not sure what his best score is) so I think this is a viable strategy. The shortened shooting window will have to be compensated by the extra rate of fire and accuracy (from being on foot instead of a running horse). But I think Team Lars/Usain could pull it off xD", "id": "cj1yl8a", "summary": "If Lars Andersen taught Usain Bolt how to shoot a bow they could dominate the world of horse archery without ever getting on a horse."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "It makes more sense from a historical/practical sense. Any town can have a regular old blacksmith/armourer which is why you can recruit soldiers with some gear in any area with barracks. But if you want to make especially good arms and armour you need to have it made in an area famous for their steel. \n The classical era is when the iron age really started going but while iron use was widespread iron smelting/refining wasn't fully understood. What this meant was that the quality of the steel produced (and therefore the quality of the weapons/armour that could be made in the area) depended heavily on what the iron ore was like in the area.", "id": "cllizp2", "summary": "some regions were famous for the quality of their iron ore, it makes sense that you can only produce good weapons/armour in those special regions"}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "The developers of those games had even LESS income than any F2P developers. \n I'm sorry, developers backed by Valve (Counterstrike) and EA (Battlefield) had less income than Gaijin? \n >F2P devs/publishers have a flowing revenue, which makes everything much easier, and they even come up with and publish new content all the time. \n But the point is, it's a different business model. In f2p games a grind is essential because it's what keeps that revenue flowing. If the game had an easy grind it isn't as tempting for players to pay for premium or premium planes (part of the appeal of which is the bonus income) or pay for xp conversion. \n In the case of those 'one time payment' games, once you've bought the game, (from a pure business standpoint) they're only interested in keeping you around long enough to get you to encourage your friends to buy the game and maybe keep enough players around to keep servers populated. They have no reason to implement a long grind, it doesn't help them earn money. But trends show that F2P (supported by 'microtransactions') games tend to earn a lot more than traditional 'one payment' games so even those devs have been trying to profit off of premium DLC addons for their games. \n >The games themselves keep people playing, not the grind/progression... \n And what proof do you have that 'the grind' is what keeps people playing WarThunder or that that's the devs' plan? It's a business model, not the bread and butter of the game. I've practically finished levelling up, US14,DE16,RU13,UK14,JP14. I've got every fighter plane I want, I don't fly jets because the very idea of flying a jet vs prop players disgusts me, especially so in a Historical setting. \n I still log a few hours almost daily, the quality of the game keeps me coming back, not the grind.", "id": "c94bwef", "summary": "the grind is the business model, not what keeps me playing"}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "Which should obviously be how the P-47 performs, not the Brewster. \n The F2A's FM is a bit wonky but you're wrong in thinking the two planes are switched. \n F2A  should  climb faster than the P-47D, and the P-47D shouldn't stand a chance against 109s in terms of climbing and turning. 109G climb at 24m/s near SL while the P-47D climbs at 12m/s. Only at altitudes above 6000m or so where most planes reach their FTH while the P-47D goes strong thanks to it's turbo does the table get turned \n The reason the Buffalo 'sucked' IRL is because it had a relatively crappy wingloading in an era where turnfighting was king, but it had better power to weight ratio than an I-16", "id": "c9llyny", "summary": "P-47 was terribly heavy with a crazy high wingloading, you're crazy if you think it out-climbed or out-turned a Buffalo"}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "the flatbow was more efficient? Correct or no? \n Incorrect. The D-shaped limbs of the longbow is such because the English used yew. Yew is used as a natural laminate of heartwood and sapwood. Since these two woods don't compress and stretch identically, the uneven D shape ensures that more sapwood is balanced against less heartwood. Not sure if this makes any sense.. \n Anyway I've been collecting  bow fps data  that yew longbow beats out flatbows which beat out longbows (some oak/hickory but most are backed with bamboo) \n By using a thin (sideways) but thick limb, you can get the same strength by using less material than a flat rectangular limb design. This helps make the bow more efficient. But (especially when you start getting heavy war bow strengths) the material choice becomes more and more crucial as the wood is under more and more stress so if you aren't using yew you need to go for wider limbs to lower the stress in the wood.", "id": "clkoxno", "summary": "No flatbows are not better than  yew longbows."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "The P-63 A-10 should be nowhere near as good as it is ingame. It's been this way for a long time, ever since 1.33 (or whichever was the big FM patch). \n My theory: \n The only P-63A-10 performance chart available (at least that I've seen) is  this one. \n Similarly, the A-10 chart is dated 5 June 1944. When they actually took a P-63A-9 and tested it a few months later,  the results were far less spectacular \n Here's the A-9 and A-10 curves side by side , he used the nonsense A-10 chart without questions. Nonsense performance chart = nonsense FM = nonsense FOTM situation.", "id": "cfntd3t", "summary": "P-63A-10 FM based on bogus chart, needs new FM based on realistic performance charts."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "Fastest, my butt. My favorite example of how inaccurate estimates can be is the P-51H: In January '45 engineers calculated the P-51H would reach 471 mph/758 km/h but in May '45 when they built and tested this plane (and engine),  reality was nowhere near what they'd predicted  which surprise surprise wasn't possible and the engine malfunctioned and leaked. \n The XP-72  actually flew 789km/h without a supercharger and was predicted to reach 811 km/h with one (but was cancelled). And the XP-47J reached 813 km/h in 1944.", "id": "ccdxrt7", "summary": "you have to take the XF5U's 765 km/h claim with a fistful of salt since it's only estimated performance, and even then it wasn't the fastest prop plane during WW2."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "Mk XIV doesn't have a maneuverability advantage over the K-4 because it's extra weight is enough to overcome the wingloading advantage the large wings provide. This is because of the Spit XIV's low CLmax (1.36 as opposed to K-4's 1.7) which is a result of the Spitfire's thin wings (thickness relative to wing chord, t/c), t/c is directly related to an airfoil's lift coefficient, it's also related to the drag which is why it was chosen for the Spit. This doesn't take into account Bf 109's slats which only increases its advantage.", "id": "caw3y2h", "summary": "Spitfire XIV's lift loading 126 kg/m^2, Bf 109 K-4's lift loading 122 kg/m^2. Spitfire has no turning advantage."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "Not sure how any of this is relevant. 57mm S-60 statscard says penetration is 122mm@10m with the best ammo, OP is asking how come it penetrates 200mm in-game. Not sure that's true, as I've stayed away from every BR the ZSU-57-2 gets matched against, but your explanation about how shells work is a little irrelevant... \n Gaijin just doesn't know what they're doing with the ZSU-57-2. They've modelled the ZSU-57-2's S-60 gun after the ZiS-2 even though they're not identical: In-game S-60 UBR-281 pens exactly the same as the ZiS-2's BR-271.. \n IRL they both shoot at the same MV of 1000m/s but the ZiS-2's cartridge is bigger (57x480) than S-60's (57x348). That extra gunpowder goes into shooting a heavier shell (3.2kg to S-60's 2.8kg) so you'd expect S-60's penetration to be lower, but nope, it's somehow the same. \n On top of that they've invented the UBR-281U as a solid AP shell with 15% more penetration when everything I can find about the shell suggests it's a APHE just like the UBR-281 ^ [1]  APCR shell.", "id": "clxkt5o", "summary": "Everything about the ZSU-57-2 is bullshit. The gun fires a shell 13% lighter than ZiS-2 at the same MV but  somehow magically penetrates 15% more."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "The next Spitfire in the list is the MK Vb, a lvl 8 plane. The MK Vb, as the higher lvl plane, has the exact same weapon loadout, lower speed, higher turn time and so on. \n The stats cards lie, they were written long before the FMs for the planes were made, most are just from random sources and copy pastes from other planes; they don't reflect the actual performance of the planes currently ingame. \n The Vb has a ~300 horsepower advantage over the II, so it's probably going to be faster. So in terms of pure performance, the Vb probably is faster and climbs better but the II turns better (lower wingloading). \n There are also visibility issues that only cockpit/FRB pilots are going to notice, not sure if this is the case in the Spitfire II>V, but in a lot of planes as you progress you see cockpits with better visibility (transition to bubble/clean cockpits from framed ones) and bulletproof rear-glass (instead of metal plate which obstructs visibility). \n You generally get improvements in other areas of tech like better propellers (yes this is modelled into the FM), higher speeds you can reach before buffeting (Vne), better elevator/aileron controllability at high speeds etc etc as you progress into later era/tech planes", "id": "c8kdgt9", "summary": "Don't believe the stats cards, they're outdated. Even then, speed and turn time isn't everything."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "Are you reconsidering the T-34's tiering after the recent Tier I tank tests? \n The T-34's L-11 gun penetrates 58mm@100m, 49mm@500m, 41mm@1km, 28mm@2km \n Which means it frontally penetrates every other tank at tier 1, Pz III F's thickest armour on the front is 30mm@69deg, Pz IV C is even weaker at 30mm@78deg. \n Meanwhile the Pz III F's 37mm gun only penetrates 38mm@100m and the Pz IV C's 75mm howitzer does 41mm@100m. Not exactly effective when the T-34 is protected by heavily sloped 60mm armour and even has sides thick enough (45mm flat) to defeat these German guns at 100m. \n Armour plate angles these gun penetration tests were conducted at or T-34 armour hardness quality might mean it isn't actually impossible for German tanks to penetrate a T-34's side ingame, but it still doesn't make much sense.", "id": "cf8tm2f", "summary": "Why are German tanks from '38 and '39 facing a T-34 from 1941? The fact that it has L-11 instead of F-34 isn't even relevant when it can penetrate all competition at kilometers away. \n Source:"}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "Right. So you were talking about player count in one paragraph and then mentioned time zones in another after a line break because they were the same point? \n >So either pick a different nation or don't play HB. If you know the cause then don't add to the fire. Also, if we had a million times as many players there wouldn't be an issue at all so, don't engage in exageration. \n >Lastly, if it's almost 6am here, it's 11am in London and it's gametime in Russia. You can't play with others when most are asleep or at work. \n ^.\n>I am not even in the slightest talking about chosen nations for HB, I'm talking about who is actually playing. \n Well you said \"Cause not many people play that mode and even less for FRB.\" is the reason queue times are long. That isn't really the case. I'm just pointing out that low player count isn't the reason HB queues are long for some nations, player distribution is. \n But OK let's talk timezones. If you look at the [chart]( you'll see that JP/UK player count stays pretty stable over time, while the US/DE increases and decreases with peak playing times. \n This is because regardless of whether there are a million people queued for UK or only 50, the number of players in queue are going to stay pretty stable. It doesn't matter how many players are online, if there are enough players for a game, (and assuming there are more 'enemy team' players queued) the matchmaker will stick them into a game and remove them from queue. \n The number of UK/JP players available at any time will stay fairly constant for any point in the day (though I have no data for EU early morning time), and actually due to the closer ratio between US:JP and DE:UK queues in off-peak times, you'll actually get matches made  quicker  during off-peak times, and have to endure longer queue times at peak gaming time.", "id": "c9c8agj", "summary": "Cause not many people play that mode and even less for FRB.\" isn't the reason queue times are long for DE/US, imbalanced player distribution is."}, {"author": "Muleo", "content": "Using this method, you'll almost never miss your first shot. On Kursk you'll be hitting tanks across the map on your first shot. Farthest kill I've scored is an IS-2 from 2200m (ridge to far left flank). \n It's good for long range shooting and also always hitting your medium range shots esp with howitzers where you have to make your shot count. It takes a couple seconds to calculate the distance in your head but it beats taking a shot then waiting 8 seconds for a reload \n This method is unrealistic, unhistorical and downright cheap. I'm sharing it here in the hopes that it convinces people (and Gaijin) that minimap enemy icons ruins all sense of realism and has to be removed in SB. \n \n Here goes: \n Step 1. Learn/write down the sizes of map grids: (Really the only ones you should bother with are Jungle, Ash River and Kursk. Karelia and Kuban are small, bumpy in terrain and too filled with foliage to see enemies beyond 300m often) \n Jungle 200m, Ash River 100m, Kursk 400m, Kuban 170m, Karelia 130m (disclaimer, these are the best numbers I have right now, will update this post as I find more accurate values) \n Step 2. Spot a target on minimap \n Step 3. Visualize a straight line between you and target and rotate this line around your tank so it's parallel with the vertical or horizontal grid lines. \n Step 4. Measure that line against the grids so you have target distances in grids \n Step 5. Multiply number of grids by the size of grid. \n Step 6. Kill target. \n \n Here are a few examples: \n On this map in [Ash River]( I spot a tank on the bridge, on the horizontal axis I measure it to be about 3.25 grids, 3.25x100=325m to target. You might think that's useless because you can probably just hit a tank without knowing the distance when they're that close/that big on your scope but knowing that distance means your reticle is accurate enough to snipe weak points with. Instead of merely hitting with your first hit, your first hit will hit his driver's hatch. \n [Kursk]( Two examples here, not gonna bother drawing on it since I can do it in my head, and if you understand what's going on, you'll be able to too. \n Target 1: ~1 grid = 400m away \n Target 2: ~3 grids = 1200m away \n Protips: \n \n Go to settings and under UI increase your minimap size so it's easier to see and range on \n \n If you're going to camp somewhere, camp on the grid corners to make measuring against grid squares quicker and more accurate", "id": "t3_25xpzj", "summary": "Not only does the minimap facilitate spotting to an unnatural degree it also lets you range targets like it's radar accurate to within a hundred meters or so. It ruins tank gameplay, especially in SB which is a  simulator  mode and makes realistic methods of ranging (trial and error or stadiametric) redundant. \n #removesbminimap"}]}
+{"author": "Halsfield", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Even if some of this is \"wag the dog\" type fakery there are just too many videos from too many sources to say they all are.  ISIS is a bunch of really awful radicalized muslims and they are committing horrific acts.", "output": "Even if I agree to the insanity that they faked a video or two...there are dozens of videos of them committing some really horrific acts.  From the journalist/aid worker executions, to them overrunning iraqi military, rounding them all up, putting them into a truck, and telling them they will all die shortly(and then reports that those men were all murdered and found in mass graves). \n Hell, watch the many VICE docs on this topic.  They have ISIS members talking to VICE journalists about all the fucked up shit they've done in the name of allah to destroy their enemies.  In one a judge says they aren't attacking christians as long as they pay some tax for being christian and in the next it shows ISIS in a church they took over after killing the occupants and burning the cross."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Both sides are being vicious and indiscriminate in their killing and it isn't helping a damn thing.  All it is doing is killing a lot of civilians in the middle.  Its a complex conflict that we need to get out of but that isn't the easiest thing now that we've made the mistake of putting ourselves into it.", "output": "I want to note that I don't think we should have ever been in afghanistan or Iraq. \n The documentary Restrepo kinda gave both sides of the story.  They showed families that claimed to be innocent that were really storing weapons , but there were also claims that the families were being threatened into storing them.  It showed them blowing holes in farmers walls to ensure they weren't getting IED'd, but then they were ensuring they'd get paid well for the damage they caused(like $2000 for a 4' section of cement wall or something crazy like that). \n Another show that followed airborne medics into hot zones showed how nasty the enemy combatants could be and how quick they had to be to shoot someone in order to save their own guys.  They would land a heli to pick up wounded civilians/iraqi military/etc and insurgents would run up in civilian clothes with a bomb and blow it up right at the heli.  They infiltrated the iraqi military, would call for aid from US troops, and then ambush them once they arrived thinking they were helping allies.  Or a mother would pretend to carry a sick baby which would actually be a bomb and try to get on board with them. \n Both documentaries also showed the level of double and triple and quadruple checking that had to be done to label someone an enemy combatant and to actually perform a military strike on that person or target.  Many times the troops were frustrated because they were being shot at but couldn't return fire because the backdrop was a town with civvies in it or they couldn't properly identify a target (ie they can't just spray their weapons in populated areas)."}], "user_id": "longlamp_2917", "history": [{"author": "Halsfield", "content": "I have no dog in this fight, but you have to admit mechanics regularly use their advanced knowledge of the subject to trick people (either into getting repairs that don't need done, or tell them they fixed something that never got fixed or was fixed in a subpar fashion). \n Now /r/islam is probably not like that, but I can see why some people might be concerned.  Places like /r/atheism and /r/christianity have bad histories of being biased and bending anything they can to win a point. \n Doctors are nearly as bad as mechanics in many cases from being bought by brand-name drug companies, giving referrals to friends of theirs that are specialists, to asking for tests/procedures to be done that may not be necessary but are done b/c the insurance company is paying.", "id": "cntp8vw", "summary": "r/islam is probably not a bunch of biased tricksters like /u/sewertank implied, but it isn't crazy to be cautious and fact-check on your own.  You picked some really bad examples to make that point as well."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "Well everyone is different but here are a few things I want to point out: \n \n The only opiates/opioids that are affected by grapefruit juice are: Codeine, oxycodone, and buprenorphine (Partial list here:   Some drugs are affected greatly while some are only affected a little so even if you were drinking  GFJ and taking oxycodone it wont turn 5mg into 20mg.  So it probably didn't help the hydro and the oxy isn't going to be massively potentiated. \n \n Plenty of people I've witnessed doing their first couple opiate doses have said it didn't really do anything for them.  Whether this is because of not doing enough, not knowing what it really feels like, etc idk.  But it is a phenomenon that other people have said happened to them as well.  Try a different opiate next time and compare results. \n \n Taking opiates orally isn't well known for giving a hard \"rush\" that knocks you out of reality and into an opiate high.  So they usually sneak  up on you and can be a bit subtle at the start .  It is entirely possible you took too much or too little and it either didn't hit you at all or hit you and you went to sleep b/c it made you feel tired. \n \n Date? Were the pills decades old? Did you confirm they were actually opiates in the bottle and not something someone swapped out? \n \n Heavy nodding feels like you're really really sleepy.  It should feel good as well but it isn't some separate feeling from tiredness.  You might have really vivid dreams as well. \n \n This may be a bit gross,but you say you plugged them.  Newbie question but did you just push the pills into your colon or did you dilute them in some water or something?  The former probably isn't going to do much for you. \n \n Hydrocodone isn't really the strongest of opiates and it is actually a partial prodrug (ie hydrocodone partially turns into another substance in your liver).  So some people that have unique body makeups feel certain opiates less or not at all. \n \n Other drugs/chemicals interacting.  Are you on any medications? There are plenty of things out there that will take away an opiate high or make it feel lessened.  I even stay away from eating anything hot b/c it releases small amounts of adrenaline which turns off some of the fun for me.", "id": "ci6dor2", "summary": "there are a million reasons they could not be working for you and without actually being there to compare with some legitimate opiates we know work idk how to tell which one it is."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "This and that fucking movie have been passed around to so many places and imo were part of the reason that ebay disallowed sales of poppy pods on their website.  The movie came out right around the same time they stopped as well as paypal stopping transactions for anything listed for poppy pods(making it a lot harder to make a sale back then).  I believe they invited law enforcement officials to its grand opening as well.  Soon after I believe they torched that arizona farm that supplied most of the ebay people and off-ebay vendors. \n There are plenty of people that  don't  act like this or have these problems and use poppy pods.  There are plenty of people using them that have legitimate pain problems not covered or understood by physicians.  We have family, friends, girlfriends, children, etc.  We go to work, work hard, spend time with our loved ones, and do everything a non-user does. \n I just think this piece of literature has done a lot more harm than good.  It is just like the truth.org and D.A.R.E. ads that only show the homeless junkie robbing an old man for a $5 bill to get high.  There are certainly people like that but it isn't an accurate description of drug users as a whole (especially when there are millions of users of opiates across the US and more across the globe).", "id": "c72x7br", "summary": "Good read but it got taken as an example of every PPT user alive and had many many negative repercussions."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "I always play online, but often stay hollowed unless I'm going to fight a boss or want some company.  People are saying the OP should play offline if he feels that way but then he misses out on some things other than phantoms like the online messages.  You can always eat a humanity and summon some help for hard enemies/bosses without much fear of invaders if you stay with way of white covenant.  I get invaded now and then while human but it isn't an obnoxious amount.", "id": "c35znkn", "summary": "Stay online but hollowed and you can choose when you want to summon help or not while still retaining the other useful online elements."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "Life is always going to test you like this.  There is no way to completely avoid opiates forever.  The other thing to keep in mind is it 100% ok to not be in pain.  You're not a junkie for taking opiates to ease real pain.  Just take a long hard look at yourself and make sure you're really in pain or if it is your addiction trying to make you fuck up your life. \n If you're legit suffering from the injury and you want to get more w/o going all the way down the rabbit hole to a dealer to score you can try what I did last time I was in the hospital: \n Had a massive stomach infection, nearly died, lost 30lbs, really horrific experience, etc.  Was released with morphine 20mg which while weak kept me from wanting to kill myself. Sucked but I was just happy to be out of the hospital. \n When I ran out and was still in pain I called the hospital and asked to speak with the  exact  same doctor that was the \"main\" guy watching over me while I was ill.  He ok'd a refill right then and there without any hassle b/c he knew my case and knew I wasn't bullshitting.  Anyone else I would have talked to would have probably said \"no way in hell\" to an outpatient morphine refill over the phone.  If you had a bad relationship with that guy for any reason then try any of the other doctors you saw while there.", "id": "cikosas", "summary": "addiction is a bitch, if you really need meds for pain try to call/see the actual doc you had when you were there.  They will know your case and be more likely to actually help you out."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "You do know how much money is made off taxes of alcohol and tobacco in the US right?  Legalizing and taxing alllll of the currently illegal drugs and taxing their sales would bring in a crazy amount of money.  It would also free us of the burden of all the criminals we have to feed/clothe/house.  We would of course lose prison guard/warden/staff jobs, but the benefit would far outweigh the loss.  We could also scale back military/dea spending that is currently on a frenzy buying all sorts of weapons and gadgets to catch offenders. \n In addition we would of course be getting a more stable world, less crime, less people needlessly in prison, etc.  So even if we were doing it at a huge loss to the economy we should be doing it.", "id": "c3k1xtp", "summary": "Billions saved(if not trillions) by cutting anti-drug spending(Advertising/False Education/DEA/military/prison inmate care/much much more) + profit from taxes on multi-billions of dollars in drug sales yearly >millions/billions lost in prison jobs"}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "Everyone bringing reasons to the table for why it shouldn't come to PC are assuming From wouldn't find solutions to those problems.  It just shows a lack of respect for the developer that has been shown to make great games that really take a lot of love and care to create. \n I think they could tap a huge market, bringing them even more money to create even better games.  There are no hurdles for bringing the next \"Souls\" game to the PC that are insurmountable.  Certainly not insurmountable for  such a devoted company as From.", "id": "c3f0ii1", "summary": "Have some faith."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "There are two big expansion packs EA has said are planned for the near future.  There are lots of content patches coming up and a lfg tool to help you find people to enjoy them with if you aren't in an active guild.\nThis game isn't going anywhere and is backed by two huge names in gaming. \n \n Of course it has room for growth.  Vanilla wow was bleak as far as endgame was concerned and most couldnt do the endgame raids for quite some time due to needing +fire resist gear and other BS.  WoW has absolutely had subscriber drops.  They lost millions at a time not too long ago.  Check google.  Of course the loss of a few million doesn't hurt WoW as much as it would if that happened to SWToR. \n \n Define stagnates.  If people aren't playing the game very much of course the raiding scene is going to diminish.  However, EA isn't going to drop millions into a game and then cut and run at the first sign of trouble.  The same goes for bioware.  Unless another game comes into the sci-fi mmo niche and outdoes everything SWToR does and more (impossible from what is out there now and in development), SWTOR is here to stay. \n \n I would highly advise against buying a new pc for any one game if you've never played it before.  If you're short on money and you buy a PC just for one game you're setting yourself up for money problems and disappointment.   Buy it because you need to upgrade and you can spare the money.  I'd also recommend buying something that will get you a few years down the road instead of only being good enough to play current gen games to save cash.", "id": "c4on9ny", "summary": "Try the game on a free weekend once you get a better PC. \n It is a blast to play while leveling, in pvp, and endgame (which is rapidly expanding over the next few content patches and longterm).  If you liked WoW or want something to compare the game to it has everything WoW does in a cleaner/sleeker package plus all sorts of stuff WoW doesn't have (meaningful story, characters you care about, lots of fun diversions from core pvp/pve)."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "Of course there isn't.  The only etiquette is what other people allow you to do.  Don't bow or hold back on any weapons if you can't afford to lose.  Normally, if you're in the kiln pvping people will be more courteous,but of course there are some people who use that as an opportunity to backstab people while they /bow.", "id": "c3h2b7q", "summary": "Don't trust anyone,this is dark souls not Hello Kitty Sunshine Island Surprise"}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "I think the video of the guys that made a huge base out of the 3 apartments side-by-side in berezino with a huge wire maze, guards posted outside, tents posted periodically that were empty for decoys at dead-ends, etc was pretty ingenious. \n I just think if we're talking about what forts/camps  should  look like your SS is pretty far off.  Your camp isn't bad, but I don't think survivors would build something like that just out in the open.  Why use camo-netting when you can just use the forest to protect from prying eyes from land and air?  The bigger your fort is the more attention it is going to draw so it either needs to be intensely fortified (which your example doesn't seem to be) or it needs to be extremely well hidden and blended into the surroundings. \n Some sort of camo-colored car covers might be a better option for hiding cars too.  It should be on a hilltop so you won't need tall stands to see out and around your camp.", "id": "c5xwnp6", "summary": "This is cool but far from what I would say my ultimate camp would look like if I could do anything I wanted and have anything realistic I wanted to build it out of."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "I'm absolutely certain I could find an important piece of history that you were not taught in middle/high school.  There just isn't enough time spent in middle/highschool on history class to teach every important event that happened.  Even if you spent an entire year on each major section of history (iron age/bronze age/etc) you would not be able to do this with the standard school year and school day. \n Even if they just spent the entire time talking about major wars like WWI + WWII + Vietnam + Korean war they would have a difficult time telling every important story and event. \n There are also many schools that cut out material they feel is objectionable or up to interpretation(in their eyes) so they may not have learned some things due to the school board or whoever feeling it was not something they wanted taught.  I know many schools into the 90s were still teaching that Columbus discovered America and that he was a hero.", "id": "c3s2njg", "summary": "It could easily have been the schools fault or the fault of there being way too much history and not enough time in the average child's time spent in school for history."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "I got the pharmacy's \"bulk\" bottle of this (the one they use to fill the actual bottles they give to customers).  The pharm tech accidentally gave the bulk bottle instead of a little bottle.  It barely fit in the paper bag they put it in.  I waited a while to see if they would call back asking me to return it but that never came.  Got blasted and saw 300 in theaters passing it back and forth with some friends.", "id": "cjw1eot", "summary": "amazing stuff ."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "Where do you work? Is it a really upscale place or a factory ? Most low-level employers aren't going to spend the money to do any serious testing unless they have suspicions.  Most just say they do random testing to scare people. \n \n Methadone won't show up on a normal test and like I said unless you work someplace really nice they aren't going to spend the extra money to get the extra testing for the tiny percent of people that might be on methadone. \n \n Someone said to talk to your boss about it and I would advise against it unless you know your boss is a former user or has sympathy for similar situations.  If you say nothing and pee hot you at least have a chance.  If you tell him that is basically the same as peeing hot and he'll have to decide whether you're valuable enough to keep.", "id": "ci1w5n7", "summary": "Unless you work somewhere like a government job, a pharmaceutical company, etc you are likely fine."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "This is a big topic and it isn't explained in a sentence. \n > Well, it's not gonna happen. \n People said that about marijuana and gay marriage too.  Now you're an asshole for not wanting them and states are scrambling to get the revenue streams from marijuana sales. \n > You want crack on the shelves at Wal-mart, a crack store next to the liquor store? Heroin on demand, no prescription? \n Is alcohol/tobacco available at every corner store? Are prescriptions available to any kid who asks for it? Of course not.  And heroin used to be buyable from a catalog, no prescription, and the world didn't fall apart(I'm not advocating that).  Your points have no merit in a real world setting, especially when these drugs are widely available in ever increasing numbers already.  And when alcohol/tobacco are killing hundreds of thousands yearly. \n > These things will result in increased consumption \n Before, during, and after alcohol prohibition(the closest comparison there is) consumption did not change much.  There is plenty of evidence to show that kids actually want to try drugs more because they are illegal during their teens when risk taking is seen as cool by peers.  The anti-drug D.A.R.E. campaigns were shown to increase usage among teens. \n > and the voters  don't  didn't want it. \n Fixed that for you. \n Here are some numbers for what voters want:   . If you can't be bothered...the vast majority of the polls say voters want treatment not prison and want marijuana and other drugs decriminalized or legalized outright.  They also said alcohol/tobacco were far more dangerous than drugs/marijuana. \n The voters have been lied to for years about the dangers of drugs (see ecstasy/marijuana, even opiates can be used safely for decades if you have education, just check any chronic pain clinic).  Now they're starting to realize the war on drugs is nonsense and are tearing it down. \n > Even the countries that have decriminalized possession of personal amounts of drugs will fist fuck the dealers. \n You do understand the whole point of legalizing is to make it worthless on the street thereby making street dealers non-existent.  And through that making street violence miniscule compared to what it is today. Pot dealers are obsolete in colorado and pot stores are the new \"dealers\".  Decriminalizing is a good step but it doesn't remove the money element so dealers are still violent and should still be put in prison.  Only legalizing makes it worthless on the street.  Heroin costs pennies to manufacture and only costs $100s b/c of black market markups. \n > You're asking for a libertarian druggy fantasy, you'll grow out of it in like 5 years. \n yawn  Did you even mean libertarian? Legalizing drugs would require all sorts of government regulations, oversight, and involvement.  Just like alcohol's state-run stores and pot's state run clinics.  And I've been arguing the stupidity of the war on drugs since I was in middle school which was far beyond a decade ago for me. \n Even many police(including police chiefs) know that the war on drugs is nonsense and they made a website:  Www.leap.cc", "id": "cjyyek6", "summary": "Drugs/alcohol aren't a good thing, but making them illegal fixes nothing(literally nothing) and creates a thousand more VIOLENT problems."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "Your proposal is decent and it uses decent logic, but there are serious problems with the model. \n > The grind and mm is designed to be frustrating \n No game dev(esp f2p devs) wants their game in any aspect to be frustrating(difficult and challenging, yes, not frustrating). Frustration =/= oh I want to buy something for this game.  Frustration = This is bullshit, I hate the devs for pulling this shit, and I'll go play some other f2p game that awards my playstyle better. \n So even if Gaijin ascribes to this strategy it can only be hurting them and I want to believe they've thought about that and are trying to stay away from frustrating players any more than can be expected. \n > It is designed to give shit players in non-shit tanks an opportunity to one-shot helpless lower BR tanks, and thus gain some enjoyment from the game. \n > The alternative is matchmaking based on some sort of Elo ranking system between tankers at the same BR \n They did have some input into the MMing system that allowed for players that were doing well to face harder opponents and those that were doing poorly to face easier opponents.  That seems like it would play exactly into your \"Strategy\" for perfect f2p money making(ie letting bad players curbstomp lower BRs), but they've taken it out so that kinda shoots another hole in the theory. \n > The MM being shit isn't an emergent property of an in-development mm system \n I don't think the actual MM system itself is the problem.  The system works when it has proper inputs and the inputs are bad atm.  With proper BR numbers matchmaking has worked well before and could work well again.  If the new BR system lands and it is complete shit 100x worse than what we have now we can revisit this convo. \n > It's going to stay shit, because Gaijin has no real incentive to change it. \n Again, we'll see when the new BR system drops, but saying they have no incentive to change it when they are actively working to change it...is well ...crazy.  If that one devblog about how RB MMing is going to work is any indication it seems like they're trying to make it more fair, not less so. (That post I'm talking about said SB MMing would work off a table of planes that could face each other instead of tiers + BRs, so they balance the table and not individual planes so any plane picked from that table will face a fair matchup).", "id": "co05bac", "summary": "We'll see, but I think there are some major flaws in this plan of yours.  Either Gaijin is doing this and running their game into the ground b/c its scaring players away instead of making them pay -OR- they aren't doing this and new updates will fix problems and bring new players in. \n edit:  I think Lassar's Q/A giving more transparency into the process and working with players to get changes they want made is a great step and flies in the face of what you're describing."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "keeping a nuclear weapon launch ready means essentially rebuilding it every few years \n That is what should happen yes, but so many countries (usa/russia included) do a terrible job of upkeep.  My uncle went to russia as part of a group that was to inspect russia's nuclear power plants and nuclear missle silos and they are mostly in horrific disrepair (systems using floppy disks or worse, warheads unaccounted for, bay doors that are rusted shut, etc). \n There was also a really sad yet hilarious investigation by John Oliver (formerly of the daily show) about the USAs nuclear missile systems and most are in roughly the same state as the russians.  We just have thousands and thousands of missiles and they are too costly to maintain yet politicians refuse to allow them to be shut down in their states.  Some of the PCs that controlled the launch systems were still using the large floppies (the bendable ones, not the hard plastic cased ones).", "id": "ck64mb9", "summary": "upkeep is important but no one seems to do it and ukraine couldve gone quite a while without major upkeep if USA/Russia are any example for missile systems."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "I had a really bad clostridium difficile infection about 5 years back that nearly killed me.  I didnt get it from dope, but from fecal matter somewhere (at the time I was working at a retail shop cleaning our toilets occasionally and also cleaning out cages of animals).  The opiates had lowered my immune system so much that clostridium (something your body normally can fight off if healthy) just took over. \n I was  vomiting blood  ,  shitting blood , and  had a bloody mass over my gall bladder about the size of a softball that pushing on it causing intense agony .  I had to be intubated (basically induced coma to allow your body to heal more efficiently), with feeding tube, air tube, and a catheter in my urethra (so not fun, both going in and being taken out). \n The best advice I have to people is to keep your immune system healthy as possible, take pro-biotics (they help boost your intestinal immune system which suffers a lot when youre using opiates). \n Other things that opiates often drain due to a number of direct and indirect reasons (like not eating well or not staying hydrated and constipation) are many different vitamins.  Things like magnesium (magnesium supplement drinks they gave in hospital were HORRIFIC), potassium(a big one that helps build the lining of your intestines), pro-biotics as I said above, etc. \n Edit:  Now I'm talking about  ingesting  clostridium difficile spores (its a spore-forming bacteria, very hard to kill with normal methods, you basically just have to physically remove it by scrubbing your hands really well with soap+water, most anti-bacteria killing things that say \"kills 99% of bacteria\", clostridium is part of that 1% it doesn't effect).", "id": "cr0irf4", "summary": "Even if not injecting, make sure you take care of your body(vitamins, exercise, eat right, etc), wash your hands very well with soap+water after using the toilet or touching anything with fecal material, and understand the signs of a clostridium infection b/c they can easily be deadly."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "You used logic that said: If all players can abuse x then it isn't really abuse.  Then he brought up that everyone can be a script kiddie so by your logic it should be fair(which is what your logic is saying)and instead of defending it you switch to talking about how hacking isn't a problem.  He could have just as easily put aimbotting is fair for everyone since everyone can do it(which makes just as little sense).", "id": "cdqr36z", "summary": "Your logic is bad and johnny rightfully called you on it."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "I've been buying poppy pods for 8+ years(even run a small private forum for it) and I've learned a couple things: \n 1)  Pod Vendors are always temporary establishments  - Companies can go at any time.  I have pages and pages of bookmarks that are no longer working from companies that went under, merged, or were shut down.  So yea it is possible this happened to your company.  Of course it is also possible the owner decided he wanted out of the business and decided to just take the money from a week's worth of orders for himself without shipping product. \n 2)  Protect yourself, don't pay more than you can afford to lose  Did you pay in a method that allows you to do a chargeback like a credit card?  Even a debit card you have some methods to get your money back if you act quickly.  If you sent a money pak or something then yea you're not as likely to get your money back.  Of course with some of these places being email-only you don't always have a choice of payment options. \n Also, don't pay more than you can lose in one chunk.  If that means buying a months worth instead of 3 months worth and paying a bit more in shipping it is better than losing that entire shipment's worth of $$$. \n 3)  Don't give up  - I've also learned that many of these companies (especially the main vendors) are constantly overwhelmed with orders.  Honest mistakes happen, real life problems happen to vendors too(not that RL has been used as an excuse by con-artist vendors).  I've had vendors randomly go on vacation for a week (check the news section of site for updates like this) and come back and make everything right.  Keep emailing, find out if they have a phone # to call (some are overseas #'s), and have some patience.  I've had packages tied up in customs for weeks that finally arrived that I thought were gone forever ( even those that never gave me a tracking # to begin with ). \n Of course all of these reasons are why I'm getting very tired of relying on pods.  Waiting for the mailman to make you well with a thousand unreliable in between you and the package with shorten your lifespan.", "id": "cihctn9", "summary": "Keep hope alive a little longer and keep attempting contact.  I've had orders tied up in customs for weeks that finally came and vendors that randomly went on vacation without telling anyone that came back and made everything right. \n PS If you're still having trouble I know most of the vendors out there and maybe I can give you more specific advice.  If you need advice on dealing with w/ds if you get in a tough spot hit me up too."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "The thing is your life is all about what you want out of it.  There is such a thing as moderation.  People can have a healthy relationship with alcohol and if you put your mind to it you can have one with opiates. \n Something that you might think about is getting on subs (either before or after rehab).  That way you're still getting a little something but you're not forced to score off the street and your limited to what your prescription gives you (so it forces you to stick to a dosage).  Plus doing more will only help so much with subs.", "id": "cfqunp8", "summary": "Abstinence or junkie are not the only choices here.  If you want to be abstinent then I wish you the best.  It just isn't the only path."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "I'm sorry you're having trouble with this, but it really isn't a problem for me.  If it isn't on cooldown I'm almost always in my scythe and I know exactly how powerful anti-air is right now.  It makes it difficult to fly over populated areas when a few burster MAXes/skyguards in high areas can completely destroy air power. \n That said, spawn room MAXs are not a problem for me...whatsoever...unless I'm hovering in place or just playing recklessly.  You should always be moving and know where your friendly territory is and where you're going to fly if you get into trouble (ie nearest cliff towards friendly territory).   Its just too easy to avoid these areas.  Let's look at the big fights, amp stations/biolabs/tech plants: \n \n Amp stations:  have pretty big spawn rooms with higher levels and floors, true, but it is also pretty easy to put a personal waypoint over it and stay out of its LoS.  MAXs cannot cover most or even part of the base if they are in the spawn room.  They can kill people hovering over top looking for easy kills. \n \n Now amp stations also have pretty big shields around A, but again its a matter of them not having great LoS across any one area, those shields can be dropped by infantry, and the towers around the base/satellites are easy pickings until then if they really have a lot of MAXs. \n \n Biolabs:   Not an issue at all for the inner biolab spawn, the satellites are only a problem if you're hovering.  The landing pads are usually covered with bursters, but that isn't what you're talking about here. \n \n Tech plants:   The spawn room covers one side of the base half decently, but there is still plenty of room to kill things in the air w/o them having a good LoS on you.  Most tech plants have a huge amount of cliffs and places to dive/maneuver if you are taking fire from anywhere.  Tech plants also have shields around the A point, but these have even worse LoS and are usually facing a mountainside or whatnot.  You can still pelt the inside through the gap in the shield anyway.", "id": "c9iw62l", "summary": "Maxs in spawn rooms are not really a problem as they are stationary, have poor visibility/LoS out of the shields, and can be easily avoided while you're targeting other important areas of the base. \n *edited for clarity and punctuation."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "Warning Long) \n Like a lot of current WD players, I loved the necromancer.  I was a little dismayed when I heard they weren't returning as a playable in D3 (possibly in an expansion I guess, but doubtful).  It did seem like they were becoming an interesting replacement after watching some gameplay vids from beta/etc.  I'm also having a lot of playing the WD, but I think they could add some abilities and change a few things to make them a better class all around. \n My few suggestions: \n 1.   Revives  - The big one in my mind.  This and other scaling abilities like corpse explosion and amp damage made it possible to get through even hell in d2 w/o farming endlessly for good gear.  I'm not saying you should be able to beat d3's inferno naked, but it puts the focus on other areas instead of endless farming for defenses and allows for a more balanced build. \n Revive in particular helps immensely in the area of tanking.  In inferno most will tell you past act 1 you will not be able to keep a gargantuan alive even with immense +armor +resists +horrify's armor buff, etc. Revive would scale with difficulty based on the fact that you're picking an inferno mob and adding a good bit to his stats.  Add some sort of tacked-on taunt or aggro-gaining ability and we're golden.  It could be turned into a charm-like effect instead of a corpse-reviving effect as well to stay more WD-like. \n 2.   Lower the amount of ridiculously long CDs  - I think most WD players will see this as an issue.  Can we get around it and defeat inferno with them as they are? Of course.  This doesn't mean they should be kept as is, however. \n When an ability has a 120s cooldown, the effects of that CD last a small fraction compared to that cooldown, and the effects are not breath-taking, there's a large flaw.  The fact that we have many such abilities is even worse. \n They have many pathways to fix this.  Increase the effect making them more worthwhile to have despite the long CD.  Increase the duration of effects to keep the downtime of the ability lower.  Decrease the cooldown time (duh). Make the CD reduction passives lower CDs even more across a wider range of 60s+ abilities.  Offer items with high amounts of CD reduction. \n It certainly doesn't help that they added vision quest so people feel they need to keep abilities on CD whether they are useful at the time or not(not that they are necessarily long CD spells).  On the flip side it doesn't help that they made mana regen so important as to make people think they need vision quest and would gladly dump all of their cooldowns even when not needed to gain this mana regen. \n 3.   Various gameplay changes, remove redundancies, etc  - I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel like most of the abilities/runes gained after a certain point in the game are at best redundant, and at worst less useful than what came before. \n I just don't feel like there are many options for progression in inferno at this point beyond one of a few very similar builds.  I use dire bat spam, many other use it or zombie bears, and there are a few trying (mostly unsucessfully) to use pets in some fashion.  I guess what I'm getting at is I'd like to see more abilities/runes that drastically change the way the WD plays. \n \n More unique end-game abilities  Make direbats/zombie bears their own abilities with their own rune sets.  If these abilities are so good as to be used by a large amount of people they should have more ways to change things up.  Its a quick fix, but I'd take that over waiting 6months for a complete overhaul. \n \n Buff Pets . Make pets survivable+viable.  Tons of ways to do this.  Allow us to upgrade our gargantuan (iron golem style or follower style) with items.  Use revive-like pets as stated above.  Allow us to constantly summon new pets (skeleton/skeleton mage style) or charm living ones. \n \n Runes that truly change gameplay  Give us runes that do more to change gameplay.  Less things that simply give +duration/mana/hp/dmg/dmg-type change/etc.  More PB-AOE to DD/DD to temp pet/temp pet to buff or debuff/etc in  ADDITION  to +duration/mana/hp/dmg/dmg-type/etc. \n \n Targetable debuffs/AEs/etc  Make hex(horrify/mass confusion/and some others) targetable either by rune or possibly even default if enough seem to like it that way.  How much more useful would it be to have the little guy hex the first time on what you're hovering over? Maybe on further presses of the hotkey while he's out he hexes again on the current target?  Horrify would be great to target in a certain area to fear things your way instead of only as a panic button.  Mass confusion has a huge range but centering it on the target would allow even more enemies to be targeted or to attempt to gain control of particular enemies that do more damage. \n \n Improve hotkeys  Add additional abilities on additional presses of hotkeys.  Just as above but expanded to things like the gargantuan.  Give him a small taunt ability that you can activate on hotkey.  Maybe balanced by costing a little mana.  Have sacrifice be the same thing on the zombie dogs to reduce the cost of using 2 hotkey slots for essentially one ability to go off.  This is done already in games like WoW and elsewhere.  Allow us to right click a hotkey to make it auto-cast when available for things like garg/zombie dogs/certain buffs/etc. \n \n Boring Resource Management  . Mana - What a god awfully boring resource.  Barbs have fury that builds in an interesting way, DH have 2 resource bars for 2 different types of abilities, monks do combos to generate spirit and blow it in combo-enders, but wizards/WD have this boring arcane power/mana stats that control our gameplay in a boring way.   How many players use vision quest and gladly dump 4 useful cooldowns to get their mana regen to a reasonable level so they can spam 1 ability?  Its a bit harder to fix than some others.  My only idea is to add a \"resource\" potion that gives a bit of mana(or class-specific resource) to the player via buyable/droppable potions on a long CD.", "id": "t3_usrj3", "summary": "Add revives, scaling abilities for inferno to reduce gear dependency, trim the fat, add runes that change the gameplay instead of boring dmg type changes. \n I'm really enjoying the class for the most part. I also know they are bringing some helpful changes in 1.03 and later that will help to allow more balanced (offense+defense instead of just Off OR Def) builds, allow pets to survive better, make inferno a bit easier, etc.  I just hope we also see some changes to the areas above as soon as more important things are dealt with like connectivity, melee classes, etc. \n Sidenote:  Anyone else experiencing a bug with Spirit Vessel where you do not get a \"buff\" after you've procced it? Many a time I will get hit and die instantly with Spirit Vessel locked in and many many minutes gone by before I last procced it."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "I know I'm not the only one that understands the nerfs to bombers have gone too far.  No one wants to bring the invulnerable deathmachines back, but now they're too weak to make it to the bomb site most of the time.  I know this to be the case in AB/RB from ~600 hours of play. (Although I've heard some say they are still doing ok in SB) \n I play nearly every nation and I play fighters/bombers equally. I totally understand why Gaijin nerfed bombers before,but they went too far. Here is a list of the nerfs I think we should look at again: \n \n Battle Rating  - Let's start with BRs. They're messed up everywhere, even on non-bombers.  I know Gaijin is working on it.  My problem is that the new system will still have bombers facing tougher opponents than necessary while being significantly weaker than ever.  If it was historical I might be ok with it but its not. \n The b17-g went from BR 5.3 to 5.7.  That means  before at worst facing a F8F-1b/F7F.  Now they can face all manner of BR6.7 jets. \n It isn't just an US problem.  Bombers across the board suffer from uptiering that happened a few months ago due to people screaming for nerfs. \n \n Gunner Nerfs  - This nerf I'm actually ok with.  They were very deadly before if you had your crew skills maxed (which I do).  This is really why people wanted nerfs(because they were dying as soon as they got near a bomber). \n So if this stayed how it is and we reverted the other nerfs to how they were a few months ago I think it would be a far more balanced situation.  Bombers that are more durable/facing more reasonable opponents/spawning at a reasonable height without being the 1-shotting flying-AAA they were before.  I think that's fair. \n \n Damage/Flight Model Nerfs  - I used to love my PBY-catalina.  It was a tough bird that had some nasty armament if you got too close and had a big payload for its tier.  Now its made of paper that has been soaked in gasoline.  Most flights end quickly with the tail breaking off in a few hits of 7mm. \n Even the mighty b17 is dead in a few hits (aiming not required) from any plane in its tier.  That's simply not historically accurate for one of the most durable planes and deadly bombers out there. \n If the armament nerfs stay where they are there is no need for the bombers to be made of paper like this. \n \n Lower Spawn Heights  - Another measure to stop the flood of hate mail over bombers being too strong was making them spawn lower to give fighters the ability to catch up to them more easily.  This also has been taken too far. \n Most matches , even if I try to climb over my base instead of heading for the bomb sight enemy fighters will catch me before I ever get a chance to drop bombs.  The only chance we have usually is to dive early and try to evade fighters while making a suicide run for the pillboxes/bases.  Or clump up with 4-6 other bombers and hope you don't get picked for death, in reality this just means the fighters have all their easy kills in a smaller area.  One fw190 can catch and kill 3-4 bombers quite easily on one belt of ammo. \n \n Bomber Spawn Camping  - This crap should never happen or be allowed. For those unfamiliar its when a high-alt fighter sticks around where bombers spawn and kills them right as they spawn. \n I'd suggest spawning bombers at random locations across friendly territory (at least a few km apart) to keep this from being as easy to do.  Maybe make it something you can report if they're doing it the entire match.  With slow prop bombers matched up against jets this is even more common. \n \n Escorts  - Now I can already hear people saying: \"Bombers are fine if you have an escort\".  Myself and other bombers ask for escorts nearly every match.  Nearly every single match I have no escort(goes for AB as well as RB).  It simply isn't something that can be counted on b/c the game doesn't encourage it in the slightest. \n If you look at fighters they don't rely or have real need of wingmen to be good in AB/RB.  It helps, but is not at all integral to doing well.  One good f8f pilot can clean up a whole team.  One good bomber pilot gets to live through an extra pass or two before succumbing.  It wasn't necessary before and shouldn't be necessary now. \n If they want to encourage escort fighters they need to add some sort of RP reward.  Maybe xxxx rp amount for flying within x distance of a friendly bomber for xxx time and/or a bigger bonus for doing bomber rescue/avenging bombers.", "id": "t3_2t1ock", "summary": "Bombers were far too strong,but now the nerfs have gone the opposite way and made them too weak.  Relax the nerfs a bit and balance things up. Bombers were a 12/10 on the power scale, they are now a 2-3/10 and they should be 6-7/10. \n \n MISC  - There are a lot more problems than just those for bombers, but its already a long post.  A couple other things I wanted to mention quickly: \n \n Base HPs  - If we make it so more bombers are reaching bases/airfields to drop bombs we're obviously going to need to increase base HP.  Personally I think they're already too low without any changes at all.  Matches shouldn't be ending before I get a 2nd/3rd plane out. \n \n Lack of variety of targets  - Why on earth is a b17 being used to bomb a single pillbox in a field or a few tanks? They are strategic bombers, give me strategic targets.  RB is a bit better at this, but it would make the entire experience more fun if we had more variety of targets. There is no reason we can't blow up bridges,dams, have large factory areas to blow up,larger bases, etc. RB already has the models so just plug them into AB maps. \n \n Horde Mode?  - Another idea I got from RB to make AB more pleasant is how they have missions with lots of AI bombers in the air.  It could be similar to FPS-style \"horde mode\" where players have to kill as many bombers as possible.  Sort of how we attack/defend bases, but something more air worthy.  It would let human bombers have some cover in the air and be more accurate to how bombers like the b17 formed up in combat. \n \n \n Edit:   There's actually been some work on one of the areas bombers are affected, but it isn't really \"good\" news. \n So they're increasing bomber base health but not giving us any of the other things that would make that a balanced decision.  It just makes the problem even worse for bombers and better for fighters.  Who voted for this leadership again?"}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "Hi, I've been a steady opiate user for about a decade and I have pretty serious tolerance that leads to me getting no relief from say...multiple 2-4mg dilaudid shots in the ER during a life-threatening stomach infection episode.  I've dealt with fentanyl for a long time, but mainly with the gel patches or IV.  Now I've got these stupid mylan patches (the kind that is just a clear piece of plastic basically) and I have some questions for those that use more often. \n 1)  Technique  - Any tips on technique? I usually cut a patch into quarters and stick it down against my gums or along the inside of my cheek. The problem being that I sometimes step up from a quarter, to half, to a whole patch and feel nothing.  Sometimes I only use half and it works fine. \n Chewing? Avoid swallowing? Adding bases/acids to gum area before usage to boost absorption?  Anything like that would be helpful. \n 2)  Rampant Misinformation  - Some claim there is some or all of the opiate in the sticky \"glue\" residue on the skin-side-down part of the patch? I've actually read the mylan .pdf that has a diagram of the patch and the different layers and it still wasn't 100% clear.  It doesn't help that there are tons of forum posts claiming only the residue is viable when others are saying only the plastic patch is active. \n 3)  Activation/RoA  - How long should a sublingual patch take to work? I thought sublingual methods usually worked pretty quickly but sometimes I don't start feeling it for quite a while (1+ hours). \n Is sublingual the best RoA? It seemed the easiest compared to extraction for buccal use.  It may sound weird but is rectal an option? I couldn't care less what method as long as it works better than what is going on now.", "id": "t3_259o0x", "summary": "How do you best go about using these? Is my tolerance just too high for the amount in them or is my technique poor? \n Edit: Also, if I have a few and I'm a daily user am I better off just using these as skin patches the \"correct\" way?"}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "I'm a guy of slightly larger than the \"average\" genital size (~6.5-7\" length, 4.5\" - 5\" circumference)going by wiki , but just a bit over.  The smallest porn star would easily put me to shame. Even so, if I wear standard-sized condoms my bits get so constricted width-wise that I can only wear them for a short time without being in real pain. \n They almost act like a cock-ring(keeping all the blood inside and keeping me erect even after intercourse) but a cock-ring that is too small.  I've tried trojan/durex/lifestyles and just about any other brand of regular sized condoms I can find in stores. The only couple I've tried that actually seem to fit properly are Trojan Magnum, lifestyles \"XL\", or lifestyles SKYN \"XL\" I think they are called. \n Buying them has problems too because of the stereotypical person that buys a magnum condom (the usually young, immature type that wants to show everyone he has a big dick, sharing it on facebook and anywhere else he can post a picture).  Even in the military I think it was they had to  reissue condoms with sizes renamed because the soldiers would only take magnum-sized condoms when passed out for free which lead to the magnums running out and no one taking the regulars. \n There is also a great deal of hate both off and on the internet for anyone buying magnums b/c hate the above-mentioned stereotypical buyer and people feel the standard size fits all because condoms can stretch.  Well, yes, they might stretch if you apply some real force to them, but they don't stretch like that simply by putting them on your penis. \n Does anyone else have this particular problem? Are there condoms out there that are just a bit wider without me needing to buy the less-than-modest Magnum packaging?", "id": "t3_29gjd7", "summary": "I'm average-ish sized, I wear magnums b/c they fit better, people don't get it, and it gets a bit frustrating to buy condoms or explain to girls that I'm not an immature dick-swinger.  Are there better alternatives for wider non-magnum condoms?"}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "I'm sure many of you entered  the recent contest hosted by /r/warthunder , as did I , and I got lucky enough to win (I never win anything so I was ecstatic). \n The only hang-up was when I entered the code it turned out to just give me points for a game called strife that I had never heard of.  Needless to say I was bummed and contacted nvidia support via forum/email/phone support all to no avail(a forum mod from nvidia helped the most, but could only confirm the code was a strife code). \n Unfortunately Nvidia has outsourced their tech support to India and none of them knew what warthunder was, what premium currency was, they couldn't look up the code to prove it was real/fake, and email support took 2 days to tell me to call the phone support people who had already shown they couldn't help. \n I contacted gaijin for help directly(at another player's suggestion)  but they could only confirm the code was for strife and couldn't help further (not really their fault and they replied within 2 hours vs 2 days for Nvidia). \n I sent this back to /u/nitro88 and he was kind enough to give me another code (they come in groups of 3, one code per game for strife/infinite crisis/warthunder) for infinite crisis to redeem just in case the codes were misprinted...low and behold...nvidia misprinted the codes so the correct code was given a label for a different game. \n All throughout the many phone calls/emails/nvidia forum posts+messages/etc the /r/warthunder mods (namely /u/I_AM_STILL_A_IDIOT + /u/Commander_Adama )were contacting me, asking me how it was going,asking if there was anything they could do, wishing me luck, etc.  It was really nice to see they cared and it wasn't even their code originally.  Many many props and thanks to those 2 mods and /u/nitro88 .  I thought I had lost out on $50 worth of Golden Eagles but it worked out in the end.", "id": "t3_2s8pv1", "summary": "Nvidia needs to up their customer service/printing game, /r/warthunder has awesome caring mods, and /u/nitro88 is a good guy that gives away loads of $ for no personal gain. \n edit: Title should probably be \"has\" instead of \"have\" I originally wrote \"we have the best mods ever\" and forgot to change it."}, {"author": "Halsfield", "content": "How to spend your bonus pay 101 : I have spent a total of about $50-75 on hextech chests (been playing since closed beta and never spent a $ before hextech).  They are great, fantastic even, but the problem is that the quality almost backfires with how the reroll and other systems work. \n My collection is overly ridiculous(my results aren't even that great compared to most):   Nearly every box I open is an epic/legendary skin or some other high-value skin.  I have: \n \n Legendaries : Spirit Udyr(2x), Pulsefire Ezrael(2x), Red Baron Corki, Infernal Nasus, Final Boss Veigar(2x), Firefighter AND Dragontrainer Tristana , Forecast Janna, Eternum Nocturne, Omega Squad Teemo(2x), Gentleman Cho'gath, Alien Heimer(more that I already activated) \n \n Epic Skins: sad amumu(2x), almost all pool party skins, cosmic reaver kass, soul reaver draven,blackthorn morgana,master arcanist ziggs \n \n High Value Legacy Skins:  (Some from other categories fit here, like Alien Heimer is Legacy Epic) Mad Scientist Singed, , primal udyr, perseus panth, sinful morg, etc \n \n Top-Rated Skins for Each Champ:  Lotus irelia, Zombie Brand(2x), Bladecraft ori, Redeemed riven, etc.  [lol skin reviews]( \n \n \n Why is this bad?:  Because I end up with a ton of super high quality skins, very little champ shards (or blue essence to activate them),so I don't have many champs to use these skins on and if I reroll skins to try to get skins for champs I actually own i'm wasting 1350rp skins on rerolling (rerolls also seem heavily skewed towards gaining 520rp skins, although even those are usually top-rated legacy 520s like scorpion shen). \n Solutions?  - \n \n Reroll Quality Matters : A simple one for me is just make re-rolling take into account the quality of the 3 skins(or champs) being offered.  If I put 2 pulsefire ezraels and a spirit guide udyr in a reroll I would like to have a  good chance of getting another legendary skin (obv dj sona, or at least getting back a pulsefire ez/spirit udyr) \n \n Trading:  Another possibility would be to allow trading amongst those that have spent RP on boxes? I'm not sure this could actually be implemented, but I don't know what else could be used to fix this issue. \n \n \n Other Issues: \n \n Free Boxes V Purchased :The other problem that ties into this is that free boxes seem to have a high chance of champions whereas purchased boxes seem to heavily give skins over champ runes .  So I have a ton of awesome skins but hardly any of the champions that go with them(chance data gained from personal experience and watching a lot of youtube openings, not scientific).  Is this an attempt by riot to get people to buy the champs b/c they have such awesome skins for those champions but can't use them otherwise? . \n \n Permanent champs(skins do this too I think?) shouldn't auto-activate :  Its another seemingly small issue, but I don't like that when I reroll and get a permanent champ(skin?) it automatically activates (unless its a skin that you don't own the champ for).  I'd like the option of disenchanting it or rerolling that if I don't like what I got.", "id": "t3_4nomve", "summary": "Hextech boxes are awesome but riddled with small problems in the system.  Fix by allowing rerolling to take quality into account. \n (So rerolling High quality item = better chance of high quality result whereas now reroll high quality = random chance of any quality)"}]}
+{"author": "siflux", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post the only reason to keep the electoral college is if you value the contribution of a state towards choosing the president over that of the individual voter towards choosing the president. The same is roughly true of the senate, although the idea of a bicameral legislature with one chamber frequently re-elected and the other less frequently re-elected is not without merit (the less frequent a re-election, the more a politician can take long-term risks).", "output": "The problem is the focus on power of the state, rather than power of the individual voter. Under popular vote, there's no reason for the STATE of Wyoming to vote, but there's plenty of reason for the PEOPLE living in Wyoming to vote. Well, the same reason as there as for anyone else (with a few hundred million people, each vote doesn't count for much). Under the Electoral College system, one person in Wyoming is worth four people from California. How is that fair? The problem is one of a holdover from a great compromise that founded this nation, where each state was more like a nation-state, and the country as a whole was a union of states instead of an indivisible whole with states used as local subdivisions."}], "user_id": "longlamp_14534", "history": [{"author": "siflux", "content": "The important thing is to understand the way government has evolved over the last two hundred years. Over two hundred years ago, when the country was founded, the important thing was that the USA was a [federated]( union of state governments. But that isn't how people now view the federal government. The government is now expected to represent not the interests of the states, but that of the people who make up the states. Thus, the system of the electoral college, which intentionally skews the values of the votes of individuals to attempt to balance power between states, is an artifact of an earlier time, and is not even slightly representative of the [zeitgeist]( \n But I fail to address your argument. Let's assume that representing states is important, rather than equally representing individuals. [The electoral college system is still a complete and total failure at producing this result.]( \n Well, okay. So the electoral college system doesn't accomplish its goal, which is a terrible goal that is antithetical to a modern democracy. So, what if we just eliminated it and switched to the popular vote? Well, not much would change, really. Large blocks of the population are already cemented in their beliefs, so candidates still wouldn't bother campaigning around them. Many of those large blocks are concentrated around rural areas, which would still receive few to no campaign visits, and big cities, which would still receive some visits as photo op spots and good places for fundraising, but do not currently and would not in this system get many campaign visits. Instead, candidates would have to try to visit as many swayable individuals as possible, which means lots of visits to places with reasonable dense populations, which means lots of mid-sized urban areas. Places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Huh. \n One more thing: Candidates campaigning in places where there are more people is a GOOD thing. If your argument is that every voter can be equally swayed to vote for any candidate, and that dumping money in the big cities would get the most voters, that would mean that most of the population lives in cities. Which is, again, accurate. If I remember the numbers correctly, roughly 60% of the population lives in urban or suburban, rather than rural, areas. Should someone be able to become president without even attempting to court nearly 60% of the country? I certainly hope now.", "id": "c6xq8io", "summary": "Individuals should be more important than states; Electoral college skews value of individuals and fails to support small states anyways, making it accomplish neither its stated goal nor the goal of improving democracy in the country. It's an artifact of a time when we literally needed to send humans across the country on horses to gather and vote in the president, as finding out the preferences of all individual voters was not possible with the technology at the time. Not only has it failed at its stated goal, it has also been abused to the point where multiple presidents have only served because the electoral college, rather than the people, chose them to serve. It holds no advantages in this day and age, while still retaining plenty of disadvantages. For the sake of democracy in this country, the electoral college must be destroyed."}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "Fun fact: All kinds of things affect the way you think and act, including how you are dressed. That news anchor on TV could be wearing no pants. It's not like you can see to check. He's probably wearing pants, though. You'd be able to tell if he wasn't, even if you couldn't see that half of his body. He'd act differently. Same thing goes for your professional environment. Dress unprofessionally, and you'll subconsciously act less professionally.", "id": "c4nlg5a", "summary": "Everyone should wear nice shirts all the time."}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "If Chrono Cross isn't a direct sequel to Chrono Trigger, then why does it take place in the same world; feature the ghosts of Crono, Lucca, and Marle as major characters in a major event; have Robo as a character (and then kill him off); have Lucca as a major player in one of the most important characters' backstory; etc. Chrono Cross would have been a solid game on its own merits. It is only where it chooses to intersect with its predecessor that it not only makes itself outright worse, but also invites those negative comparisons. \n Chrono Cross was written by [Masato Kato]( not Dai Sato. While Masato Kato worked as script writer on both games, he was also the director on Cross, which is why I blame him for the terrible in the game. \n There is much I love in Cross, and much that could have been done to save it. As previously mentioned, the art is lush and the soundtrack is fantastic. The way the story splits so that the entire cast can only be collected through multiple playthroughs was a clever idea. While the characters are flat, Trigger also had pretty flat characters, and that worked out just fine. \n However, some things are just unforgivable. Killing off the fire mage in a fire when her special gear gives her 50% fire resist and it's easy to get her gear that makes her absorb fire? What the fuck, man. Dual-wielding Masamunes was a fantastic idea, but either make Glenn actually be Frog, give him a different name, or make the games unrelated. And how can you have a game so centered around Schala and not have Magus show up even once (Guile was originally supposed to be Magus, but this was cancelled halfway through development). I don't hate Cross. I hate what it failed to live up to, and I hate those I feel are responsible for it. It's a mediocre game that could have been a great game and compares itself to a better game.", "id": "c5yut48", "summary": "Hey guys, check out my Chrono Trigger fanfiction I posted. I think it turned out pretty good...\" - Masato Kato 1999...The Day of Lavos]("}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "Combining legacy systems with modern capabilities leads to strange results indeed. \n Legally, the contract you proposed is effectively a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Ignoring legal enforcement, NDAs work because someone who refuses to honor an NDA is unlikely to ever be offered such an opportunity again. The only reason legislating anything related to this makes sense is because of the difference between Prisoner's Dilemma and Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma. \n In the case where the publishing house gives you a $1m advance, there's a contract in place: They give you money, and you give them a manuscript. It's a classic exchange of money for a scarce good (your time and skills as a writer). The problem is the distinction between scarce goods (your time spent writing the manuscript) and non-scarce goods (an additional copy of the data -- the sequence of words used). If your friend releases the contents of the manuscript early, you are not prevented from still turning in your manuscript (unless you got a really shitty contract, in which case you should fire your agent). Since an advance is made against royalties, it just affects how long it will take for you to start earning further profit (probably in your favor). Ultimately, if anyone is liable it  should  be you. Among the signators of the contract, you are the one whose actions led to the publishing of the work in possible breach of contract. Next time, get a different contract or different friends (but as covered previously, if you're playing Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, your friend has done you a great favor. It's only in the highly unusual and not representative of reality example of if you're playing one-round Prisoner's Dilemma, like in your example where the author dies of mysterious circumstances before he can write more, that this matters).", "id": "c7ye36l", "summary": "Mixing old law with new resources leads to  very  strange consequences."}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "There are two boss fights in Chrono Trigger that you can lose, but you can also win both of them. Losing to Dalton's Golem advances the game just as much as beating it (I don't remember what you get for beating it), but you can totally beat it if you want to. The first time you fight Lavos in the Ocean Palace, you'll probably be killed by his opening salvo, but you can also win here. In fact, beating Lavos in the Ocean Palace is one of the ways to unlock the Dream Team ending. It's also a lot of fun, since Lavos is stronger during that fight than at any other time. Still, basically impossible the first time around, but at least that's made abundantly clear when his opening shot is not just a TPK, but probably deals more damage than your HP cap the first time around.", "id": "c3qqcl3", "summary": "At no point is losing to a boss  required  in Chrono Trigger, but it's acceptable at exactly two points in the game, only one of which is obvious from context."}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "Stats, EVs, IVs, STAB. It's not just type effectiveness. Different 'mons have different maximum stats and possible movesets, making it a challenge of deciding on the right six pokemon to best take on any challenge, customizing their stats with the right EVs, nature, and moveset. Mostly, it's about choosing and using a highly limited number of options from a large pool of possibilities.", "id": "c12425q", "summary": "fucking metagame, how does it work"}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "To me, story is largely secondary. That said, I want to share why I care about [Curly Brace]( Please bear with me while I start with some background. \n The first segment of the game is based around the Mimiga Village. The Egg Corridor, Grasstown, and Sand Zone are all accessed from the Village, and during those levels you can always choose to return to the Village. It's your home zone, and you quickly grow comfortable there. The second segment of the game shakes up this balance by moving you to the Labyrinth, making a return to all of the known areas (particularly Mimiga Village) impossible for a while, and by not providing any full heals for a while. Right from the start, the Labyrinth feels unsafe, and it is not until you reach Curly that you have a safe place to fall back to (as  Dr. Gero . Still, the Labyrinth is a dangerous location,  Monster X  is one of the easiest segments in the whole game: a section of the Labyrinth with Curly as an ally who runs around destroying all your enemies. This is followed by the fight against the Core with Curly as an ally, Curly giving you her air tank, and the return to the old world of the Village and teleportable environs. \n I care about Curly because she represents safety. Curly is where you fall back to when you need healing in the Labyrinth. Curly destroys your foes once she heals up. Curly is your backup when fighting the Core. Curly sacrifices herself to give you a way around an obstacle that has been a minor nuisance the whole game, and is utterly blocking your progress. I care about Curly because of what she does for you, not because she's the designated distaff counterpart to the player character or because she protects some Mimigas. \n If you want to make the player care about a character, make that character be seriously helpful. It's the same reason Final Fantasy VII chose the healer to be the character who gets killed halfway through the game. Up to that point, the player has depended on Aeris as a core member of the party. Even someone who doesn't care about the game's plot will still feel unhappy about the loss of a valuable party member. It's a cheap shot, and it should definitely not be overused, but it damn well works.", "id": "c7qugx7", "summary": "Curly represents safety,  Labyrinth Fight  is a great track both musically and because it evokes feels from its one use in gameplay, and [Labyrinth Skirmish]( is a fantastic remix of Labyrinth Fight."}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "How about a dynamically generated campaign? Something where your actions determine the shape of the game yet to come, and where it's possible to complete the game but lose the war if you do poorly. Since losing a war tends to make it even harder to make a resurgence, mission goals shouldn't tend to be anything along the lines of 'kill everyone', although killing people would likely help. Instead, goals should be more strategic. There's always something that can be done to give your side an advantage, even when losing a war.", "id": "c3hubnk", "summary": "Skirmish-scale gameplay with a dynamic strategic-scale focus, where your actions as a player are actually important rather than just acting out a war movie that is guaranteed to end the same way every time."}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "Speaking as someone who voted for Obama in 2008, I'm not exactly enamored with his performance either. I voted for Obama hoping to get an active, liberal president, one who would use the power of the bully pulpit and his charisma and personal charm to sway the masses into pressing congress into passing forward-thinking progressive legislation, particularly much-needed health-care reform. Instead, we got a conservative who was mostly unprepared for office, and where he did take a stand, it was solely on issues to which I was highly opposed. Compared to the regressive Republican presidential candidates, he was definitely the better choice, but I didn't vote for Obama because I wanted the better choice. I voted for Obama because I was hoping to get a liberal, not a conservative. I wanted the voice of a generation, not continued effective disenfranchisment by way of being ignored (I'm a white male who votes. If I'm feeling disenfranchised in this country, then almost nobody has an actual voice). I wanted first-world social support programs and a first-world economic policy, at the very least comprehensive health care reform including universal public health care. I got continued expansion of the executive branch, a continued downhill slide towards being a third-world country, and barely got health insurance reform. In 2008, the democrats controlled two-thirds of our government. They did nothing. I cannot bring myself to vote for Obama in 2012, no matter who he's up against. I don't care if I'm wasting my vote, I still feel the need to vote for a third party or write-in candidate.", "id": "c3z41pj", "summary": "Obama has accomplished little when he had a highly favorable government situation and much was expected of him. He could improve massively next term but I rather doubt it."}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "I honestly don't care. The top-level post looks like it might have been interesting, but is not worth the time it would take to decipher it, especially given that I have only passing familiarity with Kingdom Hearts. This bothers me to the point that I feel it's worth expressing with a comment, in hopes that in the future such mistakes might be avoided. And if we're talking grammar: \n 1) You forgot to close your quote. \n 2) Your sentence has a comma in the middle, clearly indicating that you meant to have proper punctuation, yet you didn't end it with a period. \n 3) The subject ('I') and direct object ('this post') are implicit in my previous post. While technically a sentence fragment, so is \"Call me Ishmael\", which also uses an implicit subject ('you'), although it does specify the direct object. What's important here is how well the thought in question was communicated.", "id": "cg0246a", "summary": "No, I really don't have anything better to do with my time than get into arguments on the internet."}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "I may well be missing the point, but I'd rather talk about the more interesting half of your post. \n Why shouldn't a product with a marginal cost of zero have a scarcity of zero? There's nothing scary about zero in econ, it's just different from what we're used to as a species. \n I'm going to turn this around on you: Where do you get off charging your users money for a product that costs you at most fractions of a cent to reproduce and resell (cost of electricity powering your computer, ameliorated maintenance cost of your machine)? As has been covered by people far more persuasive than me,  piracy is a service problem . \n 'But how can I make a living making games if I'm not selling licenses to play it?' Sell something else. Use the software to give value to a product with a nonzero marginal cost. [Again, I'm not the best at covering this, but there are people out there who can do an excellent job explaining how it works]( It's a curious quandary of economics that items will be sold at far beneath their value if the marginal cost is low enough. Microecon still applies, with an equilibrium price at or extraordinarily close to zero. \n Alternately, let's go into crazy land for a minute or two. The tabletop game  Eclipse Phase  (blacked out for SOPA as of writing this post, or I'd give a better pothole) proposes a system for when even necessities have an MC = 0. In short, contributing to the community allows you to draw on the community more. To a certain extent, this kind of reciprocity already exists in modern society. Imagine if Julian Assange showed up on your doorstep asking for a safe place to stay the night. You'd probably help him out. Now imagine if some random person of similar socioeconomic standing, but who hadn't contributed something like Wikileaks to the global community requested the same thing. You might still help the person out, but the odds are lower. That said, basing the entire economic system off of that isn't particularly feasible as a culture for at least a few more generations. As I said at the top of this paragraph, crazy land. \n One more point to cover: You are severely underestimating the degree to which pirates are compensating you for your work. Pirates generate word of mouth advertising for good products, which lead to higher conversion rates or just higher traffic at the same rate, either way leading to more income. Not all compensation is via direct transfer of money. As an aspiring dev myself, I can say that I would MUCH rather sell ten thousand copies of a game and have a 90% piracy rate than sell twice that and have a quarter the number of pirates (not that I intend to use that traditional business model. Just a hypothetical). The important thing is the number of people who enjoy playing the games I make, and any pirates are just underserved customers who I should be talking to so I can find out how to better serve them. Pirates are not your market, but they are potential customers if you can find how to serve them.", "id": "c3ief1w", "summary": "Man, I was all over the place up there. Can't really summarize that easily. Sorry 'bout the wall o' text."}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "I recommend you try playing the game first. Seriously, there are numerous games from Japan with awesome strategy gameplay and silly amounts of porn. And in the case of this game, a [fantastic soundtrack too]( Not that I don't enjoy the hentai -- I also play them for that aspect. I came for the hentai; I stayed for the surprisingly deep, nuanced story, the tactical strategy gameplay, and the incredibly soundtrack; I came for the hentai.", "id": "c4fj2ah", "summary": "I may play some Japanese hentai games just for the faps, but I seriously unironically play this one for the gameplay (and the faps)."}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "Remove the patent system entirely. The purpose of the patent system is to increase the number of inventions and innovations; the method through which it attempts to achieve this is by granting a limited monopoly to inventors and innovators (\"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries\"). The problem is that granting someone a limited monopoly does not increase the number of things invented. \n If there's something of monetary value in the idea, the inventor will already want to use it to make money. Granting them a monopoly over the idea will just prevent competition for a time. As they've already had the idea, there is no way to incentivize them to have the idea again. The idea already exists. \n If the inventor sees no way to make money off their idea, they're not going to just sit on it and keep quiet. They're going to tell their friends all about their nifty idea for an invention. Humans are social creatures who love sharing information, can't bear to keep secrets, and love to brag. If there's no incentive to keep the idea a secret, the person who had the idea will share it like a bad simile. \n Literally the only reason why someone would sit on an idea with no patent system is if they think it non-obvious, don't have the ability to make money off it immediately, and think they'll be able to make money off of it before someone else has the idea and can make money off of it. However, a patent system would not cause them to share the idea any more than not having a patent system would. Instead, the person would sit on the idea until it becomes obvious to others or they can use it to make money, at which point they will claim their temporary monopoly and lack of competition hurts the general public for a while.", "id": "c4ag7yi", "summary": "Patents are morally reprehensible because they utterly fail to achieve their stated purpose (promoting the progress of science and useful arts) and are abused to actually do the opposite."}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "Cross has lush graphics, a wonderful soundtrack, and a convoluted, hackneyed plot that would make even an unskilled fanfiction writer cringe in horror. I am not a violent man, but Masato Kato needs to be lynched for writing this travesty. \n The battle system is the single best take on Vancian magic I've seen, though. Better than how D&D tries to implement it. And the large cast that requires multiple playthroughs to gather was also a clever idea. If only someone would do a total rewrite of the plot to make sense and either not involve Trigger at all or involve it in a way that wasn't terrible.", "id": "c3uu1ye", "summary": "Chrono Cross aged well. It just always had a terrible plot."}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "By federal law, the drinking age is 18 for that exact reason. Unfortunately, it is state law in all 50 states that the drinking age is 21 instead (about 10% of highway funding is tied to maintaining these laws). This is the legacy of MADD, and the reason why I despise them.", "id": "c6hgi91", "summary": "If you're on federal, not state, land, and not in a location where drinking at any age is simply not allowed, the drinking age in the US is 18."}, {"author": "siflux", "content": "You should donate plasma! \n Somebody correct me if I'm wrong on this, but a quick ELI5 on plasma types in relation to blood types: The A, B, and + markers are guaranteed to be somewhere in your blood overall. If they aren't on the red blood cells, they're in the plasma instead. This means that while somebody with AB+ blood can only donate to somebody else with AB+ blood, their plasma donations are universal instead.", "id": "c3eoamy", "summary": "Donate plasma instead of blood if your blood type is AB."}]}
+{"author": "KTcube", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Went drinking with a guy in Madrid for like 4 hours. He took a train to Valencia to creep on me. Had to tell my roommates to pretend I was already back in America to get him to go away.", "output": "I went on a backpacking trip around Europe for a whole summer. I got to Madrid around 10pm. When I was in Madrid I went out with a Brazilian guy. He seemed pretty cool. We walked around drinking, and it was during Pride so there were parties everywhere. I left Madrid the next morning thinking nothing of it, I was just partying with another random college kid like I'd been doing the whole trip. \n I spent a week in Cartagena. After that I went to Valencia. The guy started talking to me online while I was there (I still didn't know he was a creeper since I'd only hung out with him for like 4 hours while drunk). I told him that I was in Valencia, and the next day he came to Valencia. (Ok, a little weird, but maybe he just wants to take a long weekend at the beach.) Then it got creepy. He wanted to hang out with me constantly, I couldn't get away from him to hang out with my roommates. He started freaking out and saying that he loved me and that I was the best girl he ever knew... (At this point I'd probably been around him for a total of 15-20 hours over the course of a couple weeks.) \n I eventually got away from him and told my roommates not to answer if he came by and to tell him that I was already on the way home. Luckily he went back to Madrid after a few more days, so my stay in Valencia wasn't totally insane. He emailed me every once in a while for a few months, and I just didn't read them. (the last one was like 2 months ago. This trip was a year and a half ago.) Apparently he still misses me. :P At least I'm in another country now!"}], "user_id": "longlamp_3687", "history": [{"author": "KTcube", "content": "When I was in preschool and elementary school I would cry all the time, and I couldn't even figure out why. In elementary school I was afraid of large groups and loud noises and I would scream at kids to be quiet. In 6th grade I started cutting myself and I didn't stop until the summer after 8th grade. In high school I was totally fine. Now I'm in college and I have anxiety, but I know enough to go to a counselor. \n I really wish that my parents had known when I was little that kids can have serious mental health problems that require professional attention. I wish they knew that I wasn't just a typical nerdy kid who preferred to be alone. If they had realized that I couldn't just grow out of it, I probably wouldn't have spent so many years self-harming. \n Parents out there, I just want to tell you that you should treat mental health in your kids like you treat their physical health. If your kid had cancer or pneumonia you would take them to a doctor. If your kid is depressed, please get them help. Even if they still have friends and good grades, get them help. \n Mental health problems are nothing to be ashamed of. I hope that parents now know more about mental health problems. When I was younger I had a friend whose parents punished her for cutting herself. I'm sure you can guess how much that helped. (sarcasm there) Mental health problems are not just kids being stubborn, rebellious, or unruly.", "id": "c4lfe5i", "summary": "When I was a kid I had serious social anxiety and spent a few years self-harming. I wish my parents knew that kids can have serious depression and need to be treated. Parents need to treat mental health like they treat physical health. \n Thank you for reading this bit of unsolicited parenting advice from someone who has no idea how to be a parent."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "My friends and I became friends with a girl who moved to our school in 10th grade. After a couple weeks of knowing her we all just knew she was autistic. She acted so similar to our autistic family members and my autistic martial arts students, but since she got acceptable grades she was never placed in special care or even diagnosed. \n We felt really bad because she had very meager social skills. We tried to teach her proper ways to start conversations (she only wanted to talk about her drawings.) The thing is, a bunch of teenagers aren't qualified to help autistic people, and even though we wanted to get her diagnosed there wasn't a good way to go about it. How do you tell your high school teachers and your friend's family that you think your 17 year old friend is an undiagnosed autistic? We didn't know what to do. In 12th grade one of the art teachers mentioned to my friend that she was glad we were hanging out with that girl and she wondered if she was autistic. My friends and I all kind of facepalmed. (It took you 2 years to figure this out!? It took us 2 weeks!)", "id": "c3rp4d6", "summary": "In 10th grade a girl moved to our school. My friends and I took her in and realized that she was autistic but had never been diagnosed because she acted like our diagnosed friends and family. We didn't know how to tell a bunch of teachers and our friend's family that we thought our friend was autistic and nobody noticed until us, so we didn't tell anyone."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "Before I moved last year I flew planes. I got my solo but not my license because I moved before I had enough classes to test. Now all of my time is occupied by school so I can't do lessons for a few years.\nFlying at night is soooo fun! \n The first time I did night flight we practiced landings. Each time we went through we would do a different simulated failure (no landing lights, no flaps, blah blah.) Since I was at a tiny airstrip in Ohio we has pilot operated runway lights, which means that to turn on the lights on the edges of the runway you tap the talk button on your radio 5 times really fast. The lights go off after like 20 minutes or something, and it was a 1 hour lesson. Normally they would go off while we were in the pattern so it didn't matter. \n On the last landing we were doing no flaps, no engine (power all the way down), no electric. So inside the plane is completely dark, and the big headlight-ish thing is out. When you don't have flaps you can do what's called a slip, which means that you basically use the entire side of the plane to slow down by going in crooked and then straightening out near the runway. \n So, I'm going down, and I'm turning out of the slip. The last bit where I'm going straight is probably like 30 feet off the ground. Right before you hit you're supposed to flare, which means that you pull back and make the back wheels hit first. (It can cause damage to the plane if you don't.) So I'm going, and I'm getting really close to where I need to flare, and the runway timer runs out. Now everything is pitch black and I have no idea where the ground is. Luckily my first reaction was to turn the lights back on, and I actually made a pretty good landing.", "id": "c3s7qzj", "summary": "I once had a flight lesson where the runway lights went off while I was landing during a simulated engine and electric failure. I didn't panic."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I was flying a Cessna 172 for a night training flight at a tiny airstrip in the country when I was a student. It was an uncontrolled airport. (For non-pilots: that means that there is no tower. Pilots just talk to each other on the radio.) It also had pilot-controlled lights. (The lights on the runway are turned on by tapping the radio button in your plane 5 times. They auto turn off after like 20 minutes.) \n So we were practicing takeoffs and landings for like an hour. Normally the lights would go off when I was like halfway through the pattern and I would just turn them back on. We were practicing a ton of emergency stuff like no flaps and no lights. \n So we get to the landing where we have no electric. No interior lights behind the instruments, no landing lights, no flaps. I have to slip the plane in to the runway with only the runway lights to guide me. So we're going down and everything's fine and when I straighten out of the slip the lights go off. It is completely black, and I have no reference for where the ground is. Luckily my first reaction was to slam the radio button. The lights came back on and I flared and did one of the best landings ever.", "id": "c7whefv", "summary": "Practicing no lights no flaps emergency at night on a pilot-controlled runway, runway lights go out right before I have to flare. Slam the radio button like a boss and do one of my smoothest landings ever."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I think that the difference is mainly in the beliefs, history, and activities of the group. I am a member of a freethinkers meetup group. We like to hang out at our friends' homes, play games, talk about news or philosophy or whatever, and just have fun.\nWe don't have a historical set of beliefs and traditions like religions do. Our only common theme is not believing in the supernatural. (Well, not really. We have a few deists there.) \n That's our local club. The national organizations in which I am involved organize speaker events, conventions, and start local branches of clubs. I think that this is more similar to something like the Girl Scouts or the Air Force Association (of which I have also taken part). I suppose you could compare any large organization to a religion if you do not consider belief in the supernatural to be an essential tenet of a religion. The NRA could be a religious organization for people who like guns, PFLAG is a religion for people with gay friends and family, and the Catholics and Mormons and Muslims are religions like they've always been. \n I think that classifying atheism or other groups that are not based on a supernatural belief system as religions is insulting to the non-religious groups and the religious groups alike. The religious groups could take issue because if anyone can claim any belief system as a new religion, the \"traditional\" religions lose their linguistic and social significance. The non religious groups might be upset because calling something like the NRA a religion (for example) implies that everyone in the group believes they should have guns because they JUST BELIEVE, not that they have important constitutional reasons or because they think that guns are useful for hunting or whatever, and by calling them a religion you are implying that their logical arguments are faith based and based on the will of the religion rather than based on study of American law and the will of the members.", "id": "c3r10ww", "summary": "Atheist clubs aren't a religion for the same reasons the Girl Scouts, the Air Force Association, and the NRA aren't religions."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I thought that bisexual girls had a lot of sex before marraige, and I thought that sex before marriage was wrong (I'm not religious, my public school health classes taught me that.), so I couldn't be bi. This was in 8th grade and the only bisexual girls I knew were already very sexually active. \n When I was in 9th grade I met a few lesbian and bi girls who were \"normal\" and realized that you can be bi or a lesbian and wait until marriage and not drink or do drugs. When I was in 12th grade I realized that my school had been lying to me and it's ok to have sex before marriage and to drink alcohol.", "id": "c78w8kr", "summary": "I used to think bisexual girls just got drunk and had sex with everyone, and since I didn't do that I couldn't be bi."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I don't know about other people, but I was a generally horrible child until I was 14 or 15. I was extremely well-behaved, but I was not at all kind or nice or pleasant to be around. I was mean to other kids because I was afraid of them and I didn't know how to act around them. I perceived them as a threat and I avoided them as much as possible, but when I couldn't avoid them I attacked them. (This was the actual \"fight or flight response\" in action. I saw other children as almost the same as dangerous animals.) \n In middle school I had become a little more socialized to the point where I didn't physically attack other children anymore. At this point I started to crave attention constantly, and I found that it was much easier to get attention by being mean. I think that part of the reason I was mean to other kids is that I could get away with it. I had an abnormal fear of getting in trouble, but like many kids I wanted to rebel. I was too afraid to blow off homework or talk back to my parents, so I took out my rebellious side by being mean to people who wouldn't get me in trouble. \n So basically, I was socially underdeveloped for most of my childhood, and that is why I was so mean to everyone, including my friends. (I'm 20 and I just recently realized how behind most people I am in terms of social skills. I'm currently learning to be a normal social person. After my mean child stage I was just shy, and I'm still pretty shy. I like to think that I'm super nice now though.)", "id": "c8iwfps", "summary": "Some young people have underdeveloped social skills."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I'm not really sure if this is what you're looking for, but I'm going to tell my story: \n I was a great student in high school. I'm assuming that by \"top talent\" you mean the kids who do well in high school and go on to do well in college. Most of my peers are becoming doctors, lawyers, and scientists. I started out my college career in physics because I like science and I wanted to do a \"hard\" college major. I think that among well-performing students in the US there is a lot of competition to take on the majors and professions that are viewed as very intellectual and extremely difficult. \n I'm pretty sure that most of the honors students at my high school saw teaching as \"too easy\". It's something the \"normal\" kids go to college for because they can't handle getting a PhD in neurosurgery. If you go to any med school or tech school you will find this attitude that views liberal arts, history, business, and education majors almost as poorly as they view dropouts. (Not saying that having a bad view of dropouts is acceptable either. There's a story about that if you want it.) \n I think that one of the major problems for teaching in the US is the \"elitist\" attitude of medical and other STEM fields, and the way that well-performing high school students fall into that attitude. I know that I definitely did. I didn't start out in teaching because I was so conceited that I thought I would be \"wasting\" my potential if I didn't do a subject that was touted as extremely difficult and male-dominated. I felt like it was my duty to enter a field with a reputation for being difficult. I think that most of the people in my high school honors classes felt the same way. Now that I've realized what's going on I think that's a horrible attitude to have. I don't know why so many people feel that way.", "id": "c7t08eo", "summary": "Smart high school kids think that STEM is cooler because it has a big reputation, and they want to show off how smart they are. Being a teacher doesn't let you show off how smart you are to your peers. \n (edit: accidentally a word.)"}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "1: A guy who was supposed to be a one-night stand (and was never my boyfriend) who ended up stalking me across half a country. He was so possessive and absurdly over-emotional and I only knew him for a week. I can't imagine what it's like for any girl who actually lives near him and has accepted his advances. \n 2: My first boyfriend was this goth/emo guy in 8th grade. (I grew up at the time when goth and emo were both things and I could never tell them apart, so I don't know what my friends and I were. I usually go with \"emo\".) Anyway, this was your typical \"first love\" thing that happens in middle school or early high school. He moved to another state after 4 months and we broke up. It wasn't a huge deal because we were like 14. Skip ahead 4 years: I was about to graduate high school and he was 1 year older than me so he graduated from the state that he moved to. He came back to my hometown to work and live near his old friends, and he was exactly the same as he was in 8th grade but he complained more and was more sexist and racist. We met up to go for a walk and catch up and he kept telling me about how the town he lived in down south made him racist because he hated all the non-white people there, so he just decided to hate them all over the country. It was like he was proud of being racist. And he still had the same attitude of the middle school goth crowd of \"fuck adults, fuck society, fuck normal clothes, fuck rules\". He just didn't understand that you can't be a functioning member of society if all you do is rebel against it. I just think that people who are rebellious should be aware that they won't fit into society's ideas of success, and they should have good reasons to justify why they don't need to fit into that ideal. He blames his failures on society because he thinks they hate him for how he dresses and the music he listens to, but he doesn't see that his bad attitude is what makes people dislike him, and there are plently of people who wear black and listen to metal and have normal jobs. (", "id": "c82zk2w", "summary": "A 21 year old guy who hasn't grown mentally since being a middle school goth.)"}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I think that selling the customers' information without their permission is immoral. People don't sign up expecting to have their personal information distributed without their knowledge. Customers need to learn about their privacy and demand changes if they don't want this to happen. \n For the people who say \"if you don't like it just don't use the website\", this is a good idea. Unfortunately it is difficult to keep up with friends, family, and work without using common websites like facebook and gmail. Unless you can do all of your work on a typewriter and snail mail, you'll probably need an email account. If your company or school doesn't provide one or you need an email account for clubs/other organizations it's likely that you would use gmail. Other sites can look dated or unprofessional. \n (I know it's wrong, but I judge people as being slightly less tech-savvy if they still use yahoo or aol. If a boss has the same judgement as me it might give them a biased opinion without them knowing. If you don't use email at all I think you're old, Amish, or afraid the government is watching you.)", "id": "c3r168y", "summary": "It's immoral. Some people would say just quit the site, but it's bad for your image."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "Most scientists and engineers and doctors are too busy doing what they learned to do in college to run for office. I'd like to be in a position of power in the American government, but if I take 4 years out of my physics career I risk becoming irrelevant and unemployable in my scientific career. I'd rather have a stable career in the field I love than risk all of my money to be a cog in the giant government where I won't have the power to make a huge difference if I even get in. \n I think that a lot of the politicians who are currently in office paint a bad image of scientists. They say that scientists can't agree on evolution or global warming or whatever. In reality, most reputable scientists agree on the major issues, except maybe for a few small details. The scientists who disagree usually have a bias when reading the data or are being bought out to say something specific.\nThe image of a group of people who can't agree on anything and sits around all day arguing about who is right is painted as negative by the politicians. They want people to think that the discussion among scientists of different ideas is a sign that the scientists can't come up with answers, when really the discussion is a big part of the process.\nIf politicians stopped trying to make open discussion look like a mosh pit, people might realize that there is a difference between scientific debate and the bandstanding in the televised political debates. If people realized that scientists disagreeing is different, more civil, and more organized and truthful, they might encourage them to run instead of lifelong politicians. \n There are hundreds of people in the government, and I could stir things up a bit, but the reason America has checks and balances is so one person can't pass laws alone. I see the more productive route as maintaining a career in physics and organizing outreach to public schools to get kids interested in science. That seems like a more direct way to make a difference.", "id": "c3r61yy", "summary": "Scientists don't run because they think doing science will actually accomplish something more than being in politics will. Politicians try to make them look bad by making scientific discussion look like a childish argument."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "The big bang is really hard to understand. I'm a college physics major and I have no clue about the math that goes into it, but I'll try my best to do an \"explain it like i'm 5\". \n Ok, so, all of the matter in the universe was compressed into a very small thing (singularity) and eventually it got so hot and dense (math) that the particles were moving too fast to be coherent matter. (high temperature=more movement at subatomic level). For some reason (math) the thing expanded. (I don't say exploded because people think of watching an explosion from the outside. There was no matter or energy outside of the expanding body, hence no observers.) \n As it expanded, the particles got far enough apart and started to slow down enough to stick together and form matter. Gravity formed galaxies and blahblah more math. \n Anyway, our major sources that we interpret to mean the big bang is true are: \n \n Cosmic background radiation. This is a small variance in heat that is remaining from the initial compressed and very hot universe. Now that it is so spread out the differences are fractions of a degree, but it can be seen all over the universe. (You can look up infrared and radio telescope pictures of it!) This is the reason there is static on old antenna tvs and radios. They are picking up the heat which is so far away and so weak that it has become radio waves. \n \n Red shifting stars/galaxies. We can judge the distance, size, color, brightness, and main wavelength of light of astronomical objects. Each type of object puts out a majority of its light at a certain wavelength (more info: blackbody radiation). Some objects are brighter in radio waves, some are brighter in visible light. Red shift is basically when an object's expected brightest wavelength isn't the brightest one we see, and we see a peak wavelength that is slightly closer to the red end of the spectrum than it should be. The reason for this is that the object is moving away from us very rapidly, causing the perceived wavelength to be longer. (more info: Doppler effect.) All galaxies have at least some red shift, which means that the universe is expanding in all directions.", "id": "c3seeue", "summary": "MATH. Math that college physics majors don't understand. Other stuff: The big bang is \"proven\" by cosmic background radiation and red shift. Look them up. (But my explanation is shorter than Wikipedia's!)"}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I don't have an older sibling, but I am an older sibling. (I'm female with a younger sister.) I think that in general you should just be friendly about your brother's relationships. Ask him how it's going every so often, ask if he's met anyone he likes seriously. Don't get nosy unless it seems like something is wrong, and make sure he knows he can come to you if he needs help. If you constantly nag him he'll get annoyed and not want to talk to you, but if you ignore him he might not want to come to you when he needs help. \n I wish I'd had an older sibling to tell me not to date jerks when I was dating jerks. Of course, if I was a little sibling I would be insufferable and never listen to my much wiser older sibling, so all their advice would be in vain and they would just have to watch me fail over and over. You know how little siblings are. >;)", "id": "c6whhvo", "summary": "Talk to him about his dates like you'd talk to friends or cousins about their dates. Offer advice if he needs it but don't expect him to listen because that's how younger siblings are."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I came out to 2 lesbians at my high school who I was kind of friends with. I was friends with another bi girl who was already out, and the lesbian girls kept saying stuff like \"we see you flirting! we know you like her!\". After like 2 weeks of that I was like \"ohhhh... I'm bi!\" and I told them like the next day. They were just like \"yeah we know. go ask her out.\".", "id": "c71h8v3", "summary": "2 lesbians knew I was bi before I did, and they kindly informed me. \n Now I just tell people I'm bi whenever it comes up. It's not really a big deal to me."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I normally don't notice how muscular a guy is unless he looks like a bodybuilder or looks as weak as me. I expect most guys to be more muscular than me and less muscular than bodybuilders. The amount of muscular-ness on a guy doesn't really affect how attractive I find him unless it's very extreme. If he's so skinny that his head looks too big for his body or he's so muscular that he can't rotate his neck normally I think it's a little strange. I haven't seen a lot of extremely muscular girls, so I'm not sure what I would think of that in real life. \n As far as weight goes, the actual number doesn't matter to me. I think that posture is what makes someone look like the negative version of a fat person. There are 2 guys in my classes who both weigh a lot, and I think the one who weighs slightly less looks worse because he carries himself in a lazy way. The bigger one is really energetic and stands up straight, and that actually makes him look better than the guy who weighs a little less but slouches when he sits and shuffles when he walks. \n My boyfriend is pretty average weight for a guy, a little on the skinny side. I think this is another case of how you carry yourself. One of my guy friends is really skinny and constantly acts tired and looks downtrodden. That makes him look hungry and unhealthy. I actually think he looks good when he's dancing because that's the only time when he acts like he isn't about to pass out.", "id": "c6bmtzi", "summary": "No matter what you weigh, if you slouch and drag your feet it makes you look bad. If you act energetic and have good posture your weight will be of minimal importance."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I would initiate a conversation with you to be your friend. I've never initiated a conversation with someone for the sole purpose of dating them because I only date my friends. If we were friends for a while and I liked you and I had a good feeling that you liked me but were too shy I would ask you out. \n I think that you need to be friends with some girls first then start dating. You need to realize that talking to women is just like talking to people...because it women are people. Get used to being around women in normal situations so you'll be more comfortable. \n I think that some women might want to be your friend, but they don't know anyone who has a disability and don't know how to approach you because they think you're different for some reason. That's why most shy guys can't approach women. They think that women are so different from them that they don't know what to do. Most of the people in wheelchairs I've known had to force themselves to be crazy and outgoing because people notice them but don't talk to them. They want to be shy and stay in the background so they don't get noticed more than they already are because they look different, but when they go around talking to everyone and being excited and happy they make a lot more friends. (I'm pretty shy too, so I know how hard it is to not act shy.) \n Once you start talking to and being friends with women you won't feel so awkward around them. Everyone is kind of confused by people who don't look like them or fit in with their group until they become friends with them.", "id": "c6rrm4d", "summary": "Talking to women for shy guys is like talking to disabled people for people with no disabled friends or family. It's awkward until you know them, then you realize they're just like you."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "EDIT: One of my friends is going to continue to submit paperwork so that the SSA can stay official. There are 2 other SSAs and a freethinker's meetup in our town, so most of the events are going to be joining those groups since my friend is really busy. I'm glad the SSA is going to survive for at least another year. Hopefully this will give it time to get popular. \n I started the SSA at my college last spring. Last semester and this semester the only people who have been showing up are me and my boyfriend. We've tried really hard to get it going (posting signs, sending emails, facebook events, food, changing meeting times...), but everyone is either too busy or doesn't care. \n I decided in the last couple weeks that I'm going to change schools. my boyfriend and the few people who showed up to meetings once or twice are all seniors, so they'll be gone in May. They're all too busy to run the SSA, and even if they could it would probably just be prolonging its death until the end of next semester. \n I just feel like I did a bad job as president because I didn't leave any continuity. I guess I just want to convince myself that it isn't my fault. I did everything I could and our school didn't respond, and now I'm leaving and our school won't have an SSA anymore. A month ago I didn't even know I was going to change schools. I thought I would have 2 more years to get this thing going, not 2 weeks. \n I guess I'm stuck between thinking \"ktcube, you are an irresponsible idiot for not planning your succession and you should feel bad!\" and thinking I  should  think \"ktcube, the SSA is not appropriate for this school at this time, and you didn't have a reasonable amount of time to plan your succession, so none of this is your fault\".", "id": "t3_14b2w8", "summary": "Decided to switch schools with 2 weeks left in the semester. Didn't plan continuity because I thought I would be here for 2 more years."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "Before I knew about sex my little sister and I would watch the Animal Planet all the time, and our parents didn't care if we watched the animal birth/surgery shows. I figured that since humans were mammals and I'd seen other mammals birthing on tv that we poop out babies. (To me it looked like the animal babies were getting pooped out.) I also thought that humans became pregnant by kissing at their wedding until I was about 9. \n When I was 11 or 12 (in 6th grade) I thought I got my period for the first time. It might have been my hymen randomly breaking, or it might have been a real period, but I didn't get another one for like a year. I knew that periods were supposed to happen about 1 month apart, so when another one didn't happen I freaked out and thought I was pregnant, but I couldn't tell anyone because I'd never had sex. I thought that I'd touched something with sperm on it and then touched my own genitals. When I didn't gain any weight I decided that I wasn't getting any more periods because I was too skinny, and I'd read that women who are underweight don't get periods. :P \n So, twox, what weird things did you believe as a kid?", "id": "t3_yvf1l", "summary": "When I was a kid I thought babies were born by pooping. In 6th grade I got my first period and I thought I was pregnant from a toilet seat when it didn't come back in 1 month."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "Not a lot of people know what a well fitting bra should look like. \n Everyone knows what well fitting jeans should look like. \n If a woman is going around in size 20 pants when she should be wearing an 8 everyone will know that her pants don't fit. She'll figure out pretty quickly that she needs a smaller size, and it won't bother her at all. Almost nobody would make this big of a mistake with pants sizing. There are no magazines saying \"The average woman is a size 20. Look at this supermodel who is a size 8! She's a freak of nature!\" If magazines did that then we would have a lot of women in size 20 skinny jeans wondering why their pants keep falling down and worrying that they have a weird shaped body because their jeans don't fit right. If you told those women they should wear a size 8 they would laugh because they think that only models can wear that size. (That's an exaggeration.) \n Now imagine you have a woman in a 40C who should be wearing a 34F. She keeps wondering why her bra digs into her shoulders, but she figures that's how it's supposed to be. If someone tells her that she should be a 34 band she will tell them that it will be way too tight. If someone tells her that she should be an F cup she will be shocked because the media tells her that a DD is pornstar sized boobs.", "id": "t3_14h8y3", "summary": "The media. Duh."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I've skipped 3 classes this entire semester (edit: that's 1 class period on 3 different days). 2 were due to anxiety attacks and one was because my boyfriend and I had to go look at apartments for the summer and none of the offices were open on a Sunday. I work really hard. I don't party. I go to office hours and tutoring hours. And I still can't get as good grades as the people who skip class and don't remember their weekends. \n I feel bad because I don't want bad things to happen to other people, but I almost wish they would fail or get Ds just to prove that hard work actually does mean something. I know that in \"real life\" sometimes you can work really hard at something and just be unlucky or have no talent and fail anyway. So I always feel like I'm being naive for still listening to what I was taught in middle school that the people who work hardest have the most success. It's just not fucking true. No amount of hard work will make me better at physics than my classmates. \n I'm really worried that I'm actually just not smart enough to be a physics major. I've heard that everyone has a \"wall\" in math that they can try and try and never understand. I'm afraid that since I'm already struggling so much that my \"wall\" will come before I finish my bachelors and I'll have to change majors after wasting 2 or 3 years. I always thought that math and science were easy and that I was good at them, but now I'm realizing that being good at something in high school has absolutely no effect on how you will do in college.", "id": "t3_slwi8", "summary": "I work really hard and get help in my classes, and I don't drink or party. My friends in my major drink almost every day and skip class all the time but they still get better grades than me. I'm really frustrated and I'm scared that I'm not smart enough for a physics degree since it seems so easy for them."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "EDIT: I fail with the language already! Polygamy. \n I'm not sure if this is the place to post this, but I'd like to get some opinions from poly people on how legal matters that normally involve 2-person marriages should be handled with more than 2 people. I want to know if the following ideas are sensitive to the poly community, and if there are any of you who are experienced with bookkeeping type things how would you organize it? (Also, please tell me if I'm using the wrong language in this post) \n My boyfriend and I were talking one day about how we think that people should be able to marry anyone and as many people as they want. He's a computer engineer, and he said that it would be a tech nightmare for the government to rework all their computerized systems for poly marriage. In our example, we decided that the marriage would be \"circular\", and people would claim one another on taxes in the order that they entered the marriage/appeared on the marriage certificate, with the last person referring to the first person. (This could only happen with same-sex marriage also being legal) \n We weren't really sure how to think about child custody. We considered making the biological parents, if they are part of the family, the primary custody holders(EDIT: but we weren't sure if that would be bad for the other parents), but we had no idea what would happen if a kid was adopted. If there was a poly family and 1 or 2 people divorced themselves from the rest it wouldn't be clear to us what to do if there was a custody battle.", "id": "t3_s1m3e", "summary": "If the government legalized poly marriage, computer engineers would go insane trying to rework all of the computer systems that currently only handle 2-person marriages in time to register all the new poly marriages. My boyfriend (a computer engineer) and I tried to figure out what to do, and we probably failed. What would you (hypothetically) do?"}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I started taekwondo in 5th grade. I started assistant teaching in 9th grade and started teaching alone in 10th. I taught until I graduated from high school, at which point I had to quit because I moved to another state for college. During the time I did taekwondo I spent 3-4 days a week after school there and every Saturday morning there, and I only hung out with my friends every few weeks. I was really confident and really good at interacting with the students and my fellow instructors (about 4 instructors), and I thought that since I could get 4 year olds and 73 year olds to understand anything about taekwondo I was awesome at communicating. \n Well, it turns out that I'm only good at communicating how to do martial arts. Now I'm in college and I have a few friends, but I have a lot of social anxiety. I realized a couple weeks after I got here that my entire set of social skills is based on being in the role of \"student\" or \"teacher\" because I basically grew up going to school and doing taekwondo to the exclusion of almost everything else. I'm not really sure how to interact with people unless I'm teaching them something or they're teaching me something. \n I did manage to start dating a really awesome guy who is really extroverted and has awesome social skills, and he is helping me a lot. I'm slowly getting used to doing \"normal\" stuff with him and his friends like going to restaurants and having movie parties and stuff. We also figured out that I'm really introverted and I get stressed if I go out too much even though I like going out. I think that sometime during the next school year I'll be pretty comfortable with it. I'm already starting to get used to being social.", "id": "t3_ryjvt", "summary": "I did martial arts for 8 years, taught for the last 4. I was an awesome and confident instructor and thought I had awesome social skills. When I quit and moved to college I found out that all of my social skills were based on the student/teacher template and I didn't have very good friendship abilities. I'm working on getting used to social situations that don't involve classes."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "Edit 1: Sorry for the random apostrophe appearing in the title. :P \n I've had 2 30DD Cleo Judes for about 4.5 months now. I wear them about 6 days of the week, switching each day and washing both at the end of the week. (I couldn't afford to get more than 2, and I like them better than all my other bras.) On the other day I wear a sports bra or my 32Ds or a cami. \n Anyway, they are starting to feel kind of loose in the band. I've been wearing them on the middle and shortest hooks a lot for the last month or so. I'm not sure if they're stretching because I wear them so much or if I should just go to a 28 band now that I'm used to the tightness of the 30. (When I first started trying on bras I thought 28 was too tight, but I didn't try any 28s in this style.) \n The bras are still tight enough to support me and I'm fine with them, but I wouldn't mind them being tighter. Does anyone have experience with Cleo bras stretching out fast, or do you think I'm just getting used to the 30 and that's why it doesn't feel tight anymore? Do you think that I should go to a 28E? (My ribcage is 29 inches.) \n I'm planning on buying more bras soon and I'll probably get a couple more in this style because it's the best for my body shape so far. \n I just realized something else... It might feel loose because my breast tissue could be moving to the front of my body more. Before this I was wearing bras that gave me major side-boob. Maybe when I first started wearing the 30DDs the side-boob was under my band a little, making it feel tighter.", "id": "t3_142xgk", "summary": "After a few months of wearing a 30DD the band feels loose. My ribcage is 29 inches. Should I switch to a 28F in the same style? \n EDIT 2: Someone on here told me to remeasure. My ribcage is now 27 inches! Dafuq? I didn't think to remeasure because I didn't think my measurement could change that much in just a couple months without losing any weight. :P Looks like 28 bands for me!"}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I woke up 5 minutes ago, and this was the first thought that came into my head, so sorry if the words are a little jumbled. \n Someone should start a bra company that has consultants who come to your house and measure you and sell bras. It would be like Mary Kay or Slumber Parties, but with bras! When the people sign up to be consultants I'll send them information about the bras we sell and how to size people. Before they can start selling they'll have to take a quiz where they're given measurements and they have to estimate a size. (Of course there will be a few sizes that are ok for each set. As long as someone with a 29 inch ribcage is getting a 28 or 30 band it's ok. No 34B's for tiny ladies!) \n They could have magazine type things with pictures of models who wear different sizes so people can see what a real 30H looks like, since there will probably be a ton of people who don't believe it. \n They could also take a bunch of bras with them for people to try on. That would be kind of a hard part because there are soooo many sizes. I was thinking that they could just take a ton of sizes and have the style alternate for each one (So a 28C balconette, 28D plunge, 28DD full coverage, 28F t-shirt bra, then start over at 28FF.) If they had enough space to carry them it would be better if they could take 1 or 2 kinds of bra in every size and then just take a few rando sizes of other ones. That way people can try on something that is their actual size, but they would be able to get really close if they didn't like the style. \n The company would try to make the sizing as regular as possible between styles. We would probably only make a few basic types of bras, but we would have tons of different colors and embellishments. We would probably sell bra extenders/shorteners and padding and other random bra-related objects as well. \n What do you ladies think? Would you go to a bra-party? For the ladies who don't like ordering online because you want to try stuff on, would you order bras from a company like this?", "id": "t3_10ibqs", "summary": "Mary Kay for bras. \n Edit: I'm so glad you guys like this idea so much! I really don't know where to start with actually making this happen. I'm a physics major, not a business major! I don't have the first clue about how to have a legal business or how to do taxes for a business or how to go about contacting suppliers. :P This was just something that popped into my head."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I went to an abstinence-only school, and one day in sex-ed we had a worksheet where we had to look up and write down the definitions of homosexual, heterosexual, and bisexual. Transgender might have been on there, but I don't think it was. After that day nobody mentioned not being straight or not being the gender you were assigned at birth or being non-monogamous (ok, they did try to tell us that we would all get AIDS and have 50 unwanted kids if we were non-monogamous) again. \n For the most part our school just pretended that same-sex couples and poly relationships didn't exist. They focused on telling us that we needed to wait for marriage so we could have healthy kids with our spouses, or we would be disowned from society and probably die young. \n Did anyone else's school brush over the issue? Did they ignore it completely? Did anyone have a school where the sex-ed taught that being not-straight or not-cis is wrong? \n Is there anyone whose sex-ed class actually went into detail and got positive about LGBTQ+ people? Anyone whose classes included non-hetero relationships in its discussions of sex and healthy relationships?", "id": "t3_12n3pk", "summary": "read the title."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I go to a pretty conservative college. We have a few religious clubs on campus that do really cool stuff like game nights and camping trips. I wanted to make a group for people who don't believe in a higher power so that they could have fun and feel accepted. \n We've been doing pretty well. We have about 20 members, but only about 6 show up to meetings regularly. We went to some speeches. We are hosting a volunteer event for people to register as organ donors and bone marrow donors on campus. \n Some random person cut crosses on our posters. That was pretty rude, but nobody has been mean to our faces or on our facebook. Some people told me that they support the group but they don't want to join because they're afraid of what people would think of them. I tell them that we are all about helping them with that kind of discrimination, but they still don't want to join. \n I bet there are a lot more atheists that didn't join. I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas to get them to come or if it's just a matter of time before people get used to us being around.", "id": "t3_qca8e", "summary": "I'm a college student who started a club for atheists and agnostics. How do I get people to not be afraid to come, or do I just have to wait? Also, AMA."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I'm in college and have recently become more active in politics. I don't think I know everything, but I think that I can match up to the average American pretty well. I don't know enough about tax code to rewrite it, but I have opinions about it. I have strong opinions about certain social issues that are based on my personal beliefs, experiences, and education. \n Sometimes when I talk to people about politics they tell me that I'm just some kid who thinks they have a strong political stance or something. I'm not sure if they actually think that because I'm under 21 I'm too inexperienced to have an opinion or if they just want to make me stop talking. \n If they think I'm too young to have a good argument, why? Isn't it true that there are people in their 40s who are interested in promoting their own opinion, even if they don't have an education in economics? I understand that they have more experience with paying taxes, and experience is a valid qualification, but is number of years working really the only reason that their opinion is \"more valid\"?", "id": "t3_qdpgq", "summary": "Does being in college mean that you are too young/don't have enough experience to form a respectable opinion about politics?"}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I'm a freshman in physics.\nPresident/cofounder of our branch of the Secular Student Alliance, which is sponsoring a Be The Match and Donate Life event on campus.\nVice president of ballroom dance club and member of swing dance club. We go dancing on Friday nights and have lessons at 9 on Saturday mornings.\nSilver Wings associate (fundraiser and banquet organizing is part of joining).\nMember of our local freethinkers group and active with the Secular Coalition for AZ.", "id": "t3_qhypn", "summary": "I am a college student who has a lot of clubs and classes but still manages to have a social life and get good grades. AMA"}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I'm not sure if there's another reddit I should ask this, but it seems like a lot of reddit women use birth control. I just started my first pack of Amethia (generic Seasonique) and I've been getting spotting every few days since like the 3rd week. It's really annoying and I want to know if it will go away after my body gets used to the meds. I'm about halfway through the 3 month pack. \n I haven't had any other problems and I know spotting is normal, so I don't really feel like going to the Ob/Gyn yet. I'm inclined to stay on Amethia, but if the spotting doesn't go away during the second pack I'll probably want to switch. Will switching to a different brand probably help? Or should I just wait for it to stop on it's own?", "id": "t3_qmfal", "summary": "I'm halfway through my first 3 mo pack of BC and I want to know if what my body is doing is normal. Advice from other people who use 3 month BC packs would be really appreciated!"}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I'm a first year physics student. I'm really interested in a lot of topics, but I think that I would feel more useful doing something like optics that affects a lot of fields. I also really love astronomy, but I don't think I'd want to just research objects as a career. This has led me to the idea that I should work on telescope optics so that I can be involved in the astro community while pursuing my interest in optics. \n Other physics/astro majors, what do you think of this idea? My school has professors who specialize in optics and astronomy, and we only have physics undergrads, so it's a reasonable project request down the line if I want to work with them. Does anyone have some suggested reading about building telescopes that an undergrad can understand? Does anyone have personal experience with the field?", "id": "t3_q1cvu", "summary": "Does anyone have advice for a first year physics student who is interested in  astronomy/optics/building telescopes?"}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "There are probably a lot of posts like this, but I just want some advice or how you dealt with it.\nI'm a bi girl with a straight boyfriend. We have a great relationship and he supports my LGBT activism and secular activism and school. \n Sometimes I feel like since I'm in a relationship with the opposite sex I won't be taken seriously in the LGBT community or I'll just be seen as a \"straight supporter\". My high school didn't have a GSA and the one at my college is a diversity club, not strictly GSA run by a pan girl so I don't regularly get bothered by it. People always forgot I was bi in high school because I didn't date much and I never got along with the gay girls friend group. It kind of bugged me that people would be surprised that I'm bi like 3 times before they got it. \n Anyway, I guess this was just sort of a ramble/rant. Are there any other bi's out there with opposite sex partners who feel \"less gay\" because of it?", "id": "t3_q8t5u", "summary": "I'm a bi girl with a boyfriend and I feel like I'm \"not gay enough\" to be in the LGBT community."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "What's the line between someone who thinks about suicide a lot (and may or may not have a mental illness) and someone who is suicidal? \n I'm going to divide this into \"levels\" of suicidal thinking, where the middle ones are kind of a grey area. These are just some situations I thought of, and there could be more. \n \n If you're just hanging around and you think about stuff like \"how many ways could I kill myself with objects in this room\" or other thoughts that are generally called morbid, does that mean that you should seek treatment? (I'd say probably not.) \n \n If you are like the first person, but you have a mental illness or a history of attempted suicide, should you seek treatment? (In this case you're still doing the \"morbid wondering\", not actually wanting to kill yourself.) \n \n If you think stuff like \"I would kill myself if it wasn't for  __ \". ( _  can be anything, someone you love, being too afraid that you'd fail and have to keep living, not having access to the methods...etc.) \n \n In moments of extreme stress you have violent thoughts about killing yourself, but you do not hurt yourself and don't have a history of doing so. (This is more reactionary than the first 3. Those were more calm and thoughtful.) \n \n If you actually plan to kill yourself. (You want to kill yourself and you start obtaining the means to do it.) I'd say this is obviously something that needs treatment.", "id": "t3_17vx45", "summary": "When they say \"see a doctor if you have suicidal thoughts\", how intense do those thoughts have to be? What's the difference between \"suicide sounds fascinating\" and \"I want to kill myself\", and where is the cutoff for needing mental treatment?"}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I'm from the USA, and my school basically taught us that sex should only happen in marriage and for procreation. According to them, if you had sex outside of marriage you would get pregnant (no matter how much protection you used!) and get STDs. They made it seem like sex could only happen in marriage, rape, or drunken mistakes. \n The school also took this approach to alcohol education. There was no such thing as \"a glass of wine in the evening\". It was either no alcohol at all or being a homeless alcoholic with no family and cirrhosis of the liver. \n I've been out of high school for a little over a year now and I've learned that what they taught me is complete horse-shit. I still have a lot of emotional residue though, and it's really hard for me to ask for sex, or even to say \"yes\" when I want it and my boyfriend asks. \n I just learned that the BC pill and condoms are effective at preventing pregnancy last summer. (We were basically told that you will get pregnant no matter what, and condoms all have holes in them and birth control pills cost $2000 a month.) \n Most of the lesbians in my high school had terrible relationships, and I think that part of it was because the education system won't even acknowledge that the relationships exist, let alone that they have problems that should be handled by professionals. \n The school made me a slut-shamer. They taught us that females who have sex before marriage are filthy and diseased, and that \"having sex before marriage will ruin your reputation\". Well, maybe if the school didn't teach us that sex ruins our reputations then it wouldn't ruin our reputation. They basically told us that contraception doesn't work, and I'm sure that a lot of the girls from my school who got pregnant thought \"Well, I'm about to have sex, and health class said that condoms don't work so I guess it doesn't matter if I use one or not.\" \n Anyone else want to rant with me? \n Is there anything that a girl who was taught abstinence and is now having sex should know? (I'm on Depo-Provera and only have one partner right now. And I know that when I get new partners we should get tested before having sex.)", "id": "t3_10ql5k", "summary": "My high school taught me that sex can only happen in marriage, rape, or drunken mistakes. Now I'm having responsible sex and I'm pissed that my school was so irresponsible in educating me. \n Edit: I no longer believe anything I was taught in that class and I'm not a slut-shamer anymore!"}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I'm not currently trying to adopt, but I looked through the adoption.com kids in my state. I want to adopt an older kid (probably like 10-14 years old), and I noticed that a lot of the kids profiles said that they want to keep going to their current church and love Jesus or something like that. I grew up around religious people and I think it's a good thing for most of them, so I would be ok with adopting a kid who is already religious even though I'm not. \n I would be happy to take my kids to church because it would be something consistent in their lives and they probably already have friends and a lot of support there, but I would rarely attend church since I'm not religious. I'm guessing that it just depends on the kid, but I would really feel bad that I can't be wholeheartedly involved with such an important part of the kid's life. Yeah, I can go to all the events and drive them and volunteer and be really happy about the activities, but it seems like the main point of bonding for religious groups is a common belief, and no matter how much I love being friends with people in a church it doesn't change the fact that I will never share their beliefs. \n I guess my biggest worry is that if I adopt a religious kid they might feel unsupported in their religious activities and not bond well with me. My sister felt unsupported in her musical career because our dad didn't go to every concert, but at least they listen to the same bands and like to talk about music. I can't imagine how a kid would feel about their parent not supporting something FAR more serious than music. (Though my dad did support my sister's music career and I would support my kids having a religious group of friends, kids easily feel left out at the slightest disinterest of the parents.)", "id": "t3_tosgn", "summary": "I want to adopt older kids but I'm worried that if they are already religious when I adopt them they won't bond well with me because I don't share their beliefs, even if I go to church with them and encourage them to practice their religion."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "Happened to me today. \"I don't hate anyone. Homosexuality is against my religion, but that doesn't mean I don't respect you as a person. I'll still treat you just like I treat that person (points to random guy)\". \n I didn't want to escalate, but if I was ready for a fight I would have said \"What you're really saying is that you don't feel like you hate gay people because your religion tells you that you should feel worried about them instead of angry at them. What you're doing is acting like someone who hates gay people.\" \n Most of the time this will just come up randomly because it's on the tv in the background or someone mentions \"did you know (celebrity) is gay?\", and then the person will say something about being against gay marriage. These people usually don't know I'm bi since I only talk about it when it comes up, so sometimes I'll tell them. I usually get stuff like \"I don't hate gay people, it's just against my religion for them to get married\". \n I feel like they're basically saying \"I don't feel angry so I don't think I hate gay people. I just want to do things that make it look like I hate them.\" \n In these situations I usually just get awkward and stop talking to the person outside of class. I guess this is a good reaction because I'm not being mean to them and I'm not putting myself around people who appear to hate me. There's no arguing with people like that because they will just say that it's their right to believe their religion and to vote upon it. \n So, what do you guys do when you find out someone you deal with regularly is anti-LGBT? \n EDIT:", "id": "t3_13uenc", "summary": "A lot of people who say \"I don't hate anyone\" are in denial."}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I'm just wondering about this because of some of the posts on here and because of some of my personal experiences. \n When I was in 2nd grade I had to go to the school counselor regularly because I had severe social anxiety. I don't know how I got there, so I assume my teacher suggested it? (I think it came up because I would cry uncontrollably whenever people were too loud in class. This was an issue since preschool.) \n In high school we had a friend who had Asperger's, but she wasn't diagnosed when we met her. All of us could tell, but none of the teachers said anything until 12th grade. (The art teacher asked one of our friends if that girl was autistic, and our friend said that we all think she is but she's not officially diagnosed. The teacher wondered if she should send her to the counselor or disability services or something.) We heard that the reason this girl wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's as a little kid is because though she was socially inept, she got acceptable grades, and schools can only get disabilities diagnosed if they affect the kid's grades or if they cause the kid to misbehave, or if they are physical disabilities. (This might make no sense because we were in high school. It made sense at the time.) \n What criteria do you have for being able to send kids to counseling or other evaluation? Do you have to wait until the kid's behavior is hurting others or lowering their grades? \n I don't know if this is stuff that I'm supposed to learn in class because I'm currently in the process of switching majors, so forgive me if this is exactly what I'll be learning in January. :]", "id": "t3_15hbh7", "summary": "When is it ok for you to send a kid from your class to the school counselor for regular meetings or to suggest they be evaluated for a disability?"}, {"author": "KTcube", "content": "I've always been very busy in really structured environments. (school and martial arts) I recently moved to college and realized that with fewer classes and less work telling me how to live my life, I have no clue what I want socially. I tell everyone I'm \"indecisive\", but it's because I just don't have an opinion about anything. Over the last year I've been trying to catch up and form opinions about normal social things that everyone is expected to either like or dislike, mostly so that I can avoid doing things I dislike. I normally just \"go with the flow\" in social situations because one of the few things I do know is that I don't like conflict, to a fault. \n TRIGGER WARNING: \n Last summer I lost my virginity because I don't have opinions about social situations. A guy was trying to have sex with me, and I didn't know what to do or whether I wanted it, so I just went along with it. Afterwards I realized that I actually didn't want it and shouldn't have let him have sex with me, but it was too late. If I'd known what I wanted I never would have done that. \n END TRIGGER WARNING \n Anyway, I'm at the point now where I've found strong enough opinions to ask people to hang out with me at specific places that I want to visit. I've also figured out that there are certain sexual acts I don't want to do, and I've told my boyfriend. To most people this might seem natural, but to me it's really weird to have opinions other than \"everyone should always follow all the rules\" and \"I don't like liquefied food\". \n Anyway, I just wanted to post because I'm pretty excited that I actually have a personality under all that obedience. :]", "id": "t3_tzgrk", "summary": "After some bad experiences caused by not having an opinion to voice, I'm finally forming opinions on what I want in social and sexual situations and I'm telling people what I want."}]}
+{"author": "rampazzo", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Nobody, the honor system. But I did hear enough to suggest that they were at least pretending to masturbate 15 times that day.", "output": "My response to /u/tresdosuno when he asked the same thing: \n >Well, I was actually roomates with the guy who did 14 one year (when he challenged one of our other roomates to 15). I didn't watch them but I can tell you that they woke up at midnight, had a very strictly planned out schedule to maximize recovery time and extend the event over a full 24 hours, and would either disappear into their rooms or take showers exactly when they were supposed to be jerking it. I can't say for sure that they did it since I never saw it, but I can say that they looked less and less comfortable throughout the day and complained quite a bit of chafing and rawness by the end of the day. \n and then /u/yzlautum said: \n >What the hell... you sure are excited as hell to talk about it. \n then I said: \n >I was asked for clarification, so I told what I knew. \n then /u/geekygay said: \n >It's ok, please continue. \n then I said: \n >I could tell you the rules I guess. They had exactly 24 hours and were not allowed to use any technology (porn) besides smartphones. Assists were ok, but you had to do the last four (not positive on the numbers) stokes yourself. I don't recall either of the two in the 15 competition getting any assistance but I believe soccer players with girlfriends received a little help from time to time. There may have also been a limit on the number of showers they could take but I'm not positive about that one. \n Then /u/geekygay said: \n >Well, it was more of a joke, but the 'last 4 strokes' bit is hilarious. How in the world were they supposed to keep track of it. \n To which I responded: \n >Honor system."}], "user_id": "longlamp_13893", "history": [{"author": "rampazzo", "content": "The problem here is that profit margins are inherently different across different types of markets. For example, in the long run if the market for a particular good, say rice, is what we call perfect competition (large number of buyers and sellers with no barriers to entry or exit, perfect information all around, no externalities, equal access to factors of production, and no actors have market power) then the long run profit of all rice producing firms is zero. They cover their costs and don't make a cent more. On the other hand, If we have an oligopoly (small number of sellers each with some market power) then we start to see some profit margins on their part, but they have market power and are still being pretty efficient. On the opposite end of the spectrum from perfect competition  lie monopolies (only one seller in the market, and they have all of the market power) and monopsonies (one buyer). Let's ignore monopsonies however fascinating they are and look at monopolies. In a monopoly, since one firm has all of the market power, they get to dictate the prices, and therefore they earn a fairly high profit margin. \n Keeping all of this in mind as well as the complexity of the modern economy (think of how many different kinds of goods and services exist and how different many of them are) we see that the easiest way for there to be the same profit margin would be for every single market to be in a state of perfect competition. Setting aside the fact that this is laughably impossible, what would the world look like.  For one thing, it would most certainly NOT mean the disappearance of class differences or bring about any great equality as far as wages are concerned, since wages are part of the costs of production for every good and therefore people like engineers and CEO's will have higher salaries than people who work at McDonald's. We might be tempted to say that there would be no more big corporations or uber-wealthy people, but that probably isn't true either. Corporations are quite often in competition with each other and putt a large portion of their profits (which would be much larger than those of smaller companies for obvious reasons) into R&D and investing in more production (labor and capital). Another thing that wouldn't change is the financial industry, as money would still exist and people would want to manage it as best as possible.  Basically, many many things would not change, and this is regardless of whether or not you are counting services (a very large portion of the economy) especially from business owners. Does a physical therapist who owns their own small town practice only make as much money as this small profit margin allows or do we not consider it profit and instead their salary allowing them to potentially earn millions and show no profit? \n Enough of what doesn't change, let's look at what does. For the sake of simplicity, I said we should consider the case where every market is in a state of perfect competition. This is because if SOME groups had market power then they would literally all have to have an equal share of market power to have the same profit margins. Not only that, but it would have to be the same across ALL markets. Coca-Cola would have to have the same market power as Pepsi in the soft drink market and the same market power as Ford in the auto market and the same market power as your local grocery store in the fresh produce market. For a monopoly, it would mean that every market on earth would be monopolies, which is nearly equally absurd. So we know we have perfect competition for everything, but what does that mean. It means no deadweight loss. This would be the most efficient economy possible, in theory. Economists like to shade graphs, so look at this one: \n The vertical axis is price, and the horizontal axis is quantity. The further right you go, the more production there is and the higher you go, the more expensive the product becomes. The words on the graph are actually technical econ definitions and not necessarily what you would intuitively think they were, so just ignore those and I'll point out what matters. The intersection of the blue and red lines is the price and quantity of the product that would occur if the market were one of perfect competition and the price set purely by supply and demand. At this point, there is no surplus production, and no shortage either. Everyone gets exactly as much as they are willing and able to purchase at that price. Set the price any lower and you create a shortage as demand is higher but producers are unwilling to produce any more. Set the price higher and the opposite happens. Produce more and it sits there, produce less and you have a shortage. Now what happens in a monopoly is that because of the power they have, the seller is able to sell at quantity Qm, which fetches them price Pm. As you can see, Pm is higher than the price (Pc) of the competitive market, and Qm is lower than Qc. The blue shaded area is the profit that the seller gets, and the red shaded area is the money the richest people did not have to spend to buy the product (For example, I may be willing and able to buy a delicious burrito for $10, so I get $6 of extra value when I can buy the same burrito for only $4). Now Economics doesn't like to say one side is better than the other so we don't really care who has more extra value, just that there is more surplus overall. The problem with a monopoly, then, is not that producers are making a (large) profit, but that the yellow area exists. The yellow area is all of the extra value that would have occurred had production happened at the optimal point, but is not happening due to the monopoly. In fact were this the case then all of the surplus would have been with the consumers, as the producers would be earning only enough to cover costs, but that part doesn't matter economically.", "id": "ccg99ey", "summary": "The world would be more efficient, but your question doesn't really address small businesses or services really well and is SUPER unrealistic."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "You can't really take a pure Moneyball approach to ultimate because ultimate is not perfectly statistically definable like baseball is. That being said, I do think that the stats presented paint a picture that Jorgensen  is  an extremely dominant defender in the context of the Scandal defense. \n She has the best Defensive Disusage of the entire group, the second best Blocks and Interceptions per DPossession (while playing over twice as many D line points as Surge), the worst Goals Against per DPossession Played, and the worst Yards Against Ratable Share (and was worse than the elite women's average on both of those). \n The statistics she leads in tell me that throwers avoid throwing the disc near her as much as possible and she still gets a ton of D's. I think looking at these two together paint a better picture of what you are looking for when you say you want to see something like \"times targeted vs times defended.\" \n The statistics she falls behind in are very easily written off due to the specific defense employed by Scandal. Jorgensen's job is to  bait  deep throws and then beat the receiver to them a good percentage of the time. That means she is failing her job if she gets sucked underneath and she is probably not baiting throwers enough if she isn't getting scored on every once in a while. Essentially, for either of theses statistics to change in her favor Scandal would have to change how they play defense and utilize Jorgensen in a different manner. \n Think about it this way: if a team only ever ran zone defense and every person had the same job in the zone every time you could tell who played what position based purely on their stats. The deep deep would probably lead in D's and defensive disusage but would have the worst yards against and goals against. The wings and short deep would have the next worst yards against and the next best defensive disusage. The cup would have the best yards against but the worst defensive disusage. Holding the defensive disusage against the cup or the yards allowed against the deep deep would be stupid and pointless because those stats are much more a function of their position than they are of them as individual defenders. \n I am ignoring the [Ultiworld D Rating]( and the [Defensive EC]( because both of those seem like  very  poor ways to look at a player with a defense built around her playing in a very specific position.", "id": "cjd3wpo", "summary": "The stats where she is at the top show how dominant she is and the ones where she lags behind are really only an indicator of her role in the defensive strategy and not of her being a weak defender."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "I mean, XIV.2 says the mark may initiate the stall count anytime a thrower has possession of a disc that is live  or  in play, not live and in play. It also explicitly lists two exceptions which are after a turnover and when fielding a pull. \n XI.B implies that the disc is not in play while the player is bringing it back to the goal line. \n The rules define a live disc by saying: \n >A disc is live when players are allowed to move and the disc is subject to a turnover, but the thrower cannot make a legal pass (e.g., walking the disc to the spot where it is to be put into play). For a live disc to be put into play, the thrower must establish a pivot at the appropriate spot on the field, touch the disc to the ground, and put the disc into play. \n So putting all that together it seems pretty clear that while the offensive player is bringing the disc back to the goal line in this situation, the disc is live, but is not in play. Since XIV.2 says the mark may initiate the stall count when the thrower has a disc that is live  or  in play, unless \"or\" means something different than I think it does the mark may start stalling before the disc has been tapped.", "id": "ci041sa", "summary": "It isn't in play but it is live and you only need one or the other to start the stall count."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "Here is the thing about speciesism compared to say racism or sexism (as brought up by your link). Racism and sexism are wrong because they assume that people of a certain race or sex will have different (usually inferior) capabilities compared to other races/sexes within the same species. You would be acting sexist if you thought all women should stay at home and work in the kitchen because you think they are not capable of doing the same quality work as men either physically or mentally.  All of these women  by what race or sex they are born as. \n With that in mind you also have to remember that humans are omnivores by nature. We have always eaten both plants and animals, and have been domesticating both since before we figured out writing. PETA's beliefs are basically that animals are no different than people, so we should treat them no differently than people (in terms of rights). PETA is taking a stance on human life that sounds very religious (we are special and all that shit) and giving animals equal status. I think the more intelligent way to look at it is to say that humans are also animals. Many species of animal will kill other animals for food. Few partake in canibalism. Most species will not kill each other unprovoked, and we shouldn't either. Almost all species will kill in self-defense, so we should too. To simply say that we should not domesticate or eat other animals is to say that we are in some way different from other animals who do those things, but that they are enough the same as us to deserve the same rights, which is downright hypocritical.", "id": "cdf3rie", "summary": "PETA believes we are special in some way, but other animals are equally special. In reality neither of us is special, and we are all just animals."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "so you advocate USAU doing jack shit to help develop college teams? \n No. I have three issues with this statement. \n First, the USAU isn't \"doing jack shit\" to help develop college teams. They provide new teams with materials and information for free (they mailed it to the team I am helping coach, rather than forcing us to find it on their shitty website). They created a separate DIII series less than five years ago that has had a huge effect on small schools throughout the country allowing them a better competitive outlet than going to DI regionals at the end of the year and knowing that was the last step. They provide insurance for tournaments. They have an easily searchable rules table on the website (while the website sucks in general the rules page is very well done). They have been increasingly focused on youth and women's development (see the new GUM program and the coaching clinics the USAU keeps putting on). \n Second, I do agree that the USAU should be doing as much as possible to help develop college teams. I don't think this means they need to provide email addresses (because 99.9% of college teams already have team email accounts through their school) or create written materials for new teams (because they already do this). I agree that having a website that isn't borderline physically painful to use would be a great step. I think that sponsoring more coaching and captaining clinics would be another great step. There is clearly some more room for them to help, but I don't think it is in the ways you are bringing up. With regards to commissioning and distributing things like Witmer's fitness guides and Rise Up, I don't think that is necessary. The costs for such things are small and realistically only one person per team needs to purchase them in order for a program to reap the benefits. Spread over an entire team the costs are a non-issue and I would argue that if the USAU wanted to buy it all themselves and distribute it to teams that would be a colossal waste of money and time. Witmer and the Rise Up crew are already willing to create their content and offer it to buyers who are already willing to purchase it. I don't see why any USAU intervention here is even remotely necessary. \n Finally, I know that there is a ton of work involved in creating a program with strong institutional support and memory. It isn't easy to do and it takes a lot of hard work from a lot of individuals on the team and usually a continued presence from alumni as well. The thing is, I don't see the USAU being useful here. Just because it is difficult doesn't mean the USAU should do it for struggling teams. The USAU doesn't know each of the players individually, they aren't your teammates, they aren't plugged in locally so they don't know the best resources available in every college town in the country, and they simply don't have the resources to try and prop up every struggling program in the nation. Building a team from a dozen players struggling to find a field to practice on to a healthy program with a full open and women's roster is something that is better accomplished by the players themselves rather than by a national governing body.", "id": "cgmd9f5", "summary": "The USAU is helping, they can be doing more, and there is a lot of hard work that must be done by the teams themselves that the USAU can't help with. \n EDIT: spelling"}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "It is a really good technique if the off-handler defender is caught out of position or is prioritizing pressure on swings rather than strike cuts. Obviously if he is not in position to stop a strike himself then the mark can jump off easily and take it away while he picks up the mark. Another use for this would be if the mark wants to really focus on stopping inside breaks and the off handler defender wants to focus on stopping around swings/dumps since this would leave the off handler defender vulnerable to strike cuts. \n Alternatively, the mark can try taking away all around breaks and swings and the off handler defender can prioritize not letting his guy get open on the strike cut. I've seen both be very effective, but essentially what any defense comes down to is everyone has to know thier priorities, take care of them, and trust their teammates to do the same. Sometimes someone gets beat upline when that is what they are trying to prevent and sometimes the switch doesn't go off (there was a point at Co Cup I believe where Kurt cut strike, his defender dropped to the mark, and the mark  didn't  drop off and cover Kurt so he quickly give-go'd his way into the endzone without a defender). Neither of those necessarily mean that the defensive strategy is bad, just that the execution of it is. \n The point really is less that any one defense is ideal for any situation and more that you need to have a good defensive plan and everyone needs to execute it properly. A good defensive plan is one that when properly executed will put pressure on every single offensive movement. For example, running this switch while the off handler-defender is prioritizing not letting his handler get an open strike cut is less than ideal because this defense does not pressure breakside swings as both the mark and the off handler defender are working to stop the strike cut. \n Also regardless of the plan, intelligent switching can be immensly valuable in a  ton  of situations on the field, not just stopping a strike cut. One of the big strategic flaws of hard man defense is that in a lot of situations the defender in best position to challenge a particular cut is  not  the defender guarding that particular cutter. Intelligent switching in man defense can increase the effectiveness while decreasing expended energy, although it does require a fair bit of heads-up and experience to do properly.", "id": "cge90vb", "summary": "This is a good strategy to stop strike cuts, but isn't the only strategy to do so and like any good strategy must be properly executed in order to be effective. Intelligent switching in general can be  very  valuable on the field, not just for defending strike cuts. \n EDIT: For what it's worth I have found it more effective to have the off handler defender take away the strike cut and the mark take away the arounds than switching, especially with less experienced players. On a team where at least half of the players have been playing for less than four years (aka most college teams) it will be difficult to have both players recognize the need for and complete the switch in time, much more difficult than having the handler defender prioritize stopping the strike and not biting hard at all on cuts for swings/arounds and trusting the mark to take those away with a hard no-around mark. On my college team the only times we were able to succesfully pull off switches with any consistency were when both of the players involved were among the most experienced guys on the team. At club tryouts I feel much more comfortable calling a switch because everyone is experienced enough and heads-up enough to pull it off. Like seriously I feel more comfortable switching with club players I have never played with before than some of my college teammates who I have played with for years."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "I see that only one other person has actually linked to any rules and they haven't included all of the relevant rules, so I'll list them here and then talk about it for a sec afterwards. \n > XVI.H  Fouls (II.E): It is the responsibility of all players to avoid contact in every way possible. (with the footnote: Avoid contact in every way reasonable possible, while still playing Ultimate. Some contact is inevitable, but players have an affirmative obligation to make reasonable efforts to avoid contact.) \n , \n > XVI.H.2  Contact resulting from adjacent opposing players simultaneously vying for the same unoccupied position, is not in itself a foul. \n , \n > XVI.H.3.b  Receiving Fouls: \n >1.If a player contacts an opponent while the disc is in the air and thereby interferes with that opponent's attempt to make a play on the disc , that player has committed a receiving foul. Some amount of incidental contact before, during, or immediately after the attempt often is unavoidable and is not a foul. \n >... \n > 3.The Principle of Verticality: All players have the right to enter the air space immediately above their torso to make a play on a thrown disc. If non-incidental contact occurs in the airspace immediately above a player before the outcome of the play is determined (e.g., before possession is gained or an incomplete pass is effected), it is a foul on the player entering the vertical space of the other player. \n , and \n > XVI.H.4  Reckless disregard for the safety of fellow players or other dangerously aggressive behavior (such as significantly colliding into a stationary opponent), regardless of whether or when the disc arrives or when contact occurs is considered dangerous play and is treated as a foul . This rule is not superseded by any other rule. \n So when looking at the play in question and these rules a few things become clear. \n First, by looking at the footnote under the section saying \"it is the responsibility of all players to avoid contact in every way possible\" we see that this  does not  mean that you have to do anything unreasonable to avoid contact and that you are primarily playing ultimate. This alone lends me to believe that the play was okay given the level of competition. Would it have been reasonable to expect a person to not attempt to make a play on the disc in summer league? Yes. In a professional game? I think you could make a strong argument that giving up on a disc that you can get to is not a reasonable thing to do at the highest levels. \n Second, we see that even though there were multiple people vying for the same space (the space with the disc in it) this doesn't necessarily mean that a foul occurred. \n Third, as far as I can tell from the video Markham Shofner has not committed a receiving foul under XVI.H.3.b.1 or XVI.H.3.b.3 for a couple reasons. First, he primarily makes contact with his own teammates, not opponents. Second, he doesn't really affect any opponents ability to make a play on the disc as the player next closest to the disc actually got up before Shofner but was a little too early and everyone else got up after he had already caught the disc which means the disc was no longer in the air. Since the outcome of the play was already determined by the time he violated the right of his opponents to enter the airspace above their heads there was no verticality issue either. \n At this point you could argue that he committed a foul because it may have been reasonable to avoid making a play on the disc in this situation, but this is wholly dependent on what you define as reasonable. \n The last remaining relevant rule is that of \"dangerous play.\" If you think this play showed a reckless disregard for the safety of other players or was dangerously aggressive then it can be called a foul under XVI.H.4 regardless of the fact that the play may not have been a foul by any other rule. I think this is what a lot of people are getting at when they don't like this particular play. I am not entirely convinced that this was a particularly reckless play on the part of the receiver though, and as I mentioned in the other thread if anyone is at fault for causing a dangerous play here I am inclined to blame the thrower. I don't like blaming receivers for making a strong bid to the disc. Markham Shofner's bid would have been 100% acceptable if there weren't five people in worse position than him standing under the disc. I think it is a responsibility of the thrower to account for the kinds of bids that will be possible or necessary for any given throw. I don't think Oung threw the disc in this manner intentionally, but a foul doesn't have to be intentional. I can also see where people might disagree with me and consider this a dangerous play on Shofner. There certainly was a substantial amount of contact which could have easily resulted in an injury.", "id": "cgzpmnc", "summary": "It is only a foul if you consider what happened to be a result of reckless disregard for the safety of others, if you consider it to be dangerously aggressive, or if you think that avoiding the contact (and giving up on the disc) would have been a reasonable alternative. This may be the case and this may not be the case, but a lot of people consider it to be so by one or more of those rationales."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "My response to /u/tresdosuno when he asked the same thing: \n >Well, I was actually roomates with the guy who did 14 one year (when he challenged one of our other roomates to 15). I didn't watch them but I can tell you that they woke up at midnight, had a very strictly planned out schedule to maximize recovery time and extend the event over a full 24 hours, and would either disappear into their rooms or take showers exactly when they were supposed to be jerking it. I can't say for sure that they did it since I never saw it, but I can say that they looked less and less comfortable throughout the day and complained quite a bit of chafing and rawness by the end of the day. \n and then /u/yzlautum said: \n >What the hell... you sure are excited as hell to talk about it. \n then I said: \n >I was asked for clarification, so I told what I knew. \n then /u/geekygay said: \n >It's ok, please continue. \n then I said: \n >I could tell you the rules I guess. They had exactly 24 hours and were not allowed to use any technology (porn) besides smartphones. Assists were ok, but you had to do the last four (not positive on the numbers) stokes yourself. I don't recall either of the two in the 15 competition getting any assistance but I believe soccer players with girlfriends received a little help from time to time. There may have also been a limit on the number of showers they could take but I'm not positive about that one. \n Then /u/geekygay said: \n >Well, it was more of a joke, but the 'last 4 strokes' bit is hilarious. How in the world were they supposed to keep track of it. \n To which I responded: \n >Honor system.", "id": "cf9t26t", "summary": "Nobody, the honor system. But I did hear enough to suggest that they were at least pretending to masturbate 15 times that day."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "My response to /u/tresdosuno when he asked the same thing: \n >Well, I was actually roomates with the guy who did 14 one year (when he challenged one of our other roomates to 15). I didn't watch them but I can tell you that they woke up at midnight, had a very strictly planned out schedule to maximize recovery time and extend the event over a full 24 hours, and would either disappear into their rooms or take showers exactly when they were supposed to be jerking it. I can't say for sure that they did it since I never saw it, but I can say that they looked less and less comfortable throughout the day and complained quite a bit of chafing and rawness by the end of the day. \n and then /u/yzlautum said: \n >What the hell... you sure are excited as hell to talk about it. \n then I said: \n >I was asked for clarification, so I told what I knew. \n then /u/geekygay said: \n >It's ok, please continue. \n then I said: \n >I could tell you the rules I guess. They had exactly 24 hours and were not allowed to use any technology (porn) besides smartphones. Assists were ok, but you had to do the last four (not positive on the numbers) stokes yourself. I don't recall either of the two in the 15 competition getting any assistance but I believe soccer players with girlfriends received a little help from time to time. There may have also been a limit on the number of showers they could take but I'm not positive about that one. \n Then /u/geekygay said: \n >Well, it was more of a joke, but the 'last 4 strokes' bit is hilarious. How in the world were they supposed to keep track of it. \n To which I responded: \n >Honor system.", "id": "cf9thmt", "summary": "Nobody, the honor system. But I did hear enough to suggest that they were at least pretending to masturbate 15 times that day."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "My response to /u/tresdosuno when he asked the same thing: \n >Well, I was actually roomates with the guy who did 14 one year (when he challenged one of our other roomates to 15). I didn't watch them but I can tell you that they woke up at midnight, had a very strictly planned out schedule to maximize recovery time and extend the event over a full 24 hours, and would either disappear into their rooms or take showers exactly when they were supposed to be jerking it. I can't say for sure that they did it since I never saw it, but I can say that they looked less and less comfortable throughout the day and complained quite a bit of \nchafing and rawness by the end of the day. \n and then /u/yzlautum said: \n >What the hell... you sure are excited as hell to talk about it. \n then I said: \n >I was asked for clarification, so I told what I knew. \n then /u/geekygay said: \n >It's ok, please continue. \n then I said: \n >I could tell you the rules I guess. They had exactly 24 hours and were not allowed to use any technology (porn) besides smartphones. Assists were ok, but you had to do the last four (not positive on the numbers) stokes yourself. I don't recall either of the two in the 15 competition getting any assistance but I believe soccer players with girlfriends received a little help from time to time. There may have also been a limit on the number of showers they could take but I'm not positive about that one.\nThen /u/geekygay said:\nWell, it was more of a joke, but the 'last 4 strokes' bit is hilarious. How in the world were they supposed to keep track of it. \n To which I responded: \n >Honor system.", "id": "cfa2qxv", "summary": "Nobody, the honor system. But I did hear enough to suggest that they were at least pretending to masturbate 15 times that day."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "My response to /u/tresdosuno when he asked the same thing: \n >Well, I was actually roomates with the guy who did 14 one year (when he challenged one of our other roomates to 15). I didn't watch them but I can tell you that they woke up at midnight, had a very strictly planned out schedule to maximize recovery time and extend the event over a full 24 hours, and would either disappear into their rooms or take showers exactly when they were supposed to be jerking it. I can't say for sure that they did it since I never saw it, but I can say that they looked less and less comfortable throughout the day and complained quite a bit of \nchafing and rawness by the end of the day. \n and then /u/yzlautum said: \n >What the hell... you sure are excited as hell to talk about it. \n then I said: \n >I was asked for clarification, so I told what I knew. \n then /u/geekygay said: \n >It's ok, please continue. \n then I said: \n >I could tell you the rules I guess. They had exactly 24 hours and were not allowed to use any technology (porn) besides smartphones. Assists were ok, but you had to do the last four (not positive on the numbers) stokes yourself. I don't recall either of the two in the 15 competition getting any assistance but I believe soccer players with girlfriends received a little help from time to time. There may have also been a limit on the number of showers they could take but I'm not positive about that one.\nThen /u/geekygay said:\nWell, it was more of a joke, but the 'last 4 strokes' bit is hilarious. How in the world were they supposed to keep track of it. \n To which I responded: \n >Honor system.", "id": "cfa2qzo", "summary": "Nobody, the honor system. But I did hear enough to suggest that they were at least pretending to masturbate 15 times that day."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "My response to /u/tresdosuno when he asked the same thing: \n >Well, I was actually roomates with the guy who did 14 one year (when he challenged one of our other roomates to 15). I didn't watch them but I can tell you that they woke up at midnight, had a very strictly planned out schedule to maximize recovery time and extend the event over a full 24 hours, and would either disappear into their rooms or take showers exactly when they were supposed to be jerking it. I can't say for sure that they did it since I never saw it, but I can say that they looked less and less comfortable throughout the day and complained quite a bit of chafing and rawness by the end of the day. \n and then /u/yzlautum said: \n >What the hell... you sure are excited as hell to talk about it. \n then I said: \n >I was asked for clarification, so I told what I knew. \n then /u/geekygay said: \n >It's ok, please continue. \n then I said: \n >I could tell you the rules I guess. They had exactly 24 hours and were not allowed to use any technology (porn) besides smartphones. Assists were ok, but you had to do the last four (not positive on the numbers) stokes yourself. I don't recall either of the two in the 15 competition getting any assistance but I believe soccer players with girlfriends received a little help from time to time. There may have also been a limit on the number of showers they could take but I'm not positive about that one. Then /u/geekygay said: Well, it was more of a joke, but the 'last 4 strokes' bit is hilarious. How in the world were they supposed to keep track of it. \n To which I responded: \n >Honor system.", "id": "cfacf9s", "summary": "Nobody, the honor system. But I did hear enough to suggest that they were at least pretending to masturbate 15 times that day."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "Are there any indoor facilities you can use? I went to school in the midwest, and the winter combo of snow, ice, and early nightfall made it literally impossible to practice outdoors at pretty much any point between Thanksgiving and our first Spring tournament. We would have practices in the schools indoor training facilities, which we could only reserve after all varsity sports got to pick their times, which usually meant starting practice around 8 or 9pm. Indoor is also not quite as useful for practicing outdoors so we mostly used this time to do conditioning and hit the track/weights. We would usually supplement two weeknight practices with a Sunday morning practice (varsity sports didn't usually grab the athletic center Sunday mornings) which was usually uncomfortable (hungover) but productive nonetheless. That being said, we were a D3 team with <2000 students at our school so conditions could very easily be different elsewhere. If you do end up using school athletic facilities be aware that the administration and varsity sports will most likely use any possible excuse to limit your practice times in any way or get you booted from facilities or have access restricted in any other way. The only way to succesfully deal with this is to ALWAYS be polite and respectful, and to take whatever limitations they give you and make sure nobody is breaking them, or else they will limit your access even more. There is an entire chapter in  Essential Ultimate  about dealing with shitty school administrations because of how widespread the problem is for ultimate teams.", "id": "cbyh5o3", "summary": "Try and move indoors, but be very nice to everyone even those who are jerks to you."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "It is really tough to call given what has already transpired. We saw an initial season with the AUDL that was promising (it happened) but ultimately left a lot of people unsatisfied. They experimented (refs, different rules, larger field, timed quarters, etc) and it paid off, but they also had some serious problems (legal issues, their championship team abandoning the league for the MLU).  It looked to me after the first season of pro ultimate that it was not here to stay. \n Then AUDL 2/MLU 1 comes along and we see something else entirely. The MLU manages to draw a LOT of top level club players which had not really been done by the AUDL yet. The MLU also did not have the weaker teams found in the AUDL, but this is kind of a mixed bag. They had a higher level of play overall, but they didn't spread ultimate to new markets as much. A more conservative play for sure and I think it paid off pretty well for them last year. At the start of the offseason I would have said that the MLU is further along than the AUDL, and this may still be true, but I am less sure of it now then I was a few months ago. \n The change in my thinking has been affected by two things. First, the AUDL has managed to spread into MLU areas  and  poach a lot of that top level talent. The SJ Spiders have Beau Kittredge, Ashlin Joye, and Kurt Gibson. Those three guys would be on pretty much any universe line you could think of so it is harder to argue that the AUDL doesn't have the same level of talent as the MLU anymore. That being said we do see Ironside players signing on with the Whitecaps for another year and the Stags do have a monopoly on Portland talent for now so the MLU isn't exactly weak or facing an abandonment of players either. I think the level of play in the MLU will probably be very similar to last year, and the AUDL will be on a very similar level as well. So basically the MLU started ahead, but the AUDL may have caught up in terms of players. \n In terms of longevity though, I'm putting my money on the AUDL. The AUDL is set up so that each franchise is working to support itself, which means unprofitable teams will go out of business rather than leave the league in a bad spot. Combine this with a demonstrated ability to expand into ultimate hotbeds and pull enough elite players and teams to cover the loss of poorer performing teams and you have what looks like a fairly resilient system. Of course a good counter argument here is that the MLU has not had to cut teams or seen teams abandon the league after their first year. The AUDL has also shown an ability to improve. It was pretty bad its first year, and it wasn't as good as the MLU last year, but it was definitely better than AUDL 1 and it looks to be even better this year. Of course, we know nothing about how the MLU will look from one year to the next so it is hard to say that the MLU will not also improve and it is silly to think that the MLU did not use the first season of the AUDL as a chance to learn from somebody else's mistakes. I do like the flexibility of the AUDL and the willingness to put franchises in cities that don't have dominant club teams which helps spread the sport, even if the team doesn't last more than a year or two. \n Maybe teams will not be profitable enough to stick around, in which case everything will fold, but if they do make enough money to survive (I may be wrong but I think a couple of teams did make money last season, Toronto and Madison maybe?) we could see professional ultimate as a lasting thing. Obviously players will not be able to quit their day jobs for quite some time, but I think it is definitely possible for a pro league to stick around for a while. I think if it does happen rather than merging two leagues one league will eat the other as they have different organizational structures. \n That being said, this is all pure speculation based on a couple of skyd and ultiworld articles and interviews and it is probably waaaayyy to early to call.", "id": "cex26mr", "summary": "MLU started ahead, but AUDL is catching up/has caught up. The AUDL has shown it can take a hit, but the MLU has avoided taking hits. It is probably way too early to tell how things are going to go in the long run. \n EDIT: wrong \"to/too/two\""}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "It can come about a number of ways, but the important thing to keep in mind is what it is: a raise in the overall price level.  When you see a figure saying \"inflation is at X%\" what it means is that for some fixed set of goods, the overall price has risen X%.  Economists use a \"basket of goods\" rather than one thing in particular becuase prices for individual goods tend to rise and fall with supply and demand.  For example, suppose our basket is a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, and a tank of gas.  Add up the prices of these on year.  Then look at the prices again a year later and compare.  Anything that can cause prices to rise will cause inflation. \n Who benefits/suffers? Those who owe money benefit as they now owe \"less\" in real terms.  This makes sense if we make an extreme example. Say your grandfather borrowed $100 from a friend 50 years ago to start a business.  If he were to pay his friend back $100 today he would be giving him much less purchasing power than he originally borrowed.  The losers with inflation are those who are owed money, as we can see from the previous example, but also anyone who sees their income stay the same or grow slower than the rate of inflation because they are making the same amount of money but must spend more of it to buy the same things. Sadly this is fairly common as raises rarely keep up with inflation.", "id": "cbnpgz1", "summary": "Things cost more and this helps people who owe money, and hurts people who are owed money and those who didn't get a raise."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "Nope. I consider myself a realist but also an optimist. I don't think that everything will magically be ok but I have hope that things won't be terrible forever. You say you have dreams but you often feel like you will never achieve them. To me that sounds like you don't know what you want or have some kind of unreal expectation in the first place. For example, I know that everything does not always go according to plan. Therefore I plan anyways but don't get upset when plans fail. I know that in order to make something of myself I will have to work hard and that I will fail multiple times along the way. Because of that I am comforted by the hard work and my failures don't sadden me (too much). \n Say your dream is to become a doctor. Is your goal actually to  become  a doctor or do you  like the idea of being  a doctor? If you want to become a doctor and you have a realistic idea of all that is entailed, then you will relish the difficulties. If you really understand the amount of your life you will sacrifice to medical school, the difficulty of the classes and tests, the sleep deprivation, the shitty hours, and all of the other terrible things that come with being a doctor, including the fact that many who start on the path never finish it, then you will not be discouraged by all of these things, in fact you will relish them since they are part of your dream. If you like the idea of being a doctor and driving a mercedes to work and being well-regarded by your friends, but don't like the idea of giving up your 20's, then you aren't being a realist with regards to your dreams. A doctor is not a doctor without medical school. \n I think that anyone who is cynical with regards to their dreams is not a realist. If you are a realist then your dreams are something you can accomplish. If you know you can accomplish something then you can be hopeful that you will given that you work hard enough and not be throwing away your realism. Maybe this isn't the same thing as happy-go-lucky optimism but it definitly is a positive outlook on life rather than a negative one. \n Personally, my biggest dreams are not accomplishments. My biggest dreams are that I never stop learning, that I am a positive force in the lives of those around me, that I find love, that I am a good brother and son (and possibly boyfriend, husband, and father), that I take care of myself, and that I have a lot of fun throughout my life. I dream of these things because I can always work on them. I can always improve, and I can always see results. I can always look back at the end of the day and say either \"today was good\" or \"tomorrow I will do better\" and quite often both. I will never be done striving for these goals until the day I die, and I don't want to. I think that dreams are beautiful, but mostly because of what we do to achieve them. To me it really is the journey that matters, not the destination. I know it isn't for everyone, but for me this fact really allows me to be both optimistic and realistic for the future.", "id": "ce0fo92", "summary": "If you are a realist and you have dreams in life you must also be optimistic because otherwise would be to not have realistic dreams. It helps to value the journey(struggle) more than the destination."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "Basically, you need 5 games to be ranked for most of the season, and 10 at the very end. \n Then there is an algorithm that determines the ratings/rankings (I'm using ratings for your games and individual teams, and rakings to mean comparative ratings), and it is basically a function of the score of the game, the strength of your opponent, and at what time of the season the game happened. \n It starts by rating each game you play by the strength of your opponent and the score of the game. The more points you win by (or the closer the game if you lose), the better your rating. This only goes up to a certain point though, so if the higher ranked team wins by 10 points it will look the same as if it was a shutout (the numbers change based on how close the two teams are, but you get the point). Basically if you win (or lose) two games by the exact same score, they will only be rated the same if your opponents have equal rankings themselves, otherwise the game with the stronger opponent will be rated higher than the game with the weaker opponent. \n They recalculate these ratings/rankings every single week though, so say you lose a close game to a underrated team who later goes on to win multiple tournaments. That game will boost your team's ratings since in the newer rating the USAU will recalculate  all  of your games factoring in the newest strength of your opponents. \n So now your team has a rating for every single game you have played that measures the point differential and the strength of your opponent, and it is updated every week to get the best possible picture of the strength of every team. Now they take a weighted average of all of your ratings, with the newest ones counting more heavily than old ones. This way an early season upset will affect the end of season updates less than a big upset at Conference. They also double the weight of all games at regionals and triple those at nationals, so basically the most important games for final positioning are those that happen during the series.", "id": "cfpa67z", "summary": "Score the most points possible while allowing the least possible points against the best opponents possible, especially late in the season, to maximize your team's rankings. \n EDIT: Made sure I kept my rankings, ratings, and scores distinct."}, {"author": "rampazzo", "content": "Concerning your comment about \"creative dropping of the disc\" (see my sentence above about rationalizing), how about trying this: let your teammates congratulate you and give you high fives while you just respond to them. In many cases, the other team will congratulate you as well (but probably less often if you spike the disc after skying their friend and teammate). Refrain from fist pumping, spiking, and other self-congratulatory, self-aggrandizing, self-important and self-focused behavior. Your teammates will be happy enough about your accomplishment and their comments/actions will come with the sting once removed. \n That is the first good argument I have heard regarding spiking being poor spirit. Refraining from fist pumping and all other self focused behavior is consistent and not merely a ban on spiking, but also clearly includes most instances of spiking. I personally think that a little bit of self-congratulatory behavior after a big score is perfectly fine and is not necessarily self-aggrandizing or self-important (which I agree are signs of poor spirit), but I can see how you could argue that it isn't. Thank you for sharing this perspective with me. \n As far as showing up at a pickup game goes and having someone explain how to play, I think the real reason for that is just that most people haven't heard of ultimate and those that do play it want to spread it as much as possible. Everyone knows what basketball is though, and it is pretty reasonable to assume that most people who are interested in playing a pickup game as adults (or even teenages) will have been interested in the sport enough as children to have given it a shot and have some kind of background. \n I love the ultimate community as much as anyone, but I don't necessarily think that what we have is anything magical. I think that almost everything about the community is largely a factor of the size of ultimate (big enough that it is across multiple countries but small enough that you can probably play three degrees of separation with anyone in it) and the fact that most people didn't start playing until they were in college. Combine those two and you get a fairly sizeable, but close community filled with people of similar education and life experiences who are used to people their own age being new to the sport. \n Maybe it is just my analytic nature, but I like having concrete definitions of the words I use. As such I am a big fan of having a rule book and having a definition of spirit of the game. I like it because it allows me to clearly say what is and isn't spirited. I can say that a spike towards another player is poor spirit, because it is taunting another player. I can say that yelling in someone's face after scoring on them is poor spirit because it is belligerent intimidation. I can't say that something is poor spirited because it goes against the ideals of the founders of ultimate or the way things were 20 years ago because I have not and probably will not ever meet the founders and ask them how they feel about things. \n I'm not even positive that the founders or ultimate players form the infancy of the sport should be the ultimate authority. Maybe weekly pickup games are much closer to the origins and ideals of the sport than the college or club series. That's fine, I'm perfectly ok with that. But there is a college series and a lot of good people enjoy striving to perfect their game and compete against others doing the same and we should accomodate them as well. I don't think having them play with a definition of spirit written with pickup games in mind is the most appropriate thing we could do. Maybe college/club ultimate should use a basic definition of spirit and summer leages/pickup should use some kind of spirit+. In my experience this is already the case. People will grab an out-of-bounds disc for an opponent in pickup where they would instead set their D in college, and I see nothing wrong with this. Same goes for counting prestalls, calling travels, and having dropped pulls be turnovers. \n I don't want ultimate to be exclusionary, and I think that more competitive college/club ultimate can and does easily coexist with less competitive pickup games and summer leagues. I have spiked the disc occasionally while in college (if you call throwing the disc sideways away from everyone else after scoring spiking) in close games to rally my team. I have never (and probably will never) spiked the disc in a pickup game or during summer league because it is completely inappropriate in those settings. \n If spirit of the game is this nebulous concept that goes beyond the letter of spirit of the game, then how can everyone agree 100% about what that spirit is? Won't there necessarily be things that some people consider spirited that others consider poor spirit? Can't we just better apply words together to more accurately describe this more nebulous definition of spirit? I think you just did that a little bit when you said that self-congratulatory, self-aggrandizing, self-important, and self-focused behaviors are examples of poor spirit. I like those points, those are good rules for determining the difference between spirited and unspirited behavior. I am curious what else you would include in your definition of good spirit. I would probably prefer your definition to the one that is currently in the rule book. I just want  a  definition, and right now I only know of one that is explicitly written out. \n EDIT:", "id": "cfw1bew", "summary": "I really like what you said about self-aggrandizing and self-important behavior, but think that spirit can mean different things at different levels of play and that in higher levels of play spiking is often not a display of poor spirit. I also like having a clear and unambiguous definition or rules about what constitutes good spirit."}]}
+{"author": "opallix", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post ww is pretty damn strong, teamfighting beast, cleanup beast, ultimate flaw is his complete lack of waveclear.", "output": "Hell yes, I've been playing a ton of ww lately, and he's pretty godamn strong. \n He can stay even with or beat pretty much any FOTM champ except mundo (because fucking mundo cannot be killed). \n I think a lot of people in this thread simply have not played ww lately. \n ww excels because he can set up picks for his team (you don't need laners with CC, you need  damage ), because his q allows him to go toe to toe with any tank, and because his e allows him to chase down all squishies. His w is also  beast  at pushing down towers. Nunu's blood boil gives 45% AS to one person. WW's hunter's call gives 80% AS to himself, and 40% AS to ALL nearby teammates. \n Max q first, max e second. Buy a chalice if you can, or if you're against an AD top laner, buy two dorans rings. Doing so will negate the irritating mana cost of his q. \n WW is best built tanky. AD is absolute shit on him. Tanky CDR items like FH and visage are very strong on him - the more CDR you have, the more q spam you have, 16% max health on a 4 second CD ain't nothing to fuck with. The only damage item I'd bother with is wit's end.  Maybe  void staff or liandries' as a lategame damage item. \n The reason why WW is not (yet) fotm is because he has NO WAVECLEAR. He can't buy shiv, hydra is a bad purchase, and since the sunfire nerfs... he has problems. \n Basically, after a certain point in the game, you just have to accept that your CS income is going to be negligible, and just focus on sticking with your team. WW is a teamfighting  beast . \n WW with a mana regen item and cowl is impervious to even the most irritating of top laners, like teemo and kayle."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Different, not necessarily better. There would be complaints about both systems.", "output": "People would just complain about how when you're at rank 1, you can't see how close you are to being promoted. \n I mean, there are benefits and detriments to both systems, but people are only ever going to be vocal about the bad parts. \n The SC ranked system was kind of meaningless... your rank was only relative to the  other  people in your division. \n In fact, I'd say I'm against it. If you had people in your division who rarely played, or if you had people in your division who played a ton, your rank wouldn't really reflect much. The only thing that mattered was league, at least until masters league, since GM was capped."}], "user_id": "longlamp_13339", "history": [{"author": "opallix", "content": "I don't think I've ever met someone who does it that was genuine about it or raised that way; it's always been someone trying this kind of psychological manipulation nonsense. \n :( \n I just read the \"How to win friends and influence people\" book and it makes me sad how, well, uncommon nearly every behavior in it is - especially because I think it is a very good book that really can help people. \n Dale Carnegie, with nearly every point of advice he sticks in his book, explicitly says that using his advice as \"methods of seduction\" will just bite you in the ass later - the idea is that you don't change how you  act , you change how you  behave . \n Nearly every other page, he talks about being genuine. You aren't supposed to pretend to be interested in other people - you  are  supposed to be interested in other people! \n Here's a direct quote from the book. Carnegie is talking about being  \"Hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise\" . \n >Some readers are saying right now as they read these lines: \"Oh, phooey!  Flattery! Bear oil!  I've tried that stuff. It doesn't work - not with intelligent people. \" Of course flatterly seldom works with discerning people. It is shallow, selfish, and insincere. \n >...Flattery is counterfeit, and like counterfeit money, it will eventually get you in trouble if you pass it to someone else. The difference between appreciation and flattery? That is simple. One is sincere, and the other insincere. \n The idea isn't that you make others like you more, the idea is that you make yourself into someone others will like more. It's not supposed to be manipulation. \n > is trying to ingratiate themselves to me in the most weaselly way possible than dropping my name frequently. \n I don't know if you're specifically referencing \"How to win friends and influence people\" here, but if you are, the section in that book devoted to learning other people's names has NOTHING to do with repeating people's names to them. The idea there is that you just keep track of people's names, and use it on them once, to show that you know who they are. In the example Carnegie used, Roosevelt remembered the names of most of the people he met - including the names of the scullery maid and cook - and that made him a likable person. Not because he repeated the names of others, but because he knew them. \n I'm not trying to be particularly critical, it's just that I read the book recently and feel obligated to defend it, because I thought it was really good. \n I don't expect to see anything from  How to win friends and influence people  in this thread because very little in it fits the criteria of \"psychological tricks\n\". \n The funny thing is, after reading said book, I really wish  I  knew people that followed the advice Carnegie gave.", "id": "ce8gq4v", "summary": "How to win friends and influence people  is a good book with advice that no one follows, buy yourself a copy for christmas pls."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "I knew this kid freshman year of high school who drew dicks on ALL of my stuff and shoved my pencils and erasers down his pants. \n Like, for real? What the fuck? I told him to stop all the fucking time and near the end of the year came close to trying to beat him up (I was scrawny but he was scrawnier). What really gets me is that NO ONE ELSE said ANYTHING TO HIM. \n I would have gone to a teacher, but it's fucking highschool. Aren't children supposed to be a  little  more mature than that in high school?", "id": "cbupske", "summary": "FUCK YOU PRANAD THANKS FOR MAKING 4/7 OF MY FRESHMAN CLASSES FUCKING HELL"}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "I play a lot of trist, so I feel I can give you some decent advice. \n First off, some people in this thread are recommending that you build BOTRK first. I would recommend against that, as BOTRK gives very little power in lane, and since its nerfs, it is no longer a strong first item. As a later item, however, it is still strong. Level 18 trist with PD, Botrk, and activated q reaches 2.49 AS (almost the max attack speed). \n BT is not a bad first item on trist, and I believe there are some professional ADCs like doublelift who prefer it. \n Most players get IE as their first big item, however, for obvious reasons. \n As for your build, lifesteal is important to buy at some point. Most players buy a vamp scepter during laning, but if you're not having any trouble in lane, maybe you don't need one, and can afford to buy it at some point after IE. \n Your main problem \n > I either get too far away and do no damage, or I get too close and am immediately bursted. \n Is one that all AD players face. You want to be close enough to hit priority targets, but not close enough to get killed. IMO, only a few professional players have mastered this. \n But you definitely shouldn't be dying multiple times in a row. As far as that goes, I'm thinking one of two things \n \n You are using your w too early \n You are using your w offensively  \n \n You don't want to use your w unless you have to, and you only have to if you are in significant danger from a high damage champion, or in danger of getting CC'd. Make sure you are attacking and then moving back (kiting), as well. \n As for using your w offensively: doing so  in lane  is only okay if you are in absolutely no danger of dying (i.e, you are trying to chase down a target with the rest of your team, or all-inning when you are way ahead). Outside of lane,  never use your w aggressively . It does a pathetic 80 damage for most of the game and has a mediocre slow, both of which can be powerful very early on, but quickly becomes absolutely negligible. \n Trist is a powerful carry because her long range allows her to hit high-priority targets where other ADCs could not. Her jump, which resets on kills/assists, along with her ult, make her immune to most bruisers. You should only be getting killed if you get caught by CC/burst assassins.", "id": "cenh9j5", "summary": "Make sure you are kiting, only use your w for escaping, and only use it when you are  in danger . Your trouble is one that will go away with practice. \n EDIT: Looking at your replies, you say you play defensively and stand behind your teammates. I suggest you try to be more critical of your gameplay, because  if you are doing these things, you should not die . \n As I said, trist is  immune  to bruisers. The only potential a defensive trist player should have to die is because of very slippery assassins like fizz and leblanc, or because the trist player got caught by thresh. Any bruisers that don't kill you outright you can w away from or r away. \n And of course,  IF YOU WANT REAL ADVICE BE SPECIFIC . \n You're not going to get anymore than vague bullshit if you only provide vague information. Are there certain champions that you have trouble with? Certain combos?  Anything ? \n I really cannot believe people waltz into this subreddit and expect to be able to find out how to fix their problems when they don't even do the most simple action of  linking their lolking . I mean, not taking the time to provide champion information is one thing, but not even linking your lolking so other redditors can guess at what you're having trouble with? Come on, man!"}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "Vlad is hard to play  well . He is very much vulnerable to ganks, is difficult to farm with, and he has a very hard time capitalizing on advantages in lane (low burst, low kill potential). \n If you can master farming with Vlad's AAs, and you can learn his limits well, then you will probably find Vlad to be a rewarding champ. He is pretty good mid-late, but has a hard time getting there.", "id": "cekwdi6", "summary": "Don't bother with vlad and play an easier top laner, unless you have decided that vlad is your favorite champion and you will do whatever it takes to master him. Rumble and cho are other decent AP top laners."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "I just watched the third movie for the first time yesterday and was pretty frustrated by the ending. It was so very clear what the ending  should have been  that I can't accept that the intended ending of the matrix was different than the actual one. \n \n In reloaded, Neo is given a spoon from an orphan; presumably, the orphan from the first movie. But... there is no spoon! The spoon the orphan bent exists only within the matrix, so the one the orphan handed to Neo must have been some random spoon he found lying around. Why would he give Neo the spoon? It's hardly a gesture of encouragement. \n \n Neo's progression in power at the end of Reloaded/through Revolutions sort of mirrors his progression in power throughout the first movie. In the first movie, he goes from being able to barely dodge Smith's attacks to being able to completely defeat Smith. In the next two movies, he goes from being able to only defeat 3 sentinels and then collapsing to being able to take on a ton of them... while blind. The next step in his progression should have been clear. \n \n Smith himself goes on a little rant in the climax of the movie about how all the things Neo is fighting for - love, freedom, truth, peace - are all  \"vagaries of perception\" . How much more obvious can it get? \n \n At the end of revolutions, Morpheus can barely believe that the machines have stopped attacking. He asks himself, \"am I dreaming?\" \n \n Machines are machines. They're supposed to be logical. Why the hell would they honor their promise to Neo? \n \n \n This is the way Revolutions  clearly  should have ended: \n Neo and Smith fight. Smith is on the verge of victory, and gives his speech. He stops after talking about how everything Neo is fighting for is an illusion (no bullshit about \"everything that has a beginning... has an end\"). \n Then Neo realizes the truth. He destroys Smith (as he did in the movies, even if that was a little lame). \n Neo then returns to reality. Of course the machines betray him, and attack immedately. But Neo knows he is the One, so he stops the machines in their tracks, and brings peace to Zion (same as in the movie). \n Everyone celebrates, same as in the movie. Morpheus asks himself if it is all a dream, but then turns and accepts his reality. And for the final scene, instead of some pretty city where the oracle and the architect have a little chat, the final scene is Neo, flying above machine city. He is clearly in control. \n Except Neo is crying. Because he knows the truth. He never left the matrix. \n That ending would have been easy as  hell  to make! Barely any scenes would have to be changed. Smith's speech and the gift of the spoon were clearly intended to make Neo realize that he is still inside a fake world.", "id": "cehehe7", "summary": "The Matrix was clearly building towards a different ending. I would have loved to see what the intended ending was."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "So... what exactly do the people on riot do? \n The new season came, and the only big changes were new gp10s, trinkets, and new bushes. \n They don't even release many skins, which are a  direct  money maker. \n The client is still a load of shit, even though an unpayed team of programmers made a client 10x better than the current one.  Unpayed , while riot is rolling in dough and employees. \n The only existing way of recording replays is another non-official project. \n I mean... I really don't get it. No seasonal maps, special events that consist of pretty much only a few skins and summoner icons (gives us money, and you get some mediocre cosmetics!). No magma chamber, and it looks like no maps inbound. How shitty must riot's coding architecture be that they  can't make a new map?  That's one thing I really have a hard time understanding... there are no super-specific champion-environment interactions that would make making a new map hard. The only possible difficulty that should exist in making a map should be gameplay balancing... but hell, without doubt players will be happy with an unbalanced map instead of  no  map. \n I'm guessing some people will tell me to switch to a different game, as riot doesn't owe me anything (hurr durr f2p!!). \n And maybe I will. Starcraft has been out for a while, it's definitely gotten stagnant sometimes... but Starcraft doesn't undergo ridiculous power creep and shitty balancing, and since it's release, SC has gotten  real  features. Every day I feel more like playing sc over league, and every day I regret the ridiculous amounts of RP I have purchased.", "id": "cep0y4e", "summary": "For all of riot's money and success, what has it delivered on? Nearly nothing. I'm pretty sure we only got to see one-for-all because /u/astralfoxy decisively proved that making such a gamemode was possible. \n The more I think about it the more disgusted I get. What has changed in the whole of s3? We got a better esports system, sure, I can appreciate that... but as far as gameplay goes? \n Barely anything has happened over the whole of s3 and for s4 so far. We have seen  clearly  that there are so many things that could be done... and yet shit simply doesn't happen. Where does riot's money go? Most into esports and the rest into tryndamere's pockets?"}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "Back when I played rengar, I rarely bought it, but I think it was more expensive back then. \n As an 800 gold item, its not very expensive, but gives pretty strong stats. It costs as much as 2 longswords, and gives you the equivalent amount of AD at level 8. \n The bonuses, though, are very good. Arpen is great, that goes without saying; 5% cdr is not  bad  but nothing to be super impressed with. 25 ms is decent as well, but again, not that amazing. \n 150 extra range on leap is INCREDIBLE. That is very strong. Bonus ferocity and increased duration on thrill of the hunt are amazing as well.", "id": "cdx3gjw", "summary": "it's cheap, and the stats are not bad. You don't  need  to get it, but if you're snowballing, it can be a good buy."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "I saw Pacific Rim in a nice AMC IMAX 3-D theater and was... well, pretty disappointed. \n The action was decent, but ultimately repetitive. There was some scenes so badass that I got chills (the second deployment of Gypsy Danger was awesome), and the music was solid... but ultimately, most fights felt  really  repetitive. \n The plot however... was utter shit. The more I think about it, the more I hate it. Every turn of the plot (chinese and siberians get their asses kicked so muscle man can flex, rivalry between protaganist and stuck-up teammate who  of course  ends up sacrificing himself to save the guy, comedic gangster gets eaten while poking a dead body and trying to look like a know it all) was predictable and contrived, as were the characters. The asian chick is the character who you're supposed to think of as being a strong independent woman, but who ultimately ends up being baggage that causes problems and ends up being saved by other characters multiple times. The main character is about as generic as it gets, and his interactions with every other character are, to say the least, dry. At least there was no unnecessary sex scene thrown in. The  worst  thing, though, was the FUCKING GOOFBALL AND SAVANT GO ON AN ADVENTURE subplot. That was the one thing that actually, well, offended me. That's garbage. \n Well, that's all there is to it. If you're going to see it in theaters, you're probably going to end up paying $15 for 3 good fight scenes and a whole lotta bullshit inbetween. Not a  bad  movie, per say, but a thoroughly mediocre one. In fact, it reminds of Transformers... cool to look at, but with nothing at its core.", "id": "cb1lsen", "summary": "Pacific Rim is Transformers. Great visuals, decent soundtrack, but with dog shit for a plot. \n With that said, I'm hardly a movie hipster... this is just my opinion. I am a gundam/evangelion fan, and expected a bit more depth out of a giant robot movie with badass aliens in it."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "Now, AD Carries are more or less \"built\" to kill bruisers, and assassins are more or less \"built\" to kill ADCarries and Mages, \n I don't think this is true. Most team comps don't include assassins at all and most bruisers are equipped with a gap closer so that they can stick to the adc. \n I think the big thing here is that there is no reason to pick an assassin over a bruiser unless a team really wants to dominate the laning phase. Assassins like Talon get instagibbed in teamfights because they're short-ranged and squishy. Normally an assassin would only be able to get off one kill- but if it's the adc, it's worth it, right? \n No, because for an assassin to have enough burst to pull such a thing off, they'd have to be a farmed middle or top lane, which means that they'd be taking the position of the AP carry (which means that you're trading the possibility of a kill on their adc for an ap carry) or the bruiser (which makes for a hard laning phase for the assassin and a lack of protection for the adc of the team missing the bruiser).", "id": "c6rtf3f", "summary": "In most situations, a bruiser is better than an assassin in every way."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "How jinx is trist 2.0 \n I don't understand how a champion designer could approve of giving jinx level 18 trist range at level 13, the highest AS steroid out of any AD champ, strong AD scaling and  AOE crits . \n I don't understand. People say that jinx's strengths are counteracted by her lack of an escape... but she literally has a passive and two abilities designed to compensate. \n How... is jinx balanced... at all? The PBE changes don't phase me... whoop de doo, lower base health, nice job tickling jinx.", "id": "cekis3b", "summary": "The ridiculous overlap between the kits of jinx and trist makes me cry tears for my favorite champion."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "Malz is boring as hell to play against (at least in low elo, where I am). \n Why? \n He has a decent pre-6 laning phase, and by the time he gets to 6, if you try to fight, he gets a free kill. There is literally nothing you can do but sit back and try to farm.  Maybe  you can pull off a successful gank with your jungler if the malz plays dumb- but more often that that, nothing happens. It's not like malph has bad wave-clearing either, so pushing the lane and then roaming doesn't work very well either. Unless you're playing a champion who can trade from a distance, malz is gonna zone you, push his lane, and then start roaming. \n As the game progresses, if malz is not already fed, he soon will be, because low elo players are terrible at knowing when to commit to fighting. If malz lands his ult and the rest of his team is around him, the rest of your team will most likely run away and complain at you for getting caught.", "id": "c6zfv3b", "summary": "at low elo malz is a beast who forces the opposing midlane to get rush a qss or get raped."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "To say that skill or improvement in league is based on IQ shows hopeless naïveté. Unless you have actual evidence that shows that the mental factors IQ tests measure correspond to the mental factors involved in performance in league of legends (which can only really be arbitrarily quantified), you are making baseless claims. Especially at lower ELO, success pretty much derives directly from mechanics- click accuracy, timing, etc- something that IQ tests CERTAINLY do not measure.", "id": "caewlc2", "summary": "It's nice that you are smarter than your friends and can beat them at lol, but that doesn't mean jack shit and I certainly hope you weren't paid for whatever bullshit article you wrote. Hey, why don't you link to it?"}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "It's important to consider that SC2 is probably not the only e-sport he's referring to. \n The LoL scene is quite different than SC2's- over there, the nature of the game (it requires a team and copious practice as a team) makes it difficult for burgeoning talent to rise to the top. Since individual talent is not readily apparent (as teamwork is a major focus of the game), for the most part, most of the LoL streams are watched solely because of the personality/popularity of the streamer. \n This contrasts heavily to how SC2 works- people watch streams based on a healthy combination of personality and skill. If an up-and-coming player does well against already-established players, people will be excited and likely watch such a players stream. That just doesn't happen in LoL because of how difficult it is to judge performance in a 10 player game. \n okay, that was sort of rambling.", "id": "c8bgcx7", "summary": "Parts of this article seem more applicable to LoL more than they are to sc2."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "starcraft is one of those games where you have to practice for months to develop basic competency. I think that of all the computer games out there, sc is the most relatable to a sport- it's high adrenaline, takes lots of practice, and is very competitive. Losing a drawn out 40 minute match feels terrible, but winning one feels amazing", "id": "c615o7k", "summary": "sc is not for the faint of heart, and if you're not the type of person to sink hundreds of hours into one game, you will probably not enjoy it. \n If you're that type of person, I would suggest lol instead. It's a team based game for more casual players."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "Really? \n If that's the case, why does he \"love\" the fact that his wife never mentioned it on facebook? \n What, exactly, is the problem with talking about a serious problem like this on facebook? \n If you give someone a hard time because that someone is going through hard times and is trying to fish for a  little  sympathy, then you're a fucking asshole.", "id": "cgzbnn0", "summary": "In the unlikely case that this post isn't total bullshit, OP is probably an asshole."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "You're probably going to place low. I think 80% of players are silver or below. \n There's nothing to fear, though. Remember, in the long run, placements mean little - if you get unlucky and lose 7/10 placement matches, but you're actually really good, you will get back to where you belong soon enough. And on the other hand, if you win 10/10 placements and place well - but don't actually belong at that mmr - you will find your mmr dropping.", "id": "ced5rcz", "summary": "in the long run, placement matches not a big deal. Don't worry about it."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "End of conversation. \n Hate to start a response with ad hominem, but seriously? Are you five years old? \n These posts are only 'funny' because the denizens of /r/atheism enjoy talking down and generally feeling superior to anyone who isn't a brave proprietor of  SCIENCE, FREEDOM AND TOLERANCE \n Let's look at the first link \n > \n I don't really know what to say; the post clearly acknowledges that it's a quote of someone condescending religious people. Is that funny? \n > \n Not much different. Another circlejerk of DAE RELIGIOUS PEOPLE R STUPID?? \n Don't really know what to say. It's a rehashed meme of the notion 'my stupid fundy parents don't understand  SCIENCE, BRAVERY, AND TOLERANCE ' \n A guy dresses up as jesus and mocks a religion. Just another DAE THINK  CHRISTIANITY IS FOR STUPIDS?? circlejerk. \n DAE LOOK OUT WINDOWS AND READ BOOKS? \n None of these posts are jokes. None of them are particularly offensive either, for that matter, and I wouldn't call the posters douchebags; I'd call them idiots who can't stop jerking each other off about how all religious people are bigoted fools whereas worldly atheists like themselves are  LE CHAMPIONS OF SCIENCE, FREEDOM TOLERANCE .", "id": "c6e20hl", "summary": "None of these posts are discussions about secularism or stories beyond the shallow 'TODAY MY 8TH GRADE TEACHER OPPRESSED ME...' anecdote. Most of /r/atheism exists for people to feel good about about themselves by telling each other how dumb religious people are compared to their scientific and rational selves. \n edit: I feel like I'm over-generalizing. Obviously not all of /r/atheism is like this. Only 75% is."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "Nautilus is my kryptonite. Everytime he is on the enemy team, he goes 3-1-18 and shits on everything as an unkillable tank cc machine that completely locks down my team's backline. \n People say that naut is not that good, but they are very, very wrong. Junglers like vi have to go balls deep to do anything, and vi's utility is very limited outside of her ult. Naut, on the other hand, can ult the enemy carries and allow his team to collapse on them while he hooks in and fulfills his role as the best utility jungler in the game.", "id": "ccyiazd", "summary": "naut is the best play naut"}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "They're not at all alike. \n How does the creation of console games result in less choice for consumers? \n It doesn't. \n I'm going to guess that you're speaking of console ports to PC, which do not affect consumer choice at all, but I'll address that anyway. \n Consoles are much cheaper than the standard PC rig needed to play most modern games. They have made gaming more accessible and social, which is  good  for the gaming industry. Many of the console ports that are accessible to PC gamers today would not exist if consoles did not exist, because said games were targeted towards the console audience and ported to the PC as an afterthought.", "id": "c508wy1", "summary": "The existence of consoles is not anti-consumer."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "Up to today, I had been playing solo, on normal, without the AH. I've been starting to struggle in normal, which I would be fine with, except that normal is supposed to be  ridiculously  easy. \n So I decided to look at the AH. Compared to the stuff on the AH, almost everything that the blacksmith offers is completely subpar. I've spent a few hundred thousands on leveling the blacksmith, but now I can get a weapon 3x as powerful as my smithed one for 7000 gold. Now I feel like all of that money has been wasted completely (and it has been). It seems like the only purpose to smiths is to create set items, but that only happens at a much later level than the one I'm at now.", "id": "t3_u03z1", "summary": "Everything on the AH is much cheaper and much more powerful than anything the Blacksmith offers."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "Story spoilers) \n I'm sorry, but I don't know how to get the spoilers thing to work. I'm using the format listed on the right, but it doesn't seem to be working? \n [The moment things began to go downhill was when Leah was  completely  written off. Throughout the first 3/4 of the game, she's played to be a main character, and then she becomes the vessel for Diablo, which I thought was a nice twist, but  after  that her character doesn't show up  once , besides as a false hallucination made by Diablo. Diablo himself doesn't even bother maintaining her form. \n It really feels that using Leah as the vessel of Diablo was just a cheap plot device used by D3's storywriters to give Diablo a feminine form. I'm not kidding- her end was brief, emotionally insignificant, and pretty much meaningless. \n And then there's Tyrael- at multiple points, everyone in the story remarks on how great it was that he became a human, but he really doesn't actually do anything. This was extremely obvious right before the confrontation with Diablo- when all of the other angels faint, the hero talks about how lucky it was the Tyrael made the choice to become human, but Tyrael doesn't do jack shit in the fight against Diablo. \n The end cutscene was probably the worst- we get a cool sequence of Diablo falling, and then we see the entire high heavens restored. Seriously? Tyrael has to banish himself, Imperius tries to kill us, and after the hero  alone  defeats the prime evil, EVERYTHING is restored. I expected that the High Heavens would remain broken to remind the angels of what their pride, etc. had wrought, but instead everything gets fixed and there is no indication that the angels will learn from their ways. \n Then, after that sequence in the end cutscene, we get to listen to Tyrael talk about how he is going to become the human angel of wisdom, and then the game ends. What happened to the last angel of justice? Why should we care what Tyrael? \n And then there's the prophecy of end days, and the Wrath short. The only part of the prophecy that seemed relevant at all was the part where Justice (Tyrael) falls to earth. After all that hinting in Wrath, we don't get any story behind Imperius  at all . \n What really drives how bad the story was home is the fact that I enjoyed the story of the Starcraft 2 campaign better, as cliche ridden as it was. The characters were more interesting, and the entire story had a much greater sense of grandeur and meaning than D3's did.", "id": "t3_u3rjk", "summary": "The D3 storywriters wrote off Leah  terribly , made Tyrael into a worthless character, and had the story end with zero consequence for the angels who spent most of the story being assholes. \n I could have lived with the poor storytelling format, but this was just  the worst .](/spoiler)"}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "I bought aatrox a few days ago, and I am very disappointed. I've seen plenty of aatroxes in soloqueue- some have done well, some have not- but after playing himself... wow. Just wow. \n Aatrox is  lame . \n Okay, so his passive is cool. Baiting unwary players into level 1 fights is mildly amusing, and it makes him a bitch to kill mid-late game. \n As for his q... the range of the knockup on his q is pathetic, and the cast time makes it a bitch to land, and overall makes his q  very  weak in teamfights because of how easy it is to interrupt. \n His w, as a sustain tool, is pathetic. When used for damage, it is definitely strong, but it certainly feels lame- auto and then auto some more for damage. However, being able to switch between modes without resetting the 3 auto hit counter is one of the few fun things about him. \n His e is... ridiculous. An easily dodged slow with no scaling. Sniping minions with it is fun, and landing it makes chasing a great deal easier, but really... it feels lackluster, both visually and gameplay wise. \n His r is laughable. His ultimate, besides doing pathetic magic damage, is a fairly high CD steroid that gives him... a mediocre amount of attack speed and a bit of range. \n I'm surprised, really... recent champions like zac, elise, and lissandra have all felt complex and fun- whereas aatrox is a one-dimensional character with a patchwork skillset.", "id": "t3_1h5pe2", "summary": "No, aatrox is not weak, but his power is pretty much centered on his passive and q, while the rest of his skills are straight up lame. Compared to recent champions, he is a complete letdown."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "Lately I've been making a lot of infestors, but they really don't seem useful for anything besides locking retreating armies in place (stutterstep? in gold? lol i dont think so). With this in mind, do I really need all that many infestors? Infested terrans are a joke and fungal seems to do negligible damage.", "id": "t3_1ayisx", "summary": "how many infestors enough"}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "I don't understand... they literally threw away everything the second movie accomplished. \n All of the character development of the second? Gone. Suddenly it's 14 years later, shinji's friends hate him, and rei, who he saved in an emotional climax in the last movie, is dead. All of those characters literally have no connection to shinji anymore, and every scene with his former friends includes either them telling shinji he's fucking stupid, or an awkward display of unexplained anger/disappointment. All of that is made even worse by the utterly random deus ex machina of the 'eva curse' that somehow keeps them all young, so it's a gut reaction to  expect  these characters to act like the ones we're familiar with, when they're really mentally full-grown adults. \n Half of the story doesn't make any sense either... has the nerv base not had power for 14 years? Didn't kaworu stop third impact? Lilith is impaled by two spears on a bunch of skulls... what? \n What the fuck is going on? \n Why does everyone hate shinji, but more to the point, why does everyone refrain from telling shinji  anything ? \n Who decided that introducing a goofy-looking spaceship and a cliche resistance battle in a post-apocalyptic world was a good idea? \n Why does half of the movie consist of kaworu and shinji's bromance? \n Why does kaworu put the bomb on? \n Why doesn't anyone tell shinji what's going to happen when he pulls those spears out of the lilith? Shinji is desperate to right the fact that he apparently destroyed earth, but kaworu can't do anything besides say 'hmmm this is a bad idea' a few times and asuka and mari just yell at him, so of course he continues with the plan... \n How the fuck did lilith get there? Where did all the giant skulls come from? \n A terrible exposition, a middle segment consisting pretty much completely of shinji and kaworu bonding, and a convoluted fight at the end. The more I think about it, the more I realize that this was a terrible movie that didn't have anything to back it up besides some interesting imagery and a decent fight scene at the end.", "id": "t3_1dgbqy", "summary": "3.33 was a senseless piece of crap that suggests that the director had literally no idea where to go after 2.22."}, {"author": "opallix", "content": "I'm looking to buy a mechanical keyboard for a friend. I looked at this subreddit's [price]( guide, but I haven't been able to make a conclusion. \n I have used a razer blackwidow in the past, and right now I'm using a corsair vengeance k70. I don't know much about mechanical keyboards, but from my experience, I (and I think my friend) prefer red/brown switches over the blue ones. \n So, what keyboard should I buy him? Which under 80$ (willing to go up to 90$, but only if it's a 90$ keyboard that you think jesus would want to type on) keyboard? Num pad keys and arrow keys are unnecessary.", "id": "t3_1t7sxe", "summary": "best sub $80 keyboard, pref red or brown switches"}]}
+{"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Option 3. Bitch is crazy.", "output": "There's an old saying \"Don't mud wrestle with a pig; you'll get dirty, and the pig likes it.\" \n Someone who is this manipulative and deceitful is way ahead of you on the crazy behavior and revenge curve.  If you tell her husband or confront her, you're inviting additional crazy into your life.  Do you need or want this? If she goes all Glenn-Close-boiling-bunnies crazy on you, are you prepared for the fallout? Someone who is carrying on this level of deception is certainly capable of that level of insanity. \n Further: if you accessed her email and facebook accounts, you are potentially guilty of a crime, likely under both your own state and federal law  (assuming you're from the US--sorry if that's not the case).  I wouldn't admit that you have these passwords to anyone but folks you know to be your friends, and certainly not to her husband or to her.  She may just be manipulative enough to talk her husband through all of this and onto her side, against you.  She might characterize you as having created all this stuff to slander her, who knows? Don't risk it. Keep this shit to yourself. \n Cut her out of your life.  Block her from all of your various means of communication. Speak to her as little as possible. Count yourself lucky that you dodged a bullet."}], "user_id": "longlamp_11151", "history": [{"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "Make arrangements with a Limo company in advance if you can, or take the bus (seriously). Yellow cab is completely for shit in Pittsburgh.  Dispatch from yellow is terrible, and unless you're downtown, you can count on a very long wait for a cab during holiday season.  This is not NY city, and you're not just going to flag down a cab, or have one reliably show up within a reasonable time after your call. \n The other alternative would be to make a connection with one of the internal networks of drivers of Yellow cab who dispatch cabs themselves to riders that they know.  If you're truly a Pittsburgh cab noob, however, this won't be available to you.", "id": "c2zz35m", "summary": "version: call a limo company, or take the bus. Yellow Cab in Pittsburgh sucks."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "A lease is not a marital asset, it's a personal  liability  for her, as she is obligated to make those payments. A lease is not property, period. \n Give up your point about the car, unless you have receipts and other shit to prove that co-mingled marital funds were used to maintain it.  Unless you expect her to pay you back for money that came from you to maintain her car (which doesn't sound like what you want) what's your point?", "id": "c3fzq42", "summary": "about the two points she raised, she's right, you're wrong.  If those two things are what's holding up your divorce, I suggest you swallow your pride and get the paperwork done."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "I divorced a spouse with significant issues (thus my user name). I still don't know what my ex's diagnosis is, and it doesn't matter.  What started making things better for me, was making the right decisions for me and for my son, all the time.  Before I actually moved out, it would have been okay with me if she had chosen treatment, but we were both too angry with each other to discuss that realistically.  Eventually, I sought treatment for my own stuff, and for my son.  My ex remains untreated, and is in a really bad place in her life. \n The lesson you should draw from my story is that you do what's right for you.  If you're going to bring up that your husband needs help, don't label, don't attack, don't do anything to make him defensive.  Emphasize that you want help for yourself, that he might need some help, and that you might need some help with your relationship.  Don't make it into a harangue;  if you have to convince him, or he starts therapy unwillingly, it won't work.  You have to do this for you, and he has to want this for himself.  Maybe, when you're both in a better place, your relationship can have a chance. \n Human beings want explanations; I did too, at the end of my marriage.  Spending time trying to play armchair psychiatrist didn't make my life better, and it didn't convince my ex-wife to address whatever her issues are.  What the Google time, time here, and reading books did do was keep me from acting in healthy ways for myself.", "id": "co9sszk", "summary": "Take care of yourself first.  Your husband is responsible for himself, and for his own recovery. Don't wait around based on \"what ifs\"."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "It will really depend on the laws of your state, however in many/most states, property acquired during a marriage is considered part of the marital estate, meaning that any share of property owned is owned jointly, no matter how it is titled.  If you bought property in partnership with a parent, and you and that parent are on the deed, then it is likely that your spouse owns your share of the property jointly with you. Your spouse can't force you to sell the property, necessarily,but can reasonably expect to be compensated for any share in joint property during division of the marital estate.", "id": "c5re9dn", "summary": "ask a lawyer in your area"}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "Okay, I'll play devil's advocate here.  I was the husband of a compulsive hoarder/alcoholic.  I too filed many reports to CPS in my area on the condition of my ex's house, on her showing up for custodial exchanges smelling of alcohol, on safety issues in my ex's house, you name it.  I was told by my assigned intake worker that \"despite long debate about your case in our office, we judge there to be no provable danger.\" I too, like these folks, ended up with a custody arrangement I felt was not good for my kid. \n I could have believed people like you, and my original custody evaluator, that this was best. I was full of shit, CPS said my son was safe, wtf was my problem, right, RIGHT? \n Instead, I simply made sure I did the right thing for my kid, every day, all the time, and waited.  I'll shorten a very long story: eventually, after my giving her rope, my ex figuratively hung herself.  She left my 10 year old son alone in a room with electric heaters perched on piles of paper, while she went out to get loaded.  She \"butt dialed\" me while drunk, and I met her at her door with cops.  Boom; DUI+Child endangerment charge, and eventual convictions+90 day incarceration+2.5 year license suspension+1 year ignition interlock after suspension is over. \n Because of that incident, I got custody.  I was able to make the changes needed (therapy, school district, parenting) to get my son to a good place; he's in a great school, is a good athlete, and a mostly straight A with an occasional B student. Success, right? \n No, system failure.  I truly wish I'd never had to call the cops that night, and that the consequences for my ex hadn't been so devastating.  She was an academic counselor at a major university in PA.  Since the Jerry Sandusky thing, with her child endangerment conviction, she has, essentially a zero chance of ever being hired by another university again.  I know I did the right thing for my kid, but CPS not intervening at a much earlier stage meant that I had to make some hard line decisions that truly fucked my ex's life.  While I know I'm not responsible for her choices, her choices wouldn't have been so devastating, had she not had half custody of my kid. \n The only thing that slightly makes me feel better, is that after my whole deal was mostly over, I wrote to the governor's office in my state.  Much of CPS's inaction in my area was due to unfamiliarity with hoarding and its abusive effects on children.  I got a personal apology from the director of CPS in my region of my state, and an assurance that her staff would be trained and educated.", "id": "clajwgx", "summary": "CPS saying your kid is safe is not the same as your kid actually being safe, and the reporter being crazy or unbalanced.  Sometimes CPS does not know wtf they're doing."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "The important part of the dependent deductions is the money that this saves the person taking the deductions, and the money available to both spouses in total, not \"what is fair\" or \"who pays for what\". The smart way to handle this would be for the higher earning spouse to take the dependent deductions, thus saving the most money from that spouse's taxable income, and then negotiating a familial distribution of that financial benefit so that everyone has more money. \n If you take turns, in the years the lower earning spouse takes the deduction(s), that spouse gets less financial benefit, as their tax rate is lower, and the higher earning spouse pays more tax, meaning the entire family unit has less money.  Get it? \n People get so focused on what's fair, or taking turns, like they're in freaking kindergarten, that they lose sight of the fact that they could  all have more money, every single year  if they negotiated this intelligently, for the duration of their children's dependency.", "id": "cf7lhac", "summary": "get her to agree to you taking the deductions, and you give her some portion of what you save that way, so that you both benefit. Win/win."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "As someone who divorced a mentally ill spouse, my advice is to take a long look at what your ex's mental illness will mean to your divorce and custody issues. Ask yourself these questions: \n 1.) Are your ex's issues such that he is an obvious danger to himself or others, and  can you prove it to people who don't know or care about you?  (Judges, custody evaluators) \n 2.) Are your ex's issues such that he will be a danger or your kids, or actually neglect them?  When I say neglect, I don't mean that his parenting might be different than yours, but actual \"neglect\" in the social services worker meaning of the term: will the children get medical care while he's with them, will they have clean clothes, regular meals, will they attend school as they should, will their place to sleep be clean and safe?  Again, if there are neglect or safety issues for your children  can you prove it to people who don't know or care about you? (Judges, custody evaluators) \n What you think is obvious, will not be so to others.  Ranting about it, when you can't prove it in the way that I mean, will make you appear to be crazy, not him.  Don't lob the mental illness bomb unless you can prove it, and your kids really need you to do so for them to be safe. \n Further, if you don't have the kind of proof I mentioned, how is that reading/researching helping  you ?  You need to get out of your marriage in the healthiest way possible, for you, and your kids, while preserving and protecting your share of the marital assets.  Focusing on your ex's illness will not allow you to heal, and to examine your own choices in your relationship with your ex.  My ex is mentally ill, but focusing on that stopped me from taking a hard look at my own behaviors, and what I needed to change about myself to be a better person, father, and someday partner to someone. \n Please understand, I am not taking your ex's side.  I am coming at this from the perspective of someone who concluded a nearly 4 year custody battle vs someone who is pretty seriously mentally ill.  When I started my fight, I did what you did, and did all kinds of reading.  I was convinced that those in the legal system would understand, and that my custody fight would be easy. It wasn't. I hope your luck is better.", "id": "ce7tqer", "summary": "So, your ex is crazy.  Can you prove it? If not, conclude your divorce quickly and healthily."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "Great :)  Keep it up at the gym! \n I doubt you got out all of your anger, although I am sure you feel better and healthier, which is good. \n More advice: \n Give up the language of finality with your anger, grief, and blaming of your ex.  You're going to be angry with her again, you're likely going to feel grief, and you're obviously continuing to blame her. Those feelings are natural. \n If you really want to be free of her and her influence in your life, work on forgiving her.  Forgiveness has very little to do with her, it has everything to do with you leaving your past with her behind.  Whatever is going on with her, she's doing her best, as you are too.  If you can realize that, and let go of blame, let go of being angry,  you  will be happier. \n Part of the path to happiness is relentless acceptance of who you really are, and the real selves of others.  If you can accept yourself, you can stop flagellating yourself over what you  should  be, and instead just deal with who you  are  and what you actually do.  The same goes for other people.  What people do (including you) matters more than what they should do.", "id": "ciwjasn", "summary": "Deal with actions; ignore \"shoulds\"."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "1.) Stay out of your parents' business. They're both adults, whatever is  going on with them is entirely theirs to handle. \n 2.) If your mother is drinking more and showing other behaviors that indicate that she is depressed, that's entirely her business.  If you allow her depression and drinking to draw you into staying with her, realize that you are consciously taking the first step on the road to co-dependence.  If you don't go to Al-Anon, do yourself the favor of picking up \"Co-Dependent No More\" by Melodie Beatty; it's a good read, and explains co-dependence and how to get break out of it pretty well. \n 3.) Realize that you can't control others, or make them happy.  You can't \"fix\" your family.  You are responsible for yourself, and no one else, unless you have children. Further, as you sound like you're in the midst of your own emotional and life issues, concentrate on righting your own ship.  One of the traps of co-dependence is \"helping\" others, as a way to avoid and bury the parts of ourselves that hurt and are not okay.  If you're helping and supporting someone else, you have to be okay, right?  Right?  Wrong.", "id": "caooikb", "summary": "Do you.  Pick up the pieces of your own life, and don't be drawn into fixing your family. \n Be well!"}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "I left my wife over exactly this issue (well, that and rampant alcoholism, infidelity, and compulsive shopping that ruined us financially).  I've done an AMA [here]( \n This is going to turn long, so apologies in advance. \n A few things I've learned: \n 1.) As the husband and father in the situation with my own wife/hoarder, I was, in some sense, equally responsible for the mess.  I allowed my son to live, for years, in an environment that was not good for him.  Your mom is the hoarder, but your Dad is explicitly allowing her to hoard (most likely because he doesn't have the energy to oppose her compulsions, believe me, I get it), and explicitly choosing to allow his kids to live somewhere bad for them.  It's unfair and sad, but true.  I'm sorry. \n 2.) Raising children in this environment is unfair to the kids, and abusive. As a child, your parents should be teaching you social skills, and how to live in and maintain your own home some day.  You can't eat at a table, can't have normal life with adult and peer group friends.  You're being harmed (although you may not realize it) by the choices both your parents are making. \n 3.) Your mom and dad love you, but the reality is, she probably loves her stuff more than you.  She will say this is not true, but if you and your dad pulled a construction dumpster in front of your house, and said, \"Mom, we're pitching all this stuff this week, or we're all out of here,\" could she get rid of her stuff? \n If you answer this question honestly, she nearly certainly couldn't do it (sorry, I've lived it, I know it hurts).  She would, maybe, throw a few things away, but couldn't really confront truly ridding herself of stuff to keep you in her life, right?  I'm sorry if this is hurtful, but you need to start thinking about your mom, and her attachment to stuff in the right way, so that you can get your own thinking right. You have a chance at a normal life, but sadly are likely going to have to figure out how to make your life good mostly on your own. \n 4.) Get yourself some help.~~  If your parents have health insurance (if you live in the US) tell them you're depressed, or whatever.~~ Do whatever it takes to get you into a mental health professional.  That professional will need to help you to see your parents as they are: two co-dependent people, one of whom has a severe mental illness.  If you can, insist that they take your sister too.  When you ask for help, try to do so in a way that avoids blaming, as this will make your self-deceptive parents resist getting the help you need, because, after all, there isn't really a problem, right? \n 5.) Learn to set personal boundaries. You have your own room, as does your sister.  Neither of you have to accept the condition of your rooms currently.  Move your mom's shit out of there, and make your own space nice.  With the help of the mental health pro, stand up to her, as she will nearly certainly oppose you viciously.  Your parents aren't teaching you how to live, you're going to have to do that yourself.  Sorry, again, it's not fair. \n 6.) Hold your parents accountable for what they say, and then ultimately don't do. You say your parents have moved you out of their own house to renovate, and that a bunch of stuff will have to be thrown out.  You think you're going to be back in your original house in 6 months.  Accept the very likely possibility that this is not true, and that your old house may become a de facto large storage locker.  I saw it with my ex's parents, and have read about other cases like this.  Don't let your parents off the hook when this happens. \n As kids, you and your sister deserve healthy and functioning parents.  Unfortunately, you don't have them. If you want to talk, or I can help in any way, feel free to PM me.  Sorry for your situation. \n 7.) The show \"Hoarders\".  There is certainly a freak show aspect to that show, but they also pay for therapy, and pay for hauling and clean up help.  The price is that you have to agree for it to be filmed.  I sent pictures into the show, and spoke to a producer.  They wanted to do the show with us.  My ex refused as she couldn't open up her life that way.  Your mom will likely do the same, but if she wouldn't, don't turn up your nose at help that you couldn't afford otherwise.  It's not a panacea, but is a chance to hit the reset button on your house and life. \n EDIT: From your username, and from some of the labels on your boxes, I gather that you're Belgian.  You  should  be able to walk into a hospital and see a mental health professional, as nationalized insurance will pay.  If your parents work, you'll need their health insurance fund information to go (sorry I'm short on details of this--I'm American, not Belgian)", "id": "c3e6egz", "summary": "Your parents are abusing you.  Take responsibility for yourself, and make your own life as good as you can make it.  Try to support your sister and help her to do the same.  Doing this AMA is a good start."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "Don't get a \"men's divorce lawyer\" get a good family law attorney who has represented both men and women in divorce and custody matters.  So-called men's lawyers will pump you up to \"fight for your rights\".  In divorce, fighting=big fee income for lawyers. \n Divorce is not about justice, it's not about feeling better, and it's definitely not about who makes the most tawdry plans to fuck over their spouse.  Divorce is the legal process of ending your marriage, and dividing your assets. In most states, you're going to have to negotiate with your spouse; the more pissed she is, and the more pissed that you are, the more likely it is that you end up with, as /u/saricher put it \"a stranger in a black robe deciding your life\" at great expense, as you'll both have lawyers.", "id": "clvvvpk", "summary": "don't worry about \"evidence\" or that screenshot, it likely means nothing.  See a lawyer, follow your lawyer's advice. Try to stay calm, and treat the end of your marriage like a business deal."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "I wouldn't bother telling anyone who falls firmly into \"her side\".  While they might listen to you, and even offer sympathy, ultimately they'll eventually stick with her, not you. Only you can say if telling those people will make you feel better, but know that anything you say will nearly certainly not affect her relationship with those folks, and may make them uncomfortable with you. Talk to your friends and family if you need help in dealing with your own feelings.", "id": "c2bgpfe", "summary": "you don't owe anyone an explanation of why a relationship ends."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "Extrapolating from this sub-threads starter, he is holding off telling his girl because he thinks \"she's not there yet\".  This doesn't imply \"we went on one date and I love her OMG,\" it implies measured feelings and responses. \n What you've posited is extreme, and odd.  The situation I've posited, that people in relationships moving towards the serious/committed/\"I love you\"  point put off expressing their feelings is, I think, much more common.", "id": "cj3320u", "summary": "dating for a week and you're \"in love\"? STFU, you're a creeper.  Dating for a while(admittedly subjective), and you feel you love her/him, and you're restraining yourself from being true to yourself because you're afraid to speak your feelings; be you."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "I'm going to give you some general advice, that's not necessarily related to your question: \n I don't know the nature of your illness and marital issues, but in addition to not taking responsibility for your life and recovery, it also seems like you're trying to actively punish yourself with regard to how you're conducting yourself in your divorce.  I'm not going to give specific advice, but in cases where there are very unequal financial resources between parties to a divorce, there are court mechanisms in place to handle this.  It's simply not the case that you just have to lie back and take whatever your ex decides in your divorce, because his family is paying. I'm not sure where it's coming from, but you seem to have a martyr thing going on.  Suffering is not noble, it's just suffering. \n Do what you have to do to handle your life, make yourself well, and end your marriage in the best way for you, and your kid.", "id": "ckwktmy", "summary": "Take charge of your life, your recovery, and your divorce."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "I started dating right after my  divorce  separation.  While I wouldn't say it was a mistake, I know that I wasn't the best partner to this person. I needed help and support, and my messy divorce and custody fight eventually came to overshadow my relationship with that person.  I leaned on her, when I should have been leaning on family, and my therapist. I wasn't capable of being fair to her, and meeting her needs. \n I don't regret my time with that woman. However, when we split, we were both angry and hurt (and both of us had reason to be). I definitely learned things from her about parenting, about being a better partner, she helped me to be assertive, and take risks I otherwise might not have taken.  Truly, without her, my life, and that of my son, would both be much worse than they are now.  I wish I could express that gratitude without it being weird (we broke up 2+ years ago), but that's not my world, and it probably wouldn't sit well with my current SO.", "id": "cq6xxil", "summary": "Sabotage, no.  Was I a shitty partner because of my own issues: yes."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "Then she is trying to trick you. If she makes more, then spousal support (payable to  you ) is an issue,  and  support for your daughter. Child support is an open issue, so one or both of you can go to court to change custody and support after your divorce. If, as the lower earning spouse, you sign an order with no spousal support,or that divides your assets and liabilities in a way that screws you, that deal will be done,and there will be no re-visiting it. \n edit: DON'T BELIEVE THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO SHOW UP IN COURT.  You not showing up essentially lets your ex have whatever she wants.", "id": "c3p3leu", "summary": "version--get your own attorney and get that attorney's advice. Show up with that attorney in court!"}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "A lawyer taking this on contingency for 30% is fair.  That person deserves to be compensated for what will likely be an ugly and drawn out legal battle.  While it sucks that you will have to give up 30% of something that should be entirely yours, if you don't do this deal with the lawyer you'll have 100% of nothing.  If you prevail (and it sounds like you will) you should be able to finance the lawyer's 30% with the equity on the property with a mortgage, and buy out his/her share. Free legal advice in a case like this could potentially screw you.", "id": "c18tbpo", "summary": "do the deal with the lawyer, and get your sue on."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "I was like you.  I sent my son to a public school, in a school that was comprised of a mixed population, with something like 50% of the school being African American kids from a relatively poor area of my city, and 50% white and Asian kids from my own middle class neighborhood.  Every kid in my school got free breakfast, because of the economic composition of the school.  I'm on the other end now, and have moved my son to the \"rich\" public school district in my area. \n First: in my son's elementary school, the poorer (and mostly Afr-American) kids did about half as well as the middle class (and generally white) kids.  This was certainly not true in every case, my son was friends with a really awesome African American kid who was also super smart.  My son had all kinds of friends, of all races, and from all backgrounds. Score one for diversity. \n That said, my son, being athletic, gravitated towards the other athletic kids, many of them from the poorer areas.  They were a bad influence on him, frankly.  They were not that interested in academic achievement, and my son's grades, towards the end of his time at his elementary school, started dropping.  They were never disastrous, but he developed some habits and behaviors that I now have to fight, daily. \n When we moved to the \"rich\" district, my son was immediately assessed as behind in his reading, when compared to his peers in his new school.  He skips social studies every day, and attends daily sessions with the new school's reading specialist to get his reading back up to par.  At his old school, I never heard a peep about my son's reading being deficient, in fact, just the opposite; that makes me angry. \n The new school has a system of organization that they ingrain in the kids (use of daily planners, online grades and assignments, etc).  My son has had a bit of a hard time adjusting to it.  He's getting much better, but it's still a daily struggle.  The other kids in his district have had their whole early academic lives to get used to this program. \n As Loki206 points out, the differences in academics, available sports, and amenities for working parents between my son's old and his new school are simply staggering. My son loves everything about his new school: the teachers are nicer and more encouraging, the lunches are better, more sports that he likes are available, the playgrounds and athletic fields are nicer. I had no idea what I was missing, and foregoing all that stuff made my life and his less pleasant and more of a pain in the ass at his old school. \n All told, I regret my early decision, and wish I had moved my son to the richer district and better school much sooner than I did.  I will spend the next few years struggling against his reading issues, and organizational issues that his current school would have helped him with much sooner.  His new school is certainly less diverse, but there are certainly kids from all ethnicities here. The difference is that the overall level of academic achievement of all the kids in his new school is much higher. \n I can't control whom my son befriends. What I can control is the pool of kids from whom my son selects.  I wish, for his sake, that I'd done that much sooner than I did.", "id": "c38khlv", "summary": "version--Grandma is right, you're nuts. Sorry."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "Exactly the opposite of what you posted is true.  Wind pipe or airway occluding chokes are painful, and potentially injurious.  They can leave you with a sore throat from the mechanical action of the choke, and potentially, if done by someone unskilled, do injury that could endanger your life. \n Chokes that occlude the carotid artery can be dangerous too, but are less so, as the mechanical action, does not, by itself, cause injury.  Carotid chokes induce unconsciousness in 5-15 seconds.  You'll recover from them in 15-30 seconds, generally with no ill effects. \n To be truly safe, if you are untrained, you should  not  choke someone, as you are unaware of what it looks like when someone goes unconscious, or how to help them recover.  Further, if untrained, you will likely have no idea whether you're occluding the subject's airway, or their carotid artery. \n If you think you're into this, I'd advise to either get some training in Judo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, no-gi grappling, or with BDSM folks experienced in breath/choking play (and those people do exist) in BDSM meetings (often called \"munches\", check out Fetlife). \n Source: 8 year BJJ and Judo practitioner.", "id": "cqbxfbr", "summary": "don't choke people without training, it's dangerous."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "There's no such thing as \"dibs\" when it comes to human beings.  The woman  rejected  you and chose your friend instead, as is her prerogative.  Your desire for a woman who has rejected you shouldn't preclude your friend from pursuing his own little piece of happiness with her, either as a one time, or a more permanent thing. \n I think it's perfectly normal that you might be a little jealous, and unconsciously that jealousy might affect your friendship with this guy, if you allow it to do so.  Take the \"high road,\" however, and don't allow this to change your friendship. Your friend didn't do anything wrong.", "id": "c1s155k", "summary": "put on your big boy pants and get over it."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "All of that is stuff you should be doing, but you should first file for support in your state.  In most states filing for spousal support is very simple, and doesn't require an attorney to do the paperwork.  Support claims don't go backwards, so every day that you don't do it, is a day that he doesn't have to provide support for you.", "id": "c6rn758", "summary": "fuck paperwork, acquire support"}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "When others behave badly and are caught, as is the case with this woman, the person who relates their behavior is not responsible.  You are not responsible for other people's behavior.  In this situation, this means a couple of things: \n \n You are certainly not responsible for Donna's behavior.  You didn't hold a gun to her head and force her to behave badly.  You didn't entice her into behaving badly.  Donna is entirely responsible for what she does, just as you are entirely and  only  respoonsible for what you do. \n \n You are also not responsible for what actions your employer or your HR department take after you tell the truth about what happened.  No matter what you say or do, any disciplinary action taken will not be your decision. \n \n \n Ethically and morally your responsibility is clear: when asked, you tell the truth about what has been happening.  If something bad happens to Donna as a result, it's okay to feel some empathy for her situation, all while keeping the fact that she created her situation entirely on her own in the topmost portion of your mind.  If Donna gets fired, you didn't \"get her fired\", a truthful recounting of her own actions, and her previous actions will lead someone else to make that decision. \n If you don't speak up, Donna's bad behavior will continue.  She'll continue to make you and others miserable.  Further, since you have already raised the issue with your supervisor, if you don't go to this meeting, you may subject yourself to your own difficulties with your HR department.  You have raised some rather serious conduct issues with your supervisor, and your supervisor has reacted appropriately by alerting HR.  Employment policies of a large employer like a hospital now force your supervisor and HR to investigate and act.  You don't have a right to remain silent, like in a criminal court.  If you fail to answer questions, you could, yourself, be disciplined.", "id": "c9wtjbe", "summary": "You do you.  Tell the truth. Choices that other people make are their responsibility, not yours."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "So, let's get this straight: you recognize your boyfriend's finances as limited, yet encourage him to keep an apartment, and still think that the two of you are living together?  I'll be frank: I wouldn't consider myself truly cohabiting with someone if I were paying for and maintaining another place to live.  Adults pay bills for places in which they live.  Your boyfriends place can't be unheated/no electricity, right? I'm sure he didn't feel motivated to contribute to paying  your  bills, because he had his own to pay,  at your insistence . It wouldn't be unreasonable to expect him to buy some groceries occasionally.  Pay  your  electric bill though? No. \n As for him having \"no place to stay in 5 months\", this seems like nonsense to me.  In any reasonably sized area with an educational institution, housing challenges like this happen all the time.  There are nearly always people looking for roommates, looking for sublets, etc.  From what you wrote, it sounds as if you're blissfully unaware of this.  Even if you're not aware of the fluidity of housing in college/university area (which is kind of surprising to me), I bet your boyfriend is. If you had wanted to truly make the cohabitation thing work, you could have; you specifically insisted on a particular arrangement. \n Really, you both sound a bit immature.  Your boyfriend needs to more actively plan his life, and stand up for what he wants. You need to stop expecting him to behave as a roommate when he clearly wasn't one. You also need to be able to talk frankly about your own needs.  You're not controlling if you make plans because you're boyfriend doesn't, you're attending to your own needs to do something with him.  However, if you occasionally (and really, it doesn't have to be 50/50) need him to make plans, you need to tell him exactly that.  \"Honey, when you never make plans for us to do something, it makes me feel as if you don't care about me. I need you to make plans for us to do something at least every now and then.\"", "id": "c2fbva0", "summary": "Both of you grow up.  BF: manage your life more actively. GF: get some more realistic expectations. Both: talk more!"}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "1.) The penalty was for a high hit, to another kid's head.  The nature of the hit, and the other kid laying on the field afterwards was what drove the ref's decision to make the penalty non-releasable, and that the goalie, himself, must serve. \n 2.) The refs in this case left the game promising to lodge a complaint with the head referee for our area, against the coach in question \n 3.) My son's coach agrees with me, and also complained to the league.  He thanked me for complaining also, and reinforcing his position. \n So, in fact, I don't \"know better than the coaches and refs\", in this case, except, perhaps for one coach, eh? I have the  same position  as the coaches and refs.  Do I have disdain for the coach who did this? You bet. \n The \"commit a foul\" lesson is not the important one here.  The infraction itself is completely secondary.  The important lesson is that one may not simply ignore rules one does not like, without consequence.", "id": "c9qw0jb", "summary": "you don't know what you're talking about."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "My kid and his partner were tasked with making marshmallow shooters in their science class.  They had to design,build and operate the shooter in class, measuring the distance traveled on a shot, the velocity of the marshmallow, etc.  All good. \n As I'm on my way home from work, my son calls me to ask me to pick up some cash to pay for his portion of the project.  \"No problem buddy, how much do you need?\" \"$45, my partner spent $90.\" It's due tomorrow. \n Am I alone in my WTF reaction?  I have the money, that's not the issue.  I  can  easily afford the $45, however I think it's completely outrageious. Spending this kind of cash on an 8th grade science project is completely crazy, and out of proportion to what's supposed to be happening in school.  It smacks, to me, of buying a grade.  Further, I don't think this is a good intro to engineering, as most people engineering a solution to problem X, have to find a solution within Y time, and under Z budget. \n I wrote the science teacher and the principal, and am meeting with the principal tomorrow morning to discuss this.  I told the science teacher that my kid is not to be paired with the $90 gun project.  We went to Home Depot this morning at 6am, and purchased parts for my kid's own gun, and had the PVC cut for us, for $4.28. \n By way of background, we live in a fairly affluent district.  I can't say the overspending really surprised me.  I do think this teaches kids out-of-whack priorities and habits. \n [Edit] to be clear, at no point was I consulted about the project scope or cost.  I simply got a request from my kid, the day before the project was due: that will be $45 pls.", "id": "t3_2zgi0a", "summary": "90 for 8th grade science project; out of line, or not? Am I out of line for refusing to pay? \n Update: Met with principal: \"I agree with you, $90 is ridiculous for this project, and I would not pay half of that, if it were my kid. Your  kid proceeds with project with what he has.\" Me:\"Perfect, thanks for your time.\""}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "As you might guess from my username, my ex is a compulsive hoarder.  If you don't know what that is (or haven't seen A & E or TLC US cable channels for the last few years) hoarding is the inability to dispose of objects, and the accumulation of objects to the point where it negatively affects one's life and the life of one's family. \n My ex is also an alcoholic, and cheated on me with 4 different guys. \n To make a long story short, we have an ugly custody battle.  I think it's going to be a slam dunk, and it turns out not to be.  The courts buy her \"I have problems, but I'm getting help\" routine.  We end up splitting custody 50/50. \n My ex, from my perspective, is thumbing her nose at me and the courts.  She shows up to pick up our kid with alcohol on her breath, and her house continues to be an absolute shithole.  Every time I send him with her, I die a little inside. \n Fast forward a few months: my ex has my kid for the evening.  I fall asleep on the couch.  I awaken to my phone alerting me to a voicemail, at roughly midnight.  I listen to it, and it's pretty apparently a butt-dial.  I hear bar noises, and my ex's drunk voice.  I hear a bartender say to my ex \"you've been drinking for a while, huh\", and she gives a slurred reply. \n I go into full on freak out mode.  Where is my 10 year old kid if she is at a bar getting loaded?  I call the cops.  I go to my ex's front door, knock, no answer.  I beat on the door, and the cops shine their car search lights into her windows, no answer. \n I text my ex, asking where she is, and where our kid is.  She says she's inside--hah, yeah, right, and you don't see the lights, or hear the pounding? \n Eventually the cops leave, as they tell me they don't have probable cause to break the door down. \n 15 minutes after they leave, I see my ex's car pull-up.  As I approach the car, I see her sitting there, doing nothing.  The next thing I know, she puts her face into the steering wheel and passes out. \n I call the cops back.  They return, and get her out of her car.  To shorten the story, she eventually gives them her house keys, as she can't operate her own door lock. She's arrested for DUI, and endangering the welfare of children.  The cop tells me that he doesn't think the EWOC will stick, but he's willing to charge her with it, and let the DA sort it out. \n A couple of weeks go by, my ex gets out of jail.  I call the DA handling my ex's case, and explain my situation, and what's been happening with my son.  I plead with him that both charges need to stick, as the combination of her 2 DUIs (she'd had one earlier that year) and the endangerment charge would turn the tide of my custody fight. \n Fast forward a few months: my ex has her meeting with the DA and he plays hardball.  She has to plead guilty to the DUI, and the child endangerment charge, do 90-180 days in jail on the DUI, probation on the child endangerment charge. \n It took a while,but with the help of the charges, I finally won my custody case.  I move with my son to a great suburban school, and I've been busily re-building my own life and his. My ex sees my son every other weekend, and she has to do so at her parents' house, as her place is still a hell-hole. \n My ex is having difficulty finding work: she just lost her only job since this happened two years ago. She has no bank account, doesn't pay child support, and has trouble finding jobs when employers  hear of her record. \n Edit: changed a few spelling and verb tenses.  Also, once I got my ex's keys from her, I retrieved my son from her house.  She had left him there, alone, while she went out to get loaded.", "id": "t3_1dvfgg", "summary": "Ex leaves my kid alone in the house while she gets loaded.  I have her arrested, and make sure the resulting charges stick.  Her life is shit now, but my kid is safe and happy."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "In October of last year, my last GF broke up with me.  She went through my apartment, found some 25 year old photo albums, and became convinced that I was obsessing about the women in them (I wasn't).  For my part, I knew that those albums would be hot button issues for her, and lied about having them.  A confrontation ensued, we broke up, I was devastated (cry myself to sleep for a month devastated).  I wasn't an angel, lying was stupid, and I paid the price. I'm over it. I dated this woman for 3 years, and had thought I was going to marry her.  In retrospect, I now feel like I dodged a bullet. \n Fast forward to now: I'm dating a new woman, and it's going well. I attended a youth sports fundraiser with my now gf, and at that fund raiser saw some of my ex-gf's neighbors.  Within a week of that fundraiser, my ex-wife got an anonymous postal mail saying that I'd broken into my ex-GF's house (I didn't, and had no idea she'd been burglarized), and that my ex-wife should make moves to be more into my son's life, because I am not who I seem to be. The particulars in the note make it very clear to me that the author was my ex-gf. \n This freaks me out.  I hadn't spent any time at all talking about my last GF with my current, but after this happens, I tell her as much as I can.  I don't want anonymous crazy mails going to her, and certainly don't want her to feel at risk from my ex. I was honest about the reasons for the breakup, including my lying about the photo albums. \n As for my ex-gf, I sent her family law attorney an email asking for my ex to simply leave me alone.  I made it very clear that if she doesn't, I'll file harassment charges, and potentially sue for defamation. I'm hoping this ends it.  I have done nothing else. I don't want my either of my exes back, I don't want to be friends, I want to live my life without her fucking with me. \n What am I doing that I keep inviting crazy into my life?  Between my last GF, and my ex-wife (the compulsive hoarder), I have serious doubts about my own judgement of people, especially women.  Things with my current GF are great, but I constantly feel like I am waiting for the \"crazy shoe\" to drop.  This last episode, in particular, makes me feel insecure: my ex-wife and I just settled our custody, after nearly 3 years.  I feel like my ex-gf is egging my son's mother to re-open things, just to try and hurt me.", "id": "t3_1eouxb", "summary": "Why do I keep ending up with crazy women? What do I do about a crazy ex trying to mess up my life? \n Any suggestions?"}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "I've written pretty extensively in past posts about my custody battle.  My ex-wife is a hoarder with pretty serious substance, employment, and other issues.  She hasn't worked in three years, contributes nothing to my son's upkeep, and sees him 2 weekends a month+2 weeks of vacation a year. \n I'm angry. My ex keeps doing weird things around my son, and pushing her feelings and fears on him, when it's simply no appropriate for a 13 year old to hear or see some of this. \n Most recently, she was having crying jags during his last visit with her, periodically during their whole visit.  She would burst into tears, and tell my son that \"She feels like a failure as a mother.\"  When my ex acts particularly anxious, it upsets my son, as there was a particularly memorable incident a couple of years ago, where she called my son, and said \"Good bye, I love you, I'm going to God,\" meaning, obviously, suicide (I tried to have her committed then, and failed). He worries when she behaves this way that she's getting close to suicide again. \n I try to comfort him, and help him to have empathy for his mother, and the tough spot in which she is.  I explain, repeatedly, that much of this is her illness, and that it's not right, and inappropriate for her to speak with him this way.  I try to help him set boundaries.  I schedule therapy sessions to help him deal with his feelings.  Those are the right things for him. \n I send her neutral text messages, asking her from refrain from the distressing behaviors.  I don't make a big deal. I have as good a custody arrangement as I'll ever get.  It's not worth the time or upset to go back to court.  For this kind of shit, nothing will change, I am sure of it. \n I'm struggling financially with no help from her, paying for braces out of my own pocket, juggling two jobs to give my son a good life.  For him, I've succeeded.  He's stable, secure, athletic, gets good grades, has friends, etc. \n What I want, which I can never say to him is to say \"Your mother is a fucking failure as a mother. She still has these problems because she's not working on them earnestly, and has rebuffed every attempt at help anyone ever made, even choosing her issues over you, son.\" \n I want to rage, and yell, and beat my chest.  I want to tell her she's a failure to her face, because, factually, she is.  I never get to be that guy. I never get to say it, except to my Psychologist. I don't know if I am looking for advice, or to rant, or what.  I can't make peace with this, as my ex keeps finding new ways to shit up my life and fuck with my son's head and feelings.", "id": "t3_1zg57v", "summary": "Crazy Ex does crazy shit (not dangerous) around my kid. Mad. What do?"}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "Sorry for text wall.  At least I'll give paragraphs. \n Me 49M with custody of 14M kid. Her 48F. Son sees his mom 2nd, 4th and any 5th weekend in a month.  Her overnights are cut short if he has sporting or scholastic events, which is pretty much always, during the school year, or during summer travel lacrosse. \n My ex has problems: lost her job 4 years ago due to her substance issues (hasn't worked since), suspended driver's license, child endangerment conviction, hoarding disorder, enabling parents.  She used to work in a university setting, but that option is now closed to her, with her child endangerment conviction.  We live in PA, and universities are now super vigilant for anything that might put them in a position of liability with children, after the Sandusky thing at Penn State. \n I still think she's not working.  While she does have a college degree, and a 25 year work history, she still hasn't managed to secure a job.  I know finding a job with her history is going to be challenging, however I spent 10+ years as a restaurant manager.  I worked with people with conviction histories, including a couple of convicted murderers (both great guys when I knew them, had bad trouble as young men).  I know there is work out there for her, but she has to take her search seriously. \n I've been struggling with the issue of whether to file for child support for a while.  I posted here about it, and many recommended I not do so. \n After that post, I had a conversation with her about her life options.  I offered to forego a child support hearing, if she could demonstrate that she had applied for disability, or, in the absence of that, would agree to contribute to an educational fund for my son.  She declined both options, and launched into the same stream of rationalization and bullshit that I'd listened to in my marriage.  I cut off the conversation; I'm not her husband, and it's not my place to advise her about her life.  Further, listening to that stream of irrational and crazy explanations made me anxious, and took me back to what I felt like living with her. \n Our hearing is today.  I have limited expectations of getting anything.  What I can't do is sit by while she does nothing to insure her own care and well-being in the future, and does nothing to contribute to the care of my son.", "id": "t3_30xbq3", "summary": "child support hearing with crazy ex today.  Expecting nothing, but still makes me anxious. \n Edit: hearing/conference is over.  0 support award, which is what I expected. However, my ex has to participate in court ordered vocational counseling and rehabilitation, and there are criminal contempt proceedings if she doesn't comply. No drama, no yelling, no legal expense. That's about as good as I was going to get, so I am at peace."}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "I'm currently engaged to a woman who is very much of a saver.  With her current level of savings, she projects she'll retire with about a million+ saved.  Great! \n I divorced a few years ago, and my ex got most of our retirement assets. Long story, it's in my post history, don't really want to rehash that here. That's over. \n I work for a public agency, and participate in the pension plan there. I was hired the last month that any non-union employee could participate in that plan.  I do make my own contributions to the plan: 10.5% of my gross salary (ouch, I know).  When I retire, my pension will pay me 2.25% per year of service of the average of my 5 highest earning years here.  I should retire with 24 years of service. \n My current plan is to work until I'm 70 to maximize my pension and social security.  There is longevity in my family on both my mom and dad's side. I had grandparents who lived well into their 90s. My main concern is to have income for the length of what could be a 20+ year life after I stop working. \n I also have a supplementary pre-tax savings account with about 25k. I continue to add funds to that account, but at a pretty modest rate, 2%. \n When I've put the various numbers from the story above into retirement calculators, the results generally tell me that I'm preparing adequately, given my pension. Between pension+supp account+social security, I should be reasonably set for retirement income. \n I've thought about leaving my current company, and could probably realize a significant bump in salary if I did so. However, to save enough principle to equal to what I'd get from my pension, I'd have to \"bank\" nearly all of any potential salary difference. I'm not sure I'd be disciplined enough to do that. \n Am I missing anything? How do I explain this to my fiancee? She thinks I am underpaid, and doesn't quite get the pension thing. As she is self-funding her retirement savings, she has always chased higher base salaries as they allow her to save more. \n Any advice would be appreciated", "id": "t3_51m1ip", "summary": "Pension+supplemental account+Social security seems to me to be enough of a retirement plan for me. How to explain?"}, {"author": "hubbyofhoarder", "content": "My divorce saga has been long.  I left my ex in 2009.  My custody fight was long, but I ended up with primary physical custody of my son. There are many more details, but I don't think they're important for this post. \n Support-wise, my ex has never paid a single nickle of my son's expenses, nor has she paid child support.  I filed for child support last year; as she was not working, she was put on a \"seek work\" order. That order required her to meet with a clerk at the support office showing the jobs for which she had applied once a month. After a year of unsuccessful searching, the support office has scheduled a hearing to determine my ex's \"ability to pay.\" \n My ex has applied for disability after multiple years of my urging her to do so.  I truly believe that her mental health issues will affect her for life. However, she only recently even applied for disability.  I feel like she should have applied years ago.  Her not doing so denied my son the derivative benefit he would have gotten from her being on disability. \n She wants me to withdraw my support complaint.  I think I give up the only leverage I have over her if I do that.  My son is 15, the process takes forever.  If I withdraw this complaint, and she doesn't get disability, I'm back to square one, with nothing.  It doesn't help that she called me crying, and I am kind of soft :(", "id": "t3_49jh5p", "summary": "No work, possibly mentally ill ex-wife wants me to withdraw support complaint. What do?"}]}
+{"author": "Rickaroni", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Saw shadow-man. Didn't move for 5 hours.", "output": "One night when I was around 15 years old I was out in the back yard on the phone. It was around 9pm at night and no one was home. After I hung up the phone I got up to go inside and I saw someone standing behind the doorway (about 15 yards away). I sat there, frozen and scared shitless for a minutes. The shadow of the person standing there just stood there for about a solid minute then turned away and was gone. \n Being the superstitious man that I am sometimes, I stood there. Sat back down, got on the phone and waited until about 2am for when my parents got home from a wedding. We searched the entire household and found nothing. The front door was still locked, none of the windows were broken/open and nothing was stolen."}], "user_id": "longlamp_5892", "history": [{"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "She was at a party for a guy we knew that was killed in Afghanistan (I couldn't make it because of work). I got out of work around midnight and gave her a call to see how things were going and I can immediately tell that she's hammered, which wasn't a problem. She said she had just gotten home (she lived two doors down from where the party was) but then I heard a guys voice in the background. \"Who is that?\" I asked her before she promptly hung up. \n So, I called again and a guy picks the up the phone, \"She doesn't want to talk to you motherfucker so suck my dick!\" Oh...so he wants to talk to me like that? I don't think so. So I rushed over to her house and walked in. I found them in her bed in the dark and flipped on the lights. She started crying and the guy stood up...it was the brother of the kid that just got killed. \n I need to add that at the time I was 19 years old and pretty scrappy. At this point in my life I had been boxing on and off for about 3 years and all I wanted to do was utterly demolish this guy...but I didn't. I knew that this guy had just lost his brother and was going through a lot, the last thing he needs is me beating his ass. \n So here I am with a look of disbelief and he turns to me and says, \"Fuck you, bitch. Don't say a single word to me or I'll kill you.\" Are. You. Kidding. Me. Needless to say I snapped. I cracked him in the jaw with a quick jab then grabbed him by the throat and squeezed. As he stood there bleeding and fighting for air I pulled him close and whispered in his ear, \"Your brother was a great man, it should have been you that got killed over there and not him.\" I then let him go and walked out. I never said a word to her again.", "id": "cfl76dd", "summary": "Never date a whore. \n EDIT: Thank you all for the kind words about this. I guess I lied to you guys. I ended up breaking down and calling her a few months later and that spiraled in a few more months of hell and getting played. My advice for anyone that gets cheated on to cut ALL contact and don't be ashamed at feeling hurt over it. Pain is only weakness leaving the body. \n Also, if boxing has taught me anything it's that violence solves nothing. What whorebag did wasn't right but my reaction to it wasn't right either. That being said, sometimes shit happens."}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "The release of the decade is an understatement. Excitement for this movie was rampant. I remember people going utterly batshit when the first trailer came out (myself included). People camped out for DAYS just to get pre ordered tickets. It was insane....and then we saw it. \n I, personally, loathe the prequels but I do know there are pockets of people out there who enjoy them. The movie was such a huge let down, not just for Star Wars itself but as a film it was horrible. There's so many holes in this film that a review pointing them all out was over an hour and a half.", "id": "c8fxzqg", "summary": "Massive hype. Massive letdown. Fuck Jar-Jar."}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "Buffalo is a city that has been beaten, battered, and demoralized at every turn. We have the 16th highest crime rate per capita and we're the second poorest city in the country (According to 2010 data). Our sports teams are a joke to the rest of the country and there are no jobs here for anyone in any field. \n These traits have helped develop a sort of bond between the residents. It all mirrors our mentality, \"Yeah we've been stepped on and forgotten...now go fuck yourself and go Bills!\" \n This sounds so cliched but if you're not from here, then you'll never really get it.", "id": "c4r89cs", "summary": "Buffalonians stick together."}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "I was 19 years old and I was being bullied by this guy who was dating a friend of mine. He was convinced that I was trying to sleep with her. He would call me house at all hours, threaten to kill my family, text me all day. He even threw a brick through my mother's car window (which he got off from because I had no solid proof). The scary thing was that him and his cousin were drug dealers and they were known to try and be tough guys. Now I always stay out of trouble, do good in school, and mind my own business. But after a month of this I was fed up. \n Finally, on the 4th of July, i was at the neighborhood carnival when he comes walking up to me with a crowd of his friends and I'm by myself. He gets in my face and he starts shoving me. I had known this was going to happen so I brought a little pocket knife with me before I went out. The second he shoved me I take it out and lunge at him. I aimed for his chest but ended up stabbing his arm really good. \n Of course I ended up getting arrested, but at this point I didn't care. But, since I had saved all the texts, and phone logs from him during the past month, coupled with his bad record I ended up beating the charges. To top it all off, all of his friends came up to me a few years later and were really friendly and bought me drinks.", "id": "c4hh4fa", "summary": "Stabbed a bully who threatened to kill my family. Then got away with it. Then became idolized by his friends. \n Sorry for the typos, I'm on my phone. :)"}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "I'm angry. Angry at my ex for leaving me because her friends wanted her back with her ex. I'm angry that it's hot out and I can barely breath. I'm also feeling motivated. I'm motivated to finish my degree, to step out of my comfort zone, and I'm motivated to get my body and skills up to par so that I can start my amateur boxing career. \n So thank you Sara for leaving me because, otherwise, I wouldn't be as driven to make myself a better person.", "id": "c5a0vlk", "summary": "Angry is a powerful driving force."}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "I always wanted a true turn based strategy game that was based off of organized crime. Think, like, Civilization meets Mafia. I know there have been some games that were RTS with that setting over the years but they were corny and weak. \n When you start off you pick a \"family.\" The entire map is basically one huge city. You need to use a \"capo\" (basically a settler) to claim a plot of land in the city. The settlement starts off as a small pub with a set amount of territory that belongs to your family (identical to the city/settlement model in Civilization). \n Like Civilization, you can \"build\" things for your \"settlement.\" All these things can be seen within the environment around it, such as a back room numbers den. A hidden booze warehouse, wire rooms for bookies, a loan sharks hidden office, etc. etc. As you're family gains more influence, your territory expands. If you want to claim more territory you just send out another capo/settler and establish another small pub/settlement elsewhere. \n The game starts off in the time period of the early 1800's were organized crime was still in the birthing stages in America. As time goes on you can \"research\" new advancements. Examples would be an alcohol distillery, loansharking, purse snatching, etc. The things you can research will correlate with the times that you're in. For example, in the modern age (today) your family can research credit card fraud and hacking. The buildings that come with that would be an Internet cafe with secret servers in the basement. \n Diplomacy will work in the same manner as Civilization. You \"sit down\" with the bosses of other  families discuss trading money, research, territory, and alliances. An expansion of the game would allow you to send a captain to another city (different map) and start claiming territory there. Then, the player can swap between both cities each turn. Imagine sending a capo from New York to Chicago to begin expanding your power. But, the farther you send a capo the more prone that territory is to \"corruption.\" Meaning that the gangsters in that area will be holding out on the amount of money they're sending back to the \"capital.\" \n Still haven't figured out how combat works, or how to incorporate the police into it.", "id": "c4rigrq", "summary": "Civilization IV meets the Mafia. \n PS: Sorry for the typos, I did this from my phone."}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "When I was sixteen I was in my parents' basement getting a blow job from my girlfriend. It was about 4:30pm and my entire family was upstairs so we had to listen the entire time to make sure they weren't walking downstairs. We were really into it (at least I was), and right as I'm about to cum we hear a noise on the steps. She jumps off of me and I do whatever I can. She got up right as I was climaxing, and since we were laying down I came all over my face and hair. Oh, and no one was coming down the stairs either.", "id": "c4f1gok", "summary": "Thought I heard my parents coming downstairs while I was getting a blow job and ended up giving myself a facial."}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "Hello /r/finance! I'm a 22 year old who recently found a new love in finance. I'm working on switching majors to finance and I really want a job working as a prop trader. \n My only problem is that I don't know where to start and anything that I've researched has been vague and unhelpful. I have no problem with doing any of the work that's necessary to get there, I just don't know where to start and apply myself, any suggestions?", "id": "t3_uqhwn", "summary": "Want a job as a prop trader but don't know how to get there."}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "Last night I went to my girlfriend's apartment to do our weekly episode of The Wire. When I got there she was crying and wanted to talk to me. She said that she wasn't happy anymore and that she didn't think she loved me as much as she said she did. This all came out of nowhere. There wasn't an argument, an incident, or an inclination that she felt this way. \n Last year (around this time) I was with a girl for 3 years and found out that she cheated on me...numerous times during the entire relationship. This resulted in the most emotionally painful months of my life that has forever changed me as a person. \n I just can't seem to catch a break. \n What are other \"Can't catch a break\" stories do you guys have?", "id": "t3_u4v0b", "summary": "I got dumped by two different girls within a year. What's happened to you guys?"}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "22/M &amp;amp;amp; 22/F \n I've been with a girl for about 9 months now, and she's great. She is (so far) everything that I've been looking for in a girl. But, because I got cheated on in my last relationship, I have issues trusting her. This has led to us arguing constantly the last month or so. \n The other night she sat me down and said that was done, she wanted to be happy again and not have to deal with the bullshit. She said that she didn't know if she felt the same anymore and needed some time. \n I know that she does care about me, and I know that I can (and will) be a better person and be the man that she wants and needs in her life. I just need help trying to convince her to give me another shot and let me prove it to her. I can't make her love me, but I can show her why she fell for me in the first place. \n P.S. She went camping with her girlfriends this weekend and it's taking everything that I have in me not to text or call her. Is there any way that I can stop that? I know that if I blow up her phone it'll push her further away.", "id": "t3_u5y7p", "summary": "Girlfriend left me because of insecurities. Said she needs space, having trouble trying to cope. \n Please, Reddit, help me out. I'm an emotional mess without her. \n Edit #1: I want to thank everyone for the great advice. I'm trying to not let my anxiety get the best of me. I will keep you posted. \n Edit #2:  Had a long talk with her, she has so many insecurities and commitment issues and she wants nothing to do with me."}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "Reddit, (22)M here and I'm going through a pretty bad breakup at the moment. \n Roughly two weeks ago my girlfriend(22) came out of nowhere and said that she didn't want to be with me anymore. She said that she changed as a person during the relationship (7 months) and that she needed space to figure herself out. She told me to not wait around for her and that there isn't anyone else in the equation, she just needs space. \n I know that I shouldn't contact her, there's nothing that I can say to her that'll change the situation but every single day I find myself compulsively texting or calling. I NEED to stop this because I'm only making the situation worse for myself and I know it. \n The anxiety that this breakup has given me is horrible, I can't stop worrying about this and it's affecting my regular life. \n Please, help me get over this anxiety and help me find a way to maintain NC once and for all.", "id": "t3_uo5k8", "summary": "Anxiety over breakup is horrible and can't maintain NC"}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "Hey guys, \n I'm typing this off of my phone at the precinct building at the moment so I apologize if my grammar is bad. \n This morning I was looking for my fishing license so that I could go out with a few friends, I mentioned it to my father and he flipped out. He called me useless, stupid, a piece of shit and everything under the sun just because he helped me buy the lifetime license when I was a teenager. I responded by saying that I don't really care about fishing and that I only did it to spend time with him. He responded to that by getting up, choking me, pinning me against the wall and then punching me in the face. I stood there in shock and just looked at him and asked him to hit me again, I don't know why I did that, I guess I was fed up. Anyways, he grabbed his cup of coffee and made like he was going to throw it on me but stopped at the last second. He then told me to leave before I \"really get hurt.\" \n The thing is, my dad NEVER hit me or anyone else in my family, ever. He doesn't drink. He doesn't do drugs. And he never has. As he's gotten older I've noticed that he gets mad over menial things (fishing license, ice cubes in the freezer, TV remotes etc). And while he never hit me before, he definitely has tried to \"bully\" me and my family members with threats and intimidation. \n I won't put the blame entirely on him though. I did give him a hard time after he called me a \"useless piece of shit\" and whatnot. I don't think he's used to people standing up to him or not and he had a history of violence when he lived in Manila, but I always chocked that up to living in a harsh crime ridden city. \n Just as a sidenote: The reason why I still love with him is because he took a heart attack a few years ago and I opted to stay home and help him out rather than move out. But now, I don't know I'm just so fed up with feeling scared as to what mood he'll be in that I never want to see him again. But I was brought up in a traditional Filipino household where you needed to obey and respect your elders no matter what. I guess it's just a very contradicting feeling.", "id": "t3_1iqz4j", "summary": "Father choked me over some fish."}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "I'm so close to getting my dream job as a cop...so close. I've gone through all the hoops and spent hundreds of dollars on tests, hotels, plane tickets to go to these interviews and I'M SO CLOSE TO GETTING IT....if it wasn't for one thing...I have an arrest on my record and if anything holds me back from getting my dream job, it'll be this. \n Storytime for those that care to read this: A friend of mine (let's call her Sara) was dating a guy (let's call him John) that would physically assault her on a daily basis. After telling Sara that she should leave him, John became angry and started stalking me and threatening to kill me and my family. He would call my home and send threatening text messages a least once a week. I approached the police about this and they put all of it on record, however I was told that there was not sufficient cause to press charges. Over the course of the next few months I received numerous death threats and even vandalism of my car (to which he later admitted to doing). A few months later, on the Fourth of July, he approached me during a local festival and punched me in the face so I pushed him back and managed to get away and make my way to the police department to file assault charges on him. He was arrested later that evening. A week later, Sara (the girlfriend he was beating) filed charges against me accusing me of starting the altercation. I was charged with menacing in the third degree and I turned myself in. The Judge and the Assistant District Attorney felt that due to the long history of stalking, violence, and assault against me by the accuser and due to the lack of evidence to support the claims against me, that the charges should be dropped. \n So that's what happened and I KNOW I did the right thing, but because that dumb bitch wanted to stand by her boyfriend I got arrested for it. I'm so scared that this will be the ONE thing holds me back from getting what I've worked so hard to achieve. I don't really know what I'll do with my life. It just sucks that doing the right thing in a situation can bite someone in the ass so hard.", "id": "t3_1ypizt", "summary": "Never help out people in need. Ever."}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "Hey guys, after two years of doing nothing (24 years old now) I'm just getting back into training and hopefully I'll be able to fight in the near future. I just have a few questions about boxing/fitness that I think you may be able to help me out on. \n At the moment I weigh 176lbs (5'10\"), but when I was in my peak fitness for training I was about 155lbs, so it's safe to say I'm a little overweight when it comes to what I'm comfortable at. My overall look at the moment could be describes as \"skinny-fat.\" No definition and skinny everywhere else besides my gut (it's been a rough two years). \n My question for you guys is whether I need to supplement my boxing training with heavy lifting or some other sort of workout regime in order to get stronger and fight ready? I already do heavy cardio and running and I can diet without an issue. My main concern is physical strength and muscle. Should I stick to the basic stuff that my coach has me doing already (pushups, pull-ups, dips, squats, core, heavy bag, running, sparring) or should I go out of my way and do some lifting?", "id": "t3_1vlkfu", "summary": "Is boxing training and running enough to get my body stronger or should I do some heavy lifting on the side to supplement and tone up?"}, {"author": "Rickaroni", "content": "Currently re-watching the show for the fourth time with my girlfriend (her first) and this theory sort of just struck me...Was Michael a direct homage to Michael Corleone from The Godfather? \n Both characters follow a VERY similar story arc. Michael Corleone is a \"citizen\" at the start of the film, a war-hero and a hopeless romantic who wants nothing to do with the \"family business\" that surrounds his entire existence. But...due to external pressures Michael is forced to dive head first into organized crime in order to preserve his family. It's not what he wants to do, it's what he has to do. Throughout the films we see Michael turn from a sweet person to a monster of a human being willing to kill his own brother for personal gain. \n Michael from The Wire starts out the same way. He's a quiet kid who stays out of trouble even though his closest friends and family are knee-deep in the local organized crime drug trade. However, due to external pressures (needing to care for his brother and survive), Michael is also pushed into the life that he never wanted. And much like The Godfather, we slowly get to watch Michael's transformation from a good school kid to a ruthless killer. The fact that his name is Michael also backs up my theory that he's a direct homage. \n Any thoughts? Or am I just full of shit?", "id": "t3_1ut7he", "summary": "Michael Corleone and Michael from The Wire follow a similar story arc and the creators likely modeled his character off The Godfather."}]}
+{"author": "fjdkf", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post 1)get threat plates. \n 2)Use death strike for survivability and single target threat. \n 3)Use DnD, heart strike, and blood boil for multitarget threat \n 4)Understand how to use all of your cooldowns effectively \n 5)Understand Runic empowerment and use it to maximize survivability. \n 6)Use outbreak off of cooldown.", "output": "I've blood tanked around a hundred troll heroics and leveled entirely by tanking dungeons.  I've pretty much solo'd a couple troll heroic bosses, and I've done almost all of them without a healer, but with good dps. \n Threat plates.  Get it.  It tells you which mobs you have aggro on by changing the color of the nameplates. \n Now for your \"rotation\"... you have two Distinct categories.   survival and threat. \n Survival \nAside from your cooldowns, Death strike is everything... it gives you good healing+ a blood shield that absorbs damage.  If you are trying to maximize your survivability, the answer is always better cooldown usage and more deathstrikes.  In order to get more deathstrikes, you use your runic power for death coils/rune strikes.  These abilities have a 45% chance to proc your Runic empowerment passive that refreshes a fully depleted rune.  Because of this, you want to almost always \"sit\" on a blood rune so all your RE(runic empowerment) procs give you frost/unholy runes which you can use for more death strikes. \n For cooldowns, most are straight forward damage mitigations, but make sure to use vampiric blood at the right times.  Since it makes healing on you more effective instead of being a damage mitigator, it does very little by itself.  However, if you end up in a clutch situation and do vamp blood -> rune tap -> death pact(try to have ghoul already out) -> lichborne -> self death coil x3 -> deathstrikes.. you will have pumped out an absurd amount of self healing due to glyphed vamp blood increasing the effectiveness of every heal by 40% over its duration. \n Now, the problem with deathstrike... it that it hits one target.   this really sucks if you have a bunch of mobs on you and are trying to keep aggro on all of them.  Note that using your runes for anything besides death strike and rune tap is a loss in survivability. \n Multi-target Threat \nHeart strike, blood boil, and Death and Decay are the keystones here.  Always DnD if you can, it has one of the highest threat modifiers.  Heart strike is great with lower numbers of mobs, and blood boil is decent at snap aoe aggro.  Blood boil hits like a wet noodle unless there are a ton of mobs, but it's enough to keep stuff off the healer. \n Cooldowns \nOthers have covered this enough.  Make sure to use them all proactively.  Don't be afraid of doing a big pull and chaining Bone shield->IBF->vamp blood with self heals. \n Diseases \nOutbreak puts both diseases on your target for free, so use it whenever you can.  It's actually debated whether or not to manually refresh diseases when it's on cooldown, as you loose a valuable deathstrike."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post He has a couple valid complaints, but many of the ‘facts’ he is basing the entire piece around are opinions at best.  Also, given the problems he layed out, it would make a lot more sense to change the primary/secondary stat split to a dps/healing&defensive stat split instead of trying to overhaul the entire system.", "output": "In the end, I think he has only two main points that really ring true.  First, that is that many of the legendaries have nothing to merit them being ‘legendary’ - They are not on any bis list for any possible somewhat effective build.  Second, that there are some worthless secondary stats. \n As for the rest of his post, I honestly think it's mostly either wrong, or a small problem blown way out of proportion.  I'll go through several things that seem quite 'off' to me. \n >-Complete lack of true customization and choice thanks to several affixes which are 100% mandatory on ALL of your items(sockets, mainstat, crit, crit dmg, etc.). \n This is not true… for example, I run a meteor build.  I ‘need’ int, cc, cd, +%fire dmg, and resource reduction on my amulet.  That’s 1 more primary stat than is even possible to get on an amulet, despite forgoing every single defensive stat.  By the numbers, my BiS amulet would not actually have mainstat on it.  However, there would be a few different combinations of almost-perfect rolls that I would be quite happy with. \n >- Just about EVERY single non-legendary affix increases offensive or defensive power in a completely linear manner. While it's true that many skills are able to skew this linearity to some degree, they still fall incredibly short of pushing Diablo 3 to its vast potential. \n Apparently, the author doesn't realize what happens when you take several linear increases and combine them multiplicatively...  It becomes exponential.  Elemental damage scales off of sheet dps, which scales off of cc/cd/ias/mainstat.  Splash dmg scales off of elemental/cc/cd/ias/mainstat.  The power gains from gear in this game are not linear whatsoever. \n >I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that the most common feeling I experience when trying to gear out my characters is one of immense restriction and disappointment. \n Personally, I don’t share this sentiment at all.  I was amazed when I realized my mirror images now cast stuff like black hole and slow time on their own.  I was very surprised when I realized I could run a high cdr build on my monk and have virtually 100% uptime on epiphany.  I was surprised when I realized I could forgo a fair bit of toughness on my resource-reduction meteor wizard and get cdr instead… so that my frost nova permastunned white mobs, and my black hole locked down all sorts of other mobs and boosted my dps significantly at the same time.  Also, keep in mind that the expansion has just released.  WW barb wasn’t even invented in the original d3 for many weeks, and only became mainstream months after release. \n >Why is it that when I stack some of these affixes at their maximum values on as many as 5 items it makes almost zero difference in how I play the game? Take resource cost reduction: My Hammer of the Ancients now costs 15 Fury instead of 20 Fury? \n I run a resource reduction based meteor wiz with no signature spell to generate AP with, and pull 30-35mil dps on azmodan with my normal T3 rift setup(still missing a lot of gear too).  Resource reduction is VERY valuable to some builds. \n >The power granted by certain legendary affixes, especially when used in synergy, is TREMENDOUSLY higher than ANYTHING that is capable with ANY combination of Rare gear and non-legendary affixes. \n This is why legendary items are ‘legendary’.. They are supposed to open up entirely new builds on their own.  When you get a thunderfury, you’re supposed to seriously consider building a lightning spec in order to maximize the potential of the weapon."}], "user_id": "longlamp_10517", "history": [{"author": "fjdkf", "content": "1) always run sti/nde/sti/serenity, and an escape skill like dashing strike or TR. \n 2) if you're going to blindly banner, just hit serenity the instant before you banner.  You have 4 seconds to gtfo with your escape skill before you even start taking damage. \n 3) If you're bannering into northern/souther highlands, you're going to have a bad time. \n 4) If you haven't eliminated starting lag, go in the wp and attack something before bannering.", "id": "cbr01xs", "summary": "you should never die to pk as monk, even if you banner onto 15 trees."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "Well, I played D2 for over a decade and put 700+ hours into D3.  I'll add my two cents.  For the record, the only thing that kept me playing that long in D3 was hardcore+a crappy computer.  Softcore became a borefest a week or so after 1.0.3 for me. \n Much like D3, D2 was faceroll easy if you traded(used ah in d3) and/or leached off of other people.  If you knew your stuff, you could be farming end-game bosses within a few days easily in D2.  Hello sorc meteorb meph runs.  If you played legit single player, then it definitely got tougher.  However, if you farmed a bit, it wasn't a problem. \n Diablo 3 is harder than D2, that's for sure.  However, as you've found, it's pretty pathetically easy if you put much time into it.  Hell, I cleared up to A4 inferno with a horrible thrown blades/blizzard melee wiz spec long before 1.03 came out, and was selling inferno diablo kills before 1.03 hit as a melee wiz(no ww). \n I'm guessing complainers about difficulty fall into 2 categories.  Either they suck or they don't understand the concept of 'farming'.  Maybe both.  If you see any half-decent video of someone stutter-step kiting in inferno on youtube, you'll see people amazed at the persons micro.  Honestly, if you have any solid D2 or starcraft background, you should be able to do that in your sleep pretty easily.  It's a simple mechanic and just takes a bit a time to get good at... I find it somewhat baffling to see so many people amazed by a not-that-difficult basic mechanic. \n Here's another thing example of people just being bad.  Look at all of the complaining there was about the 'Wall' at the start of A2 inferno.  Fact is, almost all of the damage at the start of A2 is avoidable.  Lacuni grenades, bees, ect..  You can avoid the vast majority of it even as melee.  However, people stand in it, get rocked, then go complain that the content is to hard.  If they learned a little of micro, they would be fine.  But no, they blame the game. \n The other group of people that seem to complain a lot the are people who complain about not having gear.  Everyone else finds the game easy because they have gear.  Gear is fairly easily farmable.  It just takes some time and know-how.  Farming the couple million it takes to complete inferno is not hard whatsoever.  If you're insisting it takes more than a couple million to complete inferno, then maybe you need to work on actually getting better at the game instead of blaming the gear.", "id": "c5u1dua", "summary": "Imagine the outcry there would be if a modern game had the difficulty of the megaman games.  D3 is very easy if you put a little bit of time into it, plain and simple."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "I've run a few thousand dungeons, mainly as healer/tank, so I'll toss out my thoughts. \n First off, you better keybind your heals.  You will always suck horribly if you don't, no exceptions. \n Second, wiping is where you get better as a healer.  You don't know where your limits are unless you push them over the edge.  Especially if it's your first healer, you'll kill lots of people. \n Third, you shouldn't give a rat's ass about people complaining.  If they are any good, they'll tell you what you're doing differently.  99% of the time they won't be much better than you and won't say anything constructive.  Just ignore them and focus on what you could have done better that run. \n Fourth, expect to get kicked occasionally.  I've gotten kicked when running with my healer friend because I was pulling to much and the dps couldn't keep up and all got lost.  How is that my fault at all?  Just laugh, smile, and be glad you have almost instant-queues.", "id": "c46e14b", "summary": "Focus on getting better as a healer and don't just pawn the responsibility for a wipe off on someone else.  Also, even though you will wipe and will get vote kicked at times, keep a good attitude and laugh it off. \n Edit: forgot a word"}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "Death is just part of hardcore...  It's like real life.  People will die, and there is nothing you can do about it.  You don't stop meeting new people and making new friends simply because a loved one died.  You feel sadness when they pass, but you move on. \n Many times there are things you might have done to stop it, and it's natural to beat yourself up about it.  You learn from the mistake and move on.  Many times there was nothing you could have done to prevent the death.  For those of us with bad computers or connections, this becomes an all-to-common reality.  Losing 2 60's in a row to game freezes and a third to a power outage sucked, but you deal with what life throws at you and move on. \n Also, riding the line between life and death is the excitement of hardcore.  Knowing that every fight and every mob counts, and that a single misstep will leave you dead forever.  I will never get an adrenalin rush on softcore from accidentally pulling three elite groups at once.  On hardcore, it's an entirely different story that can leave me shaking and my heart pounding.", "id": "c5wgm9w", "summary": "HC is like real life.  Shit happens, and whether or not there was anything you could do about it, life moves on and you learn from the past."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "The fundamental problem is that mob damage is so high that surviving even a few hits by elites(Even white mobs) in a3/a4, takes a multi-million dollar investment in defensive gear and abilities as a ranged char.  It's far easier and much less expensive to go full glass cannon and blow everything out of the water before it gets to you.  A 4k life 50k+ DPS demonhunter build is actually pretty cheap on gear. \n Now, if you do go glass cannon, the entire basis of your glass cannon build is to kill stuff extremely fast.  Every second extra second it takes to kill the mob makes it more dangerous.  When you join a game with a lower dps person, no matter their survivability, the overall speed at which stuff dies is slower.  The fact that there is no real tanks means that the tank really isn't helping your survivability much.  In fact, since stuff is taking longer to kill, your tank friend is just dragging you down and you'll die more since the mobs take longer to kill. \n From the tanks perspective, the glass cannon makes things faster... if they're alive.  But since things are now harder for the ranged, he's probably dead and you're now solo-fighting mobs that deal more damage and have twice the health.", "id": "c4z04j0", "summary": "Basically, pure dps builds and pure tank build progress through content solo faster than any combination of the two.  However, by running pure dps and tank in co-op, you both drag each other down.  You don't synergize well and you're better off farming solo until you overgear the content.  Ideally, you'd both run a combination of dps and survivability, but the cost to do so is orders of magnitude higher."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "This post is very outdated, and doesn't even hit most of the core problems in the game.  I'll break it down. \n 1) Mainstats are bad \nWe need to make more good affixes instead of just blaming the few good affixes for being good. \n 2) Weapon damage makes or breaks an item. \n... and +skills did the same for many D2 item slots. It's an already acknowledged problem with both games, and the weapon roll range is already planned to be narrowed in D3. \n 3) Low level items could be useful in D2, but not in D3. \nSoJ, Homunculus, and the buriza-do kyanon are all valuable in the end-game of D3. It's not much different than d2 in my experience; there's very little chance of finding anything useful during the levelling experience. \n 4) We don't want to equip cool shit in D3 \nSame went for D2 for the most part. The AH accentuates any imbalances in items, and makes it worse in D3. Yes, legendaries are mostly crappy in D3, but that's what loot 2.0 is for. I fail to see why we should keep beating this dead horse. \n 5) Crafting sucks in D3, and so do sockets \nSockets suck, but they've acknowledged that and are working on more variety there. Again, dead horse. Crafting, however, is better for the average player in D3 than it was in D2. I knew almost no one who crafted in D2, because even with the Arreat summit, it was hard as hell to figure out what was worth crafting and what was not. \n Real problems \n1) There is a hierarchical system of affixes in an economy dominated by the AH(gives market fluidity).  Basically, if your legendary doesn't roll the best affixes, it's vendor/blacksmith food. \n \n Do you want 480 resistances via a max AR roll, or 60 via a max single resist roll?   \n Do you want 12k+ healing/sec via a max LS roll, or do you want 4k/sec via max regen rolls on ~7 pieces of gear? \n Do you want 2ap/sec via 4piece tal, or do you want 50+/sec via apoc on one piece of gear?(assuming cmww spec) \n \n 2) The skills are also incredibly imbalanced.  Gloom, Into the fray, Overawe, Critical mass, Run like the wind, rend, Sweeping wind:cyclone, and wave of light all basically carry their respective classes. \n \n Would you rather do 163% wep damage to one target with magic missle, or 165% wep damage AoE to everything in front of you for 15yards, and get 5% lifesteal to boot(healing blades)? \n \n Would you rather deal 2000% wep damage with earthquake once every 105 seconds, or deal 14700%+ weapon damage with rend over the same time period? \n \n Would you rather deal 280% wep damage single target with Ray of frost, or 220% wep damage to everything in a huge line with disintegrate? \n \n Would you rather deal 920%+ wep damage for 40spirit in a huge aoe with empowered wave, or deal 517% wep damage for 30spirit in a small aoe with vulture claw kick? \n \n \n 3) In a game where the entire point of playing is to kill hordes of monsters, the breakpoint where multi-target spells are better than single target spells is usually 2. \n \n Ray of frost, magic missile, impale, entangling shot, evasive fire, poison dart, spirit barrage, haunt, ancient spear, and weapon throw are all very underpowered outside of PvP due to their lack of aoe.", "id": "cbwed58", "summary": "outdated poster wasn't even that great in the first place. It doesn't touch on most of the core problems and chases after red herrings."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "I play WoW for the same reason I do almost anything else in life-to work with other people to get better. \n Improvement is what motivates me, so long as the social aspect remains.  The only reason I want better loot is that it makes me be able to pull more weight.  It may sound odd, but questing/scenery is of zero value to me, since it does not lead to any improvement.  Achievements are only interesting if they are a challenge and lead to improvement.  Lore is cool, especially since I played quite a bit of warcraft 3 back in the day, but it does not motivate me to play the game. \n 5 mans however, even early on, I find very useful.  As a dps, I keep recount set on current fight damage and work on squeaking out every point of damage I can every single pull.  As a healer, I keep the overhealing tab open and try to keep the overhealing under 5% while making sure no one dies.  If a tank is pulling in a fashion that makes my role useless, I will pull for them.  I am there to get better, and if I can't work on that, I would rather not be there. \n As a tank, which I have the most of, I keep the healer on focus and try to keep the group moving at the maximum possible speed without dying.  It's a fine line to tread, but once you gauge how good/fast the healer is, you can blast through instances. \n When I raided as a dps, I always worked to have top add damage, least damage taken, and most damage done overall.  Obviously, I could not top out every category every time.  However, I was usually quite close to it and constantly worked to do better. \n I have to admit, I am somewhat surprised that no one else posting here seems to be this way.", "id": "c2v9or5", "summary": "I play to overcome obstacles and get better, so long as the social aspect of the game remains intact.  Nothing else."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "As someone who has over 7000 maps in my sc1 map folder, most of which I successfully beat or were very good at... this entire topic saddens me greatly.  When you used to login to battle.net, both the ums and fpme(fastest) games outnumbered the \"standard\" games by a huge margin.  With SC2, the map engine is far far more powerful, and should be able to make far more complex and dynamic games.  Now you ask... what happened? \n Blizzard screwed the custom scene over hardcore.  Here is some examples. \n 1)\nI'm working really hard on beating a hard 6-player defense map. \nSC1-I put \"pro's only\" in the title to weed out the complete nubs, and can kick people who are downloading the map for the first time.\nSC2-I get nubs in every game, can't get past 2nd level.  Ever. \n 2)\nI find a really cool map on the internet, download it, and try to play it.\nSC1-I host, people join fairly quickly out of curiosity, and we give it a shot.\nSC2-I join the game.  However, basically no one joins obscure games, so after waiting 1 hour in the join game screen, I am still the only one in the game lobby. \n 3)\nI want to play a specific \"mode\" on a map.  e.g. I want to play brutal mode on Left 4 dead.\nSC1-host game with name \"Left 4 dead Brutal!\"  Someone who wants to play brutal joins and off we go.\nSC2-join a L4dead game and hope they pick brutal.  Quickly try to convince them at the start to pick it.  More often then not, they don't, and you can quit and try again... or play whatever mode it ended up with. \n 4)\nI thought up a cool map and made it!  However, It's really rough and just a concept.  I need input and testing.\nSC1-Make a bit of the map, host map with name \"New RPG, Testing!\" \nPeople join to check out the new map and try it out.  Suggestions and testers are easy to come by.\nSC2-???? From what the devs said early on, I guess you should join some external custom community and work independently with them?? \n 5)\nI'm a big defense map person, and I've played the popular ones.  I'd like to try a couple new ones.\nSC1-Join obscure ones when they get happen to get hosted, or just google it up, download it, and host it.  People will usually join, and you're set.\nSC2-hope for a New one to be on the top of the up and coming list, or gamble repeatedly with the fun or not system until you may or may not get a defense map. \n 6)\nI want to play 2v2 or 3v3 Fastest(built as an 8-player map) with friend.\nSC1-host game and specify 2v2 or 3v3.  People join fast and... all good.\nSC2-???????? \n 7)\nI want to beat a somewhat uncommon snipers map.\nSC1-Host game, mostly beginners join, we die fairly quickly.  However, say that you will \"RM after\".  Next game, some people from the previous game join along with a few new people to fill it out.  Game starts, we get a bit further before we die, and we RM again.  More and more people are rejoining, and the collective skill from the group members is going up... and you are progressing. \n SC2-?????Even hosting the uncommon game in the first place and getting other people to join is difficult.  If you did manage it, do you have to quickly message them all to join your party afterwards so you can cue as a group?  -.- \n 8)\nI want to join a random custom game.\nSC1-Big join button on left, click on the use map settings tab, click on the one you want, play.\nSC2-join a game button on bottom right, fun or not button on middle left, join game button on bottom middle\n[it's not many more steps, but far less intuitive.  I only just found out about the fun or not button myself.] \n I could go on and on.  Blizzard seems to want to use the Marketplace to solve their issues on this front.  However, they have also mentioned that the marketplace could go the way of Starcraft: Ghost and never see the light of day.  In the end, us custom gamers are simply left with a system irrefutably worse then the decade old system it meant to replace.", "id": "c2f8viy", "summary": "For custom games, Battle.net 2.0's improvements over the original are similar to the gameboy being remade with 2 arrow keys instead of 4 and no \"a\" key."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "I suppose I'm late to the party here, but I'd like to chime in.  I've been thinking about the topic, since it was the one point where I [disagreed]( with the answer the devs gave in the incgamers interview. \n Let's look at the most popular routes people have taken in D3(alkaizer, Standard A1 runs, ect).  Note that  none  of the popular routes include maps with significant backtracking.  Even if the actual density of a zone is competitive, the farming efficiency is killed when you have to walk a long distance without killing mobs. \n Furthermore, the maps fall under 2 categories. \n 1) No real randomization in the layout \n2) Layout is easily memorized \n Look at the alk run for example(ill use a very extended version).  Core, tower, fields, stonefort, and bridge have no randomization in the layout.  Crater 2, KD2, and KD3 are all easily memorizable. \n Look at the standard A1 run now.  Fields. festering, and weeping have no real layout changes(coa and warriors rest never even swap sides of the map).  Halls2 is easily memorizable. \n Why do people avoid almost all of the actually random zones, and then complain about the maps being boring and non-random? \n Well first off, random in D3 usually means backtracking.  Have you ever gone down the wrong direction in crater 1?  It can be a brutally long walk back.  The party gets completely separated from one another, and everyone loses a ton of efficiency.  We all prefer to be killing stuff. \n Ideally, we would want to significantly  increase  the randomness(harder to memorize, keeps things fresh), and significantly  decrease  the amount of backtracking.  The simplest way is to simply create more paths between the dead-ends.  If you were in the middle of a spiderweb, and you knew your exit was at the end of one of the strands, you could go in the complete wrong direction and eventually end up at the correct location without ever backtracking.  D2 did [this]( and took it to the extreme.  However, the tilesets in D3 do not seem to lend themselves this level of interconnectedness. \n One solution would be to take the design of the scavenger den and dial it up a ton.  Instead of doing straight dead-ends(a-la sewers), make the paths curve so that they double back on themselves.  This means you only have to backtrack through a single room or two before you can get back to killing monsters, despite going a huge distance in the 'wrong direction'. \n A second way to deal with the problem of backtracking would be to always put an event at the end of long dead-ends.  When the event is triggered, repopulate the way back with monsters.  If you want to make it interesting, give players the option of spawning different types of monsters via a different colored lever or chest. \n A third option would be to add a teleporter.  Just imagine how much better crater 1 would be if there was a teleporter connecting the ends of the 2 massive dead-ends.  If you wanted to have some fun, you could add paths or teleporters that connect different caves underground.", "id": "cb72o1f", "summary": "Make maps more like a spiderweb, and if there is a massive dead-end, please add a mechanism to mitigate the unproductive backtracking"}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "If you're lazy like me, and care about gold gain over the long run, it's enchanting hands down.  I've got 6 alchemists and 6 enchanters, and the enchanters have made me WAY more money.  Not only do you not have to dick around with a daily transmute, but it saves you time by letting you de everything no matter where you are.  Cata DE mats are crazy expensive on my server, but the rest aren't bad.  It's certainly not the cheapest profession to level, but if you don't have one, it's far and away the best one IMO. \n Also. if you care to put in a little bit of effort, enchanting is one of the most profitable AH professions there is for very little effort.", "id": "chmv5m0", "summary": "alch is overrated."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "The end game, once PvP is added (which we know will be added eventually), will be infinitely better than D2's endgame. Unless you liked doing Baal runs over and over again, and the pointless PvP. \n What the fuck? \n Even post 1.0.7, we have only one goal in order to farm at a decent efficiency - to farm the highest density mob areas in the game.  This gives us the best drops... everything from legendaries to demonic essences to gold on the ground.  Hellfires rings are not worth repeatedly farming for anyone who wants to really upgrade their character, given that you can buy better rings off the ah for less time investment. \n So to improve your char, you have one optimal route... and everything else in the game is crappier to various extents. \n This is not how D2 was.  Sure, you may have only done baal runs for whatever reason, but please do not pretend it was the only - or even the best - way to farm. \n What about these? \n 1) Hellfire torches.  Do you always just buy them off of other people instead of farming them yourself?  There was large amounts of money to made in various levels of making these.  They were must-have items, so there was a massive demand for them. \n 2) Runes.  You know, one of the most valuable things in the game that everyone needed.  Baal runs were garbage for finding these. \n 3)Farming socketed items.  Baal/meph farming was garbage for farming these.  Where do you get your 3os archon plate for enigma?  Where do you get your 4soc flail for hota?  Where do you get your 5os flail for cta?  Where do you get your 4os high res pally shields?  Where do you get your eth-bugged 4os armor for your merc's CoA?  Where do you get your eth 4os sup CV for infinity for your merc?", "id": "c84rqc3", "summary": "Point is, Baal and other end-bosses were garbage places to farm any of the things I listed above, and many many more.  Why the fuck is everyone parroting that baal runs were the only thing to do in D2?"}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "There's certainly two sides to this, and I'm not sure exactly where the balance should be. \n On the one hand, I'm a hardcore player that loves stuff that rewards skill.  I tanked over 1000 dungeons at the start of cata... Just because I found it fun(only exception was grim batol).  I love being on the edge of death surviving purely on skill.  So for me, the harder my specific mechanics are, and the more I can gain from executing them perfectly, the better.  Pre-nurf ozruk in stonecore was amazing to tank for the first time. \n However, if I have to heavily rely on other people in the group, it sucks, because I feel helpless.  Doing ozruk as a dps with a tank random that didn't know the fight was brutal. \n Also, if a player is new and just stepping into dungeons, you don't want them to get yelled at because they didn't read up on the dungeon before they entered. \n My biggest problem with mop dungeons was that challenge modes only give you a reward the first time you complete them, which sucks.  The valor reward is irrelevant given that you can blast through hscen's in 3mins a pop.  Challenge modes are like doing heroic raiding, but without loot.", "id": "cjskazw", "summary": "It's a tough balance to strike, but honestly, normal dungeons need to be fairly easy.  We all hate it when the group is wiping and we personally can't do much to prevent it."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "Ok, I flat out disagree with most things you've said.  I'll go through your points. \n >This might be in contrast to what some players think, but Diablo 2 and LoD were not difficult games (D1 was more difficult, but beating the game was attainable). \n D3 is perfectly doable.  Hell, I could kill inferno diablo with a 5-stack before the a3&a4 nerf hit as a friggen melee wizard.  It was hard as hell, but doable. \n >No one plays Diablo because it's a challenging game. \n You are so presumptuous and wrong.  I play for the challenge, and always have.  I put well over 1000 hours into D2 for the challenge.  Played every ladder reset legitly.  You know how hard the game is as a lvl 40 entering hell mode with shit gear?  It's pretty damn hard.  Every ladder season, I'd play hard till I had the end game content on farm... and then quit out of boredom.  That rush of slamming through totally undergeared and relying on skill/understanding to survive is why I play the Diablo games. \n >The excitement of Diablo games was to invent unique builds worked in conjunction with different items. \n You can do this with D3.  I ran a thrown-blades/blizzard spec all the way up to A4 inferno and then swapped it up for a deep-cuts/frost nova build.  Since the patch, I've been able to add in things like explosive blast and play around with my abilities.  This last patch made a ton of different and \"unique\" builds viable.  From what I've seen, far more builds are viable in D3 than D2. \n >The true strength and staying power of D2 was its community. \n I'll agree with you on this one.  With chat rooms and clans, the old battle.net 1.0 enabled a sense of community.  The slashing of 'community' features in battle.net 2.0 killed SC2 for me, and diablo has only made minor steps back toward the features of the old battle.net. \n >Loot, Lewt, and Mad Lewts \n If you're trying to bid on top-end items and snipe them cheap, there is a huge amount of competition.  Also, loot runs are just as much of a gamble as they ever were.  You can now get max-ilvl items from any elite in inferno.  That's more accessibility than than there was in D2.  Best-in-slot jewelry and charms were almost purely crafted items, and only a tiny fraction of the people playing could actually have a chance at crafting perfect versions, since you needed an almost max-lvl char to craft with. \n >Balance is a design feature that is strictly necessary for competitive gaming. \n Disagree.  A demonhunter with 1mil in gear should not be able to easily farm gear that melee with 25 mil in gear can not. \n >Instead of nerfing nether tentacles as hard, they could buff other abilities and other classes. \n So just make the game an easy faceroll like D2 became.  Great, I get to play for two weeks legitly, beat the game including uber tristram, and then not play for another 50weeks while i wait for the next ladder reset.  Without ladder resets in D3, it would mean I get 2-3 weeks of play time before the game is trivial and boring.  Fantastic.  One of the biggest suggestions from the D2 community was to make the game harder, and they did.  Just look at the cheering the \"you will die\" video got at blizzcon. \n >We all want to see the end game and we all want to collect the perfect items to make our creative builds possible. \n You can run many creative builds just fine, especially after this last patch.  I could think up a dozen melee wizard builds that could work through inferno.  The other classes are probably the same, but I don't know enough about them to give you examples for all of them. \n >Legendaries do not need to be the best in slot items, but they should be competitive with the best rares in the game. \n I'm don't think they should be competitive with the best rares, but I don't think you realize just how high the stats on a rare can roll.  Nothing close to a perfect roll amulet exists on the AH right now.  I do fully agree that legendaries should be better then they are though.  I picked up a legendary ilvl 62 amulet in a4 inferno awhile ago and was saddened by just how terrible it was.  It's the highest ilvl legendary amulet in the game and I had trouble selling it for 750k at the time. \n >The nerf to IAS is a move in the wrong direction. Instead of thinking that this stat was a little too good or efficient for the allotted budget on each piece, think instead that the other stats weren't good enough. Rather than decrease attack speed, increase crit chance, critical damage, or attribute allotment on these slots. \n Again, you're just wanting them to make the game easier... and I highly disagree with this.  6 months or 2 years down the road, don't you want some challenge?  The AH will make pretty damn good gear more and more accessible to everyone over time.  This saturation of good items will only continue.  Continuing to nerf the game will only make the day that D3 becomes faceroll(i.e. boring) come faster. \n >With the right combination of skills and equipment almost any build would be viable right through to end game \n I hope you realize what an oxymoron that is.  If you use the right skills, anything is possible... no kidding.  Granted, I ran a fairly unique item setup on most of my chars, but D3 has way more possible successful builds from what I've seen. \n >The math was exciting, it is part of any game centered around itemization and min/maxing for unique builds. \n Honestly, I find the math more complicated in D3.  For example, recently I was trying to work out how much crit would give me the equivalent survivability of the 8% block on my helm.  In D2, it was mostly just about hitting break-points. \n >Now I'm stuck with a sword and board, beating my head against act 3 hoping to find a piece of lackluster gear that will make my cookie-cutter 2hand build possible through the end of act IV. No wonder I don't find this instalment of the Diablo series as enchanting as the rest. \n Sounds like you're undergeared and blaming your failings on the game.  I've got several barb friends who have been trying out a variety of offensive builds since the last patch. \n >", "id": "c53t1k9", "summary": "The Game is harder than it needs to be, acquiring items feels unsatisfying, balance an ARPG through buffs not nerfs as its not a competitive genre, items feel bland, because they are bland. I'm still playing the game, but something seems missing to me. \n And, I completely disagree.  If you want the game to have any longevity, it needs to be hard at the start.  'but it's an ARPG' has become this overused excuse and needs to go.  There seems to be a larger variety of potentially successful builds in D3 than there was in D2.  The game needs some more changes(i.e. legendaries), but blizzard seems fairly on the ball.  Why do you say their design directions are bad when this last patch addressed many of the issues you complain about, and further patchs will address will address more things you've mentioned(i.e. legendaries)? \n Blizzard has a very strong history of making games better through patchs over time, and I highly doubt D3 will be an exception.  Look at SC1, D2 LOD, SC2, WCFT III, and even WoW.  Vanilla WoW was really just a mmo-styled knockoff of D2, but has evolved to something much much better over time.  You may argue specific patchs made the game worse, but overall, every game blizzard has released has gotten undisputedly better over time with patchs. \n **Edit: missed a word"}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "Interesting, but I'd like to point out a few things. \nEdit: I disagree on most of his points, and so this turned out to be longer than I expected. \n >Notice how I used the word \"identify\"? This would be such a simple way to ensure that people couldn't just buy every single item off the AH to reap all of the benefits, players would now rewarded for playing the game not the Auction House. \n ...Just buy them unid and get your achievements. \n Loot \n > So maybe you're rocking a Maximus and you find a Warmonger, wouldn't it be cool if by just finding a weapon of the same type you just increased your two-handed sword damage by 1%. Better yet, if the bonuses were account wide similar to achievements, you could find something on your Barbarian that could potentially give a small boost to another class. \n Honestly this bonus reminds me of the stat bonuses from paragon levels.  I don't find it very motivating, but maybe that's just me.  Also, given the rarity of some drops and rng, it's going to feel terrible for the poor shmuck with 4 million kills who is still missing that one legendary drop. \n Magic find \n >why don't we remove Magic Find from items and Paragon levels. \n Paragon levels have kept countless people playing this game when they would have quit otherwise.  When you get to high-end gear, there is no realistic chance of an upgrade during a run.  At that point, many of us look to paragon levels as the reward system of the game.  Take that away, and many of us would quit. \n As far as MF goes... I'm not sure.  It's the primary reward structure behind paragon levels, so if it gets taken out, something major will have to replace it. \n >Remove the NV cap size of 5 \n So on MP10 You'd have to clear all of A1 and half of A2 in order to reach MF cap?  No thanks. \n >Award different values of Magic Find per stack of NV depending on the Monster Power \n It makes the system more complicated, and doesn't solve any existing problems.  The upper MP's are already the best farming places... \n >Earn NV at any level, not just at level 60 \n Agree.  The loot on lower difficulties feel craptastic after playing on high-mp inferno. \n >Lose a stack of NV for every death \n Sounds fine.  It's a minor change though. \n >Simple changes right? But lets look at what issues we may have just solved:\n1) Rewards players for playing at a higher Monster Power (reach MF cap faster) \n The game already does this. \n >2) Rewards players for staying in one game and playing through all acts \n You want to make the ideal for of farming be a 6hour+ marathon through the different acts?  Please no. \n >3) Lower level characters have the same chance at finding legendary items \n Didn't they already buff lower level legendary drop rates?  Honestly, I'd prefer to solve the problem by raising density levels in the levelling zones.  It's seriously painful to play hide and seek with mobs while levelling.  More mobs -> more loot and more demon-bashing fun. \n >4) No longer punished for playing low Paragon characters (No MF) \n Stack MF on gear.  If you play sc, it's really not that expensive.  Eliminating paragon levels is a rather extreme measure to take.  Why not just double the MF roll range on items, and add more random slots to the new legendaries? \n >5) Stops high MP leachers (if they keep dying it's not worth it)\nMight help somewhat to combat bots \n The leechers aren't that stupid.  They'll just build more tanky(even less dps), and call it a day. \n >I'll leave you with a fun item I came up with to tie along with the changes to Nephalem Valor that I just proposed, enjoy. \n>Item affix: Earn NV at 2x the rate \n Great.  You equip it right before elite kills to gain double NV, and then quickly go back to your normal ammy for normal gameplay.  The vast majority of them would be completely useless, due to having no trifecta stats and no mainstat/vit/ar. \n Crafting \n >The idea is that by salvaging legendary items they'd have a small chance to produce a type of Brimstone depending on the elemental type of the item that's being salvaged. \n Sure, but the problem with crafting... is that it gets distributed through the market very easily. The success of these new types of brimstone would be entirely predicated on the possible uses for them.   If the current crafting paradigms remain unchanged, the special brimstones will follow the same price trajectory as current brimstone.  You could make them a reagent for spells at the mystic.  However, they simply become another uninteresting hoop to jump through on your way to imbuing your weapon. \n >Runes ranged from the very commonly found to the near impossible to find. Blizzard really needs to introduce similar crafting reagents in loot 2.0. \n I have to disagree.  Legendaries in D3 fulfil virtually the same role that runewords did in D2.  Runewords were memorable because the items they made were badass and amazing.  Why not simply make legendarys in D3 every bit as badass, or even better than the D2 runewords? \n The mystic \n >In the example above you can see how the closer the value moves to it's maximum potential, the higher the cost associated with the upgrade. This in some way mimics how the current gem progression system works that we all use Diablo III. \n First off, the current gem system is about as unimaginative and boring as you can get, so I wouldn't base anything off of it.  Second off, the rarity of finding a low AR inna pant isn't high.  With this system, you could pretty easily buy one cheap and upgrade it to max level.  Now, you'll never find an upgrade for this slot again.  I... don't like it. \n If they do something like this, I really hope it has a BoA component so that people can't just buy their way into perfect gear. \n Legendary Items \n >Rune slots \n If it is something people have to go out and find, people want a reward for that effort.  Therefore, the rune needs to be better than most of the other runes.  This leads to the other runes being abandoned and inhibiting build diversity.  I suppose you might be able to find a way to balance it, but it would be very hard.  At the end of the day, why don't they just rebalance the current runes so we have more options?  I fail to see how a rune slot really adds to the depth of gameplay. \n >Passive(Brawler) - Damage increased by an additional 3% for every enemy within pickup radius \n On the one hand, it changes your stat allocations.  On the other, it doesn't really change your playstyle or open up new builds.  It's better than what we have(and completely overpowered), but I think legendaries could be more interesting. \n >Grants the ability to wield two-handed weapons in one-hand, but reduces their damage by 25% \n Again, it's cool to have two 2-handers, but it doesn't effect your gameplay at all.  Furthermore, it's incredibly hard to balance.", "id": "cb7dlcx", "summary": "Cool ideas, but I disagree with most of them."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "people would join to the most 'popular' spost and since there are only 4 people available to play with, these kind of games would have long lines. \n Do you realize just how much you are contradicting yourself?  On the one hand you're saying that barely anyone will be playing that type of game, and on the other hand you're complaining about how long the lineup to get into the game will be. \n > Custom games are a paradise for scammers. \n Chat channels give the same functionality, and are they ruining your in-game experience? \n >note that diablo 3 compared to diablo 2 has a lot better social game system than diablo 2 \n Really?  How many of the ladder seasons of D2 did you actually play?  Personally, I played every single ladder reset in D2, and I find the social system in D3 far, far, worse. \n >changing to the old system would be a big step backwards. randomized games are good because good and bad players are mashed up so they can play together. I met like this many my current game friends who I play with a long time now. \n So you're saying that it's good that any higher-end players have no way of grouping up without having to carry the group.  What. The.  Fuck. \n I don't mind carrying groups from time to time whatsoever - I helped people through hell mode all the time in D2.  But to be forced to carry the group in every single public game you join?  How can you argue for this?", "id": "c9hatxg", "summary": "not surprised your profile is at -119 karma..."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "Yup, I love blizzard games... But battle.net 2.0 destroyed the custom game scene in SC2 with the whole popularity system.  For starcraft 1, I've got 7k+ maps, all of which i played with other people.  For comparison, I only managed to play a couple dozen different custom maps before I stopped playing SC2. \n I used to go on SC1 or warcraft 3, play custom games hard for a weekend, and come out with 20+ friends on my friends list.  I probably have somewhere around 1000 hours played on SC2, and I have a grand total of maybe 15 people on my friends list... And you still can't even watch replays with those friends. \n Gameplay wise, SC2 and Diablo are really good games.  However, it's hard to believe that Battle.net 2.0 is a successor to battle.net 1.0.  Chat channels with moderation tools, Full clan support, Clan ladder, nameable public games, ect..  It's just not there in 2.0. \n Nameable public games are probably the biggest loss in battle.net 2.0 for me.  As it is, you can never filter out who joins your game.  If you're in diablo, you can't look for other people to do a2 farming runs.  If you're in starcraft, you can't ask for people who are on the same level as you.  You can't even ask for people to do a certain game mode. \n Look at the rise of DoTA.  It's blizzards posterchild for the power of a mapfinder and a community.  DoTA as we know it would never have gained half as much traction if it tried starting out on battle.net 2.0.  First off, you can never specify game modes in battle.net 2.0(all random/all pick/deathmatch, ect.), so DoTA would have to be pigeonholed into one game mode only.  Second, you can't filter out certain people who join public games.  Even if they go afk every game, you can't make a banlist that prevents people like this from joining.  Third, you can't ask for \"pros only\" or anything like that.  If you have a group of friends that are good and you que up, there is no way to find decent competition without spamming through external forums or trying in vain to find decent players through the chat channels.", "id": "c5kiq00", "summary": "I've spent 10's of thousands of hours on blizzard games, but Battle.net 2.0 is horrible compared to battle.net 1.0 and and it has led to a ton of problems for their recent games."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "I ran 2 CM wizards to 60 and to the point where i could speed elite-hunt elites in a1 while everyone else waited for my elite call in town.  I'll add my two cents. \n I stick to melee for leveling past normal simply because... if you die leveling, you suck bad enough at the build that you'll die in inferno.  Your positioning in fights is absolutely paramount, and the practice is pretty good.  Leveling melee makes you very concious of your cooldowns since you don't get crit mass until lvl 50.  It takes me ~26 hours to level to 60 legitly.  To each their own, but this is my personal stance. \n As far build goes, you must run teleport.  To negate the spikeyness, I generally keep my health pretty high 50k-75k and go into \"oh shit\" mode if I ever drop below 80% life.  Since you have neverending diamondskin while attacking, there is very little reason to ever go as low as 50% health IMO.  Maybe i play to careful, but it works.  Having a buffer zone that never gets touched of 40k+health comes in handy at times(vortex/molten/firechains/fast in a straight hallway or an accidental triple pull) \n As far as minimum stats to faceroll inferno, I'm not sure since I always run with friends.  50k health/500 all res/10k dps does fine.  You can run A1 with much lower stats, but it raises the risks... It would depend on your risk tolerance and skill.  On my first wiz I started at 200 all res 30k health and 8k dps and could clear most of A1.... I wouldn't suggest it though, since if you get some fast/teleporting/invuln moths or something you're dead.  At 75k/700ar/14k I smashed through the A1 elites and ran by everything else with ease.. I think in my last dozen full a1 runs or so i never got below ~70% health.", "id": "c5ixirl", "summary": "I find CM wiz great in inferno.  A high health pool eliminates most of your RNG problems, and you're pretty much invincible when it comes to white mobs.  I've only really cleared through A2 since my computer froze and killed me, so I can't mention anything in regards to A3/A4 hc. \n I could talk forever about dealing with different affixes and such, but I probably shouldn't make this wall of text any bigger."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "They should make both Resources easier to manage instead. \n I have to disagree.  I don't think that the problem is that the resources are hard to manage, I think the problem is that you don't have the tools to manage them like the other classes. \n With wizards, you just maximize crit and apoc for crazy resource regeneration.  With tr monks, you just stack spirit/sec and cut IAS gear.  With dual wield monks, you stack attack speed and have have a few skill options like Breath of Heaven-Infused with Light and quickening to massively buff your spirit regen.  With wd's, you can cut ias and stack mana regen gear.  With barbs, you get high crit/ias and into the fray. \n What do you do with dh's?  Well, you can sufficiently keep your disc up with nightstalker, high crit, and a spell like grenades.  But what about hatred regen?  There just isn't any good ways to refill the resource fast enough to compete with the other classes.  Even if you ignore the tornado spells from the other classes, dh resource regen still doesn't compete.  A wiz with LL/prodigy, for example, can regen ~50ap/sec fairly easily.  Add the fact that even meteors can fully sustain themselves in the right situations, and DH has nothing that can even come close for hatred regen.", "id": "cas61fb", "summary": "DH need better tools to regen hatred.  Simply making the 2 resources easier to manage will do nothing substantial."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "Agreed.  Copper, in economics terms, has an elastic supply.  If anyone with mining, no matter the level, goes to the AH and sees really high prices, they can go out, farm some, and flood your market.  Even if you had 100k+ gold, you would never really buy out the entire market.", "id": "c3sks1x", "summary": "If it's easily farmable, don't buy out the market."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "That post is quite old and rather outdated. \n >1) mainstats are bad \n We need to make more good affixes instead of just blaming the few good affixes for being good. \n >2) Weapon damage makes or breaks an item. \n ... and +skills did the same for many D2 item slots.  It's an already acknowledged problem with both games, and the roll range looks like will be narrowed in D3. \n >3) Low level items could be useful \n SoJ, Homunculus, and the buriza-do kyanon are all valuable in the end-game of D3.  It's not much different than d2 in my experience; there's very little chance of finding anything useful during the levelling experience. \n >4) We don't want to equip cool shit in D3 \n Same went for D2 for the most part.  The AH accentuates any imbalances in items, and makes it worse in D3.  Yes, legendaries are mostly crappy in D3, but that's what loot 2.0 is for.  I fail to see why we should keep beating this dead horse. \n >5) Crafting sucks in D3, and so do sockets \n Sockets suck, but they've acknowledged that and seem to be working on more variety there.  Again, dead horse.  Crafting, however, is better for the average player in D3 than it was in D2.  I knew almost no one who crafted in D2, because even with the Arreat summit, it was hard as hell to figure out what was worth crafting and what was not.  Most crafted items are garbage in both games.", "id": "cblsp7t", "summary": "outdated poster wasn't even that great in the first place.  It doesn't touch on most of the core problems and chases after red herrings."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "One thing others haven't mentioned is that overhealing for aoe spells is mostly irrelevent.  Many aoe spells are so efficient, that even with 50%-75% overhealing, they're still mana efficient.  Also, focusing heals on the lowest health people isn't nearly as important, because there are a ton of smart-healing abilities out there that automatically healing the lowest health person in range. \n Also, I would highly suggest going disc over holy, since disc is hands-down the best healing spec in the game, whereas holy is either worst or second to worst no matter how you spin it.  [Here]( is the ranking of the healing classes at the high-end if you doubt me.", "id": "chtbgjs", "summary": "go disc, heal with a combination smart heals(atonement) and crazy efficient aoe spells."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "So true. \n I averaged somewhere around 50% of group damage in dungeons while leveling as a fire mage.  Get a bad group and it's closer to 60%, a \"good\" group and it's closer to 40%.  It's insane, but it's not just a class imbalance.  I joined a Vortex Pinnacle run at 83 with another comparably geared fire mage.. Overall, I did 14.5k dps and they did 6k... and the other dps and tank were below that.  They had no idea how combustion/impact/ignite worked and never used blastwave or dragons breath. \n Tanking Hellfire ramps makes you realize just how much random mashing of keys new DK's do too... they death grip stuff that's already in melee range of them all the damn time.", "id": "c3szx0w", "summary": "I fully agree that most people seem have no idea how to play their class while leveling."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "Well, I've spend a pretty large portion of my life playing blizzard games... I think somewhere ~20k hours.  Mostly Sc1, but to a lesser extent WoW, D2, D3, Sc2, Wcft3. \n As far as pure gameplay goes, D3 is great.  However, it feels to me like they totally underestimated the power of the AH.  I know, people love to rant and rave about this focus on the RMAH, but if you look at the progress they expected in the game, it is far different than reality. \n They said they expected people to farm for months between acts in inferno.  In reality, most strong players seemed to blast through inferno in under a month pretty easily.  The whole meta-game of progress has gone by so much faster than blizzard seems to have expected... so they're stuck in a position of scrambling to catch up in terms of content. \n Also, blizzard has never released really good all-round games right off the bat.  They release games that are amazing is some aspects and work on bringing the other aspects up to speed through patchs.  I think a lot of people who have only recently jumped into blizzard games(past 10 years) don't have a good feel for this. \n However, the biggest change in recent history for me in the blizzard gaming worlds has been battle.net 2.0.  Battle.net 1.0 had clan support, chat channels with decent functionality, shared replays(starcraft), and the ability to Name your game and filter the people who join it(You could create a public goblin farming game with this in D3, if it had this).  None of these features are in Battle.net 2.0, and Blizzard doesn't seem to give a shit about adding this stuff.  They wanted to market D3 as a co-op game, but Battle.net 2.0 makes public game only for progression and nothing else.   In starcraft 2, the lack of features in battle.net 2.0 led me to quit after only a few months, whereas Starcraft 1 kept me playing over a decade.  The gameplay is great, but the community support just isn't there.", "id": "c5hjnrn", "summary": "There is nothing all that different about this game release.  It has great aspects and it has bad aspects, like always.  They will work over time to make it better as they always have.  The only big problem I've seen in recent years is the degradation of community support in battle.net 2.0."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "I wouldn't say it's all that hard, especially single target.  It's just death strike spam while keeping aggro.  You do have the most cooldowns of any tanking class, but that just takes some getting used to. \n Personally I love blood dk's because of their survivablity.  I'm only LFR geared, and a few days ago myself and a couple friends cleared ZG with no healer fairly easily.", "id": "c46hrpr", "summary": "You're just not used to it. \n EDIT: I forgot to mention that DK's have changed entirely since WoTLK."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "There's quite a lot of debate about the specifics of the answer to your question. \n I'm not an expert, so I'd rather not speculate too much.   However, I would point out a few things. \n I'll take an extreme example.  Look at the micronutrient breakdown of a [big mac]( compared to an [organ meat](  Chances are, people eating tons of big macs are deficient on some of the micronutrients.  There's a bunch of other important nutrients you obtain in food that are not listed.  However, I'd be willing to be the big mac is similarly weak in those categories. \n Then you've got the whole debate about factory farmed meat, and the fact that the cows eat food(corn/soybeans) that is very different than they evolved to eat(grass), thus throwing our omega 3/6 ratio way off. \n And then, you have the whole debate about processed carbs(the bun) and how they affect satiety signalling in the body.  Here's a good example.  Try eating 5000 calories in cookies at once.  Honestly, it's not very hard.  Sometime later, try and eat 5000 calories of steak(no sweets/carbs with it).  The steak is MUCH harder to consume, even though it is the same number of calories.  Calories are important, but satiety is the basis for how many calories you take in. \n You've also got the gluten debate when it comes to the bun, but I'd rather not get into that. \n I have no idea what is in the big mac sauce, so I can't comment much on that.  I've got a feeling it isn't exactly healthy though. \n So yea, no one can give you a perfect answer to your question, but there are a lot areas in which big macs are probably lacking.  As far as the eskimos go, I was thinking of  this  in a very controlled hospital setting, and they showed absolutely no negative effects.  Also, there seems to be no evidence of metabolic syndrome in their populations before the introduction of modern foods. \n There is the assumption by many to instead jump on the carb-are-bad bandwagon(keto, you'll see it on reddit), but then you have to deal with the natives of papua new guinea that eat almost entirely carbs in the form of sweet potatoes and seem to maintain fine health.", "id": "cb6x7m6", "summary": "it's complicated.  Simplifying nutrition into a 'best' protein/carb/fat balance is ridiculous. \n Edit: You can do a study showing that hot dog consumption is correlated to higher mortality.  Correlation or causation though?  Cause and effect are very hard to nail down in nutrition, and that should be kept in mind whenever looking at broad epidemiological studies."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "Those are complete garbage for ANY blades builds.  I levelled 60-99 as a blades build, and I'll explain why these weapons suck completely. \n 1) The best thing about blades is that you can use a black damage weapon and inherit elemental damage from gear.  So, you can have +cold dmg on gear and then run cold blooded, or if you're running co-op, you can run +fire damage and conflag for the group debuff.  Fragment of destiny is not a black weapon, so you're screwed in this regard. \n 2) Spectral blades depends mostly on char sheet dps to farm faster.  Elemental weapons roll lower damage than black ones, you're screwed out of using a triumvirate(best dps source) because the weapon isn't black, and the damage range just sucks completely(perfect roll fragment of destiny is 976 dmg). \n 3) You can't roll any random stats.  No lifesteal, no LoH, no Crit dmg, no socket. \n If the weapon was a black dmg weapon... well things might be different, given that you could stack elemental damage and get it amplified by the weapon.  As it is though?  go ahead and salvage them without id'ing.", "id": "c90e2sh", "summary": "Fragment of destiny is absolute garbage for any blades build.  A decent rare will beat a perfectly rolled fragment of destiny for the build any day."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "People seem to hate your point of view, but I strongly agree with you. \n You know what's going to answer these existential questions people are asking about the origin of life? \n Humanity becoming a true space-faring civilization.  If we have manned ships and outposts all over the solar system, a hell of a lot more scientific questions will be answered than if we just sit on earth philosophizing. \n I really don't get the opposition.  If we find life on mars, where did that life come from?  Life could be moved around our own solar system through many well thought out methods, so it would be absolutely no surprise to find it on Mars.  But the scarier and more important question, in my eyes, is how often life arises in other solar systems.  To answer the hard questions, you need raw technological power.  To get that, we need to stop trying to erect barriers for those trying to push humanities sphere of influence.", "id": "cqgyaxw", "summary": "Greater space presence -> greater science"}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "I think the exponential scaling on gear is very good in this game, and I wouldn't want it any other way.  As it is, I'm squeaking out a thousand dps here or there every week or two.  If it was additive, these 'tiny' dps upgrades would be even more tiny, and hardly worth the bother of getting. \n There's a lot of problems in this game, but big numbers is a not one of them in PvE.  Even if things were additive, you would still want the exact same shit on your gear.  Life per kill, +globes, dex/int rolls, ect.. would all still be garbage if this was changed.  Weapons might be slightly more forgiving, but not much.", "id": "c8a940h", "summary": "If you have a problem with weapon damage ranges, why not just deal with the weapon damage ranges?  It's like tearing down your house and building a new one because the tap doesn't work in the bathroom."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "I fully agree.  Buying even slight upgrades once you had end-game gear was so damn time consuming and annoying in D2.  I intentionally tossed so many pieces of pretty good gear simply because it wasn't worth the bother of finding someone to buy them.  Spamming for hours on end trying to get a half decent price for your 5/5 light facet...  it makes me wonder how many people who hate the ah actually played d2 extensively... I bet it's not many. \n To address people comparing things to wow: gear level is not really tied to progression in d2, so any analogy between the two systems is hard to make.  Also, you can buy your way into gear in WoW via arena or raid carries.   The prestige in wow generally comes from your raiding guild and not your gear.", "id": "c7zk9kt", "summary": "hate in the ah is misplaced."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "The only subject I think I disagreed with the devs on was the random layouts.  In D3, most of the maps aren't really random at all(every outdoor zone, voa, forgotten ruins, underbridge, ect..).  The few that are random can usually be memorized easily.  And when you DO go the wrong way, you are stuck backtracking through very long sections of map with no monsters, which sucks and spreads out the party. \n D2 was different.  When you did go the wrong way, you would simply end up killing more monsters.  There weren't many isolated dead-ends - you would just hit a wall and blaze a new path through the monsters in a different direction.  Rarely did you have to backtrack huge distances, assuming you cleared in a logical fashion.  However, despite this, you almost never found the correct path on the first go.  It  felt  random every single time out. \n Look at the path to mephisto or andarial in D2.  If you step back and look at the whole layout, sure, it looks boring.  However, as a player, you don't see the whole layout.  It  feels  like a big maze and you can almost never predict where the exit will be.  There are obvious exceptions to this, but they seemed to be the minority rather than the majority.", "id": "cb3fjhv", "summary": "D2's random maps are better than D3's by a long shot, and in multiple ways. \n Edit: Look at the lost mine in D3.  It's pretty random, which is nice.  However, it makes you backtrack huge distances sometimes, which completely sucks.  I want to be killing monsters, not running around through empty corridors.  The only place I can think of where this could happen in D2 was the huge marshlands of A3, which many people avoided for this reason."}, {"author": "fjdkf", "content": "As far as the social framework goes, it's certainly not as easy as enabling MP for public games or adjusting followers.  These are factors that may need to be addressed, but the problem I see is much more of an overarching social connectivity problem.  Let me compare my experiences with D2 and SC1 to D3 and SC2. \n I played the SC1 custom scene hard...  Probably somewhere around 15k hours.  I've got over 7k maps in my downloads folder and played with an innumerable number of people from all around the world.  Even after I 'Quit' for several months, I could jump onto the game and play hard for a weekend.  By the end of the weekend, my newly made friends list would consist of a bunch of players interested in the same exact genres of custom games as me(i.e. RPG, Diplo, pve sniper maps, can you stop 20k zergs, ect.).  These people consisted of a relatively small cross-section of the player base, but due named public games,  we were able to find each other without getting off of the game . \n I only played diablo 2 for a couple thousand hours(every ladder season though I think), and experienced the same sort of thing in the first month or so of every season.  You could jump in without knowing anyone and build up a solid network of friends focused on playing the same way as yourself. \n Roll forward to SC2 and D3, and things changed.  Don't get me wrong - I still like the game a ton - but I've found it exponentially harder to connect with like-minded players in both games. \n After well over a thousand games of SC2, I had only found a small handful of like-minded players to myself.  I found reconstructions of my favorite SC1 maps, but never found any other players with a similar focus.  I know there has to be some people with similar interests, given that someone had to make the map in the first place...  but I never was able to connect with these people.  The single players content was great - I smashed through the campaign on brutal and got up into the top ~1% on the ladder.  However, my interest rapidly faded when I tried to turn to the custom scene simply because I could not connect with other like-minded players in the game.  Sadly, I haven't really played since about season 3. \n When diablo 3 came out, again, I loved the solo content.  I quickly leveled up to 60, but got motivationally stuck.  I could slowly kill stuff in inferno, and enjoyed the challenge... But I had no one else to play with.    People in public games wouldn't run abilities that synergized with the group, and every group I joined was a wipe-fest.  I'm a very social person, and as much as I tried, I couldn't find any like minded players to play with.  In the end, I just ended up carrying dozens of groups through inferno belial to get my social fix in the game. \n Eventually, I had to give up on the in-game tools to find like-minded players, and I turned to external forums to find people I could play with.  This has worked pretty well(usually have 20-30 people online now), but it's a sad state of affairs to me.  Blizzard games have been a large section of my life, and I think that I would have quit long ago if my first exposures to starcraft and diablo were on the battle.net 2.0 platform.  I would have played through the solo content once and moved on in search of more social games.", "id": "c7egan1", "summary": "In my eyes, social connectivity has been crushed by battle.net 2.0.  Imagine WoW without guilds and only the LFR for an end-game."}]}
+{"author": "bigwag91", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The only way to do anything is through the user interface", "output": "they gave me the run around over online techsupport, here is the transcript: \n *Useless Helpdesk: Hi, my name is Useless Helpdesk. How may I help you? \n *Bigwag91: hi, i have a N600DB that i can no longer connect to on the web interface, from what i have done i have determined that the firmware that is on the router is corrupted. I was wondering if there is a tool that i can use to update the firmware where i do not have to access the router through the web interface \n *Useless Helpdesk: You will need to access the user interface to upgrade the firmware. Useless Helpdesk: You may need to reset the router first before you can access 192.168.2.1 or \n *Bigwag91: I have already tried resetting the router with the 10 second reset and the 30-30-30 reset attempts and neither has worked because the firmware inside of the router is corrupted. I was talking in an online community with a guy and he said that there is a program that i can use to upgrade the firmware that i could get from your company. \n Bigwag91: I have not been able to access the user interface after the resets, i have tried. \n *Useless Helpdesk: The only way to upgrade the firmware is to access the router's setup page. \n *Useless Helpdesk: Have you used a computer that is hardwired to the router in trying to access the user interface? \n *Bigwag91: I tried both a hard wired and a wireless computer to try accessing it, both with a automatically setup IP address and a Static IP address on both wireless and wired attempts \n *Useless Helpdesk: I see. Can you still ping the router? \n *Bigwag91: I cannot ping the router. To try to find the IP address of the router i watched for it on Wireshark for about Half an hour and did not see an IP address from the router in any responses \n *Useless Helpdesk: I see. \n *Useless Helpdesk: Since you have tried those steps, it means that the router is already defective. \n *Bigwag91: I am aware of that, A guy that i talked to on the online community said that he had the same problem with a router and after talking to belkin's tech support they supplied him with a piece of software that when used would allow the router to be reflashed and allow for the user to upgrade the firmware. The software was activated when he plugged the router in and it cleared the NVRAM and Reinstalled the Firmware. Would you be able to point me to where this software is, I have already found a fresh copy of the Firmware \n *Useless Helpdesk: I apologize but we don't have any software for that. \n *Useless Helpdesk: The only software for the router is the Setup Software \n *Bigwag91: well thanks for nothing, have a good day."}], "user_id": "longlamp_8814", "history": [{"author": "bigwag91", "content": "almost happened to me one time, but when i was installing the budget boost on my jeep, already had bought oversized tires and had to compensate(tires rubbed). i got lucky when the larger tire got jammed in the wheel well and didnt roll out. me and the mechanic walked in the dark and found the first lug nut 100 yards behind my jeep. pretty scary nonetheless", "id": "cb5zcbf", "summary": "glad you're ok"}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "The guy in the van drove In reverse which gave a little and I planted my feet real well and i was a pretty strong highschool heavyweight wrestler. It wasnt easy but I wasnt going to give. My arms were dead the next day though, I couldnt lift at training so coach made me run", "id": "ccn2axa", "summary": "I AM ALL THAT IS MAN"}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "As everyone else is sharing there drug dog stories, im going to share one that almost got me suspended, no drugs involved. \n When i was in high school i was a tech aide for the IT department. This day they sent me to one of the other school locations (IT was in the high school, had to go to an elementary school). So i leave no problem, fix the problem and i'm on my way back. I get to the school, park my jeep, walk in the school. I'm almost back to the office when the principal, school officer (SO), and the vice principal surround me. \n SO: \"There better be a good reason you aren't in a classroom\" if we were found outside the classroom without a motive we would get suspended. \n ME: \"I'm working with bossman in IT, i was sent out of the school\" \n SO: \"Well... we are going to have to have you personally checked and then you can return to IT, but don't leave again\" \n Dogs come, i check out clean, they let me return to the office.", "id": "cd4ndi7", "summary": "Almost got suspended from school for working in IT as a student during a drug search."}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "actually wasnt my fuck up, but my friends, lets say his name is dave to save face. Dave was getting a blowjob in a food pantry (big party, very few private places). Anyway the girl had been going down on him a while and he was about ready, she didnt want it in the mouth but on her tits. As she began to pull his dick out of her mouth, a big, black, gay guy fell through the pantry door face first all kool-aid man like. Dave blows load ALL over her face. Abruptly has to leave party to prevent akwardness.", "id": "cawew06", "summary": "Gay black falls through pantry door, Man getting head blows load all over her face."}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "building a computer is fairly simple. If you are a mechanic it will be much like rebuilding an engine (just a shitload easier). Most parts in a computer only fit into one spot, much like a piston only fits in a cylinder- you cant really put a piston in the oil pan and expect it to be right, its gonna fit. as for PCI 1,16,16x2 and all those other slots they just take a quick look to understand, much like the springs in a drum brake system(god, do i hate drum brakes). the biggest part will be doing research but that pretty much will come down to looking at reviews and checking compatibilty(I wouldnt put a 350 carb on a 4 cylinder engine) i do believe there are [compatibility sites] ( out there. and just read reviews.", "id": "cb2gef6", "summary": "now i want to build another computer and build an engine, dammit"}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "find a tv repair shop and have them quote you, if it doesnt seem worth it to have it fixed, try selling it to them. i had a tv's mainboard die during a powersurge, the shop wanted 400 dollars to repair a tv i valued at 350 at the time. the shop ended up buying it for parts for fixing other tv's, i got 80 bucks for it", "id": "cbc5un0", "summary": "take to a tv repair shop, if quote is crazy, see if they will buy for parts."}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "Little bit of background: Winter 2013 college semester i started to fall for this girl that i meet through a mutual friend. fast forward to a week after school gets out, she goes home for the summer and i start working third shift, gotta make the money, so she breaks up with me. a week later she starts going out with her friend from back home who she \"wanted to go out before but didn't want to get into a LD relationship, but its cool now because this year he will be going to a local community college that is near the college we go to.\" \n OK, now back to today, yesterday ex-gf wants to hang out for a bit as we are going to try to just be friends as there wasn't much relationship before we broke up. So i hang out with her and the old feelings resurface in me, time to GTFO and have some whiskey. \n so today i went to football tailgating at the college i go to, hot greek little sister walks up with her friend \"hey bigwag91, this is my friend hotgurl, blah blah blah, she just got out of a two year relationship. she is just looking to hang out. had i not been thinking about last night (or maybe the hangover of today) i would have seen this as a total green light on hotgurl. later hotgurl is talking to me alot giving little hints that i should have noticed but i couldn't muster myself together enough to take these hints and lay some moves on hotgurl. \n Later on i ended up having to go up to here and apologize for acting like a complete idiot in front of her and we got to talking. ex lovers, friends, interests, etc, etc. the ex lovers part was the worst cause after talking for 45-60 minutes she looks and me and goes \"you will find someone, don't worry\" but gives major hints that i missed my chance.", "id": "t3_1lzpjm", "summary": "Ex-gf used me as a place holder, shit on my heart, hung out with me yesterday, and stuck in my head today when i could have done something with hotgurl. \n P.S. \"today\" is actually yesterday \n Edit: it's still 2013, was hoping it was closer to my graduation"}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "alot of you will say my story doesnt really mean anything but it means something to me. \n tonight i am working at a college computer lab support desk. One of the labs closed early due to no users. every night i have to go around and turn off all the computers which i have started to do with shift+tab+tab, it seems quicker to me than reaching down to press the power button. anyways i usually get about 5 computers out of a lab that do not turn off at first because of users not logging of but just switching users so i have to go back and select all the shut down options. I made through a lab that had about 30 desk in it without having any computers that had been left with logged on accounts. I had to stand there a minute and appreciate it.", "id": "t3_1l3dxy", "summary": "no lazy users today!"}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "A little background: I worked for a golf/ski resort where we were not allowed to drive our own vehicles and instead get rickety vans bought by the resort. I was 17 at the time and most trustworthy person working in the kitchen that had multiple departments. Pizza was just a small part of the kitchen. \n Now for the night the van got stuck. \n I was working while going to high school to keep shit paid for myself and to have money for college. This story happens sometime in the middle of the winter, around early January. I was sent on a delivery, end of the night, drunk order. 10 pizzas, breadsticks, the whole 100 yards. I am sent to deliver this meal and it is for 6 drunk couples in the hot tub. End up getting paid cash, order was 130 included auto gratuity, guy gave me 170- big money tonight! I leave to go back to the kitchen to close up so i can get some sleep before school. \n Anyway instead of having our regular passenger van we used we had a big electric van like AT&T drivers drive but the rear end is empty and the tires are bald- very slippery to drive. I leave the place and start heading back to the kitchen, the van begins to slide around a corner. I try correcting, which i know how to do ive been driving RWD for a while and love screwing around by fishtailing. This van does a 180 and goes straight into a snow bank. No towing is available because it would have came out of my own pocket so fuck that. \n I call up to the kitchen and have them send a guy down who comes running down an icy hill laughing hysterically, i was waiting for him to fall so i could laugh at him back. He gets down to the van and i have him get in and drive while i push. Kind of like teaching a 1 year old calculus i almost give up on him. I finally get the van out, the drive tires were in an 3 inch ice hole. FUCKING SHIT. Right after i get the van out i remember i have tow straps in my jeep that was parked just 200 yards away MOTHER FUCKING COCK SUCKING AGGGGHHHHH. \n Anyways that was the fun night of pushing the chevy 350 series van out of the snow bank.", "id": "t3_1nws2o", "summary": "icy roads + empty utility van + bald tires= Very unhappy driver pushing the van when he forgot he had tow straps he could have used. \n P.S. sorry for the wall of text."}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "Ok, back in the days of pizza delivery i delivered on a golf resort where anyone could rent out these overly luxurious cabins. One night i get an order for 4 pepperoni pizzas, nothing special. I hop in the work van that was on its last leg, one guy screwed us over on being able to use our own vehicles, he wouldn't log his miles properly so noone could drive their own car you get the picture, 1902 chrysler town and cut-together or something like that. \n So i arrive at the cabin where the food needs to be delivered and i can hear music, college kid music. I knock on the door and miss beautiful 2008 opens the door. \"oh hey the pizza is here, let me grab the money\" reaches into shift and finds about half what she needs. She puts down her drink and starts to basically pull her shirt down to find more money. Both boobs basically all the way out and she can't find anymore money. She calls over her friend who has to pull her shirt down also to find money and they just had just enough to cover original bill, which included the tip already. The girls look at me and say \"sorry we can't give you anymore.\" Me: \"ohh, don't worry, the tip is already included\". Clue a hug from the both of them and a good night for me. Had i not been 16 and only guy on duty i might have seen if i couldn't get my tip another way.", "id": "t3_1npy4c", "summary": "Delivered pizza to college girls who kept money in their bras and saw both of their boobs as the tried to find the money."}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "When i was in high school i was a tech aide for the IT department. This day they sent me to one of the other school locations (IT was in the high school, had to go to an elementary school). So i leave no problem, fix the problem and i'm on my way back. I get to the school, park my jeep, walk in the school. I'm almost back to the office when the principal, school officer (SO), and the vice principal surround me. \n SO: \"There better be a good reason you aren't in a classroom\" if we were found outside the classroom without a motive we would get suspended. \n ME: \"I'm working with bossman in IT, i was sent out of the school\" \n SO: \"Well... we are going to have to have you personally checked and then you can return to IT, but don't leave again\" \n Dogs come, i check out clean, they let me return to the office.", "id": "t3_1ppjqk", "summary": "Almost got suspended from school for working in IT as a student during a drug search."}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "My CS (programmer) friend tried to build his own computer with as little assistance as possible, but thats where i come in, im his IT buddy. It was his first build so i gave him a little grief. My friend did all the research on parts and bought all parts that would go together and work merrily. Cue a week after all his parts arrive, he asked me for a spare video card because his must have been DOA (it was an open box deal). I lend him the working one out of my rig, it has onboard but i wanted the expansion card. He calls me asking if my card works, i tell him yes i had the computer on until 5 minutes before i took the card out. We start talking about all the other parts. I ask him about the motherboard, he says looks fine, i ask him about the processor and he says yeah its in there, but it seems loose without the heatsink secured, \"Is it supposed to be like that\" he asks. I ask him if he opened the release bar when he put the CPU in he says yeah, i ask him if he closed the release bar after he installed the CPU, he says \"no, was i supposed to do that\"", "id": "t3_1mkkcp", "summary": "Just because you can perform heart surgery doesn't mean you can put on a band-aid."}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "I knew i would have a problem with my mom be the person at the computer when i tried to help. \n My brother got a new laptop and he needed office, it came with 2010 but buying it was out of the question as i had Office 2007 ultimate. I didnt have all the stuff i needed last time i was home so i couldn't install it while i was home but i did install teamviewer to make it really easy on me when i went to install, or so i thought. \n So here is how everything went down today. \n 9:00am- my text to my mom- \"hey mom turn on littlebro's computer and open teamviewer and text me the info. I will have time to install office at 11:15 so do it close to then so it doesn't go to sleep.\" \n 11:45am- .....\"hey mom, is it on yet\" Mom: \"oops yea ill do it know here is the info: id-xxxxxxxx pass- xxxx\" \n no connection, so i try a couple times. I text her back and ask her to restart teamviewer and send me the info if it has changed. \n new info, no connection \n 1:00pm- \"ok mom ill try later\" \n 1:50- \"ok mom im still not getting a connection will you reinstall teamviewer\" \"sure but how do i do that\" \n Phone call time \"ok here are the uninstall instructions and the redownload/ reinstall isntructions\" \"Ok bigwag91, do i close the little box in the corner with the id and pass again like i was before\" \n !!!!HEADFUCKINGDESK!!!! \n \"yes leave that open that is how i connect. Mom this is why i told you to leave everything open until i tell you to close it.\" \n \"Oh, Ok bigwag91. can you have this done by 2:45 i NEED it by then\" \n \"ill try but im not going to promise anything i still have a lot to do and i now have to do it from teamviewer on my phone.\" \n The end of this tale: using my phone i download daemon, download the iso, install daemon, run the iso, and get office installed just barely at 2:46", "id": "t3_1oo9bp", "summary": "if you close the gates of Mordor, i can't drop this fucking ring in the volcano."}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "off duty the other night, my buddy (steve) text me and ask me for some help with his wifi problem, cant connect at all. \n Me: have you tried restarting your system? (this is important)\nSteve: yea\nMe: have you checked the router, restarted the router?\nSteve: yea\nMe: ok here is a guide on how to remove the connection from your history and start anew, www.fakeguidewebsite.com, from his cell phone- has internet\nSteve (15 minutes later): i restarted my computer works fine", "id": "t3_1j3j4g", "summary": "when asking if the computer has been restarted, specify the time period you expected them to restart in \n Rookie mistake, yea i know. still fumbling through college"}, {"author": "bigwag91", "content": "good morning again ya'll \n My first call this morning went a little something like this: \n helpdesk: \"hello bigwag91, a user just called and said she couldnt find an audio cable on a presentation stand, would you be able to go look at it, fix it, summon an audio cable, whatever.\"\" \n me: \"yea helpdesk no problem\" \n show up to the room, noone there, presentation stand sits idly empty, well lets go take a look. after chasing cables in this station for a minute i successfully find the audio cable (lazy user, anybody suprised). I decide before i leave i should test the audio cable to make sure the station works. put on a little metallica on my phone, plug it in, rock on, no problems. \n my second call, about 30 minutes later \n helpdesk: \"hey bigwag, i talked to you earlier about the room with the audio cable problem right?\" \n Me: \"[Yup thats right!] ( \n helpdesk: while the user called back and said she isnt getting any sound from the machine' \n me:  headdesk  \"ok, ill run right over\" \n i get to the scene of the problem, no user, just a laptop that wasn't previously there. start looking at the machine, hands off, and the user walks in. \n me: \"do you mind if i look at the machine, maybe check a few things\" \n user: \"yea, no problem go ahead, the video worked before i just dont get it know\" \n me: plugs cord into phone, plays elevator music (user present or more metallica), works fine. Minimize video from full screen, and there is the culprit, 1 sound wave next to the volume icon on win7 (volume between 5~20%). I turn the volume up, hit play, problem solved. \n user: \"what did you do, its working!\" \n me: \"i adjusted the volume on the machine, at this little icon here\" \n user: \"I would have never thought to do that, thanks so much\"", "id": "t3_1leebc", "summary": "if you too hot in the sewing circle, step out of the crotchet. And if its too loud, your too damn old."}]}
+{"author": "unlikableinperson", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Obama is vested in the things he does, changing the laws is absurd & pointless; murder stay  murder.", "output": "Whats the point of changing the law? Thats what i'll never understand. Changing doesnt make anything less wrong or less murder , it doesnt make innocent people less innocent or more guilty. Even IF OBAMA is really just a puppet why doesn't he just step down if he doesnt want to be responsible for the bloodlust. Is having that $400,000 a year that important to him?\nHe has more power than you think. If he can change the number of black people supporting gay marriage from 41% to 59% in a week, there is a lot he can do just by calling a press conference. U make it sound like he's one of those tribal chiefs that the natives worship but will eat alive just as quickly."}], "user_id": "longlamp_15718", "history": [{"author": "unlikableinperson", "content": "Reddit is just too stupid & straight monsters. Maybe they would be more moral if unpopular guys like myself just remained silent. Let me explain to u the context that has me at minus 6 & u at plus six. U already know cuz u are a sick fuck, but reddit doesnt care. Anyway \"not all rape\" implies its sometimes consensual, but damn that, there's a black guy here, let's let him know he's not welcome, thats priority one & only, screw the kids. Second, assuming they \" cant love children\", they have that label for a reason but screw that, reddit cant have an outsider telling us about morality, let it go to fuck all first. Thats what I mean by \"reddit is phucked up\"", "id": "c4sai98", "summary": "reddit doesnt care what the message is, only who the messenger is. If a serial child molester's karma rating was higher than mine, he'll get more upvotes no matter what he says. Just being racist, illogical, & bitchy is predominant over  any idealogy   these days. Case in point:  everything  . Go ahead & make low karma a death penalty offense, redditors act as if it already is."}, {"author": "unlikableinperson", "content": "First of all, the Saudis see how things are in the west & cant allow that there. Yes when saudi men go abroad some want the hookers, the booze, the lAdyboys & all that. women need to have their head covered, it dont have to be hijab style. Women need to have humility, they cant be walking around showing cleavage & legs.  Its distracting , causes confusion, & is detrimental to an orderly society. Put urself in a man's shoes, if he goes to the library he wants to read a book, he has no other plan but that, he doesnt want to be distracted by strange women trying to get his attention, because the cleavage & the legs and all that is for attention.   Im not even that good looking but everywhere I go its always some females trying to distract me, looking for some action, some event, even if its rope for me to hang myself with. Everywhere, everyday. Everything in America has turned into a lust fest. Either u are going to accept women running around half naked or u are going to be ashamed. Lust, the forbidden fruit, things get out of control really fast, some people thrive in the confusion. \nIn the old days, God's will, ur marriage was arranged & that was that. U can brag about ur sexual prowess to ur buddies and ur girlfriends, convince them u are an animal, but running around trying to fuck everybody & everything just cant happen. There was no dating, no breakups, no bitter women running around half-naked,  wondering what kind of man she could beguile breakfast, lunch, & dinner. Sex is great but we have to be modest, we cant run around trying to fuck everything. We have to be better than the animals. Now that guy talking about \"my mom, my sister, my niece\", from a biblical context they whores (mine too). Once u let them show their hair, then its why not a little leg, why not a little bust. Before u know it women are selling their bodies to buy holiday gifts.  Cleavage, legs, hair, all that is for attention, it wont stand.", "id": "c4s2y92", "summary": "give them freedom & pretty soon they'll be running around half naked,  distracting everyone , fueling, jealousies, & causing confusion. Keep them modest so we can be better than the animal kingdom."}, {"author": "unlikableinperson", "content": "YouR pedigree isn't worth the temporary ink stain on my monitor. Serve your country? You served the Military Industrial Congressional Complex. Dont be perplexed, your grandfather did too. Represent something greater than yourself? You darn skippy war profiteering is greater than you. In order to be credible you can't lie or skirt the issue. This isnt about agreeing with EVERYTHING your employer blah, blah, blah. This is about your employer sending young people to fight for no reason and to die for no reason except to drive a demand for more weapons made at enormous profits by weapons manufacturers. You give a congressman $5,000, he will make sure you earn $500,000 even if it costs some lives of soldiers. Also if you buy my grossly overpriced weapons & saceifice some soldiers to go  & use them so you will have to buy more even more expensively, i'll make sure when you retire from government you'll have a cushy desk job & nice retirement benefits waiting for you.", "id": "c517qva", "summary": "The theatrics fooled some people into thinking there was a war, & there was a cause, & there was an enemy. That was the purpose of the theatrics. All it was was a very expensive live action weapons commercial."}, {"author": "unlikableinperson", "content": "This is english, it is really pathetic to see people resort to playing dumb. I bet if I had the misfortune of running into u in person u would resort to shedding tears, Ive seen it before many times. For years I have done people's homework for money. It relieves me from having to work with biased, hypocritical liars like u lot. I'd gladly give u a screenshot of my inbox of people clamoring for repeat business.", "id": "c4rv3rd", "summary": "that weak speak english argument only works in NYC. Go use ur body to get ahead or something."}, {"author": "unlikableinperson", "content": "IYall brought us over here now its up to us to leave? It is obvious the white race is a retarded race. You stole this land from the native americans and stole a nation of people for slaves, fast foward 200 years later & you are borrowing money from China to survive. OP is right we cant coexist. You white people are just like Reddit cowards & 2 faced. You deny that we cant co-exist but you are underhandedly racist every day. I need to remix Rick Ross song to \"everyday I see racism\". OP you got a lot to learn, even though you are older than me you dont seem to have scratched the surface to whats going on over here. \n There are two kinds of black people, those that HATE the white man but, for the paycheck act like they like him (0.001%), & then there are those that act like they cant stand white people but inwardly would kill their brother for him (99.999%).", "id": "c52e3uy", "summary": "the black panther party then & today have no idea what it TRULY means to hate the white man, & you, Black Panther Account, are pussy-footing."}, {"author": "unlikableinperson", "content": "What you said is absolute bullshit. \n > we as a people don't really see ourselves as Mesoamerican \n Speak for yourself, take your ass to the slums and the countryside \n > the European blood that intermixed with it \n More like European Sperm \n > There was so much intermingling among the races, that the Mexican people of today can't simply take sides with the ancient civilizations or the conquistadors. \n In order for there to be \"intermingling among the races\" indigenious people needed to have impregnated European women & looking at history and actually having lived in Mexico City, I just can't see that happening.\n If you called intermingling People with white fathers intermingling with other people with white fathers and grandfathers then yea, a hell of a lot of intermingling \n > the nationalism it has was because the peoples were of a new breed, \"mestizos\". \n This was encouraged, in the form of a national policy. Good thing I learned about it lat ein my journey or I would have run the hell out of there. \n There is no way you can convince me that white women were impregnated by spics. You can say bastardized girls with white fathers and indigenious mothers were impregnated by spics, after all they were illegitimate children and grew up in the slums. \n Mexico society wants to conceive it in a number of ways. One is \"oops\", but it was planned. \n Another is \"We are a new race of people now\" when it should be \"We are trying to cover up history.", "id": "c54ye84", "summary": "If you go to Mexico City adamant that you won't sleep with a girl with European on her  father's side  in her family tree  somewhere  ZIP up your pants, you aint getting nothing"}, {"author": "unlikableinperson", "content": "You racist piece of shits.  Im racist but  Im not A POS, because Im not 2 faced walking around other races smiling, like I have compassion & favor equality.i dont give a FUCK what south carolina's opinion is. They had slavery there so that all I need to know. That woman, I cant see her face because the link is dead but I know she worked hard for that bike & demonstrated boundless creativity. You put a cartoon over her face & that got 150 upvotes.  YOU JEALOUS MOTHERFUCKERS . The black bikers deserve everything they get for trying to be like white people.  Most of the black people you see,99.9%, love white people & America, so maybe the reality will hit them in the face. Closing businesses, marvelous, thats what they get for believing in and voting for Barak Obama. It was not our idea to come to America, it was not our brilliant idea to try to coexist.  If all black people left this country there would be a superpower wherever we went overnight.  You two-faced spineless pansies have failed humanity, so go back to /r/aww giving  dogs human personalities & traits & try to start over.", "id": "c4vm68r", "summary": "how dare you try to insult black people?! We built this stinkIn country with nothing, while you've had everything since you been here, ran it all into the ground, & you are jealous of everything. You want us alive & dead at the same time. Go build your dogs up, in time you'll be jealous of them too. Wait you already are."}, {"author": "unlikableinperson", "content": "No wonder I didnt get any, dont get much action. That is an  exhorbitant  amount of planning. I already know im smarter than a girl just standing up & breathing, but to do all that planning over & over again? THats what them hoes get. Ican be talking to a girl not knowing what can happen in the next 5 seconds & they are looking at me like I got her blood temperature mapped out like this sicko. Thanks for insighT, at least tell me you deflowered a virgen by accident or something.", "id": "c5k199k", "summary": "TIL theres no natural wolf in sheep's clothing, they do a ridiculous amount of planning."}, {"author": "unlikableinperson", "content": "Michael Johnson is only a little smarter than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, in other words, DUMB as HELL. WHAT HE SAID, was very selfish because it takes away from the accomplishments of every black athlete. A black man did not design the city grid of Washington DC because of his athlete prowes.\nMichael Johnson went to West Africa & fell in love with them. Rather than face the fact that west africans could not be his people, he goes \"herp derp, we are so different now because slave masters bred us\". No, yall are so different and thats WHY Africans sold your behind away. Thats what the west africans wont tell mj, they sold you because you are not their people but you were in the land. The liberia conflict was divided between descendents of freed slaves & true africans,. Now imagine the chinese were off the coast with slave ships, what would happen? One party would have sold the other party into slavery. Fast forward to 300 years later, a fool like Michael Johnson would go back to the enemy tribe, like \"my long lost brothers, chinese slave breeding is what makes me different from you\".", "id": "c5avva4", "summary": "Africans come to America & want NOTHING to do with us. WE go to Africa and then throw our heritage in the trash & our fellow black athletes in EVERY sport & epoch under a bus."}, {"author": "unlikableinperson", "content": "This was after you passed a rigorous screening process to assure that you were not a cop and not a threat to my safety and comfort. \n That is so idiotic, u had sex with them, u don't know who they are or what they did for a living, u saw the money & became wet, & lost all inhibitions. Rolled over & did it again. \n Your rigorous screening process  & safety & comfort didn't stop you from retiring did it? \n Im reading further along as Im waiting for the reddit timer to run out. You spent your $400 an hour on drugs & alcohol, how surprising. I bet your clients knew that's how you'd end up. You felt lonely but you were consistently laying down with every Tom, Dick, & Jane that had a fat stack?\nI have absolutely no respect for whores. Face it, you sold yourself & didnt get ahead. I was in Mexico City where I could buy a prostitute a day if I put my mind to it. The fact that I had more money in comparision to the average doesn't make me any less of a wimp.", "id": "c4rez23", "summary": "you let them put their dick inside you for money. Ur safety and comfort meant absolutely nothing, but tons more than your self respect"}, {"author": "unlikableinperson", "content": "For all you people upvoting this dog shit over human problems & human suffering, you all need a situation where you are forced to eat your dog, or your dog does dog & eats you. Not come to a realization & set it free but eat it. \n I can see you all going through your everyday life, seeing & hearing about human suffering. Rather than put your energy into that you make your dog and the love of them your humanity. For real. Dog is your humanity. I've heard it before but dog shit on the second page & the front page with all this shit going on is just bullshit. And to think I get slightly annoyed when my brother visits home & his dogs are caGed alot. I dont know if it is like that at his house but THIS IS BULLSHIT", "id": "c4v9fyd", "summary": "dog is your humanity"}, {"author": "unlikableinperson", "content": "Yes & its under Obama & black people plan to vote for him again. Also when a black woman gets a good job, she's going to come home  every day  clamoring about why the black man cant go & get one that pays just as much as well. \n Also black women have cars & houses & stuff and use that property against the man during every fight.", "id": "c4srnqs", "summary": "32% want to be fathers but they are with an unbearable, irrational monster"}, {"author": "unlikableinperson", "content": "They didnt even ask the barista in the rich area to provide proof. Fucking shitbags fo Rrr harrassing u. why dId u fold? Hearing your story is our privilege not our right. U sold drugs but u going to let reddit punk u? Thats not gangsta. And americans at that, benedict arnold is turning over in his grave.", "id": "c4t2mw9", "summary": "if we dont believe u, fuck us"}]}
+{"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post My first instinct is to say that's a bad idea but you might be right and it might be worth making the rental market even shittier in order to try making it better.", "output": "My first instinct would be to say that this is a terrible idea, because we'd be helping the rent situation in one way while at the same time making it even worse for everyone in the city.  Teasing out whether the positive from fixing building regulations would outweigh the negative from strengthening rent control is something way beyond my ability. \n This is why I could never be in politics;  I understand the policy background here intimately and what combination of policies makes actual sense but I have no nose for when horse-trading/appeasement that's clearly bad for everyone (like your Ellis Act proposal) might be a good idea, just to get people like McElroy to stop  throwing poo so that the adults in this city can go about trying to actually solve its problems (high rents, inadequate welfare coverage, low housing development, mediocre transit, etc; to be fair some of these issues are far bigger than SF)."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post It seems like our entire disagreement boils down to the fact that you apparently jumped into a conversation without understanding what it was about. My conversation with Ramivacation was not about the validity of his statistics regarding men's strength and likelihood of committing violence, it was about my disagreement with his/her support of applying policy differently to men as opposed to women (i.e. why X is acceptable for men but not women). IIUC, you seem to be talking about whether the statistics are true and whether a woman is justified in feeling scared around a man in a way that a man wouldn't in a similar situation. There's no argument there from me, and there never has been.", "output": "You've strawmanned a very complicated social situation \n Would you care to point out any strawmen in my comment?  As far as I can tell, I'm directly addressing your assertion that \"it's science\" to apply broad statistics to policy by applying rules differentially based on race, gender, etc. If you're saying that the conversation about whether or not to apply these differences to policy is a strawman, then I'd ask you to note that the conversation was about precisely that since  before   you even entered the thread, which means that the only person creating strawmen here would be you. \n > because you're insulted \n I know it may not be particularly credible and I have no way to prove it, but I'm honestly not personally insulted beyond being a bit shocked at the fact that I didn't ever expect to come across \"stereotypes make good policy\" expressed with a figurative straight face. \n > Try and imagine half the people in the world carry guns, and you don't.  [etc] \n I'm very aware of the concept of  every woman living with a background noise of fear, and not having the ability to experience it myself, I tend to give it the benefit of the doubt and believe it (as it seems broadly reasonable). I can also understand why any given woman might act a certain way towards men;  this is the \"collective punishment\" I spoke of (reducing a person to his gender and judging him on this basis) but it's done in the interests of self-preservation and while it's not particularly saintly, I wouldn't judge any individual too harshly for doing so. The same thing applies to people clutching their belongings more tightly when passing a young black man at night, etc (I don't do this out of an awareness of how shitty it must be for him to have that happen constantly, but again, I don't judge people super-harshly for doing so). \n What you're describing is also not particularly relevant. Where we differ (and again, the topic of this conversation since before you entered it) is that I think it's a horrible idea to apply this sort of thing to policy.  I notice that you resorted to the (inaccurate) charge of strawman to my comment and then rapidly changed the subject to an actual strawman.  I assume that means that you have no substantive rebuttal to the argument I laid out as to why using stereotypes to differentially apply policy by gender or race is an  abysmal  idea."}], "user_id": "longlamp_16067", "history": [{"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "How? By lottery? Mass surveillance isn't necessary. Surveillance is. \n If you consider watching a public TV program, or reading publicly published papers surveillance, then whatever, I suppose you're completely correct in the paranoid little universe that you inhabit.  I hope you don't mind that I don't join in your delusions;  I'm all out of tinfoil. \n On the other hand, back in the real world, censorship can be achieved without surveillance through the exact means I already described;  suppressing public discourse that doesn't agree with the censor's views.    Funny thing about public media:  they're  public .  You don't need \"a lottery\" (way to shoot for sarcasm and hit ignorance) to notice publicly held \"undesirable\" speech and suppress it, and even though this suppression does not have the coverage that mass-surveillance-enforced censorship does, it's still of significant consequence.  Like I said, this has already happened for thousands of years  without  the use of surveillance by any recognizable definition. \n > Next, mass surveillance convinces writers to self-censor \n Nice strawman, but I wasn't arguing with this point, I agree with it, as I said in my comment... \n > Your \"thousands of years\" comment makes this seem like computers and an internet are necessary for mass surveillance. \n Again, I really have no idea how you got this from my comment.", "id": "cdl3ooe", "summary": "To clarify, since you seem to have misunderstood just about every word of my post, I've said from the start that surveillance is a powerful enabler of certain forms of censorship.  Where we disagree is that you seem to think that public, influential, broad-reach speech can only be noticed by the government through surveillance, \"telepathy\", or \"lottery\" vs, I dunno, turning on the television or reading a newspaper (or in the modern era, visiting an influential website/blog).  This form of censorship has NOTHING to do with surveillance;  hence my original claim:  surveillance is not necessary for censorship, and surveillance and censorship are not the same issue under a different name.  If you choose to believe that watching MSNBC or reading The Wall St Journal counts as surveillance, then we're apparently speaking different dialects of English and the communications barrier is probably too high to overcome. \n EDIT:  I notice that you did reference catching news stories before they're written (for which surveillance is obviously necessary);  I guess where we differ is that you think after-the-fact censorship (i.e. punishing public dissidence) is ineffective.  That explains some of our difference of opinion."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "People point to life expectancy, but that doesn't really capture anything meaningful past a certain point since America doesn't lack money, technology or quality health care that holds back life expectancy. We simply collectively like to eat things that make us unhealthy. \n I think this might be a simplification (though it is of course true that the issue is often simplified in the other direction).  The fact that we don't \"lack money, technology, or quality healthcare\" that would contribute to a lowered life expectancy is technically true, but false in any useful sense.  As an overall economy, we don't lack those things, but saying \"we don't lack these things and so that's not a factor in the life expectancy shortfall\" is making the assumption that it's distributed equally per capita (as with GDP/capita, which was my original point).  The fact is that there are vast portions of the population who DO lack the money to get the quality healthcare that would keep them alive.  This is ignoring all the preventative factors that contribute to worse healthcare outcomes.  You mention scotch and red meat (two of my favorite vices as well) as if a culture of patrician indulgence is behind the heart-disease problem in the US.  This is pretty disingenuous given how well-known it is that heart disease (and mortality) are so heavily correlated with obesity/metabolic syndrome, which is in turn heavily correlated with income level (ffs, there's an obesity problem among the [HOMELESS]( \n > We might not be able to capture the grandeur of American poetry, like Kennedy talked about in the article, but we can at least absolutely capture and quantify data on how well our poetry sells. \n I agree that GDP does near-to the least-bad job of capturing intangible utility like this.  It's not what I was alluding to though:  I was thinking of things that are clearly quantifiable and that we can assess independently of GDP.  Though as you pointed out, there are several caveats to the way these things are measured.  Things like food insecurity and undernourishment are pretty straightforward.", "id": "cfsrpyv", "summary": "I agree with the fact that other comparisons are often apples-to-oranges, but I disagree with a couple of the examples you mentioned.  I don't think GDP is the least-bad measure either;  even median income seems like a better tool for perspective on quality-of-life across a population.  As an obvious (and simplistic) example, a country with 1 guy with $(1bn - 9999k) and 9999 people with $1000 would obviously have a lower standard of living than one with a distribution that was relatively tightly clustered around 10k people with $100k each. (yes I know that the former economy would be enormously unstable, but the example was just meant to be extreme to illustrate the decline in living-standards per given amount of wealth/income when wealth/income becomes more highly concentrated.  It's a simple marginal utility argument)."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "Maybe it's not fair that some people are born different than others, but I think it is a stretch to call that economic inefficiency. \n It's a textbook case of economic inefficiency.  In fact, I'd go so far as to that the claim that it's NOT economic inefficiency is so extraordinary that the burden of proof is on  that  claim.  Be that as it may, here's an explanation: \n America basically led the world in the discovery that the fewer artificial (in the economic sense) barriers there are to where each person allocates his labor, the better.  Caste systems, class systems, central allocation of labor (i.e. Communism),  de facto  financial class systems:  these are all artificial barriers that prevent people from using their skills in the field they're the best-suited to.  When people are allowed to do what they're good at and what benefits society the most, society gets richer and they claim their rightful share of that increase in society's wealth.  This is the essence of capitalism, and (along with some massive, massive geographic advantages) one of the most important sources of our historical economic dynamism. \n >  When I talk about economic inefficiency, I'm referring to things like firms using political means to gain market power or suppress wages, or workers being at a disadvantage when negotiating wages. \n Okay...but that's not what the term means.  Economic inefficiency refers to anything that hinders the maximization of production (i.e. society's wealth).  You may be thinking \"Maximizing society's wealth instead of the individual's?? Sounds like Communism!!\", but you'd be wrong, because the best system humankind has figured out so far is called capitalism: setting it up so that maximizing society's wealth is a result of allowing everyone to compete fairly and maximize their own wealth. \n > You are framing your statements in an us vs them manner. \n It's clear from your comment that you're the one who automatically frames everything in an us-vs-them manner (including your curious definition of economic inefficiency, which only includes explicitly adversarial behavior).  My comment carried no such connotation.  I wasn't discussing the economic opportunity gap that the poor face from the perspective of who the perpetrators might be.  I was saying that the current policy environment is such that we've created a milder version of the classical class system, in which the circumstances of your birth determines to a large degree your level of economic opportunity. \n > If I obtain that wealth fairly and it is fair compensation for my contributions to society, why am I not allowed to give it to whoever I want? \n It's clear from your entire comment that you've sorely, sorely misunderstood my entire comment.  You're muddling the purely economic argument that I'm making by trying to cram this conversation into a moral framework.  The question of trading off equality with autonomy is an interesting one, with many shades of gray, and I'd be glad to talk about it sometime or elsewhere, but kindly keep it separate from what we're actually discussing here, which is the economics of the situation.  By the way, surely you see the irony of claiming that something was won in \"fair\" economic competition when the vast majority of the \"competitors\" are at a massive disadvantage?", "id": "cfkwc6l", "summary": "I don't know why you keep trying to jam this into a conversation about morality when I'm just talking about economics.  Income inequality has been and is being exacerbated by the fact that having poor parents in the US gives you way too high a chance to stay poor forever (and this isn't some blindly absolute statement:  leaving aside the human cost of having a vast uneducated, unwell, badly-nourished underclass, our income mobility is worse than damn near all of the developed world)."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "Economic efficiency means maximizing production with a GIVEN amount of resources.  This means that the nature of labor and capital are given. \n We're definitely getting a little too caught up in semantics here, but I don't see how this follows.  Given a certain amount of people's labor and a certain amount of capital, utilizing the labor more poorly means gaining less productivity/output from the same amount of resources (i.e. economic inefficiency).  For example, if we had a policy that prevented all women from going to school, one wouldn't say that there was no change in economic efficiency or utilization of available resources.  Similarly, if we're squandering the potential productivity of a large chunk of our labor pool (instead of women, those born to poor parents), it's similarly incorrect to say that you can't call that inefficient or underutilization of resources. \n > Again, realize that not everyone is created equal. This by default will result in inequality, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. \n For the life of me I don't understand how you keep reading me talking about inequality of opportunity and responding as if I talked about inequality of outcome.  I'm  not  talking about inequality of wealth per se, I'm talking about inequality of  opportunity , which is decidedly NOT a given result of \"everyone isn't created with equal ability\".  You keep claiming that differences in ability lead to justifiable differences in outcomes, and I agree, but it's  not what I'm talking about at all and hasn't been this entire time .  Equality of opportunity means that differences in ability should perfectly (modulo luck, obviously) reflect differences in ability:  this is the \"natural inequality\" you're referring to and I fully agree with it.  This has precisely nothing to do with the fact that a poor person of moderate-high ability will likely do worse than a rich person of moderate-low ability. \n > Clearly there is a perpetrator and a victim in this scenario. \n Why do you keep saying that?  I can understand how you'd make that mistake the first time, but when I'm  clarifying  that that's not even close to what I'm saying, why do you insist on telling me \"actually this is what you meant, clearly\".  Massive disadvantages due to how well-off your parents are have existed for longer than governments have, how the fuck do you conclude that the only way it's possible is if \"somebody\" is perpetrating it actively?  I'm saying it's an issue that exists to the detriment of our economy, and we have the power to fix it.  To give you a clearer example, if we had a problem of widespread contract violation and no legal system to deal with it, that would be very damaging to the economy.  The government or society wouldn't be \"at-fault\" or \"perpetrating\" the contract violations, but implementing a robust system of contract enforcement would be a great way to fix that existing problem in the economy.  It's possible to say \"hey this is a great thing to fix for the economy's health\" (infrastructure creation/\"fixing the lack of roads\" is another example) without saying \"I'm blaming you and you're morally culpable for the existence of this inefficiency\". \n > Either the poor cannot produce enough value to society to be able to live at an acceptable standard, or they can produce enough value but don't.\n> If the former is the case, any remedy would involve redistribution. If that redistribution is not voluntarily done, government coercion is required. Justifying that redistribution would likely require a political or moral argument. \n What?!   I have NO idea at all how you conclude that it's impossible for tax-funded gov't spending to have sound economic reasons (i.e. that it \"requires\" a moral/political reason).  To dig up an earlier example, do you really think there's no economic benefit to a legal system?  to a system of highways?  to a police dept?  Those are all redistribution in the same way that a free higher education system would be, in that rich people would get far less out of it than they put in.  If you don't count those as redistribution, then your earlier proposition (\"any attempt to improve poor people's productivity requires redistribution\") is clearly false. \n > If we have an obligation to help the poor out, it's because our actions are somehow causing their situation or some other moral impulse \n Wrong again.  Like I said, the only one discussing moral arguments here is you.  This is as simple as my argument gets: \n1) An inefficiency exists (semantic nitpicking aside, pretend that inefficiency means \"something that is keeping output below what it could otherwise be\"). \n2) We can fix it relatively easily through policy X, improving the economy overall. \nThere's no moral culpability or \"obligation\" necessary to make a case for why we should do policy X.  A case can be made on the economics alone (which is what I was attempting to do before being caught in this million-line strawman tangent). \n > You mention promoting overall social welfare \n Where??!   Honestly, are you reading someone else's comment and accidentally responding to me?  The entire time you've been acting as if I'm making moral arguments when I haven't been discussing anything about optimizing output.", "id": "cfo4d5l", "summary": "Your understanding of economic efficiency in this context is flawed.  \"Redistribution\" in the form of equalizing opportunity has everything to do with economic efficiency and need not have anything to do with morality (i.e. a completely morality-neutral race of hyper-optimizing robots would find equality of opportunity to be an obvious choice).  \"Changing the starting level of resources\" is a form of \"tweaking the mechanisms of the (labor) market to ensure efficiency\".  The argument  wouldn't  touch on morality if you didn't insist on squeezing an economic discussion into a moral framework.  What I'm saying is that there is an ironclad economic case for equalizing starting opportunity.  Yes it probably  should  include a discussion of fairness/morality if it was ever put into policy, but I'm discussing purely the economic side of things and showing how economically, it's a slam-dunk no-brainer (i.e. i don't need to rely on a moral argument to show why it's common-sense to equalize opportunity)."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "The more accurate analogy for comparison to the Internet would be \"a paperless society\", or even better, \"a telephone-less society\" (there's no reason everything can't be done over IP, and there are significant advantages to doing so).  Paper is still very, very widely used, as are telephones.  Kraekus's wasn't disagreeing with the claim that driverless cars would be prevalent in twenty years, he was disagreeing with the claim that driven-cars wouldn't be around in 20 yrs.  The Internet example similarly fails this test for paper and phones.", "id": "cevnrn3", "summary": "A new technology becomes prevalent\" takes a lot lot less time than \"an old technology largely disappears\""}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "Perhaps I'm being too charitable, but I didn't see the tone as implying that \"peaceful resettlement\" was narrowly missed, due to logistic problems.  The  phrasing does sound a  little  like OP is saying the Holocaust could've been avoided in favor of the completely copacetic solution of deportation;  Though mass deportation would doubtlessly have had ENORMOUS issues, including likely a substantial number of casualties, I don't think it's controversial to say that it would have been preferable to the explicit mass murder of 6 mn people, and that it is a tragedy, in a way, that this plan didn't work out. \n Obviously I'm not saying this would be a good thing in the absolute sense, and it's a much bigger tragedy that Hitler didn't just freaking leave the Jewish people alone, but there's no indication that that was ever his plan when he was in power.", "id": "c71kal5", "summary": "I think you might be assuming bad faith on the part of OP; I took his post as saying \"this is interesting, there's a chance the Holocaust could have been avoided in favor of something less horrific (though still pretty goddamn horrific).\"\nThat's in contrast to your interpretation of \"everything would have been fine\" --OP \nEdit: closed a quotation mark"}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "So to be clear, you're saying:   \"Other people do this on the internet....so WTF why are people downvoting it?\". \n Conversation (if you wanna call it that) isn't just about the content of your comment, it's about the tone.  The most insightful, intelligent point in the world could start with \"you're an idiot\" and I wouldn't blame anyone for downvoting it, and would hardly expect them to think that it was necessary to point out the reason for their downvote.  It may not be the optimal response (I should hope I wouldn't completely ignore the rest of the post upon reading the insult in the first sentence), but it's CERTAINLY more reasonable than claiming to engage in \"intelligent debate\" and leading off with \"you're an idiot\". \n For the record, I mostly agree with the point you made in that post, but I had to restrain myself from downvoting it.", "id": "c17wypq", "summary": "The logical content of a comment is not the end-all and be-all of its value; considering a comment leading off with an insult to be detracting from the conversation is not entirely unreasonable."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "You'd have to be reading the argument hyper-literally, beyond the point of common sense, to read it that way.  The complaint here is not solely that punishment is happening without the legal standards of evidence required for conviction.  It's that punishment is happening without  any  of the legal standards of evidence (which includes the ones for indictment).  Just read my earlier comment:  the core complaint is that we're throwing out hundreds* of years of jurisprudence and legal practice in the form of the existing legal system and having arbitrary university administrators try to build up a parallel set of standards from scratch, ad-hoc.", "id": "clmzhye", "summary": "Quibbling over \"punishment before conviction\" vs \"punishment before indictment\" is entirely irrelevant, as an indicted and arrested alleged criminal will already be \"punished\" to the extent that the legal system deems appropriate (e.g. being detained before trial). The core problem is that  any  standards of evidence required by law are being ignored and that a parallel evidence standard/punishment system is being implemented that ignores the legal system. \n *well, thousands if you consider the entire legal tradition that gives rise to our modern-day system, but that's just a quibble"}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "So you guys don't have to keep guessing, last I checked my savings rate was around 80% (on aftertax dollars).  I have some residual discomfort with pinning down exactly how much I spend/make/save just to make a general point, which is why I left it at \"well over $100k\".  Roughly 60% of my spending is on housing, and I have quite a cheap place for my area. \n My original point was that many people's (like my friends) cost of living tends to move in lockstep with their income, and they end up living more and more extravagantly but have roughly the same savings rate.  My tendency has always been the opposite:  I know what I enjoy and I spend on that; the fact that I make enough money to responsibly spend 3x as much doesn't factor too much into my thinking.", "id": "crnwtaz", "summary": "Income increases tend to go entirely into savings for me, while in my observation my friends who grew up rich tend to put those increases into consumption."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "I know it wasn't ill-intentioned, but the India comment is honestly pretty ignorant... \n India is far from a natural monolith; The colonization of India was described by a history professor to me as \"akin to taking Italy, Germany, France, and Britain and declaring them a single country\". \n Hinduism is also often referred to as a single religion, but that characterization only appeared with the advent of British colonialism*.  In reality, it was shorthand for \"the non-Muslim religious traditions of the subcontinent\" (at the time).  Granted, the fact that they've been lumped together for a while now has led to some coalescing, but religious beliefs die hard and there are still stark differences from region to region within Hinduism.  Throw in the other major religions of Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism (religions that are more different from each other than Islam and Christianity are from each other), and a myriad of tribal religions that are different enough from the rest that they don't quite fall under Hinduism, and you've got a ridiculously heterogeneous religious landscape, far from \"the same religion\".  The United States is infinitely more \"the same religion\" than India is. \n Culturally, India was and is far from a monolith as well;  even after a few hundred years of being administered as a single entity under the British, the Indian constitution still has codified recognition of 22 different languages.  THIRTY languages have more than 1 million native speakers. English and (to a lesser extent) Hindi roughly serve as a lingua franca, but this is about comparable to, say, English-speaking in Europe (probably less so).  There is still active debate over the language(s) to be used in official communications, since Hindi was only spoken by 43% (not even half!) of all Indians at the time of its selection as the official language. \n > they're all the same color\nYou can find native Indians who are as white as an Englishman, and native Indians who are as dark as any sub-Saharan African, and everything in between.  Both language and skin color are far more varied than in Europe, a continent whose inhabitants have spent the last millennium killing each other (by which I mean, clearly not a guarantee of cultural cohesiveness, which is what your comment implies).  \"Soft\" discrimination by skin color is still very prevalent, and even today, you'll see commercials starring the biggest stars in the film industry that advertise creams to make your skin lighter.", "id": "cb4ak4p", "summary": "India isn't even close to \"the same color\", isn't even close to \"the same religion\", doesn't even come close to all speaking the same language and thus your premise of \"they're a single culture\" couldn't be more incredibly wrong. \n *\n\"\"\"The notion of \"Hinduism\" as a \"single world religious tradition\"[44] was developed by 19th-century European Indologists, who depended on the \"brahmana castes\"[44] for their information of Indian religions.\"\"\""}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "I was a college student at the time too and remembered thinking \"oh my god it's so obvious, buy equities now\".   Here's the thing though:  A lot of people are very intimidated by stocks, consider them no better than gambling, etc.  Those people who  were  inclined to invest in equities are the people who were already invested in equities before the crash, and just had half of some large fraction of their net worth wiped out.", "id": "c8iby7i", "summary": "The population of people left with the liquidity to pour into stocks was skewed heavily towards people who were inclined for other reasons (perhaps irrational) to not invest in stocks at all, since those were the people who weren't invested in stocks before/during the bubble."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "It's not nearly as simple as that.  If you're too scared to leave your job to start a startup because the cost of failure is \"my family will starve to death or die of preventable disease\", that stifling of potential innovation is an enormous net loss to society (in the aggregate).  The same reasoning holds for \nThis is the main reason that we have such piss-poor social mobility (i.e. you'll more probably grow up poor if your parents were poor), worse than most of the developed world.  It's obviously extremely intuitive (and hell, practically empirical, historically) that a meritocratic economy is going to be far more efficient (i.e. better for all involved), even leaving aside concerns of unfairness. \n Obviously complete redistribution would kill meritocracy and economic efficiency, which is what you were getting at.  The key point is that entrenching economic advantages between generations (by not providing a floor for failure with a social safety net and having MASSIVE competitive advantage based on wealth) also does damage.", "id": "c8qjwa8", "summary": "Too much of a safety net stifles innovation and economic efficiency, and so does too little."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "I know this is tangential to his point, but we're 3rd on the HDI, which is effectively meaningless without context (as opposed to the IHDI).  The publishers of the HDI have explicitly said that the IHDI is the \"actual level of human development\" and the HDI is a measure of \"potential\" standards of living. \n On top of that, the claim that the average American isn't affected by crumbling infrastructure is quite an extraordinary one to make without evidence.  Road repairs (for example) aren't done for fun, they're done because the cost of the repair is lower than the overall damage done to cars/the usefulness of the road (in more severe cases where it slows traffic down appreciably).  Using the same simple-minded logic of the guy you quotes, one could claim that there's no reason for roads, bridges, or airports to exist at all (\"people seem fine without an airport here\", ignoring the potential benefits of having one).  I should hope I don't have to explain the benefits of roads/bridges/airports/etc in /r/Economics of all places. \n On top of  that , the article gives multiple examples of the average American being \"hurt in any way\" by obsolete infrastructure.  Just look at the airport example.  Again, I shouldn't have to explain the economic cost of missed/delayed flights, long waits, etc.", "id": "cl9oilw", "summary": "Both the comment you quoted and your application of it to this thread  are way off-base."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "The evidence mostly states that minimum wage increases don't cause increased unemployment. \n Card (the co-author of the original study referenced by that link) was my professor, I'm well aware of the literature about its effect on unemployment.  I'm in full agreement that the \"conventional wisdom\" that min wage obviously and always does more harm than good due to unemployment increases is far from correct.  There's a loot of things wrong with your statement, however: \n1) The literature doesn't \"mostly\" state that, there's still substantial disagreement in the economic community.  On top of that, Card/Krueger's contribution was that \"the conventional wisdom that min wage generally reduces unemployment is wrong\", not \"the evidence suggests that min wage generally does not reduce unemployment\". \n 2) The marginal effect of an unemployment increase from current levels is far from a general rule (and the general effect of min wage policies was the context of my comment). \n 3) \nThe whole \"Empirical studies\" is a good read if you're confused about the economic effect of min-wage policies.  As just one example (out of many): \n\"A 2011 paper has reconciled the difference between Card and Krueger's survey data and Neumark and Wascher's payroll-based data. The paper shows that both datasets evidence conditional employment effects that are positive for small restaurants, but are negative for large fast-food restaurants.\" \n 4) More recent evidence has suggested that the minimum wage  does  reduce poverty (which itself gives a relative boost to employment simply through the healthier economy).  Given that the comparison being made in my comment was to a basic income system, the poverty-reduction effects of a min-wage policy (and the accompanying positive effect on employment) are irrelevant, or you'd be double-counting. \n > The issues of transferring wealth from consumers and companies to people who may or may not need financial help isn't really different with taxes to pay for basic income stuff. \n Sorry, but this is plain wrong, and you've missed half the statement.  The problem isn't just giving money to those who don't need it (and inevitably shortchanging those who do), but taking money from those who can't afford it.  What it boils down to is being able to target your source of revenue and target your source of spending.  When tax policy is determined (well, ideally....), intelligent sources of revenue are chosen (hence the increasing marginal tax rate).  Good tax policy doesn't tax the poor to pay for welfare.  By contrast, policies like min-wage tax arbitrary people:  this means that you are transferring from many people who themselves are struggling with poverty (again, through higher prices).  I don't understand how it's controversial to say that it's insane to tax the poor (in part) to give to the poor, when the easy alternative is to target exactly where your revenue comes from.  As to your point about basic income going to those who don't need it, a moment's thought should make it obvious that you can \"take away\" basic income from any income level (e.g., above $XX,000 a year) by simply raising their taxes by exactly that amount.", "id": "cis6zqr", "summary": "Your first statement is a radical oversimplification and relies on several faulty assumptions (both about the literature and my comment), to the point that it's simply untrue.  I don't mean to be rude, but your second paragraph is an unsupported assertion that couldn't be more false."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "It seems like both you and the person I responded to are imagining that  nightmare scenario of minute-by-minute hiring churn to the person who happens to be the most productive on any given day.  The fact that it's stressful and expensive (for both employers and employees) means that there's a natural barrier to a ridiculous level of hiring/firing based on merit;  the cost of firing/hiring is high enough that when you hire someone, you make a medium-to-longterm bet on their performance and generally don't fire them unless their performance falls substantially below the bar that you thought you were hiring them at.  To put it another way, there's a bias towards inertia, because churn is expensive. \n There's no reason that a meritocracy would change  this  at all, which is why I assumed that what the parent commenter meant by \"constant fighting for your job\" was \"performance will actually matter for pay, promotion, etc\".  Where I work, this is (an approximation) of how things actually work:  some people work hard and hustle and are super-smart and motivated, and they get raises and promotions etc.  Some people are comfortable doing a solidly competent job, and they generally have a slower pace of advancement in pay and job level (which they're comfortable with). (I'm lucky enough that I haven't yet worked with any truly lazy people at this job). \n On the flipside of this, consider those who truly are lazy and unproductive and just hold their job through connections or kiss-assery or any other non-merit-based factor.  Sure you might say \"Fuck it let 'em keep their jobs, whatever\", but what you're missing is that that's screwing the motivated, intelligent guy who would've applied for the job opening and done a better job.  I really have difficulty seeing how one could think this isn't an unequivocally good thing.", "id": "ci0btwd", "summary": "It sounds like both you and the parent commenter are imagining a scenario of constant hiring churn where you're assessed minute-by-minute:  this isn't realistic or cost-effective and what meritocracy would more likely bring is more of an emphasis on performance for pay and promotion, not \"keep up or you're fired\"."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "Per capita income is a horrible metric for \"standard of living\" (in general, using the mean instead of the median for trying to assess the avg standard of living is an extremely basic mistake).   That being said, the median income statistics also reflect this, with the median household income in Slovakia vs the US being $14,351 vs $30,932 (PPP-adjusted, so this somewhat addresses the cost-of-living disparity).  What it doesn't address is the fact that income and discretionary income are not the same thing, and the latter is far, far more useful as a (very rough) proxy for assessing standards of living. \nObvious example:  if the median (or mean) expenditure on healthcare is higher in country A than the media (or mean) expenditure in country B, but country B happens to do it through single-payer and country A has a more decentralized system:  then country B's income will appear to be lowered by the amount of their healthcare spending, while it's obvious that country A is poorer (obviously assuming the same quality of healthcare in this model).  Note that this is a pretty simplified model, so assume that the \"payment\" comes from some sort of deadweight loss.", "id": "clpkj57", "summary": "Assessing standards of living is pretty complicated, but using per capita income is so useless as to not even be worth using even as a very rough proxy.  While we're talking about SOL, we may as well go straight to the IHDI (which is  actually  a measure of standards of living), which has Slovakia at 20th and the US at 28th. \n EDITED: For a typo and because I accidentally swapped one of the As with B."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "Being a model of human rights means you're among the best (i.e. a model for other countries to follow).  Even under this definition though, we've got a pretty mixed record (I believe we were the second-to-last Western country to ban slavery). \n I think the article is probably referring to our efforts of the last half-century, in which we have a pretty solid (as in, best-in-the-world) legislative record on disabilities (the ADA), racial discrimination, gender discrimination, sexual assault, etc.  We've also historically tended to be pretty good about free speech and press;  the norms in places like France (widely considered to be highly progressive otherwise) are considerably less protective of free speech. \n On the other hand, we're positively medieval when it comes to drug prohibition, religious protections, discrimination on the basis of sexuality, and our penal system (until recently, our execution of children put us in the delightful company of ONLY the PRC, Pakistan, Yemen, and Iran, we are the only country to not ratify the UN Convention on Human Rights of the Child*, and we are the only country to put children in prison for life without possibility of parole). \n *Other than Somalia, because it has no government to do so...", "id": "caqbxu5", "summary": "There's support for us being a model of human rights, but it does tend to pale besides the more serious ways in which we're among the worst in the developed world. \n EDIT:  Added our particularly egregious policy of putting children in prison for life"}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "I think they're struggling with ratings for this reason. \n > they probably wouldn't regain the viewers that used to watch actual news. \n I don't think it's as simple as all that.  There's a variety of possible reasons that \"stupid\" news  is  optimal for ratings (and CNN definitely isn't as good at it as Fox or MSNBC).  The number of people who want \"quality\" news is probably a small fraction of the number that wants entertainment/validation/outrage out of their news (a la Fox/MSNBC).  Even if this isn't true, it's possible that people who like \"quality\" news are by and large not the audience for TV news (there's significant differences between TV news and online/print that may predispose TV to appeal to \"entertainment\" vs \"news\" audiences:  one example is that you don't get to choose what news you're watching so if it's something you don't care about you're SOL.  This is less of an issue for people who are just trying to be entertained).", "id": "chprdy6", "summary": "I'm not sure I agree with the assumption that TV news audiences aren't simply more entertainment-driven, as opposed to being so  because  news networks don't offer enough \"quality\" news."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "I think you misunderstand the way that collectivization causes the race-to-the-bottom effect.  The fundamental issue is that the severing of the relationship between work performance and pay provides no incentive to work properly/at all (you alluded to this with \"people reduce their level of effort because they don't benefit from working harder\"). \n The Swiss case doesn't have this effect AT ALL.  The basic income is unconditional, so more work = more pay (in the form of getting a job or working hard enough to keep your job).  None of the pitfalls of collectivism are enough remotely relevant in this situation. \n If anything, the basic income system the Swiss are considering would reduce this possibility.  You'd be hard-pressed to find places that offer no form of welfare at all (even if it's just limited to emergency room treatment of those who can't pay);  it's apparently not considered morally palatable to allow people to unqualifiedly starve amid plenty.  The huge downside of means-tested welfare (besides the considerable bureacratic overhead of means-testing) is that this exact severing of the work/pay relationship occurs at certain points on the income line (i.e. if you put in a lot of effort to get a job that pays a bit higher than the welfare you're currently receiving, you wouldn't bother trying for the job;  this is the race-to-the-bottom effect you're alluding to).   In the Swiss system, this would simply disappear, since there would be no perverse incentive (receiving lower benefits) for working more.  Whether you make 10 CHF/hr or 1,000,000/hr, you still receive the same basic income.  On top of that, other technically economically inefficient policies that sever the work/pay connection could be removed as well:  e.g. worker protections need not be as onerous (since losing your job can't be catastrophic anymore), minimum wage could be abolished, etc.", "id": "cdd3ewi", "summary": "I think you'll find that the exact opposite effect to what you're saying is much more likely to happen."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "I don't think this need be all that complicated a solution. There are workplaces that already function based on productivity as opposed to hours on the clock: mine is one of them.   I talk to friends who work elsewhere on gchat and they mention how they're running out the clock til 5 doing nothing, and it blows my mind; if I'm ever in a situation where I somehow can't be productive, I just go home.  I could work five hour days and I really doubt anyone on my team (or my manager) would care.  Noone I know does this, because a big part of your pay/career progression is based on your performance (along with the fact that all of my colleagues are smart and motivated).  If you're twice as productive as a coworker and work half as much, theoretically you both are rewarded the same.  It's honestly way way better than the alternatives (being paid for work vs existing for a set amount of time, what a concept...), and you can be as lazy or as motivated as suits you (of course subject to a minimum below which you're not really even earning your base salary, but it's extremely hard to sink that low). \n Of course, the whole system hinges on a proper system for assessing performance. I think we do a pretty darn good job of it, despite being a large company.  The alternative would be to run into the problems that /u/thatmorrowguy is alluding to.", "id": "cd1xafu", "summary": "no need for radically changing the way office work is done. Companies already exist that are based on productivity vs time in office and it works very well."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "Corporate officers are duty bound to maximize profits for shareholders. If a corporation's charitable giving was shown to reduce profits, they would have to stop it immediately. \n [snip] \n > Believe it or not, it is literally against the law for them to do anything that does not further [the maximization of profit] \n [snip] \n > They basically have no choice (other than quitting). \n Whoever told you that corporations are legally bound to maximize profits did you a huge disservice[1][2][3].  It boggles the mind that this game of pseudo-legal \"Chinese Whispers\" has gotten to the point where one can make those kind of rigid, absolutist assertions while being so completely unmoored from reality.  There's plenty that's horribly wrong with American-style capitalism, and making new things up doesn't do anything but make reform movements lose credibility. \n Given that the legal obligation to maximize profits is a massive canard, the pressure to do so comes from a shift in corporate culture over the last few decades.  This isn't just foofy groupthink that execs can easily ignore; they can be voted out of power by shareholders whose expectations are shaped by this culture.  Doing altruistic things that hurt profits doesn't help your chances of staying in the C Suite, but it does NOT mean that you WILL be voted out when you have the corp do things that negatively impact the bottom line.  If there's enough reason to want to keep you (i.e. you deliver great results overall), it can easily,  easily  outweigh the costs, particularly in the tech world, which is known both for its relative \"hippie-ness\" among corporate cultures and for its high margins and earnings growth. \n On top of that, the tech world is somewhat unique in that \"founders with a lot of power\" is very common.  As an example, both Google and FB have founders that have an unusually high ownership stake and a share structure that gives them even more disproportionate decision-making power.  This makes it even more difficult for founders to be voted out for things that technically hurt the bottom line, particularly when the bottom-line overall is doing so well.", "id": "ce3n100", "summary": "1) the legal liability argument is complete bullshit in the \"those facts are simply false\" sense \n 2) Absent legal liability, you can get away with hurting the bottom line in certain ways as long as shareholders think you're good for profits overall \n 3) Only relevant to tech, but they also tend to have a disproportionate amount of voting power (Zuck. owns 30%, BEFORE you account for his special share structure), rendering them even less vulnerable to getting kicked out by shareholders. \n Putting it all together:  The idea that anything a corp. does CAN'T be altruistic by definition (which, you'll recall, was my initial complaint about your comment) is absolute, complete, grade-A bullshit. \n [1] \n [2] \n [3]"}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "They are not emails.  The article is completely inaccurate.  They do look like emails (which has its own issues), but they behave like ads.  That means they're displayed at the top of the inbox, they don't go through the normal flow of inbox/deletion etc, they don't persist in your inbox, they won't be fetched by IMAP, etc etc.  None of that will happen anymore than it would for a classic display ad.", "id": "cb6c8vp", "summary": "It's a display ad that looks like an email, not an email.  It's presented in Thunderbird as much as GMail ads always have been (which is to say, not at all)."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "The sharing economy has traditionally referred to increasing utilization of stuff that you already own  (car-sharing, couch-surfing, book-swaps, eBay, Craigslist, re-selling used clothes on sites like BuyMyWardrobe), and sometimes getting paid for it.  This is pretty much an unalloyed good (in the cases where it doesn't run afoul of regulation), since (e.g.) instead of wastefully having clothes or books or whatever that just sit around once you're done with them/they don't fit/whatever, someone else can benefit from them, at a lower price.  Frankly, it makes a hell of a lot more sense than having to wastefully (and expensively) produce and buy new things while MASSIVE amounts of perfectly decent unused goods just languish in closets. \n This new breed of bullshit (MonkeyParking, Reservation Hop) is a perversion of what the \"sharing economy\" refers to.  The key distinction in these cases is that the unused capacity that you're selling  is not yours , and in most cases is an explicit subsidy whose effect you're removing and value you're capturing. \n In the free parking case, the city is offering spots below market rate (i.e. subsidizing them) in order to explicitly sacrifice some availability in the name of increased affordability; the asshole selling his spot on MonkeyParking is capturing the subsidy between \"free\" and \"market price\" and nullifying the city policy's goal to increase affordability.  Similarly, the dicks who AirBnb their rent-controlled apartments are getting a subsidy (from the city, the landlord, and other renters in the city) so that their housing is insulated from rent increases; by AirBnb'ing it, they're turning around and capturing that subsidy for themselves without fulfilling the goal of the policy (which was to allow them to keep living there).", "id": "ciol1zv", "summary": "The sharing economy is not what you think it is;  this new breed of apps is substantively different and doesn't represent wha tthe sharing economy has referred to traditionally and still refers to by volume."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "Yea $4000 is weirdly high, but he did also mention meter fees.  I actually looked it up, and parking tickets aren't really that expensive...they're like ~75 bucks (given that they're meant to be a deterrent and are amortized over all the people who got away with illegal parking).  Like I said, I haven't driven in a while and I had a friend who just got a $500 speeding ticket so my subconscious estimate for what tickets are is probably too high.", "id": "clueh0t", "summary": "I suppose you're right, $4000 is high enough that it's not unreasonable to assume that there are quite a large amt of parking tickets."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "One thing to keep in mind that I never see people do: \n Everyone is directly using a multiple derived by cost of living;  this is a decent rule of thumb but you really have to incorporate your savings rate. If your savings rate is greater than zero,  an 85k Boston salary  is not equivalent to 103k in the bay area because your amount saved will be similarly higher.  Depending on your age, situation, etc, this could be an appreciable amount. \n When I graduated from college, I had a friend looking at a job in champain Illinois. Using the cost of living calculator below, he ended up thinking that 90k in champain would be equivalent to almost 200k in Mountain view. What he was missing is that our savings rates were around 80%,  so with a 150k salary in MTV  he'd actually be saving 120k vs 70k-ish (note that this is an oversimplification due to ignoring tax, but the general point still holds).", "id": "cp135ab", "summary": "if you use a cost of living calculator directly witjout incorporating your (potentially substantial) savings rate, you'll end up with a pretty flawed understanding of the comparability of the two salaries."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "People who are willing to buy something like this more often than not know they could get the same thing somewhere else cheaper, but they do it anyway because more of the money they spend directly contributes to the wellbeing of a local person in their area, strengthening the community on the whole a little each time. \n If this is really the motivation (i.e. if you don't actually think that the broom is worth the extra $42 in direct value to you), then what you're essentially describing is donating $42 to the manufacturer.  I think charity is highly laudable and wish it was common to give much more (and that includes myself), but why wouldn't you give it to an actual charity (a local one, if that's what you're emphasizing)?  I don't understand why donations needs to be coupled with a useless purchase.  Donating to a charity focusing on mental health counseling (as just one of a billion examples) ensures you're directly helping someone in dire need of help, as opposed to donating to an arbitrary member of the local economy and then waving your hands in the air and claiming that you're strengthening the community (in many cases without any understanding of how much of your dollar is going to markup, distribution, advertising, etc etc etc, a lot of which isn't helping the local economy).", "id": "cqbgoxp", "summary": "Economics is complicated, throwing money away in hopes of \"strengthening the community\" is far less effective and does far less good than taking the extra money you're spending and donating directly to a local charity."}, {"author": "wutcnbrowndo4u", "content": "It doesn't cost them nearly $10B (perhaps this is the more-than-meets-the-eye you were referring to): \n Considering the tax advantages alone, Forbes  estimated  and the cash-on-hand that Motorola had (I don't know how much of that is going to Lenovo as part of the sale).  Using Forbes' analysis, that means that the buy-sell made them $1.5B in cash and a portfolio of patents (which I think were valued at something like $5B during the sale?).  That puts them at $6.5B ahead, + whatever cash they kept of Motorola's, minus whatever Motorola's losses over the last couple years was (I forget this number, but I think it's less than a billion and certainly less than 2B).", "id": "cf2b7dl", "summary": "If my math isn't wrong, far from paying 10B for the patents, it looks like Google most likely paid nothing or even made a billion or two in the buy-sell process that got them the patents."}]}
+{"author": "Evis03", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post If you can’t be arsed reading the whole argument, odds are you won’t be swayed on this topic. But if you insist: EVE online shows that the auction house idea in Diablo 3 is not without merit and may indeed improve the game experience for many people. You want to know how/why? Read the piece.", "output": "This sort of thing has been done before, and honestly it works quite well. \n EVE online uses a very similar system, the only real difference is the medium through which real life money changes hands. In EVE, the medium is game time, in D3 of course, it will be items. \n Here’s how EVE’s system works: At any time a player can, using real world money, purchase time codes. These codes can either be used to extend the players subscription, or turned into an in game item called a Pilot’s Licence Extension (PLEX). PLEX, being in game items can he sold and traded on te game’s markets for in game currency (see where this is going?), meaning a player is essentially buying in game currency for real currency. A player who owns a PLEX can redeem it for game time at any point in station. This essentially means that some players can play for free, provided that they can grind out enough in game currency to afford the PLEX. It also works out well for the players selling the PLEX because it means they don’t have to spend time grinding, and can instead focus on the elements of the game they enjoy (PVP For example). \n So you can see it works out well for everyone- it cuts back on the number of incidents of account hacking and so forth with regards to gold farming, as there is a ‘legal’ alternative. It works out for players who have a lot of time as they can play for free, and it works out for players who have spare cash as they can avoid grinding. \n It’s a win all around. \n So how does this compare with D3’s auction house? Well to be honest it’s exactly the same principle, the process is just turned slightly. Many people don’t like grinding, this means it awkward for them to get high end equipment. So why not let them buy the items? You can argue they havn’t ‘earned’ them, but given that items have a level  limit in place anyway, it’s hardly going to upset the balance of the game is it? The same character of the same level is wielding the same kit- the only difference being the player isn’t pissed off about burning hours of time killing monsters when they could be doing other parts of the game they prefer. \n People who enjoy/don’t mind grinding also get a win out of this because they can actually make some real money. I can foresee this becoming a problem if D3’s loot awarding mechanics are not up to spec (nothing breaks friendships faster than money- except maybe sex), but that would be a failing of that part of the game as opposed to the auction house itself. \n Everyone wins with the reduction of gold farming. Now true, you won’t be able to buy in game currency like you can in EVE, but currency is only used to buy items anyway, so the net result is the same- you’re just cutting out the middleman. \n I hope this has made a few people reconsider their views on this element of D3. I’m not defending all of the decisions that Blizzard and Activision have made mind, the always on DRM for example is an abomination. But as they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day."}], "user_id": "longlamp_2284", "history": [{"author": "Evis03", "content": "The thing is we're now reaching a point where the technical quality of games as games is peaking. Early machines were so primitive even if you could conceive of Skyrim (and I'm certain people did) you couldn't make it on say the NES. \n We're now at a point where PCs and consoles keep delivering better and better graphics and the ability to create not just visually appealing games, but incredibly complex games with sophisticated AI and mechanics. Each year people say \"this is it, graphics can't get any better\", and they are proven wrong. But the problem is that each time the boundary breaks, it's less of a lead from the last 'best graphics ever'. \n I think people wanted the new generation of consoles to be the thing that really delivers a massive new surge in game technical capacity. Graphics, online connectivity, complex AI- everything. What we're getting is such a small increase that owners feel cheated. \n It doesn't help that the consoles were sold in that way too. \n Don't get me wrong you need to market your product and what can you market a console on if not power in a day and age when exclusives are thankfully getting rarer? But then you create a problem of expectation. \n Then the PC enters the scene. PC gamers get a superior game in pretty much every respect when effort is applied to the PC port. Better graphics, better sales structures, better online support and multiplayer (usually). PC gamers are starting to get more and more support for 4K resolution, while consoles struggle to get to 1080P- something quite a few games of the previous generation managed just fine. \n You would at least expect an achievable, albeit not commonly reached goal for nearly decade old tech to be the standard on modern tech. It takes to optimize yes, but where is that nigh on ten years of advancement showing? \n Other graphical options are cool. Particle effects, lighting parallax occlusion mapping, whatever. But can we really not get them and a resolution that has now become a defacto standard in the entertainment sector? \n Maybe console gamers expected too much. Maybe manufacturers oversold the product. Either way this debate stems from disappointment in the console crowd and resentment from the PC crowd who are seeing games gimped to make them run on 'next gen' machines. \n Many game buyers know as much about game technicals as they do about the dark side of the moon. 'Gamers' are not as large a market share as we like to think. Most are just ordinary people who buy the game series they know and enjoy. They don't read gaming magazines or visit IGN. They don't even read reviews a lot of the time. This means they are ultimately ignorant of what is actually possible with modern tech, and what their machines were put together to achieve. \n As such they are not supporting Ubisoft's stance- they are ignorant of it. And that's not the same as acceptance. \n It also means the argument is an echo chamber. An echo chamber implies a small number of agitators supporting each other against the opinion of a larger majority. Well here the larger majority isn't against them. \n In short, Ubisoft better hope consumers stay stupid.", "id": "cllpq98", "summary": "Ubisoft gone and did another Ubisoft. Idea that people are okay with sub 1080P comes from the fact most buyers are not aware of the potential they could have, rather than those buyers actively accepting games as they are."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "To be honest, the idea of having comedians present serious educational shows is not a bad one. Its been done on a few occasions with British shows, most notably Horizon who have used David Bideal and Alan Davies (Not strictly a comedian, but well known for his work on QI). \n These where among their best shows, and the interesting part? The comedians were not even trying to be- or actually being, funny. Comedians, especially stand ups need to know how to work and hold a crowd- this is a skill that is hugely important in all forms entertainment and especially in education- bad material becomes entertaining if the crowd is engaged and good material becomes excellent material. The skill transcends the material being used, it's a combination of language, expression, emotion and so forth, and is applicable to a variety of areas. It's the difference between a bad lecturer and a good one- both may have a wealth of knowledge, but one helps the people they are addressing to engage with the material and draw them in. \n So when you are presenting an educational show, helping your audience to engage- even if they actually WANT to watch the show results in a better experience. And of course, more information retained.", "id": "c1frjte", "summary": "It's a good idea. Comedians know how to hold and work their audience, and doing so makes for better shows, even if they're not comedy."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "The same way I feel about all 3D products- it was a fad back in the 80's and now it's the same fad just more expensive. I had a 3DS for a few months (picked it up at a midnight launch) but traded it in largely because the library was piss poor, my tablet is more suitable for mobile gaming and the system itself offered nothing of interest. The 3D worked really well, but ultimately it didn't really do anything to enhance my experience. \n Same with films. All it does is look impressive, but otherwise doesn't enhance the experience (in fact in the Hobbit is hindered it). After half an hour you don't even really notice it any more. It's not worth shelling out all that money for what amounts to bells and whistles. \n At the end of the day if it gets very cheap I can see takeup increasing, but as it stands it's just too much money for virtually no gain. \n That said I'd love to see something like a horror game where the 3D could be intentionally fucked up, screwing with your perspective and such like. Could work great for a Cthulhu game. That's the sort of thing 3D needs to justify itself to me, to actually have artistic use instead of just existing. \n However Nintendo has been very cagey about doing things like that thanks tot he fact that the 3D technology we have at the moment causes eyestrain and headaches for many people, and a pretty sizeable chunk of the population are actually stereo blind- more reasons why 3D is a fad that will likely either die off or remain only with a select group. As I said, if the price gets to the point where it's only marginally more expensive than regular equipment I think more people will jump on, but that's far more offset by the big problems regarding eyestrain and stereo blindness.", "id": "c919cwi", "summary": "Fad with serious core problems, especially in the way it's currently implemented. Unless new technology is developed to avoid eyestrain, headahces and account for stereo blindness and it also becomes much cheaper, it'll likely never be more than an enthusiast piece. It also needs to actually have some artistic application to ever be more than a gimmick. It currently lacks that."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "I was a little dissapointed in Civ 5 to be honest. \n [From my blog:](\nI really don't know what to make of Civilization 5. There's so much of it that I enjoy, the hex based system, the fact the stack has been removed, the addition of ranged attacks, the way cities can defend themselves, the simplified happiness and economy system, the new way strategic resources work, the way units can cross water on their own... it's all really good. But you know what? I think I actually prefer Civilization 4. \n Before reporting to the comment section and flaming me for 'hating on the new' please allow me to explain. I've been playing Civilization since Civ 2. I loved it. I played civ 3, I loved it. I played civ 4 and I ADORED it. For me, Civilization 4 has everything that makes the Civ games so good. It had very well thought out diplomacy, the culture mechanic was excellent, the religion mechanic was difficult to learn but very powerful, and culture flipping meant it was possible to capture cities without ever needing to fire a single shot. \n Civilization 5 has stripped most of that down and put all it's extra effort into one particular theatre- war. \n Warfare in Civilization 5 is excellent, it can compete with the best of turn based strategy games in that regard. War has always been a central element to the Civ series, pick up any Civ game and you'll notice how most of the units are combat units. But I just feel that Civilization 5 takes this too far. You can still get culture, diplomatic and scientific victories too, but many of the diplomatic options have been stripped down, and many of the features of culture (such as flipping) have also been removed. Espionage is also strangely absent. Nothing has been put in to replace them either. \n It's quite sad really. So many brilliant new features have been packed into Civilization 5, and yet the removal of just a few little bits from Civ 4 totally changes the feel of the game. \n I think if you're looking for a turn based wargame, Civ 5 is certainly a worthy purchase. But if you're actually looking for a true Civilization game, I'd wait until these features are added in the inevitable expansion packs or fan mods. I've completed a game, and to be honest I just don't feel like going back and playing another one. At all. When there's something I can do with/to other civs besides blowing their heads off, I'll come back to it. Until then though Civ 5 will be collecting dust on my hard drive. \n Incidentally, if anyone knows of a good mod that adds all this stuff I'm whining about back in, please let me know. Civ 4's features + the changes listed above would equal total, unequivocal, win.", "id": "c24ydo1", "summary": "Warfare was fantastic, but I felt all other elements of the game had been severely nerfed in the process. Great wargame, but a great civ game? Nah."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "I went to a catholic primary school, mainly as it was one of the best schools in the area. Why? Becuase while it was a catholic environment, regularly host to mass and we sang hymns during assembly, the lessons were strictly based on accepted scientific fact and the national curriculum. There was no creationist bullshit, no forced moral values, nothing of the sort. There was certainly no indoctrination- hell, half of the kids weren't even Catholic. Their parents had just claimed they were to get them into the school (as I said, it was a very good one). \n I suppose the point I'm making here is that while kids can be raised and educated in a certain environment or certain culture (they will always be exposed to something, regardless of how neutral you try to be), but what they are actually taught as part of their lessons should not be baseless, fundamentalist claptrap, especially from state funding. Keep the trappings of faith, but keep the faith out of the actual curriculum. \n State funding for education is an investment in the future. It is ensuring that children grow up with a strong, well rounded education that they can use as a foundation for whatever path they want to choose in adulthood. Hopefully they will be successful and as a convenient byproduct give back to the state through jobs and taxation. \n A faith curriculum does not provide such a foundation, it simply exists to further baseless supposition and lies to consolidate power with a small, cloistered group. It does not provide a competitive education anywhere except outside of said group. It does not help the child, it does not return an investment to the state. \n You can have the best of both worlds. If for some reason it's absolutely imperative that your children be raised and educated in a religious environment (say, you're worried they might look at it objectively if they discover other ways of thinking exist), they can be and they can still have an education that will help set them up for the future. \n Years later I've spoken with my teachers from that school. Not one of them gave a crap that I'm now an atheist, all they cared about was how I was getting on in life.", "id": "c8zu786", "summary": "Faith Curriculum bad for individual and state, faith  environment  not necessarily so."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Good game, lacks the impact of the first, but still fun. I'd happily give it an 8 out of 10, marks lost only for being very short. That said, what was present was of high quality. 4 hours is bullshit, it took me 6, and from what I've heard that's fairly fast. Day one DLC? People whining about fuck all. It's a purely cosmetic difference, there are no new levels, no extra content or anything like that, just some stupid fucking gubbins for your co op character. That is not worth complaining about- if you want an example of day one DLC that is taking the piss, look at DA2. \n Allegations of porting- shut up. Even if it is a port, the control is excellent, the graphics are strong and if it wasn't for that one message when you save, you'd never have known. There is nothing wrong with ports. There has never been anything wrong with ports. When something is BADLY ported, then you have something to complain about as a bad port can fuck a game up entirely. This is not one of those ports. \n 'Living up to expectations'- Portal 1 was a groundbreaking proof of concept game that was unlike anything that had come before. Portal 2 was never going to have that same impact as it's not new. There are certainly new elements to the game, but if you're expecting to be as amazed as you were before, then you're an idiot. Go and find a new game to play, and you can be amazed all over again. \n The ARG- Valve announced the release date as April 19th. You never lost any time. Yes they could have released the game earlier, but instead they went with the ARG, and I for one had a blast with it. Being part of a large group working towards a common goal was a great experience, watching people piece together different pieces of the puzzle was interesting, and overall I think the entire idea was very well executed. It also accompanied a sale of games. And for those of you who didn't want to be in the ARG, as I said, you DIDN'T LOSE ANYTHING. It was announced for April 19th and it released on April 19th. The ARG was certainly a way to make money first and foremost, but it offered a potential bonus for playing, as opposed to taking something off you for not playing- and that is a very important difference.", "id": "c1qb05b", "summary": "Much of the criticism levelled at Portal 2 is baseless. It's people looking for a reason to get angry and indignant, when if you sit down and actually think about the 'issues' they are not important. The only problem is the length of the game, and even that has been exaggerated."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Started as a Polish Duke. \n Got the crown of Poland and the Crown of Bohemia. \n Mongols turn up and start fucking up everything. \n With a little nifty marriage work and three unfortunate accidents, placed a member of my dynasty at the head of the Golden Horde. \n Golden Horde fragments as it rejects the foreign ruler and descends into civil war, destroying its advances for about 50 years and causing so much internal tension it never really recovers.", "id": "cauqv7l", "summary": "Stopped the Golden Horde without ever raising a single levvy."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Sorry, but no. If you want to create something that was 'inspired' by another work then fine. It's how genres are born. But if you're carrying the name as well that's a whole new matter. They've changed pretty much the entire setting and story, there is nothing left of the books in this film's setting. \n This means they're just trading off the name. At this point it's nothing more than a marketing scam to try and trick people into thinking they're going to see something they are not. \n Look at the Star Trek reboot, or the BSG reboots as an example. Or the LotR trilogy. They are clearly very different (even LotR changes a few pretty big details), but keep most of the elements of the original stuff they are based on. They have the same characters, just with a different focus. They have the same settings just modernized (apart from LotR obviously). There is a clear, distinct link between the old and the new- between the source material and the new product. \n All signs point to no such link being here. Again, it's a marketing scam.", "id": "c91z86e", "summary": "If it's inspired' by the book rather than an adaptation of it, then call it something else, otherwise you're just being intentionally dishonest."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "I thought the TDKR was a played out mess and the biggest problem was it attacked all sides of the argument it was wading in on (will of the people, will of government, freedom versus security, Occupy versus the 'establishment) without offering anything new. It was the film equivalent of a teenager shouting \"YOU'RE ALL STUPID\" at people having a political argument- and then not following it up with anything. Not a new point of view or idea, not why the argument is stupid to begin with, nothing. \n Considering that TDK had a very clear and excellently realized view on its subject matter -the role of laws and operating outside of them for better or worse, TDKR was terrible by comparison. TDK has characters as cyphers for these ideas, each one exploring them in different ways. Joker is pure anarchy (What you have with no laws). Dent is pure legalism (Frustrated by the laws but still obeying them) Bruce is the agent that operates outside of the laws, but still on the side of order. The film's message is that sometimes you need to suspend laws (the Caesar reference), or personal liberty (the city wide scanner) to protect yourselves against a threat (Joker). However of course if you keep maintaining that, odds are you're the bad guy- I.E that pure rule of law is just as bad pure 'freedom' (anarchy), and we must strike the balance between the two (Seizing the money launder leading to the arrest of the entire mob, even though the 'arrest' was outside of the law, but Lucius' attitude to the city scanning machine too, as only a pair of examples). \n TDKR's message is all over the place. It attacks the rule of law with the idea that the city officials/financial elite have essentially become the new mob (who hired Bane), so obviously this is a response to the Occupy Movement. But then it goes on to say that the Occupy are just as bad as Bane turns the city into some sort of anarchistic commune. The problem is the film never bothers to try and strike a balance between these two opposing forces like TDK does. It's just \"THIS EXTREME IS BAD\" and \"THIS EXTREME IS BAD\"... okay so where's the middle ground? Can there be a middle ground? What's the alternative? If there's no alternative what are you bringing? What are you actually contributing to this ongoing discussion? In TDK we got the idea that there's a middle ground and that there has to be one. We can't live at either extreme, but we can't do without the forces either. In TDKR though we seem to just get a rehash of the same message, but with an Occupy V Wall Street twist, and no attempt made to either answer or invalidate the argument. \n You can get away with just flipping off the argument but you have to do it well. For example, Dr Strangelove doesn't take a side in the ideology and politics of the cold war, instead opting to satirize the entire concept of the cold war and turn it into a farce- a group of white middle aged men essentially engaging in the mother of all 'mine's bigger than yours' competitions. The sexual imagery and terminology of the film makes the leaders out to be rutting animals. That's clever and delivers a very clear view on the subject matter. \n I never got that from TDKR, so without anything to contribute to the argument or anything to invalidate the argument, it offers none of the pop intellectualism of the TDK.", "id": "caz07os", "summary": "TDKR was a huge step back from TDK in terms of how intelligently it was written, the themes they explored and the conclusions that they reached. The rest is my personal light deconstruction of the films to support that sentiment."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Gaming has reached a turning point. It's no longer an 'underground' art form, or a hobby for select minority. It's become mainstream, it's now far more in the public eye is well on the road to becoming as common a form as entertainment as watching TV or a film. Mobile devices has made it as ubiquitous as radio and Nintendo have marketed games to a entire demographic that would never have considered them- something Sony and MS tried to emulate with the Move and Kinect. \n This means it's now being subjected to the same moral values and societal pressures as other mainstream art forms. This exact same discussion is ongoing or has been had in film, music and any other medium you care to name. \n Consider the Bond girl as an example. Initially they were little more than eye candy and a goal for the main character to pursue. In recent years they've changed to provide a more pro active role, and while many people (especially feminists) would complain they're still mainly TnA and a convenient hole for the hero, it would be disingenuous to claim they're just as bad as the old bond girls. \n Mainstream society is, as a whole, somewhat less tolerant of such ideas surrounding women than it was in the past. Game developers and publishers have grown and flourished under the radar of such pressures as it's been too much of a niche to get that much attention. As such the sexist tropes and ideas that the Bond movies couldn't get away with any more were allowed to continue in gaming thanks to the fact there was little pressure for it to stop- either from consumers or from creators. \n But now we have a mainstream audience and a large number of consumers who DO care about this stuff. As such the discussion started to flair up again- much like it did with the Bond movies as feminism started to become a 'thing'. \n So we're in a situation where there's a deadlock between new fans who want a more progressive attitude to the depiction of women, in line with the values of modern mainstream society, and the 'old guard' who feel a bunch of invaders are demanding changes to something that is not theirs. In such a situation, animosity is assured. Factor is prats on both sides taking the argument to an extreme (and lets not forget, the prats shout the loudest) and both parties dig their heels in- both fighting on a matter of principle. \n But why now, and why to this level? I think that has more to do with the fact it's not just the consumers who are seeing the new way of thinking as a good thing any more. Journalists and even developers are also starting to approach gaming in this idea- many of them 'old guard', well known figures themselves. And that escalates the argument to a whole new level- it's not just a pitched 'us and them' battle between old and new any more, the battle lines are becoming muddied which causes many people to fight back all the harder.", "id": "c9a65w7", "summary": "Gaming has avoided the feminist pressures to change that are present in EVERY artistic outlet as up until recently it was too niché. Then it got popular, entered the mainstream public eye and is now big enough that it's feeling said pressures. Old Guard gamers don't like being told what gaming should be by the Johnny-Come-Latelys, so a pitched battle ensues. The escalation over recent months as been some of the Old Guard siding with the Johnny-Come-Latelys."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Honestly? Money Grubbing. \n Look, games are a product. I get that. Without money, we don't get games. Simple as. \n However it seems over the last ten years we've seen a pretty heavy slide from \"Making great games so they sell\" to \"making a product that maximizes profit and might be a good game\". Many of the tactics currently used to maximize revenue do so to the detriment of the game. F2P, Micro transaction and nickel and dime DLC are prime examples. What should be core features are now packaged off and sold separately. \n Civ 5 is a big offender here. I've played every civ game and on release, I can honestly say I thought 5 was the worst, by quite a margin. Recently loaded up a new game with all the DLC packs and suddenly all the stuff that should have been there, is there and it's now a damn good entry to the series. Only problem is you had to pay for what should be in the base game. \n Then there's rushing games out the door before they're done. There's releasing knowing the game isn't perfect, and then there's knowing full well the game is in a totally unworkable state- and releasing anyway. That seems to be getting more common. BF4 is the latest in a long line of examples. \n Gutting niche appeal too. Dragon Age 2 is a prime example. I grew up with games like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. Seeing what was essentially a well done, big budget version of those games in the modern idiom was truly heart warming. It genuinely felt like those old games, while still being new and modern. Then DA2 just turned it into a third rate, shitty ARPG that totally abandoned that link to a bygone age. But hey, it opens up the market right? Well yes, but then again you're not opening that market up to the product- you're just switching from a niche market to a broad one. That's not expansion. \n Oddly enough I thought XCOM made that jump very well, mainly because while it was a very different beast, it kept a certain 'essence' of the original games. It wasn't the same, the link between the reboot and the originals is far less than the link between say DA:O and Baldur's Gate, but there's still something there. Plus the fact it's actually a good game helped too. And I'll support anything that gets more people into TBS. \n Fallout also managed to make the conversion too. Again, different animal but (especially New Vegas) kept an essence of the originals. \n Oh, and MMOs. Everyone wants to make an MMO because it's a license to print money, because WoW is insanely profitable. Only problem is I hate MMOs, I hate almost everyone I meet online, and the only MMO I've ever played that really NEEDED to be an MMO to actually work is EVE Online. All the others could work as single player games with a multiplayer component. \n But yeah I hate MMOs anyway, but I get even more annoyed by the fact companies keep trying to make them and they keep failing but they never fucking learn. TESO is going to die quickly and painfully, will be F2P within a year. Just like virtually every other MMO over the last few years. That's one money grubbing fad I'll be glad to see the back of. \n But in the end all my ramblings come down to one simple problem:", "id": "cdxujnq", "summary": "Developers and publishers creating a product based on maximum profit rather than relying on profit coming from creating a great product."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "I went thI went through a similar experience with a utility supplier a while back. \n I was living in shared accommodation and all the bills where in my name. When I moved, rather than being a dick and forcing my housemates to go without electricity and gas, I arranged for my account to be transferred over to one of the other people who would still be living there. \n This was tickety boo, I moved out and didn’t think of it again. Four months down the line and I start getting cold calls. I check the numbers and discover it’s for a debt collection agency. Now there is no fucking way I’m going to let these pricks scare me- after all I know damn well that the only debts I have are my student loan (that I currently don’t need to pay) and my overdraft (which is all handled by my bank). \n The calls keep coming. I ignore them. Finally, one time when I pick up there’s a person on the other end of the line who informs me they work for a debt collection agency, and that I owe over two hundred quid to someone. They won’t say who. \n Naturally, I refuse to make payment. They threaten me with bailiffs. I threaten them with a solicitor for attempting to run a scam, as well as threatening me (remember, to my knowledge, all my debts are in hand). This gives the drone on the line pause, who- after consulting with his supervisor- tells me the debt comes from this utility supplier. \n They got the name of the company right, so I give them the benefit of the doubt. After some rather intense questioning, they finally give me a reference number for the debt, and agree that it’s only fair I speak with the supplier before I pay the bill. \n I call them. I’m told I owe the money due to a change in the rates, over a period where... fuck it I can’t explain it reasonably. Basically, they can decide to retroactively change their fucking prices, and charge you extra for a period you’ve already paid for. \n I’d have accepted this, except for the fact that the period covered was for a time when I was no longer living at the house. I’d moved. I explained this, and the migration of the account, at which point they said they had no record of he ever having moved the account to a new person. \n I was livid, but they said they’d waver the debt if I could prove that I wasn’t living at the house at that time. Easy enough, I arranged to send them my tenancy agreement for the new place, and they accepted it. I call the debt collection agency and tell them it’s all worked out, and they let me know that they can’t close the account until the person who sold them the debt tells them to. Fair enough. \n Two weeks later the debt collection agency is making threats again. I call the utility supplier and they inform me that the tenancy agreement is not valid after all. The reason for this is because I may have been renting two properties at once. I had to laugh. I offered to send them payslips to prove that there was no way in hell I could afford to rent two properties at once. They said I might have other income. I asked how I was supposed to prove I wasn’t living at the address then. They suggested a letter from the landlord. I told them that (truthfully) I was no longer in touch with him. They suggested a copy of the contract stating the end date. I told them it was a rolling contract (A minimum period of six months, can then be cancelled by either party with a month’s notice). They said that in that case it was impossible to prove to that I wasn’t living at the house and I needed to pay up. \n At this point I lost it. I pointed out that under the law, it’s acknowledged that it’s impossible to prove a negative, I pointed out the moving of goals (the fact they initially accepted the new tenancy agreement as evidence), as well as my willingness to release personal financial data to prove I was not capable of renting two properties. \n Finally, they caved and wrote off the debt. Conveniently, they initially forgot to tell the debt collection agency who hounded me for another month before finally being called off. \n I’ve moved again since then, and am now borrowing from a letting agency. Can you guess who their required utility supplier is? Yeah. The same damn company. \n I’m not planning on moving any time soon.", "id": "c2929rl", "summary": "Got fucked by a utility supplier who demanded payment for a bill I didn’t run up. Hijinks ensue, Finally get them to realise they’re fucking retards, in cruel twist of fate, now have to use same company."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "That's all fine and good, but once a mob forms, then what? It's a case of proportionate response. For example, should the police be allowed to break into people's homes? Of course not! But on the other hand if they have sufficient evidence that the premesis is being used for dangerous illegal activities, or a person is being held there, and they are obtained a warrant... well then the story changes. Likewise a water cannon should not be deployed unless it's actually necessary. I'd say a mob of people hurling firebombs is necessary. The student protests that have taken place recently are an example where they should NOT be used. The 'attack' on the millibank offices was perpetrated by a few (exceptionally stupid) individuals. Pretty much everyone else just followed them in and milled about. Water cannon not justified- hell not even usable given the situation. \n On the other hand if we ever saw something like the LA riots around here... that I'd support. \n And there is more to consider here than damage to property. In a riot  people are injured - often seriously. Many of them just had the shit luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'd argue it's better to break the mob up fast rather than risk innocents being the victim of a 'mob mentality'. Look at the poor fucks who where unfortuante enough to be caught up when the EDL marches turned nasty. The injuries sustained from a water cannon would be less dangerous- and that's assuming they got caught in the cross fire. Most people would probably be running like hell away from the danger- I.E the large groups.", "id": "c18yks5", "summary": "It's a question of proportionality. The correct response to the correct level of danger."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Copied from my blog at: \n I really don't know what to make of Civilization 5. There's so much of it that I enjoy, the hex based system, the fact the stack has been removed, the addition of ranged attacks, the way cities can defend themselves, the simplified happiness and economy system, the new way strategic resources work, the way units can cross water on their own... it's all really good. But you know what? I think I actually prefer Civilization 4. \n Before reporting to the comment section and flaming me for 'hating on the new' please allow me to explain. I've been playing Civilization since Civ 2. I loved it. I played civ 3, I loved it. I played civ 4 and I ADORED it. For me, Civilization 4 has everything that makes the Civ games so good. It had very well thought out diplomacy, the culture mechanic was excellent, the religion mechanic was difficult to learn but very powerful, and culture flipping meant it was possible to capture cities without ever needing to fire a single shot. \n Civilization 5 has stripped most of that down and put all it's extra effort into one particular theatre- war. \n Warfare in Civilization 5 is excellent, it can compete with the best of turn based strategy games in that regard. War has always been a central element to the Civ series, pick up any Civ game and you'll notice how most of the units are combat units. But I just feel that Civilization 5 takes this too far. You can still get culture, diplomatic and scientific victories too, but many of the diplomatic options have been stripped down, and many of the features of culture (such as flipping) have also been removed. Espionage is also strangely absent. Nothing has been put in to replace them either. \n It's quite sad really. So many brilliant new features have been packed into Civilization 5, and yet the removal of just a few little bits from Civ 4 totally changes the feel of the game. \n I think if you're looking for a turn based wargame, Civ 5 is certainly a worthy purchase. But if you're actually looking for a true Civilization game, I'd wait until these features are added in the inevitable expansion packs or fan mods. I've completed a game, and to be honest I just don't feel like going back and playing another one. At all. When there's something I can do with/to other civs besides blowing their heads off, I'll come back to it. Until then though Civ 5 will be collecting dust on my hard drive. \n Incidentally, if anyone knows of a good mod that adds all this stuff I'm whining about back in, please let me know. Civ 4's features + the changes listed above would equal total, unequivocal, win.", "id": "c2cui1e", "summary": "Civ 5 is an alright game, but it's a stripped down version compared to the older games. 5 focuses HEAVILY on warfare, leaving you very little else to do. If you just want a turn based wargame, Civ 5 is your game. If you want a real civ game that balances war with many other aspects of statecraft, you'll want 4."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Scientific findings state that information gathered under torture is not reliable. Even if a person has 'broken' and isn't just lying to make it stop, they end up in such a distraught state of mind that their ability to recall even simple information is massively impaired- I.E they give complete bollocks even if they don't mean to. \n Links to reports are present in the article. \n Of course, telling a brain dead waste of flesh like that stupid bitch anything factual will probably result in the 'science is balls' defence. Hail the lord God- granting you licence to half drown brown people* and ignore any evidence that says chances are, it won’t even achieve anything. \n Of course, there's also the simple fact that torture is fundamentally wrong. My personal belief is that everyone involved in Guantanamo bay should be rounded up and tried for war crimes, from Bush himself down to the f###ing janitors. \n *also includes any race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, height, political standpoint and inside leg measurement.", "id": "c11m7wq", "summary": "torture doesn't work and, morally, is utterly reprehensible."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Thinking out loud I can offer a few suggestions \n \n Hardware. Consoles could (up until recently) offer graphics just as good as a PC but at a fraction of the cost. They're also far easier to develop for. The end result is that the console market is massive and easy to cater for, compared to the PC market. Sadly RTS games do not play well without a mouse, so devs generally don't bother trying. \n \n Smaller percentage of target audience interested. I think this one is probably the main contributing factor. As gaming has become more and more 'main stream', fast, instant gratification games like FPS and 3rd person shooters have become the dominant genre. These sorts of games tend to ship more than any other. As such if you're a publisher/dev what do your pursue? A game that 10% of gamers might be interested in, or a game that 80% might be interested in? RTS gamers tend to play other games too, so either way you can get their money. This also contributes to what RTS games we do get being 'baselss'- it makes the game faster and more intense, hopefully appealing to the instant gratification crowd. Factor that in with reason 1 too and you're limiting your options. So yeah, you can still make money with a base building RTS, but why bother when you can make other games that generate even more money? \n \n Loss of talent. You touched on this one. Many of the devs who were around during the 'golden age' of the RTS have now disbanded or have been gutted (I hated EA before it was cool thanks to Westwood. Telling them to make an FPS- what did they fucking expect!?), or have moved on to other things. Blizzard have WoW (though for how much longer is questionable), and SC2 has a latch key audience as well as being the cornerstone of one of the most popular esports in the world. Why risk that? \n \n \n Kickstarter projects and such like though have recognized three important facts. Firstly, that there is still an audience who love this sort of thing. Secondly that this audience is now all grown up and have deeper pockets than the 15 year old CoD crowd. Third, they will trip balls over nostalgia, not for specific games, but for specific gameplay. If publishers are smart they will be watching the Kickstarter projects carefully to see if they are financially viable side projects. \n What I mean by this is that games development has sort of begun to follow the same path that movies did a few decades back. Film studios sued to put out up to 20 films a year, each aimed at a specific niche. After a while though execs began to realize it was more time and cost efficient to make one big product to appeal to everyone and then advertise the shit out of it. Gaming has become something similar- devs now release one or two AAA titles a year (one notable exception seems to be EA) with big budgets and masses of advertising, so those games are aimed at the largest potential groups. Most will also release some shovelware too (you'd be amazed how much drek some studios put out), but even then the shovelware is usually somewhat homogenized, or no more specific than 'aimed at pre teen boys', or shameless film tie ins. \n If Kickstarter can prove that certain genres can still generate enough revenue and interest then we may see a resurgence of these titles as side projects to the main AAA fest. Lower budget, lower polish perhaps, but if it's a safe investment that will turn some profits we might see it happening. I think 2K and Firaxis might be testing the viability of this 25+ nostalgic demographic with Enemy Unknown. \n So basically we may see these titles come back yet.", "id": "c6hpoz3", "summary": "Small percentage of the audience interested compared to fast, instant gratification games like BF3, further compounded by RTS games on consoles usually controlling like pigshit. Devs make games that have the highest potential audience, so not many RTS games made. Loss of talent due to lack of demand on the old dev teams. Could see a resurgence soon though if devs decide to risk the 25+ nostalgia trip market. \n Shameless whoring :"}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Oh God this reminds me of when I tried to run KOTORIIin windows 7. I got it working... sort of. Well, it loaded. Most of the time. The big issue was I couldn't go half an hour without some game breaking glitch popping up that required me to reload or even worse, revert to an old save. It was an uphill struggle and after several hours of stop and start gameplay I just gave up.", "id": "c2kqj90", "summary": "Can't help, but share your pain."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Eve can get very boring, very fast. It is NOT a game of instant gratification, in fact it's more like fishing than anything else- you spend hours doing sweet bugger all that wouldn't be more fun in any other game, hoping for that short, sweet time when something happens. \n And even then only half the time is the payoff worth the wait. \n Beware that you also need to grind in EvE. Not for XP, but for ISK. As XP is doled out bit by bit in real time, ISK (money) has far more impact on the things you do and the decisions you take. Expect to spend many hours mining / mission running / trading just to build the capital to do anything fun. \n When I play EvE (I play it on and off depending on how disillusioned I am with it at the time) I find the empire space PvP, Faction Warfare, is quite fun. Problem is that once you start loosing ships you're back on the grind to get the ISK to replace them. \n This isn't as huge a problem if you can get out into 0.0 space, but don't expect anyone to let you into their alliance before you've demonstrated you know how to play the game and have a decent character. More grinding. \n Basically, you need to find something that you'll enjoy quickly. Faction warfare is fun and accessible, but make sure you get some training first. Faction Warfare agents can also be profitable, especially as they offer loyalty points that can be traded for valuable faction gear you can then sell. Beyond that you will need a source of income. Whatever you choose, you WILL end up hating it before long. \n Basically, EvE's big problem is the fact that while the fun parts are really fun, the time spent 'working' to the time spent having fun is heavily lopsided in favour of work and boredom.", "id": "c0zbors", "summary": "Try Faction warfare for PvP to actually enjoy the game, run missions for faction warfare agents to make money to be able to enjoy the game."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Oh for fucks sake. The last one killed the franchise dead, now they're just fucking the corpse and mistaking the motion for life. I was the biggest CnC Fanboy you could meet. I loved them all, Tiberium Dawn, Sun, Red alert one and two, all the expansion packs. I almost wet myself when I saw the first decade collection was on sale. \n I even liked Renegade. Sort of. \n Red Alert 3 was a soul crushing disappointment. But I still played it because hell, nostalgia can be a powerful thing. Then I played Tiberium Twilight. \n Twilight. Even the name sends alarm bells up your spine. So I fired that fucker up, psyched to do some gaming. The pub downstairs was open for at least another 6 hour, and the first frosty pint of many rested by keyboard. I was so ready. \n I screamed like a 13 year old girl at a Justin Beiber concert at the intro. It was AWESOME. The world close to ruins? Yes! GDI and NOD forced to co-operate!? Yes! KANE HAS THE TACITUS!? YEEESSSS! \n They couldn't fuck this up. They'd got that gritty, almost-post-apocalypse feel from Tiberium Sun. I loved that game's atmosphere. It was like Tiberium Wars never happened! \n Then came the wife. Oh dear God. Dear God no. Just no. No no no. Christ could you overact any more!? Please fuck off! Christ this is the first time I've ever wanted to skip a CnC cutscene! PISS O... thank you. \n Then came the game. I actually threw up a little in my mouth.  My pint went undrunk. Many more pint in potentia also remained solidly within their casks. Oh My God. What have they done!? Where's my base? Where is my... what am I... why can't I build... Oh. Oh. \n Gradually, like a hippo lazily shedding its steam log over my head, realization dawned. I learned how to play the game. I saw the new design for the scorpion tank and shed a manly tear at what they had done. I made it three missions in before I tore my shirt off, ran screaming into the night time rain, fell to my knees and bellowed a challenge to the gods that nothing they could visit upon humanity could be worse than what I had just seen- the total ruination of a series I had loved. A series that was one of my first ever videogames and my VERY first PC game. \n Well actually it was really cold so I just closed the game and raged about it on reddit for a while. Plus I liked the shirt. \n Oh, my first ever written words regarding that game are here:  *Edit- Do NOT expect a well written, ballacned review. This is pure, unadulterated fury. I always try to give level and even reviews, the fact I couldn't do it may be taken as an assesment of the title's worth.", "id": "c35iuui", "summary": "Series is dead. You killed it like disco killed dress sense. you burried it in the back garden and limed the soil. Now you have raised its bones and want it to perform some dastardly danse macabre for you. Just let it fucking die or take it back to what it should"}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Well done, you have identified the fact that once a person doesn't communicate directly with another person, all the basic social principles of etiquette, debate and basic common decency go out the window. \n People are pithy, senseless, hate filled fools. Everyone thinks they're right and everyone else is wrong. The internet means a person can exercise that view without fear of retribution, and so they do so with reckless abaddon. Notice how it's the posts that reaffirm and encourage the 'hive mind' mentality that get the most upvotes? \n Wherever you go online you will find these hate filled self righteous, circle jerking arrogant fucks- and yes, I am on of them. If you want my advice (and as this is the internet I can say it, even if you don't)- if you want learned discourse, genuine debate and to have your opinion taken seriously instead of cast out like yesterday's trash, you need to find people to debate with IRL. \n If your town has a university, find where the professors drink and argue with them. They'll offer evidence and attack your point of view ruthlessly if you disagree. But they will never attack you personally, and there is the key. They will respect you, provided you can argue well. It's not like the web where you can simply vanish if you're losing the debate, and thus still maintain your insignificant, often ill informed opinion- if you're wrong then you are fucking  wrong  and you can't escape. \n The internet; three people with a good idea they will try and hundreds of millions who know better, but will never leave their chair. 'Aint we fucking grand?", "id": "c17ftn8", "summary": "People are cunts and the internet lets them act like it without fear of reprisal- reprisal being the only thing that keeps most of these wastes of DNA silent. You want someone to actually listen and argue with cogently, find people IRL. And I'm going to keep posting, and I'm always going to be right. Just like the rest of you."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "First of all, point out that Andrew Wakefield's work has been entirelly discredited by every attempt to duplicate his results. If he says they're rigged, point out that would mean a global conspiracy spanning dozens of nations and cultures and advise him to send the idea to Dan Brown. Next point out that this research was done by people far more knowledagble on the subject than him- people with education AND experience. Finally keel haul the fucker by demanding evidence for his 'there are fewer geniuses' point. If he can't provide you with evidence than it's just an unfounded opinion and he has no place preaching it as evidence. For example, people of high intelligence are simply not as appreciated today as they where in say the Victorian age. These days people would rather know what Paris Hilton is doing than Stephen Hawking. Plus breakthroughs today are mostly made by teams, not individuals which simply means there are plenty of smart people out there, just fewer NAMED individuals.", "id": "c1n0c8t", "summary": "challenge him for evidence on every point and then present your own research. Hopefully, he is just trying to encourage independent thought and research. \n Edit-- you can also point out that many 'classical' geniuses and especially Victorian engineers, where believed to be autistic and the autism does not mean stupid."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "I Can see why you needed to ask this. A few points:\nBut the story I’m going to tell you now started when I got to know Nicholas. At this music festival we both worked at. \n This is just wrong. It doesn't flow and doesn't add anything artistically either. \n I would re write it as: \n But the story I’m going to tell you now started when I got to know Nicholas, and I first met him At a music festival we both worked at. \n If I was being REALLY pedantic, I would re write it to thus: \n However, the story I want to share begins with my first meeting with Nicholas; specifically at a music festival where we both worked. \n As a 14 year old studying English as a second language though, I would not expect her to write like this, I'm just providing this a reference to my own writing style so you can appreciate the school of thought the rest of my advice comes from. \n Beyond that first part though, your student really should look into using the semicolon and the dash- they are perfect punctuation for her style, and would allow her to use the fragmented structure properly, without it looking amateurish. As an example: \n I walked over to the sofa. Incredible that anyone could be this tired after just half a days’ work. \n This is a little fragmented. Use a hyphen in place of the full stop though, plus some extra wordage and... \n I walked over to the sofa- it was incredible that anyone could be this tired after just half a days’ work. \n Much better. The dash adds a pause, but maintains the idea that whatever comes next is still linked to the point before the pause. A period implies that what follows on next should stand on it's own, bearing no relevance to what has come before. \n The Semicolon is used to link two independent, yet related clauses. I.E each could stand as a sentence on it's own, but is related to the same thing. For example: \n I smiled. Paul was a quite huge guy. Both tall and round. \n It's technically correct, but with a semicolon it becomes far more polished: \n I smiled. Paul was a quite huge guy; both tall and round. \n The Oatmeal has a great guide for semicolons: \n Another example:\nThe staff room was quite crowded. Busy people running in and out. A lot of sounds. Quick footsteps, sound checks, stressed commands. Better get back to work soon \n Becomes:\nThe staff room was quite crowded, busy people running in and out- a lot of sounds; Quick footsteps, sound checks, stressed commands. \"Better get back to work soon\", I thought. \n To be honest though, the semicolon and the dash are advanced punctuation and most native English speakers can't use them properly. Still, you say she is very bright and if she wants to be able to write in English very well, teaching these techniques may well be of great use to her- especially given the style she has presented. What she's written isn't really wrong (for the most part), it's just lacking the right punctuation (which, as I've said most native English speakers don't know how to use anyway). \n When I was her age I had a very similar style of writing (still do when working on fiction), and I wish someone had shown me these punctuation marks sooner- it would have saved me a whole load of embarrassment!", "id": "c15lpbx", "summary": "Style is fine, but needs advanced punctuation to make it work properly."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "I'm holding out for Versus 13. That is this franchise's last chance. If it doesn't blow my socks off, then I'm calling it quits. It's like watching Highlander movies man. Sooner or later you just need to take a step back and think \"Why do I keep putting myself through this? There is no doubt to give benefit for.\" \n I will NOT be even looking at this game. 13 was the worst of the series so far, and for a franchise that has included such abominable releases as X-2 and VIII, that is saying a lot.", "id": "c2r8cik", "summary": "Fuck this game. I wouldn't but it if it came with a free bag of weed and a blowjob. Well actually..."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Reasonable grounds' \n That wonderful catch all term that basically means 'I can do this whenver the fuck I want'. \n Here are some important things to consider when dealing with a stop and search: \n Remain polite. Don't get defensive or aggressive. Remain neutral and well mannered. Refer to the rozzer as 'Officer'. Don't make smart arsed comments, don't raise your voice. Keep your body relaxed and your body language neutral. They expect you to be nervous (everyone has something to hide, or at the very least no one expects good news from a police officer). Be mindful of personal space. Don't back away, but don't get up close and personal either. Try to maintain the distance the rozzer sets up. \n Never, EVER run. They will likely catch you. Some officers will let you off if you're carrying small amounts or will just issue a warning. Even if they don't, if you run the penalties will always be far more severe. Likewise, mouthing off is a one way ticket to the station. \n Make life as hard as possible for the guy (or gal) without breaking decorum. Ask to know why you've been stopped. Demand that they be specific. Counter things like \"You look like your hiding something\" with \"Why do I look like that?\" It's your legal right to know why you're being searched, so use that and really put the officer on the spot. Contest everything that you can, but remember to REMAIN POLITE AND WELL MANNERED. \n Ask the officer for all the information you can legally have (listed in the link) and more if possible. Make sure it's clear you intend to record that information (Type it into your phone, scribble it on a piece of paper, whatever). \n The goal here is to undermine authority and control of the situation from the officer without doing anything they can use against you. Don't let them bully you. Don't let them dictate the situation and don't do anything just becuase they tell you to. But stay polite about it and once you've made your token road block, do as instructed. \n Some officers (Especially the older ones or the ones who are convinced you're carrying) will get quite angered by this approach. They may start to threaten you, cajole you or in some cases sound like they're bargaining with you: \"Come on just had it over and it'll be a lot easier for you\" e.t.c. If an officer behaves in a threatening manner, inform them of such and refuse to cooperate further. If you've done nothing outside of your legal rights to obstruct them and you've conducted yourself properly they don't have a leg to stand on. \n Bargaining isn't worth going for. If you're carrying enough to make an arrest worth their time the officer will arest you anyway. They can't hold reasonable requests and demanding legal rights against you, so as long as you remain calm and cooperative (for a given value) you don't stand to loose a damn thing. Even if you reject the bargain and they find a gram on you, odds are they're not going to bring charges against you over a pitiful amount. \n It is your attitude and the amount you are carrying that are the main factors in how this will play out. \n If they want to search a bag, require that they allow themselves to be videoed (use your phone). This is NOT a legal right in the UK and the officer can refuse the request. Virtually all but the most young or honest will. Nothing sets their shit on edge like a documented record of their activity. Try and insist if you can, but remember that this isn't a legal right and so outright refusing to allow yourself to be searched on the basis that the officer won't allow the action to be recorded is not valid legal ground. \n If they ask why, tell them you're carrying valuables and if anything is damaged you want documentary evidence. Use the 'Do you have something to hide?' line. \n Remember, if they stubbornly refuse don't push it. Stay polite. \n Finally, if you're searched stay calm. The officer will try to wrong foot you and take advantage of your panic or worry. Don't let them. Stay polite, listen to what they have to say and consider your response carefully before giving it. Be as truthful as you dare, if the case does go to court what you've said will be part of the case. If you have small amounts odds are that the officer will try to put the fear of god into you, then confiscate your stash and let you go with a warning.  Never, EVER tell them you're sharing or selling. What you are carrying is ALWAYS for your personal use.  Suppliers get no mercy, even if they're just bringing some bud to a party and not actually selling. Personal use tends to be more lenient. \n If you think this is where they're going then let them. At this point you stand to gain nothing by being stubborn- you've already walked away with the second best outcome (the best being they don't search you at all). Reading the officer carefully is the key here. If they're going to arrest you then they generally don't bother trying to scare you or intimidate you, they'll just arrest you. If they engage in conversation and expect replies, then there is hope. If the worst happens then you're on your own, however if you've conducted yourself with decorum and grace then the rest of the process is usually a little easier for you. Courts look favorably on people who didn't cause extra trouble, and even if you're arrested you might not be charged. If you've been polite and co operative they may just leave you in the station for a while to scare you and then let you off with a caution.", "id": "c9qlsn2", "summary": "Stay polite. \n Don't get aggressive or defensive \n Demand all of your legal rights and make a few more reasonable demands if you can. \n Record everything that the officer says and does. \n Don't let the officer dictate the entire situation, but don't be flat out uncooperative. \n What you are carrying is for personal use only. \n Don't accept bargains. \n Ask if you can video the 'encounter'- but remember this is not a legal right. \n Stay calm, consider your responses carefully. \n Be as honest as you dare. \n STAY POLITE."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "The answer is simple- the basic principle is EXACTLY the same. Genetics is the same for any species that reproduces via male/female union. The problem with cannabis is that you need a male flower, and males can’t always show traits you need- bud production for example. \n So, let’s start out with the most basic lesson- breeding for a specific trait. You have a plant which produces large quantities of bud- considerably more than other of its strain. It’s a mutant. Find a male plant from a species known for large bud production, or better yet a male from the same strain. Breed them. You have a number of possible outcomes, which depends on the genetics of the mother and farther. Let’s say that the size of the bud is controlled by a single gene we shall call B. Big bud is recessive, b and small bud is dominant B. \n Make a punnet chart assuming both plants are homozygous for B, another for both homozygous for b, and another for both are HETEROzygous Bb. \n Now you grow the seeds and look at the size of the bud. Take a cutting from each seed before you flower! \n So, let’s say you see nothing but big bud plants. What does that mean? If you have say, ten seeds sprouted to maturity and all are big bud, what does that say about the parents if the big bud gene is recessive? \n That’s correct- both parents must be bb. And that means if you produce any seeds from those parents, they will always be bb, as there is no other possible genotype combination. Of course it could be a statistical aberration, but that’s unlikely with 10 plants. \n You have stabilized the trait, and provided you only breed stock you know to be bb, all your plants will have bigger buds! Hooray! \n But... what if some plants exhibit big buds, but some don’t? Well, in this case both plants must be heterozygous. In this case, you need to try breeding a female with big buds with different males until you create a crop which are all big buds. Only then will you stabilize the strain. But the advantage of that is, if all the females resulting from a particular parentage are all big buds, then all the males MUST carry the gene for big buds too! This means that if you identify a crop were all the females are big buds, then all the males from that crop will produce big bud females if crossed with females from that same generation and parentage! Remember, they are all bb! There’s no other possible combination! \n If none of the resulting seeds show signs of Big bud, what does that tell you about the male plant? Try to work it out yourself before checking the answer* \n Once you achieve this, you have ‘stabilized’ the strain.  You may have heard of unstable strains, they are strains which have not been inbred enough to limit their genetic characteristics. Theys till posses a wide range of allele options and so exhibit many phenotypes. The goal of a breeder is to create a strain which have favourable characteristics, and then destroy all genetic diversity in the strain so that there is very little chance of any phenotype appearing beyond that which the breeder has decided is beneficial. This is done by breeding the plant with other plants of similar characteristics, looking at the offspring and then only breeding those which most closely follow the ‘perfect’ template. Repeat for several generations, and you can stamp out most genetic variance. \n This is why breeding is a large scale activity that takes time. You lock down one trait, then suddenly several others pop up that you need to deal with. Inbreeding is taboo in humans because it lower the genetic diversity- which ironically is your goal when breeding cannabis. In humans it increases the chances of recessive illness causing genes to come to the fore, damaging the individual and the species as a whole. Much like my example above with the bananas and the overwatering, breeding for specific traits also reduces genetic diversity and means a strain is less able to deal with change. Knowing were to draw the line is key. \n You can also see the dangers of too much selective breeding in fancy rats and many species of dog- both of whom suffer chronic health problems because they were bred for recessive traits that actually harm the individual. \n *the male must be BB. The only way to produce a crop that shows no trace of big bud is if every single plant in it carries the B gene. If the mother is bb (and she has to be as the trait is recessive), then the only way to get a cross with 100% presence of the B gene in all the offspring is if the other parent is BB.", "id": "c2jzimc", "summary": "I'm explaining basic genetics and breeding. I can't sum it up in a trite little paragraph so either go back and read the whole bloody thing or bugger off."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "I don't believe that the person who wrote this appreciate the difference between sanity, insanity and gibbering underpants on the head pencils up your nose crazy. \n Many people suffering from mental illness are perfectly lucid for the most part, it's only in film where insanity typically equates to foaming at the mouth in every case. In that regard this take on the Joker is quite nice as it paints him in the way I believe things are supposed to be taken in the 'Nolanverse', I.E as grounded in reality as possible. Essentially the Joker  is  insane, but he's a sociopath- not just an unclassified madman scratching at the walls. \n The speeches are first and foremost vignettes. They exist almost for the same reasons the long talky scenes in Pulp Fiction exist- to establish character. They are also great little isolated set pieces- the sort of scenes that stick in your mind and color your perception of the entire movie. People sometimes forget that a film is a manufactured narrative and as such not everything that happens is directly related to the characters. A good director of course will make sure these moments do tie back to the characters even if the character's goals and personality are not the main reason they exist. In this case we are never given any clear reason why the Joker tells these stories but it never seems out of character for him to do so. \n On the subject of the Joker's backstory it's never been clearly established in canon. There's  The Killing Joke  by Alan Moore (A good but very overrated tale) which suggests one such tale, but it is mostly regarded as just that- a suggestion (in other books it is contradicted or things are implied about the Joker's mind that indicate he cannot recall much of the past). \n Keeping the Joker's back story in the dark adds far more to the character than a 'true' back story every could- namely the mystique of what the hell turned someone into such a monster. Thus any mention of his back story needs to be contradicted somewhere (preferably by the Joker himself). But it is something that you do want to at least acknowledge as it's something people want to know. It's a literary IN B4 BACKSTORY! to prevent criticism for not addressing the character's roots. \n Placing multiple back stories also helps build mystique and address the issue of people wanting to know where he came from thanks to the overlaps Deggit mentioned. Perhaps there is a kernel of truth in each of the stories? Each seems to revolve around a similar pattern of emotional trauma followed by the artificial creation of the smile and the Joker's present state following on from it. Give the audience a little and let their imagination do the rest (provided it's not vital to the plot of course, the point is  you  are supposed to be telling  them  a story.)", "id": "c5nrh92", "summary": "Nolan Joker is insane, he's just not your standard movie crazy. He's a closer (but of course by no means accurate) depiction of a sociopath. The speeches are less to do with the character and more to do with crafting the plot and presentation as well as appeasing people who want back story, without actually giving it to them."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Steam sales and packages. You get the games so damn cheap that you might as well be having them second hand. \n That and I just don't think there's even been all that much of a second hand market for PC games. I mean it exists, certainly. However I never remember seeing any decent sized second hand PC section in any games shop. It's possibly a cultural thing- if you're the sort of person who games on a PC, you are more likely to keep your games. Just conjecture based on observation though. \n At the end of the day though, we've got something in exchange for lack of resale- cheap games and access to services like GoG for a back library that's constantly being updated so games will work on modern systems (Look how neither of the current core consoles are supporting backcompatability). Console gamers sadly seem expected to give up something in exchange for OOOH NEW AND SHINY! \n Sadly PC gamers seem to be going down the same route. AODRM offers fuck-point-all to the consumer and yet people still defend it as 'the future', even though they're never quite able to define what that actually means. SimCity for example. It's AODRM is, on paper some really nice features. The region sharing? Cool idea. Resource sharing? Cool. Cities effecting each other? Really neat. These are all really good ideas for online play- but there's no reason they should be mandatory outside of turning features into AODRM.", "id": "ca3x94d", "summary": "PC gamers got something in exchange for selling the second hand market. Console gamers are being expected to just give it up with no actual benefit to doing so."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Will it do any good? Probably not. But I'm the kind of guy who bothers to write to his MP, so meh. I'd rather do something than just complain. Anyway, if you're interested here's the letter: \n Ubisoft, \n I’m afraid your DRM policies have just cost you not only a sale, but a customer. \n I’ve been a big fan of Ubisoft for several years- you have been one of the only publishers I will buy games from based on the label alone. I’ve never purchased anything with your name on it that I’d call outright bad (well except the last Prince Of Persia game, but I’ll forgive that one lapse). Some where middling, but most were good, well put together titles. \n Sadly I have seen your company embrace the DRM policy which the music industry abandoned half a decade ago, and even other videogame publishers have started to leave by the wayside. \n I believe your latest PC release, From Dust, characterizes all of the elements which make this policy so absurd. First off, you lied about the DRM when the game went on sale over at Steam. I could accept that perhaps there was a miscommunication somewhere, but editing your own posts and pretending that such a mistake never happened is not customer relations. People would have been far less angry with you if you’d just admitted that there was an internal error, and added an addendum to such a release. \n Secondly, your DRM has proven to be crippling too many gamers all over the world. Gamers such as myself who have poor internet connections can often be left with very spotty communications that sometimes cut out for hours at a time (especially people who rely on satellite comms). My own connection can suffer terribly from latency issues, and can often time out logging into services. \n Not to mention people who live their lives mobile and play on laptops- often in environments that don’t have an internet connection. \n What’s it all for? Why are you punishing us for being loyal customers? \n This question brings us to the third point- DRM’s impact on piracy. How can you justify providing your customers with a product they can only get to work half of the time, when pirates were able to download and play From Dust a day before the PC version was even officially released? How did this stop piracy? \n Put simply, it didn’t. It never has. It never will. This is a lesson that the music industry learned a long time ago, and one the gaming industry is also starting to realise. \n I am very sorry to turn my back on you- truly I am. But I will not be treated like a criminal first and a customer second. I will not pay money for a product with a ‘feature’ that renders it unusable if I want to play on a train. \n You will not be seeing any of my money again- no until you learn to treat your customers with the respect they deserve. \n I hope in time that we can put this nonsense behind us. \n -Evis.", "id": "t3_jnd02", "summary": "Take a wild guess."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "So, the highly anticipated Brink has just been released, and the standard flood of complaints have begun. People are attacking it left right and centre for a stream of bugs, errors, poor gameplay balancing and various other gripes. I’ve not played the game, I have no intention of playing it, so I can’t really comment on that. The reason though is something else which many people have also been raging against- Brink’s single player mode. \n Looking at the press releases, it was no surprises then to see Brink was going to be a heavily multiplayer affair. My interest was piqued momentarily when they stated they would be trying to incorporate a single player mode too, but I have up when I realised that they planned on making it merge with multiplayer. \n This could mean one of three options- a single player campaign with co op, a single player campaign with counter op (Remember Perfect Dark?), or a multiplayer game you could play by yourself with bots. \n Now the game has been released, the word is that it’s the third option. To be honest though, even if it had been one of the other two, it still wouldn’t have worked as Splash would have needed to tailor the game to make viable for people to drop in and out- meaning it would still play like a multiplayer game with bots, even in single player mode. \n So, where is the point in all this? Well, what I’m trying to say here is that Brink is indicative of a trend I’ve noticed in gaming, in which games seem to be passing over the single player experience in favour of a pure multiplayer game. I first touched on it here, and I’d like to expand on that now. \n Command and Conquer Red Alert 3, Resident Evil 5, Command And Conquer 4, StarCraft II, Borderlands, Halo 3, these are all games I’ve played in the last few years solely on the basis of a single player experience, and all of them have left me disappointed on that front. The reason is common to them all- they were designed with multiplayer in mind first, with little to no concession to the idea someone might want to play them alone. And these are just the ones I played; I’ve heard stories of other games with similar issues. \n I won’t go into all of them, but I would like to offer a few examples. CnC:RA3 featured 2v2 as the standard mission format, and required you to have an ally to the play campaign. If you didn’t want to, you were assigned a bot. \n Bots are usually stupid, especially in RTS titles, and this one was no exception. To this day I have not been able to complete the Japanese campaign thanks to the fact one level pretty much requires a coordinated attack, which is impossible to achieve with a dumbass bot. \n StarCraft II earns less heat as the single player mode does clearly have a lot of effort in it, however the price tag associated with it for a single player experience, lacking two of the bloody races (bar a Protoss mini campaign), is utterly obscene. \n Without friends to laugh at it with you, Borderlands is soulless husk of mediocrity and level grinding. Imagine WoW without any other people. \n Now, this is not a big trend. I’m not for one moment suggesting that solo gamers are being shafted, but this ‘problem’ does seem to be on the rise. I think it’s often linked to the allegations that games are becoming shorter and dumber too- why bother creating an in depth, complex and rewarding set of game mechanics when you can just bolt something flashy, with no depth (like Brink’s SMART system) together and let people provide the entertainment for themselves? As I said in the piece I linked above, most activities are more fun when you share them with someone- we’re a gregarious species, and we also like to compete. This is where the fun is coming form in these games. This is fine for multiplayer games; fun is fun regardless of the source, however it leaves us solo gamers with a distinctly dull product. \n I suppose the point I’m trying to make here is that I’d like to ensure devs don’t forget about us forever alone types, and to avoid thinking they’ve made a good game just because the multiplayer element is popular. What happens in a year when everyone suddenly moves on to the next big thing? Suddenly your opus has gone from the penthouse to cold and naked in the street as its servers empty. Your game wasn’t good; the people who were playing it were the fun part- and now they’re gone. \n I do however make an exception to this, in the case of games which are clearly multiplayer only and are not even trying to pretend they should be played alone. Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead (although that has its own set of problems), to name but a pair. It’s good marketing for me as I know damn well that I’m not going to enjoy these titles. I steer clear of them and I don’t put black marks against the publisher and developer for making me waste my money with false advertising. \n I think that a final mention should go to indie developers, many of whom cater solely to the single player market, and consequently are currently churning out fantastic, innovative games with a lot of scope and replay value. Keep it up guys and gals; it’s nice to know that at least someone is still interested in making games that can stand up on their own. \n So anyway, that’s my spiel and it’s also why you won’t see me reviewing Brink, or any other multiplayer game any time soon. \n Copied from my blog at  , obviously with my permission.", "id": "t3_h8g76", "summary": "Devs use multiplayer as a means to not have to put as much effort and creativity into thier games, relying on users to add the fun, ergo demeaning the single player modes of games greatly."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "So the time has come to ask yourself a simple question- and it has nothing to do with luck. Are you going to waive your rights to sue Sony for being a bunch of incompetent lack wits that don't have even the most basic grasp of security? Or are you going to tell them to piss off? \n Whatever choice you make, be aware that it will affect the industry, and what it can get away with in future. If you are going to agree to this draconian demand, I would also like to say that you waive any rights to complain about it. If you don't like it, don't agree to it. Make a fucking stand for once in your life and do without something. Complaining about it won't do shit- tell Sony to go and fuck themselves if you don’t agree with this course of action. \n Oh, and a quick message to the ‘first world problem’ brigade. Please take a running jump back into your own circle jerking subreddit. We know this is a first world problem, and we know it doesn’t compare to children starving to death. Nevertheless, this is something that effects most gamers, and it’s something we can do something about if we send a collective message.", "id": "t3_ki2rv", "summary": "If you're going to agree to waive your rights to sue Sony, don't go fucking whining about it. It was your choice."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Okay, here’s my proposal. Protest is always more effective when done simultaneously- having ten thousand people march at once is better than having ten separate thousand strong marches over the course of time. Just ask GoDaddy. \n As such I believe we should all write to representatives on the same day. I think that the 31st is best as it gives the idea a little over a week to spread. \n The United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea have all already signed this poorly thought out piece of legislation, however the EU, Mexico and Switzerland have yet to sign. \n Under the terms of the treaty, they have until the 31st of March to sign if they want to join. Of course, those of you living in countries which have already signed should also contact your representatives on the 31st- at the very least to let them know what a bad decision they made. \n So, here is your toolkit: \n Those of you who are UK residents can use [writetothem](  a free service which identifies your MP, Counsellors and most importantly for our purposes today, your MEP. Use this to identify the MEPs for your region and write to them ALL. You can do this with a single e-mail. \n Those of you outside the UK but in Europe (because as all Europeans know, we British have to do everything our own way) can ID your MEP through the  EU’s own search engine , and you will get the full list of MEPs who represent you. Click their name for contact details. Remember, e-mail them all. \n Americans can locate and e-mail your senators and congress reps [here]( \n Sorry to everyone else, but a quick google search should yield a tool to help you find your representative if your country also falls under ACTA. \n Please read the ACTA bill itself. It’s only 25 pages. [English](   [Spanish](   [French](  You may find points which I missed, or did not consider worthy of mention. On that note, please read the comments on this post in case anyone has anything constructive to add. \n Key points in your e-mail: \n \n Acknowledge that counter fit goods and IP theft are damaging to the economy. Yes yes, I know this is debatable but if you try to tell most of these people that they just stick their fingers in their ears as they don’t understand the grey area. Better to just tell them what they want to hear- especially if it makes them listen to more important points. \n \n \n Chapter II Section 1, article 6, paragraph 2 states with references to the procedures agreed by the act; “These procedures should not be unnecessarily complicated or costly.” Given that (as we shall see later), ISPs would be required to monitor the usage of their members, I think that such an undertaking would be complex, and costly.  \n \n \n Chapter II Section 2, article 12, paragraph 2 grants judicial comities the power ‘to adopt provisional measures inaudita altera parte where appropriate, in particular where any delay is likely to cause irreparable harm to the right holder, or where there is a demonstrable risk of evidence being destroyed’. This basically means that a judge can order almost any ‘appropriate’ action against the defendant- even if the defendant isn’t in court! While you can see the purpose of this piece of legislation, it does need to be tightened up, lest a clueless judge order an action that could destroy a legitimate trader’s business- such as shutting down their website. There is a later clause in section 5 which would require the accuser to pay compensation to the accused, but I at least feel this is not enough- especially if the accuser doesn’t have the funds to cover the cost of the compensation. \n \n Chapter II Section 5 article 27 is where this starts to get nasty- Enforcement in the digital environment. \n \n Section 1 requires that parties who sign the act have ‘expeditious remedies to prevent infringement and remedies which constitute a deterrent to further infringements’. This language is so vague it could mean anything from a three strikes system all the way up to blocking of a website. Further infringements by whom? A person convicted of piracy or pirates in general? \n \n \n Section 2 states that any privacy, expression and fair process laws in a country that has signed up to the act take precedent over the act itself. This is fine if you live in a country which has privacy laws regarding internet traffic- but is a kick in the nuts if you do not. \n \n \n Section 4 then proceeds to piss all over this. It requires ISPs to release TO THE RIGHTS HOLDER  NOT  A COURT, details to identify a subscriber who’s account has been alleged to be involved in infringement. Wow, so the courts can order an ISP to surrender your personal information to a non government body, based on the accusation of copyright infringement. Why is this necessary? Can’t the courts just take your information and order a summons? If someone breaks into my house and steals my TV, can the police release their home address to me? The same paragraph then has the gall to reiterate that privacy laws take precedent. \n \n \n Section 5 requires participating governments to take legal remedies against technology which enables the circumvention of this enforcement. Fine in principle, unworkable in reality. There are just too many people with too much time on their hands to create new ways to circumvent filtering. Even HDCP on Blu-ray was cracked in no time. The UK courts have failed time and time again to combat the legal highs trade for similar reasons – stick an oxygen atom on it and it needs entirely new legislation. You can’t control this without extremely broad terminology which probably covers legal technology too.\n*Section 6 expands on section 5, but really all it manages to do is outlaw physical devices with the main purpose of circumventing the ‘legal remedies’. Because there won’t be software for that. \n \n Now here is where it gets really fun. Chapter III, enforcement practises. \n Article 28 \n \n Paragrpah 2 requires parties to collect and analyse statistical data on copyright infringement. Err… how exactly? I mean, without extreme invasion of someone’s web browsing privacy? \n \n Paragraph 4 is ominous. It requires countries participating to encourage the establishment and maintenance of organized groups representing right holders who can give their views to the courts. Talk about a vested interest. You thought it was bad when the RIAA was corrupting politics, now they want a direct hand in the courtroom. Best of all this paragraph doesn’t state when these groups get a voice. Is it on demand from judges? Can they speak at a trial? \n \n \n So in summary, this act not only empowers, but actively requires that governments take action against copyright infringement. This is fine, but many areas of the powers and requirements are poorly defined. These powers are also unilaterally weighted in favour of the accusing party, to the point where organizations like the RIAA and MPAA can get a voice in the judge’s head. The closest concession there is to focusing on the rights of the accused individual is compensation if action taken by a judge damages their businesses and they are proven innocent. \n The act makes repeated attempts to state how a country’s existing privacy and rights laws take precedent, but then requires governments to collect statistical data on copyright infringement without any nod at how they can actually do it. Likewise, enforcement against online copyright violations are also extremely vague. The terminology is probably broad in order to accommodate the laws of the signatories, but if the act needs to be so loose, why bother having it? Let countries combat piracy in their own way. \n Well that’s it. I hope you will all join me on the 31st.", "id": "t3_orf2j", "summary": "Write to your representatives on the 31st of January and tell them that ACTA is bad."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Okay, here’s my proposal. Protest is always more effective when done simultaneously- having ten thousand people march at once is better than having ten separate thousand strong marches over the course of time. Just ask GoDaddy. \n As such I believe we should all write to representatives on the same day. I think that the 31th is best as it gives the idea a little over a week to spread. \n The United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea have all already signed this poorly thought out piece of legislation, however the EU, Mexico and Switzerland have yet to sign. \n Under the terms of the treaty, they have until the 31st of March to sign if they want to join. Of course, those of you living in countries which have already signed should also contact your representatives on the 31st- at the very least to let them know what a bad decision they made. \n So, here is your toolkit: \n Those of you who are UK residents can use [writetothem](  a free service which identifies your MP, Counsellors and most importantly for our purposes today, your MEP. Use this to identify the MEPs for your region and write to them ALL. You can do this with a single e-mail. \n Those of you outside the UK but in Europe (because as all Europeans know, we British have to do everything our own way) can ID your MEP through the  EU’s own search engine , and you will get the full list of MEPs who represent you. Click their name for contact details. Remember, e-mail them all. \n Americans can locate and e-mail your senators and congress reps [here]( \n Sorry to everyone else, but a quick google search should yield a tool to help you find your representative if your country also falls under ACTA. \n Please read the ACTA bill itself. It’s only 25 pages. [English](   [Spanish](   [French](  You may find points which I missed, or did not consider worthy of mention. On that note, please read the comments on this post in case anyone has anything constructive to add. \n Key points in your e-mail: \n \n Acknowledge that counter fit goods and IP theft are damaging to the economy. Yes yes, I know this is debatable but if you try to tell most of these people that they just stick their fingers in their ears as they don’t understand the grey area. Better to just tell them what they want to hear- especially if it makes them listen to more important points. \n \n \n Chapter II Section 1, article 6, paragraph 2 states with references to the procedures agreed by the act; “These procedures should not be unnecessarily complicated or costly.” Given that (as we shall see later), ISPs would be required to monitor the usage of their members, I think that such an undertaking would be complex, and costly.  \n \n \n Chapter II Section 2, article 12, paragraph 2 grants judicial comities the power ‘to adopt provisional measures inaudita altera parte where appropriate, in particular where any delay is likely to cause irreparable harm to the right holder, or where there is a demonstrable risk of evidence being destroyed’. This basically means that a judge can order almost any ‘appropriate’ action against the defendant- even if the defendant isn’t in court! While you can see the purpose of this piece of legislation, it does need to be tightened up, lest a clueless judge order an action that could destroy a legitimate trader’s business- such as shutting down their website. There is a later clause in section 5 which would require the accuser to pay compensation to the accused, but I at least feel this is not enough- especially if the accuser doesn’t have the funds to cover the cost of the compensation. \n \n Chapter II Section 5 article 27 is where this starts to get nasty- Enforcement in the digital environment. \n \n Section 1 requires that parties who sign the act have ‘expeditious remedies to prevent infringement and remedies which constitute a deterrent to further infringements’. This language is so vague it could mean anything from a three strikes system all the way up to blocking of a website. Further infringements by whom? A person convicted of piracy or pirates in general? \n \n \n Section 2 states that any privacy, expression and fair process laws in a country that has signed up to the act take precedent over the act itself. This is fine if you live in a country which has privacy laws regarding internet traffic- but is a kick in the nuts if you do not. \n \n \n Section 4 then proceeds to piss all over this. It requires ISPs to release TO THE RIGHTS HOLDER  NOT  A COURT, details to identify a subscriber who’s account has been alleged to be involved in infringement. Wow, so the courts can order an ISP to surrender your personal information to a non government body, based on the accusation of copyright infringement. Why is this necessary? Can’t the courts just take your information and order a summons? If someone breaks into my house and steals my TV, can the police release their home address to me? The same paragraph then has the gall to reiterate that privacy laws take precedent. \n \n \n Section 5 requires participating governments to take legal remedies against technology which enables the circumvention of this enforcement. Fine in principle, unworkable in reality. There are just too many people with too much time on their hands to create new ways to circumvent filtering. Even HDCP on Blu-ray was cracked in no time. The UK courts have failed time and time again to combat the legal highs trade for similar reasons – stick an oxygen atom on it and it needs entirely new legislation. You can’t control this without extremely broad terminology which probably covers legal technology too.\n*Section 6 expands on section 5, but really all it manages to do is outlaw physical devices with the main purpose of circumventing the ‘legal remedies’. Because there won’t be software for that. \n \n Now here is where it gets really fun. Chapter III, enforcement practises. \n Article 28 \n \n Paragrpah 2 requires parties to collect and analyse statistical data on copyright infringement. Err… how exactly? I mean, without extreme invasion of someone’s web browsing privacy? \n \n Paragraph 4 is ominous. It requires countries participating to encourage the establishment and maintenance of organized groups representing right holders who can give their views to the courts. Talk about a vested interest. You thought it was bad when the RIAA was corrupting politics, now they want a direct hand in the courtroom. Best of all this paragraph doesn’t state when these groups get a voice. Is it on demand from judges? Can they speak at a trial? \n \n \n So in summary, this act not only empowers, but actively requires that governments take action against copyright infringement. This is fine, but many areas of the powers and requirements are poorly defined. These powers are also unilaterally weighted in favour of the accusing party, to the point where organizations like the RIAA and MPAA can get a voice in the judge’s head. The closest concession there is to focusing on the rights of the accused individual is compensation if action taken by a judge damages their businesses and they are proven innocent. \n The act makes repeated attempts to state how a country’s existing privacy and rights laws take precedent, but then requires governments to collect statistical data on copyright infringement without any nod at how they can actually do it. Likewise, enforcement against online copyright violations are also extremely vague. The terminology is probably broad in order to accommodate the laws of the signatories, but if the act needs to be so loose, why bother having it? Let countries combat piracy in their own way. \n Well that’s it. I hope you will all join me on the 31st.", "id": "t3_orf5v", "summary": "Write to your representatives on the 31st of January and tell them that ACTA is bad."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "I've been in a back forth e-mail argument with a friend of mine on this for some time now. He reckons that full bans for cheating on single player games is justified. I disagree. \n My opinion is that if a person is cheating on single player modes certain aspects of the online experience that are linked to single player should be barred. For example, if you're found cheating in single player- no achievements. You need to  earn  your e-penis! If you get unlockable units in single player you can carry over to multiplayer, you can't use them online if you cheated to get them (directly or indirectly). I don't SCII has unlockable units in that way though. If there are competitions that used single player stats, bar people from entering them. \n The moral basis for my argument is that if a person is cheating in single player they're not defrauding anyone else. There's no unfair advantage if there's no one that they are playing against, and the method outlined above means that there's no way their cheats can carry over into the multiplayer experience. There's a fine (and somewhat blurry) line between a hack and a mod, and provided that a player isn't screwing with other people by using the cheat, why is it a problem? Where is the harm? They’re just changing the way the game plays to suit them more, and I can’t stress this point enough-  they are not screwing with other people while doing it if they’re online presence becomes subject to the above limits. \n It seems less draconian than a full ban, which, from what I gather, results in you also being unable to play the single player campaign too- effectively robbing you of whatever you paid for the game. \n What do people think? Am I missing a point here? \n I also find it funny that cheating in WoW usually results in fixed term bans in an  exclusively multiplayer  game, where your actions can mess with thousands of people, and yet cheating in a single player game where you harm no one is enough to earn you a permaban.", "id": "t3_dpoh5", "summary": "Blizzard's full banning of accounts for cheating in single player is draconian and I think I have a better solution."}, {"author": "Evis03", "content": "Okay so, Space Marine demo. This is only the second non RTS title Relic have ever made, and it shows. The demo is competently executed, but I'm not hugely impressed. It certainly wasn't bad though. The melee combat works, but it begs for a block option, or defensive stance of some sort. It's nice to see the 40k world up close in something that isn't Fire Warrior, but as is usual for this generation of games it's brown. Really fucking brown. In a universe where everyone dresses like an LGBT pride march, I'd expect some bright vibrant colours, but sadly Relic has opted for the usual 'Brown is real' approach. The voice acting on the marines is nice, but it did take me several minutes to differentiate between them and the orks. \n I can't believe I'm saying this, but it also needs a cover system. Here it comes, 'waaah waaah you're not playing it properly'-can it. Charging a gun line in this game will get you cut down faster than public spending. Nothing wrong with that, but it means you're in an awkward sort of shimmy left and right while you soften the enemy line before charging. A cover system would make this far less fiddly and more enjoyable. \n Healing by executing enemies is a very nice idea conceptually and shows how a game’s mechanics can complement its artistic and thematic direction. And here’s the inevitable however- when enemies can keep wailing on you while you’re healing, it doesn’t really help matters. If you’re low on health, odds are you’ll die while executing the enemy- especially if there’s an ork nob in the area. I can see this working better in co op where agro control can be more easily managed, but from my experience with the demo the ability to fight in a defensive posture would be hugely beneficial. \n I had far more fun with the jump pack mission, but at that point the game was so easy it was laughable. Fly up, smash down. Lather, rinse, repeat. \n I think the spectacle of the game will win many people over. Hint, if you’re been thinking things like ‘but you get to cut off an ork’s balls with a chainsword’ while reading this, that means you. Spectacle though, is a pretty weak thing to hinge your entire experience on. Still, if all you want is to run around with the most over the top, impractical weapon ever devised while screaming reverence for the Emperor, then Space Marine will probably suffice. \n And to be honest the spectacle does help paper over some of the cracks in the gameplay. It’s a lot easier to ignore the fact healing often means losing more health than you get back when it’s done via the medium of, well... belting an orc in the nads with a chainsword so it lifts him up of the ground and then bifurcates him. \n Still, I need a little more. Spectacle gets old. Seeing the same kill moves over and over again means that no matter how cool they may be, they're going to get old. Likewise graphics give way to the next generation of technology and become dated. Good gameplay though lasts for a very long time. There's a reason Counter Strike and Star Craft are still so popular. \n I’ll probably get the full game, but if I do it will be when it’s on sale. \n Copied from [TLCSM](", "id": "t3_jwx2k", "summary": "Not a bad game, but relies too heavily on spectacle."}]}
+{"author": "Todd_Solondz", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Nobody should evaluate themselves according to physiological differences in gender, especially when there's only a handful of real options anyway so it's so easy to just look at people individually.", "output": "I haven't seen Cochrans seasons, but if like, Skinny Ryan complained about being voted off before a girl then I probably would call that a bit sexist. The difference to me is generally acknowledging the strength that men tend to have vs refusing to look beyond gender when evaluating the worth of a person to the tribe. \n If Cochran is the worst, weakest member of his tribe and is shocked he might go before a girl then yeah, that's bad. If he's shocked that he's going before a girl because he's stronger than a girl then he's fine."}], "user_id": "longlamp_7321", "history": [{"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "I would. Any of his films (Other than Fear, Anxiety and Depression) are representative of his style. Although the rest of his movies tend to not focus on a single person in a single setting like Dollhouse, and instead either track a whole cast of main characters (Happiness, Life After Wartime, Storytelling) or focus on one character going on a journey (Palindromes). There's also Dark Horse, but that's very different subject matter to the rest of his films.", "id": "cesoqki", "summary": "Some minor differences, but if someone played you any of his other films without telling you who made it, you would know."}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "26 is considered by many to be the worst season. I haven't seen it, but being here has not given me a particularly strong desire to see it. \n You should watch season 1 first. Then if you were bored by it, ditch the idea of watching all in order, if you weren't, watch all in order. Maybe try out 1 and 2 to be sure, but those should give you a feel for what most older seasons are like and whether they are for you. \n You might only like new survivor, in which case, the best one you haven't seen is probably season 25, but it has returning players in it, so you'd want to watch seasons 2, 19 and 16 first, but since 16 has returning players, you'd want to watch 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15 \n Season 7 is probably the most popular season here and pretty much everywhere. Regardless of how you end up going about it, make sure you do watch it eventually. \n Don't watch seasons 8, 11, 16, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26 because they all have returning players that you need to see in their original seasons first to avoid being spoiled.", "id": "ckcsxeh", "summary": "You  will  spoil other seasons if you don't watch in order. Try out Borneo and Australia, see if you like it. If not, I guess accept that you're going to spoil yourself, and go for 7 and 25, plus whatever else is being suggested."}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "If you think that all the women and/or men in porn have consented to having sex on film, then you're incredibly naive. \n If you think that just viewing regular porn makes you the reason women are exploited, raped and molested then you're an idiot. Literally every single piece of child porn was created from abuse. Every single one. With regular porn it's the tiniest, tiniest fraction that the majority of people need never see or experience. The regular porn industry is not evil and there is nothing wrong with supporting it. Child porn is 100% of the time evil and that means that there is literally no way to watch it without supporting something evil. There is just flat out no comparison between the two and I honestly have no idea why you are trying to put people on the same level as those who watch child porn.", "id": "cjq0jfu", "summary": "Kids =/= adults and your comparison sucks."}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "r/amiwrong. \n I think it has potential to be a great sub. Sort of like /r/offmychest, but for people who are willing to hear/looking for the honest objective opinions of others. \n Hardly any posts there though. I check back from time to time, but never anything new \n Edit: 4 replies recommending /r/changemyview so far, so I'll just refer to [my response]( to that now before I get any more.", "id": "cht1vfy", "summary": "CMV is about ideas and AIW is about situations and incidents \n Edit 2: OK, so now 7 people have suggested /r/changemyview and I'm starting to think people are fucking with me. \n Edit 3: Fuck you guys."}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "Well done on the argument. It came very very close to me being glad Jon and Jaclyn were both there, and considering how militant I am against it, that's quite a feat. \n I like that this was a people first, game in the backseat episode, considering the obvious boots would have made it a horribly tedious gameplay oriented episode, but the episode hinged on the implications throughout the game for the interactions we saw, and really, it all amounted to nothing. Jonclyn got back together and made the decisions together, Baylor didn't try to save Alec, Natalie didn't get the chance for revenge. And that might be fine if I wasn't so sure none of those things were going to happen the whole time. \n Admittedly, I had no idea whether it'd be Alec or Keith, but I hardly see that mattering so much. With 3-3 at best, Jonclyn are safe next round, Jon will play his idol in the one after, and then it's F4 and if he makes it to that point with Jaclyn then it's game over right there. Maybe a final 2 or something could happen with a medevac, but otherwise it's a Misch victory from what I can see. \n Despite some pretty good scenes, I'm still not into couples being this far in and I'm probably never going to be. Jon and Jaclyn proved here that no circumstances are splitting them up in the game, and there is really no suspense at all to those two since they're clearly one entity. There nothing exciting about them having such a tight bond, because they're a couple and obviously they would. I don't really care very much that they made it this far either. It may be a bit impressive, but pairs in Suvivor appeal to me from a character perspective, not a gameplay one, and so having a foregone conclusion in this pair that is together the whole way make it to the end is just something that doesn't appeal to me on any level. \n If Natalie could win... Oh my god, I would love that. That would make me happier than an inexplicable Kass win in Cagayan would have. I've wanted Jonclyn unseated for quite a while and I'll be pretty disappointed when she, as the only possible contender to Jon, goes. Missy and Baylor are obvious writeoffs, and Jaclyn is too since there is no way ever that a winner would have her condition explained to us by her boyfriend. Keith I could grudgingly say is possible but man, logically and by the edit, not at all likely. So I'm about 85% Jon, 14.99% Natalie, 0.01% Keith right now. \n As for the booted people... I like Reed because he started trying to take Jonclyn out exactly when I decided I was done with them. And I wish there was more Alec and Baylor content. But honestly they're both fairly whatever. Jeremy and Drew are the big two of characters gone that I loved, and from there it's just a few I merely like.", "id": "cmm1fcf", "summary": "Just as done with Jonclyn as I've always been, I feel they rob the suspense and potential manoeuvrability of the season for very little reward, and they to me are a compelling case against BvW. No clue at all about how I feel about the season, but I predict, with so much appeal being drawn from meta-edit stuff and setting things up that never happen, that this season is generally not going to be looked upon favourably in a rewatch."}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "Disclaimer: I know nothing about comedy, never done it, have barely even watched any \n I personally have never seen a joke that I considered to be enhanced by being put in a musical form. I can understand the point of Weird Al's use of music to make jokes, in that he chooses something his audience is familiar with, and in that way he is kind of ahead before he's even told a joke. Similarly, I can see the point of the song Prejudice being in a musical form, which serves in this case as a type of misdirection. \n I get that Flight of the Concords have this kind of awkward yet catchy feel to their songs, which makes them basically not have to worry about effective comedic timing. Bo Burnham from the very little I've seen appears to only benefit from his musical act due to the fact that he has a great voice, but I probably shouldn't judge a guy that I've only seen one song of. \n Overall though, I still feel like I'm missing something. I hate that en entire genre of  comedy is pretty much a write-off for me, but I've absolutely no ability to enjoy any musical comedy, because it feels to me, as you've heard before, like a watered down version of both. The constricting format to me limits the potential for a great joke, much in the same way improvised comedy does, but with the additional drawback of being written and practiced, so I don't feel impressed by mildly clever quips like I do if they are made up on the spot. Not that I'm a fan of improv by any means, but it's at least something that I've found it is possible for me to enjoy at comedy shows, whereas as soon as I see a comedian go to the stage with a guitar or ukelele or keyboard, I know immediately that I'm going to have a bad time.", "id": "cglcofo", "summary": "Dislike music comedy, first two paragraphs refer to the people you linked that I have seen, last paragraph is just rambling"}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "To be fair, this season half had a set start point, the prison, and a set end point, Terminus. Everything that happens in between is just them walking, and the few things they did other than walk (Set up in the house, or whatever) are things that they did show us. \n What would you have them do? Reach Terminus 2 episodes into season 4 part 2? I feel like Terminus had to be a cliffhanger so that it could be used to immediately jump-start the next season into action, and considering what Scott Gimple had to work with at the beginning of season 4, I think this is the fastest way we could have gotten where we did, without the timing being off. Only other way it could have worked would be if the Terminus cliffhanger was in the gap between parts 1 and 2 of the season, but that would have required the governor to be utterly defeated and then back with an army in two episodes, which would have felt jarring I think, like a cartoon.", "id": "cggfomv", "summary": "I don't know what you have in mind that they should have advanced faster."}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "The biggest example of Jeff interference was to save a woman, when he convinced Janu to lay down her torch so Stephanie could keep playing. \n His assessment of Alexis I think is something that is fair enough to say to anybody who claims that they are going to use their sex appeal to further themselves in the game. \n Basically no, and calm down is what I'm saying. Jeff gets very involved at tribal, and if he has any interests in what happens, it's to keep the season interesting. \n You'll probably call me a sexist for this, but of the more popular, exciting to watch players, the majority of them are men. In returning player seasons, good male contestants are cut, while bad ones like Danielle get brought back to fill a quota. Just look at the \"Last survivor standing\" posts and you'll see that in the championship round it's 17 men vs 9 women, and competing for last place is 9 men vs 16 women. \n I don not believe there is anything inherently more interesting or exciting about a male contestant, that's just the way things have gone thus far. Blame casting if you need to blame someone \n It makes complete sense to me for Jeff to favour the male contestants, because that's what the viewers appear to do. Although Jeff interference at tribal is almost always exaggerated anyway.", "id": "cgccqy3", "summary": "No, he shouldn't be forced to step down. He hasn't done anything to warrant it. And you shouldn't assume the reasons behind Jeff disliking one world and Cagayan. For all we know it could be because Jeremiah, Lindsay and Trish make the final three, and they're clearly the most boring. No reason to assume it's a female thing."}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "I don't get why it's always so controversial to suggest that people start at the beginning when that beginning is very, very compelling and unique television. \n Even though I personally think Borneo rules whether it's the first or last season you watch, the answer to this is because a lot of the time the season is being recommended for someone who just plain doesn't want to see old style survivor. If they like over the top drama and blindsides and excitement, the season simply has to be at least 7 or further. (Not to imply the earlier seasons don't have those qualities, but not in an obvious way like Micronesia does). \n I tend to just throw Borneo out as a formality and then move on to my real recommendation. Realistically, telling people to start at the beginning will often just turn them off rather than enhance their experience. \n As an aside though, I honestly don't think Borneo even suffers particularly badly from lack of context, because it kind of delivers the context with it. Australia-All-Stars are the seasons that really take a hit from being out of order.", "id": "cisi2gt", "summary": "I fucking love Borneo and I wish it didn't sound so unappealing to newbies. I can attest that when I was getting into the show, nothing could make me watch Borneo anywhere near first."}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "Didn't realise how big my wall of text was till I got the response haha. OK, I'll stop putting this off \n >big what-if \n It sure is. That's the kind of deep speculation where I just treat it like religion. Nobody can prove anything to anybody else so you just kind of have to pick your own belief there. I don't dispute your analysis of what happens if the challenges do play out the same, and you seem aware of the amount of guesswork that goes into that so I think we've got understanding but not agreement here. \n >Yul was safe at final four \n I'll open on this one saying that on this statement alone, I agree. However, what I was responding to was the assertion that no votes were altered, which they may well have been. We (almost) know that Yul was safe because of Ozzy having immunity and Sundra being horrendous at firemaking. That doesn't mean Sundra and Ozzy wouldn't force a tie at F4, which is what my point was really about. \n >The same is true with Yuls idol \n I actually goofed typing that bit, although I hate how much this sounds like backpedalling now, but what I meant to say was that Penner had the chance to take out the idol and the person with it. In other words, he could lie and then have the person he lied to out of the game, rather than sticking around and burying him in guilt/trying to get him out. In other words, Penner had no way of cleanly dealing with a Yul-idol like he would with a regular one. I don't claim this to be a massive point, but the whole regular idol thing isn't a massive point in itself and I was just responding to everything. \n >Yul had to earn every vote he got \n Did Yul have enemies? I didn't think he did? They both earned every vote they got, and Ozzy earned one that really by all rights made no sense for him to have (Jenny). I think 100% of winners can claim they earned every vote they had, so long as you accept simply being more likeable than their opponent as earning it, which you should, otherwise you end up disqualifying amazing players like JT from their jury votes. \n >Sorry, not going to let you get away with that \n You don't have to, but I would appreciate a response with substance. If you want me to elaborate, this is more a comment for your first point, basically claiming that the mutiny and idol should more or less cancel each other out. My claim is that the mutiny had pros and cons for Yul, while the idol had nothing but pros. Unless you think \"Penner went from being an ally to an ally and a bargaining chip\" is not a true statement, although I don't see how you could. \n >Yul could have changed and adapted. \n This is like the other speculation point, but I think the case is clear enough to actually argue this one. Nobody was trying to align with Yul, aside from Penner, who was more trying to get out of the Raro group, rather than trying to get in with Yul. The only person who seemed to be doing a good job of integrating is Ozzy, who gained favour with both Nate and Parvati (And their votes in the process). Meanwhile Yul got favour purely through the Penner boot, and it doesn't seem like we were shown anything to reasonably expect a huge threat like Yul to make it out of a 6-4 disadvantage, especially with Ozzy hogging the immunity the whole time. \n >Nothing about the surprise saved him \n Of course it did, especially since I was comparing him to Terry. They both made F3 and had their idols run out. Terry then had to win immunity or go home, while Yul goes straight to the finals. If I ignore Ozzys complete challenge dominance and put the three of them aat equal chance, Yul still gets his odds increased from 66% to 100% of winning by the F3 twist, assuming Becky takes him to the end. If we put in odds for the specific individuals to win a challenge, his odds drop significantly for if it's a final two, but stay at 100% for if it's a final three. \n >You need to put an asterisk next to every final three winner who needed last immunity if it were a final two \n No. That's where the surprise part comes in. People set up their plans based on whether it's a final 3 or final 2. Only Yul and Parvati have the surprise change at the end scarring their wins (Tony would win a final three so his doesn't count). Ozzy as far as he knew had a chance of winning going into the endgame. He had no idea that there would never be a chance to wait out Yuls idol. and very realistically win. Don;t forget that this was the very first final 3. Nobody saw it coming, not by a long shot. \n >Also not facing Ozzy in immunity challenges \n Your point earlier hinges on him beating Ozzy in an immunity challenge, just saying. As for whether Terry wins a final 3, I'd say yes. He gets Austin and Sallys votes easily, they were his people and they loved him. He also gets Bruces vote IMO as Bruce was an outsider in Casaya and Terry was very good to Bruce the entire time they were together, trying to get him to flip. This right there puts it at 3 for Terry, 2 for Aras, 1 for Danielle. If you're not sold on Bruce then we'll call it a 2-2-2 tie since Bruce voted for Danielle. However Shane respected Terry a lot, and considered him the only La Mina playing the game, so if push came to shove, both of Danielles votes are more skewed to Terry rather than Aras. The big thing though is that there would never be a 6 person jury. Give Terry a 7 person Jury and Nick joins, votes for him, game over. Give him a 9 person jury like Yul and Nick, Dan and Bobby join the Jury, meaning two locks for Terry, plus Bobby who freaking hated Casaya and is a mystery at best, but also irrelevant as Terry has the numbers already.", "id": "cj0zfto", "summary": "Terry and Yul got to the same place. Terry would have won, probably by a larger margin had he been give the finals/jury setup Yul had. It really isn't fair to claim that Yul was so much better than him IMO."}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "Worth seeing just for the insane hilarity of someone sending an army of blindfolded soldiers to counter Vlad because \"You can't fear what you can't see\", and for them to all without exception stupidly walk towards the death they couldn't see. \n As for the movie... Eh, whatever. I doubt anyones expectations got defied. I saw it because Gone Girl was sold out and we had to pick something else, and I don't regret seeing it so there you go. Cheesy, but not to the point of comedy, and pretty predictable. Looked good though, referring both to the effects and lead actress.", "id": "cl5r01z", "summary": "it's pretty short so watch it if you really feel like just seeing any movie, or if you're into vampire stuff. Otherwise, let it fade from your mind like it will inevitably fade from mine."}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "Nobody interested you in the first half of the season? Not Hershel in \"Internment\" or Carol in \"Isolation\" or Lizzie in general? \n Merle or Morgan in season 3 maybe? Even with the weaker character writing, at least you can see the writers trying, like Andrea, Michonne, Rick and the governor all had attempted arcs in season 3. \n They pretty much haven't bothered with Daryl since season 2. They just show him killing zombies and being Ricks bro, but that's about it.", "id": "cfyyyy3", "summary": "Yes, but Daryl was underwritten even by season 3 standards"}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "Honestly, I think you'll survive without Guatemala or Gabon \n But, you need All-Stars (8) and Micronesia (16), and for those, they have their own returning players, meaning you'd have to watch 1-7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15 \n Then, for HvV you also need to see  10, 18 and 19 \n So that leaves 11 and 17 that I honestly don't think matter, but if you're going to watch 17 seasons anyway, might as well just go all 19 and do it right. Gabon especially is really good.", "id": "clija12", "summary": "There have been way too many returning players for skipping to be viable. You have to either go in order or accept that you're going to ruin things for yourself a bit."}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "The character in always Sunny has a recurring joke where he shows sociopathic tendencies. Aside from one time, he's never outright called a sociopath, but the creepy way he handles women makes it clear that's what he is. Even this isn't so much a PUA thing as it is a system of emotional manipulation.", "id": "cm8tcqt", "summary": "The joke is that he's creepy + it's fictional, there's no need to be disgusted by this."}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "Venusaur is pretty much objectively the best of the starters. Toxic and Leech Seed work off the same counter, meaning that using them together will make the power of toxic double twice as fast, and basically just wreck any tank you throw at it, plus Razor Leaf has basically 100% chance of doing a critical hit, making it as strong as fire blast, hydro pump etc but with 100% accuracy and considerably more PP.", "id": "cjlc5iv", "summary": "Gen 1 was fucked up and I'm still angry they made Gengar half poison."}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "First season is very different. It looks more like a documentary than a game. There is only one person who plays to win, but he end up inventing the game of Survivor in the process. His game is a little nuanced though, with a lot of emphasis going into ally selection, boot order and deflecting heat. The characters are absolutely top notch though, IMO there is no season with a better cast until Pearl Islands. \n Season two you should watch if you're into the survival aspect. That's what it is all about really. Most people are and they rank it pretty highly, and there are a few moves in it, but those moves are only impressive in context. It's a very important season if you plan on watching Season 8 or 20 though. \n 3 is the only one from the first 6 I haven't seen, but from what I hear it's just a feel good season where everybody is having fun the whole time and nobody is bitter. Fair few returning players in season 8. \n Season 4 is something that basically needs context to live up to its reputation. A lot of amazing things happen for the first time in season 4, but the biggest one seems very meh by todays standards, desppite being absolutely huge at the time. I hated the cast, not everybody does, but this is the season that is getting the most robbed by watching out of order. \n Season 5 is not a fan favourite at all. Only one character returns for another season, and she wasn't especially exciting compared to other returning characters. I actually really enjoy this season, it has a bunch of things in it that don't appear in any other season. The winner makes some people feel gross, but I absolutely love them, and this season is actually one of the funniest ones in the first few seasons. Players are also significantly more strategic than most people in season 4, but have that dumb early season trust still. \n Season 6 is where the level of deception you are used to finally comes into play, brought about by one (Amazing and hilarious) player. It's the first season to have a concept behind it beyond the location (men vs women) and that dynamic adds to the show overall, even though it may be annoying at times hearing people talk about girl power and chauvinism so much. \n Basically though, it sounds like you might not enjoy the older seasons due to their dated feel. I would say try season 6, it might be far enough along for you to still enjoy it, and if not, season 7 absolutely without a doubt will. Of the first five, Borneo is probably the best one IMO due to the great characters, so if you ever do go way back, definitely start there.", "id": "cgm0lwf", "summary": "there is no reason to go any later than season 7, because season 7 is amazing on every level, but you'd maybe be alright with season 6"}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "I'm also gonna have to say yes, you were wrong. \n Person breaks the law, whether intentionally or through negligence doesn't matter, both are bad. The gets caught and punished, people call it karma. Nothing wrong there at all. \n You showed up and called it a mistake, which whether true or not, (you yourself actually don't know) is detracting from the seriousness of it. Whether you admit that it's a serious thing or not is completely irrelevant if you're still trying to present it in a more positive light, especially when it's not like the original post was overly full of malice. \n You admit to making the mistake often, then use a bit of word twisting to change what you said later on, due to the person only quoting half of your sentence. \n Lastly, you don't really seem to have a lot of respect for the other opinion. I assume that it's because they called you names, which is fair enough, but you're very much misusing the term \"strawman\" here, and those kinds of logic catchphrases and buzzwords are a very cheap and ineffective way to get a point across.", "id": "cfwmagu", "summary": "Clarification \n \n You defended against a mild insult aimed at a serious act \n \n You seem to believe that the fact that people make mistakes excuses anyone from criticism as long as there's no evidence that they won't learn \n \n You're very semantic about the term 'Karma' by focusing really hard on the word 'intent', when negligence is on the exact same level as intentional harm/risk, and negligence is what was shown, mistake or not. \n \n Additionally, you left the first few words out of the definition of Karma that you quoted from the wikipedia page, completely changing the meaning. You took out \"Karma means action, work or deed; it also\" followed by your preferred definition, in a manipulative way to imply that intent is 100% present in all acts of karma"}, {"author": "Todd_Solondz", "content": "I really strongly disagree with you there. Breaking Bad ended so clinically. It tied up every single loose end possible, even ones that really, really didn't need to be, like Gretchen and that other guy, and Walt getting some form of revenge. \n It seems shallow to me compared to the ending of the Sopranos. Breaking Bad just decided to give the viewer everything they wanted. Jesse is free, Nazi dudes are dead, Walt is dead, Walt confesses his motivations to Skylar. It didn't seem like the viewer was being given any credit at all. It could have been ripped straight out of a generic action movie IMO. \n The Sopranos, by comparison, tied up exactly one thing that needed to be fixed, which was the war between New York and Jersey. Tony goes and sees his sister, but rather than have a Walt and Skylar type \"I'll just say everything I'm feeling and have felt\" conversation, the subtlety was preserved the same way that it was present throughout the show. Rather than ending after the bloodshed, like BB, The Sopranos returned to what was really important, Tony's family, something BB never even considered properly developing. \n The final scene was masterfully directed, using simple things like camera angles, audio clues etc to create this building sense of tension, despite nothing remotely dangerous being present in the scene. The scene conveys, in no uncertain terms, that Tony was killed, but did so with a simple, elegant cut to black, to show the reality of death, and how life just ends (Something that was build up to in the last season, with people talking about how you'd never hear it coming). This is a much more satisfying ending to me than some overdone, slow draw back from an overhead shot over the character lying in a pool of blood.", "id": "chr1vly", "summary": "I get why Breaking Bad had a  satisfying  ending, but there really wasn't much to it IMO. I haven't seen the Wire, but I believe the Sopranos, while not pandering to everything the audience wants, was able to give a much deeper ending, that will resonate with fans longer than the breaking bad ending will."}]}
+{"author": "WiglyWorm", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Reddit has a PAC to fight for internet freedom, please join us at  /r/testPAC \n edit: I not being good at grammar", "output": "I think now is a good time for me to plug  /r/testpac , which is Reddit's very own Political Action Committee. \n Currently we are working hard fighting the enemies of free speech and the internet. We are working on challenging Lamar Smith (Author of SOPA/PIPA, as well as the protecting children bill). If we show congress that this will not be tolerated and you will lose reelection in either a primary or a general election, we stand a real chance of making the internet a \"hands off\" topic. \n We also know how the system is played. We now we have no chance of unseating Lamar Smith with a democrat in one of the most amazingly well gerrymandered districts in the country, so we are fighting him with another republican who stands a chance."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post yeah... just tell me everything I need to know, please. I only learned these wonderful creatures were even a thing yesterday. ^_^", "output": "Hey guys, thanks in advance. \n My 7 year old loves mice. To the point where \"baby mouse\" is her most frequent roleplay. I was thinking about getting her a couple mice for Christmas, but when I found their average lifespan in captivity is only two years, I started reconsidering, knowing that she would get incredibly attached, and that they wouldn't be around for very long. \n Someone on Reddit commented the other day that I should look in to degus (that's pronounce day-goo, right?), as they had a life span more like what I was looking for, and they are essentially desert rats. \n I've done some research and their care, temperament, etc, and they seem like the perfect pet for my girls. \n My big question is about habitat. I know I need to have at least 2, and that they are very active. I have a 36\" long x 18\" wide x 18\" deep glass terrarium formerly used by a turtle. Would this be an acceptable degu living space? \n I also have some turtle hidey holes and what was formerly the turtle's bath that I could repurpose to hold sand/chinchilla dust. \n My biggest concern is knowing that they like to climb and have multiple levels. That makes me wonder if something taller with multiple levels would be better, or if I could get away with rigging something up inside this terrarium. \n For exercise, I obviously will get them a wheel, but do they do well in hamster balls? My kids would love to let them safely scamper about the house, but I do have a cat and a dog, so I'd want them in a ball to prevent injury."}], "user_id": "longlamp_7800", "history": [{"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "That's a fair point. On the other for hand many people, self included, the story is the payoff. It's why I played Dungeons and Dragons as a teen, it's why I love fantasy novels, it's why I watch Game of Thrones, it's why I started playing MMOs and, as I grew up and ran out of time for those time sinks, eventually MOBAs. \n That's why I brought up an AR game. It's marketing for nerds who are in to that stuff, and completely ignorable except as something that looks like a hype video for those who aren't. Not to mention the side benefit that the people playing the AR game can be fed speculation about new champions as part of the Riot hype machine. \n I mean, they already have the trappings of an AR game in a lot of their web development with strange stuff happening on champion profile pages when they are teasing champs/skins (and the vel'koz video). It would be absolutely trivial for them to put some clues in the source for the web page. Virtually no investment by Riot, and excellent marketing for the segment of the population that loves a good AR game.", "id": "crgs4zr", "summary": "If riot were half as passionate about storytelling as they were about the music they create, League could have an awesome story."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "It's too bad Nintendo can't market worth a damn, and can't attract third parties. I hate to say it, but I think it's time for Nintendo to go the way of Sega and just make games. They're a phenomenal games company and could make a killing releasing Mario, Metroid, Zelda, SSB, and  all  the amazing IP they've created over the years. \n I'm 31 years old, and I grew up with Nintendo, but unless they have a major shakeup in their managment, they're going to go extinct. Whether that means they do what they need to in the hardware market, or they just sell games... I hope it's an adjustment they make, because those would be some horrible properties to just get sold off to EA or whomever. \n Edit: \n Apparently this statement has been controversial (7 up and 6 down at the time I make this edit), so I want to clarify things. \n I am not a Microsoft of Sony fan boy making this comment. I have no horse in the console race. I grew up with Nintendo but have been an avid and near exclusive PC Gamer for nearly 15 years now. Nintendo has a ton of favorite titles. Pokemon. Mario. Kid Icarus. Metroid. F-Zero. SO MANY TITLES. So many things that I have an emotional connection to. \n When you look at their hardware, though... this isn't just about the Wii U. Since the SNES reigned supreme, there has been one hardware folley after another. They avoided some disaster by canning their CD Add-on for the SNES, but that CD Add-on  became  the Playstation. Nintendo's answer was the N64, which caused a massive flight of flagship games from third party publishers. Nintendo had the Final Fantasy series since its beginning, but lost FFVII to Sony because the game was impossible to make on a cartridge based system. There was a magazine ad out at the time that said FFVII would cost over $1,000 to consumers if it had to be on a cartridge. Let's not even mention how confused people were about the N64 controller, which turned people off to it, or that they were late to market with older technology... or that N64 expansion pack that divided the market base. \n From there we had the Gamecube which finally went disk based, but they did a proprietary format (the same thing that doomed the DreamCast with their GD-ROM format), and they failed to realize how big a draw on-line play was going to be. That hurt them even more publishers, and the decline was becoming evident. \n They caught lightning in a bottle with the Wii, but let's be real... the people who bought that console were not the core gaming audience, and those people have moved on from consoles to iPads. It was a great way for Nintendo to make a quick buck and use that money to come out with a true competitor to Microsoft and Sony, but instead they tried to recapture the magic, and we are all seeing how that has worked. \n Looking at gaming history, this is not just one failed system. The  Wii  is the outlier, here, not the Wii U. \n I appreciate that people have an attachment to Nintendo's IP, but that doesn't mean the company is infalible. In fact quite the opposite. They are making great games, but they cannot or will not do what they need to in the hardware department and it is costing them big time. It  HAS  been costing them big time.", "id": "ceuv44r", "summary": "tough, read it anyway."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "The thing is, after World War II, we were the only Western power that could stand up to Russia and contain them (and regardless of what you think of socialism, trust me when I say you don't want a world that Stalin would have created). We were thusly FORCED to spend as much as we do on our military. It's not just about ourselves. We are essentially the army for the entire first world. \n We're at a point now where that  has  to go, however, the military-industrial complex is very strong and has a very strong sense of self preservation. Without strong buy-in from the common citizenship and politicians, and probably a lot of protesting to get there, this won't change. \n More likely is some sort of pay-to-play scenario. If we're going to be your army, you're going to have to help fund it (perhaps something NATO-esque). I highly doubt that would get any sort of traction from the right, however (heck I'm a liberal moderate and I don't like it much).", "id": "c1r4ilx", "summary": "Things are going to have to get worse before they get better. Do your part, vote republican so they can just run our country in to the ground."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "While you're right, the problem is that the patriarchy that feminists are against demands that men make the first move. Essentially 100% of the time. \n Yes, there are some wonderful, liberated, empowered women out there who will make a move when they are interested. But for every one of those out there, there is another woman who will be interested but never let on, expecting you to make a move and  yet another one  who will be even worse and make a move, and then pull back because she knows she's \"not supposed\" to make the first move. Then she'll make a move again... then take it back... it's an absolute mindfuck for a man trying to figure out if a woman is truly interested. Usually no means no, but sometimes no means \"chase me\", and while yes can sometimes mean yes, other times yes is just a polite way of saying no. \n Not only that, but since men are responsible for making the advances in our patriachical system, the economics of dating are completely skewed. Women can sit back and wait for a guy they are interested in (and that's what they tend to do). Meanwhile, men are left with no good option except to try  constantly  with everyone. \n Ask any guy for dating advice, and the number one response you will get is \"it's a numbers game\". Yes, that's right. The best advice a guy can give another guy is \"just try with everyone and eventually you'll get lucky\". \n If the problem women have (and this is as I have heard from many many friends and discussions about this issue elsewhere) is that the number of interactions they get on a daily basis is so hi, and that the quality of the interactions is so low, then there is precisely one fix for that: When a woman feels she is in a safe environment and is interested, she needs to be willing to make the first move. \n The economics have to change if the reality is supposed to change. If men are going to be rejected 99% of the time ANYWAY, without any regard for the quality of their attempt (which is what happens now), then  expending effort is absolutely not warranted and taking the time to think of what to say to one woman who is likely going to reject you anyway is simply going to take up time that you could have used to approach three other women, and thusly attempting high quality interactions actually lowers your chances of finding a partner. \n If, on the other hand, women occasionally approached a guy, and guys knew that a woman would show interest when interested, then we could easily scale down the number of interactions we had and scale up the quality.", "id": "clw1gsc", "summary": "Men catcall because of the patriarchy, but not exclusively for the reason that women think, and this is a rare part of the patriachy that is 100% within the ability of women to effectively neuter. Yes, catcalling would still happen because there ARE actual pig-headed men out there, but if the only people resorting to catcalling were actual creeps, then you wouldn't have any decent upstanding guys rushing to defend the cat-call, as you do now."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "Listen. Nobody in their right mind thinks that a guy who invents something in his garage but can't afford to mass produce it shouldn't be able to license it and make money. Further, nobody in their right mind thinks that something truly novel approach to solving a problem shouldn't be entitled to the limited time protection in exchange for openly showing what they are doing and allowing others to compete  (which is exactly the phenomenon the patent system is designed to encourage) . \n That said, the patent office is over worked, overstretched, understaffed, and highly underqualified. They fail time and time again at properly considering the tests of non-obviousness and prior art. \n Mobile interfaces are designed, at their very core, to be intuitive with as small a learning curve as possible. By their very definition they are obvious. And yet copyrights on what are fundamentally design elements get technical patents all the time. There is prior art [everywhere]( in the mobile landscape, and yet patents are issued and enforced and fought against, and it does nothing but cause roadblocks to commerce and hurt the consumer. \n The only people who possibly benefit from the patent system as it currently exists are patent lawyers from Eastern Texas who specialize in patent troll litigation. \n The hammer needs to be brought down on the entire tech sector. Patent disputes need to be settled, bad patents need to be eliminated wholesale, and the patent system in general needs to be overhauled entirely. \n As far as companies like AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA, they already know this. They never sue each other and have broad patent sharing agreements that allow them to freely develop spinoffs of technology in a constant cycle of competition and one-upsmenship. \n However, those are OEMs that sell to companies which produce products. Scarecely any OEM parts are sold directly to a consumer without being sent to a company which takes those OEM parts, sockets/solders them together, then sells them to a consumer. \n It's at this level, after the fabrication of raw parts, when they are put together and set to some specific task (IE being put together into a smartphone),  that the patent system has completely failed. It's not like the [iphone] was  particularly novel  have all engaged in either offensive or defensive patent warring. \n Let's not forget that Google was forced to buy Motorola simply to have some defensive ammunition in the patent wars.", "id": "chwyyrq", "summary": "The patent system is trash. Why on earth would anyone shill for it?"}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "Here's a few things for you: \n As a jungler, your single most important resource is not hitpoints, it's not mana/energy, it's not even gold. It's  PRESSURE . How do you accumulate pressure? By having your whereabouts unknown. A successful gank multiplies that pressure many times over. A streak of successful ganks, coupled with the enemy not knowing where you are will help you snowball your team in many ways. \n First there is the obvious gold advantage from kills. Then there's the XP advantage from forcing enemies to B or killing them and making them lose CS. Then there's the fact that if you have a lot of pressure they know they  must  ward or die. If you're really good, then even the top laner will have to ward multiple locations or risk a gank, which means they are spending money on consumables and not advancing their build. \n So what does this have to do with you? \n It sounds like you don't have a lot of jungle pressure. Specifically: \n > I find that I'm in lanes a disproportionate amount of time because of how often my laners die and I cover for them. Should I let them push to tower? \n If the creeps are pushing to your tower, and your laner is behind, you are doing no favors to them by shoving it back out. In fact you're exposing them to ganks and taking them further from the safety of their turret, possibly snowballing top even harder. You're also losing your jungle pressure by showing on the map. \n If the lane is pushing to your tower, the  best  thing you can do is last hit as it pushes (make sure you ONLY last hit and do not stop the lane from pushing), and then tank the last few creeps without doing damage to them just outside of your turrets range. This will give your allied laner who is behind the most creeps possible and the best chance to get XP and get back in the fight. \n If your laner dies take a look at enemy creeps vs allied creeps in that lane. If you have more creeps than the enemy, then you should shove it as hard as possible. \n If they have more creeps than you, then you can stay and last hit, but  ONLY if you're not giving up your pressure to do so . There are exceptions: If the wave is going to hit tower, then someone may as well get that XP, which is your second most valuable resource. \n Remember, if you show top, everyone knows you're top. You have 0 pressure until you disappear in to the fog of war again. That suddenly gives your enemy jungler a ton of pressure on both bot and mid lane. A good jungler will time your buffs, and gank where they know you have 0 chance to respond, and will snowball his lanes.", "id": "cd8uuiz", "summary": "If you think you're spending too much time in lane, you probably are. And if you actually are, then that means the enemy jungler gets to run wild. They have all the pressure and you have none."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "The document is wordy and very official but here is a bullet point list: \n Whereas: \n \n The economic roots of this protest are varied, including unemployment, income disparity, earning power that has stagnated... \n \n The political roots are varied, including political power of corporations, the influece of money on politics, and the inability of the common citizen to be heard \n \n The downturn has hurt everyone [cites a bunch of figures] \n \n 25 million+ are unemployed, 50 million + are employed but uninsured \n \n America has the highest income inequality among industrialized nations \n \n Top 1% owns 43% of the wealth, and the top 20% owns 93%. \n \n The foreclosure crisis is causing urban blights - Cleveland is particularly hard hit \n \n Local governments are suffering and unable to meet their budgets due to declining tax revenue and state/federal budget cuts \n \n It will require decisive and sustained action at all levels of government to address all of the above \n \n [list of things cleveland is going to do at the local level] \n \n \n Congress must: \n \n Support job creation \n make substantial investments in the nation's critical physical and technological infrastructure \n reduce the deficit by adopting fiscal policies with equitable corporate and individual taxation  \n allow the 2010 extension of President Bush's tax cuts to expire \n Tighten regulation of the banking and financial sector \n vigorously investigate and prosecute corporations that commit fraud and theft \n retain block grants for schools and social services \n prevent high college tuition \n \n Whereas: \n Americans can and must resolve the divisive economic and social realitiesfacing our nation in a peaceful way that honors our commitment to democracy, equality and justice \n BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CLEVELAND: \n \n This Council recognizes and supports the principals of the Occupy movement and the right to peaceful and lawful excercize of the first ammendment \n Commits to working with [the mayor] to minimize economic disparities \n Requests congress generate solutions for economically distressed Americans \n Shall forward this to President Obama and all members of congress", "id": "c35nilz", "summary": "City of Cleveland basically gets everything that Occupy stands for, and demands that congress fix it."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "Well, a lot of the pins on a CPU are just for power. So, as far as the architecture is concerned, you can have just a few leads that then separate in to the pins inside the housing of the CPU module. \n There are a ton of pins for things like interupts, system clock synchronization, etc., but all of that could (and likely would need to) be built in to the module for the CPU. \n From there, a lot of the pins on a CPU are to talk with the busses for things like RAM and the computer's Northbridge and Southbridge. This is parallel communication, meaning if your CPU wants to send a message of 8 bits, those bits each get their own individual wire. \n ||||||||\n10110010\n||||||||\n \n These devices (northbridge, southbridge, system clock, very likely ram [unless that was given a seperate module that could be fitted beside the cpu module with a seperate bus connection]) would also need to be contained in the CPUs module. These are all the sort of things that will be unique to each cpu. \n It's not at all a stretch at all -though- to think that a lot of the communication with devices like a camera, bluetooth, and wifi could be done over serial communication, in which all 8 bits travel down the same wire in sequence. \n |\n1\n0\n1\n1\n0\n0\n1\n|\n \n In fact, given that you already have a camera, wifi card, bluetooth dongle, keyboard, mouse, and even video cards that can be fed from USB, it's not only not a stretch, it's in daily use right now. \n A serial port would really only need one outbound pin and one inbound pin to have bi-directional simultaneous data traffic. Any CPU module would likely want to have a couple pairs of pins, so it could talk to multiple devices without having to wait for the communication pathway to be clear, so we're not talking about the hundreds and hundreds of pins on a traditional CPU socket, because this module could house the socket as well as all the hardware that actually needs those additional pins. We're talking maybe a 8 or a dozen?", "id": "cc5q39h", "summary": "the module wouldn't need to have a ton of pins. The CPU socket and whatever the CPU talks directly to would need a lot of pins, but that could all be housed within the CPU module, and so be invisible to the average user."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "Generally, if your dog is eating poop it means that they're lacking something in their diet and need to eat poop to get more nutrients. \n Would you eat shit willingly, unless you absolutely needed to? Neither would a dog. \n Look at the ingredients list of your dog food. If you're buying them the typical big-name-brand dog food, the first ingredients are going to look something like this: \n Corn Meal, Soy Meal, Chicken Meal **(Or, even worse, chicken and bone meal)**, back to some other grain\n \n Meat is the third ingredient? And you're serving that to a  carnivore ?! Dogs did not evolve to eat corn and rice. In fact, most of them are allergic to grains. If your dog spends a lot of time shaking their head, scratching, or biting and cropping their fur, (or, as we discussed, eating poop) you should really switch to higher quality dog food. \n As an added bonus, if you feed your dog higher quality foods, your dog will eat less (and thus poop less). \n Source: \n Dog owner. Dog loved sneaking cat poop out of the litter box. Changed her food to something higher quality, dog stopped eating poop. \n If you'd like to find some good dog food brands, I'd suggest this website:", "id": "ccnlh8m", "summary": "Most big name dog food out there is basically feeding your dog a starvation diet. Stop feeding them shitty food and they will stop trying to get nutrients from literal shit."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "Sorry, the correct phrasing should have been \"rising\", not materializing. I was trying to say that Libertarian politicians have experienced much greater visibility since the Tea Party movement. \n Given that the point of my post was not to give histories of minor political parties, but to describe the general political landscape of the United States, I would submit that you're being overly pedantic.", "id": "cl3culy", "summary": "Misphrased something, don't be a dick."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "I posted this before, but glad to see it here again. Here is a summary which I am pasting from my thread: \n The document is wordy and very official but here is a bullet point list: \n Whereas: \n \n The economic roots of this protest are varied, including unemployment, income disparity, earning power that has stagnated... \n \n The political roots are varied, including political power of corporations, the influece of money on politics, and the inability of the common citizen to be heard \n \n The downturn has hurt everyone [cites a bunch of figures] \n \n 25 million+ are unemployed, 50 million + are employed but uninsured \n \n America has the highest income inequality among industrialized nations \n \n Top 1% owns 43% of the wealth, and the top 20% owns 93%. \n \n The foreclosure crisis is causing urban blights - Cleveland is particularly hard hit \n \n Local governments are suffering and unable to meet their budgets due to declining tax revenue and state/federal budget cuts \n \n It will require decisive and sustained action at all levels of government to address all of the above \n \n [list of things cleveland is going to do at the local level] \n \n \n Congress must: \n \n Support job creation \n make substantial investments in the nation's critical physical and technological infrastructure \n reduce the deficit by adopting fiscal policies with equitable corporate and individual taxation  \n allow the 2010 extension of President Bush's tax cuts to expire \n Tighten regulation of the banking and financial sector \n vigorously investigate and prosecute corporations that commit fraud and theft \n retain block grants for schools and social services \n prevent high college tuition \n \n Whereas: \n Americans can and must resolve the divisive economic and social realitiesfacing our nation in a peaceful way that honors our commitment to democracy, equality and justice \n BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CLEVELAND: \n \n This Council recognizes and supports the principals of the Occupy movement and the right to peaceful and lawful excercize of the first ammendment \n Commits to working with [the mayor] to minimize economic disparities \n Requests congress generate solutions for economically distressed Americans \n Shall forward this to President Obama and all members of congress", "id": "c379v9t", "summary": "City of Cleveland basically gets everything that Occupy stands for, and demands that congress fix it."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "On the one hand, companies should always seek to hire from within instead of external candidates. It's better for morale of the employees if they know their hard work will be recognized, it's cheaper since you don't have to train as much, and you already know the candidate will fit your organizational culture. \n On the other hand, they should have searched their internal candidates first, and then opened it up to the outside if they couldn't find an appropriate candidate.", "id": "cfk4nz4", "summary": "This company probably sucks to work for, and while it might have been nice to get your foot in the door, you probably dodged a bullet."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "You're absolutely right, but it's a catch 22. \n The left and middle don't get coverage. When the far right simultaniously in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana tried (and succeeded) to shove their agenda through the legislature, Wisconsin had over 100,000 people protesting in the capital, Ohio had 10s of thousands in the capital, Michigan had thousands as well. \n During that time, the protests in Egypt were going on, and I guarantee, the protests in Egypt got far far more press than the massive and widespread protests right here. Hell, Tea Party rallies with a few hundred right wing nuts get more press than we got.", "id": "c1vxj3n", "summary": "If the left and middle get no representation in the media, it makes it hard to have any lasting effect."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "I bought a TRUE 120 for overclocking my Q6600. It served me quite well, but I grabbed a 2500k during Micro-Center's black friday sale. I know they make a bolt-thru kit, but I see that cooling solution prices have come way down. \n Is there something out there that performs better than my venerable old TRUE? \n As further consideration, I'm wondering if it's possible to run that Q6600 at stock or with a slight underclock for a gaming/HTPC with my TRUE?", "id": "t3_my3qe", "summary": "Is there something better than my old TRUE 120 or should I buy a bolt-thru kit?   Bonus Question:  Can I use my old TRUE to go fanless on a Q6600 @stock?"}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "Disclaimer: I'm a Democrat. For the most part, I consider myself a fairly moderate person, with a few crazy bleeding heart liberal ideals like \"healthcare is a right, not a commodity\", etc. I am friends with some moderate republicans, and we always have great discourse and can find great value in each others ideas. Unfortunately, moderate Republicans have had their party stolen from them. \n \n The right wing has completely gone off the deep end, to the point that Newt Gingrich is being handed his ass for suggesting seriously that we work together as Americans instead of trying to \"Win\" as republicans and Democrats. \n \n The Left wing is pretty much a center/center-right wing now, leaving us with very few true leftist politics. \n \n Tea Party candidates have essentially proposed the rape of the middle class as their platform and are being congratulated for being so \"bold\". \n \n The MSM doesn't cover moderate or left wing ideas with regard to budget. \n \n Politicians left and right are demonstrably owned by their corporate overlords. \n \n Nobody has the balls to actually vote third party, because it means the other \"team\" might win.", "id": "t3_hf713", "summary": "As a moderate, it feels like America is being marched off a cliff by the extreme elements of the right wing, who refuse to compromise or negotiate in politics, and that neither moderate republicans nor anyone else has the courage to stand up to them, or if they do, the media simply doesn't cover it."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "I got a late start on my career, which I didn't really think would matter too much, because I didn't think I'd be going to be having a family in my mid 20s. Somehow, I accidentally got married then had two wonderful kids, but that has kind of thrown me in to a panic. \n I inherited a fair amount of debt from my wife, and to make matters worse it was very important to both of us that she stay home with the kids. \n Well, she finally got a good paying job in her field, and we've been paying down her debt. In two months, our credit card will be paid off which will give us, after our luxury budget, with $600 per month extra. \n I see two viable options: \n \n Roll the $600 we've been paying to my credit card over to my car payment. We owe about 8k on the car, and when all is said and done would have over $1,000 extra a month when that is paid off. \n \n Start saving/investing a nest egg. We really don't have much if any saving, and I don't know the first thing about investing, but aside from our 401(k) plans, we don't have anything put away. \n \n \n I know saving is crucial, but we've been just scraping by for a very long time now, so that hasn't been an option up until now. So, I'm anxious to start, but it seems like $600 +/- is not a lot to play with...", "id": "t3_i0h7q", "summary": "Should I start saving/investing $600 now and $1,000 in about a year, or should I pay off my car ASAP? \n Related: If invest, invest in what?"}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "I have been subbed to /r/summonerschool for a while now, and I've learned a lot from you guys. I took up jungle to learn more about objective control, spawn timers, etc., and that's gone really well. I always ward, I keep an eye on the minimap and collapse on enemies in the jungler during laning phase. I get an advantage mid and then roam to snowball other lanes. \n In the skirmish phase of the game I am all over the map helping support ward and secure objectives. If all goes well in mid game, I can help snowball a team really hard, especially from mid. \n The problem is when it doesn't go well for the team early or mid game (usually it goes OK at worst for me, although certainly I fail sometimes too), I can tend to make some bad decisions that hurt the team and can make a bad situation worse. \n Perfect example was last night, I was playing the first of my promo matches to get back in to silver IV after a string of bad games some of which were my fault, some of which weren't. \n I was playing support Leona, and while we were outclassed bot lane, it was not by that much. We actually took their turret first, even though we were behind. I kept my Lucian alive and farming close to tower for the most part, which was as much as I was able to do, but I did a really good job playing safe enough to not die and aggressive enough to zone them away from poking our ADC. \n However, come mid game, their team started to snowball which led to us being at a disadvantage, and I could feel it. I knew we needed to do  something  while they were seigeing our towers with 5, and so I engaged on their Yi hoping we could blow him up. I didn't think we were far enough behind where we'd just get straight up aced and lose the game, but that one play totally threw the game. Maybe my angle was bad or my timing was bad, or maybe we were more behind than I thought, but any way you split it, I made a huge mistake and we immediately lost the game because of it. \n I don't want to be able to carry or help carry a team through early and mid game, only to be the guy who throws it late game. But the thing is, I usually play tanky initiators (something I love and don't want to give up on), and me initiating a bad fight can easily do that. \n So, I'd love some tips, advice, or hell even a coach.", "id": "t3_1lceze", "summary": "Good early, good mid, tendancy to fall apart late unless we're steamrolling. HELP!"}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "I started playing Rammus when I was new to the game, and as far as tanks go, he is very much so my favorite. I stopped playing him for a bit, because I didn't really understand the concept of jungling and laning with him can be a very painful experience. \n I'm getting more experienced (summoner level 19), and I've been picking him back up and trying to jungle. So far, I haven't lost a game that I've been jungling with him, but I still don't feel like my team is getting as much as they could out of a jungle Rammus. \n My initial buy is machete + 5 pots. I level defensive ball curl, and I grab a leash for wolves and blue. Typically by the time I'm done with those I will have used at least one potion, and gained one level. I put that in Powerball, and head over to wraiths. Finish them off, and head to double golem. Putting a second point in to DBC as soon as I'm level three, I usually have to smite to survive double golems, and typically run out of pots right around this point. \n So now I'm level three, close to level four, with no pots. I can usually take down either wolves or wraiths to get level four (and put the point in taunt), but at this point I  need  to recall in order to heal up. \n I'm looking to be able to eliminate that recall so I can gank a lane that much sooner.", "id": "t3_191mvw", "summary": "Jungling rammus, my path is wolve, blue, wraith, double golem, wolf/wraith \n Is there a better path I should be taking? \n Should I be ganking at lvl 3 (with 1 powerball, 1 DBC, 1 taunt) instead of lvl 4 (with 1 powerball, 2 DBC, 1 taunt)? \n Should I get taunt instead of a second DBC, and gank at level three?"}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "Hi, /r/summonerschool, I've recently identified my late game as the biggest aspect that's holding me back, and this was confirmed to me when I played a platinum vs silver game as a jungler. After the game, the opposing jungler told me that my early and mid were \"actually pretty good\", but that I had some deaths I didn't need to later game. \n I know I could prevent these deaths by playing 1,000 games and just learning more what each champion is capable of and making the proper decisions. However, I asked a plat III friend of mine if they had any other suggestions to speed up the process. They said that the biggest thing is to always be picking the game apart and asking what I can do to effect the game. \n I'm wondering what other questions can I be asking myself? I'm already asking myself: \n \n \"where is the jungler?\" \n \n \"what objectives are up?\" \n \n \"which lane can best receive a gank?\" \n \n \n Which are great early/mid game things to be thinking about. But come late game, what are the things I should be constantly asking myself? \n The big one he suggested was \"should I peel here, or carry dive here?\" but I know there's some more (and there's even questions that I need to ask to be able to properly answer that question)... so I'd love to hear it!", "id": "t3_1lx2z9", "summary": "What questions should I ask late game to be sure I'm thinking about the things I need to keep in mind to improve my late game performance?"}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "Edit: I said \"tanky\" in the post title. To alleviate any confusion that might cause, I'm not looking for AD Bruisers like Renekton et. al., I'm looking for more champs like Rammus and Nautilus who can go full on tank and take a huge beating from the enemy while helping to initiate or peel. \n Hi, /r/summoner school! \n I'm an unranked fresh level 30. Still saving up IP for quints, so no ranked matches yet, until I get all my rune pages in tip-top shape. \n I typically jungle with my friends, but sometimes jungle gets called by a random. I notice that this can put us at somewhat of a disadvantage because I nearly always play full tank jungle, and there are very few people in unranked/solo queue who play tanks. It seems they all want mad kills and mad damage. I'm happy to take a beating to put my team in the best position to win. \n Currently I own   Rammus and   Sejuani. I'm thinking about buying   Nautilus as well. \n I feel nautilus is a good choice because I can either support with him or jungle. Sejuani seems like she's mostly a jungler (I dunno, though, is she viable top?). Rammus was made for jungle, and doesn't do much else well (although mid-late game he can be an OK support, I've found).", "id": "t3_1bx4ud", "summary": "I like playing tanks, and I usually jungle them. But I need to have characters who can fill the tank role in various lanes so that if people call jungle, our team doesn't go without a tank. Suggestions?"}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "When Swype first came out, I loved it. It is a quick and easy way to type. However, i find that it is  just  accurate enough to get me to trust it, but innacurate enough that I make constant typos/word replacements. It has mangled far too many emails, facebook updates, and texts for my taste. \n The only other thing I've tried is 8pen, but that just seemed like pure gimmic to me, and probably slower. \n I'm using an OG droid and the physical keyboard is terrible on it. In landscape mode the software keypad is ok not great. \n So... swiftkey? Is there anything else out there? \n What do you guys recomend?", "id": "t3_k8uoq", "summary": "Swype sucks, what's better?"}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "I've seen a lot of posts on here from people saying they want to use smartcast, but they can't get used to it. Generally the only tip given to help them is \"turn on range indicators\" (which is good advice), but I want to go a bit more in depth and share exactly what helped me get from the point where smartcast seemed like a horrible idea, to where now playing  without  smartcast seems like a handicap. \n \n First, identify a reason that you need smartcast. What play did you miss that smartcast would have made for you? This, of course, provides you with the motivation to turn it on and keep it on. It's no longer \"I heard smartcast can be better\", but \"smartcast will improve my game by eliminating X\". \n \n For me, the desire to turn on smartcast came from playing Rammus. His taunt has a very short range, but his powerball has a very very slight knockup. Essentially it's designed so that if you hit them with powerball, you can always land your taunt, but there is very little margin for error. In some cases, especially when going up against people with dashes or other escapes, the delay caused by having to click the target was enough for them to get out. It didn't happen a ton, but it happened enough for me to know I was putting myself at a disadvantage by not smartcasting. \n \n Next, take an inventory of your frequently played characters. For me, it's Morgana, Anivia, Rammus, Sejuani, Brand, and a few others. The one thing they all have in common is that they all either have no skill shot, or their skillshot is on their Q. \n \n Turn on smartcast on every button but your skillshot. \n \n \n This gives you the benefits of smartcast on most of your skills, but still gives you the range indicator and the ability to \"hold\" your shot until you're ready on the one you really want it on, which are the major drawbacks to smartcast. \n \n Play like this for a while. Wait until having non skillshot abilities on smartcast feels 100% natural. \n \n This could take a few weeks, or a couple months. I've had smartcast on for about two months now, and it only now really feels 100% natural to me, although it felt \"natural enough\" after about 2 weeks. \n \n Break the rules. Find a new character with a skillshot on one of the keys you have set to smartcast. \n \n I started playing Leona, who has a skillshot on her E, but I didn't turn off my smartcast. This forces you to get used to smartcasting a skillshot, but with a bonus. You're simultaneously learning the character, and how to smartcast any skillshot. It feels a lot less awkward than learning a new mechanic on an old and familiar character (remember, you can still check range by mousing over the spell cast buttons in your UI, and I do this a couple times a game with some champs). \n \n Optional, find a champ with a skillshot on your non-smartcast button that you would rather smartcast than manually cast. \n \n I was still very comfortable, and even reliant on having manual cast on Q. I was happy with this, up until I started playing Jarvin IV. His lance is on his Q, but in order to properly execute your EQ combo, you need very fast reaction time. This was the motivation I needed to take my Q off smartcast. \n \n Finally, adjust to non-smartcast skill shots on your frequently played champions. \n \n By following this plan up to this step, you have first gotten used to the idea of smart casting things like morgana's puddle, brands AOE, and any targetted spells like Rammus taunt or Anivia E. \n Next, you got used to skillshotting on smartcast by learning a new character who had a skillshot that wasn't on your primary button. \n Now that you are used to smartcast in general, and skillshots in specific, it will be a very small step to get used to not seeing the range indicator when you want to use a skillshot on champs you're familiar with. You already know your champs range, and you're already used to smartcasting skillshots from your new character, so you just have to put it all together.", "id": "t3_1fcwaf", "summary": "The problem with starting to use smartcast when you are used to manual cast is that you've used range indicators as a crutch, and you rely on them. They also force you to learn a new mechanic and will lower your performance on the characters you like. Lessen this problem by not using it for skillshots initially, and then learn to smartcast them simultaneous to you learning a new character. You'll be learning both at once and it will feel a lot less awkward than learning skillshots on a character you don't know. \n ^Sorry, ^I ^know ^this ^is ^a ^giant ^wall ^of ^text, ^but ^I ^hope ^it ^helps ^someone ^out ^there ^get ^better ^at ^the ^game, ^and ^find ^more ^enjoyment ^in ^playing."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "Apologies if I gush here for a moment, but I'm so glad I've tried out LOTRO. I have been a hardcore MMORPG gamer since the days of Ultima Online, but over the past few years, family and my career have demanded more and more of my time. It doesn't feel right to me to be paying ~$15 a month for a game if I don't get to utilize it the way that I enjoy. \n I recruited several of my friends and we all get to play together. I don't pay a monthly fee, so I don't feel like I have to \"beat\" the game, and I'm not compelled to be a hardcore raider or anything like that. \n On the same token, I've been searching for a F2P mmo for some time now, and this is the  only  title I've found that doesn't make it feel like you must subscribe in order to enjoy the game. To date, I've yet to spend a penny on LOTRO, just grinding deeds/Turbine Points on my character. \n I've been doing some research and it seems as though at some point I will have to give Turbine money, and I am totally ok with that. LOTRO feels like a AAA product, and they're not asking a lot for it. \n So, down to the business: \n Inspired by  mmorsel , my plan was to unlock the VIP/Premium content by buying Mines of Moria for ~$30 bucks, getting the gold cap lifted, traits, and a bunch of new content (doesn't this also unlock the premium classes?). \n I saw on [another thread]( that a better way to go is the $50 Rise of Isengard pack plus $15 for one month of VIP. \n Is $65 (Isengard Full pack + 1 mo. sub) really a better value than the $30 for Mines of Moria + $29 \"one day\" for Isengard and maybe 1 quest pack? \n \n I  do not  care about cosmetic mounts \n I  do not  care about outfits (though they do look super cool) \n I  do not  care about leveling 25% faster, in fact unless my friends all by the expansion pack, I would  dislike  this greatly \n I  do  care about the content packs \n I  do  care about extra character slots \n I  do  care about premium classes \n I  do  care about the free turbine points.", "id": "t3_iv2rq", "summary": "How can I get the best bang for my buck from LOTRO, knowing that I don't care about cosmetic fluff?"}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "I don't know if you guys have noticed, but this is a pretty well managed football team, from a business perspective. \n I  know  we're not used to it, but this is the way good teams operate. \n We do not have a player that has proven themselves to be 100% essential to this team. If this team was receiving phone calls about Gordon, Cameron, or  anyone else  and refused to at least LISTEN to the offer, then they wouldn't be doing their job. \n Hell, in my opinion, if this team got an offer for any player and didn't make a sky-high counter offer, they wouldn't be doing their job. \n It's all about what you can get for them, and if you think it's of good value. This front office has done absolutely nothing to make me think they can't evaluate their team and the offers they are getting. Until they do, I don't really care what players they are listening to offers on  because that's their job .", "id": "t3_1pe6dj", "summary": "Stop posting click-bait non-stories on here. Wake me up when the Browns are actively shopping their players, not passively listening to offers."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "I've noticed in a few games when my team's mid inhib goes down and we're generally staying near base and playing defense, I will hear \"your inhibitor is respawning soon\", and then I look at the wave coming in to base right as that's said, and there are no super minions in it. \n I know my team has been dead or pushing side lanes, and none of the minions have taken damage yet, so it's not like someone engaged on the wave, killed a super, then had to leave. \n I have not noticed this happening in bot or top lane, only mid.", "id": "t3_1s6it0", "summary": "The title."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "First off let me just say that I couldn't be more pumped that they said they want to see the LCS as their vacation. \n Hopefully, we'll be able to make it for Summer Split 2015, but in order to see how feasible that is, I have some questions: \n Is it worth getting to the studios way early? I'll be hanging out with a 7 and a 5 year old. Is there enough cosplay and other fun stuff where they won't get bored if I show up before they start letting people in? Will we get terrible seats if we  don't  show up before they open the doors? \n How much spending cash should I bring? Are the prices in the gift shop comparable to the prices in the online merch store? Are concessions available, or do we need to bring our own cake? \n We'd be flying in from Ohio. I'm sure it's more expensive to fly in to LAX, so where's a good destination in California? Hopefully not too far from LA but cheaper than a flight directly to LA. \n Where should we stay? Looking for cheap, and somewhere located centrally between the LCS studios and other touristy stuff. Is it possible to vacation in LA without renting a car? \n Any other tips about being a tourist in LA would also be appreciated.", "id": "t3_300ky2", "summary": "Rito, please add a \"planning your trip\" section to lolesports.com"}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "I've been starting to play more and more bard lately, and I'm really becoming a big fan. However, with that said, I've been booted from team builder and faced dodges when I pick him quite frequently. The reason is simple: There's a lot of really bad bards out there. So I'm taking a minute to talk about my experiences with him. As you know, Bard is meant to be a roaming, play-making support. It's a role he fulfills very well, but you have to understand Bard's meta game. Here is my attempt at explaining what I've learned. \n Your meep passive is just a bonus: \n Yes, your meep passive is pretty great, especially as you collect chimes and add the AOE effect and scale your damage. However, that should almost never be your primary reason for collecting chimes (unless there is nothing else to be doing, of course). Chimes have a 10 minute duration on the map, so it's ok to let them build. Rather than constantly running off to collect them, save them on the map until there is a reason to roam (be it wards, or to gank with/without your jungler).  The primary benefit of chimes is the stacking speed boost , which will allow you to roam very quickly and show up in unexpected places at unexpected times. \n The other reason you may want to go collect chimes is for your own personal sustain in lane.  This is particularly effective if there are multiple chimes in your  friendly  jungle. \n Plan your path: \n Whenever you B, or when you have a second in lane, check the minimap for enemies, and for chimes. Check your laners to see where the pressure is, and begin to think about what you can do.  If you are familiar with jungling, this is  exactly  like when you take a second to check your camps that are up, and check the status of lanes to plan a jungle/gank path, except with chimes. \n For instance, if the enemy jungler shows top while you are holding down lane with your ADC, now might be a good time to pick up some chimes and go deep ward the enemy jungle. \n If you just went B and there are chimes in the friendly jungle, maybe now is the time to go collect those, ward through a mid lane wall (the long way through, not in to river bush), and Q the enemy mid against a wall or a minion, and help your midlaner get a kill. \n Keep bot lane secure: \n Yes. The point of Bard is to roam, but your home lane is still bottom, and keeping the ADC alive is your job. Always have multiple \"mature\" health kits well behind your ADC to give them sustain in lane before you leave. Harass with meeps and Qs. Don't run off after every single chime. As I said above, let them build. You want them for the speed boost so you can go make a play and then get back to lane as quickly as possible. \n Roam and make plays: \n An example from a game I just recently played: I roamed mid to collect some chimes and help out our zed who was getting pushed in by Lux. We ended up blowing Lux's flash and pushing a wave and a half in to Lux's turret. I went back and helped hold down bottom, but once level 6 came around for me, I knew an all in was coming mid, so I left 3 health packs for our ADC, roamed back up the river (collecting charms the whole way). Zed ultied when I was about halfway up river, and Lux flashed under turret. Death mark was going to kill Lux, but the turret was going to kill Zed. I However, I was close enough to mid lane to ulti Zed, transferring aggro to a minion, and allowing Zed to transfer back to his R shadow before deathmark popped. Immediately after, I ran down bot, used magical journey through one of the thick walls to get behind the enemy team just as our jungler was coming to help fill while I was roaming mid. We were able to secure two more kills bottom lane. \n I mentioned earlier keeping your bot lane secure. Remember that even as Bard this is your  primary  duty. As such you need to keep in mind your lane matchup and the state of the lane. You shouldn't pick bard when your ADC is very support dependant such as Kog'Maw, or any of the other hypercarries. Your best bet is to pick bard when your ADC is a lane bully such as Graves, Lucian, or Corki. These are also the ADCs who benefit most from solo lane XP, which I will touch on later. \n Do not go roam unless your bot lane is in a state that will now allow the enemy team to have turret pressure by the time you get back. Do not go roam if it will cause your ADC to get zoned from significant CS. \n The best times to roam are when the enemy support is low on mana, or when the enemy lane duo is low enough on HP that they will be hesitant to engage 2v1. The best time to come back is when the enemy duo gets comfortable with the fact that you are roaming and engages 2v1, not expecting you to be waiting with a magical journey or a well times ult from a screen away. \n You roaming gives your ADC a unique advantage, as long as you do it right: \n Some ADCs beg for you to stick around more. And sometimes they're right. Maybe you roamed when you shouldn't have. That said, you should never spend 100% of your time in lane. Your job is to roam and make plays everywhere by being in the right place at the right time. Further,  when you are not in lane, your ADC is getting solo lane experience, putting them ahead of their bot lane . This is, of course, presuming that you still apply enough pressure to bot lane to keep your ADC safely farming. You are making sure your ADC can safely farm, right? You've completely lit up bot lane with wards to prevent ganks, right? You've looked at where your chimes are, you have an objective in mind, and you've planned the most efficient/safest route in your head? Ok.  Now  you can roam. \n Teamfights and skirmish: \n The play style I use involves me showing up out of nowhere and changing small skirmishes in to teamfights in which the enemy is outnumbered. Either through catching with my ult, delaying their back line's entry to a fight with ult, or using magical journey to flank with a bruiser. Since you are constantly roaming to pick up chimes, you should always have tons of vision, and **you should always be looking for an opportunity to either show up out of nowhere via magical journey with one or two team members when the enemy team thought they had a clean pick, or to show up to escort an outnumbered team out of danger via ulti, journey, and Q. \n Build: \n I always like to start with spellthief's edge. Meep auto attacks will proc it twice. Q can proc it twice. I suppose you could go FOTM for a tankier bard, or coin for a... coinier bard... but the play style benefits far more from CDR than from raw HP. As such I usually go Frozen Heart/Aegis. I'd build mikael's but I always forget to use my damn active items... \n Masteries: \n I really like a 9/0/21 build. Bard is the ultimate utility support, he doesn't need a lot of tanky stats, and heavy AP is pretty useless on him as well. \n Skill order: \n I think I'm beginning to settle on  W->Q->W->E->Max Q. \n I like two points in W to give your ADC the sustain. Starting W also helps you prep a bunch of health packs for your ADC and your jungler without being OOM when laning phase begins (if you start placing them right away, you should be able to get 3 out and still regen mana up to an adequate amount). Q max definitely helps in lane phase as it scales the stun duration, and the base damages are actually somewhat considerable after his buffs. \n E is mostly a one point wonder. Yes, the cooldown scales from 20 to 16 seconds, but with as much CDR is in my build and masteries, I never have a 20 second cooldown anyway. I hold it till level 4 because you shouldn't be roaming until you have your ADC set up in a good spot either, so magical journey doesn't matter as much,  unless you want to journey in a jungler for an early gank. In which case I do W->Q->E->W->max Q .", "id": "t3_33ph6w", "summary": "The bold parts"}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "I live in an area that recently had the Riot's [North Bridge]( project built out and, I have to say, it has had an amazing impact. I have better ping than I ever have before. \n \n Usually, my ping to west coast servers is around 120 \n \n Immediately after the hardware setup in Chicago went online, my ping went down to ~98-102. \n \n Once the agreement with my ISP was complete, my ping has dropped even further, and today I just played at a consistent 72 ping. \n \n \n So, thank you to everyone who worked hard on the project! To those of you still waiting for the [South Bridge]( to go online, my experience is it works.", "id": "t3_36ffh5", "summary": "When are try outs for team reddit? I dunno why we're all worried about paying pros when we're all challenger anyway."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "First of all, I can  entirely  see how the concept of \"ELO Hell\" got started. My very first match, first pick never communicated which lane they were going (turns out it was ADC), and so I ended up playing a support that did not compliment them very well at all (Leona/Ashe, it's doable, but not against Ez/Janna). They also managed to feed quite a bit despite my best efforts. \n Clearly, we ended up losing that game. It was rather frustrating because it was due to lack of communication. There were decent players with me, but we were disorganized from the start and that caused the loss. \n My second match wasn't much better. I got the role I wanted and the champion I wanted. I got some great early ganks, and got some counter jungling in, all in all I finished 6/2/7 and had a solid game. Unfortunately when the transition to mid game started happening, we didn't respond to their skirmishes properly, people on my team were intent on sticking to their lanes last hitting even though people were grouping on the enemy team, and I didn't have enough presence to swing the game the way it should have gone. \n This was another frustrating loss because we were doing great in lane phase, and it felt like we really threw the game. From here, it would have been easy to go on tilt. I could have blamed my team mates in my second match for not making the right plays when the other team clearly wanted to end laning phase. For a minute, I found myself thinking \"I'm going to get placed in bronze with teammates like this\". \n But, you know what? I was one of my team members too, and that means I made some mistakes. At one point they were grouping mid and top at the same time, and I went to go help mid lane, expecting the ADC and support to come up and help, allowing me to initiate a fight and get some kills, then shove mid down. I even pinged for help. Instead they just kept last hitting and not pushing the lane. I should have gone bot, shoved the lane for them, and either gotten a turret or taken the pressure off of mid. \n It's a lot harder to start raging when you look honestly at your play and admit you should have done better, and could have done things differently to seriously affect the game. \n So, I didn't queue right back up, because I didn't want to get with any of those players again. I went and got a beer, chilled out, checked reddit, and didn't sweat my auspicious start to my ranked career. \n A little bit later, I queued up, and decided I was going to mid. A lane I haven't done a lot, but that I know at my ELO I will at worst not feed and be able to hold my tower, and at best completely dominate, get my tower down early, and roam to cause hell for the other lanes. I went 6/0/4 and carried my team. Not because I'm a fantastic mid laner, but because I made sure to think my decisions through, adapt my buying to the situation at hand, and exert as much pressure on the game as I could. \n That was the beginning of a three game win streak for me, but the quality of people I was playing with didn't improve. What improved was my focus, attention, and attitude. \n I won with an insta-lock Karma ADC, when my team was saying \"GG, we have a full AP team, they're just going to build MR\", well I had last pick and was going jungle, so I took J4  to reassure the team that we had some AD damage, and told the team \"any character can ADC, just some scale to late game better, so let's win this thing fast with Karma ADC\". By 30 minutes we had 6 turrets down, and by 36 minutes we had their nexus. \n My next game I was support again, with a Teemo ADC, and a team who was panicking about what a terrible pick that was. Well, they were right. It was a terrible pick. Especially picking in to a Varus. I kept Teemo as safe as I could with Lulu, and while we died a few times and Teemo fell behind their Varus, we were able to not feed terribly. Meanwhile I noticed our Nasus was getting incredibly fed and going on killing sprees top lane. \n Rather than say \"newb teemo GG, we lost bot game over\", as I've seen so many times from a bot lane, I just became Nasus' support. I followed him everywhere, helped him chase down, ulted him when he ulted (ultra giant nasus FTW), polymorhped when he was going to get overwhelmed and helped him carry us to victory. \n So, after a terrible start to my ranked career I checked my attitude, refocused, told myself I need to influence the game more, and these losses were at least one fifth my fault. I made a commitment to being positive and boosting morale, rather than a toxic weight on my team. I made sure to cooperate and do whatever I needed to do to help, communicating all the time. \n The point being (", "id": "t3_1jymxl", "summary": "The only thing you can control in any game is  you . The easiest thing you can control while playing is your own attitude. If you go in to some adversity (teemo ADC, newb jungler, whatever), you can let it get to you, and throw your hands up to quit before you even start, or you can tell yourself and your team \"we can work with this, let's go out there and do this thing\". \n I don't know how I'm going to do on my remaining provisional games, but I do know I'm going to go in to them with a positive attitude, and I'm going to go in to them with a sense of personal responsibility to winning the game. Knowing I need my team to win, but that I hold 20% of the power on my team. If we fail, it's because I failed to do everything I could to  help my team ."}, {"author": "WiglyWorm", "content": "I just got finished playing a game as morgana mid vs ahri. I was outplaying her very hard, but lost a lot of CS early due to a mouse that was giving me problems. Due to this, I had a level disadvantage early and was mostly farming and poking, not hoping to kill. \n Around 11 minutes I went back and got a catalyst and continued what I was doing (I consider an early ROA core on morgana). After the game, though, I realized that had I bought something else, I might have been able to get a kill or two and won my lane even harder. \n My early build is usually built around sustain. Flask initial buy, and catalyst first B. However there have been times where I've wanted more power because I know I can get a kill, but I've never been sure what to do. \n So, my question is/", "id": "t3_1qi8h2", "summary": "In the scenario where you want to build an ROA, but you want early power, what's the right buy? Get an early blasting rod? Maybe just a doran's ring and continue to save? \n I feel like if I sacrificed the sustain of catalyst my long term strat with morgana might be in jeopardy."}]}
+{"author": "jabrodo", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post they didn't want to jump on the boat when they had the opportunity, and by the time they wanted to, the ship had already sailed with a better option.", "output": "So, I did some digging a while back and this is the general idea I got. \n \n MLS began the  NY2 expansion process  and the Cosmos]( \n \n The Wilpon family encountered some financial issues and backed out. \n \n The Cosmos at the time were still owned by [Paul Kemsley]( who had bought the brand and was making money by selling merchandise. These negotiations eventually broke down because Kemsley didn't want to enter into the single-entity structure and  loose  lose ownership of the brand. \n \n At this point MLS went elsewhere, one of the interested parties being the current owners of NYCFC. \n \n The Cosmos got bought in 2012 with the new ownership having the explicit goal of getting into MLS. By this point however, Garber had all but locked down a City-owned NY2 and the Cosmos brought nothing of comparable value to the table. \n \n With no viable MLS entry option left, they choose to focus on improving their own league."}], "user_id": "longlamp_11461", "history": [{"author": "jabrodo", "content": "Yes, but I don't think the sport has reached that capacity yet, thus to just brush them off as a minor league is a bit presumptuous. If anything it's following a pattern similar to that that resulted in the NFL/AHL, NL/AL, and NHL/WHA mergers/absorptions all of which resulted from a full or partial merger or absorption of a rival league that grew in size and quality until the established league could no longer ignore them. \n As of 2015 there will be 48 professional North American soccer teams. The smallest major/minor league pairing is the NHL/AHL and MLB/AAA which both have 60 teams. The last line of the article is really the most critical point: \"All of it depends on [the NASL] being successful.\" \n MLS isn't going anywhere, if anything it is going to continue to grow and I fundamentally believe that the US and Canada can easily support five major leagues. MLS is following along the path of the traditional North American model with some deviations and will probably not result in anything anywhere near the traditional European model. The NASL is taking a distinctly more South American approach and appearing to be aiming at the long term goal of pro/rel. There is a possibility that  if  NASL teams continue to gain popularity (ex. San Antonio), and  if  they can continue to grow their number of teams, and  if  these teams choose to stay in the NASL at the cost of jumping up to MLS (NY Cosmos), and  if  they can do this at a similar rate as MLS, they have a shot at challenging for the top spot and forcing a merger. Needless to say that's a lot of if's. \n I think the critical aspects are popularity and rate of expansion. If MLS greatly outpaces the NASL in terms of growth then the NASL doesn't really have a chance and will be stuck in minor league status, and with MLS already striking deals with USL-Pro which look like it will eventually set it up to be MLS's proper minor league, that leaves the NASL as a less popular, less connected second division and the awkward third wheel. By 2015 there will be 20 MLS teams and 13 NASL teams. The real question is what happens between 2015 and 2020 for MLS to reach its 24 team benchmark and what will the NASL do to keep up?", "id": "cbixxb5", "summary": "There aren't enough professional teams in North America to truly deem one league the \"major\" league and all others as subordinate minor leagues. MLS is just currently sitting on top. The current state of affairs more closely resembles what happened up to the mergers and absorptions that resulted in the modern day NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB then a true fully developed major/minor league system and the next decade should prove to be an interesting, exciting, and defining period for US and Canadian club soccer."}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "When taken in the grand scheme of things (ie the events and what resulted from them and ignoring some poor dialog) they tell the tale of the Republic's demise and the Empire's birth, and the fall of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader, events, people, and things that are all mentioned and referenced in the original trilogy. Don't tell me after watching A New Hope for the first time you didn't want to know about the Clone Wars, I sure as hell did, but in terms of validity the most important reason for their existence is it completes the story arc of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader: \n Without the prequels: \n What you have is a story of the overthrow of an evil regime and the \"redemption\" of a villain. But why does a villain need redemption? Because he's the good hero's father and the hero's father should be good too,  plus  he used to be a good, respectable man. How do you know he used to a good, respectable man? Some old guy the hero barely knows and is barely in the trilogy told you. \n With the prequels: \n We are introduced in the first half to a charismatic young boy who we are told possess loads of potential but this potential is being squashed because he is a slave. Slave is freed and took to begin his training, but before the movie ends his liberator and future master is killed by a mysterious tattooed red guy with horns and a crazy lightsaber. The boy grows up, progresses in his training and becomes well know for his skill, falls in love with a woman he can't have and is initially rejected by her but then accepted. They have a secret affair, and he sees a vision of her dying. Beginning his training at such an old age he is not conditioned to deal with the emotions brought on by his vision, nor has he been conditioned to suppress these emotions (which the later movies show to be a flawed concept) and thus seeks forbidden knowledge to save the woman he loves. To obtain this knowledge he is forced to become evil because he can neither deal with the loss nor find a way to solve the problem amongst his fellows as love is forbidden, thus it is the only road open to him (in his mind) because the evil forces know of a way to save the woman, but she still eventually dies. \n Fast forward nineteen years, the man has helped forge an evil empire based on fear and military might. A young boy similar to him is discovered and begins to fight against the Empire. This boy is much older then he was when he began training yet manages to control himself and balance his emotions. The man discovers that this is actually his own son and the only thing that remains of his dead wife and therefore he wants to be united with his son, but his master won't allow that unless the boy serves his master as well. He pleads with his son to join him to overthrow his master as he knows his son won't voluntarily serve the Emperor. Eventually because of his son's resolve he captures and brings him to his master so that his master may bind him to his will. The  emotional response  the man feels at seeing his son tortured causes him to kill his master, the man who led Vader down the path of evil, and show that he has returned to being a good man, that he has learned how to handle his emotions, and that he has rejected the evil he once embraced.", "id": "c4u7qkz", "summary": "In addition to setting up the political and historical back story of the original movies, the prequels set up the first half of a redemption arc with a good, albeit flawed, character falling to evil, with the original three movies showing his redemption and rejection of said evil as well as all 6 movies showing that the Old Jedi Order's Code that eschewed and forbid strong emotion was inherently flawed. \n Edit: removed a typo"}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "While these are legitimate concerns, I think you've grossly misread the situation. \n >First, it would be forced. \n True, but the same could be said about the Sons of Ben. They were just a bunch of guys who went out to games, had no one to support, and choose to chant and sing. Hell, you could say the same thing about  any supporters group for any MLS team.  They all started in conjunction with their teams to mimic and replicate the atmosphere at European and South American games, where clubs have decades if not a century of history and culture. Teams who's fans started singing because they didn't have PA systems to play music on them. From that viewpoint, all of MLS's singing supporters appear forced. \n >Second, it could easily lead to hooliganism...due to how new the Union and really...MLS is, there isn't intense hatred between teams. \n Two things. First, you've drastically underestimated the fan bases of club. New York and D.C., Portland, Vancouver and Seattle, LA and Chivas all despise their opposites and those are intense games. We (Union fans) dislike the teams you think we would: New York and D.C. While New York fans have made a pointed effort not to call this a rivalry (as their preferred one is with D.C. as they are both original MLS teams) D.C. fans don't really seem to care and acknowledge the same fact we Union fans do: at any Union/D.C./NYRB game there are Flyers, Caps, NYR, and/or NYI fans; Eagles, Redskins, and/or Giants fans; Phillies, Nationals, Mets and/or Yankees fans; Sixers, Knicks, Nets, and/or Wizards fans and none of these fans like each other and we're not above (unlike the NYRB fans) jeering the same people we jeer at Flyers/Eagles/Phillies/Sixers games. \n Second on hooliganism: it has largely been drowned out of the sport. The only place it is still somewhat existent is in South and Central America. In Europe, where hooliganism originated, all of the national soccer organizations have made a concentrated to prevent and shun this behavior and it has been incredibly successful without diminishing the passion behind the support. Now with regards to Philly fans: the Sons of Ben have a  Code of Conduct  we'll be less likely to see violence overall.", "id": "c5sxsyb", "summary": "You could argue that all the singing supporters in MLS are forced from a European perspective. MLS fans do have some impassioned and intense rivalries. Hooliganism has been overwhelmingly force out of the sport on a global level due to a pointed effort to prevent that behavior. However, preventing the violent aspects doesn't hinder the passion."}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "MLS does the other leagues do better \n Actually no, not necessarily. Yes, it terms of skill take the teams that place 1st through 4th from the EPL, La Liga, Serie A etc, yeah, they'll probably beat their MLS counterparts. However, like Vsx said: \"MLS even fines [diving] based on replay.\" They were the first to do this. Furthermore, MLS has a substantially smaller income disparity among team due to the American ideas of sharing TV revenue, and a salary cap, as such in the past five years, MLS has had  five different champions  which is extremely uncommon in the big European leagues (ex: only four different teams have won the English Premier league in the past  decade.  And on the flip side of that, being bankrolled by a wealthy owner does not guarantee success: New York Red Bull is one of the original MLS clubs (its gone through various incarnations) and has never won a major trophy and is one of the richest clubs in the nation.", "id": "c4kdltx", "summary": "Yes, many European leagues out class their MLS counterparts in terms of skill, but MLS does a handful of things administratively and financially to do away with some of the big problems the European leagues face."}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "This is the problem... requiring their athletes be amateurs. \n I agree this is the problem, but don't agree with your solution. The thing with Division 1 athletics and the NCAA is that the NBA, to some extent MLB, and heavily the NFL have all turned the NCAA into their de facto recruitment and youth development facility. Oppositely, in soccer youth players (anywhere from kids to early 20's) are recruited and developed in an individual team's youth academy and are taught how to play (MLS is a bit of an exception).  Most do not go to college as it doesn't help them professionally . Additionally, those college athletes that do go pro, even if they have a [short career, typically make enough money for them to retire at that point]( so having a BS or BA really doesn't give them anything. Furthermore, there are many that drop out of school so they can enter the draft so they don't even get a degree. \n The other thing about the NCAA, is that the \"student-athletes\" are amateurs only in that they are not on a paid professional contract. The NCAA makes so much money from collegiate athletics, but the athletes see none of it. The NCAA argues that the athletes are being compensated by not having to pay for their education, but because of the time requirements of both practices, games, travel to games and classes, they have little time for, say, a part time job so they can get some extra cash to maybe just order pizza on Friday. \n To draw a corollary: the US armed forces offers ROTC scholarships for the various branches to train officers and pay for their bachelor's degree. I speak from experience as I am on a Navy scholarship. The weekly time requirement for training is similar to a varsity athlete's, if not, it's less. Even still, with the tuition paid and some money for books, they still receive a monthly stipend of a couple hundred dollars for \"quality of living\" which, for those of age, typically means beer.", "id": "c2pejow", "summary": "1) Professional sports use the NCAA for recruitment and youth training. Even a short professional career sets you up for retirement, so collegiate athletes should focus on training, and prep for the professional arena, not getting a degree they'll never need. \n 2) There is a whole bunch of money in the NCAA (especially football and basketball), players should see some cash, if just for pizza and beer as military officers in training with similar training time requirements receive monthly compensation. \n <breathe/></rant>"}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "Tell me where its legal \n I will ask you to tell me where it is  illegal . Players bump and and make contact with each other through out the entire game, it's a matter of how you interpret this contact. I interpret it as a defender putting his arm up to prior to cutting goal side of an advancing forward. \n At the worst Pepe gave him a slight push.  In my interpretation , as officiating is subjective, it was not enough to knock the player off his feet. By diving he is now subject to a caution for unsportsmanlike conduct under the condition of \"[attempting to deceive the referee by feigning injury or pretending to have been fouled]( This is known as simulation. \n Now it is possible he was fouled and that the contact would have knocked the attacker off stride and prevented a goal. However because the attacker dives, a reaction greater then the contact should've generated, I as an official am unable to come to this conclusion. What I see is a player going down too easily and simulating a foul. Its a very fine line between going down when fouled when you could have stayed up, and accentuating something that was marginal or borderline. \n I also have a thing for those flop. Drives me up a wall.", "id": "c2icaf3", "summary": "IMO he wasn't fouled. Even if he was, he went down to easy preventing me as the ref from seeing the result of the contact and coming to my own conclusion. This is punishable under unsportsmanlike conduct on the grounds of simulation. Contact is not always a foul. I hate players that flop."}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "Why anyone would be pissed...Anyone else would [not] have done any different \n I'm  still  pissed at Henry for the following reasons: \n 1) In the EPL, I support Chelsea, so anything even remotely associated with Arsenal already starts at a disadvantage for me. \n 2) I'm also (obviously) a Philly Union supporter as they are my home team, thus I despise everything to do with New York sports. So even before the gun, Henry's in the negatives. \n Regarding the actual play: \n 3) No, I don't think that every player would have done the exact same thing. I think some players play the game according to the Laws and do their best to win fairly. That said, you can't rely on your opposition to play fairly, thus the Irish goalkeeper is also at fault for appealing for a foul instead of easily controlling the ball. I'm a phenomenally less skilled keeper and even I could have at least disrupted that play. \n 3.5) It was just so blatant. Its not like a trip or a push or the generally rougher and more intense play that you would associate with this type of match. It was a complete \"Fuck you!\" to the rules. \n 4) The impact of the result. Ireland hasn't made it to the Final in years if not decades, certainly France has been there more times. The fact that they were so close to making and were cheated out of it really tics me off. \n 5) The fact that he was caught and denies it. There's video of it from several angles showing very conclusive evidence of handling, yet he has never said anything to the equivalent of \"Yes, I deliberately handled the ball.\" or even \"Yes, I got caught up in the moment and handled the ball.\" \n 6) The general handling of it afterwards. The French FA, the French team, UEFA, and FIFA all did just about nothing if I recall, despite overwhelming video evidence, which generally leads down to a discussion on the potential for goal line officials, instant replay etc. but I'm not going there. At the very most FIFA or UEFA could have scheduled another replay. (No they couldn't outright throw them out as that isn't how qualification is decided, it may be tedious, but qualification is based on the actual games.) Failing another replay, they could've banned Henry from the Final tournament, if not international football all together. Failing any international action, if the French team and FA had any moral backbone, they could have joined with the Irish protests, or failing any international ruling, withdrawn from the tournament.  At the very least the French could have sent Henry home for the tournament.", "id": "c3vkogc", "summary": "Theiry Henry is a cheating Arsenal/Red Bull bastard an no measures were taken to restore the karmic balance by UEFA/FIFA/The French/Theiry Henry and thus to restore balance, the Universe stepped in and made the French National team implode during the tournament. Once Ireland makes it to the Finals will balance be fully restored. \n Also: 16 years, no cups!"}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "Hold on, hear me out. As a practitioner, I have a legitimate grievance against the taekwondo competition. In the sparring aspect of competition, there are two schools of thought: Olympic style, and point sparring, which is very similar to the proposed karate format. I am a practitioner of the point sparring style, thus I would be really interested in this. \n Now I'm going to take a step back and explain to you something, in general, about the philosophy of most martial arts and particularly the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ones. Primarily: ideally you never have to use this - for real - on another person. However, if you should find yourself needing to use your skills, they should only ever be used in self-defense or in defense of someone else. Secondly: this is only for arts that utilize strikes, as a black belt, you must be able to accurately execute, at full force and full speed, all of your techniques and be able to completely stop them before they hit the target. \n Before continuing, one aspect of sparring that is universally agreed upon is that it is not a combat or self-defense scenario, thus rules are put in place to limit force, techniques, legal striking areas etc. to ensure the safety of participants. \n Olympic-style taekwondo sparring promotes and awards bad technique. The scoring system awards 1 point to any legal closed fist strike or kick of sufficient power, where sufficient power produces  an abrupt displacement . It still, however, favors kicking over punching as legs are much stronger then arms and both implements are scored equally, so, why waste your energy. The final kicker is that a clear technique does not need to be shown, only contact with the fist or foot that moves your opponent. This is contrary to why anyone learns and trains in a martial art. [Example, turn down your volume.]( I will concede that if there was a rule change, most of the Olympic competitors would be the same. I do not think that any of them are bad, and I imagine they could demonstrate very good technique if they wanted to. The problem is that you have the same universal ruleset for all competitions, from the Olympics down to small, 100 person local tournaments. Do you really want to promote a style to newcomers that encourages bad technique, and at the local level, where the competitors are less skilled and less physically fit, that regularly causes injury? \n The basic philosophy behind point-style sparring is that any one of the scored techniques could defeat your opponent (read as kill, incapacitate, or stun them long enough to do one of the prior two.) The scoring systems vary greatly, but one common one is 1 point for any legal closed fist technique or kick to the body, 2 points for a kick to the head, where a clear technique must be demonstrated. This scoring system falls in line with the idea of a single technique killing, incapacitating, or stunning your opponent, and this style promotes a much more technical, calculated, and less injury prone style of sparring. Two examples:  a Korean competition  competition of this format would what I would ideally like to see at the olympics. \n In summary:", "id": "c7rkkl0", "summary": "You're an Olympic purist? Well there are some legitimate grievances in the taekwondo community about the Olympic competition and people who would like to see it changed. The Olympic style encourages bad technique and power over precision and finesse. The proposed karate style is similar to taekwondo point sparring, which promotes technique, speed, and control and is better for the development of martial artists."}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "Ok we're sorting some things out right here right now. \n 1) Yes, we are bitter fans. You would be too if you went to five straight NFC Championships only to get to the Super Bowl once and lose. If your baseball team had the greatest pitching rotation ever assembled and won over 100 games only to go out in the first round of the playoffs. If your hockey team was heavily favored to win and goes out in a sweep in the first round. If you experienced winter here and constantly lived in the shadow of NYC and DC. Yes we're fucking bitter. \n 2) You're confusing your infamous incidents. The first is booing and throwing snowballs at Santa, [which this article elegantly explains.](", "id": "c3a64o6", "summary": "Frustrated Eagles fans vent their rage on a sub par season with no benefits in draft picks on a sub par and possibly drunk man playing Santa Claus. The other incident is throwing batteries at Dick Allen which is a bit more racially charged and embarrassing. \n Furthermore to address Tystero's post: \n >In Philly.... \n That's the joke. \n >Booed Santa outta Citizen's Bank Park \n I don't know if we've done that but the incident you're probably thinking of is [this one, which I linked to above]("}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "Fines and suspensions \n They probably will not start doing that without serious amendments to the Laws of the Game. Firstly, fines and suspensions are typically levied only after a player has been sent off. \n Secondly, under [Law 12 - Fouls and Misconducts]( the following are sending off offenses: \n >serious foul play \n >violent conduct \n >spitting \n >denying the opposing team a goal or an obvious goal scoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball \n >denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity... by an offense punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick \n >using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures \n >receiving a second caution in the same match \n All of which are  fouls . \"Feigning injury\" or \"pretending to be fouled\" commonly called \"diving\" is officially referred to as \"Simulation\" and is officially interpreted as \"unsporting behavior\" which is a misconduct and listed explicitly as a cautionable offense. \n Thirdly, one might argue that because this is such an overt and over the top example of simulation and unsporting behavior, it merits severer punishment and the player should be sent off. While yes, I would compare this to a tripping offense that would require a sending-off, one cannot be sent off for a misconduct. Whereas a tripping foul may be deemed \"serious foul play\" or \"violent conduct,\" a misconduct (other examples: offside, handling (with exceptions)) will never meet the criteria above to merit a sending off.", "id": "c3kw86i", "summary": "You get fined and suspended for being sent off. You can't be sent off for faking being fouled and/or injury. \n Edit: wording"}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "Ok, that is an acceptable reason not to have it here, but  given the other bidders  is probably a little too soon. This also rules out Japan and South Korea as they co-hosted in 2002. This leaves Qatar and Australia. Qatar does not have the infrastructure. I don't care how much money they throw at it; the country does not have its own personal top flight sports league that would be compatible to hosting the tournament, while the US did in 1994 despite not having a top flight professional soccer division. Australia, on the other hand, does have its own division, and more importantly, it's a much larger country which will cause less congestion at tournament venues.", "id": "c2gzrsx", "summary": "2022 bid consisted of USA, Japan, S. Korea, Australia, and Qatar. If its too soon for the US to re-host, it is too soon for Japan and S. Korea. Qatar is too small. Australia should have gotten it if not the US."}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "Edit: I'm speaking solely from with regards to the Navy, NROTC, and Naval Academy side of things. I don't know much with regards to the Army and Air Force side of things. \n 2nd Class, 4th year (five year school) midshipmen here on NROTC scholarship who also applied to the Naval Academy and was rejected. I have been out in the Fleet twice for ~1 month each cruise, one with solely NROTC midshipmen, and once with a mixed bunch. \n The differences between Academy midshipmen and NROTC midshipmen arises from one key difference: as a NROTC midshipmen, the demands the military makes on your time are significantly less. My freshman year I had about 10 hours of military evolutions (PT, navy specific classes, drill) plus ten logged hours of studying, which when putting in about 20-25 hours of  just studying  per week, was nothing. While I certainly didn't have as much free time as my civilian friends, I had time to relax, go out on weekends, take a nap, etc. While at the Naval Academy, you're constantly in a military environment. \n The Academies, in my opinion, blur the lines between boot camp and college. Simply put, these programs are intended to train officers, not enlisted, thus to train them in a similar manner does not make sense. I had two friends from my unit transfer to the Naval Academy after freshman year (they hate it there now and completely regret the decision) and the key difference they found was that it was easier to be in the right place, at the right time, in the right uniform because everyone else was doing the same thing too. In NROTC, you have to figure a lot of shit out for yourself (seriously,  just ask , any reasonable upperclassmen or officer/adviser knows you don't know anything and that they are there to pass on knowledge to you), and you have a lot more responsibility placed only on  your  shoulders when it comes to accountability. \n The flip side of the amount of personal accountability placed on you is the amount of freedom you are permitted. The (Naval) Academy logs, accounts for, and schedules every hour of your day from eating to PT, class, studying, and sleep. In NROTC, again the responsibility is placed on you: don't schedule anything before 0900 for Naval Science, PT, and drill. Wednesday we have lab from 1500-1700, be in whites. Schedule your meals, sleep, classes, studying, and gym time around that. \n So because of these differences, I've ended up seeing the following: Most Academy mids I've met do not have good social or people skills, things that are essential to a naval officer, because officers end up doing a lot of personnel management. They don't really interact with anyone outside the Academy and are constantly in the \"Yes, sir. No, sir. Thank you very much, sir\" attitude. The NROTC mids I've met tend to be friendlier, generally less tightly strung, and just better at interacting with others.", "id": "c5oys0k", "summary": "Academies blur the lines between boot camp and university. The point of both programs is to commission officers, not enlisted, so to use a similar training atmosphere doesn't make sense. NROTC places a lot of personal accountability and responsibility on your head from day one,  the Academies don't really  some of which just isn't present in an Academy environment. NROTC does not keep you constantly in a military environment and allows you to interact with and experience \"the college experience\" and because of this, in my opinion, produces a better well rounded person and officer. \n Ultimately, though, three-four years into the Fleet, no one really cares where you went to school and your track record in the Fleet is much more important. \n Edit: This is all clearly taken from my perspective and experience, and from incidents and stories I've heard from friends and junior officers I've encountered. This is my opinion."}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "You are a feminist, but you are a[n]...activist SJW that isn't a real-real feminist...who are we to label what they call themselves? \n I think this is the issue:  both  have been referred to as feminists, but the culture surrounding how they're received has changed. \n >That men shouldn't demand that (any) woman...be busy always makin' sammiches \n This is where we start. Women have gotten equal rights and treatment (more or less) under US law due to the original Feminist Movement. You know, the people that got them the right to vote all the way through getting equal treatment in the work place. We're talking the first half of the 1900s here, maybe up through the 70's. Some of those issues still linger, but, at the very least it has created a society that believes in equal protection under the law and equal opportunity regardless of sex. This is the common person's stance. \n I would say that a value, stance, or ideology held by an overwhelming majority of a population tends to no longer recognize the movement that brought it about. In the US we all believe in democracy and government by the people, for the people. This ideology was brought about by the Liberalist movement. Liberalism (in the broadest sense of the word) is now a commonly held ideology in the US, but no one refers to themselves as a Liberal in that sense anymore. In fact, anything outside of the overarching ideology of Liberalism is so outside the norm here that we decided to differentiate our Liberalism into liberal Liberalists, and conservative Liberalists. Colloquially referred to as Liberals and Conservatives. \n I think we have seen the same thing happen to Feminism. There is a wide range of people that consider themselves to be Feminists but have differing viewpoints within the Feminist ideology. There are some that just want equal legal protection for women. Some want to take this a step further and have a gender or sex-neutral legal system or one that doesn't recognize sex or gender at all. Others, like the ones in the video, feel that they didn't have the same rights as men, and need to tear down the male-centric system and replace it. Then there's those that feel that women should completely overthrow and replace men. \n The first point I would say just about everybody agrees with, and a decent amount with the second point as well. The third and forth however are increasingly radical viewpoints that fewer people believe in, but grew out of Feminism. No one considers the first two ideologies to be \"feminist\" anymore because they are held by the common person. Everyone is a Feminist, just as everyone is a Liberalist. \n Those are my thoughts on it, I could be completely off base, but that's the way I see it.", "id": "ch1rtsl", "summary": "Everyone agrees with the major points of Feminism, thus everyone is a Feminist. The video people are Radical Feminists, who call themselves colloquially Feminists. No one bothers to correct them because everyone is a Feminist, thus no one refers to themselves as a Feminist."}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "A few not so quick comments on this: \n First, Americans FUCKING LOVE playoffs! They are the epitome of the American ideals of \"Any given Sunday\" and the \"Underdog Comeback.\" Just look at the NHL's playoffs this year: of the 16 (of thirty) teams that made the playoffs, the 13th overall won, and was the 8th (of 8) team from the western conference. It was crazy. \n Second, on conferences. This is a slightly different animal, because in the NFL, NHL, and MLB (American football, hockey, and baseball) the two conferences are the remnants of former leagues. Like if the Premier League had formed entirely separately from the Football League. They also tend to be fairly geographically aligned (or at least the subdivisions within the conferences) and in such a large region as the USA and Canada, geographic concerns are really significant when it comes to travel and, due to this, scheduling. So when an East Coast baseball or hockey team goes to the West Coast, they stay there for several games, because you're going across four time zones, and each team plays teams within their conference and division more frequently. So that's why this happens in the other American sports. \n MLS, however, does it completely wrong. Prior to this season, it was a balanced schedule: all 18 teams played every other team at home and away, ten teams qualify for playoffs: the top three in each conference plus the next best four. This is why  currently  the conferences are dumb: the only thing they do is screw up playoff seeding because the top three in each conference are seeded 1-6 and because of this can boot better teams out of the playoffs. It doesn't happen often because of the low disparity in skill among teams, but it can. However one of the speculative structures for growth of the league (courtesy of /r/MLS) is instead of breaking at ~20 teams into a relegation/promotion system, grow it to 30-40 teams and use geographic conferences that actually work like the other leagues, until then, use a single table, balanced schedule.", "id": "c5691d8", "summary": "MLS modeled its structure off two sports standards in the USA and Canada: Playoff championship and Conferences, because playoffs are awesome and other leagues are structured as a merger of two leagues that are roughly geographically aligned. MLS conferences are pointless  at the moment  as all they do is screw up playoff seeding. \n For reference: MLB ( American League"}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "Except that isn't the purpose of a prequel: \n >[a literary, dramatic, or filmic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative.]( \n Thus by its very nature, the Prequel Trilogy must, to a lesser or greater degree, tie into the Original Trilogy. \n I wrote this in a thread a month back discussing the validity and necessity of the Prequel Trilogy: \n >[", "id": "c56x67y", "summary": "In addition to setting up the political and historical back story of the original movies, the prequels set up the first half of a redemption arc with a good, albeit flawed, character falling to evil, with the original three movies showing his redemption and rejection of said evil as well as all 6 movies showing that the Old Jedi Order's Code that eschewed and forbid strong emotion was inherently flawed.]("}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "Actually no. Taekwondo is the most popular martial art in the world. It is know for its kicks, specifically jumping kicks and high kicks. This is because it was developed and evolved by a bunch of Koreans. Koreans while occupied by various other countries over the centuries (particularly Japan) were not allowed to have weapons and when fighting would have to use farming implements and fight samurai on horse back. So yeah, kicking high is part of the art, and if you want to be successful in competition you need to develop kicks to the head.", "id": "c24n33c", "summary": "kicking to the head is extremely common and encouraged."}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "Let's put it a different way. It's a benefit we're entitled to that is lumped into to our net benefit package (compensation, insurance, etc.) to bring our benefits in line with civilian counterparts. \n As an officer you have a college degree. The average starting salary for a fresh college graduate is $45k, [per Forbes dated to 2013 so maybe its gone up a bit]( Let's assume for the moment that this job also offers a comparable health insurance policy, a bit of a stretch, but not unreasonable. O1 base pay is $2934.3 or $35,211.6. We're ~$10k short here, and that's where BAH comes in. O1 Norfolk BAH adds and extra $17k on. Assuming the average college salary has gone up too, BAH brings us inline with that figure. \n Further, as I said elsewhere, what about all the single people that live together for the exact same reason of driving down their housing costs so they can take home more of their BAH? \n Let's take a four-bedroom apartment in Norfolk, that costs roughly $1200/month. We have four single ensigns drawing $1422/month in BAH, but they each pay $300/month in rent, so the government is overpaying for their housing by $4,488/month. We'll call it $4000 to factor in utilities and the like. \n Same place, now with a married pair of ensigns with a child. One gets $1,644, the other, $1,422 per month under the current rules. The government is overpaying for their housing by $1,866/month. Dropping the same $488 for utilities brings it to $1,378. If they don't have dependents it is even less.", "id": "crov9da", "summary": "Not all compensation is part of your taxable paycheck. BAH is part of our compensation to bring it inline with our civilian counterparts. The idea that this will save the government money is bogus if they ignore the fact that single military personnel are doing the exact same thing for the exact same reason. \n Edit: I also want to say that I think the BAH program itself is screwy. It's discriminatory to single enlisted and single personnel in general, and is a confusing and roundabout way to raise my compensation to a comparable civilian level. I'd much rather have it lumped into my base pay and simply have everyone get a higher salary across the board."}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "If a ref blows the whistle, yet a running back keeps running \n Improper analogy, should be if a flag is thrown and, yes, if the foul doesn't stop play and the RB scores, the scoring team can choose to accept the foul or the result of the play. So, yes the TD can still count. \n A whistle is only a tool to get the player's attention so that the referee can indicate his decision. However, a blown whistle typically precedes the referee stopping play so pretty much everybody has adopted the \"keep playing until the whistle\" mentality even though a whistle doesn't specifically indicate a stoppage in play. See Law 5: \n >[If a spectator blows a whistle and the referee considers the whistle interfered with play...the referee must stop the match.]( \n So while it is semantic to argue that a blown whistle doesn't indicate a stoppage in play, it is technically - the best kind - correct, and seeing as this whistle (which happens to be the referee's) doesn't interfere with the play - it was blown as the ball was struck and the goalkeeper was out of position and diving for the ball, you could argue that the GK \"pulled out\" of the dive because he heard the whistle, but there is no substantial or distinguishable evidence for this - the goal should count. \n Now, this is a professional game in a professional stadium where spectators aren't allowed to bring whistles but this same set of rules applies to any game played regardless of professional status, and this is a common occurrence at youth tournaments where there are many closely packed fields with multiple games. As a referee for one of these games, you typically need to whistle and verbally issue a command or call and good referee will be talking during a game like this thus raising the importance of  listening to the referee's decision  as opposed to  just the whistle. \n Now the counter argument: \n You are absolutely justified as a referee in calling the goal back and awarding the penalty because you had already decided to stop play before the goal. This referee has even decided that in his head. So now the consequences: If you call the play back, award the penalty, and the team scores you're off the hook; no harm, no foul. If they do not score, then you're an ass. Soccer doesn't have a system like the NFL that allows the team to decide what they think is more advantageous: to accept the foul or the result of the play, you the referee have to decide for them, and since the goal is acceptable from the above argument, you have just cost the team a goal by wrongly determining what is more advantageous for them. \n So now you have to ask yourself: do you want to have a handful of players get in your face, and have to shut them down and say that \"Yes, I blew the whistle and I am calling a goal\" or do you want to have an entire team riding your ass for the rest of the game if they don't convert the penalty?", "id": "c5vy41d", "summary": "A whistle doesn't explicitly indicate a stoppage in play, its just a tool, and to stop play is a decision issued by the referee. If a blown whistle (whether by a fan or official) doesn't interfere with play, the play should be allowed to continue and the result of the play counted, which is what happened here. You are, however, justified in calling the play back and awarding the penalty, you just need to properly weigh the consequences of such a call."}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "Numerous big cities to experience LA, NYC, Chicago.... \n As a Philadelphian, I truly loath the fact that people forget to mention us in a random list of \"Big US Cities.\" In terms of population it is the 5th largest city (>1.5 million) with NYC, LA, Chicago, and Houston being greater. However, Houston has a much lower population density (because it is a much great land area a lot of which looks like what would be considered Philly's suburbs.) So filtering cities with a population 500,000+ by population density, NYC is #1, San Fran is #2, Boston #3, Chicago #4, and Philadelphia #5.", "id": "c33qxgt", "summary": "Philly is a major US city and should be respected for that as well as its historical significance,   dammit!"}, {"author": "jabrodo", "content": "Disclaimer : I have actively avoided media on the new Star Wars movie as an act of protest. If I am missing out on something, let me know, as it may contribute to changing my view. \n My view : Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Ep. 7) is, at its core, just an attempt to cash in on a valuable franchise, and doing so is disrespectful to fans of the Star Wars universe. \n Background \n \n George Lucas made 6 movies, however good or bad, and denied, up until recently, that there would ever be a 7th movie. These movies represented the highest level of canon in the Universe, no other source contributing to the story of the Universe could contradict the movies. \n \n Star Wars fans had given up on ever seeing a 7th movie, and thus turned to the next best thing: The Expanded Universe. The meat of the Expanded Universe consists of novels and video games, many of which are considered to be exceptional works in their own right (notably The Thrawn Trilogy, and KOTOR). \n \n These works created some fantastic stories and characters, many of whom were incorporated into later works which all came together as one coherent, linear timeline. \n \n However Lucas felt personally about the Expanded Universe, ultimately he was involved in the publication process and had final approval. \n \n The decision was made to make Ep 7, not just a 7th movie. The characters from the Original Trilogy were to be used, and it was eventually decided that the original actors, (or at least Ford, Hamill, and Fisher) would be involved. \n \n \n Arguments \n Argument 1: It ruins the structure of the timeline, and/or it degrades the value of the Expanded Universe. \n From a structural standpoint, one of my favorite things about Star Wars is that it is very easy to enter into. There are six movies, and if you want to know what happens after RotJ there is a definitive starting point: Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy. There is an order of novels, video games, comic books, and etc that chronologically follow, fit in between, and predate the movie's in the Star Wars Universe's own timeline. \n Conversely, while I love comic book movies, the multiple timelines, universes, and alternate realities in the source comic books is what prevents me from getting into them, as I don't know or am unable to find a starting point or follow the story lines. \n With the purchase by Disney and the production of the 7th movie, they have relegated almost all of the Expanded Universe to an alternate reality. While the new movies may draw inspiration from these works, ultimately, the source material is no longer considered valid. These are stories that many people have loved, and they're now considered lesser. That bit just really stings. Further, it fragments the Universe's works in a confusing fashion similar to what happened with the classic comic book super heros. \n All further arguments stem from this relegation, if not outright dismissal, of the existing Expanded Universe. \n Argument 2: If additional movies will be made, there are other options that could be used that had an original story and didn't override the existing Expanded Universe then an Ep. 7 that follows closely after RotJ. \n The Expanded Universe, and Lucas himself, has made it clear that it is okay to go beyond the scope of time consisting of the Original Trilogy. The Original Trilogy encompasses roughly a 4 year period. The Prequel Trilogy jumps back 32 years and then encompasses an ~14 year span, with a 10 year jump between TPM and AotC. Further, the Expanded Universe has made major jumps both forward and back, with KOTOR 1 & 2 taking place roughly 4,000 years before ANH, and the Legacy books starting 130 years after ANH, both of which have met with success. \n Argument 3: If an Ep 7 directly following RotJ is to be made, it should adapt a novel(s) from the EU that follows RotJ. \n This decision doesn't alienate the super fans like myself by not trampling all over things they love, but also retains the semi- and casual fans having a concrete and exciting story with characters they already know and love. \n Argument 4: Everything about the decision to make an Ep 7 following RotJ was just wrong. \n The way I see it a 7th Star Wars movie could take one of four routes. The first being what I mentioned in Argument 2, make a movie well outside or not bound by the existing Expanded Universe, thus preserving it. It is now 37 years since ANH. The novels have also encompassed a similar time period. The second route is to use the same actors and jump to a point ~30 years after ANH. The third is to recast the roles and adapt the Thrawn Trilogy. The final decision is to do something completely new, not bound by existing works. \n Each decision has it ups. \n \n It is unbound by existing stories allowing for creative freedom, and it preserves the existing universe. \n \n Will strongly appeal to the hardcore fans that have allowed the franchise to grow. \n \n Will appeal to hardcore fans and casuals by using a story familiar to the hardcores and characters familiar to the casuals. \n \n Also unbound. \n \n \n Each decision has its downs. \n \n Takes the risk of having a bad story and/or unfamiliar and unappealing character. \n \n Would really only do well with the hardcore fans. \n \n Could upset, annoy, or confuse people by having unfamiliar faces attached to familiar characters. \n \n Angers the hardcore fans. \n \n \n I feel the best decision would have been to option 3, to recast and adapt the Thrawn Trilogy, because it offers a compromise between the profitability (by cashing in on things/characters people already like) and what the hardcore fans who have been there for the long haul hold dear. The route they actually went with, option 4, is in my opinion the worst possible decision they could have made. \n Why I want my view changed : Simply put, I  want  to see it. I don't really trust Abrams, but given what Disney has done with Marvel, I can't help but think it's going to be good. But if I see it, I feel that I would be betraying what I'm going to call integrity of continuity. People got pissed off when Lucas edited and re-released the Original Trilogy because it changed things they already liked. The edits didn't really add anything to the story, in fact the biggest change took away something, Han shot  first  damn it, and made Lucas tons of money. I feel just like that, except more so. \n Summary : Star Wars fans had come to terms with there never being an Ep 7 and had turned to other media to take its place. Some of those stories are really great. There were other options for making a seventh movie then making it specifically Ep 7. The decision to make an Ep 7, (a seventh movie that directly follows RotJ) with the same characters and actors was not the best decision as it dismisses some really great material and alienates the most passionate fans.", "id": "t3_2okkgu", "summary": "I'm a huge Star Wars geek who is unhappy that a new Star Wars movie is being made that wants to be happy that a new Star Wars movie is being made. \n Edit: So I've heard many arguments and thought this over. Ultimately, this is the question I'm left with and I'll pose that will change my view. Given what has happened in the lead up to the movie and what we know about it, (EU decertified as canon, Ep 7 taking place in a time period already covered in post RotJ EU, uses the same characters, leading three are portraying the same characters, \"old\" EU may be drawn from as \"inspiration\") what is the main point of making this movie? Is the purpose of making  The Force Awakens  to  meaningfully  contribute to the story, or is it to make money by selling something under a valuable franchise name. While it could do both, one of these is the primary purpose. Given what we already know about the movie, I'm having trouble believing that the primary intent of the movie is to contribute to the story. \n \n >  Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. We'd just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to   [read through our rules](  If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which,   [downvotes don't change views]( If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our  ** [popular topics wiki](  first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to   **[message us](  Happy CMVing!*"}]}
+{"author": "stev_meli", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post We have to feed the beast lest it turns on us!", "output": "In other words, if Congress and the White House agree to substantial cuts in the federal workforce but don’t also agree to eliminate programs and reduce services, the end result could be more spending and deficits, not less. Strange as it may sound, to get a grip on costs, we should in many cases be hiring many more bureaucrats—and paying more to get better ones—not cutting their numbers and freezing their pay."}], "user_id": "longlamp_14901", "history": [{"author": "stev_meli", "content": "Can we all be serious for a minute? Are people honestly going to limit their cell phone usage based upon this warning? Do we really think that this is going to affect people's decisions? I seriously doubt it. People who care about this sort of thing probably have adjusted their lifestyles already. \n Furthermore, do we expect people to understand what the Sample Absorption Rate (SAR) means? The article already mentions that the phones are well within FCC regulation.", "id": "c0v7dbx", "summary": "Useless legislation courtesy of the ever burgeoning nanny state."}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "Anyway, my question is this: Would replacing the 7 large banks with 70 smaller banks with the same amount of money actually work? \n No. If the banks were allowed to fail, smaller banks and firms would have risen and taken the place of the larger ones. They would have increased their market share and would not have th burden of risky bets and huge debt. It is a natural function of the market. \n The government creating banks? Who takes control of these banks? The government is going to create banks and then just give them huge sums of money? Yea, wow, that will turn out really well.", "id": "c1twg7u", "summary": "Idiotic idea."}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "Via the link: \n >But uncertainty is a fact of business life \n Of course this is true. But there is a difference between market uncertainty (will the price of X commodity go up or down) and regulatory uncertainty (how will the new taxes and regulations, which will happen, affect my business). One has to do with understanding market trends, the other with understanding how actual regulations will work. It is very different. \n >the impact of new regulations on most companies has been overhyped: unless you’re a financial-services or health-care company, Obama’s initiatives aren’t  [DIRECTLY]  remaking your business. \n FTFY. \n It isn't direct, it is indirect. The purpose of financial services is to allocate resources efficiently. If new rules change the process in which resources are allocated (for better or worse), then it will take time for those new rules to be implemented and for their full affects to be recognized. For instance, one group who are influenced by increased regulation of the derivatives market are farmers. Furthermore, health care legislation affects all businesses which means that the marginal costs of the mandates need to be assessed.", "id": "c0v7b9a", "summary": "Regime uncertainty IS a problem"}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "Here are some tips: \n 1) Women are attracted to confident men. And the keyword is  attraction . The way you carry yourself - your appearance, your attitude, the people you are with are all a reflection of your personality and will contribute to how a woman perceives you. Women (like all men) will judge you initially on physical appearance, which isn't just your looks but how you handle yourself. Just as guys can spot a douche bag a mile away, women (well, women you'd want to date) can tell as well. If your physical appearance is average or below average, then you will have to make up for it by being a cool customer. \n 2) Don't be a pussy. The number one reason that guys get stuck in the friend zone and never get a shot at the girl they like is because they try to be what they think the woman wants them to be. They try to be too nice and too understanding and too available.  If you don't want to be in the friend zone, stop acting like a friend.  When you meet a woman you like, you have to treat the situation as someone who is looking to for an intimate relationship. Self-conscious guys take the easy route - they think that if they come off as less threatening and less-interested, then the girl they like won't feel pressured by them and they will have an easier time forming a relationship over time (as the girl obviously finds out what a great guy you are). It doesn't work that way. Attraction is what you are going for. The moment the girl no longer sees you as someone she is attracted to, it doesn't matter how great of a guy you are - you've dug yourself to China. Sure, there are probably examples of guys who have done this successfully - but I am confident in saying the vast majority of guys are still wondering why she went home with the asshole instead. \n 3) Don't care as much. When you like a girl, you get all excited at the prospect of dating her. Equally, you get worried about whether she likes you. This combination can lead to failure. A level of excitement is always necessary when going after a girl - but don't go overboard. Don't obsess over her and the future prospects because the truth is that it probably won't work out. You have to be a bit detached early on and realize that you want this person to be  a part  of your life and not your life. Be yourself, but be confident in yourself. If she doesn't like you or you don't like her - then that's ok. Sometimes people just don't go well together and you can then learn from the experience and move on. Its so cliche but there are plenty of women out there.", "id": "c1ahd1a", "summary": "The first phase is about attraction. If she isn't attracted to you, it doesn't matter what you do. Being attractive is about be taking care of yourself and knowing who you are before you try to sell yourself to someone else."}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "Long story short, corporate personhood was never the intention of the courts. But now we have precident... and activists SCOTUS judges. And the right of free speech to corporations. So now, corporations with deep, deep pockets can do something the government has NO power to do. Buy political advertising. I can't purchase a 30 second ad defending my candidate or position, but a corpration can. And they can do it where ever they want. \n Corporate personhood is a government creation to institute limited liability. Second, corporations are made up of people. People who are contractually binded together. When individual organize (whether it be through a corporation or charity or non-profit) do not lose their individual rights. \n >Oh, really? So the woman in Seattle who had her car repossessed by Wells Fargo Bank last week even though she owned the car outright and held the title issued by the State of Washington was a victim of the government? \n Mistakes happen all the time. Banks screw up sometimes just like any other company. If there is a serious grievance, than the civil courts can remedy it. \n >So, tell me again how corporations don't have as much power over me as the government. \n They do not have the monopoly on violence, governments do. Wells Fargo returned the vehicle. It was probably an unfortunate event and an apology is probably appropriate - but to compare this instance with the constant violations of rights and liberties perpetrated by the government (war? patriot act? torture?) is laughable. \n >And why is that, Einstein? 'Government' decided, out of true generocity of spirit, to bestow it's protections upon the hapless corporations? WAKE UP! \n The government appropriated itself massive regulatory powers over the economy in the pursuit of buying votes. They went well beyond their constitutionally mandated powers. When the government has control over the regulatory apparatus, it is in the interest of corporations and private citizens to lobby and garner influence. If those powers did not exist, there would be no reason to lobby in the first place. \n >The government protects corporations because corporations PAY THEM TO! No doubt, there are many politicians who seek such payment, but the they are outnumbered dozens to one by the CORPORATE LOBBIESTS that seek their favor (and that's only the registered ones). \n If the government was limited to its constitutional powers in the first place, lobbying would be fruitless because the government wouldn't be able to do anything about it. It is because of the giant increase in government power and because of the $4 trillion in spending that can be doled out to special interests that corporations and unions and other groups lobby. It makes sense to lobby because if you do not, the politicians will pass legislation harmful to your industry or livelihood. When so much power rests in their hands, you have the incentive to influence them with your money. \n >You seem to think, that left alone, corporations are completely trustworthy and will never endanger the public. \n Wrong. Corporations are run by humans and humans make mistakes and do bad things just like everyone else. The difference is that the survival of a corporation absent government protections depends on consumer satisfaction. Corporations can only stay in business by offering a product to consumers that people actually want. If they do something bad or negligent, then their profits are hurt because people would refuse to do business with them. They would go bankrupt or be bought out by more competent individuals. \n >But, there are literally thousands of examples of corporations knowingly sacrificing public safety or welfare in the name of profit. \n They can only make profits by satisfying consumer demand? How can a corporation survive by endangering the public without government protections? \n >But the fundamental purpose of government is not only sound, but necessary. \n Within constitutional limits. To say a third time, if the government didn't have so much power - there would be no reason to lobby. If the government didn't have the power to grant subsidies, then will giant agri-business still lobby? If the government didn't have the power to impose steel tariffs, would the steel lobby lobby for them? If the government didn't have the power to regulate the mortgage industry, would companies lobby for different aspects of legislation? The answer to all these questions are no. \n >What's the primary purpose of a corporation? To make as much money for itself and it's shareholders as possible. Period. In other words, FUCK the rest of you, we only care ourselves. \n How do shareholders make money? By providing a good or service to the public that they actually want. If they sell crap on a stick, it won't sell and they will go under. If they sell something people are willing to spend money on, they will do well. \n >So, pardon me if I seek to preserve my governement and redress its flaws, while working to shed a light into the selfish and greedy practices the huge life-sucking mega corps out there. There are some great companies out there, and I don't believe all corporations are evil. But, unfortunately, those that play by the rules, or work for more that just profit, don't seem to be the ones in control. \n See, this is the funny/ironic thing about the whole debate. The bigger you grow government - the bigger incentive there is for corporations to lobby. So here you are saying  the government needs to be strong to suppress corporate influence!  But it is the very increase in government power that increases the incentive to lobby! The more control you give over economic affairs, the bigger reason there is for people affected by those controls to try to gain favor. Do you not see this?", "id": "c14l7pb", "summary": "Your solution to the problem is actually the cause of the problem."}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "No, it is a corporate invention \n Corporations were created by the government, notably the SCOTUS. \n >And denying corporatations personhood does not deny any of it's participants their personal rights. However, corporate personhood does grant those same participants rights the rest of don't share. For instance, a COE can spend millions of dollar that aren't his to influence a campaign. \n Corporations lobby in order to influence politicians and/or gain favorable legislation. Shareholders can withdraw their support for such actions either by withdrawing their funds or by buying out the majority share and putting in policies they support. \n >Right. So, when a corporation does it, it's a 'mistake'. When a government does it, it's conspiracy to take your freedom. \n It isn't comparable. Not even in the slightest. It is actually laughable that you would compare a bank repossession screw up with the violation of civil and individual liberties. \n >Oh, right. So all the families who lost loved ones to cancer caused by toxic waste from the processing of an irresponsible manufacturer (there are hundreds of these, btw) can get redress by NOT purchasing the responsible manufacturer's products. Wow. How wonderfly equitable. \n Oh does your hyperbole keep you warm at night? There are two mechanisms to address such grievances - for smaller differences of opinion in company practices, you can choose to go to a competitor and not patronize the company's products. For actual legal infractions, you can use the civil courts system and sue for damages. If there is actual criminal actions perpetrated, the accused need to be found guilty in a court of law. \n >Further, driving a small corporation out of business is certainly possible, but is much more difficult for mega corporations. \n Which is complete nonsense. Look at the history of American corporations. Many of the largest and most prosperous companies have eventually become stagnant and bankrupt due to competition. The size of the company is absolutely no guarantee for their future viability. Very few companies have been around for a long time. \n >It wasn't Enron's customers that were able to stop it from it's illegal practices and put it out of business, it was the Feds. \n Laughable. Absolutely laughable. Where do you get your news from? Enron was heavily regulated throughout and I don't know if there is a better posterchild for a private-public partnership than the Enron debacle. The Feds didn't know what was going on until the bricks started falling on their heads. Just like, oh the housing bubble. \n >Your argument also requires there to be a free market in place, along with able competitors. If a corporation has driven all its competitors out, customers don't really have an alternative. \n Corporations cannot drive out all competitors. The only way competitors can be driven out is through government protectionism. \n >There is only ONE practical provider in my area. I either put up with Comcast, or I go without \n lol Comcast is granted a monopoly by the local government. Come on man. \n >You live a complete fantasy world. There is NO SUCH THING AS A FREE MARKET, and unregulated capitalism DOES NOT WORK. It fails for the same reason communism does - it does not address the flaws in human nature. \n Your problem is you have no idea what you are talking about. You don't know what a free market is so you just spout useless rhetoric. I already gave you a definition of what a market is: it is the aggregate of individual decisions and exchanges in an economy. How does that not work? It isn't a system, it is a description. Get that through your head. Communism is  prescriptive  which means there actually has to be a system implemented in order for it to work. Capitalism is the complete opposite. It is  descriptive . It is the result of free and voluntary exchanges that occur in an economy. \n Finally, you argue that there are flaws in human nature - so we need a powerful government - who is filled with these same flawed humans - who now have the monopoly on violence - how does that make sense? \n >By manipulating the market they swim in. You ever heard of the 'company store'? You think that was some fantasy? Get a clue. \n Examples? \n >Ok, so the govenment must abide by Constitutional limits, but not corporations. Remember, there are NO RIGHTS granted corporations in the Constitution. NONE. Rights are reserved FOR PEOPLE!!!!!!! \n The government created corporate personhood. I mean seriously dude, you can google this yourself. \n >Really? Ever heard of tobacco companies? \n Ever heard of tobacco subsidies? \n >The logical conclusion of your argument is that NO GOVERNMENT = NO CORPORATE ABUSE. That's probably in the top ten most rediculous things I've ever heard. \n Actually the logical conclusion is that no government = no corporations = no way for corporations to use government to gain subsidies and law protections. \n >The real logical conclusion of your line of thinking is FACISM \n Fascism is a political system where the government is highly interventionist in an economy. \n >CORPORATOCRACY, a govenment that is merely a puppet of the corporate machine. \n Which is what we have no and what we will continue to have as the government continues to grow. \n >", "id": "c14lm64", "summary": "YOUR problem is that you don't believe there IS a problem that needs a solution. \n There is definitely a problem - but the problem lies in the power of government. Funny how you didn't address the argument I made three times that if the government had limited power, corporations would have no reason to lobby. Probably because you know how logical that is. If the government couldn't intervene in the economy, why would companies lobby Congress?"}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "This is wrong for a bunch of reasons. Firstly, the renminbi is tied to the dollar, so there's no change in our cost of imported Chinese goods excepting for external costs of raw materials from nations that don't affix their currency to the dollar. \n It is  now . You made an argument about what would happen if the RMB was allowed to float - which is where my argument stems. \n >I'm not sure where you get the idea of \"buying power\" from. \n The purchasing power of the currency? If the RMB rises in value, then that means it rises against real goods and services. They would be able to purchase more goods with the same amount of money. On the other hand, the USD will lose value meaning we will be unable to purchase as much. Goods and services will rise in price relative to a devalued currency. \n >Currency markets don't have as much effect on domestic spending as you seem to think in a healthy economy with a broad consumer base (like the US). \n When that domestic spending involves a lot of imported goods - yes it does. Furthermore, as I argued, even domestic production requires raw materials and inputs from imports. So if the dollar goes down, the price of imports goes up, increasing the costs of production. \n >They export to pay the bills, the US is far more self-sufficient. \n Which means they produce stuff! The US depends on low cost production in order to satisfy their consumption. If the RMB rises, then the Chinese can just consume the goods themselves - they don't need us. We however, need someone to produce at a low cost. If we switch the production of consumer goods to our shores, it will be a lot more expensive. \n >Also see above, their currency is tied to ours, so they're paying more for imported European goods and imported food. \n Exactly they are - which means that if they allow their currency to appreciate, they will pay less for imported goods. \n >Floating their currency would act as a release valve for this, and simultaneously be a disaster for their exports. \n So? As I said, they have 1.3 billion consumers. If their currency appreciates, they can consume the goods that they themselves produce. \n >I'm not sure why you think their currency rising in value, perhaps by as much as 40%, would gain them anything but a massive recession. \n Because that would mean every person who earns a wage in China would see their paycheck rise in value 40%. That means they can purchase 40% more goods and services for the same wages they receive now. It would also mean that if they are consuming the goods, we will consume less. \n >This is why they haven't done it and won't if they can help it. \n They haven't done it because they believed that pegging their currency to the USD would provide their currency with stability and credibility. This is turning out not to be the case because the US prints so much money, it causes China to print as well. But China IS changing their policy. They are going to decrease their holdings of USD reserves. This means that they are going to loosen up the dollar peg, allowing their currency to rise (in a managed way). It also means that the US will be unable to borrow so much money, which further means that we will be unable to run giant deficits. We will have to make massive cuts to government expenditure because nobody will lend us the money to fund it. It would also cause interest rates to rise.", "id": "c1qwkua", "summary": "A strong currency has more benefits than a weak currency."}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "To assume that everyone is benevolent and simply trying to \"satisfy consumer demand\" - it's ridiculous. \n I don't have to make that assumption, it is self-evident. If someone is malevolent in their pursuit of profits, they will not satisfy consumer demand and will not make money. If your argument is that money is their goal, then they are able to maximize their profits by giving people what they want at a price they can afford. \n >You don't make profit by selling what the market wants at a price everyone can afford - you make it by purchasing an object for the lowest possible price and selling it for the highest possible price. \n It is the same thing. Buying low means someone is willing to sell the product at that price, meaning the original seller values the money (or good) you offer more than the good he holds. When you make the next transaction, the same thing applies. It is the [subjective theory of value]( \n >That is to say, you make profit directly by taking full advantage of those around you. \n If the transaction is voluntary, then how is someone being taken advantage of? In a free market, there are competitors for business. If you feel that you were misled in one transaction, you can go to a competitor. Profits come from providing a good or service that people actually want. \n >Take Wal-Mart as an example, and the way they grind the shit out of their suppliers for the simple purpose of undercutting all competition in a region until the competitors are forced to go out of business, all the while providing sub-standard wages and benefits to their employees. \n 1) They offer lower prices and individual consumers  choose  to shop there. That is individual actors acting rationally in the market. \n 2) If competitors go out of business, then it is due to consumers freely choosing one provider over another. Who are you to contradict their free preferences? \n 3) Who are you to say what is or is not standard wages? Wal Mart offers employment. Those seeking employment can either accept or reject the offer and are free to work somewhere else. The fact that people accept an offer to work for Wal Mart ipso facto means that it is the best opportunity for them in comparison to all other options. \n 4) Everyone profits. Lower prices means that everyone who shops at Wal Mart spends less of their disposable income on basic necessities. Those savings that are created by paying less for groceries translates into higher purchasing power. They can take those savings and spend it (or invest) in other industries who would not have been able to get that business if not for the original savings. \n Just so you get it: If you're grocery bills goes down from $100 to $75 because you shopped at Wal Mart, you are $25 richer. You could then take that $25 and spend it on something else. The company (or companies) that receive that extra $25 wouldn't have been able to do so absent the savings passed on by Wal Mart. Wal Mart gets profits for providing a valuable service, the individual has a higher purchasing power, and other companies benefit from individuals being able to have more disposable income.", "id": "c0zcdy4", "summary": "Economics 101"}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "I think that if FIFA is smart, they will give the US either the '18 or '22 World Cup. The very anticipation for such an event would be monumental in pushing the sport to new heights in this country. The money is there. We know it and FIFA knows it. They can talk all they want about how they don't take that into consideration, but its not just the money generated from a US WC. It is about the immense fan base that can emerge once the cup is over. That is whats important. \n Right now I think that England is the frontrunner for '18 (and rightfully so) with the US bid slightly ahead of the Qatar bid, followed by the Australian, Russian, and Spain-Portugal/ Belgium/Holland bids. Qatar is a wild card because they have tons of money and FIFA would love to have a WC in the ME. The problem with their bid is the question of if the country can handle the cultural differences that Westerners would expect when they go to the world's greatest party. It might be too much to overcome.", "id": "c0u6ms3", "summary": "USA! USA! USA!"}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "This stimulus differs because it has long-term ramifications. \n It isn't stimulus, it is an anti-stimulus. The only entity making student loans are the federal government. Repudiating the debts just shifts the balance on the taxpayers. This adds to the national debt and the interest we all must pay. Furthermore, it provides no market incentives to keep student loan costs down. Colleges can continue to charge higher and higher tuitions because there are no market mechanisms to force them down. This would increase the debt on the taxpayers and make college education another entitlement.", "id": "c0x0uqb", "summary": "This is a stupid idea."}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "I can see why an MBA would hate this idea on philosophic grounds, and the politics would be brutal, but what, technically, would be wrong with this approach? \n It would cause  more  unemployment. If companies are mandated by law that they have to pay the same wages for 30 hours of work as 40 hours of work then they will be unable to match prior productivity. They won't hire more workers because they won't be able to afford it. Many businesses would probably go out of business which would monopolize and cartelize many industries. Furthermore, even if your program did what you said in theory, it would make everyone poorer since the wages they are paid would be devalued as they aren't chasing as many goods or services. \n Businesses will hire when the marginal productivity of a worker exceeds his marginal cost. If you want to create jobs, then you have to decrease that which makes the marginal cost prohibitive (excess regulations, taxes, and mandates). If hiring a worker and expanding a business would lead to increased profit, then businesses don't need extra incentives.", "id": "c15at6d", "summary": "This is a bad idea."}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "Essentially, it all has to do with perspectives. The difference between mainstream economic thought and legitimate free market thought (meaning not the faux right wing platitudes) is how they view the financial crisis. To mainstream economists, the problem is the recession and the havoc that it causes. Their policy proposals seek to remedy the recession to return to a state prior to the crash. Free marketeers see the boom as the problem. The bust is not the problem, the bust is the market correcting for all the mistakes that occurred during the previous boom years. When housing prices are collapsing and jobs are being lost - this isn't a good thing. But it is a necessary thing. It is like saying that kemotherapy is necessary to eliminate cancerous cells, but what is necessary isn't always pleasant. It is essentially politically impossible because it means politicians actually have to admit they can't do anything about it. People want action, even if a lack of action makes more sense. \n The boom years created a lot of problems in the economy. Housing prices are too high and many investments firms made major mistakes. Prices need to fall and firms need to fail. It is the only way. Propping them up forces good money after bad. Money that could have been used for job creation is used to keep inefficient and incompetent people in business. It creates a black hole of never ending need for government help and too big to fail. Housing prices falling are inevitable, like gravity. It isn't something that can be prevented. It is something that can be prolonged. And the pain will be prolonged as long as we prop up prices. Once housing prices hit bottom, we would then have to sort out the values of homes and we can reach a point where people can actually afford homes instead of taking out outrageous mortgages.", "id": "c0u9u5q", "summary": "It isn't popular. It isn't pretty. It isn't what our politicians are going to do. But the correction is inevitable. It has always been a question of whether it was sudden or if it was prolonged through deficit spending and more debt. The longer we wait, the worse it will be when it eventually occurs."}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "Which sport? \n In the NFL it is about splitting the ginormous profits. The owners want to see a bigger return and believe that the players get too much of the pie. \n In the NBA it is pretty serious since a lot of teams do not even make a profit. The NBA wants to completely revamp the whole system and implement a hard cap so that big market teams and small market teams can compete and small markets can make a profit.", "id": "c2318we", "summary": "NFL is just billionaires v millionaires arguing over the spoils. NBA honestly needs a giant revamp of their system."}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "Government these days is big business. They already own you. And have owned various countries around the world. Because, as I said at the top, money controls everything. You think big business will leave governments alone? No way. \n The US government spends trillions of dollars. The biggest corporations have profits of maybe a couple billion. Do you understand the difference between billions and trillions? The government has the monopoly on force. Wal Mart cannot force me to buy from their store - only the government can. The government regulates virtually every aspect of our lives from the lightbulbs we buy, to [who can be an interior designer]( to whether we need to be [protected from a kid's lemonade stand]( \n The source of corporate power is the government. It is a government creation (so it can tax us) and it extracts rents from corporations so as to not destroy their business. Its created a world where political influence is more important than the economics. You honestly think that the increasing state power could ever lead to a decrease in corporate power? \n >They will make it harder and harder for the average citizen to do or have life any other way than through whatever law they've just got passed. \n If the government did not have the power in the first place, the corporation couldn't lobby for it and it wouldn't get passed. Corporate power is a symptom of a large disease that you just cannot see. \n >Bhopal is just the tip of the iceberg, and the fact that it took decades for any responsibility to fall on them is just one way lax government lets them off the hook. \n lol again, one example where a few thousand people died from an accident/negligence. Government purposefully drops bombs on people, locks them up for smoking a plant and assassinates American citizens. You can't even compare it in your wildest dreams. \n >But I'm done here. The US is so unregulated right now it would be comical if it weren't destroying so many lives. You want more of that, all the power to you. \n What are you high? The United States Code is over 50,000 pages long. The Code of Federal Regulations is over 160,000 pages long. In 2000, it was only 60,000 pages long. In 10 years we have added 100,000 pages of regulations! [GWB increased regulatory spending more than every one of his recent predecessors]( Adjusted for inflation, [finance and banking regulations rose 29% from 2000-2009]( Bush increased regulatory staff by 91,196 employees.", "id": "c2r21eq", "summary": "you don't have the first fucking clue what you are talking about."}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "I am surprised that Brookings would fall for the self-selecting bias so easily. Individuals who graduate from college are usually the best and brightest people already when compared to those who fail to finish college or never go. Brookings is implying that these individuals receive higher earnings  because  they finish college, rather than the more likely causal analysis that these individuals finish college  because  they are the brightest. \n Many people may object and say - well ok, what difference does it make? I think it makes a big difference in the context that the compelling mantra of my generation is/was  just go to college, it doesn't matter what you major in.  People think that going to college is an almost panacea to a lifetime of higher earnings. That is why so many government programs and cultural pressures put an emphasis on getting kids into college. \n However, as the current economic situation reveals (more so in European countries like Spain I think), it  does  matter what you major in. Just going to college isn't enough any more if you don't learn marketable skills for the 21st century. Many countries offer a college education for free (or heavily subsidized) and while the intention was at least noble, the results show that it affects students' incentives to tackle tough majors. It creates a gross mismatch between those who demand labor and those who supply it. \n I know it is easy to hate on liberal arts majors (as I myself was). If I knew now what I knew then, I definitely would have majored in something else. The problem is that we all bought into that mantra i mentioned before and when the economic crisis hit, all of a sudden it was like -  Oh by the way, you major actually matters.  I hope future generations don't make the same mistake - but its articles like this one by Brookings that maintains the status quo.", "id": "c3qadeg", "summary": "In general, intelligent and innovative people will earn more than non-intelligent or non-innovative people. College is more likely a consequence rather than a cause."}, {"author": "stev_meli", "content": "Are all avenues of science unavailable to you? Perhaps using a surrogate? I am sure the idea that you are unable to bear children is a difficult one, but there are positives. \n You will be able to essentially do whatever you want. You want to travel? You can. When all of the other adults are unable to go on that European vacation they always wanted and are forced to work overtime to pay for their kid's education, you have the freedom to enjoy the pleasures of life yourself. I am sure there are men out there who are not interested in having children - so your prospects for finding a mate aren't really diminished.", "id": "c0z304x", "summary": "Focus on some of the positives of being completely independent of childbearing responsibilities. If you still feel compelled to have children, then adoption is always an option (when you are financially able)."}]}
+{"author": "loverthehater", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The title.", "output": "I took a quiz to see which kind of Libertarian I was, (shut up. Yes. I had to take an online quiz.) and I found that I had a three way tie. The top of the list was Minarchism, which is what I labelled myself previously to taking that test. The second was Left-Libertariansim. I tried reading up on it, and it seemed extremely similar to Libertarian Socialism, but apparently it's not, because that same test said I was 8% Libertarian Socialist (opposed to 83% Left-Libertarianist). I'm just confused at this point on what it is, because the Wiki article put them both in the same thing and they seem so similar.... Can anybody help me out? Thanks in advance."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Just the reading title will do you good. (It's not bullshit.)", "output": "I know this is true because I discussed it with my mother one time and she just finished my sentence for me when trying to explain it, so she experiences this phenomena, too. I also had an \"inception\" sometime, and I told my friends that I saw what was happening sometime in my sleep long ago, and I said that I saw myself right after being pulled out of my class for some very weird reason. Later, my teacher and I had a debate about how many academic decathelon trophies this school has won, and he pulled me out of class to go count. I did, and when I got back, my friends jaws were hanging. They've called me \"Raven\" ever since. I'm just wondering how or why this happens? Our physical brains processing things before they happen?"}], "user_id": "longlamp_12334", "history": [{"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I love cubing. I was just finding my average for a 3x3 tonight since it has been a while and I have around a 40s average. \n My cubing collection really built since I became obsessed with it (which has since died off). I have a 2x2, several 3x3s, a 4x4, 5x5, 7x7, 2x3x3, Square 1, Clock, Master Magic, and a regular and mini siamese cube. \n I'm looking to get a 4-siamese 2x2 cube thing as well as a skewb now that I've gotten back into it.", "id": "ccw4von", "summary": "I fucking  love  cubing."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "INTP: Ti - Ne - Si - Fe \nINFJ: Ni - Fe - Ti - Se \n Looks good to me. Ni is still sort of a mystery to me, but it seems like those functions would work out well together. Although Ti is her shadow function, she might be interested in listening to your ideas and be enlightened by them. The only clash I see is the INTP's lack of Fe. Develop this (there are several guides on this subreddit for suggesting how to go about doing that) and I would see very little issues in these types. \n Keep in mind, you can not know a person just by their type, though. They are still  people  with individual traits that sometimes just don't work out that MBTI can  not  predict. Just keep that in mind. Also, it can not predict maybe some  good  outcomes that MBTI would say are impossible based on the function match-up. Keep all these things in mind. This girl is a  person  with a lot of individual traits and other things that MBTI will never predict about her.", "id": "chrml4q", "summary": "The functions seem like a good pairing. Develop your Fe. MBTI can not tell everything about a person, though. Don't rely on it."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Working after school as a high school freshman. Election was coming up, so it was a very hot topic. Some guy comes in and apparently is buddy-buddy with the teacher. Start chatting it up and eventually the sacred question comes up. \"Republican or democrat?\" \"Neither.\" WHAT? This baffle d me. A third choice?? I looked it up due to pure curiosity and found I loved the whole \"personal freedom\" stuff, and it all made so much sense. \n Did some research. Officially a Libertarian. Saw the /r/libertarian flair and I was interested about all of the different names and wanted to classify myself as something. Took a \"quiz\" online, and found I was a Minarchist. BAM. MINARCHIST! \n I saw the term \"Anarcho-Capitalism\" thrown around, and they basically believed everything I did except for the fact that government creates monopolies. I thought they were just natural among businesses, which is why it was made illegal. WELP. They convinced me otherwise. Asked a shit-ton of questions. Got a shit-ton of good answers. Great. Now I'm an Anarcho-Capitalist. \n I realized that not everybody wanted to be capitalist within the community of anarchists, so I went \"Voluntaryism\", which is like an \"anarchist without adjectives\" for Anarcho-Capitalists. \n Now I'm following Adam Kokesh on Youtube. Saw him debate this guy \"Peter Joseph\", and it says he made these films of the name \"Zeitgeist\".... huh..... Okay. \n watched first one. \n HOLY SHIT GOVERNMENT IS SO EVIL! AND RELIGION. ZOMG!!! EVERYTHING MAKES SENSE NOW!! \n watched second one. \n ..... wait...... but. capitalism..... isn't it good?... He makes some pretty good points..... but. but. I'm still Anarcho-Capitalist! :) \n watches third one. \n Okay. Capitalism. Wtf. I asked questions to the Anarcho-Capitalist sub and they really didn't have any answers that satisfied my need for security in this ideology. \n The top-bottom approach to government is easily corruptable. What is the difference with businesses? ^ BUT.  ^ BUT.  ^ COMPETITION! \n I researched some more and found all the flaws in capitalism and how it has turned our world into complete shit. THE SEARCH FOR A NEW IDEOLOGY BEGINS. \n I liked the 'no-hierarchy' stance of the anarchists, but I still thought a means of exchange was necessary to keep a society going, so Mutualism it is! \n Reads wiki page on Anarcho-Communism. \n Ho mah god this makes too much sense! And now I'm Anarcho-Communist. Still learning more and more about my ideology, but I love the general idea, and I really think it is possible, especially in the exponential growth of government nowadays, making people realize the absolute uselessness in it. \n THANKS FOR READING. Sorry if I came off as childish. I feel rather silly today. :)", "id": "c9vp341", "summary": "Republican > Libertarian > Minarchist > Anarcho-Capitalist > Voluntaryist > Major questioning > Mutualist > Anarcho-Communist"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I'm currently a junior in high school and are taking both AP Calc BC and AP Physics , so I can directly relate. \n First off,  try and talk to the teacher  and see if they can help you out with things. You'd be surprised on what they know and how they could help you. \n Second, let me just say this.  As an INTP, you naturally ask the question  why  to basically everything.  This is really common for me, at least... \n >  Oooohhh look at the stars twinkle and the moonlight covering the earth! \n > ..... Why do the stars twinkle and how does light go from the moon to the earth? How do we see the moon with such detail? And what is light made out of? Why this? Why that? \n All of these questions try to peg the source of  why  we know these things, or the complete base off of why we know this is true, or the truly basic concept. \n Since our memories aren't at all  too  great, this can really give us some trouble in school when we might forget one of these concepts, and it  reeealllyyy  bothers me, at least, when a crucial brick of my wall of knowledge is missing, so I constantly have to look back and relearn stuff that we covered months ago. \n When it comes to physics, I always ask myself why, but since the teacher of AP Physics at my school is an actual nuclear physicist, I can ask the questions to him and he would love to answer, but eventually we talk about quantum mechanics, and then  I try to go even deeper and more and more \"I don't know\"s arise until I'm completely dissatisfied with the amount of information I have on it. I've learned that this is just a course to pass a test and I can really care about these things on my own time, but for now, I just have to blindly follow the course and just do what is told to be correct.  This really tears at me, but  it's just to pass the AP exam to look good to colleges. Colleges don't care about how much interest you have in a subject, they just care about what is written down on a sheet of paper that  says  you are. \n I dunno. I got off topic. Jeezus that's a wall of text..... Hopefully this helped, and if not, I'm glad I could share my story with you and /r/INTP. :P", "id": "cfoslq2", "summary": "Bolded words."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Growing up in conservative Nebraska, I naturally went conservative, as my family was conservative. I was taught that conservatives were good and socialists and democrats were dirty politics. In 2008, I remember having a conversation with my elementary school friends about the election, which was about as intelectually stimulating as it got, being in 4th or 5th grade. I remember saying that I wanted President Obama to win because he was black and would live longer than McCain. (Keep in mind I didn't really have a clue what was what in politics or government.) \n Skip from there to 9th grade. I was staying after school, catching up on some U.S. History schtuffs, and the next election was coming up and politics was in the news and in most conversation. My brain had matured a bit and now followed more of the news. I was a Republican at the time. Some guy walked in who seemed like a Junior or Senior and started talking with Mrs. A about the upcoming election. She asked if he was a republican or democrat, and he said neither... I was interested now, because I hadn't even heard of a 3rd choice in politics. He said he was \"libertarian\", who advocated for both social and economic freedoms. \n That is not what initially sparked my interest, but it got me in the ballpark. I don't really remember what happened there, but somewhere in there, I was bored and looked up \"Libertarianism\" and found Gary Johnson, who was running in the 2012 election. I was already on reddit, so I also found the Libertarian subreddit. By this time, I was also a \"conspiracy theorist\" and in no way trusted the government at all, which later fueled my interest in anarchism. \n So anyway, the election passed and my obsession with trying to get Gary Johnson that 5% was over. I was still checking in on the Libertarian subreddit daily because I felt I needed to spread the message and get news across whenever it came up, as well as my conspiratorial ways. \n One day, I just, out of the blue, wanted to find out what type of Libertarian I was, because the flair list on the Libertarian subreddit had some names I was interested in, and I wanted to identify myself with one of those names. \n I looked up several quizzes and I seemed to be identified as a Minarchist, which was minimal government. I loved that. Identifying myself with a name, but something else came up on that list, that was pretty close to my top result... Anarcho-capitalist? I looked that up, as well, because, at the time, I didn't realize \"Anarcho\" meant anarchy. I looked it up and I really questioned Anarchy. My mind was just so convinced that there just had to be government! I mean... WHO WOULD BUILD THE ROADS?? \n Instead of completely rejecting the Anarchist philosophy, I went to /r/Anarcho_Capitalism and asked questions. Stuff that had to do with money, currency, military and defense, courts, etc, until all of my questions were answered and I was happy with the answers that people gave me. I now identified myself as an Anarcho-Capitalist. \n Then I got interested in other political philosophies, ones I knew about, but I always rejected until now. Stuff like big-bad Socialism and Communism and Marxism! OH NO. But not now. I was intrigued. I read up on everything and I realized that this would definitely work, but (I pray to god this doesn't start an argument) if people gathered who wanted to be part of that philosophy. I could picture a society where people would gather and create communities based on what their ideal political philosophy was and then put those philosophies to the test, where the more successful philosophies, which ever that one might be, would gather the most people and be the most successful! I finally found my ideal political philosophy. Voluntaryism. (Look at my edit. It is actually Panarchism, not Voluntaryism, although I do still identify myself as a Voluntaryist.)", "id": "c8v5r8z", "summary": "Birth to 8th Grade - Conservatism > 9th Grade - Libertarian > 10th Grade - Minarchist > Couple Months ago - Anarcho-Capitalist > Month ago till now - Voluntaryist \n EDIT : Wow. Right after posting this, I found out about Panarchism, and it basically matched up with the last bit of my last paragraph! So now I like to call myself a Panarcho-Voluntaryist. Has a nice ring to it. ;)"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Somebody got ran over by a car in front of me. Everybody around me completely spazzed out, and I just watched him lying there, blood pouring out of his head, being tended to.... \n I called 9-1-1 because I just wanted to make sure help was on the way, but the emotional side of all of this was like I was completely disconnected from it. It was strange. And I sort of got pissed at a couple people for seeming to over-react to a person they only just saw being ran over without any sort of emotional connection. \n But yeah. People called me heartless. I just say that I had no emotional attachment to this guy, and I felt it was rational just to not invest any of my emotional or physical well-being for this guy when he was receiving well more than he needed for this situation.", "id": "cbr3yzp", "summary": "A guy got ran over by a car in front of me. Everybody flipped their shit, and I just kept cool and got called heartless afterwards."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Sadly, that's the only reason I do Boy Scouts. If you want leadership, teamwork, and intelligence to be pounded into your brain, join marching band. I'm only doing Scouts to be recognized for the stuff I really do in marching band. When I come from a practice to go straight to a meeting, it's a fucking joke. Everyone has their cell phones out texting while about 5 people are busy trying to obtain one merit badge. It's rediculous. The anti-gay thing just sent me off the edge and I quit going to meetings. And plus, the only volunteering any scout does is to help somebody else get their Eagle rank. Again. FUCKING. REDICULOUS. I just wish marching band actually meant something on a resume because it takes up my entire week and we are about five times more strict than my Boy Scout troop and my school's ROTC program combined.", "id": "c6m7jcz", "summary": "Marching band teaches all the values Boy Scouts and does a better job at it, but doesn't get  shit  on a resume."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "You trade goods and services in a capitalist society, right? I find the immorality in the  'services'  part. A person can trade a blanket for boots, or a watch for a new couch, or whatever person A wants that person B has, or vice versa, to make a mutually beneficial trade. A trade that is made voluntarily, therefore justifiably. :) \n Now that I've given a quick run-over of what you know already, I'd like to do something with this \"trade\" concept. If you strictly trade goods like before, it's more like a bartering system, not really  capitalism , wouldn't you say? Instead of trading so  A = B  (bartering), you have to find something that everybody finds valuable, like  C , so someone can make the most use out of it. So now, we have  A = C = B . Now, I'm going to give an example.... \n>Mary works at a minimum wage job. As she doesn't have a spouse or any kids, she can manage with what she has, and she fairly enjoys her job, so she doesn't really mind that she works at this job. In fact, she rather enjoys it, despite the pay. \n >One day, her pay check comes along! Everyone loves this part. Getting money? #feelsgoodbro. She's been needing to go out and get groceries for a while, so she goes out and gets groceries. She comes back with a fair amount of food for herself, but nothing to fancy, and that's what she eats until she runs out and needs to buy more food. \n This was the  A = C = B  scenario. Now let's use a simple mathematical property and just skip the C part. Since C is considered the pay, we're now just assuming that her boss is actually just going to save her time and just give her the groceries to take home. Cool, right? But what happens if her job is no longer needed? This happens a lot, and people constantly lose their jobs to mechanization, job saturation, etc. \n What happens? She stops getting paid, or in our last hypothetical, no more food.... So, what happens? She either stops eating, turns into a (possibly homeless) beggar (on the streets, to her family/friends, or some sort of loan), or goes and looks for a new job. What's the smart thing to do? Look for a new job and in the meantime, turn to begging from family and friends, who would more than likely help you out. \n So she gets a new job, so now she can fend for herself again and eat without borrowing or begging! Sweet! But do you see the morality issue I have? She's relying on  working  in order to simply get what she needs to  survive . This is a more realistic example, though. In theory, in what I like to call 'iron-fist capitalism', though, where all capitalist economic principals are strictly followed by every person, her family and friends would go 'Well... What's in it for us?' and if she couldn't bring anything to the plate to anybody, she would starve and probably die on the streets. \n The fact that you need to rely on a person who simply tells you what you need to do day-in and day-out in order to survive is what I find immoral. To me, it is no longer voluntary. You  need  to eat, and providing labor to an employer is a [core principle of capitalism]( so -- in a capitalist society -- there is no avoiding it. I see it as indirect slavery, but many would disagree, as the process of this reliance on the employer/boss is heavily diluted through the generosity of others and the mediation of monetary systems.", "id": "ci5z95t", "summary": "I made sure to make it as simple as possible; please read it."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Come on. This guy is actually being a REAL diplomat for the HCF guys, and you have to go and tease him and make jokes about him. Maybe he has something real to say! We need to be mature about this, and you, and everybody who is upvoting this, is screwing up what could be a good understanding of what HCF wants and/or why they are here. While some of you guys, like the one who posted this truly disgraceful picture, are always like \"LOLOLOL WE HATE HCF LOLOLOL F@@K GORDGE!\", I am desperately, through all the rubble, am trying to truly find a compromise. And Gordge coming to speak to us is very mature. He knows we are going to bash on him, and he comes anyways to have a mature conversation about why HCF is here and what their intentions are. This is as close to a compromise as there has been for a while, and I'm trying to take it, but some of you immature little boys are screwing it up. \n P.S. and for those of you that are saying this HCF fight is beyond compromise, you are wrong. No matter how bad it gets, compromises can be made to stop what HCF is doing.", "id": "c7ofecr", "summary": "This post is immature while Gordge (the HCF guy) is being more mature than some of you right now. Grow up and treat somebody with respect that is showing you some. Yes. He is being respectful about this."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "To be perfectly honest, I believe that the beginning of the universe is nowhere close to being discovered, nor may man ever discover it. But rational thinking tells me that there was a beginning at some point, and a higher power created that beginning and set laws (like atoms, the way they bond, gravity, time, dimensions, etc.) to our universe. \n I can't explain the beginning of the universe, so I rationalize with a \"creation\" of the universe by there being some higher being, whether that be a 4th dimensional \"puppet master\" or something else we can't explain. I just find the laws of the universe to be too perfect for there to not be some sort of supernatural being/power.", "id": "c7x0xny", "summary": "r/deism's latest post [here]( I also recommend checking it out even if you have read my statements. \n EDIT: Also. Most Deist's (I'm pretty sure) have a vow that, if their beliefs are proven wrong, they would change their beliefs so they fit new scientific proofs. So if Deism was proven wrong, there probably wouldn't be Deism..."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Did you even listen to his speech? He did not mention race once in this. Sure, he might have mis-spoke in the past that made him sound racist, but he is pro-constitution. Including every race or sexuality. I believe that you are being very naive when it comes to even listening outside of /r/politics. Try doing your own research about certain politics before putting out a witty false statement such as this. This is truly disrespectful. \n It is about the same as me saying that Obama is \"A communist, Un-American prick that cares for nobody but himself and his black *** should go back to where he was born in Kenya.\" I can not just say that, and I truly did not mean that, but if I were to say that, I would have to back up my sources and prove my statements if I were to say something as disrespectful as that. I doubt that would statement would be very justified either, so neither does yours. \n And I believe that if Ron Paul were to go into office, he would promote everybody's rights, so calling him racist is actually extremely irrelevant and I'm surprised you have any upvotes at all due to all the irrelevance in this statement. \n Calling him old actually shows respect to Dr. Paul, because it shows that he is wise and he has served this country for a very long time. And before you say him being old has nothing to do with how long he has been in congress, I will just say that he has been in and out of congress since 1976. Saying he is old means that he has been around for a while, and is still around. What does that mean? He truly cares about his country. The land of the free. His simple movement is that this is slowly turning into the land of authoritarian and it needs to be reversed before getting out of hand. By bashing Ron Paul, you are basically bashing his entire movement, which stands for individual liberty and against big government. \n Just watch what you say next time. Now because you have said that, I feel like I'm listening to a five-year-old on XBox Live calling Ron Paul a gay fag that should go f**k his mom or something of the sort. It's just plain stupid. And that is what I think of you now. Just plain stupid. If you have gotten this far in reading, I congratulate you and I hope you have learned from reading this.", "id": "c723mh2", "summary": "Read everything or don't read it at all."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Alright. First, if I had children, they would be MY children. I'm actually a little touched and offended at the same time that you care so much as to call my children retarded before they were even born. \n I am a teenager and I want to go to one of these schools due to the fact that I see that every year we are exponentially gaining knowledge and there is only so much time to learn it all. Back in my grandparents' day, they all said that it was rare for anybody to go to college. Nowadays, most people do because of the knowledge we have gained in 50 or so years. It requires 16 years of schooling in order to make it anywhere. \n I also want to go to this school because I believe this is halting my studies in some intellectual studies and hobbies that I want to pursue, such as Music Production, Saxophone and Jazz studies as well as composing, computer coding, economic and political sciences, as well as theoretical math and quantum mechanics. I see most of my classes as pointless such as English, because nothing I want to pursue involves writing the way that the school curriculum works. \n I hate the school curriculum as well as any school curriculum and I believe I would advance a lot further without somebody teaching things I either A) already know or don't need to know or B) teaching at a slower pace I can be teaching myself. \n These schools also don't have this age barrier, so you see kids of all ages and some adults as well, and socialize with most of them, so ageism also diminishes if you go to this school. The social aspect of this school would probably help me with my social anxiety that I have in school. I really don't socialize and I'd rather be in front of a computer screen rather than out with friends, which I want to change, but I've just grown to be completely anti-social due to high school just being a total bitch.", "id": "c8r0c28", "summary": "Thanks for calling my non-existent parenting into question, but the fact is, is that I want to go to these schools because I believe I would be better off and it would be a lot better for my current social problems. \n Don't completely smack somebody down for a situation you know hardly anything about. And if I choose to go to this school, its my downfall. I don't get why you would care."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I'm looking for a freeride board. Right now, I'm really looking into Longboard Larry's DK Penguin. I also hear, though, that the Landyachtz Switchblade is very good as well. As well as the Arbor Catalyst 42\"? I was also looking at the Bustin boards for a while and saw that the Maestro and the Boombox were awesome as well. I really want the Chubby Unicorn as well, but too expensive for my taste. Thoughts? Suggestions? I'm just looking for a freeride board with double kicks. (Tomahawks are an option as well...) \n With the wheels, I was thinking about getting Abec 11 Freerides (73mm 81a), or the (Mini) Zombie Hawgs (76 or 70mm 80a). I'm open to suggestions with the wheels. I haven't done a lot of research there. \n And with the trucks, I originally wanted Randal 180's, but then I was steered to Calibers, so I want those now. Now I'm hearing about the Paris V2's and how epic they are, so I'm honestly not sure what to get. I hear Bear 852's are very good, too. I'm also open to thoughts and suggestions on the truck selection. \n And for the bearings, I'm just thinking about getting standard Bones Reds. I don't want to have my parents pay $100+ for some special ceramic bearings, and I'm fine with the Reds I have right now, except for the fact that they are a little gritty after going out in the rain and not washing them out afterwords. (I was new to longboarding at the time.) \n Bushings? No idea where to start. Open to anything.", "id": "t3_14d6wf", "summary": "What's the best freeriding board? DK Penguin, Landyachtz Swithblade or Tomahawk, Arbor Catalyst, or the Bustin Maestro or Boombox? Thinking about Caliber or Paris V2 trucks. Open to suggestions. Bearings. Sticking with Bones Reds. I honestly have no idea what to get for bushings. \n Thanks for caring enough to read! :]"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I was planning on majoring in Computer Sciences and minoring in Music Composition or IT Innovation centered on Music (Computers + Music Major). But now I realized I was spending a large portion of time on /r/math and getting hooked on Numberphile, and I even opened up my Math Textbook to read and learn for  fun . (I know. Shocking.) So I learned now that I love math with a passion, and I realize that I want to major in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Sciences. But there's one problem I have. BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) says that there's only going to be ~3,300 mathematician jobs out there if I go into this field. Sure, I could go into Computer Sciences as well and be a programmer for some company somewhere, but I really want to be a mathematician. The idea of solving equations and coming up with theorems for a living sounds fantastic! Am I making a smart decision with this, or should I steer clear of the math field, and please don't go with all that \"go with what you really want to do!\" stuff, because I know if I do that and there isn't anything waiting for me at the bottom of the rainbow, I'm screwed as far as a job goes and I'll be living with my parents for much longer than I would probably want to. Don't bead around the bush with it, just tell me if it is a smart decision or not to be majoring in mathematics.", "id": "t3_15xfc3", "summary": "Majoring in Mathematics and minoring in Computer Sciences. Yay or nay? Why?"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Apparently there isn't a law saying you have to pay an income tax, as the minimum states requires to pass the [16th amendment]( saying you had to pay it, did not pass, yet it got passed into the Constitution anyways. Other than that, there is no law abiding you by the income tax, and before I start paying income tax, because as of right now I don't receive any income, I would like to know how to get away from wrongful punishment from the IRS. Thanks in advance.", "id": "t3_1alvyz", "summary": "Title."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "This subreddit has been here, unused, for 2 years+ and I really want to see a community of cubers on reddit come together. Just post anything you think is relevant on the subreddit! Algorithm Pages, How to solve [Puzzle]. ANYTHING. Just.. I want to see this subreddit get at least 100 subs. Thanks for reading. Loverthehater.", "id": "t3_rui8q", "summary": "Post stuff. Anything."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I have decided to drop piano because I just wasn't motivated to practice, which led me not to be ready for the recital which was yesterday (Sunday, 11/20). My mom decided that I was just doing it for my parents and not for myself, I just wasn't enjoying it (which is partially true). She asked \"what would make YOU happy with private lessons wise.\" I said electronic music lessons. I am going to start looking for a teacher, and when I put up a piece that I am proud of, I will let you guys know. I hope you guys will like what I will soon have to offer. Don't expect anything for a couple months though, I am just really excited about it and wanted to let SOMEBODY know!", "id": "t3_mkqr8", "summary": "I dropped piano and am going to start electric music lessons. \n -Loverthehater [Mod of  /r/filth ] \n P.S. If you guys know any really good online courses, I'd be happy to take those, too."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I am currently diagnosed with social anxiety, but the pills I'm taking are finally starting to kick in so I'm not  quite  as nervous as originally, but since recently discovering my natural extroversion through basically getting a natural high by talking about my interests to my therapist (the only person I know who will listen to me and just let my extroverted intuition run wild). I'm now on a quest to make more friends that would be fun to be around. So... Read the title again?", "id": "t3_1kncfr", "summary": "The title."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I say  public speaking  tentitavely, because I only had to speak in a class of 28-ish. I was in English, and I had to give a well-thought-out opinion on a debatable topic, but right before I spoke, people started talking on their own, and it very easily completely threw off my train of thought. My hand was still raised, and I got called on, only to have everybody wait for me to recover from being completely blank for a minute or two.", "id": "t3_1lh0db", "summary": "Losing my train of thought from simple distractions, which makes my mind go completely blank. My mind goes blank when it is time to share my opinion or speak and I just stay silent and contemplate what I have to say for a minute before actually sharing. You, too?"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I'm going from subreddit to subreddit, looking at all of these  DAE  posts. I feel like it is really bad because I've always questioned whether or not I'm actually the type I believe I am, because for the longest time I thought I was INTP, but then I looked into cognitive functions, and now I believe I'm an ENTP. But  now , though, I believe that I'm ENFP because of the whole Te-Ti, Fe-Fi indecisiveness on which one I am. But now with all of these  DAE  posts, I feel like I relate to  most  of them, so now I'm just really confused. Any help?", "id": "t3_1li9le", "summary": "Read DAE posts in different types' subs. Now going through a type-uncertainty. Any help?"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "So I didn't put on the sheet of paper what the functions were, but I just put descriptions, and told them 'put an x down where you think I should go on the scale'. There were four 'scales', and they were all under what was a description of each extroverted and introverted function, and this is what they unanimously agreed on. \n > Se vs. Si ~ 80% Se, 20% Si \n > Ne vs. Ni ~ 85-90% Ne, 10-15% Ni \n > Ti vs. Te ~ 100% Ti, 0% Te \n > Fi vs. Fe ~ 85% Fi, 15% Fe \n So that means, if the order by percentage is correct, that I am Ti - Ne - Fi - Se. Well that doesn't match up with any personality type, so now I'm a bit confused. \n I don't trust myself to answer these questions because I will analyze the question and answer what I want to be rather than what I actually am, so that's why I asked my parents to do this sort of thing instead of just reading up on the functions and seeing which ones I am for myself. Been there, done that. \n So, now I'm just wondering, what do I do now? The closest people in my lives just said that my personality matches up with absolutely nothing. Any tips for other ways of finding an external source of finding your MBTI type? \n ^^^^^^.", "id": "t3_1m0d30", "summary": "Tested my parents out to see what my functions were. Got Se - Ne - Ti - Fi. That doesn't match anything. I don't trust myself to answer any 'typing' questions. What do I do now?"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I seem to be scouring all over the internet to find certain DataTags to apply to a few things, although [this]( was semi-helpful, it's hard to navigate and I end up nit-picking through it all the time. Sucks... Now I'm moving on to mastering the 'tellraw' command and I am loving it so far, but then the 'translate' possibility popped up and a world of opportunity opened up! I was so excited! Until... I couldn't even find what to put into it....", "id": "t3_1ts2k6", "summary": "Anybody got an easily navigable list of syntax for complex commands like 'summon', 'setblock', or 'tellraw'?"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I like to think of God as \"the great architect\". Just like that, he is building a house, which for me, is the universe. \n In [revealed religion here], you are saying that God is not 100% confident in his work, and came back to see the finished product, and realized that some furniture needed to be re-arranged. Nothing major. Just some modifying and fixing. That's all. \n In Deism, God was 100% confident in his finished product and he had huge confidence in the home. He doesn't need to come over to the house because he knows he did it just right. Although, he visits from time to time. Not changing anything, but observing what was put into place. \n That was my analogy. It saved my *** from my uber-Catholic grandma who wanted me to explain my religion to her. \n Also, on prayer. My mother asked me what prayer does. \n I said that prayer is just a gateway to a positive mindset. The brain is so powerful, that the placebo effect is very strong when it comes to prayer, and it's a very good thing. When do you pray about anything negative? Never. You always pray that you WANT that somebody to get well, or you WANT to get a good grade on that test that's coming up. Hell, I wouldn't stop to say that all of our brains are interconnected somehow, and prayer is just optimizing that connectivity that we all have. \n Both of these are very good if somebody asks you to compare Deism to revealed religion.", "id": "t3_1286kk", "summary": "I can't think of a good way to summarize this well, so I just recommend you read this."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I currently identify myself as an ENTP, reclassifying myself from an INTP because I realized that the whole MBTI tests online were very stupid, and I just ended up reverse-engineering the questions just so they could spit out the answer I wanted. Since I was very socially awkward, I just tested always as INTP. \n But now that shit is done. I am ENTP, because I finally switched over to Jungian cognitive functions and their purpose. I knew I was Ne - Ti - Fe - Si, with the help of this [test]( which I find handy because it explains every function that you have tested for to see if you can actually relate to it. \n And so I did take the test, and I did see myself with all of these functions, but now I'm sort of drawing a blank here, because now I've gotten this far, and I still don't know what  order  these functions are in.... I could be xNTP or xSFJ...", "id": "t3_1kj8hc", "summary": "Start Here.  Does anybody have a way of telling which order the functions are in? Mine are sort of developing, as I am only a teen and some of the functions aren't fully developed yet. Either that, or they are and I'm just clueless. Help?"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "For months, I've been hit with self-diagnosed depression, ADD, OCD, Social Phobias, etc. I am currently going to a therapist because of my suicidal thoughts and depression and also how I am doing with school (the \"ADD\"). It was a while, and I tried being Tao, and I just couldn't do it because the mindset was too hard. I posted it on some Tao subreddit and I was redirected to /r/howtonotgiveafuck. I posted there saying that I was having trouble giving a fuck because of my Social Anxiety, ADD, OCD, etc. and this guy (/u/Kamacarrzy) messaged me about this subreddit. I have never even heard of something like this. I watched the video on the TEDx talk and now I'm more excited than ever to start up. I am exstatic because basically all of my current problems that I know I have with myself matches up exactly to what can be \"cured\" with Nofap! I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!! I want to thank everybody that is a part of this movement and everybody that led to me being here posting this right now. Again, thank you.", "id": "t3_16gqi7", "summary": "Went to therapist because of ADD, OCD, Social Phobia symptoms, tried being Taoist, redirected to /r/howtonotgiveafuck, posted there, and now I'm here. Excited to join you guys!"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "For simplicity. We are going to start with determining your first  two  functions. \n \n Function Notation: \n S = Sensing | N = Intuition | T = Thinking | F = Feeling \n e = Extroverted | i = Introverted \n Examples: \n >Fe = Extroverted Feeling \n >Ni = Introverted Intuition \n \n S/N \n \n Determines whether one of your first two functions is 'intuition' or 'sensing'. (One or the other.  Never  both.) \n \n This will be your  perceiving  function. \n \n \n T/F \n \n Determines whether one of your first two functions will be either 'thinking' or 'feeling'. (One or the other.  Never  both.) \n \n This will be your  judging  function. \n \n \n J/P \n One of your functions is extroverted. One is introverted. J/P is what determines what your  extroverted  function is. \n \n J? Your  judging  function is extroverted. You have Te or Fe. This means you also have Si or Ni. \n \n P? Your  perceiving  function is extroverted. You have Se or Ne. This means you also have Ti or Fi. \n \n \n Which is first and which is second, then?  GLAD YOU ASKED. \n E/I \n \n This determines whether your extroverted function (what you just figured out) comes first or second. \n \n I? Your  introverted  function comes first. \n \n E? Your  extroverted  function comes first. \n \n \n \n Examples: \n >INFJ - 1. Introverted Intuition 2. Extroverted Feeling. \n >ESTP - 1. Extroverted Sensing 2. Introverted Thinking. \n \n Got it figured out? Good. Time to figure out 3^rd and 4^th functions. \n The 1^st and 4^th functions are like buddies. So are the 2^nd and 3^rd. Of the two pairs, one is extroverted and one is introverted. Both of the two in a pair would be perceiving or both being judging. They are  not  the same judging or perceiving functions, though. \n \n Examples: \n >ISFP - 1. Fi | 2. Se | 3. Ni | 4. Te \n >ENFJ - 1. Fe | 2. Ni | 3. Se | 4. Ti \n >ISTJ - 1. Si | 2. Te | 3. Fi | 4. Ne \n \n ^^^^^^^^^.", "id": "t3_2d7i1h", "summary": "THIS]("}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Story \n \n When I first saw this subreddit as a Capitalist Voluntaryist, I was already intimidated by what I saw on the top of my browser: \"Anarchism: Unremorsefully Anti-Capitalist and Anti-State\" or something of the sort. Visiting for the first time, to say the least, I felt intimidated. I already felt like I was the despised enemy of a whole community/ideology that I knew absolutely nothing about. \n Despite my fear of this entire community, I balled up and posted something that I disagreed with. I got downvoted and harassed. It was not fun. I left and was very much deterred from ever visiting again. I went to my little AnCap subreddit and I settled even further to an ideology that I thought to be without flaw. \n One day, for some reason, I decided to look again at /r/Anarchism. Pure curiosity, I guess. I saw something I disagreed with and posted my opinion on it, again, expecting the same treatment, but feeling more confident, both in myself and my AnCap knowledge. Every comment seemed to give me hate or even an intelligent response to why I was wrong, yet it was all building on that intimidated feeling I got about the ideology right from the start. \n One commenter, though, seemed  nicer  than the rest. More accepting. So I went on with him and had a lengthy debate on Capitalism, until he posted this: \n >\"Free trade isn't free.\" \n That was it. That was the question that broke the ice. Once that statement was said, I started asking him questions. They were questions, not out of debate, but of curiosity. Once this ice was broken, I was led to /r/Anarchy101 as well. I built upon this curiosity, and as more and more questions were answered, my support of Capitalism faded and went in the opposite direction. \n When all of my questions were answered and all of my research was through, I fell into Anarcho-Communism. My current ideology. \n PSA \n \n When you see a capitalist or a statist in this subreddit, they are  curious . They are looking into our subreddit and peeking around asking themselves:  What are these guys all about?   I can not ask of any Anarchist to raise their tolerance for capitalism or the state, nor do I want them to , but I  do  want them to ask themselves these questions when approached by a capitalist/statist:  How can I help this person learn? Are they unintelligent or uninformed? How can I get this person to question   *themselves** ?* As an anarchist, your job should be to spread your belief, not circlejerk a hatred of those who oppose it. All I ask is that we reflect that in this subreddit we have. \n ^^^^^^^.", "id": "t3_2a3ee4", "summary": "If a capitalist or statist is in this subreddit, they are curious. Treat them as a peer or student willing to learn, rather than an enemy."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "In past years I got paid $8.25 to be a general laborer for a construction company. The repetitiveness and monotony of that job sent me to a depressed state of emotional and mental numbness. This deters me from ever working again that has anything to do with repetitive and seemingly monotonous tasks.... \n Any advice/suggestions? My parents are really stressing for me to get a new job, especially since I'm both driving and starting to buy things on impulse like a Mountain Dew and a candy bar from a gas station.", "id": "t3_26jhwz", "summary": "Suggestions? Halp?"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Dating for almost 3 months.) \n Her past is very, very bad and her current family situation is not too great either. Over the past couple of months I've been with her, I've loved every minute. Except.... When it comes to making decisions.... \"I don't make decisions.\" \"I don't know... What do you want to do?\" \"I'll do whatever you want to do.\" \"You can do whatever you want.\" \n And her self-confidence seems shattered as well. This probably has to do with her past and some of her current family members. All I want to do is build her ego/self-esteem, but she seems to have given up on it. Risk-taking isn't her strong-suit either (in bed and out). \n This might be caused by an extreme [inferiority complex]( but I'm not sure how to fix this on my own.... Any exercises, advice, anything? Anything at all would be much appreciated. I just want to make her at least seem happy, but there's just this aura of sadness around her sometimes that is just depressing to be in.... Again, any advice... \n Thank you.", "id": "t3_1sx3uf", "summary": "How do I boost my girlfriend's self-esteem/get rid of her inferiority complex?"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I just want to say, after being on this reddit for about 5 days now, you guys are the best. I love this community and the music that you guys put on the plate is bad-ass to say the least. I am so happy I found this. Unlike /r/dubstep, my posts actually POST. The moderators on this subreddit are awesome and this subreddit needs way more attention. I am going to tell all my friends about this reddit, and you should too. Definately one of the best subreddits I've ever come across. Thank you! -loverthehater", "id": "t3_m4dw0", "summary": "This is the best reddit ever. I'm telling all my friends about it. Thank you! \n Song (so it's semi-relevant) = [Krewella - One Minute]("}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I know I didn't want to post anything I had in my big stash of filth because I just thought everyone had heard it already. But the truth is that we don't care! We want filth, and if we've already heard it? So what! I love filth and just because I've heard it before doesn't make it bad! This is a good subreddit and I want it to expand. The only way you can do that is tell people and KEEP POSTING! This has been a PSA from loverthehater. Stay filthy my friends. [Song for you reading. Thx.](", "id": "t3_nby0z", "summary": "Post old songs. even though they're old. Song^"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I read that Unitarian Universalism was a Protestant religion that says God loves everyone despite religion, but I have also seen some examples of Atheists being UU. Being born and raised Lutheran, I sort of have an inkling to go to a church, but also a church that accepts everyone. I also am a (Christian) Deist, so I'm wondering if there are any conflicting aspects of the two. And can somebody possibly tell me what UU believes? Because I've gotten multiple different answers. Thanks. :)", "id": "t3_zr2wp", "summary": "Title of the post."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Dad.. Who are you voting for?\" \n \"Anybody to get Obama out of office.. No. This is serious. I know you're all for Ron Paul n' all, but I don't want a second republican candidate on the ballot. It will hurt any republican's chances to get any republican elected. No serious. This is scary. I am scared for my, and your, future. You know? He has made it clear. He is a Marxist, Socialist. And he will destroy America with his ways. You know how he got that healthcare plan? Despite the vote from congress, he just said 'Executive order! I want it anyways.'... I know you want Ron Paul, but I don't think it will help at all to have him on the ballot.\" \n Then he goes on about Obama. He makes Obama seem like the real enemy and Mitt Romney just like a joke... \n What do I say to him? What do I show him? How do I convince him? Is he right? \n Thanks for reading. -loverthehater", "id": "t3_t5zjd", "summary": "My dad thinks Obama is scary and Ron Paul will split up the republican vote. What do I do?"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I looked into the \"for dummies\" book for Java programming, and it looked promising. I just want to see if there are any real great tutorials I can get for free. I have used some tutorials and failed because I got overwhelmed with stuff I didn't need to know, and I still couldn't practice the basics... I have tried thenewboston, the tutorials from the official Java site, and others, but they have all failed. Anybody help?? I really want to learn at least the basics by the end of the summer at least! Thanks in advance! \n -loverthehater", "id": "t3_vyibj", "summary": "I've tried some tutorials and they overwhelmed me too quickly. Got any that worked for you or might work for me?"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Before you ask, yes. I am doing this for an assignment for school (2nd year learning mandarin). I have to do an essay on what the Chinese New Year is and what it is about. I actually am curious about Chinese New Year and I want to get the information from people who have experienced it first hand. I would also love to know just in case I visit China one day! Thanks for reading! -loverthehater", "id": "t3_plasw", "summary": "I need to know the basics of Chinese New Year."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "My thought process: \n >  God.... This feeling in my gut... I know it's provoked by some emotion, but I have no idea what or why it's happening... \n >........... \n > Let's just think for a second. What is this feeling? What feeling goes straight to my gut like this and feels like a slight, slight cramp? Annoyance? Sadness? Frustration?.... Yeeah... Annoyance and frustration seem likely and can correspond to what I'm feeling in my gut... But what could have caused this?.... Think back an hour.... Hmm..... Shit. I can't think back that far. Stupid   *Si** .... Oh. Right. It's frustration from getting yelled at by that teacher earlier. Got it. Resolved. On with my day.*", "id": "t3_1xe0m9", "summary": "My body responds before my mind does. Confusion. No homo..... Okay..  Maybe  a little. I don't judge."}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Some people say he's ENFJ, which... eh... I could see... \n Some people say he's ENTJ ^^^ what? \n I did miniscule research on the subject of NBT's type, but I just  felt  his ENTPness ^^ (heh)  after watching * this . He seems to be very childish in a sense and doesn't seem to be taking anything seriously  UNTIL* he goes into debate-mode, where he knows he's correct and will do anything to get the facts across, leaving a bit of the childishness behind to clear things up. I just feel that enthusiastic Ne shine through with that childish Fe backing it up. I haven't read any of his books, though, but a commenter in a forum I looked at said it was written in a very Ne way. Another pointed out that he could take very complex systems and talk about it in layman's terms, which I (as an ENTP) tend to do often, but not quite sure if that's exclusively a thing we do. I have more points, but I want to hear your's! \n ^^^^^^^^^^^. \n ^^", "id": "t3_3jgl2x", "summary": "Title"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "Laws are big, bulky, and have a lot of excess words that makes everything only readable to.. well.... lawyers, lawmakers and law-readers, at least.... Well I had this crazy idea that there could be a website dedicated to making all of these laws quick and easy to read for anybody. \n I feel like a big problem with our voting system nowadays is that people go in  BLIND . Some people have no clue who actually supports causes that are similar to theirs. All they see is the blue 'D' or the red 'R'. ^\"Oooh! ^That ^guy ^had ^nice ^hair ^on ^TV!\"  ^-check-  The reason that there is this disconnect is that because people simply think that laws and the whole law system in general are intimidating, and they have a right to think so! \n What I propose is to make laws more accessible to the average person so everybody can know what our congress, house and president our doing with laws at a federal level. This might shed some positive light on some representatives (giving them recognition they deserve) and some negative light on others (also giving deserved recognition). People can then base their opinion on who is doing what, rather that who has what label. \n Thanks for reading, and I hope that this gets further than I think it will. If this has already been done, please link me to it! I'd be more than happy to use that instead of create a whole new sub. :) \n (Edit: Better wording.) \n 2nd Edit: I made the subreddit! Hopefully some of you guys can contribute. It would be MUCH appreciated. /r/", "id": "t3_1ul63i", "summary": "Law"}, {"author": "loverthehater", "content": "I would like to say that this is, in  no way , calling anybody out. This is simply to inform you guys. Hopefully you can remain calm while reading this and just know that the intent behind these words are to simply inform. This is our perspective and I am not asking that you agree with it, but to understand where we are coming from. \n \n >How does the leftist anarchist see the Anarcho-Capitalist/Capitalist Volunaryist? \n Not very well. Our degrees of dislike towards the right-anarchist position vary, but there is a general consensus that we don't like you guys. \n >Is there anything in our ideologies that we  share ? \n The 'anarcho' part, we like. You guys are anti-statist. We're anti-statist. We're both cool with that and we both want the government  gone . Thumbs up for that, guys! :) \n >How do our ideologies differ? \n This should be obvious, but in case you were unaware, you guys adhere a capitalist system. We don't. That's where the 'tear' in our ideologies lie. It's the reason we don't like you very much. \n I'm pretty sure it is safe to say that you believe that the political power that you see in the government is unjustified and needs to be dismantled PRONTO, right? Well.... We feel the same way, but with both political  and  economic power. You see a difference between business hierarchy and political hierarchy. We  don't . \n So when you come along and are like 'hey guys, we're all anarchists, right?' We either give you the cold shoulder or burst out because, in our eyes, you give justification to what we see as a  different  kind of government. You see it as justified because the free market justified it and they're supplying the public with a good product or service or something of the sort, but we see no difference. You see a company, we see just another version of a state. That's why we don't like you guys. \n Think of this analogy... You overhear a republican and a democrat debating over whether minimum wage should be raised. You agree with the republican in the sense that you don't want minimum wage to be raised, but you do still realize there is something fundamentally wrong with his ideology, despite the fact that you agree with them on this one issue. We see you guys like you are the republican. We agree with you on the anti-statist part, but unfortunately, we  see  you as a statist, just like any republican would be. The republican sees the government and capitalism (what we see as two versions of the same oppressiveness), while you only justify one, but  still  what we see as a statist view, nonetheless. \n Whether you guys actually are can be debated from either side, but that is not the purpose of this post. Hopefully this was informative and can shed some light on a dark topic that isn't really discussed to much. I am known to be not too well versed on the topic of my ideologies (present or past), so I apologize if this misrepresents anybody in any way. \n \n Again, this post was made just to inform. Hopefully this shed some light on the situation. I am not going to debate anybody in the comments. Thank you and have a nice day. :)", "id": "t3_2cpvuz", "summary": "We see capitalism as another version of government, so when you guys call yourselves 'anarchists', we see it as a self-contradiction, as you want to get rid of the political government, but want to keep (what we see as) just another version of it. \n Edit: If you would like to inform yourself further into the topic and our views of Anarcho-Capitalism, [this, right here]( is a FANTASTIC resource for our views in general."}]}
+{"author": "tomisamac", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post 7 days of free time is a cock tease. if you havent played MOP at all and you use addons you need at least a month to play comfortably.", "output": "7 days was barely enough time to get my addons situated and re-learn one of my level 85 heroic firelands geared toons. because i left after cata i was so behind the learning curve it was like playing a new game. and 7 days was just enough time to get frustrated with the offer and not have ANY interest in re-subbing. just out of frustration."}], "user_id": "longlamp_15527", "history": [{"author": "tomisamac", "content": "Game Panel Software](\nfor use with logitech game peripherals. For example the 2 I use:\n[G510]( and [G13]( both which use an applet made by AREANET for these keyboards that  use very advanced macro editing software. 3rd. Party. Software. \n [Cyborg Software]( for my [R.A.T.9]( allows me to assign any series of macros or key-presses to the extra 5 buttons it has plus remap the default functions of the mouse buttons themselves. \n Many people have products such as these and utilize software that drives it to do what it was designed to do. Give the user an advantage over the person that isn't using it. Mac users for their  input devices can use a program called [Controllermate]( which allows for complex timer driven logic macro craziness for almost anything input related you can plug into a mac. \n There are always advantages people are going to have over others in the gaming world. Everyone has  home turf advantage. Some people have shittier lawns than others. Given the out-the-box support it has for the game panel, GW2 was intended by areanet to be used on these \"unfair\" keyboards and mice, with the [advanced macro editing it invites]( With the simplicity of the script's functionality aside and the overall impact it has on the game I think this [COMBATMOD]( should be the least of everyone else concerns with creating a level playing field. \n And on a technical note... Does the overlay for the crosshair \"clamp\" onto the game? From what I understood that was the reason for having the \"Window-Fullscreen\" enabled, was to allow for the overlay.", "id": "c6ctbx3", "summary": "I use a few popular input devices (keyboards, mice) that with the provided software makes me better than you at video games and Areanet  supports  the software that powers my advantage."}, {"author": "tomisamac", "content": "i brought a friend (i had interest in) to a house party in the city. she had sex with a total of 5 different people at this party. \n 2 of them at the same time and the rest in succession al-a-train-style. \n after the party she tried to cuddle with me and make out. \n later while still in the friendzone (which i was ok with at this point) she confided in me that she suffers from genital warts and crabs. \n both of which she had long before she went to that party with me.", "id": "c9vhahu", "summary": "i was friendzoned by someone; she fucked 5 different 'anonymous' partners at a party i invited them to to; she gave them all a VD cocktail."}, {"author": "tomisamac", "content": "Still no Key. I have received several responses to my ever increasingly frustrated emails only after contacting paypal and opening a ticket because they stopped answering. \n As it would turn out I ordered on Sunday in Poland (Friday for us?) so for whatever reason 3 weekdays is still not enough to resolve this issue they are having with the distributions system. \n I have had better results with 3rd parties and Foreign Key sellers. Cj's Autokey system for example is leaps and bounds ahead of this. Not to mention they have people that will get back to you at almost any hour.", "id": "c7etna3", "summary": "STILL WAITING"}, {"author": "tomisamac", "content": "i havent put any time into this game becuase i purchased the regular edition and was holding out for the mechromancer. i waited until the season pass went on sale and picked that up. \n you could imagine my frustration when I found out that the season pass didnt include the mechromancer.", "id": "c7xkpi2", "summary": "the season pass doesnt include the mechromancer and now i have a copy of borderlands 2 with a season pass in my steam library i refuse to play."}, {"author": "tomisamac", "content": "The only thing bugging me are the side buttons.  If you look closely at a side view, you'll see the buttons are huge and no matter how you position your thumb, it's difficult to distinguish the three very well, although distinguishing the top three from the bottom three is easy enough.  If you have small hands you might be able to reach the top and middle with the upper part and the rear button with the lower part of your thumb.  For men with regular or large hands, your thumb goes past the three buttons.  You can reach the top button but the ones behind are difficult to reach with your thumb.  The G700s handled mouse buttons much better (although there are only 4 side buttons on that mouse.)", "id": "ccvrpk0", "summary": "its not a manly mouse for manly men with manly man hands"}, {"author": "tomisamac", "content": "kitty looks good with her hair up glasses on lights off. \n kitty looks good with her hair down glasses on lights off. \n kitty looks good with her hair up glasses off lights off. \n kitty looks good with her hair down glasses off lights off. \n kitty looks good with her hair up glasses on lights on. \n kitty looks good with her hair down glasses on lights on. \n etcetera etcetera", "id": "c7kuipp", "summary": "it doesn't matter how. yes. even [this]("}, {"author": "tomisamac", "content": "Emulation is all my psp is for aside from KHBBS. Then one day while browsing reddit I stumbled upon someone who posted a picture of an r800i doing the super Mario world on an emulator. I forgot about this phone until I saw this and at this point it had already been out for almost a year. \nAfter I saw that post I went to amazon and purchased my Xperia play (r800i). \nAnd now I do not carry around as much knickknacks and gizmos.", "id": "c6xs4oq", "summary": "go buy an Xperia play."}, {"author": "tomisamac", "content": "i couldnt give them my money fast enough. windows 8 was doing the wonderful thing where it doesnt allow you to perform any transactions in the store so it wouldnt let me purchase until just last night finally. the folks who made that app deserve every penny they get (after microsoft takes their absurd cut im sure) \n the simplicity of its function and the fact it is polling all its data including your thumbnails direct from steam makes finding appropriately sized tile images a breeze.", "id": "c77jk1d", "summary": "i love this app. buy it on the windows 8 store."}, {"author": "tomisamac", "content": "this is the answer they sent. \n > Hi, we had an issue with the board size which the supplier had made too wide and therefore do not fit in the housings. The new ones are arriving today in large quantity and will be assembled this week. We are terribly sorry for yet another delay! We will ship yours as soon as they are complete, very likely next week. \n > Thanks, \n > Josh \n i am very likely cancelling. \"very likely\" is not the answer i was looking for. \n EDIT \n8:30pm EST \n After speaking with Wade (the engineer behind the Port+) I have decided to keep my order. Not only did Wade take the time to explain the difference to me between his product and the [VENER8]( he did so simply and without smearing the competition. Here is our exchange: \n > Hello Tom, \n > We had a manufacturing issue and a vendor provided bad boards.  We did update the Facebook but Amazon is tricky to work with.  There are limited options on Amazon to deal with these sorts of things and we regret we used them for our orders and payments.  I am the engineer that designed the +port and I also have a vener8 device.  I have taken the vener8 apart and did some analysis to make sure they aren't violating our patent.  I'm not just saying this to sell our product but the vener8 doesn't work with a lot of USB devices and the way in which it works makes the USB data unstable.  It could also damage your USB peripherals because they connect a small resistance across the data lines causing the peripheral to drive the lines with more current.  You also need to connect your USB device to your tablet first to load the drivers because running it through the vener8 inhibits the USB enumeration/detection process. \n > OK... so hopefully this isn't too much information for you but I want you to understand the difference.  The +port has active circuitry and a built in microcontroller that monitors the system and the charge current.  The +port will automatically work no matter what order you connect things or power things.  It will automatically detect if the tablet is removed and re-initialize the charging sequence.  The +port starts the charging process and then connects the data lines to your peripherals so it doesn't interfere with any of the USB data.  We guarantee that you will be much happier with a +port.  It's worth the wait.  We are trying our best to get the orders filled and production units will start shipping in about 2 weeks.", "id": "cib363i", "summary": "ON THE EDIT ;  The Vener8 is inferior in design and function, the team at Mobile Design Labs give a hoot about customers and taking steps to ensure a quality product. IM NOT CANCELLING"}, {"author": "tomisamac", "content": "no it does more than that. \n i have not figured out exactly what but in addition to disabling the built-in display and scaling the resolution it is also disabling and optimizing other services. \n a great example of something that is non-functional in console mode is anything requiring access to location services. \ni discovered this trying to use Aereo. Aereo requires location services to verify you are in the correct \"Market Area\" and if you are in console mode neither Google maps or Aereo will access your location.", "id": "ch7pfed", "summary": "there is more to console mode than meets the eye."}, {"author": "tomisamac", "content": "well firstly, you got MOH2010 in the humble bundle. that is the older game in the series. MOHWF is the newer game that garners slightly more attention in this particular subreddit. \n let me start by telling you the multiplayer and singleplayer experience of that game are like night and day, with the multiplayer being the better made of the 2. \n the game is still fairly active online (maybe 3-4 full servers and a few with just a handful of folks) and you would be hard pressed to find a server that doesnt have at least one hacker on it. \n the loadouts are simple and fun. \n the level design is really tight and plays fun (when not being hacked on from across the map) \n the [FOV settings]( should be fucked with otherwise it feels like you are playing a shoebox diorama strapped to your face. \n sweetfx and gpu-end graphics tweaks (nvidia inspector/radeon pro) can make it look nicer also of course. \n now do not take my first statement as an indicator that you should run out to buy the newer game at the possibility of being able to have a more active community. unfortunately for the Medal of Honor franchise it was shot in the head by EA not even a year after the release of Medal Of Honor Warfighter. The DLC that was promised with the game's release hadnt even got a chance to drop before it was announced that they soon planed on discontinuing support and updates for this 'failed' project. \nFor all the issues that MOHWF had I enjoyed it just the same. If you get in a clean hardcore server (normal mode on this game is not fun and way too easy mode) where people are PTFO'ing and not being cheesers the game is really fun and addicting. Again though you would be lucky to find an available server in hardcore mode without a hacker on it.", "id": "ccdsswm", "summary": "you got MOH2010 singleplayer is boo multiplayer is yay; its older and IMO it seems more people play that than the newer MOHWF which is for what this sub is more active for. moh2010 is neat for humble bundle purchase but MOHWF is not worth more than 5.00-10.00 and has a less active community."}, {"author": "tomisamac", "content": "Thats what I am assuming the issue is. The VPN should be able to trick the location. I am signed onto my personal account which is for the U.S of A so perhaps that is what is throwing it and not letting me see the foreign pricing. \nThe billing is my biggest hurdle with my vpn game purchasing. I have been trying to figure out what steam has been doing differently that it doesnt let me purchase via VPN any more. even if I try and pick up something in Ukraine with the USD it will not let me process the transaction.", "id": "c7j5e1c", "summary": "the machines have become aware."}, {"author": "tomisamac", "content": "THIS BRINGS ME TO ANOTHER THING! \n why are these timed trials based on physical calendar days? why is it not based on time spent in game logged on and active? \n the other part of 7 days hardly being enough (and a better reason for my not keeping my paid monthly MMO subscription active) is because I am not logged into the game as much. I used to have time to run around stormwind mount hopping and yelling at people doing NOTHING. now i log on to play as much as i can before my wife or daughter start screaming for one reason or another.", "id": "cc4ubaz", "summary": "the structure of free time on these games should shift from calendar days to time spent in game. because progress."}, {"author": "tomisamac", "content": "i have 2 cyborg mad catz rat 9's available for sale or trade. \n mad catz is a miserable company to do business with. they are all fairly customer retarded. \n so i didnt care for my rat anymore. i purchased a logitech g600 to replace my failing rat. \n I send it away for warranty service. Rather than refurbing my mouse they sent me a brand new mouse to replace it. Followed by a second brand new one the following day. Remember when i said they arent too bright? Yea- well so they said I could keep the second for my troubles. Now I have 2 mice to sell. \n I put one on ebay and that sold. Since I enjoy the twisted process of bartering and reddit is providing an excellent stupid filter that craigslist doesnt offer i figured I would try my luck here with the second unit. \n I like video games for the pc and pc parts. Go Go Buffalo. \n FAIR WARNING- THE MICE ARE BRAND NEW SEALED AND RETAIL PACKAGED. MAD CATZ CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS AND IS THE SOLE REASON I WALKED AWAY FROM THEIR BRAND. \n logitech customer service ftw", "id": "t3_15gw02", "summary": "mad catz as a company sucks. these mice do not suck. (H) new sealed in box retail packaged mad catz rat 9 wireless gaming mouse (W) Offers."}]}
+{"author": "KoNP", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post you're an ignorant douche. News coverage isn't prioritised by the body count.", "output": "The floods in QLD got extensive coverage in Australia because it's in Australia. It's contextually relevant. I can guarantee you the floods and the bushfires here don't get 24/7 coverage in other countries of the world. It's a bigger issue for us, so it gets more coverage. Brazil's floods are a bigger issue for Brazil. So they probably get more coverage over there."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Some teachers are great and don't deserve the abuse. Other teachers, it'd be complimentary to call them stinking pieces of human garbage on legs.", "output": "I respected teachers that weren't complete pieces of shit, and I formed a weird friendship with one teacher that was a bit of a bitch, but actually a decent teacher. \n Then there was the teacher that hated me so much (for no reason besides I sat near-ish to the special ed building on lunch with my group of friends, and said teacher took this as some kind of turf violation or some kind of threat) she took to repeatedly making frivolous claims about me verbally assaulting the special kids - and when that didn't fly, she upgraded it to me apparently beating them up. \n Which was hilarious, because I was a skinny, short, spotty-faced dweeb with a bad haircut who probably weighed 10 pounds when soaking wet, and other teachers had witnessed me being fiercely protective of the special ed kids when ACTUAL bullies picked on them. None of the other teachers, OR the principal, bought her bullshit - and I was openly and viciously contemptful to her for the remainder of my tenure at the school as payback. She'd cried wolf that many times that nobody had time for her complaints about me anymore, so I had relative impunity. And I fucking milked it for all it was worth. The woman was a fucking miserable, bitter cunt of a hag."}], "user_id": "longlamp_3874", "history": [{"author": "KoNP", "content": "South-east QLD. Seriously, as much as I delight in freaking out foreigners with our wildlife, you are not at any great risk from them. Most of the stuff that CAN kill you, usually won't be in the situation where it's going to. Most of the dangerous snakes are relatively placid and would rather run away than bite you (a few exceptions, please educate yourself on them; you're unlikely to encounter them, but even so, it's good to be armed) and smart thinking will keep you out of danger. The majority of spiders that you're at risk of being bitten by can't do you any real damage provided you're not super old, super young or super immunocompromised. The majority of spiders you'll be likely to encounter will either vacate as soon as they know you're there,  or you'll never know they were there to begin with. \n After that, it's simple: don't touch any brightly-coloured wildlife, ESPECIALLY in the ocean (I cannot stress this enough), don't interfere with stuff in its natural habitat, wear thick-soled shoes if you're going creek wading (seriously, stonefish barbs in the bottom of your feet suck - it's apparently one of the worst pains ever, and I've witnessed a man, a full-grown man, crying like a baby and begging an amputation to end the pain).", "id": "c54icdv", "summary": "the risk is overhyped, most of our dangerous shit will never come across you."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Met  Chris Sabat  a couple of years ago. He's a funny guy, really enthusiastic about what he does, willing to do voices and act out funny situations for a laugh... \n ...but he's a total. TOTAL. Sleaze. He spent so much time at Supanova hitting on the younger (16 - 18) girls, trying to get some of them to come back to his hotel room and get drunk, that kind of thing. I hooked up with a girl a little while later who'd cosplayed Android 18 there, she says he came on to her pretty strong too - and she was 15 at the time.", "id": "c1cxhwm", "summary": "Chris Sabat - nice guy, rampant flirt/womaniser."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I think it's horseshit. The doctor would have been summarily dismissed and the patient could have sued the absolute shit out of the hospital. If a surgeon is nauseated then they need to alert their support staff and vacate the area post haste. It's part of the reason they have assistings - so someone can step in if you need to step out. Puking in an open wound is about as far from aseptic as you can get without dropping trou and pinching off a loaf in their chest. \n What the fuck would they do, just stitch the guy up and hope for the best? You can't just wash out someone's thoracic cavity with a hose.", "id": "c3zixhb", "summary": "either mrpinksock is lying or his fiance is."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Fuck everything about that guy. Guh. Fuckin... walkin' down a hallway in the sewers and then suddenly  \"hhuuuuuuuuuooooooooooooo\"  (you know, the long drawn-out moan they make?) from a doorway, followed by that fucking noise that means they saw you and IT'S GETTING LOUDER OH FUCK OH FUCK A DOOR AH SHIT HE GOT ME ;_;", "id": "c3ziz5m", "summary": "oh Amnesia, you so terrifying."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Well actually, you did. \n Basically, you described well-put opinions as being \"rude and ignorant\" as well as \"socially unacceptable\" - now, just so we're clear, that's a judgement based entirely on opinion. Going from that, you said that because of it, you think it's justifiable for the posts to be downvoted. \n Reddiquette states that you shouldn't downvote a poster who brings something to the discussion, even if it's contrary to what others are saying and even if it's a non-popular opinion. \n So yeah. You openly defend deliberate ignorance of reddiquette. \n I'm not sure if you've noticed but every single time a discussion about transgender crops up, anyone who isn't fully in support of the idea that getting your genital surgically mutilated, taking hormones and claiming you're the gender you want to be = actually being that gender gets downvoted into oblivion, mocked, abused and insulted, referred to as being ignorant, bigoted, immature or stupid and generally treated like some kind of pariah. \n It's ironic that you say that racism isn't socially acceptable anymore - neither are displays of the behaviour I just outlined - yet that behaviour is defended because it's the popular view.", "id": "c17taac", "summary": "margaret thatcher fucked a dog. If you can't be bothered reading the post then it's not for you."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "People who do hookups and one night stand doesn't know what it's like to make love. \n Really? \n I spent a little while in my life manwhoring, complete with hookups and one-night stands. Does that mean all the other times I have in fact made love, I've just been fooling myself and I'm forever going to be separated from that feeling? I can't fucking believe you actually got upvoted for what you said.", "id": "c1ineja", "summary": "stuff your arrogant presumption up your fucking arse."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "You know what's wrong with this attitude? \n You never know whether you're going to wind up with the person \"forever\" or whether your relationship is going to end the next day. All this attitude serves to do is make you wait \"just a little bit longer\" for fear of \"betraying\" your beliefs. I mean, what happens if you decide you love the person and marry them, then fuck them, and then it ends in divorce soon after? Do you never fuck again? Do you have therapy to fix how betrayed you feel in yourself?", "id": "c1infal", "summary": "fuck this shit, live for now, don't live for some ridiculously hopeful ideal that doesn't exist. You never know what tomorrow's going to bring."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "do you not consider yourself part of reddit? \n Haven't for about the past 6 months. Right now I consider myself as the guy on the outside of the big group standing there shouting \"RHUBARB! RHUBARB! RHUBARB!\" at one another, trying to point out flaws in this strategy, and being beaten into submission for it. Maybe not that dramatic but you get my point.", "id": "c1dq60a", "summary": "the hivemind can suck my sizable white penis."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "One of my many problems with Janeway is the way she acts in those episodes. Some of the other problems are during the \"Year of Hell\" episodes. \n She's a woman who cannot be trusted not to completely lose her shit and start freaking out aggressively when times are tough. She disposes of any kind of respect for people who are not her (she threatened the Doctor with deletion simply when he showed concern for her mental well being, and tried to decommission Chakotay when he prevented her killing those crewmembers in Equinox), she acts rashly and with excessively poor judgement, and she uses her  good  decisions from the past to justify making  excessively poor  decisions in the now. \n Yes, ok, there's plenty of times when she's a competent captain, but you would never catch Kirk or Picard doing that shit, and Sisko was reluctant to get nuts as well. But Janeway, shit. The second someone with a bigger gun comes along she's basically forcing her entire crew to commit suicide just to stop them. \n The version of her we saw in the badly-put-together records in \"Living Witness\" was actually amazingly close to the truth of how she is in stressful situations.", "id": "c7wmnny", "summary": "She must have been fucking crazy in the sack because there's no way her commission is legitimate - she fucked her way to the top."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Forgiven for what? He did nothing wrong. The kid chased a ball into the street in heavy traffic while his mother was  over a mile away , obviously not being much of a mother. Maybe if she had been a bit better at her job, she would have either taught him not to do that, or kept him with her so he  couldn't  do that.", "id": "c1at1l6", "summary": "fuck your forgiveness, OP did nothing he needs forgiving for."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "The Q aren't evil. In fact, they fall somewhere between lawful and chaotic good. One or two of them are troublemakers but aren't TRULY malicious, just arrogant and dismissive. There's more than a few examples of them coming to the fight when Gondor calls for aid (so to speak). And Q himself was ultimately revealed to have a very vested interest in where humanity was going, to the point of making picard leap through time in order to figure out how to stop that whole anti-time space hernia thing. Making him at worse a jerkass with a heart of gold.", "id": "c2vp25p", "summary": "I'm a fucking nerd."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "trigger a repulsion mechanism in our body. \n I can attest to this. Visited the anatomy/autopsy lab at UQ St Lucia in Brisbane a few years ago. One of the things about the smell of death is that it carries and has an affinity for cloth - so basically your clothes soak in the smell. The formaldehyde that's present in the lab will usually cause your sense of smell to either shut off or heavily dampen itself after about 10 minutes, so you don't notice what happens afterwards smell-wise. \n Well, after I got back on TAFE campus, I noticed people were giving me strange looks and avoiding me. This went the same for anyone else that was also on the same visit to the lab. A few people who hadn't noticed my presence began swiping at their nose in a \"what's that smell\" gesture. Finally managed to get someone to tell me what was going on: \n \"You smell funny, man. So do the other people in your class who went on that trip. You guys just smell... weird.\"", "id": "c1ajkgr", "summary": "death smells, and the smell of death triggers a visceral \"Oh god, I need to stay away from that.\" reaction in most people."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Plasma produce their own light so you don't have to worry about backlight failure. As a result they generally reproduce blacks and colours better, the whites will melt your retinas, and their contrast ratio is great. As for the power efficiency thing - modern plasmas are not the energy guzzlers they used to be, although my 64\" Samsung D series is definitely a bit of a space heater. They only hit their max wattage during \"peak\" scenes which require the entire panel to be at max brightness - and when do you see them? \n Also, 3D on plasma is fucking brilliant. Most of them come with 2D - 3D tech which is totally usable and has good results - and the proper 3D stuff is mindblowing. My screen has no visible crosstalk when it's set up properly, and I'm constantly amazed at how well it produces 3D images without looking crap or gimmicky. Sadly I'm one of the people who get the \"eyes trying to crawl out of my skull\" feeling with 3D, but it's totally worth it.", "id": "c6momyq", "summary": "Go plasma. They're cheaper inch-for-inch than LCD and their performance is arguably better."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Plasma produce their own light so you don't have to worry about backlight failure. As a result they generally reproduce blacks and colours better, the whites will melt your retinas, and their contrast ratio is great. As for the power efficiency thing - modern plasmas are not the energy guzzlers they used to be, although my 64\" Samsung D series is definitely a bit of a space heater. They only hit their max wattage during \"peak\" scenes which require the entire panel to be at max brightness - and when do you see them? \n Also, 3D on plasma is fucking brilliant. Most of them come with 2D - 3D tech which is totally usable and has good results - and the proper 3D stuff is mindblowing. My screen has no visible crosstalk when it's set up properly, and I'm constantly amazed at how well it produces 3D images without looking crap or gimmicky. Sadly I'm one of the people who get the \"eyes trying to crawl out of my skull\" feeling with 3D, but it's totally worth it.", "id": "c6momzw", "summary": "Go plasma. They're cheaper inch-for-inch than LCD and their performance is arguably better."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Because the homosexual pederasts that make up the bulk of SA and SRS don't want them gone? Honestly, what else could it be? Seeing as they can get subreddits they find personally disagreeable dismantled inside of a week, and seeing as all of the dismantled subs had something to do with women, it's the logical reason.", "id": "c3s6l5f", "summary": "SA/SRS are kiddie-fiddling faggots who still need something for the spank-bank."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "It didn't even have christian undertones. They all went to a church in the end because it was a recognisable icon for the situation they found themselves in. THAT'S IT. It was more about cultural recognition and less about religion. Fuck, even the former middle-eastern torture chief knew what a fucking church was about. \n Lost had a great ending. It was only \"nonsensical\" if you assume that  Juliet succeeded in detonating the bomb , instead of the much more obviously correct notion that  right before she did, they ALL got tossed forward in time, and the bomb core became the thing under the Swan that was detonated by the key.  The entire thing with the flash-sideways universe was simply  seeing what the characters were experiencing after their individual deaths. . It had fucking nothing to do with the bomb, at all. AT ALL.", "id": "c7d51lx", "summary": "Lost was great and you're fucking stupid if you can't figure out what happened in seasons 5/6."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "It is real. \n No, it really isn't. The requirement for AMA threads to be \"approved\" is that they provide some level of proof. The more grandiose the claim, the more pertinent the requirement of proof becomes. \n You didn't make the grade, because what you posted was obviously fake and you made the amateur mistake of posting from one of your own sockpuppets in the guise of your \"op\" persona.", "id": "c294l0e", "summary": "IT'S A  FAAAAAKE!! \"]("}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "However he said after I left that he had no intention of paying me the money. \n Find something expensive of his and break it. If he doesn't have a Wii, take a hammer to his television or whatever other console he may have. Smash his computer monitor. Take a shit/piss in his PC case. Break his phone. Keep doing this until he tries to \"confront\" you about it and then throatpunch the bastard and kick his ass. \n After all of that, lean down and say in his ear \"And it would have been so much easier if you'd just paid for the shit you broke.\"", "id": "c0w98y8", "summary": "Break whatever expensive items of his you can until he gives you the chance to break his jaw - then take it."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Depends on the cat. My two cats absolutely love belly scratches to the point where they will roll over and beg for them. Yes, it's a sign that they trust you - so taking the opportunity to do something that they like inspires further trust in you. \n My female cat trusts my gf and I so much that when she had kittens, she got in a box we prepared for her that was right next to where my computer chair is. This isn't exactly unusual, but female cats will not birth that close to a person unless they trust them implicitly. Normally they'll camp out under a bed or in a closet or something. She also didn't get angry or try to fight us off when we wanted to handle them and make sure they were ok immediately post-birth - going so far as to actually lick our hands affectionately when we reached in there.", "id": "cfxg2jq", "summary": "cats have individual personalities just like people."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Your red bone marrow sort of goes into overdrive after you donate to replace the missing volume faster. It contains a high number of hematopoietic stem cells which are stem cells that only produce components of your blood - red cells, white cells and so on. \n There's a baseline level of activity and constant low-level production of blood cells to keep up with things like splenic purging of the aged red blood cells, but like many systems in the human body it's very much a supply:demand relationship.", "id": "c34jw0f", "summary": "you only produce \"extra\" blood when you lose more than a tiny amount. Otherwise it's just activity to maintain the status quo."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Yes, I take all the steroids and I punch out all the people. All the time. Because I am a sociopath/psychopath. I also have a really huge car (like, xbox huge) and absolutely no dick. Seriously. It's like a ken doll down there (please don't ask me how I can rage with no testosterone, I don't have to make sense to people like you). And yeah, you pegged me, I'm also a corrupt, big-time-business leading, abusing, raping politician and I'm totally out to destroy your societal stability. Seriously, you should  ask my girlfriend  car.", "id": "c4k8xh6", "summary": "you're a heinously stupid cunt and the only tool at your disposal seems to be hyperbole and strawman attacks. Go suck a dick, you tawdry skank."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I used to be a waterskiier, and in less than one year I progressed from not even being able to stand on doubles to being good at double, single, double trick, wake board, kneeboard, freeboard, disc and learning to plank (essentially standing on a binding-less fence paling). At that years AGM for our ski club I got the most improved award because nobody else had moved even close to that fast starting from knowing basically nothing.", "id": "c5p92cd", "summary": "most improved\" awards do have a point."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "We only call it \"visible light\" because it's visible to us. The spectrum doesn't define what's visible and what's not by itself, we backwards-engineered the spectrum based on our observations. There's some animals that can see further into UV or IR light than others - that becomes  their  \"visible spectrum\". \n The sun isn't deliberately emitting most of its light at a point the spectrum decided was visible, we just evolved with the ability to detect that narrow portion of it. If we could see further into IR or UV when the spectrum was first though of, the \"visible light\" portion would be a lot bigger than it is.", "id": "c17k0mt", "summary": "fuckin' magnets and cosmic coincidences."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I'm sick of seeing your fucking posts. Honestly. All you ever do is fucking weep about how shitty your life is and how much of a cunt your wife is and how miserable you are, and yet you  never fucking want to do anything about it. \n You know what? If you're not willing to do something to change your situation and if you come up with reasons why you \"can't\" each and every time a solution is proposed then you've fucking revoked your right to whine about it, because you've accepted it.", "id": "c1sy8rt", "summary": "you made your own bed, fucking lie in it or change the sheets."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Yeah, totally bro. You fucked so hard you broke your emotions. It couldn't possibly be that you're worn out, you had to have pushed yourself to the brink of total emotional dissolution and will never be able to feel again. It couldn't possibly be anything else, like a transient mood or not crying at a movie or something.", "id": "c2u5h7g", "summary": "you're being a hypochondriac drama queen. Stop it."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Ignore the haters. You won and you won hard, my friend. The whole \"the best revenge is living well\" is passive-aggressive twaddle spouted by people who are too fucking cowardly to get back at those who hurt them. Revenge should be a protected fucking right, and even though it isn't, it's a natural instinct. Who gives a shit if some small-thinking twits decide you're \"less good\" for it - morals are relative so they can jam it up their cuntholes.", "id": "c49q1dj", "summary": "who's awesome? You're awesome."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Don't bother. I recently got a ticket for \"failing to obey the signed restriction rules\", specifically the one about not being in the same spot for more than 2 hours. \n I got the ticket less than an hour after I parked in that spot. So, I contested it. Got a statutory declaration done up, signed by a JP, all that jazz. Sent it into the council. \n Their response? Something about how their officers always tell the truth so I was \"mistaken\" (read: they accused me of deliberately lying in a statutory declaration) and the fine would stand. They didn't provide any proof of this apparent 2 hour violation, even though I requested photographs (which many of their agents take) - they just said \"You have to pay or we'll take you to court\".", "id": "c8h56r7", "summary": "the council are a bunch of bureaucratic assholes who don't follow their own bylaws. Just eat the fine and learn from the experience - in the long run it'll be less effort and thus less frustration."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I don't think Rassilon was insane. I  do  think he was a megalomaniacal tyrant. The \"official\" record says that Rassilon rescued Time Lord society from the Dark Times. But if you read some of the novels, and even simply observe the way the Doctor (in several incarnations) refers to Rassilon - there is something very, very ugly behind what's officially on record. \n In fact, popular consensus says he arranged for Omega to be offed to get him out of the way, and the Other (you'll only know this character if you're a hardcore Whonerd) got so disillusioned with his bullshit that he committed suicide by jumping into the (admittedly non-canon) genetic Looms.", "id": "c1qqpd1", "summary": "I'm a fucking Who supergeek. AMA."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "8 Inches is pornstar big and is more rare than you think. Not saying you don't think your dick is that big, because you're obviously full of yourself. But the chances of it actually being that big? /shrug \n LOL ok dude, whatever you say. \"Your dick isn't that big because I say it's unlikely, so that means it really  isn't  that big and you're just deluded.\" \n That's a shame, it means I must be blind and unable to count as well. What a horrible day this is - I've discovered my penis isn't big, it's actually small; I've discovered that numbers elude me, and I've discovered I'm blind as a bat. BUT WAIT!!! How did I type this message?", "id": "c1ddy4g", "summary": "you're a tool."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I don't think she was being unreasonable. I've met other dudes who seem to be under the impression that their sperm is super-powered and can punch through rubber. All of them were off-the-wall paranoid who would refuse to cum inside a girl even if they were rubber-clad and  she was on the pill . \n My assumption is she just lost her patience with you being a paranoid jerk - by not cumming inside her you were depriving her of a sexual experience she wanted, and you refused to talk about it/reason with her about it.", "id": "c173jqd", "summary": "You deserved it."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "The Borg have failed to assimilate the federation for the last thirty years\" \"I wonder what will happen if I attack them with one shot kill torpedoes\" \n Well, if you follow the expanded universe stuff... \n [Here's a list of all the planets that were destroyed or had their civilisations completely wiped out as a DIRECT RESULT of her coming back in time and doing what she did.]( \n You've also got to add the fact that most of Starfleet was utterly obliterated and the number of enlisted people killed is beyond sanity. \n Also, the Borg  ate Pluto.  Because fuck the Solar System. \n It also cost the life of Q's son. Directly because of what she did, a fucking demigod's life was sacrificed.", "id": "c7nrwmd", "summary": "Janeway is a stupid, one-track-minded cunt."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "New Years before last, was drinking at a house party of a close friend of mine and my girlfriend's. As the night wears on and we get drunker and drunker, we decide it would be a good idea to take a jaunt across the street and scale the fence of the house there, and go swimming in their pool. \n Naked. \n It was fun, it was dark so we couldn't really see too much other than vague shadows and shapes. Then some randoms started scaling the fence and being a little too loud (and creepy) for comfort. Then all of a sudden, from the front of the house comes: \n WOOWOOOOP and a red-and-blue flash. \n I have not seen a pool empty or a bunch of naked asses go over a 2-m fence that damn fast before. Yes, it was the cops. Yes, they were here for us. The first thing they said was \"Guys (meaning all of us, not just the dudes), can you put your clothes back on please?\" as they attempted to maintain a veneer of professionalism with a bunch of semi-naked chicks running around. Anyway, it all calmed down, they took the details of the person hosting the party, told us to have a good night and left. Nothing ever came of it, I'd imagine because they were inundated with similar situations all night, the fact that it was new years, and the fact that we didn't break/vandalise/damage anything at all and weren't rude or disrespectful to them. \n We toddled our drunk and wet selves back to the house, where two of the girls proceeded to sit on the couch and look shell shocked, while the rest of us were laughing our asses off at the situation that had just transpired. It turned a good night into a fucking great night.", "id": "c0l9r78", "summary": "new years party, broke and entered a backyard with a pool, got caught naked by the cops, (FFFFUUUUUUU-)  DIDN'T GET SHOT AND/OR TASED  (everything went better than expected)."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Agreed. Menstrual blood is maybe 10% blood if you're lucky. The rest is shed/decaying uterine lining. Additionally, it's usually not that colour when it comes out. You know what IS that colour though? FAKE BLOOD. It's almost PERFECTLY that colour and it never changes, because unlike real blood it doesn't oxidise, coagulate or clot.", "id": "c5rxrwd", "summary": "if that was real it'd be a bottleful of brownish--blackish-grey chunks. I've formally studied anatomy & physiology as well as pathology and in my educated opinion this bitch is full of shit."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Yep. Got her belligerent ass kicked out of a club after she got drunk and aggro and decided the best way to handle not being the centre of attention was to punch me in the eye. Watching her get grabbed by bouncers and dragged down the stairs kicking and screaming would have been more awesome if I knew then what I know now.", "id": "c45pe9y", "summary": "if you're a violent drunk, don't punch your guy when the bouncers are watching."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "If I had trust issues, I'd be like half the posts on here saying she probably fucked my boy. \n Yeah but... she did. He didn't bring her straight to you, he took her somewhere first so she could slide her pussy onto his cock and feel him bust a load against her cervix.", "id": "c93xyzi", "summary": "there is no way in fuck she didn't fuck \"your boy\"."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Sometimes you have to be an asshole to make your point heard, because people ignore it when you're trying to be polite. It's my understanding that tipping is like that in the states. Anyone who tries to have a discussion about it or make a well-worded but non-prickish argument about it is insulted and marginalised. If you're going to have to suffer that kind of treatment either way, then why not just be loud, blunt and tactless with your point? That leaves the ball in the court of the people with their hands in their ears and their heads in the sand.", "id": "chvcxz8", "summary": "this guy made an excellent point, which is why you're all saying \"yeah but he's an asshole\" - anything to discredit the other guy's position, amirite? \n And yes, I know you're quoting the Big Lebowski."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Meh, palytoxin is old news to anyone interested in keeping anything from the [zoanthid]( family. Rule of thumb is, if you want to fuck about with zoas or touch them for any reason at all, wear gloves and wash your hands like fuck afterwards. The amount of toxin you can get on you from a simple brush of a colony with a small part of your hand could kill a household pet or a child, and make yourself very, very sick indeed.", "id": "c1o14v8", "summary": "neurotoxic cnidarians, beware!"}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "All of the ground infantry and mobilised assault attacks were basically deliberately sending people in to die, to make the bugs more confident and draw out the brainbug. \n It's demonstrated several times in the first film ALONE that humans are highly disposable and war is part of the culture. Additionally, the meteor hitting Buenos Aires is hinted as being a false flag attack - there is no way in shit the bugs could have sent it because a) they could not possibly be that accurate with a space rock over that distance and b) there is no way they could have sent it because they would have had to send it on its way loooooonnnnggg before they ever knew humans existed.", "id": "c728zbu", "summary": "the government wanted to capture a brainbug and everyone was expendable, and they were willing to destroy an entire city on their own soil to achieve it."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "There's a version of my girlfriend in my dreams that is an utter, utter cunt. Like, she personifies all of the horrible things about my exes taken to their extreme. She's callous, cold, manipulative, totally uncaring, brazen, a complete and total whore, inconsiderate and just downright  rude . \n Sometimes I wake up in a visibly bad mood because of it and my girlfriend usually notices and says \"What's wrong, was dream me being a bitch to you again? Wonder what her problem is?\" which usually makes me laugh and fixes the mood. \n Once she woke up practically in tears, quite upset because dream  me  had been a bit of an ass. My response was \"Yeah well he's just getting revenge for all the times dream  you  has been mean to me.\" \n And it fixed the mood. Because she's not insane.", "id": "c12yatx", "summary": "my girlfriend is awesome."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I think the people posting in this thread need to realise that they have and had very little responsibility for what these people did with their lives. To say otherwise is to say that they were incapable of making decisions for themselves. And seeing as a lot of them were adults when the life-ruining occurred, that's probably not the case at all.", "id": "c5ykcci", "summary": "some people are fuckups, it's not everyone else's fault."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "OP just got assfucked, there's no way the \"asshole\" in this story isn't laughing all the way to the bank. The best part is OP seriously has no fucking idea. Had he not paid the OTHER guy's bill he could have taken his money to the Clue store and bought some of their wares.", "id": "c87h2tj", "summary": "OP should go to the store and buy a clue."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "So what about [a little while ago]( when you said you lost your house because of the floods and now? \n Or when you [realised you can remember every single object and exactly where it goes in the room you work in except what colour the carpet is?]( \n I'd find more but I'd be late for work if I sat here pursuing this. \n Suffice it to say, I've encountered you before, craznar. And you're completely full of shit. I still think it's funny how you were insisting a cyclone was going to erase Brisbane on the 26th of last month but couldn't produce the evidence - but you still thought it was cool to insult the shit out of everyone who asked.", "id": "c1huy0n", "summary": "hey guess what, IAmA? You're being trolled again!"}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Hosted a party a little while back, and towards the end of the night I was considerably shitfaced and couldn't figure out why, I'd only had a few drinks, right? \n Checked the next morning and discovered I'd polished off most of a bottle of Bundaberg Red/OP run (it's 50% alcohol so slightly weaker than their standard overproof stuff, but filtered through Australian redgum wood so it's super-smooth). I saw that and went \"Wow. Totally worth it.\"", "id": "c5qv9n9", "summary": "Bundy overproof redrum + vanilla coke or + A&W Creaming Soda = fucking magic."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I think, even if we ever get to an equal society, we're still going to cat call each other. \n My point exactly. Women are just as crude and objectifying as men are. Every single job I've been at. I've seen women talk about how the \"hot guy\" there to check the fire detectors makes their \"uterus throb\" (seriously, that's what they said). At a recent job, a group of middle-aged women were chatting amongst themselves about how they hoped the hot software dude choked on something so they could \"give him CPR\" - and yes, they meant it in an explicitly sexual way, because they expressed glee at the possibility of taking his shirt off. Women out in public whistle at tradies with their shirts off, or a buff guy in a nice pair of jeans. \n And oh my god, the conversations about dicks. I swear to christ if I wasn't the kind of person who's ok with practically any topic of discussion, my ears would have been bleeding. Additionally, \"size doesn't matter\" goes out the window when they think they're not being eavesdropped on.", "id": "cowgo2f", "summary": "women are just as lecherous as guys, they're just a whole lot less honest about it."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "but as her boyfriend \n Well, as her doctor I can tell you that she's faking the whole thing for attention. It's pretty sad, really. My time to see patients with legitimate issues is wasted by people like her. \n Seeing as I can't verify that you're her boyfriend and you can't verify that I'm her doctor, I guess we're either going to have to assume that the other party is full of shit, or take the other party at face value.", "id": "c0q3eat", "summary": "you can make up any shit you want on the internets. I don't believe you, internet white knight."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "That's total horseshit. There's a difference between saying no to sex and withholding for fucking months to years on end with throwaway comments about \"no emotional connection\". You're oversimplifying one aspect so you can oversanctify the other - \"the other\" in this case being the \"sanctity of marriage\". \n Well guess what, OP's husband has already checked out of this marriage. Sex is an important part of this kind of relationship, an integral part actually. And the fact that OP's husband is ignoring that, ignoring her and getting busy with himself when she's right there waiting for him - and after she's done exactly what he supposedly wanted from her - tells me two things: One, he's no longer interested in her as a wife or as anything other than a financial convenience, and two, he's constantly raising the bar knowing she'll always try to please him by rising to it. \n OP, your husband is ignoring your needs whilst ensuring that his own are fulfilled, to the point of using you to get his own validation for the few things left he needs you to validate - he knows, for example, all he's gotta do is tell you to shave \"for him\" and you will. \n Seriously, go out and get laid. You need it, and if he's refused to give it to you when you've openly stated your desires, then he has no right to complain when you patience wears thin.", "id": "c1tugo4", "summary": "as much as I hate to say this, cheating being \"wrong\" is largely conditional and dependent on extenuating circumstances. In this case, it's not wrong (not \"right\" either, but not \"wrong\") and it's understandable. \n Personally I'd advise ending your marriage before cheating, but at the same time I couldn't blame you for being human and doing the latter first."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I want sex from him. \n This is why it's unfair that the general population of reddit are judging you harshly. You've stated multiple times that you want him physically and emotionally. And yet you've been told a bunch of times now that you need to put more effort in, basically. \n In retrospect, coming and asking a bunch of bitter, inexperienced, \"forever alone\"-type \"men\" (and I say that quite sardonically) advice on this matter may not have been the best course of action. This lot have about as much relationship experience as an inch of warm stagnant beer in the bottom of a bottle - and my own experience tends to get buried under mountains of downvotes, largely because I make points that are tough to refute.", "id": "c1tugxe", "summary": "fuck most of the people replying to you, they don't know shit."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "but it was enough... the patient lost his ability to breath unconsciously. \n Yeah no, sorry. Unless the doctor was tooling around in his medulla oblongata, there is no way that could happen. There is a reason that the deep parts of the brain control the vital functions - because they're deep and thus protected from a lot of trauma. \n [See this picture here?]( - They tend to not operate on the brainstem, and the M.O. is right in the middle of that. Additionally, breathing is ALWAYS controlled involuntarily. It has to be, otherwise children really COULD hold their breath until they died. It's set off specifically by something called the [apneustic centre]( which among other things responds to the acidity of your blood, which is directly related to how much CO2 is dissolved in it. \n There is absolutely no way a person could sustain damage to this area of the brain sufficient to knock out respiration and NOT become a vegetable at the same time. Additionally, having to concentrate on breathing in and out at the right intervals would be practically impossible - there's a reason it's a completely automated system.", "id": "c5uzloe", "summary": "your story sounds like nonsense. Citation heavily needed."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Nice strawman. Where did I say I had an aversion to homosexual behaviour? Pointing out that a man dressed as a woman, identifying as a woman, with obvious facial hair, looks patently ridiculous - is simply an observation made on the evidence presented. \n Also, I don't have a dog. That was a figure of speech, and you're an imbecile. \n The part I liked though, in this whole exchange, is where you try to emulate my self-confidence and self-security but wind up coming off like a guy who desperately needs people to believe it so they'll sympathize with his position. I never used my dick/house/looks to strengthen my point - I was pointing out that I have no need for reddit's approval. You can't say you were doing the same, as you were blatantly trying (and failing) to one-up me.", "id": "c2o3qi9", "summary": "nope, nope and nope."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Me and my girlfriend have two absolutely gorgeous cats. One of them is the kindest, gentlest and possibly friendliest cat I have ever met (although I'm convinced he thinks he's a dog) and the other has one of the most interesting cat-personalities I've ever encountered. \n I can barely even handle just the thought that one day they're going to die. It makes me sad just thinking about it, and if my girlfriend or I ever accidentally stray onto the topic, we change the subject immediately. \n I know it's gonna happen one day but I wish it didn't have to. They're members of the family. And you would not be able to watch them do what they do and then say animals don't have emotions and can't think. These two quite clearly can.", "id": "c0wegof", "summary": "fucking love my cats, wish they didn't have to die some day."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "What I can't figure out is why God eventually relented and let Job win. Why didn't he keep torturing him? Cripple him or something. Make him a total persona non grata to everyone. Then kill him in a really really atrocious fashion. Then when he makes it to the pearly gates, go down there personally to meet him, strike a trollface, say \"lolno\" and shut the gates in his face.", "id": "c36hki3", "summary": "God pussies out, fuckin amateur."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "You're not really going to remember this in the morning. You'll remember that you did SOMETHING, and you might have a mild, abstract sense of embarrassment, but since one of the effects of Zolpidem is anterograde amnesia, well, you're almost guaranteed to not remember this if you've forced yourself to stay away past the drug's onset. \n I was on a prescription of Stilnox which is the same active ingredient, and one night I took one then proceeded to get into a conversation with my girlfriend over msn (she didn't yet live with me). At some point I believe I absent-mindedly took another one. Then I had a conversation with her, the only aspect of which I can remember is that it had something to do with masturbation. \n She still won't tell me what it was, but it amuses her to this day, and this happened over 4 years ago.", "id": "c2fb3qt", "summary": "Ambien fucks with your shit and you'll never know why."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "My girlfriend has labial herpes (face lips, not the other ones. Labial herpes =/= genital herpes. It's otherwise called \"cold sores\"). \n Guess what? I really don't give a shit. It's a trivial infection unless your immune system is completely broken, and more than half of the entire population of the planet have it. It's possible to infect someone without even having an outbreak thanks to asymptomatic viral shedding. It's also possible to have it and never have an outbreak. Her cold sores don't bother me because I know I've probably already caught it, most likely as a child. The most common disease path for HSV-1 is parent-to-child.", "id": "c5qbimo", "summary": "it's herpes, don't worry so much."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "You can come to my house and do as much stupid and ill-advised shit as you want. Seeing as you're not my employee I don't have any duty of care over you. In fact, about the only thing I could do is order you out and call the cops if you didn't leave. I'm pretty sure no court would consider you my responsibility just because you're in my home, given that you're (I assume) a healthy, mentally competent adult.", "id": "c1faf9c", "summary": "come at me bro, your lawsuit wouldn't hold water for 3 seconds in any decent courtroom."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I'm a good-looking, sexually capable and somewhat adventurous super-nerd, who does not hold ridiculous ultra-liberal values and has absolutely no trouble expressing viewpoints that fly in the face of the hive's opinion. \n I've successfully escaped the friendzone a number of times on account of being charming and attractive. To the point of being asked for advice - frequently - by less than \"successful\" male acquaintances who want to know how I do it. To add insult to final injury, I'm well-hung on top of everything else noted above.", "id": "c1pj5oj", "summary": "I'm the nerd that other nerds love to hate. Forever alone doesn't exist for me."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I love the people who go into a NSFW thread, click on an image, then go OH MAN WTF DID YOU DO THAT TO ME FOR, I'M AT WORK, NOW I'M GONNA GET FIRED HURPA DERP DERRRP. \n Seriously. If you're in a NSFW thread AT WORK and you click on one of the images - an image in a  NSFW  thread, then you deserve to get thrown under a fucking bus for your idiocy, especially if you're going to cuss out the poster as if it's their fault your judgement sucks.", "id": "c45cj1k", "summary": "completely agree with you, mang."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Ah yes, \"Time\". There's a whole series dealing with the Fermi paradox: Time, Space, Origin and Phase Space. Phase Space is a collection of short stories relating to the idea that the Fermi Paradox exists because we've been placed in a virtual \"planetarium\" of sorts. I find Baxter's writing to be a little long-winded from time to time but still compelling. \n Egan, OTOH. Love his \"nature of the self\"-type stories like the ones involving the Ndoli jewels. \"Schild's Ladder\" and \"Quarantine\" are both fantastic stories, even if the latter makes some assumptions about the quantum universe that turned out to be kind of uhm... completely wrong. \"Axiomatic\" is a fantastic collection, hunted that book down for years after having read one story from it (\"Learning to be Me\", a jewelhead story) and was not disappointed.", "id": "c0gmpga", "summary": "read moar Baxter, hard scifi rocks."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "This right here. I feel there is something OP isn't telling us. A situation doesn't escalate from calm to someone trying to put you through a wall just because you (supposedly) politely asked them to curb offensive language. \n Now, if you were a prick about it and started making demands and acting like a cunt to them, then I can see EXACTLY how it escalated from a movie night to a beating. \n Also, if this was truly a hate crime the guy would have engineered a situation to attack him as soon as he found out he was gay. This seems reactionary to me, not premeditated. \n This is made even more suspicious by OP wanting to specifically seek out an enforcement official he knows will automatically be more sympathetic and question his story less.", "id": "c7y7h4f", "summary": "there's something OP isn't saying that is important to this story."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "ok, the 'No Kissing' thing is weird. You're 2 months in. There should be kissing. You need to ignore the sex aspect of this for now and just ask her about basic shit. \n It's not weird, it's pathetic. People who get to be this age who are still virgins need to fucking grow up. It's mostly because they have some retarded philosophy that sex should be like a Disney film. Christ, I had a girl suck me off, she let me eat her out, but then she said no sex because she was waiting for Mr Right -  right before she told me I could have her butthole instead if I wanted . \n As if that somehow makes it less \"impure\" or something. It's completely idiotic. For the record I lost most of the desire to fuck her after that because I couldn't get over the stupidity of what she was saying. It actually turns out she was waiting for a guy that didn't exist, essentially. Which is a shame, because she could have had any guy that walked past, easily. \n Women (and men) like this are trapped in a ridiculous fantasy of what sex should be, which causes them to miss out completely on the awesomeness of what sex IS. They're in perpetual arrested development and in all honesty, it is not worth the time and effort to try and live up to their ideals. You're better off finding a guy or girl who isn't going to move the goalposts every time you manage to pass their infinite list of prerequisites.", "id": "c6oqzjn", "summary": "Disney romance and high-school level bullshit."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "You know who they are? \n Destroy them. Seriously. One by one, beat them black and blue and leave them with some lasting injuries. Do it in some kind of disguise to prevent getting busted. Break their fingers so badly they'll have trouble holding a cup for the rest of their life.", "id": "c8mhk5h", "summary": "kick their goddamn teeth in."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "You know what's funny? I hear the exact same arguments here in Australia. Only they're directed at your oh-so-perfect CANE SUGAR. Even the ethanol one. Why? Because cane is subsidised here and they make ethanol for fuel and whatnot from it. So basically the same situation with a different product. \n Here's an interesting thought: Maybe - just  maybe  - consuming high amounts of REFINED SUGARS IN GENERAL is really fucking bad for you and will cause you to gain weight and be at risk of diabeetus. SHOCKING I KNOW.", "id": "c3jbt42", "summary": "cane sugar is as bad as HFCS, which makes me laugh when you people talk about it like it's oh-so-awesome. \n -edit- \n Oh look, the people who think cane sugar is the perfect food, a gift from the gods appear to have found the blue arrow."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Better than all of that, OP: \n Toowoomba bitched about the lack of water. Then they bitched about the fantastic RO plant set up that gave them astoundingly pure water from waste water, because it was \"icky\". \n Then it rained for 3 fucking months and most of the town was underwater (QLD floods last year). They bitched about that, too.", "id": "c5vfvyt", "summary": "karma's a bitch and Toowoombans are miserable cunts."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Send back \"We mowed it on Sunday and it's well within acceptable council bylaw limits. Stop shaking your sticks at us.\" \n Also, tell your neighbour the next time he wants to spy on you he might get a broken face. Threatening people like that is about the only way you can tell them to piss off.", "id": "c8v4rsv", "summary": "hit the hornets nest as hard as you can, because for all their angry buzzing they're a bunch of cowardly shits."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "This bullshit \"factoid\" that gets thrown around to \"disprove\" the notion that women like big dicks is a lie of omission. It behaves as if the vagina is a static, rigid and unlubricated tube, instead of the dynamic, malleable/pliable and self-lubricating BODY CAVITY that it is. It deliberately leaves out the simple anatomical fact that the vagina can readily and rapidly change size and shape to accommodate various levels of insertion, dependent on level of sexual arousal. \n In short, when aroused, the female vagina has the capacity to extend to up to 300% of its length and girth. This is how things like fisting, fitting rugby balls and stupidly large dildos in is possible. And anyone who's spent long enough on the internet KNOWS it's possible because there's more than a few videos around showcasing this amazing ability.", "id": "cg16n05", "summary": "anyone who ridicules big dicks by saying \"the vagina is only 4\" deep\" is both full of shit and a complete fucking assclown moron."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "My girlfriend did a (very short) stint with some company selling $3k vacuum cleaners. They were dodgy assholes to work for but the product itself was fucking fantastic - the shit it could pull out of \"clean\" carpet and mattresses/bedding would turn you into a fucking germophobe. It also had a bunch of these different attachments for like a carpet shampooer and it could be an air compressor and a couple other things. \n Didn't buy one but used the demo model on the bedroom carpet while she had it - was like \"we need one of these, can you steal one?\"", "id": "c0zwbzp", "summary": "if it's the kind of vacuum I think it might be, it's pretty much worth every cent your mother paid for it."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Also, assuming you are a lady redditor wouldn't you be really dry? \n Vaginas are almost constantly at least a little bit moist. A girl's bladder being a bit full can put pressure on the internals of the clitoris, making her horny. You fingering her pussy while she's asleep can do wonders.", "id": "c22cfvj", "summary": "from experience, nope. My girlfriend's never been really dry when I've sleep sexed her. Quite the contrary, actually."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Eh, I'm actually a bit of a prick, but I'd rather go to the wall than violate (most of) my ideals. It's made adult life difficult because not all of my ideals are compatible with what's expected of me (keep my head down, keep my mouth shut, eat customer shit for a paycheck, that kind of thing) but it does mean I'm not the kind to sell out my friends or the kind to make friends with someone simply because I want to use them.", "id": "c5yh2ud", "summary": "I'm an ass with morals."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Happens more often than you'd think. If the plane goes through an updraft strong enough to lift it, the end result is that everyone on board feels like the plane is \"falling\" when it's really just trying to level out. \n Doesn't make it any less terrifying. Because of a similar experience I now have moments of terror on planes during turbulence, and I don't trust the toilets on planes not to eat me. For context, I was like 3-ish and on a flight over from my home country of Wales to Australia, where my dad and mum had decided to emigrate to. Had to go drain the (diminutive) lizard, toddled off to the toilet, did my thing and hit the butan. However, instead of bacon or a normal toilet flush, the toilet ROARED at me and the whole plane bucked. Turned out we'd hit a patch of nasty turbulence causing the noise from the toilet and the bucking. However, being 3, I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt the plane toilet was trying to eat me. \n My dad tells me I came tearing up the aisle as fast as my legs could carry me screaming like I had an army of undead on my heels. I don't really remember much other than the terror, but that shit gets etched into your psyche - last time I flushed a plane toilet, which was yesterday on my flight back from up north, I couldn't help but get a cold sweat and my heart skipped a beat. I'm 28 now so that experience has stayed with me deep down in my primal brain for A QUARTER OF A GODDAMN CENTURY.", "id": "c3rfcaa", "summary": "fuck carnivorous plane toilets."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "People don't understand how power bills work. The percentage it rises is only based on the amount you pay  above the required minimum amount that practically everyone has to pay  - yes, there are minimum usage amounts, read the fine print. As a result, what sounds like a huge jump is actually not that big at all.", "id": "c4uw783", "summary": "read your power bills and stop freaking out at nothing. \n Source: I used to work for the energy ombudsman."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I feel the same as many others in this thread, in that a novel should be actually decent if it wants to get good ratings/reviews/lots of sales. It seems to be that OP is just trying to use reddit as a launching pad, which should be more insulting to its user base (\"hey reddit, I want you to give me lots of sales because we're on the same website and I deserve it\"). \n Additionally, as has been evidenced in the past every time someone tries this, the book turns out to be mediocre at best, everyone is shitty that they wasted their money on it, and OP winds up miserable, vindictive, bitter and angry.", "id": "c2agwbp", "summary": "Don't do it. OP isn't getting an agent for a reason."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Most of the compliments I've received gave been about the size, shape, feel and look of my cock, or the various little things that I do with it (like teasing the mouth of their vagina with just the tip). I was called a \"machine\" once (in a good way) after I left a girl and her pussy very satisfied from several hours of sex (she also later told me she now compares all oral she receives to my delivery and it all comes up short). Had girls mount me, moan as they slide their pussy down me and say they feel like they're being split in half.", "id": "c3dqa7d", "summary": "had loads, can't pick a best one."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Not surprising at all. You and your twin are (at least at birth) genetically identical. The only thing that's different is your fingerprints. Even later on in life, genetically there's almost no way to tell the two of you apart - some genes may have become activated or deactivated due to environmental factors that you experienced compared to your twin, and there may be height/weight differences later on, but often there isn't. \n Your brains are more or less carbon copies of one another's at birth also. This will change with time due to different experiences, but once again the level of similarity is higher between you two than between you and anyone else in the human race. You think alike. REALLY alike. More so than two people with similar viewpoints. You'll reach the same conclusions, as you discovered you'll ask the same questions. If not for your individual point of view and consciousness you could almost be considered to be the same person in 2 bodies, in many ways.", "id": "c1nikpa", "summary": "oh twins, you so crazy."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I had teachers blow up and try to give me detention for literally nothing even remotely worth it, then increase it when I asked for clarification. Once it was based on a rumour that I'd abused one of the special needs kids. When I repeatedly asked for proof (there was none, because the supposed event never happened) it was escalated to \"level 4\" which was basically expulsion. She demanded I go to the principals office, to which I responded \"i'm not going anywhere until some proof is produced.\" \n She blew up and walked away shrieking, snitched me out to another teacher who took me aside for a talking to - told them exactly what'd happened, how I felt victimised and how no evidence of this supposed bullying had ever been produced - and moreover that this second teacher knew full well I wasn't the type to bully retarded kids. \n It basically went away, nothing on my record. However the bitch that did the blaming gave me dirty stares and perpetuated tales of ill repute about me til I graduated.", "id": "c1tgcal", "summary": "teachers ain't SHIT, stand up to them when they inevitably try to abuse their position."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "It most certainly does. There is such a thing as \"too small\", isn't there. See, the issue is not \"does size matter\" because the answer to that one is a resounding yes. The question is \" how much  does size matter\" - and whilst it's important it's not overwhelmingly so. Plenty of women enjoy larger-than-average penises. Some women don't. \n The other problem is \"technique\". In a discussion like this you always get those people who come along and bleat about it being the most important thing of all. Well, if you had a guy with a 5\" dick with awesome technique, and a guy with an 8\" dick with equally awesome technique, the chances are she's going to pick the bigger guy. Why? For starters, a large penis is more psychologically arousing. And as everyone loves to tell us, the biggest erogenous zone is the brain, and unless a girl is mentally turned on she's not really going to be physically turned on - she has to be into it.", "id": "c41ew12", "summary": "size matters - for good reason - but more than some people think and not as much as others think."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Don't worry, there's people who freak out about cat births like this everywhere. The kicker is, they usually haven't spayed their cat or they're breeding their cat, and when challenged, the reply is \"IT'S DIFFERENT!!\" They're usually breeding purebreds, and their whole ideal about \"cats in shelters\" ends precisely where their source of income begins.", "id": "c4a28al", "summary": "people like that are disgusting examples of human hypocrisy, you're better off just ignoring them."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I'm gonna assume this isn't a troll for the purposes of education. \n Vaginas are wet, they have a texture, and they have a feel that is remarkably distinct from the penis (at least mine). You got the \"veiny\" part right, but even that varies from person to person. I have a HUGE vein on the top side of mine right where it joins my body, it's kinda neat. But anyway, the skin is super-smooth, and when hard, it'll have a peculiar \"soft but hard\" feeling. It does naturally lubricate but not in the same way as a vagina.", "id": "c2dz1gq", "summary": "penises are like vaginas, except for the part where they're totally not."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "The Doctor is telepathic, this has been established LOOOOONNNG ago (as in, before the recent series, back during it's original run, OLD Who), and the Archangel network was partially based on telepathy. \n It really isn't that ridiculous, especially when we're discussing AN ALIEN WHO CAN REGENERATE AND TRAVELS ALL OF TIME AND SPACE IN A BLUE POLICE BOX THAT'S BIGGER ON THE INSIDE.", "id": "c1u0bww", "summary": "Stop being dumbtarded and exercise a little fucking perspective."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Heat exchange in the atmosphere. The sun heats the atmosphere somewhat unevenly thanks to the axial tilt of the planet, and more generally due to topographical features. It's enough to cause temperature gradients. Like anything, nature strives for equilibrium. Hot air is less dense than cold air so it rises. In areas where there is a lot of rising warm air, you wind up with a low pressure system. \n In the case of a tropical cyclone (hurricane), you have a low pressure system that becomes so \"deep\" that it starts spinning, pulling in air from around it and causing bands of storms to form. The core of the low pressure system is the \"eye\", which is an area of stable sinking air, and the heat from the seawater below it is the source of energy. \n Tropical cyclones are basically massive heat-powered engines. The amount of energy they distribute is absurd.", "id": "c6btofc", "summary": "wind and tropical cyclones are a planetary-scale system of atmospheric heat and energy exchange. Without it, parts of the globe would get stupidly hot while the rest froze."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "My girlfriend is disgusted by twilight, hates beiber and nickelback and wouldn't be caught dead doing duckface unless it's to mock legitimate duckface users. \n And jesus christ does it ever feel good. I never have to deal with any of that shit because she'd rather shoot herself in the face than behave like that.", "id": "c2787aq", "summary": "I'm pretty sure my girlfriend is some kind of super futuristic robot from space."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Wow, I love the awesome  science  in this article!! \n >grew back her entire face \n Her face did not fall off. Toxic epidermal necrolysis occurs when the dermis and the epidermis separate. The features of her face would have been intact, just extremely raw and painful and incredibly prone to infection. \n Treatment encourages the epidermis to grow back - considering that tough scarring doesn't usually form due to an illness like this it's not surprising she looks fine again - in fact, her facial skin is probably healthier than it was before AND younger-looking because it's all completely new. \n Fun fact: she would have shed the lining of her vagina and a layer of the mucous membrane in there as well. Bet that was fun.", "id": "c0iy5ac", "summary": "her face didn't \"fall off\", go media spin!"}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "They won't be haunted, sadly. People who do shit like drag race, crash and then hop into another car and speed away  don't actually care about other people at all . They won't feel guilty, they won't regret it and they won't turn themselves in, and when inevitably arrested they will act like they're the victims of some massive injustice.", "id": "c4v7q9j", "summary": "these people are bottom-feeding cunts that don't have the same kind of minds as normal people."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I'm apparently quite good looking, from what I've been told and from what my girlfriend's been told, so I'll field a few of these. \n >How does life treat you? \n \"Life\" is largely impassive to looks but I can't deny that certain opportunities present themselves more often. \n >How do people and friends treat you? \n My friends treat me like one of the group, although to be fair, the group of friends I hang out with most often is composed of good-looking people on both sides of the gender table. People in general tend to treat me the same way everyone treats people they don't know - with awkwardly guarded suspicion. However I find that getting from there to open, genuinely friendly interaction can take very little time indeed. \n >How's life with women, including the public scene? Please share your experiences. \n My personal record for landing a casual fuck was meeting the girl for the first time and being inside of her 3 hours later. Previous record was about 12 hours. \n Dating is easy, I never seem to have a shortage of female attention, and any \"problems\" I have getting back on the horse if I'm newly single are largely of my own making. I get flirted with as well, although with nothing to compare it to I can't say if it's an inordinate amount or anything - however I have had friends describe me as a lady's man after witnessing how easily I can turn on charm and get it to work for me.", "id": "c1m7tvb", "summary": "being a good looking guy is awesome, and contrary to popular belief does not automatically make you \"empty inside\" - that's typically a lie perpetuated by the jealous."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Uh, yeah, OP. Just a couple of things. \n For starters, an infection growing in your jaw like that would not be asymptomatic. Not at all. Additionally, infections like that do not just spontaneously appear for no good reason whatsoever. A sub-gingival mandibular infection like that is typically caused by either some kind of trauma below the gumline, or long-term neglect. If it's the former, this isn't a lesson of \"always go to the dentist\", it's a lesson of \"don't disregard injuries simply because they're in 'small' places\". If it's the latter, half of your post title is a lie. \n Now, if your girlfriend FORCED you to go, that means she must have had an overwhelmingly good reason to, and you were resistant to the idea. This tells me that you had an obvious problem that you were trying to ignore - either out of shame, laziness or some kind of financial difficulty. Usually if a person doesn't have any obvious issues with their teeth and says \"nah\" to someone saying \"go to the dentist\", that's where it ends. When it enters the realm of insistence and eventual forcing...", "id": "c6bsnbf", "summary": "tell the truth, OP. Not all of us are so easily fooled."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Dukat was actually one of the best villains ever created in Trek. And when they went and made him closer to black than grey, it actually REMOVED from his character somewhat. The funny thing was, they did that because they were getting tired of fans sympathising with his decisions - but after the change, people sympathised with him MORE. \n I'm one of the people from the camp who think that Dukat legitimately struggled to do good whilst still retaining support from Cardassia during the occupation. The episode where he goes on a rant about hating Bajorans and their \"stupid broken noses\" (where he and Sisko are on the planet) is used to supposedly show how \"evil\" he is, but all I see is a bitter, broken, angry, and insane man who has lost everything in his life, including his daughter that he loved to pieces, raging at the fact that everyone just assumes Cardassian = guilty monster. I mean at the start of that episode he was receiving psychiatric care and was on medication. After the crash he had neither so he started losing his mind again.", "id": "c7rewo2", "summary": "Dukat is not evil, he's just crazy and broken, and he should be pitied, not reviled."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "For a red-blooded, mature, sex-positive guy, far far less than you'd think. As long as you're not obese to the point where it's a major problem, as long as you don't smell reaallllllly bad, we're usually cool with it. There's a few exceptions, of course, but at least on the subject of weight, most guys can agree that 5 kilos over is better than 5kilos under, as it were. Curves are fucking hot. Also, wide hips. And it doesn't matter if your boobs aren't huge or alternatively ARE huge.", "id": "c2svrlz", "summary": "KONP LIEK NAKED WIMMENZ"}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Wow, so much hate for new Trek in this thread. You'd think you could just let it go and enjoy a new, reimagined and fresh REBOOT of the franchise but nooooope, it's always gotta be \"this isn't as good as when Spock made a laser in the prison cell\" or \"something something warp core, they changed it and now it sucks.\" \n Meanwhile, I've been a fan of the franchise going back as far as I can remember, and I am completely at ease with the reboot, because I didn't go into it expecting/hoping it was going to be the same as the original. The word \"reboot\" and the in universe discussion of it being a parallel timeline invalidates most arguments about \"accuracy compared to the show\", and the rest of it (like differences in technology) can be explained thusly: the original Enterprise set was designed to be shown mostly in black and white on very, very small televisions, based on what people thought the future was going to look like. Can you imagine how shit it would look if they carbon-copied that look for the new movies? It makes much more sense to give the future a look based on our current technology and where it could reasonably lead to. \n And I for one am glad JJ is ignoring the bitching of the purists, because if the series was written to suit what THEY wanted, it would be absolute trash.", "id": "c9mnhq9", "summary": "it's here to stay, either come to terms with it and stop complaining, or find another franchise that suits you more."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Price range anywhere from 100-130 + utilities each. \n Good luck finding something that isn't a slum - and with people you'd be willing to life with - in that price range. Try being a little more realistic with your expectations. \n I also note you haven't mentioned what exactly the problem with your current housemates is. Just saying \"Oh they're intolerable\" and leaving it at that is kindof suspicious. After all, it's easier to blame someone if you avoid specifics.", "id": "c62ahns", "summary": "I've got a spare room in my house. No, you can't have it. I don't trust you, I get the feeling you're a nitpicking prick."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Yep, sea salt soaks are your best friend. \n Actually, there's a ton of evidence to suggest that sea salt is a bad thing to soak piercings it - it can irritate the wound and lead to further inflammation. \n When I had my tongue pierced, they told me to only use sea salt if I had nothing else available, and a better choice was an alcohol free antiseptic, antibacterial mouthwash like Difflam diluted 50% in filtered water. \n I did that and it was done with healing within a fortnight (principle healing, at least. Secondary went on for a couple of months, but that's normal). I was even able to eat a girl out with absolutely nil complications for either of us by the end of that fortnight. \n When I had my lip pierced, the salt certainly kept the infection more or less at bay - but it also made my mouth feel gummy, it made the piercing hurt and itch, and was generally unpleasant the whole time.", "id": "chvlnri", "summary": "sea salt may not be the best aftercare choice after all."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I don't, personally. I care about the upvotes/downvotes, or more accurately the attitudes behind them, but I couldn't give less of a shit about the running total. I could have a hugely negative number of karma and not a fuck would be given as it serves no purpose for me.", "id": "c1m6bx8", "summary": "I'm a redditor who isn't addicted to karma, AMA."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Not to mention that as soon as they got within a parsec of Starfleet HQ and started trying to steal shit and blow other shit up, they'd be collectively smote (smoten? smitten?) out of the sky by the combined might of the fleet hanging out in sector 001. The Prometheus alone with its sexy multi-vector attack mode would be more than enough - it took apart a bunch of Romulan vessels when commanded by a prototype hologram and  ANDY DICK  for fuck's sake.", "id": "c34jb5f", "summary": "I AM A FUCKING NERD."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "This person is right on the money. Migraine syndrome and headache are two different things. One of the symptoms of migraine is a severe, pulsating, unilateral headache, accompanied by things like nasal congestion on that side, photophobia and the like. But there's way, way, WAY more to it than that. The list of neurological symptoms alone is extensive. \n It infuriates me when someone has a bit of a headache and they go \"oh I've got a bit of a migraine\". No. You don't. If you did you would not be reporting it like that and it would be obvious to everyone around you that you were suffering greatly. You would not have to tell - people would KNOW. It's problematic because the association in so many peoples' minds has now become \"slightly worse than usual headache\" = migraine. \n One thing migraine sufferers face is lack of understanding from employers. Employers are legendarily callous and non-understanding of personal illnesses but for migraine, all they see is someone who thinks having a headache is enough to call in sick. \"Why can't you just take some panadol and come in\", they say. \"You need to get sick less\", they say. Like we're doing it for shits and giggles or something. \n My current employer doesn't take umbrage at me having days off for migraine because I explained, in detail and with documentation, exactly what happens to me when I have one. I explained how it wasn't a question of ignoring the pain - I was unable to function at anything close to an acceptable level. I'd be insanely irritable. I'd be lethargic. I'd be totally unable to focus. I might even fall asleep as soon as the pain abated and be hard to wake up.", "id": "c4qehrp", "summary": "migraines are not just headaches and people who say otherwise deserve to experience the difference for themselves."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Not really. I've seen people kicked for the same reason and I'd kick people for the same reason. If you can't control your retard spawn then you're a threat to the entire raid. By the time you're at fester you've probably been in there a decent amount of time and nerves tend to get a little frayed around the halfway mark. \n If you leave your PC unattended around a child with a propensity to smash buttons, and they wind up wiping the raid, you can't expect special treatment from a PUG. A guild run maybe, but not a PUG. Most of the people in the raid would not be parents because they don't like dealing with kids - and that makes it all the more frustrating to have their playtime ruined by somebody else's.", "id": "c0zoypu", "summary": "OP deserved it, maybe next time he'll keep his idiot child on a shorter leash."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Are you kidding? Luke vs Vader was infinitely better than any of the fights in the prequels, because it was emotionally charged on both of the occasions it happened. The newer scenes were too heavily choreographed, and because of the flat characters you weren't invested in their survival or the outcome of the battle. \n Not only that, but in both Luke/Vader fights, it meant something to both characters. In the first one, Luke was fighting to avenge his friends and father and Vader was fighting to subdue Luke without killing him and fighting the urge to tell him the truth. In the second fight, Luke was fighting to save his father and protect his friends, and Vader was fighting out of grief, desperation and anger toward the Emperor. \n In the new scenes, it's Liam Neeson, Ewan Macregor and some dude they've only seen in passing. Or it's Christopher Lee vs a bad CGI puppet. The only fight in the prequels that comes close to luke/vader is Obi-wan/Anakin in Revenge of the Sith, and even that pales compared to the fight they had on the first death star.", "id": "ccunp0m", "summary": "don't ever negatively compare the fight scenes in the original movies with the trash that was the prequels."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I like it in its entirety. The Doctor is awesome regardless of the actor, INCLUDING Colin Baker who unfortunately was a little too \"alien\" for audiences to accept (I happen to believe he was one of the best, actually). The writers and producers on the whole are good - I know I've acerbically ranted a few times about how much I dislike the little things RTD decided to \"include\" but without him the show never would have been revived in the first place. \n I'm sick of hearing about how Matt Smith sucks and bring back Tennant. I'm sick of hearing about how \"boring\" the old stuff is. I'm sick of hearing about how the storylines are shit or \"badly written\" or \"not enough closure\" or \"bitch bitch bitch why don't they listen to the fans\". If you people seriously think you're qualified to criticise the writing then I challenge you to write a script you think is decent and submit it to the BBC for production. We can take bets on how long it'll be before you get a \"we regret to inform you\" letter.", "id": "c6clhu7", "summary": "shut the fuck up and enjoy the show or fuck off and find something more appealing to your tastes."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "If you'd expended the effort to move your mouse cursor a few millimeters and clicked on my username you'd find a few comments espousing my hatred of the narwhal Bacon thing, as well as a \"user since\" time that completely invalidates your comment. \n It seems you're a bit thick if you both can't figure out that I am most certainly not new here, and can't see that I'm mocking \"derpy memes\" as mentioned in the post immediately prior to mine.", "id": "c42es86", "summary": "you're a fucking idiot."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "God I raged so hard at that level as a child before I figured it out. \n \"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN RESET THE COMPUTER, THERE IS NO COMPUTER, oh what's that it's a floating panel from the danger room, maybe I should blow it up FUCK THAT DID NOTHING FUCK YOU PROFESSOR X YOU STUPID CRIPPLED CUNT\" \n Then one day out of nowhere I was like \"could he mean... the reset button on my megadrive?\" (Aussie here, that's what they call them). Pushed it and \"OH MY GOD YES I CAN FINALLY FINISH THE GAME!!!\"", "id": "c76vq8m", "summary": "fuck Professor X. He's a stupid, useless, crippled cunt."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "You need a lawyer. However expensive it will be for you to get one, it will be even more expensive in the long run if you don't. If you're going to simply say \"no lawyer, can't afford it\" then you might as well not show up to the court date and let her win, or retract the papers, because she'll walk all over you - likely with a highly-paid lawyer that mummy or daddy managed to fix her.", "id": "c0xe9sb", "summary": "if you \"can't afford\" a lawyer then give up now."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "One of my crazy ex's (while she wasn't my ex) got her drunk on at a club when we were out with work friends, and she decided to get aggro at me for no other reason than she liked to get drunk and start fights. She said something incredibly retarded, as most drunk unreasonable cunts tend to do. So I mocked it. \n She punched me right in the face, didn't even pull it, just socked me straight in the eye. Next thing I see are a pair of bouncers dragging her down the stairs and throwing her out while she bucked and shrieked and clawed and generally acted like a fucking untamed animal (not in the sexy sense either). Not only did I make no effort to stop them, I actually helped them by telling them exactly what'd just happened (not the usual \"everything's fine here\" pussywhipped guys come out with), and I watched them drag her and eject her from the establishment. The rest of the group we were with were quite hushed after this. \n I didn't see her again until sometime the next morning, like after the sun had come back up. I don't know what the fuck she got up to in those intervening hours, I can probably guess but in all honesty it didn't fucking bother me then and it sure as shit doesn't bother me now. I think that marked the moment where I cashed out of the relationship, at least subconsciously. \n We broke up soon after and I'd be lying if I said I regretted it for even a second. Whilst that wasn't the primary reason it ended, it factored in there and was part of a bigger issue that was also attributable to her craziness.", "id": "c2fig08", "summary": "my ex punched me in a club and got her stupid ass tossed out. I continued drinking in the club and did not leave with her."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Breasts are sexy, that's all there is too it. As a man I'm constantly annoyed by how over-marketed breast cancer is, when there isn't an equivalent level of marketing for testicular or prostate cancer. Why? Because balls, dicks and things in buttholes \"aren't sexy\". \n Sure, foundations for testicular cancer exist, but they are nowhere near as prolific as those for breast cancer. Everyone wants to get in and grab some of the breast cancer foundation cake, because it makes them seem sympathetic - \"Oh, how sweet, they care about women's health problems!\" Meanwhile, some people don't even realise that men can get some particularly nasty kinds of cancer in their nether regions. I've HAD a testicular cancer scare, so I'm not a stranger to the \"oh shit something is wrong with my balls\" feeling.", "id": "c3vc9yb", "summary": "rage."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Basically, he made a bunch of campaign promises based on looking in on the Premier position from the outside. Now that he's on the inside looking out, like every politician with lofty ideals he's realising that the gap between them and reality is kind of large and a little treacherous. So he's trying to do his job. \n And everyone hates him for it. They're treating him like he's LITERALLY HITLER and he's out to kill all the gays or something. It's absolutely fucking retarded. \n Also, he fired a bunch of people working for departments that couldn't show why the positions were needed - which is exactly what every other company in the world has always done forever - and people are treating it like he's sacking everyone everywhere and leading QLD into a dark ages of record unemployment levels.", "id": "c564h18", "summary": "gross over-reaction and no critical thinking."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Recently had a shitty run with PC parts stores in my area (MSY slacks creek and UMART milton in Brisbane, Australia - I'm not afraid to name and shame) apparently being out of stock on items they should have had shitloads of. For MSY it was microSD cards and keyboards, and for UMART it was the same, but their website said they had plenty of stock at the store I went to. Went into MSY looking for a logitech G510 to replace my G11 that was old and broken - \"Sorry, don't have any.\" Well, do you have any G19s then? \"Nope, sorry.\" \n Guess they were in a real hurry not to take my money. Came back in a few days later chasing a 32gb class 10 microSD card for my new galaxy note - \"Nope, don't have any.\" Ok, do you have a different brand? \"Nope.\" Ok, do you have any class 4 ones? \"Nope, no microSD cards sorry\" (Note that this whole exchange basically took place on the spot, no going and looking or anything). \n So I try with UMART. No keyboards there, either. None. Like, all of the keyboards anybody could want to buy were sold out. Apparently they'd never heard of maintaining stock levels - and I'm sorry, but I don't believe there was suddenly a run on keyboards because it turned out plenty of other retailers had them in surplus stock they were discounting to get rid of because of them taking up room. \n So I decide to try them for microSD cards as well. Place an order on the website 5 minutes before going in - all stock levels healthy, more than 5 of each in stock, etc etc. Get called to the desk when I go to pick it up \"Sorry, don't have any class 10 cards of that brand.\" Ok, what about another brand? \"Nope, sorry.\" Ok, what about class 4 cards of any brand? \"Nope, sorry, no MicroSD cards.\" \n Rage. Pure rage at this point. \n \"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T... YOUR WEBSITE CLEARLY... OH  FUCK IT \" I bellow in the middle of the store and storm out. \n Do I regret it? Fuck no. They're a computer parts store. They should have stock levels on their popularitems kept to a level where people are actually able to buy them when they want to. Instead, they were apparently out of the things people might want, but they were happy to keep listing them asin stock on their website.", "id": "c5783ov", "summary": "avoid MSY slacks creek and UMART milton if you actually want to buy shit for your computers. They seem to like telling you exactly why they don't want to take your money and seem inclined to avoid your custom at all costs. Also, shitty customer service."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Why the fuck do companies do this? Why do they wait until you have evidence against them that is admissible in court at a high cost to them before they get off their asses and  do their fucking jobs?  I never remember a policy in any of my contracts at companies I've worked for saying \"Try your hardest not to help the customer, deny them at every turn and only when they have legitimate cause to file suit, only then help them and only the minimum amount you can.\" \n And yet I've seen examples of each and every company I've worked for routinely fucking over the people who are their customers. And not just neglectful incompetent fucking over - I'm talking ACTIVELY WORKING AGAINST them, not just being shitty at their jobs.", "id": "c57j91h", "summary": "what's with the contempt companies have for customers?"}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Bus drivers do that all the fucking time here. They get reported and shit, but because our \"public transport\" is by-and-large run by private companies, QLD Transport/Translink go \"oh we have no responsibility over that derp derp hurr\", and the actual bus companies themselves go \"Stop fucking complaining or we'll blacklist you and you won't be able to use our services\".", "id": "c1027gw", "summary": "Anna Bligh is a greedy, lazy, incompetent piece-of-shit."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Leave your wife. She's an irresponsible, conniving, morally bankrupt piece of shit. There is no way to not see that. She's busy fucking everything that shows interest in her, but the minute you do the same it's suddenly not cool? Bull fucking shit. You know what the problem is? She likes the status quo how it is. You're providing for her financially by sharing half the costs, everyone else is providing for her sexually by feeding her miles of dick and  getting her pregnant .  I mean really. The silly cunt won't even bother getting on birth control before she lets randoms fuck her seven ways from sunday. \n But the second you start sleeping with someone else, her lunch ticket is suddenly \"at risk\" - and she don't like that.", "id": "c2534uz", "summary": "your wife is garbage, fire her the way you would a shitty employee."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Maybe when you kids get older and your gall bladder makes you sick, you'll understand. \n Understand what, how having a defective gallbladder means you can judge other people for the horrific crime of liking food of a certain color and prepared in a certain way? \n HOLY SHIT!! I'm going to get someone to punch my gallbladder so it swells and stops working, because  I  want to be a judgmental cuntscrape just like you!! It's so simple and perfect!", "id": "c961v14", "summary": "you're a fucking idiot, I hope your kids leave you in one of those bad retirement homes we always hear about. Where everything they feed you is BROWN AND GREASY."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Wow, you can't beat jungle? That's probably for the best then, Control will see your controller reach superluminal velocity as it leaves your hand after that stupid cunt Natalya stands in front of your face for the tenth goddamn time and stops you killing the waves of enemies AND THEN SHE FUCKING DIES AND YOU FAIL.", "id": "cf2jg7i", "summary": "fuck Control, fuck Natalya."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "HFCS caused the holocaust BAAAWWWWW!! HFCS will rape your children BAAWWWWW!! HFCS's death panels killed my grandma BAWWWWWW!\" \n You know what's amusing? You idiots seem to think HFCS is made of evil and that cane sugar is the messiah. Replace HFCS with \"sugar\" in my mock-rant above and you get what all the non-HFCS countries say frequently.", "id": "c1oeerx", "summary": "cane sugar cops as much shit as HFCS in countries where it's the principal sweetener, because people would rather blame a simple molecule for all their health problems instead of their own shitty bad habits."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I tried dating a girl who was missing a finger on one of her hands. Didn't even notice until it was pointed out. Didn't bother me in the slightest, she was hot. \n She dumped me less than a week later for not being \"cool\" enough. Note that we were both 16 as well, so to her this must have been of earthshattering importance.", "id": "c51pxun", "summary": "dated a girl with a mong hand, she turned out to be the shallow one."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "only the FIRST TWO INCHES or so of the vaginal canal are responsive and sensitive! And that means that the adequate length of the penis “required” to have satisfying sex is somewhere near TWO AND A HALF inches! \n That's complete horseshit and is one of the most over-used and under-comprehended \"statistics\" being thrown around on this subject. The reason the vagina is that sensitive in its first two or so inches is because the internal legs of the clitoris are parallel to its walls near that point. That's  also  the reason why women say girth is awesome - it stretches the vagina enough to stimulate the clitoris internally. \n The vagina itself is enervated along its entire length. This is evidenced by larger guys causing discomfort deeper in than the first couple of inches.", "id": "c1e735d", "summary": "your soundbite factoid is horseshit and anybody with a grasp of human anatomy knows why."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "It's a personal choice, but you should at least know what you're getting into before you go for it. \n I was completely aware of what I was in for before I did it, and I did it anyway. \n The best part of it is, even whilst pinging I kept some of my wits about me and knew not to drink too much water or dance for too long without a break. And that was the second time I did it. \n The first time, I sat around playing cards with friends, 2 of whom were also rolling, and had a great time talking crap and laughing at inane things. \n Not including the people who get bad gear (which does happen, I can't deny it and yes, it does make it somewhat a russian roulette) it would appear to me that the people who get hurt when using E are the people who: \n \n Take far too much; or \n \n Are on prescription medication that contraindicates MDMA (for instance an MAOI antidepressant); or \n \n Forget themselves and do stupid shit like dance until they overheat; or \n \n Become obsessed with water and forget they just had some/friends don't intervene and prevent it (I had to do this for two friends the second time around,  whilst rolling ); or \n \n Mix their drugs. \n \n \n The highest incidences of E-related injuries deaths occur at nightclubs or large out-of-control parties, and it's usually because of one of the things I mentioned above. \n I don't deny that taking ecstasy is dangerous but so is driving a car, eating a cabbage leaf, standing anywhere near a pig, walking down the stairs,  drinking alcohol , swimming, flying...  The problem I have is when people concentrate solely on the negatives and grossly inflate the chances of personal injury or death in a bid to scare people off using it. That  is  scaremongering. The best advice I could offer to anybody who's interested in taking it is \"Educate yourself. Find out the effects of the drug you're about to take. Look into any possible drawbacks or negatives. Learn what to do if you find yourself in a bad situation. Set boundaries for yourself to reduce the chance of something going wrong, and take it with friends who will not hesitate to call emergency workers if something  does  go wrong.\" \n Society doesn't foster that attitude. It really treats drugs the same way that christian schools treat sex education: \"Abstinence is the only answer!!\". As a result, people don't know any of the things they should, and they don't feel inclined to seek the answers out for themselves for various reasons. Additionally, there is this idea that if your friend starts seizing because the E he took interacted with his meds, you shouldn't call the ambulance because they'll call the police to come and arrest you. So everyone stands around scared and the guy seizing gets brain damage or dies. This is not the fault of the drug, it's the fault of the people using it and the people they choose to use it with. Nobody should ever hesitate to call the paramedics in a situation like that.", "id": "c1em12h", "summary": "minus ten points from Gryffindor."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "She's half right. It's not impossible, but it's difficult. There's a muscle in there located roughly around your prostate that has two functions: one is to stop you pissing inside a bitch while you're fucking her, and the other is to stop your splooge going backwards and blasting inside your bladder. \n However, a somewhat unfortunate side effect of this action is that it squeezes your urethra more or less shut, meaning you have to use a bit of mental effort to override it and take a leak.", "id": "c27zz5n", "summary": "your autonomic nervous system likes to fuck with your shit."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "It's the lactose content that's \"bad\" for us, bovine milk has a fuckton of that particular sugar and it's one that our digestive tracts can deal with with only a moderate level of success. Even non-intolerant people can discover it leaves them feeling bloated or \"heavy\" in their intestines. Lactose tolerance/digestion is something the human race acquired through habit and individuals can lose it easily if they abstain from dairy. \n Then you have the issues with the amount of antibiotics cows are fed as well as the hormones they're given to stimulate lactation. We eat cows so essentially it biomagnifies, although not to a terribly large degree. Bovine milk has been targeted for blame for children (especially girls) going through puberty sooner and getting big tits earlier in life - although chicken has been blamed also and it doesn't take a genius to figure out there's an unhealthy dose of selection and confirmation bias in these studies. \n On the other hand - it's a fantastic source of calcium and protein, it's loaded with energy and all sorts of beneficial trace minerals, it's  tasty as fuck  and it's got a heap of vitamins too. The laundry list of good things you get from milk DO have other sources but often not in the combinations and quantities you find in milk. It's easy to feed to kids because it's sweet and mixes well with a whole bunch of different foods and flavourings, which means they're less likely to wind up osteoporitic or vitamin deficient.", "id": "c35djf8", "summary": "there's good and bad and sensationalism, and imho it should really just come down to personal choice."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "The rights you have depend on where you live. If you're an American and you live in one of those \"at will\" states they can fire you for farting. \n If you're somewhere like Australia, no they can't fire you for something like that because it would be a breach of the workplace laws here. However, they frequently do, then make up some bullshit for their records, and the organisations that are supposed to be there to help you (fair work ombudsman) read the obvious bullshit, go \"WELL IT ALL LOOKS STRAIGHT TO ME\", get their inquiry money from the company who just fired you (it always costs them money) and look the other way.", "id": "c17vb9n", "summary": "America's laws suck, Australia's burdened by corrupt \"workplace rights\" companies. Yeah, they can fire you for that shit."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "EDIT: Also, learn when and why to downvote. I understand that you don't agree with me, but downvoting? Stop being so petty. \n Who says it's me doing it? Maybe  you  should stop downvoting  me . Oh, wait, I can't prove it's you, so maybe I shouldn't accuse you of doing it. But where's the fun in that?", "id": "c19ivhk", "summary": "eat shit, cocksucker."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I've got a close friend (who is also a redditor) who comes and hangs out with me and my girlfriend semi-frequently. She's a vegetarian but my girlfriend and I are practically obligate carnivores. \n We make sure to get her vegetarian pizza or some kind of vegetarian something if she's coming over, and half the time we'll eat it ourselves too, largely because she doesn't exhibit cuntish behaviour on the subject. Were she to go \"ZOMG YOU EAT MEAT YOU PEOPLE ARE EVIL!!\"... well, she probably wouldn't be our friend, for starters.", "id": "c2aq1n0", "summary": "everybody just needs to eat what they like and not get uppity about their choices in front of others who like different."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "targeting \n As in - paying closer attention to a person who was acting suspiciously in a part of town he didn't live in? \n >Not passively following someone with no intent to engage. \n So you're saying he deliberately tracked him down looking for a fight/to shoot someone? \n MY GOD, WHY WERE YOU NOT TESTIFYING WITH SUCH GROUND-BREAKING AND IMPORTANT EVIDENCE? WHY, I'M SURE THE CASE WOULD HAVE ENDED RIGHT THERE WITH A \"GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS OF EVERYTHING FOREVER\" CHARGE!!", "id": "cb28j2q", "summary": "stop trying to distort events to make out like this was a miscarriage of justice."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Who knows what kind of racist bullshit Zimmerman said to Trayvon to prompt such an action. Nobody except for a crazy paranoid lunatic tries to KILL someone just for following them at night, unless they were provoked in some way. \n Wait, hang on, you're saying that Zimmerman incited Trayvon? \n How, exactly? What did he say? What discussion was had? I mean, you're clearly implying that Zimmerman provoked Trayvon openly and deliberately.", "id": "cb28kh4", "summary": "STOP MAKING SHIT UP TO JUSTIFY YOUR DISAGREEMENT WITH THE VERDICT. \n BTW, your post is a fallacy of single cause/casual oversimplification, and could also be considered a regression fallacy or possibly a  post hoc ergo propter hoc ."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Don't think of the black goo as simply fuel. It's some kind of high-technology (possibly nanotech) catalyst for the Prawns' gadgets and gizmos. Note that the  first place  to experience any kind of significant mutation was the arm that got injured  BY A PRAWN . Why that arm first? Wouldn't it logically make sense for the point of contact to be the first place to mutate? His head? \n Obviously the arm injury wasn't just some random occurrence, it was far too convenient given what happens later. My theory (supported by the events of the movie) is that when the Prawn injured his arm, obviously there was some Prawn tissue deposited there. The black goo (nanobots, let's say) recognised this tissue, and also recognised that there was an injury or some kind of problem, so it started to rebuild Wikus  with the template that was programmed into it . \n Given all the rigmorale Christopher had to go through to get  one fucking drop  of that stuff, and the fancy little fluid that looked like it was ferromagnetic (the \"filter\" it drops through), the chances of it being some kind of high tech catalyst/nanotech goes up even further.", "id": "c1swwqz", "summary": "it wasn't fuel, it was nanobots."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Short answer: Sauron underestimated the hobbits and just how resistant they were to the ring's influence. He knew men could fall under its spell, so he assumed shirefolk would even more readily. This is partially because Smeagol was corrupted, even though he was a Stoor hobbit, not quite the same thing.", "id": "c1n8r56", "summary": "I'm a LoTR nerd."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Maxxters knows more about sex and interpersonal relationships than you could ever dream to, and is a much more well-rounded person than you in general. I'm not sure exactly what about that makes her a skank, nor can I figure out what being not sexually repressed has to do with being disgusting, loose or sexually immoral.", "id": "c28l2vd", "summary": "go find another hornet's nest to stick your dick in, tough guy."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Dude, tell me about it. You nick your ballsack or the skin on the underside of your cock like ONCE and all of a sudden it looks like a goddamn murder scene. \n And then the itching afterwards. Oh god, the itching. If I'd tipped a box of fire-ants on my crotch it couldn't have possibly felt as bad.", "id": "c2dyxvx", "summary": "if you're a dude, manscape, don't shave your junk, unless you want to risk feeling like you broke it."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "They are illegal for a reason. \n Logical fallacy. Alcohol can do everything to you that the ecstasy did (that's how it's spelt, by the way, not that... abomination of a word you used) and yet it's still perfectly legal and even encouraged. \n The cause of the stroke was not the pills, they were indirectly responsible at best. The actual cause was your stupidity in taking way, way more than can be considered an intelligent amount. Additionally, E has diminishing returns after a certain dose - you're much more likely to cause yourself an injury by doing what you did than by getting super-high. And once again, this is true for alcohol. \n Before you say \"I was off it\", I've been off my face on E twice and both times I managed to retain important critical-thinking skills relating to the amount I was dancing, drinking and taking. Never took more than one, even when it was offered and even when they tried to persuade me - whilst I was pinging like mad, mind you - I refused. If I can do it, anyone can - but in my experience nobody does because it's \"uncool\" to employ reason whilst high.", "id": "c0uhqls", "summary": "you're an idiot, E being illegal does not make it inherently more dangerous than alcohol, and you clearly haven't learned shit from the experience."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "A lot of people seem to forget that Quaritch (AKA Colonel Coffee, Colonel Quidditch, Old Duke Nukem) was looking for a non-violent solution to the problem. At least until the new kid he was trusting to help, sold him out to the natives, busted a rather expensive camera and started organising a revolt against him. He's painted as a sinister character almost from the start, but until the midpoint of the movie all he's trying to do is get the shit out from under the tree without having to kill everyone in it. \n And to anyone that whines about \"oh but morals bleh bleh blee\" - he had no allegiance  whatsoever  to the blue treecat people, they weren't even fucking human, and the economy of his home planet was relying on him. So yeah, ok, humans suck, we raped mother earth, so on and so forth. Hitting the characters over the head with that repeatedly didn't suddenly make it all better though. At least the humans were trying to move forward and fix their shit. \n Back to allegiances - the Colonel dude was a soldier and he had a job to do and he was trying to do it properly until some cunt kid from earth got a boner for a catgirl.", "id": "c3reu4x", "summary": "fuck anyone who thinks that Jake was the hero of that glorified mechwarrior commercial."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I struggled with their phone \"service\" for a year, missing several important calls and messages (my dad went into hospital and I didn't find out until two days AFTER the fact due to ongoing network congestion), almost missed a job opportunity and couldn't receive calls for a fair chunk of it. I tried to work this out with then only to run foul of their rude, unhelpful, offshore outsourced staff. \n Among other things I was told that the service only needed to work at my billable address. I told them horseshit, it's advertised as a mobile service so it had to work in multiple locations to meet it's advertising - besides the fact that it didn't work at home anyway. I was hung up on. \n I called them to cancel a mobile internet service that had never worked - and that they'd already refused to help me with previously. I was told I needed to provide a valid reason to cancel it or else they wouldn't. I responded that I needed to do no such fucking thing seeing as it was out of contract. I was told to \"stop being rude\" and then hung up on immediately. This was after waiting on hold for nearly two hours for them. \n I went to the telecommunications ombudsman and filed a formal complaint to cancel the entirety of my service (of which the phone was still contracted) with no exit penalties. They gave Vodafone 10 days for their complaints department to call me and sort it out. \n 2 weeks passed with no phone call. I called Vodafone, told them to cancel the entirety of my service free of charge. They refused. I gave them my TIO complaint number, they stuck me on hold for 20 minutes and then I was speaking to someone else who had not been told what was transpiring. I believe it's worth mentioning that she was Australian, very helpful and the first Australian and white person I had spoken to in all this. \n I told her everything that was happening, she asked me what she could do, I told her: cancel my service. She tried the \"network upgrade\" thing, she said she could call me in 2 days after getting an exact date for when things would improve. I was fed up by now. I told her I'd consider it, ended the call, went out and transferred my service to Optus without a second thought. When she called back, I told her I expected to be released from the contract sans penalty and asked her what address I should send the phone back to. She apologized for the bad service, I told her it was too little too late and things would have ended better for her company if they listened to their customers from the start. I haven't looked back since going with Optus, and last I heard Vodafone are facing a class action lawsuit for their failure to live up to contracted terms.", "id": "c3qb2fe", "summary": "seriously, fuck Vodafail."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Ok sure. Do you want to pay to support all the kittens they sire, or pay for the spaying/neutering operations? Do you want to explain why the population of endangered native species and protected birds and whatnot (big issue here in Australia) is dropping? \n Great ideal you got there dude, about how it's \"mean\" to keep a cat indoors where it's going to live longer and be much healthier on average than a cat that's allowed to freely roam. Better let my two healthy, awesome cats run into the street and get collected by a toyota hilux right now, because it's \"mean\" letting them sit on the couch in the sun napping happily.", "id": "c3e03yp", "summary": "Fuck you."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Protip: most people are pieces of shit who will never appreciate anything you do for them, and you'll be lucky if they don't mock you behind your back, let alone openly. \n You're better off just not giving a rat's ass about others, because nobody else does and it's easier to adopt a new philosophy than change the whole world to suit you.", "id": "c5h8ian", "summary": "I'm a cynical cunt. Eat me."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Was in a share house some years ago when I was much younger and had my head up my ass a bit. One girl there, she was 16 and quite attractive so much boner fuel for me. Problem was, she was a right cunt and instigated drama on an almost daily basis, just for kicks. At this point in history I wasn't getting regular sex so I was kinda edgy and not the most pleasant person to be around. So like fuel to the fire, basically. Over the course of 6 months she wore me down until one day, she was being super bitchy. I had recently lost my granddad so I was extra shitty. I can't remember what she said to set me off, but I whirled around to face her and pointed the rather large serrated kitchen knife I was holding at her and told her that one more would would be punctuated by the sound of a knife stabbing her face. \n She went white and quickly retreated. A month later the night before I moved out, we were up all morning having mind blowing sex. Like, from 3 am til the sun was coming up. Turns out she'd wanted my dick since she met me and also wasn't getting regular/decent sex - so she couldn't get the message across.", "id": "c6ciqvk", "summary": "threaten to stab a bitch and wind up making good on the promise - with my dick."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "For starters, tumor tissue usually looks significantly different from healthy brain tissue. Secondly, they comprehensively map the area the tumor is in to establish the borders of it, so they pretty much know where to cut when they go in there. \n As for the 1mm fuckup thing - that's simply not true. If they were operating down near your brainstem then yeah, a small fuckup like that means potentially killing your autonomic functions, leaving you with no breathing reflex and the inability to regulate your own heartrate. \n However, in the larger areas of the brain, a 1mm \"fuckup\" really isn't going to account for much. The human brain is exceedingly neuronally dense with a huge amount of inbuilt redundancy and a surprising amount of plasticity (the ability to recover from trauma). In traumatic brain injuries involving hemispherical damage (as opposed to stem damage), it's not the direct damage that kills people a lot of the time, it's the secondary damage caused by the intracranial haemmorhaging.", "id": "cfgn7x8", "summary": "the brain is a magnificently resilient organ whilst simultaneously being fragile. Don't underestimate its capability to bounce back from damage."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "And literally millions upon millions of people have anal sex safely every single day. \n You're blowing things insanely out of proportion because you're too cowardly to state that you simply don't want a cock in your cornhole. Get some integrity, for fuck's sake. \n Oh, also, if \"bacteria entered their urethras\" from anal sex, I'm assuming either they never cleaned themselves, or they got infected every single time they went to the toilet or something. Additionally, the woman who got peritonitis - unless the person she was fucking was hung like a horse, the only other thing that could have caused an intestinal tear is extremely bad technique - and the pain of that should have alerted her to something being off. \n Oh, and the pain of the infection. Peritonitis is only fatal if untreated - and it gets incredibly painful before that stage.", "id": "c17lyko", "summary": "you're either blowing it out of proportion or exaggerating the facts. Either way get some goddamn integrity and just admit you don't want a penis in your rectum."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "It's not that I don't give a fuck, it's that I find humanity's obsession with preserving the status quo to be laughable and unsustainable. The planet and the biosphere are going to change regardless of how much money we spend trying to get in the way. \n Also, we've been here for an absurdly short amount of time. There are creatures alive today that have been around since before we were even cavemen. The earth has gone through so many cycles of change over the eons, it seems futile to me to try and alter this, and arrogant to assume that such a pathetically young species has the intellectual or technological heft to make a difference. \n Our efforts are about as effective as throwing rocks at a train, tryng to derail it. \n Now none of this is to say I don't LIKE some of the things the current biosphere can do or produce. Coral is awesome, there's a lot of beauty and power in nature. But I'm not deluded enough to believe it's never going to change if not for us.", "id": "c2ok2lv", "summary": "environmentalists are ultimately deluded people."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Well, your girlfriend is an idiot. We quite certainly DO have snakes that size all over the country. Australia has at least four snakes from family  Pythonidae , genus  Antaresia , and they're only found here. They also play host to a few members of genus  Python . And that's on top of our rather fearsome  Elapidae  population. They're the snakes that kill you.", "id": "c3816he", "summary": "biology trufax, bitch."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I'm not sure how it used to operate, but the way it does now is by providing shitty, shitty service and being completely unapologetic about it. The other weekend their entire website went down. Couldn't see session times, couldn't book tickets, nothing. Called them up, and when they finally answered (because they frequently don't) it was basically a \"yeah, not our problem\" answer with the added bonus of being told to \"hurry up\" if I wanted to make the session in question. \n I emailed the manager, and I got back a bunch of shit basically blaming the customer, saying it wasn't their problem, saying it was a third party issue, and blaming norton and AVG for the problem - \"If you had problems it was because you have norton or AVG\" was one choice phrase. Yeah. I have NEITHER of those programs because they are a blight, and their android app didn't work either. Neither did accessing the website through the android browser.", "id": "c5uwmvb", "summary": "dishonesty and dismissive attitudes."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I have non-symptomatic, no-attributable-cause epididymitis (chronic inflammation of the epididymis). When it was discovered, the doctor ran me through a bunch of STD tests which all came back completely negative. \n However, the girl who did the ultrasound that uncovered it was convinced that it was an STD, that the doctor was wrong and that I should keep getting tested until it was found. Why? Because I'm a non-virgin male. Yeah, I was kinda pissed off. \n A lot of doctors love to pigeonhole people and just assume straight off the bat that genital symptoms  have  to be STDs. It allows them to apply their silent judgement of you a little easier.", "id": "c28pjwa", "summary": "some doctors are assholes. If the only girl you've had any genital contact with has come up clean on a test, then you more than likely just have some kind of non-sexually-linked urinary tract infection. They're astoundingly common."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Oh yeah, I forgot, highlighting discrepancies is ok unless you're highlighting those in the claims of a parent. \n Then you're a troll, because reddit loves nothing more than to fellate itself over the joy of parenthood and how much better parents are than people who don't have or want kids. \n Silly me for forgetting my place.", "id": "c30zm9v", "summary": "shut the fuck up, cunt."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "So even though a huge amount of white Australians were born here, they should just \"leave\"? Where are they gonna go? Their home is here and they are every bit as Australian as the person in that picture. \n If you want to make the argument that their parents (or one of their ancestors way back) immigrated so it's \"just as bad\", well the people like the one in the picture need to pack up their shit and leave pronto too - because humans never evolved in Australia and for them to be here, one of their ancestors must have immigrated here from another part of the planet.", "id": "c59ahol", "summary": "either way you cut it, this picture represents a bullshit sentiment that politically correct cage-rattlers like to lord over those who dislike mass immigration."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Yeah, [The Traveller]( took him away to teach him how to be a pan-dimensional being who lived mostly outside \"our\" universe and space-time. \n And then he showed up at Riker's wedding, totally out of the blue, for one scene, and nobody talked about this at all. Elephant in the room, bigtime.", "id": "c13bsnd", "summary": "I'm a massive fucking trek nerd, AMA."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Two of the girls that could count as best friends - one of them I started the friendship by taking her virginity and having a short sexual relationship with; nearly 10 years later and we're still great friends who hang out frequently, with my girlfriend being ok with this. And the other one, started by me hitting on her and her deciding to come over and sleep with me, only to change her mind at the last minute due to having a boyfriend. I thought nothing of this, let her know it was ok, and we've been pretty solid friends since.", "id": "c51pyjd", "summary": "one I fucked, one I almost fucked."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "You can't blame the shitty tool if you willingly bought it because you were too cheap to buy a better one. You nearly cut your goddamn fingers off, and you're using the fact that you \"couldn't afford it\" as justification why it's not your fault. \n You know what you do when you need a safer but more expensive thing but can't afford it right now? Put the money aside until the next time you get paid. \n Maybe then you wouldn't suffer digital amputation because you  removed the device intended to stop that happening .", "id": "c7h5l99", "summary": "too expensive\" is not a valid excuse when your safety is concerned."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I no longer use public transport and neither does my girlfriend. It is now cheaper to drive in to the city and park at the $8 a day parking in the street than it is to PT it in, and that's including fuel costs. \n Translink have quite effectively dis-incentivised actually using public transport, and with the constant fare-raising one can only assume that they're trying to drive people off the trains and busses and back onto the already-clogged roads.", "id": "c5xia9j", "summary": "bunch of stupid fucking arseholes are pricing themselves out of the market."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I'm a migraine sufferer, although they're no longer frequent, thank fuck. So I know a little bit about this subject. \n The original theory, at least for migraines, was it was a vascular problem. Then they found evidence to suggest it might have been a neurotransmitter (specifically, serotonin) problem.  THEN  they found evidence that it may actually be a neurological issue.  THEN  they found evidence that it may combine elements of the previous three theories and a few others into some kind of grand unified theory... of migraine headaches.", "id": "c26jyj9", "summary": "They're not entirely sure."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I think I've got that too! \n Only not as bad as yours. But a few girls I've been in bed with have played with the divet in my chest, one of them even put an icecube in it and watched it melt into a mini-lake. \n Doesn't seem to cause me any difficulties. \n -edit- \n If I remember correctly I also have a very mild case of scoliosis and one of my legs is a little shorter than the other due to it (it caused one of my hips to be a little higher than the other). Also, right tibial torsion. My right foot doesn't point straight when my legs are in the position that would cause others' feet to point straight - it points roughly at 1 - 2 o'clock.", "id": "c19up3s", "summary": "some of my bones be fucked up, y'all."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Animals are people. \n They're just not human people. \n People who believe that cats and dogs can't think and don't have their own internal worlds have clearly never spent any time watching them amuse themselves. And applying tests meant to gauge intelligence in humans to pets and then going \"see they're not sentient/sapient\" is just bullshit, and confirmation bias.", "id": "c174xec", "summary": "animals are thinking, feeling people too. Just because they're not human doesn't make this any less so."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "You should follow this through. Why? Because the payout you'd get from something like this would allow you to live comfortably without having to work for quite a while. Sue - the lawyer might be initially expensive but you should be able to recover costs AND punitive/emotional damages for something like this. Not to mention costs relating to the HIPAA violation. Might as well throw a claim for sexual harassment in there too because it sounds like that's what it is, basically.", "id": "c5rar9e", "summary": "lawyer up, stay the course, get loaded and laugh all the way to the bank."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "circumcised women completely lose that equivalent. \n Any non-necessary surgery to a woman's vulva is regarded as female circumcision, ranging from as small as a surgical \"nick\" to as large as complete excision of the clitoris and amputation of the labia. \n It really is the best example of how protected women really are on that subject, whilst men the world over are more-or-less told that either their scarred and diminished penis is normal and they should get over it, or that their foreskin is abnormal and they should get it removed.", "id": "c20z4hm", "summary": "fucking bullshit, and you know it."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "I've put myself out here. That's the proof you get right now. \n That's not proof. \n >Is that too much to ask? \n Without hard evidence, yes. \n You're a liar, and a troll. If you weren't you would have provided evidence. You've made absolutely no move to do this in the 10 hours you've been a redditor and the 4 hours this thread has existed. You've used all the right words and pushed all the right buttons to send the lesser minds of reddit into a white-knight brigade of defence - something that's happened to them many times but they never learn, despite claiming they'll \"never make the same mistake again\".", "id": "c199sr6", "summary": "Docs or GTFO, trollwhore."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "There was a thread on  /r/sex  the other night about an \"asian m2f transsexual\" who had \"had sex with over 100 men\" and \"didn't tell most of them\" - the thread had a bunch of other details designed to elicit either the worst or best possible responses, along with unconvincingly bad English. \n I responded accordingly - it was trollbait, so I trolled. \n I'm now banned from  /r/sex  because Maxxters got butthurt that not everyone in her little circlejerk club is willing to take everything at face value or completely agree with her on everything. \n The hivemind of reddit is by and large a bunch of gullible, self-fellating, dipshit tryhards who seem to think that flailing at keys and soapboxing on the internet actually affects the real world in the slightest. They're the people all the embarrasing or derogatory memes are about, and in this case all the memes are true.", "id": "c48s5ph", "summary": "if you hadn't noticed, Reddit's community eats shit on an hourly basis and loves it."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "you claimed that if the majority hold an opinion then it's up to the minority to prove them wrong. It's right there for everyone to see. The burden of proof rests on those making the claim. Even if 99% of people believed in the existence of a soul, they would still need to provide compelling scientific evidence for it be anything more than an opinion - and the 1% that don't are under no burden other than to request evidence as it's impossible to prove a negative. \n Furthermore, you claimed that viewing the soul as a physical impossibility is \"weak\" and yet you provided no evidence to support this.", "id": "c4385hc", "summary": "prove the soul exists or fuck off. Consensus in the absence of evidence is not proof."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "The barn was on Gallifrey. \n >War Doctor: There's still a billion billion Daleks up there attacking us. \n >11th Doctor: Yes, there is! There is! \n Why would the Daleks split their forces between Gallifrey and some other location? They wouldn't. Also, they're not blanketing every square centimetre of Gallifrey's surface with gunfire as you lot seem to be assuming. They were firing on cities. Population centres. The capital. \n What the fuck would be the point of firing on a mostly empty desert?", "id": "cklc939", "summary": "the barn is on Gallifrey, Word Of God has all but confirmed that, and the people coming up with \"twisted explanations\" as to its location are not the ones saying it's on Gallifrey."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "This isn't asking for personal medical advice. This is asking for information on how intestinal flora react to changing dietary input. A biologist or a microbiologist (which I know frequent this sub) would be able to provide me a simple and concise response that would answer my question. \n Now, if I were asking \" should  I continue to eat them\" then the question would be one of medical advice and dietary recommendation and thus disallowed by the rules. It's not that question though, so the fact about the rules is moot.", "id": "c6hgdhu", "summary": "you're not a mod, don't try to moderate."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "This isn't new, this has been around for a very long time. You know why? There's plenty of chocolate-type products that are not real chocolate but are in fact things like carob and chocolate imitation. Some people are sensitive to the things that are in chocolate, like for example people on monoamine oxidase inhibitors. Also, carob is allegedly \"healthier\" for children. Growing up I remembered being able to buy \"carob drops\" from the school tuckshop.", "id": "c1d255o", "summary": "this isn't new, get off your fucking soapbox."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "The cyclist suffered no injury and was busy getting in the way of peak-hour traffic. He then got stroppy, like a pissed-off cow, and decided to damage someone's car and then fuck off like a coward. \n The cyclist was in the wrong and had this gone further, he would have been thrown under a fucking bus by the courts. Of course then we'd have to deal with hundreds of outraged cyclists staging \"protests\" all over the road. Oh, how I wish for someone to drive through the crowds of slow-ass abreast-across-the-road bikers like that guy did at that protest a while back. \n The amount of times I've come around a corner only to have to brake like it's going out of fashion because some fuckhole cyclist cut in front of me has cemented my hatred of them. Is it that fucking hard to follow the guidelines of the road and ride single-file in the bike lane or on the bike paths?", "id": "c3tdj0x", "summary": "fuck you cyclists, I'm in a car."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "You know the 3 Peverell brothers that had the deathly hallows? Cadmus, Antioch and Ignotus? How they died for love, power and greeting death as an old friend, respectively? \n Lord Voldemort/Tom Riddle - Died for power. \n Snape - Died for love. \n Harry - Died greeting death as an old friend. \n And yeah I agree - Snape was definitely one of the more heroic and truly altruistic characters in the series; even though he hated Harry because he reminded him too much of James, he still protected him because he had Lily's eyes.", "id": "c49z2y9", "summary": "I'm a Harry Potter nerd."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Your cats are acting out because of something that is causing them stress. \n That's not necessarily true in this case. Cats and dogs pee in areas that smell like animal pee. It's part of a scenting instinct. The problem with carpet is that once any animal has peed on it, the smell is there forever. This is particularly true for cat pee. \n OPs cats are probably doing exactly what my cats were doing. \"Oh, this spot smells like pee, guess I go here!\". One room in the house had never been accessible by them. One day I let them in - they stuck their noses to the ground, started circling and found The Spot that the previous owner had allowed some manner of creature to urinate on - immediately took up the squat and let out a bladder full of piss.", "id": "cbviigb", "summary": "it's only stress-caused \"acting out\" if it's present with other stress-related behaviour. Otherwise it's just standard animal pee-related instincts."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Cool. \n Tell her she's no longer allowed to watch or look at things that involve men with their shirts off. Then tell her that if she really loved you then she'd do what you want. Also tell her that you don't believe she really loves you if she keeps doing it. Gauge her reaction and behave accordingly. Chances are she'll flip out; you should end it with her if she does, because it'd be clear that she wants to hold a double-standard beneficial to herself.", "id": "c1ji9uj", "summary": "fuck the bitch, give her some of her own medicine and laugh at her."}, {"author": "KoNP", "content": "Title says it all. I've been trying to like this app because it was spoken so highly of, and I paid for it, but it's come to the point where I can't ignore its flaws anymore. It is constantly - and I mean constantly - telling me there is \"no content\", coming up with \"vote failed\", crashing, hanging with a blank screen and telling me there's something wrong with my internet connection when I'm busy enjoying completely uninterrupted service on other apps/computers. \n Quite frankly, it's a bug-ridden piece of shit, and I'm tired of playing the \"click and pray\" game. It's obvious that the high praise it's got is shill praise.", "id": "t3_kqpst", "summary": "reddit app that works plz."}]}
+{"author": "Steavee", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Tried to cut my finger off with the blunt end of a butter knife.", "output": "I attempted to carve one of those little gourds that look just like a mini-pumpkin. \n So I was 4-5 and we had brought home a couple of those little mini-pumpkin gourds. I don't know why I wanted to carve it, but carve it I did. Using a butter knife I started with an eye as I guess I didn't know or remember about cutting open the top and scooping out the insides. My barely functioning 4 year-old brain thought it would be cool if you could see all the way through the eyes, mouth etc. \n So I managed to shove that butter knife—blunted tip first—all the way through the gourd and right on into my finger; right at the 'stump' of the finger where it meets the hand. Never felt a thing. Saw the blood though, and then the bone. Mom had to take me to get it stitched back together. She was not pleased."}], "user_id": "longlamp_6683", "history": [{"author": "Steavee", "content": "I did something similar, but not quite as stupid. I jumped from a height of 55 feet (17 meters). No flips, but instead of going in straight I sort of lay-z-boy'd it. Knees not straight, thighs nearly parallel with the water, arms flailing like a jackass. Ass-flopped it. \n No spitting (or shitting) blood, but I couldn't sit down for hours, god damn my ass hurt.", "id": "cdocesz", "summary": "My ass took a pounding.."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "Actually if you're working grocery store retail there probably isn't much coming out of your paycheck for it. \n Assuming $8 a hour, 40 hours a week. Filing taxes single with no dependents, and taking the standard deductions means that for 2013 you'll pay $664 in Federal Income Tax for the year. \n Now using 2012 numbers (because they are complete) the government spent $3.538 trillion. SNAP (food stamps) was just .021% of that spending or $74.6 billion. \n 664 * .00021 means $0.1394 of your federal income taxes went to supporting food stamps. If (as stipulated elsewhere) just 3% is fraudulent that is a whopping $0.0042. Get over it. \n Sorry, I don't make much money but I'm single with no kids, and a renter. I pay taxes out the nose compared to all married, homeowner friends with multiple kids AND my low income friends. Yet they always bitch about paying taxes. I've gotten pretty good at doing this math on the fly to shut them up.", "id": "cbkkmpx", "summary": "You aren't spending as much as you think supporting those takers after all. \n EDIT:  I totally failed maths."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "Actually if you're working grocery store retail there probably isn't much coming out of your paycheck for it. \n Assuming $8 a hour, 40 hours a week. Filing taxes single with no dependents, and taking the standard deductions means that for 2013 you'll pay $664 in Federal Income Tax for the year. \n Now using 2012 numbers (because they are complete) the government spent $3.538 trillion. SNAP (food stamps) was just .021% of that spending or $74.6 billion. \n 664 * .00021 means $0.1394 of your federal income taxes went to supporting food stamps. If (as stipulated [here]( just 4% is fraudulent, that is a whopping $0.0056. Get over it. \n Sorry, I don't make much money but I'm single with no kids, and a renter. I pay taxes out the nose compared to all married, homeowner friends with multiple kids AND my low income friends. Yet they always bitch about paying taxes. I've gotten pretty good at doing this math on the fly to shut them up.", "id": "cbkkopk", "summary": "You aren't spending as much as you think supporting those takers after all. \n EDIT:  Complete maths fail.."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "People usually only get this half right. The answer is  blur , but two different kinds. \n 1: Motion Blur \n A video camera is capturing 24 still photos of movement per second. Depending on various camera settings this will almost never capture perfectly frozen 'still' images. Instead it captures a bit of blurred movement. Pause a DVD during a car chase to easily see the effect. Strung together with the other blurry frames it produces video that looks very smooth and still appears sharp. This is mostly because the brain works with the video to lie to us about its sharpness because it is not dissimilar to how the eye works in the first place. \n A video game is doing to opposite. It is rendering 24 perfectly still frames (or usually more) per second. Zero blur, just absolutely none. Much like a flip book the action (if not flipped fast enough) looks jerky. Combined with a lack of the second kind of blur, it makes for a far less smooth look. \n 2: Resolution Blur \n People tend to forget this one. The actual resolution of Real Life ^(tm) is virtually infinite. The individual pixels (or atoms I guess) can't even be seen by the human eye and a video camera perceives far less than that. This creates a bit of edge blur. Even the finest printed text has a soft edge versus text on a screen. A camera is capturing images of that real life and retains that blur, which is what we are used to seeing. \n Pixels on the other hand have a hard edge. And aside from screens with a high PPI (pixels per inch or what Apple calls a Retina display) they aren't that hard to see. So your video game not only has a render of a still moment (alien to our eyes) but it has hard edges that don't blend (also alien to our eyes). Since neither of those things are what an eye is used to seeing the whole experience just looks \"off\" and jumpy. \n That's why Anti-Aliasing has become more and more popular in video games as it helps to eliminate those hard edges. That combined with higher frame rates (getting close to the number of individual frames our eyes can perceive recreates that motion blur) considerably smoothes out the experience.", "id": "cd0sz72", "summary": "Blur , but more than one kind."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "I would go to every storage unit show  auction, crazily overbid to win and the just burn the contents sight unseen.  Once I put those shows off the air I would go to all the pawn shop show locations and offer higher prices then they would to sellers and put them out of business too.", "id": "c7w5ffp", "summary": "I would get rid of all the storage wars and pawn wars shows."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "Pull up a chair then: \n So I'm in kindergarten and I'm taking a shit. I'm just minding my own business but some other kids are making a lot of noise. My first elementary school was EXTREMELY strict about that sort of thing. They even still practiced corporal punishment (three swats with a wooden paddle). So before long a teacher turns up and drags everyone to the office. \n Apparently someone had written dirty words on the wall and they want to punish everyone as no one is talking. My explanations of peaceful shit taking fall on deaf ears, as I was already a known trouble maker. But before they can have a go at my tender young ass with that paddle they have to call my mom (school policy, she usually let 'em wail on me). So they call her up and the following conversation takes place: \n Secretary:  \"Miss 'Steavees Mom', Steavee was found in the bathroom with some other kids, they had written ^^dirty ^^words on the wall.\" \n Mom:  \"Oh, were they spelled correctly?\" \n Secretary:  \"…huh?\" \n Mom:  \"Were the words spelled correctly?\" \n Secretary:  \"…uhhh…no…\" \n Mom:  \"Oh then it couldn't have been Steavee, he knows how to spell them correctly.\" \n She then promptly hung up. She wasn't wrong either, I did know how to spell them correctly. After proving so, I was returned to class with a pain-free posterior. \n So, while he could be making his story up, the presence of cursing is no smoking gun. At five I could already spell 'em.", "id": "cczd85o", "summary": "School wants to literally beat my ass, being able to spell s-h-i-t saves my five year-old hide. \n (Actually I don't remember what the word was any more..)"}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "Balance man be the wrong word. Perspective maybe? I think reporting on what her reasoning was helps to further understanding of the situation at hand. \n I think some of the folks here wanted nothing but the strongest condemnations in the article but that isn't reporting. Good reporting gives you the facts and lets you decide how you feel about it. Hack reporting tells you how you should feel about something and backs that up with either facts or \"facts.\"", "id": "cc69nhe", "summary": "a good reporter doesn't cast judgment, they give you the best information so that you can do that for yourself."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "Are single mothers who don't know who the father is delusional?  Are widows and widowers delusional? \n Do you know what the world delusional means? The people you mentioned aren't delusional, they're making the best of a bad situation. (Nice attempt at slut shaming by the way with your \"don't know who the father is\" bit) \n Just because I don't know who hit my car doesn't mean that someone isn't responsible for reimbursing me for the damage. I just might not get my money if I can't figure out who it was. \n Widows and widowers are doing the Herculean task of raising children without the help of the other parent. That is admirable. \n Either way there is no one to 'split the bill' with so to speak. Sure a new spouse may help, or family.How is that in any way like a parent simply refusing to pay their share? If you created the child you have a responsibility to fund its growth. Why should  I  pay for your kids through social assistance if you are able to do it. \n >Says the guy who holds the idea that sexist assymetrical parenting  arrangments are bad but simultaneously thinks that systems that financially incentivise parental alienation are good. \n If you'll look back through all of my posts I have entirely avoided gender based... anything (except for an anecdote about a female friend) actually. Now I don't disagree with you that the custody system is badly biased toward mothers. Let's work to change that. But whining about having to pay to support our own children does not win sympathy to our cause. \n Also, if having to pay child support offends you or incentivizes you to abandon your child the CS system is not to blame. Being an immature, selfish asshole is.", "id": "cbu0su3", "summary": "Just because some parents cannot be compelled to pay to raise their offspring does not excuse those that can pay from doing so."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "Read your source better.  The scanned documents were not released to anyone. \n The investigator was given a list of people (that he couldn't read anyway) that had CCW permits. By the  HIGHWAY PATROL.  It had nothing to do with scanning documents. He wasn't given it to include in a federal database, or anything nefarious. He was attempting to use it to cross check SSI fraud.", "id": "c9i5qem", "summary": "You're wrong."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "So a my very first job was in a popular clothing retailer. One of the big 'anchor' stores usually at the 'ends' of malls, instead of one of the smaller stores within the mall. \n Back when I worked there we still had jean cubes. A huge wall of shelving divided into cubes that had different sizes of jeans in cubes. These seem to have fallen out of favor lately, but we had some in every department. In the Men's department these took up almost 80' of wall space 8' high, a HUGE wall full of various national brands as well as our own store brand. A LOT of cubes, and even more jeans. In front of that were about a dozen multi-tier tables with more jeans on them, and a bunch of four-ways with other hanging jeans/pants. \n One lazy weekday this new kid had spent HOURS straightening the department--and most importantly--sizing the jean cubes. Making sure every pair of jeans was in the right place. This was a Herculean task undertaken because as the new guy, the worst jobs fell to him. Instead of dreading it, he almost enjoyed finding order in the chaos. The cubes were perpetually wrecked, so for them to be  this  neat was a rare occurrence, and as the store was virtually empty they were as close to perfect as they were ever going to get. Suddenly, complete chaos. People appeared, from nowhere, from  everywhere . As if the back to school rush occurred on one day, and that day was the last Saturday before Christmas which somehow occurred on Black Friday. They viciously attacked the jeans--ripping them from the wall--pawing at them,  searching . It was unseemly, almost vulgar, the way they handled them. No one was trying anything on, they seemed to be destroying the wall for giggles. In short order their numbers swelled further and they began to molest the tables too, no pair of jeans was safe from their wrath. Tags flew through the air, discarded jeans were piled knee high, the air was thick with the smell of new denim and panic.  Some of the carnage even spilled into other departments.  We couldn't stop them, it happened so fast. There was nothing we could do but watch on in horror. \n It was like watching a cow lowered into a piranha swarm in the movies. (Which apparently isn't how it really works..) \n Eventually a celebration occurred in one corner, the person held a triumphant had aloft, clutching... something precious. Everyone else, dejected, left almost as quickly as they had appeared. New kid was--not just crying but--weeping in one corner. The store manager who had arrived to attempt to keep people from climbing the cubes actually grabbed one of the people by the arm and asked him what in gods name was going on. \n \"That guy found the tickets man, it's over.\" \n \"…What tickets?\" \n \"To see (really popular band), the ones (radio station) said they hid in your jeans!\" \n \"WHAT!?!\" \n … \n Apparently a DJ (unbeknownst to his station) had concocted this scheme and had NOT thought it through. He had someone hide a pair of concert tickets in \"the pocket of a pair of men's jeans\" at our store and then announced it on the radio. I'm not sure what he imagined, but it wasn't this. Our store manager's fury was unable to be contained. He could be heard bellowing into the telephone beyond the offices, through the break room, and on to the sales floor. A lawsuit was averted when the DJ personally bought pizza for the entire store as well as chocolate for the workers who had to re-fold a thousand pair of jeans. He even retained his employment, just. New guy regained his composure, but got a day off so he didn't have to re-fold it all. \n That wasn't exactly a prank, but I think it fits the spirit of the question.", "id": "cb8o0fs", "summary": "A radio DJ with a room temperature IQ finds a creative way of donating his paycheck to overworked retail employees."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "Here is a lesson I've learned more than once: \n If you trust your S.O. so little that you feel the need to go through their phone, your relationship is already a sham and should end.. \n I did it with more than one girl. I didn't trust them and I went through their phone to find proof for my misgivings and doubts. Eventually I did, but that isn't the point. At the point that I could not trust my S.O. to be honest with me and instead felt the need to go behind their back and break their trust by going through their phone the relationship was already over. In the mean time my snooping just reinforced the paranoia I wallowed in. Eventually being right was the least of my problems. \n My last girlfriend offered to tell me her pass code, her way of demonstrating her trust of me and that she had nothing to hide. I refused (and actually asked her to change it once when I figured it out), because I know I might get tempted to snoop again and could spend months snooping, misconstruing innocent remarks and eventually self-destructing again and taking my relationship with it. Besides everyone deserves a little privacy.", "id": "cd7k0cl", "summary": "Don't do it, it's an invasion of her privacy and even innocent little things will slowly eat away at your soul."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "Listen you sanctimonious ass (I love your user name though!!), I'm not complaining about how much I get paid. When the economy tanked, freelance work dried up, and the job market turned into musical chairs. I was just happy to sit down somewhere and not fall on my face. When I'm not too busy working as much OT as I can get (to make my wage livable) you'll find me sending out resumes. It's still tight market in many areas and there is just no turnover at the union shops. \n However… \n You somehow missed the entire point.  My point wasn't \"waaaahhhh I don't get paid enough..\" The point was that people in non-unionized jobs usually get paid less than a directly comparable union employee. I simply felt a nice personal story might help drive that point home. Two people, similar jobs, huge pay difference that can be (at least partially) chalked up to union v. non-union. \n People who whine about getting paid on their merit are often delusional in the first place, studies show most people rate themselves above average; a statistical impossibility. Those that aren't fail to see the point; the rising tide of a union lifts all boats. Sure it sucks that tweedledee and tweedledum are idiots and yet make the same wage that you do, but if you didn't bargain with them (and a thousand other employees) on your side you would all make less money anyway.", "id": "cbi98po", "summary": "Merit isn't what it's cracked up to be when the employer just wants a warm fucking body who doesn't make any noise or disrupt the status quo in any way."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "what? \n Ok quick primer: when one records at 240 frames per second that means that you have 240 still frames of action that encompass one second of real time (at recording). The amount of \"slow down\" is now entirely managed in how fast you play that back. If you play that back at 120fps (showing 120 frames for every passing second) it would be 0.5x. At 60fps you're at .25x or quarter-time. At 30 frames per second you're at .125x or eighth-time. 24-30fps is about as slow as you can play something back before it starts to look choppy. \n Hell you could technically play the footage back at one frame per second and have your one second of recorded time take four minutes of playback time, although obviously it's going to be pretty damned choppy.", "id": "clo7dx8", "summary": "During recording FPS means frames of action captured per second. \nDuring playback FPS means frames displayed per second."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "So I got dragged on stage at  one of those \"erotic hypnotist\" comedy shows. Thanks \"friends!\" I was fairly young (22ish) and without shame. \n drum roll please \n It's all bunk. I wasn't hypnotized, I just played along. Slowly he whittled down the folks on stage from a dozen to two or three as they either didn't play along, or weren't funny. As time want on he kept not kicking me off. I was surprised (at the time) figuring he has to be able to see I'm \"not really hypnotized.\" Now of course, I know the awful truth. \n One of the girls in our group (that I occasionally slept with) figured out early on that I was faking during one of the imaginary sex acts because: \"that isn't how  you  do it.\" She informed our group and they used this knowledge to suggest ever more degrading things for us (me) to do to see if I would crack. Thanks \"friends!\" \n In the end it was fun I suppose, memorable at the very least. It has completely ruined the suspension of disbelief required for those type of shows though.", "id": "cc0xo3n", "summary": "Was hypnotized and slaughtered live goat on stage."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "People usually only get this half right. The answer is  blur , but two different kinds. \n 1: Motion Blur \n A video camera is capturing 24 still photos of movement per second. Depending on various camera settings this will almost never capture perfectly frozen 'still' images. Instead it captures a bit of blurred movement. Pause a DVD during a car chase to easily see the effect. Strung together with the other blurry frames it produces video that looks very smooth and still appears sharp. This is mostly because the brain works with the video to lie to us about its sharpness because it is not dissimilar to how the eye works in the first place. \n A video game is doing to opposite. It is rendering 24 perfectly still frames (or usually more) per second. Zero blur, just absolutely none. Much like a flip book the action (if not flipped fast enough) looks jerky. Combined with a lack of the second kind of blur, it makes for a far less smooth look. \n 2: Resolution Blur \n People tend to forget this one. The actual resolution of Real Life ^(tm) is virtually infinite. The individual pixels (or atoms I guess) can't even be seen by the human eye and a video camera perceives far less than that. This creates a bit of edge blur. Even the finest printed text has a soft edge versus text on a screen. A camera is capturing images of that real life and retains that blur, which is what we are used to seeing. \n Pixels on the other hand have a hard edge. And aside from screens with a high PPI (pixels per inch or what Apple calls a Retina display) they aren't that hard to see. So your video game not only has a render of a still moment (alien to our eyes) but it has hard edges that don't blend (also alien to our eyes). Since neither of those things are what an eye is used to seeing the whole experience just looks \"off\" and jumpy. \n That's why Anti-Aliasing has become more and more popular in video games as it helps to eliminate those hard edges. That combined with higher frame rates (getting close to the number of individual frames our eyes can perceive recreates that motion blur) considerably smoothes out the experience.", "id": "cblkxdc", "summary": "Blur , but more than one kind."}, {"author": "Steavee", "content": "Yes it is. But we don't get to punish each other for our crimes in this society. We have a judicial system that does that for us. \n Look, people who park like that are giant douche waffles. No question. But that doesn't justify causing hundreds of dollars of damage. You don't get to take the law into your own hands like that. \n Besides the worst case scenarios are terrible. What if you only puncture one tire but it's a slow leak and fails catastrophically at highway speed. Is parking like a douche a good reason to get someone hurt or killed? What about other people or pets in the neighborhood who might happen to accidentally wander into your yard? What about people who should access your yard? Utility workers, cops, or the paramedics who show up to treat the utility worker with a nail in his foot. Should they all have to run the gauntlet of your traps?", "id": "cgz3i3a", "summary": "traps are illegal and will get you sued/imprisoned. Illegal acts by one (trespassing) do not justify an illegal response. Signs do not help either."}]}
+{"author": "mdillenbeck", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Are you missing out?  A little - but I bet you could find someone with Agricola to give it a play and see if you'd miss enough to make it worth buying after A:ACBAS.", "output": "I have only seen video reviews of Caverna, so I am not an expert - but I've played the other two.  As BlueSapphyre said, Agricola is a harsh game about feeding your family.  No matter what you do, you need to plan on how to get a food engine up quickly - because as time passes your family will want to eat more and more. \n The biggest difference beyond that?  In Agricola you get a hand of 7 occupation cards and 7 minor improvements in the base game, and the actions come out in semi-random order (random from the set of 4, then random from the sets of 3, then random sets of 2, and then a turn with just one card in it) - so you know what period a card will come but not exactly when.  You mix this with narrowing your strategy to suit the cards in your hand. \n Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small is a great 2 player game without the pressure of feeding and all the actions available at the start of the game.  Its a tight 8 turns to the end, and really I think getting it second is a good idea. \n Should you get Agricola?  Maybe.  However, look for a bargain.  I am so happy that I found a copy for $35 shipped with deluxe tokens.  You need to decide if you want a game where you have random startup which basically give each player a set of unique abilities - I like games like that.  Players are equivalent in their ability at the start but not equal at the start like in deck building games.  I like that asymmetry."}], "user_id": "longlamp_12563", "history": [{"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "From the US and I'll add: \n Racism.  Not at me, but at the cooks and support staff. \n Dine-and-Ditch customers. \n Making $2.33 and hour and hearing about how the customer shouldn't be responsible for our wages then staying how overpriced our food was.  (It wasn't - but people think cook at home grocery store pieces should be applied to an industry with strict food safety standards and staff expenditures.) \n Bosses saying \"you make your raiser by increasing your tips and bringing customers in\" - who then turn around and hour in staff because \"you've doubled the guest count, so we need a second server to handle them\" and thus hiring away the wage increase I made for myself. \n Unreliable co-workers.  No call/no show or habitually late, shirking cleaning duties, and ignoring guests up from (servers say and ran the front register - my wife and I understood that guests for another server could be our guests in the future, thus you always greet, seat, and cash out promptly... Yup which other servers would use us as hosts - wife quit when they did this to her on weekends and she saw get table counts drop to almost half while playing hostess). \n The way so many customers look down on you. \n Increasing complaints as customers become more entitled.  Most of them now jump seats, insist on sitting away from other people (then complain when one 3rd shift server struggles to cover 4 dining rooms - and corporate bans closing sections), play with phones for ten minutes or so then insist their food came out cold (this is why you check back within 1 minute and specifically ask about temperature for every table), and so on. \n For me, it was associated with smoking (because only smokers got breaks) - when I went back I started smoking again.  Others used drugs and alcohol instead after hours (or during) as well as smoking. \n If you get insurance, vacation, our sick leave it is a joke.  Insurance is at best a volume discount plan where nothing is really covered - not like work will let you have time off to see a doctor.  Compensated time off is always minimum wage.  If I work 6 hours and make $18 an hour, a day \"off\" is at $8 an hour.  Imagine if the executives of companies got paid less than half for their time off - there would be outrage.  Also, who could afford to lose $60  Of their $108 daily earnings?  If sick, we will come in and make our money and share our misery with our customers.  Companies don't care if you can fake it, because they usually have trouble finding competent staff and constantly fight to keep labor low. \n Remember $2.33?  Well I also got to be host and busser.  They'd send the higher wage dish washer home early and tell servers to do the work.  Why pay $2.33 and $8 when you can pay two at $2.33 an hour. \n So sick of \"what's taking so long\" complaints when customers can see we are in middle of a major dinner rush.  See those twelve people who were say after you, and the twelve after you?  They are all coming in at the same time and ordering also - that's what's taking so long.  Oh, you thought we'd be dead post-game when everyone else choose to come get dinner?  You want fast service, come in mid-game when we are dead. \n Unannounced buses of 30 expecting McDonalds speeds from sit down dining. \n Crazy shifts.  Sure, you were scheduled for an expected 6 hours but we use a cut system - 2 hours and we are dead?  Go home.  Have an important appointment and you've been here 6 to 8 hours already?  Sorry, we are busy and you have to stay.  Also, work 4 hours, 2 hours off, then 3 hours.  Then, after 8 off, come back for a twelve hour shift. \n Edit: note I am also talking about irregular shifts.  This week you are Sunday night, Monday  lunch, Wednesday early morning and dinner, Thursday lunch, Friday late lunch and overnight -  next week Monday through Thursday late night/early morning and Friday lunch, and Friday and Saturday bar.  Regular schedule?  Nope - we don't do that.  Six our seven days a week for 28 random hours is what we do.", "id": "cmsc3b8", "summary": "undercompensated stress."}, {"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "I've said it before - any game rule changing our adding content not offered for general sale irks me and makes me less likely to purchase from a game company. Yes, even special character cards offered at a convention cause the to bristle. \n Essentially it is a signal to me that the company does not view my dollars as equal in value to kickstarters backer/convention goer dollars.  I'm sorry I can't back hundreds to thousands of dollars of games per month and I'm sorry I can afford to go to a convention - I really wish I was that idlely rich, but I'm not.  Now you won't even offer new the same game as those who have the money at the right time to buy into your idea or who have the pleasure of actually going to a convention and having a gaming holiday?!?  Sorry, if my money is so feel deplorable to your company as to not seem it worthy of a full rule set then I won't dirty you with it at all - I'll give it to someone who sees it as equally valuable. \n Do I never back kickstarters? No. I am just selective.  I backed  Historia  because I felt it was a game worthy to see the light of day.  I wish it had a pnp option, and I wish they didn't go the minor exclusives route.  I chose not to buy any add on games from them and avoid the company's titles because if it, so their con/kickstarter exclusive coat then at least one additional game sale.  Indie Board and Games is in the boat with  Flash Point: Fire Rescue  content I will never be able to buy.  My wife tried the game and loved it,so we got it - but I will not buy another title beyond this due to the exclusives.  Alas, this means keeping an eye on kickstarters for their content now or buying an incomplete version when supporting my FLGS. \n There is one of the big rubs.  My FLGS is very supportive of gaming and got me into the hobby.  Do you know what content exclusives mean? Taking money away from the people expanding the hobby - the people who introduced me and sold me on your product (and many others).  They deserve my money also, and they generate revenue for companies who don't churn out crap games.  Let me get it there when I have the money rather than saying only if I have the money at the right time can I get your full game.", "id": "co261aa", "summary": "Game altering/non-cosmetic exclusives stuck and drive me away from a company."}, {"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "dude... hitting someone with a frisbee isn't socially awkward.  it's a common tactic. \n Fixed it for you.  Learned this a little too late in my life - I was hanging out at an apartment pool with a friend, chilling, beating the heat.  Two hotties were there (who knew there were hotties in that crappy apartment building) getting a tan.  Then these two dudes came out and seemed to ignore them while walking over to the girls' end of the pool.  Still ignoring them, they walked to the side closest to the girls, then proceeded to cannonball into the pool.  After a few times, one of them just happens to notice them and says \"oh, sorry, didn't mean to splash you\" then did another more violent cannonball.  Shortly thereafter came the introduction, the conversation, and eventually the four of them heading back into the apartment together.", "id": "c4kbi2u", "summary": "Fixed your comment - no accident.  Many women seem to like jerks."}, {"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "My take?   Pandemic: The Cure  is for more ameritrash gamers who want dice and lots of random luck -  Pandemic  is for the europarch gamers who like cubes and want a minimum amount of luck. \n I love Pandemic, but doubt I would like Pandemic: The Cure.  However, I want to add Pandemic: The Cure to my collection because I think it would go over better with non-gaming family than Pandemic does. \n I see randomization in games as \"the great evener\" in gaming.  If the dice decide whether you win or lose, anyone can.  For example: in Risk, everyone can win or lose by the roll of the dice; but in Diplomacy, its all up to you to determine your success - both area control war games, both very different in execution.  I get that randomness still has strategy to it - you have to use risk assessment and probabilistic reasoning when deciding on your tactics - its just that the improbably  can  happen and thus anyone can win.  Not my cup of tea, but it does mean that even the \"veteran gamer\" can lose to a beginner (which is highly unlikely in a game like Agricola, where experience will almost always give you the winning edge against the beginner).", "id": "cpa5mkb", "summary": "I suspect my evaluation of  Pandemic: The Cure  would be the same as yours, but I want it in my collection to play with non-gamers."}, {"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "Pillars of the Earth: Builders Duel  for 2 player only.  However, you don't like the theme - medieval competition for resources as one person builds a cathedral and the other a castle. \n Pillars of the Earth  for 2-4, best with 4 player.  Again, medieval cathedral building.  Its based off a book. \n Amerigo  - 2 to 4 players.  Wait, you don't like Puerto Rico, so you'll hate this one. \n Seasons  might be good for you.  2 to 4 players.  Basic game flow: deal 9 cards, select 1, pass the remaining hand, repeat until you've selected 9 cards.  Arrange the 9 cards into 3 stacks of 3.  Get 1 stack per year (pre-set by you), play for 3 years.  There are 4 season colors and 4 colored sets of 5 dice (each with slightly different faces).  Roll a number of dice equal to the number of players plus one of the current season color.  Go around and select 1 die, the remaining die will be how fast time advances (1, 2, or 3 months).  Most victory points at the end of 3 years wins. \n Yeah, most of the things I would recommend really don't fit.  Mostly, they are not euros - or if they are euro-like, they are long (my current favorite is Bios Megafauna - if you follow my posts you'll see I'm actively campaigning for this one a lot because it fits my definition of a \"grail game\" - and if I can ever find and afford Suburbia, I'm sure I'll love that one too).", "id": "cew7owf", "summary": "Seasons  is the only game I've played that gets anywhere close to what you are looking for.  Dripping theme and Euro don't really mix, expecially when you take out medieval commerce, long game play, and work well with 2 to 6 players."}, {"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "Nobody who can't spare 30-60 minutes a day?  Gee, I should tell my wife she's just being lazy.  Let see, there was her lazy Sumner of 15 college credits - 3 with a 1 hour commute and the rest with a 3 hour commute.  Oh, and the 40+ job she did at the same time.  Then there was the lax time she was working 90+ hours with a 1 hour commute per day.  Now she's just slacking off doing an intensive paramedic program at 40-45 hours of class time, 10 hours of volunteering, and working a mere 50 hours a week as a restaurant manager.  Commute time is an average of 1.5 hours a day. \n No, you're right... How lazy of her to not work out.  After all, does she really need to sleep that 4 hours (our 2) when she could be exercising.... because  no one  exists that could be too busy.  It's got to be laziness.", "id": "c8f84xy", "summary": "blanket statement generalizations are usually wrong."}, {"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "Too many.  I thought I slowed down, but I don't think I have. \n For example: Coolstuff Inc had A Few Acres of Snow for under $20 recently - and I balked on getting it.  Someone in the comment was saying \"Get it! Get it!\"  Then my wife said \"Oh, your birthday is coming up... you can go to the FLGS and buy me some Flash Point: Fire Rescue expansions!\"  So what did I do?  Hmm... all the expansions plus A Few Acres of Snow is almost $100 - I'll just add a second sale game and save 30% instead of 20%!  (My wife is going to kill me - not just for this, but Steam summer sale plus GOG summer sale plus Twilight Struggle Collectors Edition and Digital Edition, and yeah... way too much spent in the last month.) \n Hmmmm... do board game expansions even count as board game purchases? \n However, I've backed several $10 or less kickstarters over the last couple of months.  Progress (which is awesome, but I'm set up for PnP games), Yardmaster, Province, and a couple others.  I tried to talk the makers of Copper Country and Historia into making a PnP version, but no dice. \n Then there are the free games and the demo games.  I have tons. \n Here is the thing - I realized I have a choice.  I can buy 1 out of print or between print games I want for $100+, or I can buy 2-3 games early for the same $100+ and hope one is something I'll really enjoy.  I now choose the latter. \n Still, get into PnP games and playtesting if you like learning and trying out new games.  Its a bit of an investment, but once you get the equipment it gets cheaper.  Also, making game components are a hobby in and of itself. \n My setup is an MFC-J5910DW printer (letter scanner, 11\"x17\" printing, borderless, duplex, handles 110lb cardstock, and I can get continuous ink supply systems or really cheap 3rd party ink cartridges), a Rotatrim Mastercut 2 for cutting chipboard/millboard, arch punches for making round tokens, a heavy duty corner rounder (for tokens or cards), and tons of materials.  I've spent about $400 on gear and materials, but for $10 and usage of left over B5 CCG cards plus penny sleeves I created an over 300 card copy of Progress: Evolution of Technology.  Other things I have done?  I've made custom 2\" tiles for Bios Megafauna (vs the 1\" ones included).  I love those.  I've made a free PnP of Agora (now walled Camden or something like that - thank you cheapass games).  Then there is the free game Medieval Manor, and a wargame called Battle of Legnano.  Crafting is so much fun. \n I don't have a poster printer (those are $1000+ typically), but I do have access to poster printing at my university for a low cost and the Mastercut I got was a $250 36\" cutter - which normally is $400+ itself!", "id": "cirv7a8", "summary": "I buy way too many games, but I have cut down some of my spending by getting involved in custom crafting PnP games.  Despite that, I overspent this month and my wife is going to kill me."}, {"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "I'd probably go with D&D, the grand-daddy of the rpg world.  5E is an attempt to get back to its roots, offering a free version with books as expansion to that core system to regain market share. \n However, theme will trumph all.  If the players really want to be in a Star Wars universe and are all huge fans of the world, then they might not get engaged by a classic fantasy setting.  If they like Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire, etc then their respective roleplaying games may go over better.  Are they WWII buffs?  Behind Enemy Lines on rpgnow/drivethrurpg is a $12 pdf and well worth it.  Post apocalyptic world where you are a team cryogenically stored in the 80s but failed to awaken until 150 years after a nuclear war?  The Morrow Project.  Zombie/Horror survival with a Jenga tower?  Dread.  Want to bust some ghosts?  Hunt down an old copy of The Ghostbusters or get something like InSpectres. \n If they are totally new to rpgs, then maybe a smaller indy game would be better.  The theme is often highly specific, the books much shorter (and thus easier to learn), and they are better for one-session or short run games.  For example, Don't Rest Your Head might be an interesting start. \n I know, more than what you were asking.  However, D&D 5E basic is a 100+ page book for players/gms (mostly spells, so not as bad as it sounds), DM guide is 100+ pages also (a lot of monsters, so not as bad as it sounds either), and there is a starter set that is inexpensive with pregenerated characters that might even make a better starting point.    Conversely, you have GURPS Lite which is only 32 pages and free.  You can get old school clones like OSRIC or Labyrinth Lord and play the original styled D&D game (light and easy to learn, but many don't like the classic system of tables and dice rolls).", "id": "cjtcq2k", "summary": "Casual gamers who haven't roleplayed at all yet?  Start out buying the inexpensive [Starter Set]( and download the free basic set stuff.  Starter set has pregenerated characters and is 32 pages for the players, 64 pages for the GM, and has one set of dice."}, {"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "Have you ever watched Callasmar on YouTube - aka \"The Lonesome Gamer\"?  Or Marcowargamer?  Or... well, there are lots of solo players.  You can also comb Boardgamegeek for solo variants of games. \n Right now I am having a blast running multiple sides with  Bios Megafauna .  Most of my game nights with others is just me and the wife - and by game night I mean 1-4 hours maybe once a week, usually every other week.  I wish we had lots more time to play, but we don't.  Work, school, class, EMT volunteering, etc. eats up most of the time. \n Another option is to look into something like Vassal and play the games digitally online.  Lots of more serious games on there. \n Also, nothing wrong with collecting as long as you recognize it as that.  I've been expanding my collection by trying to vary the types of games.  Right now I am adding good solo games since my wife doesn't have as much time as me.  Next is a dexterity game, like Rampage or A La Carte.  We have light and fast, 4x, epic world travelling luck based, chess-like, worker placement, quasi-wargame, card set building, co-op (lots of co-op, which also make good solo), tower defense, and so on games in our collection.  I've now begun moving on to pricy OOP games like  Lords of the Renaissance  that I am buying for pure collecting purposes.", "id": "cexrwm2", "summary": "Start up a board game teaching group at your library, use Vassal to game online, learn to solo game, or take some other action to proactively find a solution to your problem!"}, {"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "Didn't read all the comments, but I remember this from my econ class a couple years back (which meant the article was already stale when I read it - it is from October 1999). \n One thing people did miss is why would a company want to increase the price of soda in a refrigerated dispensing machine when the temperature goes up?  Is there anything that you can think of that would vary the input costs of the product you are buying - anything that might increase the cost of you nice cold soda on that blistering hot day? \n Yup, you are right - electricity.  When it hits 90 or 100 degrees Fahrenheit outside, the compressor runs longer than on a nice 60 degree day.  Anyone who has had AC during a hot summer knows how much more cooling can cost than heating. \n Thus, the logic behind temperature based cooling is the same logic that goes into convenience store soda pricing - if they are going to spend the money on the electricity to keep it cool, then they need to recoup the money on the sale of that product. \n There is, of course, a flaw in the approach.  Currently I assume they base the price of soda in their vending machines on the mean electrical costs per year.  With these machines they were going to increase the price - but to keep it fair they should have lowered the base price so that you realize a savings when the temperatures were cooler.  Instead, like so many other companies, they saw a way to increase profits by increasing price on the consumer.... much in the same way many 2 quart ice cream containers are now 1.5 quart ice cream containers and 5 quarts is now 4.5 quarts.... or in the same way that a certain cough syrup manufacturer made their medicine half as effective but kept the exact same packaging. (Only those who read the directions again would have noticed they were actually buying half the medicine for the same price - and when was the last time you checked usage details on a package you use regularly?)", "id": "c4sfd4v", "summary": "Energy cost, people - that's why it varies based on temperatures.  Problem is they didn't lower the base cost, they tried to use it to justify a price hike rather than pass the savings onto consumers."}, {"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "Downloaded the demo, almost backed the pnp version for the art (actually I wish I had, but I forgot and then the kickstarter ended).  Saw the final version at my FLGS. \n I mainly play 2 player with my wife.  For us, this was not a good game - I went ambush predator and decimated her animals at the end (I was able to discard and take out her warning call animal in the center, and then she was doomed). \n Personally, I prefer Bios Megafauna to Evolution.  One disappointment in the final edition versus the demo was how colorful and busy the cards were - great artwork, but for my eye there is little to distinguish cards at a glance.  It also fell into the \"too long for what it is\" category - but it probably is acceptable play time with experience. \n Essentially you make a creature, discard cards to grow in size and population, play cards on your creature to give it advantages, and then try to ensure you have enough food to eat.  There is low to moderate player interaction - in the demo you put cards into the food pool, and some are negative food.  If there is not enough food or someone eats it all, then creatures die off.  I put it at light to medium complexity. \n Would I recommend this game?  I think many would enjoy it.  Myself, I prefer games like Bios: Megafauna (but as a simulation, where the real enemy is climate change that shift biomes around and wipe out sets of species).  That is a game I would have to know about a person's play style before recommending, as it is in that category of Arkham Horror and requiring the \"right type of player.\"", "id": "cmnd5jn", "summary": "beautiful artwork without a clear way of distinguishing cards at  glance (from what I saw), simple and easy to understand game mechanics, strong \"take that\" mechanics unless players agree to \"play nice,\" and perhaps slightly long game play for what it is.  Overall, many will like it but I did not, as my wife likes cooperative and play-nice games (we are more like Rahdo and his wife in play style)."}, {"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "1 - Your grades are forever at school.  You can only escape bad grades by going to a different school.  (I took a 10 year break and my failure to properly withdraw from classes meant I had a ton of incompletes that became Fs, which really hurt my GPA for graduating.) \n 2 - College is about learning what not to do.  (I got this one from my wife.  As she says, it is impossible to do everything if carrying a full course load - but no one expect you to read every assigned page critically, complete every project critically, and perform at 110% all the time.  Just as in the real work world, doing everything can sometimes be an impossible task - college is there to teach you to prioritize tasks when they all are \"critical\".) \n 3 -  You are far better off taking an extra year, a lighter course load, and working internships (paid or unpaid) or student jobs related to your field.  A degree in what you want to do is not enough - you will need to have experience in the real world to be competitive in the job market.  FYI, avoid student loans and work study if you can, opt for grants and student jobs that don't require work study. \n 4 - Get to know your professors.  Sit in the T (front row, forward inner aisle seats) and be inquisitive, even if the questions seem \"dumb\".  At some point, you will probably need to use your professor for a letter of recommendation, ask them to be an adviser for a senior project or independent study, or even to land a student job/internship (they might even recommend them to you first).  This is the life lesson of networking within your field to get jobs - because very few jobs are gotten with cold hires. \n 5 - when choosing your major, ask yourself if you really should be going to college and paying out huge sums of cash for it.  For some avenues of education, you might be better off just going out there and doing it on your own (outsider art, some classical studies, etc).  Many majors out there the jobs are so limited that competition is fierce, and some (like psychology) are kind of useless on their own (field work often requires graduate school).  Oh, and if you already know you are going to go to graduate school, taking an unusual major isn't such a bad idea.  Lit and Classical Studies majors who complete the science work do get into medical school, and sometimes are selected for being a more well-rounded candidate over the typical biology majors.", "id": "c4q5mm6", "summary": "Network... learn to recognize what you can skip doing to keep your permanent record clean... avoid taking out loans you have to pay back... make sure your major is worth the time and money you invest into it, sometimes college isn't really needed to learn what you want to learn."}, {"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "I am sorry your games got damaged.  It sounds like only the boxes - and you should view this as an opportunity to maybe custom craft some nice wooden boxes for your games!  It sounds like the pieces survived, and while a pristine box is nice for collectors it isn't essential if you are going to play the game so much the cards split. \n For others who want to avoid this kind of disaster: \n Shelf Advice \n Based on the description, one of two things happened: \n *1) The entire shelf was loaded top-heavy on a potentially uneven surface, and the whole thing tipped forward and crashed to the ground. \n OR \n 2) The actual shelves of the unit collapsed while the shelf remained standing.* \n Solutions to problem 1:  Earthquake furniture straps or a nice solid metal L bracket installed upside down.  For the L bracket, attach one tang to the wall so that it will be behind the shelf when installed, and the other tang sticks out from the wall and sits flush against the top of the shelf unit.  Screw it in so the shelves can't be pulled out.  Alternatively, don't screw it down but just slide it in (possibly using a piece of wood attached to the underside and a snug fit to keep it from tipping forward). \n If you have kids and tall shelves, please really consider securing all your shelves, tall narrow pieces of furniture, TVs, and so forth this way so kids don't accidentally pull something down on themselves - especially a shelf full of games! \n Solution for problem 2:  First piece of advice is to avoid any shelf unit that uses tiny little tangs put into pressboard drilled holes.  Look for a unit where the shelves are solidly attached rather than \"adjustable\" and meant to hold a light weight of books or trinkets.  If you have adjustable shelves with pressboard, then there are two important things to keep in mind.  First, avoid adjusting the shelves or moving the unit after assembly.  (The pressboard will suffer minor crumbling, making the holes looser and making the the unit structurally weaker - you may just want to use some carpenter's glue when assembling the unit to give it extra rigidity and hold, but I doubt it will add much to it especially if you move it a lot.)  Second, you may want to look into buying after-market brackets or actually installing small metal L brackets.  Some of these units come with extremely small plastic tangs that will become brittle with age.", "id": "civdfvl", "summary": "Metal L brackets installed upside down are your friends!  Large ones can be used to secure the shelf to the wall, small ones can be used with cheap pressboard self-assembly units to replace fragile plastic clips that are prone to breakage or slipping out of holes."}, {"author": "mdillenbeck", "content": "Ooooh, something I know something about.  I own Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror, and Mansions of Madness - and I mainly play only with my wife.  I'll try to be brief. \n Mansions of Madness \n Its strength and weakness is its narrative design.  It is almost a tabletop rpg in boardgame format, but it is still 1 evil player versus 1-4 investigator players with some scenarios including cards that can make an investigator player a traitor on the keeper's side.  It has limited replay value - 5 stories with a handful of choices, some more meaningful than others. \n Mansions of Madness is where they introduced the flip cards for spells to make casting uncertain.  They also have unique attributes on each of the monster tiles (so that the keeper may have some surprises and uncertainty in play).  Skill tests are simple - a d10 vs a number.  Combat uses a novel system of draw cards to determine the outcome - some cards a success has bad results for the attacker, while others may have good results for the attacker failing.  Results are divided into types, and you draw until you get a matching type combat card. \n The plastic is impressive but also sometimes makes it difficult to manage.  Try placing two Shoggoth in one tile space!  Movement and line of site is abstracted into areas with line of sight dots, so that flows smoothing.  The game is simple and fast in play. \n For this game, Boardgamegeek is your friend.  There is a solo/coop variant for the base game available, which may be essential if no player want to be the keeper.  Another essential file I find is the room tokens - rather than set up the piles of cards on the map and discover it can't be solved mid-game, the Keeper has sets of numbered tiles with question marks on the back.  It lets the keeper check card stacks during the game and makes the board less cluttered. \n My wife enjoyed everything but the scenario with the traitor.  We have both expansions but have not yet played with them.  Like AH, it is long setup and play time - but the rules are simpler and you spend less cognitive power remembering rules and thus have more time to plan.  Replay value is low - maybe a few times through each scenario before its novelty is gone.  Players may learn certain clues and know what direction the story will go. \n If you like being a GM in an rpg, then this may be a good game to get.  If you buy new games frequent enough to not worry about replay value, and you value a linear story narrative that will give you 5-20 plays, then this game will work.  Overall it provides the strongest story, I believe about 30 with both box expansions and BGG plus 5 official print-on-demand boxed stories.  We enjoy it, but it suffers AH fate - setup and play time means it doesn't hit the table as often. \n Eldritch Horror \n This has already hit the table more times than in the over the years that I've owned Arkham Horror (in fact, I've played it once solo since getting the King in Yellow and never since getting Dunwich Horror - a shame, but it hits the table only a couple of times a year at most now). \n Eldritch Horror has taken the flip spell cards from MoM and done a lot with it.  Its moved out of the terror of a small city and put it on a more epic scale - that of the world.  Some tensions - like dodging around monsters and shifting focus to decide what linked stat in a set to favor - are gone.  However, new tensions are added - such as a small \"custom built\" mythos deck that serves as an absolute timer to the game.   Uncertainty is no longer placed on the card draw (if a location says \"improve observation\" then you will draw an improve observation opportunity for almost every card draw there, versus AH which felt like a 33% chance of getting the goods listed on a location), but uncertainty exists in the spells, conditions, and injuries you take. \n The narrative often seems to \"fall together\" - but sometimes it is random and disjointed like AH (ie, up to the players to flesh out the story connections in their minds).  Clues are precious, gathered to solve 3 mysteries before an Ancient One awakens.  If you fail and it awakens, you still have to solve the 3 mysteries  plus  a \"final mystery\" on the ancient one card. \n One thing I like about the game is the limits on bonuses.  You can have as many bonus cards as you want, but only one skill modifier applies.  Thus you can have a Carbine Rifle that gives +5 combat once per round, a +2 weapon, and a spell that can give +3 when successfully cast.  If you face a stack of 3 monsters, you fight one round with each.  The first you might use the carbine rifle, so your bonus is +5 (the best of the 3).  The next you might cast your spell and succeed to get +3 (the best of the two since the rifle was used).  The final round you might fail in your spell, but still get +2 because of your backup weapon. \n Why do I like this?  It basically says \"stop gathering items and get to the adventure\" - unlike AH which sometimes feels like the goal is to hoard items and become unstoppable. \n Another thing of beauty is the rulebook format.  One overview of the rules, one reference manual.  Read the rules like a lawyer - learn the game terms and make sure to apply them.  It is the best way to get it.  When in doubt, scour BGG where the same questions get asked once a week.  (I was active early on and tried to establish a precedent of citing the rule in the manual.)  Get the updated errata/FAQ as it clarifies some ambiguities in the game - but those are few and far between if you read the rules carefully. \n Setup is fast, especially if you know how to \"short cut\" it.  For example, there are 3 color locations (Americas, Europe, Asia/Austrailia) and 1 generic location (yes, you can choose to have a \"London\" encounter or just a plain old \"city\" encounter if you want).  You can shuffle these all into one deck and search for the top card.  A deck runs out?  Shuffle the discard and add to the bottom.  It greatly reduces setup time.  Another trick?  Don't assemble the three acts of the mythos deck.  Instead, roll a die to see which of the 3 color stacks you draw from and then mark it (if you have pandemic or some generic learning cubes, or a piece of paper, you can record which card types have been drawn for Acts I, II, and III). \n Overall, the game feels quick.  Take two unique actions for each player, have each choose one encounter type to have (monster, location, clue, expedition, injured/insane investigator, etc), then resolve a mythos phase. \n My wife liked  A Touch of Evil  a little more than AH, and loved  Fortune and Glory .  EH falls in the FanG category - and so this one comes out lots. \n My criticism of the game?  Too few cards to make nice shuffle stacks.  Sorry, but I cannot pull 2 blue and 4 green mythos cards for Act I and shuffle them - which is why I chose to make the die roll method.  8 to 12 location cards is a bit light, so I chose to put them into one small deck (like you do with the condition or spell cards).  4 evil forces to fight, solve 3 mysteries but only 4 mystery cards given?  A shame - I feel like it needs more, and I expect there will be an expansion to do so shortly.  It is, after all, a Fantasy Flight game.", "id": "cf7r9ln", "summary": "Oh drat.  I was going to be brief.  Oh well.  In my situation, my wife likes both but we pull out Eldritch Horror more often.  Mansions of Madness has setup issues like Arkham Horror, lower replay value, and can get borked by setting up a single card wrong.  Eldritch Horror moves towards a slightly more epic/pulp adventure feel.  Both play smoothly, both are still long games, but both let you put your brain power into coming up with strategies rather than remembering to move all the little fiddly-bits of the game (\"oh, shoot, I forgot to shift focus... too late now\").  Really, unless you like to be a GM, I'd say EH is the better game while MoM gets the narrative horror done a bit better... at a price."}]}
+{"author": "Cowicide", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Right, any extremist is capable of perpetual cognitive dissonance and even moderates are capable of CD on certain issues, but hardcore neo-libertarians take the cake and are therefore often fruitless to debate with if one hopes to come to some sort of growth and mutual understanding based upon new information and a proper accounting of externalities.  There's anomalies to this depending on the exact issue, of course, but it's pretty much par for the course overall if there's any disagreement with their already pre-determined mindset.", "output": "some people on the far left are just guilty \n Heh, some or most people of any \"far\" group pretty much in my experience and even middle-of-the-road people. \n For example, now that Bill Gates has used charity as an incredibly effective public relations tool that only a multi-billionaire can afford, he's basically untouchable for any real criticism of his overall legacy.  I've offered [quite a lot of evidence]( that shows he's been an overall net drain on society despite his overall charity. \n However, this Gates information tends to give most people instant cognitive dissonance.  I get knee-jerk reactions without supporting evidence, ad hominem insults, etc. instead of rational debate. \n The indoctrinated go into severe (and often angry) denial mode where they can't be reasoned with.  I've even had people sit there and demand more evidence,  I give it to them, they  ignore  it and ask for the same evidence again and again . \n I had a far-left guy some years ago accuse me of being a conservative at a small party because I didn't fit into his ideal, unrealistic, extremist mold that's easy to espouse but impossible to live. \n My friends who knew of my activism went into hysterics and they pretty much laughed him out of the room.  Especially since my friends knew he didn't participate in actual activism (just an armchair warrior) and I'd put my life in danger for left-leaning causes in the past, have had prison time hanging over my head for it, etc. -- The left-wing extremist putz left the party dazed, angry and confused with pure, unadulterated cognitive dissonance spinning in his brain. \n At the same time, I've hung out with many more far-left people that are much more open to new ideas and strategies and can readily cope with new information without spiraling into CD. \n However, unlike most other groups that have some nuance, I've personally found that all neo-libertarians are afflicted with some level of CD and badly.  At least every single one I've met in person or talked to (or observed via lurking) online.  If I meet a neo-libertarian that doesn't exhibit this in the future after closer inspection, I'll adjust my views at that time. :D \n I know people that aren't hardwired to be modern libertarians and it's just a temporary glitch where they eventually mature and move past it.  Some of the reformed denounce it entirely and others simply start calling themselves bleeding heart libertarians where they move past it but still hold onto some of their self-admittedly unrealistic ideals in spirit.  The ones that can't move past it and are hardcore tend to have some sort of level of autism spectrum disorder or very similar symptoms.  Of course, when I say that to someone who is a hardcore libertarian, they tend to freak the fuck out, dive deep into CD at that point and exhibit the very symptoms they're denying they have (as expected). \n That said, you can do much worse than hardcore libertarian in real world practice, but I think a lot of people find them the most frustrating because unlike straight-up bigoted conservative hicks and the like, they tend to be very intelligent in many ways.  Therefore, unlike stupid hicks who are easy to blow off, a lot of people will get into debate with neo-libertarians because at first glance they appear reasonable and, as such, are able to be reasoned with.  But, as time and frustration sets in, one will find that they are incredibly unreasonable and borderline (or full-on) sociopaths once you get to the root of the debate."}], "user_id": "longlamp_1496", "history": [{"author": "Cowicide", "content": "I thought differing opinions were banned on reddit? Get it together mods! \n No, but in the  real  world beyond obtuse exaggerations, there's things like  nuance .  You see, it's possible for me to think there exists astroturfing (based upon  facts  without also thinking things like differing opinions are bad and should be banned, etc. \n Now, once black and white thinking fails you, it's time to  suck it up  and cope with nuanced reality: \n I'm sorry if your parents perhaps raised you in a way that makes you think you're always a winner in debates and everyone is \"right\" despite being unprepared, cheating and/or making mistakes.  But, the real world doesn’t work that way (even when sockpuppets are used on Reddit to artificially inflate one's weak ego). \n I pity milquetoast, self-entitled kids that are a product of this environment.  Someone should smack their mothers in the mouth for raising them this way.  There's nuance in this world and it's better to cope with it instead of running like weak infants into the bosom of obtuse exaggerations and mediocre, half-baked distractions.", "id": "cbhe6kk", "summary": "Welcome to nuance.  If it hurts your brain, try harder."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "It's not fruitless, it lets \"the others\" know we're not alone in this kind of frustration.  It's a solidarity thing. :)  It also educates those that aren't too stubborn to receive new info. \n Also, if enough of this drivel keeps getting repeated and is unaddressed, people start to believe it. \n For example, I talked to a guy in person about this same issue at a Denver club a few weeks ago.  He blamed marijuana legalization for the housing prices.  The small group we were in mostly nodded solemnly in agreement. \n When I told him it started well before legalization, I saw his eyes go dull like a dumb animal because it went against his current mindset.  He simply ignored that new information and started going off about the \"green mile\", etc. - Classic [cognitive dissonance]( \n By the time we were done, he looked stubborn and resistant to new ideas.  However, the small group we were with sided with me because I was willing to admit that legalization certainly exacerbates the situation, but it's not the root cause, nor anywhere near being the majority of the problem. \n I perhaps didn't change his mind, but the others there got it and agreed with me.  He was locked in and resistant, but his own stubbornness was very apparent to the group and he lost his audience because of it.  I like the guy, but he was wrong on this issue and spreading harmful FUD on legalization. \n I mean, I get it.  Once one gets frustrated with a bad situation that also negatively affects other people they care about, it can be very cathartic to find a simple \"enemy\" like legalization and errantly focus all one's angst upon it. \n Once it becomes ritualized angst, it can be disconcerting when someone else brings new, conflicting ideas to the table.  It may feel like the person with the new ideas is attempting to discredit their righteous angst.  Perfect recipe for cognitive dissonance. \n But, hey, I tried.  I even told him I was upset about the situation and understood his angst.  But, he was already lost once I disagreed with part of his premise in the first place.", "id": "cm6ee04", "summary": "Anyway, the moral of the story is:  Fuck him, at least by offering another point of view there's less people overall that think legalization is mostly to blame for our housing issues in Denver.  We've got enough issues without more people blaming the wrong things for things and distracting us all from solutions to greater,   real  problems we need to tackle."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "Welcome to /r/news I'm afraid. \n Yep, and most of the comment sections of the entire Internet. :) \n > Reddit was never unbiased, but it's becoming increasingly worthless to get news anymore. ... Civil discourse is disappearing \n Right, and there's been a very concerted effort to reinforce the disappearance of civil discourse all over the Internet for quite a while now. \n Here's just a few articles on the topic: \n Solidarity (a dirty word, I know) and educating one another is the most dangerous thing possible for the status quo in power.  What better way to destroy it than by poisoning debate with trite bickering and pedantic, obtuse distractions from issues that really matter and destroying healthy debate that can actually empower the public and improve our lives? \n Lack of proper education, corporate media misinformation, poor sleep, over-stress from long work hours, lack of development of critical thinking skills, etc. are also at play.  If one makes a post longer than a few paragraphs, a lot of people simply mentally check out.  They can't handle it and will simply spew an overused talking point after the ceremonious", "id": "clc4eip", "summary": "insult and get that upvoted with a vote brigade and/or sockpuppets. \n Corporate news and education for the general public has been increasingly dumbed down for decades and the chickens have come home to roost.  Critical thinking, finding areas of agreement and working from there is being systematically discouraged and destroyed.  Instead, there's a huge focus on attacking anything that resembles dreaded socialism, solidarity and organized labor. \n Those of us that are still able to work past this concerted indoctrination have to rally together and try to continue to push forward.  The battle with the ignorant and indoctrinated is just a part of the human condition we have to deal with. \n They're not wearing me down.  I will continue to fight for human rights until the day I die and I'll do so even for the ingrates that attack me."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "I don't get why anyone uses bitcoin. \n Anonymity, for one.  Same reason some people use cash even though it can often be a less useful and more restrictive form of currency in a lot of situations. \n Once you combine anonymity with the speed of electronic transfers, I think the advantages over other currencies (in certain situations) should be pretty apparent.  I certainly don't tie up all my money in cryptocurrencies because I think they're too unstable (in certain regards), but they certainly serve various purposes. \n For example, I financially support some civil rights organizations.  Some of which I know through friends who work in high levels of government are actively monitored by the NSA, FBI, etc. -- In other words, by supporting these peaceful, civil rights organizations,  The Land of the Free, Inc.  also blacklist me and endanger some of the other projects I'm working on once people within the military-industrial complex and other corporatist entities have my number, so to speak.  A blemish on my corporatist resumé, if you will.", "id": "ck3mm5g", "summary": "I use cryptocurrency to support civil rights organizations without getting blacklisted by corporate spies and government spies.  And, if you think that's paranoid, then you probably haven't read anything that's been released by the Snowden leaks in the last year or so.  I despise libertarians and they have nothing to do with cryptocurrency AFAIC. \n Do some libertarians celebrate cryptocurrency as some kind of vindication of their \"free market\" bullshit? Sure.  But, if you haven't noticed, libertarians will celebrate a dog shitting in a backyard as vindication of their \"free market\" bullshit.  They'll distort anything and everything towards their own ends because they're indoctrinated fools. \n You can't blame cryptocurrency and doggies for that. ;)"}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "not to sound like an asshole but here I go) a little naive. \n No offense taken in this regard.  It can be very naive to expect Tor or cryptocurrency to fully protect one's anonymity.  I apologize if that's the impression I gave, it wasn't my intent. \n > It reminds me of all those people who used the Tor network and thought those online black markets were safe \n Don't get me wrong, I've never had any illusions that cryptocurrencies nor Tor are perfectly safe and I would never intentionally promote them as such to anyone. \n Like any other technology, they have their inherent risk and reward ratios dependent upon  how  you use the technologies,  when  you use them and how knowledgeable you are, connected, etc. (and other things I can't mention here). \n As far as Tor goes, it's not perfectly safe and [it's certainly had its share of dire holes]( but like many security vulnerabilities, if you were using best practices in the first place, it's highly unlikely your specific traffic was intercepted in a way that could be traced back to you unless you f'd up in other ways. \n I can't go into details for obvious reasons, but I'll put it this way.  I don't connect online from home...  EVER  and certainly not from any account that I use with a pseudo-anonymous account like Cowicide or anything else attached to me. When I'm doing things I don't want authoritarians and corporations to know about, I'm a ghost on tests similar to (but not exactly like  this EFF test , etc.]( etc. and that's just child's play at that stage.  There's even ways to sense your variations in your computer's clock speed and way to thwart that attack... \n The NSA can vouch for me on that one.  Right NSA?  [Cow waves like an idiot to NSA] \n And, I don't do anything illegal with crypto of any sort, anyway.  Right, NSA? \n Right. ^_^\n \n Also keep in mind it's one of the NSA's stated goals contained within some of their documents leaked by Edward Snowden to spread fear about Tor to dissuade its usage.  Right NSA? \n Right. ^_^\n \n The truth of the matter there's a lot of sensationalist ghouls swarming around Tor making it out to seem completely infiltrated (and they've been debunked), but if that was the case there'd be no way in hell the military would use it as they do.  Have there been some exploits that the NSA has taken advantage of?  Very likely.  Does that mean Tor is useless and completely transparent?  Evidence says no.  The GCHQ and NSA [wouldn't report vulnerabilities in Tor to get patched]( if they wanted it full of holes.  They do this because the military-industrial complex uses Tor themselves and they sure as hell don't want China reading their communications. \n That all said, again... it's all about a risk/reward ratio that anyone takes by using any kind of crypto whether it be Tor, cryptocurrencies or other thingys I won't mention here. \n >and thought those online black markets were safe, when in fact they have been compromised. \n Well, Silkroad was the big one.  They actually were relatively safe for quite a few people that used it correctly.  Even the guy who allegedly ran it and is now busted by the feds didn't get taken down by the cryptocurrency itself. \n Cryptocurrency was actually a roadblock for the feds and they had to revert to low-tech approaches to locate him.  And, of course, it helped that he made more than a few rookie mistakes as well. \n [More on this here]( \n Pull-quote: \n \" … The feds couldn't initially follow the money to Roberts, nor could they find the physical location of his cloaked servers. In the absence of usual digital clues, the feds fell back on a low-tech approach: keep going back in time until you find the first guy to ever talk about the Silk Road. Find that guy and you probably have a person of interest, if not Roberts himself. … \" \n And, Silkroad 2 [has been upgraded]( to be more secure and has been chugging along thus far pretty smoothly in a relative sense. \n Granted, I'm not saying it's 100% safe... nothing is... that's reality, but there's plenty of evidence that things like Tor and various cryptocurrencies (if used correctly and carefully) are some of the safest bets out there to protect your anonymity online (when it counts). \n Like many risky things in life, one false move can ruin your ass, but that's also why I train at  dangerous places like this  to condition my brain for that reality by, well, living that reality in a physical sense every time I get my ass out there.  Literally, one false move on my bike out there and I'm.. well, dead.  You tend to learn to meditate and not make stupid mistakes. \n On that note, later this year I'm going to put out some GoPro videos of myself riding out there.  I, in theory, have several high dollar cryptocurrency bets by some of my online pals that say they don't believe it's as hairy as I portend.  I intend to collect on those bets.  Bets, in theory, that is.. because I would never bet online with cryptocurrency. ;) \n Welp, I'm now off to start the Labor Day holiday weekend where we should stop at some point to pay homage to all the labor workers that struggled and died to fight for the worker's rights we enjoy and take advantage of today.  Have fun!", "id": "ck459c5", "summary": "Cow is nuts."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "What should happen and what will happen are two entirely different things \n Thank you, captain obvious. \n >neither you nor I have any control over. \n Speak for yourself. \n >Nope my belief is in the absence of any skills, you do not deserve to simply be paid a living wage. \n And, as all too often happens with neolibertarians... we find that the true root of the issue is you're basically a sociopath. \n Sorry, but I try not to waste my time with utter sociopaths so we're at an impasse and we're done here.  I have zero respect for your opinions at this point.  Zero. \n Goodbye, zero.  Rest of your post is", "id": "cmuicu6", "summary": "Simply a waste of my time.  Bye."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "How do you know I'm the one ignoring evidence and being irrational? \n An easily observed phenomena. \n >How do you know I'm a dogmatic ideologue, rather than someone who just likes to play devil's advocate on ultra-liberal sites like Reddit? \n I don't give a shit either way. I find it hilarious when conservatives say sites like Reddit are liberal.  I hate to break it to you but anyone and everyone can join at Reddit.  There's no political litmus test to participate here.  Anyone with access to computers and internet can join. \n The scary reality you're just going to have to face is that the majority of the public is progressive and/or moderate.  The fact that Obama won in a landslide with the highest voter turnout in 40 years when he ran on a progressive ticket should have been your wake-up call.  Along with the fact that once Obama got into office and didn't follow through on his progressive agendas enough, the voter turnout for the last midterms was the lowest in about 70 years. \n The truth the corporate media doesn't want to admit (nor inform you, obviously) is the majority of the public is progressive.  I'm sorry to be the person to fill you in on this reality, but you're just going to have to deal with it.  If you can't, just keep watching TV and stay in conservative la-la land and pretend conservatives are in the majority everywhere else except the Internet. \n >Do you seriously think every economist who opposes a $15/hr minimum wage lacks research skills? \n Do you seriously think every economist who doesn't oppose a $15/hr minimum wage lacks research skills? \n >these minimum wage studies are nowhere close to true experiments \n That's why you should listen to economists who have a solid track record of properly estimating economic impacts, etc. - That's what I've done, but I guess you're still simply going to roll around in the dark with your own debunked studies with subpar researchers who have utterly failed in this regard. \n That's also why you should look at real world results.  The ones you keep ignoring up there that I linked to. \n >It doesn't take a genius to see why higher labor costs might lead to lower employment. \n Well, genius... except for the fact that the states that have increased the minimum wage the highest have had the highest employment. \n AGAIN : \n Highest Minimum-Wage State Washington Beats U.S. in Job Creation \n States That Raised Their Minimum Wages Are Experiencing Faster Job Growth \n You keep ignoring this fact and, frankly, the more you continue to do this the more you continue to look like a delusional idiot, and... you're simply not worth my time. \n Sorry, but you're too obtuse.  The rest of your drivel is", "id": "cms8kou", "summary": "I just can't respect the intelligence of someone who is this dense and you're just a dense bore at this point. \n Since you refuse to provide proper evidence and/or acknowledge proper evidence, we're just going to have to agree to disagree if you're capable of such a thing. \n I find it hilarious that you posit debunked studies and moronic opinion pieces, then still think I should take your analysis seriously afterwards.  Sorry, we're not on the same level.  Go hang out with some neolibertarians that will parrot corporatist \"think tank\" drivel back and forth with you."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "Great, they caught some nuts and prevented them from killing someone.  But, why is this on the front page of Reddit at the very top?  Are people really this chickenshit of these guys?  Looks like all the corporate media fearmongering is working quite well along with the point of terrorism in the first place.  Wow... way to go giving their brand of bullshit terror strategy some credence and respect they don't deserve.  Pity to see Reddit playing right into this crap.", "id": "cklo39x", "summary": "I'm glad they stopped nutjobs from hurting people, but I don't know why this is supposed to be such huge news.  Most of us are vastly more likely to get hit by a car than die from a terror attack, yet this kind of news is taken way out of proportion and given an almost hysterical amount of attention.  Be calm and don't let the terrorists, warmongers and fearmongering authoritarians win."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "is there anything we can really do? \n First, the public has to be educated that there's a problem in the first place.  There are powerful groups that financially profit off of our collective ignorance on the issue, so that's going to be a huge challenge right there. \n It's difficult to get local news to seriously talk about the issues because of consolidation - many outlets are owned either directly or by proxy with heavy ties to some of the same interests that profit by a lack of regulation (for example, their advertisers). \n If you watch local TV news, you've had to have noticed the massive amount of pro-fracking ads that have been airing.  You might have also noticed that many of the ads don't have much of a message contained within them.  That's because the real point of the ads (aside from manufacturing consent of the public) is to pay off the local TV news outlets to keep their critical news coverage to a minimum.  It's basically a bribe via ad dollars. \n This isn't just my own conjecture, by the way.  Studies have shown that TV news quiets down or ignores issues entirely based upon their advertising base.  And, in worst case scenarios, TV news will even spread outright half-truths and lies for their advertisers and/or owners.  You can find some of these studies, etc. here: \n Secondly, an educated public is going to need to act together to force the government to resist the various energy company lobbyists.  That means acting in solidarity.  Again, there are powerful business interests that financially profit off of our lack of solidarity on the issue, so that's going to be a huge challenge right there. \n Expect paid sockpuppets, trolls and astroturfers (and indoctrinated stooges) causing offline and online disruptions with a preponderance of  FUD , etc. to deal with. \n Finally, the educated public is going to need to get reasonable regulations in play.  Not a good idea to allow extremists on either side of the issue to scuttle the entire thing by being too restrictive or too lax on industry. \n For example, Boulder is doing some pretty progressive things with alternative energy adoption while still depending upon lesser evil natural gas from places known to sequester it more cleanly. Boulder is doing this until gas can be phased out down the road as alternative energy and advances in energy storage takes its place or at least reduces gas to sustainable, healthier levels while we depend on the majority of our energy from solar, wind, etc. and alternative energy storage down the road.", "id": "ckrt502", "summary": "Educating one another that there's a pollution problem despite the industry influence geared to stop us is the first step.  Common sense regulations is the next step."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "just a preponderance of rude dicks \n >Sounds like you're one of those people who aren't very pleasant. \n Thank you for the rude, personal insult that's coming from someone I've never talked to before in my life. \n So, you've taken it upon yourself to represent the contingency of rude dicks at this sub?  :D \n Actually, unlike you, I'm polite and pleasant to most people until they are rude to me - as are most people in Denver, because it's a great city.  This sub, however, is atypical as it has a preponderance of people, like you, that don't act that way. \n Granted, there are some friendly people here at this sub but we're surround by rude people like you, unfortunately.", "id": "ckrp0gw", "summary": "If you wanted to prove that there's not a preponderance of rude dicks at this sub, I think you probably shouldn't have started off by personally insulting me.  :D"}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "You're the one throwing insults at people you've never met \n No, I'm not.  I calling out people I have talked with and/or observed launching unwarranted attacks on others at this sub. \n You, on the other hand, have never had any conversation with me yet feel it's perfectly fine to jump in and launch a personal insult against me unprovoked. \n Unless you represent the \"rude dick\" contingency here, I have not personally insulted you. \n If you disagree with my ideas, attack my ideas instead of me personally or it's rude.  In other words: \n \"Hi Cow, I've haven't found that this  thread  sub has rude people and here's my reasons why, etc.\" \n Again, if you still don't get it...", "id": "ckrpifr", "summary": "If you wanted to prove that there's not a preponderance of rude dicks at this sub, I think you probably shouldn't have started off by personally insulting me. :D"}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "You've never met them, and YOU threw insults at a group of people. ...  YOU  threw the negative language \n Ok,  YOU !!!! Hahaha... \n Again, I called out a group that I have talked with and/or observed launching unwarranted attacks on others at this sub.  And, unlike you, I didn't mention anyone personally and attack anyone personally unprovoked. \n Maybe  YOU !!!!11111!!! should look in the mirror?  OK,  YOU !!!!11111!!!???? \n > I pointed out your condescending words. \n No, you launched a personal insult instead of attacking my  IDEAS . \n OK,  YOU !!!!11111!!!???? \n > You really are part of this unsavory population you're complaining about, and you're too prideful or stupid to see that. \n Yay, more personal attacks on top of your other personal attacks.  Now I'm stupid and prideful. \n Talk about projection.  I'm talking about people that launch personal attacks unprovoked.  That's what you ( YOU ) did instead of attacking my ideas. \n And, again, unless you represent the \"rude dick\" contingency here, I have not personally insulted you. \n AGAIN: \n If you disagree with my ideas, attack my ideas instead of me personally or it's rude. \n In other words: \n \"Hi Cow, I've haven't found that this sub has rude people and here's my reasons why, etc.\" \n Again, if you still don't get it...", "id": "ckrs1pd", "summary": "If you wanted to prove that there's not a preponderance of rude dicks at this sub, I think you probably shouldn't have started off by personally insulting me. :D \n Personal attacks are rude.  Please stop it."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "Maybe the government is pulling some of the psyops stuff on reddit this time to manipulate the opinion of the people. What do you think? \n The government tends to manufacture consent via a mostly complicit corporate media (depending upon the issue, of course).  It's obviously worked wonders against some of the slower thinkers here at Reddit, but I'm not sure that's the real problem within these current threads along with the vote patterns we're seeing on Reddit since the Brown decision the other day. \n I think a lot of the upvotes are coming from racist websites like Stormfront and racists from some chans (and probably some non-racist pranksters who just hate Reddit and humanity in general). \n The KKK and Anonymous are having an unprecedented, widespread online fight right now and that motivated a lot of the KKK idiots and sympathizers to become more active online as well. I'm quite sure they're here offering plenty of upvotes against Brown and the protestors while also supporting the official bullshit stories that support the white cop's story along with drowning out the concern of the mostly peaceful protestors instead of the minority that's burning and looting buildings. \n I think we're seeing the results of on an upvote brigade tactic, but I think it's coming from many sources including some that aren't racist at all, but are simply too dense to look at the bigger picture. \n It's already been proven that the cops have lied and that the cop who killed Brown changed his story, but you're not going to see that side of the story get brigades of upvotes.  The kind of people that are going to upvote that story will do it organically and not through astroturfing and organized offsite brigading tactics, etc. \n That's just the way it works with progressive causes... and, of course, with any  truths  that racist assholes, dogmatic neocons, corporations, neolibertarians or status quo elitists in government don't want the public to hear (much less, believe).  We'll always be at some disadvantage because we're far less willing to break ethical boundaries than idiots, neocons, racists, neolibertarians, etc. will do to achieve dissemination of information. \n Fortunately though... we try to stick with the truth (to the best of our abilities) and that tends to slowly pervade over the long term despite these short-term setbacks we get from these dunces, conservatives, racists and wayward liberals that soak up too many corporatist television talking points and are too easily influenced by hype and a video of Brown stealing cigars and shoving the shop owner. \n But, again, since more progressives stick with the truth and organic, grassroots organizing and spread evidence instead of lies, we have the upper hand in the long term against those that embrace sensationalized hot button content and artificially trumped up numbers of people astroturfing half-truths and lies that will later be debunked and used against them. \n A great example is climate change.  For a while there, the industry-sponsored neolibertarian \"think tanks\" had the upper hand disseminating quick talking points rife with half-truths and trumped up \"studies\" via astroturfing and bullshit \"institutes\", etc. \n However, over the long term... the more complicated truth was spread from progressive activists via time-honored grassroots activism.  Now, despite all the flash-in-the-pan trumped up \"controversies\" and other general bullsht the industry spread through their \"think tanks\" and indoctrinated idiots, most people have gotten the truth on climate change and are becoming increasingly more apt to want our government to do something about it.", "id": "cmdx5y1", "summary": "In the short term.. the lies, half-truths and sensationalized content will pervade for a bit.  However, the sober truth will continue to slowly spread and overtake the racists and wayward people that've been indoctrinated. In the long term, the truth (or a least some of it) will prevail because progressive activists have vastly more  heart , fortitude and persistence than these motherfuckers can even fathom."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "I visited there with family back in the 80's.  A  tornado  hit while we were there and we had to take refuge in a game room building and I remember seeing a tree getting pushed over.  If I remember correctly, there was grass skiing (when they used to have that!) going on nearby and some of the people were stuck on the ski lift when it lost power and the storm rolled through.", "id": "cbp8mhf", "summary": "I was there when a fucking tornado hit the Wizard of Oz park in NC. My life is strange."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "Out of curiosity, what would you consider \"hard evidence\"? \n Showing their faces instead of blurring them, for one.  If they show the unblurred faces and they match up with confirmed Hamas, that would be hard evidence right there. \n It's really interesting to me that although Israeli intelligence services has a track record of committing these kind of acts Americans can't even fathom it could happen within the Gaza strip: \n They were desperately trying to drive the US into conflict with Syria: \n And, I'm not sure why our \"friends\" in Israel think spying on Americans is such a priority: \n Israel Flagged as Top Spy Threat to U.S. \n Of course, even though I've repeatedly said that I don't like Hamas in these threads, I suppose people will continue to say I'm a Hamas supporter because I'd prefer some evidence here beyond blurry faces and speculation from a reporter who repeatedly uses words like \"reasonable doubt\", \"guess\", \"potential\", etc. within the video when describing the men as Hamas. \n And, no, I certainly don't think Mossad is any worse than a lot of other intelligence services and, no, I'm not anti-semetic.  Those who may call me anti-semetic because I don't agree with aspects of the Israeli government is like calling me anti-American because I don't agree with NSA mass surveillance upon its own citizens.  So, please don't bother. \n Oh, and not that most people in this thread know (or perhaps can look beyond their own biases) about this, but Amnesty International and other human rights organizations are right there in Gaza monitoring the situation: \n July 2014 - The human rights community’s consensus: Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza \n In 2006 (white phosphorus used and other alleged war crimes): \n Now up to July 25th, 2014: \n The Israeli authorities claim that Hamas and Palestinian armed groups use Palestinian civilians in Gaza as “human shields”. Does Amnesty International have any evidence that this has occurred during the current hostilities? \n \"Amnesty International is monitoring and investigating such reports, but does not have evidence at this point that Palestinian civilians have been intentionally used by Hamas or Palestinian armed groups during the current hostilities to “shield” specific locations or military personnel or equipment from Israeli attacks. ... \" \n Read more: \n They go on to say:  \"In previous conflicts Amnesty International has documented that Palestinian armed groups have stored munitions in and fired indiscriminate rockets from residential areas in the Gaza Strip in violation of international humanitarian law.\" \n So, yes, that's why I wouldn't be surprised at all if it turns out it is, indeed, Hamas in the video.  But, for all the reasons I've given, it also wouldn't surprise me one bit if it was Mossad especially considering Amnesty International hasn't found any evidence in this current conflict of Hamas using human shields. \n Also, consider this: \n Collective punishment or human shields? Israel’s military has no “moral superiority,” time for media to cover Gaza fairly \n Highlights include  Israel’s Use of Human Shields : \n [Read at Salon]( \n \n Again, just like Amnesty International shows, both sides are at fault of war crimes (not equally, however).  That's why I don't like either side in this.  My dislike for Hamas, however, doesn't preclude me from wanting evidence beyond a video with blurry faces. \n I don't think we should let Hamas  nor  Israel off the hook for war crimes either way. \n BTW : If this is too complex or", "id": "cjioo51", "summary": "for American sensibilities, then I just find that a fucking, deadly shame. \n >Out of curiosity, what would you consider \"hard evidence\"? \n Now, likewise... out of curiosity, what would you consider \"hard evidence\"?"}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "you could venture that resting journalists aren't constantly searching for suspicious activity outside their windows normally. \n Speaking of grasping for straws again... \n Yes, journalists in a war zone certainly don't keep an eye out of their windows.  That's ludicrous.  It’s a miracle a hotel filled with journalists with facing windows towards their rocket launcher under a bright, blue tent ( with its sides exposed ) could have ever been spotted. \n I was also a miracle that there was smudges on the lens exactly over their faces of the perps so the rest of the world couldn't watch the video and determine who the men were. \n >Also, the Hamas men were hiding their actions with a tent, rather than exposing them as much as they can. \n Wow, that's delusional.  The tent obviously did jack shit to hide anything if you actually watch the video. \n > sending operatives to hostile territory for such a long period of time, out in the open, when they could easily be captured \n Yes, states are frightened to death of sending operatives out into hostile territory, so that never happens.  That makes perfect sense in a delusional mind that ignores history. \n >you delusionally manage to blame Israel \n That's a boldfaced LIE. \n I've  NOT  blamed Israel, you're being delusional again.  Show me where I've blamed anyone for this inconclusive video?  I've REPEATEDLY said I don't know if this was Hamas or Mossad or whomever. \n You're blinded by your own bias and trying to project that blindness against me. \n Again , I blame BOTH Hamas and Israel in this shit overall.  Stop being a pompous ass who keeps trying to tell me what I think and misrepresent my own opinions, you liar. \n >Every piece of knowledge here points at a single direction \n Wow... confirmation bias in action. \n Speaking of grasping for straws, look in the mirror, buddy. \n It's really interesting to me that although Israeli intelligence services has a track record of committing these kind of acts people like you can't even fathom it could happen within the Gaza strip: \n They were desperately trying to drive the US into conflict with Syria: \n And, I'm not sure why our \"friends\" in Israel think spying on Americans is such a priority: \n Israel Flagged as Top Spy Threat to U.S. \n Of course, even though I've repeatedly said that I don't like Hamas in these threads, I suppose people like you will continue to say I'm a Hamas supporter because I'd prefer some evidence here beyond blurry faces and speculation from a reporter who repeatedly uses words like \"reasonable doubt\", \"guess\", \"potential\", etc. within the video when describing the men as Hamas. \n And, no, I certainly don't think Mossad is any worse than a lot of other intelligence services and, no, I'm not anti-semetic.  Those who may call me anti-semetic because I don't agree with aspects of the Israeli government is like calling me anti-American because I don't agree with NSA mass surveillance upon its own citizens.  So, please don't bother. \n Oh, and not that most people in this thread know (or perhaps can look beyond their own biases) about this, but Amnesty International and other human rights organizations are right there in Gaza monitoring the situation: \n July 2014 - The human rights community’s consensus: Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza \n In 2006 (white phosphorus used and other alleged war crimes): \n Now up to July 25th, 2014: \n The Israeli authorities claim that Hamas and Palestinian armed groups use Palestinian civilians in Gaza as “human shields”. Does Amnesty International have any evidence that this has occurred during the current hostilities? \n \"Amnesty International is monitoring and investigating such reports, but does not have evidence at this point that Palestinian civilians have been intentionally used by Hamas or Palestinian armed groups during the current hostilities to “shield” specific locations or military personnel or equipment from Israeli attacks. ... \" \n Read more: \n They go on to say:  \"In previous conflicts Amnesty International has documented that Palestinian armed groups have stored munitions in and fired indiscriminate rockets from residential areas in the Gaza Strip in violation of international humanitarian law.\" \n So, yes, that's why I wouldn't be surprised at all if it turns out it is, indeed, Hamas in the video.  But, for all the reasons I've given, it also wouldn't surprise me one bit if it was Mossad especially considering Amnesty International hasn't found any evidence in this current conflict of Hamas using human shields. \n Also, consider this: \n Collective punishment or human shields? Israel’s military has no “moral superiority,” time for media to cover Gaza fairly \n Highlights include  Israel’s Use of Human Shields : \n [Read at Salon]( \n \n Again, just like Amnesty International shows, both sides are at fault of war crimes (not equally, however).  That's why I don't like either side in this.  My dislike for Hamas, however, doesn't preclude me from wanting evidence beyond a video with blurry faces. \n I don't think we should let Hamas  nor  Israel off the hook for war crimes either way. \n BTW : If this is too complex or", "id": "cjiqnr8", "summary": "for you and other biased people like you, then I just find that a fucking, deadly shame that only helps to perpetuate this conflict."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "Wow, you're dense.  Where have I said that I like Hamas? Of course Hamas is a terrorist organization. \n And, I hate to break it to you, but reality isn't \"plain and simple\".  There's nuance in this world and many of the past actions of Japan, the United States, Israel, UK, etc. have been terroristic as well. \n Stop being so blinded by your own bias.  Hamas doesn't have a monopoly on human rights violations, by far. \n I apologize that reality doesn’t fit into your pre-determined, jingoistic mindset. \n It's really interesting to me that although Israeli intelligence services has a track record of committing these kind of acts people like you can't even fathom it could happen within the Gaza strip: \n They were desperately trying to drive the US into conflict with Syria: \n And, I'm not sure why our \"friends\" in Israel think spying on Americans is such a priority: \n Israel Flagged as Top Spy Threat to U.S. \n Of course, even though I've repeatedly said that I don't like Hamas in these threads, I suppose people like you will continue to say I'm a Hamas supporter because I'd prefer some evidence here beyond blurry faces and speculation from a reporter who repeatedly uses words like \"reasonable doubt\", \"guess\", \"potential\", etc. within the video when describing the men as Hamas. \n And, no, I certainly don't think Mossad is any worse than a lot of other intelligence services and, no, I'm not anti-semetic.  Those who may call me anti-semetic because I don't agree with aspects of the Israeli government is like calling me anti-American because I don't agree with NSA mass surveillance upon its own citizens.  So, please don't bother. \n Oh, and not that most people in this thread know (or perhaps can look beyond their own biases) about this, but Amnesty International and other human rights organizations are right there in Gaza monitoring the situation: \n July 2014 - The human rights community’s consensus: Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza \n In 2006 (white phosphorus used and other alleged war crimes): \n Now up to July 25th, 2014: \n The Israeli authorities claim that Hamas and Palestinian armed groups use Palestinian civilians in Gaza as “human shields”. Does Amnesty International have any evidence that this has occurred during the current hostilities? \n \"Amnesty International is monitoring and investigating such reports, but does not have evidence at this point that Palestinian civilians have been intentionally used by Hamas or Palestinian armed groups during the current hostilities to “shield” specific locations or military personnel or equipment from Israeli attacks. ... \" \n Read more: \n They go on to say:  \"In previous conflicts Amnesty International has documented that Palestinian armed groups have stored munitions in and fired indiscriminate rockets from residential areas in the Gaza Strip in violation of international humanitarian law.\" \n So, yes, that's why I wouldn't be surprised at all if it turns out it is, indeed, Hamas in the video.  But, for all the reasons I've given, it also wouldn't surprise me one bit if it was Mossad especially considering Amnesty International hasn't found any evidence in this current conflict of Hamas using human shields. \n Also, consider this: \n Collective punishment or human shields? Israel’s military has no “moral superiority,” time for media to cover Gaza fairly \n Highlights include  Israel’s Use of Human Shields : \n [Read at Salon]( \n \n Again, just like Amnesty International shows, both sides are at fault of war crimes (not equally, however).  That's why I don't like either side in this.  My dislike for Hamas, however, doesn't preclude me from wanting evidence beyond a video with blurry faces. \n I don't think we should let Hamas  nor  Israel off the hook for war crimes either way. \n BTW : If this is too complex or", "id": "cjit2fh", "summary": "for you and other biased people like you, then I just find that a fucking, deadly shame that only helps to perpetuate this conflict."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "I hope this monster is found soon for everyone's sake.  It's not a white or black thing, it's a humanity thing.  I imagine some white and black inmates would  both  look forward to being in jail with him for rather devious reasons. \n To all the racists...  READ THIS BELOW, PLEASE.   And kindly fuck off and die off while you're at it: \n • African Americans make up nearly half the youth detained for drug offenses, yet they use drugs at the same rate as whites. \n • African Americans are in physical fights at a similar rate for whites, yet they are arrested for aggravated assault at a rate nearly three times that of whites. \n In direct studies, races were found to have pretty much equal crime rates. Factors like labeling theory, overrepresentation and poverty contribute.", "id": "caq5kyt", "summary": "I'm posting facts in yet another piece of shit reddit racist thread.  I will eat your downvotes like delicious candy. \n No wonder Captain Kirk hates reddit: \n It's evil fucks like you that ruin it for everyone else just like you did with Digg.  I hope you die."}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "they will keep trying to do it. ... So what now? \n Do you  really  want to know? \n For one thing, the general public needs to stop nit-picking each other to death online as much.  Focusing on pedantic, trite details along with personal squabbles isn't getting us anywhere.  It's time to start finding areas of agreement so more of us can work together instead of wasting time ripping each other apart.  Pedantic posts may be fun for some people, but they tend to spill into unrewarding, ego-infested fights over trite details instead of sticking to the overall point and finding solutions together within the bigger picture.  That's a huge cog in finding solidarity and solutions with one another. \n We need to stop worrying about who is in a \"circlejerk\" or who's \"too edgy\" and concern ourselves more with finding solidarity and filtering out those who can't concern themselves with such things out of their own ignorance, bloated egos, mental issues and/or fear.  We should stop pandering to the ignorant and embrace those that use critical thinking along with reasoned strategy based upon good research. \n That said... in the very short-term, we keep using what works.   Educate  one another and keep contacting the representatives instead of giving up because we can't handle ongoing adversity.  There's not going to be a permanent solution to megalomania and human greed, it's a human condition, but we can keep it at bay if good people keep up the good fight. \n It's why battles for civil rights are called \"struggles\".  It's a never-ending, ongoing process that will have setbacks along the way, but you keep striving forward anyway and society slowly evolves if you do. \n The question is, does the American public have the fortitude to continue to struggle past setbacks?  I think some have it, but others have been \"worked on\" by the corporate mass media and constant, corporate astroturf trolling online to embrace fear, apathy, nihilism and defeat.  I'm not sure those defeated people will come around until the rest of us with more fortitude who aren't defeated and aren't ready to give up continue to bridge with each other and show them the way as our numbers increase over time. \n We have the hard work of moving against huge obstacles, but as we persist more people will come around and enter the paths we've cleared for them and blaze their own trails as well.  We keep it up until there's a mass movement that can't be easily stopped.  But, it's gong to take time... \n If you're looking for  realistic  long-term strategies, I've offered them many times, but some don't want to hear it because we have too many Americans conditioned to only accept lazy, unrealistic, short-term, quick-fix fantasies. \n If you're not one of those Americans, then I think this is a  realistic , long-term strategy: \n In the face of a entrenched corporate media that protects its own, not much can be done in the short term (except to educate one another online and contact representatives).  The corporate media today has vast influence over many Americans.  But, there are things we  can  do in the long term. \n For example, getting involved in your local government, local voting, educating one another with rigorous online and offline campaigns, civil disobedience (disrupting corporate media narratives via manipulation), whistleblowing (see Snowden, Wikileaks, etc.), and working to get money out of the political process (vital): \n Each party warrants a different strategy dependent upon their differences.  For example, you're not going to thwart Democrats by putting tougher gerrymandering and voter disenfranchisement legislation into place.  That's overwhelmingly the realm of Republicans if we are to base our strategy upon reality. \n We aren't ever going to usher in third parties down the road if we don't address rampant gerrymandering and voter suppression now.  To embrace false equivalence and attack the Democrats on those issues would be as ridiculous as it would be ineffective. \n There are many negative similarities between the Democrats and the Republicans (overall), but to ignore their differences in anger and frustration only serves the corporatist elite who want us to ignorantly ping-pong back and forth between the two parties. \n Our current approach has kept us ping-ponging back and forth for decades and it's time to break this vicious [false equivalency cycle]( \n We've  never  in modern American history voted in a consecutive Democratic administration into excutive office.  We've  never  in modern American history put the Democrats into a position where they can stop whining and blaming the Republicans (via their obstructionism) for America's problems to their constituents. \n Once we finally put Democrats into a position (through consecutive administrations, etc.) where they can no longer blame Republicans for all their actions and inactions to their constituents, that will also be around the time when the alternative news/info sources via the Internet will come closer to the reach and influence of the corporate media.  That's when we can strike with third parties and actually have a chance in hell of winning. \n Or, we can continue to embrace false equivalency and continue on the ping-pong path we've already been on and continue to further entrench rampant gerrymandering and voter suppression that puts increasingly more walls up for third parties. \n There's much more info here if you're truly interested in contributing to long-term, progressive change in the USA: \n [Link to reddit post]( \n But, I dunno... maybe you're simply asking a rhetorical question you really don't want the complicated, realistic answer to and didn't bother to read any of this... :P  Maybe no one is reading this.  In that case, I'll just give a nice, short", "id": "cddmgvr", "summary": "slogan that people will respond to: \n Revolution! Don't bother voting! No taxes! Stop government! This is a republic, not a democracy! The whole system is screwed and I'm pissed!  Both parties are exactly the same in every way!! Platitudes and more platitudes!!"}, {"author": "Cowicide", "content": "I just came here from a link via USAToday: \n Some (hopefully) helpful advice in regards to a somewhat similar situation. \n Apple released a faulty group of 2011 MacBook Pro's that often requires logic board replacements after the GPU fails.  They began dropping like flies just after their extended warranty periods expired.  Apple began charging people for repairs despite this widespread flaw with many reports on their own forum. \n The discussion thread grew over time with increasingly more people adding their stories of failed 2011 MacBook Pro's with similar symptoms.  Apple refused to address the issue at all publicly even as the discontent of consumers grew increasingly more contemptuous. \n By 2014, the forum posts on Apple's discussion board were humongous and there were articles within the media reporting on the issue.  Yet, Apple remained silent. \n After a while, many said that Apple would  never  address the issue and told people to give up on it.  However, a large group remained vocal, repeatedly contacted the media, spread the word on Reddit, etc. and finally a law firm began forming a class action lawsuit. \n Shortly after media reports spread of the impending class action lawsuit along with many more media reports of a vocal community of Apple users voicing discontent, Apple  finally  offered a free replacement program.", "id": "cri5b0p", "summary": "Keep spreading the word on forums and don't let the naysaysers sway you to stop.  Contact media outlets and eventually lawyers if there's no proper response from Asus/Google.  Widespread defects like this should be covered for free with a replacement program.  Don't let people fool you into thinking otherwise just because the warranty has expired.  It's one thing when parts randomly fail here and there, it's quite another when there's a widespread defect affecting so many consumers."}]}
+{"author": "Archammes", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Ex wife cheating on current guy with me.  How can I help him see it?", "output": "Ok Reddit, this is odd.  And I could claim to be wondering this completely out of altruism, but that wouldn't be completely true.  My ex wife and I separated in May of last year because I caught her cheating.  I kicked her out, but we continued a sexual relationship until December of last year. \n Come to find out, during our \"kick around\" discussion of getting back together, that she started a relationship with someone in August of last year.  While still screwing me.  Aside from the ickiness of the situation (I had to run out and get tested just in case), this guy has three little girls from a previous marriage that are now, in his words, head over heels for my ex wife. \n I tried to tell this guy that he was cheating on her.  He even caught her so to speak, through her phone, finding out that she was meeting me for lunch behind his back.  But despite proof of her indiscretions, they are still together."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I love dogs, but I'm not going to ask someone to resign because they killed one that was violating multiple city ordinances.", "output": "Seriously?  Someone wants to cause this man to lose his method of providing for his family because he shot a dog?  Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating for animal cruelty, or judging a dog by it's breed, or anything like that.  But I do think people are going  way  overboard asking for him to resign.  Looking at what I can see from the news article, \n Both animal control  and  USPS had filed reports stating the dog was \"violent and aggressive\" towards them. \n Ardmore city ordinance requires the wear of vaccination tags for all animals.  This animal did not have such tags and therefor a reasonable person could assume that it had not been vaccinated and may be rabid. \n As per the reports and status of the dog, it was, by Ardmore city ordinance Section 18-1, a  nuisance ; \n (1)  Annoys, injures or endangers the peace, health, safety, comfort or repose of others;\n(3)  Unlawfully interferes with, obstructs or tends to obstruct or renders dangerous for passage, any lake basin, stream, creek, gully, street, sidewalk, alley, park or other public property;\n(4)  In any way, renders other persons insecure in life or in the use of property. \n Now , if the officer  did  in fact say what the neighbor claims to have overheard, it is unprofessional and sadistic, but still does not mean the guy should lose his job."}], "user_id": "longlamp_516", "history": [{"author": "Archammes", "content": "Oh dude, don't get me wrong, basic/AIT was no cake walk because of this fact.  For instance: \n -Due to the fact that my grandfather IS not only buried at the Ft. Benning Post Cemetery (Plot  redacted because internet detectives!  if anyone wants to fact check me), he was a COMPLETE BADASS, and the drills looked him up, and CONSTANTLY brought up his badassery to me in ways such as \"you'll never be the infantryman your pappy was boy\", etc etc.  I was constantly being compared to a man I never got to meet, who  died on my fucking birthday in 1968 to artillery fire in Kien Hoa  (yea, it took me a while to figure out why my dad never wanted to be around me on my birthday), and that I idolized because of the stories my father told me growing up. \n To give you an idea of exactly who my grandfather was, let me read some stuff off for you, and you might have an idea of just how bad the cadre dug in to me: \n 1SG  Name Redacted  Gerald  Name Redacted \n Last unit:  3rd Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment \n MOS - 11G \n Awards: Combat Infantryman Badge ( 2nd Award, Korea, Vietnam ), Bronze Star ( with V device and bronze oak leaf cluster ), Purple Heart, ARCOM, AGCM ( 1 silver clasp ), Army of Occupation Medal (1945-1990), NDSM ( with star device ), Korea Service Medal ( with 2 star devices ), Vietnam Service Medal ( with three star devices ), Vietnam Gallantry Cross ( with palm, individual citation ), United Nations Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Service Medal ( with bar device ), Republic of Korea War Service Medal, Valorous Unit Award, Korean Presidential Unit Citation, Vietnam Gallantry Cross (with palm, unit version).", "id": "ccjnsuv", "summary": "I spent a lot of time in basic being compared to a grandfather I could never live up too...it fucking sucked."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "What I do understand are the things people have taken time to explain, rather than simply imply that I'm a \"fool\" or a coward.  I'm sorry if these people have been hurt, but it's no reason to lash out at someone that is honestly seeking objective advice.  The people who didn't start their responses with \"you're an idiot\" and actually had more to say than that, I've been reading and considering and turning them over in my head, trying to figure things out, because quite frankly, none of you know all the details, circumstances, or nuances because no one would read it if I posted the entirety of it here...that's why", "id": "cb5yhu4", "summary": "exists."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "What do you think marriage is all about? \n Apparently in Oklahoma it's a state controlled contract by which two parties bet each other half their earthly possessions that they will love each other forever. \n Pre-nups get overturned all the time.  For example, if one party can prove (and I use the term very loosely, the burden of proof is not high) that they signed the pre-nup under duress (such as fear of losing the relationship if they refused), they judge can and will overturn it, because duress is a justifiable reason to rescind a contract (the pre-nup itself), and if the pre-nup is rescinded, it never existed and all \"marital\" assets are now subject to equitable distribution. \n More often than not in my experience (working several years in law), equitable distribution does not affect alimony payments, which are usually made by the husband to the wife, especially in a situation where the wife \"kept the home\" so that the husband could pursue a career (as a single parent, I don't see how anyone can justify being at home all day to \"keep the home,\" I work an 8-5 job, teach taekwondo three days a week, and still manage to keep my house in order, cook meals, and help my munchkin with his homework).  In some cases, the husband is even ordered to pay for vocational training for the ex-wife because she \"has no job skills.\" \n Now, if you can find specific examples to the contrary, by all means point me to them, but in the state of Oklahoma I have never seen alimony awarded from a female spouse to a male for any reason.  Would you then consider the judges sexist? \n I get the downvote brigade, because this is /r/OKCirclejerk, but what I don't get (well, in a red state yes I do) is why you feel the need to insult an opinion that differs from your own.  I can support my opinion with just as much, if not more, fact and statistics as you can yours, but since it's different, it's \"stupid\" or whatever other insult you feel the need to use.", "id": "cm0lit8", "summary": "Whether your view is right is debatable as is mine.  It is, however, a fact, that equitable distribution often is horribly lopsided."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "At this stage, I do not think drugging the child to be like other children is sufficient. \n That is not anywhere close to what I said.  In fact, the way you respond gives me the impression that you're one of those strict against all medications for children with special needs types that pisses me off when they get all high and mighty because my child uses medication, and they would \"never let the doctor put their kid on that\". \n My son uses medication to maintain focus, as on top of the ASD, he also has ADHD, which I struggled with as a child myself.  A doctor his mother tried to bring on board suggested Risperadol for his \"outbursts\", and I declined.  You don't just throw medication at a child to \"make them like other children\".  However, if you  can  treat a symptom (such as social anxiety/outburts) with medication where talk therapy/OT/ABA  alone  has  failed , then unless it is going to be extremely detrimental to the child, there is no reason why you should not.  This is not about \"making accommodations rather than drugging for the convenience of others\" (god you sound like a condescending bastard right there), this is about managing symptoms so that this persons daughter can have as  normal a childhood as possible under the circumstances . \n >finding out what her needs are now and working to understand her as a person is more important than managing symptoms. \n Sometimes managing the symptoms is the only way to allow \"who they are as a person\" to come out more fully, help them to communicate more fully, which then allows you as a parent to assist them better. \n >I do not think there should be a focus on behavior modification or other treatments specifically designed to make a person more acceptable for school. \n Apparently, you have a woeful misunderstanding of the social contract.  Are you aware that a child hitting another child is a crime?  A crime that either the child or the parent can be held responsible for,  despite  a diagnosis?  You realize that an autistic person is just as capable of murder as a person without autism, and though they would be incarcerated differently, they would  still  be incarcerated.  Let's change a few words in your sentence, and maybe you'll have a better understanding: \n \"I do not think there should be a focus on behavior modification or other treatments specifically designed to make a  retarded  person more acceptable for school\". \n While I am not comparing autism to mental retardation, the social contract dictates that you follow the rules, or you deal with the consequences.  Yes, accommodations are required to be made for special needs children, but those accommodations neither excuse them nor protect them if they commit a crime, even if they can't understand the full nature or outcome.  Marvin Wilson was put to death in Texas for murder; he was legally retarded (IQ of 61).  This did not excuse his crime in the eyes of society, nor did it prevent his execution. \n >Any problems which exist only in school are something which require accommodation and understanding. \n Understanding it is easy...the child is overstimulated, OP stated that in his/her post.  Not to mention, OP did  not  say the problem only occurred in school, you inferred this.  It is entirely possible the child may have these violent outbursts in other situations she either hasn't been exposed to yet, or it is also a possibility that the school setting is the only one in which the child doesn't yet have other available outlets that prevent the violent behavior.  Accommodation is not necessarily as easy, and therapeutic models agree that the desired outcome of treatment is to allow the child to be in the classroom as much as possible.  Sometimes, the best results are gained from a combination of accommodation  and  medication.  Eschewing one and putting complete responsibility on the other is not only foolhardy, it may cost the child  as normal a childhood as possible under the circumstances .  Are you catching the theme here? \n On this issue, I speak from experience.  My son's mother and I agreed for years that medication would only be used as a last resort, and Pre K - 1st grade, we saw several different therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, had him given a full battery of tests, etc etc.  Non of them wanted to put the \"label\" on him, so the best we had to work with was ADHD-NoS.  After years of mostly unsuccessful therapy, medication was finally brought up.  I was willing to try, while his mother got on the \"he doesn't need medication you're just a bad parent\" crazy train.  We tried four different medications, finally settling in to a rhythm with Concerta.  With the symptoms of the ADHD managed, the symptoms of the ASD became more defined, and his current psychiatrist was able to make the diagnosis.  He (3rd grade) is now a straight A student in the gifted program, with a confirmed genius IQ, who handles social situations much more effectively now that his cognitive process is manageable...he can understand when he is overstimulated, properly and effectively communicate this to his teachers, and use his accommodations (out for cooldown and de-stimulation in the OT room) to his advantage.  He is now down from an IEP to a 504 (less restrictive to the school and easier for them to work with), has gained  normalcy  with his peers (previously he was often picked on when becoming overstimulated which increased the problem and generated violent outbursts), and has a  much improved quality of life  in the school setting. \n >When she is older and she wants to be in a situation she finds stressful \n Not many people I know of like to be in  stressful  situations.  Perhaps over-stimulating is a better term here.  Additionally, when  she is older , she will likewise be more mature, and better able to cope with her process more effectively.  Right now, she is a  child , and what you are suggesting (i.e., eschewing medication because it's the school's responsibility to do all the accommodating for the child) is tantamount to neglect if the addition of medication allows the child to have  as normal a childhood as possible under the circumstances . \n >But I do not think forcing a person into a situation and then drugging them for the convenience of others is ideal. \n School is a necessity unless OP has the means to home school.  And it has nothing to do with the \"convenience of others\" (every time I read that I find myself clinching my jaw, my god you sound so fucking smug and condescending!), it has to do with providing  as NORMAL A CHILDHOOD FOR HER AS POSSIBLE UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES!   I  cannot  stress that enough! \n >This behavior, while serious, has a root cause \n I don't know if you read OP's post, or just don't have any understanding of PDD/ASD, but he made the root cause very clear,  over stimulation caused by the school setting .  Addressing it requires a  well rounded  approach involving all available modalities of treatment  as well as  accommodations and allowances made by the school.", "id": "cfzyfng", "summary": "OP, please ignore /u/GaelicWolfling.  If you have questions regarding your situation (it is almost exactly the same as the one my son and I have gone through), I would be happy to speak through PM.  From there I'd be more than willing to provide my contact information for further discussion.  There is hope, there is help, and you and your daughter  can  lead as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.  It may take a little effort, but it is possible."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "That's what I'm trying to say.  /u/phtll made a sarcastic comment, and I tried to respond with realism.  You can either coddle people, tell them everything will be ok, and let them get blown out of the water when the rubber meets the road, or you can tell them the harsh, brutal truth from the get go and help them maneuver the suck.  I  NEVER  said anything about telling people to off themselves.  If one of my friends came and told me he was contemplating suicide, and he wasn't asking for my professional help, I'd tell him to quit being a pussy and get his shit straight, and then dissect the problem from an outside view for his digestion and realization that no, it really isn't  that  bad, it just  seems  that bad now. \n Now, if he asked for my professional opinion, I'd give you all the psycho-babble bullshit they teach in Suicide Prevention 101 in the Army, and I'd hold his hand and coddle him just like they teach you to.  Obviously, it's super effective given the Army's  low  suicide rate, amirite?", "id": "c89wmsp", "summary": "Tell people the truth about things and they have a better chance of success.  Lie to them or coddle them, and they will fall down when that support is gone."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "I understand empathy just fine.  But the decision as to when to employ empathy is mine alone.  My apologies if my view doesn't fit the lollipop bullshit social contract that most of society lives under. \n Again, you and the other guy seem to think I said \"people that commit suicide  never  contribute to society.  Go back and read what I actually wrote.  \"People like that ('like that' referring to adolescents who attempt suicide due to high school bullshit) tend to become drug addicts/alcoholics and typically do not contribute much value to society\". \n Meaning to say, if you're already such a weak spirited drama queen by age 15, your chances of successfully handling the stress of college, and the real world, are decidedly slim.  Again, I'll say the world owes you nothing.  It is a cruel, ruthless place ruled by cruel, ruthless people.  If you want happiness, you have to make it.  And if you don't have the will or the spirit to get past the bullshit, you're gonna have a bad time. \n In my days counseling for the Army, I had one patient that had been physically abused as a child, prostituted by her father, raped in college, and had developed a severe fear of men in general.  Again, her situation is not unique, but her circumstances were much more devastating than being bullied.  She had no history of suicide attempts.  She made herself strong enough to deal with everything that had come before, and she was for the most part a damn good soldier.", "id": "c8actmf", "summary": "Just because you don't agree with me doesn't mean I'm wrong."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "Oddly enough, the first time this happened to me was in a port-a-shitter in Mosul, Iraq.  Naturally, I freaked the fuck out.  I can take bombs, sniper fire, and bloody wounds, but getting off and pinching a loaf were mutually exclusive in my world at the time. \n Got seen that day by a flight surgeon who said \"oh, it's probably just prostatitis, take these pills so I don't have to stick my finger in your ass\". \n It didn't happen again during the deployment, but has happened multiple times in the 8 years since.  After speaking with my doctor about it and having it checked out (prostate was fine), she said that sometimes using pressure to assist peristalsis on a larger bowel movement can put pressure on the prostate and cause an ejaculation.  Mine feel like an interrupted orgasm...like figuring out your house is on fire just before the money shot.", "id": "ch80p67", "summary": "Can be perfectly normal, might want to get a PSA done by your doc just in case."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "I spent two weekends with a girl in Missouri.  The first weekend was amazing, it literally felt like I was stepping in to a husband and wife situation.  The comfort level was amazing, the communication was great, and the sex mind blowing.  The second weekend, not so much.  Sex was still great, but the communication and sense of belonging were all but gone.  We've kept in touch, but the communication is almost completely gone.", "id": "c87s421", "summary": "LDR are hard.  Would not recommend."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "As far as Benning is concerned, you're going in September.  It's not going to be as hot (I did basic/AIT in June/July...talk about sweating your balls off) but realize, it gets cold quick, and it's a biting cold.  You might want to see if you can find a \"smoking jacket\" at a surplus store before you head out (just ask, if they don't know what you're talking about, it's a shitty surplus store). \n The male to female ratio on Benning is 11:1.  Don't expect to get any tail there.  Realize that going in, and you should be ok. \n As far as Ft. Sam, I reclassed to medic there in 2004 and holy shit that place is amazing.  As an IET soldier, the prior service are going to be told to avoid you like the plague.  Do not fuck with them, you could cost them their career.  232 (what used to be the medic AIT unit) is/was a pretty squared away unit.  There will be plenty of other soldiers you can learn with...find the smart ones and stick with them. \n There are two really fun holes in the wall just outside base (if they're still there), the Red Baron, and The Recovery Room.  Red Baron has a lot of older, regular clientele, friendly with the military, and is run by an older Hispanic lady that loves her some young GIs.  The Recovery Room tends to be where the younger military go, and if I remember correctly the drink prices aren't too bad. \n When you get ready to graduate, treat yourself to dinner at the Silo.  You won't regret it.  Food there is so pretty you're sad when you eat it.  Biggest tiger prawns I've ever seen.", "id": "cbxp2x1", "summary": "Benning is going to suck and get cold fast.  You'll hit Texas in the winter, so snow is likely.  Stay warm with whiskey and a hot chick at the Recovery Room.  Keep your head down and stay away from the prior service.  And don't do anything fucking stupid private."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "Let's see how many of the commandments really went in to play in the founding of Oklahoma... \n 1)   Thou shalt have no other gods before me \n Hate to tell you this guys, but the people that were here before us...you know, the Natives...well, about that \"god\" of yours... \n 2)   Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image \n Wait, you mean, like the 10 Commandments statute?  No historical value to the state. \n 3)   Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain \n Absolutely no historical value to this state. \n 4)   Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy \n Again, no historical value to the state. \n 5)   Honor thy father and mother \n No historical value to the state. \n 6)   Thou shalt not kill \n This state was born in the blood of the Natives we either outright killed or forced off of land they inhabited first.  So, we screwed the pooch here.  I'd say this commandment just reminds us of our constant failure. \n 7)   Thou shalt not commit adultery \n Governor Fallin, anyone?  Oklahoma has a ridiculously high divorce rate, and I'd be willing to wager infidelity is pretty high on the reasons why.  No historical significance. \n 8)   Thou shalt not steal \n WE STOLE THE ENTIRE FUCKING STATE! \n 9)   Thou shalt not bear false witness \n Well fuck, maybe we should keep just this one up there to constantly remind those lying dickbags in politics just how fucked up they are in the eyes of their \"god\" \n 10)   Thou shalt not covet \n Again, we majorly fucked this up when we decided we wanted this land.  Hell, we \"idolize\" the \"Sooners\" who coveted the land so damn much, they couldn't wait until we finished brutally relocating the Natives to stake their claim.", "id": "ckpfvwa", "summary": "10 commandments has absolutely no historical value to this state."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "Simple message here kids... don't do drugs .  Now, before the ropes and pitchforks come out, let me be clear,  what you do on your own time is your business ,  until  you enter public domain, in which it becomes a matter of public interest.  If you're snorting coke in your high rise, and you  stay  in your high rise, we have no beef.  The minute you tote up and get on the road,  then  I personally want to skullfuck you for being an idiot.", "id": "ccl0227", "summary": "If you're going to do drugs, don't go out in public.  Your chances of getting pulled over decrease significantly on the couch in your living room.  Also, if you're afraid of them finding \"trace amounts\" in your system, make a big boy/girl decision and either stop doing drugs or deal with the consequences."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "Also, the article states the prescription drugs are not tested for. \n Yes, they are not going to test you for Xanax two weeks after you take it if you're prescribed Xanax.  However, if you take five Xanax \"before work\" then get in the car and drive, you  will  be arrested for DUI because, prescribed or not, you  are  driving under the influence.  Not testing for it two weeks back does  not  even imply that they won't send you to jail for DUI if you're actively impaired the moment you're pulled over. \n Ask for the \"war on tacos\", I'd direct you to the FDA on that one.  Also, [slightly relevant]( \n If you dislike the law, do something about it.  Write your Congressman.  Start a rally.  Find a lawyer willing to challenge the law, (but first, find actual grounds to challenge it).  This is how lawyers make a large name for themselves...getting involved in groundbreaking lawsuits.", "id": "ccl1we1", "summary": "Instead of whining about it on Reddit, if you don't like something, take action to change it.  Seriously, I encourage you to exercise your voice and voting authority to do something to change the things in society and government that you don't like.  If you're unwilling to do so, you lose the right to complain because you're accepting these things by your silence."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "Ok...I can't help but think these are archaic, outdated, and enforcing some bullshit stereotypes.  I'm sure you  mean  well, but here's the skinny... \n Also, before starting out here, I would like to mention that this is /r/sex, and heterosexual \"guys\" are not all you'll find here.  I realize that you probably weren't addressing the bi/homosexual crowd, and if that's the case, you should probably narrow down your topic title. \n #1   Not asking a girl about her sexual history (and the flip side, not talking about your own) can lead to the following; disappointment, triggering, unrealistic expectations, transmission of STIs, and other bad juju.  I think perhaps the proper phrasing here would be \"Don't ask a woman about her sexual history if you're squeamish and insecure\".  Now, there is no need to  glorify  your sexual past, such as \"oh I've been with 150 women and they all scream my name\" or some such bullshit, because that's just going nowhere fast.  But since honesty is  always  the best policy, if you're asked, just answer like an adult.  If you can't, you shouldn't be having sex. \n #2   Some people have fetishes where they like to be \"ridiculed\" about penis size.  I don't know how many, but they are out there.  As the saying goes, \"Never is the word gods and devils listen for when they want a laugh\". \n #3   I have successfully dated co-workers, had FWB relationships with neighbors, and have dated the ex's of both one of my best female friends (who was bi) and my cousin's ex.  While those relationships may or may not have worked out in the long run, I am still very good friends with quite a few of them.  See the above \"Never\" comment. \n #4   Me asking a woman on a date in no way, shape or form obligates me to pay for anything other than myself.  I think this form of thinking creates expectations on both sides that are not only untrue (\"oh he/I bought dinner, I/she has to sleep with him/me\").  The continuance of this thought process (i.e. the guy pays) will continue to perpetuate the \"she/I owes me/him\" thought school which is bullshit.  When I ask a woman on a date, I initially inquire about interesting things we can do with little or no cost, so that there are no expectations created.  They also tend to be more creative and enjoyable first dates. \n Relationship Truths \n Hogwash.  Saying \"women like x or women like y\" is not only generalizing, but it's like saying \"men like big tits\".  There is a better than 50% chance you're talking out of your ass.  Each individual woman likes what she likes.  Ask her and find out, and you'll have better insight in to where you're going.  Expecting a woman to like one thing or another is setting yourself up for a bad time.  I sit behind a computer playing MMO's when I'm not at work, school, or taekwondo practice, and I do just fine. \n Maybe for you past your 30's it's harder.  Getting in shape is nothing more than mind over matter in  most  cases.  If you have a weak will, then yes, it will be more difficult.  Added difficulties include physical or mental disabilities.  Again, you're generalizing, and that doesn't always work.  Additionally, some women love them some big men.  Some men love them some big women.  It's all in personal preference. \n Bullet Points \n Learning to cook  is something you should do anyway.  Everyone should be self sufficient to the point where they don't have to rely on a relationship for basic skills.  Learning to cook simply to impress women is retarded. \n Manners  should be exhibited to everyone, not just ladies.  Also, again you're generalizing.  Some women think that opening doors, pulling out chairs, etc is archaic and unwanted.  Best bet?  Ask her what she likes.  If she prefers the \"gentleman\" archtype, go with it.  If not, why bother? \n Tipping  is appropriate in certain situations.  Giving someone money before receiving service is asking to get screwed over.  Expecting any service provider to go out of their way for you within the scope of a job that includes treating all customers equally and with good service is again, nonsense. \n First dates ...seriously, who are you to determine what's appropriate for the end of a first date kiss?  Personally, a large percentage of my first dates over the last 15 years have ended in sex, simply because I'm not shy about putting my thoughts and ideas on the table.  Dating scared just holds you both back.  You don't have to be overly cautious and still be respectful.  This is 2013, men and women both enjoy sex, making out, etc.  While I'm sure this is how some women prefer a date to end, I'm willing to bet it doesn't apply to \"all\". \n Sex ...again, you're generalizing here.  Not all women enjoy the things you've mentioned.  It goes back to asking about sex/sexual history.  It's easier to find your way to treasure with a map.  And again, the whole \"if you aren't doing this, you aren't doing it right\" is such a bullshit statement.  I've been with women that are, for the most part, completely quiet and submissive during sex...and from their lips to my ears, they still enjoyed it just as much as I did. \n Your experience may vary.", "id": "cck8ut0", "summary": "OP spends a lot of time generalizing."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "My ex-wife and I were married for three years.  During the last year of our marriage, she basically became a raging bitch 3 weeks of every month, and I began to ignore her and distance myself from her.  Last May, her phone started vibrating at 2am.  Insanely curious, I looked through the texts, and found at that, at a very minimum, she had been having an emotional affair with another man (encouraging him to masturbate about her, apparently visiting him behind my back).  She swears to this day they never had a physical relationship. \n The combination of bitch + the emotional affair was too much for me, and we got a divorce because she refused to go to marriage counseling, saying she didn't have a problem.  Six days before the divorce was finalized, she showed up at my office and begged me not to go through with it, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. \n So now, seven months after the divorce, we're dating.  She has gotten help for a hormone imbalance that was causing the bitch in her to Hulk out.  We are taking things slow so that our children are not involved at this stage, and basically just spending entire weekends together.  The time we have together seems great...it seems like everything is fixed... \n Except  she is still friends with the man she had an emotional affair with, and want's me to be ok with the fact she visits him frequently... \n Except  for the fact that contact via phone or text is very sporadic, I might not hear from her for days... \n Except  for the fact that her friend called me by her son's father's name, because \"she's so used to seeing him up here with (their son).\" \n Being in love with her, I can't look at these things objectively.  I could use a little insight...should I be concerned here, or get over my insecurities? \n EDITS FOR CLARITY   She has made several apologies for the emotional affair.  She is currently being treated for the hormone issue.  We have been dating for three weeks, nothing serious, \"taking it slow\" as the situation goes along.  We do not have children together.  She is not getting any sort of support from me (I'm not paying her bills, paying for dates, etc).", "id": "t3_1ikw6s", "summary": "Ex-wife had an emotional affair, now we're dating after the divorce and certain things she is doing sets off my trust alarms.  What do, Reddit?"}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "In my original thread]( I asked how to handle \"the other man\" when attempting to reconcile a formerly adulterous relationship when she demanded that she be allowed to remain friends with the other half of her affair.  Reddit's response, simplified, was \"wtf oh hell no\". \n Since posting, I'd spoken to her about it again.  She told me that she  would  cut off all contact with him, but that she needed a few months to do it, because he still \"means a lot to J, and I'm not just going to tear him out of his life, there has been enough of that with him losing you and (my son).\"  I told her that I was ok with her taking \"a few months\" to take this man out of J's life, but that she needed to take him out of  her  life  now  if she wanted this to move forward.  She got pissed, and said that she had.  I reminded her that she had told me that she'd spoken to him \"about work\" twice in the last two weeks, and told me she had considered going to dinner with him  the day before Valentine's day .  She clammed up, got pissy, and told me I needed to quit harping on her.  So I asked her to go home for the night while I thought. \n She called me the next day, asking if I would spend Saturday with her and J, so that she could \"judge how he reacts not seeing (the other man) this weekend, and you can see it too, so you understand.\"  After finding an activity for my son for the day (I arranged for him to hang out at a friend's house for the day, after explaining a bit about the situation to his friend's mom, she was more than happy to have my son there; I simply didn't want to expose him to J again and get his hopes up with me still being so unsure). \n When I got to her house, J was ecstatic to see me, as usual (I see him about once every few months).  We spent the morning building a ramp for his guinea pig cage, then the three of us went to lunch, spent some time at the mall, and then went to a movie. \n All the time we were together, I kept waiting for J to ask his mom about \"the other man\".  The way she kept making it out, J hated going a weekend without seeing him, they were apparently  that  close (don't get me started on how much hell I've given her for exposing J to the man that destroyed our marriage, much less making him an  important  person in J's life), but it never came.  Not a peep.  His name was never mentioned.  I felt I had my answer. \n So Sunday, I confronted her about it, and there was an immediate backlash (which I kind of expected).  I got the standard \"this is all about you and what you want, you aren't even considering what J and I need, you just want everything  you  want and that's it.\"  I let her finish her rant while I sat in silence on the other end of the phone, realizing that one of two things was occurring: \n 1)  She was still seeing this man for whatever reason; or,\n2)  She was not, at this time or in the foreseeable future, going to be emotionally available or ready in the way I needed for me to make the leap of faith she was requesting. \n And so I gave her my answer, that it was obvious to me she had no intention of giving up \"the other man\" any time in the foreseeable future, and that I was not willing to risk my heart, or my son's heart, on an unknown that had such a possibility of a major destructive impact.  She began yelling and screaming and crying, saying that I didn't love her enough to trust her, that I didn't love her son, and that I probably never did, etc.  So I hung up on her mid yell.  She tried calling back several times, and after the 12th one I blocked her number. \n It kind of feels like my heart is broken all over again, but this time I think I'm really and truly done.  I honestly think I have a good chance at healing this time.  I'm going to start counseling as soon as I can find someone that I find a good rapport with, and I'm going to try and make a clean break from her completely. \n It's a small step, but one in the right direction.  Thanks for listening guys and gals.", "id": "t3_201scm", "summary": "ex-wife wanted to try again two years after her affair, but wanted to keep \"the other man\" as a \"friend\".  Finally gave her an answer, backlash ensued, blocked her from my life.  Now I'm moving forward."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "Background:   Battle is a former engineer corps soldier.  He is currently married to my sons mother.  We've been friends for about eight years.  He has served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.  During those tours he suffered a TBI, and was diagnosed with PTSD.  He was med boarded about a month ago for the TBI as well as hearing loss and nerve damage (70%.)  Currently, his family lives with me while he transitions in to civilian life and they find a place. \n Tonight he did something that really worried me.  After learning that the Bengals had lost, I came out of my room to share the news with him.  From a distance of about 10 feet, I could see him sitting on the couch in the living room, eyes open.  I spoke to him twice from a distance of about 10 feet, but received no recognition that I had spoken. \n When I closed the distance to about five feet, he snapped \"awake\" (I don't have a better term for it) and entered what I could only describe as complete fight or flight mentality.  I maintained a safe distance and tried to discern his orientation to person, place and time (he was disoriented x3.)  He was scooting back in to the corner of the sofa and gripping the cushions like his life depended on it.  His face kept alternating between what appeared to be rage and abject terror.  After about five minutes of reassuring him that he was safe and in a safe place, he finally calmed down and regained his orientation. \n My previous training and every instinct I have says that during the period in which his eyes were open but unresponsive that he was in a fugue state, as evidenced by the identity loss and apparent desire to flee the situation upon recovery.  I've counseled many soldiers with PTSD, but none with TBI added to that.  He has expressed suicidal ideation in the past, and is currently on a suicide plan (I have all of his firearms and ammunition stored off site.) \n His most recent appointment with his new doctor was postponed due to the doctors illness.  He has an appointment upcoming, but if this is a new wrinkle in his condition, I need any help I can get from those that may have or are currently experiencing or know anyone who has/is experienced this type of symptom.  We have small children in the house (and his wife,) and if he goes in to another state like this again prior to getting to the doctor, they are not going to understand that they have to keep their distance, and he may hurt them without meaning to. \n Any guidance at all is greatly appreciated.", "id": "t3_3t4pbr", "summary": "Battle is experiencing new symptoms which may be related to PTSD or TBI that could prove extremely dangerous to small children in the home, guidance requested."}, {"author": "Archammes", "content": "Incoming wall of text \n A little background...grew up in a broken/abusive home (step-dad), spent all my time taking care of/taking beatings for my mother and little brother.  Grew up strong and morally sound with a good idea of how the world worked.  By the age of 15, I was funny, athletic, and in control.  By the age of 18 I had been with plenty of females, never too long with one or the other, lots of fun and great memories, but nothing serious. \n At 24, I met my son's mother.  After nine months we moved in together.  She got pregnant, and I deployed to Iraq three months in to the pregnancy.  When I got back, my life became completely devoted to my little boy.  His mom went batshit crazy and we split, and my son lives with me.  I went back to being that funny, athletic guy who was also super dad, and again, things were great. \n In 2009 at the age of 27, I lost my fucking mind.  I white knighted a woman I knew for a fact had a history of cheating, married her, moved her in to my home, and put up with her shit for three years before finally saying enough and kicking her out and divorcing her.  Whats worse, after six months apart, we started sleeping together again and somehow I became and even bigger version of Daddy Beta Bux. \n I recently found TRP, and my eyes are open again.  The ex has been nexted, but I'm 31 now...and I have no idea how to get back to who I was.  I have all the tools...great sense of humor, athletic body, and constantly moving forward in both my personal and professional life.  But I feel like the ability to maintain frame is gone, the POF mentality has evaporated.  I have this irrational fear that I  need  a female figure on the home front for my child (which I know is bullshit, he and I have done just fine). \n How do I break out of this fog?", "id": "t3_25y68b", "summary": "Made a huge mistake, white knighted and married a bitch, free at last, looking to get back to me, facing societal implant mental blocks."}]}
+{"author": "malvoliosf", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post If companies stopped focusing on excessive short term cost cutting, there would be more applicants and increased supply would drive wages down. \n Too Long, Didn't Reflect?  Think of how insane that reasoning is.  Companies lobby Congress for years so that they can get more imported labor so that after decades lack of domestic experience will make the lobbying for more imported labor somewhat easier -- but they're \"short-sighted\".", "output": "Quite often they don't immigrate, they work and gain skills then go home. \n OK, but every day they're here, they're helping.  And when they go home, they go to countries that  trade  with the US, and contribute to our GDP that way. \n > Also, with supply and demand, you've answered the question \"How can we get people to do the work that we need done\". Obviously the answer isn't \"Pay an outrageously low salary then complain that we can't find anyone to do the work\" because that answer ignores supply and demand. \n That obviously  is  the answer.  Seems to work fine. \n > I'm sure it works out great for the company to get someone that basically can't quit for half the going wage though. \n They certainly can quit if they feel like it, 13th Amendment.  Sometimes, they have to go home.  There's disadvantages to quiting any job. \n > Of course the bigger problem is that for every H1-B that doesn't stay here, we lose out on experience. \n They don't live on  Mars .  They continue to contribute to the world economy. \n > The less experience permanent residents get the more companies can complain that they can't find someone to do the work because they are essentially artificially decreasing the number of skilled applicants. \n Yeah, that's the same reason oil companies hate oil wells: wells deprive them of an excuse to import oil. \n >"}], "user_id": "longlamp_12445", "history": [{"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "I don't get the whole \"oh, we must save every language, dialect, accent, and bit of slang.\"  Hundreds of thousands of cultures have risen and fallen over the course of human history and for most of them, I can't say I care. \n Like these two.  Even if they were the best of friends, even if they managed to pass on their languages and traditions and heritage on to their descendents... so?  I mean, they aren't Mycenaean Greece.  They aren't have an effect on human civilization as a whole. \n Think I'm being insensitive?  Read the article again.  Does the author express the slight regret that the women themselves are going to die?  Does anyone?  Nope, it's just the fact that some trivial arcana is going to die with them, that's supposedly the real tragedy.", "id": "c2m8t68", "summary": "Every human, and everything made by humans, will die some day, get over it."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "GW has been studied and modelled since the mid-20th century, and the predictions have been pretty damn accurate (though somewhat offset by the effects of global dimming). \n [ facepalm ] \n You realize every bit of flimflammery that gets caught says something like that?  Oh, it was Mt Pinatubo or the sun was in my eyes or something? \n > Climate is not weather. Predicting the weather for the next month is much more difficult that predicting the global climate over the next decade \n Uh, OK, predict the global climate over the next decade. \n Or  anything .  I don't want to hear about how convinced  you  are or how many other people you've convinced. I want a  testable prediction .  I want you to say something, anything, and then I want to be able to stand out on my porch with a thermometer or a stopwatch or a rock or  something  and say, that dagummit, that Fakaff was right. \n > You can't form an opinion out of misinformation \n Have I cited any information, mis- or otherwise?  All I have done is insist on the same level of verifiability I would for any other technical subject. \n > Even the best scientists would fail your challenge \n Really?  You don't think chemists can predict a chemical reaction?  You don't think biologists can tell if something is a poison? \n I had a very formative experience when I was a small boy.  I talked to an expert in number theory who chortled that when he was in school, number theory was considered beautifully useless but now all his work was classified (his particular area was the factoring of the products of very large primes).", "id": "c3dbvb0", "summary": "Every scientist can produce a testable result.  Every charlatan has an explanation for why his particular brand of nonsense shouldn't have to produce a testable result. \n There's no third category."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "It appears as if you have made the consumer count the €15 twice \n No, I thought  you  were trying to do that.  If you're not, I don't know what you are trying to do. \n > on top of the €35 (which includes the prostitute's opportunity cost and discomfort) to make €50 \n No, that €15 is profit to the hooker.  Sorry, my fault, I should have used different numbers to make that clearer. \n Here are the two number I  think  you are trying to compare: \n The costs of the encounter: \n \n €20 opportunity-cost  \n €15 \"miscellaneous unpleasantness cost (billed by hooker) \n €15 hooker profit \n €15 \"miscellaneous unpleasantness cost (understood by john) \n \n That totals  €65, which is more than the €60 that the john values the fuck at, so the transaction does not occur.  But, yes, that unpleasantness cost is accounted for twice.  If you (properly) omit the second bill, the transaction only costs its €50 list price, which is less than than the €60 it willing to pay, so it the transaction  should  occur. \n > one can concede that there is a possibility for one to make a better judgement than another even though they aren't onself \n There's a  possibility , but it's a rare and remote possibility. \n Consider yourself.  How often do you think someone else, say me, could make better decisions for you than you can yourself? \n > one's actions are rarely free, especially in low-level occupations where one has little bargaining power \n No, quite the opposite.   True  compulsion, in the economic sense, is a rarity.  If a man has a gun to your head, you are free to tell him to shoot you.  If you are in a burning building, you are free to remain there and burn to death.  You just don't like the consequences. \n That may sound callous, but look at it the opposite way.  Bob is on the second floor of a burning building.  If he jumps, he will break his leg. \n I, a libertarian, says, \"Well, he's choosing to jump.\" \n Sally, an \"orthopedic activist\", points out that, in another sense, in  your  sense, he isn't \"choosing\" to jump, the fire is forcing him to jump.  Therefore, to save Bob from a broken leg, she will have the government board the window up. \n The analogy is exact.  Bob (the prostitute) is faced with two unpleasant, but clearly distinguishable alternatives: a broken leg or burning to death (prostitution or destitution).  Sally (the law) attempts to remove his  preferred  solution. \n If you seriously think that prostitution is a poor life-choice (a highly defensible position imo), you can provide a metaphorical ladder: offer the prostitute some preferable alternative to prostitution.  What you cannot (ethically) do is interfere with the choices she does make. \n > the unease could be detrimental to the pleasure one derives from sex, and would actually result in the value of the service being lower, so one can't completely extricate the factor of one's consideration of others' from the perspective of oneself. \n Well, I'd like to dispute that but the truth is, it's one of the main reasons I don't sleep with hookers: it just seems so goddam depressing to be paying these semi-literate farm-girls a few pennies to let me hump them. \n The result of that unease though, is that those poor girls are even worse off.", "id": "c3dryd6", "summary": "I feel guilty for not sleeping with Bangkok bargirls. \n > i'll make the point anyway that a person in a sweatshop or other labor arrangements where the employer has a disproportionate amount of bargaining power is willing to work for their terms \n Sigh. \n Really, is there a school for such misinformation?  Because I hear the same catechism over and over, and it's just obviously not true. \n Imagine a coffee-plantation worker laboring in the field for $1 a day.  Who has more power, the worker or the plantation owner? \n I'm guessing you would say the owner, in which case, I would make an unpleasant buzzing sound and a lame joke about lovely parting gifts. \n Assume that you are right, that the owner  does  have more power than the worker.  Further assume that the owner is motivated not be a deviant love of power, but by a more ordinary reason: greed.  The owner wants more money. \n So  why  is he paying $1 an day?  Why not pay 99¢ a day?  It's a free penny.  The owner would have to give up a tiny smidgen of power (since the worker is slightly less motivated to work) but the owner gets what he wants, more money. \n And why stop there?  Why not pay 98¢ or 97¢?  While there is the slightest power disparity, a rational, greedy employer would expend it to drive down wages. \n And that's exactly what happens.  Whenever you see a transaction taking place, it's because the \"power\" is equalized. \n > A person might work in normatively \"unfair\" conditions might receive, say, $4 an hour for 12 hours a day \n You see, that's why I don't let my kids use the f-word (\"fair\").  Why is $4 an hour fair or unfair?  Should a diamond miner be paid more than a coal miner because they are more productive?  Or should the coal miner be paid more because his job is more dangerous? \n Your word \"normatively\" just points out that there is no norm!  A lot of people I know would kill for a $4 an hour job (a few of them literally). \n > since they have little to no bargaining power their wages wouldn't increase even though their employers would gain more profit \n If that happens, so what?  If you buy something at the store and enjoy it more than you expected, do you rush back to the store to pay extra?  I'm guessing you don't, even though you are profiting extra from the labor of the grocer.  Why should an employer who purchases suddenly more-productive labor pay more but you who buys a surprisingly delicious orange does not? \n > Sure, if it's just two people in the middle of nowhere, your analysis may apply. But that is rarely the case within social dynamics consisting of multiple agents with varying degrees of power. \n Nope.  Same analysis always applies.  Actually, the more agents there are, the closer the free market comes to a perfect market.  In small numbers, there's always an element of game theory, it's easier for one party to manipulate the flow of information, and so on."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. \n Look at it this way: a ordinarily fertile women is only fertile about 1 day out of 7 -- and lots of women aren't fertile at all.  So, in only about 10% all rapes is the woman becoming pregnant a biological possibility. \n Then in many rapes, there isn't insemination: the rapist doesn't ejaculate, or doesn't ejaculate in the right place.  In our  CSI  -watching world, many rapist even use condoms. \n And of course, post-attack contraception is routine, as is hormonal or other long-term contraception. \n So  maybe  1% of the time, a woman is raped during her fertile time and actually inseminated and there's no birth-control.  Maybe. \n And those are the circumstances in which an  ordinary  couple, wishing to have a baby, would have sex.  How likely is a pregnancy then? \n About 1 in 30.", "id": "c60ator", "summary": "the article is off by probably two orders of magnitude."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "Uh, no, you're not. \n Well, that may be over-broad, but let me share a personal anecdote.  I was on some forum many years ago, when someone praised the crew of [Flight 232](  I pointed out that more than a third of the passengers on that flight were killed, at which point a dozen pilots on the thread jumped in to assert that the  expected  level of fatalities given the amount of damage the aircraft sustained was 100%.  Someone even posted a link to a video of the PIC receiving a standing ovation from a convention of fellow pilots a year or two later. \n So, yes, in a technical area, I would be extremely reluctant (now) to criticize the performance of an expert whenever I wouldn't even qualify as a beginner. \n My only criticism of God is that He doesn't exist.  If He did exist, I would have to assume that everything that He did made sense, even if I couldn't understand it.", "id": "c35lbz7", "summary": "God moves in mysterious ways."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "OK, the guy claims \n \n claims to have been in a war that happened 70 years ago -- making him at least in his early 90s. \n wearing memorabilia from a service that didn't even exist during that war \n claims to have been shot at with munitions that hadn't been invented yet \n discussed the charms of the occupants of a country that didn't have an US air base until much later", "id": "c50ry0p", "summary": "that old guy saw less action in WWII than your mom."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "when we are given factual information we need to analyse if there is any bias on the part of the presenter. \n No.  If Adolf Hitler rose from the grave to tell you, \"PETA shelters have an 86% kill rate\", it would exactly as true as if you got the fact from Mother Teresa.  It is  not  a legitimate tactic to attack the source of the information, only its veracity. \n Also, why exactly are Outback and cattle-ranchers -- who provide me with tasty and healthful food every day -- somehow less reliable than well-known lunatics like PETA? \n >", "id": "cq8zt5r", "summary": "It never hurts to practice small amounts of skepticism. \n I would agree with that."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "From [Wikipedia]( \n > Concurrent administration of P-glycoprotein inhibitors such as quinidine and its other isomer quinine (although much higher doses must be used), PPIs like omeprazole (Prilosec OTC) and even black pepper (piperine as the active ingredient) could potentially allow loperamide to cross the blood–brain barrier. It should however be noted that only quinidine with loperamide was found to produce respiratory depression, indicative of central opioid action. \n > Many physicians and pharmacists believe that loperamide does not cross the blood–brain barrier. In fact, however, loperamide does cross this barrier, although it is immediately pumped back out into non–central nervous system (CNS) circulation by P-glycoprotein. While this mechanism effectively shields the CNS from exposure (and thus risk of CNS addiction) to loperamide, many drugs are known to inhibit P-glycoprotein and may thus render the CNS vulnerable to opiate agonism by loperamide. \n > Only when very high doses are taken does enough accumulate in the brain to produce typical opioid effects, lasting for a number of hours (just as typical opioids would).", "id": "c5qn7a9", "summary": "Imodium plus Prilosec gets you high^high^high"}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "That simply isn't true.  Kodak worked very hard to succeed in digital imaging.  They had the largest digital-fulfillment house in the world (Ofoto); they made the most popular consumer-level digital cameras (the Kodak EasyShare line). \n But there just isn't much money in fulfillment and Kodak doesn't know how to make reliable consumer electronics.   Sic transit gloria mundi.", "id": "cjv488h", "summary": "Davecasa doesn't know what he's talking about."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "Sigh. \n Yes, I know it \"fits\" the narrative, but I was there, and I saw what happened. \n Kodak's initial forays into digital photography were not promising.  The cameras were clunky and expensive, and produced tiny, grainy images.   They actually released a few models, which were not well received. \n But Kodak could see the obvious as well as anyone and made a serious, and partly successful attempt to jump from chemical to digital imaging.  They purchased an online photofinishing company called Ofoto (I was the UI dev manager) and renamed it Kodak Gallery; they created a \"sub-brand\" of cameras, printers, docks, and electronic picture frames called EasyShare, which was very successful for a while.  Kodak Gallery was shut down last year, but EasyShare still limps along.", "id": "c7y2u2k", "summary": "Kodak didn't keep anything secret, but its executives were ultimately unable to teach the rhino to tapdance."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "Wow.  I always thought of myself as more judgmental then most people. \n 80 is certainly a high number.  Now that  may  be a symptom of a real problem -- but then it might now. \n You aren't marrying this guy tomorrow, are you?  Take some time to get to know him and find out  why  he's had so many partners.  Maybe he's a sex-addict with low self-esteem.  Maybe he's just a charming guy with a long lucky streak.  Maybe anything.  If you like the guy otherwise, try to find out.", "id": "c4raghn", "summary": "yellow flag, at worst. \n For you: one guy every six months?  Doesn't sound that bad."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "Huh.  I thought while watching this, \"These guys are pretty much the shittiest soldiers on Earth.  They don't know how to detain civilians, they never try to hold the high ground, they have no sense of terrain or enfilade/defilade, they retreat pell-mell without a rear guard.\" \n One scene they have finally managed to contact their base, after hours of comm trouble.  The CO is asleep, so the SEAL wait  on hold  while someone goes to wake him up.  How about, \"Send someone to wake him up.  Meanwhile, I'm going to give you our position and sitrep so you can send reinforcements and we don't all die on this hill.\"", "id": "chpxfzc", "summary": "apparently sailors make bad soldiers."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "Jesus, you must have the lowest self-esteem in the world. \n Nyssa, you are a human being.  You are entitled to a sex life: to being held and being loved.  Somehow, you have gotten a husband who has forgotten all his hubandly duties, not just sleeping with you but caring for you and making you feel protected and worthwhile. \n You deserve better, a better husband, a better bedmate, a better life.", "id": "c3tdzcg", "summary": "DTMFA \n (Dump The MotherFucker Already)"}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "In the back of a pickup truck on the road to Yangon I talked to an MSF physician named Sidney, a Chinese guy who looked to be about 12 years old but told me he was 30.  He had spent the last three months in up-country Burma, he was now rotating home.  I thought: wow, MSF is great. \n Before he could go home (to Hong Kong), he had to fly to Geneva -- about 20,000 miles out of his way -- for a two-hour debriefing with his section manager or something.  They wouldn't do it by phone or Skype.  I thought: wow, MSF sucks.", "id": "c3brn7k", "summary": "your donation may not have done any more good than prayer.  Didn't do any less, of course."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "Monkeys are the worst animals in the worst, and [Ubud]( monkeys are the worst fucking monkeys.  Snotty and mean and spoiled. \n I was there with my wife and one female monkey wouldn't leave my wife alone, and kept on putting her paw in my wife's pocket.  \"What do you have in there?\" \n \"Just a packet of tissues.\" \n \"Let the monkey have it.\"  It seemed like the easiest way to deal with the problem, so my wife stood still and let herself be pick-pocketed. \n The packet was open and the first tissue was sticking out.  The monkey pulled it out and was impressed that a second tissue automatically popped out next.  She pulled that one too.  A third of course came up.  She started pulling more out in rapid succession. \n You don't have to be a monkey-ologist to know what she was thinking: with this much packaging, whatever is inside must be  really  good.  She snatched out tissue after tissue, getting more and more excited. \n Once she passed the halfway point, though, you could tell she was getting suspicious.  Is this some sort of prank?  Just wrapping, no present? \n She pulled out the last tissue and was left with only the plastic wrapper.  Tricked!  The monkey went bananas.  She hooted and hopped around on all fours and screeched at us, while we laughed out heads off.", "id": "cpm146q", "summary": "Fuck you, monkey!"}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "I've got you all beat, because the bodily fluids  aren't the worst part . \n I was staying in a hotel room with my wife and two daughters.  In the middle of the night, my wife got her period and bled copiously into the sheets.  She woke up and instead of, oh I don't know,  cleaning it up , went to the other bed, with the two girls. \n Of course, now that bed was crowded, so the littler girl, about four, came into bed with me.  A little while later, she had a bad dream and wet the bed.  She went back to sleep on the floor. \n When I woke up, I was basically swimming in blood and urine not my own. \n I tried to be philosophical about it: \"Well, nothing worse is going to happen to me all day.\" \n And I turned on the TV, got the news from CNN: there had been a market correction that morning and I had lost over $2 million and we were now penniless.", "id": "c4175f9", "summary": "no matter how bad things get, they aren't as bad as they're about to be."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "That's just not true.  Many safety measures do not have their intended effects, because of some combination of \n \n people overestimating their efficacy, or \n [people re-balancing their cost/benefit calculations]( now that the cost has gone down. \n \n Imagine you had a small town where no contraceptives whatsoever were available.  In that town, 100 couples who did not want to have children decided to risk it and just have sex anyway. \n The town would likely see about 85 unwanted pregnancies in a year. \n After a year, though, the town government wised up, and decided to provide free condoms to everyone on request. \n The next year,  1000  couples decided to go ahead and have regular sex. \n First, I want to ask you: does this increase sound plausible to you?  I think I would be 10x more likely to have penetrative sex if I had some protection from pregnancy and STDs than if I didn't, but other people might feel differently. \n Second, what effect do you think the introduction of condoms into this town have on unwanted pregnancies? \n In fact, the CDC says condoms have about [an 18% real-world failure rate]( so there would be 180 pregnancies that year. \n A fire extinguisher just caused the number of fires to more than double. \n (This is not to criticize condoms, of course: 1800 more people are having meaningful sex lives in my story, and that is a very good thing.)", "id": "cfbejg8", "summary": "don't believe everything you hear on Comedy Central."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "I think you are  way  overestimating the diligence of the IRS. \n The IRS doesn't consist of a enormous army of clerks cross-checking paperwork and calling taxpayers with news like \"Is this Bob Average Jr?  Well, this is Millie from the IRS and  you remember that car you claimed to donate the First United Church of Satan?  Well, we noticed that the title is made out to Bob Average  Sr. , so we're going to go ahead and invalidate that deduction?\" \n In fact, it's a medium-sized army of clerks cross-checking paperwork who call taxpayers and say, \"This is Millie from the IRS and we notice you haven't paid any taxes for the last eight years so you're going to jail.\" \n You will need your father to sign over the title to the car-donation people.  They  do  check paperwork; not so much because of taxes but they don't want to be in the car-theft business.  I would not recommend that you just sign his name; the odds against getting caught are astronomical, but it is a crime. \n Keep the receipt; if you ever do get audited (odds about 100-to-1 against), just tell the IRS guy the story.  He'll might disallow it (since you didn't declare the car as income when you got it, arguably you shouldn't be allowed to deduct it -- OTOH, there's no tax on gifts between family members of less than IIRC $10,000 a year), but you probably won't be in any kind of trouble.", "id": "c39fxch", "summary": "just donate it and deduct it \n (IANAL nor an accountant -- just my understanding of tax law.)"}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "Why I Stopped Going To Strip-Bars \n I was at a Déjà Vu in horrible, horrible Seattle.  I need you to picture the scene: I'm at a table, the statutory four-foot-minimum from the stage.  On the stage, a silicon-enhanced, totally naked woman is sitting on the floor tucking her leg behind her head.  I'm thinking, her gynecologist gets paid to see her like this and probably enjoys it more.  At least he feels professional curiosity.  There's another dancer sitting next to me.  She has pulled her breasts out of her brassiere and they are drooping on to the table top.  She has burn marks on her fingers and little dabs of make-up covering sores near her mouth. \n A waitress comes by.  Compared to the dancers she is fresh and pretty.  She gives me a shy smile and when she bends to put my drink on the table, her white dress shirt gapes open just enough to let me see the lacy edge on her girlish bra.  I think about what it would be like to be her boyfriend.  On nice days, we could walk along the waterfront, maybe even kayak on Elliot Bay.  In the winter we'd drive up to Snohomish and ski.  I'd always nag her to quit the waitressing job at that dangerous shithole she works and maybe get her old job at the bookstore back.  She'd shrug in that irresistible way of hers and repeat that the bar was the only way she could afford U-Dub out-of-state tuition.  I'd kiss her and tell her to be careful and think how lucky it was that no one but me, who loves her and cares about her, ever saw her naked. \n I pay for the drink but don't touch it and just hurry out of there.", "id": "c48tw0e", "summary": "a fantasy about the only clothed woman in a bar."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "Selling crack clearly does have significant, negative externalities, whereas insider trading (though immoral) does not generate realizable externalities. \n Two falsehoods. \n Selling crack does  not  have externalities.   Taking  crack might lead to other actions (like stealing car radios) that have externalities, but there is an intervening moral agent (the crackhead) and a series of intervening actions. \n Insider trading inherently make the market less liquid, since the buyer or seller of any stock cannot know for certain that his counter-party is not trading on insider information.  (Of course, insider trading has the corresponding benefit that it makes the price more accurate, since more information is being brought into the market -- which is why it is legal in some countries.)", "id": "c9w5y4l", "summary": "laws against insider trading are defensible on a practical level; laws against controlled substances are not."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "What should you do?  Well, for one thing, [never talk to cops](  Now it's too late, but next time, keep your cake hole sealed. \n Going forward, you say \"charged\". \n Do you mean the police have charged you with vandalism?  It will never stick, there's no connection between what you have (foolishly) admitted to doing and the damage done.  Of course, just being charged, even with a misdemeanor, is a huge hassle. \n The police charged you with some offense directly connected to what you confessed to doing?  Well, you're probably screwed there.  If shooting a BB gun in city limits or whatever is a crime, you're going to have to pay the fine. \n The owner of the car wants to be reimbursed for the window?  Eh, screw him, let him take you to court.  He spoiled (or allow police to spoil) evidence, he has no case. \n Also, you didn't actually do it.  I suppose it isn't impossible that your BB could crack the window, but even that is incredibly unlikely (go down to the junk-yard and pay the attendant a few bucks to let you take a shot at some derelict Honda and you'll see -- videotape yourself doing it and you can even show the Pilot's owner).  It's absolutely impossible that BB would make \"a 1ft hole\" in a piece of auto glass.  A rifle round couldn't do that.", "id": "c34syut", "summary": "stupid enough to play with a BB gun in his back yard, stupid enough to admit it to a cop, still probably OK"}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "Yeah, I have to say, kinda. \n A friend of mine told me his cat had gone blind and subsequently died from eating buckshot in a dead duck it had found.  He also mentioned that he fed the cat dog food. \n I didn't tell him that cat food is spiked with taurine, an amino acid dogs (and people and most other animals) can make themselves, and cats who don't get enough taurine go blind and then die.", "id": "chqo8dg", "summary": "my friend killed his cat by feeding it dog-food."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "The problem isn't immigrants taking our jobs; our jobs are going overseas \n Anyone who says things like \"our jobs are going overseas\" is  ipso facto  an idiot. \n I realize that category includes, at last count, almost everybody but jeez, try, for  one minute  to use your head for something other than a hat-rack. \n Look at \"Robert\" (real name, Anatharajan), working at a call center for MegaAmericaCorp.  Robert is not working there out of the goodness of his heart; he's doing it for the money.  MegaAmericaCorp has to pay him. \n Of course,  MegaAmericaCorp has only dollars to pay him with, so for Robert's salary to  mean  anything, he (or someone else in India he has traded those dollars to) has to buy something  made in America .  He buys software or a movie ticket or a car or a loaf of American bread or  something .  He's not working for free and by demanding to be paid, he's necessarily creating a job for an American.", "id": "c4ky2yx", "summary": "trade necessarily benefits both side.  Econ 101."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "Tom introduced himself, trying to do everything they taught him to do.  Establish rapport, evaluate the subject, project confidence.  \"How are you?\" He held out his hand, his efforts to keep it from shaking making it shake worse. \n The woman, Lisa, looked searchingly around the room as if the answer to the banal question were to be found printed somewhere on the battered government-issue furniture or in the peeling paint of the walls.  \"I'm...\" She paused, almost helpless in the grip of tragedy.  She's gorgeous, thought Tom, tragic and beautiful.  I used to dream of women like her.  If I don't any more, it's only because I've given up. \n Her exquisite lips opened, paused.  \"I'm fine,\" was all she said.", "id": "c7mprtc", "summary": "focus on character, not detail."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "There have been over five trillion days when not a single human being has died.  Not many of them has occurred since humans evolved. \n When was the last such day?  The human life-cycle (from birth to birth) is from 4000 to 6000 days, so you would expect that when the stable population becomes over about 12,000, days without deaths become rare.  By 100,00 they are anomalous.  That is so far back in prehistory, there would be legitimate debate about whether the people shuffling around were even human. \n A better question is when there was last a  minute  when no one died.  It takes a population around 100 million to make that \"impossible\"; the world passed that marker at 500 B.C., roughly the era of the Battle of Thermopylae.", "id": "cmn99xq", "summary": "the day the 300 Spartans died, there might have been a minute no one died in the whole world. \n \"Tonight, we dine  in Hell!   Alone.\""}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "You are required to identify yourself to an officer if you were lawfully detained. \n Once, I would like a cop to  underestimate  his authority, rather than overestimate it. \n Yes, I am required to identify myself, but in California, I am  not  required to show ID. \n >  I am curious as to how you know they did not look at the video. \n It was in possession of the security guards of a building.  They wouldn't give it to me, and the police wouldn't ask for it. \n > Did that officer you speak to not look at it, or was it the detective assigned the case that didn't look at it? \n The inspector assigned didn't look at it (or interview me or take any other action AFAIK). \n > Misconduct? Depends on your interpretation. Laziness? Maybe. \n Yes, laziness.  I.e., he wasn't doing the only thing I was paying him to do. \n > I see nothing about an assault in anything you mentioned. \n Seriously?  You think a person can just walk up to another person and put his hands all over him and take out his wallet and it's  not  assault?  Are you sure you're a cop? \n > If this is in regards to violation during a cycling event, you are once again confronted with an officer that either does not know the law very well \n Ignorance of the law is no excuse.  Making threats against a person to get him to relinquish a Constitution right is a Federal felony -- whether you know the law or not. \n >> ...that I should show ID when stopped (you'd be wrong), \n > You need to provide me the country and state in which you live in and I'll find you the violation you are committing. \n You don't know what the law is, but you're confident I'm breaking it? \n San Francisco, California.  There no law requiring me to possess or display an identity card. \n >>  From my last six cases, in three the police disgraced themselves, and in only one did they justify their existence. \n > You provided no evidence of disgrace. \n I find assaults and threats disgraceful.  If you don't, that speaks volumes. \n > You simply didn't like how the situation was handled. \n Uh, OK.   83% of the time, the situation is not handled to the satisfaction of the taxpayer.   Do you find that an acceptable situation? \n > Anecdotal evidence is not and should not be enough for anyone to draw a conclusion until it is recorded and statistics can be drawn from it. \n But, as you've seen, people who record it find themselves in jail. \n > You provided 6 anecdotal cases (poor ones at that) that attempt to prove your point. \n No .  I provided my own last six experiences, good and bad.  And my previous dozen experiences were the same. Unless I am bizarrely unrepresentative, police are by and large a waste of oxygen, to say nothing of money. \n >  More than 6 of people attempting to kill me. \n Just out of curiosity, are those just anecdote, or when it happens to you, is it evidence? \n > I don't brag about these accomplishments. \n Some ought to, because the evidence I'm actually seeing is of police doing this opposite. \n >  We're subject to several psychological disorders by the mere fact that we go to work. \n That one  I buy. \n > We arrived on people's worst day. \n In many many cases, it's because you arrived. \n > People like you brand us all as a murderer, civil rights violator, rapist, and/or assailant. \n You  weren't there.  If you say you personally would have acted differently, then I'll take you at your word.  If you say you would have done the same thing, then you've confessed. \n > You admit to being wrong and yet when a cop lectured you (when you may have needed it) you get mad. \n I ran a red, endangering only myself and barely that.  I didn't make threats, I didn't assault anyone, and I didn't collect my salary while not doing my job. \n >", "id": "cak72m2", "summary": "Need more information \n Focus on two cases where the cops were actually criminals instead of just lazy time-servers.  Each case, the cop wanted to see my driver's license, even though I wasn't driving.  In one case, the cop put his hands on me, took my wallet, and searched it; in the other case (since I didn't have pockets), the cop raved and threatened, and then unlawfully detained me. \n Both of those are crimes.  Crimes crimes crimes.  With jail time.  Is there anything you don't understand?"}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "I would not worry about this  at all . \n First, in no English-speaking jurisdiction is it possible to slander the dead.  It just isn't possible. \n In 1980,  writer Charles Higham accused Errol Flynn, who was only 20 years in his grave at that point, of being a Nazi spy.  His daughters sued, but the suit was immediately dismissed. (The preposterous allegation became part of the plot of  Rocketeer .) \n From a legal standpoint, you could publish that Brittany Murphy ate kittens and Leonard Nimoy was behind 9/11 and their estates would be helpless to stop you.  (You'd still be a wanker though). \n Second, you cannot really slander someone in fiction.  There has been exactly one lawsuit for libel-in-fiction in the US: an (otherwise unmemorable) episode of _ Law & Order  doing something evil that the lawyer could definitively prove he didn't do.  In that case, the guy (a) was alive, (b) was a lawyer, and (c) got into court but so far as I can tell, never collected a dime. \n Third, while the estates do maintain a certain amount of control over the use of \"name and likeness\" -- every time you buy an Albert Einstein bobble-head doll, his heir, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gets a nickel -- putting a famous dead person in a work of fiction without permission is, so far as I can tell, actionable nowhere in the Western world.  In the US, what control there is extends only to commercial speech (advertising, endorsements, bobble-head dolls, and such) and even that terminates within 100 years of death.", "id": "cqahu4d", "summary": "Don't worry about it at all."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "At a job interview, the interviewer introduced himself, with a heavy French accent, as \"gyee\".  I asked him how that was spelled and he answered \"G-I-L-L-E-S\". \n \"Oh,\" I said, happy to have a touchstone for the conversation.  \"Like Gilles de Rais.\"  The interviewer just looked puzzled.  Without thinking, I blurted out, \"You know, the serial ... aide-de-camp to Joan of Arc.\"", "id": "c3808ro", "summary": "pro-tip: if you want the job, don't compare the interviewer to a famous mass-murderer of children. \n (Incidentally, Vincent Cassel played him in the 1999 [movie version]("}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "People always say that, as if jury duty were the civic equivalent of stepping in dogshit. \n I don't get it.  I've had jury duty a few times.  It's been interesting, see what's going on in other people's lives, learn about the workings of the law, having some influence over important events.", "id": "c3alsd6", "summary": "why do people dodge jury duty to stay home and watch reality TV?"}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "TIFU by telling my Granny when and where I was having a job interview. \n That is  not  how you fucked up.  As someone who has hired a lot of people, I can tell you all the ways you fucked up. \n \n By getting flustered.  You have to learn to remain calm in a crisis.  Take a deep breath, close your eyes, whatever.  Find what works for you.  An employee who is no good in a pinch is an employee who is not much good at all. \n By acting deceitfully.  You were trying to create a dishonest picture of yourself, in this case as someone who did not have nutty grandma.  If you had faced the problem squarely, even if you didn't solve it, you would have impressed the interviewer (and the receptionist and a bunch of other people who have input into the hiring process) as the kind of forthright person that is pleasant and profitable to work with. \n Most important, by prioritizing your career over your family.  That doesn't just look bad; it  is  bad.  If you had spoken to the receptionist  (\"My grandmother is getting eccentric in her old age.  I sorry to have to ask, but could you keep an eye on her\") or the manager (\"I will need to reschedule; as I'm sure you have heard, I have a family issue I have to deal with\"), you may or may not have gotten the job, but you would have gotten their respect -- and more vitally, you would not have mistreated your grandmother.", "id": "cm44drv", "summary": "Don't act like that towards your granny."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "Wow, it really amazes me the number of people who think that anything is OK so long as Big Brother is watching. \n If prostitution should be \"regulated and secured\", why shouldn't  your  sex life be regulated and secured. \n If the government is such a genius at making good cost-benefit tradeoffs, why is prostitution illegal  know ?  Why are the morons who think vice laws are such a brilliant idea suddenly going to become competent just because judge have made them stop their current idiocy?", "id": "c456r7g", "summary": "anyone stupid enough to  outlaw  prostitution is too stupid to be trusted to  regulate  prostitution."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "Not to disparage Vince Coleman, but how good were his odds anyway?  Would you let a hundred or a thousand people die to increase your own chance of survival from 1% to 2%, especially knowing that, if you live, you will have to live with the memory?  I wouldn't and I am not particularly bold. \n There is a widespread belief that in case of disaster, people turn into madding brutes, unable to think of anything but their own survival and of that, not clearly or rationally. \n Yes, people  startle , and often don't react well until given a few minutes, and people certainly flee when fleeing seems like a good idea, but no, people do not fundamentally change  in extremis . \n There is a clip, taken from a few blocks away, of the North Tower coming down.  As the debris cloud nears, you can hear the videographer saying, \"I hope I don't die, I hope I don't die\" over and over.  He is afraid, he genuinely believes (with good reason) he is about to die, but he doesn't scream, he doesn't panic, and  he doesn't put the camera down. \n Similarly, watch footage of the 2006 tsunami.  People run, because running is a good idea, but when they are at a safe height, they discuss options in rational tones, they pull each other to safety, they express concern for strangers.", "id": "cql5ok2", "summary": "we are all Patrick Vincent Coleman."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "The ex-head of the Iraqi Air Force under Hussein went on the Daily Show and told Jon Stewart that  he  thought that his side had been developing WMDs, that his airplanes had evacuated several dozen tons of  something  to Syria, and that if Hussein had ordered WMDs to be developed, then at the very least, his subordinates would have constructed a Potemkin-Village-like program rather than try to talk him out of it.", "id": "c37t6ti", "summary": "Saddam Hussein probably  thought  Saddam Hussein had WMDs."}, {"author": "malvoliosf", "content": "It turns out that  half  the world's proven fossil-fuel reserves lie,\nnot in Saudi Arabia or off the coast of Norway, but a mere 300 meters\nunder [Federal lands in western Colorado and eastern\nUtah](\nIn many ways, this discovery may change the economic and political landscape of the\n21st Century and not all of those ways are good. \n Anu K. Mittal, the General Accounting Office's director of natural resources and environment\ntold the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment: \n > While large-scale oil-shale development offers socioeconomic\n> opportunities it also poses certain socioeconomic challenges that\n> also should not be overlooked.  Oil shale development like other\n> extractive industries can bring a sizable influx of workers who\n> along with their families put additional stressed on local\n> infrastructure. Development from expansion of extractive industries\n> has historically followed a boom-and-bust cycle making planning for\n> growth difficult for local governments. \n In general, the GAO is the one part of the US government that is good\nat math, but this is just moronic. \n The dollar value of the petroleum that could be extracted from Green\nRiver totals about  ten times our national debt , but Ms Mittal is\nwhingeing about inconvenience local bureaucrats?  How about this, Anu:\nwe pay every resident of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming  one million\ndollars  to get out of those states and never come back?  Or at least\nto just sit there and not complain about \"stressed local\ninfrastructure\"?  Because that would cost less than 2% of the value of\nthe shale.  The resident of Alaska get a paltry $1800 a year and they\nstand around and cheer the rape of their beautiful state like\nbar-goers in  The Accused . \n What are the  real  challenges of this discovery? \n Well, one is purely technological.  This is  shale , not crude oil.\nRight now, it's quite expensive to turn shale into gasoline.  On the\nother hand, when I was a kid, getting oil from under 3 miles of water\nand 10 more miles of rock was considered outright impossible. I'm sure\nin a few years, squeeze the oil out of oil-shale will be as routine as\nsqueeze peanut oil out of peanuts. \n Another problem -- the one the average Redditor probably thought of\nfirst -- is pollution.  Expensive gas encourages people to \"do the\nright thing\": take mass-transportation or walk or bicycle instead of\ndriving, to recycle plastics, and so on. \n But pollution is a problem of  externalities .  That is, the person\nwho burns a gallon of gas doesn't  pay  for that gas; that is, it pays\nthe cash price but he only suffers a tiny fraction of the damage that\nthe burning does to the environment.  That cost is spread among\neverybody in his city or even on his planet.  He pays only a fraction\nof the price but reaps all of the benefit; naturally, he'll\nover-consume.  Essentially, we all subsidize driving by giving drivers\na free airshed they can dump their pollutants into. \n The oligopoly pricing of oil, in a crude and inefficient way,\ncounteracts that subsidy.  By keeping oil prices high -- by tacking\nthe cost of palaces for Saudi princes and tanks for Venezuelan\ndictators onto the price of a gallon of gasoline -- the importation of\noil keeps oil consumption in check. \n But this too is a technological problem.  Why  is  polluting the air\nfree?  Simply because we  choose  not to charge for it.  Until\nrecently, we weren't choosing not to charge, we actually couldn't do it.\nNow, however, the technology certainly exists to install, for\nnegligible cost, sensors on every smokestack and tailpipe that would\nreport back to a taxing agency. \n So you want to drive your poorly-maintained SUV to Disneyland with the\nair-conditioning on and the windows open?  Fine, your choice, but\nyou'll have to pay the bill for all that CO2 and NO2 and sulfur and\nparticulates you're dumping in the air that other people have to\nbreathe.  Bet a staycation is starting to sound a lot better now,\nain't it? \n What I'm saying is, the pollution problem, although a real one, is a\n solvable  problem. \n The real,  real  challenge of a discovery of this magnitude is the\n[Resource Curse]( \n Look at how you get rich in modern America.  Some kid sees Mark\nZuckerberg or Warren Buffet or Sam Walton and says to herself, \"I'd\nlike to be that successful.\"  Sure, why not?  Whether you're from a\nhardscrabble Oklahoma farm or a well-off Settle family (or [a Jewish\nfamily in Moscow]( or [a\nPersian immigrants in\nParis]( you can, through your own efforts, make\nyourself well-off and well-respected. \n And if you don't quite make it?  You can still be  successful , you\ncan still create value for other people.  This country is full of\npeople who set out to become immensely successful and wealthy but had to\nsettle for being merely moderately successful and wealthy. \n You may have Zuckerberg (and his ambition and greed) to thank for your\nFacebook account, but you have other people, less successful overall\nperhaps but similarly motivated, for every restaurant you go to, for\nevery dry-cleaner and doughnut shop, for every good and service you\nconsume. They did good (for you and for the economy) by doing well\n(for themselves). \n But in a resource-based economy, the road is very, very different.\nLet's say, you're a Saudi boy (if you're a girl, just give it up) and\nyou admire [Al-Waleed bin Talal]( or at least you admire his $18\nbillion.  What should you do? \n Well, the sensible thing would be to give up.  He won the Lucky Sperm\nContest, being born into one of the wealthiest families  in history ,\nand you didn't. \n But let's say you're stubborn.  You want that money, or at least you\ndon't want to die in the same tar-paper shack where you were born.\nThen what do you do? \n You cannot find  more  oil.  Even if you did, it would still belong to\nbin Talal and his cousins.  Instead, you have to figure out a way to\nwrestle some of the existing resources away from them.  You can stage\na coup, or you can try to wriggle your way up the Saudi government\nbureaucracy or the corporate ladder of one of the huge holding\ncompanies that control Saudi oil. \n Whatever you do, whether you succeed or fail, you haven't contributed\nto the world's wealth at all.  At best, you managed to tear off a\nchunk of that wealth for yourself. \n Look at some of the world's resource-richest and cash-poorest areas in\nthe world.  Look at Burma, for example: gold, emeralds, pearls, opium,\nteak, the Burmese ought to be rich as Croesus to a man.  But they\naren't. Instead, the country is riven by ethnic conflict.  Every tribe\nhas its own heavily armed militia, supposedly protecting its people\nbut in reality, struggling for control of the smuggling routes into\nThailand and China.  Look at central Africa: the diamonds, uranium, oil,\nand gold that should be making for lives of ease instead pay for\nroving armies of frightening barbarity. \n Even if the Green River Formation \"pans out\" (to use an expression\nfrom the original, eponymous gold rush of 1848), the US isn't going to\nbecome Sierra Leone.  The political and social structures we have in\nplace prevent that.  What we could become is Alaska writ even larger. \n Imagine the Federal government controlled a free-standing source of\nrevenue comparable to its ability to tax today.  The princes of Saudi\nAmerica would be bureaucracy that oversaw that source and the industry\nthat operated it.  The success path for the Zuckerbergs of tomorrow\nwould be a GS job in the Department of Petroleum until you're senior\nenough to retire and then a senior-executive position at Exxon or\nwhoever else gets the license to exploit Green River. \n It's like that today, in much less profitable industries.  You think\npeople go into the IRS because they want a GS-12's salary?  No, that's\na stepping stone to a job hiding Mark Zuckerberg's money from their\nquondam colleagues. \n As a kid of 20, I worked at a defense contractor.  I remember\ndistinctly one meeting where I looked around the table and calculate\nof the 10 or so people in the room, I was the only one who neither a\nretired one-star (at least) general nor a former Undersecretary of\nDefense.  They had made perhaps $100,000 a year in their offices in\nthe E-ring of the Pentagon but now were pulling down five times that\nfrom the glass towers along the Potomac. \n And if you're not so ambitious, or just too honest to make a good\nWashington weasel?  All that money being shoveled out of the ground\nwill pay for a cushy welfare state.  Stay home, draw your government\ncheck, make kids for the next generation of dependency.  With enough\noil-shale money, we can make half the country over in the image of the\n[Pruitt–Igoe\nProject]( \n Am I suggesting we ignore Green River?  No, it's just not reasonable\nto turn our back on  that much money .  I certainly don't have a\nsolution, but, as they say about addiction, the first step is\nadmitting you have a problem, and along with the immense possibilities\nof Green River, we have a serious, serious problem.", "id": "t3_tl7mh", "summary": "fuck you, I had to write it, you have to read it!"}]}
+{"author": "iisdmitch", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post What is the web address of the internet?", "output": "I just posted less than an hour ago but I just got another call I couldn't resist posting about. \n Back story, my companies website and any internal services are down currently. \n I received a call from a user reporting the internet was down. On our image, we have our website set as the default website in Internet Explorer so naturally people think the internet is down when our website goes down. The call went like this: \n Me - IT this is iisdmitch \n User - My internet isn't working, can you please help? \n Me - Sure, our website is currently down, not the internet. Please try to navigate to the website you were trying to go to by typing in the URL, this should work. \n User - What is a URL? \n Me - the URL is the address of the website you are trying to reach. For example, www.google.com. \n User - Okay, I can try that. What is the web address of the internet? \n Me - The internet? \n User - Yes, the internet. \n Me - I am not quite sure I understand, I am going to send you a remote assistance request. \n User accepts. \n Me - It looks like your default homepage is set to our website which is currently down. \n I navigate to various websites to show that the internet is working. \n User - Oh, so the internet is working. \n Me - Yes. \n User - When I open the circle E, why doesn't the internet work? \n At this point I tried to explain again that the internet was working, just not our internal services and website. The user just wasn't getting it. I wanted to bang my head against my desk."}], "user_id": "longlamp_11285", "history": [{"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "NHL Rules 84.4 \n 84.4 Shootout - During regular-season games, if the game remains tied at the end of the five (5) minute overtime period, the teams will proceed to a shootout. The rules governing the shootout shall be the same as those listed under Rule 24 - Penalty Shot.\nThe teams will not change ends for the shootout. The home team shall have the choice of shooting first or second. The teams shall alternate shots.\n Three (3) players from each team shall participate in the shootout and they shall proceed in such order as the Coach selects. All players are eligible to participate in the shootout unless they are serving a ten-minute misconduct or have been assessed a game misconduct or match penalty. \nGuidelines related to stick measurement requests during the shootout are outlined in 10.7 – Stick Measurements – Prior to Shootout Attempt.\nOnce the shootout begins, the goalkeeper cannot be replaced unless he is injured. No warm up shall be permitted for a substitute goalkeeper.\nEach team will be given three shots, unless the outcome is determined earlier in the shootout. After each team has taken three shots, if the score remains tied, the shootout will proceed to a \"sudden death\" format. No player may shoot twice until everyone who is eligible has shot.  If, however, because of injury or penalty, one team has fewer players eligible for the shootout than its opponent, both teams may select from among the players who have already shot. This procedure would continue until the team with fewer players has again used all eligible shooters.\nRegardless of the number of goals scored during the shootout portion of overtime, the final score recorded for the game will give the winning team one more goal than its opponent, based on the score at the end of overtime.\nThe losing goalkeeper will not be charged with the extra goal against. The player scoring the game-winning goal in the shootout will not be credited with a goal scored in his personal statistics.\nIf a team declines to participate in the shootout procedure, the game will be declared as a shootout loss for that Team. If a team declines to take a shot it will be declared as \"no goal.\"", "id": "ccx5wje", "summary": "technically it doesn't say a goaltender can't be a shooter."}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "I sued Sears. \n About 6 years ago, I took my car there to get an oil change, I just didn't want to do it myself that day. Went to lunch with a friend, came back and the fucker who did my oil change took my car for a joy ride and crashed it into a palm tree. It was totaled. Turns out the guy was high on meth and had prior felony weapons and drug charges. \n The reason I sued was because of the way to situation was handled. First, I had to fight tooth and nail with Sears store management to get a rental car the day it happened. I needed my car for work and one of their employees put me out of a car. They ended up providing me with a rental for 1 day until I could get into contact with Sears insurance company to secure a rental which brings me to the second phase of the nightmare. The insurance company for Sears never ever returned any of my calls, I was never able to talk to a live person that could help me. My insurance company even had a hard time talking to anybody so my insurance company ended up paying for the rental which was part of my policy anyway but they didn't cover that much so I had to pay out of pocket. I had a rental for a month. \n The frame was completely fucked on my card plus exterior and drivetrain damage so they declared it a total loss requiring $14,000 in repairs, the estimated value was $16,000. \n I found a lawyer which was a pain in the ass, no lawyers wanted to take my case because I was not injured in the accident. I ended up finding a lawyer who actually dealt with malpractice to take my case. I ended up not actually taking Sears to court, we were able to settle outside of court. I got about $5,500, the lawyer only charged me $250 to basically write a few letters threatening Sears. \n I do realize this wasn't the actual companies fault but he was on Sears team so they are responsible for their employees. I never went after the guy, he was pretty poor it seemed and i'd probably never see a dime anyway.", "id": "cgq1qvp", "summary": "Took my car to Sears for an oil change and an employee totaled it."}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "Different styles of tuning for different sounds. Standard tuning is EBGDAE and most common \n Hold it so the pick still has some sort of movement \n Depends on the guitar \n Body can make a difference in sound, different types of wood, hollow body, etc... to me it's to the preference of the guitarist. \n Pick size shape and thickness is preference but can make a difference depending on what you are trying to play.  \n A nice practice amp is ok for a beginner, brand and features really depends on what sound you like better. Obviously pedals can make a difference too. I would honestly just pick a guitar you are comfortable playing and try amps out with that guitar to see what sound you are going for. When it comes to guitar, since there are so many different genres of music one will listen to and different playing styles, I believe sound is all personal preference, whether that persons preference sounds good or not is a different story. Research artists whose sound you like and try similar guitars and amps they use, if you want to go beyond try pedals too. You can always change pickups too to change your sound.", "id": "c507mof", "summary": "Try different products and go with what is comfortable to you. Try to get the sound you are looking for (or at least try to get close). Tone is subjective, guitars are subjective. Everyone has their own preference."}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "3 years ago I took my car to my local Sears to get an oil change. I normally do my own but at the time I did not have access to any of my tools or jack. Anyway, my friend comes and picks me up to grab lunch, when we are done he dropped me back off at Sears. \n I walk inside the store and get a call from the same friend about 2 minutes later saying \"your car is around the corner on a tow truck and it looks totaled.\". He messes around a lot so I thought he was joking. He convinced me to come back outside and get into his car, I did. \n Sure enough we drive down the street, my car sitting on a tow truck all smashed up. I was so fucking furious I ran after the guy and tried to beat the shit out of him but got held back by my friend and the tow truck driver. \n It turns out the guy who took my car for a joy ride had a previous felony weapons charge. That day it turned out he was also high on meth. He was charged with GTA, DUI and possession of meth. \n This all happened a week before Christmas. I don't know what happened to the guy, he was a fugitive last I heard, he got bailed out of jail but never appear for his court date. I hired a lawyer and went after Sears, I got a little something out of it but not much", "id": "c4oajnd", "summary": "I took my car to Sears to get an oil change and the technician totaled my car."}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "I had to use this once when on support with dlink a few years ago. My wireless card on my personal PC was acting funny, disconnecting randomly, PC would stop detecting. It was a PCI wireless card and was still under warranty so I gave them a call to see if I could get it replaced. \n I know these people on the phone have a script they follow for troubleshooting so I followed his instructions. He got to the point where he wanted me to remove the card. I shut down the PC, he asked me if I had removed the card yet, I said no. He told me it should have been removed by now, I told him I was waiting for the PC to shut down, he told me I didn't need to wait, just pull the card out. I explained to him that this was not a USB wireless adapter, he said he knows and to just remove it. I told him there was a possibility that the PCI card or my PC may be damaged if I remove the card while the PC was running. He didn't seem to care so I made him wait. \n I know hot swapping a PCI card may/may not damage the card and the motherboard, I just did not want to take any chances. Even if my PC didn't blow up while doing this, it most certainly would have froze.", "id": "c87rkzt", "summary": "dlink tried to blow up my computer."}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "There are already 3k comments so this probably won't be seen but i'll share anyway. \n A few years ago I was at a friends house. His neighbor across the street was a complete dicks, I mean this guy was fucking terrible. So my friend decides to fuck with him, we park my car in front of the neighbors house, my friend uses his laptop to connect the the neighbors unsecured wifi network, once connected, he notices he has a printer shared on the network. My friend proceeds to print 50 images of Tub Girl to his printer. For those of you who don't know what Tub Girl is, look it up. Anyway after a couple minutes, the neighbor ran outside with stacks of paper in his hands looking around and not knowing what the fuck had just happened.", "id": "c6e7cok", "summary": "Friend printed Tub Girl to asshole neighbors printer \n EDIT - Spelling"}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "Never posted on here but view /r/talesfromtechsupport almost everyday so here goes. I am level II tech support at a university. Today I had a very interesting ticket that turned out to be one of those \"that was it?\" type tickets. \n So I get a high priority ticket from level I support, a user, I will call her Linda. She reports that when she does anything in any program, it's like CTRL key is always pressed down and she can't type, only shortcuts come up. \n I go out to her desk and immediately see her problem. The first thing I do is replace her keyboard, the issue still exists with the new keyboard so the keyboard has been ruled out. She had a standard Dell wired keyboard, I gave her a new Dell wired keyboard. She used to have a Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse combo (this will be important later in the story). \n I logoff of her profile and attempt to login to mine. I still can't type at this point so I restart the PC, it comes back to the login screen and I still can't type. At this point I call another level II tech and have him remote into the machine and make sure sticky keys isn't enabled or some strange thing is happening. He is able to use RDP and connect to the PC, he has no problem typing. \n I unplug all the peripherals and go from there. I determine that when the receiver for the mouse is unplugged I could type. So I plug the receiver back in and the problem exists again. I am stumped at this point so I tell the user I will go get her a wired mouse because the mouse appears to be causing the problem. \n As I walked out of the office, I noticed that the Microsoft wireless keyboard that goes along with the mouse was sitting on a filing cabinet with books sitting on top of it. It finally hit me! The books were holding down the CTRL key on her wireless keyboard which was in range of the receiver and apparently was connected. I plugged the receiver back in, removed the wireless keyboard from it's location, sure enough everything started working again! \n If I had seen the keyboard prior, I may had not been at the users desk for 30 minutes.", "id": "t3_y9nrn", "summary": "Books caused a serious headache"}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "I received a rather confusing ticket today, something along the lines of \"I had 2 printers hooked up to my PC and now I have a new printer and the other ones don't work\". That's not my shitty typing, the description was something like that. My lead tech and I were very confused by the ticket so I called the customer. \n Me - \"can you explain what exactly is going on?\" \n Her - \"I have a new printer and I can't print to the old ones\" \n So after a few more questions it sounded like maybe the new printer was set as default and she wanted one of the old ones set as default. This was not the case. \n Her - \"one of the old printers is under the desk not hooked up and the other one is missing\" \n Me - \"missing?\" \n Her - \"someone took it\" \n Me - \"when did it go missing?\" \n Her - \"today\" \n I check other techs schedules because it would be odd for anyone else to have done this because I am the only one that services the building. I found no one else had been there today. \n Me - \"sorry but it doesn't look like any techs have been to your building today\". \n Her - \"well I need my printer, it's a personal printer so I want it back\" \n Me - \"did any techs contact you?\" \n Her - \"no, it's missing, you guys need to give it back\" \n Me - \"I'll try to figure it out but like I said, no tech had been to your building today\" \n My IT dept does not allow personal devices like printers to be used in our buildings for legal and insurance reasons.... \n At this point I am off in 10 minutes so I tell her I call her tomorrow. \n I noticed she had recently been moved to her current location. I did not perform this move because I was out on vacation when it occurred. I called the tech who did the move and he told me that her department ordered her a new printer so he took the oldest one (some older equipment we have on campus does not have asset tags so we assume it's ours due to policy and she wasn't there during the move or install to say otherwise) he installed the new printer yesterday he said and told me not to worry about the ticket, he would bring her old printer back. \n Not 2 minutes later, the same lady called tier 1 and told them EXACTLY what she had told me not 10 minutes prior. Tier 1 called me because I had the ticket and explained the situation. \n I feel bad because I think this lady may not have been there mentally, she was on medical leave for like a year and I don't know why but she seemed sort of wacky and out of it. \n She has been told she needs to take her printers home and use the printer her dept provided.", "id": "t3_3fyagm", "summary": "I was just as confused as my post probably is."}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "I had to share this one, it really pissed me off today. A little back story, I am a level II tech at a university, we sometimes assist students faculty and staff with online based testing in case a students laptop is doing something from preventing them from connecting to the test. I know some of you are probably wondering why we don't have a lab that students can go to that would solve us from helping with student laptops. The short answer is all of the colleges do not want to contribute funds to build a large lab (we have small labs around campus around 10-15 PC's each). \n Anyway, my self and another tech had a ticket to assist with testing today for one of the colleges. We arrive, one of the staff from the college, we shall call him Gary was waiting for us. Gary was supposed to accompanied by let's call her Sarah. Sarah was not present, Sarah set up the testing, Gary was already very frustrated with Sarah to begin with. So finally Sarah arrives, tells us that the switched the test to another provider that our IT department was not familiar with. We asked Sarah how long ago they changed it, \"one week ago\" she says. She knew about it for a week, and she didn't notify IT, great job. Okay, maybe we can  try  to help students that may be having issues accessing the test. A couple minutes after this, Sarah tells us we are switching lecture halls to another lecture hall half way across campus. Fuck, okay whatever. So we go to the other lecture hall which of course is occupied by another class. At this point, my Co-worker and I told Gary that we had to go, they only had us scheduled from 9:30 am - 10:00 am, by the time they headed back to the original lecture hall, it was 9:57 am so my co-worker and I left because we had other tickets to attend to. We told Gary the situation, he understood and we left. \n Sarah was very very unorganized and we came to find out that she is not well liked to begin with. She was described as \"dead space\". Why she still works there is beyond me but hey, it's none of my business. \n For anyone wondering why we were concerned about working with an unfamiliar testing site is because we don't know at that point what browsers are required. My university uses so many different types, Safari could be recommended or IE or Firefox, it never ends. Java comes into play a lot with the various sites as well. \n I don't know how the testing went and frankly, I don't care.", "id": "t3_1i729y", "summary": "If you're not organized, you're going to have a bad time."}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "We have a difficult user that doesn't like to update, upgrade, etc..... Anyway, we recently gave him a new PC last month, Core i7, 8gb ram, 64-bit Windows 7, pretty good for someone who basically only uses MS office and browses the web. \n This user is afraid of change, he had a 5 year old PC that NEEDED to be upgraded but he did not want Windows 7 because he did not want to learn (we will not install XP on PC's anymore, it's been all Win 7 for the past 2 years at my work). He also refused to learn Office 2010 so we had to put 2007 on the PC. \n Two issues with this individual took place today. First issue, he calls because he has no sound. We verified over the phone that his speakers were turned on and plugged in. Tier I also offered RA and verified that he had a corrupted sound driver. They uninstalled/reinstalled the driver but since the PC needed a restart, the sound was still non-existant. \n Issue two (or the non-issue), he get's a popup on his PC stating updates were pending, I told him he should go ahead and install the Windows updates. \n User - \"Will I have to restart my PC?\" \n Me - \"More than likely, ya.\" \n User - \"Ohhhhhh, ya, I can't do that, I have too many files open and it will take me 30 minutes to get everything back up and running.\" \n Me - \"Um, okay. These updates will not take effect unless you restart. I also noticed you submitted a ticket for a sound issue.\" \n User - \"Yes\" \n Me - \"Okay, the tech you spoke with stated he uninstalled/reinstalled the sound card drive, since your sound still isn't working, you will need to restart the PC to see if your sound is working, if not we will investigate further into the issue.\" \n User - \"Like I said before, I can't restart.\" \n I am frustrated at this point \n Me - \"Okay, well I am unable to help you any further until you restart the PC. If you have any further issues after you find time to restart, please call and we will assist.\" \n I was so tempted to remotely restart his PC without warning.", "id": "t3_1a65v6", "summary": "Restarting may solve issues, but it's a \"pain in the ass\"."}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "Today I gave a user a new PC. She was due for an upgrade and I got the ticket. Basically when our PCs are out of warranty, we send users an upgrade form which notifies them or pre-installed software (MS Office, Acrobat, etc...) so they don't have to list all that stuff. There is a field on the form to list any non-standard software that needs to be installed as well as a spot for printers/scanners that need to be installed. \n Anyway, I go do the upgrade for this problem user we shall call Jen. Now Jen has been a huge problem in the past, typical user who doesn't understand technology, gets frustrated, doesn't try to learn and takes it out on IT. We all have one of those at work right? \n I knew this was going to be rough, when I called her so I could backup her data, she was giving me a hard time saying it would take a while because she need to save her stuff even though I clearly, several times told her \"I will transfer all of your data to your new PC. Everything on your desktop, documents folder, etc... will be on your new PC\". \n So today I go take her new PC to her office, not expecting her to be in because she told me she wouldn't be back till Wednesday.She shows up half way through the upgrade and says she wasn't supposed to be in today, but had to take care of something and wouldn't be in her office. \n Once I had completed the install, I left. As soon as I sit down, I get a call from my boss. \n Boss - \"Did you upgrade Jen's PC?\" \n Me - \"Yes, I just got back.\" \n Boss - \"She is saying you moved stuff around on her desk and her monitors are different than they were before.\" \n Now I rotated the monitor slightly to plug in a DVI cable, but I put it back where it went. My boss also knows how big of a pain in the ass Jen is. \n Me - \"Yes, I moved it to plug in DVI and put it back to where it was.\" \n Boss - \"Well she is saying you set it on a different shelf and now her neck hurts. She also said you didn't wait for her when you were done.\" \n LOL wtf? Okay. I didn't wait because she said she was leaving again. \n Boss - \"Can you go back out and see what she wants please?\" \n I go back out as soon as I hang up, she is not in her office so I came back. I had tier 1 on the phone with Jen when I got back (literally a 5 minute walk from Jen to my office). \n Tech - \"Ya, she is saying you moved her monitors and installed no software\" \n Me - \"Ya, I went over the monitors with the boss, what didn't I install?\" \n Tech - \"Firefox\" \n Me - \"Uhhh she didn't list it as needing to be installed.\" \n We don't physically check what they have installed because it may not be things they actually use anymore, we let them tell us what they need normally. \n Tech - \"Okay, ill take care of it\" \n I talk to the Tech later, Jen was being a total bitch on the phone, yelling at Tier 1 FOR THE DAMN MONITOR I DIDN'T MOVE TO A DIFFERENT LEVEL. Luckily, the call was recorded. \n Jen has been reported to her superiors and HR, I don't know the extent of what she was saying to him but it must have been pretty bad if they went to HR. \n Yep, so what was supposed to be a simple upgrade turned into a hefty task for all involved.", "id": "t3_3vzl8k", "summary": "crazy user says her neck hurts now cause her monitor is too high because I moved it, which I didn't except to plug in a DVI cable but the height on the monitor did not change."}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "Before I begin, I want to point out that at my work, we have IT Purchasing and Purchasing. IT Purchasing provides quotes for IT related equipment and Purchasing actually processes the order. Probably dumb, but it is what it is. \n Anyway, our graphic designers ordered 2 of those Mac Pros, they had them built up a little, with 32gb RAM and 1TB hard drive and each got a 27\" Thundebolt display. I get the ticket to go set them up so a co-worker and I go set them up. \n Within an hour, we get a call from the designers saying the specs are wrong so we go over to check it out. Sure enough they have 256gb drives and 12gb RAM, stock configuration. Sucks for them but we should be able to get this sorted out..... \n I talk to our IT Purchasing and they showed me the quote and everything they had and everything was 100% correct. After they do some more investigating, they noticed purchasing processed the order at $8k instead of the original $11k. \n Come to find out Apple told our purchasing department that they had to order via the web rather than submit a requisition for some reason. Probably because Apple doesn't give education pricing on Mac Pros for some reason? Whatever, not my problem. \n This purchasing associate ordered the stock config ignoring the fact the quote had different specs, or didn't look at the quote closely, thought she was saving money and would be a hero because she got better pricing than IT Purchasing did. Any of you that have dealt with Apple know they don't really have special pricing other than education pricing. We took the computers back to purchasing where they were to send them back to Apple. Well, Apple rejected the return because it was past the 14 day return policy for the Mac Pros. Currently they are trying to work something out so the situation isn't quite resolved. \n So instead of saving $3k, she may have cost much much more, not just the possibility of eating the Mac costs but also the company time and money wasted dealing with this between 2 techs, 2 IT Purchasing people, 1 purchasing associate and the 2 graphic designers, she may have cost a lot of money.", "id": "t3_3jktn9", "summary": "check your orders because you may cost your company thousands of dollars."}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "I work as Tier 2 support at a university, occasionally I assist with student online testing. We do not have a lab for this for whatever reason so the students have to do testing on their personal laptops. The particular college I was working with today uses a pretty bad testing site, I don't want to say which but it's pretty bad. Java always needs to be the most current version, Flash needs to be current and Firefox seems to be the only browser we don't have issues with which isn't a huge deal, but not everyone keeps their PC or Mac up to date which causes problems. \n A student raises her hand and I walk over to her. She is having an issue with her test. It appears to be a Java issue so the first thing I tell her to do is go to Java.com to see if she has the latest version. She does not so I have her download Java. She kept telling me \"it's not popping up to install\". I told her that she needed to check her downloads window in Firefox (which was popped up on the screen). She couldn't see the file clearly labeled so she proceeded to download it again and again and again..... So finally she listens to me, finds the download window and installs it. Cool, Java is up to date now so let's start the test. Re-open Firefox and go to the testing site. She instead opens Chrome and goes to the site. \n Me \"Please open Firefox\" \n Her \"But I don't like using Firefox\" \n Me \"I understand, but the developer recommends using Firefox\" \n Her \"I don't want to use Firefox because I have the website book marked in Chrome.\" \n Me ......... \n Me \"Open Firefox please\" \n Her \"Okay, fine\" \n Me \"In the address bar, type in www.testingsite.com\" \n Her \"Oh, that was all?\" \n Me \"Yes\" \n She got into the test. I forgot to mention above that she was using an outside voice in this room with other students testing while I am whispering instructions to her.", "id": "t3_1rfygn", "summary": "If you don't listen to someone trying to help you, you're gonna have a bad time."}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "Backstory, A month ago we started migrating departments to Exchange 2013. We noticed a minor error would occur with some users and shared calendars, it wasn't a huge issue, basically users would lose connectivity to their shared calendars, the fix for this was simply to restart Outlook and the calendars would be restored. No big deal, we even sent out an e-mail to every employee with step by step instructions and screen shots that even a 5 year old could have probably followed. \n User - I just came back from vacation, restarted like the e-mail said and I lost everything. \n Me - I'm sorry, I am not following you, what e-mail and what did you lose? \n User - The e-mail about Outlook and restarting. \n Me - Oh, okay. So did the error message pop up that was listed in the e-mail? \n User - Yes \n Me - And you restarted Outlook to correct this? \n User - No, I restarted my PC and lost e-mails and Word documents I was working on. \n Me - You didn't save them first? \n User - Well, the e-mail said to restart so no \n Me - the e-mail said to restart Outlook, not your entire PC. \n User - Oh, well I lost all my work I was working on. \n I figured I would remote in an check her temp files to see if her unsaved work was there. It wasn't for some reason. I told her I couldn't really do much but in reality it was her own fault. Had she paid attention to the e-mail this wouldn't have happened. \n I asked her if she saw the message stating something like \"You have unsaved documents, would you like to save them?\" or whatever it says when you restart Windows with stuff open. Turns out she just held down the power button to restart it.", "id": "t3_23wff5", "summary": "Make sure you read your e-mails from IT, if you don't understand, please call and we can help before you make a mess."}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "I received a ticket from a problem user today stating she couldn't print to a certain network printer. The Tier 1 tech that opened the ticket stated that the printer she was trying to print to no longer existed on the print server. Okay, i'll head over and get the IP and re-add the printer, no big deal. \n I will call the user Megan. I head over to Megan's area which is shared with several other people and ask her to show which printer wasn't working. She points out a completely different brand printer. I verified that this was in fact the printer she was reporting issues with. Megan said it was. \n I ask if anyone else had difficulty printing, Megan asked a co-worker to print something which was successful. I go on Megan's PC, the printer isn't even added to her printers. I add it and send a test job with no problems. Everyone else in her office could print to this printer. \n I didn't install the new printer, but I am quite sure the printer that was replaced has been gone for at least 3 months. I thought this at first but went to check and see if it was a different printer of the same model as I didn't replace it initially. She was reporting it now. I don't know if it was a communication break down or Tier 1 didn't get the proper info. As I stated in the beginning, this is a problem user and for lack of a better term, she is just dumb, we get ridiculous tickets from her all of the time. I don't like putting the users down, but this user could have easily added the printer her self (instructions are attached to the printer and are extremely easy to follow).", "id": "t3_1t1lks", "summary": "User was trying to print to a printer that had not existed for 3 months and apparently didn't notice."}, {"author": "iisdmitch", "content": "I work at a private university and occasionally answer phones sometimes. \n I get a call from a girl one day asking for assistance with her laptop, the problem is it sounds like a hardware problem and she isn't on campus. \n Me \"Can you bring your laptop into the Helpdesk? I am afraid I would need to look at it to figure out your problem\" \n Her \"well I'm not on campus and I need it for an exam tomorrow, it just died today so either I need to get it fixed ASAP or buy a new laptop. Do you know of any repair places in the area?\" \n Me \"not off the top of my head, I may be able to help you look for one though, where do you live?\" \n Her \"(I forgot the city)\" \n She gives me a city I have never heard of that's in Colorado (I am in California) so I assume she is a distance student. \n Me \"Well I don't see any repair places within 20 miles of your location other than Best Buy, I guess you can try them\" \n Apparently she lived in a very small town \n Her \"okay, I'll try them. If it doesn't work out, I will be on campus tomorrow, what building are you in?\" \n I tell her the building. \n Her \"I have never heard of that building\" \n I tell her what building its next to, she still has no clue what I am talking about. \n Me \"did you call the right university?\" \n Her \"ya, isn't this (university)?\" \n Me \"noooo, this is (similar name university) \n Her \"OMG, I feel so dumb, I'm so sorry, but thank you for helping me!\" \n I had a good laugh about it", "id": "t3_3goojo", "summary": "Student calls a different (my) universities Helpdesk for help."}]}
+{"author": "Eyclonus", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post That first movie sucked because the guys making it knew nothing about power rangers, changed things constantly and thought that being the biggest force in pop culture would have no impact on ticket sales. That middle one is also why the toys for it aren't good/common, too many changes too often,", "output": "The original Power Rangers movie was made by a different set of producers to the TV series, only the actors were shared. In the movie they were going to remove the visors from their helmets so you could see each actor in costume because producers were worried that the whole audience, who was practically built-in to the property when they bought the rights, would be unable to identify who was who from the TV show they had been watching so obssessively. \n I will restate that, they were worried that the fucking huge audience of the TV show would not be able to identify the exact same cast members in the exact same costumes(they were using the original designsat this point which was before revising to the ones in the final cut) that they have watched religiously every fricking week for several years. \n They also insisted on that skydiving segment at the start because they thought the characters were insufficiently \"totally radical\" and required more attitude to be inserted. They had to be like Poochie the Dog, fresh and with \"it\". Because the movie surely wouldn't sell itself if they assumed the millions of kids who watched it feverently would wait and listen to critical reviews and debate the merits of such an adaptation and its contribution to American Cinema and briefly bridging the gap between Japanese and American youth culture."}], "user_id": "longlamp_2302", "history": [{"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Summary of the Doctor as a protagonist]( \n Plot Points: \n \n The Doctor is the last of his race, the Gallifreyans to be technical, but the show mostly associates it with the Timelords, which are a sort of civilisation/upper class who took the name after discovering time travel. His race were the first humanoids, so its not a case of aliens looking like humans, its humans imitating Timelords, there will be odd jokes about him having 2 hearts and other biology in-jokes (note there is a non-canonical origin theory that Galifreyans are hyper evolved descendants of a Victorian era Englishman who time travelled.) \n \n Regenerations: This is biological side-effect of their constant exposure to time travel, its sort of cheat death by exploiting physics thing. There was a hard cap of 13 regenerations set to prevent overcrowding etc, this ties in with them using Genetic Looms to produce children therefore families are almost all cousins and parents are a relationship and a new family member cannot be weaved until an existent cousin has used up all their regenerations. The various versions of the Doctor are referred to by their numbering since the start, eg First, Second, or 9, 11 etc. A regeneration alters their appearance and to an extent their personality, this is basically justifying replacement actors and different creative directions. \n \n The Last Great Time War: Basically a conflict across time between the Timelords and Daleks, though it seems others may have been involved. Prior to the war Timelord society was pretty much stagnant, the war shook shit up big time as the Timelords were basically arrogant enough to assume they were invincible. The Doctor survived as well as an old rival who was once executed but was, unknown to the Doctor, revived to assist in the war as this guy, calling himself The Master was pretty much a genius at genocide and being a treacherous dick. \n \n The Tardis: A shape shifting ship that plays with physical dimensions like its play-dough. The shape shifting circuit was busted and its stuck in its last form, a British Police Box. Tardis's are the primary form of time travel and are somewhat alive, they're grown and sculpted over a long period of time. The Doctor's tardis is basically a beat up old model that can be problematic to handle, its also somewhat sentient and really, really likes the Doctor. \n \n Companions: The Doctor is ancient, 1,200 years old, he gets bored easily and loaths the idea of being lonely. His second most bitter rival refused to regenerate to curse him with eternal solitude as revenge, though this was reversed by a few others. \n \n Daleks: Basically started as a satire of dogmatic Fascism, they're extremely xenophobic and consider fanatical hatred to be a positive quality. Despite not being big on creative ideas, as standing out from the group in their culture is only positive if you're hatemongering more than the rest, given a few decades they can come up with interesting ideas, though from the viewer's perspective its a lot shorter. The Daleks are basically squid-like organisms that exists in militarized lifesupport shells, they were one of the few races to crack time travel after the Timelords and the only ones who weren't fucked over by them. The Last Great Time War was the Daleks realizing they couldn't dominate all of existence if the Timelords still existed. Of the two sides, they came out of it in better shape with a bunch of failsafe backup plans and simply being the paranoid tenacious survivable dicks that they are. The Doctor is/was their most feared enemy and was once called The Predator (currently their collective memories of him have been wiped), they have an asylum planet for insane Daleks and the worst ward is for Daleks that survived the Doctor. On the Doctor's side, Daleks are the only thing he will refuse to show mercy towards. \n \n Time Travel: The official description is that time is a \"Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Ball\", as in for example the Doctor and his lover, River Song, both encounter each other in opposing directions of their respective timelines, he gets older with every meeting, where as she is getting younger. Her mother is another companion of his, however due to again, the chaotic nature of time, he has a \"normalised\" timeline with her, and due to the screwiness of the story River's mother is much younger than she is (biologically, it gets fucking weird because of time travel) so it sounds like a really fucking weird soapie. Paradoxes can happen and history can shift but there are \"fixed\" points in time, the Doctor has tried messing with them but it still went as history goes, primarily because a key individual decided that history shouldn't be fucked with, considering at this point he was alone and started calling himself the Lord of Time as he was the last timelord, having companions is important for the safety of reality. Paradoxes are a little difficult, and make time travel dangerous as well as creating basically a dead-end universe branching off of the main universe and unable to travel back, so its bad to force a paradox.", "id": "cbjc29g", "summary": "Timetravel is complex and gets more complex when the writers have a knowledge of the physics involved. \n \n \n Characters: \n The Doctor: So-called because \"he makes you better\" in cultures with a negative experience with him in the history Doctor apparently means Warrior or Destroyer. \n Clara: Don't know much about her as I have missed the most recent season. Basically keeps appearing around him because she at some point in her future gets shattered across his timeline, this was to deal with an enemy of his who did the same thing to fuck the doctor over all of his existence. \n Strax: A nurse from a race of clone soldiers, he is basically the bottom of the social chain as he spends his time helping the weak instead of ass kicking. Nearly all his contributions to plans and schemes consist of  violence, by his species standards he is a pacifist. \n River Song: Doctor's GF, or Wife (the Tardis insists its the Wife) had some timelord traits due to being conceived in the Tardis, before her mother was abducted, was raised to kill the Doctor by a cult/race that had previously controlled Earth, she sacrificed her regenerations to resurrect the Doctor. Is an archaeologist, serving prison time at some point in a future and becomes an academic Professor. Is capable of making a Dalek beg for mercy, basically as smart and talented as the Doctor but without his compassion. Like the Doctor hates Daleks, she has a thing about a species called the Weeping Angels, especially as they trapped her parents in a time paradox in the past that cannot be revisited. \n Torchwood: Branch of the British government to fight or control aliens on Earth, has a zero level priority to deal with the Doctor. Operates in Cells. The main focus was on cell lead by an unkillable man from the 51st century who is omni-sexual, as in EVERYTHING. \n UNIT: British based UN group that do a similar thing to Torchwood but more conventionally setup and once had the Doctor on the payroll. \n The Master: Sociopathic Timelord, huge rivalry with the Doctor, possibly a homoerotic attraction if you look at from specific POVs, or take an idle quote from another Timelord they both have rivalry with. Capable of amazing schemes of devious evil, but also suffers from Complexity Addiction and too arrogant to see betrayal coming from whoever thought it would be a good idea to hire/enslave/resurrect a time travelling version of Starscream. Thoroughly bonkers, currently dead for like the 8th time. \n Amy Pond: River Song's mother, old friend of the Doctor had a pretty long tenure for the new version. \n Rory: Amy's husband, despite being a nurse and slightly dorky is pretty badass, went through 2,000 years of existence as an animatronic imitation of himself to have his wife resurrected after being compelled to kill her, thanks to some time rewrites etc. \n There is more but I need to go to sleep and there are quite a lot of people who can fill in more."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Jayce is still powerful at the moment, once Riot makes his Thundering Blow do physical damage based on a set value rather than % of targets HP plus AD ratio then he will be considered an average pick. \n Or to put it simply, the nerf did shit all. He is still a beast on top, being able to poke his target or burst with his gap closer and Thundering Blow. \n If you ask are there better top champs, no, there are counters to Jayce but they're not necessarily better and none of them are really hard counters. Jayce can beat them if they're not on par skillwise and with a jungler help he will still win the lane.", "id": "c6tvwy5", "summary": "Jayce will be FOTM for top for every month till he finally gets a hard nerfing."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Have shown up to an official GW tourney, was politely and firmly asked to leave the premise after it was clear my battlewagons were not the official GW kit. Several redshirts who had been involved in the event made a point of eye-balling me every time I entered that store or attended the few unaffiliated local groups that they deigned to grace with their presence.", "id": "co9mi8x", "summary": "From corporate to customer service GW are petty bitches."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Actually I disagree about Kassadin, he has few counter picks if you only follow the current meta of AP mages in mid, but a lane swap with the ADC for the old DotA setup of a the ADC in mid really hurts Kassadin. Do this till the ADC gets to level 6 then swap back, or swap if Kass swaps lane earlier. \n Currently I can safely say that Caitlyn, Ezreal and Tristana (levelling Q steroid earlier than normal) will stop Kassadin snowballing in lane early and shut him down quickly. The farm trade-off seems not as bad as people think, you're likely to get a few kills early unless the Kassadin player knows they have no hope of farming the lane and roams elsewhere.", "id": "c6gif4j", "summary": "Kassadin is counter picked by putting him in lane against an ADC with medium to long range AAs and that doesn't rely on spell usage."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "To expand, its a specific story to an alien race about two men who were stuck on an island and survived by cooperating to fight a monster and became bros for life through this experience. The statement basically means that they want to forge a friendship, to be like Darmok and Jalad when they were stranded on the island of Tanagra. The thing is that their language is all about metaphor and historical reference so communicating means being able to see the meaning beneath the story being referenced.", "id": "cke8lff", "summary": "Star Trek Aliens that communicate through quoting memes."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Bot matches can be anything, never assume anything in a bot match is a) normal for PvP, and b) even viable in PvP. Heck you can have two junglers and not worry about being interrupted taking their buffs or taking dragon. \n It sounds like your still with players who have yet to appreciate endgame builds and the almighty overpoweredness of healing. They want to rush the end with tanky DPS. It works, sort of, but only say, if you're coordinating heavily like in a premade with voice chat. Its sort of that \"rockstar\" of the team mentality that perpetuates the idea that Darius is a god amongst mortals etc. (Just to clear up, Darius is bad, if you watched the World Championships, then you'd know the only time Darius was played it was a loss and the player Dyrus literally spoke on it as, \"I thought I'd just go ahead and counterpick myself\".)", "id": "c6n8una", "summary": "Glory Hogs own desires are costing their team victory."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Makes sense, she needs something that does aoe damage, so either that or SFC. I did just try using her with madred's stacked with spiritstone and then just golem spirit. Mostly offence and then biscuit masteries with AS marks+Quints to help clear, but her start is so slow that I would never pick her against anyone who has early game strength like Shaco or Lee Sin. \n FF seems ok, either that or Golem Spirit. Going FF pretty much requires the spiritstone to sustain and clear for a time, but it means you get the damage you need to fight. Golem doesn't speed up clearing but if you got it on first back you can roam faster with mobility boots, however your damage ends up kind of lacking as its going to SFC and maybe Wit's End. I do like the CDR on it when you get Spirit Visage and possibly IBG for a nice 30% to keep getting sheen procs. Of the two, I prefer going with FF, but I think you need to squeeze Lifesteal runes in with a decent amount of attackspeed or going the \"madstone\" route. \n Ganking is powerful though, I went W first both times for the aoe and defence on the first camp, but maybe you could do a level 2 gank if you went Q>E and then ganked midlane instead of trying to rush to your second buff and seeing it get stolen. \n Items wise, SFC is going to always be in your build, Wit's End with FF is a decent combo, you won't be as insane for damage like WW or Xin, but you can duel a lot of champions with it if you open with her initiate. A sheen item is certainly interesting, I don't think jungling Leona enables you to build a lichbane, but IBG and TF add a lot of damage. I lean towards IBG for the armour, mana, CDR and slow zone. TF means you hit harder, but I think that IBG does it better, you can get pretty tough and still hit strong and really its about being unkillable first and foremost. For MR I'd go Spirit Visage only because it gives CDR and better lifegain, though its only 2 hp from the feral flare, the effect would apply to lifesteal runes and it does help with boosting regen, CDR really helps with IBG/TF to get sheen procs which help with her damage problem. Tenacity is something she needs, so either merc's with FF or Mobility/Tabi with Golem Spirit. \n As for enemy junglers, duelists and carry types are not good to play against. If their jungler can invade they may as well just live in your jungle, you can probably beat them in duels if you're even but you won't get even because they will deny you farm. That said I had Kha'Zix in one game and it was pretty favourable to me as I was just CCing him into submission if he tried to take my buffs. I think assassin junglers like Kha'Zix or Pantheon are pretty easy to bully around, but say Lee Sin, Xin Zhao or Shyvanna are going to clear your camps and then pounce when you come to find them empty.", "id": "ci2w9pf", "summary": "can work as a jungler provided she's not against someone who is going to counterjungle her a lot. Think tank junglers, do not pick her against duelists/carries."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Intelligence is more prone to isolating people and while you are likely at least  moderately intelligent (no offence, just making some estimates based on you being on this particular webpage means), there are many others who aren't as intelligent, the bell curve isn't exact but its a rough outline. \n Anti-intellectualist movements get a following because they basically say that intelligent people who talk about things you don't understand are decieving you for their own advsntage. It plays on the (paranoid) idea that if you can't understand what someone says, they are defrauding you and think you are less than they are. \n Because we embrace equality, we must embrace intellectual equality on the same basis of every other area where we seek equality. This means we can't just deny people their say, even though they are wrong. We can't deny someone the right to vote because they don't understand international politics, the fundamentals of our economy and the demands of the bureaucracy. Being equal doesn't mesh well with something that is naturally not equal. We can close the gap with better education and healthier diet/lifestyles, but on the basis of not being a nanny-state, we can't force people who disagree to agree with us, or take away their rights so we can force them do something that we see as best, but they do not feel is appropriate.", "id": "ciaqhmj", "summary": "Everyone is equal no matter their level of intelligence. Even if they insist on something stupid."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "There can be exemptions made but you have to prove that you weren't aware of it beforehand, you also have to demonstrate that it has bearing on the case and that it invalidates the case based evidence that is currently being made against you, as well as it not contravening anything else that has been established. \n The point of discovery is to speed things up by making sure no surprises suddenly cropup and cause the trial to drag on. If you're submitting evidence afterwards, it must have good reason to be considered.", "id": "cm7tsfn", "summary": "Surprise evidence/witnesses are a pain, almost never happen, piss off everyone involved and only in fiction do they have any value."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Um, he would be pretty tough. \n He can survive in the depths of the ocean, deeper than submarines can dive. So not only is he capable of surviving freezing cold waters, but he can function fine at a depth that will crush subs. \n As for sea-creatures... Well Cthulhu is technically a sea creature, so is the Kraken, the Leviathan etc...", "id": "cbdyq8e", "summary": "he's almost as much a brick as Superman, but green rocks don't instagib him. And he can control sea monsters"}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "It violates the EULA with Riot games that was agreed to when the account was created. I'm not 100% on its legally binding aspects in the various courts this could end up in, but its definitely solid on the point that they can choose to end access to their service for that account.", "id": "citgl6s", "summary": "you can if you want to as its not illegal, but if Riot takes it off you, you have zero grounds to sue for lost access to virtual goods or discriminating denial of service."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "He just pushes his lane. \n No CC to help gank, no utility, just damage and waveclear with some tankiness. \n Pushing lane is fine but if you can't stop a gank or escape its less useful. He's best thing is to basically push toplane or midlane against someone who is weaker and draw jungler attention, or take advantage of junglers being elsewhere and taking a tower. \n The pure damage thing is brought up as a negative as its not really burst but sustained DPS without much self-sustain and no way to CC for the jungler to come-in and gank. \n He can do a crap load of damage, even with few to no damage items, but its still just pushing waves.", "id": "ci2wm6v", "summary": "Morde pushes and that is literally all he does."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Fairly obvious, but learn to use Satchel Charge to help your allies, like knocking someone into your team, like a Varus/Xerath  who came too far forward to shoot their long range poke spells or using it to push a Galio out of your team to stop his ultimate from locking your team down. \n Also learn about not screwing up someone else's wombo-combo like using it when Malphite and Orianna combine their ults, they just used one of the most powerful initiate combos to pull a bunch of enemies into a tight cluster and you knocked their kha'zix and Vayne out of the blast radius, when instead you could have ult'd on top as they were being stunned/knocked up.", "id": "chgnmee", "summary": "Satchel Charge is good for escapes but also for repositioning enemy players which can lead to winning fights when you use it well. Or losing fights because you moved someone out of an allie's attack."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Its annoying, because in terms of post-launch support its pretty well handled, but the game itself is bordering on being \"solved\" which is a really bad thing, the only thing that stops this from being a \"solved\" game is that the new releases schedule pretty much means that they will have a technical escape from a true \"solved\" state but the overall variation will be so small as to be only observed by committed participants.", "id": "cjudw0z", "summary": "They can release cards to ensure decks are fresh, but its a treadmill with a stick & carrot scenario, a really boring one."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Supports can climb pretty well, its just the main issue is when you get paired with idiot ADCs you won't be able to do much in terms of carrying the game, there are some supports that can drop their carry and switch to supporting bruisers or mages that carry, but its mostly a case of having 1 other person who can do the damage and you being able to support them.", "id": "caczz94", "summary": "carrying as a support in ranked means helping the best carrying player in your team to carry, even when its not the ADC."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Yes, the story goes like this; \n Rewind a good few years, regime is a bit strapped at the moment and has pretty big lockdown on the border provinces to control the black market. So someone has a big idea, on the borders, the blackmarket provides a bit of cash flow for the regime, so they decide, as an experiment, to loosen restrictions on it in one of the areas. \n They're a bit cautious about this as they know that they can't lock it up if it goes wrong, but anyway, this proves to work for a bit. Now these border areas have a lot of factories shipping stuff that NK makes to be sold in China, they start using this as a sanctioned pipeline for the blackmarket into China. \n Things go well so they say, what can we sell that will make this save glorious Korea? The answer is stuff that is contraband in China. So they start moving towards drugs etc. Meth is relatively cheap to make compared to other pharmaceuticals, requires less quality control and you don't need much technical skill to manufacture. So over night they convert a bunch of factories into industrial grade meth labs, upskill the workers and flood the poor areas of China that border them with cheap, good quality meth. \n Word spreads and the numerous crime syndicates go nuts for this bulk supplier who produces so much product that no single syndicate can be the sole distributor. Everyone likes it, the DPRK gets a lot of income and can build a network of contacts that can smuggle things into their borders, while the syndicates get a high volume supplier that actually doesn't know anything about the finance aspect of the drugs trade allowing them to turning a good profit. \n Anyway, China gets annoyed at this, a fair number of officials are getting a cut, a lot more want a cunt and another fairly large group are patriotically outraged that the DPRK is fucking their citizens over with a nationstate-sanctioned drugs trade and the internal corruption supporting this. So the DPRK takes a hint and scales back because China can just shut the border and fuck all money for them then. \n In the meantime, you've got these factory workers living in a hellhole making a recreational drug. It doesn't take much to make meth in terms of ingredients, once someone has been instructed in it they're ability to cook it improves with practice. These guys were trained by chemists who were in turn trained by foreign experts, so you end up with a bunch of guys who are really good at cooking quality grade meth. Naturally they're going to start smuggling product home, then they start pilfering ingredients and doing it home, then they sell to their neighbours who aren't making stuff to make a little on the side, this escalates to them teaching their family members how to cook at home and make it to export quality because these workers were picked for being good at meeting the demands of the regime. \n Now when you get a bunch of guys suddenly unemployed who were so well trained in a single specific skillset, well naturally they will try and make a living for as long as they can, ergo when they scaled back in 2005, we get a bunch of guys facing extreme hardship with only skillset that produces an illegal yet highly prized substance. Basically the regime created a good few hundred Heisenberg-lites. Its so easy for them to get the ingredients, they can make it anywhere, they produce literally some of the best meth in the world and now there is this instant market because there are no real substitutes (alcohol is pretty much only for the powerful, and maybe the few underlings who get leftovers/scraps) and drug offers moment of paradise for people living in hell.", "id": "cmf53qc", "summary": "Breaking Bad: Korean Peasant edition \n [The SMH on the topic]( \n [Vice article]("}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "You do, its arguably better that way if you can shift as much of your daily usage onto the daylight hours outside of Peak. \n The issue is that unless you got the older solar rebate schemes its pissing money away. The cost to set up for a decent level of generation is high and the rebates went from 68 cents (I know of one special offer that got as high as 72 cents) to 8 cents (with some as low as 6 cents and a few that are 9.5 cents).", "id": "cks1amt", "summary": "Abbott killed Solar"}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "When you harass someone in the lane 3 things can happen: \n 1: They retreat. You've forced them to back down and give you space, and freedom to farm. This means that they avoid fighting when not ready and on the terms of their opponent, but at the risk of being zoned and missing CS. On the other hand, if they suspect a jungler is lurking closeby for a gank this is the best option to avoid a gank until an ally can come and help counter the pressure from the harass and shut down the possible incoming gank. \n 2: They harass back. You've forced them into a fight, they think that they can win, either by killing you or forcing you to fall back as per 1. They're prepared to fight an enemy at their initiation and so aren't apprehensive of a jungler lurking nearby for a gank. They may in fact have an ally lurking nearby and wanted to gank you by luring you into initiating the fight. This is the usual response because the best way to respond to aggression is to be aggressive back, I find this to be true in nearly all aspects of human endeavour. By responding they don't give up lane control and if they're ahead of their opponent they can then stop them from getting last hits. \n 3: They ignore you. Dumbest response, sure they can keep their CS on track but by refusing to respond with either of the above they simply take more and more damage and increase the chances of dying when they finally decide to do either 1 or 2. \n Something to do when they start harassing you is to calculate the rough odds of winning a fight, right there. If you get a favourable outcome, just go at them, don't dive the tower, just go nuts on them. If you get a negative outcome, bolt, ask for help. If you get an unsure outcome, go at them anyway, just make sure they take more damage then you do. If you can get them to burn through pots as well thats good, if they took a doran's being aggressive can force them to recall if they're not careful.", "id": "c5miw3s", "summary": "Respond to aggressive harass by being MORE aggressive, not just for that moment, but for the rest of the game. Save your ablities for that moment where they come close and attack you a little bit so you can swing back harder."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Mostly no, supports being the exception as they usually need to get Shurelya's and they usually need a little extra sustain. That said if you've got good last hitting skills, Avarice Blade is incredibly good on an ADC, I use it on Ashe a lot and the difference is quite noticeable if both players are even on CS and KDA. Kage's is only worth getting if you're going to build WotA and are incredibly behind without an easy wave clear ability. If you're an AP with great wave clear like say Swain or Heimerdinger, AB is stupidly effective to get gold.", "id": "c8u2bir", "summary": "Only on supports, otherwise AB is a situational item that works on non-supports when even with lane opponent but you have better CSing skills."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Having played Vayne top lane a few times you can't afford to max Condemn first, its Tumble or nothing. It can work but you don't won't to face bruisers that can duel like Jax, Irelia, Xin, Rengar or J4. Or AP's like Teemo or Swain. Vlad is a fantastic lane to play against, AD Yi is also a barrel of laughs when he tries to meditate with 2 rings on him. Kennen is half-half, provided you dodge his skill shot and can get 3 attacks for Silver Bolts before he can put 3 Marks of the Storm on you for the stun you should be fine. Singed is easy, at level 1, you can manage him pre-6 with MS quints and swiftness boots with cleanse as his all-in is obvious, but after 6 you're not going to have a chance, ergo its not a good match up at all.", "id": "c8l8g1y", "summary": "it can work very well but only against an incredibly small number of champions, even then there are safer picks for top and it does not work against any of the popular bruiser picks for top lane."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Had a similar thing, only it got fucking bizarre when some kid brought some big time cards his dad owned (he got grounded for a year for this because some moneycards, 2 mox, got destroyed by the headmaster who dunked them in coffee while giving a stern lecture) and some other kid's father, this lawyer guy who basically hated the school and would pick at everything they did but was required to send his kids there due to divorce agreement, pointed out that the cards were worth more than their classroom budgets and that destruction of the card would merit a civil case and some other fluff about destroying expensive possessions. I don't remember the whole thing, but I do remember the school's lawyers and accountant walking out of that meeting very white-faced and the school board pointed indirectly cited as a reason for his removal as \"assessed as a legal risk that is unable to minimized\", there were other reasons relating to harassing and because its a private school there is a huge thing about not getting sued.", "id": "cav4vd4", "summary": "headmaster destroyed two Power 9s and school was sued for it."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "One of my friends had to defend a government agency from a seemingly serious lawsuit. \n The issue was about a kindergarten (this is Australia, so its pre-school age) near a government work site and the issue was that some white trash bitch's 4 kids have breathing issues from dangerous levels of dust. Anyway my friend isn't high on the ladder so a lot of the legwork fell to her, she had to go to the suspect site, and found it to be a park undergoing massive landscaping. After convincing the bogan that the kids needed a medical examination if they wanted to pursue the case in a meeting, she notices the mother was a massive chainsmoker. This basically lead to her correctly guessing that the kids breathing problems were caused by their mother smoking non-stop all day, evidence to corroborate it includes the medical examination and 3 incidents where the fire department were called to the bogan's house for fires caused by smoking in bed.", "id": "caomca5", "summary": "Mother tries to sue for health issues of children, only to be found as leading cause of said health issues."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Bleh, sounds like Master YOLO as normal.  Back in season 2 when I was new to the game I used to hate Master Yi free week because it flood every fucking game with terrible Yi players and it would linger for a week or two as they would then buy him and continue to fail. \n In ranked Yi is a weaker pick. As a carry Jungler he lacks CC necessary to enable ganks which means taking solo laners that can act as enablers. But that means you're piling gold on a jungler and not a laner. Also as a carry jungler, taking Yi means forfeiting the main slot for tanky initiators, in top lane your tank selection is limited because tanks tend to have weak laning phases compared to bruisers. Support tanks are even more limited as they need to run support items on top,  as well as being stuck with only 2 choices, 3 if you wanna run the bizarre Maokai support.", "id": "ccs1mdf", "summary": "Master Yi is not a common pick in ranked because you need to shift some necessary duties onto other lanes to use him."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "First off, your team is at an advantage with a solo top and jungler, don't ever think otherwise, it's why junglers exist in the first place. Secondly the main issue is whether the person playing the top understands that they will be playing a very defensive game. If they're not cautious and buying wards like crazy they're going to be a problem for your jungler. If they can hold their tower in 1v2 they've won lane as they will naturally be ahead of their two opponent's and taking that tower is the only way the other team can catch up and gain advantage. Thirdly if you've got someone up there who knows how to defend and ward, it frees your jungler up to go make problems on bot, because your opponents lack a jungler they have less ability harass all lanes like your jungler can. \n For example he works with your mid to gank the enemy mid, take the tower maybe then they both rush to bot, those 2 guys on top won't get to mid in time to stop the gank, they might arrive in time to save the tower but it would require both, so you're free to push while this fight happens on mid. If they don't get there in time to save the tower well they will likely not then run to bot and help turn the gank into a team fight, if they did, this is giving you more time alone on top. If only one goes to help, you don't get a free tower but its going to be balanced fights or in your team's favour (depending on whether the player from top arrives in time), and if the timing is poor its 2 kills for your team before they goto bot and net 2 more.", "id": "c6d73n2", "summary": "having a jungler gives your team more global options for ganking, farming, pushing, objective control and fighting."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "In all honesty you probably shouldn't have been queuing with him like that, if he's level 25 and you're a plat ranked its going to be pretty lopsided, the matching algorithm works to average the Hidden Elo of both teams, assuming that summoner levels weren't capped at 30, you would be like 70ish right, IE the difference between your skill and the skill of any possible team mates when you duo queue is enormous. Thus with your huge outlier onthe graph, the system has to match you with opponents with an approximate equivalent Elo, considering the rarity of other plat players queuing with pre-30s the best option is to grab a bunch of golds an try to match. \n The above scenario however only applies when matchmaking has ideal resources (players of various skill levels), because Normals have something in their algorithm to shortcut the paring process if it takes too long, the margin of approximation grows and thus we see crazy shit like that, note also by paring the two of you create a temporary pair Elo that will change drastically in a loss (you artificially boost the possible win rating, Elo calculations are based on the likelihood of winning a match up, in the event of a loss, the more favoured you were to win, the greater the penalty, thus 2 losses can drop it significantly, it takes ages to even it out and this temporary Elo is dissolved the moment you two separate, the effects of its changes are slightly carried into your solo hidden Elo ratings).", "id": "c8f43k2", "summary": "You might as well start a smurf because it will repeat this trend over and over. Th new changes to the algorithm might mitigate some of thus or just a likely make it even more screwy"}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "They rely on certain legal wordings to declare that nothing can force them to be citizens, so they are citizens of their own country. They then declare themselves to have diplomatic immunity, never mind that it is a status conferred by the hosting country, not the individual diplomat or their nation of origin. They also place exorbitant demands on government officials, especially any LEO who have to endure their BS. Functionally they are fanatics whos' beliefs are that they can literally do no wrong. They have so many ways to rationalize anything to be someone else's fault that most people will struggle to empathize with them after sitting through the very long rant about their beliefs that will happen anytime someone asks what they are. \n Also Maritime Law gets thrown around a lot for some reason. If the outdated Maritime laws they quote would be applied, they would likely be dead from the frequency of lashings they would receive. \n They also have issues with whether the flag in a courtroom has a gold fringe or not, this is something they're very inconsistent on. They rely on a lot of spurious words and functionally become a Libertarian possessed by the spirit of [Time-Cube]( \n They also are conveniently inconsistent with how laws apply to them, claiming citizen benefits but not paying taxes or obeying laws. Using tenancy protection laws to bully their landlord and then refusing to pay rent in legal tender because they do not recognise the dollar/pound/etc.", "id": "cjwdxnv", "summary": "Quite possibly the real North American (they don't recognise Canada or the USA) Taliban."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Its technically cost efficient (all items are in LoL) but most items are way better in this ratio. \n It's low because it's mostly tied up in the active which means its at its highest efficiency when the active is ready. The major flaw is the loss of the AS means you have to shift more of the gold value from stats to the active because the stats are now conditional on the active rather than being static.", "id": "cjx8cxi", "summary": "it's the Ardent Censor for Carries."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "If you redefine Lawful Good from doing what the law says and make it as personalised concept. Morality isn't relative, but personal morality is relative to the individual as perceptions define our interpretation. Ergo Kore is Lawful Good because he can still interpret a dwarven child, abducted by orcs and raised by them to be tainted, ergo anything with a tiny hint of taint IS EVIL. Basically when you take away the cardboard definition of Lawful Good and apply one that factors in self-perception.... you can smite a child without consequence.", "id": "cm8l8st", "summary": "Kore explains why Lawful Good can be stupid without being a doormat to all authority."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "I play with a group where only 1 other person grasps that diplomacy is about giving each other a small slice of cake so as to distract the other long enough to read their mail upside down. Everyone else in my group thinks that diplomacy is disguising an ICBM with a big obvious timer that is a few second off 00:00, as a cake by putting a cherry on top and not understanding why I choose not to agree. \n Considering the other guy is actually quite good at the math part of this game it nearly ends up always being a shitty grindfest he eventually wins because the best option is to ally with this on person because I know that a 4 turn deal will last 4 turns, whereas everyone else declares there intention to start a war by offering a peace deal.", "id": "ch546p3", "summary": "don't play the game with people who think its an FFA CoD match because any advice you get will be invalidated because at some point in every GoT game you must have two players trust each other."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Got a better one: \n Girl is pretty fat, doesn't have many friends, goes to her sisters' equestrian club meetings on saturday mornings because she likes horses because horses don't judge you. Fat girl meets weird stablehand horse boy, guy is classic horse people, no clue about human interaction but can tell the current relationships between 4 horses in a paddock at a glance. Boy and girl start hanging out for a month, then stop because boy is an idiot who likes horses too much and girl is an idiot who became a massive attention whore during their relationship. \n They breakup, girl slims down and actually looks pretty good, but then gets quite sad about being alone and starts comfort eating, going back to her pre-relationship weight. One day quite some time later she has a severe stomach ache and goes into her room, starts yelling a fair bit, so Dad calls the ambulance assuming his daughter is having something like appendicitis, paramedics turn up and get into the room, take one look at her and without even saying a word to each other they rip her pants off, dad flips out thinking she's about to be raped and tries to wrestle them then he sees the first twin's head. He just froze there while they worked on getting the second twin out. Girl is now a lot less fat and is just stunned, the paramedics are bewildered that no one noticed and now grandpa has to call up horseboy and he joins them in the ride to the hospital. During the trip one of the paramedics has to explain to the couple that tis not only horses that get pregnant from fucking, boy and girl insist that it was only in that flesh folded hole that does nothing but piss and not the larger anal canal that poop and babies come from...", "id": "ci3kie0", "summary": "horny teen horse people assumed that their biology worked like horses now have twins."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "That's it. I'm sick of all this \"Character Mercenary Dog-Warrior\" bullshit that's going on in the Infinity system right now. Tearlach McMurrough deserve much better than that. Much, much better than that.\nI should know what I'm talking about. I myself bought a genuine McMurrough in store for $55AUD (that's about $54.99AUD) and have been practicing with it for almost 2 years now. I can even cut slabs off neckbeard's reputations with my McMurrough. \n Corvus Belli designers spend months working on that single former Cameronian Irregular and re-stat it up to a million times to produce the finest warband known to wolfmankind. \n McMurrough is thrice as killy as Sgt Duroc and thrice as hairy for that matter too. Anything a Domaru Butai can cut through, McMurrough can cut through better. I'm pretty sure Tearlach could easily bisect a Jotum pilot through their TAG's remote link with a simple vertical slash. \n Ever wonder why the Haqqislam nation never bothered conquering New Caledonia? That's right, they were too scared to fight the disciplined Cameronians and their Mercenary Character of destruction. Even in the Ariadnae Conflict, PanO soldiers targeted the giant wolfman with the sentient AI sword first because his killing power was feared and respected. \n So what am I saying? Tearlach McMurrough is simply the best soldier that the galaxy has ever seen, and thus, requires better stats in the Infinity system. Here is the stat block I propose for McMurrough: \n Irregular, Impetuous \n SWC 0, Cost 32 \n Mov 6-4 \n CC 19 \n BS 11 \n PH 16 \n WIP 14 \n ARM 4 \n BTS -3 \n W 2 \n AVA 1 character (Mercs, CHA, Corregidor) \n Total Immunity, Martial Arts L3, Superjump \n 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades, Smoke Grenades, Templar CCW (AP+DA) \n Now that seems a lot more representative of the killing power of McMurrough in real life, don't you think?", "id": "cjztw0y", "summary": "McMurrough needs to be more cheap in Infinity, see my new stat block."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "They're required at all times to act in the best interests of the shareholders whom they are required to justify their actions to at the AGM. \n They're in a similar position to anyone who works in a role where they are representing others who are not present to make decisions and/or lack the formal training to understand the issues relevant to the field/discipline.", "id": "cl4h3ey", "summary": "Capitalism is legally compelling."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "AKIRA is the literal giant for anime films, Christ I watched that twice in one night back-to-back. \n I'd also add Ghost in the Shell, the cinematic movies are masterpieces, the first especially is amazing and better than most stuff made today using more advanced animation techniques, the TV series is extremely slick and the whole franchise despite being from 1989, keeps its futuristic look and feel more than 20 years on, it is also one of the most philosophically deep anime series and is way ahead of its time. You know the movie adaptation of Surrogates, thats Hollywood barely being able to catch up with GitS and GitS:SAC.", "id": "c8jnuae", "summary": "Ghost in the Shell predicted social networking, anonymous, pervasive internet saturation of daily lives and the changes it brings to crime and law enforcement \n NGE is also huge but I don't think thats something to throw someone into straight away if they're not used to how demographics work with anime genres, I don't have to explain anymore because anyone who has seen it gets what I'm saying right away and everyone who hasn't seen it shouldn't have the plot spoiled."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "I know its very intense, I used to bang a funeral director/undertaker and she would tell stories about how every so often someone would want to tend to their dearly departed, but due to laws had to be assisted by a qualified mortician, she'd be there just slaving away doing her job with all that indifference you get doing a repetitive task well past the point of noticing it was once a human and the family member would always be going through an emotional rollercoaster, swinging between so many different moods, the worst were Lebanese men,", "id": "c9rqvr7", "summary": "after several incidents they had a policy of only allowing them into the room with their deceased during preparation if they agreed to have the burly armed security guard follow behind them and a warning not to make sudden movements."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Then it would be 3 dead adults and 1 child. \n Car fires a bad, you have a small window of opportunity, even then sometimes it will be impossible to put the fire out without using a proper retardent foam. Not to mention petrol will burn even when diluted with water, or that getting sprayed with a lot of results in chemical burns. Considering that only the frame was left its likely the heat radiating from the fire would fry his mother very quickly.", "id": "c9roiso", "summary": "If you're not a trained firefighter with proper gear and a car catches fire, take cover, do not approach"}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Don't buy Crit runes, its a trap. \n Korean Godplank isn't just about the items, he has a different playstyle as he can't spam Parrley like most other gangplank builds. \n I like AP Gangplank, its surprisingly hard to kill and your ult goes from being a disruption to a serious threat. \n Runes: \n Quints: Flat AP \n Marks: Magic Pen \n Seals: Armour, though I often use a midlane AP page if its an AP top with AP and some mana regen instead. \n Glyphs: Ability power, unless you're against an AP top, then you want flat MR. \n Skills: R>W>E>Q, just like KoreanPlank \n Items: \n Core items \n \n Lichbane, get sheen early, this is a good item to rush, but sometimes you may want the Morellonomicon. \n \n Morellonomicon, its tempting to take chalice early for the ridiculous mana sustain, but later on you're spending money on more regen. Also the grievious wounds effect will really annoy your opponent. \n \n Liandry's Torment: more damage to grind them down and some health, because your two damage abilities already slow, you won't be getting a Rylai's \n \n Death Cap: Because we like AP \n \n Boots: you have options here, I won't say that Sorceror shoes are the best as having merc's/tabi/swiftness can make life very easy. \n \n \n Misc items: \n \n Void Staff or Abyssal Sceptre, I prefer Void because it makes that ult so powerful, but each to your own, however abyssal is good for a double AP comp. \n \n Spirit Visage: Combined with the 100% scaling on W, you can heal ridiculous amounts of HP early on, if you're behind in lane and have sheen and morellonomicon, consider building this before finishing lichbane to outlast almost everything. Definitely the best choice for MR. \n \n Rageblade: weird but interesting item, best used when you end up being a splitpusher for your team. \n \n Frozen Heart: pretty much for when you need armour, the added CDR and AS debuff is good too. \n \n Deathfire Grasp: This is almost a core item, almost. Definitely a great thing to have, but because you will have 20% CDR already from morello's, it may be wasteful if you have CDR from other items already. \n \n Wit's End: you still get some good benefits from it like KoreanPlank, but its quite luxury compared to other items, especially DFG. \n \n Hextech Gunblade: This is quite good for when you need to sustain like a boss. Combined with a DFG in your build you can burst targets \nfairly quickly, which will surprise the fuck out of them. \n \n Archangel Staff: I know its usually the done thing with GP to build a tear and go nuts, but you will need to get Sheen and morello's early, after that you will want to get some of the big ticket items like deathcap or liandry's. \n \n \n Items to avoid: \n \n Anything which has Crit: you're not a crit build, you are using lichbane procs with low CDR for damage and high sustain off W. Not pretending to be an ADC. Just because something can crit, doesn't mean it either will, or should be built to crit. Also note that you will do better DPS than a crit plank as you can fit more defence items into your build and will you have stronger and more frequent Orange's than them, nullifying a lot of incoming damage. \n \n Nashor's Tooth: while stacking more AP scaling onto your Q sounds good in theory, it really is just paying for a lot of CDR that you can get from more beneficial sources and more attackspeed which is ok, but not a priority as we are more like mages here than fighter carries. \n \n Rylai's: Too little for too much, because your ult and Q slow already, ergo getting Liandry's super burn procs, the extra cost for the slowing effect is a waste. Taking that away, the AP isn't good and the health isn't convincing either when you will usually have Spirit Visage and Liandry's as well as being able to W often. \n \n Athene's Unholy Grail: Ok this is a little weird, but early on, the best item you can have for mana sustain is easily the chalice of harmony, you will not need to leave lane at all. On AP GP its a good item. But when you upgrade it, it loses all of its goodness. The AP and CDR are things we like, but the amount of mana you're getting is way too much, maybe if you're new to LOL and can't manage your mana to well it could be useful, but its just ridiculous how much effort you need to make a dent into your mana pool. That said, if you need 40% CDR and don't like the other options, its a better pick than Nashor's Toooth.", "id": "ccuxzrk", "summary": "Chalice is a good item, but Athene's Unholy Grail is too niche to recommend."}, {"author": "Eyclonus", "content": "Reasons why: \n \n Top Lane Meta: She is a melee hard carry which means a weak laning phase. The current meta for top lane is about having a strong laning phase with tanky bruisers that aren't mana-gated. \n \n Jungle Meta: As a jungler her sustain is pretty bad, it was ok in season 2, but season 3 & 4 her exit state is too weak to gank. The lack of CC also means if her team wants a gank to happen, they will need to have hard CC as she has no way of adhering to a target without exhaust, her Burst of Speed is really bad for sticking to anyone, as running from her as soon as she appears means its perfectly feasible to wait it out before turning and facing her down. \n \n Sustained Physical DPS Range Bias: Marksman carries and fighter carries both do roughly the same thing. A marksman builds IE+PD+BT+LW+Boots+defensive item because IE+PD is the best item combo for physical damage over time, LW and BT are the two best sources to increase Attack Damage and mitigate enemy defensive items. Boots are necessary to ensure they can reposition and stay behind allies, while a defensive item is so that they can survive long enough to throw the fight in favour of their allies. This is the best build for an auto-attack champion. Now why did I describe this? Because while it is proven to be the best auto-attacker build in lol, its not a viable build for a melee ranged auto-attacker. The need to close that gap between the two teams, deal with or bypass the enemy tank line and survive the concentrated efforts of the enemy damage dealers adds more burden to the melee carry like Fiora. Most people forgo crit items (except for critplank which is an example of build popularity trumping basic mathematics), they do this because they can then focus on getting both the offence stats to kill enemy players and defensive stats to survive their close encounters. This means that you'll be seeing defensive boots (tabi or merc's), 2 defensive items, 1-2 item that has both defensive and offensive stats (usually Hydra, BoRK, and/or Maw of Malmortius, though some people grab Frozen Mallet or BT, remember that Lifesteal is a purely defensive stat), 1 penetration item (nearly always Black Cleaver because it brings lots of extras over LW) and 1 offence item if they didn't get 2 dual-purpose items (usually Trinity Force or Youmuu's and Muramana in those cases where it's wanted). AT this point, its obvious that ADCs get a better deal and that teams would rather someone to help protect an ADC with their better DPS than have a competitor that is less apt and requires more protection", "id": "cg8rt6s", "summary": "Shooting beats stabbing \n \n Melee Carry Discrimination: Compared to bruisers and other champion types, melee carries are the red-headed stepchild of lol. The archetype is from DotA where different item systems and no flash summoner spell means that its totally viable for your auto-attack carry to be melee ranged. In DotA Black King Bar is an offensive item that stops CC, it means that melee carries can close and take out at least 1-2 target before being stopped, in lol we have Mercurial scimitar which is very defensive version, the difference lies in the differing durations, ours is very brief and good to get a squishy marksman carry a few seconds to run away, BKB is a long duration active and is intended to let you get close to the enemy team and fight for a bit before becoming vulnerable to CC, BKB also makes you immune to magic damage which protects against burst from mages, BKB doesn't remove existing debuffs though."}]}
+{"author": "Buglet91", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Awesome high school teacher went to jail for child molestation of girls my age in the middle of the school year.", "output": "In high school I had this super awesome teacher, constantly talked about his wife & little boy, he never cared if you were late, no real structure for class time, as long as you got your assignments in he didn't care what you did in class, & his assignments were fun so you actually learned something. He was one of those \"cool\" teachers & he asked why I was late so often so I told him a little of the shit I had going on at home, from then on he never marked me late, gave me extensions on due dates if I had a good reason, & would occasionally ask how things were going, even help me with other classes every once in a while because his teaching style was so great for my learning style. The next year I purposely enrolled in 2 of his classes just because he was awesome & I knew I would actually learn his material. Close to the end of the first quarter, he gets arrested at school right after the last bell. We all find out later the charges are sexual charges against minors. I didn't believe it, I though for sure it was just some stupid teens looking for attention, & none of the girls were his students, just girls in his complex who claimed he was creepy & touchy at the pool. He resigned after a couple of weeks, but I graduated still protesting I believe he's innocent, & still 2 years after didn't believe it. Then, about a month ago a friend emails me a link to the article about his sentencing. He plead guilty! He admitted he had a serious problem & would seek help in jail, he truly regretted his actions & was so sorry for the lives he ruined and people he let down. He got like 3 years in jail or something. I was totally shocked, he was such an awesome guy & always built me up, never came across as even a little creepy! I am seriously considering looking into visiting him in jail, I really want to let him know that he effected me in a very positive way & I know he's a good person, maybe take him rice krispie treat & diet coke (he always joked about those are the only bribes he'll accept), just to give him hope."}], "user_id": "longlamp_1056", "history": [{"author": "Buglet91", "content": "I'm a receptionist in a seniors' community center, I have several fun stories but the most insulting are probably a lady who came in several nights a week over several months to make subtle comments that I was fat (5'6\", 120 lbs...not fat at all) or the lady who called me an incompetent, unprofessional bimbo & implied that I sleep with Residents (all 55+) for my paycheck. \n My favorite story isn't really mine: \n When I worked in a clothing store in high school a hispanic woman was shopping & letting her kids run amok (common in this mall) & not paying attention to them at all. Other customers were approaching her & she'd just smile, nod & walk away but didn't reprimand her kids for anything. My manager, hispanic but didn't look like it, got sick of the kids damaging everything & when they started throwing shoes back & forth over the display she went over (7 months pregnant, mind you) & told them \"put them down or you will have to pay for them! Sit down, behave, & wait for your mother or I will call security!\" the woman then walked up & started yelling at her in spanish, all I know is I heard \"hijos\" (children) and \"puta\" (bitch) a lot...my manager then spouted off in spanish also, & told me to call security when the lady started to storm off. Security made her stay in the store while we rounded up all the stuff her kids had damaged & made her pay for all of it. As we were closing that night she told me the woman had told her that nobody yells at her babies & she was going to rip her child from her womb & strangle her with the umbilical cord for stepping out of line, and that we get payed to deal with whatever customers walk through the door so she should be shot for even opening her mouth. My manager replied that she was insane & that she would pay for every cent of damage done by her children & be banned from the mall (the only one in our small town) & if she laid a hand on her she'd gut her with a hanger in front of her kids (mexican women can be crazy...) so the woman said she was leaving & wouldn't pay a penny, that's when my manager told me to call security & on from there.", "id": "c4758sq", "summary": "Crazy hispanic woman threatened to strangle my manager with the umbilical cord of her own unborn child for yelling at the woman's kids for destroying merchandise, manager threatened to gut her with a hanger."}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "When I was younger, my aunt & I used to go to the movies ALL the time (3-4 times a week) and I always wanted to go to a certain theater because one the guys who worked there was so cute...I never talked to him, I was 14 and he seemed to old for me, I just loved to look at him! \n Fast forward 5 years and I get a Facebook Friend Request from a guy with a message that says \"Hey you look so familiar! How do I know you?\" so I added him. We started messaging back & forth, strictly platonic because I had a serious boyfriend at the time, and started to become friends even though we'd never hung out in person. When my boyfriend dumped me and broke my heart, the guy was always there to listen and let me vent to him all I wanted. I started seeing a friend's brother (super rebound) and after 2 months he cheated & went back to his ex...I wasn't even sad I was just angry. \n This guy was there for me once again & this time asked me out \"Let me cheer you up, I'll take you to a movie or something!\"...so we went on a date a few days later and I instantly connected with him. We saw eachother every day for a few weeks and then he asked me to be his girlfriend. I said no, I was too scared of being hurt again to jump into another relationship, and left. By the time I got home I decided I should take a chance because you never know, sure he could break my heart but he could also be the man of my dreams...so I called him and told him I changed my mind. 2 months later we got an apartment. 3 months after that we figured out how we knew each other in the first place: He was the cute guy from the movie theater! Now, 2 years later, we're married & hoping for a baby soon.", "id": "c92r7nj", "summary": "Movie Theater or Facebook, either way."}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "My dad was a cop when I was a kid so he was CPR/First Aid certified. I started choking once when I was maybe 8, and I ran out to my mom who just started panicking which made me even more scared, then my dad ran up behind me and did the Heimlich Maneuver and saved me, he was calm and knew exactly what to do. There were many times he used his training to take care of us or our friends when we got hurt playing around, as kids do... \n I don't have kids yet and I'm CPR certified for work, which I have to update every 3 years I think...I'm so grateful that I have been trained in first aid and CPR, I hope I never have to use it but I feel so much better knowing that if I'm ever in a situation that would call for it I know what I'm doing. I feel confident that I could give someone a chance at survival, be it my own kids or friends or a stranger on the street, and I feel better about life for it. I won't have to be completely helpless to provide aid in a scary situation, I'd be scared shitless but I'd know what to do. This has helped with my anxiety so much!", "id": "cdbq75u", "summary": "CPR/First Aid certification has improved my life. Be proactive, get certified  before  you need it!"}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "Horrifying...he handcuffed my hands behind my back, took me out on his deck (in February) & bent me over the railing, ripped my jeans down to my ankles & spanked me for a good 45 minutes, didn't stop til well after my ass was completely numb. Then he pretty much dragged me back into his room, grabbed my hair & shoved his junk in my mouth, this was maybe the 4th time I'd ever given head, & gagged me with it for several minutes. Then he picked me up & bent me over the back of a wooden chair that was just a little too tall so my toes barely grazed the ground tip-toed, & all my weight was on my abdomen splitting over the chair. He then spit on my pussy & put his whole wiener in me, balls deep, & proceeded to pound me that deep like a fucking jackhammer while pulling my hair. I cried, repeatedly saying \"Ow, ow, ow, god, ow...\" feeling his dick ram everything between him & the chair. So not only did my pussy feel like it was being shredded until I'd bled enough to act as a bit of lube at which point it felt like it was on fire, but breathing was difficult & painful do to the fact I was practically being cut in half by a chair. I was too scared to ask him to stop so I just let him do it, not that I could've really stopped him if he didn't want to. And this whole time I was facing the mirror, so after the first realization of how retarded I looked & that he was watching intently, I shut my eyes in shame. \n Most painful experience of my life thus far. I was barely 17, he was 19, we'd dated for about a month. We didn't even a tiny bit think we could possibly ever love each other. I was only with him because my previous boyfriend had cheated & broken my heart & this guy was at least nice to me & pretended to listen when I talked about it...this all started because I was depressed & talking about how I'd wanted my ex to be my first, then we started making out & he said \"Do you want to?\" & I said \"okay...\" I had no way of knowing what was in store...I pretty much waddled to the car after, bled through my panties & jeans getting a spot on my mom's seat that I had to tell her was my period, sore for a good 3 days, I had a horrible bruise on my abdomen that looked a lot like a rodeo winners belt with the big buckle in the middle, & I still have a little scar on my wrist from the handcuffs rubbing. \n Sadly, we didn't break up until 2 months after this, through which we continued to have sex, most often in this same way, although he got rid of the chair after he saw how bad of bruises it left the first 2 times...I had no idea what an orgasm felt like until I was almost 19, or even what it felt like building up to one.", "id": "c4yiek0", "summary": "17 years old, scary BDSM shit, horribly painful & traumatizing."}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "Its good for 5 years, no pills to forget to take or ring to risk coming out or patch to be allergic to...I don't regret it at all, 2 days of agony is worth the 5 years of birth control because to be completely honest, if I had to do a pill/ring/patch to remember, I'd be pregnant a lot because I don't remember shit...I considered the shot but it turned out to be more expensive to go every three months for 5 years than to just pay for the IUD, plus my gyno hooked me up because I have no health insurance so it was only $400, which if you do the math comes down to about $6 a month for birth control AND I only have a super light period ever few months instead of a painful heavy one every month...", "id": "c6rao1m", "summary": "So worth it!"}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "If they're not on an emergency call that requires them to have the lights on anyway, yes they're just being self-entitled fuckers... \n My dad was a cop for several years & my brother (only about 5 at the time) got a concussion while playing in the yard with a friend. We piled into my dad's cruiser, he flipped the lights & sirens & we hauled ass to the ER trying to keep my brother awake. At the hospital they told us if we hadn't kept him awake he would have most likely slipped into a coma as his brain was swelling & our timing was essential to his survival. My dad went in & confessed to his sergeant that he had used his cruiser for an emergency while off duty, explained about the dire situation my brother was in, & apologized for taking this liberty although it was truly an emergency situation. He was suspended for a couple of days & a probationary period of 6 months.", "id": "c2vmi10", "summary": "My dad used his lights & sirens for an actual emergency to save my brother's life & was almost fired because he was off duty & \"abused the privileges provided by a badge\"..."}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "I felt like this when I got engaged. I had a few serious boyfriends as a teenager, whom I said I would marry. I have a  terrible  track record with my choices in men. My parents were always dismissive of my boyfriends & personal choices. Once I met my boyfriend (now husband) they were very dismissive when they figured out I'd met him through Facebook. We moved in together after only dating for 2 months. After living together about 6 months, we both moved back in with our parents for a month while he waited for a home he purchased to go through (short sale) and also while he figured out some personal things (whether to stay with me or go back to his ex) and because I was living with my parents I couldn't hide the hurt I was feeling. After a month we moved back in together in his new house & adopted 2 dogs. I caught him having explicit conversations with various other women, which I consider to be cheating, several times over a few months, but we worked things out and he proposed to me. When I called to tell my parents that night, I was so excited and I felt like all the pain & hard work getting our relationship back on track was finally paying off because now we both knew it was all going to be okay and we didn't have to be scared anymore (I'd been scared he'd cheat or leave me, he'd been scared I'd leave him)...but when I told them, they said \"Oh that's great honey!\" but it was very obvious they didn't think we would really get to the wedding and they weren't particularly excited. I will admit that being so young, I was barely 21, I don't blame them, I was just really sad they weren't excited for my happiness. As things progressed & we set a date, started planning, etc. my parents got gradually more supportive, my mother ended up pretty much planning my whole wedding when it became too much for me, they also paid for almost all of it (I only had to pay for my wedding cake & my husband's suit, the money we got as gifts paid for our honeymoon. Overall, with  everything  we got married & honeymooned for about $2000). \n Then, only a few months after the wedding I thought I was pregnant because my birth control was fucking with my hormones. We were terrified at first but then became very excited, and when we found out I wasn't pregnant we decided we wanted to stop using birth control and let it happen. When I told my mom, I was so excited I could barely stand it, but all she had to say was \"Well I guess it's your life...\" I was absolutely heart-broken that she wasn't happy for me because I was so happy. \n When I finally decided on a career path to pursue (I want to teach Elementary School) I called my mom to tell her that I  finally  figured out what I want to do, after putting off school for almost 4 years because I had no clue what direction I wanted my life to go and I didn't want to spend so much money on classes I may not even need...and she didn't care. I got another \"That's great honey...\" and once again, I was heartbroken that my mom wasn't excited for my happiness.", "id": "c9jn8d2", "summary": "My parents are dismissive with my big life choices, too. Every time I try to share exciting news with them, I'm let down. I've just come to a point that I share with them because I'm excited but I just have to be content with a half-hearted \"That's great!\". In the end, it's YOUR big news, it's YOUR happiness, and if they aren't excited with you then that's fine, you can be excited enough for everybody, but at least you did your part as their child by sharing and including them. If they don't do their part as your family and share in your excitement then that is their fault, not yours!"}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "I also live in a dominantly Mormon city and I completely agree. They seem to all have this idea \"Let God help him\" or similiar concepts. In my area, they type of Mormons we have are far more concerned with the way things look to others than their actual souls or the basis of the religion. Everything about society within \"The Church\" is based on conformity, which means you want to wear the best Sunday clothes or be judged, the best of everything as long as it's modest. If you go to anyone for help other than an illness, you're instantly judged. I was in the church until I was 17, at which point I made a mistake because I'm a human being so I did what I thought I was supposed to do & went to my Bishop. I told him what I had done, how I felt, & asked him to help me understand what I needed to do to repent & be closer to God. He gave me a list of stipulations, including confess to him the name of the other person involved whom I REALLY did not want to ever see again & knew I would have to if the Bishop knew who he was so I refused. He told me I was going to Hell, a concept not really recognized by that religion in terms affiliated with the \"Hell\" in other religions. The next day his wife cornered me in front of the youth group & very loudly chastised me, calling me a whore & God had done to me exactly as I deserved, whores like me should rot in Hell, etc, etc...One main point in the religion is that nobody may pass judgement but God, & all may be forgiven for all transgressions.", "id": "c6be66c", "summary": "Mormons are some of the most hypocritical Christians out there, and you are a perfect example of a person God would love, should he exist."}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "We lived together 2 years before we got married, the wedding was 7 months ago...combining finances was pretty weird for me. It was nice not having to remember to give him money every month for bills, but it also really opened my eyes to my own spending problem. I was completely draining my account & over-drafting every single paycheck because I'd buy lunch or shoes or go shopping or get a pedicure or go to a movie or whatever I wanted because I had money in the account. Now it's not just my money, its  our  money. I do really hate that he has 100% control of the accounts, I rarely know the balance of our account and I have to ask him any time I want to spend any money (even $7 for lunch on my way into work). Christmas & birthdays were a challenge because I spent $80-$100 per person for my parents & brother for Christmas/birthdays, and $40 for close friends. I'd also buy gifts for my friends' kids. My husband kyboshed that, $5 for friends' kids, $10 for friends and $20-$30 for family. Any time we want to go out, it takes him an hour to even decide if we can because he has to balance the budget to see what we'll be saving that month to see if we have room to go. He's definitely far better with the finances & budgeting, but it would be nice to be able to go buy work pants or get a pedicure or go to lunch with a friend impulsively without asking permission or being grilled on how much I spent. He makes plans for our money & then informs me about it, instead of asking what I would like in the near future &  then  making a plan. For instance, I really wanted to visit my family over a long weekend I just happened to have off consecutively, but I couldn't go because he had allotted $800 for new pipes on his motorcycle and there wasn't room in the budget after that for me to go up (despite the fact I only have to pay for gas when I stay with my parents because they feed me & I don't go shopping when I visit them anymore, so my gas to visit comes out to about $200) If he had talked to me about what I wanted before making plans, we could've compromised that I would go that month because I had the time off & he could get half his bike parts that month & half the next, or something like that. I had complained to a friend that it irritates me that when he wants something he finds room in the budget, but when I want something it's a huge fight if I get the balls to ask him. I think she mentioned it to her fiance, who is my husband's best friend so he would've mentioned it to my hubby, because the next week he gave me $100 for anything I wanted. I bought makeup from his mom instead of getting some other things because he'd been pressuring me to buy from her for months & she'd bring me a catalog every other week, and I used the rest for us to go out to eat a couple times. He recently got a promotion with a significant pay increase, so I like to think he'll be a little less anal about it but I'm pretty sure that's just how he is. We have a very good cushion in savings & we do consistently save every single month, we're never in the red, breaking even is a bad month for us. I really appreciate that he is so reliable with keeping track of the money and making sure we'll be okay if anything were to come up (I was so grateful that we had savings when my car needed $1200 in repairs, I never could've dealt with that on my own). I just wish he'd let me be more involved in deciding where our money goes, and give me just a little room to spend once in a while - when we can afford it - without it being a fight. \n The other thing that changed a lot after the wedding was the realization that love isn't enough. It's hard work to keep a marriage functioning. You can love each other with all your hearts but if there's not also collaboration and compromise in every aspect of your life together (financially, sexually, supporting each others' emotional needs, time, priorities, working out the little details like where to live or what type of lifestyle to follow, etc) then it isn't going to be a successful marriage. You have to respect each other, have pride in one another, be understanding & compassionate towards each other, be open to each other on multiple levels, communicate effectively...there are so many components to really making a marriage work because even when you live together first, being legally married still changes things. \n It also really changed me & how I see myself. I put on a lot of weight & I feel so guilty because I want to be beautiful for him so he'll be proud that I'm his wife. I was put on his insurance through his work (its freaking amazing), and while I do work he still makes a substantial about more money, so I feel like I'm unable to contribute much to our situation. I also don't clean (I've tried but he beats me to it & even when I think I'm being white-glove OCD it's not clean enough for him, we grew up in  very  different households), and I cook but I'm not very good at it so I often feel like I'm not a very good wife. I also have an anxiety disorder that makes it very difficult for me to do certain things (I can't go to the grocery store alone or get gas alone without being in panic mode. I've hit someone who snuck up on me to ask a question because they scared me) so I feel like I'm a great burden on him. \n Getting used to each others' families has been quite a transition, as well. I get along really well with his family but his father makes me insane ( vary  antagonistic, he thinks he's funny but I think he's an ass), his mother is extremely nosey & attached (she calls him several times a day & asks about every aspect of our life, including sex, and often offends me without meaning to and I have to keep my mouth shut) and coddles her children, his sister is really amazing and I adore her but she's really shy and I'm afraid to try to have a close relationship with her because I'm worried she would reject me if I pushed too hard. My family has not been accepting or friendly toward him, they're starting to warm up now that we're married so it's getting better but it's still awkward for him because they were so rude up until the wedding. It also really bothers him that my mother tends to invalidate me & my adult decisions.", "id": "c9qc13k", "summary": "Finances, relationship dynamics, self-image, & family were the major changes after my wedding. There are a lot of things to work through, but if you can get the hang of compromising and communicating it will all turn out just fine!"}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "I'm not using a throwaway because I'm so late in the game this will be buried & nobody will see it anyway... \n A year ago my boyfriend & I had just closed on our new house & decided to take our new puppies camping to celebrate before we moved in. We bought a tent, sleeping bags, a cooler, all the stuff you need to go camping. We had no real game plan & just piled some junk food from the house into the cooler. When we got to our campsite & got all set up, just having fun with the pups, & realized we hadn't packed anything for a real meal like dinner. So he goes to the nearest little town a few miles away (Pretty much atv rental shop, gas station, & set of like 8 cabins you could rent...not a real town) & returns with convenience store generic brand hot dogs. I hate hot dogs. But I'm hungry & it's easy to roast hot dogs so I eat 2. Fast forward an hour & a half, we're all settled in to sleep, both sleeping bags zipped together to make one big one, the puppies snuggled up under the covers with us...then we hear a rustling outside. I start to freak out because it sounds really big, like mountain lion big. He disagrees, probably a badger...--UHM WHAT? A FRICKING BADGER? I'll take the mountain lion, maybe it could be a nice one...& then I start to feel sick. Enter Futurama \"Not Sure if nervous anxiety over dangerous animal or really big fart about to explode...\" meme here. I'm scared of what might be outside so I try to just hold it in. After a while I know something is about to exit my orifice so I decide I need to go out of the tent because hot dogs give me mad nasty gas & I wanted us all to be able to sleep in our nice new tent. One little fart peeps out on my way out of the tent but no big deal, just a tiny one...another escapes as I'm walking toward some trees, I may as well pee while I'm out here...then I feel an ungodly drip down my leg I now understand that I am so fucked, there is diarrhea already dripping down my leg & I need new pants so I have to wake him up to get them for me. I need to keep this as contained as possible. I spot a plastic cup on the table so I grab that & just drop my pants right there & hold this cup over my butthole to catch the ungodly sludge. It overflows the fucking cup all over my hand. I call for my boyfriend in absolute horrified embarrassment. He's very irritated at being woken up & I feel terrible as I beg him to bring me out my shorts & swimsuit bottoms & the towel we put the dogs' food/water on. When he comes out & realizes the situation he flips 180 & turns into the sweetest guy ever, my knight in shining armor. He rounds up another couple of cups for me, a roll of toilet paper & some wet wipes we'd brought to wash our faces. I'm so embarrassed I've started to cry at this point & he just keeps saying \"It's okay baby, it happens...\" I beg him to just go back to bed & once he's satisfied that I have all supplies he can give me, he obliges. I continue to evacuate my bowels until I'm certain there's nothing left & get myself all cleaned up & into my clean bottoms, put the evidence in a garbage bag to take up to the dumpster when the sun comes up, & go back to bed. About 15 minutes later my stomach starts to gargle again & I wake up my boyfriend, \"Come up to the bathrooms with me, I'm scared to go alone but we have nothing left down here & I can't wait!!!\" So we leash up the dogs (They howl when left alone & we didn't want the scary mountain lion/badger to come back) & sprint up to the bathrooms. Where I go through a second bought even worse than the first. He yells to me through the door that he's going to go back to camp & pack up, he knows I need to go back to the world of indoor plumbing. So I go open the door so I can keep the dogs while he goes to get things together. Half an hour later he returns, all of camp is packed up, he has the car ready for us whenever I feel like I can make it the 20 minutes back to where we live, he has even disposed of the remains from the first round of hell. He comes in, collects the pups & gets them into the car, then comes back in & hands me the pine tree air freshener from the car & goes back out without a word. We make it back to town at about 4am, spend the night at my aunt's house because she's the closest & would let us sleep in the same room. The next morning he took me home & started moving things into our new house while I slept, even though he only got to sleep a couple of hours himself. \n He proposed a month ago & we're getting married in October!", "id": "c54w95x", "summary": "I liquid shat myself in the middle of the night while camping & my boyfriend took care of me, then packed up camp by himself at 3am, threw away my shitty clothes for me, & took me home then let me sleep while he moved half our shit into our new house on only a few hours sleep himself."}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "Every body has different situations financially...\"How can you afford that?!\" is just as much shaming as \"That's some cheap shit, spend more money...\" I get offended when people suggest expensive skin care lines (my skin is absolute shit...scars, acne, discoloration, dark spots, bags under my eyes, premature wrinkles, you name it.), even Mario Badescu is out of my price range for something I have to use every day...however, if there's something I really like then I will ask how much sometimes so I know if it's worth trying to save up for a \"treat\". I only get nice, expensive makeup as gifts because I can't afford them and I'm not ashamed of that, I'm not \"poor\" but I don't have the extra money for Benefit, MAC, Lorac, Urban Decay, etc. but I'm just as much a makeup addict as anyone! Drugstore brand gals and high-end gals are all the same in our love of makeup, regardless of our financial capabilities.", "id": "c9ayl7w", "summary": "Everybody can afford different things, it's none of your business how. If you want to know how much they spent because you want to buy it too then that's one thing, but if you're being a douche and shaming them for spending then it's none of your business and shut your damn pie-hole."}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "Maybe not the grossest of the thread, but the grossest of my experience. \n BACKSTORY: When I was in high school I was the goody-two-shoes in my group of friends, and about half of the \"group\" were considered \"bad kids\" around school (actually really awesome people, just made some bad choices and had rough home lives). I didn't go to many parties, but I was staying over with one of the \"bad kid\" friends, we'll call her \"J\", one night and we decided to sneak out and go to a party down the street for an hour or 2 so she could see a guy she liked. \n So \"J\" ditches me to hook-up with this guy as soon as she finds him, which is fine because one of our other friends, let's call her B, was there and I just hung around with her for a while, making our way around the house, checking out what's going on and who else is there. We get to the kitchen and there's an older girl sitting on the floor in front of the sink in a really awkward crouching position with one bare foot under her and she's poking it. \"B\" tells me we should move on and I \"don't want to see this\", but my naive self thinks maybe the girl needs help or something so I approach her and crouch down and ask if she's okay. She says \"I will be, hold this a sec?\" and hands me a dirty looking syringe while she adjusts her position a little, and then takes it back and sticks it into a vein running across the top of her foot. I'm horrified and \"B\" is now pulling at my arm but I can't look away. The girl then puts a rubber eraser on the needle and puts the syringe into her purse,  slaps her foot a few times as she sits back against the cabinet and puts her legs out straight in front of her. \"B\" forcefully pulls me up by my arm and starts dragging me out toward the front of the house, and I looked back at the girl on the floor and saw her like zombie-out. I assume she was injecting heroin, but I don't really know my drugs and I never asked. Scared the shit out of me, I booked it the hell out of there and snuck back into \"J\"s house by myself and waited for her to come home. About an hour later she comes in the window all out of breath saying she almost got caught, cops had broken up the party because somebody called about an OD. I have no idea if the OD was the girl shooting up on the floor, I'm sure there were plenty of drugs being passed around that party, but the way she looked when I last saw her I wouldn't be surprised. \n The gross part was the dirty needle. That seriously freaked me the hell out. It looked like it was rusty or had dried blood on it or something and the part you push down was crusty. I'd held it awkwardly between two fingers because she'd given it to me out of her mouth, which is equally gross.", "id": "cfnepee", "summary": "Girl at a party asks me to hold a filthy syringe she's just had in her mouth, then proceeds to shoot up into her foot with said dirty needle and put it into her purse, presumably to use again later."}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "I have experienced depression and have an anxiety disorder, but as a kid/teenager I witnessed my father battle depression for a decade before I moved out. It started with him sleeping a lot, but he worked nights so it wasn't that weird. Then he lost his job and his new hub had normal hours but he still slept all the time. Then he stopped being interested in my brother and I. \n I felt like my dad hated me. I didn't understand what depression was when it first started so I genuinely believed my father didn't like me. I knew he loved me as his daughter, but I thought he didn't like me as a person. He was very disinterested in anything I tried to talk to him about, he didn't spend time with me anymore. We would go for family drives on Sundays but I usually fell asleep in the silence. There would be moments of \"Daddy\" where he would be affectionate and playful and his normal self, but they were few and far between. As I got a little older and realized that he wasn't happy, and started to vaguely understand depression as an emotion (I didn't understand it as a \"sickness\" or prolonged mental state until I had moved out and started researching my own depression) I started to try really hard to make him happy. If I did really well with my chores maybe he would be happy today, if I got really good grades, did well in the school play, made a really good dinner, if I could do something exceptional maybe he would like me today and me happy. But it was never enough. If he spoke to me at all it was that he always found something to be upset with me about and criticize me for. He would go through horrible mood swings where the tiniest little thing would set him off and he'd be so angry and he'd just yell at me or my brother for a half hour. In my 11 year old brain, I figured out that he wasn't always mad at me, other things had upset him and I was the only one who let him yell and didn't fight back so he took it out on me. I told myself that I could handle it if I remembered that, and let him yell when he needed to thinking that maybe that was how I could help him be happy. But I often forgot he didn't mean the things he said and I began to feel very badly about myself. By the time I was 14 (he'd been dealing with depression since I was about 8 and I really started to notice around 11, when I started to get the concept of what depressed meant) I had developed an involuntary reflex to the sound of the garage door opening, if I heard it I would run upstairs to the bathroom as fast as I could and listen through the door. If I heard him stomping of mumbling or dropping things heavily, I would run a bath and stay in until he came banging on the door, then I'd let him yell at me, then I'd hide out in my room until dinner. If he didn't sound in a bad mood, I would flush the toilet and come out, get a drink and claim I had lots of homework and hide out in my room. This continued until I moved out at 19. At 14 I secretly dated a guy far too old for me who beat me heavily, I also developed an eating disorder and started \"cutting\" by putting thumbtacks in my inner thighs and letting them rip out on eachother (they didn't leave noticable marks and we had a boat so my family saw me in a bathing suit often). I started to resent my mom for expecting me to cook and look after my brother and so most of the housework and keep good grades, and also because I thought she wasn't trying to make my dad happy. I developed a cycle of trying desperately to please my father, being rejected by him, seeking attention from boys, harming myself (thumbnails eventually evolved into slashing with scissors), then trying to please my father and on and on. I started participating in school counselling groups at about 15, and stayed in them until I graduated high school, but i never talked about my bulimia or self harm or the issues at home, I mostly found solice in helping others through their problems. I intentionally spent as much time away from home as I could and kept many secrets from my parents. I decided I'd they didn't know me, they couldn't hate ne or hurt me. I recovered from ny eating disorder with support from a friend and her mom, but I continued cutting until I moved out. When I did move out at 19, I avoided contact with my parents and rarely went back home to visit. Now, almost 3 years later, my parents have been about 300 miles away for over a year, and we have a much better relationship. We never talked about it, I doubt either of my parents know how I felt from age 9 to 19. My first visit to see my family after they moved, my dad was dropping me off at the shuttle to go home and he hugged me and cried, the 2nd time in my life u had ever seen him cry, and he told me he was sorry he couldn't \"get back lost time\" and I decided he meant my adolescence. He walked me down the aisle at me wedding 7 months ago, we've been pretty normal father and daughter since they moved. \n I now see depression as a disease, a horrible disease that victims often fight too hard to lose to. I also see it as contagious. I see depressed people differently as an adult than I did as a child so this may not answer the question the way it was intended when asked, but I thought I would share my childhood perspective.", "id": "c9vt6ez", "summary": "My juvenile perspective saw that my father's depression made me ugly and and undesirable as a person. He didn't see the beauty in the world or in me and I hated myself and the world because we didn't make him happy. \n Sorry about any typos, I'm on my phone and cried through 75% of writing this out."}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "Not me, but in 2001 my dad's best friend was living in New York for 6 months to train new people at an office there that would later be dispersed to their international offices to train more people. My dad was supposed to fly out for 10 days and visit his friend, including a tour of his office. He ended up cancelling his trip because he would've missed my birthday if he went and I threw a fit because it was my 10th birthday and I was so excited about double-digits...my birthday is September 5th, and his friend's office was in the World Trade Center. My dad could've been in the World Trade Center on 9/11. And further, because he cancelled, his friend decided to take a little extra time off to go visit his girlfriend (in California, where he lived before and after that 6 month business thing) instead, so he didn't go to work the day of the attack.", "id": "cf04seb", "summary": "I threw a hissy-fit that ended up possibly saving my father and his best friend from being in the World Trade Center on 9/11."}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "THIS a hundred times...I've done everything I can think of to get my guy turned on for me & initiate things...it NEVER works. He just won't do it if I initiate it anymore. He's told me \"No\" so many times I'm just done, I'm sick of trying to please him & then feeling shitty about myself because he's not interested. I have a huge Tupperware tub full of all kinds of lingerie sitting in the top of my closet, just sitting there, because he doesn't react to ANY of them, even the ones he picked out! Sometimes I wear them around the house when he's not home just to feel sexy for a while, since he obviously doesn't think I am...and just to clear it up, I'm not at all overweight or ugly, flawed of course, but I am [pretty]( so I just can't figure out why he doesn't want me...we have absolutely no passion whatsoever. There's not even any foreplay anymore other than what I do for him...it sucks.", "id": "c3ej4hf", "summary": "I'm [pretty]( & have done all I can think of to entice my man, to no avail...so the spark is gone from our sex life & I don't know why."}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "I'm 2.5 years older than my little brother & I pretty much raised him since he was in kindergarten. We fought so bad as kids, constantly kicking/hitting/biting/screaming...not friends at all. \n When he was only maybe 5, we were at his friend's house playing in a blow up pool outside. I went inside for a drink & was chatting with the grandma when we heard both boys start to just wail. My brother had been laying in the pool & the other boy jumped in & they bonked heads, causing my brother to take a sprinkler head to the temple. We got them inside & dried off, the other boy had a big goose-egg on his forehead so we were tending to him when we noticed my brother had laid down on the floor & looked like he was falling asleep. The grandma immediately picked him up & ordered us all to get in the car now. She was at warp speed to my house where she just walked in the front door screaming for my dad. She told him what happened & he took my brother from her & started asking a bunch of dumb questions like \"What's your name?\" he replied \"I don't know.\" Dad:\"Who am I?\" Brother:\"I don't know.\" So my parents start to panic, we get into my dad's patrol car & he hauls ass to the hospital (later got suspended for using his squad car with lights & sirens for a \"non-emergency\" that was later corrected to \"Personal Emergency\") so my mom is holding him, trying to keep him awake & talking, asking him tons of questions...we get to the hospital & a nurse takes him from my mom, leaving me with another nurse. A few hours go by & they finally let me go see him & he looks at me & says, \"Jenna! Help me! Nobody will let me sleep, all of these people are being so mean! Please make them leave me alone!\" & starts to cry...my dad goes up to him, \"It's okay buddy, they just want to help you...\" & tries to hug him, but my brother pushed him off yelling \"I DON'T KNOW YOU!!!\"...first time I ever saw my father cry. I have been protective as ever-living fuck since that day.", "id": "c4tbll8", "summary": "Little brother got a concussion, didn't remember anybody but me & made my dad cry."}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "First, call the police department or go in & ask to speak to an officer. The least you can do is talk to someone about it & find out what sort of evidence you would need. Plus, then there is at least one officer on the look-out for the guy to at LEAST catch him for distributing tobacco to minors. Ask what you'd have to get evidence-wise to get him for statutory rape. Ask if there is any possibility you could get information about his criminal record. It's possible he could even be a sex-offender already & hanging out with your sister & her friends would be violation of parole & he could go to jail or at the very least be better enforced to stay the fuck away from them.", "id": "c3uk6u0", "summary": "Go talk to a cop & ask exactly what you need to get something going on this creep."}, {"author": "Buglet91", "content": "I think I was probably 17, had recently lost my virginity ( horrible ) & was seeing a new guy from school that was really popular & cute, I just wanted him to like me so I pretty much just went with whatever he wanted to do when we'd hang out but we hadn't been physical at all before this point. When he did it, it was odd because we'd been swimming & so I was cold down there and then all of a sudden warm. I was totally freaking out because we'd been swimming in a  river  & thought it must be gross for him but he had initiated it & didn't seem to mind. I remember it felt good but I was really nervous someone was going to see us (we were on the bank of the river just around a bend from where everybody played) so I couldn't really enjoy it. In hindsight I shouldn't have let him do it because I was really uncomfortable with it, I barely knew him, but I was so desperate to impress him I couldn't deny him. We stopped seeing eachother pretty soon after. \n About a year later I had an amazing boyfriend. Nobody had gone down on me since that first guy so it had only happened once & not really a great memory, so when my boyfriend started kissing lower when we were hooking up I got nervous and didn't want to let him really get to it, but we had talked about it a little before & I had feigned an interest in letting him so I reluctantly agreed to allow it.  Holy fucking shit  that was the first time I ever had an orgasm, i was just shaking all over & couldn't stop smiling! He had the biggest smile on his face ever & it was just hugely monumental for me. I think we were in his car, if I remember right, and he was a super tall guy so us being all crammed in the back seat was a little awkward but it still was pretty incredible. After that I wanted it all the time, I wasn't mature enough to be comfortable asking for it but I definitely wanted it a lot. It definitely made me want to fine tune my own oral sex skills to rock his world in return. \n My husband doesn't do it very often, which is a bummer because he's incredible at it, but at least I've become comfortable enough with my sexual personality to be able to ask for it when I really want it, say no when I don't want to do something, and make sure I give at least as good as I get (usually better, I'm a giver). \n I really see my sexual journey a more accurate perspective of my growing up & maturing more than any other of my experiences in life. I think becoming comfortable with myself sexually was #1 in learning to become comfortable with myself in general as a person, & allowing someone to get  that  up close & personal with my anatomy was a huge part of that.", "id": "c6zwled", "summary": "Not so great first time, fucking amazing after that, helped me grow up & be okay with who I am."}]}
+{"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post a champion with so much unique utility should not be a tank with high damage. Bard was just released being squishy with low damage, why wasn't tahm released the same way?", "output": "I'm not trying to make this a \"DAE HATE TAHM KENCH?\" Thread, but I just wanted to hear some other people's opinions on this topic. \n Bard was released recently with uncomparable utility. He has stuns, slows, heals, speed buffs, the ability to clear walls with his team, and of course the AOE zhonyas. While he was released with all of this unique (and some staple) utility, he was also released to be extremely squishy with horrible damage. This seems acceptable for a support champion, a champ who can stay relevant without gold because of the utility they can bring. \n But their next support they released was tahm kench, who has stuns, slows, the ability to make ally's untargettable, enemy's as well, a shield that can withstand 100% of damage taken, and a short ranged TF ultimate that he can carry someone with him on. This doesn't seem TOO over bearing when comparing him to bards kit, maybe a little more utility, but still sounds like a kit with enough going on that they shouldnt need to scale well with gold. \n My issue? Why does a champion that can do all of those things ALSO have high damage with high durability? Why is he receiving more damage by building defensively, when most supports scale poorly off items (except lulu which we all have seen im sure, but she isn't even played as a support anymore because of this) \n So what exactly am I getting at here? I'm curious as to why riot took that kind of approach on a champion designed to support. Especially when earlier this year they designed a squishy support with very low damage output. Were they not happy with the amount of play bard received so they made a support that can do it all? \n It just seems like a massive overlook, or I am not seeing where this \"counter play\" is. To me, a champion who has the ability to completely counter some abilities (and some ultimates!) with a basic ability should not be a champion that also scales so well off of gold. A champion that can save ally's from CC effects and make them untargettable should be a champion that you can focus first in a fight if needed. \n I don't even have a problem with his consume ability. Although it is an absurdly strong ability on a low cool down, it is a very fun and interactive ability. But if a champion is going to have such a powerful basic ability, he should be mediocre at best in most other areas. Where are the downsides to this champion outside of being kited? Because a good tahm won't be running at the enemy's anyways, they will be standing by their team eating damage and saving ally's from veigar stun/Caitlin ult/ vi ult/ zed ult/Jayce poke/(I don't think I need to continue, you get it) \n Is there a good reason why this champion is allowed to be durable & a damage threat while having SOOO much unique utility? Why can't my Janna be tanky with increased damage off bonus health? Well obviously she would be incredibly oppressive. I understand I'm comparing apples to oranges here, but no other support in this game scales like tahm does. \n To me, tahms kit would be perfect on a squishy support. If you really want to keep his damage, fine, but he should be a target that you can actually remove from a fight. He single handedly counters some champions entire kits with 1 ability, he shouldn't be hard to kill as well. All other tank supports dont deal good damage (Leona, Braum, alistar, naut) yet, tahm can counter any of those champions engage with 1 ability anytime he wants while outputting more damage. That just seems so wrong."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post finds least played roll atm, gives you roll, you pick champ, you play game.", "output": "Let's say you had an option to \"fill\" in teambuilder. Most people say that it would take a rework of the system, that there's no need for it since you can play blind pick, yada yada. \nWhy not be able to select fill, then the client finds which roll has the least amount of players in it at the time, and gives you that roll. You then select your champion for that roll, and are THEN tossed into the que to look to join a team. The captains wouldn't even know the difference of wether the guy picked fill or not because they're given the roll before they're put into que. \nSeems fool proof to me, is there any reasons why this would be a bad idea at all?"}], "user_id": "longlamp_7721", "history": [{"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "I've had most of my success with him, I find him incredibly mobile actually. Strafe and shooting is your best friend, stay in the sky as much as you can. All of your abilities will knock them down, guess which way they will move and spam bombs and votex on cd to force them to use their jetpack to dodge. always be shooting back at them. Don't just run until they lose line of sight . \nAlways be thinking \"what would I be doing if I was the hunters right now\" zone their paths with your spells, they're all pretty big area of affect abilities.\nClimbing isn't always a bad idea, I've had matches where I was domed and just climed to the highest point and blasting them back off once they jet pack up. It takes a lot longer for the hunters to get back up then you may think. Anytime they can see you, you want to be flying backwards and spamming abilities back towards them. Especially their trapper. I try to harass the trapper as much as possible while escaping as he will most likely be at the head of the pack. Sometimes you'll even get lucky and down him with some good shots and that buys you a lot of time to make distance. \nFlying is OP, it may be \"slow\" but your covering distance that hunters have to use jetpack to keep up with you. The best thing you can do is be thinking \"which way can I go that's much easier for me to fly across than it is for the hunters to run.\"\nBiggest tip is luring people through caves where vortex is nearly impossible to dodge. It has a huge graphic and also knocks them back incredibly far, being in the wide open is just about the worst thing you can do. \nWhen you first take off, be conscious of how high you make your first jump. You might not want to jump max hight to fly if it means they can see you from the other side of the map, but it's also the easiest way to get from one side to the other. If you land a good vortex/bomb group it's going to be very hard to catch your trail after your three flight dashes.", "id": "cok4lpj", "summary": "make the most use of your abilities while escaping. They're all large and will all knock them down/back. You want to be annoying as possible. It's not easy shooting at something in the air while also trying to avoid the wildlife. You don't want to just fly away, you want to fly and shoot back at them. If you aren't forcing them to use their jet fuel to avoid attacks they will easily keep up.\nI hope any of this helps! He's my favorite monster by far (:"}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "You are comparing apples to oranges here. You are right about ash having a weaker passive than both trist and luc, but ash has an ult that's 10x better than both of theirs. Her kit is extremely powerful, so her passive can't be as good as the other two (especially trist because the rest of her kit is kinda lackluster)\nAnd why does everyone say you need to be attacking all the time so the passive is useless!? You are never fighting 100% of the time, and unless you are auto pushing the lane 24/7 then there is no reason you won't be stacking your passive. Just about every wave you get another crit, when you are being shoved into your tower yes your passive will stack slow. But when the lane is frozen? Better not get near that ash unless you wanna lose that trade with her passive up and then take extra harassment since you're slowed.\nHer passive starts off waaay better than the other adcs but also falls off fairly quickly (after about 3 items it really only helps catching people out/starting duels which as an adc isn't really your job) but her late game is very game changing with her ultimate and she needs some kind of trade off for it.", "id": "ckq50ce", "summary": "ash passive starts strong and falls off fast because otherwise her late game would be absurd with the amount of utility she also brings as an adc."}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "It has way too short of a range to use with anyone other than your support (in lane anyways)\nShe is a short ranged adc with no escape, but a lot of people are really focusing on the ult thinking she's going to be some sort of engaging adc and in most cases that is not going to happen. \nYou hit the FIRST champ you touch and stop, and knock them away. It will be amazing with engage champs for sure, but now you've just left your short range adc with no support (you just let them launch themselves at the team) and you are now a sitting duck.\nThe ult is WAY more useful as your escape, think of it this way:\nLeona jumps into the team to start off the fight, and you see that enemy zed coming hot on your ass. You bring Leona out of the fight and back to you, and now Leona can launch herself Inbetween you and zed, knocking zed away. Now Leona in one fight just started the fight and was instantly brought back to peel for his adc with nobody able to stop Leona from coming back.\nThis is the way I see the ult being used at most points of the game (from what I've seen on pbe anyways) \n Yeah sure launching your braum into the enemy team for a perfect ult from him sounds amazing! But now your 550 ranged adc with no escape and low base move speed is all alone to let that akali/fizz/zed/yasuo/etc freely eat him up like she's nothing.\nLots of potential in the champion but I think people are too excited about the new mechanics and are not logically thinking about how it is going to work in an actual game. Your adc will most likely not be setting up all these \"amazing wombo combos\" like everyone is saying, if the tank is in the front well then you're just launching your supp at their tank and just lost the only escape power that you posses (except the slow on E, but if you need to use it to slow you aren't letting your autos stack up for the increased damage)", "id": "cltjwjv", "summary": "soul binding is too short to use on another laner(or jungler) other than your supp and the ult will rarely be used for initiation(except for early-mid game maybe? Still very risky)"}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "I know a lot of people don't play him much anymore, but I find it to be incredible on brand as a 2-3rd pickup item. It helps him wave clear since his W doesn't clear casters (you have to E afterwards and that takes precious mana) so it helps it that regard.\nIt adds to his burst combo (in a game where I wasn't even fed I 2 shot their adc with just w-q-passive-luden proc)\nIt procs liandrys, it's amplified by magic pen (which you rush anyways to help your passive) and to top it off, your passive can proc the effect too. So as long as you're constantly moving after landing some spells you get even more opportunities to proc it.", "id": "cpgdox1", "summary": "get it on brand it's good"}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "Yeah gais, if you didnt post the meme back when it was cool, then we don't wanna see it!\nIn all seriousness though, who gives a fuck. Every single meme goes through this when they come out, then comes the wave of people mocking everyone for using the meme. If you didnt realize that happens on here yet, then you haven't been here long enough.", "id": "c54u4fw", "summary": "smoke weed and be happy."}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "I see alot of people complaining about how squishy he is, but also complain about his shield, and aren't putting the two together. You aren't supposed to dash to the back line and kill everything, your kiting potential is ridiculous and you need to be using their focus to your advantage. I find him more of a hit and run champion, and not a \"how many times can I hit Q before they realize i'm here\" champ. you make tanks and bruisers chase you around the fight like a moron while you dash through the team, and the more you run the more you have a shield ready, plus if they do get close enough to damage you after 3 Qs you have a knock up to make a big enough gap to continue running. I find him to be one of the most fun champs I've ever played, and after you get used to the set distance on his E kiting people around is just way too amusing. \n His ult seems a little underwhelming, kindof like a vi ult but has the possibility of knocking up multiple people, but also needs to be set up. Ontop of that, vi jungle with a yasuo is just such a nasty combo, nothing to stop both of them from ulting you if vi gets in range. \n I also find his laning phase to be alot of fun and very powerful in some matchups. The dash and wall cause be used to dodge skills, and Q is just so good for harassing/ last hitting. Only issues I have is pushing the lane too hard while trying to keep up solid pressure, but I think that's my own fault and not the champion. \n So far I find him to be alot of fun and fairly balanced so far, the armor pen from the ult is almost non existent unless for some reason you WANT to jump the tankiest person on their team, I guess it just gives you a little more damage incase you can only catch the tank and not a higher priority? I'm not sure, gonna need a few more weeks of play to see how it is really best used. It does make for some really cool plays though when playing with friends!", "id": "ce2u9gp", "summary": "really fun, and I don't think most people are looking to play him to his fullest. More of a kiting/skirmish champ and not a \"let me assassinate all the squishies\" champ."}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "That is entirely different though. You can safely farm up all game as twitch and that's okay because you will eventually outscale the other players. You can't do that in the jungle (I mean you CAN, but it's not optimal) sure I can go jungle Zac and farm my ass off and be a monster after 4 items, but that lee/j4/vi has just assfucked my lanes the entire time with just a brut and now my entire team is behind just because I picked a jungler that doesn't even come close to compare in the early game.", "id": "coq71yc", "summary": "you can farm up and play safe as an adc, you can't optimally farm up and play safe as a jungler."}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "It's because you can't balance these things with numbers. How do you buff mord other than giving him mobility? Well you can't do that because the only way for most people to beat him is to kite him. Give him more damage? He's still in the same situation except now he's even stronger against melee and less fun to play against. Nothing in his kit is avoidable. The 1 \"skillshot\" he has is nearly instant and quite large. You're basically asking them to turn dog shit into diamonds while throwing the balance of the other champions out of the question. His kit is outdated, he HAS to be changed somehow so that they can actually make meaningful buffs/nerfs that wouldn't just completely throw him off track.\nAs for fizz he was in a similar boat, he was 1 shotting your carries with a point click unavoidable gap closer and an invulnerability gap closer to get away. Yes obviously he needed to be ahead to actually \"1shot\" and that's where skill of the champ came in, but once you were fed what do you do as an adc? Run away everytime he enters your screen? You have to be able to do something.\nI agree they kindof over nerfed fizz a bit but you aren't even thinking about the rest of the game when you're complaining about these changes. Mords kit is literally \"press all my buttons on the adc and now he's my bitch that kills for me\" and other than running away the adc/apc can't do anything, so what kind of buff do you give mord that doesn't make it so that he can do that anytime he wants? It can't be mobility because that's the only counter play he has.\nI'm all for voicing your opinion, but saying \"omg riot is just changing champs to make them less fun for the player\" isn't helping anything. Do you have any ideas to change them without stripping the identity? Because i'm sure riot would love to hear them, but they have teams already doing that and SURPRISE a melee burst Mage with point click damage is hard to find a balance for. So they either just leave him as a mediocre champion, or they change him in a way that feels close to his original gameplay while also giving opponents ways to deal with it.", "id": "cok68yh", "summary": "his kit is outdated and either needs to be rehauled or he's just going to stay a mediocre champion forever, because \"melee burst Mage that 1 shots people\" doesn't really have a place for balance in this game. They're trying to make the game better FOR EVERYONE PLAYING, and aren't going to just buff mord so that the mord player is OP and happy. That's how shit hits the fan (hi 5.2 ahri)"}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "The strongest part about fiddle is the \"surprise\" aspect of his kit. 80% of the game you want to be coming from a place out of vision and preferably over a wall. Save flash for your ult so you can have double the distance to catch someone. Fiddlesticks is a lot about waiting for the right opportunity, and lack of vision is your best friend.\nIn late game teamfights if you can't make a \"surprise\" ult happen, I stand back and wait for the opponents to engage and then I try to ult/zhonyas as many people as I can. Even if you don't land the best ult, the zoning potential of an ulting fiddle is insane and you should look to use it advantageously.\nI hope this could be of some help to you!", "id": "ckz5z0m", "summary": "scanner is your butt buddy make good use of it.\nDisclaimer: not a fiddle main tho so take my advice with that in mind."}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "These posts are getting a bit ridiculous. Everyone is aloud to voice their own opinions, and it's perfectly fine to be unhappy about your main being changed.\nBut for the love of god, I don't care how many games you've played on that champion, looking at some number changes on the pbe doesn't make you some expert.\nThese huge 20 paragraph essays about how \"I've played 1000 games of x champ so I know better than riot\" are just silly. This game has WAY too many variables for you to determine how the rework will go by just looking at number changes.\n6 items were changed with two new ones coming in, and all of those items are going to affect these 4 new reworks. You are already unfamiliar with how strong your champion is before the rework now that their items have been changed, so how can you be so sure these new designs are so flawed?\nYou can't just say \"well morde against champion Y is still going to get kited so he's useless\" well you were still playing him before while he was always being kited, why can't you find positives in this new kit?\nInstead of being so skeptical of number changes on the pbe, how about we give it some time before we start making assumptions. Who knows, maybe skarner will be an unstoppable 1v1 machine inside of his nodes and a mediocre duelist outside of them. Is this such a bad thing? Are we considering the item changes? Are we considering how the item changes affect the other 120+ champions? Are we considering power curves throughout the whole game length? You can't just say \"well I can't 1v1 vayne as this champ so GG useless\" when league will always be more than just fighting a 1v1. \nThis game is constantly changing, and riot isn't looking to destroy any champions. Play them first, theory craft, and change itemizations. THEN maybe you can post your complaints and offer positive changes. Otherwise, were just filling the front page with pessimistic threads before actually seeing any game play.", "id": "t3_3fur9y", "summary": "get some pbe game time in before you start begging riot to take back their reworks. And if you don't have pbe, wait for the people who do to give their insight first. There is no positive outcome of circle jerking around the nerfs of a kit if you aren't going to consider what new possibilities the kit may bring. \n/rant"}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "So I haven't gotten to play the new skarner yet on the PBE, so this is all speculation. \n The crystal nodes range seems quite small, and people have been mentioning how badly this will effect him in lanes.\nWhat if skarner's passive also applied to him while under tower? Would this be too strong? \n This would allow even stronger objective control (which seems to be his new niche they are pushing) while also making his passive viable in the top lane(for when you are shoved under tower & tower diving) \n Would this be too strong? Opinions?", "id": "t3_3fvdtw", "summary": "if towers also gave skarner the same buffs the new crystal nodes do, do you think it be too strong, or a healthy option?"}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "So i don't have any evidence at the moment but I could potentially make a video if this is something people don't know about. \n So for starters, switching forms as jayce gives your next auto attack a buff. In ranged form it gives an armor/MR debuff and in melee form it gives extra damage as magic damage. \n So the bug I've found is that, you can cast the melee buffed auto in ranged form. It's tricky, but  if someone were to practice it it could be abused I think. The timing has to be spot on for it to work, but after a little bit of practice I was able to reproduce it multiple times. \n If you are in cannon form and auto attack a target from out of range (so you're running towards your target to auto attack them) and switch to hammer form right before you get into cannon forms auto range, it will auto attack FROM CANNON RANGE in hammer form, also applying the extra magic damage buff from switching forms. \n It isn't game breaking, and isn't a huge increase of damage, but it still seems like a bug to me. It could be used for that extra little bit of burst from range without having to actually get into melee range to proc it. \n This could also be an intended feature that is already well known and if so feel free to tell me. \nHas anyone else experienced this themselves?", "id": "t3_3q9aok", "summary": "You can Que an auto attack in cannon form and switch forms to fire a hammer form auto (with +magic damage on hit effect) from ranged. Is this a bug or a feature?"}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "When I hit level 30 over a year ago, I jumped right into ranked. Ended up bronze 4... I've learned a lot more about this game now, and am constantly looking up reddit/other sites in my free time. Although I mostly played norms, I've been trying to climb ranked more seriously. \nThe biggest reason is, a friend of mine I got into the game about 3/4ths of a year after I started got placed gold when he finished his placements. One of the main reasons being, I had taught him the game while he leved up (he started when I was 30 ofcourse) and while he still doesn't know what a lot of the champions do/how they scale, he got placed in gold.\nI'll admit this made me a little salty because i'm STILL giving him advice and making the calls when my friends and I play together, but i'm an entire rank below him still with an entire season of experience more than him. So now, I want to climb. My problem is climbing is very difficult. I know everyone blames their teammates, \"Elo hell!!!11\", etc, but in the grand scheme of things I honestly just don't feel like i'm on the same level of \"game sense\" to where I'm currently placed. And let's face it, you can't tell your solo q teammates what to do. Usually giving advice gets you flamed honestly. \n To the point of my post. I heard when you make a new account and do very well you get matched with other smurfs. Which would in theory give me a better MMR. If I were to make a smurf and go through placements, would I be playing with players of a higher level (presuming i'm doing well obviously) or would I still be in the same predicament of having to \"carry\" myself up through bronze and silver level players still on a smurf account? Has anyone else had more success in ranked after they made a smurf account since their main account already has so much \"mileage\" on it?", "id": "t3_2rrw8y", "summary": "I feel like I should be ranked higher but the grind from bronze up is becoming frustrating (currently mid silver) Has anyone had luck leveling a smurf and playing ranked with that since their main account started such a low division?"}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "I've been a Nidalee main since season 3, and I've played her in the jungle quite a few times (only normals of course) and while it can be pretty fun it's always felt very lack luster. Obviously I never expected it to be a high teir pick, but the new buff she got on patch 5.2 has got me interested in playing it again and I keep hearing streamers talk about it like it's going to become a regular thing. \n Her clear has definitely increased, and being able to jump around the jungle is a lot of fun (especially with the bug that's making the monsters freeze in place which i'm sure will be fixed soon. Especially on scuttle crap because that seems incredibly broken.) but I still feel like i'm taking way too much damage when i'm trying to clear, which means without blue buff I don't have much mana to be useful on the map because i'm using my heal every cool down.\nKinda wondering if anyone else has had success with it and how they're building it? I main mid lane and try for jungle when I don't get it, and it would be incredibly convenient If I could manage to play her in both rolls but there are a lot of things I need to tune first before i'm willing to try jungling with her in ranked. \n I've only tried it with normal AP runes and masteries so far, but have considered trying cdr runes to make clears a little easier. My issue is that if I do I will heavily overcap cdr after a jungle item because I know I will need grail or morellos for mana anyways. I've considered attack speed runes too but that seems like a huge waste of early game damage just to be able to clear faster too. \n Taking her the AD build in the jungle also doesn't seem appealing because she isn't going to do enough burst damage in a gank to actually make it worthwhile at least until my trin force. \n So you nidalee junglers out there, how are you making it work? The changes makes it seem like riot wants her to be a viable jungler. I can't see why else they would give her this buff since she wasn't lacking mobility moving through the jungle to begin with.", "id": "t3_2uby3y", "summary": "for the lazy: is anyone having success taking nidalee in the jungle after 5.2, and if so, what is their rune/mastery set up?"}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "This isn't another one of those \"climbing is so hard cause promos are stupid\" or \"Elo hell\" posts, more just trying to get a grasp on why they're so difficult. I started this game bronze 5 (I did placements last year immediately after I hit lvl30... Poor choice) but although I don't play ranked much I've peaked to high silver (obviously nothing to brag about but it's slowing rising) \n My issue is that promos seem like a totally different game than when i'm climbing. Normally ranked games feel like i'm playing with and against players lower than my skill level (which makes me believe I should be at a higher rank than I am) up until promos, and that's when things get funny. \n I don't go looking players up or anything, but I'd say 95% of the time the game is filled with 4 players much better than I am, or about equal to where I feel i'm at (these are the only games I see players significantly more skilled than what i'm used to playing against. I'm not saying this to come of cocky, I just mean I don't feel like i'm being challenged until I play promo matches) and then the other 5 players seem to be players that are significantly lower skill level then what i'm used to play against. These players aren't always spread out the same, a lot of times I get two of the \"great\" players and the other team gets the other two, but sometimes I'll just get steamrolled by a team much better than my team (myself included) except they always have that one player who only has half of the cs that their teammates have and didn't play a big part in their victory. \n The issue is that these games are either incredibly snowbally, or the games come down to \"who has the dumbest player\" and I have yet to play a promo match this year that wasn't either decided at the 10min mark, or didn't come down to which team had less players get caught out. \n Each team will always have 1-2 incredibly fed players(the ones that are not only fed but also seem more experienced at the game) and the other players look like they haven't even hit level 30yet (i'm talking adcs face checking every bush, top laners itemizing against the wrong source of damage, assassins trying to dive the team everytime they're in vision, etc). I understand that i'm low Elo, but even the silver players i'm normally playing with don't make such obvious mistakes constantly. The reason the games snowball is because the skill difference seems huge compared to when i'm playing a normal ranked match. Promos don't feel like i'm playing a game filled with 10 people at my level, it feels like i'm given a decent player or two as well as the other team and these \"decent players\" have to learn to win the game by carrying lesser players. Is it designed to be this way or is it all just coincidence? \n I know this is a lot of rambling nonesense but what i'm trying to get at is normal ranked games feel like \"hey try your best to win the game\" but promos feel like \"hey let's see if your good enough to win with half a team of window-lickers\" \n I understand i'm not a challenger player and I don't expect to win every game obviously, but promos seem to be games where the skill differences between players is HUGE, and lanes don't end without one side having a massive advantage.", "id": "t3_2q5yc1", "summary": "are promos designed to give teams lesser players to see if you still perform well with a disadvantage? Or are promos qued up the same as any other ranked game and I've just been getting unlucky?"}, {"author": "Wake_and_Blake", "content": "I'm not really sure where to start with this, but I guess I should start off with saying that for the last 2-4 years I have been feeling like I am depressed. My problem is, I can't pinpoint any reasons for me feeling this way. \n I am currently 22 years old, and am working full time on the night shift. I live in an apartment with my half brother, his girlfriend, and my dog. I make good money, have a nice place to live, can afford my own pedigree blue nose pitbull and everything that goes with it, on my own. I have a car, no criminal record, a loving family, etc. If I were to look at myself from another persons shoes, I'd say i'm doing alright for a 22 year old.\nBut i'm not alright, i'm miserable. And the only thing I can really come up with as to why I feel this way is that I hate myself, and I don't know how to learn to love who I am. \n I'm known for being a very empathetic person. I will never say anything/do anything without considering as many perspectives as I possibly can. Sometimes This has lead me to believe that I am perfectly okay, because like I just said previously that if I were looking at myself from another persons shoes I would never suspect a person like me to be depressed. \n I spend most of my free time distracting myself from the world. Video games, Netflix, reading, literally anything I can do where the main narrative is no longer myself. I have no passions, I have no hobbies, passions, interests, and more importantly I no longer have very many friends. And this is my own doing! It's not that I've done anything wrong to them, I just don't feel like I connect with anyone, even on a \"friendly\" level, enough to put in the effort to keep the relationship lasting. This is mostly why i'm coming to this subreddit, because I have no close friends to talk to about it and am too nervous to seek medical help (because I can't tell if i'm being irrational, just being a pussy about the entire thing, or if there is a legitimate issue with me) \n In high school I was captain of the wrestling team, ran track, played soccer with friends, went to many parties and was a very social person. I never had any \"cliques\" like most teenagers, I bounced around because I didn't really feel like I fit into any one group. Some jocks liked me, some band kids liked me, some tech kids liked me. I had friends of all kinds, But after high school, I started to realize that I wasn't ever happy doing most of those things. When I went out, I would rather have stayed home and done something alone. I just like being alone, but I also don't like being alone with myself. It's stupid, it really is. Even just typing this out now It seems so stupid, but it's the only way I can describe it. I just want to be someone else, or live somewhere else. I immerse myself in these movies or games or stories to forget about this life i'm apart of now, just so I can briefly believe that I am actually a part of another one. \n I've now reached the point where the idea of suicide is becoming more and more real. As a kid I never understood why someone would want to do it, but now each and every day I think about it more and more. I don't think I could ever do it, but it doesn't change the fact that I want to die. But I don't know why. I just can't find people that I want to be around anymore, because when I put myself in their shoes I think \"well why would I want to hangout with him? He has no goals. No passions, no sports or activities that he is interested in. What fun would he be?\" And that is all I can think about, because I really DONT want to do anything. That's what it comes down to, if I were in someone else's shoes I would never chose myself as a friend. That's kindof an odd concept, but that's how I feel. If I could be someone else, the original me is not the kind of person I would want to be with. \n I go to work (usually getting out the door last minute. I might even give up a shower for an extra 15minutes of laying in bed not having to experience life) I get home and take my dog out and feed her, and then I either read something off my phone, play a video game, or just lay in bed till I inevitably fall asleep. I have no desire to go out, or to do anything around the house, or even text an old friend to have a conversation with.\nIt's like I am purposely trying to remove myself from society, and then hating myself for it. But when I try to go out and do things, I know that I am only doing it because I feel like i'm \"supposed to\" and not because I \"want\" to. And when I do what I \"want\" to do, I end up doing nothing. \nI've read some posts on here, about feeling like you don't belong, feeling empty, feeling like life is meaningless. And I feel all of those things too, but at the same time I feel like i'm being selfish or a pussy for feeling this way at all without a good reason for it. Depression is a weird word, people will say it when something sad happens to them. It's a word with a lot of meanings to different people. But Saying \"I don't love myself\" doesn't sound like a good enough reason for depression to me. But I don't feel the same anymore, I feel pretty hollow. And it isn't getting any better.\nThe only improvement I've made is that I quit smoking cigs. Problem is, the only reason I started smoking them was because I was feeling depressed in the first place. It sounds awful, but I wanted them to kill me. I want to die, but I don't want to be the reason for it. I could never do that to my loved ones. But the idea of cancer, a car accident, some random unfortunate accident killing me, anything like that I would be okay with. And that scares me. I no longer fear death, but embrace it. Is this what depression feels like? Should I be seeking professional help? \nThe few people I've asked advice from (mostly just said I've been feeling down, I have never mentioned my thoughts of suicide to anyone else before), their advice is to go find a hobby, or go find a new girl to see. But I can't get myself to enjoy anything. Music is the only thing I can share with other people (and I suppose video games and movies too) but it's because i'm putting myself in someone else's shoes. And I can see that now, the only things I find myself \"enjoying\" is where i'm putting myself in someone else's life. All I can do is distract myself from the world for a little bit and pretend i'm somewhere else. Once reality kicks back in, my feelings are right back in the dumps. \n I really hate putting my burdens on other people, and am still hesitant on sending this here. But maybe someone here has/is feeling the same way and has some insight. Thankyou to anyone who took the time to read, I know it wasn't exactly short and sweet.", "id": "t3_3ceqop", "summary": "I think i'm depressed. On the outside I don't view myself as someone who could be capable of depression, but I don't like who I am enough to want to continue living. That's About as vague as I can get."}]}
+{"author": "xTR1Cx", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post highways might have actually screwed us more than anything.", "output": "At the risk of being \"that guy\" there's a bit of contention about the benevolence and efficacy of having a Federal Highway System. \n Militarily speaking, it's a great concept because it enables you to move troops a great distance with great ease. Of course, this being America, we're already pretty difficult to invade. This point is essentially moot, but worth mentioning. \n The reason there's contention over the highways has to do a little with the tolls and how those projects don't tend to 'end' per se, and a LOT to do with how it made the US dependent on individual transportation, thus oil, and a lot of other things required for the auto industry."}], "user_id": "longlamp_16085", "history": [{"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "Not that it's this serious, but what I'm saying is that we have certain words for a reason and abusing those words devalues them. \n We abuse other words like hate, love, awesome, starving, so on. On the extreme end, you get things like \"The  WAR  on Christmas.\" \n Then there's also: \n >The most conventional modern definition is \"private initiatives, for public good, focusing on quality of life\". (...) \n > Instances of [philanthropy]( commonly overlap with instances of charity, though not all charity is philanthropy, or vice versa. The difference commonly cited is that charity relieves the pains of social problems, \n (in our example, donating an orange like /u/Tabotchtnik suggested) \n >whereas philanthropy attempts to solve those problems at their root causes (the difference between giving a hungry man a fish, and teaching him how to fish for himself). A person who practices philanthropy is called a philanthropist. \n (compared to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)", "id": "cqm20c3", "summary": "this is not a good case for that word usage. Good thing to do, just technically the wrong word, like referring to all watercraft as ships (ship describes a more specific kind of watercraft)."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "Infections are fairly easy to deal with (if unpleasant), so long as they're listening to their doctors. I'm assuming he did listen fairly well until some time in his 60's when the irritation was great enough to warrant the procedure - and he did it with informed consent, because he's a mature adult and not an infant who hasn't even established object permanence. \n Permanently removed tissue can't be put back on, though.", "id": "cojo7xp", "summary": "We  should not  circumcise babies unless there is a very specific medical reason to do it. \n Opposite example: We  should  vaccinate babies unless there is a very specific medical reason to not do so."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "OP please take this on board. \n I realized at a point that I had a number of people in my life who were just... shit. Just shit. Shitty people. I said one day \"to hell with these 'friends'\" and many of the girls I was 'dating' (read: feeding regularly). \n I cut cords. I intentionally burnt a LOT of bridges. And my interpersonal relationships with those people who give a fuck and matter are worth every moment of time it took to get rid of those who were nothing but negative influences.", "id": "cp3r1j5", "summary": "kick shitty people out of your life. You have less total people, true, but keeping the good ones means you get a gain in total quality. It's so worth it."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "Oh, absolutely, I agree. I can't quite recall ever having read of a character that serves the Cthaeh's function before. He's fascinating. \n That said, I like him as a \"hinge.\" I have a feeling we're going to learn some more about him in Day 3, and he seems to be a very powerful, very old creature. As such, we'd need to have something equally powerful to \"deal\" with him. I'd hate to see Kvothe pull godmode out of nowhere (only to fall in the frame), or have some other character like Aleph come out of nowhere and steal Kvothe's spotlight. \n However, Ctheah as a fulcrum upon which the story can turn and set up the Four Corners stories that Pat has promised us... that's something I can get behind. Especially since that's the way Pat's offered us to him to begin with - we learn that from all the references to the Cthaeh made by Bast.", "id": "cewziat", "summary": "Cthaeh is a super badass from what we know, so for the KKC portion of the world, I like him but not as a significant player."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "Not really.\nI do not really enjoy with people shallow and entitled enough to quit over which tshirt is acceptable and whose whims need to be appeased or else they throw fit which five year old would envy. \n Well, that's your decision to look down on people like that, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a long lingering fad from the fifties (following WWII, the culture is so inundated with prior servicemembers that it's easier for most jobs to retain that sense of uniformity, for the sanity of the returning veterans, among plenty of other reasons. It's a thing, look it up). \n Consider this, though - from the perspective of those you're looking down your nose at, it is instead an employer placing a requirement that is generally not directly or necessarily correlated to improved performance. So why have the requirement at all if I can do the same quality/quantity of work in any manner of socially acceptable clothing? \n >So that is about dress: ability to represent, yourself and the company. It is the mindset - I am at job, not at home. And aslo(sic) a bit about being able to fit in, not being primadona that needs special treatment. \n I feel this statement and most of those following it miss the point. It isn't 100% about being treated like a special snowflake (though I'm sure there are those as well), it's about being treated like enough of an adult to dress oneself. More importantly, this are your opinions and not factually or statistically supported. \n >I also hated working in office that looks like teenagers bedroom (with comic book/pop culture posters and statues and other crap like that). Pointless, distracting, makes you wonder if person there ever grew up (most it guys have problem with growing up). \n This is just your personal opinion. If you want nothing but whitewashed walls and cinderblock, that's your taste. But not everyone has that taste, and in fact feel claustrophobic in such an environment. What you find optimal may make others very uncomfortable, so this entire line of yours can just be tossed. \n >I have made observation: the more productive person is, the less they care about dress and the less junk they have at workplace to (i guess) survive dreadfull(sic) work day. Grumpy, assholeish(sic) guy who think(sic) that company is there to support him? You can tell by entering his office. Just count star treck(sic) of(sic) wars or whatever merchandise. \n This is entirely anecdotal so also not of much value. The job and the worker and the myriad of other factors of workplace efficiency come into play, not just how many action figures are on Todd's desk. Maybe those action figures remind Todd of his child, giving him the motivation to keep working the extra hours. The point is that it's entirely unfair for you to make this sweeping condemnation. \n >Because profesionals(sic) do what needs to be done. They do not try to be comfy at job and all that shit to survive the day. \n Anecdotal. See above. \n >They want work done and be out to do whatever they actually want.\nBecause here is the worst part: if someone is okay with ironic tshirt, cargo shorts, spiderman statue and kil lbill(sic) poster. If they go further even to create rec room, buy some game consoles and stuff beer in fridge. They are your enemy. \n Hmm. Well, Google would certainly like to see your statistics, because I hear they do a LOT of really nice things for their employees and... well, it's fucking Google. Need I say more? \n >They want you to stay at work way longer than normal hours. \n You say this like it's bad. So long as one has the option to decline without repercussions, and are compensated for the inconvenience of working outside ones typical hours, then they should be allowed to work. With your archaic view of the workplace environment, I imagine you'd approve of this train of thought. \n >They want work to become your \"real\" home. It is not worth it. Not worth it by long shot. \n Anecdotal; see previous reference. If I enjoy my workplace, and I can choose to be there, and I'm compensated fairly, then why would I  not  be there?  Being at home is a drain on resources - being at home means you're using power, heat, AC, gas, water, fuel to & from, food on your own dime... If you're at the office, and they buy lunch for the team, and so on and such forth, then why not take the food and the pay for your time? \n I would love for a job that made me enjoy being there. I accept this is an unlikely situation, but I would work much harder for what I feel is a \"good\" employer. I imagine just about everyone would feel that way. \n >Fuck then(sic), wear a suit and tie and be back home at 17:00. \n It's fine that YOU hate YOUR job. It's fine that YOU wanna rock YOUR 9-5 and be done. That's fine; good on you. That's not for everyone, and it is the very height of an egotistical attitude that YOU think YOUR idea is the best and only way. Jobs, like people, aren't all the same. And we should be thankful for that. \n You don't get to dictate what is right or wrong for everyone else based on your opinions, and thinking that you get to be that dictator is just arrogant.", "id": "cmeczwn", "summary": "Different strokes, different folks. It's 2014, learn to embrace our only constant: change."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "Dammit, that's exactly what your problem with the burden of proof is, you nitwit.  You  claim it is true.  You  must demonstrate  your claim . \n It is fallacious to assert that a claim is true until proper evidence or argument can be made for its truth. \n That's how argument works. \n That's how the burden of proof works. \n That's how fallacies work. \n All things I've already communicated to you.", "id": "cphvurh", "summary": "no u fuk off, fukboi"}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "I'm genuinely concerned about the overwhelmingly positive reaction for this implied civil war you and others suggest. \n I hope it's just a disturbing wishful thought and stays that way, because if it comes into action, it will only end poorly for any party involved. \n Any person here talking about taking life has never, ever been in a position where they might have to actually take life.", "id": "cjmijsf", "summary": "if you think violence is the solution, you are as bad or worse than the problem at hand. \n Edit- also, never did I suggest or imply that staying the present course was ideal, possible, or acceptable. Change is needed, but not with Molotov cocktails."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "I disagree entirely with your premise that \"buying a level 90\" is the answer to killing the power-leveling sites. It's just not that big of a deal. Besides, only those shit-tier brazilian players have need to use that kind of crap anymore. \n But buying a higher-level character ...It's a slippery slope that too many games go down. \n \"Oh, you're tired of leveling? Just buy one\" turns too easily into \"Don't wanna farm gear? That's cool, buy some.\" \n This is how it starts. \n Then it'll be \"Buy a transmog token for Tier __ gear.\" Which, arguably,  has already been done.  Remember that ice/fire helmet thingy they sold a while back? \n Then it'll be \"Buy tier tokens for __ raid.\" Maybe they'll make it a random chance for a random token... but I see it coming.", "id": "cfpuncj", "summary": "Blizzard has been showing signs of being only interested in milking the cash cow as hard as possible - look only at the anticipation and failure of D3 and the RMAH for that. I see P2WoW following a chain of events that'll siphon away even loyal players, which they'll eventually attempt to counter by removing the monthly subscription fees."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "In my particular vision of this scenario, there'd be a maintenance department; perhaps both internal and external to the PD. For minor fixes like a dirty lens (or something else that a minor repair, the internal dept could handle it. \n For major issues like being damaged in a rougher altercation with a suspect, there'd likely be an external refurbishing company contracted for this purpose. \n If the device has to go to this theoretical external repair and is found to have been altered in some way by the officer or something not related to an altercation, then this would be a situation I'd want to see the officer investigated. \n So I guess the", "id": "ciavoef", "summary": "is that it would have to be something that gave a reasonable suspicion of being intentionally disabled before getting to the point of an unpaid suspension."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "Of the examples you've given, the situation I am concerned with (and deal with by just  minding my own business ) is much more likely than the ones you offer. \n I live in a low-crime neighborhood. I do not live near any military or other terrorist targets of value. Most cops in my county are required to wear body cams, and I belong to demographics that are not likely to be targeted with police brutality or unethical practice - though I do have an app to record all police interactions and upload them to my PC, just in case something goes amiss there. \n Not all events are equally likely, and the ones you offer simply aren't as likely as the ones I'm concerned about; even though I do take such things into consideration. I have taken the steps to mitigate my risk in what ways can be anticipated. \n I'm not actually worried about being found guilty, mind you. I don't have the money to go into the court battles. Even if I did, the mere accusation - evidence being compelling or not - is enough to cause some serious problems. Let's take the example I read about most recently: Brian Banks. The quick and dirty of the matter is that I won't have as many dogs in the fight as he could field, financially, socially, etc. He had many more resources then than I might ever have. And even still, he's only just now getting some description of justice; pittance though it may be. \n The last thing I need is \"Yet Another Vet With PTSD Accused of <crime>\" with my name in that article. The accused in these situations gets their name splattered all over the media. Which, today, never disappears. There goes any job I could ever want; better learn to pick up some new trade. It's a good thing I already have a lady in my life, because if she were to google me and that headline comes up, there that goes. \n All for what? Because I said \"hey, your squat form needs work.\" Or something inane like that.", "id": "cl1a8c8", "summary": "Risk vs Reward. Pragmatic reasoning. \n That's all it is. It's not a hate thing, or whatever you wanna claim it is. You're simply wrong. You can judge whatever you think, but it's no more prejudiced than wearing a helmet on a motorcycle. \n I've said all I care to say a dozen times over. You're not going to change my mind, because the risk:reward ratio remains the same. Too great a risk, not great enough reward. \n Toss whatever baseless accusations or assumptions you like, but until you can show me the numbers that prove that the phenomenon I'm protecting myself from is as unlikely as a random, irrelevant, little condo being bombed, you're simply not going to sway me. \n And if those numbers arise, it'll be the data that causes the change, not any argument."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "As a man, I wouldn't feel emasculated... but I wouldn't do it, either, because I would still want to be financially stable and employable/hire-able if something were to go south in the relationship. There isn't a chance in this economy (in the US) that a decent employer is going to hire a man who hasn't worked in years. it's a self-preservation thing. Plus, I just like the idea of working. \n As for women on the front line, I'll say that I'm all about equality but the battlefield isn't the place for social justice. When it's one human being versus another human being and both with the intent to kill or be killed, the most effective tools have to be made ready.No, this isn't about strength or endurance, it's about the machinations of the whole war machine. The whole thing needs to work together cohesively, and from a social, psychological, and realistic view point, it just isn't feasible to subject any more women to this than absolutely necessary (i.e. women assigned to engage in discussion with Afghani tribeswomen). \n Since by now I'm sure I've earned a few downvotes, I'll explain a little bit. One example of what I mean is the rampant sexual assault and abuse women are met with in the military already. Women on the frontline would only exacerbate that issue; not to mention the PoW risks. Yes yes, we should train  men  people to not rape. I agree and I'll teach that to my kids.  But war does some fucked up things to people (Abu Grahib), and the risk to the women versus the contribution to the war machine is not, in my opinion, a risk worth taking. \n the", "id": "cf89dn0", "summary": "of that is: I'd rather say \"we don't have women on the frontline\" and leave it at that than read headlines like \"another woman raped by fellow soldier in the foxhole.\""}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "There might be regional equivalents, like west coast valley speech or a southern drawl, sure, but I have asked my girlfriend \"hey, hop off my lap real quick?\" I've joked on her and she's told me to fuck off. \n In terms of an alternative to fuck off, I've never heard any one say \"hop off.\" Maybe it's some new lingo the under-20 crowd is on about, I'd be willing to accept that. \n Hey, check this out though: HOP OFF!!! \n I'm a guy. Is your mind blown? Didn't think so. \n It's not dividing by zero, or masculine/feminine tenses in Spanish. \n And for the record, I've heard men say oh em gee. Yeah it was either joking or said by my more effeminate gay male friends, but nonetheless it can be done.", "id": "cnsaxe3", "summary": "people can talk how they like; men and women can use phrases of any nature. I tend to prefer euroslang because it fucks with My Fellow Americans something fierce."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "I'll try to answer your question as twatfully as you asked it. \n I guess google is really intimidating and difficult to use. Don't worry, I've been using the internet for several minutes and I think I can help out. You might wanna frontload some aspirin though, this stuff gets really wordy. \n >Godwin's Law (or Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies) is an Internet adage asserting that \"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1\"—​ that is, if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to Hitler or Nazism. \n How does it apply here? Well, regardless of how accurate it might or might not be, it's the lowest of hanging fruit. We don't need to use the boogymen of our forefathers to poke holes in a any major social/political figure; they seem to do it quite fine on their own. There's no need for \"daytime TV\" levels of mudslinging when the guy writes the material for you.", "id": "crn8aqn", "summary": "the media (and your typical American) is far too fond of comparing every possible negative anything to: slavery, communism, fascism, Nazism, socialism, and general apocalyptic bullshit. It's not only tacky, but unnecessary and generally dishonest. So we shouldn't do it. \n \n That's as much effort as I can put into being a cunt without a nap; we can try again later. Yea, sure, NOT being cunty is an option, but I can only work with what you gave me."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "If you use that definition, then damn near every single ship in the fleet is also a carrier, which is why that definition is useless. \n FFGs, DDGs, CGs, the new LCSs, and the majority of the USNS ships (like the hospital ships and refuelers) all carry or can otherwise support helos. \n In fact, the only ones that  can't  support aircraft are the little guys like PCs and MCMs, and I recall some discussion about them being outfitted with drones; if that were to happen, it would be in addition to the larger warships which have also tested the use of drones for operations.", "id": "ckvxrkd", "summary": "No. \n Edit: Source - am USN vet."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "You've stated how you felt. You said \"please be more dramatic.\" \n Clearly, based on the reception you've gotten, it's reasonable to interpret what you said as something dickish. \n And instead of going \"Oh, I'm misunderstood here-  what I meant to convey was that dramatic language around serious topics detracts from the real message; we should avoid the superfluous and stick to the facts\" or whatever kinda bullshit you wanna use to justify such a douchey thing to say in this context, you double down on the douchery. \n I can only infer so much with those 4 words, but it damn sure seems like I managed to hit the nail on the head. If you don't wanna be perceived that way, don't be that way. \n If you're 3edgy5me and wanna act like you don't care even though you clearly do, then at least stop being a child about it and stand by your shit.", "id": "cr4y7j8", "summary": "You're a real quality human being.I bet you're \n I bet  you're  still gonna be off topic. \n If you're gonna cry about \n >you're making all kinds of judgements and insults and haven't even asked me how I feel about those things and don't know what I think \n instead, just say what you fucking think like you're actually mature enough to be using the technology you're using to get on reddit"}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "Going to have to disagree. \n Not only does Bast mention the silence as something that falls upon his master (counting breaths; before he introduces Denna back into the story), but Bast and Chronicler are both able to use their 'power' while in the inn. \n Bast has his human appearance that he maintains, as well as the way he performs magic to display his power (the ink bird).  Devan can still Name, when he attempts to bind Bast to iron. Lastly, the thing that possessed the soldier could still do...  whatever it did.", "id": "cl758xe", "summary": "The silence appears to very specific to Kvothe."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "Not sure about your question, but my theory is that Edema Ruh has a similar phoneme to Ademre, meaning they're from similar branches of the same tree. \n Ademre \n Adem re \n Edema ruh \n Kvothe kind of drops the hint with the his 2nd admissions exam. He's asked about the word \"ravel\" and says that it's a metaplasmic enclitization of traveling rabble. And the reason  that  was probably not a throwaway line is because earlier in WMF, he discussed proprioception with Devi - a condition that \"Kote\" appears to suffer from. (edit- so this is to say that there's significance in these very specific word choices; Rothfuss doesn't waste words) \n Circling back to Ademre / Edema Ruh, I mean to say that they were once the same people, and the Ademic origin story that Shehyn shares with Kvothe also reveals the time in which they split with phases along the lines of: \"before we became who we are\" and \"we were driven from our lands.\" That kind of thing.", "id": "cm9cnsq", "summary": "Edema Ruh and the Adem are the products of culture-wide split ages ago (courtesy /u/PsychMedConnoisseur)"}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "If you actually were any level of badass, at all, then you wouldn't need to take to the internet to proclaim it where people will circlejerk you till your internet persona shoots one off. \n Nor would you take such efforts to defend that proclamation. \n But you did just blurt out how \"tough\" you are, and you're still defending it... poorly, by the way ... so yeah, I can assess with extreme likelihood that  you ain't shit . \n You ain't seen shit, you ain't done shit, you ain't gonna be shit. \n If you ever meet someone who actually is the way you think you are, then you'll rarely if ever hear about it from them.", "id": "cmo45go", "summary": "stop being a dumb cunt."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "Actually, discussion is the only thing there really is room for. Is it a crack theory? Could be. No way of knowing unless it is discussed. \n Some people just like to say \"Hey, I wonder if Bredon is one of the Seven or an Amyr or Skarpi in disguise?\" And that stimulates other to speculate and so on and such forth.", "id": "cd50e0e", "summary": "let the man \"what if\" how he likes. If it bothers you that much, just pick a new thread."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "I've already made the point twice: your anger is at the wrong people. \n Interestingly, both a cause and a result of your complete lack of knowledge about the military and all things associated is how you've gotten to the point you are. \n You even assume that I'm a right-wing, Faux news loving \"jock.\" How funny would it be for you to learn I'm not just a vet, but an MMJ patient, avid gamer, musician, and the host of other labels you're simply too arrogant to think people who have been or are in the military to have?", "id": "ckl7rhe", "summary": "for the third time, you don't know what you're talking about with your manufactured outrage, and you really, really don't know shit about any aspect of the DoD. No more clarification should be required."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "You know, when I was young, I would have thought \"well anyone who fucked up bad enough to need to deal with a parole officer probably is dangerous anyway.\" Maybe that was even true once upon a time, I don't know. \n Now that I'm on this side of 30 and have actually been out in the world and paid attention to things happening... hell, I bet we could release a portion of the prison population ( cough  resisting \"arrest\" and \"possession\"  cough ) and we'd see no significant rise in (actual) crime per capita. The flipside of that being that when NY cops decided to stop messing with people a few weeks back and also nothing changed.", "id": "cpuj8i2", "summary": "I guess I just think it's interesting the way times and people change."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "Because you don't want to be spending money every month? \n For a game I presently have no interest in playing until the bugs are out, yeah. I may ask too much, I know. But I paid for a LOT of PS1, helped tech test and beta test PS2, and paid for Alpha Squad. I believed in SOE to do it right. I feel let down something fierce. \n >Not enough benefits? \n This too. I only want a handful of guns (the ones I'm good with). I don't care if I have every gun, particularly when there's one variant of a gun that tends to trump the others (a shotgun, an SMG, etc). Don't care for camos or helms or little bits of flair. I did buy a few, but the appeal wore off quick. \n >Price too high? \n For what you get and how little I play? Yep. \n >Want to be 100% F2P? (if so, why?) \n I pay for things worthy of my money. Right now, PS2 does not seem to be one of those things. And it does make me sad. \n >What would make you subscribe? What additions would make you sign up? \n I want the game to be good.  Right now, I don't feel it's worth my time. \n I want to feel like I'm playing a faction, not the same thing in different colors, like PS1. Back when the Lasher, Jackhammer, and MCG were nuts. Not to mention being able to steal them! \n I want resources to actually matter, like PS1. ANT and LLU runs were  exciting  when it was on the line. \n I don't care if there's 1000 guns if they're just subtle changes of each other. Anyone remember the Maelstrom? The Flail? They were  different.  And that made it special, even if shit wasn't perfect. \n And from what I've heard about the implant system and other recent nerfs? Fuck that. 0/10 will not play. \n If StarCraft can make 3 distinct but balanced factions, then we can have it here too.", "id": "cj46ldt", "summary": "I wanted this game to be something, and I feel like the guys pulling the strings took a shit on the developers and the PS1 Vets, thereby taking one of my favorite all time games and making it depressing."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "1 - Ejaculation isn't orgasm. \n 2 - The cessation of consent was at the time he said \"get off.\" He no longer consented to that particular sex act. /u/AntiHero2563 put it succinctly: \n >Here's the alternate scenario:\nA man and a woman are having sex, and he's about to climax. He warns her, and she says he needs to pull out. Instead, he pinned her arms down across her chest and thrust deep, cumming inside of her. \n Both the OP's and the theoretical are rape.", "id": "cihbd5c", "summary": "You're wrong."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "This is because there's no real incentive to play a large scale, combined arms, tactical kind of game. \n \"But that's exactly what PS2 is!!\" \n Maybe that was the vision. But in practice, PS2 borrowed too much from the CoD/BF side of FPS, and slowly became more and more like those games instead of it's own game. \n \"But to play more tactically and with greater coordination almost always beats the zerg! And then my faction wins!\" \n It sure does. But that doesn't appear to incentivize enough of the current playerbase to adopt better tactics, to listen to leadership (assuming there is any), and ultimately to actually 'win the day.' Because PS2 has grown so similar to games like CoD and BF, people are more concerned with their individual KDR than overall victory for the faction. \n And why should they care? The factions are virtually indistinguishable from a distance; the weaponry is functionally the same in most aspects, the vehicles have some slight differences but generally have the same shit going on. You as a player aren't invested in the cause except for a few half-hearted jokes on Papa Vanu and such.  In PS1, it was equally playful but also taken much more seriously (fucking Elmos and Smurfs).", "id": "cmpx2jz", "summary": "yeah... people could play better, but your average zergling has no reason to do so."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "Even more adorable than your projecting/stirring the pot is that you've started a pissing match and are itching for that last word... You know, that thing you're accusing me of. \n Let me take a page from your book: \n Oh noez; was that a pithy jab at the end? \n Are we going to give you $100% once the applause dies down?", "id": "cn4amm2", "summary": "Try to be less of a cunt. Cheers."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "Assuming you're genuinely confused, the reason is because eating popcorn is, at least in the US, idiomatic to the experience of watching something for entertainment. \n Similar to a smoke after sex. Despite fewer smokers each year, you can see how iconic it is if you watch Whose Line Is It Anyway - Ryan or Colin will mime having a smoke after something suggestive.", "id": "clji2os", "summary": "because they go together like ham and eggs."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "Perhaps it's my inner GLaDOS talking, but there was a third option: \n Kill them. \n They were robbers and likely deserters. They would already be assumed dead or lost by the military, no reasonable threat of retribution there. K could have Bast help hide the bodies, which we know he would - Bast could probably just dump them in Fae. We know K has no trouble morally or physically with taking life. \n And even if he had beaten them without killing them, there's nothing to suggest they'd believe it was Kvothe - everyone assumes Kvothe is dead. Remember the kid who went to see about joining the army? He saw the sword, and the hair, and everything else but didn't buy it. Besides, he could have just given them a concussion and mudded up the memory.", "id": "cfrw2k7", "summary": "I stand by that he isn't being clumsy but is being actively prevented from using certain skills related to the sensation in his hands. To what end, we can't be sure yet, but I don't think it's a choice in the way I'm interpreting your response."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "That's the thing about titles, and why they need to be good... I'd never watch something labeled like this. I block that crap on social media, too. \n Don't think you've scored some \"point\" because I will freely admit that   I did not  and will not watch the video. \n My views would mean they could potentially make money with ad revenue. If they'd like my viewership, they'd earn it with integrity.", "id": "cr4okib", "summary": "A shit title all but guarantees a shit video. And no, I don't watch shitty videos."}, {"author": "xTR1Cx", "content": "I have to disagree with /u/wweezzee, but probably because I am a male of similar age. \n How I would look at it: Mom fucked up and karma is kind of a bitch. \n There are lines in the sand, and she crossed them. Some things are unforgivable, some people don't deserve forgiveness.  Quite frankly, I doubt I'd be able to continue a real relationship with her if I had known what she had done. \n That said, I'd be pretty pissed about not being told for this long. \n I was pretty pissed that one of my parents tried to play the other one off as a good person when they clearly weren't. I guess I just really hate being deceived, perhaps because of the nature of this deceit early on. \n (They separated when I was a toddler, though I kept contact with the parent I didn't live with until I was about 16 when the truth became self-evident and I asked the proper questions)", "id": "cdc5sc7", "summary": "it's probably going to be one hell of a ride no matter which way you climb in the saddle, so you might as well get it all out there. Oh, before you talk with the kids, make sure the wife understand that she does NOT get to play the pity card on the kids; she's an adult and she needs to own what she did."}]}
+{"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post getting a divorce, and I'm lost on what to do.", "output": "I'm so unprepared for this... I just couldn't take being unhappy anymore. I can't make her happy and she was trenchant to do anything to make herself happy. Couples therapy worked for a few months and then it was right back to where we were before. \n Where do we go from here? What do I need to be doing? I'm thankful and fortunate she's being civil about it 😕"}], "user_id": "longlamp_1531", "history": [{"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "Words only hurt if you lend them credence. This goes for any word(s). Change it or own it. \n Don't like being called fat? A: Be proud that you're losing weight and working on it. Tell the person so and be confident in your words. Know that you're better because people that hurl useless insults are typically insecure about themselves in some way. B: Own that shit. Be proud of who you are. One qualitative/quantitative statement does not make you. Fat? So what. You have other qualities about you that are awesome. \n It might appear to be easier said than done, but it's feasible, reasonable, and healthy advice.", "id": "c5mq71i", "summary": "Dr Phil shit."}, {"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "OSHA report cited a wrench left on/near the bus bar. Other than that, hope it works the way it's supposed to, lol. As others have stated, you should do it with the door closed and the appropriate tool through the slot in the door. In this instance though it probably wouldn't have helped.", "id": "c7xccno", "summary": "shortcuts and electricity plus carelessness equals ouchie"}, {"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "At the doctor's urging I went to have my swimmers checked (fertility test) after an unwarranted strike to my boys while out drinking left one of  them  decently bruised.  side note   I had an ultrasound on my testicles to confirm what was going on, and the PA that did it was gorgeous. So there's that, too. Whatever, no biggie. He wrote a script to the hospital his practice is affiliated with and I went down there a few days later. I say a few days later because I had to work up the courage to go somewhere to do something that I prefer to do in the privacy of my own home. \n So off to the hospital go. And before any of you say \"you know Creative Sobriquet, you can do that in your home and transport your fine spesemen to the hospital as long as it's within the time frame yaddayaddayadda,\" I live about 45min away from what is apparently the only hospital in my area that still takes samples and reviews them. Largish city + gigantic hospital w/parking garage + who knows how long it will take for the sample to be read = no bueno. So I park and get shown to the area where they do all of the blood work and other fluid thing. Sitting behind the counter are 4 women in their 40s and 1 in her 20s. Of course [Laverne]( checks me in. I'm trying to goof on myself and make light of the situation, and this woman is having none of it. She checks me in, runs my paperwork, and tells me to come behind the counter. So there I am, standing there with all the nurses walking by, with my sample jar in hand, being told by Laverne what will need to be done. Then she shows me to my \"room\". \n But this room isn't just any room. It's a  bath room. A one holer. Right off the main hallway that all of the nurses are using. It's also lunch time. She tells me to bring the sample to her when finished and closes the door for me. There I am, in a bathroom with a toilet, a way-to-large mirror, a chair (why is there always a chair?), a trashcan and a motion activated paper towel dispenser. \n \"Alright, I got this.\" I turn on my wifi, pop open my reddit app, and it won't load. Open up a browser window and try to type in a few different addresses, and they're all blocked... fuck. Turn the warm water on and try to keep from staring at myself in the gigantic mirror. Why am I shy now? Who knows. Conversations keep floating in and out of range and I try to ignore them and concentrate... \n Remember that automatic paper towel dispenser I mentioned? It's right next to the sink, on the right side of the wall, and I'm right handed. So I'm going at it and all of a sudden it spits out a paper towel. \n It's also lunch time. It was also one of the nurses birthdays. What's right across the hallway? The fucking break room. Guess what is now being sung by 15+ hospital workers? HAPPY BIRTHDAY! God dammit! \n I somehow manage to fire off a few rounds, clean up, hand Laverne the cup inside the sterile plastic bag I was given, and I get out of there as fast as I can. \n And that, to date, is the most awkward series of events I've ever willingly been a part of.", "id": "c809n9d", "summary": "you try jacking it to Happy Birthday in a bathroom at the hospital."}, {"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "I had what I believed to be a perfect family. We all got together frequently for parties for whatever occasion you could imagine, we were always \"there\" for each other, yadda yadda. Fast forward to a few weeks before I was to get married... suddenly, I realize it's not all hunky-dory. My mom is making ridiculous demands, and my normally rational father is backing them up. Even worse, the rest of the family is firmly rooted behind her too. And my grandparents had passed a few months beforehand. \n Two weeks before the wedding, my mom bullies everyone into not coming. 45 people cancel. I'm out a photog, an affiancer, and what I thought to be my backbone and support. I received nasty-grams daily from \"family\", telling me I better acquiesce or else. \n In the 3 years that I've been married to my wife, I've discovered perhaps the most important lesson in life (at least for me). Family is what  you  make of it. Your parents weren't related before they got married (unless they're from Kentucky or West Virginia... amiright!?), yet they're considered \"family\". So who is to say that just because you're born of them that they have sway over who you are? It's not easy, and it sucks, but cutting them off is the best path. \n Your next step is to seek a counselor and start going to therapy. Not because you're broken, but to help you understand and cope. Perhaps with your counselor you'll learn how to set up boundaries that you're comfortable with, so that you have control of the situation. \n It's sad when you come to the ugly realization that you can't make excuses for the people your parents are anymore, and that they're just normal, everyday, run-of-the-mill, shitty people. Once you take them off of that pedestal, things will start to look better. I promise.", "id": "c47ypin", "summary": "cut'm off, get a counselor to help understand and cope, and take your parents/family off of the pedestal. \n You'll do great, kid ;-)"}, {"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "I watched them play in the Sombrero against the Jets one year... don't ask which, I was a wee lad in the early 90s. I had a pin (yes, a pin) that said \"I Support the Buccaneers\". It was orange and had Bucco Bruce in the background. I also have a creamsicle orange Bucs hat.", "id": "c5yz6tn", "summary": "I like orange?"}, {"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "Our cities don't really like each other, lol... They lord the Bucs and Rays over us (I don't think enough people care about the Bolts), they claim dominance in the AFL War on I-4, they don't want to recognize UCF as being better than USF, etc etc. They're jealous of our theme parks, we're jealous of the Gulf.", "id": "cbjwgv9", "summary": "rival towns"}, {"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "I had an epiphany tonight as I sat here at work trying to find a kettlebell club in Orlando on my side of town. After not being able to find any close, I wondered aloud if I could find a place where I could get worHOLY SHIT I BET THERE'S A /R/ FOR KETTLEBELLS! \n And all was right with the world. \n I'm so glad I found this community. I used to w/o with them quite a bit (I own two 1 pood and one 1.5 pood) but got busy with life changes and forgot about them. I'm now a triathlete and am coming back from a minor knee injury, and I thought I should prolly get back into it to increase my functional strength, my core, balance, etc etc.", "id": "t3_vprak", "summary": "found this /r/. many w00ts."}, {"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "My (30ish/M) parents (50s) committed a heinous error when, after knowing my now wife of a few years for over 4yrs, decided they weren't coming to the wedding and strong armed the rest of the family into following suit. We had dated for 3yrs and had been engaged for well over a year before the proverbial shit hit the fan from seemingly left field. \n In what I assume to be a moment of clarity in lieu of yesterday's tragedy, my mother called and left an emotional message wondering if we'll ever reconcile. I haven't spoken to them in a few years, and I thought I made it clear earlier this year that I wasn't interested in reconnecting. \n My hang up is fear of being betrayed again. I don't wish to give them the chance. In my heart of hearts I've forgiven them, truly, but I can never forget the events that led up to their coup de grace of our relationship (we, me in particular, were naturally blamed). This being so, what would be the benefit of reestablishing a relationship with them? Neither my wife nor therapist (she responds to weekend emails. She's wonderful and I'm lucky to have found such an amazing therapist) think I should close the door permanently. I ask, why not?", "id": "t3_14x1tb", "summary": "mother wants to know if I'll ever be back in their lives or if they should forget me. I'd rather be forgotten. Is this a bad move?"}, {"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "I'm training for my first marathon (Disney in January) and am also on a triathlon team training for my first Half Ironman (Rocketman, May). When I'm out for my long runs I consume energy gels (GU Mandarin Orange) as well as Salt Sticks. I carry a fuel belt with 4 6oz bottles of water and I also carry a 16oz bottle of Gatorade. Can I, or would it be wise to, switch out my Gatorade for Coconut Water? \n I ask because on my last long run (12mi) I got an upset stomach that kept me down and out the rest of the day. I live in Florida and I sweat like a whore in church so I feel like I need the extra electrolytes but at the same time I'm wondering if I over did it. \n Thoughts? Input? Thanks!", "id": "t3_11jnlc", "summary": "Should I switch out Gatorade for Coconut Water in hot/humid Florida for long training runs and rides?"}, {"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "I'm training for my first marathon (Disney in January) and am also on a triathlon team training for my first Half Ironman (Rocketman, May). When I'm out for my long runs I consume energy gels (GU Mandarin Orange) as well as Salt Sticks. I carry a fuel belt with 4 6oz bottles of water and I also carry a 16oz bottle of Gatorade. Can I, or would it be wise to, switch out my Gatorade for Coconut Water? \n I ask because on my last long run (12mi) I got an upset stomach that kept me down and out the rest of the day. I live in Florida and I sweat like a whore in church so I feel like I need the extra electrolytes but at the same time I'm wondering if I over did it. \n Thoughts? Input? Thanks!", "id": "t3_11jnn7", "summary": "Should I switch out Gatorade for Coconut Water in hot/humid Florida for long training runs and rides?"}, {"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "I'm in a 10 man league where we do things a bit differently. First, [here's what you'll need to look at]( to get an understanding of what's going on. Secondly, some explaining: we can keep whomever we want as long as they aren't drafted in the first three rounds, and as long as you haven't designated them for the previous two years as a keeper. Also, first 3 rounds are straight through with the snake starting at the end of the 3rd, giving me the 30th and 31st pick. \n PPR league - QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 WR/TE, 1 WR/RB, 1 K, 5 IDP, 7 bench \n Keepers hold their previous draft position. I drafted David Wilson in the 15th round last year, designated him as a keeper for this year, and he will remain as my 15th round pick. \n QUESTION: Given the keepers, what should I be looking for at the end of the round? Is Kaep solid enough to look for a b/u later in the draft? RB first two rounds? I got lucky with AD and Brees last year (1st round pick and a Brees/Manning trade... who had a stellar year and is keeper eligible... balls.) and won the league, but I'm at a bit of a loss this year.", "id": "t3_1kxfez", "summary": "we have a different keeper/draft situation than normal leagues. looking for advice with given situation. \n Thanks!"}, {"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "I did my first Olympic this past weekend (first race ever, too) and as I was coming out of the water my friggin calves seized up on me. I laid there on the ground for a solid minute waiting for them to ease up so I could walk! This doesn't happen to me in practice where we swim harder and total distance is greater. \n Diet wise, I eat plenty of vegetables, esp greens, and have a banana a day. I don't think it was a lack of potassium? I was well hydrated too, starting two days before the race. I had a PowerBar 30 min before hitting the water. \n I was in a wet suit, which I've worn before and didn't have an issue with, and I had on calf compression sleeves that I always wear to run and bike in. I don't think the combination of the two is an issue but it's my only legit thought? \n Anyone else ever run (swim?) into this issue? Subsequently, T1 was almost 7min,LOL! Thanks!", "id": "t3_1b8fq7", "summary": "calves cramped after 1.5km swim and I don't know why..."}, {"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "So while I run a soccer blog in my free time (Wrong Side of the Pond[1] ), I also travel quite a bit for my real world job. And oftentimes I find myself in unfamiliar surroundings on Premier League match days looking for a place to take in the action. And while there are numerous sites on the web that list all of the \"soccer bars\" out there, none of them offers up all the I think is needed to help me make a good decision: \n \n A mobile-friendly layout so that I can easily navigate to the bar using my phone. \n Will they open for early morning matches, and if so, how early? \n What supporters groups, if any, call the pub home? \n What's their beer selection like? (tap selection, domestics, seasonals, etc.) \n List the soccer channels they carry (FSC, FSC+, GolTV, BeIN, etc.) \n Some general information about the bar and it's atmosphere. \n The bar's Twitter handle (if available). \n \n So with that in mind, I decided to kick off a new space on my blog called the WSOTP Soccer Pub Atlas[2] to help everyone find a place to watch their matches. Eventually, I plan on integrating this into an app for Android and iOS too! \n And while I've been to a good number of soccer pubs, most of them are located in the Midwest... and that's where YOU come in. I need help to add bars across the country to the directory from those with first-hand knowledge of each bar and their offerings. Since r/soccer has such a wide-reaching following, I figured that you would be a great resource to tap into. So if you're kind enough to help a fellow fan out, fill out this quick form[3] or add it in the comments below even, and I'll have it added to the site ASAP... and thanks in advance!", "id": "t3_101uci", "summary": "I started a soccer bar directory, and I need Reddit to help me populate the listings[4] . \n \n donniex7"}, {"author": "CreativeSobriquet", "content": "I swam 1500m this past weekend as part of my first Olympic triathlon (first race ever, too) and as I was coming out of the water my friggin calves seized up on me. I laid there on the ground for a solid minute waiting for them to ease up so I could walk! This doesn't happen to me in practice where we swim harder and total distance is greater. \n Diet wise, I eat plenty of vegetables, esp greens, and have a banana a day. I don't think it was a lack of potassium? I was well hydrated too, starting two days before the race. \n I was in a wet suit, which I've worn before and didn't have an issue with, and I had on calf compression sleeves that I always wear to run and bike in. I don't think the combination of the two is an issue but it's my only legit thought? \n Anyone else ever run (swim?) into this issue? Thanks", "id": "t3_1b6rpt", "summary": "calves cramped after 1.5km swim and I don't know why..."}]}
+{"author": "JtheNinja", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I mostly got lucky and feel somewhat guilty about it.", "output": "This is how I did it. Except I also got my first two years done at a community college (this can save 10-20k in tuition if you can pull it off right). \n And I also worked while in school and paid several grand out of pocket. Also had fellowships cover 2-3 classes. And even then I only just barely managed to get a BA without debt."}], "user_id": "longlamp_3630", "history": [{"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "It's more of a late-game harass technique than anything else. It's not done often because it takes a lot of attention, since you have to cast storm manually after you unload, then make a run for it. It's also pretty scary to be loading up 200/300 into something with only 200 hp. And finally, you have to wait a bit after you make everything to launch the drop to make sure the HTs are charged up.", "id": "c3cojey", "summary": "it can be a powerful harass technique, but its a little awkward to do, works best as something just thrown in late game."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "1) Ok, let's get this out of the way first: Drawing isn't REQUIRED, but it helps. \n2) You don't need to go to Ringling to get a job in the industry. \n To elaborate, drawing is something of a foundation for everything to do with visual arts. The more you know about drawing and composition, the easier you will find most other visual art tasks, CG included. Every bit of learning and practice about it will be good for you. That being said, a lot of CG work does not require you to draw at all besides napkin-sketch-esque doodles on scrap paper. And sometimes not even that. There are plenty of really successful and skilled CG artists out there who can't draw worth shit. So it's not required, but it's helpful to know. \n Now, about Ringling. CG/game/vfx specific schools are expensive. REALLY expensive. (according to Ringling's own site, a 4-year degree there will run you over $200k!) And they are not going to teach you much you couldn't learn on your own. You could get a more versatile degree from a state university for a fraction of the cost. Nobody in the industry really cares where you degree is from. A lot of places won't care if you even have one. What will get you a job is your portfolio. What gets you in the door is often what connections you have. The best part about specialized schools if they hopefully have better connections/job placement than a state university's graphic design faculty would give you. That isn't guaranteed though.", "id": "cikx99o", "summary": "practice drawing and CG work like crazy, and go to school somewhere that won't leave you $200k in debt while working as a junior artist."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "Xsplit does not do it better, IMO. Xsplit is a clunky, inefficient piece of garbage. It only has any momentum because of the price and feature set. It's a terrible, terrible piece of software and it was only a matter of time before a better performing app with a cleaner UI came along. Most of the people who make a conscious choice to use Xsplit over OBS do it due to some particular XSplit feature that's not (yet) in OBS. That, too, is only a matter of time.", "id": "c8h4kjr", "summary": "Xsplit is a poorly designed piece of software that took advantage of an empty market niche to get where it is. That is starting to catch up with it."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "Mid-gold is about the level you have to learn to storm dodge properly, at least as terran: \n The main thing to remember is to RUN BACKWARDS. Do not try to stutter step out, this will leave you in the storm longer. Stay on move command until you are clear. And always go backwards, don't run forward, you're going into the zealots and colossi if you run forward. Don't side step either, you'll just get stormed again. \n Remember, HTs are SLOW. They are slower than workers and non-charge zealots. Trying to land storms on bio-ball that is kiting away from you is a bitch because the HTs can't close in on them. And hitting short of the bio usually means your own zealots are eating the storm damage. The number one thing I'm hoping the terran will do is try to charge at my army, because then landing storms is a piece of cake.", "id": "c3xco3k", "summary": "how to storm dodge: move-command AWAY (not sideways or forwards) from the protoss army until you are out of the storm, then go back to stutter-stepping backwards to keep damaging the zealots and archons."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "Katanas have a curved blade by definition. There's something called a Ninjato that looks like your sword, but its not a katana and there isn't any real evidence I'm aware of that it actually existed in pre-modern times. \n Hand grip should have a wrap of some kind, it shouldn't just be a flat cylinder. Also, there's some visible faceting on the curve of the tip, and the smoothing on the hand guard is incorrect (turn on smooth shading, and enable auto-smooth in the mesh panel). The gaurd should be a bit more detailed than just a simple copper plate. \n If you want to post just a model, put some more effort into displaying it. Slapping out something with two-dozen polys that doesn't look at all like a realistic stand, then not even bothering to texture or bevel it is not going to cut it. Also, the stand appears to be hovering. I guess it could have feet, but I don't see any and the amount of modeling effort put into the rest of it makes me assume it doesn't. \n Adjust your lighting so there is something to reflect off the blade. Blades would be oiled too, so try adding an extra glossy shader over the top (mix in with the fresnel node) so you get the look of metal with oil over the top. Metals usually only look when they have something to reflect, so in a studio-type environment you'll be relying mostly on reflections of your light sources for that. Alternately, you could try using an HDRI to make it look like it's in a room or something. Or hell, use a studio HDRI, there's plenty out there on the internet. \n Again on the subject of putting effort into the display, you need more samples to get rid of the shadow noise. If you just want to show off your sword model, post a clay render of it (gray shader with AO). Don't half-ass materials and a studio setup, you end up making the model look far worse. It's not a bad start for a ninjato (although it needs a lot of detailing still) but posting it like this instead of clay render takes away from the model and gives the impression you don't really care.", "id": "cmdpgj4", "summary": "it's an ok start, but this would've been a lot better (and allowed more focused critique) if you'd just posted a clay render."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "Amateur Pluto-fan jumping in: \n Yes, assuming all goes according to plan. MUCH better, actually. Here's a few practice shots it took while going past jupiter: \n And it will be getting MUCH MUCH closer than that. The images of the Jovian moons there are roughly ~15km/pixel. That same camera is set to take 50m/pixel shots of pluto. (not 'km', 'm') \n Science payload info here: \nNote there is also a full-color camera (MVIC) which is set up for 500m/pixel full color hemisphere shots as well.", "id": "cc7ap7z", "summary": "Yes. Full color desktop-wallpaper grade shots and more are on the mission plan. \n EDIT: This is what it can do after post-pro and layering shots from the different cameras together:"}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "Lux and Cycles are meant to do different things. Cycles is focused more on animation and VFX tasks, it has a number of tricks like light paths and the new \"blur glossy\" option that allow you to speed up rendering at the cost of realism/accuracy. It also has a fairly simple integrator which helps the speed a bit. \n Lux, on the other hand, is designed as a strictly physical renderer. It lacks those tricks, and is generally slower as a result. On the flip side, this makes configuring scenes with it very straightforward, since things just work the way they would in real life. It also uses light wavelengths instead of RGB colors, so it can simulate \"colors\" that are wavelength dependent, such as metals, or the color of, say, a fluorescent lamp.\nIt has multiple rendering algorithms, (such as MLT/bidirectional path tracing), which means on some scenes such as interiors it winds up being faster than Cycles due to being so much more efficient. And since it's been around longer, has some features that Cycles lacks, such as volumetrics/SSS and normal mapping.", "id": "c4danq5", "summary": "they're both worth having, depending on the task you are trying to do."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "Whole bunch of reasons contribute to it: \n \n All terran units are ranged, so you don't have to worry about workers blocking your melee units the way drones/zerglings or probes/zealots might. \n \n Because of #1, there is no cheap front-line tank unless you count helbats or something. And you often don't have many of those when all-inning \n \n Terran generally has the longest reinforce time because they can't warp in at a proxy pylon nor can their units cross the map at the rate speedlings can. So they have the least to lose from not being able to produce at full power behind the all-in. \n \n Because of mules, #3 is something a moot point. They can just keeping muling to keep the marine trickle going \n \n SCVs have more health than probes/drones, to make up for the lack of a free built-in regen. As a result, they can tank more. And they can also repair each other.", "id": "ccilvbh", "summary": "because of many factors, T generally has more to gain and less to lose from a worker pull."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "League does not determine who you get matched with, your hidden ranking (MMR) does that. League is derived from MMR as well, but don't assume a person has a higher MMR because they are on league higher, they may not. Also, how close together you hit the queue button affects things too, as well as just an element of randomness.", "id": "c8en6im", "summary": "the matchmaker is good, but will need a few games to calibrate. You get 5 placement matches before you get a rank because of this, but expect it to be a bit out of whack for another 5-10 games after."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "Did you significantly edit the vertex group after entering particle edit mode? Once you start a comb edit, the parents are unable to update. It might not necessarily be an issue (what you see with the children-only is what you'll get at render time). But it is somewhat inefficient since you are calculating hairs that end up getting deleted entirely once it syncs the children with the v-group influences.", "id": "clw63sd", "summary": "v-group edits need to be mostly locked once you start combing. But otherwise, if you're happy with the children layout, it's fine."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "Been awhile since I followed this stuff, so I might be a bit fuzzy on the details, but here goes the gist of it: \n When a pokemon levels up, the game has to decide how many points it is going to gain in each stat. This is determined by a couple of things. First of all are the base stats. These are the same for all pokemon of a particular species (ex, all Jolteons have base 130 speed). The other important thing is what is called \"effort values\", or EVs for short. Whenever you battle a pokemon, you get a few hidden stat points for KOing it. These are your EVs. Which points you get and how many are determined by the species of pokemon that you KOd. Each pokemon can have a maximum of 256 of these points in any particular stat, and you can gain up to 512 total. For every 4 points a particular stat gains, you get an extra point in that stat next time you level up. \n The purpose of all of this is to add to the game something referenced a lot in the lore for Pokemon, that a Pokemon raised by a trainer is stronger than a wild one with all else being equal. Wild Pokemon always have 0 EVs, so a trained Pokemon will have extra stat points due to the fact that it has gained EVs from fighting with you as it leveled up. \n This is also the reason why you don't want to level up with rare candies until you have max EVs, because you don't GET any EVs from rare candies. If you level up to 100 with them, (like you could with the old missingo trick) you won't be able to ever get the stat boost from EVs.", "id": "c5ws5v7", "summary": "version: Since most pokemon have a handful of strong base stats, you train against certain kinds of pokemon that will allow those stats to reach the highest possible values."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "There was a thread on a team liquid awhile back where someone did the math and showed it had a negligible effect on how many carriers it takes to beat x number of vikings or corrupters, and as far as damage in a straight up fight it was only good vs marines or hydras and +1 air weapons was ALWAYS the better choice. It has no overall effect on DPS, but it massively front-loads how that damage is dealt, which brings us to.... \n What graviton catapult really does is make microing the carriers easier (or more like possible at all). It essentially takes over for the BW trick of preventing your interceptors from returning to make them launch instantly. It launches the first 4 interceptors in .125 second intervals, and the back 4 at .250 second intervals, compared to .5 seconds for all 8 interceptors by default. So it makes it much easier for the carriers to quickly focus down a single target, like a brood lord or an expansion. Also, since you get all the interceptors in the air faster, you can almost immediately turn and fly out to the safety of leash range while the interceptors finish off the target. So you significantly reduce the time the carrier is exposed to enemy fire.", "id": "c5xw5nk", "summary": "it's a micro-aid for taking down high-priority targets. It's not an effective damage booster overall, use +1 air weapons for that. \n IMO, +1 air weapons and graviton catapult are both standard gear for carriers. I never push out with them at all until i at least 3 carriers with both upgrades."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "Normal map output should NOT be connected to displacement output. It (currently) does the same thing as the per-shader normal inputs, except it only receives scalar (ex, heightfield) data, shader normals support XYZ vectors, which is required for a normal map. So you can't use normal maps with it at all. Even for bump maps, there's no real need to use it, just use the bump node to generate a normal vector and hook that onto the per-shader normal input. \n Sorry, this is kinda hard to explain simply. I guess the", "id": "cit5f2j", "summary": "here is just ignore the displacement output entirely, it currently has no practical use outside of a few specific corner cases."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "This. Follow your boss's rules and do the right thing, they made their rules and policies for a reason. You'd be surprised at how well bosses can pick up on this, from other employees, customer comments, etc. They will come to really appreciate an employee who always shows up for their shifts and does their job correctly. Then you get nice perks like raises, and them tweaking the schedule so you get the hours you want on the easy days/times.", "id": "c41lfgc", "summary": "You know how to do your job correctly, so do it.\" <-- best 1 sentence of advice I can give. (will apply after you learn the job, obviously)"}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "maybe it's not mentioned much because it's about carriers). \n Ok, to review the carrier's general mechanics: It has a launch range of 8. That means it must be within 8 range to deploy its interceptors. Once they are out, they can continue to attack target out to the leash range of 14. Interceptors will return once one of the following conditions happens: \n \n The carrier is issued a stop command \n The current target dies and no other target is available within launch range. \n The current target dies and the carrier is now on move command \n The target leaves the leash zone, aka the distance between target and carrier exceeds 14 (regardless of how that happened, carrier moved away, target moved away, recall, etc) \n \n The important takeaway here is that giving a carrier a move command won't by itself force a return, the interceptors will keep attacking the target until either the carrier/target moves beyond 14 range or the target dies. Also, a return between targets isn't necessary, it just sometimes looks like it is because there is no marker between launch and leash radius. The new target has to be within launch radius (8) for the interceptors to come straight across to it. \n Now, we know the carrier cannot launch on the move, and when on a-move, will simply park while the interceptors take down a target. It will then continue towards the a-move target point. So it moves in this sort of pattern: Stop at max launch range, launch, kill, return, scoot forward, stop, launch, etc. There's a great deal of time spent docking and relaunching interceptors and moving forward, and since in WoL there is no heal-on-dock like in BW, there is no real benefit to all this. \n But hey wait a minute. Remember what I said above? The the carrier CAN move while attacking, it just won't by default? And that interceptors can re-enage without returning provided the next target is already within range 8? So. While your squadron blasts away one target, you can move command the carriers forward, getting within launch distance of the original target, and the interceptors will come straight to it. Changing the pattern to: Stop at max launch range, launch, kill, sweep across, kill, sweep across, kill, etc. To do it, simply target fire on something (interceptors largely do not overkill, so you should pretty much always target fire carriers unless you are up against units with less than 100 or so HP), then move forward a little, a-move or target fire again, move forward...is this pattern sounding familiar? \n Yes, that's right. You can stutter-step carriers, causing the interceptors to chain-kill targets without ever docking. It's just a very slow (and slightly weird) stutter-stepping. Once you get the tempo down on this one, it's pretty shocking how fast carriers can wipe out a base compared to just a-moving through it. You can also use this to chase down fleeing brood lord packs. Have fun! \n Notes: \n \n Be careful not to target fire on a new target before the current one is dead, the interceptors will break off the current target to chase it. If you screw this up, you can get left with a bunch of buildings/thors/brood lords all with 30 HP. It usually works best to move forward, then shift-queue the target-fire command on the next target. That way the interceptors will come straight over once the first target drops. \n Have graviton catapult for this, it makes it about 70% more forgiving when you botch the distance or timing and accidentally cause all your interceptors to fly home \n Leash mechanic applies to the current target of course, so you can get up to 14 squares away from it to get in position for the next salvo. If you are directly between targets A and B, that's a max of 22 squares that between chained-targets. \n Not only do your interceptors not have to return, since they can fly across in a pack, they attack all at once rather than in a line.", "id": "t3_13hyrz", "summary": "you can make carriers attack BW-style (kinda) by stutter-stepping them."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "maybe it's not mentioned much because it's about carriers). \n Ok, to review the carrier's general mechanics: It has a launch range of 8. That means it must be within 8 range to deploy its interceptors. Once they are out, they can continue to attack target out to the leash range of 14. Interceptors will return once one of the following conditions happens: \n \n The carrier is issued a stop command \n The current target dies and no other target is available within launch range. \n The current target dies and the carrier is now on move command \n The target leaves the leash zone, aka the distance between target and carrier exceeds 14 (regardless of how that happened, carrier moved away, target moved away, recall, etc) \n \n The important takeaway here is that giving a carrier a move command won't by itself force a return, the interceptors will keep attacking the target until either the carrier/target moves beyond 14 range or the target dies. Also, a return between targets isn't necessary, it just sometimes looks like it is because there is no marker between launch and leash radius. The new target has to be within launch radius (8) for the interceptors to come straight across to it. \n Now, we know the carrier cannot launch on the move, and when on a-move, will simply park while the interceptors take down a target. It will then continue towards the a-move target point. So it moves in this sort of pattern: Stop at max launch range, launch, kill, return, scoot forward, stop, launch, etc. There's a great deal of time spent docking and relaunching interceptors and moving forward, and since in WoL there is no heal-on-dock like in BW, there is no real benefit to all this. \n But hey wait a minute. Remember what I said above? The the carrier CAN move while attacking, it just won't by default? And that interceptors can re-enage without returning provided the next target is already within range 8? So. While your squadron blasts away one target, you can move command the carriers forward, getting within launch distance of the original target, and the interceptors will come straight to it. Changing the pattern to: Stop at max launch range, launch, kill, sweep across, kill, sweep across, kill, etc. To do it, simply target fire on something (interceptors largely do not overkill, so you should pretty much always target fire carriers unless you are up against units with less than 100 or so HP), then move forward a little, a-move or target fire again, move forward...is this pattern sounding familiar? \n Yes, that's right. You can stutter-step carriers, causing the interceptors to chain-kill targets without ever docking. It's just a very slow (and slightly weird) stutter-stepping. Once you get the tempo down on this one, it's pretty shocking how fast carriers can wipe out a base compared to just a-moving through it. You can also use this to chase down fleeing brood lord packs. Have fun! \n Notes: \n \n Be careful not to target fire on a new target before the current one is dead, the interceptors will break off the current target to chase it. If you screw this up, you can get left with a bunch of buildings/thors/brood lords all with 30 HP. It usually works best to move forward, then shift-queue the target-fire command on the next target. That way the interceptors will come straight over once the first target drops. \n Have graviton catapult for this, it makes it about 70% more forgiving when you botch the distance or timing and accidentally cause all your interceptors to fly home \n Leash mechanic applies to the current target of course, so you can get up to 14 sqaures away from it to get in position for the next salvo. If you are directly between targets A and B, that's a max of 22 sqaures that between chained-targets. \n Not only do your interceptors not have to return, since they can fly across in a pack, they attack all at once rather than in a line.", "id": "t3_13hyt0", "summary": "you can make carriers attack BW-style (kinda) by stutter-stepping them."}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "This is probably the single biggest mistake I see in Cycles renders. Here's a mug showing it: \n \"What's wrong with that?\" you might be saying. \"It's an attractive mug\". It's wrong. Go to your kitchen and get out a mug. And a glass, while you're over there. Maybe a plastic cup too. Set them on the counter where you can see some light fixtures and windows reflecting in them. Look very closely at how the reflections are distributed. Walk around your drinking glasses to see it better. Noticed it yet? \n It's called the fresnel effect. How reflective most surfaces are is dependent on the angle you're viewing them from. \n This article is a great primer on the effect. You can skip the math and just look at the images if you want: \n Now look back to your drinking utensils I had you get out. See it now? There are bright reflections along the edges where windows and lights reflect, but they are dull around the middle. Now look at that first render I posted. Notice how it DOESN'T do that? Because it doesn't have fresnel. \n So how do we get fresnel in Cycles? With this thing: \n This node is really pretty simple. You give it an IOR, and it spits out a mask according to the fresnel effect: \n Most surfaces have an IOR between 1.3 and 1.6. 1.4something is most common among everyday stuff, so the fresnel node defaults to 1.45. \n This thing should be your go-to on pretty much any time you are mixing a glossy shader with something else. Stick it on the mix amount input, so the gloss is brightest at angles. Blending diffuse and glossy shaders by a constant factor gives a weird metallic look. It really only works right for painted metal. Clean metals of course, you won't use a mix at all, just a straight glossy shader. But anything else: wood, plastic, ceramic, paper, cloth, car paint, concrete, asphalt, leaves, food, it ALL has fresnel! This is why you can never seem to find a mix amount for diffuse/glossy that looks quite right for any of these materials. Because the \"correct\" mix amount is view-dependent. \n Here's the mug again, this time with the fresnel effect according to IOR 1.45: \n Notice how it's basically matte viewed straight on, but along the edges the bright reflections of the lights and the self-reflection of the handle are still visible. It's not the metallic glaze that too many Cycles galleries are filled with.", "id": "t3_1uuuxa", "summary": "If it's not metal, use a fresnel node!"}, {"author": "JtheNinja", "content": "Has anyone here dealt with this before? Most of the documentation seems to deal with handling Mental Ray licensing with a floating license. But what if you, A) have node-locked licenses, and B) aren't using MR? \n A lot of things online seem to say that MayaBatch does not check for a license itself, that's up to the renderer it calls. And it can be used on any number of computers you have as render slaves. Section 10.1.1 of Maya's license seems to bear this out: \n >A.   With regard to the Rendering Software (defined below), in addition to any other license granted in this Agreement, Licensee may allow the Rendering Software to be Installed or Accessed on a Networked Basis, solely for Licensee's Internal Business Needs, specifically to render files created with the Software.  However, if the Rendering Software is mental ray, and the Software is provided with a finite number of mental ray rendering nodes, then with regard to mental ray the foregoing is restricted to that number of mental ray rendering nodes. \n But everything is very, very vague on just how you go about deploying this. The Maya installer doesn't have an \"install render node\" option, just trial and full install. Do you just install it as a trial?", "id": "t3_1xu52h", "summary": "has anyone here ever deployed a render-only install of Maya? How are you supposed to do it? What installer options do you set?"}]}
+{"author": "amberoid", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Meds don't work, it's the break from the real world that helps.", "output": "I have schizophrenia.  I have been committed several times.  Each time, I think the thing that cured me was having some TIME to calm down.  NOT the medication.  The medication sedates you, which APPEARS to work but it is the thought processes which are the key thing, and they change over time. \n However, I do agree with involuntary admission.  I think that sometimes, people need to be locked up in a safe place, and it can be therapeutic."}], "user_id": "longlamp_8366", "history": [{"author": "amberoid", "content": "This is just my personal opinion and experience so please nobody get ticked off or anything: \n My girlfriend is bipolar and she takes an antidepressant and an antimanic.  Basically, with the medication and a stable family environment and with enough money, she rarely has any symptoms.  On the odd occasion when she plays up a little, I get stressed and I feel powerless and scared. \n This girl is someone I think I will probably marry one day, and then once you're married you have to stick with them no matter what.  However, if I was going out with someone who was not willing to take meds and kept getting unwell and was annoying, I just don't know what I would do.  Should I break up in that situation?  On the one hand it might do them good, as a wake-up call.  On the other hand, you might deeply care about them.", "id": "c7lpt8h", "summary": "I love my girlfriend, she's bipolar but rarely gets ill cos she takes her medication.  I don't have any advice."}, {"author": "amberoid", "content": "I wouldn't worry about it too much, there are not enough jobs to go around at the moment.  Probably the easiest way to get a job is to go to a country like China and teach English. \n There are many people in your position, don't feel alone.  Not only young, jobless people (like myself) but also people in their 30s who have jobs that they don't feel are their real careers, and they still don't know what they want to do with their life. \n Look into government benefits and see if there is any way you can support living independently, even if it means living on lentil soup.  Good luck.", "id": "c998eh1", "summary": "Don't feel alone, there's millions like you."}, {"author": "amberoid", "content": "Baines coming forward and linking with Pienaar was Moyes's stroke of genius and there is an almost telepathic link between Baines and Pienaar but Oviedo has shown that the attacking left-back role can be played by others than Baines. \n We're absolutely not a one-man team.  Leighton has incredible intelligence and that more than makes up for his short height.  Again, the fact that Oviedo can suddenly slot in so well proves that the backbone and shape of the team is much more than just Baines (noting that Oviedo has had a year of training to get to know his teammates). \n Losing Baines right now would be a bad hit for morale, but over the next month the players' feelings will become clear.  A lot depends on what Baines decides, and he probably hasn't made up his mind yet.  £25M would only be accepted if he wanted to go - but why would he want to go to United, in lower league position, unless they were offering megabucks?  Bearing in mind that a) he's a Scouser and b) he's settled.  It's not the same as the Rooney transfer when United was Rooney's ticket to the Champions League final (Rooney loves Everton).  Although if Leighton left in January, I guess he would get a chance at the Champions League final this year, if not next year. \n I too am interested to see what Bobby's going to do in January.  I don't think Moyes has the balls to be aggressive like Sir Alex used to be.  Moyes messed up pretty badly in the summer, we took him to the cleaners for Fellaini and that comes down to the senior management's lack of respect for him.  Moyes plays the underdog role well but he is not suited to the Big Man/King/Godfather/Best Manager In The World role, if you see what I'm getting at.  He doesn't have the self-belief.  This is being passed on to his players, they're crumbling like a pack of cards (what a rubbish metaphor) under the anxiety and nervousness. \n We do indeed play beautiful football, I say I say I say (Fred from Corrie) they're a grand team to support. \n Please don't worry if you don't understand half of what I've written, I didn't get any sleep last night. :)", "id": "cduximd", "summary": "lots of speculation that can't be disproven"}, {"author": "amberoid", "content": "I'm sure we can forgive you :)  In truth, most antimanics and antidepressants are pretty mild. \n I once browsed a comments section posted by various people who were on Depakote, which is used for mania and also for epilepsy.  I noticed that the people with mania were mostly critical of Depakote, complaining that it was changing their personality, while on the other hand the people who took Depakote for epilepsy were overwhelmingly positive and didn't mention that they had noticed any side effects affecting their day-to-day life experience - just things like weight gain, which is a problem, but probably better than the alternative as a trade-off.", "id": "c83ejhx", "summary": "Depakote doesn't bother people who take it for epilepsy, it only bothers those who take it for mania. \n But personally I just can't help feeling that these medications  do  affect my personality."}, {"author": "amberoid", "content": "Thanks pal.  There's two sides to the story of course.  There's been times in my life where I have needed someone to tell me a few things, such as how to fend for myself in the modern adult world, how to pay rent on low income, how to see the long term, how to make friends in lonely situations.  Mental health services should be a helping hand in this way.  When you come out of a mental health situation, you should be set up to lead a good, productive life - not believing that you are broken and need to take meds and can never work.  There's a lot of good people who work in mental health as well as the idiots and the overproud losers who hate their jobs and resent the world. \n I'm not a devout Christian but I am happy to quote the bible if and when it is relevant: \n Job 5:2 - Resentment kills a fool, and envy slays the simple. \n As well as looking to the past we must look to the future; sometimes a problem that seems insurmountable can be overcome just by a change in the premises - instead of believing that we are permanently flawed and therefore there is no point in trying, we must struggle to find hope itself. \n I don't want to sound pretentious or portentious or big headed but I think the point I am making here is sound, what I am writing probably doesn't mean much and doesn't make a huge amount of sense but I think there will be big changes over the next 10 years;  compare the situation to that of being for example a homosexual or an ethnic minority - sure the tables are stacked against you but it's possible to blend in with mainstream society.  The alternative seems to be either a life in a community of mentally ill, or increasingly a solitary life where you only go outside once a day for 20 minutes.  Like a lot of people on this subreddit, I strongly believe deep down that drugs of any kind are detrimental, albeit admitting that I use quite a lot of nicotine and caffeine, but those are my own personal demons.  What they say to us in hospital is something that they will not let us leave until we agree with them, but they cannot change what we believe deep down.  They forced me to readily agree to take medication but they did not change my fundamental belief (or perhaps knowledge) that medication is a bad thing.  The usual counterexample is insulin for diabetics - and the counter-counterexample is that most (if not all) diabetics don't need insulin if they improve their diet and exercise!  A healthy lifestyle is what is best.  When we are in our formative years as adults e.g. 17-22 years old, we are coming from a system which has programmed us and some of those programmed beliefs are deeply flawed, for example the belief that you can come straight out of education and into a high paid, respected position in adult society.  Although having said that there are also a lot of middle-aged and elderly people who are suddenly realising that the young do not respect them unless they deserve it.", "id": "cerjlox", "summary": "thanks followed by a long waffle.."}, {"author": "amberoid", "content": "It doesn't sound like you have borderline personality disorder, you might want to read up on that to reassure yourself about it, but borderline people are incredibly clingy and needy, it sounds like you are reasonably in control of your emotions. \n I would say take meds for the specific symptoms, so as you say you are having mood swings, it might be wise to take something to calm you down, like an antimanic/mood stabiliser, mainly because it's not nice when we are like that from the point of view that we don't want to hurt and upset those people around us that we care about like our family and friends. \n Meds don't need to be forever.  Once a particular symptom has gone away for a few years, you should ask your doctor to help you come off the med.  I myself have had very little psychotic symptoms for the past 3 years, and my psychiatrist has allowed me to reduce my antipsychotic dosage by a tiny amount every few months.  It's very important to never  suddenly  take a drop in medications, because it can harm the liver or cause relapse. \n As for a job and career, well statistically it's difficult to acheive, but it's not impossible.  As you are so relatively young, you have a great chance.  I would say the key thing is to stay as well as possible, and then see that as the basic starting point of your career - if we are stable for a while, that is a good thing for our careers.  Personally I don't have a very good career right now, but I have been doing a lot of voluntary work and I feel I contribute to society that way.  My studies have also been going OK, and while studying doesn't contribute to society in itself, I feel I should be proud of my study success anyway. \n Have you been committed to hospital (\"sectioned\" as we call it in the UK)?  If not, that's great, if yes, then try to make sure it doesn't happen again.  The main way to do this is probably to comply with whatever the doctor says.  Weight gain, side effects, probably best to forget about that.  My medication has listed side effects of permanent breast enlargement (I'm male) and permanent tremors, but neither has happened yet, so I guess it was a risk worth taking.  I dunno.  It could be worse.  I find that complying with the doctors is probably best, even though it makes me angry sometimes because I value my independence and I hate it when they tell me what to do.  Gosh, I get so angry sometimes. \n Above all, remember that things are never all that bad.  If you ever feel like life isn't worth living, then you are wrong, and when you spend some time thinking about it, you will realise that you were wrong.", "id": "cb7f63q", "summary": "Wall of text as requested!  I found it therapeutic to write all that."}, {"author": "amberoid", "content": "It struck me today how many people have arguments at Xmas, or are unhappy in some way.  Then it struck me that maybe a lot of people are hurting all year round - normal people going about their days, wondering about life and death. \n Now that I'm in my 30s the presents are only a bit of fun.  I've always been a non-sad guy.  I rarely cry;  if I get emotional it will be irritation generally.  But today I just sensed a huge load of pain from the wider world around me;  not just my family but everyone. \n Christmas brings it home that some of us are going soon, and some of us will never come back.  Some of us are missing from the gathering, some of us might not be there next time round. \n Charity begins at home and it is our job to make others around us see the cheerful side of life, and enjoy it while we can.", "id": "cn5fsrm", "summary": "I wrote some stuff about how Christmas brings out the less-pleasant emotions in life."}, {"author": "amberoid", "content": "Just want to say, to nobody in particular, but I hate GRID so much.  To start off with the controls are terrible, utterly terrible, on the keyboard and my gamepad. \n I know it's not me because I can play the arcade version of GRID absolutely fine. \n Perhaps the game is designed so that the controls get easier after a few races though, but even so, the fact that crashing can eliminate you from the race does my head in, and there seems to be no way to turn off damage.", "id": "cag4d63", "summary": "I hate GRID because of the controls and because damage can cause you to be disqualified."}, {"author": "amberoid", "content": "With no coding experience, taking on Android programming straight away is too much.  Start with something like Javascript.  There's plenty of tutorials available on that. \n Programming isn't just about the code, it's about how you create the code.  To create code you use an IDE, a program which helps you create code.  So you not only need to learn the language, you need to learn the IDE too.  For Javascript, you might use the Eclipse IDE. \n Android programming is really based on Java, and Java is not easy.  It's not easy because it has a lot of jargon.  A lot of concepts with their own Java names.  If you jump into learning Android, you will never get much further than the examples given to you. \n I know it sucks, but you can't just start coding Android.  It takes months of learning. \n Start with Javascript and you can get something impressive going quickly.  Start with Android and you'll have frustration. \n I have studied Computer Science at university and I was working as an Android dev and I still found it hard to learn with a mentor helping me.", "id": "c5f1zum", "summary": "Android is hard, start with something else first"}, {"author": "amberoid", "content": "My view on reality is the Objectivist view as proposed by Ayn Rand, and I've grown up with it from a young age.  There is only one reality and we all have individual experiences of it. \n There are indeed other ways of viewing the world, but I don't understand them.  I don't understand how there can be more than one reality.  Unless you define reality as something that corresponds to each person's individual experience somehow. \n In other words, one person might think magic is real, one person might disagree, but they can't both be right.  This seems to me a fundamental logical truth, but I am willing to concede that there are other ways of thinking, although I don't understand them. \n In my experience, each schizophrenic person has his or her own personal set of delusions, and has confidence in their own, but doesn't usually believe the delusions of other schizophrenics. \n Some of this comes down to the advantage of an outsider's viewpoint.  If Jill says that Stewart is an actor taking part in a reality show of which she is the star and of which she is unaware (like a surprise-style reality show where the cameras pop out at the end and all is revealed), then in this case Stewart may have absolute knowledge that Jill is delusional, if Stewart knows that he is not an actor.  However, Jill does not have this knowledge, she only has her own viewpoint, and so the delusion is perfectly logical to her and no amount of arguing will change her mind. \n A few months after my initial psychotic episode, I personally decided that I wanted to believe the world was normal.  Sometimes my strange beliefs reappear in my mind, but I don't like them.", "id": "cc7p557", "summary": "I believe there is only one reality, but I might be wrong."}, {"author": "amberoid", "content": "Reminds me of a story my schizophrenic friend told me that she was getting narcotics delivered by a student nurse on her ward.  The student nurse is a student nurse no longer because he got found out.  My friend took out a loan of thousands and bought drugs with it.  She appealed to the bank that they shouldn't give loans to people in psychiatric hospitals and the bank agreed and wrote off the debt. \n OK, I know it's not that amazing a story.", "id": "c6a4oxa", "summary": "student nurse got caught dealing drugs to mentally ill patients."}, {"author": "amberoid", "content": "Hi everyone.  I decided on quitting for New Year, I lasted a few days and caved in, and I have been smoking since then but I have not given up giving up.  My New Year's quit attempt is still going, at least in my mind - I will do it. \n To explain: this is the time that I am going to quit.  Not today, probably not tomorrow but 2012 is the year I am going to quit.  I am in the process of quitting. \n To all others who are trying to quit, who have tried to quit or who are thinking of quitting and have successfully cut down but who are still smoking, I want to say this. \n Well done. \n Well done for all the cigarettes you haven't smoked.  Well done for the guilt that you feel, and the desire to give up.  Well done for every quit attempt, even though you failed.  Well done for avoiding other addictions such as food, gambling, alcohol, prescription drugs, etc. \n My goal for this week coming is - \n \n To smoke 10 or less light cigarettes per day. \n To avoid friends and places where I am tempted to smoke. \n To carry my plastic NRT inhalator at all times. \n \n If I can achieve these goals, I will be happy for this week.  Quitting is very important, but don't beat yourself up if you can't do it straight away.  If it takes 2 weeks, or 6 weeks, or 6 months, or 10 years to give up, then it is still worth that constant effort. \n And to anyone who says \"man up, it's easy to quit\", well, no it isn't.  Because we are battling with our brains, who are constantly finding good reasons to continue smoking.  But if you want to quit, then well done.  Well done for the torment you have put yourself through.  It's a thankless task.  I feel your pain. \n This week I have my goals.  If quitting full-stop is too hard for you, perhaps you could make your own, lesser, goals for this week.  I would love to hear them as replies to this post. \n Thanks for reading.", "id": "t3_p9ul4", "summary": "Quitting is hard; tackle the problem by cutting it down into smaller goals and well done for trying."}, {"author": "amberoid", "content": "Hi, I'm new to this subreddit and I don't mean to offend anybody but I'll write down a few thoughts anyway. Please feel free to downvote me if you want. \n People are basically a***holes quite a lot.  This is because they have excuses - not reasons - for being nasty.  For example a bully might have beliefs about helping building someone's character.  Not good reasons for their nastiness, but everybody is nasty sometimes. \n Rejection \n Perhaps in certain situations, it is the right thing to do to reject somebody, for example in a group for expert chess players, an enthusiastic newbie might hinder the rest of the group and so he or she will need to go.  This rejection is probably painful to him or her.  The rejection can be done gently but it still hurts. \n But anyway, sometimes we are on the receiving end of this a***holeness.  So we might go home and eat a pack of doughnuts, if we are suffering from a food addiction. \n A few days later, we're feeling back to normal - the pain has faded and we go back to trying to cut down and be healthy - we're back on the wagon, for now at least. \n ......\nTeetotalling/cutting the cord? \n I could live happily without doughnuts.  I like cigarettes but I used to be happy enough before I started.  Personally I don't like alcohol and I could happily never have it again.  I struggle with caffeine and nicotine - on a bad day, they are my friend.  But if I consider the \"lifestyle change\" that I might need to get away from my addictions, how do I find the direction in which to take my first steps? \n .... \n Considering what I just wrote, in my life it's apparent that I need to avoid the places where there are people who reject me, and maybe that means just being alone sometimes, or maybe it means I need a big upheaval.  But I know that I can keep struggling for as long as it takes against caffeine - but maybe I just need to sidestep the issue and put myself on a better path somehow.", "id": "t3_3wazza", "summary": "just my thoughts tonight about addiction."}]}
+{"author": "NilacTheGrim", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Yes, there are relativistic effects. The software can try and compensate for them either by playing audio fast/slow in a comical way, or using some audio processing techniques to speed up/slow down playback.. but you would notice the time dilation no matter what since the guy won't be generating audio data or even words or sentences at the \"normal rate\", and there ain't nothing you can do about that fundamentally, except have a weird relativistic conversation with a guy travelling at near the speed of light. You would appear fast-forwarded to him, and speaking very quickly and (possibly) at high pitch, and he would appear slow-down to you as if it were in slow-mo.  (Assuming the software chooses to play the data back that way -- it can compensate for pitch somewhat but not for other things like the speed of your movements and/or how quickly you generate words out of your mouth..). \n Does the above answer your question?", "output": "Computer programmer with some physics knowledge here: \n There are all sorts of signaling/synch issues because of time dilation, but you can compensate for those and still communicate, in theory.  Say you could send him a perfect signal that doesn't lose much energy over distance (some ideal perfect laser that can't really exist) -- because at near the speed of light you're going to need that as the guy is going to get really far away from you really quickly. \n So, if you could get the signal there and back for your communication, you could theoretically rig up a very very very latent (slow) TCP/IP link over that signal, probably (or, if not, come up with some protocol that tolerates such huge latencies).  You modify the skype software to tolerate such huge latencies and/or send data in a different way to deal with the huge round-trip-time.  Probably skype isn't really optimized to handle such a link well so you'd need to change the way it encodes the video and audio, but that's a minor issue. \n On the lowest hardware level your equipment needs to compensate for the huge doppler shifts in the signal, and the guy in the spaceship also needs similar equipment to compensate for his huge redshifted signal.  Also all the oscillators that are used to encode/decode communication need to be made somehow aware of the relativistic effects.. but that sort of low-level knowledge about signaling isn't my bread and butter so I'll skip the details on that.. and instead focus on software issues.. \n Now, with all that solved, yes, the problems of time dilation could be directly observed.  Note that the software itself is going to record his audio signal (his voice) with a certain frequency, which is encoded in SOFTWARE (which means it's a bit abstracted away from physical reality).  The software on your end will receive this signal as a series of frames, each one with a timestamp, length, playback rate, etc. \n Let's say each frame is 1 second of audio, at 44kHz, let's say.  The software on your end is expecting to receive about 1 frame per second, since, well, it's 1 second of audio every second.  As it receives each frame, it plays it on your soundcard at the correct frequency... HOWEVER...  due to time dilation, you will not receive 1 frame of 1 second audio per second! \n Instead, you will get less than 1 frame per second from Mr. Lightspeed Astronaut.  Depending on how close he is to the speed of light, you may get 1 frame ever 2 seconds, 1 frame per minute, 1 frame per year.. depending on the amount of time dilation. \n You are free to play that frame as you wish.  If you anticipate 1 frame every 2 seconds, and you don't want \"clicks\" in the audio or dead silence.. then you can play each frame back at half speed.  So in that case, the guy would sound SLOOOWWWEEED DOWWWWNNN and LOWWWW. \n Or, you can play each frame at normal speed (in which case every second of audio you play will sound normal), but you will have clicks and periods of silence every second as the software waits for new frames to arrive. \n On the other end of the link, Mr. Lightspeed Astronaut will get those 1s of audio frames at a rate that is much faster than frame per second.  He can play them all at whatever speed he wishes.  He can buffer them to disk and listen to them later.  Or he can play them at a higher frequency (say 88kHz rather than 44kHz) in order to make them play faster (so as to match the rate at which they are coming in)... or he can use other audio processing techniques to squash the time length of the frame so that he can attempt to listen to you speak to him in real-time (sort of like how the \"play at 2x speed\" thing on youtube works.. you get weird clicks and pops in the audio but the sound itself is still at the correct pitch)."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4914", "history": [{"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "I dunno, why the hell hide yourself from your friends?  It's idiocy to do that.  It causes stress.  As you are experiencing.  Because basically, you're \"in it alone\", but with people around.  Makes it even worse. \n Tell your friends what's up. They're your motherfucking  friends !! If you can't tell them, who the hell can you tell?  Get new friends then! \n Have a long conversation about it.  Explain to them all the shit you know about keto.  Get them excited for you.  If they are your friends, for real, they will understand. \n Then, when you are there, at the feast, you will find it super easy to avoid carbs because you are with your friends that are supporting and encouraging you. \n That is, if they really are your friends.  And chances are they are.  You just  assume  they won't support you.  Give them a chance to be bigger friends. \n I'm of the opinion that YOU HAVE TO BE YOURSELF.  To your friends.  Always.  It's really important to do that.  Be yourself.  To your friends.  To your girlfriend.  To your wife.  As much as you can.  Test the limits of that.  It's key to a simple clean life devoid of misunderstandings, conflict, and feelings of loneliness.  If you can't be yourself to your friends, your wife, your gf.. what's the fucking point?", "id": "c8eyndz", "summary": "Be yourself and enlist the help of your friends, rather than opposing yourself to them.  If that fails, hate them forever and call them names."}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "Insulin resistant = a lot of your body cells refuse to take up the glucose in your blood to use for energy.  As such, the glucose ends up in your fat tissue more than in your muscle or other organs.  Also, you tend to have a chronic, elevated insulin level.  When insulin is elevated, it is impossible to burn fat for energy.  Hence, you may be getting fatter, and hungrier all at once since you can't access your fat stores due to elevated insulin.  So there is this paradoxical situation where your body has tons of energy but you can't access it.  Hence the vicious cycle of carb eaters that need to eat ever 3-4 hours or else they are unhappy. \n Insulin resistant people on keto:  Since the food you eat is either fat or protein, and doesn't turn to glucose readily in the blood, you will have less glucose that your body has to deal with.  This means that over time, your insulin level will fall and your body cells will also become more insulin sensitive.  In an IR person that is on keto, they have a chronically  lowered  insulin level, and can access their fat stores for energy readily.  This undoes the paradoxical situation named above.", "id": "c7udo28", "summary": "IR means you store more fat and can't access stored fat so you keep getting fatter and can't burn your own body fat easily.  Keto + IR reverses this situation and fixes it."}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "Your professor is wrong. His mistake in reasoning is saying/believing that ketones are a \"backup molecule\" when carbs aren't available.  This makes it sound like ketones are an inferior fuel source and that the brain is somehow not functioning properly when on them. \n This is incorrect and untrue.  There is also scientific evidence that some amount of ketogenesis and brain-running-off-ketones is  good  for the brain.  It gives the neurons time to clean up the junk accumulated from glucose metabolism, for example. \n Also some people actually run worse off glucose.  Epileptics have fewer if any siezures when in ketosis (in fact ketogenic diets were the only treatment for extreme epilepsy before the modern age of drugs for everything). \n You professor just doesn't understand the physiology and is stressing the wrong things. \n That being said, a very small part of the brain has neurons that lack mitochondria and can only use glucose as an energy substrate.  That and part of the kidney and pancreas I believe require glucose.  Also sperm cells in men run off fructose directly (which is manufactured for them by the testes anyway). \n So, for the small portion of body tissue that requires glucose, the ~25g/day or whatever of glucose is enough to handle this.  if you don't eat the glucose your body can generate it from protein on-demand.  Using gluconeogenesis -- a reaction in the liver that converts amino acids to glucose.  Also about ~38% of fat by weight can be converted to glucose (the glycerol backbone of triglycerides has a pathway to glucose, and it is ~38% of fat by weight.. although I'm not sure how efficient this pathway is and if it means 38% of fat can become glucose.. I seem to remember that it's somewhat 'lossy'..!).", "id": "c8drmkq", "summary": "Brain runs fine off ketones.  Some glucose is necessary but body can produce all it needs from protein and/or fat using gluconeogenesis.  Your teacher is just wrong."}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "No guarantee you will see benefits but you  should  see benefits.  It entirely depends on your metabolism, how carb sensitive you are, and how heavy you are to begin with. \n Some people only lose weight when very low carb (under 30g), some people lose at any point when they lower carbs from whatever they were eating.", "id": "c7w2nch", "summary": "Your mileage may vary, but you should see results."}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "Hmm.  Well this is true and not true. \n It cannot be  labelled  as American cheese on the package and still be a processed cheese.  If it actually says \"American cheese\" on the package or in the ingredients list, it is actually just the american mild version of cheddar, and not what this wiki article refers to as american cheese. \n If you go to the McDonald's website they list the cheese they use as \"American cheese\", and thus it isn't this processed version we refer to as American cheese, but which can never be officially labelled as such. \n Does that make sense or is this too confusing?", "id": "c7memxw", "summary": "McDonald's cheese is real cheese.  Even if sometimes American cheese is not really cheese."}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "Worked a temp office job in the summer of 1996. For the yellow pages company in NYC. They has great internet. This is back when high speed (or any!) internet access was a new thing. I was addicted to internet porn back then. I had a computer on my desk running Windows 95 with like 1 megabit download speed (for '96 that was ridiculously fast), so I filled up a 200 mb hard drive with nothing but porn. I spent my days on IRC trying to get laid (and almost did!), and generally didn't give a fuck. I also obviously hit on my female coworkers (who were all in their 20s and I was 19!). \n They kinda hated me anyway, but when IT discovered the porn I got a call one morning not to bother coming in. \n Only job I've ever been fired from.\nWorth it. I was in porn heaven before it was cool.", "id": "ckluw6v", "summary": "fired for internet porn"}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "Ok, this is a great question and it's actually not clear from the biochemistry. \n I want to clear some things up first.  The conventional bro science is excess protein = glucose, therefore excess protein kicks you out of ketosis. \n This is an oversimplification that ignores many things. \n Some things to keep in mind: \n \n Protein is composed of amino acids.  Each amino acid falls into 1 of 3 categories: strictly glucogenic, strictly  ketogenic , or either ketogenic or glucogenic (depending on demand) \n \n Different proteins in food (chicken versus soy versus cheese versus beans) are composed of a different set of amino acids, and thus have a different  amino acid profile . \n \n Depending on the protein source, you can get a completely different set of amino acids and thus the protein can be said to be more ketogenic or glucogenic, depending on its constituent amino acids.  This is because the majority of amino acids that make it up are weighed in one direction or enother: either in both categories or in the ketogenic or the glucogenic category.  Cheese for instance has a different set of amino acids in it than does, say, beef muscle tissue, and thus is either more ketogenic or more glucogenic (I forget what the amino acid profile in cheese is and I am too lazy to look it up now) -- but I remember when I did look it up one of them was more slightly more glucogenic. \n \n All amino acids get either used directly for energy, or for building body parts, or they can be half-burned for energy and then get converted to (depending on whether they are ketogenic or glucogenic): ketones or glucose  on-demand  for use in the brain, etc. \n \n The amino acids that are either ketogenic or glucogenic get used in a complicated set of pathways on-demand (they basically are shapeshifters that can be used wherever depending on need).  This differs radically from consuming carbs in that the body has no choice when eating carbs: all carbs are glucose and they must be processed quickly and turned into glycogen or fat for storage in order to manage blood sugar... hence insulin spikes and weight gain.  Protein on the other hand, doesn't have this \"emergency crisis\" type of action on blood sugar. Gluconeogenesis normally regulates itself and when too much glucose is in the blood it stops automatically -- thus you can never get a huge blood sugar spike from excess protein (provided your body parts are working correctly). \n \n \"Excess\" amino acids that are eaten and that are glucogenic may or may not necessarly end up as glucose.  It's highly dependent on what else is going on metabolically. This part is not clear and I remember researching it and it's not very well understood exactly what happens here -- we're talking about several interplaying biochemical reactions and systems that regulate each other so it's hard to explain with a simple rule... is what I remember from doing the research. \n \n \n That being said, I did a calculation once and I remember the numbers: about 20% of the amino acids in the protein in beef muscle are strictly glucogenic.  Bear in mind beef is like 30% protein or less by weight, so that's like 6% of beef by weight is potentially glucogenic.  For 1kg of beef (that's a lot of freakin' beef -- 2.2 lbs!) that's only 60g of \"carbs\".  And they're not even real carbs -- as they are created on-demand, conditionally, and they don't have the associated high Insulin/Glucagon ratio that you get with pure carbs. \n My two cents.  Hoping someone with more science can add to this... \n EDIT: Also protein -> glucose conversion is not \"free\" and takes some energy to happen.  Thus 1g of protein, to be used as carbs, is more metabolically expensive than 1g pure carbs.  So a calorie is not a calorie in that sense...", "id": "c9w2d93", "summary": "excess protein is not carbs and probably isn't all that bad. Part of it gets turned to ketones, part of it gets used directly for energy, and part gets turned to glucose.  The story is very complicated, and that being said, some people swear by limiting protein to maximize fat loss, and maybe it works, but the story isn't so black & white."}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "Long time ketoer here: been in keto for 3 years.  This happens when you still have body fat to lose. I'm at 10% bodyfat and I get pretty ravenous.  If this is happening it's a sign your fat stores are being liberated quite readily and you're \"eating\" your own body fat.", "id": "ciicwj6", "summary": "happens in keto while still losing, when you get to low bodyfat appetite comes back."}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "Are you trolling?  This post made me laugh out loud!!! HA HA HA! \n Dude if you aren't trolling.  I dunno what to tell you.  Figure out your own priorities.  For me, even if she were Mother Theresa (and ESPECIALLY if she were mother theresa in the  later years), that would be a DEAL BREAKER. \n You gotta have raw animal beast magnetism and monkey-sex.  Gotta have it.  Without that, what you got yourself is a friend, not a girlfriend and certainly not a wife. \n But, you know, it's your life.  Figure out what's important to you and go from there.", "id": "cf54b6m", "summary": "Hope you're not trolling -- my two cents is dump da bitch and find someone else that you can have great sex with and a great relationship. Life's too short."}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "Contrary to what almost everyone in here thinks: You can thrive on an all-meat diet with very sparing quantities of vegetables/fruits to supplement vitamins not found in meat.  And I mean very sparing.\n Think eating like 1-2 berries a week or a few berries every couple of weeks. \n Here is a quick article on the Stefansson all-meat experiment.  This guy lived with the Eskimos for years and was fine eating nothing but meat and the occasional berries. \n He later spent a year in an experiment where he was under 24/7 observation eating his all-meat diet in Bellvue Hospital in New York City because scientists didn't believe you can thrive and be healthy on an all-meat diet.  He proved them wrong.  After the year was up he was in perfect health. \n Only thing you really are missing in (cooked, non-organ) meat is Vitamin C.  You can supplement that or eat the occasional bit of greens for it. \n Don't think keto means veggies.  Keto means fats, and some protein.  Veggies are there for some people to make them feel like they are being healthy. I think they are overrated to, but I like their taste so I let them stick around .. ;) \n Also, the original ketogenic diet that was popularized was in the 19th century -- the Banting diet.  In his book, Banting  recommends  you sit around all day and don't exercise too much (it will just work up your appetite), but avoid potatos, beer, bread, etc, and eat nothing but meat and non-starchy veggies. \n You don't need to exercise to do keto. \n I recommend the book \"Why We Get Fat\" by Gary Taubes.  He goes into all these topics and it will motivate you if you are in keto and trying to figure out why it works.", "id": "c7l4id4", "summary": "Seriously, screw the veggies.  They are overrated.  Focus on fatty meats and cheeses. And screw exercise.  You don't need it to lose weight with keto."}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "It's entirely possible the Boltons will execute Locke anyway if he deserts and makes it back to dreadfort/winterfell! \n Why give the man what was promised when you can just behead him and\nkeep your lands. \n Also, Roose Bolton could then disavow any knowledge/involvement with Locke's spying and behead Locke as \"proof\" that Locke wasn't his\nman and Locke was merely making it up (should people find out that Locke is a spy).", "id": "ch5sie4", "summary": "I predict Locke gets betrayed by Roose Bolton regardless of his missions' outcome."}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "I live in Romania now (US citizen in Romania). \n Can confirm.  The government here is very corrupt and the politicians are all easily whoring out their country to foreign corporations for bribes. \n Likely this deal with Chevron doesn't help the people, doesn't represent the will of the people, but is a back deal done between politicians and foreign corporations.", "id": "cdvz8qj", "summary": "I live in Romania.  Can confirm all politicians here accept bribes and generally sell off their country to the highest bidder."}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "I'm not sure I understand your question. Thermodynamics is a 0 sum equation. So yes, changing an input or increasing an expenditure will result in an imbalance in the energy the equation and end up with a resultant loss or gain in mass. \n No one disputes this!  The real subtlety is cause and effect. \n Eating more can do any one (or all) of the following things: \n \n increase metabolic rate \n cause body to excrete excess calories  \n possibly (but not always) store excess calories as fat and muscle \n cause the person to spontaneously exercise (if they are eating keto) \n possibly cause the person to develop insulin resistance (depending on what they are eating) \n \n Eating less can do any one (or all) of the following things: \n \n decrease metabolic rate \n cause the body to conserve energy \n possibly (but not always) cause the body to tap into stored sources of energy (muscle & fat) \n possibly cause the person to become \"lazier\" and avoid physical activity (if they are eating too many refined carbs) \n possibly cause the person to increase their insulin sensitivity \n \n Therefore, eating more or eating less can have unexpected consequences that the simple calories-in/calories-out model fails to account for. \n One such situation is where: it's possible to eat more and not gain any weight.  Or eat less and not lose any weight. \n Or, eat more and  lose weight  (because you cut out all carbs), or eat less and  gain weight  (because you replaced all your keto calories with sugar and carbs).", "id": "ceazi93", "summary": "I am not sure how better to explain this -- but the basic situation is that our bodies are complex, the first law is never violated, but it really tells you not much about what is going on under the hood!"}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "I should point out that even if you've been ketoing for years your muscles typically still hold on to some glycogen as glucose is a normal substrate for skeletal muscle. From what I've read ketogenic dieters have about half the glycogen stores in muscle that normal carb eaters have, and they burn it at 1/4 the rate of a carb eater.", "id": "cq2qgi8", "summary": "Just to clarify -- you don't lose ALL your glycogen, just half of it!"}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "I would personally get in off statins immediately. They are drugs that damage the body and they have never been shown to reduce all-cause mortality in anyone ever except for people that have  already had a heart attack . \n They are very dangerous drugs that interfere with a very important enzymatic pathway. \n The side effects are not a joke.  They can literally permanently damage certain organs. \n Everyone that I have ever known or seen do keto has had their cholesterol numbers improve vastly while on this diet.  Carbohydrates cause bad blood numbers, not good fats (such as saturated fat) and not meat.  Mainstream medicine has it so wrong they are giving people advice that is killing them.  The truth is directly the opposite of what they tell you. \n Carbs screw up cholesterol (well they lower the \"good\" cholesterol, HDL, and they raise triglycerides).\nAnimal fats, when absent carbs,  fix  cholesterol (they raise HDL, lower triglycerides). \n HDL and triglycerides are the only two numbers that matter anyway, by the way.  Statins, which may lower LDL, have no real effect on all-cause mortality. \n So: The single best diet for improving blood lipid numbers is the ketogenic diet.  This has been shown time and again in every experiment and with every person I know. \n The single worst diet for completely screwing up blood lipid numbers is a high carbohydrate, low fat diet. \n That being said -- GET HIM OFF STATINS NOW!!! \n And have him completely dive into keto.. his blood lipid numbers will continue to normalize.", "id": "c80kvks", "summary": "Statins are horrible.  Get him off them ASAP.  Keto diet will fix his blood lipid panel and he will be right as rain in a very short time.  The ketogenic diet is the diet for bad cholesterol!!"}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "To back up what you're saying, darthluiggi, for what it's worth, my own experience has been that it's much easier to build lean muscle  and keep it  with keto.  At least for me.  I find it much simpler, and the results for me are better than what I was getting before I discovered keto.  I didn't like how I'd get fatter along with my muscle gains, almost invariably.  I love how with keto I stay super lean, and just my muscles grow.  And on a day when I'm not working out and not eating properly becasue I'm busy, I know my muscles aren't being catabolized for glucose as much as before.  I am running more off fat stores.  The protein sparing part is pretty awesome for me.  I can starve and my body hangs on to muscle.. at least for a time.  Never happened before keto.  I felt like before keto, when I got hungry my body would eat the muscles first and save the fat for last!  It was so frustrating!", "id": "cgvx4sr", "summary": "Keto rocks."}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "There's no reason to think you aren't producing ANY lactate at all.  It's normally produced in small amounts and is part of normal muscle metabolism when catabolizing glucose anaerobically (which may happen from time to time even if you aren't at the high end of exertion, especially as muscles become tired during your long hikes -- and thus fewer fibers get recruited per unit time for work). \n Also, other acids may be produced during long hikes -- for example alanine (an amino acid) may be produced as part of muscle metabolism -- it gets shuttled to the liver and glucose is produced from the alanine.  This acid can also cause a burning sensation in muscles similar to lactate.", "id": "chcmxeb", "summary": "even keto people produce lactate in some circumstances.  And they also produce other acids in mucles that can cause burning."}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "I think you should read up on Gary Taubes or listen to his talks.  While the first law of thermodynamics does hold in essence with everyone and everything, including a body gaining/losing fat weight, it may not be as simple as \"eating less, exercising more\". And \"a calorie is a calorie\". \n What I am about to write below takes most people a few YEARS to appreciate or really understand.  It actually flies right smack in the face of how the mainstream has taught and thought about how the body regulates fat accumulation.   As a result, even if you understand the below, you will inherently distrust it, because it contradicts conventional wisdom pretty blatantly.  But..  here goes: \n Your body is a biological system that is very complex, that fights hard for what it considers \"equilibrium\", and that can upregulate or downregulate lots of things -- including how much fat tissue it wants to cling to. \n AND  -- it's pretty clear the #1 key player in weight regulation is the hormone insulin.  This hormone is so powerful that it may make you fat when you undereat, or may keep you skinny when you overeat, all depending on your insulin level at the time!  This hormone governs nearly everything when it comes to fat tissue regulation. \n So, that being said, it's not clear that intentionally eating less or eating more will cause the body to gain weight or lose weight -- that is -- unless it produces an insulin response or a change in average insulin level.   This is why some fat people have a HARD time even on low calorie diets losing weight (because they may be reducing calories, but not carbs sufficiently to produce a change in insulin level significant enough to impact whether their body burns fat or not). \n Stated another way, it may not be physiologically possible for the body to gain adipose tissue unless there is an associated insulin response.  (Carbohydrate produces a high insulin response, whereas fat produces  no  insulin response.  So eating moderate protein, high fat, very low carb keeps insulin levels pretty low.  Thus no matter how much you eat, you may not ever gain, because without insulin your body just cannot gain fat for the most part.) \n So what does the body do with excess energy? It could be that the body has its own compensatory mechanisms to regulate what it does with the excess energy ingested.  Maybe you burn it as heat, you excrete it, or you simply burn it by fidgeting around more and feeling \"energized\".  What is clear is the body is pretty good at regulating body weight, regardless of number of calories consumed, given a certain insulin level.  This is a powerful concept.  It means the body can potentially stay fat when undereating, or stay skinny when overeating, all depending on what insulin says.  Now, when you undereat generally insulin drops.. (not always though!) which is why starvation diets work for the most part (even high carb starvation diets). \n However, the degree to which this applies varies from individual to individual.  There are other factors at play too, but for most people, the above holds pretty darned true.", "id": "c7hwl2c", "summary": "Read Gary Taubes.  The biochemistry seems to point to: It's all about insulin and if that is low (because of low carb), then no matter how much you eat, you won't gain body fat.  (It takes more people about a few YEARS to really understand or appreciate this point because it flies in the face of conventional thinking on how fat accumulation works.)"}, {"author": "NilacTheGrim", "content": "Well, after upgrading from Lion to Mavericks two weeks ago, I can say I am not terribly happy with performance.  Overall my mid-2011 15\" MacBook Pro runs hotter and more sluggishly than it ever did with previous OSX versions. \n Often when I leave my MacBook running for a while and come back to it, and I get into Chrome or want to open up a new app, it's EXTREMELY unresponsive.  Web pages that used to load almost instantly take much longer now, and overall there's just a giant feeling of frustration when using my MacBook Pro. \n Note: I  am  running the BitCoin-Qt client almost constantly in the background, but that never was a problem before. \n So, I did a little research and came up with a theory.  What if it was the compressed swap memory that was responsible for the sluggishness? \n Basically the extra delays I notice are always related to apps that have been \"swapped out\" and are coming back into wired memory off disk.  Previously (before Mavericks) swapping-in apps was pretty fast.  Now it's a nightmare. \n So I found out the kernel option for disabling compressed memory, set it, and rebooted.  I've been running Mavericks for a couple of days now with compressed memory  disabled  and it's as smoothe as butter!  The UI experience is as fast and peppy as it ever was under Lion, Snow Leopard, etc. \n So, for the curious and frustrated (as I was), if you want to disable compressed memory, here's how: \n \n Open up Terminal  \n Type in: sysctl vm.compressor_mode    \n (you should see 'vm.compressor_mode: 4' here, which indicates compressed swap is enabled) \n Type in the following: sudo nvram boot-args=vm_compressor=1 \n reboot \n After reboot, verify it worked, open up Terminal, and do 'sysctl vm.compressor_mode'.  You should see 1 printed. \n \n Enjoy your new faster less sluggish Mavericks experience! \n Now.. if only we could turn off App Nap from the kernel!", "id": "t3_20aq8m", "summary": "Memory compression sucks IMHO.  To turn it off use 'sudo nvram boot-args=vm_compressor=1', reboot."}]}
+{"author": "thedevilyousay", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post no one needs to hear about your shit.", "output": "Before I started dealing with my issues (perfunctorily, anyways), I would throw myself into school work. I'm so fucking glad I did. As opposed to people who are defined by their problems, I became defined by my solution. The problem is that you can only get so many degrees before you have to move on. \n I think there's an over-reliance on \"talking\" about problems. I never wanted to be that guy who was obviously carrying around a cross. People don't need to hear about my shit, and I'm a better friend when you don't have to listen to all the things that are not perfect in my life. Find something constructive to do, be there for people who need you, and don't be a fucking trumpet for your sorrows. Most people in life only give one quarter to half a shit about your problems, and that's not their fault. You set yourself up for disappointment when you create expectations that people will be there for you. We've all made the mistake of giving the wrong people chances, and I'm not saying that you shouldn't ever do it. The problem is that when you place reliance on people, or when you create expectations of them, you can turn away an otherwise well meaning person away from you, just because they do not have the capacity to care about the deep dark problems that keep you awake at night."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The exports of Libya are numerous in amount. One thing they export is corn, or as the Indians call it, \"maize\". Another famous Indian was \"Crazy Horse\". In conclusion, Libya is a land of contrast. Thank you", "output": "There are two reasons: \n \n It is socially acceptable to hate on them. Take as fact that most people crave acceptance. A way to feel a part of a group is to extol views and ideas that are already widely accepted. Given that reddit is a place where it is already popular to hate on hipsters, simply agreeing or propagating that sentiment will result in acceptance. It's the  fuck-them-am-I-right  phenomenon.  This is similar to the way that everyone seems to hate on socks and sandals. There is nothing inheriently wrong with this, and in fact, it's very comfortable. However, it's such a widely echoed sentiment that you're  safe  when you say it, because you know that most people agree with you. So you're sharing your feelings, knowing there will be no resistance. Also \"never go to a movie on a first date\". A movie is actually a great idea for a first date. Agreeing with the herd also allows you to participate without expending the cognitive energy needed to evaluate your views. \n \n \"Hipsters\" are trend-eating, fad-mongering, consumer-whores that dress up like each other, while blindly reinforcing and building the corporatocracy they ostensibly revile. It doesn't involve any sort of creativity or intellectualism to be a hipster. All you have to do is dress like each other, and seek out cultural items and products that are presently out of fashion. PBR was the grossest welfare beer on the planet, and few people drank it. Now it's a hipster staple. Cheesy facial hair? An embarrassment for years, and it is now a statement of ironic individuality. The vainglory and parent-funded-nonchalance espoused by hipsters is also a source of jealousy from those who cannot afford the time or money involved in dressing in the uniform, buying shitty music, and scouring the internet looking for the next thing."}], "user_id": "longlamp_15292", "history": [{"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "So, I had athlete's foot back in undergrad. This was during a particularly \"lean\" month for me, and I didn't have the cash to buy some tough-actin' Tinactin. It was bothering the heck out of me, and I remembered someone saying that if you get stung by a jellyfish, you could pee on it. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, so I started pissing on my feet in the shower. My athlete's foot was gone in a few days. \n Oh, I also have another one. So, once I had a plantar's wart. Now, this was no ordinary plantar's wart. Oh no. This wart had more roots than that Alex Haley's historical novel titled:  Roots: The Saga of an American Family . So, I had gone to the doctor a few times to get it frozen off, but like the characters in Roots, this wart had a will to live, and a spirit that could not be quelled by liquid nitrogen and over-the-counter salicylic acid. The adversity this wart went through only made it stronger, like the struggles of the characters in a made-for-TV miniseries called \"Roots\", which is based on the book I mentioned earlier. I did a bit of research, and found that some people have had some success simply placing a piece of duct tape over the plantar's wart and letting nature take its suffocating course. I was going to add another Roots reference, but I think it would be inappropriate at this juncture. Long story short, I put duct tape over it, and it was gone in a week.", "id": "c29koa8", "summary": "Pee on your feet and then cover them with duct tape."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "I graduated from university two years ago, and up until two weeks ago, I worked six or seven days a week, and I wore a suit for five of those days. I was much more productive on the days I didn't have to dress up in my douche uniform.  Being able to wear comfortable clothes is much, much better. Whenever I tuck in my shirt, I get an almost insatiable desire to stretch my arms over my head. \n I recently quit my suit job, but the sad reality is that I'll have to don in again in the very near future.", "id": "c1fu70b", "summary": "suits are a sometimes treat."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "It sure would be splendid if people understood the notion of progressive taxes and effective rates. \n Another reality is that a person making 250K (hopefully) has some disposable income, which he uses to invest in programs that allow him to defer his tax. These same tactics are not available to the same extent to the lower brackets. So, while the rich techincally pay a higher rate of taxes, in reality, they do not. When you factor in the fact that poorer people spend a higher percentage of their income on living expenses (and the taxes that go with that), theyend up paying an effective tax rate which is higher than that of the rich.", "id": "c0jzral", "summary": "Rich people get more tax breaks (cap gains, shelters, deferrals).\nPoor people spend more on consumption taxes. The result is that the poor pay a higher percentage of their incom in tax than the rich."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "You're a bit heavier than I was, but I had a remarkably similar build before I started taking this shit seriously. I fucking hated it, and it was affecting almost every aspect of my life. I went from 180 to 140 in about eight months, and I've been described by several people as being \"ripped\" (personally, I think my arms, shoulders and calves need to catch up, but I take the compliment). Today, I have a sweet ass core of muscle that starts at my pecs and goes down to my pubes. The fat went away, and my tits look like muscle now. Those gross-ass nipples? Yeah, they gone and now I have sweet ass bad boys that poke through my shirt. I am a  completely  different person eight months later. I still revel in the \"holy shits\" I get when I see people I haven't seen in a while. Sure, eight months may seem like a long time, but what's the alternative? Not doing it because it'll take a long time? Fuck that shit. This is a long grift and there are no short cuts. \n Look, it's not going to be easy. It's actually quite simple, but it requires a lot of work and dedication on your part. If I can do it, you can too. \n Here's what I did. YMMV: Quit focusing on cardio. Sure, you may jog for 30 minutes and feel good about it, but understand the fact that you've probably worked off the equivalent of a bran muffin. \n Like almost everyone here tells you, Starting Strength or Strong Lifts is a great place to start. I'll never forget the day I dragged my fat, weak ass to the gym and squatted an empty barbell. Man, did I feel like a punk, but thankfully, I knew that everyone has to start somewhere. Then - and this is the most important part - I went again, adding like 10 pounds. Then I went again, adding. And again. And again. Now, it's not possible for me  not  to go, that's how much I love it. My workout has changed a little, but I only did that once I fucking killed SL by following it to a tee. \n You're relationship with food will have to change as well. This is not an option if you want to reach your goals. You will have to eat less, straight up. Find out your TDEE and start tracking every single morsel of food that goes into your mouth. Everything. What I did was eat normal for about a week, while tracking everything using MyFitnessPal. After a week, I got an idea of how many calories I was eating, and I was able to pinpoint where I could cut things out (cheese on sammies, cream in coffee, oils on salads). This is a pain the ass at first, but it gets way easier as your own personal trends emerge. \n You could start getting rid of it today if you wanted. You'll have plenty of excuses, but they're likely not real. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago; the second best time is now. Get on it, son. \n Edit: Do cardio as well, if you want. However, don't make it your prime focus. I wasted a lot of time slaving away on cardio machines, with minimal results. It all changed with I made it a secondary activity. Use cardio to supplement your progress, but weights should be priority. Do some cardio on your \"off\" days to really work that calorie deficit.", "id": "cbky9t7", "summary": "Yeah, it's chest fat. Get rid of it."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "A few years ago, I had a spoonful of plain, 0% greek yogurt, and I was like, \"This is disgusting.\" For the longest time, I would always be like, \"I don't know why people eat greek yogurt.\" I was also distrustful because it seemed like a product that just came out of nowhere in North America. One minute there was only regular yogurt, the next minute every fucking yogacardiotard were all, \"'omggggg sooo gooood.\" \n Anyway, above all, I though it was gross. Then I started looking at the macros, and it was too tempting, so I picked up some 2% shit, coconut flavor. I was like, \"HOLY FUCK.\" Shit was so creamy and rich, and it plugged a nice little hole in my diet. I devour the stuff now, in all different flavours.", "id": "cei2pmh", "summary": "a comprehensive history of my relationship with greek yogurt."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "Barristan the Bold won a shit load of tourneys, including one where he unhorsed the fuck out of Rhegar Targaryen. In one tourney when he was a kid, he dressed up as a mystery rider, and he lance-fucked the every-loving shit out of every single bitch in the ranks. There was also some shit back in the day where a few lordly broze and brozinas kidnapped the Targaryen King. Barristan was like, \"Are you fucking kidding me? I'm the fucking KINGSGUARD,\" so he fucked them all in the face with a sword, except one little baby named Dontos, who is now the drunken Ser Dontos of  fucking-over-Sansa  fame. That sot owed his life to our man in white, who has more honour in his pubes than most people have in their entire body. \n We don't know exactly what he did on the battle of the Trident, but he diced up rebels like a Slap Chop, and so Robert was like, \"Jesus Christ bro, you've got some serious honour, and you're completely bad ass. Bend the knee and I'll make you the boss of my Kingsguard.\"  Ser Barristan was like, \"Sure thing bro, all my bros are dead, so I have no one to guard, so I'll guard you now.\" Then he guarded the piss out of him all fucking day for years, until that Jezebel Cersei fucked him up with a skin on strongwine and a boar tore his gut open like Han Solo tore open that kangaroo horse in the Empire Strikes Back. Then Joffrey was like, \"Dude, you implied that my dad is my uncle, so you're old, and get the fuck out.\" Barristan was like, \"You're satan's get, and I hate you, so fuck you,\" and he peaced out with so much honour that even dogs and cats are like, \"Wow bro.\" Then the new King sent like a hundred soldiers to get him, and he was like, \"You're kidding me right? A hundred soldiers?\" Then he choked the fuck out of every single one of them with his bare hands. Then he was like, \"Shit bro. Now I need new honour to go with my general badassery,\" so he crossed the ocean, picked up a fat guy, and was like, \"Now I guard the real queen, but in secret, because I'm not going to toot my own horn, and I will slice the fuck out of anyone who tries to come near her. Come at me.\" \n Ser Barristan the Bold is the most chillinest and most badass fuckmother you've ever seen in your life. He could kill a hundred Roberts, plow a field of pansies, fuck a stable full of tavern wenches, and then kill a hundred more Roberts without even having a single glass of water in between. When he farts, he breaks maidenheads and bitches get pregnant. He's got steely blue eyes that make knights go gay as shit and have fervid dreams about slurping down his throat yogurt like ranch dressing (which hadn't even been invented yet).", "id": "c1qpn11", "summary": "Barristan the bold is the strongest warrior in the modern age. \n edit - Added more badassery."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "If I were a betting man - and I am - I would bet on you to fail. I'd bet a lot. \n \n You're not losing 42 pounds in a month. You're just not. If that's your goal, it will take way longer than that. It will also take a lot of hard work. A lot of hard work. The good news is that once you're in the swing of things, your results reinforce themselves, and it's easy to keep going.  \n What in the hell is 2800 healthy carbs? If anything, you might want to take a step back form the carbs. You don't have to go full keto, but fat and protein are extremely important. They also make you feel fuller, so eating at below maintenance is more manageable. Your \"food scheme\" should be to eat below maintenance. Check out r/leangains if you're interested in a \"scheme\" that people actually get results on.  \n What is \"fat burning cardio\"? Is that the setting on the elliptical that puts in you in the \"fat burning zone\"? It's bullshit, and only there so fat people won't feel bad for going so slow. If you are going to do cardio, do HIIT, but still, that's probably not your best value. You need weights, son. You need lots of weights.  \n \n So, you're going to fail. But you don't  have  to. If you make realistic goals, and follow programs that are tried and tested, you will succeed. The sidebar is the best resource on the entire internets for this sort of shit. \n I was once like you. I wanted to \"get fit\". I tried and failed, because I had no real goals. Then one day I read the sidebar. I thought about what I wanted and I wrote out my goals. They were realistic, tangible, and measurable. I shut the fuck up and went to the gym, where I squatted an empty barbell. Then I bench pressed an empty barbell. Then I rowed an empty barbell. Then, two days later, I did sometime similar. Man, I felt like an idiot. But then I looked at myself in the mirror, and remembered why I was doing this. Then I added weights the next time. Repeat, repeat, repeat, fucking repeat. Sure, I did \"cardio\" but only for boredom and because I wanted to sweat. I monitored what I ate on myfitnesspal and found my problem areas. \n Almost six months later, I am an entirely different person. I met all my goals, lost over 20 pounds of pure flab and can't wait to pop the top off this summer. I'm fitting back into all my undergrad clothes, and I look ripped in skinny shirts. Was it slow going? Yeah, but how else would be be? It didn't take me 30 days to get this out of shape, why in the hell would it take me 30 days to recover?", "id": "c94lc5m", "summary": "Read the side bar. Make good goals. Lift something."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "I think the answer is quite simple: Don't talk about it, just go do it. \n Most people who don't seemingly don't care about fitness are oftentimes avoiding the issue. There are very few people out there who don't \"wish\" they worked out more, but are not willing to make the sacrifice for a number of reasons. While they may not talk about it, you can bet they think about it. For many of those people, hearing  you  talk about it makes them confront that issue in their heads, and it's not pleasant. To them, that may make you annoying. \n Not to go all Dale Carnegie, but people will like you better when you don't cause them cognitive dissonance (that is, they know they should work out, but don't). They will like you better when they know that you're not going to show up and make them unintentionally feel bad about their choices. While this will likely never be directly said to you, it may manifest itself in other ways, such as the ways you're describing. \n So, just go to the gym. Talk about it online if you need to, but spend your friend time culturing relationships, instead of humblebragging about your awesome fitness progress. Eat your meticulous diet, but no need to explain it to those around you. If people ask you a question, sure, talk about it, but in my experience with the newly active, they're often the ones who bring it up. You may not know it, but you may be \"that guy\". Don't be \"that guy\".", "id": "cfvs3wz", "summary": "Don't talk about it. It makes people confront the fact that they should be doing it too. People will like you more when not confronted with that fact."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "It ran through my mind that Marsh could have written the letter. However, Bowen knows nothing of the singer and the washerwomen, so I think that rules him out. Melisandre is the more likely candidate, because she has a vested interest in seeing her King saved, and what better way than to induce Jon to lead a party of wildlings to help. \n Now, how would she get a raven to fly up to the rookery to be found by Marsh? I highly doubt Marsh was in on it with Melisandre, because their interests do not align. At first I was also wondering how she would have gotten the pink wax, but then I realized that over the years, there have probably been missives from the Dreadfort, and she could have snaked some wax off of one of those.", "id": "c2bsf7z", "summary": "It was Melisandre, probably. Maybe."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "Fack. I was in your situation before. It was awesome. And yes, it does come to an end. \n I was always the poorest person I knew. Despite this, I thought I would move across the country and go to university. I had no money, no family support, no real direction, and no role models. I worked as hard as I could and became an expert at robbing Peter to pay Paul. I could sweet talk my way out of any bill, and I was frugal as all fuck, without being a skeet. When my regular-off friends would go out to dinner, or take vacations on spring break, I had no choice but to decline. I spent every Christmas alone, because I had no money to go home, or to do anything, for that matter. I lived in rickety old shithouses with dirty floors, drafty windows and I didn't even have a bed frame. Now, you'd think that I would be miserable. AU CONTRAIRE, MON AMI. I was having a  stupefyingly good time. I worked out every day at my free school gym, I drank when I could afford to drink, smoked when I could afford to smoke, danced when I could afford to dance, and I read more books than anyone I had every met. I also got laid like no one's business. My dates were creative and fun, and I never once failed to acquire my target. These are what I like to call the \"golden years\". \n Once I had no choice but to graduate, I decided to keep the good times rolling in law school. Thankfully, I actually loved undergrad, so my marks were quite good. Law school was a much more lavish affair, and even with scholarships, I could not afford it. I'll admit, I didn't really think it through. So when I moved to another city to go to my school of choice, I had no idea how I was going to pay for it. However, I'd been so lucky, I thought my sticktoitivness would get me through. Upon arrival, I didn't even own a laptop, to my embarrassment. I started classes, with the tuition deadline rapidly approaching. I walked to every bank in the city, and after a few rejections, I found would that would give me some money. This was right before the economic meltdown, thank heavens. So, I proceeded to make friends like a banshee, get drunk and laid as much as possible (though I did end up in a relationship which really calmed me down a little). I was still poor as fuck, especially compared to my cohorts (money really does beget money), but I had a metric shitton of fun. Graduation came, and I got a sick job in yet another city, which put an end to my money woes. \n Now, here I am. I make enough money to put me in the demonic 1% (though my student loan payments put a huge dent in that). I have \"successful\" friends, and I can afford to eat at nice restaurants. That said, I am not as happy as I was when I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor with no money, chasing ass, taking shots of cheap liquor and talking my way past doormen. I know I'll never get that back, and I'm fine with it. It's just a matter of finding new elements of fun, which is something I have yet to figure out. Most of my friends now spend their time drinking at fancy clubs, which is not my thing. This is probably why I'm home on a Saturday night.", "id": "c2zcbtl", "summary": "lived like a hobo for years, got laid like Kevin Bacon, made bank, currently bored."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "I read a lot about fitness \n Do less reading. Do more doing. \n There is no perfect plan out there. Worry about optimization later. Right now, just get your ass to a gym. Pick a program from the sidebar. Starting Strength or Strong Lifts are generally seen as the best beginner programs (I'd go SL, because it's much simpler). Read just enough so you know the basic movements, and start out very light. I'm talking 20 minutes. Write out exactly what you need to do and take some notes on form. \n Now, shut up and go. Just go. No more reading, no more /r/keto nonsense. No more 54 minutes on the \"fat burning\" setting on the elliptical. No more 3 minutes of stretching for every 2 minutes of exercise. No more reading how other people did it. No more reading about the perfect time to take a protein shake. Just go. Now. TODAY. You may feel like an idiot. You may be embarrassed, because jacked motherfuckers are going to be throwing around weights the size of baby hippos and you're squatting the bar. Fuck them. You think they were born with 8% body fat? No, they just decided that one day they would take a stand. Today is that day for you. Fuck them. Fuck you. Fuck everyone.  TODAY . \n When you get back from the gym  today , read the fuck out of the FAQ. \n What you're talking about is a \"cut\" versus a \"bulk\". It's a simple story: Eat less to burn fat, eat more to gain muscle. While it's not exactly that simple, you're not exactly the blond haired guy from Rocky IV, so it doesn't matter. You'll make noob gains in muscle, so don't worry about it. Pick a goal: fat loss or muscle gain. Once you get into the swing of things, decide if you want to do something like /r/leangains. But only after you've gone to the gym a few times. We've all heard the story about the guy who tried too much too soon (spoiler: he died). \n Your body needs a certain amount of energy to do shit like make your heart pump, your lungs breathe and your liver do whatever livers do. This is your \"total daily energy expenditure\". Google it and find a calculator. This will give you a number of calories you need. If you want to burn fat, eat less than this amount. If you're into the whole keto thing, whatever. Again, read the FAQ, but I've just given you the basic formula. \n Diet is the most important thing, but lifting is important too. It makes you feel like a fucking t-rex. Don't worry about where the energy is coming from, just burn the fuck out of it. If you like cardio, do cardio also, but don't come in here whining about not getting results if you're not going to do what everyone who's ever done it tells you to do.", "id": "c955uya", "summary": "Stop reading. Go to the goddamn gym. Now. Come home and read. Repeat."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "Back when I was young, I started internet gay dating. I made up a fake profile of a priest. I got a few pictures of a super handsome priest off the internet, and made up a hilarious story about my excommunication. It was so off-the-wall that I thought no one would believe it. I also pretended to love god and all that shit and be on an crazy crusade against the church. I would post on the message boards, and give insane advice to religious people struggling with their sexuality.  I thought people would know I was a troll. They did nay. Now that I think about it, the advice I gave was pretty good. It was all about saying \"fuck it\" and being who you are. Afraid your family will hate you if they know you're gay? Tell them they are sinners, and GOD will reward you because He wants you to be true yourself and to Him. You're married and \"bi\" on the down low? YOU ARE THE WORST SINNER OF ALL AND SHALL BE CAST TO THE DEPTHS OF HELL YOU MUST DIVORCE AND LET HER ESCAPE FOR GOD HATH LITTLE PATIENCE FOR PEOPLE LIKE YOU (I had a weird hatred for bisexuals at the time). This went on for a long time. I'd me remiss if I said I didn't have cyber sex with more than a few people.", "id": "c0w18lh", "summary": "I was a gay internet priest."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "I used to go to yoga at least twice a week for about 4 years, in conjunction with a lot of running and regular weight training. It did wonders for me. Each time I would go for a massage, the masseuse would question why I wasn't the least bit knotted up, considering the fact that I worked out a lot, and I sat at a desk all day. Oh yeah, and I'm a dude too. \n Yoga is hard to get into, because you suck so bad at first. However, once you keep at it, you'll discover muscles you didn't even know you had, and the gains come quickly. When I first started Ashtanga, I could hardly get through the first set of asanas, but pretty soon I was killing it, and each time I was getting deeper and deeper into the pose. There is no perfection: you can always get better at it. After a few months, I could do legit fucking headstands and my abs we so strong that I could actually control them in ways I never thought possible. There was this one move the yogi taught where you would stand up, put your hands above your knees, and \"wiggle work\" your stomach muscles up and down. At first, it felt weird as shit, but when you do that every day or so, you begin to be able to control your abs in weird ways. For example, I could tighten my top left abs and have them pop, while letting the rest relax. You could see my abs at the time, so I had some weird tricks I could do that made it look like there was a snake in my stomach. There's also a lot of weird stuff you do with your stomach core that also work your sexy parts. \n ALSO, there's one pose (I forget the name of it, but it's intense) that has traditionally been associated with emotion. Now, I'm not one for the hokey pokey spiritual stuff, but the first time I got really deep into this pose, I was overwhelmed with emotion. My mind was completely clear, but I was just overwhelmed with emotion, even though I wasn't emotional/upset/joyous whatsoever. It was bizarre. It's like I had activated an emotion physically, without any psychological stimuli. The yogi saw this, and he told me afterwards that it happens in that pose for some reason. I was like, \"Damn yoga, you scary.\"", "id": "c1ufn6d", "summary": "do yoga man."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "Okay, so this story is weird. I was on a first date with a very obvious rebound. We were both guys, and I had just gotten out of a serious relationship and I needed someone hot and fun, and he fit the bill to a tee. He was  model  hot and dumb as rocks. We went for a nice date, where we ate homemade sandwiches in the park and drank wine. Then, he was like, \"Let's go to the gay bar!\" I was okay with this. \n So, he had this weird relationship with his roommate, who was his ex, and I suspected some weirdness. I didn't give a third of a fuck, because he was a rebound. So anyways, we get to the bar, and his roommate was there, who disclosed to me that he hated me. Again, I didn't give a fuck and I laughed it off. He talked to my date for a minute, then the ex asked if he could use my cell. I agreed, and as soon as I did, my date was like, \"omg I want you  now , let's leave for a bit.\"  So we go outside to a nearby park, where we get it on in ways only a dirty rebound can. I'm talking butt naked, sand in your ass crack, in semi-public at 1 am sort of dirty (I'm sort of ashamed of this, but whatever). So, we finish, and I'm all, \"Now I need strong drin.... SHIT MY PHONE.\" I go back to the bar and find this guy, who's in the corner of the patio talking on my phone. I walk up to him, grab my phone and he's been on it for about 30 minutes long distance. I'm not a violent guy by any means, but I looked at the call log, and was like, \"You're paying for this right now.\" He gave me the bitchiest look you could imagine, but I stared him down with some crazy eyes. He was like, \"I don't have any cash, all I have is my credit card.\" I was like, \"Okay, well, that'll do.\" So I walked him to the bar and made him buy like six random people drinks to work off the debt. \n Sadly, my date was such a good lay, I banged him for about five months until he eventually broke into my apartment and fucked me (can't rape the willing). When I broke it off shortly afterwards, he threatened to kill himself, so I called the police on him and I never heard from him for ages.", "id": "c21scmi", "summary": "On a first date, this guy conspired with his ex to get my phone and make long distance phone calls while we banged and then I forced him to buy drinks for randoms to make up for it."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "I'm a little tired of this debate. I'll just ignore logical fallacies, stats, and make one comment that should be pervasive in the debate: YOU DON'T FUCKING NEED GUNS. \n If you want to hunt, fine. Get a permit, get a gun and have at 'er. Other than that, guns are for  fucking killing . Nothing good comes of them. They don't save lives, they don't protect citizens, and they don't serve a purpose in our society. \"Ohhh, but I like to go to the raaaaange it's fun lol!\" Well, I like to race cars on public roads. Guess what? I can't. I like to smoke on airplanes. I can't. Owning a gun is not a right, and it should never be. \n We are moving closer and closer to American values, and look how that's working out for them. They have the same population as all of Europe, but they have over 1000 times the gun deaths. Why do you think that is? Do Americans just like killing people? Or could it possibly have something to do with how easy it is to get a gun?", "id": "c3fl5hm", "summary": "You don't have a right to own a gun. They are for killing, and you don't need one."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "It's funny that two of your dealbreakers hit kind of close to home for me. \n If you were to ask me a few years ago, I barely  believed  in depression. I mean, I knew that there were chemical imbalances in neurotransmitters in the brain that can cause symptoms, and that can be remedied with medication. However, if you were to have pressed me, and I was not in a coy mood, I probably would have admitted that it was mostly weakness. Then, it happened to me. \n See, I've never been a depressive person. I was always happy, friendly, easy to laugh, easy to love, and I had tons of friends. I had limitless opportunities in life that I worked very hard for. Then I finished school, moved to a new city, and started taking these \"opportunities\" seriously. I worked 90 hour weeks and stopped taking care of myself. I stopped answering calls and emails, and became completely avoidant. It was very out of character, and many people commented on my stark change, but I ignored it. Months flew by and it got worse and worse, though I would not recognize it. People tried to intervene, but I would push them away. There came a point where I knew I had to change, else I would not be long for this world. \n I quit my job, thinking this would solve the problem. It did not. Now that I had some time to introspect, I was utterly baffled. Why was I acting like this? Why couldn't I get out of bed or answer the phone? I was so utterly confused and terrified, because I had always been a complete boss. It was utterly terrifying, because the person I once was was lost. My memories of my former self seemed like watching a grainy slide show of  some other person. Where was the guy that people relied on? The person who made fast friends out of almost anyone? The guy who was confident, attractive and not afraid to take on the world. He was dead, and all he left behind was an empty Cheerios box to serve as a husk for what was left of a once shining soul. \n It took months of dissection and work to slowly drag myself up from the dregs. If I had my time back, I probably would have went the medical way, if only to speed up the process. I did go see a doctor after the worst was over, and there was no doubt that I was suffering from an acute major depressive episode, brought on by external factors. I declined the recommended drugs and therapy, because I was on the up and up. It was fairly clear that it was an isolated incident, and I'm glad for that. To have to battle that full time would be a Herculean task. \n Should that be a dealbreaker? Maybe. I was in no place to share my life with another person when I was in the throes. However, people can get through it, and I'd never had that lesson prior to this. Everyone has something lovable about them, and half the joy in the world can come from discovering that, even if it's somewhat hidden by rubble. That said, it's a bit of a gambit, because you also can't count on anyone else to \"save\" you; however, meeting new people can certainly light a fire under you to make the changes you need to make. \n The best thing about rock bottom is that there's nowhere to go but up. I clawed and clawed and broke my fingernails off trying to crawl out of that pit, but I made it. I suffered the cost of ignoring the symptoms, but I think that's the case with most people who have acute episodes. Because my situation was self-inflicted, the only lasting difference in my behavior is that I am now very purposeful in seeking out happiness. \n The parent thing you mentioned is also a bit short-sighted. I was disowned after I came out, for all intents and purposes. Rather than sit around and lament, I took $400 bucks, packed a suitcase and moved across the country. I focused on life and the pursuit of happiness, and I never got so much as a call or an email over the years. Sure, it's awkward coming up with reasons why I wasn't going home for Christmas, or why I had no one come to my graduation ceremonies, but you get through. The years pass, and I realized that none of that was my fault. Believe it or not, it never really got me down. \n Everyone is dealt a different hand in life, and there's no point folding because you started off with some bad cards. Keep your tells to yourself, observe your opponents, bet heavy, and you can always win the round. All in all, my parental lot did not hinder me from being out, proud and forward-looking. I would hate to be judged about that, so please keep that in mind when you meet someone.", "id": "c4kukcv", "summary": "Even cool guys get depressed; people don't choose their biological origins."}, {"author": "thedevilyousay", "content": "Gather 'round, I'm going to tell a piss story of my own. \n I was once living in a city that had another city three hours down the road. I would visit this other city somewhat frequently, and on one such visit, I met a lovely young man with whom I began to have gay sexual relations with, which was the style at the time. Our dalliance involved a few back and forth visits to our relative cities. \n When I visited this other city, I would stay with a friend of mine, who was in Canada on a work visa from Britain. She was trying to emigrate from Britain at this time, and was in the midst of the process. She had a large condo, that had a separate bedroom suite, complete with a bathroom, so that's where I would stay. \n One one evening while I was sojourning in this other city, I went out with my very sexy paramour, and we got shitfuck wasted, and decided to come back to my quarters for some sloppy coitus. I presume this happened, although I was too drunk to recall. \n All I remember from that night is being awoken from my sleep, by my friend screaming at me like a banshee. I awoke, and I was standing up. I was standing up in her room. As it happens, I had unknowingly left the bed, walked into her room, and began to piss all over her official immigration documents that were carefully laid out all over the floor. They were completely soaked with piss. I still wasn't aware of what was happening, so I went back to bed. When I awoke the next morning, my beau was gone, and so was my friend. I packed my bag, and left the city, too embarrassed to even turn my mind to what happened. I tried calling her a few weeks afterward, but she never took my calls. The last I heard from her, she had gone back to England, never to return. I have not spoken to her since.  I get loser pangs to this day whenever I think about this story.", "id": "c1mc0k5", "summary": "I took a piss in someone's bedroom, and it ruined her life and she had to move out of the country."}]}
+{"author": "xpinchx", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Sounds of people eating loudly drives me crazy, is there any way to ask them to stop without completely offending them?", "output": "Growing up my older brother smacked his lips like crazy every time he ate, and my dad has TMJ so his jaw clicks really bad when he eats. Both of these (as well as pretty much any \"mouth sounds\" like people trying to tongue food out of their teeth after eating) really got on my nerves to the point where sometimes I flat out refused to eat with my family. It sounds extreme, but it was really bad. I had a friend over for dinner once and he commented later that my family had terrible table manners and even he was really annoyed. \n Current day it still annoys me just as much, but I can tolerate it a little better depending on the situation. However, me and my girlfriend were drinking and we got a bag of chips to eat and she obliterated those things making the loudest crunching sounds and smacking her lips like crazy. I was almost too drunk to care but once I noticed it I couldn't take my focus off of it. I just said \"Hey, do you think you could try to eat a little quieter?...\" This resulted in an hour of ignoring me and eventually crying. D: Looking back, this happened before with a ex. I asked her as considerately as possible to try not to make so much noise while eating. She cried, got mad, confided in her sister, as if I had beaten her or something. So if these two people I'm so close with had their feelings crushed when I asked them nicely, is there any way to ask strangers to eat more quietly without being offensive? At my work's breakroom if someone's eating loudly I'll just go outside for a smoke or something. But what about a situation where you can't really leave, like if you're in class and the person behind you is chewing gum obnoxiously loud?"}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Too many grey areas, cases involving sex registry should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis considering registration will ruin your entire life.", "output": "It's a complex issue, but IMO these things should be checked on an individual basis as with most things there is no black and white. If you make out or have sex with a girl that's a year younger than you and you're at the age of consent... that's statutory rape. There's also double standards, so if you're a guy and under the age of consent and have sex with a girl that is and for some reason it gets taken to the court the girl will most likely get off clean. \n I don't want to ramble on, but I think there's too many variables to have something like urinating in public automatically be a misdemeanor and sex offender registration. For example, the time of day, if there's kids around, if alcohol is involved, if you're doing anything \"lewd\", etc. For example, streaking a college campus at night is completely different than streaking through the grocery store parking lot at 2pm on a sunday."}], "user_id": "longlamp_16126", "history": [{"author": "xpinchx", "content": "Everyone just processes things differently. When I took organic chemistry a lot of people had trouble moving complex 3d models in their head. In fact, almost everyone had this issue and during recitation everyone would fumble around with ball-and-stick models to figure out bond chirality and things like that. I could easily look at a bond diagram on paper and rotate things around in my head while maintaining bond chirality with almost no effort. \n Another interesting example is my musical ability. I can play (or figure out how to play) almost any non-woodwind instrument. I have \"perfect pitch\" to the point where if I hear a tone I can match it on whatever instrument I'm playing. My hearing is very developed and can mimic a series of notes in order.  But , I can't sing for shit. My \"perfect pitch\" does not carry over into my singing voice even a little bit. I can't even maintain a pitch or carry a tune.", "id": "c7ul0fp", "summary": "All I'm trying to say is everybody is going to have strengths and weaknesses in the way they perceive and process the world around them. Just because somebody doesn't have the same skill set as you doesn't mean they aren't as bright. Don't look down on people who can't draw as well as you, because there's probably something equally as complex that they can do intuitively that you will struggle with."}, {"author": "xpinchx", "content": "The weirdest thing about all of this is that the DPCI number is actually for the xbox version: \n Those labels are pre-made and we just type in the numbers to create batches of them. The TPC flag sticking out indicates this was done by the price changes team (not signing) so I'm guessing this mistake was made at HQ as they were updating the labels fore the store.", "id": "c5985wl", "summary": "it was most likely a typo at HQ. \n edit: typo... how Ironic."}, {"author": "xpinchx", "content": "There are games that can be turned around, but sometimes it's just delaying the inevitable. If you watched this game, you can see: \n tl;dw legion owns early game, hellbourne is going to concede but not till 25 minutes so legion team doesn't get extra coins. Legion starts fucking around, meanwhile hellbourne's sandwraith gets farmed. Drags on for a while, but hellbourne makes an epic comeback. Also some lol BD attempts. \n My point is, that some games are unwinnable just because your picks. If you have an early-mid game team and can't break into their base and they have a hardcarry/turtle lineup you simply won't be winning any time soon. This happened to me last week and the game went on for 2+ hours because each team had 1 person that wouldn't concede. We should've ended it at 45 minutes because we couldn't break into their base.", "id": "c1d36bf", "summary": "some games are unwinnable after a certain point."}, {"author": "xpinchx", "content": "IMO he's still a decent babysitter in the 2-1-2 lane setup. His aoe slow is awesome and he his immobilize is pretty decent for helping get kills. He also does pretty well as a roamer/mid babysit. I think part of the reason he's not picked up anymore in pro games is because he needs decent levels to be useful for his team early on when mana regen is really important. He does well enough without any items as long as he's on the fringe of team fights since he tends not to get focused unless he's using his ulti.", "id": "c212xtc", "summary": "With the 2-1-2 or 2-2-1 setup he shines as a good babysitter, but in trilanes his usefulness falls short due to lack of levels early on."}, {"author": "xpinchx", "content": "I'll see what I can do since I own most of these games: \n DEFCON is a graphically simple, but somewhat deep strategy game. I didn't play it for very long but it came highly recommended by a friend of mine who is into strategy games. \n Eufloria is essentially a simplified and chilled out RTS game. It has very basic base building strategy, and most of the unit making is automatic. The strategy part is superficial for the most part (as far as I can tell) but it's a fun and relaxing game with some nice RTS elements in it. Definitely worth it if that sounds interesting at all to you. \n Frozen Synapse is  amazing  in my opinion. The first PC game I ever owned was Rainbow 6: Rogue spear, and Frozen Synapse is basically the mission planning phase build into an entire game. You control a small squad of soldiers and issue them various orders. The quirky and unique part about this game is that you plan out their movements in ~3-5 second phases. You won't necessarily know where your enemy is during that phase and you don't find out until the planning phase is over and it plays out. The result is you have to carefully plan according to where you might think your enemy will be, and during the planning phase you can place where you think they might be and see how it will play out through simulations. It also has a fun multiplayer and an amazing soundtrack. Definitely worth the purchase. \n Gratuitous Space Battles was pretty meh in my opinion, but maybe I didn't give it a fair shot. It came highly recommended by another redditor but I just couldn't get into it. The ship building mechanics are pretty complicated and not explained very well. And for the battles you essentially just place your fleet and then when you hit \"go\" the battle just pans out automatically with no control. It might be worth checking out some video reviews if it sounds interesting at all to you. \n Revenge of the Titans is an amazing tower defense game. I haven't played it in some time, but I did beat the story mode and a few of the challenges. It has a nice base-building/resource management element to it, and a very nice 8-bit+chip tune art style that really works well. This one is easily the pick of the bundle for me. There's really not much else to say other than it's a very polished and very solid tower defense game with some nice RTS elements to wrap up the package. \n Time Gentlemen and Ben There are point and click are both point-and-click adventures. This is the only part of the bundle that I don't own and have never played, but most fans of this genre can probably tell if they'll like a game like this or not just by looking at it. I'm personally not a fan of point-and-click but I recommend checking out a couple of video reviews to see if these might be for you. It got 84 on metacritic so they both seem to be solid.", "id": "c604iuj", "summary": "Frozen Synapse and Revenge of the Titans are both must-haves in my opinion, Eufloria and DEFCON are both solid strategy games in their own right, Time Gentlemen and Ben There seem to be overall solid point-and-click adventure games, and Gratuitous Space Battles is a slightly convoluted and strategically shallow space ship fighting game. Overall for $10 this pack is definitely worth getting."}, {"author": "xpinchx", "content": "Thanks for the advice, it means a lot coming from someone who hasn't even played this game yet. And yes, metro is wide open at the beginning. There's some rocks for cover but there isn't anything inbetween them, so you run into cover and stay pinned down until someone distracts the snipers long enough to move up. When you start you're extremely limited with equipment (1 frag grenade, non-sniper rifles only get iron sights, dinky pistols, and various other non-combat equipment.) \n I know what CS is like, I've played it. This game is paced much slower and from the defending side there's lots of places you can camp and hide where a.) attackers can't see you, and b.) even if they can you can out range them since you're not moving. And even if you manage to take out one of their snipers, chances are they spotted you for their team and now you're a sitting duck until the orange arrow above your head disappears.", "id": "c2nqd94", "summary": "this game needs smoke grenades"}, {"author": "xpinchx", "content": "I feel like I'm going to get hate for this, but bear with me. I've been with HoN since early beta and it was my first (and for the most part, only) dota-style game. It's been fun growing with the game, and I'm glad to see S2 be so successful, but it's almost reached a point where I can't stand to play anymore. \n I can't be bothered to find the interview, but it was a big concern when HoN went f2p with the option to buy cosmetics skins that the new skins would be unrecognizable. S2 reassured us that the new models/skins would not stray too far from the original hero art. In a game where silhouette recognition his  huge  for making snap judgements, it's pretty pathetic I have go back and check the chat log multiple times to see which color is which hero. Many of the new skins have no continuity with their original hero design, and many new skins are so similar it's hard to tell them apart. The hero icons on the scoreboard are such a small part of the overall problem. \n Honestly at this point, I'd be fine if it was a payable option to turn all cosmetic/announcer modifications off. I'd easily pay $10 just to not deal with that bullshit. I have a small handful of skins, most of which are throwbacks to dota (lina/sandking skins for example). Those are fine because they make sense and they fit in the S2 world. What doesn't make sense is a giant fire-breathing bird, an assassin scooting around in a cardboard box, 4 horse-riding heroes that are almost indistinguishable, and basically every other skin to come out in the past 4-5 months.", "id": "c599vax", "summary": "Learning the biweekly new heroes is hard enough, please just give us some consistency S2. That's all I'm asking."}, {"author": "xpinchx", "content": "I'd like one. My friend just bought (paid $10) for a key from a friend. He's a LoL native player, and I played a little dota and I've been addicted to HoN since beta. Anyway, I spent all day today trying to coach him through steam chat. I really just want to jump in-game with him but I'm not willing to spend money for a beta key. I enjoy teaching people, I put out my first tutorial video for HoN about a month ago and I plan to do more as I get free time. You can watch it [here]( if interested.", "id": "c31tpyp", "summary": "Want to play with my friend that already has a key."}, {"author": "xpinchx", "content": "I remember shortly after the last NK fiasco (before this one, towards the beginning of March) I was driving from Chicago to South Bend, IN. I had just heard something about a NK missile test on the radio news (it was probably 2am local time) and I'm cruising on the highway when the whole sky turns almost daytime. A huge fireball lit up the sky and completely exploded and broke apart seconds later. \n The size of the whole thing was immense and was very alarming. I tend to think very rationally, but at that moment I thought for sure shit really did go down and I witnessed a cruise missile or something get shot out of the sky. \n After that weekend I checked online and there were a lot of meteor/asteroid reportings in the same area, so I think I just witnessed a fireball. It looked kind of like this:", "id": "c9874w6", "summary": "Saw a meteor and thought it was a missile."}, {"author": "xpinchx", "content": "First, some context. I'm 24 and just moved home 2 months ago after graduating college. I'm going back to school and working. Growing up my dad had lots of job turnover, and in turn we moved a lot (often out of state. CA->CO->IN->KY->MI->IL, but I stayed in MI until 2 months ago). Some of the job losses weren't my dad's fault, but now that I'm older and learning more, alcohol may have had a part. My dad was always very edgy and was diagnosed with bipolar. All this is just to give some context to what's going on lately. \n Things got really bad a couple years ago when my older brother broke his back and is now a paraplegic. He was drinking every day and things started turning to shit. My mom confronted him and convinced him to stop. He did so and was things improved vastly (physical and especially mental health.) My dad was a new man, and everyone was happy. \n However after I moved back in, I really enjoy drinking and have never had any issues come of it and I would get a 6 or 12 pack every so often. He began asking for a beer every now and then and I obliged since he hadn't had a drink in so long and I just wanted to have a beer with my dad while we watched a football game. This was all before my mom came to me about the alcoholic stuff, and after she told me all this, I stopped buying beer. \n Well, now my dad has been buying bottles of wine and drinking in secret in the basement. Tonight my mom suspected he was drinking, and found half a bottle of kahlua hidden in his basement closet. They had plans to go to Ohio this weekend for a wedding, but my mom is so upset she's cancelling the trip. I can tell she's really depressed and disappointed and she started talking to me tonight (after my dad went to sleep) about divorcing him after she finishes her RN, and how bad things have been getting lately. He's just super edgy, really wild mood swings, and he's just a pain to deal with for several days after he drinks.", "id": "t3_ejfja", "summary": "My dad has always had issues with alcohol, he stopped drinking, now he's drinking again and my mom is contemplating divorce. I\"m sure my dad knows he's been alcoholic but I'm sure he's in denial now about \"having an occasional drink\" = alcoholism. \n So what can I do to help?... Should I talk to my dad? Intervention? How can we convince him to go to AA? \n His drinking isn't too bad right now, but my mom is very sensitive about it and it'll probably get worse like it has in the past."}, {"author": "xpinchx", "content": "If you just read the title, at least read these next few sentences.  I lived on my own for 3 years and amassed a lot of credit card debt and fell behind on my car payments. My parents took over the last 5 months of my car payments as a graduation gift, and once I moved back in they paid off my last credit card that was ~$1200ish. My only bills have been my phone and my storage unit for all my furniture. I've been here since last August (2010). \n Me and my mom applied to the same nursing program, but my application wasn't complete so she got in and I won't get in until January. She's going to be working part time instead of full time so I'm on my own paying for my community college program. I've been working at Target and saving up money, and all my parents want me to do is finish school (again) so I can get a real job. They're adamant about this. However, I'm miserable here. I'm lucky to have made a few good friends, but nothing compares to what I had back home (4 hours away). I miss all my friends terribly, and I miss my girl more than anything. This last weekend we broke up (solely because of the distance, we only saw eachother 1-2x a month). I'm madly in love with her, I love her family, and I want more than anything to be with her. \n I have two possible jobs lined up back home, one is 100% for sure, the other would be very easy because I have connections. It wouldn't be great pay, but enough to support myself in a studio and keep attending classes although it would be very hard. The whole reason for moving back in with my parents was to financially better myself and I think I've accomplished that. But I know my parents will absolutely resent this idea. They want me here, they want me to finish school, and ultimately they just want what's best for me. However, I  have  to do this. After a long talk with my girlfriend she would love for me to move back and things would carry on as normal. Before the break-up brigade gets here, I've been in plenty of relationships and nothing,  nothing  compares to what I have with her. \n So what's the best way to explain this to my parents so I don't get disowned?", "id": "t3_hpov2", "summary": "graduated, no jobs, living with parents 4 hours away from home. Miss all my friends, and especially my long term girlfriend. Completely miserable and depressed, all I want is to be happy and I don't need a lot of money to do that. My parents want me to finish school more than anything, and they want me to stay here and save money. Me moving away is a poor financial decision, but one I feel is necessary. What's the best way to confront my parents about this?"}, {"author": "xpinchx", "content": "My friend got me an interview at a nursing home. The interview went great, and I'm more than qualified for the job I applied for. The person that interviewed me was the director of nursing and she basically told me I was in, so I filled out some paperwork. I went to turn it in to a different person and she said I would have to take a drug test, which they do in-house. I told her up front that I take adderall for ADHD and it would come up positive for amphetamines, and I've never had trouble finding employment for the 5-6 years I've been taking it. \n I took the 5-panel pee test and sure enough it came back positive for amphetamines. I told her I could have my doctor fax a script over, but she said it was the policy of the owner not to hire anyone that fails the drug test under any circumstances. I asked to speak to an administrator or the owner him/herself but she declined. I tried to talk to the person that interviewed me but she was busy so I just left a message with my friend that got me in. \n I got a call back today, and the director wanted me to have my doctor fax my prescription over. She said she would do everything she could to get me hired, but it  is  the owner's policy not to hire anyone that failed the drug test regardless of the circumstances. This seems like discrimination to me, but I might be wrong. Adderall is a fairly common prescription, as are benzodiazipines like xanax. So is what they're doing discrimination?", "id": "t3_lbbrt", "summary": "Failed drug test, provided prescription, probably still won't get hired because of the owner's policy of not hiring any prospects that fail the drug test regardless of circumstances."}, {"author": "xpinchx", "content": "My friend got me an interview at a nursing home. The interview went great, and I'm more than qualified for the job I applied for. The person that interviewed me was the director of nursing and she basically told me I was in, so I filled out some paperwork. I went to turn it in to a different person and she said I would have to take a drug test, which they do in-house. I told her up front that I take adderall for ADHD and it would come up positive for amphetamines, and I've never had trouble finding employment for the 5-6 years I've been taking it. \n I took the 5-panel pee test and sure enough it came back positive for amphetamines. I told her I could have my doctor fax a script over, but she said it was the policy of the owner not to hire anyone that fails the drug test under any circumstances. I asked to speak to an administrator or the owner him/herself but she declined. I tried to talk to the person that interviewed me but she was busy so I just left a message with my friend that got me in. \n I got a call back today, and the director wanted me to have my doctor fax my prescription over. She said she would do everything she could to get me hired, but it is the owner's policy not to hire anyone that failed the drug test regardless of the circumstances. This seems like discrimination to me, but I might be wrong. Adderall is a fairly common prescription, as are benzodiazipines like xanax. So is what they're doing discrimination?", "id": "t3_lbcix", "summary": "Failed drug test, provided prescription, probably still won't get hired because of the owner's policy of not hiring any prospects that fail the drug test regardless of circumstances."}]}
+{"author": "equus007", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I don't recommend this diet.", "output": "I did essentially the same thing my first year in college.  Went from ~325 to 175 in 9 months.  I also almost ended up in a coma and was found unconscious on a piece of lawn near one of my classes. \n I can not gain any weight now no matter what I try.  I will go for several days without eating sometimes because I just don't ever get hungry.  I suspect it also messed up my intestines."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post yes I learned my lesson", "output": "At the time, around 12 years ago, I would take anything you put in front of me.  Meds like this were fairly new to the market and I was with someone that had a script for it...she needed it.  It is the only thing I ever took that had ill effects on me.  After freebasing Ridilin I figured nothing could hurt me."}], "user_id": "longlamp_10315", "history": [{"author": "equus007", "content": "That's why coming out about the lie is so important.  She may feel the same as your friends do.  It may take a while for her to get past her emotions of feeling like you think she is not the one but this is a big big decision you are talking about.  It isn't cataclysmic though. \n Being honest about the lie you wove makes the difference for her between you knowing you want to date other women and leave her behind and you not knowing if possibly you would want a different woman but lack the experience to tell..i.e. you can't know the depth of your love for her because you have nothing to compare it to.", "id": "cgliya6", "summary": "time to put all cards on the table"}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "The shop in the article is a ridiculous example.  Stop going there if you don't like the manner in which it is forced in your face.  I have worked and owned coffee shops.  I would never allow this sort of system to be used in one of my stores.  Frankly it is rude.  I refused to even allow tipping on CC's because it held up the line and was a headache and then they would have to report their tips to the IRS.  If you wanted to tip you brought cash.  My employees were never wanting for tips because I trained them well and I gave them pointers on how to bring in tips(i.e. make the purchase personal, smile, say thank you when someone does tip, seed the jar...).  I also paid them a decent salary and gave them benefits without having to charge $5 for a cup of coffee(which is ridiculous as well).", "id": "co97blb", "summary": "Stop going to McCoffee.  Find a shop that does it right and give them your business. \n Automatic gratuity is charged because the server will be required to cover just your table for the entirety of your stay and because it avoids the lengthy debate about who covers tips.  The server will miss out on tips because they have to cover that table alone even with the automatic gratuity."}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "Funny! \n I went to a high income pubic U.S. school.  Of the 3000 or so students attending there were 5 black kids.  I and just about everyone else there did drugs and drank heavily.  There was plenty of crime including several attempts to burn down the school and everyone in it.  There were gangs as well.  They didn't wear saggy pants and doo rags but a gang is a gang regardless of what uniform they wear.  Oh yeah.  Only one of the black kids did drugs(which I sold him) and none of them were in gangs unless you consider sports a gang.", "id": "c2o8r89", "summary": "Lossothi is an idiot racist"}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "There is no purpose or point to life.  Doing something \"good\" with your life is just a form of social pressure.  How people will remember you is ultimately pointless be you a theist or atheist.   In the past your father's good name meant something but if you aren't wealthy or the spawn of a famous person it will mean little to your children. \n We do good because we are social animals and it is in our nature to avoid conflict.  We live better, healthier more productive lives with fewer enemies and more allies.  We psychologically need positive human interaction and that comes at a cost because it requires the cooperation of other people.  In order to gain those other people's trust you have to prove that you are not a threat and in some way beneficial to them.  Those who attempt to dominate are most often cast out and live miserable lonely lives where they must exert tons of energy just to maintain their position of power because without it they have nothing.  Energy that could have been spent on doing something actually enjoyable.", "id": "cpl5ess", "summary": "You need to be nice or you will be miserable in life.  The afterlife has nothing to do with it."}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "Reconstruction as seen by an archeologist: \n We don't want to reconstruct either other than for fun and to study construction techniques but the fact of the matter is maintaining and funding future research costs money.  There is very little funding for archeological research and tourism is one of the only avenues left.  People want to see things as they were and we, archeologists, do our best to achieve the most accurate reconstruction we can.  Granted there are some opportunists in the field that will trump things up and encourage rampant speculation but most in the field try to discredit them as much as possible.", "id": "c1chpxm", "summary": "Most people would find real undisturbed archeological sites very boring."}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "Your choices are Austin or SoCal then.  Both are full of lots of fit young people who are boredline vanity freaks.  If you like the ocean and overpriced property SoCal.  If you like drinking and overpriced property Austin. \n Austin gets hotter but the women are better.  SoCal has weed and a lot more crime.", "id": "cqf1cp9", "summary": "Which type of taco do you prefer?"}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "Problem is the Greeks did it by enslaving people.  Lots of plantation owners got fat and did nothing as well. \n Like it or not Socialism will be the future.  Jobs continue to decrease due to advances in technology and population continues to rise.  Unless we find new areas to expand into there will not ever again be enough jobs to employ every able bodied adult...and we are doing essentially nothing to find new frontiers.  We have been forcing businesses to be grossly more inefficient since at least the 70's simply so we can keep people employed and it costs each and every one of us.", "id": "cbqtaui", "summary": "the market system has us trapped"}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "I agree and I would assume they do get some in class instruction but manuals are one of those things that you just have to get experienced with and it can take some people a long time.  Driving schools are about getting teens driver's licenses.  They instruct just enough that they can go take a test and get on the road in as little time as possible.  Natural selection takes over after that.  Unfortunately they often take out other drivers with them. \n I would also tend to assume that the really low manual sales is due in part to kids not getting trained in manual.  It is after all a superior design.  I have plenty of friends in their 40's who have never driven a stick.  Unless you are going to be in a position where you are regularly driving other people's vehicles there just isn't much point.", "id": "cq94lbf", "summary": "our system sucks and we let too many people get on the road"}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "I'm not criticizing you specifically but there are far too many people who put weight on boards like AMA and relationshipadvise.  We are not therapists and being so codependent on chat groups that you would allow negative response to effect you in such an emotional manner is unwise and unhealthy.  While, as a reader, I enjoy the insight people with different backgrounds and lifestyles can bring this should never be a place where you go for serious help.", "id": "c1ycifz", "summary": "Advise subreddits are the homeopathy of the therapy world.  Take it with a grain of salt."}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "He doesn't want you with his daughter without him supervising.  She's a minor and you are not.  He, probably rightly, doesn't want you sticking your penis in her vagina, period.  She is 16 and like lots of 16 year old girls hates the parent that tells her no.  Her dad doesn't sound like the greatest guy in the world but he is not being unreasonable to not want his underaged daughter go off with a man for a weekend with a couple of adults he has never met.", "id": "chuox97", "summary": "You are in the wrong.  Take no for an answer.  She doesn't get to make her own choices yet.  Age matters.  You don't get to just say \"ignore the age difference\"."}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "This pisses me off in several ways. \n \n Cops routinely get lesser charges for crimes like assault but they chose to \"throw the book at him\" for excusing a couple hundred bucks in traffic tickets for voluntary sex.  Guess the courts care more about losing a few bucks... \n \n We now have to pay to keep this trash alive in prison when he should just be fired and forced to pay a huge fine. \n \n This was a pattern with this guy for years and they still refused to take him off duty.  They knew this was bound to happen and their only act was to suspend him for a few months.  If I pulled this crap where I work I would be immediately fired and most likely sued.", "id": "c13x0wm", "summary": "bad cop no donut...worse court"}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "Really the problem is there are far too many of them now.  Initially it was just a couple of long time users that made accounts with specific goals like bitching at reposters.  Now it seems to be the new troll. \n There are still a couple of witty ones like the guy who gives real responses and then adds completely off topic", "id": "c186l8u", "summary": "s.  it is like having a sig. of randomly generated factoids."}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "But he probably thinks they are partially correct in their beliefs.  From what I have been told the basic concept behind Baha'i faith is that no man can fully understand god so through time god has sent bits of knowledge pertaining to the nature of the supreme being to individuals.  Jesus, Abraham, Mohamed and a bunch of the others each had part of the story and putting them all together gets you more of the whole truth than taking each individually.  Muslims do not have great love for Baha'i(lots of Baha'i followers have died because of this) though they are an off shoot of Islam.  Your friend may be referring to the fact that Muslims like almost every other religion(barring Unitarians)only believe in one prophet and everything else is heresy.", "id": "c20kndq", "summary": "Baha'i says god uses human torrents. \n (I may be wrong about this)"}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "Not all relationships are about making a future together.  You are expecting an 18 year old college kid to be essentially a pre-husband and that is a whole lot to expect from a guy in that position.  If he said the bit about not \"loving\" each other early on in your relationship you have no one to blame but yourself.  He's not selfish as it doesn't sound like he ever promised you anything.  You just expected him to want the same thing you do.", "id": "cbnl7b1", "summary": "file it away under mistakes you won't make twice and move on."}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "You're confusing welfare with stipends paid out from treaty.  They don't get the money and free pass on 4 years college because they are poor.  They get it because they signed a treaty with the US and those were the terms.  The terms also have an eventual terminus because it is based on blood percentage so as time progresses that number of people who hold x percentage of Amerind blood(determined by the tribes temselves mind you) will be less and less.  It's a set dollar amount as well so at the moment there are people being booted because attitudes changed and all of a sudden everybody wants to claim their native heritage and get a piece of it. \n It is tribe by tribe as well.  Some tribes receive stipends because the US mines their territory(mineral rights) or runs highways through their land. \n As all Amerinds born in the US are US citizens they also qualify just like anybody else for actual welfare. \n The real benefit the tribes have is that on their land they make the laws to a degree.  That means they don't have to pay sales tax, follow a bunch of labor laws, and can have gambling in states that otherwise wouldn't.  They also do shitty pay day loan scams.", "id": "cgle10c", "summary": "they don't get the money because they are natives.  The only real perk Amerinds get is free state college tuition and even that is getting harder and harder to obtain."}, {"author": "equus007", "content": "meh...ok. \n I'm highly skeptical of the second link.  The story has nothing to do with GM crops and its being reported by an anti-GM group using the term \"shameful business practices\" as if Monsanto were actually known for having them which has been proven to be a trumped up fabrication again and again. \n So it's a he said she said situation with zero actual evidence presented by the accusers other than the words of a few inexperienced teens who \"haven`t really been put out in the work force\". I see no deception on the part of Monsanto in their response.  There isn't any evidence of coverup or any denial that an adjacent field was sprayed.  Should also be noted that had the pesticide reached the kids it would be the sprayers fault who was not a Monsanto employee.  If the kids feel they were wrongly terminated they will need to find some proof that it was a dangerous work environment because of the spraying.", "id": "cjshzcz", "summary": "I don't trust the obviously Monsanto bashing people.  It wouldn't be in Monsanto's interests to endanger their workers be they full time hires or seasonal workers.  The \"news\" report should have never been made because there is scant factual content.  It's sensationalized BS with no actual investigation taking place."}]}
+{"author": "slapchopsuey", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Don't worry about the past shrooms use, or the pot (long as its in moderation, no problem IMO), your concerns are probably overinflated due to anxiety/self-criticism (it's not as bad as you think it is).  What to do:   make at least one new friend in the fall who would be better for 'deep conversation', and read in-depth articles, without multi-tasking interference, and slow enough to really understand every sentence as you go along.", "output": "A few things: \n \n I don't think it's the shrooms. \n \n Smoking pot twice a day might dull things, though doing it moderately (as in, not baked out of your mind) a few times a week really shouldn't cause any problems. \n \n Anxiety & self-doubt, overanalysis, etc, this  does  sound like at least a lot of the problem. I can commiserate, it's really easy to fall into a self-criticizing tear-down cycle. IMO, your perception of the problem is probably far exaggerated over the reality of it. (As in, I highly doubt you sound flat-out retarded in conversation). Though that's not to say you couldn't benefit from going 'deep' with stuff (we all could). \n \n The start of the next semester would be a good time to keep all of this in mind when making whatever new friends you make. \n \n Until then, maybe spend time reading in depth articles, and importantly, shutting out all other interference (easier said than done). Something that's just long enough that it stretches your attention span, but isn't so long that there's no hope of finishing it in one sitting."}], "user_id": "longlamp_14644", "history": [{"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Auditioning for the GOP 2016 primary. National name recognition is vital, and this gets his name out there. He gains name recognition and a higher profile for future attention-grabs, all of which translates into polling better in early primary polls (which are more a measure of name recognition than anything else), and that translates into the all-important fundraising that makes the difference between having a chance at winning and not having that chance. \n Further, for elected representatives (including Senators), the longer they're in office, the more votes they take part in, and that means there's more that can be used against them. That's why the two Senators who became President in modern times were only there for one term (in Obama's case, not even one term), while the many more Senators who ran and lost were in office for longer (McCain, Kerry, Dole, etc). It's counter-intuitive, but having more of a record gives their opponent more to go after. That's why Sen. Paul is so active now, 2016 and 2020 are his only real chances. \n Note at this time, Romney is getting back out there with interviews, Jeb Bush is starting to make noise, Marco Rubio is being very vocal too.", "id": "c8rct5i", "summary": "This is just how electoral politics at the Presidential level is done. If it wasn't this filibuster, it would be something else, and if it wasn't drones, it would be something else. He needs to get his name out there now, and this was the most convenient way."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "You might be surprised. \n Apparently the centuries surrounding the 13th century had shaving of pubic hair, a cultural practice brought back to Europe by those returning from the Crusades. \n > The returning Crusaders (1096-1270) brought the practice back to Europe. In many European castles built between 1200 and 1600 AD, a special room was constructed where the ladies of the court could gather to shave. During the Renaissance, the practice of pubic hair removal flourished. Sixteenth and seventeenth century artists portrayed women as having little or no pubic hair. The work of Rubens, whose models typified the ideal in feminine beauty at the time, most dramatically reveals this. [source]( \n Even prior to the Crusades, pubic shaving was around, going back at least to the Roman Empire. The Romans shaved, and they spread their culture (and specifically that aspect of it) as far as Britain, with Julius Ceasar himself complimenting the people of Britain on their shaving regimen: \n > Julius Caesar (101-44 BC) writes that, \"The Britons shave every part of their body except their head and upper lip.\" \n It didn't necessarily rely on razors either, the ancient world had hair removing creams, which presumably could be spread as far and wide as trade networks allowed. \n >  It is reported that Poppaea, wife of the Roman Emperor Nero, used depilatory creams to remove unwanted body hair daily. ... available creams included ingredients like resin, pitch, white vine or ivy gum extract, ass' fat, she-goat's gall, bat's blood, and powdered viper. \n From that article, it was powerful religious prude and queen of France Catherine de Medici in the 16th century that turned the tide against it, and the Victorian era repressed it further. Thing is, it never fully went away: \n >  Even then, it remained popular in private, especially for the ruling classes. There is some photographic evidence ranging from the time of the Civil War to the \"blue movies\" of the 1920s and 30s that shows that the amount of pubic hair during that time varied from full to none. Even though repressed by the outward morality of the era, it appears pubic shaving never disappeared but instead more appropriately went underground. \n We just emerged from a hairy era, one that described itself as \"natural\" and connected itself with primitive humans, leaving unknowing people to assume everything in between 12,000 BC and 1969 AD was hairy, when in reality hair removal was practiced throughout most of the history of civilization, and was (and is) a mark of civilization. \n Especially considering the scourge of pubic lice, which have been dying off in the past decade due to modern shaving habits, modern people have re-learned why shaving was invented, and why it persisted throughout most of the history of civilization. It's not like it's just image, there is a practical health reason for hair removal down there.", "id": "cpot4zc", "summary": "western european women in the 13th century who considered themselves civilized and had access to either razors or hair removal creams probably kept their pussies smooth."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Consequences of being put on a list?]( \n > The commission found the Royal Canadian Mounted Police shared information about Arar with American anti-terrorist agencies both before and after he was detained. \n > The RCMP asked the U.S. to put Arar on a watch list as an \"Islamic extremist individual suspected of being linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist movement,\" the report said. \n > They did this after Arar met with another man who was under surveillance, a meeting Arar has said in interviews was merely about where to find inexpensive computer equipment. \n > Police had no evidence linking Arar to terrorist activity yet they asked the U.S. to put him on a watch list as an \"Islamic extremist.\" \n > \"The RCMP had no basis for this description, which had the potential to create serious consequences for Mr. Arar in light of American attitudes and practices,\" the report said in reference to the climate after 9-11. \n The point of all that is that it isn't being put on \"the list\" that can have bad consequences. \n One hand of government (or in reality, a Frankenstein hand that is the government and private sector acting together) puts people on a list of the most feared/hated group of the era (today it's terrorists, previously it was communists, witches, etc). That hand isn't too scary, it's just putting tags on people, identifiers visible in a database. \n The problem is when a person comes under the suspicious eye of the enforcers, that other frankenstein hand of government and the private sector working together. Most of the enforcers aren't that bright, their whole mentality is to get the bad guys. A list is the perfect addition to their tool kit, it makes their work easy as it's confirmation for the enforcers that the person who came under their suspicion for other reasons is indeed a horrible person who is probably trying to commit the worst crimes. In practice it makes it so the enforcers don't need to think, the list does their thinking for them. It shouldn't work like that, but a list in the hands of someone with the 'enforcer mentality', that's what tends to happen. \n \n The only time that \"the list\" has direct physical consequences is in a purge. That isn't a real concern in the present day in western countries. \n Although if the other shoe were to drop (another 9-11 scale attack or something bigger), or if something else causes the political winds change to a direction encouraging totalitarian enforcement of political views, such a regime in a state with modern surveillance would have a frighteningly easy time identifying who to purge, or doing multiple searches to see which populations would be most feasible to purge or in what order to do it. The intelligence gathering is already done; trigger-happy regimes can jump straight to the purge, the reign of terror, the inquisition, or whatever it will be next time, and they will likely do so with faster speed than their previous incarnations thanks to the intelligence being gathered in our era, the current lists we're on and the scarier lists yet to be made. \n Another worrying element of that is that what is 'politically correct' changes with time as different factions rise and fall from power. The sort of faction or regime that would do a purge would have no problem convicting someone on something they said years or decades earlier, disregarding that it was in an earlier era with different norms.", "id": "co0hmjn", "summary": "summary: Overall though, the survivors of the various great purges of history were those who knew how to keep a low profile, how to keep themselves off of the lists and away from the enforcers' suspicious eyes. (Although it must be noted that there's probably a list for people who appear to be actively trying to stay off the radar)."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Tribalism. [People are more likely to trust people who look like them]( and less likely to trust those who look very different than them. While the above research was limited to facial features, that's generally how people operate, where the familiar is good, the foreign is bad. It goes beyond mere facial appearance; age, skin color, accent, socioeconomic class, sub-culture affiliation, etc, there are many markers that allow us to tag others as familiar or foreign. \n The reason for the Ed Snowden Pied Piper effect among white male computer-fluent idealistic 16-30 year olds is that he looks, sounds, and comes from a sub-cultural background very similar to themselves. He's one of their tribe, acting like Paul Revere sounding the alarm, so they instinctively believe him. \n This was a valuable trait to have for 99% of the time humans have been around; if one member of a tribe comes running into their settlement yelling urgently about something (maybe he was being chased by lions or members of an enemy tribe), the tribal settlement where people didn't question and instantly jumped into action would be more likely to survive than a tribe where the urgent yelling was met with reasoned skepticism. \n The other side of Snowden's allegations are all middle-aged suit-wearing uber-professionals who are dedicated to upholding the organization and the system they operate within (people whose idealism is long dead). People who have little to nothing in common with them are going to find it hard to relate to them, and are definitely not going to instinctively believe them. But like Snowden has his legion of blind supporters, the suits working for the government have theirs, found in middle-aged middle class corporate america. And people who aren't a perfect match one way or the other will tend to lean one way or the other, based on various markers of similarity or difference.", "id": "cenqkbv", "summary": "It's just tribalism. \n EDIT: added last sentence"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "So tribalism is bad, we agree with that. \n Tribalism isn't good or bad, it just 'is'. It's the basis and structure we use to form groups, how we defend and maintain them. \n Even as advanced as we like to think we are, we're in no position to move beyond it. The only thing that has changed since the paleolithic is the nature of our tribal bonds. No longer are our tribes extended family groups, now they're based on markers including age, gender, socioeconomic class, sub-cultural identity, etc, and existing not in our immediate physical area but now scattered as far as the reach of our mass communication. \n The same goes for murder/rape/theft; we've been trying to get rid of those since the start of civilization, and while there's been progress, those instincts will always be with us. And it's important to note that across much of history on into the present, it's considered murder/rape/theft when it happens to one of  our  tribe, but so many groups make exceptions for various scenarios when it's one of ours doing it to one of theirs (ex. for a vivid example, note the tribal lines in the culture war around guns and the 'stand your ground' law). Trying to form a broader consensus is like building a house of cards, it's our nature to form small groups that oppose other groups. \n There's an age-old \"biology vs environment\" or \"nature vs nurture\" pendulum of the basis of human behavior that swings back and forth as more research is done. The mid to late 20th century were heavily of the \"environment/nurture\" POV and are still the scientific establishment's position (and that's what you seem to subscribe to), but the pendulum is swinging back towards \"biology/nature\" (and that's what I mostly subscribe to). So there may be an irreconcilable difference here. \n >  And sure, maybe there's a little bit of anti-establishment tribalism in people who unwaveringly support Snowden - but that's tribalism used to go against a larger tribal group with more power over a large population, and in position to abuse that power. How is that bad? \n You're correct that it's the anti-establishment tribe that unwaveringly supports Snowden. Thing is, all tribal groups are predisposed to see their group as the good guys and the ones they oppose as the bad guys. And on the rare occasion when a tribal group is forced to acknowledge what they're doing is not good, they are firm in the position that they're doing it for a good reason. The establishment  was forced to defend their surveillance, just as the anti-establishment is forced to defend hacking, leaking of documents, etc. It's the same 'Mad Libs' sheet, only with different things filled in. When the other group does it to one's own group it's a violation, but it's a necessary evil when it's one's own group doing it to the other group. So it goes. \n On the matter of right and wrong (value systems), if you zoom out of the tribal level and look at the mess of tribes fighting each other, there isn't a universal right and wrong, rather it's relative to tribal identity (even though every tribe very much likes to believe its morality is the right one). And correctness is determined by 'might makes right' (although in our era, 'might' is more varied than mere physical force alone). \n But even as I accept all that, I think that having intellectual honesty about it is a step forward, and that when this intellectual honesty about tribalism and value systems becomes widespread it might reduce tribal conflict which itself would greatly improve the state of society, the nation, and the world (although I don't think it would reduce tribalism itself).", "id": "ceo2bfi", "summary": "paragraph -->  There's no rising above it or beyond it. On how we form groups and oppose other groups is the same as we always were, and it looks like we're always going to be like this so long as our brains are the same as they are now."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I don't think so. The vast majority of comments and sources are people justifying/explaining why they continue to support Snowden and why they don't believe the NSA, but the vast majority of commenters missed the aspect of the question that  precedes  continuing support or opposition, that being the presumption of honesty with Snowden while having the presumption of dishonesty with the NSA. People answered why they hold their current opinions of each, but few to none answered why their first impressions were what they were, way back when. Why did the Snowden crowd totally accept what he had to say from the moment he opened his mouth? Why do they have a blind spot to the problem of narrative-shaping in his selective release of information, while loudly decrying the very same tactic by the NSA? The layers of after-the-fact justifications flow like a firehose, but the OP's question seemed to be asking why that was the starting position for the Snowden crowd. \n Like someone in the comments said, this scandal with the NSA and government surveillance isn't new, it's been kicking around in public knowledge for at least 10 years (and it was around in the late 90s, known to anyone who recalls the FBI's \"Carnivore\" program). The difference between now and then is that we have tribal cohesion between the leaker and the a segment of the public primed to distrust the government. Previously, the only known whistleblower/leaker were unknown (preventing tribal assembly) or a middle-aged professional security type (his name escapes me, but he didn't hit the tribal affiliation buttons in the anti-authority 16-30 crowd, so what he had to say didn't resonate like it did when it was coming from a kid familiar with internet culture). \n The matching the 'face' of information to the audience is very basic stuff, very commonly practiced in PR. Notice how often the speaker in PR campaigns isn't a suit who resembles the billionaire paying for the message or the billionaire themselves, but rather the messenger resembles average folks who are the recipients of the message (ex. the BP gulf cleanup commercials; the BP rep always looked like someone low on the corporate totem pole, and the ads always featured smiling average folks from the gulf. All of this is intended to link BP's info to their target's tribal affiliation.) Same with political ads with wealthy politicians putting on a Cargill jacket, they're trying so hard to hit the tribal likeness buttons of their audience. They try so hard to fake it and get marginal success when it works, but when it's natural, it's a very powerful connection. Snowden just lucked out to be of the same tribal affiliation as the group most receptive to his message, so it spread like wildfire among a certain audience. Same reason Sarah Palin and her messages resonated so well among a certain audience. That's why the scandal spread now, it hit the tribal affiliation jackpot. Something we didn't have when a handful of us were grumbling about Carnivore.", "id": "ceo3mff", "summary": "the other 100 comments and their sources are what flows from tribalism, defense of the tribal hero. But those other comments and sources don't answer why he's their tribal hero in the first place (that being the substance of my answer, which happened to be a different phrasing of what the OP was asking in the first place)."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "We're all tribal individuals. This is hardwired instinctual stuff, as it's what kept our distant ancestors alive for millenia. When our tribes were small settlements that overlapped entirely with extended family groups, this made sense and worked very well. It still works very well, although it's more complicated in the context of civilization, and even more complicated in the age of mass communication. \n Note how in this thread the legion of Snowden supporters didn't even understand the question, as soon as it looked like someone was doubting Snowden they jumped into action defending him and rationalizing their support, rather than acknowledging that there was never any skepticism of Snowden from the start, or laying out what it would take to have doubt about Snowden (since the unwavering position is to doubt all who can provide the information that would prompt doubt about Snowden). This is tribalism (or neo-tribalism as some describe it) in action. \n No need to be ashamed of this, it's human nature, and it's hardwired into everyone. Every tribal group has its hero, and when that hero is challenged, it short-circuits critical thought and people leap to the defense of the hero, and by extension, their tribe. \n Just as those who stick with Snowden  unwaveringly  ^^1 and dismiss the NSA as criminal happen to closely resemble Snowden in age, gender, sub-cultural background, socioeconomic background, etc, the same goes for those who unwaveringly stick with the NSA and dismiss Snowden as a criminal (the latter group has much more in common with the suits in the NSA than they do with Snowden). Tribal affiliation comes first, and  then  outside information is accepted or rejected in accordance with defending or maintaining the tribe. It takes a lot more to turn against a member of the tribe than it does to turn against an outsider. \n the", "id": "cenzeh6", "summary": "paragraph -->  The people who have unwavering support of one or the other have tribal proximity/ affiliation with one or the other, and those of us (like myself) who are skeptical of both the NSA and Snowden happen to not have close tribal proximity/ affiliation with either. (Note that I'm not saying my skepticism is rooted in being better informed or being a more objective person, it's rooted in my lack of tribal affiliation with either player;  only because of that  am I able to skeptical of both). We're hardwired to pick our team first, and then filter information on the basis of what team we're on, and/or what team we're against. All I'm saying is that it's important to recognize that team/tribal affiliation comes  before  the reasons we list for why we support our team/tribe, and to recognize that our brains play down information that would weaken our team/tribal bonds if we allowed ourselves to see it. \n Point is, we're  all  stuck in this tribal mentality (except perhaps for rare individuals with brain damage or mental disorders that disrupt the parts of the brain that governs group identification and threat response instincts). \n ^^1 re: \"unwaveringly\": the people who are the most informed on this issue (few and far between) recognize the complexity of the subject matter, and that what is unsaid is as important as what is said (and that goes for both the NSA and Snowden, they're  both  leaving key information out, information that if known would likely change the context and meaning of the info that  is  known). With this in mind, it's very difficult to have unwavering support of either the NSA or Snowden."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Well, considering it's a mid-term, the policies and outcomes of the Executive Branch are not a factor. Rather, it's all about the legislation Congress has passed (or tried to pass), or what it has not passed or tried to pass. \n Do you want a Democratic majority running the House and Senate, or a Republican majority? That's the choice in reality. \n So let's look at what the Democratic majority in this past term in Congress have accomplished: [from:]( \n \n Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 - end of legal pay discrimination against women.  Most Republicans voted against it . \n \n State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) - expands health insurance coverage to kids (incomplete, but an improvement).  Most Republicans voted against it . \n \n American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (aka the Stimulus or The Recovery Act) - a big part of why the last two years didn't go down like the Hoover years. It wasn't big enough to get us all the way out (as was pointed out by Krugman and others before it was even passed), but it was  far  better than nothing if avoiding a Hoover outcome is a concern.   Most Republicans voted against it . \n \n Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 - Designated approximately 2 million acres of land as protected wilderness.  Many Republicans voted against it . \n \n Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act (previously called the GIVE act) - Expanded national service programs (such as AmeriCorps) and created several new ones, including Clean Energy Corps, Education Corps, Healthy Futures Corps, and Veterans Service Corps. Increases the number of volunteers nationwide to 250,000, up from 75,000.  Many Republicans voted against it . \n \n Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 (FERA) - Broadened the definition of financial crimes and authorized additional funds for the 2010 financial year for federal agencies involved with detecting and prosecuting such crimes.  Surprisingly most Republicans voted for this one . \n \n Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 (HOPE Act) - A watered-down attempt to help people in foreclosure keep their homes. Not as good as it needed to be, but still better than nothing.  Despite that, most Republicans still voted against it. \n \n Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act - Reformed the process through which DoD purchases major weapon systems, to cut down on the rampant waste within military spending up until now. \n \n Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 or Credit CARD Act of 2009 - Watered-down effort to restrain credit card companies from gouging the fuck out of their customers/debt-holders. Better than nothing, aka free reign for the credit card companies, the Republican POV. \n \n National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 - Just another bloated military spending bill, but a point of interest in it was: A cut of the F-22 program, finally progress on rolling back the military-industrial complex, the first victory on that in a very long time. \n \n Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act - Expands hate crimes definitions to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. Also increased funding and federal powers for investigating and prosecuting hate crimes.  Democrats have been trying repeatedly for almost ten years to get this passed, only with a majority did it happen . \n \n \n And that's just legislation passed through October 2009. I could go on and on, but you get the picture, there is a clear difference in outcomes from a Democratic-led Congress vs a Republican-led Congress. Not a big enough difference, watered-down too often, not forceful enough IMO, but nevertheless, a difference. If the above outcomes, and the effect they have on millions of regular people mean anything to you, surely you'd vote accordingly.", "id": "c0yuh6d", "summary": "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good (or in this case, the sort of good)."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I liked how even the (self-appointed) most reasonable person in the GOP room couldn't see their party needs to become more moderate to win. \n This is what the Democrats needed to do to get Clinton's 1992 win following losing three Presidential elections, what Republicans did in 1968 following two terms of JFK/LBJ and Goldwater's big loss in 1964, what JFK did to win in 1960 following to terms with a more liberal candidate (Stevenson) losing in the 50s, and what Eisenhower did to end the 5 term Democratic streak. \n The only time the pattern doesn't hold is when a President is leaving office in shambles (Bush in 08, Carter in 80) or has some taint the sucessor candidate can't get away from (Clinton in 2000, the spectre of Nixon in 76, of LBJ in 68, and Truman in 52). That a party in the GOP's position needs to become more moderate, and select a moderate or centrist candidate to win the Presidency is historically what is needed. \n Only other way is getting lucky with an opposing candidate running a terrible campaign and an assist from an opposing 3rd party (Gore in 2000, also Bush in 92, although in both cases Clinton and W. Bush both were more moderate than the party line in elections prior). \n Other than the above, or some combination of the above, there really isn't another way to do it that's been demonstrated post FDR.", "id": "cbqahjs", "summary": "the only way the GOP will win in 2016 is by presenting a moderate or centrist candidate, by the Democratic candidate running a terrible campaign, the Obama Administration gaining such a bad reputation in the next 3 years that our candidate can't run far enough away from it in 2016, or most likely some combination of the above. The rest is noise."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Yep. One big difference to life in the last 20 years, and especially in the last 10 years that seems to be driving this, that is pushing a button to say 'next!' for watching/reading/listening. \n I'm old enough to remember life before tv remote control. Having a remote in hand where one simple button to click and BAM new channel is a different experience than rotating a dial to find the channel in the static or having to get up and change the channel. Easy to click-click-click. Who has the attention span to sit through a whole 30 minute show without changing the channel anymore? \n Cassette tapes, had to mentally focus to forward/rewind to the right spot just like the tv dial; but with CD players and MP3, just a click of the button and BAM new song. Click-click-click. Who even has the attention span to leave the remote alone and listen to whole albums anymore? \n Reading used to be done in a newspaper/magazine/book. Scanning for new articles took mental and physical effort, page turning, finding the table of contents, etc. Reading online though, click-click-click. Who has the attention span to resist distractions and read whole articles anymore? \n Multi-tabs, multi-tasking, pop-ups, inbox full of junk. How many clicks do we make in a day? How many 10 years ago, or 20 years ago? We're in the middle of a society-wide science experiment; we're not taking measurements or setting parameters, no hypothesis, and we're not the control group.", "id": "c0dgwa9", "summary": "We're all wrecking our attention span, and doing it on a society-wide level. How many people made it this far into this long-ass boring comment compared to 15 years ago? Compared to 15 years from now?"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Don't be sad! I'm in the same boat (broke at the moment, had braces years ago but was an idiot and didn't wear the retainer, not to mention that wisdom teeth grew in afterward knocking them around, so, have to do it all over again). \n In my experience though (both personal and in observing others), any kind of flaw (unless it's absolutely catastrophic) is worse in a person's mind than it is to anyone interacting with them. And having confidence/pretending it doesn't exist/not giving a fuck smooths over just about any flaw in the eyes of any observer.", "id": "c0tt8ou", "summary": "Have self-confidence, not giving a fuck, and you can own the world. Evidence: Cleopatra was a plain-looking girl, [and she had bad teeth]( yet had Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony drooling all over her. If she could do it, you can do it."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "My mom  is   was  a nagger too. Same nagging subjects too. It wasn't so bad in my teenage years and college as I wasn't often around for long and always had somewhere to go whenever she started on that, but when I wound up moving back in after college, the nagging became horrible. I was already in bad mental shape at the time and in no condition for arguing, and it just shredded my soul like a cheese grater would. It was bad. \n I don't know you or your mother, so I'm not sure to what extent the following will apply or if what worked in my case would work in yours. I just put some time into trying to crack the 'nag' code and found something that worked in my case. \n Nagging is a bad habit and a compulsive one. It seems like it comes about when the person doing the nagging isn't getting enough healthy conversation in their day. Naggers think that it works, that they're effectively communicating, but they're obviously not. The problem is because they think it's working, they don't know to fix it. That's where you have to do some troubleshooting (and not anything involving her drinks). Communication troubleshooting. \n To get the nagging to mostly stop, you'll need to have normal conversations with your mom. It took me a while to find a subject to have daily conversations with my mom that had new material every day  and  wasn't something that feeds the negative energy. Ultimately it was celebrity stuff (at the time I watched E!'s \"The Soup\" with Joel McHale, so that helped me  BS my half of conversation on that subject) that made for regular conversation. Whatever your mother is interested in, surely there's something that you can conjure up at least minimal interest in to talk about it. Whatever works. \n Once there's the positive feedback that comes from having normal conversations, you'll have more leverage to fix the problem with the nagging. \n When the nagging starts up, you'll have to resist doing counter-nagging (stuff like \"yeah, yeah\" or \"I know\") and be as cool-headed and logical as you can. Respond to the nagging by telling her that  the way she's communicating with you isn't getting the response from you that she wants.  (say that slow and clear, and repeat when necessary, that's the core piece of information you need your mother to absorb). Tell her it drives you crazy, that it makes you dig in your heels and not do what she's nagging you about, etc. Basically that it just doesn't work. But above all, make sure she understands that it doesn't work. \n You'll have to be focused and keep that conversation entirely on communication methods, and  not  let it drift to anything else. She'll try to drag it back to familiar subjects (your dad, what she wants you to do, etc), but stay cool-headed and keep it on how the two of you communicate. Have some ideas about acceptable ways to ask you to do something (a written list is my preference, but whatever works with you). If there's some chore you regularly do but she... 'reminds' you about doing it all the time, you'll have let her know that you don't need to be reminded of that because you do it regularly. \n For it to work, you'll have to keep your cool, even if she escalates. And if it doesn't work the first time, try it again another day. The one conversation I had about the nagging (it followed a couple failed attempts) totally changed the dynamic for the better. I think it can work for you and your mother too.", "id": "cbak20x", "summary": "Respond to the nagging by telling her that  the way she's communicating with you isn't getting the response from you that she wants.  (say that slow and clear, and repeat when necessary, that's the core piece of information you need your mother to absorb). \n Good luck."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Hmm... if it was  really  life or death and there was high certainty that if I didn't do it, people would definitely die, and if it wouldn't damage my equipment but just hurt like a kidney stone or childbirth, I probably  would  try to pass at least one gigantic lollipop. \n But after that, cannibalizing someone else in the elevator would probably look like a more reasonable option. (Not the whole person of course, just half of an arm or leg).", "id": "c0y4fbl", "summary": "I would try to pee at least one gigantic lollipop before resorting to cannibalism."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "We tried to spell it out in the sidebar, but that is space-limited. A /politics FAQ is in the works, there will be space there hopefully clear it up, provide enough examples to cover common situations, etc. \n As for why it exists, the motive behind the \"no editorializing\" rule is to ensure the title a submitter types in reflects the content of the article. In the months prior to the rule, a circlejerk culture was prevalent, with many /politics submitters putting their commentary/editorializing in the title box, and as a result many of the titles bore little to no resemblance to the article they were linking. \n As for what is/isn't preferred for titles: The verbatim title of the article is ideal, but as we all know, some articles have badly-written or misleading titles themselves, so in those cases a redditor-written replacement title is good. So long as the redditor-written title is reflecting what's in the article, and  not  reframing it in a context the redditor would like to put it in, we're happy with it. \n Titles go in the title box, commentary goes in the comments. Just be conscious of avoiding putting personal commentary in the title box, and it's good.", "id": "c2z0gah", "summary": "We agree with you; a redditor-written title can be better than the original attention-seeking (highly editorialized) title,  provided that  the redditor-written title keeps the article in its own context."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "For more results from that same poll:]( \n The summary of the entire poll, of which the Israel-Iran question was one part: \n > The American people want to play an active part in world affairs but their internationalism is increasingly constrained by economic troubles at home and diminished influence overseas. In light of these constraints, Americans are reassessing their foreign policy priorities, scaling back their ambitions, and becoming more selective in how they want to engage with the world—by lightening America’s footprint overseas and directing scarce resources to tackling critical threats, such as international terrorism and nuclear proliferation.", "id": "c10o2z9", "summary": "Poll supports the idea that the US public is turning more isolationist, relative to their position a decade ago."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I know. I'm 35, broke, trying to start a business that even if everything goes great, will still be at least 5-7 years before I can confidently support anyone. Even as a guy I feel like my biological clock is ticking (genetic damage accumulates with age), can only begin to imagine what it's like to have a real deadline for the ability of being a parent like you have. \n I've long wanted to be a dad and have a family and I know I'd be great at it... but it feels like the chance to do that is gradually slipping away. Several neighbors on my block are my age or a few years older and they're starting out with kids, and it stings sometimes. On one hand yeah, I'm in no shape to be able to financially provide at the moment, but on the other, I still have another 40-50 years in me; it would be a shame to be in decent financial shape in 5-10 years and be asking a girlfriend close to my age to wait until I'm able to afford it, or dating at age 40-45 with the hope of finding a woman close enough to my age who can still have kids without expensive in-vitro that may not be an option. Feels like being between a rock and a hard place on being responsible vs being screwed in the worst way that'll bring a lifetime of regret. \n I don't know about you, but when I think about the option of being a poor dad who can't financially provide (yet being there in the many other ways) vs not being one at all while knowing I would have been a good one and having to live with that for the rest of my life... all while hearing the ticking biological clock and getting older one year at a time... I can't put it into words but I'm feeling this biological imperative to just do it. Having always been the 'responsible' one all my life, it's a strange feeling, but it's there. \n The whole thing is academic for me as I'm probably single, but assuming you have a boyfriend who is dad material, if I were you, I'd go for it. Seriously. It won't be easy, and will take some swallowing of pride to accept handout help, but the whole premise of 'poor people = bad parents' I wholeheartedly reject, considering the shittiest people I've had the misfortune to deal with were the children of upper-middle class households, often with workaholic absentee dads or assholes for fathers who shaped their kids accordingly. On what makes a good parent, money is not first on the list. Considering how brutal conditions were for raising kids in most of history, even doing it poor now is better for the kid than how it was for 99% of your ancestors growing up.", "id": "c9v0gtn", "summary": "I hope you think about it beyond the financial aspect. Financial circumstances change, but the window of opportunity is narrow and steadily closing. Is being 'financially responsible' really worth giving up on something this important? It's one thing to be irresponsible and pop one out at 19, but it's quite another to be faced with the \"it's now or never\" choice. Something to think about."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I lean towards biology/genetics more than societal influence with human behavior than is generally accepted currently, but the part that makes me skeptical of the extreme degree of the odds here is how it doesn't match up with 'lightening striking twice in the same family' in professional sports from one generation to the next (where obviously there is a big genetic influence in athletic ability). \n I think there's some biological/genetic advantage here, but I think the deck being loaded via the 'right' schools and even more than that the role of connections are overwhelming it. This as opposed to pro sports, it doesn't matter what kind of sports upbringing and education and pro sports connections Michael Jordan Jr has, if he's not really good, he's not going to make it. \n With our current political establishment, it's hard to say they're the cream of the crop (Dubya being Exhibit A) in the same way the top athletes are. I think the current crop are more politically talented than the average person, but if there is some reliable way to measure their performance compared to their fathers, my guess is that they won't measure up.", "id": "cpnmmuz", "summary": "I agree with you, I just think the role of connections is tipping the scale beyond what genetics accounts for."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "It's [based on a true story]( \n Highlights: \n > Walters attached the balloons to his lawn chair, filled them with helium, put on a parachute, and strapped himself into the chair in the backyard of his home.  He took his pellet gun, a CB (trucker's) radio, sandwiches, cold beer, and a camera. \n > After 45 minutes in the sky, he shot several balloons, and then accidentally dropped his pellet gun overboard. He descended slowly, until the balloons' dangling cables got caught in a power line, causing a blackout in a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes. \n > He was immediately arrested by waiting members of the Long Beach Police Department; when asked by a reporter why he had done it, Walters replied, \"A man can't just sit around.\"", "id": "c0w2l3p", "summary": "A man just can't sit around."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "15-20 years from now is 2029-2034. Overall, the current and ongoing trends in resource depletion will force us to deal with the consequences in ways we've been able to delay and avoid thus far. This contrasts sharply with the relative luxury we have now in picking our causes and issues. \n The 'big issues' are driven largely by vulnerable populations seeking to secure basics that others around them have, with pushback from those who benefit from the status quo.  Everybody  needs water, a place to live, food, and income, and those basics will be harder to secure in 15-20 years than they are now. Water, food, shelter, and income are as fundamental as needs get (in contrast to equal rights, reproductive rights, access to drugs/certain medication), so these upcoming problems will quickly and dramatically become major issues as soon as the strain is felt. \n \n Fresh water access and other complications brought on by water shortages. \n \n Like oil, water is a vital resource being depleted faster than it can be replenished. Water for drinking, water for food production. Will the regional agreements hold up under increased strain brought on by aquifer depletion, increased water use due to increased population, and increased drought in regions affected in that way by climate change? Unlike the current major issues you mentioned, water is a regional one, pitting cities, states, and nations against one another, divided between places that still have fresh water and those that used theirs up and desperately need some. This conflict is already well underway, and will only get worse with time. \n Additionally, as water supplies dwindle, people will be forced into drinking (and eating food grown by) polluted water when better supplies aren't available. Pollution brings health problems, something that once recognized will only fuel water conflicts. \n Assuming you're in the US, this conflict will be the Great Lakes states, cities, and counties vs surrounding regions, as well as populations on major rivers vs those further from those water sources. \n \n Treatment and placement of internal refugee populations.   \n \n Whether from the increased scale and frequency of natural disasters brought on by climate change (wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, sea level rise, etc), by resource shortages (water in particular), or by economic displacement, by the looks of things this century will have more displaced people than anything since the Native Americans' mass displacement. \n While the issue of their treatment and re-settlement was handled by the very people who perpetuated that mass human catastrophe, in our upcoming case the forces of displacement are more abstract, meaning that we'll be divided into refugees and those still holding on, and we'll all have to figure out how to make it work. \n We got a preview of this with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. That was a catastrophe for the Gulf Coast, an ordeal for the country, and a major undertaking on what to do with the affected populations. The scale of displaced populations in the upcoming decades appears to be so much more than that, meaning it will prolong the issue and propel it into being an ongoing major issue. \n From history we know there is a tipping point regarding displaced populations vs those still holding on; when the displaced outnumber or overpower the settled populations, we see cascading collapse as the displaced in turn displace more people, who in turn displace still more, and so on. (The 'sea peoples' in the late Bronze Age collapse are the most dramatic example). \n I doubt we'll see a cascading collapse by 2029-2034, but IMO it will be a plausible threat by that time, a looming spectre of what  their  next 20-30 years (3rd quarter of the 21st century) has in store for them. \n \n Food access and food composition.   \n \n Modern food production requires water and oil. Make one or both of those scarce (scarce = expensive), food becomes expensive. \n Considering how many people live paycheck-to-paycheck as it is, along with politically aligned targeting of food stamps, this bodes poorly for the future. While the US will likely avoid the famine that the less powerful parts of the world will have to face, there's no getting around that food will be more expensive, and will likely come to take the place in our national consciousness of a vital and diminishing resource in the way we perceive oil currently. Just as we see development of alternatives to oil in energy use, IMO we'll see something similar with food. We have a preview of this with GMO and corn subsidies (high fructose corn syrup and all of its unintended consequences, the obesity epidemic especially). \n I don't expect the situation to result in a  Soylent Green  dilemma in the most direct sense in this time frame (encouraged euthanasia coupled with cannibalism due to total environmental collapse), but I'd expect some sort of 'recycling' of human calories to be developed (extracting calories from human waste, blood donations, or some other means), and that will present us with something like the  Soylent Green  issues, with idealists (religious and the anti-GMO crowd) on one side and realists (hungry people and corporations) on the other. \n \n Participation in resource wars abroad.   \n \n To have food remain merely expensive rather than be in shortage and face a famine, it may require wars followed by military, colonial, and/or corporate occupations of foreign lands abroad. Basically taking food from foreign populations causing them to starve so we can maintain our lifestyle of abundant food. This issue cuts in several ways, with no easy way out, and can be politicized from several angles, making for a much uglier situation than we faced with the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations. \n \n How to deal with growing unemployment brought on by automation and other technology.   \n \n The IT revolution of the past several decades decimated the number of office and middle management jobs, and the automation revolution that's just getting started will do the same with driving and low-skill food service jobs (and perhaps more). The general trend is more job destruction than job creation, with workforce participation declining. \n So far, pushing young people into college to delay workforce entry, ability of baby boomer parents to support their adult children, and the Social Security Disability outlet for 40-50somethings are all keeping this from being recognized as the major issue that it is. IMO at some point, probably in the next economic downturn, the numbers of affected people without a fallback will grow large enough that it will have to be recognized. \n I expect the issue will fall along existing lines, with conservatives strongly opposing support with only 'bootstraps' to offer, while liberals will tepidly and ineffectively advocate for various support measures (basic income being the 'end game' of this problem). \n \n income inequality/ neo-feudalism : The 1% will be in a position where they need to choose the path forward for all of us. In 15-20 years, their control of our political life will be more entrenched and total than it already is, and if current trends hold, the bargaining power, leverage, and understanding of the 99% will be weaker, more divided, distracted, and muddied than it is today. Any organized revolt or movement will be dismantled before it begins, via surveillance and threat prediction AI. The 1% will be in a position vaguely similar to that of their counterparts in the Roman crisis of the 3rd century, where they can make a move towards feudalism, or lose what they have to the displaced/migrating have-nots (barbarians).  \n \n I expect a consolidation of private power in the face of increased instability and strain on public systems. Whether the 1% pick up and leave ( Elysium ) or stay (neo-feudalism), the outcome is a very different social order than the one we perceive ourselves as being in currently. \n There may be one last desperate political movement along the lines of 'Occupy' to prevent this outcome, but the only way I see it not being dismantled before it begins is if it can be used by other interests to pursue their ends (like being used as a populist puppet for political entities in need of water, affordable food, etc).", "id": "ciqh5q1", "summary": "on the whole, the major political issues in 15-20 years will be more fundamental to survival, and the conflict over those issues will be uglier, more intense, and more intertwined than anything we've seen so far. As ugly and divisive as politics are today, I see it as only getting worse from here."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I'm really surprised no one thus far has mentioned  Jared Diamond's 'Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed' . \n What seems to get lost in the usual shorter-term look at our civilization is that while we've had a good run at solving problems to keep delaying collapse (and that's all we can ever do, keep putting it off indefinitely), all it takes for the whole house of cards to come tumbling down is screwing up on one theme, usually having enough food or energy in a natural environmental crisis (volcano ruining a growing season, earthquakes, climate change). \n Looking at it from a Western Civilization point of view, the last time we were 'royally screwed' was [The Crisis of the 14th Century]( a confluence of failures from being on the wrong side of climate change, not adapting farming to the change, and all systems being weak and inefficient or inadequate, all made worse with the pressures of overpopulation. \n The parallel of then-to-now is eerie, the appearence of floating icebergs in the 1250's where they shouldn't be preceeded the little ice age by 50 years, as the early 'something isn't right' signs of global warming are the early warning now. Add to that overpopulation for the resources available (it would take 3 earths to supply enough resources for present use to be sustainable) and every system being far too inefficient or inadequate (healthcare readiness for swine flu pandemic, government response to mass joblessness, food storage being reduced to a few days' supply dependent on constant uninterrupted transportation, etc), and its clear this civilization needs to improve its game considering the climate change and resource depletion that have yet to be adapted to. Adapt or face collapse.", "id": "c0bktpk", "summary": "We've been here before, how we respond to the challenge in the next 20-30 years will determine just how screwed everyone we will be."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I don't know. \"Lost generation\" in the singular suggests the beat will pick back up in the near future, where young adults graduating from college and trade/vocational schools & programs will be able to get reasonably good jobs and as a group they'll be a normal generation, but those scraping by or unemployed in their late 20s and 30s will be passed over in favor of the \"untarnished\" younger group. Basically that the generation that follows \"the lost generation\" will not also be lost. \n The problem I have with that, I don't see a return to the old normal. At least not until the other side of a catastrophe that sets us back to early 20th century or 19th century technology, or one that drastically reduces the population to where there is a mild shortage of labor. \n If this shortage of jobs and surplus of would-be labor is the new normal, and there is no end of it in sight, what we have is not so much a lost generation but a tectonic plate shift of the landscape that changes and disorients life for every generation from here on. There are people from their early 20s to their 60s and up who are finding the world they're in is very different than they thought it was. The major landmarks that help people move through life have moved; some are gone, others are now out of reach or now hidden where people wouldn't think to look. The tectonic shift also destroyed many of the resources and conditions that people relied upon: pensions, low bar of entry to jobs, less recording and use of personal info (that often works against people), better ratio of jobs to job seekers, more living wage jobs, lower drain of natural and non-renewable resources due to lower population and consumption, etc. While it did suddenly get harder to survive compared to the golden age that just ended, IMO the  disorientation  factor is what is causing most of the misery at the moment. Our ability to correctly perceive and adapt is slower than the change we're being swept along in. \n So I don't see myself and those in similar circumstances as lost, so much as disoriented. People are resourceful and inventive. If people know exactly what they're dealing with, what they have to work with, and an accurate expectation of how things will be in the near future, they'll figure it out. It's the fog of disorientation, the disconnect between what we think everything should be and what everything actually is, that's what's messing us up.", "id": "cgigknl", "summary": "not lost, but disoriented."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "It's a tradeoff. Some things get better, others get worse. \n The people who are too young to remember what was lost and who are young enough to get the most from new things (social changes, technology, etc) think the new ways are better. \n The people who are too old to get the most from new things (it's like learning a 2nd language in adulthood, vs learning a 2nd language as a kid, it's just not the same), and whose whole reality was set in the earlier way of life, they'd rather go back, or at least hang onto more from the earlier time. \n Age-wise I kind of have a foot in both worlds (turned 18 in the mid 90s), remembering life before things really started picking up with the internets but still being young enough to absorb it in a more natural way compared to older folks. They say people see the world when they're in their late teens and early 20s as the ideal state of things for the rest of their life, and as time goes on that seems increasingly true. \n I do miss the slower pace of things and moments of involuntary alone time. And letter writing. And mix tapes. And especially the part where the 'fun machine' and the 'work machine' were not one in the same. But I don't miss life without google search, google maps, google translate, etc. And there's no getting around how amazing it is to have acquaintances from all over the world. Internet porn is truly the most recent wonder of the world, easily on par with the pyramids (totally serious). The internet's like several wonders of the world all rolled into one. It's crazy to think just how much it's changed life, and how it seems to not be closed to finished with where it's taking us. Still, there's a whole way of life that it's replacing, and some of that was nice to have.", "id": "c8dmedk", "summary": "it's all on personal perspective."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Hey, I'm too zonked right now to give a good response (it's 3am here), but I wanted to say something in case you deleted it in the morning. Just wanted to say that you're not the only one in that spot, I overlap quite a bit with everything you mentioned. Same existential hurdle that I've yet to overcome, same escapism interrupted occasionally by that overwhelming trapped feeling, etc. You put it all into words much better than I ever could. \n It's not a pity party; putting it out there is part of figuring it out, and putting it out there in hopes of connecting with people. There are a lot of us, even if it's only 5% of the population like this, that's still millions of people.  For starters,  this thread . \n The first of two 'real world' recommendations I'd make is volunteering. I discovered this way too far into life (never had to for school, not religious so none of it thru a church, etc), but it's a great way to be around people who also want to be around people, with everyone there to do an activity they all want to do. I volunteer at a food bank, and while I've yet to make and 'full-time' friends out of there, I'm friendly with a number of co-workers/volunteers there, and that's good to have. The demographics there are about 50% retirees, 40% college students doing it for mandatory credits, 5% people doing mandatory community service as part of a conviction, and 5% unemployed 20-40 somethings. So if there's any way for you to get into some volunteering with something you find at least a little interesting or worthwhile, that would be a big step in the right direction. \n Also, job-wise, I know once you get into that long-term unemployed category, and spice that up with depression and social anxiety, the odds are pretty well fucked going on the well-traveled road. My pipe dream or breakout plan (the outcome will retroactively label which it is) is a small woodworking business, making birdhouses, etc, and selling them online and at craft shows, county fairs, etc. I set up my shop over the course of last year, and hope to somehow start selling them this year (still need to figure a lot of the \"how\" out). My point of mentioning that is, once I figured out I was capable of making a product that people might buy, that  significantly  lifted the sense of feeling trapped, doomed, and helpless; sending out endless applications and resumes with no responses for months, and eventually years destroys a person's sense of worth and creates a sense of total helplessness. Beggars on the street get better results. I'll probably never crack the poverty line with small-time woodworking, but  at least it's something , and something that I can control. \n So if there's anything you're even remotely talented at or want to try, I highly recommend pouring time into developing a skill that can be turned into $$$. It might turn out to be escapism if it doesn't pan out, but at least there are some odds it might lead to something, better than video games or internet escapism, IMO.", "id": "cpowvb1", "summary": "I'm living a very similar life with a very similar personality; check out those above linked subreddits, there are a lot of us. There are two things I'm doing that seem to be helping me move in a positive direction that would probably help you too: volunteering, and developing a marketable skill (something that doesn't rely on dealing with the human resources gatekeepers, rather something where the only thing that matters is your skill itself)."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "That's good; 'knowing is half the battle.' \n The only other idea I'd add to that, one which I wish was out there far more, is viewing various ideologies (and the set of solutions that commonly come from them) not as right or wrong, but as various tools to be used in different situations. Basically to not get too attached to any one particular ideology or place on the left-right or authoritarian-libertarian spectrums as being \"the one true way.\" That's like saying a hammer is the best tool of all and proceeding to use it in situations that would be more fitting for a screwdriver, a saw, etc. (ex. in decaying late-stage Communist countries, market reforms were sorely needed; but in the present-day US some socialist ideas in reinforcing the safety net are sorely needed.) The right tool for the situation, and to acknowledge all tools as having their time & place. \n The same idea goes for political systems (Presidential vs Parliamentary, Federal vs Confederacy, etc). I cringe whenever hearing \"what the founders intended,\" as aside from the obvious that they weren't a uniform group and disagreed on most details and issues, the present social/cultural/resource environment of 2010 is vastly different than centuries ago, and may require a completely different approach.", "id": "c0wnldq", "summary": "All things in politics as a items in a toolbox; learn about  all  the tools and don't be hesitant to use the best tool for the situation."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Yeah, I was vegetarian first, then vegan, back to vegetarian, then 'normal'. \n It was easy to do when I was at college living in the dorms & eating in the cafeteria, before I got there people had advocated to get good vegetarian & vegan options on the menu. But I had to scale it back to vegetarian at summer school becuase the dining halls weren't open for the summer, didn't have cooking facilities, and there was no way to do the vegan thing, so I stuck with vegetarian for a number of years. \n Over time though, my health very gradually declined. I increased eating beans & nuts (protein) which helped but the decline resumed. Then vitamins, then nutritional supplement drink, each time it helped a bit but then the decline continued. So at wits end, I went back to eating meat. The plan was to do it for 6 months and see if it helped, but after 3 months the change was so clear, like flipping a light switch, I felt 10 years younger & stronger, and mentally healthier (not sure if it was causation or correlation but the Major Depression I had for a few years cleared up at this time). That was the missing piece.", "id": "c0cud7k", "summary": "The whole vegan (and vegetarian) thing is a nice idea, but mileage may vary."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "There are two groups of mods that gravitate to each other. The anu/max/q group is not the largest one. The larger one is the MWM/Agentlame/DR666/KarmicViolence/theredditpope one. This group is considerably more heavy handed in their moderation philosophy than Anu/Max/q. \n > The reason why these groups gravitate towards each other and drama is caused when they mod together is a massive difference in moderation philosophy. A much larger segment of the mod community believes more moderation is better. And some of them get rather militant about it attempting to rid all of reddit of content they don't like by banning it from larger subreddits and fragmenting it into smaller and smaller subs to wilt and die. \n Exactly this, and very well said. Your comment is the most succinct", "id": "ch893sa", "summary": "I've seen of everything going on now. \n EDIT: Also, the larger group you mentioned there is very well networked, well organized, and very focused on eliminating any alternative POV of moderation (what the recent drama is really about). Lately they've been more focused on eliminating the competition, but when they're done with that and can direct their focus to their brand of moderating (banning all they dislike and fragmenting everything they dislike into smaller subs to wilt and die), expect reddit's verison of Digg's \"power users\" problem to reach its breaking point."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "That's the piece that's missing in the US it seems, too much individualism and not enough 'we're all in this together'. The constant stream of horrific stuff, the common mentality is so long as it's happening to 'other people' then in a way it's not happening at all, not that bad, we're #1. \n That living in this country is Russian Roulette where for so many unnecessary dangers & problems there's no safety net or compensation, is 'out of sight/out of mind' for most people. It's understandable, as the weight of living with full understanding of that is a miserable way to live, willful ignorance as a defense mechanism. \n Reminds me of Wells' The Time Machine the way the Eloi were portrayed, where the one was drowning and no one gave a fuck, and everyone was being preyed upon by the Morlocks in a grinding systematic way, yet they didn't make the connection between the \"isolated incidents\" of tragedy and the common root of it all.", "id": "c0hgitz", "summary": "The real description of life in the US is \"It's not so bad... until it happens to you.\""}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "First off, if it's not bad enough that you're able to leave the apartment, to get a cup of coffee or a bite to eat and just be around people (even if you're not up for talking to them, I've found that being just in the vicinity of regular mundane people helps), I'd recommend that. \n But if it is severe enough that leaving the apartment isn't really an option, three recommendations: \n \n Quiet the internal dialogue. If the thoughts are all negative, then shut it off as best you can. (If intrusive/negative thoughts are a problem,  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy . \n \n Sleep. If the rest of the day or evening is going to be miserable, why stay awake for it? (Note, don't take meds to fall asleep if you don't already, just lay there, and if you fall asleep great, if not, it doesn't suck any more than anything else, right?) It's been many years since I last had major depression, but usually it wasn't as bad after waking up. \n \n Music. This might not apply to many people (or to you), but regardless of mood/brain-state, music shapes my mindset quite a bit; put it on shuffle, and see if anything makes you feel better.", "id": "c0w8q57", "summary": "go out and get a bite to eat or coffee or something. If you can't do that, quiet the internal dialogue regardless, sleep through the worst of it. And give music a try."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I could survive in a post apocalyptic world, they could not. \n Unfortunately, based on history, I doubt that. Western civilization has seen  a climate-change . \n The outcomes for the rich in the 14th century were far better than their poor counterparts. When food cost more than almost anyone could afford, who remained well-fed? The rich. When violence and social unrest broke out, who had the few horses to get out of town (keep in mind that most draft and farm animals were eaten in the famine)? The rich. Who had vacation homes in the countryside to hunker down in when disease swept through the malnourished masses? The rich. In the post-apocalyptic 14th century, while life or death was largely up to chance, having large amounts of money stacked the odds in a person's favor. \n Fast forward to now, and most people of European stock are descended in part from those medieval elites whose genes were disproportionately successful considering how few in number they were. Their genes were successful not because of inherent genetic superiority, but because the people with those genes were elites in a time of climate change and calamity. \n So looking at it from an 'elites' point of view, their selfish interest would be to act in favor of a collapse. They've risen as far as they can go in the world as it is, the only way they can do better is if everyone else does worse. \n There's money to be made either way, they'll maintain their wealth on oil or on green technology. I think the difference is between those rich who are content for they and their offspring to be as rich as they are now (sustainable energy funders), vs those rich who still want more, or who are so blinded by greed they can't think of the future beyond the next quarter (fossil fuels company executives). They're both rich, both elites, but one  is  worse than the other. \n EDIT:", "id": "c0ysgrd", "summary": "If climate change unfolds as predicted, the rich will do great, the rest of us will suffer and die or wish we were dead. We have a previous example of climate change on an over-stretched western civilization to draw from. The rich who fund/promote civilization-sustaining technology are qualitatively different than the rich who promote business-as-usual fossil fuels (as we know from history where the latter will lead us)."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Basically what /u/ADavies said, and to expand on that: \n 'Multisectoral overlap' is an overlap of problem areas (fresh water shortage and  agriculture crisis, or famine  and  disease outbreak, etc). \n Getting hit with multiple major catastrophes at once is where the idea of maintaining the level of civilization we're used to really starts to become unlikely (see the faltering or collapse of various historical civilizations shows it's often not one catastrophe but several that finish off a people that thrived prior to it). \n Where they say at 4 °C above the recent mean, 11% experience \"severe impacts in at least 2 of 4 impact sectors\" (note that they didn't give a percentage for a similar impact at 3 °C), something to keep in mind about that 11% that is FUBAR is what capacity they have to mess things up for the other 89%, the ecosystem, and anything else. IMO, we may have the modern version of the \"Sea Peoples\" to contend with (the people who helped the Mediterranean and Middle East make the transition from the Bronze Age to the dark age that followed). Note that 11% of the current world population is around 700 million. For reference, according to the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR), there are about 10 million refugees in 2013. \n However : \n >  we find that uncertainty arising from the impact models is considerable, and larger than that from the climate models. \n Take all of this with a big grain of salt, as they're admitting their confidence in their results isn't that high. \n And one last thing to consider: \n >  In a low probability-high impact worst-case assessment, almost the whole inhabited world is at risk for multisectoral pressures. \n With this whole climate change issue, there are generally three future projections made: a best case scenario (if we take things seriously and make BIG changes now), a middle case scenario (if we make modest changes in the near future), and a worst case scenario (if we do nothing and proceed 'business as usual'). Generally the trend in the past 20 years, the worst case scenario has been the most accurate of the three in what we've seen up until now, which makes sense because we haven't been doing much to reduce CO2 emissions (what little the developed world does is more than undone by growth and development in China and other developing nations).", "id": "ce420yp", "summary": "this is one of the more grim models presented to date. While it's long been speculated on the basis of the climate models, now they're starting to figure out how to do impact models (although as they said, it's still early in the process of that, so take it as less solid than the climate models), and that is is giving a clearer picture of where we're headed."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Oh yeah; no need to have  everything  going on like a 4 alarm fire, just one feature will do. Play that up and you can hypnotize.  Like this video for instance  and her ass is the center of attention in that room, in a good way. Goes to show there's more than one shape that does it. \n Then there's the shifting focus on various sexy parts over the decades. In the early to mid 20th century it was age of legs, then in the later half of the century it was the age of boobs, but now it's the age of ass. \n Part of what gets male interest/arousal is what's hidden, and the irony is that with what we wanted to see so much, with over exposure the interest fades. Back in the 1920s when the flapper ladies first started showing ankles and calves, it was all about legs. But after 30 years of that, we got used to it, then Marilyn Monroe came along with the cleavage and we're all \" heeyyy ...\" so it was all about boobs. After 50 years of that and breast-focused photography, boobs everywhere, it doesn't have the allure it once had. In the last 100 years however, we forgot all about ass, but that's changing very fast, and with it the standards.", "id": "c0l8blz", "summary": "This is the best time to have a nice big ass."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Only one of my top ones ever came in, and that was at a 45 degree angle from above & behind the last top molar, where only half of the wisdom tooth broke the skin, and the whole thing was shooting lightning bolts through my head. \n The two on the right side (top and bottom) struck at the same time. (those two when I was 23, the first when I was 21; so far so good with the non-presence of the fourth, at 30+)", "id": "c0oaeqj", "summary": "the top ones can come in even if it seems like there's no room, just at an angle. How the species survived this long with wisdom teeth, no idea."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I'd add that those who no longer fit the tone of the new pro-business /business would be right at home in [/greed]( as it is a place that welcomes mixing business and politics with a 'business outrage' focus. Especially because many submissions there are from the same people who submitted much of /business's frontpage content until the Christmas Eve purge. \n IMO, such a place mixing discussion of buisness and politics is necessary (be it the old /business, or now /greed) given that there is so much interaction in the conduct of businesses and government (subsidies, bailouts, politicians and regulators in industries' pockets, etc). \n It's a messy, blurry line, and will require much work in lobotomizing the conversation to keep it purely on the business pieces of the subject matter. It would take far less work to segregate based on opinions (\"those who disagree can GTFO\").", "id": "c1amtci", "summary": "steering dissenters to /greed would be best for everyone; by finding a business-discussing community that welcomes their voice, those dissenters would be out of your hair, and they would have a place to have the kind of discussion that was possible here until very recently. \n (note: no animosity or negativity intended, speaking pragmatically as possible) \n EDIT: forgot a word, messed up the first paragraph. It  should go \"(they) would be right at home in [/greed]( as it is a place that welcomes mixing business and politics with a business  outrage  focus.\""}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Doing street number lookups for 4751 in every zipcode of Fort Wayne Indiana, the following are all the addresses that it could be: (I only saw overhead map images, didn't see streetview) \n \n 4751 COVENTRY PKWY - no, new development. \n \n 4751 BOWSER AVE -  [looks good]( the layout and the size of trees fits the age of the house in the photos, I'd check for google street view on this one. \n \n 4751 HOLTON AVE - same as Bowser, worth a look at street view. \n \n 4751 REED ST - same as the above two, worth a look at street view. \n \n 4751 WINTER ST - same as the above three, worth a look. (Also, all of these are part of the same subdivision, oddly enough). \n \n 4751 KYLE RD - possible, worth a look. \n \n 4751 BRADWOOD TER - possible, worth a look. \n \n 4751 HEATHERWIND DR - no, new development. \n \n \n (I bumped into the 50 looks ups they allow, but there are a few more Fort Wayne zipcodes I didn't check: 46885, 46895, 46896, 46897, 46898, & 46899)", "id": "c0s8j3o", "summary": "here are a few possible ones for anyone to look up in google streetview. \n EDIT: Going thru google streetview, Bowser, Reed, Holton, sort of Winter, are all really strong contenders (but probably not Kyle), ; not sure which house is it, but those are in the right neighborhood. If the OP has more pictures of the house not uploaded, might be able to narrow it down further. And if he or anyone can get ahold of a Fort Wayne phonebook or address listing from the 1950s, surely there can't be more than one Defoe family living in those addresses. Seems like that would nail it."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Yes, I'm in the middle of it actually (Civ IV though). \n Settings : I'm playing as England, on a large Earth2 map, 10 nations total, with space race and time victories turned off (so the likely wins would have to be either cultural or domination). \n History : The world stabilized by the medieval era because all three aggressive leaders wound up as my vassal states (two just volunteered it and the other from losing a war they started). Other leaders volunteered being vassals to the top few leaders, and the world was pretty locked in for a long time, totally peaceful... except for the arms buildup. \n Modern Era : Eventually by the 20th century, two of those states broke away from other powers to become independant but soon ended up offering to be my vassal states also, so I had 5. That left 4 other nations total, but three of them were the 2nd largest nation after me (Incas) and their vassals. \n This Inca-controlled area wrapped around my two main areas in Asia and North America, and while I hadn't seen the Inca leader start a war before, he's a strong AI by being so advanced with technology and culture, so he was my main opponent, and militarily was too strong to take on directly, a problem made even worse by having two strong vassal states. \n My approach of avoiding war through having an overwhelming military looked like it wasn't going to hold up with the Incas starting to outpace mine. To have an effective deterrent, I needed to pick up the last remaining free nation as a vassal, and had the military to do so. \n MAD/Cold War stalemate type situation :By this point the manhattan project was completed (by one of my vassals) a while back. I developed a few nuclear weapons because the Incas had.  But when sizing up Russia for a quick brutal war (just enough to get the capitulation so they become a vassal), their nuclear stockpile was enough to deter me.  They hadn't modernized their military forces like I had, but the amount and type of damage the nuclear weapons would do would leave me vulnerable to the Incas and their two strong vassals. So I couldn't do that war. \n And I couldn't do war with the Incas, their military was big enough that we both would get depleted pretty far, and Russia might see a vulnerability there (In the late-settled western hemisphere continents, my area is entangled with Russia's, and my two medium-strength vassals were the only path of expansion for Russia's mainland, hence the concern).  So I was stuck in a three way stalemate . Domination victory didn't seem possible, and creating a peaceful world where everyone's my vassal state wasn't happening either. I opted to go for a cultural victory route, doing military build up just enough that I didn't fall too far behind the Incas, not worrying about nuclear weapon buildup, and having maxed out the technology tree, switching to maximizing culture, figuring I could conquer that way.", "id": "c9fe168", "summary": "so far  In essence, the nation I was going to attack to make a vassal (Russia) had a weak enough military that I could do it, but their nuclear weapons were the deterrent. And the Inca (plus their vassals) military was a deterrent to war with them, with their nuclear weapons as icing on the cake. I hoped that my military and few nuclear weapons would do the same, and continue to keep the peace while I went for a cultural victory. \n Where it fell apart : The strategy of maximizing culture worked too well, it got to where I was about to flip several Inca cities. That was going too far, apparently, because in the 2020s they abruptly declared war on me, and did an impressive nuclear attack on me. It wasn't too devistating, and I had enough undamaged military units in defensive positions that I knew I could defend most cities long enough to then ramp up military production good enough to get a stalemate, then back to cultural expansion. To my surprise, two of my aggressive vassals were apparently doing a massive nuclear buildup all along, and while I didn't have much to respond to the Incas with, they did. Their nuclear response put the military option of beating the Incas back on the table, although it would take a long time. \n Where it's at now : 2040s, the Incas' miltary is worn down significantly, mine is down only a little, one of their two vassals broke free and I did a peace treaty with them, and the war is going well, although my territory is somewhat war-torn. I have several options, which is a good place to be. Unfortunately, while the entire world was at war, Russia had time to do its own military buildup. It ramped everything up sharply, including producing many nuclear weapons. As of now they hold almost all of the world's nuclear weapons, and the most powerful military. It feels like they're going to attack at any time. I hope they can see how it went for the Incas and that could be the deterrent, but unfortunately the AI isn't like that. Or maybe it is? I'll soon find out."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Why rebuke it? Is the idea that Democrats are American so repulsive that it merits rejecting your American identity to set yourself apart from them? \n Our shared American identity that the flag represents is not \"random crap\", and it's sincerely disappointing to see you guys getting so unpatriotic. Sounds like you're not Americans first, you're Republicans first. \n Of course it's easy for Democrats to embrace being American above being Democrats, and it rightly should be high effort for Republicans to reject the natural order of putting country above party. Rejecting being American goes against the grain; it's what Confederates, anarchists, communists, and other ideologically-driven losers of history do. This is a moment to reflect upon whether you're in or out, knowing from history that being out is a dead end.", "id": "cas4o2q", "summary": "the  flag is just as much of/by/for Republicans as it is Democrats, so it's a shame to see you guys reflexively reject it and what it represents just because Democrats embrace it and what it represents. Hope you'll reconsider, and realize that embracing your flag and American identity is not a \"win\" for Democrats. It's the common ground that held the country together as long as it has. \n EDIT: fixed dyslexia in paragraph three"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "If recent developments continue along the trajectory that they're on, and with a change of leadership in some places and the same leadership in others, IMO we'll experience something that would probably be called World War 3 (whether at the time, or historically applied). \n Defining the next major global conflict : Rather than going with the loaded \"World War 3\" title, it might be more accurate to call it a catastrophic breakdown of the post Cold War international order (that being the frameworks for resolving disputes, the binding nature of treaties, the general consensus between major powers that conflicts are better waged through economic means rather than military conflict, and the very economically open world we've known for the past 25 years), and a catastrophic failure of the UN Security Council's function of preventing war between major powers. The major war would be the symptom of what I consider the more significant systemic failure of our current world order. \n Out of that catastrophic breakdown of diplomacy and the frameworks that have maintained relative peace and economic cooperation, and out of the opportunity provided by the US being very distracted, many simmering conflicts will erupt. Crimea is the first, but with a lack of effective consequences for Russia, Russia's formula for acquiring Crimea will be repeated many times, some by Russia, some by others who see an opportunity. \n Descent into conflict : A short cold war, economic war, ethnic cleansing of those who stand in the way of Russian lebensraum, and arms buildup between Russia & Russian client states vs the US and eastern Europe, then eventually including western Europe and US client states all mark steps in the catastrophic breakdown that will ultimately result in a major war. China would seen an opportunity to grab the territory it is eyeing now, once military conflict between the US and Russia starts (whether that's under the pretense of \"Ukraine vs Crimea\", or something more direct, the point is when the US military in the Pacific needs to shift away from China containment, that's China's time to take advantage of the moment). \n How this major conflict will differ from the last major conflict : Unlike the 1940s when the US had the security offered by two oceans, in this conflict the US would likely experience some portion of the conflict (specifically domestic destruction, chaos, and death), whether through Russian state-originated \"terrorist\" attacks on infrastructure, or something like the German air attack on London. That will quickly and drastically change the character of the American people, although it will be impossible to know how until it happens. \n Nuclear weapons will not likely come into the equation until one side or the other is losing the conventional war, and that will probably take a while to get to that point. The most delicate time from the present to the end of this conflict era we're in will be when it becomes clear one side will be militarily defeated by the other, considering how many nuclear (and chemical and biological) weapons are held by the the major powers. \n Personalities drives events : As during many key moments of history, key personalities drive events. This time around it's Putin as the driver of events, with assistance by the weak and/or ineffective leadership in the west. That combination will allow the situation to escalate and deteriorate in a way that it would not if Putin was not in the equation, or if western leaders approached the crisis with the understanding of the situation that those who are on Russia's western borders are showing now (Ukraine, Poland, the Baltics). Putin's expectation of a certain meek and ineffective western response (a reasonable expectation based on recent history) will lead to a big error in judgment on his part when the current crop of western leaders are defeated by more aggressive opponents (due to the international failures in dealing with Russia by the current western leaders, and their failure to recognize that Putin and the Russian majority are caught up in the same madness and detachment from reality that the Germans were in the 1930s and early 1940s). \n The formerly unthinkable questions that will become familiar : How does the world prevent war with a major nuclear power bent on annexing territory and ethnic cleansing to make it's own ethnic group \"safe\"? Once that war starts (as it will be required if preventing territorial takeover and ethnic cleansing or genocide is to be achieved), how does the world prevent that war from going nuclear? When a nuclear terrorist attack happens where it is likely impossible to prove that a national government was responsible for (as key evidence is vaporized), what should the response be?", "id": "cfxotfu", "summary": "The post 9/11 focus on stateless terrorism was not the start of the conflict that would define 21st century, but rather was just an odd interlude until economic conditions allowed for 2014 to mark the start of this century's most defining conflict, in the way that 1914 marked the start of the last century's (if we consider WW1 as World War Part One). That conflict will be a symptom of the breakdown of the post Cold War world order, and the breakdown of that order presents a significant challenge once it becomes clear who will win and who will lose the conventional war between major nuclear powers (one of whom will be possessed with the madness and detachment from reality as the Germans were in WW2). \n In closing : Many times throughout history the unthinkable remains off the table, until it happens. Direct major war between nuclear powers was the great unthinkable of the past 52+ years. By the looks of things, we and our leaders may suddenly find ourselves having to make some decisions we thought we'd never have to make. The century and it's great problems that we thought we were going to have to deal with, it may turn out that we find ourselves in a very different century with a very different problem. \n I don't expect the major war to happen this year, and probably not in the next two or three years, but I do expect a continued general deterioration of relations that we're seeing, and a continued demonstrated series of failures of the mechanisms that are in place to resolve and prevent conflicts (sanctions replacing open trade, discarding of nuclear arms reduction treaties in response to sanctions, efforts to destabilize currencies and economies, etc). Until there is a significant departure from the current trend, I wouldn't expect a different outcome. \n EDIT: formatting"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "You might find [this article]( interesting, it touches on the briefing that shaped Nixon's nuclear policy. The key paragraph, my italics added: \n > \"In a crisis mounted  over a period of time , it should be possible to eliminate early some of the alternatives of attack, such as whether or not to attack particular countries. In a long, drawn out crisis, with highly intensified force readiness on one or both sides, it may be even possible to eliminate from further consideration some of the attack options. \n >  But in a sudden emergency , with little or no warning, all of these considerations must be entertained and discussed with the president ... and perhaps in no more than a very few minutes.\" \n While I'm not defending Nixon as a person or his dirty domestic political scheming, on foreign policy (and domestic policy) he was sane, pragmatic, and very skilled with the job; in his first term particularly. In general he pursued stability (of a kind with the US on top, of course), and  IMO  we are better off for it, the content of the OP article supporting that opinion. \n And to add to that, personality-wise, Nixon was a schemer, calculator, 'big picture' strategic operator; not the kind of person who likes being in the position of having to make a quick gut decision.", "id": "c0q0hoq", "summary": "Why? Because Nixon wasn't a cowboy or idiot like Reagan and Bush 2.  He saw many steps ahead, where letting the nuclear genie out of the bottle would lead (to a nuclear war in which the US would be a part), and got out in front of the problem before it started. \n EDIT: (I upvoted you btw; I think it's really low class and just dumb for people to downvote a legitimate question. Whatever happened to \"there's no such thing as a bad question\"? Though I think it was a good question, for whatever that's worth.)"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "So you're one of the good ones, that's great. Just to make sure, you know I wasn't talking about you and those like you: \n > (note: this isn't saying \"throw them all out\", as there are many who are competent and active in major reddits. \n And one thing I should have added in the comment above, is \"if it's not broken, don't fix it,\" in that no change is necessary in reddits that are running smoothly. Whether or not this is /pics, is your call. \n That's also great that the active mods where you're at are trying to remove the inactive ones, and if you said there are six of you who are active.... there are  fifteen  there total, that's a lot of dead weight. It's not too risky a bet to wager that most of the dead weight is higher on the list than the highest active mod (that's how it usually goes). The problem with this being it undermines the idea of anyone being in charge. It looks like it would take admin help to at the very least, put an active mod on top and let it sort out from there. (I know they have a public image of non-interference in reddits to uphold, but  if  they ever agree with the idea, I'm sure they would find a way to help make it happen). \n On the 'heads roll' part, I'm talking about accountability. Remove that, and everything falls apart. Lack of accountability is a recurring theme in all of these problems (vigilante behavior and other inappropriate conduct, when the unacceptable stuff goes on for hours unchecked, absentee mod collectors filling the list, etc). With anything in life, when people fuck up catastrophically, they're usually removed from the role they had in the fuck up (employees, parents, un-jailed citizens, almost everyone.) And notice IRL, the few places defined by lack of accountability and where bad behavior is not handled with removal, systemic corruption and utter dysfunction and breach of trust become the defining traits of the organization and its members, tarnishing even the 'good' members. So that's why I think the idea of a head rolling for an actual major fuck up is essential. \n As for the legitimate fear of the pitchfork wielding mob, you know you guys can create a group mod to be the public face, right? 'Pics_mod' or something to that effect. A small but growing number of reddits have them, /entertainment for example. So long as you take measures to prevent a rogue mod from speaking for everyone through that group mod in a way that the rest of you don't approve, it should add a layer of security and remove some of the concern. (And I'd add that this group mod should be fairly devoid of personality and polite even in the face of a 'dissatisfied customer'; it should be obvious, but  if  there are any larger-than-life egos among the mods there, you'd have to make sure the group mod stays on message, perhaps delegating public interaction to those who are better at it. But in your time there, you'd know what is best.) \n As for /pics needing more mods (looking at the number of subscribers), you're absolutely right that there's just no way that six hardworking active mods can keep the place running smoothly. But how about fifteen  hardworking active  mods? Not more, just better/more active, that's what I was getting at. Though in the mean time, you're absolutely right that it may require increasing the number until the dead weight can be cleared out.", "id": "c1b1zl5", "summary": "I think we agree on a lot of this, with the exception of the \"head's roll\" part (I made my case for it above). And you're right that /pics will likely need to increase its number of mods in the short term, due to the difficulty of clearing out the dead weight. Best of luck on clearing out the dead weight, and I really think the public interaction part would be less nerve-racking and run much smoother with a group mod to speak through."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Two changes that can help get a handle on the vigilante situation and overall bad/inappropriate conduct: \n \n A public information campaign about use of the 'report' button. Not just to use it, but  how  to use it, and how  not  to use it. Perhaps a reminder in the sidebar of the high-traffic subreddits that really need this, perhaps an admin post on the frontpage of the main reddit, but regardless I think making people more aware of 'report's existence and proper use would bring an improvement to the situation, giving mods a better sense of what might be going wrong at any given moment.  \n \n Though that only works if the mods actually bother to do their part, which leads to... \n \n Just better modding, period. Clearly something is going wrong in the major reddits (vigilante behavior that carries on for hours unchecked is a symptom of the deeper problem), and I don't think more mods are the answer, but more active ones who aren't absentee mod collectors. (note: this isn't saying \"throw them all out\", as there are many who  are  competent and active in major reddits. Just that the dead weight needs to be cut loose and replaced with more active people. Especially when the dead weight is at the top, but overall as well.) \n \n The 'everybody pitches in to do whatever' organizational structure just doesn't work in long-term situations; it is a variation of the bystander effect, because everybody assumes someone else will do it, things fall between the cracks, take far too long to get done, small problems turn into crises, etc. \n So how to do it?  The head mod needs to be someone who is very active in managing that particular reddit, not someone juggling half a dozen high-traffic ones, or there in name only. Beyond that,  the head mod delegating responsibility for specific tasks to specific mods is essential , IMO. And for the largest reddits that really are active 24/7, have mods 'on duty' for shifts so the place is covered 24/7. If something goes catastrophically wrong and is handled badly during their shift, it's their head that rolls. \n I am certain that there are enough competent active willing redditors with enough time on their hands (cumulatively) to do this. It's just a matter of having head mods who are willing to invest time in one particular subreddit to the extent it is needed, and those who are not willing or able should step aside for those who can do the job. The tone is set at the top; absentee leadership leads to a staff that fucks around. Active competent participatory leadership results more often than not in a tight ship that runs smoothly.", "id": "c1b01ht", "summary": "The 'report' button needs more promotion, both of its existence and how mods would like it to be used. A note in the sidebar with with guidelines for its use in that particular reddit would be a big help. Reddits where unchecked vigilantism and other unacceptable conduct occur need a better modding strategy (possible ways to do this outlined above), and in the worst cases, need mods who are more active."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Looking at it from the POV of the current zeitgeist that anything less open and fluid than the current ideal is a step backwards) I think so. \n Gender roles along with everything else in the cultural identification package seem to be formed within the framework of group survival (see  On the origins of gender roles: Women and the Plough  allows for greater flexibility with self identification, including gender roles. \n Take for instance a household comprised of a dainty stay-at-home dad married to a career woman mom with their dog children. It doesn't threaten the survival of the community when the community is a massive abstract entity comprised of millions of strangers doing jobs that are barely tied to gender (compared to historical roles), but it would be a different situation in a pre-industrial agricultural community dependent upon strong hard-working men and upon women who will have many children and do a variety of work in the home and on the farm. The children would work as well. Deviate too much from this and the ability to gather enough food is threatened. \n If one assumes the future will continue on in the trajectory of the past generation (a common mistake of prediction making), then it would be reasonable to expect people to become ever more independent of others, and for our work to become ever less dependent upon our physical features or rigid norms of behavior. Along this line, eventually robo-sexuals and marriage of human-animal hybrids (as what childfree couple wouldn't want to have a humanoid dog child? Imagine if we had the choice, mixing the genes of you, your beloved, and your favorite dog breed? I could see that taking off) to traditional homo sapiens will take the place in cultural norms controversy that gay marriage and gender issues have currently. \n On the other hand, every civilization thus far has collapsed or degraded into a 'dark age' before rebounding again. From this POV, it would be a mistake to assume it will forever be a march of progress or cultural inertia in our present condition, especially given the issues with climate change and vital non-renewable resource depletion, and the increasing complexity/fragility of the infrastucture, technology, and arrangements our civilization depends upon. If such a collapse eventually brings a return to conditions roughly paralleling that of the 19th century (largely agricultural with a lower level of industrialization and communication than the 20th century, but still technology and progress driven in a way we'd find familiar), I don't expect modern culture norms to persist in those conditions, much less in the chaotic time between now and then (considering how severe and cataclysmic a change like that would be).", "id": "clwwfz9", "summary": "from my POV, the boundaries of self-identity and culture roles are constrained within the bounds of the community's means of sustenance and survival. Our post-industrial information age society allows for great flexibility in these roles. If we continue on the current trajectory, I'd expect even more flexibility in self-identity and the roles we play. However, if we're living in a golden age to be followed by a dark age, I'd expect our self-identity and flexibility of roles (including gender) to be shaped by those negative changes in our community's framework and means of survival."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Hey Sid; just wanted to say, in all the comments on this sad subject, as someone who put so much of myself into /redditoroftheday, what you say here was the best, most moving thing I've read on it. It means quite a lot to hear it :) \n I'm not old-old, but I've been around long enough to see this happen a few times. It's rare, but sometimes when somebody has a brilliant idea (like avnerd had one year ago), everything goes just right, all the pieces fall into place, and they find a handful of people who share great enthusiasm for the idea and pour themselves into it. And then a handful more people find the place, see that it is the product of a peoples' minds and hearts, something that represents the best of people. And so a small community forms, something with a character all its own, the most warm and inviting type of community civilization can produce. \n But it doesn't last long, these fragile, special communities. There are many ways it can go wrong, and even if everything goes right, the community will expand to where it no longer is what it was. \n Like the center of the hippie culture in the 60s, those who were there at the time said it only had that specialness for six months. It was IMO very much like this /redditoroftheday community in its beginning, representing a free, open, happy, caring community genuinely interested in other human beings. It grew, and was great, but with that growth came people who didn't really get the message, and brought with them the negativity, pettiness, 'all take and no give' from mainstream society. And as damaging as that was, all it took was one psycho, Charles Manson, to abruptly destroy the spirit of that special community. The symbols and costumes and language of that culture lived on, but it wasn't the same. \n While it's sad that this day has come, just be glad you were a part of this special, remarkable community, and that you were a part of what made this place as good as it was. That's something extraordinary, many people don't get the chance to experience something like this even once in their lifetimes. I'm  so  glad I got the chance to experience this place and participate in it, and I'm so glad you got the chance, and so glad for everyone who made this place what it was, that we were all able to join up and do this. \n I don't doubt that something will soon enough be taking place on the url /redditoroftheday, given the way reddit works; whether it is handed off to a smooth-talking troll or money-maker, or whether someone involved in the ROTD community gets ahold of it and tries to start it up again. Even if someone with the best of intentions and who was here during our golden year tried to restart it, it won't be anything like it was. The way /redditoroftheday was desecrated in this submission, with the carpetbaggers and opportunists and alt accounts coming out of the woodwork you're sadly right that there is no going back. But terrible as that is, don't waste your energy or degrade yourself being mad, if it wasn't this, it would be something else. No matter what, it would never have lasted much longer.", "id": "c1e114a", "summary": "I'm sorry this went down like it did, but I'm so glad I had the chance to participate in this community, and I'm glad you had the chance too. I also have a feeling that of those who saw what this place was for its golden year, many of us will take that memory with us and recreate the spark of it elsewhere, including elsewhere on reddit. \n PS: also, you can go back and strike up a conversation with any past rotd; I know I really want to get back in touch with wolfmanatee, for instance, and I also want to respond to anyone's reply I missed, as I've missed many too."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Yeah, it does appear I'll have to get a discussion started before the question will be taken at least at face value, let alone be an invitation for actual thought instead of ridicule (and thanks for the tips on how I might do that :). \n Admittedly it is something out of nowhere; I've wanted to bring up the question for over a year, but the opportunity never presented itself, as this is something no one talks about. It always struck me as odd that something that of the first five amendments, it appears close to untouched and forgotten. \n Considering how various political factions read the meaning into other amendments that suits them and lobby to make their interpretation reality, and that the amendments being cited by judges in court rulings changes what the amendments mean in people's lives, I just find it surprising that the 3rd amendment has remained so unchallenged. And from that, I wondered what people from various sides (or able to see the issue from various sides) thought about what new interpretations could be read into the 3rd amendment from a current POV (that being, 10 years into the war on terror, a time of increasing surveillance, yet also of increasing libertarian feelings on the right, etc). \n I did very much underestimate the difficulty in soliciting original thought, and found that trying to play it even by not loading the subject as a left-leaning circlejerk or as a Glenn Beck conspiracy theory did not work. My goal was to present it so people come to it with their own thoughts, not just their rationalizations of the emotion they felt after I pressed their buttons; the latter is easy, but the former is what I was going for.", "id": "c1gjqzh", "summary": "I will try to improve my approach and find a place where thought-provoking subjects and generating intelligent discussion are valued."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I don't know that Nasserism is the sort of thing that can have broad appeal internationally and across time because it was a prescription for addressing Egypt's most pressing problems at the midpoint of the 20th century. IMO it seemed more like a plan of action in 1952 rather than an overarching worldview for all circumstances (in contrast to ideologies like socialism, libertarianism, etc) \n For the pillars and goals of Nasserism to take on widespread appeal in other nations (and even in Egypt and the Arab & Muslim world many decades after the time that formed and ignited it), it seems it would require similar conditions to that of Egypt in 1952 and a similar history that preceded it. \n To look for the places that might find themselves embracing something similar to Nasserism, I'd look for places that have all of the following: \n \n Suffered under a right-leaning regime variously supported/propped up/ existing as a figurehead of/by/for external powers (like 'western capitalism'), and specifically where the regime is a very wealthy elite that is disconnected from the vast majority of the nation and is perceived as oblivious to the problems and suffering of the vast majority of the nation. This condition helps socialist and nationalist tendencies in the opposition to come together. \n \n Are deeply religious and have highly valued ethnic traditions, both of which were at odds with the foreign influence (British were not Muslim or Arab). Nasserism was socialist yet anti-communist, as Islam and the Muslim & Arab traditions were seen as non-negotiable, which didn't work with 20th century communism's 'one size fits all' approach. Socialism is pretty flexible with regards to religion and ethnic traditions, and communism seems to have low appeal in our era (as opposed to being a very powerful force in 1952), so I'm not sure the anti-communist part of this would repeat today. Politically, playing to religion and ethnic identity is usually a good idea in places that are largely homogeneous with both (like Egypt), so I'd expect to see that. \n \n \n Overall, South America and Central America as a whole seems a better match for the above prerequesites than most other places at the moment, although there isn't the religious difference with the foreign influence (the US is seen as Christian). \n \n Trying to find a niche outside the influence of the major world powers. Nasserism was one of several nations considering themselves part of the \"non aligned movement\", in that they didn't want to be in either the US's or USSR's sphere of influence. Right now we're in a limbo era, with a major US/NATO sphere of influence, the remnant of the Soviet sphere, China has something of a non-aligned approach yet is growing powerful enough to constitute a sphere in itself, Iran is flexing its muscles regionally, and there are a number of budding international clubs that have potential (EU, BRIC, etc). The world is more complicated now than in 1952 in this way, so the \"non-aligned\" aspect of Nasserism might be hard to find in the form it took.  \n \n And a possible spark for what sets it off: \n \n A recent military defeat. Only a few years before 1952 was the war following the founding of Israel. When someone endures a stinging defeat or humiliation, often they seek to take it out on someone closer to home, trying to have a victory to counteract what just happened, and this is no different with groups of people. But when the group is the national military, and they're not firmly under the control of the government, that's prime time for a coup. (See Mali, recently).  \n \n The one that comes to mind is [Venezuala's Hugo Chavez's \"Chavism\" or Chavismo]( Not a total match, but the similarity is unmistakable. And of course, Chavismo was inspired by Simon Bolivar's Bolivarianism more than a century earlier, itself bearing some similarities to Nassirism. Note that all three are headed by military figures. There might also be others, and I'd expect if there are, that they spring forth out of similar conditions and similar history.", "id": "cbllsko", "summary": "Chavismo, possibly others."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I sort of know what you mean. Not sure about what would be good advice though, as everyone is different, and I'm not in a great enough spot to strongly recommend it. \n Personally, I found it better to scale back on the active dating and just be content with being single most of the time, punctuated by the occasional lady who knows what she wants and knows how to get it :). Of course it only works because assertive women are my type (or to be real, I'm their type and try to keep up). Still, this outlook means being single most of the time (unless/until finding the right person); I'm good with it, but it's not for everyone. \n Being in the right place helps too. For some reason, I never really got the hang of normal picking up in bars or wherever, but workplace and volunteer work hookups come ridiculously naturally. Maybe there's some setting where things just happen naturally for you? \n \n As for why things are the way they are: \n I think a lot of it is a basic imbalanced reproductive gender dynamic; in any species where one male can impregnate many females, and where offspring take almost a year for one to pop out (from a life-threatening pregnancy) and must be raised by their mother for years, reproductive-age females of the species are just going to be more valuable to the species than males. For better or worse, there isn't a way around it. \n But  a minor contributing factor IMO seems to be the odd stage our culture is at in its evolving gender roles and gender relations. While this transformation has been going on for 50+ years (or 90+ years depending on where one starts), it's still very incomplete and inconsistent. Many old male expectations and requirements still exist, while the complimentary female expectations and requirements they were supposed to work with have fallen away, resulting in these awkward-feeling mismatch situations and dynamics like you well described. \n I'm an optimist on this and think it'll begin to iron itself out soon, as more males recognize the old notions of masculine/macho/alpha are past their expiration date, are not being reciprocated or valued by their feminine counterpart notions anymore, and that the old male notions really don't work anymore outside of the submissive female niche and old-timey rural areas. \n About where you mentioned how you feel you're different from most guys... thing is, on the gut-level feeling of \"this isn't right\", you're really not different from many/most. Deep down, I suspect many guys know what you're saying is true, most just haven't figured out how to put it into words yet. A lot of the male expectation complaints here are things we do to ourselves and that we enforce on each other. Women are and have long been moving forward, while we're \"alpha\" policing ourselves into the 20th century. \n What part of the feminism movement was about in each of its stages (from my POV) was a way for women to shake off the self-imposed constraints; once those were off, a radical transformation occurred that IMO we're all better off for (unless a 19th century housewife is what someone is into). We males are long overdue for this sort of movement. Unfortunately the most vocal proponents on male gender stuff are charging in the wrong direction, thinking if they're alpha enough everything will go back to the way it was. Instead of piling on the self-imposed constraints and expectations to a caricature extreme (as the \"mens movement\" types are), we ought to finish the job and demolish the remaining constraints on ourselves and stop \"alpha\" policing each other. This has started in the past decade with gay acceptance, but for straight males it has only barely begun.", "id": "cce8pse", "summary": "Of course, none of this means much on an individual level in the few short decades while you're still young. Best you can do is try to not let it get to you, and really decide the best way to go about the whole dating thing. Perhaps shift towards assertive women, perhaps forget about actively pursuing, perhaps find the right environment where things just happen naturally; none are easy choices and some might not even be possible choices, but the idea is to get away from \"this sucks\" and towards \"how to change\". Life feels better when there are options."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "The already-linked wikipedia link gives plenty of info his being one, but as for the  why  (the much more interesting part, IMO), a few highlights: \n > Food writer Bee Wilson is of the opinion that: \"His distaste for meat knew no pity of animals.\" She went on to note that: \"At mealtimes he often boasted - in graphic detail - of a slaughterhouse he had visited in Ukraine. It amused him to spoil carnivorous guests' appetites.\" \n (sounds like the kind of vegetarian/vegan that no one likes) \n > The BBC series \"The Nazis: a Warning from History\". ...an eyewitness account tells of Hitler watching movies (which he did very often). If ever a scene showed (even fictional) cruelty to or death of an animal, Hitler would cover his eyes and look away until someone alerted him the scene was over. \n (Sounds like was unusually sensitive to the welfare of animals, supporting the idea that his vegetarianism might have animal welfare as a component) \n > The documentary also commented on the German animal welfare laws that the Nazis introduced, which were unparalleled at the time. \n (Further support for his concern for animals) \n > in his personal life Hitler showed anti-meat tendencies. Hitler disapproved of cosmetics since they contained animal by-products. \n (more support for concern for animals) \n > Hitler spoke about vegetarianism on April 25, 1942 at midday, about Roman soldiers eating fruits and cereals and the importance of raw vegetables. He places the emphasis on scientific arguments such as naturalists' observations and chemical efficacy. \n (Advocating the health benefits, and mentioning Roman soldiers to try and correlate vegetarianism with strength. Health benefits seem to be part of the \"why\") \n > friend of Hitler's, Léon Degrelle wrote: \"He could not bear to eat meat, because it meant the death of a living creature. He refused to have so much as a rabbit or a trout sacrificed to provide his food. He would allow only eggs on his table, because egg-laying meant that the hen had been spared rather than killed.\" \n (Well, this spells it out pretty clearly) \n It is important to note that a simplistic view of good and evil, painting not only the person as good or evil but also painting every detail about them with the same hue as their character as a whole, does a disservice to others who share particular details in isolation but are very different otherwise. That and the idea that Hitler was 'pure evil' is a comfortable myth to turn him into something that the rest of us share nothing in common with and could never behave like. Like everyone, Hitler was a mix of good and evil (with more evil than good), but unlike most, he was in a position to enforce his beliefs. There are many 'little Hitlers' of comparable evil who we are spared from only for their lack of power.", "id": "c1b27fc", "summary": "Hitler seems to have had genuine concern for animal welfare, and believed in health benefits of vegetarianism."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "That is great that you overcame the anxiety of it and had a great day. I just wanted to add that there is a legitimacy of instincts like that. Our ancestors had those instincts and abided by them and we're here, while people in the past who didn't have those instincts, or who ignored them, they met their end. \n The instinct/premonition of a feeling of death or severe injury if you do a particular thing at a particular time (like going for a bike ride in the cold and rain when everyone is distracted and shivering and not paying attention to the road) is really just the subconscious mind taking in the details of what your conscious mind plans and delivering you a suggestion that it might not be a good idea, doing so before your conscious mind can get out the door. Your subconscious makes its persuasive case by delivering it's \"this might not be a good idea\" suggestion with a jolt of anxiety and foreboding causing brain chemicals. Like our ancestors who heard a rustling in bushes their subconscious associated with predatory animals, giving them a feeling of \"stay away from there.\" \n I struggle with anxiety like so many here, but in my case at least, the random jolts of anxiety feel different than the occasional 'fear of death/ foreboding' jolts. Like yours, mine are often brought on by needing to go out and run errands or do a food run in bad weather or at night. Doesn't happen all the time when doing so in those conditions, just every once in a while. I listen to those instincts (anxiety for a good reason), and I'm still here. I'd recommend you do the same, especially considering how many roadside memorials there are for bicyclists and bikers.", "id": "cm5ct4h", "summary": "There's anxiety, and then there are the instincts of self-preservation."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Going back to Friday Oct. 01, 1909. Priority one is finding a job & place to live, so: \n \n A list of addresses where great-grandparents and their many siblings worked. Many of them owned their own small buisnesses, so hopefully looking/sounding familiar and having learned or inherited the skills their work was based on, may help land something. \n \n A crate with some basic dj equipment and power adapters for 1909 outlets. The music and entertainment in general of that time is difficult to take, and with no internet, tv, or radio, there's sure to be boredom. Instead of being bored, might as well learn a new hobby; if nothing else to just be a bedroom dj and entertain myself, but if I get any good at it and can make electronic music listenable for early 20th century ears, might try to make a living that way (won't be any competition at least). \n \n To fill in the 'changing history through violence' theme, a person going back today would have a year to get themselves to New Jersey, perhaps with a job as a waiter or food preparer for the luxury cars on one specific train. Item #3 would to be wearing a ring with hidden compartment for a small but deadly quantity of something flavorless and toxic.\n> November 22 1910 – U.S. Senator Aldrich and A.P. Andrews (Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Department), along with many of the country's leading financiers, who together represent about 1/6 of the world's wealth, are witnessed leaving Hoboken, New Jersey on a train together. They later arrive at the Jekyll Island Club to discuss monetary policy and the banking system, an event which some say is the impetus for the creation of the Federal Reserve.", "id": "c0dvnkw", "summary": "index card with list of great-grandparents' & relatives work \naddresses. \n \n crate of dj equipment & 1909 compatable outlet adapters. \n \n pimp ring with hidden compartment of deadly powder."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "In itself? Doubt it. \n But if they used the Republican playbook (of using culture war issues to drive support to the ballot box, whether gay marriage or pot legalization, same concept here) and were actually able to properly promote it, have their candidates and affiliated organizations in line, and a President out stumping for it regularly, I think it would have a positive effect for the Democrats. \n However , a big part of the success of Republican culture war issues is the fear factor. Without being able to sufficiently frighten a fair chunk of the intended voters this would appeal to, it won't work as well. \n Then there's the angle of tribalism (racial, or rural vs urban) and religion, really deep core beliefs that the Republican culture war issues tap into. I just don't see how this does the same beyond pot smokers and true libertarians (as opposed to the Tea Party supporters).", "id": "c0o5hiv", "summary": "It could help, but only with the kind of coordinated effort we haven't yet seen from Democrats."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Five hundred years ago, 1511. To answer it now, should take a look at what was going on then. The world from the POV of 1511: \n Explorers were big, as the era was considered the \"Age of Discovery\": \n \n Portuguese Noble & Explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral 'discovered' Brazil and claimed it for Portugal, 11 years ago. \n \n Portuguese Explorer Vasco De Gama made the first Europe to India round trip by sea, 12  years ago. \n \n Spanish/Italian Explorer Christopher Columbus 'discovered' the new world, forever changing the course of human history, 19 years ago. \n \n \n Art and artists we instantly recognize were alive and making their works, but few had seen or heard of them in 1511: \n \n Michaelangelo's iconic  David  statue, completed 7 years ago. \n \n Da Vinci's iconic  Mona Lisa  painting, completed 5 years ago. \n \n Dutch artist Hieronmous Bosch was in old age. \n \n \n In major leaders within Western Civilization that were remembered in some way more than the rest, most of whom for unifying their land, or fighting off or expelling non-Christian inhabitants or invaders. \n \n Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella completed the expulsion of non-christians and unification of Spain, 19 years ago. This was seen by Western Civilization as an unquestionably good thing until very recently. \n \n Vlad III Dracula, defender of his territory against the Ottoman/Muslim invasion, died 35 years ago. \n \n \n In technology, \n \n Johannes Guttenburg published his famous print Bible, 55 years ago. By 1511, books were increasingly present. Yet he was only mentioned as the inventor of typography in 1507, and the first image of him and the posthumous fame that would follow were still more than 50 years away, in 1567. \n \n In noteworthy figures who were the equivalent of terrorists in their time, but held in much higher esteem later: \n \n Founders of Protestantism: Jan Hus was put to death 96 years ago, and the other founder, Martin Luther became a Catholic priest 2 years ago and was studying for his Doctorate in Theology. \n \n Joan of Arc, put to death 80 years ago. Her fame began decades after her death, when a Pope declared her innocent. \n \n \n The important mental frame to consider in this, is how do we define our era, and to know that what accomplishments we deem great, may not be seen so in the future. And accomplishments that are interesting but minor may become huge many decades from now. And considering how these self-definitions change, some high-profile people hated by those in power and many others in our era may have a legacy quite the opposite (Julian Assange comes to mind). In terms of works of art/writing/music, only what survives all the disasters of time can be remembered. The works we know that were around in 1511 survived (and by extension, the memory of their creators) only because of an improbable passing of those works from person to person, each of whom kept it safe and conveyed its importance to others that it would be preserved after them. What art/film/music/writing/etc of our time will pass this test, impossible to say.", "id": "c2nxn24", "summary": "Julian Assange."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Years from now, you'll be proud of yourself for taking the high road on this one. \n Also, \n > Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is yours. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without malice and with a manly heart[.](", "id": "c1m2n1g", "summary": "manly heart doesn't need revenge on Kelsey, best revenge is living well."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Not snow but winter, and not 'horror' but worst I have. Driving back from downstate school in December 2001, on I-57 with a constant 20-30 mph wind blowing from the north. I thought I had enough gas to get home as I'd taken this route many times before, but failed to account for the effect wind has on mileage, and it was on cruise control and hadn't looked at the gas indicator until it lit up, in no-mans land somewhere south of Kankakee. \n The plan was to get gas at the next stop that had it, but fell 3/4 a mile short. That was the longest mile, walking backwards to the gas station to fill the can, with that constant sub-zero wind chill blowing at me. At times it blew so strong I had to walk forward, leaning into the wind just to make it forward. Still have frostbite in the feet from that.", "id": "c0gpxjo", "summary": "physics fail, ran out of gas, walked a mile into sub-zero wind gust, got frostbite, never again driving on less than 1/4 in the tank."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "True, though I suspect we're not much different from any other animal that plays (as use of the imagination is a prerequisite of 'play'; imagining rules to be followed for sports, imagining personalities for inanimate objects, imagining a 'real-ness' to what is made by the pixels on the screen to play a videogame, etc). Anyone who has watched a dog play with a squeak-toy (doing \"challenging it\" behavior specifically, before biting it), notices that it's the same behavior in play with another animal, a living animal. IMO, it looks like there is some imagination involved for a dog to 'challenge' their toy as if it was real, similar to how a little kid interacts with a doll or teddy bear treating it as if it's a living being to interact with. And there are many other animals that exhibit similar types of behavior towards inanimate objects.", "id": "c0tr1eo", "summary": "I don't think we're special when it comes to spending imagination-time. While we do it more than most/any other species, it's not a trait unique to humans, IMO. \n EDIT: grammar"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Literate people a few centuries back had more time on their hands, a slower pace of life, less entertainment and more time to read, so they really got involved in both writing and reading, to an extent that people with relatively busier lives rarely can. \n Notice that the start of writing getting simpler/ more streamlined seems to coincide with the industrial revolution. On the other extreme, in the ridiculously busy lives in our time, there's text speak,", "id": "cc964rf", "summary": "etc. \n Take it slow (aka at the intended speed), it'll make more sense."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "The problem with coming to a definitive answer on this question is that the problem (as you and I see it) is in the eye of the beholder, and that people from the other political POV just don't see a problem (or worse, some of them see the welfare and food stamps going to people whose wages are below poverty level as something that makes them lazy and unmotivated, and that we can \"help\" them by removing all government support). \n In short, it depends on who you're asking, and there just isn't going to be a consensus until one side or the other is exiled from political participation. \n From a general liberal POV, of course welfare and food stamps  in the specific circumstance of full time employees earning below poverty level wages  is a subsidy to their employer, a subsidy in lieu of requiring higher wages via a higher minimum wage. So much in life follows the path of least resistance, and the same goes for political problem solving. In this case, it was easier to put these people on welfare and food stamps than it was to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, so welfare and food stamps it is. \n Profits are unpaid wages,  up to a point , and again, it depends on who you're asking to determine where that point is. You have one end of the spectrum of employers (or armchair employers, considering where we are) who prefer something akin to 'off the books' sub-minimum wage payment of their employees (a guiding principle of paying their labor as little as they can get away with), while towards the center of the spectrum those who prefer to pay their labor competitively to similar businesses (this overlaps heavily with the \"as low as possible\" mentality in our era due to the surplus of job-seekers, poor bargaining power). Then just past the center on the other side of the spectrum is where you start to see employers who see their employees as human beings and start to have at least a shred of concern for how they're doing, and they draw the 'profits/unpaid wages' line differently than the preceding groups of employers, with wages on the high end of competitive and other perks/benefits. Then on the far end of this side of the spectrum are the co-ops, worker owned businesses, where the profits are essentially the wages, no shareholder middleman gobbling most of it up while leaving crumbs to the people actually doing the work that makes that profit possible. At all points on the employer spectrum, profits go into someone's pocket, but how much goes into the owners' and shareholders' pockets vs how much goes into the employees' pockets, different political POVs draw the line in different places.", "id": "cf1t6sk", "summary": "While people can lay out the case for or against what you're asking, IMO the most important point to be made here is that there can not be consensus on the question until shutting out or defeating one part of the political spectrum or the other."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "The pattern continues. \n Government aid is a subsidy, because (once again coming from a liberal POV), the only alternative to cutting it is raising the minimum wage. One of those the employer doesn't have to pay (pocketing an additional portion of profits due to lower payroll cost), the other the employer has to pay (pocketing less profits due to higher payroll cost). \n Of course, from the conservative/libertarian POV, it's  not  a subsidy, because the only option they see is cutting government aid to low-wage workers and to oppose any increase in the minimum wage. If they succeed in that, the employer is in the same spot, hence it's not a subsidy  from the conservative/libertarian POV . \n I'm not sure about the cause of our communication disconnect (and I'm about to get up and talk to people and see if something is wrong with me), but that's the root of the communication disconnect on this \"government aid is a subsidy to employers paying low wages\" issue between liberals and conservatives/libertarians; both sides only allow for one alternative to the status quo, and it's a different alternative for each.", "id": "cf201a8", "summary": "my logic on this is sound, but of course it's only sound in the realm of liberal logic. Thinking it through in the realm of conservative/libertarian logic leads to a different conclusion. \n That's the best I can do. Have a nice day."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "And then after that, people will feel the fear/pressure to destroy their own childhood photos, for fear of the accusation. It's already happening with bathtub photos. Feels like we're lobotomizing ourselves in some way, with this all-consuming panic. \n YET... at airports the body imaging scanners trump this. Government agents are taking naked pictures of citizens they accuse of being suspected terrorists, including kids, and to top it off airline passengers are on the whole totally ok with this, \"anything to Keep Us Safe\" they say.", "id": "c0l4tuk", "summary": "in the paper-rock-scissors of civil liberties abuse & the destruction of a free society, \"For The Children\" is beaten by \"To Keep Us Safe.\" Not sure how it helps knowing this however."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I noticed the same thing and agree, the complexity and precision of the written language is withering into a sloppier and more primitive form due to reliance on the shortcuts that new technology and methods of communication allow. \n As for whether we're on track for a Newspeak/ 1984  outcome, three thoughts make me hesitate to reach a pessimistic conclusion at the moment: \n \n Research needed to see if \"Newspeak\" in itself would produce the outcome Orwell has it doing.   \n \n I'd like to see some research done along this line (I have no idea if anything solid has been done on this subject yet), comparing people with limited vocabularies to those with \"average\" and extensive vocabularies, looking for what the range of conceptualization and communication is for those various groups. On one hand, I get what Orwell was getting at (language control = thought control) and there's definitely truth in that (see memetics), but language is a versatile thing, with words continually being invented where the speaker doesn't know of an existing one that fits. I'd be very interested to see where the boundaries are regarding people being faced with something for which they don't know the word and whether they invent a word or just blank-out the perception or have some other reaction. \n \n Technology and popular social venues are continually changing, and are unlikely to remain the same for long.*   \n \n Autocorrect, texting, IM communication, twitter, reliance on typing to the extent that handwriting ability withers, the current state of written communication technology is a recipe for poor spelling, poor grammar, a preference for speed over quality/composition, etc. However, it's hard to predict how the preferred technology and written communication venues will change. The only safe bet is that it will probably change. \n \n Top-down social engineering can be highly effective, and our society has had success with it in the past century. \n Sure, people don't care and are predisposed to be sloppy, inconsiderate, etc. Used to be like that with people littering, going to the bathroom just anywhere, not bathing, drinking and driving, the list goes on, but there have been occasional public information campaigns to improve the lot of the common person, and it's often brought positive results. Sometimes there's criminalizing of the poor behavior, but often it's a sustained social pressure campaign that changes the common standard to a higher level. As of yet, we've seen nothing like this for improving the quality of common written communication, but there's no reason to expect that it won't happen or won't work with this negative social behavior as it worked with other negative social behaviors (littering, spanking children, etc)", "id": "celll9j", "summary": "the italics above"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Considering that Clinton will be the same age in 2016 that Reagan was when he was elected in 1980, I think her age will be raised as an issue in 2020, regardless of her actual health and ability at that point. \n Also, 2020 is one of those zero years whose outcome decides the redistricting for the following decade, so I don't think we'll see many of 'top tier' Republicans sit out in that year like they did in 2012, when they expected incumbent Obama to win (as it was all long-shot/ joke candidates, and the only 'serious' candidates were those who would be getting too old to run by 2016). So regardless of the GOP's chances in 2020, I think they'll make more effort against incumbent Clinton, because of the coattails effect and how that will affect redistricting, if nothing else. \n Considering Clinton's age by that time (74 I think), the obvious contrast to make would be with a younger candidate. Both Obama and Bill Clinton were in their late 40s when they won the first time, so that seems like what 'youthful' will be considered as. Although there's a chance that the aging of the population as a whole, combined with repeated low turnout among younger demographics if the current pattern holds (if they don't vote, they don't count) that someone in their 50s will be considered young by the older-skewed voting population in 2020. \n In 2020, someone born in 1960 would be 60 years old, which would be on the high end of being able to make a distinction from 74 year old Clinton. Someone born in 1970 would be 50, which seems closer to the ideal age for a contrasting candidate. If I had to bet on it, I'd guess someone born between 1965 to 1975 will be the general election GOP candidate in 2020. \n Of the current field, I could see Rand Paul and Marco Rubio giving it another try, but only if they do reasonably well in the 2016 primary. \n Overall though, I'd be looking at sitting Governors and Senators in the GOP who were born between 1965 and 1975 (or even 1960 to 1975). \n I also don't think the youth vote, as time goes on, will be as sure a thing for the Democrats. An unusually young GOP candidate (born in the 1970s in 2020) could be part of a pitch to the younger demographic at that time, especially if their party makes an attempt at a realignment following three losses in a row after 2016. At that point, if the Hispanic demographic doesn't turn out for them (and if Jeb Bush is the candidate, that will be nails in the coffin for the GOP's hopes of ever doing well with hispanics), and with the dying off of the elderly-heavy Tea Partiers, they'll absolutely need to change something on a core level if they're to have a chance, and I think young people are their ticket. If that's the case, they'll likely need a younger candidate to communicate that. \n (Whether the GOP's pitch to young people in 2020 is just PR with the same old agenda or something substantial with a substantial change in their agenda is a separate question, but I think they'll make that pitch, regardless).", "id": "cnu9o8l", "summary": "I think maybe Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Aaron Schlock perhaps (of those, Paul Ryan is the only one that I think has a real chance of winning the GOP primary). While the new IL governor Bruce Rauner is on the old side, I suspect he might run as well, as he has the money to buy a victory as he just did in IL. On the whole, I think 2020 will be a generational change year, where most of the major candidates are Gen Xers for the first time."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Sounds good. Especially considering that the abuse of filibuster is probably here to stay (considering what will happen when the parties in/out of power change). I think your proposed change is better than removing the filibuster, as with yours there's a balance of power (though I'm still wary of a same-party President and majority in the Senate colluding to ram stuff through at rapid speed, but it's better than the present dysfunction where a party with a 58 seat majority can't get anything done due to filibuster abuse. \n Though, if this proposal isn't put into place before 2012 (or 2016), looking at the Republicans' metamorphosis to a more radical form, the moment Democratic minority uses the filibuster the way Republicans use it now, I really think the Republican majority will end it (if they have a Republican President).", "id": "c0worw7", "summary": "yes, the idea is good."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "In a word, greed. \n It's timeless, embedded firmly in human nature, and will always be a problem. In a room of 30 people, 29 can take one poptart and leave the rest, but all it takes is one guy to take the whole plate. And that one guy is energized by the allure of a plate  full  of poptarts, he'll push and shove his way to the front and take them all before others get any. And it only gets worse from there. That one fellow is damaged by by life experience or perhaps is mentally ill; he cannot be taught altruism or restraint. His greed will go unchecked until it  is  put in check. \n Surely you've seen the charts portraying wealth concentration in the US, and how all the gains for decades of productivity have been pilfered by the top. It's only a relatively few people at the top, but they're disproportionately greedy compared to the rest. Of course, that's not to say they're all bad or the 99% are all good; there are greedy bastards sprinkled throughout, ruthlessly taking all they can, regardless of their needs or the needs of those they take it from. \n Cultures can minimize or worsen it. Having core cultural values along the lines of egalitarianism, collectivism, and a role for shaming can reduce personal greed, while core cultural values of winner-take-all, individualism, and moral exceptionalism are a recipe for a greed pandemic. We're not the only culture in history to have it this bad with greed (and some have had it worse), but we do have a serious problem with greed, it's the core human failing our mess of problems grows upon. \n There are two ways to solve this; culturally, or through government. Culturally in a quick fashion is a reign of terror. We'll need anarchy and the guillotine to do it. And that is a firestorm in itself that will consume far more than its intended targets. The stable way is a long term cultural focus. Might as well build forward on this, but it will take a while. Until then, our best bet is to pursue legislation and regulation to reduce the harm done by unbound human greed, and to repair the damage caused by it.", "id": "c2wrmon", "summary": "Our country can't be like Poptarts in a vending machine' because some people are greedy, and will take it all if not put in check. If our culture was entirely different we could do it on our own, but with the culture we have, only legislation and regulation can ensure a playing field where everyone can get the Poptarts they need, without one greedy bastard taking them all because he wants."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Because they can't play instruments and/or lack musical skill? \n That's not saying that they're not talented or that what they do lacks cultural value, it just doesn't belong in the same category with music as we've long considered it, IMO. Regardless of genre, spoken (not sung) lyrics atop a few mixed samples just doesn't have much in common with music. \n It's like a stick-figure drawing with witty captions (at best) atop a collage of one to several pieces of artwork. Arguably more than the sum of its parts, but it's clear it looks the way it does because they can't draw. It's frustrating to listen to, as I have some sense of what idea they were trying to go for with what they put together musically (from the samples), but it comes off as the first step in an unfinished creative process, unfinished not from lack of talent, but lack of skill. I'd like to think that if they knew how to play instruments and/or developed the musical side of their minds, we'd have finished work, rather than... samples. \n There's also a musical illiteracy angle to it, both on the part of rap's producers and consumers. It shouldn't be a surprise that as the general public's musical literacy and the ability to play an instrument steadily dropped with the mass production and broadcasting of music over the course of the 20th century, that  something like this would emerge. That it emerged from the socioeconomic demographic leading the decline (urban cultural and economic poverty) isn't a surprise either, nor is the widespread appeal among the suburban middle class kids who didn't have much involvement in music or an instrument (at least that's how it was when I was in school in the early to mid 90s, the white middle to upper-middle class kids into rap were from culturally blighted households and had a culturally blighted upbringing). \n It's unfortunate, because while there's clearly something in rap that  could  stand alongside musical works of the past and present, all we have from it are spoken word lyrics atop clips of other music. It's not 'raw' or 'real', it's unfinished. \n The problem with samples isn't the act of sampling (among musicians and any other sort of artist it's often an essential step of the creative process), it's that they take that early step of the process and call it finished work, and worse, they do it without being upfront with respect to the original artist (whose name and/or name of their song should be right there in the title, perhaps accompanied by \"cover\" or \"inspired by\"). It's plagiarism that passes by on a legal technicality. \n /snob. \n /", "id": "ccd37ok", "summary": "over-reliance on samples is the outcome of multi-generational musical illiteracy, as is the widespread appreciation of 'music' made of samples."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I think I'm finally caught up on reading all that's happened with everything here & at r/gulf this past weekend, so...) \n This whole thing reminds me of the ancient Greek idea of there being a Counter Earth, a double of our own planet, sharing the same orbit, always just out of view. For most people involved at one or the other of the two twin subreddits (and in my case with r/gulfoildisaster), we didn't see our counterparts out there doing the same thing as we were. So it was quite the surprise for everyone when everything suddenly came into view a few days ago. \n With the ancient Greek idea, which Earth is the real one and which is the Counter-Earth? If/when they both came into contact with each other, each would think they were the 'real' one and this newfound one was the impostor. There are several ways to measure which deserves the title of the true Earth (age, population, the feel of the place, etc), and if each of the two planets have some traits in their favor, then there just isn't any deciding which is the true earth and which is the counter earth. Same with r/gulf and r/oilspill. \n So IMO, the proposal to merge the two twin subreddits was poorly thought out and just will not work. Far as I can tell, both are here to stay. \n And that's okay. In the future, the paths of these two twin subreddits will surely part: r/oilspill going on to cover other oil company malfeasance and oilspill disasters (as extraction of oil gets more difficult being at or past peak oil, IMO disasters like this will just get more frequent, so there will be no shortage of content if r/oilspill decides to pursue this concept). And r/gulf going on to cover other gulf & gulf coast disasters (it being the gulf, surely there will be more human-aided calamities and screwed-up government response for the poor folks down there). But for as long as this gulf oil spill disaster goes on, it looks like these two twin subreddits are just stuck in the same orbit, looking and sounding very similar, until future events allow the two to be more distinguishable from each other, and take on different orbits.", "id": "c0smoqr", "summary": "Looking at everything, I don't think a merger between r/oilspill and r/gulf is possible at this point, and that's okay. I think both can overlap in the short-term and grow, until future events allow each subreddit to distinguish itself. All it will take is a major destructive gulf hurricane, or another major oil disaster elsewhere (the pessimist/realist in all of us knows one or both of those events will probably happen before the end of 2010), and the two will be better distinguished from each other."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "On the number of nominations, you're right that an actual system wasn't needed for a fair amount of ROTD's time, and that it went very much like you described (several mods each responsible for selecting from the nominations). \n For the first six months of ROTD's time, the number of nominations coming in was low enough that almost every nominee became a ROTD. Early on, it was a challenge getting enough nominees to fill a 5 day week. \n About 7 months into ROTD (at roughly 1500 readers) the number of nominations coming in reached a point that there weren't enough days in the week for all of them, so a two-tier categorizing became necessary; top tier for the solid picks, and second tier for the less solid (very new accounts, infrequent commenters, \"men of few words\"), and those were vetted into the proper category as they came in. \n About 10 months in (at 2500 readers) the inflow of nominations increased to where there were so many that it overwhelmed the mods' ability to sort through them; a large backlog formed of those not even vetted. In retrospect, that was the time a better system should have been put in place. \n So the", "id": "c1e8zub", "summary": "of it is that early on, there won't be a need for a complex system. Though as the place grows, layers of complexity would be needed. With only one ROTW per week, the nominations are going to pile up very quickly compared to ROTD with five per week, so ROTW will need a better system relatively quicker than ROTD did. \n Also related to that, no matter what system is decided, having 2 mods to do at least the preliminary vetting is essential, IMO."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Two things: \n \n Experiment with power: I filled a glass measuring cup partway with water, and put a lightbulb in. Turned on the microwave, and watched the lighbulb glow in a flicker of rainbow colors. Went through a few lightbulbs before figuring out how to do it. If you want to try it at home, [check it out]( easy and fun. \n \n Experiment with cell phone: This was just dumb (I was very drunk at the time, as if that's a defense). About 8 years ago, I was ready to get a new cellphone, and got reckless with the one I had. While on the cellphone with someone, I told them I was going to put it in the microwave and turn it on, and that they should listen very closely for what it sounds like, and that if the cellphone is melted I'll call them on the landline phone.", "id": "c0ohs1s", "summary": "the cellphone immediately went dead in the microwave, didn't last a second. But at least now I know."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Spiders (the non-poisonous ones at least, there's really no reason to be afraid of). I used to kill all spiders (I don't kill any other insects with the exception of flies, and that's only if I can't capture and release them), but now only the biggest and baddest looking ones still meet their end around me. The rest I leave alone, and defend from other people in the house if necessary. \n How? By recognizing that the fear was irrational, that there was unacceptable harm coming from my response to the fear, and that it was really stupid of me to be stuck in that. That I could do better. \n After recognizing it was irrational and stupid, it was just a matter of gradual behavior change. First I gradually restricted the range in which the spiders had to be to merit a killing. I also decided that the lighter colored ones and smaller ones were less fear-evoking, so they should live no matter what. Then I gradually shifted those lines to where the only spiders that got killed were those that crawled on me, and only those that were especially scary looking. Now I'm at a place where with the scariest ones I ignore them or brush them off everywhere but my bedroom, and there I make a capture and transport attempt before resorting to killing. Hopefully I'll get to where I never kill any more of them. Wish I did this years ago, but better late than never.", "id": "c8mva23", "summary": "acknowledging the fear is stupid, and gradual behavior modification."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "As long as you're giving up ground you may as well give up the word judgement  as well. It's more of your opinion really, as you do not have powers of justice or social arbitration, so in effect while your opinion matters, your judgments are inherently meaningless. \n Whoa there, no need to be a dick! And I'm not sure why you're so vehemently defending incest, and bringing the gay thing into it (I have no problem with it and see no relevance to it here), when the ick factor of the article was \"grandmother having new baby with  her grandson \" \n While all of this stuff is just personal opinion, the incest repulsion goes across cultures, as close to universal as it gets. Though of course, there are individual exceptions, just as with people not repulsed by excrement, etc. The gay thing, by contrast, is totally different (I'd put it in the same category as slavery, interracial dating, etc, stuff only specific cultures in specific times found objectionable).", "id": "c0p7onr", "summary": "you want to defend consensual over-18 incest, that's cool, whatever floats your boat; just don't be surprised that the overwhelming majority of people in every culture on the planet are physically and mentally revulsed by it. Not a matter of 'judgment', just a vital human instinct that's the only thing from keeping all of us from getting inbred. That's all."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "On one hand, I agree with most posters here saying \"get with the program\"; while there's some appeal in this to the late teens and early 20s crowd, from my mid 30s POV the life described in the text there sounds pretty good (provided the job is fufilling and of living wage, the wife and kids are reasonably sane, the fashion requirement isn't ridiculous, etc). The reason for this is largely hard-wired and makes our being a social species possible; the time of the teens and early 20s is the time of rebellion and overturning the status quo, while the time of the 30s onward is about building a stable place and preserving that status quo. If it was rebellion all the time we'd never have civilization to begin with, nor would we if it was status quo all the time. So this line of thinking (for most people, see next paragraph for the exceptions) is largely baked into age demographics and will evaporate after the brain finishes development in the mid 20s and people reach a place in life where they have something to lose. \n But from a mid 30s POV I see a valid and real point in the problem with a 'one size fits all' program for society. We're not a one size fits all species, there are always the outcasts and oddballs, and it's a measure of our worth in how we deal with that. Do we pound them into submission, throw them in jail or out into the wilderness with nothing? Do we succumb to the open-minded nihilism of 'anything goes' relativism and lose our compass for what's important to us and what drives us? Or do we find the middle ground and ensure a space for people to be themselves and be all they can be,  while  preserving the status quo and lifestyle that works for the majority? Obviously I find the middle path the way to go, and that's clearly lacking in our culture on the issues raised in the picture. \n What that might be: \n \n Alternative living arrangements : IIRC, in Finland (or somewhere in that region) there is a sort of mental asylum for people who aren't severely mentally ill, didn't commit the sorts of crimes that would qualify to lock them away for life, but who are just not right in the head and can't fit into society. This sort of asylum functions as a safe comfortable place with the structure they need. Of course, of the people who don't fit into the mainstream of society, these people are only one segment. For the other segments, other solutions are needed, but IMO this is along the lines of how the thinking ought to go; instead of the mantra of \"one size fits all\" with a callous corporate quality control mentality towards those who don't fit (of pound into submission or discard into the trash/wilderness). \n \n Guaranteed Minimum Income . With automation accounting for an increasing share of productivity and structural unemployment/underemployment increasing (automation taking more jobs than it creates, and human ingenuity failing thus far to create enough jobs of value to make up for the loss), and something like 95% of the recent gains from productivity going to the top 1% (the owners of the means of production). we're approaching a serious economic crossroads. While the idea of Guaranteed Minimum Income isn't and shouldn't be enough to live a comfortable life, it is and should be enough to live a minimal life on, with everything beyond the minimum coming from the fruits of one's labor. An unintended but good byproduct of enacting GMI would be opening up some options that have been closed off since the end of the frontier a century ago. \n \n Opening up the frontier : We live in a weird time, stuck in a limbo between the long era where the frontier provided, and the long future when Guaranteed Minimum Income and eventually Star Trek-like replicators will provide. In the first part of our era new technology created tons of jobs to replace the tons of jobs it eliminated, making a transition from the centuries-old way of life to the strange late 19th and 20th century way of life, but in the part of our era we're starting into now, new technology is eliminating tons of jobs while creating far fewer (and fewer of living-wage capability), so an increasing number of people are left on the sidelines. It used to be a person could set out for the wilderness or some frontier town to start afresh and stake a claim on land and resources as-yet unowned, but now everything's settled and owned by someone; if you're not an owner, the options are limited. With GMI, the material side of 'the frontier' may be replicated, but the 'freedom' of it isn't. Between people of the counterculture who agree with the sentiment of this image past their mid 20s, to the Tea Party \"guns n' liberty\" crowd, to the failure of Native Americans to thrive after their frontier was taken away from them, it's clear that something \"wild\" is missing. That's been missing since the frontier closed up, and we'd do well to figure out how to recreate it.", "id": "ca1a5g0", "summary": "On one hand, the POV in the image can be chalked up to teenage and early 20s angst, but on the other hand it highlights real and legitimate failures of our society and institutions. \"One size fits all\" doesn't work, never has and never will. Instead of treating those who don't fit the mainstream like defectives, we'd live up to the moniker of \"civilized\" better by creating a place for them."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Irreversable? Well, at least until the water runs dry in the southwest and tropical diseases start taking a toll on the southeast. \n The southwest is on borrowed time with regards to ground water/aquifers (as are many places); while I can see the appeal of living there currently, I sure as hell woudn't want to own property there (or if I did, would be looking for the next opportunity to 'sell high'). When the water runs low (not even dry, just low enough to drive up the price past people's breaking point), it's going to get ugly, in an abstractly similar way to how it got ugly in the (now) rust belt when the manufacturing jobs left. \n The southeast and south as a whole also faces climate change (as everywhere else does). The tropics are expanding, and this means the tropical diseases of central america and the northern part of South America are moving north. While the weather in the south beats that in the north currently, fast forward a generation or two and the choice between north vs south will not be 'cold vs warm', but 'warm vs tropical'. We're just beginning to get a taste of it with the brain-eating amoebas in southern lakes. Just like the cold weather in the north, or the crime in certain cities, it reaches a point where people just have enough and move. It's not far fetched to predict the place with the current climate (and plant/animal/insect/diseases) of the south will beat out the place with the current climate (and plant/animal/insect/diseases) of Panama. \n At the time as all that is changing, the interior northwest is lightly populated, has many lakes and some groundwater still, and will have a more temperate climate. Seems a likely choice for emigration from the parched hellscape the southwest will be. I'd expect a similar mass migration and buildup in the interior northwest in the next 100 years of the sort that the southwest saw in the past 50 years (starting the clock with the first water shortage that causes a health crisis or violence). \n And the old rust belt, don't forget that it has the Great Lakes (largest collection of surface fresh water on the planet) and plenty of surrounding farmland. Considering the cost of transporting anything outside of a region (including food & water) will be significantly more expensive, the mid and late 21st century appeal of this region is clear.", "id": "cbp9j0u", "summary": "Climate change, ground water depletion, and oil depletion and the effects of each will very likely reverse the migration trend, turning it northward. It is reasonable to expect the old rust belt to fill back up, and the interior northwest to see a population boom by the time Millenials are in old age."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "President Cheney would have blamed it on Iraq, the media would have bought it without question. \n Overall though, the Bush-Cheney Administration probably would have been even more evil and destructive, without the layer of bumbling incompetence that Bush was. Also,  the rift that formed between Bush and Cheney  served to contain Cheney, as he was dependent upon Bush's signature for so many things. While Bush went along without question for most of his eight years, he started to wise up later on, denying Cheney the unconditional support he had up until then. That's IMO why things for them really stalled out in the 2nd term. \n Also, while Bush's sycophants worked to expand the power of the Executive, an important detail is that  Bush himself  was not all that active in personally trying to expand his power. Cheney, [by contrast]( was always borderline obsessed with an extreme version of Executive power, and with a President Cheney we likely would have seen a powergrab unlike any since at least FDR.", "id": "c150dp4", "summary": "Without that resistance from Bush, and containment from Bush being in the top role, and his being a layer of incompetence everything must filter through, bizarro as it sounds I think we lucked out that the pretzel lost."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "4 years in a relationship is a long time, and the year and a half for intimacy is a reasonably long time for everything to be out there, openness-wise. So IMO, openness and communication are absolutely neccessary with this, for both of you to get it all out there and come to an understanding. It probably won't happen in a single talk, but above all,  just keep talking , don't stop communicating about this fixation/fetish of his, and I'm confident that you two will work something out. \n Also, I'd agree with others in the thread, to give him benefit of the doubt for now that the browsing of those craigslist ads is done out of jack-off fantasy. \n But I'm commenting because your post resonated with me; a gf from way back had a bit of a gender-bending thing going on in what she was attracted to, like your boyfriend has. Unfortunately in my case, this was before the internet really got going, so I had no way to get a better/healthier understanding & acceptance of it. She wanted me to try crossdressing for her, and while it intensely turned her on, it really weirded me out. I said so, and didn't do it again, and that was that. Only after the relationship was over just a few months later, did I look back and see that was the turning point where it went south. \n If that relationship took place now, and I was able to get opinions of others, I really think that could have turned out differently. Question: do you two do role-playing of any kind? (talking as characters, playing various roles, etc). If so, this should be doable. Something you might try, just to feel things out, is when just starting to get intimate, try talking and acting like a guy; no need for costume or strap-on or anything like that yet, just take on the mannerisms, movements, hardness of personality and assesertiveness of a guy. Try to do a tough guy voice to fit the persona. If I have this figured right, it should bring out a side of him you haven't seen, pressing some buttons he needs pushed so very badly. If I did it this way with that gf from years ago, starting out just acting the part and not starting out playing dress up, it would have weirded me out far less. And if he responds favorably to your manly persona, just add a strapon, and I would think that's as far as you'd have to go. \n so", "id": "c0nqi4n", "summary": "Don't worry about the craigslist jerkoff habit in and of itself. Talk it out. Surprise him with your 'manly' character (I really think this will drive him crazy in a good way). And from all of that, find a way to give him what he needs (and it  is  a need, not just a want) in a way that you're able to do and have some fun with yourself. Best of luck to you. \n EDIT: Just thought of this, have you ever heard the [Pina Colada]( song? Your situation  totally  reminded me of that. Once you two get to a healthy understanding and practice of what he's into, you can post a craigslist ad of your manly character just for him, arrange a meetup, and play out the fantasy with him. If you indulged him like this, if he's any good he'll be wrapped around your finger forever."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I see big-picture things pretty similar to how my parents do, so IMO it's relevant to tell their story, as it puts the question in the context of broader cultural shifting going on in the past 30 years. \n I grew up in a Republican-voting home in the 80s and 90s. Thing is... my parents recycled before it was cool (imprinted frugality from their parents who were affected by the Great Depression), they tried to be well-informed (although in retrospect many of their info sources were conservative leaning; Time, US News, Chicago Tribune), they weren't really ideological, and overall they were pretty much the embodiment of the average 1970s to 80s suburban middle class mentality. Oh, and they weren't religious either; my father went to church maybe once in 20 years, and my mother was never into that. Thus far I've never been to a church service (excluding weddings and funerals). Note that this bears little to no resemblance to the GOP of 2013. \n For a while my parents bought into Nixon's \"for the middle class/ silent majority\" worldview, as their productive years from the 60s through the 80s went great, and they did it without being in a union, without much if any safety net support; all it took was showing up and a middle class lifestyle was the outcome. It was the same for their relatives and acquaintances; everyone was doing well, the 401K thing seemed like a good idea, and so on. \n Then the downsizing started. Their 'social network' started to see guys in their 40s getting let go for various BS reasons and replaced with younger guys (who were paid less), and companies shutting things down to ship it overseas. Suddenly the \"just show up\" recipe for success wasn't accurate anymore. And for the guys whose whole factory or plant shut down, the \"just work hard\" didn't cut it when they were competing with guys on the other side of the world making cents per hour. The jobs guys found after losing their previous ones were paltry, as they found being over age 40 was a serious disadvantage in a way that it wasn't just years earlier. Several wound up working in 'Home Depot' type stores making the same wage as their teenage kids. Ross Perot came along and was the first they were aware of to really articulate what was wrong; putting the bullseye on NAFTA resonated. Unfortunately Perot came off as sketchy (dropping out of the race then getting back in), and both Bush and Clinton supported NAFTA, so they reluctantly stuck with Bush. Their social circle, formerly solid Republican, was now split. Our state (Illinois) flipped from being a long-time GOP state to Democratic that year, and has remained Democratic ever since. \n A few years later it was my father's turn to be downsized (plant shut down and shipped off to Asia). That residual frugality learned from their parents (adults in the Great Depression) suddenly became necessary. From a 2013 perspective life was still pretty easy, although it was a big adjustment at the time. An alienating one too, as it wasn't really represented in the major political/cultural narratives (this was just before the internet got going, so this stuff was still top-down). Clinton's formula for economic growth had an all-too-apparent downside for the downsized... yet the GOP were on the same page. \n The impeachment was the final straw with the GOP for us. Hypocritical moralizing doesn't really resonate with non-religious people, shocker. Not to mention empathy towards someone getting pressured out of their job for a BS reason. This was when the GOP first appeared to be the villain in story, and that's what helped make the psychological break from them. \n In the decade following the impeachment, they went non-affiliated independent, and I went to the Green Party (regretting it by the end of 2000) and eventually to the Democrats by 2004. By 2008 we (my mother was my only living parent by that point) were as much Democrats then as we were Republicans in the 80s; not calling ourselves it, but reliably voting that way. \n Looking at the people in my parents' 1980s social circle who are still living (sort of a \"where are they now\"), the only ones who are still Republicans are either incredibly religious or have a real chip on their shoulder about blacks and/or 'mexicans'. That's it. The rest are non-affiliated independents or Democrats. \n And while I'm Gen X, my socioeconomic experience in the past decade or so is more in line with that of the Millenials (due to injury and illness that resulted in becoming long-term unemployed in the mid to late 00s and the difficulties that follow). There are good reasons the kids are overwhelmingly Democrats these days. So there's that. \n Fast forward through the hard times that define 2008 to the present, and we're solidly Democrats. Why? Because there are some rumblings of positive change and reform that only the Democrats will carry out, because there simply is no alternative, and to prevent Republicans from getting in power again considering they have nothing redeeming in them  and are out to actively harm everything outside their narrow world.", "id": "car129o", "summary": "the last paragraph"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "There's no clean and consistent answer to this, due to the broad historical cycles in economic conditions, social and cultural conditions, etc. What is true in one generation (and results in quotes and truisms that endure) is not so true a generation or two later, but then it becomes true again after that. I recommend checking out the [Strauss Howe generational theory]( for more on these cycles and the implications on the politics of age demographics at different times. \n IMO economic conditions count for more than almost anything else; to gauge the politics of a generation, I'd look at the economic conditions of their first working decade, from age 18 to 28. When people in that decade of life have it easy, entering a good economy, with easy access to living-wage jobs, they turn out more conservative (see: Silent generation, some Baby Boomers, the 80s yuppies). But if that age group enters the economic meat-grinder, they turn out more liberal (see: Depression generation, Millenials). \n There is something that can override economic conditions though: wars. Especially when there's a draft and the war is seen as unnecessary. Note that of Vietnam draftees, the Baby Boomers who were born in the years who were drafted by LBJ were more conservative, while those drafted by Nixon were more liberal, going against the figure that threatened them. Same with those drafted under Truman in the Korean War turning out more conservative. Yet the WW2 Generation who fought in the early 40s remained positive towards FDR. \n However, two variables generally hold up regardless of the cycle: parenting and wealth accumulation. Becoming a parent is a transformative experience, often profoundly changing people's worldview. It seems to often bring about a more conservative way of seeing things. (Of course describing that is muddier than usual in our era, as some traditionally conservative priorities are under the liberal label, while the formerly liberal wild-eyed risk-taking and upturning of the status quo is unusually under the conservative label. It's a weird time.) Wealth accumulation is gaining a stake in the status quo and it follows that they'd want to defend that status quo, and that's a pillar of traditional conservativism. In normal times, people generally have stable jobs or careers and on that basis they usually start families, and generally make that right-ward shift. (But as said, we're not in normal times). \n Something that will probably dilute the common right-ward shift in Millenials is the cataclysmic job insecurity and transformation of the workforce due to labor-saving technology. This is causing labor to be in a historically weak and very uncertain position, and that is a poor condition to start families in and means poor conditions for meaningful wealth accumulation. Of course it's not universal; some/many Millenials will have stable careers, start families, and accumulate wealth, but more Millenials than previous generations will not, and that will reduce the right-ward shift.", "id": "cas9q42", "summary": "it depends on the part of the cycle a generation is in."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Apparently Pew did a poll on this very subject, breaking it down by generation. [A submission at Daily Kos]( did a summary earlier this year, including a few graphs from Pew. \n The closest I can think of to creationism would be biblical literalism, and [the first chart]( covers not only the current levels that different generations buy into it, but what those generations polled at on it over the last few decades.", "id": "c14uho4", "summary": "of the biblical literalist chart - Millenials are the lowest of any group on it. Gen X disappoints, getting more religious with time. Baby Boomers and Silent gen were stable throughout. Greatest gen became more sane with time, except for a spike in the early 00s. No two generations crossed lines on the chart."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I don't know, there's so many conflicting data points that it's tough to get a handle on just where this is going. \n On one hand, the culture as expressed in the media and pop culture is definitely less open and more prudish when it comes to how much skin is shown, as the forces trying to undo the cultural revolution of the 1960s are well-organized, very loud, and have had a noticeable impact in pushing an anti-female-nudity POV (ex. Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction). \n But on the other hand, looking at the demographics of who was getting naked in the 1970's and their counterparts now; we're getting naked, just now online instead of in public (IMO online social interaction is a new form of 'in public'), r/gonewild for instance. \n Though in the 40 years  between  1970 and 2010, it wasn't always like this; I think the AIDS epidemic was devastating to the activities that underpin free attitudes towards public nudity, and it gave the culturally conservative forces the opening they needed to swing the pendulum back in their direction. When I was in HS in the early to mid 90's, people got far less action than our counterparts in the 70's. \n But equally as huge as what AIDS was to amplifying prudish attitudes, I think the social role of the internet is just as big in getting us back to a healthier attitude towards showing skin and sex. Using HS as an example, kids that age now are getting way more action than my age group did in the 90's, and the social connectivity and ease of sending naked pics is a big part of what drives this. (That and the reduced shock impact of AIDS now relative to how big a deal it was 15-25 years ago).", "id": "c0n5e5w", "summary": "I don't see it as movement in a one continuous direction, but as a pendulum; in the 70's it was on the naked side, by the 90s and early 00s it was on the prudish side, but now it's swinging back towards more naked. Only instead of frolicking in the park, the happy naked people are online. If my theory is correct, these healthier attitudes will be filtering upwards from the grass-roots level that is the internet, resonating in mass media and the broader culture soon."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Lifelong fascination with emergency vehicles, \n [This might be relevant to your interests]( found it the other day, a 1963 Pontiac Bonneville stationwagon ambulance. \n So you were working on some home project and accidentally cut yourself, needing to call an ambulance (nothing serious, just needs stitches), and the above ambulance showed up. \"This is kind of weird\" you'd probably think, but aside from their thick-rimmed glasses and that they're smoking cigarettes on the job, they seem professional enough. \n So you get in the ambulance, they take you to the hospital, and when you get out to go in, looking at the newspaper machine, it's this day in 1963.", "id": "c0u35ze", "summary": "time traveling Pontiac Bonneville stationwagon ambulance takes all of its victims back to 1963. \n So what's the first thing you would do, after getting stitches?"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "You're throwing the barbs at the wrong guy, unless you prefer to keep the economically & socially blighted neighborhoods in urban communities as they are, (which giving you benefit of the doubt, I don't think you do). \n Of course, there are ethnically white communities that are just as socially & economically blighted (ex.  Deliverance ), but they're not located in the middle of major urban centers, where thousands of people (of all races) untainted by the blight have to pass through every day. Hence the greater attention  and  greater need to fix the problem, not only for the kids born into those hopeless communities (IMO many of the adults are a lost cause), but also for all the victims who have the misfortune to come in contact with those communities (like the good samaritan nurse and many other examples in this thread). \n Not to mention the 'ick factor' of  your  insinuation, as if urban blight was  the defining characteristic  of black and mexican-american culture. So check your own closet for the white hood, or whatever the do-gooder equivalent to it might be.", "id": "c0o6o94", "summary": "Want to solve the problem of urban blight, the damage it does to people living in it, and the damage they cause to others? Take off the PC-blinders, and acknowledge the economic and social problems wherever they are at. The economic problems are easy enough for everyone to acknowledge, the social ones meet resistance like your comment. Perhaps Bill Cosby's (his son killed by a blighted person like the carjacker) words on the subject of urban social problems will have more weight than mine, and that's fine."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "exactly what Violentacrez said) This \"prove themselves\" bit is only in this one case, because of the high-profile accusation against 'Grandpawiggly' (from all I've read, the accusation seems to be correct). \n For future very high profile nominees for redditor of the day, I think we'll take a closer look before going forward with them (though in this Grandpawiggly case, I'm not sure what information was available to give cause to hesitation; he was asked to be redditor of the day in mid June; was there a \"Grandpawiggly is a troll\" thread that could have been found at that time? Or even prior to his day being posted on July 06?). \n But as for future nominees for redditor of the day, I don't think we'll change anything (as in need for proof or anything), other than to make clear where novelty personas exist, that they are indeed novelty.", "id": "c0uc0ky", "summary": "future redditors of the day will  not  need to prove themselves. Hopefully we'll take steps to prevent something like this from happening in r/redditoroftheday again."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "It was rough for me, as gluten was central to my diet. Pizza, beer, sandwiches, burgers, a lot of pasta, bagels, mac & cheese, oatmeal, etc. Had to totally rework my diet. \n Here's the before = after on the above: \n Pizza = just eating the toppings, not the crust \n beer = wine, although I gradually stopped drinking altogether due to stomach problems that came up last year \n sandwiches = this is a hard one, no real replacement. There is gluten-free bread out there, but it's out of my price range. One of these days I plan on trying it just to see what it's like, but I've been doing ok without it so far. \n Turkey-Dogs and Burgers = With turkey dogs, I do them as 'potato dogs', slicing a potato like it's a bun, microwaving it to fully cook it, and letting it cool. Then I put the turkey dog in there, add all the toppings, and cut the whole deal up and eat it with a fork. It's not idea, but there's a lot of settling in the post-gluten world. With burgers (chicken sandwiches for me), large leafs of lettuce are ok for holding it. It's sometimes messier, but it works great other times. \n pasta = rice. Gotta be careful with rice, as some (like couscous) is really wheat in disguise. Reading the ingredients is essential for avoiding gluten. Usually they have it in bold at the bottom of the ingredients, where it'll say \"Contains: Soy/gluten/wheat/eggs/etc\" (common allergens). That's a good shortcut way to do it, but I recommend fully reading it to be sure. \n Bagels, toast, grilled cheese, subway subs = no good substitute IMO. A few times I've succumbed to the temptation and had a grilled cheese anyway and suffered the consequences (it's never as good in reality as the  idea  of the grilled cheese is). \n Mac and cheese = Gluten-free mac & cheese! (Rice pasta). Check your grocery store for a gluten-free section. While the GF stuff is more expensive than its regular counterparts (and sometimes ridiculously so), if you have a few favorite foods that are worth the cost, there might be an option. Mac & Cheese and oatmeal are the two gluten-free products I regularly get. (With oatmeal, IIRC technically it's GF, but the regular stuff is processed in a way that contaminates it; the stuff sold as GF does it right). They have boxes of rice pasta (spaghetti, etc) also. \n Cookies = I miss these. The GF ones (at least those I tried so far) haven't been that good. \n You get the general idea. \n As for how I helped compensate where there weren't alternatives, I eat more fruit, a rice/beans/vegs dish is a regular food staple, more potatoes, as much dairy as I can handle (I also have a minor lactose intolerance, so it's not much), and I used to make chili and was learning to make indian meals before the stomach problems. The", "id": "c9x1ior", "summary": "of it is that it'll be a big shock and readjustment at first, but once you get in the mindset of it, there are options and a way to have good food and variety. Can't imagine how people do it voluntarily (the fad diet people), but as far as dietary restrictions go, it could be worse. \n (geez, sorry that went on so long)"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I think you're right; a geek has far more raw information to back up a wrong idea, a faulty conclusion, etc. That and unlike a normal person who got their faulty info from a predictable source (so it's easy to spot and try to set straight), a geek likely reached the faulty conclusion all on their own, so  who knows  what odd angle they're coming from. It may take hours to get to the bottom of it, days perhaps; my dad and his brother had a geek argument that went on for years.", "id": "c10wkw9", "summary": "the worst argument is a geek argument."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Highly recommend reading the article, its one of those rare ones that sums up what's happening in the big picture, unsettling as it is. \n Here's the key bit: \n > What's clear is that the shifting views on health care predate the Affordable Care Act. The number of Americans who think health care is the government's responsibility hovered around two-thirds for the first half of the 2000s, peaking at 69 percent in 2006. Then those numbers started falling, hitting 50 percent in 2010 and 42 percent this year. \n > The shrinkage of American generosity during that period wasn't just about health care. The onset of the recession corresponded with a change in public opinion on a range of issues, and in most cases the effect was to make Americans less caring about others. \n > Starting in 2007, the portion of Americans who said the government should guarantee every person enough to eat and a place to sleep started falling, from 69 percent to 59 percent last year. People who said the government should help the needy, even if it means going deeper into debt, fell from 54 percent to 43 percent over the same period. \n > That increased callousness extends beyond Americans' views of helping the needy. In 2007, 60 percent of respondents agreed that people should be willing to pay higher prices to protect the environment; by last year, that figure was 43 percent. The share who said the U.S. should \"pay less attention to problems overseas\" rose from 76 percent to 83 percent between 2007 and 2012. \n It goes on to suggest a pattern where people care less about others in economic downturns. To what extent that pattern holds, hopefully someone takes the time to figure that out. But an angle I'd add to this is that the trend might not be a line that continues ever worse, but more like an upside down bell curve where there's a point of maximum selfishness correlating to a certain level of economic hardship, but if that economic hardship gets even worse and the number of have-nots grows further, the trend might turn around due to the people with nothing outpacing the people with something still to lose. \n It seems like we're approaching that point of maximum selfishness, that with erosion of the safety net, the next recession will be especially brutal, devastating on both on the people it affects and on the number of people knocked down by it due to insufficient support that was present in previous downturns (I have doubts that some of the countermeasures taken in late 2008 and 2009 to help people would be passed at the start of the next recession). Once enough of the current \"jerks\" (or selfish people) get turned to \"have-nots\", then we're at one of those critical forks in the road, where we either take a hard left or a hard right turn.", "id": "cdk8hfb", "summary": "IMO this \"Americans as jerks\" is more of a stage we'll be passing through with the next devastating economic downturn, rather than a new era that will last for a while."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I'm sorry you're having to go through all that, and that you got stuck holding the bag with being one of the two caretakers for your grandfather. \n Being a caregiver takes SO much more out of a person than someone who hasn't done it can imagine. What you have going on is  caregiver syndrome . I'm in the middle of it now (been at it 6 months intensively, and to a limited extent for 2 years). Not nearly to the extent you are, as it's my old dog (who is in almost the same shape as your grandfather), but the caretaker syndrome or fatigue is there. I had to pull back and hand off the most physically demanding daily caretaker responsibilities to my brother, as I just couldn't take it anymore. It really sucks that there's no one else there besides your grandmother to share the load with, or to shift the load to, as you're getting burned out. \n On the bright side, it's only a month or two to go. But on the dark side, look ahead a few moves; after your grandfather goes, you know your grandmother is going to fall apart, and may be in need of a caretaker herself. The sooner you plan for that eventuality, the better. \n And as for the hospice plan, I have a relative with terminal cancer going through all that now, and apparently there are two levels of hospice care; one like you have (and like my relatives have) where it's in the home and a nurse comes by for a daily check, and another where they live in a facility. Is there a way you can look into if it's possible to put him in a live-in hospice for the remainder of his time? Considering that your grandmother is in no physical shape to do any lifting, that puts it all on you, and that's too much for one person 24/7 with no days off for months on end. \n And for when it's your grandmother's time, the live-in hospice seems essential when it's time for that. \n It's so hard to talk about this stuff also. Normally, communication in a relationship of any sort is the way to go when there's a problem (as there is here)... but unless you know how your grandmother would react, I'd tread very carefully on the subject. At most, keep it very vague. She might be getting caretaker fatigue also, but old couples who have been together 50+ years have something unique going on, so maybe not. Hard to say. \n In my situation, unlike yours, putting my dog to sleep is at least an option. Although in my case, he's not as mentally far gone as your grandfather sounds (although my dog does have some form of dementia and is only sometimes responsive), and he's not in significant pain (medicated for arthritis and a pain med), and there are still moments in the day he enjoys various activities, and that's what's keeping me from making the hard decision. The point of me bringing that up is, does your grandfather still have moments in the day where his personality shines through, where he enjoys doing something, or enjoys the company of someone? If so, focusing on those moments and really taking them in when they occur, I've found that helps me cope. Maybe it would help you too. \n Something else that might help might be to look at this as an experience that's making you stronger. (And I say that as someone literally cleaning up the piss and shit in the house, leaping up out of bed at any hour of the night to help my dog up before he hurts himself trying, hobbling around with a strained groin muscle from lifting my dog up, and so on; this isn't some bland platitude here). It might not seem like it now, but if you look back on who you were before this started, and what you're capable of now, I bet you've come a  long  way. This post was written in a moment when it has you broken down (and the caregiver job breaks a person down, many times), but I would bet money I don't have that on the other side of this will be an uncommon inner strength and an ability to not get rattled by petty BS. \n Make sure to find moments for yourself (if you can carve out enough time for \"you\" time, having some self-indulgent rituals and activities helps), and make sure you stay in touch with people who aren't literally in the shit, they're the lifeline to the normal world and are of great help staying sane.", "id": "cf40lfn", "summary": "What you're feeling is totally normal in the place you're stuck in. Reading about it would help understand it, and help understand the messed up feelings of resenting the person you're caring for. On the bright side, at least your grandfather doesn't have long to go. Although it would be smart to start planning for your grandmother so you're not the one cleaning up the poop next time.  And hard as it is to see at the moment, this isn't time wasted. Best of luck."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I saw a PBS interview of two spokespeople for this 'No Labels' group yesterday (Kiki McLean, a DLC centrist, and Marc Mckinnon, a moderate conservative W. Bush team member). \n From what I gather, this is the milquetoast comfortable moderate middle of both parties (those who benefit the most from the status quo) trying to regain the political ground they held in the 90s and most of the 00s. With progressive/liberals on the left, and tea party conservatives on the right, both outraged, the middle between those two is feeling powerless now. This is their attempt to grab power wherever they can. \n It was interesting that they are describing themselves as \"radical centrists.\" Considering most of what these corporate moderate centrists say is focus-group tested, that being how they choose to describe themselves, instead of the old \"moderates,\" says something about the political environment in 2010. And it was funny because it was plainly visible that there isn't a radical or rabblerousing bone in their bodies. They're the furthest thing from radical, in wanting to preserve the status quo. \n Character assessment:  They both had trollface, showed a lack of any convictions (noteworthy for a political movement), and on a personal level showed extraordinary smarminess during that interview. \n Highlight of the interview:   When asked about the incivility of the current political climate, and their whole 'both sides are being incivil' schick, if one side was clearly behaving worse than the other, would they call them out? The answer from the DLC centrist? \"We don't take sides, we're not keeping a tally\". With the biggest trollface I've seen. IMO, they're not serious about 'restoring civility to politics' like they claim.", "id": "c191v7k", "summary": "They're not serious about 'restoring civility to politics' like they claim, and they're not serious about ending partisanship in politics (as their brand of politics as agenda-driven as that from the left and the right). This is just the starting stage of a power grab by the old 90s and 00s corporate-minded moderates."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Way to change the subject (I also find those sampled comments revolting and downvoted them), but surely we can agree on the problem of a paid content marketer/spammer (even a friendly & likable content marketer) being a moderator in that it opens up a huge conflict of interest, destroying trust in the motives of not just that moderator but all moderators, as in 'are they really acting in the interest of the site, or in the interest of filling their pockets?' \n To anyone familiar with marketing, it should be no surprise that this place is a magnet to people trying game the system for profit  can build a following of supporters which translates into upvotes of both comments and links, both of which have a role in how spammers/marketers make their money.", "id": "c0lc1ex", "summary": "I look at anyone with sky-high points with a grain of salt and encourage others to do the same; sure they're often likable and fit into the community very  very  well... so much so that they appear to be the embodiment of the community, having all the interests/traits (almost as if marking off a checklist). Funny how that works."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I do. Bachmann has several long-time GOP senior campaign people working for her, the most notable of which is Ed Rollins (he ran Huckabee's campaign in 2008, and made his reputation working on Reagan's 84 campaign). At least one of W. Bush's people too. So while she is crazy and will need to be heavily managed if she's to have a chance, so long as she doesn't insist on micromanaging the campaign, her campaign will be professional and viable for the GOP primary. Whether the candidate will be, remains to be seen (I also have skepticism that she can be managed, but think the odds are better than they were for Palin). \n Additionally, looking at  the most recent polls of national GOP support for their primary candidates  are between 7-12% (excluding Huntsman at under 5%). While support for individual candidates goes up and down, a snapshot like this is useful in gauging the size of various factions of the party. \n So doing that, dividing the GOP into the far-right Tea Party & die-hard evangelicals on one side and the mid-right traditional Republicans on the other, Romney is clearly the preferred choice for traditional Republicans, with additional support splintering to Pawlenty (7%) and Huntsman (2%). That all adds up to about 42%. On the other side, there are far more candidates vying for the far-right support, and adding up all their numbers comes to 41% (Bachmann, Cain, Paul, Santorum). So both major factions of the GOP are of similar size (neocons likely making up the difference, and that's what Gingrich represents). \n IMO, whether Bachmann has a realistic chance at the nomination depends on three things: \n \n Whether Pawlenty and Huntsman become viable candidates, siphoning support from Romney, and \n \n Romney being the clear frontrunner this early, his odds aren't good of survival in this crowded field. In this time in 2007, Romney also had the lead (after previous frontrunners Giuliani and McCain were torn down), and Huckabee had 5% support at this time. By Dec. 2007, Huckabee (preferred choice of the far right faction) surpassed Romney in support, after nearly 6 months of teardown attacks from the other candidates. Whether Romney is able to prevent a repeat remains to be seen. \n \n Whether far-right support can coalesce behind one candidate. In the 2008 GOP primary, Huckabee had most of it, with Ron Paul getting the rest. This time though, there are far more candidates on that side. If Romney continues as the unchallenged lead candidate, I could see a \"stop Romney\" mentality taking hold on the far-right, increasing the support for a far-right unity candidate. IMO, Bachmann is best positioned for that.", "id": "c22vegk", "summary": "I don't know that Bachmann will win the GOP nomination, but I think she has a good chance of being in the final 2 or 3 candidates for it."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "A new formal political party would just siphon away votes from the somewhat like-minded party (as the Libertarian and Green Parties do to the Republican and Democratic Parties) and third-party success results in getting the worse of the two major parties elected. Thus far, this third party strategy has never worked (in living memory, though there might be an example in the 1800s). \n However, an  informal  political party can have much more success. The Tea Party is the most recent example of this. While it's official line was that it was independent of the Republicans, and did run against Republicans  within Republican primaries , it was no shock to anyone that they aligned in the general election with the Republican Party. \n So my contribution on the design of a new liberal/progressive political party is an urging that it take a similar role relative to the Democratic Party as what the Tea Party had regarding the Republicans,  not  a similar role as what the Green Party has relative to the Democratic Party. The latter is a recipe for the destruction of everything we value, the former is a proven & effective way to get real representation within the major party closest to us. \n Also, the concepts of political purity and \"I want to feel good when I vote\" need to be dragged out behind the shed and shot. You want to feel good, jack off. This is about getting as much of your agenda as possible accomplished each electoral cycle. Also, holding onto legislative and policy gains in an inhospitable climate is a victory in itself. The expectations from Obama '08 voters is so incredibly out of whack, they really need some perspective. (Though I suspect the '10 Tea Party voters are about to be in for the same shock when they also find out that the ideological disneyland in their heads is not how it works in reality).", "id": "c14ha93", "summary": "The concept of a political party is flexible, a formal third party would be a disaster (as it has always been) for getting an actual agenda accomplished, but an informal party that exerts pressure on the closest major party  in the primaries , THAT is the recipe for success, as the Tea Party showed everyone this time.  Also, ditch the idea of political purity, \"I want to feel good when I vote,\" and recognize that only a fraction of an agenda (at best) can be accomplished in one electoral cycle."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Missed this thread until now. I posted this in r/oilspill in an almost identical thread the other day; might as well post it here as the discussion is the same) \n This whole thing reminds me of the ancient Greek idea of there being a Counter Earth, a double of our own planet, sharing the same orbit, always just out of view. For most people involved at one or the other of the two twin subreddits (and in my case with the now-abandoned r/gulfoildisaster), we didn't see our counterparts out there doing the same thing as we were. So it was quite the surprise for everyone when everything suddenly came into view a few days ago.  (EDIT: ok, so the heads of the two subreddits knew of each other from the beginning, but many people who wandered into this since then probably did not) \n With the ancient Greek idea, which Earth is the real one and which is the Counter-Earth? If/when they both came into contact with each other, each would think they were the 'real' one and this newfound one was the impostor. There are several ways to measure which deserves the title of the true Earth (age, population, the feel of the place, etc), and if each of the two planets have some traits in their favor, then there just isn't any deciding which is the true earth and which is the counter earth. Same with r/gulf and r/oilspill. \n So IMO, the proposal to merge the two twin subreddits was poorly thought out and just will not work. Far as I can tell, both are here to stay. \n And that's okay. In the near future, the paths of these two twin subreddits will surely part: r/oilspill going on to cover other oil company malfeasance and oilspill disasters (as extraction of oil gets more difficult being at or past peak oil, IMO disasters like this will just get more frequent, so there will be no shortage of content if r/oilspill decides to pursue this concept). And r/gulf going on to cover other gulf & gulf coast disasters (it being the gulf, surely there will be more human-aided calamities and screwed-up government response for the poor folks down there, aka the next gulf coast hurricane). But for as long as this gulf oil spill disaster goes on, it looks like these two twin subreddits are just stuck in the same orbit, looking and sounding very similar, until future events allow the two to be more distinguishable from each other, and take on different orbits. \n -", "id": "c0srf8d", "summary": "Looking at everything, I don't think a merger between r/oilspill and r/gulf is possible at this point, and that's okay. I think both can overlap in the short-term and grow, until future events allow each subreddit to distinguish itself. All it will take is a major destructive gulf hurricane, or another major oil disaster elsewhere (the pessimist/realist in all of us knows one or both of those events will likely happen before the end of 2010), and the two will be better distinguished from each other."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "r/worldnews[1] mods should do their jobs and remove the inevitable hateful comments that will come. \n Indeed we should (and do, but admittedly not well enough), but in a subreddit with 100 comments every 11 minutes, we need your help. If you can hit the 'report' button on anything you see that breaks the rules (which includes bigoted/ hateful comments), those reports are all accessible on one page. Considering how many people are active on this subreddit, not nearly enough commenters make use of the 'report' button; if people did, the place wouldn't look as bad as it does.", "id": "cej1pqi", "summary": "instead of just hitting downvote on the rule breaking comments, hit downvote and then hit report; it would help a lot."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "What kind of toothpaste do you use? \n I ask because about a year ago I started having frequent mouth ulcers, and it turned out that the toothpaste I had been using seemed to be causing it. Only had them a few times in my life prior, but suddenly it seemed like I had them about half the time for a few months. I can't remember which brand of toothpaste I was using that caused it, but it was one of those with the red, white, and aqua colored streaks (could have been Aquafresh or a knock-off). Long story short, with troubleshooting this you might want to try switching to an SLS-free toothpaste (google it, and SLS and \"mouth ulcers\", etc. I've found that reading  comment sections . Sensodyne is the one I switched to, and haven't had a mouth ulcer since. (I don't need it for sensitive teeth issues, but so far so good with not having any mouth ulcers). \n That said, it's impossible to say what it is at the moment, all you can do is try a troubleshooting idea and see if the mouth ulcers go away, and if that doesn't work, it would be good to see a doctor. Also, keep in mind the odds are very likely it is just a mouth ulcer and nothing more, so there's very likely no need to worry,  but still , keep on top of it. (Also, this doesn't sound like the ones you have, but if one particular mouth ulcer  doesn't  go away, IIRC that's one to worry about).", "id": "cetyw3j", "summary": "try switching toothpaste, to something SLS-free, like Sensodyne, or anything other one you find that doesn't have SLS in it. \n (disclaimer, I am   not   a compensated toothpaste spokesperson or shill)"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I think it correlates to the prospects that young adults in any given era face, specifically the relative trend on economic prospects, and the relative trend on likelihood of an unnecessarily early death. (Relative to the era immediately preceding). \n The discontent you mention has been around at varying levels for decades (and really back to the beginning if you switch out \"anti-western philosophy\" with general \"anti status-quo philosophy\"). Looking at the contrast between young adults in the later half of the 60s vs the early and mid 80s for instance, the 60s had a spike in the stuff you mention, and the early to mid 80s was a low point in the stuff you mention. What changed in those 15-20 years? The end of the draft into a war seen by a significant percentage of draftees as unnecessarily increasing their prospects of getting killed.  The other part was relative increased economic opportunity in the early to mid 80s, in contrast to the stagnation of the previous decade. \n As for young adults post 2000: \n Access to healthcare is getting worse. I forget the exact number of people who die preventable deaths due to being uninsured and not being able to get the care they need, but it's staggering when put in context of the supposed \"wealthiest/greatest nation on earth with the best healthcare in the world\", and when put in contrast to every other peer country that just does not have this problem. Most uninsured are young adults, so it follows that there would be some disenchantment with what to them on a personal level is a failed system that due to their lack of wealth does not value their lives. And even for people who are fortunate enough to have the wealth and/or income to afford healthcare, it's not that those people's lives have any value either, it's just the money that does. \n And on economic prospects, comparing the buying power, employment numbers,  real  unemployment numbers, etc of young people now vs the last few decades, there's no denying that it's gotten worse, with no significant improvement on the horizon (significant being a marked increase in wages, vacation time, and unemployment lower than 5%). When putting this in context of the relative better days of previous decades, and in context of the rich hoarding all the gains more recently (in 2010, something like 90% of income gains were gobbled by the top 1%), that's bound to generate some disenchantment with the system that made it happen. \n While attitude is part of what can make the difference between employment and unemployment, the simple reality is that there just aren't enough jobs to go around, something that's been gradually getting worse since 2000 due to the trend of technology gains that increase productivity and due to offshoring of jobs due to the inability of Americans to compete with counterparts making $2/hour. The former hasn't gotten much attention yet, but  the latter has, and it is predictably producing disenchantment with the current interpretation of global capitalism among the people it's not working for. \n If we saw a return to a Clinton years economy, with some sort of plan to reduce  true  unemployment to less than 5%, universal healthcare, reforms to curtail police brutality and abuse of power, a Republican Party that has at least something to offer (or at the very least, is not actively hostile to young adults), and a decrease in income inequality, that the relative contrast between how things are now and that in the near future would create a generation of young people who will be quite alright with the status quo (the various pillars of conservative American/western philosophy you mention).", "id": "c3zb4pe", "summary": "If the philosophical foundation of the status quo is working for people, they'll support it. But if it's not working, they're either going to not support it (as you described at the top), or if they fail to connect the dots but know their life is worse than it should be, they'll find a scapegoat to blame (ie. Obama's quote about \"clinging to guns and religion\"). The solution isn't positive thinking about the system that used to work but no longer does, but making the changes to a system that does work for the people beholden to it, one that can produce relative improvement on the basics in life.  It follows that the philosophical foundation of a new status quo that works is going to be different than the foundation of the old; not entirely, but a few pieces will have to be changed out to make it work, and that's what the \"anti-western philosophy\" mentioned at the top is attempting to do. \n (I don't personally agree with the larger \"anti western philosophy\" POV, that's just my understanding of it)."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "The Chinese government is letting the mask slip too soon, as they don't yet have the power to enforce their \"or else\" in a way that actually hurts. As far as denial of trade, there are still alternative countries to do business with, and they don't have much else with which to threaten just yet. \n Letting it slip this soon just broadcasts their MO and highlights that they are  not  a reliable trading partner for anyone who isn't willing to fully subscribe to China's rule-set. For those interested in human rights and the premise of democracy, it puts some urgency on the need to limit China's reach and to undermine their power however possible.", "id": "c14koky", "summary": "Beware of the Juggernaut."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I agree that the US should be reimbursed, the way the older President Bush did the funding of the Gulf War should really be looked at wherever use/presence of our military benefits countries with the ability to pay. \n As for the military bases, depends on the POV as for whether we should be there or not. The \"we need to be there\" position is of a pro-empire/military dominance view, in maintaining the reach of control the US had in the region at the end of WW2, and keeping a heavy presence around potential opponents (North Korea, China, Russia). The equivalent for the US would be if Russia or China set up a long-term military presence of bases in Mexico & the Caribbean; like our presence on the east coast of Asia and Pacific islands, it would severely limit the ability of the surrounded country to influence or take-over weaker neighbors, and would make clear who's the boss, deterring conflict.", "id": "c0jxqas", "summary": "An ounce of prevention (the cost of these bases) is worth a pound of cure (the cost of a devastating war)"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "There are several very helpful comments mentioning resources and directions to go, so I won't touch on that. The only thing I'll add is that conceptually, mentally replacing \"I can't\" with \"how can I\" is empowering and it frames the situation in a way that solutions and options tend to come about easier. \n As for why it seems like you're thrown under the bus for being an adult with Aspergers, it goes far beyond that, and it's due to a nasty social darwinism streak that's deeply ingrained in our culture. In their view (and \"they\" comprise about half of the country, and more than half of those with the money and power), the world and all of its assets are for the strong to take (that they deserve it by virtue of being strong), and the weak must be eliminated. The eliminationist element in our culture is the \"soft\" form, denial and theft of resources, so that the weak will waste away and die quietly. \n This is the same strategy used by baby birds in the nest; the strong take food from their weaker siblings, thus they grow even stronger while their weaker sibling grows even weaker until nature takes its course. The strong baby bird gets off the hook for dealing the death blow, but it was responsible for moving the weaker baby bird into a position where the odds were even more stacked against it than they were to begin with. \n We see it in our language, \"the rat race\", \"it's a dog eat dog world\", it gets enshrined in our economic system (which they went ahead and turned it into a value system, where the rich are inherently good by virtue of having access to money while the poor are inherently bad (lazy, dumb, etc) for not having access to money). \n Fortunately, there are two competing mentalities within our culture (if there weren't, the wolves would have eaten each other long ago). The crowd of social darwinists has to compete with the humanists (those who value human life and quality of life and see the need for some redistribution of resources to advance these values (which include protecting and healing the weak and sick). All the social support programs and healthcare programs we have are the product of the humanists (although they went by different names over the generations). \n In the broad reach of history, there's sort of a pendulum swinging back and forth which favors one side or the other for two or three generations at a time. Since the 1980s the pendulum's swing has favored the social darwinists, and it will unfortunately be their time for a while longer. It is the social darwinists' role to tear apart as much of the social and health support for the weak that they can. Most of the 20th century and the late 19th century was the time of forward momentum for the humanists (who went by other names, but the values were pretty much the same). \n It's the nature of this back-and-forth pendulum swing that each of the two sides has a spotty field of victories and losses. This is reflected in our social support systems. This is why children and the elderly have more support than those in between; the advances made protecting children and the elderly came first, but the pendulum stopped swinging in the humanists' favor before it could be expanded to all. \n It is also reflected in the financial resources allocated. Programs that don't have enough resources to cover the full age spectrum will usually cut the 18-65 group first. There's an element of social darwinism in this, as the rationalization is that they can fend for themselves better than the other groups, but this cut is the opposite of how the social darwinists do it, making cuts to the relatively strongest first, rather than to the weakest first. \n The bittersweet thing about the whole matter is that the vast majority of people are \"weak\" in some way or another, including many of the social darwinists themselves. Many of them are like little dogs who roll around in skunk piss with the mistaken idea that it'll make them feared/respected like the big bad skunk, when really it just makes them stink and spreads the stink around, but that's beside the point. The point is the social darwinism ends up hurting most people, unnecessarily making life worse in many ways. While there is an evolutionarily advantageous instinct behind it, it goes against the whole concept of civilization, a concept where we've been trying to get away from the \"law of the jungle\" for the past 10,000 years. \n If it's any consolation, the multi-generational pendulum will swing back in the humanists favor, and I expect great advances in mental healthcare in the next round, probably starting mid-century, but the seeds of that are beginning to germinate now. Also, the broad arc of history favors the humanists, the civilization builders. \n The thousands of us damaged people (myself included) posting our stories and struggles on the internet live in a time of increasing struggle, but the stories of our struggles are the fuel that will propel the next push forward.", "id": "cmtapr5", "summary": "that's my take on the \"why\" part of your post."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "We're clearly in decline at the moment, though there's no way if this is 'the big one' or if we're just in a rough patch like so many times before. Like the irreconcilable difference in 'Northern' vs 'Southern' government philosophy that lead to the Civil War, the decades of horrific working conditions and violence towards the labor movement, the failures that lead to the Great Depression being as catastrophic as it was, the failures that lead to turbulence of the 60s, like all of that, the mess we're in now is a combination of  difficult-but-solvable structural problems and having a generation of people who just can't solve the problems of their time. \n But bad as it is, the US has a few important things going for it that our Soviet counterparts did not:  free press/freedom of information/free speech, and fair elections.  With these, we have a chance of turning it around. Without these things, we would be locked in on a track with a certain outcome, like the Russians were. \n I am optimistic about the outcome, provided we make it through this decade without radicals getting control of a party and gaining majority (whether in Congress, as President, or both).", "id": "c11i14a", "summary": "In decline at the moment, too soon to tell if we're doomed, but we have a few key things going for us that the Russians in the late Soviet years did not. Cautiously optimistic,  if  radicals never gain control."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "It's just the online counterpart to people complaining about how life used to be better until \"these damn kids came along, the neighborhood was  perfect  when I moved in (didn't notice the grumbling of the old folks at the time), and get off my lawn!\" \n It's always been like this.\n> \"The children now love luxury; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are tyrants, not servants of the households. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize over their teachers. I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.~attributed to Hesiod (8th century B.C.)", "id": "c0evrhn", "summary": "Get off my lawn!\" online & offline is the same (substitute 'lawn' for Reddit or anything else), and with both online & offline the point the \"it used to be better before  you  came along\" crowd miss is that it was never  their  lawn, rather it's  a  lawn they're just occupying at the moment, and it's only even a 'lawn' because that's their wish for what they want it to be, people before them and after them will probably have different ideas for what to do with it. Cycle of life."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I am not feeling like a made a mistake at all, but several of our mutual friends are angry with me, and accusing me of lying to him about loving him and then cutting him off as soon as a minor problem came up. I feel like the best thing for me, and him, is that he gets the help he needs alone. Am I the heartless bitch my friends claim I am? \n You gotta admit, it does look like that. To go from expressing love suddenly ending it over one faux pas, that is a rather cold sudden turn of events, isn't it? (At least that's the way it looks) \n And on your mutual friends' accusation of you lying about loving him, the way you phrased it describing it seemed, odd: \n > agreed to be exclusive,  and had even said  \"I love you\" \n Not that you actually felt love, but just that you said the words. I can understand getting cornered into a situation where he said it then you felt pressured to say it back, but even if you didn't intend to,  it sounds like  you ended up leading him on with that. Which is why I avoid those three words like the plague and discourage their use. Thing is, some people (like that guy) get carried away when they hear those three words because it means something different in their mind than it does in your mind (and that's ok). So best to handle the L word like the potential disaster it is.", "id": "c0wha7p", "summary": "Did the right thing in ending it (incompatibility), but could have done it better. Might have better luck with someone whose personality is closer to your own. (Hope that's not too blunt, but from your description it sounds like that's where it went wrong)."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I'm in the same mode of outlook. The more you read on what problems we face, what progress is being made in solving said problems, and what human behavior obstacles (politics, human psychology, our economic system, greed, wishful thinking, etc) are hindering progress towards solving these problems...  it's dark stuff. \n To pick up where you left off, atmospheric CO2 gets dissolved in the oceans. With more of it in the air, there's more of it in the water, and that raises the acidity of the oceans. The problem is that most life in the ocean can't handle the acidity we're throwing at it. Additionally, as the planet warms, methane is leaking from the thawing permafrost in the arctic, itself a major contributor to global warming. [From the article]( \n >  The change in pH of the ocean is primarily being caused by the growing global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, which becomes an acid, carbonic acid, when it dissolves in water. As the methane clathrates increasingly thaw, they will also acidify the water. \n On the current business-as-usual course (which we haven't departed from since the alarm was raised in the early 90s, 20+ years ago), according to the National Research Council (NRC)'s 2014 report \"Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change: Anticipating Surprises\", the amount of CO2 going into the oceans is setting them up to repeat the end-Permian extinction from 250 million years ago, when 90% of ocean species went extinct. \n Even besides the mass death of species that define the oceans for us (whales, dolphins, etc), even besides the mass death of species coastal populations rely on for food (the majority of humans live within a few miles of the coast) at the same time when there will be a major food production crisis on land, even besides all that, what worries me most are what happens to the phytoplankton (the bottom of the foodchain in the ocean, while small they're many in number, as they make up about half the biomass of all life on earth). Not only are they the base of the food chain in the ocean (without which almost everything in the ocean will die), but they are also responsible for 40% of the atmosphere's oxygen. (8.4% of atmospheric oxygen comes from the phytoplankton) \n If the phytoplankton take a serious hit, so does the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere. \n As it stands, about 21% of the atmosphere is oxygen. At 17% is anoxia (low oxygen). Below that dizziness sets in. At between 14% down to 10% oxygen, a person cannot escape moderate to heavy dizziness. Collapse occurs at 08% oxygen, and at 06% death occurs within 45 minutes. \n So if phytoplankton are reduced by even just 50% due to increased acidicity, that's taking 4.2% of oxygen out of the atmosphere, lowering the atmospheric percentage to 16.8%, well into anoxia, light dizziness and confusion. \n 50% is just a wild guess though. We should look to the record of the Permian mass extinction for a look at what that did to atmospheric oxygen levels. [From the article]( \n > Atmospheric oxygen content, about 21 percent today, was a very rich 30 percent in the early Permian period. (prior to the mass extinction) \n > However, previous carbon-cycle modeling by Robert Berner at Yale University has calculated that atmospheric oxygen began plummeting soon after, reaching about 16 percent at the end of the Permian and bottoming out at less than 12 percent about 10 million years into the Triassic period. \n > \"Oxygen dropped from its highest level to its lowest level ever in only 20 million years, which is quite rapid, and animals that once were able to cross mountain passes quite easily suddenly had their movements severely restricted,\" Huey said. \n > He calculated that when the oxygen level hit 16 percent, breathing at sea level would have been like trying to breathe at the summit of a 9,200-foot mountain today. \n > By the early Triassic period, sea-level oxygen content of less than 12 percent would have been the same as it is today in the thin air at 17,400 feet, higher than any permanent human habitation. That means even animals at sea level would have been oxygen challenged. \n So if at sea level, oxygen levels are lower than they are at the highest permanent human settlement, that means we can't live above sea level. That means extinction, not only for us, but for all land mammals that rely on similar levels of oxygen, and likely many non-mammalian species on land as well.", "id": "ceop1cj", "summary": "There are only a few dots to be connected between the levels of CO2 we have in the atmosphere today, to raising the temperature and acidicity of the oceans to that of the Permean mass extinction 250 MYA, to the mass die-off of ocean life (including phytoplankton) in those conditions, to the reduction of atmospheric oxygen from that, to the diminishing the land we can breathe on to the lower elevations (with a spectrum of anoxia's effects between the lowest elevation and the dead zone), to reducing atmospheric oxygen to a level that most land life cannot survive above sea level. \n \n We as a species can survive food shortages, water shortages, energy shortages, nuclear war (civilization may not survive combinations of those, but the species probably would). But looking at the threats and their odds in the next few centuries, IMO atmospheric oxygen depletion will be our extinction event. (Ours and most other mammalian species we're familiar with.) \n And even if we don't go all the way, it's well within the realm of possibility that we cripple life on land, relegating ourselves and surviving land species to the lowest elevations, permanently dizzy and confused, depending on automated technology built in decades past to support us, but unable to maintain it due to our reduced mental faculties. What's left of civilization would steadily break down, reduced to dizzy, confused emaciated people in rags chasing dizzy and confused small mammals on the beach. A beach lapped at by acidified waves from a mostly dead ocean. That might last for a few decades, or maybe a century before the last person dies, probably laying on a beach, gasping for air like a fish out of water."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Having been both an employee and a manager (I was promoted for both managerial jobs I had so there was familiarity and a reputation already with the workers, so that might not translate when compared to walking in as a manager without an established reputation), a few tips: \n \n It's ok to be cordial or warm or informal, but you'll never be 'friends' with your subordinates, and trying to do so will cause problems all around. \n \n Girls like a guy with power. Hooking up at work when you're both on the same level is complicated enough, but when there's a power difference, there are more things to consider. So tread carefully on this one. \n \n Not sure how much on the job training you'll have, but in both jobs of this type I had, my first day was basically shadowing another manager. If your situation is anything like that, your first impression will be as a guy following another manager around. If you can do it without being fake, try to take on the posture/movement and body language of an equal with that manager, not the body language of a subordinate. Of course there's a fine line with this, because if you come off as fake it'll backfire. \n \n Just overall be warm, open, smiles, but not a pushover. Looking at it from an employee's view, the main concerns are \"Ok, at least this guy isn't an asshole\" and \"Ok, he's not a high energy busybody.\" \n \n Once on the job for a while, I've found that minimizing the status difference and creating a camaraderie with the subordinates when possible goes  a long way  when you need them to put in something extra. Double standards between the boss and the subordinates are the things to zero in on and minimize if you can (ex. privileges you have but they don't have, visibly sitting around doing absolutely nothing while they work, stuff like that). \n \n You'll probably find in time that there's a force pulling you from above and below; the subordinates wanting less BS and better work environment, and your bosses wanting you to screw them further. Side too much with management and your job will be very safe, but the employees will despise you; side too much with the employees and you'll be well-respected and thought highly of by them but your job may be in jeopardy. So it's a fine line to walk, and at times impossible.", "id": "c0wa1tv", "summary": "Don't expect to be friends with any subordinates, be warm, cordial but not a pushover, come off as competent but not as a busybody, subordinate girls are going to be all over you so choose wisely, and work on building a reputation, and be mindful of the office politics and power dynamics that lay ahead. Best of luck."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I'm in the same boat, and this seems like the place I was looking for all day, a place full of 'Monday social anxiety' people. \n I volunteer at a food bank on Mondays. Since I'm out of work, socially isolated and without purpose otherwise, this is the highlight of my week in terms of being like a normal productive person, and the only real-life opportunity I have for overcoming my social anxiety/awkwardness (which developed during the now  years  of long-term unemployment brought on by a confluence of macro-economic, mental, and physical problems, which resulted in deep shame of being unemployed so long, loss of 'small talk' skills, etc). \n While doing this volunteering seems to be helping me roll back the damage, psychologically and physically it's been brutal. Not only is there the social anxiety, but I have major socioeconomic class anxiety as well, which is relevant because at my volunteering job I'm out of my league, at least two rungs on the ladder lower than the others. My co-volunteers are retired school superintendants, CEOs, upper managment, wives of all the above, world travelers, etc, all talking about their February and March vacation plans to warm and/or exotic places, their new expensive hobbies, their life experiences, etc... while I was raised lower-middle class, not well-traveled, I've never eaten mountain lion, never had a professional job post-college, and have been living in various levels of poverty for most of my adult life. So far I'm just 'the quiet one', but it's only a matter of time until they know my story, which compared to theirs is uneventful, bleak, and depressing. I'm not a good BSer either, so I'm not sure how to go about that inevitability of having to talk about myself when it would establish me as someone/something far less than them. \n Thing is, they're perfectly nice, kind, and decent people. If they were assholes it would almost be easier to navigate, but the main problem is that they, a bunch of 60-something baby boomers, have no reference point for my floundering. From what they've mentioned of their kids, their kids seem to have 'made it', so there isn't even the relatability in that way. \n I know this is the only way out of my hole, to overcome social anxiety/awkwardness through exposure, I just wish there was a way to do it with people who are closer to my station in life, so I don't have to deal with socioconomic class issues at the same time (one anxiety at a time, please).", "id": "cogimzh", "summary": "At this volunteering place, I'm more of the sort of person who typically is receiving charity/ aid than the sort of person donating time to help. My social anxiety intertwines with my socioeconomic class anxiety, and I feel like it's only a matter of time until I'm \"found out\" as a poor person with a sad, boring, uneventful life."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Well, none are so zealous as the newly converted,  RecoveringOilAdddict  :), so setting aside the vitriol towards the average American and looking at what would actually solve/reduce the problem: \n We weren't always so car-dependent; your two statistics, disturbing as they are, point to a lack of public transit infrastructure. Go back 60 years, those statistics were  very  different, and we both know what changed. \n My gripe isn't with the people beholden to the way things are, but rather, how we got here. Corporate influence in politics (automakers lobbying to destroy the streetcar infrastructure), deferred cost economics rather than true cost economics (cars and the cost of their parts and byproducts were artificially cheap all these years, as the cost of the harm was not included in the price tag, if it was, we wouldn't be in this position now), and a half-century of extremely cheap energy messing with everyone's perception of reality (an aberration in history, likely not to be repeated anytime soon), all brought about this situation. \n The problem of corporate influence in politics and bringing about true cost pricing are IMO beyond the scope of what's possible anytime soon. But the effect of the price of oil/gas on peoples' buying behavior and transportation preferences  is  what IMO will change all of this. Remember a couple years ago when the price of oil/gas spiked, the age of the SUV and the Hummer came to a sudden abrupt end, and (around here at least), use of public transit overwhelmed capacity. It was only because of this global recession/depression that the prices dropped. So I think the age of economic boom times with cheap energy are over, at least until fusion is around. And from this economic pressure, peoples' spending patterns (on housing, transportation), will change accordingly. \n IMO, advocating for increased public transportation options and infrastructure will find very receptive ears the next time gas is $5/gallon, and making the argument on economic/pocketbook terms will get much further than on moral/environmental terms. The military (in some report or paper put out in the last few weeks) is even advocating a conservation approach in line with environmentalists, on the grounds that with diminishing supplies of oil there won't be enough for the population and the military and so they need it first (their argument, not mine). So there is a 'national security' argument and ally in no less than the military itself, for the cause of reducing oil consumption.", "id": "c0p6mvu", "summary": "rather than taking it out on the average American (cathartic as it may be), there's plenty of groundwork that can be laid and advocacy to be made, to get maximum impact with the next oil/gas price spike."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Probably very well mentally and personality-wise, but his biggest weakness is his appearence, wouldn't go over well in the TV era. Lincoln however was a pro at using new media in campaigning; in his time this was photography. By 1850's standards he had a ton of pictures taken, and like we know from Myspace self pics, photography is much kinder to people's looks than video. The sense at the time was that everybody having seen his picture had a sense of familiarity with him that they usually didn't have with candidates, and in a time of rough ugly people he didn't look so bad. \n Though most of what we think of Lincoln as President is due to the circumstances of his term, and since no other President has faced a similar situation, it's difficult to compare. Also, he had it easy in that he was the only President other than Washington to have little in terms of a political opposition, and he had the elevated stature from being a 'War President'  like Wilson, FDR, and Bush (for a few years) had. So  a big part of the status of Lincoln was just part of the 1860-1864 term.", "id": "c0hs5n5", "summary": "Lincoln would be good using new media in campaigning, but his ugliness would be a problem. And if he did make it in the present, he wouldn't be anything close to a mythic figure as that was due to the circumstances of his term."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Worse than ever? No. I think if people in western countries were given a choice to live in 2014 or some random year in the past few hundred years, most would want to stay in this era. You'll know it's getting bad when people would rather take their chances in a time before internet, before civil rights laws, before the polio vaccine, before antibiotics, before any sort of welfare safety net, etc. \n I agree though that the headlines are particularly awful this year. I've been a news junkie since the mid 80s, and from that I've noticed every once in a while a year more negative than the others comes along. Sometimes it's one event that is especially disturbing (the nuclear tensions between the US and USSR in 1983 were more grave than anything today). Other times, like 2014, it's having a variety of bad news that just keeps coming, new bad stories piling on before the old ones are resolved, all in an atmosphere of upheaval and rapid change that makes it seem like the world is going to pieces (1968 was one of those years). Late 2001 had a heaviness to it (in the US at least) that there hasn't been anything like it since (here at least). \n So comparing 2014 to any of those three recent 'bad' years (2001, 1983, and 1968), this is the least bad of the three because we (people in western countries) aren't affected by most of it. Of course, if we asked someone in the middle east, Ukraine, or any other places that actually are going to pieces they'd have a different answer. From that, something to look for in quantifying just how bad it is how many people are directly affected by the range of bad news going around. \n The other element is the trend. Many trends are going in a negative direction, making the future appear worse than the present (affordable healthy food and clean water access, antibiotic resistance, non-renewable resource depletion, local effects of climate change, acidification of the oceans, declining population of wildlife, declining workforce participation due to increasing job eliminations, the burden of essentials in costs of living getting worse, etc). While the trend in a worsening direction has been the norm since the late 60s, either it's getting steeper or the arrival date of these long forecasted outcomes is getting closer (IMO it's the latter, as the retort \"maybe new technology will save us, and surely people will wake up and solve the problem before it is too late\" is looking more unlikely with each passing year).", "id": "ck10dpg", "summary": "Is it worse than ever before? No. Are the headlines unusually bad this year? Yes, every once in a while a year like this comes along (see 2001, 1983, 1968).  It's important to separate when local people are directly affected by news stories vs when they aren't; this helps provide a reality check for how things actually are. The trend is definitely getting worse though. \n Subreddits you might be interested in: /r/collapse, /r/darkfuturology, and /r/lostgeneration"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Another interesting thing about Bachmann is that several long-time GOP senior campaign people signed up to run her campaign. I can't remember all the names, but Ed Rollins is one of them; he ran Reagan's 1984 campaign, IIRC. Hasn't had as much success since then, but he did run Huckabee's 2008 campaign, and Huckabee came in 2nd... \n I don't know if they're onboard because they really think she has a chance, or if there are good paychecks to be had (Koch Tea Party money being thrown around), or if their self-interest is to just make her do much better than expected so they can keep their professional credentials fresh, or some combo of the above. \n And that is interesting about the height factor. I also go by the \"perceived strength\" factor too, that whichever Presidential candidate is perceived as being stronger/tougher/more solid is the one that almost always wins. Height is part of this toughness perception, and W Bush wiped the floor with Gore and Kerry on this perception. McCain's  combo of his age and injuries, the contrast between the youthful and able-bodied Obama and the infirm shuffling McCain set that perception, even despite his 'war hero' status. His erratic behavior with suspending his campaign fed into this weakness perception, IMO. \n So looking at Obama and possible Republican candidates with the \"toughness perception\" in mind, Palin is the only one that tops him in it, IMO (though her monumental other problems may well eclipse that). Huntsman is the one I'm most perplexed by, that Obama considers him a serious competitor. While he looks great on paper, what I've seen of him so far, while he's likely a nice guy and a decent human being, he exudes weakness like no major candidate I can remember. A matchup between Huntsman and Obama, Obama is going to very much look like the alpha male between the two, even moreso than he looked vs McCain. Pawlenty has a similar but less exaggerated weakness, and while Romney might be Obama's equal on this indicator (if he plays up his physical fitness), Obama's \"commander in chief\" mantle will probably give him the edge. \n Bachmann might have a strong hand to play on this, if she goes the \"dominant female\" route and attacks Obama's manhood (Palin laid the groundwork for this approach post 2008). I don't know that there is a good defense against that. Though I also don't know if that's in Bachmann's character, she exudes \"crazy\" more than anything else. But if her handlers can mask the crazy, I could see them trying to package her like Reagan (an actor pitching catchphrases and an air of ultra-patriotism, trying to win on feelings). But Reagan had some acting skill, and W. Bush had cheerleader skills, I'm not sure what Bachmann has.", "id": "c21bd8g", "summary": "I'm not writing off Bachmann as a serious contender, even while she's not (and will never be) a serious candidate."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "4 \n 1 lives a life of extremes and is very loud. I can't deal with that. She also has addiction in her future and will be hostile when faced with an intervention. \n 2 is fine and has her shit together, but there is a cold calculatingness in her eyes. She'd kick you to the curb in your weakest moment without hesitation. \n 3 is sweet... But she has a mean streak, and relies on food for comfort. Eventually she'll either be 200 lbs, or she'll deny herself her greatest comfort, and that's when the mean will really show.so \n 4 is easygoing, likes herself, is not easily spooked, and is adventurous (but not obsessively). While she'll cheat on you,  she will always be as fun seeking as she is now, and she's the only one here who will be a joy to be around in 10 years.", "id": "co9l07b", "summary": "KFFM"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Try it here: \n As for advice, have you both tried role-playing? Considering the stumbling block is that the regular-you is having a hard time punishing the regular-him when he didn't do anything to 'deserve it' in regular-life, how about having it where you're the  very  strict schoolteacher and he's the can't-do-anything-right schoolboy (can be college if age-play is an issue). \n (As a guy into the same stuff, looking at what would totally do it from his view) Maybe start with bossing him around to do things a strict teacher would demand, to write something on the board, to memorize something you say, to do simple math, to hold the pencil a certain way, whatever. He's going to screw it all up, wanting to make your character mad, and you should show it. Get more demanding, more strict, threaten corporal punishment, and he'll supposedly try to do those, but of course make more mistakes. He'll be trying to press your buttons and get your character agitated, either by being a jackass schoolboy who needs discipline, or a bumbling idiot who means well but can't stop messing up; same thing either way. Regardless, let the tension escalate, let your character be increasingly fed up with his bad behavior, warn him of the consequences if he screws up again, and it'll be surprisingly easy to get started with the punishment when he crosses some arbitrary line.", "id": "c0urmct", "summary": "It's all about getting into the right mental space, and role-playing is a great way to do this."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Over the course my life I've worn: cotton tighty-whities, cotton boxer-briefs, silk boxers, and cotton boxers. \n Of those, I still do the boxer briefs while exercising, but every other minute of the day that I'm wearing anything, it's cotton boxers all the way. With every other kind of underwear, I'm very aware that I'm in fact wearing underwear, but with cotton boxers, the thought never comes to mind (as in reminders by pinched or sweating whatever). \n As for what brand is any good, I haven't tried any of the more expensive stuff, but for the 'regular' priced stuff, K-Mart's \"Joe Boxer\" brand was ok, though the waistband is wearing out in those 7 years after buying. And the fabric is thinner, but no holes or anything. I have a higher opinion of JcPenny's \"Stafford\" brand ( these are the exact ones .", "id": "c0x7b4u", "summary": "cotton boxers."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I find it kind of odd that Al Gore is addressing this aspect of the medium-term future, considering that the effects of climate change and non-renewable resource depletion in this century are going to be putting serious strain on our ability to even maintain civilization, and he's been ahead of the curve on the climate change part of that at least. Compared to when Gore started sounding the alarm, the projections and prospects are worse now than they were then. Or maybe he's saying we'll get one more round of musical chairs in before the Titanic goes under. \n But as for how socialism and/or communism fit into the future Gore is talking about (AI/robots/automation tech take many human jobs away)... the only way we'll see the old proletariat (or in modern terms, the old working class and middle class) become a leisure class is  after  a successful socialist and/or communist revolution. (And note, given the transformation of so many aspects of life by recent technology, this revolution might be something entirely different than what we've seen, perhaps expanding/updating the concept of what a revolution looks like. The next Lenin or Mao may be an AI.). \n You know how the productivity gains in the past decade have gone almost entirely to the top 1% while wages stagnated? People aren't working harder, it's the advances in new technology doing the heavy lifting. The problem is, the owners of capital (the new productivity equipment) are pocketing all the gains, while the workers are getting paid the same as when they did a fraction of the work manually. \n It's going to take a significant and profound change to wind up with shared ownership of capital, whether in the form of Co-ops (where corporate profits are distributed more equally amongst employees, rather than the big non-employee shareholders taking almost everything as it is currently), or by eliminating significant concentrations of company shares and expanding the shareholders to a much larger group of citizens (perhaps having a large and diverse stock portfolio attached to every social security number, so it distributes the profit that way). Either way, it'll be the battle of the century to get this reform that must come before there's a leisure class. \n Lastly, it's important to note in all this, the old pre-21st century notions of capitalism, socialism, and communism that were based on an economy built upon human labor, that's steadily going out the window as the machines are increasingly doing the work of  all  classes. It would be a mistake to see the problem as traditional capitalism and the solution as traditional socialism or communism. Related, the stuff Gore is talking about, that future is now. On this, there isn't a past, present, and future, there's only the past and the future, and we're living in the future. \n IMO, the two likely outcomes are either neo-feudalism or 'techno-communism with a capitalist-ish economy for whatever our personal replicators can't produce', and anything resembling the post WW2 economy is already dead and decomposing. Right now we're in the early stages of neo-feudalism, and I'm not sure we can change the direction at the moment, but extraordinary events sometimes act as catalysts for significant change. This is a time for the great thinkers of our age to draw up a blueprint for what might work for us. Or maybe with 'crowdsourcing' being a thing, we're collectively the great thinker that will figure it out. Time will tell.", "id": "cf4i41z", "summary": "Socialism and/or communism is the general set of ideas that will empower people to disrupt the trajectory towards neo-feudalism (concentrating capital) we've been on for a few decades, and put us on a trajectory towards distributing capital (capital that is grown increasingly not by human labor, but by machines)."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I don't buy it.  This is the poll . With doing a poll, one of the pitfalls is unwittingly deterring a demographic from answering, or answering honestly. The group that put it out was Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey; if their opening lines were very heavy with religious language (\"religion this, religion that, people of faith, etc\", with no mention of those who aren't religious), I can see how that would deter atheists/agnostics from taking the time to answer. EDIT: But I have no idea if this happened without seeing how they presented themselves. \n Not to mention, they had to define 'god' in the broadest of terms to get that number, stretching it to the point of absurdity. Like this guy in the article: \n > David Phillips, 57, a Bethesda receiving clerk who considers himself a humanist -- meaning he does not embrace the concept of a supernatural being -- does not believe in a God who is an \"actual person.\" But Phillips does believe in a \"spirit -- a spirit within you.\" \n > \"God is a symbol that everybody can relate to,\" Phillips said. \"They look to it as a visual thing. But, actually, God is inside of them.\" \n The age breakdown with this stuff is interesting though: \n > Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion. \n So in this era of active & activist religion (I'd define as 1980 to now),  25% of those who grew up in this era are having none of it.  Of course, they're not going to put  that  as the headline. :) \n And a 25% bloc demographic is huge on the American cultural and political landscape (for context, the total sum of Catholics is 23%, and the total sum of Tea Party types is 18%). It's only a matter of a couple decades until the average will come to resemble the current 18-29 demographic; most likely when they/we are in our forties.", "id": "c0qmo98", "summary": "I suspect underreporting of 'unaffiliated' (agnostics/atheists), but have nothing to back it up - They had to stretch into absurdity to reach the 92% number - The old folks are overwhelmingly religious, the young folks not as much. So while the numbers are (for now) on the side of the religious, the momentum is on the side of the unaffiliated/non-religious. /glass-half-full."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Entropy. System decay is inevitable, but it's not a problem when there is constant renewal and repair. However, disable the ability to recognize, deliberate and come to a solution,  and implement actual solutions to problems, the problems start piling up and festering. The larger a system grows, the more complex and disordered it tends to get, and from that, the harder it gets to recognize and correctly respond to problems. \n At this point, IMO the problems are too varied and too complicated for a fix. The waters of public information are too muddy for the public to make reasoned decisions at the ballot box, and the economy grows increasingly dependent upon highly complex financial schemes on Wall Street that are difficult to regulate. Outsourcing of better paying factory jobs while replacing them with lower paying service/retail jobs is another part of the problem, where a scheme of massive consumer debt was pushed to keep the former living standard afloat (debt in itself isn't a bad thing, but debt at the level where it is a struggle to pay the interest is). The tech revolution we're in the middle of is radically increasing productivity, but it is killing jobs at a greater rate than it makes up for with new types of jobs (that's why the recovery to this recession and the previous one were \"jobless recoveries\". Add to all the above, the US is becoming increasingly diverse (not just protestant/catholic or WASP/white non-WASP as it was in the beginning, but a huge spectrum that is finding new ways to further diversify the conventional perception of 'who we are'. More diversity means more people fall under the \"other\"; this is a big obstacle in healthcare reform, welfare, changing course on the war on drugs, etc; people give less fucks about those who are different than them, and add political and profit-minded exploitation of these differences, it divides and conquers the public, keeping us fighting over the crumbs and voting against our collective interests. And top that off with an entertainment/infotainment culture (enabled by technology) unrivaled in history, serving as a constant waking distraction. \n If you want to boil it down to a light", "id": "c5z11c7", "summary": "I recommend George Carlin. While he's no longer with us, many of the problems he highlighted 10, 20, 40 years ago are very much alive and with us. \n For a more serious look, I'd highly recommend getting into the details of at how the Roman Empire handled its growing complexity from the point where the Republic became dysfunctional to 476 AD; [Decline of the Roman Empire]( History doesn't truly repeat, but it rhymes, so some of what's there should sound familiar."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I'm the same way. Thankfully the health hazard situations (and fear of spiders above a certain size) override the empathy/awareness enough to do the deed, but I still feel horrible for the rest of the day. It sometimes gets ridiculous around here with my dixie cup 'bug rescues' and herding flies towards the door, but it's a non-negotiable for me, I can't just allow my family to be killing beings due to mere annoyance or \"just because\". When I'm not around or not in the room they do it anyway, and I try not to make a big deal of it, only asking them to let me know next time so I can get it out of the house (they usually do let me know instead of just killing them for the following few days, then it's back to the usual). For years I've been a sort of 'insect diplomat', trying to work out deals and arrangements with my family so they don't kill any. Thankfully the preventative approach keeps this to a minimum (keeping things clean and staying on top of any way they're getting into the house). But still. \n Ants are also an issue here. At the moment they're getting into the house in an unknown way (heavy rains flooding their underground homes are likely driving their behavior); lately I've been transporting maybe a dozen out of the house every day. In normal weather it's usually two or three per week. \n I'm the wrong person to suggest a solution as my daily activity on the subject is pretty ridiculous by any normal standard, but what helps keep my toes on the right side of the line is the health/safety of my family and myself. Some mice and their droppings in the basement (and then in the kitchen) helped me adjust to the reality of that. I was messing around with non-lethal traps that weren't working, and it got to a point where I needed to just get a normal lethal trap and do what needed to be done. That the mice resembled my dog made it even more difficult, and I felt numb and strange after disposing of them... but I got it done. \n Temporarily displacing the awareness of them as little mammals and focusing on the health hazard (hantavirus, plague, or who knows what) is what lets me physically set the traps. \n Also, baby powder works for creating a boundary ants won't cross. That and hanging back and observing where they're getting in, and caulking it if possible.", "id": "carov5t", "summary": "2nd to last paragraph."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Yep. \n I was a mod for /r/politics from August or September of 2011 until leaving in May of this year, and holy shit does that place grind mods up. It's been hemorrhaging great/competent/ truly fair-minded mods for months (and one or more not-so-great/competent/fair-minded mods as well), and I fully expect that trend to continue. \n Since I quit that place, I reduced the subreddits I mod down to just a few small and medium sized ones with better subscribers, and the experience is SO much better and more worthwhile. It reminded me of how and why I got into modding in the first place. But thinking back to most of my time in /politics... it was a fool's errand. \n See, many of the giant/controversial/default subreddits don't just pick up mods out of nowhere, they tend to pick them from people who have an established reputation and demonstrated experience modding other subreddits. The result of this is having a set of people who know their stuff... yet there are limits to that (see next paragraph). \n Modding small to medium sized subreddits brings a series of changes and challenges as they grow, and it's rewarding to help manage a subreddit one cares about, both to see it thrive as well as the personal sense of being like the guy at the circus spinning all the plates on tall sticks.  But as a subreddit grows, there are more plates to spin, bigger plates to spin, and failure gets more epic and harder to manage the bigger it gets (making people more averse to failure as the place gets bigger, which just means problems grow and multiply). \n Add to that, with truly idiotic and petulant people as the continually loudest subscribers, it does wear people down. But it's insidiously hard to notice, as  people who become mods there have thick skins to begin with, and delude themselves/ourselves into thinking just because nothing got under our skin so far, and because no individual or specific incident got under our skin so far, that the cumulative sum of everything cannot break our backs. It's this last part that is what repeatedly burns people out. The weight of it all, the constant daily grind of nasty, petulant morons, it wears people out. \n \n But what are the upsides? What keeps people there? (Check one or more boxes): \n 👓 Collectors:  It's a mark of personal self-worth and accomplishment to mod a  lot  of subreddits. \n 👓 Easy Street Emerituses:  The top few mods of many subreddits shift to a hibernating state, where they come out of the woodwork only when there are problems caused by mods further down the list. All the grief and negativity from dealing with the subscriber base, they don't have to deal with that. It's easy... for them. This group happens to overlap heavily with the Collectors, no surprise there. \n 👓 POWER:  Of these, some are easy to spot (they never get brought on as mods in large subreddits to begin with), but others are more clever. The clever ones only gradually become known as problem-makers after they're entrenched, and they greatly benefit from the environment of a continually hostile userbase that forces mods together. It's hard to deal with a problem on the inside when constantly under siege from the outside. Add to it how there really isn't a good way to remove clever bad mods (having a higher-ranking mod just simply remove them never seems to happen), and  POWER is fulfilling and rewarding benefit of being a mod of a giant/controversial sub to the handful of mods who get their rocks off on it, continuing to attract such people like a bug zapper that doesn't zap. \n 👓 Pretend Job:  The constant daily grind resembles a work day, and the most active hours happen to sync up with the average American workday. There's something about modding a large sub that lures mods into thinking of it like a job. (I and most mods fall in this category). It's a good way to keep customer service skills fresh, for un/underemployed people to keep in the habit of working, and for IT people with cushy jobs to pretend to work instead of actually working. Note that people with real jobs don't fall for this. Only once mods fully embrace that they're not getting compensated in any way for contributing real work to what they thought was going to be a fun recreational activity does the bubble get popped. \n 👓 Smarty-pants ego-building:  (I and some mods fall in this category)  \"So there's this big subreddit with unsolved problems and they desperately need more mods?   I   can do it! I've managed small and medium subreddits pretty well, so obviously I could do this too. I'll get in there, apply my brilliant mind to solving the problems that no one else figured out so far, and everything will be great!\"  Of course, problems that one expects should be solved in a week turns into a month, turns into many months, and it never seems to really get much better. Sure, there is small improvement, and like hungry dogs we savor and devour every bit of that, using it as justification for all our effort so far and the crumbs of victory motivate us to do more of the same in the future. But eventually there's a moment when a mod takes a step back and has to recognize  \"we didn't fix shit\" . That's the reality-check that every smarty-pants needs. \n There might be more, but you get the idea.", "id": "catxhfa", "summary": "What are the upsides of modding a large/controversial subreddit? See the bold font beside the little boxes. \n EDIT: fixed smarty-pants paragraph"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Funny you mentioned Bill Clinton and cigar (and implicitly the Impeachment), as that was the exact moment I walked away from the Republican Party, disgusted with how moronic, petty, and disrespectful most people in the party had become. \n This kind of goes more to the OP's question, as I'm all too familiar with the situation he's asking about. It's a strange and isolating moment realizing that the people who share enough of your beliefs that siding with them made sense, are a bunch of assholes and hypocrites. \n I think what it comes down to (at least as it went in my case), is I had to decide what meant more to me, my personal values or my political values. That was an easy call to make, and so I was a political independant for almost a decade, siding politically with people who adhered to my personal values, looking at what they've done with their lives and what the priorities have been in their lives. Went through a phase of 3rd party voting for a while, before having enough distance from my former Republican/conservative alignment to recognize that the Democrats weren't so bad and were in the worst cases the lesser of two evils and in the best cases an enthuiastic vote. \n In this process, I found a correlation between personal values and political values (hypocrites sleazebags and sociopaths tend to gravitate towards certain political positions, and people with different values gravitate towards other positions).", "id": "c0czsd0", "summary": "that's how one Republican reacted to realizing what dirtbags so many other Republicans were."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "That's so sad that you think that :( Should be fun for everyone. \n In all my years, every time I've heard the word 'cocksucker' (it's not part of my vocabulary),  every  time it has been a guy calling another guy that. I've yet to hear a girl call someone that, and I've never heard a guy call a girl that. IMO, it's 100% about homophobia (or more accurately, seeing gays as lesser or unmanly, and inferring that about the person the word is thrown at). Of the two people I've known who threw the word around like they were getting paid to say it, both were among the most homophobic people I've known, and years later, one of those two turned out to be gay himself; so I suspect his own issues were part of what was going on there, projection.", "id": "c0olv3m", "summary": "Cocksucking the activity = good consensual fun. Cocksucker the slur = says \"closeted gay self-loathing\" more than anything else. IMO."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I think it's revolting too, a coerced pledge of allegience/loyalty/fealty? It has to end, asap. But what I wonder, as far as brainwashing techniques go, how effective was it really? In a closed-information society (some obvious countries now and in history come to mind, but also pockets of the US, certain communties) I can see it having a reinforcing effect. Looking at the under-35 age bracket (those who got access to the internet before their worldview was fully formed), there IMO seems to be a \"patriotism-disconnect\" compared to the older folks, as in that far fewer of the younger folks fall for the flag/country bs than the older ones.", "id": "c0orj0m", "summary": "A truely open society (not just one that proclaims it, \"land of the free\") seems to minimize the effect of brainwashing. So if the internet and access to it can remain as wide and free and relatively cheap as it is now, in 25-30 years IMO it should be possible to finally get rid of the pledge."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Also, r/soccer and r/baseball do the same thing as r/redditoroftheday with the custom icon next to the name, and both of them are better at it than we (at redditoroftheday) are; for instance, in r/soccer, people from various competing countries each had the flag of their country next to their name, and the world cup went on and countries were eliminated, the mods there switched the flags to a lighter transparent version, while those still competing still had the solid ones. \n You could also have icons for different kinds of guns next to the names (r/baseball's team icons show the limits of what can be done with graphics on that small a scale), or for winners, make trophy icon (gold, silver, bronze?). Not sure if a name could have more than one icon next to it.", "id": "c0u8pww", "summary": "there's a lot of cool stuff that can be done with the icons next to the name."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Really? This is an extraordinary and disturbing thing if it's true. But if it's false it would be despicable to tarnish active normal redditors as spammers. \n So I looked through  the top 25 submissions with Psychology Today as the source . \n Results: \n go1dfish: submits from a variety of sources on a variety of subjects to a variety of subreddits, and is an active redditor.  not a spammer . \n shallah: submits from a variety of sources on a variety of subjects to a variety of subreddits, and is an active redditor.  not a spammer . \n anutensil: submits from a variety of sources on a variety of subjects to a variety of subreddits, and is an active redditor.  not a spammer . \n trollitc: (despite the name) submits from a variety of sources on a variety of subjects to a variety of subreddits, and is an active redditor.  not a spammer . \n dvance: submits from a variety of sources on a variety of subjects to a few subreddits, and is an active redditor there.  not a spammer . \n markmana: he apparently is active in the field and blogs for PT and seems to have more insight with what's going on there than most of us. [He defended his posting of PT here]( Is this a spammer? Depends; I wouldn't call him that because the primary motive seems to be promoting interesting content  and  is an active commenter, but I can see why many might see the submissions as questionable from a conflict of interest POV.  But IMO having someone with that much experience in the field participating in /cogsci makes it a better place. \n zombiedracula: submits from a variety of sources on a variety of subjects to a variety of subreddits, and is an active redditor.  not a spammer . \n besatt: literally only made one submission ever, so  not a spammer . \n neoronin: submits from a variety of sources on a variety of subjects to a variety of subreddits, and is an active redditor.  not a spammer . \n jms1225: submits from a variety of sources on a variety of subjects to a variety of subreddits, and is an active redditor.  not a spammer . \n gabrielle1106: submits from a variety of sources on a variety of subjects to a variety of subreddits, and is an active redditor.  not a spammer . \n reeraw: submits from a variety of sources on a variety of subjects to a variety of subreddits, and is an active redditor.  not a spammer . \n Millstone99: submits from a variety of sources on one subject to one subreddit (which he started, and has a small but healthy community), and is an active redditor.  not a spammer . \n So of the top 25 submitted Psychology Today articles, they were submitted by 13 redditors, 12 of whom were  definitely not spammers , and the other one \"As for my scientific bona fides, I have been teaching Cognitive Science for 20 years (currently at UT Austin). I'm also the editor of the journal Cognitive Science and a former executive officer of the Cognitive Science Society. So, I'd like to think I know Cognitive Science when I see it.\" \n These are mostly spammers?? No.  This witchhunt of PT submitters needs to be put down before it starts. Absolutely despicable, accusing them of being spammers. (In full disclosure, I don't recall ever having submitted a PT article. Just not a fan of ill-informed mob action/ witchhunts, and this is exactly the kind of comment that starts such actions, so I felt the urgency to verify or refute before the ball gets rolling.)", "id": "c176kt2", "summary": "Whether PT is a garbage source or not is a separate issue, I'm not addressing that. However, in a review of the top 25 submitted PT articles to reddit, 12 of the 13 redditors among those you accused are  definitely not spammers , and the other has exactly the experience in the field that is of value here, and is an active commenter, thus a high value person to /cogsci."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Yes, yes I do. \n > The disappearence of white dog poo is down to what dogs eat these days. \n > White dog crap is the calcium left behind as the water evaporates, and the 'organic' components of the crap are consumed (in various ways) leaving the inorganic stuff behind. \n > Nowadays dogs don't eat as much bone as they used to, including bone meal. This all got the lid shoved on it due to  the BSE crisis . Also, tighter regulation on dogs crapping on pavements means that turds don't hang around for years in public places like they used to, giving them less opportunity to dry out and turn white.", "id": "c0ltl8a", "summary": "BSE/Mad-Cow Disease lead to changes in dog food, which lead to changes in dog poop. \n [From:]("}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "There's a POV that the 'monsters' in pop culture of any given moment are somehow tied to something going on in the culture at large. But why zombies? \n IMO it's the outcome of a chain reaction. Start with the US's mentality of \"rugged individualism\" and our violent, fear-driven culture. Then add to that the fragmentation of American society (the last unifying experience the US had was World War 2, and the generation unified by it is dying off now; with the exception of 9/11, there isn't much sense among Americans of being a shared nationality, rather than being disparate tribal groups that must take from each other or diminish each other to get what we think we deserve). Then that gets aggravated in the worst economic/jobs situation in living memory (with all the human tragedy flowing from that). \n This next part is going to sound crazy, but on some level, many of us know we're all going to have to kill/rob/ fuck over each other when this place goes to pieces. It's not something people talk about in polite company, and not something many want to acknowledge even to themselves, but the trajectory of various economic and social trends are leading to a crisis, a crisis we're incapable of solving and one where our current instincts will make it into something far worse. Not sure if you've noticed, but Americans are no longer a people that can rationally and civilly come together to work out differences, and we won't be for the foreseeable future. \n Look at so many Black Friday (and now Black Thursday) videos, or drive around on roads filled with self-absorbed drivers who prioritize texting or cellphone chats over the safety of everyone around them, or notice how every political policy matter has to be a battle of warring tribes where compromise is perceived as surrender, how political tensions are driving a wedge within families, turning family members against each other (the Fox News phenomenon), or note the legion of gun nuts who feel the need to be armed everywhere they go, and the lack of trust in general (trust is the glue that holds a society together). We're in a really bizarre and unhealthy moment in our history right now; take a step back and look at the big picture, and compare the US to its Anglophone peer nations, it's increasingly clear that something is seriously wrong (although the US is not unique in that, there's a social sickness eating away at the foundations of societies around the world). Also note the recent article about a trend in polling in the past decade of how empathy for the downtrodden has been on a steady  decline  while the percentage of people who are downtrodden is on the increase. When a  real  crisis hits, we're not a people that will come together, sacrificing a little for ourselves so that there's enough to go around. We're going to tear each other apart. \n Note also that the last time zombies were big was in the late 1960s early 1970s, when the US was in something of a social/cultural crisis. In a way, this is round 2 of many of those same battles.", "id": "cdyszk2", "summary": "The 'zombie apocalypse' narrative is a dramatic portrayal of a collective failure many Americans see coming, one that represents a hard break from our culture and narrative that started with the Mayflower up until the SHTF."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I agree with all of that, and especially the 'cynic and realist' part. The one detail I'd add that might give some hope, are the demographics of the tea partiers. They're mostly old, rural, culturally \"white\" (as opposed to modern multi-faceted American), look negatively on the progress of the 20th century, poorly educated, and working class & poor. Taking all of that together, their subculture is a dying one, and they know it (\"We want our country back\" they say, because they know they've lost it, what was the standard majority group is now relegated to just another subculture among many). While there are small numbers of 'tea party' minded people outside the typical demographics, it's not nearly enough to sustain a movement.", "id": "c0nfndw", "summary": "The lashing out and destructive impulses are IMO not so much about the decline of the country but rather about the decline of one particular subculture that is not handling their decline in a dignified way. /glass half full. (Though that's not to dismiss the idea that the country is in serious trouble in various structural ways, as it is)."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I've been there, and I'm still there. The specific type of depression you're talking about, I know it. \n \"Long term unemployment\" is an endurance race of survival. It's not like life in the working world, running hard to sprint across the finish line that is clearly there and win the medal, winning the race every day, even on the bad days coming in with a bronze medal.  It's more like Muhammad Ali's [rope-a-dope]( It requires a shift in mindset of what winning and losing looks like, because that's the only way to win if you can't win the conventional way. The boxer who keeps getting knocked into the ropes and isn't fighting his hardest, taking a beating, he looks like he's losing... but considering his opponent is better/faster/stronger than him, what looks like losing is surviving, and at the right moment will turn into winning. \n Your opponent (and mine) is the shitty job market, with incredibly poor odds of getting back in once we're deemed to be out too long. Once you've crossed that line into long-term unemployment, your opponent gets much stronger. It becomes an endurance battle at that point. There's no clear finish line, no clock to run out; just let your opponent wear himself down, weather it as best you can, and get ready for that moment when he's tired enough that you finally have a chance to knock him out. And realize that the opening you're looking for isn't likely going to be a conventional one, rather it's going to be any odd opening you can take advantage of.", "id": "c40tzsm", "summary": "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "There is some slight of hand here. Of all the critics of Obama's policies, sure some of them are doing so on the basis of policy and ideology (ex. much of the Ron Paul crowd). They're generally calm, tend to talk about currency & what went wrong in 1913, and don't express any animosity towards Obama the person.  If only  these were the majority of the opposition, this country would be in much better shape because is possible to have civil discourse with them. These are the people saying \"But I'm not racist!\" and it would be best for everyone to give them the benefit of the doubt on this. \n Unfortunately for the non-racist Ron Paul supporters, the Obama supporters, and all sane people, much of the opposition to Obama has racist undertones and appears to have racist roots. The key 'tell' for this is the peculiar emotional tone, touching the intersection of fear/anger/panic. This is different than the emotional tone of outrage directed at Bush, or the paranoia/anger directed at Clinton. \n Complicating this is the PC element in our culture which made it unacceptable for a person to be honest & open about being racist or expressing racist views. Instead, the feeling can only acceptably be expressed through 'correct' avenues, thus the talk of communism, fascism, all the nazi stuff, \"I wany my America back,\" etc.", "id": "c0d7c8g", "summary": "Not all criticism of Obama is racist. How to tell: Calm, civil, talking about libertarian issues, not racist. Overwhelmed frightened expression, fevered rambling about \"I don't trust him\" or \"I want my country back,\" probably some race issues to work on."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Yeah. I had something that seemed like a clairvoyant dream, where 5/6's  of it came true on its own, and recognizing what happened regarding that dream and how reality followed, I helped make the second to last piece happen, out of a sense that it needed completion. (Only after the fact did I find out that there was that 6th piece to come true). \n The dream itself was one of those where it's just a short bit that you remember. Formatting the dream to help illustrate the clairvoyant outcome below: \n \n (1) Something compelled me to run down the stairs and see what was happening in the kitchen, and when I got there, I was so shocked at what I saw that I froze for a second. \n \n (2) Shocked in part because it was just an odd scene. My dog was outside on the back step looking in, with the glass sliding door closed (he was always taken for walks, never just let out back as there was no fence, so that was weird). \n \n (3, 4) Also had to hesitate when I got to the doorway in the kitchen because of the strangeness of my mom sitting at a chair facing the corner in the dining room, trying to figure out how to operate \"the new toaster\" (it was a toaster that looked sort of like the tower portion of an old PC). This was weird because there was no chair in that place, and no table there to face the corner at, and why mess with the toaster in there? \n \n (5, 6) My dad was in the kitchen, happy, saying \"I'm going to (name of certain nearby suburb)\". The impression was that he had a job interview there for the good, well-paying job he'd been looking for, and the clear implication from his happiness was that our money problems would be over. \n \n \n The following all happened within the next 6 months (not in order): \n \n (1) My dad had a massive heart attack, and dropped right there on the floor in the kitchen. I heard the sound, the eerie quiet the second after, and ran down there to see him laying there, looking dead, the sheer horror of it froze me for a split second before getting down there and doing CPR (didn't work). So I was frozen in the kitchen doorway by the sight of something strange. \n \n (2) My dog died, and I buried him in the backyard, just to the side of the back step. So he was out the back door, and the door was closed on him, sort of. \n \n (3, 4) My family got our first computer (it was WebTV before that for a few years, lol). Of course it had the tower component, like that toaster. Since we didn't have room anywhere else, and since we didn't use the dining room 362 days of the year, we figured it would be better as an office/ computer room. My mom got one of those wide office workspace desks that fit in a corner along two walls. Where she was sitting in the dream, trying to figure out how to use the \"new toaster\", that's where she sat at the new computer, trying to figure out how to use it. \n \n (5) Since my dad died, we needed to find a cemetery. My parents hadn't thought about that at all, and both of their families scattered, so there wasn't a family plot either. It was up to us to figure out. I didn't mention the dream to my mom and siblings until months later, but I recognized everything that seemingly came true from it so far, and asked that we take a look at the cemetery in the suburb that my dad said he was going to in the dream. It turned out that cemetery was really nice, and that's the one we went with. \n \n (6) In the months after my dad's death, various financial pieces came into place (life insurance and other spousal support stuff that kicks in after death). We'd been scraping by for a while, but the sheer sum of $$$ meant we didn't have to worry about money for years to come. It was a sum that my dad would definitely have been unusually happy about. \n \n \n The most messed up part, the part that haunts me still, is that I told my dad about the dream after the first part with my dog came true (a couple months before my dad's death). He was looking forward to the part that involved him, going to that town and the money that going there meant we'd be getting and that our money problems would be over. All of that came true, but only because he died.", "id": "cf1rg1w", "summary": "see the second (5) for where I acted upon the content of a dream. My dad said in a dream that's where he was going, he didn't live to get there, so I felt compelled to check out the cemetery there, and we buried him there."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Not sure to what extent I've 'been there' (it's probably relative), but 8 years ago I got a bit out of control with the drinking. A bottle of wine a day, (carried a plastic water bottle with \"grape juice\"... in retrospect I was only fooling myself), drinking straight from the wine bottle at home and on top of that went out drinking with my friends most nights a week. For context, I was a lightweight with regards to drinking before this. \n As for why, it was a survival mechanism for living in a fucked up place; as soon as I moved far from there, was able to get serious about finding 'normal'. \n Now, 8 years later, I drink a few glasses of wine a year, and that's plenty for where I'm at now. I'm boring now, but healthier for it, physically, and mentally. \n How I did it:  Drink less.  You know it's bad for you, etc, you want to do it, in those moments when you have some willpower or motivation or guilt, use that. Extend the amount of time between drinks, and when you do drink, do it a bit less than usual. It will take time, but there's less shock to the system, and no real \"relapse\". Instead of a line on a graph that is at the top then drops sharply vertical down, the way I did it is more like a frequent zigzagging line that goes up and down but has an overall downward trend. It took me 6 months from the start of this effort to go a day without drinking, and another 6 months to go a week without it.", "id": "c17wlu1", "summary": "drink less. Just a little bit less than the day before, just a little bit longer between drinks than the day before. Some days will be backsliding, and that's ok, it's part of the process. Keep chipping away, eventually all the variables will begin working in your favor. When your alcohol tolerance starts to drop, the momentum will increase. The short time between drinks will gradually be pushed from minutes, to hours, and in that, small pockets of non-drinking will appear. From there, eventually small pockets of being sober, and from there, soon that will be the norm and drinking will be the exception. \n Also, once you start getting sober normalcy, find a hobby, learn something new and really get into that. The addictive compulsion will be itching for something and having that outlet will both help with closing the drinking chapter of your life and will provide a burst of momentum and energy for accomplishing much with that new hobby. \n I have an addictive personality and alcoholism runs in the family, so if I could do it, I bet you can too."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Anecdotal evidence is evidence; I also remember that the advertising environment was very different in movie theatres (and most other places) when I was younger. I also have the same memory AS mentioned of the pre-movie lack of ads, excluding trailers (though admittedly those a form of ads, but at least related to the movie-going experience). \n The key element that seems to have changed, is that paying a premium for on-screen entertainment used to mean 'no ads', in contrast to free tv or radio over the airwaves that needed advertising to fund itself. \n There used to be some semblance of a contract, of sorts, between entertainment related companies and their audience. A faint air of respect, hard to define as that is. Now though, we're 'consumers', animals to be fed at the trough and our role is to be exploited as much as we'll put up with. The tone is different. Fleecing a paying audience with advertisements  after they paid , is one symptom of this change in attitude by entertainment-related companies (like theatres) towards their audience. \n I know it reeks of 'you kids...', but when there is a steady stream of older folks saying something has changed for the worse, that the quality of life used to be better on some basic part of life, instead of creating generational antagonism, it should bring to light that another way of living is possible.", "id": "c19broi", "summary": "some things change for the better, some things change for the worse; the increasing invasivness of ads (itself a symptom of the social contract the entertainment companies broke between themselves and their audience), is one of those changes for the worse. It doesn't need to be this way."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) are themselves not a pure group, a snapshot of ethnic blending in Britain for the majority of the last millennium. They didn't exist before that, and at some time in the future won't exist in meaningful numbers any longer. By the looks of it, we're probably closer to their end than their beginning, and this fear of 'extinction' by the Tea Party WASPs suggests they see it the same way. \n The level of ethnic tribalism in the US is sufficiently low that there is very little social or cultural pressure keeping WASPs with their own kind. Speaking from my own family's experience and probably millions of others, WASPs have been hooking up with non-WASPs for generations, and at this point the only forces keeping the remaining WASPs full-blooded are population isolation, wealth-concentration, and old-school WASP supremacist ideas. In the old-money and in the isolated rural poor, inbreeding has already started. In the rest, as the population diminishes, inbreeding is inevitable if the idea of being a WASP is held to the highest ideal. The last WASPs will look like the last Spanish Hapsburgs, an abomination of nature and a shallow caricature of themselves. It is unfortunate to see the 'Tea Party Nation' walking down this dead end road, their insistence on remaining pure is ironically what will bring the extinction of their genes from the pool of humanity.", "id": "c1mvxfy", "summary": "This too shall pass."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "There appears to be a cycle: spurts of growth, instability caused by the growth, fears of their failure to assimilate and that the newcomers will drag down the community (and they do at first). But each time this place seems to reach a comfortable synthesis of old and new before the next growth spurt. Before Digg it was 4chan, and before 4chan it was Fark (might be missing one in between), waves of people coming from wherever. \n My only concern is the size of this most recent influx of immigrants; while we collectively have more work to do in setting a good example, helping them assimilate, I'm optimistic that the existing community here will have more positive impact on the sometimes barbarian newcomers than the other way around. \n Something I've noticed anecdotally from  many  people on reddit (myself included), is an acknowledgment that in some way or another they've become a little better as a person from their time here. I'm not sure what it is, but there is some sort of positive influence this place or the community has on individuals participating in it. \n They're here because they want to be redditors, so that's a good start. Of course, some are doomed to be lifelong assholes, but we've always had those. But I think the great majority are malleable, and depending on the incentives can be anywhere on the spectrum between asshole and awesome. It's up to us 'long-timers' to provide the incentive to be more awesome and less assholish. \n \n Though I've long since noticed (for at least a year), that weekends have more dickish behavior, more downvoting, overall more negativity. And while I'm not so sure at the moment (as everything is in flux), up until fairly recently the type of crowd at different times of day were fairly different. The workday crowd is average, things are a bit more negative in the evenings, but late-nighters/over-nighters are less negative than average, and weekdays are less negative than weekends. \n \n Another variable is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) from reduced sunlight, messing with people's heads. While only a certain percentage of people have it bad enough to be diagnosable, I think many more people have it more subtly. I've noticed this big time this fall in the self posts, which are much more 'glass half empty' in outlook compared to comparable posts months ago. \n EDIT:", "id": "c146807", "summary": "yes, big change lately, but I've seen a similar thing several times before. Different times of day and different times of week have different levels of assholish behavior. Lack of sunlight might also be making many people more of a downer than their summertime selves. These cyclical patterns (and probably others I missed) just make for a rough patch."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "That spammers are on Reddit, obvious from day one, goes with the territory. \n That a spammer became a moderator and exploited that for personal profit, not overly surprised (though it is still quite a sight to see laid out). \n That a spammer faked a personality/persona, exploiting for profit people who thought they were genuine, that's the cancer that is guerrilla marketing/social media spamming/etc. Disheartening to see play out. \n All of that wasn't really a surprise. But (and it was a lapse in cynicism on my part, an effort to be more optimistic about peoples' motives that caused me to not see it) the extent to which the moderators of the site circled the wagons to defend the obvious spam-moderator and said in effect \"nothing to see here, move along,\" the behavior suggests they're in on it also (at least some of them). Can't help feeling a bit like a fleeced sheep after that. \n From a profit-angle it makes sense, who else would put that kind of time into moderating + absurdly high link-posting unless they were making money. There seems to be a connection between Condenast & Associated Content, looking at how the people running the site come to the defense of the spammer, when the scam endemic to the site gets exposed and voted to the frontpage it gets disappeared, (someone else who wants to be a hero can lay that out the links for anyone who's interested & wasn't up late last night for the entertainment). Regardless, it's disheartening to see play out. \n Psychologically it also poisons the well. I'm taking a closer look at people I've chitchatted with on this site & gotten in the habit of voting up the interesting stuff they post, now questioning whether their personas are designed specifically with profit in mind, and it's kind of revolting to have to do that. (But it was my fault for letting my guard down on the ultra-cynicism, learned that lesson for sure).", "id": "c0lcjt4", "summary": "How this is handled in the next few days (whether the obvious conflict of interest holes are patched or not, and the stepping-down or removal of moderators who make money from content marketing) determines whether I stick around or not."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "There's some strawman stuffing going on here, using the non-existence of \"no Irish need apply\" signs (hiring discrimination) to say things were peachy for the Irish, that the ill treatment common to all new immigrant groups was somehow for the Irish 'just a myth.' \n As for what wave of immigration is most similar in experience to the Irish, the current wave of Mexicans and other 'south of the border' nationals is at least a similar match on employment. When it comes to common stereotypes in the view of the American white native-born majority, both Irish then and Mexicans now were/are seen as not-\"white\" yet familiar (in contrast to stereotypical views of blacks, asians, middle-easterners, Muslims), and both were/are seen as hard workers who would work for very cheap pay. There is no contradiction in their ability to get low-paying menial jobs, yet still be looked down upon and at times victimized by the majority population who view them as inferiors. \n When it comes to similarity of historical and modern immigrant groups on  perceived  criminality, modern Muslims share an unfortunate spot with the historical Irish. For instance:  The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance . \n On lynchings, the mere accusation was sufficient cause for a lynching/hanging after the sham trial of the angry mob, well known how blacks were lynched under the pretense of having committed a crime and tried in a sham trial by the angry mob. \"Did he do the crime?\" was answered by \"He's black, isn't he?\" Same went for accused Irish then, and accused Muslims now (though for at least some accused Muslims, being held indefinitely without trial seems to be the placeholder for either a sham trial or a fair one). \n This overall negative view towards Irish is held (not surprisingly) by the writer of the paper, using the NINA (No Irish Need Apply) sign as a trojan horse for pushing his anti-Irish agenda. In his abstract he writes, \"Some Americans feared the Irish because of their religion,  their  use of violence...\" (sounds like the common refrain \" Muslims  did 9/11\"). After reading his Endnotes,  wow ... this Jensen guy has issues, obsession with the Irish and not in a good way. I'd be interested to hear what the Irish did to him or his family, that would get to the heart of it. He refers to being called a bigot for suggesting the Irish brought all their problems upon themselves, cites \"a minority's  dysfunctional and pathological internal problems  make an investigator vulnerable to attacks for blaming the victim or racism.\" Even mentions the Irish lobbying to get the Potato Famine in school history curriculums, as if that's something terrible! Mentions threats of lynchings against the Chinese in San Francisco without mentioning the actual lynchings of Irish there, and so on.", "id": "c12eacz", "summary": "The Irish in America weren't any better than any other group, and weren't the worst-treated group ever, but let's have some perspective. Fair treatment in some ways, unfair in others, all in a context being the feared new & unfamiliar immigrant group. There's nothing special or extraordinary about the early Irish experience in America, it's par for the course. \n edit: Holy fuck that's too long. Sorry, caffeine did the talking."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Homogeneous, small communities are by nature more trusting than heterogeneous larger communities. While there are many sub-communities here, in all reality we're a pretty niche group compared to non-redditors. \n Collectivist ( cough hivemind cough ) communities are by nature more trusting than individualist communities ('individualist community' itself looking like an oxymoron). \n Put those two community-defining traits together, adding in the perceived security of hiding behind a username and being physically invisible and physically safe, and it is a recipe for high trust. \n Though (as other reddit-observers who are far more in touch and articulate than I have already noted time and again), as soon as the reddit community becomes heterogenous one of the major pillars of trust becomes damaged. This place has grown 4x in the past year, meaning that the full reddit community of a year ago is only 25% of the current reddit community (and that's excluding redditors of a year ago who are no longer here, meaning it is likely lower than 25%). Take any community, add three newcomers for every person who was there already, and there will be integration problems. When the site was growing at a slower pace, integration was reasonably smooth. It's hard to get a read on what it is now, but integration seems to be less thorough now, with a very 4chan element and a very Digg element visible, among others. Trolls, organized outside groups trying to game the system too. It amounts to a heterogeneous community, all of these groups, and the more it increases, the lower the trust will get. \n The heterogeneous-ness and the collectivist nature of a community are intertwined too, so when one decreases, so will the other. The more diverse reddit gets, the weaker the hivemind effect will be. And while the widely-perceived negative of the hivemind are the annoying parts, the generous and giving parts are part of what make the site unique compared to many other communities. So IMO, the decline of the hivemind  will be accompanied by a decline of the more positive elements of the reddit community.", "id": "c1prrjz", "summary": "The high level of trust on reddit (relative to other communities and real life) is IMO due to it being more homogeneous and more collectivist than almost anything else in our lives. Though as reddit becomes less homogeneous, it will become less collectivist, and among the changes will be a decline in trust. This change is already well underway."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Not sure I agree; it seems to transform into a more reactionary and radical form with some predicatability, going back all the way at least to the 1840s. Before Reagan, they had McCarthy, before McCarthy, Father Coughlin and other Nazi apologists/collaborators, the KKK in the 1920s, that whole \"owning people\" thing, before that the Know Nothings, and so on. \n What all these manifestations of right wing extremism (and any political extremism) have in common is how they start, how they progress, and at least historically, how they are put down or fizzle out. The social-political infection goes from remission to active when certain groups come under strain because of a loss or threatened loss of power and/or status. Then they theorize about what has led to this threat, and from there identify people and groups whom they consider to be responsible. \n Reagan was the conservative reaction for the social progress of the 1950s through 70s. McCarthy was the backlash to FDRs progressive transformation of the country, as was Father Coughlin. The KKK in the 1920s a response to the Progressive era reforms and the social change of the 1920s (President Harding, a liberal Republican pushing for an end to the Red Scare and for civil rights, was elected with wide support of women and was rumored to be part black, seemed to spark a familiar paranoid reaction), Know Nothings were \"they took our jerbs\" towards the sudden influx of immigrants, and so on. The side that perceives itself to be losing in a profound way goes radical. \n And it works the other way around; with every retrograde movement, it galvanizes and motivates the group that was set back, for the same reasons. The push for social progress that burst forth in the 50s and 60s was getting organized and growing since the momentum of progress went more conservative at the end of the 1920s (thanks in part to the right wing Lochner court, which we might see a reflection of in the current Roberts court). The whole labor movement (in its early stages very radical and often violent) was a reaction to the winning streak of big business over the worker that grew ever more blatant over the course of the 19th century. \n So long as there's been social progress, there's been reactionary conservatism resisting it. And so long as there's success in making progress, there will always be reactionary conservatism rearing up after the big victory, trying its damnedest to erase it and go back. This country has been on a winning streak for social progress for a long time, so of course this was going to happen. The historical pattern is that they'll get a victory and push things one step back, and in doing so provoke a response that pushes things two steps forward.", "id": "c47neqp", "summary": "we've been here before, it'll get worse before we're sufficiently motivated to make it better, and the long trend of history is on the side of progress."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "It's very well possible. The EU seems to be in a moment similar to the disintegration of the Articles of Confederation government (similar because the disintegration was fueled by structural economic dysfunction; design flaws), and the solution seems similar as well, that being federalism. \n Like the early US under AoC, the first choice of the EU nations was to go with a confederacy of sorts. Like the early US, they tried it, and it's not working so well right now. Even if the EU does the absolute minimum of reforms to preserve the integrity of the euro (shared currency being a critical part of the EU), it requires Germany (the most powerful/influential EU state) to give up some critical sovereignty and control in the realm of budgeting and banking, something they seem unlikely to do as the status quo is working very well for them. Also, due to the crisises throughout southern Europe, money is flooding out of those nations' banks and into German banks. That's a variable somehow in this, but I'm not sure how it will affect German decision making regarding the EU. Overall, I think Germany is key to whether the euro and the EU make it or not. I'm not sure there was a state among the original 13 colonies that had the other 12 over the barrel like that (but I may be wrong). \n Another factor forcing the early US to federalize was the continual threat from the UK and presence on the continent from several other european powers. The early US was very weak in a dangerous world, so that helped force everyone together. I'm not sure the EU nations feel a similar level of vulnerability, in part due to the US/NATO umbrella of force, and in part due to their own entrenched position in their territory. \n However, all it takes is a dramatic sudden change from Greece (Golden Dawn's popularity now is comparable to the Nazi Party's popularity in Germany in 1928, and there are a few decisions Greece can make that will cascade), from Spain (seems a ticking bomb like Greece a year ago, the crushing poverty and despair among the newly poor, the huge numbers of unemployed under-30s...), from the cascading nature of the euro banking problem, from Russia (taking advantage of a weak Europe, Putin being Putin), or from Germany (making a bad decision that departs from the status quo in a bad way, or to stick with the failing status quo). An adverse reaction from any of those that reveals European weakness and vulnerability could push the many countries closer together. But it could also create Cold War-like conditions between the countries if there's bitterness at economic betrayal.", "id": "c6270wo", "summary": "odds are the EU will either shift away from the status quo to something more federalized like the US under the Constitution (more likely in the realm of treasuries, banking, and some aspects of budgeting, but I think the EU counterparts to state governors and state legislatures will have more power than their US counterparts), or it will fly apart and Europe will be as it was for centuries, but in a millenium less favorable to Europe than the previous one."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "West of Lake Michigan here. \n The most notable long-term change is with snow. From the 1970's on back there was always \"a lot\" of snow every winter, and the snow used to come in steadily over the season.  Since the 1990's however, in most years most of the season's snow comes in one or two monster storms, and the total volume of snow is way down. \n Winter has been getting shorter, based on the bookends of the end of the leaves falling and the start of green stuff growing. Talking to older family members, it is 3-4 weeks shorter overall than in the mid 20th century. \n A few times this decade there has been a spooky warm spell in the middle of winter that tricked some plants, started tree buds, etc. Asking older people, they didn't remember seeing anything like it in the past. \n In the fall for the last few years, the leaves' colors have been bland and not all leaves fall from the trees, some just die and stay attached until hard wind blows them off. Not sure if this is a fluke or attached to the big picture. \n The last few years overall have been colder than average, especially the summers, and this summer particularly. \"Year without a summer\" was thrown around until the last few weeks. Even up to now there hasn't been enough of a sustained warm spell to mentally think of it as \"summer.\"", "id": "c0b0ipf", "summary": "less snow, shorter winters, weird warm spells in winter, bland fall leaves colors, colder springs and summers."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "How can someone be so disenfranchised by democrats that they vote republican? \n It can happen, I can all too easily picture being so disenfranchised I'd vote Republican. It's bitterly ironic that the demographic group (18-30 yr olds) that helped Obama get in and is one of the more screwed groups in this economy, get jack shit for being the crucial group getting him elected. No WPA-style jobs progam, no \"health care for everyone.\" If I still have no job and no health coverage by 2012, I'm campaigning for Palin, and I'll encourage as many unemployed uninsured Obama '08 voters in our demographic group to do the same. If we're fucked, every else is going to get fucked too.", "id": "c0hewrk", "summary": "people get pushed far enough, they go postal; this would be the voting counterpart to 'going postal,' and if enough Obama '08 voters go 4 years without jobs & health coverage and see the Democrats as having done nothing to help or acted to make it worse, we'll see a new type of voter in '12."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "why are Americans so obsessed w/ the heritage of their ancestors? \n I think there are a few things that mix together to create this: \n \n An innate human need to connect with the past. I think that's a subtle detail that people outside the US could miss is that where many people live here are newly-developed areas very lacking in history (artifacts, buildings, family history in a town or county, etc). Even in parts of Europe destroyed in WW2 and rebuilt afterward, those towns and cities still have a history going back centuries. Contrast that with that with a country where something like 60% of the population lives on land that was cornfields or wilderness a century ago. The rootlessness of the place people live makes them look elsewhere for their sense of continuity with the past. \n \n High rates of internal emigration. Because most of the US is so new (relative to the settled-for-centuries 'old world') with new towns springing up constantly over the last 200 years, some did well and became cities, others failed and became ghost towns (and many cities declining in the mid 20th century from 'white flight,' social unrest, and industrial decline), the population has always been very much on the move in many parts of the country. This also creates a rootless feel in people's lives. \n \n The US (IMO) really doesn't have a rich history, culture, or traditions; it's still too new. Though I suspect the concept of the country (that it's not ethnically/tribally/religiously defined, unlike most other countries) is a big part of why a larger 'American' culture hasn't really formed. It doesn't really feel like one country and one people, but rather just a bunch of groups. This leads people to look elsewhere for group identity. Some look for group identity along religious lines (which is why we have more drama with religion than other peer countries), some along ethnic/tribal lines (interest in family history is one way this manifests). \n \n \n EDIT:", "id": "c0xisn1", "summary": "Lack of connection with the past in the place Americans live, lack of extended-family connections because families scatter to the wind (due to high internal migration), and the concept of the country all prevent the usual shared culture and traditions from forming. All of that causes people to try to fill their innate human need for connection with the past elsewhere, and that's where the obsession with family history, and the countries of origin comes in."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Thanks; it was just photoshop, and in that, just the clone stamp button. I zoomed in to 222% (just because it's easier to type than 200 or 300), copied the image as a layer (so I can click to make it invisible to compare between the untouched and the one I'm working on), and set the clone stamp to a small setting (I do 9 pixels size for the background, 4 or 6 pixels size for the person). \n From there, I just spot the spots, the most minor first (saving the major damage for last), and look for a very nearby area that looks like the damaged spot should, and clone stamp that over. And just repeat that over and over. Only two things to keep in mind while doing it, is making sure it looks right before going onto the next one, and keeping an eye out for the clone stamp effect (repeating patterns/features that are dead giveways that the clone stamp was used). Also keeping in mind not to clone a cloned spot more than a couple times, as beyond that it starts to look a bit blurry and fake.", "id": "c0on92g", "summary": "clone stamp, doing it on a layer, a lot of patience & practice, and frequent saves."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "While species can come back from the brink, it's not without a genetic toll. When so few make it through the bottleneck, so much genetic diversity within the species is lost. IIRC, cheetahs suffer some genetic diseases and problems due to a similar problem, and our own species to a lesser extent, as our gene pool is much narrower than other primates, due to the bottleneck where we nearly got wiped out 70,000 years ago.", "id": "c0os1lv", "summary": "back from the brink, but paying the price for a long time after. If only there was some way to reintroduce genes lost in the bottleneck back into the species..."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I'm in the same boat with the brain chemicals, family history of it, had it my whole life to varying levels, though not so much in the last 5 years. Not sure if I've hit bottom after weathering the worst round of depression I had and realized that's all it can throw at me and so sort of 'won' in a way, or if the depression storms are actually getting weaker or more predictable; probably all of the above). \n The two ideas that have helped me with it are to see it as a passing storm, something to ride out, with sunshine and good weather on the other side; even when it's so dark you can't see it, just knowing it's there helps. The other thing is knowing that not only is the thinking all filtered through a depression lens, but all the sensory input from the 5 senses are also put through that depression filter. (That there's less color in everything while depressed is an easy giveaway that the sensory input is fucked up). \n Basically knowing that I'm getting bunk sensory information, knowing the thinking is probably off, and knowing that it's temporary, all that helped me quite a bit. \n EDIT: Another big thing that helped me (not sure how much it would help other people though), is I see it like a fight, being in the ring with a boxer that's better, faster, stronger. The key is to not get tricked into thinking you have to actually beat the opponent the regular way (in my experience at least the depression just gets worse with that approach, but your mileage may vary), but rather that you  just have to outlast the opponent . Just do defense, he'll burn himself out.", "id": "c0yzkz6", "summary": "Ropeadope ."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Research. \n It would be a huge project, so it probably hasn't been done, but it would be interesting to see a case study on the  parents  of shooters, childhood traumatic events history and household history of every single shooter over a given year. \n Then do similar research on a control sample of shooters' peers' parents and peers' childhood traumatic events histories and household histories, etc. \n I'd bet that even in the most messed up communities where from an outside view almost everyone is traumatized, there are still some quantifiable differences in details about the parents and the childhoods and households of those who demonstrate their total disregard for human life (through violent crime) compared to everyone else in their community. \n Once specific red flags for a future violent felon are established (I'd imagine it would most likely be more of a number of red flags rather than any particular red flags), some sort of program for intervention in specific targeted cases could pay off. While there are already programs catered to \"at risk\" kids, IMO the definition of \"at risk\" could be pushed back years earlier with more information to go on. And the lack of the phrase \"at risk parents\" is a problem too; this would identify them before they screw up their kids too badly... hopefully. \n Rationale: I saw it years ago so the details are fuzzy, but in some city out east there was a very detailed study by a hospital in a low-income area seeking to cut costs in a smart way. They looked into the lives of everyone who went to their hospital, and found that the majority of the costs were by a very small minority of patients, and more, that these ER hospital visits could have been prevented by preventative healthcare (diabetes complications, stuff like that). So they set up a system to have nurses visit them in their homes, and that did wonders with lowering costs for the hospital. \n Of course, a big problem is funding such a targeted early-intervention program, and another is the drug war. But the root of the problem (and it's the same in white rural communities experiencing family disintegration and cultural collapse) is that there aren't the entry level living wage no-education-required jobs like there used to be, and that the  multi-generational  lack of these jobs destroyed the social fabric. Any hope of changing that is at the national & international level for now, and further complicated by automation technology. So with the real fix of the problem off the table, it gets back to targeting symptoms rather than a cure, but that's better than where we're at now.", "id": "cccxvth", "summary": "figure out who the \"at risk\" parents are, early intervention for the parents and their household, rather than focusing on the kids"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "I agree with everything you're saying, except the $60,000 part; where I went to HS (in the early-mid 90's), the 64th highest ranked public HS in the state, those teachers who had been there 20+ years or so made that much. And more if they coached after school; making $30,000/year for coaching, several teachers were making in the vicinity of $80-90,000 a year, in early-mid 1990s dollars. Starting pay for new teachers was IIRC around $35,000. Of course, there's no way this is typical for most school districts, as there was definitely money being thrown around, but it's not like this was the richest or highest-performing district in the state, far from it. (somewhere in the top 1/4 most likely).", "id": "c0om00v", "summary": "it really depends on the district. And the times; the financial situation with state budgets & education funding right now is horrible. Where I went to school, I highly doubt it's salad days now like it was then, and worse for places that didn't have that cushion of excess. In short, hope I wasn't being too nit-picky with it."}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "Sometimes the things we have to confess are pretty dark or awful, and/or illegal, so it's important to take some precautions and protect yourself when posting, and keep your wits about you when answering comments to your post. \n This post was prompted by [this story]( where someone made a confession-like post in a different subreddit, and in the course of it gave out enough information that the angry mob was able to connect the dots and call the cops on them. It had a vigilante justice outcome as well, as they tried to inflict maximum damage on that user's personal life in other ways, with some success. \n Reading that story lays out the signposts for how it went from an anonymous confession to an outcome resulting in severe personal consequences. The first thing that went wrong: \n \n He posted proof. (likely after being asked for it or accusations of the story being fake)  Often with these posts, people demand proof, or call out \"FAKE!\". In /r/confession this is against the rules, and we remove comments of that sort, but sometimes these comments slip by, so if you're posting a confession and people ask for proof or call out \"FAKE\",  don't provide \"proof\" . The unfortunate redditor in the news story thought they were being careful by crossing out names, but there was still enough info in what they posted to connect the dots back to them. \n \n He used his regular reddit account . We unwittingly leave a trail of personal info in our comments (even those of us who think we're being careful, there's more there than we realize). Usually the risk of crossing paths with a random creep is pretty low, but posting a dark, awful, and/or illegal confession is striking the hornet's nest, sure to provoke a few 'overview page detectives'. While it's unfortunate to have to say this, if you're confessing anything that would have consequences if connected to your personal identity,  use a throwaway account . \n \n \n So in closing, to be safe when posting your confessions: \n \n Be careful about posting personal information . Any little bit that's harmless by itself can be connected to other harmless bits and lead back to you. \n \n Don't respond to people asking/demanding proof or calling \"FAKE\".  We remove those posts when we see them, and if anyone sees posts like that, please hit \"report\" so we can remove them. \n \n Use a throwaway account.  That way at least you know all the bits of information you're giving out are limited to the confession, and that it won't be connected to some harmless piece of information you mentioned 6 months ago.", "id": "t3_1l2ayz", "summary": "read the bold stuff"}, {"author": "slapchopsuey", "content": "A reader asked about the subscriber statistics (or traffic) for /politicaldiscussion, considering the discussion ongoing discussion on the subject.  While anecdotal experiences and gut feelings are important, there is no substitute for cold hard data covering the full range of the subject in  question. So what follows is a screencap of the traffic statistics page for /politicaldiscussion taken a few minutes ago, with a brief explanation of the various statistics. \n \n **[The traffic statistics for /politicaldiscussion](  \n \n On the graphs, 'uniques' are unique users, 'impressions' are page views, and 'subscriptions' are the number of readers who subscribed to this subreddit. \n Looking at uniques and impressions  per hour , it follows a daily cycle common on reddit, with the lowest traffic in the early through mid morning, and several peaks and dips during the waking hours. Even at the quietest times of night, 25 people per hour are checking /politicaldiscussion.  In the busiest times, it's usually over 80 unique users per hour, often at or over 100 per hour. Keep in mind, these are not total users present at any time, but  new  users streaming in over the course of the day. For the total number of users every day, the following charts are more useful. \n Looking at uniques and impressions  per day , the hourly peaks and valleys are smoothed out, but there is a fluctuation within every week, and a fluctuation over the weeks. It is very clear on these charts when /politicaldiscussion was linked and promoted in /politics; the numbers significantly increased. The best ways to promote growth in a subreddit are to have promotion in similar subreddits, and to get it linked in the sidebar (more on that below). In the past several weeks, the number of unique users checking out /politicaldiscussion are almost always over 1,000  per day . This number is generally higher than the number of people who actively participate, but these are redditors who are logged in, looking at the page. The average reader in /politicaldiscussion looks at 4.5 pages here per day. So while some have the perception that this subreddit is quiet, there are a significant number of readers for its size, and considering the relatively low number of new submissions daily, with an average of 4.5 pages viewed per user, readers  are  reading what you all are writing. (4.5 daily average of pages viewed per user is the daily mean of impressions divided by daily mean of uniques, found at the bottom of the 'weekly summary' statistic.) \n For comparison, /politicaldiscussion is outperforming /liberal (a similar subreddit of similar size, albeit 1/3 larger in number of subscribers). Despite /liberal's larger subscriber number, it has  fewer  unique readers per day, and they do only 1.4 pageviews on average. And that subreddit is at an average level of activity for its size, meaning this subreddit is performing above average in activity. \n Looking at the green 'subscriptions' chart, the spike in subscriptions following the promotion in /politics is obvious, and without additional promotion it settled into a stable pattern of 20-30 new subscribers every day. These are 20-30 people every day who decide \"yes, I'd like to subscribe here\" and click the button to add it to their frontpage. So to the community that is here, don't put too much stock in the gut feelings of a few vocal members; there are far more of you than they say there are, and a small but steady stream of newcomers every day. \n \n Observations:  \n \n There is discord among a vocal few here, frustrated about the policies of /politics. The question at the core of this is whether people want  attention  or  discussion . The name of this subreddit is not /politicalAttention... it's /politicalDiscussion. There are other subreddits for posting political news, posting political links, but few if any that have at their core the idea of  political discussion  above all else. This isn't a soapbox on a stage before a crowd of a half million or more, it's more like a hole in the wall coffee shop or pub, the kind of place politically-interested people got together for hundreds of years to air their observations and ideas among other politically-interested people. It's not a place for rhetoric and propagandizing, that's what the soapbox on the stage before hundreds of thousands is for. It's a place for discussion, among a small crowd of people interested in and capable of discussion. \n \n Ideas for growth:  \n \n But the detractors of /politicaldiscussion are correct that the crowd is very small and could stand to grow. Growth of a subreddit is not magical, it takes work. If you're interested in a place for political discussion where all views are welcome and encouraged, get the word out. If you notice people lamenting the lack of discussion in subreddits with a hivemind on the left or on the right, or where memes flood everything, ask if people ever heard of /politicaldiscussion. Word of mouth. Getting /politicaldiscussion into the sidebars of other similar reddits is something the mods can and  should be doing. And finally, if you want people observing to join into political discussion, it helps to create an atmosphere where people want to join in.", "id": "t3_k4uty", "summary": "The traffic stats speak for themselves, about 1,000 unique redditors are checking out /politicaldiscussion every day, and they're reading the submissions you all are posting. Participation has remained stable the past three weeks, with a small but steady stream of subscribers daily, yet it can stand to grow. Growth requires work, getting the word out. A subreddit is nothing but the sum of its members, and the cost of participation is zero, so if you want something that's not here, bring it in. This is /political discussion , not /political attention , so if you're disappointed that fewer than 600,000 people are seeing your posts here, consider what you are really looking for. If you like the idea of political discussion but wish there were some more people to participate, get the word out, promote it in other subs whenever you see political discussion run afoul of the left-wing, right-wing, or 4chan-wing hiveminds. And thank you for your time."}]}
+{"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post It takes place before. Their mom told them about the evil of indifference.", "output": "Just some guesswork here: I think that they have been over in the U.S. for awhile before the events in the movie occurred. Now, they probably didn't have the job at the meat-packing place for very long as shown by their antics that don't really sit well with employers. He probably hired them because he knew them from church. So, they probably went to soup kitchens and whatnot because of their being broke, proven by their living in illegal apartment buildings. They probably have had some preferential treatment from the Diocese prior to the movie as I'm sure they impressed the Monseigneur the same way that they impressed Agent Smecker. This means that a lot of the congregation already have heard about these boys from the Priests which would be why the girl wanted to watch them in Mass and they were allowed to go up to the Altar in the middle of a sermon. \n The part about Monseigneur finally getting the point, I believe, stems from them talking to the Priests about how they were brought up to never stand around and watch something bad happen. This was almost definitely taught to them by their mother who fell for a man who went away for 25 years. She probably knew about the killings and never said a word to anyone, eventually moving back to Ireland because of the grief, but insisting her boys stay in the U.S. for a better life. As the boys grew up, they were probably preached to by their mother about how the indifference of good people when they know that something bad is going on is a far greater evil than evil men. Of course, this is because she WAS the indifferent one."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4063", "history": [{"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "Jesus actually was kind of a dick. That's kind of what made him such a big hit in his time. \n I watched this video of a religious historian who basically said \"Jesus is such a big hit because he is the ONLY religious leader to say that HE is God. The others would say pray FOR them, or pray WITH them. They never wanted to be prayed TO. Jesus was different. He preached that people should pray TO him.\" \n There's a reason he was kicked out of Jerusalem. There's a reason a whole mob of people called for a criminal to be saved instead of the \"King of Jews.\" \n If someone did that today, he'd be considered a dick. \n Also, that Martha/Mary story where Martha is cooking/cleaning for Jesus and his disciples and she asks Mary for help only for Jesus to tell her to be more like Mary and just sit around and listen to him. I mean, that's a dick move. This woman is inviting you into her home, preparing dinner for you and your friends, and you tell her to quit complaining when her sister won't help her make dinner? You might be a dick. \n I am a devout Catholic and I already feel guilty for typing this, but it's pretty much proof that Jesus wasn't the best guy in the world, even though he is. It's a fine line to walk when judging the man Jesus compared to the Son of God Jesus.", "id": "cq17jx5", "summary": "See the first sentence. Jesus actually was kind of a dick. It's part of what made him a Superstar."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "To start, I'm a somewhat devout Catholic. I go to church when I can and attempt to make it every week. I respect all of the religious holidays, practice my religion, and hope to persuade others into good living by my actions and not my words. If someone asks me about my religion, I explain it to them, but I never attempt to force my beliefs on others. \n As we all know, there ARE those kinds of people in the real world who DO force religion down everyone's throats. They seem to just be doing good things for the sake of being good, rather than actually meaning it. They constantly attribute these good actions to their religion, as well. It's the most irritating feature of a religious person and something that should just be stopped. Shirley has been known to push religion on the Study Group, especially Troy, in the past, but these past couple episodes, we've been seeing her 1. use her kind words and demeanor to get to the top, only to then display her \"holier-than-thou\" psychology on the lower peons and 2. guilt-trip the group until they call her bluff before turning into the  real  Shirley: the one who loves control and power and is willing to sacrifice others for it. \n That's what makes her such a powerful \"villain\" in the show: she's not only easily unlikeable, she's actually realistic. Religious leaders have been drugged by power for centuries and everyone calls them out on it. Now we see Shirley in the same light. The only reason she wasn't cast in this light so brightly before was Pierce having such a brighter spotlight. It's nice to finally have the \"warm motherly\" qualities stripped away and replaced with these less-than-attractive qualities of her character because it shows just how flawed her character is.", "id": "cg2yu0d", "summary": "It's nice to see the villain made of the \"holier-than-thou\" religious character because it really is a disgusting side of religion, and this comes from a Catholic."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "OP, I'm sorry that you've never touched a boob and I really hope that you go out and touch some knockers as soon as possible, but take my story as a warning for your first tit-grab. \n I have a buddy who's never kissed a girl, let's call him Henry. Henry was at a party in High School when a girl wanted to see another guy's abs because, well, he had been working out and it was a high school party. So, the guy (being one hell of a wingman) suggested that he would not only show her his abs, but let her touch them as long as she let Henry touch one of her milk jugs. She accepted as long as it was over the shirt. Well, Henry's opportunity had finally arrived, but there were some problems: he was nervous, everyone was watching, and, of course, he had never touched a chest mellon before. Henry walks up, being the awkward over-weight kid with messed up teeth that he is, and begins to outstretch his hand. He extended his arm until the elbow was fully extended and opened his fingers until they were curled backwards (a really creepy talent he has and we all hate.) He then turns his hand until the fingers are facing down, while still having his arm totally extended, and proceeds to palm her fog light without ever moving his fingers. It was like he was trying to press a huge button or have his palm scanned in a spy movie. Henry, being the idiot that he is, left his hand there and made eye contact with the girl without ever cracking a smile. There was a 3-mile radius of cringing men during those 5 seconds that Henry had his palm resting, upside down, on that girl's chest pillow. The abs just weren't worth that kind of excruciation. \n So my final word to you, OP, is to NOT be like my friend Henry. Squeeze 'em a little, play with 'em, massage the nipple, but DO NOT pull a Henry.", "id": "cg97soy", "summary": "My buddy is an idiot and palmed a sweater puff in front of a bunch of people for his first torpedo grab. Don't be like him, OP."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "Chuck is my favorite supporting character to be on the show. Lucifer and Gabriel are right up there, but Chuck was hysterically helpless. He wanted to help the boys, but he just was in way over his head. Then the idea that he might be God was thrown into the mix. I latched on. I really think he is God. I think he went down to just have a quick look at what might be the only real fight the humans have put up since he left. The Winchesters are the catalysts that helped the relatively boring world his angels were left in charge of turn into Armageddon. He wanted to see how his prodigal and favored sons would end the story, and had a fantastic plot twist play out in front of him. \n \"But why would he want to come back just to see this plot twist if he already knew it would happen? I mean, he IS God!\" \n God left because Lucifer got into the garden. We know this because of Season 9. (Can't remember who said it, but I think it was Cas when he realized it was Gadreel.) I assume that God wanted to make sure the story was set up, but once the stage was set, it was only a matter of time before the end came. Now since God is omnipotent, he was easily able to write the Winchester's life story. Also, he could disguise himself because he's God. (The pendant Dean wears that burns in the presence of God didn't work, but for how long had it not been working?) So God knows the story, he knows the players, he knows the end. Now he wants to watch! How does he get a front row seat? He says he's a prophet, of course! I may be wrong, but I really like Chuck. I just do. If he's not God, then he's an incredible guy!", "id": "cl2aago", "summary": "Chuck's the front row seat God wanted to be in for the final showdown between his kids. He disappears because the show is over for him. The rest is just randoms."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "I see Hippies was already mentioned, but if you're going for a music-based topic, I suggest looking at Timothy Leary and the Psychedelic Experience and how it influenced music in that time period (mid-late 60s/early 70s).  Here . It's not exactly a \"topic that hardly anyone knows about,\" but it's not THAT commonly known by kids now-a-days. It's an amazing time in music, and LSD had a direct effect on it. It's really a very interesting topic and definitely can take up 10 minutes of time without being such a broad topic that there isn't a focus to the presentation.", "id": "clrjxdr", "summary": "Go with drugs (specifically LSD) and their effects on music during the late 60s/early 70s. It's a focused topic that will yield enough information to last 10 minutes."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "What excites me about it is the actual gameplay dynamic. The whole idea is to kill off the higher-ranking orcs and replace them with orcs that you have bent to your will with your wraith-powers, which you gain after you are killed in the very beginning of the game. It's a politically-driven war game that allows you to create an army and then wage war against Sauron's forces. \n In sense of lore, it has nothing to do with the storyline of the Hobbit/Trilogy except for location. What I got from watching the three expos from E3 are that it's set in Mordor and maybe some parts of Gondor. The developers decided to create the greener areas of Mordor that actually were used to feed the vast number of orcs residing behind the Black Gate, and you are able to venture through them as well as the darker, drier areas of Mordor that are more familiar to the fans. \n Also in terms of lore, it's loosely based on the Dunedain fighting the forces of Mordor, but they really have held the bigger plotlines to a minimum in the sneak previews. \n I will definitely be buying this game as an avid fan of politically-driven action games. The fact that it is LOTR-based is a huge reason why I'm excited for it, but it's not the reason I'll be purchasing it. I wanted a game like Assassin's Creed where you could build an army and have a large-scale battle, but I never found Assassin's Creed's storyline to be truly intriguing. This will bring enough of my interests from LOTR into a game-type that I am really excited to play. Rant over.", "id": "cj9pist", "summary": "Get it because of the awesome gameplay dynamic, enjoy it because of the fact that it's roughly, and I mean roughly, based on LOTR. The developers said at E3 that they wanted to build a game in Middle Earth, but they didn't want to build a LOTR game."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "My friend just texted me this yesterday and I was waiting for a post like this so I could share: \n OK guys so I am at the gym with my boss. We both see this whale of a woman walk in, she Weighs 500lbs easy. At the fitness club they have stairs to get up to the treadmills. She barely manages to make it up the stairs. (Her face was turning red.) At this point she picks the treadmill next to my boss who is military so he is in pretty good shape, (you guys know how most treadmills have the bars on either side she can't fit in between them so she needs to prop herself up on her tippy toes to actually get on the treadmill.) So she starts walking on the treadmill then she looks over at me and my boss and sees that we have it on an incline. So as not to be out done she does the incline as well. A few minutes go by and she looks at my boss seeing that he has it on 5 mph. She then says to him I can go faster than that so she holds down the little button to speed it up. The speed goes up so quickly that she can't keep up and she starts to fall down and she just doesn't because she is stuck in between the two bars on the side. So you just see her legs moving at like the speed of light trying to frantically keep up with treadmill. I look over at this point and just burst out laughing I lose my balance fall face first on the treadmill get a bloody nose. At that point my my boss can't hold hold in his laughter anymore he stumbles. Stops his treadmill goes over and hits the emergency stop on the treadmill she was on. And she thanks him because she though she was going to die. She then leaves by crawling down the stairs. As me and my boss go to leave this attractive woman comes up to us and says \"how the hell did you two not start laughing sooner, because everyone else was and we were all watching from afar?\" We keep talking for 10 or so minutes and now now I have her number           because according to her I have a lot of will power or some bullshit like that. (Ignore the doubles in this text me phone felt like copying a bunch bunch of words.) \n That's the text I got from my 320 pound friend yesterday. This, this right here, is why people make fun of others at the gym. If you even smiled while reading this, think of how funny it would have been if you were there.", "id": "cfgihgh", "summary": "My fat friend watched an even fatter woman lose control of a treadmill and he laughed so hard that he fell and got a bloody nose."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "It's sometimes about taking a risk and going out of your comfort zone. \n I took a freshman I had met three weeks before, but had a lot of fun working on the spring musical with. I didn't see her as romantically interesting at all, just like a little sister. It was an absolute blast! \n All of my friends thought I had a bad time at prom because of my recently ex-gf being there with another guy (whom she brought to make me jealous), but I couldn't have cared less about them that night. I was there with my friends, we were having fun, and I got to pick a girl half my size off the ground and sway with her during slow songs. She was less than pleased, but my god was it a blast.", "id": "cqx9nti", "summary": "Take a freshman to prom. Your night will be awesome as long as you don't get handsy."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "It's not about Spacey, man! It's about Underwood! Frank literally said \"Everything is about sex, except for sex. Sex is about power.\" Underwood sees sex as nothing more than physical, which is why we have yet to see Frank and Claire actually having sex. Their relationship is not a physical one, though they are both attractive, but rather a mental one. They know what they want and they know that the other is able to help them get it. Also, my theory is that the Threechum was to ensure complete and total allegiance to the Underwoods by Meechum. They wanted to make sure that they had him entirely in their corner. It had already begun when Frank asked to have him stay on when he gained the Secret Service detail. It's about making sure that those closest to you are under your control, not about some theories about an actor's personal life.", "id": "chcz2up", "summary": "It wasn't a twist. They had been building up to it for awhile in the series. Spacey may or may not be \"assumed\" to be anything, but that isn't important to the story. What IS important to the story is his character's sexuality and the use of sex by the character to gain allegiance from people."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "This moment hit close to home with me because I have a friend who really can be an idiot. I am constantly teetering on the line between bursting into a rant I have practiced countless times in my head and being a shoulder for him to cry on. \n Frankie's monologue is just the dam breaking from all of the pent-up frustration with someone she truly cares about. She WANTS the Dean to succeed. She WANTS him to not have to need her help. She just can't figure out why he is a puddle of messy mistakes and is always in need of saving, but that won't stop her from helping out a friend because she DOES care about him. \n I have had very similar monologues with my friend and I have felt so poorly about what I was saying, but once that dam is broken, there is really only letting the feelings out and apologizing for how they sound.", "id": "cqkkm0k", "summary": "It's funny because it's true."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "It pisses me off that she would even say that. Of course they are going to argue and of course they are going to always have doubts about themselves/their relationship. What I hate about her saying that is the fact that she set up the characters to fall for each other perfectly. \n Ron has never really been one for the ladies. He also grew up with a mentality of \"2nd Place.\" His visions in the Mirror of Erised showed how he just wanted to be first for once. He grew up feeling as if he could never live up to the expectations put on him thanks to his brothers' and Harry's footsteps that he always seems to be walking in. He will forever be known as the best friend of The Boy Who Lived. I mean, you can't consider a guy who grew up as a 2nd rater to really have huge morale when it comes to the opposite sex. Now Hermione is the perfect match for a guy like that. She doesn't care that Harry is the Chosen One. She doesn't care that he constantly proves he is one of the most incredible wizards of his time (Dumbledore agrees with me on this one). She knows just how important Ron is to Harry's success and she knows who Ron really is. She knows his faults and his fears even if he never told them to her. I mean, she's smart enough to figure out why Snape told them to turn to page 394. Ron would fall for the only girl who he really felt connected to. Harry knows that Hermione is just a friend, but Ron sees her as the only girl who he can actually be himself around. He was too afraid to even break up with Lavender Brown because he has no idea how to actually talk to girls, but he is totally fine with getting into screaming matches with Hermione. He's comfortable around her and only her. It's one of the best relationship developments that I've ever witnessed and it's nice to know that they realized their feelings rather than developed them.", "id": "cf5qd82", "summary": "JKR comes in and says that my favorite relationship development was a mistake... Fuck that."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "This picture is the perfect example of a cry for help. If someone says this to you, don't think too far into it. Understand that you can't judge a book by its cover, but never try to speed read the book or \"cram for a final.\" It's not that the person is sad, it's just that they can't be happy. The main thing to take from this is that words have an effect on everyone and sometimes that effect is not anywhere near what was intended. If someone actually says this to you, ask them what's been happening with them. Usually they only bring this up when something is really bringing them down. \n Source: I have been living with clinical depression all of my life, but have been living with it diagnosed for 7 years.", "id": "ce3b7gj", "summary": "Don't fucking worry about it. People who have depression/bipolar are normal people. Don't worry about whether or not they are sad on the inside, you can't do anything about it. If someone does say something along the lines of this, take it as a plea for help and be courteous. \n Edit: Well fuck all y'all. I guess no one wanted that hard question answered."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "I have 6 'best friends.' They're basically brothers. We all are in a group chat as we go to different schools. Within this group of 7, 2 are actual brothers and the younger brother's best friend is the 4th one including me, the two brothers, and him. My best friend, who has a best friend not in the group chat, is the 5th one in the chat. Now, there's a 6th one in the group chat who is really good friends with all of us, but his best friend is his roommate who happens to be friends with the rest of us but not best friends. The 7th is the fat fuck piece of shit that we let hang out with us because, well, he's been hanging around us since high school. He thinks that the younger brother is his best friend, but the younger brother is already best friends with the 4th friend in the chat, remember? That's the reason why I always use the term \"one of my best friends.\"", "id": "chgm1a1", "summary": "I made sense of something that really shouldn't matter at all as any one of these guys would have my back no matter what."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "I see your point and I would love for Charlie to have been written like that, but Charlie isn't Felicity. Felicity is living in a comic book world where no one knows what the next villain could do. They're all very much in the dark. Charlie, on the other hand, has read all of the comics and books and seen the movies. \n Felicity is an intelligent, beautiful, quirky individual who constantly realizes what she's saying could be taken the wrong way/what she said was not the correct way to say it. \n Charlie is all of those things, but she also has the vast knowledge gained from pop culture to rely on. \n In my mind, Felicity is how IT girls see themselves while Charlie is how other people see them. Either that, or it's two sides to the same coin. If Felicity was a lesbian, would she be so different from Charlie? (Yeah, it's not a good answer to just blame Charlie's behavior on her being lesbian, but her thoughts on equality are quite well known and it makes sense why she would act the way she does due to that kind of mindset.)", "id": "clmyop1", "summary": "I love both characters and feel both were written really well for the roles they were supposed to fill. Fuck me, right?"}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "After a power outage, my elderly neighbor asked me if I could help her with her computer because the internet didn't work. I went over to see what I could do, but I'm not exactly tech savvy. (I can do the basic installations/troubleshooting, but I can't really do much more than that.) I sat there trying to troubleshoot the internet, I checked the connection and made sure she has all of the wires connected and was not on anyone else's wireless network. Then she told me that the last time this had happened, my brother had come over and changed the date and time. Sure enough, her computer's clock had reset itself to 2004, so I changed it back to the correct date (2011). The computer worked fine after that and I was stunned at how simple of a fix it turned out to be. As I was leaving, she stopped me and handed me $80. I shit you not. I tried to deny it, but she said she gave my brother the same amount for doing the same thing and she would never had fixed it without me. I was stunned and just took the money and ran.", "id": "cicmdgi", "summary": "I got $80 from an old lady for changing her clock."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "Well, we have a guy (Let's call him Bugga) who throws up quite a lot (almost every day.) It gets really hot during the summer, which is when we work the hardest, and Bugga is quite a heavy fellow so it's not like it is completely out of the blue. One particular setup was about a ninety minute drive from our shop and we were there all day setting up two 40x80 pole tents (They take approximately 1 1/2 hours to set up, each). To relax and make the task a little more entertaining, we would always wait until Bugga started to cough and wander off a ways. We knew it was only a matter of time before the fireworks would begin. I, being the sadist that I am, told another one of the guys that I would pay him $20 if he let Bugga puke in his mouth. Well, after ten minutes and a renegotiation, it was settled that $40 would be enough to have the show begin. We filled Bugga up with the go-to in puke recipes (a tuna fish 12 inch sub with a side of one of those big bottles of gatorade). Bugga and the sucker set up and we all watched as what appeared to be a mother bird feeding her hungry chick occurred in front of our eyes. There were five in the audience and I think for of us almost lost our own lunches. Yeah, that's just one.", "id": "cbv8h2p", "summary": "A guy puked in another guy's mouth."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "Changing Channels \n I really like humor and this show always finds a way to incorporate it while still having the dark tone stay constant. However, there is usually at least one episode a season where the humor is a main staple of an episode. Mystery Spot introduced us to the most savvy of comic relief characters on the show in the Trickster. However, the real genius of the Trickster wasn't displayed until season 5 with Changing Channels. The first time I saw the Herpexia commercial, Dean get in trouble for \"researching,\" and Dr. Sexy M.D. Well, let's just say it brought tears to my eyes. To top it all off, we find out the Trickster is the archangel Gabriel! (Which is my confirmation name, or the name of the saint/angel I chose as my name to enter the Church as an adult, so I felt a connection) it's just an absolutely delightful ride from the beginning to the end.", "id": "cp93u94", "summary": "NUTCRACKAH!"}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "The problem with that scene is that it goes totally away from what Yoda stood as before it: a conduit for the force. He was so in tune with the Force that he had extended his life force and could communicate with the dead. I mean, he could lift an entire X-Wing out of a swamp when he was effectively on his deathbed. He was definitely a highly intelligent tactical master, and so definitely the right choice to lead the Clone Army into battle. The only one who could have been more qualified to lead the Clone Army, in my opinion, was Kenobi, but that's because he was a Guardian. Mace Windu, I feel, is too gung-ho and not as wise as Kenobi is in the ways of the force. Windu, I feel again, is much more adept with a lightsaber than Kenobi is, though, which is why he felt that he could take on the Emperor alone and was a fine candidate for leading the attack on the Separatists in order to save Kenobi, Skywalker, and Amidala. \n Back to the real problem, though: Yoda is viewed as Luke's path toward understanding the Force, not how to duel with a lightsaber. Yoda tries to teach Luke that there is so much more to being a Jedi than just being able to twirl a stick around. He needs to feel exactly what is going on around him and be ONE with it. The prequels portray Yoda as some duelist. He's not. Is he quite good at using a lightsaber? Most definitely. Is he on the High Counsel because of his skill with a lightsaber? No way. He's there because he is the number 1 expert on the Force.", "id": "cg1eia3", "summary": "Yoda should never have been seen using a lightsaber because that's not his gig. (Still, it was totally badass)"}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "Also, it's only 50 weeks a year. Almost every job allows for 2 weeks of \"paid\" vacation on a salary. You are paid during those weeks, but you are only paid a salary that averages out to the 50 weeks that you actually work. For those who refuse to accept the vacation, they can usually use it the next year or later. The perfect example of this is the sick days built up by teachers. How many times did you hear your high school teacher talking about how they could take a year off and still get paid? (Horrible example as teacher salaries are totally different than the average 9-5 salary, but you get the picture, hopefully.)", "id": "cd80fei", "summary": "The average working salary only pays for a 50 week fiscal year, so the calculations are off by a little because of that, as well."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "As a kid who got straight A's throughout elementary school while paying literally ZERO attention in class, then passing AP classes in High School while doing the same thing, but less homework, I can confirm that college will rip you apart if you continue these practices. I'm currently in the Delayed Entry Program for the military and have a stable job with an impending promotion, but I was in a top 50 university and had to drop out because I had NEVER once tried in a classroom. I'm an incredible test taker (2190 on the SATs and 99 on the ASVAB) and I can remember quite a few things that I read, but I what I can't do is go back and tell that 12-year-old kid to listen to that math teacher who pulled him aside after class to tell him that, if he really tried and didn't just breeze by like he had been doing, he had the capabilities to really succeed in life and BE SOMEBODY. I don't regret the decisions I've made, but I know I would have had such an easier and happier time in recent years if I had just tried earlier in life.", "id": "ci2qwvq", "summary": "Stay in school, kids. Now take that comma out and try not to see a pedophilic joke."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "Community is totally different than HIMYM. It's almost unfair to compare the two. I will now back this up because, as we all know, reddit likes some proof. Community's essence, in my opinion, is to show the audience the creative abilities of a writer. The show is all about the writing and, though the it is excellent, often outshines the storyline. With Community, I do not tune in to see what the study group will be up to this week; I tune in to see how the episode will be portrayed. I wonder if I will see an Armageddon-style paintball game or an anime foosball battle royale.  When I tune into HIMYM, I anticipate how the characters have grown or developed since last week. Though I enjoy them very much, I am not there to see what sort of goofy adventure the gang will be on this week. I'm ok with them just sitting in the bar and talking about what they did the week at work or while they were walking to the store.", "id": "cf0t020", "summary": "Community is amazing because it makes us rethink just how a sitcom can be viewed. It pushes us to the limits of our viewer-based knowledge of how we are supposed to enjoy a show. \n HIMYM is amazing because it has stuck with the basic design of a sitcom and still entertains us week in and week out."}, {"author": "LiamIsMailBackwards", "content": "I have bought the materials to be a \"retro\" Greendale Human Being. The original appearance of the Human Being shows it as a grey-ish color, rather than the white that it appears as in the later episodes that it makes an appearance in. I am trying to be the \"original\" or \"retro\" Human Being for Halloween. \n [Here]( is a perfect example of my reasoning for why the Human Being was originally a grey color. Notice that Annie's undershirt is white, but the Human Being is clearly grey in comparison. \n I know I might be wrong, but I like to think that they ret-conned the Human Being, and I like the original design better. \n [Here]( is the design for the G. Notice that, in the first picture, the outline of the blue in the G looks to be similar to the color of the Human Being's \"skin\". \n [Here]( the G actually looks to have a whiter outline than the skin of the Human Being's \"skin\". \n The point I'm trying to make here is that the Human Being has a grey tone to its \"skin\" in the original appearance, and that's what I'm going for.", "id": "t3_3pvb6p", "summary": "I am going to go as a \"grey\" Human Being rather than a \"white\" Human Being. Who would like to see a picture, or should I just not share the pictures?"}]}
+{"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Nothing went right this last year, feeling terrible about college. Is it my fault? Should I go somewhere else.", "output": "This is sort of a rant but I need your advice Reddit. I've had a really terrible year (not academically) and I need some reassurance. I transferred into a decent university (nobody told me it was a party school) and they never told me I was accepted....Until I finally called them a week before classes started. \"Oh sorry we were still debating what classes transfer\". \n So I bust my ass to find an apartment, find classes and move in a week's time and I barely make it. I hate that city and there is nothing to do other than go clubbing, it made me sick. I could never sleep because of all the drunks roaming the streets. This last year was probably the most miserable of my life, the classes were tough (senior) and I was never assigned an advisor so I had no idea what I was doing. I got really depressed, a relationship with a girl I met there quickly fell apart and it sucked pretty much all the time. I could never find a job either so I was living off survivor's benefits that could have paid for classes. \n My two roommates decide they are tired of the rent-a-cops fabricating noise complaints (really) and go in on a house with a few friends. I figured I would find new roommates and stay there because the location was good aside from the terrible apartment building. Well I could never find roommates in time, they call gave B.S. excuses and never called back so after being unable to renew the lease I had to pay movers and buy a storage unit at the last minute just to get out of that apartment."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The shifting sense of value we place on our accomplishments can be a terrible tormentor at times, but even the small things can mean a lot. \n hey at least you're not a 21 year old alcoholic going to a CC with nothing after flunking out of a respected college. Imagine that shame he deals with.", "output": "Wow honey I can really relate to alot of that. At 22 I feel like I could have done more and like you I got my AA/w emphasis in the major. At times I'm proud of it, at times it feels totally worthless when you are working on a BA and everyone around you seems to be younger. \n But I attended class with graduate students who are going back to school at 30. A friend of mine, 32, has been depressed and suicidal for years but pushed on to get his BA and move out of the state. \n What I'm saying is, at times even when we have done something it can seem meaningless, but when you take stock of it really it can mean more than you think. A friend of mine, 23, has been slaving away at an art degree since high school, dropped out and went to a CC with me but never even got his AA. At times he says he envys me for having even that."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4743", "history": [{"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Shooting is not easy. \n People don't seem to realize that a lot of engagements in Arma take place over  hundreds  of meters. You have compensate for bullet drop, movement of your target, there are breathing mechanics and at anything past immediate distances you are almost always shooting prone. \n You actually have to dial in your sights for range, and mods like ACES actually make a big deal out of giving you a wind meter (which you actually have to understand in real life to use) and windage and distance adjustable scopes.", "id": "c4ovkn3", "summary": "good ranged shots in Arma make anything in BF3 look like childs play."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Operation Flashpoint is probably my all time favorite game and I vehemently defend ArmA and ArmA II with a passion. The new \"Operation Flashpoint\" games have been rubbish but I will always remember coming home from school and making missions in the original editor. \n Most people dont like ArmA, and I just tell them they never gave it a chance. I've converted a few friends that way.", "id": "c25molu", "summary": "ArmA is awesome and nobody believes me."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I went throught the same thing. GET. HELP. Your school should have a counseling center, they will listen, they will help. Set up an appointment! \n I isolated myself way too much like you did, and I almost lost my marbles. Don't stay couped up. Try excersize.  Find some hobbies, get your mind on the concrete things, not the abstract or scholastic things too much.", "id": "c2xdw4h", "summary": "I've been there, it can be improved, it can get better. But you have to get help. I believe in you."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I love playing at night, you are invisible and players tend not to bother each other. It is not everyone. \n \n You can filter for day/night servers with DayZ Commander. \n \n Consider that this game engine was not designed for DayZ. In Arma 2 you would almost always have night vision goggles, which means the night would not be a big deal.", "id": "c5grg9y", "summary": "I like playing at night. Arma2 exists for more than just DayZ. NVGs are common in Arma2 so originally it was not a problem. Suck it up."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "You said that you're seventeen and you don't mean anything to the world. \n I'm twenty two and I'm only now clawing some space to fit into the world. Please don't be so quick to discount yourself. \n The truth is (and this is the sociologist me talking) that youth, especially at 17 when you're not yet even legally an adult, is a very difficult time. You are at the crux of you as a child and not yet an adult. Hell even people my own age don't call themselves adults.  Don't be so hard on yourself. I know that is hard to do sometimes but please relax your expectations and  just keep going.", "id": "c3gcm9a", "summary": "Times are tough but you are strong enough to keep going."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I was buying an Xbox 360 about a week after launch. Kevin Garnett was in line ahead of me, also buying an Xbox 360...For everyone in his family. He filled a garbage bag with controllers, copies of Madden, and a bunch of other games and stuff. He was this massive dude, and he didn't know what a wireless controller was. I didn't care that he was famous and actually explained to him how it works. His response was: \n \"Word? Nah I'm old school I'll keep the wired ones.\" \n And then he pulls out the no credit limit celebrity black card and pays for it all. I should have asked him to sign my xbox box.", "id": "ce1mqga", "summary": "Kevin Garnett bought xboxs and games for his whole family, still says \"word\" and is a genuinely chill dude. I got to tell him how wireless controllers work."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I'm an American. I visted this sub on a whim. I am very, very impressed. I would long for this kind of insightful discussion in the media. I've been to Canada a few times, but this..THIS along with access to cuban smokes are the most compelling reasons I have to move to Canada. (Not to mention all the awesome social progress and economic stability).", "id": "c8av4aw", "summary": "CANADA I AM IMPRESSED."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I had a similar fear a few years ago. Truth is, not many people would bother to really hate someone like that. It might seem like the world doesnt like you, but that is all in your head. In reality, people are too wrapped up in themselves to collectively hate you. \n Likewise its impossible for you, to specifically hate every single person.", "id": "c3gzevh", "summary": "Thinking that \"everyone\" hates \"you\" is irrational. But then again so is depression. But it happens.. \n But I know how terrifying that can feel."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Nobody should force you to drink or smoke (are over 21?). However I had a puritan streak in me for about three years but then I decided that life being so short it really does not matter much. I smoked cigars and drank whiskey. I had a policy of not inhaling, but then I wanted to try hookah with a friend and now I have a new social venue. I also dated a cigarette smoker for a while, and teaching her to smoke cigars provided for a very fun date.", "id": "c27btbm", "summary": "Don't let your desire to be straight edge stop you from being with people."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Not to legitimate his being a dick but: \n I went out to a dive bar once, sat there drinking along for a while and right when I was feeling forever alone (and about to leave) some people came up and we started talking. Spent the night cruising the bars with them, it was awesome.", "id": "c370jgk", "summary": "While he was being an asshole about it, the thing about dive bars was true in my case."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Halo 4 and Resident Evil 6. \n They are actually really good games, but I can't care about them. I'm a PC gamer, RE6 was the first time I booted my 360 in two years. \n They just don't grab me and feel as good as the games I'm playing on PC, my flight simulators (DCS), DayZ,Arma 2 (which I love more than DayZ) and Sleeping Dogs (no, you don't need a controller for it.)PC gaming, its better, we know its better.", "id": "c7a7gw8", "summary": "Yup, still a PC gamer."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Let me tell you my story friend, \n I felt a bit like you did in 2010, enjoying the work but seeing it only as an intellectual game, an extension of argumentation, a scientific curiosity. \n I took a few advanced theory classes in 2011 and began to really work in the field, service-learning and what not. \n One topic I never really liked to study was immigration. Long story, I became interested in it and took on an internship helping refugees. Now I am excited to go back learn more about the topic, the process and the current findings on immigration.", "id": "c4uee5m", "summary": "Sociology does apply to the real world, and getting into that will foster your intellectual curiosity. Go for it. \n Also, being a sociology major in a grant writing course full of English majors is awesome. Step one was \"find a societal problem.\" and my classmates had a moment of \"What is a societal problem?\". I looked at my sociology major friend in the class and we said \"We got this.\""}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I can relate to that, looking at people in high school like they are backwards, animals. Why socialize with them? I know it sucks. Sleeping with a girl in your arms is nice, and it is peaceful, but when that girl is gone...You'd never thought a small twin bed could feel so empty. \n Things will get better in college, really. I'm not in contact with hardly anyone from high school, but I've made many wonderful friends twice my age in college. One of my closest friends was getting shot at in Afghanistan while I was bitching in high school. It really puts a lot into perspective.", "id": "c2acock", "summary": "It sucks, it could be much worse. A girlfriend is no guarantee against loneliness. It does get better."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Good point. I dont grease anywhere near the chamber and I wipe of excess anyway. I've heard Ayoob's story about the six clicks making that guy feint, the lube had penetrated and killed the primers. \n This also why its a good idea to, as I did, take the top round out of circulation if it's been rechambered. Seating depth can change with repeat chamberings, and the round was starting to rust.  Inspect your ammunition.", "id": "c77j7r7", "summary": "GOOD POINT."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "If you bought a Glock, but feel that it is somehow more volatile because it does not have a little on/off switch, you either bought the wrong gun by mistake or you're not confident in yourself as a shooter. You should understand Glocks have multiple measures in place avoid accidental pulls of the trigger. That aside, you shouldn't think a gun can make up for your own mistakes either. Sorry, but that's how it is. \n As Clint Smith once said. \"We used to only have one rule, treat every gun like it is always loaded.\" but people got complacent, and then now we have a litany of rules when really you need only three, which all go back to that first rule anyway. \n I don't need a little on/off switch on my pistol because I know what I'm doing, and I know I know what I'm doing. I train with it. I understand it. I've trained with my Glock, in the dark as well. \n The \"DO NOT PUT FINGER ON TRIGGER.\" shouldn't even be a thought that has to happen in your head, it should happen instinctively. David Fessenden explains as much in his book  Defensive Handgun Skills: Your Guide to Fundamentals for Self-Protection", "id": "c78agk0", "summary": "I don't need or want an on/off switch on my Glock. It does not bother me if you do however. It is not my problem."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "You want story reddit? OKAY: \n I went to a \"shooters show\" at a local range, some of you may know about it. Reps from a lot of companies show up, and you can rent anything they have, just pay for ammo. The shop also brings out its full autos like a 1919, Glock 18, RPK, which I've fired and many others. This sounds like a great idea right? Not when its overcrowded with idiots who also have no gun experience whatsoever. \n So aside from \"How gun work?\" and \"I want MP5 leik vidyagaems\" There are people who don't know any better and bite off more than they can chew. \n The last time I attended (because of this story) I had the pleasure of renting some custom 1911s from springfield, very expensive guns I'd never encounter otherwise.  I was putting some lead down range on the crowded line when this kid shows up. He had to have been 18 to rent a gun but he looked like he was 14, skinny, short and obnoxious. Complete with a dewrag and a \"I'mma hustla\" t-shirt he rented a Raging Bull in .454. He said he had no gun experience at all. \n He loads up the revolver, and shoots as fast as he can. BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM. He missed the paper (a large target at 15 feet) completely and was nearly hiding under the bench after the third round. He nearly dropped the thing. I immediately unload and walk away while a range officer pulls him aside and in a very nice way tells him he is an idiot and will hurt someone. And the kid gets mad \"Watchu know about guns?\" that did not end well. \n Had he dropped the gun in single action it would have hit the floor, gone off and taken my ankle with it. \n And that kids, is why I don't go to crowded ranges full of inexperienced people.", "id": "c5c35fr", "summary": "Cocky Idiot rents .454, misses target at close range and nearly drops it."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I just finished a project for a sociology class, based on the research I spent my semester reading, only 15% of people can be classified as the pathological hardcore type racist. 60% assimilate the dominant social ideology (e.g. I'm not racist because I hate fascists) the other 25% are the type that when told they are submissive to that dominant social ideology will actively combat it.", "id": "c1tc7py", "summary": "everybody is a rascist, rascism while not entirely pathological can be called a pathological disorder."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I would like to point out that Arma and its progenitor, Operation Flashpoint (Now called Arma: Cold War Crisis) were cult status games since day one, because of the modding capacity. People are still making mods and addons for OFP over a decade later. Arma has always been \"popular\" but DayZ has brought it  \"mainstream.\" \n As a hipstery Arma veteran that does play DayZ I'm really annoyed when people view Arma only a vehicle for DayZ. It is the greatest military simulator ever made (or rather the military version VBS 1 and 2 are) and it should be played in its own right.", "id": "c5m8fpb", "summary": "Arma 2 is amazing and you should play it, DayZ or not."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "You're socialized to be an American at this point. Just because you use British spelling doesn't mean you're British. It does not make you British, or interesting, just pretentious. I suppose I'm a bit biased, as I knew a guy in high school who kept trying to tell me the same thing when really he was just being a pretentious, narcissistic ass. \n England is just a country, you can't be half a nationality (unless you consider dual citizen or something) \n Instead of trying to classify it, why not just keep on being whoever it is you are.", "id": "c3abv53", "summary": "Be who you are. Nobody really cares if one of your parents is from another country."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I honestly wouldn't mind what COD players call themselves, as long as they  stay the hell out of my discussions of actual guns! \n A few years ago I was talking to a friend of mine before class (he had just gotten back from Iraq) and explained that a gun dealer friend of his had just  given  him a genuine HK91. That is an impressive thing if you know what that is. The HK91 is the semi-automatic civilian market version of the G3 rifle (which happened to appear in COD4). The HK91 has been out of production for a long time now, and not exported. An HK91 in functional condition is worth several thousand dollars. \n So we are talking about his fortunate gift and what he was doing with it, how he was sighting in, the loading he was using (projectile weight, charge, cartridge components). So at some point I said \"Oh, so you got yourself a G3 pattern gun now?\" \n SUDDENLY OUT OF NOWHERE this punk kid chimes in talking about the G3 is cool and he loves it in COD, and goes on to talk about all sorts of other guns he's never even seen or used. He brings up the \"Kalashnikov ripped off the STG44\" argument which in addition to being totally uncalled for, is fucking stupid and not a serious topic of discussion in the gun community. Suffice it to say if you understand what \"long stroke piston mechanism\" actually means then its not much to talk about. \n So this kid rambles on about guns he has never seen, with no combat or even recreational shooting experience. After that we talked about it in private, just to avoid the coming of the COD-wannabes. \n My senior year I invited a different guy to come shooting with me. His reply \"Yeah but only if you have an ACR 6.8 because thats my favorite gun.\" ...... An ACR is one of the most expensive rifles on the market, and 6.8mm REMSPEC  is an expensive, hard to find cartridge.", "id": "ccvveiq", "summary": "If you think Call of Duty will teach you about guns, you're wrong. Keep your mouth shut and you might learn something."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "OP can I just give you one thing to consider? \n You'll be reading about all these features, stats and information you might not understand yet.  Don't worry about it. \n Since it is your first gun, you will learn to use it regardless of what it is. Everyone has to start somewhere. There is no need to worry too much or freak out about things you don't understand yet. Don't worry about what DA/SA means, or what barrel lenght means or dare I say the position of the controls (even if that is a very serious consideration) because you will learn to use it anyway.", "id": "c7usaqy", "summary": "Don't worry too much. Find a gun you \"like\" and run with it."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I was always the good scout (no suprise I got Eagle and OA) and we had kids in our troop that could not even be the fun crazy like that. One of the older scouts that was leaving when I got in drank a beer at camp once but that was about it. \n Instead the younger scouts that arrived when I was the older one were all crazy, sociopathic, homocidal and generally evil. One bipolar kid single handedly ruined SEABASE for us (I dont mean that as anything against a bipolar person). Another stole coins from a change machine and almost got us kicked out of the hotel (no suprise he was kicked out of the troop after other incidents like that) \n Oh that and a few stabbings... \n Anyway,", "id": "c1pz6f9", "summary": "Scouting will not fix a kid with serious behavioural disorders."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I once lost an apartment during a major depression because of some landlord  versus roommate b.s. Is that close enough? \n I really lost my shit when this happened. I found myself shivering on my bed after a frantic and frivilous attempt to pack out what I could. It is indeed very unnerving. But the next morning I managed to call some movers and get my stuff removed. But not everyone has the money to move stuff out. The house was in your family's name.  This is not your fault  and your parents probably feel worse about it. \n I dont have any real advice to solve your problem, I can only tell you that life will continue after losing a living space. It happened to me and I survived just fine, I'm flourishing in a new place. Think of this as an opportunity? Look into scholarships? Just finish college, that should be your priority. Have you tried talking to your parents about it?", "id": "c2tf2dg", "summary": "It's not the end of the world."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "No. I had the same opportunity in a short lived relationship a year ago. She looked at my virginity like a prize. She said she was tried of one night stands. She lied. \n It would have meant nothing to her, and she would also \"forget\" her pills and I didnt have a condom at the time. A few weeks after she dumped me because of it she has a fit of jealousy and calls me in tears talking about how her new bf is a douchebag and she considers seeing him three times a week \"not enough\".", "id": "c2z7qr0", "summary": "DODGED A BULLET. \n I wrestled with those thoughts too, am I a heartless person? Am I closed off? Nope. No I'm not. Neither are you."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Oh man, seen this way too many times. \n I was waiting for a class once, talking to an older friend of mine who had done two tours in Iraq and then worked as a PSD. He mentioned a dealer friend of his just randomly gifted him a genuine HK91. I was floored by this, I explained to him how a real HK91 is worth a lot more than a PTR91. I was not untill I said \"Wow man..so you got a G3 pattern rifle?\" that this punk's ears perked up and he tried to jump into the conversation.", "id": "c2jaetg", "summary": "He was clueless as to what an HK91 was untill I mentioned the G3. The G3 is featured in COD4, other than that he had no idea what we were talking about. \n He then starts talking shit about how the ACR is the best gun ever and just starts popping off a bunch of stupid shit. We just laugh and walk to class."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I originally had some reservations about the DRM and stuff but really its not that bad. I should have done this last year. I'm really impressed with the new flight model, cockpit and communications system. I'm not even using Track IR or even a decent HOTAS (still on my old 3d pro) and I'm having a great time. \n I suppose I should get A-10 now right? Anyone want to join me for a flight? Help a new guy please?", "id": "t3_zknuc", "summary": "DRM on  BS2 and upgrading from Steam is not hard and totally worth it."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Okay so, funny story here. \n Friend and I were outside Stary about to go in for supplies. We are on the hills overlooking the military camp.  We start moving when my friend hollars \"Player down there!\" and we scramble back into the bushes. After a minute of waiting and watching through binoculars, I see the player shuffling around between the tent and the portojohns with an 870 in his grip. \n Meanwhile, my friend had begun slinking down to the camp, to the player's flank in order to be able to speak to him over direct chat. I am still up on the hill watching, covering my friend. The player crawls out into the open, looks at me and immediately stands up and sprints away into the town. \n We confirm he is gone and I go down to the camp to join my friend. Because he was close to the other player in order to speak to him, I did not hear what he had said. I asked him what that exchange was and why he left so rapidly. \n Apparently it went something like this: \n \"Player in Stary, do you need assistance?\" (We are nice players that rescue others) \n \"No.\" \n \"Well I am coming in, do not fire.\" \n -Player spots me- \n \"Is that you on the ridge?\" \n \"No. That is just my sniper...\" \n At this point I saw the player get up and book it. You could almost see the look of \"OH SHIT\" on his face when he realized that he had one guy staring him down from the hill and another skulking around behind him.", "id": "t3_wvd9x", "summary": "Covered a friend, scared some guy off."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Okay this has been complained about many times before but I just got off of a server where it was just douchebaggy. \n Use of barbed wire, sandbags and barracades are a part of the game, im not knocking that. I understand maybe building a compound with them or something, but copious use of barracades around entire city blocks is just stupid. I was in Elektro looking for a weapon as I just restarted. Every single firestation, school and pub was barbed wired. Not just one doorway or one wire, but gratuitous use of barracades . \n WHY? Do you understand how loot works!? Do you understand that it will respawn? That you don't need to wire off entire blocks when all you are doing is looting? Its quicker just to run in and out looking for things. When you're not on the sever, the barbed wire still is, so its basically just barring of parts of the game. \n If I had a toolkit at the time I would have started removing it but I did not, thanks for slowing down my progress you stupid bastards.", "id": "t3_ywp7u", "summary": "Screw you guys. I'm going to Stary."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I see a lot of people complaining about how hard it is to fly helicopters, and more over I see people complaining about how the boot camp flight tutorial is bad.The boot camp flight tutorial is really not that terrible, but... \n You know that you can play around with the game in the editor right? \n You want to learn at your own pace? You want to play with every weapon, vehicle and possibility in Arma? Start the game normally, go to single player, go to editor, go the Chernarus (or any island)  click and spawn in any unit you want. You can get right into the Huey used in DayZ if you want to, and fly around. \n I even found that playing the editor, exploring chernarus by air takes on a whole new context when you see it from the DayZ perspective. \n Arma 2 has the greatest mission editor I've ever seen in a game, and it has been where I've spent most of my time in all of my gaming history. \n You can do whatever you want.", "id": "t3_xgwth", "summary": "Arma has a mission editor, use it to practice."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Okay long story, but I've never been this confused about what gun I want. We all have moments when we want every gun in the store but this was different. \n I've been shooting my Glock 21 and CZ75B a lot lately, and after my best friend was nearly stabbed last week he asked to take carry classes with me. I was already planning on carrying so this works out fine. \n So I go into my local shop which also has its own range, and start shopping around and getting advice on a carry gun. I express an interest in a compact CZ, PPQ (not really that compact) and LCR. After handling these pistols and being very impressed by the PPQ's super short reset and trigger pull for a striker fired gun. I go down to the range looking to rent one and really shoot it. \n I talk to them about a carry gun, they suggest forgoing the compact route and just carrying a fullsize gun, like my CZ75. I figure I can do it as I'm about 5'11 and strong enough for it. So then I figure that a graduation present is in order, not just a carry piece. \n I've had a 1911 in mind for some time, and I've fired many of them, entry level and high end models alike. However I never considered SIG's 1911s. After some discussion, the SIG's fit and finish is really impressive (not just for the price) and the staff gave it good reviews. The model they had to rent was the Fastback Nightmare, with the bobtail grip. \n I shot it, really enjoyed it and was really impressed with it. Squared slide or not it is an impressive 1911 style pistol. Very accurate, even if I pulled to the left due to too much finger tip. \n So gunnit I need your help. Do I throw down on SIG's 1911, and get an amazing gun that I could still carry, or do I disregard the staff advice and get a really compact gun?  I know I don't need a \"compact\" or \"pocket gun\" in order to carry.", "id": "t3_xngoq", "summary": "went in to buy a carry gun. Shot a SIG 1911. I am confused as to what gun I should get."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Forgive me r/coffee for I have sinned. I love coffee, but for three years I sold Kuerig machines for a living (promotions) and I used one. \n I am done with that nonsense, now that college is over I have time really dig deeper into coffee. I have had a French Press for years, and a pour over. But today I found an Aeropress, and from what I heard from you guys, I had to get one. \n The only whole bean coffee I had on hand today was some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. I ground some up and made my first cup of Aeropress coffee. It changed my life. I have seen the light. I would liken it to a smoothness to like syphon cup. It was amazing and I dont know why \nI did not get one sooner. \n I want to know how to get the most out of this device, and what types of coffee to get next.", "id": "t3_xoquk", "summary": "Used to sell Keurigs, got an Aeropress. OMGAAHHH"}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I am overwhelmingly happy that people are discovering ArmA because of DayZ even if I am not playing DayZ. \n I have been playing the franchsie games since its inception. The original Operation Flashpoint (and VBS1) was pretty much all I did in high school. It should be noted that the recent \"Operation Flashpoint\" games are  nothing at all in anyway  like the original OFP which is the origin of ArmA. \n I remember when the first zombie script was released for OFP, it was basic, but became more and more complex over its development cycle. OFP/Arma has an amazing mission editor, so you can make your own addons, mods and missions which is where the first zombie scripts and content add ons came from. The add on and mod community is what keeps Arma interesting. \n It is that promise is an open, immerse, brutally unforgiving and intense combined arms military simulator that makes OFP and Arma so endearing to myself and to the greater Arma community. This is why the games have had a cult status since day one. Arma does not need DayZ to be successful, it is just icing on the cake. \n I've spent uncountable hours playing with the zombie add ons, scripts and editor content and frankly I have no interest in DayZ now. Like it is out of my system or something. \n I just hope that those of you that buy it for DayZ play the original game at some point. The best multiplayer experiences I ever had in any game ever came from playing on large combined arms mission servers in Arma 2. \n The game is clunky, esoteric, difficult, unforgiving but oh so immersive and beautiful. It is my sincerest hope that DayZ was the hook some of you needed to get into the franchise. \n The new trailers and E3 showings of Arma III show the franchise becoming more refined, with the ideas we have dreamed of for years. I nearly crapped my pants when I saw the new fluid animations and advanced movements around cover (like shooting supine for example) in the new E3 Showcase. I am eagerly awaiting Arma III and I am also overjoyed to know that some of you that got into Arma II for DayZ will hopefully follow it into Arma III.", "id": "t3_urohk", "summary": "I'm not playing DayZ but my mouth is watering over ArmaIII. I hope you discover what a great military simulator Arma  is."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Not to sound condescending because it is hypocritical to rant about what someone else does with games when I could do the same myself but: \n Is it just me or is the quality of \"Let's Play\" game playthroughs on Youtube anywhere from decent to  god awful?  It is as if being a noob with no frame of reference other than COD is a requisite for making gameplay commentary videos. \n Some are actually pretty good, I don't mean to lambast the entirety of it, but often times I encounter videos where the person has no understanding of how to talk or read much less play the game. \n People that talk through cutscenes, people that don't know how to read messages that are clearly displayed in the game. \"How do you do that?\" When the text message tutorial is displayed right there on the screen. People that \"review\" games when only playing them for a day and not really understand the concepts behind the game. Its just really annoying to hear someone's pointless droning commentary. \n Would it be to much to admit that you don't need to say something every moment of play? Would it be too much to admit that maybe you don't have anything worth saying at that particular moment? \n /rant \n I should make gameplay videos myself if I'm so displeased with it. Any advice on a capture card or programs to use?", "id": "t3_uwmf7", "summary": "Am I alone in finding gameplay commentary lackluster, irritating and poorly executed?"}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Okay so my slow cooker is one of my favorite ways too cook and coming back from the holiday break my family sent me off with a large top round roast (beef) that was intended for oven roasting. I chopped up an onion and tossed in some potatoes with the roast which I coated in spices with water into the slow cooker. A few hours  later I'm worried the fat side may not melt. I probably should have trimmed it. \n EDIT:  Turned out great, nice and tender. I could have used some pickling spice though...", "id": "t3_o23zy", "summary": "I put an oven roasting piece of meat into the slow cooker and I dont know how what will happen."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I think as you become a more seasoned smoker you become attached to your lighters, cutters, travel humidors. I nearly cried when my cheap little triple flame died on me two years ago. \n Since then I've been using a stainless cutter and a Xikar Executive and I've become attached to them. A cigar in the car after a stressful day working for an NGO became the one hour of sanity in my life. But two weeks ago I lost the Xikar, a Xikar that had been dropped, beaten and probably should have gone back to Xikar. It still worked. For two weeks I was a wreck. I've been depressed for a while and  a cigar was the only the time the voice in my head shut up. \n Well today I found my Xikar, it had fallen into a very out of the way place in room. Suddenly life does not suck as I have been reunited with my lighter that has gone through so much with me.", "id": "t3_ylolh", "summary": "Attached to my lighter and cutter, lost my lighter, found it again and suddenly life is worth living."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "My CCW permit is on its way. I have slept with my Glock 21SF with a loaded mag in the gun on my night stand for the last two years. However I never kept it +1.  Now that I'll be carrying, it occured to me that while carrying I will be loaded +1 and decocked (DA/SA gun not the Glock). \n It should be noted that one night when someone tried to get into a living room back window at 3AM I did get the gun and I knew to rack the slide so in that instance it was not an issue but! \n My brain immediately yelled at me.  \"You'll carry a gun in condition 1 but not sleep next to one? Are you retarded!?\"   to which I responded.  \"I don't know brain, you tell me.\" \n My brain said  \"Hey dumbass, go +1 that gun!\"  So I checked the gun, unloaded the magazine, took the top round of circulation, reloaded the mag and racked the slide. I press checked twice just to make sure I was serious about it, and put it back. \n Did anything bad happen when I did that? NO! Would anything happen? NO!! There are no kids in my house and my whole family took gun safety classes and shoots with me.", "id": "t3_13v4e7", "summary": "Carrying or night standing your gun without one in the chamber is stupid."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I think I need to make this a regular thing. I never considered myself much of a psychonaut, never done any hard drugs, but I do meditate and read philsophy, always going for that transcendent moment. \n So I had an appointment with the Wellness Center in Minneapolis, and I am a new man. The experience has changed my life, and I will be going back next week. I would completely recommend it, and I'll share my experience. \n You shower with scentless shampoo and wash to clean yourself off before you go in. There are light and heat controls inside the tank. Of course I immediately turned the light off.  The water is highly salient, and you are so boyant you can not put your arms under the water, you will actually be pushed back up. But you close the door, lay out, float and let go. \n It's not really a psychodelic experinece, but about five minutes into my hour session, things started to happen. My legs began to twitch without any conscious thought, relaxing in the warm water. I could hear my heart beating underwater. I was staring into the darkness. Then I looked around expecting to see light or something. Nothing but the dark. Nothing. That was pretty trippy right there. \n I started to see things, as weird as that sounds. I saw a pair of eyes, in grayscale, blinking back at me from the void. I saw projections from childhood dreams I'd had years and years ago. I saw landscapes I've never been too. Your entire body seems to expand and loosen. \n I had an hour in the tank, it felt like ten minutes. I had always thought the voice of negativity in your mind was to be called \"the voice in the dark.\" well now I have confronted the darkness. There was no voice, only the sound of your breathing. \n There was more to the experience but it is hard to describe, toward the end it was like being stimulated and being nothing at the same time, like you're on fire, like you should be doing something, but there is nothing to do, nothing to see, nowhere to go. I became aware of every nerve ending in my body, and I will never look at my legs the same way again. \n I got out feeling naked as the day I was born, profoundly calm, aware, enlightened. You shower again, and when you leave the room it really hits you. This is an entirely new world. Colors are brighter, sounds crisper, you remember every word a person says, everything you read. Every sensation is new and fresh.", "id": "t3_1i6oau", "summary": "Omiggaahh sensory deprivation tanks are awesome."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I went back for my second float today. It was even shorter, and deeper. I made the point of wearing ear plugs this time, so the water does not infiltrate your ear. Most of the time in the tank was much of the same, relaxation, the intoxicating darkness. Real isolation. \n I find my body still vibrates in the water, muscles relaxing in the warm, almost oily salient liquid. After a heavy triceps workout the other day I was sore. After the float, I am not sore. \n What stood out about this session was: In my last post I reported seeing landscapes I've never been too. Well toward the end of the meditation I found myself in the forest I had seen before. I was standing on the pine needles.  I talked to an identical version of myself  but it was the man I could be. Warm, collected, clean, confident. He told me that I don't need to worry about which self I was, who I was, where I was going, what I was doing. He hugged me. \n ...Then the music started playing and my session was over. It felt like only a few minutes. I came out with that profound sense of calm and new appreciation for colors and feelings again. Everyone I met today has noted how chill I was. It still works. \n So that's that. I'm making this a regular thing.", "id": "t3_1ilox5", "summary": "Met my true self in a floatation tank."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "So there was some interest yesterday in the bag of CAO Italia branded [coffee]( I got as a bonus with my last order. Being the idiot CAO fanboy that I am I jumped at the chance to try it this morning. \n The bag was actually marked for sale by August 2012. I don't know how much this would actually effect a whole bean coffee.\nInterestingly enough there was actually a Surgeon General's warning on the bag, presumably because it was packed with cigars originally. \n Anyway. [Here's the album.]( I ground it finely and made a cup in my Aeropress. As you can see it didn't exactly bloom like really good coffee but at least it perked up a bit. The smell of the dark roasted beans in the bag actually smelled a lot like the Italia cigars themselves, not really a coffee smell which is interesting. I would say it is the cedary, moist tobacco smell you get when you clean out a humidor. \n It came out clean and dark. It was smooth with a bitterness on the back of the palette, with flavors close to the Italia cigars, heavy and clean with a slight fruitiness. The coffee by itself was not fantastic. Decent enough to drink by itself but you can really tell  this coffee is meant to go with a cigar. \n It almost seems sort of gimmicky, not disappointing but its really obvious that this coffee pairs with Italia cigars. It is definately a smokers blend of coffee. I like it enough to keep drinking it with and without a cigar but its not exactly amazing single origin coffee.", "id": "t3_16e32u", "summary": "Its peculiar, decent enough to drink by itself but its clearly meant to go with Italia cigars."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Gentlemen, I have come into a great bounty. \n I received word of an estate sale in a very wealthy suburb near Minneapolis. I was surprised to see that among the photos of the items for sale were several humidors with some very rare and interesting cigars pictures. I steeled myself for battle. Having been raised on garage sale clothing and items for my childhood, the ins and outs of estate sales and garaging are engrained. \n I get up at the crack of dawn, having packed a breakfast sandwich and a bottle of cold pressed coffee and head out to the sale. The wealth in the area becomes apparent with all the gigantic lake front property. I park the car, get my preliminary entrance number (they meter how many people can go inside at once, it pays to be first) and I am the 4th person in. Score! \n I stand outside in the cold talking to the guy that runs the sale.  Apparently  the guy that died was some a writer or editor for Cigar Aficionado!!!!! So I heard. His best friend already got half of his cigars and the rest were up for sale. \n When the doors open there is a mad rush for the humidors and smokes. There were whole tables full of humidors and cigar boxes (which were full) and accessories. Rare ones, hard to find ones. This jackass dealer, interested in cigars only as a commodity to be resold for more money, starts tagging entire humidors. I snag what I can. It turns out I got the best deal because... \n The staff looks at this guy and goes \"Hey, you tagged the humidor itself, we're still charging by the stick. You just tagged a few thousand dollars in cigars bro.\" The guy goes pale, realizing he has no idea what he is doing he puts everything back. Punk! \n MEANWHILE I snag the choice stuff, picking out what looked good and an entire humidor and all the sticks in it. \n They were asking for about $4 per stick  any stick  and in Minnesota with a 70% wholesale tax, that is a huge discount anyway. And they're good sticks! \n They add up my humidor, my new BLACK-OPS lighter, Ashtray, a rare CigarFest 2012 Colibri cutter, a new fresh can of Xikar Butane, a  box of tiny cigarillos and..as it turns out..... drum roll  88 choice cigars from inside the humidor. For $312... \n [Here is the album]( \n I get home, nearly jumping up and down with joy and take an inventory. It was so rushed I never even looked inside the humidor. What was inside blew me away. \n \n 22 Unbanded sticks (Probably R.P. Series D Factory Seconds) \n 1 Liga Privada No.9 Cigar Rights Association Edition \n 6 Rocky Patel Edge Sumatras \n 3 Rocky Patel Edge Maduros \n 18 Rocky Patel 50th Anniversary Nordings (big ones) \n 12 Rocky Patel Fifteenth Anniversaries \n 12 Rocky Patel Series D Overruns (in packaging) \n 4 Rocky Patel Old World Reserves \n 10 Rocky Patel Decades \n Alta Gracia Cigarillos \n Road Warrior Ashtray \n Xikar Butane \n Black-Ops Kilo lighter \n La Aurora CigarFest 2012 Colibri CUT \n Thompson Three Finger Case \n Glass Top 80 count humidor, no locking key, busted hinges but solid seal. \n \n For $312. I did some price checking and rough math, and factoring in the MN tax, this was actually  $1142.30  in cigars!!!!!! \n SCORE! Now, not being a capitalist douche bag estate sale profiteer, I will be sharing this bounty with my friends and with my BotL. PREPARE TO BE CIGAR-BOMBED.", "id": "t3_19468m", "summary": "312 at the estate sale of a possible Cigar Aficiando editor nets thousands in cigars."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Thanks for the [earlier discussion]( \n I went shooting with my uncle today to break in his new Taurus and while at the shop I told a guy I was looking for a CZ75b and his eyes lit up. The staff carried on himself and had stars in his eyes.  After debating between the stainless, DB and SP-01 models I decided that a straight traditional CZ75b in the black polycoat finish. I was told that I could rent one at the range downstairs, and they would refund the rental cost if I bought it. \n After shooting a very pleasant and accurate 100 rounds I was sold. Unfortunately they did not have the model and finish I wanted on hand, so I put some cash down on layaway and it will be here soon.", "id": "t3_nrs6w", "summary": "Rented a CZ75b on gunnits advice and liked it enough to buy one."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Hey gunnit. It's my 22nd birthday today and I figured I'd go to a gun show and get a gift for myself. I'm in Minnesota with my handgun buyer permit and I went into the show with my uncle.  These shows are all put on by one company and are usually always the same, with the same dealers. But the shows have been getting less and less interesting in recent years. \n I even talked to my regular guy, and he had a RIA 1911. I had gone in looking for a decent 1911 and this one felt shoddy, with no checkering on the grips or the frame it was very uncomfortable.  My uncle wanted to buy a Hi-Point but without the permit he could not buy it, and he was mad at me for not buying it for him (even when it was totally obvious he would be getting it). It was a rather disappointing show, and now I'm thinking I should just save my money and get the SA Loaded like I want.", "id": "t3_iyk34", "summary": "Went to my usual gun show on my birthday and it was more disappointing than usual. This ever happen to anyone else?"}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "I love my Ruger MKIII.  It was my first pistol and it is close to my heart. I will always adore my little bull barrel .22. \n That being said I encountered something I will need to change. I was at the range the other day, my third visit this week, getting some practice in before my CCW course next week. I ran the CZ75 which I will be testing with untill I ran out of 9mm and then went to my MKIII to continue practice. A particular issue I noticed when running the MKIII is that is harder/more akward to do the over-hand slide racking as I do with my other automatics. So I find myself using the slide lock with my thumb. This is an issue because under stress you default to your training, and I don't like using the slide lock to close the be bolt because it is slower and takes some finer motor skills. \n This is not an issue with the MKIII by itself or as a slow-shooting target pistol, but as a training aide this strikes me as akward. In short I'm not looking for a .22 automatic where I can easily do the over-hand slide rack.", "id": "t3_12cu0i", "summary": "I think I'm getting a KADET kit."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "So a while back my mother (after an attempted break-in) upgraded from a kitchen knife to a Beretta 21A in .25ACP. She actually has not shot it herself yet (long story). But I have shot it and while it is certainly not the most accurate little pistol or the most comfortable (gave me some slide bite) there is something about it that is just fun. It is a quirky, odd little pistol that begs to be loved. Its the ultimate in pew pew pew.  At 15 feet it groups up pretty well actually, but I wouldn't trust it at anything past that. \n Anyway. I normally carry a fullsize gun OWB. I had to meet a few friends that recently got a job selling suits, and I needed to be fitted for a suit. I carried the gun in a pants pocket (free of anything that might conflict with the trigger guard) in DA, safety on. \n I couldn't get fitted with a gun on my hip so I had to do this. I kept a backup mag in my back pocket. No one was the wiser. It worked out very well. I don't like using a safety but until I invest in a pocket holster it had to be done that day. \n Anyway, it worked out great.", "id": "t3_170zsj", "summary": "Sometimes a tiny pocket gun is appropriate."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Hello all, \n I knocked an interview out of the park today. I am the right man at the right time and I made that abundantly clear. I have not felt this good about an interview in my life. \n Using articles about what questions to ask the interviewer and what they pay attention too that I found on this sub really left a great impression. Thank you very much. \n But I noticed something. Learn from my mistake. I had two writing samples from a previous job and college. They requested to see the one from my old employer that I had in my interview folder just by chance. Turns out it was the \"version 2\" draft and not the final product that also contained sensitive information. She was impressed with it, but I informed her she could not keep it, and that I would email it to her. Because of the size of the file it would not email properly. Meanwhile, my senior thesis was the document I intended to give them, that I never got around to talking about/being asked about it. \n So after the email failed, I sent my thesis in its place. I got a response \"Thank you for the follow-up, this other document is more than sufficient.\" So I guess it all worked out! Fingers crossed.", "id": "t3_1d47zy", "summary": "Thanks guys. Check your freaking folder, written materials and writing sample."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Okay so, you can get mad at me for not being \"low profile\" which is fine, believe me the thought crossed my mind today as well. But I have good news. \n Today was my day off. I have a ritual of starting these days off with some superb espresso and read over the latest gun  rag  mag. Well today I got an Americano, an odd choice for me, and sat at the communal table, also an unusual choice. Reading my American Handgunner I am sitting across from a woman that, and I'm not exaggerating, looked like the sister of the College Liberal meme woman. I half expected her to start chewing me out when I started reading. \n To my surprise she said \"How about that controversy? I don't really know much about it.\" and then really listened when I calmly explained what the bills were, why the AWB was insanity and how gun laws as they already are work and specifically how MN gun laws work. I talked about how self-defense is just as much of a mindset, being mostly a head-game as it is about having the tools to do it. She said she carried pepper spray at one point before TSA confiscated it. I advised her that if she was serious about getting a gun, to take training and learn how to use them properly. She really took that to heart. She left thanking me for the explanation.", "id": "t3_1cmnsy", "summary": "The end of this round of bills has prompted discussion, and they will listen."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Alright so two weeks ago I asked for your advice [here.]( \n I just got back from my first IDPA match and aside from some obvious rookie mistakes and a kinda-sorta-safety violation it went really well. It was a local match and it was very laid back, very fun with some good people of all skill levels. Competition shooting is addictive I think. It was an incredible rush and a great test of skills that I think I will make a routine now. Off to register with IDPA officially. \n I meet the man I met (one of the ROs) a few months ago for the first match of the season and we pick up his friend and go down to the range. I sign up and pay the entry fee, following all safety procedures and asking questions. Everyone there was friendly and supportive of us new guys.Apparently the three stages were the worst possible stages to get a new guy into IDPA but  I did \"about as well as anyone could hope for a new guy.\" \n The first stage involved opening a door, engaging a spinner and two steel poppers, moving to a corner and engaging cardboard and then moving to the other side for more cardboard. That actually went flawlessly and really helped me get over the anxiety of competition or as one young lady at the range called it \" getting the cobbwebs off. \" \n The second stage was three strings moving forward, sideways and then backwards on three targets with six shots a piece in Limited Vickers. That went well except that moving forward caused me to push shots to the right. I made the mistake of bending over to get the cartridge I failed to catch while keeping the gun downrange. Not a strict safety violation and this was corrected, it was just stupidity on my part. \n The third was this really complicated 10-11 target behind barrels thing between two portals. Most people messed up this stage because of its complexity. I mistakenly re-shot two targets there were already down. Not a penalty but a waste of time. \n My CZ75B performed flawlessly and I will be back next week wiser and calmer for the season. I think I have found the next new love of my life and it is competitive shooting. I'm off to register with the league and IDPA.", "id": "t3_266r6d", "summary": "had fun, met cool people, didn't get DQ'd."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Because they don't get it. \n This might be a rant but I know /r/ccw will understand. I have friends that carry and friends that shoot, sometimes they don't overlap. I think we've all that had moment where our understanding of shooting, practicing, training and marksmanship changes when you carry. \n To my non-carrying friends, even those in the military (later in our story) still see going to the range  as some kind of amusement park  and frankly it is problematic when you're carrying. \n I joined my friend today at the range because he is leaving for the army next week and wanted to see us. Well he invited his dad, one marine and one dumbass. Now I actually like these people, but I've concluded after today I won't be shooting my carry gun for practice around non-carriers. \n I carry a CZ but I'm a Glock man too. The dumbass in our story bought an M&P, which is a fine gun by itself. But he kept saying \"Glocks suck lol\" with zero evidence or reason. It turns out that he bought an M&P in .357SIG, which he can't really afford to shoot, but the .357sig version of the M&P costs less than .40 apparently. \n So after that bullshit, we hit the range and its obvious that he has absolutely no idea how to use an automatic pistol, he can barely load magazines. So after him shooting some .357sig and missing most of the target (letter paper at 7 yards) he lets me shoot and I group it up just fine. I tell him \"Gun is fine, you just need more practice.\" \n It becomes apparent that I'm the best pistolero in the group which really is not saying much.  So I start doing some drills and training targets with my carry gun, which goes pretty well except that none of them have the ability to keep their mouths shut. One member our group is infamous for it. So after I get my rounds in, I let the dumbass who can't run an automatic try it. \n Now, I had unholstered and unloaded my carry gun on the line as I normally do, with the carry mag set aside. So I go back to the bench, get another mag and start loading it with the \"cheap\"-er practice ammo I was going to let him use. Suddenly I start hearing the bang bang bang of my CZ75.  The idiot just couldn't wait and was now burning through my god damn carry ammo which is about $0.90 a round! \n I immediately stop him and even when the entire group goes \"Dude, what the fuck? That was his expensive carry ammo!\" \"Oh sorry lol.\" and yet he still demands to shoot the mag full of ball ammo I just loaded for him. And none of the group can keep their mouths shut! Did I mention that? Okay good. \n I can't really stay mad at him because he let me shoot him M1 later which was a treat. He offered to buy another box of carry ammo, the thing is, they don't sell it there! I'm not mad at him but damn it! \n So I shoot the last five rounds of my now diminished carry ammo, load it up with ball and reholster. Now that I'm home I loaded my carry mag back up. I only have two boxes, so I have two mags and two to top off. \n It was like none of them realized, respected or understood that I take pistol shooting seriously  because I have to!  It was just really obvious that shooting as a carrier and shooting as a recreational activity are two totally different dimensions. \n /rant", "id": "t3_18nwz7", "summary": "Non-CCW shooter friends don't get it and helped themselves to my expensive carry ammo."}, {"author": "MustardCosaNostra", "content": "Help me CF, I'm confused right now. \n I have found great solace and vindication in this sub, to know I'm not alone in not wanting  to have kids, and not to feel bad about CF as a lifestyle choice just as parenting is. It has broadened an already very well versed understanding of social science, in that it is an objective assessment of something that many people view as a biological prerogative and never think about critically. So thanks for that. \n But at this precise moment, I find myself wanting a child. When I was working with refugees this last year I would sometimes be asked to help watch the children now and again. I can't say I enjoyed it and would much rather have been doing my usual job, but I did see the joy in people who raise their children, and I did have an adorable little girl become rather attached to me (long story). It was not a bad experience, it made me think \"Hey maybe parenting doesn't suck.\" \n But I know I really don't want kids, I know I really should not be having them especially not now in my life. I'm not even really dating right now. I would have to find a woman that I really connect to, and truly love, and can truly live with before any real consideration for children ever crosses my mind. If that was accomplished first and I was stable and satisfied in myself, then maybe I would have a child. \n OR  I'm an idiot, my drive to procreate is flaring up, I'm confused and this is incredibly stupid. I think I'm going to go jerk off, sleep on it, and then probably wake up saying \"WHY THE FUCK WOULD I WANT TO HAVE KIDS!?\"", "id": "t3_186mmv", "summary": "Maybe I do actually want kids. Maybe I'm also a dumbass."}]}
+{"author": "Dr9", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post that man cannot ad-lib, show is fake as shit.", "output": "If I may help ruin the show for you.  Think about this: The seemingly candid in-car shots of Jeremy Clarkson's impressions are very rehearsed and written by a team of writers. \n That's right.  When Jeremy say's 'Woo hoo Well done fat man from Kentucky!' (while reviewing Corvette)- that was a line put together by a team sitting around for hours trying to come up with what sounds authentic enough for you to buy he's just rambling off a car review.  He'll do multiple takes and they'll stitch together."}], "user_id": "longlamp_1975", "history": [{"author": "Dr9", "content": "I would agree.  in the 1920's there was a lot of large capital projects (both public and private) for real property - big buildings, bridges, subways being dug out in metro areas. \n Today, if we didn't have those existing buildings, bridges, tunnels etc we wouldn't couldn't afford to make them now.  The fact that many of these things are now basically end-of-life is troubling.  We've had 40+ years of not doing proper capital planning, and kept throwing minimum money calling it maintenance. \n Big money privately is being spent, but it seem a lot is on stupid shit like billion dollar valuations for social media companies. \n I think we're facing stagflation.  Prices (gas, food, realestate) keep going up, wages are pretty flat - employment metrics count (1 part time mcdonalds fry cook = 1 job and senior director of hospital making 200K a year as = 1 job) which obviously is terribly flawed.", "id": "cjsrahv", "summary": "the baby-boomer gimmie-gimmie generation have fukt us."}, {"author": "Dr9", "content": "Looks like mold/mildew growing in the space between the panels. \n I'm guessing this was a bath-fitter job (spray old bathtub, cover tiles with plastic sheets) that was done like 10 years ago.  Those are probably not caulk but plastic sleeve joints that go together and have adhesive on the bottom. \n If you remove it the acrylic (or whatever it is sheet) may come out at the bottom but you can caulk it back into place. \n Looks like a job for a tiling specialist - not a plumber.", "id": "cmyp026", "summary": "Yes, remove the bottom (and possible corner) strips of stuff.  Bleach it all to hell and back- let it fully dry to make sure nothing is growing behind -and get almond coloured caulk to fix it (wear laytex gloves and remove excess with a wet finger)"}, {"author": "Dr9", "content": "I'm going to put the blame on a city worker, or whomever though the poop box should be a red box 3 cubic feet, on a metal post 2 feet off the ground - about 60 feet away from the post office box.  Which apparently is a red box, about 3 cubic feet on a metal post up about 2 feet off the ground. \n If I were driving down the street looking for a post office box, I think I could mistake it enough to get out of my car with letters in hand.  I wouldn't put them in, but then I'm not visually imparied.", "id": "c3al7u2", "summary": "shitty design."}, {"author": "Dr9", "content": "Hear me out.\nIf you don't have active intellectual property (are currently getting paid for books, videos, illustrations or games). Then they are basically worthless.  So your exposure is nothing.  Recognizable characters are worth money - unrecognizable characters are not. \n If your concern is that you guys make a great demo and they take off and make 'unauthorized' sequels without out.   You  could  write iron clad contracts that you retain all IP - but in doing that you risk alienating your team.  Would you be ok with reciprocating if the unity developer presents you with a contract that he retains all custom code and you can't release a sequel with any common code without his release?  Probably not. \n You need to decide if you are the boss, and hire these guys to realize your vision - or if you are a team.  In the end, if you created really special characters who will make the game into a huge success - then you can do it again.", "id": "c325t0i", "summary": "Valid concern, some people have been stung by this.  But this kind of thinking will probably get in the way of making the initial product."}, {"author": "Dr9", "content": "Parrot bytecode makes a lot sense to me.  The 'pure script' interpreted PERL went everywhere, virtually all platforms but not all libraries are implemented on every flavor of O/S.  I've had to support taking some complex PERl cron jobs from hp/ux to solaris and it was a disaster.  The core components are interchangeable but in the weeds there were incompatibilities in database and some crypto modules.  Not a failing, it is all open source community development.  But damn it makes stuff hard to support in the enterprise. \n IMO, PERL had two things going for it, the web-cgi & file system scripting.  The web has moved on.  PHP took that mantle.  For regularly scheduled file parsing / ETL there are other ways to accomplish it that are generally easier to support [informatica, etc] relegating PERL to an 'also ran'. \n I  used  to code in PERL.  I liked PERL, but I like a lot of languages.  But presently I could not justify deploying it in a complex enterprise.", "id": "c308bgo", "summary": "I catch a paper boy\nBut things don't really change\nI'm standing in the wind\nBut I never wave bye-bye \n But I try\nI try \n There's no sign of life\nIt's just the power to charm\nI'm lying in the rain\nBut I never wave bye-bye \n But I try\nI try \n Never gonna fall for\nModern PERL walks beside me\nModern PERL walks on by\nModern PERL gets me to the Church on Time \n Church on Time terrifies me \nChurch on Time makes me party\nChurch on Time puts my trust in God and Man \nGod and Man no confessions\nGod and Man no religion\nGod and Man don't believe\nin Modern PERL"}, {"author": "Dr9", "content": "Are you ever REALLY doing it alone? \n Frameworks, libraries, opengl, DirectX, engines, outsourcing art elves... if you use any of the aforementioned then there are a huge number of folks who made it possible. \n Once upon a time there were asm developers who made games from scratch.  Most of the were pretty terrible (although some genius mechanics were made) I digress.", "id": "c8csfbo", "summary": "I think today it makes someone sound a bit of a braggert"}, {"author": "Dr9", "content": "When comparing species, humans are in their own league as we've got medicine and farm our food (sometimes importing it from thousand of miles away).  Domesticated dogs genetics are pretty much dictated by our breeding programs. They're the only example I can think of where the larger types live actually less than the smaller varities.  12+ years mini-pin vs. a heart-breakingly short 8 years for a deer hound. \n For cats left to their own (barn cats who eat only mice) live about 3 years.  If your cat is well cared for with vet visits and quality food it can live to be 20+ which is a huge spread when you think about it. \n Nobody really dies of 'old age' something goes, or you get so frail that a regular illness kills you.  It is really a question of what fails first.  For carnivores like dogs and cats kidney failure can happen late in life so diet is certainly an influence.", "id": "c33oo7z", "summary": "Parts wear out, smaller animals's hearts beat quicker - the heart is one of those things that have moving parts and you only get one."}, {"author": "Dr9", "content": "Yes, according to the BMI - Arnold Schwartznegger in his prime would be 'obese'. \n But that is a corner case, as if you are over on the BMI I can bet there is a 99% probability that it is because you're obese.  BMI is a 'quick and dirty' type of calculation where getting better results require things like dunking the subject in water displacement tank to get their mean density.", "id": "c3akge0", "summary": "most people are not atheletes so BMI is 'ok'."}, {"author": "Dr9", "content": "Saying he hates Asians is a ridiculous statement though, you're basing this on what? His racial slur comment? \n Am I to understand, his public racial slurs are based on love?  Or maybe he was just doing a 'comedy bit' and is just un-funny.  Because, you're right he is pretty un-funny. \n Related to un-funny.\nThey actually rehearses all of the show the banter, and the in car footage - they're just filmed poorly to give you the illusion that they're off the cuff.  He's admitted to it.  So when he was in a corvette yelling 'woo hoo good job, fat man from kentucky' - he did multiple takes, he was reading from a script that writers made for him.", "id": "ch2lm42", "summary": "no talent, not a funny person in real life."}, {"author": "Dr9", "content": "A key to how things got uber-fuc was a lot of those shitty mortgages were repacked as investment grade and resold (multiple times) to other financial institutes.  Huge speculative gambles were made by banks, and insurance companies.  Part of the problem, is that the people who were supposed to rate the investment quality, worked along side those selling them. \n Eventually someone is left holding the bag (they were risky mortgages to begin with).  It is easier to blame on families getting 'upside down' (owing more than your house is worth) and walking away - wouldn't anyone?  The banks did a) approve these risky loans, then b) traded them for much more than they're worth.", "id": "c308f5q", "summary": "The buyout 'saved' banks who pretty much caused it themselves.  Casinos and Banks : the house (almost) never loses."}, {"author": "Dr9", "content": "Honestly, for your marriage even with a stack of scientific data I would strongly suggest not printing at home at this point.  In a month or two weird food smells will be enough to freak your wife out, never mind the smell of melting plastic. \n Don't give up your printer - just print in garage or at a friends house (at work under your desk?) for the time being.  Insisting on printing at home will make you seem at best insenstive, and at worst negligent \nnew-parent-to-be.", "id": "c7eubdn", "summary": "not a battle worth fighting my friend.  Just put home printing on back burner for now."}, {"author": "Dr9", "content": "microsoft. \n \n unity was featured in MSDN magazine last two months \n free unity visual studio plugin released \n ms  badly  wants to push game content for their mobile phone platform so much they helped with resources for unity (which now uses the microsoft CLR for mobile 8 and windows 8 binaries). \n microsoft already partnering with xamarin (probably not buying out because of novell encumbrances) - unity is probably the best showcase of xamarin's mono technology.", "id": "cl0fq82", "summary": "half life 3 confirmed."}, {"author": "Dr9", "content": "There is 'baby fat' and there is such a thing as an unnatural amount of body fat.  Babies should be fat, but that kid will have problems crawling and standing. \n I would be concerned if nothing else if/when he gets a bad chest infection if he could turn over by himself. \n That kid is not fat off milk - he's eating a god damn snickers - which to top if off has peanuts in it (allergies, choking hazard).", "id": "c3eiu60", "summary": "shitty parenting going in in photo.  I'm a parent, I will throw the first ceremonial stone."}, {"author": "Dr9", "content": "Let me put it this way.  If Apple releases the Super Awesome-0 iPhone 7s.  And it turns out to be a total lemon, that drops signals just because someone is holding it with their left hand.   A bad response is 'Foxconn f'd up.  Their crappy manufacturing process made a weak antennae'.  Or 'some parts from Siemens were defective'. \n A better response is 'Sorry, our product is defective, we - Apple, messed up.'.  Blaming a strategic supplier and throwing their name in the media will make commerical negotiations only more difficult. \n But to provide context we're not talking about a defect, and we're not talking about a product purchase.  Rewards have been slower to be sent out then originally thought.  Some details of order, depend on how fulfillment is processed (order picked, batching international orders, etc).", "id": "cacwkf0", "summary": "you're not a 'customer', it is not a product it is a reward, and Kickstarter is not a store. \n OUYA will have customers once they launch commerically."}]}
+{"author": "renieri", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post what an ahole.", "output": "What an ahole.  I lived with my grandfather in Germany for a little under a year and on their entertainment center was a small jar.  I was about ten and wanted to open it.  They told me not to.  When I asked why, they said we fell in love on that beach- the Cayman Islands.  Since then I always wanted jars of sand from all the wonderful parts of the world.  This guy is so much better than me at life."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post stop procrastinating and go back to work.", "output": "I say start a third project where you write about two men who are writing conflicting stories, one as a blog and the other as a book.  Both set out to destroy the other and as time goes on, they realize their hate is love and the two men are the same person and it's just you masturbating on the couch to waste time."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Focus less on word count and allow yourself to produce.  Sometimes that means just writing, other times that means working precisely on a specific area of your work.  I keep a work log: includes how much I've written and what I worked on.  Shows my production on both levels.", "output": "I can tell you this (and I'm happy to find this subreddit, as I think the touchy-feely-happy motivator inside me likes to live separately from the sections where people actually post their writings for critique), as I'm writing 15-30 page stories currently, or 5k-10k words, I set my goals based on my work. \n For instance, I just finished the first draft of a small story which will end up between 5k-6k.  Currently it's at 1700 words, but I'm not worried, nor am I counting my words in a traditional way.  If I work on editing it, expanding it by 500 words, that'll be 500 for the day, but those are much more valuable and hard-earned, as those aren't the rushing enthusiasms of a new story and characters.  I'm editing, shaping a story and adding subcontext here, a little imagery there, and flushing out the story.  Those 500 words are worth much more to me. \n So keep things in perspective.  It would be great to write every day, but I tend to make sure I put in the time, as that's what matters.  And (like with the holidays) if I can't write for 4-5 days, I'm thinking and jotting ideas down in my notebook, recording my thought on my voice recorder, and generally making sure I'm thinking about the core issues for my current plot, or the issue my characters are facing. \n As writers we need to pardon ourselves.  Even the greatest writers rested, they lived live, and used that to provoke their work."}], "user_id": "longlamp_14047", "history": [{"author": "renieri", "content": "I had a tyrannical owner/boss at a bagel shop that told me I made bagels too slow and fired me on my second day, when I came in.  My car had broken down, I had to wait for a friend to come pick me up, and generally had a shitty morning.  I also couldn't fathom why he didn't tell me this the day before.  So when I asked him why he waited for me to come in that morning to fire me, he told me he also needed my work shirt back.  Being slightly chubby, and in front of customers, I told him that I needed him to settle my pay of the day before immediately and here's his shirt-  took it off in front of the bagel display and threw it on the counter.  He pulled 36$ and some change out of the register and gave it to me. \n Too bad I forgot I had no right and had to wait outside for 20 minutes without a shirt on for my friend to arrive.", "id": "c1ci0i1", "summary": "I'm a badass, shirtless former bagel maker."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "Who should I consult for rights to my next short story collection, Good Guy Greg?  I'd love to speak to Greg because, you know, I wouldn't want to borrow his namesake without talking to him.  Or even worse, I wouldn't want to use his picture without permission. \n I hope you see the point here.  My use of the name makes no reference to the meme, or even a form of its use.  A small group of redditors might note it (as you've done here).  Other than that, it's a group of words taken literally.  In fact, my story takes those words literally as well. \n If you're making a stand, there's better ways to facilitate your time.  Hit up the Scumbag Steve meme- I empathize for a man who can't escape his own defamed reputation and has no recourse to alleviate its use. \n As for being a creep, we're all entitled to our own opinion.  As someone who posts regularly in the writing sections of reddit, I'd never say an unkind word about someone putting their work in the public eye; I also would make no comments unless I read that particular material.  How can anyone expect to be taken seriously when they aren't taking a respectful approach to the topic discussed?  Everyone is entitled to their opinion.  Luckily, we aren't entitled to listen to all of them.", "id": "c3gv4cq", "summary": "It usually doesn't help me in situations like these- I don't suffer fools easily, and in the past year reddit has suffered more than I can imagine."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "Carrie Fisher had a confidence about her that made her perfect for Leia.  She wasn't typically beautiful, but she was also playing a female role that wasn't typical: powerful, strong, opinionated, and correct in many situations.  It was a female film role that spoke to a generation (now several).  And while not typically pretty, she had a [smoking body.]( \n Besides all that, both young men and women found that character refreshing to see and it has outlasted generations.  Carrie, in her personal life, has had several ups and down, but she's always had a strong presence, that attitude that was directly reflected through Leia's character.  I think that's why people are attracted to her, even today.", "id": "c7j3ctn", "summary": "Today I taught a guy that beauty isn't just skin deep."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "Honestly, women will think what they want about a man regardless of what he says or does.  She'll forgive his crude sensibilities or the fact he can't pay for dinner.  Why?  He may be good looking or have a nice car or it's his devil may care attitude.  Or he carries a bazooka in his trousers. \n My point in generalizing this comment is to point out that you're going to think it's counter-productive, but I find the ability to read comments that aren't politically correct refreshing sometimes.  Sometimes they're just crude or gross.  But honestly, I'm pretty objective according to my own tastes and don't judge others based on internet comments.", "id": "c1ja0sh", "summary": "this is the internet, people say whatever, and women judge them."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "There are lots of examples of art testing the boundaries of a story.  Some do this better than others.  If something is written well, engaging, I can spend time reading and search for personal value.  I won't say something needs to happen, or even something spectacular needs to take place.  The writer illuminates a situation based on him or her writing a story about it.  If it is a writer your trust, you can continue to seek out answers from the work.  But there is a risk in seeking out answers from a writer who doesn't understand the dynamics of what a story should be and bends the rules.  If they don't understand the fundamentals of a story, breaking the rules don't carry as much weight, aren't as meaningful. \n So, to address your question, it depends.  It depends on the writer, it depends on why you're reading, and also, it depends on the story.", "id": "c3qwgxc", "summary": "It depends."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "Here's my POV: I want to like her, I want her not to be annoying, but ultimately, she makes the decisions that dictate the direction of her career.  It comes down to being able to stand the \"stage presence\" she's created and I don't.  I hate everything about her pandering, needy, \"I'll do anything to get a laugh include shill my body and make jokes written for me about content I assume you enjoy\".  If you think about what she's attempting to do- be an active comedienne- and compare her to George Carlin or Louis C.K. or even John Stewart.  These men take (or took) risks every time they deliver a bit.  They push limits, politically, religiously, with social mores.  Olivia Munn will never be someone that changes the idealogical tone of a room.  She has tits and a tight ass and shakes them while saying penis and poop with a video game backdrop because it will further her career.  The only time I can think that I'd laugh at her is if a bodily fluid surprised-hit her in the face while she ate dinner.  I think her reaction would be the only time she'd break character and show true emotion.", "id": "c1crpu4", "summary": "Someone needs to shit on Olivia Munn while playing Carlin at Carnegie or Chewed Up in the background."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "Hopefully the person buying these stories adds a note to the beginning of the story stating a writer was severely underpaid.  That adds a whole other erotic tone for me to enjoy.  You know, the supreme debasing of some poor author and his/her skills sweating over a laptop at a Dunkin' Donuts, writing a scene where Santa gets his chocolate Easter Bunny spelunked with the curved end of a candy cane while a line of soccer mom's and entitled children ordering kolaches and sweet pastries flows out the door.  You know, art imitating life and all that.", "id": "c8o1g3f", "summary": "Santa's butthole."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "Ah, that question.  I think the meaning of life is different for everyone, but we all share certain commonalities.  Some would posit that we, as humans must seek out other forms of life.  Other would say that protecting the earth's resources is our chief reason for existing.  Another could say existing is itself a reward, a meaning.  But I think it's more mathematical.", "id": "c2sfhm5", "summary": "42."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "Doug, I don't like this.  You're publishing folks in your journal and then pulling the same stories and dumping them on the Kindle Store? \n I was going to send you a story later today but I'm skeptical, because I've just posted it on Amazon and plan on including it in a short story collection early next month.  How will you offering my story in one of your collections help my sales and exposure?  I could be way off base here, but from what I read in your other post, you're currently not paying for accepted submissions.", "id": "c39y7c0", "summary": "Doug, what kind of contracts do you have with your writers that you can take their stories and publish them in book form online?"}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "I live in Austin, a perfect place to live functionally without a car.  I have a car, not that it matters.  But I think most women see a car as a standard- it means you're self-sufficient, you can get to and from a job, and you're stable.  All these things make you a capable companion, and a car is a symbolic representation of that.  I'm a dude, I've been told the above by several women, and what you've mentioned seems to verify it.", "id": "c4o71bb", "summary": "They don't think it be like it is but it do. \n edit: worded a word wrong."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "They gratified themselves in front of people for shock value.  While it's not technical by the letter of the law, I considered it one step past flashing or public exposure, and I didn't want to go into any specific detail. \n We're dealing with boys who were either taken from their homes due to abuse, children who's parents couldn't afford them, or mentally challenged kids who couldn't function within the confines of their home life.  It was a very sad job to go to everyday, and I kept thinking how lucky I was that I didn't have to deal with all the heavy stuff they dealt with before I was mentally equipped.", "id": "c1jvdb4", "summary": "public self fondling, and I'm lucky I didn't have to deal with grown up problems when I was a child."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "I enjoy Buscemi but I had a weird situation involving him and a girl I saw for a while.  Apparently, she had a huge crush on him and talked about him a lot.  Keep in mind, Buscemi is one of these actors with a \"unique look\", one that I don't possess.  So it was daunting to hear about what he's been up to and the new movie he was working on all the time.", "id": "c1cg5hx", "summary": "girlfriend liked Steve Buscemi more than me."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "I enjoy in-depth articles that state a fact and delve deeper, showing the importance of the fact and how it relates to an article.  Lists have their place, but it's a rare day when I read a list I find benefits me or teaches me something I don't know.  If the list is on a subject I know little about, the absence of context makes the least almost meaningless. \n I hope most writers feel the way I do, but That's me being optimistic.", "id": "c3pyi62", "summary": "I don't care for lists unless they remind me what I need from the grocery store. \n Edit: Downvotes?  I guess I need to reevaluate reddiquette and figure out what gives value to a comment."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "We all have the peaks and valleys moments, right?  But if your goal is to find someone cool, you need to be cool.  There's a phrase: In order to be loved, be loveable.  Translated, by Ovid.  So just don't put too much stock in it.  I went on a date two weeks ago.  We played phone tag and she cancelled a second date the night before.  I made backup plans to meet friends and when she called to tell me she couldn't make it, I said, \"cool, I made others plans anyway.\"  She was a little shocked, but I'm blunt and an honest guy, and wasn't deliberately missing her phone calls.  From her response, it seems, she was letting my calls roll to voicemail and wanted to be pursued.  My point is, just let the progression go naturally, don't invest too much into anything/think too far into things, be yourself, and don't compromise.  Eventually you'll find someone that respects you for the right reasons- keep in mind you'll meet many women who \"don't get you\" and only one that does.  If you are putting yourself out there and getting frustrated, staying frustrated, you're doing something wrong or your perspective is wrong.", "id": "c45y8u5", "summary": "Respect yourself.  If a woman strings you along, call her out on it.  Being a man is an uphill battle due to all the jerks and woman-haters out there- if you're a nice guy, represent that and shake it off."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "I have fun playing COD, but honestly, the fun I have stems from the mistakes the game has.  I'd rather it go all the way, stop attempting to be a 'tweener between a realistic experience and a Team Fortress Clobber-fest.  I'd rather it go and be ridiculous, turn into a dolphin when you dolphin flop, Integrate Serious Sam weapons and Duke Nukem Dialogue.  What worse than a zebra dressed as a horse?  The people riding the Zebra expecting it to work like a horse.  This all sounds silly, but I've grown apart from COD because they take no risks.", "id": "c1kczhc", "summary": "make a decision COD devs, take a risk, stop boring the shit out of me with mindless and inaccurate violence with little to no satisfaction."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "I wish I could say the internet is serious business but as your namesake points out, \"charlie6969\", nothing can be taken at face value online. \n What I don't like are hypocrites.  Or people trying to draw attention to themselves.  These are called trolls, and I think you're trolling me based on someone close to you being raped, or you yourself having been a victim.  Please note that the tone of this conversation has now changed. \n You wanted to talk about rape in serious terms- do it.  But I suggest you do it in a proper subreddit and stop trolling people in a random article because you haven't realize that context is just as important as subject matter.", "id": "c1ichjn", "summary": "you might be a nice person, all the more reason to stop trolling."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "Humans and dogs have a connection that has evolved over thousands of years.  I'm reading The Lost History of the Canine Race which chronicles that relationship. \n Stories like this only reaffirm the life force in dogs.  Those \"scientists\" who argue that dogs don't feelings, cannot cry or feel happiness.  I find that concept so ridiculous, based on these stories.", "id": "c3tn85v", "summary": "Once a dog dialed 911."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "I don't mind being approached by someone with pamphlets or a religious agenda, but I hate being asked if I believe in god.  To me, that's a level ten question that needs levels one through nine examined first.  I spoke to one woman who asked me that very question and I said, \"I used to.\"  And we began a conversation about why I don't and what changed my mind.  She even asked if I read the bible, we both laughed, and I told her I taught bible study while I was in high school and after reading and rereading that information, it suddenly became clear that while the Bible is an interesting book, it did nothing to further my faith in a higher power.  I looked at the book objectively, as a set of stories trying to convince me to believe in the characters and the story, and when I approached it logically, it was stunningly clear that the book used fear and half plausible situations to further the plot.  Interesting as it was, the Bible became a bad period piece that made a few interesting moral points.  Again, this is my opinion and experience, I don't want anyone to think I don't respect their belief in Christianity and the Bible as a holy book.  My point in all of this was, I had a pleasant conversation about religion based on our differing views.", "id": "c1bifp6", "summary": "I spoke with a pamphlet carrying christian about being an athiest and we both enjoyed ourselves."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "It says something about her that she made that statement, how it impacted her, how little she considered how it might make you feel, and frankly, is indicative of how she'll behave later. \n What would I have done?  Called her out on the statement.  Asked why she felt that way by simply asking \"why?\"  Most Americans (I've noticed, as I am one) tend to turtle when something offends them.  I would have been as offended as you, but I would have also been objective about finding why she said that.  Getting to know someone is, after all, the point of dating.  That window for you to ask her why she said that has passed, as it might seem like a bigger issue to you now than it was for her then. \n So you can either suck it up and see where things go from here or leave the situation entirely.  You wouldn't be a bad guy for not wanting to date her based on a comment like that- people have not returned calls or texts based on much less.  Still, next time just ask, and keep your frustration inside.  It's always best to take the high-road because you never know.  She might have had a mooch boyfriend and has a chip on her shoulder about guys taking advantage of her.  Everyone has different reasons for what they do and think.", "id": "c4dqhys", "summary": "Next time just ask her, \"Why?\""}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "I'm not defending a point of view, I'm defending logic.  CDRCRDS's logic is solid.  Older women have been raised in a different time, different frame of mind.  The social mores are defined, understood, accepted.  Today this isn't the case. \n I can tell you when I'm entertaining an older woman (not only on a date, but just in a social situation) I can feel confident that gestures to refresh a drink, offer a coat, or act as an alpha male are understood as me being a gentleman.  Things are definitely in flux currently, the roles of men and women are changing, and this can be read wrong and misconstrued. \n Besides, not all (but lots of), younger women are fucking nuts.  Batshit insane without a clue of what they want or why they act the way they do.  Not all, but most are still trying to figure it out.  Too bad it comes off as insane.", "id": "c4dtgpi", "summary": "Let's talk logic for a moment (with no partiality)."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "My first love.  I was at a debate tournament, dressed to the nines, walking around nervously trying to memorize material for my performance when I notice this girl noticing me by peering over the top of her paperback book.  She didn't dart her eyes away but slowly lowered them back to what she was reading.  At that moment, literally that single moment, I knew I was in love and didn't understand why.  Time went by and later that night I noticed her again. \n I went to speak to her.  I was a junior in high school and had plenty of confidence, but I've always been peculiar with my taste in women.  I asked what she was snacking on (apple juice in a box, gummy candy, and a sandwich) and she offered to share.  I offered to take her for a walk.  We walked around the entire school (I still remember the high school we were at and could probably r-ewalk the path) and she told me about her life and what she wants to do and be and see and I remember commenting on her cute pink tennis shoes (and I thought how tiny her feet were).  I dropped her off at her cafeteria table, I called her the next day and told her I don't usually do things like this.  She broke up with her boyfriend and we started dating and fell in love. \n I'll leave the story there and I'll leave it happy for all your redditors. :)", "id": "c1k2h8z", "summary": "I asked a girl for a walk and fell in love. \n Edit: Changed a his to a her."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "The only time I told someone else's child to mind himself was at the grocery store, had my stuff on the conveyor belt, kid starts grabbing my unpaid groceries and opening them.  Told him not to do that, mother whips around and tells me, \"Don't ever tell her kid what to do.\"  That poor kid.", "id": "c4eezx6", "summary": "Evolution is a bitch, and I'll stand by and watch, no problem."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "I'm certainly not saying that changes don't need to be made- they do.  But you aren't the person to demand they be made.  And I think what is angering most people in this thread is your tone.  I, personally, don't have a problem with it, except for the fact that it contains a sense that you're entitled to say these things and your opinion has more weight than a new person. \n I've been reading and posting in the /r/writing subreddit for more than three years, yet I feel that the moderators and the long-time members need to do more to positively educate new members.  Each person's opinion is just as valid as any other opinion.  I can't blame the new people when the information on the side bar is sparse.  But this has nothing to do with people breaking rules.  The sad fact is those people breaking rules don't want to be a part of the community anyway- they just want page views and blog hits.  We need a better mechanism for dealing with them. \n I have to emphasize that some people consider the sheer volume of your posts as a form of spam.  Whether true or untrue, it is an opinion and just as valid as any other singular opinion. \n I'm sorry to call you out on this because you're probably not a bad person, but I remember reading [this post]( where you said some pretty horrible things to a fairly new user.  In searching for the post, I found you deleted those nasty comments, so I used unedditreddit and found one of them. \n \" >I down voted you. \n I don't know why you're bothering to tell me. Join the club? \n I also said I enjoy critiquing folks. Why didn't you link to my critique?\n \n I read one of your critiques. I think it's bad, and much, much worse than the original piece that you actually critiqued. I could go into great lengths of technical discussion to explain why I think it's bad, and furthermore why it's an exact example of why authors need editors, but I don't want to embarrass you further. \n In any case, I don't think you're qualified to critique like you have some sort of professional opinion on the subject. You're not an editor, and you're not a critic, you're just another writer. And you're not even willing to put up your own work for peer review, so why should anyone take your opinion seriously at all? \n &gt;Finally, you mention my reddit karma score- a number that has gone up and down in the past few days when people run down my user account and mass down vote. Its difficult to get that positive when some people will down vote all your comments then throw that number around as evidence of something.\n \n It IS evidence of something. It's evidence of the general reception of your attitude. Crying \"karma conspiracy!\" for mass downvotes is just ignoring the fact that people don't like the way you're commenting. For the reasons I stated in explicit detail above. (For what it's worth, I've actually upvoted several of your comments that I felt added quality and value to the discussions they were attached to.) \n &gt;My point is, I shouldn't have to explain myself, I shouldn't be forced into producing my work here, and I shouldn't be harassed.\n \n I'm not harassing you. You called for honesty towards novices. Be careful what you wish for. \n &gt;It is schoolyard B.S. and you guys should be ashamed.\n \n The truth stings sharp. And I am not ashamed of anything I wrote, here or anywhere else, because I stand behind it 100%. This is not the schoolyard - I have been editing professionally for over a decade now and I've been writing my own shit even longer than that. I've written and edited in almost every possible medium - scholarly articles on advanced literary theory, government weapons research and development reports, poetry, and prose (both fiction and nonfiction). Published in most of them too. \n I'm taking you to school proper. \n You shouldn't critique people OR subs without letting someone else shine the hard light of criticism on your own words. And if you can't justify what you've wrote about others, calling it \"3:00 AM slop\" when you're too cowardly to submit your own work for peer review, for instance, then no, I have no respect for your opinions. You haven't earned it. \n >I'm done talking about these things in the wrong thread. \n I've said everything I needed to say, both about your OP and your comments here and elsewhere. When you're willing to accept criticism as well as dish it out, maybe we'll discuss the craft then. Until then, you are one of the JC Penny kids. So stop using the \"parentage\" metaphor, either as an insult towards a commenter or towards this subreddit. In light of your behavior here, it's ridiculously ironic. \n There are no \"parents\" here. We are all grown-ass adults (at least in most cases; there are a few teenagers here as well) with the study of the craft at the heart of our discussions. No question is too \"novice\" or \"stupid\" to be shuffled into a weekly thread ghetto. If /r/writing had come to the conclusion that this was a satisfactory change to the sub, it would have already been made. We have very competent mods here.", "id": "cb9zg57", "summary": "To borrow a well-worn phrase, if you can't hang with the big dogs, get off the porch. Good day to you sir.\" \n The problem I had with the above post is the same problem I have with this one.  You aren't more important than anyone else that posts here.  You aren't better than anyone.  It's a hard pill to swallow, but you seem like a healthy dose of humility might help you. \n The irony, whether that user (who no longer seems active after your comments) was right or wrong, they were actually complaining about the same things you are here."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "Is this r/patyourselfontheback?  I see these stories popping up more and more. On one hand I am happy these animals have a caring home.  On the other hand creating a pictorial storyboard of how great a dog owner/person you are is absurd.  I buy my grandmother potted flowers on mother's day and help plant them in her garden; I have two rescue dogs; I feed them everyday;  I hold doors open for both men and women;  I call my mom every other week and ask her about life, and want to know how she feels about it. \n I'll be downvoted for this, but it needed to be written. \n As Chris Rock said, \"Want a cookie?\"", "id": "c27g2nn", "summary": "You won't catch me posting pics of either of my dogs.  Not even on my reddit birthday.  Or yours."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "You may want to check the context of my statements.  \"I feel . . .\" and \"I don't . . .\" and \"for me.\"  The big one is \"in my opinion[sic]. . .\" which explains my motivations. \n Here's the kicker.  \"On the other hand, if you bought it, you can do what you like.\" \n I don't mean to be curt with you, but you're utterly distracting yourself by creating a discussion with little grounds for discussion: my opinion.  Much like the OP, I assumed (along with over a hundred other people) this discussion centered around what we, personally, do while reading. \n To answer your question, I've left notes in books before: text books, literature, short story collections, non-fiction, including underlining, sparse highlighting, and lots of notes.  I've also sold many books that I've owned.  Unfortunately, I am not one to go through and erase my own notes in 50+ books I'm selling to Half Price Books for fifteen dollars.  That's hours of work for 3-5 books I'll get back.  At some point I stopped taking notes in books.  Text books, I began to use Post-It's, literature read for class, I'd keep a notebook for each book I was currently reading.  For my own pleasure, I'd note ideas I had in my writing binder because, even though those ideas were prompted by another writer's literature, they were my ideas. \n And to be honest, I've never needed my own running commentary on the books I read.  I kinda just read to soak up things. \n I hope that clarifies things.  It might be more beneficial for you to discuss how you process information from books, your rules or reading process, instead of the OP's opinion, in which he clearly states is the case.", "id": "c3qwagf", "summary": "Opinions are like assholes."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "I'm a writer and use it on a daily basis, the same with box for cloud storage.  I need access to multiple documents and Google Docs allows me to make changes within seconds. \n I would thank you for listing alternative products, but they seemed to have disappeared from your post.", "id": "c3ufq91", "summary": "Negative opinions without positive alternative solutions are like assholes.  They stink."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "I know the best thing to do is both diet and exercise, but I have some health concerns that make it very difficult to exercise with the added weight. \n My goal is to shed 60 pounds.  I've given myself no time frame, as my goal is to be healthy and only part of that is how much I weigh.  With that said, I began slowly, not making dietary changes but tracking my weight and caloric intake through www.myfitnesspal.com.  Within those two weeks of tracking all calories I've ingested, I was astounded by the amount of calories going in: 3500 calories on average, with a peak daily high of over 5000 calories!  It wasn't so much the amount of food, but the type I was eating.  With this knowledge everyday, I found myself making changes without over-thinking them.  I'd substitute a salad for fries, fresh, grilled chicken for fried- you get the picture.  So by the end of the second week I was taking in around 2000 calories a day, mostly good calories from veggies and clean meats. \n So I weighed myself again, and I was down 3 pounds.  I wasn't exercising, I wasn't tossing out my entire pantry and replacing it with wheat germ.  All I did was track my caloric intake. \n I was excited that three pounds just flushed off me by making very small changes over a two week period.  I stocked up on fish, chicken and frozen veggies in the freezer, yogurt and turkey bacon and veggies in the fridge, and no high fructose corn syrup or direct carbs (like bread or tortillas or cereal or potatoes). \n It's only been a few days into my new diet and keeping to my new calorie regiment.  My body feels the difference, both in negative and positive ways.  I feel stronger, less fatigue, but my body feels like it's going into a sort of shock- the absence of the processed foods, of the sugars and salts, of the pure carbs is jarring and I get dizzy, have mood swings, and am generally a pendulum swinging back and forth.  But that will pass.  The health gains will continue and grow. \n The hardest part is starting the process but I've learning knowledge is power.  The more I understand how my body works and what is best for it, the more I want to do those things. \n I hope this helps anyone having trouble- just start slowly and build up.  I'm not putting any negative pressure on myself, and that feels good.", "id": "t3_xirw4", "summary": "I began by counting calories, and because my body responded to small changes, I am revamping my entire diet.  You are what you eat. \n Edit: spellingses."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "I have had a string of bad dates lately- I am a good conversationalist, an active listener, and would love to take a nice woman out this coming Saturday who just wants to meet, talk, eat, and go home.  I'm not shy, I enjoy being a nice person, and we should both have a good time if all baggage is left at the door. \n I am super confident, average height, and chubby.  Search OK Cupid for me, as my user name is the same as my Reddit account.  No need to send me a picture of yourself, just please be a woman.  if you're in a wheelchair or have some impairment let me know, as that won't affect my choice about us going out, but we'll need to choose a place conducive to your needs.", "id": "t3_regz3", "summary": "I really need a normal night out with a non-crazy female.  No strings, no baggage, no stress.  Any takers in Austin this Saturday?  I was thinking dinner and possibly comedy club."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "Folks, \n My labor of love is fast becoming a reality, with solid sales through the month of January.  I'd love to get more reviews, more people reading and commenting on what they liked, what they didn't like, just giving my work a chance. \n [Retirement]( Blue was given his nickname because of his dashing blue eyes, the color now faded in old age. Now retired, aimlessly living each day as it comes, he finds that life isn't over in your golden years. It might be just the beginning. \n [The Scientist's Rules]( A man of science has to balance his family life with his scholarly pursuits. But what about the allure of finding the answers to life's unanswered questions? Where is the line drawn between scientific gains and fatherly duty? \n [Jam]( A man has to protect his home. But what happens when your home is no longer a physical place, but a series of events locked into memory? Mark is struggling with this question and his girlfriend Carrie is forced to confront him. What will Mark do? \n [Fugue State]( In this morality tale set in the near future, the government seems to have its hand in everything in the name of safety, except the well-being of its citizens. Maggie finds herself in the middle of a plot, forced to contribute for the sake of her son. Will she survive? More important, can she protect her son or is she out of options? \n [Tonic Clonic]( Something strange is happening to Henry as he makes his way through a night out on the town. His world suddenly becomes so vivid and familiar as he struggles to find the answers to life's most complex questions. Who am I? Why am I here? And finally, why did I drink so much? \n Henry can't promise answers but as he says, \"Everyone has a story to tell.\" \n Here's Henry's story.", "id": "t3_ofggd", "summary": "Just remember I love you. \n Edit: I chose the collection's title, \"All the Things\" based on a high school girlfriend who had all the material possessions she could want.  The trouble was in her forming meaningful relationships and really enjoying life for what it was.  That seems not too out of the ordinary this day and age. \n I decided to write a story (the titular story of the collection) about it.  I think it highly appropriate and willing to discuss my logic (if asked).  Otherwise, the collection varies in genre and range, and All the Things encompasses that motif. \n Edit2: It seems some people disagree with my writing and sharing.  That's alright.  But to downvote all comments (from your multiple accounts) is very petty and childish.  Let's argue like warriors, if we're going to argue at all.  I won't respond to anymore troll accounts, unless you talk about mah momma."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "Folks, \n My labor of love is fast becoming a reality, with solid sales through the month of January.  I'd love to get more reviews, more people reading and commenting on what they liked, what they didn't like, just giving my work a chance. \n [Retirement]( Blue was given his nickname because of his dashing blue eyes, the color now faded in old age. Now retired, aimlessly living each day as it comes, he finds that life isn't over in your golden years. It might be just the beginning. \n [The Scientist's Rules]( A man of science has to balance his family life with his scholarly pursuits. But what about the allure of finding the answers to life's unanswered questions? Where is the line drawn between scientific gains and fatherly duty? \n [Jam]( A man has to protect his home. But what happens when your home is no longer a physical place, but a series of events locked into memory? Mark is struggling with this question and his girlfriend Carrie is forced to confront him. What will Mark do? \n [Fugue State]( In this morality tale set in the near future, the government seems to have its hand in everything in the name of safety, except the well-being of its citizens. Maggie finds herself in the middle of a plot, forced to contribute for the sake of her son. Will she survive? More important, can she protect her son or is she out of options? \n [Tonic Clonic]( Something strange is happening to Henry as he makes his way through a night out on the town. His world suddenly becomes so vivid and familiar as he struggles to find the answers to life's most complex questions. Who am I? Why am I here? And finally, why did I drink so much? \n Henry can't promise answers but as he says, \"Everyone has a story to tell.\" \n Here's Henry's story.", "id": "t3_ofgrq", "summary": "Just remember I love you."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "Folks, \n My labor of love is fast becoming a reality, with solid sales through the month of January.  I'd love to get more reviews, more people reading and commenting on what they liked, what they didn't like, just giving my work a chance. \n [Retirement]( Blue was given his nickname because of his dashing blue eyes, the color now faded in old age. Now retired, aimlessly living each day as it comes, he finds that life isn't over in your golden years. It might be just the beginning. \n [The Scientist's Rules]( A man of science has to balance his family life with his scholarly pursuits. But what about the allure of finding the answers to life's unanswered questions? Where is the line drawn between scientific gains and fatherly duty? \n [Jam]( A man has to protect his home. But what happens when your home is no longer a physical place, but a series of events locked into memory? Mark is struggling with this question and his girlfriend Carrie is forced to confront him. What will Mark do? \n [Fugue State]( In this morality tale set in the near future, the government seems to have its hand in everything in the name of safety, except the well-being of its citizens. Maggie finds herself in the middle of a plot, forced to contribute for the sake of her son. Will she survive? More important, can she protect her son or is she out of options? \n [Tonic Clonic]( Something strange is happening to Henry as he makes his way through a night out on the town. His world suddenly becomes so vivid and familiar as he struggles to find the answers to life's most complex questions. Who am I? Why am I here? And finally, why did I drink so much? \n Henry can't promise answers but as he says, \"Everyone has a story to tell.\" \n Here's Henry's story.", "id": "t3_ofgt1", "summary": "Just remember I love you."}, {"author": "renieri", "content": "In spite of everything and everyone (which includes your mother), I'm writing a book. I've started a Kickstarter campaign for an unwritten serial novel that will incorporate the words, ideas, and characterizations of contributors. I'll also create a forum to foster discussion while I write and post parts of the book.\nWant to add to the story? I welcome it. Want to attempt to troll me? Do your damnedest; my life feels like the long troll most days. Want me to incorporate a word or idea for personal reasons? I'd be honored and humbled.\nI'm writing a story and have been a lurker for years, a poster for less than a year. I want reddit to be a part of this project. If you contribute, let me know you're a redditor. It'll make me feel all gushy inside. \n [The Project](", "id": "t3_l43tm", "summary": "I'm writing a serial novel based on contributor ideas. Want to take part?"}]}
+{"author": "Manic0892", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post It's not really that sexual content is what's receiving press, it's creepy sexual content (creep pics, jailbait, etc.).", "output": "In fairness, the ones that have been getting the most press are ones like Jailbait or Creep Pics, where the content is questionable.  Scummy, yes, illegal, no.  Deserving of the press more than racism, assholes, and hate?  I don't know.  However, nobody seems to have issues with Gonewild. \n This is just refuting your point about \"boobs and ass\" being more offensive and generating more attention than certain undesirable subreddits.  That's not the reason for most of the negative attention Reddit has received lately.  However, the vast NSFW reddit/NSFW mod bannings seem a gross overreaction."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Starship Troopers the movie had nothing to do with Starship Troopers the book, and this makes me angrier than it should.", "output": "Starship Troopers. \n While I can sort of appreciate what the movie was trying to do, there was no reason to call it Starship Troopers.  They should have continued calling it  Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine  and never licensed the Heinlein novel.  The writing team didn't know about the novel, and Verhoeven only got a few chapters in before he became \"bored and depressed.\" \n The movie does its own thing, but it's such a massive disappointment to fans of the novel.  The characters are nothing like those in the novel, the movie argues for a system of government wholly unlike that in the novel, and the power armor (one of the high points of the book) never makes an entrance.  I would be fine with seeing another ridiculous Paul Verhoeven movie if it didn't destroy the source material I know and love."}], "user_id": "longlamp_4330", "history": [{"author": "Manic0892", "content": "I had a DARE-like program at my elementary school where some grownups with too much time on their hands came in and scared the shit out of us about tobacco and alcohol.  I immediately resolved to be a teetotaler. \n Fastforward a year and I'm coming back on a trip from Australia to the US with my parents.  I was drinking Sprite and my dad got a white wine.  He was working on his laptop and I was reading a book.  Engrossed in my story, I grabbed my drink and took a gulp or two.  I immediately noticed that the taste was different from what I had expected and looked at the cup in my hand.  My father, to make room for his laptop, had moved his wine to my tray table. \n Horrified, I spit the liquid all over myself and the book.  I stank of alcohol the whole way home and thought I was going to die or become an alcoholic.", "id": "cfwit2y", "summary": "Kids, just say no to DARE."}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "I was riding my bike down the street, up the street, down the street... when I accidentally swerved and started falling.  I did my best to self-correct, but ended up scratching the shit out of somebody's parked car. \n Being all of 10 or so, I immediately pretended it didn't happen, and rode back to my house.  Turns out some old dude was watching me from his balcony (I don't know why) and told the owner of the car, who came to my mom.  I was waiting for the hammer to drop, and it did when my mom gave the owner our insurance information. \n Apparently avoidance was a big part of my disaster-management philosophy--here's three more. \n One time on a vacation in Hawaii, I was playing tag or some shit with my cousin when I kicked a lamp.  And when I say kicked, I mean I somehow did a \"This Is Sparta!\" type kick that disintegrated the housing and left the lightbulb hanging out by its wires.  I ran back to the condo. \n On another trip to Hawaii (same cousin, same condo complex), we were playing tag again and she got stuck in the elevator and it wouldn't open.  I sweated it for about five minutes before the door finally opened. \n Then, when visiting family in Vancouver, I managed to get my cousin and her friend stuck in a bedroom.  The thing about my grandparent's house is that it's this old run-down huge house, and the lock somehow broke.  Panicked (not because my cousin was trapped inside the room, but because I would get into trouble for putting her there), I ran down and told my grandfather that she had gotten locked in the room.  He laughed and said he'd wait a half-hour before getting her out, to teach her a lesson.  Eventually power tools were brought in and they were freed. \n Miraculously, I didn't get into trouble for any of these misadventures with my cousin.", "id": "cbzkbsk", "summary": "I fucked around with my cousin."}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "I was on a long road trip with my parents (we were going cross-country), and I remember my parents being THRILLED when the night we had a hotel suite with two rooms.  Unfortunately, my bed was the sofabed in the common room/kitchen, and their bedroom also had the only door to the bathroom. \n I went to the bathroom after we got back from dinner and my dad told me that I shouldn't go to the bathroom after that.  If I  absolutely  had to, I should knock first.  I figured they just wanted to watch their large collection of Law & Order tapes in privacy while I slept on the bed outside, so I said OK, I'll do my best. \n Unfortunately, I'd had a ton of soda and water at dinner, and so like 20 minutes later I was knocking on their door.  The door opened to my  mom hiding beneath the sheets, looking flushed and happy.  My dad was sweaty, in a bathrobe, and very obviously pissed off.  I nervously went into the bathroom and peed as quickly as possible.  As I left my dad said something to the effect of \"That's the last time, right?\" \n It was not the last time I needed to pee that night, but I ended up pissing into a glass and pouring it out into the kitchen sink while my parents fucked each other in the next room. \n It wasn't until I was a good deal older that I realized what had been happening and that I had been cockblocking them pretty hard.  After a couple weeks of twin queens in rooms, I can see why they wanted the alone time.", "id": "ccz9bj6", "summary": "I peed in the kitchen sink to let my parents get their diggity on."}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "Batman: Arkham Asylum is the only game which did this correctly (that I've played).  In the opening sequence, you're walking with the police and the Joker, who is bound to a handtruck.  If you fall behind, you start moving faster, but the closer you get the slower you go, such that when you're right behind the Joker you're moving at the same speed as he is.  It's so perfect and such a great touch that addresses one of my major annoyances in videogames.  I really wish other games implemented it.", "id": "c5letfm", "summary": "Play Batman: Arkham Asylum."}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "There was a kid in my grade who was Vietnamese in a high-pressure family. His father was the stereotypical high-expectations Asian father--if his son didn't get straight A's, there were punishments waiting at home. I used to be his friend and he was... eccentric in his behavior. Plus, he had crushes on a lot of different girls and was far more sexually interested than I was in a lot of ways. Eventually we grew apart. There was always something... off about him, but nothing explicitly worrisome. \n A couple of years later, he gave a girl a note. The note said (paraphrasing due to the failings of memory), \"Rachel, I really want to be with you. I think you are very pretty and if it doesn't work out I can pay you.\" He had then drawn a box and an arrow pointing to it with a note saying \"My cum.\" From what I heard, that note was accurate. \n He was kicked out of school and the girl got a restraining order. Later on, he started a fire in his home and burned down a good bit of it. I don't know where he ended up after high school.", "id": "cd1x8f9", "summary": "Guy jizzed on paper, gave it to a girl, and then burned down his house."}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "There was a blind guy visiting our school to speak at an assembly or something.  I was volunteering to decorate the room after school, and he was there too. \n The fire alarm went off, and like the well-trained young man I was, I walked at a brisk pace to the exit.  It was only after the false alarm was over and I walked back in that I saw him standing helplessly in the middle of the room, unsure of what to do or where to go.  I had been standing close to him when the alarm went off, but hadn't even considered that he might need help. \n I still think about it and feel extraordinarily guilty.  I just cringe to think about what he must've thought about me.", "id": "can9rsh", "summary": "my retardation could've killed a dude"}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "From a fan's perspective, the show leading up to Ted and Robin and the blue french horn and no mention of Ted and Tracy's life together is ridiculous.  I wanted to see more of their life, more of them doing stuff, more of her being sick and how he dealt with it. \n That being said--if we look at the story in context of Ted telling the story to his kids, this ending absolutely makes sense.  A bit more in the earlier years of their relationship would've been nice, because the kids wouldn't have been old enough to remember--but Penny came along about a year after they met (unless I got the timing wrong), meaning the kids would've been around for a while with the mother.  They don't need to be told about their parents' life together--they lived it.  They lived through their mother marrying Ted, they lived through their mother getting sick, and they lived through their mother dying.  They don't need to be relive it.  The story that Ted's telling his kids is justified from that perspective. \n Do I think it's a very satisfying series finale?  No, but that's a hard goal to hit.  I wish we'd have seen more of the mother, and the entirety of season 9 happening in a weekend was ridiculous, but I can see the strengths of the story in context of the conceit they took in having Ted narrate the thing to his kids.", "id": "cgh85cq", "summary": "The finale makes sense in context of the story being told to the kids, not in terms of the story being told to us."}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "This is what I've been thinking for a while now.  Spotify kind of crystallized it in my mind recently--that's a service that is, for me, much better than downloading pirated songs or using Pandora or Grooveshark (which is probably going to be sued to death anyway). \n It works as music discovery, allows me to play almost anything I can think of (barring the Beatles catalog), and has great sound quality to boot.  It's more convenient than its competition and has convinced me to shell out money for music for the first time in years.  LAWYERS--that's not admission of me being a pirate, just me saying that I used to use Pandora/Grooveshark and didn't buy off iTunes or its competitors. \n Of course, Spotify is running losses in the millions, due in part to high royalties.  So, the one thing that convinced me to pay for music may be shut down by the RIAA looking a gift horse square in the mouth and taking a baseball bat to its knees at the same time.  I often wonder how Steam (which makes me buy games, not pirate them or replay demos over and over again like I used to in the old days) managed it.  It could be the game industry is young enough without as much bureaucratic bullshit of the MPAA/RIAA.  The ESA is the only comparable organization, and it lacks support from many major studios.  It also doesn't act as a litigious regulatory consortium the way the MPAA and RIAA work. \n So, what does this tell us?  Old business practices from overgrown organizations are strangling consumers in the new digital age.  Eventually they'll have to adapt--but they'll be damned if they won't be dragged into it kicking and screaming.  I was actually thinking of a Steam-like app for movies a couple of years back, but there's no way in hell you could actually sell it.  The studios would need to keep a stranglehold on the movies, and they would have encryption and DRM out the ass. \n As long as it's easier to pirate something, no one will pay for a subpar service.", "id": "c3m7o42", "summary": "MPAA and RIAA are shooting themselves in the feet and running around saying \"HOW DARE YOU SHOOT ME IN THE FOOT!?\""}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "I'm not a teacher, but there was a classmate of mine who did some stuff.  This is minor compared to most of the stuff in this thread, but where else am I going to share this? \n This kid was Vietnamese in a high-pressure family.  His father was the stereotypical high-expectations asian father--if his son didn't get straight A's, there were punishments waiting at home.  I used to be his friend and he was... eccentric in his behavior.  Plus, he had crushes on a lot of different girls and was far more sexually interested than I was in a lot of ways.  Eventually we grew apart.  There was always something... off about him, but nothing explicitly worrisome. \n A couple of years later, he gave a girl a note.  The note said (paraphrasing due to the failings of memory), \"Rachel, I really want to be with you.  I think you are very pretty and if it doesn't work out I can pay you.\"  He had then drawn a box and an arrow pointing to it with a note saying \"My cum.\"  From what I heard, that note was accurate. \n He was kicked out of school and the girl got a restraining order.  Later on, he started a fire in his home and burned down a good bit of it.  I don't know where he ended up after high school.", "id": "c6cuw2u", "summary": "Guy jizzed on paper, gave it to a girl, and then burned down his house."}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "My middle school class went to Six Flags as a graduation party of sorts.  I was friends at the time with someone; let's call him H.  H really hated another guy named E who hung around our group a lot.  As it happened, E wasn't much fun to be with either, and [a few years later he sexually harassed a girl and got expelled]( \n In any case, we were all at Six Flags--myself, H, E, another guy named Z, and a few other guys.  H took the first opportunity he could to ditch E, Z, and myself and take everyone off to have fun.  I was dismayed--a full day at Six Flags, and I was going to be stuck with Z, who I didn't know, and E.  All my friends had left!  As it happened, H was an abusive piece of shit who essentially bullied his \"friends,\" but I was an awkward loner who took whatever I could get.  Besides, some of the guys in H's group were actually cool. \n Fortunately, I had one of the best times of my life.  E found some other friends to hang out with, and Z was one of the coolest guys I'd ever met.  This was the last day of middle school, and H's piece of shit move ended up letting me meet someone who is still one of my best friends today, long after high school.  Getting ditched at Six Flags was one of the best things that ever happened to me.  I learned later that H's group had a pretty miserable time.", "id": "c8b39sa", "summary": "I was ditched by my friends but met my best friend."}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "Huehuehue is (I believe) a Brazilian form of laughing, akin to 'Ha ha ha.'  I've seen it most commonly in connection to League of Legends--that's where DragoonDM's Mordekaiser reference comes in.  However, hue has a meaning in English, used to describe color.  The color diagram Gramma42ton linked is talking about hue, but also has the weird laughing face, which is a reference to the Brazilian meaning of hue.", "id": "c84s9ix", "summary": "Hue means two different things, the diagram uses both of them.  Also, I really hope you needed help understanding this and weren't just joking.  Otherwise, I just tragically misspent five minutes."}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "They can.  But-- \n With the current patent system (particularly in software), the patent office issues far more patents for extremely vague things.  Occasionally, patent trolls will then sue people down the line.  Most recently this happened to a ton of podcasters, and it's been very problematic. \n The issue is that court cases are prohibitively expensive for your average \"little guy.\"  Patent trolls don't go after Google or Apple, they go after the person making a game or a podcast or a utility in their basement.  They threaten a large amount of damages and offer a settlement of several thousand dollars.  It's extortion. \n The thing is that if a lot of these ever went to court, the patent would be invalidated and the case would be thrown out due to the patented idea having existed before the patent holder patented it.  Generally, though, the slowness of the court system and legal fees keep people from fighting it.", "id": "cktgg56", "summary": "Patents can be (and are) thrown out due to prior innovation, but the court system is expensive and slow.  The USPO doesn't help by granting extremely vague patents for software."}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "I'll take a crack at this since no one has offered this explanation. \n Nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to be fat.  Fat people either are trying to lose weight or have given up on trying to lose weight.  (Yes, I know, there's that small minority who thinks bigger is better--I'm not talking about people like that.  I'm talking about normal people who have a weight problem and recognize it as such.)  Oftentimes, fat people feel unattractive, unhealthy, and self-conscious.  They know it's something they can change, it's a big part of their lives, and usually they have tried/are trying to change it.  It's an open wound and they don't want it to be picked at. \n Meanwhile, people don't see a problem with being short.  Furthermore, because it is something that can't be changed, it's thought of as less of a sensitive subject--it's assumed that you probably don't care about being short.  It's just the way you are, and it's not typically thought of as a negative. \n Obviously, this paradigm is wrong.  Nobody should be commenting on a stranger's appearance.  Nobody should comment that someone's short, or tall, or fat, or skinny, or even \"too normal.\"  Nobody likes the way they look, and if you go around commenting on someone's appearance in a neutral-negative way rather than judging them on their actions and accomplishments, then nobody's happy. \n For what it's worth, I'm a fat guy trying to lose weight.  I defuse the situation with humor, most of the time.  Self-deprecation makes any body issue that we're talking about here OK.  What I'm trying to say is, let's all try to not be so sensitive.", "id": "c9b9fe6", "summary": "Fat people know they can lose weight, which makes it a sore subject.  Short people can't get taller, which can also be a sore subject but is not seen as such typically."}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "I have concluded that I have no idea of how to properly integrate music into games.  In one of my first games, I had a nice song to use and decided to chop it up so that the intro instrumental played and then there was a 5-10 second constant loop that played through the rest of the level.  This worked, but I'm not a huge fan of looped music--it's easy to make it too short or too repetitive.  What I really want to do is allow for unique music, perhaps even dynamic music--something where it'll swell at the climax of the level (say at a boss fight).  If multiple songs are required for a single level, I want it to transition without drawing too much attention. \n As far as I can tell, Binding of Isaac just cuts between songs when you're exploring the labyrinth--no messy crossfades or periods of dead air between songs, just a quick cut and you're listening to something that has the same mood but a different melody.  Other games use a lot of scripting, which is an option, but not one that'll allow for constant background music throughout the normal level.  My current game is a free-exploration sidescroller, so there's no fixed time by which the player leaves the level.  That means they could listen to a lot of music.", "id": "t3_17xahc", "summary": "I want to use music, but am unsure of how to integrate it without having it loop or have dead air occur between songs."}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "EDIT:  Aaaand all the sites magically started working again about 5 minutes ago. \n I started noticing problems when trying to load Imgur images--namely, the requests would time out.  Puzzled, I went to the Imgur homepage, and none of the images there loaded. \n Odd, I thought--but maybe the site's down, and it'll come back later.  Cut to later--still down.  However, at that point I'd started noticing other issues. \n Gamefront was also having trouble loading stylesheets and other content.  I ran a traceroute on both i.imgur.com and cdn2.gamefront.com. \n $ tracert imgur.com\n\nTracing route to imgur.com [23.23.110.58]\nover a maximum of 30 hops:\n\n  1    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms  206.87.86.254\n  2    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms  csc1cled050.bb.uvic.ca [142.104.252.238]\n  3    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms  emc1cled050.bb.uvic.ca [142.104.252.246]\n  4    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms  emc1corb115.bb.uvic.ca [142.104.250.37]\n  5    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms  UVicB-Policy1.VICTX.BC.net [207.23.241.221]\n  6    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms  ra1cv-ge3-2-11.gv.bigpipeinc.com [64.251.72.41]\n  7    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms  66.163.72.17\n  8     3 ms     3 ms     3 ms  66.163.74.222\n  9    10 ms     7 ms     7 ms  66.163.68.189\n 10    15 ms    11 ms    11 ms  66.163.68.146\n 11    21 ms    19 ms    19 ms  rc1so-pos10-0-0.cg.shawcable.net [66.163.76.185]\n 12    38 ms    39 ms    39 ms  66.163.74.158\n 13   108 ms   107 ms   108 ms  rc2ch-pos1-0-0.il.shawcable.net [66.163.77.94]\n 14    95 ms   103 ms   108 ms  72.21.221.105\n 15   102 ms   102 ms    97 ms  72.21.220.63\n 16    88 ms   104 ms     *     72.21.222.155\n 17     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 18     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 19     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 20    97 ms   101 ms   100 ms  216.182.224.87\n 21     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 22     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 23     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 24     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 25     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 26     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 27     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 28     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 29     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 30     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n\nTrace complete.\n\n$ tracert cdn2.gamefront.com\n\nTracing route to neb1.wpc.v2cdn.net [93.184.215.248]\nover a maximum of 30 hops:\n\n  1    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms  206.87.86.254\n  2    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms  csc1cled050.bb.uvic.ca [142.104.252.238]\n  3    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms  emc1cled050.bb.uvic.ca [142.104.252.246]\n  4    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms  emc1corb115.bb.uvic.ca [142.104.250.37]\n  5    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms  UVicB-Policy1.VICTX.BC.net [207.23.241.221]\n  6    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms    &lt;1 ms  ra1cv-ge3-2-11.gv.bigpipeinc.com [64.251.72.41]\n  7     1 ms    &lt;1 ms     1 ms  66.163.72.17\n  8     8 ms     7 ms     7 ms  66.163.77.102\n  9     3 ms     3 ms     3 ms  paix1.sea.edgecastdn.net [198.32.134.27]\n 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 12     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 13     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 15     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 16     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 17     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 18     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 19     *       24 ms     *     93.184.215.248\n 20     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 21     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 22     3 ms     *        *     93.184.215.248\n 23     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 24     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 25     *        *        *     Request timed out.\n 26     *        *        3 ms  93.184.215.248\n\nTrace complete.\n \n As far as I can see, the problem's not with my computers--I tried loading the page on both Mac and Windows with all major browsers.  No cigar.  The traceroute put it over the top for me--this wasn't my fault. \n Curiously, though, I could use my US proxy (I currently live in Canada) to load up whatever I wanted.  Keeping this in mind, I started researching who Gamefront and Imgur used as a CDN.  Turns out, it's Edgecast--and it was extremely telling when I loaded up a page on Edgecast's site. \n Failed to load resource \nFailed to load resource \n[cycle] terminating; zero elements found by selector jquery.cycle.all.min.js:1\n[cycle] terminating; too few slides: 0 jquery.cycle.all.min.js:1\n[cycle] terminating; zero elements found by selector jquery.cycle.all.min.js:1\nFailed to load resource \nFailed to load resource \nFailed to load resource \nFailed to load resource \nFailed to load resource \nFailed to load resource \nFailed to load resource \nFailed to load resource \nFailed to load resource \nFailed to load resource \n \n SO.  I think I've narrowed down the problem to Edgecast's CDN in Canada--or at least in my area (Victoria, BC).  Needless to say, it's extremely frustrating--are there any ways to troubleshoot/fix this issue without using a proxy?  Namely, is this issue on my end somehow despite how it appears?  Furthermore, an anyone else in Canada confirm these issues?  I've been looking online and no one else has been mentioning any problems.", "id": "t3_1b1b8h", "summary": "Having issues with Edgecast's CDN in Canada, and need fixes."}, {"author": "Manic0892", "content": "I have an odd issue. \n I'm building a game as part of a student team, and we recently switched from FMOD to FMOD Studio.  This started causing issues in my Visual Studio 32 bit builds, with the exception being thrown from ntdll.dll. \n Exception thrown at 0x779B5A13 (ntdll.dll) in For Lease Engine.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation writing location 0x0F474EB4.\n \n My call stack: \n  ntdll.dll!779b5a13()    Unknown\n [Frames below may be incorrect and/or missing, no symbols loaded for ntdll.dll]    \n fmodstudio.dll!0fa5c508()    Unknown\n fmodstudio.dll!0fa59ba9()    Unknown\n fmodstudio.dll!0fb6d690()    Unknown\n fmodstudio.dll!0fb8ee6c()    Unknown\n [External Code]    \nFor Lease Engine.exe!ForLeaseEngine::Systems::SoundManager::SoundManager() Line 30    C++\n For Lease Engine.exe!ForLeaseEngine::Engine::Run() Line 74    C++\n For Lease Engine.exe!Start(int argc, char * * argv) Line 68    C++\n For Lease Engine.exe!WinMain(HINSTANCE__ * hInstance, HINSTANCE__ * hPrevInstance, char * szCmdLine, int iCmdShow) Line 77    C++\n [External Code]    \n \n The specific line of code that it reacts poorly to is this: \n result_ = FMOD_Studio_System_Create(reinterpret_cast&lt;FMOD_STUDIO_SYSTEM**&gt;(&amp;m_Sys), FMOD_VERSION);\n \n So, after much gnashing of teeth and me assigning unfair blame, I tried compiling in 64 bit mode--and, weirdly enough, it worked great! \n I happily worked away, until for various reasons I had to switch to Code::Blocks.  Set up the project, compiled, and bam, the same issue with the same line of code. \n I tried reinstalling my audio drivers, assuming that could cause the issue, with no luck.  Eventually I tried moving the 32 bit executable from the output directory ( bin/Debug/cb_proj_fle.exe ) into the root directory of my project and ran it.  Strangely enough, I had no problems.  This turned out to be true for the Visual Studio compiled 32 bit executable as well. \n It turns out that I can even set the project's build target to the project root directory, and the debugger will work fine, without any of those crashes. \n Any idea what could possibly be happening?  Also, to any developers out there, don't get suckered in by the siren song of virtual desktops and pretty UI.  W10 made a hash of multiple games (including Battle.net) and most of my development tools (gcc, cl, etc.) via permission issues.  I need to use W10 for platform testing for my current project, but if not for that and my lack of free time I'd downgrade in a second.", "id": "t3_47bmax", "summary": "I can't run a executable in 32 bit mode that resides in a subdirectory of the execution location.  It's not causing current issues, but is strange enough that I'm curious about it."}]}
+{"author": "beebhead", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I have a wife and Mexico is awesome.", "output": "One time I swam in one of these cenotes in Mexico. My wife and I visited Chichen Itza on our honeymoon, and it was like 110F that day. Our tour was boring us (we got the English version because I was worried I wouldn't understand the tour guide) but I had read about the hotel at Chichen Itza so we peeled off from the tour and pretended like we were guests at the hotel. Rather than walking around in the sun we crushed margaritas in the air conditioning for a half hour, then ran back to catch up with our tour group. I was drunk and it was hot... but on the way back to the tour's starting point our guide said he wanted to take us somewhere special: to one of the cenotes. My wife and I walked down a spiral staircase at least 100 feet below the ground before we entered the main area. There were tons of Mexicans and tourists swimming around in this cenote, and the water was crystal clear and probably 55F. There were hundreds of catfish swimming down with us, and the staircase wrapped back up and around the inside of the cenote so you could jump off this 30 foot ledge back into the water. Considering how fucking white I am and how hot I'd been all day, jumping in that clean ice water, drunk, and being able to look back up through the narrow cave to the sky was one of the greatest feelings I've ever had."}], "user_id": "longlamp_8747", "history": [{"author": "beebhead", "content": "Oh god dammit, I just read the whole first page of comments and no one bothered to mention that these results' validity has been seriously called into question. As someone who studies the microbiome, the first thought that popped into my mind was \"this sounds like a load of horse shit blown out of proportion by the media\". Not that this isn't uncommon in this sub... I'm sitting at a conference for a couple more hours but if anyone is interested in further information why this is likely a complete load of garbage, let me know and I'll elaborate.", "id": "can0m62", "summary": "high probability that this is pseudoscientific horse shit, and is regarded as garbage by experts in the field. Think arsenic life forms or XMRV causes CFS."}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "My friend starting going out with this chick and on the third date or so they had sex. The morning after, while my friend was making the bed (he's a neat freak), he noticed that the sheets had gotten all crumpled up and folded funny, and saw a brown streak on the sheet. He smelled it and almost vomited -- apparently while they were banging the sheet gave her a wedgie and she hadn't done a good job wiping at some point and smeared shit on the sheets. Like an idiot, he told us this story, and how he immediately stripped the bed and washed the sheets. I say he's an idiot because they've been together for three years and they got engaged last week, and every time I see her I think \"poop\". She's a great girl though.", "id": "calzbs9", "summary": "friend has sex with girl, girl poops on sheets, now they're engaged."}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "They did a small in-store performance and record signing in advance of a show they were playing at the Fillmore in San Francisco about eight years ago and they announced beforehand that there would be a costume contest and the winner would get free tickets to the show the next night. My brother and his friend (both in high school at the time) showed up decked out in crazy costumes but for some reason they weren't entered into the contest through no fault of their own. They were bummed when someone else won the tickets and they hadn't been considered but waited in line to meet JB and KG anyway. While they were getting their CDs signed Jack said \"you guys have some RAD costumes!\" and my brother and his friend said thanks, but they were bummed they hadn't been considered for the free tickets to the sold out show. Jack said \"that is some serious BULLSHIT! Paul, get these kids on the guest list for tomorrow IMMEDIATELY!\" and apologized to them and thanked them for their support. Sure enough they were on the guest list the next night and had a great time at the show.", "id": "c4hv4bt", "summary": "Tenacious D are good dudes."}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "My college roommate would smoke weed and blow the smoke on his computer while he was learning to program because he liked \"smoking with his computer\". He essentially wanted to create a program that would talk to him, but didn't really know too much, and was so high all the time he eventually caught himself in an infinite loop that consisted of him asking his program \"Smoke?\" and the program would respond out loud in a robot voice \"Smoke? Is that a question?\" and he would take another bong rip and ask the program (Carl as he called it, after Carl Sagan) \"Smoke?\" again. Anyway he did this every night for a few years straight and after we graduated he moved back to his parents' house and called me one night saying his computer was really hot. I went over and his fan wouldn't budge-- there was weed resin caked on it so thick the fan could no longer spin. I pulled it out of there and it was the stickiest god damn object I've ever touched.", "id": "c58rpym", "summary": "so much weed. And robots."}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "Not from school but from Boy Scouts. There was this really quiet, strange pale kid whose dad was also strange and pale, and had those terrible 1970s hair plugs randomly distributed across his previously bald scalp. Kid and dad are close, and generally exude creepiness-- like you wouldn't put father/son tandem masturbation past them. Anyway, this kid was some sort of \"recovering\" candy addict, but his parents allowed him one indiscretion a day: a roll of Bubble Tape. For those that don't know, Bubble Tape comes in a case the size of a hockey puck, and has 6 feet of bubble gum rolled up. Where it gets just plain strange is that every day at 3 PM, the kid's alarm clock in his watch would go off and he would pull out the roll of Bubble Tape, bite the entire roll from the side, and about 15 seconds later he would have EATEN AND SWALLOWED the  entire  six feet of bubble gum! He had been locked into that routine for several years when I found out about it, and he was 17 years old at the time. I always wondered what happened with his digestive system-- can't be good to swallow half a mile of bubble gum each year!", "id": "c3evvkg", "summary": "Strange kid swallowed six feet of bubble gum every day at 3 PM for years."}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "This one time my friends and I went camping in Yosemite and we had hiked in a good 30 miles over the first few days on the first weekend of camping, so we were in the middle of nowhere. I had brought some mushrooms and a lot of weed. A bunch of my friends went to sleep but a couple of us took the mushrooms. I was seeing a lot of crazy stuff -- my mind was \"filling in the gaps\" in the complete darkness. After a while we decided to smoke a little bit, and after we smoked I got really hungry. I remembered that I had brought a roll of dried salami and wanted to eat some of that! But we had strung all our food up a tree to keep it from bears. So I cut down our bear bag and pulled out the salami and sat down by the campfire. I grabbed my knife and started cutting slices of salami, like you, directly on my hand. Because I was on mushrooms my logic wasn't in top shape. I sliced right through the salami and dragged the knife across the palm of my hand. It felt strangely amazing... but then I realize holy fuck what have I done?! I looked down at the newly created gash across the palm of my hand, and it was like slow motion -- one second it was just skin split apart on my palm, the next second blood rushed into the gorge and I yelped. My other friend who was tripping saw me and freaked out. I had no idea if it was bad or not -- if it was superficial or deep -- if I was going to need serious medical treatment. With a bloody palm I ran over to my friend's tent and woke him up much to his dismay. I said \"Dude I cut myself and I'm tripping really hard, is this bad?!\". He took a look, wiped it off with a paper towel, and said \"You're gonna be alright buddy. Now shut up, put our food back, and go to sleep.\" He was right -- it was a very superficial wound but I did have a really strange scab that was like a little ridge across my hand for the next week.", "id": "c9d2ie5", "summary": "mushrooms (for the second time this week it's been a mushrooms story)"}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "When we got DirecTV (satellite TV) in college, three of the five of us were in our \"smoke weed all day every day\" phase. Dudes come over to install it while we're taking bong rips, and giving zero fucks we keep smoking while the dudes go to do their thing. But my dumb roommate offers them a few loads  before  they get to work, and after they're good and reefed they go upstairs to do the installation. They come downstairs a half hour later and say \"you're good to go, enjoy!\", but I tried to capitalize on our hospitality and ask them if they could give us free Sunday Ticket (all the NFL games) or any other hacked shit. They say they could hook us up and unlock every channel for $1500 (WHAT THE FUCK DUDE??) and I respectfully decline -- I thought the bowls and $50 would do the trick, but instead they were trying to take advantage of us. Anyway, they leave, we fire up the TV, and that night the signal keeps dropping out. We think \"DirecTV blows\" but the next morning when the signal is shit again, we go outside to see that the retards installed the satellite dish on our roof -- pointed directly at the huge tree in our back yard a few feet away! We unscrewed it and remounted it to give it a clear line of sight and bought Sunday Ticket on the up and up. Ended up winning $7000 on NFL pools that year.", "id": "cav13vs", "summary": "wait till after the satellite dudes finish the job to get them high \n (as an aside, the African American woman who came to install our DSL was very confused by my roommate doing nitrous the whole time she was there)"}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "I curious to hear what others think the Giants should do with Posey. I'm not asking for \"YEAH TOTES SIGN HIM TO A BIG DEAL!!1!\" because it's obvious that we all want him hear basically forever. I'm curious what you guys think is an appropriate contract extension offer in years and dollars. \n [Here's]( some more in-depth information about his contract status and what he was expected to make in arbitration this year. \n To me, we should definitely buy out his remaining arbitration years and at least his first two years of free agency, which would be a minimum 5 year extension. In the OP article, Rosenthal thinks the three arb. years are worth $40M, which initially struck me as an overestimate based on what the MLBTR article says and based on what similar players (assuming they exist!) made in his situation, but we did just pay him $8M for his first arb. year so I guess if he goes $10M+$13M+$17M in the next three, there's the $40M. \n Even though I love Posey, I would under no circumstance give him a Mauer deal (8y:$184M or something like that). For a catcher, it's just too much . And also offering him \"only\" a 5 year extension might be viewed as a lowball offer. I think we should offer him six years, $100M but would also be content with Rosenthal's projection of seven years, $120M. What say you?", "id": "c82wm0t", "summary": "6y:$100M seems right to me."}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "I got pulled over this weekend on the way to Los Angeles with my 3 kids in the car. I was on I-5 driving to Los Angeles from Northern California. I was going 86 in a 70 -- it was around 11 AM and there was no one on the road. Halfway between SF and LA is an In n Out, which I needed to get to by 1 to feed the kids. Cop asked me \"what's the rush?\". I said \"I need to get to In n Out by 1 or the kids are going to get hungry and that won't be good.\" He laughed and said \"I appreciate your honestly, but there are plenty of places to stop along the way, though I admit they're not as good as In n Out.\" He then told me he had three kids too and that he and his family do the SF <~> LA drive too, and told me I was brave for doing it without my wife (it was my first time without her -- she had a girl's weekend). He then went on to say something about catastrophic tire failure at high speeds and how with the kids I better be careful. I apologized (I just wasn't paying attention to the speedometer), and he let me off with a warning.", "id": "cco78as", "summary": "In n Out is delicious"}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "I actually tried posting this a couple days ago in another thread but AlienBlue deleted it for some reason. My old college roommate has been on a CraigsList bender, banging tons of chicks. He's a big dude -- 6'4\" 310 lbs (almost 2 meters and 145 kg roughly?) and used to play football. Apparently he's well endowed too, though I wouldn't know. He smokes a lot of weed. Anyway back to the story... he's been on this bender and getting into kinkier and kinkier shit each week, all hookups coming from CL Casual Encounters, and a lot of the girls on the bigger side. He sees and as for a chick who says she's a big girl, but that she's a super submissive and a full on squirter. I'm rambling at this point so I'll cut to the point: he gets too curious about he squirting claims, steals some of his dad's Viagra and heads over there. She's over 300 lbs and wants him to yell at her and treat her like shit (submissive thing). He realizes there's no way he's ever going to get it up so he pops two viagras. Ends up banging her, but she isn't \"allowed\" to orgasm till he says so. While finger banging her and calling her \"YOU FAT FUCKING WHORE, YOU STUPID LAND WHALE BITCH,  NOW  YOU CAN CUM!\" and sure as shit she squirts EVERYWHERE. He said it was awesome and has no regrets.", "id": "cbccy4y", "summary": "my friend banged a 300 lbs squirter"}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "I was home for the holidays after a really rough first semester in college. I had told my dad earlier in the day that I had gotten terrible grades. We went out to a family holiday party and I was being a total ass for some reason -- angry 18 year old. For some reason I thought it'd be funny to hide my sister's shoe in the fridge at our friends' house. When it's time to go, she can't find her other shoe (obviously), and is convinced I did something (I was an ass all evening). Anyway, we find the shoe and my parents are pissed. We get home and my dad is just laying into me yelling about how I'm fucking up my life, etc. I start crying and ask him to stop, and I say \"you're making me feel like shit!\". My dad yells back \"You  ARE  shit!\". That was the most hurtful thing he had ever said to me. 15 years later we're cool and that stupid school stuff blew over less than a year later. I'm married with three kids and I have my PhD now and my parents are a big part of my family's life, but I will never forget that shit he said.", "id": "ccgfc2v", "summary": "You are shit\""}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "Story time. I am the oldest of five kids and my family (I think it's the Viking blood) used to CRUSH milk. We're talking 12 gallons a week when I was in high school and the youngest was off the teat and on the bottle. My mom called the number on the back of a milk delivery truck (she saw it delivering to our local corner store) and asked if they would be willing to deliver to our house, and they said \"sorry ma'am we don't deliver to homes, we can't make such small deliveries\". My mom said \"what if I have a standing order for 12 gallons a week, 8 sticks of butter, and 2 dozen eggs?\" and the dude said \"that is a larger order than the corner store near your house makes, so we're happy to just consider you a business and drop off on the route.\" I actually had friends coming over after school just to watch SportsCenter and drink milk with me before they went home. And yes, it was in those nice thick glass bottles with a little cream on top. We had the standing order for five years but once I went off to college our milk throughout dropped so my parents cancelled it. This was from 1994 - 1999 in San Francisco, so this wasn't some countryside shit. I fucking loved that milk so goddamn much.", "id": "c4vzfp5", "summary": "I'm overweight now"}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "I know this is buried but I've got a great story. Not for a job, but for grad school, and I was the interviewee. I had been sent an email containing my interview schedule for the day -- 6 professors and a student interviewer who was also my guide throughout the day. For all the professors, I went for their lab websites and read their most recent publications as a starting point for discussion and to show competency in scientific literature digestion. But for the student interviewer, I looked him up on the program's student page, and noticed he attended the same small liberal arts school one of my best friends attended. I called my friend and said \"hey do you know DB? He's my student guide\" and my friend said \"yeah I do! In fact, you met him once at that New Year's Eve String Cheese Incident concert!\" For those that don't know SCI is a jam band (like Phish etc.). This was my in. \n So I arrive early that morning and am introduced to DB: \"Hi beebhead, I'm DB, and I'll be your student guide.\" I said \"I know, we've met before.\"  puzzled look  I say \"we met in the beer line at String Cheese NYE about 5 years ago!\". He says \"Holy shit, you're JD's friend right! This is gonna freak you out...\". He starts unbuttoning his button down shirt, and reveals a T shirt under his nice clothes, and that T shirt says \"SCI NYE 2001-2002\" -- he was wearing the shirt from the night we met randomly! We both were MIND = BLOWN, and immediately had great rapport due to our love of the same music, and as it turns out, sports, and computational biology. We spent my whole interview taking about Phish and if they'd ever reunite, and he pulled as many strings as possible and I ended up getting accepted to one of the top PhD programs in the country. \n Now he is one of my best friends, and we both finished our PhDs and I am a groomsman in his wedding this October. The story gets better though: I just returned the favor six years later. I work at a major Pharmaceutical company, and a high-paying computational biology position was created to work alongside me, so I forwarded him the posting and he applied. He was called in for interviews, and I was one of his interviewers. We spent the whole time shooting the shit and talking about Phish tour (we were at the reunion shows together in 2009 as they did get back together, and we are hitting some shows together this summer too), sports, and science, and he just got the job offer Friday and will accept!", "id": "cajzvoq", "summary": "it's worth the read"}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "Shit, it appears I'm late to the party, but I've got a good one. Actually, I have a lot of crazy stories but this one comes to mind. We had a big house party, and one of my roommates liked to sell drugs to his friends for cheap. Kind of like \"Good Guy Drug Dealer\" if you will. Anyway he'd gotten a pound of mushrooms, and one of the fucking mushrooms weighed over 10 grams. For those who don't know, if they're potent, 2 grams is enough to do the trick, 3.5 grams is a typical \"heavy dose\", and maybe we know one person who ate 5-7 grams over the course of a day. So GGDD takes the whopping mushroom out, and puts it on the coffee table one day. We ask him why he put it there, and he said he didn't want to break it up, it was too big and too cool, and if anyone wanted it it was theirs for free on one condition: they have to eat the whole thing. Needless to say, that mushroom sat there for over a month, but as you may imagine from my commenting in this thread, we have our big house party. We were right on the border of Berkeley in Oakland (loads of homeless and near homeless, hard to distinguish them from hipsters to be honest), so a bunch of randos show up to the party. One of them is this half Native American guy whose name is, I shit you not, Geronimo. Geronimo's a little younger (19 or 20), and was from a poor family and didn't have a lot of friends and had no qualms about walking into our house. Throughout the night, people had been asking about the mushroom, and it was explained that anyone was free to \"take the mushroom challenge\" but they had to eat the whole thing. Geronimo had never taken drugs, but he said he'd do it. We asked him if he'd ever eaten mushrooms before, he said no, we tried to talk him out of it, but he said he wanted to try it. We tried to tell him that it was about 5x the amount of mushrooms he'd need to trip, and that we had more we'd give him some for free if he wanted to try just a little the first time, but he was hard-headed and  insisted . He was fine for about 30 minutes, started getting giggly, but I lost track of him in the sea of people at the party. About 90 minutes after the challenge was accepted, I saw him in the corner of the room, staring at some art work. I ended up having some sexy times and passed out, but apparently Geronimo walked out of the house at some point acting quite crazy (mumbling to himself, random yelps) despite my roommates trying to convince him to stay. When I got up the next morning, I found Geronimo asleep with an orange in his hand and orange shrapnel all over his face and body. He was right outside our back door passed out on the stairs! It looked really uncomfortable, but he was sleeping like a baby. Nobody is really sure what happened the rest of the night after he left, but I guess he came back. I woke him up, asked him how he was, and made him some breakfast. He said his stomach hurt a little bit, and he thought he remembered puking somewhere, but he said he had the most beautiful experience of his life. He didn't elaborate, and I was too hungover to ask him more. After a cup of coffee, he went on his way, and we never saw Geronimo again. Good dude.", "id": "c8hbjdd", "summary": "Dude named Geronimo wanders into our house, eats a 10.7 gram mushroom, leaves the next morning."}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "On my 20th birthday, my friends and I went up to my grandparents' house in wine country. They had a big property and were happy to let us stay up there as long as we cleaned up after ourselves and ate dinner with them, because they liked hanging out with young people. This one night after we BBQ'd we went down to the Pondo (it was the old house on the property, next to a pond) and took mushrooms. I went up to the house and spoke with my grandmother for a while before I started tripping too hard (she was a really funny woman), and after I bid her goodnight, I jumped in the pool with my friends. It felt so good. I made out with my girlfriend in the water and swam around for a couple hours in the warm Sonoma air. That was a great night.", "id": "cjrmlxi", "summary": "I miss my grandparents and swimming on mushrooms is absolutely transcendent."}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "I was in London, drunk off my ass, and got into a fight with my girlfriend. She ended up storming off and later blamed me for \"ditching\" her. Anyway, I was all upset, and as I mentioned, wasted. I decided I was going to drunk dial one of my friends back home to cheer me up. I found one of those iconic red phone booths, and as I walked in to close the door behind me, I stepped in a pile of what I assume to be human shit. Stepping in a pile of human shit in an enclosed space -- and this was likely a \"I have such a nasty shit coming I will do it in a phone booth because I can't make it to a bathroom\" shit -- well, it was like taking a bong rip with a gas mask full of diarrhea. I instantly vomited all over the glass in the phone booth as I staggered back into the night. I apologize to the next person who found that phone booth in Charing Cross, London.", "id": "cdslaq0", "summary": "diarrhea bong rip"}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "I am 30 years old and have spent 50% of my video gaming career (25 years) playing sports games with and without my friends. Most of the rest of the gaming I've done was playing MarioKart 64, Mario Tennis 64, and Goldeneye, while getting extremely stoned with friends in college. Because of this, I suck at FPS. I do wish they would come out with a great campaign game I could play for a while. I have been playing the Halo: Reach campaign and it's pretty fun so far.", "id": "c16v53b", "summary": "I HAVE AN N64"}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "I went to, at the time, the \"last\" Phish concerts ever in 2004 (they got sober and reunited in 2009). I went with some of my best friends, one of whom took some mushrooms the first night. He has a history of GI issues when on drugs (I have other funny stories of him pooping on psychedelics believe it or not), and he started walking away from our campsite while he was beginning to trip balls. We asked him where he was going and he said he was going to find a portapotty because he had to poo. He came back like 45 minutes later white as a ghost. We asked him what happened and he was so high he was almost on the verge of tears explaining to us that when he sat down to shit, there was so much shit in the portapotty the tip of his penis ended up getting covered in feces. We all burst out laughing and have called him a shit dick since then. Pretty mean but we're all close friends so he laughs and says he wishes he never told us that in his fragile mental state...", "id": "c6rl178", "summary": "Dave is a shit dick"}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "I know this comment is buried, but I have a funny story about the street view cars. The very first one was actually the winning car from the DARPA grand challenge-- remember that autonomous car race through the desert? Anyway, the car that won was built by this guy down at Stanford who moved to Google shortly thereafter, and the car's method for obstacle avoidance was by on-the-fly parsing of continuous 360 degree video. A buddy of mine, who had also entered the DARPA GC also went to Google and was working with the Stanford guy, and they came up with the idea for Street View. The problem was that they actually had jobs so they needed someone to drive the car around San Francisco and Berkeley, etc., to collect enough data for the beta release. So my buddy asks what my younger brothers were up to, who were like 17 and 22 at the time, and I told him they were making a little cash at a local sub sandwich shop. My buddy says \"I'll pay them $15 an hour to go up and down every other block in the city\" (with the 360 view there is no need to drive both ways down a street), and my 22 year old brother says \"hell yeah!\". My buddy brought the car over, and we checked it out (my mom was all confused by the massive camera rig on top), and off went my brother. The thing was that he got really bored and starting smoking weed and cigarettes in the car, and after a couple days my buddy needed the car back and it stunk, so he told my brother he wouldn't be driving the car anymore.", "id": "c2r6hlx", "summary": "my friend worked on the first Street View car and my brother drove it around San Francisco smoking weed in it."}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "Walking in the door after work and seeing my two year old twins run over to me yelling \"Papi! Papi!\" and having my wife say \"Hi honey\" while she's holding our six month old, who gives me a smile too. I have been under a lot of stress at work, and that one moment every day melts all the bullshit away and makes me realize why I do what I do (besides it being intellectually stimulating). \n Also drinking beer with my friends and shooting the shit makes me really fucking happy. Last night one of my oldest friends called me and asked if I wanted to go to the World Baseball Classic championship game, as he had scored a free extra ticket. I said \"sure!\", and told my boss I was gonna leave early to head to the game. When I was getting ready to leave, my friend called me back and I said \"what's up? I'm about to leave work!\", and he told me, as we were going to be with a larger group including our other friend of 30+ years (we're all 31-32), that he had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer earlier that day. Talk about a punch to the gut. I almost started crying in my office. Anyway, sparing the rest of the details -- once we were at the game, and I was sitting in between my two best friends from preschool on, despite knowing that Jared has cancer now, we were all happy. Just shooting the shit, talking about old baseball players from our childhood, and making fun of our other friend who is a Dodgers fan and had come up from LA for the game.", "id": "c8z4s1o", "summary": "my family and my friends make me happy no matter what."}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "I was on a flight to Hawaii last week and while waiting for the bathroom I noticed the guy in seat 1A was wearing an old leather Buffalo Springfield jacket... I thought it was kind of random until I noticed it was my musical hero, NEIL FREAKING YOUNG. He didn't look up, and was busy banging away on his laptop. I went and did my business and when I came out, I whispered to the flight attendant in the front \"Is that Neil Young?\" and she nodded. As I walked back to my seat I looked over at him again and he remained buried in his laptop. I've heard he really keeps to himself and likes his privacy, so I opted to play it cool (or totally wuss out?) and left him be. I didn't have much to say except I kind of wanted to thank him for inspiring my guitar playing and making me feel more comfortable about singing in a higher register, but that seemed like a really strange thing to tell a stranger. I also thought about taking a picture of him with my iPhone but I decided that would be pretty fucking creepy. What would you have done? Or when you were in a similar situation, what did you do?", "id": "t3_om26n", "summary": "saw Neil Young, left him alone. What do you do when you see your idol in public?"}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "I'm not a vocabulary Nazi, but the improper use of \"decimate\" really grinds my gears.  It shares the same first six letters as \"decimal\", so it should be clear that it has something to do with the number 10.  Well it turns out it means to kill one in every ten, or more generally, to reduce by 10%.  I wish people would stop using it when they mean \"annihilate\" or \"obliterate\".", "id": "t3_e92cd", "summary": "Get to the chopper!]("}, {"author": "beebhead", "content": "My friend Rick was in a band that was doing pretty well for themselves.  To give you an idea, one of their songs was in a video game I used to play (EA's FIFA 2005?), they were making a little bit of money, and they were doing smallish gigs around the country.  Like most small bands these days, they had a MySpace page.  Rick would often log on and chat with fans to be a good sport.  Well one day, Rick was chatting with a younger girl, maybe 14 or 15 years old, and she said she was a huge fan of the band and that Rick was her favorite member because she is a redhead and so is Rick.  Rick was being a nice guy (which he is) and was chatting back and forth with her, and they joked about being redheads.  Many of the people in Rick's family are redheads as well, and he had just been looking at some older family pictures on his computer, and one was a picture of his red-headed sister, so he sent her the picture and said \"This is what you'll look like in a few years :)\".  She responded  \"OH MY GOD WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU YOU FUCKING PERVERT I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!!!\".  Confused, Rick checked the picture he had sent...  he's not the most computer-savvy guy...  His friend had sent him a picture of a woman getting fucked by a dog as a joke, and he had accidentally saved it to his desktop.  \"This is what you'll look like in a few years :)\"...", "id": "t3_b92qp", "summary": "My buddy accidentally sent a young female fan of his band a picture of a woman getting fucked by a dog and told her that she'd look like that in a few years. \n EDIT: spelling mistake."}]}
+{"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Helped some ents out in a time of need, didn't see them for three years, found them again and they're doing awesome!", "output": "Backstory \n About four years ago my grandmother had passed.  I was going to attend the wake and i realized that my dog hadn't been walked yet and with all the other things going on, that he needed attention. \n So i walked him to a park very close to my house.  I was dressed in a suit.  As i walked up on a rather hidden bench, i heard some rustling, the sound of glass breaking, and then tears. \n It confused me, so i walked directly to the area of the bench and there was a younger couple (real early 20's and i was in my early 30's) sitting there and the girl was crying.  The guy was trying to clean something up on the bench.  Then i saw what it was, a broken bowl and the weed in the bowl had gone everywhere.  They were really panicked because i saw everything, some random stranger dressed in a suit walking a dog. \n Evidently they saw me walking up and assumed i would call the cops or something (i have trouble trusting people in suits too) and the guy tried to hide the bowl and fumbled it.  I walked up and said \"Crap, i am sorry i made you drop your bowl, i didn't mean to startle you\" and we talked for a few minutes after that. \n Short story.  They were from the apartment complex close to the park.  They were having real rough times, financially they just weren't making it.  They were both unemployed just recently laid off and they weren't sure what they were going to do.  The girl told me they just wanted to relax and watch the sun set in the park while smoking a bowl.  She also told me that was the last of their weed and it was their only bowl and they didn't have money to replace it. \n So i said \"Give me about ten minutes, i will be right back\".  I walked home, dropped my dog off grabbed my spare bowl and my back-up bag of weed.  I put it in a brown paper bag and walked back up to the park.  I handed them a half ounce and a bowl that was clean and ready to be used, free of charge. (I had found my grandma's stash in her house, so i had plenty o' trees) \n After chit-chatting for a couple minutes, they offered me some of my own weed :) but i declined because i had to get to my grandmother's funeral.  One of the last things i said to them was \"As you get older, life doesn't get any easier, you always have to work at it, but once you get the hang of it, it definitely gets better\". \n I never really saw them again. \n Fast Forward to Today \n I took my daughter to a birthday party at a party center.  I walked through the door and to the desk and was talking to a young girl behind the desk when a guy in a suit walked out of the office. \n He was staring at me and it was kind of making me uncomfortable.  He was intensely staring at me and i could see the gears in his mind turning.  He finally said \"I KNOW YOU!\" and then i started to panic.  I was waiting to hear about something bad i had done in my past, but instead he said \"Life doesn't get any easier, but it definitely gets better!\". \n I kind of remembered and then he pulled me outside.  Once he got into details i remembered completely.  He and his girlfriend got married about two years ago.  He started with the party center when it first opened a few years ago and worked his way up from the lowest position to the highest management level and was making some pretty good cash.  His wife is going to school to become an RPN (nurse? i think it's RPN) and works part time for the party center. \n He said the day they were sitting in the park was probably one of the lowest days they had, but it was nice to know that there was people out there that cared.  That made them feel a bit better and within the week they both made vows to change their path in life. \n I was absolutely thrilled for them both.  In about four years they changed their life completely. \n He then told me they still have and still use that bowl i gave them.  They have other bowls and bongs, but they like that one the most.  I laughed and said \"That thing is a plain jane, bare bones bowl, nothing special\" and he said that it reminds them of when they decided to change their life and the kindness of others, that the sentimental value makes the bowl priceless. \n He also told me they had looked for me at the park for a while after that to thank me, but we just never crossed paths again.  They didn't know my full name, just my first name and what my dog looked like, and there was really no way to track me down. \n We exchanged phone numbers and i have an open invitation to their house (They now rent to own a house on the other side of town), he also told me that they owe me a bag of trees! \n It was really nice to see things work out for them.  They're not rich beyond belief, life isn't easy for them, but they're working hard at it, but they're much happier than the day i crossed paths with them.  It kind of makes me feel good inside knowing that i may have played a tiny part in that. \n So Ents, keep in mind, life may not get easier, but with a little work it will get better! \n Just wanted to share this with some people!"}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Dad does worse at hospitals than the person who he is there to comfort.", "output": "My Dad. Dad has never had a major surgery in his life. He has what is known as  white coat syndrome  and he damn near passes when needles are being put in, even if it's not him. He avoids hospitals and doctors at all costs. The one time he has been in the hospital for anything serious, they had to sedate him. \n I've had three shoulder surgeries, a knee surgery and had my gallbladder removed. Every time I go to the hospital for the surgery, my dad seems to be the one to take me there, and for some reason we haven't changed that. We keep making the same stupid mistake over and over again. \n When I got my first shoulder surgery, I forget what they called it, but it was a series of shots to numb the nerve endings in my shoulder. I think it was somewhere around 8 to 10 shots all around my shoulder.  This is when we figured out Dad shouldn't be present in pre-op because he just isn't comforting to me.  The medical staff has to stop working on me, to work on him. \n The anesthesiologist laid out all the needles and I looked over at my Dad, who was sitting behind me and said \"are you okay?\" and he tried like hell to act tough with a manly \"Yea, I am fine, why do you ask?\" even though he was horribly pale. Anesthesiologist puts the first shot in me, I don't cringe but I hear my dad go \"Oh god\" under his breath.  Second shot goes in and the anesthesiologist had to  stop  because my Dad was going faint. \n They got him calmed down and asked him if he wanted to stay here or go out in the waiting room.  He tried to brave it out, made it through  one more  shot and said \"I'll be in the waiting room\" and got up and left.  Nurses later went to check on him to make sure he was okay.  After the surgery, one of the nurses jokingly said \"Don't worry, your Dad is doing fine, he made it through without a problem\" as I was laying in post op. \n The second two shoulder surgeries and the knee surgery he decided to wait it out in the waiting room. \n When my gallbladder decided that it was done doing what it was supposed to be doing and the doctors decided it needed to come out, it was a bit of a different story. \n It was a quick onset, I went from \"Hey i have a little pain in my abdomen\" to \"HOLY SHIT MY INSIDES ARE ON FIRE MAKE IT STOP!\" in a matter of hours. \n My Dad had to come pick me up, the only comfortable place I could find was laying face down on the cool tile of my kitchen floor with my arms stretched out, like I was making a snow angel, just face down. It only reduced the pain, it didn't stop it. If I even moved in the slightest, it resulted unbearable pain. \n I make it to the ER and they're trying to check me in. I am just sweating and barely coherent enough to answer questions. It's all shady to me, because the doctor did some preliminary pushing on my stomach and decided what it was and we just needed an ultrasound to back it up. I was in so much pain, they pumped me full of pain relievers after about ten minutes of me being there. \n So now I am doped up in pre-op. I have an IV shunt (think it's called a shunt) in my arm and the nurse says \"We're going to bring your father back so he can keep you company, you've got a few minutes before your surgery.\"  I tried to say \"leave him in the waiting room\" but I was just out of it, she thought it was just the drugs talking. \n He comes into the pre-op room. He sits down as doctors and nurses are walking in and out of my room. He's sitting in the chair, staring at my IV shunt, he has the armrests gripped to the point where his knuckles are just turning white. He isn't saying a word. The doctors and nurses just keep doing what they're doing. I am half-ass awake/doped up in the bed. \n I then hear one of the nurses say \"Oh my god! are you alright?\" and I answered \"Hell yea, I'm doing great!\", shit I was pumped full of the good stuff, probably could have hacked one of my arms off at that point and I wouldn't have felt it. \n Needless to say, she was talking to my father. The white coats, the nurses, the needles and the monitors were just too much for him. He had worked himself into a frenzy, his face was all red, he was sweating, still grasped on to the chair like we were about to break the sound barrier and I really think on the verge of passing out. \n In my dopey state of mind I looked over at him and said \"What the hell asshole, I am the one they're cutting open, what are you so nervous about?\". He didn't answer. Two nurses started tending to him and got him calmed down, and back out to the waiting room he went. I think they checked on him more than they checked on me. \n I didn't see him again until I had my street clothes back on and I was sitting in a rocking chair with a cup of coffee and some cookies.  He was jealous I had cookies, so the nurses brought him some. They were so awesome to him.  I was apologetic about it, but they were completely cool with it. I sincerely like more of the nurses I have dealt with than most of the surgeons/doctors I have dealt with. \n It's nice that he tries to be there when he can, he just can't handle it and it's horribly funny to me.  Whenever he tries to play up that he is more manly than me, I just bring up the surgeries and the subject quickly changes.  Mom later told me that he was the  exact  same way when my sister and I were born. She had a surgery when my sister and I were in our early teens.  She actually told my dad to just stay home. He did. My grandmother ended up staying with her. \n The real fun started was after he retired and he was bored, he decided he wanted to see what it was like for someone to get tattooed. I have a half leg tattoo, plus about a half dozen others. When I went to get work on it he decided he wanted to go see what it was like. So he followed me to the shop. \n My tattoo artist shows me the needle, I hear my dad go \"Ugh\".  The tattoo artist tunes his machine, hits the pedal once to see how the needle is moving.  As soon as it made the \"buzzzz\" sound, Dad said \"See ya at home\" and left.  The tattoo artist didn't even get ink on the needle yet. Whenever he and I talk he always jokingly asks \"Sooo, when is your Dad coming in for his tattoo?\""}], "user_id": "longlamp_1937", "history": [{"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "You're not alone. While I didn't experience what you have gone through first hand, I have a cousin who has and I have basically had to deal with the consequences of the whole situation. \n My grandmother had three daughters, obviously one is my mother, the other two are...how do i explain this? If they were laying bloody and dying on the street, I would simply step over their bodies and let them bleed out. \n My aunt (my cousin's mother) hooked up with a guy. My other aunt was jealous of her relationship with this guy, so she started flirting and eventually hooked up with the same guy. So this douche is banging both my aunts while my mom (the oldest of the sisters) and grandmother were trying to resolve the entire situation. \n My cousin's mother purposely got pregnant so that she could lay claim to this guy. My other aunt and her started fighting non stop, in the mean time, this dude bolted like the roadrunner, nothing but dust and debris floating down behind him. \n Now that this dude was gone, my cousin's mother wanted nothing to do with my cousin. She would purposely leave him alone in the car, neglect him, and purposely do things to make it look like he would have died \"by accident\". She was still living with my grandmother, and my grandmother would catch her doing this shit and stop her. \n It wasn't until he was about 8 (My mother and father were married by this time, I am five years younger than him) that my cousin's mom finally bolted on my cousin. My cousin got sent to live with his father, who for some reason agreed to take him. Basically what happened is he got handed off from one shitty parent that didn't want him, to another. \n My grandmother finally stepped in and he went to live with her, my  other  aunt, the not-mother of my cousin, was still living with my grandmother also.  That aunt started tearing apart my cousin, thinking that her and his father had a true shot at a lasting relationship if it wasn't for him.  Eventually she moved out to go to college. \n My grandmother and my cousin's mom stopped talking to one another. My two aunt's started talking to one another, mostly because they realized they could con my grandmother out of more shit if they put their heads to together.  My grandmother brought all of this up in random conversation a few months before she died. As she was telling me all of this, I just kind of sat there with my mouth open and eyes wide open.  This wasn't something we normally discussed at holiday dinners. She knew she was being conned, and didn't fall for any of it. She told me it was a warning to not get caught up in their game. \n My cousin suffered a horrible childhood.  After my grandmother died, the person he considered a true mother, the true colors of the family came out and he wasn't sure how to deal with life anymore. \n Her body wasn't even cold before my aunt started laying claim to what she wanted. The problem was that my mother was named executrix of the estate, my grandmother wasn't stupid. My cousin's mother, after years of not being around all of the sudden came back into the picture. She was immediately shunned by my mother. My aunt tried to rekindle the relationship, but it was shot down quick. \n The sad thing was, that my grandmother died in debt. She never shared financial information with us and was too tough/proud to ask for help. She was living on about $20 a week. The only thing she had was the house my grandfather built (he died in his late 30's) and the stuff inside of it. Which wasn't much. \n My parents took on the accounting of the estate. She had unpaid debt, one of them being  student loans for an expensive local college that my aunt attended . She had given everything to raise my aunt, mother and cousin that she had nothing left for herself.  My mother and father were the only ones to give back.  My mom stopped sharing information with me about the estate, because my disdain for my aunt only continued to grow. \n My mom gave each family member the opportunity to take a few things to remember my grandmother. I took my grandfather's engineering manuals from the 30's-50's. My cousin took a couple of small keepsakes as did my mother. My cousin's mother is afraid to speak to my mother, so she didn't show up. My other aunt showed up with her douche-canoe husband in a fucking 30' moving truck and took a ton of shit. They packed that thing wall to wall, floor to ceiling and my mom just let it happen because \"she's my only sister\". (this is where my dad's favorite story \"The Concrete Frog\" of that day comes from) \n Everything was being auctioned in the house to maintain property taxes and the house and to pay off some of the debt. The aunt and uncle continued to steal from the house, prior to the auction. The auction finally went through, which relieved some of the monetary stress. The house sat for a year before someone finally made an offer and my mother jumped at it, it was $5,000 less than what they were asking. My aunt and uncle had the nerve to argue with my mother to refuse the offer.  They ignored them. \n After this event along with their whole \"wedding\" experience thing and the way my aunt and uncle treated my mother, i started to lose the \"let's keep the family together\" attitude and started moving towards the \"these people are fuckheads\" attitude. \n About 10 years after my grandmother died, which was about a year ago, my cousin had a psychological break down. Mostly due to continuing to deal with my aunt and a shitty mother for all these years. I would imagine there was some childhood issues dropped in there that finally pushed him over the edge. He ended up in a state run mental hospital after I had him almost forcibly removed from his home by the Police and EMTs and admitted. He was in his basement, in his pajamas, claiming to be the fourth horseman of the apocalypse, threatening to rain death down from the heavens. He would jump in and out of reality and it was scary to watch him go through this. \n His mother wouldn't fly in to help him, he was in the hospital for about three weeks and I was there every day. I have become the sole family member to actually check on him regularly, to the point he has become reliant on it. I am basically his next of kin now. My parents help with what they can. I fear that if I ever  don't  check on him, he'll slip into the breakdown stage again, which was super scary. He's on some pretty hefty prescriptions. \n My mom just keeps taking this bullshit, because my grandmother asked her to keep the family together. She overlooks or bottles up her opinion about my aunt and uncle, but doesn't talk to my cousin's mom. I get the \"she's my only sister\" answer when I ask why she continues to talk to her. \n The holidays were dreadful up until last year. Niceties and chit chatting about nothing. I would show up for about an hour, eat and then leave, barely speaking. \n My mom didn't invite me to any extended-family events this year due to the \"YOU'RE MOTHERFUCKING ASSHOLES\" speech I unleashed on my aunt and uncle last year. My mother is growing tired of putting on the front, I would imagine soon enough we will all just go our separate ways. Thankfully my immediate family, mom, dad and I get along well. \n The whole situation taught me that in the parent-roulette game, I landed a damn good set of parents, they've always been there for me. \n I would tell you about my Dad's side of the family, but we stopped talking to most of them about 25 years ago. The last thing I heard about any of them was when I got a phone call from a government agency asking me to verify that one of them was 1/8 Cherokee. I answered with \"What in the fuck are you talking about? My grandparents on my father's side stepped off the boat from Germany to escape the Nazi regime.  I don't recall many Cherokees in Nazi Germany \".  I am not even sure what any of that was about. I am not really sure how either of my parents aren't fucking nutters. Natural selection amazes me.", "id": "c6z6eu0", "summary": "My extended family is  fuuuuuucked  up."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "I was working as a [snow-maker]( at a ski resort.  There were only three of us on shift. \n We kept our machines maintained pretty well so we rarely had problems with them.  So the majority of the 12 hour shift was to walk around and look at snow machines and look at snow.  Since i was training a new (fourth person) for our shift, i didn't toke like i normally would.  I would never get blazed, just happy enough to enjoy being outside usually a [2] or a [3], i could still function but i would be relaxed. \n The new guy, the fourth person for our shift was really green.  No snowmaking experience, limited electrical experience.  He had found out that making snow had the potential to include being high, while being on a mountain, while watching snow.  Which was the majority of the time spent on the job in all honesty.  If you were a snow-maker and all your machines were running right, you had a pretty easy night normally. \n He showed up the second night  blazed  out of his skull and i called him on it.  I told him that he needed to show some restraint because we were still working with some pretty dangerous equipment. A [2] or [3] was one thing, coming to work at a [9] was not acceptable. \n So we had one of the machines go down electrically, which means that the fan and compressor shut off and the machine is now pissing water all over our top layer of snow. \n I ran over and shut the hammer switch off for the power and unplugged the machine while he was on the other side of the chairlift tower shutting the water off.  Being as blazed as he was, he didn't walk over to the machine, he just leaned against the water hydrant watching me about ten feet away at the machine. \n I asked him if he wanted to learn something, to which he replied \"No i am just going to rest here\" and continued to lean against the hydrant, away from the hammer switch.  I said \"Okay make sure no one touches anything\".  He was still way high, i figured our little talk earlier would result in better circumstances the next night after he had a chance to sober up a bit. \n Now technically i should have locked out the hammer switch at the station, we were dealing with three phase-480 volt power.  But seeing as he was standing near the box and most other snowmakers would walk up to me and the machine first, i figured i would be okay.  He told me he had past electrical experience. \n I opened the electrical box with all the fuses and electrical components of the machine and started doing tests to see why it failed.  I had my back to him, with the electrical box open and he could technically see what i was doing.  I figured out one leg of the power had failed due to a blown fuse in the machine.  I had extra fuses with me, because it wasn't uncommon in some of the older machines we had, the newer ones not as much. \n There was no power at the machine, it was shut off, unplugged and the main power was shut off at the station you plugged in the machine.  It wasn't connected to any electrical at all, so the main switch on the machine itself was still in the \"on\" position, but since it was unplugged there was no power. To clarify. Hammer switch with female plug connection was off, machine with male connection plug  and wire to the machine was unplugged.  Main power switch  on the machine  was still in the \"on\" position. \n I shook my gloves off because you can't grab the fuses with gloves on, reached in and grabbed the fuse.  I braced myself against the frame of the machine because i was leaned funny and i needed to prevent myself from falling over (not because i was high, because i was standing funny) \n At  that  exact moment i heard \"Oh! the only problem with it was that it was unplugged\" and heard the hammer switch throw.  The next thing i remember was waking up in the hospital. \n He had plugged the machine back in and turned the power back on while i had the electrical box wide open and was holding a fuse (one leg of three phase 480) in the machine and grounding myself against the machine (bracing myself to stand up) and it had thrown me back about ten feet and burned my hands, thankfully not severely. \n My boss saw the whole thing happen and made it to where i lay ASAP and called 911.  I got knocked the FUCK out!  The new guy had barely even understood what he had done and was really out of it. On paper we blamed it on me for not locking out the electrical box so that the dude wouldn't be drug tested and more than likely prosecuted.  Everyone on the shift, including my boss, knew the real story, but nobody objected to it being stated the way it was, it basically protected the new guy. \n The new guy wasn't mean, it's not like people didn't like him, he was just there for the wrong aspect of the job.", "id": "c3c1hd9", "summary": "New guy who was high electrocuted me."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "It's multifaceted. \n Not only does it show the Nazi Party leader with his penis in his hand, it shows him with a  circumcised  penis in his hand. That's why it's drawn with such crude detail. \n During that time period it was uncommon for a European male to be circumcised. The only time it was practiced was if you were Jewish. Under the Nazi Regime, it wasn't uncommon for the military to pull young boys aside and check to see if they were circumcised. If they  were  circumcised it more than likely meant they were Jewish and trying to blend in to not be noticed.  Even during the worst of it, Jewish people continued their traditions, and one of those traditions was circumcision. \n Tossing a graphic penis on a picture of Hitler  seems  to be something like a high-school level joke, but the actual condition of the penis was highlighted on purpose. Intended to create doubt about Hitler and his ideals.  They were trying to highlight the circumcised penis. They did a pretty good job since it was the initial thing I focused on, as did you. \n You're also talking about an era free of photo editing software or the hardware to operate them.  Altering a picture took much, much more effort back then. It probably took hours of work to complete that image and have it look  that  real. \n Due to the difficulty of editing pictures back then and the general understanding/misunderstanding of how it worked, it wasn't odd that photo proof was taken as absolute truth by some. \n Photos were very popular at the time with the media. It was one of the main sources of information from the lines of World War II. Printed media at one time dominated due to the lack of TVs. Think of Marty McFly traveling back to 1955 and commenting about having more than one TV in the house. They were shocked and assumed he was lying. TV was in it's infancy in 1950, 5 years after World War II ended. Moving pictures of what was going on in the nation and with the war [like this one]( were usually shown prior to movies. \n Photography was relied heavily on just like the 24 hour news stations are today. Still photo cameras were about $100, with the inflation rate that was about $1250 dollars for a basic camera, not including film. Not everyone had one. Fewer would know how to operate one, and even fewer than that would potentially believe a photo could be edited. \n We scoff at it today because of things like Reddit. Within minutes of original content pictures, we have people altering pictures to make things look extremely real in some cases. /r/photoshopbattles for example. \n We still use photography as a source of information, that's why we have paparazzi making money following people around with a camera. Look how quickly a picture can be taken out of context and used to send a false message.  It just doesn't carry as much weight anymore because we live in the information age.  Within minutes of the photo being posted, someone ultimately posts a source and the context of the photo is explained. \n It took months and months to learn the true context of a picture during World War II.  In some cases it wasn't explained until  years  later and in other cases the true context was never really explained.", "id": "c9jl2r6", "summary": "the picture makes perfect sense for the message trying to be displayed during World War II."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "You kind of got a rant here. Sorry. \n They're paying a company to a job, that's how capitalism works. \n NASA can't afford to take on everything on their own. Employee pay, benefits, pensions and other costs would consume the majority of their (around) $17 billion dollar budget. (as it stands now) \n It really isn't odd for government agencies to sub-contract employees. It works that way from the federal level all the way down to the local level. \n The United States Federal Government sub contracts defense and military things, like jets, tanks, armor, humvees, a lot of other things too, like caterers.  It's sub-contracted to American companies most of the time. \n Your local government may contract companies to outfit police cars, fire trucks or even contract IT employees or companies to install new/maintain computer/server systems.  The dude you see painting yellow lines on the highway? Yea, he's probably contracted by the state, but doesn't actually work  for  the state. \n Why do they do it? Think of it this way. NASA could have paid an enormous amount of money to employ every person needed for all of it's missions.  Everything from guidance, all the way down to the person making the nuts and bolts for their latest vehicle.  The problem is  that's a lot of people . \n As stated above, you're paying a lot to employees in the form of salary benefits and pensions. The current budget and future budgets would need to be adapted to the addition of more and more employees.  NASA has  a lot  of [missions]( going on. They utilize everything from electronic techs to electrical engineers and anything in between.  High voltage electricians, equipment operators, hell even people that clean the bathrooms. \n So what do they do instead? They put out a Request For Quote (RFQ).  Companies that are capable of performing the task at hand then bid on the job. Usually the lowest bidder wins the contract. I do believe that everyone in their accounting department is contracted out too. They basically only have department heads and some middle management. They don't have to deal with things like labor agreements or other things because that's the job of the private company that won the contract. \n So now instead of paying for benefits, salaries, pensions and other costs, they simply pay the lowest bidder.  In the long run it's cheaper.  It's also much easier to budget using quotes because quotes usually don't change for a set amount of time. \n Off the top of my head, I think NASA only employes about 20,000 people. They contract between 70,000 and 100,000 people through private companies.  Most of the people you see in the control room  do work  for NASA but aren't employed  by  NASA. \n As far as profits? Space X really isn't  that  profitable in the grand scheme of things.  Elon Musk came into the venture with a lot of expendable capital.  Space X needs to cover  their  costs out of that 2 billion that could be potentially earned. But NASA doesn't have to worry about those costs, a certain amount of trips to the ISS was quoted as being a certain amount, and that's all they need to worry about. \n That $2 billion isn't even guaranteed at this point because there are a few other companies competing with Space-X for that contract.  The Dragon is just  one  option.  [Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser]( is pretty bad ass looking if you ask me, it's also a viable option. Space X now needs to compete with Sierra Nevada for that contract. There will be a price battle to be the lowest bidder and everyone wins.  For some reason we only hear about Space-X. The Dragon Capsule and the Falcon 9 are only  one  option in that battle for trips to the ISS.  Probably because Space X spends a lot on marketing too.  If Space-X loses the contract, they lose everything they've worked for up to this point. It's kind of a big gamble. \n To do everything these companies are doing for NASA you would need to employ about 120,000 people. If everyone working for NASA made $60,000 dollars that's $7.2 billion in salaries alone, not to mention benefits, pensions and other costs (worker's comp insurance for example).  You might as well double it at that point and say it's $14 billion for salaries alone. Also good luck finding an electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, programming engineer or high level scientist with any experience that is willing to work for $60k a year. \n Plus you have to buy the machinery the contractors have. Mills, lathes, cranes, lifts all the way down to hand tools. That would be costly.  That $17 billion dollar budget would be gone, with nothing left for missions. \n Profits may be privatized, but work being contracted out creates numerous, good-paying jobs for tens of thousands of people. Something NASA wouldn't be able to do if they hired direct. Their budget would restrict them to employing only a couple-ten thousand people. Those profits are also taxed and some of the money is then basically returned to NASA. \n The Space Shuttles were fun, but they were  expensive . Especially as they were aging, they were becoming more and more costly. Restricting NASA's budget and ability to explore other missions.  They reached a point where they either had to upgrade the shuttles or explore private contractors for simple low earth orbit missions.  They chose the latter.  Trips to the ISS are common play anymore. We're landing rovers on Mars with freaking space cranes, the private industry can handle driving Miss Daisy to the Space Station. \n NASA also contracts a wide spectrum of people. Mostly due to the length of their missions.  Voyager 1 for instance was built in the 70's and launched in '77.  Programming code has kind of changed in the last 40 or so years. The assembly programming language needs to be maintained and updated. (not as much as it once did) So basically NASA needed to find someone who would work in a 40 year old computer language. I once read they have trouble finding people for the older missions because it isn't exactly cutting edge technology. \n They also contract the people that clean their local offices. The spectrum is just huge. \n It just isn't cost effective to employ everyone. My state, Ohio, for example officially employs around 60,000 people.  Now that sounds like a big number until you calculate the fact that we have 88 counties.  That's 682 people per county.  My county has about 60 cities, townships and villages. That's 11 people per city. \n 11 people to run the multiple DMV's in each city, child services, unemployment, toll booths, highway workers, utility management, plus maintaining all the state buildings....not a lot of people.  So they contract. You have highway contracts, HVAC contracts, maintenance contracts, pretty much any contract you can think of. \n Bidding and contract work is how every government agency works.  It just isn't cost effective to employ all the people required to perform the tasks at hand. The cost of employment alone would cripple any state budget.  Hell we cut state workers all the time when budget time rolls around and that's only 60,000 people. I can't imagine how many people would go unemployed if the state actually employed  every single worker  it utilized. \n That's why I scoff any time I hear someone say \"The government isn't supposed to create jobs\".   Really?   They have no choice but to create jobs. It would be financial suicide to keep everyone employed that they needed all the time. They contract as needed, it's why you don't see snow plows driving around in the summer time and you don't see people with lawn mowers in a foot of snow in the winter time. They get seasonal contractors to do those things. \n Private contracting is just how it works.  It's not really something to be mad about.  It saves money and reduces costs through competition.", "id": "c7gghas", "summary": "The government pays a  lot  of private companies to do things. The private sector thrives off government work."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "I'm in Parma. I've never dealt with Time Warner, but we had Cox and switched to AT&T's Uverse 300 package. \n We have all the main local channels, cable television stations and I believe two movie channel packages, Stars and Showtime. It's bundled with our internet and phones. The bill is around $225 a month, with three service boxes. \n I don't watch TV a lot, it's mostly for other members of the household. If the TV is on, it's on the Science Channel for background noise or I am watching Netflix. So I can't give you an honest opinion of the TV service, because I really don't utilize it all that much. I would assume you can get opinions of Showtime and Stars from other people. I am not a sportsball fan either, so I am not sure what sports are readily available. \n I can however tell you about the internet. When it's working, it's glorious. The key phrase in that sentence is  when it's working . After I complained a few months ago they upgraded my service to a 20 down 1 up service. It truly is fast. \n But the service, in my mind, comes with a flaw. The equipment. I have to constantly babysit the equipment. In the 3 years since we've switched, we've had 7 gateways go bad, pole to house line problems and 2 of the TV's boxes go bad. \n The equipment doesn't just go out, it degrades over time. It's never the same thing either. Some times the wireless goes out, but the Ethernet connection works, the TVs work and the phones work. Other times the TVs go out and the phones and internet are fine. Each of the gateways we have had, 2 of 3 services works great. The current one the phones and the TVs were working great, but the internet and wireless aren't working as good as they should be. The last one we had the phones were constantly a problem, but internet, wireless and TVs were great. \n Occasionally the gateway will just shit itself and everything goes out. We're currently on gateway #7 and it requires rebooted every other night because the TV services fails to connect. After the reboot it will come back up. The internet  never  runs at the speed they tell me it is. It's 20 mbps down, but it is usually anywhere from 12-17 depending on the time of day. Which is exactly what happened with Cox, they just didn't offer such high communication rates when I was with them. So rather than being 5 mbps that Cox was promising it was 1-3 depending on the time of day. \n Just like every other cable company, Customer Service is  horrible . The reason I am babysitting gateway #7 so much is because in order to get the gateway replaced, I am probably going to need to spend 2-4 hours on the phone talking to various levels of support. I don't like service people coming to my house. Usually their absolute first desire is to send a tech out. Normally they just replace the gateway, so I've been pushing them to just send me a gateway and let me install it. It's not rocket surgery. \n I've been eyeballing going back to Cox. Just to see if their service has improved at all. They're also very willing to deal to get us to switch to them. I've never dealt with Time Warner, like stated above. \n Normally what I do two or three times a year is call Cox, get a quote, then call AT&T and tell them about it and they match the quote. I think if I continue to have a equipment problem, I am eventually going to just switch rather than threatening to. \n It's also worth nothing that AT&T Uverse is FTTC (Fiber To The Curb). Which basically means you have a hub somewhere close to your house (The curb) and everything is coaxial up to that point. At some point, they're supposed to switch over to FTTP(H) installations. Fiber To The Premises (Home) which means you'll have Fiber optic cable all the way up to your house. If you do go with AT&T be sure to ask which installation you're getting. I can't remember when they were supposed to upgrade/start installing FTTP, I know I read it somewhere, but can't find it. \n Coaxial is a bottleneck for fiber optic. If you're just a casual user of the internet, you won't notice. But if you need a fast connection, you'll notice.", "id": "cc6s5w9", "summary": "I am not immensely impressed with AT&T Uverse and I am not unimpressed with it. It gets a big fat \"meh\"."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "Counties are numbered in Ohio.  There are a total of 88 counties in Ohio, each having it's own number.  The county I live in is 53 I believe, the county directly beneath me is 51. \n Some history, the county's names on the Ohio plates were originally stamped into the plate, later they moved to a sticker of the name of the county and now they rely on a numbering system. When you originally get the new plate, you're issued a county sticker.  When you renew your plates, you simply renew the sticker to the right (the orange one on the plate) and put the new sticker over the existing one.", "id": "c4gcv2p", "summary": "The 83 on his plate represents his county. \n Source: I have been trapped in Ohio for 37 years.  Please, do not send people to rescue me, I have grown to like my surroundings."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "How the fuck did were this company still in business? \n I took a job with a small start-up company. I was a field service technician.  We had to interview with our managers  and  \"the engineer\". I wasn't really impressed with the engineer, but needed the job. When it was offered, I accepted. The pay wasn't horrible and the job consisted of repairs and field sales. Most of the techs were awesome salesmen, but some didn't understand basic electronics or computers. \n When I was trained on their machines, I opened the back panel up and thought \"What school did this engineer go to?\" and basically learned the ass-backwards way they built and repaired the machines. That was the first time I said \"How is this company still in business?\".  The machines were overbuilt and not in a good way. There were way too many fail points where there didn't need to be so many. In some cases I can't even begin to understand what the engineer was thinking when he designed it. I assumed he was drunk. \n After a few months I was writing procedures on how to repair the machines because I could do it faster than any of the other techs. I basically wrote standard operating procedures for every repair and calibration.  These SOPs were distributed to all the techs across the country.  I even went as far as to take pictures of myself doing the repair. So not only was it  written  very basically, there was step by step pictures. \n After I realized I was doing more than what I was being paid for I mentioned it in a phone-meeting with my boss.  I said \"Aren't repair and calibration standard operating procedures something an engineer should be doing?\" \n My boss, who never bullshitted me replied with \"Yea, our engineer's degree is from the school of \"My brother owns the company and I know how to write code and make computers do things\", he isn't really an engineer, he just holds the title.\" That was the second time I asked \"How is this company still in business?\". \n Finally I got into the coding of the program used to operate the machine.  When new code was written, to make the machine do something new or different, the old code was never deleted. It just stayed in the program. Some of the code was for stuff the machine hadn't done in years, but it was still written into the program. \n Now I am no programming guru but I am pretty sure if the old code is obsolete and is never going to be used again, it's probably in your best interest to just remove it from the program.  I wasn't asked to look at the code and never really made mention that I understood any of it. \n When the company rolled out an update, it pushed to the 2,000+ machines across the United States and Canada.  Some machines had to be manually updated, but the majority did not. \n So the latest update rolled out, the program failed to load and you basically had 2,000+ really heavy paperweights. The only thing that would show on the screen was the Windows Home Edition desktop with a Windows Error window displayed. This was the third time I asked myself \"How is this company still in business?\" \n Cue the frantic text message that went out to all of us ten minutes after the update pushed that said \"Conference Call, five minutes, MANDATORY!\" \n During the conference call which there was the explanation that the \"engineer\" was overlooking the program to find the error, my \"friend\" that covered one of the other service areas that I had been to said \"DoctorWhoToYou knows how to code, maybe you could have him look at it!\" \n By this point my boss was calling me instead of the \"engineer\" for technical questions because I was nicer and actually knew what I was talking about.  Within seconds of my friend completing that statement, my boss said \"I am going to call you from my office, we need to talk\". \n I was sent back to my hotel room to look at lines and lines and lines and lines and lines and lines of code on my little personal netbook for an error that wouldn't let the program start.  This was the fourth time I asked myself \"How is this company still in business?\" \n I finally found the error. Called my boss, he called the engineer, then the engineer took credit for finding the error. They pushed a new update and the machines were fine. Techs weren't allowed to call the engineer directly. I have no clue why. But in my 3.5 years with the company, I never directly spoke to the engineer either on the phone or in an e-mail. Evidently he couldn't be bothered with us. There were times my boss was switching back and forth between me and him on the phone. The engineer flat out refused to do conference calls with techs. From the way it sounded from my boss, his thunderous god-like voice would shatter our mere mortal ear drums or something like that. \n Fast forward a few years and quite a few more \"how is this company still in business?\" questions and the \"engineer\" came up with an  outstanding  way to save money. They were going to outsource their field service department to another company. This other company would charge them less than what it cost to employ the 20 or so field techs. \n I was the last tech to be laid off. I was paid to train a group of these techs. While training these techs, the question of \"how is this company still in business?\" turned into a statement of \"this company isn't going to stay in business\". Some of the techs were really good with the computers, but the computers were a  really  small part of the entire machine. There was other aspects that they just didn't get. A good portion of the time, the machine failure had  nothing  to do with the computer. Some of the other techs, well, I am surprised they showed up to their training with pants on. They were computer techs, not electronic techs. I would compare them to something like Geek Squad. \n I got laid off, along with all the other techs.  About three months later I got a panicked call from one of the dispatchers.  My old boss had told him to call me. About 12 machines in my old service area had failed and the techs didn't know how to fix them. They offered me a very, very tiny bit of money to go fix their machines. My response was \"LOL No\". \n Some of the machines in my area were down for quite a while. Eventually the machines disappeared from their locations and lo and behold my question of \"How is this company still in business?\" was answered with \"This company is no longer in business\". \n It's really too bad, at it's peak, when it was being run even remotely well it was making boat loads of money. Then they made bad decision after bad decision and the company ran into the ground.  From what I was told, they lost their major contract due to service problems and that 2,000+ machines went down to 200.  They then decided to fold the company.", "id": "c9fjhbd", "summary": "If you have to ask \"How is this company still in business?\" more than three times, look for another job, because the company isn't going to stay in business."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "Fuck it, she still isn't getting a pony.  You want to know why? \n Chances are my daughter is going to be sexually active and have penises in her mouth (or vaginas, not that there is anything wrong with that) whether i buy her a pony or not. \n But if i  do  buy her the pony, you wanna know what happens?  Ponies live to be 35-40 years old! She still is out putting penises in her mouth (or vaginas, not that there is anything wrong with that) and i am stuck at home with this fucking pony! \n I have to feed the fucking pony, brush the fucking pony, clean up pony shit and keep the pony company for 35-40 years.  Seriously, who is going to buy a used fucking pony?  And do i really want to explain to the person that buys the pony that i bought the pony out of fear of my daughter putting penises in her mouth?(or vaginas, not that there is anything wrong with that).  Too embarrassing, i'll just keep the pony. \n Now i am in my retirement and i can't enjoy it because i am too busy taking care of a fucking \"god i hope my daughter doesn't put penises in her mouth (or vaginas, not that there is anything wrong with that)\" pony. \n Eventually i am going to grow old with this pony, he's going to start needing more and more medical attention as he gets older.  Eventually the pony will start stealing my weed for his \"glaucoma\" the pony and i will get into arguments and then eventually i am going to get shoved into a psychiatric ward/old folk's home because i was caught \"screaming at the pony about stealing weed\" according to my daughter, who is never fucking home anymore because she's busy doing things like putting penises in her mouth (or vaginas, not that there is anything wrong with that). \n Now i am in the psychiatric ward/old folk's home and i begin to miss the pony.  I probably won't be invited to my daughter's wedding because her future husband will be embarrassed of me and doesn't want \"the crazy fucker that yells at ponies\" at his wedding.  I start creating plots to break out of the psychiatric ward/old folk's home to go see the pony.  Only to find out that the pony died 5 years ago.  I couldn't live with that, i grew old with this pony. \n Then i have to deal with the fact that i am alone on the planet without a pony and stuck in and old folk's home/psychiatric ward with a daughter who never visits because she is too busy putting penises in her mouth (or vaginas, not that there is anything wrong with that)", "id": "c2oq31b", "summary": "Ponies are wayyyy too much fucking trouble."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "My mother married my father in the 70's. \n She stayed at home, raised both his children and has been nothing but an incredible wife to him. \n Mom and I busted out a bottle of wine and got tipsy one night and she told me that she's wanted a divorce since the late 1970's. The problem was that my sister and I were already born, she was a housewife with no income, no education and practically no work experience, as she stopped working in her early 20's when they were married. She basically said \"He's got all the money and he has connections\". Which he does and he is very spiteful. \n I asked her why she didn't leave after my sister and I became independent and she said because she didn't know what to do with herself. She finally admitted that she isn't totally unhappy with her life, but she would probably make a different decision given a second chance. Kind of a shock to her son, who was tipsy on wine. \n Just to be clear, she doesn't hate my father, she's just not in love with him. She's been with him for 40+ years, but he is rather controlling and completely dependent on her. He's a very old school \"that's a woman's job\" type person. Doesn't know how to use a clothes washer, dishwasher or how to cook. He's kind of worn her down over the years. She does everything for him, cook, cleans, and even makes snacks for him because he refuses to do it and really has no clue how to do it. It wouldn't take much to learn how to do it, but he refuses. \n To give you an example, my sister, my daughter and my mom had gone on a 2-week trip. Mom made sure everything was washed when she left. When I stopped in to see how my dad was doing, he informed me that he was getting low on clean underwear. When I told him I was going to teach him how to use the clothes washer, he replied with \"that is women's work, I don't need to know how to do it\". I simply replied with \"Welp, you're fucked then\" and walked out of the house. \n My father is not handicapped, he has no physical problems, he can do stairs without a problem, he just flat out refuses to do what he considers \"women's work\".  He tried pulling that bullshit with my daughter and got put in his place right quick. \n I vowed to take care of my parents until their death. As bad as this sounds,  I really hope my father goes first  because he is so dependent on my mother. He won't even make himself a sandwich. He'd starve if I had to take care of him after my mother passed. I don't hate my father either, he's done a lot for me. I love him, he just makes it really hard for me to like him.", "id": "cci412d", "summary": "My mom has wanted a divorce since I was young, she just never followed through with it. She hasn't been in love with my father for decades. Dad is clueless to it. I am the only person my mother has ever confided in about the subject."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "Don't feel bad, i did this with my hand. \n I had just installed a remote start in my truck.  When i finished the electric part of the install, i was leaning over the passenger seat and started the truck with the push button.  The truck started and i was all proud of myself.  In my pride I grabbed the pillar of the passenger door to shut the door.  For some unknown reason, i didn't release the door and slammed my fingers in the truck door and they were stuck. \n Needless to say one of the features on the remote start is that it would auto lock the doors upon starting. \n Left hand slammed in the truck door, truck running, windows rolled up, staring at the keys and my phone sitting on the passenger seat. I saw my 8 year old (at the time) daughter on her scooter go past the house on the sidewalk, i just saw her for a glimpse as the houses here are about 15 feet apart.  I saw her once and screamed her name, she went by the second time and i screamed her name. \n Since my left hand was stuck in the passenger door, i was basically yelling over my left shoulder because i couldn't turn around. She went by a third time and i screamed her name again, she didn't pay attention, finally the fourth time i screamed her name at the top of my lungs. \n She came in the back yard and said \"Why is your hand in the truck door?\".  I said \"Didn't you hear me screaming for you?\" to which she said \"Well i heard you scream the first three times, but i wasn't sure what you were saying.\" \n I started to try to have a conversation with her about coming when i call and finally just said \"You know what? Just go in the house and get the second set of keys, grandma should know where they are at.\"  So she skipped to the back door and went into the house. \n The auto-start timed out after about 15 minutes and about 10 minutes later my mother (her grandmother) walked out the back door to put some trash in the cans.  I screamed \"MOM!\" and she walked over and said \"Why is your hand in the door?\" to which i replied \"My hand has been stuck in the truck door for almost a half hour now\".  Mom says \"Why don't you just unlock the doors?\" so i started to explain the whole thing to her and midway through I was like \"Whatever. What happened to my daughter? I sent her in to get the second set of keys.\" \n My mother replied with \"Well when she came in I asked her if she wanted macaroni and cheese, i made her macaroni and cheese and now she's in watching TV, she didn't say anything about keys.\" \n So now with my one free hand i am rubbing my eyes.  My mom then says \"What should i do?\" to which i responded \"Well maybe we can sit in the back yard and discuss why my fingers had to be amputated after they were stuck in a truck door for an hour, can you go get the second set of keys?\" \n So about a minute later my daughter comes out holding my second set of keys. My face had to be blood red because of my blood pressure skyrocketing, my hand that was stuck in the door was throbbing at this point and my daughter is about three feet away from me when she stops and says \"Does that hurt?\". \"No it feels like kitten kisses and rainbows, gimme the keys!\". \n I couldn't be mad at her because after i unlocked the door and got my hand out, i was opening and closing it and she looks at me and said \"My macaroni and cheese was really good! I am going to go ride my scooter again!\" to which i just responded with \"Wonderful, i love you honey\".  Off she went to ride her scooter in her 8 year old world.", "id": "c3uhm6g", "summary": "Slammed fingers in car door, sent daughter to get keys, daughter got distracted by macaroni and cheese, ended up standing with fingers stuck in the door for almost a half hour. \n Disclaimer: I didn't include all the cuss words that were actually said, i don't want reddit to hate me for swearing at an 8 year old kid and my mother."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "I shall tell you a tale from my life that will make you laugh since I know how much divorce sucks. \n My daughter and I have always played the flinch game. It started when she was around 6. Out of nowhere either she or I will do something to get the other to flinch. We'll be walking or riding in the car and I'll randomly make a fast hand motion to get her to flinch and then yell about how she flinched. I am winning. I get her to flinch more. \n Fast forward to when she's about 11. She was walking past me in the living room. She meant to quickly move her hand in my face to get me to flinch. She ended up hitting me in the face. I jokingly said \"oh it's on\" and started walking towards her. She laughed. She turned to run and tripped over her own feet. She stumbled and ended up running face first into the door knob on the closet door. \n There were tears. I hugged her, held her and iced down her cheek where she hit the door knob. The next morning, when I woke her up for school her eye was black. The very first thought I had was \"No one is going to believe she fell on a door knob, that's the oldest lie in the book.\" \n She got dressed, went to school and didn't even make it through first period before I got a phone call. She was in the principal's office and they wanted to talk to me. So I headed down to the school. She was too young and a bit too naive to understand why she the door knob story wasn't believable to school staff. \n So as her and I were telling the story to the principal, I started talking and moving my hands when I talk as most people do. One of the motions resulted in me holding out my hands in a \"why?\" expression. When I did that, my hand accidentally waved in front of my daughter's face. She instinctively flinched. \n So there I sit, telling the principal that my daughter ran face first into a door knob and I didn't beat her while my daughter flinches every time my hand moves quickly in the general vicinity of her face. Believable,  right? \n The only thing that really saved me was that the principal knew me. I've spent time volunteering at school activities and the principal saw how my daughter and I interacted with each other. It isn't odd to see me playing what some would consider immature games with her. \n You would think after this fiasco we would stop playing the flinch game. Nope. Even this morning when I walked into her room to wake her up for school we were still playing. I thought she was sleeping. I approached her bed to wake her up. When I got about 3 foot away from her she sat straight up and screamed. It scared the shit out of me and she simply laughed and said \"HA HA YOU FLINCHED!\" \n I imagine the flinch game will eventually land me in prison for child abuse but it's seriusly a lot of fun to play it with her. I feel kind of sorry for any boy she decides to date if the game continues on with them.", "id": "c9v0r5h", "summary": "I don't beat my kid, it just looks like I do."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "I live in a pretty big suburb. The income ranges from dirt poor to pretty well off, not rich, but pretty well off. We have three high schools and five or six middle schools and the way they are placed, you end up with a variety of people.  Usually the more well off people control the PTA, the ones that aren't really in touch with how money really works. \n In my specific PTA group, one of the women was upset about ice cream sandwiches being on the menu at her son's school. She claimed they were unhealthy and they shouldn't be offered to students. For some reason, every time she brought up the school menu, she focused directly on the ice cream sandwiches. There was chips, chocolate chip cookies, but she kept hammering on the ice cream sandwiches and how they needed to be removed. \n She started a grassroots campaign to get them removed from the school's menus. Not just her son's school but all of them. The grassroots campaign was complaining about the healthiness of the school's menu.  Not a bad thing  if you think about it. But every time they talked to me, it was \"Did you know about the ice cream sandwiches on the menu?\" \n This concentration on ice cream sandwiches piqued my interest. So I asked my daughter if she knew the boy that belonged to this mother.  She said \"yes\". I started asking about how she knew about him. She said it was because he always bought ice cream sandwiches for himself before his mother started the idea of cleaning up the menu. All the kids knew what happened and the kid was super embarrassed about it. \n So I chocked it up to school-gossip. Then a local news agency \"broke\" the story. Evidently this boy was big. She was struggling to keep his diet regulated. She would send him to school with a packed lunch. Anything she tried and her boy was still big and gaining weight. \n I guess after some guerrilla tactics or water-boarding by the mother the kid finally broke down and said he was eating nothing but ice cream sandwiches at school. Not just one or two either. He was getting other kids to buy him ice cream sandwiches. The lunch ladies wouldn't serve him more than two during a single lunch period. \n She flipped her shit and started campaigning directly against  ice cream sandwiches  under the guise of cleaning up the calorie count and quality of the lunch menus. It was like her personal vendetta to see ice cream sandwiches eradicated from the hands of innocent children. \n She went as far as starting to press charges against the school in criminal court. A school system that struggles to begin with is now being sued because her son can't eat ice cream sandwiches at home and he had to get his fix through a school connection. \n So in order to avoid the lawsuit, they settled. No money transferred hands but schools no longer served ice cream sandwiches. Her mission was complete. Granted the kids can still buy chips, cookies, pastry or an ice cream  bar . Just not an ice cream sandwich. Ice cream sandwiches. Not even  ONCE ! \n I can't tell you how much safer I feel now as a single father. I no longer have to worry about my daughter falling victim to a suspicious and perhaps dangerous ice cream sandwich dealer. I hear they're a very dangerous group, standing behind those stainless steel and tile counters, with their hair-nets and general disgust with every single spoiled brat that rolls through their lunch line. Not one single ice cream sandwich has been served... since the incident. \n It quickly became a big joke, as you can see. The woman was eventually publicly shunned from the PTA, but the damage was done. The PTA has become the Lenny from  Of Mice and Men . We basically give them a kitten and tell them not to kill it. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail. The respect it once had is  long gone  and probably won't return for a while. \n ...and that's the great \"Ice Cream Sandwich\" incident.", "id": "c9rl289", "summary": "Local PTA is incompetent."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "The cops in my area had a really built red, mid 80's, Chevy Camaro with t-tops. \n They patrolled with it for a while but must have caught on to the fact that a Camaro with a weird light bar on the roof that sounds like it belongs at a race track isn't really going to allow you to sneak up on criminals.  You couldn't use it to transport anyone, it was basically a one man vehicle with all the equipment. \n They then used it to patrol the highway.  They must have figured out that just sitting there letting the car idle used more gas than a typical cruiser, because they stopped using it on the highway.  Plus you could see it from space.  A blazing red camaro on the side of the highway with this dysfunctional looking light bar on it and \"P-O-L-I-C-E\" in bright white letters on the rear bumper was easy to spot. By the time you actually passed the camaro sitting on the side of the road, you were  the best driver ever , hands at 10 and 2 and doing  exactly  the speed limit. \n Eventually it became a parade vehicle for the police.  It then became part of the D.A.R.E. program. \n The last I heard, the t-tops started to leak, ruining some of the radio equipment. So they pulled the radio equipment out of it, but never replaced it. The vehicle was costly to maintain because of the parts for a high-horsepower motor and the fact that it absolutely  consumed  gasoline like it was water. It eventually stopped seeing use in the D.A.R.E. program. \n Police levies started to fail and eventually the red-camaro just went away. If you actually talk to the cops that remember it, they say it was a nightmare.  When you build a cruiser out of a sedan, you have room for shotgun mounts, radio hardware and all the other equipment that comes standard in a cop car. When you retrofit a camaro with all of that, I guess it become  really  uncomfortable  really  quickly due to space confinements.  That and since the car was so low to the ground, the cops had trouble getting in and out of the vehicle.....no one wanted to use it. \n The last time I actually saw it, it was sitting in a police-service yard just waiting to die.  The light bar got pulled off of it, the emblems were peeling, all the tires were low/flat and it just looked like a sad camaro.  I don't know what happened to it since then.  I have been tempted to find out though. \n Since the red camaro incident, I don't remember them ever seizing another car for police use. They would probably hear all the citizens of my city unanimously say \"This again?\" in a displeased manner.", "id": "c4hucyw", "summary": "Local police seized a camaro, dumped a bunch of money into it to retrofit it and it wasn't usable as a police car.  It just went away and no one asks questions about it anymore."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "I've taken my daughter's door away. \n It was quite a while ago.  I had a situation where she wasn't talking to me but listening to my ex-wife and her half brothers and sisters. After spending time over there, the ex-wife brainwashed her into believing that I stole her and that the police were protecting me.  Other \"out there\" stories too, like the reason she would have to go back to my house is because the police were on my side, I would just call the cops. \n She got real quiet around me and stopped talking, like we used to talk. When I would approach her, she would clam up and look at me like I was the worst person in the world. \n This lasted and peaked at about 8 months of this.  She had gone over to her mother's house, which I was still required by the state to allow visitation, which I don't have to do anymore. She was there for about two weeks and I called and asked when she was coming home. She snapped at me and for the first time in her 8 year old life, gave me serious attitude. \n She came home, was dropped off by her mother.  She walked into the house, didn't say a word to anyone and then walked upstairs and slammed her door.  Which kind of pissed me off to begin with.  We moved back into my parent's four bedroom house after my divorce and my parents have always been more than awesome to her. \n My mother went up to talk to her, knocked on the door and then started to open it. I was right behind her. My daughter ran up and slammed her body against the door and almost knocked my mother over.  The only reason she didn't go over was because I was behind her. \n I did a quick ten count, walked out to the garage, got a screwdriver and a hammer and walked back to her room. I was whistling as I was removing her door. \"What are you doing with my door?\" was replied to with \"Oh this isn't your door, it's grandma and grandpa's door and since you can't use it right, I have decided to take it away from you\".  I just popped it off the hinges and took it into another room. \n This caused the situation to come to an eruption. About two days after the door came down she started spouting at me about stealing her and keeping her from her mother.  That and all the other lies her mother had told her just came flowing out. \n So I sat down with her, broke out the divorce/custody decree, showed her the court docket and explained to her that the reason I have custody of her is because I  fought  for custody of her, there was no stealing. \n I didn't remove the door because I was worried about what she was doing, I removed it because it was a barrier from communication. As long as she kept that door shut, she didn't have to deal with me. Without the door, I could walk up at anytime and open a discussion. \n At this point I had no option to go all in on the truth about my ex. The ex had gone months without seeing my daughter, the longest was 11 months without picking her up for visitation, she had my daughter convinced that I just wasn't allowing her to talk to her.  So I broke out phone records to show that her mother never even called. \n Tears were shed, the truth was discussed, hugs were had, everything got better. \n To make her feel better, I got her a cell phone at 9 years old and told her to give the number to her mother.  Within about six months of that, her mother took another hiatus from being a mom and stopped calling.  She learned that I was telling the truth. I felt bad because I had been keeping the truth from her, but it was a delicate balance. I didn't know how to breach the subject of what her mother had done to me, how horrible of a person she was without sounding like I was trying to \"win\" my daughter over to \"my side\". So I ended up not covering for her mother, but staying as neutral as possible. \n Eventually over the years, I kept telling her the truth and her mother just kept being her mother.  Through examples my daughter lived through, she couldn't argue that her mother is just, not good. There were some very emotional times, my daughter sitting with her bags packed on the front porch, waiting for mommy, who never showed and never called.  Sitting with a crying 10 year old on the front porch because her mother failed her, yet again, really made me feel like I had failed my daughter.  I felt helpless. \n That was the only year I really had trouble with her, and it was really only about two months of serious trouble.  She's been an awesome kid, otherwise. \n We've had long conversations about her mother since then and she's fully realized that I am not making anything up. She's learned how to deal and cope with her mother, with my help and we keep a line of communication and discussion open about it. \n Our relationship is damn near perfect. We respect each other as human beings and I really never have to punish her.  We have open communication, we discuss  everything  and she's just a really good kid. \n Edit: Wow that got fucking long.", "id": "c8nswu5", "summary": "I took my daughter's door down because it was a barrier to communication, not because i was worried/nosey about what she was doing."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "40 here. \n Grades k-8 were catholic school. Catholic high school until I was asked not tor return after sophomore year, even after paying tuition. \n I was basically asked not to return because I got into a debate with my religion teacher about playing  Stairway to Heaven  backwards and hearing satanic messages. When I started defending Led Zeppelin, evidently that was the straw that broke the camel's back. \n So basically grades k-10 I went to church, every day and fully believed in God and Christianity. I was an alter boy. \n I started public school at 11th grade. Very basic dress code, people were allowed to grow facial hair, people were much friendlier at public school than they were at the private school I went to. \n At 20 I was still Catholic and still attended church. Even while dealing with alcoholism and addiction, I still went to church. Most of the time drunk and high, but I went to church. How I got to this point is a long story, so we're just going to leave it be. \n At 24 I met the daughter of a preacher man. She was an alcoholic and addict just like me. Neither of us saw it at the time, but looking back it was obvious. When I was 26 we got married. Mostly because at some point she got pregnant. I basically quit everything while she was pregnant. \n At 27 I started questioning my faith, by 28 I was divorced and Agnostic, by 30 I had been granted full custody and I decided I was Atheist. I still identify as an Atheist. \n I was born to two slightly right parents. Who eventually started moving more right fiscally and stayed put socially. They weren't in favor of gay rights, any type of socialism they thought Reagan was the greatest president in US History. \n So I pretty much accepted their beliefs and didn't really do any of my own research. Once again, drunk and high, Dad would just tell me how to vote and since I thought I agreed with him, I would follow it. \n Once I hit 30, things started changing a bit more. I had pretty much stopped using completely from 27 to about 35. When I was 30 I was a single dad for about 5 years, working poor and in debt with student loans. What Dad was telling me just wasn't making sense at all anymore. Of course it didn't because Dad cleared 6 figures a year and had a wife to take care of his kids and make him sandwiches. (Dad is very,  very  old school...and not in a good way) \n While I never completely agreed with my parents outlook, I was basically too drunk or high to put the effort into finding stuff out on my own. But once you stop drinking and drugging, you're kind of bored and need to find something to consume your time. My time basically was consumed with reading. \n So I would say I started leaning left at 30 and by 35 I was pretty much left. No more leaning, just left. I still own guns, so I am one of those Liberal gun owner unicorns, but for the most part, every other political view I had shifted firmly left. In shifting my views to the left, and getting into heated debates with my parents, my parents shifted left too. Now they're left leaning for the most part. \n It wasn't a quick process. I made it sound quick, but dealing with my religious beliefs was extremely challenging. I think I had more trouble shifting my religious beliefs than I did my political beliefs. It wasn't easy.", "id": "cr7ix7r", "summary": "From Alter Boy to Atheist. From Right leaning to Left."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "Glass is toxic if you're inhaling glass from things like sandblasters or other devices that use glass beads, the physical effects are reduced lung capacity and more than likely you're going to scar your lungs. \n If i accidentally bite into a piece of glass and spit it out, there are no long lasting effects other than the abrasions and cuts that it may cause.  I didn't do any long term damage to my body, just short term cuts and abrasions that will heal over a short period of time.  So in this instance, glass is not toxic. \n Phenol and Hydrogen Peroxide are the major chemicals used in making glow sticks. \n Phenol is used in the processing and manufacturing of cosmetics and more often then not end up in the final product.  It was used in World War II rather than a firing squad to reduce the amount of ammunition used as the Nazi's supply lines were cut off.  Phenol, in large doses, more than what is found in a glow stick were injected directly into the blood stream of the person being executed. \n Hydrogen peroxide bought over the counter can be used as a mouth rinse.  Anything about a 40% mix of hydrogen peroxide requires special permits and licensing as it is considered extremely volatile when mixed with other substances or when it touches human skin. \n The amount of phenol and hydrogen peroxide in a glow stick is minimal.  If you're lucky, in the small ones, you may have about two ounces of fluid, and that is a estimating on the high side. \n If you chewed glass and drank glow sticks on a daily basis, i am quite sure you're going to have physical issues other than the mental issues of chewing glass and drinking glow sticks.  If you did this on a regular basis, you're more than likely going to develop some type of cancer due to the repeated exposure to the chemicals.  Not just one instance of exposure. \n However  if you accidentally get the glow stick juice on you  once  and rinse it accordingly, you may experience a slight skin rash.  If you accidentally ingest the glow stick juice, you may get anything from an upset stomach to vomiting.  However, the chance of long term effects on your health are minimal, seeing as that you inhale more carcinogens, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other toxins that are the result of combustion from vehicles.  You breath more than you eat glow sticks. \n Now that you have ingested that tiny amount of glow stick juice, it mixes with your saliva and gets diluted, travels down your throat to your stomach where it meets Mr. Stomach Acid, which is capable of digesting razor blades (don't eat razor blades), it's going to travel through your digestive track and meet Mr. Kidneys, where it will be further diluted with other impurities that your body doesn't want.  Eventually you're going to pee out any of the small amounts of hydrogen peroxide and phenol that you ingested, if it made it past Mr. Stomach Acid. \n Now once you've mixed the glow stick solution with bubbles, you have diluted that tiny amount of phenol and hydrogen peroxide with 10-15 ounces of soap.  The chances of anything creating a health risk is low, even if you were to drink the bubbles. \n Normally when you start dealing with long term health effects, it's due to  repeated  exposure to things, not a one time exposure.  The chances of getting cancer from smoking  one  cigarette is minimal to none.  The chances of getting cancer from smoking one cigarette every twenty minutes, greatly increases your chances of getting cancer.  Repeated exposure to cigarette smoke as opposed to minimal one-time exposure ends with very different results. \n Seeing as that most people with common sense don't crack open and drink glow sticks on a regular basis, the other 99.99999% of the population that accidentally exposes themselves to glow stick juice only a few times are more than likely going to be alright.", "id": "c2q7faq", "summary": "Toxicity, long term illness and short term effects are  greatly  reliant on exposure limits and amount of exposure to said toxins."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "I only have about 45 hours into this game, but I see a few problems with this, at least from a pub-server standpoint. \n When all the regulars are on the server, the Commander and the Squad Leaders are pretty efficient at talking. Not all the time, but most of the time. Usually what I do when I start playing is take notice of who all the Squad Leaders are. That way if/when my Squad Leader goes down, I can look to the other Squad Leaders for what to do in a combat area. I usually seek Squad Leaders out, the regulars have the best experience on how to take a point. \n When the regs are on, usually 2-3 of the Squad Leaders are good at what they do. The other 1-2 just really don't know what they're doing. They're usually people that shouldn't have chosen to be a squad leader. Rather than hang back out of fire, they're running in front of an MG or a tank. The good Squad Leaders know that they're not supposed to be in an intense firefight, they should just be moderately protecting an area, while sending their troops forward. \n I've learned that communication and good leadership is the key to winning this game. You can have ten high killing, high scoring players on your team, about ten mediocre players, and the rest are new to the game, and you'll still lose if no one is talking. If everyone is kind of running around, doing their own thing, nothing gets accomplished. (I am talking to you Rifleman in spawn, trying to shoot people 200+meters away) Resources need to be directed. \n I'm a mediocre player. I am not going to kill a ton of enemies, but if you tell me to rush a zone, I'll do my best to get into it and hold my position. Even if I don't have leadership, I'll still repeatedly test areas until I find a spot where I can get into a zone and hopefully hold my position, and if possible make it easier for my teammates to get in. When my Squad Leader isn't talking, I am. Especially if the Squad Leader is making stupid decisions and you can actually see him not knowing what to do.  I am usually telling players running up what they are running into, to stay down, or to throw grenades in a certain direction. I also understand the concept of a flank and can direct players how to set one up if need be.   That's what I know so far, so that's what I stick to . \n If my Squad Leader is active and talking, I'll tell him know what I am seeing. If he's running up, he can tell troops where to go. He'll know what he is running into.  the key to that is  if  my Squad Leader is talking. If he isn't talking, I am telling anyone that can see me what is going on. It is even  more important  that my Squad Leader and Commander are communicating. \n I've been in a few situations so far, where the Commander isn't using his mic, the Squad Leaders aren't using their mic, we're holding a point only to have \"INCOMING ARTILLERY\" flash across my screen, and it's ours. It then decimates all of our players in the zone. Even if I had gotten a simple \"Danger Close Artillery coming in.\" I would have a better chance of getting out of the area. \n While I like the idea of making communications more realistic. I think a couple things would need to be done. One, I'd like to see a command tree set up. So that you have a Commander, Squad Leader, Secondary Squad Leader....so forth so on. As soon as the Primary Squad Leader gets back into combat, he takes on the role again. Label it too, that way the Commander knows he is talking to a tertiary Squad Leader and all the information he is getting isn't coming from his main guy. \n I don't think cutting off communications entirely would be good. Commanders would probably end up getting kicked for accidentally sending artillery to a position where there is a rogue squad with no leader. But it would definitely make their job harder if they were skeptical about the information they were getting. If you're getting information from a level 99 Squad Leader, you can probably trust it. If you get information from a Level 17 Squad Leader, who's entire leadership has been taken out, and he's only one of three or four guys left, you might be a little skeptical. \n Also, only the person holding the binoculars can mark a target. If the secondary or tertiary Squad Leaders can get to the binoculars that the Primary dropped after getting killed, they can mark targets, if not. Sorry. Binoculars should drop when the Squad Leaders go down in this scenario, and whoever picks them up should be able to talk to the Commander. If they can't get to them, communications are cut. \n The second thing that would need to be done is to rework the kick system in the servers for friendly fire kills. I am not sure if it's all servers, or just the server I play in, but if you teamkill enough, you get kicked if not forgiven. If you're going to remove the Commander from the battlefield  and  remove communications from him, you can't punish him for team killing. I  don't think  the votekick function works in the server I play in, so that would probably need fixed in case you get a troll of a Commander. \n One of the reasons I like the game is because communication and teamwork is so vital to the game. I sincerely believe that if a team has a good Commander and good communication with his Squad Leaders, it is possible to beat a team with better players that aren't communicating. Even if you're just sending riflemen in to take a position, and where to focus, that makes a lot of difference. \n I'm a mediocre player like I said. I usually main Rifleman. I consider myself cannon fodder. I am meant to run forward to do a few things. Get inside a zone, kill as many enemies as I can, draw fire away from my teammates running up and in drawing that fire, I am hopefully pointing out enemies to my machine-gunners, snipers and better rifleman who can take them out. \n I score far more points by getting in a zone and defending it or taking it than I do sitting way back and trying to snipe people with a rifle that isn't very accurate outside 100 meters.", "id": "cqlu9v2", "summary": "There should be a rank system for squads and squad leaders. Binoculars should drop. If you remove a Commander from the battlefield, you should rework the teamkill kick/votekick system."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "The Toys R Us by me has the worst customers ever. \n I worked in a retail environment as a contracted service tech. We fixed machines for an office supply store. Our uniform closely matched theirs, our pants were just a different color. I basically wore a black shirt with the company logo on the right side of it, like where Toys R Us name badge would be located on their shirts, and I wore black pants. If people made the mistake in the office supply store, it was one thing, the colors were somewhat close. Toys R Us employees wear blue shirts and khakis (last time I was there) \n I picked up my kid, we ran to Toys R Us for some reason,  probably something for me  and I never changed my clothes, I still had my work clothes on. \n This loud obnoxious woman walked up to me and asked where something was, I kind of chuckled and said \"Why would I know?\". I honestly thought she was joking. She then got all red faced and told me she wanted to see my manager. I laughed and said he was in a different state (my company wasn't based in my state, they were in the south, I was just a regional tech). \n So now she's yelling at me in Toys R Us. When lo and behold, the Toys R Us manager walks up and asks what the problem is. She basically screams that she wants me fired. The manager looks at me and says \"Who are you?\". I just replied with \"She thinks I work here.\" He said \"Well you're fired!\" I laughed and me and my kid walked away. \n The manager caught up to me in another aisle and started joking with me. He apologized and I told him he wasn't the one that should be apologizing.  Even though we both told her I didn't work there , she still insisted I was an employee. \n Blue shirt and khakis =/= black shirt and black pants. \n It happened wherever I went in uniform though. I had people ask me where stuff was in Target, and they wear red shirts and khakis. \n I do have to say that working in a retail environment gave me an all new respect for retail employees.", "id": "c8jo2kd", "summary": "You probably didn't read my shirt either."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "New Vegas is the first role playing game I've played. I am on my first play through. I bought the game through one of Steam's sales because I just couldn't resist the price. It came with a lot, if not all of the DLC. So when it comes to DLC, I'm a little bit to  a lot  stupid. \n The only DLC that was turned on when I started playing was Dead Money. \n Now I am at a level 30 and maxed out on experience. I guess that's the limit for Dead Money, but I read on the internets that if I apply the DLC it adds another 5 possible experience levels. I have a ton of DLC. \n What I am unsure of, and afraid to try is applying the DLC since I've reached level 30. Will I lose anything? Will it affect the game in a negative way? I am not all that excited about starting over, but if I have to I will.", "id": "t3_1mp7mt", "summary": "Fallout Noob. If I turn on DLC  after  I've maxed out my experience levels, will it do bad things to all the progress I've made?"}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "I have been involved in tech for 20+ years. It has been both a profession and a hobby for me. One thing I have always done for cash on the side is computer repair.  All of my business is word of mouth because if I were to actually advertise, I couldn't work a full time job  and  do all the side work. \n I tried doing it as a stand alone business for a while, but there is a lot of competition, so I decided to just keep it as side work. There are  a lot  of people in my area that take advantage of the less technically inclined. I've run across it multiple times.  This is one of those stories. \n About two years ago, I had a voice mail message from a gentleman that was having trouble with what he described as a liquid cooled gaming computer. I made house calls and he somehow got my number from a past customer. I called him back and made an appointment to go to his house. \n I arrived at the house and was kind of concerned because it was somewhat run down for the area. I tried not to judge, re-checked the address, realized it was right and parked my truck. I walked up to the house, all the curtains were pulled shut and it sincerely looked like no one lived there. There was no car in the driveway, there were no signs of life. \n I hesitantly knocked at the door. The curtain in the bay window cracked open just enough for me to see an eye. I then heard \"WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT?\" screamed through the door at me. I replied with \"You talked to me about fixing your computer, we had an appointment set for today.\"  Everything was dead silent for a minute. Then I heard multiple locks unbolt, and a safety chain get removed. \n The door swung open and the guy asked me for identification. I was rather confused, but I handed him my drivers license. He looked at it for a few seconds, held it out and looked at the picture, then looked back at me, then looked back at the picture and then said \"Okay you check out.\"  I am not really sure who I check out with but...okay, I check out. \n I stepped into the house and I was instantly overwhelmed with the smell. The guy immediately gave me a feeling of [Randy Quaid's character]( from \"Not Another Teen Movie\". \n The conversation that took place inside the door was him telling me that his computer was running slow, he couldn't play the games because they failed to start and he couldn't get a hold of the guy that usually worked on his computer. \n I asked him to take me to the computer. When we walked through the house, the guy was \"clearing\" the rooms. He would duck behind the wall, look into the room, then enter the room. He did this through the two rooms we passed through as I followed him. I was already regretting stepping foot in the house. \n We made it into his kitchen. His computer sat at a table, where he had moved a recliner to be more comfortable. The table was packed with food wrappers, cans and overflowing ashtrays. It was a mess. \n The first thing I noticed was that his \"gaming computer\" was conveniently housed in a Compaq Presario case, I can only imagine it was early pentium technology. I never actually got to seriously look at the computer.  Mostly because I was so focused on the teflon line that ran from the side panel of his computer to the kitchen faucet. \n By this time I am  really ,  really  regretting stepping foot in the house. So I ask him to go ahead and boot the computer up for me. I honestly didn't want to touch it. It was dirty, the keyboard looked like he was eating meals off of it and I am pretty sure that there were some fluids attached to it that I didn't want to make contact with. \n \"Okay, I will boot it, but it will take a few minutes\". I watched as he walked over to his kitchen sink, latched a boot to the faucet, put the exit tube into the sink and then turned the cold water on.  He then walked back to the computer and hit the power button. \n I walked over to the sink, the teflon tube ran from the sink, to the computer and then back to the sink to drain. I was now at the point of \"This has to be a joke, there has to be cameras somewhere around here.\" But nope. Guy was serious. \n The computer booted after a while. I told him to go ahead and shut it down, because I needed to look inside.  I seriously needed to look inside, I wanted to see how this water cooled system was plumbed just to satisfy my own curiosity. \n I told him that I needed to pop the side panel off the computer. He was hesitant and said \"I am going to watch you, I want to make sure you're not planting any bugs\". Because you know, I actually care what this guy is doing on his computer. \n I popped the side off the tower, where the teflon lines ran in. The teflon lines ran in, did two great big loops and ran right back out of the case. There was no connections for the tubing on the panel. It was literally two holes drilled, teflon line ran in one hole, did two big loops and then ran right back out the second hole. I could hold the panel and there was no plumbing connected to anything but the panel.  Every time this guy booted his computer, he would turn his sink on, water would run through this system and then discharge back into the sink. \n The first thing I noticed was the liquid cooling plumbing, the second thing I noticed was that his heatsink was packed with tar, dust, tobacco, cat hair and I would imagine other stuff that would give me some incurable disease. The fan in the back of the computer was so packed full of...icky that it wasn't even turning anymore. \n I instinctively blurted out \"This isn't liquid cooled, this isn't even close to liquid cooled, whoever did this scammed you out of money.\"  Evidently  this was the wrong thing to say. The \"guy\" who regularly worked on his computer was his nephew. Regardless of what I knew, his nephew knew more. \n I told him that the teflon tubes were doing absolutely nothing but sweating, pooling water in the bottom of his case and rusting out his case and probably causing some moisture issues inside his computer. I was immediately told I had no clue what I was talking about. His nephew had installed this cooling system for $300 and the computer was running great up until a few days ago. \n After trying to explain to this guy that the computer needed blown out to get rid off all the dust, that his rear fan was dead and definitely needed replaced, that the teflon lines were doing nothing to help cool his computer and telling him that he probably needed a thorough operating system cleaning, he called me a liar. I had met my limit and although \"I can't fix this\" usually isn't in my vocabulary, I said \"I can't fix this.\"  To add insult to injury, the guy then said \"Yea, my nephew said it was a pretty complex system that most techs wouldn't understand.\" \n I then made the mistake of telling the guy that his nephew was screwing him, just in a nicer way.  This was met with instant hostility and I was asked to leave his house. Which I gladly did. I was actually a bit concerned for my safety at this point because I knew I was dealing with someone who was a few cards short of a full deck. \n About a week later my phone rang with his number again. I let it go to voice mail. The message was basically berating me because his nephew had come over and had the computer fixed within 20 minutes and it only cost him $100. \n I shot down to my local PD to talk to them to see if there was anything I could do. But the PD basically told me I was powerless. The guy didn't do anything directly to me and unless he specifically complains about being taken advantage of, they can't do anything. They knew who I was talking about, because they've done welfare checks on him in the past. \n I tried to back track who he got my number from, to let them know his nephew was siphoning money out of him, while ruining his computer, but I couldn't find out how he got my number. Unfortunately everything I tried just ended up in a dead end. While I was there I sincerely wanted to take pictures of it, but I am pretty sure if I whipped out my phone and started taking pictures, this dude would have lost it. \n So as far as I know, to this day, every time this guy boots his computer, it starts with him walking to his sink, turning on the water and then booting his computer. I highly doubt the computer is even actually running anymore. I've worked with elderly people and other questionable people in the past, but no one ever to this point. I now question people when they call me on how they got my number. That way I can at least back track for information a little bit.", "id": "t3_1cfxar", "summary": "Got a call from a client to fix a water cooled computer. \"Water cooled\" ended up being a teflon line running from his kitchen sink faucet, to his computer, the line looped twice inside the case and then ran back to his kitchen sink where it discharged. I was the idiot because I didn't know how to work on such a complex system."}, {"author": "DoctorWhoToYou", "content": "I am at wits end here and I  think  I have found a solution.  Just wanted to check with this community before I get my hopes up.  I have been working on this for about two days now. \n I downloaded both Arma and OA through Steam. I ran them both first, then installed Playwith6 and then obviously installed the DayZ mod. \n I followed the instructions word for word from the installation available in the sidebar. \n I tried to join my friend in a DayZ server and I would start to join, get to the status bar and then my computer would just lock. After a couple attempts I realized it wasn't going to work. \n I assumed it was my video card. That was the piece of hardware that was lacking in my system and needed replaced anyway. So I ordered and installed a new, more powerful video card. \n I uninstalled all my old video drivers, uninstalled DayZ, uninstalled the Arma series and deleted all according files. I then installed everything and tried DayZ again.  Same freaking situation . \n I uninstalled everything  again  and then installed only the Arma series.  I couldn't connect to servers without Playwith6, just using the default Arma II connection process. Both Arma and OA wouldn't let me connect.  Every time I verified my files in Steam, they were corrupt. \n Finally  I disabled Windows Firewall and  AVG antivirus  and tried joining an OA server. I connected and could play. \n I disconnected from that server and then turned Windows Firewall back on, but left AVG off. I could connect to a server.  Turn AVG on, can't connect. \n Has anyone else had issues with Bohemian conflicting with their anti-virus? \n I am frustrated, I just want to play DayZ.  I know my hardware is up to par to at least play on LOW settings. \n Right now I am doing a fresh install. I uninstalled  everything  again and plan on reinstalling everything. I googled what exceptions to add to AVG.  I was just wondering if anyone else had conflicting issues with their anti-virus?  I am hoping this is the problem and I'll be able to scream \"FRIENDLY\" and get killed anyway soon.... \n and since I am rambling because I am frustrated:", "id": "t3_1263g7", "summary": "Has anyone had a conflicting issue with Arma II/Arma II OA and their antivirus or is it only me? Why do my Arma files keep going corrupt? I am pretty sure I have it pinned down to my antivirus (AVG)."}]}
+{"author": "yayapfool", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post The devs are pure badassery and i want to make sure they stay that way! Care to elaborate on that?", "output": "I just wanted to take the time to convey my approval and criticism on the challenge events in Terraria; i am truly impressed by what Terraria has been consistently offering. \n Has anyone noticed how creative they have been with bosses and events? Doesn't it seem like each new addition has been something they seriously put time and thought into- and not just a regurgitation of 'Boss 1' 'Boss 2' 'Event 1' 'Event 2' etc.? \n I would like to seriously stress the value behind this and encourage it to its fullest. \n A challenge event should, in my opinion, be something for a person to aspire to overcome, a goal they can reach through trial and error and a lot of effort. It's not even necessary to have a specific term 'boss' or 'wave event'; mix it up, like with mini-sort-of bosses IN an event like the Frost Moon and Pumpkin Moon. I want to remind the devs to be as creative as possible (like they have been)! \n The most prominent example of creativity with 'boss events' for me was the Brain of Cthulhu. It's hard to convey how pleased i was with that boss; the attack method of disappearing instantly upon being hit to then appear from another angle speeding toward the player was a new level of satisfying game dynamic- fair enough that you could stop the attack quickly, but so challenging in such a simple way, that it kept you on your toes and really concentrated. An important note here is that an extremely satisfying fight was achieved simply through boss movement- this was a great boss fight, even with a simple, single-enemy that was nearly 50% simply trying to contact the player. \n The devs are clearly able to achieve a wonderful challenge event just using ONE aspect of the challenge. Contrasting the Brain of Cthulhu, Duke Fishron focuses mostly on a large number of attack types, again only one single enemy. \n Variables/aspects of a challenge event include varying enemy types, arrival timing of enemies, different attack types, enemy movement patterns, damage-oriented enemies, defense-oriented enemies, the options really are endless and you can be creative with every detail! How about a boss that isn't even one specific entity- like a 'spirit' that possesses portions of the ground, blocks separate and become animated, different blocks having different aspects for that enemy- seriously do whatever you want! \n I want to challenge the devs to put their full attention into each aspect of a challenge event, and every single time they think they have a solid idea, ask how it will stand out from the rest. \n So thank you so much devs, and please keep impressing me! Terraria has been one of the best games i've ever played, hands down. \n If you agree, let it be known! If you have other criticism, help the devs, the game, and the community by speaking your mind!"}], "user_id": "longlamp_16162", "history": [{"author": "yayapfool", "content": "I know where that jokes from, and it's hilariously true, i preach it, but you seem to have missed my point, i know girls who dress in cloths which show off a LOT of skin, especially to the gym, to these girls, it's not slutty, it's gym/work out cloths, they see no problem with it, if the world were full of girls with clean minds only thinking of functionality, it'd be fine, but then there's guys, and a majority of guys (because i am majorly downvoted) like to stare at ass and tits thinking of fucking them in different ways", "id": "c4dnxme", "summary": "girls' eyes: functional gym attire - guys' eyes: i can see more of her ass than usual"}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "I'm not gonna lie..this looks like the most fratty thing i've ever seen and i'm not sure if i'd go for a fraction of the price. \n Was it really actually fun? \n EDIT: \n Too many people jumping the gun and haulin ass down the hate train for me to explain to everyone. If you care, read my other comments in the thread. I'm a good person, have nothing to feel bad for, won't apologize for expressing my opinion, and have done nothing wrong. \n \n They look like assholes to me (90% of people i've met who look/act like  that group of people \n \n I'm allowed to express my opinion (it's always been an opinion based on observation, i even worded it gingerly, i never implied it was fact or set in stone) \n \n My opinion on how they look DOES NOT IMPLY (DOES. NOT. IMPLY.) that i would treat them with negative bias before i know them (as i said before, i'd give them as much of a chance to party with me as the kandi kid in the corner of the rave handing out candy and light shows) \n \n You there, down-voting me: do you realize that i want to be surrounded by a good vibe, not douchery, and that i was asking a serious question so that i may consider bringing more good vibes to this ship in the future, or choosing to avoid the scumbaggery?", "id": "c8ethkr", "summary": "Fuck me for having a legitimate question, right?"}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "I'M SO CLOSE TO ASCENDING THAT MY HAIR IS STEADILY RAISING OFF OF MY HEAD, I CAN LITERALLY FUCKING SMELL GABEN \n GOD THAT'S NICE \n BUT IT'S TORTURE: \n \n MY BROTHER IS GETTING A NEW GRAPHICS CARD AND IS GIVING ME HIS FOR CHRISTMAS \n A FUCKING MSI GTX 770 \n YOU GENEROUS MOTHER FUCKER YOU \n MY PC IS SITTING NEXT TO ME, IT'S ONLY MISSING THAT CARD AND AN OS \n GUESS FUCKING WHAT I DON'T GET AN OS UNTIL CHRISTMAS \n THANKS FUCKING GENEROUS LOVING FAMILY \n MY PC IS SITTING NEXT TO ME, GLORIOUS AS FUCK \n I CAN'T EVEN FINISH ASSEMBLING IT BECAUSE I'M WAITING ON MY BROTHER'S CARD \n EVEN IF I COULD GAIN THE SATISFACTION OF FULL ASSEMBLY, IT WOULD JUST FUCKING STARE ME IN THE FACE \n BECAUSE I HAVE TO WAIT TIL CHRISTMAS FOR THE OS \n BUT \n FUCKING \n WAIT \n I NEVER GO FUCKING ANYWHERE FOR CHRISTMAS \n LITERALLY NEVER, WE ALWAYS HAVE CHRISTMAS TO OURSELVES \n WELL THIS YEAR WE'RE VISITING FAMILY FOR CHRISTMAS", "id": "cmwfxfy", "summary": "I'M FAT AS HELL AND I'VE ASSEMBLED 98% OF A DONUT WORTH $1700 FOR UNDER $1000 BUT I CAN'T EAT IT FOR TWO WEEKS"}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "For years I've considered following through with my love for sport bikes. Soon it may be a serious possibility, so I've started some hard core research, but i would appreciate some insight to a bit of a cunnundrum i have. \n I noticed two bikes that i admire are oddly close in price, but the displacement is fairly different. \n [This Kawasaki]( and [this kawasaki]( are $900 apart. As you can see, the ZX-6R supersport is the cheaper 599cc, while the Ninja 1000 sport bike is at 1043cc. \n I understand the supersport series of bikes have a more aggressive stance, while the sport bikes are [i believe] meant to be more open to commuting; but what other differences are there?", "id": "t3_z6dw7", "summary": "What's the difference between the Kawi ZX-6R and Ninja 1000? Which one is faster? Any insight is appreciated! \n (Side note: I know it makes more sense to compare the Ninja 650 with the ZX-6R, but i chose the Ninja 1000 because it's more similar in price.)"}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "The original thread.]( \n \n [Thanks to Dangerwerx and small update thread.]( \n \n \n Well it is complete! [Here are some pictures! (first 3 pictures were from before the modification)]( \n The gas blowback system used in the KWA MP9 is of course, extremely loud. There's the gas exiting all at once out the barrel and out the chamber, along with metal pieces moving and contacting inside the gun's body. \n The sound that can hardly be affected by modification to is the metal on metal contact and movement inside the gun. The sound that CAN be affected is the gas exiting the gun. \n I used baffles inside chambers, along with different materials of foam and padding to dampen the sound. The gas chamber on the body of the gun has a wide open first area sealed against the gun's body with rubber cement (not cemented to the gun). The gas then goes through foam and baffles inside the PVC pipe tubing before exiting the tubing through small holes drilled in an end cap to the PVC pipe. \n As for the mock suppressor threaded onto the barrel...well it does what it needs. Due to laws regarding fire arms and suppressors, it's a grey area as to whether or not it's legal to make a functioning airsoft suppressor, so no need to possibly explain law-breaking in this thread.", "id": "t3_13rwsj", "summary": "DOES IT WORK!? \n The modifications i made work as well as i could have hoped! There is a very audible difference between the gun with and without my modifications. For one thing; it doesn't hurt your ears to shoot on full-auto while aiming. Lol. \n Of course there is the sound from internal moving metal parts that is hardly dampened by my modifications, so i would sadly have to say that this gun still constitutes as 'loud'. But barely! I'm quite happy with my success, and there's no real down side to my modifications. The stock still folds, the sight is not interfered with, the weight difference is moot, and so is the length difference. I will be definitely not be taking my mods off of this gun for any foreseeable reason! \n Ask me [almost] anything you'd like to know!"}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "I found a track here in Washington state that isn't too far from home, and actually has a teaching program; the problem is, they still say that you should have some experience before going. \n I have never ridden anything more than a dirt-bike for a short while. I do not own a motorcycle and will not have the money to buy one soon. \n How do i get a license - can i get my license using a rented motorcycle? Do i need a license before doing anything on a motorcycle?", "id": "t3_17u33w", "summary": "Where do i begin??"}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "I may be stubborn, but i do my absolute best at removing my bias and thinking with an open mind, and i think i am quite good at it. \n Here's what you'll hate me for. I am seriously considering buying a Kawasaki ZX-6R as my first bike. \n I'm not poor, but i'm not rich. I have a few hobbies, and in those hobbies and as a general rule, i am frugal, basically never wasting my money on something i won't really be happy i payed for. I consider myself extremely articulated and analytical, i think about my decisions a lot before making them (i guess that's why i'm here asking for your advice/opinions). \n I really am setting my sights on getting a ZX-6R, because i don't think i'll want anything more powerful for at least a few years, but i do want something i can get serious with at a track. I've done a tonne of research on bikes of my desired class, and have come to the conclusion that the bike most suited for my needs, while being the best choice financially is the (2009-2012) Kawi ZX6R. \n I have heard some very valid and sound arguments against buying a powerful bike as my first ride (e.g. you can't want to 'be careful' with the power, you need to have already developed the habits to be able to handle the power), but i can't get over how much money and time i would be losing by buying a smaller bike first. My plan if i buy the 6R would be to do my best to avoid casual riding on roadways until i get VERY acquainted with the bike at a track; using the power in a safer place, getting to know how the bike rides, developing habits, etc.", "id": "t3_10y8rp", "summary": "Am i really so stupid for wanting this bike as my first? Discuss my stupidity. (please read the whole post first) \n EDIT: AMA request: someone who started riding on a powerful bike. (for science!) \n EDIT AFTER THREAD DEATH: \n I may be fully convinced into buying a Ninja 300 instead!"}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "I've begun my DAW research, but as i'm sure many of you know, it's not a minor task. I'm sure i have plenty of reading and testing ahead of me before i attempt to cozy into a DAW of my own; but i would sincerely appreciate some guidance, and i feel i can provide some information that makes pointing me in the right direction viable for experienced producers- or noobs who're ahead of me! \n My issue is that there seems to be many totally reasonable choices for DAWs, and i can't seem to even begin narrowing down the selection without using the trial of each and every one! I believe i can convey some of my characteristics to help slim the search. \n I ADORE Infected Mushroom. They've been blowing my mind for years,  near the beginning of my EDM interest, which has been a significant majority of my life. No artist has come even close to Infected Mushroom in my mind, until recently. It's been years since i've been sincerely impressed by music in that special way. I've always sort of casually considered making music, because i knew i had such a deep interest in it, but just recently,  Sophie . \n My point here is this: i finally decided i needed to try my hand in this art LARGELY because of the crazy and abnormal use of sounds these two artists use. Infected Mushroom is still, in my opinion, a better example, but both do things with music that really make me FEEL the word 'wow'. This is what i love, and this is what i need to try to create. Although i know it's exactly where i will be starting, i'm not extremely interested in simple kicks, snares, etc. used to create a standard song (standard means to include works of art by talented artists, i'm not saying simple beats are bad!), or to learn complicated, orchestral compositions of extremely progressive, story-telling trance (maybe some day! I do love it!)- i am looking to fuck sounds up, push the music/sound/noise envelope, and for 90% of the population to make a constipated face when they hear my music (i'm looking at you, Sophie)! \n Maybe i'm being dramatic because it's late and i'm excited to try music production, but now you can at least understand a bit of my character in music style. Now does that help narrow the search for DAWs? Are there a select few DAWs that come to anyone's mind that will allow me to take full control over each sound / portions of sounds i choose in my songs?", "id": "t3_2crmeq", "summary": "I would like some experienced opinions on what DAW seems most suitable for me. To help you help me, here's an analogy: which \"color\" DAW works best with my \"complexion\", if you will: \n \n Not afraid of being a clueless idiot for an extended period of time- i rub my hands together and smile confidently before diving into things that look enormously complicated / near hopeless! \n \n I'm very minimally worried about mixing / DJ-ing- those may come later \n \n I want (maybe i'm being too liberal with the word) FULL control over creating sounds- i adore artists like Infected Mushroom and Sophie, who do things that straight up confuse me! \n \n \n Thank you ahead of time for any input you may have!"}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "So our worlds have Corruption currently. When we go into hard mode, we get the 'opposite' so to speak, of Corruption, The Hallow. With hard mode, we also get three new ores: Cobalt, Mythril, and Adamantite. \n In the 1.2 update, The Crimson is a Corruption counterpart - this world also has counterpart ores to Copper, Iron, and Gold. \n Those are the facts, this is what i'm claiming: \n I say that entering hard mode with a Crimson map will create an 'opposing' biome to The Crimson, along with ores counterpart to Cobalt, Mythril, and Adamantite. \n I also say that, of course, those three counterpart armors, along with other crafting items, will create a counterpart to the Hallow armor. \n Lastly, the Hallow armor and the counterpart armor to Hallow armor will be crafted, along with other items, to create (hopefully VERY largely varying) sets of the best armor in the game. \n There may be information out there reaffirming what i said, or contradicting it. But as far as i know, this has seemed a likely path ever since it was established that The Crimson was a counterpart biome to The Corruption.", "id": "t3_1netep", "summary": "The Crimson is a counterpart biome to The Corruption? I say there will be a counterpart armor to Hallow armor, and an 'end game' armor comprised of the two. \n \n Input? Honestly i don't feel i'm being ground-breaking, this seems very likely at least partially."}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "A while back, two separate times, i lost two worlds entirely to file corruption. Each time respectively, the world was my home and main world which stored everything that i didn't keep on me; one was even before the implementation of player-specific storage like the piggy bank and safe. \n Although the progression through Terraria is wonderful, losing nearly everything i had worked so hard for - both times - brought my feels so low that i had to take a break from the game, it was sad :( \n Recently i've seen a couple posts about players and worlds not working and how to fix them - all my luck to you - all this being said, BACK UP YOUR FILES!!! \n At this point, i have a backup file with two sub-files, a recent file and a not-as-recent one; inside the backup files, i have exact copies of Terraria's files for 'worlds' and 'players'. \n It's quite easy to back up your files after closing Terraria! DO IT!!!", "id": "t3_25hn67", "summary": "BACK UP PLAYER AND WORLD FILES"}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "I love the idea of this game, i LOVE that damage flows through blocks only side-to-side allowing for intricate and intelligent designs, and i love being half-destroyed, compensating for loss of an engine, and still getting kills. That being said, i'm honestly not having very much fun at all until i get about half way through a tier. I'm trying to figure out why. \n There's something very complicated that dampens the fun i get from this game. I really love the potential i see from Robocraft, but something feels...bad. I think it's a mix of a lot of things: \n \n RP is a massive grind. In an alternate universe where i have plentiful RP, i would enjoy my time in each tier, i would use my garage to the fullest all the time, i would have the assets to be creative while grinding for tier points instead of RP. Instead, i do the same thing over and over in one tier just to earn RP to progress through the game, and avoid trying new things because my one vehicle with all my items is very intricate and well-made, and i don't have the RP to just build another. Anyway, it is free to play, this always happens; but then you add the next two points: \n \n So you can lose RP due to damage, okay that seems logical; but it's not just simply a negative number in your list of total earnings, you actually see all the RP you COULD have earned flush down the drain in your garage after it says you earned it, if you died - that feels like shit, and \n \n You can LOSE RP overall! You can actually go into a game to earn RP toward progressing through the game, and actually go BACKWARDS. \n \n \n So here's my input: [My computer must be dying or something, no one can seem to help my issue] The game freezes for me around every other match. Literally about 40% of the time (sometimes not at all, sometimes multiple times. The freezes are long, sometimes the game recovers fully, other times i lose connection to the match, and rarely my computer crashes; this means sometimes i die in that time span with no control, mostly i will lose connection and repair my 'destroyed' (no) craft because of it. For me, this means i essentially cannot progress past tier 4 (maybe 5, i'm trying, lol), because i will undoubtedly lose large sums of RP on a regular basis. Honestly, even if the game was functioning for me correctly, and even if you couldn't actually REgress in terms of RP, the grind is still really hard. Free to play games are like chocolate covered Brussels sprouts for me, it looks so nice, but man it just ends up not being okay with me- PLEASE FREEJAM! Let me BUY Robocraft! I'm not rich enough to be paying you constant money for normal progression rate with GC, but i would LOVE to give you a small sum of money to get the full experience! \n So my major issue is: Don't let players LOSE more RP than they gain!!! And also, let me buy Robocraft and get a standard experience including standard progress rate and cosmetics. \n All of this being said, again, i love the idea behind Robocraft, and i imagine being level 100 with all items unlocked could create immense creativity and fun. \n So how crazy am i? Prove me wrong, give me your opinions, tell me it's in 'alpha' and certain issues have been addressed, etc. I'd just like to hear thoughts outside of my own.", "id": "t3_2gmm2i", "summary": "Losing more RP than you gain is crazy - the RP grind is already harsh - i wish i had an option to just buy a 'fuller' version of Robocraft with standard progression rate (it's so slow it hurts me) and open cosmetics, etc. \n What do YOU think about progressing through this game? Hell, throw out anything you'd like to say about the game, logic-backed criticism is nothing but helpful. \n EDIT: \n The more i think about this, the more it bothers me. In Robocraft's current state, crappy players will literally just NEVER experience even half of the game. Ever. I've been playing video games for essentially my whole life, and to be honest, i'm talented - i pick them up quick, and shooters have been my #1 forever, right in front of racing games - but with my computer screwing me over nearly every other match, it illustrates the absolute fun-sucking struggle many casual players would/do undoubtedly face with this game. Losing more RP than you gain after a match (even spotting and hitting enemies for poop's sake!) should not happen at all. In fact, gaining 0 RP is still plain cruel."}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "I had to vent here a bit, and spread a bit of sportsmanship advice. \n I just left a missile silo match that was...well, odd, though not so odd given Hawken's population as of late. \n The game started off 3 on 3, then an entire team quit, and the game switched one of ours to the opposing side. We laughed at it, and i sat out, as two players went one-on-one in MA- comical, casual, chill. \n The game is almost over when suddenly the match fills up with talented players (names that i recognize, as opposed to names i've never seen), to make the game 4 v 5, our team lacking a player. \n Now, i get butthurt at video games in my own way, but i just bitch at my monitor; i try pretty hard to be friendly and casual with players, i like to make the mood lighthearted and try to diffuse situations where people are raging. \n But the game is closing in, and for the past couple of minutes (after the game became 4 v 5, with no signs of changing), our team is simply getting chased around the map getting slaughtered. Of course we were putting up damn good fights, the whole server was comprised of talented players, but 5 skilled players against 4 is a massive deficit for the 4. The game came to a close, and ever since the server 'filled up', our team hadn't made any progress at all; we ended up losing, apparently just by some very minor amount. The entire enemy team was making a big deal about it, as if something impressive had happened. It wasn't a big deal, but it really bothered me, it just made no sense. The game could've been great fun, but by tipping the scale 20% in favor of the enemy, it ended up being...just disheartening. \n A game is not a good game if one team is cannon fodder and the other is the grim reaper. I'm not going to be offended by a \"gg\" afterwards, but on a realistic level, those matches are not 'good', they're...well, a landslide, a joke. Good games are full servers of adrenaline-fueled intensity where no one was 'going to win' at any given time. \n This match i was in would have been wonderful if the teams were even, the skill of everyone in the server was absolutely pleasing! No one was wearing a team-backpack and no one was latched onto a team's ankle, every fight was intense (if 1 v 1)! On top of that, NO ONE was complaining! Sweet, sweet, friendly silence. But in the end we were all just spent our time running away from a mob bigger than ours. \n I'm writing this to ask you, please don't ruin good games. Always volunteer to switch when your team is +2 (that's another rant entirely! Hah), and always have someone sit out if it's +1 [and it SHOWS]. It's just good sportsmanship.", "id": "t3_2x2ssf", "summary": "Hawken's community of talented players is such a pleasing and widely friendly atmosphere, that i can hardly find anything to complain about!"}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "I'm Glowstick on Steam, Yayapfool official login name. \n Need to bitch about some things first: \n Why the hell can't i get a fully functioning mouse/look on my averagenice laptop after downloading a program (designed for this purpose for this game for this version), reducing resolution a ton, setting FPS to 30, and putting all quality settings on the LOWEST setting?? Why would they make the game so unplayable??? It runs SO smooth no matter WHAT on the HIGHEST quality settings, but can't get the mouse to function worth a damn until the game looks ridiculous- and still can't get the mouse to function. To be fair, it's only non-functioning inside buildings with a lot of stuff, for the most part. \n Second bitch-fest: why does the game crash for no explicable reason and no error notification?? Twice, i've struggled with shite players who barely manage through 2 days of Firestarter, then after the \"toomany\"th try on the final day, the game crashes. \n Just now i lost 2 players at once (hell, maybe they crashed), we were doing alright, but after struggling before, we were doing great stealthing on our own, everything is lined up to be perfect, we're going to stealth the mission and get ALL the loot, 3 skulls, all the weapons, some gold, final day lined up for ALL security boxes AAAAAND my game crashes. \n \n I have SO much butthurt for this game- of course, that means this game is fucking AWESOME enough for me to want it so badly all the time. \n Thanks devs, now please fix.", "id": "t3_29jnrk", "summary": "Wanna friend me on Steam and win? That'd be swell :) \n Disclaimer: I'm tired and real busy with condensed summer o-chem classes, just want to enjoy this game after a long day, tried, ended up getting shafted, emotional post, sorry if i'm being ridiculous."}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "I really want to do everything i can to wear all the gear all the time, for aesthetics, and mostly for safety. You look badass and you won't be skinned alive on public roadways! \n But here's my problem, the really safe gear ( boots  can end up looking a bit excessive to just park your bike, and walk into university class...on second thought, maybe i'd just make a grand entrance... \n I suppose you could bring a backpack and exchange shoes at your destination...in any case:", "id": "t3_10uug8", "summary": "How do you deal with looking like too much of a badass in public? \n EDIT: \n I'm in Washington and it's midnight, who are you people and why don't you sleep?"}, {"author": "yayapfool", "content": "I hadn't played the game in a long time - of course i loved it with all my heart, but my friends and i all slowly stopped getting together and obsessing, due to the completion of every goal visible on the surface of the game (of course building makes goals infinite). \n Well a while back my friend informed me that the update should come out this month, or soon after; i started obsessing so hard again. \n I updated my house with a farm for all the potted plants, and glowing mushrooms. With the help of a moonglow farm, i started spelunking my map and absolutely decimating my Adamantite veins. I now have a full set of every variation of armor in the game. With my decorative dummies waiting to be placed somewhere, i realized that with the new update, i'm going to want to start over in another world (not a new character, but new location). So i have a bunch of materials i know i'm going to want to use in my new house, waiting in some chests in my basement. Lol", "id": "t3_1jbd7y", "summary": "I'm dying over here. I love Terraria, and i know i'm not the only one dying of anticipation, what are you guys doing in Terraria while you wait for the update? Tell me! Show me!?"}]}
+{"author": "batman1285", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post If people are so against abortion they should put down the fucking signs and try to help with preventing unwanted pregnancies or offering adoption services to make it easier for mothers who can't raise a child.", "output": "I think anyone that wants to protest abortion has their right to free speech. People who have graphic images like this on display and shame mothers at abortion clinics are fucking scum. If they truly feel strongly about abortion then they should be educating the public on birth control and doing your best to create options for adoption and programs to help pregnant women. Even after all that being said they still don't have any fucking right to tell another human being what to do with their body,  but if thry aren't out there actively creating a solution or helping with prevention then they are just part of the problem."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Dump that bitch and move forward.  If you thought for a second that \"that bitch\" was directed at your girlfriend then be polite and pick up your testicles. . . tell her you don't see a future and you are going to move on with your life and not waste any more time. \n Edit. Ya there is a run on sentence but I'm not changing it.", "output": "I dated that fucking bitch \"off and on\" for 6 years! 6 yeeeeaaaarrrss! \n The advice I give everyone now that I am happily married and will give my children is to put a 6 month time limit on it and be completely honest with yourself and trust the opinions of friends and family as they know you at your best.  Do not waste any time with someone who doesn't complete you and make your life incredible. If you are with the wrong one you aren't open to find the right one."}], "user_id": "longlamp_8708", "history": [{"author": "batman1285", "content": "Go check out /r/weightroom. There are routines in the FAQ. You will benefit most from a 5x5 style routine like Stronglifts, Starting Strength or Ice Cream Fitness. \n You'll need to eat extra calories and protein so your body has fuel for the workouts and the nutrients to build muscle with. \n Take the time to learn proper form. There are YouTube videos for every exercise imaginable. The best ones for beginners to watch, I would say, are the Buff Dudes tutorials on the Buff Dudes YouTube channel.", "id": "cq4shms", "summary": "Follow a program, Learn proper form, Eat like you want to grow and did I mention Follow a program."}, {"author": "batman1285", "content": "New Zealand is just grass fed, hormone free, gmo free protein basically sold at a premium price for people who care about that. Casein digests slower so some people prefer to take it at night. As for isolate and concentrate a concentrate is the best option in my opinion and really the only protein necessary to be added to your diet. Here is a good writeup on [Whey](", "id": "cpo4nvi", "summary": "Whey Concentrate is the best option. All Whey is a byproduct of cheese making and a fancy label doesn't make it any better for building muscle.  Pick a reasonably priced protein you like the taste of. Myprotein.com gets great reviews  for price, service and quality."}, {"author": "batman1285", "content": "That worrying is completely normal,  then baby is born and you worry about SIDS. As a new dad hanging out with my 4 month daughter I can say that you become stronger as a person from the moment you're expecting. There will be a fire inside you that changes the way you think and makes you protective of the life you're creating. It is awesome! \n Be there to support your lady because pregnancy can hit some women really hard with sickness,  hormone changes and other fun things. Make sure she stays hydrated and eats well when she has an appetite. Help keep her stress levels down with funny movies and tv shows,  foot rubs  and low back massages. \n It's going to feel like a long 8 months while you're going through it,  but you'll be holding your baby before you know it. \n [Eat, Sleep, Poop]( is the only baby book I could actually enjoy reading and it has everything you need to read,  written by a pediatrician who is also a father.  The format and layout is very \"man friendly\" with little", "id": "co3hh1r", "summary": "bubbles everywhere and organized into nice sections. I found a copy at my local library and it gave me all the info I needed to feel confident and competent."}, {"author": "batman1285", "content": "Hit up craigslist, amazon and your local sporting goods stores. Starting a home gym is seriously the best money o have ever spent in my life. If you factor in membership fees, gas, clothes and commuting time buying equipment that will last forever pays for itself really quick and - if you ever decide to move or stop working out - you can resell your stuff easily and take less of a loss than you would have spent on a gym membership.", "id": "cpnl3pv", "summary": "join the /r/homegym masterrace. It's amazing to be able to workout 20 feet from the couch,  in your underwear with no waiting for equipment and the ability to listen to any music you want."}, {"author": "batman1285", "content": "Bodybuilding.com thrives on having a ton of different plans that are all just okay. They hope you'll try one, get bored and go back to search for another. The wiki here has plans that are easier to follow and proven effective by tons of people. I highly recommend checking the wiki here and the FAQ at /r/weightroom. They have all the BEST plans around that have passed the test of thousands of users. My choice for you would be Stronglifts or Ice Cream Fitness. \n As for supplements,  if you are getting enough protein from meat or eggs in your diet, you don't need a protein powder. However,  a whey concentrate is a cost effective way to get protein in your diet without having to cook. Think of it as just food to be taken like a snack. The best way to approach that with parents is that whey is just a food that's produced as a byproduct of cheese making that is dried and flavoured so it can be mixed in a drink. Think \"little miss muffet sat on her tuffet\".... even she ate whey. The other supplement that is cheap and effective is Creatine. At about 15 cents a day for creatine monohydrate its worth buying the cheapest tub of it you can find. It's a flavourless powder that mixes easily with water and what it does is provides energy that is stored by your muscles so they can have a slightly higher strength output when doing work, the one extra rep you can do or the few more pounds you can loft makes it worth while. With taking creatine your muscles, which are already primarily water, will stay more hydrated as well which means they'll be slightly larger amd capable of doing more work. Search creatine on examine.com for more information.  Everybody gets about 1 gram daily from natural sources such as red meat, the positive effects of creatine are maximized when taking 5 grams a day so a little extra supplemented fot cheap goes a long way. Don't buy in to pre workouts,  vitamin packs or BCAA's.... unless you are working a very intense lifting program and have a spot on diet you won't see the benefits of those supplements that should be reserved for athletes trying to get every extra bit out of their training.", "id": "crbucyc", "summary": "the workout plans contained in the fitness sub here are tried, true and better than the hundreds of Bodybuilding.com plans designed to keep you coming back looking for more. Whey and Creatine are good additions to training, but won't make or break a good workout plan if you are eating well."}, {"author": "batman1285", "content": "This is exactly the point of the baby on board sticker. An adult can survive a decent beating in a car accident. An infant that can not support is own neck, doesn't have any muscle tone and is not capable of bracing for impact is it a far higher risk of injury or death in a light collision. People can stop being cocky and complaining about baby on board signs.  They are necessary and should be taken seriously.", "id": "cl3mlft", "summary": "Babies are fragile and hard to make. Take note of the signs and don't drive like a dick."}, {"author": "batman1285", "content": "If you shy away from barbell curls now you're just going to be doing yourself a disservice.  Drag curls are a good exercise, but I think you would be better off to drop a few pounds from your barbell curl and do slow curls with good form and build the strength up. You can change speed or your reps, do 21's or at the bottom of your reps flex your triceps to disengage your biceps between reps. I think this is the video link of how to do that movement but can't double check the video now on mobile. Grow Bigger Biceps - FASTER!! (New Exercise):", "id": "cpruwek", "summary": "don't give up on barbell curls, identify what is holding you back. Strengthen the weakness that is preventing your progress and move forward."}, {"author": "batman1285", "content": "Fitness clubs suck I went to try a club out last year with a free one week pass. They wouldn't let me in the gym to workout without first booking an appointment with a sales rep for the next week so they could give you the high pressure sales pitch and strongarm you into signing up for a membership. I walked out,  never booked an appointment, waited a few months,  bought my own gym equipment and turned my garage into a gym. Best idea ever and cost me less than a 2 year membership.", "id": "cpe0jap", "summary": "if you can, start a homegym"}, {"author": "batman1285", "content": "It doesnt really equate to a specific weight.  The pulleys and blocks all work together and cause changes in resistance. If you are pulling the cable on an angle when doing seated lat pulldowns there is less contact with the cable on the pulley than if you were doing triceps rope pulldowns and pulling directly down. If there are 3 or 4 pulleys between the weight stack and the bar you could probably hang a 25lb plate on the bar and lift a hundred pound stack. [Educational Video!](", "id": "cphfb7d", "summary": "the plates probably weigh around 10lbs, but that doesn't equate to the weight needed to move the stack because of the number of pulleys and angle at which the cable is pulled."}, {"author": "batman1285", "content": "I think the taser is the most in humane tool and that it is abused by law enforcement. The brain and entire fucking body runs on electrical signals. Filling a human with a foreign electrical current is dangerous, invasive and beyond cruel. Police who use this weapon without their lives or the lives of others being in immediate danger are pussies. It is disgusting that a man was tased for this.", "id": "c9blra2", "summary": "tasers are in humane and police who abuse them are cunts"}, {"author": "batman1285", "content": "My opinion is that emotion follows motion. The positives of exercising regularly are so great that you have nothing to lose. \n I have struggled with a handful of different prescription medications (more for anxiety than depression in my case) and found the side effects to be far worse than any benefits. The after effects of endorphin release as well as improved sleep from physicality exerting yourself will help your mind and body. \n There is a big link between Omega 3 fatty acids and reducing depression and also Probiotics - high quality probiotics such as Bio-K brand are excellent. I would suggest trying to add those 2 supplements to your diet and get to exercising as much as you can. I've recently bought another product called EMP by Truehope. It is a vitamin and mineral blend designed specifically to help with brain health and claims to have great benefits for people with depression, anxiety and other mood disorders. I can't endorse it and give my opinion because I haven't started taking it yet, but it may be something worth looking into.", "id": "cp7itn0", "summary": "start exercising now, you have everything to gain.  Try some vitamin supplementation to help give your brain and body what it may be deficient in. \n Edit: side effects, not dude effects"}, {"author": "batman1285", "content": "We've all forgotten them in the car,  left them in our gym bag or they've spent the night at work. Your blender bottle stinks and soap and water isn't doing the trick. The FAQ says vinegar might help, but it doesn't make it fresh as new. \n The best way to clean and deodorize your Blender Bottle is VODKA! After you've washed the chunkies and protein film out shake out the excess water and add an ounce of Vodka to your bottle. Screw on the lid, shake it up and let it sit for a while, then shake it again. Sometimes they're good after a 30 second shake and rinse. Sometimes I leave it over night and shake it a few times to coat the entire bottle and let the clear liquor work its magic. Sometimes a half ounce will do the trick, you can experiment with quantities yourself.", "id": "t3_2tl3zs", "summary": "use 1oz Vodka to kill all the stinky bacteria in your blender bottle."}, {"author": "batman1285", "content": "In an age where kids are being bullied to the point of suicide and young girls have enough of a struggle with body image issues,  why in the hell would any Hollywood producer think it is a good idea to make a movie about the \"designated ugly fat friend\"? When I saw the trailer it blew my mind. There are probably thousands of girls who are now being referred to as \"The Duff\" at their schools and thanks to the writers of this movie they have one more label that will damage their confidence and self image. They've been introduced to another word that will hurt their feelings forever and I think it's completely ignorant and insensitive to create and market a movie with such a theme. Artistic licence is one thing and I am not some tumblr feminist. I am a 28 year old guy who has seen numerous teen suicides result from bullying. I have seen girls become anorexic and I have dated girls with really bad body issues that stem from the way they were treated in their youth. \n Everything this movie that makes it seem okay to put a hurtful label onto somebody is completely wrong and, in my opinion, as bad as a racial slur. Having a nickname for someones appearace that can be used in a hurtfull was is wrong and I'll be doing my part to make sure this movie is a bomb at the box office because I feel we owe it to every adolescent that could be hurt by that term and bullied to the point of suicide because some idiot thought it would be a good idea to encourage labelling an overweight teenage girl a \"designated ugly fat friend\".", "id": "t3_2wfxg6", "summary": "Duff\" everything about a movie that encourages bullying and mistreatment of others based on body appearance. The writers and producers of this terrible idea and go duff themselves."}]}
+{"author": "thebrundlfly", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post I'm not making one, read the thing yourself. ;P", "output": "There are a variety of issues pertaining as to why they can't discount them, here's what I've said in an other post: \n Let's just say you get loss prevented if someone never connected into the game. \n The thing is, it counts the person as reconnected after they hit the reconnect button (most of the time) and get into the loading screen. This situation would encourage people to not try to join the game, because at least if they don't they can't lose lp. If the player did reconnect, and they lost, the whole team would then flame them for making them lose lp. \n And why don't the people that have a person only in game for 2 mins get a loss prevented? The person that isn't there was only gone for an extra 2 minutes the start. Why doesn't that game get a 4v5 loss prevented? They were dc'ed for basically the same amount, it doesn't seem fair does it? Well, it's to stop people from leaving the game after a jungle invade 1st blood or the like. \n Like I said, the systems suggested by many either encourage flaming or encourage leaving the game early.  That  is why there's no easy solution. As was suggested, the only plausable solution (other than the proposed mercy vote or something of the like) involve a heavier punishment, but what everyone wants (and rightly so, it is fair to want it) a loss forgiven. Unfortunately, any systems put into place would be abused. \n Even without this, if someone leaves half way through say (and if the team should get loss prevented for that), what's to stop people from just leaving the game and then losing no lp, or them just taking one for the team and leaving (as people occasionally do in ranked if they get obvious trolls and someone in promo's)? \n Riot's already working on a mercy vote, and that is - in reality - one of the least abusable systems that could be implemented, but these things take time."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post try flashing to just over halfway on the wall. This should (with a couple of practices) let you clear far larger walls than before.", "output": "The trick with this is to flash just over half way across the wall. This will let you clear far greater gaps as (I'm not sure on the coding but this is what I assume happens) your predicted position (i.e. flash's distance towards your mouse) would cause you to end up closer to the other side of the wall, so you flash there. \n Be careful though, if you put your cursor too far away, no matter where on the wall you would have flashed to, you will just hit the wall. Just aim to just past the halfway point on a wall, and if the flash range would get you to that point (without a wall there), you'll make it 100% of the time^^^most ^^^times."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post the change I'm talking about in this case will not cause new players to want to play it (I know no-one that would quit/start playing LoL because of something like jungle camps spawning at 1:55, let along this). Overall, people complaining that a company wants to make money gets about as annoying as the countless \"Singed is OP\" and \"Tear doesn't stack correctly\" posts.", "output": "Ignorant (the user) states they are in it for the money, not the person/community. \n This implies that the changes are not made for the person wanting the change, but for the money the change would bring them. \n This means that the changes are not for the community... the LoL playing community. i.e. the ones already playing. This is more of a QOL (quality of life) change, implemented to assist players that have played for a while, not for people new to the game/genre that don't now the importance of said feature. I am only talking about this change in particular, as different changes have different impacts. Most of the changes that people accuse Riot of being money hungry are QOL changes (e.g. implementing various features such as custom item sets that were already made by the users, but made much more accessible by Riot), and this means that it impacts the pre-existing community far more than a new player base. \n Also, Riot has no issue with things like custom skins, (as long as you aren't using a purchasable skin) even though it's potential revenue loss (more so, at least, than ultimate timer's in chat)."}], "user_id": "longlamp_15281", "history": [{"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "1) Don't get pissy because other people bring up relevant references (martial arts movie is a valid reference), more people WANT Riot to rip stuff off (generally with permission) such as in the case of the ever-requested Bio-Shock Annie, complete with Big daddy Tibbers. \n 2) Wow. A company that wants money, never seen that before. People need to be paid, and that money has to come from somewhere, just because it works in one area doesn't mean it can work in others (WoW subscription for LoL anyone?). If the only reason you have for them being a \"moneywhore\" is that they let you buy stuff for real money as well as in game, and that you can buy cosmetics for only real game money, then you really need to rethink your argument... \n 3) What if I were to tell you that you can also get everything bar skins (unless using SIU) for free in LoL? Yes, it's true. That's what I've done, and even then, you get 400rp free, and that is enough to buy some skins (on special) or even champions! On top of this, in certain countries you can get that card thing to get - wait for it - free RP! (t's and c's apply). \n 4) What if someone were to tell you that  THEY ARE BASED OFF OF FREAKING MYTHOLOGY, (AS ARE MOST/ALL OF SMITES GODS) AND SO THEY COME FROM SIMILAR SOURCES , if you even bothered to research before raging at the apparent copy pasta, you'd realise that [\"The community's been asking for a dragon champion for some time\"]( so it's not a sudden thing... \n edit: 5) \n > [Ao is the family name of the mythological dragon kings]( \n > [Shin can mean many things, one of which is prosperity. It also means a rising storm](", "id": "cc8pwpb", "summary": "haters gunna hate, but you're wrong (Basing \"facts\" on assumptions doesn't work out mate)."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "And a spell sheild and increased self healing + cdr  DON'T  serve different purposes? Banshees = cowl + outrageous + 875. This is practically saying kindlegem = Sight stone because they: \n >literally build from same items \n No. Just no. They have different passives and stats. Just because they give mr and hp (hp is on a lot of defensive items without mana), doesn't make them the same.  They build out of the same items. Whoop do freaking do, so do most boots (let's be honset, the amount of times I've sat on boots and a dagger to make BG's is pretty slim), but they still offer differnet stats. \n Edit: BT and IE serve the same purpose. Damage. Just as SV and BV serve for magic resist, so do BT and IE do damage. The other effects are where they differ. Crit chance/lifesteal and cdr/more hp? Spellsheild/Self heal and higher crit damage/lifesteal + more damage? My examples have the same effect as SV and BV =/, that the 2 items share less than half their stats. Build paths don't matter.", "id": "cbf8e51", "summary": "you can compare kindle to sightstone more effectively that Shiv/PD, and they (sightone/kindle) aren't the same item (passives matter), and having similar build paths doesn't count for much, you still choose whether you want cdr + self heal, or a spell shield."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "If you mean you get more ip the more champions you have, it's a terrible idea (no offence, please read below to see why). \n More champs = more ip to spend on less = more wasted ip \n Less champs = less ip to spend on more = needing more. \n \"Well then Brundlfly, make it so you get more ip the  fewer  champions you have.\" \n This has the negative impact of reverse rewards, you buy more to earn less? It encourages players to sit on tons of ip, buying no champions, because they'll earn less ip, and so you have to balance owning champions out with getting ip. This means that new players are discouraged from buying cheaper champs especially because after buying them all (which can be done in a small period of time), their potential profit is decreased, meaning they are compelled  not  to buy champions. \n It's a nice idea, but practically infeasible (which is why it has to be degraded, sorry) as it's either an inverse reward, in that buying champs loses you potential ip income, or you gain more ip the less you need it, and you then earn less ip the more you need it.", "id": "cblxo3y", "summary": "it's infeasible both ways: \n More champs = more ip: means you get more ip the less you need it (grammar op). \n Less champs = more ip: Means that players spending ip is a negatively reinforced aspect of the game, encouraging players to sit on ridiculous amounts of ip to wait till they can buy all champs in 1 sitting. \n If you have any suggestions to remedy these problems I would be interested to hear them, but I can't think of any. \n Edit: Because my grammar sucks. \n Edit 2:  (This doesn't affect the comments below)  I don't think it should be changed, as both increasing ip for more champs owned and the (not mentioned) increasing for less champs owned both have their own problems."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "You get the same amount of IP you do now. \n >...the more IP you would get from games. \n Same ip != more ip. \n Let me quote the helpful bits. \n >More champs = more ip to spend on less = more wasted ip \n >Less champs = less ip to spend on more = needing more. \n You would gain more ip the less you needed it. Here's a brief example. \n Lets say all champs together cost 200k IP. You start off with a base rate of 100IP per game. After you buy half the champs, you only need 100k IP, but you earn 200IP a game. You get more IP the less you need it, meaning it's harder to get champions early, and easier later on (inverse Time spent => Difficulty system). This would mean it's harder to pick up LoL (and get those early cheap champs), and easier to expand your champion pool later on. \n Whilst I feel this change isn't wholly bad, it further discourages new players from getting into LoL (after having to get past flamers and smurfs), and I feel that it would bring a negative aspect to LoL. \n This means that people who have everything in the game earn more IP per game than people who don't have any. You earn more the less you need. \n Just my thoughts.", "id": "cblybx1", "summary": "Read the bold."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "Firstly, I don't play much Cass, but it seems like building Gunblade/Muramana/and a Sheen item (Lich or Tri) would be more profitable now, as the Muramana will increase ad, and as many champs don't benefit greatly from WotA, getting Gunblade would still provide the spell vamp and better auto farming/trading. The extra ad would provide more incentive to use Lichbane/Tri (depending on full build ad, not sure whether Tri/Lich would provide more damage). Also, the Gunblade active would be nice with her q speed boost, making escaping/chasing easier, and the added lifesteal would help sustain in-lane. I think that having Muramana, Gunblade, Rylais, Sheen Item, Sorc shoes, Dcap would be decent, although that's just my view.", "id": "ca1hnal", "summary": "although it now makes her far more hybrid and close ranged, the extra ad/Gunblade active should help negate some of those issues."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "Probably:]( In all likelihood, or in math, generally >50% chance of happening. \n Possibly means it has even a slightest chance of happening, whereas probably generally means >50% chance of happening, if you want to argue semantics. \n Couldn't find a defintition for Gamebreaking, so I'll give you one.  Literally breaks the game , not loses you the game, not landing a w has less of a chance to lose you a game than accidentally buying 2 pairs of boots (now not possible unless it's teir 2 but still). That extra gold could win you the game. \n I'll say it again  losing a game doesn't make it gamebreaking , if that one kill would have won you the game, you must be so evenly matched in skill in all your lanes that you could have played better and won that way. Gamebreaking generally entails bugsplats and the like. I d/c'ed for 10 minutes because I had to go through 3 bugsplats and 2 random disconnects and only came in when everyone was level ~7. We still won that game because we were better, and as such, you missing 1 w will not lose you that kill: Namely because Darius' passive speeds you up when you have bleed stacks, and I believe w has a lower cdr when you attack someone with multiple bleed stacks. \n I.E. You're wasting that 50 damage if you start a fight with w, considering you'll get q bleed speed, e pull, you could ghost if that 50 damage is worth it, ignite it that kill is worth it, or just get ms from q e and then get w - with a lower cdr = more damage. \n So no, it's not even possibly gamebreaking, and I'm extremely sceptical that you landing 1 w is the win or lose tie breaker of your game. \n Also, note that the only applicable situation this would happen in is if you were chasing with w on. You are a melee champ. If they run you don't stay still for a second, you follow them. \"Oh but they used #generic gap closer here#\", then use ghost. Your bleed speed boost should let you catch up anyway.", "id": "cbgh7ok", "summary": "Gamebreaking != losing you the game. Also, Darius gets ms from bleed, and q/e are longer range than w. Also, don't just toggle w and hope you'll get close to them then? \n Edit: Remember, you're saying that if w reaches max time limit.  Max time limit . You haven't attacked them the whole time this was toggled. If you aren't attacking them, I don't know how you expect to kill them."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "I'm not bent out of shape, I simply suggested that you read the comments on your other post. I don't see the issue with that. \n Also, against reddit rules to ask for upvotes, so creating a post to gain upvotes is pretty close to being against the rules... \n And lastly, the reason your post didn't get many views is because it got out of front page of the new tab because many posts are created because many people repost their posts or of posts saying the exact same thing (I'm looking at you \"RIP Ahri\" posts...).  You re-posting is exactly the reason that your 1st post didn't get that many views , just so you're aware...", "id": "cd2lzfi", "summary": "posting to get upvotes is (I'd imagine) close to against the rules, and because everyone constantly reposts things that have been recently said before, there are many posts that get overlooked."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "This isn't the first, and won't be the last of these posts made, so I'll just copy paste what I said in the most recent one I viewed. \n Let's just say you get loss prevented if someone never connected into the game. \n >The thing is, it counts the person as reconnected after they hit the reconnect button (most of the time) and get into the loading screen. This situation would encourage people to not try to join the game, because at least if they don't they can't lose lp. If the player did reconnect, and they lost, the whole team would then flame them for making them lose lp. \n >And why don't the people that have a person only in game for 2 mins get a loss prevented? The person that isn't there was only gone for an extra 2 minutes the start. Why doesn't that game get a 4v5 loss prevented? They were dc'ed for basically the same amount, it doesn't seem fair does it? Well, it's to stop people from leaving the game after a jungle invade 1st blood or the like. \n >Like I said, the systems suggested by many either encourage flaming or encourage leaving the game early.  That  is why there's no easy solution. As was suggested, the only plausable solution (other than the proposed mercy vote or something of the like) involve a heavier punishment, but what everyone wants (and rightly so, it is fair to want it) a loss forgiven. Unfortunately, any systems put into place would be abused. \n Even without this, if someone leaves half way through say (and if the team should get loss prevented for that), what's to stop people from just leaving the game and then losing no lp, or them just taking one for the team and leaving (as people occasionally do in ranked if they get obvious trolls and someone in promo's)? \n Riot's already working on a mercy vote, and that is - in reality - one of the least abusable systems that could be implemented, but these things take time.", "id": "cckr6cl", "summary": "I'm not making one, read the thing yourself. ;P"}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "TBH, I don't think you know how recording works: the whole game, there has to be recording software running, it will be the same with NBA. Because the whole game has to be recorded, you might as well save the whole game (it's easier and usually better that way). \n Because the question of \"what do  you  constitute as a kill (time frame wise)?\" is such a difficult one, only you can be the judge of when you need to start recording. Because only you can judge when to start the clip/end it, you have to edit the clip itself post-game. \n \"Yeah but NBA let's me record a goal, I just want to record the kill!\" \n And I understand that, but that's just not how it works. In NBA, you can basically assume that anything important happens in the few seconds before you shoot and get the goal. In LoL, how does it know that what you actually wanted to record was a cross map ashe ulti initiate, followed by a team member getting a penta because of that? How does it know when to start recording? \n To sum up all of my posts with a", "id": "cc2edcm", "summary": "The whole game has to be recorded (you can't time travel to start recording 20 seconds ago), so it may as well be saved (unless you have serious memory space issues). You overestimate what a computer can actually do, computers can't tell what constitutes a good kill, and when the clip should have started. Also, just get LoL replay if it's so important to you, but don't expect LoL to turn into NBA, ok, because this proposed software wouldn't work with LoL."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "Why not? 9% crit chance is pretty good, but the thing is, you'll have a hard time last hitting creeps under tower (or in general). Most people take the crit rune because, whilst not completely effective (as many crits go to creeps), it means you start the game with crit chance. \n With 0% crit chance you can never crit, but this 1 crit mark gives you the ability to. The more you add, the less ad you get, but no-one would start with 1 crit rune if you started the game with 1% crit chance. Many take this 1 rune because that way, you have the ability to crit from level 1.", "id": "cc1qsn0", "summary": "it's there so you begin with crit chance. If (without runes) you spawned with 1% crit chance, no-one would take it, all it does is give you the chance to crit from level 1."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "Remember, they are making vision wards cheaper. \n \"Then they take your vision wards!\" - Whilst true, if you are pushed back enough that they can safely clear the ward, you're not pushed so much that you can't escape a gank. \n If you are purple and pinked their tri, you'll either see jungler coming before they clear your ward, or they have to send the support to kill it (which will take ~6 seconds as it takes 5 hits to kill), and you can just win the 2v1 as the support is too far away to react immediately. \n If you pinked your lane brush, and they kill it, you're probably too far pushed to your turret to be ganked, unless you then hard push the other way. \n Cheaper vision wards mean that you can grab more of them early on, and will generally mean that they are meant as a detection system, so that you know the jungler is there, but you won't know when they leave (as they'll kill the ward).", "id": "cd0jkq9", "summary": "They are cheaper, so can be spammed more. They have enough health that the support has to leave them to 1v2 you and your adc, making it easier to get a kill. If the jungler shows up and kills the ward, then you know they're there, and the pink has dont it's job. If the support can safely take the ward while being close you their adc, you're probably pushed to your tower, which warding won't help you with."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "I don't think you quite understand, I wasn't asking what happens, my \"question\" was rhetorical. \n I was using a rhetorical question to summarise the  rest of my post . \n Even reading the last 3 lines would suffice, but in case you don't want to, I'll ask you more directly. \n What is the benefit of this? This discourages reconnecting as (if you lose, which is likely as you are at a disadvantage) you will still lose lp, but your team will lose ip if you reconnect. This discourages even attempting to reconnect, as multiple times I've tried - to no avail - to reconnect, but all that happens is I get half way through the load screen, but it still counts as a reconnect. This means that you still don't get into the game, but now your team will lose lp because you tried. \n This further encourages reporting 'afks', as you now have an arguably legitimate reason for reporting you: you intentionally gambled their ip on the fact that you can still win a game when you don't know the team's skill levels. If you lose, the team could report you because you made the game longer and you lost the team ip. In the event that you do win, then my argument is invalid, but your suggestion doesn't apply to winning, so I haven't taken it into account.", "id": "cblxdtf", "summary": "read the last 2 portions of the text, I really can't summarize it further than that."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "As the others have said, you're smurfing but they're smurfing better. Their skill level > your skill level. They should therefore win the game. \n On my smurf (because I want an account in NA so i can play with my friends that didn't transfer to OCE), I just play bot games/queue with them. Whenever you team up with new people, just help them out, even if they're on the other team, just help them on mistakes and ignore them if they tell you to stfu or something. Your advice can make a big impact. \n Remember to explain simple things only, don't worry about ward placement (just telling them to ward river should be enough). Also, when smurfing, pick the role to suit your team, not that you want to play. Let them learn what characters/lanes they want to, and you need to just fill. You'll lose more games, sure, but you'll help far more people.", "id": "cbh84nx", "summary": "you're smurfing too, they're just better so they should win anyway. Help your team, not just through ganks, but through general advice, and tips. Lastly, just play bot games, it's less painful for both them and yourself."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "You win some you lose some. You're probably going to loose this match up, but you got to play with/against pro players (so it's not like it's the end of the world, if you're meant to be higher elo, you'll get higher elo, if they only had this chance to get it (they won't be able to get it at a later date), they shouldn't be in that elo anyway). \n Also, people trash talk anyway. I've been told to die, for my parents to get cancer, that I suck (a Ryze couldn't even intentionally feed properly so we won the 4v5 and he wanted to 1v1 everyone), and various other names/things. Honestly, who cares?", "id": "cbch3qv", "summary": "you will get to whatever elo you deserve, failing your promo's one time (and getting to play with pro players mind you) is negligible. Also, people will trash talk anyway, whether they are a pro or not, hell some pros (Good guy Voyboy) actually give the players advice, and help them out."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "Yes, regen is more helpful if you're sitting back and being passive (poke champs) whereas health helps with more all-in champs. \n However. \n Wards win fights. Wards are the difference between you getting ganked by the jungler and you running to safety. Wards are the difference to spot that Thresh charging his hook in the brush. Wards are the key to teamfights in the jungle, and they stop them from brush juking. The wards are far better in nearly every situation than regen. Hell, even sitting at your tower, you can still ward tri/blue brush to help prevent ganks. \n Health makes more sense in an engage, but for poke supports (lulu, sona for example) who don't want to engage, but would rather poke, they don't need the extra health as much as they need regen. They get regen because they can utilise it more effectively than raw health. \n >you forgot about the raw stats. \n Trust me I didn't; \n I left out the raw stats because people utilise them differently. Tanks want armor more than damage, and the other way around for adc's. Both stats are good, but the raw stats are dependant on who the champion is as to their overall effectiveness. On a support, you get no money. Period. On a support, gp10 is one of the best things you can get early game, as it enables you to get more gold through the duration of the game. Sightstone means you now spend less on wards, and gives an implied gp10. Every support will get wards, end of story, but not all supports need to rush health or regen.", "id": "cbanj1x", "summary": "I prefer sightsone, as you can spam less spells to conserve your mana more efficiently, but you can't really conserve on wards, you ward or you don't. Wards win games, wards prevent deaths, and you buy a sightstone for the wards, not the health (let's face it, you take the health out of sightstone and supports still buy it, you take the wards out, it becomes more worthless than Eleisa's Miracle). \n Edit: On Goldenglue's stream recently (I believe it was his stream, might have been PL's), the support warded just behind themself when being chased by the adc, and this caused either the adc to accidentally click on the ward and attack it, or attack move caused this (you couldn't see the fight, but it's implied in chat when the adc said \"I clicked on the ward\" and the Annie said \"report support, use of unintended game mechanics\"). This  CLEARLY  shows that wards are by far,  the best  defensive item out there."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "I agree, but disagree with Reflex (to a degree), The reason stun counters is because it stops hp regen and the 100 or whatever mr and armor. You stunning gets rid of armor and mr, not just the heal, and THAT'S the point. That's why it was referred to as medi-tanking. That's why stuns are suggested before ignite/grevious wounds etc. If you stun swain, he sits there laughing as his ulti does damage while his abilities come off of cd. You're argument is the same as damage countering champs. Damage counters adc's and apc's more than Cho. Why? It's their weakness. If you do enough damage to anybody they die, same as your argument with CC. The point is that you stun him to REMOVE HIS KIT.", "id": "ca79evm", "summary": "Other than CC? There's not a lot you can do tbh. How do you counter Mundo? Anything that reduces healing and %max hp damage. Same as Yi, anything that reduces healing, and CC. CC is a counter for him as you DON'T need to CHAIN CC. 0.01 seconds of any CC counters him, not chain CC as you're implying everyone is talking about. \n Also, Morgana refuses your claims."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "You went even against  Draven . Draven is known for not being that great of a team-fighter because he has to catch axes, and you going even against him is just a late game carry going even against early/mid. Going even early as a late game carry is practically winning your lane, just as going even as an early game carry is practically loosing. \n Also, I play a decent amount of Vayne, and so many people lose because they stand next to walls. Please, continue to do so. \n Edit: Buy frozen heart and/or randuins omen and/or Thornmail. FH decreases attack speed, Randuins does the same but reduces their move speed too, and Thornmail eliminates bork passive heal (Remember, it takes  ~30  hits (accounting for bonus damage on top of true) to kill someone with only w passive, so armor does matter). Also, so many people don't realise that you can just play the anti-carries no-one plays any more. Play Irelia, Jax, Kayle (invincibility), and any number of assassins, many of them build bork too (so you're even in items). \n Edit 2: As for champs? Nunu, Rammus, Malphite , anyone that has att speed reduction works well against her. Just try lock her down in a teamfight (Not chase, that's like chasing Singed).", "id": "cb6ixo3", "summary": "too many people complain, not enough people play the  ANTI-CARRIES  or buy the anti-adc items, let's hope that the rise in \"op\" or \"too good\" adc's will bring about more of the champs like Jax, Irelia, and Poppy."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "I agree, but tanks should still be building armor (to tank towers), and zhonyas still helps apc's by blocking damage and letting cooldowns come back up. Also, many adc's (and other champs) will still build GA late game, which will give you some more armor. Vayne is in a really good spot because she has so much manoeuvrability and she can escape most of the teamfight tank-dives onto her. When playing against a Vayne, you really do have to consider her as a more bruiser type champion, as she itemises differently than regular adc's and survives longer. \n The problem is that many of the break-through-the-tank champs aren't played much any more. Vi can just lock-on and knock up Vayne at the start of a teamfight, Malphite (whilst banned a lot) can just dive her, Irelia and Jax can just 1v1 her in most circumstances, Poppy is a god when it comes to assassinations late game (and has rediculous move speed with full items). Rammus is great because he pretty much has to build thornmail anyway, go he can taunt and Vayne will be shut down for a while, while killing herself. \n I do have to agree that she's really good (but that's because I love playing Vayne ;P), but countermeasures are still available (even though they are more important against Vayne than other adcs).", "id": "cb6z192", "summary": "The problem is her kiting ability (meaning she can escape many teamfight dives), and the lack of people playing counters to adc's like Jax and Irelia because people don't see them as good anymore. Best thing you can do is get a long range adc and get a couple of really early jungle ganks so you can sit in front of creeps and deny cs, while trying to freeze lane near your tower. That and build the aforementioned items. Urgot's good too, as he is extremely long ranged (when you hit your abilities), and can swap places so even if he dies, so does Vayne."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "There are various ways to beat proxy Singed, so I'm going to go ahead and list them, feel free to add any you think are important/argue why some don't work (and ask why some work). \n 1) Stacking items. \n 2) Get ganks early. \n 3) Laneswap so support can poke/kill him while adc farms. \n 4) Now for champs that can combat this (pre-lifesteal items): \n \n Amumu, Draven (new passive), Trynd, Aatrox, Heimy (turrets), Mord (sheild), Nunu, Trundle, Warwick, Xin. \nThese are all level 2-4 that can counter this. The list grows so much longer at the ~level 6 or after getting items mark, but I've excluded those. I've allowed levels 2-4 as after you are next to guaranteed to get an early kill (with jungler co-ordination).", "id": "canascq", "summary": "stacking items, early ganks, laneswap, and certain champions counter proxy singed."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "You shouldn't use re-rolls for someone you don't want to play, and this is why so many people say we need more. You use them when you  literally cannot play said champ . E.G. Free week champ that you have never used, or have used and are terrible with (me and Xerath for example). The reason its A R AM is to have random picks, and this is probably why there are so many dodgers, they don't get an OP ARAM champ, use all their re-rolls, and just dodge. \n If you use your re-rolls for champs that you  cannot  play, you should always get better picks. I won't re-roll Udyr if we don't have a tank for example, or I'll reroll Poppy because I suck with her.", "id": "cbkpqbm", "summary": "if you \"don't feel like playing champ x\", then don't play A R AM, because you could get champion x. That, and save re-rolls for champions you cannot play, and you should always have enough re-rolls."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "Iirc, they are giving charm a mini DFG to her e, so landing her e becomes more necessary to her kit to do damage (If I'm wrong about that, someone tell me please). By the looks of these damage graphs, this isn't accounting for said additional damage (Through the line \"Missing charm makes you lose 120-300 damage compared to live ahri.\", which is basically the flat damage it has at the moment), and whilst her damage will presumably still be lowered, it shouldn't be to the extent that these graphs illustrate. \n Also, they're [changing some of the nerfs.](", "id": "ccr7rn1", "summary": "the source for her damage you link has assumedly failed to take into account the %damage amplification charm now deals with, and thusly has provided false statistics for your claims (through no fault of your own) that it's gone too far. Yes, it's a nerf, but not to the extent everyone believes."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "Renting champs I could see working, and it would help convince my friend not to buy only the new champions, then not like them. \n Preloading I think would be a good idea, and I think that this could also alleviate pressure from people trying to run LoL on a toaster. \n I have to say though, the auto levelling/buying I disagree with. This could only be used if you can toggle this in-game, as this both enforces a meta, and would screw up trying to play AP Tristana/fiddle support etc. This would also not synergize well with custom item sets, unless you could toggle which item set you are auto buying from (it auto buys when you're at shop. i.e. when you load into game i.e. goodbye trying to play lane Vi etc, if you forget to make a custom item set for every champion). \n This also has the added effect of, if their ap gets fed while their ad is stomped, reducing the need to get early armor, causing that early Zhonyas to be pretty crap. This could lead to a serious loss of income, as you now have less-useful items. Also, if only have 1545 gold 1st back on an adc, I don't want it to buy me some boots and a pick, I want to wait for a bf sword. If it doesn't auto buy based on cheapest items, what happens when i don't get 1550 on 1st back as adc? I'll still have to buy the items so nothing changed. \n Also, auto leveling spells is a bad idea with champs like Lee Sin/Orianna/most junglers, as there are many ways to level them based on matchups. This would also need the addition of custom level ups (maybe included in a subsection under custom item sets?)", "id": "cbq40v6", "summary": "yes, yes, and only if it's toggle-able, because otherwise it would screw up soooo many games as well as enforce a meta."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "Neither side really has an advantage (I came here thinking this would be another camera POV rant but was pleasantly surprised at more original points). \n Something you have to remember is  \"perfect imbalance\" . \n \n To address bot lane xp issues, you can lane swap top/bot, or your jungler can start red. The xp you miss is very minimal (unless you are extremely unlucky and your creeps focus 1 creep at a time of theirs, killing them quickly), so just playing cautiously for a little can help (or getting an early gank from the jungler you so kindly assisted). \n \n With Dragon/Baron, I don't think either team really gets more control (Blue gets better access to Baron but purple has the safety of the wall. Also, removing even more walls would have serious consequences: Now, when you Baron, if you see the enemy team on one side, you can just run. If they try to cover both entrances, they've just split up. Also, this now means there are 3 locations where you can enter a side of your jungle from (from the river).", "id": "cbzietn", "summary": "Junglers can start at red, you can lane swap, and removing walls just makes Baron/Dragon even safer to do, and would make the jungles less like jungles and more like an open feild."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "That's if you're all standing next to each other and he doesn't hit any minions. You can say the same about a variety of other champs. This is the same logic as playing against Brand/Malz; don't be so damned close to each other. It's also like blitz, the more minions around you, the lower the chance you take damage. Also, (I believe this still works) if any one of the targets becomes untargetable (fizz, zhonya's (maybe minion if you tele/Syndra pick it up etc in that time?) etc.) it completely negates the damage for everyone, and if the damage is 30-40%, then yes, zhonya's-ing is worth it. In a team fight, anyone can do 30-40% of your health. They just wont live usually (Note suicide Karthus). Singed can do the same thing, and live afterwards. Besides, he can only 30-40% squishies (adc, which can lifesteal hp back. Some AP's (but considering most build mr anyway...), and squishy supports (aka, healers)). These people won't be near Yi, unless he dives you. Also, stuns work before he q's you.", "id": "ca51ygc", "summary": "he can only 30-40% squishies that have lifesteal, mr (usually), or have heals. You can kill him before he q's, and many champs can 30-40% the team and they still die. AP Yi is his q, he's now leaving you \"screwed\" to 5v4 the enemy team."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "It depends on who can use it best. Generally mids take it as they use more mana than junglers and spamming skills in lane is far better than junglers having the cdr and mana regen. This is why it's sub-par to have Amumu and Anivia, as they are both quite blue reliant. \n Which is doing better? Is your mid 6/0 while you're 1/3? Your mid should probably take it then, as they have a lesser chance of giving it to the enemy team, and blue will help them snowball. Likewise, if your mid is 1/5, they'll probably have a higher chance of giving the enemy mid blue, and setting them further back, so you should take it. \n If either the jungler  or  mid doesn't use mana, I'll usually tell the one with mana to have it (2nd blue onwards). In the rare cases where neither the jungler nor the mid have mana/don't need blue, if I'm jungler I may give it to top, or just keep it for the xp. \n By first blue I'm assuming you mean after the initial one that most junglers get a leash at (you should 99% of the time, take both of the 1st buffs so you can get level 3), and generally giving the mid 2nd blue is a good move, but make sure you recognize this one thing: \n Who can make better use of it?", "id": "cbgjiqa", "summary": "Who uses it better? Blue is generally given to mid as it helps less for ganks than it does for winning lane. Ultimately, discuss with your team, but bear in mind, make sure that your team gets and keeps blue. \n Edit: Remember too, that creeps are junglers main xp source. Red junglers can still make great use of blue, as it helps them clear faster, and occasionally (such as in the case of Jarvan), may let them get 2 combos off in a gank instead of one. Also remember jungler ultimates, as they're a nice thing to have on a 20% lower cdr."}, {"author": "thebrundlfly", "content": "Bearing in mind that ADC is basically the only role it's arguably acceptable not to buy wards on (at least until later on), it is everyone's job to ward. Yes, the support should have had wards, but it's not solely the supports job to ward. If everyone contributes 1 ward every once in a while, you should still have around 5-6 wards on the map at any given time (baron, dragon, and 3/4 other key places depending on whether you're aggressively pushing or being defensive/stuck in base). \n A support cannot keep the whole map warded at once, because them running from Baron to Dragon every 3 mins is going to get them killed. As a support main, I'll rush sight stone, but when people complain at a lack of vision, it gets annoying.", "id": "cbk0ok5", "summary": "sure Sona could have bought better things, but it's not just the support's job to ward."}]}
+{"author": "buildmonkey", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Learn the Heimlich manoeuvre people. If you knew it once a few years ago then do some revision.", "output": "I have a slightly different and quite recent perspective. About ten days ago at a family dinner my aged mother started choking. Backslaps failed to dislodge whatever it was and she was starting to fall forwards out of her chair so I got behind her and held her up as I desperately tried to remember the first aid that I did twenty years ago. I tried what I thought was the Heimlich manoeuvre but it wasn't having any effect and she was collapsing in my arms. My brother-in-law took over trying to compress her diaphragm whilst I talked to her, gave the ambulance our address and monitored her condition. Her lips were blue, she was unconscious and I thought she was dying, but whatever he was doing started to work, she began to rattle and whistle as something shifted and she started to breath. Consciousness then returned extremely quickly and by the time that first responders and ambulance crew started turning up from all over the place she was claiming that she had just been suffering from a cold. \n Experiences varied. I thought it was thirty seconds at most of loud, panicked activity and shouting, other people say she was unconscious and not breathing for a minute or two. My mum remembers hearing our voices fading but not being sure what we were saying and the clear thought that she was going. She says that she was thinking that she wasn't going to come back, but doesn't seem to have had any fear attached to that or any desire to fight dying. Afterwards she was the calmest, apparently least affected person in the room. In contrast I was soaked in adrenaline, utterly shocked by the physical sensation of my mother going unconscious in my arms. Whilst she had calmly been wondering if she was dying I had been doing and saying twenty different things, some of which were even effective (edit: but to be clear, it was my brother-in-law who saved her). She seemed serene about the whole thing, whilst I checked several times through that night to make sure she was still breathing."}, {"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post GPs, bless them, but they don't know their arse from their elbow on this one. \n EDIT:\n \n Actually DLA was working quite well and was in many ways an effective and mature system. The basic problem was piss poor admin and decision making by the DWP. The benefit itself was fine. So what do they do with PIP? Scrap the bit that worked and make the admin and decision making even worse. Idiots.", "output": "This is a popular and understandable response but unless you are going to train GPs in disability issues and pay them (quite a lot, they're doctors) for the additional time they will need to spend re-interviewing their patients about stuff that they have never asked them about before and all the paperwork then there is no advantage. There are also problems. \n In my 22 years of advising claimants with Disability Living Allowance I have learned at least three things about GPs and DLA. \n \n Most of them, with exceptions, know fuck all about the information that actually counts for an accurate DLA claim. They are good on diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. Usually they know very, very little about how a combination of disabilities affects how their patient manages or otherwise to wipe their arse, cook, get into bed or any of the myriad other daily difficulties. Ask them about care needs and they just write \"Don't know\" or \"None\" on the form. It is not their job to know and not their fault. \n \n Doctors do not like being the gatekeeper to their patients' financial safety. It badly messes with the whole doctor patient relationship thing. They like to be able to help, but don't ask them to be part of a decision that could reduce their patient to penury. It spoils the mood. \n \n Letting the GP decide goes against the original underlying principle of disability benefits, which is that it is not a medical decision. This might seem counterintuitive at first but remember point 1 above. The actual expert in what practical day to day difficulties a disabled person has is the disabled person, followed by any carers or professionals that help them on a regular basis in their own home. Doctors are there to confirm the diagnoses and whether or not the stated level of disability is consistent. This was the express intention of DLA when it came in and we have spent the last two decades pushing back against the bureaucratic need to medicalise the entire claim process. (Edit 2: It is also why at Tribunals they have three people, a doctor, someone who actually has a disability or is a carer, and then a solicitor to hold the ring.)"}], "user_id": "longlamp_9048", "history": [{"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "Just-world hypothesis is one explanation. There is a tendency to believe, more so in some people than in others, that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. \n This can have consequences for how just-world adherents view injustice or hardship. For example if something bad happens to you, on some level it is your fault; \"the unemployed\" somehow deserve it. In order to protect your view of the world as a predictable place where bad things do not happen to you personally it is necessary to perceive some cause or flaw in others for their misfortune so that you can avoid misfortune by being a good person.", "id": "c9261wp", "summary": "superstition"}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "Do you see that white smoke coming out of the back of cars in really cold weather? That's the same stuff as you see with jets. Frozen water. But that's not the scary chemical, because it is true that jets are emitting weather-modifying chemicals. All of them are. And your car. And reddit. We are all part of the conspiracy. Even your mum. \n And, psst, you want to know the really scary part? We are not controlling the weather, we are modifying it. We have no fucking clue what we are doing.", "id": "c745ev8", "summary": "So tell your friend to grow up and stop believing nut-job conspiracies that distract from the real problems that we are causing with emissions."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "What  kitsandkats  so can back them up. From memory the current balance of case law on DLA and addiction is that where the claimant has long term disabilities as a result of that addiction then those can be taken into account but just being pissed is neither here nor there. \n It is true that there is an argument that giving money with someone with an addiction is just supporting their habit and I understand that. Counter arguments include: addicts will always get money from somewhere so if it keeps them stable enough not to mug someone or sell their arse on the street then that is a gain. If it keeps them in contact with services so that they can retain their DLA then that is also a gain. Just as important is that addicts (my dad was an alcoholic who died alone so I have some experience here) are still human beings, they are not \"them\", a special sub-category over there. And they have an illness that is very likely to kill them.", "id": "cciqz5r", "summary": "You are factually incorrect, it is very difficult to be sure what the right thing to do is but addicts are fellow human beings with an illness."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "It isn't a question of 'faking it' - though that is the government agenda. It is quite straight forward. Their definition of 'fit to work' is 'failed to pass our test', and the test has changed, and it is implied that those that failed were shirking. This is broadly equivalent to redefining 'dog' as 'a border collie between the ages of 2 and 5 years old' and claiming that all previous holders of the title 'dog' were just pretending and should go climb a tree, chase birds and live off Whiskas. \n The new test is not in any significant sense linked to a real world assessment of whether someone could hold down a job. If it was intended to assess that then it would have something approaching a practical assessment of mental health issues. It does not. \n Labour brought in a new, much harsher test which many people failed, but it is only now being phased in across all previous Incapacity Benefit claimants, hence the current batch of figures. That was not deemed harsh enough so this lot changed the test last year and made it even harder to pass. Added to this is the DWP's insistence that the private company ATOS do the medical assessments. They are notorious in the trade for the inadequacy of their examinations and [several of their doctors]( have been brought up in front of the GMC for improper conduct. \n Bear in mind that some 40% of appeals against ATOS decisions succeed.", "id": "c41gyy2", "summary": "Tories = mean-spirited lying cunts. Labour = mean-spirited lying cunts. If you lose your claim, get advice and  appeal ."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "OK I am biting, even though I know you are just winding me up. \n No, it is something that you see  some  atheists doing. Defining such a diffuse grouping as atheists by the actions of a few is daft. My next point is not intended as an attack, it is simply a parallel. If it is not acceptable to define all women or all black people by the actions of other people that simply happen to be in the category 'woman' or 'black person' why is it reasonable to do so for atheists or Christians (or in fact any broadly defined grouping) when that behaviour is not part of the basic definition of that category?", "id": "c8tld74", "summary": "can't read maps - not part of the definition \"woman\" \n \n good at sports - not part of the definition \"black person\" \n \n slags off Christians - not part of the definition \"atheist\" \n \n hates teh gays - not part of the definition \"christian\""}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "It does look a bit like a petrol bomb but hard to tell. I was in Parliament Sq from for a few hours until dusk. This pic looks like it was taken in daylight so I was probably somewhere in the general area. Kids were running around and bonfires were being built, so I do not know what he was up to. Whilst I did see one or two people throwing stuff obviously brought for the purpose (in addition to the lightweight placard poles) I saw nothing that gave any appearance of being a petrol bomb and I would have expected police tactics to change from kettling to something a bit more fluid if genuinely dangerous stuff had been heading their way.", "id": "c1cvmxj", "summary": "I was there and it does not fit with what I saw, though kids are brave as well as stupid."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "I mostly agree. I grew up on a pig farm, and as a child sometimes helped to take them to the abbatoir. That is one of the major reasons that I am now veggie. At the large abbatoirs I was not allowed in to the actual slaughtering area but I was appalled and confused at the violent way that the workers handled our animals. It was almost as if they had gone past becoming de-sensitized and were using more aggression than necessary. I have seen similar with crab fishermen sorting crates of catch. Logically to do a long job of sorting I would have expected them to use the least effort neccesary to chuck away unwanted catch, but they were throwing live crabs hard regardless of whether they shattered on the gunwale or went into the sea. This may not be true of all crab fishermen, but it fitted the pattern I used to see at the abbatoir and again it confused me, leaving me wanting nothing to do with it. \n Your point about not seeing the blade is where I disagree with you. At the local butcher's abbatoir the animals were treated with more respect but even in the holding pen, out of sight and sound, they could smell the shit and blood and were terrified. They knew something really bad was coming.", "id": "c0elg0v", "summary": "It doesn't matter how you do it, animals will suffer."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "I have been an adviser for many years and have always prided myself on the help I have given claimants, whilst still testing their conditionality and ensuring they were aware of their responsibilities. Now, however, the emphasis seems to be about persecuting claimants and all advisers are being pressured into referring claimants to the decision-makers in the hope that people will sign off and contribute to the off-flow target. \n >\"At my last review I was told in no uncertain terms that I needed to start identifying more people to refer for sanctioning and, as my next review looms, I feel under pressure now to start picking on people, otherwise I will be put on a performance improvement plan.\"", "id": "c94jkj7", "summary": "Hurt the vulnerable or become one of the vulnerable."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "And the prize for point-missing goes too.... \n FTA: \n >The PCS poster campaign is a response to what the union says is an insensitive management propaganda campaign aimed at people who take time off sick. \n And \n >I was just trying to be nice to the customer. I've been there - customers want to be treated like people, not numbers. Actually so do I. \n This is about how the working culture at the DWP is making things harder for both staff and claimants. How many phone calls have you had to deal with as an employee where the people on the other end sound suicidal? Perhaps it is dozens and you were completely unaffected by it? I sincerely hope not because that would make you a sociopath. How about if you found it massively stressful that someone was in difficulty, you were the only person that could help and you were not allowed to because that would mean departing from the script? Or if you were stressed and tried to sort it out you were labelled a slacker? \n I have spent nearly 2 decades liaising with first the DSS and now the DWP on behalf of people with disabilities and believe me claimants get very close to suicidal, particularly those already with mental health problems. \n It used to be that claimants could ring up a local centre and speak to someone who knew their case. I had a list of names and knew who to call to sort out a problem, whether to make things easier for the DWP or for my clients. Generally things got sorted. Then they moved to call centres. I was in a meeting with local DWP managers about this and he boasted that new staff talking to the public about benefits would have no benefits training so that they could not depart from their scripts. He actually seemed to think this was a good idea. If you phone a call centre twice you will end up talking to different people in Inverness or Exeter who don't know what the last person said. They cannot help you and they have no way to transfer your call to someone who can, but they still have to deal with it to the best of their ability. The system is broken, both for staff and for claimants.", "id": "c5337ca", "summary": "Empathy fail."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "less appeals are required \n As with anything involving DWP policy and statements do not confuse the form of the words with the thing itself. In this case less appeals is a bad thing and will actually cause more delay and worse outcomes. This is also the policy intention. The reason is that DWP decision-making is of exceptionally low quality and they do not want claimants to progress to the appeals stage, which is actually quite effective. Reconsiderations are widely regarded as an automatic rubber stamp endorsement of the refusal decision that is being appealed. It just slows down the claimant's access to an appeal, where they will have an independent hearing and stand a chance. \n I have represented claimants with hundreds of sickness and disability appeals and talk to people who in total have represented with many thousands more. I do not know anyone who would opt for a reconsideration before appeal other than in exceptional circumstances when the DWP might actually have to change their mind. If you want a fair decision, yes or no, on a claim as fast as possible with the least administrative cost to the taxpayer then go straight to appeal. The last time I opted for reconsideration first was for a client of mine who attempted suicide because their ESA was incorrectly cut. He was put on a secure ward and I had consultant and CPN evidence coming out of my ears backing up what had happened. There was no way the DWP were risking refusing his claim at reconsideration. \n The clever part of the new rules is that they appear so reasonable on the surface. What they don't say is that all appeals  already  contained a mandatory DWP reconsideration as part of the process. You put an appeal in and whilst you were writing to doctors for evidence, etc the DWP had another look whilst they were preparing their appeal papers, usually refused the claim and would then pass it on to the Tribunals Service for the appeal. So nothing is actually gained from the point of view of speedy justice by adding yet another mandatory revision onto the front. \n What is gained is all at the DWP's end. They are putting the burden of maintaining a complex admin process onto scared and vulnerable people, often with mental health problems or learning disabilities. They have introduced another layer that will confuse and put off people. Everybody I know reacted the same way to the provision where claimants are supposed to ring up for an explanation of their refusal before asking for reconsideration. We all know that this is the bit where the DWP explain to the claimant that there is no point appealing. After the mandatory  refusal  reconsideration they have introduced a break point where if claimants do not understand that they have to re-appeal, or are unable to re-appeal, or are too scared to re-appeal then the appeal lapses. The previous system of the DWP passing appeals directly to the Tribunal Service worked perfectly so the only reason to change it is to introduce an obstacle.", "id": "cdlrttr", "summary": "IDS is a vicious cunt."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "And there's the rub. The problem is not so much the member of staff but with Boots (or any other contracted prescription-filler) having the power to second guess the GP on moral grounds. \n They have agreed to fill prescriptions and are paid by the government for each prescription. That is their job. They should do it. There is an argument for GPs being able to exercise a moral judgement, which is that they have an idea of the big picture for their patient and how a treatment would affect their whole life. I am not sure if I agree with that argument but at least it is one. All a chemist has is a piece of paper and a face on which to make a snap judgement. They have no idea if, for example, a pregnancy could be very dangerous for the woman.", "id": "c3245si", "summary": "Fuck off and do your job Boots"}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "Quite a narrow view of caring about Gazans. Put the fact that, based on past experience, most of the useful supplies would be blocked to one side. Your solution basically leaves the fate of Gazans in Israeli hands. \n As I understand it the aim was to either: deliver the supplies, a good thing in itself, which would weaken the blockade, allowing more supplies in; or to fail to deliver the supplies, bringing international pressure to bear to weaken the blockade, allowing more supplies in. Either way increased the chances for Gazan reconstruction and self-determination. If you want to call that provocation then so be it. But don't be trying to give anyone the impression that you are one of the people that care about Gazans.", "id": "c0r9ma2", "summary": "I hope not, but this smells like a concern troll to me."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "I'm old. Well old enough. When I was at college the DSS would turn up at the Students Union with little fold out tables to sign us on and make sure we all got our dole/beer money for the summer. \n Sure Tebbit did his \"on your bike\" thing, but the Tories were busy pushing people off dole and onto Invalidity Benefit to get the figures down. Funny how the Tories blame Labour for that stunt. Even more amusing that people believe them.", "id": "cft906u", "summary": "Eeh, it were reet good back then!"}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "Bollocks and my sincere apologies. I had typed out a lengthy explanation detailing why I was very right and you were very wrong and Reddit went into emergency fuckwit mode when I posted and lost it. Can't be arsed to type it all out again so you will have to put up with believing yourself to be right. Oh well. Can't be helped.", "id": "c1xmbo6", "summary": "Reddit get your fucking shit together. SIWOTI and I can't do anything about it! Have to go and read a book now or drink beer or something..."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "What? You just sound disappointed that someone is questioning the call to grab the torches and pitchforks. Why would Social Services risk taking the shitstorm that would follow this decision if they did not feel (rightly or wrongly) that it was necessary? \n >there was a prior court judgement criticising them for not taking these particular children's cultural needs into account. \n Do you know what the cultural needs of these kids are? I don't, so neither of us have any idea of how this compares to your example of Nigerian kids. What we do now know is that a judge said that those cultural needs had previously not been met, which is going to make Social Services very twitchy with the care of these particular kids.", "id": "c7608pa", "summary": "This is more complicated than \"UKIP, booo!\" or \"Social workers, booo!\"."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "To be fair the F-35C (\"cats and flaps\" as they call it in the article) would be much more capable and much simpler. If you are committed to building two fuck-off great carriers (which we are) it is the variant to go for. So why they switched to the F-35B STOVL version, which is intended for small carriers, I really do not know. But to now switch back again once they have already fucked up the carrier design to take the wrong aircraft....", "id": "c3xeuz2", "summary": "Tits. They are complete and utter tits."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "Let's kill this thread right here: \n Edited historical highlights from [here]( \n 2000 BCE- 1500 BCE \n \n The City of Kabul is thought to have been established during this time. \n \n 522 BCE--486 BCE \n \n Darius the Great expands the Achaemenid (Persian) empire to its peak, when it takes most of Afghanistan... \n \n The Persian empire was plagued by constant bitter and bloody tribal revolts from Afghans living in Arachosia (Kandahar, and Quetta) \n \n \n 329-326 BCE \n \n After conquering Persia, Afghanistan is invaded by Alexander the Great. Alexander conquers Afghanistan, but fails to really subdue its people. \n Constant revolts plague Alexander. \n \n 550 AD \n \n Persians reassert control over all of what is now Afghanistan. \n Revolts by various Afghan tribes. \n \n 1520-1579 \n \n Bayazid Roshan (Afghan intellectual) revolts against the power of the Moghul government. Roshan was killed in a battle with the Moghuls in 1579--but his struggle for independence continued. \n \n 1613-1689 \n \n Khushhal Khan Khattak (Afghan warrior-poet) initiates a national uprising against the foreign Moghul government. \n \n 1708 \n \n Mir Wais (forerunner of Afghan independence) makes Kandahar independent of Safavid Persia that had ruled it since 1622. \n \n 1722-- \n \n Mir Wais' son, Mir Mahmud, invades Persia and occupies Isfahan. At the same time, the Durranis revolt, and terminate the Persian occupation of Herat. \n \n 1747-- \n \n Nadir Shah is assassinated, and the Afghans rise once again. Afghans, under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Abdali retake Kandahar, and establish modern Afghanistan \n \n 1773-1793 \n \n Rule of Timur Shah \n Capital of Afghanistan transferred from Kandahar to Kabul because of tribal opposition. \n Constant internal revolts \n \n 1793-1801 \n \n Rule of Zaman Shah \n Constant internal revolts \n (1795) Persians invade Khurasan (province) \n \n 1801-1803 \n \n Rule of Mahmood \n Constant internal revolts \n \n 1803-1809 \n \n Rule of Shah Shujah \n (1805) Persian attack on Herat fails. \n Internal fighting \n \n 1809-1818 \n \n Mahmood returns to the throne. \n War with Persia--indecisive victory \n Internal fighting \n \n 1819-1826 \n \n Sons of Timur Shah struggle for the throne--Civil War--anarchy-- \n Afghans lose Sind permanently \n \n 1832--1833 \n \n Persia moves into Khurasan (province), and threatens Herat. Afghans defend Herat successfully. \n \n 1839-1842 \n \n First Anglo-Afghan War \n ... \n Shah Shuja is installed as a \"puppet king\" by the British. (1839-1842) \n April 1842--Shah Shuja killed by Afghans. \n Afghans passionately continue their struggle against the British. \n Akbar Khan--Afghan hero--victorious against the British. \n In January 1842, out of 16,500 soldiers (and 12,000 dependents) only one survivor, of mixed British-Indian garrison, reaches the fort in Jalalabad, on a stumbling pony. \n \n 1843 \n \n After the annihilation of British troops, Afghanistan once again becomes independent, and the exiled Amir, Dost Mohammad Khan comes back and occupies the royal throne (1843-1863). \n \n 1878 \n \n Start of second Anglo-Afghan War \n The British invade and the Afghans quickly put up a strong resistance. \n \n 1880 \n \n Battle of Maiwand ... July 1880, Afghan woman named Malalai carries the Afghan flag forward after the soldiers carrying the flag were killed by the British. She becomes a heroine for her show of courage and valour... \n The British, shortly after the accession of the new Amir, withdraw from Afghanistan, although they retain the right to handle Afghanistan's foreign relations. \n \n 1921-- \n \n Third Anglo-Afghan war \n Once again, the British are defeated, and Afghanistan gains full control of her foreign affairs. \n Amanullah Khan initiates a series of ambitious efforts at social and political modernization. \n \n 1949-- \n \n Afghanistan's Parliament denounces the Durand Treaty and refuses to recognize the Durand line as a legal boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan. \n Pashtuns in Pashtunistan (Occupied Afghan Land) proclaim an independent Pashtunistan, but their proclamation goes unacknowledged by the world community. \n \n 1955-- \n \n Daoud turns to the Soviet Union (Russia) for military aid. \n The Pashtunistan (occupied Afghan land) issue flares up. \n \n 1961-- \n \n Pakistan and Afghanistan come close to war over Pashtunistan. \n \n 1978-- \n \n Bloody Communist coup: Daoud is killed, Taraki is named President, and Karmal becomes his deputy Prime Minister. Tensions rise... \n Taraki signs treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union. \n June--Afghan guerrilla (Mujahideen) movement is born. \n \n 1979-- \n \n ... \n Soviet Union (Russia) invade in December. \n \n 1988--1989-- \n \n ... \n Soviet Union defeated by Afghanistan, total withdrawal by the Soviets occurred on Feb. 15, 1989... \n Mujahideen continue to fight against Najibullah's regime. \n \n 1992-- \n \n ... \n The Mujahideen form an Islamic State--Islamic Jihad Council--elections. \n Iranian and Pakistani interference increases--more fighting-- \n \n 1995-- \n \n Massive gains by the Taliban. \n Increased Pakistani and Iranian interference. \n \n And so on and so forth.", "id": "c0m27ne", "summary": "Yes we should have learned something by now."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "Christ on a bike. 1812? That is 'Current Affairs.' Edited historical highlights from [here]( Can anyone spot a theme? \n 2000 BCE- 1500 BCE \n \n The City of Kabul is thought to have been established during this time. \n \n 522 BCE--486 BCE \n \n Darius the Great expands the Achaemenid (Persian) empire to its peak, when it takes most of Afghanistan... \n \n The Persian empire was plagued by constant bitter and bloody tribal revolts from Afghans living in Arachosia (Kandahar, and Quetta) \n \n \n 329-326 BCE \n \n After conquering Persia, Afghanistan is invaded by Alexander the Great. Alexander conquers Afghanistan, but fails to really subdue its people. \n Constant revolts plague Alexander. \n \n 550 AD \n \n Persians reassert control over all of what is now Afghanistan. \n Revolts by various Afghan tribes. \n \n 1520-1579 \n \n Bayazid Roshan (Afghan intellectual) revolts against the power of the Moghul government. Roshan was killed in a battle with the Moghuls in 1579--but his struggle for independence continued. \n \n 1613-1689 \n \n Khushhal Khan Khattak (Afghan warrior-poet) initiates a national uprising against the foreign Moghul government. \n \n 1708 \n \n Mir Wais (forerunner of Afghan independence) makes Kandahar independent of Safavid Persia that had ruled it since 1622. \n \n 1722-- \n \n Mir Wais' son, Mir Mahmud, invades Persia and occupies Isfahan. At the same time, the Durranis revolt, and terminate the Persian occupation of Herat. \n \n 1747-- \n \n Nadir Shah is assassinated, and the Afghans rise once again. Afghans, under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Abdali retake Kandahar, and establish modern Afghanistan \n \n 1773-1793 \n \n Rule of Timur Shah \n Capital of Afghanistan transferred from Kandahar to Kabul because of tribal opposition. \n Constant internal revolts \n \n 1793-1801 \n \n Rule of Zaman Shah \n Constant internal revolts \n (1795) Persians invade Khurasan (province) \n \n 1801-1803 \n \n Rule of Mahmood \n Constant internal revolts \n \n 1803-1809 \n \n Rule of Shah Shujah \n (1805) Persian attack on Herat fails. \n Internal fighting \n \n 1809-1818 \n \n Mahmood returns to the throne. \n War with Persia--indecisive victory \n Internal fighting \n \n 1819-1826 \n \n Sons of Timur Shah struggle for the throne--Civil War--anarchy-- \n Afghans lose Sind permanently \n \n 1832--1833 \n \n Persia moves into Khurasan (province), and threatens Herat. Afghans defend Herat successfully. \n \n 1839-1842 \n \n First Anglo-Afghan War \n ... \n Shah Shuja is installed as a \"puppet king\" by the British. (1839-1842) \n April 1842--Shah Shuja killed by Afghans. \n Afghans passionately continue their struggle against the British. \n Akbar Khan--Afghan hero--victorious against the British. \n In January 1842, out of 16,500 soldiers (and 12,000 dependents) only one survivor, of mixed British-Indian garrison, reaches the fort in Jalalabad, on a stumbling pony. \n \n 1843 \n \n After the annihilation of British troops, Afghanistan once again becomes independent, and the exiled Amir, Dost Mohammad Khan comes back and occupies the royal throne (1843-1863). \n \n 1878 \n \n Start of second Anglo-Afghan War \n The British invade and the Afghans quickly put up a strong resistance. \n \n 1880 \n \n Battle of Maiwand ... July 1880, Afghan woman named Malalai carries the Afghan flag forward after the soldiers carrying the flag were killed by the British. She becomes a heroine for her show of courage and valour... \n The British, shortly after the accession of the new Amir, withdraw from Afghanistan, although they retain the right to handle Afghanistan's foreign relations. \n \n 1921-- \n \n Third Anglo-Afghan war \n Once again, the British are defeated, and Afghanistan gains full control of her foreign affairs. \n Amanullah Khan initiates a series of ambitious efforts at social and political modernization. \n \n 1949-- \n \n Afghanistan's Parliament denounces the Durand Treaty and refuses to recognize the Durand line as a legal boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan. \n Pashtuns in Pashtunistan (Occupied Afghan Land) proclaim an independent Pashtunistan, but their proclamation goes unacknowledged by the world community. \n \n 1955-- \n \n Daoud turns to the Soviet Union (Russia) for military aid. \n The Pashtunistan (occupied Afghan land) issue flares up. \n \n 1961-- \n \n Pakistan and Afghanistan come close to war over Pashtunistan. \n \n 1978-- \n \n Bloody Communist coup: Daoud is killed, Taraki is named President, and Karmal becomes his deputy Prime Minister. Tensions rise... \n Taraki signs treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union. \n June--Afghan guerrilla (Mujahideen) movement is born. \n \n 1979-- \n \n ... \n Soviet Union (Russia) invade in December. \n \n 1988--1989-- \n \n ... \n Soviet Union defeated by Afghanistan, total withdrawal by the Soviets occurred on Feb. 15, 1989... \n Mujahideen continue to fight against Najibullah's regime. \n \n 1992-- \n \n ... \n The Mujahideen form an Islamic State--Islamic Jihad Council--elections. \n Iranian and Pakistani interference increases--more fighting-- \n \n 1995-- \n \n Massive gains by the Taliban. \n Increased Pakistani and Iranian interference. \n \n And so on and so forth.", "id": "c0icrpx", "summary": "Do not start a land war in Asia"}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "I do feel sorry for him (within bounds). \n Yes, it is true that intelligent people are vulnerable to cons precisely because they think that they are too clever to be fooled. I do not think that I would be immune to a good con however much I flatter myself about being too smart. \n But: \n Decent people are also extremely reluctant to think that someone could be that astonishingly duplicitous. We are not used to dealing with sociopaths. I have seen this in a previous job, a good team and careers were destroyed because of behaviour that was outside of normal rules of engagement. It took me a long time to accept that the person did not think like I did and that I could not expect any concern for the harm that they might cause as long as they got what they wanted. Managers never accepted it even once the person's deception and lack of basic competence were exposed to them. \n Which leads me onto my second point, con artists have any amount of tactics to make you stop asking the important questions and these will work on a lot of people. (Diversion ahead) Example: It is a bit like religion, which has some of the best tricks in the book. Faith is a defence mechanism whereby you are rewarded precisely because you accept what you are told, and you earn higher bonus points the more challenges to faith that you overcome to retain your faith.", "id": "c6rztk5", "summary": "A decent, intelligent person who likes to think well of other people is fresh meat."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "Can I just fact-check a few things with you as some parts of this confuse me, at least under the benefits system of the last decade or two. I am also going to go on a bit because I feel obliged to try and counteract a lot of the propaganda flying about at the moment that people are starting to believe. So bear with me and strap in. \n >Unfortunately people like you are paying the price of the previous government's attempts to improve the unemployment figures and the current government's heavy handed attempts to remedy that. \n Whatever happened to your friend this was not as a result of national policy under the last Labour or indeed the previous Tory government. I have been in the trade since 1992 so have seen a few things come and go, then come back again. Blaming Labour for this one is a myth being actively pushed by the current Tory government as a fake justification for their cuts. Unofficial local policies might have varied so I am not saying it did not happen to your friend, but the right people should be blamed. The last time a government actively pushed people off dole onto sickness was under Thatcher. Peter Lilley (a Tory, Major government) reversed this policy back in 1995 with the introduction of Incapacity Benefit to get people off sick and back on the dole (sorry, into gainful employment). Labour actually made the regime a lot tougher with Employment & Support Allowance. The problem with both of these benefits was that they assumed that most people off sick were wagging it and they ran into a hard wall of genuine claimants that they were not expecting. I have spent a large part of the last two decades dealing with the damage to disabled people caused by this push, which has come from both parties. \n Was his 'disability allowance' called Disability Living Allowance or Incapacity Benefit/Employment & Support Allowance? It matters because only DLA is a label for disability. It is also only for long-term disability, not short to medium term injuries, and is an 'in-work' benefit so he would not have automatically come off 'unemployment benefit' (Jobseekers?) and could in fact have claimed it if he had a job. If this happened after 1995 it sounds like he actually got either Incapacity Benefit, or more recently, Employment & Support Allowance. These are 'sickness' benefits designed for incapacity for work, not 'disability' benefits, and would automatically have taken him off Jobseekers as you say. There has been a lot of deliberate muddying of the waters on the distinction by the  government, allowing the long-term disabled to be tarred with the same brush as feckless scroungers pulling a sickie in the run up to the current round of cuts. \n The problem is that he would have needed a GP sick note to claim and would eventually have had to attend a DWP medical. It is very plausible that his GP would have signed him off for a few weeks to be helpful and to allow recuperation time, but he would never have scored the needed 15 points on the DWP medical with just a shoulder injury so he could not have claimed long-term without some other problem. How long was he actually on 'disability allowance' for? My bet is that it was a local coincidence of helpful advisers at the Job Centre and GPs thinking that they were being helpful and that he was signed off for a few months at most. Does this seem to match what happened? Fuck knows but I never met that many helpful advisers myself in our local Job Centres. Most of the front desk staff would never have offered any useful advice and most of the back room staff seemed very keen to get people off sickness benefits as fast as they could possibly do it.", "id": "c3k3atv", "summary": "Data is not the plural of anecdote and we are operating in a propaganda-rich environment so be careful of extrapolating, but it is plausible that your friend and his friend were signed off sick for a few weeks or months when perhaps they should not have been. This did not make them officially 'disabled'."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "I never understood why the PM's salary is now the SI unit of inflated salaries. It is a canard, usually wheeled out to score political points. \n Firstly, yes there is an argument to be had about remuneration of council employees, there are a few at the top getting silly money and too many at the bottom on shit wages (where they haven't been privatised into shitter wages on shitter terms). But it is fraudulent to conflate this with whatever Cameron gets for two reasons: \n \n Cameron is an elected official. He gets the rate for the job and all the power and prestige that goes with being the leader of a major nation. If Belgium offered more for the same job he is not going to apply for that job. The executive of a council is in a market for their skills (and I thought that the Fail liked markets). If a better job elsewhere offers more money they can and will go for it. Apples and oranges. \n \n If Cameron is in it for the money, rather than the power to do good, then the pay off is not now but later. Look at how much money Blair is raking in, despite being a widely despised war criminal. His term as PM is a bit like an internship for the serious dosh later.", "id": "c9w2a98", "summary": "Daily Mail makes another false equivalence. Why am I even surprised."}, {"author": "buildmonkey", "content": "Working to a large scale in clay would be quite difficult. It shrinks as it dries and cracking worsens the thicker the clay, so large pieces would be prone to distortion and fracturing before you could get them as far as the kiln. Wet clay is flexible so doing a standing figure or one with outstretched arms would require an armature, which is a problem for firing. Dried clay before you fire it is also very fragile so large sticky out bits might fall off under their own weight without an armature. You would also need huge, fuel hungry kilns.", "id": "c95p94g", "summary": "marble and bronze do the job"}]}
+{"author": "Superplaner", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Make an effort -> get good at what you do -> be rewarded for it -> becomes fun -> easier to make an effort. It's a circle of positive reinforcement.", "output": "Got a family to support, a mortgage to pay and I need to put food on the table for my spawn. That's why I got a job. That's why most people do what they do. \n You seem to have a pretty fucked up view of 9-5 jobs though. I enjoy my job. It's fun, it challenges me on a daily basis and I often find out that 9-5 isn't enough, at the end of the day, I'm still at my desk with a few coworkers (whom I like, I might add) shooting ideas at each other. It's not a trade off between work I hate and free time I love, it's a trade-off between a job I love and a family and free time I love. \n What I've found thus far is that almost any job is interesting and fun if you put your mind to it. You challenge yourself to find better solutions, to preform better, to improve everywhere. It doesn't matter what that job is, if you do it well, you will be recognized and consequently, have more fun. Do it well enough and you'll also get more freedom. No one questions me if I'm not in the office some days, drop in at 10 or leave at 3. No one does because I deliver, my boss assumes that if I'm not in my office, it's because I'm doing something better for the company or our clients."}], "user_id": "longlamp_6777", "history": [{"author": "Superplaner", "content": "First of all, tight formations fell out of favour long before the 20th century and second, staying alive has always been more important than keeping formation. It's just that up until the introduction of accurate rifles, staying in formation  was  staying alive. \n Europeans in particular had a very nasty habit of keeping cavalry reserves around, I do believe  vonadler  elaborated on this a while back, for when formations broke. That way, you had a fresh a mobile force ready to pursue and kill an enemy after his formation broke. This also meant that breaking formation was often a death sentence. Defense against cavalry never changed much, it was all about keeping together and pointing sharp things at the horses, if you broke into a loose formation, you had to have sharpend stakes around or a solid formation to fall back to (this is what skirmishers relied on) or the cavalry will ride you down at first chance.", "id": "c8dig0c", "summary": "Cavalry are the sheep dogs of the battlefield, herding infantry together since forever."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "While this was only a training exercise, I know what you mean. I had just come back from a grueling 47 hour recon run involving scuba gear, ice and a lot of crawling while being generally cold and miserable. Even more frustrating by the fact that we didn't find what we were supposed to find. Finally back at camp, some hot chow, a warm shower (short but sweet) and a sleeping bag. Sweet! Wake up in the middle of the night, bladder full, bleary eyes. I stumble out in the pitch black night to a bush and whip out the one eyed serpent, too tired to figure out where the latrines are. Sweet relief. \n And then the world, and I do mean the entire world, goes boom. I fall on my ass, peeing all over myself and trying to figure out why the world has gone so quiet. Never accusing the artillery of being sloppy with their camouflage again.", "id": "c8pfpq5", "summary": "Peed on a camouflaged 155mm gun."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "So there are a few reasons for this and a few clarifications needed. The first is how that oxygen would be distributed into the blood stream? I don't even want to get into the discussion about organic gills as a surgical implant (which would directly deposit oxygen into the blood stream). This leaves us with the methord of filtering oxygen from the water and having us breath it, as we do with air. \n We already have rebreathers that allow us to stay at great depth for a long time. The biggest problem isn't usually oxygen, it's getting rid of CO2. Inventing a system that is based on breathing pure oxygen is not an option due to the fact that it becomes toxic when the partial pressure excedes ~1,6 (this is at 6 meters/18 feet). \n Essentially, there is no real commercial value in filtering out oxygen from water. If you're in a submarine, electrolysis is a better option. If you're in a suit a simple hose is usually a better option.", "id": "c4f9yef", "summary": "There's really no point in developing this technology at this time. Therefore, little or no research is being done."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "See vaccines are actually a little scary, not because the government is trying to get people sick or infect them with cancer, that's just balls to the wall crazy. No vaccinces are scary because of what they contain. In addition to a dead or weakend virus some contain high doses of immunosuppressants and preservatives. \n In most of Europe the health care system is legally responsible for the care they provide and in most countries, there's no way for the health care system to limit that liability. Except in one case. Vaccines. See, they've been so clever that in most countries, they never encourage you to take it. They inform you of the option, then leave it to you. Vaccines are the only thing where the entire health care system, from manufacturer to the nurse that gives you the shot, are not liable in any way. \n I'm not big on conspiracy theories and I've gotten all the recommended vaccines. It was only when my son was born that I started reading up on this. Honestly, it was a little scary. I don't think it's a conspiracy but I do think that the effects of the immunosuppressants and preservatives used in some vaccines are not yet fully understood. And that the health care system have basically decided to go ahead anyway because the benefits out-weigh the potential risks.", "id": "c9390qa", "summary": "You should know that when you or your children get vaccines, no one is liable if anything goes wrong."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "When I was a kid we had a fox that routinely had litters under our old barn. Almost every spring, there were fox... cubs? Foxettes? Puppies? Fuppies? What the fuck are baby foxes called? Either way, baby foxes running around the yard. Once they become used to people they're super curious and would constantly try to sneak inside the house, especially since my grandmother cooks a lot of game. Those little furballs go apeshit over minced boar meat. \n Usually, the mother (who was a lot more suspicious of us) would pick one up, carry it back to the den, and then go for the next one. However, there were quite a few baby foxes and only one mother so by the time she went for the next one, the first one was already making it's way back towards the kitchen.", "id": "c97ubnw", "summary": "Ground boar meat will create a conveyor belt of baby foxes."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "So many horror stories, the sting isn't actually THAT bad unless you're hypersensitive or allergic. While working in Spain we'd encounter these frequently while leading snorkeling tours. At one point I had to wrap several feet of live tentacle around my lower left arm to keep it out of a kids face. \n Does it hurt? Yeah, it's similar to a first degree burn or several bee stings but it passes in an hour or so. Three hours later or so the pain was mostly gone though the area was a little tender. \n Does it swell? Yes. It looked a lot like I had drawn a spiral around my arm with a red magic marker. \n Does it scar? No, not in the least. A few days later there was no trace what so ever.", "id": "c3wx4kp", "summary": "They're like bees, won't fuck with you unless you fuck with them. No honey though."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "Yeah, this is odd. Me and my father accidently ended up taking pictures of a cuban airforce base. We had no idea what we were taking pictures of, we were on a vantage point and saw the compound, some cool buildings, one of which had a huge mural of Fidel and Ché. We had a pretty decent camera with a big-ass lense and wanted a close-up. Suddenly, five men who looked a little like Ché and Fidel appear from the woods around us with machineguns ready. \n We were brought into the base under armed guard, brought before a high ranking officer and questioned. I was about 11 or 12 at the time and remember being quite nervous about the whole ordeal. After about an hour, they agree that if we just take the film out of the camera (since they didn't know what else we might have taken pictures of) they'd give us the official guided tour of the base and we could take as many pictures of the murals (there turned out to be several) as we wanted to. \n In the end, we even got to have lunch on base and meet a very pleasant group of cuban pilots and airforce officers. They were really friendly once the initial hiccup had been sorted and they found out my father had been a fighter pilot way back when.", "id": "c78j70j", "summary": "Pulled the same shit in Cuba, nearly got shot and imprisoned, everything went better than expected."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "Yeah, we do stuff like this in nordic countries. We're not very ashamed of our nakedness though the sauna, the communal showers at the gym and nude beaches are pretty much the only places we do shit like this. \n Here's my most memorable culture shock. When I was 20 I got myself a job in Egypt as a diving instructor (I'm swedish). At the place where I worked there was an older Egyptian guy, maybe late 40's but the dark weathered skin of someone who has spent his entire life outdoors made him look older. He was a nice guy though, always happy, always friendly and he had eyes like a motherfucking eagel. If there was anything worth seeing on the reef, this guy was the one to find it. I liked him, usually hung out for half an hour after work with a cup of tea and a newspaper. He taught me a little arabic. \n One day he asks me if I want to go with him to his hometown (about 200 miles). Curious to see more of Egypt I agree. After a 4 hour bus ride we arrive and decide to go to the market for a cup of tea and some shopping before we go to his house. As we enter the market, he takes hold of my hand and walks me around the market, holding hands. I was completely unprepared for this but eventually noticed other male couples doing the same thing. Apparently, this is a sign of friendship, nothing more. Felt wierd though.", "id": "c45eif5", "summary": "Holding hand with an elderly Egyptian man."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "Let's straighten this out once and for all. Rommel was  never  a good general. He was undoubtedly one brave bastard and a good officer at lower ranks but as a general, he was strategically mediocre at best. Rommel lacked much in terms of strategy. Though he was a good divisional commander for the 7th he was not a good general in terms of the over-all strategy. Rommel commanded the 7th much like he would a regiment or battalion, personally. He was frequently in the thick of the fighting (see the crossing of the Meuse for example) which, while inspiring, is awful in terms of strategic overview. This was a flaw that comes up again and again with Rommel. At Arras he walked from 88 to 88, personally giving them targets. Does it work? Sure it did. Is it good strategy? No. \n Rommel may have been one of the finest regimental commanders to ever set his foot on a battlefield but as a general, he wasn't even in the top 10 of his day. \n Monty on the other was startegically sound but perhaps overly cautious general (a monty is a martini mixed at 15:1, reputedly the only odds Monty would go offensive with) who showed aptitude far beyond divisional command. He was highly accurate in most assessments regarding forces required, expected casualties, duration of battles etc which shows a deep understanding of the mechanics of war.", "id": "cca1w4o", "summary": "Montgomery, it's not even remotely close."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "It's impossible to give an exact answer to your question since the alcohol content would vary from brewer to brewer and even batch to batch. There was no real understanding of the fermentation process, wild yeast bacteria would arrive by air and mix with whatever residue was left in the vats leading to a different yeast culture in every batch. Another thing to keep in mind is that this was mash brewing, not sparged brewing, this leads to an incomplete fermentation and a resulting lower alcoholic content.", "id": "c8een7i", "summary": "Weaker than what normal beer is today, impossible to say exactly how strong."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "If you want exact measurements you're going to have to be more specific as to which region and time period you're interested in. The average Swedish man in the 10th century was about 175 cms tall (or 5'9\"), the average Dane, Icelander and Norwegian just a tad shorter. This is not much different from your average northern european at the time, nor are the skeletons of viking men much taller than the skeletons of the average slave from the same era. (Roesdahl, Else.  The Vikings )", "id": "cadz3v8", "summary": "About 5'8\", taller than the average european but only by an inch or two."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "Since this is not tagged [Christians only] I will give you a few links from /r/AskHistorians where the topic has been brought up many times both in terms of [Biblical reliability]( in general and the topic of [Exodus]( in particular. \n This does of course come down to whether or not you accept the possibility of large scale divine intervention that left no significant traces behind. If you do, there is little to discuss. However, if you want to know whether or not Exodus happened as described in the Bible  without  large scale divine intervention, the answer is, no, probably not, at least not in that scale. \n The problem is ultimately a logistical one. A group of that size can not survive for that period of time in the Sinai desert without divine intervention. There is simply is not enough water. A smaller scale Exodus is however possible and perhaps even plausible, as argued very well in  this .", "id": "cln93ke", "summary": "No, Exodus as described in the Bible/Torah is likely not a historical event. An exodus  is  possible but not at that scale."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "There is, in my mind, a slight difference between sympathy with rapists and arbitrary vengence. \n To me, it all comes down to my world view. I believe in the inherent goodness of man. I believe we're capable of change. I believe criminals should be punished for their crimes but I do  not  believe in mutilation for the very simple reason that it is irreversible. Any irreversible punishment is contrary to my belief that every person deserves a chance at redemption, it is akin to saying that people are incapable of change and improvement, forever doomed to repeat past mistakes. \n If you want to live with that world view, fine, but consider the implications. You can  never  be forgiven for any mistake you've committed because you are incapable of improving. You are forever stained by every mistake you have ever made. Every injustice you have ever been guilty of, regardless of how long ago, is an eternal stain on your character. \n Thief? Cut off his hands, it's the only way to stop him from stealing again. Any traffic violation? You may never drive again, it's the only way to ensure the safety of others because you will  always  put others at risk if you are ever allowed behind the wheel again. Etc etc.", "id": "chs3qvy", "summary": "Irreversible punishments are stupid or arbitrary, in either case bad."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "I'm very sorry this happened but in the defense of the dive team, there was very little they could have done in this case. Suffering a heart attack mid-dive is pretty much the end. At best you need to get a person under professional care asap, at worst make do with chest compressions and mouth to mouth, neither of which is possible when a heart attack occurs under water. \n There are several complicating factors at play, the first of which is recognizing the symptoms of a heart attack under water. If you're lucky you'll see something like flexing of the left hand or massaging the left arm early. I did. \n The second problem you face it doing something about it. On most recreational dives, there is a guide, either an instructor or a divemaster, with a group of 2 to 8 divers. At this point, the correct procedure is to abort the dive for the entire group and personally take control of the diver in trouble. I did. \n As you ascend there is the problem of maintaining open airways. Whether or not this is possible is outside of your control. The only way to open a persons airways forcibly is to do so manually, something that can not be done without removing their mouthpiece and quite literally shoving your fingers in the persons mouth, this will likely drown the person in question so what you do is bring them up at a normal pace (18M/min) and hope for the best. I did. \n Your next problem arrives when you get to the surface. With a sever heart attack the person will likely be unresponsive, unconcious and possibly medically speaking dead at this point (respiratory and cardiac arrest). Possible complication factors include hyperbaric trauma but likely not decompression sickness. You inflate their BCD, dump their weights and initiate mouth to mouth breathing. The thing is, you didn't ascend where you were supposed to so there's no one there to pick you up. With luck you can signal your boat for a pick-up, if not you swim for shore/whichever boat is closest. I did. \n Getting picked up will take a while, even longer if you have to swim a few hundred meters yourself while towing someone and preforming mouth to mouth. There is no way you can preform chest compressions at this stage, you'll drown the victim and getting absolutely nothing done so you aim for keeping them at least partially oxygenated and pray if that's your cup of tea. I did. \n As soon as you get the victim out of the water you initiate chest compressions. You can't defib at this point because the person is soaking wet, likely on a wet surface and you don't want to electrocute anyone. You remove the gear as soon as you can but at this stage it is almost always far too late. Still, for most amateur first responders your training kicks in and you keep up chest compressions and mouth to mouth anyway because you've been taught to do it for as long as you can or until relieved by trained professionals. I did. \n Once you get their kit off, hopefully with the help of your group you can towel the person down, attach a defibrilator and hit it. You hope for the best but in all likelyhood the person has been clinically dead for a good ten minutes at this point. Still, you shock them until the portable defibrilator has no more juice and then resume chest compressions and mouth to mouth. I did. \n Eventually medics, a doctor or whatever you have nearby will relieve you, if only to confirm that the victim is indeed dead and well beyond any hope of resuscitation. So you make sure the rest of your group is ok, you talk to them, calm them down, reassure them. I did. \n Only when you finally have time to sit down and breath does it hit you, like a ton of bricks. You lost someone. You lost one of your divers. Someone under your care. Most people enter a mild state of shock the first time. Most people cry, if only out of frustration. I did. \n Source: Professional diver with a few thousand dives. MSDT/Commercial A-license.", "id": "cha2hr5", "summary": "There is almost nothing you can do if someone suffers a heart attack under water. \n EDIT: You most likely won't have to worry about a lawsuit, even if you fucked up. Most recreational dive systems use liability release forms that place the responsibility in a case like this squarely on the individual divers shoulders."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "I had the exact opposite experience. Fuck it, story time I guess. \n Back when I was a young and fit man I did a fair bit of dirty boxing (not that kind of dirty, you little pervert). We were a mixed lot with different backgrounds, an old street fighter, a few guys and girls from different martial arts backgrounds and a couple of boxers who for different reasons got to know each other and had the brilliant idea of just going down to the ring and see what we could learn from each other. It was fun, now for the sexy noises bit. \n One of the girls who regularly came to these meetings was Little Lou (not a pornstar name, I promise), she was a petite but surprisingly curvy girl who worked as a mechanic. We liked sparing together because skill wise we were roughly equals and she found that she learned more fighting a bigger opponent with better reach. She was a pretty tough little thing who wasn't afraid to step in to an exchange chin down and fists up and eventually got good at it. At one point she sidestepped and landed a combination right in my midriff. I braced the best I could but still grunted pretty loudly. After the exchange she looked at me and said  \"If you make those noises in bed I think you should take me out for a drink some night\" . \n I never did, I left the country a few weeks after that but my confidence in manly noises was forever established.", "id": "c7yhkzl", "summary": "The noises you make when grunting in pain through a mouth guard are roughly the same as those some ladies appreciate in bed."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "Yet here we are, handing out fertilizers and agricultural equipment with one hand and running the cash for crops program with the other. It's a well know fact (though rarely spoken of) that this is the biggest waste of resources we could possibly engage in. Here's how it works if you're the tribal leader, village elder (depending on which ethnic group you belong to, there's no such thing as an \"Afghan\"). \n \n Accept fertilizers, seeds and a little money from the coalition. \n Use the seeds to make porridge or bread. \n Plant vast amounts of poppy seeds with fertilizer and equipment. (used to produce opium) \n Wait until harvest is ready. Check the price on opium compared to the amount of money you'll recieve if you'll let the Americans burn the fields. \n Pick whichever pays best. \n Rinse and repeat.", "id": "c45goe0", "summary": "We're paying them to produce opium, then paying the again to burn it."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "There is one thing we need to clarify once and for all here; [Correlation does not imply causation]( \n Short answer: No. \n Long answer: To find out if there were such a thing as an \"atheist motivation\", technically that would be anti-theism but since you're clearly looking for counter arguments for a religious debate the point is more or less moot, you'd have to look at if any of the cleansings or other actions were taken against relgious groups specifically. \n Stalin was certainly no friend of the Russian Orthodox church. His propaganda, anti-religious education and persecution of religious activists is well documented. His motivations however are not. The \"opiate for the people\" argument is only true to a certain extent. The church was allowed a revival during WW2 and outside of the Soviet Union Stalin frequently supported religious groups, even when those groups were at odds with officially atheist China. I can't pretend to know what went through Stalins mind specifically but his actions speak of him treating the Orthodox Church like he treated any other organization that was a threat to his rule. His support of relgious groups outside the Soviet union indicate that he opposed the Chruch because they were a threat to communist power rather than because of his personal beliefs.", "id": "c7yi19i", "summary": "answer: Totalitarian regimes of the time frequently persecuted any organization that divided the loyalties of the public rather than religious institutions in particular."}, {"author": "Superplaner", "content": "Let me first of all make myself clear. I do not work tech support. Never have. However, I'm a wannabe geek and as such, slightly more at home around the old keyboard and mouse than my middle age colleagues. We do have a tech support guy but the poor guy is at the end of his nerves most days on account of him doing the work of about 4 men so I generally try to avoid sending my coworkers to him if I can help it. \n This particular incident happend in a meeting with a major client. We're talking the big conference room on the top floor. People in suits that cost substancially more than my monthly salary. All over 45, all highly paid board members. And me. Superplaner. At the end of the table because my boss asked me to be there for his presentation in case anyone has questions \"of a technical nature\". \n After the compulsory fidgeting with the projector and apologetic smiles the presentations get under way. Smile and nod occasionally as customers one after another run through their presentations. Finally, it's time for my boss. He walks up to the podium. Connects his computer. Clicks on the minimized icon to open his presentation up. Nothing. Clicks again. Nothing. Tries minimizing and then clicking again. Nothing. \n See, we use laptops and an external monitor on our desks. For some reason, his laptop didn't recognize that the external monitor was not connected and opened the presentation to a screen that wasn't connected. More apologetic smiles. Boss finally sighs and says \"Oh, I must have saved it on the other sceen\". \n Saved it on the other screen. \n The words echo in my head. At this point, I discretely glace around the room. Everyone nods in complete agreement. Really? Ok. \n Boss gets up. \"I'm so sorry everyone, let me just go down to my desk and get it from my other screen\". Again, everyone, every single one of the 20 highly paid board members, nod their agreement. \n Boss leaves. Comes back 5 minutes later. This time with the presentation saved and closed to his desktop. Works just fine.", "id": "t3_zi2gt", "summary": "TIL you can save things on your screen."}]}
+{"author": "Gabrielseifer", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Two packages are missing, but are marked as delivered via tracking. I believe someone may have stolen them. What should I do?", "output": "Over the past two weeks, two items that I had ordered online were supposed to arrive. Both of these items came with a tracking number, and both are marked \"delivered\", but I have not received either of them. I live in a small apartment building with 7 other apartments. I just moved in a few months ago, and I don't really know anyone well, though the few I have met seem like decent people. Usually deliveries are simply left by the apartment door, and there hasn't been a problem until these last two weeks. I've already decided to send any future orders to my parents house, who live 20 mins. away. I had posted notices at both of the unlocked entrances to the building explaining that I am missing these deliveries and requesting any and all information. It's been a few days, but still nothing. I've never dealt with anything like this before, so I want to know what further steps I should take."}], "user_id": "longlamp_2620", "history": [{"author": "Gabrielseifer", "content": "I don't understand how this helps the community. In fact, if anything else I think this undermines the effectiveness of the community as a whole. So I am to take it that if a question has been asked before, I shouldn't ask it again? The entire point, IMO, of r/ask __  communities is that people with different knowledge, different ideals, and different areas of expertise come together to join in a discussion about the topic. Potential contributors are on reddit at all different times and with all different frequency, hence the common argument that what may be a repost to you is new to someone else. Suffice it to say, I had failed to see a question like mine here before. So I asked it. Could I have used the search function? Yes. However, to me it defeats the point. If I just wanted the straight-forward answer, I would've Googled it. Like nearly every topic you see on this subreddit. The point (again, IMO) is that even if a question is asked multiple times, and the final consensus remains the same, each individual post draws different people of all different backgrounds to the conversation. You get information and insights that may not be present anywhere else. That discussion, that flow of knowledge from multitudes of unique sources, is the entire point of this subreddit. However, you and those like you will bury this post, as is your prerogative. That way we all see fresh and thought-provoking topics on the front page. However, I'm still not convinced that a \"repost\" here is a bad thing, when every discussion is bound to be different.", "id": "c5lzw9r", "summary": "Even a \"repost\" in a subreddit like this has merit, as it is always bound to draw in unique contributors, along with their knowledge and insights, even if the consensus among the posts remains the same."}, {"author": "Gabrielseifer", "content": "I've always been relatively good at budgeting my money and being a frugal spender, but these last few months have tossed my world upside down. Whatever I had saved up was demolished by an unfortunate and pricey car repair and medical bills after my insurance notified me that the treatment for a condition I have (which I'd rather not get into here, please) isn't covered. It's been downhill for the last few months, sending me into a deep depression over the financial burden. It came to a head this month when I realized that I wasn't able to make rent, even after selling many of my more valuable things online. I tried to come up with an arrangement with my landlord, only to fail. I'm not on a lease, I'm month-to-month, and he told me that he'd give me a \"pay or quit\" notice if rent wasn't received, in full, by the end of the month. I understand his position, I'm the tenant and he's the landlord. If I can't fulfill my end of the agreement, then that's that. I began to make whatever short-term preparations I could with friends, but nothing was really panning out for me. \n Tonight at work my boss saw I was visibly upset, and after a little prodding on her part I explained the situation to her. Now my boss is a very kind and very intelligent woman. She's very good with her money. Even still, I would have never expected what happened next. So I explained everything to her and just left it at that. No more mention of it. She went on her meal break, came back, and handed me an envelope. In the envelope was my full months rent, plus late fees, and a little extra to buy some groceries. My jaw absolutely dropped. Never had I experienced anything like that in my life. I refused to take it several times. I told her \"I don't know when I'll be able to pay you back!\" What she told me in reply I will never forget: \n \"I'm your boss, but I'm also your friend. We all need a little help sometimes. Seeing my friend happy is worth more to me than this money.\" \n She told me to pay her back when I can and not to worry about it. It was an incredible act of generosity that lifted a huge burden off my shoulders. It's still going to be a very uphill battle to remain afloat, but she's given me a new vigor to fight that battle when it was never her obligation to do so. I'll never forget it. \n That's my story Reddit. What acts of generosity and caring have others bestowed on you that you'll never forget?", "id": "t3_snpuy", "summary": "About to get kicked out of my apartment due to mounting bills and debt. Boss saves the day. Like, well, a boss."}, {"author": "Gabrielseifer", "content": "Don't be dicks. It's that pure and simple. I just bought the game today, and it's very appealing to me for it's realism. But after joining my first multiplayer match and making a few noobish mistakes (like not gauging the take-off distance of a fighter accurately and crashing into a hillside), I was INUNDATED by chat and voice messages to \"Stay away from the vehicles or you'll be kicked.\" and \"Go back to Battlefield.\" and \"Stick with Black Ops.\" Listen, I get it. I'm a noob, and you're the guys with teh uber micro. Fine. But the hostilities just aren't needed. Among FPS's, Arma 2 is perhaps the most complicated of the bunch. You'd like quality players in your multiplayer matches, yet you bitch and curse someone out thats just getting started? Make your criticism constructive. Turn that anger into something useful. And maybe, just maybe, we'll all have better multiplayer matches to look forward to. IMO.", "id": "t3_houht", "summary": "Some gamers just suck. But if they're brand new to your game, embrace the idea of having a new opponent. Try to be less of an asshole about their noobishness."}, {"author": "Gabrielseifer", "content": "Here's the backstory. There's a girl that I work with that I've ended up becoming really interested in, but I'm not sure what I should do to break out of the \"friend zone\" with her. We've only known each other for a few months, and we've grown really close over the time that we've known one another. We have a ton in common, and whatever we don't we love debating about it (foundation of a healthy relationship, if you ask me). Holy hell, just last night I went over to her place and we played Crash Team Racing and Tetris Plus, watched a movie, and never had a dull or awkward moment. I look for the signs that she may be interested (unnecissary physical contact, playing with her hair, body language, etc.) and those signs tell me she's down. But the next moment, she'll snuggle up to me and say she's glad she has \"such a good friend\". So I just don't know what to think, and I think I may have fucked myself over by joking and telling her \"you're too young for me\" when we first met (she's 20, I'm 27.) I don't know what to do, and it's more sensitive of a situation than just \"going for it\". We do work together, after all. I'd prefer shit not getting awkward if I misread her. Any advice on the matter would be extremely appreciated. Thank you!", "id": "t3_j8i0n", "summary": "Guy, 27, likes coworker girl, 20. Mutual interest seems present, but signals are mixed. Seeking advice to find out and make a move without disrupting workplace harmony."}, {"author": "Gabrielseifer", "content": "I've been cycling for 9 years now, and it's something I love to do for fun and exercise. I take part in a lot of charity rides and have a lot of fun with those, but beyond that I don't really do any competitive cycling. I understand that there are a lot of competitive cyclists out there, and for those that are I have one request: Be courteous on the road. To pedestrians, motorists, and especially other cyclists. \n Maybe it's just me. Whenever I pass another cyclist, I always give a nod or a \"handlebar wave\" or something. To me it's just common courtesy; acknowledging another individual that enjoys the same sport you do. How much effort does that take? None at all. Again, maybe it's just me. I have a nice road bike, all the \"pro gear\" (cycling suit, helmet, cycling computer, etc). So it's not like I'm being dismissed as an \"amateur\". But none of that should matter. We're all out there participating in something we love. A little common courtesy goes a long way. Next time you pass by someone, don't be Mr./Mrs. Awesome and give your fellow cyclists the cold shoulder. Give a nod. Give a wave. Help make the sport friendlier for everyone. I dunno, maybe I'm the only one that feels this way. \n Oh, and a big P.S.: If you pass someone on a stretch, but later on they catch up to you to pass, please DO NOT BLOCK THEM FROM PASSING. I had that happen to me today on a ride, and it was seriously hazardous and aggravating.", "id": "t3_thgzd", "summary": "Cycling is a very competitive sport. But when you're out there, be courteous. Acknowledge your fellow cyclists. Make our sport a friendlier activity to take part in."}, {"author": "Gabrielseifer", "content": "So, I'm in the army national guard, and for some reason the discussion of \"what to do about state debt and budget deficit\" comes up often within my platoon. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty much a liberal that goes undercover as a conservative during drill, but when this topic comes up I cannot seem to stop myself from bringing up \"Well, how about the legalization of marijuana?\" I touch on regulation and taxation as a benefit, as well as significant benefits in regards to the taxpayer money saved from needless marijuana-related arrests and imprisonment. But alas, my fellow soldiers pretty much take the stance of \"Drugs are bad, mmmk.\" Even though I inform them that pretty much the only reason marijuana was included in the Scheduled Drugs Act is because hemp was being looked at as a viable manufacturing alternative to lumber, and lumber and paper industries lobbied for it's inclusion. Nope, they don't buy it. Do you fine folks have any concrete, hard facts about marijuana and legalization to help give me the edge in the discussion? Thanks.", "id": "t3_he0o3", "summary": "I need some solid facts about legalization to help give me the edge when discussing this with my conservative army buddies."}, {"author": "Gabrielseifer", "content": "EDIT: Potential spoiler alerts ahead? \n Well, not as impressed as I thought it'd be. I've put 20 hours in so far, and already I find my interest waning. It wasn't the case with Morrowind or Oblivion. I mean, as a game it's pretty solid. It's a staggering achievement in environment design. I've had quite a few \"WOW\" moments, such as stopping to look at the aurora borealis and witnessing a dragon-on-mammoth bloodbath. I've joined the thieves guild, the dark brotherhood, yadda yadda yadda. I'm just saying that overall, the content seems marginalized and simplified for consoles. I miss acrobatics and athletics as skills. I miss being able to zoom and rotate my character model in the inventory to check out my new set of armor. I miss being able to equip my boots of fortify acrobatics +300 and blast over the landscape... only to realize I'd left my ring of feather fall at the home I had \"claimed\" by killing the former residents. It's a lot of small things, but they start to add up for me. Skyrim feels as if it's more constricting and less \"do anything\" than it's predecessors, regardless of the graphical, a.i., and gameplay upgrades. I'm sure there will be plenty of mods to address whatever issues I've raised. I guess I just want to say I'm less impressed with the game than I was with Morrowind or Oblivion. It's set in the same world, but it feels like a bit of a departure to me.", "id": "t3_mnhan", "summary": "I just whined for a bit. Nothing to concern yourself over."}, {"author": "Gabrielseifer", "content": "I've got a pretty good system, and I keep my registry in check and my hard drive defragmented. When I uninstall some games that use the traditional Windows uninstaller, the process goes lightning fast regardless of size. However, some games take absolutely FOREVER to uninstall. The part that takes forever is the \"Gathering required information\" phase, and I've noticed that the games that take forever to uninstall seem to be almost universally from big game companies, like EA and Ubisoft. So I've gotta ask, is it all really necessary and really takes such a long time? Or could it be that the uninstall is intentionally delayed sometimes to frustrate the user and perhaps dissuade them from uninstalling the game?", "id": "t3_p8s6n", "summary": "Games from big name companies can take a long time to uninstall. Is this lengthy process essential, or could it be made intentionally longer to frustrate the user?"}, {"author": "Gabrielseifer", "content": "I'm sure you fine folks have gotten plenty of this, so I understand the downvotes. The problem is very clear: The chunks load so slowly now that I can see cave systems before the surface loads. It's been this way for a good long while. I have a decent system that used to run Minecraft on full settings just fine and dandy. I've since upgraded OS's (to Win 7 from Vista), but that's the only change. If you're requesting full system specs, here we go: AMD Phenom II X4 920 processor running at 2.8 GHz, 8 GB of RAM, 512 GDDR5 graphics card, GeForce GT 240. More than enough to run most modern games at medium graphics settings. But Minecraft? Nope. Slow as all get out. I've been to the forums, tried all the settings, played around with some mods. Still no results. If you think you can help, cool. Otherwise, this has killed the game for me.", "id": "t3_1dlofp", "summary": "After years of joy, my Minecraft game has been jacked for a while now. Slow chunk loading hampering gameplay and revealing cave systems to me in Single Player. Shit sucks."}, {"author": "Gabrielseifer", "content": "I'm on the fence on this one. I feel like most of the people I wanted to keep in contact with since high school, I do so via Facebook. Besides, my story isn't going to \"dazzle\" anyone. I moved out of my folks place when I was 27. I've worked at the Starbucks in my hometown for 6 years. I'm a Sergeant in the National Guard, never deployed. I'm single, no children. I'm working my way through school to get an Associate's in Network Admin. Bam. That's it. That's essentially the story of my last 10 years. A Facebook page was created for the event. I see many of my former classmates confirming their attendance, all so excited about it. \"I\"m going, PLUS ONE!\" Congrats on your marriage, I really don't care. I'll definitely go to a 20 year reunion, that to me is more telling of where people have \"ended up\". But do I go to the 10 year? Did you? Would you?", "id": "t3_1evp7b", "summary": "10 year high school reunion in a little over a month. Yeah, I can easily make it. I'm on the fence about whether I will or not."}, {"author": "Gabrielseifer", "content": "It feels like, for the last week or so, I'm just playing the same match over and over again. Ymir, Tyr, Poseidon, Ah Muzen, Anhur, Hades, and a few others just seem to be every single match makeup. I'm mastery IV with Apollo, I NEVER see him in assault. I own about half of the gods, I got picked for Ymir 3 matches in a row. Is there some algorithm for matchmaking I'm not getting here, or is it really just that shitty (at least lately)?", "id": "t3_1svdim", "summary": "Love Assault for the flexibility and variety. Lately, matchmaking has been repetitive and awful."}, {"author": "Gabrielseifer", "content": "This is just something I wanted to share with you all. I'd recently left Starbucks after 7 years of service, but from time to time I like to do some of my new work at my old store and mingle with the regulars and former partners. This particular evening, I was enjoying a cup of coffee and getting out a few emails in the cafe of my old store when a development unfolded at the hand-off plane. A woman had taken a mans drink by accident (how many times does THAT happen, I wonder...), and the man was being belligerent with the barista over the incident. The barista, my former coworker, was obviously becoming very upset as this customer continued to berate her \"incompetence\". See, I saw the entire thing unfold. She made his beverage and called it out like usual. The man just wasn't paying attention, and after a bit a woman got the beverage thinking it was hers. Happens quite often, right? This guy just couldn't let it go. He just kept laying into the barista like the world was ending while she was remaking his beverage. I had enough and I stepped in. I just had a few words for him in front of a cafe filled with people and he left in a hurry. \n I'm not here to tell you what a great white knight I am. I'm here to tell you, the current partners of Starbucks everywhere, a simple truth. You work in customer service, but you are NO-ONES SERVANT. You aren't a slave and you aren't a punching-bag for irrational adults. You do the job to make every customer as satisfied as possible, but with some customers that isn't a possibility. You should NEVER, EVER have to take any kind of abuse while on the job. Don't stand for it. If it happens, get your SM, ASM, or Shift right away to handle the situation. If they're unavailable, as was the situation here, then stand up for yourself. Fill out the incident report later. Don't stoop to their level to do so, but remember you're just as much a human being as the belligerent customer is. And all human beings deserve a modicum of courtesy and respect. \n Just my two cents.", "id": "t3_25rhwx", "summary": "You work in customer service, you're not a bonded servant. Don't take abuse and harassment from anyone."}, {"author": "Gabrielseifer", "content": "For the LONGEST TIME (several months? a year or so?) I had been experiencing serious chunk loading issues with Minecraft. So much so, in fact, that I would have to be right on top of a surface for it to load. Everywhere I went, I'd see cave systems in front of a blue background. It made the game unplayable. My computer isn't that bad, but it isn't a top-of-the-line rig either. So I went about adjusting every setting, installing any performance mod I could find, but to no avail. Marginal improvement at best. So I relented and gave up playing one of my favorite games. I logged in from time to time to update and see if anything had changed, but I was always met with disappointment. \n Today I decided to boot up the game to check out 1.7.2. Loaded a new world and dived in. The problem is solved! Chunks load smooth as silk! I get to enjoy Minecraft again, and I am so happy about it. Here's to new adventures! :)", "id": "t3_1r4jpu", "summary": "Minecraft was broken for me, something in 1.7.2 fixed the issue. Thanks, Mojang!"}]}
+{"author": "wartornhero", "query": [{"input": "Generate the content for a reddit post Good Luck! Join /r/fitness if you haven't already. Set short term goals, reward yourself upon completion of these goals. Keep track of what you are eating before you started then make changes and see how well you are doing.", "output": "Good Luck! However did you see the [TED talk]( on announcing goals!?! I kid, If it will help you than by all means do it! \n Some Advice. Use a tool for keeping track of what you eat like myfitnesspal.com or dailyburn.com. I recommend going through a week like you use to and put it in there then you can figure out where to make cuts/eat healthier. Diet is the most important thing for weight loss. One of the easiest cuts to make is liquid calories. I haven't had a soda in 3 weeks since I started my diet and i feel so much better all the time. \n Set short term goals. it is great to have a goal to lose 75 ( my long term goal is about that much) but I have a short term goal of losing 20 pounds by my birthday in a month. Not only will these short term goals help you stay on track but it wont allow you get discouraged when you aren't going as fast as you want or you don't see changes yourself. reward yourself upon completion of these goals (though not with food preferably but a nice steak dinner once a month never hurt anyone) \n Finally also subscribe to [/r/fitness]( Both fitting and loseit have great articles/videos/advice on getting in shape."}], "user_id": "longlamp_15890", "history": [{"author": "wartornhero", "content": "I would say that is a lot for a starter kit (both in equipment and money) So far I have only sunk about 150 dollars (not including beer for the bottles :P) \n From my local homebrew store, I got a fermenter bucket, bottling bucket, siphon tube (no auto siphon), bottling wand, hand caper, 50+ caps, 3 piece airlock a book and an extract kit with specialty grains, a bottle of iodophor and a hydrometer for about 120 bucks. (100 for the kit 20 for the cost of the hydrometer, iodophor, and extra cost of the kit from the basic kit it came with) \n I got a instant read digital thermometer (non floating) and a 21qt (little over 5 gallon) canning pot and John Palmer's book from Amazon for little over 30 dollars (free shipping FTW) I brewed my first batch just fine. I am a believer in starting small and then working your way up. I am the only one in the house that drinks beer so it will take me a while to go through the 42 bottles my first batch made (biggest space requirement). I have plenty of time to only use one fermentation vessel and just do one batch at a time once I get enough of a bottle supply in rotation. \n Looking at your list: \n Disposable cheese cloth bags are like 50 cents, I will probably get a nylon bag eventually but the disposable ones work just fine. With a 6 gallon pot at 14 inches you don't need a 21\" spoon. I just used a plastic spoon I had in the kitchen not to mention you wont be boiling the full 6 gallons anyway, 5 at the most, maybe 4 and a half. If you get a 5 gallon pot like I did, I boiled 3-3.5 gallons with no problem. My thief is a bulb turkey baster that I bought for brewing (about 1.50-2 bucks) works fine enough to take some out of the top of the fermenter and into the cylinder for the hydrometer. \n With my setup I have encountered no problems with space. 1000 sqft apartment with a roommate in the master bedroom and me in the guest bedroom. so effectively 480 sqft. The kettle fits nicely under the sink, my buckets fit in my closet with the aging/fermenting beer. With my other brewing stuff in the unused bucket. You might run into space issues with stuff like the wort chiller. To chill my wort I just add cooled boiled water to get the volume up to 5 gallons. As well as run through a salt/ice bath. Will probably get/make a wort chiller when I get into full boils/all grain if/when I get bored with extract brewing.", "id": "c1f5ase", "summary": "You don't need all of that nice kit, a little spendy for my taste. Look around your house you probably have a lot of the stuff you need in your own house."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "I did a 3 gallon cyser as my first batch of mead. It turned out really good. Bare with me I am trying to remember it I made it almost a year ago. \n \n 2 gallons of pasteurized cider (365 organic from Whole Foods) \n 6 lbs of local wildflower honey \n 1 ounce of cinnamon sticks \n yeast nutrient (as directed I don't remember exactly how much i used)  \n Lalvin EC-1118 Champagne yeast \n \n I heated up the honey in the container to make it less viscous and then dumped it into the 2 gallons of apple cider. Once it was combined I added the yeast and yeast nutrient and let it ferment at about 68 for about a month. Once it fermented I racked to another carboy and added the ounce of whole cinnamon sticks and let it sit on that for another month. \n Backsweetning: stop the yeast, rack to another vessel and add 1 Campden tablet per gallon of liquid (crush the tablets and dissolve in water) Then I added about a pound of honey in about 3 cups of water (note this is almost too much) After the mead sat on the tablet for a couple of days I added the honey water mixture and kept it for a couple of days to make sure the yeast was stopped before bottling. Bottled and let sit. \n Since then I have learned the proper way to back sweeten! Take out a small portion of the item you want to taste, say 4-8 ounces. Then get another measuring device (I have a graduated cylinder that I use to take gravity readings) add your sweetening liquid to that. start out by adding 1 ml to the portion to taste taste if it is too sweet add more mead if it is not sweet enough add another ml (I use ml because it is what my graduated cylinder uses but use any measure you want) calculate the dilution and scale up. For example if 1ml/8ounces is what you decide on then in 3 gallons you will have about 384 ounces so to sweeten 384 ounces at that dilution then add 48ml I like to err on the side of less so say instead of 48 I would add 45. \n It is almost a year old and good despite being very sweet. it is very easy to drink a bunch before you realize it is 13.5% abv and now you can't drive.", "id": "c7r71wr", "summary": "gave you the recipe and the lessons I learned from mine. Best of luck to you!"}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "Good for you! I cringe every time I don't see someone wearing full gear. My Dad who has been riding for 7 years, with out a single accident went down 3 weekends ago. Broke 4 ribs, bruised a lung had a bruise starting just below his ribs on his left side and went all the way down to the middle of his thigh, and broke 2 parts of his spine. (it was the part of the spine that the muscles attach to so it didn't pose any threat to his ability to walk) Thanks to the helmet he didn't loose consciousness, or sustain any head injury. \n However the only external signs of damage is the bruise and 2 little spots of road rash on his left shoulder and his left knee. After looking at the jacket and chaps he was wearing, neither of them were fully compromised. The road rash was a friction burn from the heat produced by sliding on the ground. \n If he hadn't been wearing full gear his arm probably would have been worn down to the bone.", "id": "c0ufvul", "summary": "My Dads life was saved by wearing full gear and a good helmet."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "1.) Keep on sending resumes and letters. It might make you more humble and honestly it won't hurt. Basically you should be confident and being excited about a job is a good thing. Just don't make it feel desperate. If I am interviewing you I don't want to hear your sob story. Everyone has one. Act as though you just had an interview with another company yesterday. \n Dress up in full interview dress when you are on the phone. It worked for me, the confidence I gain from dressing up came through in my voice. \n 2.) Don't bring up stuff you read on glass door. Everyone feels that they should be compensated more for what they are doing. Yes you are willing to take any job. Just don't tell them that. Again act like you just had an interview yesterday. In this economy it isn't a bad approach. I took the first job that was offered to me. \n 3.) I would look up what the company sells, do research and pitch one of their projects. Diets and lifestyles can be a touchy subject. Mainly because they are more or less subjective in nature and your sales pitch will sound a little preachy even if you don't intend to. Unless you are applying at a church, gym or nutrition center don't sell a lifestyle or diet, sell a product. \n Also the research done into the company and their products shows that you were thinking about them a little more than just \"Oh I have an interview better go on to their website for 5 minutes.\" Bonus points if you have to learn something new. \n Good luck to you. I wrote down some phone interview tips for a friend. I will copy and paste them below (and edit out irrelevant parts/names sorry if it is a little scatter brained because of it) \n 1.) Seclude yourself.  Hide yourself from any and all distractions. This includes roommates, girl/boyfriend, pets video games. I had one interview where my little yappy dog was sleeping upstairs when it started. I figured okay good he should stay that way. About 3/4 of the way through it he started barking and ran downstairs barking at the top of his lungs. I threw him outside and that didn't help so I dragged him upstairs and threw him in moms room and shut the door. I was out of breath and still trying to answer questions. It sucked. \n 2.) Have a glass/bottle of water near you.  You will be talking a lot. Have a glass of water in front of you. Also while you are thinking you can take a drink of water to force yourself to take a pause, collect your thoughts and then answer. The best piece of advice for any interview situation is to take a quick moment to think about the question before answering. It really helped me because if I just start talking I can ramble and either not answer the question or answer more than the question, not necessarily a bad thing but it can get you into trouble. \n 3.) Have a blank piece of paper or two in front of you.  Use this to write down names (for thank you emails/physical cards) Also you can use it to draw out solutions and problems. \n On another piece of paper have down the points in your sales pitch (please don't type it up and read it statically, pick points and practice them) \n 4.) Relax, Stay Calm and Confident.  Smile on the phone, if someone cracks a joke laugh. You can hear a lot about someones demeanor and attitude through the phone. Make sure you are projecting that through your voice \n 5.) Always have some questions ready  have questions about the company, the facility, the job. Just don't bring up compensation, start date, benefits or comparisons between two different cities/states (I made that mistake once, fastest rejection I have ever gotten)", "id": "c4c8o47", "summary": "Read the bold parts and good luck!"}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "I was a Hellgate London Believer. I pre-ordered it and got to play in the beta. It was then that I heard about Mythos and then found a post on the forums where they were giving away alpha test keys. I loved it, it was solid few bugs simple and fun. Everything I wanted Hellgate to be but it was the complete opposite. By this time Hellgate was out and I found my self playing Mythos way more than playing Hellgate. Then I got slammed with school and ended up not playing either of them. In that down time flagship went under and I went to login to Mythos and it was down. A little while later, I heard about Torchlight and saw screen shots and it looks almost exactly like Mythos, but better. at first i thought it was from the company that bought Mythos but then found out it wasn't. That was the driving force for me to buy it, and the fact that it is only 20 bucks. I cant wait for the MMO version. It is going to rock!", "id": "c0u9rmo", "summary": "Spent way to much money on Hellgate when Torchlight is a better game."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "No you cant see mine, haven't brewed it yet but i can show you what I have coming. [My Amazon order]( and picking up my starter kit on Tuesday from the LHBS! Will keep you posted, because brewit is what has helped me immensely so far get to this point.", "id": "c1b8js7", "summary": "Keep being awesome guys!"}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "Before I say anything else, flext9 is a great keyboard I did like it. When tapping the auto-corrections were good and reliable. The swiping method while accurate and really quite amazing. \n It seemed a little slow to me. Not inches response of the keyboard but in my ability to use it effectively. I have a Thunderbolt with its 4.3 inch monster screen. Having the swipe gestures didn't help me type faster it actually made me type more awkwardly because I almost needed to put the phone in my left hand and swipe with my right finger. \n On the tapping side of the keyboard what caught me the most on that was the gap between the a key and the edge of the screen. It was almost too much of a gap. I would end up missing my a's all the time.", "id": "c1v56rg", "summary": "it came down to speed an accuracy. I did give flext9 a full week of solid use."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "Absolutely. Even when I was dropping off resumes while looking for my first job I was in a button down shirt, and slacks. Not only does it show you know how to dress properly, it means you are taking the act of interviewed for a job, any job seriously. \n General interview advice: \n I assume you are in High School or College. Make an appointment right now with the career development center, or maybe your guidence counselor. Ask if they can setup a mock interview with either them or someone else. The further they are away from you (in terms of knowing you) the better it will be. Interviewing is a learned skill, like typing, sewing, or driving. Practice makes perfect. Finally find some behavioral questions online and practice answering them in front of the mirror out loud. This is probably the most important piece of advice I can give you and it will carry over to any job you interview for. \n Be calm, and collected. You might be nervous or scared witless but try to hide it well. If you get rejected no big, you really have nothing to lose at this juncture so relax. \n The day after you interview, or Monday after deliver a thank you card, preferably hand written and signed. (Dress nice again!!) Thanking the interviewer(s) for their time and interest. Especially at a Sonic this will probably get you the job and make you stick out like a sore thumb compared to the other candidates. \n When they ask a question take a moment, think about it, formulate a train of thought, take a deep breath and then answer with a clear concise answer. \n DO NOT be afraid to ask the interviewer clarification questions. Probably not something to be worried about at this juncture, but something to remember later on.", "id": "c1r3lni", "summary": "Dress nice for any interview you go, shows you are there to kick ass and chew bubble gum. Practice makes perfect, find someone to give you a mock interview. Deliver a thank you card. Relax and Good Luck!"}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "My honey nut brown ale has a similar taste. I think it fermented to hot because after 2 weeks in the bottle I can still taste a lot of esters. \n When I bottled it tasted pretty bad. Even when I cracked one open after 1 week in the bottle it was still pretty bad. A lot of the chemical bitterness you are talking about. I wanted to see what different stages of carbonation taste like. After 2 weeks in the bottle the taste improved immensely. It still wasn't very carbonated so going to let age for probably 2-3 more weeks till I can start giving it out/drinking it as my primary beer. \n As with other posts, wait longer in the primary give the yeast some time to eat their own shit, beer will be better after it. I waited 2 weeks in the primary (a whole week after it was \"done\") before racking straight into bottles. \n It is good you are tasting as it progresses. if it turns out bad you can pinpoint where it went bad or you can get a more accurate judge on how good a beer will be early on. NEVER throw out a batch of beer. someone somewhere will drink it.", "id": "c1fxfbj", "summary": "Be patient, good beer comes to those who wait."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "Pint of Black Butte Porter in Boise, ID. \n Two buddies and I got flown out to Boise, ID for a onsite job interview. They planed 2 days worth of \"activities\" first day we fly in before 1 then at 1 they take us on a tour of the city and then a dinner with hiring managers and staff for the teams that were hiring. Then the next day was the interview in the morning followed by flying back home in the after noon. \n The first day we are scheduled to fly out in the morning into San Francisco then to Boise from San Fran. It started when our plane departure was delayed because San Fran was fogged in and wasn't accepting any incoming flights. Our layover was just 20 or 30 minutes. So the airline scheduled us preemptively for a flight that left San Fran at 3:30. and arrive in Boise around 5. At this point we tried to keep our cool with the \"We will cross that bridge when we get to it\" mentality. So as we are taxing in, we see our plane pulling out of the gate. \n At this point we are crushed. So we get our tickets for the new flight and then proceed to call the HR people. At this point it is like 10 in the morning, so now we have 5 hours to kill. The HR people are understanding and say if we get in before 5:30 let them know and they can have someone come to pick us up and take us to the restaurant. So as 4:00 comes around our plane out still isn't boarding. Long story short we don't leave San Fran till almost 5:00 so we call and say we are departing. They have someone there to pick us up anyway when we come in but we miss the whole first day. So an HR lady picks us up from the airport takes us to the hotel and the only restaurant still open is a little sports bar. We go in order some food and the HR lady pays for our food and then goes home. \n After our dinner we order beers after a long day. The lady at the bar who was in charge comes out and says our beers are on the house. We thank and tip graciously and go back to the hotel to prepare more for the interview then our flight was delayed going back home but that wasn't as bad because we didn't miss an excellent networking opportunity.", "id": "c1glirw", "summary": "Missed connection by minutes while flying out to an interview. Got stuck in the San Francisco Airport for 6 hours, missing all the networking events and the tour of the city. The beer we got on the house at a local sports bar was the best beer I have ever had."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "If your parents are okay with it and willing to claim the alcohol is theirs if the cops come in (highly unlikely especially if you are responsible) then go on ahead. \n One thing is I wouldn't recommend giving away your beer. Also I assume your cousin doesn't live with you so transporting the finished product could result with a minor in possession. Don't sell it, ever. Selling homebrew without the licenses a brewery needs is against federal law.", "id": "c356iz9", "summary": "if you keep the beer and consumption of the beer in your own home with the permission of your parents. RDWHAHB"}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "Yeah I moved to propane when I moved to all grain. That said, you can fairly easily do a 5 gallon brew in a bag with 5 gallon pot on a stove top. You do the same amount of grain but do like 3-4 gallons of strike water in a 5 gallon pot. The extra volume of the grains will push the volume of water to about 5 gallons. Let steep for an hour, pull out the bag of grains, let drain and maybe squeeze into a pot. Boil 3-4 gallons like you would extract and have some additional water to add to bring the final volume to 5 gallons during cooling. \n I typed this out on my phone so let me know if my instructions are a little unclear or just Google partial volume brew in a bag.", "id": "cgyml7k", "summary": "you can do 5 gallon all grain batches on a stove top with a 5-6 gallon pot with partial volume BIAB"}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "Is Awesome Catholic Comprehensive School equivalent to High school? (sorry I am a dumb yank) If so, remove it. You have your Masters nobody is going to look at your resume and say \"well this person went to such and such comprehensive school but then perused a bachelors followed by a masters.\" As an employer I am only worried about the higher job specific degrees and skill over your general education. \n References available upon request. I personally don't put this on a resume. It is common knowledge that anyone applying for a job will be able to scrounge up at least 3 references upon being asked. \n Overall formatting: Try to get it onto one page. If you have 15 years of experience at 4 different companies, I can understand 2 pages. Recent College Graduate with Masters and one job of experience you can trim some fat around the edges. \n You are out of academia with one job I would try to condense stuff down. If that means taking out some information so be it. You should always modify your resume/CV for the specific job you are applying for. IE if the job requires Java but not Prolog or your clean driving record remove it (BTW is your driving record really necessary? Here in the states our employers can check our records at employment and most IT/Financial services jobs that I have seen don't require a company car)", "id": "c16df74", "summary": "If that last education (2000-2006) is similar to High School in the States remove it.  Remove \"references available upon request\", general information. Trim down areas to one page and always tailor each resume to each specific job application."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "It is, and it is one reason why it is hard for people to start to lose weight. I went from ~260 down to ~220 in the 11 months after I moved out of my hometown to when I came back for Thanksgiving. While it was not a major scale difference with the increase in lifting and exercise I was leaner. \n The mocking was from a way bigger family members who was saying things along the lines of, \"Going to finish that plate?\" or \"Holy cow, you got seconds! Are you sure you are going to be able to eat all that?\" It was very frustrating. After a couple of comments like that including some insinuating that I developed an eating disorder; instead of snapping to them about their weight and eating habits I left. I sat with a group of cousins who later said to me that this aunt was out of line that I looked great and to keep up the work. \n They are pushing some of their insecurity on you while it is demotivating and rude it is also human nature. The whole time I reminded myself that I lost weight for me and no-one else. \n I have since dropped under 200 lbs for the first time since I was in middle school; Got a wonderful dog who I do everything with; found an amazing girlfriend and lifestyle that makes me happy to be me and continued to be in way better health than I ever was before. All because I stopped giving a shit about what people thought about me. \n Congrats on getting down to 160! I would like to be around 170 see what I would look like at \"Normal\" BMI but I have yet to get below 185-186. Being a homebrewer beer is really hard for me to give up. I don't mind where I am now at 195 but I like to see that I can do it. Just need motivation to start going to the gym again and stop going out to eat.", "id": "cb4rnvf", "summary": "It will happen especially with family and friends whom you haven't seen in forever. If it makes you feel better it is because they are trying to push their insecurities on you because you are successful where they are not."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "Don't risk losing A job waiting to be interviewed for your dream job. Take the clerical job. The applications for the positions close today but it could be a couple weeks to a month before they start making decisions. Then if you do get an interview. It will take another week or 2 or maybe three to get all your interviews done. Finally another week or 2 just to hear back from them. I accepted my job in the middle of November. I still had to wait almost another 4 weeks for my start date. Granted I had to move to another state. My point is, it could take a while to even start after you accept the offer. \n If your dream job offers a interview get some time off for the dentist or whatever. Keep working till you accept the other job or even then till about 3 weeks before your start date, depending on if you would have to move maybe sooner.", "id": "c1jxj0s", "summary": "Companies move at glacial speeds. Take the clerical job while still looking for your dream job."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "Minimal at best. You will get much much more of an abv bump from barrel aging. I would guess it bumped the abv by less than one percentage point. (remember it was a porter so it was about 5.5-6% and I said it should have been half the dilution.) \n I don't know what you are asking in the second question. If you are asking if it will kill the yeast if done in the primary? Probably not; but that depends on how well you have taken care of that yeast. If the limit of the yeast is 14% and you are sitting at 13.9% then it may affect the yeast but it may not. \n Personally I would much more highly recommend waiting until after the mead/beer is done. Especially because depending on how long you leave the beans in the tincture it will have different strengths. If your final gravity is very low and it is dry then you would want to add less than if you had a sweet finished product. \n I came up with my dilution by taking 4 ounces out when I was kegging it (I had a taster glass with a 4 ounce line) then I added 1 ml from a graduated cylinder I mixed it and tasted it. It had a strong pronounced vanilla flavor which is what I wanted so I figured out how much that would be in the final stage (it was something like 145 ml) then I figured I would err on the side of caution and cut it by about 20 ml and add only 121. Once it was all said and done I think it was too much, I don't know if it dried out in the keg or if the carbonation made the vanilla more pronounced, but the vanilla was overpowering. This is why I suggest waiting until the primary at least is done. I would say even waiting for bottling day would be better. This way you don't have to worry about the yeast and if the mead will dry out too much.", "id": "cb593g9", "summary": "Tinctures are very powerful; use with respect."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "I am not qualified to speak for the validity of the biochemistry presented by the PhD in biochemistry. However given credentials I am inclined to believe that he knows what he is talking about. \n Let's not forget about correlation not being associated with causation. I lost 30+ lbs while calorie counting. However think about the type of foods you have been eating. Chances are they are whole grain, not as processed if processed at all. Chances are you are making better choices in what you are eating than 80% of Americans. \n There was a news article posted a while ago saying \"Too much red meat shortens lifespan\" it was sensationalized by the media and it was everywhere. If you actually read the study there are several flaws in it, although most of it was the media's fault. The researchers never should have stated the headline that it was fact. \n 1.) They used surveys and it was a passive observational study. Surveys are unreliable to begin with. In the study they had some record everything they ate and found there was a huge discrepancy between what was reported and what was recorded. Some of this may have been they don't remember exactly what was eaten but it also may be something else in psychology. Add in that there was no control or experimental group with monitored diets. The researchers never should have published with a bold statement like that. \n 2.) They counted hamburgers the same as a steak. This means that actual ground beef was put on the same level as the processed meat you get from McDonalds. When separating processed foods and natural foods you can't have a special category that combines the 2 categories. \n 3.) They didn't report the full story. They didn't report other statistics like people who eat lean meat are more likely to work out on a regular basis,and more likely to be in a healthy bmi. They are less likely to smoke and have other habits that are likely to be detrimental to health. \n Edit Sources: [Source on the study]( and [The rebuttle by some in the paleo community]( If you are a student and can access this [here is the study]( \n I am saying that you have a right to be skeptical of something like Taubes books. Even though he cites sources and controlled scientific studies, which the meat study was not scientific. At least at the point it was reported. They should have waited and completed a controlled study to see if what they observed is really the case. However to second guess a PhD who is presenting in his field of study is very close minded. Unless you have a PhD and experiments disproving the data he presents. I will take his word.", "id": "c4g2wur", "summary": "Congrats on losing 70 lbs!"}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "I was driving down a highway and a bird flew in front of my truck. I was going about 70 and didn't think anything of it till a couple drops of blood and a tuft of feathers stuck to my windshield. Came to the next stoplight (about 30 miles away, watching all the indicators hoping nothing broke) and saw a wing sticking straight up from my hood. Went through the stoplight and pulled into a gas station. The bird had flown in between the radiator support and the hood. Somehow while I was driving it's head fell off and went into my clutch fan. I am assuming it's neck got broken and the pressure just tore the head clean off. I removed the body and threw it over a fence into a field. Never did find the head.", "id": "c2e6blp", "summary": "I decapitated a bird with my car."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "Well I guess you already have one offer. However, it wont speed up the process you would probably lose the one you are still interviewing with. The reason I would say you could even consider telling one about the offer with the other company is you already have at least one offer and could afford to lose the other one and still not be out a job, if you were just interviewing with both of them and brought up the other one to one of them you could possibly lose both of them. Chances are if you do tell them you already have an offer they will flat out deny you for a position. They aren't going to want to have to compete with another company over and intern. (no offense) \n Wartornhero's rule of thumb with dealing with interviewing with 2 or more companies at the same time. NEVER EVER tell one about the other. Like dating two girls keep them as far apart from each other as possible till you have an offer from each in hand. Then you can use it to leverage better pay/benefits. However you are looking at an internship (shitty pay, no benefits) chances are you wouldn't want to try and leverage like you would with full time salary negotiations.", "id": "c1k4k3a", "summary": "You are an intern if you tell company 1 that company 2 has already made an offer and ask to speed things up they will laugh at you and never talk to you again."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "So what happens is the cost of attendance is given. This is an estimate on how much it will cost to go to the school. The EFC was used by the financial aid office to calculate how much you are offered in Stafford loans and grants and if they are subsidized/unsubsidized etc. The EFC is more or less the \"PLUS\" loan that they offer. This is a loan offered to your parents that if accepted it will be in your parents name to help pay for your college. \n WUE takes some of cost off. You are listed as a non-resident because you are not a resident of the state of Oregon, so that is what you are charged. WUE acts as an 11,485 \"grant\" that is paid toward your tuition. In reality you are just not charged that amount because that is how much your tuition is discounted. \n So the 22,470 (in total the 35,344) is how much you would need to pay if you weren't a part of WUE.", "id": "c4bzs3c", "summary": "Cost Of Attendance - WUE discount = How much you need to pay to go to college. This is offered to you under financial aid. Your costs/awards as a student is the grants + stafford loans. The PLUS loan is offered to you but will be under your parents name. it is used as a filler to fill in the difference between the cost to you and the cost of attendance. This is more or less your EFC. \n Edit: I am not a part of the financial aid office. They would be able to help you better. Talk to Financial Aid before you talk to registrar or the cashiers office. This is just how I understood it when I attended OIT. I was not a part of WUE though so that part is pure speculation."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "So you call sanitation overrated, yet you sanitize anything that will come in contact with unfermented wort? \n Yes you can brew beer without any sanitation and it will be drinkable. However it won't be great or repeatable. \n Personally bottles is where I think sanitation is needed the most. If you put beer into unclean/unsanitized bottles it can get infected, build up pressure and explode. Not only are these bottle bombs dangerous. They can break things like carboys up to 5 feet away and cause a chain reaction of broken bottles. Bottle bombs also make a terrible mess.", "id": "c1rn23m", "summary": "yeah you can, but why risk it."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "Some anecdotal evidence: I used to be pretty large > 250 lbs at 5'10\". In college I started working out and eating somewhat healthier which is what all the observational studies show and I lost something like 15 lbs. It was a really hard fought 15 lbs. Then finals came around and I stopped working out and gained it all back and then some. I graduated college and moved to a new city. I cut out all processed foods/soda/most of all my pasta. I would have bread sometimes but it was rare. I lost 30 lbs by counting calories (calories in/calories out) I also started working out but I stopped that and lost even more weight. Although it was probably also losing muscle it was working. However looking at what I was eating it was very similar to what Taubes says in his book. \n So here I was about 230 down from about 260 when I started in December 2010. Then I switched to paleo (/r/paleo) and then the lbs started to fly off. I am now at 190 and am really healthy. I continued to work out and while it might help most of my dietary success I personally attribute to my diet and not so much to working out. That is where that statement comes from. It is misleading in that working out specifically will help you burn fat and not muscle, however diet also helps burn fat and not muscle. The", "id": "c4acfyj", "summary": "of Taubes book and paleo is: processed food, carbs from pastas, breads, and grains (quinoa, wheat, corn, rice; anything that contains gluten) = bad. Carbs from leafy and \"tree like\" veggies (broccoli cauliflower), fats from nuts (should be in moderation) and animal fats are good. Also with the animal and other stuff you will be getting enough protein. Fruits are okay but only in moderation. \n Check out /r/loseit; /r/fitness and /r/paleo. Without these subreddits and the people in them. I wouldn't have been successful. Best of luck to you. BTW exercise it not bad it just doesn't have as much of an effect on weight loss as it was previously thought. However to be completely healthy and happy I believe it is necessary. After all there isn't much better than going to the gym and pushing out masses of weight or going on a bike ride or run after a day at work."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "The area you will be living in with this job is hugely important. I like to go [to homefair.com](  for general salary and cost of living calculations. \n [Here is the salary curve for a financial analyst in Madison Wisconsin.]( \n You are already above the median I don't know if you can get much better than that based on cost of living and the job (according to this). At Homefair.com you can also see the cost of living compared to the Chicago area if you are interested. Also look at your benefits and how you feel about the company and the area. Benefits make up the most amount of money a company is going to spend on you. Make sure to figure in retirement matching, incentive pay, and other bonuses look at that and your pay is probably already up around 60k/year add in health dental, and vision you are looking at 65k/year. Also check profesional publications in your field (for example as a computer engineer I use IEEE) a lot of the times the publication will have a salary calculator. I know with IEEE if you show them the print out of how much you should be payed most companies will go by that because that is \"the industry standard.\" A source like this can be your most powerful ally in salary negotiations.", "id": "c12ydgi", "summary": "There is A LOT more that goes into salary than just base pay look at that and the cost of living compared to the current city you are in. \n BTW Congrats on the job offer!"}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "I got my current job from one of my college professors sending my resume to the company. They called me for a phone interview right after I had run out of other interviews. They flew me out and in 3 weeks after the initial phone interview I had a job offer. This was after 4 months of applying to jobs, through HR portals and going on interviews. So it wasn't as bad as some people who don't have any interviews for months at a time. However it was extremely discouraging having as many interviews (4 onsite and about a dozen phone interviews) as I did an no offers. This included one rejection solely on the fact that my GPA was below a 3, even though I was a \"perfect fit for the job and obviously knew my stuff.\" I am still a little bitter about that one. \n My team lead, 2 weeks after I was hired came to me and asked \"Do you know anyone from your class who is still looking for a job?\" I said yes and sent him my classmates resume. 4 weeks later he asked if my friend had updated his resume recently. I told my classmate how to tailor it for the job and forwarded it to my lead. A week after that they called my classmate for a phone interview. The next week they flew him out for an onsite interview. He hasn't heard anything back yet and I haven't heard anything I assume HR is working on it. \n Edit: I remembered another story. My cousin has been in computers for years. He started at a certain huge company where he gained a lot of contacts. These contacts have made it so that he never has had to actively search for a job after his first job. Last time he was unemployed he changed his linked in profile to unemployed and he said within 2 weeks of doing that he had 3 interviews with companies around his area. He interviewed for a bit and then decided that he and some of his other contacts decided to start a contracting company. They now have contracts with a couple of huge companies in the area. Almost all of his contracts are from former colleagues in his first 1-2 jobs.", "id": "c1hdleo", "summary": "I got my job from networking. I might have gotten a classmate a job. A relative never has to search for a job in a traditional sense because his network is that good."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "Yeast are producing CO2 directly into the solution. You then come over and shake the solution causing the CO2 to be released and shooting out of the airlock. Chances are it will blow the top before blowing up your fermentation vessel when it becomes overpressurized. I had one beer that did clog the airlock, it then blew the airlock out of the hole in the bucket providing a very nice thud when it hit the top of my fermentation chamber. \n I have had a friend who had the lid of his bucket pop off. However in both cases we only lost some krausen.", "id": "ceoss8i", "summary": "Stop shaking it!!!!! you are doing way more harm than good. Also the other responses are hilarious."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "I thought I had found the dream job. I loved the area, I liked the company. There was some red flags but it was okay. For the area I would put up with it until I got more experience and could look for another job. I liked the idea of what I was going to be working on. I did very well in the phone interview. I did very well in the second phone interview and they even flew me out to the city, gave me a rental car, a hotel room, reimbursement for meals, and gas. \n I arrive there and I nail the in person interview. The only thing that had me scared was they asked me about my GPA and I freaked and shot myself in the foot. I got denied for this job based on my GPA. That really killed me. However they said that because I did so well otherwise they had another team that wanted to hire me. So they scheduled another phone interview and after I made it through that I got flown out again. I went through the same old song and dance. This job was more for testing on the hardware side of things. I have dual degrees in both hardware and software unfortunately this means I am not very good at either (jack of all trades master of none) This job I was denied for outright, they said they were looking for someone with more of a EE background. This whole process took a month and a half. I had only heard back from one other job at this time and at the time I was cocky and was comparing the area of the other job with the area of this job. Basically I was sure the second job I interviewed for I would get. \n After I got denied I was bummed and tired I had been interviewing for 2 solid months and haven't applied to any jobs while I was interviewing. I use this to start planning. I who was unemployed living at my folks house for the time being I start applying for jobs. This time in jobs I would really love. Space X, Lockheed, Boeing, NASA and NASA contractors. I feel these are long shots and shots in the dark so I put some at some other places I know like to hire my Alma Mater's graduates. \n After another month I hear back from a company that is basically made by my Alma Mater. After a phone interview and a quick onsite that was basically, \"This is the jobs you will be doing, are you still interested?\" I accepted a job with them a week later, I was thinking. I tried on my own I will stay here for 2-5 years and then look for another job elsewhere. I moved to the area, coincidentally the same area that the other job, the one I was too cocky with not the dream job was in. \n I have been here over a year. My team likes me and the work I am doing and they are all pushing for me to be promoted next month. This time frame is rare given the current economy. I love the work I am doing. I get out of bed excited to go into work and see what else I can do and expand my knowledge. They treat me like an adult. They don't micromanage me into oblivion. I am free to work on what I want and am encouraged to work on something new and revolutionary. \n The \"dream job\" after some more digging and talking to other people who worked there, they do \"bed checks\" if you are taking a piss when they do their checks you get marked for being late. They force you to scan in and out when you enter and exit the building. The onsite workout center while on site you still swipe in and out so you can't have your workout go a little long and not be noticed. I hear that most teams micromanage their employees basically watch their shoulder while coding. A year after I started at my job the company as a whole is a lot more stable and doing very well compared to the other company.", "id": "c41oq0p", "summary": "There is always a bigger fish in the ocean. Use this as motivation to expand your skill set, work on your writing. Write more and expand your portfolio. I had designed a game that I wanted to write for Android. I didn't get around to writing it before I landed the job but I still have the designs. Some day I hope to get around to it. In a year you will think back on it and go \"That job was a bust, I am so glad I didn't get that job\""}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "My Dad high sided on his Harley. he slid about 200 ft and landed in some bushes. He was wearing a helmet, leather chaps, boots, and a Kevlar jacket (his \"summer\" jacket). He had 2 raspberries on his skin one on his knee, one on his shoulder both about the side of a silver dollar. (raspberry is where the skin is pealed off to the point of bleeding, see road rash) He had a broken/dislocated rib and a bruise that went all up one side of his body from about the rib to the middle of his thigh. \n None of his gear was fully compromised. I say fully because the jacket's first layer was ripped at a seam exposing the second later. The chaps had some scratches but fully intact. His helmet (3/4 face) had scratches all up one side of some scratches through the plastic shell. \n The little road rash he had the doctors said it was from the friction of the road grinding on the material. \n Think about that; The heat from sliding on the pavement caused the material to heat up so much that it burned his skin. Now think about if there was nothing there. Rub your hands on some pavement and feel how it grips your skin it is like 1 grit sand paper. Within a matter of milliseconds with no protection you are looking at losing your skin. After that you are grinding away muscle and eventually down to bone. If it is your skull sliding on the pavement. if your head manages to not be cracked open upon impact you would quickly lose the skin and then have it grinding on your skull. \n Depending on the crash he could survive wearing that little. However I care to guess that the damage would be so severe that he would require so much fixing or would die in the hospital. Wearing full gear he would take the odds and flip them (as it stands he is more likely to die, with gear he would be more likely to survive) \n With seeing what happened to my dad; along with the hospital bill (5 years of accident free riding before he wrecked; 50,000 dollars in medical bills about 90% of which was covered by his insurance) I will always wear all my gear. If it is too hot to wear all my gear I will take my car.", "id": "c5mayyd", "summary": "You don't need a bomb suit but a little bit of gear goes a long way."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "I volunteered at a job in Orlando to learn the ins and outs of a business for one summer. But I don't know how much that can help, and if it still counts as experience. The manager will still vouch for me \n Looks like a lot of people already hit on your main points, 10 interviews in a month says you are doing something right on your resume/cover letters/networking, Don't change them unless something changes. \n That time at the business in Orlando is definitely worth mentioning, not only did you volunteer, but it is kind of related to your major and thus i assume your desired career. It is a professional reference even if you didn't get payed for it. \n These scumbags you know who landed jobs, send them a resume and ask if they can send your resume to managers. I was bragging about my job to a friend who was still looking. Then when my manager asked for resumes I feed him my friends. My friend is starting on my team next month. If you ask me this is the way to go. If you give resumes to people on the inside like that they pass all the HR filters and get interviews more often.", "id": "c1m0j0n", "summary": "brush up on interview skills, read this subreddit, send resumes to \"scumbags\" with jobs, and HR is the most soul sucking part of this to get through. Good Luck and keep on keep'n on. It can only get better."}, {"author": "wartornhero", "content": "I would think you couldn't consciously do this. Similar to how you can't choke yourself with your own hands. Now of you were blindfolded that might be a different story. \n That said, we can look at the math to see what damage would be done. The average male weighs 160-200 lbs. The average sprinting speed is 5mph. Thinking about that we can associate it with a car crash. A 5mph car crash will bend a fender.  Break some plastic but not do much real terrible damage. If a car hits a person at 5mph it might break some bones and leave some nasty bruises. However it won't generally kill someone. The car is about 100 times more massive than just a person. So my conclusion is it wouldn't kill you but the resultant concussion might if not treated properly.", "id": "c1pvcf0", "summary": "even if our mind/reflexes doesn't stop you. The worst would be a severe concussion. \n Disclaimer: I am not a doctor nor a physicist."}]}